BBC: Polish bishops for total ban on Sunday shopping

Sunday Laws in Ontario, Canada in 1911

We are again hearing calls for Sunday laws in Europe.

This time, Poland. A reader tipped me off to the following from the BBC:

Polish bishops for total ban on Sunday shopping

Poland’s leading Catholic bishop has spoken out in favour of an almost complete ban on shops opening on Sunday, amid growing public controversy over the proposal.

“Free Sundays are what all Catholics, non-Catholics and non-believers need,” Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki told Polish Radio ahead of a meeting of the Bishops Conference on Friday, which is expected to support the ban. …

But there is strong opposition to the proposal in many circles. The latest poll for the TVN 24 news channel in March showed a clear 59% in favour of keeping shops open and only 35% for the ban, which would incidentally allow Sunday trading seven days a year.

Piotr Mazurkiewicz, who writes on the economy for the heavyweight Rzeczpospolita daily, says “no one should be under any illusion” that lucrative shopping tourism from Germany and Scandinavia would be hard hit, as most foreign shoppers head to Poland at the weekend. …

Labour Minister Elzbieta Rafalska acknowledged in June that the bill has gained momentum, and could be passed next year, TVN 24 reports. But she advises that any shopping restrictions must be introduced “in stages” after careful consideration by parliament. 08/23/17 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-41025700

Many parts of Europe already either have Sunday laws (see German Court Insists on Sunday Shopping Restrictions and Hungary to implement Sunday law) or at least reduced shopping opportunities on Sundays.

Various ones have long considered that the Beast of Revelation will implement Sunday laws and restrictions.

Historically, the sun-god worshiping Roman Emperor Constantine ended up making the first Sunday law. Constantine decreed circa March 7, 321:

Let all judges, the people of cities, and those employed in all trades, remain quiet on the Holy Day of Sunday. Persons residing in the country, however, can freely and lawfully proceed with the cultivation of the fields; as it frequently happens that the sowing of grain or the planting of vines cannot be deferred to a more suitable day, and by making concessions to Heaven the advantage of the time may be lost (Code of Justinian, Book III, Title XII, III. THE JUSTINIAN CODE FROM THE CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS. Translated from the original Latin by Samuel P. Scott. Central Trust Company, Cincinnati, 1932).

Shortly after the above decree, Eusebius recorded this about Constantine:

Accordingly he enjoined on all the subjects of the Roman empire to observe the Lord’s day, as a day of rest (Eusebius. Life of Constantine, Book IV, Chapter 18).

Notice that “the Lord’s day” became enjoined by a decree of a Roman Empire. Also notice the following:

There is a large body of civil legislation on the Sunday rest side by side with the ecclesiastical. It begins with an Edict of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, who forbade judges to sit and townspeople to work on Sunday (Slater T. Transcribed by Scott Anthony Hibbs. Sunday. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV Copyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton Company Online Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. Knight).

The bolded quote shows one of the first official intertwinings of European politics and Catholic doctrine. Despite the fact that he was not baptized nor ordained, the influence of the sun-god worshiping Emperor Constantine, who declared himself a bishop, was highly significant:

So prominent had Christians and their day become that when the Emperor Constantine proclaimed Sun Day as the weekly holy day for all Romans, some Christians believed that it was for their sake. More likely Constantine, like many Roman aristocrats of the time, was simply trying to find common ground for his mixed pagan and Christian subjects, especially his soldiers. Unity was for the good of the state and the emperors’ power (Harline C. Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl. Doubleday, NY, 2007, p. 17).

However, after a time, Constantine did clearly begin to provide more favor to the Roman version of Christianity which (like the pagans, but unlike the Church of God) endorsed Sunday. He, the sun-worshiping emperor (see Do You Practice Mithraism?), then called for the famous Council of Nicea, which took place in 325 A.D. This council decided that Sunday was to be the day of worship and that Passover was to be observed on Sunday (and that eventually became what is known as Easter). After that council, those in the Church of God who kept the Sabbath were considered to be heretics and outcasts and had to flee to the wilderness.

