One of the things that I find difficult to reconcile between the Old Testament and the New Testament is the Sabbath. This was one of the fundamental tenets of the Law; the Sabbath is to be a holy day unto the Lord. The Sabbath rest is introduced in the very beginning of the Bible and it is one of the Ten Commandments. I ran into this quandary again today when I was reading Isaiah 56.
Thus says the LORD,
“Preserve justice and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come
And My righteousness to be revealed.
“How blessed is the man who does this,
And the son of man who takes hold of it;
Who keeps from profaning the Sabbath,
And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
This theme of not profaning the Sabbath is repeated three times in Isaiah 56, even applying it to gentiles who come to the Lord.
“Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD,
To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the Sabbath
And holds fast My covenant;
Even those I will bring to My holy mountain
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;
For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”
When I was a child in Houston, I remember the world around me seemed to stop on Sundays. At that time (the 1960s) America was just getting started on its way to abandoning the Sabbath or "blue laws." Today in America you couldn't tell much difference between Sunday and any other day of the week. Most people still get weekends off from work (praise the Lord), but treat Sunday just like Saturday or any other day off from work.
So I had to stop and ask myself, how does this fundamental Old Testament law apply to Christians, or does it apply at all? First, the Sabbath as counted by the original keepers of the Sabbath occurs on Saturday. That immediately causes me concern about Sabbath legalism being applied to Sundays.
The apostles seemed to dismiss or even discourage observance of holy days, and even Christ seemed to intentionally violate Jewish traditions based on the Sabbath day, in order to challenge the religious establishment.
So, what can we learn from the principal of the Sabbath that applies to Christians? Well, first the principal of rest on the seventh day is built into our genetics by our Creator. This is a physical principal which we would do best to observe.
More importantly, just like our bodies need rest periodically, our spirits need refreshing periodically. The Sabbath, like the tithe, is a principal which pre-dates and exists outside the Law of Moses. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So we should use the Sabbath rest for its purpose, to re-unite our spirits with the Spirit of God, and re-unite our souls with our brethren in the Lord.
Most critical though, the Sabbath is a demonstration of the holiness of God. Profaning the Sabbath is really just making the Sabbath like any other day. There is another similar commandment right before the Sabbath law.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain."
Exodus 20:7 NASB
The first four commandments deal with the holiness of God. There have been teachings in America that bring God down to our level, as a friend or a brother. While it is true that God may present himself through Jesus as a fellow servant of God, we cannot presume to approach Him in that way. The first words in the Lord's prayer lift up the holiness of God.
I came across this in my study of the prophets.
He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die, by setting their threshold by My threshold and their door post beside My door post, with only the wall between Me and them. And they have defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. So I have consumed them in My anger.
Ezekiel 43:7-8 NASB
It appears to me that the Jewish priests set up a room next to the holy place in the temple where they kept the remains of their kings. This reminds me of some churches I saw in Europe where they had the bones of dead saints right there in the sanctuary mixed in with images of Jesus. Certainly elevating saints to a level of worship is an abomination to God.
God may come down to our level, but we are not allowed to go up to His level or bring Him down to ours. If we make His throne in our lives just one of many, we profane His name. God's throne must be supreme; He will not share His glory with any other.
"I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images."
Isaiah 42:8 NASB
The early disciples called Sunday the "Lord's Day" and it was indeed a special day. We need not re-introduce the Law of Moses to make Sunday our Sabbath. Rather, I pray that I will remember to keep the Lord's day separate in some ways, to spend a little more time in prayer, to read a little more from His word, and maybe even write something honoring the Name of my Creator!
Showing posts with label Morality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morality. Show all posts
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Monday, October 31, 2011
What the Bible Says About Employment
(I am an evangelical Christian and attend a Baptist church in the heart of the Bible belt.)
My pastor quoted this verse yesterday in reference to fasting.
Isaiah 58:3-6
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers...
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
I took this to heart, and also noted the reference to fair treatment of workers (which was not the subject of the sermon). I think it is time for the Church to address the morality of certain business practices that do great harm to our neighbors and enrich others at their expense.
Leviticus 23:22
'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.'
Leviticus 19:13
Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.
Deuteronomy 24:15
Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
Deuteronomy 25:4
Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
Jeremiah 22:13
Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.
Malachi 3:5
"Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts.
James 5:4
Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
Jesus' disciples gathered grain from the fields when they were hungry, as did His ancestor Ruth. (Ruth 2:2, Mark 2:23-24). The commandment to leave the edges of your grainfield for the poor is beautiful because it doesn't require handing out food; the poor can harvest and cook for themselves. Charity is only required for the truly helpless.
