Thursday, June 6, 2013

*BEST OF DTB #76* The Catholic Defender tackles the Adventists

Have you ever had someone come up to you and challenge you about your faith?

One of the most known groups out there that have an open hostility towards Catholics are the Seventh Day Adventist who are the largest group of Sabbaterians.

There are other smaller groups that hold to the Sabbath Day being on Saturday.

These groups are deep seeded anti-Catholics who see the Catholic Church as the "Whore of Babylon". They see the office of the Papacy as the "Anti-Christ".

These groups will claim that the Catholic Faith was founded by Constantine where paganism made it a branch of Satan.

They attack the Sacraments calling them the traditions of men. They accuse Catholics for worshiping idols, taking Exodux 20:4 out of context.

Of all the issues they raise, the Sabbath is the most important. The SDA see Sunday worship as "The Mark Of The Beast".

"Let no one, then pass judgement on you in matters of food and drink or with regard to a festival or new moon or sabbath. These are the shadows of things to come; the reality belongs to Christ."


It's interesting to note that these things, festivals, the new moon, and or sabbath are a forshadowing of Christ. Saturday points to Christ in the Tomb.

That is the shadow and the Lord was raised on the third day, on the morning of the third day. Jesus is no longer in the tomb. He is risen.

Sunday is the Day of the Lord and the day of the Christians. For those who want to bring back the shadow, they become blind guides. They want to bring back the festival and the sabbath.

"For God so loved the world that he sent his only begottern son so that whoever believes in him shall not parish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Jesus Christ is the Son who came and established the Church that will last for ever. This is the Catholic Faith. Through it, mankind can be saved.

As the various Adventist groups out there work to bring back a shadow, it's interesting that I do not see them bringing back the Jewish festivals and the new moon. They stand only on a faded dream that no longer is the main essential Command.

The 3rd Commandment has been transformed through a new and everlasting Covenant. St. Ignatius speaks to Johns writing in Revelation 1:10 that the Lord's Day is Sunday.


St. Justin Martyr writes of Sunday as the day of the Christians 160 years before Constantine. From his FIRST APOLOGY, chapter 67, St. Justin writes: And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration

As early as 49 A.D. the Catholic Church from the Council of Jerusalem ruled that Christians were not bound by the law of Moses. "Some who had come down from Judea were instructing the brothers, Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved".

Some of the Pharisees who had converted to the Catholic Faith, said, "It is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the Mosaic law". 


The Apostles and the Presbyters met concerning this matter. When Peter spoke the assembly fell silent. The conclusion was obvious, "It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage".

From the Didache (70 A.D.) states "But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving".

Baptism becomes the new sign of the new Covenant. Enemies of Christ want to revert back to a shadow that is no longer in effect. To bring back the law and the sacrifice would be wrong. Jesus paid the final sacrifice bringing to light the shadow of the Old Covenant.

Again, God rested on the seventh day. Jesus was laid in the tomb on the Seventh Day. By His rising on the third day, he blessed the 1st day of the week in the same way he blessed the waters for baptism by the water that flowed forth from his side.

The changing of the Sabbath was during the time of the Apostles, St. John does allude to it in Revelation 1:10 refering to Sunday as the "Lord's Day".

St. Ignatius also testifies that St. John was refering to Sunday in speaking of the Lord's Day. Around 110 AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch used kyriake in a passage of his letter to the Magnesians. He states, "If, then, those who had walked in ancient practices attained unto newness of hope, no longer observing Sabbath, but living according to the Lord’s Day ..."

The book of ACTS does not come right out and say the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath Day from Saturday to Sunday. It says that, "On the first day of the week when we gathered to break bread" infers that already by this time, the Church was already in the tradition of Sunday as the day of the Lord.

The farthest back in history the Sabbaterians can really go is 1527 when two Catholic Priests, Andreas Fisher and Oswald Glait, held to the Sabbath as Saturday. But this would not take hold with anyone until William Miller "Great day of Disappointment" in 1850.

William Miller was a Baptist Minister who calculated the return of Christ to take place in 1850 at Mount Kelloggs where they make Corn Flakes.

Miller and about 50,000 of his followers sold everything and dressed up in white robes to await the Lords Second Coming.

That is why this event is remembered as the "Great Day of Disappointment. The largest of 4 groups that would emerge is the Seventh Day Adventist.

The SDA are the largest group that came from this "Great day of Disappointment".

The first day of the week is Sunday, not Monday. Jesus said to Peter, "Whatever you bound in on earth is bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven".

The Catholic Church has the power to change Saturday to Sunday. The Catholic Church made the change in the first century, it wasn't until 1863 that the Seventh Day Adventist were ultimately formed.





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