Sunday, April 29, 2012

UPDATED: Apostle Malm: If Your House Burns Down on the Sabbath, is it OK to Eat in a Restaurant?


Apostle Malm is spitting darts today because Rod Meredith said it was ok to eat in restaurants on Saturdays IF it is an ox in the ditch situation.  The servers and cooks are working, so why not have a relaxing meal after church, especially if circumstances require.  Listening to Apostle Malm you would think Rod was sacrificing firstborn on altars somewhere.
The time of correction for the Church of God is now close at hand.  Let us turn to him and diligently seek him with whole hearted passionate love for him and his ways as defined by his law; let us internalize the very nature of Almighty God as defined by his commandments;
****************************
On April 27th Rod Meredith aired this presentation titled “Rejoice in God’s Sabbath”  from about the 25 to 30 minute mark he states that such people are going to work anyway and therefore we may partate of their efforts.
What does our God have to say about this self justification?
1 Tim 5:22   Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.
1 Thess 5:21   Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Rod then goes on to say that it is wrong to eat out in restaurants on sabbath, but if there is an “ox in the ditch”  it is alright.  He then defines his ox as the wife being tired etc.
Apostle Malm wants you to know that you are lazy backslider if you do not have food at home already prepare:
Let me ask a question here:  If there is enough money to buy in a restaurant, why is there no food in the house?  Is this not a simple question of not caring enough to properly prepare?  Are not the shops filled with bread, cheese, salads and many rady to eat products?
The Apostle indignantly spits out one of the most stupid comments he has made lately:
There is NO SUCH thing as an “ox in the ditch” regarding food on the Sabbath.  Even if our home and food were burning down, we could count on the brethren to feed us; couldn’t we?
Because we idolize our personal pleasures; our God will remove them from us in great tribulation.
I can just picture a person standing in front of Apostle Malm's god being yelled at because they went out for some warm food after their house had burnt down in the middle of winter. That poor family's nearest COG neighbor happened to have been Apostle Malm who had spit back at them that it was the Sabbath and he would NOT fix them any warm food.  So the family had to go to a restaurant for some hot food. The Apostle would not even pay for hotel accommodations for the night because it was the sabbath.  The Apostle's god was berating this family for allowing their house to burn which obviously was a result of hidden sins in their lives.  Compounding that sin, the family went and got a hotel room, driving the spear further into the side of  Jesus Christ.  It just makes me all warm inside to know that such a loving god is present. Gag.....

 The Apostle then goes on to make another dumb comment.  Because you went out to eat on Saturday, you will be kicked out of the Kingdom like Adam was kicked out paradise:

That is partaking of the forbidden fruit of deciding for ourselves instead of obeying our Lord and we shall be thrust out of the presence of Christ  like Adam.
In other words,  Your ass is grass!

UPDATE

This is the Apostle's response to a person that called him out for his legalistic silliness.  Apostle Malm considers a person"weak and apathetic"  if they dare to seek food or shelter that costs money after their house burns on the Sabbath.

I point out that the people deprived of their home would be seeking a place to stay and would naturally seek out the help of close friends and brethern anyway, would you have them sit in a public restaurant all night or be taken in by a brother?

Please explain why the roads to help a brother are more dangerous than roads to a church service or a restaurant?


I would also point out that emergency help would be on the scene to help with the fire and possible injuries anyway; and they would have or take you to a refuge that would have temporary food and shelter without charge.


Further I would rather miss a meal unnecessarily in zeal for my God to do my all to please him, than to be lukewarm and apathetic to him. However your scenario makes shelter far more important than food.


We do fast on Atonement and at other times, or do we? Do we not know that we will not perish over delaying a meal for a few hours.


You speak of a lack of compassion, quite the contrary, I call upon tha compassion of the brethren!
james

18 comments:

Andrew said...

"There is NO SUCH thing as an “ox in the ditch..."

