The sealing began on September 11, 2001 when the mighty angel of chapter eighteen of Revelation descended. His descent was typified by the descent of the angel of Revelation ten on August 11, 1840, and also by the descent of the Holy Spirit at Christ’s baptism. Christ’s baptism points forward to the latter rain descending when the great buildings of New York City were brought down. The power from above began, and also at that time the power from beneath (bottomless pit) would be manifested, for God’s Word never fails.
2001年9月11日，当启示录第十八章那位有大权柄的天使降临时，盖印就开始了。他的降临由1840年8月11日启示录第十章天使的降临，以及基督受洗时圣灵的降临所预表。基督的洗礼预示着，当纽约市的高大建筑物被推倒之时，晚雨将会降下。从上头来的能力已经开始，同时那时从下方（无底坑）来的能力也将显明出来，因为上帝的话从不落空。
When Christ was baptized, He immediately went into the wilderness and fasted for forty days, after which He was tempted by Satan with three temptations. Each of those three temptations represent primary characteristics of each of the three powers who lead the world to Armageddon. Those three temptations were pride, a characteristic of the dragon; appetite, a characteristic of the beast, and presumption, a characteristic of the false prophet. Pride and self-exaltation are represented by Lucifer in the classic description of Isaiah.
基督受洗后，随即进入旷野，禁食四十天；此后他受撒但三次试探。那三次试探分别代表着把世界带向哈米吉多顿的三股势力各自的主要特征。这三次试探是：骄傲——龙的特征；食欲——兽的特征；以及冒昧——假先知的特征。骄傲与自我高举，在《以赛亚书》的经典描述中由路西弗所代表。
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms. Isaiah 14:12–16.
明亮之星，早晨之子啊，你何竟从天坠落！你这使列国衰弱的，何竟被砍倒在地！你心里曾说：我要升到天上；我要把我的宝座高举在神的众星以上；我要坐在会众的山上，在北方的极处；我要升到高云之上；我要与至高者一样。然而你却必被拉下阴间，到坑中极深之处。看见你的要定睛看你，细细察看你，说：这就是那使大地战栗、使列国震动的人吗？以赛亚书 14:12-16。
Five times Lucifer proclaims in his heart “I will.” Satan, once named the “light bearer” (Lucifer), who now only bears darkness, is he “that did shake the nations.” Prophetically he is associated with the “nations,” for he is the leader of the evil confederacy of the nations, and the confederacy of merchants identified in Revelation chapters seventeen and eighteen.
路西弗在心里五次宣称：“我要。”撒但，曾被称为“光之携带者”（路西弗），如今只带来黑暗，他就是那“使列国震动的”。在预言上，他与“列国”有关，因为他是列国邪恶联盟的领袖，也是启示录第十七章和第十八章所记述的商人联盟的领袖。
“Kings and rulers and governors have placed upon themselves the brand of antichrist, and are represented as the dragon who goes to make war with the saints—with those who keep the commandments of God and who have the faith of Jesus.” Testimonies to Ministers, 38.
“君王、统治者和执政者都已将敌基督的印记加诸自己身上，并被描绘为那条龙，去与圣徒争战——就是那些遵守上帝诫命并持守耶稣真道的人。”《给传道人的证言》，第38页。
At Christ’s baptism the Holy Spirit descended, typifying post-September 11, 2001. After His baptism Satan tempted Christ with the offer to give Christ the power Satan uses to rule the kingdoms of the world, for at the fall of Adam, Satan had become the ruler of the kingdoms of the world.
在基督受洗时，圣灵降临，预表2001年9月11日之后的时期。祂受洗之后，撒但试探基督，表示愿把其用来统治世上列国的权柄交给祂，因为在亚当堕落时，撒但就成了世上列国的统治者。
And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Luke 4:5–8.
