CHAPTER 4
Time Prophecies
Given to John and Daniel
Revelation 10, 11a, 14b, 18, 19a
Revelation 19:4-10; 14:14-20


Revelation 10;  11:1-13;  14:6-12.

AND I
      —John—
      —SAW ANOTHER MIGHTY ANGEL COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN
      —“The mighty Angel who instructed John was no less a personage than Jesus Christ.” 7BC 971.
CLOTHED WITH A CLOUD:
      —“which speaks wrath and terror to the transgressors of God’s law,” but “is light and mercy and deliverance to those who have kept His commandments.” 6T 404.
      —(The issue in this vision is over the law of God.)
AND A RAINBOW WAS UPON HIS HEAD,
      —“When man by his great wickedness invites the divine judgments, the Saviour, interceding with the Father in his behalf, points to the bow in the clouds, to the rainbow around the throne and above His own head, as a token of the mercy of God toward the repentant sinner.” PP 107.
AND HIS FACE AS IT WERE THE SUN,
      —Again the Isle of Patmos is made resplendent with the glory of the Son of God, as He comes down to reveal to us further issues in the great controversy with Satan.
      —The vision of the previous chapter, given in Revelation 4 through 8 [5, 6, 7], is of events that were to happen inside the heavenly temple from 1844 until the close of human probation.
      —The vision of this chapter, which Jesus unfolds to John in Revelation 10, 11, 14, and 18, are of events which are to happen on earth during this same period of time.
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      —The same period of time is covered in both visions:
          the first tells what happens inside the heavenly sanctuary as the pre-advent judgment is in progress,
          the second tells what happens on earth, in the hand-to-hand battle with Satan and his forces.
      —(The vision of what is to happen on earth after the general close of probation until Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven, is in Chapter 6, entitled, “The Seven Last Plagues and Trumpets—and the Battle of Armageddon.”)
AND HIS FEET AS PILLARS OF FIRE:
      —Whenever the description is given of Jesus, as having “feet as pillars of fire,” we are reminded that someday these blazing feet will tread “the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Revelation 19:15.
AND HE
      —Jesus—
HAD IN HIS HAND A LITTLE BOOK OPEN:
      —the book of Daniel.
      —After Daniel had been given his vision, about the year 534 B.C., (margin,) he had received this commission from the angel: “But thou, O Daniel, . . . seal the book, even to the time of the end . . .” Daniel 12:4.
      —The prophetic part of the book of Daniel, which had been sealed for twenty-three centuries was now to be opened!
      —The time of the end had come! Jesus came down from heaven and handed this open book of Daniel to John. And then he carried John in vision down to the very time when Daniel’s message would be needed by God’s people.
      —The “time of the end” began in the years immediately preceding
      —“The unsealing of the little book was the message in relation to time. 7BC 971. (Emphasis added.)
      —“The book of Daniel is unsealed in the Revelation to John, and carries us forward to the last scenes of this earth’s history . . . “It was the Lion of the tribe of Judah who unsealed the book and gave to John the revelation of what should be in these last days. “Daniel stood in his lot to bear his testimony which was sealed until the time of the end, when the first angel’s message should be proclaimed to our world.” TM 115.
AND HE
      —Jesus—
SET HIS RIGHT FOOT UPON THE SEA, AND HIS LEFT FOOT ON THE EARTH,
      —Daniel saw a similar vision of Jesus, and describes Him as on “the bank of the river,” and “upon the waters of the river.” Daniel 12:5, 6. What is indicated by this double position?
      —“Waters,” in Bible symbols, represent “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” The “earth,” in Bible prophecy, represents “territory previously unoccupied.” Revelation 17:15; 13:11; GC 440.
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      —“The Angel’s position, with one foot on the sea, the other on the land, signifies the wide extent of the proclamation of the message. It will cross the broad waters and be proclaimed in other countries, even to all the world.” 7BC 971.
      —“Setting His right foot on the sea, and His left upon the dry land, shows the part which He is acting in the closing scenes of the great controversy with Satan. This position denotes His supreme power and authority over the whole earth. The controversy has waxed stronger and more determined from age to age, and will continue to do so, to the concluding scenes when the masterly working of the powers of darkness shall reach their height. Satan, united with evil men, will deceive the whole world and the churches who receive not the love of the truth. But the mighty Angel demands attention. He cries with a loud voice. He is to show the power and authority of His voice to those who have united with Satan to oppose the truth.” 7BC 971.
      —The great controversy between Christ and Satan is about to come to a dramatic climax. Christ has an urgent message of warning and caution, of direction and guidance, as the people purchased by His blood, face the impending conflict —and the pre-advent judgment.
      —Listen carefully —earnestly— to His message!
AND HE CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, AS WHEN A LION ROARETH:
      —“The Lion of Judah, so terrible to the rejecters of His grace, will be the Lamb of God to the obedient and faithful.” 6T 404.
      —AND WHEN HE HAD CRIED, SEVEN THUNDERS UTTERED THEIR VOICES.
      —The powerful words of Christ, as the roar of a lion, echo and reecho throughout the heavens, causing seven thunders to vibrate. What are these seven thunders?
      —“These relate to future events which will be disclosed in their order.” 7BC 971.
AND WHEN THE SEVEN THUNDERS HAD UTTERED THEIR VOICES, I WAS ABOUT TO WRITE:
      —John was going to record the future events which had been revealed in the thunders.
AND I HEARD A VOICE FROM HEAVEN SAYING UNTO ME, SEAL UP THOSE THINGS WHICH THE SEVEN THUNDERS UTTERED, AND WRITE THEM NOT.
      —“The special light given to John which was expressed in the seven thunders was a delineation of events which would transpire under the first and second angels’ messages. It was not best for the people to know these things, for their faith must necessarily be tested.” 7BC 971.
      —The seven thunders were:
          “events” — “yet future”;
          to occur before the general close of probation.
          They are to “be disclosed in their order,”
          after the faith of God’s people has been “tested.”
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      —Child of God, as you ponder this description of the mighty Angel, who has come down to give a solemn warning to earth’s inhabitants, keep your eyes focused on the rainbow above His head, and His great mercy to repentant, believing sinners.
          He is “clothed with a cloud,” “which speaks wrath and terror to the transgressor of God’s law.” 6T 404.
          His feet, “as pillars of fire,” are to someday tread the “great winepress of the wrath of God.” Revelation 10:1; 14:19.
          He cries with a loud voice, to show “power and authority” “to those who have united with Satan to oppose the truth.” 7BC 971.
          His cry, as the roar of a lion, is to be “terrible to the rejecters of His grace.” 6T 404.
          —But there is still a beautiful rainbow above His head. If you are His repentant and believing child, you will be safe in His hands, in these crisis days ahead!
          —“. . . Amid the strife and tumult of nations He guards His people still. He who ruleth in the heavens is our Saviour. He measures every trial. He watches the furnace fire that must test every soul. When the strongholds of kings shall be overthrown, when the arrows of God’s wrath shall strike through the hearts of His enemies, His people will be safe in His hands.” 5T 754.
AND THE ANGEL WHICH I SAW STAND UPON THE SEA
AND UPON THE EARTH LIFTED UP HIS HAND TO HEAVEN,
AND SWARE BY HIM THAT LIVETH FOR EVER AND EVER,
      —God, His Father—and ours—
WHO CREATED HEAVEN, AND THE THINGS THAT THEREIN ARE, AND THE EARTH, AND THE THINGS THAT THEREIN ARE, AND THE SEA, AND THE THINGS WHICH ARE THEREIN, THAT THERE SHOULD BE TIME NO LONGER:
      —“This time, which the Angel declares with a solemn oath, is not the end of this world’s history, neither of probationary time, but of prophetic time, which should precede the advent of our Lord. That is, the people will not have another message upon definite time. After this period of time, reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time. The longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844.” 7BC 971.
      —“Time no longer” did not mean:
          the end of this world’s history in 1844;
          neither did it mean the end of probationary time,
              —no more grace.
      —“Time no longer” did mean:
              the end of prophetic time, which should precede the advent of our Lord.
      —What is prophetic time?
          As we studied the time charts of Daniel 8:14, and 9:24-27, in the Introduction, we learned that a day in prophetic time is one year in literal time. (Ezekiel 4:6; Numbers 14:34.)
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          All time prophecies before 1844 were to have a day-for-a-year yardstick placed to them.
      —When the Angel made the proclamation to John about the end of prophetic time in 1844, we may understand that the day-for-a-year yardstick was no longer to be used after 1844.
          All time prophecies after 1844 are to have a day-for-a-day yardstick applied to them. They would be literal time. In other words, they would be literal days, months, or years, according to how they were mentioned in the Scripture.
      —It was with “a solemn oath,” that Jesus announces “that there should be time no longer.” 7BC 971; Revelation 10:6.
      —We are also told:
“           There can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time.” Any prophecy after 1844 will have no beginning date to reckon from beforehand.
          “The people will not have another message upon definite time.” “Time” will not be an issue, like it was before 1844, when the prophecies were preached with power from the pulpits across the land, and around the world.
      —The literal time prophecies will be as guidelines to show God’s torn and tested people where they are in the terrible conflict, and to give them faith to hold on.
      —They will be as comforting signposts, that God’s hand is still on the helm of good ship Zion, and even though it hits “the iceberg,” and the passengers are “violently shaken,” still it rebounds “from the contact, trembling from stem to stem, like a living creature,” and moves “forward on her way.” 1SM 205, 206.
      —They will bring assurance, in the darkness of midnight confusion and privation, when “every earthly support” is “cut off,” that Satan’s days are numbered. See DA 121.
      —They will bring rejoicing that the golden morning —with Jesus— is fast approaching, —and with it will come deliverance from the enemy who is “wroth” with God’s remnant people.
      —But—the literal time prophecies are also something else!
      They bring a very special warning to God’s professed church members to prepare for the investigative judgment of the living.
          Get ready, Our children!
          We are turning the pages in the Lamb’s book of life, and soon will examine the pages of those who are alive.
          We will come to your page, and look for the word PARDON.
          We will come to your heart, and look for hatred of sin.
          We have promised you PARDON in 1John 1:9;
          We have promised you hatred for sin in Genesis 3:15.
          Don’t delay to accept these two lifesaving gifts!
          Well soon be looking at your page as the great investigative judgment of the living gets underway.
      —Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, so powerful against the
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workers of iniquity, is giving to His little flock some literal time prophecies for their warning and guidance, for their comfort and encouragement.
          They cannot be traced beforehand.
          They will not be a test.
          They will be love messages from Jesus that we may look at when there is a need to “hold on” a little longer. He, who trod a dark path before us, is to be by our side.
AND IN THE DAYS OF THE VOICE OF THE SEVENTH ANGEL, WHEN HE SHALL BEGIN TO SOUND,
      —the last event, just before the coming of Jesus in the clouds,
THE MYSTERY OF GOD SHOULD BE FINISHED, AS HE HATH DECLARED TO HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS.
      —“. . . God’s people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.” GC 675.
      —Christ “became poor that we might come into possession of the heavenly treasure, ‘a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ 2Corinthians 4:17. To rescue us He descended from one humiliation to another until He, the divine—human, suffering Christ, was uplifted on the cross to draw all men to Himself. The Son of God could not have shown greater condescension than He did; He could not have stooped lower.
      “This is the mystery of godliness, the mystery that has inspired heavenly agencies so to minister through fallen humanity that in the world an intense interest will be aroused in the plan of salvation. This is the mystery that has stirred all heaven to unite with man in carrying out God’s great plan for the salvation of a ruined world.” 7T 29.
AND THE VOICE WHICH I
      —John—
HEARD FROM HEAVEN
      —telling me to seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered—
SPAKE UNTO ME AGAIN, AND SAID, GO AND TAKE THE LITTLE BOOK WHICH IS OPEN IN THE HAND OF THE ANGEL WHICH STANDETH UPON THE SEA AND UPON THE EARTH.
AND I WENT UNTO THE ANGEL, AND SAID UNTO HIM, GIVE ME THE LITTLE BOOK.
      —John, representing the people of God who are living in the time of the end, asks Jesus for the open book of Daniel.
AND HE SAID UNTO ME, TAKE IT, AND EAT IT UP;
      —Study the book of Daniel, until it is a part of your body.
AND IT SHALL MAKE THY BELLY BITTER,
      —There was to be a disappointment in the experience of God’s people.
BUT IT SHALL BE IN THY MOUTH SWEET AS HONEY.
      —“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” Jeremiah 15:16.
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AND I TOOK THE LITTLE BOOK OUT OF THE ANGEL’S HAND, AND ATE IT UP; AND IT WAS IN MY MOUTH SWEET AS HONEY: AND AS SOON AS I HAD EATEN IT, MY BELLY WAS BITTER.
      —This eating of the open book of Daniel included prophesying. Notice the word “again” in the next verse:
AND HE SAID UNTO ME, THOU MUST PROPHESY AGAIN BEFORE MANY PEOPLES, AND NATIONS, AND TONGUES, AND KINGS.
      —After John, representing God’s people in the time of the end, had “eaten” the open book of Daniel, and prophesied regarding its teachings, he was disappointed.
      —Then he was told not to give up because of his disappointment, but received new marching orders: “Thou must prophesy again!”
      —The portion of the book of Daniel which God’s people eagerly studied near the opening of the first time of the end —before 1844— included the 2300 day prophecy —and the 70 week prophecy of Daniel 8 and 9. According to their calculations, the sanctuary was to be cleansed in 1844. They had the dates completely correct, —but they did not understand what the sanctuary was. They thought the sanctuary was this earth, and that Jesus was to return to cleanse the earth, and take His people to heaven in 1844. They did not realize that the sanctuary referred to in Daniel 8:14, was the heavenly sanctuary, and that to cleanse it, Jesus would need to remove the sins which had been confessed by His people, and make a special atonement for its apartments and the altar of incense.
      —The sanctuary service in the wilderness was a type, or miniature, of what Jesus was to do in the heavenly sanctuary, after His death on the cross. Study Leviticus 16.
      —“In the typical system, which was a shadow of the sacrifice and priesthood of Christ, the cleansing of the sanctuary was the last service performed by the high priest in the yearly round of ministration. It was the closing work of the atonement —a removal or putting away of sin from Israel. It prefigures the closing work in the ministration of our High Priest in heaven, in the removal or blotting out of the sins of His people, which are registered in the heavenly records. This service involves a work of investigation, a work of judgment; and it immediately precedes the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; for when He comes, every case has been decided. Says Jesus: ‘My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.’ Revelation 22:12. It is this work of judgment, immediately preceding the second advent, that is announced in the first angel’s message of Revelation 14:7: “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.” GC 352.
      —Watch with John as this first of three angels crosses the sky:
AND I SAW ANOTHER ANGEL FLY IN THE MIDST OF HEAVEN, HAVING THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL TO PREACH
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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.
      —Heaven’s time-clock points to the hour for opening the books of record. Daniel tells us, (Daniel 7:10)
          “. . .The judgment was set, and the books were opened.”
AND WORSHIP HIM THAT MADE HEAVEN, AND EARTH AND THE SEA, AND THE FOUNTAINS OF WATERS
      —Because the “hour” of God’s judgment is come, the first angel is calling earth’s inhabitants to do three things;
          Fear God.
          Give glory to Him.
          Worship Him.
      —They are to lay aside everything that separates them from their Creator —all cherished idols— and prepare to be citizens of heaven. He is to have the undivided affection of their hearts.
      —“Those who proclaimed this warning gave the right message at the right time. But as the early disciples declared, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,’ based on the prophecy of Daniel 9, while they failed to perceive that the death of the Messiah was foretold in the same scripture, so Miller and his associates preached the message on Daniel 8:14 and Revelation 14:7, and failed to see that there were still other messages brought to view in Revelation 14, which were also to be given before the advent of the Lord. As the disciples were mistaken in regard to the kingdom to be set up at the end of the seventy weeks, so’ Adventists were mistaken in regard to the event to take place at the expiration of the 2300 days. In both cases there was an acceptance of, or rather an adherence to, popular errors that blinded the mind to the truth. Both classes fulfilled the will of God in delivering the message which He desired to be given, and both, through their own misapprehension of their message, suffered disappointment.” GC 352, 353.
      —“. . .The disciples were doomed to a bitter disappointment. . . They followed Jesus to Calvary . . . Their hearts sunk with grief Their expectations were not realized in a single particular. Their hopes died with Jesus. But as He arose from the dead, and appeared to His sorrowing disciples, their hopes revived. They had lost their Saviour; but again they had found Him.” 1SG 150
      —“The message of Revelation 14, proclaiming that the hour of God’s judgment is come, is given in the time of the end; and the Angel of Revelation 10 is represented as having one foot on the sea and one foot on the land, showing that the message will be carried to distant lands, the ocean will be crossed, and the islands of the sea will hear the proclamation of the last message of warning to our world.” 7BC 971.
      —“Like the Great Reformation of the sixteenth century the advent movement appeared in different countries of Christendom at the
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same time. In both Europe and America men of faith and prayer were led to the study of the prophecies, and, tracing down the inspired record, they saw convincing evidence that the end of all things was at hand. In different lands there were isolated bodies of Christians who, solely by the study of the Scriptures, arrived at the belief that the Saviour’s advent was near.
      —“In 1821, three years after Miller had arrived at his exposition of the prophecies pointing to the time of the judgment, Dr. Joseph Wolff, ‘the missionary to the world,’ began to proclaim the Lord’s soon coming . . . He persevered in his labors until the message of the judgment had been carried to a large part of the habitable globe. Among Jews, Turks, Parsees, Hindus, and many other nationalities and races he distributed the word of God in these various tongues and everywhere heralded the approaching reign of the Messiah . . .
      —“In South America, in the midst of barbarism and priestcraft, Lacunza, a Spaniard and a Jesuit, found his way to the Scriptures and thus received the truth of Christ’s speedy return. Impelled to give the warning, . . . he published his views under the assumed name of ‘Rabbi Ben-Ezra.’ . . .
      —“In Germany the doctrine had been taught in the eighteenth century by Bengel, a minister in the Lutheran Church and a celebrated Biblical scholar and critic. . . He devoted himself to the study of the prophecies, especially those of the Apocalypse, and soon arrived at the belief that they pointed to the coming of Christ as near . . .
      —“The Light shone also in France and Switzerland . . . Gaussen preached the message of the second advent . . .
      —“In Scandinavia also the advent message was proclaimed, and a widespread interest was kindled. Many were roused from their careless security to confess and forsake their sins, and seek pardon in the name of Christ. But the clergy of the state church opposed the movement, and through their influence some who preached the message were thrown into prison. In many places where the preachers of the Lord’s soon coming were thus silenced, God was pleased to send the message, in a miraculous manner, through little children. As they were under age, the law of the state could not restrain them, and they were permitted to speak unmolested . . . .
      —“The child-preachers themselves were mostly poor cottagers. Some of them were not more than six or eight years of age; and while their lives testified that they loved the Saviour, and were trying to live in obedience to God’s holy requirements, they ordinarily manifested only the intelligence and ability usually seen in children of that age. When standing before the people, however, it was evident that they were moved by an influence beyond their own natural gifts. Tone and manner changed, and with solemn power they gave the warning of the judgment, employing the very words of Scripture: ‘Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come . . .’
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      —“To William Miller and his co-laborers it was given to preach the warning in America. This country became the center of the great advent movement. It was here that the prophecy of the first angel’s message had its most direct fulfillment. The writings of Miller and his associates were carried to distant lands. Wherever missionaries had penetrated in all the world, were sent the glad tidings of Christ’s speedy return. Far and wide spread the message of the everlasting gospel: ‘Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.’
      —“The testimony of the prophecies which seemed to point to the coming of Christ in the spring of 1844 took deep hold on the minds of the people. AB the message went from state to state, there was everywhere awakened widespread interest. Many were convinced that the arguments from the prophetic periods were correct, and, sacrificing their pride of opinion, they joyfully received the truth . . .
      —“Farmers left their fields, mechanics their tools, trades their merchandise, professional men their positions; and yet the number of workers was small in comparison with the work to be accomplished. The condition of an ungodly church and a world lying in wickedness, burdened the souls of the true watchmen, and they willingly endured toil, privation, and suffering, that they might call men to repentance unto salvation. Though opposed by Satan the work went steadily forward, and the advent truth was accepted by many thousands . . .
      —“Often was heard the sound of earnest intercession. Everywhere were souls in deep anguish pleading with God. Many wrestled all night in prayer for the assurance that their own sins were pardoned, or for the conversion of their relatives or neighbors . . . Sometimes the instrument was feeble; but the Spirit of God gave power to His truth. The presence of holy angels was felt in these assemblies, and many were daily added to the believers. AB the evidences of Christ’s soon coming were repeated, vast crowds listened in breathless silence to the solemn words. Heaven and earth seemed to approach each other . . .
      —“Such were the blessed results experienced by those who accepted the advent message. They came from different denominations, and their denominational berries were hurled 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 . . .
      —“The time of expectation passed, and Christ did not appear for the deliverance of His people. Those who with sincere faith and love had looked for their Saviour, experienced a bitter disappointment. Yet the purposes of God were being accomplished . . . Could the veil separating the visible from the invisible world have been swept back, angels would have been seen drawing near to these steadfast
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souls and shielding them from the shafts of Satan.” GC 357-379.
      —As the people of God took the open book of Daniel out of the Angel’s hand, and “ate it up,” it was indeed precious to them. But the sweetness of looking for their Lord, turned to bitterness, when He did not appear.
      —God’s people also preached another message during the year of their disappointment—the message of the second angel, from Revelation 14:8. It was directed by God to the people who had refused the first angel’s warning, calling them to prepare for the judgment which was to begin in the sanctuary in heaven.
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 message which God had sent for the testing and purification of the church revealed all too surely how great was the number who had set their affections on this world rather than upon Christ. The ties which bound them to earth were stronger than the attractions heavenward . . . In refusing the warning of the first angel, they rejected the means which Heaven had provided for their restoration. They spurned the gracious messenger that would have corrected the evils which separated them from God, and with greater eagerness they turned to seek the friendship of the world. Here was the cause of that fearful condition of worldliness, backsliding, and spiritual death which existed in the churches in 1844.
      —“In Revelation 14 the fist angel is followed by a second proclaiming: ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ Revelation 14:8. The term ‘Babylon’ is derived from ‘Babel,’ and signifies confusion. It is employed in Scripture to designate the various forms of false or apostate religion . . .
      —“The second angel’s message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that ‘Babylon is fallen, . . . because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ She has not yet made all nations do this . . . The change is a progressive one, and the perfect fulfillment of Revelation 14:8 is yet future.” GC 380-390.
      —What happened to God’s faithful, disappointed witnesses, who had been preaching the first and second angels’ messages?
      “But God had led His people in the great advent movement; His
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power and glory had attended the work, and He would not permit it to end in darkness and disappointment . . . He would not leave His word involved in doubt and uncertainty . . .
      —“In their investigation they learned that there is no Scripture evidence sustaining the popular view that the earth is the sanctuary; but they found in the Bible a full explanation of the subject of the sanctuary, its nature, location, and services; the testimony of the sacred writers being so clear and ample as to place the matter beyond all question . . .
      —“The ministration of the priest throughout the year in the first apartment of the sanctuary, . . . represents the work of ministration upon which Christ entered at His ascension. It was the work of the priest in the daily ministration to present before God the blood of the sin offering, also the incense which ascended with the prayers of Israel. So did Christ plead His blood before the Father in behalf of sinners, and present before Him also, with the precious fragrance of His own righteousness, the prayers of penitent believers. Such was the work of ministration in the first apartment of the sanctuary in heaven . . .
      —“For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the sanctuary. The blood of Christ, pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon the books of record. As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ’s work for the redemption of men is completed there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary. This is the service which began when the 2300 days ended. At that time, as foretold by Daniel the prophet, our High Priest entered the most holy, to perform the last division of His solemn work—to cleanse the sanctuary.
      —“As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded . . .
      —“The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment in 1844. It opened to view a complete system of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God’s hand had directed the great advent movement and revealing present duty as it brought to light the position and work of His people. As the disciples of Jesus after the terrible night of their anguish and disappointment were ‘glad when they saw the Lord,’ so did those now rejoice who had looked in faith for His second coming. They had expected Him to appear in glory to give reward to His servants. As their hopes were disappointed, they had lost
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sight of Jesus, and with Mary at the sepulcher they cried: ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.’ Now in the holy of holies they again beheld Him, their compassionate High Priest, soon to appear as their King and Deliverer. Light from the sanctuary illumined the past, the present, and the future.” GC 410-423.
      —God’s people were made stronger because they faced an emergency where faith was essential. Now their understanding of His word was even deeper.
      —Now they were ready to receive the next rays of light from their Master —and their next commission:
          “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues and kings.” Revelation 10:11.
      —This command was not given to God’s people, without giving them additional truth to share with the world.
      —Jesus gave the open book of Daniel to John, for His people, as their additional source of light for the first two angels’ messages. What did Jesus give to John for His people to use, in addition to the book of Daniel, as they preached the third angel’s message of Revelation 14?
AND THERE WAS GIVEN ME A REED LIKE UNTO A ROD:
      —This “reed like unto a rod,” which was given to John, is also to be used by Jesus to “measure” the worshipers in His temple. Revelation 11:1. What is this “reed?”
      —“. . . The law of God, will measure the character of every man and condemn all whom this unerring test shall declare wanting.” GC 268.
      —The “moral law” is “the measurement of God’s only standard of holiness in heaven and in earth.” GC 472.
      —As the people of God received their new commission to “prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues and kings,” after their eyes had been directed to their great High Priest in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary—their eyes were then drawn to God’s holy law.
      —There was still one more message in Revelation 14 to give to the world, and in order to give this message, they needed the “reed like unto a rod.”
          They needed the book of Daniel to prophesy the first time; they needed God’s holy law to fulfill the second commission.
      —“. . .The time for the commandments of God to shine out with all their importance, and for God’s people to be tried on the Sabbath truth, was when the door was opened in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary, where the ark is, in which are contained the ten commandments. This door was not opened until the mediation of Jesus in the holy place was finished and He had passed within the second veil.” EW 42.
      —“After Jesus opened the door of the most holy, the light of the Sabbath was seen, and the people of God were tested, as the children of Israel were tested anciently, to see if they would keep
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God’s law . . .It was represented to me that the remnant followed Jesus into the most holy place and beheld the ark and the mercy seat, and were captivated with their glory. Jesus then raised the cover of the ark, and lo! the tables of stone, with the ten commandments written upon them. They trace down the lively oracles, but start back with trembling when they see the fourth commandment among the ten holy precepts, with a brighter light shining upon it than upon the other nine, and a halo of glory all around it. They find nothing there informing them that the Sabbath has been abolished, or changed to the first day of the week. The commandment reads as when spoken by the voice of God in solemn and awful grandeur upon the mount, while the lightnings flashed and the thunders rolled; it is the same as when written with His own finger on the tables of stone: ‘Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.’ [Exodus 20:8-11.] They are amazed as they behold the care taken of the ten commandments. They see them placed close by Jehovah, overshadowed and protected by His holiness. They see that they have been trampling upon the fourth commandment of the Decalogue, and have observed a day handed down by the heathen and papists, instead of the day sanctified by Jehovah. They humble themselves before God and mourn over their past transgressions.
      —“I saw the incense in the censer smoke as Jesus offered their confessions and prayers to His Father. And as it ascended, a bright light rested upon Jesus and upon the mercy seat; and the earnest praying ones, who were troubled because they had discovered themselves to be transgressors of God’s law, were blessed, and their countenances lighted up with hope and joy.” EW 254-256.
      —Almost everyone who had given the first and second angels’ messages in 1844 were regarding the first day of the week as God’s sacred day. Now, as they receive the “reed like unto a rod,” and the commission to give the third angel’s message, they joyfully make the change to honor His seventh day —and God accepts their sincerity.
      —John has watched as two angels flew across the sky, with messages of utmost importance to the inhabitants of earth in these closing days. Now John sees the third angel, who carries another solemn warning. (These three angels “are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven.” LS 429.)
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
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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.
      —“As the ministration of Jesus closed in the holy place, and He passed into the holiest, and stood before the ark containing the law of God, He sent another mighty angel with a third message to the world. A parchment was placed in the angel’s hand, and as he descended to the earth in power and majesty, he proclaimed a fearful warning, with the most terrible threatening ever borne to man. This message was designed to put the children of God upon their guard, by showing them the hour of temptation and anguish that was before them. Said the angel, ‘They will be brought into close combat with the beast and his image. Their only hope of eternal life is to remain steadfast. Although their lives are at stake, they must hold fast the truth.’ The third angel closes his message thus: ‘Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’ As he repeated these words, he pointed to the heavenly sanctuary. The minds of all who embrace this message are directed to the holy place, where Jesus stands before the ark, making His final intercession for all those for whom mercy still lingers and for those who have ignorantly broken the law of God. This atonement is made for the righteous dead as well as for the righteous living. It includes all who died trusting in Christ, but who, not having received the light upon God’s commandments, had sinned ignorantly in transgressing its precepts.” EW 254 (Emphasis added.)
      —(The three angels’ messages correspond to the messages given to the Sardis and Philadelphia churches. See Chapter 2.)
      —The Angel handed “the reed like unto a rod” to God’s disappointed people back in 1844. Many of them accepted it gladly—and gave their lives in dedication to their Master for the proclamation of the three angel’s messages “before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”
      —The Angel is holding out “the reed like unto a rod” to us today. What are we going to do with it?
      —We “have been given a work of the most solemn import—the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance.” We are “to allow nothing else to absorb” our attention. “The most solemn truths ever entrusted to mortals have been given us to proclaim to the world. The proclamation of these truths is to be our work. The world is to be warned, and God’s people are to be true to the trust committed to them.” 7T 19.
      —The Jews in the days of Christ faced a decision: “And Pilate
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answered and said again unto them, “What will ye then that I shall do unto Him whom ye call the King of the Jews?” Mark 15:12.
      —We face a decision today, as verily as did the Jews. It is one we cannot brush aside lightly. What are we, individually, going to do with the “reed like unto a rod” which the Angel is holding out before us?
      —Are we willing to accept God’s holy law, and count it a privilege to honor all ten of His commandments?
      —Are we willing to share with others God’s solemn warning against the worship of the beast and his man-made commandments?
      —“The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The observance of the false sabbath will be urged upon us. The contest will be between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. Those who have yielded step by step to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will then yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. At that time the gold will be separated from the dross.” PK 188. (Emphasis added.)
      —At that time, while the contest is raging between the commandments of God, and the commandments of men, God’s church —the worshipers in His temple— are to be measured.
            The gold is to be separated from the dross.
AND THE ANGEL
      —Jesus Himself, (7BC 971)
STOOD, SAYING, RISE, AND MEASURE
      THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND THE ALTAR,
      AND THEM THAT WORSHIP THEREIN.
      —those who profess to be My people.
      —“Every case is coming in review before God; He is measuring the temple and the worshipers therein.” 7T 219.
      —“I have seen an angel standing with scales in his hands weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God, especially the young. In one scale were the thoughts and interest tending heavenward; in the other were the thoughts and interest tending to earth. And in this scale were thrown all the reading of storybooks, thoughts of dress and show, vanity, pride, etc. Oh, what a solemn moment! the angels of God standing with scales, weighing the thoughts of His professed children—those who claim to be dead to the world and alive to God. The scale filled with thoughts of earth, vanity, and pride quickly went down, notwithstanding weight after weight rolled from the scale. The one with the thoughts and interest tending to heaven went quickly up as the other went down, and oh, how light it was! I can relate this as I saw it; but never can I give the solemn and vivid impression stamped upon my mind, as I saw the angel with the scales weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God. Said the angel: Can such enter heaven? No, no, never. Tell them the hope they now possess is vain, and unless they speedily repent, and obtain salvation, they must perish.’
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      —“A form of godliness will not save any. All must have a deep and living experience. This alone will save them in the day of trouble.” l T 124, 125.
      —“Very many who profess to be Christ’s disciples will apparently pass along smoothly in this world, and will be regarded as upright, godly men, when they have a plague spot at the core, which taints their whole character and corrupts their religious experience. ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ This forbids us to take advantage of our fellow men in order to advantage ourselves . . .
      —“Here many who profess to be Christians will not bear the measurement of God when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, they will be found wanting.” 2T 43.
      —And the Angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
BUT THE COURT WHICH IS WITHOUT THE TEMPLE LEAVE OUT, AND, MEASURE IT NOT; FOR IT IS GIVEN UNTO THE GENTILES:
      —“So in the great day of final atonement and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes place at a later period.” GC 480.
      —There are three parts to the measuring of the worshipers in God’s temple: —those who profess to serve Him—
1. The hour-by-hour measuring:
      “God judges every man according to his work. Not only does He judge, but He sums up, day by day and hour by hour, our progress in welldoing.” 7BC 987.
      “. . . The Lord says, Measure the temple and the worshipers thereof. Remember when you are walking the streets about your business, God is measuring you; when you are attending to your household duties, when you engage in conversation, God is measuring you. Remember that your words and actions are being daguerreotyped [photographed] in the books of heaven, as the face is reproduced by the artist on the polished plate.” 7BC 972.
2. The examination of the records of those who have died:
      “The books of record in heaven, in which the names and the deeds of men are registered, are to determine the decisions of the judgment. Says the prophet Daniel: The judgment was set, and the books were opened.’ The revelator, describing the same scene, adds: ‘Another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.’ Revelation 20:12 . . .
      “As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. Beginning with those who fist lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living. Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected.” GC 480, 483.
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3. The examination of the records of those who are yet alive:
      —“Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For many years this work has been in progress. Soon —none know how soon— it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review.” GC 490.
      —The living worshipers in God’s “temple,” are not all “measured” at the same time. One by one their cases are considered:


