Ecumenism at its Worst: Several Adventist Pastors and Theologians Join Catholics and Evangelicals to Promote a Generic Day of Rest for the Stressed-out Modern World

Journey Films will be producing a 2-hour documentary film called “Sabbath.” According to the filmmakers, this documentary “explores the history of one of the world’s most important spiritual practices and its timeless relevance for a stressed-out, modern world.” They also state that the Sabbath is “God’s invitation” for “a more sustainable way of life.” [1] The documentary features Roman Catholic, Protestant, Seventh-day Adventist, Muslim, and Jewish religious leaders and experts as they all promote the importance of the Sabbath and the need for rest.

The major problem with this project is that they are pushing for “a” Sabbath rest, regardless of whether it’s Saturday, Sunday, or any other day. The video misquotes Exodus 20:10, the 4th Commandment, by referring to the seventh day as “a” Sabbath day and not “the” Sabbath day. In essence, this asserts that Saturday is merely one day of rest among many. This opens the door for Sunday to also be the Sabbath day. Once again, they are attempting to change times and laws (Daniel 7:25). The video also discusses how the “Sabbath” played an important “religious” role in the “labor movement in America.” This is clearly talking about Sunday being the Sabbath for workers. So even though the Sabbath can fall on any day, according to this documentary, there is a hidden emphasis that Sunday laws, cloaked in “Sabbath” terminology, are needed again today.

The promotional Sabbath video highlighted the following points:

• “Six days you shall labor and do all our work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.”

• “There’s a good reason why historians are saying that post-World War II we enter the period called the Great Acceleration, it’s that people now feel the pacing of their lives has accelerated to a point where they don’t have time to care for themselves, they don’t have time to care for family members.”

• “Two-thirds of Americans say that they’re working more than 40 hours any given week. We have to work more in order to sustain the same level of living.”

• “The labor movement in America is surprisingly a religious story and it does often converge at the issue of Sabbath.”

The participants in the 2-hour Sabbath documentary are listed by Journey Films and include the following:

Roman Catholic
• Bishop Robert Barron of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, MN
• Catholic Priest Simeon Leiva-Merikakis, member of the St. Joseph’s Abbey community of Trappist monks in Spencer, Massachusetts.
• Catholic Priest Emmanuel Morinelli, member and Music Director for the St. Joseph’s Abbey community of Trappist monks in Spencer, Massachusetts.
• Charlie Echeverry, ordained Deacon for the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. [2]

Seventh-day Adventist
• Randy Roberts, senior pastor at Loma Linda University Church, a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California.
• Sigve Tonsted, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Loma Linda University School of Medicine
• Michael Mickens, pastor of South Jackson Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jackson, MS
• Richard Rice, Theologian, Loma Linda University.
• Ron Pickell, Senior Pastor at Life Adventist Church at the University of California, Berkeley. [2]

Evangelical
• Jeffrey A Johnson, Sr., Senior Pastor of Eastern Star Baptist Church in Indianapolis
• Judy Fentress-Williams, Professor of Old Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary and Senior Assistant to the Pastor for historic Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va.
• Norman Wirzba, professor of Christian theology at Duke Divinity School and senior fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.
• J Dana Trent, ordained minister who teaches at Wake Tech Community College who is married to a Hindu Monk.
• Thomas Kidd, historian of American religion and distinguished professor at Baylor University and professor of Church history at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. [2]

Muslim
• Khalid Latif, Imam and Executive Director of the Islamic Center at New York University, New York. [2]

Jewish
• Susannah Heschel, Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College.
• Ammiel Hirsch, Senior Rabbi at the famed Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform congregation in Manhattan, NY.
• Michael Fishbane, Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the Divinity School, University of Chicago.
• Manis Friedman, Hassid, Orthodox Rabbi.
• David Seidenberg, rabbi, teacher and author. [2]

What a tragedy that Seventh-day Adventists would be part of a project that promotes Sunday as an alternative day of rest. This conflicts with the heart of Seventh-day Adventism, which emphasizes the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord. However, promoting a generic day of rest, or Sunday, is in keeping with the modern ecumenical movement. At the center of the ecumenical movement is the policy of downplaying what we cannot agree on. At the very heart of the Advent Movement is the conviction that we should emphasize our distinctive doctrines and the Three Angels’ Messages, especially the seventh-day Sabbath.

“Come, join us,” cries the universal fraternity of Rome, “and you can still keep your Sabbath, and we will keep our Sabbath, and all religious days are equal and one in the same.” This is precisely what the ecumenical movement is saying. However, we must keep in mind that the Three Angels’ Message calls us to not only observe the true seventh-day Sabbath but also to declare it to the world and work to persuade others to keep it as well. In the Sabbath documentary being made by Journey Films, the Seventh-day Adventist participants did not emphasize this at all.

Only by maintaining a clear line of distinction between truth and error can we prevent the Adventist faith from becoming muddled at a time when ecumenism is eradicating the boundaries that separate the various churches. Either God has called out a special people with a special message in the last days or He has not. The answer to that question will decide the fate of our people.

Why should we speak out against Sunday worship, Sunday laws, and the impending Mark of the Beast crisis if we do not believe that God has called out a remnant people (Rev. 12:17) who are solely His own? But if we do believe that God has called us out of Babylon to be a special people, then we must realize that we are living in the closing chapters of the book, the Great Controversy, and that we must be warning the world against the beast, his image, and the mark of the beast.

“The enforcement of Sunday-keeping on the part of Protestant churches is an enforcement of the worship of the papacy—of the beast. Those who, understanding the claims of the fourth commandment, choose to observe the false instead of the true Sabbath; are thereby paying homage to that power by which alone it is commanded. But in the very act of enforcing a religious duty by secular power, the churches would themselves form an image to the beast; hence the enforcement of Sunday-keeping in the United States would be an enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image” (Great Controversy, p. 448)

Sources

[1] https://www.journeyfilms.com/

[2] https://www.journeyfilms.com/interviewees