The Mark of the Beast is the most serious problem facing the world at this hour. In Isaiah 58:1, we read:

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." Isaiah 58: 1.

In order to understand the "mark of the beast," we must first clearly define the beast. This beast is fully described in Revelation 13:2 and 3.

'And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. " Revelation 13:2,3.

Six brief of identity showing that the Papacy is the beast of Revelation 13. We begin by reading from the Holy Word.

"And he shall speak great words against the most High. " Daniel 7.25.

"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. " Revelation 13:5.

1. God clearly portrays this power as one that is guilty of blasphemy, assuming the titles and power that belong to God alone.

"I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. " Daniel 7.21.

"And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. " Revelation 13:7.

2. In these two verses God has pointed out that this power would persecute the saints. History reveals that nearly 150 million people have been destroyed as a result of this organization.

"I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. " Daniel 7.8.

3. In ascending to power this organization was to destroy three of the ten ruling kingdoms and to rule over the remaining seven. History reveals that this is exactly what the Papacy did. It destroyed the Heruli in A.D. 493, the Vandals in A.D. 534, and the Ostrogoths in A.D. 538, thus turning the pope into a temporal sovereign.

"And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. " Daniel 7.-25.

4. God distinctly declares that this power was to rule with complete supremacy for a period of 1260 years. Time represents one year; times, plural, represents two years; and a dividing of times would be half of a year. Add them all together; this is three and one-half years. Allowing thirty days to a Bible month, with twelve months to a year, we have 360 days in a Bible year. The rule of prophecy, according to Ezekiel 4:6, is that a day stands for a year, for God said, "I have appointed thee each day for a year. " Adding these all up, we have 1260 days equaling 1260 years.

The Papacy began its temporal reign in A.D. 538 when it destroyed the third little horn, and it ended its unbroken supremacy 1260 years later, exactly as God had predicted, when Berthier, the French general, took the pope prisoner. Thus the Word of God was fulfilled.

Now we come to the most amazing description of all.

5. God has given to us a number whereby this power can be identified.

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast. for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. Revelation 13:18.

When the pope is crowned he is given the official title of Vicarius Filii Dei, which means Vicar of the Son of God.

LATIN

V=	5		F=	0		D=	500
I=	1		I=	1		E=	0
C=	100		L=	50		I=	1
A=	0		I=	1
R=	0		I=	1
I=	1
U=	5
S=	0
	112	+		53	+		501=	666

Latin, of course, is the official language of the Papacy, and therefore we would expect to find the Roman numerals adding up his number. It is surprising why so few in this enlightened generation are unaware of the Bible prediction.

One of the most amazing facts is that you can do this in the Latin, in the Hebrew, or in the Greek. It will all add up to the same-666.

Now we come to the last point of identity, the "mark of the beast"!

"And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws. " Daniel 7.25.

6. Take a careful look at what God means when He says that this power would "think to change times and laws." There is only one law of God, and that is found in Exodus 20. There is only one portion of that law in which time is a factor. Let's read the fourth commandment as God wrote it.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. " Exodus 20:8-1 1.

Can we discover where the Papacy has actually attempted to change the divine law of God affecting a time element? Yes, we certainly can. If you will open any Roman Catholic Catechism and turn to that portion dealing with the law of God, you will discover that the law has indeed been greatly changed. They have left out the second commandment entirely and divided the tenth commandment into two parts, thus attempting to still retain ten commandments. But notice the fourth particularly. The time element has been deliberately removed, along with the express command stating which day is the Sabbath. All that remains are the words, "Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.'

Let us read a most challenging statement made by the Church. They have done exactly what God predicted they would do.

"The Pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret, even divine laws....The Pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man but of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth with most ample power of binding and loosing the sheep."-From the Prompta Bibliotheca published in 1900 in Rome by the press of the propaganda.

"The pope has power to change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ."-Decretal de Translat, Episcop. Cap.

The pope's will stands for reason. He can dispense above the law, and of wrong make right by correcting and changing laws."-Pope Nicholas, Dis. 96.

It is within the inspired words "think to change times and laws" that we discover the "mark of the beast."

The following are all authentic quotations that will definitely answer our questions as to what the "mark of the beast" is. Notice them carefully.

"The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."-Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893.

You will notice in this information that the Church declares that it was not God Who changed the day from Saturday to Sunday but that they, the papists, were the ones who made this change. The Sabbath was officially changed by the Papacy at the Council of Laodicea on March 7, 364 A.D. That was 43 years after Constantine declared Sunday the day for Christians to honor as a rest day.

"Question.-Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?"

"Answer.-Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her,-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority."-Rev. Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, p. 174.

This quotation emphasizes the fact that since the world accepts Sunday as a day of worship, this acknowledges her supremacy.

"I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to any one who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.' The Catholic Church says, 'No; by my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.' and lo! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church. 'Priest Enright, C.S.S.R., Kansas City, Missouri.

There is no question concerning the changing of Sabbath the seventh day to Sunday the first day by the Papacy. You can readily see that there is nothing to be found in the Bible about changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. The Papacy is correct in stating that they changed the day.

