A Personal Testimony By Ephrem Dawit

Background

My name is Ephrem Dawit. I was born in the city called Wolaita Soddo, Ethiopia in 1981. I was raised with my brother and three sisters. My father was working as a civil servant and my mother was a teacher in the school where I have finished my elementary school.

After I had gone through both elementary and high schools in my home town and in the capital city, I was able to pursue a higher learning education at Unity University (UU). I have received a diploma in Accounting in 2003 and BA degree in Marketing Management in 2007. After working on different positions, including Director of the Department of Research and Publication of the Unity University, I came to Budapest, Hungary in 2009 to study at the Central European University (CEU). I was graduated from CEU with the MA in Political Science in 2011.

Many people have raised questions about the changes that I have made in the fields of studies over years. However, I believe that people can be professionals in multiple disciplines as far as they do it with purpose. Before leaving Ethiopia and enrolling at CEU I have envisioned myself as an active participant in the politics of the country. I have shared this to different people. I was convinced that in order to pursue my vision I should study Political Science and serve my country. The passion and enthusiasm that I had for the overall development of the Ethiopia did not change over time, rather it was corrected over and over as to what I can be best serving not only my fellow Ethiopian but also my fellow human beings.

However, it was only through time that I was able to figure out the true reason for my existence. So many things seemed to be attractive and effective before starting the real deal that I am up to this world. God gave me an ample time that I should test everything and holdfast on the thing which is good.

Most people were encouraging me that I should continue my career in politics. The more I know how politics works in the world, the more I become perplexed as to how I will go about it. I was convinced that many of the principles of Christianity, which I value most, will be at stake and compromised. I began to feel this struggle especially while I was studying at CEU. The problem is not only with Political Science but with every other disciplines where students become indifferent about their faith in God.

Modern secular universities, including CEU, are built upon the idea of free society where students can become empowered with the cutting-edge knowledge to meet the challenges of the twenty first century. This by itself sounds good but when the veil was removed the driving motive is different. To put it another way, any explanations which don’t meet scientific standards and backed by evidences are just regarded as pointless, including Christianity.

Hence, atheism, lived and propagated by atheist professors becomes the most acceptable way of living for students. For the faithful Christian there is a temptation to feel wrong about being loyal to God while everyone believes and does something else. Nevertheless, it is not an evidence for something to be true because the majority believes in it. In almost all cases it is the other way round.

As a result most students develop new trends of viewing and explaining things step by step, here a little and there a little. Through time students forgo what they hold when they came to the university and embrace the so called the dominant thinking of the global age. Small compromises yields to the bigger one and many students graduates not only as MA or PhD holders but as atheists.

Just one last though about my experience as an international student. Beloved, I am sharing you what I have passed through because I believe this is important to you.

Busyness in universities is the grand strategy that students are led to develop a destructive behavior in their spiritual life. Courses are arranged and given in the way that it was almost impossible to think and do other things. I remember that I almost couldn’t read the Bible and pray for the first four months, not to mention that I just couldn’t have my hair cut. By the time that I have finished the first semester my spiritual life was crippled than ever before. Thanks to the Lord I was revived later but paid a great price. I have realized that I put my eternal life at risk.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not being unthankful for enrolling at one of the best universities in Europe. If you really want to know, I am really thankful and CEU owe me so much. I wouldn’t be able to learn all these things and become what I become now (which I will explain in greater depth), hadn’t CEU offered me the opportunity to come to Budapest. I am not intending to offend anyone rather speaking my mind.

In this testimony I will do my best to explain how great God has been in my life, who ultimately led me to the truth! I just want to thank Him so much for He is still leading me in the perils of this world.

God’s Way of Reaching

I am someone who loves prayer, reading Bible, and sharing my faith with others. I am so much passionate to the truth that is much deeply enshrined in the Gospel of Jesus. Despite the unchangeable love of our Creator and Redeemer I had a rebellious and backsliding life for some years, which God waited me so patiently until I see the doom that I brought to my life and ask for His forgiveness. After spending some years in Ethiopia, walking in the light that God has showed me, I went to Europe to join the university that I have mentioned earlier. While I was studying God led me to serve Him in the Ethiopian Evangelical Church that was established by Ethiopians who are living around Budapest. On the second year of my study, God enabled me to open His Word every week and share with my fellow brethren and sisters in the Church. It was one of the noblest opportunities in my life, where I studied the scripture with so much interest and the treasure of heaven started to flow into my life without ceasing.

