Climate Change and Sunday Law
Copyright © 2020 Jonathan Mukwiri | |Bible Prophecy helps us understand climate change as the precursor to Sunday law. “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights” (Luke 21:11). That climate crisis will lead to Sunday law, was predicted: “Men in responsible positions … will urge upon the people the observance of the first day of the week, … 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” (Ellen G White, Signs of the Times, January 17, 1884 par. 14).
Linking climate change to Sunday Law is not alarmism. He who calls attention to existing facts does not deserve to be called an alarmist, although it may be a very serious condition which he points out. The physician who candidly gives his patient a truthful statement of his case is not an alarmist. It may be that the symptoms are alarming, yet for all that very likely it is the wisest possible thing to state them frankly to the patient, that, if possible, he may be warned in time. Christ, our Great Physician, was not an alarmist, and took no pessimistic view of the final outcome of all things, yet the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew contains the skeleton of what must have been a most dramatic narration indeed of events which were, and are, to befall the world.
After God created the earth, He said it was all “very good” (Genesis 1:31) – all the natural forces were in equilibrium with no possibility of breaking forth into disastrous exhibitions. But sin caused the evenly-balanced adjustment of the natural forces to become more disturbed until at last, “the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11), – the disorder culminated in the flood. Climate change is the result of man corrupting the earth through disobeying the Creator and obeying the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). In our time, the Club of Rome has done more to publicise climate change dangers.
Club of Rome and climate change publicity
The Club of Rome, founded in 1968, had a goal of giving publicity to the dangers of climate change and to encourage corrective measures (Nicholas Greenwood Onuf, ‘Reports to the Club of Rome’ (1983) 36(1) World Politics 121-146). The Club of Rome first published the dangers of climate change in the 1972 report: “If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity” (H Donella, L Dennis Meadows, J Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and W William Behrens Ill, The limits of growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind (Universe Books 1972) 23).
As corrective measure, the Club identified climate change as the global common enemy against which the world should unite: “In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself” (Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider, The First Global Revolution: A Report by the Council of the Club of Rome(Orient Longman 1993) 75). That the Club of Rome achieved a goal of publicising climate change is attested by world scientists, to which we turn.
World Scientists Warn of Climate Crisis
According to a study published in the Journal of BioScience (Volume 70, Issue 1, January 2020, Pages 8–12), five scientist authors, endorsed by 11,258 scientists from 153 countries, the world faces “untold suffering due to the climate crisis.” “We declare,” says scientists, “clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.”
“Profoundly troubling signs from human activities include sustained increases in both human and ruminant livestock populations, per capita meat production, world gross domestic product, global tree cover loss, fossil fuel consumption, the number of air passengers carried, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and per capita CO2 emissions”, they say.
“Especially disturbing are concurrent trends in the vital signs of climatic impacts: Three abundant atmospheric GHGs (CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide) continue to increase, as does global surface temperature; Climate change is predicted to greatly affect marine, freshwater, and terrestrial life; these issues highlight the urgent need for action”, they say.
“To secure a sustainable future,” they say, “we need bold and drastic transformations regarding economic and population policies.” “We are encouraged” that “Governmental bodies are making climate emergency declarations; Schoolchildren are striking; Ecocide lawsuits are proceeding in the courts; and Grassroots citizen movements are demanding change”. Indeed, people are demanding change and action, and lawmakers are responding.
Aid agencies have echoed scientists in reporting the scale of the effects of climate change on our planet. According to a 2019 study by the British Charity OxFam, the number of climate-related disasters has tripled in 30 years, causing harm and suffering to communities across the globe. Oxfam’s analysis shows that, on average, 14 million people reported newly displaced by extreme weather disasters each year from 2008 to 2016.
In their 2013 report, showing climate change to be a key factor in disasters, OxFam called upon governments to tackle the politics and power at the heart of the increasing effects of climate change.
