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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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ADVENTIST HERITAGE CENTER James White Library ANDREWS UNIVERSITY • ' t ~OVENliST ttER\l~GE CENTER Jam .... White \..ibrai'Y 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 sociated the mark of the beast with papal (Rev 13-20) was something that Nero applied to authority. Questions on Doctrine acknowledges, Christians. Not that preterists have ever proved howevet; that "none of these expositors, of the that Nero did apply a marktoChristians; they're centuries past, applied the mark of the beast just certain that Nero was the beast. Dispensa­ specifically to the Sabbath issue." tional futurists, on the other hand, have said In recent times some Seventh-day Adventists that it's the actual number 666, to be branded on have taken up a new position, namely that the people in the end time by the ruler of a revived mark of the beast is any form of false worship,3 Roman Empire. And Sabbath-keeping Adven­ but this broad interpretation does not seem to tists since the 1840s have generally linked the have gained unanimous adoption. mark of the beast to Sunday keeping and the The thesis of this paper is that the mark of the Roman Catholic Church.1 beast is "committed end-time approval of coer­ The three interpretations cannot all be right; cive Sunday-keeping in opposition to clear light but noteworthy is their agreement that the beast on the Sabbath question and in harmony with has something to do with Rome. classic Roman Catholicism." In perceiving a relationship between the mark In attempting to establish this position, no of the beast and the church of Rome, Seventh­ attempt will be made to redo all that others on day Adventists have had the support of the Daniel and Revelation Committee have al­ numerous commentators of the past. Questions ready done.4 We'll begin with the statement of a on Doctrine,2 cites John Purvey (Wycliffe's as­ few hermeneutical principles and then list some sociate), Andreas Osiandet; Nikolaus von questions to be answered. Amsdor~ Heinrich Bullinget; Nicholas Ridley, Some basic hermeneutical principles. John N apiet; John Cotton, and other famous Some basic hermeneutical principles relevant to men as samples of expositors who have as- 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 Principle No. 4-The major prophecies of spired unit. Though holy men spoke in different Revelation, like those of Daniel, Matt 24-25, and ways, the God of truth spoke through them (Heb 2 Thess 2, (a) stretch from the prophet's day to 1:1; 1 Pet 1:11; etc) and they therefore delivered the second cominEV (b) deal mainly but not ex- a unified message. dusively7 with the harsh side of political and Principle No. 2-That Revelation is closely reli ·o-politicai entlties, (c) warn of major a linked to Daniel and to Matt 24-25 and to 2 Thess • tasy and tn ation, and (d) promise a Christ­ ____..2.5 . centered outCOme, wtfh rewards for the Principle No.3- That when Daniel, Matt ~righteous and destruction for the wickeg. 24-25, 2 Thess 2, and Revelation deal propheti­ Though these prophecies in general progress cally with major political entities, they deal selec­ from the prophet's day to the end of time, they tively with those entities that most directly do not necessarily do so in simple sequential affect GOd's worshipersL primarily Jews and narrative form.S Christians and secondarily Moslems. As God's Principle No. 5-Four sweep-of-hisW!I people have extended their areas of habitation E.,_rophecies are to be found in Daniel (cbs. 2, 7, from the Middle East to Europe, to the Americas, 8-9, 10-12) and four in Revelation (the letters, and to most portions of the globe, prophetic the seals, the trumpets, and the great controver­ foresight has kept pace. ,&stocy). In the first century A.D., when prophetic ful­ Five questions to be discussed. The five fillment focused on events and persons in the questions we'll try to answer are (A) Is the beast Roman Empire, four empires juxtaposed one that has the mark Roman Catholic? (B) Is the another in series across Eurasia, the Roman, mark of the beast presented in Revelation as an Parthian, Kushan, and Han Empires,6 but of end-time phenomenon? (C) Does the mark have these empires, the Roman covered the territory to do with. Sabbath and Sunday? (D) In the past where most of the Jews and Christians lived at has the Catholic Church play an outstanding role the time. Thus it was that the Roman Empire in coercively favoring Sunday at the expense of occupied a major. focus of Daniel's political Sabbath? and (E) What difference does it make? prophecies in the first century.

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

So what according to Daniel and Revelation cated is called his "cathedral." The city in which are the characteristic features or marks of the his throne is located is called his sedes in Latin sea beast? (1) Blaspheming God and changing and in English, his "see." The ultimate see in His law, (2) . undermining the ministry of the Catholicism is the Holy See, the city where the ~eavenly sanctua!ll and (3) oppressing God's Pope's throne is located. This ci~ is of course

