SDA Businesses/Ministries Are Doing Business on Sabbath

Tammy Roesch
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      1. It’s Time to Overturn
        the Tables of the Money Exchangers

Recently it has come to our attention that many Adventist SDA Businesses/Ministries are doing business on Sabbath.   We have reached out to some of them, and these are the excuses we’ve received most often ~

              1. It’s too hard, they don’t have a convenient system that would just turn off their online store shopping cart prior to sunset.
              2. Because they have customers in all different TIME ZONES, they feel they need to stay open all the time. That way people who are in a TIME ZONE where it is not Sabbath, can do their shopping online.

In my mind, these are very weak excuses they make to keep their online stores open so they can continue taking orders as if it’s just another day.

Excuse #1 ~

As to Excuse #1~ I have an online business myself ~ Better Than Greens, and I sell all kinds of health products, herbs, vitamins, supplements, books, etc. It takes me 2 clicks to turn the shopping cart off before Sabbath and 2 clicks to turn it back on after Sabbath is past. And I have a message posted at the top of the Home page, explaining why they cannot purchase items during the Sabbath hours. I don’t know what could be more simple than that.  It wouldn’t surprise me if someone who is a computer wizard could set it up so that the store would automatically go off before Sabbath and come back on after Sabbath was past.  But even if you have to do it manually, how hard is it, to push two buttons?  So, excuse #1 is very weak.

Excuse #2 ~

Now, let’s consider Excuse #2 ~ The way I see it, TIME ZONES have NOTHING to do with the subject.  I am not responsible for when people in Europe or Asia or Africa  BUY their products….I’m ONLY responsible for when I BUY & SELL. Isn’t EXAMPLE the best teacher?  How do you sell books or DVD’s where the message is to teach people to keep the Sabbath holy, to separate from the world, and not work on Sabbath, and be willing, if need be, to give up your income, in order to keep the Sabbath….how do you sell these books on Sabbath, making $$$ off of them for your business, on the Sabbath???? It’s HYPOCRISY and a DOUBLE STANDARD.

And there isn’t just one day that people in Europe, Asia or Africa can purchase online at my site or any other site….there are at least 5 days in the week that they could purchase.  Hopefully they wouldn’t buy on the day that Sabbath falls on where they live, so take a day away for that, still leaves 5 days in a week. How is me being closed on the Sabbath a hardship to them?

I’ve heard that some nurses and doctors work on Sabbath, but instead of keeping the money for themselves, they donate it to some ministry.  I’m quite confident that if these SDA businesses/ministries were told they couldn’t be open on Sabbath for business unless they gave the proceeds to a ministry, I am pretty sure they would quickly find a way to turn off their website on the Sabbath hours.  And they would stop using the varied TIME ZONES as an EXCUSE to stay open for business.  It reminds me of people who use RAPE & INCEST as an EXCUSE to vote Pro-Choice.

Having Your Business Open On Sabbath Is Comparable To What the Buyers/Sellers Were Doing In the Temple When Jesus Kicked Them Outs

To me, having your online business open on Sabbath isn’t much different than in Jesus’ day, when all kinds of business transactions were taking place in the temple.  Jesus didn’t think kindly of it then, and He doesn’t think any better of this, today. Just because you are not physically taking the money or physically packing the orders….you ARE doing business on the Sabbath.  And even worse, you are encouraging others to break the Sabbath!  And what does Jesus say about that,  “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Matthew 18:6 (NLT).

Putting up a message, asking people not to purchase on Sabbath, while leaving the shopping cart open for business is enabling them and inviting them to do just what you asked them not to do.  It’s not good enough to put up a message asking them not to purchase on the Sabbath. The shopping cart needs to be closed.

Strong Statement From Ellen White Regarding Doing Business on Sabbath

“It is the grossest presumption for mortal man to venture upon a compromise with the Almighty in order to secure his own petty, temporal interests. It is as ruthless a violation of the law to occasionally use the Sabbath for secular business as to entirely reject it… No partial obedience, no divided interest, is accepted by Him.” {Counsels for the Church 269}

Adventist Businesses/Ministries Stores Who are DOING BUSINESSES on Sabbath

Here is a partial list of Adventist Businesses and Ministries that by their EXAMPLE are teaching the world that doing business on the Sabbath is perfectly acceptable. If you think it’s wrong for them to be open on Sabbath, why don’t you contact them? And if they change their policy and shut their store down on Sabbath, let me know, and I’ll gladly take them off this list. And if you know of others who are keeping the Sabbath by closing their store, let me know that, too…and we’ll add them to that list.

 

Adventist Businesses/Ministries Stores Who are NOT DOING BUSINESS on Sabbath

  • 3ABN
  • It Is Written
  • Wholeness For Life (Dr. Joyce Choe)

    Isaiah 58:1 ~

    I believe we are called to lift our voices when we see these kinds of things happening…isn’t that what Isaiah 58:1 means? “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” I hope you will join me in lifting your voice.

If you found this article refreshing, check out the book my husband wrote, Another Jesus, Even Among Conservative Adventists?

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