During my summer break in the year 2010, which I took in Vienna, Austria, I was mostly praying and studying God’s word. During this special time I had searched the scriptures and listened to different sermons broadcasted on Christian online ministries. It was not so long before, while I was searching for more channels on google, the name Amazing Facts (AF) popped up on the window together with other dozens of channels. I can say now that God led me to search what is in the AF website at that specific moment.

First, I watched the different presentations that Pastor Dough Batchelor (Speaker and Director of the AF) delivered on the Prophecy Code seminar. I just knew that he is just teaching and I am just studying the word of God. Everything that the Holy Spirit speaks through him was like something that I had never heard before, and it all began to touch my heart. I didn’t check which Church he is a member of rather I made sure whether it is the word of God he is sharing. Never in my life before had I come so close to the word of God and to Jesus Christ. I could not do anything anymore but kept listening o the different sermons on the website day after day.

Then the time came and he presented “what is the main thing” to me at that time. He preached the entire sermon on the Sabbath truth. When I listened about it I began to ask myself, “What is this I am hearing?” How could I neglect this truth, the Law of God? How could I be deceived and disobey the Lord for so long while all of the Ten Commandments are still binding? How could I be ignorant, fooled and the people in the Church hadn’t taught me about it? About any and all kinds of guilt that you could think of took place in my heart.

The Seventh-Day Sabbath

Nowhere in the Bile that I could be able to find the Sabbath, the fourth commandment is no more applicable or abolished by the Cross of Christ. Nowhere! The Holy Spirit convicted of my wrongdoing, my sin. Later I have confessed and repented. I accepted the Sabbath as it is.

At that time I didn’t understand so much about the Sabbath; like the Biblical and historical truth about the anti-Christ power behind the attempt to the change the Lord’s Day. But it was enough for me to start keeping the Sabbath, I just knew that it is God’s Law and He changes not! Moreover, it became one of the plainest truths that I could ever understand in the Bible so far.

I just started keeping the Sabbath as soon as I knew about it – without knowing about how to do it completely. I began to keep it at Friday, midnight, 12 a.m. and finish it the next day, Saturday at midnight. I simply didn’t know how to keep it, nor exactly when I should start the Day, but I just felt I had to start keeping the Seventh Day of the week, anyway. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” Exodus 20:8. God said here at the beginning Remember. Remember? Why God didn’t say anything but ‘Remember’? Is it possible for man today to forget not only the Sabbath but any of the words that God has spoken? So do we need to be reminded about everything He said?

Well friends I hope you also already answered my question by saying ‘yes.’ And this is what happened in my life, I should be reminded. How long do people should wait to start keeping His Commandments, His Word? Should it be till we find suitable time, place or condition? All who followed Christ didn’t wait till they understand Him all. All they needed is to make sure that He is the Savior and followed Him when He says “follow me!” So I knew God is Eternal so does His Word, including the fourth Commandment. It was day by day that I studied about the Sabbath, to know more about it, and to correct the practice of keeping it.

Everywhere I went and shared my testimony, people smile about the mistake that I did on the Sabbath times. The Bible teaches that the Sabbath goes from sunset to sunset. The Bible counts a 24 hours day cycle different from the world system. As a matter of fact everything is different now from what God said first. “And the evening and the morning were the first day” Genesis 1:3.

 An Obedient Heart – A Window to Heaven’s Treasure

I have realized that once a person become obedient to what God has revealed in His word heaven will be ready to pour the blessing of God. I have accepted the Sabbath, to keep it Holy, and many other Bible truths have begun to enter through the opened window. God needs an obedient heart that is ready to learn and change.

From the day the truth about the Sabbath enters my heart other truths of the Word continued to liberate me from the bondage of deceptions. First and foremost I quit thinking that Sunday is the Lord’s Day, because it is not! Again nowhere in the Old or New Testament that it says the first day of the week, Sunday substituted the Seventh Day, which is Saturday.

The Bible teaches us that on the day of resurrection, the women went to the tomb of Jesus “when the Sabbath was past… and very early in the morning the first day of the week” Mark 16:1&2. Likewise, so many people today goes to the Church on Sun day to worship after the Sabbath was over. This is not how we should do. Jesus did not practice this way nor his disciples. Jesus “as His custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read” Luke 4:16. What about Paul who accepted Christ as his personal savior so long after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension? “And Paul as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures” Acts 17:2. No change has been made after the resurrection not to mention the ascension of Christ. Some people still say “well that’s Jewish Sabbath, it is their day.” What did Jesus said? “For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day” Matthew 12:8.

