Published May 2003

It is a remarkable fact that Samuele Bacchiocchi was permitted to teach at Andrews University for over twenty years, when that which he taught contained so much error.

We said nothing until he openly, and quite brazenly, declared the Spirit of Prophecy and our prophetic teachings to be in error. Since his retirement, the General Conference has permitted him to spend much of his time holding seminars in our churches throughout the world. Therefore, his errors need to be exposed, in the hope that the permission will be revoked.

In earlier studies, we found that, by his own words, Bacchiocchi does not believe that the book, Great Controversy, is accurate. He declares that the 1260 years did not begin in A.D. 538 nor end in 1798. He says that the time span is actually a symbolic number. At the same time, he maintains that time period applies to Islamic ascendancy more than to the time of papal power. For some reason, he likes to protect Rome. (Endtime Issues #86-92; cf. WM-1120-1129)

Now Bacchiocchi's latest Endtime Issues study has been released (#98). In it he declares that warfare and killing is justified and that, down through history, it has been the non-Christians who oppose warfare. He says Christians should like warfare, and that true Christians do.

In order to explain away Christ's statement to Peter not to use the sword, Bacchiocchi claims that the comment only applied to Christ’s arrest. Normally, he says, we should have weapons for self-defense, and we should use them (#98, p. 11).

However, Christ spoke about not living by the sword, and that would apply to Peter's lifetime, not merely to an incident in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:52). Bacchiocchi says the "radical" statement of Christ in that verse was merely "hyperbole" and not a command we should obey (#98, p. 12). Bacchiocchi claims that another evidence that the statement cannot be true is the fact that Paul verbally defended himself in court!

"He resisted his accusers by going out of his way to defend himself before the Jewish and Roman authorities" (#98, p. 12). This verbal defense, Bacchiocchi maintains, provides clear proof that Christians should arm themselves with weapons and be ready to use them at a moment's notice.

Bacchiocchi is teaching Jesuit concepts; for Rome has always upheld its right to persecute, punish, and even slay those who do not agree with its dogmas.

But we would expect this, since Bacchiocchi received a five-year education in the oldest Jesuit spy-training institution in the world, the Gregorian University in Rome, located in the shadow of the Vatican.

On #98, p. 15, he says it is "charity" to kill those who threaten us personally.

Here are several statements from the Roman Catholic Church which mirror the sentiments of Samuele Bacchiocchi (quoted from our 1884 Great Controversy, p. 167; also in our 1888 edition, pp. 256-257):

"That the church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of history .. It is impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims, and it quite certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize their sufferings." W.E.H. Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Vol. 2, p. 32, 1910 ed. (An excellent, though lengthy, article, describing in detail the right of the Roman Catholic Church to do this, will be found in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 12, p. 266.1

"For professing faith contrary to the teachings of the Church of Rome, history records the martyrdom of more than one hundred million people. A million Waldenses and Albigenses [Swiss and French Protestants] perished during a crusade proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1208. Beginning from the establishment of the Jesuits in 1540 to 1580, nine hundred thousand were destroyed. One hundred and fifty thousand perished by the Inquisition in thirty years. Within the space of thirty-eight years after the edict of Charles V against the Protestants, fifty thousand persons were hanged, beheaded, or burned alive for heresy. Eighteen thousand more perished during the administration of the Duke of Alva in five and a half years." Brief Bible Readings, p. 16.

"The Catholic has some reason on his side when he calls for the temporal punishment of heretics, for he claims the true title of Christian for himself exclusively, and professes to be taught by the never-failing presence of the Spirit of God .. It is not more 'morally' wrong to put a man to death for heresy than for murder. . [and] in many cases persecution for religious opinions is not only permissible, but highly advisable and necessary." "The Lawfulness of Persecution," in The Rambler 4, June 1849, pp. 119, 126 (English R. C. journal published from 1848 to 18621.

"'The church,' said [Martin] Luther.. 'has never burned a heretic' . . I reply that this argument proves not the opinion, but the ignorance or impudence of Luther. Since almost infinite numbers were either burned or otherwise killed, Luther either did not know it, and was therefore ignorant, or if he was not ignorant, he is convicted of impudence and falsehood; for that heretics were often burned by the church may be proved if we adduce a few examples." Robert Bellarmine, Disputations de Controversis Christianae Fidei ("Disputations Concerning Controversies of the Christian Faith"), Tom. II, cap. XXII [Bellarmine, later canonized, was a leading Jesuit leader and writer.]

"The orthodox doctrine, as formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas and confirmed and elaborated by later Dominicans and by Jesuits like the Blessed Robert Bellarmine Suarez, runs as follows: