The Mark of the Beast and It’s Image
What is the Image of the Beast?
This message will draw a line between the worshipers of God and the worshipers of the beast and his image; for on either hand it reveals a dreadful penalty, and leaves no chance for half-way work. Those who disregard this warning will be found with the worshipers of the beast and his image, and will drink of the wine of the wrath of God. Those who heed this warning will obey God at the risk of their lives. The one class is designated by the mark of the beast; the other class is seen in the patience of the saints, keeping the commandments of God. That the law of God should thus be made a great testing truth to draw a line between the subjects of the fourth and fifth kingdoms, is an idea not unworthy of the God of the Bible. That the commandments of God are the great subject of controversy between the dragon and the remnant of the seed of the woman is plain from Revelation 12:17. The issue of this struggle cannot be a matter of doubt; for, as in all past ages those who have had the ark of God and have kept his commandments have triumphed, even so will it be now. {TMR 111. 2} “And the third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture� (no mercy with it as in instances before.) This is the third message given by all the messengers that fully believed Babylon had fallen in Revelation 14:9-11. They showed up the awful plagues that would befall all those that held, or again received the mark of the beast in any way
connected with fallen Babylon, and are in substance the same as chap. 18:4. “And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, come out of her my people that ye are not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Now if we have proved that mystery Babylon, the antitype of literal Babylon, which signifies confusion and mixture, represents the organized Churches of all descriptions, divided into three parts, Revelation 16:19, viz: Roman, Greek, and Protestant. Then is it not clear that this call from Heaven “come out of her my people,” is a message delivered by messengers calling on God’s people to come out of these Churches. {BP2 65.3} How do we know who these people are, what will they be like those do not accept the mark of the Beast in their foreheads and hands? “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith or testimony of Jesus;” Revela tion 14:12. {BP2 110.3} Here we come back again to the history of the advent, as the closing up of the messages of the three preceding angels. When the last had delivered his message in 9-11 v. the same as brought to view in 18:4, John sees this company on the picture before him the saints in their patience “keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” This is an entire different company from those that had just passed before his eye. These are some of the
same company seen in the sixth way mark, the Philadelphia Church. Jesus marks them by saying, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience,” etc. etc. Then, as we have shown, this church had come out of the fifth, the Sardis state, which we called the nominal church, precisely the same which the third angel speaks of as “having the mark of the beast and his image in his forehead and hand,” in 14:9, that had just preceded the last. He marks the time by showing them to be in the patient or trying time, just where the virgins were placed after they came out of the churches in the fall of 1844. What were they doing? We say they were keeping the seventh day Sabbath. John knew perfectly well what the commandments of God were. He sees them persecuted by the old dragon in the previous chapter, but did not say who and what they were until he had this view, only that they were a remnant (the last end, after all the rest had been cut off from them). Here than in the 14 chapter he designates them under an entire different character from their former associates. He could not nor does he say that those from whom they had separated kept the commandments; but this last company had been keeping nine of them, (or they could not have been made white,) but John does not give them or the others any credit for keeping a part, for James has said they were a perfect law and “if we offended in one point, we should be guilty of all.” Therefore as soon as he saw them keeping the fourth commandment which had been trampled under feet, he cries out, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God.” Every person of common sense that read their Bibles must know that not one particle of proof can be produced therefrom to
prove that the keeping of the first day of the week is any more the keeping of the fourth commandment than keeping Thursday. Here, then, I prove is the difference that John saw. Here our history comes in again to fulfil this very point, as I have stated in my late work on the Sabbath, and it binds down all the other way marks as it came to us, after we entered the furnace of affliction, and has been increasing ever since. Does not this company which you can and most likely do point out by name, in your different cities and towns, prove to a demonstration that the third angel’s message is, and must be given before there could be a company found as stated in 12th v. This is the remnant that is to be saved out of all the great company that published the good news and glad tidings of a coming Savior. “Blessed are they that DO his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city;” Revelation 22:14. Now this people are to be saved for keeping the commandments of God and the faith or testimony of Jesus. {BP2 110.4} Then it will be very important to know what the commandments of God are, separate and distinct from the commandment and testimony of Jesus. {BP2 111.1} Commandments of God, - They are ten. See Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13 and 10:4. They are given in detail in Exodus 20:3-17. “Given on two tables of stone, written by the finger of
God;” Deuteronomy 9:10; Exodus 31:18. “And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables;” Exodus 32:16. This also is called the covenant which God made with his people, Deuteronomy 9:9, and 4:13. When they were put into the ark, they were called the ark of the testimony. Of Moses? No, the testimony of God himself. Has God ever abolished this testimony? No. It is also called his word. Isaiah says, “the word of our God shall stand forever.” Will he ever abolish this covenant? Hear him: “My covenant will I not break, nor A L T E R the thing that has gone out of my lips.” Then I clearly perceive that the ten commandments which he calls his covenant, “his testimony,” “my word,” can never be altered or changed. When I write them on the hearts and minds of the Gentiles, it will be the same, unless I shall distinctly state to the contrary. God calls them his laws. Will they be changed? The Psalmist says, “The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.” Jesus says “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail.” Will it fail after Jesus is nailed to the cross? Paul speaks 25 years after, and says, “We establish the law” - “wherefore the law is holy, just and good.” James about the same time calls it a “perfect royal law,” the law of liberty by which we are to be judged. They are both speaking of the commandments. James quotes two out of the ten to show what he means, and says, “If we fail in one point of keeping the whole law, we are guilty of all.” “Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” Don’t forget these two last witnesses. Their testimony here does utterly and forever condemn every advocate for no Sabbath, and first day Sabbath in the world.
