Chrstian churches are converging, looking the same, and are all claiming to belong to Christ.  But do they really all belong to Christ?  Does the fact that they call themselves Christian make them God’s true church?  Does the Bible identify God’s true end-time church?  Does it matter which church one belongs to?  Bible prophecy reveals that many churches in the last days will claim the name of Christ, but will seek their own concept of truth and their own righteousness.

“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach” (Isaiah 4:1).

The seven women in Isaiah’s prophecy have their own bread (concept of truth) and want to keep their own clothing (righteousness).  They do not want the spotless robes of Christ’s righteousness.  All they want is to take the name of Jesus, probably because the Bible says, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Unless a church fully obeys God, the name of Christ is taken in vain.  “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).  If you must be saved you must say as Christ said of Himself, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psalms 40:8) and  “I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me” (John 5:30). And the Scripture says, “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 John 2:6).

The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.  Many prefer to have Jesus as Saviour but not as Lord.  To such, they wish to be saved without ever being obedient to Jesus.

All who profess to be Christians and the whole world are in these last days divided into two churches.  Two women in Revelation 12 and 17, with one being the comely woman and the other the mother of harlots, symbolize these two churches.

 

Woman as symbol of a church

The Bible compares the church to a woman.  In the Bible, the union of marriage represents the sacred and enduring character of the relation that exists between Christ and His church.  The Lord has joined His people to Himself by a solemn covenant, He promising to be their God, and they pledging themselves to be His and His alone.

God said in the Old Testament, “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman” (Jeremiah 6:2). And again, “Say unto Zion, Thou art my people” (Isaiah 51:16). The true church is called Zion and God compares it with a comely and delicate woman.

In a symbolism of marriage between God and His church, God declares: “I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies” (Hosea 2:19). And, again: “I am married unto you” (Jeremiah 3:14).

Paul employs the same figure in the New Testament when he says: “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2).

The unfaithfulness of the church to Christ in permitting her confidence and affection to be turned from Him, and allowing the love of worldly things to occupy the soul, is likened to the violation of the marriage vow.

The sin of Israel in departing from the Lord is presented under this figure; and the wonderful love of God which they thus despised is touchingly portrayed:

“I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine … And thou wast exceeding beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee. . . . But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown … as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!” (Ezekiel 16:8, 13-15, 32).

“Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 3:20).

In the New Testament, language very similar is addressed to professed Christians who seek the friendship of the world above the favour of God.  Says the apostle James: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).

Notice now something very profound.  The fallen church is called Babylon and God compares it to a harlot.  She committed fornication by departing from the Bible truth, forming her own concept of truth and clothing herself with her own righteousness.

John saw this woman and says, “the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication” (Revelation 17:4).  John further identifies this fallen church as “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”  What a horrifying contrast with the “comely and delicate woman,” Zion!

 

Comely and delicate woman

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. … And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne” (Revelation 12:1,2,5).

We have already established that a woman in the Bible is a symbol for a church.  A comely woman symbolizes the true church.  “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman” (Jeremiah 6:2). This comely woman is pictured in Revelation 12.

The comely and delicate woman in Revelation 12 is clothed with the sun, moon, and stars – the natural light of God’s creation.  These represent the church as the light of the world.  Christ declares, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).  Christ is the source of light and power for His church.  If the heart is pure and right, if godliness is dwelling there, it will be revealed in the life.  It will pervade the conversation and all the relations of man to his fellow man.  He will be a doer of the words of Christ.  His every action will shine with a holy luster.  He will be invested with power, for the divine presence is with him.

The sun represents the light of Jesus and the glory He bestows on His church.  “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalms 84:11).  He says to His church, “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall” (Malachi 4:2).  The true church then reflects the light to the world.

The moon under her feet represents the types and shadows of the Old Testament sacrificial system.  As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so the sacrificial system was helpful to the church because it reflected the light of the Messiah to come.

