Application of the Fall of Babylon.--
To come now more particularly to the application of the prophecy concerning the fall of Babylon, let us see how the religious world stood with reference to the possibility of such a change when the time came for the proclamation of such a change when the time came for the proclamation of this second message in connection with the first about the year 1844. Paganism was only apostasy and corruption in the beginning, and is so still. No spiritual fall is possible there. Roman Catholicism had been in a fallen condition for many centuries. But the Protestant churches had begun the great work of reformation from papal corruption and had done noble work. They were, in a word, in such a position that with them a spiritual fall was possible. The conclusion is therefore inevitable that the message announcing the fall had reference almost wholly to the Protestant churches.
The question may then be asked why this announcement was not made sooner, if so large a part of Babylon had been so long fallen. The answer is at hand: Babylon as a whole could not be said to be fallen so long as one division of it remained unfallen. It could not be announced, therefore, until a change for the worse came over the Protestant world, and the truth through which alone the path of progress lay, had been compromised. When this took place, and a spiritual fall was experienced in this last branch, then the announcement concerning Babylon as a whole could be made, as it could not have been made before--"Babylon is fallen."
It may be proper to inquire further how the reason assigned for the fall of Babylon--that she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication--would apply to the Protestant churches at the time in question. The answer is, It would apply most pertinently. The fault with Babylon lies in her confusion of the truth and her consequent false doctrines. Because she industriously propagates these, clinging to them when light and truth which would correct them is offered, she is in a fallen state.
With the Protestant churches, the time had come for an advance to higher religious ground. They could accept the proffered light and truth, and reach the higher attainment, or they could reject it, and lose their spirituality and favor with God, or, in other words, experience a spiritual fall.
The truth which God saw fit to use as an instrument in this work was the first angel's message. The hour of God's judgment come, and with it the imminent second advent of Christ, was the doctrine preached. After listening long enough to see the blessing that attended the doctrine, and the good results that accrued from it, the churches as a whole rejected it with scorn and scoffing. They were thereby tested, for they then plainly betrayed the fact that their hearts were with the world, not with the Lord, and that they preferred to have it so.
But the message would have healed the evils then existing in the religious world. The prophet exclaims, perhaps with reference to this time, "We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed." Jeremiah 51: 9. Do you ask how we know this would have been the effect of receiving the message? We answer, Because this was the effect with all who did receive it. They came from different denominations, and their denominational barriers were leveled to the ground; conflicting creeds were shivered to atoms; the unscriptural hope of a temporal millennium was abandoned; false views of the second advent were corrected; pride and conformity to the world were swept away; wrongs were made right; hearts were united in the sweetest fellowship; and love and joy reigned supreme. If the doctrine did this for the few who did receive it, it would have done the same for all if all had received it, but the message was rejected.
Everywhere throughout the land the cry was raised, "Babylon is fallen," and, in anticipation of the movement brought to view in Revelation 18: 1-4, those proclaiming the message added, "Come out of her, My people." Thousands severed their connection with the various denominations as the result.
A marked change then came over the churches in respect to their spiritual condition. When a person refuses the light, he necessarily puts himself in darkness; when he rejects truth, he inevitably forges the shackles of error about his own limbs. Loss of spirituality--a spiritual fall--must follow. This the churches experienced. They chose to adhere to old errors, and still promulgate their false doctrines among the people. The light of truth therefore left them.
Some of them felt and deplored the change. A few testimonies from their writers describe their condition at that time, The Christian Palladium, in 1844, spoke in the following mournful strain: "In every direction we hear the dolorous wound, wafted upon every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blast from the icebergs of the north, settling like an incubus on the breasts of the timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak, the lukewarmness, division, anarchy, and desolation are distressing the borders of Zion." [15]
In 1844, the Religious Telescope used the following language: "We have never witnessed such a general declension of religion as at the present. . . . When we call to mind how 'few and far between' cases of true conversion are, and the almost unparalleled impenitence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, 'Has God forgotten to be gracious? or is the door of mercy closed?' " [16]
About that time, proclamations of fasts and seasons of prayer for the return of the Holy Spirit were sent out in the religious papers. Even the Philadelphia Sun, November, 1844, had the following: "The undersigned, ministers, and members of various denominations in Philadelphia and vicinity, solemnly believing that the present 'signs of the times'--the spiritual dearth of our churches generally and the extreme evils in the world around us--seem to call loudly on all Christians for a special season of prayer, do therefore hereby agree, by divine permission, to unite in a week of special prayer to Almighty God, for the outpouring of His Holy Spirit on our city, our country, and the world." [17]
Charles G. Finney, well-known evangelist, said in February, 1844: "We have had the facts before our minds, that, in general, the Protestant churches of our country, as such, were either apathetic or hostile to nearly all the moral reforms of the age. There are partial exceptions, yet not enough to render the fact otherwise than general. We have also another corroborative fact--the almost universal absence of revival influence in the churches. The spiritual apathy is almost all-pervading, and is fearfully deep; so the religious press of the whole land testifies. . . The churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate. They have gone very far from the Lord, and He has withdrawn Himself from them."
In November, 1844, the Oberlin Evangelist remarked editorially:
"Some of our religious journals deplore, and all attest the fact that revivals have almost ceased in our churches. It is long since a period of so general dearth has been known. There is a great revival of political spirit, and of zeal in all the departments of business operations: but alas! decline and death sit like an incubus on the bosom of Christian activity and of holy love for God as for souls. The external forms of religion are sustained, the routine of Sabbath duties goes on: but those seasons of 'refreshing from the presence of the Lord,' in which fearfulness surprises the hypocrite, conviction fastens on the sinner, and humble hearts cleave to the promises and wrestle for the conversion of souls--those seasons are known only as they [are] held in sweet remembrance--days that were, but are no longer." [18]
Not only did the churches suffer a distinct loss of spirituality in 1844, but the decline since then has been marked and continuous.
The Congregationalist said in November, 1858: "The revived piety of our churches is not such that one can confidently infer, from its mere existence, its legitimate, practical fruits. It ought, for example, to be as certain, after such a shower of grace, that the treasuries of our benevolent societies would be filled, as it is after a plentiful rain that the streams will swell in their channels. But the managers of our societies are bewailing the feebleness of the sympathy and aid of the churches.
"There is another and sadder illustration of the same general truth. The Watchman and Reflector recently stated that there had never been among the Baptists so lamentable a spread of church dissension as prevails at present. . . . Even a glance at the weekly journals of our own denomination will evince that the evil is no means confined to the Baptists." [19]
The leading Methodist paper, the New York Christian Advocate, in 1883 contained an article from which we copy these statements:
"1. Disguise it as you like, the church, in a general sense, is spiritually in a rapid decline. While it grows in number and money it is becoming extremely feeble and limited in its spirituality, both in the pulpit and pew. It is assuming the shape and character of the church of Laodicea.
"2. . . . There are thousands of ministers, local and conference, and many thousands of the laity, who are dead and worthless as barren fig-trees. They contribute nothing of a temporal or spiritual nature to the progress and triumphs of the gospel throughout the earth. If all these dry bones in our church and its congregations could be resurrected and brought into requisition by faithful, active service, what new and glorious manifestations of divine power would break forth!" [20]
The editor of the Western Christ Advocate in 1893 wrote the following of his church:
"To the Church of Methodists, Write, the great trouble with us today is, that the rescue of imperiled souls is our last and least consideration. Many of our congregations are conducted on the basis of social clubs. They are made centers of social influence. Membership is sought in order to advance one's prospects in society, business, or politics. Preachers are called who know how to
" 'Smooth down the rugged text to ears polite, And snugly keep damnation out of sight.'
"The Sunday services are made the occasion of displaying the elegancies of apparel in the latest fashions. Even the little ones are tricked out as though they were the acolytes of pride. If the 'Rules' are read, it is to comply with the letter of a law whose spirit has long since fled. The class-books are filled with names of unconverted men and women. Official members may be found in box, dress-circle, and parquet of opera and theater. Communicants take in the races, and give and attend cardparties and dances. The distinction between inside and outside is so obscure that men smile when asked to unite with the Church, and sometimes tell us that they find the best men outside.
"When we go to the masses, it is too often with such ostentatious condescension that self-respect drives them from us.
"And yet we have so spread out, under the inflation of the rich and ungodly, that they are a necessity to us. The enforcement of the unmistakable letter of Discipline for a single year would cut our membership in half, bankrupt our Missionary Society, close our fashionable churches, paralyze our connectional interests, and leave our pastors and bishops unpaid and in distress. But the fact remains, that one of two things must happen--the Discipline must purge the church, or God's Holy Spirit will seek other organized agencies. The ax is laid at the root of the tree. The call is to repentance. God's work must be done. If we are in the way, He will remove us." [21]
The New York Independent of December 3, 1896, contained an article from D. L. Moody, from which the following is an extract:
"In a recent issue of your paper I saw an article from a contributor which stated that there were over three thousand churches in the Congregational and Presbyterian bodies of this country that did not report a single member added by profession of faith last year. Can this be true? The thought has taken such hold of me that I can't get it out of my mind. It is enough almost to send a thrill of horror through the soul of every true Christian.
"If this is the case with these two large denominations, what must be the condition of the others also? Are we all going to sit still and let this thing continue? Shall our religious newspapers and our pulpits keep their mouths closed like 'dumb dogs that cannot bark' to warn people of approaching danger? Should we not all lift up our voice like a trumpet about this matter? What must the Son of God think of such a result of our labor as this? What must an believing world think about a Christianity that can't bring forth any more fruit? And have we no care for the multitudes of souls going down to perdition every year while we all sit and look on? And this country of ours, where will it be in the next ten years, if we don't awake out of sleep?" [22]
The state of spiritual declension into which the churches generally had "fallen" as a result of their rejection of the first angel's message led to their acceptance of erroneous and corrupt doctrines. In the latter part of the nineteenth century a marked change was to be seen in the attitude of both leaders and people of the Protestant churches toward the basic doctrines of the Scriptures of truth. Having rejected the true, they accepted the false. The theory of evolution accepted by many church leaders in the words of one great religious writer "turned the Creator out of doors." A religious apologist for the theory declared that "prayer is communion with my inner racial self."
The effects of the evolution theory on the faith of the churches is so apparent that public comments upon the situation are commonplace. A professor of philosophy in a great university remarks:
"Today it seems that the great Hebrew-Christian moral tradition, the most ancient part of our heritage, is crumbling to pieces before our very eyes. . . . The faith in science has grown so strong, so self-sufficient, so deeply rooted in the processes of our society, that many of those who feel it have lost all desire to combine it with any other. . . . The man who trusts a physical science to describe the world finds no conceivable place into which to fit a deity. . . . The philosophies that express their [men's] basic interests today are no longer concerned, as they were in the nineteenth century, with vindicating a belief in God and immortality. Those ideas have simply dropped out of any serious attempt to reach an understanding of the world. . . . The present conflict of religious faith with science is no longer with a scientific explanation of the world, but with a scientific explanation of religion. The really revolutionary effect of the scientific faith on religion today is not its new view of the universe, but its new view of religion." [23]
What that new view of religion is, is frankly stated by a spokesman of modern liberalism:
"Liberal Protestants have abandoned belief in the verbal infallibility of the Bible." [24] "We believe that Jesus was a human being, not a supernatural being different from all other men in quality. We believe that he was born in the normal way, and that he faced the problems and the difficulties of life with no secret reinforcements of miraculous power. . . . To us Jesus' death is, in essence, no different from the death of other heroes." [25] "Today the ancient belief that Jesus will reappear in the sky, inaugurate a dramatic world judgment, sentence Satan and the demons to hell, and lead the angels and the Christians into paradise, has dwindled from a universally accepted and enormously influential Christian conviction to the esoteric doctrine of a minority. Once a modern man accepts what historians tell him about the age of the universe, and once he accepts what scientists tell him about the nature of evolutionary process, he cannot believe that there will ever be any such spectacular wind-up of the world's affairs as the one which the early Christians believed would presently take place." [26] "We propose to take from the Christianity of the past the elements which seem of abiding value, combine with them the religious convictions and the ethical insights which have emerged during the recent times, and from this composite material shape a new formulation of the Christian message. We frankly admit that our gospel is not the 'old gospel,' or even the modified version of the old gospel which is now proclaimed in conservative pulpits. Ours is, we confess, a 'new gospel.' " [27]
The acceptance by Protestantism of the first angel's message would have enabled the church to become a light to "all nations." But betraying her trust by her rejection of the message, she left the nations without the witness of present truth that they might have had, to grope in the darkness of error and superstition resulting from the intoxicating and stupefying influences of the system of false doctrines she had built up and refused to relinquish.
Robert M. Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago, in speaking of our spiritual condition, said: "We do not know where we are going, or why, and we have almost given up the attempt to find out. We are in despair because the keys which were to open the gates of heaven have let us into a larger but more oppressive prison house. We think [thought] those keys were science and the free intelligence of man. They have failed us. We have long since cast off God. To what can we now appeal?" [28]
In its issue of May 24, 1941, the Philadelphia Inquirer editorially attempts to analyze our condition: "We appear to have reached one of those portentous periods in history when civilization halts and stands aghast in the presence of forces too complex and too terrible in their potentialities accurately to be appraised. Confronted by problems that can be disregarded by none but lighthearted children and lightheaded fools, we have reached the crossroads where every signpost points to bafflement. For years there have been increasingly bitter assaults upon religion. We have felt it was not our concern if 'the old faiths loosen and fall.' It would seem that in this, as in past civilizations when they were nearing their inevitable end, we--and by 'we' is meant mankind in general--have grown too cocksure of ourselves. . . .
"We have watched, many of us with scant misgivings, the growth of queer cults and the recrudescence of pagan philosophies. Unperturbed, we have witnessed the rise of modern Humanism, with its denial of a power greater than our own; its exalting of man to equality with his Maker. Now, when civilization may be dying on its feet, the barrage balloons of our self-sufficiency are in process of being blasted out of the sky. Human creatures at last are beginning to discover that they are not little gods--but only little men." [29]
But as the popular churches depart farther and farther from God, they at length reach such a condition that true Christians can on longer maintain a connection with them; and then they will be called out. This we look for in the future, in fulfillment of Revelation 18: 1-4. We believe it will come, when, in addition to their corruptions, the churches begin to raise against the saints the hand of oppression.
*******
Today many don't belong to any known church. There are more break offs from churches than ever before. People are forming more and more home churches. People are searching for truths themselves and seeking to follow them without any church authority involved. However, along with all the sincere truth seekers Satan raises his own believers and more and more the lies are infiltrating the truths and corrupting so much.
Wherever there are truths there will be lies to counteract that truth. People being called to come out of Babylon, the apostate, Satan's ruled. Think about it, if-- as history proves God's prophecy has unfolded. The prophecy's were opened- the little book that was to be closed until the end was opened and understood and it made those who received it disappointed- bitter in their bellies. This happened, this is factual. The prophecies were opened and God's people called to prophecy again. Christ didn't come in 1844 like they believed it meant by the cleansing of the sanctuary, instead eyes were directed to the heavenly sanctuary and the work being wrought there. The Day of Atonement, the cleansing of the sanctuary was begun and as the Bible describes it was a lengthy ceremony, the common people were to afflict their souls on the Day of Atonement, fasting and praying while the priests and especially the high priest were very busy making the atonement. They'd cleanse the Most Holy Place, then the Holy Place, and then the outer court. The same will happen for us on a grand scale that brings us to the moment in time where all that will be cleansed have been cleansed and Christ's work will be over as High Priest and He will come again to redeem those that have been sealed as His.
The truth of this message was given in 1844, a small group of people formed a church that worked to spread the gospel message, the three angels messages to the world. This was God's appointed church. As with Israel of old (they became apostate choosing to follow fables of men rather than God truth in Jesus and after a time the message was no longer sent to the Jews, but went to the Gentiles) so too has the church given the message to be spread in 1844 become apostate. There is much proof of this - much proof and the cry to them has gone out to come out of Babylon- the apostate church. So yes, the cry has gone on and on and as the Bible tells us this is prior to the coming of the Lord. All His true people, His true followers, His believers in heart and mind will hear the call to come out and they will be ready.
May God bless and keep us in Him, true of heart, true of spirit in Him blessed, called, chosen...ready for Him when He returns.
By His grace and by His will, by His love, by His mercy now and always.
Amen
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Modern Babylon
Excerpt from Daniel and Revelation - by Uriah Smith
Revelation-
Verse 8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
The Second Angel's Message.--The time of this message is determined to a great extent by that of the first message.
It is therefore a part of that religious movement which takes place in the last days with special reference to the coming of Christ.
The inquires therefore follow: What is meant by the term "Babylon"? What is her fall? How does it take place? As to the meaning of the word, we learn something from the marginal readings of Genesis 10: 10 and 11: 9. The beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel, or Babylon. The place was called Babylon, meaning "confusion," because God there confounded the language of the builders of the tower. The name is here used figuratively to designate the great symbolic city of the book of Revelation, probably with special reference to the significance of the term and the circumstances from which it originated. It applies to something on which, as specifying its chief characteristics, may be written the word "confusion."