      —There are as many closes of probation as there are names of God’s professed living children registered in the book of life.
          (The general close of probation for the wicked comes when Jesus throws down the censer of intercession, and leaves the sanctuary. Revelation 8:5; 22:11; EW 280.)
      —The measuring of God’s living church—the worshipers in His temple—is also referred to as the “purification,” or the “shaking.”
      —“But the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor . . .
      —“In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church. True godliness will be clearly distinguished from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliancy will then go out in darkness. Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind, even from places where we see only floors of rich wheat. All who assume the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ’s righteousness, will appear in the shame of their own nakedness.” 5T 80, 81.
      —“As we near the judgment, all will manifest their true character, and it will be made plain to what company they belong. The sieve is moving. Let us not say: Stay Thy hand, O God. The church must be purged, and it will be.” 1T 100. (Emphasis added.)
      —What are the visible issues on earth to warn us that the shaking of God’s living church members is to soon be underway?
      —“When the law of God is made void the church will be sifted by fiery trials, and a larger proportion than we now anticipate, will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” 1SM 368.
      —“And all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils and obey the national laws to exalt the sabbath instituted by the man of sin, to the disregard of God’s holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world . . .
      —“Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out —the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place.” 2SM 380. (Emphasis added.)
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As God’s true church enters into the crisis time appointed to her:
      —how is she to prophesy?
          “The church will yet see troublous times. She will prophesy in sackcloth.” 4T 594.
      —What must she meet?
          “. . . She must meet heresies and persecutions . . .” 4T 594.
      —What must she battle against?
          “. . . She must battle with the infidel and the apostate . . .” 4T 594.
      —How far must her prophecy extend?
          “. . . Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Revelation 10:11.
      —What is she given to prophesy with?
          “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod . . .” Revelation 11:1.
      —What are the messages she is to give?
          “The first and second messages [of Revelation 14] were given in 1843 and 1844, and we are now under the proclamation of the third; but all three of the messages are still to be proclaimed. It is just as essential now as ever before that they shall be repeated to those who are seeking for the truth.” 1SM 104, 105.
      —Where is she going to be measured?
          “In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church and all other churches] is to be weighed.” 8T 247.
      —What is she going to be measured by?
          “The moral law” is “the measurement of God’s only standard of holiness in heaven and in earth.” GC 472.
      —Who is she going to be measured by?
          “Every case is coming in review before God; He is measuring the temple and the worshipers therein.” 7T 219.
          (God, the Father “presides” in the judgment;
          God, the Son, performs the work of judging. GC 479, 480.
          “All judgment” is committed “unto the Son.” John 5:22.)
      —How will those appear who do not measure up to God’s standard, —His perfect law?
          “Many who profess to be Christians will not bear the measurement of God; when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, they will be found wanting.” 2T 32, 33.
      —How will those appear who accept perfection as a gift from Jesus?
          “The only way in which he can attain to righteousness is through faith. By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner’s account.” 1SM 367.
      —How will God’s church be judged?
          “She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the
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work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence: ‘Found wanting.’ By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged.” 8T 247.
      —How long will she be trodden underfoot of the Gentiles?
AND THE HOLY CITY SHALL THEY TREAD UNDERFOOT FORTY AND TWO MONTHS.
      —How long will she prophesy “clothed in sackcloth?”
AND I WILL GIVE POWER UNTO MY TWO WITNESSES, AND THEY SHALL PROPHESY A THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE DAYS, CLOTHED IN SACKCLOTH.
      —(Forty-two months and 1260 days are alike: both are 31½ years.)
      —What is meant by the term, “Two Witnesses?”
          “The two witnesses represent the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. Both are important testimonies to the origin and perpetuity of the law of God. Both are witnesses also to the plan of salvation.” GC 267.
      —Who does God use to exalt His Two Witnesses?
          “God’s sanctified memorial has been torn down, and in its place a false sabbath, bearing no sanctity, stands before the world. And while the powers of darkness are stirring up the elements from beneath, the Lord God of heaven is sending power from above to meet the emergency by arousing His living agencies to exalt the law of heaven.” 6T 18.
      —Who are the great Powers behind the living agencies, and how are they symbolized?
THESE ARE THE TWO OLIVE TREES, AND THE TWO CANDLESTICKS STANDING BEFORE THE GOD OF THE EARTH.
      —“God’s people are to be channels for the outworking of the highest influence in the universe. In Zechariah’s vision [chapter 4] the two olive trees which stand before God are represented as emptying the golden oil out of themselves through golden tubes into the bowl of the sanctuary. From this the lamps of the sanctuary are fed, that they may give a continuous bright and shining light. So from the anointed Ones that stand in God’s presence the fullness of divine light and love and power is imparted to His people, that they may impart to others light and joy and refreshing. They are to become channels through which divine instrumentalities communicate to the world the tide of God’s love.” 6T 11, 12.
      —Through these symbols “the continued communication of the Holy Spirit to the church is represented by the prophet Zechariah. . .” TM 509.
      —The Holy Spirit is God’s anointed One. And He reveals to us God’s other anointed One:


