The Third Angel's Message of Rev. XIV

THE rejection of the truth of God leaves men the captives of Satan, and the subjects of his deception. 2 Thess. 2:9-12. The greater the light which men reject, the greater the power of deception and darkness which will come upon them. The Advent message has been given more fully in the United States than in any other country, and by the mass it has been rejected. This refusal to walk in the light has left them exposed to this great deception of Satan. The third angel gives warning of the danger that is coming, that men may make their escape if they will.

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 whom the image was made—the first beast. Rev. 19:20; 16:2. But it is enforced by the two-horned beast. Hence, we understand it is an institution of 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 pays homage? We have. It is found in a 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. The last six pertain wholly to our duty to our fellow-men. Not one of these nine commandments points 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. 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 Thess. 2; Dan. 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 Thess. 2:7. 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.

Listen to the following cutting reproof from a Romanist:—

"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 scripture, where it is said the first day of the week. Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 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, invocations of the saints, and the like, they might have good cause indeed to laugh us to scorn."

Notwithstanding the fourth commandment in the plainest terms enjoins the observance of the sanctified rest-day of the Lord, almost all the world now wonder 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 this 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 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.

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 miter. 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.

Let us now return to the final work of the ten-horned beast. We have spoken of the prominent part which the ten-horned beast is to act in the great conflict before us, by means of miracles which he works through the agency of the unclean spirits. But it is important to notice that in all this he acts as the ally and assistant of the first beast, and himself fills a secondary place. Rev. 13:12, 14, 17; 19:20. He works miracles, but not to secure worship to himself, for he acts as a prophet in causing men to worship the first beast, and his image, and to receive his mark. He gives the first place to the beast in that he causes him to be worshiped, and he takes the second place himself in that he works miracles as a prophet, that he may cause men to worship that beast.

The two-horned beast does all this in the sight of the first beast, and we have good evidence that that beast does not content himself to be simply a spectator. He will be, if possible, more active in his own behalf than is the two-horned beast to act for him. It is evident from Rev. 16:13, 14, that miracles will be wrought in the name of the first beast no less than in that of the second. Indeed, we may conclude that the work of the first beast will be greater in the eyes of men than will that of the second, for the first receives worship from men, while the second is content to work miracles, not that he may himself receive worship, but that he may promote the worship of the first. The Spirit of God marks a time, not yet arrived, but which will arrive in the great crisis before us, when all that dwell upon the earth, whose names are not written in the book of life, will worship the papal beast. Rev. 13:8. Satan marshals his host for the great battle, not for the purpose of having them destroyed, but that he may by them destroy the people of God from the earth. He seeks to deceive them by the miracles; and then to slay those whom he cannot thus deceive. Satan's final effort to destroy the people of God, through the joint effort of these two wicked powers, is thus distinctly stated: "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." Rev. 12:17.

The persons upon whom Satan makes this war must be the last generation of the people of God. We can see from this text the great cause of his enmity toward the church in the final conflict. These persons are keeping the commandments of God, and this implies that they keep them all, for to break one of them is to become a transgressor. James 2:10. He determines to destroy the commandment-keepers from the face of the earth. Through the first beast he has sought to change the law of God, especially the fourth commandment. Dan. 7:25. Now he stirs up the two beasts to make war upon the people of God. They act in union in fighting against Christ. Rev. 17:14; 19:20. And we know the nature of this conflict in which the false prophet participates by means of his miracles, by what is said concerning the object of these miracles in Rev. 13:14-17. He decrees that all men shall receive the mark, which, as we have shown, is the papal institution of Sunday observance in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord. And this shows the test to which the people of God will be brought with respect to his commandments.

What then is it to worship the beast? for this is the most prominent of the acts against which the wrath of God, without mixture of mercy, is denounced; and all the world are to unite in this act. It is worthy of notice that at the conclusion of this dreadful warning the saints are introduced in the act of 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. The question which each man must decide is simply this: Shall I acknowledge God by keeping his commandments, or shall I acknowledge the authority of the beast to change the law of God? This will show whom men worship; for whenever any civil or ecclesiastical law conflicts with the law of God, that power is worshiped which is obeyed in preference to the other "Know ye not, to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" Rom. 6:16. The earth itself is made to worship the beast when it is made to rest from cultivation on the day of his appointment, and is not allowed thus to rest upon the day which God has commanded.