Who Is Responsible for the Change? — One Thinks It Was Christ — The Other Disclaims It
By MARY A. MORTON
“How strange it seems,” remarked Mrs. Salters, who had dropped in at the home of her friend Mrs. Martin. “I am all in a bustle at home, preparing for Sunday; and here you are with everything in order and dressed for church. Why is it? Did you always keep Saturday?”
“No, indeed,” replied Mrs. Martin. “I was brought up to keep Sunday, and used this day to prepare for it, as you do now.”
“Then why did you change?” queried her neighbor. “I should feel very guilty if I worked on Sunday.”
“I changed,” said Mrs. Martin, “because I found that I was breaking the fourth commandment every time I worked on the seventh day of the week, for that is the day God calls His Sabbath.”
“Yes, I know, but that was under the old dispensation. The Sabbath has been changed since then.”
“Who changed it?” asked Mrs. Martin.
“Christ Himself,” was the reply.
“Where do we learn this?”
“Well, I can’t tell just where it is,” Mrs. Salters replied, “but Elder Gray says it is plainly taught in the Bible.”
“I think he is mistaken,” said Mrs. Martin, “for Christ never contradicts Himself, and I read that He honored His Father’s commandments, and kept them.”
“O, yes, in a general way; but Elder Gray says that under the new dispensation, we are not under the law, but under grace, and that the law was abolished, destroyed, nailed to the cross, and is not binding on us any more. I do not understand just how it is, but of course he does.”
“No, I am sure you do not understand, and he does not understand his fearful responsibility, or he would not dare to teach such a thing. Christ denies this in plain words. Let us read what He says about it.” And taking up the Bible she had laid down, Mrs. Martin opened it at Matthew 5, and began to read at the seventeenth verse:
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
“We see, from this, that Christ knew that in the latter days, some would say He had changed His Father’s law; and He denies it in plain terms, so that His disciples need not be deceived on that point.”
Since hearing the first words, Mrs. Salters had been sitting in deep thought. Now she looked up and said, “Please read the first verse over again.” Mrs. Martin did so, and waited for the question she was sure would come.
“Can it be that Christ says these words?”
“You can read for yourself,” said Mrs. Martin, giving her the book. “Christ foresaw that in the latter days, there would be teachers who would not only break the fourth commandment, but also teach that He was responsible for it; and He denies the charge, and declares that not even a jot or a tittle of the law shall fail till all—both the law and the prophets—are fulfilled.”
“Now we all agree that the prophecies reach down to the end of the world. Hence with this declaration of Christ before me, I dare not claim that the law is abolished. So the only thing for me to do was to step out and keep the Sabbath of the law.”
“Well, I have never given these things much thought,” her neighbor replied, “but I certainly will look the matter up, and will be glad to talk with you again. I must say Good-by, and thank you for this talk.”
“Good-by.” And as Mrs. Martin accompanied her caller to the door she sent up a silent prayer that her eyes might be opened to see this precious truth, and that she might be constrained to obey it.
No appeal to the Saviour of men, made in simple, childlike faith, was ever passed by unnoticed.
When Christ was upon earth, there came to His disciples an anxious father, presenting his son, who was grievously afflicted with an evil spirit, to be healed. It appears that they were unable to cast out the demon. A great multitude gathered about the defeated disciples, and began to ply their questions. Presently Christ, who had just descended from the mount of transfiguration, in company with Peter, James, and John, came upon the scene, and inquired, “What question ye with them?”
The father “answered and said, Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away. . . . And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.”
A number of the disciples having failed, the father doubted if the Master was able to effect the cure. So his petition for help was burdened with doubt. Said he, “If Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” The great Physician replied to his prayer in language that demanded the exercise of unwavering faith. His answer was, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
At this point, many would have given up in despair, or turned away with bitter murmuring. But not so with that burdened father. In tears he threw his helpless, unbelieving soul upon the Saviour in prayer. He exercised his will on the side of faith, and in soul agony cried out, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” This was all that the poor man could do.
His prayer touched the heart of our compassionate Redeemer, and He rebuked the foul spirit, and commanded it to come out of him, “and enter no more into him.” The demon obeyed. The son was healed, and the father was cured of his unbelief.
But how different was the prayer of the dying leper who knelt before the great Healer of soul and body, and prayed for help! Said he, “If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” The Saviour quickly replied, “I will; be thou clean”; and “immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.”
Notice the difference in these petitions. “If Thou canst,” said the anxious father. “If Thou wilt,” said the dying leper. Our Redeemer loves to have us put our trust in Him. He always will respond to the prayer of faith.
