Swapfiets is a Dutch-based bicycle subscription service company that provides customers with a bicycle for a fixed monthly fee. On September 28, 2023, Swapfiets sent letters to political leaders in the Netherlands’ largest cities, urging the reinstatement of a Sunday car ban. This, according to the letter, would offset the fossil fuel crisis and help combat climate change by lowering emissions. Sunday is once again being set aside for protecting the environment and improving long-term sustainability.
In their appeal to political officials, Swapfiets stated the following:
• “For three months beginning in November 1973, the Dutch government prohibited private motor vehicles from driving on Sundays. The measure aimed to reduce oil consumption during the OPEC energy crisis, and it allowed citizens to roller-skate, picnic and cycle on the nation’s highways. Now, half a century later and amid a far more consequential fossil fuel-related crisis, Dutch bike subscription service Swapfiets is urging authorities to reinstate Sunday bans.” [1]
• “Swapfiets sent letters to the city councils of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, advocating for the reintroduction of car-free Sundays once a month. The scaleup is encouraging local politicians to adopt a long-term perspective and implement no-car days as a means to decrease pollution, reduce emissions and improve air quality. To help council members imagine what they could accomplish, Swapfiets employed AI to recreate photos from 1973 and envision what car-free Sundays would look like today.” [1]
• “When Swapfiets sent letters to city councils advocating for car-free Sundays, it positioned itself as a thought leader, not just a service provider, in the space of sustainable urban living. In light of the climate crisis and other public concerns, brands like Swapfiets can become stewards of actionable change, leveraging their specialized knowledge to influence policy. Or, at the very least, ignite conversations and visualize alternative scenarios to make them palpable.” [1]
This illustrates precisely how Sunday rest laws will be enacted. Politicians are being petitioned to pass laws and regulations aimed at reducing activities on Sunday. In this instance, a secular company is trying to influence legislators and governments to create, amend, reinstate, or enforce policies that align with their goals of saving the environment, and Sunday is the solution.
“To secure popularity and patronage, legislators will yield to the demand for a Sunday law” (Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 451).
There’s no denying that the media, environmental organizations, secular businesses, special interest groups, politicians, and Rome have all contributed to turning the climate change message into the most widely accepted propaganda of our day. And tragically, the Sunday question has been intermingled with the climate message, and together they are being promoted as necessary for the well-being of society.
“The Sunday movement is now making its way in darkness. The leaders are concealing the true issue, and many who unite in the movement do not themselves see whither the undercurrent is tending” (Last Day Events, p. 125).
“They will point to calamities on land and sea—to the storms of wind, the floods, the earthquakes, the destruction by fire—as judgments indicating God’s displeasure because Sunday is not sacredly observed. These calamities will increase more and more, one disaster will follow close upon the heels of another” (Signs of the Times, January 17, 1884, par. 14).
Two important points are made about the Sunday law in the two statements above. (1) Sunday laws will come through stealth, meaning that they will be mixed in with other issues to conceal their true nature. (2) Climate disasters will be given as one of the main reasons for establishing these Sunday laws.
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We cannot labor to please men who will use their influence to repress religious liberty and to set in operation oppressive measures to lead or compel their fellow men to keep Sunday as the Sabbath. The first day of the week is not a day to be reverenced. It is a spurious sabbath, and the members of the Lord’s family cannot participate with the men who exalt this day and violate the law of God by trampling upon His Sabbath. The people of God are not to vote to place such men in office, for when they do this they are partakers with them of the sins which they commit while in office.—Fundamentals of Christian Education, 475 (1899).
We need to get our lives in order. God has warned us in advance of the future events.
“Soon the Sunday laws will be enforced, and men in positions of trust will be embittered against the little handful of God’s commandment-keeping people” Manuscript Releases 4:278 (1909).
There’s no denying that the Sunday question is coming down on us from all sides. This proves beyond a doubt the accuracy and reliability of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy.