Beast of Revelation.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

Chapter 5
vol. 14, p. 148). As we know, this was a virtual death sentence—
until the Protestant Reformation of the 15th and 16th centuries!
To learn more about God’s holy Sabbath day, please write for our
booklet, Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath? And to find out what
happened to Christ’s “little flock,” which continued to keep God’s
Sabbath and other commandments despite persecution, also request
God’s Church Through the Ages. Both are available free of charge.
The Mysterious Mark
The Protestant churches that came out of Roman Catholicism
repudiated many Catholic teachings. Unfortunately, Sunday worship
was not one of them. For though they often don’t realize it,
by continuing in Sunday observance, the Protestant churches
acknowledge the supremacy of the Catholic Church over the
Bible. This is why the Church of Rome is happy to announce that
it changed the day! Catholic Monsignor Segur wrote, “The observance
of Sunday by Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of
themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church” (Plain Talk
About the Protestantism of Today, p. 213).
Does that surprise you? Well here’s an even more telling quote
from the Roman Church: “Sunday is our MARK of authority. The
church is above the Bible, and this transference of sabbath observance
is proof of that fact” (The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923).
Their “MARK of authority”? Could this have anything to do with the
“mark” mentioned in Revelation 13? It states that the false church
“causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to
receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no
one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name” (vv. 16–17).
Just what is this “mark”? According to the Enhanced Strong’s
Lexicon, the Greek word here, charagma, means “a stamp, an
imprinted mark... [used] of the mark stamped on the forehead or the
right hand as the BADGE of the followers of the [Beast].... [and] the
mark branded upon horses” (entry 5480). So it is probably some
kind of badge or brand of identification.
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