It is cruel unbelief that defeats the work our pitying Saviour longs to do for sinful men. If, like the afflicted father, every unbeliever would only cry out in tears, and cast his helpless soul on Christ, praying from the heart, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief,” divine aid would be given, and doubt and unbelief would disappear. Many of the sick would be healed, and souls would be saved.
Or if, like the leper, we would exercise childlike faith in Him who has given His life as a pledge of His love, many souls would be delivered from the leprosy of sin, and even healed of their physical maladies. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
Tested on Obedience
By T. E. BOWEN
The Seal of the Divine Law — It Will Characterize and Protect in the Final Struggle — A Great Test
By T. E. BOWEN
The beloved disciple John, exiled upon the little isle Patmos because of his testimony, saw in vision an angel ascending out of the east having the seal of the living God. Rev. 7: 2. This was at a time when general war was about to break forth upon the earth. This angel’s work was to seal the servants of God upon the earth in their foreheads. Verse 3.
What Is the Saving Seal?
The query may arise in some mind as to what is meant by this “seal.” In chapter 3: 12 we read, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God [Jesus is speaking], and the name of the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My new name.”
Describing in chapter 22 that celestial city of the saved, the revelator says: “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.”
The Seal in the Law
God’s name, His seal, is found in His law. In the Sabbath commandment alone appears the name of its Author, the Creator of the heaven and earth.
Hence, in a word, the seal of God that John saw placed upon the foreheads—within the mind—of God’s servants indicates the movement going throughout the earth at the present time, calling people back to the keeping of the true Sabbath enjoined by the fourth commandment—God’s holy rest day, the seventh. His seal is found in this commandment. A company is found in every land who rejoice in keeping the Sabbath in counterdistinction to another company who receive another mark in the438forehead or in the hand—the mark, or seal, of the beast. If the former seal is found in true Sabbath-keeping, the natural conclusion is that the latter consists in false sabbath-keeping.
A Great Test
The Sabbath is a test of obedience. God says the seventh day is the Sabbath; man says the first. Every one, therefore, manifests his loyalty to either the one power or the other issuing the command. Obedience is an act of worship. God told Adam and Eve to let the tree of “knowledge of good and evil” in the midst of the garden alone. He put it where they could get to it and its fruit; but to touch it meant, “Ye shall surely die.” They touched, they ate, they died. Satan ridiculed the restriction then.
He has brought into the world a false sabbath. He still scoffs at the idea that God should require the observance of one particular day.
But in Eden Satan’s scorn or lie did not change God’s purpose, nor save Adam and Eve from sorrow and death. Neither will Satan’s scorn, his ridicule, or even his skilfully planned Sunday laws, change one whit God’s purpose and word. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” And to-day, as in the garden of Eden, possession of the goodly Canaan is wholly dependent upon implicit obedience.
Prospect of World-Wide Peace
By Calvin P. Bollman
How and When Will It Be Realized?—May We Expect Peace While Preparing for War?
By CALVIN P. BOLLMAN
THE numerous peace conferences and congresses of recent years attest the world-wide desire for universal peace; but desirable as peace is, we are still without the pleasing assurance that it will ever be realized. Civilization has tried to supersede war by arbitration. Humanitarianism has endeavored to assuage its horrors. The gospel of the Prince of peace gives it no countenance. Nevertheless the fear and dread of it are still with us.
Note how values fluctuate in the great money centers of the world at even the rumor of war. The financial, the industrial, and the social world alike shrink from this monstrous and unnatural thing. Yet much of the wealth of the nations is spent in preparation for war. Civilization is groaning under the burden of building Dreadnoughts and super-Dreadnoughts, equipping navies, and drilling, accoutering, and maintaining armies, but the nations find no way of escape from this burden.
Dream of Peace and Awake to War
Men fondly dream of peace only to awaken to the stern realities of devastating war. A few brief months after the czar called the first peace congress at the Hague, his own armies were engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the forces of the mikado, while at home his empire from the Baltic to the Urals was filled with strife.
Practically nothing was accomplished by the first peace congress; and aside from laying the corner-stone of the great peace palace, or temple, as Mr. Carnegie prefers to call it, the second congress was equally fruitless of practical results, as have also been all the efforts since that time. Indeed, the difficulties encountered in securing disarmament and arbitration have been emphasized rather than minimized by the various efforts to establish permanent peace.
It Is the People, Not God, Who Saw It
But it may be asked, Does not the Bible foretell a time when “nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”?
