Notes & References[1000] See Matthew 10:3; Mark 6:3; Galatians 1:19 and others.
[1200] The Bible teaches that "There is one body (or unified church), and one Spirit (unified by the holy Spirit, and as such one set of doctrine) in the bond of peace. ... One Lord (as in Jesus saying I am the Lord of the Sabbath, the sign of His Creatorship), one faith (as in the faith of Jesus who kept all the law including the Sabbath day holy) , one baptism (as in adult baptism by immersion)." Ephesians 4:4,5. "The faith of Jesus," as explained in Galatians 2 (verses 16ff) and Revelation 14:12, show that God's Ten Laws are still binding today.
Before we can live a new, fulfilled life in Christ, the old life must be disposed of. More is involved than having God forgive us our sins. A person must be brought into a right relationship to God. This involves a man's acquittal from his guilt and the cancellation of charges against him. He is placed in a relationship to God as though he had never sinned - he is treated as if he had always been righteous. This is known in the New Testament as "being justified", set right. It is also called `impute righteousness', where imputed means that we received credit, our account or entry in the records of heaven is covered. The one who comes to God is measured by the standard of God's grace revealed in Christ. If he has faith in Christ, God declares him just. Having faith in Christ means being in all things loyal to Christ. We keep all the law and do not preach false doctrine. Doctrines must be based on sound exposition of all of the Bible. We must recognize that there is no salvation in human effort, but every person whose heart has been transformed by the Holy Spirit will enlist all his powers on God's side. That is what we must keep in mind when reading Galatians chapter 2 and similar scriptures. Being on God's side means such a person places himself in God's hands for cleansing and victory over sin, and he cooperates fully with all of God's requirements and the Holy Spirit to accomplish His purposes for us. We are not merely conforming on the outside but we are transformed on the inside. Inner harmony with God leads inevitably to obedience in conduct. The inner experience precedes visible conformity. Change in mind results in change in action. Action in harmony with the law is not offered to God in place of the devotion of our heart. First the heart is given, then God transforms that heart, and Christlikeness results.
If the bishops say, that they pronounced Sunday holy, we must diligently investigate - not push it under the rug or explain it away. We must be willing to change to accept God's way to be one body, have one faith and practice one baptism. Majority opinion or long standing customs are more of a reason to be suspicious than a reason for confidence in sound doctrine. History confirms that God's true people were always a small minority, not with respect to all the faiths in the world, but compared to Christendom.
[2000] Remaining examples of where the church fled in the "wilderness" may be these.
1) Samarkand (about 76 ° east and 39.5 ° north) was once known as the "Eden of the East" because it was a center of missionary activities along the `Silk Road' in central Asia.;
2) Another such center was the city of Bukhara (about ).; In India it was the area around Mylapore, the Province of Kerala, Cochin (about 72.55° east & 7.75° north) and Diamper. In Pakistan it was the ancient ruin city of Taxila (about 73° east & 33.6° north).; In China it was among the Uighur Turkish people of western China who received their knowledge of Christianity by means of the Nestorian missionaries. In the Museum of Xian, stands (or stood if changes occurred) the famous `Nestorian Stone' on display. Shown is the upper portion of the Nestorian Stone (the Hsian Monument), as it was discovered by Jesuit missionaries in 1625 AD in the province of Shensi, China. The title of the stone reads, "A monument commemorating the propagation of the Ta-Chin luminous religion (Christianity) in the Middle Kingdom." The day of the stone's erection was called "ta vao shen wan ji," meaning "the great first Sabbath day." The use of Jewish terms for the days of the week in the heart of China indicates the powerful influence of the Nestorian Church in Asia.;