Climate change as sign of Christ’s soon coming
Christ tells us what to do when climate disasters begin to happen: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28). He says, “Behold, I Come Quickly” (Revelation 22:12). Climate change and increase of calamities such as earthquakes, famines, and pestilences says that He is coming soon, for these were given as signs of the second advent. The spirit of war among nations say that the Lord is coming, for it is when the nations are angry and gathering to battle that the Lord appears. The social and industrial conditions are becoming just such as were predicted of the last days. The growth of a determination in the religious bodies to use civil power to build up the Sunday institution and make void the law of God is fulfilling those scriptures which show that Satan’s wrath will be specially directed against the commandments of God in the days of the remnant (Revelation 12:17).
The sending forth into the world of this booklet and other truth-filled literature containing the present truth, warning the world of the impending conflict in which climate change would lead to Sunday law, is a fulfilling of such scriptures as Revelation 14:6-14, which indicate God’s warning message to the world before Christ appears in the clouds of heaven in flaming fire to reap the harvest of the earth. The Lord is coming; thank God, it is true. His Word tells of the preparation needed, and His grace supplies the need. Let the believing reader receive the Word and rejoice in the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).
Satan to use climate change for Sunday law
And now the most casual observer – if he only will – may realise the truth of this which the inspired writer upon this subject years ago put with so much directness in the book, The Great Controversy {GC}:
“Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would – He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them” {GC 589.2}.
“While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. ‘The earth mourneth and fadeth away,’ ‘the haughty people …. do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant’ Isaiah 24:4, 5” {GC 589.3} – (The Great Controversy).
“And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God's commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. 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. Thus the accusation urged of old against the servant of God will be repeated and upon grounds equally well established: ‘And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.’ 1 Kings 18:17, 18. As the wrath of the people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course toward God's ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel pursued toward Elijah” {GC 590.1} – (The Great Controversy).
“The miracle-working power manifested through spiritualism will exert its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men. Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error, affirming that the laws of the land should be obeyed as the law of God. They will lament the great wickedness in the world and second the testimony of religious teachers that the degraded state of morals is caused by the desecration of Sunday. Great will be the indignation excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony” {GC 590.2} – (The Great Controversy).
“Satan's policy in this final conflict with God's people is the same that he employed in the opening of the great controversy in heaven. He professed to be seeking to promote the stability of the divine government, while secretly bending every effort to secure its overthrow. And the very work which he was thus endeavoring to accomplish he charged upon the loyal angels. The same policy of deception has marked the history of the Roman Church. It has professed to act as the vicegerent of Heaven, while seeking to exalt itself above God and to change His law. Under the rule of Rome, those who suffered death for their fidelity to the gospel were denounced as evildoers; they were declared to be in league with Satan; and every possible means was employed to cover them with reproach, to cause them to appear in the eyes of the people and even to themselves as the vilest of criminals. So it will be now. While Satan seeks to destroy those who honor God's law, he will cause them to be accused as lawbreakers, as men who are dishonoring God and bringing judgments upon the world” {GC 591.1}.
“God never forces the will or the conscience; but Satan's constant resort – to gain control of those whom he cannot otherwise seduce – is compulsion by cruelty. Through fear or force he endeavors to rule the conscience and to secure homage to himself. To accomplish this, he works through both religious and secular authorities, moving them to the enforcement of human laws in defiance of the law of God” {GC 591.2} – (The Great Controversy).
“Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false coloring will be given to their words; the worst construction will be put upon their motives” {GC 592.1} – (The Great Controversy).
“As the Protestant churches reject the clear, Scriptural arguments in defense of God's law, they will long to silence those whose faith they cannot overthrow by the Bible. Though they blind their own eyes to the fact, they are now adopting a course which will lead to the persecution of those who conscientiously refuse to do what the rest of the Christian world are doing, and acknowledge the claims of the papal sabbath” {GC 592.2}.
“The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet's words: ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Revelation 12:17” {GC 592.3} – (The Great Controversy).
