1900

January 2, 1900

“The Third Angel’s Message: What Is It?” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 1, p. 8.

THE expression “the Third Angel’s Message” has reference to the message borne by the third in a series of three angels, each one bearing a message, in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. The messages of these three angels blend and culminate in the third, which does not cease to sound until the harvest of the earth is ripe, and made ready for the coming of the Lord to reap it. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.1

The Third Angel’s Message itself, as it is announced in the words of the third angel, separated from the other two, is as follows: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.2

This is the Third Angel’s Message, as it would stand separated from the other two. But, in fact, it can not be regarded as separate, and can not be made to stand apart as if it alone were a single, separate message to the world; for the very first words concerning it are: “The third angel followed THEM.” Thus, by the very first words of the message itself we are referred not only to the one, but to the two which preceded it. And the Greek word translated “followed” signifies not following apart, nor only following, but “following with,” as soldiers follow their captain, or servants their master; therefore, “to follow one in a thing; to let one’s self be led.” When spoken of things, it signifies to follow as a result; to follow “as a consequence of something which had gone before.” Thus, as to persons, the third angel follows with the two which have preceded; and his message, as a thing, follows as a result, or consequence, of the two which have gone before. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.3

Of the second one also it is written: “And there followed another angel.” As with the third angel following him, so it is with the second angel following the first. And of the first one it is written: “And I saw another angel fly,” etc. This is the first in this series of three. There follows with him another; and the third angel follows with them. There is a succession in the order of their rise; but, when the three have in succession risen, then they go on together as one. The first one sounds forth his message; the second one follows and joins with the first; the third follows them, and joins with them; so that, when the three are joined, and go on together in their united power, they form a mighty threefold, loud-voiced message. It takes all to make the Third Angel’s Message complete; and the Third Angel’s message can not be truly given without the giving of all. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.4

What, then, is the threefold message in its respective parts?—Here is the first: “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, 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.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.5

Here is the second: “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.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.6

And here is the third: ““And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.7

A glance at the wording of each of these messages will discover that thought in the Greek word “followed, which signifies “following as a consequence.” The first bears the everlasting gospel, to preach to every creature, calling upon all to fear God and give glory to him, and to worship him, because the hour of his judgment is come. The rejection of this message produces a condition of things which is described as the consequence of such rejection, in the words of the second angel, which followed. And, because of the rejection of the first message, and because of the consequences of that rejection, as announced in the second, a condition of things is produced as a further consequence, which requires that the third angel shall follow them, proclaiming with a loud voice his dreadful warning against the terrible evils that have been produced as the double consequence of the rejecting of the first message. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.8

And that the voice and work of the third angel blend with that of the first, is plain from his closing words: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus;” because this is ever the object of the preaching of the everlasting gospel. It is the substance of fearing God and giving glory to him, and or worshiping “him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” And the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus is the only thing that will enable any soul to stand in the hour of his judgment, which the first angel declares “is come.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.9

Immediately following the closing words of the third angel is “heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the death which die in the Lord from henceforth”—from this time forward; and immediately following this, are the words: “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.10

And Jesus himself said, “The harvest is the end of the world.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.11

Again: the third angel particularly warns all people against the worship of the beast and his image, whatever these may be; and, from Revelation 19:11-21, we find that the beast and his image are “alive” when the Lord comes in the clouds of heaven, and are “both” destroyed with the brightness of his coming. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.12

These facts show that the Third Angel’s Message is a mighty, threefold, loud-voiced message, which goes forth to every nation and kindred, and tongue and people, just before the coming of the Lord; which ripens the harvest of the earth; and which makes a people prepared for the Lord. And so, it is the last, the closing, message of God to the world. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.13

Such, in a word, in form, in arrangement, is the Third Angel’s Message. What the Third Angel’s Message is in spirit and in truth, will be considered next. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.14

“The ‘Return of the Jews’” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 1, pp. 8, 9.

FOR anybody to claim, to advocate, or to believe in, the “return of the Jews,” shows that such person has no true conception of the gospel. This is plain from the words quoted in last week’s article,—the Lord’s appeal to all people before this people were scattered,—“What could have been done more.... that I have not done?” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.1

The final thing which the Lord did, was, as he himself says, to send his Son. And, in his Son, God gave himself; for “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself;” and “in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” And whosoever accepts him is, in the nature of the case, “complete in him.” And any Jew can find all this any moment that he chooses, and at any place that he may be in this wide world. He can find it in America as well as in Palestine: he can find it in New York City, in Hongkong, in Calcutta, in London, or anywhere else, just as well as in Jerusalem? ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.2

Then, what possible need can there be that the Jews should return to Jerusalem? What can God do for them there, more than he did for the Jews before they were ever scattered from there? Has he another Son whom he can give? Has he yet a greater gift than himself that he can bestow? Has he a greater gift than “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” to give, even though he had another Son whom he might send? ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.3

