C0C?0?

Please Note:

This paper wa s presented to the

Daniel and Revelation Committee of
the General Conference of Seventh-
day Adventists. It should be
considered a working paper or draft
position. Therefore. the
researcher should bear in mind that
positions expres s ed in this paper
may not necessarily reflect what
the author would wish to be in an
edited publi s hed paper.
Please refer to the book, Symposium
on Revelation. published by the
Biblical Research Institute, 1992.

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ANDREWS UMlV~RS\ll THE MARK OF THE
BEAST
By C. Mervyn Maxwell
Andrews University
March, 1989

Preterists have said that the mark of the beast
(Rev 13-20) was something that Nero applied to
Christians. Not that preterists have ever proved
that Nero did apply a marktoChristians; they're
just certain that Nero was the beast. Dispensa-
tional futurists, on the other hand, have said
that it's the actual number 666, to be branded on
people in the end time by the ruler of a revived
Roman Empire. And Sabbath-keeping Adven-
tists since the 1840s have generally linked the
mark of the beast to Sunday keeping and the
Roman Catholic Church.1
The three interpretations cannot all be right;
but noteworthy is their agreement that the beast
has something to do with Rome.
In perceiving a relationship between the mark
of the beast and the church of Rome, Seventh-
day Adventists have had the support of
numerous commentators of the past. Questions
on Doctrine,2 cites John Purvey (Wycliffe's as-
sociate), Andreas Osiandet; Nikolaus von
Amsdor~ Heinrich Bullinget; Nicholas Ridley,
John N apiet; John Cotton, and other famous
men as samples of expositors who have as-
sociated the mark of the beast with papal
authority. Questions on Doctrine acknowledges,
howevet; that "none of these expositors, of the
centuries past, applied the mark of the beast
specifically to the Sabbath issue."
In recent times some Seventh-day Adventists
have taken up a new position, namely that the
mark of the beast is any form of false worship,3
but this broad interpretation does not seem to
have gained unanimous adoption.
The thesis of this paper is that the mark of the
beast is "committed end-time approval of coer-
cive Sunday-keeping in opposition to clear light
on the Sabbath question and in harmony with
classic Roman Catholicism."
In attempting to establish this position, no
attempt will be made to redo all that others on
the Daniel and Revelation Committee have al-
ready done.4 We'll begin with the statement of a
few hermeneutical principles and then list some
questions to be answered.
Some basic hermeneutical principles.
Some basic hermeneutical principles relevant to
our quest include:

lSee, e.g., Joseph Bates, The Seventh-day Sabbath a Perpetual Sign, 2d ed (New Bedford, 1847), p. 59: "Is it not
clear that the first day of the week for the Sabbath or holy day is a mark of the beast. It surely will be admitted
that the Devil was and is the father of all the wicked deeds of Imperial and papal Rome. It is clear then from
this history that Sunday, or fJ.rSt day, is his Sabbath throughout christendom."
2(Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1957), pp. 180-181. The authors credit vols. 3 and 4
of LeRoy Edwin Froom, Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, 4 vols. (Washington: Review and Herald Publishing
Association, 1946- 1954).
axxx
4Notably, William Johnsson, in the paper he presented at Marienhohe.
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unflnished), p. 2

Principle No. 1-That the Bible is an in-
spired unit. Though holy men spoke in different
ways, the God of truth spoke through them (Heb
1:1; 1 Pet 1:11; etc) and they therefore delivered
a unified message.
Principle No. 2-That Revelation is closely
linked to Daniel and to Matt 24-25 and to 2 Thess
2.5
____..
Principle No.3- That when Daniel, Matt
24-25, 2 Thess 2, and Revelation deal propheti-
cally with major political entities, they deal selec-
tively with those entities that most directly
affect GOd's worshipersL primarily Jews and
Christians and secondarily Moslems. As God's
people have extended their areas of habitation
from the Middle East to Europe, to the Americas,
and to most portions of the globe, prophetic
foresight has kept pace.
In the first century A.D., when prophetic ful-
fillment focused on events and persons in the
Roman Empire, four empires juxtaposed one
another in series across Eurasia, the Roman,
Parthian, Kushan, and Han Empires,6 but of
these empires, the Roman covered the territory
where most of the Jews and Christians lived at
the time. Thus it was that the Roman Empire
occupied a major . focus of Daniel's political
prophecies in the first century.
Principle No. 4-The major prophecies of
Revelation, like those of Daniel, Matt 24-25, and
2 Thess 2, (a) stretch from the prophet's day to
the second cominEV (b) deal mainly but not ex-
dusively7 with the harsh side of political and
reli ·o-politicai entlties, (c) warn of major a
•tasy and tn ation, and (d) promise a Christ-
. centered outCOme, wtfh rewards for the
~righteous and destruction for the wickeg.
Though these prophecies in general progress
from the prophet's day to the end of time, they
do not necessarily do so in simple sequential
narrative form.S
Principle No. 5-Four sweep-of-hisW!I
E.,_rophecies are to be found in Daniel (cbs. 2, 7,
8-9, 10-12) and four in Revelation (the letters,
the seals, the trumpets, and the great controver-
,&stocy).
Five questions to be discussed. The five
questions we'll try to answer are (A) Is the beast
that has the mark Roman Catholic? (B) Is the
mark of the beast presented in Revelation as an
end-time phenomenon? (C) Does the mark have
to do with. Sabbath and Sunday? (D) In the past
has the Catholic Church play an outstanding role
in coercively favoring Sunday at the expense of
Sabbath? and (E) What difference does it make?

A. Is the Beast that Has the Mark Roman Catholic?

That the sea beast is Rome or Roman is sug- been shown by many others to be Rome and even
.eestea at the outset by its obvious links with the the Roman Catholic Church.
little hom of the fourth beast of Dan 7, which has A chart confirms the comparison.

5A recent monograph linking Revelation with Daniel is G. K Beale, The Use of Daniel in Jewish Apocalyptic
Literature and in the Revelation of St. John (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, Inc., 1984). Another,
of course, is Jon Paulien's dissertation on the trumpets.
6See William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963), p. 317; also,
Maxwell, God Cares, 2 vols. (Boise: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1981, 1985) 1:36.
7 In contrast to Dan 7 and 8, Dan 2 presents human government at its best: the image is of "exceeding brightness,"
verse 31 RSV. In the seven letters of Revelation Christ compliments most of the churches. Even to Thyatira
He says, "I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works
exceed the fJ.rSt," Rev 2:19.
8Rev 12-14 in particular presents a braid rather than a thread of history, repeatedly backing up to augment
information presented earlier. See the Appendix.
 CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 3

The little horn The sea beast

Daniel 7 and 8
Speaks great words against God
Thinks to change time and law
Tramples on the sanctuary and the
host
Wears out the saints for a time, two
I. times, and half a time
Revelation 13
Utters blasphemies against God
Blasphemes God's name, His dwelling and those
who dwell in heaven
Makes war with the saints for forty-two months9

