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Chapter Twenty Five
Gods Law Immutable
The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was
seen in His temple the ark of His testament.”
Revelation
11:19. The ark of God’s testament is in the holy of holies, the
second apartment of the sanctuary. In the ministration of
the earthly tabernacle, which served “unto the example and
shadow of heavenly things,” this apartment was opened only
upon the great Day of Atonement for the cleansing of the
sanctuary. Therefore the announcement that the temple of
God was opened in heaven and the ark of His testament was
seen points to the opening of the most holy place of the
heavenly sanctuary in 1844 as Christ entered there to perform
the closing work of the atonement. Those who by faith
followed their great High Priest as He entered upon His
ministry in the most holy place, beheld the ark of His
testament. As they had studied the subject of the sanctuary they
had come to understand the Saviour’s change of ministration,
and they saw that He was now officiating before the ark of
God, pleading His blood in behalf of sinners.
The ark in the tabernacle on earth contained the two
tables of stone, upon which were inscribed the precepts of
the law of God. The ark was merely a receptacle for the
tables of the law, and the presence of these divine precepts
gave to it its value and sacredness. When the temple of God
was opened in heaven, the ark of His testament was seen.
Within the holy of holies, in the sanctuary in heaven, the
divine law is sacredly enshrined—the law that was spoken by
God Himself amid the thunders of Sinai and written with
His own finger on the tables of stone.
The law of God in the sanctuary in heaven is the great
original, of which the precepts inscribed upon the tables of
stone and recorded by Moses in the Pentateuch were an
unerring transcript. Those who arrived at an understanding
of this important point were thus led to see the sacred,
unchanging character of the divine law. They saw, as never
before, the force of the Saviour’s words: “Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law.”
Matthew 5:18. The law of God, being a revelation of
His will, a transcript of His character, must forever endure,
"as a faithful witness in heaven.” Not one command has
been annulled; not a jot or tittle has been changed. Says the
psalmist: “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.”
"All His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever
and ever.”
Psalms 119:89;
111:7, 8.
In the very bosom of the Decalogue is the fourth
commandment, as it was first proclaimed: “Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all
thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them
is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Exodus 20:8-11.
The Spirit of God impressed the hearts of those students of
His word. The conviction was urged upon them that they
had ignorantly transgressed this precept by disregarding the
Creator’s rest day. They began to examine the reasons for
observing the first day of the week instead of the day which
God had sanctified. They could find no evidence in the
Scriptures that the fourth commandment had been abolished,
or that the Sabbath had been changed; the blessing which
first hallowed the seventh day had never been removed.
They had been honestly seeking to know and to do God’s
will; now, as they saw themselves transgressors of His law,
sorrow filled their hearts, and they manifested their loyalty
to God by keeping His Sabbath holy.
Many and earnest were the efforts made to overthrow their
faith. None could fail to see that if the earthly sanctuary was
a figure or pattern of the heavenly, the law deposited in the
ark on earth was an exact transcript of the law in the ark
in heaven; and that an acceptance of the truth concerning
the heavenly sanctuary involved an acknowledgment of the
claims of God’s law and the obligation of the Sabbath of
the fourth commandment. Here was the secret of the bitter
and determined opposition to the harmonious exposition of
the Scriptures that revealed the ministration of Christ in the
heavenly sanctuary. Men sought to close the door which God
had opened, and to open the door which He had closed. But
"He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no
man openeth,” had declared: “Behold, I have set before thee
an open door, and no man can shut it.”
Revelation 3:7, 8.
Christ had opened the door, or ministration, of the most holy
place, light was shining from that open door of the sanctuary
in heaven, and the fourth commandment was shown to be
included in the law which is there enshrined; what God had
established, no man could overthrow.
