THE SEAL AND MARK by G. E. Fifield

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 15, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 46.

THE SEAL AND MARK.

By G. E. Fifield

Important to Obey God—A Testing Message—The Seal of God—The Mark of the Beast.

"AND the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation." Rev. 14:9, 10.

When the Biblical and historical facts concerning the Sabbath and Sunday are presented, it would seem that every one who knows God and believes that He has not been trifling with humanity, would say at once, "We must change, and keep His Sabbath instead of the sun festival." Still many hesitate, and ask, "Is it important now to make a change, since the observance of Sunday has become established by custom and by law?" To such we would say, It is always important to obey God rather than man, even tho the whole power of custom and of law, as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar's image, may be back of the human decree and opposed to God. God is the truth, and truth is everlasting; but a lie, tho gray with time, is still only a lie. No human power can make it the truth. It can not abide forever, for "the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies."

But what would be the strongest evidence possible that it is important to change and obey God's truth instead of the papal falsehood? If the Word of God makes plain that the Lord sends a special warning to the world on this very point, to prepare a people to meet the Saviour when He comes, would not this be such evidence? If, in addition to this, the Bible should make plain that this warning, when sent, would constitute an unfailing test, so that all who really obeyed it in the end would be saved, while all others would be lost, this surely would make the evidence complete.

Need of a Testing Message.

Nor would it be a strange thing for God to send such a testing warning. The warning proclaimed by Noah was a test to the old world. It made no difference how many professed to be pious and to belong to the regular church. Only those who heeded that warning were saved in the ark. "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." The message of John the Baptist was just such a test. Only those who accepted his warning were prepared to receive the Lord. All others cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." To those who boasted of their orthodox piety he said: "Begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father." "Repent, and be baptized for the remission of your sins."

The need of such a test is acknowledged to-day even by those who do not look for the Lord's soon coming. Read these words from Josiah Strong, D.D., in his book entitled "Our Country":—

Too many church-members know little or nothing of self-surrender; hence the lack of spiritual power. At such times the church suffers for the want of some decisive test, the application of which will show men to themselves, and separate, with a good degree of accuracy, those who have been crucified with Christ from those who know not what it is to "take up the cross."—Pp. 207, 208.

God does not deal with us arbitrarily. He prepares us, of our own free will, to acquiesce in all He does, and to join heartily in the grand anthem of praise, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." How much more necessary, then, is such a test if Christ is soon to come to separate the chaff from the wheat!

That such a testing message of warning will go to the world prior to Christ's second coming the Bible plainly declares, and of the result of this warning it speaks when it says, "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not." Mal. 3:18. This testing warning is brought to view in the scripture which heads this article, and in the verses which precede it. No Bible believer can possibly read thoughtfully the warnings contained in the sixth to the twelfth verses of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation without being impressed with their solemnity and importance. That these words apply to our own time is evident. They announce that the hour of God's judgment is come; and, as we have seen, this could only apply since the prophetic period expired in 1844.

This threefold warning also immediately precedes the coming of the Son of man to reap the world's harvest; for this solemn scene is introduced in the fourteenth verse: "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle."

After proclaiming the everlasting Gospel of the divine love, after declaring that the churches, as they lose this Gospel, are becoming Babylon and are fallen, then the solemn warning comes, "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation." No more solemn words are found in all the Scriptures. The next view we get of those who heed this message presents them as triumphant before the throne: "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." Rev. 15:2, 3.

But the next time we see those who do not heed this warning is in the sixteenth chapter, where those who have the mark of the beast are presented as suffering the plagues of God's wrath. Could anything prove more positively and solemnly that this message of warning against the beast is an absolute test?

The Seal of God.

Here this message is in the negative form—it is a protest. The seventh chapter presents the same message in a positive form: "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: 2-4.

The first verses of the fourteenth chapter present this same company who are sealed with the seal of the living God just before the winds of His wrath are permitted to blow. They are described as having their Father's name written in their foreheads, and as singing that same glorious new song of triumph, having been redeemed from the earth, that is, translated at the Lord's coming.

Here, then, are two seals, or marks, each in opposition to the other,—the seal of the living God, containing the Father's name, and the seal or

Mark of the Papal Beast.

Nothing is clearer than that a solemn sealing, marking, warning is to go to the whole world just prior to Christ's coming. Those who heed it will be sealed with the seal of the living God and fitted to meet the Saviour. Those who do not heed it will be marked as worshipers of the papal beast, and will drink of the wrath of God. No one will understand these to be literal marks. Rather, they are some assent of the mind, some act of the hand, by which the individual is marked before the world as a worshiper either of God or of the Papacy.

