In recent years, Sunday rest laws, which were traditionally associated with religious observance, are being indirectly reintroduced under the pretext of environmental and public health policies. Both political and religious discourse on climate change and sustainability has increasingly highlighted the benefits of less commercial activity and decreased carbon emissions on Sundays. Local governments, recognizing the dual benefits of promoting environmental stewardship and improving public welfare, are showing renewed enthusiasm to support measures that encourage Sunday rest by law. By framing these laws as necessary actions to combat climate change and improve citizens’ physical and mental health, policymakers are indirectly advocating for the return of Sunday as the traditional day of rest.
On June 9, 2024, City Mayor Alfredo Benitez, whose job it is to manage the City of Bacolod in the Philippines, urged the local city council to pass legislation aimed at making Car-Free Sunday permanent. The mayor’s plan for supporting a “permanent” Car-Free Sunday ordinance is to help make people healthy, as recommended by the doctors, and to help protect the environment.
The mayor expressed the following:
• “Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo ‘Albee’ Benitez said he has endorsed to the Sangguniang Panlungsod (city council) the Car Free Sunday Ordinance.” [1]
• “I hope the SP (city council) will approve the Ordinance so that it will be permanent,’ Benitez said.” [1]
• “We want everybody to be healthy by walking and other exercises as recommended by the doctors,’ Benitez said.” [1]
• “There will be four Sundays for the dry run of Car Free Sunday. From 5:00A.M to 8:00A.M. along Lacson street.” [1]
• “Car Free Sunday is also Bacolod’s way of giving importance to the environment month this June.” [1]
• “Proclamation No. 237 establishes June as Philippine Environment Month. The proclamation aims to increase environmental awareness and promote active involvement in protecting and developing the environment in the Philippines.” [1]
Brothers and sisters, this is precisely how Sunday rest by law will be reinstated during the final crisis. To comply with “health experts,” the mayor is proposing a permanent law prohibiting cars on Sunday. We witnessed the same scenario during the pandemic. Draconian mandates were passed to force people to comply. God warned us that these same health reforms would be the reason for imposing Sunday rest on society.
“Here the temperance work, one of the most prominent and important of moral reforms, is often combined with the Sunday movement, and the advocates of the latter represent themselves as laboring to promote the highest interest of society; and those who refuse to unite with them are denounced as the enemies of temperance and reform” (Great Controversy, p. 587).
This call for a permanent car-free Sunday ordinance will only help to spread and accelerate the Sunday movement in other areas. This kind of legislation will strengthen the Sunday movement, generating excitement and widespread interest in other communities and influencing them to implement similar Sunday rest measures elsewhere. Finally, given that Sunday rest is being linked to good health and environmental protection, this will be the strategy to reintroduce Sunday into popular culture, both in religious and secular circles. According to inspiration, Sunday laws will not be implemented until they regain popularity.
“Rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance” (Great Controversy, p. 592).
“As the Sabbath has become the special point of controversy throughout Christendom, and religious and secular authorizes have combined to enforce the observance of Sunday, the persistent refusal of a small minority to yield to the popular demand will make them objects of universal execration” (Great Controversy, p. 615).
“And so completely will men be deceived by him that they will declare that these calamities are the result of the desecration of the first day of the week. From the pulpits of the popular churches will be heard the statement that the world is being punished because Sunday is not honored as it should be. And it will require no great stretch of imagination for men to believe this” (Review and Herald, September 17, 1901).
Sources
[1] https://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/benitez-endorses-car-free-sunday-ordinance-to-sp
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