Paul explains that the sacrificial laws pointed to Jesus who makes His church perfect, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect” (Hebrews 10:1).

The 12 stars above her head symbolize the leadership of the church – 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament and 12 apostles of Christ in the New Testament.  In other words, the true church continues from the Old Testament through the New Testament.

The one who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron is Jesus Christ.  God says of Jesus through the prophet David, “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. … Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalms 2:7, 9).

John complements by saying, “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:13, 15, 16).

In a continued symbolism of marriage, again Christ is the head of His church.  “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body” (Ephesians 5:23).

Thus Revelation 12 provides a picture of the true church.  The people of God, symbolized by a holy woman and her children, are represented as greatly in the minority.  In the last days only a remnant still existed.

Of this remnant John speaks as they “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

 

Mother of harlots

The woman of Revelation 17 is described as “arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness: ... and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:4, 5).

Says the prophet: “I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.”  Babylon is further declared to be “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:6, 18).

The power that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs of Christendom is Rome.  The purple and scarlet colour, the gold and precious stones and pearls, vividly picture the magnificence and more than kingly pomp affected by the haughty see of Rome.  And no other power could be so truly declared “drunken with the blood of the saints” as that church which has so cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ in the Dark Ages.

As to the “mother of harlots”, it is widely known that there is only one church that claims to be the mother church – the great Roman Catholic Church.  A prominent Catholic priest, John A. O’Brien, said: “That observance [Sunday keeping] remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away” (John A. O’Brien, The Faith of Millions (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 1974, p. 401)).

That the papacy is the power described in Revelation 17 is widely accepted by Protestants.  Many leaders of the Reformation (Huss, Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchthon, Cranmer, Tyndale, Latimer, Ridley, and others) taught that the papacy is the power here involved (George Eldon Ladd, The Blessed Hope, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman's Publishing Co., 1956, pp. 32-34).  The details by which the papacy is described in Revelation 17 are too clear for doubt.

Babylon is also charged with the sin of unlawful connection with “the kings of the earth.”  Alexander Flick says that by the 13th century, the pope was “at least in theory and claim ... the ruler of the whole world in temporal and spiritual affairs” (The Rise of the Mediaeval Church, New York: Burt Franklin, 1959, pp. 575, 576).  It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot; and Rome, corrupting herself in like manner by seeking the support of worldly powers, receives a like condemnation.

Babylon is said to be “the mother of harlots.”  By her also harlot daughters must be symbolised churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world.  The message of Revelation 14:8, announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt.  Since this message follows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the last days; therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries.

At the time of the rise of the Protestant churches, they took a noble stand for God and the truth, and His blessing was with them.  Even the unbelieving world was constrained to acknowledge the beneficent results that followed an acceptance of the principles of the gospel.

Great protestant reformers of old, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Tyndale, Baxter, Wesley, urged that all doctrines be brought to the test of the Bible and declared that they would renounce everything which it condemned.  Against these men persecution raged with relentless fury; yet they ceased not to declare the truth.  Different periods in the history of the church have each been marked by the development of some special truth, adapted to the necessities of God’s people at that time.  But what befell the great faith and spirit of truth of the Protestants?

In the words of the prophet to Israel: “Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.”  But they fell by the same desire which was the curse and ruin of Israel – the desire of imitating the practices and courting the friendship of the ungodly.  “Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown.” (Ezekiel 16:14, 15).

Soon, if not already, the mother of harlots, in alliance with her harlot daughters and the kings of the earth, will persecute God’s people (Revelation 13).  This will happen, if not already, when Christian churches unite with State to enforce a false worship, decreeing a Sunday law.  The present day alliance of protestant churches and Roman church is unholy alliance destined to persecute God’s people.

It is said: “Protestants little know what they are doing when they propose to accept the aid of Rome in the work of Sunday exaltation.  While they are bent upon the accomplishment of their purpose, Rome is aiming to re-establish her power, to recover her lost supremacy...

