Economists Claim that the Repeal of the Blue Laws has resulted in the Collapse of our Social Fabric and an Increase of Death and Despair

“Satan will do the evil deeds he has long wished to do. Storm and tempest, war and bloodshed,—in these things he delights, and thus he gathers in his harvest. 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.” (Review and Herald, 9/17/1901).

The current social unrest is paving the way for the fulfillment of the prophecies of Revelation 13. In the face of severe political and economic turmoil, religious, political, and economic leaders will seek to restore the Blue Laws, also known as Sunday Laws, as the solution to humanity’s problems. The ultimate goal is to create a new world of lasting peace and security for all humanity by limiting or prohibiting all secular activities on Sunday in order to coerce people to attend church.

On August 30, 2022, Chad Pecknold, associate professor of theology at The Catholic University of America and Director of the Institute for Faith & Public Culture, published an article titled “Blue Laws Needed to Reverse Our Despair.” The article was highlighting a new study conducted by economists that claims to show a “profound correlation between deaths of despair and the repeal of blue laws.” The article said:

“Yet the most powerful aspect of the study, especially for readers of Postliberal Order, is that the authors track the rising despair and the decline of religion most precisely to the repeal of blue laws.” [1]

“These laws have been shown to be strongly related to religious practice, creating discrete changes in incentives to attend religious services . . . the repeal of these laws lowered religious participation.” [1]

There is little doubt about what the purpose of Sunday rest laws is. They are intended to make Sunday observance and church attendance mandatory. Blue laws give law enforcement the authority to order people to rest on Sunday. According to these economists and the Catholic author, the desecration of Sunday is to blame for the rising despair and decline of religion.

The article goes on to say that the new study goes on to show that the repeal of the Blue laws has brought about the destruction of the “social fabric of communities” and has left us unprepared to deal with “enormous negative shocks” such as large-scale wars and natural disasters:

“To repeal such laws, and the legislators and justices who did the repealing, failed to foresee how damaging the loss of such laws would be on ‘the social fabric of communities generally.’ Among their findings is that the loss of blue laws depressed religious participation, and that this in turn made very significant portion of the population unstable, lacking the strength of ‘religiosity,’ unable to deal with ‘enormous negative shocks’ such as large-scale wars and natural disasters—which is to say, unable to deal with suffering.” [1]

This is precisely what our prophet predicted would be said in order to establish a Sunday law:

“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. They are guided by the enemy, and therefore they reach conclusions which are entirely false” (Review and Herald, 9/17/1901).

This Catholic theologian openly advocates for the union of church and state, claiming that restoring the Blue Laws would save our generation. Religious persecution and bigotry will be seen in the United States very soon:

“In Rome’s greatest suffering, the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, all found refuge in the great Catholic basilicas of the city. Devotion to true religion, supported by just laws under the emperors, was not a guarantee that you would not suffer, but rather it was a refuge which trained a people in the way of the Cross, in a school for facing “enormous negative shocks,” so that suffering would not devastate a people by despair, causing them to flee from God, but instead test their faith, unite themselves to Christ Crucified, and so paradoxically increase in strength under the very virtue of humility. Augustine concluded that “what matters is the nature of the sufferer, not the nature of the sufferings,” and that laws supporting Christian devotion are not contrary to the common good of Rome, but positively in its interest. So it is for us today. [1]

“I do not believe we can survive as a country without restoring something as simple as blue laws. Even if you were an atheist, you could at least see it from the point of view of the economist. As T. S. Eliot once said about Christianity and the laws of Europe, as Christianity goes, so does the whole culture. ‘And I am convinced of that,’ he wrote, ‘not merely because I am a Christian myself, but as a student of social biology.’ Our economists can confirm.” [1]

This is an unequivocal call to reinstate the Sunday “Blue Laws.” Sunday laws were part of the United States’ early colonial history, and the penalties for violating them included fines, whippings, stocks, and, in some cases, death for repeat offenders.

“It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday-sabbath, that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced, and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity” (Great Controversy, p. 590).

Across the world, calls for Sunday laws are gaining traction. This is precisely what these economists and theologians are doing. They want laws that encourage religious devotion. Religious, political, and economic leaders are all working together to make this happen. They see social unrest in our world and believe that enacting a Sunday law will save us and the planet.

This is just one more call, among many, to advance the concept of Sunday rest through legislation. This is a deceptive attempt to pass religious legislation that will eventually limit our ability to make moral decisions for ourselves. The church and state will eventually unite to impose the mark of the beast during the national Sunday law crisis. To meet this challenge, God’s faithful people must concentrate their efforts on allowing the gospel of Christ to combat evil. No religious law will work in the fight against sin. Let the church stand up against the prevailing immorality, relying on God’s mighty power of the gospel rather than the power of the state.

Today, almost the entire world is arguing that Sunday will be the solution to our environmental, moral, economic, and social problems. This is the same message found in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’. While the entire world is wondering after the beast of Revelation and unites to embrace the common good (the mark of the beast), God will have a people who will keep His commandments, not man’s (Revelation 12:17, 14:12, 22:14). The time has come and is now when all human and papal traditions will be embraced (2 Thessalonians 2:4) by exalting the false day of sun worship (Ezekiel 8:16) above the commandment of God that says: “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy” and “the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God” (Exodus 20:8, 10).

Only God can determine which day is the Sabbath. Any statement made by men or the church about which day is the true Sabbath rest or how we honor the Creator is nothing more than man-made additions to the world of God. Human ordinances, decrees, and encyclicals will always be incorrect. Only God’s Word should be our guide. Whoever adheres to the Holy Scriptures and is instructed by God will never be wrong.

Sources

[1] https://postliberalorder.substack.com/p/to-reverse-our-despair