“A Sabbathkeeper cannot allow men in his employ, paid by his money, to work on the Sabbath” (Evangelism, p. 245).
Why are AdventHealth paid membership gyms open on Saturday? AdventHealth is selling memberships plans and recruiting customers at its “wellness centers.” AdventHealth refers to its gyms as “wellness centers.” This is merely a fancier name for the same service that can be found at conventional, privately-owned fitness clubs. You have to pay a daily, monthly, or annual fee to AdvntHealth to use its workout equipment, instructor-led dance classes, yoga, swimming pools, and other services. In addition, for your convenience, some AdventHealth gyms are open on Saturday. In other words, people are paying for gym memberships to workout on Saturday at AdventHealth, a church-owned entity owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They are happy to allow people to use their work-out facilities on Saturday, for a fee, of course.
So if I purchase a gym membership from a private, secular fitness center that is open on Saturday, am I violating the Sabbath by using my paid-membership pass to visit the gym on Saturday morning to lift weights or attend a group yoga class? Yes, of course. But what if the gym is owned by the church and I buy the same annual membership that gives me access to their exercise equipment on Saturday? Am I still breaking the Sabbath by going to the gym instead of church? Without a doubt. Just because the Seventh-day Adventist Church owns the gym doesn’t make it okay to do Zumba, Yoga, cycling, weightlifting, or synchronized swimming on Saturday morning, especially if people are paying to use it.
Here is what God says about our medical work and keeping the Sabbath holy:
“Often physicians and nurses are called upon during the Sabbath to minister to the sick, and sometimes it is impossible for them to take time for rest and for attending devotional services. The needs of suffering humanity are never to be neglected. The Saviour by His example has shown us that it is right to relieve suffering on the Sabbath. But unnecessary work, such as ordinary treatments and operations that can be postponed, should be deferred. Let the patients understand that physicians and helpers should have one day for rest. Let them understand that the workers fear God and desire to keep holy the day that He has set apart for His followers to observe as a sign between Him and them” (Counsels on Health, p. 236).
Instructor-led group fitness exercises are not required on Saturday. The trainer is paid for leading the workout sessions. Some of those trainers are leading them out with secular dance music. Many of these classes are just high-energy dancing sessions. Yoga instructors are also compensated for working on Saturdays. The following admonition applies in these instances:
“A spirit of irreverence and carelessness in the observance of the Sabbath is liable to come into our sanitariums” (Counsels on Health, p. 236).
This has already been fulfilled. So, why are so many AdventHealth-owned fitness centers open on Saturday? The answer is simple and clear: money. If you are open on Saturdays, you will be able to sell more memberships. To remain competitive, you must provide the same flexibility of being open 7 days a week as all competing gyms. So, which AdventHealth gyms are open on Saturdays?
AdventHealth Wellness Center in Zephyrhills, Florida
Above is the weekly schedule for the month of March 2022 at AdventHealth Wellness Center in Zephyrhills, Florida. As you can see from their Facebook page below, where they published their monthly schedule, AdventHealth is open every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. And on Saturday, they offer group classes on Body Pump, Body Flow, and Body Combat. These are worldly group dance classes. [1] And what does “combat” training/fitness have to do with keeping the Sabbath holy? Absolutely nothing. Notice how on Sunday there are no group classes, even though the gym is still open. In other words, they allow their instructors and trainers to have a day off on Sunday, but on Saturday they have to work.
https://www.facebook.com/AdventHealthWellnessCenterZephyrhills/posts/7339722252712108
AdventHealth Wellness Center in Zephyrhills, Florida does not disclose its membership fees online. They invite you to “stop by for a tour of the center and a member services associate will offer you a guided tour of the facility and discuss membership fees and benefits.” [2] Make no mistake; people pay to have these services available on Saturday. The fees include the use of the gym and the group fitness workouts, which include boxing, yoga, combat body and several dance exercise classes.
AdventHealth Wellness Center in Wesley Chapel, Florida
The weekly schedule for February and March 2022 at AdventHealth Wellness Center in Wesley Chapel, Florida is shown above. AdventHealth is open every Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., as shown on their Facebook page below, where they released their monthly schedule. On Saturdays, they also provide courses in Hot Yoga, Beginning Yoga, Body Step, and other group training activities. On Saturdays, instructors are required to come in and teach these sessions. They are paid for providing these classes to gym members on the Sabbath.
https://www.facebook.com/AdventHealthWellnessCenterWesleyChapel/posts/2452933758177523
These exercise and yoga classes are not free. You pay for them in monthly membership fees. This is a business transaction taking place on Saturday. For $57 a month, you pay to have access to the gym on Saturday. [3] This fee also gives you access to the different fitness classes offered by AdventHealth.
AdventHealth Wellness Center in Celebration, Florida
Here is the weekly schedule for the AdventHealth gym in Celebration, Florida. [4] AdventHealth Wellness Center in Celebration, Florida sells day passes to their facility for $15 a day or $70 a month. [5] They are open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Also, on Saturdays, not only do you have access to all the exercise equipment, but according to the schedule posted above, you can also take yoga group classes on Sabbath morning in a social setting with other gym members. Who needs to go to church for Sabbath morning worship when AdventHealth’s fitness centers provide spiritual meditation through yoga on the Lord’s Day?