魔鬼领他上了高山，霎时间把天下的万国都指给他看。魔鬼对他说：“这一切权柄和荣华，我都要给你，因为这原是交付我的；我愿意给谁就给谁。你若在我面前下拜，这一切都要归你。”耶稣回答说：“撒但，退到我后面去！因为经上记着说：‘当拜主你的神，单要事奉他。’”路加福音4:5-8。
Two primary characteristics of papal Rome (the beast), is her fornication and the poisoned “food” and drink she distributes.
教皇罗马（那兽）的两个主要特征，是她的淫乱，以及她分发的被下毒的“食物”和饮料。
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. Revelation 2:14.
然而，我有几件事要责备你，因为你容让那自称是女先知的女人耶洗别，教导并引诱我的仆人去行淫，吃祭偶像之物。启示录 2:14。
The “food” and drink she provides is her false doctrines.
她所提供的“食物”和饮料就是她的虚假教义。
“The great sin charged against Babylon is that she ‘made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ This cup of intoxication which she presents to the world represents the false doctrines that she has accepted as the result of her unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth.” The Great Controversy, 388.
加在巴比伦身上的大罪，就是她“使万国都喝了她淫乱之怒的酒”。她呈给世界的这醉人的酒杯，象征她因与地上的权贵有不正当的关系而接受的那些错误教义。
The beast of Catholicism also deceives the world by her sorceries, which is once again something that is taken internally.
天主教之兽也用她的巫术迷惑全世界，这又是一种需要内服的东西。
And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. Revelation 18:23.
在你中间，灯光必不再照耀；新郎和新娘的声音在你中间也必不再听见；因为你的商人原是地上的显贵；因为万国都被你的邪术所迷惑。启示录 18:23。
The Greek word translated as “sorceries,” is pharmakeia, meaning medications. The golden cup in her hand, represents not only a cup to drink wine from, but also the cup where her magical medical potions are prepared and delivered. In the modern world today, those magical potions are delivered in needles, not so much in a cup. When Satan appears after the soon-coming Sunday law, he will perform miracles of healing. The miracles associated with the potions and false doctrines of the papacy, was represented by Satan telling Christ to perform a miracle in turning the stone into bread.
被译为“巫术”的希腊词是 pharmakeia，意思是药物。她手中的金杯不仅代表用来饮酒的杯子，也代表调制并递送她那带有魔力的医疗药剂的器皿。在当今现代世界里，那些带有魔力的医疗药剂是通过针头注射递送的，而不再主要使用杯子。在那即将到来的“星期日法令”之后，撒但将现身并施行医治的神迹。与这些药剂以及教皇制度的错误教义相关的神迹，则由撒但叫基督施行将石头变成饼的神迹这一试探所代表。
The prophetic history before and after the Sunday law possesses the same characteristics. The image of the beast testing period for Adventism leading to the Sunday law in the United States typifies the image of the beast testing period for the entire world. This is why we are informed that, “the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.”
星期日法令之前和之后的预言历史具有相同的特征。在美国，通向星期日法令的、针对复临运动的兽像考验时期，预表了整个世界的兽像考验时期。这就是为什么我们被告知：“同样的危机将临到我们在世界各地的子民。”
The miracles of satanic healings that are accomplished by Satan after the Sunday law, represent the “sorceries” of so-called medicine that are pawned off during the history beginning on September 11, 2001. Jesus stated that, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Rome’s “food” is traditions and customs which she places above the Word of God.
撒但在星期日法令之后所行的医治神迹，代表了所谓的医学在自2001年9月11日开始的那段历史中被兜售的“邪术”。耶稣说：“人活着不是单靠饼，乃是靠神口里所出的一切话。”罗马的“食物”，就是她置于神话语之上的传统和习俗。
“In the movements now in progress in the United States to secure for the institutions and usages of the church the support of the state, Protestants are following in the steps of papists. Nay, more, they are opening the door for the papacy to regain in Protestant America the supremacy which she has lost in the Old World. And that which gives greater significance to this movement is the fact that the principal object contemplated is the enforcement of Sunday observance—a custom which originated with Rome, and which she claims as the sign of her authority. It is the spirit of the papacy—the spirit of conformity to worldly customs, the veneration for human traditions above the commandments of God—that is permeating the Protestant churches and leading them on to do the same work of Sunday exaltation which the papacy has done before them.” The Great Controversy, 573.
