THE SEAL OF GOD by D. A. Robinson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 30, 1877

THE SEAL OF GOD.

By D. A. Robinson

BY ELDER D. A. ROBINSON.

Text: “And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.” Rev. 14:1.

The book of Revelation is not a prophecy of consecutive events from beginning to end, but contains many complete prophetic chains, each one closing up with the redeemed state, then a new line beginning. Thus chapter 11 closes with the Judgment scenes, and the time of reward, then a new chain is introduced in chapter 12, closing with chap. 14:5.

The company brought to view in our text are seen in the redeemed state. Let us gather the facts relative to them.

1. Who are they?

2. What is the Father’s name seen in their foreheads?

1. Who are they? We turn to Rev. 7, where this company is brought to view, to gather further particulars concerning them. It is stated of them here that they receive the seal of the living God. The following points of identity prove this company to be the same noticed in chap. 14:1. Their number in both cases is “one hundred forty and four thousand.” 2. They bear a particular mark—the name, or seal, of God. 3. Their position, “before the throne.” 4. In chapter 7 it is said that the “Lamb leads them,” while chap. 14 states that they “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” These companies, consisting of the same number, bearing the same mark, occupying the same position at the same time, and doing the same work, must be one and the same company.

They are again noticed in chap. 15:2, 3. That this is the same company is evident from the song they sing, and the position they occupy. Compare verse 3 with chap. 14:3. This company must live in the last days, because they get the victory over the beast, his image, and his mark. These objects John speaks of in chap. 13:14–17, but when men will be in danger of receiving the mark of the beast it will be in the last days; for chap. 14:9, 10, brings to view a terrific warning against the reception of the mark of the beast, and this warning proclamation will be the last one that the inhabitants of this earth will hear, because the next event is the coming of “one like the Son of man” to reap the harvest of the earth.

The above company, then, will live amid the troublous scenes of the last days, yet they come off victors in the conflict, and stand on the sea of glass. They are redeemed from the earth. In other words, they are translated at the second coming of Christ, and do not go down to the grave. “Redeemed from among men,” John adds. The prophet Hosea speaks of the dead as being “redeemed from death,” but this company is “redeemed from among men.”

2. What is the Father’s name seen in their foreheads? We have seen from chapters 7 and 14 that “name” and “seal” are used synonymously; and we might add still further that the terms name, seal, mark, sign, and token are all synonymous, so that if we find one writer speaking of the sign of God, he will mean precisely what another writer does who speaks of the seal or name of God. In proof of this statement, please compare the following texts of Scripture: Rev. 14:1; 7:4; Rom. 4:11; Eze. 9:4.

Let us now examine the definition of the term seal. A seal is defined to be “an instrument of sealing; that which is used by individuals, corporate bodies, and States, for making impressions in wax upon instruments of writing as an evidence of their authenticity.” The verb signifies: “To secure to any one, to make sure; to set a seal or mark upon anything in token of its being genuine or approved; to attest, to confirm, to establish, to distinguish by a mark.” Any enactment or law put forth, to be valid, must bear the seal of the power promulgating it. Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal; they were then authoritative. Rutherford B. Hayes may send out a proclamation, but unless he adds the seal of his office designating who he is, it will be of no authority; for there may be other men of the same name, but when he adds, President of the United States, and affixes the seal of his office, it is obeyed. The seal of any power, then, will always be found in connection with some law, or enactment, demanding obedience.

We now inquire, Has God a seal or some characteristic designating him as the true God; for Paul tells us “there be gods many, and lords many.” Reader, pause a moment, and tell me—Who is the true and living God? Suppose I am a worshiper of the sun, as many are, and you wish to convince me of my error, how will you proceed to the task? Do you say, I “must have no other gods” beside the true? My answer is, The sun is the true God, and I worship him: thus your argument would fail to convict me of sin. Do you not see the necessity of there being something to point out the true God, the great Author of the Christian religion?

