Need your advice on this.

[capnator]

We are having a house built by a large builder. The builder uses a bunch of subcontractors to build, eg plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, carpenters etc. Now what I was musing over is this.... Some of these subcontractors are working over the weekends and therefore on the Sabbath on our house, do you guys think this is ok or not?

I was thinking not, but at the same time not really sure what I could do about it anyways..

But then another thought occured to me, these guys are out there swearing like troopers, talking smut, eating pigs , profaning God's name (as wordly trades people often do) as well as breaking the Sabbath and who know what else!! So if I was to take some sort of a stand about them working on Sabbath what about all the other sinful stuff they are doing... and is it even a good thing for me to try and force people into doing right anyways.

 

[MidnightCry]

The right thing to do would be to tell them they cannot work on the Sabbath. Tell them it is a day of rest and worship for you and your family and you don't want to be called with questions regarding the new house; so it would be better if they took the day off also.

Then if they have any questions you could go into more details about their behavior, speech, bad habits, etc.

 

[capnator]

hmmm... they don't really ask questions to me, the subcontractors are employed by the building company.

 

[TrustAndObey]

Technically you aren't living there so they are not strangers within thy gates and they are not your manservants since they are employed by someone else.

As much as I'd like to see everyone rest on God's holy day, it's just not feasible and we really aren't responsible for everyone.

If you had bought the house already built you'd have no clue what days they built it on.

I don't know...it's a toughie, but it wouldn't be a lesson of any kind to them, I suspect, and they'd just work on someone else's house on Saturdays.

 

[sentipente]

It we extend the argument to its logical conclusion we would have to ask whether we should buy a house or any other merchandise that was not built or manufactured according to Adventist standards. Given our global economy things can get really sticky.

 

[reddogs]

We are having a house built by a large builder. The builder uses a bunch of subcontractors to build, eg plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, carpenters etc. Now what I was musing over is this.... Some of these subcontractors are working over the weekends and therefore on the Sabbath on our house, do you guys think this is ok or not?

I was thinking not, but at the same time not really sure what I could do about it anyways..

But then another thought occured to me, these guys are out there swearing like troopers, talking smut, eating pigs , profaning God's name (as wordly trades people often do) as well as breaking the Sabbath and who know what else!! So if I was to take some sort of a stand about them working on Sabbath what about all the other sinful stuff they are doing... and is it even a good thing for me to try and force people into doing right anyways.

We picked our builder after checking a good number of them, and we let the builder know of our beliefs on the Sabbath and she understood and it wasnt a problem..

We noticed that many of her workers were good Christians and to our great surprise some were even Adventist. The builder was a very good Christian and it seems that she chose her subcontractors accordingly so we became farmiliar with many of the companies that did plumbing, electrical, roofing, ect... that were some of the most honest and ethical in the area, just from that builder choosing carefully her subcontractors....

 

[thecountrydoc]

From a previous post:

It we extend the argument to its logical conclusion we would have to ask whether we should buy a house or any other merchandise that was not built or manufactured according to Adventist standards. Given our global economy things can get really sticky.

Capnator the answer to your original question is not as complicated as it may seem. First let me say that I agree with you completely about not allowing work to be done on your house on the Sabbath. Notice I said YOUR house. The structure is for you and is being built on your property. As such you have complete control over who will preforme the work and when that work will be performed. I say this from personal experience as someone who has been heavely involved in building and property development as one of my many business activities over the years. As the property owner you also have the right to post it a no smoking zone with no alcohol allowed on the property.

If you have futher questions please feel to PM me.

Your brother in Christ,
Doc

 

[capnator]

I haven't mentioned anything at all to the building company about it, and in fact I hadn't even thought about the issue until the other day. I do know that people will be there on this coming Sabbath and the subcontracters coming in have already planned to come and do thier work. - I don't have control over the subcontractors, the building company does, so I can't really go to them anyways.

Well, the thing is I never even really thought about whether or not building would be happening on the sabbath or not when I signed up with our builder. The house is probably half finished and up to now no work has been happening on Sabbath.

To be fair if I was going to have something done about this I really should have done it straight up front with the builder, but I just never even thought of it.

I can think of reasons why not to say anything, but mind you I wouldn't look forward to how much trouble this would cause for all the workers at this stage.

My reasons for leaving it be would be these... Can I say to someone, you mustn't sin when working for me. And secondly do I worry about this with other things, eg. drop a shirt off at the drycleaners he says pick it up on Tuesday... do I tell him ok, but don't clean it on Saturday?

 

[thecountrydoc]

You ask for input. You have recieved input. The input I gave you can be backed up by law. If you wish to rationalize your decision for not accepting the input you ask for that is between you and the Lord. God does not rationalize our salvation.

Respectfully, your brother in Christ,
Doc

 

[capnator]

You ask for input. You have recieved input. The input I gave you can be backed up by law. If you wish to rationalize your decision for not accepting the input you ask for that is between you and the Lord. God does not rationalize our salvation.

Respectfully, your brother in Christ,
Doc

By Australian laws? - I think I'm going to have to have a chat with the foreman next week, and tell him that we would prefer that work doesn't happen on the Sabbath.

 

[TrustAndObey]

I was under the impression (by assumption) that it was like a neighborhood being built up and you had picked a house in the neighborhood but that it wasn't technically yours yet.

Is the house being built on property you already own? If so, yeah, I'd definitely tell them that you do not wish for the workers to work on Saturdays.

A little boy came by and said he'd mow my yard for $5/week and I was just about to shake his hand when he said he'd do it on Saturdays. He can't do it on Sundays or during the week.

I couldn't let him do it.

 

[OntheDL]

...

edit: since the house is being built by a builder, you don't have direct control over it, I'm not sure what you can really do about it. You probably can ask them not to work on it on Saturday.

 

[reddogs]

By Australian laws? - I think I'm going to have to have a chat with the foreman next week, and tell him that we would prefer that work doesn't happen on the Sabbath.

That is the way to do it, I am sure they will understand...