“She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated” (Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, California: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1950 Revised edn, pp. 581, 582).

When religious and political powers unite to enact a law demanding God’s people to keep Sunday holy, God will surely act.  Daniel 12:1 tells us: “At that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”  Zechariah 2:8 tells us: “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”

Whenever Satan has directly touched the fourth commandment, the Sabbath, God intervenes directly!  Satan caused Pharaoh to work the Israelites “daily” (Exodus 5) including on Sabbath, God sent plagues (Exodus 7), then Moses to take His people out.  When Satan will cause confederacies to enforce Sunday worship (Revelation 13), God will send the plagues again (Revelation 15, 16), and Jesus Himself will come to take His faithful people home.

Heretofore predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd.

But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated in parts of Europe in preparing the world for the universal Sunday law, the event so long doubted and disbelieved must now be seen to be approaching.  And now Babylon is fallen, and now must God’s people come out of her.

The woman identified as Babylon in Revelation 17 represents churches that have their own bread – concept of truth, and their own apparel – self-righteousness, and yet claim to be Christian (Isaiah 4:1).

The mother of harlots, Babylon, rejects God’s Ten Commandments.  Instead of the true Sabbath (Saturday), she institute and keeps Sunday as a day of worship.  To her and her harlot daughters, Jesus says, “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7).

 

Come out of her my people

God is calling His people out of Babylon.  First, people are warned that Babylon is fallen.  “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” (Revelation 18:2).

Second, people are called out of the fallen Babylon.  “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).

Many of God’s people are still in Babylon because they are kept captive in Babylon for the want of truth.  No longer have the hosts of evil power to keep God’s people captive; for “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city,” which hath “made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication;” and to spiritual Israel is given the message, “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 14:8; 18:4).

As the captive exiles heeded the message, “Flee out of the midst of Babylon” (Jeremiah 51:6), and were restored to the Land of Promise, so those who fear God today are heeding the message to withdraw from spiritual Babylon, and soon they are to stand as trophies of divine grace in the earth made new, the heavenly Canaan.

Those who are willing to accept the truth will hear the voice of Jesus calling and will come out of Babylon.  Such are the sheep yet out there.  “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16).

Jesus is calling all of His faithful, honest followers to come out of Babylon.  They must hear His voice, respond, and enter His one true, end-time church.  But what exactly is that true church?  There are seven characteristics that identify what exactly the true church is.

 

Seven signs of the true church

First, the true church emerges after the Dark Ages.  The Dark Ages were identified by the prophecy of Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 12:6, 13-17.  The Dark Ages stretched from AD 538 to 1798.  During the Dark Ages, the papacy persecuted the true followers of Christ.

The papacy inflicted persecution on God’s people over a period of “forty and two months” (Revelation 13:5), which period is the same as the “time and times and the dividing of time,” three years and a half, or 1260 days, of Daniel 7:25 – the time during which the papal power was to oppress God’s people.  The worldwide power of papal Rome became official in AD 538, when Emperor Justinian’s decree making the papacy supreme was no longer opposed.  The period terminated in 1798, when at that time the pope was made captive by the French army, the papal power received its “deadly wound” (Revelation 13:3), and the prediction was fulfilled, “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity” (Revelation 13:10).

Of the papal deadly wound (Revelation 13:3), this was inflicted when Napoleon’s general, Alexander Berthier, entered Rome and took Pope Pius VI captive in February of 1798.  Napoleon decreed that at the death of the pope, the papacy would be discontinued.  The pope died in France in August of 1799.  “Half Europe thought ... that without the Pope the Papacy was dead” (Joseph Rickaby, “The Modern Papacy,” Lectures on the History of Religion, Lecture 24, London: Catholic Truth Society, 1910, p. 1).

It is after 1798 when a movement proclaiming that the “hour of his judgment is come” (Revelation 14:7) was seen and came to be organised into the end-time remnant church.

