Part IV — The Seal or the Mark

The first company — sealed with the Father's name, following the Lamb — Rev. 14:1-5:

• Rev. 14:1. "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads." — the sealed remnant stand on Mount Zion bearing the Father's NAME in their foreheads, the seal set in the very place the mark is counterfeited.
  • the seal of God = the Sabbath sign and the settled, sanctified character of the commandment-keeping, faith-of-Jesus remnant, set in the forehead — the mind and allegiance. Scripture itself defines it: God's Sabbath is "a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them" (Eze. 20:12; Exo. 31:13), and the angel seals God's servants "in their foreheads" (Rev. 7:2-3); the sealed keep "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" and are "without fault" (Rev. 14:1, 5, 12). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• Rev. 14:4. "These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." — the sealed are defined by total separation and unreserved following — "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" — the very come-out obedience of leaving the city's defiling stream (see “Out of the Cities — the Message Refused”).
• Rev. 14:5. "And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God." — the seal produces settled, faultless character; the righteousness by faith of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith" finished in them — the seal's inward reality, not a visible badge.
• Witness3AM 90.2. White (confirmation, after Scripture): "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." — the seal is settled, immovable character, corroborating "without fault" (Rev. 14:5) as its inward substance.

The second company — marked, worshipping the beast, having no rest — Rev. 14:9-11:

• Rev. 14:9. "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand," — the opposite company: those who worship the beast and receive the mark, placed in forehead OR hand, the very seat of the seal (Rev. 7:3).
  • the mark of the beast = forced conformity to the beast's worship — its counterfeit Sabbath, its false day — received in the forehead or hand, the very places God sets His seal and bound His law ("upon thine hand... between thine eyes," Deut. 6:8; Rev. 13:16). It is enforced through commerce: none may buy or sell without it, and its wage is the unmingled wrath of God and "no rest," the exact antithesis of the Sabbath rest of the seal (Rev. 13:17; 14:10-11). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• Rev. 14:10. "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:" — the mark's wage is the unmingled wrath of God: the eternal stakes that make the city-or-country choice a salvation issue, not a lifestyle preference.
• Rev. 14:11. "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." — the marked "have no rest" — the precise opposite of the Sabbath REST that is the seal; the final contrast is rest-keepers versus the restless.
• Rev. 14:12. "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." — the sealed company defined exactly between the two doomed verses: commandment-keeping plus the faith of Jesus — the law and the gospel, the righteousness by faith of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith" made the very substance of the seal.

One forehead, two writings — the seal and the mark set in the same place — Rev. 7:2-3; 13:16:

• Rev. 7:2. "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea," — the seal of the LIVING God is held back until His servants are sealed: judgment itself waits on the sealing.
• Rev. 7:3. "Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." — the seal is set "in their foreheads," the same locus as the mark; the contest is over what is written in the forehead — the mind, the allegiance.
• Rev. 13:16. "And 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:" — the mark is forced upon all, and set in the hand or forehead, the two places God sets His seal (Rev. 7:3) and bound His law (Deut. 6:8): a deliberate, point-for-point counterfeit.
• Witness3AM 94.3. White: "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... But the seal of the living God is placed upon those who conscientiously keep the Sabbath of the Lord." — the marked contrast itself: to receive the mark is to refuse the seal, and the seal rests on Sabbath-keepers; the two are mutually exclusive choices.
• WitnessTTAM 6.1. Andrews: "In the third angel's message, and in chaps. 15 and 16, but two classes are brought to view. One is oppressive, and persecutes the saints, and has the mark of the beast, and worships the beast and his image... The other class is oppressed and driven... they get 'the victory over the beast, and his image, and over his MARK' and are sealed with the seal of the living God by keeping 'the commandments of God.'" — pioneer confirmation that there are two companies only: the marked, and the sealed who gain victory over the mark by keeping the commandments — exactly the Rev. 13-14 frame of this section.

