Babylon - Then and Now-12 quotes

"In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians. They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts. But with great subtlety, Satan worked through his agents to bring about his object. That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ. Religious services were held upon it...

"Another step must be taken; the false Sabbath must be exalted to an equality with the true....the bishop of Rome conferred on the Sunday the title of Lord’s day." Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 55.

The two major steps of the apostate Sabbath-keeping Christian church and its leadership in calling the attention of their members away from God’s Sabbath to Sunday, and then exalting Sunday worship were (1) to start holding religious services in honor of the resurrection of Christ--or Easter Sunday services, and (2) to start calling Sunday the Lord’s day.

Easter Sunday services and celebrations are already occurring throughout SDA churches for decades now! In fact, some of these Sunday services were even nationally televised from within a SDA church!

"Good Adventist news for Easter--For the first time in denominational history a television network--CBS--will broadcast an Easter Sunday service from a SDA church. The program, ‘Festival of Hope,’ will originate from the Camarillo Adventist Church in California. The speaker will be Elder Roger Bothwell, pastor of the College Church at Pacific Union College. WCBS, New York City, will carry the service this Sunday [April 22] at 11 a.m (8 a.m. Camarillo time) as will CBS affiliates in Roanoke, Boston, Tampa, Bismark, Minot, Madison, Williston, Cincinnati, Champaign, San Antonio, Columbus, Huntsville, St. Louis, La Crosse and Tuscaloosa. Some 20 other affiliated stations will carry the program on a delayed basis. Unfortunately, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., WDVM, will not carry the program." General Conference Weekly Press Relations Newsletter, Spring, 1984. (See also Adventist Review, March 29, 1984, p 31.)

"Bob Hunter, pastor of the Stone Mountain, Georgia, [SDA] church, delivered the Easter message at the sunrise service atop Georgia’s Stone Mountain. The Service was attended by some 4,000 people and was covered by three of the local Atlanta television stations. The service was videotaped and aired on Stone Mountain church’s television program, ‘Discovery.’" Southern Tidings, August, 1985, p 19.

In 1992, several Southern California SDA churches joined together, and provided musical entertainment at the "72nd annual Easter Sunrise Service at the Hollywood Bowl." This Sunday Sunrise Service was "televised internationally by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and was carried by the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network" (Pacific Union Recorder, July 20, 1992, p 16).

Samuele Bacchiocchi, who is dead now, was a SDA church member, and was also the only supposed Protestant to have graduated from the highest Catholic Jesuit training school--The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He graduated there with the highest honors in his class, and it was there that he wrote his thesis that was afterwards made into a book titled: From Sabbath To Sunday. The pope gave his approval for its publishing, and it was then published by the Pontifical Gregorian University Press in 1977. After it was published, this book then became highly praised by SDA church leadership and ministers, and was allowed to be sold throughout SDA Book and Bible Centers.

But if From Sabbath to Sunday contains only the truth of God and no Catholic error, then why does this book contain the word "IMPRIMATUR"--which is only given to those books which specifically teach Catholic doctrine, being a "sign of safety" for all Catholics to read? Pope Paul VI even gave Bacchiocchi a gold medal!

The SDA church allowed Bacchiocchi to become the Professor of Church History and Theology at SDA Andrews University, and then retained him in this exalted position for many years allowing him to teach future SDA ministers exactly what and how to believe on various important church doctrines. The SDA church also highly exalted this book From Sabbath to Sunday, and even allowed Bacchiocchi to hold what was called "Lord’s day seminars" for many years throughout all SDA churches where he then promoted and sold his book to all the membership. Since this book is so popular with the SDA church and its leadership, let us examine some of what it teaches.

In From Sabbath To Sunday, the "Lord’s day" is referred to as being Sunday and not Saturday. This great error of the Lord’s day being Sunday, occurs over 51 times in just the first 160 pages of this 369 page book!

In reference to Revelation 1:10--"I [John] was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day"-- Bacchiocchi argues that the "Lord’s day" is one of three things: either it refers to a weekly Sunday, or an Easter Sunday, or it refers to the time of Christ’s second coming--the parousia, but not to the seventh-day Sabbath (From Sabbath To Sunday, p 122-123).

