What does God say about His seal?—"Verily My Sabbath 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." Ex. 31:13.
What does the beast claim as its mark?—"The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage which they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church."
Sunday stands for the beast. It is a commandment of men, by which they think to make the commandment of God of none effect.
The Sabbath stands for the memorial of God’s creative work, as manifested in making new creatures. More than that it stands for God’s rest, into which only the believer can enter, when he ceases from his own works as God did from His. Heb. 4:3, 4, 9, 10.
The Sunday is the mark of the Papacy, which puts man’s work for God’s. The Papacy gives us a woman as our chief intercessor in the place of Christ, traditions of the fathers instead of the Word of God, salvation from sin and purgatory by works and money and penance, a priest in the place of the Holy Spirit, and a rest-day appointed by men instead of the one appointed by God.
The Sabbath is the seal of God. True Sabbath-keeping means that man gives up his own way, and allows God to work in him; it means confidence in the power of God and not trusting in the flesh, obeying God’s voice at any sacrifice, and following Him even if no one else does so.