Vance Ferrell

  The following account is true and factual as told to me by Dr. B.G. Wilkinson, Ph.D., on April 21,1956, in Takoma Park, Maryland.

(For those who never heard of Dr. Wilkinson, he was President of old Washington Missionary College, (WMC) now Columbia Union College, from 1936 to 1946. He was a respected and loved Leader in the SDA Church for over 60 years, having built-up the cause of present truth in both Europe and America. He passed to his rest in 1967 at the age of 96.

In Dr. Wilkinson's second book, "Truth Triumphant", he writes, "These men (the Jesuits) were skilled in sublimated treachery and trained for years In the art of rapid debate in which they could trap an opponent by the cunning use of ambiguous terms; they proposed to dominate all schools and colleges. This they sought to accomplish in non-Catholic schools by occupying the pulpits and professorial chairs, not as Jesuits, but as professed adherents of the Protestant Churches to which these schools belonged. It was their studied aim to gain entrance, under the guise of friendship, into services of the State and to climb up as advisers to the highest officers, where they could so influence affairs as to bring them into the orbit of Rome." Chap. The Great Struggle in India, Page 316. Printed in 1944)

Dr. Wilkinson told me in 1936 he uncovered a Jesuit Bible instructor teaching Bible classes in WMC. His account goes as below: Quote.

"I had been carrying a heavy load of work for the past few years, as pastor of Old Capitol Memorial Church, President of the College, and teaching Bible Classes to young ministerial students at the College, so when it was proposed to relieve me of some of the class work as Bi­ble teacher and hire a bright young man with an advanced degree in theology to take over my Bible doctrines class, I consented. This young instructor had a very pleasing personality and a magnetic attraction about him.

I had nothing to do with his being hired. He began teaching and for about a year all seemed to go well. Then some of my former students came to me (Wilkin­son had an "open door" policy with all students) and seemed confused with questions about our doctrines, and they seemed uncertain concerning exactly what we taught and believed. They confided in me that this new Bible instructor did not teach the same way I had taught them, he would leave matters up-in-the-air, express doubts about portions of the Bible and not answer all questions that were put to him in class.

All this aroused my suspicions for I knew all was not well and our students were not getting a firm foundation In Truth. I felt badly about the matter, since I had consented to give up my classes, and now this was happening. I determined to look into the matter. I watched the young instructor's mail. Every two weeks or so a long let­ter came for him in his mail "slot". All the teachers and faculty had their mail placed in open "pigeon" holes and all one had to do was look in and see the letter. I noticed the return ad­dress on this one letter was a Jesuit institution in Washington D.C. I knew all these places and their locations.

 I took this letter and steamed it open. I felt that if the Bible instructor was a Jesuit in disguise what I was doing was justified. In the letter were his orders for the coming month on what he was to present to his class and a report sheet on his activities to date. The next day I called him in to my office, gave him his letter, and said to him, 'I know who you real­ly are, and why you are here.' He picked up his mail, left the campus of WMC the same hour, never bothering to pick up his back pay, and I never saw him again." (Ralph Moss)

PAGE 8 of the “ARKANSAS CATHOLIC” July 29, 1990

Adventists spread anti-Catholic tracts

Indianapolis. (CNS) . A Seventh -day Adventist factlon from Tennessee mailed an unknown number of anti-­Catholic booklets the week of July 8 to homes In Indianapolis, where 2,000 gathered for the denomination's 55th world convention July 6-14.

Shirley Burton, a spokesperson for the denomination, told the Indianapolis Star Daily newspaper, the tract was "trash”. The pamphlet. "United Sates in Prophecy” calls Catholicism a pagan religion and refers to the pope as a beast.

Some Adventists attending the con­vention demanded a retraction of Burton's remark and claimed that anti-­Catholicism is a crucial part of tradi­tional Adventist doctrine.

John F. Fink, editor of the Criterion. Indianapolis archdiocesan newspaper, “The Seventh-day Adventists have a history of anti-Catholicism, like many other Protestant religions in the U.s. during the 18th and 19th centuries..

The pamphlet calls Ca­tholicism a pagan religion 

and refers to the pope as a beast.

However, the main body of the Church has moved away from an anti-Catholic position. The new position of co-operation with the Catholic Church was exemplified by the invitation from the Seventh-day Adventists to the Vatican to lend an official observer to the conference.”

Rev. Thomas J. Murphy, director of the Indianapolis archdiocesan office of ecumenism, acted as the Vatican ob­server. He addressed the conference July 10.

The tract, distributed by the Adventist Lay workers Affiliate of Tennessee and printed by Coming Events of Port­land, TN, also characterized those who celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday as disobedient to God's Holy Law.

Seventh-day Adventists consider binding the Hebrew Testament prescriptions of Saturday as the Sabbath, as well as Hebrew Testament law on tithing and diet.

Neither the tract's distributor nor its publisher was represented at the con­ference. Herbert Ford, news director for the denomination, told the Indianapolis Star that Adventists who want to cling to the church’s historic, anti-Catholic beliefs represent only about 1,000 of the church's 750,000 North American members.

Other Adventists contend those numbers are larger than the church is willing to admit, claiming that hundreds came to Indianapolis to meet in hotel rooms across the city.

Fred Allaback, an independent evangelist from Mount Vernon, OH, said that "'Prophecy in the United States” is a condensation of “The Great Controversy”, written by 19^th century Seventh-day Adventist founder and prophet, Ellen G. White.

White’s book, Allaback said, warned against the evils of the papacy and feared that Catholicism would become the official religion of the U.S.

Ford said that “there is a little fear” among Adventists who live in nations where Catholicism is strong.

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