[OFTEN IN CONNECTION WITH ERRONEOUS TEACHINGS AND FALSE MOVEMENTS, THE ONE LEADING OUT IDENTIFIES HIS MESSAGE AND WORK WITH THAT OF THE OTHER ANGEL OF REVELATION 18:1. SOME ERRONEOUS TEACHINGS THROUGH THE YEARS HAVE INVOLVED AS WELL THE MESSAGES OF THE THREE ANGELS OF REVELATION 14. SUCH WAS THE CASE IN A SITUATION MET IN 1896 BY MRS. WHITE IN THE COMMUNICATIONS WHICH FOLLOW. THE REVIEW OF THE THREE ANGELS' MESSAGES IN THEIR BROAD WORK, WHILE LENGTHY, WILL BE TREASURED FOR ITS CONFIRMING STATEMENTS.--COMPILERS.] {2SM 101.1}
A Mixture of Truth and Error
There are those now living who, in
studying the prophecies of Daniel and John, received great light from God as
they passed over the ground where special prophecies were in process of
fulfillment in their order. They bore the message of time to the people. The
truth shone out clearly as the sun at noonday. Historical events, showing the
direct fulfillment of prophecy, were set before the people, and the prophecy
was seen to be a figurative delineation of events leading down to the close of
this earth's history.. The scenes connected with
the working of the man of sin are the last features plainly revealed in this
earth's history. The people now have a special message to give to the world,
the third angel's message. Those who, in their experience, have passed over the
ground, and acted a part in the proclamation of the first, second, and third
angels' messages, are not so liable to be led into false paths as are those who
have not had an experimental knowledge of the people of God. . . {2SM 102.1}
There have been one and another who in
studying their Bibles thought they discovered great light, and new theories,
but these have not been correct. The Scripture is all true, but by misapplying
the Scripture men arrive at wrong conclusions. We are engaged in a mighty
conflict, and it will become closer and more determined, as we near the final
struggle. We have a sleepless adversary, and he is constantly at work upon
human minds that have not had a personal experience in the teachings of the
people of God for the past fifty years. Some will take the truth applicable to
their time, and place it in the future. Events in the train of prophecy that
had their fulfillment away in the past are made future, and thus by these
theories the faith of some is undermined.
{2SM 102.2}
From the light that the Lord has been
pleased to give me, you are in danger of doing the same work, presenting before
others truths which have had their place and done their specific work for the
time, in the history of the faith of the people of God. You recognize these
facts in Bible history as true, but apply them to the future. They have their force still in their proper place, in the
chain of events that have made us as a people what we are today, and as such,
they are to be presented to those who are in the darkness of error. The true
workers of Jesus Christ are to cooperate with their brethren who have had an
experience in the work from the very rise of the third angel's message.
These followed on step by step, receiving light and truth as they advanced,
bearing one test after another, lifting the cross that lay directly in their
pathway, and pressing on to know the Lord, whose goings forth are prepared as
the morning. You and other of our brethren must accept the truth as God has
given it to His students of prophecy, as they have been led by genuine, living
experience, advancing point by point, tested, proved, and tried, until the
truth is to them a reality. From their voices and pens the truth in bright,
warm rays has gone to all parts of the world, and that which was to them
testing truth, as brought by the Lord's delegated messengers, is testing truth
to all to whom this message is proclaimed.
{2SM 102.3}
The burden of
the warning now to come to the people of God, nigh and afar off, is the third
angel's message. And those who are seeking to understand this message
will not be led by the Lord to make an application of the Word that will
undermine the foundation and remove the pillars of the faith that has made
Seventh-day Adventists what they are today. The truths that have been unfolding
in their order, as we have advanced along the line of prophecy revealed in the
Word of God, are truth, sacred, eternal truth today. Those who passed over the
ground step by step in the past history of our experience, seeing the chain of
truth in the prophecies, were prepared to accept and obey every ray of light.
They were praying, fasting, searching, digging for the truth as for hidden
treasures, and the Holy Spirit, we know, was teaching and guiding us. Many
theories were advanced, bearing a semblance of truth, but so mingled with
misinterpreted and misapplied scriptures, that they led to dangerous errors.