saints during a special.1260-day period. Rome1 or more specifically, ;ince the 1929 Treaty The Catholic Church is avowedly Roman. Its ~f the Lateran with Italy, Vatican City, a 108.7 F ~ official name today, as it has been throughout acre tract on Vatican Hill, lying wholly within most of its long history, is The_Holy Catholic and Rome. Apostolic Church of Rome. 10 And how did the And how did the dragon, the Roman Empire, Catholic church come to possess its unique give its power, its authority, and the place of its Romanness? rulership (its "throne," or see, or city) to the "The dragon gave its power, throne, and great Roman Church? authority to the beast," Rev 13:2. The familiar steps need no elaboration here. A throne is a symbol of authority. But because The empire was named for the city of Rome, this passage already contains the words "power" being in fact an extention of Rome as a city-state and "authority," we expect "throne" here to con­ (analogous to the way the Roman Catholic vey a more literal meaning. Basically, a throne is Church is, theologically and administratively, an a place where an important person sits. Other extension of Rome as a city-church.) Ronie was words for throne are the Greek cathedra and the by far the west's largest city. Revered as the Latin sedes. In the Catholic church, the building Eternal City, it pulsed with power and mystery. in which a bishop's throne (or cathedra) is lo- 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. revival of Roman law the practice was The founding in 330 of Constantinople (now reestablished in the 12th century. . . . In Istanbul) as the empire's new capital placed the 1252 [Pope] Innocent IV sanctioned the imperial seat of government some 1300 infliction of torture by the civil authot?.ti~ kilometers or about 800 miles away to the east, upon heretics, and torture came to have a more than a month's marching time for an army. recognized place in the procedure of the inquisitorial courts.13 Several emperors besides Constantine con­ In the most brutal and non-Christian aspect ~ed or offered power to the paf&2 Step by of its medieval activity, the Roman Church ap­ step, the Roman Empre (the dragon) did indeed pears as a direct and dynamic descendent of the give its powet; throne, and great authority to the Roman Empire. The little hom emerged unmis­ Catholic Church (the leopard-bodied sea beast). takably from the head of the terrible beast. A climax came in 538 when the armies of the People were turned upside down and sawn Empire drove the Arian Ostrogoths out of down the middle; they were slowly pierced Rome.ll By 538, therefore, the 1260 years could through the body by spikes inside the iron begin. maiden ofNurenberg.Eighty-five percent of the ,Catholic employment ofjudicial torture based victims--some two to four million, we are told­ on Roman civil law reveals its ROmanness at its were women, excruciatingly tortured to death by worst. ROman law atlowed the suspicion that an ~ instruments like red hot pincers, the breast rip­ accused person was most probably guilty. Roman pet; and the expandable vaginal pear.14 judges therefore applied torture routinely to The 1260 days. Is there a real basis for the force a person to confess his crime and regarded familiar Seventh-day Adventis~ition that th.!L such torture an appropriate part of the punish­ ~ 1260 year-days ran from 538 t~98? ment. When the Germanic tribes took over the territory of the Roman Empire, the practice of Laying aside, for the sake of argument, insis­ judicial torture largely ceased. When around 850 tence on precise dates (though these can be a church court torturoo the monk Gottschalk for defended), and painting with a large brush in­ his non- Catholic views on predestination, the stead, a clear and formicable case can be made people of Lyons protested, reminding their that the French Beyolution was a mighty epoch bishop that they Bible says that persons over­ .marfe;_,fnd that ~the close of the fourth- and the ~ taken in a fault should be restored in a spirit of beginning of the fifth-centuries also marked a gentleness.12 Says the New Catholic En­ eolloSal change of affairs in western Europe~ c: with enormous co~uences for the future. cyclopedia: 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 members and in economics.16 beginning of the sixth centuries marked a The mortal wound. In 1798, 1260 years genuine turning point with (a) collapse ofRoman latet; the Pope was taken into captivity and the civilization15 and (b) the collapse of Christianity, Catholic Church was dealt a mortal blow. It hap­ in addition to the better known data about (c) the pened just as Revelation had foretOld, with virtual extinction of the third Arian tribe and (d) remarkable accuracy. the virtual papal take-over of Rome in 538-and The papacy had experienced other military (e) the epochal significance of the French defeats and even captivities during its long 1260' Revolution 1260 years later. years, but thiS one was uni ue in two hi More needs to be said about the relative de­ significant ways. t came as the climax of several ~ Christianization of Europe with the barbarian centuries of decline in the influence of 0-~ invasions and subsequent re-Christianization. A Catholicism on the minds of Europeans, and it modern illustration can be seen, say, in Macau, a was not merely a military coup but was a stroke small Portuguese (hence Catholic) colony on the deliberately intended to terminate the papacy. coast of China. The influx of half a million During the French Revolution and under or­ Chinese in recent decades has not pushed Chris­ ders from the revolutionary French government, tianity into the South China Sea; the Catholic General Alexander Berthier issued a proclama­ Church still operates some churches, schools, tion in Rome on February 15, 1798, informing and orphanages there and other denominations Pope Pius VI and the people of Rome that the have small units as well. But the overwhelming Pope should should no longer "exercise any func­ impression is of Buddhism and materialism, tion."17 church attendance is almost nonexistent, and Richard Duppa, a British writer who was in the children who fill the Catholic schools are Rome at the time, says that the pope was ar- / largely Chinese non-Christians. ] rested in the Sistine Chapel while he was An analogous situation seems to have ob­ celebrating the twenty-third anniversary of his tained in formerly Roman Europe by the early coronation and receiving the congratulations of 500s. Only three tribes were Christian, and they the Cardinals. Citizen Hallet; the French com­ wereArian. missary-general, and Cervoni, who commanded ~l But by the time these three tribes were wiped the French troops in Rome under General Ber- ~ · out, the vigorous Franks had taken on the thiet; "gratified themselves in a peculiar triumph Catholic faith. Europe was re-Christianized over this unfortunate potentate. During that from the British Isles as well as from elsewhere, ceremony they both entered the chapel, and but when the process was largely completed, a Haller announced to the sovereign pontiff on his couple of centuries or so latet; Roman Catholic throne, that his reign was at an end. The poor theology and practice had triumphed. old man seemed shocked at the abruptness of Meanwhile, the Greek Orthodox church ex­ this unexpected notice but soon recovered him- perienced a steady decline in its territory, both in self with becoming fortitude." The Pope's Swiss

