The Bible is a cohesive whole. The theme of the great controversy runs like a scarlet thread throughout its pages, weaving its narratives and sacred truths together. The ministry of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, His high priestly ministry, and His return are themes that echo through its pages. The great controversy comes to a climax in the book of Revelation. This week’s lesson, entitled “The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast: Part 2,” continues our identification of the beast power from the sea, outlines earth’s final events, and shares practical principles that will help us prepare for the coming of Jesus.
One of the important principles in understanding the time prophecies of the Bible is the day/year principle. To recap, in the time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, one prophetic day equals one literal year. We will review the biblical and historical support for this principle again in our study this week. Another important principle of prophetic interpretation is the link between the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.
The little-horn power of Daniel 7, the “man of sin” of 2 Thessalonians 2, and the beast from the sea in Revelation 13 represent the same oppressive power that persecuted God’s people during the Middle Ages: the Papacy. In our study this week, we will discover how the beast from the sea, in Revelation 13, also opposes and oppresses God’s last-day people, who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12, NKJV).
Part II: Commentary
Revelation 12 explains that Satan would persecute God’s church during the Middle Ages. According to Revelation 12, Christ’s faithful followers would flee into the wilderness for 1,260 days (Rev. 12:6). As we read in Revelation 12:14: “The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent” (Rev. 12:14, NKJV). Daniel 7:25 explains that the little horn, or Roman Catholic Church-state power, would “intend to change times and law. Then the saints [believers] shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time” (NKJV). According to Revelation 13:5, the Roman Catholic Church-state power would be allowed to “continue for forty-two months” (NKJV). These three time periods, 1,260 days, times and time and half a time, and 42 months all describe the same time period and appear seven times in the books of Daniel and Revelation.
In an article published by the Biblical Research Institute, Gerhard Pfandl makes this observation: “Until the 19th century, most students of the apocalyptic books Daniel and Revelation used the historicist method to interpret the prophecies in these books. One of the main pillars of the historicist method is the year-day principle which says that a day in apocalyptic time prophecies represents a year. During the 19th century, the historicist method was slowly replaced by the preterist and futurist systems of interpretation, both of which deny the year-day principle. Preterists place most of the prophecies into the past up to the time of the Roman Empire; futurists place most of them into the future, specifically into the last seven years between the secret rapture and the Second Advent.”—Pfandl, “In Defense of the Year-day Principle,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 23, no. 1 (2012), p. 3.
It is only logical to conclude that, given the symbolic nature of the imagery of Daniel 7, 8, 9, and 12, along with the imagery in Revelation 12 and 13, the time periods in these chapters are also symbolic. When we apply the day-for-a-year principle in each of these instances, the events predicted come out exactly on time.
The article by Pfandl also makes this telling point: “According to the context, the expressions ‘time, times, and half a time’ (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 12:14), ‘forty-two months’ (Rev. 11:2; 13:5), and ‘one thousand two hundred and sixty days’ (Rev. 11:3; 12:6) all apply to the same time period, but the natural expression ‘three years and six months’ is not used once. ‘The Holy Spirit seems, in a manner, to exhaust all the phrases by which the interval could be expressed, excluding always that one form which would be used of course in ordinary writing, and is used invariably in Scripture on other occasions, to denote the literal period. This variation is most significant if we accept the year-day system, but quite inexplicable in the other view’ [Thomas R. Birks, First Elements of Sacred Prophecy (London: William E. Painter, 1843), p. 352].”—Pfandl, “In Defense of the Year-day Principle,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 23, no. 1 (2012), p. 8.
