AOL is an American online service provider and news portal based in New York City that provides news in the U.S. and around the world. On December 31, 2023, AOL News added its voice to a growing list of proponents calling for the return of Sunday laws in America. In an article called “Church as Resistance,” AOL News argued that blue laws contributed to the well-being of individuals and society and called on the churches to “reclaim” the “unique role” that Sunday played in our culture.
The article said, in part:
• “As the mother of three teenagers, I often find myself trying to persuade them of things that previous generations took for granted. Most recently, I’ve been attempting to convince my 17-year-old son of the value of attending church on Sunday morning.” [1]
• “And while parents can count on the state to enforce school attendance, we’re on our own when it comes to church.” [1]
• “To this day, attendance remains highest among those who enjoy social and financial stability. Even so, it is declining across the board, and Sunday morning is increasingly used to catch up on all the things we missed during the week: hearty breakfasts, grocery shopping, home-improvement projects, visiting friends, and maybe even a run.” [1]
• “In a similar way, “blue laws” protected commercial workers by restricting retail sales and recreational activity on Sunday. So great was the benefit of such laws that the Supreme Court upheld them in McGowan v. Maryland (1961) despite the fact that they were originally linked to religious observance. Not only did the court find that they didn’t violate the establishment clause, they also viewed them as protecting workers by providing “a uniform day of rest for all citizens.” [1]
• “No, attending church is not just another activity. It’s a form of resistance in a culture that knows no bounds. It is a dam against the churning waters of productivity that would otherwise swallow up every available ounce of time, energy, and emotion.” [1]
• “Churches, therefore, must remember and reclaim the unique role they play as outposts of grace in an increasingly demanding world. They must guard Sunday morning as a place of refuge, wonder, and presence. A place where we might experience the miraculous because we’ve finally stopped long enough to open ourselves to it.” [1]
• “As the calendar turns and we consider the lives we want to live in 2024, let me invite you to join me and my begrudging son in the pew. Perhaps this is the year you carve out a space for a weekly dose of wonder, beauty, and grace. Perhaps this is the year you become more comfortable with sitting still and doing nothing. Or, if nothing else, perhaps this is the year you attend church as a simple, calculated (if not adolescent) way of sticking it to the man.” [1]
There should be little doubt about what is being said here. This is a call to designate Sunday as a day of rest in order to provide people with a collective pause from the demands of modern life. In an increasingly fast-paced secular world, so many people are saying that we can somehow improve family cohesion, mental health, societal stability, leisure, and spirituality by setting aside Sunday for rest and worship. Although it may sound good on the surface, the Puritans used blue laws during the colonial era to impose tyranny and enforce the strict observance of Sunday.
Because of their intense religious zeal, the colonists of early America interpreted Scripture to mandate Sunday rest by law, with penalties for noncompliance. They felt that enforcing blue laws was their religious obligation to protect our morals. Unfortunately, minority groups were subjected to public humiliation, persecution, and suppression as a result of the intolerance shown towards dissenting opinions. Sunday laws were enforced as a result of the merging of religious and civil authority, which restricted the freedoms of individuals who held different beliefs.
AOL News is basically advocating for a return to the 1630s, when anyone who disagreed with those in spiritual authority on matters of faith risked legal repercussions. We must challenge any attempt to bind church and state by calling for the complete separation of civil and religious authorities. Religious freedom and tolerance are incompatible with theocratic forms of government. It is bad theology and even more dangerous politics when demands are made for the government to enforce church doctrine. When this happens, it will mark the end of our nation’s long-standing practice of providing a safe haven for people fleeing religious persecution.
“I have been much burdened in regard to movements that are now in progress for the enforcement of Sunday observance. It has been shown to me that Satan has been working earnestly to carry out his designs to restrict religious liberty. Plans of serious import to the people of God are advancing in an underhand manner among the clergymen of various denominations, and the object of this secret maneuvering is to win popular favor for the enforcement of Sunday sacredness. If the people can be led to favor a Sunday law, then the clergy intend to exert their united influence to obtain a religious amendment to the Constitution, and compel the nation to keep Sunday” (Review and Herald, December 24, 1889).
Sources
[1] https://www.aol.com/news/church-resistance-074300968.html
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There is a lot of work being done to reinstate Sunday laws. It’s just a question of time.
“A time is coming when the law of God is, in a special sense, to be made void in our land. The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law, and thus God’s people be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin” (The Review and Herald, December 18, 1888). – {7BC 977.2}
Sooner or later Sunday laws will be passed. But there is much for God’s servants to do to warn the people. This work has been greatly retarded by their having to wait and stand against the devisings of Satan, which have been striving to find a place in our work. We are years behind. – {RH February 16, 1905 Par. 4}
They will try to bring the Sunday law in 2024.
From my search in the Spirit of Prophecy there are 3 tests that I found more prominent that will come among Gods people , the SDAs.
from my understanding
The first test is Revelation’s 18:1-2
“.. We are not to give the message in so indifferent a manner. The message of (Revelation 18:1, 2) contains the great test for the people. It is to be given with a solemn sense of its importance, that it may do its special work.. 22LtMs, Lt 296, 1907, par. 4”
Revelation 18:1-3 is connected with some great buildings coming down in New York by the power of God .
“Now comes the word that I have declared that New York is to be swept away by a tidal wave. This I have never said. I have said, as I looked at the great buildings going up there, story after story, “What terrible scenes will take place when the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth. Then the words of (Revelation 18:1-3) will be fulfilled. The whole of the eighteenth chapter of Revelation is a warning of what is coming on the earth.. 18LtMs, Lt 176, 1903, par. 10-18LtMs, Lt 176, 1903, par. 11”
The 2nd Test : the Imagine of the beast – Church and State uniting with the church in control
“..The Lord has shown me clearly that the image of the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided. Your position is such a jumble of inconsistencies that but few will be deceived. . 6LtMs, Lt 11, 1890, par. 10”
The 3rd Test: – the 7th day Sabbath
“In (Revelation 13) this subject is plainly presented: “I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” [Verse 11.] Then the miracle-working power is revealed: “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” [Verses 14-17.]
This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed. All who prove their loyalty to God by observing His law, and refusing to accept a spurious Sabbath, will rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, and will receive the seal of the living God. Those who yield the truth of heavenly origin, and accept the Sunday Sabbath, will receive the mark of the beast. What need will there be of the solemn warning not to receive the mark of the beast, when all the saints of God are sealed and ticketed for the New Jerusalem? “O consistency, thou art a jewel!” . 6LtMs, Lt 11, 1890, par. 11-6LtMs, Lt 11, 1890, par. 12