A) SPORTS.

B) GAMES.

 

 

A) SPORTS

 

 

“Satan has devised a multitude of ways in which to keep men from serving God.  He has invented sports and games, into which men enter with such intensity that one would suppose a crown of life was to reward the winner.  At the horse races and football matches, which are attended by thousands and thousands of people, lives for which Christ shed His blood are thrown away.”  RH, September 10, 1901; RH, June 13, 1907.

 

“Human beings are all living on probation, and they are either working out their own eternal good or their eternal ruin.  Satan is continually seeking to turn them away from God.  He brings before them one scene of excitement after another, -- horse-racing, football matches, pugilistic [boxing] contests.  Around these scenes thousands of spectators assemble, greedy for excitement, anxious to see man getting the better of his fellow-man.  As it was in the days of Noah, just prior to the destruction of the world by a flood, so will it be before the Coming of the Son of God.”  ST, July 4, 1900.

 

“We should not seek to imitate Sunday schools, nor keep up the interest by offering prizes.  The offering of rewards will create rivalry, envy, and jealousy; and some who are the most diligent and worthy will receive little credit.  Scholars should not try to see how many verses they can learn and repeat; for this brings too great a strain upon the ambitious child, while the rest become discouraged.”  CSW:182; GW92:408; TSS:110.

 

“Vigorous exercise the pupils must have.  Few evils are more to be dreaded than indolence and aimlessness.  Yet the tendency of most athletic sports is a subject of anxious thought to those who have at heart the well-being of the youth.  Teachers are troubled as they consider the influence of these sports both on the student’s progress in school and on his success in afterlife.  The games that occupy so much of his time are diverting the mind from study.  They are not helping to prepare the youth for practical, earnest work in life.  Their influence does not tend toward refinement, generosity, or real manliness.  Some of the most popular amusements, such as football and boxing, have become schools of brutality.  They are developing the same characteristics as did the games of ancient Rome.  The love of domination, the pride in mere brute force, the reckless disregard of life, are exerting upon the youth a power to demoralize that is appalling.  Other athletic games, though not so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the excess to which {501}

 

“they are carried.  They stimulate the love of pleasure and excitement, thus fostering a distaste for useful labor, a disposition to shun practical duties and responsibilities.  They tend to destroy a relish for life’s sober realities and its tranquil enjoyments.  Thus the door is opened to dissipation and lawlessness with their terrible results.”  AH:500-501; VH:189; Ed:210; FLB:238.

 

“All your self-uplifting works out the natural result, and makes you in character such as God will not for a moment approve.  ‘Without Me,’ says Christ, ‘ye can do nothing.’  Work and teach, work in Christ’s lines, and then you will never work in your own weak ability, but will have the co-operation of the Divine, combined with the God-given human ability.  ‘Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.  Be sober, be vigilant’ (not in kicking football and in educating yourselves in the objectionable games which ought to make every Christian blush with mortification at the after-thoughts) -- ‘be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.’  Yes, he is on your playground watching your amusements, catching every soul that he finds off his guard, sowing his seeds in human minds, and controlling the human intellect.”  SpTEd:186.

 

“Among the youth the passion for football games and other kindred selfish gratifications have been misleading in their influence.”  6MR:127.

 

“But do not substitute play, pugilistic boxing, football, matched games, and animal exercises, for manual training.  All of this stripe and type should be vigilantly prohibited from the school grounds.  Letter 27, 1895, pp. 1-3 (To F. Howe, May 21, 1895.); 11MR:161.

 

“When the students at the school went into their match games and football playing, when they became absorbed in the amusement question, Satan saw it a good time to step in and make of none effect the Holy Spirit of God in molding and using the human subject.  Had the teachers to a man done their duty, had they realized their accountability, had they stood in moral independence before God, had they used the ability which God had given them according to the sanctification of the spirit through the love of the truth, they would have had spiritual strength and Divine enlightenment to press on and on and upward the ladder of progress reaching Heavenward.  The fact is evident that they did not appreciate or walk in the light or follow the Light of the world.  It is an easy matter to idle away, talk and play away the Holy Spirit’s influence.  Walk in the light is to keep moving onward in the direction of light.  If the one blessed becomes negligent and inattentive and does not watch unto prayer, if he does not lift the cross and bear the yoke of Christ, if his love of amusements and strivings for the mastery absorbs his power of ability, then God is not made the first and best and last in everything, and Satan comes in to act his part in playing the game of life for his soul.  He can play much more earnestly than they can play, and make deep laid plots for the ruin of the soul.”  1888M:1211.

