Episode Transcript
Are you ready to embark on a thought provoking journey of discovery? Curious to explore an alternative narrative that challenges the theory of evolution? What impact has the war heaven had on our planet? And what are the implications for humanity? What can we learn from this epic battle that is unfolding between good and evil? Here is your opportunity to unlock a treasure trove of spiritual insights from the Bible that will answer these and many other pressing questions, illuminating the path to eternal life, which lies just a choice away. Here is Bill Gates presenting from the ascension of Jesus to the Protestant Reformation. At our last meeting, we ended with a question.
Why was it essential for Christ to return to heaven? So Jesus ascends to heaven in order to be our heavenly high priest. But the heavenly high priest had to have innocent ransom blood to offer in order to apply the benefits of the atoning sacrifice for the sins repented of by sinners back here on earth. Our next slide tells us that, as I read from hebrews eight, verse three, for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
Therefore, it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. And the beautiful thing is that Jesus was able to offer his own innocent, substitutionary and perfect blood for the repentant sinner. So now we make another major discovery.
God could not have the killing done in heaven. Planet Earth therefore became the outer court to the heavenly sanctuary. And the heavenly sanctuary now has a worthy high priest, Jesus Christ, who hears our prayers, understands our griefs.
For he was totally human, just like us. Yet he was also totally God, but hidden inside the human body, something was finished at the cross. So what was finished? The answer is simple.
The provision of saving ransom blood. That is what was finished. But the Bible says there is much more to being saved than just having the provision of innocent ransom blood.
Our next few slides will open up some new thoughts worthy of our consideration. I'm going to read to you a gentleman from name of Owen Crozier. Who was he? Well, he was one of the survivors of the 1844 Millerite disappointment and a founding father of the 7th day Adventist Church.
In 1846, he wrote an article which I shall now share with you. But before doing so, his letter basically centres around this question. Did the death of Christ on the cross at Calvary complete the atonement or begin the atonement? And so this is what he says.
But again, they say that the atonement was made and finished on Calvary when the lamb of God expired. So men have taught us, and so the churches believe. But it is none the more true or sacred on that account if unsupported by divine authority.
Perhaps few or none who hold that opinion have ever tested the foundation on which it rests. He goes on and he says, if the atonement was made on Calvary, by whom was it made? The making of the atonement is the work of a priest. But who officiated on Calvary? Roman soldiers and wicked jews.
The slaying of the victim was not making the atonement. Why not? Because the sinner slew the victim. Leviticus four, one to four, and Leviticus four, verses 13 to 15.
After that, the priest took the blood into the sanctuary and made the atonement. The atonement was made in the sanctuary, but Calvary was not such a place. Therefore, he did not begin the work of making the atonement, whatever the nature of that work may be, until after his ascension, when by his own blood, he entered the heavenly sanctuary for us.
You know, the Bible even told us in psalm 77, verse 13, your way, o God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God? And in Daniel 814, we have an archangel telling the prophet Daniel that a sanctuary needs to be cleansed. And this is where we found it.
Remember, we looked at this before, under 2300 days. Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. As the earthly sanctuary was destroyed in 70 ad.
The earlier one, of course, was destroyed when the babylonian army came. This one was destroyed by the roman army led by General Titus. Therefore, that only leaves the heavenly sanctuary to be cleansed.
But what would pollute the heavenly sanctuary? The answer is simple. The record of everyone's sins recorded in the books of heaven. The Bible also tells us that there is to be a judgement day when those recorded sins will be removed from the record in heaven forever.
And when that happens, the whole universe will be clean again for sin and unrepentant sinners. Plus the devil and his evil angels will have been totally destroyed. But the saints who believed and confessed their sins and allowed Jesus to save them for eternity, will live with God forever.
So my question to you is simple. Are you planning on being one of the saved? Let us now see how Christ plays all the major parts, leaving us to simply believe by faith that which is backed up by solid evidence. Firstly, we have Jesus dying a perfect death on the cross at Calvary.
