his image and receive his mark , it follows that the keeping of God ' s law , on the one hand , and its violation , on the other , will make the distinction between the worshipers of God and the worshipers of the beast . The special characteristic of the beast , and therefore of his image , is the breaking of God ' s commandments . Says Daniel , of the little horn , the papacy : " He shall think to change times and the law ." Daniel 7:25 , R . V . And Paul styled the same power the " man of sin ," who was to exalt himself above God . One prophecy is a complement of the other . Only by changing God ' s law could the papacy exalt itself above God ; whoever should understandingly keep the law as thus changed would be giving supreme honor to that power by which the change was made . Such an act of obedience to papal laws would be a mark of allegiance to the pope in the place of God .
The papacy has attempted to change the law of God . The second commandment , forbidding image worship , has been dropped from the law , and the fourth commandment has been so changed as to authorize the observance of the first instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath . But papists urge , as a reason for omitting the second commandment , that it is unnecessary , being included in the first , and that they are giving the law exactly as God designed it to be understood . This cannot be the change foretold by the prophet . An intentional , deliberate change is presented : " He shall think to change the times and the law ." The change in the fourth commandment exactly fulfills the prophecy . For this the only authority claimed is that of the church . Here the papal power openly sets itself above God .
While the worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandments , --since this is the sign of His creative power and the witness to His claim upon man ' s reverence and homage , --the worshipers of the beast will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator ' s memorial , to exalt the institution of Rome . It was in behalf of the Sunday that popery first asserted its arrogant claims ( See Appendix ); and its first resort to the power of the state was to compel the observance of Sunday as " the Lord ' s day ." But the Bible points to the seventh day , and not to the first , as the Lord ' s day . Said Christ : " The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath ." The fourth commandment declares : " The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord ." And by the prophet Isaiah the Lord designates it : " My holy day ." Mark 2:28 ; Isaiah 58:13 .
The claim so often put forth that Christ changed the Sabbath is disproved by His own words . In His Sermon on the Mount He said : " Think not that I am come to destroy the law , or the prophets : I am not come to destroy , but to fulfill . For verily I say unto you , Till heaven and earth pass , one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law , till all be fulfilled . Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments , and shall teach men so , he shall be
309