Other Locations
AdventHealth Wellness Center in Ocala, Florida is open every day, including Saturdays, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. [6] Their monthly membership fee for access to their facility is $45 a month. [7] AdventHealth Wellness Center in Daytona Beach, Florida is open every Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. [8] and they charge $32 per month. [9]
Some services, such as care for the sick and other life-threatening emergencies, can be performed on the Sabbath. This is consistent with God’s law and the example set by Jesus. However, this is not the case when you consider what AdventHealth is doing. You have six days to work out at the gym if you so choose to; the seventh-day belongs to the Lord. On the Sabbath, you can surely go for a nature walk with your family, or you can go door to door and do missionary work. That is also in accordance with the Sabbath. But, if you go to a gym on the Sabbath that requires a paid membership to enter, you are engaging in a business transaction and violating God’s prohibition. Our health-care facilities are supposed to uphold the commandments of God, not break them:
“Let the leaders among our people emphasize the necessity of a strong religious influence being maintained in our medical institutions. The Lord designs that these shall be places where He will be honored in word and in deed, places where His law will be magnified and the truths of the Bible made prominent” (Counsels on Health, p. 234).
It is past time for God’s people to stand up and recover the faith that is being destroyed by modern liberals who have ascended to positions of trust and care nothing for the Sabbath or the distinctive Seventh-day Adventist doctrine. God has instructed us what we should and should not do on His Sabbath day. We’re supposed to be a special people with a distinct message:
“I pray that my brethren may realize that the third angel’s message means much to us, and that the observance of the true Sabbath is to be the sign that distinguishes those who serve God from those who serve Him not. Let those who have become sleepy and indifferent awake. We are called to be holy, and we should carefully avoid giving the impression that it is of little consequence whether or not we retain the peculiar features of our faith” (Counsels on Health, p. 238).
When we fail to fulfill our mission and engage in transgression, God withdraws His protection from His people. When ancient Israel disobeyed God’s commands, some of the most terrible misfortunes befell them. Can we see it being any different today? Every transgression carries its own punishment. Sometimes those judgments come sooner than later and sometimes they are delayed until the plagues begin to fall.
We cannot evangelize our way out of apostasy. These problems must be addressed and resolved specifically. Missionary work will not correct these transgressions of God’s commandments. Instead of becoming a shield against society’s deteriorating morals, many of our institutions have become breeding grounds for liberal ideals that are hostile to the faith. The decay of our hospitals would not be complete without the neutrality of our leaders. This silence ensures that the work of eradicating the old landmarks will continue unabated. If we continue with these profit-making, Sabbath-breaking church franchises, God sees only one answer:
“The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure” (1 SM 204, 205).
Sources
[2] https://www.adventhealth.com/wellness-centers/adventhealth-wellness-center-zephyrhills
[3] https://www.adventhealth.com/wellness-centers/adventhealth-wellness-center-wesley-chapel/membership
[4] https://files.constantcontact.com/03b4938e401/1450ce26-9070-48f9-a1db-de03cac6e368.pdf
[6] https://www.adventhealth.com/wellness-centers/adventhealth-wellness-center-ocala
[7] https://www.adventhealth.com/wellness-centers/adventhealth-wellness-center-ocala/membership
[8] https://www.adventhealth.com/wellness-centers/adventhealth-wellness-center-daytona-beach
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The Altar to Baal is being constructed on Sabbath now. I predicted the SDA corporate beast beast would join Rome in trampling the Sabbath years ago. Now I am not such a laughing stock and a “fanatic”.
Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. Exodus 31:13
Isaiah 58:1: Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
Isaiah 58:13: If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Isaiah 58:14: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
This is breaking God’s Commandments, but the greater crisis is the complicity the leadership shares in this sin by not doing anything about it.
Pride goes before destruction. These people are showing their true colors, there are the present day mixed multitude. Leading the way to apostasy and complete annihilation. Like Korah, their destruction is sure. God is very patient with erring sinners, His silence and patience doesn’t mean that there is no reward for sin, there is, for the wages of sin death. These people must turn back and repent of their sins before its forever late. Fellow Seventh Day Adventist don’t listen or even follow the example of the Jesuitical fanatics, for there were taught to appose all that is Godly. There are dangerous even to listen to them as leaders. Their ways leds to destruction.
‘SHOW ME THE MONEY’!!! That is what this is all about. Well, at least they started the week with a Monday, but, in doing so, that made the Sabbath the 6th day of the week, and Sunday the 7th day of the week. I wonder who thought that schedule up to print???
I am so ashamed to be living in the area of Zephyrhills, Florida. The hospital is just down the road from where I live. It is truly hard to witness when this type of heresy is going on. I wonder how Adventists working at these hospitals sleep at night???Not only are they breaking the Sabbath, but, they are teaching Non-Adventists to do the same.
I attend the Wesley Chapel Seventh-day Adventist Church. When I witness, I tell people that our church is a fundamental SDA Church, and does not approve of what is going on in other SDA churches, and definitely not in our hospitals! It is sad when you have to explain yourself to non Adventists when sharing your beliefs. I see now what EGW meant when she said it would be very hard to witness to others in the last days. Not only do we have to counter what the world believes, we have to also counter what our health systems believes and promotes also!!!
Question: is advent messenger an extremist group an in Adventism? I stand by what the Bible says: I’ll believe your accusations about people and organizations on the basis of 2-3 witnesses
There are 5 witnesses and 5 different gyms owned by the church that are open on Saturday. What more do you need to know to realize that this is outside of God’s will?