So what according to Daniel and Revelation
are the characteristic features or marks of the
sea beast? (1) Blaspheming God and changing
His law, (2) . undermining the ministry of the
~eavenly sanctua!ll and (3) oppressing God's
saints during a special .1260-day period.
The Catholic Church is avowedly Roman. Its
F ~
cated is called his "cathedral." The city in which
his throne is located is called his sedes in Latin
and in English, his "see." The ultimate see in
Catholicism is the Holy See, the city where the
Pope's throne is located. This ci~ is of course
Rome1 or more specifically, ;ince the 1929 Treaty
~f the Lateran with Italy, Vatican City, a 108.7

official name today, as it has been throughout
most of its long history, is The_Holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church of Rome. 10 And how did the
Catholic church come to possess its unique
Romanness?
"The dragon gave its power, throne, and great
authority to the beast," Rev 13:2.
A throne is a symbol of authority. But because
this passage already contains the words "power"
and "authority," we expect "throne" here to con-
vey a more literal meaning. Basically, a throne is
a place where an important person sits. Other
words for throne are the Greek cathedra and the
Latin sedes. In the Catholic church, the building
in which a bishop's throne (or cathedra) is lo-
acre tract on Vatican Hill, lying wholly within
Rome.
And how did the dragon, the Roman Empire,
give its power, its authority, and the place of its
rulership (its "throne," or see, or city) to the
Roman Church?
The familiar steps need no elaboration here.
The empire was named for the city of Rome,
being in fact an extention of Rome as a city-state
(analogous to the way the Roman Catholic
Church is, theologically and administratively, an
extension of Rome as a city-church.) Ronie was
by far the west's largest city. Revered as the
Eternal City, it pulsed with power and mystery.
And much of this formidable secular prestige

9The 1260 days are mentioned seven times, twice in Daniel and five times in Revelation: Dan 7:25; 12:7; Rev
11:2; 11:3; 12:6; 12:14; 13:5. There are not, (as some have suggested) several 1260-day periods. There is only
one. Its frequent mention calls attention to its vast importance.
lOJohn L. McKenzie, S.J., The Roman Catholic Church, ed. E. 0. James, History of Religion Series (New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Wmston, 1969), p. xii, asserts that "Roman Catholics believe that their Romanism is a
reflection of the authentic Christianity of their church." On the other hand, other attempts have been made
by some American Catholics to mute this Romanness, evidently to make it easier for Protestant Americans
to become Catholics. See, e.g., the widely distributed The Faith of Millions (Huntington, lnd: Our Sunday
VISitor, Inc., 1963, 1974), by John O'Brien who, like McKenzie, is also of the University of Notre Dame.
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 4

was inherited by the Roman pope.
The founding in 330 of Constantinople (now
Istanbul) as the empire's new capital placed the
imperial seat of government some 1300
kilometers or about 800 miles away to the east,
more than a month's marching time for an army.
Several emperors besides Constantine con-
~ed or offered power to the paf&2 Step by
step, the Roman Empre (the dragon) did indeed
give its powet; throne, and great authority to the
Catholic Church (the leopard-bodied sea beast).
A climax came in 538 when the armies of the
Empire drove the Arian Ostrogoths out of
Rome.ll By 538, therefore, the 1260 years could
begin.
,Catholic employment ofjudicial torture based
on Roman civil law reveals its ROmanness at its
worst. ROman law atlowed the suspicion that an
~ instruments like red hot pincers, the breast rip-
accused person was most probably guilty. Roman
judges therefore applied torture routinely to
force a person to confess his crime and regarded
such torture an appropriate part of the punish-
ment. When the Germanic tribes took over the
territory of the Roman Empire, the practice of
judicial torture largely ceased. When around 850
a church court torturoo the monk Gottschalk for
his non- Catholic views on predestination, the
people of Lyons protested, reminding their
bishop that they Bible says that persons over-
taken in a fault should be restored in a spirit of
gentleness.12 Says the New Catholic En-
cyclopedia:
revival of Roman law the practice was
reestablished in the 12th century. . . . In
1252 [Pope] Innocent IV sanctioned the
infliction of torture by the civil authot?.ti~
upon heretics, and torture came to have a
recognized place in the procedure of the
inquisitorial courts.13
In the most brutal and non-Christian aspect
of its medieval activity, the Roman Church ap-
pears as a direct and dynamic descendent of the
Roman Empire. The little hom emerged unmis-
takably from the head of the terrible beast.
People were turned upside down and sawn
down the middle; they were slowly pierced
through the body by spikes inside the iron
maiden ofNurenberg.Eighty-five percent of the
victims--some two to four million, we are told-
were women, excruciatingly tortured to death by
pet; and the expandable vaginal pear.14
The 1260 days. Is there a real basis for the
familiar Seventh-day Adventis~ition that th.!L
~ 1260 year-days ran from 538 t~98?
Laying aside, for the sake of argument, insis-
tence on precise dates (though these can be
defended), and painting with a large brush in-
stead, a clear and formicable case can be made
that the French Beyolution was a mighty epoch
.m arfe;_,fnd that~the close of the fourth- and the~
beginning of the fifth-centuries also marked a
eolloSal change of affairs in western Europe~
c: with enormous co~uences for the future.
I

Under the influence of Germanic customs

Edward Gibbon began the second division of
and concepts, torture was little used from
his Decline and Fall with the age of Justinian.
the 9th to the 12th centuries, but with the

llFor a brief account, see God Cares, 1:145-147; for a longer one, see Maxwell, "An Exegetical and Historical
Examination of the Beginning and Ending of the 1260 Days of Prophecy, With Special Attention Given to AD.
538 and 1798 as Initial and Terminal Dates" (master's thesis, The Seventh- day Adventist Theological
Seminary, 1951.
12See George E. McCracken and Allen Cabaniss, eds., Early Medieval Theology, in John Baillie, John T. McNeill,
and Henry P. VanDusen, eds., The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1957)
9:168-169.
13New Catholic Encyclopedia, art. "Torture."
14 Robert Held, Inquisition/Inquisici6n: A Bilingual Guide to ••• Torture Instruments (Florence: Qua d' Arno,
Publishers, 1985.
 CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfinished), p. 5
He had good reason to. The close of the fifth and
beginning of the sixth centuries marked a
genuine turning point with (a) collapse ofRoman
civilization15 and (b) the collapse of Christianity,
in addition to the better known data about (c) the
virtual extinction of the third Arian tribe and (d)
the virtual papal take-over of Rome in 538-and
(e) the epochal significance of the French
Revolution 1260 years later.
More needs to be said about the relative de-
Christianization of Europe with the barbarian
invasions and subsequent re-Christianization. A
modern illustration can be seen, say, in Macau, a
small Portuguese (hence Catholic) colony on the
coast of China. The influx of half a million
Chinese in recent decades has not pushed Chris-
tianity into the South China Sea; the Catholic
Church still operates some churches, schools,
and orphanages there and other denominations
have small units as well. But the overwhelming
impression is of Buddhism and materialism,
church attendance is almost nonexistent, and
the children who fill the Catholic schools are
/ largely Chinese non-Christians. ]
An analogous situation seems to have ob-
tained in formerly Roman Europe by the early
500s. Only three tribes were Christian, and they
wereArian.
But by the time these three tribes were wiped
out, the vigorous Franks had taken on the
Catholic faith. Europe was re-Christianized
from the British Isles as well as from elsewhere,
but when the process was largely completed, a
couple of centuries or so latet; Roman Catholic
theology and practice had triumphed.
Meanwhile, the Greek Orthodox church ex-
perienced a steady decline in its territory, both in
15 See a paper by Daniel Augsburger
16 See, for example, Judith Herrin, The Formation ofChristendom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987) .
.f: and the re-Christianization had begun along Catholic lines
17John Adolphus, The History ofFrance, vol. 2 (London: George Kearsley, 1803), p. 365.
members and in economics.16
The mortal wound. In 1798, 1260 years
latet; the Pope was taken into captivity and the
Catholic Church was dealt a mortal blow. It hap-
pened just as Revelation had foretOld, with
remarkable accuracy.
The papacy had experienced other military
defeats and even captivities during its long 1260'
years, but thiS one was uni ue in two hi
significant ways. t came as the climax of several ~
centuries of decline in the influence of 0-~
Catholicism on the minds of Europeans, and it
was not merely a military coup but was a stroke
deliberately intended to terminate the papacy.
During the French Revolution and under or-
ders from the revolutionary French government,
General Alexander Berthier issued a proclama-
tion in Rome on February 15, 1798, informing
Pope Pius VI and the people of Rome that the
Pope should should no longer "exercise any func-
tion."17
Richard Duppa, a British writer who was in
Rome at the time, says that the pope was ar-
rested in the Sistine Chapel while he was
celebrating the twenty-third anniversary of his
coronation and receiving the congratulations of
the Cardinals. Citizen Hallet; the French com-
missary-general, and Cervoni, who commanded ~l
the French troops in Rome under General Ber- ~·
thiet; "gratified themselves in a peculiar triumph
over this unfortunate potentate. During that
ceremony they both entered the chapel, and
Haller announced to the sovereign pontiff on his
throne, that his reign was at an end. The poor
old man seemed shocked at the abruptness of
this unexpected notice but soon recovered him-
self with becoming fortitude." The Pope's Swiss
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unf'mished), p. 6