Because if the law is broken or altered it is impossible for it to be perfect or holy. {BP2 112.1} What then is it to worship the beast? For this is a prominent part of the act against which the wrath of God without mixture of mercy is denounced, and, as we have seen, the entire world are yet to unite in this act. It is worthy of notice that at the conclusion of this dreadful warning, the saints are introduced as keeping the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Thus we may understand that the worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark is the opposite of keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And we have seen that one of the commandments of God has been superseded by an institution of the Romish apostasy. A remark by a recent writer, bearing on this point is worthy of lasting remembrance: {TAR 116. 1} “Whenever any civil or ecclesiastical enactment conflicts with the requisitions of Jehovah, that power is worshiped, which is obeyed in preference to the other. ‘Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants are ye to whom ye obey?’ Romans 6:16.” Bliss on the Apocalypse, p. 233. {TAR 116.2}
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.” GC 443.1 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. GC 443.2 "There is scarcely anything which strikes the mind of the careful student of ancient ecclesiastical history with greater surprise than the comparatively early period at which many of the corruptions of Christianity, which are embodied in the Roman system, took their rise; yet it is not to be supposed that when the first originators of many of these unscriptural notions and practices planted those germs of corruption, they anticipated or even imagined they would ever grow into such a vast and hideous system of superstition and
error as is that of popery." John Dowling, History of Romanism," 13th Edition, p. 65. "It would be an error to attribute ['the sanctification of Sunday'] to a definite decision of the Apostles. There is no such decision mentioned in the Apostolic documents [that is, the New Testament]." Antoine Villien, "A History of the Commandments of the Church," 1915, p. 23. "It must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day." McClintock and Strong, "Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature," Vol. 9, p. 196. "Until well into the second century [a hundred years after Christ] we do not find the slightest indication in our sources that Christians marked Sunday by any kind of abstention from work." W. Rordort, "Sunday," p. 157. "The ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed... by the Christians of the Eastern Church [in the area near Palestine] above three hundred years after our Saviour's death." "A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath," p. 77.
"Modern Christians who talk of keeping Sunday as a 'holy' day, as in the still extant 'Blue Laws,' of colonial America, should know that as a 'holy' day of rest and cessation from labor and amusements Sunday was unknown to Jesus... It formed no tenet [teaching] of the primitive Church and became 'sacred' only in the course of time Outside the Church its observance was legalized for the Roman Empire through a series of decrees starting with the famous one of Constantine in 321, an edict due to his political and social ideas." W. W. Hyde, "Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire," 1946, p. 257. "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday." Augustus Neander, "The History of the Christian Religion and Church," 1843, p. 186. "The Church made a sacred day of Sunday... largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition and to give them a Christian significance." Arthur Weigall, "The Paganism in Our Christianity," 1928, p. 145.