Then we have the resurrection of Christ. Then we have the ascension. Pentecost was a signal that Jesus is now the high priest.
We have Jesus the mediator, so that when we pray directly to Christ, he is able to receive our prayers and answer. We have Jesus ultimately being the judge. And finally, we have Jesus as the coming king.
So let us notice what Hebrews eight one to three says. Hebrews eight, verse one. Now, of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum.
We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices. Wherefore it is of necessity that this man, Jesus Christ, have somewhat also to offer.
And what could Jesus offer that no one else could offer? His own perfect, innocent blood, as revelation 1210 and eleven describes. But Satan does not give up. And after 64 AD, persecution of the christians started big time.
As you know from history, Rome suffered a huge fire. Nero, the roman emperor, was playing his liar and he decided that the christians were to blame for the fire that almost destroyed his beloved city. Something else I'd like us to remember.
There were no Sunday keeping christians between 27 AD and the fires at Rome of 64 AD. Like Jesus and the disciples, the christians were all 7th day sabbath keeping christians. Here's a report from Tacitus, the roman historian.
He said his scapegoats were none other than the Christians who were already being accused in one way or another within roman pagan society. This was officially the time that the act of persecution of the christian church began. At some point after it became a crime to bear the name Christian and the suppression of the church became state policy.
This persecution would last off and on for almost three centuries. So this slide told you how the Christians were being treated. And it says down the bottom.
This is a quotation from the torches of Nero by Henrique Simirudique. According to Tacitus, Nero targeted christians as those responsible for the fire and ordered christians to be thrown to the dogs while others were crucified or burned to serve as torch lights. So the Christians now had a problem.
They could stand firm for God and his commandments and thereby suffer a martyr's death. Or to avoid being killed, they could become Sunday keepers and be seen to be pagans, thereby avoiding the death decree. This is highly significant because the Bible portrays this persecution will be repeated again in the not too distant future.
Again it will be done against the true 7th day Sabbath keepers. It will be the final act in the great controversy. And you will see this when we get to the last part of these presentations.
Tragically, in the past, many chose to compromise. This created two streams of christians from about 64 ad onwards. Whereas prior to that, there was only one stream, the loyal 7th day Sabbath keepers on the one hand, and on the other hand, the compromising 7th day Sabbath keepers who became first day Sunday keepers.
The 7th day Adventist church traces its ancestry back through a long line of 7th day Sabbath keepers over the last 2000 years. In fact, right back to Adam and Eve who were Sabbath keepers. In terms of New Testament times, I can quote christians like those in Chad and Ethiopia, like the Waldenzis, the Huguenots, the Albagenzis, and to these original Sabbath keepers like Jesus, the apostles, and those early Sabbath keeping christians from 27 ad onwards.
So who was the oldest christian church? Certainly not the Sunday keeping protestant churches, for they broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century and they're still keeping the pagan Sunday. Certainly not the Roman Catholic Church, for they can only trace their first members back to the apostatizing Sabbath keepers who became Sunday keepers at the time of the persecution under Nero, the emperor of Rome in 64 ad. This is the ruins of St.
Patrick's rock of Kashell and Tipperary island. And many people won't know this, but Patrick was a 7th day Sabbath keeper. So the oldest christian church is that 7th day Sabbath keeping branch of Christianity, which has always existed since the time of Christ.
And the first christians from 27 AD, not from 64 AD. Today, the remnant of all these 7th day Sabbath keeping christians, who, according to revelation 1217 and revelation 1910, is the 7th day Adventist Church. This does not deny the fact that there are other 7th day Sabbath keeping churches.
But when you look at those two verses, there's only one church that meets the twin specifications. So this then is the oldest church that can rightfully claim the legacy of being the oldest branch of Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church claims to be the oldest branch of Christianity by claiming that Peter was the first pope.
