www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Witnessing to a 7th day Adventist

Recently, I got an email from a 7th Day Adventist who had seen one of my posts, and was upset because he thought I was disgracing Ellen White. I tried to explain to him about Orthodoxy, which is my faith. He obviously thinks Orthodox are the same as Roman Catholics, because he was ranting and raving about the RC Church. Today, I tried to explain to him that the Orthodox Church is a separate entity, to clear up his obvious ignorance.

He ranted and raved about how RC's worship Mary, how they profaned the Gospel, etc., etc. I asked him to sit down and compare what his church teaches and believes to what the ancient Church believed. If his church cannot be traced back to the apostles, doesn't have bishops and apostolic succession, then nothing else matters, he is not in the true church, and subjects like Mary, the immortality of the soul, the Sat. Sabbath, etc. don't even matter. WHAT DID THE ANCIENT CHURCH BELIEVE AND DOES YOUR CHURCH BELIEVE THE SAME WAY? was the main question I asked him.

Was this the right approach? The man is very angry and hostile, so whether he actually studies the ancient church for himself I doubt. I couldn't think of any books that might help a person of his persuasion to understand the Orthodox Church.

What would your reply be if you got an email from an angry Seventh-day Adventist?

I have found these people profoundly Anti-Catholic. It seems the whole reason they exist is to proove how the RCC is the Whore of Babylon, the Pope the AntiChrist and anyone who worships on Sunday is in cahoots with the Devil. I do not believe there is any reasoning with these people, as they are fundamentalists, in the Taliban sense.

Well...perhaps not THAT bad...they don't run training camps and fly airplanes into buildings and stuff like that...but now that there's a vacancy, watch out! :p

I find it easier to work with the JW's. Every so often they come to my house on a Saturday morning and my brother gets the door. They start talking about the end times, and my brother immediately calls me over because he doesn't like dealing with such people. I tell them I'm Catholic, just to see what'll happen. They usually go with stuff like "Do you know your Church, by practicing celibacy, and worshipping Mary, and believing in communion like you do, etc. is in error?"

I usually go with my standby. I read them John 1:1 in their Bible translation where the Word "was a god". I tell them that no Bible has ever translated it that way, and that "their Church" preached two gods, and that this was way worse than anything my Church was accused of doing...and then I'd explain all those things too...but the polytheism charge REALLY throws them for a loop.

They usually don't bother us for at least six months.

Anyway, don't worry so much about the Adventists...I've known some good ones, and have never been attacked or anything. But if they're as anti-Catholic as akemner indicates, don't try too hard...they probably will not listen.

Once this girl instant messaged me and wanted to talk about Jesus. So we did, and things were going splendidly until she asked what Church I belonged to, and again, I said I was Catholic. The usual rants about how Catholics have been mislead and stuff came, and then after the rant she said she was glad she met me. Seems she had "25 theses" that she wanted me to read. So I read them, and most of them were peripheral issues like worshipping images and stuff. So I sat down, and taking one thesis at a time I answered with what the actual belief is, plus scripture and quotes from the Fathers. My answer came out to something like thirty pages...I had a boring first week of July last year.

She never spoke to me again, except once, to let me know that I made her cry so much after she read it, and that it wasn't good for her spiritually to talk to me anymore...kinda like how she doesn't "read the works of heretics". I guess I'm a heretic...

In most cases, people like that just won't listen. All that you've got to do is defend the faith as well as you can. If you can't answer something, figure it out and get back to them. But don't push it...they don't like alternative opinions, just their own. After a while, the only thing you can do for them is pray for them.

OH...tell them you're making a novena to Our Lady of Fatima or something for their conversion...that'll drive them up a wall!

The Seventh-Day Adventists are decent people, with high moral standards and, I believe, many of them are pacifists.

Why ruin their moral and spiritual lives by inviting them to become like us, Catholics or Orthodox?

Best left alone, would be by response.

That would be the charitable thing to do.


Sonny

You mean, like us, indecent people with low moral standards, and I believe, a warmongering tendency?

The thing speaks for itself.