Second, the true church teaches the same truths the apostles taught, and all of its teachings will agree with the Bible.  We have already established the woman of Revelation 12 as having 12 stars above her head symbolizing the continuation of the church from the Old Testament through the New Testament.  The end-time present day true church is said to be the “remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God” (Revelation 12:17).  It is a “remnant’ of the church that was led by 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament and by the 12 apostles in the New Testament, continuing the same truths taught by the apostles.

Third, the true church keeps all the Ten Commandments, including the Bible Sabbath (Revelation 12:17).  Saturday is the Sabbath, and the true church worship on Sabbath.

Fourth, the true church has the Spirit of Prophecy (Revelation 12:17; 19:10).  In Revelation 22:8, 9, we notice that it is the prophets who have the spirit of prophecy.  Paul confirms that this spirit of prophecy or “testimony of Christ” is given to the true church “so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:5-7).

This gift of prophecy is one of the gifts Jesus gave to His church: “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men” (Ephesians 4:8);  “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11); “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12); and the gifts remain “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the nature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Fifth, the true church proclaims the three angels’ end-time messages “with a loud voice” calling all to “fear God” “and worship him that made heaven, and the earth,” warning that “Babylon is fallen, is fallen” and warning of the danger of worshiping “the beast and his image” and of receiving the mark of the beast (Revelation 14:6-14).

Sixth, the true church is a worldwide movement, including “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6).

Seventh, the true church teaches “the everlasting gospel” (Revelation 14:6), which is salvation through Jesus Christ alone.  In verity of the everlasting gospel, the true church proclaims: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8); “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7); “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9); “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14); “go, and sin no more” (John 8:11); “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven” (Revelation 14:7); “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12).

There is only one church that fits all the seven characteristics of the true church, and that church is the Seventh-day Adventist Church.  Arising after the Dark Ages, in around 1844 this movement of destiny began the predicted program of restoring the truth, which had been lost or distorted during the Dark Ages.  One after another of the original doctrines of Christ were returned to their former luster and beauty.  As the authority of the law and the Sabbath was reestablished, God did exactly what He had promised to do: He restored the beautiful spirit of prophecy to the remnant church.

The gift of prophecy in the Seventh-day Adventist Church was manifested through the life and teachings of Mrs. Ellen Gould White.  By the close of her seventy-year ministry, literary productions totalled approximately 100,000 pages, or the equivalent of 25 million words. They deal with a wide range of subjects – spirituality, theology, education, health, family, etc.  Based on the Biblical rule, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20), all of her writings, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are in perfect harmony with the rest of the Biblical Scriptures.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been established in countries representing nearly 100 percent of the world population.  It continues to proclaim unique doctrines of Revelation 14, including the judgment, the Sabbath, and the beast message, and soon coming of Jesus Christ.

God is calling His people out of fallen churches to His true church.  Soon Sunday worship will be forced upon people, and God will respond with plagues upon those who break His Sabbath.  Be sure to be found in the true church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the only church “that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

 

False and true church in conflict

There are only two parties upon this earth – those of the comely woman who stand under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ and those of the harlot who stand under the black banner of rebellion.  In Revelation is represented the great conflict between the obedient and the disobedient, between the comely woman and the harlot.  This conflict is the consequence of proclaiming the third angel’s message.  “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

A refusal to obey the commandments of God, and a determination to cherish hatred against those who proclaim these commandments, leads to the most determined war on the part of the dragon, whose whole energies are brought to bear against the commandment-keeping people of God.  “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” (Revelation 13:16, 17).

What Is the Mark of the Beast?  It is the mark of authority of the beast.  The beast is the papacy.  The best way to discover its mark of authority is to ask the papacy directly.

Notice the following section from a Catholic catechism: Q. Which is the Sabbath day? A. Saturday is the Sabbath day. Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday (Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, St Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1957 edition, p 50).

