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Nathan Chirstian's DilemmaHe was born a Catholic. His mother was a devout religious woman until the last day of her life. Not so his dad, who went to church only for special occasions, like weddings and funerals. Nathan became acquainted with the SDA religious beliefs through a neighbor who shared with him some SDA magazines and books. He especially enjoyed reading a book by Ellen White entitled The Desire of Ages and Steps to Christ. He is currently reading The Great Controversy written by the same author.
He is convinced that the correct day for worship is the Seventh Day of the week, as expressed in the Decalogue instead of Sunday. He has managed to attend some of the SDA services on a couple of Sabbaths, but he has been unable to secure all Sabbaths off without risking loosing his job and the nice retirement package that goes with it. He would like to be baptized and thus join the Remnant Church, which keeps God's Commandments and has the Testimony of Jesus, but he has been told that working on Sabbaths makes him ineligible for membership in the SDA organization.
Nathan has talked to the management of the company he works for, but so far has been unable to secure Sabbaths off. His immediate supervisor has suggested that he ask his pastor for a dispensation, since working to support his wife and family is a noble task, and the pastor should be able to accommodate his special needs. Nathan has tried to reason with the SDA minister in charge of preparing him for baptism to no avail.
The hardest part for him to understand is based on the fact that Mary, his daughter, who joined the SDA church a few months ago, was allowed to receive the baptismal ritual in spite of the fact that the SDA pastor was aware that she was pregnant and planning to have an abortion, which took place a couple of weeks after her baptism. Nathan cannot understand why violating the Fourth Commandment is considered by the church as a more serious moral offense than taking the life of his grandchild before birth, which is forbidden by another of the Ten Commandments.
He believes that if his daugheter got a dispensation to have the abortion, he should be granted likewise a dispensation to work on Sabbaths. Working to support his family seems to be a noble endeavor, especially considering that he has two of his children in a SDA College, and the other two in a SDA Academy. Loosing his source of income would deprive his children of a religious education, and force him to take a menial job, or perhaps even lose his home to the bank that holds his mortgage.
Nathan can't figure out the logic of being so intransigent on the sanctity of Holy Time by the church, while exhibiting laxity when it comes to the Sanctity of Human Life. Do you have any suggestion for my friend?
I feel horrible about your daughter's situation and my heart breaks reading this. Get on your knees and just literally lay this at the feet of Jesus on the Cross. Read Psalm 51 and understand that it is only against God we all sin. Love your daughter, that is so important, because if she feels unloved she might go searching for it elsewhere.
As for your job: What kind of work do you do? They give dispensations for policemen and doctors and nurses, etc. Why not you? You might even tell them that you will give some of the money you make on Sabbath to the church. If you do quit, God might have a better job lined up for you ! Hope this helps. God Bless, Happy Sabbath!
There is a song that goes the following (God would make a way, He would be my guide)
If Natan permits God to be is guide towards is job situation He would be able to fine a job in wish He don’t have to work on Sabbath.
In regards to her daughter (I don’t know if you had mention if the pastor spoke to her by letting her know the consequents that an abortion can have) I know to when you speak to a teen ages or young adult about this they would ignore you, but the only thing that you can do is to pray for the situation and if God wanted her to do the abortion is because He have a purpose for her.
I think this is all. This only my opinion.
1. I don't think asking the church for a permision (dispensation) would do Nathan any good. If Nathan is convinced that Saturday is the Sabbath and the Lord's Day; the church has no authority to tell Nathan, "Ok Nathan, you can break one of God's commandments and work on the Sabbath". The church doesn't have such authority, if it does; then let's stop criticizing the catholic church for taking it on its own to change the Lord's Day from Saturday to Sunday.
2. The church didn't do Nathan's daughter any favors by allowing her to be baptized knowing that she was going to have an abortion. Missing from the story is the fact that the church didn't take any disciplinary action once she had the abortion. That's dead wrong and the same way the church doesn't have authority to say "you can break the sabbath", it doesn't have authority to tell someone that is pregnant: "you can abort your child", or "it's matter of conscience whether you have an abortion or not, it's your child".
I'm growing more and more convinced that the church has replaced the sixth commandment from "Thou shall not kill" to "Thou shall have freemom of concience and religious freedom"; since it's obvious that something that is completely unbiblical is more important to the church that one of the commandments. I say unbiblical because we won't ever find in the bible anything having to do with such religious freedom or freedom of conscience; things that as a church we now hold in such a high regard.
That's the reason I joined this forum because it seems to be the only place where SDA Christians preach that all ten commandments need to be kept, not just nine. I think from the bottom of my heart there's not an organization on earth today that preach and teaches that ALL TEN commandments need to be kept like Revelation 14:12 advises to do on these last days. As individuals, people may have to decide whether to keep all the commandments or do what the church tells them to do.
So, in other words Nathan, if you're convinced that the Sabbath is the Lord Day; you need to act according to that conviction and don't expect the church to allow you to do anything that has no authority to give you permission to do.
Having said that, if your job is in the medical field and you're working with sick people; that changes everything. Also being a fireman applies as well; but not a business that it's there w/ a purpose and one purpose only; to make money.
I hope this is helpful to you and remember God will always provide.
God bless you my friend and like the worship song says: "God can find a way where it seems to be no way".
David
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