In actual mining situations, the advancing speed of the working face is usually accelerated, which may affect the failure and seepage characteristics of gas-bearing coal, and may even induce dynamic disasters. In order to discover the effects of such accelerated advancement of the working face, an experimental study on the failure and seepage characteristics of gas-bearing coal under accelerated loading and unloading conditions was carried out in this work. The results showed that the energy release was more violent and impactful under accelerated loading and unloading paths. The time required for the failure of the sample was significantly shortened. After being destroyed, the breakup of the sample was more severe, and the magnitude of the permeability was greater. Accordingly, the acceleration of the loading and unloading had significant control effects on the failure and permeability of coal and it showed a significant danger of inducing coal and gas dynamic disasters. Meanwhile, the degree of influence of the acceleration on the coal decreased with an increase in the gas pressure and increased significantly with an increase in the initial confining pressure. It was found that for a deep high-gas mine, the accelerated advancement of the working face under a high in situ stress condition would greatly increase the risk of coal and gas dynamic disasters. Then, the permeability evolution model of gas-bearing coal in consideration of changes in the loading and unloading rates was theoretically established in this work, and this permeability model was validated by experimental data. The permeability model was found to be relatively reasonable. In summary, the effects of accelerated loading and unloading on the failure and seepage characteristics of gas-bearing coal were obtained through a combination of experimental and theoretical studies, and the intrinsic relationship between the accelerated advancement of the working face and the occurrence of coal and gas dynamic disasters was discovered in this work.