在美国目前正在进行的、旨在为教会的制度与习俗争取国家支持的运动中，新教徒正追随天主教徒的脚步。更有甚者，他们正为教皇权在以新教为主的美国重新夺回她在旧世界所失去的至上地位敞开大门。而使这一运动更具意义的是：其所设想的主要目标乃是强制人们守星期日——这一习俗起源于罗马，而她称其为自己权威的记号。正是教皇制度的精神——迎合世俗习俗、将人的遗传置于上帝诫命之上的精神——正在渗透新教各教会，并引导他们去从事与教皇制度在他们之前所做同样的高举星期日的工作。《大争议》，573。
Tradition and custom are the doctrinal “food” which the beast replaces for the Word of God, in order that it might lift up its pagan idolatry.
传统和习俗是那兽用来取代神的话语的教义上的“食物”，为要高举它的异教偶像崇拜。
“How the Roman Church can clear herself from the charge of idolatry we cannot see. True, she professes to worship God through these images; so did the Israelites when they bowed before the golden calf. But the Lord’s wrath was kindled against them, and many were slain. God pronounced them impious idolaters, and the same record is made today in the books of heaven against those who adore images of saints and so-called holy men.
我们看不出罗马教会如何能为自己洗脱偶像崇拜的罪名。不错，她宣称借着这些像来敬拜上帝；以色列人向金牛犊下拜时也是如此。然而，主的怒气向他们发作，许多人被击杀。上帝宣判他们为不敬虔的拜偶像之人；而今天在天上的册上，也同样记着那些崇拜圣徒及所谓圣人之像的人。
“And this is the religion which Protestants are beginning to look upon with so much favor, and which will eventually be united with Protestantism. This union will not, however, be effected by a change in Catholicism; for Rome never changes. She claims infallibility. It is Protestantism that will change. The adoption of liberal ideas on its part will bring it where it can clasp the hand of Catholicism. ‘The Bible, the Bible, is the foundation of our faith,’ was the cry of Protestants in Luther’s time, while the Catholics cried, ‘The Fathers, custom, tradition.’ Now many Protestants find it difficult to prove their doctrines from the Bible, and yet they have not the moral courage to accept the truth which involves a cross; therefore they are fast coming to the ground of Catholics, and, using the best arguments they have to evade the truth, cite the testimony of the Fathers, and the customs and precepts of men. Yes, the Protestants of the nineteenth century are fast approaching the Catholics in their infidelity concerning the Scriptures. But there is just as wide a gulf today between Rome and the Protestantism of Luther, Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, and the noble army of martyrs, as there was when these men made the protest which gave them the name of Protestants.
而这正是新教徒开始如此青睐的宗教，并且最终将与新教合而为一。然而，这种联合并不是通过天主教的改变来实现的，因为罗马从不改变；她自称无误。将要改变的是新教。它采纳自由主义思想将把它带到可以与天主教携手的地步。“圣经，圣经，是我们信仰的根基”，这是路德时代新教徒的呼声；而天主教徒则呼喊：“教父、习俗、传统。”如今，许多新教徒发现难以从圣经证明他们的教义，然而他们又没有道德勇气去接受涉及十字架的真理；因此他们正迅速走到天主教的立场上，并且为回避真理而竭力辩解，援引教父的见证以及人的习俗和规条。是的，在对圣经的不信上，十九世纪的新教徒正迅速逼近天主教徒。但是，罗马与路德、克兰麦、雷德利、胡珀以及那支高贵的殉道者大军所代表的新教之间，如今依然隔着同样深广的鸿沟，正如当年这些人提出那场使他们被称为“新教徒”的抗议之时一样。
“Christ was a protestant. He protested against the formal worship of the Jewish nation, who rejected the counsel of God against themselves. He told them that they taught for doctrines the commandments of men, and that they were pretenders and hypocrites. Like whited sepulchers they were beautiful without, but within full of impurity and corruption. The Reformers date back to Christ and the apostles. They came out and separated themselves from a religion of forms and ceremonies. Luther and his followers did not invent the reformed religion. They simply accepted it as presented by Christ and the apostles. The Bible is presented to us as a sufficient guide; but the pope and his workers remove it from the people as if it were a curse, because it exposes their pretensions and rebukes their idolatry.” Review and Herald, June 1, 1886.
