The Seal of God

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 19, 1908

THE last experience for the church of Christ before its mission on earth is accomplished is the reception of the seal of the living God. When that is accomplished, the winds of strife are loosed, with permission “to hurt the earth and the sea.” Rev. 7:1-8. Until the sealing is done, the winds are restrained. What is this seal of the living God, and what is it to be sealed therewith in the forehead? Verse 3.

A seal is an instrument by which men impart the full weight of their consent or authority to a document or order. The mark impressed upon sealing-wax by the seal is always some device that distinguishes the owner of the seal—his coat of arms or crest. In olden days, when knights rode into battle covered from head to foot in armor, they were identified by the coat of arms borne upon their shields. Since in that time few of them were able to write, they executed documents by affixing to them an impression of their crest or sign. The ring, on which the seal was usually engraved, was called the “signet-ring,” and this old method of affixing the name is still celebrated in the word “signature.” To seal anything, then, is to affix one’s sign thereto. What is the sign with which God seals?

He tells us himself: “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Ex. 31:13. A thousand years after these words were written, Ezekiel twice repeated the definition of God’s sign: “Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20:12, 20.

The answer is plain, then. God’s sign is his Sabbath. When this is truly kept, his sign is placed upon the man who keeps it, and a certain, definite understanding is thereby established between God and his servant—that it is God who sanctifies the man. This is just such a relation as we might expect to find established between the living God and his servants ere the tempest is let loose to destroy all the workers of iniquity. A corresponding experience is brought to view in Eze. 9:1-11.

An investigation of the Sabbath fully bears out the statement that it is God’s sign. Every seal must set forth the name and authority of the one making use of it. Look at the seal of the king of England, as set forth in the coinage bearing his mark, and you will find his name, his title, and the extent of his authority. The superscription reads, in Latin: “Edward VII, by the grace of God, King of all the Britains, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India.”

Now look at the Sabbath commandment, and you will find the name of God, his title,—Creator,—the extent of his authority—over heaven and earth and sea and all that in them is. The claim to entire authority is indisputable, for he gave life to all. No other of the ten commandments spoken by God, which comprehend in themselves the whole duty of man (Eccl. 12:13, 14), contains this explicit statement of God’s title and dominion, hence, when we read the prophetic admonition to “bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples” (Isa. 8:16), we know that we are thereby enjoined to give its proper place to the commandment concerning the Sabbath, which contains the seal of God.

But does not Paul say that we are sealed by the Spirit? Eph. 1:13; 4:30. He does. But the Spirit can not seal any one who is transgressing the law of God, or sinning (1 John 3:4), for the very first work of the Spirit is to reprove of sin. John 16:8. Every reproof must be heeded before the person can be sealed. In other words, being sealed by the Spirit is being saved from all transgression, and this is true Sabbath-keeping, for “I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Eze. 20:12.

The forehead is the seat of the mind; and when the seal of the living God is

placed in the forehead, it means that to the recipient the promise of the new covenant is fulfilled: “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” Heb. 8:10.

We are living, in the line of prophecy covered by the seven seals, in the day when the servants of God are being sealed in their foreheads with the seal of the living God. Let no one be deceived concerning the true character of the work that is associated with the revival of the fourth commandment. The return to the Bible Sabbath is not a manifestation of human eccentricity; it is God’s invitation to men and women to receive his seal in preparation for the day of trouble that will soon break upon an impenitent and unprepared generation.—Present Truth.