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.
No one will be able to buy or sell without the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name, so those without them are shut out of economic life. This boycott is the last step in a continuous action in which a wonder-working power deceives earth-dwellers, bids them make an image to the beast that was wounded by a sword and lived, gives life to the image so it speaks, kills those who will not worship it, and causes all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead. The mark is allegiance to papal authority in place of God, expressed by honoring its changed law in enforced observance of Sunday as a counterfeit Sabbath against God's sanctified seventh-day memorial, with the forehead or hand meaning acknowledgment in mind or in practice. The enforcement comes through the lamb-like beast from the earth, the United States founded on civil and religious liberty, forming an image to the first leopard-like beast, the papacy, when apostate Protestantism unites with the papal and civil powers to compel false worship by law. That final restriction is still future and will cut the obedient off from world resources into poverty, fines, imprisonment and at last a death decree, yet they will be delivered, so now is the time to proclaim the warning boldly, obey at any cost to receive God's seal instead of the mark, use means for the work, and leave the cities to raise provisions in the country.
Words and Immediate Context
No one is able to buy or sell unless bearing the mark of the beast, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name, so that economic life is made conditional on those credentials and those without them are barred from trade. This boycott is enforced loyalty, accompanying the demand to worship the image of the beast, with death threatened against those who refuse, while deceptive wonders help draw people into accepting the system. It belongs to the dragon's determined war against commandment-keepers and those proclaiming the third angel's message, and forms part of the persecution directed against those loyal to God as the close of earth's history approaches. The restriction is part of the final test of loyalty and the final conflict over worship, connected with enforcement of Sunday observance as a counterfeit Sabbath and with enforcement of the image whose worship is compelled.
The verse stands in a continuous action in which a wonder-working power deceives earth-dwellers, tells them to make an image to the beast that had the wound by a sword and lived, gives life to the image so that it speaks, causes those who will not worship the image to be killed, causes all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead, and then forbids buying or selling without the mark, name, or number. That power is blasphemous, lamblike in profession yet dragonlike in heart, and its work is the work of fallen churches persecuting those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony and faith of Jesus. Its fulfillment stands on the threshold, about to take place in quick succession, bringing peril on every side as human powers cooperate to make void God's law, and worship of the beast and his image with reception of his mark in forehead or hand meets solemn warning. The mark thus enforced is the mark of the first beast, sought among that power's distinguishing characteristics as obedience to its change of God's law by which it exalts itself above God, namely dropping the second commandment forbidding image worship and changing the fourth to authorize observance of the first day instead of the seventh, claimed on church authority alone.
The mark in the forehead or in the hand represents acknowledgment of the beast's authority in mind and in power to act, in thought or in practice. The forehead stands for the mind and the hand for power, with God's servants sealed in mind rather than through compulsion, while the beast's mark is imposed by compulsory worship. That mark is a counterfeit Sabbath, the day of the sun, opposed to God's Sabbath sign and seal, and the part of God's law for keeping which His people will suffer persecution. It is identified with observing the first day and accepting papal authority, in contrast to the seventh-day Sabbath as God's sign and authority.
The mark, the name, and the number are alternative credentials for trade under a test of allegiance, identified with the number 666 of the last oppressive power marked by deception, wonders, miracles, and oppression whose full display comes in its final struggle near its end and about the time of the seven last plagues. Only those bearing them may participate in buying and selling, while the Sabbath question is the issue in the final conflict in which the whole world will take part. The false Sabbath is Satan's sign of authority while God's Sabbath requirement bears His seal, and each Sabbath institution carries the name of its author as an enduring mark identifying whose authority it represents. Over against this stand those who receive the seal of the living God and bear the Father's name in their foreheads, refusing the mark and overcoming the beast, its image, its mark, and the number of its name, with hope of eternal life by steadfastness in keeping God's commandments and the faith of Jesus.
The verse belongs to the prophecy of the two-horned beast, identified as the United States, whose two horns represent civil and ecclesiastical power and whose dragonlike character appears when civil authorities make laws concerning religion and persecute for conscience. It stands in the closing strife with the image-beast just before the saints' deliverance, bringing them into Jacob-like fear and distress through the decree against refusers of worship, though they will not be killed, and it continues through Revelation 14:5 to the complete redemption of the 144,000 who gain victory over the beast and its image. It belongs with the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled, as part of the last warning to be heard before the final call in chapter 18, after which the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, the dragon is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, the wicked are resurrected and with Satan finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns on this earth. The chapter presents a power prominent in the last days, acting as Satan's agent with the papacy and another persecuting power enforcing worship of the image through deceptive miracles, in conflict connected with turning people from God's commandments by changing the Sabbath and promoting human tradition over God's law.
Beasts, Image, and Allies
The lamb-like beast coming up out of the earth is the United States, founded on Republicanism and Protestantism as civil and religious liberty, with its two horns representing civil and ecclesiastical power. After rising peacefully out of the earth it changes to speak with the voice of a dragon and to exercise all the power of the first beast, the Papacy. This final work includes telling dwellers on earth to make an image to the beast, causing all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive the mark, and forbidding buying or selling to anyone without the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. The restriction on buying and selling thus belongs to this future conflict over religious authority, when civil authorities make laws concerning religion and persecute people for following their convictions. The faithful under that coercion may be deprived of liberty, brought before authorities, imprisoned, forced into labor, or condemned to death.
The first, leopard-like beast whose worship is enforced and whose deadly wound was healed is the papacy, arising from union of church and state. That union made it a persecutor for 1260 years before it went into captivity. The mark enforced by the lamb-like beast is the mark of this first beast, concerning which the third angel utters his warning, and is to be sought among its distinguishing characteristics. All classes except the little flock will unite to exalt Sunday and enforce its observance upon everyone by stringent laws, with the beast whose mark, name, and number control buying and selling identified as the papal power. In the final corrupt harmony the beast is papal Rome and his image is apostate Protestantism, united with fallen churches that rejected light and with spiritualism, leaving as God's only hope a remnant who keep the word of Christ's patience and refuse to worship the beast or his image.
The image to the beast is apostate Protestantism following in the steps of the Papacy by seeking civil power to enforce its teachings and false worship. It is formed when Protestant churches unite with the secular power to sustain false religion, restoring a union of church and state in which government enforces religious teaching. That national apostasy in using civil power to enforce false worship and persecute God's people ends in national ruin. Efforts to establish Christianity in law, official religious decisions by civil authorities, and steps toward cooperation between government and church are signs of that union developing. Enforcing Sunday-keeping through secular power makes the churches an image to the beast and compels worship of the beast and its image.
The enforcement comes through a coming union of Protestant churches with the papal power and the civil power to persecute the commandment-keeping people of God, exercising spiritual tyranny over conscience. It is the work of fallen Babylon churches that persecute those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ and the faith of Jesus. The ruling powers bind themselves into secret societies and confederacies that do not honor the law of God, and all false religionists increasingly manifest evil. Principles taught in popular schools also share in the work, since children educated in those schools receive principles that lead them to help give life to the image of the beast and take the decisive step associated with the mark. While professing the character of a lamb and alliance with heaven, these false religious powers reveal the heart of a dragon, united with and instigated by satanic power, with earthly powers uniting with satanic agencies and the professed Christian world to compel worship according to human opinions.
Satan drives the system by great wonders that deceive all who dwell on the earth, including making fire come down from heaven. The deception includes spiritualistic deception and miracle-working power, personating the dead, and near the close greater outward parade of heathen power and heathen deities exhibiting signal power before the cities of the world, whose fulfillment has already begun. In the last days he appears as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory and claims to be Lord of the whole earth, declaring the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day and presenting this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him as lord of the first day. At last he comes in person personating Christ, acting a double part as giver of blessings and divine truths while causing distress and accusing God's people of causing disasters. Already now he works with all his powers as that old serpent to control minds and stamp every mind he can.
Meaning of the Mark
The mark enforced under penalty of exclusion from buying and selling is the mark of the first beast, the papacy, against which the third angel warns, and it must be sought among the distinguishing characteristics of that power. It is allegiance to papal authority in place of God, expressed by obedience to its changed law by which it exalts itself above God. To honor its precept understandingly is to give supreme honor to the power that commands it. Enforcing its observance by secular power makes the enforcers an image to the beast and compels worship of the beast and its image, while keeping the true Sabbath in obedience to God's law shows loyalty to the Creator and belongs with receiving God's seal.
