Throughout Christendom, a growing movement is calling for a return to the sanctity of Sunday as a test of faithfulness. A recent Catholic commentary in The Observer, based at the University of Notre Dame, urged believers to view Sunday as a test of loyalty to God, describing it as “the Lord’s Day” that reveals whether we truly serve Him. The article asserted that Sunday rest and worship constitute the “true test” of our gratitude for God’s gift of Sunday: if we receive it, we prosper; if we reject it, we wither and dry up.
The Observer, which is the Catholic-run newspaper serving Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s, and Holy Cross, published the following on September 23, 2025:
• “The pattern of worship, rest and merriment on Sunday has been woven into our hearts through Creation and the Resurrection. The moral pattern is within us whether we like it or not, and we should like it! We can either heed it and flourish, or deny it and wilt; but we cannot pretend it does not exist, live however we like and be unaffected.” [1]
• “The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, ‘On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body,’ (CCC 2185).” [1]
• “There is a built-in sacredness to Sunday, which we either respect or fail to respect. The day itself comes as a great gift; all we have to do is receive it graciously, and yet we are often so obstinate and anxious that we turn away with tunnel vision on ourselves, our work, our plans, our success. Each Sunday, God offers us the great gift of Sunday merries .” [1]
• “On Sunday, for many of us, this both-and becomes both going to Mass and spending the rest of the day swamped in work. That is not how we should be spending our Sundays.” [1]
• “How we spend our Sunday is a test of our priorities. When Sunday is not only not a day set aside for rest, but a day positively set aside for work, I think we are failing that test. When the library is never more crowded than on a Sunday afternoon, I think we are failing that test.” [1]
• “The Catechism of the Catholic Church again states: ‘Sanctifying Sundays and holy days requires a common effort. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord’s Day,’ (CCC 2187).” [1]
• “Each Sunday, God offers us the great gift of Sunday merries. May we accept that great gift and ask God to calm our Sunday scaries. May our Sundays be occupied with joy in the Resurrection, rather than with anxiety over an upcoming test. For the real test will be not so much how hard we have worked but how graciously we have received God’s gifts. So, each Sunday, may we be prayerful, merry and grateful.” [1]
The growing Catholic emphasis on Sunday is not isolated. From Papal encyclicals to various newspaper editorials, Catholics are uniting around the idea that Sunday observance is a sacred duty and a public witness of their faith. The Notre Dame article rebuked the modern culture of busyness and called on believers to realign their lives so that Sunday is no longer consumed by work but sanctified as the central expression of Christian loyalty.
At the heart of this controversy lies the question of authority: Who has the right to define sacred time—God or the Church? The seventh-day Sabbath, Saturday, instituted at Creation and written by God’s own finger in the Ten Commandments, remains the true memorial of His creative and redemptive power. Sunday, on the other hand, was instituted by imperial decree in A.D. 321 by Emperor Constantine, standing as a human substitute for the divine Sabbath—a mark of man-made authority in place of God’s command.
Even as Sunday is being presented as the solution to restore peace, joy, and spiritual renewal, beneath the surface lies a subtle yet growing movement to secure its observance through legal enforcement. The more society comes to regard Sunday as the universal day of rest and worship, the more reasonable it will seem for civil authorities to step in and protect it for the so-called common good.
Revelation 13 forewarns that religious observance will be enforced “that no man might buy or sell” except those who conform to the beast’s decree. In that moment, God’s Sabbath will stand as the final test of loyalty. The true seventh-day Sabbath will remain the distinguishing sign between Jehovah and His people (Ezekiel 20:12, 20), while Sunday observance will ultimately become the mark of allegiance to human authority in opposition to God’s law during the final mark of the beast crisis.
Sources
[1] https://www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025/09/sunday-scaries-should-be-sunday-merries
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“1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. ”
Genesis 2:1-3 KJV
“16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. ”
Exodus 31:16-17 KJV
“12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.
20 And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God. ”
Ezekiel 20:12, 20 KJV
“The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God’s law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.” Great Controversy page 605.2
“The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further disregard of Heaven’s authority. Satan tampered with the fourth commandment also, and essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and sanctified, and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as “the venerable day of the sun.” This change was not at first attempted openly. In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians. They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that his law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts. But with great subtlety, Satan worked through his agents to bring about his object. That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ. Religious services were held upon it; yet it was regarded as a day of recreation, the Sabbath being still sacredly observed.