But they are wrong for many reasons. Here is a chart talking about Pontifix Maximus, the latin name for the caesars. This yellow arrow says it was the title for the roman emperors from 63 bc until the fourth century.
Augustus Caesar, that was one of his names, Pontifex Maximus. Pope Leo the Great took on that title in the fifth century. So if the roman caesars had that title, Peter certainly did not have that title.
That title was officially transferred to the bishop of Rome after the fourth century. So the catholic popes could never have had that title of Pontificus Maximus in those first centuries. That's what this slide is significant over.
And so the Roman Catholic Church has claimed that Peter was the first pope and therefore the Roman Catholic Church is the oldest church is clearly a false claim. The second reason that Peter could not have been the first leader of the christian church is this. Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the rock.
Interestingly, the greek word for Peter means a rolling stone. It does not mean a rock because the Bible tells us in one corinthians ten, verse four and two, Samuel 22, verse 47, that Jesus Christ is the rock. And I'll read it to you.
The Lord lives, blessed be my rock. Let God be exalted, the rock of my salvation. And one corinthians ten, verse four tells us that the rock was Jesus Christ.
So we've just read an old Testament and a New Testament reading stating that Jesus is the rock of our salvation and not Peter. For the gates of hell did not prevail against Jesus, for he rose from the tomb a worthy conqueror. And I praise God for that.
But the gates of hell did prevail against Peter, for he died in AD 69 by being crucified upside down. In that same year, Vespasian became the new Sol Caesar, and he still carried the title pontificx Maximus. So Peter could not have been a pope with the title Pontificx Maximus while the caesar still had him.
Towards the end of 290 AD, the roman persecutions were still continuing. And we have an interesting slide here. Diocletian ordered that all palace officials worship the state gods of Rome.
In 299 AD, Galerius pushed to extend order to the army and to purge the christian officers. And he produced an oracle who predicted the destruction of the empire unless this was done. And so Diocletian bans christian rights in confiscating books and churches.
Two fires broke out in the palace and Galerius convinced Diocletian that christians had started them. Diocletian then launches a full scale attack on christians. And these severe persecutions continued for ten years, with the persecutions under emperor Diocletian coming to an end.
After ten years, peace and harmony began to be experienced in the christian church. But sadly, a new problem emerged. Compromise now comes back again into the christian church, but this time led by secular and religious leaders.
And when emperor Constantine takes over from Diocletian, Constantine chose Christianity as his favourite religion. He issues what is known as the edict of Milan. But before telling you what was in the edict of Milan, Constantine did something else that was bad.
He marched his army on one side of the river Taiba, out the other side of the river Taiba, and then he pronounced his soldiers to now be christians, but they were not christians, for they had not been taught the teachings and responsibilities of being a Christian. First, they were simply wet pagans, but carrying the name of being christians. And all of these wet pagans joined up with those Sunday keepers who had apostatized after 64 AD.
And they also brought their pagan rituals into the Sunday branch of the christian church. This made it so easy for them to become nominal christians as they didn't have to change their day of worship from the pagan Sunday. They could still keep it.
They didn't have to switch and start worshipping God from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. I can say from personal experience it's easy to be a Christian on Sunday. It's not so easy to be a Christian on Saturday.
So these pagans could continue their pagan worship, practises on a Sunday, yet claim the name of being christian. Some may claim to trace their ancestry further back to 64 AD than the first Sunday keeping people. But the Sunday keeping christians cannot trace their ancestry back to the Sabbath keepers of Christ's Day in 27 AD as we can.
The next two roman catholic publications acknowledge that fact. St. Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel, May 21, 1995 people who think that the scriptures should be the sole authority should logically become 7th day adventists and keep Saturday holy.
That's a Sunday keeping church telling you that if the Bible is the basis for your faith, then you should be a 7th day Adventist. There have been two branches of Christianity now for nearly 2000 years. 7th day Sabbath keepers and first day Sunday keepers.
