A. Jan Marcussen

When I read this book, I knew what my review would be just not how to begin it and finally decided honesty is the best policy.

I am a Seventh-day Adventist and the topic of this book focuses on what Seventh-day Adventists believe is a central part of last day events before Christ’s Second Coming. Unfortunately, the author has produced such a horribly written book as to induce cringe worthy level of embarrassment to any mainstream Adventist. And to learn that it was left at people’s doors or mailed to them anonymously makes its impact even worse because while I believe the author was sincere in wanting to do good; I will not vouch for the ideas presented because fairly early in the book I began skimming through and will never read it for a second time.

This book is not in any way affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist church and the publication company is named as to be confused with a genuine evangelistic ministry.… (meer)

A book suggesting a hyper-Sabbatarian interpretation of Revelation.

The author declares that it is evident that the first beast in Revelation is Rome, and by extension, the Roman Catholic church. The second beast is the United States of America, which has a great Constitution and Declaration of Independence, but will soon bring forth the apocalypse.

The author then goes through a particularly slanted view of history in which the Roman Catholic church unilaterally changes the day of assembling from Saturday to Sunday and begins killing everyone who disagrees with them. OK, so the church did kill those who disagreed with them, but there's second century testimony to Christians assembling on the first day.

Regardless, the author then returns to Revelation, declaring that the mark of God is the Sabbath observance, and therefore the mark of the beast is to worship on Sunday. He is convinced that forces exist in America to establish a national Sunday Law which will lead to the persecution of anyone who does not worship on Sunday.

The author maintains Evangelical positions on faith only and salvation but is hyper-Sabbatarian in outlook. He attempts in an appendix to dismiss the many examples of Christians assembling on the first day of the week and insists that Paul's custom of evangelizing in the synagogues among the Jews is evidence of Christians observing the Sabbath. No mention or comment is made regarding Hebrews 4:1-11 and its relevance to understanding the Sabbath. The author also promotes the suggestion that the Law of Moses can be divided into "moral" and "ceremonial" aspects, despite the fact that (a) the Bible never makes such a delineation of the Law, (b) the Law explicitly says that it's all or nothing (e.g. Deuteronomy 4:2), and (c) Hebrews 7:12-14 is hard to reconcile with such a view. He also suggests that the "sabbath" of Colossians 2:16 is really the seventh year Sabbath for the fields despite having no evidence whatsoever to show how Paul's declaration should be so limited, especially since Paul mentions the new moon, which is normally discussed in parallel with the seventh-day Sabbath observance (e.g. Isaiah 1:13).

It's a sad little book, really; I'm sure the author will chalk this up to further "persecution," but the suggestion that forces will combine to re-establish Sunday as a day of rest, especially in our secular world which loves the money made through people working on Sunday (and Saturday, for that matter), is quite hard to envision. I have no doubt that some people would like to see legislation mandating Sunday as a day of rest; it would also not surprise me if there were people who would like to legislate Saturday as the day of rest and be as guilty of persecution and intolerance as the author claims those who insist on Sunday would be.

I have to agree with the author in that Sunday was never declared a day of rest, either; the Hebrew author makes it clear that the Sabbath rest for the Christian is in heaven and the resurrection (Hebrews 4:1-11). Ironically, his insistence on maintaining Old Testament legislation can be seen as a holdover from doctrinal developments promoted by none other than the Roman Catholic church so demonized by the author in the book. How often people condemn in others similar things of which they have swallowed themselves!

In the end, the book is a great reminder of why it is so important to read the Bible in its context, to allow one's understanding of the New Testament to inform one's view of Revelation, not vice versa, and as a warning against making one's own pet issue *the* major issue in Scripture...because it's probably not the major issue of Scripture, and it just makes you look foolish.… (meer)