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The Mark of Apostasy

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 15, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 7.

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The Mark of Apostasy

Now in God's providence and plan His great threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-14 is going to the world to call men from darkness to light; is going to Babylon to call men from confusion of cruel dogma and tradition back to the Word of God. Some in every nation, tribe, and people, will hear, and heed, and do; will return to "the everlasting Gospel," and be found among those who "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. Others will abide in Babylon, will in Babylon commit spiritual fornication BY UNITING WITH CIVIL POWER TO ENFORCE THE DOGMAS AND TRADITIONS OF ERROR, AMONG WHICH WILL BE SUNDAY. AROUND THIS ALL THE UNION OF CHURCH-AND-STATE FORCES IS GATHERING. This union and consequent conditions between church and state compose the beast and the image, till organized apostasy and church-and-state tyranny are world-wide. THE MARK AND TEST OF ALLEGIANCE TO THIS POWER WILL BE THE LEGAL SUNDAY, THE GREAT MARK OF APOSTASY, the change in God's law; and HE WHO IN THE LIGHT OF GOD'S WORD TURNS FROM THAT LIGHT, FROM THAT LAW, FROM THAT GOSPEL AND ITS POWER, TO THE DARKNESS OF TRADITION AND APOSTASY, TO THE POWER OF THE CIVIL ARM, RECEIVES IN HIS VERY WORSHIP AND YIELDED ALLEGIANCE THE CHARACTER OF THE POWER HE SERVES, AND HE CROWNS THAT WITH THE BADGE OF BEAST AUTHORITY, the MARK of his SERVITUDE, by the OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY AS ENFORCED BY THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, in contradistinction to the true service of God in the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
This is in principle the mark of the beast. Just the particular form it may assume in the future development, we do not know. Just at what stage of character-development men possess that mark and cut themselves off from God, it is not for mortals to say. JUDGMENT rests WITH GOD, NOT MAN. It is for us to proclaim the solemn warning against false worship, the dread consequences of sin; to set forth the eternal principles of the true; to plead with men to come to Christ in the faith that changes character; to entreat them to let that Spirit write God's holy law upon the heart, and make the doing of His every command a delight. But praise God, the judgment of those who reject His truth rests not with us, but with Him.