7th day Sabbath keepers try to obey all ten of God's commandments. The first day. Sunday keepers like to keep nine.
But the cardinal pictured here says something very interesting. This is the boast of the Roman Catholic Church. Chancellor Albert Smith for Cardinal of Baltimore Archdiocese letter dated February 10, 1920.
If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath day and that day is Saturday. In keeping the Sunday, they are following the law of the Catholic Church. In our next slide we will read Constantine's edict of Milan, issued seven to March 321 AD.
This is when he legislated the pagan Sunday as the official day of worship in the Roman Empire, whilst at the same time claiming to be a follower of Jesus Christ and Christianity. Christians must not judaise by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's day. And if they can, resting as christians.
But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ. Because we're living in the days when the Bible says we will see attempts to repeat Constantine's edict. This series of messages contains vital information that is relevant to us today.
I want you pleased to notice the two grave errors in that edict. Referring the people to worship God on the Sunday and calling it the Lord's day. And the other error was calling the Lord's day or the Sabbath day, a Jews day.
That's why he's talking about judaizing. To call Sunday the Lord's day is very wrong because Jesus himself called the 7th day Sabbath, the Lord's day in Mark two, verse 28. As it says, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore, the son of man is also what? Lord of the Sunday? No, Lord of the Sabbath. Mark two, verses 27 and 28. So you've read it with your own eyes.
And to call God's Sabbath the jewish Sabbath day is also very wrong, as you will see shortly. For he made it in the garden of Eden 2200 years before there was a jew then at the council of Laodicea. In 364 AD, the Roman Catholic Church ratified Constantine's edict.
And here is the Roman Catholic Council of Laodicea's supporting decree which they expected all churches to follow, that christians should keep the Sunday and that if they persisted in resting on the Sabbath, they shall be shut out from Christ. That comes from Hefelli's history of the councils of the church. Volume eleven, page three, one six.
But this was and still is at variance with what God commanded. For the first day of the week. Sunday was never the day that God made holy.
That was the first day he began to work. And in addition, we have further confusion on which is the Sabbath day. So let us now contrast the difference between God's Sabbath days and the jewish Sabbath dates.
Big difference. God's weekly Sabbath facts was given to man in the Garden of Eden. Genesis two, verses two and three.
Since the ten Commandments define sin and the first sin happened in the garden of Eden, that law must have existed in the garden of Eden 2200 years before there was a jew on the planet. Mount Sinai was simply where God gave it to Moses in written form. And to make it crystal clear as to what holy time we're talking about, the holy Sabbath day spans sunset Friday to Sunset Saturday every week.
That period was made a sacred and holy day by a holy God at the end of the first week of humans living on this planet. And it was set apart for congregational worship activities. Jesus and the disciples kept the weekly 7th day Sabbath.
4000 years later and it will be kept in heaven as our next slide state. Isaiah 66, verse 22 gives us the context. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, there's the context.
Verse 23. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the Lord. Can there be any doubt that we'll be keeping the 7th day Sabbath in heaven, not Sunday? So why keep Sunday now and break the fourth commandment, thereby committing sin according to God? Choose today to keep that fourth commandment, stop breaking it, and then enjoy the freedom of knowing you are pleasing God.
You may not be right with your church leaders, but you will be right with God. The Bible tells us, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes twelve, verse 13.
And those who keep the fourth commandment are marked by God as sealed and special, for it is assigned between God and his people, as our next slide states. Ezekiel 20, verse 20. Keep my sabbaths, not the Jews Sabbath.
Keep my sabbaths holy, that they may be assigned between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God. So that's God's way of measuring our loyalty to him.
God's Sabbath is part of the moral law, written on tables of stone by God himself, stored inside the ark of the covenant. And its role is to objectively define sin for us. So now we'll look at the jewish ceremonial sabbaths.
They were annual, not weekly. And there were seven annual ceremonies that contained these holy Sabbath dates. The dates of the week, of course, can fall on different days of the week.
