The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world so suddenly that many people are feeling “shock-y”. Last Friday our governor asked that public meetings be limited to groups not over 250 people, and churches everywhere live-streamed their worship services and asked people to watch from home. On Tuesday this week, the mandate came from the Centers for Disease Control that public gatherings everywhere be limited to not more than 10 people. Schools have been closed and restaurants are now serving only take-out meals.
Adventists everywhere are being thrown into waves of fear and doubt. Is this the end? Will they need to run to the hills? Some recently-out former Adventists remember the terrifying threat that if they aren’t keeping the Sabbath when Jesus comes back, they will be lost. Doubts may rush in: should they keep the Sabbath again? What if they were wrong? What if Adventism had it right, and this pandemic is only the beginning of troubles that will end with persecution and the coming of Jesus? What if they’re on the wrong side of this?
Then, in the middle of the chaos that is our new normal as this novel virus sweeps the world, the online Jewish Telegraphic Agency ran a short news article on Wednesday of this week. The startling title reveals the gist of the article, and it’s not what Adventism ever expected: “Pope Francis really likes the Jewish custom of Shabbat”.
In fact, Pope Francis is quoted as saying, “What the Jews followed, and still observe, was to consider the Sabbath as holy,” he says. “On Saturday you rest. One day of the week. That’s the least! Out of gratitude, to worship God, to spend time with the family, to play, to do all of these things. We are not machines.”
Even more, a leading Israeli rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu, said this to the Jewish Press: “You probably won’t believe it, but the Pope called on the inhabitants of the world to keep the Sabbath like the Jews. It is unbelievable. Those who have decreed that we will not keep Shabbat now understand what the value of Shabbat is.”
What?!
The Pope is not supposed to advocate for the seventh-day Sabbath; he is supposed to lead the movement of false worship which meets on Sunday! At least—that picture of the Pope’s role is what Ellen White’s The Great Controversy imprinted into the worldview of Adventists.
The article in Jewish Telegraphic Agency was based on a 2018 interview of Pope Francis by 60 Minutes. Although the taped interview is two years old, it “went newly viral this week, thanks to a YouTube video shared by a Spanish Seventh Day Adventist (sic) channel.”
Because that Spanish Adventist channel discovered the original 60 Minutes interview with Pope Francis, it has suddenly gained the attention of people all over the world, and Jewish Telegraphic Agency picked up the story. After all, it’s news among Jews when the pope expresses sympathy and support for them and for their traditions!
Consummate irony
The irony of this story, though, is the fact that it was Seventh-day Adventists who publicized the Pope’s endorsement of Sabbath. Adventists are imprinted with the belief that the Pope is the one who changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and the Pope is the world leader who will rally “apostate Protestantism” to follow his leadership as they all join hands in false worship—Sunday keeping.
Adventists never imagined that the Pope would publicly endorse and promote the seventh-day Sabbath! This idea goes against the fabric of Adventist eschatology.
In fact, Rabbi Eliyahu even speculated to the Jewish Press that he thinks the Pope may eventually lead the way to build a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.
“‘We would not be surprised if tomorrow he decides to return the Temple Menorah to us, the Parochet [from the Temple],’ he said, relating to reports that the Vatican is in possession of some of the Second Temple Treasures.
“‘Who knows, maybe even the Arabs will get a sense and evacuate the Temple Mount so we can build the Temple there, understanding that the Temple is going to bring a blessing to the world,’ he wondered.
“‘The question is not whether it will be. The question is just when it will be. We are certainly approaching,’ he stated.”
Adventists have been anticipating (with dread) the Sunday law that Ellen White said would come. How ironic it would be if, instead of a Sunday law, the religious powers of the world rallied around the Law and encouraged a return to the seventh-day Sabbath!
Whatever happens, Adventists may be so focussed on expecting a Sunday law and so worried about being killed for keeping the Sabbath that they will miss the real spiritual battle that rages. False worship is not defined by keeping Sunday; it is defined by unbelief in the Lord Jesus.
A return to the law is a rejection of Jesus as the fulfillment of the law. Keeping Sunday is not, as Adventism claims, the mark of the beast. Rather, the mark of the beast will mark those who refuse to trust the Lord Jesus, rejecting Him as Christ the Messiah, the Savior of the world who destroyed the curse of the law.
The Pope’s endorsement of the Jewish Shabbat is not part of Adventism’s eschatology. It is, however, an interesting event that could lead to further polarizing of believers from those who refuse to believe. Whatever happens, it is likely that Adventists will be caught off guard and may completely miss the real seal of God—the indwelling Holy Spirit when one believes the real gospel—thus becoming vulnerable to receiving the mark of the beast. †
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They would make strange bedfellows.
It appears to me that the brief video excerpt shows Pope Francis expects various benefits to be derived from a day of rest. Unfortunately, there is not enough context to support the claim that he is actually promoting authentic Sabbath-keeping, let alone moving the Sabbath back to Saturday (based on the myth that Pope Sylvester moved the Sabbath to Sunday c. 320 CE). Furthermore, this was an interview, not an Apostolic Letter, like “Dies Domini,” by Pope John Paul II in 1998, or the homilies “In the Beginning,” by Pope Benedict XVI in 1986 that present biblical analysis. Like many Christian pastors who recognize the high-paced, disconnected lifestyle of their flock, the Pope looks to the Sabbath as an antidote to declining mental, spiritual, and physical health. This notable authority figure is just as confused about the relationship between Sabbath and the Lord’s Day as was Calvin in the 1500s. The Catholic Catechism of 1994 says, “Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath [meaning we do not keep sabbath, but have our own way of worshipping God]. In Christ’s Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God” (2175). They see Sunday as an obligatory time to stop one’s ordinary activities in order to worship God in church with mass and to foster family, social, and religious values the remaining time. It is a holy day to them and “rest” is part of it—and they still quote Deut 5:12 and Ex 31:5 as the basis for Christian worship—but it is not the Sabbath (2184-2188). It is confusing.
Sorry for a second comment, but I just happened upon an Adventist blog on this same topic.
https://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/the-sabbath-blog/post/id/23970/t/-pope-s-sabbath-endorsement-draws-attention
Your statement above–about Adventists’ fears of a Sunday law and persecution– is real as one of the comments on that blog expressed:
“Perhaps Francis is attempting to ameliorate the position between the Jews (and by extension, Adventists) by seemingly mitigating the great divide between him and us. It would desensitize us so that when the issue of coercion is before it would not seen such a drastic step to make the change to “follow the Beast whithersoever he goeth!” Sleep not as do others, Be watchful and wait.””