guards were dismissed and Republican soldiers

were installed in their place.18
In spite of the pope's advanced age and frail
health (he was in his 80s), he was hustled off by
French soldiers to a string of different addresses
in Italy and southern France. He died in prison
in the fortress city of Valence on August 29, 1799.
For awhile his body was left lying around un-
buried. In the words of George Trevot;
The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of
its existence remained; and among all the
Roman Catholic powers, not a finger was
stirred in its defense. The Eternal City
had no longer prince or pontiff; its bishop
was a dying captive in foreign lands; and
the decree was already announced that no
successor would be allowed in his place.19
About a century latet; Joseph Rickaby, a Jesuit
Priest, observed that when, in August 1799, Pope
Pius VI passed away as a French prisonet; "half
Europe thought ... that with the Pope the Papacy
was dead. "20
I had occasion once to examine the memoirs
of Don Manuel de Godoy, prime minister of
Catholic Spain at the time of the pope's captivity.
I found no reference to the event. Even this
important Catholic statesman didn't care
enough about the pope to comment on his
troubles.21
We have glanced at beginning-and-ending
events that seem to confirm our hypothesis that
the Roman Church is the fulfillment of the sea
beast.

B. Is the Mark of the Beast an End-Time Phenomenon?

Is the mark of the beast an end-time
phenomenon?
Yes, it must be. It is mentioned in Revelation
only in connection with end-time events.
1. The lamb-homed earth beast seeks to im-
pose it during its campaign to increase the wor-
ship of the sea beast, after the sea beast has
recovered from its deadly wound. And the wound
isn't even inflicted until the close of the 1260
days (around 1798). ·
2. The third angel issues its dire and dramatic
warning against reception of the mark of the
beast, and its message is delivered after the first
angel has already announced the arrival of judg:_
ment hour (1844).
3. The first plague falls on those who have the

18,f. Richard Duppa, A BriefAccount ofthe Subversion ofthe Papal Government. 1798, 2d ed. (London: G. G. and
J. Robinson, 1799), pp. 46, 47.
19 George Trevor, Rome: From the Fall of the Western Empire (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1868), p.
440.
20 J oeeph Rickaby, "The Modem Papacy," in Lectures on the History ofReligions, vol. 3, lecture 24, p. 1 (London:
Catholic Truth Society, 1910).
21 Don Manuel de Godoy, Prince of the Peace: Memoirs of Don Manuel de Godoy, J. B. Desmenard, ed. and trans.
2 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1836.)
 CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 7

mark of the beast, and the plagues begin after
......the heavenly sanctuary is closed up.
Although the general characterics of the sea
beast are portrayed in Rev 13:5-10, it's "mark"
is not mentioned there, nor any attempt during
the 1260 years to get it imposed on anyone.
Nor is the mark of the beast mentioned in
- connection with the judgments associated with
the seven trumpets or the seven seals. I
,_ e
It is an end-time phenomenon.22

C. Is the Mark of the Beast Conce~ed Primarily with the Sabbath-Sun-

day Question or With False Worship in General?
The mark of the beast cannot be just any
system of false worship. It's not the mark of the
dragon, nor the mark of Islam. It's the mark of
\he beast, just as the image of Rev 13 is the image
of the beast. If we are to be faithful to Scripture,
we must limit the possibilities to elements of
Roman Catholicism.
Furthet; the mark is pointedly related to com-
mandment keeping, which brings us to Her-
meneutical PnncTpal No. 6-Eacb of the four_
<r
divisions of the first half of Revelation is intro-
duce<I by a sanctuary scene, focused on a dif:.. '
ferent item of furniture, dra'wing attention on
the division's primary messa~.23 The fourth of
these introductory scenes is &v 11:19-
God's temple in heaven was opened, and
the ark of his covenant was seen within
his temple; and there were flashes of
lightning, voices, peals of thundet; an
earthquake, and heavy hail.
Of salient importance is the observation that
with this introduction focused on the ark in the
most holy place, Rev 12-14 is the only division in
which God's peQple are defined as command- 1
ment keepers (unless 22:14 is another such /
place) and they are so defined there twice, in
12:17 and 14:12.
That the commandment emphasis is directed
to Sabbath observance is partly confirmed by the
call in the first angel's message to worship God,
"who made heaven and earth, the sea and the
fountains ofwatet;" virtually a citation from the
Sabbath commandment.
The mark of the beast is opposed to the seal
of -God-as Sir ISaac Newton observed24 long
before there was a Seventh-day Adventist.

22That is, it is an end-time phenomenon if the first angel's message is in fact an announcement about the arrival
of judgment hour, if the plagues are not the same as the trumpets, and if the 1260 days follow rather than
precede the deadly wound. For an examination of the interpretation of TJA:fJev in Rev 14:6, and of the
significance if any of the absence of Kat etdov in Rev 13:5, see the appendix. As for the plagues, we'll not
reinvent the wheel. Kenneth A Strand has ably demonstrated that the trumpets belong in the historical half
of Revelation, stretching from the prophet's day to the second coming, and that the plagues belong in the
end-time half of the book. I have done the same, building on Strand's arguments, in God Cares, vol 2.
23The church letters are introduced by a lampstand scene, calling attention to Christ's personal interest in His
church; the seals, by a throne (table of shewbread?) scene of God power and Christ's redemptive grace, assuring
us of heaven's concern for souls under persecution and distress; the trumpets, by a scene at the golden altar,
from whence God's people's prayers are answered through judgments on their enemies. The flrBt division of
the second or end-time half of Revelation deals with the seven plagues which fall after probation's close;
appropriately, its sanctuary scene shows the temple shut up.
24See again Questions on Doctrine, p. 180.
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 8