This is a good summary of what the Apostle Malm believes, as well as many other COG people who also feel that flawless observance of devotional religious rituals such as sabbathkeeping are the way you show god how important he is to you. Nothing else matters, and hell and high water must not be allowed to interfere with your display of devotion.

"Let the filthy Samaritan rot by the side of the road," or "Let the dumb ox die," he'd say. "Stupid thing probably sinned anyway and this fate is his god-ordained punishment. Who am I to interfere with god's wrath? Same goes for the ox."

"...Even if our home and food were burning down, we could count on the brethren to feed us; couldn’t we?"

If the Apostle Malm had an apartment fire, since he is too holy to attend any of the lukewarm COGs, he doesn't have any "brethren" to count on, does he? Besides, "brethren" are often some of the least hospitable people I know. I bet he doesn't know anyone else in his area holy enough to be his friend either, so he would probably wind up sleeping in an alleyway and eating from a garbage can or else going without food. And if you wouldn't do the same you're going to hell because you showed god you don't care about him enough to do what he commanded.

I wonder how long until the Apostle says that the BEST way of observing the sabbath is to fast anyway.

Anonymous said...

I had the opposite of this happen: 42 hours without power in freezing weather and the 42 hours began on a Thursday night.

We huddled together in the cold on the Sabbath and did the best we could. We had a fire in the fireplace, and some packets that self-heated for some dried food.

It was miserable.

The only one that came out happy in this was the cat who was mostly under the blanket with me on the couch.

As a result, my son went unstable and had to be hospitalized and he never really did recover.

In retrospect, I would have gone to a restaurant after this experience if we had repeated it without any problems of conscience at all.

Fortunately, I have left Armstrongism and all of the Old Covenant Old Testament Christianity.

What Armstrongists do not seem to realize is that the Old Covenant was totally done away with all the picky Pharisaical laws.

Adapting to New Covenant requires quite an adjustment. Armstrongists are in the position of "putting new wine in old wine bottles": There is so much inconsistency and a great deal of awkwardness in mixing and matching -- trying desperately to make everything work when it is really impossible to do.

Example: Seventh year land Sabbath. No one, but no one in the Armstrongist Churches of God ever seem to get double produce in the sixth year. Now maybe the atheists have it on this one, but no matter: God simply does not bless ACoG farmers who do this. At best, it was for a particular people in a particular region for a particular time and that time is now passed.

Armstrongism doesn't really work and the weightier matters of mercy are raised to objects of unpardonable sin.

Allen C. Dexter said...

I'm forever grateful to no longer be hung up on minutia like this. How I could have been so blind for so long is still a mystery to me. Deception is so insidious.

All the manufactured gods of the world have inane requirements set down by their control freak founders and the con men who followed them.

It's so simple now.

No god made anything in seven days -- try thirteen plus billion years of evolution from base hydrogen -- so the Sabbath gets the heave ho. Clean and unclean meats, etc. are a travesty dreamed up by tribal wingnuts millenea ago. Another heave ho.

It's taken almost four decades, and I'm still in the heave ho process.

Reason is my guide now. No worries. No tension. No wearing knees out of pants in senseless, pleading prayer to a non-existent phantom trying to persuade that phantom to grant me special favors and blessings because he loves me more than everybody else because I kiss he ethereal behind.

Too bad it took so long to get here, but at least, I got here. Many others haven't. Poor saps!

Anonymous said...

Help, my food is burning down! And my home too! And I can't get up! Because it's the sabbath... LOL

Anonymous said...

Yep, an "ox in the ditch" is just an excuse used to justify "breaking the sabbath." An "ox in the ditch" is a biblical principle, is it not? I guess not all biblical principles are meant to be taken literally? Only the ones that make life more difficult? Life is not difficult enough already? Jesus came to explain how we are to show no mercy, to yourself or anyone else? Gimme a break!

No, but here's something else Jesus did say: Matt 7:2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you...Hope this kook isn't counting on much mercy...

Anonymous said...

