The Mark of the Beast—Popular for Centuries!

The horrific war between Russia and Ukraine rages on, and Presidents Biden and Putin continue an intensifying war of words and maneuvers. Thousands of lives have been lost. However, despite the fierce opposition between the United States and Russia, their presidents actually agree on something vitally important that can be found not in the newspapers, but in the Bible.

And it isn’t just Presidents Biden and Putin in agreement; many other world leaders agree as well, including Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Giorgia Meloni, Alberto Fernandez, Pope Francis, Bartholomew I (leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church), Mike Pence, and many politicians across nations and even opposing parties.

This list also includes famous pastors such as John McArthur, Albert Mohler, Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Steven Furtick, Brandan Robertson, Pat Robertson, and Charles Stanley. It includes many prominent leaders of the past, such as Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King Jr. The list also includes Protestant Reformation leaders Martin Luther and John Calvin. It includes every Catholic Pope, “church fathers” like Justin Martyr, Origen, and Augustine, and many others. It even includes royalty, from the late Queen Elizabeth II to kings, queens, and emperors long gone, such as Mary Queen of Scots, Charlemagne, Otto the Great, and Constantine.

This list does not only include individuals but is also endorsed by every major denomination of professing Christendom.

What could this vast list of people and denominations—some even bitter enemies of each other—agree on that’s so important?

They agree, to one extent or another (some devoutly while others more nominally), that the day specially set aside for the worship of God and Jesus Christ is Sunday, the first day of the week. The harmony regarding this core belief has spanned continents, nations, denominations, and millennia.

However, perhaps you noticed a famous historical figure who was not on the above list—a very prominent person in Christian history, who indisputably cannot be included. That person who cannot be included on a list of Sunday-keepers is Jesus Christ. The list of Sunday-keepers also does not include any of God’s servants in the Bible, such as Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Esther, Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul, Mary, Luke, James, and John.

It is a historical, biblical fact that Jesus of Nazareth kept the seventh-day Sabbath—the only day of the week that God rested on Himself and made holy with His blessing (Genesis 2:1–3). This cannot be disputed (Luke 4:16; Mark 2:27–28). Jesus’ disciples followed His example and kept the seventh-day Sabbath after His death (Luke 23:56; Acts 13:14, 42–44; 16:13–15; 17:1–2; 18:4). It will also be kept after Jesus returns (Isaiah 66:23).

Sunday-worship has been one of the main identifiers of mainstream “Christianity,” acting as one of its great “unifying” beliefs since Roman Emperor Constantine’s mandates in 321 AD. Since then, vast numbers of religious and government leaders, denominations, and people have taught, believed, and worshipped God and Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, while Sabbath-keepers were often ostracized and persecuted.

In contrast to the widespread acceptance of Sunday, which was an identifying sign of a form of “Christianity” that became the official religion of the Roman Empire and many other governments since, the seventh-day Sabbath was always an identifying sign between God and His people as described throughout the Bible (Exodus 31:13; Ezekiel 20:12, 20; Mark 2:27–28). It is the only day in the weekly cycle that God declared holy, and it is the only day of the weekly cycle that Jesus Christ kept as holy. Nowhere does the Bible say that the Sabbath’s sanctity has ended or was transferred to Sunday. That was a later tradition implemented by men (Matthew 15:9).

Sunday-worship is a primary mark of a counterfeit Christianity. It has been very powerful over the centuries, having been the religion of empires, nations, and many world leaders. This is in stark contrast to how Jesus and His followers never held great power. Quite the opposite—God’s people have often been censored, persecuted, ostracized, and sometimes murdered by the ruling authorities.

The history of Sunday-worship, its central place in a powerful form of false Christianity, and its widespread, unifying effect sounds eerily similar to something else that will become extremely widespread, found in Revelation 13:16–17: “He [the beast] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

For many centuries, being accepted by the powerful and influential within “Christendom” as “Christian,” individually or as a denomination, required endorsement of Sunday worship. A long list of prominent people and world leaders, billions of their followers, and most denominations have disagreed on much, but they have mostly agreed on this. Even this widespread agreement, however, disagrees with the day that God made holy at creation and the day Jesus Christ kept—which has always been the identifying sign of His people.

To understand the astonishing relationship between Sunday-worship, the Sabbath, and the mark of the beast, we recommend reading three of our free booklets in tandem: The Beast of Revelation, Which Day is the Christian Sabbath?, and Satan’s Counterfeit Christianity. You can also watch our popular telecast “Have You Taken the Mark of the Beast?”