 

“Did the exercise in games of football bring the participants into more close relation to God?  In the night season messages have been given to me to give to you in Battle Creek, and to all our schools.  While it is in the order of God that the physical powers shall be trained as well as the mental, yet the physical exercise should in character be in complete harmony with the lessons given by Jesus Christ to His disciples.  That which is given to the world should be seen in the lives of Christians; so that in education and in self-training the Heavenly intelligences should not record in the books that the students and the teachers in our schools are ‘lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.’ [2Ti. 3:4].  This is the record now being made of a large number -- ‘lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.’  Thus Satan and his angels are laying their snares for your souls, and he is working in a certain way upon teachers and pupils to induce them to engage in exercises and amusements which become intensely absorbing, but which are of a character to strengthen the lower powers and create appetites and passions that will take the lead, and counteracts most decidedly the operations and working of the Holy Spirit of God upon the human heart.”  Ms. 51, 1893, pp. 1, 2, December, 1893; 5MR:248.

 

 HERE IS THIS STATEMENT AS OBLITERATED IN SpM:69-70 by making it pertanant to “the world” when she was specifically given this message for “our schools:”

 

“Did the exercise in games of football bring the participants into more close relation to God?  In the night seasons [plural; meaning there is coming up more parties than just the Battle Creek school and all our schools that the vision was given for:  see, “world” coming up] messages have been given to me to give to you in Battle Creek, and to all our schools.  While it is in the order of God that physical powers shall be trained as well as the mental, yet the physical exercises [plural] should in character be in complete harmony with the lessons given [the following is added and changed] to the world [she was not writing to “the world”] and [back on track; if you can call it that] should be seen in the lives of Christians, so that in education and [“in” left out] self-training the Heavenly intelligences should not record in the books that students and the teachers in our schools [WHAT; I thought we were talking to “the world”] are ‘Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.’  This is the record now being made of a large number, -- ‘Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.’  Thus Satan and his angels are laying their snares for your souls, and he is working in a certain way upon teachers and pupils to induce them to engage in certain exercises and amusements which become intensely absorbing, but which are of a character to strengthen the lower powers, and create appetites and passions that will take the lead [,] and counteract [plural] most decidedly the {70} operations and working of the Holy Spirit of God upon the human heart.”  SpM:69-70.

 

“The mind thus educated to enjoy physical taxation in practical life becomes enlarged, and through culture and training, well disciplined and richly furnished for usefulness, and acquires a knowledge essential to be a help and blessing to themselves and to others.  Let every student consider, and be able to say, I study, I work, for eternity.  They can learn to be patiently industrious and persevering in their combined efforts of physical and mental labor.  What force of powers is put into your games of football and your other inventions after the way of the Gentiles -- exercises which bless no one!  Just put the same powers into exercise in doing useful labor, and would not your record be more pleasing to meet in the great day of God?  Whatever is done under the sanctified stimulus of Christian obligation, because you are stewards in trust of talents to use to be a blessing to yourself and to others, gives you substantial satisfaction; for all is done to the glory of God.  I can not find an instance in the life of Christ where He devoted time to play and amusement.  He was the great Educator for the present and the future life.  I have not been able to find one instance where He educated His disciples to engage in amusement of football or pugilistic [boxing] games, to obtain physical exercise, or in theatrical performances; and yet Christ was our Pattern in all things.  Christ, the world’s Redeemer, gave to every man his work. . .”  FE:229; SpTEd:191; SpM:74-75.

 

“Those in charge of our schools should put into active service every talent possessed by the students that can be used for the help of the school.  When this is done as it should be, it will be found that students will not hanker for football, tennis, and other amusements.  What the students need to be taught is how to make themselves as useful as possible wherever they may be placed.  They should learn how to adapt themselves to the work in hand.  Christ says, ‘I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.’ [“evil” must then = “football, tennis,” et cetera].”  SpM:197.

 

 

B) GAMES

 

 

“There are amusements, such as dancing, card playing, chess, checkers, etc., which we cannot approve because Heaven condemns them.  These amusements open the door for great evil.  They are not beneficial in their tendency, but have an exciting influence, producing in some minds a passion for those plays which lead to gambling and dissipation.  All such plays should be condemned by Christians, and something perfectly harmless should be substituted in their place.”  AH:498; CH:195; CT:346; MYP:392; 1T:514; 2MCP:736; PaM:247-248; PH145 21; AUCR, November 24, 1913; RH, October 8, 1867.

 

“Since I professed to be a follower of Christ at the age of twelve years, I have never engaged in any such simple plays and amusements as named above [mentioned in the following].  Neither have I at any time given my influence in their favor.  I do not know how to play at checkers, chess, back-gammon, fox-and-geese, or any thing of the kind.  I have spoken in favor of recreation, but have ever stood in great doubt of the amusements introduced at the Institute at Battle Creek, and have stated my objections to the physicians and directors, and others, in conversation with them, and by numerous letters.”  RH, October 8, 1867.

 

“It began in the Sanitarium before Dr. Kellogg came into the institution.  Persons who came there to board and room brought in chess playing and many other amusements.  This was not right, and the Lord rebuked the management.  Our Sanitariums are not to cater to the perverted tastes of worldly people.”  KC:143.