13:15Revelation 13:15

Power is given to give life to the image of the beast, so that the image both speaks and causes all who will not worship it to be killed.Ms 24, 1891, par. 23–24+2 The lamb-like beast is the United States rising quietly with civil and religious horns, the first beast is the papal power that changed the Sabbath, and the image is apostate Protestantism seeking civil power to enforce its beliefs in union of church and state.GC 578.3+4 The speaking of the image is legislating through decrees, laws and national action, and its causing death is carried out through councils, fines, imprisonment, withdrawal of support, boycott over buying and selling, and a final death decree.4SP 422.2+4 Worship of the image is enforced Sunday observance as homage to papal authority in place of God's command, with the mark in forehead or hand as the counterfeit Sabbath opposed to God's Sabbath seal of His law as Creator.GC 578.3+4 The forming of the image before probation closes is the great final test dividing those loyal to God's law who refuse the spurious Sabbath and gain victory from those who yield, and though the death decree brings the time of trouble the saints are protected and delivered.Lt 11, 1890, par. 10–12+4

Power is given to give life to the image of the beast, so that the image both speaks and causes all who will not worship the image to be killed.Ms 24, 1891, par. 23–24+4 This is the enemy's plan of battle for the final test in the closing conflict of the great controversy.Ms 143, 1901, par. 31–37+1 The second beast comes up out of the earth with two horns like a lamb but speaks as a dragon, exercises all the power of the first beast whose deadly wound was healed, does great wonders, deceives them that dwell on the earth by miracles, and directs them to make an image to the beast.Ms 143, 1901, par. 31–37+1 Its delusions will soon try faith to show of what sort it is, while the Lord manifests converting power and the Lamb overcomes with those who are called and chosen and faithful, and its fulfillment stands on the threshold of great and solemn events to be fulfilled in quick succession.Ms 143, 1901, par. 31–37+1 The image is a persecuting power that joins civil authority to religious demands, appears lamb-like but speaks and acts with the dragon's character under Satan's influence, usurps God's authority, and opposes those who keep God's commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.14MR 161.2–163.1+2

Its immediate setting is deception by miracles leading dwellers on earth to make the image, followed by worship of the image and its beast, receiving the mark, and restriction so that none may buy or sell without the mark.Ms 24, 1891, par. 23–24+4 Worship of the image is linked with receiving the beast's mark and economic restrictions, and the Sabbath question is the issue in this final worldwide conflict over worship.Ms 88, 1897, par. 15–17+1 The third angel's message warns that worshiping the beast and his image in obedience to that enforced decree brings the wine of the wrath of God.Lt 183, 1902, par. 8–9 The mark is giving up God's seventh-day Sabbath and keeping the pope's first-day Sabbath, for the beast is the power that changed the Sabbath and the image beast has followed after it and kept the pope's and not God's Sabbath, and its number 666 was made up.WLF 18.5–19.1 In that final conflict the faithful who refuse will also be forbidden to buy or sell.DA 122.1

The speaking of the image is legislating through decrees, laws, councils, and national action.Ms 16, 1900, par. 9+4 It speaks in decrees and laws commanding the exaltation of the Sabbath instituted by the man of sin in disregard of God's holy day, while God's only standard of righteousness and only sure test of character is proclaimed by the faithful.Lt 55, 1886, par. 17+1 The speaking is professed followers of the Lamb legislating with the spirit of the dragon and of Satan, bringing forward the claims of the false Sabbath of the first day of the week and passing laws enforcing Sunday as the Sabbath.Lt 28, 1900, par. 16–18+1 This is done through secret meetings held, secret councils convened, and plans and devices framed to be executed, to bring about the crisis of compelling the churches to honor the spurious sabbath.Ms 53, 1890, par. 20–21 Its causing death is carried out by bringing dissenters before councils, fining, imprisoning, threatening with death, withdrawing support, and killing those who will not agree to trample underfoot the commandments of God.Ms 16, 1900, par. 9+2

The image is formed when Protestant churches unite with the papal power to persecute the commandment-keeping people of God, constituting a great system of persecution that exercises spiritual tyranny over consciences.Lt 28, 1900, par. 16–18+1 In this Satan unites with Protestants and papists as the god of this world, thus usurping the prerogatives of Jehovah, with the man of sin sitting in the seat of God, proclaiming himself to be God and acting above God.Ms 16, 1900, par. 9+1 The image is civil government subordinated to religious power so that the state enforces the church's requirements, decrees, and institutions and carries out its purposes.4SP 503.3–504.1+3 It reproduces the union of church and state represented by the beast, whose papal head exercised persecuting power for 1,260 years through this union and is represented as going into captivity, and such powers persecute and crush those who oppose them.DA 837.3–4+2