The first Sabbath-keeping Adventist to define
the seal as the Sabbath was Ellen G. White,
which brings us to Hermeneutical Principle
No. 7-Ellen G. White's intewret.ations of the
Bible should be taken seriously unless we find
clear reason to oppose them. Her writings have
proved of great blessing to millions of people of
various faiths. Seventh-day Adventists ought not
to "shoot themselves in the foot" by undervalu-
ing them.
In his Vindication of the Sabbath, the book
Joseph Bates was writing in the fall of 1848 with
a York shilling in his pocket, Bates defined the
seal of God (Rev 7: 1-3) as character develop-
ment:
... just as it will be in the last days, when
the 144,000, all of the living children, are
sealed with the seal of the living God in
their foreheads, having been marked or
sealed in a similar manneJ; and by the
remnant of the messengers that four
years ago were writing, lecturing and ex-
horting the people of God to get clear of
the mark of the beast by coming out of
Babylon, because she had fallen; develop-
ing their true profession, or christian
characteJ; even then ... ; with this dif-
ference, that this simultaneous sealing of
. the 144,000 will show such a clear
developement of christian chracter in
their lives and shining foreheds (or faces,)
that it will be clearly understood that
Jesus has redeemed them from all iniq-
uity, by purifying "unto himself a peculiar
people, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. "25
But at DorchesteJ; Mass., the following
November 18 or 19, Ellen G. White had a vision
in which she saw the seal of God as the Sabbath-
rising like the sun in the east and sending outs SQ.l-- ~\-lr"'
its ever increasing rays of light.26 ~ t'
Ellen White did not see that her concept of the ~;1..\Juv-l,
Sabbath negated Bates's view that it involved e"'
character development. She combined the views,
and enriched them with Christ's righteousness:
"In 1882 she wrote,
Not one of us will ever receive the seal of
God while our characers have one spot or
stain upon them. It is left with us to
remedy the defects in our characters, to
cleanse the soul temple of every defile-
ment. Then the latter rain will fall upon
us as the early rain fell upon the disciples
on the day of Pentecost.27
It; incidentally, this seems frightening, notice
that on the next page she added,
No one need say that his case is hopeless,
that he cannot live the life of a Christian.
... Jesus is our ever-present help in time
of need. Only call upon him in faith, and
he has promised to hear and answer your
petitions. Oh, for a living, active faith!
In 1898, in The Desire of Ages, she spoke of
the Sabbath-sign as set firmly in the righteous-
ness of Christ:
God designed that its [the Sabbath's] ob-
servance should designate them [the
Jews] as His worshipers. It was to be a
token of their separation from idolatry,
and their connection with the true God.
But in order to keep the Sabbath holY. men
~ust t1iemselves be holy. Through faith
they must become partakers of the