"Is it not strange that Sunday is almost universally observed when the Sacred Writings do not endorse it? Satan, the great counterfeiter, worked through the 'mystery of iniquity' to introduce a counterfeit Sabbath to take the place of the true Sabbath of God. Sunday stands side by side with Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Corpus Christi, Assumption Day, All Soul's Day, Christmas Day, and a host of other ecclesiastical feast days too numerous to mention. This array of Roman Catholic feasts and fast days are all man made. None of them bears the divine credentials of the Author of the Inspired Word." M. E. Walsh. "Sun worship was the earliest idolatry." A. R. Fausset, "Bible Dictionary," p. 666. Sun worship was "one of the oldest components of the Roman religion." Gaston H. Halsberghe, "The Cult of Sol Invictus," 1972, p. 26. “‘Babylon, the mother of harlots,' derived much of her teaching from pagan Rome and thence from Babylon. Sun worship that led her to Sunday keeping was one of those choice bits of paganism that sprang originally from the heathen lore of ancient Babylon: 'The solar theology of the "Chaldeans" had a decisive effect upon
the final development of Semitic paganism... [It led to their seeing the sun the directing power of the cosmic system. All the Baals were thence forward turned into suns; the sun itself being the mover of the other stars, like it eternal and 'unconquerable.' ... Such was the final form reached by the religion of the pagan Semites, and, following them, by that of the Romans... when they raised 'Sol Invictus' [the Invincible Sun] to the rank of supreme divinity in the Empire." Franz V. M. Cumont, "The Frontier Provinces of the East," in 'The Cambridge Ancient History," Vol. 11, pp. 643, 646-647. "The power of the Caesars lived again in the universal dominion of the popes." H. G. Gulness, "Romanism and the Reformation." " From simple beginnings, the church developed a distinct priesthood and an elaborate service. In this way, Christianity and the higher forms of paganism tended to come nearer and nearer to each other as time went on. In one sense, it is true, they met like armies in mortal conflict, but at the same time they tended to merge into one another like streams which had been following converging courses." J. H. Robinson, "Introduction to the History of Western Europe," p. 31. "Unquestionably the first law is either ecclesiastical or civil. By which the Sabbatical observance of that day is known to have been ordained, is the edict of Constantine, 321 A.D." Chamber's Encyclopedia," article, "Sabbath." "This [Constantine's Sunday decree of March, 321] is the 'parent' Sunday law making it a day of rest and release from labor. For from that time to the present there have been decrees about the observance of Sunday which have profoundly influenced European and American society. When the Church became a part of State under the Christian emperors, Sunday observance was enforced by civil statutes, and later when the Empire was past, the Church in the hands of the papacy enforced it by ecclesiastical and also by civil enactments." Walter W Hyde, "Paganism to Christianity in the
Roman Empire," 1946, p. 267. "Constantine's decree marked the beginning of a long, though intermittent series of imperial decrees in support of Sunday rest." Vincent J. Kelly, "Forbidden Sunday and Feast Day Occupations," 1943, p. 29. "Constantine labored at this time untiringly to unite the worshipers of the old and the new into one religion. All his laws and contrivances are aimed at promoting this amalgamation of religions. He would by all lawful and peaceable means melt together a purified heathenism and a moderated Christianity... Of all his blending and melting together of Christianity and heathenism, none is easier to see through than this making of his Sunday law: The Christians worshiped their Christ, the heathen
their Sun-god... [So they should now be combined]." H. G. Heggtveit, "Illustreret Kirkehistorie," 1895, p. 202. "Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued." Lyman Coleman, "Ancient Christianity Exemplified," chap. 26, sec. 2, p. 527. "Constantine's [five Sunday law] decrees marked the beginning of a long though intermittent series of imperial decrees in support of Sunday rest." "A History of the Councils of the Church,� Vol. 2, p. 316. We have already seen that the conflict is between the commandments of God, and the requirements of the beast. And that a Papal institution, which has usurped the place of one of the commandments of God, is yet to be made a test by the twohorned beast. It is not difficult therefore to see how men will be made to worship the beast; for whenever they obey the requirements of the beast in the place of the commandments of God they worship the beast; for they acknowledge him as above the Most High. It is a remarkable fact that the Pagan festival of Sunday, which the great apostasy has substituted for the Sabbath of the Bible, is now
enforced by law in most of the States of the Union. A Papal institution which directly contradicts the fourth commandment enforced by a Protestant government! A most striking instance of the union of church and state in this country the boast of the nation to the contrary notwithstanding! “Congress,” says the constit ution “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But most of the state governments, which have no right to infringe upon the constitution, have already decided that the Sabbath of the Bible shall be kept on Sunday, and the judges have decided such laws to be constitutional! If the government has a right to nullify the fourth commandment there is an end to the principle of religious liberty; for it has an equal right to nullify any or all of the others. {TAR 116.3} It may be proper that we should notice some of the most probable causes that will induce the two-horned beast to create the image and to require the reception of the mark. {TAR 117.1} The foregoing reasons establish the fact that the plagues are future. We see no reason why they will not be just as literal as those poured out on Egypt, while their consequences will be far more terrific and dreadful. We will now briefly compare the account of these plagues with other scriptures calculated to shed light upon the subject. The first vial is thus presented: “And the first
