Adventists oppose six-day workweek proposal

Seventh-day Adventists in Kenya are criticizing a government six-day work week proposal that would require civil servants to work on Saturday, the biblical Sabbath and day of rest for the nearly 16 million-member global denomination.

Kenya's minister of state for public service introduced the proposal after a government team examined a new work model.

Adventist Church leaders called on the government to suspend the proposal, saying requiring members employed as civil servants to work on Saturday would conflict with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.

"While appreciating the minister's zeal to drive our nation to a 24-hour economy, we are of the opinion that any moves in that direction should be sensitive to the fundamental and God-given rights of all Kenyans," Paul Muasya, executive director of the church's East African Union Mission, said in a statement during a press conference in Nairobi last week.

His entire statement also appeared on April 10 as advertisements national newspapers, including Daily Nation and The Standard.

Church leaders in Kenya said the proposal could affect 15 percent of the country's civil servants. Union of Kenya Civil Servants representatives said they would accept working Saturdays if they were treated as overtime, according to the Nation.

Last week, The Nation reported Minister of State for Public Service Asman Kamama as saying he had urged public servants to stop being "conservative" and "embrace change."

Kamama was not immediately available for comment.

The church's Justice and Commission Committee met April 10 to set plans in opposing the minister's plan, said Philip Gai, the church's communication director in East Africa.

"We intend to dialogue with the minister concerned, lobby through our Adventist members of parliament, lobby through the Adventist lawyers association, meet with the civil servants union leaders and to meet with the Federation of Kenya Employers," Gai said.

"We also want to sensitize church members on the situation and embark on religious liberty seminar in all our churches," he added.

Kenya, a country of about 37 million people, is home to roughly 565,000 Adventists. Church leaders estimate that figure jumps to nearly 3 million when including children who have not yet chosen to join the church through baptism.

April 10, 2008 Nairobi, Kenya

Ansel Oliver/ANN

"Blue Law"

A Blue Law, in the United States and Canada, is a type of law designed to enforce moral standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest. Most have been repealed or are simply unenforced, although prohibitions on the sale of alcoholic beverages, and occasionally almost all commerce, on Sundays are still enforced in many areas.[1] Blue laws often prohibit an activity only during certain hours and there are usually exceptions to the prohibition of commerce, like grocery and drug stores. In some places blue laws may be enforced due to religious principles, but others are retained as a matter of tradition or out of convenience.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has always taken a stance against blue laws. Churchmembers keep the Sabbath on Saturday, thus conflicting with Sunday laws. In the early days of the church in the mid 1800s, a number of Adventists in America were imprisoned for a short time for working in their fields on Sunday.

Consequently, in traditional Adventist eschatology (belief about the end-times), it is held that there will be an international Sunday law, with persecution enacted against Saturday-Sabbath keepers such as Adventists. This view is found in the writings of Ellen White and others. This view is still the mainstream church view worldwide. A substantial number of Adventists agree with this prediction.
Wikipedia®

What is Truth?

"Truth is not what I believe. Truth is not what I know. Truth is fact. I may not believe it. I may not know it. That does not change it. It is there nevertheless, waiting to be discovered and believed. Truth does not depend on the unsettled and changing opinions of men. It was truth before it was believed. It will remain truth whether it is believed or not."
Carlyle B. Haynes

The Four Angels Loose the Four Winds

Revelation 7:2 mentions the Four ANGELS; only one other passage of scripture directly refers to FOUR ANGELS, which is Revelation 9:14, 15. Both sets of FOUR ANGELS are connecting to this action of LOOSING. No other passage of scripture in Revelation matches these descriptions. The two sets of FOUR ANGELS are clearly referring to one another. The Sixth trumpet is the time which the SEALS or WINDS are LOOSED. Read more...
By: David M. Curtis

The Sabbath

Exodus 20:8 states that humanity should complete all of its labor in 6 days. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." In The Sabbath, Jewish rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel asks is it possible to do all ones work in 6 days? Heschel's interpretation is that we should rest as if all of our work is done. He goes further to state that we should rest from even the thought of labor. Just think of the rest that one would get on the Sabbath if that one would rest from even the thought of labor. Just think of the energy one would bring to the world of work after such a rest. Just think of the spiritual heights one could reach by setting aside the thought of labor as one uses the time of the Sabbath solely for communion with God and others. What a gift God has given to us. The Sabbath is truly not a drudgery. I Praise God for the Sabbath. I pray that God will help me to truly rest to fully enjoy the benefits of this great gift.
SourceURL: Sabbath Pulpit

Kenyan Election: Adventists & Muslims

Kenyans won't have to choose between worship services and civic duty during this year's presidential elections, according to remarks made by Samwell Kivuitu, chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, during a press conference earlier this month. (Read more)....

Billboards...

Really interesting!
These billboads have since been removed. They were put up by a church called Eternal Gospel Church . This church back in 2000 was ordered to stop identifying itself as a Seventh-day Adventist church because it has no relationship with the Seventh-day Adventist denomination(read here). Apparently they are a "break-away" group from the mother Seventh Day Adventist Church.

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