The 1,260 prophetic days—the time, times, and half a time of Daniel and Revelation—equals 1,260 years. Commenting on this prophetic period, The SDA Bible Commentary states, “The prophetic period of the little horn began in a.d. 538, when the Ostrogoths abandoned the siege of Rome, and the bishop of Rome, released from Arian control, was free to exercise the prerogatives of Justinian’s decree of 533, and thenceforth to increase the authority of the ‘Holy See’ (see on v. 8). Exactly 1260 years later (1798), the spectacular victories of the armies of Napoleon in Italy placed the pope at the mercy of the French revolutionary government, which now advised him that the Roman religion would always be the irreconcilable enemy of the Republic, and added that ‘there is one thing even more essential to the attainment of the end desired, and that is to destroy, if possible, the centre of unity of the Roman Church; and it is for you, who unite in your person the most distinguished qualities of the general and of the enlightened politician, to realize this aim if you consider it practicable’ (Ibid., p. 158). In response to these instructions and at the command of Napoleon, [General] Berthier, with a French army, entered Rome, proclaimed the political rule of the papacy at an end and took the pope prisoner, carrying him off to France, where he died in exile.”—Volume 4, p. 834.
The prophecies of Revelation predict that the deadly wound, afflicted on the Papacy by Napoleon’s armies, would be healed, and the Papacy would rise to international preeminence (Rev. 13:3). This rise would usher in the final conflict between the mark of the beast and the seal of God. To understand more fully the nature of this conflict, we must first decode the meaning of the seal of God. What exactly is this seal?
According to Romans 4:11, a sign and a seal are interchangeable. Seals were well known in the ancient world. They were used to authenticate documents. They were also a sign of ownership. Seals were often made of wax or stamped on freshly formed clay. Of all the commandments, the Sabbath is the only one that qualifies as God’s seal. It contains the name, title, and domain of the lawgiver. As P. Gerard Damsteegt observes: “The Sabbath commandment can therefore be considered a seal because it ‘is the only one of all the ten in which are found both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It is the only one that shows by whose authority the law is given. Thus it contains the seal of God, affixed to His law as evidence of its authenticity and binding force’ (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 307). The Sabbath helps to give the ten commandments their unique significance. ‘The Sabbath was placed in the decalogue as the seal of the living God, pointing out the Law-giver, and making known his right to rule.’ Thus the Sabbath is the sign of a relationship between God and His people, serving as ‘a test of their loyalty to Him’ [Signs of the Times, May 13, 1886]. The mission of Seventh-day Adventists can be described as ‘presenting the law of God as a test of character and as the seal of the living God’ (Testimonies for the Church, 2:468).”—Damsteegt, “The Seal of God,” Adventists Affirm, vol. 8, no. 3, Year End 1994, pp. 37, 38.
The seal of God, as manifested by keeping the Sabbath, is a sign of accepting God’s authority in our lives. As Ellen G. White so powerfully states: “Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads—it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved—just as soon as God’s people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 1,161. Sealed by the Holy Spirit, we are prepared for the crisis ahead. We do well to heed the apostle Paul’s admonition: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30, NKJV).
Part III: Life Application
Reflect: As diametrically opposed as the seal of God is to the mark of the beast, they do have one thing in common. Neither is assigned instantly. The reception of the seal of God takes place over a period of time in which our minds are daily conformed to the image of Christ. Ellen G. White writes, “It is a law both of the intellectual and the spiritual nature that by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell.”—The Great Controversy, p. 555, emphasis supplied.
By beholding Jesus and saturating our minds with the teachings of His Word, we become more like Him. It takes time for character to develop. Meaningful, lasting relationships are developed over time and take time. As we meditate on the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit works in our lives to “seal” within us the principles of God’s kingdom in preparation for the final test over the Sabbath commandment.
Just as the seal of God is not received in an instant, neither is the mark of the beast. Daily compromises, sins cherished, hidden idols of the heart retained, un-Christlike attitudes fostered—all lead to the reception of the mark of the beast. If we fail to meet the tests of today, we will certainly fail in the larger tests of tomorrow, when the mark of the beast is enforced. As the old Adventist preacher Luther Warren used to say: “The only way to be ready for the coming of Jesus is to get ready and stay ready.”
Ask class members to reflect on the statement by Luther Warren. Encourage them to pray this week that God will reveal anything that is an impediment to their being ready for the Second Coming.
