Eschatology, of course, refers to the study of last-day events. Seventh-day Adventist theology has maintained from its beginnings a special focus on what Scripture teaches regarding the events which will immediately precede the second coming of Christ and the end of the world.
Many years ago, an Adventist historian published an article in Spectrum magazine which claimed that the focus of classic Adventist eschatology on an end-time Sunday law crisis and resulting religious persecution was no longer credible, supposedly because of widespread secularization and cultural pluralism in the United States [1]. The author then suggested that if Ellen White were alive today, she would probably view such a power as the Soviet Union as fulfilling the Antichrist prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, rather than the papacy [2]. He went on to suggest that, “in her (Ellen White’s) spirit,” we should proceed to develop a more relevant and up-to-date perspective on the events of the last days [3].
The claim of this historian and others that classic Adventist eschatology lacked “relevance” in the late twentieth century was destined to suffer major body blows very soon after the above article was published. Major historical problems were also inherent in the article’s thesis. For starters, the notion that predictions of Catholic/Protestant harmony of the sort found in The Great Controversy were more realistic in Ellen White’s day than in our own, strains credulity almost to the breaking point. After all, when Ellen White wrote her end-time predictions in books like The Great Controversy, Catholic/Protestant hostility—not harmony—was the norm in American culture and politics. Those familiar with the history of that time will remember the popular slogan, “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion,” whose anti-Catholic spirit was politically decisive in America from the late nineteenth into much of the twentieth century [4].
By the late twentieth century—in the immediate wake, no less, of the aforementioned article which declared Adventist mark-of-the-beast eschatology to be culturally obsolete—political cooperation between Protestants and Catholics became a cultural and political fixture of the American scene [5]. Perhaps most embarrassing for those Adventists touting the views of the above article was that at the very time the article was published, the Religious Right—with its unprecedented Catholic-Protestant togetherness [6]—was making its debut on the American political stage, where its role remains prominent to this day. Moreover, the idea that religious persecution of the sort predicted by Ellen White and classic Adventism couldn’t possibly occur in our “enlightened” contemporary age, has become untenable to the point of absurdity at a time when secret trials of suspected terrorists have occurred [7], when rage to the point of violence is publicly stoked against ethnic and religious minorities, and a U.S. president publicly applauds the use of torture [8].
Efforts to De-Emphasize the Coming Sunday Law—From a Surprising Source
Let me say from the outset that I am quite certain the new voices of which I am about to speak represent but a tiny fraction of theologically conservative Seventh-day Adventists in the present moment. However, it is worthy of note that a vocal smattering of online and other voices from conservative Adventist ranks appear to have minimized in their thinking both the evil and imminence of the Sunday law threat, focusing rather on what they perceive as greater threats to Christianity and religious freedom from such forces as the gay rights movement, feminism, the campaign for abortion rights, environmentalism, and Islamist terrorism.
While professing to be theological conservatives, which for Seventh-day Adventists means giving supreme authority in matters spiritual to the Bible and the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy, the aforementioned persons appear to be permitting present challenges identified by cultural and political conservatism to marginalize in their minds the uniquely Adventist prophetic worldview found in Scripture and the writings of Ellen G. White.
It is not the purpose of this article to examine or speculate regarding the role which might or might not be played in history’s closing events by the various elements listed above, believed by these persons to involve issues more currently pressing in their minds than the coming Sunday law crisis and the unity of church and state which prophecy declares will bring this about. Rather, what follows in this article are indicators as to the reality (even if temporarily hidden) of the Sunday movement in our present time, along with historical warnings as to why it is dangerous to permit perceived momentary challenges to distract us from the end-time focus found in the forecasts of the inspired pen.
Recent Sunday Law Agitation
In a recent online discussion, an outspoken blogger very zealous for conservative politics—in particular opposition to abortion—recently insisted that “no one is even whispering about Sunday laws (except a few prophetically self-induced Adventists),” and that in his view, “the signs of the times call for a focus on the reality of what’s occurring now and not what is predicted to happen some day” [9].
Another blogger on the same discussion thread stated, responding to the present writer, “’Dark ages persecution’ and Sunday laws are your enemy, not sin” [10]. (As if religious intolerance and the enforcement of a false rest day by civil law do not constitute sin! Such thinking is truly bizarre when it comes from a fellow Seventh-day Adventist.)
A subsequent post by the first of the above two bloggers was especially noteworthy, as it runs counter to a great deal of objective evidence from credible news sources. In the words of this blogger: “Despite NOT ONE political attempt by the Religious Right to pass a Sunday Law over the past 40 years you guys are still crying ‘wolf’” [11].
Perhaps this brother needs to pay closer attention to the news as it relates to Sunday law agitation. The fact is that, while not a conspicuous item on the agenda of the Religious Right during recent decades, the Sunday issue has in fact been mentioned during the past thirty years by both leaders and prominent acolytes of the Christian conservative political movement in the United States and beyond—as well as by others who would not likely qualify as religious or political conservatives, as we shall see.
The following references—not often cited, surprisingly, by Adventist current events watchers—indicate that while Sunday laws have not perhaps been at the fore of the Religious Right’s consciousness in the United States during recent decades, they have not been far from the thinking of its leaders and key activists.
