James Philip Arrabito
(August 26, 1950 - September 2, 1990)

"I have this dream. I have this big big dream. Big for me anyway. What I want to do is travel the whole world. And I want to go to every place in this world where the Christians down through history, that kept the Sabbath, had their own centers and their colleges and their towns and their cities. Even those places that were wiped clean by the Roman church and repopulated. You can find records of these in the inquisition. You can know where God's people once lived.

And I want to travel the world. I want to go to China. I want to go to India. I want to go to Egypt. And I want to go to Africa. And I want to go to Palestine. Jordan. And I want to go to Baghdad, where King Arthur once fought for the Sabbath keepers.

And I'm going to fit this whole program together in a fast-moving, hard-hitting documentary to show the places where God's people lived, where they suffered, where they died, and where they passed the torch of truth on in every country of the world. NOTHING IN THE WORLD IS GOING TO STOP ME!"
 

It was early in 1986 while in Australia, when Jim first revealed this dream and plan which had been developing in his mind and heart. He returned from Australia with great enthusiasm as he began to outline his plan for tracing the history of Sabbath keepers throughout the ages. The Sabbath Project became his central work. As the months went by he became more and more serious with it. Then one year, two years and three years—it became clear to his many friends and his increasing number of supporters that next to his love for God and for his family, the Sabbath Project was most important in his life.

As he continued his research and traveled to many countries, he began to see that the description given in the book of Revelation about the church in the wilderness consisted of many more peoples in the 1260-day/year prophecy than commonly thought. Yes, there were the Waldenses and the Albigenses, but also the Celts, the Bohemians, the Assyrian Church, the Armenians, the Ethiopians and many more.

Evidence proving that the original Seventh-day Sabbath was never lost and has been kept from the earliest days of history to the present had been documented to a degree much more conclusive than had ever been realized.

Jim set out then to produce a broadcast-quality documentary video for the general public to guide people to Christ, identifying the sign of God's true church. The original prediction that under the 3rd Angel's message the Sabbath would be proclaimed with power gave need for a world-girdling study to confirm the truth of the Biblical Sabbath in all the world in all ages from the beginning of time.

Four and half years of research later, with thousands of slides, hundreds of hours of movie film and video tape, the necessary material for use in a broadcast documentary was substantially completed. Then, without warning, tragedy struck!

On September 2, 1990, while returning from a photography trip in Alaska, Jim and two of his sons (Tony and Joey) were killed in a plane crash which also took the lives of the pilot and a young missionary from New Zealand.

This tragic accident has not stopped or diminished the vision and progress of this project. Like the Sabbath-keeping people through the ages, the torch has simply been passed along to those who remain. Jim Arrabito's wife Pat and the team at LLT Productions have continued with production plans.

Before his death, Jim had outlined the whole video project from beginning to end in a series of almost 600 pictures. This storyboard includes the sequence of events, the visual and audio effects, the time periods and places, props, paintings, maps, characters, and other visuals which will be needed. He had designed sets for illustrative scenes and begun construction of them.

While the program was laid out on the storyboard, the script had not been written, and the research was not filed. Before production could continue, the documentation and information for the script had to again be compiled. This monumental task has since been completed. Part 1 was released in June of 2000, Parts 2 and 3 were released in 2002, Part 4 in 2004 and Part 5 in 2005.

The remarkable story of God's Sabbath-keeping people throughout history can now be told and shared with the world.

This important project was initiated by heavenly inspiration, and accomplished by divine guidance and the grace of God.

During and between my school years, I worked at a variety of construction jobs, including several years on the "paint crew," sheetrock hanging and finishing, carpentry, masonry and other cement work. At the conclusion of my school experience, I continued working in construction part time, and began to develop an "art" clientele. I illustrated several books for Pacific Press, and began some freelance work.

In the Fall of 1976, I was hired by the Berkeley SDA Church to head up their storefront witnessing program, The New Winepress, where I had sometimes gone with witnessing teams from the College on Sabbath afternoons. Their goal was to reach the "street people" and others with the Gospel via a vegetarian juice bar and restaurant, health programs and lectures, a community center to give clothes when needed, etc. We converted the store which they owned into a lecture room with an area for media presentations, built in a juice bar, held cooking schools and spent much time with the local street people inhabiting the area. What an education! We soon learned from personal experience not to give anyone money, no matter what needy story they presented! But we were able to give them food when they were hungry, an ear to listen when they wanted to talk, and prayer when they realized their need. We often brought folks home with us to the country on weekends. Unfortunately, this experience lasted only about four months, due to changes which took place in the church.

In 1977 I moved to Fort Bragg and began painting wildlife for a gallery as their "guest artist." However, the real longing of my heart was to be involved in soul-winning, so while doing artwork for a living (a real faith-building experience, since it was "feast or famine" most of the time,) I began to prepare Bible studies using slides. I traveled to Europe to collect pictures from cathedrals and museums on the subjects historically significant in Revelation.

Pastor Michaelson invited me to share these studies in his church in Upper Lake one weekend in 1980. Elder Glen Woodard, of Lakeport attended and invited me to put on a 10-program series at his church. We met a young man at these meetings who told us of his education for the Catholic priesthood, of how he'd left this behind and had been studying to find Truth ever since. He was thrilled with the truth he found at these meetings.

