Rome Pushes for Sunday Rest
By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear Friends,
Thank you for joining us this month. Keep the Faith continues to bring you up to date information concerning the greatest movements of our times. They are prophetic, and we must pay attention. We are not to fear, because the love of Jesus in our hearts casts out all fear. But we are nearing the end. My heart pounds sometimes when I see the amazing developments going on around us.
The press to increase Sunday laws in Europe is in full swing. The Roman Catholic Bishops and Roman Catholic organizations are joining with Protestant churches and Trade Unions in an effort to get the European Union to protect Sunday as a day of rest. This month we are going to look carefully at this movement which has considerable momentum and try to understand its prophetic significance.
Let us start with a familiar Bible verse. This is from Luke 21. When Jesus told his disciples about what was to come upon the earth at the end time, he said in verse 26 that things would get so bad that the people of the earth would gravely fearful. Notice what is says. “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”
But if you belong to Christ, you don’t need to have fear. Jesus offers to sustain you, if you are united to Him. What a wonderful promise He gave in the 28th verse. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Note that He said that when these things begin to come to pass we are to look up. In other words, we should be looking up now, because these things are already beginning to come to pass. Nay, even more, these prophecies are well on their way to being fulfilled. This verse puts the end-time prophecies into perspective. Jesus is coming soon…
I am so thankful that our Heavenly Father thought to warn us, but also to encourage us. He promises to carry us through. But we do have to watch and pray and work for souls. Listen to this statement from the Review and Herald December 24, 1899. “There are many who are at ease, who are, as it were, asleep. They say, “If prophecy has foretold the enforcement of Sunday observance, the law will surely be enacted;” and having come to this conclusion, they sit down in calm expectation of the event, comforting themselves with the thought that God will protect his people in the day of trouble. But God will not save us if we make no effort to do the work He has committed to our charge. We must be found faithfully guarding the outposts, watching as vigilant soldiers, lest Satan shall gain an advantage which it is our duty to prevent. We should diligently study the word of God, and pray in faith that God will restrain the powers of darkness; for as yet the message has gone to comparatively few, and the world is to be lightened with its glory. The present truth—the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus—has not yet been sounded as it must be. There are many almost within the shadow of our own doors, for whose salvation no personal effort has ever been made.”
You see my friends, we have to take action. We need to warn our friends, relatives and neighbors. Let them know that the end is near. But remember, you must be prepared for how some will view your warning in a negative light.
From Great Controversy, page 605 – 606 we read the following. “Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel’s message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd. It has been confidently declared that this land could never become other than what it has been—the defender of religious freedom. But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before.”
Do you think that the Bible does not mean what it says when it tells us in Revelation 13 that the final struggle before Jesus comes in the clouds of glory will involve forced worship of the beast? Do you think that it is out of date to suggest that the worship struggle will involve Sunday observance enforced by the Roman Catholic Church and those churches in collaboration with it through civil governments?
The magnificent campaign in Europe, essentially sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church, but in conjunction with other churches and also trade unions to upgrade the Sunday laws in that largely secular region of the world, is the very evidence that tells us that “the event so long doubted and disbelieved is in fact approaching.” Rome has tipped her hand in Europe and has exposed herself as the promoter of the mystery of iniquity, which is the disregarding of God’s law. What is going on over there is very important to watch because it is a revelation of what will happen eventually in all countries of the world. There is a full on press under way to promote Sunday rest laws, which are the foundation for Sunday worship. Rome is doing this all throughout what once was, and will again become the old Holy Roman Empire.
The European Union is now an official superstate. That means that it now has a centralized government that will control the whole region of Europe. The whole idea of a centralized government over Europe has been a project of the Roman Catholic Church to resurrect the old Holy Roman Empire she once controlled with an iron fist, including its legally enforced day of worship. If you would like more about that, listen to the February sermon titled “The Secret History of the European Union.”