基督是一位抗议者。他抗议犹太民族那种形式化的敬拜；他们拒绝了神给他们的劝戒，这对他们自己不利。他告诉他们，他们把人的诫命当作教义来教导，并且他们是假冒者和伪善者。他们像粉饰的坟墓，外面美丽，里面却充满污秽和败坏。宗教改革者的起源可追溯到基督和使徒。他们出来，使自己与一种充满形式和礼仪的宗教分离。路德和他的追随者并没有发明改革的宗教；他们只是按着基督和使徒所呈现的那样接受了它。圣经呈现在我们面前，足以作为指南；但教皇及其手下却把它从人们手中夺去，仿佛它是诅咒一般，因为它揭露他们的虚伪，并斥责他们的偶像崇拜。《评论与先驱》，1886年6月1日。
Miracles of healing, that form the basis of spiritualism, are her stock and trade.
那些构成灵学基础的治愈奇迹，是她的看家本领。
“Many endeavor to account for spiritual manifestations by attributing them wholly to fraud and sleight of hand on the part of the medium. But while it is true that the results of trickery have often been palmed off as genuine manifestations, there have been, also, marked exhibitions of supernatural power. The mysterious rapping with which modern spiritualism began was not the result of human trickery or cunning, but was the direct work of evil angels, who thus introduced one of the most successful of soul-destroying delusions. Many will be ensnared through the belief that spiritualism is a merely human imposture; when brought face to face with manifestations which they cannot but regard as supernatural, they will be deceived, and will be led to accept them as the great power of God.
许多人试图解释灵异显现，把它们完全归结为灵媒的欺诈和障眼法。然而，虽然以欺骗手段取得的结果常常被冒充为真实的显现，也确有显著的超自然能力的表现。现代招魂术开始时出现的那种神秘敲击声，并非出于人的诡计或狡谋，而是恶天使直接的作为；他们借此引入了最为成功的毁灭灵魂的迷惑之一。许多人会因以为招魂术不过是人类的骗局而落入网罗；当他们被迫直面那些不得不视为超自然的显现时，便会受欺骗，并被引导把它们当作上帝的大能而接受。
“These persons overlook the testimony of the Scriptures concerning the wonders wrought by Satan and his agents. It was by satanic aid that Pharaoh’s magicians were enabled to counterfeit the work of God. Paul testifies that before the second advent of Christ there will be similar manifestations of satanic power. The coming of the Lord is to be preceded by ‘the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.’ 2 Thessalonians 2:9,10. And the apostle John, describing the miracle-working power that will be manifested in the last days, declares: ‘He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do.’ Revelation 13:13, 14. No mere impostures are here foretold. Men are deceived by the miracles which Satan’s agents have power to do, not which they pretend to do.” The Great Controversy, 553.
