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"When the test comes, it will be clearly shown what the mark of the beast is. It is the keeping of Sunday." --- 7 BC 980 (1900). "The sign, or seal, of God is revealed in the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, the Lord's memorial of creation. . . . The mark of the beast is the opposite of this --- the observance of the first day of the week." --- 8 T 117 (1904). "He causeth all, both small and great, . . . to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads" (Rev. 13:16. Not only are men not to work with their hands on Sunday, but with their minds are they to acknowledge Sunday as the Sabbath." --- Special Testimony to Battle Creek Church (Ph 86) 6, 7 (1897). "No one has yet received the mark of the beast." --- Ev. 234 (1899). "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." --- 7 BC 977 (1899). "God has given men the Sabbath as a sign between Him and them as a test of their loyalty. Those who, after the light regarding God's law comes to them, continue to disobey and exalt human laws above the law of God in the great crisis before us, will receive the mark of the beast." --- Ev. 235 (1900). "The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. "While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God's law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God." --- GC 605 (1911). "None are condemned until they have had the light and have seen the obligation of the fourth commandment. But when the decree shall go forth enforcing the counterfeit sabbath, and the loud cry of the third angel shall warn men against the worship of the beast and his image, the line will be clearly drawn between the false and the true. Then those who still continue in transgression will receive the mark of the beast." -- Ev 234, 235 (1899). "When Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome, and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. he is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor instead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome --- "the mark of the beast." And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive "the mark of the beast." --- GC 449 (1911). [From Last Day Events, pages 223-226. By Ellen G. White] |