Excuse XXIV
Redefining Sacrilege
Question:
Didn’t God Himself bestow the privilege of dining out on the Sabbath?
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There are times when people can be so committed to sin that they will actually declare it is a gift from God. One COG member did just that when describing dining out on the Sabbath. Here is how he makes this point.
Eating out [on the Sabbath] is God's gift to us for Sabbath-keeping in the current distress. How awful for you to call this blessed, beneficial, God-bestowed privilege for the appreciation of His holy Sabbath a "symbol of slavery and captivity!" May God have mercy on you and lead you to sounder thinking.
For this COG member to call dining out on the Sabbath a "gift" and a “God-bestowed privilege” is audacious to say the least. Imaging what he is declaring. According to him God Almighty has bestowed on His people the “privilege” of going back into spiritual Egypt to seek out Sabbath-breakers and pay them to labor on holy time. What is it about God’s word that would lead a true Christian to embrace such a belief? Furthermore, the frustration in this man’s words speak volumes regarding how desperate people can become when rationalizing their behavior.
Now for Some Honesty
The scriptures reveal that just as the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt until God miraculously delivered them, those whom He has called in this present age were also once enslaved in spiritual Egypt. That’s right, we were once in bondage—the same bondage those who work every Sabbath in a restaurant are in. Whether this long standing member believes it or not, everything about the restaurants he patronizes on God’s Sabbath is drenched in slavery. Furthermore, every member of God’s Church should reject this practice because we were all once a part of that slavery ourselves.
With this in mind, God’s people must understand that our Great Deliverer would no more permit His people today to return to this world and its sin than He would permit the Israelites of yesterday to return to Egypt and their sin. As much as this man wants to go back into Egypt, God forbids it and warns of its consequences. Notice what He says.
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. (Rev. 18:4)
Consider these words in the context of dining out on the Sabbath. In order to engage in this practice, God’s people must return to a world that does not know Him. In the Old Testament that world was called Egypt. In the New Testament it is called Babylon. But make no mistake about it, these worlds are one and the same.
Come Out of Egypt
When God commanded His people to cease from working on the Sabbath and to not compel others to work on their behalf, He was making a powerful statement. He was commanding His people to COME OUT OF BONDAGE! In other words, God’s people are not to be a part of the very sin that once gripped their lives.
Finally, although this member proclaimed: “May God have mercy on you and lead you to sounder thinking,” it is he who genuinely needs to rethink this practice. When doing so we would encourage him to consider the words recorded by Isaiah.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isa. 5:20)
A Final Thought
Those who refuse to acknowledge that Sabbath labor is a reflection of bondage are simply in denial. In truth, what takes place in the restaurant this member patronizes on holy time is exactly that. Furthermore, the apostle Paul specifically identified those who break God’s law as SLAVES to the very sin they commit (Rom. 6:16). Simply because this member is intoxicated with the pleasure he derives from their SIN does not make it a gift from God.