Mark 2: 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

I believe this is clear.

"So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath," does not mean Jesus thinks he is Lord of the Sabbath. This meaning would have been ludicrous.

It means "therefore..humans are more important than the Sabbath."
It means humans are Lord or rulers over the Sabbath as a man would in his province as a Lord.

"The son of man is Lord of the Sabbath" is not an original quote of Jesus. It is found in the Jewish Hillel tradition in the Talmud.

Jesus was quoting to them what it always meant. Humans are more important than the sabbath.

Questeruk said...

If James Malm is saying that ‘There is NO SUCH thing as an “ox in the ditch” regarding food on the Sabbath.’, then he has clearly lost it as regards following what the Bible and Jesus is saying.

I really seriously think that no more than a handful of people would have taken James line of reasoning even back 40 or 50 years ago in WCG.

I certainly would not have done, and I doubt than anyone else here would have done, remembering back to their WCG days.

If they had, they would have been reading a different Bible to the one I read.

Jace said...

"Too bad it took so long to get here, but at least, I got here"

Amen!

Anonymous said...

The Malmpostle seems to have an incredibly juvenile view of life.

It's as if he likes to throw tantrums, declaring, "I follow the rules better than you, so I'm gonna win the prize, and YOU'RE NOT GONNA, NA NAH NA NA NA!!!"

And of course, he declares he knows "what the rules are" better than the others.

He's such a retarded Nimrod!

I hope he gets over himself some day.

Norm

Byker Bob said...

In one sentence I can sum up Malm's problem, or fanaticism, or whatever you want to call it. He has made an idol out of the law!

Jesus didn't do that, the prophets didn't do it, Moses didn't do it, and the premier Jewish thinkers such as Hillel and Maimonides did not either.

Really, if one wants to get into hair splitting over the Old Covenant, one should really check in with the ancient Jewish teachers. One should also study intertestamental literature to see where rigid pharisaic thinking originated.

BB

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

Apostle Malm said, "There is NO SUCH thing as an “ox in the ditch” regarding food on the Sabbath".

MY COMMENT - There is no situation too small that an Armstrongite can't blow completely out of proportion. Does he really think that God gives a rats ass that one of his special "tithe slaves" stopped at McDonalds to consume a Big Mac after listening to a Sabbath Sermon full of hot air and BS?

Richard

Anonymous said...

The other completely absurd thing about these asinine comments by Malm is that they are in response to ol' Rod (of Iron) Meredith.

Really, Apostle Malm and Apostle Meredith are birds of a feather in that their theologies are both formed along largely the same lines. The difference between them is to what extremes each thinks it is necessary to go. Malm is simply more extreme than Meredith, and therefore he thinks that he is completely righteous and Meredith is completely unrighteous.

Of course the real problem with both Malm and Meredith is that the lines along which both their theologies are formed are fundamentally flawed. I hesitate to call this theology Armstrongist, not because it is any different than what HWA taught, but that HWA himself was such a moving target. It would be clearer to say that what is wrong with them is the same thing that was wrong with the theology of the hardline Pharisee Beth Shammai school of thought (as opposed to Beth Hillel which didn't believe that righteousness came through strict lawkeeping).

This sort of bickering between clones is a testament to the divisiveness of this Pharisaical/Armstrongist theology, that two people should be so alienated by their similarities. When Malm criticizes Meredith, he is essentially criticizing his own mirror image.

Anonymous said...

You know, I hadn't thought of the fact that if The Malmster's house was burning on the Sabbath, he wouldn't want the fire department to come and be "working" to put out the fire.

Perhaps it will be OK if when the Malmpostle's house is burning down on the Sabbath, that he simply have the fire department come sit down on lawnchairs with him and watch his house burn down.

They can even roast marshmallows by the fire!
(Of course, ONLY if The Malmpostle had prepared ahead of time by skewering the lard-free marshmallows onto sticks that Friday, before sundown.)

Norm

Anonymous said...