went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast and upon them which worshiped his image.” Another religious power enforces the claims of the first beast and his image, and causeth the world to receive his mark. What is this mark of the beast? - It is the mark of that beast to which the image was made - the first beast. Revelation 19:20; 16:2. But it is enforced by the two-horned beast; hence we understand it is an institution of the papacy, enforced by Protestantism. The beast and his image unite in this thing, in opposition to the saints, who are engaged in keeping the commandments of God. Have we an institution of the papal apostasy which the civil power supports, and to which the religious world pay homage? - We have. It is found in the weekly Sabbath, which the “man of sin” has placed in the stead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. If we turn to the law of God, we shall find that the fourth commandment alone points out Jehovah, the first three forbid the worship of false gods, and blasphemy, and the last six pertain wholly to our duty to our fellow-men. Not one of these nine commandments point out the true God. But the Sabbath commandment points out the true God as that being who in six days created heaven and earth, and rested upon the seventh. By the observance of the sanctified rest-day of the creator, he is acknowledged as the true God, in distinction from every object upon which the eye can rest, in the heavens above or in the earth beneath. The being that created all these things is God. Such is the teaching of the fourth commandment. {TMR 106.2} But the Scriptures plainly predict that the man of sin should exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, and should “THINK TO CHANGE TIMES AND LAWS.” 2 Thessalonians 2; Daniel 7:25. It is not said that he should be able to change them; but he should think to do it; or, as the Catholic version reads, “He shall think himself ABLE to change times and laws.” They are not the times and laws of men which he thinks to change, for these he might be able to change, as other powers have done; but it is an act
of arrogance in which he does not succeed. The times and laws of God are doubtless intended. This apostasy began in the apostolic age (2 Thessalonians 2:7), and it has resulted in the perfect development of the man of sin, and of his blasphemous acts, among which we may name the change of the fourth commandment. No one can produce any other authority for changing the Sabbath than Romish traditions. {TMR 107.1} Listen to the following cutting reproof from a Romanist: - {TMR 108.1} “The word of God commandeth the seventh day to be the Sabbath of our Lord, and to be kept holy; you [Protestants] without any precept of Scripture, change it to the first day of the week, only authorized by our traditions. Divers English Puritans oppose against this point, that the observation of the first day is proved out of the
Scripture, where it is said the first day of the week. Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Revelation 1:10. Have they not spun a fair thread in quoting from these places? If we should produce no better for purgatory and prayers for the dead, invocation of the saints, and the like, they might have good cause indeed to laugh us to scorn.� 1 {TMR 108.2} Notwithstanding the fourth commandment in the plainest terms enjoins the observance of the sanctified rest-day of the Lord, almost all the world now wonders after the beast, and observe the pagan festival of Sunday, which the great apostasy has substituted for the holy Sabbath. By the observance of the Sabbath, men acknowledge the great Creator as their God; but when they understandingly choose in its stead the Sabbath of the man of sin, they acknowledge him as above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, and as able to change the times and laws of God. There is no evading the point. If we observe the Sabbath of the Lord and that of the apostasy also, we only make the man of sin equal with God. But when we profane the Lord’s Sabbath, and observe in its stead the Romish festival of Sunday, we acknowledge the papacy to be above God, and able to change his times and laws. We speak of those who have the light of truth and act contrary to it. Those who have never yet understood that the observance of Sunday is a tradition of the fathers which makes void the fourth commandment, are not referred to. It is the bringing of this Sabbath of the apostasy to the test that will constitute it the mark
of that power that should think to change times and laws. There is no other papal institution that directly sets aside one of the Ten Commandments that the whole Protestant world observes. This mark is very conspicuous in the forehead or hand, and signifies not a literal mark, but a public profession, or act, that all may see or know. {TMR 108.3} The number of the name of the beast is also to be enforced as a test of submission to him. This name, which is said to be that of a man, is seen, without doubt, in the title of “Vicar of the Son of God, � which the pope has caused to be inscribed upon his mitre. It is written in Latin, and the numeral letters employed make the sum of 666. The design of this test is to cause men to acknowledge the authority of the papacy. {TMR 109.1} What then is it to worship the beast? For this is a prominent part of the act against which the wrath of God without mixture of mercy is denounced, and, as we have seen, the entire world are yet to unite in this act. It is worthy of notice that at the conclusion of this dreadful warning, the saints are introduced as keeping the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Thus we may understand that the worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark is the opposite of keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And we have seen
that one of the commandments of God has been superseded by an institution of the Romish apostasy. A remark by a recent writer, bearing on this point is worthy of lasting remembrance: {TAR 116. 1} “Whenever any civil or ecclesiastical enactment conflicts with the requisitions of Jehovah, that power is worshiped, which is obeyed in preference to the other. ‘Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants are ye to whom ye obey?’ Romans 6:16.” Bliss on the Apocalypse, p. 233. {TAR 116.2} It may be proper that we should notice some of the most probable causes that will induce the two-horned beast to create the image and to require the reception of the mark. {TAR 117.1} (Revelation 14:9-12.) Men in Authority to Hear—God is going to bring around a condition of things where the good men and the men in authority will have an opportunity to know what is truth indeed. And because a people will not bow the knee to the image, and receive the mark of the beast in the hand or the forehead, but will stand to the truth because it is truth, there will be oppression, and an attempt to compel the conscience; but those who have known the truth will be afraid to yield to the powers of darkness.
