We got mail…

Faithful prayers

Thank you again for you and for all the staff who work so diligently with FAF. It is so greatly appreciated. 

I would like to sign up to attend the virtual FAF conference Feb. 12-14, 2021. Here is my contact info… 

Lastly, while I’ve never had the privilege of meeting in person any of the FAF staff, each of you continue to be steadfastly in my thoughts and prayers. Please let Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff know there are two Bible study groups here in Texas who are blanketing them in prayer. Also, I just read in this week’s newsletter (January 29, 2020) about Charles. Please know I will pray for his family and friends too. 

With profound appreciation,

—VIA EMAIL

 

Podcast helping Brazil

Greetings from Massachusetts. I listen every week to the podcast! I am from the Foursquare Church, but my family is from the Seventh-day [Adventist] Church. I use your podcast as a fountain of information to evangelize Brazilian people to know the real Jesus of the Bible.

Also my friend from the Youtube channel (CACP) Brasil joins me in feeding from the podcast to fight against Adventist doctrine spread by the Brazilian pastors from the Seventh-day [Adventist] church. 

Only people like you can teach us how to respond properly to the Seventh-day [Adventist] pastors from Brazil! Seventh-day Church is growing a lot in Brazil empowered by the “Novo Tempo Network” which is a big channel in Brazil. Thank you for the teachings explaining what is behind the Adventist people!

—VIA EMAIL

 

Are you still Protestants?

I read D.M. Canright’s last chapter. While I agree that the Sabbath is no longer binding as a sacred day, like sacrifices and all the detail of the Old Testament law about temple worship, I am a bit surprised that you published Canright’s views in this last chapter without some clarifying comment. Surely you do not agree that the “lamb like beast” of Revelation 13 (whoever you might apply that term to be) will lack the power to coerce “the whole world” to worship the first beast (whoever you might apply that term to be) over a matter of worship (whatever you might deem that to be). It seems his whole argument is that no power on earth would even think to do that which the Scripture says it will do in a matter of worship!

 Now even though the Sabbath is no longer binding as a day of worship to be observed, that fact does not preclude that a later earthly power might attempt to enforce “a changed sabbath” as if the laws of Sinai were still in force in an altered form. It is a fact of history that Constantine established the first Sunday law. It is a fact that the Papacy has and continues to claim that the change of the day of worship is a MARK of their authority. When I was growing up there were two super powers in the world, now there is one! It has a supreme court with nine justices—six Roman Catholics, One Roman Catholic turned Episcopal, and two Jews. The speaker of the House is Catholic, and the leaders of the Senate are Catholic, and now we have a Roman Catholic President. I think they have a pretty powerful “hand”. 

And evangelicals have helped them (a blind partner) to that position of power. Well, I am not a prophet, but I think Canright wrote when the present political situation seemed unthinkable! Now, when the Pope is making nice with all the heathen, the United Nations, the Muslims, the Presbyterians, the Evangelicals, Baptists, and even the Adventists, he is also promoting Sunday observance! How strange is that. Will he press it on the world? We shall see, but if the healing of the “wound” is a restoration of the Roman Catholic power for a short time, I would not bet against them. Well, in the end I would. For the beast and the false prophet will be judged when they meet Jesus!

 At a minimum you have stimulated my thinking. Thank you! I presume you view the prophetic word from the perspective of the Reformation regardless of you views of the Adventists. You still are Protestant! Yes? or No?

—VIA EMAIL

Response: Yes, we are Protestants! I recommend that you keep reading these chapters from Canright’s book; as he continues, he will share his extensive research that shows exactly what the Catholics claim about the Sabbath. Their actual position and the historical tradition are not at all what Ellen White said they were.

As Adventists and former Adventists, we read EGW’s words in The Great Controversy. While many of us have come to see that she was completely wrong about the Sabbath, we have continued to believe that the Adventists and the Catholics agree on the issue of Sabbath: that the Catholic Church claims to have changed the day.

In fact, I don’t know of any other denomination that believes the Catholic Church changed the day. Furthermore, Canright cites Catholic documents which state that the apostles, not the Roman Catholic Church, changed the day of worship.

We may argue even with this claim (I do not believe the Sabbath ever was changed—it was merely fulfilled by the Lord Jesus), but EGW’s spin on the Catholic involvement in Sunday sabbatarianism is not historically accurate. 

That being said, of course the prophecies in Revelation will be fulfilled! There will be enforced worship of the beast and his image, whomever that will be. Time will reveal who that power will be and what that enforced worship will look like. I believe many false religions will become part of the beast’s power; according to Scripture, all false gospels are equally deceptive and dangerous, and only those who are born again and trusting in Christ will be saved and will not receive the mark of the beast.