The seal is the Sabbath sign — God's own definition — Eze. 20:12, 20; Exo. 31:13:

• Eze. 20:12. "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." — God's own definition of the seal: His sabbaths are "a sign between me and them" that He is the LORD that sanctifies — sealing IS sanctifying.
• Eze. 20:20. "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." — the Sabbath is the sign of knowing the true God: the very knowledge counterfeited by the mark's false worship. The Sabbath is the seal.
• Exo. 31:13. "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." — the Sabbath named a perpetual SIGN of sanctification — Scripture's own basis for equating sign and seal (cf. Rom. 4:11).
• WitnessTHB 44.2. Smith: "Sign and seal are synonymous terms. See Romans 4:11... 'a seal of the righteousness of the faith.' The Sabbath is a sign between God and his people; hence it seals his law as genuine... Take this fourth commandment from the ten, and the seal of the living God is gone." — pioneer confirmation defining the seal from Scripture: the Sabbath sign IS the seal of the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:11), and to remove the fourth commandment is to remove the seal.
• WitnessDD 49.2. White: "Too late they see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the living God. Too late they see the true nature of their spurious Sabbath and the sandy foundation upon which they have been building." — the seal is the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, set over against the "spurious Sabbath" that constitutes the mark.

Buying and selling — the lever of the mark — Rev. 13:17; Luke 17:28-30; Rev. 18:4:

• Rev. 13:17. "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." — the mark's whole leverage is commerce: buying and selling is the lever. To be free of dependence on the buy-and-sell system is to be free to refuse the mark.
  • buying and selling = the world's commercial dependence — the very lever by which the mark is enforced ("no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark"). It is the life of Sodom that Christ names ("they bought, they sold") in the day of His revealing, and the merchandise of doomed Babylon whose merchants weep (Rev. 18:11). The separated, self-provisioning country life breaks that dependence, freeing the soul to refuse the mark (Rev. 13:17; Luke 17:28; Rev. 18:4). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• Luke 17:28-30. "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." — Christ Himself ties "they bought, they sold" to the day of His revealing; the buy-and-sell city life of Sodom is the very condition He warns His people to come OUT of (see “Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look”).
• Rev. 18:4. "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." — the end-time call is literal separation from the doomed commercial city — Babylon, whose merchants weep (Rev. 18:11) — the same come-out that frees from the mark (see “Out of the Cities — the Message Refused”).
• WitnessAH 141.4. White: "Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one." — names the buy-and-sell crisis of Rev. 13:17 and prescribes the country-living provision ("raise their own provisions") as the preparation to stand free of the mark.
• WitnessCL 21.1. White: "The Protestant world have set up an idol Sabbath in the place where God's Sabbath should be, and they are treading in the footsteps of the Papacy. For this reason I see the necessity of the people of God moving out of the cities into retired country [places,] where they may cultivate the land and raise their own produce... I see the necessity of making haste to get all things ready for the crisis." — joins the counterfeit-Sabbath/mark crisis directly to the command to leave the cities and self-provision: this section's whole thesis in one line.

The pattern of the end — Noah and Lot, the two types of the unheeded call — Luke 17:26-30:

• Luke 17:26-27. "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all." — ordinary life runs on undisturbed until the very day the door shuts; Christ names Noah as the first type of the end (see “As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams”).
• Luke 17:28-30. "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." — the second type: the buying-and-selling city life of Sodom ran on to the very day Lot went out (see “Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look”). The two types together are the whole matter — the call to come out goes largely unheeded while the world is busy.
• WitnessCL 5.4. White: "All who would escape the doom of Sodom, must shun the course that brought God's judgments upon that wicked city." — ties the country-living call directly to the Sodom type of Luke 17: to escape Sodom's doom one must come out and shun her course.

Even the saved one lingered — and the looking-back perished — Gen. 19:16, 26:

• Gen. 19:16. "And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city." — even the saved one lingered; mercy had to lay hold of Lot's hand to drag him out — a picture of how reluctantly God's people answer the call to separate before judgment falls.
• Gen. 19:26. "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." — she came out in body but her heart stayed in Sodom; Christ makes her the standing warning, "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32), for the generation called out of the city (see “Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look”).
• WitnessPP 161.2. White: "While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it. She rebelled against God because His judgments involved her possessions and her children in the ruin... Instead of thankfully accepting deliverance, she presumptuously looked back to desire the life of those who had rejected the divine warning." — the exact failure of readiness: moved in body, heart kept in Sodom — clinging to possessions and to the children left behind — and so the looking-back perished.