      —In the crisis ahead, how will the Holy Spirit work to present Christ to the world, through Their Two Witnesses—the Old and the New Testaments?
          “In the closing work of God in the earth, the standard of His law
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will be again exalted. False religion may prevail, iniquity may abound, the love of many may wax cold, the cross of Calvary may be lost sight of, and darkness, like the pas of death, may spread over the world; [“Sackcloth” is a fit representation.] the whole force of the popular current may be turned against the truth; plot after plot may be formed to overthrow the people of God; but in the hour of greatest peril the God of Elijah will raise up human instrumentalities to bear a message that will not be silenced. In the populous cities of the land, and in the places where men have gone to the greatest lengths in speaking against the Most High, the voice of stem rebuke will be heard. Boldly will men of God’s appointment denounce the union of the church with the world. Earnestly will they call upon men and women to turn from the observance of a man-made institution to the observance of the true Sabbath. ‘Fear God, and give glory to Him,’ they will proclaim to every nation; ‘for the hour of His judgment is come.’” PK 186, 187.
AND IF ANY MAN WILL HURT THEM, FIRE PROCEEDETH OUT OF THEIR MOUTH, AND DEVOURETH THEIR ENEMIES: AND IF ANY MAN WILL HURT THEM, HE MUST IN THIS MANNER BE KILLED.
      —“Men cannot with impunity trample upon the word of God. The meaning of this fearful denunciation [the above scripture] is set forth in the closing chapter of the Revelation: ‘I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.’ Revelation 22:18. 19.” GC 268.
THESE HAVE POWER TO SHUT HEAVEN, THAT IT RAIN NOT IN THE DAYS OF THEIR PROPHECY:
      —While the Two Witnesses are prophesying “clothed in sackcloth” there is to be a drought. Why?
      —“. . . The Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord do just what He has declared that He would —He will withdraw His blessings from the earth . . .” GC 589.
      —Why did Elijah pray for a drought on ancient Israel?
          Elijah “went before the Lord, and, with his soul wrung with anguish, pleaded for Him to save His people if it must be by judgments. He pleaded with God to withhold from His ungrateful people dew and rain, the treasures of heaven, that apostate Israel might look in vain to their gods . . . The Lord told Elijah that He had heard his prayer and would withhold dew and rain from His people until they should turn unto Him with repentance.” 3T 263.
      —“As time passed, streams that had never been known to fail began to decrease, and brooks dried up . . . A year passes, and yet there is no rain. The earth is parched as if with fire. The scorching heat
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of the sun destroys what little vegetation has survived. Streams dry up, and lowing herds and bleating flocks wander hither and thither in distress. Once-flourishing fields have become like burning desert sands, a desolate waste. The air is dry and suffocating; dust storms blind the eyes and nearly stop the breath. Once-prospering cities and villages have become places of mourning. Hunger and thirst are telling upon man and beast with fearful mortality. Famine, with all its horrors, comes closer and still closer . . .
      —“The second year of famine passed, and still the pitiless heavens gave no sign of rain. Drought and famine continued their devastation throughout the kingdom. Fathers and mothers, powerless to relieve the sufferings of their children, were forced to see them die . . . They seemed unable to discern in their suffering and distress a call to repentance, a divine interposition to save them from taking the fatal step beyond the boundary of Heaven’s forgiveness.” PK 123-127.
      —From the chapter on the civil war in United States is this statement:
          “. . . This land of light will drink the cup of His unmingled wrath. The desolating power of God is upon the earth to rend and destroy. The inhabitants of the earth are appointed to the sword, to famine, and to pestilence.” 1T 363.
      —“Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come . . .The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
          “How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate . . . for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.” Joel 1:15-20.
      —What will be the results of the drought, which is to come “in the days of their prophecy?”
          “. . . When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9.
      —Famine is to be one of the tools God will permit, so that as many as possible will be aroused to see their great need of “righteousness,” —their great need to know Jesus as their Saviour from sin. (In days of prosperity, people are inclined to forget God.)
      —As the impending conflict draws to a crisis, multitudes will take time to listen to the voice of the three angels, as they unite with the angel of Revelation 18:1, to give earth’s last warning message.
      —God’s “other sheep” (John 10:16), will hear His call to come out of Babylon, and will prepare for the second coming of Jesus.
      —The Two Witnesses are to bring other judgments besides the drought. They—
HAVE POWER OVER WATERS TO TURN THEM TO BLOOD, AND TO SMITE THE EARTH WITH ALL PLAGUES, AS OFTEN AS THEY WILL.
      —The “power to shut heaven, that it rain not,” is limited to “the days of their prophecy,”
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—while the Two Witnesses are giving it, their prophecy “clothed in sackcloth.”
      —But the “power over waters to turn them to blood,” and “to smite the earth with all plagues,” is not limited to these specific days. These other plagues are to come “as often as they will.” No doubt they will include the seven last plagues, in the great time of trouble, as well as the first three plagues in the little time of trouble. (See Revelation 16; Daniel 12:1; Ezekiel 6:12; EW 33, 34, 85, 86.)
AND WHEN THEY
      —the Two Witnesses—
SHALL HAVE FINISHED
      —“are finishing,” (GC 268)—
THEIR TESTIMONY,
      —clothed “in sackcloth”—
THE BEAST THAT ASCENDETH OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT
      —Satan, and his representatives,—
SHALL MAKE WAR AGAINST THEM, AND SHALL OVER COME THEM, AND KILL THEM.
      —“From the beginning of the great controversy in heaven it has been Satan’s purpose to overthrow the law of God . . . To deceive men, and thus lead them to transgress God’s law, is the object which he has steadfastly pursued. Whether this be accomplished by casting aside the law altogether, or by rejecting one of its precepts, the result will be ultimately the same . . .
      —“The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God . . . To destroy faith in the Bible serves his purpose as well as to destroy the Bible itself.” GC 582, 586.
      —“Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.” GC 588.
      —“The National Reform movement, exercising the power of religious legislation, will, when fully developed, manifest the same intolerance and oppression that have prevailed in past ages. Human councils then assumed the prerogatives of Deity, crushing under their despotic power liberty of conscience; and imprisonment, exile, and death followed for those who opposed their dictates.” 5T 712.
      —“In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Revelation 12:17.” GC 592.
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      —A great war is to be waged by “the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit,”—against God’s Word, against His law, and against all who proclaim them.
AND TEIR DEAD BODIES SHALL LIE IN THE STREET OF THE GREAT CITY,
      —the thoroughfare for Satan’s leaders,—
          (“City,” in Bible symbols, represents leaders. See Revelation 17:1, 18; Isaiah 62:6, 12; 1:26.)
WHICH SPIRITUALLY IS CALLED SODOM
      —representing licentiousness—
AND EGYPT,
      —representing “the atheism of the Pharaoh.” GC 269.
WHERE ALSO OUR LORD WAS CRUCIFIED.
      —“in the person of His disciples.” GC 271.
AND THEY OF THE PEOPLE AND KINDREDS AND TONGUES AND NATIONS SHALL SEE THEIR DEAD BODIES THREE DAYS AND AN HALF, AND SHALL NOT SUFFER THEIR DEAD BODIES TO BE PUT IN GRAVES. AND THEY THAT DWELL UPON THE EARTH SHALL REJOICE OVER THEM, AND MAKE MERRY, AND SHALL SEND GIFTS ONE TO ANOTHER; BECAUSE THESE TWO PROPHETS TORMENTED THEM THAT DWELT ON THE EARTH.
      —As we watch the events in the impending conflict ahead, we will understand better what is portrayed in these solemn words.
AND AFTER THREE DAYS AND AN HALF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE FROM GOD ENTERED INTO THEM, AND THEY STOOD I UPON THEIR FEET;
      —a new power enters into the Two Witnesses,—
AND GREAT FEAR FELL UPON THEM WHICH SAW THEM. AND THEY HEARD A GREAT VOICE FROM HEAVEN SAYING UNTO THEM, COME UP HITHER.
      —Your days of prophesying “in sackcloth” are over.
AND THEY ASCENDED UP TO HEAVEN IN A CLOUD: AND THEIR ENEMIES BEHELD THEM.
      —“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” Revelation 18:1.
      —“As the ‘former rain’ was given, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the opening of the gospel, to cause the upspringing of the precious seed, so the ‘latter rain’ will be given at its close for the ripening of the harvest. ‘Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.’ Hosea 6:3 . . . In the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.’ ‘And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Acts 2:17, 21.
      —“The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies
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which were filled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close. Here are ‘the times of refreshing’ to which the apostle Peter looked forward when he said: ‘Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus.’ Acts 3:19, 20.
      —[The blotting out of sin in the heavenly sanctuary is underway when the latter rain falls on God’s people. Compare this reference with the sequence of the shaking and the latter rain. EW 269-271]
      —“Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given . . . Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their stand upon the Lord’s side.” GC 611, 612.
      —“It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who shall be alive upon the earth when celestial glory and a repetition of the persecutions of the past are blended.” 9T 16.
      —“The message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other to prepare the way of the Lord. This is the glory of God, which closes the work of the third angel.” 6T 19.
      —What is to happen at “the same hour” that the Two Witnesses are taken up to heaven in the glorious latter rain?
AND THE SAME HOUR WAS THERE A GREAT EARTHQUAKE,
There are two kinds of earthquakes:
          one bringing “national ruin,”
          and the other bringing death to 7,000 men. (Verse 13.)
      —“A time is coming when the law of God is, in a special sense, to be made void in our land. The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law, and thus God’s people be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin.” 7BC 977.
      —“Would we know the results of making void the law of God? The experiment has been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept the rule of the cruelest of tyrants. When the standard of righteousness is set aside, the way is open for the prince of evil to establish his power in the earth.” GC 584. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Spiritualism asserts that men are unfallen demigods; that ‘each mind will judge itself;’ that ‘true knowledge places men above all law;’ that ‘all sins committed are innocent;’ for ‘whatever is, is right,’ and
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‘God cloth not condemn.’ The basest of human beings it represents as in heaven, and highly exalted there. Thus it declares to all men, ‘It matters not what you do; live as you please, heaven is your home.’ Multitudes are thus led to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself.
      —“With such teaching given at the very outset of life, when impulse is strongest, and the demand for self-restraint and purity is most urgent, where are the safeguards of virtue? What is to prevent the world from becoming a second Sodom?
      —“At the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine, but human. The centralization of wealth and power; the vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many; the combinations of the poorer classes for the defense of their interests and claims; the spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed; the worldwide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution —all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France.” Ed 227, 228. (Emphasis added.)
      —What did France teach that brought on the horrors of their Revolution in the eighteenth century?
The French Revolution:
      —Inspiration has given us a word-picture of the French Revolution in this dual prophecy of Revelation 11.
      —(A number of the Bible prophecies have a double application.’
          “Past history will be repeated . . .” TM 116.
          —“The prophecy in the eleventh [chapter] of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment. Much of the history that has taken place in fulfillment of this prophecy will be repeated.” Letter 103, 1904; RH July 8, 1976.
          “Jesus did not answer His disciples by taking up separately the destruction of Jerusalem and the great day of His coming. He mingled the description of these two events. [See Matthew 24.] . . . In mercy to them He blended the description of the two great crises, leaving the disciples to study out the meaning for themselves.” DA 628.)
      —“France is the only nation in the world concerning which the authentic record survives, that as a nation she lifted her hand in open rebellion against the Author of the universe . . . France stands apart in the world’s history as the single state which, by the decree of her Legislative Assembly, pronounced that there was no God, and of which the entire population of the capital, and a vast majority elsewhere, women as well as men, danced and sang with joy in accepting the announcement.’ —Blackwood’s Magazine, November, 1870.” GC 270.
      —(By looking back at what happened to France, when they “publicly rejected God and set aside the Bible” (GC 286), we can better understand the impending conflict ahead of us, when God’s law is to be made void by legislative bodies.)
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God’s Two Witnesses gave their testimony “in sackcloth.”
      —“When the Bible was proscribed by religious and secular authority; when its testimony was perverted, and every effort made that men and demons could invent to turn the minds of the people from it; when those who dared proclaim its sacred truths were hunted, betrayed, tortured, buried in dungeon cells, martyred for their faith, or compelled to flee to mountain fastnesses, and to dens and caves of the earth—then the faithful witnesses prophesied in sackcloth. Yet they continued their testimony throughout the entire period of 1260 years. In the darkest times there were faithful men who loved God’s word and were jealous for His honor.” GC 267.
      —(The French Revolution took place before 1844. Therefore, in this dual prophecy of Revelation 11, we should use the day-for-a-year yardstick in studying France. See Revelation 10:6; 7BC 971.)
      —This 1260 year prophecy began in 538 A.D., when pagan Rome finished giving secular authority to papal Rome. These 1260 years continued, until the pope was taken captive in 1798:
      “At that time a French army entered Rome and made the pope a prisoner, and he died in exile. Though a new pope was soon afterward elected, the papal hierarchy has never since been able to wield the power which it before possessed.” GC 266.
The beast “from the bottomless pit,” also made war against God’s Two Witnesses:
      —“‘When they shall have finished [are finishing] their testimony.’ [Brackets are in the original copy.] The period when the two witnesses were to prophesy clothed in sackcloth, ended in 1798. As they were approaching the termination of their work in obscurity, war was to be made upon them by the power represented as ‘the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.’ In many of the nations of Europe the powers that ruled in church and state had for centuries been controlled by Satan through the medium of the papacy. But here is brought to view a new manifestation of satanic power . . .
      “According to the words of the prophet, then, a little before the year 1798 some power of satanic origin and character would rise to make war upon the Bible. And in the land where the testimony of God’s two witnesses should thus be silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of the Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom.
      “This prophecy has received a most exact and striking fulfillment in the history of France. During the Revolution, in 1793, ‘the world for the first time heard an assembly of men, born and educated in civilization, and assuming the right to govern one of the finest of the European nations, uplift their united voice to deny the most solemn truth which man’s soul receives, and renounce unanimously the belief and worship of a Deity.’ —Sir Walter Scott, Life of Napoleon, vol. I, ch. 17.” GC 268-270.
      —“The atheistical power that ruled in France during the Revolution and the Reign of Terror, did wage such a war against God and His
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holy word as the world had never witnessed. The worship of the Deity was abolished by the National Assembly. Bibles were collected and publicly burned with every possible manifestation of scorn. The law of God was trampled underfoot. The institutions of the Bible were abolished. The weekly rest day was set aside, and in its stead every tenth day was devoted to reveling and blasphemy. Baptism and the Communion were prohibited. And announcements posted conspicuously over the burial places declared death to be an eternal sleep.” GC 268-274.
“France was shaken as if by an earthquake.”
      —What happened to the country of France, when the atheistical powers waged their war against God and His word?
      —“Little did the rulers of the land foresee the results of that fateful policy. The teachings of the Bible would have implanted in the minds and hearts of the people those principles of justice, temperance, truth, equity, and benevolence which are the very cornerstone of a nation’s prosperity . . . But unhappy France prohibited the Bible and banned its disciples . . .
      —“‘At last the ruin of the state was complete; there remained no more conscience to be proscribed; no more religion to be dragged to the stake; no more patriotism to be chased into banishment.’ —Wylie, b. 13, ch. 20. And the Revolution, with all its horrors, was the dire result.
      —“With the flight of the Huguenots a general decline settled upon France. Flourishing manufacturing cities fell into decay; fertile districts returned to their native wildness; intellectual dullness and moral declension succeeded a period of unwonted progress. Paris became one vast almshouse, and it is estimated that, at the breaking out of the Revolution, two hundred thousand paupers claimed charity from the hands of the king . . .
      —“A thousandfold more terrible than the physical suffering which resulted from her policy, was the moral degradation. Deprived of the Bible, and abandoned to the teachings of bigotry and selfishness, the people were shrouded in ignorance and superstition, and sunken in vice, so that they were wholly unfitted for self-government . . .
      —“When the restraints of God’s law were cast aside, it was found that the laws of man were inadequate to hold in check the powerful tides of human passion; and the nation swept on to revolt and anarchy. The war against the Bible inaugurated an era which stands in the world’s history as the Reign of Terror. Peace and happiness were banished from the homes and hearts of men. No one was secure. He who triumphed today was suspected, condemned, tomorrow. Violence and lust held undisputed sway.
      —“King, clergy, and nobles were compelled to submit to the atrocities of an excited and maddened people. Their thirst for vengeance was only stimulated by the execution of the king; and those who had decreed his death soon followed him to the scaffold. A general slaughter of all suspected of hostility to the Revolution
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was determined. The prisons were crowded, at one time containing more than two hundred thousand captives. The cities of the kingdom were filled with scenes of horror. One party of revolutionists was against another party, and France became a vast field for contending masses, swayed by the fury of their passions . . .
      —“Those who had chosen the service of rebellion were left to reap its fruits until the land was filled with crimes too horrible for pen to trace. From devastated provinces and ruined cities a terrible cry was heard—a cry of bitterest anguish. France was shaken as if by an earthquake. Religion, law, social order, the family, the state, and the church—all were smitten down by the impious hand that had been lifted against the law of God.” GC 277-286. (Emphasis added.)
God’s Two Witnesses were lifted up “to heaven in a cloud.”
      —“It was in 1793 that the decrees which abolished the Christian religion and set aside the Bible passed the French Assembly. Three years and a half later a resolution rescinding these decrees, thus granting toleration to the Scriptures, was adopted by the same body. The world stood aghast at the enormity of guilt which had resulted from a rejection of the Sacred Oracles, and men recognized the necessity of faith in God and His word as the foundation of virtue and morality . . .
      —“Since France made war upon God’s two witnesses, they have been honored as never before. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized . . . When the British Society was formed, the Bible had been printed and circulated in fifty tongues. It has since been translated into many hundreds of languages and dialects . . . It has now been carried to every part of the habitable globe . . .
      —“‘The Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.’ Saith the Lord: ‘No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.’ . . . Whatever is built upon the authority of man will be overthrown; but that which is founded upon the rock of God’s immutable word shall stand forever.” GC 287, 288.
      —There was an “earthquake” in France when God’s word was cast aside by their national council.
          Revolt, anarchy, and riots followed.
      —There will be an “earthquake” in the nations of this earth when God’s law is made void by the ruling powers.
          Internal explosions will follow, which will rock the foundations of all governments.
      —For study, compare the two very significant chapters in Great Controversy, entitled, “The French Revolution,” and “The Impending Conflict.” These are parallel chapters, which show the double prophecy of Revelation 11.
      —The verses of Revelation 11 which were not used in the chapter on “The French Revolution,” are verses 1, 2a, 6, and 13b. These verses have primary reference to “The Impending Conflict.”
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Revelation 11:13 and Revelation 18.

