Someone left the door open at the funny farm and the inmates are loose!
Restaurants Are Hotbeds of Satanic ActivityDennis Fischer rails against restaurants as dens of satanic activity. He says:
Satan desperately wants restaurant personnel to reject God's Sabbath, and he desperately wants God’s people to purchase the fruit of this sin. So far, he seems to be having his way with both.
“NOTICE"
This restaurant rejects God’s law and profanes His Sabbath.
We serve another god. He is our master.
So come on in and enjoy the best
food and service in town.
Imagine that you and some friends decide to go to your favorite restaurant after Sabbath services and enjoy a delicious meal and some wonderful Christian fellowship. This has been a long standing tradition of yours and you never once questioned it. As you pull into the parking lot you immediately notice something different. The name of the restaurant has changed. You then proceed toward the entrance and see a small announcement board with a notice that informs all customers that this is a God rejecting, Satan worshiping restaurant. Aside from that nothing has changed. The personnel are all the same and the menu is identical to the one that was there before. Now here is our question:Would you feel as comfortable eating thereas you did prior to this "renovation"?If your answer is "no" then you are simply the victim of good advertising. You may never find this sign or the accompanying announcement, but every Sabbath you will find the restaurant they describe. It is the one many of God's people visit every week."And no marvel; for Satan himself isTransformed into an angel of light."What is the Point?The point in presenting this "hypothetical" is to illustrate that what takes place in a restaurant on God's Sabbath goes entirely against His great moral law. On that day, restaurant personnel serve the god of this world, and do his bidding, whether they are aware of it or not. In a very real sense, restaurants that profane God's Sabbath are, for that day, "The Devil's Diner." Simply because they don't post this fact on a sign may provide consolation for advocates of Sabbath dining, but such an omission carries no weight with the Almighty. Both Israel and Judah went into captivity because they forgot about His Sabbath. Is it possible that the same fate awaits His people today, if they continue to engage in this sin? Certainly that was what Nehemiah suggested (Neh. 13:17-18).What all too many in God’s Church fail to grasp is that a real God-rejecting devil has blinded the minds of those who profane the Sabbath by laboring in restaurants on this day (2Cor. 4:4). Furthermore, that devil has also blinded the minds of those in God's Church who see nothing wrong with seeking out these unbelievers and paying them for their services.The bottom line is this: Satan desperately wants restaurant personnel to reject God's Sabbath, and he desperately wants God’s people to purchase the fruit of this sin. So far, he seems to be having his way with both.
And people ask me why I am embarrassed to have ever been a part of Armstrongism.
ReplyDeleteIt's no wonder Dixon won't allow the ad to run: The ACoGs are an uncomfortable embarassment to the whole world with their incredible mental disorder cults.
ReplyDeleteGives new meaning to Fishers of Men
ReplyDelete;)
I am just appalled at the utter arrogance of these poepel. They all seem to be so incredibly unhappy. Thank God I left when I did!
ReplyDeleteAs you pull into the parking lot you immediately notice something different. The name of the restaurant has changed.
ReplyDeleteI remember pulling into the parking lot of the theatre where our WCG services were held, and noticing that the marquee high up on the building showed that an X-Rated movie was currently playing.
Deacons had come in early to put sheets over the movie posters in the lobby.
It was kind of taboo to talk about.
Oh bother, does this mean I need to find out if my car was manufactured on the sabbath, or my veggies from the grocery were picked on the sabbath?
ReplyDeleteNow that we've picked that gnat out of the tea, let's go have a roast camel in the back yard:)
Now I'm glad I've never watched that reality show on Fox.
ReplyDeleteYou know the one. Not "Heaven's Kitchen", but...
Mickey said...
ReplyDelete"Oh bother, does this mean I need to find out if my car was manufactured on the sabbath, or my veggies from the grocery were picked on the sabbath?"
MY COMMENT: Also, you can't turn on your lights on the sabbath, or use any electricity at all. You can't light a candle, or turn on your water to bathe, or answer the phone, or feed your pets. All you can do is eat a cold meal that you already prepared before the sun went down, read your bible while there's still daylight, pray in the dark, then go to bed and sleep from sunset to sunset...if you REALLY want to be obedient to the Law. And, don't bother going to a church service because all those sinners are working by setting up chairs, renting a building on the sabbath, etc, etc. I mean, if we're going to get legal, let's get legal. Let's don't pick and choose.
"Now that we've picked that gnat out of the tea, let's go have a roast camel in the back yard:)"
MY COMMENT: Sorry, can't make tea, and I don't eat it if it ain't got cloven hooves, fins, and scales.
To me, this is an example where legitimate concerns were transformed into hyperbole and the original message got lost in a haze of creativity.
ReplyDeleteThe original intent was to follow the example set by Ezra and Nehemiah who made it clear that there wasn't supposed to be business conducted on the Sabbath. It should be easy to understand why they had such strong beliefs: Israel had gone into captivity and had been told that the major reason was that they had broken the Sabbath. Under those circumstances (true or not), there was strong incentive to "hew to the line" because many were terrified what would happen if they violated the Fourth Commandment again. The law of the land was that no business was to be conducted on the Sabbath. Period.
It is true that the Armstrongist Churches have always been in the position of "picking and choosing" which parts of Old Testament Scripture they would follow and the result is an inconsistent mess.
That isn't the case here. The real problem is going entirely too far to build a case, using entirely too colorful metaphores to "prove" the point. On one hand, it creates a devastating venue damaging to the other ACoGs which do allow (or even encourage) people of the congregation to eat out in Restaurants on the Sabbath. To do so, of course, really does violate what appears to be the spirit of Sabbath keeping -- arguably. To eat out on the Sabbath, and, hence, conduct business when no one, not a servant, no family member, no one in the gates, even the stranger, was to do so, should automatically be a part of the ACoG landscape. The reason it isn't is that the members of the congregations ("The People, they...) would not stand for it, so there's this tacit compromise with "God's Law". Besides, it didn't bother Herbert Armstrong, no more than having coffee and a donut on the Day of Atonement did, so he could keep up his strength (as well as his ample girth).
The big mistake the other ACoGs made was to submit 35+ excuses to Dennis Fischer for this particular "violation". They should have kept their yaps shut. Don't encourage him. If you are going to clearly break the Commandments, don't give excuses, just do it.
So here we are.
The whole thing looks silly.
I have an analogy.
After my experience with Dixon Cartright and trying to get an ad on The Journal website, I have this to say:
This is like having survivors of the sinking of the Titanic producing their smaller scale "Titanics" to prove that the whole model is a successful one. None of them can even begin to live up to the original, but they have the fantasy that they do. Each one of these models has struck an iceberg with the results about what you'd expect.
The winner of this contest is the one who can rearrange the deck chairs on the bogus Titanics the fastest and most efficiently.
They're all sinking, but we wish the contestants well with the caveat that you will all fail and drown, but the battles will have been glorious! It is a good day to die!