Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Saint Patrick parades will be big news this week, and everybody will be wearing something green. But this legendary figure who converted the Irish to Christianity and drove out all the snakes from Ireland--who was he? There is Patrick the Myth, a man who never existed; and the Real Patrick, the man described in authentic history. It may surprise you who he was:
(1) He knew nothing of submission to the pope of Rome; he taught the simple non-Roman Christianity of the four gospels and the Epistles of Paul, James, and John.
(2) Thus, his faith was that of a Protestant long before Luther or Calvin.
(3) He observed the seventh-day Sabbath as the true Lord's Day, and taught its observance. He opposed celibacy.
(4) He established schools where youth were taught to read and obey the Bible, and not the traditions of the Ante-Nicene or Post-Nicene "Fathers."
(5) He made Ireland to be a missionary center whence preachers were sent to all of Europe to proclaim the faith of the apostles in contrast to that of Rome. He was free and independent of any control from Italy.
(6) He had no regard for relics or consecrated staffs.
(7) He erected no idols or statues of Mary or saints.
The Patrick of legend has replaced the true one. It is surprising to many people that all during the Dark Ages there were true Christians who maintained their freedom from Rome, often driven from their homes to live in the mountains, to endure constant efforts to overthrow their faith and even fight for their lives. When the Church of Rome promoted Sunday-keeping, these minority Christians maintained the observance of the same seventh-day Sabbath as did the apostles. In fact, history records that up to the sixth or seventh centuries, most Christians in Europe observed the seventh-day Sabbath. And God will again have a people worldwide who do so (Rev. 12:17; 14:6-12).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 16, 2003.
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