Call
for a National Sunday Law
by Vance Ferrell
Call
for a National Sunday Law
ALSO IN THIS
ISSUE: ANGLICANS AND CATHOLICS EDGING CLOSER TO UNION / FORTY-TWO YEARS OF
ADVENTIST INTERFAITH MEETINGS
DATE OF PUBLICATION:
APRIL 2007
This is more than a
call; it is the beginning of an ongoing campaign—that does not intend to stop
until its objectives are fulfilled.
On March 1, 2007, at
Fuller Seminary (Fullerton, CA), representatives from over 30 different
denominations (including Catholic and Orthodox) met for a special planning
meeting of the Christian Coalition of America. At this gathering, the Updated
Ten Amendments Commission approved a ten-point
agenda, which it intends to work toward having enacted by the U.S.
Congress. They concluded the meeting by signing what they called “the Book of
Unity.”
This organization has
great political power; for, as you may know, the largest single voting block
in America consists of the Evangelicals and Catholics— at those times when
they are encouraged by their leaders to
vote the same way. (In the past, Catholics and Protestants have not always
agreed on certain issues.)
These ten points
represent the key thrust of the newly energized Protestant/Catholic political
action wing of the united Christian churches in America.
Several of the points
(such as item 9, excessive bail) have
been included to round out the numeral ten, while some (such as item 8, no flag burning) give the appearance
of greater patriotism.
Although totally
ignoring calls for legislation banning pornography,
gambling, and lobbyists, the Coalition’s ten
points obviously consider item 1 (marriage and
abortion), item 2 (prayer in “all public education systems”), and item 3 (judges’ decisions) to be very important.
—But most crucial of
all, they—and we—are concerned about item 7. It is a full-blown call to enact
a U.S. federally enforced National Sunday Law:
“Throughout all the
land, a National Day of Rest shall be
honored by governments and industrial manufacturers,
and public shopping facilities.”
You and I have been
watching events for years; and this is
the first time, since 1888, that an important call
for a nationally enforced Sunday observance law has been made by a major ecumenical organization in America.
Also note item 3: It
will be required that the Ten Commandments be publicly displayed
in U.S. federal and state governments.
The immediate objective
is to make America a “Christian nation.”
The central means of doing this, week after
week, will be through a federally required National Sunday Law. That is the
keystone which will bind the seemingly
loose association of churches and the
public into a singleness of worship.
This major ecumenical
organization is determined to hurl us
into events which, unknown to them,—will catapult
us directly into the closing events outlined in
Great Controversy, chapters 25 through 42. Our book, The End of Time, provides the most complete systematic collection of Spirit of Prophecy statements on what will occur as soon as the National Sunday Law is enacted and the unfolding of events thereafter—down to the Third Advent and the final destruction of the wicked, and eternity beyond.
CHRISTIAN COALITION OF AMERICA
March 1, 2007
Updated Ten Amendments Commission
1. Marriage shall be only between one man
and one woman. This is to be decreed by
all states. No child shall be aborted
in the womb.
2. Prayers, public or
private, shall be a part of our national
heritage and are to continue in all public education systems.
3. The Ten Commandments
are to be subscribed to by the nation;
it is also part of the inscription of our Supreme Court Building
and Lincoln Memorial, and shall be
continued by Federal/State and local governments.
“One nation under God”
is to be in the salute of the American
Flag, and “In God we trust” on coins and
bills.
4. All judges must
subscribe to their Oath about interpreting
the law, to defend such; no credence shall be
given to any judge to interpret said laws.
5. No government system
will have the right to abuse the
“eminent domain” [private property ownership] of any citizen or citizens’ group.
6. A well-regulated
militia (being necessary to the security
of a free state) is the right of the people to keep and bear arms, and shall not be infringed.
7. Throughout
all the land, a National Day of Rest shall
be honored by governments, industrial manufacturers, and public shopping
facilities.
8. It will be declared,
by all branches of government, that the
U.S. flag shall not be set ablaze or destroyed by any groups or organizations. The phrase, “one nation under God,” shall not be abridged in any
salutation.