No, Norm, the Apostle rails against people who prepare something on Friday for a Sabbath potluck that is allowed to cook in the oven during services. That is a grievous sin! Apparently...

The roasting of the marshmallow would still fit Jewish ultra-orthodox definition of cooking, and the Apostle would never sanction such a blatant disregard for the commandments of his god! Apparently...

Anonymous said...

I guess that means that if Malm were to have a heart attack on Saturday, he would prefer to wait until sundown to call an ambulance. It would be breaking the sabbath to pay medical personnel to serve him, just like it is breaking the sabbath to have restaurant personnel serve him. That would be making an excuse to break god's laws for the sake of convenience, just because of a little chest pain.

If you think this way, eventually all ox in the ditch situations just become a way of putting your own selfish desires (such as the totally self-centered desire to live) ahead of god's commandments. The law gradually becomes more and more important, and everything else, especially yourself and other people have a lower and lower value by comparison. It's better to die in strict obedience than to risk defying the almighty everliving god.

Byker Bob said...

If he or his family accidentally caused the fire, under OC law, they'd be guilty of kindling a fire on the sabbath, even if it were accidental sin.

BB

Anonymous said...

James Malm wrote: "...What does our God have to say about this self justification?...Because we idolize our personal pleasures; our God will remove them from us in great tribulation…That is partaking of the forbidden fruit of deciding for ourselves instead of obeying our Lord and we shall be thrust out of the presence of Christ like Adam..."

This God/Lord James is referring to appears to be someone, something, that James possesses. James often referred to the word "our." It is "our God, our Lord,"as opposed to what? Another god? How does James become the possessor of such a God/Lord?

Perhaps more importantly, is James' God/Lord the same One mentioned in the following verse?

"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." [{committed … : Gr. put in us }] 2 Cor 5:19

This God is working out something, some sort of a plan, whereby trespasses are not going to be imputed to the world.

It appears that James, or rather, James' God/Lord is imputing trespasses on some in this world whether there is an ox in a ditch or not. What kind of a god would that be? Certainly, it cannot be the same one that Paul in 2 Cor 5 was referring to.

Also, Paul said this: "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" Col 2:14

God's law is contrary to us; it is against us! Why? It is b/c no matter how perfect Malm thinks he is, he cannot perfectly keep God's law. Only One, Jesus Christ, has been successful at that.

Yet, Malm tells us: "...The time of correction for the Church of God is now close at hand. Let us turn to him and diligently seek him with whole hearted passionate love for him and his ways as defined by his law; let us internalize the very nature of Almighty God as defined by his commandments;..."

Which Church of God? How does SELF do all that Malm says? I conclude that James Malm has never in his life internalized Almighty God's nature to such an extent that there was one Sabbath that Malm perfectly kept for 24 hours: all 1440 minutes.

Now, God did give the gift of His law to ancient physical Israel (not Egyptians, Philistines, etc.) and not a one kept God's law to the extent Malm is requesting. Proof? They all died! Huh? Yes, they all sinned, but they all paid their own wages of sin in their lives. Join the world!

If James Malm really knew that God, The God, is not going to impute trespasses on this world, and understood why Paul said that, then he would not be striving to impose God's law upon any of us. Such a burden! And a burden that James Malm cannot, himsSELF, bear up under, if the truth were known.

This is not about "our God/Lord" that James has in mind, but The God Paul had in mind.

Perhaps, James could remind himself that Paul had reasons for believing the following:

Romans 7:20 "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me."

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Gal 5:17

And sin and evil existed during the time when Paul was guided by God's Spirit and God's fruits were being developed within him! What about a James Malm? What about the rest of us?

When will James learn to know the God of 2 Cor 5:17 as opposed to something called "our God/Lord?" Time will tell...

John

Anonymous said...

keeping in mind that an ox in a ditch will die unless you get it out, Malm has a point here.

how many wives are so tired that they would die if they made a sandwich?