A sign is designed to make a statement. A flag identifies a nation. A title defines the status of a leader. A sign on a storefront identifies what one will find inside. A label reveals what is inside a package. These are all well-known facts that everyone understands.

The same rule applies to those within professing Christianity. Each person claiming the title of Christian “displays” a “sign” that identifies the type of Christianity with which he is affiliated. It also identifies the deity he believes and obeys. There is a sign, also called a “mark,” that proclaims that the bearer of it believes and obeys the Biblical God. There is another similar, though totally different sign/mark that identifies the wearer as a servant of Satan. The wearers of both signs believe that they are the children of the Biblical God. Let us turn to the Holy Bible in order to distinguish one sign from the other. In the process we will allow the Author of the Bible to reveal His attitude toward the signs as well as those who wear them.

After giving His Ten Commandment Law to the newly-freed Israelites and the “mixed (Gentile) multitude” that had come out of Egypt with them (Exo. 12:38), the Almighty then gave the amalgamated nation a separate (special) “sign” that would remind them that “… I am the Lord …” and that, if they obeyed the sign they would be sanctified unto Him (Exo. 31:12-17). This sign would be a perpetual “covenant” that would endure as long as there was an Israelite on the earth. Today there are hundreds of millions of Israelites scattered throughout the nations of mankind. However, only a minutely few of them know about, believe and embrace the special covenant the Lord made with them. These are the members of God’s church, the members of which He calls His saints, His remnant, His Very Elect.

In the 20th chapter of Exodus we find that, having given the nation His Ten Commandment Law, God then wrote them in stone with His finger. One immediately notices that the fourth commandment is by far the largest and most detailed, which indicates its importance in the eyes of the Lord. Why is #4 so important? Knowing that Satan would use the 4th commandment to deceive mankind, the Lord explained in detail what, when, how and why relative to it. Notice that He did not make a special covenant concerning any other commandment–not even number one. Yet billions of church people zealously uphold nine of the commandments while adamantly refusing to obey #4. Note that the Lord called ALL TEN of them “commandments” and wrote ALL TEN of them in stone. In His eyes they were and are equal in importance.

Since all who call themselves by His name profess to believe and obey nine of His commandments, His separate and special Sabbath Covenant serves as the “sign” which identifies (“marks”) His people unto this day. No one can serve two masters; one believes and obeys either the Biblical God or Satan. Therefore, those who reject the Lord’s mark are Satan’s people. L.J.