But Rome has tried for years to be legally recognized as the cultural center of Europe. But so far she has failed. She has claimed that the Roman Catholic religion, which she calls the Christian religion, has been the foundation of European culture. She has tried to get European constitutional and legal documents to include references to her historical role in Europe, thus giving her pre-eminence over all of Europe especially as Europe’s religion. But so far she has signally failed. Europe is so secular that many leaders are wary of Rome’s political and religious ambitions. They have, for one reason or another, stood in her way. They don’t want religion forced down their secular and irreligious throats. That will change one day however. If there are enough disasters, if there is enough fear, they will have a change of attitude. They will want religious answers. They will turn to their religious leaders such as the bishops and other ministers for answers. These leaders will be ready when that time comes. They will then urge that Sunday laws be enacted so that the people will be visibly reconciled to God.
But Rome must establish herself as the religious and cultural center of Europe if she possibly can, so that she can claim the right to political control. Right now she is taking another approach to her supremacy. Sunday worship is the mark of Papal authority in the religious world. Any Christian who keeps Sunday is at least tacitly recognizing Rome’s authority, because Rome claims that she changed the day from the Sabbath to Sunday by her own authority. She tries to tie it into what Christ or the apostles did, but fundamentally she openly claims that it was the church the changed the Sabbath. Now Rome is trying to upgrade Sunday laws for all of Europe so that they will also recognize Rome’s presumed authority in religion and culture through enacted laws. If she is successful, she will inadvertently, establish herself as the official religion of Europe.
Here is a very interesting statement from The Signs of the Times, November 28, 1900. “…any movement in favor of religious legislation is really an act of concession to the Papacy, which for so many ages has steadily warred against liberty of conscience. Sunday owes its existence as a so-called Christian institution to the “mystery of iniquity;” and its enforcement will be a virtual recognition of the principles which are the very corner-stone of Romanism.”
Then, speaking of the United States, the author says, “When our nation shall so abjure the principles of its government as to enact a Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with the Papacy; it will be giving life to the tyranny which has long been eagerly watching its opportunity to spring again into active despotism.”
Keep in mind that there are at least four levels, prophetically speaking, to the coming Sunday laws. Level one is Sunday closing laws. Level two is Sunday rest laws. Level Three is Sunday worship laws. And level four is anti-Sabbath laws. So far there are not Sunday worship laws or anti-Sabbath laws. Presently, there are plenty of Sunday closing laws, and perhaps even a few Sunday rest laws in some countries. But it won’t stay that way forever.
Here is what happened so far in the last couple of years to promote Sunday observance.
During the later years of the pontificate of John Paul II, the pontiff published an Apostolic Letter, no doubt reviewed and edited by none other than Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger himself while the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and now Benedict XVI. It is Dies Domini, and it extolled Sunday as the Lord’s day in place of the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord. In fact, in the letter, published May 31, 1998, John Paul, and Joseph Ratzinger skillfully characterized the change of Sabbath to Sunday in the most pious terms, quoting, or rather misquoting scripture in support of Rome’s long standing traditional doctrine of Sunday worship. In this Apostolic Letter, John Paul actually uses protestant arguments for Sunday as well as Catholic ones. In doing so, John Paul ingratiated himself to Protestants who would otherwise be suspicious of Rome perhaps.
Benedict the XVI has not been slack to promote Sunday worship. While in Vienna, Austria in 2007, he preached a homily in which he said that Austria ought to be an example to all the rest of Europe as a nation that protects Sunday as a day of rest. “Without Sunday we cannot live!” he said to a crowd of 40,000. “Give the soul its Sunday, give Sunday its soul.”
In late 2008, the Roman Catholic Church joined with other churches and trade unions to pressure the European Parliament to enact stronger Sunday laws to force their beliefs on all the citizens of Europe. Europe already has level one Sunday closing laws, which require all shops and industries to be closed on Sundays. Germany’s basic law, or constitutional law, actually calls Sunday a day for “spiritual improvement.” It is obviously intended as a religious law, and it has essentially been around since the Weimar Constitution of 1919.