"The Lord’s day mentioned by John was the Sabbath, the day on which Jehovah rested after the great work of creation, and which he blessed and sanctified because He had rested upon it." The Sanctified Life, p 74.

"‘I [John] was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day...’ The Lord’s day is the seventh-day, the Sabbath of creation. On the day that God sanctified and blessed, Christ signified ‘By His angel unto His servant John’ things that must come to pass before the close of the world’s history..." Testimonies, vol 6, p 128.

This book From Sabbath to Sunday also calls the keeping of the seventh day Sabbath to be nothing more than "Jewish tradition" (p 13), and a "Jewish religious institution" (p 163). This book also declares that "the eighth day" of creation, or the Sunday following the Sabbath, "far surpassed the seventh day" (p 283). It also declares that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was part of the ceremonial feast days which ended at the cross (p 360), and that Paul warned against those who would promote Seventh-day Sabbath keeping "as indispensable aids to Christian perfection" (p 356).

"The moral law was never a type or a shadow. It existed before man’s creation, and will endure as long as God’s throne remains. God could not change nor alter one precept of His law in order to save man; for the law is the foundation of His government." Selected Messages, book 1, p 239-240.

"...the phrase ‘the Lord’s day’ in Revelation 1:10....More attention should be given to the possibility that the phrase refers to an annual resurrection celebration." The Sabbath in Scripture and History, p 127, published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association in 1982.

4) The vice-president of the British Union Conference of SDAs, has given "Adventist support" to the Sunday law in England! Vice-president W. John Arthur wrote two letters supporting the Sunday law when it was in danger of being repealed in England. One letter he sent to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (dated March 27, 1986), and the other he sent to then General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, Clive R. Calver who was one of the major supporters of England’s Sunday laws (dated February 27, 1986).

"[Then during an interview] Elder Arthur was asked whether any of the [SDA] field leaders he had consulted had been opposed to sending the letters. His answer was no, there had been no opposition, all reaction received was positive." Prism, May, 1986, p 6, 12. (Prism is the paper of Newbold SDA College in England.)

After Elder Arthur sent these official SDA church letters giving support to England’s Sunday laws, he was not fired or even reprimanded by the British Union or the General Conference at all. The SDA leadership promoted him from vice-president to the Presidency of the British Union Conference of SDAs about 6 months later!

5) In New Zealand, the SDA church held a Sunday worship church service, and it was not being held in honor of Easter! Neither was this Sunday worship service kept secret, but was televised nationwide! The highest leader of the SDA church–the General Conference president presided over this Sunday church service!

"ON SUNDAY, MAY 19, our oldest church in New Zealand, Ponsonby, has been chosen as the venue for a nationwide televised church service--one of only six such services in NZ in 1985. This will be the occasion of Pastor Neal Wilson’s visit, and plans for the music and youth scripture reading are under way--not to mention working bees on the church!" Record, April 13, 1985, p 16.

6) In Watsonville, California, the SDA church held a Sunday church service on January 12, 1986, in which nine other Sunday-keeping churches participated in this ecumenical worship service. The other Sunday-keeping churches were: “the First Christian, United Presbyterian, Freedom United Methodist, Episcopal, All Saints Episcopal, Westview Presbyterian, La Salva Beach Community, Watsonville Parish, and the Catholic Social Services.” Register-Pajoronian Newspaper, January 11, 1986, p 6; also the Watsonville SDA Church Bulletin on Sunday, January 12, 1986.

In the new official Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal you will find a song that was not found in any other Adventist church hymnals previously published. This song was purposely placed in this hymnal, and was then intentionally kept there even though strong protest arose from concerned members to have it removed. So what specific teaching does this song declare that was considered so important by the SDA church that it would intentionally expose every single SDA church member to the specific message contained in its words?

This blasphemous song makes it very clear that the SDA church and its leadership have indeed turned their backs on the Lord and His Sabbath in order to worship the sun! But did you know that God had already warned His people that such an unbelievable abomination as this would indeed occur?

"And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east." Ezekiel 8:16.

"There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls...Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Ezekiel 22:25-26.

The SDA church and its leadership have indeed turned their backs to the Lord; they are indeed violating God’s holy law; they are indeed putting no difference between the holy and profane, and are indeed hiding their eyes from God’s Sabbath, thus proving that they have indeed rejected God as being profane among them – just as was prophesied! The SDA church and its leadership are indeed repeating the same two major steps of the apostate early Christian Church, thereby leading the SDA membership directly into Sunday worship! This fact plainly shows to all who will see that the SDA church has blatantly chosen to apostatize from God.