There are but three possible things to which the word can be applied. These are the apostate religious world in general, the papal church in particular, and the city of Rome. In examining these terms, we shall first show what Babylon is not. Babylon is not confined to the Roman Catholic Church. That this church is a very prominent component part of great Babylon, is not denied. The descriptions in Revelation 17 seem to apply particularly to that church. But the name which she bears on her forehead, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth," reveals other family connections. If this church is the mother, who are the daughters? The fact that these daughters are spoken of, shows that there are other religious bodies besides the Roman Catholic Church which come under this designation. Again, there is to be a call made in connection with this message, "Come out of her, My people." Revelation 18: 1-4. As this message is located in the present generation, it follows, if no other church but the Roman Catholic is included Babylon, that the people of God are now found in the communion of that church, and are to be called out. But this conclusion, no Protestant at least will be willing to allow.
Babylon is not the city of Rome. The argument relied upon to show that the city of Rome is Babylon of the Apocalypse runs thus: The angel told John that the woman which he had seen was the great city which reigned over the kings of the earth, and that the seven heads of the beast are seven mountains upon which the woman sits. Then, by taking the city and the mountains to be literal, and finding Rome built upon seven hills, the application is made at once to literal Rome.
The principle upon which this interpretation rests is the assumption that the explanation of a symbol must always be literal. It falls to the ground the moment it can be shown that symbols are sometimes explained by substituting for them other symbols, and then explaining the latter. This can easily be done. In Revelation 11: 3, the symbol of the two witnesses is introduced. The next verse reads: "These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth." In this case the first symbol is said to be the same as another symbol which is elsewhere clearly explained. So in the case before us. "The seven heads are seven mountains," and "the woman is that great city;" and it will not be difficult to show that the mountains and the city are used symbolically. The readers attention is directed to the following:
We are informed in Revelation 13 that one of the seven heads was wounded to death. This head therefore cannot be a literal mountain, for it would be folly to speak of wounding a mountain to death.
Each of the seven heads has a crown upon it. But who ever saw a literal mountain with a crown upon it?
The seven heads are evidently successive in order of time, for we read, "Five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come." Revelation 17: 10. But the seven hills on which Rome is built are not successive, and it would be absurd to apply such language to them.
According to Daniel 7: 6, compared with Daniel 8: 8, 22, heads denote governments, and according to Daniel 2: 35, 44, and Jeremiah 51: 25, mountains denote kingdoms. According to these facts, a literal translation of Revelation 17: 9, 10 removes all obscurity: "The seven heads are seven mountains on which on which the woman sitteth, and are seven kings." It will thus be seen that the angel represents the heads as mountains, and then explains the mountains to be seven successive kings. The meaning is transferred from one symbol to another, and then an explanation is given of the second symbol.
From the foregoing argument, it follows that the "woman" cannot represent a literal city, for the mountains upon which the woman sits being symbolic, a literal city cannot sit upon symbolic mountains. Again, Rome was the seat of the dragon of Revelation 12, and the dragon transferred it to the beast. (Revelation 13: 2.) Thus it became the seat of the beast; but it would be a singular mixture of figures to make the seat, which is sat upon by the beast, and a woman sitting upon the beast refer to the same thing.
Were the city of Rome the Babylon of the Apocalypse, what nonsense should we have in Revelation 18: 1-4, for in this case the fall of Babylon would be the overthrow and destruction of the city, in fact, its utter consumption by fire, according to verse 8. But mark what takes place after the fall. Babylon becomes "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." How can this happen to a city after that city is destroyed, even being utterly burned with fire? Again, after this a voice is heard, saying, "Come out of her, My people." Are God's people all in Rome?--Not to any great extent. How many can we suppose to be there to be called out after the city is burned with fire? It is not necessary to say more to show that Babylon cannot be the city of Rome.
What Does Babylon Signify?--
Babylon signifies the universal worldly church. After seeing it cannot either of the other two possible things to which it could be applies, it must mean this. But we are not left to this kind of reasoning on this subject. Babylon is called "a woman." A woman, used as a symbol, signifies a church. The woman of Revelation 12 was interpreted to mean a church. The woman of Revelation 17 should undoubtedly be interpreted as also signifying a church. The character of the woman determines the character of the church represented, a chaste woman standing for a pure church, a vile woman for an impure, or apostate church. The woman Babylon is herself a harlot, and the mother of daughters like herself. This circumstance, as well as the name itself, shows that Babylon is not limited to any single ecclesiastical body, but must be composed of many. It must take in all of a like nature, and represent the entire corrupt, or apostate, church of the earth. This will perhaps explain the language of Revelation 18: 24, which represents that when God makes requisition upon great Babylon for the blood of His martyrs, in her will be found "the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all" that have been slain upon the earth.
Through the centuries practically every country of Europe has had its state church, and the most of these countries to the present day have their established religions, and zealously oppose dissenters. Babylon has made all nations drunken with the wine of her fornication, that is, her false doctrines. It can therefore symbolize nothing less than the universal worldly church.
The great city Babylon is composed of three divisions. So the great religions of the world may be arranged under three heads. The first, oldest, and most widespread is paganism, separately symbolized under the form of a dragon. The second is the great papal apostasy, symbolized by the beast. The third is the daughters, or descendants from that church symbolized by the two-horned beast, though that does not embrace them all. War, oppression, conformity to the world, religious formalism, the worship of mammon, pursuit of pleasure, and the maintenance of very many errors of the Roman Catholic Church, identify with sad and faithful accuracy the great body of the Protestant churches as an important constituent part of this great Babylon.
A glance at some of the ways in which the Protestant church has deported herself will still further show this. When Rome had the power, she destroyed vast multitudes of those whom she adjudged heretics. The Protestant church has shown the same spirit. Witness the burning of Michael Servetus by the Protestants of Geneva with John Calvin at their head. Witness the long-continued oppression of dissenters by the Church of England. Witness the hanging of Quakers and the whipping of Baptists even by the Puritan fathers of New England, themselves fugitives from like oppression by the Church of England. But these, some may say, are things of the past. True, yet they show that when persons governed by strong religious prejudice have the power to coerce dissenters, they cannot forbear to use it--a state of things which we look for in this country under a further fulfillment of the closing prophecy of Revelation 13.
It was the will of Christ that His church should be one. He prayed that His disciples might be one, as He and the Father were one; for this would give power to His gospel, and cause the world to believe in Him. Instead of this, look at the confusion that exists in the Protestant world, the many sectional walls that divide it into a network of societies, and the many creeds, discordant as the languages of those who were dispersed at the tower of Babel. God is not the author of all these. It is this state of things which the word "Babylon," as a descriptive term, appropriately designates. It is evidently used for this purpose, and not a term of reproach. Instead of being stirred with feelings of resentment when this term is mentioned, people should rather examine their position, to see if in faith or practice they are guilty of any connection with this great city of confusion. If so, they should separate at once therefrom.
The true church is a chaste virgin. (2 Corinthians 11: 2.) The church that is joined with the world in friendship, is a harlot. It is this unlawful connection with the kings of the earth that constitutes her the great harlot of the Apocalypse. (Revelation 17.) Thus the Jewish Church, at first espoused to the Lord (Jeremiah 2: 3; 31: 32), became a harlot (Ezekiel 16). When this church apostatized from God, it was called Sodom (Isaiah 1), just as "the great city" (Babylon) is so called in Revelation 11. The unlawful union with the world of which Babylon is guilty, is positive proof that it is not the civil power. That the people of God are in her midst immediately before her overthrow is proof that she is professedly a religious body. For these reasons, it is very evident that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is the professed church united with the world.
"Babylon Is Fallen."--
The fall of Babylon will next claim attention. After learning what constitutes Babylon, it will not be difficult to decide what is meant by the declaration that Babylon is fallen. As Babylon is not a literal city, the fall cannot be a literal overthrow. We have already seen what an absurdity this would involve. Besides, the clearest distinction is maintained by the prophecy itself between the fall and the destruction of Babylon. Babylon "falls" before it is with violence "thrown down," as a millstone cast into the sea, and utterly burned with fire." The fall is therefore a spiritual fall, for after the fall the voice is addressed to the people of God who are still in her connection, "Come out of her, My people." The reason is immediately given, "that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Babylon therefore still exists in sin and her plagues are still future after the fall.
Those who make Babylon apply exclusively to the papacy, claim that the fall of Babylon is the loss of civil power by the papal church. Because of the fall of Babylon, she becomes the hold of foul spirits and hateful birds; but such is not at all the result to Rome of the loss of civil power.
The people of God are called out of Babylon on account of her increasing sinfulness resulting from the fall, but the loss of the temporal power of the papacy constitutes no additional reason why the people of God should leave that church.
Babylon meets with this spiritual fall "because she made all nations drink of the wine of wrath [not anger, but intense passion] of her fornication." There is but one thing to which this can refer, and that is false doctrines. She has corrupted the pure truths of God's word, and made the nations drunken with pleasing fables.
In the form of the papacy she has supplanted the gospel by substituting for it a false system of salvation:
Through the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception she denies that God in Christ dwelt in human flesh.
She has sought to set aside the mediation of Christ and has put another system of mediation in its place.
She has attempted to take away the priesthood of Jesus and substitute an earthly priesthood.
She has made salvation dependent upon confession to mortal man and thus has separated the sinner from Jesus, the only one through whom his sins can be forgiven.
She condemns the way of salvation through faith as "damnable heresy," and substitutes the doctrine of salvation by works.
Her crowning blasphemy is the doctrine of transubstantiation, or the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass, which is declared to be "one and the same as that of the cross" and which, in "some senses," is said to have "the advantage over Calvary," for by it "the work of our redemption is carried out."
Among the doctrines she teaches contrary to the word of God, may be mentioned the following:
The substitution of tradition and the voice of the church as an infallible guide in the place of the Bible.
The change of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the seventh day, into the festival of Sunday as the rest day of the Lord and a memorial of His resurrection, a memorial which has never been commanded, and can by no possible means appropriately commemorate that event. Fathered by heathenism as "the wild solar holiday of all pagan times," Sunday was lead to the font by the pope, and christened as an institution of the gospel church. Thus an attempt was made to destroy a memorial which the great God had set up to commemorate His own magnificent creative work, and erect another in its state to commemorate the resurrection of Christ, for which there was no occasion, as the Lord Himself had already provided a memorial for that purpose in baptism by immersion.
The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul. This also was derived from the pagan world, and the "Fathers of the church" became the foster-fathers of this pernicious doctrine as a part of divine truth. This error nullifies the two great Scripture doctrines of the resurrection and the general judgment, and furnishes an open door to modern spiritism. From it have sprung such other evil doctrines as the conscious state of the dead, saint worship, mariology, purgatory, reward at death, prayers and baptisms for the dead, eternal torment, and universal salvation.
The doctrine that the saints, as disembodied spirits, find their eternal inheritance in faraway, indefinable regions, "beyond the bounds of time and space." Thus multitudes have been turned away from the Scriptural view that this present earth is to be destroyed by fire at the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, and that from its ashes the voice of Omnipotence will evoke a new earth, which will be the future everlasting kingdom of glory, and which the saints will possess as their eternal inheritance.
Sprinkling instead of immersion, the latter being the only Scriptural mode of baptism, and a fitting memorial of the burial and resurrection of our Lord, for which purpose it was designed. By the corruption of this ordinance and its destruction as a memorial of the resurrection of Christ, the way was prepared for the substitution of something else for this purpose--the Sunday rest day.
That the coming of Christ is a spiritual, not a literal event, and was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem, or is fulfilled in conversion, at death, or in spiritism. How many minds have by such teaching been forever closed against the Scriptural view that the second coming of Christ is a future definite event, literal, personal, visible, resulting in destruction of all His foes, and everlasting life to all His people!
The doctrine of a temporal millennium, or a thousand years of peace and prosperity and righteousness all over the earth before the second coming of Christ. This doctrine is especially calculated to shut the ears of the people against the evidences of the second advent near, and will probably lull as many souls into a state of carnal security leading to their final ruin, as any heresy which has ever been devised by the great enemy of truth.
*******
Remember the time this was written in... the late 1800's, early 1900's revised. More then a hundred years later we have such grand ideas as the 'Left Behind' Series which does exactly what has been noted here. People believing in something other than the truth. When you believe in something other than the truth what are you beliving in? LIES. If you are believing in lies you are being DECEIVED. What will happen at the end, all but the very elect will be DECEIVED.
Take your beliefs and hold them up against the word of God in its entirety. Study for yourself, do not listen to others. Take your Bible and get on the internet and search out historical facts. Before I would have said go to your library but honestly the internet with it's many search engines is a huge library.
We should be very wary of anything that is thrown at us these days, wary that it might just be another deception of the Devil's meant to take as many from Christ as He can before Christ returns.
Some might ask how do I know what is truth and what isn't? Saying to me, what is truth to one might not be to another and yes... who's to say we're right? All I say is study! Study!
Isaiah {8:20} To the law and to the testimony:
if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because
[there is] no light in them.
John {17:17} Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Yes, the word can be twisted and will be twisted and used for deception that is why you shouldn't take ANY one's word or interpretation at your own-- study it out for yourself! If they present facts look those facts up. If they're adding their own interpretation and not letting the Bible speak for itself you'll know.
May God bless and keep us in Him and in all TRUTH in Him through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! All mercy and grace from Him.
Amen.
Revelation-
Verse 8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
The Second Angel's Message.--The time of this message is determined to a great extent by that of the first message.
It is therefore a part of that religious movement which takes place in the last days with special reference to the coming of Christ.
The inquires therefore follow: What is meant by the term "Babylon"? What is her fall? How does it take place? As to the meaning of the word, we learn something from the marginal readings of Genesis 10: 10 and 11: 9. The beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel, or Babylon. The place was called Babylon, meaning "confusion," because God there confounded the language of the builders of the tower. The name is here used figuratively to designate the great symbolic city of the book of Revelation, probably with special reference to the significance of the term and the circumstances from which it originated. It applies to something on which, as specifying its chief characteristics, may be written the word "confusion."
There are but three possible things to which the word can be applied. These are the apostate religious world in general, the papal church in particular, and the city of Rome. In examining these terms, we shall first show what Babylon is not. Babylon is not confined to the Roman Catholic Church. That this church is a very prominent component part of great Babylon, is not denied. The descriptions in Revelation 17 seem to apply particularly to that church. But the name which she bears on her forehead, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth," reveals other family connections. If this church is the mother, who are the daughters? The fact that these daughters are spoken of, shows that there are other religious bodies besides the Roman Catholic Church which come under this designation. Again, there is to be a call made in connection with this message, "Come out of her, My people." Revelation 18: 1-4. As this message is located in the present generation, it follows, if no other church but the Roman Catholic is included Babylon, that the people of God are now found in the communion of that church, and are to be called out. But this conclusion, no Protestant at least will be willing to allow.
Babylon is not the city of Rome. The argument relied upon to show that the city of Rome is Babylon of the Apocalypse runs thus: The angel told John that the woman which he had seen was the great city which reigned over the kings of the earth, and that the seven heads of the beast are seven mountains upon which the woman sits. Then, by taking the city and the mountains to be literal, and finding Rome built upon seven hills, the application is made at once to literal Rome.
The principle upon which this interpretation rests is the assumption that the explanation of a symbol must always be literal. It falls to the ground the moment it can be shown that symbols are sometimes explained by substituting for them other symbols, and then explaining the latter. This can easily be done. In Revelation 11: 3, the symbol of the two witnesses is introduced. The next verse reads: "These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth." In this case the first symbol is said to be the same as another symbol which is elsewhere clearly explained. So in the case before us. "The seven heads are seven mountains," and "the woman is that great city;" and it will not be difficult to show that the mountains and the city are used symbolically. The readers attention is directed to the following:
We are informed in Revelation 13 that one of the seven heads was wounded to death. This head therefore cannot be a literal mountain, for it would be folly to speak of wounding a mountain to death.
Each of the seven heads has a crown upon it. But who ever saw a literal mountain with a crown upon it?
The seven heads are evidently successive in order of time, for we read, "Five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come." Revelation 17: 10. But the seven hills on which Rome is built are not successive, and it would be absurd to apply such language to them.
According to Daniel 7: 6, compared with Daniel 8: 8, 22, heads denote governments, and according to Daniel 2: 35, 44, and Jeremiah 51: 25, mountains denote kingdoms. According to these facts, a literal translation of Revelation 17: 9, 10 removes all obscurity: "The seven heads are seven mountains on which on which the woman sitteth, and are seven kings." It will thus be seen that the angel represents the heads as mountains, and then explains the mountains to be seven successive kings. The meaning is transferred from one symbol to another, and then an explanation is given of the second symbol.
From the foregoing argument, it follows that the "woman" cannot represent a literal city, for the mountains upon which the woman sits being symbolic, a literal city cannot sit upon symbolic mountains. Again, Rome was the seat of the dragon of Revelation 12, and the dragon transferred it to the beast. (Revelation 13: 2.) Thus it became the seat of the beast; but it would be a singular mixture of figures to make the seat, which is sat upon by the beast, and a woman sitting upon the beast refer to the same thing.
Were the city of Rome the Babylon of the Apocalypse, what nonsense should we have in Revelation 18: 1-4, for in this case the fall of Babylon would be the overthrow and destruction of the city, in fact, its utter consumption by fire, according to verse 8. But mark what takes place after the fall. Babylon becomes "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." How can this happen to a city after that city is destroyed, even being utterly burned with fire? Again, after this a voice is heard, saying, "Come out of her, My people." Are God's people all in Rome?--Not to any great extent. How many can we suppose to be there to be called out after the city is burned with fire? It is not necessary to say more to show that Babylon cannot be the city of Rome.
