Revelation contrasts the seal of God with the mark of the beast. It directly presents worship, allegiance, coercion, threatened death, economic exclusion, and endurance (Revelation 13:15–17; 14:9–12). It does not name the Sabbath as the seal, Sunday as the mark, the papacy, the United States, a denomination, or a current law. Those further identifications belong to the Adventist historicist synthesis argued by this book.
Preterist and critical-historical readings connect the mark with allegiance to Roman imperial power. Futurists expect a final Antichrist system, and idealists see a recurring sign of idolatrous loyalty. Common Catholic, Orthodox, and non-Adventist Protestant readings do not identify the seal and mark with a Sabbath-versus-Sunday test.