“Thou Must Worship on Sunday”

From the February 2010 Trumpet Print Edition

Dec. 1, 2009, was a historic day in Germany in more ways than one.

The same day the Lisbon Treaty went into effect, December 1, Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled that the nation’s capital must, like the rest of the country, abide by the law instituting Sunday as a day “of rest from work and of spiritual improvement.”

Soon after World War II, Berlin had enacted its own legislation allowing 10 shopping Sundays per year. That local ruling is now quashed. Effective from Jan. 1, 2010, Berlin must fall in line with the law institutionalizing Sunday as a day of rest and religious contemplation as contained in Germany’s Basic Law.

The actual law establishing Sunday as Germany’s weekly day of worship is enshrined in an appendix to the Basic Law under the heading, “Extracts From the German Constitution of Aug. 11, 1919”—that is, the Weimar Constitution. There we find, under the subhead “Religion and Religious Societies,” Article 139, which reads: “Sunday and holidays recognized by the state shall remain protected by law as days of rest from work and of spiritual improvement.”

Under that same section, Article 137 (1) states, “There shall be no state church.” But in reality, the effect of the Sunday law is to institutionalize Roman Catholicism and its daughter churches as Germany’s state religion.

Those aware of the history of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation will see this move by Germany’s highest court as one step toward enforcing Rome’s religion as the state religion, not only on Germany, but also on the whole European empire.

With this ruling of Germany’s Constitutional Court, the prophecies of Revelation 13 leap into current-day perspective. The entrenchment of Roman Catholicism in European politics, and particularly the enforcement of Sunday worship, are forecast there; students of prophecy have been anticipating this development for decades. As of Dec. 1, 2009, it is upon us.

For a clearer understanding of just where this is all leading, request a free copy of Herbert W. Armstrong’s electrifying booklet on the subject, Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast?