If Worship on Sunday is wrong, then why do SDA rent their churches to Traditional Christian?

[hobie]

Interesting question came up in one of the forums from a Sunday worshiping poster, "If Worship on Sunday is wrong, then why do SDA parishes rent their churches to Traditional Christians?

On this forum Sunday-worshipping Christians are relentlessly criticized by some Adventist members, but meanwhile a great many SDA churches rent their premises out to Orthodox, Anglican and other traditional churches for use in Sunday worship.

If worship on the First Day is, as has been argued, ?the mark of the beast? or some act of eschatological disloyalty or defiance to God, then how is it ethical for SDA congregations to charge rent and make money off of Christians worshipping in such a manner?

Indeed I attended a church that worshipped in an Adventist church this morning; I won?t say which church I attended or which Adventist church they worshipped in to preclude harassment, but it is quite common. The Adventists even made their social hall available, and a very friendly Adventist was present to assist the traditional denomination I visited in accessing the facilities, and he did so without commenting on their faith.

Also it was interesting to note that the main sanctuary featured a pipe organ, paraments and other fittings and was basically identical to any Presbyterian, Methodist or Baptist or low church Anglican parish from the mid 20th century; indeed its appearance strongly reminded me of the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs (albeit without the particularly lovely architecture of Skdmore Owings and Merrill, but the overall layout of the primary and secondary worship spaces was very much in keeping with it)."

What would you answer to such a question?

[Gustave]

A great question Hobbie!

Another point to add is that:

There are more Catholics who attend Mass on Saturday than there are Seventh-day Adventists. If worshipping Christ as God on Sunday is a sin, is a worse sin than repudiating the Trinity Doctrine? 

[Hanseng]

Orthodox Jews who are careful Sabbath observers will sell a 1/7 interest in their business to a Goy. If the Goy chooses to open on Sabbath, it doesn't concern the Sabbath keeper. He doesn't own the business on that day.

[Hanseng]

Since the local congregation doesn't actually own the building, who profits from the arrangement? Does the local congregation who, in theory, paid for the building keep the money, or is it paid to  the denomination?

The denomination allows congregants to attend services in a building they own, even though congregants paid for the building. My guess is that if the administration wanted to rent out the church to a homosexual advocacy group for "pride" meetings, the local congregation could find themselves locked out if they oppose it. This might sound impossible but at least one church member found herself banished from a couple  of pro-gay SDA churches, one of which she had attended for years prior to “inclusion.”  Just as they compelled congregations to accept female pastors, admin could install gay clergy. If you give your money to an organization like SDA, you shouldn't be surprised if  homosexuals, female pastors, and Sunday keepers  are “shoved down your throat." Nothing you can do about it. Normally, "Who pays the fiddler calls the tune." Not in Adventism. Pay your tithe and protest homosexuality, you could be banished. Suppose a gay congregation wants to rent an SDA building, see your donations at work?

 

[Gregory Matthews]

There are 7 days in a week.  God may be worshiped on any/all of those 7  days.  

*  SDA pastors hold worship services on Saturday and Sunday evenings.  Take your pick.  One of those is the Biblical first day of the week.

*  SDA pastors serving in chaplaincy positions hold worship services on Sunday mornings.  In my service as a Federal chaplain, I have held  more worship services on Sunday morning than I have held on Saturday as a a pastor of a SDA Chruch.

* My service as a Fderal Chaplalin was endorsed by the General Conference who was fully awaare that I  held Sunday w orship services.  NOTE,  IF the General Conference had not approved of wah tI did, they could have removed me from my federal position.  Federal Chqaplains only serve with the permission of tlheir denominaiton.

*  The Sabbath is much more than a worswhip service, It is a 24 hour day devoted to God.   In all of my life I have kept Saturday, the 7th day, as a Sabbth.  I have never kept Sunday as a Sabbath.

* If you think that mere worship on a day makes it a Sabbath, you lneed to review the Biblical and SDA teaching, as youy clearly donot understand them.

 

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

NOTE:  As a congregational SDA pastor, I have had situations whereone of the partners was a SDA and the other was a member of another denomination.  I have always urged the SDA member to attend services on Sunday with their partner.  I have welcomed their partner to attend my servicces on Saturday.

As a Feceral chaplain I have attended many Catholic services on Sunday morning.  I considerd such to be part of my duties.  The Priest always welcomed me, but never considered me to be a convert.

The Biblical Sabbath is much more than a worship service.

[Hanseng]

10 hours ago, Gregory Matthews said:

I have always urged the sDA member to attend services on Sunday with their partner. 

Some of the best sermons I ever heard came from Sunday keeping preachers: John MacArthur, Billy Graham, Kip McKean. I consider them among the best because I still remember them. I don't remember exactly what Billy Graham said but I do remember sensing the presence of the Holy Spirit and reaffirming my commitment to Christ.

