Polish lawmakers voted last week to reclaim Sunday as a day of rest by slowly phasing out Sunday shopping by 2020.

The bill, which was backed by trade unions, passed with a vote of 254 to 156.

The bill is expected to pass the Polish Senate and will be signed into law by the country's President, Andrzej Duda.

Poland is among the last European countries to hold on to its Christian heritage. Abortion and homosexual marriage are still forbidden in the country of 38 million, which is predominately Catholic. According to CBN News:

In the Old Testament, the Bible teaches that Sunday is a day of rest since God rested on the seventh day after creating the world. Sunday, the first day of the week, became the Catholic "seventh day" and a day of rest after the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on Sunday.

Reasons given for Sunday as Day of Rest

FREEDOM. In 2012, Pope Benedict said that in defending Sunday as a day of rest, one "defends human freedom." He noted how time for the family is "threatened by a sort of 'dictatorship' of work commitments:

"Sunday is the day of the Lord and of men and women, a day in which everyone must be able to be free, free for the family and free for God. In defending Sunday we defend human freedom!" he said.

EQUALITY. Polish Trade Unions argue that Sunday rest assures equal treatment for all employees.

CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION. The 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Warsaw, Poland. That same year, Jorge Bergoglio was elected Pope (March 13, 2013), and the Jesuit-trained Pope has made Climate Change one of his major campaigns. It is well known that in his Environmentalist Encyclical (Laudato Si'), Pope Francis linked Sunday rest with 'caring for the planet.' So the Vatican's plan to enforce the Sunday rest has taken on a very clever tactic. And that is to convince the world that we need urgent action to 'save the planet'.

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8).

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