这些人忽略了圣经关于撒但及其代理人所行奇事的见证。法老的术士之所以能够伪造上帝的作为，正是借助于撒但的帮助。保罗见证说，在基督第二次降临之前，将会有类似的撒但权能的显现。主的再来之前，将先有“撒但的运行，带着各样的能力、神迹和虚假的奇事，并以各样不义的欺骗”。帖撒罗尼迦后书 2:9-10。使徒约翰描述末后的日子将要显出的行奇事的能力时宣称：“他行大奇事，甚至在人面前叫火从天降在地上；他因着所给他的权柄能行的那些神迹，就迷惑住在地上的人。”启示录 13:13-14。这里所预言的并非仅仅是骗局。人们之所以受骗，是因为撒但的代理人确有能力行出这些神迹，而不是因为他们假装能行这些神迹。 《大争战》，第553页。
The false doctrines built upon customs and traditions, the spiritualistic manifestations of miracles, the counterfeit medical-industrial industry and the combination of churchcraft with statecraft are all the attributes of the beast of Catholicism. Pride is a characteristic of the dragon power. Presumption is the characteristic of the false prophet of apostate Protestantism.
建立在风俗与传统之上的错误教义、招魂术的神迹显现、冒牌的医疗产业，以及教权与政权的结合，都是天主教之兽的特征。骄傲是龙之权势的特征。僭妄是背道新教之假先知的特征。
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Luke 4:1–4.
耶稣被圣灵充满，从约旦河回来，就被圣灵引到旷野，四十天受魔鬼的试探。在那些日子里他什么也不吃；日子满了，他就饿了。魔鬼对他说：你若是神的儿子，吩咐这块石头变成饼吧。耶稣回答说：经上记着：人活着不是单靠饼，乃是靠神口里所出的一切话。路加福音4:1-4。
Presumption is a noun that refers to the act or instance of assuming something to be true without sufficient evidence or proof. It involves making a judgment or drawing a conclusion based on incomplete or insufficient information. Presumption can also imply a certain level of confidence in one’s assumption, even when it may not be entirely justified.
臆断是一个名词，指在缺乏充分证据或证明的情况下，将某事认定为真这一行为或实例。它涉及在信息不完整或不足的基础上作出判断或得出结论。臆断也可暗示对自身假设抱有某种程度的自信，即使这种自信未必完全站得住脚。
Apostate Protestantism has accepted Sunday as God’s day of worship without any evidence to support that flawed idea from God’s Word, and they do so while knowingly professing that they are Protestants, whose motto is “God’s word alone,” or as Martin Luther proclaimed, “Sola Scriptura!” They choose to accept it based upon the traditions and customs of the Roman church, or perhaps as simply an accepted inheritance from their forefathers. At the loud cry of the third angel the truth that there is absolutely no justification for worshipping the sun that can be provided from the Bible will be clearly revealed, and then those who continue in their flawed presumption will receive the mark of the beast.
背道的新教界在没有任何出自上帝话语的证据支持的情况下，已经把星期日当作上帝的敬拜之日；而他们明明自称为新教徒，其座右铭是“唯独上帝的话语”，或如马丁·路德所宣告的“唯独圣经！”，却仍这样做。他们之所以选择接受这一点，是基于罗马教会的传统与习俗，或者不过把它当作先辈传下的既定遗产。到第三位天使发出大呼喊的时候，“圣经根本无法为敬拜太阳提供任何正当根据”这一真理将被清楚显明；那时仍然坚持这种错误臆断的人将领受兽的印记。
“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. If we receive this mark in our foreheads or in our hands, the judgments pronounced against the disobedient must fall upon us. But the seal of the living God is placed upon those who conscientiously keep the Sabbath of the Lord.” Review and Herald, April 27, 1911.