The attempted change is the dropping of the second commandment forbidding image worship and the changing of the fourth commandment to authorize observance of the first day instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. This is claimed on the authority of the church alone, by which the papal power openly sets itself above God. The conflict of the chapter is Satan's effort to turn people from God's commandments, including by changing the Sabbath and promoting human tradition over God's law. Wherever the papal sabbath is honored in preference to the Sabbath of the Lord, the man of sin is exalted above the Creator of heaven and earth, for Christ did not change the Sabbath.
The mark is Sunday observance enforced by law as a counterfeit, spurious Sabbath, the day of the sun, set up against God's sanctified seventh-day memorial of creation. It is Satan's sign of authority opposed to God's Sabbath sign and seal, and which Sabbath a person honors identifies whose kingdom and authority that person acknowledges. Each Sabbath institution carries the name of its author, an enduring mark identifying whose authority it represents. The beast changed God's Sabbath and the image beast followed by keeping the pope's Sabbath instead of God's, so that giving up God's Sabbath and keeping the pope's Sabbath is receiving the mark of the beast and its image. The beast's persecuting power will compel worship by enforcing its false sabbath and punishing refusal, and God's servants are sealed in the mind rather than through compulsion.
The mark may be in the forehead or in the hand, the forehead representing the mind and the hand representing power to act. It is received in forehead or hand by acknowledging Sunday in the mind as the Sabbath and by refraining from work with the hands on Sunday in obedience to it, accepting the beast's authority in thought or practice. It is imposed when a person takes the position of obeying a law that commands Sunday keeping and forbids Saturday observance, exalting the spurious Sunday sabbath above the only true sanctified seventh-day Sabbath and compelling conformity by a Sunday law. A law merely requiring closing work and presses on Sunday does not bring the conflict between a person and God and does not itself impose the mark.
No one has yet received the mark, and Sunday-keeping by itself is not yet the mark. Christians of past generations who observed the first day supposing it was the Bible Sabbath, and sincere Christians today in every church not excepting the Roman Catholic communion who honestly believe Sunday is of divine appointment while without light and deceived by teachers, have not received it. The mark is received only when the world is enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, the issue is plainly set before the people, Sunday observance is enforced by law, and men with sufficient light to decide intelligently still choose human commands over God's and continue in transgression. None are condemned before truth has been brought to mind and conscience and rejected, and none who sincerely desire truth will be left deceived about the issue.
Merely refraining from secular work on Sunday to avoid giving offense, to advance the work, and to devote the day to missionary work with Bibles in hand, visiting people and opening the Scriptures, is not receiving the mark. Where resting on Sunday will help the cause believers should rest, and they should not go out of their way to work on Sunday to display liberty or act defiantly as if there were no prejudice. Wisdom in the crisis is to keep peace by avoiding work that gives offense, giving no occasion to be called lawbreakers, meeting conditions as they exist with good judgment and sanctified common sense, and using Sunday for missionary effort instead of arousing opposition and closing the door for truth before the time. Sunday observance is not yet the test because truth must first be presented more fully, and God's Sabbaths are to be kept so long as there is liberty to keep them.
Sabbath Test and Loyalty
The Sabbath is the great test of loyalty in the final crisis over buying and selling, for it is the point of truth especially controverted, and the whole world will take part in that conflict over the Sabbath question. The restriction belongs to the final stage of the earth beast's work to enforce worship of the first beast and its image, shutting all who refuse the mark, name, or number out of economic life, and to the dragon's war against those who keep the commandments of God. It comes through a coming union of Protestant churches with the papal power and the civil power to persecute the commandment-keeping people, exercising spiritual tyranny over conscience, prepared by Satanic miracle-working and spiritualistic deception. There are then only two parties on earth, the obedient under the banner of Jesus Christ and the disobedient under rebellion, the worshipers of the beast and his image and the worshipers of the true and living God. The false Sabbath is Satan's sign of authority while God's Sabbath requirement bears His seal, and each Sabbath institution carries the name of its author as an enduring mark identifying whose authority it represents, so the decision is a test of loyalty in which God's truth and law are to be prized above all else and the mark identifies those who choose disloyalty and stand under Satan's banner rejecting Christ.
Opposite the mark stands the seal of the living God as keeping the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment, which bears His name and authority as Creator and Sanctifier and is His mark of obedience. Those who prove loyalty to God by observing His law and refusing to accept a spurious Sabbath receive the seal of the living God and rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, while those who yield truth of heavenly origin and accept the Sunday Sabbath receive the mark of the beast. The image of the beast is formed and this test of Revelation 13:11-17 with its buying-and-selling restriction comes before probation closes and before God's people are sealed, deciding eternal destiny, so the solemn warning not to receive the mark is needed while the choice is still open and not after all saints are sealed and ticketed for the New Jerusalem. Accepting a state-enforced false Sabbath contrary to the fourth commandment marks allegiance to a power opposed to God, while keeping the true Sabbath in obedience to God's law shows loyalty to the Creator and is associated with receiving God's seal, the Sabbath being the decisive point of the test. God's seal is not a visible mark but is identified with the Sabbath commandment as the sign of His authority as Creator, borne by those who receive the seal and bear the Father's name in their foreheads in contrast to those who worship the beast and receive its mark.
The opposing powers exalt the spurious Sunday sabbath by stringent human laws, trample God's sanctified memorial of creation and Jehovah's rest day underfoot, and institute a spurious sabbath in its place in order to bring about worldwide apostasy against God's law. The forbidding to buy or sell is the compelling by professed Christians of others to worship this man-made institution and image they have made, giving to it the glory and honor God requires for His Sabbath day, calling the world to worship it while making His memorial Sabbath, the sign between Him and His commandment-keeping people, a despised thing of naught. Observance of the seventh day is made an object of contempt and a sign of disloyalty to earthly and national laws, and obedience to Jehovah's Sabbath is called disloyalty, so that through fear of wanting food and clothing many join the world in transgressing God's law. This comes through a union of papists and Protestants with church and state to enforce Sunday observance, a custom of Roman origin, and to punish those who refuse it including by restricting their ability to buy or sell, repeating the ceremony, formalism, vainglory and oppression of Nebuchadnezzar in exalting the golden image in the plains of Dura. Those who enforce this idolatrous worship and compel worship of an idol sabbath while suppressing religious liberty and freedom to believe truth are idolaters not sealed by God, having placed themselves on Satan's side by leading men to disregard the fourth commandment and working through an oppressive law to oppose God and obscure knowledge of Him, and they will surely be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy upon unrepentant despisers of His law, for this enforcement is the mystery of iniquity devised by satanic agencies and carried into effect by the man of sin.
No one will feel the wrath of God for the mark until the truth has been brought to mind and conscience with sufficient light to decide intelligently and has been rejected, and none who sincerely desire truth will be left deceived about the issue. No one has yet received the mark because the testing time has not yet come, and true Christians are still in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion, with none condemned until they have had the light and have seen the obligation of the fourth commandment. The mark will be received when the decree goes forth enforcing the counterfeit sabbath and the loud cry of the third angel warns men against the worship of the beast and his image, clearly drawing the line between the false and the true, and then those who still continue in transgression will receive the mark. That enforcement will come when Protestant churches unite with the secular power to sustain a false religion, so the papal sabbath is enforced by the combined authority of church and state, which union is national apostasy ending only in national ruin.
The final enforcement restricting buying and selling to those with the mark is still future and not yet in force, for Sunday-keeping by itself is not yet the mark of the beast, but the day will become the test when observance of it is enforced by law. The position of the people of God for this time in regard to Sunday laws is laid out in clear lines, and the present effort to press a Sunday law is the final crisis and last issue now upon the world, pointing to a future time when people will be pressured to abandon the Sabbath and observe Sunday on pain of losing freedom and lives, after truth has been presented more fully. When it comes the test will be made everywhere including the Southern field, where slavery-like oppression will be revived, but that test is not yet in force there. Until then workers among the colored people must not take a firm public stand against Sunday or encourage Sunday work as defiance of oppressors, lest white hatred be stirred, the colored people be leavened with it and driven to cruelty, and the work be cut off. Refraining from work on Sunday in order to advance the work and avoid closing prejudiced minds is not receiving the mark, so where resting on Sunday will help the work believers should rest and not go out of their way to work on Sunday to display liberty, but be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, refraining even from things they have a perfect right to do when doing them would shut minds against the truth, shut doors God has opened, and bring on the Sabbath crisis before the time, while using Sunday as opportunity for missionary work and following the Lord's direction.
