{"id":7674,"date":"2011-07-04T11:52:06","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T19:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=7674"},"modified":"2011-07-04T07:14:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T15:14:00","slug":"europe-pushing-sunday-sdas-opposed-seventh-day-baptists-do-not-consider-saturday-of-high-importance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/church-history\/europe-pushing-sunday-sdas-opposed-seventh-day-baptists-do-not-consider-saturday-of-high-importance\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe Pushing Sunday, SDAs Opposed.  Seventh Day Baptists Do Not Consider Saturday of High Importance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 250px; height: 268px;\" title=\"Sunday Church Naxos Greece\" src=\"\/sundaychurch.gif\" alt=\"Sunday Church Naxos  Greece\" width=\"250\" height=\"268\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cSunday Church\u201d, Naxos Greece<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a title=\"Who is COGwriter?\" href=\"\/cogwriter.htm\">COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Many in Europe are trying to take steps that would promote additional Sunday restrictions:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><!-- BODY,.aolmailheader     {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link    {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:active  {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:hover   {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} --><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\">A new alliance promoting fair and balanced work  conditions in Europe asked the European Union&#8217;s Economic and Social Committee  last week to declare Sunday a &#8220;work-free day&#8221; in its new working guidelines for  member states&#8230;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We support the notion that people need a day of rest to achieve a life\/work  balance to maintain the health and safety of workers,&#8221; said Raafat Kamal, Public  Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in  Northern Europe, adding that the idea was first modeled by God, who rested  following the biblical creation week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the same time, we want to be  sure that those who don&#8217;t have Sunday as a designated religious day of rest will  be respected and tolerated,&#8221; Kamal said.\u00a0 <a title=\"http:\/\/news.adventist.org\/2011\/06\/religious-liberty-ad-2.html\" href=\"http:\/\/news.adventist.org\/2011\/06\/religious-liberty-ad-2.html\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\">http:\/\/news.adventist.org\/2011\/06\/religious-liberty-ad-2.html<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This European advocacy of Sunday is not a surprising move.  Future Sunday laws have long been considered likely by those of us who observe the seventh-day Sabbath.\u00a0 And of course, those of us who observe the biblical Sabbath (which is on Saturday and not Sunday) do not consider that Sunday laws are &#8220;fair and balanced&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday has been considered as &#8220;the mark of the Beast&#8221; by many.<\/p>\n<p>Almost ironically, a group that, in a sense, both the Seventh-day Adventists and the Church of God trace their 18th century history through, the Seventh Day Baptists no longer seem to think that Saturday is that important:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\"><strong>Associated Baptist Press<\/strong> &#8211; June  29, 2011<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><strong> National staff leadership for Seventh Day Baptists <\/strong>say<strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> &#8220;Baptist&#8221; is more important than &#8220;Seventh Day&#8221; in their  identity.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\"> They are from left, Nick Kersten,  Gordon Lawton and Rob Appel, executive director&#8230;.<\/span>The Conference has issued no statement on ordination, although it has accredited  some female pastors&#8230;<span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;\">\u201cWe\u2019re Baptists first,\u201d Kersten said. \u201cWhen I send  kids off to college, I encourage them to keep the Sabbath and find a good Sunday  Baptist Church.\u201d He said there are \u201cso many theological problems\u201d in other  Sabbatarian groups that \u201cBaptist\u201d is more important than Saturday worship. <a title=\"http:\/\/www.abpnews.com\/content\/view\/6526\/53\/\" href=\"http:\/\/www.abpnews.com\/content\/view\/6526\/53\/\">http:\/\/www.abpnews.com\/content\/view\/6526\/53\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I would have thought that the SDBs would have declared that it was important to be Christians first and to walk as Jesus walked.\u00a0 And as was the case, Jesus kept the seventh-day Sabbath (Luke 4:16,31; 6:6; 13:10).\u00a0\u00a0 The &#8220;theological problems&#8221; that the SDBs have with groups like the <a href=\"\/ylcg.htm\">Living Church of God<\/a> include the fact that we have retained historical Christian beliefs on matters such as the Godhead (see <a href=\"\/trinity.htm\">Did the True Church Ever Teach a Trinity?<\/a>) as well as others that the SBDs have abandoned (see also <a href=\"\/sardischurch.htm\">The Sardis Church Era<\/a> and <a href=\"\/philadelphiachurch.htm\">The Philadelphia Church Era<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>It was Jesus who declared Himself:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"\/paul.htm\">Apostle Paul<\/a> was clear that the seventh-day rest was still something that real Christians should observe:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, &#8220;So I  declared on oath in my anger, &#8216;They shall never enter my rest.'&#8221; And yet  his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For  somewhere he has spoken<strong> about the seventh day<\/strong> in these words: &#8220;And on  the seventh day God rested from all his work.&#8221; And again in the passage  above he says, &#8220;They shall never enter my rest.&#8221; It still remains that  some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel  preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience&#8230;<strong>There  remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God<\/strong>; for anyone who  enters God&#8217;s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from  his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no  one will fall by following their example of disobedience (Hebrews  4:3-6,9-11, NIV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He did not say such things about Sunday (which is the first, not seventh, day.\u00a0 Nor did Jesus nor any writers of the New Testament.<\/p>\n<p>The Europeans and Seventh Day Baptists may wish to consider what the Bible itself actually teaches.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Some articles of possibly related  interest may include:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/europa.htm\">Europa, the Beast, and  Revelation<\/a> Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to  do with the Book of Revelation? What about \u201cthe Beast\u201d? Is an emerging  European power \u201cthe daughter of Babylon\u201d? What is ahead for Europe?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/sunday.htm\">Sunday and Christianity<\/a> Was Sunday observed by the apostolic and true post-apostolic  Christians? How clearly endorsed Sunday?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/sabbath.htm\">The Sabbath in the Early  Church and Abroad<\/a> Was the seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath observed by  the apostolic and post-apostolic Church?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/sdawhite.htm\">SDA\/LCG Differences: Two Horned Beast of Revelation and 666<\/a> The Living Church of God is NOT part of the Seventh-day Adventists.  This article explains two prophetic differences, the trinity,  differences in approaching doctrine, including Ellen White.     Did  Ellen White make prophetic errors? Did Ellen White make false  prophecies?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/news\/religious-news\/adventist-presidents-remnant-church-comments\/\">Seventh-day Adventist President Ted Wilson&#8217;s Comments on the Remnant Church<\/a> Ted N. C. Wilson spoke on the SDAs striving to be the &#8220;remnant church&#8221;, but what do the related scriptures actually teach?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/ntwomen.htm\">Women and the New Testament Church<\/a> Were women important in the New Testament Church? Which women and how were they involved?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/sardischurch.htm\">The Sardis Church Era<\/a> was predominant circa 1600 A.D. to circa 1933 A.D. Discusses early  history of the Seventh Day Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, and COG-7th  Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSunday Church\u201d, Naxos Greece COGwriter Many in Europe are trying to take steps that would promote additional Sunday restrictions: A new alliance promoting fair and balanced work conditions in Europe asked the European Union&#8217;s Economic and Social Committee last week to declare Sunday a &#8220;work-free day&#8221; in its new working guidelines for member states&#8230; &#8220;We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-doctrine","category-religious-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7674"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7676,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7674\/revisions\/7676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}