All this evidence which we have examined reveals that the SDA church has given up the last great truth of the Third Angel’s message on the Sabbath, and is leading all its membership directly into Sunday worship. In fact, some SDA churches are already worshiping on both Saturday and Sunday – such as the Mountain View SDA church in Las Vegas, Nevada! (Pacific Union Recorder, February, 2000, p 34-35).


	"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries home \| Sermon Quotes BABYLON -- THEN and NOW, part 12 quotes 1) What were the two major steps from Sabbath to Sunday worship? "In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians. They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts. But with great subtlety, Satan worked through his agents to bring about his object. That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ. Religious services were held upon it... "Another step must be taken; the false Sabbath must be exalted to an equality with the true....the bishop of Rome conferred on the Sunday the title of Lord’s day." Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 55. The two major steps of the apostate Sabbath-keeping Christian church and its leadership in calling the attention of their members away from God’s Sabbath to Sunday, and then exalting Sunday worship were (1) to start holding religious services in honor of the resurrection of Christ--or Easter Sunday services, and (2) to start calling Sunday the Lord’s day. 2) Is the SDA church following Step #1 - and holding religious services in honor of the resurrection of Christ--or Easter Sunday services? Easter Sunday services and celebrations are already occurring throughout SDA churches for decades now! In fact, some of these Sunday services were even nationally televised from within a SDA church! "Good Adventist news for Easter--For the first time in denominational history a television network--CBS--will broadcast an Easter Sunday service from a SDA church. The program, ‘Festival of Hope,’ will originate from the Camarillo Adventist Church in California. The speaker will be Elder Roger Bothwell, pastor of the College Church at Pacific Union College. WCBS, New York City, will carry the service this Sunday [April 22] at 11 a.m (8 a.m. Camarillo time) as will CBS affiliates in Roanoke, Boston, Tampa, Bismark, Minot, Madison, Williston, Cincinnati, Champaign, San Antonio, Columbus, Huntsville, St. Louis, La Crosse and Tuscaloosa. Some 20 other affiliated stations will carry the program on a delayed basis. Unfortunately, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., WDVM, will not carry the program." General Conference Weekly Press Relations Newsletter, Spring, 1984. (See also Adventist Review, March 29, 1984, p 31.) Another televised Easter Sunday Sunrise service took place atop Georgia’s Stone Mountain. "Bob Hunter, pastor of the Stone Mountain, Georgia, [SDA] church, delivered the Easter message at the sunrise service atop Georgia’s Stone Mountain. The Service was attended by some 4,000 people and was covered by three of the local Atlanta television stations. The service was videotaped and aired on Stone Mountain church’s television program, ‘Discovery.’" Southern Tidings, August, 1985, p 19. In 1992, several Southern California SDA churches joined together, and provided musical entertainment at the "72nd annual Easter Sunrise Service at the Hollywood Bowl." This Sunday Sunrise Service was "televised internationally by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and was carried by the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network" (Pacific Union Recorder, July 20, 1992, p 16). Many other SDA churches are holding Easter Sunday services as well – such as: - California’s Burbank SDA church (see Pacific Union Recorder, March 6, 1989, p 26). - California’s Elmshaven SDA church (see Recorder, June 16, 1986, p 21). - California’s La Sierra Collegiate church (see Recorder, July 18, 1988, p 22). - California’s Riverside SDA church (see Recorder, June 16, 1986, p 16). - California’s Santa Ana Spanish SDA church (see Recorder, June 1, 1987, p 8). - California’s Sunnyvale SDA church (see Church Bulletin, April 11, 1987). - California’s Thousand Oaks SDA church (see Recorder, June 3, 1991, p 21. - California’s White Memorial SDA church (see Church Bulletin, April 11, 1987). - Hawaii’s Aiea SDA church (see Recorder, June 20, 1988, p 17). - Montana’s Jordan SDA church (see Gleaner, June 16, 1986, p 18). - Ohio’s Toledo First SDA Church (see Church Bulletin, April 3, 1993). - Oregon’s (Portland) University Park SDA church (see Gleaner, May 5, 1986, p 17). - Oregon’s Mount Tabor SDA church (see Gleaner, July 7, 1986, p 24). - Washington State’s Pasco Riverview SDA church (see Gleaner, May 19, 1986, p 13). - Washington, D.C.’s Review and Herald (see Adventist Review, April 27, 1989, p 7). 