Economic Pressure and Persecution
Those who refuse the mark are cut off from world resources so that they cannot buy or sell, their earthly support is taken away, and they are brought into abject poverty, great distress and stricken condition. In that coming time of trouble they weep and pray and plead the sure promises of God while appearances are awfully against them, though they are the people the Lord favors. The whole world is converted and united in harmony with the Sunday law, and the wicked surrounding them mock their feebleness and smallness of numbers, taunt them for taking an independent position from all the rest of the world, threaten and ridicule them with cutting words, and argue that they are dependent on the world and cannot live without it and must concede to its customs, practices and laws or go out of it. Their opposers defend themselves by claiming to have the truth, claiming miracles among them, claiming angels from heaven talking and walking with them, claiming great power and signs and wonders performed among them, claiming spirit visitations and messages from the dead personated as heavenly messengers, and claiming this is the long-expected temporal millennium, while accusing the little feeble people of standing out in defiance of the laws of the land and the law of God and claiming to be the only ones right on earth. A decree forbidding Sabbathkeepers to buy or sell unless they observe the first day as the Sabbath threatens them with punishment and even death if they do not yield, and though the earth is wasted with famine God sustains the obedient with food and water. Those who take part in compelling worship of a man-made institution by giving it the honor God requires for His Sabbath are not sealed by God and face His judgments if they remain unrepentant.
The boycott belongs to a final conflict in which civil and religious powers unite to war against the commandments of God, decree that no man may buy or sell unless he has the mark, name, or number of the beast, and finally decree that whoever refuses the mark or will not worship the image shall be put to death. It presents to everyone a choice between loyalty to God in keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and worship of the beast under a humanly instituted false sabbath, with the Sabbath as the great test of loyalty because it is the point of truth especially controverted. The coercion escalates through reproach, fines, confiscation of property, loss of liberty and citizenship, being brought before authorities, imprisonment, forced labor, being hunted from the world, a decree giving a deadline to abandon the Sabbath for the first day, and finally the death decree. This brings upon the true saints Jacob-like fear and distress, yet as Noah's family was preserved so they will not be killed but will be delivered by God's voice. No one will feel the wrath of God for the mark until the truth has been brought to mind and conscience with sufficient light to decide intelligently and has been rejected.
Control of buying and selling is cruel compulsion of conscience and spiritual tyranny to secure worship, always in favor of human creeds and laws and in defiance of God's holy law. God never forces the will or conscience and does not force worship by persecution and bondage, while Satan, always on the side of the oppressor, enforces worship through human powers, courts, and theories that take charge of conscience. Satan acts a double part to force worship of himself, appearing as the giver of great blessings and divine truths and holding the world under his control by lying wonders, while at the same time causing distress and destruction and accusing God's people of causing natural disasters, war and bloodshed in order to stir up hatred and persecution against them. The scenes of persecution enacted during Christ's life will thus be enacted by false religionists till the close of time, when men think they have a right to take charge of the consciences of men and work out their theories of apostasy and transgression, every power that forces conscience and every court that decides man's destiny by its own measurement of religion revealing satanic attributes, history repeated in betraying and persecuting God's chosen ones and taking the life that God alone can give. God still lives and rescues His obedient people as He rescued the apostles when priests forbade preaching in the name of Jesus, so they must obey God rather than man though every form of oppression and bondage is added against those who refuse the spurious Sunday sabbath set up against Christ.
Gigantic monopolies, trades unions, combinations and labor unions that grasp business and permit men to buy or sell only under conditions they set illustrate and fulfill the prophecy of the lamb-like beast that causes all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark and allows no man to buy or sell without the mark, name, or number. This enforcement is controlled by the cruel power of Satan and is one of the signs of the last days and one of his last efforts, binding men in bundles ready to be burned. These combinations deprive neighbors of freedom of action and rob the poorer classes of advantages that justly belong to them, violating the whole duty of man to love God with heart, soul, strength and mind and to love his neighbor as himself in consecration of body, soul and spirit, so that to belong to these unions is to disregard the entire Decalogue and while belonging to them men cannot possibly keep the commandments of God. Those who refuse to join are made marked men. Because in the near future buying and selling will become a very serious problem as the controlling power of labor unions becomes very oppressive, and because obedience to the law of God is the test for the whole world, those who love Him and keep His commandments must get out of the cities and isolate themselves, with families leaving the cities for rural districts where houses are not crowded closely together, where they will be free from the interference of enemies, and where they can raise their own provisions, trusting God to care for them.
The pressure tempts men and women for fear of wanting food and clothing and being unable to buy or sell not to dare to keep God's Sabbath but to join the world and take its mold in transgressing God's law in order to keep liberty, rights and livelihood, leaving the earth wholly under Satan's dominion. Receiving the beast's mark is thus connected with joining the world and taking its mold, in contrast to receiving God's seal through distrusting self, humbling the soul before God, and purifying the soul by obeying the truth, so that when the decree is issued and the mark or seal is impressed character remains fixed for eternity. The coming test sets the commandments of God against the commandments of men and urges the mark as a test of allegiance under derision, ridicule, insult, imprisonment and death, with stringent human laws making observance of the seventh day an object of contempt and a sign of disloyalty to earthly authorities. Those accustomed to yielding to worldly customs will more readily submit to human powers than face that pressure, while true children of God, though frightened, cannot be separated from Christ. Such yielding to spare loss is halfhearted service and cowardice.
Timing and Prophetic Place
The restriction on buying and selling belongs to the thrilling closing scenes of this world's history, the great and last warfare between those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and those who make void the law of God. Its fulfillment stands on the threshold, about to take place in quick succession, with peril on every side as human powers cooperate against God's people, and everything will now move with a rapidity before unknown. The test set out in Revelation 13:11-17 comes before probation closes and before God's people are sealed, deciding eternal destiny. The image to the beast is formed before probation closes, virtually formed already with the spirit of the dragon already manifest, while what remains is the full development of what the prophecy says the image is to do. Those who prove loyalty by observing God's law and refusing the spurious Sabbath receive the seal of the living God and rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, while those who yield truth of heavenly origin and accept the Sunday Sabbath receive the mark of the beast, so the solemn warning not to receive the mark is needed while the choice is still open and not after all saints are sealed.
The economic restriction follows great wonders including making fire come down from heaven, deceiving earth-dwellers to make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live, giving life to the image so it speaks, and killing as many as will not worship the image, then causing all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead and forbidding buying or selling to anyone without the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Those who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark on foreheads or hands will face the seven last plagues, and escaping them requires knowing and obeying God's word including keeping His holy Sabbath rather than transgressing His law. A recent threat of such a buying-and-selling restriction in California was only a warning, because the four winds are still held by the angels and this crisis has not yet arrived. After a work remains to be done the winds will be released, bringing a time of trouble unlike any before it and a decisive test for God's children, so the present time is an opportunity to work before that crisis comes.
After probation closes Christ finishes pleading His blood and holds out no longer, then girds His sword and rides forth with destroying angels for the deliverance of the captives, and buying and selling stops for God's people. God feeds the faithful, just and true by spreading a table for them in the wilderness while the wicked seek their lives because the saints do not have the seal but the persecutors have the mark of the beast and his image. Those who were once right but leaned too long on something else instead of God's plain commandments join the wicked against the saints, and their crying and agony comes too late. The warning that church and state will unite to persecute commandment keepers was dismissed as groundless and absurd alarm, and it was confidently claimed that this land as defender of religious freedom could never so change. As agitation for enforcing Sunday observance spreads, the fulfillment of the prediction is seen approaching in the United States as church and state unite against commandment keepers, and the third message about it produces an effect it could not have had before.