9.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, or cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.
10. The powers not
delegated to any military branch or
government (Federal, State, municipal, or judiciary) is prohibited to be exercised by them; but they are
reserved to the states, respectively,
or to the people [private rights].
Anglicans AND Catholics Edging
Closer to Union
“Churches Back
Plan to Unite under the Pope. The Times (British), February 19,
2007—Radical proposals to reunite
Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under
the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learned.
“The proposals have been
agreed by senior bishops of both
churches.
“In a 42-page statement
prepared by an international commission
of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to
explore how they might reunite under
the Pope.
“The statement is being
considered by the Vatican, where
Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.
“This comes as the
archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of
the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church.
“The 36 primates that
are gathering will be aware that the
Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox [non-homosexual] wing of the Episcopal
Church of the U.S. as it struggled to cope with
the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene
Robinson.
“Were this week’s
discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many of the former objections in Rome to a reunion with Anglican
conservatives would disappear. Many of
those Anglicans who object most
strongly to gay ordination also oppose the ordination
of women priests.
“Rome has already shown
itself willing to be flexible on the
subject of celibacy, when it received dozens of
married priests from the Church of England into the Catholic
priesthood, after they left over the issue of women’s
ordination.
“There are about 78
million Anglicans, compared with a
billion Roman Catholics, worldwide. In England and Wales, the Catholic Church is set to overtake Anglicanism
as the predominant Christian denomination for
the first time since the Reformation [!], thanks to immigration from Catholic countries.
“As the Anglicans’
squabbles over the fundamentals of
Christian doctrine continue—with seven of the conservative primates twice refusing to share communion with the other Anglican leaders at their meeting in Tanzania— the Anglican Church’s credibility is being increasingly
undermined in a world that is looking
for strong witness from its
international religious leaders.
“The Anglicans will
attempt to resolve their differences today
by publishing a new Anglican Covenant, an
attempt to provide a doctrinal statement under which they [all Anglicans] can unite. But many fear that the
divisions have gone too far to be bridged and that,
if they cannot even share communion
with each other, there is little hope
that they will agree on a statement of common doctrine.
“The latest
Anglican-Catholic report could hardly come
at a more sensitive time. It has been drawn up by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, which is chaired by R__ David Beetge, an Anglican bishop from
South Africa, and the R__ John Bathersby, the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia.
“The document leaked to
The Times is the Commission’s first
statement, Growing Together in Unity and Mission. The report
acknowledges the ‘imperfect communion’ between
the two churches, but says that there is enough
common ground to make its ‘call for action’ about the Pope and other issues.
“In one significant
passage, the [joint Anglican-Catholic] report
notes: ‘The Roman Catholic Church teaches that
the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate is in accordance with Christ’s will for the Church
and an essential element of maintaining it in unity and truth.’ Anglicans rejected the Bishop of Rome as
universal primate in the 16th century.
Today, however, some Anglicans are beginning to see the
potential value for a ministry of
universal primacy, which would be exercised by
the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within a reunited Church.
“In another paragraph,
the report goes even further: ‘We urge Anglicans and Roman
Catholics to explore together how the
ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered
and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full ecclesiastical communion [total union].’
“Other recommendations
include inviting lay and ordained
members of both denominations to attend each other’s
synodical and collegial
gatherings and conferences. Anglican bishops could be invited to
accompany Catholic ones on visits to Rome.
“The report adds that
special ‘protocols’ should also be
drawn up to handle the movement of clergy from one Church to the other. Other proposals include common teaching resources for children in Sunday schools and attendance at each other’s services, pilgrimages and processions.
“Anglicans are also
urged to begin praying for the Pope during
the intercessionary prayers
in church services, and Catholics are asked also to pray
publicly for the Archbishop of
Canterbury.”
Call for a National Sunday Law 42 Years
of Adventist Interfaith Meetings
Three months after his
October 28, 1958, papal election, on
January 25, 1959 at the conclusion of a prayer
service for church unity, John XXIII announced his intention to convene “an ecumenical council for the universal church.” The three sessions were held from October
1962 to December 1965.