And so a jewish ceremonial Sabbath could be on a Monday one year, could be a Friday on another. But God's Sabbath was weekly, and it never changed. Ceremonial services were designed to teach the different aspects of the future Messiah's ministry to save souls.
Also, the jewish sabbaths were part of the ceremonial law. Written on parchment, these laws were not put inside the ark, they were put on the side of the ark. And after Christ's death, the jewish ceremonial law was no longer needed and is now contra to us, as Ephesians 215, Colossians 214 tell us.
Ephesians 215 having abolished in his flesh the enmity that means hatred, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. That means ceremonies. For to make of himself two, that's bringing the Jews and Gentiles together and making them one new man.
So making peace God's moral ten commandment law has no ceremonies or rights. But the jewish law had plenty of ceremonies and rights. Colossians 214, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances.
That means ceremonies and rites. That was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Both these Bible texts refer to the jewish ceremonial law being nailed to the cross at Calvary, not the moral law.
There was confusion in the minds of the jewish leaders, though, over whether or not the new Gentile believers needed to keep the jewish ceremonial fasting days. As our next slide shows, one man esteems one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind after reading this verse.
Often sincere people seeking clarity, ask their Sunday keeping pastors or priests about this verse, and the replies they usually get deceive people into believing that Paul is talking about God's weekly Sabbath day when Paul is talking about the jewish ritual fasting days. In view of the fact that sin is the transgression of God's moral law, it is not an option to keep the 7th day holy. It is as much a requirement from God that we keep his day holy as is God's requirement that we do not kill or steal or lie.
So therefore it's a sin if we don't keep this sabbath day of God's holy. Whereas 2000 years ago, all the Jews could think about in relation to the Gentiles was keeping their ceremonial laws with their annual Sabbath date ceremonies intact. Notice this valid observation.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It's rather interesting, isn't it, that the one commandment that begins with the word remember is the one commandment that mainstream Christianity chooses to forget. Now we'll prove from the Bible why God's permanent moral law containing the weekly Sabbath will be binding for all time, and why the God given ceremonial and temporary law containing annual Sabbath dates are no longer applying.
If you have to defend your christian faith in a court of law, this next Bible reading in John 1931 is critical. Notice it. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation day, that is the Friday, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day.
For that Sabbath day was a high day, besought pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Now to the point, what is a high Sabbath and when did it happen? This occurred when a jewish annual ceremonial Sabbath date landed on God's weekly moral Sabbath day. Then it was called a high Sabbath question.
For 2000 years, we have no longer celebrated high sabbaths. Why not? Because the temporary jewish ceremonial annual Sabbath dates were finished at the cross as a result of the real lamb of God. Jesus Christ dying for our sins.
Now we no longer need to kill innocent lambs. The real and innocent lamb of God, Jesus Christ has opened up the way for salvation without us having to kill innocent lambs. And I say praise God for that.
The ripping of the temple curtain from top to bottom by an unseen hand signified the end of the jewish ceremonial law with its rituals and annual Sabbath dates. Another point to consider is this. Neither did Jesus say to change the Sabbath day so that we could honour his resurrection on Sunday as many christian leaders claim.
For to do that is to interfere with God's definition of sin as our next two slides reveal. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law I would have not known sin for I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covered.
So we know what law he's talking about. That was romans seven, verses seven and eight. He's talking about the ten Commandments.
Here is the second Bible verse that defines sin for us. One John three verse four. Whoever committeth sin transgresses also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.
Let us note what the Bible says about that. For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one, he is guilty of all. James two, verse ten.
You may be thinking what's the big deal over a day? Well, there's a spiritual elephant in the religious world that is soon to appear and it will divide the world and especially the christians into one of two camps. One camp leads to eternal victory and the other camp leads to eternal loss. And what is that spiritual elephant? The spiritual elephant is the prophesied legislation by mankind to force people to worship in churches on Sunday instead of the God given 7th day Sabbath.