After the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, a more decided effort will be made to exalt the false Sabbath and to cast contempt upon God by supplanting the day He blessed and sanctified. That spurious Sabbath presented by the man of sin who thought to change times and laws and exalted himself above God, the child of the papacy accepted and nourished by the Christian world, will be enforced by an oppressive law. Satan and his angels, wide-awake and intensely active through human instrumentalities and with lying wonders, will work to bring about his purpose of obliterating the knowledge of God from minds. Against this enforcement God calls His people out of Babylon that they may not worship the beast or his image, while the mighty angel that lightens the earth with his glory proclaims the fall of Babylon and calls upon God's people to forsake her at the time of the loud cry of the third angel. Satan already works now with all his powers as that old serpent to get control of the human mind and to secure the world and the wicked, placing his stamp upon all it is possible for him to place it upon. This work is already happening in a way people do not realize, making the world grow worse and worse and making it more and more impossible to get within reach of people, as current events in the papers prove.
Warning and Faithful Response
What was shown to John on Patmos for the last days warns against the wickedness to come and against the mark of the beast, and it belongs with the three angels' messages and with the mighty angel who lightens the earth with his glory. It shows a power causing all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead, and allowing no one to buy or sell except those having the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name, which forces the question of which mark is borne and what missionary work is being done. Those who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark on forehead or hand will face the seven last plagues, so escaping requires knowing and obeying God's word, including keeping His holy Sabbath rather than transgressing His law. The mark is what it has been proclaimed to be, though not everything about it is yet understood, and further light will come as the prophetic message unfolds and the prophetic scroll is unrolled. It is the solemn third angel's message and present truth for this time, meaning life or death, so important that holy angels fly in the midst of heaven to proclaim it. It must be read and understood and proclaimed to the world with no uncertain sound, taught boldly and clearly to church and world without toning down, hiding light under a bushel, or limiting the work so people cannot be reached, with circulating light, warning of cities, and a certain trumpet sound instead of conflicting explanations, because presenting what was revealed will stir people when usual subjects will not move them, while failure to warn leaves those entrusted answerable to God and the religious world asleep and indifferent to momentous questions.
Refusal when a decree makes buying and selling conditional on accepting the beast's mark, name, or number requires decision now to remain faithful and to say nay to the institution of the beast. A coming grand test and solemn period not far off will bring a decree against all who will not worship the image of the beast and receive his mark in foreheads or hands, forcing choice between obeying God's commandments and consulting temporal interests, between serving God and mammon, and between faithfulness to the commandments and the faith of Jesus and making God's law void with the religious world. Believers in comparatively peaceful days must be sustained by faith now and be gathering strength and courage for the time of trouble, through denying self, stepping fast, being baptized into Christ's sufferings to bear trials with patience and joy for the inheritance He suffered to obtain, since time is almost finished and what was learned step by step over years must now be learned in months, with much to unlearn and learn again in order to inherit glory. The test requires perfect obedience to God's commandments at any cost, especially the fourth commandment, refusing to work on the Sabbath for worldly profit, livelihood, or family support and keeping it even when inconvenient, because sin is transgression of the law and setting at naught the Sabbath after seeing light brings punishment. Those who exercise little faith now are in greatest danger of falling under Satanic delusions that compel conscience, and even if they endure they will without habit of trusting God be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, forced to learn under terrible discouragement the lessons of faith they neglected, while those who lay hold on God's strength will get victory and stand at last on the sea of glass singing triumph.
Because a time will soon come when buying and selling will be forbidden to all except those who have the beast's mark, and commandment-keepers will be barred from buying and selling, the closing of opportunity to use earthly wealth for God's work is reason to use entrusted means faithfully now rather than burying or hoarding them. That time is near and there is no time to lose, but opportunity still remains, so those with means in houses and lands should begin to dispose of them, invest less in worldly enterprises, and transfer means buried in worldly possessions into the Lord's work to create increased facilities for giving the third angel's message to the world before that time arrives.
In the last days combinations and unions will control buying and selling, permitting men to buy or sell only under conditions they set, and gigantic monopolies and trades unions combining to grasp business will make those who refuse to join marked men unable to buy or sell except as allowed. These combinations deprive neighbors of freedom of action and rob the poorer classes of advantages justly belonging to them, violating the whole duty to love God with heart, soul, strength, and mind and neighbor as self in consecration of body, soul, and spirit, disregarding the entire Decalogue so that even church members in them cannot keep God's commandments. This enforcement is controlled by Satan's cruel power and is one of his last efforts and a sign of the last days, a binding in bundles ready to be burned, fulfilling the prophecy of the lamb-like beast causing all to receive a mark and allowing no man to buy or sell without the mark, name, or number. Because in the near future buying and selling will become a very serious problem and the controlling power of labor unions very oppressive, families are to leave the cities now for rural districts where houses are not crowded closely together, where they will be free from interference of enemies, and where they can raise their own provisions, trusting God to care for those who love Him and keep His commandments.
The teaching identifying Sunday observance as the mark of the beast connected with restrictions on buying and selling should not be presented openly to the oppressed people in the Southern field before the time comes, because they could misunderstand it, act on false impression, and bring misconstrued violent persecution. Enforced Sunday observance will become the mark as a test deciding who may buy or sell, but that test is not yet in force in the Southern field, though the time will come when it will be made everywhere including the South with revived slavery-like oppression. Until then workers among the colored people must not take a firm public stand against Sunday or encourage Sunday work as defiance of oppressors, lest white hatred be stirred, the colored people be leavened with it and driven to cruelty, employer and secret-society opposition aroused, prejudice closed minds, and the work cut off. Refraining from work on Sunday to advance the work and avoid closing prejudiced minds is not receiving the mark, and where resting helps the cause believers should rest and not go out of their way to work on Sunday to display liberty, since the time has not yet come to be defiant as if there were no prejudice. Workers should labor quietly and wisely, be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, conform where God's law allows, refrain from things they have right to do when doing them would shut doors God opened and bring the Sabbath crisis before the time, follow the Lord's direction, and use Sunday as opportunity for missionary work and missionary Sunday schools.
In the final conflict those loyal to God will be forbidden to buy or sell because they refuse to break His law in obedience to earthly powers, their earthly support cut off, and a decree will finally call for their death, yet though the earth is wasted with famine God will sustain the obedient with food and water. Faithful Sabbath-keepers cut off from world resources and brought into abject poverty, great distress, and stricken condition will weep and pray and plead the sure promises of God while the wicked, the whole world converted and united in harmony with the Sunday law, surround them, mock their feebleness and small numbers, taunt their independent stand from all the world, threaten destruction, ridicule with cutting words, and argue they are dependent on the world and must concede to its customs, practices, and laws or go out of it, so appearances are awfully against them though they are the people the Lord favors. Their opposers will defend themselves by claiming truth, miracles, angels from heaven talking and walking with them, great power and signs and wonders, spirit visitations from the dead gone to heaven personated by Satan, the long-expected temporal millennium, and accusation that the little feeble people stand in defiance of laws of land and of God claiming to be alone right. Control of buying and selling is cruel compulsion of conscience to secure worship for human creeds and laws in defiance of God's law, taking the spurious Sunday sabbath with no sanctity in the Word and setting it against Christ with every oppression added, for God never forces will or worship by persecution and bondage while Satan always on the oppressor's side does so through human powers, yet God still lives and rescues the obedient as He rescued the apostles when priests forbade preaching in Jesus' name. God's faithful servants will receive bitterest persecution from false teachers who will not hear God's Word and put stumbling blocks before hearers, in final marked contrast between seal-bearers and worshipers of beast and image, but they are not to fear because Satan cannot go beyond his limit and the Lord will be their defense, regarding injury to servants for truth as done to Himself, and when all have taken sides for Christ and the commandments or for the great apostate God will arise in power, stop blaspheming mouths forever, and punish every opposing power in universal destruction when the slain of the Lord lie from one end of earth to the other. In the crisis believers should therefore avoid defiance and unnecessary opposition, remain subject to higher powers, pay tribute and dues, obey laws not conflicting with God, keep peace by avoiding offensive work on Sunday, and meet conditions with sanctified common sense, yet obey God rather than men, openly uphold truth and honor His Sabbath though property and liberty are at risk, stand victorious over beast and image, and trust God to interpose, defend, and vindicate.