The image is apostate Protestantism formed when Protestant churches seek civil power to enforce their beliefs, with the Protestant world acting with popery through national councils and national laws.GC 445.2–446.2+1 Apostasy prepares the way for this union of church and state, as it did for the papacy, and its authority to punish those who dissent from its doctrines reflects the image's coercive power with civil penalties to follow.GC 445.2–446.2+1 The papacy remains the same cruel and despotic power that crushed human liberty and slew the saints, and Protestant churches that follow Rome by allying with worldly powers show the same desire to restrict liberty of conscience.Ms 51, 1899, par. 20–22 The image of the papacy is a man-made theocracy in which Protestantism gains control of civil power and uses it to impose a religious system modeled on the papacy, as in the National Reform theory of government which seeks to make Christian laws and practices part of the nation's fundamental law, whether with or without Roman Catholic help.DA 838.4–839.2+1 In the United States, efforts to establish the nation's Christian character in law, official decisions treating Sunday as the Sabbath, and government dealings with the Vatican are preliminary steps toward that image, while rulers and people uniting with the man of sin to restore his lost ascendancy and making the law of God void is national apostasy from republican principles.DA 838.4–839.2+1 Persecution always follows when secular governments show favoritism in doctrine or religion, as when nonconformist ministers suffered under the Church of England, so the true church will then be assailed by persecution as God's people were in ancient times, all who will not bow to the decree will have support withdrawn and feel its oppressive, persecuting power, nations will be stirred to their very center, and God's people must be ready and waiting for the orders of God.Lt 55, 1886, par. 17+1

The chapter was revealed to John on Patmos, with Christ revealing its message through His angels so that it would reach God's people plainly, without human wisdom or tradition.Ms 139, 1903, par. 22–25 It portrays earthly governments, including the beast with lamb-like horns, as especially engaged in trampling upon God's law and persecuting His people, and their war is carried forward to the close of time.Ms 48, 1900, par. 16–18+1 Against them the people of God in the last days exist only as a remnant, greatly in the minority, those that keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.4SP 275.2–276.1 The warning is connected to Satan's effort to lead people, through human policy, to replace the Sabbath with the first day of the week and to treat God's commandments as less binding than human tradition, continuing the enmity between the serpent and the woman's seed.Ms 139, 1903, par. 22–25 The churches and the world are united in trampling upon God's commandments, and they threaten with death all who obey His precepts.Ms 48, 1900, par. 16–18 The symbols of the beast, the image, and the mark must be interpreted to understand the third angel's warning against worshiping the beast and receiving his mark.4SP 275.2–276.1 The last oppressive power that treads down God's true church is identified by the number 666, and its deception, wonders, miracles, and oppression will be especially manifested in its final struggle under the seven last plagues, shortly before it comes to its end and none can help it.WLF 8.4

The lamb-like beast rising from the earth is the United States, coming up quietly like a plant growing out of the ground in a region outside Old World dominion rather than by conquest of nations and peoples.GC 578.3+2 Its two horns are civil power and ecclesiastical power, and it acts in two phases, first with the gentleness of a lamb and afterward with the fierceness of the dragon.4SP 502.4–6+1 That dragon spirit was already seen when equality in life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness was proclaimed while American slavery was upheld by law, and when liberty to worship according to conscience was professed while Baptists and Quakers were persecuted.4SP 502.4–6 It will be shown more fully when laws concerning religion are made, and the prophecy belongs to enforcement of Sunday observance as homage to papal authority, with refusal to pay homage to the beast and its image as the defining test.GC 578.3+4

The first beast whose deadly wound was healed is the papal power, the man of sin that thought to change times and laws, changed the Sabbath, drank the blood of saints, and sits in the temple of God showing himself to be God.Ms 143, 1901, par. 31–37+2 Under its papal head it exercised persecuting power for 1,260 years through union of church and state and is represented as going into captivity by the sword.DA 837.3–4 The broader prophecy of Revelation 13 and 14 underlies the expectation that people generally will unite to exalt Sunday and enforce its observance by strict laws.4SP 501.3–502.1 The second beast exercises all the power of the first beast, does great wonders, deceives earth dwellers by miracles, directs them to make an image to the beast, and is given power to give life to the image so that it both speaks and causes those who will not worship it to be killed.Ms 143, 1901, par. 31–37