For example, back in 1987, the Portland Oregonian reported the following regarding a Republican party retreat in the state of Oregon while Bob Packwood was still a senator:
He (Packwood) charged that the New Right wants to impose its rigid ideas of theocracy and statism on the party and on this country.
Packwood says this includes a legal ban on abortion, organized prayer in the public schools, and laws attempting to further the belief that the “sabbath is on Sunday” [12].
Televangelist Pat Robertson, in his 1991 book The New World Order, wrote as follows regarding Sunday laws:
Laws in America that mandated a day of rest from incessant commerce have been nullified as a violation of the separation of church and state. In modern America, shopping centers, malls, and stores of every description carry on their frantic pace seven days a week. Before our eyes we watch the increase of chronic burnout, stress breakdown, nervous disorders, and mental and spiritual exhaustion cauterizing the souls of our people [13].
Twice in his 1994 book Politically Incorrect: The Emerging Faith Factor in American Politics, Religious Right activist and Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed spoke favorably of Sunday laws [14].
David Barton, a prominent Religious Right devotee who has served as vice chair of the Texas Republican Party and more recently headed the political action committee Keep the Promise, which supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Texas Senator Ted Cruz [15], wrote the following positive statement in 1992 regarding Sunday laws in nineteenth-century America, describing these as proof of the country’s “Christian” values at the time:
The court, in addressing the seventh-day sabbath of the Jewish religion vs. the first-day sabbath of the Christian religion, . . . emphasized the importance of a uniform national sabbath; in this, a Christian nation, Sunday was to be that day [16].
In the same book Barton writes favorably of the following declaration by the 1853 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee:
Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, is recognized and respected by all the departments of the Government. . . . Here is a recognition by law, and by universal usage, not only of a Sabbath, but of the Christian Sabbath, in exclusion of the Jewish or Mohammedan Sabbath [17].
And who can forget the apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II on July 30, 1998, titled, Dies Domini (the Day of the Lord), in which he praised the Roman Emperor Constantine’s “legislation of the rhythm of the week” [18]? What is more, many didn’t seem to notice how this same pope declared that one violating the sanctity of Sunday should be “punished as a heretic” [19]. Anyone familiar with church history can certainly recall the delightful ways in which such punishment was meted out!
More recently, the following statement promoting Sunday laws was written by one Dale Kuehne, who presently serves as director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Nashua, New Hampshire, and also serves as senior pastor of the Emanuel Covenant Church in the same town [20]. In his 2009 book Sex and the iWorld, describing how intimate relationships are being trivialized by the immoral onslaught of our day, he offers the following as a solution whereby marital intimacy and family togetherness might be restored in America:
There is a public policy remedy that can be made with no financial cost and that will likely boost profits for businesses and provide all of us with more time for one another: reenact the prohibitions on Sunday shopping and many publicly scheduled activities. The most important reason to do this, apart from any potential financial benefits, is relational. But it will be virtually impossible to achieve this without governmental intervention. As long as Sunday is unregulated, there is an incentive for all stores to stay open so they do not lose their market share. This single change in public policy would do more at less cost to create relational time than anything else we might consider.
There may be those who agree on the importance of a shared day off but would prefer a day other than Sunday. The cultural and political reality, however, is that there will be less resistance to re-regulating Sunday shopping than regulating any other day of the week. If consensus could be built around another day, it would be worth considering, but in the United States, at least, it is hard to imagine any day other than Sunday being protected [21].
What is more, Sunday law agitation in recent years has by no means been confined to the United States. Members of the European Parliament seeking to protect a “work-free Sunday” have been notably active at least since 2009 [22], most recently in 2019 at the behest of such ecumenical groups as the European Sunday Alliance [23] and the World Youth Alliance [24]. Observers will note that the above groups include both liberal and conservative elements so far as theological and political leanings, respectively, are concerned.
Again, all will recognize that this issue hasn’t been out front in the legislative agenda of politically active Christians during recent decades, the way issues like school prayer, abortion, and gay marriage have been. But this too is a fulfillment of inspired predictions, as Ellen White declares in her writings that “the Sunday movement is now making its way in darkness” [25]. The headlines relative to the Religious Right and its political goals during the past forty years most assuredly attest to the accuracy of the above statement. But even though the Sunday issue is making its way in darkness, it is still there. The references cited above from credible sources over the past three decades confirm this beyond any reasonable doubt.
The Unerring Lodestar
One is fascinated by the suggestion made in the 1979 Spectrum article quoted at the beginning, that if Ellen White had been alive when the article in question was written that she might have revised her end-time scenario to make the Soviet Union the Antichrist beast of Bible prophecy [26]. In the years following the release of the above article, the Soviet empire ceased to exist, and the Berlin Wall has become a million souvenirs. The papacy, by contrast, continues to bestride the earth with ever-increasing global influence and power.
