Question:
What is the seal of God upon the foreheads of the 144,000 (Rev. 7:3)? Is it the Sabbath seal or something else?
Answer:
Being sealed in Christ "with that Holy Spirit of promise," after having "heard the word of truth" (Eph. 1:13; 4:30), the saints are consequently sealed by Present Truth--the truth preached in their own day.
"The seal of the living God," the Truth, by which the 144,000 are sealed (Rev. 7:2), is a special seal, being the same as "the mark" of Ezekiel 9. (See Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445; Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 267; Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211). It demands one's sighing and crying over the abominations which defile him and which desecrate both the Sabbath and the house of God, especially against selling literature and raising goals during Sabbath services. As the saints have this seal or mark on their foreheads, the angels will pass over them, not slay them. It is equivalent to the blood on the door post on the night of the Passover in Egypt. The angel is to place a mark upon the foreheads of all who by sighing over their own sins, and over the sins in the house of God, show fidelity to the Truth. Then the destroying angels will follow, to slay utterly both old and young who have failed to receive the seal. (See Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 505. )
So, the former seal enables the receiver to rise from the dead in the resurrection of the just, while the latter seal enables the sighing-crying one to escape death and forever to live for God.
Question:
If the sealing message of the 144,000 has been going to the church since 1929, are part (or all) of the 144,000 already sealed? Also if none can be sealed save they be free from sin and if some are now being sealed, then have they passed beyond sinning?
Answer:
If the sealing is not in progress now, then the sealing message which we have borne since 1929 would no more be present truth now than would the proclamation of the Judgment of the dead have been present truth from 1844 to 1929, had not the dead been judged during that period. Definitely, then the message of the sealing and the sealing itself go hand in hand the same as the needle and the shuttle travel together until the seam is completed.
The Lord commands the angel with the writer's inkhorn to "set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof"--in the church--so that when the men with the slaughter weapons start slaying, they may pass by those who have the mark. Thus, the sighing and crying since 1929 for the abominations in the church, has been the supreme evidence that we are living in the period of the sealing.
And as reformation never takes place with out a revelation of some new truth, then this "closing work for the church" must be accompanied by a message (Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 266), and must be proclaimed to all. And he who does not reform at the moment he is convinced of the Truth, will not reform later. Therefore, as the sealing message makes its way through the church, only those who awake and reform (sigh) and endeavor to share with others (cry) the light that is shining upon them, receive the seal. They are then accounted sinless through the perfection of Christ imparted in their behalf until they are given the "new heart" promised in Ezekiel 36:26, after which they will be forever sinless-- forever without cause to repent.
"When I say unto the wicked," says the Lord "Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. " Ezek. 3:18.
If one cannot part from his sins now, neither will he later. And as he cannot deceive God, he is left without the seal, through he may be a professor of the Truth. A true Christian, however, never boasts of having attained perfection, for he is aiming ever higher and higher as he travels up the narrow path. And as he comes closer and closer to Him to Whom perfection begins and ends, he exclaims with the prophet: "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. " Isa. 6:5.
So the fact is that no one has attained the perfection which he will attain in his future state but the true follower of Christ has attained the perfection of the present state. He is never a minute behind time or an inch below the highest step attainable at the moment. He is progressively as perfect as the ear of corn is from the day it sprouts to the day it is harvested.
If any sin be committed by such an one, it will not be a known or willful sin. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. " James 4:17. He will be judged "for the iniquity which he knoweth. " 1 Sam. 3:13. Consequently, to him who avails himself of every opportunity to know the Truth and who zealously complies with all its requirements, it is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:3)-- living without sin.