God has a people who will not receive the mark of the beast in their right hand or in their forehead.... {7BC 976.10} Not a move has been made in exalting the idol Sabbath, in bringing around Sunday observance through legislation, but Satan has been behind it, and has been the chief worker; but the conscience should not be compelled even for the observance of the genuine Sabbath, for God will accept only willing service (The Review and Herald, April 15, 1890). {7BC 977.1} A time is coming when the law of God is, in a special sense, to be made void in our land. The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law, and thus God’s people be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin (The Review and Herald, December 18, 1888). {7BC 977.2} (Revelation 7:2, 3). The Sabbath question is to be the issue in the great final conflict, in which all the world will act a part. Men have honored Satan’s principles above the principles that rule in the
heavens. They have accepted the spurious sabbath, which Satan has exalted as the sign of his authority. But God has set His seal upon His royal requirement. Each Sabbath institution, both true and false, bears the name of its author, an ineffaceable mark that shows the authority of each. {7BC 977.7} The great decision now to be made by everyone is, whether he will receive the mark of the beast and his image, or the seal of the living and true God (The Signs of the Times, March 22, 1910) {7BC 977.8} Sunday keeping is not yet the mark of the beast, and will not be until the decree goes forth causing men to worship this idol Sabbath . The time will come when this day will be the test, but that time has not come yet (Manuscript 118, 1899). {7BC 977.9} To defy the Sunday laws will but strengthen in their persecution the religious zealots who are seeking to enforce them. Give them no occasion to call you lawbreakers. If they are left to rein up men who fear neither God nor man, the reining up will soon lose its novelty for them, and they will see that it is not consistent nor conv enient for them to be strict in regard to the observance of Sunday. Keep right on with your missionary work, with your Bibles in your hands, and the enemy will see that he has worsted his own cause. One does not receive the mark of the beast because he
shows that he realizes the wisdom of keeping the peace by refraining from work that gives offense, doing at the same time a work of the highest importance. {9T 232.3} John was called to behold a people distinct from those who worship the beast or his image by keeping the first day of the week. The observance of this day is the mark of the beast. John declares, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” {TM 133.1} “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” We are plainly shown that two parties will exist at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In which party do we wish to be found? “Behold, I come quickly,” Christ says, “and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” This is the destination of commandment keepers. Should we not all wish to be among that number who have right to the tree of life, and who enter through the gates into the city? {TM 133.2}
“Akin to the above is the assertions of the same persons, that observing the first day of the week as a Sabbath, is having the Mark of the Beast and exposes to the wrath of God denounced by the third angel in Revelation 14:9-11.” {RRCS 43.5} It is not a thing impossible that the Mark of the Beast may have some connection with the very institution for which puts forth all the plea that he is able. It is well remarked by J. B. Cook, that, “Every enactment relative to the religious observance of the first day, originated with the Pope and Potentates of Rome, and those who in this matter sympathize with them.” - It is true that the Papal power was to “think to change times and laws.” Daniel 7:25. It is true that the Mark of the Beast stands in opposition to, or in contrast with, the commandments of God. Revelation 14:9-12. It is also true that when the commandments of God are now presented, this Papal institution, now universally observed in the place of the fourth commandment, is arrayed against them with all the energy that can be imparted to it. It is evident also from Revelation 12:17, that the Dragon shall yet make war on those who shall be found keeping the commandments of God. It is further evident that the Two-horned Beast is yet to require on pain of death, that men worship the Image of the first Beast, and also that they receive his Mark. But let the Mark of the Beast refer to what it may, what has he to say against keeping “the commandments of God,” brought to view in the next verse to that which speaks of the Mark of the Beast? Revelation 14:9-12. And on which side would he stand,
should the Dragon now make war on the commandment-keepers? This subject may be noticed at length hereafter. For a refutation of the view that the three angels of Revelation 14:1-13 refer to the future age, see Review and Herald, Vol.II. No.8. C. {RRCS 43.6} This is our work. The light that we have upon the third angel’s message is the true light. The mark of the beast is exactly what it has been proclaimed to be. Not all in regard to this matter is yet understood, and will not be understood until the unrolling of the scroll; but a most solemn work is to be accomplished in our world. The Lord’s command to His servants is, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 58:1. A message that will arouse the churches is to be proclaimed. Every effort is to be made to give the light, not only to our people, but to the world. I have been instructed that the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation should be printed in small books, with the necessary explanations, and should be sent all over the world. Our own people need to have the light placed before them in clearer lines. {CH 520.3} The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. The decree will soon go forth prohibiting men to buy or sell of any man save he that hath the mark of the beast.—Testimonies for the Church 5:152. {CS 59.3}