A Christian Response
Why is the second greatest commandment from Jesus "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"?
Let me ask this another way. What does the fellow need whom you pass begging on the highway, or whom you see at the thrift shop picking up food for his family? Enough money to pay his electric bill, or his rent for a month? This would certainly be an acceptable gift and much appreciated, but next month he will need help again.
What people really need are good jobs. Since the Garden of Eden, mankind was made to work. Work gives people not only money, but dignity and family values. And it prevents crime.
What would the LORD think about those who drive their employees out of the workplace to be replaced by slaves in a foreign land?
I feel passionately about this because I have seen layoffs happen to so many of my colleagues and friends. Of course most of them found other jobs eventually and this is certainly not limited to my business or industry. But it is a national tragedy and symptomatic of a spiritual issue. I believe that the spirit of hedonism is behind this, and the endless pursuit of money. To the extent that we in the Church participate in this system, we are responsible to speak out against it and to protect people from it.
If you are an employer, my hat is off to you for putting up with a government that treats you like the enemy. I don't know how you keep up with the time, taxes and regulations required to employ people in this country! I encourage you to speak up, rather than giving up. Speak out rather than selling out.
I have never been an employer, but a lot of people work for me. People care for my lawn, serve me dinner at restaurants, repair my house, and manufacture the products I buy. I will always treat them fairly and consider their needs when I deal with them. I will do my best to influence decision makers at work. I will use my vote to elect people who support family-friendly business practices. And I will encourage my pastor and friends to discuss the morality of this critical issue in the context of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus.
Will you join me?
My pastor quoted this verse yesterday in reference to fasting.
Isaiah 58:3-6
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers...
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
I took this to heart, and also noted the reference to fair treatment of workers (which was not the subject of the sermon). I think it is time for the Church to address the morality of certain business practices that do great harm to our neighbors and enrich others at their expense.
Leviticus 23:22
'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.'
Leviticus 19:13
Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.
Deuteronomy 24:15
Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
Deuteronomy 25:4
Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
Jeremiah 22:13
Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.
Malachi 3:5
"Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts.
James 5:4
Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
Jesus' disciples gathered grain from the fields when they were hungry, as did His ancestor Ruth. (Ruth 2:2, Mark 2:23-24). The commandment to leave the edges of your grainfield for the poor is beautiful because it doesn't require handing out food; the poor can harvest and cook for themselves. Charity is only required for the truly helpless.
A Christian Response
Why is the second greatest commandment from Jesus "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"?
Let me ask this another way. What does the fellow need whom you pass begging on the highway, or whom you see at the thrift shop picking up food for his family? Enough money to pay his electric bill, or his rent for a month? This would certainly be an acceptable gift and much appreciated, but next month he will need help again.
What people really need are good jobs. Since the Garden of Eden, mankind was made to work. Work gives people not only money, but dignity and family values. And it prevents crime.
What would the LORD think about those who drive their employees out of the workplace to be replaced by slaves in a foreign land?
I feel passionately about this because I have seen layoffs happen to so many of my colleagues and friends. Of course most of them found other jobs eventually and this is certainly not limited to my business or industry. But it is a national tragedy and symptomatic of a spiritual issue. I believe that the spirit of hedonism is behind this, and the endless pursuit of money. To the extent that we in the Church participate in this system, we are responsible to speak out against it and to protect people from it.
If you are an employer, my hat is off to you for putting up with a government that treats you like the enemy. I don't know how you keep up with the time, taxes and regulations required to employ people in this country! I encourage you to speak up, rather than giving up. Speak out rather than selling out.
I have never been an employer, but a lot of people work for me. People care for my lawn, serve me dinner at restaurants, repair my house, and manufacture the products I buy. I will always treat them fairly and consider their needs when I deal with them. I will do my best to influence decision makers at work. I will use my vote to elect people who support family-friendly business practices. And I will encourage my pastor and friends to discuss the morality of this critical issue in the context of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus.
Will you join me?
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
No Place for Old Economists
I've been watching some old economists talking about "typically markets do this", or "when the economy returns to historical norms" or some such nonsense. Maybe the law of supply and demand hasn't changed, but the historical norms of supply and demand in the West don't apply today and probably won't apply again until the world economy is fully globalized (yikes), or I expire (double yikes).
This really does matter to "main street" people because taxes, government spending and all manner of other decisions are based on these guys being right.
So you have one group of old economists called "supply-siders" who believe that if you throw money at the "rich" in the form of tax cuts, economic growth and jobs will just happen.
You have another group of old economists called "Keynesians" or "demand-siders" who believe that if you throw money at the "poor" that they will generate demand and the demand will result in economic growth and jobs will just happen.