Very well do we know how every point of truth was established, and the seal set
upon it by the Holy Spirit of God. And all the time voices were heard,
"Here is the truth," "I have the truth; follow me." But the
warnings came, "Go not ye after them. I have not sent them, but they
ran." (See Jeremiah 23:21.) {2SM
103.1}
The leadings of the Lord were marked, and most wonderful were His revelations of what is truth. Point after point was established by the Lord God of heaven. That which was truth then, is truth today. But the voices do not cease to be heard--"This is truth. I have new light." But these new lights in prophetic lines are manifest in misapplying the Word and setting the people of God adrift without an anchor to hold them. If the student of the Word would take the truths which God has revealed in the leadings of His people, and appropriate these truths, digest them, and bring them into their practical life, they would then be living channels of light. But those who have set themselves to study out new theories, have a mixture of truth and error combined, and after trying to make these things prominent, have demonstrated that they have not kindled their taper from the divine altar, and it has gone out in darkness. --Manuscript 31, 1896. {2SM 104.1}
The Three Angels' Messages in their Larger Setting
The proclamation of the first, second, and
third angels' messages has been located by the Word of Inspiration. Not a peg
or pin is to be removed. No human authority has any more right to change the
location of these messages than to substitute the New Testament for the Old.
The Old Testament is the gospel in figures and symbols. The New Testament is
the substance. One is as essential as the other. The Old Testament presents
lessons from the lips of Christ, and these lessons have not lost their force in
any particular. {2SM 104.2}
The first and second messages were given
in 1843 and 1844, and we are now under the proclamation of the third; but all
three of the messages are still to be proclaimed. It is just as essential now
as ever before that they shall be repeated to those who are seeking for the
truth. By pen and voice we are to sound the proclamation, showing their order,
and the application of the prophecies that bring us to the third angel's
message. There cannot be a third without the first and second. These messages
we are to give to the world in publications, in discourses, showing in the line
of prophetic history the things that have been and the things that will
be. {2SM 104.3}
The book that was sealed was not the book of Revelation, but that portion of the prophecy of Daniel which related to the last days. The Scripture says, "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4). When the book was opened, the proclamation was made, "Time shall be no longer." (See Revelation 10:6.) The book of Daniel is now unsealed, and the revelation made by Christ to John is to come to all the inhabitants of the earth. By the increase of knowledge a people is to be prepared to stand in the latter days. {2SM 105.1}
The Sabbath the Great Issue
This message, if heeded, will call the
attention of every nation and kindred and tongue and people to a close
examination of the Word, and to the true light in regard to the power that has
changed the seventh-day Sabbath to a spurious sabbath. The only true God
has been forsaken, His law has been discarded, His sacred Sabbath institution
has been trampled in the dust by the man of sin. The fourth commandment, so
plain and explicit, has been ignored.
The Sabbath memorial, declaring who the living God is, the Creator of the
heavens and the earth, has been torn down, and a spurious sabbath has been
given to the world in its place. Thus a breach has been made in the law of God.
A false sabbath could not be a true standard.
{2SM 105.3}
In the first angel's message men are
called upon to worship God, our Creator, who made the world and all things that
are therein. They have paid homage to an institution of the Papacy, making of
no effect the law of Jehovah, but there is to be an increase of knowledge on
this subject. {2SM 106.1}
The message proclaimed by the angel flying
in the midst of heaven is the everlasting gospel, the same gospel that was
declared in Eden when God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). Here was the first
promise of a Saviour who would stand on the field of battle to contest the
power of Satan and prevail against him. Christ came to our world to represent
the character of God as it is represented in His holy law; for His law is a
transcript of His character. Christ was both the law and the gospel. The angel
that proclaims the everlasting gospel proclaims the law of God; for the gospel
of salvation brings men to obedience of the law, whereby their characters are
formed after the divine similitude. {2SM
106.2}
In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, the
work of those who worship God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, is
specified: "They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places:
thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations" (Isaiah 58:12).
God's memorial, His seventh-day Sabbath, will be uplifted. "Thou shalt be
called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou
turn away thy foot from the sabbath [no longer trample it under your feet],
from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the
holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him,... I will cause thee to
ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of
Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Isaiah
58:12-14). {2SM 106.3}
The history of the church and the world,
the loyal and the disloyal, is here plainly revealed. The loyal under the
proclamation of the third angel's message have turned their feet into the way
of God's commandments, to respect, to honor, and glorify Him who created the
heavens and the earth. The opposing forces have dishonored God by making a
breach in His law, and when light from His Word has called attention to His
holy commandments, revealing the breach made in the law by the papal authority,
then, to get rid of conviction, men have tried to destroy the whole law. But
could they destroy it? No; for all who will search the Scriptures for
themselves will see that the law of God stands immutable, eternal, and His
memorial, the Sabbath, will endure through eternal ages, pointing to the only
true God in distinction from all false gods.