Signs of the times and God’s protection
From every side come reports of disaster by sea and land. Not only in the political but in the natural world also, there is increasing commotion and unrest. Terrible catastrophes which, a few years ago, would have furnished talk for many days are now quickly forgotten, because they are followed so quickly by equally serious calamities. Destructive cyclones, volcanic eruptions, deadly plagues, deadly viruses, water and food famines, ruinous strikes, insurrections, massacres and wars, are continually brought before our notice in the daily papers. In the numerous disasters which are now occupying so large a place in earth’s history, crowding ever closer upon each other, God is warning all men of the danger they run in rejecting His care and protection.
We see “upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:26): because God, who is man’s life and the only shield between him and the malice of Satan, is rejected. Men seek to avoid Him, thinking to find freedom from restraint in forgetting God; but it is life eternal to know Him, and everlasting destruction to be separated from His presence. To the extent that men turn from God they choose death, and if they persist in their choice, they will finally get it.
God would be a protection to all men, from every danger, if they would only be content to dwell with Him. His presence would give them rest and safety. “Because thou hast made the Lord . . . thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling” (Psalm 91:9-10). Whoever dwells in God has “a peaceable habitation, a sure dwelling-place, a quiet resting place” (Isaiah 31:18). “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” “It shall not come nigh thee” (Psalm 91:5-7). “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof” (Psalm 46:1-3).
Earth’s history is soon to close amid scenes of woe and desolation, such as never have been since there was a nation. After close of probation, the last seven plagues of the wrath of God will be poured upon the impenitent, and mighty earthquakes and mighty hail will complete the work of destruction (Revelation 16). Every one may, if he will, flee from the wrath to come, and find refuge in the Lord. As the blood of the Lamb, sprinkled on the doorposts, saved Israel in Egypt from the visit of the destroying angel, so “now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). To all who are thus reconciled to God, He will say, “Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” (Isaiah 26:20-21).
God is permitting evils to come upon the world now in order that men may be impressed with their need of a refuge, lest the last great storm burst suddenly and find them unprepared. Some will turn at His reproof, and to such He says, “Behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you.” “Whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” But those who despise the reproof and will have none of His counsel, He leaves to eat of the fruit of their own way. To them He says, “When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you; then shall they call upon Me but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 1:27-29).
“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6).
Papacy to use climate change for Sunday law
One of the influences behind much of the climate change movement is the 2015 papal encyclical, Laudato Si, which is ostensibly about taking care of our environment. In this encyclical, Laudato Si, there is found a strong recommendation that keeping Sunday as a day of rest and that not working on the Sunday ‘heals our relationship … with the world.’ It says: “Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world” (Laudato Si, paragraph 237). Presumably no work on Sundays means less burning of fossil fuels and less pollution and less damaging climate change.
In the 2015 papal encyclical letter, Laudato Si, at paragraph 25, the pope outlined the problem of climate change in the following description:
“Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day. Its worst impact will probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades.”
“Many of the poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to warming, and their means of subsistence are largely dependent on natural reserves and ecosystemic services such as agriculture, fishing and forestry. They have no other financial activities or resources which can enable them to adapt to climate change or to face natural disasters, and their access to social services and protection is very limited.” (Laudato Si, para 25).
“There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation. They are not recognized by international conventions as refugees; they bear the loss of the lives they have left behind, without enjoying any legal protection whatsoever. Sadly, there is widespread indifference to such suffering, which is even now taking place throughout our world.” (Laudato Si, paragraph 25).
“There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy. Worldwide there is minimal access to clean and renewable energy. There is still a need to develop adequate storage technologies.” (ibid).
What is the papal solution to climate change? In the 2015 papal encyclical letter, Laudato Si, at paragraphs 236-237, the pope outlined the solution to the climate change problem. The Eucharist, celebrated on Sunday, provides the solution:
“Thus, the Eucharist is also a source of light and motivation for our concerns for the environment, directing us to be stewards of all creation.” “On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world.” (Laudato Si, paras 236-237).
