Pandemic-Weary Christians Want to make Sunday a Day of Rest Again

“Religion Unplugged” is an online non-profit religious news organization funded by The Media Project [1], a network of journalists that seeks to “provide a more profound understanding of the role of religion in public life.” [2] On February 11, 2022, Religion Unplugged published an editorial under the title, “Not Just Nostalgia: Some Pandemic-Weary Souls Want To Make Sunday A Day Of Rest Again.” The purpose of this article is to highlight the fact that “Sunday,” as a “day of rest,” is “drawing renewed consideration nationally.” [3]

The editorial then goes on to show how Sunday, the presumed day of rest, has become secularized, and how there is a campaign to reclaim Sunday as a day for rest and church attendance:

• The return of the Sunday Blue Laws is supported by political commentators and legal scholars. [4]
• By rejecting the Sabbath and not having a Sunday-trading ban, society loses. [5]
• Christians are banding together to ensure that their packages are not delivered on “the Lord’s Day” due to “Amazon’s Sunday delivery schedule.” [6]

Blue laws, Sunday-trading bans, and safeguarding the Lord’s Day are all gaining traction across the country. This is exactly what the editorial says. Both religious and political leaders are looking to Sunday as a solution to humanity’s problems in the face of severe political, economic, and social turmoil during this “pandemic.” The overall goal is to bring back Sunday rest in order to create a new world of lasting peace and security for all people.

So here we have another call by a religious entity, Religion Unplugged, advancing the idea of Sunday rest through law. This is a deceptive attempt to enact religious legislation that will ultimately infringe on our right to make moral decisions for ourselves. The fact that immorality is wreaking havoc on our nation is a sobering reality. But, in order to meet this challenge, we must focus all of our efforts on allowing the gospel of Christ to combat evil. In the fight against sin, nothing else will work. Let the church rise up against the prevailing immorality, relying on God’s mighty power of the gospel rather than the power of the state.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10: 4, 5.

There is no reason why we should not work on Sunday because it is only a human institution, and resting on this day is not supported by any divine ordinance or decree. Sunday is not commanded by God to be kept holy. The day was never mentioned by Jesus. It was never referred to as a divinely appointed institution by any of the apostles. But the Roman Catholic Church did establish Sunday as a day of rest, and boasts about it, and the Protestant world bows down to her authority in this matter.

Instead, we must follow the Lord Jesus Christ, resting and worshipping on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. We must say, “We ought to obey God rather than men,” as the apostles did in Acts 5:29. We can’t obey God if we ignore His commandments and instead follow man’s traditions. “In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). That is a statement made by the Lord Himself. Sadly, millions of people who claim to serve Christ violate His commandment every week by substituting Saturday for Sunday. How can we call ourselves Christians if we don’t follow Jesus?

Sources

[1] https://religionunplugged.com/staff-and-faculty

[2] https://www.themediaproject.org/

[3] https://religionunplugged.com/news/2022/02/11/day-of-rest-sabbath-religion-blue-laws

[4] https://twitter.com/Deseret/status/1482427369100959745

[5] https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-weve-lost-in-rejecting-the-sabbath-11620399624

[6] https://twitter.com/CTmagazine/status/1490804311290527744