Those who had accepted the light concerning the mediation
of Christ and the perpetuity of the law of God found
that these were the truths presented in Revelation 14. The
messages of this chapter constitute a threefold warning (see
Appendix) which is to prepare the inhabitants of the earth
for the Lord’s second coming. The announcement, “The
hour of His judgment is come,” points to the closing work of
Christ’s ministration for the salvation of men. It heralds a
truth which must be proclaimed until the Saviour’s intercession
shall cease and He shall return to the earth to take His
people to Himself. The work of judgment which began in
1844 must continue until the cases of all are decided, both of
the living and the dead; hence it will extend to the close of
human probation. That men may be prepared to stand in the
judgment, the message commands them to “fear God, and
give glory to Him,” “and worship Him that made heaven,
and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” The
result of an acceptance of these messages is given in the word:
"Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the
faith of Jesus.” In order to be prepared for the judgment, it
is necessary that men should keep the law of God. That
law will be the standard of character in the judgment. The
apostle Paul declares: “As many as have sinned in the law
shall be judged by the law, . . . in the day when God shall
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” And he says that
"the doers of the law shall be justified.”
Romans 2:12-16.
Faith is essential in order to the keeping of the law of God;
for “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” And
"whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Hebrews 11:6;
Romans 14:23.
By the first angel, men are called upon to “fear God, and
give glory to Him” and to worship Him as the Creator of the
heavens and the earth. In order to do this, they must obey
His law. Says the wise man: “Fear God, and keep His
commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
Ecclesiastes
12:13. Without obedience to His commandments no worship
can be pleasing to God. “This is the love of God, that we
keep His commandments.” “He that turneth away his ear
from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”
1 John 5:3;
Proverbs 28:9.
The duty to worship God is based upon the fact that He
is the Creator and that to Him all other beings owe their
existence. And wherever, in the Bible, His claim to reverence
and worship, above the gods of the heathen, is presented,
there is cited the evidence of His creative power. “All the
gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens.”
Psalm 96:5. “To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall
I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high,
and behold who hath created these things.” “Thus saith the
Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the
earth and made it: . . . I am the Lord; and there is none
else.”
Isaiah 40:25, 26;
45:18. Says the psalmist: “Know ye
that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not
we ourselves.” “O come, let us worship and bow down: let
us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”
Psalms 100:3;
95:6.
And the holy beings who worship God in heaven state, as
the reason why their homage is due to Him: “Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for
Thou hast created all things.”
Revelation 4:11.
In Revelation 14, men are called upon to worship the
Creator; and the prophecy brings to view a class that, as the
result of the threefold message, are keeping the commandments
of God. One of these commandments points directly
to God as the Creator. The fourth precept declares: “The
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: . . . for in
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Exodus 20:10, 11.
Concerning the Sabbath, the Lord says, further, that it is “a
sign, . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.”
Ezekiel 20:20. And the reason given is: “For in six days the
Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He
rested, and was refreshed.”
Exodus 31:17.
“The importance of the Sabbath as the memorial of
creation is that it keeps ever present the true reason why worship
is due to God” —because He is the Creator, and we are His
creatures. “The Sabbath therefore lies at the very foundation
of divine worship, for it teaches this great truth in the most
impressive manner, and no other institution does this. The
true ground of divine worship, not of that on the seventh day
merely, but of all worship, is found in the distinction between
the Creator and His creatures. This great fact can never
become obsolete, and must never be forgotten.” —J. N.
Andrews, History of the Sabbath, chapter 27. It was to keep this
truth ever before the minds of men, that God instituted
the Sabbath in Eden; and so long as the fact that He is our
Creator continues to be a reason why we should worship
Him, so long the Sabbath will continue as its sign and
memorial. Had the Sabbath been universally kept, man’s
thoughts and affections would have been led to the Creator
as the object of reverence and worship, and there would never
have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel. The keeping
of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God, “Him that
made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters.” It follows that the message which commands men
to worship God and keep His commandments will especially
call upon them to keep the fourth commandment.
In contrast to those who keep the commandments of God
and have the faith of Jesus, the third angel points to another
class, against whose errors a solemn and fearful warning is
uttered: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and
receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.”
Revelation
14:9, 10. A correct interpretation of the symbols employed
is necessary to an understanding of this message. What is
represented by the beast, the image, the mark?
The line of prophecy in which these symbols are found
begins with Revelation 12, with the dragon that sought to
destroy Christ at His birth. The dragon is said to be Satan
(Revelation 12:9); he it was that moved upon Herod to put
the Saviour to death. But the chief agent of Satan in making
war upon Christ and His people during the first centuries of
the Christian Era was the Roman Empire, in which paganism
was the prevailing religion. Thus while the dragon,
primarily, represents Satan, it is, in a secondary sense, a
symbol of pagan Rome.