See “Extracts,” Article 139 at the very bottom of the Basic Law
Their method was to change the European law called the Working Time Directive, which regulates work hours, to include the phrase “time off from work, shall, in principle, include Sunday.” Several Members of the European Parliament prevented the debate of this wording on the floor of Parliament.
Then in early 2009, the Catholic Church, some protestant churches and of course, the trade unions, tried again, this time through a parliamentary declaration. A declaration does not have the force of law, but it has political leverage that could have been used to pressure member states to enact level-two Sunday laws. But the declaration did not get enough signatures to be adopted. So this effort failed too.
Do you think Rome would stop with such strong opposition? Not at all! Prophecy tells us that there is coming a one-world religion and a global government to enforce it. It is found in Revelation 13:8 which says, “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him…”
In other words, the whole world is going to worship the beast of Revelation 13, or the Roman Catholic Church. She has positioned herself to be the moral authority of the world, and will eventually sit as queen of the world as it says in Revelation 18:7. She is already recognized by many in this way.
Don’t think that the sex scandal involving priests will change Rome’s prophetic destiny. Yes, she is discredited in the eyes of many at the moment. However, she will come through this trouble more powerful because she will make a show of cleaning it up and apologizing. She will pay off the victims through lawsuits and will make herself look like she is clothed in Christlike garments.
Listen to this statement from Great Controversy, page 571. “The Roman Church now presents a fair front to the world, covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties.” The priestly sex scandal with young vulnerable boys and girls would certainly qualify as a horrible cruelty, wouldn’t it?
I’ll read on. “She has clothed herself in Christlike garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of the papacy that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held.” You see, my friends, Rome still teaches the doctrine of indulgences, the doctrine of the worship of images and the Virgin Mary, the doctrine of penance, the doctrine of prosecution of heresy, the immortality of the soul, and even the doctrine of eternal burning hell fire.
“Let none deceive themselves. The papacy that Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the days of the Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives, to expose her iniquity. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princes, and claimed the prerogatives of God.” You see my friends, Protestants have forgotten their own history. They have participated in the ecumenical spirit. They have held to Rome’s traditions instead of Bible truth, especially regarding Sunday observance, and as a result they are left without a biblical defense against her ecumenical approach.
Now the last sentence… “Her spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human liberty and slew the saints of the Most High.”
So, Rome is going to once again crush out human liberty and urge the nations of the world to defend her religion by eventually issuing a death decree on all those who will not go along with her. Revelation 13:15 says that Rome will have “power to give life unto the image of the beast, (in the new world, led by the apostate protestants of United States) “that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” She will do the same thing in the old world where she will dominate the resurrected Holy Roman Empire.
Here it is from Prophets and Kings, page 512. “Especially will the wrath of man be aroused against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and at last a universal decree will denounce these as deserving of death.”
This is a fearful prophecy. If you are faithful to Jesus Christ and obey His holy Ten Commandment law, and keep His true Sabbath holy on the seventh-day of the week, you will be brought into some difficult times. But are we to fear these things? Not if we have Jesus enthroned in our hearts. Listen to this very important and comforting statement for those who will live through that time of trouble. Again, it is from Great Controversy, page 630-631.
“Could men see with heavenly vision, they would behold companies of angels that excel in strength stationed about those who have kept the word of Christ’s patience. With sympathizing tenderness, angels have witnessed their distress and have heard their prayers. They are waiting the word of their Commander to snatch them from their peril. But they must wait yet a little longer. The people of God must drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism. The very delay, so painful to them, is the best answer to their petitions. As they endeavor to wait trustingly for the Lord to work they are led to exercise faith, hope, and patience, which have been too little exercised during their religious experience.”
Did you hear that? There are angels that are instructed to stand by the side of the faithful commandment keepers. The very delay makes them suffer with Christ in His sufferings. And the result is that their faith, hope and patience are matured and they cling to Christ and His promises. Friends, you need to make the promises of God your own possession. Claiming God’s promises as your own must be your daily practice.