What Does Babylon Signify?--
Babylon signifies the universal worldly church. After seeing it cannot either of the other two possible things to which it could be applies, it must mean this. But we are not left to this kind of reasoning on this subject. Babylon is called "a woman." A woman, used as a symbol, signifies a church. The woman of Revelation 12 was interpreted to mean a church. The woman of Revelation 17 should undoubtedly be interpreted as also signifying a church. The character of the woman determines the character of the church represented, a chaste woman standing for a pure church, a vile woman for an impure, or apostate church. The woman Babylon is herself a harlot, and the mother of daughters like herself. This circumstance, as well as the name itself, shows that Babylon is not limited to any single ecclesiastical body, but must be composed of many. It must take in all of a like nature, and represent the entire corrupt, or apostate, church of the earth. This will perhaps explain the language of Revelation 18: 24, which represents that when God makes requisition upon great Babylon for the blood of His martyrs, in her will be found "the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all" that have been slain upon the earth.
Through the centuries practically every country of Europe has had its state church, and the most of these countries to the present day have their established religions, and zealously oppose dissenters. Babylon has made all nations drunken with the wine of her fornication, that is, her false doctrines. It can therefore symbolize nothing less than the universal worldly church.
The great city Babylon is composed of three divisions. So the great religions of the world may be arranged under three heads. The first, oldest, and most widespread is paganism, separately symbolized under the form of a dragon. The second is the great papal apostasy, symbolized by the beast. The third is the daughters, or descendants from that church symbolized by the two-horned beast, though that does not embrace them all. War, oppression, conformity to the world, religious formalism, the worship of mammon, pursuit of pleasure, and the maintenance of very many errors of the Roman Catholic Church, identify with sad and faithful accuracy the great body of the Protestant churches as an important constituent part of this great Babylon.
A glance at some of the ways in which the Protestant church has deported herself will still further show this. When Rome had the power, she destroyed vast multitudes of those whom she adjudged heretics. The Protestant church has shown the same spirit. Witness the burning of Michael Servetus by the Protestants of Geneva with John Calvin at their head. Witness the long-continued oppression of dissenters by the Church of England. Witness the hanging of Quakers and the whipping of Baptists even by the Puritan fathers of New England, themselves fugitives from like oppression by the Church of England. But these, some may say, are things of the past. True, yet they show that when persons governed by strong religious prejudice have the power to coerce dissenters, they cannot forbear to use it--a state of things which we look for in this country under a further fulfillment of the closing prophecy of Revelation 13.
It was the will of Christ that His church should be one. He prayed that His disciples might be one, as He and the Father were one; for this would give power to His gospel, and cause the world to believe in Him. Instead of this, look at the confusion that exists in the Protestant world, the many sectional walls that divide it into a network of societies, and the many creeds, discordant as the languages of those who were dispersed at the tower of Babel. God is not the author of all these. It is this state of things which the word "Babylon," as a descriptive term, appropriately designates. It is evidently used for this purpose, and not a term of reproach. Instead of being stirred with feelings of resentment when this term is mentioned, people should rather examine their position, to see if in faith or practice they are guilty of any connection with this great city of confusion. If so, they should separate at once therefrom.
The true church is a chaste virgin. (2 Corinthians 11: 2.) The church that is joined with the world in friendship, is a harlot. It is this unlawful connection with the kings of the earth that constitutes her the great harlot of the Apocalypse. (Revelation 17.) Thus the Jewish Church, at first espoused to the Lord (Jeremiah 2: 3; 31: 32), became a harlot (Ezekiel 16). When this church apostatized from God, it was called Sodom (Isaiah 1), just as "the great city" (Babylon) is so called in Revelation 11. The unlawful union with the world of which Babylon is guilty, is positive proof that it is not the civil power. That the people of God are in her midst immediately before her overthrow is proof that she is professedly a religious body. For these reasons, it is very evident that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is the professed church united with the world.
"Babylon Is Fallen."--
The fall of Babylon will next claim attention. After learning what constitutes Babylon, it will not be difficult to decide what is meant by the declaration that Babylon is fallen. As Babylon is not a literal city, the fall cannot be a literal overthrow. We have already seen what an absurdity this would involve. Besides, the clearest distinction is maintained by the prophecy itself between the fall and the destruction of Babylon. Babylon "falls" before it is with violence "thrown down," as a millstone cast into the sea, and utterly burned with fire." The fall is therefore a spiritual fall, for after the fall the voice is addressed to the people of God who are still in her connection, "Come out of her, My people." The reason is immediately given, "that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Babylon therefore still exists in sin and her plagues are still future after the fall.
Those who make Babylon apply exclusively to the papacy, claim that the fall of Babylon is the loss of civil power by the papal church. Because of the fall of Babylon, she becomes the hold of foul spirits and hateful birds; but such is not at all the result to Rome of the loss of civil power.
The people of God are called out of Babylon on account of her increasing sinfulness resulting from the fall, but the loss of the temporal power of the papacy constitutes no additional reason why the people of God should leave that church.
Babylon meets with this spiritual fall "because she made all nations drink of the wine of wrath [not anger, but intense passion] of her fornication." There is but one thing to which this can refer, and that is false doctrines. She has corrupted the pure truths of God's word, and made the nations drunken with pleasing fables.
In the form of the papacy she has supplanted the gospel by substituting for it a false system of salvation:
Through the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception she denies that God in Christ dwelt in human flesh.
She has sought to set aside the mediation of Christ and has put another system of mediation in its place.
She has attempted to take away the priesthood of Jesus and substitute an earthly priesthood.
She has made salvation dependent upon confession to mortal man and thus has separated the sinner from Jesus, the only one through whom his sins can be forgiven.
She condemns the way of salvation through faith as "damnable heresy," and substitutes the doctrine of salvation by works.
Her crowning blasphemy is the doctrine of transubstantiation, or the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass, which is declared to be "one and the same as that of the cross" and which, in "some senses," is said to have "the advantage over Calvary," for by it "the work of our redemption is carried out."
Among the doctrines she teaches contrary to the word of God, may be mentioned the following:
The substitution of tradition and the voice of the church as an infallible guide in the place of the Bible.
The change of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the seventh day, into the festival of Sunday as the rest day of the Lord and a memorial of His resurrection, a memorial which has never been commanded, and can by no possible means appropriately commemorate that event. Fathered by heathenism as "the wild solar holiday of all pagan times," Sunday was lead to the font by the pope, and christened as an institution of the gospel church. Thus an attempt was made to destroy a memorial which the great God had set up to commemorate His own magnificent creative work, and erect another in its state to commemorate the resurrection of Christ, for which there was no occasion, as the Lord Himself had already provided a memorial for that purpose in baptism by immersion.
The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul. This also was derived from the pagan world, and the "Fathers of the church" became the foster-fathers of this pernicious doctrine as a part of divine truth. This error nullifies the two great Scripture doctrines of the resurrection and the general judgment, and furnishes an open door to modern spiritism. From it have sprung such other evil doctrines as the conscious state of the dead, saint worship, mariology, purgatory, reward at death, prayers and baptisms for the dead, eternal torment, and universal salvation.
The doctrine that the saints, as disembodied spirits, find their eternal inheritance in faraway, indefinable regions, "beyond the bounds of time and space." Thus multitudes have been turned away from the Scriptural view that this present earth is to be destroyed by fire at the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, and that from its ashes the voice of Omnipotence will evoke a new earth, which will be the future everlasting kingdom of glory, and which the saints will possess as their eternal inheritance.
Sprinkling instead of immersion, the latter being the only Scriptural mode of baptism, and a fitting memorial of the burial and resurrection of our Lord, for which purpose it was designed. By the corruption of this ordinance and its destruction as a memorial of the resurrection of Christ, the way was prepared for the substitution of something else for this purpose--the Sunday rest day.
That the coming of Christ is a spiritual, not a literal event, and was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem, or is fulfilled in conversion, at death, or in spiritism. How many minds have by such teaching been forever closed against the Scriptural view that the second coming of Christ is a future definite event, literal, personal, visible, resulting in destruction of all His foes, and everlasting life to all His people!
The doctrine of a temporal millennium, or a thousand years of peace and prosperity and righteousness all over the earth before the second coming of Christ. This doctrine is especially calculated to shut the ears of the people against the evidences of the second advent near, and will probably lull as many souls into a state of carnal security leading to their final ruin, as any heresy which has ever been devised by the great enemy of truth.
*******
Remember the time this was written in... the late 1800's, early 1900's revised. More then a hundred years later we have such grand ideas as the 'Left Behind' Series which does exactly what has been noted here. People believing in something other than the truth. When you believe in something other than the truth what are you beliving in? LIES. If you are believing in lies you are being DECEIVED. What will happen at the end, all but the very elect will be DECEIVED.
Take your beliefs and hold them up against the word of God in its entirety. Study for yourself, do not listen to others. Take your Bible and get on the internet and search out historical facts. Before I would have said go to your library but honestly the internet with it's many search engines is a huge library.
We should be very wary of anything that is thrown at us these days, wary that it might just be another deception of the Devil's meant to take as many from Christ as He can before Christ returns.
Some might ask how do I know what is truth and what isn't? Saying to me, what is truth to one might not be to another and yes... who's to say we're right? All I say is study! Study!
Isaiah {8:20} To the law and to the testimony:
if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because
[there is] no light in them.
John {17:17} Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Yes, the word can be twisted and will be twisted and used for deception that is why you shouldn't take ANY one's word or interpretation at your own-- study it out for yourself! If they present facts look those facts up. If they're adding their own interpretation and not letting the Bible speak for itself you'll know.
May God bless and keep us in Him and in all TRUTH in Him through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! All mercy and grace from Him.
Amen.
Monday, October 5, 2009
No Blaring Siren's Will Sound
Revelation-
(Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith - Excerpt)
Verse 6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7 saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
The First Angel's Message.--
Another scene and another chain of prophetic events is introduced in these verses. We know that this is so, because the preceding verses of this chapter describe a company of the redeemed in the immortal state--a scene which constitutes a part of the prophetic chain beginning with the first verse of Revelation 12, and with which that chain of events closes, for no prophecy goes beyond the immortal state. Whenever we are brought in a line of prophecy to the end of the world, we know that that line ends there, and that what is introduced subsequently belongs to a new series of events. The book of Revelation in particular is composed of these independent prophetic chains, as has already been set forth in a number of examples.
The message described in these two verses is the first of what are known as "the three angels' messages of Revelation 14." We are justified by the prophecy itself in designating them the first, second, and third. In the verses that follow, the last one is distinctly called "the third angel," from which we infer that the one preceding was the second angel; and the one before that, the first angel.
These angels are evidently symbolic, for the work assigned them is that of preaching the everlasting gospel to the people. But the preaching of the gospel has not been entrusted to literal angels; it has been committed to men, who are responsible for this sacred trust placed in their hands. Each of these three angels, therefore, symbolizes those who are commissioned to make known to their fellow men the special truths which constitute the burden of these messages.
Literal angels are intensely interested in the work of grace among men, being sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. As there is order in all the movements and appointments of the heavenly world, it may not be fanciful to suppose that a literal angel has charge and oversight of the work of each message. (Hebrews 1: 14; Revelation 1: 1; 22: 16.)
*Heb. {1:13} But to which of
the angels said he at any times, Sit on my right hand, until I
make thine enemies thy footstool? {1:14} Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall
be heirs of salvation?
Rev. {1:1} The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must
shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified [it] by his
angel unto his servant John
Rev. {22:16} I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you
these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David, [and] the bright and morning star.*
In these symbols we see the sharp contrast the Bible draws between earthly and heavenly things. Wherever earthly governments are to be represented, even the best of them, the most appropriate symbol that can be found is a wild beast. But when the work of God is to be set forth, an angel clad in beauty and girt with power is used to symbolize it.
The importance of the work set forth in Revelation 14: 6-12 will be apparent to anyone who attentively studies it. Whenever these messages are to be proclaimed, they must from the very nature of the case constitute the great theme of interest for that generation. We do not mean that the great mass of mankind then living will give them attention, for in every age of the world the present truth for that time has been too often overlooked. But they constitute the theme to which the people will pay most earnest regard if they are awake to what concerns their highest interests.
When God commissions His ministers to announce to the world that the hour of his judgment is come, that Babylon has fallen, and that whoever worships the beast and his image must drink of His wrath poured out unmingled into the cup of His indignation--a threat more terrible than any other that can be found in the Scriptures--no man, except at the peril of his soul, can treat these warnings as nonessential, or pass them by with neglect and disregard. Hence the necessity in every age for the most earnest endeavor to understand the work of the Lord, lest we lose the benefit of the present truth. This is especially true today, when so many evidences betoken the soon coming of earth's final crisis.
This angel of Revelation 14: 6 is called "another angel," from the fact that John had previously seen an angel flying through heaven in a similar manner, as described in Revelation 8: 13, proclaiming that the last three of the series of seven trumpets were woe trumpets. (See comments on Revelation 8: 13.)
The Time of the Message.--The first point to be determined is the time when this message is to be given. When may the proclamation, "The hour of His judgment is come," be expected? The possibility that it may be in our own day makes it essential for us to examine this question with serious attention. But more positive proof that this is so will appear as we proceed. It should set every pulse bounding, and every heart beating high with a sense of the sublime importance of this hour in which we live.
Only three positions are possible on this question of the time of this prophecy. These positions are that this message has been given in the past, as in the days of the apostles, or in the days of the Reformers; that it is to be given in a future age; or that it belongs to the present generation.
We inquire first respecting the past. The very nature of the messages forbids the idea that it could have been given in the days of the apostles. They did not proclaim that the hour of God's judgment had come. If they had, it would not have been true, and their message would have been stamped with the infamy of falsehood. They did have something to say respecting the judgment, but they pointed to an indefinite future for its accomplishment. In Christ's own words, the final judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre, Sidon, Chorazin, and Capernaum, was located indefinitely in the future from that day. (Matthew 10: 15; 11: 21-24.) Paul declared to the superstitious Athenians that God had appointed a day in which He would judge the world. (Acts 17: 31.) He reasoned before Felix "of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Acts 24: 25. To the Romans he wrote concerning a day when God should judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. (Romans 2: 16.) He pointed the Corinthians forward to a time when "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." 2 Corinthians 5: 10. James wrote to the brethren scattered abroad that they were at some time in the future to be judged by the law of liberty. (James 2: 1 2.) Both Peter and Jude speak of the first rebel angels as reserved unto the judgment of the great day, still in the future at that time, to which the ungodly in this world are also reserved. (2 Peter 2: 4, 9; Jude 6.) How different is all this from ringing out upon the world the startling declaration that "the hour of His judgment is come!" --a sound which must be heard when the solemn message before us is given.
From the days of the apostles nothing has taken place which anyone could construe as the fulfillment of this first message, until we come to the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Some claim that Luther and his colaborers gave the first message, and that the two following message have been given since his day. This is a question to be decided by historical fact rather than by argument. Hence we inquire for the evidence that the Reformers mad any such proclamation. Their teaching has been fully recorded, and their writings preserved. When and where did they arouse the world with the proclamation that the hour of God's judgment had come? We find no record that such was the burden of their preaching.
"The above passage [Revelation 14: 6-11] is by some interpreters supposed to relate to the period of the Reformation, and to have been fulfilled in the preaching of Luther and the other eminent persons who were raised up at that time to proclaim the errors of the Romish Church. . . . But it appears to me that there are insuperable objections to these interpretations. The first angel is instrumental in preaching the gospel much more extensively than the Reformers could do. So far were they from preaching to all the inhabitants of the earth that they did not even preach through the whole of Christian Europe. The Reformation was not permitted to enter into some of the most extensive kingdoms of the Romish jurisdiction. It was entirely excluded from Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Neither could it be said, in consistence with truth, at the time of the Reformation that 'the hour of God's judgment is come.' . . . The hour of God's judgment is a time well known and exactly defined in the chronological prophecies of Daniel and John." [1]
"I hope," said Luther, "the last day of judgment is not far, I persuade myself verily it will not be absent full three hundred years longer; for God's word will decrease and be darkened for want of true shepherds and servants of God. The voice will sound and heard erelong: 'Behold the Bridegroom cometh.' God neither will nor can suffer this wicked world much longer, He must strike in with the dreadful day, and punish the contemning of His word." [2]
Such records ought to be decisive, as far as the Reformers are concerned.
The foregoing considerations being sufficient to forbid the application of the judgment message to the past, we now turn to the view that locates it in a future age, beyond the second advent. The reason urged for locating the message in that time is the fact that John saw the angel flying through heaven immediately after he had seen the Lamb standing on Mount Zion with the 144,000, which is a future event. If the books of Revelation were one consecutive prophecy, there would be force in this reasoning; but as it consists of a series of independent lines of prophecy, and as it has already been shown that one such chain ends with verse 5 of this chapter, and a new one begins with verse 6, the foregoing view cannot be sustained. To show that the message cannot have its fulfillment in an age beyond the second advent it will be sufficient to give a few reasons.
The apostolic commission extended only to the "harvest," which is the end of the world. (Matthew 13: 39.) If therefore this angel with "the everlasting gospel" comes after that event, he preaches another gospel, and subjects himself to the anathema of Paul in Galatians 1: 8.