No one will be able to buy or sell without the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name, so those without them are shut out of economic life. This boycott is the last step in a continuous action in which a wonder-working power deceives earth-dwellers, bids them make an image to the beast that was wounded by a sword and lived, gives life to the image so it speaks, kills those who will not worship it, and causes all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead. The mark is allegiance to papal authority in place of God, expressed by honoring its changed law in enforced observance of Sunday as a counterfeit Sabbath against God's sanctified seventh-day memorial, with the forehead or hand meaning acknowledgment in mind or in practice. The enforcement comes through the lamb-like beast from the earth, the United States founded on civil and religious liberty, forming an image to the first leopard-like beast, the papacy, when apostate Protestantism unites with the papal and civil powers to compel false worship by law. That final restriction is still future and will cut the obedient off from world resources into poverty, fines, imprisonment and at last a death decree, yet they will be delivered, so now is the time to proclaim the warning boldly, obey at any cost to receive God's seal instead of the mark, use means for the work, and leave the cities to raise provisions in the country.
Words and Immediate Context
No one is able to buy or sell unless bearing the mark of the beast, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name, so that economic life is made conditional on those credentials and those without them are barred from trade. This boycott is enforced loyalty, accompanying the demand to worship the image of the beast, with death threatened against those who refuse, while deceptive wonders help draw people into accepting the system. It belongs to the dragon's determined war against commandment-keepers and those proclaiming the third angel's message, and forms part of the persecution directed against those loyal to God as the close of earth's history approaches. The restriction is part of the final test of loyalty and the final conflict over worship, connected with enforcement of Sunday observance as a counterfeit Sabbath and with enforcement of the image whose worship is compelled.
The verse stands in a continuous action in which a wonder-working power deceives earth-dwellers, tells them to make an image to the beast that had the wound by a sword and lived, gives life to the image so that it speaks, causes those who will not worship the image to be killed, causes all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead, and then forbids buying or selling without the mark, name, or number. That power is blasphemous, lamblike in profession yet dragonlike in heart, and its work is the work of fallen churches persecuting those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony and faith of Jesus. Its fulfillment stands on the threshold, about to take place in quick succession, bringing peril on every side as human powers cooperate to make void God's law, and worship of the beast and his image with reception of his mark in forehead or hand meets solemn warning. The mark thus enforced is the mark of the first beast, sought among that power's distinguishing characteristics as obedience to its change of God's law by which it exalts itself above God, namely dropping the second commandment forbidding image worship and changing the fourth to authorize observance of the first day instead of the seventh, claimed on church authority alone.
The mark in the forehead or in the hand represents acknowledgment of the beast's authority in mind and in power to act, in thought or in practice. The forehead stands for the mind and the hand for power, with God's servants sealed in mind rather than through compulsion, while the beast's mark is imposed by compulsory worship. That mark is a counterfeit Sabbath, the day of the sun, opposed to God's Sabbath sign and seal, and the part of God's law for keeping which His people will suffer persecution. It is identified with observing the first day and accepting papal authority, in contrast to the seventh-day Sabbath as God's sign and authority.
The mark, the name, and the number are alternative credentials for trade under a test of allegiance, identified with the number 666 of the last oppressive power marked by deception, wonders, miracles, and oppression whose full display comes in its final struggle near its end and about the time of the seven last plagues. Only those bearing them may participate in buying and selling, while the Sabbath question is the issue in the final conflict in which the whole world will take part. The false Sabbath is Satan's sign of authority while God's Sabbath requirement bears His seal, and each Sabbath institution carries the name of its author as an enduring mark identifying whose authority it represents. Over against this stand those who receive the seal of the living God and bear the Father's name in their foreheads, refusing the mark and overcoming the beast, its image, its mark, and the number of its name, with hope of eternal life by steadfastness in keeping God's commandments and the faith of Jesus.
The verse belongs to the prophecy of the two-horned beast, identified as the United States, whose two horns represent civil and ecclesiastical power and whose dragonlike character appears when civil authorities make laws concerning religion and persecute for conscience. It stands in the closing strife with the image-beast just before the saints' deliverance, bringing them into Jacob-like fear and distress through the decree against refusers of worship, though they will not be killed, and it continues through Revelation 14:5 to the complete redemption of the 144,000 who gain victory over the beast and its image. It belongs with the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled, as part of the last warning to be heard before the final call in chapter 18, after which the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, the dragon is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, the wicked are resurrected and with Satan finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns on this earth. The chapter presents a power prominent in the last days, acting as Satan's agent with the papacy and another persecuting power enforcing worship of the image through deceptive miracles, in conflict connected with turning people from God's commandments by changing the Sabbath and promoting human tradition over God's law.
Beasts, Image, and Allies
The lamb-like beast coming up out of the earth is the United States, founded on Republicanism and Protestantism as civil and religious liberty, with its two horns representing civil and ecclesiastical power. After rising peacefully out of the earth it changes to speak with the voice of a dragon and to exercise all the power of the first beast, the Papacy. This final work includes telling dwellers on earth to make an image to the beast, causing all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive the mark, and forbidding buying or selling to anyone without the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. The restriction on buying and selling thus belongs to this future conflict over religious authority, when civil authorities make laws concerning religion and persecute people for following their convictions. The faithful under that coercion may be deprived of liberty, brought before authorities, imprisoned, forced into labor, or condemned to death.
The first, leopard-like beast whose worship is enforced and whose deadly wound was healed is the papacy, arising from union of church and state. That union made it a persecutor for 1260 years before it went into captivity. The mark enforced by the lamb-like beast is the mark of this first beast, concerning which the third angel utters his warning, and is to be sought among its distinguishing characteristics. All classes except the little flock will unite to exalt Sunday and enforce its observance upon everyone by stringent laws, with the beast whose mark, name, and number control buying and selling identified as the papal power. In the final corrupt harmony the beast is papal Rome and his image is apostate Protestantism, united with fallen churches that rejected light and with spiritualism, leaving as God's only hope a remnant who keep the word of Christ's patience and refuse to worship the beast or his image.
The image to the beast is apostate Protestantism following in the steps of the Papacy by seeking civil power to enforce its teachings and false worship. It is formed when Protestant churches unite with the secular power to sustain false religion, restoring a union of church and state in which government enforces religious teaching. That national apostasy in using civil power to enforce false worship and persecute God's people ends in national ruin. Efforts to establish Christianity in law, official religious decisions by civil authorities, and steps toward cooperation between government and church are signs of that union developing. Enforcing Sunday-keeping through secular power makes the churches an image to the beast and compels worship of the beast and its image.
The enforcement comes through a coming union of Protestant churches with the papal power and the civil power to persecute the commandment-keeping people of God, exercising spiritual tyranny over conscience. It is the work of fallen Babylon churches that persecute those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ and the faith of Jesus. The ruling powers bind themselves into secret societies and confederacies that do not honor the law of God, and all false religionists increasingly manifest evil. Principles taught in popular schools also share in the work, since children educated in those schools receive principles that lead them to help give life to the image of the beast and take the decisive step associated with the mark. While professing the character of a lamb and alliance with heaven, these false religious powers reveal the heart of a dragon, united with and instigated by satanic power, with earthly powers uniting with satanic agencies and the professed Christian world to compel worship according to human opinions.
Satan drives the system by great wonders that deceive all who dwell on the earth, including making fire come down from heaven. The deception includes spiritualistic deception and miracle-working power, personating the dead, and near the close greater outward parade of heathen power and heathen deities exhibiting signal power before the cities of the world, whose fulfillment has already begun. In the last days he appears as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory and claims to be Lord of the whole earth, declaring the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day and presenting this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him as lord of the first day. At last he comes in person personating Christ, acting a double part as giver of blessings and divine truths while causing distress and accusing God's people of causing disasters. Already now he works with all his powers as that old serpent to control minds and stamp every mind he can.
Meaning of the Mark
The mark enforced under penalty of exclusion from buying and selling is the mark of the first beast, the papacy, against which the third angel warns, and it must be sought among the distinguishing characteristics of that power. It is allegiance to papal authority in place of God, expressed by obedience to its changed law by which it exalts itself above God. To honor its precept understandingly is to give supreme honor to the power that commands it. Enforcing its observance by secular power makes the enforcers an image to the beast and compels worship of the beast and its image, while keeping the true Sabbath in obedience to God's law shows loyalty to the Creator and belongs with receiving God's seal.