Beloved, instead of trying to find verses that fits our own theology we need to find verses that justifies our practices.

So many truths have kept on flooding in to my life. As I continued to study the word of God I found out that there are a lot of unbiblical doctrines on where I stood. I want to point out only some of them and the accompanying verses.

I used to believe that Jesus’ second coming will be a secret and a secret rapture will take place among His people. Many people today believes when Jesus comes the saints will caught up and others will continue living here. But the Bible says “behold He cometh with clouds and every eye shall see Him” Revelation 1:7. “Every eye shall see Him!” Nothing in the Bible talks about this mysterious secret rapture of the saints while life continues in this world. Where does it come from? To the contrary the Bible says Jesus “shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” Acts 1:11. Concerning the wicked, all the instruments of Satan, the Bible says “the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming” 2 Thessalonians 2:8. The second coming will be a visible, literal, and above all a climactic event that everybody on earth will know about it. It is a joy for the righteous and woe to the rebellious.

Let me talk about one of the most misunderstood gifts of the Spirit. In Acts 2:11, on the day of Pentecost we read that after the Holy Spirit poured out on the apostles and they started speaking in tongues. Those people who were around them said “we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” What do we hear mostly today, when someone say that he or she got the gift of tongues? The “wonderful works of God” or something else? People at that time heard their own language! We have to test everything by the Bible and the Bible only. Some say, “well what is in Acts 2 is different from what Paul spoke in 1 Corinthians 14.” The Bible does not teach two types of the gift of tongues. The Holy Spirit is not divided nor Jesus. There is only one and we see it in Acts 2 when it manifest itself. Paul just rebukes the Corinthian for abusing the same gift of tongues. He was not teaching another type of speaking in tongues. So I also quit the unbiblical practice of speaking in tongues, or what some would like to call it “ecstatic utterance” as widely practiced in many Churches.

My beloved the list goes on and on. My understating about the state of the dead, hell fire, Jesus’ heavenly ministry in the sanctuary, the beast or the Anti-Christ was corrected. Sharpened by the sword of the Lord which is sharper than a two edged sword I pressed on. God has told me that I have to surrender my whole life to the whole truth. What I thought was that I could remain where I am, but at the same time live with the truth that God had showed me. It does not make any sense. Why God does shows a person if a person do not need a change in his life?

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev 8:14. Yes, God’s message in the Revelation was sent to His people. His people – I love this! God is also calling out His people today and we need to come out from any persuasions if God tells us that what we think and do are not founded in the teachings and practices of the Bible. Thus, I just couldn’t continue living in the world mixed with teachings of truth and error. Friends, let me ask you this – ‘what makes a poison a poison?’ Is not it is what the poison mixed with, something good? Nobody drinks the whole bunch of poison by knowing it is killing. May the Lord liberates His people from deception!

Our Choices – What a Power!

God unveils Himself through His Word so that darkness could leave and gives its place to the light. He primarily gave us the free will so that we can exercise this powerful gift to determine our eternal destiny either for life or death. There are only two ways, two roads, or two choices. Let me illustrate this. In the Bible, one of the mightiest prophet Elijah, brought a stern rebuke to the children of Israel on the mount of Carmel. The people of Israel went to so much apostasy in worshiping Baal led by the wicked Queen Jezebel, who turned her husband’s Ahab’s heart against the true worship of Jehovah. “Elijah went before the people and said, ‘‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him” 1 Kings 18:21. Wavering between two opinions, trying to serve two masters – what a misery! Every day we are faced between evil and good and challenged to choose only one. We do choose one. There is a great controversy going on right now. It is between, light and darkness, love and selfishness, life and death ultimately between Christ and Satan. It all depends on us – on our ‘choice’! Which one do we serve?

Well I have to be frank with you friends. I have wavered so much after God told me what is true and procrastinated the voice of the Holy Spirit who was yearning with me to bring me to the truth. Praise God I finally give in to the Truth not partially but wholly! May God help us to choose Him.

I am not condemning my brothers and sisters, and families in different religions, but this message is for those who are still under a teaching that teaches the Sabbath is no longer valid or we don’t have to keep it. Everyone should walk on the light that God has shown and respond to the call of the Creator! The best time to do the will of God, which is the Word of God, is when we hear it. Waiting until some convenience time, place or condition comes is Satan’s successful snare to lead the people of God into destruction.

