A Sabbath Test Part II The Pilgrimage Sabbath

A Rebuttal to the Most Popular

Arguments Advanced by Those Who Dine Out

on the Sabbath

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“Trust in the LORD with all your heart;

and lean not unto your own understanding.”

Proverbs 3:5

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O ver twenty-four hundred years ago, God Almighty inspired a Jew serving under the Persian king Artaxerxes, to boldly confront the nobles of Judah and excoriate them for defiling the Sabbath. The man’s name was Nehemiah and his words and actions are legendary in scripture. His indictment of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem was provoked by the calloused indifference God's people had for a day He consecrated as HOLY at the very beginning (Gen. 2:3). Instead of treating this time with deference and respect, they had profaned it by engaging in commerce. God's people had come to a point to where they thought nothing of allowing unbelievers access to their lives on holy time and then paying these Sabbath-breakers for their goods and services.

Nehemiah's reaction to this sin was passionate and forceful. He saw buying and selling as a clear breach of the fourth commandment. Furthermore, he made a direct link between this sin and Judah’s CAPTIVITY (Neh.13:15-21).

Little did this courageous man know that his voice would once again ring out to the last generation of God's Church. Today, the contemporary nobles of His people promote a sin that is strikingly similar to the one condemned by the Almighty in Nehemiah’s time. Furthermore, if these leaders persist in teaching that God's people may now seek out merchants who sell their wares and victuals on the Sabbath and holy day and purchase their Sabbath-breaking services, they will find themselves in the same position Nehemiah warned of so very long ago. Tragically, it appears that they will have to learn this lesson the hard way.

In 2004 copies of A Sabbath Test (second edition) were sent to the leaders of numerous COG groups in hopes that they would prayerfully examine this practice and repent of it. Sadly, most of them have attempted to deflect its message by offering their own ideas concerning what the Bible says on this critical end-time issue. Even sadder is that instead of honestly applying the scriptures when advancing their case, each group presents what can only be construed as an avalanche of human reasoning and contorted logic with each point masquerading as Biblical scholarship.

For the most part, the leaders of His Church have attempted to dismiss this topic as unimportant. Some groups have even directed their members to refrain from discussing it altogether on the grounds that it is "divisive." Others have warned members that failure to conform to the Church's position could result in expulsion. Most have taken a softer approach, calling it "a matter of conscience." However, what every one of these groups has utterly failed to do is present a legitimate Biblical argument in defense of this practice. Instead, they obfuscate the clear intent of God's law. When examining the host of arguments offered in defense of this practice it becomes clear that it is vastly easier for God's leaders to explain away passages that threaten what they wish to do, or say, or think, than it is to face up to the reality that they have done wrong, and have taught others to do so.

Part II of A Sabbath Test 3rd Edition examines the 30 most popular arguments presented by COG leaders today in defense of God’s people seeking out unbelievers on holy time and paying them for their Sabbath labor. As you read each argument it will become clear that the advocates of this practice reject the undeniable injunction in God’s word and have replaced it with a mountain of human reasoning. Regrettably, each of these leaders seems more interested in justifying their behavior than in honoring the Lord of the Sabbath and His law.