Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

Early and Modern Sunday Laws

Who is responsible for the present State Sunday laws of the United States? BR-ASI9 197.4

“During nearly all our American history the churches have influenced the States to make and improve Sabbath laws.”—W. F. Crafts in Christian Statesman, July 3, 1890, p. 5. BR-ASI9 197.5

Note.—The first Sunday law imposed on an American colony (Virginia, 1610) required church attendance, and prescribed the death penalty for the third offense.—Peter Force, Tracts Relating to the Colonies in North America (1844 ed.), vol. 3, no. 2, p. 11. BR-ASI9 197.6

Why is a national Sunday law demanded? BR-ASI9 197.7

“National Sunday legislation is needed to make the State laws complete and effective,” say its advocates. BR-ASI9 197.8

Note.—The state laws enforcing a religious day are relics of a union of church and state in colonial times. But the nation whose foundation principles of civil and religious freedom are aptly symbolized by two lamblike horns does not exercise “all the power of the first beast” and require men “to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed,” until it abandons its separation of church and state to the extent of enforcing religious requirements on a national scale, thus constituting an “image,” or likeness, to the first beast. BR-ASI9 197.9