To this question we answer, No. The language quoted occurs in the Bible, but only as telling what “many people shall go and say.” It is the language of the people, not of the Lord; and to-day we see in the Hague and other peace conferences a beginning at least of the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isa. 2:3 and Micah 4:2, 3.
That the language referred to in Isaiah and Micah is not from the Lord, but from the people, is evident from the basis of, or the reason for, the anticipated peace, as stated in Micah 4:5: “For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever.”
The reader may rest assured that the true God is not a party to any such compromise. Righteousness, union with God, is the only basis of peace recognized by the Creator. “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” Isa. 48:22. And of all false objects of worship Jehovah says: “Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.” Jer. 10:11.
Wars Till the End of Sin
When asked by His disciples for signs of the closing of the gospel age and of the end of the world, our Saviour said, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” Matt. 24:7. Has the world seen war in the past? Remember it was only the “beginning,” a mere foretaste of what is coming.
This is foreshadowed in other texts also. In the third chapter of his second letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul says, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” He then gives a list of seventeen sins characteristic of the last days, and in view of the conditions described he solemnly charges Timothy to “preach the Word.” “For the time will come [we can now say, ‘has come’] when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables.” 2 Tim. 4:2-4, A. R. V.
One of these fables is that an era of peace is to be ushered in by conferences and agreement between nations. The Lord, through the prophet, warns His people against this delusion thus: “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Isa. 8:12. Verse 17 shows that the prophecy speaks of the last days, for it says, “And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.
Vivid Prophetic Vision
One of the most vivid prophetic descriptions of latter-day conditions in the entire Old Testament Scriptures is found in the fourth chapter of Jeremiah. Only those who have never felt the peculiar emotions occasioned by an unexpected and sudden view of some terrible scene, can fail to appreciate the force of the prophet’s striking description of the terror inspired by the vision opened before him. In agony he exclaims:
“I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I can not hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?” Jer. 4:19-21.
And then follows the complaint that at this time even many of God’s professed people do not understand the real situation.
Some Things the Prophet Saw
That a series of events reaching to the end of time was shown to the prophet is evident from the fact that after hearing the alarm of war at a time when even God’s people are foolishly looking for peace, he describes the earth as “without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.” He beholds the mountains tremble, and all the hills move lightly. “I beheld,” says the prophet, “and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.” Verses 23-25.
If any one does not know that this description applies to the end of the world, let him compare the prophecy under consideration with the third chapter of 2 Peter and Rev. 6:12-17.
A terrible awakening awaits not only the non-professing world, but a careless and backslidden church. One of the charges brought by the Lord against false shepherds in the last days is, “They have seduced My people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace.” Eze. 13:10. Referring to the same time, the apostle says, “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3. He adds, however, these encouraging words: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”
Will Reap What They Are Sowing
“Be not deceived; . . . for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” This is just as true of nations as of individuals. The nations have sown hundreds of millions of dollars in providing fighting machines and in training men in their use. The harvest will be war. The disposition to fight must be taken out of individual hearts before it can be eliminated from national experience; but naval and military training stimulates the war spirit.
As long as sin curses the world, just so439long will there be war between the nations. Not until Christ shall take the throne of His father David will the dove of peace find a permanent abiding-place in this world. “Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.” Isa. 32:16, 17.
This will be realized, however, not in this earth, but in the earth of which our Lord speaks, saying, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,” and to which the apostle refers when he says, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Matt. 5:5; 2 Peter 3:13.
Question Corner
4327 — TRINE IMMERSION
Will you please explain Matt. 28: 19? Does it mean that one should be dipped into the water three times, as some claim?
E. B.
There is nothing in this, nor any other text in the Bible, to justify the practise of dipping three times in baptism. The significance of baptism is to show the believer’s death and burial to sin, and resurrection to a new life. It also shows faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. When a person is dead, he is buried, but he is not buried three times. And so when a believer is dead to sin, he is buried, but there is no reason for burial more than once. Baptizing into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, expresses belief in this blessed Trinity; but “these three are one,” and one baptism shows belief in the three as one.
No Precept for Sunday
By M. C. Israel
The Judge Asks, What Is Written in the Law?—What Answer Can Sunday Keepers Give?
By M. C. ISRAEL
MOST people, both ministers and others, do not attempt to give any Bible reasons for Sunday keeping, but assume that the church changed the Sabbath to that day, and that it had a right to do so. They do not accept the teaching of the prophecy,—that a blasphemous power has brought about that change, and that they are rendering obedience to that power, and not to God, in keeping Sunday.
