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November - December 2000 The Sabbath Sentinel
Editoral . . .
Religious Freedom
Royce Mitchell, Jr.
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As this issue goes to press, many of our readership are
getting ready to celebrate the autumn High Sabbaths
spoken of in the Scriptures. We wish them a joyous
Festival season! May we all be blessed with God's peace
and freedom through the Sabbath days of our lives!
The Bible Sabbath Association (BSA) extends a brotherly
greeting and warm welcome to the many new subscribers
who have started receiving this magazine over the past
few months. We hope that you have been finding the
articles stimulating and interesting. Our mission at the
BSA is to promote Jesus Christ and His Sabbath-as well
as to facilitate cooperation and understanding among
those who believe that we ought to keep God's
laws-including His Sabbath.
TSS has quite a variety of articles this month. One of
particular interest is about the house churches of
China. When I read what Chinese Sabbatarians have to
endure to keep God's Laws, I am astounded.... Many of us
take for granted the freedom, which we have in our
Western countries, to worship as we see fit. Yet, in the
Far East communist country of China, meeting on the
Sabbath is something that is done as secretly as
possible. Imagine having to get up in the middle of the
night in order to silently slip to some secret stream
simply to be baptized!
Some should take special note regarding the article on
house churches in China, that (as its writer Paul Wong
has stated in the previous TSS issue) the True Jesus
Church (TJC) is connected with the Pentecostal
Movement. For those who find the "extraordinary"
statements of such inclined things questionable or
objectionable-be warned, in advance, that you will read
of some amazing manifestations asserted to be happening
with the TJC in China. With this caveat to our diverse
readership, the BSA has chosen to publish the history
and current circumstances of the Sabbatarians of China.
All of us stand before God in the faith that we
have-and, as we believe that He has instructed us. We
felt that the hardships and struggles of Chinese
Sabbatarians were valuable to read about, and have (for
the most part) chosen to leave the article[s]
unedited. You will find that Paul Wong is a capable
writer and quite easy to read nevertheless.
As I reflect on the hardships under the persecution of
communism, which Chinese Sabbatarians survive and endure
to practice their faith, I am very thankful for the
ideas laid out and protected in the Bill of Rights of
the United States Constitution. The founding fathers of
America stated, in Article I of the Bill of Rights,
"Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof...." Over the years, our
God-given unalienable right-to decide for ourselves how
we ought to worship God-has been trashed by those who
think that they know better than we do. Even more, the
guarantee under the Bill of Rights has been perverted to
mean that our children can not hear about our God, nor
pray to Him on public school property. Why? The murders
of school children by other school children are
continuing examples of the amoral behavior that results
when, into a godless system of education, we turn our
children loose and neglect teaching them about God and
His Way ourselves.
By this "parental education," I don't simply mean that
we need to instruct our children about the existence of
God-although we certainly should be able to facilitate
their understanding of that fact. What I mean, more
specifically, is that we should be instructing our
children about all that God gives to us and expects from
us. We should be enlightening them about the value that
God places on each of us, and how very precious we are
in His sight.
If we could drive home the reason why God said, "You
shall not murder," children would not see a reason to
take a gun to school to shoot a teacher or
classmate. Some people want to blame guns, violent games
or movies for the problems with the violent children:
However, the guilty culprit is often the one staring
back at us from the reflection in our mirrors.
Children are like blank slates at birth; they are ready
and eager to grow in knowledge. We as parents have the
awesome privilege of impressing our Godly values upon
those "blank slates"; such true education is beyond the
State's purview. If we don't accept our parental
responsibility, we can be certain of one thing: the
"prince of the power of the air" will not be so
negligent. He wants to teach our children that life is
pointless and futile, that there are no conscionable
boundaries-and that others were made to be used for
deviant, amoral "indulgences"; such would even include
murder.
It's true; if we don't drive home the beauty and glory
of God's Law, we can be certain that our enemy will make
his way glitter and shine in all the ways that appeal to
young, inexperienced eyes. So, rather than let the
influence of the evil one take over their minds, we
should strive to imprint upon them the true Way of
God. If we do so, we won't be reading about how one of
our sweet little ones shot up a classroom full of
children. We won't be blaming Hollywood for their evil
movies. Instead, we will be blessed with wonderful
children, and eventually, wonderful grandchildren.
Children are a blessing from God: so He says. With that
blessing comes the powerful responsibility of
parenting. The blessings only begin with our
children. Someday, if we endure, we will see those
blessings reflected in our children's children; and they
will hopefully be able to grow in God's grace and
knowledge in peace and freedom.
TSS
November - December 2000 The Sabbath Sentinel
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