3230.— Spirit of Prophecy, Fallen Angels, Present Truth
A correspondent writes us that he meets objection to the views which he holds regarding the spirit of prophecy, fallen angels, and also that the Seventh-day Adventists are making a mistake in giving the third angel’s message, because it is not due, as the image of the beast is not set up; and he wants help. 1. As to the spirit of prophecy, our correspondent may be able to get a little tract of his tract society. They are out of print now at the publishing house. The title of it is “Spiritual Gifts,” by J. N. Loughborough. Write to the Colorado Tract Society for it. However, if there is any doctrine or teaching established in the New Testament it is that in the remnant church, the church which is looking for and ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be manifest all the gifts which were in the early church—every gift that is necessary for the building up of God’s church. See Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. There are still other Scriptures, like 1 Cor. 1:4-7; 1 Thess. 5: 19, 20; Rev. 12: 17. Whenever God’s people have turned back to His law with all their heart, there has always come in with it more of His Spirit, and more of the manifestations of that Spirit in the special gifts which are needed for the upbuilding of His church. A book upon this subject is “Rise and Progress of Seventh-Day Adventists,” by J. N. Loughborough. Price $1.00 and $1.50. It may be obtained from any of our publishing houses. 2. As to fallen angels, one or two texts of Scripture ought to be sufficient upon this. First, 2 Peter 2:4, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned;” Jude 6, “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation;” Rev. 12:9, where we read that the devil was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him; and these are mentioned by our Lord as “the devil and his angels.” Matt. 25:41. There are many other Scriptures which teach the same thing, but it seems to us that these are sufficient. 3. As to the third angel’s message, this includes several considerations. What is called the third angel’s message is directly connected with two preceding messages, the whole forming, when the third angel’s message is going, one great threefold message. God’s messages are not only protests against evils that really are, but they are warnings of the fruition of these things when more fully developed. For instance, Noah gave a message for 120 years of a coming flood. The objector we suppose said to him, “The flood is not here; why do you give this message?” But the flood was coming, and Noah was warning against the coming flood. Over and over we may find in the warnings which God has given through His prophets that He rose up “betimes” and warned them. He rose up early and warned them; He warned them so that they might have escaped all of the awful harvest of their wickedness. The third angel’s message as such is a warning against the beast and his image. It takes in not simply the fully formed image to the beast; but it warns against the making of that image as well. For the image includes its making. It was only a few years ago when not a single indication of this was seen. Church and state were separate, absolutely so, in America. Every tendency toward it was reprobated and opposed by nearly all classes; but since that time the evil thing has grown apace, and there is a demand rising up from all sides and from every quarter for religious legislation, generally in the form of Sunday laws, tho not always. What does it mean? This country has already taken steps which have involved that principle. One of the fathers of the American Republic stated that the only true way to do was to see the thing in the principle and act before it is developed; and that is what God’s message contemplates. It sees the evil image in the very principle involved, and it warns against the making of the image, that it may save men from the awful mistake which will prove not only destructive to themselves but intolerant to others. When that time comes that the image is fully formed, then the world will have gone so far that it will be too late to give the warning.