The “earthquake” brings death to one-tenth of Satan’s leaders:
      —God removes His protection from some of Satan’s people who are working against His law.
AND THE SAME HOUR
      —that God’s Two Witnesses are called up to the heavens to flood the world with the light of the latter rain message—
WAS THERE A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, AND THE TENTH PART OF THE CITY FELL, AND IN THE EARTHQUAKE WERE SLAIN OF MEN SEVEN THOUSAND:
AND THE REMNANT WERE AFFRIGHTED, AND GAVE GLORY TO THE GOD OF HEAVEN.
      —One-tenth of Satan’s “city” are slain in the earthquake.
      —Seven thousand are slain.
      —Satan’s entire “city,” therefore, would consist of 70,000 people.
      —Thus, there would be 63,000 left, after the great earthquake at the time of the latter rain.
      —Who are Satan’s “city?”
      “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:18.
      —What is the name of that woman who is reigning —or leading— Satan’s forces?
      “And upon her forehead was a name written,
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Revelation 17:5.
      —(God also has a “city” —His leaders, —who are carrying His banner of truth. What is their name?
      “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night . . . And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.” Isaiah 62:6, 12.
      “And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.” Isaiah 1:26.
      God’s leaders, in this last-day crisis, are pictured under the Philadelphia message of Revelation 3:7-12. What name do they have writhe on them?
      “I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My new name.” Revelation 3:12.)
      —“City” in Bible prophecy, are leaders:
          God’s leaders are called “Jerusalem”
          Satan’s leaders are called “Babylon”
      —Why are one-tenth of Satan’s leaders destroyed in the earthquake which comes “at the same hour” the Two Witnesses ascend “up to heaven in a cloud” ?
      —The answer comes from the chapter entitled, “The Impending Conflict.”
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      —“. . . The Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—He will . . . remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same.” GC 589.
      —These leaders, who are teachers of rebellion against God’s law, are from “the Christian world.” Right in the blazing rays of an enlightened civilization, they have not only chosen to be on the side of the leader of darkness, but they are trying to force others to follow them in their rebellion against God and His government.
      —The Lord will do “just what He has declared that He would” do!
          This declaration is found in Revelation 11:13. \
          He will “remove His protecting care.”
      —What happens when God removes His protecting care from Satan’s leaders who are “rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same?”
          “This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it.” 7T 141.
          “Fearful is the condition of those who resist the divine claims and yield to Satan’s temptations, until God gives them up to the control of evil spirits . . . Their only delight is in misery and destruction.” GC 517.
          (Remember how Satan treated his followers during the French Revolution!)
      —Paralleling this Scripture of Revelation 11:13 is another from Revelation 18:8-10.
      (We will study the entire chapter of Revelation 18, but first let us notice the striking comparison.)
      —“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
      “And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”
      —Revelation 18:1 is known as the time of the latter rain.
          —Revelation 11 gives us a picture of the Two Witnesses caught up to heaven to give the latter rain message.
The judgment upon Babylon, in Revelation 18, is only for part of her people; other groups are “standing afar off” in fear.
      —The judgment upon Satan’s city, in Revelation 11, is only for one tenth of his people; others are “affrighted.”
      —Revelation 18 says, “in one hour is thy judgment come.”
          —Revelation 11 speaks of the earthquake at “the same hour.”
      —The collapse of industry is to follow the judgment on a portion of Babylon, in Revelation 18. (See verses 11-17.)
          —“National ruin” is the internal “earthquake” which comes after God’s law is made void. (7BC 977; GC 286.)
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      —These vital parallels are to be as signposts for God’s people in their future encounter with the “beast” who ascends out of the bottomless pit to wage war against them.
      —There is great darkness ahead, during “The Impending Conflict.”
      —But, thank God! there is greater Light ahead also, which will dispel the darkness. All who choose Light will find it!
AND AFTER THESE THINGS I SAW ANOTHER ANGEL COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, HAVING GREAT POWER; AND THE EARTH WAS LIGHTENED WITH HIS GLORY.
      —What is the Light this mighty angel brings to earth’s inhabitants? “The message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other to prepare the way of the Lord. This is the glory of God, which closes the work of the third angel.” 6T 19. (Emphasis added.)
      —The message of the gift of Christ’s righteousness is to be the beautiful keynote of the latter rain message. Why is it needed?
      —“This matter is so dimly comprehended that thousands upon thousands claiming to be sons of God are children of the wicked one, because they will depend on their own works. God always demanded good works, the law demands it, but because man placed himself in sin where his good works were valueless, Jesus’ righteousness alone can avail . . . All that man can possibly do toward his own salvation is to accept the invitation, ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely’ (Rev. 22:17).” 1SM 343.
      —Many “conscientious souls” are toiling “to no purpose.” What do they need?
      “There are conscientious souls that trust partly to God, and partly to themselves. They do not look to God, to be kept by His power, but depend upon watchfulness against temptation, and the performance of certain duties for acceptance with Him. There are no victories in this kind of faith. Such persons toil to no purpose; their souls are in continual bondage, and they find no rest until their burdens are laid at the feet of Jesus.” 1SM 353.
      —When the people of earth see the beautiful message of perfection, during the time of the latter rain —accepting perfection as a gift just as we accept pardon— then their toilings and anxieties will cease. Then their burdens will be laid at the feet of Jesus.
      —“The only way in which he can attain to righteousness is through faith. By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner’s account. Christ’s righteousness is accepted in place of man’s failure, and God receives, pardons, justifies, the repentant, believing soul, treats him as though he were righteous, and loves him as He loves His Son. This is how faith is accounted righteousness . . .’ SM 367.
      —“Many are losing the right way, in consequence of thinking that they must climb to heaven, that they must do something to merit the favor of God. They seek to make themselves better by their own unaided efforts. This they can never accomplish. Christ has
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made the way by dying our sacrifice, by living our example, by becoming our great High Priest. He declares, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6). If by any effort of our own we could advance one step toward the ladder, the words of Christ would not be true. But when we accept Christ good works will appear as fruitful evidence that we are in the way of life, that Christ is our way, and that we are treading the true path that leads to heaven.” 1SM 368.
      —“Good works” will appear as “fruitful evidence” that we have accepted Christ—but when they are held up to the absolute standard of God’s law, they are only “filthy rags,” for the very best we can do falls into this ugly category. Isaiah 64:6; 1SM 344.
      —What does Jesus do for us when we do “our best”?
      “Christ looks at the spirit, and when He sees us carrying our burden with faith, His perfect holiness atones for our shortcomings. When we do our best, He becomes our righteousness.” 1SM 368.
      —This is the glorious message that is to be amplified many times over, when the beautiful light of the latter rain is shining.
      —Our attitude toward sin determines whether we may have the gift of Christ’s righteousness or not.
          —“When we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we shall have no relish for sin; for Christ will be working with us. We may make mistakes, but we will hate the sin that caused the sufferings of the Son of God.” 1SM 360.
              (Hatred for sin is the promise of Genesis 3:15.)
      —If we do not receive this gift of hatred for sin from God each day, we will appear naked in His sight. The beautiful robe of Christ’s righteousness will not hide our deformities, if we have one sin in our lives which we are cherishing.
          —“The righteousness of Christ will not cover one cherished sin.” COL 316.
      —“The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end.” DA 324.
      —When God’s people understand how they can be perfect —through faith in Christ’s righteousness— there will be great rejoicing! And “. . . receiving His perfection, we are entitled to heaven.” QD 684.
      —In addition to the glorious message of Christ’s righteousness, the latter rain angel of Revelation 18 brings a message of warning also.
AND HE CRIED MIGHTILY WITH A STRONG VOICE,
      —so that the farthest seep on the highest mountain could hear—
SAYING, BABYLON THE GREAT IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN,
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      —“Babylon” is the name of the woman who rides on the devil’s beast in Revelation 17. She is fallen churchcraft, corrupt priestcraft—and she goes wherever the “beast” takes her.
      —She reigns over the kings of the earth, mingling statecraft with her priestcraft; and she makes the inhabitants of the earth drunk with her false doctrines. She herself gets drunk with the “blood of the martyrs of Jesus.”
      —Any false religion is Babylon.
          —“(The fallen denominational churches are Babylon.” TM 61.)
      —The angel of Revelation 18 announces that Babylon is fallen:
AND IS BECOME THE HABITATION OF DEVILS,
AND THE HOLD OF EVERY FOUL SPIRIT,
AND A CAGE OF EVERY UNCLEAN AND HATEFUL BIRD.
      —“As the teachings of spiritualism are accepted by the churches, the restraint imposed upon the camel heart is removed, and the profession of religion will become a cloak to conceal the basest iniquity. A belief in spiritual manifestations opens the door to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and thus the influence of evil angels will be felt in the churches.” GC 603, 604.
FOR ALL NATIONS
      —“Every nation will be involved.” 7BC 949.
HAVE DRUNK OF THE WINE OF THE WRATH OF HER FORNICATION,
      —“This wine of error is made up of false doctrines, such as the natural immortality of the soul, the eternal torment of the wicked, the denial of the preexistence of Christ prior to His birth in Bethlehem, and advocating and exalting the first day of the week above God’s holy and sanctified day. These and kindred errors are presented to the world by the various churches, and thus the Scriptures are fulfilled that say, ‘For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ It is a wrath which is created by false doctrines, and when kings and presidents drink this wine of the wrath of her fornication, they are stirred with anger against those who will not come into harmony with the false and satanic heresies which exalt the false sabbath, and lead men to trample underfoot God’s memorial.” TM 61, 62.
AND THE KINGS OF THE EARTH HAVE COMMITTED FORNICATION WITH HER,
      —accepting her false doctrines—
AND THE MERCHANTS OF THE EARTH ARE WAXED RICH THROUGH THE ABUNDANCE OF HER DELICACIES.
      —Money means more to them than God’s truth.
AND I
      —John—
HEARD ANOTHER VOICE FROM HEAVEN,
      —in addition to the urgent appeal from the angel with the light. It is the loving voice of Jesus Himself,—
SAYING, COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE.
      —You belong to Me. Hasten to leave the company of Babylon,
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My people!
      —“. . . In what religious bodies are the greater part of the followers of Christ now to be found? Without doubt, in the various churches professing the Protestant faith . . . Many of the Protestant churches are following Rome’s example of iniquitous connection with ‘the kings of the earth’ —the state churches, by their relation to secular governments; and other denominations, by seeking the favor of the world. And the term ‘Babylon’ —confusion—may be appropriately applied to these bodies, all professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable sects, with widely conflicting creeds and theories . . .
      —“There are many of these who have never seen the special truths for this time. Not a few are dissatisfied with their present condition and are longing for clearer light . . .
      —“There are real Christians in the Roman Catholic communion. Thousands in that church are serving God according to the best light they have . . . They have never seen the contrast between a living heart service and a round of mere forms and ceremonies. God looks with pitying tenderness upon these souls, educated as they are in a faith that is delusive and unsatisfying. He will cause rays of light to penetrate the dense darkness that surrounds them. He will reveal to them the truth as it is in Jesus, and many will yet take their position with His people.” GC 383, 390, 565. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Come out of her, My people,”
THAT YE BE NOT PARTAKERS OF HER SINS, AND THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES.
      —Separate from her company!
FOR HER SINS HAVE REACHED UNTO HEAVEN, AND GOD HATH REMEMBERED HER INIQUITIES.
      —“She has filled up the measure of her guilt, and destruction is about to fall upon her. But God still has a people in Babylon; and before the visitation of His judgments these faithful ones must be called out, that they partake not of her sins and ‘receive not of her plagues.’ Hence the movement symbolized by the angel coming down from heaven, lightening the earth with his glory and crying mightily with a strong voice, announcing the sins of Babylon. In connection with his message the call is heard: ‘Come out of her, My people.’ These announcements, uniting with the third angel’s message, constitute the final warning to be given to the inhabitants of the earth . . .
      —“As the time comes for it to be given with greatest power, the Lord will work through humble instruments, leading the minds of those who consecrate themselves to His service. The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the training of literary institutions. Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them. The sins of Babylon will be laid open. [1] The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority,
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(2) the inroads of spiritualism, (3) the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power—all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven . . .
      —“As the controversy extends into new fields and the minds of the people are called to God’s downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and, in this work, papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence, and other rewards and advantages, as inducements to renounce their faith. But their steadfast answer is: ‘Show us from the word of God our error’ —the same plea that was made by Luther under similar circumstances. Those who are arraigned before the courts make a strong vindication of the truth, and some who hear them are led to take their stand to keep all the commandments of God. Thus light will be brought before thousands who otherwise would know nothing of these truths.” GC 604-607.
When will the fall of “Babylon” be complete?
      —“Not yet, however, can it be said that ‘Babylon is fallen, . . . because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ She has not yet made all nations do this. The spirit of world conforming and indifference to the testing truths for our time exists and has been gaining ground in churches of the Protestant faith in all the countries of Christendom; and these churches are included in the solemn and terrible denunciation of the second angel. But the work of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination.
      —“The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord, Satan will work ‘with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness;’ and they that ‘received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,’ will be left to receive ‘strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.’ 2Thessalonians 2:9-11. Not until this condition shall be reached, and the union of the church with the world shall be fully accomplished throughout Christendom, will the fall of Babylon be complete. The change is a progressive one, and the perfect fulfillment of Revelation 14:8 is yet future.” GC 389, 390.
REWARD HER
      —Babylon—
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EVEN AS SHE REWARDED YOU, AND DOUBLE UNTO HER DOUBLE ACCORDING TO HER WORKS:
      —“Men who claim to be Christians may now defraud and oppress the poor; they may rob the widow and the fatherless; they may indulge their Satanic hatred because they cannot control the consciences of God’s people; but for all this God will bring them into judgment . . . Not long hence they will stand before the Judge of all the earth, to render an account for the pain they have caused to the bodies and souls of His heritage. For every pang of anguish, every tear shed, they must answer. God will reward them double for their sins. Concerning Babylon, the symbol of the apostate church, He says to His ministers of judgment, ‘Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works . . .” COL 178, 179.
IN THE CUP WHICH SHE HATH FILLED FILL TO HER DOUBLE.
      —“. . . When it shall have become a law that the transgression of the first day of the week shall be met with punishment, then their cup will be full.” RH March 9, 1886.
HOW MUCH SHE HATH GLORIFIED HERSELF,
      —instead of fearing God and giving glory to Him,
          —(as she was bidden by the first angel of Revelation 14,)
AND LIVED DELICIOUSLY, SO MUCH TORMENT AND SORROW GIVE HER: FOR SHE SAITH IN HER HEART,
          I SIT A QUEEN,
          AND AM NO WIDOW,
          AND SHALL SEE NO SORROW.
      —God looks down from heaven on the proud “city” who is defying His holy law, and makes this solemn declaration:
THEREFORE SHALL HER PLAGUES COME IN ONE DAY,
      —Three plagues are mentioned:
          DEATH,
          AND MOURNING,
          AND FAMINE;
      —This “double” punishment is no doubt included in the sword, famine, and pestilence, which are to come in the little time of trouble before the general close of probation. See EW 33, 34, 85.
AND SHE SHALL BE UTTERLY BURNED WITH FIRE: FOR
STRONG IS THE LORD GOD WHO JUDGETH HER.
      —All of Babylon is to be “cast into the lake of fire,” following the millennium. They will consume into smoke, and become ashes. (Revelation 20:15, 7; Psalms 37:20; Malachi 4:1, 3.)
      —But here, in Revelation 18, while only a portion of Babylon is burning, there are 3 more groups of her people watching her, as she goes up in smoke. They are “standing afar off for the fear of her torment.” They are afraid! Verses 10, 15, 17.
      —God has announced three plagues, here at the time of the latter rain: They were “death, and mourning, and famine.”
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      —Only a portion of Babylon is to receive the plague of death at this time. The rest of them are to receive the plagues of “mourning and famine.”
      —Listen to the ‘mourning’, of the ruling powers of the earth, when a portion of Babylon receives the plague of death:
AND THE KINGS OF THE EARTH, WHO HAVE COMMITTED FORNICATION AND LIVED DELICIOUSLY WITH HER, SHALL BEWAIL HER, AND LAMENT FOR HER, WHEN THEY SHALL SEE THE SMOKE OF HER BURNING, STANDING AFAR OFF FOR THE FEAR OF HER TORMENT, SAYING, ALAS, ALAS, THAT GREAT CITY BABYLON, THAT MIGHTY CITY! FOR IN ONE HOUR IS THY JUDGMENT COME.
          —This “one hour” is a similar expression as was used in Revelation 11, to describe the punishment of death for part of Satan’s “city.”
      “And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted . . .”
      —The second group who receive the plague of mourning are the merchants of earth.
AND THE MERCHANTS OF THE EARTH SHALL WEEP AND MOURN OVER HER;
      —They are mourning because they are afraid.
          And, no doubt, they also have some emotional attachment, for they are a part of Babylon.
      —But there is another reason for their weeping and mourning.
FOR NO MAN BUYETH THEIR MERCHANDISE ANY MORE.
      —What happens when God’s law is made void by the legislative bodies? National ruin follows!
      —“It is at the time of the national apostasy, when, acting on the policy of Satan, the rulers of the land will rank themselves on the side of the man of sin—it is then the measure of guilt is full; the national apostasy is the signal for national ruin.” 2SM 373.
      —“Would we know the result of making void the law of God? The experiment has been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept the cruelest of tyrants. When the standard of righteousness is set aside, the way is open for the prince of evil to establish his power in the earth.” GC 584.
      —How much of the world is to be involved in the apostasy of “The Impending Conflict?”
      —“I point you to the aggressive movements now being made for the restriction of religious liberty. God’s sanctified memorial has been torn down, and in its place a false sabbath, bearing no sanctity, stands before the world. And while the powers of darkness are stirring up the elements from beneath, the Lord God of heaven is sending power from above to meet the emergency by arousing His living agencies to exalt the law of heaven . . . [This is a part of the latter rain.] As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite
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with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.” 6T 18. (Emphasis added.)
      —“. . . The worldwide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution, —all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France.” Ed 228. (Emphasis added.)
      —Let us look backward at France again, to see what lies ahead: “When France publicly rejected God and set aside the Bible, wicked men and spirits of darkness exulted in their attainment of the object so long desired—a kingdom free from the restraints of the law of God . . .The restraining Spirit of God, which imposes a check upon the cruel power of Satan, was in a great measure re moved, and he whose only delight is the wretchedness of men was permitted to work his will. Those who had chosen the service of rebellion were left to reap its fruits until the land was filled with crimes too horrible for pen to trace. From devastated provinces and ruined cities a terrible cry was heard—a cry of bitterest anguish . . . Religion, law, social order, the family, the state, and the church—all were smitten down by the impious hand that had been lifted against the law of God.” GC 286. (Emphasis added.)
      —Apostasy is to be followed by “ruin,”—not just on a national level, —but worldwide ruin!
      —The “restraining Spirit of God,” which “was in a great measure removed,” during the French Revolution, will also be withdrawn to a certain degree, in the conflict ahead:
      —“It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—
          He will withdraw His blessings from the earth
          and remove His protecting care from those who are
              rebelling against His law
              and teaching and forcing others to do the same.
      Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard.” GC 589;—from the chapter entitled, “The Impending Conflict.”
      —As we continue to study the crisis which comes at the time of the latter rain, let us look again at the “merchants” who are suffering the plague of “mourning” in Revelation 18: “And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; [the part of Babylon that received the plague of death,] for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.”
          —These merchants who mourn, in Revelation 18, are standing under Satan’s banner. They have been “made rich” by Babylon, ( 1Verse5), and these riches have become the center of their affections.
      —God has His “merchants” too, scattered through various branches of industry. Revelation 18 is not talking about them. When “national ruin” hits God’s merchants, they are not distressed, for their “treasures” are not laid up “upon earth, where moth and rust
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doth corrupt.” Matthew 6:19. The signs of Christ’s soon coming cause them to “look up, and lift up” their heads in joy, for their “redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:28.
      —But these merchants, still under Satan’s banner, who have not yet accepted the call to come out of Babylon, do not have this blessed hope. When industry is frozen, at the time of “national ruin,” their world disintegrates. Their hearts are where their treasures are, and they receive the plague of mourning in deep distress, as they see their investments come to nought.
      —Notice the many branches of industry which are to collapse in the impending conflict ahead, causing great heartache to those merchants, whose affections center on temporal values. They “weep and mourn,” because no buyer can be found for their merchandise.
THE MERCHANDISE OF GOLD AND SILVER,
      —There will be great distress among bankers, and those who handle stocks and bonds.
      —Miners will have problems, as well as those who process the ore.
AND PRECIOUS STONES, AND OF PEARLS.
      —The jewelers will lock their doors, as there are no customers.
AND FINE LINEN, AND PURPLE, AND SILK, AND SCARLET,
      —Cloth, from the textile industry, will be stockpiled in warehouses, —gathering dust.
AND ALL THYINE WOOD,
      —Misfortune comes to the lumber industry. Logging slows down.
AND ALL MANNER VESSELS OF IVORY,
AND ALL MANNER VESSELS OF MOST PRECIOUS WOOD,
      —Large manufacturing centers will send their employees home. “. . . No man buyeth their merchandise any more.” (Verse 11.)
AND OF BRASS, AND IRON, AND OF MARBLE,
      —Construction projects of all types are forced to discontinue.
      —Mechanics and plumbers cannot afford to buy the parts they need.
AND CINNAMON, AND ODOURS, AND OINTMENTS, AND
FRANKINCENSE,
      —The pharmaceutical houses, as well as the manufacturers of cosmetics and spices, will have unpurchased merchandise on hand.
AND WINE,
      —Even those who imbibe will not be able to satisfy their thirst for alcohol. Distilleries will cease to make profit for their owners.
AND OIL, AND FINE FLOUR,
      —The food industries —as urgently as they are needed for those who face the plague of famine, (verse 8) —will not run at capacity.
AND WHEAT,
      —Tractors will be parked. Farm land will lie waste.
      —There is also another reason why the land is not producing. Revelation 11:6 says: “These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy . . .”
“. . . The Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—He           will withdraw His blessing from the earth . . .” GC 589.
AND BEASTS, AND SHEEP,
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      —The cattle industry faces both the drought and “national ruin.”
—AND HORSES,
      —Ranchers will feel great loss. Race tracks become silent.
AND CHARIOTS,
      —The assembly lines of the automobile industry shut down.
AND SLAVES, AND SOULS OF MEN.
      —Prostitution houses lose money.
      —Bars and night clubs are no longer profitable.
      —Dope peddlers lack capital.
      —Producers of bad movies and T.V. programs go broke.
      —Spiritualistic counselors give free advice.
      —False shepherds of fallen churches suffer from lack of offerings. Satan works hard with his merchants who bind the souls of men. GC 281 says:
          “. . . In order to enslave men effectually, the shackles must be bound upon their souls . . .A thousandfold more terrible than the physical suffering . . . was the moral degradation.”
      —All is confusion!
      —“Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth . . .” Luke 21:26.
      —Are conditions going to get better for the merchants? Listen to these solemn words from Jesus:
AND THE FRUITS THAT THY SOUL LUSTED AFTER ARE DEPARTED FROM THEE.
      —The dreams of a lifetime are shattered!
AND ALL THINGS WHICH WERE DAINTY AND GOODLY
ARE DEPARTED FROM THEE, AND
      —even though they are sought for, with all diligence,
THOU SHALT FIND THEM NO MORE AT ALL.
      —Industry will not rebound. Merchandise will not move again.
      —Freight cars will be idle; highway vans park at their terminals.
      —Envision the anguish and despair of the merchants whose eyes are focused on worldly riches instead of the “unsearchable riches of Christ.” Ephesians 3:8. They are facing a dark future —without God.
      —What will they do and say, as they survey their own ruins, —and watch as God removes His protecting care from the part of Babylon who are receiving the plague of death at this time?
THE MERCHANTS OF THESE THINGS, WHICH WERE MADE RICH BY HER, SHALL STAND AFAR OFF FOR THE FEAR OF HER TORMENT, WEEPING AND WAILING, AND SAYING, ALAS, ALAS, THAT GREAT CITY, THAT WAS CLOTHED IN FINE LINEN, AND PURPLE, AND SCARLET, AND DECKED WITH GOLD, AND PRECIOUS STONES AND PEARLS!
      —Even as a portion of Babylon is receiving her plague of death, these merchants have their eyes focused on the great riches which are being consumed.
FOR IN ONE HOUR SO GREAT RICHES IS COME TO NOUGHT.
      —The merchants who mourn had spent their lifetimes thinking of material possessions.
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And, even in this crisis, their thoughts stay on the same level.
      —It is a law of the mind that by beholding we become changed. Many of these merchants had used their mental powers in acquiring things of transitory value.
      —“The intense passion for money getting, the thirst for display, the luxury and extravagance—all are forces that, with the great mass of mankind, are turning the mind from life’s true purpose. They are opening the door to a thousand evils. Many, absorbed in their interest in worldly treasures, become insensible to the claims of God and the needs of their fellow men.” 9T 91.
      —There is also a third group pictured in Revelation 18, who are still under Satan’s banner, who have not yet answered the call of Jesus to separate from her company. They are the merchants of the sea The ruin which has been brought on by the national apostasy is felt by them also.
AND EVERY SHIPMASTER, AND ALL THE COMPANY IN SHIPS, AND SAILORS, AND AS MANY AS TRADE BY SEA,
STOOD AFAR OFF,
      —they are afraid, too—
AND CRIED WHEN THEY SAW THE SMOKE OF HER BURNING, SAYING, WHAT CITY IS LIKE UNTO THIS GREAT CITY!
      —They are astonished and amazed as some of Satan’s leaders in proud Babylon face their plague of death.
AND THEY CAST DUST ON THEIR HEADS,
      —These sea-lovers are shore-bound.
      —No doubt their ocean going vessels are sitting in harbor because of the fuel shortage. And who would produce—or buy—the things they would ordinarily transport?
      —What do they say as they witness the disaster which is rocking Satan’s leaders?
AND CRIED, WEEPING AND WAILING, SAYING, ALAS, ALAS, THAT GREAT CITY, WHEREIN WERE MADE RICH ALL THAT HAD SHIPS IN THE SEA BY REASON OF HER COSTLINESS!
      —They are mourning over their pocketbooks, also!
FOR IN ONE HOUR IS SHE MADE DESOLATE.
      —(Compare this hour with the “hour” that Satan’s city feels a great earthquake in Revelation 11, —which takes the lives of one tenth of Satan’s leaders. This is “the same hour” that the Two Witnesses are caught up to heaven in a cloud at the time of the latter rain.)
      —In Revelation 18, the great “city” of Babylon—Satan’s leaders—are to face” death, and mourning, and famine” at the same time the earth is to be enlightened with the glory of the latter rain angel.
      —What is the message heaven seeks to portray to the inhabitants of the earth, when this crisis hour —and this glorious hour— arrives?
      —“. . . For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9.
      —God’s other sheep are still scattered in Babylon, and the loving voice of the Shepherd is calling them home.
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      —“God speaks to His people in blessings bestowed; and when these are not appreciated, He speaks to them in blessings removed, that they may be led to see their sins, and return to Him with all the heart.” PP 470.
      —Many will “learn righteousness” after their earthly treasures are destroyed.
      —They will then take time to hear the loving voice of Jesus calling:
          Come out of Babylon, My people. I gave My life for thee.
          “. . . I have loved thee with an everlasting love. . .”
          “. . . With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee,
          saith the Lord thy Redeemer.” Jeremiah 31:3; Isaiah 54:8.
      —After the “monuments of man’s greatness will be crumbled in the dust,” and before the seven last plagues, there is to be a work done for God:
          “The time is right upon us when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. Even before the last great destruction comes upon the world, the flattering monuments of man’s greatness will be crumbled in the dust . . . But amid the tumult of excitement, with confusion in every place, there is a work to be done for God in the world.” ST Oct. 9, 1901.
