The sun worship which lead to Sunday observance can be traced back for more than 2,000 years B.C. Already the ancient Babylonians recognized the sun as their god. Shamash, their sun-god was thought to be the son of sin (the moon-god). On the stele which contains the famous code of Hammurabi, Shamash is represented as giving the laws to the king.

In the great temples of Syria an educated priesthood considered the sun to be the directing power of the cosmic system. All the Baals were thence forward turned into suns. Such was the final form reached by the religion of the pagan Semites, and, following them, by that of the Romans who raised the Invincible Sun to the rank of supreme divinity in the Empire.

The old Scandinavians called the sun the White God. Also in ancient Persia, the Mithraists worshipped the sun as their god and the day to worship their god was Sunday, the first day of the week.

When the Roman Empire adopted Mithraism as their religion in the first and second century AD., they also accepted Sunday as their day of worship. Various laws were enacted in different times regarding Sunday observance. Often very strict laws were made restricting labour and amusement on that day.

When Constantine made the first law to enforce Sunday observance in the year 321 AD., he was still a sunworshipper for the next two years. He did not make the Sunday law for the Christian religion but for the sunworshipping nation. He called Sunday in his law the venerable day of the sun. No reference was made for the resurrection of Christ or to the fourth commandment.

This Sunday observance was not limited only to pagan sunworshippers but the Christian church also decided to change the day of worsrlip from Saturday to Sunday. In the Council of Laodicea, in the year 364 AD., the celebration of Sunday which had already been practiced by the church, was established by a synodal law.

The early Fathers in the Catholic Church compared Jesus to the sun and Mary to the moon. Therefore, they decided to keep the day of the sun in the Christian church as well as Christmas as a day of the sun, only calling it a day of Jesus’ birth.

So deeply imbedded in the minds of the converted Christians was their previous sun worship that even in the fifth century the worshippers in St. Peter’s Cathedral turned away from the altar and faced the door so that they could adore the rising sun.

The Christian churches and their theologians willfully are ignorant or blinded to the Bible doctrine of the seventh-day Sabbath and hold onto the pagan day of worship. Yet time to time someone dares to speak up and present the truth to the public.

Roger Williams in his letter to Major John Mason on June 22, 1670 says, “You know yourself do not keep the Sabbath, that is the seventh day. There is no express Scripture for abolishing the seventh day, and instituting the eighth day worship, but that it is at the church’s pleasure.”

John Gilnary Shea wrote in American Catholic Quarterly Review, January 1883. “Protestantism, in disregarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought, logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath, with the Jews and Seventh-Day Baptists. For their present practice Protestants in general have no authority but that of a church which they disown, and there cannot be a greater inconsistency than theirs in asking the state to enforce the Sunday laws.”

In Toronto, October 27, 1949 Philip Carrington, Anglican Archbishop, said that there is nothing to support Sunday being kept holy. Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday. This was published in the newspapers the next day.

Today Sunday laws are existing in many countries. As we are nearing the end more strict laws will be made which will create difficulties to the Sabbath keepers.

“A time is coming when the law of God is, in a special sense, to be made void in our land (the United States). The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law~ and thus God’s people will be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land .” Maranatha, p. 179

“As men depart further and further from God, Satan is permitted to have power over the children of disobedience. He hurls destruction among men. There is calamity by land and sea. Property and life are destroyed by fire and flood. Satan resolves to charge this upon those who refuse to bow to the idol which he has set up. His agents point to Seventh-Day Adventists as the cause of the trouble. ‘These people stand in defiance of law,’ they say. ‘They desecrate Sunday. Were they compelled to obey the law for Sunday observance, there would be a cessation of these terrible judgments.'” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, July 16, 1901.

“Their religious prejudice and bigotry would lead them to do any act of violence, verily thinking they were doing God’s service; for they are in great error. A blind zeal under false religious theories, is the most violent and merciless.” Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers-No 6, p. 50

“The truth should be presented in short articles, in clear, distinct lines, giving special points in regard to the Lord’s Sabbath, and showing that those who frame laws to compel the observance of the first day of the week, are disloyal to the Lord of heaven, who placed His sanctity upon the seventh day. Are we doing all we can to exalt the law of Jehovah?” Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 97-98.

“We see the world working to the point of establishing by law a false Sabbath, and making it a test for all .. . In Sunday law there is possibility for great suffering to those who observe the seventh day. The working out of Satan’s plans will bring persecution to the people of God. ” 2 Selected Messages, p. 375.

“Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world .”” Test. Vol. 6, p. 395.

In the past few months we have heard news and reports about Sunday laws. The Pope gave a clear message that those who do not observe Sunday must be punished as heretics. The President of the United States has made comments about family-day, which he wants to legislate. Sister White wrote that nominal Seventh-Day Adventists will give up Sabbath-keeping and betray the faithful, remnant church to the authorities.

What are we doing in this solemn hour? Is it now time to seek ease and comfort while we are at the threshold of eternity? Many of our people are not yet ready to face the Sunday laws, and it will cause a shaking among us. Only those who have overcome every sin and even wrong thoughts and words will be able to stand firm in the coming crisis.

We need revival and a thorough reformation in our personal lives and our time to accomplish it is almost finished.

AMEN

Timo Martin