Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
James Malm: No Hotel Room Cleaning On Saturdays But What About Driving Rental Cars on Saturdays During Feast?
Example: Paying a
caterer in the middle of the week to serve your entire COG group a large
meal on a high holy day (Ex: 8th day of the FOT). Would this caterer
and their staff, no doubt be working around the clock to provide a meal
for such a large number of people? Work that would no doubt be completed
on the holy day, or at least partially so? Would that work no doubt be
condemned by God? Yes
“But, as long as we don’t exchange payment on the Sabbath for their labor, it is ok right?”
How many times has
this occurred and the church has asked the members not to tip the
catering staff? How many of us would feel comfortable tipping the
catering staff, and then getting up to go find our seats for the
afternoon service? How is that any different than tipping a server in a
restaurant?
“How about your hotel
at the Feast? You pay the owner and their staff to take care of your
room during your entire stay? This would have to include labor on the
Sabbath and High days!”
Again, what is in your
DIRECT influence of control? Are you able to put a “Do not Disturb”
placard on your doorknob, so at the very least the maid does not need to
labor on your room that day? Do you have to order room service on a
high day? Does the teenager at Starbucks have to make you a latte on a
High day? Can you not plan ahead for meals by buying a sandwich and
sides the day before, so that you have a prepared meal ready for between
services? Is it absolutely necessary (as in, no possible alternative)
to pay your final bill on the High day or Sabbath?
Can you not try to
exchange payment sometime before the holy day begins? These things are
in your DIRECT influence of control.
“What about renting a
car during the feast? You are using it on the Sabbath and High days, and
you are paying for it’s entire use over the 8 days, thus aren’t you
paying for goods on the Sabbath?” No, because I will not make payment
for that car on the Sabbath or the High day. This is within my DIRECT
influence of control. Does my driving the rental car cause any DIRECT
labor to be done on my behalf? Someone may be able to split hairs fine
enough to find a way to say that I am, and I would only reply “it is
outside of my DIRECT sphere of influence.”
If we were to follow
this flawed logic to the extreme, then no one could ever purchase
anything, at any time, because of the possibility labor could have
occurred on the Sabbath during its making. This would be Pharisaical,
and completely unreasonable. Remember, this argument is against eating
in a restaurant on the Sabbath.
We understand that
this is not God’s world. It is Satan’s. There is no way we can ever be
completely untouched by someone who broke the Sabbath to labor upon it.
Sin is everywhere, and we cannot escape its sphere of influence
completely. But, there are many, many things that are DIRECTLY under our
control. And that which we can control, we should! God WILL hold us
accountable for the things we can DIRECTLY control. He will not hold us
accountable for the things out of our direct control.
5 comments:
I knew a person who recommended single men bring condoms to the Feast in case they 'got lucky'.
He said his 'best Feast ever' was when he met the daughter of a ranch owner at a Feast dance who turned out to be familiar with cow's udders, and they had some very "special times" on the beach on the Atlantic coastline.
Oh, the dear, dear, apostle and his many, many private interpretations of scripture.
I like his "direct sphere of influence" doctrine. No, really, I do. But all it is, is just an arbitrary line drawn in the sand that he's trying to convince you is the standard you should use to judge not only yourself, but also other people. It is a standard that he thinks you can use to figure out exactly how holy and deserving of his god's salvation everybody is.
The problem with this arbitrary line drawn in the sand, is that it's arbitrary, and not biblical. James Malm dreamed it up, and now he's trying to sell it to you for more than he paid for it. You have no way of knowing if the real one true god is going to use James Malm's standard of holiness when he condemns you to burn in the lake of fire, which, odds are he will, or if he's got an arbitrary line of his own. Of course when you find out where the real one true god draws his line in the sand it will be conveniently too late for you to do anything about it. Wah-wah-wah-wah-waaaaah. Better luck next time! Oh, wait, there isn't a "next time." Do you enjoy fire-baths? The real one true god has a nasty habit of being none too specific about exactly what's going to keep a body out of that damned lake of fire, but that's another story. Nevertheless, it makes James feel giddy with "righteousness" when he condemns everyone else to eternal damnation who might draw their equally arbitrary line in a slightly different place.
Of course, James claims that if you try to be any holier than he is by drawing your arbitrary line toward greater strictness and asceticism, then you're splitting hairs. But in reality, there are plenty of much bigger fish to fry upon the surface of this Earth. If ONLY Armstrongites gave as many damns about the millions of men, women, and children who, just as a forexample, don't have access to potable water, as they do about splitting hairs over Old Testament rituals! If they all put their collective heads together and determined to do something, ANYTHING, that actually resulted in a good outcome for ANYONE, instead of just more fighting, bickering, and splitting up--and over what?--over the most "righteous" way to split a hair such as the old testament ritual of sabbathkeeping, which doesn't do anybody any good whatsoever? If they only put in ONE TENTH the concern for other people that they have about their ritual observances, which are basically selfish, trying to achieve the highest possible status in their glorious kingdom of infighting. One Tenth the energy they devote to keeping their sabbaths so rigorously could do some real, tangible good in the world. I shit you not.
John 9:16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.
Sounds like Armstrongism to me! Give me one example of Jesus, or any other first-century dude giving a sermon about what should or should not be done on the sabbath, or even whether keeping or not keeping a sabbath makes any difference whatsoever. Didn't think so.
James Malm: self-appointed chief priest, incessant scribe, and unwavering pharisee. If Jesus walked among the COGs today (which he probably would, since he spent his time with those who needed the most help) James Malm, just to name one, would CERTAINLY condemn him.
James Malm is asking you, not so much to have faith in any god, but to have faith in his personal, private interpretations of scripture. My advice is, don't put your faith in James Malm and his many, many hobbyhorses, unless you've got some other, better reason than the flimsy ones he's handing out every single day.
I'd have to bet that Malm just can't wait until medical science is able to interface computer chips with the human nervous system. One of the benefits might be that we are all able to have an on-off switch, allowing partial or total shut–down of most physiological functions for the sabbath. Of course, that would also turn off the capacity to experience the joy of the sabbath, but at least the sin element wouldn't be present. What a joke!
BB
Should one use toilet paper on the Sabbath? Reaching for it would be work.
Ok. My head is hurting now after seeing the legalistic, fear based gibberish that James Malm is now saying.
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