OUR FAITH AND HOPE; by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 17, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 22.

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OUR FAITH AND HOPE;

By James White

Or, Reasons Why We Believe as We Do.

NUMBER TWENTY-FOUR—THE THIRD MESSAGE.

BY ELDER JAMES WHITE.

(Continued.)

3. THE mark and worship of the beast. The two-horned beast causes men to worship the first beast and receive his mark. The worship and mark are alike enforced by the two-horned beast. It is this worship and mark against which the third angel warns us. It becomes, therefore, a matter of solemn moment to inquire what is meant by these expressions, since the message levels against these things, whatever they are, a denunciation more terrific than any other threatening that can be found in the word of God. The sin must be one which is most presumptuous and Heaven-daring. What is it? Many are ready to assert that we never can know, and accuse us of prying into secret things, when we raise the question. But is this possible? If we cannot know what the mark and worship are, we are liable to receive the one, and perform the other, without knowing it. We then become subject to the terrible punishment threatened. But would God ever punish a person thus for sins which he did not know he was committing? Never. It would be contrary to the principles on which he has thus far dealt with mankind, and contrary to the justice of his own nature. And a special message, that of the third angel, is sent out to warn men, not against something they are never to know anything about, but against a plain and open act of disloyalty to God, which the two-horned beast is to require of them, and to which if they yield, they must drink of the unmingled wrath of God. We return to the inquiry, What is the mark of the beast?

The beast, as we have seen, is the Papacy. The two-horned beast which is to enforce the mark is our own government. What is the mark of the Papacy which this nation is to enforce? It must be something on which they occupy common ground, and in which both are equally interested. The mark of any power must be something to distinguish the adherents of that power. This none can dispute. And that which distinguishes the adherents of any power, must be some law, requirement, or institution of that power. It can be nothing else. The mark of the beast, then, must be some requirement, of course of a religious nature, which the Papacy has instituted, and to which it claims obedience from its followers, as a token of its right to legislate in religious matters. This is an unavoidable conclusion from the foregoing principles, which must be admitted as sound.

Again, the beast has been shown to be identical with the little horn of Dan. 7; and of that power it is said that he should “think to change times and laws.” What laws are these which the Papacy should think to change, but not have power to change? It must be divine laws, the laws of God; for all human laws may be changed by earthly powers. This power is again brought to view under the title of the “Man of Sin;” 2 Thess. 2:3; and of him it is said that he “exalteth himself above all that is called God.” How could he do this? There is one way, and only one, in which it could be done, and that is, to change the law of God by putting in place of some of its requirements an enactment of his own, and demanding obedience to that change, to the violation of the law of God.

In all these testimonies, the evidence tends with wonderful harmony to one conclusion, namely, that the Papacy was to promulgate some religious enactment, which would involve a change of the law of God, and obedience to which would stand as an acknowledgment of its supremacy in religious things. If we can find a Papal enactment of such a nature, this surely must be the mark of the beast. It may now facilitate our investigations of this subject to appeal directly to the Romish church for information. Among its claims and institutions do we find anything of this kind? We do; and it may surprise some Protestants to learn that it is the institution of Sunday in place of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Hear what that church claims on the subject of the change of the Sabbath:

“Ques. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?”

“Ans. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her;—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority.”—Doct. Catechism.

“Q. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?”

“A. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and, therefore, they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.

“Q. How prove you that?”

“A. Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the Church’s power to ordain feasts, &c.”—Abridgment of Chris. Doc., pp. 57–59.

