By the end of this article, one question should remain: how did General Conference leadership concede ground on Sunday laws years ago, without the church noticing?
In mid-November 2025, Fulcrum7 reported that nine faithful SDAs sent a letter to the General Conference (GC) administration requesting a meeting by mid-December 2025 to discuss ending the church’s consultative status with the United Nations (UN).
This request was urgent, reflecting the seriousness of the times. Over the past five years, religious liberty has been steadily eroded, bringing the world to the edge of the enforcement of the universal Sunday law.
Many SDAs have been lulled into a false sense of security and do not see the importance or the urgent need to depart from the consultative relationship between the church and the UN. Many have been lulled into thinking that Sunday laws are off in the distance, and when that happens, then they will respond to the crises.
The reality is that in 1921 the League of Nations, through the International Labor Office (ILO), introduced a universal weekly rest convention (No. 14), which many member nations ratified. This weekly rest was to be observed according to the customs and traditions of each nation.[1] For a large percentage of countries, this resulted in Sunday becoming the mandated day of rest.[2] These conventions were later adopted by the United Nations when it was formed and it absorbed the ILO into its structure.
In 1957, the UN expanded this framework by passing another weekly rest convention (No. 106), extending the mandated rest to a wider range of occupations. This further strengthened the principle of a universal weekly rest across member states.[3]
Questionnaires sent to member nations in the 1920s and again in the 1950s revealed that many had already mandated Sunday rest. Enforcement often included fines or penalties for Sunday trade, such as requiring employers to pay higher wages or provide compensatory time off. In many countries, the rest period began on Saturday afternoon and continued through Sunday, with additional compensation required for any work performed during that time.[4],[5]
As recently as 2013, the ILO was advising member states on how to make Sunday rest more explicit in national legislation. It is clear that the international legal framework is already in place to implement a Sunday worship law.[6]
Laws alone are not enough; society must also be conditioned to accept not just Sunday rest laws, but Sunday worship laws. The past five years have shown that political powers, media, and social engineers can shape public opinion to the point where the majority will demand such laws if they believe it will bring peace, health, or moral improvement. As recent history shows (2020-2022), many were willing to comply with mandated experimental therapies to preserve social acceptance, personal security, and the appearance of loving their neighbour, even when they weren’t convinced of the health benefits.
The reader may ask, what about religious liberty? Won’t the Seventh-day Adventist Church administration manage to defend religious liberty?
In 1921, when the first weekly rest laws were ratified worldwide, persecution of faithful Sabbath-keepers was reported in SDA periodicals.[7] Yet by 1957, when those conventions were expanded, such reports appear to vanish. Why? It was not because the church stopped defending Sabbath-keepers, but because over time the 4th Commandment came to be viewed only as a call to rest on the seventh day, and not also as a command to work on the first. In many countries, including Australia, mandated Sunday rest was no longer recognised as a threat to religious liberty.
Nor does church administration have an unbroken record in defending liberty of conscience. This has been increasingly so over the past forty years, and never more clearly than in the last five. Most readers are familiar with the encroachment on conscience because of the Immunization Statement, and there is no need to revisit it here. Yet other Official Statements listed under ‘beliefs’ on the Adventist.org website also undermine liberty in matters of worship, including the day of worship.
Official statements such as Tolerance (1995), Religious Freedom (1995), 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1998), and Religious Minorities and Religious Freedom (1999) all reference UN instruments that allow nation-states to restrict religious freedom, including for days of worship, for the “common good.” These include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 18.3), the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief [8] (Article 1.3), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 29.c).[9]
Even the GC’s endorsement of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indirectly supports Sunday legislation. Sustainable Development Goal 8.5 calls for “decent work,” which is defined as including a mandated universal or communal day of rest based on national custom and tradition in line with ILO Conventions 14 and 106.[10]
A presentation on this issue, titled “WARNING! No religious liberty left with Sunday laws,” was given in September 2025. Though lengthy, it was intended to warn Seventh-day Adventists of the present danger. A number of people understood, and some responded urgently, leading to the aforementioned letter being sent to the GC.