{2SM 107.1}
Satan has been persevering and untiring in his efforts to prosecute the work he began in heaven, to change the law of God. He has succeeded in making the world believe the theory he presented in heaven before his fall, that the law of God was faulty, and needed revising. A large part of the professed Christian church, by their attitude, if not by their words, show that they have accepted the same error. But if in one jot or tittle the law of God has been changed, Satan has gained on earth that which he could not gain in heaven. He has prepared his delusive snare, hoping to take captive the church and the world. But not all will be taken in the snare. A line of distinction is being drawn between the children of obedience and the children of disobedience, the loyal and true and the disloyal and untrue. Two great parties are developed, the worshipers of the beast and his image, and the worshipers of the true and living God. {2SM 107.2}
The Angel of Revelation Ten
The message of Revelation 14, proclaiming
that the hour of God's judgment is come, is given in the time of the end; and
the angel of Revelation 10 is represented as having one foot on the sea and one
foot on the land, showing that the message will be carried to distant lands,
the ocean will be crossed, and the islands of the sea will hear the
proclamation of the last message of warning to our world. {2SM 107.3}
"And the angel which I saw stand upon
the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that
liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are,
and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things
which are therein, that there should be time no longer" (Revelation 10:5,
6). This message announces the end of the prophetic periods. The disappointment
of those who expected to see our Lord in 1844 was indeed bitter to those who
had so ardently looked for His appearing. It was in the Lord's order that
this disappointment should come, and that hearts should be revealed. {2SM 108.1}
Not one cloud has fallen upon the church that God has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork the work of God but He has foreseen. All has taken place as He has predicted through His prophets. He has not left His church in darkness, forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and through His providence, acting in its appointed place in the world's history, He has brought about that which His Holy Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell. All His purposes will be fulfilled and established. His law is linked with His throne, and satanic agencies combined with human agencies cannot destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; it will live, and will succeed, although it may appear at times to be overshadowed. The gospel of Christ is the law exemplified in character. The deceptions practiced against it, every device for vindicating falsehood, every error forged by satanic agencies, will eventually be eternally broken, and the triumph of truth will be like the appearing of the sun at noonday. The Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth with healing in His wings, and the whole earth shall be filled with His glory. {2SM 108.2}
The Certainty of Prophecy
All that God has in prophetic history
specified to be fulfilled in the past has been, and all that is yet to come in
its order will be. Daniel, God's prophet, stands in his place. John stands in
his place. In the Revelation the Lion of the tribe of Judah has opened to the
students of prophecy the book of Daniel, and thus is Daniel standing in his
place. He bears his testimony, that which the Lord revealed to him in vision of
the great and solemn events which we must know as we stand on the very threshold
of their fulfillment. {2SM 109.1}
In history and prophecy, the Word of God
portrays the long-continued conflict between truth and error. That conflict is
yet in progress. Those things which have been, will be repeated. Old
controversies will be revived, and new theories will be continually arising.
But God's people, who in their belief and fulfillment of prophecy have acted a
part in the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages, know
where they stand. They have an experience that is more precious than fine gold.
They are to stand firm as a rock, holding the beginning of their confidence
steadfast unto the end. {2SM 109.2}
A transforming power attended the
proclamation of the first and second angels' messages, as it attends the
message of the third angel. Lasting convictions were made upon human minds. The
power of the Holy Spirit was manifested. There was diligent study of the
Scriptures, point by point. Almost entire nights were devoted to earnest
searching of the Word. We searched for the truth as for hidden treasures. The
Lord revealed Himself to us. Light was shed on the prophecies, and we knew that
we received divine instruction. . . .
{2SM 109.3}
After the great disappointment there were
few who set themselves to seek the Word with all their heart. But some souls
would not settle down in discouragement and deny that the Lord had led them. To
these the truth was opened point by point, and entwined with their most
hallowed recollections and sympathies. The searchers after truth felt that the
identification of Christ with their nature and interest was complete. Truth was
made to shine forth, beautiful in its simplicity, dignified with a power and invested
with an assurance unknown before the disappointment. We could then proclaim the
message in unity. {2SM 109.4}
But among those who had not held fast
their faith and experience, there was great confusion. Every conceivable
opinion was presented as the message of truth; but the Lord's voice was,
"Believe them not; for I have not sent them." {2SM 110.1}
We walked carefully with God. The message
was to be given to the world, and we knew that this present light was the
special gift of God. The impartation of this gift was the prerogative of God.