Notes
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The Bible is a cohesive whole. The theme of the great controversy runs like a scarlet thread throughout its pages, weaving its narratives and sacred truths together. The ministry of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, His high priestly ministry, and His return are themes that echo through its pages. The great controversy comes to a climax in the book of Revelation. This week’s lesson, entitled “The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast: Part 2,” continues our identification of the beast power from the sea, outlines earth’s final events, and shares practical principles that will help us prepare for the coming of Jesus.
One of the important principles in understanding the time prophecies of the Bible is the day/year principle. To recap, in the time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, one prophetic day equals one literal year. We will review the biblical and historical support for this principle again in our study this week. Another important principle of prophetic interpretation is the link between the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.
The little-horn power of Daniel 7, the “man of sin” of 2 Thessalonians 2, and the beast from the sea in Revelation 13 represent the same oppressive power that persecuted God’s people during the Middle Ages: the Papacy. In our study this week, we will discover how the beast from the sea, in Revelation 13, also opposes and oppresses God’s last-day people, who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12, NKJV).
Part II: Commentary
Revelation 12 explains that Satan would persecute God’s church during the Middle Ages. According to Revelation 12, Christ’s faithful followers would flee into the wilderness for 1,260 days (Rev. 12:6). As we read in Revelation 12:14: “The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent” (Rev. 12:14, NKJV). Daniel 7:25 explains that the little horn, or Roman Catholic Church-state power, would “intend to change times and law. Then the saints [believers] shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time” (NKJV). According to Revelation 13:5, the Roman Catholic Church-state power would be allowed to “continue for forty-two months” (NKJV). These three time periods, 1,260 days, times and time and half a time, and 42 months all describe the same time period and appear seven times in the books of Daniel and Revelation.
In an article published by the Biblical Research Institute, Gerhard Pfandl makes this observation: “Until the 19th century, most students of the apocalyptic books Daniel and Revelation used the historicist method to interpret the prophecies in these books. One of the main pillars of the historicist method is the year-day principle which says that a day in apocalyptic time prophecies represents a year. During the 19th century, the historicist method was slowly replaced by the preterist and futurist systems of interpretation, both of which deny the year-day principle. Preterists place most of the prophecies into the past up to the time of the Roman Empire; futurists place most of them into the future, specifically into the last seven years between the secret rapture and the Second Advent.”—Pfandl, “In Defense of the Year-day Principle,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 23, no. 1 (2012), p. 3.
It is only logical to conclude that, given the symbolic nature of the imagery of Daniel 7, 8, 9, and 12, along with the imagery in Revelation 12 and 13, the time periods in these chapters are also symbolic. When we apply the day-for-a-year principle in each of these instances, the events predicted come out exactly on time.
The article by Pfandl also makes this telling point: “According to the context, the expressions ‘time, times, and half a time’ (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 12:14), ‘forty-two months’ (Rev. 11:2; 13:5), and ‘one thousand two hundred and sixty days’ (Rev. 11:3; 12:6) all apply to the same time period, but the natural expression ‘three years and six months’ is not used once. ‘The Holy Spirit seems, in a manner, to exhaust all the phrases by which the interval could be expressed, excluding always that one form which would be used of course in ordinary writing, and is used invariably in Scripture on other occasions, to denote the literal period. This variation is most significant if we accept the year-day system, but quite inexplicable in the other view’ [Thomas R. Birks, First Elements of Sacred Prophecy (London: William E. Painter, 1843), p. 352].”—Pfandl, “In Defense of the Year-day Principle,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 23, no. 1 (2012), p. 8.