若真理的光已临到你，使你认识第四条诫命的安息日，并指出上帝的话语中并没有守星期日的根据，而你仍旧执着于那假的安息日，拒绝将上帝称为“我的圣日”的安息日分别为圣，你就领受了兽的印记。这在什么时候发生呢？——当你遵从那命令你在星期日停止劳作并敬拜上帝的法令，而你却知道圣经中没有一句话表明星期日不是普通工作日的时候，你就是同意接受兽的印记，并拒绝上帝的印记。若我们在额上或手上接受这印记，针对不顺从者所宣告的审判必临到我们。但永生上帝的印记要加在那些出于良心遵守耶和华的安息日的人身上。Review and Herald，1911年4月27日。
The commonly understood weakness of the Republican party is their willingness to assume their political opponents are fair and honest, when the fruits of the Democratic party clearly reveal that they are the children of the father of lies. Repeatedly and consistently the Republicans take their political opponents at their word, when they have been shown over and over that their opponents never keep their word. They project honest motivations upon those who repeatedly have manifested no rational justification to support the Republicans flawed projections of expected honesty and integrity. It is true also that many Republicans refuse to uphold principle for personal financial gain, or because of secret immoral circumstances that allow them to be easily manipulated, but the primary prophetic attribute of the Republican party is presumption.
共和党一个公认的弱点在于，他们乐于假定自己的政治对手是公正而诚实的，然而民主党的所作所为却清楚地表明，他们是“谎言之父”的儿女。共和党人一次又一次、始终如一地把政治对手的话当真，尽管事实已反复证明，他们的对手从不守信。他们把诚实的动机投射到那些一再表现出毫无理性依据足以支撑共和党对其诚实与正直之错误期待的人身上。诚然，也确有许多共和党人为个人经济利益而拒绝坚守原则，或因隐秘的不道德境况而使他们容易被操纵，但共和党最主要的“先知性”属性是想当然。
It is the attribute of presumption which is prophetically marked in apostate Protestants, that allows them to pretend they have taken the higher moral and political ground, when in reality they have abdicated their civil responsibilities under the empty expectation that their political opponents will keep their word. The very common definition of insanity is to try and do the same thing over and over, while expecting a different outcome, yet the Republicans argue that it is the Democrats that have been infected with insanity as manifested in their hatred of Trump.
正是那种在预言中被指出、存在于背教新教徒身上的僭妄特质，使他们得以假装自己站上更高的道德与政治高地；而实际上，他们却在抱着政治对手会信守承诺的空洞指望之下，放弃了自己的公民责任。对疯狂的一个十分常见的定义，是一遍又一遍地做同样的事情，却期待不同的结果；然而，共和党人却主张，染上疯狂的恰是民主党人，这一点表现在他们对特朗普的仇恨上。
Yet the insanity of the Republicans is repeatedly illustrated as they agree to compromises, under the premise of compromise being the work of the legislative process, while their political compromises, which they claim are based upon the principle of “the legislative process,” is made with a class who never compromise. Democrats only give ground in the political process when they are fully restrained by the numbers against them. They have never provided evidence of truly working for a middle ground with the political process. The insanity of Republicans is their repeated optimistic expectations of others that are fully unwarranted.
然而，共和党人的疯狂一再得到印证：他们在以妥协乃立法过程之常态为前提的情况下同意妥协，而他们声称基于“立法过程”原则的那些政治妥协，却是与一个从不妥协的群体达成的。民主党人只有在票数劣势使他们完全受制时，才会在政治过程中让步。民主党人从未拿出真正通过政治过程寻求中间立场的证据。共和党人的疯狂在于，他们一再对他人抱有完全没有根据的乐观期待。
By far and away the majority of those who are supportive of Donald Trump will testify to the fact that the worst attribute of Trump is his willingness to accept men as supporters of his agenda, when the available evidence identifies that it was totally presumption on Trump’s part to make that choice. Presumption is the prophetic attribute of apostate Protestantism. Satan tempted Christ by quoting the Bible, but in so doing, Satan twisted the passage into an unwarranted and unscriptural test.
绝大多数支持唐纳德·特朗普的人都会证明这样一个事实：特朗普最糟糕的特质，是他乐于接纳某些人作为其议程的支持者，而现有证据表明，他做出那样的选择完全是出于僭妄。僭妄是背道新教的预言性特质。撒但通过引用圣经来试探基督，但在这样做时，他把经文扭曲成一种不当且不合乎圣经的试探。
And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Luke 4:9–12.
