Through ages of darkness and apostasy there were Waldenses who denied the supremacy of Rome, who reject image worship as idolatry, and who kept the true Sabbath. Under the fiercest tempests of opposition they maintained their faith
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The Last Great Deception in the Remnant Movement Part 1
Now let’s consider the other individual who has been deprecating the veracity and relevance of the ministry of Ellen White amongst us: Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi.
In his widely read online newsletter the late Dr. Bacchiocchi had been very “vocal” in casting doubt upon the accuracy of the historical accounts of The Great Controversy. Read what he wrote carefully:
“The sample of [historical] statements we have just examined, suffice to show us that there are still inaccuracies in The Great Controversy that ought to be corrected”
Samuel Bacchiocchi’s E-mail Newsletter, August 2002).
Below are two quotes from The Great Controversy that the Bacchiocchi was having problem with:
“Through ages of darkness and apostasy there were Waldenses who denied the supremacy of Rome, who reject image worship as idolatry, and who kept the true Sabbath. Under the fiercest tempests of opposition they maintained their faith”
The Great Controversy, p.65
“...some of whom (Waldenses) were observers of the Sabbath”
Ibid., p.577.
What then is Bacchiocchi’s problem? In the quote below, the Jesuit-trained Bacchiocchi contended:
“I spent several hours searching for an answer in the scholarly volumes Storia dei Valdesi-( _History of the Waldenses ), authored by Almedeo Molnar and Augusto Hugon. These two books were published in 1974 and by the Claudiana, which is the official Waldensian publishing house. They are regarded as the most comprehensive history of the Waldenses. To my regret I found no allusion to Sabbath keeping among the Waldenses’' (Bacchiocchi, op. cit. parenthesis in the original).
Before I try to counter Bacchiochi’s insinuations, misgivings and false assertions, let me inform you that the Jesuits have decided to re-write history books that contain things that are showing the real history of the Church of Rome and its cruel dealings with “heretics” in the past. They also engaged in destroying the writings and history of any group that have stood against the papacy in time past. The Waldenses are one of such groups. In fact, there is ample historical evidence that Catholic writers have tried to obscure the true origin of the Waldenses. Instead of linking them to their true apostolic roots, they have promulgated the historical lie that this people arose with Peter Waldo in the 12th century. But more ancient historian will tell you that the Waldenses had their roots way back in the second and third centuries. Why would the catholic writers do that? Simple: Because if we know the truth about the apostolic connections of the Waldenses, the Catholic doctrine of Apostolic Succession will be called to question—one of the, if not the strongest, pillars of Catholicism. And, of course, they must have gotten Sabbath keeping from the early church. The papacy will do anything to erase anything that undermines their authority. Remember that Protestantism, like nothing else, undermines papal authority.
Now let’s refute Bacchiocchi’s false charge that Ellen White’s The Great Controversy contains historical inaccuracies. First let’s quote Dr. Johann Joseph Ignaz von Dolinger, Th.D. (1799-1890). He was a German Roman Catholic Professor of Church History and Ecclesiastical law at the University of Munich, who was excommunicated when he rejected the Dogma of Papal Infallibility:
“…not a few [Waldenses of the fifteenth century] celebrated the Sabbath with the Jews (Beitrage zur Sekengeschichte des Mittelalters [ Reports on the History of the Sects in the Middle Ages], Munich, 1890, second part, p. 661).
For the sake of space let’s just quote two more sources that are older than the source Bacchiocchi relied his opinion on that support the fact that many Waldenses kept the Sabbath during the Dark Ages:
“One of their [the Waldenses’] opinions, that the law of Moses is to be kept according to the letter, and that the keeping of the Sabbath… ought to take place”
Peter Allix, The Ancient Churches of Piedmot, Richard Chiswell, London, 1690).
“observance of the Sabbath… is enjoined [by the Waldenses]
Adam Blair, History of the Waldenses, Adam and Charles Black, Edinburg, 1833, Vol., p. 220).
