Adventist teaching: Yes
Biblical teaching: No
In Seventh-Day Adventist theology, the final dividing line between the true followers of God and those who are following after the Devil will be over what day you worship. They teach that Sunday is the mark of the Roman Papacy and will eventually be associated with the Mark of the Beast once a national-turned international Sunday Worship Law is passed. The flip side of this is that they teach the seventh-day Sabbath is the sign of God’s true day of worship, given as a test of ones loyalty to God, and those that recognize this will be given the seal of God in contrast to the Mark of the Beast.
This theory is claimed to be derived from the book of Revelation, but is ultimately from the writings of Ellen G. White.
If the light of truth has been presented to you, revealing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and showing that there is no foundation in the Word of God for Sunday observance, and yet you still cling to the false sabbath, refusing to keep holy the Sabbath which God calls ‘My holy day,’ you receive the mark of the beast. When does this take place? When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labor on Sunday and worship God, while you know that there is not a word in the Bible showing Sunday to be other than a common working day, you consent to receive the mark of the beast, and refuse the seal of God
Ellen G. White, Evangelism, pg. 235 (EV 235.2)
The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God’s law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.
The Great Controversy, pg. 605 (GC 605.2)
The seal of God’s law is found in the fourth commandment…When the Sabbath was changed by the papal power, the seal was taken from the law. The disciples of Jesus are called upon to restore it by exalting the Sabbath of the fourth commandment to its rightful position as the Creator’s memorial and the sign of His authority.
The Great Controversy, pg. 452 (GC 452.1)
SDA theologian, P. Gerard Damsteegt, writes about this in Adventists Affirm where he writes:
The first time that Ellen G. White associated the seal of God with the Sabbath was in 1848. A few months later, in January 1849, Joseph Bates, the pioneer Sabbath theologian, published the first Adventist book on the subject and called it, A Seal of the Living God. One of Ellen White’s arguments that the seal of God is the Sabbath was that the Sabbath commandment contains the characteristics of a seal. A seal, she observed in our early days and reiterated many years later, is attached to a law to show the name, title, and authority of the lawgiver. The Sabbath commandment can therefore be considered a seal because it “is the only one of all the ten in which are found both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It is the only one that shows by whose authority the law is given. Thus it contains the seal of God, affixed to His law as evidence of its authenticity and binding force” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 307).
The Sabbath helps to give the ten commandments their unique significance. “The Sabbath was placed in the decalogue as the seal of the living God, pointing out the Law-giver, and making known his right to rule.” Thus the Sabbath is the sign of a relationship between God and His people, serving as “a test of their loyalty to Him” (Signs of the Times, May 3, 1886). The mission of Seventh-day Adventists can be described as “presenting the law of God as a test of character and as the seal of the living God” (Testimonies for the Church, 2:468). This reasoning seems to make good sense. However, there is more to the sealing message.
P. Gerard Damsteegt, Adventists Affirm, vol. 8, no. 3, 1994
Nowhere does the Bible claim that the sabbath gives the 10 Commandments a unique significance or that because the fourth commandment contains the name and title of the Lawgiver that therefore makes it the seal of God’s law.
The Bible explicitly teaches that the Holy Spirit is the seal of God (Ephesians 1:13, 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, 5:5) and is given to all believers as a down payment of the inheritance that we have in Christ, sealing us for the day of redemption.
Ellen White contradicts what the Bible says. She also claimed that “whatever contradicts God’s Word, we can be sure proceeds from Satan.” We’ll let you connect the dots.
