Another No-Go for Sundays?

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bookslover

Puritan Board Doctor
Now that Amazon has made a deal with the Postal Service to deliver Amazon mail on Sundays (in a few selected areas, for now), I guess this means Christians can never order anything from Amazon again - because it might get delivered on a Sunday (on the analogy of eating in restaurants on Sundays, I guess).

What say ye?
 
Going to a restaurant on the Lord's Day requires you and the waiting staff and chefs etc to be there. Ordering a book requires neither you or the Amazon staff to be there on the Lord's day. Should it be delivered on the Lord's Day and you are home, invite the stranger in.
 
Over here Amazon goods are usually delivered by the Royal Mail or another courier. Such services do not currently deliver on Sundays.
 
I'm surprised, not heard this.
Hopefully, God's people will let Amazon know it is not necessary.

I'm not sure it would disqualify the company though any more than not eating at a restaurant that was open on Sunday, eating there on Saturday. But, God's people can request Amazon NOT deliver on Sunday, or advise they will not be there for pickup.

Let's pray this misguided attempt from the love of money will fail, and prove unprofitable (no pun intended).
 
Now that Amazon has made a deal with the Postal Service to deliver Amazon mail on Sundays (in a few selected areas, for now), I guess this means Christians can never order anything from Amazon again - because it might get delivered on a Sunday (on the analogy of eating in restaurants on Sundays, I guess).

What say ye?

The analogy to restaurants on the Lord's Day does not hold, in my opinion, unless one is ordering something on the Lord's Day. After all, when you eat at a restaurant on Monday or buy groceries on Monday, there is always a possibility some of the food you are getting has been handled - somewhere along the line - on the Lord's Day. There we ask no questions for conscience sake, and content ourselves to avoid purchasing on the Lord's Day so that service on the Lord's Day would become unprofitable. Likewise here, we do not order on the Lord's Day. Maybe we even try to be careful not to order something that seems likely to be delivered or transported on the Lord's Day. But we needn't ask questions for conscience sake if we are ordering on a lawful day and are unaware and not the cause of anything being unlawfully handled on the Lord's Day.

I recall that R.L. Dabney addressed the issue of mail transportation on the Lord's Day, specifically with respect to Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's practice: http://dailyreformation.wordpress.c...egun-that-his-responsibility-was-to-see-to-i/
 
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The last I heard (a few weeks back) was that Amazon was considering its own fleet of drones for home delivery. Seriously.

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The last I heard (a few weeks back) was that Amazon was considering its own fleet of drones for home delivery. Seriously.

View attachment 3742

Yes, it's true. Actual implementation is still 4 or 5 years away - Amazon has to get FAA approval, the nuts and bolts of how exactly it would work still have to be ironed out, etc., etc.
 
We can do what is within our power to avoid making people work on the Lord's Day, but sadly, Amazon is not within our power. My family loves to try to support businesses that are closed on Sunday, but they are getting to be fewer and further between.
 
Now that Amazon has made a deal with the Postal Service to deliver Amazon mail on Sundays (in a few selected areas, for now), I guess this means Christians can never order anything from Amazon again - because it might get delivered on a Sunday (on the analogy of eating in restaurants on Sundays, I guess).

What say ye?

I emailed Amazon support the day they announced it and asked for a way to select "No Sunday Deliveries". Something along those lines would work well. Alternatively, you could select the correct shipping speed to avoid a Sunday delivery (though it wouldn't be guaranteed). I do appreciate their desire to make their customers happy, but hoping this doesn't workout.
 
I guess this means Christians can never order anything from Amazon again - because it might get delivered on a Sunday

Order on Monday with two-day shipping. :)

This doesn't get you out of the bind, though... you might avoid Sunday delivery, but anything you order may well be driven or flown by UPS or USPS workers on Sunday - it's not as though the transport of shipped material doesn't occur on Sundays - it almost invariably does, so by ordering anything from anyone at all, your stuff is likely being carried on a Sunday (unless you order on Monday with delivery such that it arrives before Sunday)
 
it almost invariably does, so by ordering anything from anyone at all, your stuff is likely being carried on a Sunday (unless you order on Monday with delivery such that it arrives before Sunday)

Right. And it doesn't matter from whom you order. For that matter, I'd say that most of what you might buy in any store has a history of being shipped on the Lord's Day.
 
it almost invariably does, so by ordering anything from anyone at all, your stuff is likely being carried on a Sunday (unless you order on Monday with delivery such that it arrives before Sunday)

Right. And it doesn't matter from whom you order. For that matter, I'd say that most of what you might buy in any store has a history of being shipped on the Lord's Day.

Furthermore, it doesn't matter whether you order the book or buy it in person. It may have shipped to the store on the Lord's Day.

I think our duty here extends as far as seeing that we aren't causing a book to be sent/shipped/delivered on the Lord's Day. If I order a book from amazon, for instance, i need to take the necessary measures, as I outlined above; but if Amazon ordered the book from the manufacturer on the Sabbath, that's between them and God.
 
Over here Amazon goods are usually delivered by the Royal Mail or another courier. Such services do not currently deliver on Sundays.

I think the Royal Mail is trying to cut down deliveries not add more!
 
Having just finished studying 1 Corinthians 10, I am in inclined to observe that Paul advises us to accept meat without question. We can be too picky with our consciences - I would purchase from Amazon and do so to stack the odds against a Sunday delivery. If you are out at church then I assume you would get a card advising you that you could pick up from the local depot. I think this would only become problematic if you waited in for the delivery and skipped church. Paul speaks of the Judaisers who crept in to spy on the freedom they had in Christ. As I study more of Paul I am struck by the way he found a tremendous liberty in Christ contrary to his previous nature as a Pharisee.

We can go too far in searching out problems. I read in the paper here of a Lewis man who was trapped on the mainland missing his ferry and "had to" use the Sunday ferry. I believe he had cattle with him and so his choice of ferry was limited by animal welfare considerations - he was disciplined. I used to take the bus to church in the city - was I wrong. I think nothing of switching on electricity on a Sunday, yet if I stop to think about it beside my parents in Kirkintilloch is the central grid control room. That has to be manned on a Sunday and I contribute to that requirement. I think we have enough problems dealing with what our consciences tell us without looking for more. As a Baptist though I am more inclined to respect the Sunday than observe it if that makes sense. It is something I am chewing over though.

Almost totally unrelated;I recall a friend who turned away work from the Navigators because of a tenuous link with the Billy Graham organisation some 10 years previously. What made that attack of conscience all the more ironic was that he was behind on the rent, owed others money from foreign holidays he had taken and had I believe spent my share of the rent on food and living expenses. His conscience it seemed was numb in the area of fiscal responsibility but alive and well elsewhere. ;-)
 
According to this article, this is only being delivered on Sundays in NYC and LA right now, so most of us are probably putting the cart before the horse.
 
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