Pastor Don Mackintosh tackles the followign questions: Is America about to “save the family” by mandating a day of rest? And if the state enforces worship-shaped laws—what happens to conscience, Sabbath truth, and religious liberty?

<p>Pastor Don Mackintosh tackles the followign questions: Is America about to “save the family” by mandating a day of rest? And if the state enforces worship-shaped laws—what happens to conscience, Sabbath truth, and religious liberty?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

David Shin

Sunday Laws, Christian Nationalism, and the End of the World?

Do you think this is describing religious right?

The very first place that granted religious liberty was America, and it was granted not by Christians, but by Indians.

And then he said, you want to leave also?

In other words, that's not what we're about, guys.

He refused to enter into the politics of the day.

So he was saying at that time, you know, America's kind of speaking like a dragon in the way it treats slaves.

The thought may enter their minds, should I drop out of college?

Jesus, in the first Advent, came in the midst of gross darkness.

Does it really matter which day as long as you do 1 and 7?

Well, I think he says something different than Charlie Kirk.

So I think our best model is Jesus, and I think that at the end of the day, That's the answer.

Okay, the 2 things we're not supposed to talk about.

On January 8, 2026, The Heritage Foundation published a report titled, Saving America by Saving the Family, a foundation for the next 250 years.

And I'll quote, this is from Page 142, a uniform day of rest that limits commercial activity can provide temporal boundaries that help communities to set aside time for religious observance, family gatherings, outdoor activities and rest.

A stable base of research shows that these practices correlate with better mental health, stronger social bonds, and more stable family structures." A lot of conversation right now about this statement, and the NAD has posted a response.

As an Adventist pastor, what's going through your mind when you hear things like this?

Well, I'm not just a pastor, I'm also a nurse, so I'm a purse, right?

And so I think, first of all, I'm really happy that they see the benefits of the Sabbath.

You know, it's something that can help you physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually.

The religion and health study of the Adventist Church has eloquently shown that.

I think the other thing that strikes my attention about that, and by the way, you know, I've been preaching in different parts around America, and 1 church I was in recently, right after this book came out, there were a number of people there that day because of the book, and they were looking, you know, to figure out what this thing about the Sabbath is.

I like the fact that Charlie Kirk's book and also the Heritage Foundation is talking about the Sabbath.

It's getting people talking about it that maybe weren't even aware of it before.

Of course, that's the thing that maybe gets people's attention, and mine especially as an Adventist pastor, is a uniform day, something that you're basically telegraphing.

You're going to make sure that there's the power of the state behind the idea of this day of rest, and you know, this is a problem.

This has been a problem in America, it's not a new problem.

Going all the way back to 1610 in the colony of Virginia, you know, they had a Sunday Law, and then more in Massachusetts.

And in fact, there were Sunday Laws, before you could say maybe that there was America.

This was an American colony, so it wasn't really America.

Before there was America, in colonial America you might call it, the Puritans, the folks in Boston, the folks in Pennsylvania, the folks in Maryland, so the Puritans, the Quakers, the Catholics, and the Anglicans, they all had Sunday laws.

So this is something that caught the attention of many people, and as an Adventist pastor, I'm just asking the question, what does the Bible say?

Talking about legislation and Sunday laws, this particular proposal isn't in legislation yet.

But, historically as Adventists, we fought against Sunday legislation, and there could be people out there that say, hey, it's gonna happen anyway, so why should we fight it?

Well, I think the reason for that is that You want liberty to go on as long as possible so that people can come to decisions.

Sometimes, this is what Adventists for years have called a testing truth.

When people begin to see that, look, we talked about this for 162 years, okay?

And a lot of people that I even grew up with said, nah, that's never gonna happen.

And it's when these kind of things happen that they actually start listening for the very first time and they come to decisions.

And they wanna see what you're saying about it.

If you act like it's no big deal, they're going to think it's no big deal.

We can look at that historically and we'll look at it in the present, and it's a big deal because people are still making decisions.

If you're still making a decision, then you can still change your mind, or you can still—that's what the Bible calls repenting.

And so I think it's important to be talking about it, and be talking about why it is that it's important, and that it's an issue, really, that far transcends the Sabbath itself.

It is also related to religious freedom of any kind.

I want to read a quote from Fundamentals of Education, page 475.

The first day of the week is not a day to be reverenced.

It is a spurious Sabbath, and the members of the Lord's family cannot participate with the men who exalt this day and violate the law of God by trampling upon his Sabbath.

The people of God are not to vote to place such men in office, for when they do, they are partakers with them of the sins which they commit while in office." This sounds like it's saying that Adventists should not vote for candidates that support Sunday legislation.

So, the question is, should Adventists vote at all?

And if so, what are the principles and guidelines of how we should vote and on what issues?

Well, I mean, if you're voting for someone that you know is going to be promoting something that takes away freedom of religion and you knew that, that's not a good call.

So you shouldn't vote for people that you know are gonna do things that you know are wrong and they're telegraphing that.

Like what kind of things should we vote for?

Obviously Sunday legislation, we shouldn't vote for that.

Well, I mean, look, you know, this is something that early America had to deal with in terms of Roger Williams.

When he came from the old country to the new country, it was an English colony, and they were under the king, and the king thought that he was large and in charge, he could do whatever he wanted, and he thought he was above the law, rex lex.

But now Roger Williams and Coke, who he studied under, who was the head jurist in England, said no.

The Rex is under the Lex, the king is under the law, and you need to go by the vote of the people, and that was a big fight that he had been involved in.

So this whole idea of voting is the way of registering what you agree with or don't agree with.

And if you people in charge that are making the laws and are calling the shots, then you want to sound off on certain things that are appropriate to vote about.

And what Roger Williams said was the things that are appropriate to vote about are what he called the second table of the law.

The second table of the law, by the way, Ellen White also uses those terms.

The second table of the law are the last 6 commandments.

So the last 6 commandments, thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not, you know, commit adultery, thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not covet, all those different things.

The last 6, he said that's the purview of the Civil government.

So like, for instance, Adventists have been encouraged to vote by early pioneers, especially the only truly inspired 1, that being Ella White, to vote, actually go out and vote, and even on the Sabbath, to...

Even on the Sabbath, go out and vote for temperance causes, in other words if...

Alcohol, prohibition, and those kind of things.

Slavery was seen as the ultimate, you know, mismatch with what America was supposed to stand for, which was we have certain unalienable rights that are free to everybody.

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Sunday Laws, Christian Nationalism, and the End of the World?

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