His disappointed ones, who were still seeking after truth, were led step by
step to communicate to the world that which had been communicated to them. The
prophetic declarations were to be repeated, and the truth essential for
salvation was to be made known. The work moved hard at first. Often the hearers
rejected the message as unintelligible, and the conflict began in decided
earnest, especially upon the Sabbath question. But the Lord manifested His
presence. At times the veil which concealed His glory from our eyes was drawn
aside. We beheld Him in the high and holy place. {2SM 110.2}
The Lord will not lead minds now to set
aside the truth that the Holy Spirit has moved upon His servants in the past to
proclaim. {2SM 110.3}
Many will honestly search the Word for Light as those in the past have searched it; and they see light in the Word. But they did not pass over the ground in their experience, when these messages of warning were first proclaimed. Not having had this experience, some do not appreciate the value of the truths that have been to us as waymarks, and that have made us as a peculiar people what we are. They do not make a right application of the Scriptures, and thus they frame theories that are not correct. It is true that they quote an abundance of Scripture, and teach much that is true; but truth is so mixed with error as to lead to wrong conclusions. Yet because they can weave Scripture into their theories, they think that they have a straight chain of truth. Many who did not have an experience in the rise of the messages, accept these erroneous theories, and are led into false paths, backward instead of forward. This is the enemy's design. {2SM 110.4}
The Threat of Misapplied Scripture
Satan is working that the history of the
Jewish nation may be repeated in the experience of those who claim to believe
present truth. The Jews had the Old Testament Scriptures, and supposed
themselves conversant with them. But they made a woeful mistake. The prophecies
that refer to the glorious second appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven
they regarded as referring to His first coming. Because He did not come
according to their expectations, they turned away from Him. Satan knew just how
to take these men in his net, and deceive and destroy them. . . . {2SM 111.1}
The very same Satan is at work to
undermine the faith of the people of God at this time. There are persons ready
to catch up every new idea. The prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation are
misinterpreted. These persons do not consider that the truth has been set
forth at the appointed time by the very men whom God was leading to do this
special work. These men followed on step by step in the very fulfillment of
prophecy, and those who have not had a personal experience in this work, are to
take the Word of God and believe on "their word" who have been led by
the Lord in the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages.
These messages, received and acted upon, are doing their work to prepare a
people to stand in the great day of God. If we search the Scriptures to confirm
the truth God has given His servants for the world, we shall be found
proclaiming the first, second, and third angels' messages. {2SM 111.2}
It is true that there are prophecies yet
to be fulfilled. But very erroneous work has been done again and again, and
will continue to be done by those who seek to find new light in the prophecies,
and who begin by turning away from the light that God has already given. The
messages of Revelation 14 are those by which the world is to be tested; they
are the everlasting gospel, and are to be sounded everywhere. But the Lord
does not lay upon those who have not had an experience in His work the burden
of making a new exposition of those prophecies which He has, by His Holy
Spirit, moved upon His chosen servants to explain. {2SM 111.3}
According to the light God has given me,
this is the work which you, Brother F, have been attempting to do. Your views
have found favor with some; but it is because these persons have not
discernment to see the true bearing of the arguments you present. They have had
but a limited experience in the work of God for this time, and they do not see
where your views would lead them, and you do not see yourself where they would
lead. They are ready to assent to your statements; they see nothing in them but
that which is correct. But they are misled because you have woven together much
Scripture in constructing your theory. Your arguments appear conclusive to
them. {2SM 112.1}
Not so, however, with those who have an
experimental knowledge of the truth that applies in the last period of this
earth's history. While they see that you hold some precious truth, they see
also that you have misapplied Scripture, placing it in a framework of error
where it does not belong, and making it give force to that which is not present
truth. Because some accept that which
you have written, do not become elated. It is most trying to your brethren who
have confidence in you as a Christian and who love you as such, to state to you
that the network of argument, which you have thought of so great consequence,
is not the theory of truth that God has given His people to proclaim for this
time. {2SM 112.2}
The light God has given me is that the
Scriptures you have woven together you yourself do not fully understand. If you
did, you would discern that your theories tear up the very foundation of our
faith. {2SM 112.3}
My brother, I have had many testimonies to correct those who have started out in the same way you are now traveling. These persons seemed sure that they were led by God, and they have come with their different theories to ministers who were preaching the truth. I said to these ministers, "The Lord is not in this; be not deceived, neither take the responsibility of deceiving others." At camp meetings I have had to speak plainly in regard to those who were thus leading away from right paths. With pen and voice I have borne the message, "Go not ye after them." {2SM 112.4}
Dealing With a Dying Man
The hardest task I ever had to do in this
line was in dealing with one who, I knew, wanted to follow the Lord. For some
time he had thought he was obtaining new light. He was very ill, and must soon
die. And oh, how my heart hoped he would not make it necessary for me to tell
him just what he was doing. Those to whom he presented his views listened to
him eagerly, and some thought him inspired. He had a chart made, and reasoned
from the Scriptures to show that the Lord would come at a certain date, in 1894,
I think. To many his reasoning seemed to be without a flaw. They told of his
powerful exhortations in his sickroom. Most wonderful views passed before him.