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. CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unf'mished), p. 6 guards were dismissed and Republican soldiers were installed in their place.18 About a century latet; Joseph Rickaby, a Jesuit In spite of the pope's advanced age and frail Priest, observed that when, in August 1799, Pope health (he was in his 80s), he was hustled off by Pius VI passed away as a French prisonet; "half French soldiers to a string of different addresses Europe thought ... that with the Pope the Papacy in Italy and southern France. He died in prison was dead. "20 in the fortress city of Valence on August 29, 1799. I had occasion once to examine the memoirs For awhile his body was left lying around un­ of Don Manuel de Godoy, prime minister of buried. In the words of George Trevot; Catholic Spain at the time of the pope's captivity. The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of I found no reference to the event. Even this its existence remained; and among all the important Catholic statesman didn't care Roman Catholic powers, not a finger was enough about the pope to comment on his stirred in its defense. The Eternal City troubles.21 had no longer prince or pontiff; its bishop We have glanced at beginning-and-ending was a dying captive in foreign lands; and events that seem to confirm our hypothesis that the decree was already announced that no the Roman Church is the fulfillment of the sea successor would be allowed in his place.19 beast.

B. Is the Mark of the Beast an End-Time Phenomenon? Is the mark of the beast an end-time isn't even inflicted until the close of the 1260 phenomenon? days (around 1 798). · Yes, it must be. It is mentioned in Revelation 2. The third angel issues its dire and dramatic only in connection with end-time events. warning against reception of the mark of the 1. The lamb-homed earth beast seeks to im­ beast, and its message is delivered after the first pose it during its campaign to increase the wor­ angel has already announced the arrival ofjudg:_ ship of the sea beast, after the sea beast has ment hour (1844). recovered from its deadly wound. And the wound 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 ofthe Peace: Memoirs ofDon 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 Nor is the mark of the beast mentioned in ...... the heavenly sanctuary is closed up. - connection with the judgments associated with

Although the general characterics of the sea the seven trumpets or the seven seals. I ,_ e beast are portrayed in Rev 13:5-10, it's "mark" It is an end-time phenomenon.22 is not mentioned there, nor any attempt during the 1260 years to get it imposed on anyone.

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 lightning, voices, peals of thundet; an system of false worship. It's not the mark of the earthquake, and heavy hail. dragon, nor the mark of Islam. It's the mark of Of salient importance is the observation that \he beast, just as the image of Rev 13 is the image with this introduction focused on the ark in the of the beast. If we are to be faithful to Scripture, most holy place, Rev 12-14 is the only division in we must limit the possibilities to elements of which God's peQple are defined as command­ Roman Catholicism. 1 ment keepers (unless 22:14 is another such / Furthet; the mark is pointedly related to com­ place) and they are so defined there twice, in mandment keeping, which brings us to Her­ 12:17 and 14:12. meneutical PnncTpal No. 6-Eacb of the four_

22That is, it is an end-time phenomenon ifthe 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 in which she saw the seal of God as the Sabbath- the seal as the Sabbath was Ellen G. White, rising like the sun in the east and sending outs \- SQ.l-- ~ lr"' which brings us to Hermeneutical Principle its ever increasing rays of light.26 ~ t' No. 7-Ellen G. White's intewret.ations of the Ellen White did not see that her concept of the ~;1..\Juv-l, Bible should be taken seriously unless we find Sabbath negated Bates's view that it involved e " ' clear reason to oppose them. Her writings have character development. She combined the views, proved of great blessing to millions of people of and enriched them with Christ's righteousness: various faiths. Seventh-day Adventists ought not "In 1882 she wrote, to "shoot themselves in the foot" by undervalu­ ing them. Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characers have one spot or In his Vindication of the Sabbath, the book Joseph Bates was writing in the fall of 1848 with stain upon them. It is left with us to a York shilling in his pocket, Bates defined the remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul temple of every defile­ seal of God (Rev 7: 1-3) as character develop­ ment: ment. Then the latter rain will fall upon us as the early rain fell upon the disciples ... just as it will be in the last days, when on the day of Pentecost.27 the 144,000, all of the living children, are sealed with the seal of the living God in It; incidentally, this seems frightening, notice their foreheads, having been marked or that on the next page she added, sealed in a similar manneJ; and by the No one need say that his case is hopeless, remnant of the messengers that four that he cannot live the life of a Christian. years ago were writing, lecturing and ex­ ... Jesus is our ever-present help in time horting the people of God to get clear of of need. Only call upon him in faith, and the mark of the beast by coming out of he has promised to hear and answer your Babylon, because she had fallen; develop­ petitions. Oh, for a living, active faith! ing their true profession, or christian characteJ; even then ... ; with this dif­ In 1898, in The Desire of Ages, she spoke of the Sabbath-sign as set firmly in the righteous­ ference, that this simultaneous sealing of ness of Christ: . the 144,000 will show such a clear developement of christian chracter in God designed that its [the Sabbath's] ob­ their lives and shining foreheds (or faces,) servance should designate them [the that it will be clearly understood that Jews] as His worshipers. It was to be a Jesus has redeemed them from all iniq­ token of their separation from idolatry, uity, by purifying "unto himself a peculiar and their connection with the true God. people, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. "25 But in order to keep the Sabbath holY. men But at DorchesteJ; Mass., the following ~ust t1iemselves be holy. Through faith November 18 or 19, Ellen G. White had a vision 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 "Ye shall be holy men unto Me." Ex. 20:8; was given to Israel, "Remember the Sabbath 22:31. Only thus could the Sabbath distin­ day, to keep it holy," the Lord said also to them, guish Israel as the worshipers of God.28