Here is another statement from a catechism: Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept? A. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her – she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority (Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, third American edition, revised, edn., p. 174).

So the papacy is saying that its mark of power and authority is making Sunday a holy day – a change that virtually the entire Christian world accepts.

Virtually all churches admit in their official writings that there is no Scripture support for Sunday sacredness.  Tragically, both Protestantism and Catholicism stand guilty before the judgment bar of God for throwing out the Bible Sabbath!  God Himself gave the Sabbath as a sign, or mark, of His power to create and His power to sanctify and save (Exodus 31:17; Ezekiel 20:12).  Dare any man tamper with this sacred sign, which represents the great God of heaven and all that He stands for?  Will God not avenge the transgression of His law?

The message in Revelation 14 warns men against receiving the mark of the beast or of his image in their foreheads or in their hands.  To receive this mark means to come to the same decision as the beast has done, and to advocate the same ideas, in direct opposition to the Word of God.

The forehead represents the mind, and the hand is a symbol of work.  “On the hand” and “between the eyes” are consistent symbols in Scripture for a person’s thoughts and actions (Exodus 13:16; Deuteronomy 6:8; 11:18).  A person will receive the mark of the beast in his forehead by choosing to believe that Sunday is a holy day in spite of Bible truth.  A person will be marked in the right hand by working on God’s Sabbath or by outwardly keeping Sunday laws for convenient reasons – such as a job or family.

When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labour on Sunday and worship God, while you know that there is not a word in the Bible showing Sunday to be other than a common working day, you consent to receive the mark of the beast, and refuse the seal of God.

When Sunday observance becomes a forced issue, only those who have received the mark of the beast will be able to buy or sell (Revelation 13:17).

At that time, people who keep God’s holy Sabbath will do so at the risk of their lives (Revelation 13:15), and those who choose to profane His holy day and officially cast their votes by placing the laws of men above the Law of God will be marked as belonging to Antichrist.

All who are loyal to Jesus and His holy Sabbath, Saturday, will receive Jesus’ glorious seal, thus making them His forever.  Those who try to remain neutral will be counted for Antichrist (Matthew 12:30).

“We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).  The apostle Paul adds: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield your-selves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).  Obeying the laws of the papacy (Sunday) rather than God’s law (Sabbath) will leave you with the mark of beast.

The sign, or seal, of God is revealed in the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, the Lord’s memorial of creation.  “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 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 31:12, 13).  Here the Sabbath is clearly designated as a sign between God and His people.

The mark of the beast is the opposite of this – the observance of the first day of the week (Sunday).  This mark distinguishes those who acknowledge the supremacy of the papal authority from those who acknowledge the authority of God.  Soon, if not already, Sunday worship will be forced upon God’s people.  When that happens, God will act to protect His people.  You must hasten your decision to join the true church.  If you wait to see, it may be too late, for you have no control over when your own probation ends.  Now is the time to server your allegiance from Babylon and serve God.

 

Conclusion

You now must make a decision.  You cannot avoid making a decision over this kind of truth.  You can decide to accept it, or reject it.  You can choose to obey or disobey.  But one thing is certain – you can never be the same again, no matter which decision you make.  Conviction has a way of staying with us even when we try to ignore or banish it.  You can never forget the things you have learned about the true church.  You are now in possession of the most sought-after truth in the whole Bible.

You can deceive yourself that it does not matter which church you belong to.  But in your inner conscience, you will undoubtedly know that you have simply found the truth too hard for you to accept because of your hardened heart.  Some of Jesus disciples, not the twelve, also rejected the truth: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66).  It is unfortunate if you too like them turn back on the truth.  If you turn back on the truth, you are en route to receive the mark of the beast and her plagues.

Now that you know the truth, you must follow it, else you sin against God at your peril. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).  Let this truth impact your decision. If you are in Babylon, “come out of her my people,” says the Bible, and join the true church.

Finally, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).