Special Note: The door of grace, mercy and peace remains open. That is what we printed last month in Part I. That truth is solid for today’s generation. Also, the people in past generations were not faced, or confronted with the subject. No one has the Mark of the Beast at this present time. But be assured of the fact that the subject is going to be heated up in the near future. The last days have arrived and Revelation 12, 13 and 14 will be fulfilled according to Bible Prophecy. And it is all over the Son of God and the Fourth Commandment.

We had a hint in the last chapter of the conflict between Sunday, the first day of the week and the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. To you this may seem unimportant, or at most only mildly important. But how does God look at it? How does He regard it? What does He say about it? After all, the way God sees it is the way it is, and that makes it of vital import to every person on earth.

For the reception of the "Mark of the Beast" there is no mercy, no pardon, no forgiveness. The Sabbath is the "mark" of God, and the Sunday is the "mark" of the beast, so you see this carries over to every individual of the human race and the reception of the one or the other affects your eternal destiny.

We should start at the beginning. We should go back to the creation of the earth and the first man and woman. The first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1, is the story of the first six days of creation. Read it. It's a fascinating recital of how the earth got here, and incidentally how you got here. And there is not a scintilla of evolution in it either.

After God made the earth He looked over what He had done and this is what He said about it: "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good." Genesis 1:31. All right, we look over the Alps, the Rockies, the plains, rivers and oceans, the flowers, the waving grain fields and we, too, even after six thousand years of sin, think it pretty good, don't we?

But God had not finished His creation in the six days. He had another day, the seventh. Let's read about that day, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Genesis 2:1-3.

You may be saying right now, "What's so important about God resting on the seventh day?" Please keep reading and I’ll tell you what's important about it. God and His Son, Jesus Christ, are the only beings in the universe who have creative ability. I don't have it. You don't have it. The angels don't have it. No inhabitant of another world has it. God and God only has it.

Are you thinking to yourself, "What's so important about creative ability?" Well, it is just so important that if God didn't have it, and if He had not exercised it, you wouldn't be here, and in truth none of us would be here, and the earth would not be here. And more than that, the sun, the moon, the stars would not be here. There would be no star clusters no galaxies in space; in fact, the sky would be as black as the "proverbial hat."

But God has creative ability, and He has used it to make this wonderful universe with billions of star-suns, and millions of galaxies. Incidentally, you will be interested in this single fact concerning your own home galaxy, the Milky Way. Astronomers tell us that this galaxy has two hundred billion stars or suns, and there are a million other galaxies out in space.

How did God do it? Creative ability is the ability to make something material where there was nothing before. This is the way the Bible tells it: "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth... For He spake, and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast." Psalm 33:6, 9.

God's Memorial

God wants His "creative ability" to be remembered, since it sets Him apart from all others in the universe. What did He do to accomplish that? He made the seventh day of the week the Sabbath day, and commanded all men to observe it, to keep it holy. Memorials are not unusual. We have them all over the world to men of outstanding achievement. But God made no memorial of wood or stone, but of time-- the seventh day of time.

"Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever; and Thy memorial, O Lord. throughout all generations." Psalm 135:13. And more than that, God's memorial of the Sabbath will continue on and on forever after the end of sin. The Bible says: "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 66:22, 23.

God's memorial, His Holy Sabbath, is a sign between God and His people. It's a sign of obedience. "And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Ezekiel 20:20.

Most Christians talk a great deal about "sanctification," but not many have the "sign" of sanctification. All right, what is the sign? "Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezekiel 20:12.

"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Exodus 31:13.

"In Revelation 14, men are called upon to worship the Creator; and the prophecy brings to view a class that, as the result of the threefold message, are keeping the Commandments of God... The fourth precept declares: ‘In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore for the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it’ Exodus 20:11...

"So long as the fact that He is our Creator continues to be a reason why we should worship Him, so long the Sabbath will continue as its sign and memorial. Had the Sabbath been universally kept, man’s thoughts and affections would have been led to the Creator as the object of reverence and worship, and there would have never been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel." - The Great Controversy, p.437, 438; by E. G. White.

Satan has no more creative powers than you or I have, but he has counterfeited a so-called rest day just the same. It is not the day God rested upon, but the first day God worked upon to make the earth - the first day of the week, Sunday. As God has made the Sabbath the "sign, seal or mark" of His power and authority, so Satan has made Sunday the "mark" of his assumed authority.

You understand, of course, that Satan does not appear in person. He works through mediums, as he spoke through the serpent to deceive Eve, and then used Eve to tempt and lead Adam into sin. He uses individuals today, and he works through organizations - political governments, churches and denominations. And that’s the way he brought Sunday in and made it the "mark" of his authority.

Satan has counterfeited just about every doctrine in the Bible, but the Sabbath counterfeit is the one God regards as the gravest. By the Sunday counterfeit, Satan has almost the whole world violating the Law of God. To break God’s law in sin, and the wages of sin is death (see I John 3:4; Romans 6:23). And don’t imagine that you must break all ten of God’s Commandments to be a sinner and guilty of death. How many laws of the state do you have to break to be thrown in prison? -Just one, and that’s the way it is with God’s law. Here’s James 2:10 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."

"The beast has a mark over which victory must be gained. Receiving this mark in the forehead or hand is what constitutes the worship of both the beast and his image. It is the sign of allegiance and false worship. It is the negative of the seal, sign, or mark of God which is placed in the forehead of His people (Revelation 7:2, 3). -Studies in the Revelation, p. 217, by Taylor G. Bunch.

"The sign, or seal, of God is revealed in the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, the Lord’s memorial of creation... The mark of the beast is the opposite of this, -the observance of the first day of the week. This mark distinguishes those who acknowledge the supremacy of the papal authority from those who acknowledge the authority of God." -Testimonies to the Church, Vol.8, p.117.

"The Sabbath or seal of God is really the emblem of loyalty and true worship; and Sunday the flag of rebellion." -Bunch

Jesus said in John 14:15: "If ye love Me, keep My Commandments," You may never have thought of it, but "obedience" is the test, the proof, of love. And, that’s exactly the way God regards it. In the judgment every one of us will be judged by God’s law, the Ten Commandments (see James 2:12). God requires obedience to all His Commandments. No person will make it with God, obeying nine and breaking -one.

"Those who are uniting with the world, are receiving the worldly mold, and preparing for the mark of the beast. Those who are distrustful of self, who are humbling themselves before God and purifying their souls by obeying the truth, -these are receiving the heavenly mold, and preparing for the seal of God (the Sabbath) in their foreheads. When the decree goes forth, and the stamp is impressed, their character will remain pure and spotless for eternity." -Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 216, by E. G. White.

Rival Institutions

Sabbath and Sunday are rival institutions. They ever have been and they are today, and will be to the end of time. As we have seen from Revelation 14:9-11, God's unmixed wrath is poured out upon all who receive the "Mark of the Beast," Sunday. No mercy is shown those who worship the beast and his image. All such identify themselves as being determinedly on Satan's side, and for this reason are rejected of God.

Here's a thing to remember. Every last living person on this earth who has reached the age of accountability, is either on one side or the other-God's side or Satan's side. Wise and happy is the person who chooses now to cast his lot with God and serve Him, for God is going to win in His controversy with Satan. But sad and unhappy the person who chooses Satan's side. Choosing Satan's side will put you, with Satan, in the Lake of Fire (see Revelation 20:9, 10, 14, 15).

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9 (see also Ephesians 2:7).