Sunday-Law Fears
I’m a former Adventist, and your podcasts have really helped me a lot in finding the truth about God and the Bible. I wasn’t an Adventist long (about 2 years), but still the Ellen White teachings deeply clouded my understanding of the Bible. The Adventist friend I used to study with occasionally will still send me things on the Sunday Law, and I’m still struggling with the Sabbath.
I’ve listened to your podcasts on the Sabbath and re-read Galatians from time to time and feel at peace and certain about God’s word. This morning I received this video from my Adventist friend with Pastor Ron Kelly talking about the new Sunday Law that was written into a recent bill, and I wonder if you could share some of your insights about this.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing. First, Christ the King Sunday is not a new “thing”. The congressman read the resolution (which refers to legislation only in Michigan) as a way of getting the idea into the record, but Christ the King Sunday was established in 1925 by Pope Pius XI to counter “secularism”. It is celebrated once a year, on the last Sunday of the liturgical year, emphasizing Christ’s kingship. Ron Kelly misrepresented the Josh Shapiro proposal and used it for his own agenda. This is not a new idea, and it is not being proposed as legislation for the country—AND it’s only one day a year on a specific Sunday to mark the liturgical year, just as Christmas and Easter are single days that mark the liturgical year.
Kelly’s entire presentation is cobbled together from his Adventist worldview. Unless a person is embedded in the great controversy worldview, these conclusions would never occur to anyone. For example, he said that prophecy is clear that the entire conflict in the end times is going to be over “God’s law”. Absolutely not! Prophecy NEVER teaches this idea! Only the great controversy lens interpreting the Adventist proof texts will yield this conclusion. Biblical prophecy actually reveals that the conflict in the end times will be over the Lord Jesus, the true Messiah. In fact, evil will be so energized that there will be a great final deception when the ANTICHRIST rules over the religion and nations of the world.
The Bible never speaks of a day being the issue. A day CANNOT be “the issue” because days are creations. All creation is groaning, waiting for the revelation of the sons of God when all creation will be released from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:18–25). No one is going to be fighting for the eternal holiness of a created thing. The issue is the sovereign divinity of Jesus and the salvation He accomplished. No created thing provides salvation, freedom from bondage, or rescue. The law does not provide these things. Only the One who fulfilled the Law will provide these things!
Importantly, Adventists read and interpret the Bible through the lens of their “spirit of prophecy”. They do not read the words and believe they mean just what they say in context. Instead they grab proof-texts from all over the Bible and put them together, out of context, and create completely new meanings with their recombinant wording.
Even if there should be some sort of law demanding the keeping of a day, that fact would not change the biblical reality that the focus of last day events is God Himself—our Lord Christ. Also interestingly, the talk about “Sabbath” is not limited to Sunday. Perhaps surprisingly to Adventists, there is growing awareness of the seventh day as the day the law demands. What might Adventists do—or would they even worry about it?—if there were some sort of mandate to observe Saturday? Or even a mandate to obey any day one pleases? Would Adventists consider such a mandate to fulfill their unique fears about mandated “Sunday worship”? And while we’re speculating, in a world with a growing Muslim influence, how successful would mandated Sunday-worship even be? Sunday is seen as a “Christian” day of worship. Muslims worship on Friday. Judaism embraces the seventh day. But what do both Islam and Judaism and much of Christianity honor in common? The law. Since we’re speculating, a Saturday-law seems more logical for widespread acceptance than a Sunday law could! Even Catholicism acknowledges the seventh day as an appropriate day to observe mass. No, I do not believe a day nor a law will ever be the “thing” we are to focus on. The issue will be between the Lord Jesus and a deception.
I personally believe that the deceptions of false religion will be such that Adventists will slide into the world program without even realizing that the mark of the beast is about the worship of the Lord Jesus—not about a day.
I personally believe that the deceptions of false religion will be such that Adventists will slide into the world program without even realizing that the mark of the beast is about the worship of the Lord Jesus—not about a day. They are so conditioned to look for evidence that a Sunday law is just around the corner that they completely miss the REAL issues growing more and more evident: Muslims are killing Christians at rates never before seen. Adventist physicians and clinics become rich on abortions, and Adventist-sponsored research continues to promote both unscientific and unbiblical health advice—advice which has a negative effect long-term on individual health. Adventism seems to miss the fact that the more one embraces a worldview that places humanity at the center instead of our sovereign God, “compassion” becomes destructive.
Finally, in this video, Ron Kelly promotes books teaching Sabbath propaganda from an Adventist, great controversy perspective. The books he recommended are all books written by Adventist apologists who have an agenda to promote. Their scholarship is not based on a normal, contextual reading of Scripture but on theological constructs designed to uphold the great controversy physicalist worldview.
In short, we always need to keep in mind that the well-argued Adventist viewpoints about Sabbath and religion are always founded on their unbiblical great controversy worldview which demands a physicalist view of man—a view which twists the nature of sin, of salvation, and of the nature of Christ. Adventism is counterfeit Christianity, not Bible-believing Christianity. Always keep in mind that their entire theological structure is built on the unbiblical great controversy worldview.
I hope this helps! Happy New Year! †
- January 3–9, 2026 - January 2, 2026
- We Got Mail - January 2, 2026
- Who Is That Baby? - December 25, 2025