3) Is the SDA church following Step #2 - and teaching its membership that Sunday is the Lord’s day? Samuele Bacchiocchi, who is dead now, was a SDA church member, and was also the only supposed Protestant to have graduated from the highest Catholic Jesuit training school--The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He graduated there with the highest honors in his class, and it was there that he wrote his thesis that was afterwards made into a book titled: From Sabbath To Sunday. The pope gave his approval for its publishing, and it was then published by the Pontifical Gregorian University Press in 1977. After it was published, this book then became highly praised by SDA church leadership and ministers, and was allowed to be sold throughout SDA Book and Bible Centers. But if From Sabbath to Sunday contains only the truth of God and no Catholic error, then why does this book contain the word "IMPRIMATUR"--which is only given to those books which specifically teach Catholic doctrine, being a "sign of safety" for all Catholics to read? Pope Paul VI even gave Bacchiocchi a gold medal! The SDA church allowed Bacchiocchi to become the Professor of Church History and Theology at SDA Andrews University, and then retained him in this exalted position for many years allowing him to teach future SDA ministers exactly what and how to believe on various important church doctrines. The SDA church also highly exalted this book From Sabbath to Sunday, and even allowed Bacchiocchi to hold what was called "Lord’s day seminars" for many years throughout all SDA churches where he then promoted and sold his book to all the membership. Since this book is so popular with the SDA church and its leadership, let us examine some of what it teaches. In From Sabbath To Sunday, the "Lord’s day" is referred to as being Sunday and not Saturday. This great error of the Lord’s day being Sunday, occurs over 51 times in just the first 160 pages of this 369 page book! In reference to Revelation 1:10--"I [John] was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day"-- Bacchiocchi argues that the "Lord’s day" is one of three things: either it refers to a weekly Sunday, or an Easter Sunday, or it refers to the time of Christ’s second coming--the parousia, but not to the seventh-day Sabbath (From Sabbath To Sunday, p 122-123). Yet what does inspiration plainly declares the "Lord’s day" to be? "...the sabbath...my holy day..." Isaiah 58:13. "The Lord’s day mentioned by John was the Sabbath, the day on which Jehovah rested after the great work of creation, and which he blessed and sanctified because He had rested upon it." The Sanctified Life, p 74. "‘I [John] was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day...’ The Lord’s day is the seventh-day, the Sabbath of creation. On the day that God sanctified and blessed, Christ signified ‘By His angel unto His servant John’ things that must come to pass before the close of the world’s history..." Testimonies, vol 6, p 128. This book From Sabbath to Sunday also calls the keeping of the seventh day Sabbath to be nothing more than "Jewish tradition" (p 13), and a "Jewish religious institution" (p 163). This book also declares that "the eighth day" of creation, or the Sunday following the Sabbath, "far surpassed the seventh day" (p 283). It also declares that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was part of the ceremonial feast days which ended at the cross (p 360), and that Paul warned against those who would promote Seventh-day Sabbath keeping "as indispensable aids to Christian perfection" (p 356). In the very last sentence of this book it declares: "...Paul rejected the Sabbath as a means of salvation but accepted it as a shadow pointing to the substance which belongs to Christ." From Sabbath To Sunday, p 369. But God plainly declares: "The moral law was never a type or a shadow. It existed before man’s creation, and will endure as long as God’s throne remains. God could not change nor alter one precept of His law in order to save man; for the law is the foundation of His government." Selected Messages, book 1, p 239-240. The big question is: Has the SDA church really changed her historic position on the Sabbath as being the only Lord’s day? What does the church now believe? "...the phrase ‘the Lord’s day’ in Revelation 1:10....More attention should be given to the possibility that the phrase refers to an annual resurrection celebration." The Sabbath in Scripture and History, p 127, published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association in 1982. 