Sharing what was Heard and Seen

I first shared my experience to a friend of mine in Vienna who had allowed me to stay in his place for the summer. The sad thing is that he rejected it, as if it doesn’t make a difference whether one worships on Saturday, the Seventh Day or Sunday (the first day). Well, I challenged him whether it is ok to kill someone or commit adultery. He just wavered and equated me as some kind of fanatic and mocked me; that I had to quit working or doing anything on the Sabbath, and do other things like other Sabbath keepers. He was joking, but didn’t know if he was right or wrong. I only knew I had to equip myself with the sword, the Word of God, so that it would be the Bible alone that convicts others and leads them to the light.

Nonetheless, my friend told me that one of the Ethiopian Orthodox priests accused him for not worshiping on the Sabbath, but on Sunday. This is another story. I know the Church tries to keep this one thing from the Ten Commandment, the Sabbath. But it is a messed up story. They have divided the greater Sabbath (Saturday) according to the Law and the lesser (Sunday) for honoring the Lord’s resurrection. But the Holy Scripture doesn’t teach two Sabbaths. What an example for wavering between two opinions. Another rebuke and also a remedy was also given by Joshua to the children of Israel! “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; … but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” Joshua 24:15. People should choose either men’s tradition or God’s truth!

My Sabbath keeping, however, continued as something which only I and God knew about it. Even my friend thought that it is temporarily that I would keep it. He didn’t know the power of the Holy Word. However, I continued keeping it. For about four months I was “so” afraid to share it with my other Christian friends and families. I was afraid that I would be equated as betrayer. People have developed all of those wrong perceptions toward the people of God who keeps the Sabbath. I will talk more about this later. I also thought I would be considered as disloyal to the Church that I belong. Yet, I shouldn’t be ashamed for what is right. We should do what pleases God not men.

Here I am Lord

Despite the facts, I was struggling very hard, in a sense, both with myself and the Holy Spirit for half a year. I should surrender for the convicting and convincing power of the Holy Spirit without the hardening of heart. God was so patient with me. Now I look back and curse those days that my heart was so stubborn to the call of the Counselor. It is always an irony that man turns his back to the calling of his own Creator! What a tragedy. I now realize this was not peculiar in my case. It is happening to many people in different denominations. This is to say that they know about the Sabbath and other truths according to the Bible but do not want to accept and live with it. I came to know that there are many people (even Priests and Pastors) that they knew about the Seventh Day, but didn’t think it was necessary to keep it or that if they keep it, they will be legalistic or fall from the grace.

A Miracle at the Evangelical Church in Budapest

One of the reasons that I found it hard to quickly leave and join the remnant Church of God, is because I was serving and teaching in the Bible Study group where some Ethiopian Evangelical Christians in Budapest come together. I was praying that God would give me the wisdom and strength so that I could share what I had found with my fellow men about the Sabbath. While I was praying before God, an amazing thing happened. Many of the members of the Bible study group came to me and asked that they couldn’t find it convenient to come on Sunday because of social issues and preferred to have the fellowship on Saturday. I thought to myself that, ‘was God answering my prayer?’ I believed that it is not only coincidence that these people began to think like this. Well, then I said to myself, it is time to share the truth about the Sabbath.

On the next Sunday I opened the word of God and taught them about what God had revealed to me so far about the Sabbath. Different reactions were came after sharing the word of God. I was able to know that some of them were amazed, others were indifferent, and a few opposed it. What happened was that most of them accepted it because they had already made up their minds to have the worship and Bible study program on Saturday, which was still good in one sense. The worship time changed from Sunday to Sabbath. Praise God.

However, I later realized that they didn’t accept it as the whole Law of God with their whole heart. They said “ok” to the change of worship time because it just fit their schedule. Even if it gave me a temporary relief from the burden that I was having, it neither granted a permanent solution for them nor for me. Anyway, I thanked God that I did what was expected from me at that moment. I was even ready to be expelled from the group as a result of my belief. But this didn’t happen right away, but took some time. So I had to keep on praying to know what God really wanted me to do.

9. The Remnant Church

The decision that I made in order to follow God’s word further led me to study about the Church that teaches all that I have learned. When I listened to the sermons at Amazing Facts I didn’t know to which Church that Pastor Dough Batchelor is a member of. This helped me a lot to study about what the Word of God says as far as the sermons that I was watching or additional materials that I was readings were concerned, without a biased negative perception.