In
chapter 13 (verses 1-10) is described another beast, “like
unto a leopard,” to which the dragon gave “his power, and
his seat, and great authority.” This symbol, as most Protestants
have believed, represents the papacy, which succeeded
to the power and seat and authority once held by the ancient
Roman empire. Of the leopardlike beast it is declared:
"There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things
and blasphemies. . . . And he opened his mouth in
blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle,
and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto
him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:
and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues,
and nations.” This prophecy, which is nearly identical with
the description of the little horn of Daniel 7, unquestionably
points to the papacy.
“Power was given unto him to continue forty and two
months.” And, says the prophet, “I saw one of his heads as
it were wounded to death.” And again: “He that leadeth into
captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the
sword must be killed with the sword.” The forty and two
months are the same as the “time and times and the dividing
of time,” three years and a half, or 1260 days, of Daniel 7—
the time during which the papal power was to oppress God’s
people. This period, as stated in preceding chapters, began
with the supremacy of the papacy, A.D. 538, and terminated in
1798. At that time the pope was made captive by the French
army, the papal power received its deadly wound, and the
prediction was fulfilled, “He that leadeth into captivity shall
go into captivity.”
At this point another symbol is introduced. Says the
prophet: “I beheld another beast coming up out of the
earth; and he had two horns like a lamb.”
Verse 11. Both the
appearance of this beast and the manner of its rise indicate
that the nation which it represents is unlike those presented
under the preceding symbols. The great kingdoms that have
ruled the world were presented to the prophet Daniel as
beasts of prey, rising when “the four winds of the heaven
strove upon the great sea.”
Daniel 7:2. In
Revelation 17 an angel explained that waters represent “peoples, and multitudes,
and nations, and tongues.”
Revelation 17:15. Winds
are a symbol of strife. The four winds of heaven striving
upon the great sea represent the terrible scenes of conquest
and revolution by which kingdoms have attained to power.
But the beast with lamblike horns was seen “coming up
out of the earth.” Instead of overthrowing other powers to
establish itself, the nation thus represented must arise in
territory preciously unoccupied and grow up gradually and
peacefully. It could not, then, arise among the crowded and
struggling nationalities of the Old World—that turbulent sea
of “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” It
must be sought in the Western Continent.
What nation of the New World was in 1798 rising into
power, giving promise of strength and greatness, and attracting
the attention of the world? The application of the symbol
admits of no question. One nation, and only one, meets
the specifications of this prophecy; it points unmistakably to
the United States of America. Again and again the thought,
almost the exact words, of the sacred writer has been
unconsciously employed by the orator and the historian in
describing the rise and growth of this nation. The beast was
seen “coming up out of the earth;” and, according to the
translators, the word here rendered “coming up” literally
signifies “to grow or spring up as a plant.” And, as we have
seen, the nation must arise in territory previously unoccupied.
A prominent writer, describing the rise of the United States,
speaks of “the mystery of her coming forth from vacancy,”
and says: “Like a silent seed we grew into empire.” —G. A.
Townsend, The New World Compared With the Old, page
462. A European journal in 1850 spoke of the United States
as a wonderful empire, which was “emerging,” and “amid
the silence of the earth daily adding to its power and pride.”
—The Dublin Nation. Edward Everett, in an oration on
the Pilgrim founders of this nation, said: “Did they look for
a retired spot, inoffensive for its obscurity, and safe in its
remoteness, where the little church of Leyden might enjoy
the freedom of conscience? Behold the mighty regions over
which, in peaceful conquest, . . . they have borne the
banners of the cross!” —Speech delivered at Plymouth,
Massachusetts, Dec. 22, 1824, page 11.