The attempted change is the dropping of the second commandment forbidding image worship and the changing of the fourth commandment to authorize observance of the first day instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. This is claimed on the authority of the church alone, by which the papal power openly sets itself above God. The conflict of the chapter is Satan's effort to turn people from God's commandments, including by changing the Sabbath and promoting human tradition over God's law. Wherever the papal sabbath is honored in preference to the Sabbath of the Lord, the man of sin is exalted above the Creator of heaven and earth, for Christ did not change the Sabbath.
The mark is Sunday observance enforced by law as a counterfeit, spurious Sabbath, the day of the sun, set up against God's sanctified seventh-day memorial of creation. It is Satan's sign of authority opposed to God's Sabbath sign and seal, and which Sabbath a person honors identifies whose kingdom and authority that person acknowledges. Each Sabbath institution carries the name of its author, an enduring mark identifying whose authority it represents. The beast changed God's Sabbath and the image beast followed by keeping the pope's Sabbath instead of God's, so that giving up God's Sabbath and keeping the pope's Sabbath is receiving the mark of the beast and its image. The beast's persecuting power will compel worship by enforcing its false sabbath and punishing refusal, and God's servants are sealed in the mind rather than through compulsion.
The mark may be in the forehead or in the hand, the forehead representing the mind and the hand representing power to act. It is received in forehead or hand by acknowledging Sunday in the mind as the Sabbath and by refraining from work with the hands on Sunday in obedience to it, accepting the beast's authority in thought or practice. It is imposed when a person takes the position of obeying a law that commands Sunday keeping and forbids Saturday observance, exalting the spurious Sunday sabbath above the only true sanctified seventh-day Sabbath and compelling conformity by a Sunday law. A law merely requiring closing work and presses on Sunday does not bring the conflict between a person and God and does not itself impose the mark.
No one has yet received the mark, and Sunday-keeping by itself is not yet the mark. Christians of past generations who observed the first day supposing it was the Bible Sabbath, and sincere Christians today in every church not excepting the Roman Catholic communion who honestly believe Sunday is of divine appointment while without light and deceived by teachers, have not received it. The mark is received only when the world is enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, the issue is plainly set before the people, Sunday observance is enforced by law, and men with sufficient light to decide intelligently still choose human commands over God's and continue in transgression. None are condemned before truth has been brought to mind and conscience and rejected, and none who sincerely desire truth will be left deceived about the issue.
Merely refraining from secular work on Sunday to avoid giving offense, to advance the work, and to devote the day to missionary work with Bibles in hand, visiting people and opening the Scriptures, is not receiving the mark. Where resting on Sunday will help the cause believers should rest, and they should not go out of their way to work on Sunday to display liberty or act defiantly as if there were no prejudice. Wisdom in the crisis is to keep peace by avoiding work that gives offense, giving no occasion to be called lawbreakers, meeting conditions as they exist with good judgment and sanctified common sense, and using Sunday for missionary effort instead of arousing opposition and closing the door for truth before the time. Sunday observance is not yet the test because truth must first be presented more fully, and God's Sabbaths are to be kept so long as there is liberty to keep them.
Sabbath Test and Loyalty
The Sabbath is the great test of loyalty in the final crisis over buying and selling, for it is the point of truth especially controverted, and the whole world will take part in that conflict over the Sabbath question. The restriction belongs to the final stage of the earth beast's work to enforce worship of the first beast and its image, shutting all who refuse the mark, name, or number out of economic life, and to the dragon's war against those who keep the commandments of God. It comes through a coming union of Protestant churches with the papal power and the civil power to persecute the commandment-keeping people, exercising spiritual tyranny over conscience, prepared by Satanic miracle-working and spiritualistic deception. There are then only two parties on earth, the obedient under the banner of Jesus Christ and the disobedient under rebellion, the worshipers of the beast and his image and the worshipers of the true and living God. The false Sabbath is Satan's sign of authority while God's Sabbath requirement bears His seal, and each Sabbath institution carries the name of its author as an enduring mark identifying whose authority it represents, so the decision is a test of loyalty in which God's truth and law are to be prized above all else and the mark identifies those who choose disloyalty and stand under Satan's banner rejecting Christ.
Opposite the mark stands the seal of the living God as keeping the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment, which bears His name and authority as Creator and Sanctifier and is His mark of obedience. Those who prove loyalty to God by observing His law and refusing to accept a spurious Sabbath receive the seal of the living God and rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, while those who yield truth of heavenly origin and accept the Sunday Sabbath receive the mark of the beast. The image of the beast is formed and this test of Revelation 13:11-17 with its buying-and-selling restriction comes before probation closes and before God's people are sealed, deciding eternal destiny, so the solemn warning not to receive the mark is needed while the choice is still open and not after all saints are sealed and ticketed for the New Jerusalem. Accepting a state-enforced false Sabbath contrary to the fourth commandment marks allegiance to a power opposed to God, while keeping the true Sabbath in obedience to God's law shows loyalty to the Creator and is associated with receiving God's seal, the Sabbath being the decisive point of the test. God's seal is not a visible mark but is identified with the Sabbath commandment as the sign of His authority as Creator, borne by those who receive the seal and bear the Father's name in their foreheads in contrast to those who worship the beast and receive its mark.
The opposing powers exalt the spurious Sunday sabbath by stringent human laws, trample God's sanctified memorial of creation and Jehovah's rest day underfoot, and institute a spurious sabbath in its place in order to bring about worldwide apostasy against God's law. The forbidding to buy or sell is the compelling by professed Christians of others to worship this man-made institution and image they have made, giving to it the glory and honor God requires for His Sabbath day, calling the world to worship it while making His memorial Sabbath, the sign between Him and His commandment-keeping people, a despised thing of naught. Observance of the seventh day is made an object of contempt and a sign of disloyalty to earthly and national laws, and obedience to Jehovah's Sabbath is called disloyalty, so that through fear of wanting food and clothing many join the world in transgressing God's law. This comes through a union of papists and Protestants with church and state to enforce Sunday observance, a custom of Roman origin, and to punish those who refuse it including by restricting their ability to buy or sell, repeating the ceremony, formalism, vainglory and oppression of Nebuchadnezzar in exalting the golden image in the plains of Dura. Those who enforce this idolatrous worship and compel worship of an idol sabbath while suppressing religious liberty and freedom to believe truth are idolaters not sealed by God, having placed themselves on Satan's side by leading men to disregard the fourth commandment and working through an oppressive law to oppose God and obscure knowledge of Him, and they will surely be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy upon unrepentant despisers of His law, for this enforcement is the mystery of iniquity devised by satanic agencies and carried into effect by the man of sin.
No one will feel the wrath of God for the mark until the truth has been brought to mind and conscience with sufficient light to decide intelligently and has been rejected, and none who sincerely desire truth will be left deceived about the issue. No one has yet received the mark because the testing time has not yet come, and true Christians are still in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion, with none condemned until they have had the light and have seen the obligation of the fourth commandment. The mark will be received when the decree goes forth enforcing the counterfeit sabbath and the loud cry of the third angel warns men against the worship of the beast and his image, clearly drawing the line between the false and the true, and then those who still continue in transgression will receive the mark. That enforcement will come when Protestant churches unite with the secular power to sustain a false religion, so the papal sabbath is enforced by the combined authority of church and state, which union is national apostasy ending only in national ruin.
The final enforcement restricting buying and selling to those with the mark is still future and not yet in force, for Sunday-keeping by itself is not yet the mark of the beast, but the day will become the test when observance of it is enforced by law. The position of the people of God for this time in regard to Sunday laws is laid out in clear lines, and the present effort to press a Sunday law is the final crisis and last issue now upon the world, pointing to a future time when people will be pressured to abandon the Sabbath and observe Sunday on pain of losing freedom and lives, after truth has been presented more fully. When it comes the test will be made everywhere including the Southern field, where slavery-like oppression will be revived, but that test is not yet in force there. Until then workers among the colored people must not take a firm public stand against Sunday or encourage Sunday work as defiance of oppressors, lest white hatred be stirred, the colored people be leavened with it and driven to cruelty, and the work be cut off. Refraining from work on Sunday in order to advance the work and avoid closing prejudiced minds is not receiving the mark, so where resting on Sunday will help the work believers should rest and not go out of their way to work on Sunday to display liberty, but be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, refraining even from things they have a perfect right to do when doing them would shut minds against the truth, shut doors God has opened, and bring on the Sabbath crisis before the time, while using Sunday as opportunity for missionary work and following the Lord's direction.