The remnant of God’s Church is identified as “a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars… and the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” Revelation 12:1&17. And “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” Rev 19:10. Who is this Church, which not only keeps the Sabbath but also have the spirit of prophecy? Does God has her on earth? Yes, he does friends.

As far as I know the Seventh Day Adventist Church is the only Church who meets this criteria. It is the Church that also accepts the triune God – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and teaches the last phase of Christ’s heavenly ministry of and His soon return. It was gradually that I came to know more about other teachings as the teachings of the Bible.

10. The Amazing Journey to Jordan!

We cannot find in the Holy Scriptures a shred of evidence that Sabbath keeping is not valid any more in the age of the New Testament. Rather there is ample evidence in the scriptures that it is eternally constituted in His commandment! The Holy Bible teaches that it’s kept by God’s people both in the Old and the New Testament, even by Jesus Christ and the apostles. The New Testament affirms its continuity both after the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Savior. It is simply the commandment of God, which will continue in the new heaven and earth! “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 66:22-23. How is it that the day of worship in heaven becomes different from the one in earth right now? Are we, who are confessed Christians, going to be aliens to it, if we make it there? Or are we supposed to be familiar with it here first?

I am convinced that the Sabbath is neither the shadow of things to come. It is not the type for the anti-type. It is totally distinct from what we call the Ceremonial Law. People mess the Ceremonial Law with the Ten Commandments, the Moral Law. It was not nailed to the Cross of Christ, but destined to be magnified and kept by the power manifested on the Cross! Did Christ, who wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger at the Mount of Sinai, nail it with His own finger at the Mount of Calvary? Is this not what people are saying right now?

God helped me to start the journey to the baptism in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which is solely based on His Holy Word. At first I didn’t realize that I needed a re-baptism. I never thought that I would be baptized again. Anyway it does not matter whatever I thought. Consider these verses – “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Mat 28:19-20.

The simple question that I had to answer was whether my baptism met what Jesus had laid down by His Word. People most of the time neglect the second part of these verses which says, “Teaching them to observe all the things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Let me share with you what I have learned from these amazing verses.

“Teaching them”: Teaching people precedes baptism! As a matter of fact the eligibility for the true Church and her activities, including baptism is her biblical teachings. Does the Church teach what the Bible teaches? Everyone should ask what have I learned before baptism. Everyone should ask this and get an answer! God has given us the mind, the Bible, and time to study His Word. He is faithful to give us the Holy Spirit so that spiritual things might be discerned spiritually. I think we will not have any excuse for our ignorance when Jesus soon reveals Himself to the world!

“Observe all the things whatsoever I have commanded you”: Some people say that the fourth commandment is done away or we do not have to observe the Sabbath. Consider what Jesus has already said – observe!!! So, which Laws do we observe from His commandment, some of them? See what Jesus said – “all the things.” One may still ask what this “all the things” refers to. The Lord added that, “whatsoever I have commanded you.” I believe the Lord foresaw what our arguments would be about His word, especially on the issue of the Sabbath. So, He was very plain in His last Word.

“Observe!” All these things He said were right before His ascension. What a chance this was for Jesus to say that His Cross, His Grace and faith on Him voids His commandment, and we are no more obliged to observe the Sabbath! But, He said the reverse after His resurrection, and before the ascension to heaven that He was about to have. God didn’t give any, even the slightest indication that Grace voids the commandment. Rather He said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” John 14:15. We have plenty of scriptures that give an assurance, i.e. faith in Him actually establishes the Law. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” Romans 3:31.

Most people may think that to “whatever” Church one belongs, it’s enough for her or him to believe in Jesus and be baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Some people still believe that all ways leads to heaven. Absolutely not! There is only one way. I am saying Jesus – the Word of God the only way.

It should be pointed out here that we are only justified by faith and our salvation has nothing to do with our works! But we need to push the question further about salvation. But does it means that once I am saved, always saved? Is it not dangerous to commit adultery after salvation? “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” and “For the wages of sin is death” 1 John 3:4 and Romans 6:23. Once the truth about the Sabbath or any other issue is revealed, we need to ask ourselves – am I still transgressing?

The greatest problem for man in this age is to take and teach one part of the scriptures and ignore the other. Part of the scriptures that appears lesser or not as important to the carnal mind might be crucial to salvation. “Anything” that puts our salvation in question should be dealt in light of His Word. God is faithful to help us understand His Word with the Spirit of Truth.