          —In the midst of “irretrievable ruin,” some will heed the warning:
      “The great mass of the world will reject God’s mercy, and will be overwhelmed in swift and irretrievable ruin. But those who heed the warning shall dwell ‘in the secret place of the most High,’ and ‘abide under the shadow of the Almighty.’” PP 167.
      —It is a very beautiful thought that Jesus Himself is making the call to the inhabitants of the earth, including the kings and the merchants. Jesus begins His plea to His people still in Babylon, back in verse 4 of Revelation 18. It is still the voice of Jesus talking to the merchants in verse 14, telling them that their treasures are gone forever. He permits Satan to take away earthly possessions, so that their minds will be free to accept heavenly possessions. Will some of the rulers of earth listen to the loving voice of Jesus, as He pleads, “Come out of her, My people?”
      —“Many of the rulers are those whom Satan controls; but . . . God has agents, even among the rulers. And some of them will yet be converted to the truth . . . A few of God’s agents will have power to bear down a great mass of evil. Thus the work will go on until the third message has done its work, and at the loud cry of the third angel, these agents will have an opportunity to receive the truth, and some of them will be converted, and endure with the saints through the time of trouble.” 1T 203.
      —How beautiful! Some of these rulers will accept the latter rain message. John sees them in the holy city, New Jerusalem:
          “. . . And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.” Revelation 21:24.
      —What about the merchants who are standing under Satan’s banner
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at the time of national ruin? Do they still have opportunity to accept the call to come out of Babylon during the latter rain?
      —“Every one is to hear the last call to the marriage supper of the Lamb. From town to town, from city to city, from country to country, the message of present truth is to be proclaimed, not with outward display, but in the power of the Spirit.” GW 27. (Emphasis added.)
      —“During the loud cry, the church, aided by the providential interpositions of her exalted Lord, will diffuse the knowledge of salvation so abundantly that light will be communicated to every city and town. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of salvation. So abundantly will the renewing Spirit of God have crowned with success the intensely active agencies, that the light of present truth will be seen flashing every where . . . The Spirit of the Lord will so graciously bless consecrated human instrumentalities that men, women, and children will open their lips in praise and thanksgiving, filling the earth with the knowledge of God, and with His unsurpassed glory, as the waters cover the sea.” RH Oct. 13, 1904. (Emphasis added.)
      —“‘And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people . . . For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.’ When do her sins reach unto heaven? When the law of God is finally made void by legislation. Then the extremity of God’s people is His opportunity to show who is the governor of heaven and earth. As Satanic power is stirring up the elements from beneath, God will send light and power to His people, that the message of truth may be proclaimed to all the world.” ST June 12, 1893.
      —“The light is to shine to all lands and all peoples.” 6T 24.
      —Those who accept the beautiful light brought by the angel of Revelation 18, will separate from Babylon—and then God will give them a work to do. What is this work?
      —“There is to be, at this period, a series of events which will reveal that God is Master of the situation. The truth will be proclaimed in clear, unmistakable language . . . The gospel is to be given in its purity. The stream of living water is to deepen and widen in its course. In all fields, nigh and afar off, men will be called from the plow and from the more common commercial business vocations that largely occupy the mind, and will be educated in connection with men of experience. As they learn to labor effectively, they will proclaim the truth with power. Through most wonderful workings of divine providence, mountains of difficulties will be removed, and cast into the sea The message that means so much to the dwellers upon the earth will be heard and understood. Men will know what is truth Onward, and still onward the work will advance, until the whole earth shall have been warned. And then shall the end come.” RH July 5, 1906.
      —“Every sanctified heart will be pressed into service, as an instrument of divine power.” 9T 47.
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      —There is another group watching the disaster which comes to Satan’s leaders, as God removes “His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same.” (GG 589.) They are looking down from heaven.
      —A voice calls out to the witnesses,
REJOICE OVER HER, THOU HEAVEN, AND YE HOLY APOSTLES AND PROPHETS; FOR GOD HATH AVENGED YOU ON HER.
      —Listen, with John, to their response, found in Revelation 19:1-3.
AND AFTER THESE THINGS I HEARD A GREAT VOICE OF MUCH PEOPLE IN HEAVEN, SAYING, ALLELUIA: SALVATION, AND GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND POWER, UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD: FOR TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ARE HIS JUDGMENTS: FOR HE HATH JUDGED THE GREAT WHORE, WHICH DID CORRUPT THE EARTH WITH HER FORNICATION, AND HATH AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS SERVANTS AT HER HAND. AND AGAIN THEY SAID, ALLELUIA. AND HER SMOKE ROSE UP FOR EVER AND EVER.
      —(which means, by other Bible references, until there was nothing more to burn. See Jude 7; Malachi 4:3; 1Chronicles 23:13; Psalms 37:20.)
      —Here is a group of apostles and prophets who are in heaven as the great controversy is still raging over the commandments of God and the commandments of men. (They sing the other part of the Alleluia chorus before Jesus leaves the most hob place, for it is in this part of the sanctuary that the wedding of the Lamb takes place. Study Chapter 3; EW 251; GC 480.)
      —When were most of these apostles and prophets taken to heaven? (Enoch and Moses and Elijah are exceptions.)
      —At the resurrection of Jesus, “many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” And when Jesus “ascended up on high, He led captivity captive.” He took them to heaven with Him! Matthew 27:52, 53; Ephesians 4:8.
      —After John hears the rejoicing of God’s people in heaven, he is given another vision. He is carried down to the time of the seven last plagues, to see the punishment all of Babylon receives.
      —John sees a mighty Angel. The only other time when the expression, “mighty Angel” is used by John, was when he was referring to Jesus Himself. Revelation 10:1; 7BC 971.
      —What does the mighty Angel tell us about Babylon’s future end?
AND A MIGHTY ANGEL TOOK UP A STONE LIKE A GREAT MILLSTONE, AND CAST IT INTO THE SEA, SAYING, THUS WITH VIOLENCE SHALL THAT GREAT CITY BABYLON BE THROWN DOWN, AND SHALL BE FOUND NO MORE AT ALL.
      —“With violence” she is to come to her final end during the seven last plagues. Revelation 17:16 tells of the violence the woman Babylon is to receive. See Chapter 6: “The Seven Last Plagues and Trumpets—and the Battle of Armageddon.” Part of Babylon
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will receive double punishment even before the millennium.
      —Notice the predictions made about Babylon at the time she is to receive her “violence.”
AND THE VOICE OF HARPERS, AND MUSICIANS, AND OF PIPERS, AND TRUMPETERS, SHALL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN THEE; AND NO CRAFTSMAN, OF WHATSOEVER CRAFT HE BE, SHALL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN THEE; AND THE SOUND OF A MILLSTONE SHALL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN THEE; AND THE LIGHT OF A CANDLE SHALL SHINE NO MORE AT ALL IN THEE; AND THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM AND OF THE BRIDE SHALL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN THEE:
      —Why does all come to silence after the seventh plague?
      —“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15.
      —God brings two charges against Babylon at this time. What is the first charge?
FOR THY MERCHANTS WERE THE GREAT MEN OF THE EARTH; FOR BY THY SORCERIES WERE ALL NATIONS DECEIVED.
      —Under the influence of a “threefold union,” Satan sweeps all of his people into the “ranks of spiritualism.” (GC 588.) This is his tool for deceiving the nations.
      —“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do . . .” Revelation 13:13, 14.
      —What is God’s second charge against Babylon?
AND IN HER WAS FOUND THE BLOOD OF PROPHETS, AND OF SAINTS,
      —God’s people—
AND OF ALL THAT WERE SLAIN UPON THE EARTH.
      —This includes the devil’s own people.
      —“While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he [Satan] will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous.” GC 589, 590. (Taken from the chapter entitled, “
The Impending Conflict.”)
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The Three Sunday Laws:
      —There is to be a series of laws made by legislators regarding the observance of Sunday. The three main ones are to come:
          1. near the time when the shaking of the church begins;
          2. near the time when the latter rain begins;
          3. near the time when the seven plagues begin;
The Sunday Law of Attraction—near the time of the shaking:
      —“False religion will be exalted. The first day of the week, a common working day, possessing no sanctity whatever, will be set up as was the image at Babylon. [Daniel 3:1-18.] . . . Force is the last resort of every false religion. At first it tries attraction, as the king of Babylon tried the power of music and outward show. If these attractions, invented by men inspired by Satan, failed to make men worship the image, the hungry flames of the furnace were ready to consume them. So it will be now.” 7BC 976.
      —“When the law of God is made void the church will be sifted by fiery trials, and a larger proportion than we now anticipate, will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” 2SM 368.
      —“The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church.” 5T 81.
          The mark of the beast will be urged upon us when the gold is separated from the dross in the church.
          The law of God will be made void when the church is sifted by fiery trials.
      —“Nations will be stirred to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim God’s only standard of righteousness, the only sure test of character. And all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils and obey the national laws to exalt the sabbath instituted by the man of sin, to the disregard of God’s holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world, the image of the beast.
          “Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out—the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place.” 2SM 380.
The Sunday Law of Force —near the time of the latter rein:
      —“. . . When it shall have become a law that the transgression of the first day of the week shall be met with punishment, then their cup will be full.” RH March 9, 1886.
      —“The persecutions of Protestants by Romanism, by which the religion of Jesus Christ was almost annihilated, will be more than rivaled when Protestantism and popery are combined.” MS 30, 1889.
      —“The judges . . will say, ‘We have a law, and by our law he ought to die.’ God’s law is nothing to them . . . Those who respect this human law will be favored, but those who will not bow to the idol sabbath will have no favors shown them.” ST May 28, 1898.
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      —“It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who shall be alive upon the earth when celestial glory and a repetition of the persecutions of the past are blended.” 9T 16.
      —“When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin.” 7BC 977.
      —The enforcing law comes, with ruin, near the time of the latter rain.
      —“As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.” 6T 18. (Emphasis added.)
      —Listen to these beautiful promises:
          “. . . Let persecution be kindled, and the halfhearted and hypocritical will waver and yield the faith; but the true Christian we stand firm as a rock, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, than in days of prosperity.” GC 602. (Emphasis added.)
          “The prospect of being brought into personal danger and distress, need not cause despondency, but should quicken the vigor and hopes of God’s people; for the time of their peril is the season for God to grant them clearer manifestations of His power.” 2SM 370.
The Sunday Law of the Specific Date—near the close of probation.
      —“The decree that will finally go forth against the remnant people of God will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews.” PK 605.
      —“When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from those who honor the law of God, there will be, in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction. As the time appointed in the decree draws near, the people will conspire to root out the hated sect. It will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow, which shall utterly silence the voice of dissent and reproof.” GC 635. (Emphasis added.)
      —“I saw a writing, copies of which were scattered in different parts of the land, giving orders that unless the saints should yield’ their peculiar faith, give up the Sabbath, and observe the first day of the week, the people were at liberty after a certain time to put them to death . . . The swords that were raised to kill God’s people broke and fell as powerless as a straw.” EW 283-285.
      —“If the blood of Christ’s faithful witnesses were shed at this time, it would not, like the blood of martyrs, be as seed sown to yield a harvest for God. Their fidelity would not be a testimony to convince others of the truth; for the obdurate heart has beaten back the waves of mercy until they return no more.” GC 634.
      —The little time of trouble brings three Sunday laws:
          one near the beginning, one near the center, one near the close. Death, by persecution, comes to many, following the second one.
      —The great time of trouble comes during the seven last plagues.
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Daniel 12:4-13:
BUT THOU, O DANIEL,
      SHUT UP THE WORDS,
      AND SEAL THE BOOK,
EVEN TO THE TIME OF THE END: MANY SHALL RUN TO AND FRO, AND KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE INCREASED.
      —Two things were sealed: the “words,” and the “book.”
      —When was the “book” of Daniel to be unsealed?
          —“Since 1798 the book of Daniel has been unsealed, knowledge of the prophecies has increased, and many have proclaimed the solemn message of the judgment near.” GC 356.
          —“It was the Lion of the tribe of Judah who unsealed the book and gave to John the revelation of what should be in these Last days. Daniel stood in his lot to bear his testimony which was sealed until the time of the end, when the first angel’s message should be proclaimed to our world.” TM 115.
          —“When the book was opened, the proclamation was made, ‘Time shall be no longer.’ (See Revelation 10:6.) The book of Daniel is now unsealed . . .” 2SM 105.
      —When are the “words” of the prophecy of Daniel to be unsealed?
      AND HE SAID, GO THY WAY, DANIEL:
      FOR THE WORDS ARE CLOSED UP AND SEALED
      TILL THE TIME OF THE END.
          [1.] MANY SHALL BE PURIFIED,
          [2.] AND MADE WHITE,
          [3.] AND TRIED;
          [4.] BUT THE WICKED SHALL DO WICKEDLY: AND NONE OF THE WICKED SHALL UNDERSTAND;
          [5.] BUT THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND.
      —“‘Go thy way, Daniel,’ the Angel once more directed the faithful messenger of Jehovah; ‘for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end . . . Go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.’ Daniel 12:4, 9, 13.
          “As we near the close of this world’s history, the prophecies recorded by Daniel demand our special attention, as they relate to the very time in which we are living. With them should be linked the teachings of the last book of the New Testament Scriptures. Satan has led many to believe that the prophetic portions of the writings of Daniel and of John the revelator cannot be understood. But the promise is plain that special blessing will accompany the study of these prophecies. ‘The wise shall understand’ (verse 10), was spoken of the visions of Daniel that were to be unsealed in the latter days . . .” PK 547, 548.
      —“The words of the Angel to Daniel relating to the last days were to be understood in the time of the end. At that time, ‘many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.’ ‘The wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.’ Daniel 12:4, 10.” DA 234.
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      —When the “words” of Daniel’s prophecy are to be understood, “many shall be purified.”
      —What is the purification of the church?
          “When purification shall take place in our ranks, we shall no longer rest at ease, boasting of being rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing.” 8T 250.
          “The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the church hangs has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified.” EW 270. (This chapter is entitled, “The Shaking.”)
      —What does it mean to be “made white?”
          In the following quotation from Early Writings, notice that the purification is the shaking of God’s church, and it precedes the latter rain, when God’s pardoned children are “made white.” (This is the same order that Daniel records.)
      — “I saw some, with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. Their countenances were pale and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. Firmness and great earnestness was expressed in their countenances; large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads. Now and then their faces would light up with the marks of God’s approbation, and again the same solemn, earnest, anxious look would settle upon them.
          “Evil angels crowded around, pressing darkness upon them to shut out Jesus from their view, that their eyes might be drawn to the,{ darkness that surrounded them, and thus they be led to distrust God and murmur against Him. Their only safety was in keeping their eyes directed upward. Angels of God had charge over His people, and as the poisonous atmosphere of evil angels was pressed around these anxious ones, the heavenly angels were continually wafting their wings over them to scatter the thick darkness.
          “As the praying ones continued their earnest cries, at times a ray of light from Jesus came to them, to encourage their hearts and light up their countenances. Some, I saw, did not participate in this work of agonizing and pleading. They seemed indifferent and careless. They were not resisting the darkness around them, and it shut them in like a thick cloud. The angels of God left these and went to the aid of the earnest, praying ones. I saw angels of God hasten to the assistance of all who were struggling with all their power to resist the evil angels and trying to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance. But His angels left those who made no effort to help themselves, and I lost sight of them.
          “I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God’s people.
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      “I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded . . . This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified.
      “Said the angel, ‘List ye!’ Soon I heard a voice like many musical instruments all sounding in perfect strains, sweet and harmonious. It surpassed any music I had ever heard, seeming to be full of mercy, compassion, and elevating, holy joy. It thrilled through my whole being. Said the angel, ‘Look ye!’ My attention was then turned to the company I had seen, who were mightily shaken. I was shown those whom I had before seen weeping and praying in agony of spirit. The company of guardian angels around them had been doubled, and they were clothed with an armor from their head to their feet They moved in exact order, like a company of soldiers. Their countenances expressed the severe conflict which they had endured, the agonizing struggle they had passed through. [past tense.] Yet their features, marked with severe internal anguish, now shone with the light and glory of heaven. They had obtained the victory, and it called forth from them the deepest gratitude and holy, sacred joy.
      “The numbers of this company had lessened. Some had been shaken out and left by the way. The careless and indifferent, who did not join with those who prized victory and salvation enough to perseveringly plead and agonize for it, did not obtain it, and they were left behind in darkness, and their places were immediately filled by others taking hold of the truth and coming into the ranks. Evil angels still pressed around them, but could have no power over them.
      “I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth with great power. It had effect. Many had been bound; some wives by their husbands, and some children by their parents. The honest who had been prevented from hearing the truth now eagerly laid hold upon it. All fear of their relatives was gone, and the truth alone was exalted to them. They had been hungering and thirsting for truth; it was dearer and more precious than life. I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, “It is the latter rain, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the loud cry of the third angel.”’ EW 269-271. (Emphasis added.)
      (1.) The True Witness to the Laodiceans gives a “straight testimony.”
      (2.) This will cause a shaking among God’s people: the “careless and indifferent” will be “shaken out;” those who accept and obey the testimony will be “purified.”
      (3.) Those who are purified, are “clothed with an armor from their head to their feet.”
      (4.) Evil angels “could have no power over them.”
      (5.) The ones “clothed with the armor speak forth the truth with great power.”
      (6.) Probation is still open to those who were bound by their relatives.
      (7.) This change is made by “the latter rain, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the loud cry of the third angel”
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      —As we understand the sequence in Daniel 12:10, and EW 269 271, we can find new meaning in the following quotations:
          —“But I speak not my own words when I say that God’s Spirit will pass by those who have had their day of test and opportunity, but who have not distinguished the voice of God or appreciated the movings of His Spirit. Then thousands in the eleventh hour will see and acknowledge the truth.” 2SM 16.
          —“The time of God’s destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter. Large numbers will be admitted who in these last days hear the truth for the first time.” 7BC 979. (Emphasis added.)
      —These are the ones who will hear the third call to the great supper:
          —“And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the high way and hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of My supper.” Luke 14:23, 24.
      —However, many of God’s “nominal” children will be included in the call to the great supper. (Therefore, we are not to judge either ourselves or others.) Notice this important reference from EW 261:
          —“I saw that God has honest children among the nominal Adventists and the fallen churches, and before the plagues shall be poured out, ministers and people will be called out from these churches and will gladly receive the truth. Satan knows this; and before the loud cry of the third angel is given, he raises an excitement in these religious bodies, that those who have rejected the truth may think that God is with them.”
      —There are not two closes of probation. There is only one general close of probation when Jesus throws down the golden censer and leaves the heavenly sanctuary. He leaves as King, and will never again be the High Priest. See Revelation 8:5; 22:11; EW 280, 281.
      —But there are as many closes of probation for the living professed children of God, as there are pages in the book of life. For God’s living people, their probations close one by one, as Jesus turns the pages of this great book.
          —“Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected.” GC 483.
          —“. . . Either our sins or our names will be blotted out of the Book of Life.” SD 49.
      —As the spiritual “shaking” is underway in heaven, many have their names removed from the book of life. But not all! The others have their sins blotted out, and their records are “sealed” with the obedience credit of One who had absolute perfection! (See Appendix)
      —After their names have passed the great tribunal where the spiritual shaking and sealing is underway, those who are “sealed” receive a spiritual change of raiment —the beautiful “armor” of Christ’s righteousness— as described in EW 271, during the latter rain.
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      —Let us look again at the sequence of Daniel 12:10:
          “Many shall be purified,
          and made white,
          and tried . . .”
      —What does it mean to be “tried?”
      —There are two times of trial ahead of God’s people, and both of them come after the beginning of the latter rain.
          —The trial during the last part of the little time of trouble:
          “It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who shall be alive upon the earth when celestial glory and a repetition of the persecutions of the past are blended.” 9T 16.
          “When this grand work is to take place in the battle, prior to the last conflict, many will be imprisoned, many will flee for their lives from cities and towns, and many will be martyrs for Christ’s sake in standing in defense of the truth.” MS 6, 1889; quoted in Maranatha 199.
      —The trial during the Jacob’s time of trouble, when earthliness is being removed: (Others are receiving the seven last plagues.)
          “While Satan seeks to destroy this class, God will send His angels to comfort and protect them in the time of peril The Lord’s eye is upon His people, and His ear listens to their cries. Their affliction is great, the flames of the furnace seem about to consume them; but the Refiner will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. God’s love for His children during the period of their severest trial is as strong and tender as in the days of their sunniest prosperity; but it is needful for them to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected.” GC 621. (Emphasis added.)
          (And— “When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” COL 69.)
      Notice from the above reference, that while “earthliness” is being removed from God’s people during the time of Jacob’s trouble, they still have a Friend who is in charge of the refining process. Jesus is not interceding for them in the heavenly sanctuary; for “their sins have gone beforehand to judgment and have been blotted out, and they cannot bring them to remembrance.” (GC 620.) But they are not alone “during the period of their severest trial” It is the Refiner who will “bring them forth as gold tried in the fire.” He is in charge. So we are not to be concerned about the time of Jacob’s trouble if we are sending our sins beforehand to judgment, to be forgiven day by day. Now is the time to be preparing for that time of trial. Once we are in that time, the Refiner is in charge of the flame, to remove all the tendrils that are clinging to earth—all earthliness!
      —These are the same people who received the “armor” of
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Christ’s righteousness when they were made “white,” during the latter rain. Thus we see that the armor is not a grant of divinity.
      —The “armor” is a symbol of Christ’s righteousness —not human perfection.
      —How is it that God permits them to wear this armor if they are not as perfect as His Son? —and if they still have “earthliness” to be removed in the time of Jacob’s trouble?
      —The mystery of godliness can be appreciated to a limited degree by finite minds—but never fully understood.
      —However, God has given us a beautiful outline to follow —so simple a child can comprehend. If we follow what He has revealed, we need not be concerned about the rest.
      1. I was born a sinner, with no built-in remedy for sin.
      2. But God so loved me, that He sent His only Son to pay for my sins with His own life on Mount Calvary, and to earn perfection for me by obeying God’s law. (He knew the best I could ever do, was only as “filthy rags,” —and before I can go to heaven, the law requires that I have the same kind of perfection that God has.)
      3. If I love Jesus for all He has done for me, I will turn from my sins, and ask Him to forgive me. He promises me PARDON.
      4. God promises to give me hatred for sin—if I will permit Him to. This is the promise He made to Adam and Eve long ago.
      5. If I have hatred for sin in my heart, Jesus will put His beautiful robe of perfection about me to hide my deformities, so that when God looks at me, He sees Jesus instead of me! (But I can’t have His garment if I’m loving one cherished sin.)
      6. When Jesus comes to my name in the investigative judgment, and sees:
          PARDON written over my sins in the book of life, and hatred for sin in my heart, then He can erase the record of my pardoned sins, and give me His obedience credit as a permanent visa on my page. This is my passport to heaven!
      7. With this visa of perfection as a permanent entry, I am “sealed” with the righteousness of my Redeemer! and—
          (if I am still alive when Jesus makes these vital transactions on my page in the book of life,) “sealed” with an indelible mark on my forehead.
          (This mark is only for the angels to read, to see who to protect during the plagues. I will not know when it is placed there, and it makes no change in me.)
      My relationship with Jesus will be the same after I am sealed as it was before—still trusting in His righteousness.
      And I will be permitted to wear His “armor” during the latter rain, and tell others about my wonderful Saviour!
      Even after Jesus is no longer my Intercessor, and the plagues are falling, He is still my Refiner, and—my Friend!
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      —Daniel 12:9. 10: “And He said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
          Many shall be purified,
          and made white,
          and tried;
          but the wicked shall do wickedly . . .”
      —What does it mean for the wicked to do wickedly?
          “The Sunday movement is now making its way in darkness. The leaders are concealing the true issue, and many who unite in the movement do not themselves see whether the undercurrent is tending. Its professions are mild and apparently Christian, but when it shall speak it will reveal the spirit of the dragon. It is our duty to do all in our power to avert the threatened danger. We should endeavor to disarm prejudice by placing ourselves in a proper light before the people. We should bring before them the real question at issue, thus interposing the most effectual protest against measures to restrict liberty of conscience. We should search the Scriptures and be able to give the reason for our faith. Says the prophet: ‘The wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” 5T 452.
      —God’s promise: The wise shall understand!
          “The Lord will not hide His truth from the faithful watchman. Those who do the will of God shall know of His doctrine. ‘The wise shall understand;’ but ‘the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand.’” 4T 527.
—Even though “we are not to be engrossed with speculations in regard to the times and seasons which God has not revealed,” (1SM 189) what “will attend the reverent, prayerful study of the prophetic scriptures?
          “‘The Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.’ While ‘the secret things belong unto the Lord our God,’ ‘those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.’ Amos 3:7; Deut. 29:29. God has given these things to us, and His blessing will attend the reverent, prayerful study of the prophetic scriptures.” DA 234.
      —“God wants us to depend upon Him, and not upon man . . .We should wrestle with every difficulty, but when some controverted point is presented, are you to go to man to find out his opinion, and then shape your conclusion from his?—No, go to God. Tell Him what you want; take your Bible and search as for hidden treasures.” 1SM 415.
      —“New light will ever be revealed on the word of God to him who is in living connection with the Sun of Righteousness . . . Many gems are yet scattered that are to be gathered together to become the property of the remnant people of God. There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error . . . No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation.
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      —“. . . It does not become us to accept everything claimed to be truth without examining it thoroughly; neither can we afford to reject anything that bears the fruits of the Spirit of God . . . Whatever may be man’s intellectual advancement, let him not for a moment think that there is no need of thorough and continuous searching of the Scriptures for greater light. As a people we are called individually to be students of prophecy.” CW 35, 41.