He later issued an edict against those who would not accept his compromised religion, greatly exalting the political power of Greco-Roman bishops, and massively increasing idolatry and military service amongst unfaithful professors of Christ. He called for and summoned a church council (Nicea in 325 A.D.) which adopted practices that the Apostle John warned were those of antichrists (1 John 2:18–22). He also took away certain Church of God properties and ordered the death penalty to Church of God Christians in Jerusalem that would not eat pork (see The New Testament Church and Unclean Meats and/or Persecutions by Church and State).

He is known as Constantine the Great by the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Catholics for legalizing and essentially mandating their compromised faith throughout the Roman Empire. Other doctrinal compromises occurred because of him and afterwards. It has also been reported that only two years before claiming to see a cross in the sky, Constantine saw an apparition of the sun god Sol in a grove of Apollo in Gaul in 310 (discussed in Rodgers, Barbara S. “Constantine’s Pagan Vision,” Byzantion, vol. 50, 1980, pp. 259–78). This should give all pause to realize that Constantine had a history of apparent demonic contact, but most have overlooked this.

The final Beast of the Sea of Revelation 13 will have some commonalities with Emperor Constantine.

The late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote:

Those martyrs, over a thousand years ago, were killed BECAUSE they would not worship the Church, conform to its idolatry and pagan beliefs and customs, or worship the so-called “Holy Roman Empire,”—and BECAUSE they refused to receive the MARK of the beast!…

Those who receive the plagues are breakers of God’s Commandments, and also at the same time receivers of the MARK! It becomes more and more plain that the mark of the beast represents COMMANDMENT-BREAKING…idolatry…Some worship idols carved out of stone, or wood, or marble…The Sabbath was made FOR MAN. So said Jesus (Mark 2:27). It was made WHEN man was made (Genesis 2:1-3). It was MADE—and it was Christ, the Eternal, who made it! Therefore HE is Lord of the Sabbath! It was made to keep man in the true knowledge of the IDENTITY of the true God, to keep him from idolatry!…

It was Constantine, Emperor of the Roman Empire, not a pope, who made SUNDAY the official so-called “Christian day of rest.” But it was enforced — people were caused to accept it universally — by the CHURCH! …

This is the ONLY COMMANDMENT which was altered by the Roman Empire! In Daniel 7:25 we read the prophecy of this “BEAST” and the little horn (papacy) rising up, which was to think to CHANGE “times and laws.” That is, change God’s LAW in respect to TIME the time for the Sabbath! …

Now the “beast,” in association with the Church, used FORCE to brand the western world with their MARK. Those who obeyed God and kept His Sabbath were martyred. They were unable to “buy or sell.” But God does not force anyone. God lets us make our own decision about obeying Him, accepting Christ, and becoming His obedient children. …

The Church did cause all under the “Holy Roman Empire” to receive this “mark,” during the middle ages. Has she stopped? Just at present she has not the POWER to enforce this mark on everyone. But there will be a United States of EUROPE … It will be a UNION of Church and State — and the Church once again will sit astride “The BEAST.” (Armstrong HW. The Mark of the Beast. 1952, booklet)

“Here is the patience of the saints; here are they…” now these do not have the mark of the beast, “…that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” On the one hand, are those who have the name of God in their forehead, and when it comes to work and things, they have the commandments of God. And one of those commandments tells you what day you can’t use your hands in work. And that day is the Sabbath day. It has SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD!…

Now, they are going to compel disobedience to God…they’re not going to compel you to commit adultery…they might to worship idols and they might not, they won’t compel you to use profanity. But I’ll tell you what they will compel you to do, to observe Sunday instead of the Sabbath. (Armstrong HW. The Mark of the Beast. Sermon Transcript 28-Dec-1982; Alternately dated 11-Dec-1982)

There will be more Sunday laws. There will again be prohibitions against keeping the seventh-day Sabbath.

As many realize, it is not just Church of God writers, but Seventh-day Adventists who have also warned about this.

Of course, the Greco-Roman-Protestants keep Sunday. Yet, even some of their own translations of the New Testament show that the seventh-day Sabbath is to be kept by Christians:

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience … There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience (Hebrews 4:3-6, 9-11, NIV).

