The Seal of
God and the Mark of Apostasy
Significance
of a Seal
What is the purpose
of a sign, or seal?
“Now, O king, issue
a decree and put in writing
so that it cannot be altered –
in accordance with the laws of the
Medes and Persians, which cannot
be repealed.”
Daniel 6:8.
Note – That is,
affix the signature of royalty, that
it may have the proper authority.
Anciently kings used a signet ring,
containing the name, initials, or
monogram, for this purpose. Jezebel,
the wife of Ahab, “wrote letters
in Ahab’s name, and
sealed them with his seal.” (1
Kings 21:8.) Of a Persian decree it
is said that “in the name
of King Ahasuerus was it written, and
sealed with the king’s ring.”
(Ester 3:12.)
What are the tree
essentials of an official seal?
The seal of the
lawgiver must show three things: (1)
his name; (2) his official position,
title, or authority, and so his right
to rule; and (3) the extent of his
dominion and jurisdiction.
God’s
Seal
What was the
prophet commanded to seal?
“Bind up the
testimony and seal up the law
among my disciples.” Isaiah
8:16.
What commandment alone
of the Decalogue reveals the name,
authority, and dominion of the Author
of this law?
“Remember the
Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six
days you shall labor and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it
you shall not do any work, neither
you, nor your son or daughter, nor
your manservant or maidservant, nor
your animals, nor the alien that is
within your gates. For in six days
the Lord made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, but he rested on the
seventh day. Therefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day and made it
holy.” Exodus 20:8-11.
Note – In six
days, (1) The Lord (name); (2) made
(office, Creator); (3) heaven and
earth (dominion); this commandment
alone, therefore contains “the
seal of the living God.” This
commandment shows God’s
authority to enact all the
commandments, and shows all other
gods to be false gods. The Sabbath
commandment therefore contains the
seal of God; and the Sabbath itself,
which is enjoined by the commandment,
is inseparably connected with this
seal. It is to be kept in memory of
God’s creation of all things,
and it is itself called a
“sign” of the knowledge of
this great truth. (Exodus 31:17;
Ezekiel 20:20.)
Why
is the Sabbath a sign between God and
His people?
“It will be a
sign between me and the Israelites
forever, for in six days the Lord
made the heavens and the earth, and
on the seventh day he abstained from
work and rested.” Exodus
31:17.
Note – The
Sabbath is a sign, or mark, or seal,
of the Creator.
In what two ways
does God say the Sabbath is a sign?
“Keep my Sabbaths
holy, that they may be a sign between
us. Then you will know that I am
the Lord your God.” Ezekiel
20:20. “Say to the Israelites,
‘You must observe my Sabbaths.
This is a sign between me and you for
the generations to come, so you may
know that I am the Lord, who makes
you holy.” Exodus 31:13.
Note – The
Sabbath is the sign of God’s
creative power, whether manifested in
creation or redemption; for
redemption is creation –
recreation. It requires the same
power to redeem that it does to create.
“Create in me a clean
heart.” Psalm 51:10. “We
are …created in Christ Jesus
unto good works.” Ephesians
2:10. God designed that each Sabbath
shall call Him to mind as the One who
created us and whose grace and
sanctifying power are working in us
to fit us for His eternal kingdom.
Special
Sealing Work Predicted
What special sealing
work is to take place just before the
letting loose of the four winds of
destruction upon the earth?
“Then I saw
another angel coming up from the
east, having the seal of the
living God. He called out in a
loud voice to the four angels who had
been given power to harm the land and
the sea: Do not harm the land or
the sea or the trees until we have
put a seal on the foreheads of the
servants of our God.”
Revelation 7:2,3. (See Ezekiel
9:1-6.)
What is said of the
character of the sealed ones?
“No lie was found
in their mouths; they are
blameless.” Revelation 14:5.
How
does the remnant church described by
the revelator?
“Then the dragon
was enraged at the woman and went off
to make war against the rest of her
offspring – those who obey
God’s commandments and hold to
the testimony of Jesus.”
Revelation 12:17.
God’s Special
Warning
What
threefold warning does the third
angel give?
“A third angel
followed them and said in a loud
voice: “if anyone worships the
beast and his image and receives his
mark on the forehead or on the hand,
he too, will drink of the wine of
God’s fury, which has been
poured full strength into the cup of
his wrath. He will be tormented with
burning sulfur in the presence of the
holy angels and of the Lamb.”
Revelation 14: 9, 10.
Note – The beast
with two horns like the Lamb, but
speaks like a dragon represents
Lucifer in human form. The devil and
his angels will be released from the
Abyss (the spirit realm) at the fifth
trumpet. (Revelation 9:1-11) These
evil beings will be given physical
bodies so the inhabitants of the
Earth can see them, touch them, and
freely talk with them. The image or
the leopard-like beast with seven
heads and ten horns represents
Babylon. (Revelation 14:8; 18:2-4)
Babylon will form during the first
four trumpets and rule over the world
as a church-state government.
By contrast with the
worshipers of the beast, how are the
worshipers of God described?
“This calls for
patient endurance on the part of the
saints who obey God’s
commandments and remain faithful to
Jesus.” Verse 12.
Note – The
keeping of the commandments
especially the seventh day Sabbath by
the worshipers of God and the
violation of these commandments by
the worshipers of the beast will
constitute the distinction between
the two classes of worshipers.
What
power is to enforce a certain mark?
“He also [the
beast with two horns or the devil]
forced everyone, small and great,
rich and poor, free and slave, to
receive a mark on his right
hand or on his forehead.”
Revelation 13:16.
Note – The beast
with two horns like the Lamb, but
speaks like a dragon, represents
Lucifer in human form.
The
Mark of Apostasy
What is the
Papacy’s mark, or sign, of
authority?
“Question –
How do you prove that the Church has
power to command feasts and holydays?
“Answer – By
the very act of changing the seventh
day Sabbath into Sunday the first day
of the week, which Protestants allow.
The true Sabbath being
a sign of loyalty to the true God, it
is but natural that the false Sabbath
should be regarded as a sign of
allegiance to the apostate church.
Such we find to be the case.
What
do Catholics say of Protestant Sunday
keepers?
“The observance
of Sunday by the Protestants is an
homage they pay, in spite of
themselves, to the authority of the
[Catholic] church.” Monsignor
Louis Segur, Plain truth About
Protestantism of Today (1868), p.
213.
Note – A full
realization of this fact will lead
those who honestly, but ignorantly,
have been observing Sunday as the
Sabbath, to refuse to pay homage to
apostasy, and to return to the
observance of that which is the sign
of loyalty to heaven - the only
weekly day of rest which God, in His
Word, has commanded men to keep holy,
the seventh day.
Persecution
of Commandment Keepers
How
will the dragon treat God’s
remnant people?
“Then the dragon
was enraged at the woman and
went off to make war against the rest
of her offspring – those who
obey God’s commandments and hold
to the testimony of Jesus.”
Revelation 12:17.
How far will the
enforcement of this mark be urged?
“He was given
power to give breath to the image of
the first beast, so that it could
speak and cause all who refused to
worship the image to be killed.
He also forced everyone, small and
great, rich and poor, free and slave,
to receive a mark on his right hand
or on his forehead, so that no one
could buy or sell unless he had the
mark, which is the name of the
beast or the number of his
mane.” Revelation 13:15-17.
Over what do the
people of God finally gain the
victory?
“And I saw what
looked like a sea of glass mixed with
fire and, standing beside the sea, those
who had been victorious over the
beast and his image and over the
number of his name.”
Revelation