The second message cannot of course be given before the first, but the second message announces the fall of Babylon, and a voice is heard from heaven after that, says, "Come out of her, My people." How absurd to locate this after the second advent of Christ, seeing that all God's people, both living and dead, are at that time caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to be thenceforth forever with Him. (1 Thessalonians 4: 17.) They cannot be called out of Babylon after this. Christ does not take them to Babylon, but to the Father's house, where there are many mansions. (John 14: 2, 3.)
A glance at the third angel's message, which must be fulfilled in a future age if the first one is, will still further show the difficulty of this view. This message warns against the worship of the beast, which refers, beyond question, to the papal beast. But the papal beast is destroyed and given to the burning flame when Christ comes. (Daniel 7: 11; 2 Thessalonians 2: 8.) He goes into the lake of fire at that time, to disturb the saints of the Most High no more. (Revelation 19: 20.) Why should we involve ourselves in the inconsistency of locating a message against the worship of the beast at a time when the beast has ceased to exist, and his worship is impossible?
In Revelation 14: 13 a blessing is pronounced upon the dead which die in the Lord "from henceforth," that is, from the time the threefold message begins to be given. This is a complete demonstration of the fact that the message must be given prior to the first resurrection, for after that event all who have a part therein can die no more. We therefore dismiss this view concerning the future age as unscriptural and impossible.
The Judgment Hour a Distinctive Note.--
We are now prepared to examine the third view, that the message belongs to the present generation. The argument on the two preceding points has done much to establish the present proposition. If the message has not been given in the past, and cannot be given in the future after Christ comes, where else can we locate it but in the present generation, since we are obviously in the last days just preceding Christ's second coming? Indeed, the very nature of the message itself confines it to the last generation of men. It proclaims that the hour of God's judgment has come. The judgment pertains to the closing of the work of salvation for the world, and the proclamation announcing its approach can therefore be made only as we come near the end. It is further shown that the message belongs to the present time when it is proved that this angel is identical with the angel of Revelation 10, who utters his message in this generation. That the first angel of Revelation 14 and the angel of Revelation 10 are identical, see presentation in chapter 10.
The apostle Paul who before Felix the Roman governor reasoned of "judgment to come," proclaimed to his hearers on Mars' Hill that God "hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained." Acts 17: 31.
The prophecy of the 2300 days of Daniel 8 and 9 pointed unmistakably to this judgment hour. This longest time prophecy in the Scriptures reaches from 457 B.C. to A.D. 1844. Then, as we have in the study of Daniel's prophecy, the sanctuary was to be cleansed. This cleansing, according to the type in Leviticus 16, was the final work of atonement. That the work of the last day of the year in the typical service was none other than the day of judgment in type, will be seen from the following quotations:
"The great Day of Atonement, with its services so peculiar and impressive, fell on the tenth day of the seventh month. . . . It was a day wherein every man was called to fast and afflict his soul; to mournfully and penitently reflect upon his sinful ways and transgressions. . . . He who thus failed to mourn was threatened with the penalty of death, as a direct visitation of judgment from the hand of Jehovah." [3] "Let us note well the actual Day of Atonement. It was on the tenth day of the seventh month. The Jubilee also commenced on the same day and was ushered in by the blowing of the solemn trumpet; emblem of a God coming near in judgment." [4]
"It was supposed that on the New Year Day (Tishri 1) the divine decrees were written down, and that on the Day of Atonement (Tishri 10) they are sealed, so that the decade is known by the name of 'Terrible Days' and the 'Ten Penitential Days.' So awful was the Day of Atonement that we are told in a Jewish book of ritual that the very angels run to and fro in fear and trembling, saying, 'Lo, the Day of Judgment has come!' " [5]
" 'God, seated on His throne to judge the world . . . openeth the Book of Records; it is read, every man's signature being found therein. The great trumpet is sounded; a still small voice is heard; the angels shudder, saying, "This is the day of judgment." . . . On New Year's Day the decree is written; on the Day of Atonement it is sealed who shall live and who are to die.' " [6]
One might ask if such a message has been given to the world. Again, Is a message of this character being proclaimed to the world today? We believe that the great second advent movement of the past century answers exactly to the prophecy.
Second Advent of Christ Another Distinctive Note.--
As early as 1831, William Miller, of Low Hampton, New York, by an earnest and consistent study of the prophecies, was led to the conclusion that the gospel age was near its close. He placed the termination, which he thought would occur at the end of the prophetic periods, about the year 1843. This date was afterward extended to the autumn of 1844. We call his investigations a consistent study of the prophecies, because he adopted a sound rule of interpretation. This lies at the base of every religious reformation, and of every advance movement in prophetic language. This rule is to take all the language of the Scriptures, just as we would that of any other book, to be literal, unless the context or the laws of language require it to be understood figuratively; and to let scripture interpret scripture. True, on a vital point he made a mistake, as will be explained hereafter; but in principle, and in a great number of particulars, he was correct. He was on the right road, and made an immense advance over every theological system of his day. When he began to promulgate his views, they met with general favor, and were followed by great religious awakenings in different parts of the land.
Soon a multitude of colaborers gathered around his standard, among whom may be mentioned such men as F. G. Brown, Charles Fitch, Josiah Litch, J. V. Himes, and others, who were then eminent for piety, and men of influence in the religious world. The period marked by the years 1840-1844 was one of intense activity and great progress in this work. A message was proclaimed to the world which bore every characteristic of a fulfillment of the proclamation of Revelation 14: 6, 7. It was indeed that gospel of the kingdom which Christ declared should be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then the end should come. (Matthew 24: 14.) The fulfillment of either of these scriptures involves the preaching of the nearness of the end. The gospel could not be preached to all nations as a sign of the end, unless it was understood to be such, and the proximity of the end was at least one of its leading themes. The Advent Herald well expressed the truth on this point in the following language:
"As an indication of the approach of the end, there was, however, to be seen 'another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.' Revelation 14: 6. The burden of this angel was to be the same gospel which had been before proclaimed; but connected with it was the additional motive of the proximity of the kingdom--'saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.' Verse 7. No mere preaching of the gospel, without announcing its proximity, could fulfill this message." [7]
The persons who were engaged in this movement supposed it to be a fulfillment of prophecy, and claimed that they were giving the message of Revelation 14: 6, 7.
"I would now say to you this night, 'Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come,' in a strict and literal sense. We are now at the close of the last day concerning which the apostle says: 'Hereby we know that it is the last time.' . . . We are just at the evening of that day--we are at the last hour of that day; and it is very nigh, very nigh, even at the door. My dear hearers, I beseech you to consider that it is near at hand, at the very door, according to all who have studied this matter and have sought the teaching of God; . . . that they are all of one mind; that . . . the reign of Christ--is just at hand." [8]
"Revelation 14 represents the angel flying into the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. When the event takes place which is signified by this symbol, the day of the Lord's judgment is actually at hand, for the angel cries unto all men, 'Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.' " [9]
"It is the duty of all to call upon those to 'fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come,' but more especially is it the duty of God's ministers." [10]
But the general movement respecting the second advent of Christ, and the proclamation that "the hour of His judgment is come," was not confined to the Western Hemisphere. It was world-wide. It fulfilled in this respect the proclamation of the angel "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." Mourant Brock, an Anglican clergyman, and a strong leader in the advent movement in the British Isles, tells us:
"It is not merely in Great Britain that the expectation of the near return of the Redeemer is entertained, and the voice of warning raised, but also in America, India, and on the Continent of Europe. I was lately told by one of our German missionaries that in Wirtemburgh there is a Christian colony of several hundreds, one of the chief features of which is the looking for the Second Advent. And a Christian minister from near the shores of the Caspian Sea has told me, that there is the same daily expectation among his nation. They constantly speak of it as 'the day of consolation.' In a little publication, entitled 'The Millennium,' the writer says that he understands in America about 300 ministers of the Word are thus preaching 'the Gospel of the kingdom,' whilst in this country, he adds, about 700 of the Church of England are raising the same cry." [11]
Dr. Joseph Wolff traveled in Arabia, through the region inhabited by the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law. He speaks as follows of a book which he saw in Yemen:
"The Arabs of this place have a book called 'Seera,' which treats of the second coming of Christ, and His reign in glory!" "In Yemen . . . I spent six days with the children of Rechabites. They drink no wine, plant no vineyards, sow no seed, live in tents, and remember the word of Jonadab the son of Rechab. With them were children of Israel of the tribe of Dan, who reside near Yerim in Hatramawt [sic], who expected, in common with the children of Rechab, the speedy arrival of the Messiah in the clouds of heaven." [12]
D. T. Taylor speaks as follows concerning the wide diffusion of the advent hope:
"In Wurtemberg, there is a Christian colony numbering hundreds, who look for the speedy advent of Christ; also another of like belief on the shores of the Caspian; the Molokaners, a large body of dissenters from the Russian Greek Church, residing on the shores of the Baltic--a very pious people, of whom it is said, "Taking the Bible alone for their creed, the norm of their faith is simply the Holy Scriptures'--are characterized by the 'expectation of Christ's immediate and visible reign upon earth.' In Russia, the doctrine of Christ's coming and reign is preached to some extent, and received by many of the lower class. It has been extensively agitated in Germany, particularly in the south part among the Moravians. In Norway, charts and books on the advent have been circulated extensively, and the doctrine has been received by many. Among the Tartars in Tartary, there prevails an expectation of Christ's advent about this time. English and American publications on this doctrine have been sent to Holland, Germany, India, Ireland, Constantinople, Rome, and to nearly every missionary station on the globe. . . .
"Joseph Wolff, D. D., according to his journals, between the years 1821 and 1845, proclaimed the Lord's speedy advent in Palestine, Egypt, on the shores of the Read Sea, Mesopotamia, the Crimea, Persia, Georgia, throughout the Ottoman Empire, in Greece, Arabia, Turkistan, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Cashmere, Hindustan, Thibet, in Holland, Scotland, and Ireland, at Constantinople, Jerusalem, St. Helena, also on
shipboard in the Mediterranean, and at New York City to all denominations. He declares he has preached among Jews, Turks, Mohammedans, Parsees, Hindus, Chaldeans, Yeseedes, Syrians, Sabeans, to pashas, sheiks, shahs, the king of Organtsh and Bokhara, the queen of Greece, etc.; and of his extraordinary labors the Investigator says, 'No individual has, perhaps, given greater publicity to the doctrine of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ than this well-known missionary to the world. Wherever he goes, he proclaims the approaching advent of the Messiah in glory.' " [13]
Another prominent writer in the great second advent movement writes:
"But that the Lord's warning was in reality heard and that the voice did at that very time go forth in the church as to the nearness of the advent, is undeniable. It may be safely affirmed that from the year 1828 to 1833 . . . a greater number of tracts and works on the subject of the advent and declaring its nearness went forth to the public and were advertised in the leading religious journals of the day than had previously appeared in any whole century, in the whole period that had elapsed from the age of the apostles; yea, probably than in the whole of the centuries from that age." [14]
That the mistake made by Adventists in 1844 was not in the time, has been shown by the argument on the seventy weeks and the 2300 days in Daniel 9. It was in the nature of the event to occur at the end of those days, as has been shown in the argument on the sanctuary in Daniel 8. Supposing the earth to be the sanctuary, with its cleansing to be accomplished by fire at the revelation of the Lord from heaven, they naturally looked for the appearing of Christ at the end of the days.
Through their misapprehension on this point, they met with a crushing disappointment, predicted in the Scripture itself, though everything which the prophecy declared, and everything which they were warranted to expect, took place with absolute accuracy at that time. There the cleansing of the sanctuary began; but this did not bring Christ to this earth, for the earth is not the sanctuary; and its cleansing does not involve the destruction of the earth, for cleansing is accomplished with the blood of a sacrificial offering, not with fire. Here was the bitterness of the little book to the church. (Revelation 10: 10.) Here was the coming of one like the Son of man, not to this earth, but to the Ancient of days. (Daniel 7: 13, 14.) Here was the coming of the Bridegroom to the marriage, as set forth in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25.
The foolish virgins then said to the wise, "Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone ["going" margin] out." "While they went to buy, the Bridegroom came." This is not the coming of Christ to this earth, for it is a coming which precedes the marriage; but the marriage, that is, the reception of the kingdom (see comments on Revelation 21), must precede His coming to this earth to receive to Himself His people, who are to be the guests at the marriage supper. (Luke 19: 12; Revelation 19: 7-9.) This coming in the parable must therefore be the same as the coming to the Ancient of days spoken of in Daniel 7: 13, 14.
"And they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage: and the door was shut." After the Bridegroom comes to the marriage, there is an examination of guests to see who are ready to participate in the ceremony, according to the parable of Matthew 22: 1-13. As the last thing before the marriage, the King comes in to see the guests, to ascertain if all are properly arrayed in the wedding garment; and whoever, after due examination, is found with the garment on, and is accepted by the King, never after loses that garment, but is sure of immortality. But this question of fitness for the kingdom can be determined only by the investigative judgment of the sanctuary.
This closing work in the sanctuary, which is the cleansing of the sanctuary and the atonement is therefore nothing else than the examination of the guests to see who have on the wedding garment. Consequently until this work is finished, it is not determined who are "ready" to go in to the marriage. "They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage." By this short expression we are carried from the time when the Bridegroom comes to the marriage, entirely through the period of the cleansing of the sanctuary, or the examination of the guests. When this is concluded, probation will end, and the door will be shut.
The connection of the parable with the message under examination is now apparent. It brings to view a period of making ready the guests for the marriage of the Lamb, which is the work of judgment to which the message brings us when it declares, "The hour of His judgment is come." This message was to be proclaimed with a loud voice. It went forth with the power thus indicated between the years 1840-44, more especially in the autumn of the latter year, bringing us to the end of the 2300 days, when the work of judgment started as Christ began the work of cleansing the sanctuary.
As has been already shown, this work did not bring us to the close of probation but rather to the beginning of the investigative judgment. In this judgment hour we are now living. Today, as in the period to which reference has been made, the judgment message is being heralded to all the earth. Today the solemn judgment proclamation is sounding "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." Revelation 14: 6, 7.
Before passing on to the consideration of the second angel's message, let us contemplate for a moment the importance and sublime significance of the wonderful truth here so clearly revealed. We are standing on the very threshold of the eternal world. God's last message of mercy is now going to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. The final scenes in the great plan of salvation are even now being enacted in the sanctuary above. Think of it! The hour of God's judgment is come. The investigative judgment that concerns every soul and that immediately precedes the coming of Jesus, is now going forward in heaven. A wedding garment--the spotless robe of Christ's own righteousness--has at infinite cost been provided for all who will accept it. "How will it fare with thee and me when the King comes in?" "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John 2: 1.
*******
Luke {17:26} And as it was in the days of Noe, so
shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. {17:27} They
did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in
marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the
flood came, and destroyed them all. {17:28} Likewise also
as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; {17:29} But
the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and
brimstone from heaven, and destroyed [them] all. {17:30}
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is
revealed.
*******
Will everyone be aware of what is going on? NO.
People like to think they will have this miraculous awakening that will call them to stop their evil doings and turn to Christ. They believe that there is a last call, loud and clear telling them the train is about to leave the station- it's a last call they can heed and jump on in the last moment, reluctantly leaving behind their old lives.
It won't work that way.
It can't work that way.
The call has gone out, is going out and it's a life change not a last minute change. There will come a time when the call is over but no one wants to believe that. They want that train whistle to sound, blaring through the air interrupting all they're doing. In fact they want an air siren to announce that importance of what is going on. They want a bell to ring out so loudly they can't help but hear it even if they are sleeping soundly. The warning isn't coming like that, the warning has gone out and those waiting for the last call will be sadly disappointed.
The masses will be drinking, eating, working, playing as usual and that's something we dare not forget. The temptation to relax thinking we'll notice in time and be able to be right with Jesus in time is tremendous and has lulled many into a walking stupor. This stupor won't leave them - no sirens, no bells, not warning cries all because they are already sounding loud and clear and those who won't heed them now surely wouldn't heed them later.
May God open our hearts and minds to Him now! May we heed His abundant warnings. May we not be among those living in perfect delusion that all is well and life is what it is and will never be changed.
By His grace and by His mercy may we be found in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, being known by Him, ready to run and meet Him with the extra oil in our lamps, the Holy Spirit living in us.
Amen.
(Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith - Excerpt)
Verse 6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7 saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
The First Angel's Message.--
Another scene and another chain of prophetic events is introduced in these verses. We know that this is so, because the preceding verses of this chapter describe a company of the redeemed in the immortal state--a scene which constitutes a part of the prophetic chain beginning with the first verse of Revelation 12, and with which that chain of events closes, for no prophecy goes beyond the immortal state. Whenever we are brought in a line of prophecy to the end of the world, we know that that line ends there, and that what is introduced subsequently belongs to a new series of events. The book of Revelation in particular is composed of these independent prophetic chains, as has already been set forth in a number of examples.
The message described in these two verses is the first of what are known as "the three angels' messages of Revelation 14." We are justified by the prophecy itself in designating them the first, second, and third. In the verses that follow, the last one is distinctly called "the third angel," from which we infer that the one preceding was the second angel; and the one before that, the first angel.