This passage gets even more interesting. I’ll read on. “The heavenly sentinels, faithful to their trust, continue their watch. Though a general decree has fixed the time when commandment keepers may be put to death, their enemies will in some cases anticipate the decree, and before the time specified, will endeavor to take their lives. But none can pass the mighty guardians stationed about every faithful soul. Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages; but the swords raised against them break and fall powerless as a straw. Others are defended by angels in the form of men of war.”
Religious leaders will think they have God’s faithful commandment keeping people cornered with nowhere to turn. But they don’t understand the tender care of God for them. Some people, stirred up with passion and hatred, come after them, but they are confronted by those angels who excel in strength. Their weapons fall powerless. They may even try all the high-tech stuff that they have invented to hunt down their prey. You know, night vision technology, infrared devices, RFID implanted radio chips, drone aircraft, and satellite imagery. They may bring in weapons of mass destruction, missiles, bombers and war machines of all types which they have developed at great expense. They may have their reasons for all these expensive devices, for instance, to defend against terrorism, fraud, child abuse, pornography, drugs, etc. But Satan knows that one day he can engage his agencies to use these very devices against God’s people. But they will be fighting against agencies that are far more powerful then they are. Do you think that angels know how to stop them? Of course they can.
Just imagine the amazing opportunity God’s people will have to watch the angels work – even if they can’t see them. It is Christ whom these angels represent. It is Christ that His faithful people represent. They are on the same team. They are working together. God’s faithful people have earnestly given the warning. The angels are now commissioned to protect them against the death penalty. Oh friends, don’t you want to be among those protected souls? This is your opportunity to become the messenger to lost souls. Give them the warning. Help them see their need of Jesus and their need to prepare for the coming crisis.
Now we come back to the Papal ambitions. In 2009 the Catholic Church, the German Lutheran Churches and the trade unions joined together against the city of Berlin in court. Berlin city had tried to liberalize Sunday shopping. Under current basic law dating back to 1919, four Sundays a year are permitted as shopping days. But Berlin city wanted to have twelve. The churches and trade unions opposed this vigorously. On December 1, 2009 the German High Court in Karlsruhe handed down their decision in favor of the churches and trade unions.
Now the bishops are at it again in 2010. There is a huge battle going on for the soul of Europe. And Sunday observance is the leverage that the churches and trade unions are using to gain the victory.
According to the Website of the Commission of the Bishop’s Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), “The European Commission will soon be presenting a new draft of the “Working Time Directive,” and that the bishops were planning to launch a new debate on the protection of Sunday rest.
Back in 1993 when the Working Time Directive was enacted, it included the very idea that the bishops want in it today. Sunday should be in principle the weekly day of rest for European workers. “In principle,” means that Sunday laws should apply to everyone other than essential services and those that must work to support them. This reference had been withdrawn in 1996 by the European Court of Justice, on the grounds that the European [legislature] had not given sufficient links between a work-free Sunday and the protection of workers’ health.
But in the intervening years studies have been done that appear to show that there is a strong link between Sunday rest and workers health. The bishops hope to use that evidence to get the law enacted. They want to promote Sunday rest as essential for the whole of Europe. To this end, they found a couple of Members of the European Parliament to cooperate with them and sponsor a conference to promote Sunday rest on March 24, 2010.
The First European Conference for a Work Free Sunday involved 72 organizations, including 13 churches, 24 civil organizations and 35 trade unions from all EU member states and featured a presentation by the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor. Also, various experts and Members of the European Parliament spoke at the conference.
The organizations included the Confederations of Trade unions in German and Austria and trade unions in almost every country of the European Union, the German, French, Slovakian and Austrian Free Sunday alliances, the keep Sunday Special organization in the UK, the Christian Worker’s association of Italy, the German Association of protestant employee-organizations, The European Christian Workers Movement, the Protestant Association for Family Matters of Germany, Catholic Family Association of Germany, COMECE (or the bishops conferences of the European Union), the Protestant Church in Germany, the Baptist Union and the Methodist Churches of Great Britain, the Church of England, the United Reformed Church of Great Britain, and many other religious organizations including the Jesuit European office.