“And he had two horns like a lamb.” The lamblike horns
indicate youth, innocence, and gentleness, fitly representing
the character of the United States when presented to the
prophet as “coming up” in 1798. Among the Christian exiles
who first fled to America and sought an asylum from royal
oppression and priestly intolerance were many who determined
to establish a government upon the broad foundation
of civil and religious liberty. Their views found place in the
Declaration of Independence, which sets forth the great truth
that “all men are created equal” and endowed with the
inalienable right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
And the Constitution guarantees to the people the right of
self-government, providing that representatives elected by
the popular vote shall enact and administer the laws. Freedom
of religious faith was also granted, every man being
permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his
conscience. Republicanism and Protestantism became the
fundamental principles of the nation. These principles are
the secret of its power and prosperity. The oppressed and
downtrodden throughout Christendom have turned to this
land with interest and hope. Millions have sought its shores,
and the United States has risen to a place among the most
powerful nations of the earth.
But the beast with lamblike horns “spake as a dragon.
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,
and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to
worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed; . . .
saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make
an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and
did live.”
Revelation 13:11-14.
The lamblike horns and dragon voice of the symbol point
to a striking contradiction between the professions and the
practice of the nation thus represented. The “speaking” of
the nation is the action of its legislative and judicial authorities.
By such action it will give the lie to those liberal and
peaceful principles which it has put forth as the foundation
of its policy. The prediction that it will speak “as a dragon”
and exercise “all the power of the first beast” plainly foretells
a development of the spirit of intolerance and persecution
that was manifested by the nations represented by the dragon
and the leopardlike beast. And the statement that the beast
with two horns “causeth the earth and them which dwell
therein to worship the first beast” indicates that the authority
of this nation is to be exercised in enforcing some observance
which shall be an act of homage to the papacy.
Such action would be directly contrary to the principles of
this government, to the genius of its free institutions, to the
direct and solemn avowals of the Declaration of Independence,
and to the Constitution. The founders of the nation
wisely sought to guard against the employment of secular
power on the part of the church, with its inevitable result—
intolerance and persecution. The Constitution provides that
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and that
"no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to
any office of public trust under the United States.” Only in
flagrant violation of these safeguards to the nation’s liberty,
can any religious observance be enforced by civil authority.
But the inconsistency of such action is no greater than is
represented in the symbol. It is the beast with lamblike
horns—in profession pure, gentle, and harmless—that speaks
as a dragon.
“Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should
make an image to the beast.” Here is clearly presented a
form of government in which the legislative power rests with
the people, a most striking evidence that the United States
is the nation denoted in the prophecy.
But what is the “image to the beast"? and how is it to
be formed? The image is made by the two-horned beast,
and is an image to the beast. It is also called an image
of the beast. Then to learn what the image is like and how
it is to be formed we must study the characteristics of the beast
itself—the papacy.
When the early church became corrupted by departing
from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites
and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in
order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the
support of the secular power. The result was the papacy, a
church that controlled the power of the state and employed
it to further her own ends, especially for the punishment of
"heresy.” In order for the United States to form an image of
the beast, the religious power must so control the civil
government that the authority of the state will also be
employed by the church to accomplish her own ends.
Whenever the church has obtained secular power, she has
employed it to punish dissent from her doctrines. Protestant
churches that have followed in the steps of Rome by forming
alliance with worldly powers have manifested a similar desire
to restrict liberty of conscience. An example of this is given
in the long-continued persecution of dissenters by the Church
of England. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
thousands of nonconformist ministers were forced to flee
from their churches, and many, both of pastors and people,
were subjected to fine, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.
It was apostasy that led the early church to seek the aid
of the civil government, and this prepared the way for the
development of the papacy—the beast. Said Paul: “There”
shall “come a falling away, . . . and that man of sin be
revealed.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3. So apostasy in the church
will prepare the way for the image to the beast.
The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord
there will exist a state of religious declension similar to that
in the first centuries. “In the last days perilous times shall
come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are
good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more
than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof.”
2 Timothy 3:1-5. “Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
devils.”
1 Timothy 4:1. Satan will work “with all power and
signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness.” And all that “received not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved,” will be left to accept “strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie.”
2 Thessalonians
2:9-11. When this state of ungodliness shall be reached, the
same results will follow as in the first centuries.
