Seventeen82

“Not only do I believe that God has a right to one dime out of every dollar we receive but I also believe that one day out of seven belongs to Him. There is something special about the Sabbath and the tenth part of your income. They are holy. I’m a strong believer in keeping the Sabbath day different from all the other days. Sunday is a day that is set aside to actively work for God – not to go to bed and rest. On Sundays the wheels of commerce cease and we have opportunity to go and visit the sick and prisoners in jail, as well as friends and neighbors, and to witness to them about Jesus. Sunday is God’s Day.” You know who wrote that? Oral Roberts. That’s right, the godfather of the charismatic movement in North America had a higher view of the Sabbath than the majority of conservative, confessional Presbyterians in the PCA and ARP. That should not be. It also illustrates how pervasive the view of the Sabbath Day as a day of rest from worldly activities, given by God for worship and ...

             One of my favorite quotes is by D.L. Moody, and you are probably aware of it. One time a lady criticized his way of preaching the gospel and doing evangelism, and after some questioning this older woman admitted that she hadn't actually ever done much of the later. Moody responded with, "I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it."       The world of the late 19th century was a cesspool of Sabbath desecration, antinomianism, and growing sexual licentiousness. The Church was giving itself over to the doctrines of hell found in Darwinism, Freud, and Wellhausen. There was even an election controversy ravaging the United States. And yet the cultured smart people were chastising men like Moody and other evangelists for having the audacity to call out the world for its wickedness. They didn't like "how" they went about it. Wanted them to be winsome and oratorically pretty, so the smart people talked ...