The image is apostate Protestantism formed when Protestant churches seek civil power to enforce their beliefs, commanding worship of the image under threat of civil penalties through union of church and state.GC 445.2–446.2+2 The mother of harlots is separate and distinct from her daughters, the Protestant sects; she has had her day and it is past, and as she has declined the daughters have grown and will soon exercise the power once manifested by the mother in persecuting the saints.Ms 15, 1850, par. 5–7 That image of the papacy is a man-made theocracy in which Protestantism gains control of civil power to impose a religious system modeled on the papacy, as in the National Reform theory of government seeking to make Christian laws and practices part of fundamental national law, whether established with or without Roman Catholic help.GC88 688.2–689.1 The image is formed when Protestant America causes the state to enforce decrees of the church and sustain its institutions, making an image of the Papacy, after which the true church is assailed by persecution as in ancient times, for persecution always follows when secular governments show favoritism in doctrine, as when nonconformist ministers suffered under the Church of England.Ms 51, 1899, par. 20–22 The two-horned beast will make worship of the image a test, and those who refuse it will face the death penalty in a conflict over obedience to God's commandments, especially the fourth commandment against the imposed first day.1T 223.1–2

Giving life to the image is a union of the Protestant churches with the papal power to persecute commandment keepers, exercising spiritual tyranny over conscience and demanding worship on pain of death in the final conflict between the obedient under the bloodstained banner of Christ and the disobedient under the black banner of rebellion.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+2 Its speaking is professed followers of the Lamb legislating with the spirit of the dragon and of Satan, and its death decree is carried out by bringing dissenters before councils, fining, imprisoning, threatening with death, and killing those who will not agree to trample God's commandments.Ms 16, 1900, par. 9+1 Catholics give their power to the image and, being large in number, stand by the Protestants and bid them go forward to issue a decree that all who will not observe the first day instead of the seventh shall be slain, while nominal churches and nominal Adventists betray Sabbath keepers to the Catholics to obtain their influence, reporting them as disregarders of the pope's institution.Ms 15, 1850, par. 5–7 Roman and Protestant powers thus unite against the faithful, and the persecution of Sabbath keepers is repeated when both exalt Sunday, for Rome remains the same cruel and despotic power that crushed human liberty, forbade Sabbath observance under severe penalties, and slew the saints.Lt 296, 1903, par. 4–5+2

Behind both beast and image is Satan's dragon-like spirit, with powers of earth uniting with powers from beneath to oppress God's people by laws compelling worship according to human opinions.ST Nov 7, 1900+2 Though appearing lamb-like, the power reveals its satanic character by dragon speech and false miracles to enforce worship, joining civil authority to religious demands and using coercion against commandment keepers while usurping God's authority.14MR 161.2–163.1+2 In this Satan unites with Protestants and papists as god of this world, usurping the prerogatives of Jehovah, with the man of sin sitting in the seat of God proclaiming himself to be God and acting above God.Ms 16, 1900, par. 9+1 This is fulfilled when in blind zeal brother delivers brother to death, father the child, and children rise against parents to cause them to be put to death, and God's people are hated of all for Christ's name, so that only those taking the whole armor of God and enduring to the end withstand in the evil day.ST Nov 7, 1900

In the last days this reaches its final fulfillment when Satan appears in person as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory and claims to be lord of the whole earth.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+1 He declares the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day, and as lord of Sunday presents this spurious sabbath as the test of loyalty to him.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+1 Then power is given to give life to the image so that it speaks and causes all who will not worship it to be killed, while Satan impersonates Christ to bless, gladden, and honor worshipers of the beast and his image, who have received the mark of the beast and of his image in corrupt harmony of fallen churches, the papal power, apostate Protestants, and spiritualism under a corrupt leader.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+1 He calls for worship of the image while the saints look on with amazement under the test whether they also will be deceived, kept by angels about them and a clear voice bidding them look up, fixing their eyes by faith on the blazing throne, ripening for heaven, and refusing to worship or receive the mark that they may overcome as servants and sons of God and inherit all things.Ms 16, 1884, par. 8+1

