National Sunday law

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'''National Sunday law''' involves a [[conspiracy theory]] which alleges that the [[United States]] government is on the verge of enacting a national [[blue law]] that would make Sunday [[Sabbath|a day of rest and worship]]. The theory depends on the idea that the [[Pope]] is the [[Antichrist]] and the [[Number of the Beast|Mark of the Beast]] is worshipped on Sunday. Sinister forces ([[Anti-Catholicism|read]]: [[Vatican City|the Vatican]]) are conspiring to enact a national Sunday law in the United States, which would be the trigger that unleashes the fulfillment of the [[prophecy|prophecies]] found in the [[Biblical]] books of [[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] and [[Book of Revelation|Revelation]]. In addition, this law would outlaw worshipping on Saturday, thus beginning a period of [[Persecution complex|persecution]] of those who worship on Saturday, or Sabbath. 

This idea originated in the 19th century within [[Seventh-day Adventism]] (which regards the Sabbath as Saturday), and some on the fringes of the SDA church have taken a handful of failed [[Congress]]ional bills and papal writings and inflated them into the trigger of the [[apocalypse]]. This is quite [[ironic]] considering that you would ''think'' that opposition to blue laws might come from more [[secular]] groups, yet infighting<ref name="Sectarian_violence">{{wpa|Sectarian violence among Christians}}</ref> and [[schism]] aren't simply conjectural.

==History==
Fears about a national Sunday law date almost to the founding of the SDA church. In ''The Great Controversy'', [[Ellen G. White]] wrote: "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."<ref name="great_controversy">[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25833/25833-h/25833-h.html The Great Controversy]</ref> She claimed to have foreseen such a thing in 1844.<ref name="egw_nsl">[http://www.ellenwhite.info/sunday_law_demand.htm The Ellen White Information Website: The National Sunday Law]</ref> The most notable attempt at passing a national blue law was in 1888, coincidentally the same year the third edition of ''The Great Controversy'' was released. The fourth and last edition in 1911, still containing this national Sunday law teaching, is still in circulation today.

U.S. Senator Henry Blair<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000524 BLAIR, Henry William (1834-1920)]</ref> ([[Republican|R]]-[[NH]]) introduced a national Sunday bill in 1888,<ref name="egw_nsl"/> which thankfully did not pass. Alonzo T. Jones, of the California Conference of the SDA church, spoke before the United States Senate Committee on Education and Labor about the subject.<ref>[http://temcat.com/L-1-adv-pioneer-lib/ATJONES/NationalSundayLaw-Jones.pdf Argument of Alonzo T. Jones before the United States Senate Committee on Education and Labor]</ref> Jones also wrote a book, ''National Sunday Law'', published in 1889.<ref>[http://ncc.adventist.org/article/1118/about-us/california-conference-history/conference-presidents/alonzo-t-jones California Conference History: Alonzo T. Jones]</ref>

A century later, parts of [[John Paul II]]'s ''Dies Domini'' encouraged Sunday rest guarantees from [[secular]] [[government]],<ref name="dies_domini">[http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_05071998_dies-domini_en.html Dies Domini]</ref> writing that "my predecessor Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical Rerum Novarum spoke of Sunday rest as a worker's right which the State must guarantee" and "[[Christians]] will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday [[holy]]."

==Connections to the Antichrist==
Some Seventh-day Adventists believe that a national Sunday law was a clear and present danger to their [[religious freedom]].<ref>[http://www.adventistsaffirm.org/article/165/previous-issues/volume-19-number-3/sunday-laws-in-an-age-of-freedom Adventists Affirm: Sunday Laws in an age of freedom]</ref> They fear that the Antichrist will [[Persecution complex|unleash great persecution]] of Sabbath-keepers just before the [[Second Coming]].

The belief tying Sunday blue laws to Bible prophecy and the Antichrist appears to come from White's ''The Great Controversy''. To quote her again: "Satan himself will [im]personate Christ. […] he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are [[blaspheming]] his name by refusing to listen to his [[angels]] sent to them with light and truth."<ref name="great_controversy"/> Modern SDA ministers like A. Jan Marcussen have continued this association, equating the "beast" of Revelation with the Papacy.<ref name="newsletter">[http://jansnewsletters.com/?page_id=31 Jan's Newsletters] — "Now – who is the 'beast?' … By now most of the people have guessed that it’s the Papacy. They’re correct."</ref> He also identifies the Number of the Beast from {{bible|Revelation|13|18}}, [[666]], from [[Numerology|the numerical values]] of the Pope's presumed title of "Vicarius Filii Dei"; actually, this has ''never'' been an official title of the Roman Pontiff. But it sounds enough like one of his official titles, "Vicarius Christi", to confuse [[paranoid]] people.