25 Vindication, p. 96.
26Joseph Bates, A Seal ofthe Living God: A Hundred Forty- Four Thousand, ofthe Servants ofGod Being Sealed,
in 1849 (New Bedford, 1849), pp. 25, 26; cf. Ellen G. White, Life Sketches, p. 125. Bates commented on p. 31
that he had seen Mrs. White have many visions in the foregoing two years, and "in every instance they have
been in accordance with God's word: setting the promises of God, and the closing scenes around us in
harmonious, scriptural order, leaving the hearers the privilege of searching the scriptures for the proof, and
also in rebuking sins of omission and commission, without partiality to friend or foe, .. " (emphasis supplied).
27Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, 5:214.
..
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 9
righteousness of Christ. When the command
was given to Israel, "Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy," the Lord said also to them,
D. Did Medieval Roman Christianity Play an Outstanding Role in op-
posing the Sabbath and Enforcing Sunday?
Did Medieval Roman Christianity play an out-
standing role in opposing the Sabbath and en-
forcing Sunday-a role that could appropriately
be termed the "mark of the beast"?
Indeed it did! And the story of what happened
is important if we are to view the Roman Church
in true perspective.
Early in the second century the Sabbath was
already rather generally lost sight of; and Sunday
widely celebrated. This rejection of the Sabbath
and favoring of Sunday was not confined to
Rome-nor to Alexandria and Rome-despite a
widespread impression among sabbatarians
today that this was the case.
Examination of extant literature reveals the
same Sabbath-Sunday theology all around the
Mediterranean basin. Sunday was honored in
favor of the resurrection of Christ and Sabbath
was downgraded as applicable only to Jews.
When Justin said that "Sunday is the day on
which we all in cities and country places as-
semble in one place," he was speaking as a widely
traveled person, who had been born in Palestine,
had lived apparently for some time in Ephesus,
and who even in later life did not live continuous-
ly at Rome.29
A decade or two after Justin's death, Hegesip-
pus traveled (around 180) from Palestine to
Rome. A report he made confirms the
widespread nature of Sunday observance; for in
it he said that all along his route he found similar
customs being observed in the Christian centers.
Further Ireneaus, bishop in France around
the same date (180), denied that Christians
28Ellen G. White, The Desire ofAges, p. 283. Emphasis supplied.
29 In his martyrology he is quoted as having said at his trial that he then in Rome for the second time. We do
not even know where he was living when he wrote in his First Apology, about Christians everywhere meeting
on Sunday.
"Ye shall be holy men unto Me." Ex. 20:8;
22:31. Only thus could the Sabbath distin-
guish Israel as the worshipers of God.28
needed to be told to "keep one day idle." Arguing
against the Gnostics, he insisted that Jesus did
not break the Sabbath-but went on to say that
Jesus kept it on the basis that "Jerusalem [was]
then dwelling in safety." Once the temple was
destroyed, the law of Moses and its Sabbath were
terminated. Incredibly, for Irenaeus, the
"decalogue" did not enjoin the literal Sabbath.
Nor did it for Theophilus, like Irenaeus a
bishop about the same time but in Antioch at the
other end of the Mediterranean. In quoting the
ten commandments in his Apology toAutolycus,
he omitted the fourth and made up the space
with various brief Mosaic instructions.
In North Africa a couple of decades later
(around 20.0 or so) Tertullian, like Ireneaus,
defended Jesus against the Gnostic charge that
He broke the Sabbath; but Tertullian proceeded
to say that the Sabbath was abolished, not by a
different God from the one who made it as the
Gnostics averred, but by the very same God who
made it.
This does not mean that no one observed the
true Sabbath in the second and third centuries.
-Justin knew of some Jewish and even Gentile
Christians who were observing it, and Tertullian
knew a certain few (pauculos quosdam) who
annoyed him by insisting on standing joyously
for prayer on Sabbath the way everyone did on
Sunday. We may assume further that the com-
ments made by Barnabas in Alexandria, by Ig-
natius to the Magnesians, and later by Victorinus
of Pettau imply the existence in those places of
scattered observers of the true Sabbath in the
second and third centuries.
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 10
But undoubtedly the Sabbath was largely lost
sight of at that time.
When we tum to documents from the fourth
century, howevet; we are almost startled by the
change in attitude. My students never fail to note
the sudden shift as I give them the documents
each year.
It is during the fourth century, around 360,
that the Council of Laodicea required that the
gospels be read and the Lord's supper celebrated
on Sabbath every week. The action was as much
in favor of the Sabbath as against it; but Laodicea
was only a regional synod and was not immedi-
ately binding everywhere, though later on its
canons were endorsed by a General [i.e., mostly
Eastern] Council.
At the end of the fourth century Epiphanius,
in his famous Panarion, a massive study of 80
heresies, rejoiced that Christians_had the "great
circumcision" in place of the little circumcision,
the "great Lamb" in place of the little lamb, and
the "great Sabbath" in placeofthelittle Sabbath.
The "great Sabbath" was an ostensibly sabbatic
way of holy living which ignored the literal day.
When Epiphanius mentioned the Sabbath
again, he observed (near the end of the fourth
century) that in a few places (tv nat de T01totr)
Christians were in fact assembling on the literal
Sabbath.
By the middle of the fifth centu
t ad become so widespreag
tli.at Socrates of Constantinople couldreport in
his Church History, 5.22, that in "all churches,
except ·those at Alexandria and at Rome the
.... . . ' became stereotyped and weak.
sacred mystenes were being celebrated on the
Sabbath of every week." (The statement should
· not be supposed to connote holy Sabbath keep-
ing. It speaks only of the celebration of the the
Lord's Suppet; "the sacred mysteries," on the
Sabbath. But nothing of the sort was common in
the second century, according to our sources.)
Fbat we are dealing with here is not the
tapering out of a long tradition of Sabbath obsel-
~ance but a resurgence or revival of intexmt in~
30 Benjamin ~eo~ge Wllkinson, Truth Triumphant: The Church in the Wilderness (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific
Press Publishing Association, 1944) was a pioneer, if an inaccurate one, in this interpretation.
the Sabbath. Many factors appear to have con-
tributed to this new interest in the Sabbath, one
of which appears to have been the spread of
monasticism from Egypt in the late 300s and
early 400s. It is notable that the ~~nee of
Sabbath-Sunday lectionaries is attested only
from the fourth century onward. It is notable,
too, that in western Europe, it was Cassian, a
monk, who advocated some kind of Sabbath ob-
servance along with Sunday (around 415-430),
and that he advocated it to no avail.
We summarize before proceeding: Sunday ob-
servance and Sabbath rejection were not charac-
teristic of the Roman church alone in the early
centuries; they were characteristic of the state of
Christianity at the time. This observation is in
harmony with Paul's statement that the mystery
of iniquity was already at work even in the mid-
dle of the first century. It is also in harmony with
two references in GC 444 to the perilous
"spiritual declension" from truth and purity
which took place "in the first centuries."
In connedection with the fourth- and fifth-
centu revival we have been speakin 0 the
Sabbath quickly came to be honored along with
Sunday in the Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, and
'Greek OrthOdox Churches. The African church
accepted it partially too~as evidenced in the
writings of Augustine. But the African church
was wiped out in the Moslem invasion of the
seventh century. As for the Coptic and Armenian
Churches (and the Nestorian Church, which
didn't accept the Sabbath), though permitted by
their Moslem overlords to continue to exist, they
The church that turned out to be the most
dynamic of all was the church of the Roman
west, and it was this church which conspicuo~
opposed the Sabbath and enforced Sunday al-
most as if it were the Sabbath. 30Thus the
Roman church becam ost authentic fu -
lllment of the little hom of Dan 7 and the ~
oeast of Rev 13J!t that it did more than any of
t'he others to change times and the laws and to
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 11
blaspheme the sanctuary of God; and it per-
secuted in the process. It was characterized,
marked, by a coercive attitude toward Sunday in
opposition to the true Sa th.
Against the Quartodeclmans. Rome's
potential for antagonism to the Sabbath and
coercive endorsement of Sunday appeared early.
Before the end of the second century, Victor I,
bishop of.Rome, became irritated by the custom
of the Quartodecimans of Asia of observing
Easter on the 14thofNisan, regardlessoftheday
of the week on which it fell. This is generally
known.
What is not so widely recognized is that the
church of Rome was no different from all the
other churches of the world that we know of in
its preference for celebrating Easter on Sunday.
When preparing to launch his attack against the
Quartodecimans, Bishop Victor conducted a poll
of the pastors of the main city churches in the
Roman Empire. Eusebius reports that Victor
received replies in favor of Easter Sunday from
the bishops of Caesarea, Jerusalem, Corinth,
Gaul, Osrhoene, and in Pontus, along with "a
good many others." Later in his account,
Eusebius has occasion to refer to the bishops in
Tyre and Ptolemais, and Alexandria. All of the
churches that these bishops represenied favored
a Sunday Easter. But the only one of them that
was prepared to excommunicate the Quar-
todecimens was the church in Rome. Indeec(
after Victor excommunicated the Quar-
todecimans, he was rebuked by several of the
bishops. The rebuke from Bishop Irenaeus is
preserved by Eusebius. Here is a beginning
ofRome's coercive defense of Sunday.
The Roman Sabbath fast. Shortly after the
Quartodeciman Controversy, that is, about A.D
200, the church of Rome began to enforce a
Sabbath fast as a continuation of the reguiar
Friday half-fast which many Christians at the
time were observing. Most other churches
refused to go along, and the only ones that ended
up observing Rome's Sabbath fast turned out to
be those in western Europe under Rome's
strongest influence. The big church in Milan, for
example, simply capitulated to Rome only after
a long struggle.
Refusal to adopt the Sabbath revival.
Later in this fourth century, as the Sabbath
sprea WI monas CJSm rom gypt, the Chris-
tians in western Euro were cons icuous fo
. not adopting it. We have mentioned that Cassian
tried to introduce it in southern France in vain.
Now The Convert's Catechism is widely
quoted by all of us for its statement that the
Catholic church at the Council of Laodicea
around 360 transferred th; solemnity of the day
from Sabbath to Sunday. This statement is a
remarkable claim by the Catholic church, but it
ISn't good hiStory. The Council ofLaodicea was~
local Eastern synod at which, so far as we know,
Rome had no voice. Its demand that the Lord's
supper be celebrated and the gospels read on
Sabbath reflected the Eastern Greek attitude to
the Sabbath and was contrary to what was going
on at that time in the West.
2 Thess 2 said that the man of sin would be
hindered until the power that was hindering him
was taken out of the way. Dan 7:24,25 portrayed
a time when the ten horns would rise on the head
of the beast, after which the little hom would
emerge and grow to become more stout than his
fellows, and in the process uproot three horns.
Put togethet; these statements bid us look for
some change in the Roman church as the tribes
invaded and pagan Rome was taken out of the
way and three of the horns were plucked up-
and as the dragon of Rev 12-14 gave the sea beast
its powet; seat, and great authority.
We know that in the fifth century the tribes
invaded the Roman empire en masse, and soon
the western empire was populated with people
who were either pagan ot; in the case of three of
the tribes, Arian. With the ultimate decline of the
West and the transference of imperial govern-
ment to Constantinople, the bishop of Rome, as
we all know, became a dominant figure in Italy.
Armies from Second Rome (Constantinople)
destroyed the Arian tribes which inhibited the
pope for awhile. This left western Europe almost
entirely in the political hands of pagan powers.
Almost, but not quite. For just before the Arian
Vandals and Arian Ostrogoths were liquidated,
the Franks opted for Christianity, and of the
Roman type at that.
The Council of Orleans, 538. In 538, the
year when the back of the Ostrogoths was broken
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 12
at Rome, the year that we perceive as the com-
mencement of the 1260 days, a church council in
Orleans passed its 28th canon, which required
the cessation of active farm work on the Sunday
in order to allow agricultural workers to attend
church. This Catholic Sunday law differed from
Constantine searlierlawofMarc , 321,in that
it was expressly religious, freed agricultural
workers (who were not freed by Constantine's
law of March 7, 321),and was enacted by the
church rather than by the state.
Isidore of Seville exalts Sunday above
Sabbath. During the sixth century the tribes in
Spain became Catholic. Thus around the years
600 Isidor of Seville (560-636) would write,
It is clear that Sunday was already very
solemn in the Holy Scriptures. It is indeed
the first day of the world, the day when
the angels were created; the day when
Christ was resurrected; the day when the
Holy Spirit fell upon the apostles; the day
when the manna was given for the first
time in the wilderness. . . . Is not the
Sabbath the seventh day which follows
Sunday? It must be, therefore, on Sunday
that manna fell for the first time. For the
Jews already . then our Sunday was
greater than Sabbath.
Dr. Daniel Augsburger has observed31says
that this statement by Isidor was copied ver-
batim by Bede in Britain, by Alcuon, the British
scholar who served conspicuously in the court of
Charlemagne, and by Rabanus Maurus, ninth-
century Archbishop of Mainz.
The Letter from the Lord. About this same
time, near the beginning of the 1260 days, as
western Europe was being converted to Roman
Catholicism, appeared the famous "Letter from
the Lord," sometimes known as the "Letter from
Heaven." It seems to have appeared first in one
of the Mediterranean islands off the east coast
of Spain. From there it traveled far to the north
and easrt and was still being quoted centuries
31 In Kenneth A Strand, ed., The Sabbath in Scripture and History (Washington: Review and Herald Publishing
Association, 1982), p. 191. ·
later. Under the most terrible threatening, this
document called on people to "keep My com-
mandments and venerate the holy day of the
Lord."
Remember the tables of Moses My ser-
vant [it went on], and the law and
precepts which I gave him to preach to the
peoples, that they might fear Me and keep
My law." "If you do not correct your ways
I will send you worms and locusts that will
eat your harvests and rapacious bulls that
will devour you, because you did not keep
the holy day of the Lord. Anyone who does
not keep it will be accursed. On the Lord's
day you must not wash your clothes nor
wash or cut your hair. Whoever does so, let
him be accursed. I tell you once more that
I was ... resurrected on the Lord's day. ..
. In that day I made heaven and earth ..
.and sanctified the day of the Lord and
established the observance of the rest to
everyone on that day. ...
Mediaeval Handbooks of Penance. To
save time, we pass over punishments for Sunday
breaking in the various handbooks of penance,
which were prepared for priests during the Mid-
dle Ages in western Europe. For washing one's
head on Sunday, for example, weeks of fasting
and even excommunication in extreme cases
might be required.
The Great Schism of 1054. Arguably the
most dramatic evidence ' ·
pre erence for Sunda in o
researches of R. L. Odom, reported in the first
issue of Andrews University Seminary Studies
(1963) under the title, "The Sabbath in the Great
Schism of A. D. 1054," show that "one of the
main issues involved in "the cleavage between
east and west in 1054 was the matter of fasting
or celebrating on the Sabbath, the seventh day