These extracts are from standard Roman Catholic works, and clearly set forth the claim of that church. When a person is charged with a crime and confesses it, that is usually considered sufficient to settle the matter and preclude the necessity of any further investigation. The prophecy declared that the little horn should think to change times and laws; and here the Papacy claims to have accomplished this very work; and we must admit the claim or give up the prophecy as a failure; for no other fulfillment can be shown. What need have we of further evidence? Notice, also, how admirably this work of the Papacy answers to all the prophecies touching it. 1. It is a change of the law of God, such as the little horn was to accomplish; for the fourth commandment requires the observance of the seventh day as a memorial of creation, while this requires the observance of the first day for another reason. 2. It is a work by which it sets itself up above God, as the Man of Sin was to do; for it places its institution in place of that of Jehovah, and demands obedience to it on its own authority in preference to the requirement of God. 3. It involves on the part of those who understandingly yield to it, that worship which the beast, Rev. 13:8, was to receive from those that dwell on the earth. 4. It is in striking contrast with the commandments of God which those are found keeping, Rev. 14:12, who refuse the mark and worship of the beast. 5. It is claimed as a token of the authority of the church to ordain religious institutions, just such as the mark of the beast must be intended to show; for in so many words, the “very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday,” is claimed by that church as proof of its power to command feasts and holy days; and the observance of this institution is considered by them as an acknowledgment of such power. 6. Protestants have brought this error from the Romish church, and though they rest it on different ground, are equally tenacious of the institution, and equally zealous for its preservation. As above quoted from the address of the “National Association” for amending the Constitution, Catholic and Protestant are alike interested in this matter; and the Protestant will, of course, be ready to join with the Catholic in upholding that which is to him equally dear.

Here, then, we have an institution of the Papacy which admirably answers to every specification of the prophecy, and which singularly enough, this nation, though Protestant, is taking steps to make a national institution, and will soon be ready to enforce by the civil arm. For proof that Sunday-keeping has no foundation in the Scriptures, but is an institution of the Papacy, as Romanists claim, see History of the Sabbath, and other works, published at the Review Office. If, then, the keeping of a counterfeit Sabbath, and one so long and generally observed as the first day of the week, constitute the mark of the beast, the question will doubtless arise in many minds, whether

the good of past ages who have lived in the observance of this institution, have borne the mark of the beast, and rendered worship to that antichristian power; and if the many Christians of the present time who are still keeping the first day, are worshiping the beast, and wearing his mark. By those who wish to raise a blind prejudice against the views of S. D. Adventists, we are uniformly represented as so teaching. But it is purely a misrepresentation. We do not so teach; nor does such a conclusion follow from our premises. It has already been noticed that the mark and worship of the beast are both enforced by the two-horned beast. Now, in view of this fact, there can be no worship nor reception of the mark, such as is contemplated in the prophecy, till it is enforced by this power.

The great majority of Protestants who have kept the first day of the week as the Sabbath, although it is an institution of the Papacy, have not had the remotest idea that it had any connection whatever with that false system of worship. Have such been worshiping the beast, while they have been keeping Sunday without a thought of that power, honestly supposing that they were keeping a Bible institution? By no means. Have they had the mark of the beast? Not at all. The denunciation of the third message is against those who knowingly keep Sunday as an institution of the beast. It speaks of those who are enlightened in the matter, and of those alone. And for a person thus enlightened, knowing what God requires, and what the beast requires, to basely yield to the requirements of the beast, to avoid persecution, turning away in a cowardly manner, through motives of worldly interest, from what he knows God requires,—this is what makes his sin so presumptuous and Heaven-daring in the sight of God; this is what calls forth the terrible threatening uttered by the third angel. But the good of past ages have not kept the day with any such understanding of the matter, nor from any such motives.

Just so with the mass of Protestants now living. But the third message is sent forth to warn us in reference to an issue yet future. The people of God are coming up to translation. They must be freed from Papal errors. The truth is to be agitated; and the antagonism between the requirements of God and those of antichristian powers, is to be set in a clearly-defined light before the people. The issue is to be met understandingly, the two-horned beast demanding from its subjects the reception of the mark, and the performance of the worship of the first beast, on pain of death, and God commanding us to refuse the mark and worship of the beast, and keep his commandment, on pain of drinking his unmingled wrath. With this issue before them, those who yield to his requirements instead of the requirements of God, will worship the beast and receive his mark. Thus seeking to save their lives by avoiding the wrath of earthly powers, they will lose them by becoming exposed to the wrath of God. Till this issue is upon the people, under the enactment of civil law, we accuse no one of worshiping the beast or receiving his mark. And the third message is sent forth to warn men to put away their errors and receive the truth, that they may be prepared to stand when this fiery ordeal shall come, and, at last, having gotten the victory over the beast, his image, his mark, and the number of his name, to sing the victor’s song upon the sea of glass.

(To be Continued.)