Note—There will be some information in the following excerpt from the book Maranatha that will be new and earthshaking to some of you. For more information regarding this subject please visit www.sabbathtruth.com it is my prayer that you all will study this subject prayerfully.
Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. Isaiah 8:16.
The living righteous will receive the seal of God prior to the close of probation.
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.
Sundaykeeping is not yet the mark of the beast, and will not be until the decree goes forth causing men to worship this idol sabbath. The time will come when this day will be the test, but that time has not come yet.
No one has yet received the mark of the beast. The testing time has not yet come. There are true Christians in every church. . . None are condemned until they have had the light and have seen the obligation of the fourth commandment. But when the decree shall go forth enforcing the counterfeit sabbath, and the loud cry of the third angel shall warn men against the worship of the beast and his image, the line will be clearly drawn between the false and the true. Then those who still continue in transgression will receive the mark of the beast.
If the light of truth has been presented to you, revealing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and showing that there is no foundation in the Word of God for Sunday observance, and yet you still cling to the false sabbath, refusing to keep holy the Sabbath which God calls “my holy day,” you receive the mark of the beast. When does this take place? When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labor 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.
In a little while every one who is a child of God will have His seal placed upon him. O that it may be placed upon our foreheads! Who can endure the thought of being passed by when the angel goes forth to seal the servants of God in their foreheads?
Maranatha p. 211
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Prayer Requests
—–Please pray that D can get a better paying job. L
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Dear Friends,
There were only two other children in my neighborhood when I was little. They were both a year younger than I. Gary lived several blocks away so we did not play together as much as Janie and I did. Her house was a short walk across the vacant lot in back of my grandparents’ house and through a hole in the white picket fence that was at the end of the alley where there were several houses including Janie’s grandmothers’ so we played together almost every day. Janie’s grandmother resented having to care for a child and used to beat her hard for even the most minor offense. Often this poor little girl would have large purple bruises across her back and legs. It used to break my heart, so I would bring her to my house for some comfort.
How many people need comfort because they’ve been verbally beaten by others. How many are carrying around “bruises” from the way they have been treated. Indeed, how many lives are ruined because of the way they have been treated by those who have taken the name of Christian. How often we leave scars by misjudging and shunning the ones who need our love the most. How easy it is for us to wound someone with harsh, venomous words or an unkind look. James speaks of the need to control our words: “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” James 3:2-8
Paul warns, “if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” Gal 5:15 Peter advises, “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-8 How important is this brotherly kindness. We may possess correct doctrine, but without brotherly kindness, we will turn others away from their Only Saviour.
May we “put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Col 3:12-14 May we pray as did David, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Ps 19:14 May we put into practice our Loving Saviour’s admonition, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Matt 7:12
Rose