Worship of the image is enforced Sunday observance, compelled by civil power acting for the church, and paying homage to papal authority by obeying a human precept and papal institution in place of God's command and trampling Jehovah's sanctified rest day.GC 578.3+4 The lamb-like beast makes an image to the papal beast and causes worship of it, and that speaking and threatening of death is fulfilled when Protestant churches use secular power to compel a religious duty and enforce Sunday.GC 578.3+4 Those who knowingly choose Sunday instead of the Bible Sabbath thereby pay homage to the power that commands it, while the coercion targets those who keep God's commandments and honor the seventh-day Sabbath with imprisonment and death, forcing the choice between loyalty to the living God and submission to false worship.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+2

The mark received in forehead or hand is the counterfeit Sabbath of the sun set against God's Sabbath sign and seal of His law.4SP 505.2–3+2 The forehead means the mind and the hand means power, and while wicked powers accept compulsory worship, God's servants are sealed in the forehead, that is in the mind.4SP 505.2–3+1 To receive the mark is to give up God's seventh-day Sabbath and keep the pope's first-day Sabbath, the day kept by the Sabbath-changing beast and afterward by the image beast that followed it.4SP 505.2–3+2 The fourth commandment is the seal of God's law because it alone names the Lawgiver and identifies Him as Creator, establishing His claim to reverence and worship, and the seventh-day Sabbath commemorates creation and directs people to the true and living God as a sign of loyalty to Him.ST Mar 22, 1910 Those sealed bear the Father's name in their foreheads in contrast to worshipers of the beast and its image, and those who keep God's commandments and His Sabbath rather than receive the beast's mark will suffer persecution when the mark is enforced.4SP 505.2–3+2

Sunday keeping is not yet the mark of the beast.Ms 118, 1899, par. 2–3+1 It becomes the mark and the test only when a decree yet to go forth commands men to worship Sunday as an idol sabbath.Ms 118, 1899, par. 2–3+1 That time has not come yet because truth must first be presented more fully, and until then Sunday can be used for missionary work rather than treated as the present test of loyalty.Ms 118, 1899, par. 2–3+1

The coercive demand repeats Nebuchadnezzar's decree against those who would not worship the golden image, now applied as a future universal decree declaring those who keep the fourth-commandment Sabbath deserving of death.14MR 90.3–91.4+2 Like the Hebrew youths on the plain of Dura, God's servants will face coercion and abuse for refusing false worship even when they have done no wrong.PK 512.1+1 The image is a spurious rival sabbath exalted in place of God's memorial Sabbath, the sign between God and His commandment-keeping people, devised by satanic agencies and carried into effect by the man of sin, and all who will not observe it will be placed under oppressive laws and barred from buying or selling.Ms 110, 1904, par. 58–61+2 This repeats Babylon, where inhabitants worshiped the golden image set up in the plain of Dura, and where professed Christians now call the world to worship an image they have made with vainglory, ceremony, formalism, and oppression.Ms 32, 1898, par. 11–12+1

Exalting that man-made institution to receive the honor due God's Sabbath is idolatry.19MR 244.1–3+2 Satan labors to destroy the Sabbath memorial of creation given in Eden and in the fourth commandment and to put a spurious sabbath in its place to bring worldwide apostasy against God's law, compelling others to worship this idol through laws that force Sunday observance and violate conscience.19MR 244.1–3+1 Those who do this are idolaters among professed Christians who are not sealed by God, who by disregarding the fourth commandment place themselves on Satan's side and become guilty of all.19MR 244.1–3+1 If unrepentant they will be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy upon despisers of His law, while the man of sin identified with the papacy is exalted in God's place through the spurious Sabbath it instituted by a confederacy of Protestantism and the papacy seeking to suppress the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.19MR 244.1–3+2

The prophecy's restriction on buying and selling is also fulfilled in the binding up in confederacies, gigantic monopolies, and labor unions in the last days, with men bound in bundles ready to be burned.2MR 179.1–2+2 These combinations deprive neighbors of freedom of action and rob the poorer classes of advantages that justly belong to them, preventing any from buying or selling except under certain conditions.3MR 42.6–43.2+1 Men must pledge themselves to serve the interests of the unions, and those who refuse to join are made marked men and made to feel this power, even paying the penalty of refusal with their lives.3MR 42.6–43.2+1 To belong to these unions means disregarding the entire Decalogue and makes it impossible to keep the commandments of God, because it breaks the whole duty of man to love God with heart, soul, strength, and mind and neighbor as self with consecration of body, soul, and spirit to God's service.3MR 42.6–43.2+1 Their forming is one of Satan's last efforts and a sign of the last days, so those who love God and keep His commandments must get out of the cities and isolate themselves from the world.3MR 42.6–43.2+1

