For the great day of his judgement has come who shall be able to stand..Adventist Online Persecution Against Sabbath-Keepers by teresa Feb 28, 2012 from the State? No. From the SDA church itself. While I fully support those in Samoa who choose to worship on Sunday believing they are really keeping the 7 day order, I also fully support those who choose to worship on Saturday as the Sabbath. It is all about liberty of conscience and when the church, the SDA church, steps in and tries to enforce its conscience on its members there is a real problem, in my opinion. Ellen White says, Herod and the wicked authorities killed the Just One, but Christ never killed anyone, and we may attribute the spirit of persecution—because men and women want liberty of conscience—to its origin, Satan. He is a deceiver, a liar, a murderer, an accuser of the brethren. He loves to see human misery. He exults in distress, and as we view the cruel persecutions of those who would obey God according to the dictates of their own consciences, we may know that this is the mystery of iniquity.... {CTr 248.4} From another forum: Here is one testimony from a person living in Samoa: I was here in Samoa when Paul Cavanagh presented the one-sided argument for Samoans worshipping on Sunday; nobody had any information except what was presented. When Paul was questioned on the dateline his only comment was that God was a God of order and that HE would have been in control of the dateline. The reason for Samoa to continue the same day worship into Sunday worship was that this was a carry-on from creation. WHY HAS THIS DECEPTION BEEN ABLE TO DEVELOP?? Never was the dateline discussed, nor were the people told that when the dateline was put in place 2 Mondays were added to that week, making it an 8-day week. The devil has been here on earth for 6000 years and I think it would be very unwise to presume that he had nothing to do with traders from America wanting Samoa on their side of the dateline, knowing full well what effects this would bring on the people of Samoa in these end times. The Samoan people are a beautiful people, loyal and so often unquestioning in their obedience of leaders. There are many people staying home and worshiping in their own homes, and a growing group of us who worship every Sabbath. Out of adversity is the kindling of revival. We will never worship on Sunday, even if we are disfellowshiped. We are not allowed to worship in our churches, and we were for a time worshiping at the govt. prayer house. As from next week we will set up a marquee at our property in Tulaele and will continue to worship on the Sabbath. Here is another first person report: The whole task force presentation of why the church [in Samoa) should keep sunday is based on not altering the creation week 7 day cycle and that we Saturday Adventist (as the new catch phrase goes) have subtracted a day out of the week so we can keep worshipping on Saturday. To explain this lets go back to the 7 day creation week before 1892, now we see New Zealand and Samoa worshipping on the same day, all of a sudden due to American traders it is decided that the dateline needed to be adjusted, so for commercial reasons the 7 day creation week is altered. There is a week with two Mondays (8 day week) and Samoa is 24 hours behind New Zealand, even though the sun comes up in both places at the same time. Any Sabbath keepers at that time went along with the date change as there was no organized church (but if they had insisted on continuing the seven day cycle as formerly they would have found themselves worshipping on Friday. Calling it the Sabbath because they didnt want to alter the creation week. BUT THAT DID HAPPEN!!! When the dateline was changed they became Saturday Adventists and they worshipped on Saturday. Now we get to 30 december 2011, a task force comes to Samoa full of scholars that the Samoan people trust and admire. This task force tells the Samoan people that they need to follow the 7 day creation week cycle even if this means worshipping on Sunday. The people want to do whats right and this is a complex issue and hard to understand, when the question is asked about the dateline change, the only answer this task force gives is The dateline must have been God inspired because God is a God of order. Nothing is said about the creation week having already been altered, so the mission adopts their papers full of error, other reports that show an opposing position are shelved. Pastors are not happy and they write letters to the SPD but are told in order to keep there jobs they have to be unified on this decision. Letters are sent out to churches for pastors and elders to read out in church, these letters are extremely strong worded warning people not to oppose this decision. In summary, It appears the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Indepentant Samoan is using a heavy hand in enforcing Sunday worship on its members? Its true there are those who have accepted the decision as right thing to do and willingly accept and support it, yet there seems to be a degree of force being used to get the people to worship on Sunday. For example — 1. It was stated that a one sided presentation was made to the churches explaining the decision to embrace Sunday as the day of worship based mainly on a supposition that Sunday in Samoa actually dates back to creations 7th day, while shelving information that may have led to a different decision. 2. Pastors felt pressured to accept the decision or possibly lose their jobs. Theres quite a number of them not comfortable with the decision. 3. People who want to worship on the 7th day (Saturday) as recognized by NZ and Australia and now Samoa, have been denied the use of Seventh-day Adventist church facilities. 4. People opposed to worship on Sunday fear disfellowship? This sounds like coercion which greatly disturbs me. First they came for the communists, and I didnt speak out because I wasnt a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didnt speak out because I wasnt a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didnt speak out because I wasnt a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. This is about liberty of conscience, which the SDA church should first and foremost defend to the death. Each individual needs to spend time in prayer we are living at the very last days were evil is promoted and celebrated ,where violence is praised and justice seem to fail...the lord is coming will not keep silent
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 21:44:29 +0000
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