D. Did Medieval Roman Christianity Play an Outstanding Role in op­ posing the Sabbath and Enforcing Sunday? Did Medieval Roman Christianity play an out­ needed to be told to "keep one day idle." Arguing standing role in opposing the Sabbath and en­ against the Gnostics, he insisted that Jesus did forcing Sunday-a role that could appropriately not break the Sabbath-but went on to say that be termed the "mark of the beast"? Jesus kept it on the basis that "Jerusalem [was] Indeed it did! And the story of what happened then dwelling in safety." Once the temple was is important if we are to view the Roman Church destroyed, the law of Moses and its Sabbath were in true perspective. terminated. Incredibly, for Irenaeus, the Early in the second century the Sabbath was "decalogue" did not enjoin the literal Sabbath. already rather generally lost sight of; and Sunday Nor did it for Theophilus, like Irenaeus a widely celebrated. This rejection of the Sabbath bishop about the same time but in Antioch at the and favoring of Sunday was not confined to other end of the Mediterranean. In quoting the Rome-nor to Alexandria and Rome-despite a ten commandments in his Apology toAutolycus, widespread impression among sabbatarians he omitted the fourth and made up the space today that this was the case. with various brief Mosaic instructions. Examination of extant literature reveals the In North Africa a couple of decades later same Sabbath-Sunday theology all around the (around 20.0 or so) Tertullian, like Ireneaus, Mediterranean basin. Sunday was honored in defended Jesus against the Gnostic charge that favor of the resurrection of Christ and Sabbath He broke the Sabbath; but Tertullian proceeded was downgraded as applicable only to Jews. to say that the Sabbath was abolished, not by a When Justin said that "Sunday is the day on different God from the one who made it as the which we all in cities and country places as­ Gnostics averred, but by the very same God who semble in one place," he was speaking as a widely made it. traveled person, who had been born in Palestine, This does not mean that no one observed the had lived apparently for some time in Ephesus, true Sabbath in the second and third centuries. and who even in later life did not live continuous­ -Justin knew of some Jewish and even Gentile ly at Rome.29 Christians who were observing it, and Tertullian A decade or two after Justin's death, Hegesip­ knew a certain few (pauculos quosdam) who pus traveled (around 180) from Palestine to annoyed him by insisting on standing joyously Rome. A report he made confirms the for prayer on Sabbath the way everyone did on widespread nature of Sunday observance; for in Sunday. We may assume further that the com­ it he said that all along his route he found similar ments made by Barnabas in Alexandria, by Ig­ customs being observed in the Christian centers. 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 Further Ireneaus, bishop in France around second and third centuries. 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. CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 10

But undoubtedly the Sabbath was largely lost the Sabbath. Many factors appear to have con­ sight of at that time. tributed to this new interest in the Sabbath, one When we tum to documents from the fourth of which appears to have been the spread of century, howevet; we are almost startled by the monasticism from Egypt in the late 300s and change in attitude. My students never fail to note early 400s. It is notable that the ~~nee of the sudden shift as I give them the documents Sabbath-Sunday lectionaries is attested only each year. from the fourth century onward. It is notable, It is during the fourth century, around 360, too, that in western Europe, it was Cassian, a that the Council of Laodicea required that the monk, who advocated some kind of Sabbath ob­ gospels be read and the Lord's supper celebrated servance along with Sunday (around 415-430), on Sabbath every week. The action was as much and that he advocated it to no avail. in favor of the Sabbath as against it; but Laodicea We summarize before proceeding: Sunday ob­ was only a regional synod and was not immedi­ servance and Sabbath rejection were not charac­ ately binding everywhere, though later on its teristic of the Roman church alone in the early canons were endorsed by a General [i.e., mostly centuries; they were characteristic of the state of Eastern] Council. Christianity at the time. This observation is in At the end of the fourth century Epiphanius, harmony with Paul's statement that the mystery in his famous Panarion, a massive study of 80 of iniquity was already at work even in the mid­ heresies, rejoiced that Christians_had the "great dle of the first century. It is also in harmony with circumcision" in place of the little circumcision, two references in GC 444 to the perilous the "great Lamb" in place of the little lamb, and "spiritual declension" from truth and purity the "great Sabbath" in placeofthelittle Sabbath. which took place "in the first centuries." The "great Sabbath" was an ostensibly sabbatic In connedection with the fourth- and fifth­ way of holy living which ignored the literal day. centu revival we have been speakin 0 the When Epiphanius mentioned the Sabbath Sabbath quickly came to be honored along with again, he observed (near the end of the fourth Sunday in the Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, and 'Greek OrthOdox Churches. The African church century) that in a few places (tv nat de T01totr) Christians were in fact assembling on the literal accepted it partially too~as evidenced in the Sabbath. writings of Augustine. But the African church was wiped out in the Moslem invasion of the By the middle of the fifth centu seventh century. As for the Coptic and Armenian t ad become so widespreag Churches (and the Nestorian Church, which tli.at Socrates of Constantinople couldreport in didn't accept the Sabbath), though permitted by his Church History, 5.22, that in "all churches, their Moslem overlords to continue to exist, they 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 The church that turned out to be the most · not be supposed to connote holy Sabbath keep­ dynamic of all was the church of the Roman ing. It speaks only of the celebration of the the west, and it was this church which conspicuo~ Lord's Suppet; "the sacred mysteries," on the opposed the Sabbath and enforced Sunday al­ Sabbath. But nothing of the sort was common in most as if it were the Sabbath. 30Thus the the second century, according to our sources.) Roman church becam ost authentic fu - lllment of the little hom of Dan 7 and the ~ Fbat we are dealing with here is not the oeast of Rev 13J!t that it did more than any of tapering out of a long tradition of Sabbath obsel­ t'he others to change times and the laws and to ~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. CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 11

