The Seal of God by Oscar Hill

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 10, 1900

The Seal of God

By Oscar Hill

THE MARK OF THE BEAST, AND THE SEAL OF GOD. NO. 2.

The Seal of God.

HAVING found that Sunday is the mark of the beast, we will now consider the seal of God. This is presented in Rev. 7:2, 3, in these very forcible words: "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." The same work is mentioned in the eighth and ninth chapters of Ezekiel. In Eze. 9:4 the command is given to set a mark in the foreheads of God's people. The seal, or mark, is in the forehead, the seat of the mind; for with the mind we "serve the law of God." Rom. 7:25.

We notice that in the Scriptures the words "sign," "mark," and "seal" are used interchangeably. See Rom. 4:11 and the texts already quoted. The Catholic Bible already referred to, has, in Rev. 7:2, 3, the word "sign" (both noun and verb) instead of "seal" and "sealed." It says, "Having the sign of the living God," and, "Till we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads." In Isaiah 8 we have a prophecy for the same time. Verse 16 says, "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples." In the Revised Version it is, "Teaching the law among My disciples."

It would appear that the disciples do not understand God's law; and especially that part of it which is a seal, or sign, of His authority and right to command a law. In all these prophecies the command is given to set the servants, or disciples, right on this point. "Seal the servants of our God;" "Seal the law among My disciples;" "Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations;"—these expressions show that the message is not to a people that know not God, but to a people that are serving God, but whose practise on some point of faith or life is not right.

Now, in examining the law as spoken and written by God Himself, we find one precept, and but one, that tells us who God is, or His right to exercise authority. This one is 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, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; 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." Ex. 20:8-11.

This commandment tells exactly who is the giver of the law—the Creator—hence His authority and the extent of His dominion,—the heavens, the earth, and the sea. This, then, is the seal of God's law; for it shows the authenticity of the law. It is this for which a seal is used in connection with the laws of this and other countries. A seal is affixed to the laws as published, to show by what authority they are enforced. So God gives one commandment that shows His right to be ruler. This commandment, as given in the Scriptures and obeyed by His people, is to God just what the Sunday commandment is to the papal power. It is a sign of God's authority and power. God gave the Sabbath at the close of creation week as a memorial of His creative work, and when man sinned and brought death on the human family. He still gives the Sabbath as a sign of His power to create anew in Christ, or sanctify, or make holy. "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." Eze. 20:12. And verse 20 adds, "That ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Read 1 Peter 1:9-11, and you will see that it was the Spirit of Christ that spoke these words through the prophet; and all Christians know that Christ is the only true sanctifier, or Saviour, ever given under heaven. Acts 4:12. Neither has He changed: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Heb. 13:8. The same Saviour exercises the same power to sanctify now that has ever sanctified the people of God. Hence the words spoken through the prophet Ezekiel by the Saviour have the same force to-day as in the past; and the Sabbath is still a sign between God and His people, that they may know that He is the Lord their God, the One through whom they are sanctified. If we but stop to consider that to sanctify is to exercise His divine power to create us new creatures in Christ, we can easily see why He gives the Sabbath as a sign now. It was a memorial of creative power from the beginning, and would always have been such had man not sinned, and will be observed as such by every redeemed man and woman in the earth made new. See Isa. 66:22, 23.

Two Powers—Two Signs.

Here, then, are two powers, each of which has a sign, or mark, of its own. One, the Lord Jesus Christ, exercised His divine power in bringing all things into existence (John 1:10; Col. 1:16), and He pledges the same divine power for the sanctifying and redeeming of every one who believes Him. And He gives the memorial of His creative work for a sign to us, that we may know He sanctifies us. Then He prefaces His commandment in regard to it with the word "remember," which certainly means, Do not forget.

Of the other power, the papal, we read in 2 Thess. 2:4 that he "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." This prophecy the pope has fulfilled in every particular. He claims that he only is the representative of God on earth. He has fulfilled it in not only making himself equal with God, but in exalting himself above God; and the church boasts of his great power by saying that all the world bows down and worships on Sunday in silent obedience to the mandate of the Catholic Church, instead of observing the seventh day as commanded by God in the Holy Scriptures. He claims this as a sign that he is able to dispense with the precepts of God, or change them at his will. If any do not know these things, they may know them if they will; for the statement is boldly put before an intelligent world that every time we keep Sunday instead of the Bible Sabbath, we say the pope is able to change the law of God. Father Enright states it in this way: "The Bible says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; but the Catholic Church says, No, keep the first day of the week; and the whole world bows down in obedience."

Reader, which of these two powers are you living in obedience to to-day? "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. 6:16.

A Scattered People.

God has a people all around in the different churches whose minds have not yet been brought to see these things as they are. But the sealing work of Rev. 7:3 is going on, while the angels of God are holding the elements of destruction in check, in obedience to the command, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Notice Rom. 6:16 again, and consider whom you are obeying. If it is the power that has "exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped," there is still time for you to make a covenant with the true God and obey Him. The warning of Rev. 14:9-12 is sounding, not only in this favored land, but in earth's remotest corners. Thousands of honest-hearted people in different parts of the earth are hearing and obeying, and their united testimony is one of praise to God for the light and joy and peace they find in obedience to God. They realize now that they are better acquainted with God than before; they have learned that He has given them a sign. He says, "That ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Ex. 31:13. Of all these sanctified ones it is said, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

Reader, shall this be said of you? In infinite love the great God, the Creator of all, has sent this truth to you that you may be wholly sanctified and saved in His everlasting kingdom. Will you step out in the light as God's opening providence reveals it to you, and in so doing receive the blessing in this world, and eternal life in the soon-coming kingdom of God? Oscar Hill.