It is perfectly plain, therefore, that any claim of the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, or to Palestine, betrays an utter lack of the true value of the gospel. For there can be no question whatever that what we have here suggested must inevitably be involved in any return of the Jews; but there is no possible place for any such that as that. God has no other Son to give. He has no greater gift than “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” to give, even though he had ten thousand other sons, greater even than Jesus. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.4

Then, as he has already given his only begotten Son; as in him he has given “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;” as all this was given to the Jews while they were yet a people, and was rejected by them, and upon their own judgment was given “to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,”—as God has thus done all that it can be possible for even him to do; and as the benefit of all this can be had by any Jew, wherever he is on earth, at any moment when he will choose to receive it; so there is neither necessity, nor place, nor yet a possibility, of any return of the Jews to Palestine or Jerusalem, or of their re-establishment there as a nation and a peculiar people for whom and by whom God is to do great things. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.5

Another feature of this claim of the return of the Jews, which betrays an absolute lack of knowledge of the gospel, is that those who claim it actually hold not only that the Jews are to return, but that they are to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple, and re-establish the temple services, sacrifices, offerings, etc., etc. But since the time of the offering of Christ once for all, the offering of a sacrifice is the denial of Christ. And the establishment of a priestly service on earth is a denial of the priesthood of Christ, which is simply denial of his intercession. To establish a sanctuary service on the earth would be only to deny the sanctuary and its services in heaven. Thus any such scheme as is proposed in the claim of the return of the Jews is a denial of all that God has done in the gift of Christ, and if carried out, would be only a repudiation of all that Christ has done since his ascension to heaven, and all that he is now doing. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.6

But this whole subject was discussed, and this whole ground was covered, in the first days of Christianity, in the contest carried on by “the Pharisees which believed,” against the gospel as preached by Stephen in the earliest days of the gospel after the ascension of Christ, and by Paul afterward. And the truth of the question—the truth of the gospel, as against this destructive error—is all made plain in the book of Galatians. There it is made plain that all distinctions in behalf of the Jew are utterly broken down, exactly as Jesus said in the parable; and exactly as the Jews decided in their judgment upon the case as presented in the parable,—that the kingdom of God was taken away from them and given to others,—and that whatsoever the Jew obtains must be obtained precisely as by any others. Accordingly, over and over it is written: “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.” A thorough study, therefore, of the book of Galatians is the best course to an understanding of the truth of the gospel as concerns the Jews, and so is the best refutation of all claims of “the return of the Jews.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 8.7

From these considerations it is perfectly plain that under the present order of things in the gospel, there can be no “return of the Jews” according to the claims that are made as to the return of the Jews; that the only possible way that there can be any such return of the Jews would be to pass by all the present order of things in the gospel, and for the Lord to set up an altogether new system of things, an absolutely new procedure. Accordingly, to every claim of the “return of the Jews,” there is inevitably attached an “age to come,” in which is involved the millennium. And this is why it is that the subject of the “return of the Jews” and “the millennium” are so intimately connected. And thus we are brought to the study of the truth as to the millennium, as further answer to all claims of the “return of the Jews.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.1

“Studies in Galatians” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 1, p. 9.

SO far in our studies in Galatians we have reached the end of the fourteenth verse of the third chapter. And in this study we have been brought about five times, by different lines of reasoning, to the fact that the coming of Christ—the sacrifice of Christ, and the work of Christ—brings salvation to the Gentiles just where the Gentiles are, and not where the Jews are; that the special claims of the Jews are now passed, and that, instead of the Gentiles being required to meet Christ in the field of the Jew, even the Jew himself must now meet Christ in the field of the Gentile, and not in the field of the Jew. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.1

Over and over it has been seen that the Jews claimed justification by law, while the truth of the gospel is, and always was, justification by faith. Laws were given to the Jews by the Lord; yet the object of these never was that those to whom they were given should be justified by the laws: the giving of those laws was but the consequence of their transgression and their unbelief, and that they might the better attain to righteousness by faith. As they went further into darkness by unbelief and transgression, God in mercy followed them with further means that, if by any means, he might bring them to a true and clear faith in Jesus Christ. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.2

Consequently, if they had maintained the true faith which Abraham had before he was circumcised,—faith which works the works of God, and which, therefore, keeps the commandments of God,—the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,—none of these other laws, not even the written form of the law of God, would ever have been added. They would have kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. For “if man had kept the law of God, as given to Adam after his fall, preserved by Noah, and observed by Abraham, there would have been no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision. And if the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which circumcision was a sign, they would never have been seduced into idolatry, nor would it have been necessary for them to suffer a life of bondage in Egypt. They would have kept God’s law in mind, and there would have been no necessity for it to be proclaimed from Sinai, or engraved upon the tables of stone. And [even when God’s law had been engraved upon the tables of stone] had the people practiced the principles of the ten commandments, there would have been no need of the additional directions given to Moses.”— Patriarchs and Prophets, 364. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.3

