New Post by Mr. Dennis Luker on Sabbath Issue

Mr. Dennis Luker has published a new post about the Sabbath issue in the Inside United Realtime blog. A link to that post is below.
http://realtimeunited.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/the-sacredness-of-the-sabbath-day/

In this post, Mr. Luker basically says that UCG's doctrine on the Sabbath has not changed, that UCG confirms the inviolate sacredness of the Sabbath day, and that the Sabbath paper that was published, then withdrawn, was merely intended to explain the personal situation of the family in Chile, and was never intended to change doctrine.

But I wrote in a comment to that blog (let's see how fast it is deleted) that what is required to end the rumors that they are trying to change doctrine about the Sabbath is a clear statement from Mr. Luker or other UCG official representing the Council of Elders that Church members are not to operate a business that employs people on the Sabbath, even if it is only occasionally on part of a Sabbath during the year, and even if it would be required by law, period, no exceptions. If a member cannot operate a business within the law that does not employ people on the Sabbath at any time, that member must cease to operate that business. You cannot keep such a business under those circumstances.

That is my understanding of the Church's old doctrine, until someone corrects me.

Why is such a statement necessary?

The credibility of the current UCG administration is very low right now. If they want to put an end to accusations about changing the Sabbath doctrine, they need to be abundantly clear that they are not playing word games. It would be easy for UCG to liberalize policy on operating a business on the Sabbath, and say it is not a "doctrinal change" but just a change in policy or in minor details of a doctrine, or something like that. Yet, doctrine is teaching, and such a change in the policy or judgment concerning a member operating a business on the Sabbath would indeed be a doctrinal change.

Saying that UCG supports the sacredness of the Sabbath is not sufficient. They need to spell out that the policy, teaching, doctrine, whatever you call it, concerning operating a business on the Sabbath is still, NO, you cannot operate a business employing people for even part of a Sabbath a few times a year, no exceptions. That is the old doctrine or policy as I understand it, and a restatement of that by Mr. Luker is what is required if he is serious about countering these accusations of changing doctrine.


More to come...


Here are links to related sections in Preaching the Gospel:

The Weekly Sabbath Day, Chapter 2