Originally published on Friday, May 14, 2010, 1:30 pm in German at www.letztercountdown.org
It is incredible how quickly everything is happening now and where the bad news is coming from! It is the second time this week that the worst news is about our own house. I expected some news from Munich again for May 13, regarding the “Constantinian Sunday Law” by the Alliance for a Free Sunday, but so far it remains rather quiet regarding that campaign.
Instead, we were able to read on the “Adventist” Press Service, APD (http://www.stanet.ch/apd/news/archiv/7302.pr.html) an extraordinary message that I want to comment on:
Churches proclaim nationwide “Day of Creation” in Munich
Munich/Germany, 05/13/2010/APD
At the Second Ecumenical Church Congress in Munich, the Brunswick Protestant Bishop Friedrich Weber proclaimed at the central celebration of Christ’s ascension at the Odeon’s square a nationwide “day of creation” that Christians want to celebrate together from now on every first Friday in September. The Chairman of the Council of Christian Churches in Germany (ACK) emphasized that he was frightened when he saw how the goods of the earth would be exploited without regard for their limitations and without regard for the welfare of future generations.
Well, it actually seems to have been a great event: the proclamation of a “new” day of creation. In my understanding, the memorial of creation since this same creation has always been the seventh day of the week, on which God rested from His work of creation: the Bible Sabbath. I am sure that our “brethren” of the Adventist Press Service, however, will immediately address that this is a counterfeit of the real Day of Creation!? What should make us think, however, is that the SDA church is a member of this ACK and hence is also accountable for this message.... To whom will the SDA church be faithful in the next part of the article? To God or to the ACK?
They write on...
That the creation of God would get a place in the church and service calendar was the first concrete step in recovering a “measure of humanity” and ceasing “from the merciless treatment of our natural environment and ourselves with it”. “After me, the deluge” is no longer valid. The responsibility for creation would be a fundamental task of the church.
We should ask the question: Which church? The Ecumenical World Church of course! For me, they are mixing religion and politics. Wasn’t it the government and the politicians before who were responsible for the environment? But anyhow, it is about the “measure of humanity” and not the “measure of God”. It’s about human rights and not about the Laws of God! The attitude “‘After me, the deluge’ is not valid anymore”, they say! Right, because for them there will not be a deluge anymore but a furnace that will burn on the day of the Lord, because they proclaim a false “Day of Creation”. We as Adventists, however, do indeed have a very special “responsibility for creation”, because we know that the Sabbath is sanctified by God and He commanded the true Day of Creation. But our brethren of the APD will surely correct this in the following paragraphs of their article! I can hardly wait for it!
Let’s hurry to read on...
The first central celebration of the Day of Creation will take place on September 3, 2010 at 17:00 hours in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist in Brühl near Cologne. Depending on local and regional circumstances, churches may also celebrate the Day of Creation together on a different date in the period between September 1 and October 4. On the basis of a common Christian faith in the Creator God, the Christian churches of Germany want to set a visible sign of the perception of environmental problems and the conscious use of the creation.
Well, that’s fine! I always believed that the Greek Orthodox and other “Christian” churches would go along with the pope and therefore want to proclaim a wrong day of creation as an annual memorial day. It is clear what is behind this trick, right? They want, of course, for us to separate the Sabbath from creation. If we would nicely declare that we now have an annual day of creation, we would no longer need a weekly day of creation. Then we could change the motivation for the Sabbath simply to relaxation, the exercise of our right as workers and employees of a day of rest and our right to have time for our families. And then, it wouldn’t matter anymore if this day is any other day of the week, because it would no longer be about honoring the Creator God, but just about caring for ourselves. But surely now comes the correction and the appeal of our brethren of the APD, saying that this would lead to our destruction, robbing the Sabbath of its true meaning and preparing the way for obliged Sunday observance of all churches, the papacy and the ecumenical movement!?
There’s not much left, it must come now!...
But some churches have even already been commemorating the Creator in a special way.
Yeah, now it seems to be coming! We Adventists will certainly be mentioned now, and that we are the “only” true church honoring the true Creator with the true Day of Creation. I knew it! Thank God!
In the Orthodox tradition, September 1 opens the new church year, and they celebrate the day of creation. The Roman Catholic Church remembers St. Francis of Assisi on October 4. Other churches are celebrating on the first Sunday after Michaelmas, the harvest festival. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is celebrating the day of creation in late October.
Whaaat, what kind of day is that?? I know only of October 22, the most historic day of our church, because according to the Karaite calendar, the Day of Yom Kippur of the year 1844 fell on October 22, the day when the investigative judgment began and Jesus passed from the Holy to the Most Holy in the heavenly sanctuary. I have already been confused for a long time as to why this is no longer recognized, and a “Day of the Pastor” was announced on very same day instead. People come before God. It has long been a trend in the Adventist Church. Hence, according to this statement, we celebrate the day of creation in late October—I cannot believe it! Am I really reading an article by Adventists for Adventists?
But there is still hope! Isn’t this also the motto of this Second Ecumenical Church Council? There are two more sentences. Go ahead, brothers and sisters, you still have one more chance!
The Day of Creation now proclaimed in Munich will give Christians the opportunity to become aware of their shared responsibility for God’s creation. According to Bishop Weber this would unite the “praise of God and the lamentation for our situation”.
My poor dishonored God! There is nothing else... End of article. End of the church. End of the world. Only my tears for the church have no end. But the tears of Jesus for the apple of His eye will soon turn into fire and fall onto the earth.
The last word about the new day of creation in the article of the Adventist Press Service of the Adventist Church, has a Protestant Bishop who esteems Sunday as the true Sabbath day. But his words in the last part of his last sentence will come true! Soon, everyone will lament together about their situation. What Mr. Weber says is even prophetic:
The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us. (Lamentations 5:15-22)
They still have a chance that God would forgive even his own Judas church, but very soon the door of mercy will close for all who think that the day of creation is the first Friday in September and keep Sunday, the mark of the beast. Then they will once again lament together:
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:9-11)
Actually, I would now like to wish you a happy and blessed Sabbath, or should I already be saying: Have a happy and restful family day?