Economic Pressure and Persecution
Those who refuse the mark are cut off from world resources so that they cannot buy or sell, their earthly support is taken away, and they are brought into abject poverty, great distress and stricken condition. In that coming time of trouble they weep and pray and plead the sure promises of God while appearances are awfully against them, though they are the people the Lord favors. The whole world is converted and united in harmony with the Sunday law, and the wicked surrounding them mock their feebleness and smallness of numbers, taunt them for taking an independent position from all the rest of the world, threaten and ridicule them with cutting words, and argue that they are dependent on the world and cannot live without it and must concede to its customs, practices and laws or go out of it. Their opposers defend themselves by claiming to have the truth, claiming miracles among them, claiming angels from heaven talking and walking with them, claiming great power and signs and wonders performed among them, claiming spirit visitations and messages from the dead personated as heavenly messengers, and claiming this is the long-expected temporal millennium, while accusing the little feeble people of standing out in defiance of the laws of the land and the law of God and claiming to be the only ones right on earth. A decree forbidding Sabbathkeepers to buy or sell unless they observe the first day as the Sabbath threatens them with punishment and even death if they do not yield, and though the earth is wasted with famine God sustains the obedient with food and water. Those who take part in compelling worship of a man-made institution by giving it the honor God requires for His Sabbath are not sealed by God and face His judgments if they remain unrepentant.
The boycott belongs to a final conflict in which civil and religious powers unite to war against the commandments of God, decree that no man may buy or sell unless he has the mark, name, or number of the beast, and finally decree that whoever refuses the mark or will not worship the image shall be put to death. It presents to everyone a choice between loyalty to God in keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and worship of the beast under a humanly instituted false sabbath, with the Sabbath as the great test of loyalty because it is the point of truth especially controverted. The coercion escalates through reproach, fines, confiscation of property, loss of liberty and citizenship, being brought before authorities, imprisonment, forced labor, being hunted from the world, a decree giving a deadline to abandon the Sabbath for the first day, and finally the death decree. This brings upon the true saints Jacob-like fear and distress, yet as Noah's family was preserved so they will not be killed but will be delivered by God's voice. No one will feel the wrath of God for the mark until the truth has been brought to mind and conscience with sufficient light to decide intelligently and has been rejected.
Control of buying and selling is cruel compulsion of conscience and spiritual tyranny to secure worship, always in favor of human creeds and laws and in defiance of God's holy law. God never forces the will or conscience and does not force worship by persecution and bondage, while Satan, always on the side of the oppressor, enforces worship through human powers, courts, and theories that take charge of conscience. Satan acts a double part to force worship of himself, appearing as the giver of great blessings and divine truths and holding the world under his control by lying wonders, while at the same time causing distress and destruction and accusing God's people of causing natural disasters, war and bloodshed in order to stir up hatred and persecution against them. The scenes of persecution enacted during Christ's life will thus be enacted by false religionists till the close of time, when men think they have a right to take charge of the consciences of men and work out their theories of apostasy and transgression, every power that forces conscience and every court that decides man's destiny by its own measurement of religion revealing satanic attributes, history repeated in betraying and persecuting God's chosen ones and taking the life that God alone can give. God still lives and rescues His obedient people as He rescued the apostles when priests forbade preaching in the name of Jesus, so they must obey God rather than man though every form of oppression and bondage is added against those who refuse the spurious Sunday sabbath set up against Christ.
Gigantic monopolies, trades unions, combinations and labor unions that grasp business and permit men to buy or sell only under conditions they set illustrate and fulfill the prophecy of the lamb-like beast that causes all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark and allows no man to buy or sell without the mark, name, or number. This enforcement is controlled by the cruel power of Satan and is one of the signs of the last days and one of his last efforts, binding men in bundles ready to be burned. These combinations deprive neighbors of freedom of action and rob the poorer classes of advantages that justly belong to them, violating the whole duty of man to love God with heart, soul, strength and mind and to love his neighbor as himself in consecration of body, soul and spirit, so that to belong to these unions is to disregard the entire Decalogue and while belonging to them men cannot possibly keep the commandments of God. Those who refuse to join are made marked men. Because in the near future buying and selling will become a very serious problem as the controlling power of labor unions becomes very oppressive, and because obedience to the law of God is the test for the whole world, those who love Him and keep His commandments must get out of the cities and isolate themselves, with families leaving the cities for rural districts where houses are not crowded closely together, where they will be free from the interference of enemies, and where they can raise their own provisions, trusting God to care for them.
The pressure tempts men and women for fear of wanting food and clothing and being unable to buy or sell not to dare to keep God's Sabbath but to join the world and take its mold in transgressing God's law in order to keep liberty, rights and livelihood, leaving the earth wholly under Satan's dominion. Receiving the beast's mark is thus connected with joining the world and taking its mold, in contrast to receiving God's seal through distrusting self, humbling the soul before God, and purifying the soul by obeying the truth, so that when the decree is issued and the mark or seal is impressed character remains fixed for eternity. The coming test sets the commandments of God against the commandments of men and urges the mark as a test of allegiance under derision, ridicule, insult, imprisonment and death, with stringent human laws making observance of the seventh day an object of contempt and a sign of disloyalty to earthly authorities. Those accustomed to yielding to worldly customs will more readily submit to human powers than face that pressure, while true children of God, though frightened, cannot be separated from Christ. Such yielding to spare loss is halfhearted service and cowardice.
Timing and Prophetic Place
The restriction on buying and selling belongs to the thrilling closing scenes of this world's history, the great and last warfare between those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and those who make void the law of God. Its fulfillment stands on the threshold, about to take place in quick succession, with peril on every side as human powers cooperate against God's people, and everything will now move with a rapidity before unknown. The test set out in Revelation 13:11-17 comes before probation closes and before God's people are sealed, deciding eternal destiny. The image to the beast is formed before probation closes, virtually formed already with the spirit of the dragon already manifest, while what remains is the full development of what the prophecy says the image is to do. Those who prove loyalty by observing God's law and refusing the spurious Sabbath receive the seal of the living God and rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, while those who yield truth of heavenly origin and accept the Sunday Sabbath receive the mark of the beast, so the solemn warning not to receive the mark is needed while the choice is still open and not after all saints are sealed.
The economic restriction follows great wonders including making fire come down from heaven, deceiving earth-dwellers to make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live, giving life to the image so it speaks, and killing as many as will not worship the image, then causing all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead and forbidding buying or selling to anyone without the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Those who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark on foreheads or hands will face the seven last plagues, and escaping them requires knowing and obeying God's word including keeping His holy Sabbath rather than transgressing His law. A recent threat of such a buying-and-selling restriction in California was only a warning, because the four winds are still held by the angels and this crisis has not yet arrived. After a work remains to be done the winds will be released, bringing a time of trouble unlike any before it and a decisive test for God's children, so the present time is an opportunity to work before that crisis comes.
After probation closes Christ finishes pleading His blood and holds out no longer, then girds His sword and rides forth with destroying angels for the deliverance of the captives, and buying and selling stops for God's people. God feeds the faithful, just and true by spreading a table for them in the wilderness while the wicked seek their lives because the saints do not have the seal but the persecutors have the mark of the beast and his image. Those who were once right but leaned too long on something else instead of God's plain commandments join the wicked against the saints, and their crying and agony comes too late. The warning that church and state will unite to persecute commandment keepers was dismissed as groundless and absurd alarm, and it was confidently claimed that this land as defender of religious freedom could never so change. As agitation for enforcing Sunday observance spreads, the fulfillment of the prediction is seen approaching in the United States as church and state unite against commandment keepers, and the third message about it produces an effect it could not have had before.