When I said Taliban sort, meant that they are so fundementalist, that they put religion to the extreme interpretations. I tend to be leary of people who call themselves Christians and have no concept of Christianity before 1920 (one of their tracts against the heresy of keeping the Lord's day on Sunday confirmed this opinion-all but two quotes dated from 1900-1950; the other two were Martin Luther taken badly out of context). I would not think they would be terrorists, but they are know for their ads in large media markets.

A Seventh Day Adventist once told me that they don't oppose abortion since they don't believe in souls, so that fetus is just a bunch of tissue until it's born.....

Once I was on the bus and the bus driver was like, "The ROMAN Catholic Church made everyone worship on Sunday! WHORE OF BABYLON!" I was like, sure buddy!

To Sonny, how can someone that calls someone else's church the "Whore of Babylon" be moral?

In Christ,
anastasios

It is one thing to call another person's church the "Whore of Babylon," and another thing to act like the "Whore of Babylon."

The latter if far more immoral than the former.

Long live the glorious names of Savonarola and Jan Hus, true Catholics and saints of God.

sonny,

Where the 7th Day Adventist will led you down under:

1st. They do NOT believe in the Trinity.

2nd. They do NOT believe in Baptism.

3rd. They do NOT believe in the Eucharist.

I would say NOT to leave them alone if they aproach you! That is not to say you should go out and Proselytize them. But, if approached it is your Christian duty to tell them of the "Good News".


Which leds me to a Bigger question. What is the very basics one must believe to be called a Christian. I don't believe 7th Day are Christians.

I would say Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Methodist, Luthernians, etc. are all Christian because they believe in the very Basics.

My theory of Basics is this:

1. Trinity
2. Baptism
3. Forgiveness of Sins
4. Bible is the Word of God

What is your Opinion?

[ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: aRomanCatholic@Work ]

Good question anastasios, also if we believe that the True Church subsist within the Universal Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.....

How is it charitable to allow someone to live in error?

David

I would like to see Christianity return to its roots: to become a Jesus centered religion that emphasizes (like he did), relationships and behavior, not abstractions and theological speculations that were of no interest to him.

Because Christianity has degenerated into a "school of abstract speculation" and has abandoned its Jewish roots, it has become a haven for sick and perverse people who believe they can find refuge in adhering to abstractions (called dogma!) while living perverse lives.


We could certainly learn a great deal about living like Christ Jesus from these good and kindhearted "heretics."

God bless these good disciples of Christ.


May they increase and may we (the perverse and evil Orthodox and Catholics) decrease.

Sonny

[ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: Sonny ]

Oh I see we have a Protestant here.

Ok Sonny, would you like to talk about Jesus and his Church?

God Loves You Sonny and He wants you to know the Truth! Will you open your heart and mind to the Truth?

Christ said, "The Truth Shall Set You Free!"

I would like for you to be Free Sonny.

This can be an very exciting time in your life.

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Glory to Him forever!

First preach to yourself. When I am convinced you are living a Christ-like life, then you can preach to me. "You shall know them by their fruits,"....and not by their rhetoric. I remember, as a boy, watching mafiosi receive the eucharist on Sundays. Do you want to conjecture a guess about what they were doing the next day?

Protestant? No. But I don't object to the esteemed label since I can make a good point that Jesus of Nazareth was the first "pro'testant." He certainly protested against evil and hypocrisy, didn't he? But it does seem to me that more Protestants have a deeper personal awareness of the love of God and Jesus than Catholics and Orthodox. I suppose that is why so many Latin Americans and Russians are converting to Protestantism.

You don't have to preach to me about the love of God since my mother did a fine job of that long before you were probably born.

Sonny

Sony,

Would you mind saying something about yourself? What denomination are you: Baptist, Southern Baptist, American Baptist, Indep. Baptist, Non-Denominational Baptist, Church of the Naz., Church of God, Church of Christ, 7th Day Adv., Pentacostal, Jehova Witness, Apostolic Church of God, etc...?

What are your grips about the One, Holy, Apostolic, catholic/orthodox Church?

God Bless!