blaspheme the sanctuary of God; and it per­ Later in this fourth century, as the Sabbath secuted in the process. It was characterized, sprea WI monas CJSm rom gypt, the Chris­ marked, by a coercive attitude toward Sunday in tians in western Euro were cons icuous fo opposition to the true Sa th. . not adopting it. We have mentioned that Cassian Against the Quartodeclmans. Rome's tried to introduce it in southern France in vain. potential for antagonism to the Sabbath and Now The Convert's Catechism is widely coercive endorsement of Sunday appeared early. quoted by all of us for its statement that the Before the end of the second century, Victor I, Catholic church at the Council of Laodicea bishop of.Rome, became irritated by the custom around 360 transferred th; solemnity of the day of the Quartodecimans of Asia of observing from Sabbath to Sunday. This statement is a Easter on the 14thofNisan, regardlessoftheday remarkable claim by the Catholic church, but it of the week on which it fell. This is generally ISn't good hiStory. The Council ofLaodicea was~ known. local Eastern synod at which, so far as we know, What is not so widely recognized is that the Rome had no voice. Its demand that the Lord's church of Rome was no different from all the supper be celebrated and the gospels read on other churches of the world that we know of in Sabbath reflected the Eastern Greek attitude to its preference for celebrating Easter on Sunday. the Sabbath and was contrary to what was going When preparing to launch his attack against the on at that time in the West. Quartodecimans, Bishop Victor conducted a poll 2 Thess 2 said that the man of sin would be of the pastors of the main city churches in the hindered until the power that was hindering him Roman Empire. Eusebius reports that Victor was taken out of the way. Dan 7:24,25 portrayed received replies in favor of Easter Sunday from a time when the tenhorns would rise on the head the bishops of Caesarea, Jerusalem, Corinth, of the beast, after which the little hom would Gaul, Osrhoene, and in Pontus, along with "a emerge and grow to become more stout than his good many others." Later in his account, fellows, and in the process uproot three horns. Eusebius has occasion to refer to the bishops in Put togethet; these statements bid us look for Tyre and Ptolemais, and Alexandria. All of the some change in the Roman church as the tribes churches that these bishops represenied favored invaded and pagan Rome was taken out of the a Sunday Easter. But the only one of them that way and three of the horns were plucked up­ was prepared to excommunicate the Quar­ and as the dragon of Rev 12-14 gave the sea beast todecimens was the church in Rome. Indeec( its powet; seat, and great authority. after Victor excommunicated the Quar­ We know that in the fifth century the tribes todecimans, he was rebuked by several of the invaded the Roman empire en masse, and soon bishops. The rebuke from Bishop Irenaeus is the western empire was populated with people preserved by Eusebius. Here is a beginning who were either pagan ot; in the case of three of ofRome's coercive defense of Sunday. the tribes, Arian. With the ultimate decline of the The Roman Sabbath fast. Shortly after the West and the transference of imperial govern­ Quartodeciman Controversy, that is, about A.D ment to Constantinople, the bishop of Rome, as 200, the church of Rome began to enforce a we all know, became a dominant figure in Italy. Sabbath fast as a continuation of the reguiar Armies from Second Rome (Constantinople) Friday half-fast which many Christians at the destroyed the Arian tribes which inhibited the time were observing. Most other churches pope for awhile. This left western Europe almost refused to go along, and the only ones that ended entirely in the political hands of pagan powers. up observing Rome's Sabbath fast turned out to Almost, but not quite. For just before the Arian be those in western Europe under Rome's Vandals and Arian Ostrogoths were liquidated, strongest influence. The big church in Milan, for the Franks opted for Christianity, and of the example, simply capitulated to Rome only after Roman type at that. a long struggle. The Council of Orleans, 538. In 538, the Refusal to adopt the Sabbath revival. 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 later. Under the most terrible threatening, this mencement of the 1260 days, a church council in document called on people to "keep My com­ Orleans passed its 28th canon, which required mandments and venerate the holy day of the the cessation of active farm work on the Sunday Lord." in order to allow agricultural workers to attend Remember the tables of Moses My ser­ church. This Catholic Sunday law differed from vant [it went on], and the law and Constantine searlierlawofMarc , 321,in that precepts which I gave him to preach to the it was expressly religious, freed agricultural workers (who were not freed by Constantine's peoples, that they might fear Me and keep law of March 7, 321),and was enacted by the My law." "If you do not correct your ways church rather than by the state. I will send you worms and locusts that will eat your harvests and rapacious bulls that Isidore of Seville exalts Sunday above will devour you, because you did not keep Sabbath. During the sixth century the tribes in the holy day of the Lord. Anyone who does Spain became Catholic. Thus around the years 600 Isidor of Seville (560-636) would write, not keep it will be accursed. On the Lord's day you must not wash your clothes nor It is clear that Sunday was already very wash or cut your hair. Whoever does so, let solemn in the Holy Scriptures. It is indeed him be accursed. I tell you once more that the first day of the world, the day when I was ... resurrected on the Lord's day. .. the angels were created; the day when . In that day I made heaven and earth .. Christ was resurrected; the day when the .and sanctified the day of the Lord and Holy Spirit fell upon the apostles; the day established the observance of the rest to when the manna was given for the first everyone on that day. ... time in the wilderness. . . . Is not the Mediaeval Handbooks of Penance. To Sabbath the seventh day which follows save time, we pass over punishments for Sunday Sunday? It must be, therefore, on Sunday breaking in the various handbooks of penance, that manna fell for the first time. For the which were prepared for priests during the Mid­ Jews already. then our Sunday was dle Ages in western Europe. For washing one's greater than Sabbath. head on Sunday, for example, weeks of fasting Dr. Daniel Augsburger has observed31says and even excommunication in extreme cases that this statement by Isidor was copied ver­ might be required. batim by Bede in Britain, by Alcuon, the British The Great Schism of 1054. Arguably the scholar who served conspicuously in the court of most dramatic evidence ' · Charlemagne, and by Rabanus Maurus, ninth­ pre erence for Sunda in o century Archbishop of Mainz. The Letter from the Lord. About this same researches of R. L. Odom, reported in the first time, near the beginning of the 1260 days, as issue of Andrews University Seminary Studies western Europe was being converted to Roman (1963) under the title, "The Sabbath in the Great Catholicism, appeared the famous "Letter from Schism of A. D. 1054," show that "one of the the Lord," sometimes known as the "Letter from main issues involved in "the cleavage between Heaven." It seems to have appeared first in one east and west in 1054 was the matter of fasting of the Mediterranean islands off the east coast or celebrating on the Sabbath, the seventh day of Spain. From there it traveled far to the north of the week." and easrt and was still being quoted centuries Sabbath observance was not the only bone of