The prophecy of Revelation 13 declares that the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns shall cause “the earth and them which dwell therein” to worship the papacy—there symbolized by the beast “like unto a leopard.” The beast with two horns is also to say “to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast;” and, furthermore, it is to command all, “both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, ” to receive the mark of the beast. Revelation 13:11-16. It has been shown that the United States is the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns, and that this prophecy will be fulfilled when the United States shall enforce Sunday observance, which Rome claims as the special acknowledgment of her supremacy. But in this homage to the papacy the United States will not be alone. The influence of Rome in the countries that once acknowledged her dominion is still far from being destroyed. And prophecy foretells a restoration of her power. “I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Verse 3. The infliction of the deadly wound points to the downfall of the papacy in 1798. After this, says the prophet, “his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Paul states plainly that the “man of sin” will continue until the second advent. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8. To the very close of time he will carry forward the work of deception. And the revelator declares, also referring to the papacy: “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life.” Revelation 13:8. In both the Old and the New World, the papacy will receive homage in the honor
paid to the Sunday institution, that rests solely upon the authority of the Roman Church. {DD 27.1} Since the middle of the nineteenth century, students of prophecy in the United States have presented this testimony to the world. In the events now taking place is seen a rapid advance toward the fulfillment of the prediction. With Protestant teachers there is the same claim of divine authority for Sunday keeping, and the same lack of Scriptural evidence, as with the papal leaders who fabricated miracles to supply the place of a command from God. The assertion that God’s judgments are visited upon men for their violation of the Sunday-Sabbath, will be repeated; already it is beginning to be urged. And a movement to enforce Sunday observance is fast gaining ground. {DD 27.2} When God sends to men warnings so important that they are represented as proclaimed by holy angels flying in the midst of heaven, He requires every person endowed with reasoning powers to heed the message. The fearful judgments denounced against the worship of the beast and his image (Revelation 14:9-11), should lead all to a diligent study of the prophecies to learn what the mark of the beast is, and how they are to avoid receiving it. But the masses of the people turn away their ears from hearing the truth and are turned unto fables. The apostle Paul declared, looking down to the last days: “The time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine.” 2 Timothy 4:3. That time has fully come. The multitudes do not want Bible truth, because it interferes with the desires of the sinful, world-loving heart; and Satan supplies the deceptions which they love. {DD 37.1} In a view given June 27, 1850, my accompanying angel said, “Time is almost finished. Do you reflect the lovely image of Jesus as you should?” Then I was pointed to the earth and saw that there would have to be a getting ready among those who have of late embraced the third angel’s message. Said the angel, “Get ready, get ready, get ready. Ye will have to die a greater death to the world than ye have ever yet died.” I saw that there was a great work to do for them and but little time in which to do it. {EW 64.1} Then I saw that the seven last plagues were soon to be poured out upon those who have no shelter; yet the world regarded them no more than they would so many drops of water that were about to fall. I was then made capable of enduring the awful sight of the seven last plagues, the wrath of God. I saw that His anger was dreadful and terrible, and if He should stretch forth His hand, or lift it in anger, the inhabitants of the world would be as though they had never been, or would suffer from incurable sores and withering plagues that would come upon them, and they would find no deliverance, but be destroyed by them. Terror seized me, and I fell upon my face before the angel and begged of him to cause the
sight to be removed, to hide it from me, for it was too dreadful. Then I realized, as never before, the importance of searching the Word of God carefully, to know how to escape the plagues which that Word declares shall come on all the ungodly who shall worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands. It was a great wonder for me that any could transgress the law of God and tread down His holy Sabbath, when such awful threatenings and denunciations were against them. {EW 64.2} The pope has changed the day of rest from the seventh to the first day. He has thought to change the very commandment that was given to cause man to remember his Creator. He has thought to change the greatest commandment in the Decalogue and thus make himself equal with God, or even exalt himself above God. The Lord is unchangeable, therefore His law is immutable; but the pope has exalted himself above God, in seeking to change His immutable precepts of holiness, justice, and goodness. He has trampled underfoot God’s sanctified day, and, on his own authority, put in its place one of the six laboring days. The whole nation has followed after the beast, and every week they rob God of His holy time. The pope has made a breach in the holy law of God, but I saw that the time had fully come for this breach to be made up by the people of God and the waste places built up. {EW 65.1}
