Dear Brethren

Imagine that it is one year into the millennium and you are serving with thousands of the faithful under the reign of Jesus Christ. However, not all of mankind has yet submitted to God's government. Some continue to assert their own will and refuse to honor the Almighty's great moral law, including His Sabbath and holy days. One such pocket of resistance is the nation of Egypt. God has already begun to deal with this rebellion by withholding rain from them. This was done in an attempt to encourage their repentance, but as yet they continue their defiance.

Now imagine that you have been dispatched to this land to speak to a small group who have begun to turn from their ways and to honor the true God. At one point during your message someone in your audience asks you the following question.

"Your Majesty, as you know our nation refuses to honor God's Sabbath and annual festivals. One way they profane them is by engaging in business during these holy times. Our question for you is this: May we purchase their goods? For example, may we dine out at restaurants on the Sabbath? We know that God does not approve of what they are doing at such places. One only has to see the affects of the drought He has brought upon us to understand that. But what about buying their goods? It isn't as if we are making them work on the Sabbath. They would be doing that anyway. What does your God desire of us in this matter?"

How would you answer this question? Remember, you now speak for Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath. Therefore, your words must reflect His perfect will.

If you believe that God would permit these recent converts to continue to buy their Sabbath meals at the very restaurants that are defying His law, our question is: WHY? Why would your God permit His people to purchase the fruits of the very labor He abhors?

For Dave Pack to suggest that God would actually embrace a practice that relies totally on someone else's sin is nothing short of stunning. Everything about it goes contrary to God's very nature. Throughout the scriptures God's people are admonished to come completely out of sin—not come out and later return to partake of someone else's sin. The example of Lot's wife strongly suggests that God doesn't even want His people to look back at sin, let alone go back and solicit it from others. The apostle Paul put it this way:

Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conduct in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Eph. 2: 2-3)

We at Blow the Trumpet think it is inconceivable that the Almighty would actually condone a practice that requires His people to return to the very sin that once gripped their lives—in this world or in the world to come. Sadly, Dave Pack believes God honors such behavior

Respectfully,

Blow the Trumpet