Even the Federal Reserve is governed by these old economic views, as they wasted trillions of dollars "shooting in the dark" with easy money, assuming the economy would just magically recover.
Meanwhile we have tax policies designed to solve yesterday's problems of tight labor markets (capital gains tax breaks) and idiotic internet-bubble bad business models (dividend tax breaks).
Yes, it was a good idea back in the 1900s to incent businesses to invest in capital equipment to improve productivity. It's not so good now - we are awash in productivity to such an extent that we no longer need about 25% of the available labor force in America.
Yes, it may have been a good idea back in the internet bubble to get companies to think about paying dividends instead of pursuing ridiculous, unsustainable revenue opportunities. Now - not so much.
Now we have a situation where companies can make plenty of money with very little labor and the quality jobs that are available are easily filled with cheaper resources overseas. But the supply-siders are continuing to push tax cuts and the demand-siders are continuing to push unsustainable government hand-outs.
At some point right-wingers have to say "tax cuts aren't the solution". And left-wingers have to say "government hand-outs aren't working". It's really that simple. But the left continues to move left and the right continues to move right. Here I am stuck in the middle again, in a vast un-represented waste land.
Van's List
My solutions involve eliminating laws and policies that make things worse. That is free and simple. Heres a partial list:
This really does matter to "main street" people because taxes, government spending and all manner of other decisions are based on these guys being right.
So you have one group of old economists called "supply-siders" who believe that if you throw money at the "rich" in the form of tax cuts, economic growth and jobs will just happen.
You have another group of old economists called "Keynesians" or "demand-siders" who believe that if you throw money at the "poor" that they will generate demand and the demand will result in economic growth and jobs will just happen.
Even the Federal Reserve is governed by these old economic views, as they wasted trillions of dollars "shooting in the dark" with easy money, assuming the economy would just magically recover.
Meanwhile we have tax policies designed to solve yesterday's problems of tight labor markets (capital gains tax breaks) and idiotic internet-bubble bad business models (dividend tax breaks).
Yes, it was a good idea back in the 1900s to incent businesses to invest in capital equipment to improve productivity. It's not so good now - we are awash in productivity to such an extent that we no longer need about 25% of the available labor force in America.
Yes, it may have been a good idea back in the internet bubble to get companies to think about paying dividends instead of pursuing ridiculous, unsustainable revenue opportunities. Now - not so much.
Now we have a situation where companies can make plenty of money with very little labor and the quality jobs that are available are easily filled with cheaper resources overseas. But the supply-siders are continuing to push tax cuts and the demand-siders are continuing to push unsustainable government hand-outs.
At some point right-wingers have to say "tax cuts aren't the solution". And left-wingers have to say "government hand-outs aren't working". It's really that simple. But the left continues to move left and the right continues to move right. Here I am stuck in the middle again, in a vast un-represented waste land.
Van's List
My solutions involve eliminating laws and policies that make things worse. That is free and simple. Heres a partial list:
- Repeal Obama-care. What a load of job-killing complexity and ill-timed policy. Let's get people back to work so they can afford their own health care.
- Let the Bush tax cuts expire. There are better ways to promote quality job creation. If we're going to throw money at the problem, let's identify the problem first. One thing for sure - those who live on high investment incomes don't need lower tax rates than those who work for a living. The progressive income tax we have already provides tax breaks for lower income brackets, whether that is investment gains or earned income.
- Replace payroll taxes on both employer and employee with a revenue-neutral adjustment to the income tax, starting with the first dollar of income. That will eliminate the concept of government-sponsored retirement and health care entitlements, and encourage people to plan their own futures without government subsidies. It will also eliminate the perverse tax incentives to replace people with technology or offshore labor.
- Reduce unemployment benefits and re-direct that money to companies who will hire and train near-fit candidates from the unemployment rolls. People need incentives to work, and companies need incentives to hire and train. That's a policy that fits the economy today, and not one designed for an economy ten to one-hundred years ago.
- Eliminate all the new Obama EPA regulations and send half the EPA back to the college campuses from whence they came. Thence they can pontificate about the causes of global warming and other idealistic causes du jour.
- One more radical idea - eliminate the exemption from overtime pay for salaried employees. There is a problem today with companies eliminating jobs and piling more work on existing salaried employees. This tactic works in a stressed labor market because people have limited alternatives to longer working hours. And it is self-perpetuating by keeping the labor market stressed. By eliminating the exemption from overtime, new employees would be cheaper than overtime, and the workload and wealth of jobs would be more evenly distributed.
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