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Keeping the Sabbath; Breaking the Sabbath
by Richard C. Nickels
How did the Worldwide Church of God get to its present
position, that the seventh-day Sabbath is no longer a requirement for
Christians? In the Twentieth Century, Herbert W. Armstrong and his
Worldwide Church of God promoted the Sabbath in a powerful way,
throughout the world. After Armstrong's death in 1986, his successor
Joseph Tkach led an assault on all of Armstrong's teachings. This
attack resulted in an abandonment of teaching that the Sabbath is a
commandment of God, acceptance of the Trinity, Christmas and Easter,
and in short, a wholesale departure from nearly every one of
Armstrong's distinctive teachings. Some Worldwide Church of God
congregations today meet on Sunday, or other days of the week. They
believe that no day of the week is holy time.
How did this change come about? It did not start after
1986. It began decades earlier. Paul Royer, one of the leading
ministers in Pasadena for many years, left the Worldwide Church of God
in 1975 and currently heads The Church of God, Sonoma in California. In
a 1976 sermon tape entitled "Keeping the Sabbath," Royer claims that
breaking the Sabbath was the beginning of the downfall of the Worldwide
Church of God. Royer maintains that one of the major ways we show our
respect for God is how we keep the Sabbath.
In the late 1960s, Royer noticed students jogging at
Ambassador College just before sundown on Friday evening, and others
shopping at El Rancho supermarket on Sabbath afternoon. He remarked to
his friend Rod Meredith, "Give us 15-20 years, and this Church will not
even know the Sabbath." Meredith thought it would take 40 years.
Garner Ted Armstrong hunted on the Sabbath, and at one
time even commandeered the Church pilot to fly him in to hunt on the
Sabbath. According to Royer, both Garner Ted and Herbert Armstrong
broke the Sabbath for years. HWA watched the Lakers play basketball on
the Sabbath. According to a man in the Northeast, in the 1960s,
Evangelist Raymond Cole asked Church volunteers to work on the Sabbath
in order to complete the Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania, feast site in time
for the festival. Workers for the "House for God" auditorium in
Pasadena worked on the Sabbath. When the workers were behind schedule,
Herbert Armstrong commissioned Sabbath overtime work at overtime pay,
in order to have the building finished in time. When I worked in Big
Sandy in 1972, construction workers were laboring as we entered the
building for Sabbath services. When I questioned the ministers about
this practice, they said that the Church had a contract with the
construction company, and the Church could not dictate their working
hours. Years later, when I personally had some major repair work done
on my house, I had no problem enforcing the rule that workers quit at
4:00 PM on Friday. After all, I was paying the bill! The ministers had
lied to me.
Paul Royer asks the question: "Can you keep the knowledge
and fear of God without keeping the Sabbath?" His answer is "NO!"
Israel went into captivity for breaking the Sabbath, Ezekiel
20. The first thing God revealed to Israel when they came out
of Egypt was the Sabbath, Exodus 16. Breaking the
Sabbath was the beginning of the downfall of the Worldwide Church of
God.
Paul Royer's tape, "Keeping the Sabbath," describes many
practical ways to make the Sabbath an enjoyable spiritual experience.
It is available from The Bible Sabbath
Association.
Another excellent sermon tape was given by Dean Blackwell
in 1978, which I have entitled, "Defense of the Sabbath." Blackwell
demonstrates keen logic in showing that the Sabbath is found throughout
the Bible. It is no coincidence that many of Jesus' activities were
centered around Sabbaths and Holy Days. The Sermon on the Mount was
given on a Sabbath. The Gospel of John, the whole book, is about the
Sabbaths and Holy Days observed by Christ. There was no "Palm Sunday,"
it was really "Palm Sabbath." Dean Blackwell's humor, and practical,
down-to-earth east Texas drawl make this tape one of my all-time
favorites.
More needs to be said about improper Sabbath observance
and the downfall of the Worldwide Church of God. There was certainly
Sabbath-breaking extant, from the top leadership down to the
membership. But an opposite problem was also a significant
factor. Some parents in the Church made the Sabbath a burden of
restrictive do's and don'ts, thus turning off their children to the
joys of true Sabbath-keeping. It is said that Joe Tkach, Jr., resented
his childhood experiences of the Sabbath, which he viewed as
restrictive. When he got the chance, he threw out the baby with the
bath water. The Sabbath is not a day to watch the Lakers play
basketball or hire workers to labor for you, but it is, and can be, a
day of joy for the whole family.
Perhaps the best book Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi has written
is one that has received the least attention. It is entitled,
Divine Rest for Human Restlessness. This masterpiece shows the
beauty of the Sabbath, which truly is "good news," and not "bad news"
as Tkach was led to believe. Bacchiocchi's three best books, Divine
Rest for Human Restlessness, From Sabbath to Sunday, and
his newest book, The Sabbath Under Crossfire, are available
from The Bible Sabbath Association for a $15 donation each.
What is going to be for you? Are you going to make the
Sabbath a harsh, mean, restrictive, burdensome day, that any thinking
young person would automatically reject? Are you going to throw out the
Sabbath, and "do you own thing" on God's Holy Day? Or, are you going to
call, and make, the Sabbath a delight, and honor the Creator, speaking
His words and doing His spiritual work on the day of divine rest that
pictures the Kingdom of God? You are either going to be keeping the
Sabbath, or breaking the Sabbath. Which one will it be for you?
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