These angels are evidently symbolic, for the work assigned them is that of preaching the everlasting gospel to the people. But the preaching of the gospel has not been entrusted to literal angels; it has been committed to men, who are responsible for this sacred trust placed in their hands. Each of these three angels, therefore, symbolizes those who are commissioned to make known to their fellow men the special truths which constitute the burden of these messages.
Literal angels are intensely interested in the work of grace among men, being sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. As there is order in all the movements and appointments of the heavenly world, it may not be fanciful to suppose that a literal angel has charge and oversight of the work of each message. (Hebrews 1: 14; Revelation 1: 1; 22: 16.)
*Heb. {1:13} But to which of
the angels said he at any times, Sit on my right hand, until I
make thine enemies thy footstool? {1:14} Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall
be heirs of salvation?
Rev. {1:1} The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must
shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified [it] by his
angel unto his servant John
Rev. {22:16} I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you
these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David, [and] the bright and morning star.*
In these symbols we see the sharp contrast the Bible draws between earthly and heavenly things. Wherever earthly governments are to be represented, even the best of them, the most appropriate symbol that can be found is a wild beast. But when the work of God is to be set forth, an angel clad in beauty and girt with power is used to symbolize it.
The importance of the work set forth in Revelation 14: 6-12 will be apparent to anyone who attentively studies it. Whenever these messages are to be proclaimed, they must from the very nature of the case constitute the great theme of interest for that generation. We do not mean that the great mass of mankind then living will give them attention, for in every age of the world the present truth for that time has been too often overlooked. But they constitute the theme to which the people will pay most earnest regard if they are awake to what concerns their highest interests.
When God commissions His ministers to announce to the world that the hour of his judgment is come, that Babylon has fallen, and that whoever worships the beast and his image must drink of His wrath poured out unmingled into the cup of His indignation--a threat more terrible than any other that can be found in the Scriptures--no man, except at the peril of his soul, can treat these warnings as nonessential, or pass them by with neglect and disregard. Hence the necessity in every age for the most earnest endeavor to understand the work of the Lord, lest we lose the benefit of the present truth. This is especially true today, when so many evidences betoken the soon coming of earth's final crisis.
This angel of Revelation 14: 6 is called "another angel," from the fact that John had previously seen an angel flying through heaven in a similar manner, as described in Revelation 8: 13, proclaiming that the last three of the series of seven trumpets were woe trumpets. (See comments on Revelation 8: 13.)
The Time of the Message.--The first point to be determined is the time when this message is to be given. When may the proclamation, "The hour of His judgment is come," be expected? The possibility that it may be in our own day makes it essential for us to examine this question with serious attention. But more positive proof that this is so will appear as we proceed. It should set every pulse bounding, and every heart beating high with a sense of the sublime importance of this hour in which we live.
Only three positions are possible on this question of the time of this prophecy. These positions are that this message has been given in the past, as in the days of the apostles, or in the days of the Reformers; that it is to be given in a future age; or that it belongs to the present generation.
We inquire first respecting the past. The very nature of the messages forbids the idea that it could have been given in the days of the apostles. They did not proclaim that the hour of God's judgment had come. If they had, it would not have been true, and their message would have been stamped with the infamy of falsehood. They did have something to say respecting the judgment, but they pointed to an indefinite future for its accomplishment. In Christ's own words, the final judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre, Sidon, Chorazin, and Capernaum, was located indefinitely in the future from that day. (Matthew 10: 15; 11: 21-24.) Paul declared to the superstitious Athenians that God had appointed a day in which He would judge the world. (Acts 17: 31.) He reasoned before Felix "of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Acts 24: 25. To the Romans he wrote concerning a day when God should judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. (Romans 2: 16.) He pointed the Corinthians forward to a time when "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." 2 Corinthians 5: 10. James wrote to the brethren scattered abroad that they were at some time in the future to be judged by the law of liberty. (James 2: 1 2.) Both Peter and Jude speak of the first rebel angels as reserved unto the judgment of the great day, still in the future at that time, to which the ungodly in this world are also reserved. (2 Peter 2: 4, 9; Jude 6.) How different is all this from ringing out upon the world the startling declaration that "the hour of His judgment is come!" --a sound which must be heard when the solemn message before us is given.
From the days of the apostles nothing has taken place which anyone could construe as the fulfillment of this first message, until we come to the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Some claim that Luther and his colaborers gave the first message, and that the two following message have been given since his day. This is a question to be decided by historical fact rather than by argument. Hence we inquire for the evidence that the Reformers mad any such proclamation. Their teaching has been fully recorded, and their writings preserved. When and where did they arouse the world with the proclamation that the hour of God's judgment had come? We find no record that such was the burden of their preaching.
"The above passage [Revelation 14: 6-11] is by some interpreters supposed to relate to the period of the Reformation, and to have been fulfilled in the preaching of Luther and the other eminent persons who were raised up at that time to proclaim the errors of the Romish Church. . . . But it appears to me that there are insuperable objections to these interpretations. The first angel is instrumental in preaching the gospel much more extensively than the Reformers could do. So far were they from preaching to all the inhabitants of the earth that they did not even preach through the whole of Christian Europe. The Reformation was not permitted to enter into some of the most extensive kingdoms of the Romish jurisdiction. It was entirely excluded from Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Neither could it be said, in consistence with truth, at the time of the Reformation that 'the hour of God's judgment is come.' . . . The hour of God's judgment is a time well known and exactly defined in the chronological prophecies of Daniel and John." [1]
"I hope," said Luther, "the last day of judgment is not far, I persuade myself verily it will not be absent full three hundred years longer; for God's word will decrease and be darkened for want of true shepherds and servants of God. The voice will sound and heard erelong: 'Behold the Bridegroom cometh.' God neither will nor can suffer this wicked world much longer, He must strike in with the dreadful day, and punish the contemning of His word." [2]
Such records ought to be decisive, as far as the Reformers are concerned.
The foregoing considerations being sufficient to forbid the application of the judgment message to the past, we now turn to the view that locates it in a future age, beyond the second advent. The reason urged for locating the message in that time is the fact that John saw the angel flying through heaven immediately after he had seen the Lamb standing on Mount Zion with the 144,000, which is a future event. If the books of Revelation were one consecutive prophecy, there would be force in this reasoning; but as it consists of a series of independent lines of prophecy, and as it has already been shown that one such chain ends with verse 5 of this chapter, and a new one begins with verse 6, the foregoing view cannot be sustained. To show that the message cannot have its fulfillment in an age beyond the second advent it will be sufficient to give a few reasons.
The apostolic commission extended only to the "harvest," which is the end of the world. (Matthew 13: 39.) If therefore this angel with "the everlasting gospel" comes after that event, he preaches another gospel, and subjects himself to the anathema of Paul in Galatians 1: 8.
The second message cannot of course be given before the first, but the second message announces the fall of Babylon, and a voice is heard from heaven after that, says, "Come out of her, My people." How absurd to locate this after the second advent of Christ, seeing that all God's people, both living and dead, are at that time caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to be thenceforth forever with Him. (1 Thessalonians 4: 17.) They cannot be called out of Babylon after this. Christ does not take them to Babylon, but to the Father's house, where there are many mansions. (John 14: 2, 3.)
A glance at the third angel's message, which must be fulfilled in a future age if the first one is, will still further show the difficulty of this view. This message warns against the worship of the beast, which refers, beyond question, to the papal beast. But the papal beast is destroyed and given to the burning flame when Christ comes. (Daniel 7: 11; 2 Thessalonians 2: 8.) He goes into the lake of fire at that time, to disturb the saints of the Most High no more. (Revelation 19: 20.) Why should we involve ourselves in the inconsistency of locating a message against the worship of the beast at a time when the beast has ceased to exist, and his worship is impossible?
In Revelation 14: 13 a blessing is pronounced upon the dead which die in the Lord "from henceforth," that is, from the time the threefold message begins to be given. This is a complete demonstration of the fact that the message must be given prior to the first resurrection, for after that event all who have a part therein can die no more. We therefore dismiss this view concerning the future age as unscriptural and impossible.
The Judgment Hour a Distinctive Note.--
We are now prepared to examine the third view, that the message belongs to the present generation. The argument on the two preceding points has done much to establish the present proposition. If the message has not been given in the past, and cannot be given in the future after Christ comes, where else can we locate it but in the present generation, since we are obviously in the last days just preceding Christ's second coming? Indeed, the very nature of the message itself confines it to the last generation of men. It proclaims that the hour of God's judgment has come. The judgment pertains to the closing of the work of salvation for the world, and the proclamation announcing its approach can therefore be made only as we come near the end. It is further shown that the message belongs to the present time when it is proved that this angel is identical with the angel of Revelation 10, who utters his message in this generation. That the first angel of Revelation 14 and the angel of Revelation 10 are identical, see presentation in chapter 10.
The apostle Paul who before Felix the Roman governor reasoned of "judgment to come," proclaimed to his hearers on Mars' Hill that God "hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained." Acts 17: 31.
The prophecy of the 2300 days of Daniel 8 and 9 pointed unmistakably to this judgment hour. This longest time prophecy in the Scriptures reaches from 457 B.C. to A.D. 1844. Then, as we have in the study of Daniel's prophecy, the sanctuary was to be cleansed. This cleansing, according to the type in Leviticus 16, was the final work of atonement. That the work of the last day of the year in the typical service was none other than the day of judgment in type, will be seen from the following quotations:
"The great Day of Atonement, with its services so peculiar and impressive, fell on the tenth day of the seventh month. . . . It was a day wherein every man was called to fast and afflict his soul; to mournfully and penitently reflect upon his sinful ways and transgressions. . . . He who thus failed to mourn was threatened with the penalty of death, as a direct visitation of judgment from the hand of Jehovah." [3] "Let us note well the actual Day of Atonement. It was on the tenth day of the seventh month. The Jubilee also commenced on the same day and was ushered in by the blowing of the solemn trumpet; emblem of a God coming near in judgment." [4]
"It was supposed that on the New Year Day (Tishri 1) the divine decrees were written down, and that on the Day of Atonement (Tishri 10) they are sealed, so that the decade is known by the name of 'Terrible Days' and the 'Ten Penitential Days.' So awful was the Day of Atonement that we are told in a Jewish book of ritual that the very angels run to and fro in fear and trembling, saying, 'Lo, the Day of Judgment has come!' " [5]
" 'God, seated on His throne to judge the world . . . openeth the Book of Records; it is read, every man's signature being found therein. The great trumpet is sounded; a still small voice is heard; the angels shudder, saying, "This is the day of judgment." . . . On New Year's Day the decree is written; on the Day of Atonement it is sealed who shall live and who are to die.' " [6]
One might ask if such a message has been given to the world. Again, Is a message of this character being proclaimed to the world today? We believe that the great second advent movement of the past century answers exactly to the prophecy.
Second Advent of Christ Another Distinctive Note.--
As early as 1831, William Miller, of Low Hampton, New York, by an earnest and consistent study of the prophecies, was led to the conclusion that the gospel age was near its close. He placed the termination, which he thought would occur at the end of the prophetic periods, about the year 1843. This date was afterward extended to the autumn of 1844. We call his investigations a consistent study of the prophecies, because he adopted a sound rule of interpretation. This lies at the base of every religious reformation, and of every advance movement in prophetic language. This rule is to take all the language of the Scriptures, just as we would that of any other book, to be literal, unless the context or the laws of language require it to be understood figuratively; and to let scripture interpret scripture. True, on a vital point he made a mistake, as will be explained hereafter; but in principle, and in a great number of particulars, he was correct. He was on the right road, and made an immense advance over every theological system of his day. When he began to promulgate his views, they met with general favor, and were followed by great religious awakenings in different parts of the land.
Soon a multitude of colaborers gathered around his standard, among whom may be mentioned such men as F. G. Brown, Charles Fitch, Josiah Litch, J. V. Himes, and others, who were then eminent for piety, and men of influence in the religious world. The period marked by the years 1840-1844 was one of intense activity and great progress in this work. A message was proclaimed to the world which bore every characteristic of a fulfillment of the proclamation of Revelation 14: 6, 7. It was indeed that gospel of the kingdom which Christ declared should be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then the end should come. (Matthew 24: 14.) The fulfillment of either of these scriptures involves the preaching of the nearness of the end. The gospel could not be preached to all nations as a sign of the end, unless it was understood to be such, and the proximity of the end was at least one of its leading themes. The Advent Herald well expressed the truth on this point in the following language:
"As an indication of the approach of the end, there was, however, to be seen 'another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.' Revelation 14: 6. The burden of this angel was to be the same gospel which had been before proclaimed; but connected with it was the additional motive of the proximity of the kingdom--'saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.' Verse 7. No mere preaching of the gospel, without announcing its proximity, could fulfill this message." [7]
The persons who were engaged in this movement supposed it to be a fulfillment of prophecy, and claimed that they were giving the message of Revelation 14: 6, 7.
"I would now say to you this night, 'Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come,' in a strict and literal sense. We are now at the close of the last day concerning which the apostle says: 'Hereby we know that it is the last time.' . . . We are just at the evening of that day--we are at the last hour of that day; and it is very nigh, very nigh, even at the door. My dear hearers, I beseech you to consider that it is near at hand, at the very door, according to all who have studied this matter and have sought the teaching of God; . . . that they are all of one mind; that . . . the reign of Christ--is just at hand." [8]
"Revelation 14 represents the angel flying into the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. When the event takes place which is signified by this symbol, the day of the Lord's judgment is actually at hand, for the angel cries unto all men, 'Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.' " [9]
"It is the duty of all to call upon those to 'fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come,' but more especially is it the duty of God's ministers." [10]
But the general movement respecting the second advent of Christ, and the proclamation that "the hour of His judgment is come," was not confined to the Western Hemisphere. It was world-wide. It fulfilled in this respect the proclamation of the angel "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." Mourant Brock, an Anglican clergyman, and a strong leader in the advent movement in the British Isles, tells us:
"It is not merely in Great Britain that the expectation of the near return of the Redeemer is entertained, and the voice of warning raised, but also in America, India, and on the Continent of Europe. I was lately told by one of our German missionaries that in Wirtemburgh there is a Christian colony of several hundreds, one of the chief features of which is the looking for the Second Advent. And a Christian minister from near the shores of the Caspian Sea has told me, that there is the same daily expectation among his nation. They constantly speak of it as 'the day of consolation.' In a little publication, entitled 'The Millennium,' the writer says that he understands in America about 300 ministers of the Word are thus preaching 'the Gospel of the kingdom,' whilst in this country, he adds, about 700 of the Church of England are raising the same cry." [11]
Dr. Joseph Wolff traveled in Arabia, through the region inhabited by the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law. He speaks as follows of a book which he saw in Yemen:
"The Arabs of this place have a book called 'Seera,' which treats of the second coming of Christ, and His reign in glory!" "In Yemen . . . I spent six days with the children of Rechabites. They drink no wine, plant no vineyards, sow no seed, live in tents, and remember the word of Jonadab the son of Rechab. With them were children of Israel of the tribe of Dan, who reside near Yerim in Hatramawt [sic], who expected, in common with the children of Rechab, the speedy arrival of the Messiah in the clouds of heaven." [12]
D. T. Taylor speaks as follows concerning the wide diffusion of the advent hope:
"In Wurtemberg, there is a Christian colony numbering hundreds, who look for the speedy advent of Christ; also another of like belief on the shores of the Caspian; the Molokaners, a large body of dissenters from the Russian Greek Church, residing on the shores of the Baltic--a very pious people, of whom it is said, "Taking the Bible alone for their creed, the norm of their faith is simply the Holy Scriptures'--are characterized by the 'expectation of Christ's immediate and visible reign upon earth.' In Russia, the doctrine of Christ's coming and reign is preached to some extent, and received by many of the lower class. It has been extensively agitated in Germany, particularly in the south part among the Moravians. In Norway, charts and books on the advent have been circulated extensively, and the doctrine has been received by many. Among the Tartars in Tartary, there prevails an expectation of Christ's advent about this time. English and American publications on this doctrine have been sent to Holland, Germany, India, Ireland, Constantinople, Rome, and to nearly every missionary station on the globe. . . .
"Joseph Wolff, D. D., according to his journals, between the years 1821 and 1845, proclaimed the Lord's speedy advent in Palestine, Egypt, on the shores of the Read Sea, Mesopotamia, the Crimea, Persia, Georgia, throughout the Ottoman Empire, in Greece, Arabia, Turkistan, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Cashmere, Hindustan, Thibet, in Holland, Scotland, and Ireland, at Constantinople, Jerusalem, St. Helena, also on
shipboard in the Mediterranean, and at New York City to all denominations. He declares he has preached among Jews, Turks, Mohammedans, Parsees, Hindus, Chaldeans, Yeseedes, Syrians, Sabeans, to pashas, sheiks, shahs, the king of Organtsh and Bokhara, the queen of Greece, etc.; and of his extraordinary labors the Investigator says, 'No individual has, perhaps, given greater publicity to the doctrine of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ than this well-known missionary to the world. Wherever he goes, he proclaims the approaching advent of the Messiah in glory.' " [13]
Another prominent writer in the great second advent movement writes:
"But that the Lord's warning was in reality heard and that the voice did at that very time go forth in the church as to the nearness of the advent, is undeniable. It may be safely affirmed that from the year 1828 to 1833 . . . a greater number of tracts and works on the subject of the advent and declaring its nearness went forth to the public and were advertised in the leading religious journals of the day than had previously appeared in any whole century, in the whole period that had elapsed from the age of the apostles; yea, probably than in the whole of the centuries from that age." [14]
That the mistake made by Adventists in 1844 was not in the time, has been shown by the argument on the seventy weeks and the 2300 days in Daniel 9. It was in the nature of the event to occur at the end of those days, as has been shown in the argument on the sanctuary in Daniel 8. Supposing the earth to be the sanctuary, with its cleansing to be accomplished by fire at the revelation of the Lord from heaven, they naturally looked for the appearing of Christ at the end of the days.