他把他带到耶路撒冷，使他站在殿顶上，对他说：你若是神的儿子，就从这里跳下去吧；因为经上记着：‘他要为你吩咐他的使者看顾你；他们要用手托着你，免得你的脚碰在石头上。’耶稣回答他说：经上说：‘不可试探主你的神。’路加福音4:9-12
At the soon-coming Sunday law it will be the Protestants of the United States who will take the biblical mandate to cease from labor on the Sabbath day, and twist the commandment to worship God on the seventh-day Sabbath into a fabricated command that it is actually paganism’s day of the sun that men are required to worship upon. They will twist a biblical passage into an unwarranted and unscriptural test.
当即将来临的星期日法令出台时，美国的新教徒将把圣经中关于在安息日停止劳作的命令加以歪曲，把原本在第七日安息日敬拜上帝的诫命变造成一条捏造的命令，声称人们实际上必须在异教的太阳日敬拜。他们会把一段圣经经文扭曲成一个毫无根据且不合乎圣经的考验。
We will continue this study in the next article.
我们将在下一篇文章中继续这项研究。
“I saw that the two-horned beast had a dragon’s mouth, and that his power was in his head, and that the decree would go out of his mouth. Then I saw the Mother of Harlots; that the mother was not the daughters, but separate and distinct from them. She has had her day, and it is past, and her daughters, the Protestant sects, were the next to come on the stage and act out the same mind that the mother had when she persecuted the saints. I saw that as the mother has been declining in power, the daughters had been growing, and soon they will exercise the power once exercised by the mother.
我看见那两角的兽有龙的口，他的权柄在他的头上，法令将从他口中发出。随后我看见那淫妇之母；那母亲不是那些女儿，而是与她们分开并且与她们不同。她的日子已经过去了，而她的女儿们——新教各派——接着登场，演出与那母亲在迫害圣徒时同样的心意。我看见，随着那母亲的权势日渐衰微，她的女儿们却在日益壮大，不久她们将行使那母亲曾经行使过的权柄。
“I saw the nominal church and nominal Adventists, like Judas, would betray us to the Catholics to obtain their influence to come against the truth. The saints then will be an obscure people, little known to the Catholics; but the churches and nominal Adventists who know of our faith and customs (for they hated us on account of the Sabbath, for they could not refute it) will betray the saints and report them to the Catholics as those who disregard the institutions of the people; that is, that they keep the Sabbath and disregard Sunday.
我看见名义上的教会和名义上的复临信徒，会像犹大一样，为了取得天主教徒的影响力，将我们出卖给他们，以便来反对真理。那时，圣徒将是一群默默无闻的人，天主教徒对他们知之甚少；但那些知道我们信仰和习俗的各教会与名义上的复临信徒（因为他们因着安息日而恨恶我们，因为他们无法反驳它），会出卖圣徒，把他们告发给天主教徒，指控他们藐视人民所立的制度；也就是，他们守安息日而无视星期日。
“Then the Catholics bid the Protestants to go forward, and issue a decree that all who will not observe the first day of the week, instead of the seventh day, shall be slain. And the Catholics, whose numbers are large, will stand by the Protestants. The Catholics will give their power to the image of the beast. And the Protestants will work as their mother worked before them to destroy the saints. But before their decree bring or bear fruit, the saints will be delivered by the Voice of God.” Spalding and Magan, 1, 2.
于是，天主教徒吩咐新教徒向前推进，并要他们颁布一道法令：凡不改守每周第一日、却仍守第七日的人，都要被杀。人数众多的天主教徒将站在新教徒一边。天主教徒要把他们的权柄交给兽像。新教徒也要像他们的母亲从前那样，去毁灭圣徒。但在他们的法令尚未生效之前，圣徒就要被上帝的声音所拯救。Spalding 与 Magan, 1, 2.