Although John died on
June 3, 1963, shortly after the first
session had ended, his successor, Paul VI (1963-1978) quickly
announced that Vatican II would continue
on to its end.
As we look back on it
today from our vantage point, the most
significant development produced by
Vatican II was the way Catholicism began extending itself outward in dramatic
new efforts to “dialogue” and work
toward “unity”—and ultimate “union”—with
the other churches of Christendom.
Even before John
ascended the papal throne and Vatican II began, our
denominational leaders were deeply involved
in an ecumenical project of their own. This is what became known, at the time, as the Martin-Barnhouse
Conferences; today it is called the Ecumenical Conferences.
The only fairly complete
history of what happened back then is
to be found in our book, The Ecumenical Conferences and Their
Aftermath, which vividly portrays developments
from the beginning of the conferences, in
1954, to their end in 1956 and onward down to
1981.
Several hundred secular
and religious reporters attended Vatican II.
In addition, leaders from most Protestant and
Orthodox denominations were present as “observers.”
During that time, they had many opportunities to
quietly meet with one another and with Catholic dignitaries.
These unofficial
meetings gave a great impetus to the
modern ecumenical movement. You will find the most
complete account of our denominational involvement with the other churches in my Seventh-day Adventist/Vatican
Ecumenical Involvement, Books 1 and 2.
Book 1 (8½ x 11, 80 pp.) provides the history and
book 2 (8½ x 11, 148 pp.) contains a wide range of reprinted documents.
The above three books
provide you with a remarkably full
understanding of this problem. —And it is a problem,
if you believe Great Controversy.
“Evangelical alliance,
and universal creed! . . When
this shall be gained, then, in the effort to secure
complete uniformity, it will be only a step to
the resort to force.
“When the leading
churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of
doctrine as are held by them in common,
shall influence the state to enforce
their decrees and to sustain their institutions,
then Protestant America will have formed an image of
the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction
of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably
result.”—Great Controversy, 445.
According to the Bible
and Spirit of Prophecy, (1) the
National Sunday Law will hurl us into final events and the final crisis in earth’s history. (2) It will be an
ecumenically caused union of the
churches, on points of doctrine which
they hold in common, which will lead
them to be so bold as to coerce the U.S. Congress to enact that law. (3) It
will be the Sunday which will be the
one doctrine which they are successful in holding
in common.
It was the “venerable
day of the sun” which brought the
churches together in the time of Constantine I, during his Sunday law of A.D. 321. And so it will be again in our time. (The most complete description available on the attempted change, back then, of the Bible
Sabbath to Sunday will be found in my book, The
First Centuries of Christianity.)
“In the issue of the
contest all Christendom will be divided
into two great classes—those who keep
the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,
and those who worship the beast and his image
and receive his mark. Although church and state
will unite their power to compel ‘all, both small
and great, rich and poor, free and bond’ (Revelation 13:16), to
receive ‘the mark of the beast,’ yet
the people of God will not receive it.”— Great
Controversy, 450.
As a result of many
private meetings at Rome during Vatican
II, two denominations—the Roman Catholic Church and the
Seventh-day Adventist Church—which had never been represented at
the World Council of Churches’ headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland,
agreed to begin going there. For political reasons,
they chose not to be “full members” of the
WCC; but, from the beginning, their representatives were voting members of a new ecumenical doctrinal
committee which was set up for this
purpose. Bert Beverly Beach, a General Conference
representative, soon became chairman of that committee. There were four reasons for his rise to committee leadership: Born in Switzerland,
he was fluent in over half-a-dozen languages. He was the only
committee member who served from its
inception in 1965 until his retirement about the
year 2000. WCC headquarters was anxious to please the Adventist denomination, in the hope of drawing us into full membership. Lastly, Beach always got along well with everyone.
Over the decades, it has
been B.B. Beach who has brought a wide
variety of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders
to our General Conference Sessions and introduced
them; so they could speak to our delegates and
pronounce upon them the blessings of their respective denominations.