What are these seals, or marks, thus contrasted? In past papers it has been made plain that the Sabbath is God's sign, or mark. "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you; . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Ex. 31: 13. The words "sign," "seal," and "mark" are used synonymously in the Bible. Circumcision is said to be a sign, a seal, and a "token," or mark. So the Sabbath is God's sign, seal, or mark. A seal is connected with law, and with the name of the lawgiver. The seal of a law tells who the lawgiver is, and over what territory his authority extends. The Sabbath commandment is the seal of God's law. It, and it alone of all the commandments, tells who the Lawgiver is. He is the Creator, and He rules over the heavens and the earth and all His created works. Without this commandment it could not be told, from the law itself, who the lawgiver was. Many people who care nothing about God still do not openly swear, steal, lie, kill, or worship images. These commandments do not mark them. But whenever a person keeps the Sabbath conscientiously as he understands it, he does so to recognize God's authority, and to submit his soul to Him. This, therefore, is God's seal, mark, or sign.

Satan, working through the papal beast, has taken God's seal out, and put a false sign, a false sabbath, in its place. He has torn the seal from God's law, and by his false sabbath set the Old Testament and the New into antagonism, thus breaking and disjointing the testimony. To us, then, God's command comes with power: "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him." Isa. 8: 16, 17.

As this great warning message goes to the world, setting these truths concerning the false and true Sabbath clearly before it, these two Sabbaths will constitute the two marks. Those who, amid scorn and persecution, repudiate the right of every human power to command the conscience, rely upon the everlasting Gospel of the divine Love alone to redeem their souls, and with mind and hand obey God and keep His Sabbath—these will be sealed with the seal of the living God in their forehead. The popular throng who imagine they can set up Christ's kingdom by force of human law instead of by the power of the divine Love, who permit a human authority to command their consciences, and who, in spite of the plain truth of its origin and nature, yield their hearts and their hands to keep the papal Sunday, will be marked with the mark of the papal beast.

Does not the Papacy boast of Sunday as the mark of its authority and power? Listen:—

Question—How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days? Answer—By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday. . . . 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.—Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, and Doctrinal Catechism (Roman Catholic).

Testimony of History.

History also proves Sunday to be the mark of the papal beast power. The Papacy is a union of Church and State, but it was over Sunday laws that this union was first secured. Neander says, speaking of Sunday laws, "In this way the church received help from the State for the furtherance of her ends."—Vol. II, p. 301. It was this union that gave to the church the beast power to persecute. This power was first employed to enforce the observance of the pagan sun festival. Does not Sunday stand, therefore, as a mark of this power?

Again: The Papacy, as a system of belief, is a union of paganism with Christianity. How was this union brought about?—It has been clearly shown, over Sunday and Sunday laws. Says Dean Stanley, "It [Sunday] was Constantine's mode of harmonizing the discordant religions [pagan and Christian] of his empire under one common institution."—History of Eastern Church, p. 291. This common institution, Sunday, therefore stands as the mark of this mongrel religion.

But one does not need to resort to argument, either Biblical or historical. The best evidence that the sun is shining is that we see it shine. In all the civilized world to-day the professed church of Christ is more and more denying the love-power of the Gospel, and more and more going back to the medieval pago-papal doctrine of force, and in every instance she is doing this over Sunday and Sunday laws. Sunday stands, therefore, before the world as the mark of the beast-power, or force-power, just as God's Sabbath is the sign of His divine, indwelling, sanctifying love-power.

The two messages are going to the world, and will continue to go with a louder and louder voice, ever rising, to the final climax: on the one hand, the message of divine love, the Sabbath its sign; on the other, the message of human force, seeking to set up the kingdom of Christ by political methods, and making Sunday the sign of its authority. Those who continue to stand true to God's Sabbath through the persecutions that are now beginning and that are just before us, will have their hearts purified and knit together in love. The infinite Word of Love will again, in them, be made flesh to walk among men.

Thus the Sabbath will again, in spite of the centuries of apostasy, become a true sign of the indwelling love of God. Where the sign is, there the love will be. On the other hand, those who continue to stand by Sunday, in order to do so will have to stand by the authority which is back of it, and the persecuting methods by which it is maintained. As they do this, all love will be stolen out of their hearts, and the dragonic spirit of force and compulsion and persecution will take its place. Sunday will, therefore, in them, be truly, and in fact, the mark of the dragonic beast-power. As one by one men fully, finally commit themselves to one or the other of these issues, they will be either sealed for God and His kingdom, or marked for the beast and destruction. Reader, which shall it be? G. E. FIFIELD.