Constantine, while still a heathen, issued a decree enjoining the general observance of Sunday as a public festival throughout the Roman empire. After his conversion, he remained a staunch advocate of Sunday, and his pagan edict was then enforced by him in the interests of his new faith. But the honor shown this day was not as yet sufficient to prevent Christians from regarding the true Sabbath as the holy of the Lord. Another step must be taken; the false Sabbath must be exalted to an equality with the true. A few years after the issue of Constantine’s decree, the bishop of Rome conferred on the Sunday the title of Lord’s day. Thus the people were gradually led to regard it as possessing a degree of sacredness. Still the original Sabbath was kept.” 4SP 55.1 – 4SP 55.2
In every God’s truth , Satan has a counterfeit for it. When God says; Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy,and six days thou shall labour, but the seventh day is the sabbath of Lord thy God. But on the other hand Satan through his representative in the earth, the Bishop of Rome says; no keep the first day of the week because Christ ressurected on the eighth day. But it’s unfortunate the there is no any scriptural evidence to prove their unsubtantiated claims.
From those knowledgable with historical facts? We learn that Sunday was first instituted by Emperor Constatine on 7th, March 321 A.D. The purpose was to bring large number of pagans into the christianity who were unconverted. They brought in traditional pagan practices such as worship of candels, worship of saints, child baptism and other pagan beliefs. In other words instead of the Church converting the world, it was the other way round the Church was converted to the world. The simplicity of the true gospel of christ was completely lost?
That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote in the 2 Thessalonians 2:3 ; the day of the Lord shall not come until the son of perdition be revealed that ”man of sin” who sitteth in the temple exalting himself to be God or anything that has to be worshipped. The rise of the the apostacy of the papal power clearly set the stage for the ”dark ages” where the truth was trampled down upon. The sabbath of the fourth commandment was trampled down and was made a dull day, while Sunday the first day of the week was exalted and Christians were forced not to judaize (keep saturday sabbath holy) but instead worship the day set aside by the Pope of Rome.
In the book of Acts 20:28;29 Apostle Paul warns the Christians that before he departs, there shall be ravening wolves that shall come unto you dressed in sheep’s clothing and shall destroy and disperse the flock. The time of Apostle Paul the apostacy had slowly began to creep in the early church. People began slowly to become converted to the heathen traditions and embraced the paganism which finally led to the falling away first, the rise of papal power.
The Sunday observance came into the prominence from the fourth century , and until the time Bishop of Rome was declared to be the supreme leader of the Christian church in the western Roman empire. The dark ages period started from the year (538-1798A.D),the bible truth was trampled down and traditions were embraced. The persecution of true christians began in Europe in such places like France where Albingenses, waldenses were chased down by the Roman Catholic troops for searching and learning from the God’s word, they taught their children to recite and memorize bible verses and that used to be their way of live ,they sought refuge in the alp mountains. They were also the the bible sabbath keepers , that’s why they were hated by Rome. Even in Africa ,there were true christians in Ethiopia who did not conform to Rome’s traditions, the Ethiopian christians worshipped on saturday bible sabbath and they refused to obey Rome even at the time of death. They were determined to show Rome in a very determined way that they will not bow to them in any way.
In these last days ,in the closing scenes of the earth’s history? Sunday prominence is gaining much more favour than any time in history. The last three Popes have greatly emphasized the Sunday observance in a very great way. Pope John Paul II says, in Dies Domini, he emphasizes the significance of Sunday observance and encourages the faithful to rest it, in remembrance of Christ’s ressurrection. pope Benedict XVI,also emphasizes in his postal synodal apostolic exhortation, he says that Sunday is the primordial holy day. He said that it was a family day of rest, and partaking the eucharist. Pope Francis I, has also emphasized the importance of sunday observance by writing an encyclical letter called the ” Laudato Si” in the # 237, he says, Sunday like the Jewish sabbath is meant to be a day which heals our relationship with God ,ourselves ,with others and the world. So, the line of distinction has been drawn ? Will you follow the laws of God or the laws of Man? The choice is upon us, which way shall we follow?