p. 4 | The Seal of God and Mark of the Beast

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 18, 1867

The Seal of God and Mark of the Beast.

Rev. xiv, 1. And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood upon Mt. Zion, and with him an hundred and forty-four thousand having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

THE views held by Seventh-day Adventists relative to the seal of God, and mark of the beast, have been adopted by them as what seemed to be necessary deductions from the scriptures, which treat upon these points, without reference to the views of any other class of people, and without any knowledge that others made a similar application of the scriptures in question. As, however, we extend our investigations, we frequently find the same principle of interpretation adopted by others. The following rich note on the signification of the Father's name in the forehead, occurs in Dr. Clarke's Commentary, on Ex. xiii, 9:—

“It is probably to this institution relative to the phylactery that the words, Rev. xiv, 1, allude: And I looked, and, lo, a hundred and forty-four thousand having his Father's name written on their foreheads. ‘That is,’ says Mr. Ainsworth, ‘as a sign of the profession of God's law; for that which in the gospel is called his NAME (Matt. xii, 21), in the prophets is called his LAW (Isa. xiii, 4).’ So again Antichrist exacts the obedience to his precepts by a mark on men's right hands or on their foreheads. Rev. xiii, 16.”