      —The Dialogue Between Jesus and Daniel:
THEN I DANIEL LOOKED, AND, BEHOLD, THERE STOOD OTHER TWO, THE ONE ON THIS SIDE OF THE BANK OF THE RIVER, AND THE OTHER ON THAT SIDE OF THE BANK OF THE RIVER: AND ONE SAID TO THE MAN CLOTHED IN LINEN, WHICH WAS UPON THE WATERS OF THE RIVER, HOW LONG SHALL IT BE TO THE END OF THESE WONDERS?

      —After Daniel’s first inquiry:
AND I HEARD THE MAN CLOTHED IN LINEN, WHICH WAS UPON THE WATERS OF THE RIVER, WHEN HE HELD UP HIS RIGHT HAND AND HIS LEFT HAND UNTO HEAVEN, AND SWARE BY HIM THAT LIVETH FOR EVER THAT IT SHALL BE FOR A TIME, TIMES, AND AN HALF.
      (A “time” is one year of 360 days, or 12 months of 30 days. “Times” are 2 years.)
AND WHEN HE SHALL HAVE ACCOMPLISHED TO SCATTER THE POWER OF THE HOLY PEOPLE, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE FINISHED.
(For extra month, see: Joel 2:23—latter rain; Zechariah 11:8—plagues)

AND I HEARD, BUT I UNDERSTOOD NOT: THEN SAID I, O MY LORD, WHAT SHALL BE THE END OF THESE THINGS?

      —After Daniel’s second inquiry:
MANY SHALL BE PURIFIED, AND MADE WHITE, AND TRIED; BUT THE WICKED SHALL DO WICKEDLY: AND NONE OF THE WICKED SHALL UNDERSTAND; BUT THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND.
      —Compare the time and events of the above column to the time and events of Revelation 11:1-13.
      —The worshipers in God’s temple are being measured.
      —The Two Witnesses prophesy clothed in sackcloth for 1260 days.
      —As they are finishing their testimony, they ascend up to heaven in a cloud at the beginning of the latter rain.
      —The beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit works against God’s law.
AND FROM THE TIME THAT THE DAILY SACRIFICE SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY, AND THE ABOMINATION THAT MAKETH DESOLATE SET UP, THERE SHALL BE A THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY DAYS.
      —Compare above column to Revelation 13:3-8.
      —Deadly wound healed.
      —Beast is yet to have power over all nations. GC 389, 390.
      —Makes war with saints.
      —Is in power 42 months.
      —Ruin follows apostasy.
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Revelation 13:3-8:
      —“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
          “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
      —“As they [the churches] have continued to reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that ‘Babylon is fallen, . . . because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. She has not yet made all nations do this . . . The work of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination.
          “The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord, Satan will work ‘with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness;’ and they that ‘received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,’ will be left to receive ‘strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.’ 2Thessalonians 2:9-11. Not until this condition shall be reached, and the union of the church with the world shall be fully accomplished throughout Christendom, will the fall of Babylon be complete.” GC 389, 390.
      —When “the abomination that maketh desolate” is set up, the union between church and state will be complete, and then the deadly wound, inflicted in 1798 when the pope was taken prisoner, will be completely healed. Then the church will be given authority to persecute those who do not comply with her orders.
      —The removal of the “daily” (sacrifice) means to remove faith from the hearts of men —the faith in the daily intercession of Jesus our High Priest. A false system of confessing sins, and a false mediator between God and man, take the place of the true. (Study the meaning of the “daily” service in the sanctuary, and its relation to the heavenly sanctuary, in the Introduction, on Daniel 8 and 9.)
BLESSED IS HE THAT WAITETH, AND COMETH TO THE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND FIVE AND THIRTY DAYS. BUT GO THOU THY WAY TILL THE END BE: FOR THOU SHALT REST, AND STAND IN THY LOT AT THE END OF THE DAYS.
      —These additional forty-five days may bring an added blessing to those who go through the time of Jacob’s trouble. No doubt as we come closer to the fulfillment of these prophecies, the meaning will be clearer. The “words” of Daniel 12:4-10 are to take on new meaning at the time when “many shall be purified.”
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      —In the book of Daniel, the expression “time of the end,” refers to two different periods of time.
          1. At the first time of the end—the book of Daniel was to be unsealed. This took place between the years of 1798 and 1844.
          2. At the second time of the end the “words” of Daniel 12:9, 10 are to be unsealed.
          The purification, or shaking, of the church is to begin, and the “wicked” make the “attractive” Sunday law.
      —At this second time of the end, there is to be a conflict among the nations also. Daniel 11:40 says:
          “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind . . .”
      —The “push” is only of a temporary nature, for God steps in to take charge of things. Let us turn in our Bibles to the story of this conflict, in Ezekiel 38 and 39. We will find here a time prophecy also, which is in harmony with the visions God gave to John and Daniel.

Ezekiel 38 and 39:
      —Who are the people that make the attack?
          Gog, from the land of Magog—the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal;
          Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya (or Phut, margin);
          Gomer, and all his bands:
          the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people.
      —In studying a map of the ancient world, we see that some of these nations lie north of Palestine and the Black Sea, while others are to the east and south.
      —What country do these attacking armies come against? and when? “In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel . . . And thou shalt come up against My people of Israel.” Ezekiel 38: 8, 16.
      —How does Ezekiel describe an air-attack which he saw in vision, back in the days before there were airplanes?
          “Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee . . . And thou shalt come up against My people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days . . .” Verses 9, 16.
      —“Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof,” (the British and her allies) are going to get together to &cuss the air invasion. They are going to say, “Art thou come to take a spoil?” (Verse 13.) Perhaps this could be in a United Nations discussion.
      —What does God do, while they are deciding what steps to take to try to bring peace among the nations?
          “And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come
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against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face. For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel . . . And every wall shall fall to the ground . . .” Verses 18-20.
      —“Sword” and “pestilence” follow the earthquake in Palestine: “And I will call for a sword against him throughout all My mountains, saith the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” Verses 21, 22.
      —How many of the invading armies will be left, when God fights against them with sword and pestilence and an earthquake? “And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee . . .” Ezekiel 39:2.
      —One out of six will survive, and many will return to their home nations as missionaries —to tell their people that there is a God. Many of these people have been taught that God did not exist. But they will verify that God is in charge of events, and that He is protecting His people of Israel.
      —God has two great reasons for permitting Gog and his atheistic allies to invade Palestine, and for fighting for the Jews who are “gathered out of many people,” into their own country again. (Ezekiel 38:8.) What are God’s two reasons?
          [1.] “So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; [Many are to recognize that Jesus of Nazareth is their loving Messiah and Protector.]
          [2.] “and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.” Ezekiel 39:7. Many in heathen lands will come to a saving knowledge of God. “To know God is to love Him.” DA 22.
      —The sword and pestilence which come to the invading armies at the time of the invasion, help us to locate when this invasion will take place.
          “And at the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully. This enraged the churches and nominal Adventists, as they could not refute the Sabbath truth. And at this time God’s chosen all saw clearly that we had the truth, and they came out and endured the persecution with us. I saw the sword, famine, pestilence, and great confusion in the land . . .
          “‘The commencement of that time of trouble,’ here mentioned, does not refer to the time when the plagues shall begin to be poured out, but to a short period just before they are poured out, while Christ is in the sanctuary. At that time, while the work of salvation is closing, trouble will be coming on the earth . . .” EW 33, 34, 85.
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      —Probation is not closed during the time of the sword, famine and pestilence. These are the first three plagues, which come before the general close of probation. When God delivered His people from Egypt in ancient times, there were ten plagues. And there are to be ten plagues before God delivers His people now. Three are before probation closes, and seven are after.
      —Great cross-sections of our world are atheistic,
          —and millions of Jews do not recognize their Messiah yet.
          Before Jesus throws down the golden censer, He is going to permit the events among the nations to take shape, so that His honest children yet in darkness will know:
              that there is a God, and
              that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world.
      —“. . . For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9.
      —The plagues of Ezekiel 38:21, 22 are not a part of the seven last plagues —for probation is still open. (When the seven last plagues fall, Jesus will be out of the sanctuary, and there will be no more remission for sin.) Notice how God reemphasizes the reasons for permitting the invasion of Palestine and the earthquake:
          “So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against Me, [See Matthew 27:24-35. I therefore hid I My face from them, and gave them into the I hand of their enemies . . . Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel . . . Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen . . . Neither will I hide My face any more from them: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.” Ezekiel 39:22-29.
      —Probation is still open when Ezekiel 38 and 39 take place! God pours out His Spirit on His honest people so they may know Him!
      —These verses are not just talking about spiritual Israel, either. In Acts of the Apostles is a chapter entitled, “Salvation to the Jews.”
          “In the closing proclamation of the gospel, when special work is to be done for classes of people hitherto neglected, God expects His messengers to take particular interest in the Jewish people whom they find in all parts of the earth. As the Old Testament Scriptures are blended with the New in an explanation of Jehovah’s eternal purpose, this will be to many of the Jews as the dawn of a new creation, the resurrection of the soul. As they see the Christ of the gospel dispensation portrayed in the pages of the Old Testament Scriptures, and perceive how clearly the New Testament explains the Old, their slumbering faculties will be aroused, and they will recognize Christ as the Saviour of the world. Many will, by faith receive Christ as their Redeemer. To them will be
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fulfilled the words, ‘As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.’ John 1:12.
          “Among the Jews are some who, like Saul of Tarsus, are mighty in the Scriptures, and these will proclaim with wonderful power the immutability of the law of God. The God of Israel will bring this to pass in our day. His arm is not shortened that it cannot save. As His servants labor in faith for those who have long been neglected and despised, His salvation will be revealed.
          “‘Thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when He seeth his children, the work of Mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify My name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.’ Isaiah 29:22-24.” AA 381, 382. (Emphasis added.)
      —The language of Isaiah 29:23, quoted above, is very similar to Ezekiel 38:16, 23, and Ezekiel 39:7, 21-29. Compare these expressions:
          “So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel . . .”
          “. . . The heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.”
          “. . . I will bring thee against My land, that the heathen may know Me, when I shall be sanctified in thee . . .”
          “. . . And all the heathen shall see . . . My hand that I have laid upon them.”
          “So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.”
      —By comparing the similarity of these two passages, with AA 381, 382, we may conclude that they are referring primarily to the Jewish people. (The secondary reference would be to the Gentile Christians. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29.) The title of the chapter from AA 382, is “Salvation to the Jews.”
      —There are other beautiful promises regarding the blindfold being removed from their eyes, when Jerusalem ceased to be trodden down of the Gentiles. Study Romans 11:25 with Luke 21:24. Rehearse the events of the six-day war. God will permit the ‘wrath of man” to praise Him, (Psalm 76:10), for the purpose of helping the Jewish people —and many others— to know Jesus.
      —Let us turn back to Ezekiel again for his vision of the literal time prophecy
      —After death comes to many of the invaders, from the sword, pestilence, and earthquake, how long will the house of Israel work unitedly in burying the dead and cleansing the land?
          “And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.” Ezekiel 39:12.
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      —After the “house of Israel” has worked at the task for seven months, what will they do next?
          —“And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.” Verse 14
      —After seven months, they will hire men for the cleanup campaign, to work with the volunteers —or passengers.
      —What is the total length of time that they will spend cleaning up the country of Israel, after the sword, pestilence and earthquake come to Gog and the invading armies?
          —“And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years.” Ezekiel 39:9.
      —Perhaps during this seven years there will be another commandment made to restore Jerusalem, just as there was in the time of Ezra. In the great earthquake, which is to come “in the land of Israel,” “every wall shall fall to the ground.” Ezekiel 38:19, 20.
Jerusalem will need to be rebuilt.
          —(In the time of Ezra, a decree was made to rebuild ancient Jerusalem. The date for this decree, according to Daniel’s prophecies, marked the beginning of the 70 weeks allotted to God’s people. And also from the date of this decree to rebuild Jerusalem, 2300 days (or years in prophetic time) would extend until the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary Study Ezra 7:12-26; Daniel 8:14; 9:24-27; GC 326.] It is possible that within this seven-year period that the Israelites are removing the debris left by the invasion and the earthquake, that there is a literal 2300-day prophecy, tucked away for God’s people to study in the days ahead. Many Bible prophecies have a double application, and this may be one of them.
      —If this is true, we are to remember:
          —that any time period mentioned after 1844 is literal time—; day-for-a-day; (Prophetic time, a day-for-a-year, closed in
          —that time will not be a test for God’s people again;
          —that there will be no opening date to reckon from before” hand. See Revelation 10:6; 7BC 971
      —God has given His people literal time prophecies to be used as guideposts, to let them know:
          —that He is caring for them during the severe shaking and persecution ahead;
          —that even though God’s church appears to fall, it will not fall;
          —and that they, individually, have an immediate case pending at the judgment bar of God —for the measuring of God’s living church members is at hand. (The shaking begins when
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God’s law is made void—and at the second time of the end when a “push” is made by the angry nations. Study Daniel 12:10; 11:40; Revelation 11:1, 2; 5T 80, 81; 2SM 368, 380; EW 269-271.)
      —The day of atonement in the camp of Israel was a solemn occasion as they trembled for fear all sins were not confessed. God wants modem Israel to tremble before Him also, as the judgment of the living begins God uses every means possible to bring His people to a realization of their great need before Him, so they will be clothed with Christ’s righteousness in that solemn day when their names are called in the pre-advent judgment of the living.
          —Listen to God’s love call: “. . . Say unto Zion, thou art My people.” (Isaiah 51:16.) Get ready to come home!
          —“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7.
          —And His beautiful promise, regarding the “words” of the time prophecies, tells us —“the wise shall understand when the purification of God’s people takes place. Daniel 12:9, 10.
      —Let us return to the seven-year prophecy of Ezekiel 39:9. In seven years of time, there are 2520 days (360 x 7 x 2520.) (In Scriptural time, the months each have 30 days in them, or 360 days to a year.)
      —As the events unfold, in the coming conflict, and greater light is revealed, there may be opportunity to consider these details:

      Ezekiel 39:12: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - presents 210 days.
          (There is to be intensive removing of bodies and
          debris after the slaughter and earthquake.)
      Numbers 29:1, 7: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - presents 10 days.
          (This was a solemn call to prepare for the typical day
          of atonement, by confession of every known sin.)
      Daniel 8:14; 9:24-27: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - presents 2300 days.
          (This time span was from the decree to rebuild
          Jerusalem, until the cleansing of the heavenly
          sanctuary. The first 70 weeks of this time were
          especially for God’s people.)
Total days, equal to the seven years, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2520 days.