I hand wrote a letter to Billy Graham asking about the Sabbath. I received a very professional, typed response from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I accepted Christ at a crusade he held at Chavez Ravine in either 1958 or 1963..

God does not dwell in temples made with men's hands.

[Kevin H]

Seventh-day Adventists supports liberty of conscience for all. Ellen White was proud of our churches allowing others to worship in our buildings on Sunday. Mrs. White herself went from being a shut-door Adventist into becoming a very popular preacher in non-Adventist churches, often giving the Sunday sermons. By the way, her sermons were not on the Sabbath or the Mark of the Beast, but she preached on the beauty of Jesus, how much Jesus loves them, and the health message. 

Mrs. White wrote Steps to Christ for the general Christian world published at a popular non-Adventist publishing house. Another non-Adventist publishing house had requested her to write a series of books for them. As they came to work out the contract, Mrs. White said that she saw her angel indicating that she needed to wait and pointed to one clause. This clause would have given an unusual amount of rights to the book and exclusive printing of the book to the company. Mrs. White said that she could not sign with that clause. They tried to pressure her into signing anyway, but said that they could  not back off that clause, and the contract was never signed. It turned out that the company was in a very bad financial condition. They were hoping that this series of books from her would place them back on solid financial ground. They soon went out of business and the way that clause was written would have caused it to be extremely difficult to reprint, if at all, as well as making it difficult if not impossible for her to say/write anything similar to what those books had. Even though that clause prevented Mrs. White from signing the contract and writing those books, it shows her willingness to work with the Christian world as a whole.

Of course, as a business, many of our leaders are looking for winning as many tithe and offering paying members as possible. We have subgroups who want to present their version of Adventism as the only truth, and want to first of all make Adventists, but then make their version of Adventism. But that is them, and from what I understand from looking at Mrs. White herself and Adventist History, I don't see this spirit to be Seventh-day Adventism itself. In the 1800s as we were forming, many wanted our church name to be something like "The true church of God" or similar exalted titles. Mrs. White did not like this and said that Seventh-day Adventists tells the world who we are, a humble name, that we are Adventists who worship on the Seventh-day. 

Mrs. White tells us that the Sabbath-Sunday issue and the potential of Sunday laws will bring the final test to the Christian world. But I have not found where she makes the Sunday issue THE final test in an of itself and to the whole world. She points to a larger issue on liberty of conscience, and that the test itself, the mark of the beast itself is to come to the same conclusions as the beast when it comes to conversion [justification] and sanctification. And that all the details are not yet known and will not be known until the unrolling of the scroll and the sounding of the trumpets. Also, when it comes to how we relate to other religions, she pictures the Seventh-day Adventist Church,  not as an exclusive church that everyone else needs to join to be saved, but as playing a pastoral role among the churches.  We see this lived out in her life in her using her perspective as a Seventh-day Adventist to preach in other churches about the beauty of Jesus and how much Jesus loves them and to describe to people a Jesus who wants to be with them and present Jesus in a way that they want to with him (as opposed to a message of turn to Jesus to be saved from being burned forever in hell) and to encourage them to live healthier and longer lives. Mrs. White would take goodies and give them to migrant workers and encourage them that Jesus loves them, even though their response would most likely attend near by Catholic churches when they were able to attend services. 

[hobie]

On 6/28/2026 at 12:20 AM, Hanseng said:

Orthodox Jews who are careful Sabbath observers will sell a 1/7 interest in their business to a Goy. If the Goy chooses to open on Sabbath, it doesn't concern the Sabbath keeper. He doesn't own the business on that day.

Does that come from a Rabbinical ruling, or did they just decide that would justify allowing the business to keep open on the Sabbath.

[Hanseng]

3 hours ago, hobie said:

Does that come from a Rabbinical ruling, or did they just decide that would justify allowing the business to keep open on the Sabbath.

This practice was explained to me by the owner of a cafe in Hollywood, near the Jewish area known as the  Fairfax district. He looked to be an ultra-orthodox Jew. I can only assume there was some justification for what he did. 

"A non-Jew may do work on the Sabbath on property (or financial rights; see 244:6) that he is known to have leased from a Jew, even if the Jew benefits from it (243:1-2). He may do work on a Jew’s property as a contractor in a place where no Jews are present or if it is not known that the property belongs to a Jew (244:1-2,4). If the non-Jew does forbidden work without the Jew’s permission, the Jew should not benefit from the results (see 244:3;245:6;304:1;305:21-23)."

Chapter 18 - WORK DONE BY A NON-JEW ON THE SABBATH • Torah.org

According to the above, the cafe owner may have leased his shop to a Gentile for one day a week. For a definitive answer, probably best to consult a Jewish rabbi or two or three. There are different types of religious Jews.

As an aside, this fellow employed a beautiful young Japanese woman in his shop. He was hoping she would convert so they could get married, if I remember correctly [~25 years ago].