The GC never responded directly to that letter. Instead, individuals associated with the GC, such as Mark Finley, released articles and videos dismissing the concerns of the Church’s alliance with the UN as “just evangelism.” Such messaging is treacherous to the people of God and dishonouring to Jesus Christ.
The time has come to stand as a voice for biblical truth, religious liberty, and liberty of conscience. The GC administration has been derelict in its duty and has parleyed with the devil. It is time for those who love Jesus Christ and their fellow man to stand.
Thus, on the afternoon of Friday, January 9, US time, a website was launched appealing to the UN Secretary General, the Ambassadors to the UN, fellow Protestants, and the world, asking them to support the breaking of the consultative status of the GC and its entities with the UN and its entities. The website includes a petition for Seventh-day Adventists to sign and an option for non-SDAs, including (if they so choose) the Ambassadors of the nations of the world. This is a clarion call for faithful Seventh-day Adventists and all true Protestants to “Come out of her, My People.” [11]
Go to FaithfulAdventist.org
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Joanna
[1] International Labor Organization (ILO), "Convention No. 14 (Weekly Rest in Industrial Undertakings, 1921)," November 17, 1921, accessed October 8, 2025, https://normlex.ilo.org/dyn/nrmlx_en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO:12100:P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:312159:NO.
[2] International Labour Organization, Conditions of Work and Employment Programme, accessed December 28, 2025, https://www.ilo.org/media/314391/download
[3] International Labour Organization (ILO), “Convention No. 106: (Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices), 1957), Geneva: International Labour Office, June 26, 1957, accessed October 8, 2025, https://normlex.ilo.org/dyn/nrmlx_en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO:12100:P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:312251:NO.
[4] International Labour Office, The Weekly Rest-Day in Industrial and Commercial Establishments: Item IV of the Agenda, International Labour Conference, Third Session, Geneva, April 1921 (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1921), accessed December 11, 2025, https://ia804500.us.archive.org/27/items/weeklyrestdayini00interich/weeklyrestdayini00interich.pdf.
[5] International Labour Organization, Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention Report VII (2), 1957 (No. 106), accessed December 28, 2025, https://webapps.ilo.org/public/libdoc/conventions/Technical_Conventions/Convention_no._106/106_English/56B09_47_engl.pdf.
[6] International Labour Organization, Comment by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations concerning a Government report (Comment ID 4115756), NORMLEX database, accessed January 5, 2026, https://normlex.ilo.org/dyn/nrmlx_en/f?p=1000:13101:0::NO:13101:P13101_COMMENT_ID:4115756
[7] A. W. Anderson, “Universal Enforcement of Sunday Laws Proposed: A Call to Prayer,” Australian Record 30, no. 20 (May 17, 1926), 1–2, accessed December 15, 2025, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/AAR/AAR19260517-V30-20.pdf.
545 A. W. Anderson, “Religious Liberty Department,” Australian Record 30, nos. 41–42 (October 18, 1926): 9, accessed December 15, 2026, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/AAR/AAR19261011-V30-41,42.pdf.
[8] UN General Assembly, "Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief" (Article 1.3), November 25, 1981, accessed October 12, 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-elimination-all-forms-intolerance-and-discrimination.
[9] UNESCO, "Declaration of Principles on Tolerance," 1995, accessed October 12, 2025, https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/declaration-principles-tolerance
UN General Assembly, "Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief" (Article 1.3), November 25, 1981, accessed October 12, 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-elimination-all-forms-intolerance-and-discrimination.
UN General Assembly, "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights" (Article 18.3), December 16, 1966, accessed October 12, 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights.
United Nations, "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (Article 29), 1948, accessed October 12, 2025, https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
[10] United Nations Regional Information Centre, “SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth,” UNRIC, accessed December 11, 2025, https://unric.org/en/sdg-8.
557 International Labour Organization, General Survey concerning working-time instruments (Report ILC.107/III(B)): Ensuring Decent Working Time for the Future, accessed December 28, 2025, https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/%40ed_norm/%40relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_618485.pdf.
[11] Revelation 18: 1-5