Through their misapprehension on this point, they met with a crushing disappointment, predicted in the Scripture itself, though everything which the prophecy declared, and everything which they were warranted to expect, took place with absolute accuracy at that time. There the cleansing of the sanctuary began; but this did not bring Christ to this earth, for the earth is not the sanctuary; and its cleansing does not involve the destruction of the earth, for cleansing is accomplished with the blood of a sacrificial offering, not with fire. Here was the bitterness of the little book to the church. (Revelation 10: 10.) Here was the coming of one like the Son of man, not to this earth, but to the Ancient of days. (Daniel 7: 13, 14.) Here was the coming of the Bridegroom to the marriage, as set forth in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25.
The foolish virgins then said to the wise, "Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone ["going" margin] out." "While they went to buy, the Bridegroom came." This is not the coming of Christ to this earth, for it is a coming which precedes the marriage; but the marriage, that is, the reception of the kingdom (see comments on Revelation 21), must precede His coming to this earth to receive to Himself His people, who are to be the guests at the marriage supper. (Luke 19: 12; Revelation 19: 7-9.) This coming in the parable must therefore be the same as the coming to the Ancient of days spoken of in Daniel 7: 13, 14.
"And they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage: and the door was shut." After the Bridegroom comes to the marriage, there is an examination of guests to see who are ready to participate in the ceremony, according to the parable of Matthew 22: 1-13. As the last thing before the marriage, the King comes in to see the guests, to ascertain if all are properly arrayed in the wedding garment; and whoever, after due examination, is found with the garment on, and is accepted by the King, never after loses that garment, but is sure of immortality. But this question of fitness for the kingdom can be determined only by the investigative judgment of the sanctuary.
This closing work in the sanctuary, which is the cleansing of the sanctuary and the atonement is therefore nothing else than the examination of the guests to see who have on the wedding garment. Consequently until this work is finished, it is not determined who are "ready" to go in to the marriage. "They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage." By this short expression we are carried from the time when the Bridegroom comes to the marriage, entirely through the period of the cleansing of the sanctuary, or the examination of the guests. When this is concluded, probation will end, and the door will be shut.
The connection of the parable with the message under examination is now apparent. It brings to view a period of making ready the guests for the marriage of the Lamb, which is the work of judgment to which the message brings us when it declares, "The hour of His judgment is come." This message was to be proclaimed with a loud voice. It went forth with the power thus indicated between the years 1840-44, more especially in the autumn of the latter year, bringing us to the end of the 2300 days, when the work of judgment started as Christ began the work of cleansing the sanctuary.
As has been already shown, this work did not bring us to the close of probation but rather to the beginning of the investigative judgment. In this judgment hour we are now living. Today, as in the period to which reference has been made, the judgment message is being heralded to all the earth. Today the solemn judgment proclamation is sounding "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." Revelation 14: 6, 7.
Before passing on to the consideration of the second angel's message, let us contemplate for a moment the importance and sublime significance of the wonderful truth here so clearly revealed. We are standing on the very threshold of the eternal world. God's last message of mercy is now going to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. The final scenes in the great plan of salvation are even now being enacted in the sanctuary above. Think of it! The hour of God's judgment is come. The investigative judgment that concerns every soul and that immediately precedes the coming of Jesus, is now going forward in heaven. A wedding garment--the spotless robe of Christ's own righteousness--has at infinite cost been provided for all who will accept it. "How will it fare with thee and me when the King comes in?" "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John 2: 1.
*******
Luke {17:26} And as it was in the days of Noe, so
shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. {17:27} They
did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in
marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the
flood came, and destroyed them all. {17:28} Likewise also
as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; {17:29} But
the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and
brimstone from heaven, and destroyed [them] all. {17:30}
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is
revealed.
*******
Will everyone be aware of what is going on? NO.
People like to think they will have this miraculous awakening that will call them to stop their evil doings and turn to Christ. They believe that there is a last call, loud and clear telling them the train is about to leave the station- it's a last call they can heed and jump on in the last moment, reluctantly leaving behind their old lives.
It won't work that way.
It can't work that way.
The call has gone out, is going out and it's a life change not a last minute change. There will come a time when the call is over but no one wants to believe that. They want that train whistle to sound, blaring through the air interrupting all they're doing. In fact they want an air siren to announce that importance of what is going on. They want a bell to ring out so loudly they can't help but hear it even if they are sleeping soundly. The warning isn't coming like that, the warning has gone out and those waiting for the last call will be sadly disappointed.
The masses will be drinking, eating, working, playing as usual and that's something we dare not forget. The temptation to relax thinking we'll notice in time and be able to be right with Jesus in time is tremendous and has lulled many into a walking stupor. This stupor won't leave them - no sirens, no bells, not warning cries all because they are already sounding loud and clear and those who won't heed them now surely wouldn't heed them later.
May God open our hearts and minds to Him now! May we heed His abundant warnings. May we not be among those living in perfect delusion that all is well and life is what it is and will never be changed.
By His grace and by His mercy may we be found in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, being known by Him, ready to run and meet Him with the extra oil in our lamps, the Holy Spirit living in us.
Amen.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
God's Final Warning to a Wicked World
Revelation 14
Excerpts from--
Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
Revelation Chapter XIV
God's Final Warning to a Wicked World
Verse 1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: 3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. 5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
*
A wonderful feature of the prophetic word is that the people of God are never brought into positions of trial and difficulty, and there abandoned. After taking them into scenes of danger, the voice of prophecy does not leave them there to guess their fate, in doubt, perhaps despair, as to the final result. Rather, it takes them through to the end, and reveals the final triumph of the faithful.
The first five verses of Revelation 14 are an example of this. The thirteenth chapter closed with a view of the people of God, a small and apparently weak and defenseless company, in deadly conflict with the mightiest powers of earth which the dragon is able to muster to his service. A decree is passed, backed up by the supreme power of the land, that they shall worship the image and receive the mark, under pain of death if they refuse to comply. What can the people of God do in such a conflict and in such an extremity? What will become of them? Glance forward with the apostle to the very next scene in the unfolding drama, and what do we behold?--The same company standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb, a victorious company, playing on symphonic harps in the court of heaven. Thus are we assured that when the time of our conflict with the powers of darkness comes, deliverance is not only certain, but will immediately be brought to the people of God.
The 144,000--
We believe that the 144,000 here seen on Mount Zion are the saints who were in Revelation 13 brought to view as objects of the wrath of the beast and his image.
They are identical with those sealed, as described in Revelation 7, who have already been shown to be the righteous who are alive at the second coming of Christ.
They are "redeemed from among men" (verse 4), an expression which can be applicable only to those who are translated from among the living. Paul labored, if by any means he might attain to the resurrection from among the dead. (Philippians 3: 11.) This is the hope of those who sleep in Jesus--a resurrection from the dead. A redemption from among men, from among the living, must mean a different thing, and can mean only one thing, and that is translation. Hence the 144,000 are living saints, who will be translated at the second coming of Christ. (See comment on verse 13.)
On what Mount Zion does John see this company standing?--
The Mount Zion above; for the song of harpers, which no doubt is uttered by these very ones, is heard from heaven. This is the same Zion from which the Lord utters His voice when He speaks to His people in close connection with the coming of the Son of man. (Joel 3: 16, Hebrews 12: 25-28; Revelation 16: 17.) An acceptance of the fact that there is a Mount Zion in heaven, and a Jerusalem above, would be a powerful antidote for the false doctrine of a second probation and a millennium of peace on earth.
Only a few more particulars respecting the 144,000, in addition to those given in Revelation 7, will claim our attention:
They have the name of the Lamb's Father written in their foreheads. In Revelation 7, they are said to have the seal of God in their foreheads. An important key to an understanding of the seal of God is thus furnished, for we at once perceive that the Father regards His name as His seal. That commandment of the law which contains God's name is therefore the seal of the law. The Sabbath commandment is the only one that contains the descriptive title which distinguishes the true God from all false gods. Wherever this was placed, there the Father's name was said to be. (Deuteronomy 12: 5, 14, 18, 21; 14: 23; 16: 2, 6; etc.) Therefore whoever truly keeps this commandment has the seal of the living God.
They sing a new song which no other company is able to learn. In Revelation 15: 3, it is called the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. The song of Moses, as may be seen by reference to Exodus 15, was a song of experience and deliverance. Therefore the song of the 144,000 is the song of their deliverance. No others can join in it, for no other company will have had an experience like theirs.
They "were not defiled with women." A woman is in Scripture the symbol of a church, a virtuous woman representing a pure church, a corrupt woman, an apostate church. It is, then, a characteristic of this company that at the time of their deliverance they are not defiled with the fallen churches of the land, nor do they have any connection with them. Yet we are not to understand that they never had any connection with these churches, for it is only at a certain time that people become defiled by them. In Revelation 18: 4 we find a call issued to the people of God while they are still in Babylon, to come out lest they become partakers of her sins. Heeding that call, and leaving her connection, they escape the defilement of her sins. So of the 144,000: though some of them may have once had a connection with corrupt churches, they sever that connection with corrupt churches, they sever that connection when it would become sin to retain it longer.
They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. We understand that this is spoken of them in their redeemed state. They are the special companions of their glorified Lord in the kingdom. Of the same company and the same time, we read, "The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." Revelation 7: 17.
They are "first fruits unto God and to the Lamb." This term appears to be applied to different ones to denote special conditions. Christ is the first fruits as the antitype of the wavesheaf. The first receivers of the gospel are called by James a kind of first fruits. (James 1: 18.) So the 144,000, being prepared for the heavenly garner here on the earth during the troublous scenes of the last days, being translated to heaven without seeing death, and occupying a pre-eminent position, are in this sense called the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. With this description of the 144,000 triumphant, the line of prophecy which began with Revelation 12 comes to a close.
*******
May God bless us and help us to be among those who make up the 144,000, or those who sleep in Christ. Whatever our lot, may God help us because the last days are going to be unlike any other time. We can imagine how awful times past were and we find it hard to believe things can get to that point let alone worse. We live in civilized times, we cry out! Yet, while others were living in their times they didn't live thinking they were uncivilized. For their time they were what they were and while in some respects things were atrocious, in many respects really, people haven't changed- just their ability to hide their awfulness and cover it up under layers and layers of pretense and fallacies, and we call it civilized.
There is so much in the prophecy of Revelation that seems improbable, but even Nebuchadnezzer believed that his kingdom would never fall- history proves it did. The same with all the kingdoms that followed, down to a time when there is no one predominant kingdom- which was also predicted. So if all that history was predicted we have only one conclusion-- the rest of the prophecy will become history and we are part of that as yet unfulfilled history.
May God bless and keep us now and always, by His mercy and His grace in Jesus.
Amen.
Excerpts from--
Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
Revelation Chapter XIV
God's Final Warning to a Wicked World
Verse 1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: 3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. 5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
*
A wonderful feature of the prophetic word is that the people of God are never brought into positions of trial and difficulty, and there abandoned. After taking them into scenes of danger, the voice of prophecy does not leave them there to guess their fate, in doubt, perhaps despair, as to the final result. Rather, it takes them through to the end, and reveals the final triumph of the faithful.
The first five verses of Revelation 14 are an example of this. The thirteenth chapter closed with a view of the people of God, a small and apparently weak and defenseless company, in deadly conflict with the mightiest powers of earth which the dragon is able to muster to his service. A decree is passed, backed up by the supreme power of the land, that they shall worship the image and receive the mark, under pain of death if they refuse to comply. What can the people of God do in such a conflict and in such an extremity? What will become of them? Glance forward with the apostle to the very next scene in the unfolding drama, and what do we behold?--The same company standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb, a victorious company, playing on symphonic harps in the court of heaven. Thus are we assured that when the time of our conflict with the powers of darkness comes, deliverance is not only certain, but will immediately be brought to the people of God.
The 144,000--
We believe that the 144,000 here seen on Mount Zion are the saints who were in Revelation 13 brought to view as objects of the wrath of the beast and his image.
They are identical with those sealed, as described in Revelation 7, who have already been shown to be the righteous who are alive at the second coming of Christ.
They are "redeemed from among men" (verse 4), an expression which can be applicable only to those who are translated from among the living. Paul labored, if by any means he might attain to the resurrection from among the dead. (Philippians 3: 11.) This is the hope of those who sleep in Jesus--a resurrection from the dead. A redemption from among men, from among the living, must mean a different thing, and can mean only one thing, and that is translation. Hence the 144,000 are living saints, who will be translated at the second coming of Christ. (See comment on verse 13.)
On what Mount Zion does John see this company standing?--
The Mount Zion above; for the song of harpers, which no doubt is uttered by these very ones, is heard from heaven. This is the same Zion from which the Lord utters His voice when He speaks to His people in close connection with the coming of the Son of man. (Joel 3: 16, Hebrews 12: 25-28; Revelation 16: 17.) An acceptance of the fact that there is a Mount Zion in heaven, and a Jerusalem above, would be a powerful antidote for the false doctrine of a second probation and a millennium of peace on earth.
Only a few more particulars respecting the 144,000, in addition to those given in Revelation 7, will claim our attention:
They have the name of the Lamb's Father written in their foreheads. In Revelation 7, they are said to have the seal of God in their foreheads. An important key to an understanding of the seal of God is thus furnished, for we at once perceive that the Father regards His name as His seal. That commandment of the law which contains God's name is therefore the seal of the law. The Sabbath commandment is the only one that contains the descriptive title which distinguishes the true God from all false gods. Wherever this was placed, there the Father's name was said to be. (Deuteronomy 12: 5, 14, 18, 21; 14: 23; 16: 2, 6; etc.) Therefore whoever truly keeps this commandment has the seal of the living God.
They sing a new song which no other company is able to learn. In Revelation 15: 3, it is called the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. The song of Moses, as may be seen by reference to Exodus 15, was a song of experience and deliverance. Therefore the song of the 144,000 is the song of their deliverance. No others can join in it, for no other company will have had an experience like theirs.
They "were not defiled with women." A woman is in Scripture the symbol of a church, a virtuous woman representing a pure church, a corrupt woman, an apostate church. It is, then, a characteristic of this company that at the time of their deliverance they are not defiled with the fallen churches of the land, nor do they have any connection with them. Yet we are not to understand that they never had any connection with these churches, for it is only at a certain time that people become defiled by them. In Revelation 18: 4 we find a call issued to the people of God while they are still in Babylon, to come out lest they become partakers of her sins. Heeding that call, and leaving her connection, they escape the defilement of her sins. So of the 144,000: though some of them may have once had a connection with corrupt churches, they sever that connection with corrupt churches, they sever that connection when it would become sin to retain it longer.
They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. We understand that this is spoken of them in their redeemed state. They are the special companions of their glorified Lord in the kingdom. Of the same company and the same time, we read, "The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." Revelation 7: 17.
They are "first fruits unto God and to the Lamb." This term appears to be applied to different ones to denote special conditions. Christ is the first fruits as the antitype of the wavesheaf. The first receivers of the gospel are called by James a kind of first fruits. (James 1: 18.) So the 144,000, being prepared for the heavenly garner here on the earth during the troublous scenes of the last days, being translated to heaven without seeing death, and occupying a pre-eminent position, are in this sense called the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. With this description of the 144,000 triumphant, the line of prophecy which began with Revelation 12 comes to a close.
*******
May God bless us and help us to be among those who make up the 144,000, or those who sleep in Christ. Whatever our lot, may God help us because the last days are going to be unlike any other time. We can imagine how awful times past were and we find it hard to believe things can get to that point let alone worse. We live in civilized times, we cry out! Yet, while others were living in their times they didn't live thinking they were uncivilized. For their time they were what they were and while in some respects things were atrocious, in many respects really, people haven't changed- just their ability to hide their awfulness and cover it up under layers and layers of pretense and fallacies, and we call it civilized.
There is so much in the prophecy of Revelation that seems improbable, but even Nebuchadnezzer believed that his kingdom would never fall- history proves it did. The same with all the kingdoms that followed, down to a time when there is no one predominant kingdom- which was also predicted. So if all that history was predicted we have only one conclusion-- the rest of the prophecy will become history and we are part of that as yet unfulfilled history.
May God bless and keep us now and always, by His mercy and His grace in Jesus.
Amen.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Mark of the Beast II
Revelation
{13:15} And he had power
to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would
not worship the image of the beast should be killed. {13:16}
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free
and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their
foreheads: {13:17} And that no man might buy or sell, save
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name. {13:18} Here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is
the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred
threescore [and] six
*We are talking about the mark of the beast. A mark that in the very end time will be received by All but the very elect. A mark that will enable a person to buy and sell and by buying and selling we live don't we- as a rule. We buy things to survive. We buy property and pay yearly taxes (buying). We buy electricity. We buy oil or pay for gas. We buy telephone usage, communication. We buy food. Even a lot of people who want to get back to nature and such to live off the land are paying taxes on that land they are living off of. They most likely are making trips to the store for things they can't manufacture on their own- little essentials. Back in the pioneer days they'd make yearly, or bi-yearly trips to stores to stock up on staples. There was a time when people lived off the land so to speak and solely off the land- but it is very, very rare any longer. The mark of the beast will be something that keeps us from buying or selling. It will be a defining mark. It will be a mark of alligence of sorts because without it you can't take part in the normal, every day activity of buying and selling.
