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.

James Malm On Prostitutes and Sabbath Eating

James Malm, the Church of God's chief peddler in legalistic mumbo-jumbo of useless, outdated laws and regulations, has been working over time the last couple of years bellowing at COG members who dare to eat in restaurants on Saturdays.

To Malm, eating in restaurants and new moons are the  two tests that God has placed upon the Church of God.

The Sabbath and the Calendar are primary TEST issues; testing whether the COG leaders, elders and brethren  are humble enough to turn from their own false traditions, and embrace the increase in knowledge that Jesus Christ has promised us for the very end time, Dan 12.

One of Malm's acolytes sent him the following letter which Malm takes as vindication for his recent tirades:

You are correct in declaring there are many within the COG questioning the traditions of men. I am now in the process of studying the Calendar issue and there are others in our congregation doing so as well. We are striving to prove all things according God’s word just as Paul instructed. No longer can we trust any man to guide us without fail.

Is it Hypocritical to Eat in a Restaurant on the Sabbath? 


First ask yourself:

1. Is laboring on the Sabbath to receive payment a sin?   Yes
2. Is laboring specifically in a restaurant on the Sabbath to receive payment a sin?   Yes
3. Would you ever personally labor in a restaurant on the Sabbath to receive payment?   No
4. When you eat in a restaurant, do you not physically hand over payment to the server for the direct labor they expended on your party, including the food provided to you?   Yes
5. Do you not adjust this payment (specifically tip) according to the level/quality/amount of labor in which they provided?   Yes

So then:

1. If laboring on the Sabbath is a sin
2. Laboring specifically in a restaurant on the Sabbath is a sin
3. As a converted Christian you would NEVER work in a restaurant on the Sabbath because that would be a sin
4. Direct payment IS exchanged specifically for the level, amount, and quality of labor (including goods provided)

Then:

Would it not be hypocritical to hand over payment to a server specifically for labor on the Sabbath? Labor that you yourself would NEVER do? 

“Yeah but eating in a restaurant is a good chance to let our light shine!”

Imagine: You call your server over to your table, you look them in the eye and say, “I would never ever do you what you just did for me and my party because God declares that a sin;  but I very much appreciate you doing it for me and my family, so that my wife did not have to labor, and so our day could be more relaxing, and enjoyable. Go get me another cup of coffee, some rolls for my kids, and I will tell you more!”

What kind of light are we shining?

“Yeah but, we are not FORCING them to labor on the Sabbath. They would be doing it whether or not we go into the restaurant!”

Did you know that eating in a restaurant on Saturday is similar to visiting a prostitute on Saturday?  In both cases you are making someone work.

Another scenario to consider:

1. Is having any form of sex out of wedlock sin?  Yes
2. Is being a prostitute a sin?  Yes
3. Is it a sin to engage in the services of a prostitute?  Yes
4. Wouldn’t a prostitute just end up committing sexual immorality whether or not I engage in her services?  Yes

Then in that case… why not visit a prostitute? She would be committing sin anyway. It’s not like we are not coercing her to do so?

“Wait! That is not the same thing at all! Everyone knows prostitution is a sin. No converted Christian would ever argue prostitution isn’t a sin. Nor that visiting a prostitute, partaking in their activity of employment, and directly exchanging payment for the act performed would be sin. Not the same thing at all.”

Let’s look at the two scenarios side by side:

Restaurant / Prostitute

1. Is it a sin to work on the Sabbath?  Yes      B Is it a sin to commit sexual immorality?  Yes
2. Is it a sin to work in a restaurant on the Sabbath? Yes     B Is it a sin to work as a prostitute?  Yes
3. Would I personally ever work in a restaurant on the Sabbath?  No. Why? Because it is a sin.    B Would I personally ever work as a prostitute? No. Why? Because it is a sin.
4. Won’t the server be working on the Sabbath  (committing sin) whether or not I visit the restaurant?  Yes    B Won’t the prostitute commit sexual immorality whether or not I visit the prostitute?  Yes

The scenarios aren’t really so different, are they?

We would never visit a prostitute, despite the fact we know they would commit sin whether or not we visit them.  This because we know a sin is a sin, and circumstances do not change that fact. 

 Then apostle Malm jumps in with this:

Admin:  This is a good example but the issue is largerl since the excuse “they will do it anyway” would justify participating in almost ANY sin.  We are to set an example of godliness, not to follow the crowd!  That is what letting our light shine really means!

 Then his acolyte continues with this:

Then shouldn’t the same be true for directly paying someone for the labor provided on the Sabbath? Something we ourselves would never do, because we know laboring on the Sabbath is a sin!  Even though we understand they would sin, whether or not we partake of their services, that does not make it acceptable for us to partake in their sin (as with the prostitute).

I think it is rather obvious that Malm and crew will NOT be eating at Hooters during the Feast on holy days and sabbath's.....

James Malm: Though I Am Not Starting A Church I Will Be Proclaiming Boldly A Warning To The Brethren

James Malm, the Chief Pharisee of the Churches of God is boldly going where he assumes no man has ever trod.  His message is to go out "boldly" to the the deceived in the Churches of God.  Um....where have we heard this silliness before?  Every single minister and group that has split off the mother church has made this same declaration.

He who is not starting another church writes:

After three years this work is making steady progress in stirring up many brethren across the COG universe to a serious and open minded study of the whole word of God, to learn and to keep with zeal the teachings of Holy Scripture.
 
As the new contribution system for tax deductible contributions in the US is set up over the next few weeks  [those not interested in tax deductions may still send their contributions in the usual way], and events in the world and COG groups are now rapidly developing;  I expect to continue and increase this work of boldly proclaiming a warning to the brethren.

Tomorrow’s post will restate my mission and will reveal what is planned over the next year, which may very well be the last year of warning before the COG Groups are rejected by Jesus Christ into great tribulation.

Brethren, I am NOT starting another church, but send me all your tithes and offerings, but be aware I am NOT starting another church....but attend MY feast site...but beware that I am not starting another church....