Sabbath School | The Third Angel’s Message | The Mark of the Beast | 03/13/2021

Many people have heard the phrase ‘Mark of the Beast’, but most are deceived by an assumption of the meaning. Some think of a computer data chip like the device implanted in some pet animals, or some movie description witnessed. In the Oldest Sacred History book, The Word of God, this event is referred to and explained in detail. The Old World and the United States of America are referred to in Scripture, specifically in the books of Daniel and the Revelation 13. A small portion of Daniel was closed up, sealed for a time, but the Book of Revelation has always been revealed, open for study and understanding. Some so called preachers have taught the Revelation was a closed book and difficult to be understood, but the contrary is evident by the meaning or name of the Book itself, The Revelation of Jesus Christ. In this Sabbath School Lesson, we will study the Mark of the Beast which forms a part of the third angel’s message found in Revelation 14:9-11. 2. Read Revelation 13:1-10. To understand the ‘Mark’ of the Beast, we must first identify the Beast. The leopard-like beast represents the Papacy, Popery, Roman Catholicism. Let's confirm this point. 3. What does a beast represent in Bible prophecy? Daniel 7:17, 23 ____________________________________________________ 4. Note: The beasts of Daniel 7 are intimately connected with the leopard-like beast of Revelation 13. 5. What is the name that is written on the head of this beast? Revelation 13:1 ____________________________________________ 6. What does the Bible call blasphemy? John 10:30-33 ______________________________________________________________ 7. Note: Consider the following admissions by Roman Catholics: “All bishops, with Peter at their head, are vicars, that is, they take the place of Christ on earth.” https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/teachings/nature-of-papal-primacy-228 “The title Vicar of Christ is more expressive of his supreme headship of the Church on earth.” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15403b.htm 8. However, who does Jesus say would stand in His place on the earth? Who does the Bible say is the head of the church on earth? John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7, 8, 13 and Ephesians 5:23; Ephesians 1:20, 22 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. How else does the Bible define blasphemy? Mark 2:5-7 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Even to this day the Roman Catholic Church continues to commit blasphemy. “Pope Francis sends out 1,000 new hand-picked 'super confessors' to forgive those who have sinned so badly that only normally be pardoned by the pontiff himself.” https:// www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3441058/Pope-Francis-sends-1-000-new-hand-picked-super-confessors-forgive-sinned-badlynormally-pardoned-pontiff-himself.html 10. How long was the leopard-like beast, the Papacy, to reign before receiving a deadly wound? Revelation 13:3, 5 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 11. Note: These 42 months represent prophetic time. A biblical month has 30 days. Read Genesis 7:11, 24 and Genesis 8:3, 4. 12. How many days are in 42 months, considering that a biblical month has 30 days? ______________________________________ 13. Note: Here we have the fact that 42 prophetic months represent 1260 prophetic days. Numbers 14:34 & Ezekiel 4:6 tell us that a day represents a year in Bible prophecy. Based on the previous facts, the 1260 prophetic days represent 1260 literal years. 14.When did the 1260 years of the reign of the Papacy begin, and when did it end? ________________________________________ “Power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” And, says the prophet, “I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death.” And again: “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.” The forty and two months are the same as the “time and times and the dividing of time,” three years and a half, or 1260 days, of Daniel 7 - - the time during which the papal power was to oppress God's people. This period, as stated in preceding Saved To Serve Pastor Andrew Henriques www.prophesyagain.com The Third Angel’s Message, Part 2 The Mark Of The Beast chapters, began with the supremacy of the papacy, A.D. 538, and terminated in 1798. At that time the pope was made captive by the French army, the papal power received its deadly wound, and the prediction was fulfilled, “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.” {GC 439.2} 15. What did the leopard-like beast receive between A.D. 538 and 1798? Revelation 13:4 ___________________________________ 16. What kind of power did the leopard-like beast have between A.D. 538 and 1798? Revelation 13:7 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 17. Note: Using the previous conclusions, the leopard-like beast is a union of church and state. To confirm, consider that the Pope is both head of the Church (Roman Catholicism) and the head of the state (the Vatican/Holy See). 18. With whom did the Papacy make war between A.D. 538 and 1798? Revelation 13:7; Daniel 7:25 (Revelation 14:12). ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 19. Note: A diligent study of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 will reveal that the leopard-like beast is called the little horn in Daniel 7:7, 8, 23-25. 20. What does a horn represent in Bible prophecy? Revelation 17:12 ___________________________________________________ 21. The Papacy is called a Little Horn, according to Daniel 7:7, 8, 24, 25. What is the smallest country in the world? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ There is a country in the world smaller than New York City’s Central Park and one with a population smaller than a typical highschool class. Based on landmass, Vatican City is the smallest country in the world... The official seat of the pope of the Catholic Church since 1377, Vatican City was not declared an independent state until the Lateran Treaty of 1929. https://www.history.com/ news/what-is-the-smallest-country-in-the-world The Vatican is the smallest independent state in the world and residence of the spiritual leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17994868 22. What will happen to the names of the individuals who worship the beast, the Papacy? Revelation 13:8 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 23. Which day does the Papacy, the Pope of the Roman Catholic church, call the day of worship, the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day? “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 of London, Ontario, Sept. 1, 1923). “Protestants do not realize that by observing Sunday, they accept the authority of the spokesperson of the Church, the Pope” (Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950). 24. However, which day does the Bible call the Lord’s Day, the Sabbath of the Lord? Isaiah 58:13; Mark 2:27, 28 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 25. What did the Bible predict that the Little Horn, the Papacy, would do that it did indeed fulfill? Daniel 7:25 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 26. Who was the person that legislated and announced that the worshiping of the sun, which was then called Sunday worship, was the day of worship for Christians? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “In the early part of the fourth century the emperor Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a public festival throughout the Roman Empire. The day of the sun was reverenced by his pagan subjects and was honored by Christians; it was the emperor's policy to unite the conflicting interests of heathenism and Christianity. He was urged to do this by the bishops of the church, who, inspired by ambition and thirst for power, perceived that if the same day was observed by both Christians and heathen, it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by pagans and thus advance the power and glory of the church. But while many God-fearing Christians were gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness, they still held the true Sabbath as the holy of the Lord and observed it in obedience to the fourth commandment.” {GC 53.1} 27. How does Jesus treat those faithful Christians who died honoring Sunday as the Lord’s Sabbath, who did not have an opportunity to learn about God’s seventh-day Sabbath? Acts 17:30 What does Jesus expect of us who know the truth? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 28. Who gave the Papacy its power, seat, and great authority? Who does the dragon represent primarily? Revelation 13:2; 12:7-9 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 29. Why was Satan expelled from heaven? What has ever been Satan's desire to receive? Isaiah 14:12-14; Matthew 4:8-10 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 30. Through whom does Satan seek to receive worship? Revelation 13:4 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 31. Various animals have been used to depict the different parts of this beast, the Papacy. However, the Papacy predominantly looks like a leopard (Revelation 13:2). What is so significant about a leopard that would cause Jesus to identify Popery as a leopard? Jeremiah 13:23 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “How the Roman church can clear herself from the charge of idolatry we cannot see.... And this is the religion which Protestants are beginning to look upon with so much favor, and which will eventually be united with Protestantism. This union will not, however, be effected by a change in Catholicism, for Rome never changes. She claims infallibility. It is Protestantism that will change. The adoption of liberal ideas on its part will bring it where it can clasp the hand of Catholicism.”—The Review and Herald, June 1, 1886. {LDE 130.2} “The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God's law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.” {GC 605.2