Why He tarries — Laodicea's self-deception, the refused message — Rev. 3:17:

• Rev. 3:17. "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" — the diagnosis of the delay: a people rich and in need of nothing, blind to their true poverty (see “Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal”). This is why the message tarries — the gold and raiment they think they do not need is the third angel in verity, the righteousness of Christ.
• Witness1SM 92.1. White: "The Laodicean message is applicable to the church at this time. Do you believe this message? Have you hearts that feel? Or are you constantly saying, We are rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing?" — confirms Rev. 3:17 applied to the present people: the "rich and in need of nothing" self-deception that explains why the message tarries and the world goes unwarned.
• WitnessGC 458.1. White: "In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed and His people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow. But unbelief separated them from God. As they refused to do the work which He had appointed them, others were raised up to proclaim the message. In mercy to the world, Jesus delays His coming, that sinners may have an opportunity to hear the warning." — names the delay as conditional, not arbitrary: Christ tarries because His people refused their appointed work, paralleled to Israel's forty years (see “He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours”).
• WitnessEv 696.3. White: "We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ's sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action." — the "many more years" line: the tarrying is the consequence of the people's refusal, not God's failure to keep promise.
• WitnessTM 91.2. White: "The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones... It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ... This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message." — names the 1888 message of righteousness by faith as "the third angel's message" — the verity refused in the delay (see “The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith”).
• Witness1SM 372.2. White: "Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message, and I have answered, 'It is the third angel's message, in verity.'" — the exact statement, dated RH April 1, 1890: to refuse righteousness by faith is to refuse the third angel in verity — the deed-level refusal behind the tarrying.

The door is not shut — the True Witness still knocks — Rev. 3:18-20:

• Rev. 3:18-19. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed... and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." — the remedy: the True Witness counsels Laodicea to buy the very gold and raiment she lacks (see “Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal”); the rebuke is love, the case not hopeless.
• Rev. 3:20. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." — the door is not shut; the call is personal and present — "if any man hear my voice, and open the door."
  • the present call = the still-open summons to come out of Babylon and the city, sounding now before the door shuts — a present voice, not a closed verdict. Scripture sets it as the True Witness "at the door" knocking, "if any man hear my voice, and open the door" (Rev. 3:20), and as the heaven-voice still crying "Come out of her, my people" (Rev. 18:4); it is conditional, personal, and answerable by any who will hear, remaining open until the plagues fall and the door is shut (Rev. 18:4; Matt. 25:6, 10; 2 Cor. 6:17-18). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• WitnessJNN 285.3. White: "the counsel of the True Witness does not represent those who are lukewarm as in a hopeless case. There is yet a chance to remedy their state, and the Laodicean message is full of encouragement; for the backslidden church may yet buy the gold of faith and love, may yet have the white robe of the righteousness of Christ." — confirms Rev. 3:18-20 as the still-open door: the case is "not hopeless," the door not yet shut — the gospel turn of the section.

Come out of her, my people — the present call sounding now — Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:17-18:

• Rev. 18:4. "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." — a voice still sounding, addressed to "my people" yet in Babylon — proof the door is not shut and the summons to come out stands open before the plagues fall (see “Out of the Cities — the Message Refused”).
• WitnessGC 604.1. White: "But God still has a people in Babylon; and before the visitation of His judgments these faithful ones must be called out, that they partake not of her sins and 'receive not of her plagues.'... In connection with his message the call is heard: 'Come out of her, My people.' These announcements, uniting with the third angel's message, constitute the final warning to be given to the inhabitants of the earth." — confirms Rev. 18:4 as a present call before the plagues, bound to the third angel's message — exactly the present call, the still-open summons before the door shuts.
• 2 Cor. 6:17-18. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." — the cross of separation the call requires, and the conditional promise attached: full separation is the condition ("be ye separate... touch not the unclean thing"), sonship the reward ("I will receive you"). To refuse the separation is to refuse, in deed, the reception.
• WitnessCH 268.1. White: "'Out of the cities,' is my message. Our physicians ought to have been wide-awake on this point long ago. I hope and pray and believe that they will now arouse to the importance of getting out into the country." — the country-living call in her own words; the delay in heeding it was real (see “Out of the Cities — the Message Refused”).
• WitnessCL 9.5. White: "Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country... We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts." — documents that the call to leave the cities was given "again and again... over and over," establishing that refusal to heed was the historical fact behind the delay and the cross of separation refused.