Pastor Lloyd Munson, of the El Sobrante Church invited us to hold a week of meetings in his church that spring, and Elder Stanley West, of Miranda, invited us to hold a 6-week series of 24 programs for his community. We were tempted to say "no," as we looked at our own limitations, but were continually impressed that "God's biddings are His enablings."

God blessed these humble meetings, and we made many close friends among the church members as well as among those who came to the meetings and were baptized. Many folks in the Miranda area are involved in the occult, and we found that the unique understanding of the inroads of spiritualism which we as Adventists have, gave us a way to reach them.

About this time I began to do artwork for Educational Felt Aids, painting their 3-year Bible story set which is used for the Sabbath School lessons, as well as many other sets.

In the fall of 1980 the Fort Bragg Church arranged for a 4-week series after which 11 people were baptized and the church members drew together in a real special closeness.

In January of 1981 Elder Glen Woodard hired me to do Bible work for the Lakeport Church. By early summer church funds were low and invitations were coming in for me to share the slide studies, so I left Lakeport.

During the summer of 1981 the Lord made it possible for me to travel to Europe again to collect more pictures for my studies, and in the fall I held a 4-week series in Lower Lake as well as a 6-week series for the Groveland Church with Pastor Jeff Wolff. After this, I held a week-long series in the Mt. Shasta Church.

January of 1982 found us in Ojai to do a month-long series for Pastor Louis Davis. We met several members of a motorcycle gang there at the meetings and two of them were baptized soon after. Early in the summer I traveled to England to share some of my studies in a church, then again in the Fall I visited the British Museum in London, the Waldense Valleys in Italy, and several other places in Europe to gather additional evidences for my slide programs on the History of the Jesuits , 666 and the Mark, and the History of the Christian Church, called The Church in the Wilderness.

In 1983 I was hired as the Angwin Village Company Bible worker. While sharing some studies at the Ontario SDA Church with Pastor Wolters, I met Carl Branster from Australia, who was working with Elder Kenneth Cox to produce video evangelistic programs for Australia. Brother Branster invited me to share the studies on video, which he distributed in Australia and New Zealand.

In 1984 I was invited to share my studies in Australia, and was hired by brother Branster to illustrate the themes of Revelation for the video series he and Kenneth Cox were producing. This project was finished about 2 years later. During this time, I also spoke at the Campbell Church, the College Youth Chapel, PUC Prep, the Healdsburg Church, the Minneapolis Church in Minnesota, and several lay campmeetings in California and Washington.

In the last four years I have been to Australia and New Zealand four times showing the studies, and conducted a 3-week evangelistic series (John the Revelator, An Investigation into Earth's Final Destiny) in Sydney during one of those trips. I have also been an Elder in the Angwin Village Company (now The Angwin Villiage Church) for three years, and leader of the Youth Sabbath School for two years.

For work, I have illustrated scenes from Revelation for Seminars Unlimited in the Texas Conference, done a few illustrations for the Review and Herald Publishing, Company One, Betty Lukens Felts, Little Folk Felts, and Educational Felt Aids.

In 1983 I began working closely with Company One learning media and producing audio and video tapes for missionary purposes. Since then, the Lord has made available for our use a complete video studio in which to produce quality video tapes to use for soul-winning.

The travel and evangelism have given me a tremendous opportunity for meeting and talking with all kinds of people all over the world. I have been able to witness to Irish folks about their own history, to Moslems about their ancient educators being Sabbath-keepers, to Catholics, Protestants and Jews, and to atheists behind the Iron Curtain. I have come to know street people, occultists, intellectuals, young and old, and have found that there is a way to reach almost every heart.

Two years ago I began work on a professional quality video on the history of the Sabbath, showing the evidences and effects of the Sabbath-keepers from apostolic times through the 19th century. This tape is designed to appeal to the educated, non-SDA mind, proving through historical records and archeological finds that there have been Sabbath-keeping churches in existence ever since apostolic times, and that these churches have had a major effect upon the cultures, education, and society where they have existed.

Thus far, I have traveled through the British Isles, Europe (including France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Greece), Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, India, Japan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Bulgaria. The remaining countries I have yet to enter are China, Iraq, Ethiopia, Tibet and Portugal. (Later on Jim did travel to all these countries with the acception of Ethiopia. Due to tribal warfare it was difficult and unsafe to travel to the part of the country he was interested in.) Lord willing, I will gather the pictorial evidence from these last places in April of this year.

At present I am working on a series of video programs for children on the foundations of our faith, the first of which is the Sabbath History, which has just been finished (1989).

I am married to the former Pat Gott and we have 6 children, 5 living with us. They are Christine, age 18; Scott, age 18; Tony, 12; Joey, 9; Adel, 7; Andy, 5. My wife graduated from PUC with a B.S. in Psychology and from LLU with an M.S. in Marriage and Family Counseling. She has elected to work in the home, making her career the raising of the children and helping me. Because our love is evangelism and soul-winning, we have lived a lifestyle not based on a regular income, and have found that God is faithful. He has always taken wonderful care of us, we have never lacked for anything which we have needed. He has provided for the expenses of the video production projects as we have needed, and has opened many opportunities for us to gather just what has been needed. We feel as though we have lived among miracles these past few years, and we look forward with joy to serving Him and working for Him until He comes.

~ SPECIAL FEATURE ~
  Interview with Pat Arrabito from The Evidence series.