And if you think you can avoid that, think again. Because laws that are written but have no punishment factor built into that law are not worth the paper they are written on as revelation says, revelation 1317. And that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.
This verse is talking about an economic boycott that is coming in the near future and it's designed to hurt people who will not follow the laws of men, preferring to follow the laws of God. I'll explain this in greater detail when we get to the last two presentations of the big picture. But that man made made legislation is the silent elephant soon to bring about the final events of earth's history.
But when this legislation was first enacted back in Constantine's day, the true christians were forced to take a stand. Thousands of Bible believing christians preferred to be martyrs than to accept the errors being introduced into the christian church by christian leaders. And they were doing that in the dark ages.
So when did the dark ages begin? It began 217 years after Constantine's edict, when the last of the roman emperors, Justinian by name, transferred political power to the bishop of Rome, who already had religious power. That was in 538 AD, to be precise. So what were the Dark Ages all about? It was due to three reasons.
Firstly, the suppression of the Bible as being a book that only priests could read and interpret. This led to the light of God's word being almost extinguished from the minds of the laity, leaving the world in spiritual darkness. Secondly, the burning of bibles found in the hands of pious lay people, especially if those bibles were not the ones approved of by Rome.
As this slide says, during the Dark Ages, the christian church of Rome burned bibles along with their owners. Hence the Dark Ages. Thirdly, the combining of political power and religion.
Or put another way, the combining of church and state. As this slide says, popes were powerful spiritual leaders, but also developed political power during the Middle Ages, for popes claimed authority over rulers. This often led to conflicts between the popes and the kings.
Combining church and state always leads to a loss of religious liberty or freedoms and led to severe persecutions by the ruling church. This slide, those true believers who resisted the roman papacy were brutally tortured, slaughtered and had their lands and properties taken. Historians claim that the Roman Catholic Church got the state to agree to, and sometimes actually do the persecutions on behalf of the church.
But whilst they could kill the Bible believing christians, they could not silence the two witnesses mentioned in revelation eleven, verse three. And this is thrived here. And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy a 1203 score days clothed in sackcloth.
Who are the two witnesses? They are the Old and the New Testament. These holy passages were read secretly during the period of sackcloth being the Dark Ages, spanning 1260 years, from 538 AD to 1798 AD. And what happened to those who persisted in secretly reading the rare passages of scripture? An inspired Bible commentator helps us to understand the answer to that question.
Based on revelation eleven, verse three, acts of the apostles, page 84 and 85. The same spirit which in the Dark Ages consigned men and women to prison, to exile and to death, which conceived the exquisite torture of the inquisition, which planned and executed the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and which kindled the fires of Smithfield, is still at work with malignant energy in unregenerate hearts.
The history of truth has ever been the record of a struggle between right and wrong. The proclamation of the gospel has ever been carried forward in this world in the face of opposition, peril, loss and suffering. Yet God kept an eye on things and stepped in when needed.
One of the important things God did throughout the New Testament times was that he protected the genuine Bible manuscripts given way back in Antioch in the first century, much earlier than this one, which I believe is 900 ad, Satan had already corrupted the genuine manuscripts at Alexandria, on the northern coast of Africa around the fourth century AD. These are known as the western manuscripts and are the basis for most of the modern Bibles today. But the persecuted minority, such as the Waldensians, protected and wrote by hand the Bible passages from the original eastern manuscripts.
To the Waldensies, the true scriptures were not merely a record of God's dealings with men in the past and a revelation of the responsibilities and duties of the present, but an unfolding of the perils and glories of the future. So what did God do to counter Satan's attempts to destroy the genuine Bible manuscripts? God set out to destroy the catholic idea that only the priests could interpret the Bible. And to do this, he raised up seven key men.
We have John Wycliffe, Johann Gutenberg, holdred Swingley, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Calvin and John Knox. John Wycliffe. He was one of the earliest opponents of papal authority influencing the secular powers.
