Stephen
Terry, Director
God’s
Seal or the Beast’s Mark?
Commentary
for the June 16, 2018 Sabbath School Lesson
“He
will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change
the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands
for a time, times and half a time.” Daniel 7:25, NIV
In 1944, the same year as the Normandy Landings in
Europe, a movie hit the theatres starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman.
Titled “Gaslight,” it consisted of a plot by Boyer to convince Bergman that she
could not rely on her memory in an attempt to place her under his control. As
part of the plot, the flame in the gas lights were manipulated as an element to
call into question her memory of how the lights were before. As a result, the
term “gaslighting” has come to mean any nefarious attempt to subvert the memory
of another by either causing them to question the reliability of their memory
or by superimposing a false memory on their mind. The Bible appears to reveal
an attempt to do just that to all of mankind long before the term ever came to
be. How could that happen? We are all defined by linear time. We cannot escape
it, and it permeates everything we do. Minute follows minute, hour follows
hour, and day follows day relentlessly. While it seems to pass far too slowly
for the young and much too quickly for the elderly, it is only from the
perspective of different vantage points that it seems so. Just as the Doppler
Effect changes sound waves as the object producing the sound approaches or
recedes, a sort of temporal Doppler alters what we perceive as we march forward
through time. Our relationship to time is vital to who we are.
If we understand the Bible as a record of that temporal
journey, then we would expect it to begin with some event that would inaugurate
that trip. As expected we find in the very first chapter of the very first
book, Genesis, an account packaged in units of time. Each day of Creation,
whether seen metaphorically or literally, is nonetheless a discreet temporal unit.
Then as a crowning act, one of those units is set aside as a memorial of the importance
of time to our existence. Perhaps that is why we are told by Jesus later that
we were not created for time, it was created for us.[i] The day that is set aside
as a memorial is blessed and sanctified.[ii] Although it is not
identified by that name in the Genesis account, it is later called the Sabbath,
a twenty-four hour period for rest from labor.
As the Genesis account continues, evil fills the earth,
and that antediluvian world is destroyed by deluge. Perhaps the tide of evil
wiped the memory of that special, temporal memorial from common knowledge. This
might explain its disappearance from the biblical record for so long a period. One
might certainly understand why one seeking to lead the world into evil, as
Satan would be inclined to do, would want to hide the memory that would remind
mankind of a higher destiny than simple selfishness, and a greater purpose than
satiation of that self-centered lust. Continual observance of the seventh-day
rest would remind mankind of all of that, as well as his origin in the spoken
words of a Creator. The Bible does not tell us that any attempt was made at that
time to replace the day, only to forget it. The success of that venture can be
seen in the words of the commandment concerning the Sabbath in the fourth
commandment of the Decalogue brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai after the
Israelites escaped slavery in Egypt.[iii] The very first word of
that commandment is “Remember.” Thus we may likely presume that the day had
been forgotten, its memory so completely effaced that it was not even mentioned
again until Sinai.
Sinai also revealed the understood name of the day, the
Sabbath. One might ask how we can be sure the same day is being referenced.
After all, if all was forgotten, how could they know which day to observe? Could
they have simply picked one at random? That might seem a reasonable assumption
were it not for the confirming miracle of the Manna god provided for food
during the forty years of their wilderness wandering. He provided the Manna
every day of the week, but every Sabbath, he provided none. In addition, any
Manna kept until the next day rotted, except when it was Sabbath. Then a double
portion could be gathered on the sixth day, and it would not rot the next day.[iv] As a result, there has
never been a doubt since then as to which day is the Sabbath. When Jesus was
crucified over a thousand years later, it was still common knowledge. That
knowledge has been handed down to us so that we know Good Friday as the day of
crucifixion, Easter Sunday as the day of resurrection and the Sabbath, known by
non-Jews as Saturday, the day between them both.[v] However, even though the
knowledge now seemed firmly established, centuries earlier, the prophet Daniel
foretold a time when a power would arise that would seek to change both time
and law would arise. As the fourth commandment was a statute in what was called
the Law of God, and it was the only commandment that dealt with time, it seems
an obvious target for that change.
It was not long after the death and resurrection of
Jesus and the deaths of those who walked with him that some began to question
this memorial in time. They saw it as a “Jewish” Sabbath, even though it was
created for mankind long before there ever was a Jew. They began instead to
substitute Resurrection Sunday, a day which there is no command to observe, for
the one God had handed down with the admonition “Remember.” It was not
difficult to justify the change or to convince others to accept it, because after
two aborted Jewish revolts against the Romans, the Imperium was hot on the heels
of the Jews with persecution and repression of the Jewish nation and any attributes
thereof. One of the key distinguishing traits of the Jews is Sabbath observance
even today. In order to obviate the necessity of explaining their observance of
a Jewish day of worship, the non-Jewish Christians could choose a different day
to gather and worship. What better day than the day of the resurrection? But
while it seems logical, it is substituting a man-made observance for the one
given by God. It is tantamount to saying, “In the face of persecution, instead
of trusting in God for deliverance, I will take things into my own hands and
create the deliverance I crave.” The effectiveness of that reasoning can be
seen in the fact that most of the Christian world now observes that man-made
day rather than the true Sabbath, even when not faced with persecution. Even
worse, many who have forgotten the past even refer to the new day as “Sabbath.”
The true memory appears to have been subverted and replaced with a false one.
This is the classic definition of gaslighting.
John, the Disciple and Revelator, foresaw the conflict.
While in exile on the island of Patmos, he saw in vision that two powers would
vie for the hearts and minds of mankind, each with its respective sign of
allegiance. God called the Sabbath as a sign that identified his people, those
who chose to worship him and no other.[vi] Logically, any antithesis
to this would necessarily be a spurious alternative, another memorial in time.
It would need to encompass a similar period of time and it would need to seem
legitimate enough to be accepted even by the saints. The creation of Sunday
sacredness fits those requirements nicely with its tie to the resurrection. As
an added bonus, it was a day already held sacred by those who worshipped the
Sun, hence its name, Sunday. This would have the double benefit of stopping persecution
of Christians as Jews over Sabbath observance, and it would facilitate the
proselytizing of pagans who would not have to change their day of worship. It
perhaps all seemed ideal to early church leaders with little downside. But in
reality it was rejecting the day God had established and setting up a false
image that in time would become a false memory that has led millions to worship
something they do not understand, something John was so abhorred by that he
considered it beastly. While that is the dramatic imagery of Revelation, it may
more simply be understood as substituting the worship of creation, in the form
of mankind’s false Sabbath, for worship of the Creator as signified by the day
he created. Perhaps this is why, after the beastly images of Revelation,
chapter thirteen, the first angel’s message of chapter fourteen is to call
mankind to once again worship God as Creator.[vii] Per the Commandment in
Exodus, observing the Sabbath that he created and gifted to us is exactly that,
for the Sabbath Commandment explicitly cites Creation as the reason for its
observance. The message John reminds us of is the one spoken by Joshua, long,
long ago. “…choose this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my household,
we will serve the Lord.”[viii]
