AM I A JESUIT? ============== Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D. Professor of Theology and Church History Andrews University In my itinerant ministry around the world I have often been asked the senseless question: "Are you a Jesuit?" The question is motivated by the fact that some sick-minded Adventists have fabbricated the rumor that I am a Jesuit spy paid by the Vatican to do subversive activities in the Adventist Church. What motivated me to post this message is the fact that I have just received a private e-mail inquiry from a non-SDA professional person who has read with interest some of my essays posted in non-SDA news organizations. In a recent conversation with an Adventist when he mentioned my name, he was immediately warned by the Adventist that I am a Jesuit spy. This caused this gracious person to ask me if the allegation is true. The truth of the matter is that I have paid a heavy price to be a committed Seventh-day Adventist. I vividly recall the ridicule, rejection, alienation, persecution I had to face as a youth from classmates, teachers, priests, and relatives who resented my commitment to honor the Savior on His Holy Sabbath day. These confrontational experiences instilled within me a desire to learn more about the Sabbath. I would have never dreamed, however, that the Lord would open the door for me to study, research and publish the Sabbath truth at a Vatican University in Rome. Furthermore, I would have never imagined that the Lord would use this research to leads thousands of people around the world to accept the Sabbath truth. What distresses me about this senseless falsehood is the fact that it is promoted by some Adventists who enjoy a degree of respect in our church. Even more distressing is the method they use to fabbricate and promote such a lie. Countless times I have been in churches where just prior to my arrival someone had mailed to every family the same four-page flier produced by some anonymous sick-minded Adventists who foolishly tries to prove that my dissertation FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY promotes Sunday as the Lord's Day Christians that Christian should observe. To accomplish this objective these defamers misread and misquote what I have written. Instead of appreciating the enormous effort that I have made to dig up in Vatican libraries all the documents that show the interplay of social, political, pagan, and religious factors that contributed to the change from Sabbath to Sunday, these neurotic people spent their time twisting what I have written so that they can prove that I am a Jesuit spy promoting Sunday as the Biblical Sabbath. To illustrate what is going on, let me share with you a recent episode. Few days ago I received an eight pages letters from an Adventist sister gifted with an analytical mind. In her letter she mentions that together with a friend she recently attended a meeting of "Historical Adventists" where the speaker was an "Adventist" by the name of Gary Wedemeyer. In her lengthy letter this Adventist sister goes into considerable details explaining how Wedemeyer during the course of his talk trashed me and my Sabbath books. She takes the pain to refute his charges by showing how he quoted me out of context or totally misrepresented what I wrote. She even gracioulsy sent me a video of Wedemeyer's presentation that I have here on my desk. After reading in the letter about all the garbage he said about me, frankly I do not have the stomach to look at the video. If I was to look at the video I would feel sick just by looking at the face of a man who goes around churches feeding our people with distortions, misrepresentations, and plain falsehood. This dear sister urges me to prepare a point by point refutation and send it to Puerto Rico, which is the next stop of his speaking tour. I appreciate her advice, but if I had to spend my time silencing rumors, I would have no time left for doing anything else. In a nutshell the thesis of Wedemeyer is that in a most subtle and deceptive way I am promoting what he calls "The Environmental Sabbath," that is, the observance of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath on the basis of ecological considerations. He builds his case by quoting me out of context, by interpreting the yellow color of my book FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY as indicative of Sun-worship, and by arguing that the illustrations in my book DIVINE REST FOR HUMAN RESTLESSNESS have a subliminal messages that promote Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. In his book THE COMING OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL SABBATH which I have just received, Gary Wedemeyer lists specifically 9 illustrations from my book DIVINE REST which in his view "promote the Eighth Day Sabbath [Sunday] in connection with the environment" (p. 49). What Wedemeyer fails to realize is that I had nothing to do with the illustrations. They were produced by an artist who used his imagination simply to illustrate some concepts. For example on page 176 the artist portrays a farmer coming home from work on a footpath lines up with eight trees, two of which can hardly be seen. The purpose of the illustration, as the caption indicates, is simply to show that the Sabbath rest places a limit to our work. Incredible as it may sound, Wedemeyer argues that "The environmental Sabbath [that is, Sunday] is indicated by eight trees" (p.49). When I read all of this nonsense, I cannot help but ask: Why is our Adventist church plagued by such sick-minded people like Wedemeyer? Why do we have naive Adventists who are victim of a conspiracy mentality that causes them to attend meetings of people like Wedemeyer and to read such senseless literature that is a disgrace to our Adventist church? Rather than sitting and listening to such nonsense, why don't our members call the ambulance to have mentally disturbed people like Wedemeyer taken with urgency to some mental instutions to have their brain checked? Can any of you reading this message help me to find an answer to these questions that have troubled me for many years now? Your help on this matter is greatly appreciated. ---------------------------------- Christian regards Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D., Professor of Theology and Church History Andrews University 4990 Appian Way Berrien Springs, MI 49103 samuele@andrews.edu