The come-out remnant build the ark and do not look back — Heb. 11:7; Joel 2:32:

• Heb. 11:7. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." — building the ark IS righteousness by faith: Noah's faith in the unseen warning moved him to separate and prepare, and by that act he "became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (see “As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams”). The remnant who come out and build the ark do not look back: they will see Him.
• Joel 2:32. "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call." — deliverance is for the remnant who call on the Name; the same Lord who calls ("the remnant whom the LORD shall call") promises deliverance to those who answer — the come-out company are the saved.

The remedy that ends the delay — finish the work, hasten the day — Matt. 24:14; 2 Pet. 3:12:

• Matt. 24:14. "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." — the conditional promise that both explains the delay and names the remedy: "then" — when the gospel has been preached to all — the end comes. The end waits on the work; finish the work and the end follows.
• 2 Pet. 3:12. "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" — the day can be hastened: the same delay the gospel-condition explains, the gospel-work can shorten — believers are not merely to look for but to hasten His coming by giving the message.
• Witness8T 115.5. White: "If all who had labored unitedly in the work of 1844 had received the third angel's message and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit... A flood of light would have been shed upon the world. Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work would have been completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of His people." — the dated claim that the work could have been finished and Christ would already have come, anchoring the conditional-delay reading of Matt. 24:14 (see “He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours”).
• WitnessEv 696.4. White: "By giving the gospel to the world it is in our power to hasten our Lord's return." — the remedy stated as plainly as the delay: the same gospel-work that was withheld can hasten His coming. Directly confirms Matt. 24:14 and 2 Pet. 3:12.

The tarrying is in the parable — yet the midnight cry still comes — Matt. 25:5-6:

• Matt. 25:5-6. "While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." — the tarrying itself is written into the parable: He tarries, and while He tarries all sleep — but the midnight cry still comes, "go ye out to meet him." The delay is real, yet the call to go out and meet Him is renewed even at midnight.

Readiness — the watching, separated, sealed state of those who will meet Him — Luke 12:35-37; Matt. 24:42-44; 1 Thess. 5:6:

• Luke 12:35-37. "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord... that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching... he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." — readiness defined positively: loins girded, lights burning, waiting, watching, opening immediately. The watching servant is blessed; the Lord Himself will serve him.
  • readiness = the watching, separated, sealed state of those who will meet the Lord without looking back. Scripture defines it as loins girded and lights burning, waiting to open immediately (Luke 12:35-37); as watchfulness because the hour is unknown — "be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matt. 24:42-44); as not sleeping but watching and being sober (1 Thess. 5:6); as a full coming-out that does not look back (Gen. 19:26, Lot's wife; Luke 17:32). Its end is the longing cry, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• Matt. 24:42-44. "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come... Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." — the command of readiness: because the hour is unknown, watch; because the thief comes unawares, be ready.
• 1 Thess. 5:6. "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." — readiness as a present discipline against the Laodicean and antediluvian sleep: not to slumber as the world slumbers, but to watch and be sober — the wakeful posture of the come-out remnant.
• WitnessMWV1 194.2. Miller: "Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come... Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh... Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning... Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." — a pioneer marshaling the very readiness texts of this section to define watching and being ready, confirming the symbol from Scripture itself.

The closing summons and the answering cry — Rev. 22:20:

• Rev. 22:20. "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." — Christ's promise "Surely I come quickly" meets the ready heart's answer, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." The come-out, watching remnant longs for the very coming the unready dread.