4) The vice-president of the British Union Conference of SDAs, has given "Adventist support" to the Sunday law in England! Vice-president W. John Arthur wrote two letters supporting the Sunday law when it was in danger of being repealed in England. One letter he sent to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (dated March 27, 1986), and the other he sent to then General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, Clive R. Calver who was one of the major supporters of England’s Sunday laws (dated February 27, 1986). John Arthur stated in these letters that: "...Adventist support [was being given] to those in opposition to the proposed repeal of the British Sunday trading laws.... "[Then during an interview] Elder Arthur was asked whether any of the [SDA] field leaders he had consulted had been opposed to sending the letters. His answer was no, there had been no opposition, all reaction received was positive." Prism, May, 1986, p 6, 12. (Prism is the paper of Newbold SDA College in England.) After Elder Arthur sent these official SDA church letters giving support to England’s Sunday laws, he was not fired or even reprimanded by the British Union or the General Conference at all. The SDA leadership promoted him from vice-president to the Presidency of the British Union Conference of SDAs about 6 months later! 5) In New Zealand, the SDA church held a Sunday worship church service, and it was not being held in honor of Easter! Neither was this Sunday worship service kept secret, but was televised nationwide! The highest leader of the SDA church–the General Conference president presided over this Sunday church service! "ON SUNDAY, MAY 19, our oldest church in New Zealand, Ponsonby, has been chosen as the venue for a nationwide televised church service--one of only six such services in NZ in 1985. This will be the occasion of Pastor Neal Wilson’s visit, and plans for the music and youth scripture reading are under way--not to mention working bees on the church!" Record, April 13, 1985, p 16. 6) In Watsonville, California, the SDA church held a Sunday church service on January 12, 1986, in which nine other Sunday-keeping churches participated in this ecumenical worship service. The other Sunday-keeping churches were: “the First Christian, United Presbyterian, Freedom United Methodist, Episcopal, All Saints Episcopal, Westview Presbyterian, La Salva Beach Community, Watsonville Parish, and the Catholic Social Services.” Register-Pajoronian Newspaper, January 11, 1986, p 6; also the Watsonville SDA Church Bulletin on Sunday, January 12, 1986. 7) All of the SDA churches on the Islands of Tonga are not worshiping on Saturday, but on Sunday – along with all the rest of the Babylonian churches? In an article from an SDA church paper, titled "Why Tongan SDAs Worship on Sunday" and subtitled "Tonga’s Common Day of Worship" the SDA church states: "In the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga, Sabbath and Sunday keepers observe the same day of rest." Record, January 30, 1988, p 6. 8) The SDA church leadership are not afraid to tell the entire SDA membership that they have decided to worship the sun! In the new official Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal you will find a song that was not found in any other Adventist church hymnals previously published. This song was purposely placed in this hymnal, and was then intentionally kept there even though strong protest arose from concerned members to have it removed. So what specific teaching does this song declare that was considered so important by the SDA church that it would intentionally expose every single SDA church member to the specific message contained in its words? "Let us praise God together - on our knees. "Let us praise God together - on our knees. "When I fall on my knees - with my face to the rising sun, "O Lord, have mercy on me." Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, "Let Us Break Bread Together," p 403-404, published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association in 1985. This blasphemous song makes it very clear that the SDA church and its leadership have indeed turned their backs on the Lord and His Sabbath in order to worship the sun! But did you know that God had already warned His people that such an unbelievable abomination as this would indeed occur? "And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east." Ezekiel 8:16. "There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls...Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Ezekiel 22:25-26. The SDA church and its leadership have indeed turned their backs to the Lord; they are indeed violating God’s holy law; they are indeed putting no difference between the holy and profane, and are indeed hiding their eyes from God’s Sabbath, thus proving that they have indeed rejected God as being profane among them – just as was prophesied! The SDA church and its leadership are indeed repeating the same two major steps of the apostate early Christian Church, thereby leading the SDA membership directly into Sunday worship! This fact plainly shows to all who will see that the SDA church has blatantly chosen to apostatize from God. All this evidence which we have examined reveals that the SDA church has given up the last great truth of the Third Angel’s message on the Sabbath, and is leading all its membership directly into Sunday worship. In fact, some SDA churches are already worshiping on both Saturday and Sunday – such as the Mountain View SDA church in Las Vegas, Nevada! (Pacific Union Recorder, February, 2000, p 34-35). (See also Ministry magazine, April, 2004.)