But what was the source of his inspiration? It was the morphine given him to
relieve his pain. {2SM 113.1}
At our camp meeting at Lansing, Michigan, just before I came to Australia, I had to speak plainly in regard to this new light. I told the people that the words they had heard were not the truth of inspiration. The wonderful light, which presented such a show of truth, was the result of a misapplication of Scripture. The Lord's work would not close up in 1894. The word of the Lord to me was, "This is not truth, but will lead into strange paths, and some will become confused over this representation, and will give up the faith." . . . {2SM 113.2}
No True Message Fixes Time
No one has a true message fixing the time
when Christ is to come or not to come. Be assured that God gives no one
authority to say that Christ delays His coming five years, ten years, or twenty
years. "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of
man cometh" (Matthew 24:44). This is our message, the very message that
the three angels flying in the midst of heaven are proclaiming. The work to be
done now is that of sounding this last message of mercy to a fallen world. A
new life is coming from heaven and taking possession of all God's people. But
divisions will come in the church. Two parties will be developed. The wheat and
tares grow up together for the harvest.
{2SM 113.3}
The work will grow deeper and become more earnest to the very close of time. And all who are laborers together with God will contend most earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. They will not be turned from the present message, which is already lightening the earth with its glory. Nothing is worth contending for but the glory of God. The only rock that will stand is the Rock of Ages. The truth as it is in Jesus is the refuge in these days of error. . . . {2SM 114.1}
Messages Given for our Day
Prophecy has been fulfilling, line upon
line. The more firmly we stand under the banner of the third angel's message,
the more clearly shall we understand the prophecy of Daniel; for the Revelation
is the supplement of Daniel. The more fully we accept the light presented by
the Holy Spirit through the consecrated servants of God, the deeper and surer,
even as the eternal throne, will appear the truths of ancient prophecy; we
shall be assured that men of God spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost.
Men must themselves be under the influence of the Holy Spirit in order to
understand the Spirit's utterances through the prophets. These messages were
given, not for those that uttered the prophecies, but for us who are living
amid the scenes of their fulfillment.
{2SM 114.2}
I would not feel that I could present
these things, if the Lord had not given me this work to do. There are others
besides yourself, and more than one or two, who like you think they have new
light, and are all ready to present it to the people. But it would be pleasing
to God for them to accept the light already given and walk in it, and base
their faith upon the Scriptures, which sustain the positions held by the people
of God for many years. The everlasting gospel is to be proclaimed by human
agents. We are to sound the messages of the angels which are represented as
flying in the midst of heaven, with the last warning to a fallen world. If we
are not called upon to prophesy, we are called to believe the prophecies, and
to cooperate with God in giving light to other minds. This we are trying to
do. {2SM 114.3}
You can help us, my brother, in many ways.
But I am commissioned of the Lord to say to you that you are not to be
self-centered. Take heed how you hear, how you understand, and how you
appropriate the Word of God. The Lord will bless you in drawing in even lines
with your brethren. Those whom He has sent forth to proclaim the third angel's
message have been working in unison with the heavenly intelligences. The Lord
does not lay upon you a burden to proclaim a message that will bring discord
into the ranks of believers. I repeat, He is not leading anyone by His Holy
Spirit to frame a theory that will unsettle faith in the solemn messages He has
given His people to bear to our world.