The wide diversity of belief in the Protestant churches is
regarded by many as decisive proof that no effort to secure a
forced uniformity can ever be made. But there has been for
years, in churches of the Protestant faith, a strong and growing
sentiment in favor of a union based upon common points
of doctrine. To secure such a union, the discussion of
subjects upon which all were not agreed—however important
they might be from a Bible standpoint—must necessarily be
waived.
Charles Beecher, in a sermon in the year 1846, declared
that the ministry of “the evangelical Protestant denominations”
is “not only formed all the way up under a tremendous
pressure of merely human fear, but they live, and move, and
breathe in a state of things radically corrupt, and appealing
every hour to every baser element of their nature to hush up
the truth, and bow the knee to the power of apostasy. Was
not this the way things went with Rome? Are we not living
her life over again? And what do we see just ahead?
Another general council! A world’s convention! Evangelical
alliance, and universal creed!” —Sermon on “The Bible a
Sufficient Creed,” delivered at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Feb. 22,
1846. When this shall be gained, then, in the effort to secure
complete uniformity, it will be only a step to the resort to
force.
When the leading churches of the United States, uniting
upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common,
shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to
sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have
formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction
of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.
The beast with two horns “causeth [commands] all, both
small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a
mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no
man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the
name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
Revelation
13:16, 17. The third angel’s warning is: “If any man worship
the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead,
or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath
of God.” “The beast” mentioned in this message, whose
worship is enforced by the two-horned beast, is the first, or
leopardlike beast of Revelation 13—the papacy. The “image
to the beast” represents that form of apostate Protestantism
which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall
seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their
dogmas. The “mark of the beast” still remains to be defined.
After the warning against the worship of the beast and his
image the prophecy declares: “Here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Since those
who keep God’s commandments are thus placed in contrast
with those that worship the beast and his image and receive
his mark, it follows that the keeping of God’s law, on the
one hand, and its violation, on the other, will make the
distinction between the worshipers of God and the
worshipers of the beast.
The special characteristic of the beast, and therefore of his
image, is the breaking of God’s commandments. Says Daniel,
of the little horn, the papacy: “He shall think to change
times and the law.”
Daniel 7:25, R.V. And Paul styled the
same power the “man of sin,” who was to exalt himself
above God. One prophecy is a complement of the other.
Only by changing God’s law could the papacy exalt itself
above God; whoever should understandingly keep the law
as thus changed would be giving supreme honor to that
power by which the change was made. Such an act of
obedience to papal laws would be a mark of allegiance to the
pope in the place of God.
The papacy has attempted to change the law of God. The
second commandment, forbidding image worship, has been
dropped from the law, and the fourth commandment has
been so changed as to authorize the observance of the first
instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. But papists urge,
as a reason for omitting the second commandment, that it is
unnecessary, being included in the first, and that they are
giving the law exactly as God designed it to be understood.
This cannot be the change foretold by the prophet. An
intentional, deliberate change is presented: “He shall think
to change the times and the law.” The change in the fourth
commandment exactly fulfills the prophecy. For this the
only authority claimed is that of the church. Here the papal
power openly sets itself above God.
While the worshipers of God will be especially distinguished
by their regard for the fourth commandments, —since
this is the sign of His creative power and the witness to His
claim upon man’s reverence and homage, —the worshipers
of the beast will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down
the Creator’s memorial, to exalt the institution of Rome. It
was in behalf of the Sunday that popery first asserted its
arrogant claims (see
Appendix
); and its first resort to the
power of the state was to compel the observance of Sunday
as “the Lord’s day.” But the Bible points to the seventh day,
and not to the first, as the Lord’s day. Said Christ: “The Son
of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” The fourth commandment
declares: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.”
And by the prophet Isaiah the Lord designates it: “My holy
day.”
Mark 2:28;
Isaiah 58:13.
The claim so often put forth that Christ changed the
Sabbath is disproved by His own words. In His Sermon on the
Mount He said: “Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do
and teach them, the same shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven,”
Matthew 5:17-19.
It is a fact generally admitted by Protestants that the
Scriptures give no authority for the change of the Sabbath.
This is plainly stated in publications issued by the American
Tract Society and the American Sunday School Union. One
of these works acknowledges “the complete silence of the
New Testament so far as any explicit command for the
Sabbath [Sunday, the first day of the week] or definite rules
for its observance are concerned.” —George Elliott, The Abiding
Sabbath, page 184.
