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.

James Malm: If it is Wrong to Make a Prostitute Work on Saturdays is it Also Wrong to Use Electricity?

Now the conversation has moved on to electricity.  This is the favorite pick and choose topic for those advocating strict Saturday activities.

One of the major arguments against the points listed above is, “if you declare eating on a restaurant a sin because you exchanged payment for another person’s labor, then wouldn’t it be a sin to use electricity on the Sabbath?” 
“Someone had to work at the plant on the Sabbath to provide your electricity. Then you also shouldn’t run any water on the Sabbath either for the same reason. See what happens if you declare eating in restaurants a sin, some people will inevitably split hairs until we become Pharisaical in observing the Sabbath……..turning it into a burden.”

 Malm chimes in: 

This idea that men generate electricity is not true; the generation of electricity is mechanical and does not involve human intervention  [or could be entirely automatic if unions would allow it] except a standby for emergencies.  The company has direct control over the building of new plants, maintenance scheduling, paperwork, setting up new accounts, billing etc and could very easily choose not to do these things on Sabbath.  This is like saying, because some farmer planted potatoes on the Sabbath, we are responsible for his actions when we buy in market during the week.  It is nonsense!

Questions to ask:

Do you pay your electric or water bill on the Sabbath? Are you DIRECTLY involved in the labor of these plant workers, including handing over payment to them for the DIRECT labor they provided you? No. This is out of your direct control. Even though you can choose not to turn on your light switch (Pharisees), this will not stop the employees at the power plant. That is because you have no DIRECT influence over them and their day.

But, when you eat in a restaurant, are you not DIRECTLY influencing the restaurant employee’s day? What if the place is slow, and you were not come in, they will have no customers for that hour. But if you enter, you DIRECTLY change and influence the situation through your presence. The hostess must find you a table, the server must take your order and make sure drinks are filled, and the cooks now must labor in the kitchen to personally make YOUR food. Then you directly compensate these employees for their service and goods. One situation involves our DIRECT influence, the other does not. The electric company argument is truly splitting hairs, and therefore invalid.

James Malm: Is a Restaurant Table Within Your "Gates?"

The fun just keeps going on and on....

Ex 20:10 “In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. “

How about “within your gates”? Explicitly this means anyone on your property, but could it not also imply anyone within your personal realm of influence or space? When we sit down at a table within a restaurant, is not that table now part of our personal space? Do we not control that space at least temporarily? Yes, the restaurant owner ultimately owns the table, but they are allowing you to have it to yourself for a time, in return for monetary compensation. No one else is able to use that table while you sit at it. It is temporarily under your control for the time you use their services. “Within your gates” – could this not imply your personal table at a restaurant?

“Male or female servant.” A waiter or waitress is called a “server” for a reason. Are they not paid to serve you, the customer? Admittedly, you are not forcing them to serve you, nor are you their “master” in the sense of a master/slave /servant relationship.  But are you not influencing them directly to work on behalf of you and your party. 

“Yeah but I have no control over them. I’m not telling them to serve me.”

 Imagine: What would you do if you sat down at a table, and the server never came over to ask for drinks and take your food order? Would you not get up and ask someone to come serve you? Possibly get upset that no one came to take your order? The truth is, we do directly affect the actions and the amount of money the server and business owner makes that day, when we walk through the door.