“In the movements now in
progress in the United States to secure for the institutions and
usages of the church the support of the
state, Protestants are following in the
steps of papists. Nay, more, they are
opening the door for the papacy to regain in
Protestant America the supremacy which she has
lost in the Old World. And that which gives greater
significance to this movement is the fact that
the principal object contemplated is the enforcement of Sunday observance . . It is
the spirit of the papacy—the spirit of
conformity to worldly customs, the
veneration for human traditions above
the commandments of God—that is permeating the
Protestant churches and leading them on to do
the same work of Sunday exaltation which the papacy
has done before them.”—Great Controversy, 573. (Also read GC
571.)
“God’s Word has given
warning of the impending danger; let
this be unheeded, and the Protestant world
will learn what the purposes of Rome really are,
only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting
their influence in legislative halls,
in the churches, and in the hearts of men . . Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her.”—Great Controversy,
581.
Ignoring the counsel to
not draw close to leadership of the
other churches, our leaders have doggedly
sought to develop closer and yet closer contacts
with the other churches. This has had an effect of muffling our teachings which embarrass the other churches, because they cannot answer them from Scripture.
Regular theological
conversations have taken place by
Adventist representatives with those of the World Council of
Churches on an annual basis at WCC headquarters in Geneva since
the end of Vatican II.
Some of the more recent
“dialogues” between our church leaders
and those of other churches include the
Lutheran World Federation (1994-1998); the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches (2001); the Salvation Army (2004-2005), and
the World Evangelical Alliance, an organization which
includes 420 million Evangelical Christians
(November 2006, with a second round to be held in 2007).
Exploratory conversations were also held with the Ecumenical
Patriarchate in Istanbul (1996) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (2001-2003).
A national dialogue was
held with the council of Ecumenism of the Conference of Bishops
of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland (1984-1999).
Two of the most recent
dialogues include one with the World Evangelical Alliance
(August 8-11, 2006) in Prague, Czech Republic; another with
leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at SDA headquarters in
Silver Spring, MD (November 2006); and a second session to be
held at PCUSA headquarters in Louisville, KY on August 22-24, 2007.
Reports on these two gatherings reveal that B.B. Beach, although
retired, is still in attendance at these interchurch
doctrinal meetings.
As a recognized
Christian world body, the Seventh-day
Adventist Church has been represented, since 1968, at the conference of secretaries of Christian World
Communions, an organization which holds
yearly meetings. (Some of our readers will recall that it was at
one of these meetings of the CWC, held
that year in Rome, that B.B. Beach presented that infamous gold
medal to Pope Paul VI on May 18, 1977, as an expression of close
friendship from our denomination. (See
our tract, Gold Medal to the Pope
[MB–54].)
According to a January
24, 2007, General Conference news report
by John Graz (current director of the Adventist Department of
Public Affairs and Religious Liberty after Beach’s retirement),
church leaders have voted to change the
name of our Council on Inter-church/ Inter-faith Relations to
Council on Inter-church/Inter-religion Affairs; so, as we are told, our
church will be better able to extend
the hand of warm friendship outward to
the leaders of non-Christian religions as well.
In 1997, B.B. Beach was
sent as a representative of the church
to meet with leaders from ten other denominations at a special World Council of Churches gathering, where they sought to work out an agreement by which all churches throughout the world would begin observing Easter on the same Sunday each year.
It is significant that
the document was signed by everyone present
at that meeting; and it included this statement:
“The churches need to
address the renewal of . . the recovery of the meaning of Sunday” (WCC, Faith and Order Commission, “Towards a Common Date for Easter,
item 3; at the WCC/Middle East Council of Churches Consultation,
Aleppo, Syria, March 5-10, 1997).
In other publications we
document the astounding new ecumenical
organization, founded by Catholic priests
in Baltimore, which is composed of mostly Protestant churches in America, and
the Catholic and Orthodox churches. It will probably lead out in coercing the U.S. government into a Sunday law. (See Christian Churches
Together [WM–1252], Edging Closer to the Sunday Law [WM–1253],
and The Protestant-Catholic Union [WM–1309-1310]). —vf
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