The penalties begin with bringing dissenters before councils to be fined or imprisoned and threatened with death for refusing to trample God's commandments, then advance through fines, confiscation of property, loss of citizenship, and exclusion from buying and selling to a final decree that all who refuse the mark and worship of the image are deserving of death.4SP 422.2+2 That final issue comes when the powers of earth unite to war against the commandments of God, with church and state compelling people of every class to worship the beast and its image and receive its mark, making the Sabbath the great test of loyalty between those who keep God's commandments and have faith in Jesus and those who yield.4SP 422.2+2 The civil law that once protected Christians in quiet times withdraws its protection and turns against keepers of God's law, especially conscientious observers of the seventh-day Sabbath, with the same hostility, envy and jealousy that cried for Christ's crucifixion and that arrested, imprisoned, exiled and killed the faithful from the first dawn of Christianity now manifested again with malignant energy by minds deceived into esteeming destruction a service to God and the world.Ms 5, 1882, par. 5–8 No one suffers this wrath blindly, for truth is first brought to mind and conscience and rejected, and everyone has sufficient light to decide intelligently.4SP 422.2

The boycott cuts off resources so the faithful cannot buy or sell, after the decree that none may buy or sell without the mark.4SP 422.2+1 Their abject poverty, helplessness and stricken condition are then held up as proof that they cannot live without the world unless they concede to its customs, practices and laws and its Sunday observance, or go out of it.Lt 6, 1884, par. 2–4+1

The final death decree goes forth universally against all who will not worship, declaring keepers of the fourth-commandment Sabbath deserving of death, so that their lives are at stake and they are brought into fierce conflict in which they must remain steadfast and hold fast to the truth as their only hope of eternal life.4SP 422.2+2 The inhabitants of the earth unite to destroy them, armed groups prepare to kill them to silence their reproof, and the wicked surround them leaving them in anguish and apparently without escape just before the coming of the Lord.4SP 452.1+1 They lay upon the saints the blame for convulsions of nature, strife, bloodshed, calamities and plagues, believing that killing them will stop the judgments.LSEGW 117.1

This is the time of trouble, Jacob's trouble, the closing strife with the image of the beast in which believers are brought into fear and distress.WLF 9.5–6 God's people are then a small, feeble, poor and stricken company weeping and praying and pleading the sure promises of God while the wicked surround them, mock their feebleness and small numbers, ridicule and taunt them with cutting words for taking an independent position from all the rest of the world, accuse them of standing out in defiance of the laws of the land and of God while claiming to be the only ones right on earth, and threaten to destroy them with torture, hunger, dungeons, exile and death for refusing to yield faith, give up the Sabbath and observe the first day.Lt 6, 1884, par. 2–4+3 Their persecutors at the same time claim the whole world is converted and in harmony with the Sunday law, claim to have the truth with miracles among them and great power and signs and wonders, claim angels from heaven talking and walking with them and the long-expected temporal millennium, and present Satan's personations of the dead as heavenly messengers while sneering, mocking, deriding and abusing the sorrowing ones.Lt 6, 1884, par. 2–4+2

The death decree causes fear and distress but does not mean the saints will actually be killed, for they must remain alive until their change.WLF 10.1 They remain calm trusting God while angels protect them from attempts to kill them before the decree is carried out, and God will not allow the wicked to destroy them in the final struggle but will deliver them as He preserved Noah and his family from the flood.SG1 203.1+3 They cry day and night for deliverance and are delivered by the voice of God, who pronounces blessing on Sabbath honorers, and the 144,000 triumph with faces lighted with glory.LSEGW 117.1+1

The image is formed before probation closes as the great test for the people of God by which eternal destiny is decided before they are sealed.Lt 11, 1890, par. 10–12+1 The giving of life to the image so that it speaks and causes all who will not worship it to be killed is the test to be met before sealing, a demand for worship that divides loyalty to God from disloyalty.Lt 11, 1890, par. 10–12+1 All who prove loyalty by observing God's law and refusing the spurious, counterfeit Sabbath rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah and receive the seal of the living God, while those who yield truth of heavenly origin and accept the Sunday Sabbath receive the mark of the beast.Lt 11, 1890, par. 10–12+1 This is part of God's warning of the perils before His people in the last days, showing what will be when a people work counter to God while deceived.17MR 18.2–4+1