      —Remember, that these time prophecies after 1844 are not to be a test, neither can they be traced beforehand. But—they are to be received by God’s people as His warning to them, individually, that the investigative judgment of the living is soon to come to each of their names, and it is time to prepare.
      —Whether or not the 2300 day prophecy has a literal phase to it, is not nearly as important as the question —are we ready?
      —Am I ready?
          —with God’s promise of hatred for sin in my heart,
          —and His promise of PARDON for sin on my page in the book of life?
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      —“. . . As judgment passes upon the house of God, the sentence of each is recorded by his name; and the angel is commissioned to spare not the unfaithful servants, but to cut them down at the time of slaughter.” 1T 198.
          (The spiritual slaughter of Ezekiel 9:2-7 is referred to here. This means that their names are blotted out of the book of life in the investigative judgment. See the Appendix. The literal slaughter occurs during the seven last plagues. GC 656.)
      —“The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. [They did not permit God to put hatred for sin in their hearts.] The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hand: ‘Go ye after him through the city, and smite: [“City” are leaders. Isaiah 62:6, 12.] . . .but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
          “Here we see that the church —the Lord’s sanctuary— was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God . . . It is with reluctance that the Lord withdraws His presence from those who have been blessed with great light and who have felt the power of the word in ministering to others.” 5T 211, 212.
      —“Let the ministers awake, let them take in the situation. The work of judgment begins at the sanctuary . . . Read Ezekiel 9:2-7.” TM 431.
      —“The time has come when everything is to be shaken that can be ; shaken, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Every case is coming in review before God; He is measuring the temple and the worshipers therein.” 7T 219.
      —“The time of the judgment is a most solemn period, when the Lord gathers His own from among the tares . . . His name shall stand in the book of life, while those with whom he associated shall have the mark of eternal separation from God.” TM 234, 235.
      —“But the days of the purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty shaking soon to take place we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor . . . The mark of the beast will be urged upon us . . . The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church.” 5T 80, 81.
      —Compare the literal time prophecy which God gave to Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 39:9), with the two He gave to John in Revelation 11:3 and Revelation 13:5. The total is the same.
      —Also compare Ezekiel’s prophecy with the two time periods He gave to Daniel, in chapter 12:6-12. By adding the 30 days from Zechariah 11:8, and Joel 2:23, the total is also the same.
      —The promise to the “wise” is that the “words” are to be unsealed
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at the time of the end when “many shall be purified . . .” Daniel 12:9, 10. God will remove the seal from the literal time prophecies, when the shaking of the church begins —when God’s living people are to be “measured” in the investigative judgment. See 7T 219; 5T 80, 81; EW 269-271; Daniel 12:9, 10.
      —There will be greater light in the future. But these time prophecies will never be a test for God’s people.
          —They will be as pillars from heaven to sustain them as they live through the terrible scenes of the impending conflict.
      —They will bring God’s people to their knees, pleading for PARDON, and for hatred of sin, so Christ’s robe of perfection may be about them as their names come up in the investigative judgment. “The righteousness of Christ will not cover one cherished sin.” COL 316.)
      —We have studied the testimonies of John and Daniel and Ezekiel. A beautiful harmony runs through their writings.
      —As we have studied the events of the little time of trouble, we have learned that the latter rain is to come after the shaking, and near the center of the time span. Revelation 11:1-13; 13:5; 18:1; Daniel 12:6-11; EW 269-271.
      —Does the vision God gave to Habakkuk agree with that of God’s other prophets?
          —“O Lord, I have heard Thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk 3. 2. (The latter rain is to come in the “midst of the years,” —near the middle part of the little time of trouble.)
          —(We are not to know the exact time of the pouring out of the latter rain, for it comes as the Two Witnesses “are finishing” their testimony. Compare Revelation 11:7, 12 with GC 268.
          —“Again and again have I been warned in regard to time setting. There will never again be a message for the people of God that will be based on time. We are not to know the definite time either for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit or for the coming of Christ.” 1SM 188.)
      —What is Hosea’s testimony regarding the shaking time and the latter rain?
          —“Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” Hosea 6:1-3.
      —Habakkuk and Hosea are in agreement with John and Daniel and Ezekiel. God’s Holy Spirit, who directed the messages of all the prophets, blends them together in perfect harmony.
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“And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” Revelation 11:3.

      (1.)  God Sends Power to His Church to Exalt His Law:
          “. . . While the powers of darkness are stirring up the elements from beneath, the Lord God of heaven is sending power from above to meet the emergency by arousing His living agencies to exalt the law of heaven.” (6T 18.) “The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God.” (GC 582.) “It is impossible for us to exalt the law of Jehovah unless we take hold of the righteousness of Christ.” 6BC 1073.)
      (2.)  God’s Church Will Prophesy in Sackcloth:
          “The church will yet see troublous times. She will prophesy in sackcloth. But although she must meet heresies and persecutions, although she must battle with the infidel and the apostate, yet by the help of God she is bruising the head of Satan.” (4T 594.) “False religion may prevail, iniquity may abound, the love of many may wax cold, the cross of Calvary may be lost sight of, and darkness, like the pall of death may spread over the world; the whole force of popular current may be turned against the truth; plot after plot may be formed to overthrow the people of God; but in the hour of greatest peril the God of Elijah will raise up human instrumentalities to bear a message that will not be silenced. In the populous cities of the land, and in the places where men have gone to the greatest lengths in speaking against the Most High, the voice of stern rebuke will be heard. Boldly will men of God’s appointment denounce the union of the church with the world. Earnestly will they call upon men and women to turn from the observance of a man-made institution to the observance of the true Sabbath.” PK 186, 187.
      (3.)  God’s Church is Measured:
          “. . . Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” (Revelation 11:1.) “Many who profess to be Christians will not bear the measurement of God; when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, they will be found wanting.” (2T 43, 44.) “In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church [and other churches] is to be weighed . . . By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged.” (8T 247.) “Every case is coming in review before God; He is measuring the temple and the worshipers ‘herein.’?” 7T 219.
      (4.)  God’s Church is Purified:
          “. . . The days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor.” (5T 80.) “When purification shall take place in our ranks, we shall no longer rest at ease, boasting of being rich and increased with goods, in
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need of nothing.” (8T 250.) “. . . All who truly receive it the testimony of the True Witness] will obey it and be purified.” EW 270.
      (5.)  God’s Church Will Face the Mark of the Beast—the Attractive Sunday Law:
          “The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us . . . In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church.” (5T 81.) “The first day of the week, a common working day, possessing no sanctity whatever, will be set up as was the image at Babylon. [Daniel 3:1-18.]. . . Force is the last resort of every false religion. At first it tries attraction as the king of Babylon tried the power of music and outward show . . . So it will be now.” 7BC 976. “Soon God’s people will be tested by fiery trials, and the great proportion of those who now appear to be genuine and true will prove to be base metal. Instead of being strengthened and confirmed by opposition, threats, and abuse, they will cowardly take the side of the opposers . . . To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions of the Lord are few—this will be our test. At this time we must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason.” 5T 136.
      (6.)  God’s Church Faces Doctrines of Devils in the Shaking Time:
          “When the law of God is made void the church will be sifted by fiery trials, and a larger proportion than we now anticipate, will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” (2SM 368.) “When the shaking comes, by the introduction of false theories, these surface readers, anchored nowhere, are like sifting sand.” (TM 112.)
      (7.)  God’s Church Will Watch as Sword, Famine and Pestilence —the First Three Plagues— Come to our World.
          The Two Witnesses “have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy.” (Revelation 11:6.) “. . . The Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—He will withdraw His blessings from the earth . . .” (GC 589.) “. . . This land of light [United States] will drink the cup of His unmingled wrath . . . The inhabitants of the earth are appointed to the sword, to famine, and to pestilence.” (1T 363.) “And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face . . . Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel . . . Every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him . . . Every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and blood . . . Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee . . . So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel . . . Neither will I hide My face any more from them: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.” Ezekiel 38 and 39. “. . . For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9.
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“And when they shall have finished their testimony, [“are finishing,” GC 268] the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them.” Revelation 11:7.
“. . . And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” Revelation 13:5.

      (1.)  Satan Unites His Forces in This War Under Spiritualism:
          “Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome . . . Satan determines to unite them in one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism . . . Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.” GC 588, 589
      (2.)  Protestants Foremost in Reaching Across the Gulf:
          “By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.” 5T 451
      (3.)  The Oppressive Sunday Law Heals the “Deadly Wound”:
          In 1798 “a French army entered Rome and made the pope a prisoner. . . The papal hierarchy has never since been able to wield the power which it before possessed.” (GC 266.) “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” (Revelation 13:3.)
          “Life” given at the “attractive” Sunday law: “When our nation shall so abjure the principles of its government as to enact a Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with popery; it will be nothing else than giving life to the tyranny which has long been eagerly watching the opportunity to spring again into active despotism.” 5T 712.)
          Complete healing comes with the oppressive Sunday law: “Let the principle once be established in the United States that the church may employ or control the power of the state; that religious observances may be enforced by secular laws; in short, that the authority of church and state is to dominate the conscience, and the triumph of Rome in this country is assured.” (GC 581.) “. . . When it shall have become a law that the transgression of the first day of the week shall be met with punishment, then their cup will be full.” RH March 9, 1886.
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      (4.)  National Apostasy Brings National Ruin
          At the Time of the Oppressive Sunday Law:
          “When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin.” (7BC 977.) “And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more . . . And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, . . . stood afar off, . . . and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.” Revelation 18:11-19.
      (5.)  Worldwide Apostasy Will Follow National Apostasy:
          “As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.” 6T 18.
      (6.)  The Fall of Babylon Will Be Complete:
          “Not yet, however, can it be said that ‘Babylon is fallen, . . . because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ She has not yet made all nations do this . . . Not until this condition shall be fully accomplished throughout Christendom, will the fall of Babylon be complete.” GC 389, 390.
      (7.)  Satan Exalts Himself as God
          And Deceives the Multitudes by Miracles:
          “The time is at hand when Satan will work miracles to confirm minds in the belief that he is God.” (7BC 975.) “It was by the display of supernatural power, in making the serpent his medium, that Satan caused the fall of Adam and Eve in Eden. Before the close of time he will work still greater wonders. So far as his power extends, he will perform actual miracles. Says the Scripture: ‘He . . . deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do,’ not merely those which he pretends to do. Something more than mere impostures is brought to view in this scripture. But there is a limit beyond which Satan cannot go, and here he calls deception to his aid and counterfeits the work which he has not power actually to perform. In the last days he will appear in such a manner as to make men believe him to be Christ come the second time into the world. He will indeed transform himself into an angel of light. But while he will bear the appearance of Christ in every particular, so far as mere appearance goes, it will deceive none but those who, like Pharaoh, are seeking to resist the truth” (5T 698.) “Disguised as an angel of light, he [Satan] will walk the earth as a wonderworker. In beautiful language he will present lofty sentiments. Good words will be spoken by him, and good deeds performed. Christ will be personified, but on one point there will be a marked distinction. Satan will turn the people from the law of God.” FE 471, 472.
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“And they [the Two Witnesses] heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud.” Revelation 11:12.
“. . . I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” Revelation 18:1. “Many shall be purified, and made white . . .” Daniel 12:10.

      (1.)  After the Shaking, God Will “Heal” His People — And Send the Latter Rain:
          “Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up . . . And He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” (Hosea 6:1-3.) “O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years. . . In wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk 3:2. Study EW 269-271
      (2.)  After the Purification, God’s People Exchange Sackcloth (4T 594) For An Armor of Light and Righteousness:
          “I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans . . . This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified. . . I was shown those whom I had before seen weeping and praying in agony of spirit. The company of guardian angels around them had been doubled, and they were clothed with an armor from their head to their feet . . . I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth with great power. It had effect . . . I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, ‘It is the latter rain, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord . . .’” (EW 270, 271.) “Clad in complete armor of light and righteousness, she enters upon her final conflict.” TM 17
      (3.)  The Message of Christ’s Righteousness Enlightens the Earth.
          “The message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other to prepare the way of the Lord. This is the glory of God, which closes the work of the third angel.” (6T 19.) “The sweetest melodies that come from God through human lips [are]—justification by faith, and the righteousness of Christ . . .” (6T 426.) (These “sweetest melodies” are pardon and perfection. Jesus is our perfection, and “pardon and justification are one and the same thing.” 6BC 1070.) “The law demands righteousness, and this the sinner owes to the law; but he is incapable of rendering it. The only way in which he can attain to righteousness is through faith By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner’s account.” (1SM 367.) “. . . And receiving His perfection, we are entitled to heaven.” (QD 684.) “But while God can be just, and yet justify the sinner through the merits of Christ, no man can cover his soul with the garments of Christ’s righteousness while practicing known sins, or neglecting known duties. God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place . . .” 1SM 366.
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      (4.)  God’s People, Still in Babylon, Begin to Accept the Message:
          “Notwithstanding the spiritual darkness and alienation from God that exist in the churches which constitute Babylon, the great body of Christ’s true followers are still to be found in their communion . . . Revelation 18 points to the time when . . . the people of God still in Babylon will be called upon to separate from her communion. This message is the last that will ever be given to the world; and it will accomplish its work.” GC 390.
      (5.)  Seed Sown by Missionary Workers Springs Up:
          “Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices all over the earth, the warning will be given . . . The seed has been sown, and now it will spring up and bear fruit . . . Now the rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God will sever the bands which have held them.” (GC 612.) “More than one thousand will soon be converted in one day, most of whom will trace their first conviction to the reading of our publications.” (CM 151.) “Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord’s army joined the foe and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God.” 8T 41.
      (6.)  Door of Mercy is Open to Some, While Door of Probation is Closed to Others:
          “. . . God’s Spirit will pass by those who have had their day of test and opportunity, but who have not distinguished the voice of God or appreciated the movings of His Spirit. Then thousands in the eleventh hour will see and acknowledge the truth.” (2SM 16.) “The time of God’s destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter.” (7BC 979. See Luke 14:24.) But do not judge either yourself, or others: “. . . God has honest children among the nominal Adventists and the fallen churches, and before the plagues shall be poured out, ministers and people will be called out from these churches and will gladly receive the truth.” EW 261.
      (7.)  After Hitting the Iceberg, God’s Church Moves Forward:
          “One night a scene was clearly presented before me. A vessel was upon the waters, in a heavy fog. Suddenly the lookout cried, ‘Iceberg just ahead!’ There, towering high above the ship, was a gigantic iceberg. An authoritative voice cried out, ‘Meet it!’ There was not a moment’s hesitation. It was a time for instant action. The engineer put on full steam, and the man at the wheel steered the ship straight into the iceberg. With a crash she struck the ice. There was a fearful shock, and the iceberg broke into many pieces, falling with a noise like thunder to the deck. The passengers were violently shaken by the force of the collision, but no lives were lost. The vessel was injured, but not beyond repair. She rebounded from the contact, trembling from stem to stern, like a living creature. Then she moved forward on her way.” 1SM 205, 206. (Emphasis added.)
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“And the same hour [that the Two Witnesses “ascended up to heaven in a cloud,”] was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand.” Revelation 11:12, 13.

      (1.)  God Removes Protection from 7,000 of Satan’s Leaders Who Rebel Against His Law:
          “The Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do Just what He has declared that He would—He will . . . remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard.” GC 589.
      (2.)  Three False Shepherds Are Cut Off in One Month:
          “Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and My soul loathed them, and their soul abhorred Me . . . That that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.” (Zechariah 11:8.) The rest” are not destroyed; there is only a partial destruction, as there is in Revelation 11:13 and 18:8-18.) The three false shepherds who are partially cut off, are no doubt representatives of the “three unclean spirits like frogs” which “come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet,” at a later period. (Revelation 16:13.)
          (Compare this “one month” when the false shepherds are partially cut off, with the “first month” of Joel 2:23-32: “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month . . . And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel . . . Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered . . .”)
          (Revelation 11:11, 12 unites the “month” of Zechariah 11:8 with that of Joel 2:23. They are no doubt the same period of time. At the same time that the Two Witnesses are raised to heaven in a cloud, 7,000 of Satan’s leaders are slain. And at the same time the earth is lightened with latter rain glory, in Revelation 18:1, a portion of Babylon receives the plague of death, while others mourn. Verses 8-18.)
          (By adding this thirty-day period, mentioned in Zechariah and Joel, to the forty-two months the beast is to make war with God’s people, in Revelation 13:5, the total is twelve hundred and ninety days. Daniel 12:11 says: “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” When the daily is taken away and the “abomination” set up, the “deadly wound” will be healed. See GC 55, 579-581; 5T 712.)
      (3.)  Severe Persecution Rages After the Latter Rain is Given:
          “It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who shall be alive upon the earth when celestial glory and a repetition of the persecutions of the past are blended.” 9T 16.
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      (4.)  Those Who Deify Satan Will Receive Three Plagues—Death, and Mourning, and Famine:
          “Fallen angels upon earth form confederations with evil men. In this age antichrist will appear as the true Christ, and then the law of God will be fully made void in the nations of our world. Rebellion against God’s holy law will be fully ripe. But the true leader of all this rebellion is Satan clothed as an angel of light. Men will be deceived and will exalt him to the place of God, and deify him. But Omnipotence will interpose, and to the apostate churches that unite in the exaltation of Satan, the sentence will go forth, ‘Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; [Revelation 18:8] and she shall be utterly burned with fire . . .’” (TM 62.) (These who receive the plague of death at this time, escape the plague of mourning: “And the kings of the earth, . . . and the merchants. . . and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, . . . weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, . . . for in one hour is she made desolate.” Revelation 18:9-19.)
      (5.)  Plague of Famine Follows the Drought of the “Sackcloth” Period:
          “The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted . . . The vine is dried up . . . Even all the trees of the field, are withered. . . The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the teams are broken down . . . How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture . . . The rivers of waters are dried up . . .” Joel 1:10-20.
      (6.)  Reign of Terror Comes After God’s Law is Cast Aside:
          “When the restraints of God’s law were cast aside, [in France,] it was found that the laws of man were inadequate to hold in check the powerful tides of human passion; and the nation swept on to revolt and anarchy. The war against the Bible inaugurated an era which stands in the world’s history as the Reign of Terror . . . No one was secure. He who triumphed today was suspected, condemned, tomorrow. Violence and lust held undisputed sway . . . The cities of the kingdom were filled with scenes of horror. One party of revolutionists was against another party, and France became a vast field for contending masses, swayed by the fury of their passions . . . From devastated provinces and ruined cities a terrible cry was heard—a cry of bitterest anguish. France was shaken as if by an earthquake. Religion, law, social order, the family, the state, and the church—all were smitten down by the impious hand that had been lifted against the law of God.” GC 282-286.
      (7.)  Worldwide Ruin and Anarchy Follow Atheistic Teachings:
          “Would we know the result of making void the law of God? The experiment has been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept the rule of the cruelest of tyrants. When the standard of righteousness is set aside, the way is open for the prince of evil to establish his power in the earth” (GC 584.) “. . . The worldwide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution—all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France.” Ed 228.
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Prophecy Speaks! Professed Christian—Survey Your Future Pathway!
      —The Lion of the tribe of Judah came down from heaven and gave to John a vision of what would be in these latter days.
      —He “cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth,” and the echo of His voice is still being heard. “He is to show the power and authority of His voice to those who have united with Satan to oppose the truth.” 7BC 971.
      —The events of “The Impending Conflict” are vividly portrayed:
There will be a time:
      —“not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us . . . The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church.” “When the law of God is made void the church will be sifted by fiery trials . . .” 5T 81; 2SM 368.
      —a time when the Lord will begin measuring His living church. He “will search Jerusalem with candles” by investigating their records in the heavenly sanctuary. “Each has a case pending at the bar of God. Each must meet the great Judge face to face.” “The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above . . . Soon—none know how soon—it will pass to the cases of the living.” Zephaniah 1:12; GC 310, 488, 490.
      —a time for “purification” to “take place in our ranks.” “. . .The days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will’ manifest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor.” 8T 250; 5T 80.
      —a time when “the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans,” will be given in force. “Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God’s people . . . The testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified.” EW 270.
      —a time when “the church will be sifted by fiery trials, and a larger proportion than we now anticipate, will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” 2SM 368.
      —a time when “the great proportion” (could that mean more than half?) “of those who now appear to be genuine and true will prove to be base metal. Instead of being strengthened and confirmed by opposition, threats, and abuse, they will cowardly take the side of the opposers. The promise is: ‘Them that honor Me I will honor.’” 5T 136.
      —a time when “everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and those things that cannot be shaken will remain.” 9T 62.
      —a time when “support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim God’s only standard of righteousness . . .” “In the last great conflict of the controversy with Satan those who are loyal
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to God will see every earthly support cut off.” 2SM 380; DA 121. (This includes more than the pocketbook, too. Could it mean family and friends?)
      —a time when “the church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out—the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths. We must be divested of our self-righteousness and arrayed in the righteousness of Christ.” 2SM 380.
      —a time when the good ship Zion hits the “iceberg” of heresy. “The vessel was injured, but not beyond repair. She rebounded from the contact, trembling from stem to stern, like a living creature. Then she moved forward on her way.” 1SM 205, 206.
      —a time when “the seven thunders” relating “to future events will be disclosed in their order.” 7BC 971.
      —a time when “there will be a series of events revealing that God is master of the situation. The truth will be proclaimed in clear, unmistakable language.” “The world is not without a ruler. The program of coming events is in the hands of the Lord. The Majesty of heaven has the destiny of nations, as well as the concerns of His church, in His own charge.” 9T 96; 5T 753.
There will be a time for future prophecies to be unfolded—but are you watching?
      —“. . . In the prophecies the future is opened before us as plainly as it was opened to the disciples by the words of Christ. The events connected with the close of probation and the work of preparation for the time of trouble, are clearly presented.       But
multitudes have no more understanding of these important truths than if they had never been revealed.” GC 594. (Emphasis added.)
      —The final “events” are called “important truths” —for they have to do with our own “close of probation and the work of preparation for the time of trouble.”
      —The disciples of Christ were totally unprepared for the crucifixion of their Lord. “The death of Jesus as fully destroyed their hopes as if He had not forewarned them. So in the prophecies the future is opened before us as plainly as it was opened to the disciples by the words of Christ.” GC 594.
      —As we face the shaking of the church and the oppressive persecution from the world, are we going to taken by surprise, as were the disciples?
      —When “every earthly support” is “cut off” in the coming conflict,
          will we then turn traitor?
          or will be crushed with discouragement?
          or will we “look up, and lift up” our heads;
          for our “redemption draweth nigh?” DA 121; Luke 21:28.
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      —In these last few pages we have been studying the events of the little time of trouble. These literal time prophecies are to be followed by] the great time of trouble. (We do not know how long the seven last plagues will continue, but we do know that the fifth plague is to last five months. See Chapter 6.)
      —“We want Calebs now who will press to the front—chieftains in Israel who with courageous words will make a strong report in favor of immediate action. When the selfish, ease-loving, panic-stricken people, fearing tall giants and inaccessible walls, clamor for retreat, let the voice of the Calebs be heard, even though the cowardly ones stand with stones in their hands, ready to beat them down for their faithful testimony.
      —“Can we not discern the signs of the times? Can we not see how earnestly Satan is at work binding the tares in bundles, uniting the elements of his kingdom, that he may gain control of the world’ This work of binding up the tares is going forward far more rapidly than we imagine . . . He works with the subtlety of the serpent and, when he sees it will do, with the ferocity of the lion. The ruin of souls is his only delight, their destruction his only employment; and shall we act as though we were paralyzed? . . .
      —“Then let earnest and determined effort be made to beat back the terrible foe. We want on the whole armor of righteousness. Time is passing, and we are fast approaching the close of our probation. Will our names stand registered in the Lamb’s book of life, or shall we be found with the unfaithful? Are we of the number who shall gather around the great white throne, singing the song of the redeemed? There are no cold, formal ones in that throng. Every soul is in earnest, every heart full of thanksgiving for the marvelous love of God and the overcoming grace that has enabled His people to conquer in the warfare against sin.” 5T 383, 384.
      —“I want to speak to the ears of our people in America in every church. Awake from the dead, and Christ will give you life. Souls are perishing for the light of the truth as it is in Jesus. We are standing upon the very borders of the eternal world. Fair-weather Christians will not be wanted for this work. The sentimental and tasteful religion is not needed for this time. There must be intensity brought into our faith and in the proclamation of truth. I tell you, a new life is proceeding from satanic agencies to work with a power we have not hitherto realized. And shall not a new power from above take possession of God’s people?” 2SM 382.
      —“Are we to wait until the fulfillment of the prophecies of the end before we say anything concerning them? Of what value will our words be then? Shall we wait until God’s judgments fall upon the transgressor before we tell him how to avoid them? Where is our faith in the word of God? Must we see things foretold come to pass before we will believe what He has said? In clear, distinct rays light has come to us, showing us that the great day of the Lord is near at hand, ‘even at the doors.’ Let us read and understand before it is too late.” 9T 20.
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The Seven Pathways:
      —There, Church of God, is a glimpse of the path directly in front of you, as you face this time of crisis.
      —Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, is holding out two very special gifts for you —to give you direction as you enter the little time of trouble. He bids you accept:
          —“the little book which is open in the hand of the Angel”
          —the book of Daniel; and
          —the “reed like unto a rod,”
          —which is the ten commandments.
      —As you accept—and keep—these two precious gifts, you are safe!

