“A GLOBAL LAW IS COMING TO MAKE SUNDAY THE DAY OF REST and I’m going to order that it’s approved!” the current Pope said this to his Adventist older brother, according to Argentinian Pastor Hugo Gambetta. El Evangelio Esterno, who produced the video, claims to be an independent Adventist ministry led by Gambetta which focuses on last-day events. A spokesperson for the ministry recently confirmed that the Revelation Seminar-type sermon was held at a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Perth Amboy, New Jersey [Sabbath, June 8, 2013].
Gambetta continued claiming that the pope’s much older brother “has for 52 years been a SDA," then gives a detailed story about how the young Bergoglio, who would later become Pope Francis, spoke for three days with his SDA brother about Adventism. The elder brother gave the young priest Ellen White's books including the Great Controversy which he read.
To which the young Bergoglio responded that Ellen White was a plague and a witch. The pope then shunned his brother and the family even had the SDA ejected by police at his mother's funeral. The last words his brother heard from Jorge Bergolio were, "You are too insignificant for me to avenge myself on you. It is against your church that I will avenge myself.” Then later the SDA brother learned the pope had vowed, "Very soon--see what God does. A global law is coming to make Sunday the day of rest and I’m going to order that it’s approved!”
The Bergoglio family with Jorge, a priest at the time second to the top left.
The General Conference of SDA's spokesperson said that the their phone lines have been glutted with questions about this video which they called a "hoax" and admitted Gambetta's allegations about Pope Francis are totally false. They distanced themselves from it, putting up this notice at their news site: POPE'S BROTHER NOT ADVENTIST
Yet, El Evangelio Eterno claims the sermon was given in an SDA church to an Adventist audience. Even though Gambetta, an SDA pastor until 2005, had his credentials revoked, his Los Angeles-based independent ministry continues to have a large Spanish audience among Seventh-day Adventists.
Let's uncover the errors of this video:
1. Since Pastor Gambetta claims few know this information, he should clearly reveal his sources. Did he get this knowledge first-hand from the pope's brother? The pastor gives no primary sources of this slander against the pope.
2. Both Pope Francis brothers were deceased at the time of the pope's election and the pastor seems to indicate this SDA brother was alive with present verbs such as, "the brothers do not talk" and "he's been an Adventist for 52 years."
3. Gambetta claimed the SDA brother was much older, yet Jorge was the eldest sibling.
4. If this is true, every SDA church would be inviting the pope's Adventist brother to speak and every SDA publication would be in line for an interview.
While it is good the GC is distancing itself from such ridiculous information, the nut doesn't fall far from the tree. The SDA Church has been bearing false witness against its Catholic neighbors since the beginning. Most SDA leadership today are unaware they are passing on misinformation and historical distortions but they should at least be culpable for not doing thorough research into Christian history. They rely too heavily on the SDA history books.
Look at another false (hopefully a joke) report recently put out by some SDA:
Pope Praises Adventists at St. Peter's tomb at Vatican, Offers Ellen G. White Beatification By FRANCES D'EMILIO together with Juancito Perla y Perla | Associated Press – April 1, 2013
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is spending today's Vatican holiday praying at the tomb of Peter, the church's first pontiff, during a visit to the excavated necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica. During today's events His Holiness brought out a little red book by his favorite author, the Adventist prophetess, Ellen G. White, who died in 1915. Pope Francis announced that he will beatify the 19th century Adventist writer and establish a joint committee for the promotion of full ecumenical fellowship with the SDA denomination. Rev. Ted Wilson, world leader of the nearly 16 million-member sect is said to consider "Unity" within the broader Christian community his number one priority. Both Wilson and Francis are opposed to ordaining women to the pastoral priesthood, it was noted.
http://clubadventist.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/622266/Pope_Praises_SDAs_and_Offers_E.html
After the recent Carter Report video of the bishop supposedly "coming clean" and admitting the church changed the sabbath to Sunday that turned out to be a scam, Adventists need to beware Catholic exposé videos. They tend to be rubbish. If you don't find it coming from the Vatican's official website or the USCCB website. Don't believe it.
Update: The video clip above is part of the full clip found here.
6 comments:
Oooh boy. Did I ever tell you that I am Puerto Rican? I was raised in a Spanish SDA church and am all too familiar with Hugo Gambetta. The NJ conference fired him several years ago but he still has a big following. Hispanics tend to be very susceptible to conspiracy theories and many of them feel that Gambetta was fired because he alone speaks the truth and the church is trying to silence him.
I always do my best to be kind to others, even those I disagree with, but this Gambetta guy is bad news. He represents everything Adventism is not yet portrays himself as a true Adventist and the rest of us as apostates. So sad.
Thanks for sharing this. My family still lives in Jersey (we grew up about 20 minutes from Perthamboy) so if I hear anything about this I will share this with them.
PS. Remember that video you put up from the John Carter report with the fake priest and all? Some of my friends from the Jersey spanish church saw it and thought it was true. My mother told me about how amazing it was. This was like a day or two after you shared it on your page and I was able to give her the "real" story and asked her to tell the other people who where dupped by it.