But the sole object of all these laws when they were added, was faith in Christ, and not works of law. And, therefore, when Christ had come, who was the sole object, aim, and purpose of all the laws and statutes that had been given by the Lord—when these had all met and found their purpose in him, and he had showed the grand glory of the true and clear faith of God, it is, of all things, extravagant to claim justification by law, as did “the Pharisees which believed,” and who had confused the Galatians who believed in Christ, by insisting that, in order to he saved, they must be circumcised and keep the law. This was made clear by Paul in his appeal to Peter before them all, when he said, “If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?” That is, if you have abandoned the ground of the Jews, which, in order to be justified, is the right thing to do, and have gone over to the ground of the Gentiles, how can it be required of the Gentiles to abandon their ground and go over to that of the Jews, which, as we ourselves have confessed, must be abandoned by even us who by nature belong on the ground? ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.4

Next he followed this thought back to Abraham himself, and showed that even Abraham was justified by faith, and received all the promises, and became heir to the inheritance, by faith alone, without circumcision, or any other of the laws which were given to the Jews. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.5

He next showed that even to those who were circumcised and had all these laws, these things were of no profit, and availed, only when they walked “in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.” So that, even with themselves, and through all their day, and forever, “they which are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.6

Next he demonstrates by the Scripture that those who are of the works of law, those who go about by the law to be saved, and to be justified by law, are under the curse; and that Christ is come, and “hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,” from the curse of our own works; and that he did this in order “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.7

In all this it has been shown over and over that the Gentile meets Christ in the field of the Gentile, and not in the field of the Jew. It is also demonstrated over and over that the Jew meets Christ not in the field of the Jew, but also in the field of the Gentile; exactly where the Gentile meets him, where Abraham met him, and where all, alike, and forever, must meet him—in the glorious field of “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.8

All this, too, gives added emphasis, and sets in a fuller light, those two expressions in the word of Peter at the council in Jerusalem on this question, when he, telling the assembly that God had made choice of him among the apostles that the Gentiles by his mouth “should hear the word of the gospel, and believe,” and then said: “God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them [the Gentiles] witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them [note, not between them and us, but “between us and them”] purifying their hearts by faith.” He then appealed to them: “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” Note again that Peter by the Holy Spirit, said not that they shall be saved even as we, but “WE shall be saved even as THEY.” The means of salvation to the Gentile, and not to the Jew, is the supreme standard of salvation. We, Jews, shall be saved even as they, the Gentiles, are saved. And they were saved by being justified, by faith; not by law, but without law. They must be so justified; for they did not have any of these laws, as had the Jews, by which to be justified, if that had been the way. And so we, the Jews must be justified even as they must be justified—by with without any works of any law, even though we had all the laws that ever were. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.9

There was a time when the Gentile could meet Christ in the field of the Jew; but that time is past. It passed by the fact of the Jews rejecting Christ, even though it had not passed by any other means. But it also passed by the coming of Christ as the object, purpose, aim, completion, and fullness, of all these laws that must of necessity be given to the Jews because of their unbelief and transgression. And since that time is doubly past, in which the Gentile could meet Christ in the field of the Jews: and since it is more than doubly so that now the Jew must meet Christ in the field of the Gentile there is no other name, nor other means, by which either Jew or Gentile must be saved but by the name of Jesus Christ through faith in his name. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.10

It must be borne in mind always that in all this there was no question raised nor any point made as to the value of any law in itself; the sole question was, and is, as to any value or use of any law in justification. Justification is by faith not by law, by faith which is of God, and so, which works by the love of God, which is the keeping of the commandments of God. And so of all who catch the thought of God as it is in the book of Galatians, it can truly be written, “Here are they which keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” ARSH January 2, 1900, page 9.11

“Back Page” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 1, p. 16.

A CERTAIN Monsignor Sbaretti came from Rome to the United States in 1894 as auditor of the apostolic delegation of the papacy here. About a month ago he was appointed bishop of Havana, Cuba. And it is announced that he was selected for that bishopric “on account of his knowledge of canon law, the Constitution of the United States, and the method of procedure in our courts,” and with all this because of “the prominence in Havana of questions concerning the property of the Roman Catholic Church.” If that is not the forming of a union between the papacy and the United States government in Cuba, then what more is needed to make such a nation? And the Constitution of the United States, which this Romanist is said to know so well, is not the Constitution ordained and intended by the Fathers of this nation; but the constitution as it was made Catholic by the argument, declaration, and decision of the United States Supreme Court, Feb. 29, 1892,—the constitution which, because of that decision, Pope Leo XIII commanded all Catholics to take in one hand, with the Catholic Bible in the other, and go forward to bring this country into unity with the Catholic Church. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 16.1

THE National Reform leaders are among the best promoters of the Roman Catholic cause in the United States: they are practically agents of the papal cause. About two weeks ago, at the Presbyterian Ministers’ Association, New York City, “Rev.” David G. Wylie read a paper entitled “The Services of the Roman Catholic Church to American Civilization.” And when one of the ministers present said that “from the paper itself” he must “assume that it had been written after a conference with Roman Catholic priests,” Mr. Wylie replied that the paper had been written “after consultation with the Catholic Church ecclesiastics, from Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop Corrigan down.” And so the National Reformers are still carrying on their nefarious work. ARSH January 2, 1900, page 16.2