Presbyterian Pastor Claims Nehemiah Established Blue Laws and Calls on Civil Authorities to Punish Sabbath Breakers

By Pastor David Jimenez

On Sunday, August 3, 2025, at the Cliffwood Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia, a Presbyterian pastor named Gleason preached a message entitled “Blue Laws in Jerusalem.” [1] His sermon was based on Nehemiah 13:15–22 and sought to apply the actions of Nehemiah—closing the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath—to support the idea of enforcing Sunday laws as a way to restore morality and protect the sanctity of “the Lord’s Day.” As Seventh-day Adventists, we understand this interpretation is not only a distortion of the sacred text but also a prophetic signal that we are standing on the very edge of earth’s final conflict—the enforcement of the Mark of the Beast.

In the days of Nehemiah, the people of Judah had fallen into open Sabbath-breaking, buying and selling on God’s holy day. Nehemiah, under divine commission, confronted this sin and took decisive measures to guard the gates and preserve the sanctity of the seventh-day Sabbath—the day God sanctified at Creation (Genesis 2:1–3), reaffirmed in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8–11), and upheld by Jesus and the apostles.

Pastor Gleason, however, twisted the lesson of Nehemiah into a defense of Sunday observance as sacred—a man-made institution with no scriptural authority. The original context defends the true Sabbath, not a counterfeit. To use Nehemiah’s zeal for the seventh day as a justification for first-day observance is to swap the seal of the living God for the mark of apostasy.

As Seventh-day Adventists we have long understood from Revelation 13 and 14 that a time is coming when the world will be called to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. The Mark of the Beast is about authority—whether we give our allegiance to the Creator, who made heaven and earth in six days and rested the seventh, or to the beast power that has sought to “change times and laws” (Daniel 7:25).

When ministers publicly connect civil enforcement to religious observance—especially Sunday observance—they are paving the way for the very crisis prophecy warns us about. What Pastor Gleason preached is more than a theological error; it is part of a global, coordinated movement, stirred by Satan himself, to unite church and state under the banner of a false Sabbath.

Ellen White wrote:

“The Sunday movement is now making its way in darkness. The leaders are concealing the true issue … They are working in blindness. They do not see that if a Protestant government sacrifices the principles that have made them a free, independent nation, and by legislative enactments bring into the Constitution principles that will propagate papal falsehood and delusion, they are plunging into the Roman horrors of the Dark Ages.” (Review and Herald, Dec. 11, 1888)

Messages like the sermon preached about Blue Laws in Jerusalem fit precisely into this prophetic picture. Ministers of influence are being used to inspire the public to see Sunday as the solution to society’s moral decline. They preach patriotism, family values, and civic order—but all under the wrong day, the wrong authority, and the wrong foundation.

The Sabbath will be the dividing line in the last days. God’s faithful remnant will stand for the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12), while the world bows to the decrees of men. Nehemiah’s example calls us to defend the Sabbath—not by force or coercion, but by faithful obedience. His stand at the gates of Jerusalem foreshadows our stand at the gates of the final crisis.

The sermon preached on August 3, 2025, at Cliffwood Presbyterian Church is a reminder:

• The prophetic lines are rapidly converging.

• The call for “blue laws” is no longer a relic of history; it is a living movement gaining religious and political momentum.

• God’s people must be firmly grounded in the Word and the Spirit of Prophecy to discern truth from error.

When the test comes, we must be found standing in the strength of Christ. The gates of the New Jerusalem will only be entered by those who “keep His commandments” (Revelation 22:14). The counterfeit is here. The crisis is coming. The question is, are we as Seventh-day Adventists ready to stand?