We have seen that a seal is always used in connection with some law or enactment demanding obedience, indeed the idea of law is inseparable from a seal. Let us now turn to the law of God, and see if there is anything in that which points unmistakably to its Author. Please take your Bible, and turn to Exodus 20:3–17, and examine the decalogue carefully. The first three commandments mention the word God; but we cannot tell from them who is meant since there are “gods many.” We pass over the fourth commandment, as that is the one so many would have abolished. The fifth is no more definite than the first three, and as for the remaining five they do not contain the name of God at all.

There is nothing in the nine precepts we have examined by which we could convict the grossest idolater of sin. The worshiper of idols could say, This idol before me is my god, his name is god, and these are his precepts. The worshiper of the heavenly bodies could also say, The sun is my god, and I worship him according to this law. Thus, without the fourth commandment, the decalogue is null and void so far as it pertains to enforcing the worship of the true God. But let us add the fourth commandment, restore to the law this precept which many are ready to contend has been expunged, and see how the case will stand then. As we examine this commandment which contains the declaration, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,” etc., we see at once that we are reading the requirements of Him who created all things. The God of the decalogue, then, is not the sun, but He who made the sun. No object in the heavens or on the earth is the being who here demands obedience; for the God of this law is the one who created all things.

We here have a weapon against idolatry. The true God is the one who made the heavens and the earth, and the fourth commandment is the only one which brings that fact to view. This, then, is the seal or sign of the great God, and whenever the sacred writers would represent the true God they always appeal to the facts on which the fourth commandment is based. See Neh. 9:6; Ps. 115:15; Isa. 37:16; Acts 14:15; 17:23, 24.

From the above premises and conclusions it is evident that the fourth commandment contains the seal of God’s law. It is both reasonable and consistent to suppose that he would have a seal; but we now come to positive testimony upon the point. “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, 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. “I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign [or seal] between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20:19, 20. Thus by hallowing the Sabbath they would ever remember their Creator. It is a sign between God and his people.

In Rev. 7, the servants of God are spoken of as being sealed with the seal of God in their foreheads, or, as another translation renders it, “with the sign of God.” Our text speaks of the same company as receiving the “name of God.” As we have already seen, this sealing is a work which must be accomplished in the last days, and one which clearly brings to view a restoration of God’s down-trodden Sabbath, again giving to the law its seal, which unholy hands have attempted to tear therefrom. The prophet Isaiah clearly predicted just such a work, and at just the right time, in the following words: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” Isa. 8:16.

The testimony has been torn asunder, and needs binding up; the seal has been taken from the law, and must be restored. But does the prophet’s testimony refer to the time we have spoken of, i. e., the last days? We think it does from the next verse: “I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.”

Reader, consider these facts. When the last days are reached, a work must be performed that will fulfill this prophecy. The seal must be restored to the law “among my disciples,” says the prophet. The papacy has tampered with the law of Jehovah, and attempted a change in it. With true Satanic instinct he undertakes to change that commandment, which, of all others, is the fundamental commandment of the law, the one which makes known who the lawgiver is, and contains his signature of royalty. The fourth commandment does this; no other one does. The Sabbath he gave as a great memorial of himself, a weekly reminder of his work in creating the heavens and the earth, and a barrier against every form of idolatry.

John saw the angel ascending from the east, or “from the sunrising”—a more literal translation—with his sealing message. And this work did thus arise. It was weak in its influence at first, just as the rays of the rising sun are nearly powerless; but as it nears the meridian it increases in strength and glory.

Already has this solemn message gone to nearly every nation on the globe, and precious souls are being attracted by its divine truths. Ere long, the last servant of God will be sealed, the great plan of salvation completed, the saints be invited to enter the kingdom prepared for them, and to the wicked it will be said, “Depart.” Reader, where will you be found then? May it be your lot to be sealed with the seal of the living God, and be found among the victors on the sea of glass.