Chapter Twenty Four

THE UNITED STATES, ROMAN CATHOLICISM

AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST

Edited: 8-2007

Seventh-day Adventists are taught to fear and distrust the Roman Catholic Church, other Protestants and, especially, the United States government. They are taught by Ellen G. White that, in the last days, the United States will be the false prophet nation of Revelation 13:11-18 which will be foremost in placing them under the death decree of the beast.

GC440: [Ellen G. White] One nation, and only one, meets the specifications of this prophecy [Rev. 13:11-18]; it points unmistakably to the United States of America.

According to EGW, the Roman Catholic Church is the little horn of Daniel 7 and 8, the beast power of Revelation 13:1-10 and Babylon of Revelation 17 and 18. They teach that, since Roman Catholics claim to have used their own authority to change God’s Law from Saturday to Sunday, then those who worship on Sunday pay homage to the pope and are the "daughters" of Babylon of Revelation. When apostate Protestantism in the United States controls legislation to enforce Sunday worship in the last days, it will have fulfilled prophecy and will have made an image to the beast.

GC445: “WHEN the leading churches of the United States, uniting in such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, THEN Protestant America will have formed an image to the Roman hierarchy, and the inflictions of civil penalties upon dissenters inevitably result.”

GC448-449: “The enforcement of Sunday keeping on the part of the Protestant churches is an enforcement of the worship of the papacyBthe beast. ... hence the enforcement of Sunday keeping in the United States would be an enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image.”

The mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is to proclaim that God's Law is unchangeable. Up until the very last days, those who have never heard the Sabbath truth can barely be saved through ignorance. However, those who have heard the seventh-day Sabbath message and rejected it will receive the mark of the beast and cannot be saved. Before Jesus returns, every person on earth will hear the Sabbath message and make a decision either to leave the Babylonian Sunday-worshiping churches and join the Seventh-day Adventist Church, or else be killed and forever lost when Jesus returns.

GC449: “But when Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God.  He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which embraces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome – ‘the mark of the beast.’  And it is not until this issue is thus plainly set before the people and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive “the mark of the beast.”

According to SDAs, before Christ returns the entire world will be controlled by the Popish Antichrist and the Roman Catholic Church. A death decree will be imposed on Sabbath-keeping Seventh-day Adventists for causing the last-day great catastrophes. SDAs (144, 000), under God's seal of protection, will boldly teach the Sabbath until every person is fully aware of the choices. As the last days approach and the seals, trumpets and vials of Revelation are occurring, apostate Protestantism in the United States will be Satan’s instrument that returns the Roman Catholic Church to its old dominance.

GC573: “In the movements now in progress in the United States to secure for the institutions and usages of the church the support of the state, Protestants are following in the steps of papists. Nay, more they are opening the door for the papacy to regain in Protestant America the supremacy which she has lost in the Old World. And that which gives greater significance to this movement is the fact that the principle object contemplated is the enforcement of Sunday observance -  a custom which originated with Rome, and which she claims as the sign of her authority.”

The entire world will blame the judgments of Revelation on SDAs because they refuse to worship on Sunday in obedience to the enforced national Sunday laws. Church leaders will encourage their members to hunt down and imprison SDAs for a death sentence.

GC604a: “Fearful is the issue to which the world is to be brought. The powers of earth, uniting to war against the commandments of God, will decree that "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond" (Revelation 13:16), shall conform to the customs of the church by the observance of the false Sabbath. All who refuse compliance will be visited with civil penalties, and it will finally be declared that they are deserving of death. On the other hand the law of God enjoining the Creator's rest day demands obedience and threatens wrath against all who transgress its precepts....”

GC614: “Those who honor the law of God have been accused of bringing judgments upon the world, and they will be regarded as the cause of the fearful convulsions of nature and the strife and bloodshed among men that are filling the earth with woe.”

According to SDAs, the Sabbath, not the gospel, is the great final test to determine who really loves God and who finally will be saved in the final days.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

GC604b: “...With the issue thus clearly brought before him, whoever shall trample upon God’s law to obey a human enactment receives the mark of the beast; he accepts the sign of allegiance to the power he chooses to obey instead of God.”

GC605: “The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not.  While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God's law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator.  While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.”

GC615-616: “This argument will appear conclusive; and a DECREE will finally be issued against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, denouncing them as deserving of the severest punishment and giving the people liberty, after a certain time, to put them to DEATH. Romanism in the Old World and apostate Protestantism in the New will pursue a similar course toward those who honor all the divine precepts.”

Seventh-day Adventists are taught to find a remote place to hide and to store up provisions for the last days per Revelation 12. This is why they should not trust others.

GC626: “As the decree issued by the various rulers of Christendom against commandment keepers shall withdraw the protection of government and abandon them to those who desire their destruction, the people of God will flee from the cities and villages and associate toget6her in companies, dwelling in the most desolate and solitary places.”

COMMENTS:

All of the preceding theory is built upon a series of assumptions which must ALL be true in order for the total scenario to be true. (1) That the seventh-day Sabbath is binding on all nations; (2) that the Sabbath is the great test in the last days for salvation; (3) that the remnant in Revelation refers only to the Seventh-day Adventist Church; (4) that Ellen G. White is the final fulfillment of Revelation 19:10; (5) that Revelation 13 is unfulfilled future prophecy; (6) that the beast of Daniel and Revelation is the Roman Catholic Church; (7) that the beast in Revelation 13:11-18 is the United States of America; (8) that the U. S. A. will become a totalitarian religious state and enforce Sunday worship; (9) that a death decree will be issued by the U. S. government against SDAs for not worshiping on Sunday and for causing worldwide devastation; (10) that the seventh-day Sabbath is the seal of God and (11) that Sunday is the mark of the beast.

Yet, after all this, SDAs insist in their pamphlet, Who are the Seventh-day Adventists?, page 6, “So who are [we] really?  Are [we] some strange group with weird ideas?  Do [our] leaders make bizarre predictions about the future?” “Yes” and “Yes” again! SDAs want others to see them as normal lovable Christians whose main difference is that they worship on Saturday instead of Sunday.

It is my personal opinion that this Seventh-day Adventist doctrine [the Mark of the Beast] makes them untrustworthy as U. S. legislators, soldiers or as persons in responsible government positions.