Sabbath 6/8/35/120

Dear Friends

There are serious concerns being raised from among those of the Living Church of God and also the United Church of God regarding the eating at public restaurants on Sabbaths, New Moons and Holy Days.

The ministry of both churches are telling people that it is permissible to go to restaurants on these days in spite of it being a breach of the Fourth Commandment. It is also true that the Northern Spring Feasts are not kept by these offshoots and they only meet for the Services on the two Holy Days of Unleavened Bread and they do not keep the Wave Sheaf offering despite it being slap bang in the middle of the Holy Days in Leviticus 23.  Even some of the ministers who do not themselves go to restaurants teach that if they were in a group that went to the Restaurant they would do likewise, no doubt to justify why they do not stand up to their colleagues when they are all forced to attend on Sabbaths and Holy Days.  Moreover Meredith himself agrees with CCG that the New Moons must be kept as do many other ministers of the Living Church of God.  Whatever happened to “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil” (Ex. 23:2). These ministers also know that the WCG, from which they came, always kept the full feast of Unleavened Bread from 14 Abib to 21 Abib for decades until 1965-1967 which included the Wave Sheaf offering. Armstrong simply gave in to a faction that wanted to do away with the Feast of Unleavened Bread and by 1967 they had ceased to keep it throughout the entire WCG and then attended restaurants on all Feasts, New Moons and Sabbaths. They knew when the New Moons were but they did not keep them as it interfered with the keeping of the Hillel Calendar which Armstrong had foolishly adopted.

LCG now teaches that it is permissible to expend Second Tithe Funds which are for the keeping of the Sabbaths, New moons and Feasts to go to restaurants on Sabbaths, New Moons and Feast Holy Days and Trumpets as apparently does UCG.

Let us look at the issue of the Fourth Commandment and look at exactly why going to restaurants on a Sabbath, New Moon or Holy Day is a breach of the Fourth Commandment. The issues are examined at length in the paper Law and the Fourth Commandment (No. 256).

The Fourth Commandment is as follows:
“Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

Amos 8:5 shows that on the Sabbaths and New Moons no one is permitted to trade or do commerce of any type. The text from Amos 8:4-6 says: 
Hear this you who trample upon the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, “when will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the refuse of the wheat?”

It is quite clear from these texts that you may not allow your manservant or your maidservant to do any form of labour on the Sabbath.  Nor are you permitted to allow the sojourner that is within your gates to do any form of labour on the Sabbaths of the Lord. The Fourth Commandment deals with all the Sabbaths which include the New Moons and Holy Days. Also the Feasts although they allow labour on the days of the Feasts that are not Holy Days the command is that we are not allowed to go away from the Feasts and we are to be there where the Lord shall place his hand in the lands which the Lord our God has given us to inhabit.

How was this interpreted in Israel and Judah?  The great restoration shows us how it was to be interpreted.

Nehemiah 13:19 And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.

In this text we see that not only were the gates shut so that no one may come in on the Sabbath but the servants of Judah under Nehemiah were set at the gates to ensure that no one, either manservant or maidservant or sojourner in the land could bring in any item for sale and it was done as soon as the shadows lengthened so that no traders were allowed to operate from the ending of the preparation day before the Sabbath and until the night of the end of the Sabbath which is the end of the day at EENT. So this action was done to ensure no-one could enter the city even prior to the Sabbath with the intention of circumventing the Sabbath.

Amos is quite clear that the desire to circumvent the Sabbath and trade on the Sabbaths and New Moons comes from the evil intentions to subjugate the poor and exploit them.

The High Priest of the Temple right up until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE robed for the Sabbaths and New Moons and also on the Wave Sheaf Offering and entered the Temple and supervised and conducted those sacrifices.  The Romans handed the robes to the High Priest for those Sabbaths and New Moons and we have the historical records to that effect.

It is quite clear that the prophets and priests and governors of Israel and Judah prevented any trading on Sabbaths, New moons and Holy Days and participated as a complete body over the Feasts and the Wave Sheaf offering.

The legal position regarding going to a restaurant on a Sabbath is this. The individual or group is contracting with the owner or proprietor of the restaurant to enter into a business relationship whereby the owner or proprietor is contracting to provide a service whereby the menservants and maidservants of the owner will prepare and cook meals for the provision of a fee, termed the price, payable on completion as expressed in the terms of a bill for services.  Thus the client is expressly contracting by their presence at the restaurant and their order of a meal etc. to hire the servants of the restaurant proprietor as part of that fee as well as to buy those goods that are supplied to and prepared at the restaurant on that Sabbath or New Moon or Holy Day. The contract is a legally enforceable one and represents trade on that day payable before the person departs the premises.

The argument that they would be there anyway is a trite and false argument that the church member or adherent is not open to advance as the law specifically calls on them to enforce the Fourth Commandment to the extent of closing the gates.  More importantly the adherent is legally creating a situation where the poor are forced to labour in service on the Sabbaths and New Moons and Holy Days where it is specifically required that they do not do so anywhere in Israel or the environs of the nations that espouse Christianity or Judaism or used by any church of God in any nation whatsoever. Christ was even accused of sin when the apostles and he ate corn in the field on a Sabbath. The law provided for that exception and only that exception or the situation of the ox in a ditch.  Deliberately going to a restaurant on a Sabbath is not an ox-in–a-ditch and is specifically prohibited by the Fourth Commandment and the testimony of the prophets.  Those who teach otherwise will be held accountable by the Messiah at his return and all those who go along with them.

Thus the ministry of these churches are in breach of Biblical Law and they are leading their charges to do evil and break the Law of God.  It is beyond dispute that going to a restaurant and buying food on a Sabbath or on any New Moon or Holy Day is a breach of the Fourth Commandment. The Armstrong ministry that claims it is permissible to do so are completely disingenuous and teaching false doctrine. Any minister that diminishes the laws of God will not be allowed in the First Resurrection. The Armstrong trained ministry are part of the Sardis era and are not accepted into the Kingdom of God without repentance.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General