After the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, a more decided effort will be made to exalt the false Sabbath and to cast contempt upon God by supplanting the day He blessed and sanctified. That spurious Sabbath presented by the man of sin who thought to change times and laws and exalted himself above God, the child of the papacy accepted and nourished by the Christian world, will be enforced by an oppressive law. Satan and his angels, wide-awake and intensely active through human instrumentalities and with lying wonders, will work to bring about his purpose of obliterating the knowledge of God from minds. Against this enforcement God calls His people out of Babylon that they may not worship the beast or his image, while the mighty angel that lightens the earth with his glory proclaims the fall of Babylon and calls upon God's people to forsake her at the time of the loud cry of the third angel. Satan already works now with all his powers as that old serpent to get control of the human mind and to secure the world and the wicked, placing his stamp upon all it is possible for him to place it upon. This work is already happening in a way people do not realize, making the world grow worse and worse and making it more and more impossible to get within reach of people, as current events in the papers prove.
Warning and Faithful Response
What was shown to John on Patmos for the last days warns against the wickedness to come and against the mark of the beast, and it belongs with the three angels' messages and with the mighty angel who lightens the earth with his glory. It shows a power causing all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead, and allowing no one to buy or sell except those having the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name, which forces the question of which mark is borne and what missionary work is being done. Those who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark on forehead or hand will face the seven last plagues, so escaping requires knowing and obeying God's word, including keeping His holy Sabbath rather than transgressing His law. The mark is what it has been proclaimed to be, though not everything about it is yet understood, and further light will come as the prophetic message unfolds and the prophetic scroll is unrolled. It is the solemn third angel's message and present truth for this time, meaning life or death, so important that holy angels fly in the midst of heaven to proclaim it. It must be read and understood and proclaimed to the world with no uncertain sound, taught boldly and clearly to church and world without toning down, hiding light under a bushel, or limiting the work so people cannot be reached, with circulating light, warning of cities, and a certain trumpet sound instead of conflicting explanations, because presenting what was revealed will stir people when usual subjects will not move them, while failure to warn leaves those entrusted answerable to God and the religious world asleep and indifferent to momentous questions.
Refusal when a decree makes buying and selling conditional on accepting the beast's mark, name, or number requires decision now to remain faithful and to say nay to the institution of the beast. A coming grand test and solemn period not far off will bring a decree against all who will not worship the image of the beast and receive his mark in foreheads or hands, forcing choice between obeying God's commandments and consulting temporal interests, between serving God and mammon, and between faithfulness to the commandments and the faith of Jesus and making God's law void with the religious world. Believers in comparatively peaceful days must be sustained by faith now and be gathering strength and courage for the time of trouble, through denying self, stepping fast, being baptized into Christ's sufferings to bear trials with patience and joy for the inheritance He suffered to obtain, since time is almost finished and what was learned step by step over years must now be learned in months, with much to unlearn and learn again in order to inherit glory. The test requires perfect obedience to God's commandments at any cost, especially the fourth commandment, refusing to work on the Sabbath for worldly profit, livelihood, or family support and keeping it even when inconvenient, because sin is transgression of the law and setting at naught the Sabbath after seeing light brings punishment. Those who exercise little faith now are in greatest danger of falling under Satanic delusions that compel conscience, and even if they endure they will without habit of trusting God be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, forced to learn under terrible discouragement the lessons of faith they neglected, while those who lay hold on God's strength will get victory and stand at last on the sea of glass singing triumph.
Because a time will soon come when buying and selling will be forbidden to all except those who have the beast's mark, and commandment-keepers will be barred from buying and selling, the closing of opportunity to use earthly wealth for God's work is reason to use entrusted means faithfully now rather than burying or hoarding them. That time is near and there is no time to lose, but opportunity still remains, so those with means in houses and lands should begin to dispose of them, invest less in worldly enterprises, and transfer means buried in worldly possessions into the Lord's work to create increased facilities for giving the third angel's message to the world before that time arrives.
In the last days combinations and unions will control buying and selling, permitting men to buy or sell only under conditions they set, and gigantic monopolies and trades unions combining to grasp business will make those who refuse to join marked men unable to buy or sell except as allowed. These combinations deprive neighbors of freedom of action and rob the poorer classes of advantages justly belonging to them, violating the whole duty to love God with heart, soul, strength, and mind and neighbor as self in consecration of body, soul, and spirit, disregarding the entire Decalogue so that even church members in them cannot keep God's commandments. This enforcement is controlled by Satan's cruel power and is one of his last efforts and a sign of the last days, a binding in bundles ready to be burned, fulfilling the prophecy of the lamb-like beast causing all to receive a mark and allowing no man to buy or sell without the mark, name, or number. Because in the near future buying and selling will become a very serious problem and the controlling power of labor unions very oppressive, families are to leave the cities now for rural districts where houses are not crowded closely together, where they will be free from interference of enemies, and where they can raise their own provisions, trusting God to care for those who love Him and keep His commandments.
The teaching identifying Sunday observance as the mark of the beast connected with restrictions on buying and selling should not be presented openly to the oppressed people in the Southern field before the time comes, because they could misunderstand it, act on false impression, and bring misconstrued violent persecution. Enforced Sunday observance will become the mark as a test deciding who may buy or sell, but that test is not yet in force in the Southern field, though the time will come when it will be made everywhere including the South with revived slavery-like oppression. Until then workers among the colored people must not take a firm public stand against Sunday or encourage Sunday work as defiance of oppressors, lest white hatred be stirred, the colored people be leavened with it and driven to cruelty, employer and secret-society opposition aroused, prejudice closed minds, and the work cut off. Refraining from work on Sunday to advance the work and avoid closing prejudiced minds is not receiving the mark, and where resting helps the cause believers should rest and not go out of their way to work on Sunday to display liberty, since the time has not yet come to be defiant as if there were no prejudice. Workers should labor quietly and wisely, be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, conform where God's law allows, refrain from things they have right to do when doing them would shut doors God opened and bring the Sabbath crisis before the time, follow the Lord's direction, and use Sunday as opportunity for missionary work and missionary Sunday schools.
In the final conflict those loyal to God will be forbidden to buy or sell because they refuse to break His law in obedience to earthly powers, their earthly support cut off, and a decree will finally call for their death, yet though the earth is wasted with famine God will sustain the obedient with food and water. Faithful Sabbath-keepers cut off from world resources and brought into abject poverty, great distress, and stricken condition will weep and pray and plead the sure promises of God while the wicked, the whole world converted and united in harmony with the Sunday law, surround them, mock their feebleness and small numbers, taunt their independent stand from all the world, threaten destruction, ridicule with cutting words, and argue they are dependent on the world and must concede to its customs, practices, and laws or go out of it, so appearances are awfully against them though they are the people the Lord favors. Their opposers will defend themselves by claiming truth, miracles, angels from heaven talking and walking with them, great power and signs and wonders, spirit visitations from the dead gone to heaven personated by Satan, the long-expected temporal millennium, and accusation that the little feeble people stand in defiance of laws of land and of God claiming to be alone right. Control of buying and selling is cruel compulsion of conscience to secure worship for human creeds and laws in defiance of God's law, taking the spurious Sunday sabbath with no sanctity in the Word and setting it against Christ with every oppression added, for God never forces will or worship by persecution and bondage while Satan always on the oppressor's side does so through human powers, yet God still lives and rescues the obedient as He rescued the apostles when priests forbade preaching in Jesus' name. God's faithful servants will receive bitterest persecution from false teachers who will not hear God's Word and put stumbling blocks before hearers, in final marked contrast between seal-bearers and worshipers of beast and image, but they are not to fear because Satan cannot go beyond his limit and the Lord will be their defense, regarding injury to servants for truth as done to Himself, and when all have taken sides for Christ and the commandments or for the great apostate God will arise in power, stop blaspheming mouths forever, and punish every opposing power in universal destruction when the slain of the Lord lie from one end of earth to the other. In the crisis believers should therefore avoid defiance and unnecessary opposition, remain subject to higher powers, pay tribute and dues, obey laws not conflicting with God, keep peace by avoiding offensive work on Sunday, and meet conditions with sanctified common sense, yet obey God rather than men, openly uphold truth and honor His Sabbath though property and liberty are at risk, stand victorious over beast and image, and trust God to interpose, defend, and vindicate.