Local Adventist religious liberty advocate Nigel Coke is urging the Church to strongly defend people’s right to worship on any day they choose, given recent proposals in the United States aimed at legally enforcing Sunday as a universal day of rest.

Coke raised the issue in his message at Andrews Memorial Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church’s Religious Liberty Day celebration in St Andrew on Saturday, January 24, 2026.

He said the proposal by a Washington, DC-based advocacy group promoting a legally enforced “uniform day of rest” on Sunday, recommends that states and local governments limit commercial activities on Sundays in order to bolster family life, spiritual involvement, and social cohesion.

Coke, the SDA’s public affairs and religious liberty director in Jamaica, said while he acknowledged that rest, family time, and community stability are deeply positive values, the proposal raises a serious concern.

“Such proposals, however well-meaning or patriotically packaged, cross a vital line when they effectively favour one religious tradition’s day of worship over others,” he said.

“Seventh-day Adventists believe in the freedom of every religion, whether Baptist, Catholic, or Muslim. Everyone should have the right to worship on any day they choose, whether Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday,” he argued in his sermon titled ‘It’s Buying Time’.

Referencing Revelation 3:14–22, Coke urged the Church to seek spiritual preparation while strongly defending freedom of conscience for everyone. He reminded his congregation that Seventh-day Adventists have opposed Sunday laws for more than 160 years — whether presented in explicitly religious language or justified in secular terms like public health, national unity, or family welfare.

Coke noted that limitations on Sunday commerce may seem mild or harmless to many, yet they can create very real challenges for those who worship on other days, including Seventh-day Adventists, Orthodox Jews, and members of other faith communities.

For those groups, he said, such laws can restrict their ability to work, operate businesses, or function freely in society, and indirectly pressure them to conform to Sunday as the de facto sacred day.

“Everyone has an equal right to worship whomever, whenever, wherever, whatever, and however he or she wishes to worship,” declared Coke.

He encouraged believers to accept the spiritual gifts Jesus offers in Revelation 3:18 — “gold” tried in the fire, which represents faith working through love, “white raiment”, representing Christ’s righteousness, and “eyesalve” to discern what is good from evil — as the only secure preparation for future crises.

Central to this preparation, he argued, is a clear,
Bible-grounded understanding of religious liberty and a principled rejection of any attempt to legislate a day of worship.

Linking the Sunday rest debate to the language of Revelation 3:18, Coke used the sermon to connect the issue directly with Christ’s call to “anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see”.

This eyesalve, he said, symbolises the spiritual discernment needed to navigate complex, often confusing developments in society and law.

“If there’s any time that we need to have spiritual eyesalve, it’s now,” Coke told the congregation. “I have said it over and over, whether it is a day of prayer or 10 days of prayer, the number one thing that we need to put on the agenda is the prayer for discernment. Why? Because we live in an age of fake news and all kinds of news, eyesalve helps us discern good from evil.”

“We need this discernment desperately today because laws may be framed in the name of unity or safety that subtly erode conscience. The Spirit-given eyesalve helps us see beyond appearances — to read the times, to recognise God’s leading, and to discern when religious liberty, though still present on paper, is being undermined in practice in many parts of the world, including Jamaica,” Coke said.

He urged believers to stay informed about religious liberty questions and interpret current events through a biblical lens rather than a narrowly political one, testing every movement through prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and testing proposals by the teachings of Scripture as a vital part of end-time preparation.

Coke invited the members to “buy” from Christ the gold of living faith, the white raiment of His righteousness, and the eyesalve of spiritual clarity, because only a heart transformed by grace can stand firm in love when pressures mount.

He also challenged them to use their present freedoms to worship, witness, serve their communities, and advocate for freedom of conscience for all people.