“The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day, ‘so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant, and the stranger, may be refreshed’ (Ex 23:12). Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centred on the Eucharist, sheds it light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor.” (Laudato Si, paras 236-237).
What is the goal of the Papacy in global climate change and the Sunday alliance? Is it not to regain “dominion over the kings of the earth” so they cause all to “receive” Sunday as her “mark” (Revelation 17:18; 13:16)? The inspired writer of the book, The Great Controversy {GC}, many years ago, wrote:
“But Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done. Catholicism is gaining ground upon every side” {GC 565.4}.
And what a close observer and keen student of prophecy see in the papal global climate change and the Sunday alliance is but an illustration of what the Papacy is accomplishing throughout the world.
In the book, The Great Controversy, we are told that “rulers and legislators” will eventually yield to “the popular demand” for a “law enforcing Sunday observance.” In the context of what is happening around the world, we notice that the “popular” climate change movement is making its “demand” that “rulers and legislators” pass environmental laws. At the same time, beneath this same climate change movement is the papal encyclical, Laudato Si, which promotes Sunday observance. It is not coincidence, it is prophecy getting fulfilled before our very eyes.
Nations around the world are already increasingly embracing enacting laws to combat climate change. According to the 2017 update on the trend of global climate change legislation, published by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, “In early 2017, there were more than 1,200 laws and policies in the 164 countries represented in this report. This compares with around 60 climate laws in 1997. In the 20 years since the Kyoto Protocol was agreed, the number of climate change laws has increased by over a factor of 20. This translates into a doubling in the stock of climate laws globally every four to five years.” It will not be a great leap for “rulers and legislators” to move from passing environmental laws to national Sunday laws in fulfilment of Revelation 14:9.
Environmental laws are a precursor to Sunday law. Notice: “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 under-current is tending. Its professions are mild, and apparently Christian; but when it shall speak, it will reveal the spirit of the dragon” (Ellen G White, Review and Herald, December 11, 1888, Art. C., par. 8).
Soon, climate change advocates “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” (Ellen G White, Signs of the Times, January 17, 1884 par. 14).
The climate change call for Sunday sacredness is in effect a call to disregard the Sabbath of the Lord. Even in the supposedly goal of saving the planet, making Sunday worship obligatory in contravention of the Sabbath (Saturday), would not be of God, for He says: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). The climate change controversy is really about disregarding the Sabbath of the Lord in honour of the papal institution of Sunday worship.
Sabbath-keepers and Sunday-keepers
At Christ's return, there will be only two classes: Sabbath-keepers and Sunday-keepers. Christ gives the test by which to prove our loyalty or disloyalty: “If ye love Me,” He says, “keep My commandments. … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him” (John 14:15-21). “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love” (John 15:10). This calls for a choice of allegiance between Sabbath and Sunday.
The third angel warns all not to “worship the beast and his image” (Revelation 14:9). The beast of Revelation 14 is the same in Revelation 13:1-10, described as “like unto a leopard,” to which the dragon gave “his power, and his seat, and great authority.” This symbol, as most Protestants have believed, represents the Papacy, which succeeded to the seat once held by the ancient Roman Empire.
Two quotes supports this interpretation. “The Roman Church ... pushed itself into the place of the Roman World-Empire, of which it is the actual continuation. ...The Pope ... is Caesar's successor” (Adolf Harnack, What is Christianity? trans. by Thomas Bailey Saunders, New York: Putnam, 2nd ed., rev., 1901, p. 270). “The mighty Catholic Church was little more than the Roman Empire baptised. Rome was transformed as well as converted. The very capital of the old Empire became the capital of the Christian Empire. The office of Pontifex Maximus was continued in that of Pope” (Alexander Clarence Flick, The Rise of the Mediaeval Church, reprint: New York, Burt Franklin, 1959, pp. 148-149).