Another says: “Up to the time of Christ’s death, no change
had been made in the day;” and, “so far as the record shows,
they [the apostles] did not . . . give any explicit command
enjoining the abandonment of the seventh-day Sabbath, and
its observance on the first day of the week.” —A. E. Waffle,
The Lord’s Day, pages 186-188.
Roman Catholics acknowledge that the change of the
Sabbath was made by their church, and declare that Protestants
by observing the Sunday are recognizing her power. In the
Catholic Catechism of Christian Religion, in answer to a
question as to the day to be observed in obedience to the
fourth commandment, this statement is made: “During the
old law, Saturday was the day sanctified; but the church,
instructed by Jesus Christ, and directed by the Spirit of God,
has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so now we sanctify the
first, not the seventh day. Sunday means, and now is, the
day of the Lord.”
As the sign of the authority of the Catholic Church, papist
writers cite “the very act of changing the Sabbath into
Sunday, which Protestants allow of; . . . because by keeping
Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain
feasts, and to command them under sin.” —Henry Tuberville,
An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, page 58. What
then is the change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the
authority of the Roman Church—"the mark of the beast"?
The Roman Church has not relinquished her claim to
supremacy; and when the world and the Protestant churches
accept a sabbath of her creating, while they reject the Bible
Sabbath, they virtually admit this assumption. They may
claim the authority of tradition and of the Fathers for the
change; but in so doing they ignore the very principle which
separates them from Rome—that “the Bible, and the Bible
only, is the religion of Protestants.” The papist can see that
they are deceiving themselves, willingly closing their eyes to
the facts in the case. As the movement for Sunday enforcement
gains favor, he rejoices, feeling assured that it will
eventually bring the whole Protestant world under the
banner of Rome.
Romanists declare that “the observance of Sunday by the
Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves,
to the authority of the [Catholic] Church.” —Mgr. Segur,
Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, page 213. The
enforcement of Sundaykeeping on the part of Protestant
churches is an enforcement of the worship of the papacy—of
the beast. Those who, understanding the claims of the fourth
commandment, choose to observe the false instead of the
true Sabbath are thereby paying homage to that power by
which alone it is commanded. But in the very act of
enforcing a religious duty by secular power, the churches would
themselves form an image to the beast; hence the enforcement
of Sundaykeeping in the United States would be an
enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image.
But Christians of past generations observed the Sunday,
supposing that in so doing they were keeping the Bible
Sabbath; and there are now true Christians in every church, not
excepting the Roman Catholic communion, who honestly
believe that Sunday is the Sabbath of divine appointment.
God accepts their sincerity of purpose and their integrity
before Him. But when Sunday observance shall be enforced
by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the
obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress
the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher
authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery
above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power
which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is
worshipping the beast and his image. As men then reject the
institution which God has declared to be the sign of His
authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen
as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the
sign of allegiance to Rome—"the mark of the beast.” And it
is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and
they are brought to choose between the commandments
of God and the commandments of men, that those who
continue in transgression will receive “the mark of the
beast.”
The most fearful threatening ever addressed to mortals
is contained in the third angel’s message. That must be a
terrible sin which calls down the wrath of God unmingled
with mercy. Men are not to be left in darkness concerning
this important matter; the warning against this sin is to be
given to the world before the visitation of God’s judgments,
that all may know why they are to be inflicted, and have
opportunity to escape them. Prophecy declares that the first
angel would make his announcement to “every nation, and
kindred, and tongue, and people.” The warning of the third
angel, which forms a part of the same threefold message, is
to be no less widespread. It is represented in the prophecy
as being proclaimed with a loud voice, by an angel flying
in the midst of heaven; and it will command the attention
of the world.
In the issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided
into two great classes—those who keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the
beast and his image and receive his mark. Although church
and state will unite their power to compel “all, both small
and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Revelation 13:16),
to receive “the mark of the beast,” yet the people of God will
not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds “them that
had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image,
and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand
on the sea of glass, having the harps of God” and singing the
song of Moses and the Lamb.
Revelation 15:2, 3.
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