31 In Kenneth A Strand, ed., The Sabbath in Scripture and History (Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1982), p. 191. · CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 13

contention, of course. The use of unleavened ing in the celebrarion of Our Lady's day next to bread in the communion service, celibacy of the the celebration of the Lord's day. lower clergy, and the primacy of the pope were This act of the Roman church in excom­ other issues. munieatingmillions of fellow Christians beca~ The southernmost portion of Italy had been ey 1ns1S on mn some n s · al on Sab- colonized in pre-Christian centuries by Greeks. bath epitomizes Rome's eligibili as the fulfiller In fact, the name "Greece" was first applied to o the little horn prophecy of Dan 7:24,25 and the that part of the world rather than to the sea-beast prophecy of Rev 13. homeland. The Greek- speaking Christians of Thomas Aquinas. But the Roman Church the eleventh century in southern Italy were more went even further. In the thirteenth century in fellowship with the Greek Orthodox Church Thomas Aquinas, whose authority as a Catholic than with the Roman Catholic. But they lived in theologian is unequalled, declared specifically, juxtaposition to Roman Catholics. It was for this reason then that their refusal to observe the In the New Law the keeping of the Sunday Sabbath fast, so dear to the Romans, ultimately supplants that of the Sabbath, not in vir­ resulted in friction. Correspondence was tue of the precept of the law, but through engaged in and the ire of Pope Leo XIX was determination by the church and the cus­ aroused. tom of the Christian people. The legates from Rome finally placed the Thomas distinguished between moral and famous bull of excommunication on the high ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath command­ altar of the church of Hagia Sophia, at 9:00 in ment, insisting that the day on which the com­ the morning on July 12, a Sabbath morning. mandment was to be observed was ceremonial They were irritated because the deacons were and hence subject to the church's power of the preparing to celebrate the Lord's supper on that keys. Even the Sabbath's moral aspects were to day. be imposed less strictly under gospel freedom. Cardinal Humbert, one of the Roman legates, Sabbath keeping as sin. Then Thomas soon thereafter wrote a treatise about the matter proceeded to make the literal keeping of the in which he ~ticized the Eastern Christians for Sabbath commandment a very grievous sin.32 carrying on "an observance of the Sabbath When a church in the name of Christ declares ·similar to that of the Jews, and in which he the keeping of a commandment to be a very 'rec1ted a probably legendary statement at­ grievous sin, that church has surely "spoken tributed to Pope Sylvester in the time of Con­ great things against the most High." When that stantine in which that bishop had said that same church transfers the authority of the Christians should celebrate the Lord's day on fourth commandment to Sunday and does so account of the resurrection as a day of joy but whimsically on the basis of what it feels is impor­ that "every Sabbath day [on account] of the tant and what isn't, it has_surely sought to burial is to be estimated in execration of the "change times and the law." Jews." Worldwide opposition to Sabbath. There But Patriarch Michael Serularius went so far is more to be said. If today the American con­ on behalf of the Greek church as to say that "we tinents and much of what we call the third world -are commanded also to honor the Sabbath equ'!l­ has been more or less Christianized, the credit .." ly with the [Sunday] lord's [day], and to keep (i2, goes to western Europe. It was done either by and not to work on it." Roman Catholics or by Protestants, who The sequel was that the Roman church began emerged out of the Roman background. It is to dedicate Sabbath to the Blessed Virgin, result- widely conceded that the Protestant churches