of the week."
Sabbath observance was not the only bone of
 CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 13
contention, of course. The use of unleavened
bread in the communion service, celibacy of the
lower clergy, and the primacy of the pope were
other issues.
The southernmost portion of Italy had been
colonized in pre-Christian centuries by Greeks.
In fact, the name "Greece" was first applied to
that part of the world rather than to the
homeland. The Greek- speaking Christians of
the eleventh century in southern Italy were more
in fellowship with the Greek Orthodox Church
than with the Roman Catholic. But they lived in
juxtaposition to Roman Catholics. It was for this
reason then that their refusal to observe the
Sabbath fast, so dear to the Romans, ultimately
resulted in friction. Correspondence was
engaged in and the ire of Pope Leo XIX was
aroused.
The legates from Rome finally placed the
famous bull of excommunication on the high
altar of the church of Hagia Sophia, at 9:00 in
the morning on July 12, a Sabbath morning.
They were irritated because the deacons were
preparing to celebrate the Lord's supper on that
day.
Cardinal Humbert, one of the Roman legates,
soon thereafter wrote a treatise about the matter
in which he ~ticized the Eastern Christians for
carrying on "an observance of the Sabbath
·s imilar to that of the Jews, and in which he
' rec1ted a probably legendary statement at-
tributed to Pope Sylvester in the time of Con-
stantine in which that bishop had said that
Christians should celebrate the Lord's day on
account of the resurrection as a day of joy but
that "every Sabbath day [on account] of the
burial is to be estimated in execration of the
Jews."
But Patriarch Michael Serularius went so far
on behalf of the Greek church as to say that "we
-are commanded also to honor the Sabbath equ'!l-
.."ly with the [Sunday] lord's [day], and to keep (i2,
and not to work on it."
The sequel was that the Roman church began
to dedicate Sabbath to the Blessed Virgin, result-
32Augsburger in The Sabbath in Scripture, p. 106.
ing in the celebrarion of Our Lady's day next to
the celebration of the Lord's day.
This act of the Roman church in excom-
munieatingmillions of fellow Christians beca~
ey 1ns1S on mn some n s ·al on Sab-
bath epitomizes Rome's eligibili as the fulfiller
o the little horn prophecy of Dan 7:24,25 and the
sea-beast prophecy of Rev 13.
Thomas Aquinas. But the Roman Church
went even further. In the thirteenth century
Thomas Aquinas, whose authority as a Catholic
theologian is unequalled, declared specifically,
In the New Law the keeping of the Sunday
supplants that of the Sabbath, not in vir-
tue of the precept of the law, but through
determination by the church and the cus-
tom of the Christian people.
Thomas distinguished between moral and
ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath command-
ment, insisting that the day on which the com-
mandment was to be observed was ceremonial
and hence subject to the church's power of the
keys. Even the Sabbath's moral aspects were to
be imposed less strictly under gospel freedom.
Sabbath keeping as sin. Then Thomas
proceeded to make the literal keeping of the
Sabbath commandment a very grievous sin.32
When a church in the name of Christ declares
the keeping of a commandment to be a very
grievous sin, that church has surely "spoken
great things against the most High." When that
same church transfers the authority of the
fourth commandment to Sunday and does so
whimsically on the basis of what it feels is impor-
tant and what isn't, it has_surely sought to
"change times and the law."
Worldwide opposition to Sabbath. There
is more to be said. If today the American con-
tinents and much of what we call the third world
has been more or less Christianized, the credit
goes to western Europe. It was done either by
Roman Catholics or by Protestants, who
emerged out of the Roman background. It is
widely conceded that the Protestant churches
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 14
did not come all the way out of ROme. And among
the features of Rome which Protestans took with
them were both the observance of Sunday and
the insistence that Sabbath ought not to be ob-
served.
The mark of the beast. At which point we
repeat what we said somewhere _above, that the
mark of the beast is not merely Sunday obser-
vance. Portrayed in the Bible as a sin, it must be
Cd' v(
B £). The Mark of the Beast an End-Time Phenomenon.
WhyisthecoerciveSunday-keepingoftheend
time designated "mark of the beast," when the
Bible doesn't seem to apply the term to Chris-
tians of earlier days?
Perhapsthetermisintroducedin theend time
tOoesignate a new depth of sinfulness.1The coer-
cive anti-Sabbath Sunday theology of the Middle
. ha t it an aura of ignorance. People
seem not to have realized that Sabbath could
possibly be the right day. We note that with the
rise of Puritanism in Britain and its sabbatic
Sunday, there arose a great agitation about the
Sabbath question. But the Sabbath question
.then in vogue had nothing to do with the choice
of the day to be observed but only with the way
it was to be observed. Hardly any sabbatic
Puritans seem to have countenanced the idea
that Sunday could be the wrong day. They
believed that the seventh day was a perpetual
sign of the New Covenant. With reasoning that
doesn't convince us but that seemed logical
enough to those intelligent people, they insisted
that God had shifted the seventh day from Sab-
bath to Sunday, while still keeping it the seventh
day.
ho. -..1e
But in the end time we u)idetstami tlt&t the
preaching or the three angels' messages; and the.
~experience o 200 ea s o reli ious reedom ·
"'the United States give~veryone a thorough
'opportunity to contrast the wickedness of coer-
f'cive Sunday legislation with the innocence of
'true religious freedom. This will make the sin far
r- '
E. What Difference Does a Day Make?
The Bible calls the Sabbath God's special sign.
In Old Testament times God asked His people
to observe two special signs, ritual circumcision
Sunday observance in conscious opposition to
awareness that it's wrong. Even more than this,
the mark of the beast must be coercive S~nday
observance. Have not Seventh-day Adventists
said for a century that when people- finally enter
the mark of the beast experience, they will do so
w en widesprea un ay egiS ation is being
~nacted.
more serious, an evil and ferocious mark of the.
m.
- "The pope can modify divine law," said Petrus
de Ancharano.
"The Sabbath, the most glorious day in the
law, has been changed into the Lord's day ... by
the authority of the church," declared the
Archbishop of Reggio at the crucial Council of
Trent.
People in bygone times could say such things
in innocence, it may be; but we cannot. Today we
know bettet; and we know that God didn't
change His law even to excuse Jesus from Geth-
semane and crucifiXion.
A body of Christians in the past felt free to
change God's law, and to harrass, persecute, and
excommunicate millions of Christians who chose
to obey it. They will feel free to do it again, in
spite of great light.indeed.
The mark of the beast in the "forehead" rae-
resents mental assent to the church's belief and
·behavior. The mark in the hand represents ac-
tivity carried on in harmony with such beliefs. A
person's "forehead" may not approve what his
or her "hand" does, but actions speak louder
than words.
as well as the Sabbath. Ritual circumcision was
first performed around 2000 B.C. on Abraham,
the father of the Jewish race. It was an ethnic
distinction, which according to Paul ceased to
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 15
have saving significance when the Jewish people
as a group ceased to be uniquely God's chosen ;
peo~ . place. See Ex 32:15,16; 25:16.21; Num 10:33.
Today, "in Christ ... there is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in
Chrit Jesus." Galatians 3:27, 28.
Since the cross, ritual circumcision has
counted for little one way or the other. The com-
mandments, howevet; still matter! Paul said in 1
Corinthians 7:19 RSV, "Neither circumcision
counts for anything [any more] nor uncir cumci-
sion, but keeping the commandments of God."
Other translations make the meaning even
clearer. "Circumcision is nothing and uncircum-
cision is nothing. Keeping God's commandments
is what counts." NN.
"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision
is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the
commandments of God." NASB.
The Sabbath has nothing ethnic about it. It
was offered to the Jewish because it was offered
to all races. The Sabbath was made for mankind!
Mk2:27.
Because it was offered to the Jews along with
everyone else, we find God saying to the Israel-
ites at Mount Sinai, "You shall keep my Sab-
baths, for this is the sign between me and you
throughout your generations, that you may
know that I, the Lord, sanctify you . ... It is a sign
for ever between me and the people of Israel, that
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and
on the seventh day he rested, and was
refreshed." Ex 31:12.
The Sabbath is a sign showing that God made
us and that He sanctifies or remakes us.
The setting for the statement was impressive.
God had led the Israelites triumphantly out of
Egypt. They were camping awhile at the foot of
Mount Sinai. With a light and sound display that
would make a rock concert seem like a kinder-
garten murmut; God called attention to the ten
commandments. There were "thunders and
lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain,
and a very loud trumpet blast ... and the whole
mountain quaked greatly." Exodus 19:16-19.
Then God had Moses place a copy of the ten
commandments, carved in stone, in the "ark of
the covenant" (or "ark of testament") in the
sanctu~ry's._jn~ermost room, the . most holy
In the sanctuary scene (Rev 11:1.9) which
introduces the great controversy diVision, the
heavenly temple opened up so John could see
deep inside it. He saw heaven's "ark of his
covenant." As he looked, there were "flashes of
lightning, voices, peals of thundet; an
earthquake, and a heavy hail."
God was taking John back to Mount Sinai.
God is calling us too back to Mount Sinai, back
to the sanctuary, back to Jesus our High Priest,
to the ten commandments, and the Sabbath.
Back to Pentecost too, we may add, with its
flashes of light, roaring voices, and shaking foun-
dations. Pentecost was a commemoration of
Sinai. It happened in the Bible month Sivan,just
as Sinai did. Thus Pentecost was a reminder of
the New Covenant promise, "I will put my Spirit
within you, and cause you to keep my statutes"
(Ez 36:27); "I will write my law in your heart"
(Jer 31:33). Pentecost is not to be remembered
primarily for spiritual gifts but for making pos-
sible loyalty to God's commandments.
The Sabbath is for everyone. Isaiah the
prophet knew that the Sabbath wasn't only for
e ews. "The foreigners who join themselves to
t he LOrd," he wrote in his chapter 56:6,7, "to
minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the
sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast
my covenant-these I will bring to my holy
mountain, and make them joyful in my house of
prayer." Is 56:6,7.
Isaiah's language about God's "servants:'
"joyful" on God's "mountain" sounds like the
144,000 servants of God, singing on Mount Zion
in Rev 14! Isaiah's promise is made about "for-
eigners," non-Jews, Gentiles, who keep the Sab-
bath.
The Seal of God. God's end-time people keep
the commandments and accept God's "seal." So
what is the seal of God? It's the same as His sign! ( l;o \ -~·
)pD\: v"['
In ancient times people signed their docu-
ments in the same way they sealed them. They i~ .
stamped them with a signet ring or seal. See '
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 16
pp.Rev.6,7:46,47. So "to sign" and "to seal" were
the same thing. God's "sign" in our foreheads is
the same as His "seal."
Nowadays we sign a document by writing our
signature on it. Our signature or sign is our
name. When we sign in some official capacity, we
have a typist identify ourselves more fully, in-
dicating our official capacity as part of our sig-
nature.
A bank manager has his secretary type,
"Johnson Doe, Manage~; First Federal of Big-
town." God conceivably could have a secretary
type, "Lord God, Creatot; Heaven and Earth."
And this is just about the way God did sign His
name in the Sabbath commandment!
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. .
.. the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your
God . ... for in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and
rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord
blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it." Exodus
20:8-11.
How could God sign a document more sig-
nificantly? How could He offer the Sabbath to us
more authoritatively?
He doesn't force us to keep the Sabbath. Bil-
lions of people who neglect it or make light of it
can testify to this. But He does come to us, make
His request, and sign or seal it, "Lord God,
Creatot; Heaven and Earth."
God's name, the Lamb's name. The
144,000, who have God's seal in their foreheads,
are also described as having God's name and the
Lamb's name there too. Revelation 14:1-5.
Ancient worshipers had their god's literal
name tattoed on their bodies. The "name" that
Revelation talks about is much more than a
tattoo! Names in Bible days represented a
person's character. See pp.Rev.2,3:19,20. When
God told Moses His "name" He listed His char-
acter qualities, "merciful and gracious, slow to
anget; and abounding in steadfast love and faith-
fulness," and so on. Exodus 34:5,6.
'-Fully matured Sabbath keepers have God's
name in their foreheads in the sense that they
have allowed God's Spirit to change their char-
acters until they resemble God's character.
God is love. His law is love. When people obey
Him fully, they love.
God is holy. His law is holy. When people obey
Him fully, the Holy Spirit lives out in their lives
the purity and honesty and unselfiShness that
mark the character of God Himself.
So how is God's name the same as His seal?
We are sinners. If we are ever going to keep an
entire Sabbath day holy, we need a distinct and
deep seated change in our most basic patterns.
Jesus told Nicodemus that even a good man like
he needed to be born again. John 3:5. We can
never keep a whole Sabbath holy unless some-
thing happens in us everyday. We must be in such
fellowship with Christ that we live purity, hones-
ty, compassion, helpfulness, all week long.
God's people at the very end of time will be
"spotless," free from lies, true and honest,
chaste, pure, kind. They will keep God's com-
mandments even when faced with starvation
and execution
But how? They conquer the dragon "through
the word of their testimony," and they love not
their lives "even unto death." Revelation 12:11.
But this by no means all. How often our will
power lets us down! The overcomers have "the
blood of the Lamb." In fact, they have the Lamb.
They have Michael the great Prince. Daniel12: 1.
In some marvelous and mysterious manner He
has come knocking and has been welcomed into
their hearts. He has brought with Him all the
"gold, eyesalve, and white raiment" they could
use. Revelation 3:15-22.
Wonderful thought! He has brought Himself.
And Colossians 2:9 says, "In him dwells all the
fulness of deity bodily." So when in His own
special way He enters us in response to our faith,
He brings His Godhead with Him! And then we
are "filled with all the fulness of God"! Ephesians
3:17- 19.
"You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign
between me and you ... that you may know that
I, the Lord, sanctify you."
So this is how the 144,000, the "saints," God's
"remnant," young and old, escape the mark of
the beast and are able to keep all the command-
ments of God and stand complete in holiness and
purity as God's fully ripened grain!
CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unf'mished), p. 17
"What difference does the day make?" The
se > nt is ad to have us on worshi in
Goo-providing we do so in our own way. He
persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit so she
could become like God, not unlike Him. "You will
be like God," he promised. Gen 3:5. The serpent
was pleased to have Eve honor God in her own
way.
Cain worshiped God in his own way, with
garden produce instead of a lamb. The Roman
Church worshiped God in its own way. Moslems
by the millions worship God in their own way.
Cain and the Roman Church in time grew
angry with people who wors in His
osen way. 01ng so seems to be characteristic
..of many of us when we insist on worshiping God
in our own own way.
.-