And he also produced some of the first handwritten english translations of the Bible. Johann Gutenberg, of course, invented the movable type printing press, and in 1455, he produced the first book ever printed, a latin language Bible printed in mains, Germany. It is called the Gutenberg Bible.
Holdred Swingley, 1484 to 1531, was the leader of the Swiss Reformation Churches, one of the early protestant churches to be formed. The fourth great theologian was Martin Luther. 10 November 1483 to 18 February 1546.
He was a German, a catholic priest, a professor of theology, and a major player in the Protestant Reformation and the formation of the Lutheran Church. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted the indulgent salesman, Johann Tetzel, a dominican friar, about this serious issue.
And then he became famous for posting his 95 theses in 1517 on the front doors of the Wittenberg church. He did this because he knew that a Christian's duty towards God also includes opposing error and defending truth. And with everyone going to church, his questions became the talking point of Germany.
When asked to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the deet of Worms in 1521, he refused to do so. And then he was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. On the 31 October this year, 2017, a big commemoration service is being held in Europe to mark the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation.
It will be stated that great strides have been made in seeking a reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants, and that the Protestant Reformation is over. Here are a couple of examples. We have Catholics and Lutherans finding common ground here in this picture.
Martin Luther would be turning in his grave if he knew the capitulation of his own church towards Rome, who are still peddling their errors. So many of the middle aged Christians chose to die rather than renounce Bible truths. And I have a question.
Are their deaths so meaningless to us today? The second example, October 2016. We have here a picture of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the pope who prayed together for the first time in 500 years. Nothing wrong with that.
It's the symbolism behind the act that we're talking about. Pope Francis is reported as saying on the 27 May 2015 that the devil is keeping evangelicals and Catholics divided. And whilst a clever statement, it is not true.
No, it is the Roman Catholic Church's insistence that their traditions are more important than the Bible teachings that conflict with their traditions, that is, separating church groups. Hence their insistence on coming together in love and unity by ignoring the Bible teachings that cause division between churches. Yet one of the Bible teachings that Luther discovered was that the just shall live by faith, not by works of penance or acts that hurt the human body.
Why then, should he recant this beautiful discovery before discovering that the just shall live by faith? He used to whip himself, climb up steep stairs on his hands and knees, trying to mortify the flesh. People in those days did this in the hope of appeasing what they thought was an angry God. And as you can see, people are still doing it today.
Well, I can vouch for the fact that the true Protestant Reformation is not yet over for the following reasons. Jesus said that it is the truth that sets us free, not error. As we read in this slide, John eight, verses 31 to 32.
If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And the true christians throughout the centuries died as martyrs for the truths of the Bible rather than recant.
We have a situation where we can indeed be sure that we're not being deceived by the devil and that we can know we're right with God. There is a way we can know we're not being deceived. Because Jesus said through John the apostle, these words, one John two, three to five.
Many a people claim to be followers of Christ. But notice what this verse says. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
He that says I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him. Verily is the love of God perfected.
Hereby know we that we are in him. The love of God will be perfected in the saints if they love God and obey his commandments. Crystal clear, isn't it? Not the commandments of men, but the commandments of God.
But when the dear christians within the Sunday keeping churches go to their pastors or priests, these Sunday keeping ministers say, no, the law was nailed to the cross. If you listen to these 7th day Adventists, they will put you under bondage. When Christ has put you under grace, these pastors and priests are going to pay a heavy price for deceiving the people.
Because this Bible verse tells you what law was nailed to the cross. And it wasn't God's moral law called the Ten Commandments. It was the law contained in ordinances, as this verse says, colossians 214, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
There are no ordinances, ceremonies or rites in the Ten Commandments. But as I said before, there were plenty in the jewish ceremonial law. And the jewish leaders put their people under bondage by insisting on those ceremonial laws being kept after Christ had paid the price.