This fear of a coming national Sunday law became a [[conspiracy theory]] and something that ''must'' inevitably happen, due to the official SDA church stance on Ellen G. White's writings as [[Bullshit|carrying divine authority]].<ref>[http://www.adventist.org/information/official-statements/statements/article/go/0/confidence-in-the-spirit-of-prophecy/36/ A Statement of Confidence in the Spirit of Prophecy]</ref><ref group=note>As one might imagine, other churches — mainly the [[Roman Catholic Church]] — are far less convinced of White's authenticity as a prophet.</ref>

Several books cheaply printed for mass distribution continue to promote fear of a coming national Sunday law, among them ''National Sunday Law'' by A. Jan Marcussen<ref>[http://www.amazon.com/National-Sunday-Law-Jan-Marcussen/dp/0912145080 Amazon.com: "National Sunday Law"]</ref> and the ''National Sunday Law Crisis'' apparently published by [http://harvestimebooks.com/ Harvestime Books] (the purveyors of other fine books on [[Alternative medicine|alternate]] [[cancer]] [[Patent medicine|remedies]], the [[Anti-vaccination movement|adult vaccination crisis]], and the like).<ref>[http://harvestimebooks.com/store/#!/~/product/id=11100124 Harvestime Books: "National Sunday Law Crisis"]</ref> Marcussen's book ties other issues into the conspiracy; for example, there is a conspiracy to bring back the [[capital punishment|death penalty]] so Sabbath-keepers can be executed once the national Sunday law is enacted. Marcussen's book has been mysteriously showing up since 1983 in laundromats, phone booths, rest areas, and unsolicited in the mail and usually elicits unintentional [[lulz]] from the reader.

Despite the presumed support of an international religious organization with two thousand years of recorded history, and numerous predictions, no such law has been passed in the United States in the one hundred years since it was first mentioned.

==Also consider==
*Blue laws already exist in many states/counties/municipalities, restricting anything from the sale of [[alcohol]]ic beverages to, in the past, [[business]]es being open at all on Sunday. What is so special about a national Sunday law that would make it the trigger that sets off the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, when the U.S. was already blanketed with state and local blue laws?
*The trend over the past four decades has been to repeal those blue laws. Any attempt today at introducing such a bill in the [[Congress|U.S. Congress]] for a national law would be laughed at.
*Such a law would be blatantly unconstitutional under the [[Establishment Clause]]. Even if such a bill passed Congress, it would be immediately stayed by the courts and struck down soon thereafter.
*A law requiring businesses to close? In the United States? That might cut into corporate profits! Think of the 
idle rich
 job creators, somebody. It seems politically impossible.  
*Such a law would be widely viewed as [[antisemitic]] as well as anti-Seventh-day-Adventist.
*Belief that such a law is inevitably coming is based on a peculiar interpretation of Bible prophecy and fears dating from the late 1800s that have ossified into a persistent conspiracy theory, not on any real legislative priorities in Congress. A quick look at [http://thomas.loc.gov thomas.loc.gov] shows nothing of the sort introduced in Congress in recent years. The closest things have been bills mentioning Sunday premium pay or designating certain Sundays "Drive Safer Sunday" or "Parent's Day".
*What is so [[American exceptionalism|special about the United States]] that a national Sunday law in the U.S. would trigger the [[end times]]? Would a national Sunday law in [[Thailand]], [[Ukraine]], or the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] also trigger the end times?
*Where they get ''Sunday'' worship as the mark of the beast is anyone's guess. (The ''number'' of the beast is described in Revelation 13 as 666, and the ''mark'' of the beast is described as a physical mark on the hand or forehead.)

==You can't be serious. People really believe this?==
Yes. [http://www.maritime-sda-online.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=123111&page=1 And it gets even worse]: [[Barack Obama|Obama]] and [[global warming]] are apparently now part of the conspiracy.<ref group=note>Ah, conspiracy theory mutation. Nothing we haven't seen before, and we've seen more of it since ([[Pizzagate]] into [[QAnon]], for instance).</ref>

==See also==
*[[Anti-Catholicism]]
*[[Prayer]]
*[[One world religion]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
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[[Category:Anti-Catholicism]]
[[Category:Christianity]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]

Categories: Anti-Catholicism, Christianity, Conspiracy theories