Excursus deallng with #Cal udov. Is leal £tdov a reliable and/or essential
indicator for scene breaks?
John uses #Cal udov to mark patently obvious paragraph breaks at 13:1 ("I
saw a beast"); 13:11 ("I saw another beast"); 14:1 ("I saw and behold a Lamb on
Mt. Zion"); 14:6 ("I saw another angel fly"); and 14:14 ("I saw and behold a white
cloud").
These examples of #Cal udov have been taken from chs. 12-14. We can fmd
many others, such as 15:1 ("I saw another sign, seven angels"), 16:13 ("I saw out
ofthemouthofthedragon"), 9:1 ("I saw a star fall"), 10:1 ("I saw another angel"),
and so on, through several other examples.
However, John also used various other introductory terms in place of #Cal
£tdov. A frequent alternative is #Cal 1JIWUG(!,-"l"l heard"), as in 11:12 ("I heard a
loud voice"), 12:10 ("I heard a loud voice"), andf:4 ("I heard the number of those
who were sealed").
In 9:1 he uses both #Cal udov and #Cal 1JIWUGa ("I saw and heard an eagle").
Sometimes leal £tdov is modified by pr:ra TavTa or paa TOVTO to produce
"after this I saw."
In s ite of the ab evidence for literary craftmanship in Revelation,
John was not enslaved by his literary patterns. For examp e, the seven e rs are
~ously fiigfily wroUght lite! my gems. In them, phrases like Tad£ AEY£l ("these
things says"), otda aov Ta £pya ("I know your works"), and 'O £XWV ovr
aKovacrrw, etc. ("Let whoever has ears hear"), occur almost uniformly as outline
markers. They do not occur quite uniformly, however. Otda aov Ta £pya occurs
only five times, not seven times as we might have expected, being replaced by
otda KaTOlK£tr ("I know where you live") in the Pergamum letter, and by otda
aov T1JV BA!tptv ("I know your tribulation") in the Smyrna letter. Incidentally,
Pergamum and Smyrna are not in chiastic relation. And "to the one who conquers
I will give" occurs with a variety of variations. Thus even the highly wrought
seven letters do not employ literary phraseology with perfect consistency.
Returning to Kat £tdov, we observe that when the seventh seal is opened in
8:1 no Kat £tdov or other set phrase marks the new scene; and in our great
controversy division in which we are most interested at present, there is no Kat
£tdov marker to commence the scene when the heavenly war breaks out in 12:7,
or when the great red dragon sees that he has been thrown out of heaven in 12:13.