As you can see from this partial list, many of these institutions are Roman Catholic, but they also include many protestant churches and organizations as well as a huge number of trade unions from all over Europe.
The Bishop’s website (COMECE) said that “recent studies have demonstrated the existence of a strong link between workers’ health and a work-free Sunday. Furthermore, a common weekly rest day for the whole of society allows families to spend time with each other, and all citizens to engage in cultural, spiritual and social activities. Sunday moreover strengthens the social cohesion of our societies, which has been undermined by the current economic crisis. It therefore represents a precious achievement, which should be recognized as a pillar of the European Social Model.”
I want you to notice the reasons the Bishops and others are promoting Sunday rest legislation. They include family time, health, social cohesion as well as spiritual objectives. The point is that the Bishops want to enforce Sunday rest for generally accepted secular reasons, but the ultimate goal is thinly veiled. They are aiming for and will eventually get religious legislation.
Prior to the conference, an appeal was published by a group of 120 churches and 40 associated organizations to EU heads of state and government, the Parliament, the Commission and “all European citizens” by the two MEPs who sponsored the conference, calling for a work free Sunday.
Here is what the statement said. “The protection of a work-free Sunday is of paramount importance for workers’ health, for the reconciliation of work and family life as well as for the life of civil society as a whole…”
Notice the secular reasons for Sunday rest. The first one is health and the second one is family life. How can you argue against those?
I’ll read on, “This common weekly day of rest serves to strengthen social cohesion in our societies, a cohesion so severely undermined by the current economic crisis…”
But that Sunday rest observed by all in common will strengthen social cohesion in opposition to the law of God. They are trying to get all Europe to oppose God’s law by force of law. Eventually, such a social cohesion would become so strong that the whole society would persecute those that don’t go along with Sunday laws. Notice too that it is argued that the economic crisis increases the need for Sunday rest because it has damaged social cohesion. They are using every excuse they can to support the call for Sunday rest.
The statement carried with it some amazing footnotes. One of them said “Scientific studies demonstrate that a work-free Sunday is more important for workers’ health and well-being than any other work-free day during the week.” So they claim, falsely of course, that not even a work free Saturday would have more benefits than a work free Sunday. In other words, they are trying to suggest that the day God set aside for rest is not as good as the day that man set aside. What arrogance! They are accusing God of appointing the wrong day, of not setting up the best day for rest. They think they know better than God.
The footnote also said that “Sunday work places enormous pressure on workers and their families. It encourages burnout and leads to sickness and absenteeism.”
Here are some other excuses that are promoted as intelligent reasons for resting on Sunday from another footnote. “On Sundays, parents and children are able to spend time with each other. Schools are closed on this day. According to the EU Directive on the Protection of Young People at Work, Sunday is already the acknowledged weekly rest day for children and adolescents of the EU.”
In other words, they are saying that no one should work on Sunday because society already accepts Sunday as the weekly day of rest. It is the popular thing. It is the way society has been organized. Of course that social organization is not based on what God says, but on what man says.
Another footnote explained why Sunday rest increases social cohesion. “Because it enables citizens to participate in social and associative life, to seek cultural and spiritual recreation and to engage in volunteer activities, a work free Sunday strengthens the social cohesion of our societies.”
Did you notice that the reason social cohesion is improved is because citizens can pursue religious or spiritual recreation? According to prophecy, that is the reason behind all the other reasons.
The statement, released on the very day of the conference for a work free Sunday, called upon European heads of state and government, institutions and citizens “to firmly resist the growing economic pressure to liberalize the laws providing for a work-free Sunday and to commit themselves to safeguard and promote a work-free Sunday as a pillar of the European Social Model within the laws of their respective nations.”
In other words, Rome and the churches of Europe are seeking to resurrect the social model of Europe during the middle ages, when despotism ruled the empire, and the religion of Rome was paramount.