32Augsburger in The Sabbath in Scripture, p. 106. CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 14

did not come all the way out of ROme. And among Sunday observance in conscious opposition to the features of Rome which Protestans took with awareness that it's wrong. Even more than this, them were both the observance of Sunday and the mark of the beast must be coercive S~nday the insistence that Sabbath ought not to be ob­ observance. Have not Seventh-day Adventists served. said for a century that when people- finally enter The mark of the beast. At which point we the mark of the beast experience, they will do so repeat what we said somewhere _above, that the w en widesprea un ay egiS ation is being mark of the beast is not merely Sunday obser­ ~nacted . 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 more serious, an evil and ferocious mark of the. time designated "mark of the beast," when the m. Bible doesn't seem to apply the term to Chris- - "The pope can modify divine law," said Petrus tians of earlier days? de Ancharano. Perhapsthetermisintroducedin theend time "The Sabbath, the most glorious day in the

tOoesignate a new depth of sinfulness.1The coer- law, has been changed into the Lord's day ... by cive anti-Sabbath Sunday theology of the Middle the authority of the church," declared the . ha t it an aura of ignorance. People Archbishop of Reggio at the crucial Council of seem not to have realized that Sabbath could Trent. possibly be the right day. We note that with the People in bygone times could say such things rise of Puritanism in Britain and its sabbatic in innocence, it may be; but we cannot. Today we Sunday, there arose a great agitation about the know bettet; and we know that God didn't Sabbath question. But the Sabbath question change His law even to excuse Jesus from Geth­ . then in vogue had nothing to do with the choice semane and crucifiXion. of the day to be observed but only with the way A body of Christians in the past felt free to it was to be observed. Hardly any sabbatic change God's law, and to harrass, persecute, and Puritans seem to have countenanced the idea excommunicate millions of Christians who chose that Sunday could be the wrong day. They to obey it. They will feel free to do it again, in believed that the seventh day was a perpetual spite of great light.indeed. sign of the New Covenant. With reasoning that doesn't convince us but that seemed logical The mark of the beast in the "forehead" rae­ enough to those intelligent people, they insisted resents mental assent to the church's belief and that God had shifted the seventh day from Sab­ ·behavior. The mark in the hand represents ac­ bath to Sunday, while still keeping it the seventh tivity carried on in harmony with such beliefs. A day. person's "forehead" may not approve what his ho.-..1e or her "hand" does, but actions speak louder But in the end time we u)idetstami tlt&t the than words. 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. as well as the Sabbath. Ritual circumcision was first performed around 2000 B.C. on Abraham, In Old Testament times God asked His people the father of the Jewish race. It was an ethnic to observe two special signs, ritual circumcision distinction, which according to Paul ceased to CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unfmished), p. 15 have saving significance when the Jewish people the covenant" (or "ark of testament") in the as a group ceased to be uniquely God's chosen ; sanctu~ry's._jn~ermost room, the . most holy peo~ . place. See Ex 32:15,16; 25:16.21; Num 10:33. Today, "in Christ ... there is neither Jew nor In the sanctuary scene (Rev 11:1.9) which Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is introduces the great controversy diVision, the neither male nor female; for you are all one in heavenly temple opened up so John could see Chrit Jesus." Galatians 3:27, 28. deep inside it. He saw heaven's "ark of his Since the cross, ritual circumcision has covenant." As he looked, there were "flashes of counted for little one way or the other. The com­ lightning, voices, peals of thundet; an mandments, howevet; still matter! Paul said in 1 earthquake, and a heavy hail." Corinthians 7:19 RSV, "Neither circumcision God was taking John back to Mount Sinai. counts for anything [any more] nor uncir cumci­ God is calling us too back to Mount Sinai, back sion, but keeping the commandments of God." to the sanctuary, back to Jesus our High Priest, Other translations make the meaning even to the ten commandments, and the Sabbath. clearer. "Circumcision is nothing and uncircum­ Back to Pentecost too, we may add, with its cision is nothing. Keeping God's commandments flashes of light, roaring voices, and shaking foun­ is what counts." NN. dations. Pentecost was a commemoration of "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision Sinai. It happened in the Bible month Sivan,just is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the as Sinai did. Thus Pentecost was a reminder of commandments of God." NASB. the New Covenant promise, "I will put my Spirit The Sabbath has nothing ethnic about it. It within you, and cause you to keep my statutes" was offered to the Jewish because it was offered (Ez 36:27); "I will write my law in your heart" to all races. The Sabbath was made for mankind! (Jer 31:33). Pentecost is not to be remembered Mk2:27. primarily for spiritual gifts but for making pos­ Because it was offered to the Jews along with sible loyalty to God's commandments. everyone else, we find God saying to the Israel­ The Sabbath is for everyone. Isaiah the ites at Mount Sinai, "You shall keep my Sab­ prophet knew that the Sabbath wasn't only for baths, for this is the sign between me and you e ews. "The foreigners who join themselves to throughout your generations, that you may t he LOrd," he wrote in his chapter 56:6,7, "to know that I, the Lord, sanctify you . ... It is a sign minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, for ever between me and the people ofIsrael, that and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast on the seventh day he rested, and was my covenant-these I will bring to my holy