I pleaded before the angel for God to save His people who had gone astray, to save them for His mercy’s sake. When the plagues begin to fall, those who continue to break the holy Sabbath will not open their mouths to plead those excuses that they now make to get rid of keeping it. Their mouths will be closed while the plagues are falling, and the great Lawgiver is requiring justice of those who have had His holy law in derision and have called it “a curse to man,” “miserable,” and “rickety.” When such feel the iron grasp of this law taking hold of them, these expressions will appear before them in living characters, and they will then realize the sin of having that law in derision which the Word of God calls “holy, just, and good.” {EW 65.2} Then I was pointed to the glory of heaven, to the treasure laid up for the faithful. Everything was lovely and glorious. The angels would sing a lovely song, then they would cease singing and take their crowns from their heads and cast them glittering at the feet of the lovely Jesus, and with melodious voices cry, “Glory, Alleluia!” I joined with them in their songs of praise and honor to the Lamb, and every time I opened my mouth to praise Him, I felt an unutterable sense of the glory that surrounded me. It was a far more, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Said the angel, “The little remnant who love God and keep His commandments and are faithful to the end will enjoy this glory and ever be in the presence of Jesus and sing with the holy angels.” {EW 66.1}
Then my eyes were taken from the glory, and I was pointed to the remnant on the earth. The angel said to them, “Will ye shun the seven last plagues? Will ye go to glory and enjoy all that God has prepared for those who love Him and are willing to suffer for His sake? If so, ye must die that ye may live. Get ready, get ready, get re ady. Ye must have a greater preparation than ye now have, for the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Sacrifice all to God. Lay all upon His altar—self,property, and all, a living sacrifice. It will take all to enter glory. Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where no thief can approach or rust corrupt. Ye must be partakers of Christ’s sufferings here if ye would be partakers with Him of His glory hereafter.” {EW 66.2} Heaven will be cheap enough, if we obtain it through suffering. We must deny self all along the way, die to self daily, let Jesus alone appear, and keep His glory continually in view. I saw that those who of late have embraced the truth would have to know what it is to suffer for Christ’s sake, that they would have trials to pass through that would be keen and cutting, in order that they may be purified and fitted through suffering to receive the seal of the living God, pass through the time of trouble, see the King in His beauty, and dwell in the presence of God and of pure, holy angels. {EW 67.1}
As I saw what we must be in order to inherit glory, and then saw how much Jesus had suffered to obtain for us so rich an inheritance, I prayed that we might be baptized into Christ’s sufferings, that we might not shrink at trials, but bear them with patience and joy, knowing what Jesus had suffered that we through His poverty and sufferings might be made rich. Said the angel, “Deny self; ye must step fast.” Some of us have had time to get the truth and to advance step by step, and every step we have taken has given us strength to take the next. But now time is almost finished, and what we have been years learning, they will have to learn in a few months. They will also have much to unlearn and much to learn again. Those who would not receive the mark of the beast and his image when the decree goes forth, must have decision now to say, Nay, we will not regard the institution of the beast. {EW 67.2} What are you doing, brethren, in the great work of preparation? Those who are uniting with the world, are receiving the worldly mold, and preparing for the mark of the beast. Those who are distrustful of self, who are humbling themselves before God and purifying their souls by obeying the truth,—these are receiving the heavenly mold, and preparing for the seal of God in their foreheads. When the decree goes forth, and the stamp is impressed, their character will remain pure and spotless for eternity. {CET 191.1}
The worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment, since this is the sign of God’s creative power and the witness to His claim upon man’s reverence and homage. The wicked will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator’s memorial and to exalt the institution of Rome. In the issue of the conflict 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,” to receive the mark of the beast, yet the people of God will not receive it. Revelation 13:16. 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. {CCh 39. 6} Their only hope is in the mercy of God; their only defense will be prayer. As Joshua was pleading before the Angel, so the remnant church, with brokenness of heart and earnest faith, will plead for pardon and deliverance through Jesus their Advocate. They are fully conscious of the sinfulness of their lives, they see their weakness and unworthiness, and as they look upon themselves they are ready to despair. The tempter stands by to accuse them, as he stood by to resist Joshua. He points to their filthy garments, their defective characters. He presents their weakness and folly,
