For Roman Catholics and many Protestant churches, Easter Sunday is the holiest day of the year. What is more sacred to these churches than the resurrection of Jesus Christ? The environmental crisis, it appears, has become as sacred, if not more, to Christianity as when Jesus rose from the grave on Sunday morning. On Easter Sunday, 2022, Catholic and Protestant leaders signed a letter urging “political leaders to take bold action on climate change.” [1]
According to a document titled “Church Leaders’ Easter Statement on the Environment” published by Eternity News in Australia, the climate crisis has been linked to the resurrection of Jesus from the grave on Sunday morning:
Easter is a celebration of life. In order to celebrate life all people need to flourish, but we acknowledge that Australians have been enduring dark days – with droughts, bushfires, severe storms and massive floods.
Our churches, along with homes and businesses in our communities, are being burnt down, flooded and severely impacted by extreme weather. Damage to the climate is a key contributing factor to these events.
Yet among these shared struggles there is Easter, a message of hope. Hope which reminds us that we can overcome the challenges that face us lifts hearts and minds to perceive a transformed world. Amongst the greatest challenges we face, is climate change. This is a challenge that collectively we can overcome. Facing this challenge requires us all to act responsibly and courageously.
We need our government leaders to heed the advice of climate experts to reduce carbon emissions to ensure a safe and sustainable future …
As our political leaders continue their election campaign this Easter, we welcome them to our churches and call on them to take powerful action to preserve and protect God’s creation by:
• Halving carbon emissions this decade, in line with the recommendation of scientists and targets of our major trading partners;
• Transforming our energy system towards 100% renewable electricity while delivering a planned and just transition for energy workers; and
• Investing in programs to support communities on the frontlines to plan, prepare and adapt to the extreme weather events.
Signed by
Rev Sharon Hollis, President Uniting Church in Australia Assembly Ann Zubrick, Presiding Clerk, Quakers Australia
Archbishop Haigazoun Najarian, Primate, Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia and New Zealand
Rev. John Gilmore, President, National Council of Churches in Australia
The Most Rev. Kay Goldsworthy AO, Anglican Archbishop of Perth
The Most Rev. Dr Phillip Aspinall AC, Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane
The Most Rev. Mark Coleridge, Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane
The Most Rev. Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv STL DD, Bishop of Parramatta [Catholic]
The Right Rev. Dr Murray Harvey, Bishop of Grafton [Anglican]
The Right Rev. Dr Peter Stuart, Bishop of Newcastle [Anglican]
The Right Rev. Kate Prowd, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Melbourne [Anglican]
The Right Rev. Sonia Roulston, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Newcastle [Anglican]
The Right Rev. Charlie Murry, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Newcastle [Anglican]
The Right Rev. Jeremy Greaves, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Brisbane [Anglican]
The Right Rev. Cameron Venables, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Brisbane [Anglican]
The Right Rev. John Roundhill, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Brisbane [Anglican]
The Right Rev. Philip Huggins, Diocese of Melbourne [Anglican]
The Right Rev. Dr Stephen Pickard, Adjunct Professor, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Charles Sturt University
The Right Rev. Dr George Browning, Inaugural Convener, Anglican Communion Climate Network
The Very Rev. Elizabeth Dyke, Dean of Bendigo [Anglican]
The Very Rev. David Price, Dean of The Murray [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Richard Humphrey, Dean of Hobart [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Dr Kenneth Lay, Dean of Townsville [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Darryl Cotton, Dean of Bunbury [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Dr Andreas Loewe, Dean of Melbourne [Anglican]
Bishop Chis McLeod, Dean of Adelaide [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Chris Chataway, Dean of Perth [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Katherine Bowyer, Dean of Newcastle [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Dr Peter Catt, Dean of Brisbane [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Ken Goodger, Dean of Wangaratta [Anglican]
The Very Rev. Rob Llewellyn, Dean of Darwin [Anglican]
Very Rev Robert Riedling, Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta [Catholic]
Kristyn Crossfield, Common Grace Board Chair [A non-denominational Not for Profit]
Sister Anne Lane President Society of Presentation Sisters of Australia and Papua New Guinea [Presentation Congregations in Australia]
Sister Eveline Crotty Institute Leader Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea [Catholic]
Sister Wendy Hildebrand, Institute Leader Loreto Sisters Australia and South East Asia [Catholic]
The Sunday movement seems, at this time, to be concentrated upon promoting their day of rest by uniting Easter Sunday and the climate crisis. They have thrown a religious mantle over secular policies for combating climate change. What is the relationship between carbon emissions and the resurrection of Jesus? There is none; however, religious leaders are making this connection. Easter Sunday worship is being used to make a case for environmental protection.
This is the point made by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’, his encyclical on climate change. Pope Francis is the one who proposed that Sunday, a sign of the resurrection, can help repair and reverse the damaging trends in our environment. In Laudato Si’, the Pope says:
“Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the ‘first day’ of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims ‘man’s eternal rest in God’ … And so the day of rest, centered on the Eucharist, sheds it light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor” (Laudato Si’ #237).
There is no link between Sunday rest and saving the planet, but the modern church is determined to make us all believe that the day of the resurrection, Sunday, is meant to solve all of our environmental issues provided we stop doing business on this day.
Sunday restrictions are based on religious worship rather than the weather. The purpose of Sunday rest is to encourage religious observances all over the world. The fourth commandment, also known as the “Sabbath,” has been changed to Sunday. By prohibiting all secular employment and activity on Sunday, they want everyone to acknowledge it as a holy day to be used for sacred reasons. This is how today’s church leaders want to promote morality in society by establishing Sunday as a day of rest for the common good of all people.
It won’t be long before governments demand that the new climate change mandates be enforced with the same zeal as the Covid-19 mandates. Once again, this will result in the total destruction of our civil and religious liberties. This generation of Seventh-day Adventists cannot go down in history as the most silent. We must speak out against the climate movement’s attempt to reintroduce Sunday as a universal day of rest. Silence is no longer an option if we don’t want to appear unfaithful to the most basic duty entrusted to us, which is to protest against the Sunday movement.
“We as a people have not accomplished the work which God has committed to us. We are not ready for the issue to which the enforcement of the Sunday law will bring us. It is our duty, as we see the signs of approaching peril, to arouse to action. Let none sit in calm expectation of the evil, comforting themselves with the belief that this work must go on because prophecy has foretold it, and that the Lord will shelter His people. We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude, doing nothing to preserve liberty of conscience. Fervent, effectual prayer should be ascending to heaven that this calamity may be deferred until we can accomplish the work which has so long been neglected. Let there be most earnest prayer, and then let us work in harmony with our prayers” (Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 713).
Sources
0
0
0
This is just another attempt to make people embrace Sunday.
You cannot most the resurrection of our Lord with a political message. That corrupts the gospel.
This is pure Babylon. Come out of her my people. Revelation 18:4.
What’s bad too is that a lot of SDA’s fall hook, line and sinker into this climate change phenomenon. So don’t expect many of them to speak out against what this pope says or does. It will be the conservatives in the church who continue to speak up for our freedoms like they always have.
We can be stewards of our planet without joining these Sunday advocates who are using climate to promote apostasy.
This is not surprising. Those who are determined to enact Sunday laws will use any excuse they can to justify their actions.
Only baptism and experiencing a new life in Jesus are the acceptable ways to commemorate Christ’s resurrection according to Roman 6:4. This glorious event has nothing to do with climate change or Sunday observance.
Where does the Bible support everything they say? Just give us the verses from the Bible that say we must do this.