I believe these verses in the last chapter of Matthew are the basis that lays the foundation for true baptism. When I was baptized first, in the Charismatic Pentecostal Church, they didn’t teach me what Jesus had commanded them, specifically the Ten Commandments. The baptism that I had lacked the teachings that Jesus was talking about i.e., teaching to observe whatsoever He has commanded. Well, the reason might be either they did not accept the Law of God or didn’t know about it. I believe partial teaching of the Bible or His Law does not meet the purpose of the Great Commission as laid down by Christ. We all know that the Law of God is like the inseparable chain. Once you take one, like the Sabbath Law, out of the Ten, the chain loses its togetherness, its interconnectedness. Hence lawlessness becomes inevitable.

10.1. “What does hinder me to be baptized?” Acts 8:36 

I am ashamed to say that I also procrastinated and grieved away the Holy Spirit for a little while when He urged me for baptism. I want to share this with my brethren and sisters so that they won’t repeat a dangerous mistake. I was postponing my appointment with God and giving different pretexts for it. I was saying that I will finish my study in Hungary, go to Ethiopia, and then have the baptism there. So many people may make their own version of arguments against the will of the Holy Spirit. Let His Will be done, not ours!

I am convinced that man cannot get a true peace if he is grieving away the call of the Holy Spirit. We will only get the true happiness, peace, and joy if we say “Yes to God!” I am saying this because I can compare what happened to me before and after I surrendered myself to the will of God. The issue of baptism became the only thing that I could think about, day in and day out, everywhere I went, both in my work and my study place.

Praise God, finally after several months I decided to fully accept what God had shown me and be baptized. First, I found the address of the SDA Church in Budapest and contacted one of the Church elders through e-mail. Having an appointment, I went to the Church and talked with the senior Pastor, Imre Tokics. They had arranged for an English speaker who could prepare me for baptism, Dante Mena. I started worshiping together with other Church brothers and sisters, coming every Sabbath! I couldn’t express the peace and joy flowing into my life. Every Sabbath and all the time I prepared myself for Baptism the Spirit of God came in to my life and filled me with His Love!

I told to my Dad on the telephone that I had accepted the Sabbath truth. I contacted an Adventist Pastor in the place where he lives and tried to arrange a meeting with him, but sadly my Dad rejected my attempt and advised me to quickly drop this idea. I am praying that he will listen to what God is trying to tell him. I also contacted and discussed the issue with other family member, a minister in the Evangelical Church. He told me that he knew about it. I was shocked. I asked him why he was not keeping it then. He tried to justify himself in that, “In the New Testament, a Sabbath has a new story.” I heard another argument from him – completely in enmity with the scriptures. I had talked with another Minister in Vienna. He knows the truth about the Seventh Day, but does not keep it. All the reasons that he told me were like a man-made encyclopedia to nullify the Law of God. It was simply impossible! I continued sharing what I had gotten with many including those in the theological seminary.

11. An Excommunication

The day of my baptism was approaching and I had to invite people for this amazing event. First, I announced this in the Bible Study Group that I was sharing the Word of God. When I did this I invited a minister of God and asked him to share with us about the Sabbath. Paradoxically the heart of many became so hardened but few ere touched by the truth. Finally, I sent an invitation to my baptism to this group and other friends through e-mail.

The reply to this invitation, however, was an announcement of excommunication from the Evangelical Bible Study Group. The Elders in the Bible study met and passed a decision about me. I was equated as a betrayer and false teacher who was willingly indulged into doctrines of deceptions, and also compelled others to do so. This e-mail was sent to people that I know and to those I had never met before. Friends inside and outside the group were contacted by them, both in Hungary and outside of it. An Evangelical Church Pastor with whom I had contact was also informed about my decision. Praise God this Pastor contacted me later and started discussing about the Sabbath issue. It was turned for good.

I had suspected that I would have some sort of false accusation, but not on this scale. Before all this happened, I tried to sit down with people that did this and have a discussion. The sad thing is that they plugged their ears. My heart still goes out to them, in that they have not understood anything that I said. I am praying that God would touch their heart as He touched mine.

I didn’t expect many attendees in my baptism. Only one person from the group showed up. However, it didn’t stop me from baptism. Praise God, on June 18, 2011 I had my baptism near the Chapel at the Danube River in Budapest. The presence of the Holy Spirit was so strong that I and almost everyone broke into tears. Though the problems, accusations, and the fight by demons were intense, I was baptized in the river! What a joy and peace that I have in Christ right now! What a decision that God has helped me to have! He is so faithful, and longing to help someone out there too.