Psychology Today Says that we Need a Weekly Day of Rest due to Wars, Hurricanes, Floods, Fires, Homelessness, Homicides, and Suicides, or we will Perish

Psychology Today is a secular monthly magazine that is dedicated to human psychology and behavior and contains articles written by leading psychologists, psychiatrists, medical doctors, sociologists, and science journalists. On October 6, 2022, Psychology Today published an article written by Dr. David Roger Clawson titled: “Resilience, the Sabbath, and the Planet.” In the article, the following question is raised:

• “With so much suffering and so many tragedies in the world today—war, hurricanes, floods, fires, homelessness, homicides, suicides, overdoses— there is much talk of resilience and the need to be resilient. But what does resilience really mean?” [1]

So, what is the solution to our planet’s man-made and natural disasters, according to Psychology Today magazine? Their response is to secure a weekly day of rest for humans and the planet, or we will perish. Notice how they proceed to explain the science behind Sabbath rest and saving the world:

• “Ancient tradition, now, unfortunately, largely forgotten in the modern world, may give us some strategies to become more resilient. The ideas of the Sabbath and sabbatical have validity to improve the human condition.” [1]

• “A Sabbath or a sabbatical need not have a religious connotation. A secular Sabbath is as valid as a religious one.” [1]

• “As we move towards safety and recovery, so too we move into the other, the needs of the other person and the needs of the natural world around us. As we move the world towards safety and recovery, we build our resilience while we also build the resilience of the other—both people and the planet.” [1]

• “As we give time to ourselves for a Sabbath and sabbatical to build our resilience, we can also give time to our planet for regeneration, rejuvenation, recovery, and resilience.” [1]

• “As humans can tolerate some threat, the planet can also tolerate some threat if provided with periods of safety, but the planet cannot tolerate chronic sustained threat any more than we can.” [1]

• “During the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic we saw the amazing resilience of our planet from just one month of near-total shutdown of human activity. The shutting down of nonessential activities had a remarkably restorative effect for the planet. What if we disconnected from our cars and technologies, devoted time to rest, nourishment, and connection to both each other and nature for one day each week?” [1]

• “These concepts of resilience, recovery, safety, and a Sabbath are not based in philosophy or religion but in physiology and biology—the physiology and biology of thriving. The provision of safety to the world leads to resilience and equanimity in the world.” [1]

• “We may not, yet, be ready for these concepts, nor the adjustments to make a better reality. But at some point we will tire of our suffering and perhaps open up to them—or perish. Can we create a cultural contagion, a meme, of a respected secular Sabbath?” [1]

Psychology Today has just outlined the “scientific” reasons why we need a weekly day of rest for both humans and the planet. Even if they don’t say which day should be the preferred day of universal rest, we can see where this is going. The scientific community’s role is to present the science for a day of rest, but it will be the churches that put pressure on the government to decide which day that should be.

“The dignitaries of church and State will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; 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. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected” (Great Controversy, p. 592).

Politicians, religious leaders, labor unions, economists, social organizations, and the media are calling on the world to keep Sunday holy by making it a day of rest. Historically, Sunday laws prohibited the operation of businesses, shopping centers, and secular activities on Sunday. The first blue laws were enacted in 321 A.D., when the Roman emperor Constantine decreed that all work be suspended on Sunday. Sunday laws in colonial America required citizens to keep the Sunday-Sabbath holy by attending church and also required all work to be stopped. This is precisely what the Sunday movement seeks to reestablish today.

Tragically, with all of the talk about restoring Sabbath rest and making Sunday the preferred day, what is being lost in this discussion is that Sunday, as a holy day, is solely dependent on the authority of the Catholic Church. There is no indication in the Bible that the weekly day of rest has been changed from Saturday to Sunday. Sunday was not honored by Christ, the apostles, or the early apostolic church.

This means that our current society is openly and persistently defying God’s commandments and the faith of Jesus, which affirms, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God” (Exodus 20:10). During this controversy, the conflict between the first day, the Sunday of the Papacy, and the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord, is on full display. Unfortunately, with the expectation of the Remnant people of Revelation 12:17, the entire world has joined the side of rebellion against the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28).

Sources

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/deconstructing-illness/202210/resilience-the-sabbath-and-the-planet