p. 6 | The Sabbath by E. L. Cardey

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 22, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 16.

The Sabbath

By E. L. Cardey

VI. The Seal of God

AND grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” The Holy Spirit is in the world to lead and instruct men, that they might be sealed. The word “sealed” suggests to the mind a finished work for the one who receives it. It also suggests an instrument used in the sealing. The Holy Spirit is the God-appointed agent to do the work of sealing; the sinner made righteous is the subject to be sealed; but what is the God-appointed seal used by the Holy Ghost? God has a seal that will be placed upon the foreheads of His people. Rev. 7:3.

In civil matters, a seal is used to give authenticity to documents, no law being of force unless it is sealed by the one having power to make and give laws. Every civil seal must contain the name of the one who gives the document or law; it must also designate his office, and the territory over which he presides. Any document whose seal does not possess these qualities is rendered null and void. It has been necessary for the writer to secure United States passports a number of times when going to foreign countries. On the passport is the seal of the secretary of state. It bears the name of the secretary, and tells that he is secretary of state of the United States of America. When the Holy Ghost spoke through John the revelator about “the seal of the living God,” did He not wish to convey to our minds the fact that God’s law has been sealed, thus making it authentic? We believe He did.

The Law Contains the Seal

The law of God has not only been sealed, but it contains the seal which may be placed upon the “foreheads” of His people. The Lord says, “Seal the law among My disciples.” Isa. 8:16. Few realize the important place the Ten Commandments, as spoken from Mount Sinai, occupy in the plan of salvation. The entire Bible is built upon them. How important, then, that the law should have been sealed by its Giver! If the commandments contain God’s seal—yes, if they are sealed—they must contain the name of God, and designate His work, and the territory over which He rules. Turn to Ex. 20:1-17, and review the Ten Commandments. The first three and the fifth contain only the name of God. The last five do not even mention His name. Excluding the fourth commandment, the Decalogue might have issued from Buddha, Confucius, or Mahomet. There are “gods many and lords many,” but only one Creator. His name is proclaimed in the fourth commandment. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work: . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Here is declared also His work—Creator; and the infinite space He rules—the universe. No god or lord of earth can claim that title. The fourth commandment demands the observance of an institution—the seventh-day Sabbath. Separated from the institution, the commandment amounts to nothing.

The Positive Scripture Statement

Having found that this particular commandment contains the three characteristics necessary for a seal, can we find in the Scriptures the positive statement that the seventh-day Sabbath is the sign, the mark, the seal, of God? An instrument used to seal documents, leaves a sign upon the paper when the document is sealed. Abraham “received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised.” Rom. 4:11. In other words, when he accepted the sign of circumcision in the flesh, God accounted him sealed to righteousness. The Sabbath also is a sign of an inward work of sealing. “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, 17.

“Moreover also 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.” “And 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. Here in four places the Sabbath is said to be the sign of God to His people. But it only becomes the sign of a sealed sanctification to the one who keeps the Sabbath. The Holy Spirit takes the instrument for sealing—the fourth commandment—and places it upon the forehead of him who obeys God and thereby grieves not the Spirit.

The Fourth Commandment Seals the Law

From the foregoing, the reader can readily see that the fourth commandment is the one that seals the whole law. The seventh-day Sabbath has always been the “seal of God,” yet in the last days it is to be the special test of loyalty to God. This lawless generation needs a message that calls for obedience to law. John the revelator beheld such a message going to the world. Revelation 7. Every prophecy of the Bible makes clear the time when it is to apply. This chapter is no exception to all others. Revelation, chapters 5 and 6, deals with the book that was sealed with seven seals. Each seal, as the Lamb opened it, brought to view different periods of human events. Under the sixth seal the work of God is finished in behalf of sinners. “And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Rev. 6:12, 13.

This seal was fully opened with the falling of the stars in 1833. It is the last great sign of Jesus’ soon coming. Matt. 24:29, 30. Verses 14 to 17 of Revelation, chapter 6, deal with the events that take place at the time of Christ’s appearing (see also Rev. 16:18-21), and at this time the seventh seal is opened. “And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” Rev. 8:1. All the angels of heaven will be with Jesus when He comes to receive His saints. Matt. 25:31; 1 Thess. 4:16. The Father alone awaits in heaven the return of that triumphant throng; and upon their coming it will be said, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.” Ps. 24:9.

The Sealing Message

When the seventh seal opens, the night of sin has been ended. But in the days of the sixth seal, and just before the opening of the seventh, a message containing the seal

of God is to be carried to all the world. “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand.” Rev. 7:1-4.

The seal will be given to the 144,000 before the close of probation, while the angels are “holding the four winds of the earth.” This same company will be triumphant over sin; for John saw them in heaven, “on the Mount Sion,” having the “Father’s name written in their foreheads.” Rev. 14:1. Thus the company called the 144,000 are gathered out under the sixth seal, or after the year 1833—or thereabout—and before the close of probation. They are sealed with the “seal of the living God,” which has “the Father’s name.” The Sabbath commandment is the only one of the Decalogue which contains the name of the Father; it therefore becomes the “seal of the living God.” Nothing but a message of Sabbath reform could possibly fulfil the words of these prophecies. Then how can one receive the seal of God in his forehead unless he “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”?

In previous articles we found that the seventh-day Sabbath will be exalted, in the last days, among His “remnant” people; how that message is now being sounded in nearly every land; and now comes the evidence that the Sabbath is God’s seal. With all this evidence before us, dare we say the Sabbath is of little importance? Can we expect to stand before the judgment, if we continue to trample underfoot that commandment?

No generation since the days of Noah has been so regardless of all law as the present one. God’s authority, as found in His law, has been set aside. His seal has been forgotten, and trampled upon. On every hand we are seeing the consequences of this great insult to Jehovah. Justice and equity have fallen in the streets. The call of the hour to you, dear reader, is to return to the God who created the heavens and the earth, accept His authority, and yield obedience to His will as found in the fourth commandment, that you may be among the company called the 144,000, and receive His seal with them.