Seven Last Plagues and the Righteous (The Great Time of Trouble, Part 2) 171
      
      
        As Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon issued a decree that all
      
      
        who would not bow down and worship this image should be killed, so
      
      
        a proclamation will be made that all who will not reverence the Sunday
      
      
        institution will be punished with imprisonment and death.... Let all
      
      
        read carefully the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, for it concerns every
      
      
        human agent, great and small.—
      
      
        Manuscript Releases 14:91
      
      
        (1896).
      
      
        The time of trouble is about to come upon the people of God. Then
      
      
        it is that the decree will go forth forbidding those who keep the Sabbath
      
      
        of the Lord to buy or sell, and threatening them with punishment, and
      
      
        even death, if they do not observe the first day of the week as the
      
      
        Sabbath.—
      
      
        In Heavenly Places, 344
      
      
        (1908).
      
      
        The powers of earth, uniting to war against the commandments of
      
      
        God, will decree that “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and
      
      
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        bond” (
      
      
        Revelation 13:16
      
      
        ), shall conform to the customs of the church
      
      
        by the observance of the false sabbath. All who refuse compliance
      
      
        will be visited with civil penalties, and it will finally be declared that
      
      
        they are deserving of death.—
      
      
        The Great Controversy, 604
      
      
        (1911).
      
      
        Especially will the wrath of man be aroused against those who
      
      
        hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and at last a universal
      
      
        decree will denounce these as deserving of death.—
      
      
        Prophets and
      
      
        Kings, 512
      
      
        (c. 1914).
      
      
        Death Decree Similar to That Issued by Ahasuerus
      
      
        The decree that will finally go forth against the remnant people of
      
      
        God will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews.
      
      
        Today the enemies of the true church see in the little company keeping
      
      
        the Sabbath commandment, a Mordecai at the gate. The reverence of
      
      
        God’s people for His law is a constant rebuke to those who have cast
      
      
        off the fear of the Lord and are trampling on His Sabbath.—
      
      
        Prophets
      
      
        and Kings, 605
      
      
        (c. 1914).
      
      
        I saw the leading men of the earth consulting together, and Satan
      
      
        and his angels busy around them. I saw a writing, copies of which
      
      
        were scattered in different parts of the land, giving orders that unless
      
      
        the saints should yield their peculiar faith, give up the Sabbath, and
      
      
        observe the first day of the week, the people were at liberty after a
      
      
        certain time, to put them to death.—
      
      
        Early Writings, 282, 283
      
      
        (1858).
      
      
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