their sins of ingratitude, their unlikeness to Christ, which has dishonored their Redeemer. He endeavors to affright the soul with the thought that their case is hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will never be washed away. He hopes to so destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations, turn from their allegiance to God, and receive the mark of the beast. Satan urges before God his accusations against them, declaring that they have by their sins forfeited the divine protection, and claiming the right to destroy them as transgressors. He pronounces them just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favor of God. “Are these, ” he says, “the people who are to take my place in heaven and the place of the angels who united with me? While they profess to obey the law of God, have they kept its precepts? Have they not been lovers of self more than of God? Have they not placed their own interests above His service? Have they not loved the things of the world? Look at the sins which have marked their lives. Behold their selfishness, their malice, their hatred toward one another.” {CC h 352.3} The people of God have been in many respects very faulty. Satan has an accurate knowledge of the sins which he has tempted them to commit, and he presents these in the most exaggerated light, declaring: “Will God banish me and my angels from His presence, and yet reward those who have been guilty of the same sins? Thou canst not do this, O Lord, in justice. Thy throne will not stand in
righteousness and judgment. Justice demands that sentence be pronounced against them.” {CCh 353.1} But while the followers of Christ have sinned, they have not given themselves to the control of evil. They have put away their sins, and have sought the Lord in humility and contrition, and the divine Advocate pleads in their behalf. He who has been most abused by their ingratitude, who knows their sin, and also their repentance, declares: “‘The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.’ I gave My life for these souls. They are graven upon the palms of My hands.” {CCh 353.2} Said Jesus: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” If we are true servants of God, there should be no question in our minds as to whether we will obey His commandments or consult our own temporal interests. If the believers in the truth are not sustained by their faith in these comparatively peaceful days, what will uphold them when the grand test comes and the decree goes forth against all those who will not worship the image of the beast and receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands? This solemn period is not far off. Instead of becoming weak and irresolute, the people of God should be gathering strength and courage for the time of trouble. 4T 251.1
Jesus, our great Exemplar, in His life and death taught the strictest obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that the honor of God’s law might be preserved and yet man not utterly perish. Sin is the transgression of the law. If the sin of Adam brought such inexpressible wretchedness, requiring the sacrifice of God’s dear Son, what will be the punishment of those, who, seeing the light of truth, set at nought the fourth commandment of the Lord? 4T 251.2 Circumstances will not justify anyone in working upon the Sabbath for the sake of worldly profit. If God excuses one man, He may excus e all. Why may not Brother L, who is a poor man, work upon the Sabbath to earn means for a livelihood when he might by so doing be better able to support his family? Why may not other brethren, or all of us, keep the Sabbath only when it is convenient to do so? The voice from Sinai makes answer: “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” 4T 251.3 The Lord has shown me clearly that the image of the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided….7BC 976.2
This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed. All who proved their loyalty to God by observing His law, and refusing to accept a spurious Sabbath, will rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, and will receive the seal of the living God. Those who yield the truth of heavenly origin and accept the Sunday Sabbath, will receive the mark of the beast (Letter 11, 1890). 7BC 976.3 When the Protestant churches shall unite with the secular power to sustain a false religion, for opposing which their ancestors endured the fiercest persecution; when the state shall use its power to enforce the decrees and sustain the institutions of the church—then will Protestant America have formed an image to the papacy, and there will be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin (The Signs of the Times, March 22, 1910). 7BC 976.4 There are many who have never had the light. They are deceived by their teachers, and they have not received the mark of the beast. The Lord is working with them; He has not left them to their own ways. Until they shall be convicted of the truth and trample upon the evidence given to enlighten them, the Lord will not withdraw His grace from them (Letter 7, 1895). 7BC 976.5
All things in nature and in the world at large are charged with intense earnestness. Satan, in cooperation with his angels and with evil men, will put forth every effort to gain the victory, and will appear to succeed. But from this conflict, truth and righteousness will come forth triumphant in victory. Those who have believed a lie will be defeated, for the days of apostasy will be ended. —Manuscript 24, 1891. 3SM 393.3 We are to be ready and waiting for the orders of God. Nations will be stirred to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim God’s only standard of righteousness, the only sure test of character. And all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils and obey the national laws to exalt the sabbath ins tituted by the man of sin, to the disregard of God’s holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world, the image of the beast. 2SM 380.1