"In reply to a letter of October 28, 1895, to Cardinal Gibbons, asking if the church claimed the change of the Sabbath as her mark, the following was received: 'Of course the Catholic church claims that the change was her act .... And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.'-C.F. Thomas, Chancellor."

Sunday is the mark of authority of the Roman Catholic Church. It is the "Mark of the Beast." Of this there is absolutely no question, either in the Word of God or in history.

Are Protestant churches aware of these facts? Do they agree that there is no Scriptural authority for Sunday keeping? Let us now turn to the various Protestant churches and hear from them.

Presbyterian: "The Christian Sabbath (Sunday) is not in the Scripture, and was not by the primitive church called the Sabbath.'Dwight's theology, vol. 4, p. 401.

Congregational: "There is no command in the Bible requiring us to observe the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath." Fowler, Mode and Subjects of Baptism.

Lutheran: "The observance of the Lord's day (Sunday) is founded not on any command of God, but on the authority of the church."-"Augsburg Confession of Faith," quoted in Cox's Sabbath Manual, p. 287.

Friends, don't you think that when a church admits they are following a teaching not founded on the Word of God, they ought to change and follow God's Word?

Episcopalian: "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday."-Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church, p. 186, translated by Henry John Rose, B.D. (Philadelphia: James M. Campbell & Co., 1843).

Here is another church that admits it was not the apostles' intention that the day of worship should ever be changed.

Methodist: "it is true there is no positive command for infant baptism .... Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week."-Rev. Amos Binney, Theological Compend, pp. 180, 181, 1902 ed.

Even our Methodist friends admit that there is nothing in the Bible directing us to keep Sunday holy. Let us turn to our friends the Baptists:

Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of The Baptist Manual, before a group of ministers, made this candid admission:

"There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week.

"Of course," he continues, "I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of Paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!"-From a paper read before a New York Ministers' Conference, held Nov. 13, 1893.

Here is one of the leaders of a great Protestant denomination clearly admitting that Sunday keeping is branded with the Mark of paganism.

While God clearly gives us His warning against the acceptance of the "mark of the beast," He also admonishes us to be sure to receive His seal.

"Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples." Isaiah 8:1 6.

Notice that the seal is to be used in identifying the law among God's disciples. What are the essentials of a seal? A seal is placed upon legal documents; it stamps them as authentic. Placed upon a proclamation of a ruler, a seal testifies that it is genuine. Such a seal usually gives the name, title, and dominion of the ruler. For instance, in the early days of our country when the first President took office, his seal contained these three points: name, George Washington; title, President; territory, the United States of America. Just so God's seal would contain these three facts-His name, the Lord thy God; His office, Creator; His territory, heaven and earth. Now let us read carefully the fourth commandment and see if we can discover the seal within the law.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. " Exodus 20:8-1 1. (Emphasis added).

Did you catch the three identification marks of a seal? Notice them carefully: the name, The Lord thy God; His authority, Creator. He demands that we honor Him by keeping holy the seventh day, showing our acceptance of this authority; His territory, "heaven and earth." Herein is the seal of God.

Contrast this now with the counterfeit, called the "mark of the beast": the name, Pope; his authority, he claims power to change God's holy day-to keep holy the first day of the week (and in so doing we give him our allegiance); his territory-he claims that of heaven and earth.

What does God plainly have to say of our decision to receive the seal of God or the "mark of the beast"?

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Romans 6:16.

My dear friends, there you have it. God is reaching down and touching your heart with His mighty appeal for you to follow the teachings of Jesus. Won't you obey Him? The acceptance of His shed blood in your behalf will bring you eternal salvation. This is why Jesus Christ is personally sending His last appeal to you. It is of such importance that it has been pictured symbolically by an angel flying in the midst of heaven.

"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 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: 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". Revelation 14:9-11.

Friend, no matter where you turn in the Scriptures you will find all the prophets pleading and admonishing us to obey God and not the dragon power. To each is given the choice, but as in the Garden of Eden-will we believe God, obey His command to keep the Sabbath, and live? Or, will we listen to the dragon through the medium of the Papacy and obey its commands in keeping Sunday, and be lost? God will help each one of us not to make the mistake of our first parents.

As you look out upon the world, you will find that the vast majority are following this false system, and this is exactly what God predicted would happen in the last days of this world's history.

"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. " Revelation 13:8.

I ask you to turn your eyes upon the cross of Calvary. If the law possibly could have been changed, Jesus would not have had to die. Behold Him, His hands and feet driven through, His head crowned with thorns, and a spear thrust in His side. We behold Jesus dying of a broken heart for you and me. Such love calls us, saying,

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. " John 15:1 0.

Dear friend, many of you have discovered that you are unknowingly and unwittingly following a teaching that is contrary to the Word of God. Jesus will forgive all this. But can you continue in so doing? Jesus says:

"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Luke 6:46.

Everyone should pray that God will give you the courage to do what you know He wants you to do. There are millions of Sabbath keepers around the world today that reach out a helping hand to you and invite you to join them in keeping God's commandments.

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have tight to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. " Revelation 22:14.