The statement called upon the European institutions to “ensure that EU legislation and internal market rules guarantee the central place of a work-free Sunday in the life of workers and of society as a whole and to guarantee that no new pressure is placed on the principle of a work-free Sunday,” and to promote the “protection of Sunday as a weekly day of rest for all EU citizens.”
In other words, the churches are calling for laws to protect Sunday. Why does Sunday need legal protections? It is because Sunday observance is intended to be forced upon the people by the churches and governments. Nothing can be forced unless it has government power behind it. These people, and even society in general think that forcing people to do what God wants is the best way. But in reality, this is Satan’s way of imposing himself and placing the mystery of iniquity (which is opposition to God’s law) on the throne of iniquity (which is the seat of Rome’s persecuting power).
“Finally,” the statement said, “we call upon all European citizens to sign a future Citizens’ Initiative to be expressed in favour of the protection of a work-free Sunday.”
In other words, they want to get the citizens of Europe to demand a work free Sunday. If they can get this, eventually, they will be able, under great pressure of disasters and other calamities, to get the citizens to demand further and more oppressive Sunday laws. That is the trajectory of prophecy.
They also hope that the Free Sunday Conference will lead to the “creation of the first European Free Sunday Alliance.” Of course this would be to promote Sunday laws.
Thomas Mann, one of the organizers of the conference said, “I have demanded a bill to be passed to EU-Commissioner Andor so that Sunday as a fundamental work-free day is established within the working time directive.
Rüdiger Noll, Director of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches, told the March 24 2010 conference: “More than any other day of the week, a free Sunday offers the opportunity to be with one’s family and friends.”
Why not the Sabbath of the Lord? After all, that is what God originally intended and still intends. How can Sunday rest have more benefits than Sabbath rest when it is in opposition to the law of God? This false prophet is trying to tell us that we have more to gain by Sunday rest than by Sabbath rest.
“Common free time is an important precondition for a participatory society,” he said, “which allows its members to engage in civil activities.”
In other words, if you don’t go along with Sunday rest, you will be excluded from participation in society. He put it in terms that suggest that the two are naturally inseparable. He is bearing false witness, but it shows you where it will lead legally. If you don’t go along with the coming Sunday rest laws, and the eventual Sunday worship laws, you will be excluded from participation in society by the no buy, no sell law. This man is telling you plainly what is going to happen to those who don’t go along. He is saying in mild terms what they are going to do to those who are faithful to Jesus Christ and who live by all ten of the Ten Commandments.
The idea of common or shared time by all of society is a natural development of a ideology that the Papacy has been pushing for years. We are all part of a common humanity. We have common roots, common objectives, common ideals. For the good of all, we must all help each other, come in to unity, in order to achieve the common good so that everyone can enjoy the best of life. In order to achieve this, some individuality must be sacrificed in order to provide for that common society. The blueprint for this common brotherhood of all humanity naturally involves worship. To achieve unity and commonness in all things, humanity must ultimately rally around a common form of worship. So the thinking goes.
When you hear about “common free time,” or a “common free Sunday,” you can be sure that this is an attempt to build on this ideology of unity and commonness of all humanity. It is the foundation that will support a common worship as described in Revelation 13:8 which says that “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.”
The trade unions are very involved in this process. They are in league with the Catholic Church and the other churches to enforce Sunday rest. This is in their interests because it reduces the amount of time that people have to work for their pay. But it also greatly strengthens the movement for Sunday rest and the legal pressure that can be applied on governments and society to enact laws that the churches want. Trade unions are heavily involved in legislation to promote their own power and agenda.
In Manuscript Releases, vol. 4, page 88, God’s messenger to the remnant says that, “…the trade unions will be one of the agencies that will bring upon this earth a time of trouble such as has not been since the world began.”
The European Commission is reopening the discussion on the Working Time Directive. The last time they reviewed and updated it in 2009, Rome unsuccessfully tried to get Sunday rest enshrined in the law. Now the Bishops will have the opportunity again. And they will certainly try to improve on that.
