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Our Message

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 15, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 15.

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Our Message

In all great epochs of this world's history God has sent his own chosen messengers with admonitions suited to the times. There had been heard no prophetic voice for a long time before Christ, not for some four hundred years, till just before Jesus was to make his public appearance. “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt. 3:1, 2. He did not preach of interesting things about the ancestors, nor tell about a flood. He touched the needs of his own day,—repentance as a preparation for the kingdom at hand.
Six months or more later Jesus was baptized by John in Jordan, and was pointed out as the one whose advent John had come to proclaim. “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
Noah's message was repentance toward God, and faith in his word concerning the flood of waters which was to destroy the impenitent.
Isaiah and Jeremiah preached the same message of repentance. Repent and obey, so shall the kingdom of Israel be preserved. Later the message was, Repent and submit to the king of Babylon. As opposed to this the false prophets counseled war, and promised victory. We know the outcome. Jerusalem was laid in desolation.
Luther's message was given of God, and was suited to the generation in which he lived—an age of sin and unbelief. It was a message of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are now some seventy or eighty denominations working in China. Each one represents some special doctrine or board of management led by men from various countries.
Now we are not to attach ourselves to some particular foreigner from America or England or from any other country, and follow him as our guide, but we must take the Bible, which they as the servants of God have brought to us, and give to China the message of God for this age. We must “preach the word.” Some popular preachers take a text from the Scripture, and proceed to tell many stories or pleasing things about it. We must not do so.
Perhaps you have seen the children playing a certain game in which one has a handkerchief tied over his eyes, and is then turned loose to catch some one else. He catches this way and then that way, clutching at the air, because he can not see. We are not to go at our work in this manner. We are to do away with our blinders, and have the Spirit of God to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, so that we shall know what is meant in due season.
When the Jews read the ninth chapter of Isaiah, they thought their Messiah was to be a person of great fame and power and glory, who would lead them in a successful revolt against their Roman oppressors; but they made a great mistake.
In the time of Jesus the Jews said no prophets had ever come out of Galilee, and therefore this man of Nazareth could not be the Christ. Mistaken again! These preconceived theories of theirs blinded them.
God sent a special messenger to prepare the way for Christ's first advent, John the Baptist. He was to make the crooked ways straight and the rough places plain for the coming One. Just so will his second advent be heralded. My brethren, you are now standing in the place of John the Baptist. I am now as John the Baptist. This message of preparation for the return of the King is represented in Rev. 14:6, 7. It calls for repentance and faith in view of the judgment at hand. Some one may say this text says “an angel,” and that I am not an angel, and I can not preach this message. Look! The text says this messenger preaches the everlasting gospel. Has God ever sent literal angels to preach the gospel? He sends men: his whomsoever he sends, whomsoever he inspires to preach the gospel for this time, are represented by this messenger. Not slowly, slowly; the angel flies with the everlasting gospel,—flies to do the work of God. This, then, is our work,—this everlasting gospel our message. The judgment is at hand, but as in the days before the flood, men are buying and selling, engaged in worldly business, and know not that the kingdom is at hand.
This world is at strife with the gospel. Jesus said, “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.” “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matt. 24:9, 13. This gospel of suffering, of endurance with patience, is totally opposite to the spirit of this world. Our only safety is in following implicitly the leading of God.
Gideon and his army did not gain the victory by force of arms. At God's command they broke their pitchers and shouted, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.” Some are saying the law of God is done away. Over the chapel doors in many places back in the country we see a copy of the treaty between China and the foreign power represented by the missionary locating a particular chapel. We come with a message by the authority of that law lodged in the ark of the covenant in heaven, in patience to proclaim it, if need be to lay down our lives for it. I do not say it is wrong for us to comply with the request of this government and of foreign consuls in posting treaty regulations, etc., in the chapels, but we can not depend upon the protection of earthly powers in the promulgation of this message; for the dragon (Rev. 12:17) is very wroth with the commandments of God and with those who teach and obey them.
Our message is drawn from the Old and New Testaments. The everlasting gospel embraces the two as representing the revealed will of God. Rev. 12:1 represents the church under the symbol of a woman. The moon under her feet is said the Old Testament, with its types and shadows prefiguring the way of salvation. This is the foundation of the church, which is clothed with the full brightness of the gospel of salvation. The Old Testament is not obsolete; it contains up-to-date truth.
This, then,—the everlasting gospel which is represented by the three angels of Revelation 14, and which is to prepare the world for the second advent of Christ,—is our message. It is the present truth of to-day, meat in due season for this generation, a message of obedience to the commandments of God and faith in Jesus Christ.