On April 3, 2021, the Roman Catholic Archbishop Milton Tróccoli of Uruguay; Anglican Bishop Alfred Cooper from Chile; Pastor Gabriel Cevasco, executive secretary of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Argentina; Gustavo Katzuni, a Jewish rabbi from Asunción, Paraguay; and Sergio Gómez, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, produced a multinational and multi-religious Easter video message for 2021. [1] This video was created for people throughout Latin America.
The interfaith Easter video was produced to call for unity, love and solidarity. They call for a family of brothers to support each other. They call for ending divisions. They call for praising Jesus at the rising of the sun. Here is a brief summary of some of the highlights of each speaker.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Milton Tróccoli of Uruguay.
Roman Catholic: Easter means peace, hope and solidarity. Peace because Jesus is our peace. Hope because it tells us that pain and death will not have the last word. Life will have the last word. Solidarity: Jesus came to create a family of brothers. He has taught us that we are all brothers. That is why we have to support and unite with each other. We must all help and support each other. May these three ideas live in each of our hearts: Peace, hope and solidarity.
Anglican Bishop Alfred Cooper from Chile.
Anglican: We are preparing to celebrate “Holy Week” which will culminate on Sunday, the morning of the resurrection. The rising of the sun, when the sun begins to show, someone will cry, “Jesus has resurrected!” All the congregation will shout, “Truly, He has resurrected.”
Pastor Gabriel Cevasco, executive secretary of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Argentina.
Seventh-day Adventist: Easter is an important time for every believer because it reminds us of God’s love to His people. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. God raised a deliverer in the Old Testament to save Israel and today we have a deliverer, Jesus, who has conquered death. We have nothing to fear even though we are going through a difficult time. But the message of Easter teaches us that in Christ we find love, forgiveness and freedom. May “Holy Week” renew our hope that one day pain, suffering, sickness and death will come to an end.
Gustavo Katzuni, a Jewish rabbi from Asunción, Paraguay.
Jewish Rabbi: On behalf of the Jewish community we want to extend to each of you a hug and a happy Easter. For both Jewish and Christian communities this time represents a new beginning and a rebirth. The Jewish people were able to overcome their slavery in Egypt, and they were able to escape the final plague of death … let us unite our voices in peace and may harmony exists between each of us. May this Easter find us united more than ever with a message of peace and love and may we overcome our differences in order to create a better world.
Sergio Gómez, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Latter Day Saint: In this important time of the year we call “Holy Week” we remember Jesus. He paid the price to save us. We are grateful for all the religions as they unite with us in this initiative that begins today. As of today we can al seek to become more like Jesus. As of today we can forgive. We can be reconciled. We can return to Him. We can help the poor and needy. We can help those who are lonely and those who have lost hope. We can begin to express words of love to our families, our neighbors, our friends and coworkers. We invite everyone, regardless of your religious belief, and even those who don’t have a religion but who still have faith, let us seek to become more like Jesus.
This Easter interfaith video presents a serious problem. It is painful to recognize that Adventism has been invaded by hostile forces that are undermining our faith with these perfectly prepared speeches. This is a cleverly disguised error that is burying God’s final warning message under the interfaith unity movement. Seventh-day Adventists are supposed to believe that God has called us into existence to do a special work— to prepare the way for Christ’s Second Advent with the messages found in Revelation 14.
- The First Angel proclaims the imminence of Christ’s return and Christ’s final mediatory work in the heavenly sanctuary. It demands loyalty to the Creator and His law.
- The Second Angel declares that religious apostasy is increasing, and calls upon people everywhere to choose Christ, His righteousness, and His law, and reject everything that originates in Satan. Babylon has been fostering poisonous doctrines, such as the natural immortality of the soul, the eternal torment of the wicked and other serious theological errors.
- The Third Angel warns against the worship of the beast and his image. The beast power has been advocating and exalting the first day of the week above God’s holy sanctified day, the seventh-day or Saturday. This is exactly what the churches are guilty of today!
The final warning message also brings to view the angel of Revelation 18 who joins his voice with the first three angels when he declares: “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Revelation 18:3). And then there is this call: “Come out of her, my people,” why? “That ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4)
The interfaith Easter videos that Adventists are involved in do not warn that the churches have “fallen.” We are not warning people about the fast-spreading “wine.” We are not warning Babylon of her coming judgment/plagues. We have exchanged the message of God for the solidarity of Rome. Obviously, it is contrary to our mission for Seventh-day Adventists to stand together in solidarity with these fallen churches from which we are supposed to be calling them to withdraw. How could we issue this call to “come out” while we are joining them?
Rome’s interfaith movement is a serious matter. The aim is unity and solidarity rather than the conversion of souls with truth. This is one of the most disastrous deceptions that is affecting our mission. How dare we join the ranks of those who have no concept of God’s requirement for these last days? How can we be making Easter unity videos with them? How can we possibly unite with churches that have little or no concept of even the basic truths of our message? Satan triumphs when those who have a form of godliness but know nothing of God’s power are destined to destruction because we fail to give them the final warning messages of Revelation 14.
“Such converts are his most efficient agents. They serve as decoys to other souls. They are false lights, luring the unwary to perdition. It is in vain that men seek to make the Christian’s path broad and pleasant for worldlings. God has not smoothed or widened the rugged, narrow way” (Evangelism, p. 320).
The Remnant Church is a people divinely instituted by God who also have a divinely appointed message. These interfaith Easter videos fail miserably to convey the real messages the world needs to hear today with compelling power. We urge the leadership to abandon these ecumenical entanglements that will only lead to the loss of souls, both ours for not giving the warning messages and those of others who will be lost because we have not adequately instructed them in the ways of righteousness.
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