3) The 17th century Jesuits infiltrated the Chinese Courts to open Roman Catholic missions. Then it was when they began destroying and altering historical records of competing Christian sects in China/Asia0. [B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, 359-364.] Nestorian remains can be seen outside the ancient city of Gaochan, at Bezeklik, a cliff city of Buddhist temples and monasteries on the Silk Road where Christian manuscripts were found. Such a place were also the ancient Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. Pelliot discovered here a Nestorian gospel of John.;
4) In Japan it was the ancient Kobo Daishi who was deeply impressed of the Nestorian faith and incorporated some of its tenets into his esoteric Buddhism, forming the new Shingon sect. In Kobo's honor was a duplicate Nestorian monument erected at the old entrance to his mausoleum on Mt. Koya in 1911.; Nestorian remains (i.e. an old Syrian well too) were also found at the port of Sakoshi on the inland sea of southern Japan near Himeji.;
5) In France the Pyrenees became a hold out for Sabbath keeping Christian people, the Vaudois, with connections to the early church. Carcassone (about 2.2° east & 43.1° north), a bastille and headquarters of the papal inquisition in southern France during the 13th century was the focal point of persecution of the Waldenses and Albigenses of the city of Albi [2100]. Languedoc (Mtns. about 2° east to 4.2° east) was the region of the Sabbath keeping Albigensis south of the Loire River. But it was in Beziers (about 3.2° east & 43.1° north) where over one Million Albigenses were killed during Roman Catholic persecutions. Many of the survivors fled to Bohemia during that time. The medieval castle of Carcassone, housed the famous bastille of the Inquisition in southern France. The castle houses now the largest collection of torture implements in Europe. Today its inventory may have changed or it may be closed. The castle of Montsegur in the French Pyrenees mountains was the final refuge of the Albigenses in the 13th century. A stone marker at the foot of Montsegur commemorated the massacre of 1244 AD. Sixth century grave stones were found marking the first site of a Celtic mission school in Anagray, France. One may also see the statue of Columbanus (died 615 AD) and the remains of a Celtic mission school at Luxeuil, eastern France (about 5.8° east & 47.6° north).; Images
6) In Italy Columbanus influence was apparently centered in Bobbio where he had a school and where his tomb is located.;
7) In Switzerland, it was St. Gallus (about 9.4° east & 47.3° north), a Celtic missionary and companion of Columbanus, who furthered the cause. After him is named the city of St. Gallen with its ancient church. The school of St. Gallen was later forcefully taken over by Benedictine monks. The 17th century library at St. Gallen contains many old Celtic manuscripts, including the 8th century New Testament manuscripts from the Itala translation, which is that of the Vaudois/ Waldenses, of the Bible.; Another Celtic, Sabbath keeping church was located high in the Alps of southern Switzerland, in Disentis (about 8.8° east & 46.6° north). St. Ursanne was once the site of a Celtic monastic community established in the 6th century. In the cloister museum of St. Ursanne (deutsch: Lausanne) is/ was a Celtic sarcophagus and relics of the period.;
8) In Italy the persecuted church had its headquarters in Milan. A relief and the tomb of Ambrose in the Basilica of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who kept the seventh-day Sabbath, but when in Rome worshipped on Sunday with the popes bishops, can be seen. This gave rise to the proverb, "When in Rome, do as the Romans." [Heylyn, The History of the Sabbath, 1612.]
9) Among the Christian Lombards and Goths of central and northern Europe were many who sanctified Saturday as the Sabbath. "Traces of Sabbath keepers are found in the times of Gregory I, Gregory VII, and in the 12th Century in Lombardy ." [Strong's Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 660.]
10) The valleys of the Waldenses were hidden in the Alps. Among them was the Waldensian College of the Barbs (pastors) in the mountain valley of Angrogna, above the plains of the Piedmont in northern Italy. One known persecution occured in 1400. A Waldensian tower and church can be seen at Bobbio, La Torre Pellice (about 7.1° east & 46° north), Porte D'Italia (a cave) in the side of Mt. Costelluzzo above La Torre where hundreds of them were put to death in April of 1655 by soldiers of the Marquis de Pianeza under the direction of the "council of the propagation of the faith and extirpation of heretics", established in Turin.