Let's go back to the book - Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith and just see what he has to say about it all. Not that it is all revelant in every aspect but God will guide us to all the understanding we need to live in Him. By His Grace.
*******
Who Receives the Mark of the Beast?--It will be said again, Then all Sundaykeepers have the mark of the beast; then all the good of past ages who kept this day had the mark of the beast; then Luther, Whitefield, the Wesleys, and all who have done a good and noble work of reformation, had the mark of the beast; then all the blessings that have been poured upon the reformed churches have been poured upon those who had the mark of the beast; and all Christians of the present day who are keeping Sunday as the Sabbath, have the mark of the beast. We answer, Not so! We are sorry to say that some professedly religious teachers, though many times corrected, persist in misrepresenting us on this point. We have never so held; we have never so taught. Our premises lead no such conclusions.
Please give close attention. The mark and the worship of the beast are enforced by the two-horned beast. The receiving of the mark of the beast is a specific act which the two-horned beast is to cause to be done. The third angel's message of Revelation 14 is a warning mercifully sent out in advance to prepare the people for the coming danger. There can therefore be no worship of the beast, nor receiving of his mark such as prophecy contemplates, until it is enforced by the two-horned beast, and knowingly accepted by the individual. We have seen that intention was essential to the change which the papacy has made in the law of God, to constitute it the mark of that power; so intention is necessary in the adoption of that change by the individual, to constitute it the receiving of that mark. In other words, a person must adopt the change knowing it to be the work of the beast, and receive it on the authority of that power in opposition to the requirement of God, before it can be said that he has received the mark of the beast.
But how is it with those mentioned above, who have kept Sunday in the past, and the majority of those who are keeping it today? Do they keep it as an institution of the papacy?--No. Have they decided between this and the Sabbath of our Lord, understanding the claims of each?--No. On what ground have they kept it, and on what do they still keep it?--They suppose they are keeping a commandment of God. Have such the mark of the beast?--By no means. Their course is attributable to an error unwittingly received from the Church of Rome, not to an act of worship intentionally rendered to it.
But how is it to be in the future? The church which is to be prepared for the second coming of Christ must be entirely free from papal errors and corruptions. A reform must hence be made on the Sabbath question. The third angel of Revelation 14 proclaims the commandments of God, leading men to the true Sabbath in the place of the counterfeit. The dragon is stirred, and so controls the wicked governments of the earth that all the authority of human power shall be exerted to enforce the claims of the man of sin. Then the issue is fairly before the people. They are required by the law of God to keep the true Sabbath; they are required by the law of God to keep the true Sabbath; they are required by the law of the Catholic Church, or the pseudo-Protestant church, and of the land to keep the counterfeit sabbath. For refusing to keep the true, the message threatens the unmingled wrath of God; for refusing the false, earthly governments threaten them with persecution and death. With this issue before the people, what does he do who yields to the human requirement? He virtually says to God, I know your claims, but I will not heed them. I know that the power I am required to worship is unchristian, but I yield to it to save my life. I renounce your allegiance, and bow to the usurper. The beast is henceforth the object of my adoration; under his banner, in opposition to your authority, I henceforth array myself; to him, in defiance of your claims, I henceforth yield the obedience of my heart and life.
Such is the spirit which will actuate the hearts of the beast worshipers--a spirit which insults the God of the universe to His face, and is prevented only by lack of power from overthrowing His government and annihilating His throne. Is it any wonder that Jehovah pronounces against so Heaven-daring a course the most terrible threatening that His word contains?
The Closing Work.--
We have now seen what would properly constitute an image to the beast, such as the two-horned beast is to make, and also the prospect that such an image will sometime be set up in the United States of America. We have also learned what constitutes the mark of the beast, which is to be enforced upon all the people. An ecclesiastical organization composed of different sects in the land, in coalition with Roman Catholicism, by the promulgation and enforcement of a civil Sunday-sabbath law, would fulfill what the prophecy sets forth in reference to the image and the mark of the beast. These movements, or their exact equivalent, are called for by the prophecy. The line of evidence leading to these conclusions is so direct and well defined that there is no avoiding them. They are a clear and logical sequence from the premises given us.
When the application of Revelation 13: 11-17 to America was first made, as early as the year 1850, these positions were taken respecting a union of the churches and a Sunday-law movement. At that time no sign appeared that such an issue would ever arise. But there was prophecy. The United States had given abundant evidence by its location, the time of its rise, the manner of its rise, and its apparent character, that it was the power symbolized by the two-horned beast. There could be no mistake in the conclusion that it was the very nation intended by that symbol. But here were predictions indicating a union of church and state, and the enforcement of the papal sabbath as a mark of the beast. It was no small act of faith to take the position at that time that the United States would pursue such a policy without any apparent probability it would do so.
The founders of the American Republic, in drafting its organic laws, never intended that any trouble should arise over a question of conscience. The Federal Constitution and most of the State constitutions have provisions guaranteeing the fullest religious liberty. But the development of the Sunday-law movement since 1850 amply demonstrates that the prophecy can be fulfilled in spite of the safeguards against intolerance erected by the founding fathers.
Just how the tyranny over the souls and bodies of men is to be developed is not specified in the prophecy. It may come by one man or a set of men--political, religious, or otherwise. But it controls all--small and great. It governs finances, for rich and poor feel its grip. It rules economics, for no one can buy or sell without its permission and mark. It dictates religion, for it forces all, under penalty of death, to worship according to its laws.
It is naturally repugnant to the American mind to think that religious persecution might mar the fair record of the nation founded on liberty at all. But during the entire history of the country, from its very founding, farseeing statesmen have recognized that the tendency to enforce religious dogmas by civil law is all too common with mankind, and is liable to break out in active persecution in unexpected places.
To the honor of the nation, it should be said that throughout its history noble statesmen have largely held in check the tendency which the founders foresaw working in the body politic. But no American can shut his eyes to the fact that paralleling these noble efforts, zealous but misguided religious leaders have attempted the civil enforcement of religious usages.
The prophecy predicts that a period of persecution will come. The two-horned beast causes all to receive a mark, and all who will not worship the image to be killed; that is, he wills, purposes, and endeavors to do this. He makes such an enactment, passes such a law. But it does not follow that all, and we do not think even many, will be put to death. God will interpose in behalf of His people. Those who have kept the word of Christ's patience will be kept from falling in this hour of temptation. (Revelation 3: 10.) Those who have made God their refuge will be kept from all evil. (Psalm 91: 9, 10.) All who are found written in the book will be delivered. (Daniel 12: 1.) As victors over the beast and his image, they will be redeemed from among men, and raise a song of triumph before the throne of God. (Revelation 14: 2-4.)
Verse 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.
The Number of His Name.--The number of the beast, says the prophecy, "is the number of a man." If it is to be derived from a name or title, the natural conclusion would be that it must be the name or title of some particular or representative man. The most plausible expression we have seen suggested as containing the number of the beast, is one of the titles applied to the pope of Rome. That title is this: Vicarius Filii Dei, "Vicegerent of the Son of God." It is worthy of note that the Douay Version of the Bible has the following comment on Revelation 13: 18: "The numeral letters of his name shall make up this number." Taking the letters out of this title which are used as Roman numerals, we have V, 5; I, 1; C, 100; I, 1; U (formerly the same as V), 5; I, 1; L, 50; I, 1; I, 1; D, 500; I, 1. Adding these numbers together we have 666.
It has been argued that the title of the popes should be reckoned according to the Greek gematria, since John wrote in Greek, but since the title appears in Latin, and Latin is the official language of the Church of Rome and the language of its adopted Bible, the Vulgate, such a procedure would destroy the numerical value of that title in its own language. It would seem reasonable that a Latin title should exhibit its Latin numerical values rather than Greek values.
As to the practice of representing names by numbers we read: "It was a method practiced among the ancients, to denote names by numbers." [43]
"Representing numbers by letters of the alphabet gave rise to a practice among the ancients of representing names also by numbers. Examples of this kind abound in the writings of heathens, Jews, and Christians." [44]
"It was a method practiced among the ancients, to denote names by numbers: as the name of Thouth or the Egyptian Mercury was signified by the number 1218. . . . It hath been the usual method in all God's dispensations, for the Holy Spirit to accommodate His expressions to the customs, fashions, and manners of the several ages. since then this art and mystery of numbers was so much used among the ancients, it is less wonderful that the beast also should have his number, and his number is 666." [45]
This title, Vicarius Filii Dei, or some equivalent form of it, has appeared so frequently in Roman Catholic literature and rituals for centuries, that it scarcely seems necessary to add other proof of its validity and importance. Some of the variations of the title are: Vicar of Christ, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Vicar of God. A quotation from the noted Cardinal Manning illustrates these various forms of the same title:
"So in like manner they say now, "See this Catholic Church, this Church of God, feeble and weak, rejected even by the very nations called Catholics. There is Catholic France, and Catholic Germany, and Catholic Italy, giving up this exploded figment of the temporal power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ,' And so, because the Church seems weak, and the Vicar of the Son of God is renewing the Passion of his Master upon earth, therefore we are scandalized, therefore we turn our faces from him." [46] (Italic ours.)
Several other variations of this title are used elsewhere in the same book.
On the importance of the pope's position as indicated by the title under consideration, or its equivalents, we quote from J. A. Wylie, in his comment on the Apology of Ennodius written in defense of Pope Symmachus:
"We find the council [of Rome, A.D. 502 or 503] convoked by Theodoric demurring to investigate the charges alleged against Pope Symmachus, on the grounds set forth by his apologist Ennodius, which were, 'that the Pope, as God's Vicar, was the judge of all, and could himself be judged by no one.' 'In this apology,' remarks Mosheim, 'the reader will perceive that the foundations of that enormous power which the popes of Rome afterwards acquired were now laid.' " [47]
In recent years, the validity of this title has been questioned, but historical evidence remains that this arrogated title has served to support the authority of the popes in building up their vast temporal supremacy during the heyday of Romanism in medieval times, and in maintaining their spiritual authority to this day.
The particular title Vicarius Filii Dei appeared as early as 752-774 in a document historically known as the "Donation of Constantine." Though this document was later proved to have been written by someone else and signed with the name of Constantine the Great to give it the weight of his authority--a practice not uncommon in medieval times--yet this so-called Donation of Constantine was used as valid by at least nine of the popes over a period of seven centuries or more in establishing the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the bishops of Rome.
The title itself was obviously an invention to designate the office of Peter as the first pope in harmony with the widely known claim of the Roman Catholic Church that the words of Jesus in Matthew 16: 18, 19, conferred upon Peter the first bishopric of the church--a view which Protestants have never allowed-- and that this bishopric descended to his successors in the papal seat, as stated in the Donation of Constantine and maintained by the church to this day. [48]
The document employing the title was confirmed by a church council, says Binius, a high Roman Catholic dignitary of Cologne, quoted by Labbe and Cossart. [49] It was incorporated in Roman Catholic canon law by Gratian, and when this last-named work was revised and published, with endorsement by Pope Gregory XIII, the title was retained. [50] When Lucius Ferraris wrote his elaborate theological work about 1755, he gave under the article "Papa" the title Vicarius Filii Dei, and cited the revised canon law as his authority. Again when Ferraris's work was revised and enlarged, and published in Rome in 1890, the document and title were still retained. [51]
Of Ferraris's theological work just cited, the Catholic Encylopedia says that it "will ever remain a precious mine of information." [52]
We quote herewith from the Latin of the Donation of Constantine, confirmed by a church council, incorporated in Roman Catholic canon law, and cited by Ferraris:
"Ut sicut Beatus Petrus in terris Vicarius Filii Dei fuit constitutus, ita et Pontifices eius successores in terris principatus postestatem amplius, quam terrenae imperialis nostrae serenitatis mansuetudo habere videtur." [53]
Christopher Coleman translates this paragraph from the Canon law of Gratian as follows:
"As the blessed Peter is seen to have been constituted Vicar of the Son of God on the earth, so the pontiffs who are the representatives of that same chief of the apostles, should obtain from us and our empire the power of a
A freer translation by Edwin Lee Johnson, professor of Latin and Greek, Vanderbilt University, reads: "Just as the Blessed Peter was appointed on earth vicar of the Son of God, so also it seems that the Pontiffs, his successors, hold on earth the power of the chief rule rather than (that) His Excellency, His Imperial Serene Highness on earth, (should hold it)."
Thus closes Revelation 13, leaving the people of God with the powers of earth in deadly array against them and the decrees of death and banishment from society upon them for their adherence to the commandments of God. Spiritism will be, at the time specified, performing its most imposing wonders, deceiving all the world except the elect. (Matthew 24: 24; 2 Thessalonians 2: 8-12.) This will be the "hour of temptation," or trial, which is to come, as the closing test, upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth, as mentioned in Revelation 3: 10. What is the issue of this conflict? This important inquiry is not left unanswered. The first five verses of the following chapter complete the chain of this prophecy, and reveal the glorious triumph of the champions of the truth.
[1] See Archibald Bower, History of the Popes, Vol. III, pp. 409-420; George Croly, The Apocalypse of St. John, p. 251.
[2] Alphonsus de Liguori, Dignity and Duties of the Priest, pp. 34-36.
[3] Ibid., pp. 26, 27.
[4] Ibid., pp. 32, 33.
[5] Quoted by Hon. Charles Sumner, "Prophetic Voices About America," Atlantic Monthly, September, 1867, p. 290
[6] George Alfred Townsend, The New World Compared With the Old, p. 635.
[7] John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, p. 735, comment on Revelation 13: 11.
[8] George Alfred Townsend, The New World Compared With the Old, p. 635.
[9] Edward Everett, "Oration Delivered at Plymouth, December 22, 1824," Orations and Speeches, p. 42.
[10] W. Carlos Martyn, The Pilgrim Fathers, p. 89.
[11] "The People and Progress of the United States," The United States Magazine, Vol. II, August, 1855, p. 71.
[12] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The New Revelation," Metropolitan, January, 1918, p. 69.
[13] Ibid., p. 75.
[14] William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, p. 74.
[15] Ibid., p. 189.
[16] James A. Findlay, in The Rock of Truth, p. 288.
[17] William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, pp. 150, 151.
[18] State Bar Association of Connecticut, Annual Report 1916, p. 73.
[19] Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 28.
[20] Ibid., p. 32.
[21] The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. I, p. 45.
[22] U. S. House Reports, 43d Congress, 1st Session, No. 143.
[23] "Notes on Virginia," Query 17, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. VIII, p. 402.
[24] The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, Vol. III, p. 307.
[25] David McAllister, The National Reform Movement, Its History and Principles, p. 16, Constitution of the National Reform Association, Art. II.
[26] The Church and the Government, p. 7.
[27] Christian Statesman, December 11, 1884, p. 2.
[28] History of the International Reform Bureau, p. 2.
[29] U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings, Reorganization of the Federal Judiciary, Part 3, p. 681.
[30] Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, Report of the First Meeting of the Federal Council, Philadelphia, 1908, pp. 5, 6.
[31] Ibid., p. 103.
[32] "Sunday Mail," U. S. House Reports, Vol. II, No. 271, pp. 1-4.
[33] Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, Vol. II, p. 296.
[34] Humphrey Prideaux, The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews, Vol. II, pp. 78, 79.
[35] James Butler's Catechism, p. 34.
[36] James Bellord, A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine and Practice, pp. 86, 87.
[37] A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, No. 2, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, p. 65.
[38] Richard Challoner, The Catholic Christian Instructed, p. 202.
[39] Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, p. 174.
[40] Henry Tuberville, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, p. 58.
[41] H. Canon Cafferata, The Catechism Simply Explained, p. 89.
[42] Alexander Campbell, Christian Baptism, p. 15.
[43] Matthew Henry, Commentary, Vol. III, p. 1065, note on Revelation 13: 18.
[44] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the New Testament, Vol. II, p. 1025, note on Revelation 13: 18.
[45] Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, Vol. II, p. 298, 299.
[46] Cardinal Manning, The Temporal Power of the Year of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, pp. 140, 141.
[47] J. A. Wylie, The Papacy, pp. 35, 36.
[48] See Christopher Coleman, Constantine the Great and Christianity, p. 178.
[49] P. Labbe and G. Cossart, Sacrosancta Concilia, Vol. 1, col. 1539-1541.
[50] Corpus Juris Canonici, 1622.
[51] Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca (Rome 1890), Vol. VI, p. 43, col. 2.
[52] Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Vol. VI, p. 49, art., "Ferraris."
[53] Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca (Edition of 1890), art., "Papa," II, Vol. VI, p. 43.
[54] Christopher B. Coleman, The Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine, p. 13.