The First Pathway:
      —Your first pathway is not an easy path —in fact, it is very difficult! It lies through the enemy’s territory, and he will battle every inch of ground.
      —As you begin this period of time when you must “prophesy in sackcloth,” you “will yet see troublous times.” You “must” not only “meet heresies and persecutions,” you “must” not only “battle with the infidel and the apostate,” (4T 594,) but you “must and will fight against seen and unseen foes. Satan’s agencies in human form are on the ground. Men have confederated to oppose the Lord of hosts. These confederacies will continue until Christ shall leave His place of intercession before the mercy seat and shall put on the garments of vengeance. Satanic agencies are in every city, busily organizing into parties those opposed to the law of God . . . ‘For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places . . .’” “This is no time for” you to be a weakling. You “cannot afford to be off” your “guard for one moment.” 8T 42, 43.
      —You— God’s “remnant church” —“will be brought into great trial and distress.” You, “who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts.” You, “who will be true to God and to duty will be menaced, denounced, and proscribed.” You “will ‘be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends.’” (5T 472, 473.) As “the observance of the false sabbath will be urged upon” you, you will be subject “to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death.” PK 188.
      —No, Church of God, the path ahead is not an easy path. It is difficult!

The Second Pathway:
      —Child of God, your path ahead will bring you deep sorrow. It lies straight in the pathway of “doctrines of devils,” and you will face the “omega” deception, which “will be of a most startling nature.” (1SM 197.) “The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. Satan, clothed in angel robes, will deceive, if possible, the very elect . . . Every wind of doctrine will be blowing. Those who have rendered supreme homage to ‘science falsely so called’ will not be the leaders then. Those who have trusted to intellect, genius, or talent will not then stand at the head of rank and file. They did not keep pace with the light. Those who have
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proved themselves unfaithful will not then be entrusted with the flock. In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged. They are self-sufficient, independent of God, and He cannot use them.” (5T 80.)
      —You will see “heresies. . . come in among” you “separating the chaff from the wheat.” (5T 707.) You will hear “the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans,” and will see many of your own brothers and sisters “rise up against it.” (EW 270.)
      —You will be led “to a diligent study of the Scriptures and a most critical examination of the positions which” you “hold. God would have all the bearings and positions of truth thoroughly and perseveringly searched, with prayer and fasting. Believers are not to rest in suppositions and ill-defined ideas of what constitutes truth” (5T 708.) “When the shaking comes, by the introduction of false theories,” you will see ‘surface readers, anchored nowhere . . . Like shifting sand. They slide into any position to suit the tenor of their feelings of bitterness.” (TM 112.)
      —You will see “standard after standard . . . left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord’s army” —your own brothers and sisters— join “the foe.” (8T 41.) You will see “many a star that” you “have admired for its brilliance . . . go out in darkness.” (PK 188.)
      —Your heart will ache with human sympathy for those who have re fused God’s messages of love, as you see “populous cities . . . reduced to ruin and desolation . . . The Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard.” GC 589.
      —Child of God, the path you face is also a sad path!

The Third Pathway:
      —But, most important of all, Church Member, your path lies directly in front of the throne of the universe, where you will be “weighed“ “in the balances of the sanctuary.” You “will be judged by the privileges and advantages that” you have had. If your “spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on” you, on you “will be pronounced the sentence: ‘Found wanting.’ By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will” you “be judged.” 8T 247.
      —“. . .And the Angel stood, saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” (Revelation 11:1.) That includes you, dear Church Member. You have “a case pending in the court of heaven.” You “know not how soon” your name “may be taken into the lips of Christ, and” your case “be finally decided.” (1SM 125.) “The days of purification of the church are hastening on apace.” 5T 80.
      —If you “have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of
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Christ as” your “atoning sacrifice,” and “have had pardon entered against” your name “in the books of heaven;” if you have become a partaker “of the righteousness of Christ, and” your character is found “to be in harmony with the law of God,” your “sins will be blotted out.” GC 483.
      —But— “if in that day it shall appear that all” your “wicked deeds have not been fully repented of,” your name “will be blotted from the book of life, and” your “sins will stand against” you. 7BC 987.
      —“The deepest interest manifested among men in the decisions of earthly tribunals but faintly represents the interest evinced in the heavenly courts when the names entered in the book of life come up in review before the Judge of all the earth . . . Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above . . . Soon—none know how soon—it will pass to the cases of the living, —yes, to your name, member of God’s church. “Silently, unnoticed as the midnight thief, will come the decisive hour which marks the fixing of every man’s destiny, the final withdrawal of mercy’s offer to guilty men.” GC 483-491.
      —Dear Church Member, the path you face is a most solemn one! Your eternal destiny is at stake. Even now your footsteps are drawing near. Your close of probation is right upon you. You are the first to be “measured” when the command is given, “Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship there” in.” (Revelation 11:1.) “. . . Judgment must begin et the house of God.” (1Peter 4:17.) The measuring of God’s people is to be underway, while the mark of the beast is being urged upon them. “In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church.” 5T 81.
      —But as you walk down that solemn pathway which leads to the great tribunal, where the hosts of heavenly intelligences focus their attention on your name, you do not have to stand there alone. Praise God for that! God “has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed in” your “nature . . . He intercedes in behalf of those who receive Him. With His own blood He has paid” your “ransom. By virtue of His merits He gives” you “power to become” a member “of the royal family,” a child “of the heavenly King.” 8T 177.
      —You may have an Advocate to stand by your side—a “divine Intercessor —if you choose. “Jesus does not excuse” your “sins, but shows” your “penitence and faith, and, claiming for” you “forgiveness, He lifts His wounded hands before the Father and the holy angels, saying: I know” him “by name. I have graven him “on the palms of My hands . . . ‘Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’ Zechariah 3:2. Christ will clothe His faithful ones with His own righteousness that He may present them to His Father ‘a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.’ Ephesians 5:27. Their names stand enrolled in the book of life, and concerning them it is written: ‘They shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy.’ Revelation 3:4. (GC 484.) “The. . . white robe [is] an emblem of the spotless righteousness of Christ . . .” (GC 665.)
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      —God’s humble child, when you receive “His perfection,” you “are entitled to heaven.” (QD 684.) Rejoice! Your name may be left in the book of life!
      —It is a solemn path ahead, Church Member, but it does not need to be a lonesome path. Jesus wants to be there with you!

The Fourth Pathway:
      —But the most sobering thought of all, child of God, is that “while thousands in the eleventh hour will see and acknowledge the truth,” “God’s Spirit will pass by those who have had their day of test and opportunity, but who have not distinguished the voice of God or appreciated the movings of His Spirit.” (2SM 16.) Your probation may soon be forever closed! “If” you “who have the light reject it, or neglect to follow it out, it will become darkness to” you. 2T 40.
      —“Under the parable of a great supper, our Saviour shows that many will choose the world above Himself, and will, as the result, lose heaven. The gracious invitation of our Saviour was slighted . . . Still there is room. The command is given: ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of My supper.’ Here is a class rejected of God because they despised the invitation of the Master . . . If men, plunged in sin and degradation, refuse these heavenly benefits, refuse a life of obedience, trample upon the gracious invitations of mercy, and choose the paltry things of earth because they are seen, and it is convenient for their present enjoyment to pursue a course of sin, Jesus will carry out the figure in the parable; such shall not taste of His glory, but the invitation will be extended to another class.” 2T 39, 40.
      —“The light that was shed upon the waiting ones penetrated everywhere, and those in the churches who had any light, who had not heard and rejected the three messages, obeyed the call and left the fallen churches.” (EW 278.) “The time of God’s destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter. Large numbers will be admitted who in these last days hear the truth for the first time.” 7BC 979.
      —However, child of God, you are not to judge either yourself or another. Only God knows the true condition of each heart—including yours. “. . . God has honest children among the nominal Adventists and the fallen churches, and before the places shall be poured out, ministers and people will be called out from these churches and will gladly receive the truth” EW 261.
      —Be afraid to go one more day without confessing your sins, and seeking for that beautiful robe of Christ’s righteousness to cover your nakedness. After all, you have no assurance that you will be alive at sunset. Tomorrow may be too late! —either physically or spiritually. Do not turn a deaf ear to the Holy Spirit, who may —even now— be tugging at your conscience.
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      —Friend, your fourth pathway leads you away from the investigative judgment scene. It may be a very tragic pathway. During this time “the church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It ret mains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out—the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place.” (2SM 380.) Yes, the path ahead will be a tragic one for many. Will it be tragic for you?
      —This fourth pathway will be a blessed pathway for others. If you will accept the gracious calls to the gospel feast, it will be said to you, “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Revelation 19:9.
      —You stand at the crossroads today. You, with all of your brothers and sisters, are on the third pathway—the solemn pathway that leads to the investigative judgment.
      —Will your pathway that leads away from the investigative judgment scene be a tragic one or a blessed one?

Fifth Pathway:
      —But rejoice! Church of God:
          —those of you who will be privileged to walk down that blessed pathway;
          —those of you who will accept the invitation to the gospel feast, which has been prepared “at an immense sacrifice;” (2T 39.)
          —those of you who will count it a privilege to wear “the garment provided . . . at great cost” by Jesus Himself. COL 309.
      —Your days of prophesying “in sachcloth” do not continue. You will prophesy again, but clothed differently! “Clad in complete armor of light and righteousness,” you will enter upon your “final conflict.” 4T 594; TM 17.
      —Your fifth path ahead may be a glorious one. “. . .The angelic Architect has brought His golden measuring rod from heaven, that every stone may be hewed and squared by the divine measurement, and polished to shine as an emblem of heaven, radiating in all directions the bright, clear beams of the Sun of Righteousness. The church is to be fed with manna from heaven, and to be kept under the sole guardianship of His grace. Clad in complete armor of light and righteousness, she enters upon her final conflict. The dross, the worthless material, will be consumed . . .” TM 17.
      —You will be “clothed with an armor from” your “head to” your “feet,” and will move “in exact order, like a company of soldiers.” Your face will shine “with the light and glory of heaven.” You have “obtained the victory, and it” will call “forth from” you “the deepest gratitude and holy, sacred joy.” (This is “the victory” that Jesus gained “upon the cross” for you, which becomes yours as you accept it. DA 490, 123.) “Evil angels” will still press around you, but can “have no power over” you. “I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth with great power. It had effect . . . The honest who had been prevented from hearing the truth now eagerly laid hold upon it . . . I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, ‘It is the latter rain, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord . . .” EW 271.
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      —A glorious pathway? “The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was ‘the former rain,’ and glorious was the result. But, the latter rain will be more abundant.” 8T 21.
      —You may be one of the “servants of God,” who, “with faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given.” (GC 612.) God’s other children—the “Gentiles” —are to hear the “third call” to the gospel feast. Revelation 11:2; 18:4; COL 309.
      —You were saddened as you saw “company after company from the Lord’s army” join “the foe;” but now you will rejoice as you see “tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy” unite “with the commandment-keeping people of God.” (8T 41.) “More than one thousand will soon be converted in one day, most of whom will trace their first convictions to the reading of our publications.” Ev 693.
      —It is a glorious path that you are destined to walk on, Church of God. Even though persecution is raging on the outside, you “will walk in the light proceeding from the throne of God. By means of the angels there will be constant communication between heaven and earth.” (9T 16.) You will walk in celestial glory!
      —Your fifth pathway —a glorious one—will finally lead you to the heights of Mount Zion where you will one day sing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
      —Professed member of God’s church, there are four pathways right ahead of you that you must walk down. You cannot escape them.’ There is the fifth pathway it may be your privilege to walk down, if you will accept the challenge to be one of God’s servants.
      1.  You face the difficult path. There will be troublous times. Some will be prophesying while clothed in sackcloth; many will be betrayed. All face Satan’s agencies in human and angelic forms.
     2.  You face the sad path. Heresies in your midst will separate your beloved brothers and sisters from you. Whole companies will join the foe. And you will watch as populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation.
     3.  You face the solemn path. It will take you, and all of God’s professed children, to the balances of the heavenly sanctuary, where your eternal destiny—your choice—is permanently entered in heaven’s bookkeeping system. This path does not need to be a lonely path; Jesus longs to stand by your side as your Friend and Advocate!
     4.  You face the tragic or the blessed path, which leads away from the investigative judgment scene. The precious invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb is being extended today. The way you regard this special invitation will determine which path you will be on.
     5.  Pray that it may be your privilege to walk down the glorious path, clothed in “complete armor of light and righteousness,” as “celestial glory” floods your way, and you “speak forth the truth with great power.” TM 17; 9T 16; EW 271.
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      —When do you start down these pathways, God’s professed child? Watch for the events in “The Impending Conflict!”
      —These five pathways are yet future, but there are two pathways you may walk on today, which will prepare you for your tremendous future. “Unless the former rain has fallen, there will be no life; the green blade will not span” up.” TM 506.

The Sixth Pathway:
      —Today is your day of opportunity to walk on the path of dedication! Church of God, you face no ordinary times. The crisis of the ages is right upon you. It calls for an entirely new dedication—one that is completely selfless. “God can use” you “just to the extent that” you “will be worked by the Holy Spirit . . . God will test every man who enters His service. He does not ask, Do” you “possess learning and eloquence? Have” you “ability to command and control and manage? He asks, Will” you “represent My character? Will” you “walk in humility, that I may teach” you “My way?” 7BC 969.
      —Listen to this challenge, Church Member: “Calebs have been greatly needed in different periods of the history of our work. Today we need men of thorough fidelity, men who . . . are as true as steel to principle . . . To follow Jesus requires wholehearted conversion at the start, and a repetition of this conversion every day.” 1BC 1113.
      —“Those who are connected with the service of God must be purified from every thread of selfishness.” (1SM 114.) Are you willing to put “self aside,” and “make room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon” your heart? If so, “there is no limit to” your “usefulness,” as you make this kind of a dedication. (DA 250.) But you cannot empty yourself “of self.” You “can only consent for Christ to accomplish the work. Then the language of” your “soul will be, Lord, take my heart; for I can not give it. It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I can not keep it for Thee. Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul.” COL 159.
      —Individual Church Member, is this the cry of your heart? Are you willing to walk down the pathway of complete, selfless, total dedication? By the grace of God, the pathway of dedication may be yours!

The Seventh Pathway:
      —The pathway of power is open also—to all who will dare accept God’s challenge. It is called the pathway of the four “whens.”
      [1.]  “When those to whom God has entrusted responsibilities as leaders fear and tremble before Him because of the responsibility of the work,
      [2.]  when they feel their own unworthiness and seek the Lord in humility,
      [3.]  when they purify themselves from all that is displeasing to Him,
      [4.]  when they plead with Him until they know that they have forgiveness and peace, then God will manifest Himself through them.
          Then the work will go forward with power.” 6T 50, 51. (Emphasis added.)
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      —There, Church of God, is your formula for the powerful pathway! Memorize it. Make it a part of your life.
      —“It is not the capabilities you now possess, or ever will have, that will give you success. It is that which the Lord can do for you.” COL 146.
      —“Heaven’s perfection is to be your power.” 9T 21.
      —“Through faith in the power of God, it is wonderful how strong a weak man may become, how decided his efforts, how prolific of great results. He who begins with a little knowledge, in a humble way, and tells what he knows, while seeking diligently for further knowledge, will find the whole heavenly treasure awaiting his demand . . . The more” you try “to explain the word of God to others, with a love for souls, the plainer it becomes to” you. “The more” you use your “knowledge and exercise” your “powers, the more knowledge and power” you “shaft have.” “The value of man” —your value, Church Member—“is estimated in heaven according to the capacity of” your “heart to know God . . . Looking unto Jesus” you “obtain brighter and more distinct views of God, and by beholding” you “become changed.” COL 354, 355.
      —“Let the glorious conceptions of God possess your mind. Let your life be knit by hidden links to the life of Jesus . . . The Holy Spirit will take the things of God and show them unto you, conveying them as a living power into the obedient heart. Christ will lead you to the threshold of the Infinite. You may behold the glory beyond the veil, and reveal to men the sufficiency of Him who ever liveth to make intercession for us.” COL 149. (Emphasis added.)
      —The memory of precious hours of communion with your Saviour —the “glory” which you have beheld “beyond the veil”— will go with you, Church of God, over every mile of the pathway that stretches out ahead of you. It matters not how hard the winds may blow, or where the pathway leads.
          It will be difficult, sad, and solemn.
          It may be blessed, glorious, dedicated, and powerful.
      But through it all, remember:
          One is holding your hand who has trod the way before.
          His promise to you is: “Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shaft come upon all the world . . .” Revelation 3:10.
      —How great is your responsibility, God’s Church! You stand in the full blaze of heaven’s light. Meditate again on your solemn commission:
          “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Revelation 10:11.
      —You are standing between the living and the dead as a mediator for God. If you “yearn for souls as” Jesus “yearned for them” you “will enter into the joy of” your “Lord.” 7BC 949.
      —Yours is the glorious privilege of walking with your Master down this pathway of power. Church of the living God, your future is before you. You “are to contend with supernatural forces, but” you “are assured of supernatural help.” DA 352.

FEAR TO WALK DOWN YOUR PATHWAY ALONE!

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