National Sunday law

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'''National Sunday law''' is a [[conspiracy theory]] held by some on the fringes of [[Seventh-Day Adventism]] (which considers the Sabbath to be Saturday), alleging the [[United States]] government is on the verge of enacting a national [[blue law]] declaring Sunday a day of rest and worship.  According to this theory, the [[Pope]] is the [[Antichrist]] and the mark of the beast is worship on Sunday.  Sinister forces (read: the Vatican) are conspiring to enact a national Sunday law in the United States.  When this happens it will be the trigger that unleashes the coming fulfillment of the [[Bible]] [[prophecy|prophecies]] in [[Book of Daniel]] and [[Book of Revelation|Revelations]].
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'''National Sunday law''' is a [[conspiracy theory]] held by some on the fringes of [[Seventh-Day Adventism]] (which considers the Sabbath to be Saturday), alleging the [[United States]] government is on the verge of enacting a national [[blue law]] declaring Sunday a day of rest and worship.  According to this theory, the catholic system is the [[Antichrist]] and the mark of the beast is worship on Sunday.  Sinister forces (read: the Vatican) are conspiring to enact a national Sunday law in the United States.  When this happens it will be the trigger that unleashes the coming fulfillment of the [[Bible]] [[prophecy|prophecies]] in [[Book of Daniel]] and [[Book of Revelation|Revelations]].
  
 
== History ==
 
== History ==

Revision as of 23:14, 2 March 2012

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National Sunday law is a conspiracy theory held by some on the fringes of Seventh-Day Adventism (which considers the Sabbath to be Saturday), alleging the United States government is on the verge of enacting a national blue law declaring Sunday a day of rest and worship. According to this theory, the catholic system is the Antichrist and the mark of the beast is worship on Sunday. Sinister forces (read: the Vatican) are conspiring to enact a national Sunday law in the United States. When this happens it will be the trigger that unleashes the coming fulfillment of the Bible prophecies in Book of Daniel and Revelations.

Contents

History

Fears about a national Sunday law date almost to the founding of the SDA church.

In The Great Controversy, Ellen G. White wrote: "and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance."[1] She claimed to have foreseen such a thing in 1844.[2]

The most notable attempt at passing a national blue law was in 1888, coincidentally or not the same year the third edition of The Great Controversy was released. The fourth and last edition in 1911, still containing this national Sunday law teaching, is still in circulation today.

U.S. Senator Henry Blair (R-NH) introduced a national Sunday bill in 1888[2] which did not pass. Alonzo T. Jones, of the California Conference of the SDA church, spoke before the United States Senate Committee on Education and Labor about the subject.[3] Jones also wrote a book, "National Sunday Law", published in 1889.[4]

A century later, parts of John Paul II's Dies Domini encouraged Sunday rest guarantees from secular government.[5], writing that "my predecessor Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical Rerum Novarum spoke of Sunday rest as a worker's right which the State must guarantee" and "Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy."

Connections to eschatology

Some Seventh-Day Adventists got the idea that a national Sunday law was a clear and present danger to their religious freedom.[6] They fear that the Antichrist will unleash great persecution of Sabbath-keepers just before the Second Coming.

The belief tying Sunday blue laws to Bible prophecy and the Antichrist appears to come from Ellen G. White's book The Great Controversy: "Satan himself will personate Christ. [...] he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them with light and truth."[1] Modern preachers like A. Jan Marcussen have continued this association, equating the "beast" of Revelation with the Papacy.[7] He also identifies the "number of the beast" from Revelation 13:18, 666, from the numerical values of the Pope's title of "Vicarius Filii Dei".

This fear of a coming national Sunday law became a conspiracy theory and something that must inevitably happen, due to the official church stance on Ellen G. White's writings as carrying divine authority.[8]

Several books cheaply printed for mass distribution continue to promote fear of a coming national Sunday law, among them National Sunday Law by A. Jan Marcussen[9] and the anonymous National Sunday Law Crisis[10]. Marcussen's book ties other issues into the conspiracy; for example, there is a conspiracy to bring back the death penalty so Sabbath-keepers can be executed once the national Sunday law is enacted. Marcussen's book has been mysteriously showing up since 1983 in laundromats, phone booths, rest areas, and unsolicited in the mail and usually elicits unintentional lulz from the reader.

Despite the presumed support of an international religious organization with two thousand years of recorded history, and numerous predictions, no such law has been passed in the United States in the one hundred years since it was first mentioned.

Also consider

  • Blue laws already exist in most states and localities, restricting anything from the sale of alcoholic beverages to, in the past, businesses being open at all on Sunday. What is so special about a national Sunday law that would make it the trigger that sets off the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, when the U.S. was already blanketed with state and local blue laws?
  • The trend over the past four decades has been to repeal those blue laws. Any attempt today at introducing such a bill in the U.S. Congress for a national law would be laughed at.
  • Belief that such a law is inevitably coming is based on a peculiar interpretation of Bible prophecy and fears dating from the late 1800s that have ossified into a persistent conspiracy theory, not on any real legislative priorities in the U.S. Congress. A quick look at thomas.loc.gov shows nothing of the sort introduced in Congress in recent years. The closest things have been bills mentioning Sunday premium pay or designating certain Sundays "Drive Safer Sunday" or "Parent's Day".
  • What is so special about the United States that a national Sunday law in the U.S. would trigger the end times? Would a national Sunday law in Thailand, the Ukraine, or the Republic of the Congo also trigger the end times?
  • Where they get Sunday worship as the mark of the beast (666 according to Revelation 13) is anyone's guess.
  • Comment by a member of the SDA church follows: Associating the Roman Catholic Church as the beast power of Danial and Revelations, has historically been done by all protestant churches in the past and is not a creation of the SDA church. [11] If the Roman Catholic Church is the beast power, then the mark of the beast would therefore be a mark of the Roman Catholic Church. Danial states that this power is to change times and laws. The Sabbath is a law that is also about time. The early Apostles and Christians worshiped on the 7th day Sabbath. This practice was slowly changed from Saturday to Sunday through the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. When the Protestant churches broke away from the Catholic churches, they retained this practice. The Bible states that God wrote the 10 commandment law on 2 tables of stone. We believe that this law embodies the character of God and that His law is unchangeable. The fourth commandment tells us to cease from work on the 7th day. Historically, the Jews have always kept this 7th day Sabbath, so the identity of which day is the 7th is not arguable. To keep a different day would be to go against God's explicit command of which day He established. The issue of the last days will be an issue of worship. Will we obey God's commandments as he presented, or will be obey man instead, as embodied by the change to the law established by the Roman Catholic Church.[citation needed]

You can't be serious. People really believe this?

Yes. And gets even worse; Obama and global warming are apparently now part of the conspiracy.

Footnotes

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