{13:15} And he had power
to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would
not worship the image of the beast should be killed. {13:16}
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free
and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their
foreheads: {13:17} And that no man might buy or sell, save
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name. {13:18} Here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is
the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred
threescore [and] six
*We are talking about the mark of the beast. A mark that in the very end time will be received by All but the very elect. A mark that will enable a person to buy and sell and by buying and selling we live don't we- as a rule. We buy things to survive. We buy property and pay yearly taxes (buying). We buy electricity. We buy oil or pay for gas. We buy telephone usage, communication. We buy food. Even a lot of people who want to get back to nature and such to live off the land are paying taxes on that land they are living off of. They most likely are making trips to the store for things they can't manufacture on their own- little essentials. Back in the pioneer days they'd make yearly, or bi-yearly trips to stores to stock up on staples. There was a time when people lived off the land so to speak and solely off the land- but it is very, very rare any longer. The mark of the beast will be something that keeps us from buying or selling. It will be a defining mark. It will be a mark of alligence of sorts because without it you can't take part in the normal, every day activity of buying and selling.
Let's go back to the book - Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith and just see what he has to say about it all. Not that it is all revelant in every aspect but God will guide us to all the understanding we need to live in Him. By His Grace.
*******
Who Receives the Mark of the Beast?--It will be said again, Then all Sundaykeepers have the mark of the beast; then all the good of past ages who kept this day had the mark of the beast; then Luther, Whitefield, the Wesleys, and all who have done a good and noble work of reformation, had the mark of the beast; then all the blessings that have been poured upon the reformed churches have been poured upon those who had the mark of the beast; and all Christians of the present day who are keeping Sunday as the Sabbath, have the mark of the beast. We answer, Not so! We are sorry to say that some professedly religious teachers, though many times corrected, persist in misrepresenting us on this point. We have never so held; we have never so taught. Our premises lead no such conclusions.
Please give close attention. The mark and the worship of the beast are enforced by the two-horned beast. The receiving of the mark of the beast is a specific act which the two-horned beast is to cause to be done. The third angel's message of Revelation 14 is a warning mercifully sent out in advance to prepare the people for the coming danger. There can therefore be no worship of the beast, nor receiving of his mark such as prophecy contemplates, until it is enforced by the two-horned beast, and knowingly accepted by the individual. We have seen that intention was essential to the change which the papacy has made in the law of God, to constitute it the mark of that power; so intention is necessary in the adoption of that change by the individual, to constitute it the receiving of that mark. In other words, a person must adopt the change knowing it to be the work of the beast, and receive it on the authority of that power in opposition to the requirement of God, before it can be said that he has received the mark of the beast.
But how is it with those mentioned above, who have kept Sunday in the past, and the majority of those who are keeping it today? Do they keep it as an institution of the papacy?--No. Have they decided between this and the Sabbath of our Lord, understanding the claims of each?--No. On what ground have they kept it, and on what do they still keep it?--They suppose they are keeping a commandment of God. Have such the mark of the beast?--By no means. Their course is attributable to an error unwittingly received from the Church of Rome, not to an act of worship intentionally rendered to it.
But how is it to be in the future? The church which is to be prepared for the second coming of Christ must be entirely free from papal errors and corruptions. A reform must hence be made on the Sabbath question. The third angel of Revelation 14 proclaims the commandments of God, leading men to the true Sabbath in the place of the counterfeit. The dragon is stirred, and so controls the wicked governments of the earth that all the authority of human power shall be exerted to enforce the claims of the man of sin. Then the issue is fairly before the people. They are required by the law of God to keep the true Sabbath; they are required by the law of God to keep the true Sabbath; they are required by the law of the Catholic Church, or the pseudo-Protestant church, and of the land to keep the counterfeit sabbath. For refusing to keep the true, the message threatens the unmingled wrath of God; for refusing the false, earthly governments threaten them with persecution and death. With this issue before the people, what does he do who yields to the human requirement? He virtually says to God, I know your claims, but I will not heed them. I know that the power I am required to worship is unchristian, but I yield to it to save my life. I renounce your allegiance, and bow to the usurper. The beast is henceforth the object of my adoration; under his banner, in opposition to your authority, I henceforth array myself; to him, in defiance of your claims, I henceforth yield the obedience of my heart and life.
Such is the spirit which will actuate the hearts of the beast worshipers--a spirit which insults the God of the universe to His face, and is prevented only by lack of power from overthrowing His government and annihilating His throne. Is it any wonder that Jehovah pronounces against so Heaven-daring a course the most terrible threatening that His word contains?
The Closing Work.--
We have now seen what would properly constitute an image to the beast, such as the two-horned beast is to make, and also the prospect that such an image will sometime be set up in the United States of America. We have also learned what constitutes the mark of the beast, which is to be enforced upon all the people. An ecclesiastical organization composed of different sects in the land, in coalition with Roman Catholicism, by the promulgation and enforcement of a civil Sunday-sabbath law, would fulfill what the prophecy sets forth in reference to the image and the mark of the beast. These movements, or their exact equivalent, are called for by the prophecy. The line of evidence leading to these conclusions is so direct and well defined that there is no avoiding them. They are a clear and logical sequence from the premises given us.
When the application of Revelation 13: 11-17 to America was first made, as early as the year 1850, these positions were taken respecting a union of the churches and a Sunday-law movement. At that time no sign appeared that such an issue would ever arise. But there was prophecy. The United States had given abundant evidence by its location, the time of its rise, the manner of its rise, and its apparent character, that it was the power symbolized by the two-horned beast. There could be no mistake in the conclusion that it was the very nation intended by that symbol. But here were predictions indicating a union of church and state, and the enforcement of the papal sabbath as a mark of the beast. It was no small act of faith to take the position at that time that the United States would pursue such a policy without any apparent probability it would do so.
The founders of the American Republic, in drafting its organic laws, never intended that any trouble should arise over a question of conscience. The Federal Constitution and most of the State constitutions have provisions guaranteeing the fullest religious liberty. But the development of the Sunday-law movement since 1850 amply demonstrates that the prophecy can be fulfilled in spite of the safeguards against intolerance erected by the founding fathers.
Just how the tyranny over the souls and bodies of men is to be developed is not specified in the prophecy. It may come by one man or a set of men--political, religious, or otherwise. But it controls all--small and great. It governs finances, for rich and poor feel its grip. It rules economics, for no one can buy or sell without its permission and mark. It dictates religion, for it forces all, under penalty of death, to worship according to its laws.
It is naturally repugnant to the American mind to think that religious persecution might mar the fair record of the nation founded on liberty at all. But during the entire history of the country, from its very founding, farseeing statesmen have recognized that the tendency to enforce religious dogmas by civil law is all too common with mankind, and is liable to break out in active persecution in unexpected places.
To the honor of the nation, it should be said that throughout its history noble statesmen have largely held in check the tendency which the founders foresaw working in the body politic. But no American can shut his eyes to the fact that paralleling these noble efforts, zealous but misguided religious leaders have attempted the civil enforcement of religious usages.
The prophecy predicts that a period of persecution will come. The two-horned beast causes all to receive a mark, and all who will not worship the image to be killed; that is, he wills, purposes, and endeavors to do this. He makes such an enactment, passes such a law. But it does not follow that all, and we do not think even many, will be put to death. God will interpose in behalf of His people. Those who have kept the word of Christ's patience will be kept from falling in this hour of temptation. (Revelation 3: 10.) Those who have made God their refuge will be kept from all evil. (Psalm 91: 9, 10.) All who are found written in the book will be delivered. (Daniel 12: 1.) As victors over the beast and his image, they will be redeemed from among men, and raise a song of triumph before the throne of God. (Revelation 14: 2-4.)
Verse 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.
The Number of His Name.--The number of the beast, says the prophecy, "is the number of a man." If it is to be derived from a name or title, the natural conclusion would be that it must be the name or title of some particular or representative man. The most plausible expression we have seen suggested as containing the number of the beast, is one of the titles applied to the pope of Rome. That title is this: Vicarius Filii Dei, "Vicegerent of the Son of God." It is worthy of note that the Douay Version of the Bible has the following comment on Revelation 13: 18: "The numeral letters of his name shall make up this number." Taking the letters out of this title which are used as Roman numerals, we have V, 5; I, 1; C, 100; I, 1; U (formerly the same as V), 5; I, 1; L, 50; I, 1; I, 1; D, 500; I, 1. Adding these numbers together we have 666.
It has been argued that the title of the popes should be reckoned according to the Greek gematria, since John wrote in Greek, but since the title appears in Latin, and Latin is the official language of the Church of Rome and the language of its adopted Bible, the Vulgate, such a procedure would destroy the numerical value of that title in its own language. It would seem reasonable that a Latin title should exhibit its Latin numerical values rather than Greek values.
As to the practice of representing names by numbers we read: "It was a method practiced among the ancients, to denote names by numbers." [43]
"Representing numbers by letters of the alphabet gave rise to a practice among the ancients of representing names also by numbers. Examples of this kind abound in the writings of heathens, Jews, and Christians." [44]
"It was a method practiced among the ancients, to denote names by numbers: as the name of Thouth or the Egyptian Mercury was signified by the number 1218. . . . It hath been the usual method in all God's dispensations, for the Holy Spirit to accommodate His expressions to the customs, fashions, and manners of the several ages. since then this art and mystery of numbers was so much used among the ancients, it is less wonderful that the beast also should have his number, and his number is 666." [45]
This title, Vicarius Filii Dei, or some equivalent form of it, has appeared so frequently in Roman Catholic literature and rituals for centuries, that it scarcely seems necessary to add other proof of its validity and importance. Some of the variations of the title are: Vicar of Christ, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Vicar of God. A quotation from the noted Cardinal Manning illustrates these various forms of the same title:
"So in like manner they say now, "See this Catholic Church, this Church of God, feeble and weak, rejected even by the very nations called Catholics. There is Catholic France, and Catholic Germany, and Catholic Italy, giving up this exploded figment of the temporal power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ,' And so, because the Church seems weak, and the Vicar of the Son of God is renewing the Passion of his Master upon earth, therefore we are scandalized, therefore we turn our faces from him." [46] (Italic ours.)
Several other variations of this title are used elsewhere in the same book.
On the importance of the pope's position as indicated by the title under consideration, or its equivalents, we quote from J. A. Wylie, in his comment on the Apology of Ennodius written in defense of Pope Symmachus:
"We find the council [of Rome, A.D. 502 or 503] convoked by Theodoric demurring to investigate the charges alleged against Pope Symmachus, on the grounds set forth by his apologist Ennodius, which were, 'that the Pope, as God's Vicar, was the judge of all, and could himself be judged by no one.' 'In this apology,' remarks Mosheim, 'the reader will perceive that the foundations of that enormous power which the popes of Rome afterwards acquired were now laid.' " [47]
In recent years, the validity of this title has been questioned, but historical evidence remains that this arrogated title has served to support the authority of the popes in building up their vast temporal supremacy during the heyday of Romanism in medieval times, and in maintaining their spiritual authority to this day.
The particular title Vicarius Filii Dei appeared as early as 752-774 in a document historically known as the "Donation of Constantine." Though this document was later proved to have been written by someone else and signed with the name of Constantine the Great to give it the weight of his authority--a practice not uncommon in medieval times--yet this so-called Donation of Constantine was used as valid by at least nine of the popes over a period of seven centuries or more in establishing the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the bishops of Rome.
The title itself was obviously an invention to designate the office of Peter as the first pope in harmony with the widely known claim of the Roman Catholic Church that the words of Jesus in Matthew 16: 18, 19, conferred upon Peter the first bishopric of the church--a view which Protestants have never allowed-- and that this bishopric descended to his successors in the papal seat, as stated in the Donation of Constantine and maintained by the church to this day. [48]
The document employing the title was confirmed by a church council, says Binius, a high Roman Catholic dignitary of Cologne, quoted by Labbe and Cossart. [49] It was incorporated in Roman Catholic canon law by Gratian, and when this last-named work was revised and published, with endorsement by Pope Gregory XIII, the title was retained. [50] When Lucius Ferraris wrote his elaborate theological work about 1755, he gave under the article "Papa" the title Vicarius Filii Dei, and cited the revised canon law as his authority. Again when Ferraris's work was revised and enlarged, and published in Rome in 1890, the document and title were still retained. [51]
Of Ferraris's theological work just cited, the Catholic Encylopedia says that it "will ever remain a precious mine of information." [52]
We quote herewith from the Latin of the Donation of Constantine, confirmed by a church council, incorporated in Roman Catholic canon law, and cited by Ferraris:
"Ut sicut Beatus Petrus in terris Vicarius Filii Dei fuit constitutus, ita et Pontifices eius successores in terris principatus postestatem amplius, quam terrenae imperialis nostrae serenitatis mansuetudo habere videtur." [53]
Christopher Coleman translates this paragraph from the Canon law of Gratian as follows:
"As the blessed Peter is seen to have been constituted Vicar of the Son of God on the earth, so the pontiffs who are the representatives of that same chief of the apostles, should obtain from us and our empire the power of a
A freer translation by Edwin Lee Johnson, professor of Latin and Greek, Vanderbilt University, reads: "Just as the Blessed Peter was appointed on earth vicar of the Son of God, so also it seems that the Pontiffs, his successors, hold on earth the power of the chief rule rather than (that) His Excellency, His Imperial Serene Highness on earth, (should hold it)."
Thus closes Revelation 13, leaving the people of God with the powers of earth in deadly array against them and the decrees of death and banishment from society upon them for their adherence to the commandments of God. Spiritism will be, at the time specified, performing its most imposing wonders, deceiving all the world except the elect. (Matthew 24: 24; 2 Thessalonians 2: 8-12.) This will be the "hour of temptation," or trial, which is to come, as the closing test, upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth, as mentioned in Revelation 3: 10. What is the issue of this conflict? This important inquiry is not left unanswered. The first five verses of the following chapter complete the chain of this prophecy, and reveal the glorious triumph of the champions of the truth.
[1] See Archibald Bower, History of the Popes, Vol. III, pp. 409-420; George Croly, The Apocalypse of St. John, p. 251.
[2] Alphonsus de Liguori, Dignity and Duties of the Priest, pp. 34-36.
[3] Ibid., pp. 26, 27.
[4] Ibid., pp. 32, 33.
[5] Quoted by Hon. Charles Sumner, "Prophetic Voices About America," Atlantic Monthly, September, 1867, p. 290
[6] George Alfred Townsend, The New World Compared With the Old, p. 635.
[7] John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, p. 735, comment on Revelation 13: 11.
[8] George Alfred Townsend, The New World Compared With the Old, p. 635.
[9] Edward Everett, "Oration Delivered at Plymouth, December 22, 1824," Orations and Speeches, p. 42.
[10] W. Carlos Martyn, The Pilgrim Fathers, p. 89.
[11] "The People and Progress of the United States," The United States Magazine, Vol. II, August, 1855, p. 71.
[12] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The New Revelation," Metropolitan, January, 1918, p. 69.
[13] Ibid., p. 75.
[14] William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, p. 74.
[15] Ibid., p. 189.
[16] James A. Findlay, in The Rock of Truth, p. 288.
[17] William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, pp. 150, 151.
[18] State Bar Association of Connecticut, Annual Report 1916, p. 73.
[19] Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 28.
[20] Ibid., p. 32.
[21] The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. I, p. 45.
[22] U. S. House Reports, 43d Congress, 1st Session, No. 143.
[23] "Notes on Virginia," Query 17, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. VIII, p. 402.
[24] The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, Vol. III, p. 307.
[25] David McAllister, The National Reform Movement, Its History and Principles, p. 16, Constitution of the National Reform Association, Art. II.
[26] The Church and the Government, p. 7.
[27] Christian Statesman, December 11, 1884, p. 2.
[28] History of the International Reform Bureau, p. 2.
[29] U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings, Reorganization of the Federal Judiciary, Part 3, p. 681.
[30] Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, Report of the First Meeting of the Federal Council, Philadelphia, 1908, pp. 5, 6.
[31] Ibid., p. 103.
[32] "Sunday Mail," U. S. House Reports, Vol. II, No. 271, pp. 1-4.
[33] Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, Vol. II, p. 296.
[34] Humphrey Prideaux, The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews, Vol. II, pp. 78, 79.
[35] James Butler's Catechism, p. 34.
[36] James Bellord, A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine and Practice, pp. 86, 87.
[37] A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, No. 2, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, p. 65.
[38] Richard Challoner, The Catholic Christian Instructed, p. 202.
[39] Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, p. 174.
[40] Henry Tuberville, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, p. 58.
[41] H. Canon Cafferata, The Catechism Simply Explained, p. 89.
[42] Alexander Campbell, Christian Baptism, p. 15.
[43] Matthew Henry, Commentary, Vol. III, p. 1065, note on Revelation 13: 18.
[44] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the New Testament, Vol. II, p. 1025, note on Revelation 13: 18.
[45] Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, Vol. II, p. 298, 299.
[46] Cardinal Manning, The Temporal Power of the Year of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, pp. 140, 141.
[47] J. A. Wylie, The Papacy, pp. 35, 36.
[48] See Christopher Coleman, Constantine the Great and Christianity, p. 178.
[49] P. Labbe and G. Cossart, Sacrosancta Concilia, Vol. 1, col. 1539-1541.
[50] Corpus Juris Canonici, 1622.
[51] Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca (Rome 1890), Vol. VI, p. 43, col. 2.
[52] Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Vol. VI, p. 49, art., "Ferraris."
[53] Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca (Edition of 1890), art., "Papa," II, Vol. VI, p. 43.
[54] Christopher B. Coleman, The Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine, p. 13.
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