And therefore, this was a terrible thing. Keeping the ceremonial law in New Testament times would be a denial of the sacrifice of Christ and would put people under bondage again. But we 7th day Adventists are not advocating that at all.
Nor did the founding fathers of Christianity want people being put under bondage. As James said here in acts 1519 to 21, the Gentiles would abstain from three items only food polluted by idols, sexual immorality, and the meat of strangled animals and blood. Many Bible teachers say these are only ceremonial matters.
All three prohibitions, according to this interpretation, look back to the jewish ceremonial law. So quite clearly then the early christian leaders understood that the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross, and therefore there was no point expecting the Gentiles to keep it. What all believers were expected to do was abstain from food that had been offered to idols, for that action would be deemed by the true God that you worshipped, another God that would have broken the first of the ten Commandments, which says, I am the Lord your God.
You shall not have any other gods beside me. They were also expected to abstain from sexual immorality. For as one corinthians says in chapter six and verse 18, it says, flee from sexual immorality.
All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. And that would have broken the 7th of the ten Commandments, which says, thou shalt not commit adultery. The last point that the gentiles would observe came not from the ceremonial law or the moral law.
It came from the health laws mentioned in Leviticus 17, verses ten to 14. And these health laws are for the benefit of all mankind, for it is the life of all flesh. The blood of it is for the life thereof.
Therefore I said unto my children of Israel, ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof. Whoso eateth it shall be cut off. Leviticus 1714.
So it is the strangled beast and the eating of the blood of any living thing that is forbidden by God. Quite clearly, then, the moral law and the health laws were not nailed to the cross, but the ceremonial law was. In fact, the moral law is described by James as the law of liberty.
James one, verse 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. The Ten Commandment law never put people in bondage, for the Bible portrays this law as the very opposite of bondage.
As we just read in this Bible text, James 125 calls it the law of liberty. As a result, the Ten Commandment law is still binding on all mankind today. And if you don't believe me, look at the words found in Ecclesiastes 1213 in our next slide.
If we're going to just be like the ecumenical Christians and say that coming together in love and unity is more important than preserving the true salvation messages of the Bible, are we going to let tradition override scripture and thus let the ecumenical movement have a free and unchallenged ride into the abyss of error? If Jesus said that it is the truth that sets us free. Then we owe it to the millions of people out in the world who know nothing about the truths of the Bible to keep the Protestant Reformation going. Remember the words of Jesus, Father.
Sanctify them by your truth, because your word is truth. And that is John 17, verse 17. The Bible talks about a battle of Armageddon and it is over the question of whose law will we follow.
The laws of men. When mankind legislates the first day Sunday for compulsory congregational worship, or the law of God, including the fourth commandment requiring all to keep the 7th day Sabbath for congregational worship, that will divide the christian world into two camps. So we cannot come together in unity on a platform of error.
When faced with this issue of recanting what he was teaching and which the Roman Catholic Church said was error, Martin Luther said these famous words, I cannot and will not recant anything. For to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.
Amen. Well, now let's have a look at the fifth theologian. The fifth great theologian was William Tyndale, considered by experts to be one of the greatest theologians.
His translation of the Bible into English is thought by theologians to have formed a good part of the authorised version which we know today as the King James Bible. The 6th great theologian was John Calvin. He was a french protestant reformer.
And notice what he said. Without the gospel everything is useless and vain. The 7th great theologian and my personal favourite is John Knox.
He was the foremost leader of the Scottish Reformation and John Knox set the moral tone for the Church of Scotland. He had a major impact on Queen Elizabeth I in favour of the protestant biblical faith. These six theologians, plus the creation of the movable type printing press, brought about the formation of Bible believing protestant christian churches.
So with thousands upon thousands of Bibles being printed and thousands and thousands of Catholics leaving the Roman Catholic Church to follow the Bible, what did Satan do to counter the Reformation taking place? Well, part six of the big picture will answer that question.
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