refreshed." Ex 31:12. mountain, and make them joyful in my house of The Sabbath is a sign showing that God made prayer." Is 56:6,7. us and that He sanctifies or remakes us. Isaiah's language about God's "servants:' The setting for the statement was impressive. "joyful" on God's "mountain" sounds like the God had led the Israelites triumphantly out of 144,000 servants of God, singing on Mount Zion Egypt. They were camping awhile at the foot of in Rev 14! Isaiah's promise is made about "for­ Mount Sinai. With a light and sound display that eigners," non-Jews, Gentiles, who keep the Sab­ would make a rock concert seem like a kinder­ bath. garten murmut; God called attention to the ten The Seal of God. God's end-time people keep commandments. There were "thunders and the commandments and accept God's "seal." So lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, what is the seal of God? It's the same as His sign! ( l;o \ - ~ · and a very loud trumpet blast ... and the whole )pD\: v"[' mountain quaked greatly." Exodus 19:16-19. In ancient times people signed their docu- Then God had Moses place a copy of the ten ments in the same way they sealed them. They i ~ . commandments, carved in stone, in the "ark of 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 Him fully, they love. the same thing. God's "sign" in our foreheads is God is holy. His law is holy. When people obey the same as His "seal." Him fully, the Holy Spirit lives out in their lives Nowadays we sign a document by writing our the purity and honesty and unselfiShness that signature on it. Our signature or sign is our mark the character of God Himself. name. When we sign in some official capacity, we So how is God's name the same as His seal? have a typist identify ourselves more fully, in­ We are sinners. If we are ever going to keep an dicating our official capacity as part of our sig­ entire Sabbath day holy, we need a distinct and nature. deep seated change in our most basic patterns. A bank manager has his secretary type, Jesus told Nicodemus that even a good man like "Johnson Doe, Manage~; First Federal of Big­ he needed to be born again. John 3:5. We can town." God conceivably could have a secretary never keep a whole Sabbath holy unless some­ type, "Lord God, Creatot; Heaven and Earth." thing happens in us everyday. We must be in such And this is just about the way God did sign His fellowship with Christ that we live purity, hones­ name in the Sabbath commandment! ty, compassion, helpfulness, all week long. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. . God's people at the very end of time will be .. the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your "spotless," free from lies, true and honest, God . ... for in six days the Lord made heaven chaste, pure, kind. They will keep God's com­ and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and mandments even when faced with starvation rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord and execution blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it." Exodus But how? They conquer the dragon "through 20:8-11. the word of their testimony," and they love not How could God sign a document more sig­ their lives "even unto death." Revelation 12:11. nificantly? How could He offer the Sabbath to us more authoritatively? But this by no means all. How often our will He doesn't force us to keep the Sabbath. Bil­ power lets us down! The overcomers have "the lions of people who neglect it or make light of it blood of the Lamb." In fact, they have the Lamb. can testify to this. But He does come to us, make They have Michael the great Prince. Daniel12: 1. His request, and sign or seal it, "Lord God, In some marvelous and mysterious manner He Creatot; Heaven and Earth." has come knocking and has been welcomed into God's name, the Lamb's name. The their hearts. He has brought with Him all the 144,000, who have God's seal in their foreheads, "gold, eyesalve, and white raiment" they could are also described as having God's name and the use. Revelation 3:15-22. Lamb's name there too. Revelation 14:1-5. Wonderful thought! He has brought Himself. Ancient worshipers had their god's literal And Colossians 2:9 says, "In him dwells all the name tattoed on their bodies. The "name" that fulness of deity bodily." So when in His own Revelation talks about is much more than a special way He enters us in response to our faith, tattoo! Names in Bible days represented a He brings His Godhead with Him! And then we person's character. See pp.Rev.2,3:19,20. When are "filled with all the fulness of God"! Ephesians God told Moses His "name" He listed His char­ 3:17- 19. acter qualities, "merciful and gracious, slow to "You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign anget; and abounding in steadfast love and faith­ between me and you ... that you may know that fulness," and so on. Exodus 34:5,6. I, the Lord, sanctify you." '-Fully matured Sabbath keepers have God's So this is how the 144,000, the "saints," God's name in their foreheads in the sense that they "remnant," young and old, escape the mark of have allowed God's Spirit to change their char­ the beast and are able to keep all the command­ acters until they resemble God's character. ments of God and stand complete in holiness and God is love. His law is love. When people obey purity as God's fully ripened grain! CMM: The Mark of the Beast (Unf'mished), p. 17

"What difference does the day make?" The garden produce instead of a lamb. The Roman se > nt is ad to have us on worshi in Church worshiped God in its own way. Moslems Goo-providing we do so in our own way. He by the millions worship God in their own way. persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit so she Cain and the Roman Church in time grew could become like God, not unlike Him. "You will angry with people who wors in His be like God," he promised. Gen 3:5. The serpent osen way. 01ng so seems to be characteristic was pleased to have Eve honor God in her own ..of many of us when we insist on worshiping God way. in our own own way. Cain worshiped God in his own way, with .-

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.