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:
"Heresy [as defined by Rome] is the willful holding by a baptized
person of doctrines, which contradict an article of faith defined by the
Catholic Church." P Hinschius, "Heresy," The New Schaff
Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 5, pp. 234-235 (1909).