Intermission: Sabbath Keepers and Extremist Politics

We have noted just how obsessed some ACOG pastors are with extremist political views and conspiracy theories, but the phenomenon appears to be even more widespread than even we imagined. Bill Watson, Adrian Davis, Dave Havir, and Mark Armstrong haven’t got anything on Royce Mitchell of the Bible Sabbath Association! In the latest issue of The Sabbath Sentinel, he has an editorial titled “An Urgent Call to Prayer!” If you thought some of those other guys were wackos and conspiracy theorists, you need to take a look at this one!

According to Mitchell, “the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been used as a tool of oppression against those who are considered enemies of the current regime.” He went on to say that “Joe Biden and the Democrats” are going to send out 80,000 extra agents “to eat out our substance.” He went on to suggest that the Federal Income Tax is unconstitutional, and that the funds collected are used “to pay for legislation that is far beyond the Constitutional authority granted by the People.”

Next, Mitchell launched into a tirade about FISA warrants being used against innocent citizens of the United States. He wrote: “The Department of Justice persecutes people like Donald Trump and other conservatives attempting to slow the progressive agenda of driving our country to ruin.” Mitchell, however, was just getting warmed up! From there, he launched into a diatribe about the “evil men” who created the Federal Reserve System!

After bemoaning how those “evil” folks are close to “destroying the sanctuary created for the people of God,” Mitchell revealed just how far down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole he has traveled. He wrote: “We now see, exposed to the world, how the Democrats, law enforcement at the federal level, progressively owned news outlets and the Biden campaign, all conspired together to keep the criminal acts of the Bidens from being exposed. Our federal government is completely corrupted and that corruption is being used to influence social media to keep the People from the truth. We are seeing that abundantly exposed with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, and release of internal memos and emails showing the criminal, Constitution-violating, actions of our corrupt Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice, and even the federal courts—all done in concert with the Biden campaign and its willing accomplices, the main-stream news media.”

To be fair, after all of that, Mitchell did start quoting Scripture. In case you were wondering, NO – NOT the Gospel. He opened with a few quotes from Solomon, and then went straight for the book of Jeremiah. Moreover, after reading Mitchell’s editorial, you’d think that Jeremiah was talking directly to the people of the United States! He finished with this: “It is time to cry aloud and spare not, to tell God’s people their sins, because the destruction warned by God is not far in the future if this nation does not repent. We need to be praying that God will grant us national repentance because nobody wants to see what God warned would happen actually come to pass.” That sounds familiar! I know I’ve heard that somewhere before…