It is no surprising that Bacchiocchi also challenged Ellen White’s statement the long history and early origin of the Waldenses. Ellen White wrote in The Great Controversy, pages 65 and 66:
“Behind the lofty bulwarks of the mountains… the Waldenses found a hiding place. Here the light of truth was kept burning amid the darkness of the Middle Ages. Here for a thousand years, witnesses for the truth maintained the ancient faith.”
But Dr. Bacchiocchi asserted, while referring to the above Ellen White quote from The Great Controversy :
“the Waldenses did not exist for ‘a thousand years’” (Bacchiocchi, op. cit).
Bacchiocchi based his claim on one source: “Dictionary of Church History.”
Ellen Davidson was a specialist in historical research on the life of common people in the Middle Ages she wrote:
“He [Peter Waldo] and his followers formed a centre around which gathered the Arnoldisti and Humiliati of Italy, the Petrubrusians of France, and perhaps the Apostolic of the Rhine Valley…. Some claimed Claude, Bishop of Turin (822-839) as their founder; others held that they were the successors of a small group of good men who had protested against the degradation of the church in the days of Sylvester I [Pope, 314-335] and [emperor] Constantine [280-337]…. It is certain, at all events that the Waldenses of Piedmont were fusion of various sects”
Ellen Scott Davidson, Forerunners of St. Francis and Other Studies, Boston: Houghtorn Mitten Company, 1927, pp. 237,252, 253).
Since Bacchiocchi has challenged us to search the books of history, let’s give two more sources out of the plethora that exist:
“Their [The Waldenses] beginning we have fixed according to the common reckoning of ancient writers, A.D. 1170; but it appears that they existed long before”
Theileman J. Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror, p. 290).
The last quote here is by Albert Henry Newman, D.D., LL.D. (1852-1933). Concerning the Waldenses he wrote that they ‘'took refuge in the Alpine valleys and there kept alive the evangelical teaching that was to reappear with vigour in the twelfth century” A Manual of Church History, Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1913, vol. 1, p. 376).
Our very faithful scholar, Benjamin George Wilkinson, has alerted us that scholars agree that the records of the Waldenses "were systematically destroyed"
Benjamin George Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant: The Church in the Wilderness (California: Pacific Publishing Association, 1944), 247. (By the way, Wilkinson is the first PhD in the SDA denomination. His works are a result of extensive research he carried in the great libraries of Europe).
With this systematical destruction of "heretical" writings in mind, still carried on by Jesuits scholars who are revisionists today, let's consider one more strong evidence of the antiquity of the Waldenses.
Wilkinson has shown that even the writings of their enemies show that the origin of the Waldenses reached back to the fourth century. He quoted Reinerius Saccho who was an officer of the inquisition (circa 1250) supporting the claim that the Waldenses had a history that reached back to early Christianity. Wilkinson wrote that Saccho was a former pastor among the Waldenses who had apostatized. Saccho, while giving three reasons why the Waldenses were dangerous to the papacy, writes:
"First, because it is of longer duration; for some say that it hath endured from the time of Pope Sylvester; others from the time of the apostles. Second, because it is more general. For there is scarcely any country wherein this sect is not. Third, because when all other sects beget horror in the hearers by the outrageousness of their blaphemies [sic] against God, this of the Leonists [another name of the Waldenses] hath a great appearance of piety: because they live justly before men and believe all things concerning God and all the articles which are contained in the creed, only they blaspheme the church of Rome and the clergy"
Wilkinson, 218, quoting Reinerius Saccho, Contra Waldenses, found in Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, page 264.
In the light of more ancient and reliable sources, Ellen White's clasic, The Great Controversy, stands vindicated. Let's trust this gift of prophecy God has given us. May God help you not to fall for these cavillings made by some senior ministers and members of academia("old prophet" syndrome[1Kings 13:11-34]). Our unholy silence will endanger the flock the Holy Ghost has entrusted to our hands for which we must give account.
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