DENY AUTHORITY FOR CHANGE
The fourth commandment tells us which day is the Sabbath, and of the facts that make it the Sabbath; and the Creator Himself can not change these facts. And He Himself, through His prophets and apostles, denies the authority of any power to make such a change.
There are devout men who deplore the condition of the popular churches; but they shun prophecy, and say, “We can understand it better after it is fulfilled.” It is not to them what God intended it should be, “a light that shineth in a dark place,” a part of that Book of which God says that man is to live “by every word” of it. They, like the Jews, “know not the voices of the prophets,” nor what Christ and the prophets taught in regard to the perpetuity of every precept of God’s law.
This law was spoken by God’s own voice, and written with His own finger, on tables of stone. An inspired writer says, “Thy law is the truth.” But if the first day of the week, as many claim to believe, is the Sabbath, then the fourth commandment tells a falsehood; for it says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath.”
Christ is very explicit and emphatic in His statement regarding the perpetuity of every precept of the law just as it was spoken, and written on stone, and in our Bibles. “Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle [the smallest letter, or the point of a letter] shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things [predicted] be accomplished.” Matt. 5: 18, A. R. V. See also Luke 16: 17. What is written in the law will stand as written till all things are accomplished.
The apostle Paul emphasizes this same fact in Rom. 3: 19, 20, 31: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith,” stop every mouth, and all the world becomes guilty before God. “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” It is just what the law says, just what is written in the law, that condemns all the world. The law condemns all who do not obey what it says.
The apostle James is more emphatic, if possible, in showing that every precept of the law is in full force till the Judgment. Chapter 2: 10-12: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. . . . So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” When the Judge shall ask, “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” what answer can Sunday keepers give?
Christ, through His prophets, has warned the church of a blasphemous power that would arise before His second coming, which would attempt to change the law of the Most High, and wear out the saints. Dan. 7: 25; Rev. 13: 1-10; 2 Thess. 2: 1-5. And He has sent a message, with warning of a terrible penalty, not to obey this power, but to keep God’s commandments, and the faith of Jesus. Rev. 14: 6-14; 1: 1-3; 22: 12-16. “I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.”
The churches of to-day, like the Jewish church, are making a sad failure in not carefully studying the word of God, including the prophecies. “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.” 2 Chron. 20: 20.
SYSTEMATIC BIBLE STUDY
The third chapter of 2 Peter, which is in our reading for this week, is in part prophetic. It tells of scoffers who will arise in the last days, and who “willingly are ignorant” that it was by the word of God that the heavens were made.
If comparisons can be made between different portions of the book of Isaiah, we are now in that portion that is richest in soul-inspiring promises and prophetic declaration.
Read three chapters each week-day, and read five chapters on the Sabbath.
Results of Church and State Union
By George W. Reaser
Testimony of History to the Degradation That Follows
By GEORGE W. REASER
The following summing up of the results of the union of church and state, by Dr. Draper, contains an admonition worthy of serious meditation.
In his well-known work, “Intellectual Development of Europe,” he says: “We have now approached the close of a thousand years from the birth of Christ; the evil union of the church and state, their rivalries, their intrigues, their quarrels, had produced an inevitable result, doing the same in the West that they had done in the East: disorganizing the political system, and ending in a universal social demoralization. In these deplorable days, society was dissolving, the human race was disappearing, and with difficulty the melancholy ruins of ancient civilization could be traced. Such was the issue of the second attempt at the union of political and ecclesiastical power. Inaugurated in selfishness, it strengthens itself by violence, is perpetuated by ignorance, and yields, as its inevitable result, social ruin.
“And while things were thus going to wreck in the state, it was no better in the church. The ill-omened union between them was bearing its only possible fruit, disgrace to both—a solemn monition to all future ages.”—Pages 279, 280.
Discussing Degrees in Heresy
In another connection, he comments thus: “The clergy had abandoned the guidance of the individual life of their flocks; personal virtue or vice were no longer considered; sin was not measured by evil works, but by the degrees of heresy. The ecclesiastical chiefs of Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria were engaged in a desperate struggle for supremacy, carrying out their purposes by weapons and in ways revolting to the conscience of man. What an example when bishops are concerned in assassinations, poisonings, adulteries, blindings, riots, treasons, civil war; when patriarchs and primates are excommunicating and anathematizing one another in their rivalries for earthly power, bribing eunuchs with gold, and courtezans and royal females with concessions of episcopal love, and influencing the decisions of councils asserted to speak with the voice of God by those base intrigues in their packed assemblies! Among legions of monks, who carried terror into the imperial armies and riot into the great cities, arose hideous clamor for theological dogmas, but never a voice for intellectual liberty or the outraged rights of man.”—Page 246.
