September 25, 2015:
A Proposed Letter of Apology to Pope Francis from the GC President
By Ervin Taylor,
September 13, 2015:
| COMMENT: Listen to this. From an “Adventist” website. |
Readers of the Adventist Today web site and anyone living in Philadelphia who listens to or reads local media in or around that city may be aware of the recent mass mailing of a book, The Great Controversy, to 700,000 individuals living in that city or surrounding area. The mailing was intended to be coincident with a visit to Philadelphia, the “City of Brotherly Love,” by the current Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis.
As readers of Adventist Today will know, The Great Controversy is a 19th-century work based on an extensive editing of materials originally produced by and under the name of a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, Ellen Gould Harmon-White (1837-1915). Like a wide cross section of many other evangelical and later fundamentalist Protestant authors belonging to a wide range of conservative Protestant churches in 19th- and early 20th-century America, White was very critical of the theology and history of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. Obviously, the heritage she reflected went back centuries, based on the long-standing, intense hostility that existed between Protestants and Catholics beginning at the time of the Reformation and continuing down into the late 19th century in many countries in Europe before being transplanted across the Atlantic to the United States.
A regrettable part of that heritage was the continued affirmation of conspiracy scenarios concerning alleged attempts of Roman Catholics to establish some sort of political advantage, usually by some nefarious means in America. Anti-Catholic hostility was exacerbated during the 19th century because of the competition for employment with native-born Anglo-Saxon Americans due to the large influx of immigrants from Catholic countries in Europe, especially Ireland. It even had a 19th-century political expression in America with the formation of the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, anti-Jewish “Know-Nothing” political movement.
Click on Link:
http://atoday.org/a-proposed-letter-of-apology-to-pope-francis-from-the-president-of-the-general-conference-of-seventh-day-adventists.html
Will The Seventh-day Adventist Church Ever Apologize to the Pope?
Garrick Augustus
September 23, 2015:
COMMENT: Garrick Augustus, expresses his outrage at the above article |
This is intended to jolt you, and it is not hype! Did you ever, in your wildest imagination believe the day would come in the Seventh-day Adventist church, when the leadership will be lobbied by the membership to apologize to the Papacy? Well, that sad day has arrived! I want to share with you this news clip from Adventist Today, and warn you ahead of time that it is only a draft proposal request of Ted Wilson to place on Church letter head. I am not suggesting that Wilson will sign this or a revised draft of the petitioned letter, but it is eye-opening to even muster the courage to petition the church on a matter so central to the Third Angel’s message. I am producing the proposed letter and ideas behind its creation so as to preserve its memories, in the event it has been removed.
While I don’t believe Ted Wilson will sign this letter, or any version of it, as he has repeatedly urged the free distribution of The Great Controversy, I am led to wonder what has inspired this sense of unease with the Third Angel’s message among many denominational theologians. I soon realize that for far too long it has stopped being preached, and when it is heard today, by the post modernists and evangelical-trained “scholars,” it comes off as a threatening doctrine, when in truth it embodies a call for true “worship.” There is nothing offensive in these words, for they constitute “the everlasting gospel” of love, to a lost and dying world:
Click on Link:
The Ascent of the Antichrist
March 19, 2013 Reformed Baptist Fellowship
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COMMENT: Perhaps, Mr. Ervin Taylor, author of the above article which suggests that the GC President should apologize to the Pope, is also of the opinion that the Baptists should apologize for this article?? |
In what can only be called a strange sign of the times in which we live, Evangelical reaction to the election of a new Roman Pontiff ranges from mildly encouraged to wildly enthusiastic. Perhaps this only reflects the effete civility of our day. Perhaps it means that American Christians have entirely abandoned theology for politics. Or perhaps it certifies that Protestantism is dead. Whatever the reason, when a few have dared mention what was for centuries the settled opinion of the entire Protestant world – that any “Pope” is and must be Antichrist – many within their own ranks have cried foul.
So our Baptist forefathers, together with all other Protestants, were onto something when they identified the Pope as the great Antichrist. Certainly every Pope has met the description offered by the Apostle, and no other man or institution has ever come close to matching them.
American Evangelicals now look for one great Antichrist figure at the end of the age whose temporary ascendency will be the harbinger of Christ’s return, but this is something of a contemporary anomaly. Historically Protestants considered the words of I John 2:18 – there are “…many antichrists…” – and concluded that the spirit of antichrist is greater than any one person or even institution, but that with the passage of history one central Antichrist could be expected to rise. The consensus position was that this has been fulfilled in the institution of the papacy. Is that an insult, or a reasonable exegetical conclusion?
Our confession summarizes the case against the Pope by repeating the Protestant consensus: he is the Antichrist.
Click on Link:
http://www.reformedbaptistfellowship.org/?p=7928
Pope Francis to use Gettysburg Address lectern
BY STEPHANIE FARR, Daily News Staff Writer This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 215-854-4225
Posted: August 10, 2015
COMMENT: Symbols mean everything to these people. In front of Independence Hall, the place where the Declaration of Independence was delivered, driving home the idea that the Declaration is now “Outmoded” (according to Jeffrey Sachs), using the lectern used by Abraham Lincoln, signaling the reversal of the concept of individual freedom. (Also, expressed by Jeffrey Sachs)(See also: “Liberal Academic Says America’s Founding Document Outmoded” by |
WHEN POPE FRANCIS steps in front of Independence Hall in September, he not only will pontificate at the birthplace of the United States of America, he also will speak at the lectern from which President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most enduring speeches in our nation's history - the "Gettysburg Address."
Pope Francis will be the first known public figure to use the hallowed lectern since Lincoln gave his famous speech at Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg on Nov. 19, 1863.
In his speech at Independence Hall, Pope Francis is expected to talk about immigration and religious liberty to an estimated crowd of 50,000 people. The event will be free, but ticketed. Details have not yet been released on how tickets will be distributed.
Officials with the World Meeting of Families and the Union League of Philadelphia announced Pope Francis' use of the lectern at a news conference yesterday.
The lectern has been on loan to the Union League from a private collector since 2013, when the league celebrated the 150th anniversary of the "Gettysburg Address."
Click on Link:
http://articles.philly.com/2015-08-10/news/65383350_1_gettysburg-address-lectern-union-league