“The review,” said the EU Commission, “will be shaped by a set of policy objectives, including protecting workers’ health and safety, improving balance between work and private life, giving businesses and workers flexibility without adding unnecessary administrative burdens for enterprises…”
But the battle for Sunday is just getting started. It is not just being waged at the parliamentary level. The bishops are also working to instigate a public demand for Sunday rest. They have organized a campaign to get 1 million European citizens from a significant number of member countries to sign a petition asking for a work free Sunday.
The reason for this is that there is a provision in the rules of the European government which allows citizens to petition the government of Europe to enact laws they want. It requires at least a million signatures from a significant number of European nations. The largely Roman Catholic Christian Democrats in the various countries are joining the effort to promote the petition for a work free Sunday, or Sunday rest laws.
Martin Kastler, a German member of the European Parliament, launched the first citizen referendum of the European Union to request that Sunday be declared a day for family and rest. The online campaign features the children’s slogan, “Mum and Dad Belong to Us on Sunday.”
Because of the provision in the European rules, European citizens “get the opportunity to stand up for our concerns,” said Kastler. “We want to use this opportunity to ensure a free Sunday.” He hopes that the campaign will “build up huge public pressure so that no one can ignore that every Sunday is a family day.”
In other words, he hopes that such a Sunday rest law can be enforced with strong penalties for those who do not make it a family day.
Kastler affirmed: “The work-free Sunday is part of our European culture. We need time for our families and relationships, for civil society and religion. A life full of working days is unlikely to be fulfilling.”
Keep in mind that Sunday rest as part of European culture is only part of the issue. It is the part that the Bishops can promote without jeopardizing Rome’s influence. But in reality, Sunday rest is the foundation of Sunday worship. Sunday rest laws are the foundation of Sunday worship laws, because the two go together. Any student of prophecy ought to be able to see this.
Kastler was one of the MEPs that introduced the Declaration for a work free Sunday into Parliament in 2009. The new petition states that “Every person needs spare time — to relax, to be active in civil society, for hobbies and for religion;” that “the work-free Sunday is an essential pillar of the European Social Model and a part of the European cultural heritage;” and that “With a free Sunday, there is at least one fixed spare day a week. This is why we demand a work-free Sunday in Europe.”
Note the word “demand.” Already there are over 14,000 signatures with many more to come. You can read the online website promoting a work-free Sunday by going to our website and clicking on the relevant links in the text of this sermon.
So let us think for a minute about what we have learned about what is going on regarding Sunday rest. There is obviously a well-coordinated effort promoted by the Roman Catholic Church through the trade unions, many of her own church organizations, including the European Jesuit Office, through her ecumenical partners such as the various protestant churches, civic organizations and even the pope himself. They are determined to get a work free Sunday enforced in European law. By doing this, the Catholic Church will set itself up as the religious and cultural center of Europe, and therefore become the defacto religious leader of the resurrected Holy Roman Empire.
Once she is legally recognized in this way, she will work to go further with Sunday laws, eventually requiring all the citizens of Europe to worship in her way, just as prophecy has said.
When Jesus described the fall of Jerusalem, He was also referring to the end of time. Notice Luke 21:20 “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” Could it be that with all the Sunday law agitation going on, the Roman armies are now surrounding God’s church? After all, Sunday legislation is a Roman thing.
Friends, we are nearing the final battle for truth and righteousness against the traditions and laws of men. We are entering the endgame. Don’t think that you have time to lose in your quest for righteousness. Don’t think you can waste another minute in preparing your life for the final battle. Jesus will stand by your side, but you cannot prepare in just a day. You have to become purposeful in your devotional life. You have to have determination to possess the presence of the Lord Jesus in your heart and mind. You cannot dabble with sin and expect to be mature enough to handle the pressure. God is calling you today. These signs of the times are actually His voice pleading with you and with me to repent and return to Him with all our hearts. Are you ready to do that today? Are you ready to place yourself completely in the hands of your heavenly Father and live by His law?