The TRUTH Becomes Plain
Now, let's recapitulate! The truth is becoming plain!
1) The mark plainly means the rejecting and breaking of God's commandments. And in
James 2:10-11, God says if we break only one of the commandments, we are GUILTY of breaking the Legality of all!
2) The Roman Empire is the real author of this mark. It is the mark of the BEAST, not the woman who rode the beast.
3) The church caused people to be deceived into receiving this mark.
4) Satan gave this Roman Empire its seat and great authority -- it is the political instrument through which Satan works, in deceiving the world.
5) Those who refuse this mark are prohibited from "buying or selling," engaging in commerce, trade, or holding a job.
6) Many of those refusing this mark were, and shall again be, martyred because of their refusal -- because they keep the Commandments of God!
7) Therefore, the inevitable and plain conclusion is that the mark is something enforced by the church, originating in the paganism of the Roman Empire, which a cunning, deceiving devil would seize on as a means of cleverly DECEIVING people into breaking God's Ten Commandments. And it involves a direct connection with holding a job -- engaging in business -- earning a living.
Satan is clever -- cunning -- a deceiver. He palms off counterfeits, which look like the genuine! Naturally he would select the one commandment of God which he can counterfeit with a substitute -- one in which by human reason alone no man could see where it would make any difference! He would select the one which would seem of least importance to the carnal human mind!
He would not try to deceive men on idolatry, profanity, or on stealing, lying, murder, adultery -- though he has led people into all of these.
But WHAT commandment could it be -- what commandment affecting a man's job or his business?
There is only one possible commandment -- the one regarded by the largest number as the "LEAST" of the commandments -- and that is the fourth commandment, which says: "REMEMBER the sabbath day, to keep it holy ... The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God."
No carnal mind can see, without the special spiritual revelation of God through His Word, where it makes any difference WHICH day man observes.
WHERE DID SUNDAY ORIGINATE? Not with the church, but with the pagan religion of the ROMAN EMPIRE! It is the day on which the ancient pagans assembled at sunrise, faced the east (as they do Easter Sunday morning today) and worshipped the rising SUN. It was Constantine, emperor of the Roman Empire, not a pope, who made SUNDAY the official so-called "Christian day of rest." But it was enforced -- people were caused to accept it universally -- by the CHURCH!
Why Saints Were Martyred
It was for obeying God's FOURTH Commandment -- keeping the Sabbath- -that millions were put to death. The local Council of Laodicea, about A.D. 363, passed this decree: "Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, resting rather on Sunday. But, if any be found to be Judaizing, let them be declared anathema from Christ."
The church caused them to be killed. When the church branded one "anathema" (a heretic), the state police of the Empire began torturing him. Unless he recanted, he was tortured until he died!
Laws became so strict no man could hold a job, or engage in business, unless he worked on Saturday and rested on Sunday. And the world will be so geared that it will be almost impossible for one to "buy or sell" except he receive this MARK OF THE BEAST!
This is the ONLY COMMANDMENT which was altered by the Roman Empire! In Daniel 7:25 we read the prophecy of this BEAST and the little horn (the political government of the church) rising up, which was to think to CHANGE "times and laws." That is, change God's LAW in respect to TIME -- the time for the Sabbath!