The Sabbath question is the issue in the worldwide final conflict in which all the world will act a part, the fearful final issue when the powers of earth unite to war against the commandments of God.4SP 422.2+2 It is the great and last warfare between two classes, between the obedient who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus and the disobedient who make void His law, between those who stand under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ and those who stand under the black banner of rebellion.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+2 The living image speaks and causes all who will not worship it to be killed, meaning a union of Protestant churches with the papal power and with church and state compelling every class to worship the beast and its image and receive its mark on pain of death, exercising spiritual tyranny over conscience.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+1 That worship of the beast and his image springs from Satan's persevering effort begun in heaven to change God's law, succeeding in leading the world and much of the professed Christian church to believe the law was faulty and needed revising, so the dividing line is obedience with children of obedience standing loyal and true and children of disobedience standing disloyal and untrue, yet not all are taken in the delusive snare prepared for church and world.1MR 45.3 This calls for the patience of the saints in steadfast faith even should firmness cost life, for God's people refuse the mark.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+1

The death decree comes finally, after decreeing that none may buy or sell without the mark, making the Sabbath the great test of loyalty.4SP 422.2 The decree will not be urged blindly, for no one suffers wrath until truth has been brought home to mind and conscience and rejected, and everyone will have sufficient light to decide intelligently.4SP 422.2 The mark is received only after the choice between God's commandments and human commandments has been made clear, when people know the true Sabbath obligation yet obey the human precept in place of God's command, honoring Rome, and knowingly persist in transgression.4SP 422.2+1

The faithful who refuse that worship and the mark ultimately gain victory over the beast and its image, a connected sequence continuing through Revelation 14:1-5 to the complete redemption of the 144,000.WLF 10.4+2 Instead of the beast's mark they have the Father's name written in their foreheads, standing in marked contrast to worshipers of the beast and his image.5T 752.3+1 They stand on the sea of glass singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, the song of everlasting triumph, celebrating victory at Jesus' coming when God pronounces blessing on those who honored Him by keeping the Sabbath holy.SG1 205.3+3 That victory is gained by laying hold upon God's strength, and the warning of this almost-upon-us crisis bringing dangers through the beast and his image is not to be kept to oneself but given to the world.Ms 31, 1890, par. 10 When the last decision has been made and all have taken sides either for Christ and the commandments or for the great apostate, God will arise in His power, stop forever the mouths of blasphemers, punish every opposing power with the sword, and defend His people, regarding injury done to His servants for truth's sake as done to Himself, for Satan cannot go beyond his limit.Lt 28, 1900, par. 19–20

When death is made the penalty for refusing to worship the image and for violating the false Sabbath set up by Satan and enforced by laws most severe and exacting, many now ranked with commandment keepers will abandon the true Sabbath of Jehovah and come over to the side of the world and the church in support of the false Sabbath.4SP 337.2–340.3 The decree tests whether people will remain faithful to God's commandments and the faith of Jesus when the religious world makes God's law void, and those who waver and follow apostasy will stand with those who reject the law unless they repent and firmly hold to the faith once delivered to the saints.5T 525.2 Some lower the Christian banner and join the persecutors, while others refuse to compromise, hold the banner high and rally others to it despite many being slain.EW 177.1 Those with little faith are in danger of falling under this coercion and satanic delusions, and even if they endure, neglected lessons of trust will leave them in deeper distress in the time of trouble.4SP 439.1 The threat of death is used to frighten some into abandoning truth, but those true to God will not be separated from Christ by it because their hope of eternal life is in Him.Ms 87, 1897, par. 19

This giving of life to the image belongs to the warning of the third angel against worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark, for those who do so in obedience to the enforced decree drink the wine of the wrath of God.Ms 100, 1893, par. 8–9+2 That warning combines the first and second messages and binds them together with the third for the closing scenes of this earth's history, proclaiming God's only standard of righteousness to all living in the last days.Ms 55, 1895, par. 14–16+1 It continues the work of the wonder-working blasphemous power that deceives all who dwell on the earth who are not connected with God, telling them to make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live, causing them to believe fatal lies presented as truth for which judgment is appointed in the great day.Ms 100, 1893, par. 8–9+1 To understand it the symbols of the beast, the image, and the mark must be interpreted, for the lamb-horned beast is one of the earthly governments trampling God's law and persecuting His people to the close of time, opposed only by a remnant greatly in the minority who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.Ms 100, 1893, par. 8–9+1 Compelling all to keep Sunday in place of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the mark of the beast and his image, devised when Satan and evil angels counsel to do away with God's sign, supported by lying signs and wonders and corruptions showing inconceivable blindness since Bible truth is plain and hid only to them that are lost, and answered by preaching the third angel's message from the Bible which transforms character.Ms 163, 1897, par. 2–5+2

