Oh The Humanity! Chiropractor Bob UPSET That COG7 Says It's OK To Work on Sabbath

LCG's and COGdom's apologist extraordinaire is having a royal hissy-fit that Church of God 7th Day is saying that it might be necessary to work on the 'Sabbath.'

He writes:

CG7-Denver has just published something in its Sep-Oct 2010 Bible Advocate magazine allowing people to work on the Sabbath:

Q Please reiterate our position on the Sabbath.  If, due to the economy, a member who is a deacon takes a job requiring him to work late on Friday, but he still attends Sabbath day services, does God’s mercy allow him to continue as deacon? How would you handle this?…

A We’re no longer under old covenant law but under the new covenant of God’s grace (Rom. 6:15; Heb. 8:13)…Every believer must strive, out of love, to dedicate the glorious Sabbath to the Lord. When forced to work, he does not violate the law of love. He continues to love his Lord and His day, regretting that he cannot keep it as he wished. That’s completely different from one who mocks the commandment by working on Sabbath, even though he could keep it, and smugly says we are under grace. One who cannot attend Sabbath services obviously cannot hold an important church office, since he’s not aware of what goes on there. The deacon who is required to work in the dark hours of Sabbath to provide for his household is not wrong. He may continue to serve because he attends worship during the day when church activities take place and he knows what’s happening.

This is an outrage. (emphasis mine) No one is being forced to violate the Sabbath, simply pressured.  We are all pressured to sin in many ways, but that does not make sin right.  It is still sin.

To try to reduce dissent from this outrageous response, CG7 had the following weasel words attached to the article (emphasis mine):

Editor’s note: Not official policy, here is a respected pastor’s answer to a not uncommon problem in CoG7.

This is still an outrage.

People either have the faith that God will provide or they do not.

This has to be his most offensive statement:

"Those who knowingly violate the Sabbath simply do not have the faith."

Chiropractor  Bob fails to forget that WCG (pre-1986) had score's of people who worked from Friday night sundown to Saturday sundown.  95% never got paid. They worked security, checked the computer systems and were generally on call 24 hours a day.  They were dubbed 'volunteers' in order to make it look OK to work.  Armstrongism has always had a way to get around everything that might contradict it's teachings.

All ministers in the church received pay for work on Saturdays.  As much as many want to deny it, those paychecks covered 'Sabbath'. work.  When you are salary, you are PAID for any work 24 hours a day seven days a week.

But on to 'meatier' things.  How quickly chiropractor Bob forgets the Scriptures Matthew 12:11, 12

What man shall there be among you, who shall have one sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it, and lift it out?  Of how much more value then is a man than sheep!  So then it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

In the book of Mark, he elaborates more on the same example:

And after looking around them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  Mark 3:5

Dale Ratzlaff (former SDA) writes in his book, "Sabbath in Crisis":

"This story deals specifically with Sabbath behavior.  The Jewish rabbis had interpreted healing, caring for the sick, as work, therefore a violation of Sabbath law.  However, they modified this so that one could care for those who were in life-threatening situations.  However, it was obvious that the man with a withered hand was NOT in a life-threatening condition.  This incident appears to be a direct confrontation by Jesus upon the commonly accepted interpretation of Sabbath law though not a violation of the Old Testament Sabbath law itself.


"Jesus showed His attitude by "looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart."  Then he demonstrated his authority to interpret the Sabbath law by openly calling the man to the front and healing him.

John 5:9-18 Tells the story about the Jews persecuting Jesus because he had broke the Sabbath law by telling the man he had just healed to take up his bed and walk away.  The Jewish authorities were OUTRAGED (Just like chiropractor Bob).

Ratlzlaff wites:

"This passage says that the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was destroying, or invalidating, the Sabbath.  We should not be too hasty to denounce the Jews.  Old covenant Sabbath law clearly required that a person who openly broke the Sabbath was to be put to death (Ex 31:14, 15; 35:2). (One has to wonder if chiropractor Bob had his way that he would do this too!) The Pharisees had the old covenant record of the man who was caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath and was stoned to death at the express command of God for his violation (Numbers15:32-36)  They also had the later scriptural interpretations of Sabbath law to prohibit carrying a load on the Sabbath (Jer. 17:27

Next we should note Christ's defense of His Sabbath activities.  "But he answered them, My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working."

One has to really wonder if chiropractor Bob and his  idol Spanky Merrydeath would be eager to do such a thing too. One of Herb's main teachings was that when we became "god's" we would have the power to whip rebellious people into line.  There have been many Armstrongites though our history that have looked with almost orgasmic anticipation on ruling their world's with a 'rod of iron'.  That is also one of Spanky's favorite utterances too.

Living Church of God, just like the old WCG found ways of getting around Sabbath commands and various laws it did not want to keep.  It was OK to drive hundreds of miles on the Sabbath, it was OK to cook light meals, it was OK to spend hours setting up and taking down church halls, etc.  When Spanky wants to eat on the Sabbath he has absolutely no problem making cooks and waiters (as long as they are not gay) do his bidding.

If chiropractor Bob really knew his Bible he would plainly see that Paul states in detail that Sabbath observance undermines the gospel.