3 However, we who have faith are entering into that rest, even as God said: As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest. And yet, the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 Somewhere [else], God said this about the seventh day: God rested on the seventh day from all his works. … 9 There must still be, then, a Sabbath rest for God’s people, 10 and anyone who has entered into his rest has also rested from his [own] works, just as God did. 11 Therefore, let us do our utmost to enter into that rest, for fear that anyone should fall according to the same pattern of disobedience. ((Hebrews 4:3-4, 9-11. THE EASTERN / GREEK ORTHODOX BIBLE NEW TESTAMENT. The EOB New Testament is presented in memory of Archbishop Vsevolod of Scopelos † 2007)

3 For we, that have believed, shall enter into their rest; as he said: As I sware in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: and truly the works from the foundation of the world being perfected. 4 For he said in a certain place of the seventh day thus: And God rested the seventh day from all his works…9 Therefore there is left a sabbatisme for the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, the same also hath rested from his works, as God did from his. 11 Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest; lest any man fall into the same example of incredulity. (Hebrews 4:3-4, 9-11, The Original and True Rheims New Testament of Anno Domini 1582)

This clearly shows that the command to keep the seventh day Sabbath is in the New Testament. It also shows that only those who will not observe it because of their disobedience argue otherwise. And that is why Paul observed it. Even Origen of Alexandria understood some of what Paul wrote above as he wrote:

But what is the feast of the Sabbath except that which the apostle speaks, “There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism,” that is, the observance of the Sabbath, by the people of God…let us see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. On the Sabbath-day all worldly labors ought to be abstained from…give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction…this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath (Translated from Origen’s Opera 2, Paris, 1733, Andrews J.N. in History of the Sabbath, 3rd editon, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1998, pp. 324-325).

Sunday is truly a tradition of men that has pagan connections. Christians are to “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

The Bible teaches that the Beast of the Sea will encourage the breaking of ALL the Ten Commandments, including the Sabbath (for details see The Ten Commandments: The Decalogue, Christianity, and the Beast).

Actually, it is those that keep the Ten Commandments in the time of the end that are the only true Christians:

17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:17)

12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 14:12).

The Bible shows that the coming ‘Beasts’ will use economic pressure, persecutions, and executions to enforce the mark of Beast:

14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:14-18).

Sabbath-keeping groups like the Seventh-day Adventists and the Continuing Church of God have expected more Sunday laws and also expect more direct persecution of Sabbath-keepers in the future. Commandment breaking is a Mark of Antichrist and a Mark of the Beast and is part of Satan’s plan.

For those who do not believe that this type of persecution can happen, I would simply add that the Eastern Orthodox have a prophecy that various Sabbath-keepers will be publicly executed and the time period is supposed to be when the “Great Monarch” rises up:

Blessed Hieronymus Agathaghelos (1279): And lo, an evil assembly of the crafty leader, dressed in black mourning apparel…those who were taking in a most hypocritical manner the most holy name of Christ…those were the most filthy citizens of Pentapolis…these are semi-godless men…they will have to pay the price before the public executioner of the Sabbatians. (Tzima Otto, H. The Great Monarch and WWIII in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Scriptural Prophecies. Verenika Press, Rock City (SC), 2000, pp. 134,135,240).

Furthermore, Roman Catholic writings also have negative comments about Sabbath keeping and warn that, despite the fact that Jesus kept it, that Sabbath keeping is a doctrine of Antichrist (see Do Certain Catholic Prophecies About Antichrist Warn Against Jesus?).

While some may dismiss Sunday shopping laws as irrelevant, they are a step towards the coming Beast system.

