A Tampa Bay Lighting player gets into a fight in front of the AdventHealth logo.
“You are not to unite with unbelievers in medical work” (Medical Ministry, p. 44).
The Tampa Bay Lightning is a professional hockey team and AdventHealth is one of their “Championship Partners.” [1] They have formed this partnership in order to bring health and wellness to people living in Tampa Bay, Florida through the violent sport of hockey. The name “AdventHealth” appears on the top header of the official website of the Tampa Bay Lightning team. [2] In fact, the entire “brutal” playing schedule for Tampa Bay Lightning is being sponsored by AdventHealth. The team’s official website says:
“The Tampa Bay Lightning announced their 82-game regular season schedule for the 2019-20 season, presented by AdventHealth, today.” [3]
AdvenHealth has partnered with hockey to promote health and wellness – even though the crowd wants violence.
When it comes to the Sabbath of the Lord, Tampa Bay Lightning has a notorious record of playing games and fighting every Saturday during the regular season. [4] This means that the “Championship Partner” of Seventh-day Adventists is not just violent, they are also playing hockey every Sabbath (Saturday) during the National Hockey League’s 2019-2020 season.
The hockey league allows violence. The more violent it gets the more people watch.
Who cares about safeguarding the Sabbath. It’s about signing multi-year, naming rights contracts with professional sports teams. Who cares about proclaiming the message to fear God and worship Him as Creator by keeping the memorial of creation (Sabbath) holy. It’s all about getting the coveted marketing contracts to promote the AdventHealth name brand. It’s not about pointing people to the unique features of our faith – the Sabbath and the Second Coming of Christ. It’s all about forming partnerships with sport teams to promote health and violent competitive sports. This is inconsistent with our mission.
“Let our people beware of belittling the importance of the Sabbath in order to link up with unbelievers. Let them beware of departing from the principles of our faith, making it appear that it is not wrong to conform to the world. Let them be afraid of heeding the counsel of any man, whatever his position may be, who works counter to that which God has wrought in order to keep His people separate from the world” (Testimonies, Vol. 7, p. 107).
Adventists don’t want to see the violence banned in hockey because it’s good for advertising.
We are rejecting God’s counsel with regards to the medical work. We are rejecting God’s counsel with regards to uniting with unbelievers. This is causing many of our people to “belittle” the Sabbath in order to become “Championship Partners” with Sabbath-breaking sport teams. How long will Sabbath-breakers tolerate a partnership with people who are boldly emphasizing the keeping the seventh-day Sabbath? Not long. Becoming a “Championship Partner” with unbelievers is a compromise that will lead to the suppression of our message:
“The world will try to induce us to soften down our message, to suppress some of its more distinctive features … This is their invitation to compromise, and there has been a disposition on the part of some of our workers to adopt this policy … Shall we entertain the proposals of Satan, and thereby entangle our souls, and the souls of others, for the sake of policy? Shall we betray sacred trusts? If the world is in error and delusion, breaking the law of God, is it not our duty to show them their sin and danger? We must proclaim the third angel’s message” (Review and Herald, January 31, 1893).
The tragedy today is that our own people are raising the white flag of surrender. Our people are introducing “partnerships” that cause us to ignore our message. It’s not the world seducing God’s people; it’s misguided leaders who are diverting God’s medical work away from its original design:
“When properly conducted, the health work is an entering wedge, making a way for other truths to reach the heart. When the third angel’s message is received in its fullness, health reform will be given its place in the councils of the conference” (Testimonies, Vol. 6, p. 327).
Who cares if they beat their brains out as long as we are getting great publicity. Praise the Lord!
Are God’s prohibitions not clear enough? Will we follow the infallible teachings of inspiration? Will we hold on to the admonitions of the Lord and the original plan laid down by God long ago? Or will we embrace the scandalous, modern policies of the church today? Will Seventh-day Adventists continue making new partnerships with the world, with Rome, with the United Nations, with other globalists and with violent competitive sports?
“And they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.” 2 Kings 17:15.
“There was a spirit of strife and contention among them as to which should be the greatest. The spirit was similar to that manifested in the baseball games on the college ground. Said my Guide: ‘These things are an offense to God.’ ” (Testimonies, Vol. 8, pp. 51, 52).
Sources
[1] https://www.nhl.com/lightning/team/preferred-partners
[2] https://www.nhl.com/lightning/
[4] https://www.nhl.com/lightning/schedule/2019-10-01/ET
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