It belongs to Revelation 12 to 18 as prophecies now being fulfilled, when all are to hear the last message of warning and the very last call to the churches recorded in Revelation 18.Ms 75, 1906, par. 16+1 That call to come out of Babylon is a call not to worship the beast or his image, which is connected with accepting the papacy's spurious sabbath in place of God's Sabbath, a rival memorial to be enforced by oppressive law exalting the false Sabbath.Ms 143, 1901, par. 48–52+1 The man of sin exalted himself above God by presenting that spurious Sabbath to the world, and the Christian world accepted, cradled and nourished the child of the papacy by removing God's memorial and setting up a rival day, and after truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations a more decided effort will be made to exalt it and cast contempt upon God by supplanting the day He blessed and sanctified.Ms 143, 1901, par. 48–52+1 While Satan works through human instrumentalities with lying wonders to obliterate the knowledge of God, the mighty angel that lightens the earth with his glory proclaims the fall of Babylon and calls God's people to forsake her.Ms 143, 1901, par. 48–52 This comes just before what is pictured in Revelation 19, when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into the lake of fire, the dragon who instigated rebellion against heaven is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, the wicked are resurrected and Satan and all the wicked are finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns in this earth.Ms 75, 1906, par. 16

Its sequence continues through Revelation 14:1-5 to the complete redemption of the 144,000, for the beast and its image are the powers over which the 144,000 gain victory.WLF 10.4 It describes one side in the final contest between good and evil, those who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark, set against those who receive the seal of the living God and bear the Father's name in their foreheads.ST Mar 22, 1910+1 The fourth commandment is that seal because it alone names the Lawgiver and identifies Him as Creator, establishing His claim to reverence and worship, and the seventh-day Sabbath commemorating creation directs people to the true and living God as a sign of loyalty to Him.ST Mar 22, 1910 The faithful who refuse that enforced worship ultimately gain that victory instead of the beast's mark, standing on the sea of glass singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.WLF 10.4+1

Its number 666 identifies the last oppressive power that treads down God's true church, whose deception, wonders, miracles, and oppression will be especially manifested in its final struggle under the seven last plagues, shortly before it comes to its end and none can help it.WLF 8.4 The mark in forehead or hand is giving up God's seventh-day Sabbath and keeping the pope's first-day Sabbath, for the beast is the power that changed the Sabbath and the image beast has followed on after it and kept the pope's and not God's Sabbath, and the number 666 of the image beast was so made up.WLF 8.4+1

Its forcing of conscience repeats the hostility shown by Cain toward Abel from the beginning of human history, when false religion uses force to compel worship of a false sabbath and makes refusers feel the force of law with persecution and expulsion from the world.Ms 77, 1897, par. 22 It repeats to the close of time the persecution enacted in the betrayal, trial, and killing of Christ, as false religionists take charge of consciences to force apostasy and transgression.Ms 77, 1897, par. 22+1 Every power that forces conscience and every court that decides man's destiny by its own measurement of what constitutes religion reveals satanic attributes, for men betray and persecute God's chosen ones and put God's children to death for refusing to worship, taking the life that God alone can give.12MR 413.1–3

The verse lays out in clear lines the present position of God's people in regard to Sunday laws.Ms 23, 1889, par. 4–6 Its formation of the image is the message for this time, meat in due season for a starving flock, to be warned about now to arouse professed believers from death-like slumber to see the importance of giving the warning to the world.Lt 77, 1893, par. 14–20 Startling events in fulfillment of prophecy show the great crisis connected with the image is rapidly approaching.15MR 298.3–299.1+1 That crisis is a determined effort to press through a Sunday law and put it in operation, forcing the last issue over worship, moving very rapidly and bringing a difficult prospect that requires preparation in all churches, and it is right upon God's people who are not ready for it.Lt 72, 1906, par. 6+1 The Sunday-law effort must therefore be vigorously met while every entrusted talent is used to advocate the truth as it is in Jesus and set it before the world in clear lines.Lt 72, 1906, par. 6