{2SM 115.1}
I advise you not to regard your writings
as precious truth. It would not be advisable for you to immortalize by putting
in print that which has cost you so much anxiety. It is not the Lord's will
that this matter should be brought before His people, for it will work to
hinder the very message of truth they are to believe and practice in these last
days of peril. . .. {2SM 115.2}
Theories will be continually agitated to
divert the mind, to unsettle the faith. Those who have had the actual
experience in the unfolding of the prophecies, have been made what they are
today, Seventh-day Adventists, by these prophecies. They are to stand with their loins girt about with
truth, and with the whole armor on. Those who have not had this experience are
privileged to hold the message of truth with the same confidence. The light
that God has been pleased to give His people will not weaken their confidence
in the path in which He has led them in the past, but will strengthen them to
hold fast the faith. We must hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto
the end. {2SM 115.3}
"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12). Here we stand, under the third angel's message. "And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities" (Revelation 18:1-5). {2SM 116.1}
The Message of the Other Angel
Thus, the substance of the second angel's
message is again given to the world by that other angel who lightens the earth
with his glory. These messages all blend in one, to come before the people in
the closing days of this earth's history. All the world will be tested, and all
that have been in the darkness of error in regard to the Sabbath of the fourth
commandment will understand the last message of mercy that is to be given to
men. {2SM 116.2}
Our work is to proclaim the commandments
of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. "Prepare to meet thy God"
(Amos 4:12), is the warning to be given to the world. It is a warning to us
individually. We are called upon to lay aside every weight, and the sin which
doth so easily beset us. There is a work for you, my brother, to do, to yoke
up with Christ. Make sure that your building is on the rock. Do not risk
eternity on a probability. You may not live to participate in the perilous
scenes on which we are now entering. The life of no one of us is assured for
any given time. Should you not watch every moment? Should you not closely
examine your own self, and inquire, What will eternity be to me? {2SM 116.3}
The great burden of every soul should be, Is my heart renewed? Is my soul transformed? Are my sins pardoned through faith in Christ? Have I been born again? Am I complying with the invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)? . . . Do you count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus? And do you feel it your duty to believe every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God?--Manuscript 32, 1896. {2SM 117.1}
Two Temple Cleansings--Two Calls Out of Babylon
While you hold the banner of truth firmly,
proclaiming the law of God, let every soul remember that the faith of Jesus is
connected with the commandments of God. The third angel is represented as
flying through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, "Here are
they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus"
(Revelation 14:12). The first, second, and third angels' messages are all
linked together. The evidences of the abiding, ever-living truth of these grand
messages, that mean so much to us, that have awakened such intense opposition
from the religious world, cannot be extinguished. Satan is constantly
seeking to cast his hellish shadow about these messages, so that the remnant
people of God shall not clearly discern their import, their time, and place;
but they live, and are to exert their power upon our religious experience while
time shall last. {2SM 117.2}
The influence of these messages has
been deepening and widening, setting in motion the springs of action in
thousands of hearts, bringing into existence institutions of learning,
publishing houses, and health institutions; all these are the instrumentalities
of God to cooperate in the grand work represented by the first, second, and
third angels flying in the midst of heaven to warn the inhabitants of the world
that Christ is coming again with power and great glory. {2SM 117.3}
The prophet says, "I saw another
angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened
with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the
great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils"
(Revelation 18:1, 2). This is the same message that was given by the second
angel. Babylon is fallen, "because she made all nations drink of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication" (Revelation 14:8). What is that wine? --Her
false doctrines. She has given to the world a false sabbath instead of the
Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan
first told Eve in Eden--the natural immortality of the soul. Many kindred
errors she has spread far and wide, "teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9).
{2SM 118.1}
When Jesus began His public ministry, He
cleansed the Temple from its sacrilegious profanation. Among the last acts of
His ministry was the second cleansing of the Temple. So, in the last work for
the warning of the world, two distinct calls are made to the churches. The
second angel's message is, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city,
because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication"
(Revelation 14:8). And in the loud cry of the third angel's message a voice is
heard from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins
have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities"
(Revelation 18:4, 5).--The Review and Herald, Dec. 6, 1892. {2SM 118.2}
