I try to take my Bible with me to lunch to get some bonus study time in for Sunday’s message since I am bi-vocational and only have so many hours in a day. I swear that book brings out all kinds of people, including the weirdos.
Most of my encounters have happened at McDonald’s in downtown Augusta. I’ve had run-ins with weird pastors, a homeless man that sat down in my booth, didn’t say a word and fell asleep. I didn’t say a thing. I knew that McD’s would kick him out into the Summer heat, if he was all by himself, so why not let him get some rest in the A/C? Today, was a new encounter.
A guy stopped by and asked me if I knew of a church that worshiped on Saturday like the Seventh Day Adventist, but that was not Seventh Day Adventist. I questioned why he was looking for a Saturday worshiping non-Seventh Day Adventist Church and he explained that they have other Doctrinal issues that he did not agree with, which I agree with him on. However, as soon as I explained that I do not know of any type churches that he was seeking out, he asked if he could sit down and show me something, to which I agreed. Let me just say, this man knew scripture.
He takes me all over the Bible showing me the old Covenant and the new Covenant. 99% of the stuff he was saying was right on and true. I do believe this guy was well intentioned , but totally misguided. Of course he was putting his case together as to why Christians should keep Saturday as the Sabbath. I gave him time to make his case, and then I asked him a few questions:
1. What about Jesus? In the eyes of the Pharisees Jesus worked on the Sabbath and even defended those who labored on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12)
2. What about the first church? They worshiped God and met DAILY. I do believe daily is everyday including Saturday. Now of course, his angle was that we should rest and worship on the Sabbath, but this verse through him off and he started talking about how 300 years after Christ’s resurrection Christians still recognized the Sabbath as Saturday until the evil Catholics came along and brutally murdered Christians for worshiping on Saturday and forced them to worship on Sunday, for which this awful tradition began. He then quoted John 15:20 and declared that the Catholics fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy because Saturday worshipers were persecuted by the Catholics for their recognition of Saturday as the Sabbath.
3. What about the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law? Once again, he attempted to answer this one, but was angling to twist Scripture to back up his view. This time it was my turn to share. I explained that the letter of the law declares that one must recognize the Sabbath on Saturday (a specific day) whereas the spirit of the law declares that we still honor that which we were commanded in Exodus 20:8 but that God’s desire is that we simply do it. We make sure we have A Sabbath, but to be dogmatic about the day is legalism, for which he declared Jesus was the ultimate Legalist. Hmm! Okay!
I could see him boiling at this point. He then went for Pharisee approach. He asked me what day did I think the Pagans who worshiped the sun god had for their Sabbath? For which I played dumb to his question and responded, “I don’t know, which day?” With a big smile he responded “Sunday!” As if he had cornered me. I responded, “Well, I guess that could be true!” For which he replied, “Oh no, its true, I’ve studied it!” – I responded that God was not worried about the day, just that we have a Sabbath.
Here’s Legalism at its best worst…When the man could not control me or move me towards his thinking or his religion, he got angry and he attacked me. He called me a pagan sun worshiper and got up to pack his Bible back into his book bag. When I refuted his claim he asked me to read 1 John 2:3-4, and tried to use Scripture to guilt me into believing his way, when I still did not bow at the alter of his religion, he declared once again that I worshiped the sun and took off. And then I sent a tweet 🙂
Join the Conversation…When was a time someone tried to use Scripture to point you in the wrong direction?
Sometimes I wish my students were as fervent as this guy. Why is it always the weirdos who are so persistent and who really “know” their stuff. Maybe us Sun Worshippers need to be putting out more weirdos into the world!
Ahhh, DownTown- you are a melting pot of so many adventures…(Kroger across the street was my first experience in a) Evangelism, b) Extremists & c) Snake Handlers 🙂
Love this post for its bit about Scripture That Shelters The Homeless 🙂
.-= kel´s last blog ..on being Jesus… =-.