Still another blogger on the website thread noted earlier recently stated, “I fear the Religious/Political Left in the U.S. more than I fear any pope” [27]. Never mind that the agenda of religious and/or political liberals—and the two are not the same, by the way—is never even mentioned in the Bible or the writings of Ellen White as part of the forces that will bring about the final test between the seal of God and the mark of the beast. Whatever one’s opinion may be so far as the agenda of the political Left is concerned, it is not depicted in the inspired writings as the great test question of the last days. The papacy, by contrast, is most assuredly noted as the dominant power among the forces arrayed against God’s people at the close of time.
When Seventh-day Adventists permit their energies and focus to be diverted from the forecasts of Inspiration to agendas and ideas not mentioned by the inspired pen, they have allowed the fallible lodestar of culture and politics to replace the unerring lodestar of the written counsel of God (Isa. 8:20; Acts 17:11). It isn’t hard to find oneself genuinely concerned that Seventh-day Adventists with this perspective could well find themselves leaving the ranks of God’s people during the final crisis and joining the Sunday law forces because the latter hold a position on certain Religious Right issues more in harmony with their own biases than the official posture of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
What a tragedy that would be.
REFERENCES
1. Jonathan Butler, “The World of E.G. White and the End of the World,” Spectrum, August 1979, pp. 2-13.
2. Ibid, p. 13.
3. Ibid.
4. See “United States presidential election, 1884” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1884#Campaign; Christopher M. Finan, Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior (New York: Hill and Wang, 2002), pp. 82-84,164-165,182-182,209-220,229-230
5. See “Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium,” First Things, May 1994, pp. 15-22; Lisa Cannon Green, “From Antichrist to Brother in Christ: How Protestant Pastors View the Pope,” Christianity Today, September 2015 http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/september/antichrist-brother-christ-protestant-pastors-pope-francis.html
6. See Stephen D. Mumford, American Democracy and the Vatican: Population Growth and National Security (Amherst, NY: The Humanist Press, 1984), pp. 44-45; “Moral Majority” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Majority
7. “Secret Trials: Justice vs. Terror: How Far Should We Go?” Newsweek, Dec. 10, 2001 (cover)
8. James Masters, “Donald Trump says torture ‘absolutely works’—but does it?” CNN, Jan. 26, 2017 https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/donald-trump-torture-waterboarding/index.html; Rebecca Gordon, “Donald Trump Has a Passionate Desire to Bring Back Torture,” The Nation, April 6, 2017 https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/donald-trump-has-a-passionate-desire-to-bring-back-torture/; Jonathan Swan, “Trump said CIA director Gina Haspel agreed with him ‘100%’ on torture,” Axios Nov. 17, 2019 https://www.axios.com/trump-gina-haspel-cia-torture-waterboarding-f8c4b63b-7825-4cc9-9ff3-128c759f5eee.html
9. Comment of Doug Yowell on “Harvard Professor Wants to Ban Homeschooling,” Fulcrum7, April 24, 2020 http://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2020/4/24/harvard-professor-wants-to-ban-homeschooling
10. Comment of Jim Jusits on “Harvard Professor Wants to Ban Homeschooling,” Fulcrum7, April 24, 2020 http://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2020/4/24/harvard-professor-wants-to-ban-homeschooling
11. Comment of Doug Yowell on “Harvard Professor Wants to Ban Homeschooling,” Fulcrum7, April 24, 2020 http://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2020/4/24/harvard-professor-wants-to-ban-homeschooling
12. Jeff Napes, “Packwood Attacks New Right: uproar erupts at retreat,” Portland Oregonian, March 8, 1987.
13. Pat Robertson, The New World Order (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991), p. 236.
14. Ralph Reed, Politically Incorrect: The Emerging Faith Factor in American Politics (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994), pp. 75,132.
15. “David Barton (author)” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Barton_(author)
16. David Barton, The Myth of Separation: What is the correct relationship between Church and State? (Aledo, TX: Wallbuilder Press, 1992), p. 76.
17. Ibid, p. 183.
18. “Apostolic Letter Dies Domini of the Holy Father John Paul II to the Bishops, Clergy, and Faithful of the Catholic Church On Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy,” p. 21. http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1998/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_05071998_dies-domini.html
19. Detroit News, July 7, 1998, p. 1A.
20. https://www.anselm.edu/faculty-directory/dale-kuehne
21. Dale S. Kuehne, Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationships beyond an Age of Individualism (Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2009), p. 196.
22. http://www.comece.eu/site/en/ourwork/pressreleases/2009/article/7655.htm
23. “Ahead of EU elections: what is next for work-free Sunday? European Sunday Alliance, Feb. 18, 2019 http://www.europeansundayalliance.eu/
24. “Work-Free Sunday and Decent Working Hours in Europe: Which way forward?” World Youth Alliance, Feb. 18, 2019 https://www.wya.net/op-ed/work-free-sunday-and-decent-working-hours-in-europe-which-way-forward/
22. Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 452.
26. Butler, “The World of E.G. White and the End of the World,” Spectrum, August 1979, p. 13,
27. Comment of Douglas Carlson on “Harvard Professor Wants to Ban Homeschooling,” Fulcrum7, April 24, 2020 http://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2020/4/24/harvard-professor-wants-to-ban-homeschooling
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan