‘Why Seventh Day Adventist preaches against meat-eating’

This year, Seventh Day Adventist Church clocked 100 years in Nigeria. How has the journey been?It was in 1914 that David Babcock arrived in Nigeria with his wife from the United States. He was posted to be in charge of West Africa by the General Conference. He first settled at Erunmu in the Old Oyo […]

This year, Seventh Day Adventist Church clocked 100 years in Nigeria. How has the journey been?
It was in 1914 that David Babcock arrived in Nigeria with his wife from the United States. He was posted to be in charge of West Africa by the General Conference. He first settled at Erunmu in the Old Oyo Empire. He came as a missionary to establish the church in Nigeria, though he spent only three years here.
Within three years he was able to establish the presence of Seventh Day Adventist in Nigeria. He was going on a furlough in 1917, during the First World War, and the ship he was travelling in was bombed.  He barely escaped with his life with all his family members. They lost all their belongings. He was ill and later died – he couldn’t come back. But two years later, the Conference sent another pastor – William McClements.
He had to build on what Babcock started. McClements spent 26 years in Nigeria. He was able to firmly supervise the establishment of the Church here in Nigeria. Jesse Clifford also started the work in Eastern Nigeria, and he was based in Aba. The church also spread to the North.
It was during the tenure of William McClements that our hospital in Ile Ife was started in 1940. That hospital is one of the oldest in Nigeria. Go there and you will see how good it is. Also, a School of Nursing was also established there in 1944. The Seventh Day Adventist is actually a Protestant Church, a Christian organisation and an Orthodox Church. We have a worldwide coverage. The church is found in all parts of the world.
What is peculiar about Seventh Day Adventist?
What is peculiar about the Seventh Day Adventist Church is that we accept Saturday as the day of worship, as is found in the Bible. That is not debateable. Saturday is the seventh day of the week. It is not subject to debate, just as we say the sun is always in the sky. We believe that the Sabbath is still trending, and that when Jesus came to this world, he spent 33 years and worshiped on the Sabbath Day. Christ did not worship on Sunday. People ask this question: how come people worship on Sunday? That is where History plays a major role. What happened was that Emperor Constantine who came in 1st Century AD actually asked Christians to pray for him. He went to the battle and defeated his enemies.  So he joined Christians. He was the first Roman Emperor to be a Christian and he wanted to make the entire Roman Empire Christian, but it was difficult for him because he had very powerful senators who opposed him. So, his friend, a Reverend Father, advised to him to declare Sunday as the day of worship and rest, because the pagans also worshiped the sun-god on Sunday. So Christians, too, arguing that Jesus resurrected on Sunday, should make that day a day of rest. He agreed, and on 7th of March 321 AD, he passed what we call the edict on Milan. So, Sunday was made a day of rest.  Emperor didn’t ask Christians not to worship on Saturday. That is why, even today, we have Saturday and Sunday as weekends.  However, the Church, under a Roman Catholic priest in the Council of Laodecia in 364 AD, i.e. 43 years after the edict, that declared Sunday as the day of worship. What happened was that Christians were having problems with the Roman government, because the Jews were very violent that Rome outlawed them. The dilemma was that it was difficult to differentiate between Jews and Christians because both worshipped on Saturday. Christians used the Old Testament, just as the Jews did. So Roman soldiers arrested Christians and Jews alike. So Church fathers met in the Council of Laodecia, saying they needed to distinguish between Jews and Christians and save themselves of the embarrassment, by asking Christians to worship on Sundays.
For those who know this history and still worship on Sunday, the conviction is that they don’t worship the sun-god, but the Almighty God. This God owns every day of the week, none is owned by any other god. So it doesn’t matter if God is worshipped on Saturday, Sunday or any other day?
The issue is that the Bible is the word of God. In the Ten Commandments, the Bible said God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. God has kept the Sabbath sacred and consecrated, so that as you do that you will be blessed. That is the voice of God, and it is eternal.
As a pastor of Seventh Day Adventist, do you work on Sundays or you rest?
Yes, I work on Sunday. It sounds strange to you…(laughter). It is because of history that you have the two days tied up – Saturday and Sunday. Many Christians are shocked when I tell them I work on Sundays.
In your book on Endtime Lectures you advocated for vegetarian lifestyle. Is that spiritual, because in Exodus the Bible talks about meat-eating even after sacrifices to God? How did you arrive at your vegetarian principle? It sounds like what we read in books on Oriental religion?
In the book of Genesis, after God created man, he gave him food of vegetables. When God created the world, he saw that everything was good. Adam ate food of vegetables. He wasn’t killing animals to food. Before the fall of Adam, he never tasted meat. It was sin that brought violence into the world. In the Seventh Day Adventist, we’ve been doing it and saying it in the last 200 years. Now medical scientists have vindicated us. They are saying those who want to live in good health should go vegetarian. Meat-eating shortens one’s lifespan. Adam lived for 930 years, Methusela lived for 969 years. Human lifespan before Noah flood was long.
I think we don’t use the same calendar. Their own timing system may be different from ours, that’s why people lived for hundreds of years?
The difference is that they had 360 days making one year, ours is 365 days. We were thinking that those who lived in that era were not as intelligent as we are now, but archaeologists have proved us wrong. They had a better civilization than ours. Look at the Pyramid of Egypt. If you see the kinds of tiles used in building houses in that generation before the flood, you would be appalled! They used gold to construct their seats! The week days we had started from creation, the days of Adam i.e. seven days makes one week. It has been there. Those people lived long. Peter said the world that then was is not the world we’re living in now. It is a fact. The world has lost its youthfulness. After the flood God asked Noah to kill animals and eat because there was no food. As man killed animals for food, his lifespan dropped because the environment because adulterated