THE SEAL OF GOD AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST.
THE prophet John saw in vision an “angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice, . . . saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in the foreheads.” Rev. 7:1-3. To seal anything is to approve, to authenticate, to give authority to it, as in the case of legal documents. Esther 3:10-12. God’s seal is His name, His sign, or character. His law contains His seal, and this seal is found in the Fourth Commandment of the law: “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 [Jehovah] 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. “Jehovah” indicates God’s name; “made heaven and earth,” shows Him as Creator, and, therefore, indicates His title or authority; and “heaven and earth” show the extent of His territory. The Sabbath (the seventh day) is God’s “sign,” a “perpetual covenant,” a sign between Him and the children of Israel forever.” Ex. 31:12-17. Eze. 20:12. Christians are the true Israel. “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Phil. 3:3. The sealing of God’s people comes in close connection with the coming of the Lord.5"And I heard the number of them which were sealed; and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand." Rev. 7:4. "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads." Rev. 14:1. Sealing the people in the forehead means placing the law in their minds. "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." Heb. 8:10. The "beast" described in Rev. 13:1-10 is conceded by all Protestants to be Rome. "Another beast" is also noted—from verse 11 onward—that eventually furthers the cause of the "first beast" to such an extent that "he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Then this "mark" must be the sign of authority of Rome. And in fulfilment of the Bible prophecy concerning the "little horn" of Daniel 7 (the beast of Revelation), that "he shall think to change the times and the law" (Dan. 7:25, R. V.), we find that the Papacy has attempted to change the law of God by declaring Sunday to be the Sabbath instead of Saturday, "the seventh day" of the Fourth Commandment. God says: "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20:9, 10. "Rome says: "The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."—Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893. Again: In reply to a letter inquiring whether "the Catholic Church held the change of the Sabbath as a mark of her power to make such change," Cardinal Gibbons, through his secretary, replied: Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. It could not have been otherwise, as none in those days would have dreamed of doing anything in matters spiritual and religious without her, and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters. Now read the warning in Rev. 14:9-11 against the reception of this "mark of the beast." Note also that this is given in close connection with the judgment. Verses 6-8. Then note especially that those who escape this doom are "they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Verse 12. In recording another vision, John gives this further testimony: "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." Chapter 15:2, 3. For fuller exposition of this subject, see tract, "The Seal of God and Its Counterfeit," published at this office; 32 pages, 2 cents.