The Inquisition was revived under the name "The Council for the Propagation of the Faith" established by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, and rapidly spread through Italy and France. [J.A. Wylie, History of the Waldenses, p. 132.] Following a campaign against them in 1685 under the Duke of Savoy (Vittorio Amedeo II, 1666-1732), the Waldenses were exiled to Geneva in 1686 and all their literature was searched for (everywhere) and destroyed.[Bompian, A Short History of The Italian Waldense, p. 56. Blair, History of the Waldenses, Vol. I, p. 220.; He states: "Waldensian church architecture is simple, lacking a strong pagan influence. Among the documents we have by the same people is an explanation of the Ten Commandments, dated by Boyer-1120. Observance of the Sabbath by ceasing from worldly labors is enjoined."] Unhappy in exile, Henri Arnaud and 800 men launched a successful attempt to return to their valleys. Unfortunately, the knowledge and doctrines of the primitive church and their Sabbath were lost in the years of persecution and subsequent union with the French Calvinists. The Protestant Reformation was built upon the foundations laid by the Celtic and Latin Bible-believing Christians. Today their sacrifice and history is almost forgotten.[H.C. Les, History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Vol. 1. "The inquisitors ... declare that the sign of a Vaudois (Waldense) deemed worthy of death, was that he followed Christ and sought to obey the commandments of God." When the papacy reached the height of its power under Innocent III, the Inquisition was established about 1200 AD. This institution spread throughout Europe, resulting in the death of over 60 million Christians during its bloody history [Includes wars waged because of the RCC.]. Painted scenes of the Waldensian persecution can/ could be seen in the museum at La Torre Pellice, Italy. The Spanish/ Portugese inquisition destroyed early church like Christianity in Europe, Asia, India and Ethiopia. In South and Central America they destroyed many native cultures.] Today, the order of Benedictine monks, has the avowed goal of destroying all Sabbath keeping schools in Europe. According to the correct assessment of a converted priest, Benedict is the bitter enemy of Sabbath keeping Christians today. All Christians must get ready to meet the Lord for we are in the very last days of the human history of sin and before that day a fiery trial, to separate the chaff from the wheat, is soon upon us.
[2100] The Albigensis The Albigensis of the 11th century and onward were from around the French city of Albi and were also known as Cathari, the "Pure", they opposed the established church. Their persuason was after the crusades a form of Manichaeism and some of them believed in some form of abominable dualism, that God had two sons - Satan and Christ. Compared with Roman Catholic doctrines theirs was overall less corrupt however. Their main contribution to Christianity was that their scriptures were not of the line of the Latin Vulgate but closer to the received text.
The Waldenses Unlike the Cathari, the Waldenses originated in no conscious hostility to the established church. Their roots reach way back to the Apostolic church. Their blessed contribution to Christianity is to have preserved the `received text' to stem the tide of falsified western versions produced by Pagan leaning authors during the formative years of the Catholic Church. The first of the two streams of the Bible which carried the Received Text in Hebrew and Greek, began with the apostolic churches, and reappearing at intervals down the Christian Era among enlightened believers, was protected by the wisdom and scholarship of the pure church in her different phases; by such as the church at Pella in Palestine where Christians fled, when in 70 A. D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem; by the Syrian Church of Antioch which produced eminent scholarship; by the Italic Church in northern Italy; and also at the same time by the Gallic Church in southern France and by the Celtic Church in Great Britain; by the pre-Waldensian, the Waldensian, and the churches of the Reformation.
For much of their historic time they were Sabbath keepers; they rightly rejected the Catholic mass, purgatory and prayers for the dead. The Latin Vulgate, the Sinaiticus, the Vaticanus, the Hexapla, Jerome, Eusebius, and Origen, are terms for ideas that are inseparable as the instruments of watered down falsified Bibles in the minds of those who know. The type of Bible selected by Constantine has held the dominating influence at all times in the history of the Catholic Church. This Bible was different from the Bible of the Waldenses, and, as a result of this difference, the Waldenses were the object of hatred and cruel persecution. The Waldensian Bible came from the Syrian and Persian copies and therefore did not contain the errors introduced by the Vulgate and its inline or contemporary versions. The Catholic Church blamed violent acts committed against some individuals on the Albigensis and Waldensians, and used them as a pretext to persecute and destroy them.
Modern authors follow largely more corrupt sources of the histories of these peoples whose records and lives have been destroyed by heinous persecutions because they did not conform to the state church. One must read the accounts of these people by most authors with a large grain of salt.
[2200] If you so desire and have access to a satelite dish you can tune in to 3ABN to hear the three angel's messages.
Bible Topics