But what is the “image to the beast” and how is it to be formed? “When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result” (The Great Controversy, p. 445).
Further, the third angel warns that no man should receive the Mark of the Beast “in his forehead, or in his hand” (Revelation 14:9). We have already identified the beast as the Papacy. The Papacy claims credit for instituting Sunday worship – one catechism says: “Q. Which is the Sabbath day? A. Saturday is the Sabbath day. Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday” (Peter Geiermann, The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1930, p.50) – virtually all churches admits of no Biblical support for Sunday sacredness.
The forehead represents the mind, and the hand is a symbol of work. “On the hand” and “between the eyes” are consistent symbols in Scripture for a person's thoughts and actions (Exodus 13:16; Deuteronomy 6:8; 11:18). A person will receive the mark of the beast in his forehead by choosing to believe that Sunday is a holy day in spite of Bible truth. A person will be marked in the right hand by working on God's Sabbath or by outwardly keeping Sunday laws for convenient reasons - such as a job.
Soon, if not already by the time you read this, the lamb-like beast (Revelation 13:11) is to pass a law enforcing Sunday, forcing all to worship the leopard-like beast (Revelation 13:2). “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Revelation 13:12). When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labour on Sunday and worship on Sunday, while you know that there is not a word in the Bible showing Sunday to be other than a common working day, you consent to receive the mark of the beast, and refuse the seal of God.
It is said: “Protestants little know what they are doing when they propose to accept the aid of Rome in the work of Sunday exaltation. While they are bent upon the accomplishment of their purpose, Rome is aiming to re-establish her power, to recover her lost supremacy.... She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated” (The Great Controversy, pp. 581-582).
When religious/political powers enact a law to force God's people to keep Sunday, God will surely act! Daniel 12:1 tells us: “At that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” Zechariah 2:8 tells us: “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”
Whenever Satan has directly touched the Biblical fourth commandment, the Sabbath, God intervenes directly! Satan caused Pharaoh to work the Israelites “daily” (Exodus 5) including on Sabbath, God sent plagues (Exodus 7), then Moses to take His people out. When Satan will cause religious and state confederacies to enforce Sunday worship (Revelation 13), God will send the plagues again (Revelation 15, 16), and Christ will come to take His faithful people to heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
“The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty … 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” {GC 605}.
The third angel of Revelation 14 warns that those who accepts the mark of the beast, “the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation” (Revelation 14:10). Everything is now at stake. It is a life and death question. Those who in the face of these warnings refuse to repent of their transgressions will realise the result of disobedience.
When Sunday observance becomes law, God will reveal Himself. “It is time for Thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void Thy law” (Psalms 119:126). When the powers of this earth will force men to keep Sunday, God will arise in His majesty, and will “shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2:19). God will come “out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” (Isaiah 26:21). You must beforehand choose between Sabbath and Sunday.
Concluding Remarks
What does all this climate change and Eucharist Sunday observance led by the Papacy mean? To the mass of people it means simply that the Papacy is seeking to protect our planet, all people should lose their bigotry and unite with the Papacy for the common good of humanity, and put behind the narrow childishness of the days of Martin Luther when encroachments of the Papacy were thought to be a matter for alarm and for vigorous opposition.
Actually, it means that the time is upon us when the following prophetic words descriptive of the latter part of the career of the Papacy will be completely fulfilled: “And his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:3-4). Every faithful student of prophecy is well aware that it is not at all popular now to apply Revelation 13 to the Papacy. That makes no difference. So much the more need of calling the attention of people to the danger that threatens. For there is a real danger threatening:
“If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation .…” (see Revelation 14:9-11).
To learn more about what Bible prophecy predicts about the papal power, her attempted change of the Sabbath into Sunday (as prophesied in Daniel 7:25) and the final enforcement of Sunday as the mark of the beast (as prophesied in Revelation 13:16-17; 14:9-12), read the book, The Great Controversy.