Tell me what you think, after you read the following statements…. Should those who are truly on the Narrow Way have anything to do with Sports, whether it be playing them or watching them on TV?
“… What force of powers is put into your games of football and your other inventions after the way of the Gentiles—exercises which bless no one! Just put the same powers into exercise in doing useful labor, and would not your record be more pleasing to meet in the great day of God?” { FE 229.1}
“… I cannot find an instance in the life of Christ where He devoted time to play and amusement. He was the great Educator for the present and the future life. I have not been able to find one instance where He educated His disciples to engage in amusement of football or pugilistic games, to obtain physical exercise, or in theatrical performances; and yet Christ was our pattern in all things….” { FE 229.2}
“Some of the most popular amusements, such as football and boxing, have become schools of brutality…. Other athletic games, though not so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the excess to which they are carried. They stimulate the love of pleasure and excitement, thus fostering a distaste for useful labor, a disposition to shun practical duties and responsibilities…. Thus the door is opened to dissipation and lawlessness, with their terrible results.” { FLB 238.4}
“… Satan has devised a multitude of ways in which to keep men from serving God. He has invented sports and games, into which men enter with such intensity that one would suppose a crown of life was to reward the winner. At the horse races and football matches, which are attended by thousands and thousands of people, lives for which Christ shed His blood are thrown away. What will become of the souls of the men and boys whose lives are thus extinguished? Will they be counted worthy of the redemption which Christ died to secure for them?” { RH September 10, 1901, par. 5 }
“But what returns have our young people made to the Lord? Has it been as it was with the people of Israel on the most solemn occasion described in Exodus? Moses had gone up into the mount to receive instruction from the Lord, and the whole congregation should have been in humble attitude before God; but instead of that they ate and drank and rose up to play. Has there been a similar experience in Battle Creek? Have not many lost their hold on God? Did the exercise in games of football bring the participants into more close relation to God?” { 5MR 247.3 }
“The Healdsburg College has been presented to me as being demoralized by disgraceful games. Games have been allowed such as God disapproves. It was to prevent this kind of thing that the Lord gave counsel to the effect that students should learn useful trades….” { 11MR 160.3 } “Where were these watchmen when these unseemly games and athletic sports, these trials of animal strength and exhibition of physical skill were in progress? Students could have had this class of education at home.. { 11MR 161.1 }
“Labor should be connected with study, and through following a course of this kind an all-sided, well-balanced education will be the result. This is the rational method through which souls may be barricaded against evil influences. In this way the mind may be preserved in its soundness, and the nervous energies may be regulated. Combining manual labor with the study of the sciences will preserve the living machinery in excellent condition, and by taking proper exercise, the mind may be taxed and yet not sustain injury in any degree. { 11MR 161.2 }