Faith that is not sustained in comparatively peaceful days will not uphold believers when the decree goes forth against all who will not worship the image and receive its mark in forehead or hand, bringing the time of trouble.ST Nov 17, 1881+1 Strength and courage must be gathered now, for that solemn period is not far off, and true servants will obey without consulting temporal interests, since no one can serve God and mammon.4T 251.1 Those with an eye single to God's glory will keep looking continually to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, with attention fixed on the great future beyond this life and the eternal weight of glory the overcomer will share, even when friends of truth are proscribed and denounced by a time-serving generation and the laws of the land are finally turned against them as church and state unite to raise their own standard to gauge conscience while God's law, the only standard of right, is trampled and despised.Ms 5, 1882, par. 20 The certainty that Sunday enforcement by law will surely be enacted does not justify sitting in calm expectation of divine protection, for God will not save those who make no effort at their committed work, and duty requires faithfully guarding the outposts and watching as vigilant soldiers lest Satan gain an advantage that should have been prevented.Ms 18, 1888, par. 4 God's commandment-keeping people as depositaries of His law and the pure religion of Jesus must work diligently in prayer and action to bring truth before those who have never heard it, to disabuse minds and lay the subject judiciously and intelligently before the people, knowing that if through ignorance the law is set aside those with great light will be held responsible for lack of diligence, but if they warn faithfully they have done their duty whatever comes, reenacting no concealment even when property and liberty are at risk under a power enforcing worship with threat of death and repeating the tyranny of past ages and the Roman apostasy.Ms 18, 1888, par. 7+1

The image is virtually formed by religious legislation, which marks the present position in the closing scenes of this world's history and the entering of a new era in the work.STBk 71.3+3 What remains is the full development of what the prophecy says the image is to do, for its further specified actions of speaking and causing death have not yet fully developed.STBk 71.3+3 The spirit of the dragon is already manifest, and everything around will now move with a rapidity before unknown.STBk 71.3+1 The warning about the formation is important, yet statements about the timing of its formation can be premature.15MR 298.3–299.1+1

There are no peaceful times ahead, and God's people must depend on God for help as a small remnant unable to defend themselves when earthly authorities decree worship of the beast and its image and threaten persecution and death for refusal and for not receiving the mark.CET 188.1+1 The death penalty follows escalating penalties including fines, confiscation of property, loss of citizenship, and exclusion from buying and selling, in a national course that logically leads to religious coercion and persecution, yet God will care for the faithful while persecutors are in danger.DA 839.6–7 Those sealed by the living God must rely on God as their defense, and those who love Him and keep His commandments must get out of the cities and isolate themselves from the world, since the forming of confederacies, monopolies, and labor unions that deprive neighbors of freedom, rob the poorer classes, prevent buying or selling except under conditions, disregard the entire Decalogue and love to God and neighbor, and bind men in bundles ready to be burned is one of Satan's last efforts and a sign of the last days in which the image speaks and kills through combinations requiring pledges to serve union interests on pain of being made marked men and even losing life.3MR 42.6–43.2+1 Satan cannot go beyond his limit, the Lord will be the defense of His people and regards injury done to His servants for truth's sake as done to Himself, and when the last decision has been made and all have taken sides either for Christ and the commandments or for the great apostate, God will arise in His power, stop forever the mouths of blasphemers, and give every opposing power to the sword with the slain of the Lord from one end of the earth to the other.Lt 28, 1900, par. 19–20

The warning applies to popular education whose books and methods instill principles leading people to help give life to the image and take part in the coercive religious system that worships it or faces death.HCSSP 37.2 It applies to a coming national apostasy in which the United States abandons Protestant principles and gives support to Rome's corrupt faith, when Protestant churches seek secular power to enforce their aims and follow the example of the apostate church, forming an image to the Papacy in which the state uses power to uphold church institutions and compel religious observance, ending in national ruin.ST Jul 4, 1899+1 As Romanism gains influence in government and churches, Roman power will again help enforce a false religious institution through persecution, and Protestants will use methods like those of past persecutions so that those who obey God's word face reproach.ST Aug 20, 1885 The conflict is over obedience to all ten commandments versus the beast's requirements, with the dragon making war on the saints because they keep the distinctive features of their faith.SG4 212.4–213.1 A decree will soon go forth at the end of all things in the time of trouble upon God's people, forbidding those who keep the Sabbath of the Lord to buy or sell and threatening punishment and even death if they do not observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath.HSFM 156.1