You are a blessing to us Adventists in many ways :)
To bad we don't have a truth police.
Pastor Gambetta, I am certain, is very sincere. He himself is obviously susceptible to sensationalist conspiracy theories. God will judge him with great mercy because he's a little off mentally, probably.... at any rate, he is spreading error because he loves God which has got to be taken into consideration and given much pity.
At the same time, many of the people who listen to it are going to believe it. They are just as sincere and susceptible as the originator of this story. I am sure God will have great mercy upon them.
So what do we do with people who sincerely pass on information that is not only wrong but injurious to the person who it is said about? For truly this is false witnessing against your neighbor and the Catholic Church is being wronged by this as well as the pope. It is quite the predicament. People leave Catholicism over these types of lies. And I truly believe that some... SOME Adventists would be okay with the method of lying about the Catholics if the results were that they left the Catholic church and became Adventist--a theological "ends justifies the means" since the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon.
What can the SDA church do about these rogue Adventists and independent ministries that CLAIM to be SDA? Then they, in the SDA name, spread lies? Its impossible to go around stamping out these little heretical fires as Christians because that's all we'd be doing! The church has to focus on spreading the truth and ignore those who wish to deface us and spread lies and fear. (Maybe we laymen can do our part in taking up for truth.)
It is surely the dilemma because in the US lies are constitutionally protected at the level of truth. We live in a relativistic mindset that really doesn't see anything wrong, anymore, with lies. As Pilate question, "What is truth?" It is left to those who believe they have the truth to sell it to others. (As Gambetta is trying to do.)
However, we as individuals don't HAVE to remain the victim of lies. We will be culpable on some level of attempting to discover truth. I mean the Lord didn't say, "Take a seat, the kingdom is coming to you." He said, "Seek ye the kingdom." SEEK IT OUT!
Adventists also need to remember that Christians have been lied about from the beginning. For we are at enmity with the Father of lies. At first it was the Romans lying about fire Nero started. Then it was Romans claiming Christians were having secret mysterious rites of cannibalism and sexual deviancy. Later it became Christians lying about other Christians. So sad.
I wish, I as a Catholic, could give some good advice about how Adventists should handle the situation of someone claiming to be an Adventist spreading lies. Many Catholics do the same. We have people claiming all the time to be Catholic who don't have a clue as to what Catholicism is.
if we would all simply do the research and trust each other... the world would know we are Christians by our LOVE one for another.
Hey Teresa!
Very well spoken! Yes, I do believe brother Gambetta is sincere but he has been an extremely controversial figure in Adventism for a very long time and has caused much division within our church. Just do a google search of him and you will see.
The GC does everything it can to keep these things under control. For example, Gambetta is actually banned from speaking in the NJ conference (and maybe all of them? Im not sure) and the churches have been instructed not to allow him to preach there. However, when people go behind the GC's back and bring him in anyways the damage has already been done by the time the GC finds out he was even there.
The biggest problem is that there are many conservative Adventists in the east coast who are to some degree disgruntled with the church. Since hispanics tend to be ultra conservative Gambetta draws them like a magnet with his ultra conservatist sentiments. I talked with one of his "fans" yesterday who told me that the reason Gambetta is being persecuted so badly is because he is one of the only ones preaching the truth today and so Satan is out to get him.
The SDA church has also hired lawyers and copyrighted the name of the church so fringe groups cannot use our name while promoting heresies. However, some groups try to wiggle around this like the Creation Seventh day and Adventist church (do you catch the wiggling there?)
We can only do so much. The rest is up to God. As for us, we just have to keep loving them.
Thank you for your loving approach, Teresa! Too often people are willing to hate those who have themselves been victims of lies. I am an Adventist, and do not believe that their doctrine leaves room for any hate whatsoever towards anybody. Many of my friends are Catholic and I have the greatest respect for them. God has more people in the Catholic church than any other, simply because it is so large. I believe the Adventist understanding of prophecy is correct, but that those prophecies refer to systems and kingdoms, not individual people. It is not up to us to change or convert people - God's spirit woos and convicts people and we each, no matter what denomination we are, just need to be able to give a reason for our faith. We should search the Scriptures daily and have answers for anything that anyone asks of us. And we need to remember, as you so beautifully said, that without love we are nothing.
since iam not God, i can not say gambetta Is wrong or right. i listen to every thing and i filter. but the truth POLICE in Heaven is about to come and arrest all liers whether in the SDA church, Catholic church, moslems or evangelicals. thats when we will know who read wrong hand outs and attended wrong lectures. its good news to hear that the world is about to end "HEW". why worry yourselves. wolves in sheeps clothing, it may be me or you. hah Jesus Knows why worry my self. thats why i love my biblei. clock is ticking. uuuuh, i forgot Jesus, doesn't take prisoners, He crushes the devil and his agent. thats beautiful. especially the devil causes disease and suffering and to my people.
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