The 1,260 prophetic days—the time, times, and half a time of Daniel and Revelation—equals 1,260 years. Commenting on this prophetic period, The SDA Bible Commentary states, “The prophetic period of the little horn began in a.d. 538, when the Ostrogoths abandoned the siege of Rome, and the bishop of Rome, released from Arian control, was free to exercise the prerogatives of Justinian’s decree of 533, and thenceforth to increase the authority of the ‘Holy See’ (see on v. 8). Exactly 1260 years later (1798), the spectacular victories of the armies of Napoleon in Italy placed the pope at the mercy of the French revolutionary government, which now advised him that the Roman religion would always be the irreconcilable enemy of the Republic, and added that ‘there is one thing even more essential to the attainment of the end desired, and that is to destroy, if possible, the centre of unity of the Roman Church; and it is for you, who unite in your person the most distinguished qualities of the general and of the enlightened politician, to realize this aim if you consider it practicable’ (Ibid., p. 158). In response to these instructions and at the command of Napoleon, [General] Berthier, with a French army, entered Rome, proclaimed the political rule of the papacy at an end and took the pope prisoner, carrying him off to France, where he died in exile.”—Volume 4, p. 834.
The prophecies of Revelation predict that the deadly wound, afflicted on the Papacy by Napoleon’s armies, would be healed, and the Papacy would rise to international preeminence (Rev. 13:3). This rise would usher in the final conflict between the mark of the beast and the seal of God. To understand more fully the nature of this conflict, we must first decode the meaning of the seal of God. What exactly is this seal?
According to Romans 4:11, a sign and a seal are interchangeable. Seals were well known in the ancient world. They were used to authenticate documents. They were also a sign of ownership. Seals were often made of wax or stamped on freshly formed clay. Of all the commandments, the Sabbath is the only one that qualifies as God’s seal. It contains the name, title, and domain of the lawgiver. As P. Gerard Damsteegt observes: “The Sabbath commandment can therefore be considered a seal because it ‘is the only one of all the ten in which are found both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It is the only one that shows by whose authority the law is given. Thus it contains the seal of God, affixed to His law as evidence of its authenticity and binding force’ (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 307). The Sabbath helps to give the ten commandments their unique significance. ‘The Sabbath was placed in the decalogue as the seal of the living God, pointing out the Law-giver, and making known his right to rule.’ Thus the Sabbath is the sign of a relationship between God and His people, serving as ‘a test of their loyalty to Him’ [Signs of the Times, May 13, 1886]. The mission of Seventh-day Adventists can be described as ‘presenting the law of God as a test of character and as the seal of the living God’ (Testimonies for the Church, 2:468).”—Damsteegt, “The Seal of God,” Adventists Affirm, vol. 8, no. 3, Year End 1994, pp. 37, 38.
The seal of God, as manifested by keeping the Sabbath, is a sign of accepting God’s authority in our lives. As Ellen G. White so powerfully states: “Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads—it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved—just as soon as God’s people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 1,161. Sealed by the Holy Spirit, we are prepared for the crisis ahead. We do well to heed the apostle Paul’s admonition: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30, NKJV).
Part III: Life Application
Reflect: As diametrically opposed as the seal of God is to the mark of the beast, they do have one thing in common. Neither is assigned instantly. The reception of the seal of God takes place over a period of time in which our minds are daily conformed to the image of Christ. Ellen G. White writes, “It is a law both of the intellectual and the spiritual nature that by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell.”—The Great Controversy, p. 555, emphasis supplied.
By beholding Jesus and saturating our minds with the teachings of His Word, we become more like Him. It takes time for character to develop. Meaningful, lasting relationships are developed over time and take time. As we meditate on the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit works in our lives to “seal” within us the principles of God’s kingdom in preparation for the final test over the Sabbath commandment.
Just as the seal of God is not received in an instant, neither is the mark of the beast. Daily compromises, sins cherished, hidden idols of the heart retained, un-Christlike attitudes fostered—all lead to the reception of the mark of the beast. If we fail to meet the tests of today, we will certainly fail in the larger tests of tomorrow, when the mark of the beast is enforced. As the old Adventist preacher Luther Warren used to say: “The only way to be ready for the coming of Jesus is to get ready and stay ready.”
Ask class members to reflect on the statement by Luther Warren. Encourage them to pray this week that God will reveal anything that is an impediment to their being ready for the Second Coming.
Notes