We can probably conclude, then, that though the presence of such formulas
as·leal £tdov and Kat 1JIWUGa and some others are suggestive of scene breaks,
neither their presence nor their absence is coercive proof of one. In the fmal
analysis, the beginning and ending of scenes and even of major divisions of
Revelation must be determined by context and content rather than by literary
markers.
 At the 1987 MarienhOhe meeting of DARCOM, the suggestion was advanced
that the Semitic underlayment of the Apocalypse so obscures the Seer's use of
the Greek aorist as to leave the true significance of "the hour of his judgment
7JA:{}ev " entirely ambiguous. I would like to suggest some considerations to reduce
this perceived ambiguity.
Specifically, the hurdle perceived in translation of the aorists in Revelation is
the demonstrable relationship of a number of them to the Hebrew perfect; and
the Hebrew perfect can be construed, depending on context, as perfect (past,
present, or future), gnomic (proverbial), statjc (present continuous), and futuris-
tic. Thus "the hour of his judgment 1JADev " might, theoretically, be tantamount
to nothing more than a proverbial warning, "God judges," or "God is going to
judge you someday."
But all agree that a great many aorists in Revelation are unambiguous
narrative past tenses. Think of the numerous occurrences of leal udov ("and I
saw")and leal 1JKOVOa ("and I heard"), discussed elsewhere in this paper, which
help make up the fabric of Revelation from beginning to end.
We remind ourselves that though the meaning of the aorist in koine Greek
outside the NT was commonly equivalent to the simple English past, it was also
commonly equivalent to the English perfect. Several aoristic statements in
Revelation referring to judgment make sense as English pasts or English perfects
but don't make sense as gnomic or other unusal kinds of verbs.
6:16---Hide us, because the great day of his anger has arrived (1JA.Dev ).
11:15-You have taken (tLA7Jifxxr) your kingdom ... and the time to judge the
dead has arrived (1JADev ).
14:15-Put in your sickle, because the hour to reap has arrived (1JA.Dev ).
15:4---Your righteousness has been revealed (tf/>avtpw/)7Joav ).
16:5, ·6---You are righteous, because you have judged (tKptvap these things.
19:2-He has judged (tKptvev) the great harlot.
We conclude that the cry of the flrBt angel in 14:7 should be translated, "The
hour of your judgment has arrived," in harmony with well established Adventist
understanding. The flrBt angel, then, does belong to the close of the 2300
days-and the tqir-~gel's warning about the mark of the beast must be
perceived as an ,hd- time phenomenon.