Some items of possibly related interest may include the following:

The Sabbath in the Early Church and Abroad Was the seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath observed by the apostolic and post-apostolic Church? Here is a related sermon video The Christian Sabbath and How and Why to Keep It.
The Mark of Antichrist What is the mark of Antichrist? What have various ones claimed? Here is a link to a related sermon What is the ‘Mark of Antichrist’?
Mark of the Beast What is the mark of the Beast? Who is the Beast? What have various ones claimed the mark is? What is the ‘Mark of the Beast’?
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? Is an emerging European power “the daughter of Babylon”? What is ahead for Europe? Here is a link to a video titled: Can You Prove that the Beast to Come is European?
European Technology and the Beast of Revelation Will the coming European Beast power would use and develop technology that will result in the taking over of the USA and its Anglo-Saxon allies? Is this possible? What does the Bible teach? Here is a related YouTube video: Military Technology and the Beast of Revelation.
Early Sabbath Keeping in North America When did Europeans first keep the Sabbath in North America? Did the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower keep Saturday or Sunday?
How to Observe the Sabbath How should you keep the Sabbath? This is an old article by Raymond Cole, with updated information for the 21st century.
The Dramatic Story of Chinese Sabbathkeepers This reformatted Good News article from 1955 discusses Sabbath-keeping in China in the 1800s.
Is God Unreasonable? Some have suggested that if God requires Sabbath-keeping He is unreasonable. Is that true? Here is a link to a related article in Mandarin Chinese 一个不合理的神？
Should You Observe God’s Holy Days or Demonic Holidays? This is a free pdf booklet explaining what the Bible and history shows about God’s Holy Days and popular holidays.
Is Revelation 1:10 talking about Sunday or the Day of the Lord? Most Protestant scholars say Sunday is the Lord’s Day, but is that what the Bible teaches?
Sunday and Christianity Was Sunday observed by the apostolic and true post-apostolic Christians? Who clearly endorsed Sunday? What relevance is the first or the “eighth” day? A related sermon is also available: Sunday: First and Eighth Day?
Where is the True Christian Church Today? This free online pdf booklet answers that question and includes 18 proofs, clues, and signs to identify the true vs. false Christian church. Plus 7 proofs, clues, and signs to help identify Laodicean churches. A related sermon is also available: Where is the True Christian Church? Here is a link to the booklet in the Spanish language: ¿Dónde está la verdadera Iglesia cristiana de hoy? Here is a link in the German language: WO IST DIE WAHRE CHRISTLICHE KIRCHE HEUTE? Here is a link in the French language: Où est la vraie Église Chrétienne aujourd’hui?
Continuing History of the Church of God This pdf booklet is a historical overview of the true Church of God and some of its main opponents from Acts 2 to the 21st century. Related sermon links include Continuing History of the Church of God: c. 31 to c. 300 A.D. and Continuing History of the Church of God: 4th-16th Centuries and Continuing History of the Church of God: 17th-20th Centuries. The booklet is available in Spanish: Continuación de la Historia de la Iglesia de Dios, German: Kontinuierliche Geschichte der Kirche Gottes, French: L’Histoire Continue de l’Église de Dieu and Ekegusii Omogano Bw’ekanisa Ya Nyasae Egendererete.
Tradition and Scripture: From the Bible and Church Writings Are traditions on equal par with scripture? Many believe that is what Peter, John, and Paul taught. But did they?
Another Look at the Didache, Ignatius, and the Sabbath Did Ignatius write against the Sabbath and for Sunday? What about the Didache? What does the actual Greek reveal? Are mistranslations of these early writings relied on for false doctrinal positions?
Persecutions by Church and State This article documents some that have occurred against those associated with the COGs and some prophesied to occur. Will those with the cross be the persecutors or the persecuted–this article has the shocking answer. There is also a YouTube video sermon you can watch: The Coming Persecution of the Church. Here is information in the Spanish language: Persecuciones de la Iglesia y el Estado.
The Spanish Inquisition and Early Protestant Persecutions Was the Church of Rome really responsible for this? What happened? A video of related interest is titled: The Past and Future Inquisition.
The Ten Commandments: The Decalogue, Christianity, and the Beast This is a free draft/unedited pdf book explaining the what the Ten Commandments are, where they came from, how early professors of Christ viewed them, and how various ones, including the Beast of Revelation, will oppose them. A related sermon is titled: The Ten Commandments and the Beast of Revelation.