The Limit of Its Authority
A recent writer has well observed that “to protect liberty of conscience is the duty of the state, and this is the limit of its authority in matters of religion.”
Gen. U. S. Grant had a true conception of this question, so vital to human liberty and happiness, when he uttered the words, “Keep the church and the state forever separate”; but the principle was laid down nearly nineteen centuries ago by the Saviour of men in His immortal words, “Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”
AN ECCLESIASTICAL FEDERATION
History Repeating Itself—The Church Not to Use the Power of Numbers, but the Power of His Grace—Divine Words of Warning Against a Great Apostasy Framed for the Last Days
For the past eight or ten years, there has been a continued and persistent effort, on the part of churchmen, to get an action through Congress that will increase the number of chaplains. The House, some weeks ago, on a point of order, ruled out from one of its bills the paragraphs providing for the creation of the grade of acting chaplain, and for an increase of naval chaplains from twenty-four to fifty-two. But the Senate recently, in committee of the whole, restored those paragraphs as an amendment.
The “grade of acting chaplain” is to be created so that men can be taken in as sort of apprentices, and tested for some three years, to see whether or not they are suitable for appointment as permanent chaplains.
The Federal Council of Churches sends out information that “the united appeal of the churches represented by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, the Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Roman Catholic Church, through Father O’Hern, together with the active support of the secretary of the navy, Naval Chaplain Bayard, and others, has convinced both houses that simple justice required an advance in this arm of the service. The action of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States, of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, undoubtedly had a cumulative effect upon senators and representatives.”
Combining to Overawe
And right here lies one of the most significant things in American life at the present time. Leaders in all the great churches are combining to bring to bear the force of their numbers upon lawmakers. The church is not in the world for any such political purpose. Christ was never found in any way acting as a politician. Neither were any of His apostles. But after Christ was crucified, and His apostles came upon the stage of action, they predicted a “falling away.” And this “falling away” was brought about, as all history attests, through the Christian church becoming popular, and through its increasing numbers entering the field of politics. It formed a partnership with the state, to become an ecclesiastical-political power rather than a great spiritual power for the purpose of regenerating the souls of men.
History is about to repeat itself in the formation of an ecclesiastical persecuting power. True men, who study their Bibles, are going to see this, and avoid it. But political leaders in the church in this day, the same as in the fourth century, will go blindly forward in the creation of this great despotism. It will be the climax of apostasy, to be met by the great climax of the second coming of Christ, whose coming will bring joy to every true believer.
A Prophecy Concerning It
One of the prophecies concerning this ecclesiastical power is presented under the symbol of the beast, and reads as follows:
“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Rev. 13: 11-17.
By referring to the twentieth verse of the nineteenth chapter, it will be seen that this same power is spoken of, and that it is alive and active when it goes to its doom in the lake of fire. This is conclusive evidence that this great persecuting power presented in the prophecy performs its fearful work right at the close of time.
Message of Warning
But still further evidence that this power operates in the last days, is shown in the great message of warning that God sends against it, which is expressed in these words:
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God,441and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” Rev. 14:9-14.
The Climax of the Message
It will be seen, from these verses, that the climax of this warning message is to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. Thus are presented two great rival powers: on the one hand, an ecclesiastical apostasy demanding worship under the penalty of death; on the other hand, the warning message from God that the man who bows to this apostate power must suffer the divine penalty.
It is clear that these prophecies refer to the very last days. They are strong in their presentation of the mighty truth. It is well to study them closely and to know that we are standing with God.
At the Mercy-Seat or the Judgment Bar
By I. H. E.
EVERY sinner must sometime meet God. This meeting will occur at one of two places,—before the mercy-seat or at the judgment bar.
At the mercy-seat, where God dwells between the cherubim, the sinner may meet “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” The blood of Jesus Christ is there offered for the sinner. The broken law of Jehovah is satisfied by the life and death of His Son.
At the bar of judgment, God is no longer the God of mercy; for mercy’s gates are closed forever. He is now the God of justice. Sin must be accounted for. The broken law demands the life of the sinner, who must answer before it for his own transgressions. Christ is no longer High Priest.
No more does He plead His own life and blood for the sinner. Justice is now the habitation of God’s throne. As Judge, God is no longer the Merciful One, but stern justice for sin is measured to all who refused mercy. I. H. E.
