Untitled article by Roswell F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 5, 1870

The Closing Messages.—No. 28.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

THE special penalty threatened in the last message—the wine of the wrath of God without mixture—is the seven last plagues; “for in them is filled up the wrath of God.” Rev. 15:1. The lake of fire burning with brimstone is the common lot of all who are not found written in the book of life. This is the second death. Chap. 20:15. But God has determined that the last generation of the wicked—a generation privileged with the greatest means of light from the word and providence of God of any that ever lived, and yet rejecting their privileges become the most vile—should come to the first death in a dreadful manner, with special indications of divine wrath. And the “fierceness of his wrath” is especially reserved for false professors of religion—the worshipers of the beast and his image, who, with the Bible in their hand, and also the light of the history of the Roman apostasy, still choose to follow in the footsteps of the “mother of harlots,” and persecute those who keep God’s word, thus identifying themselves fully with “great Babylon.” Chap. 16:19.

Some teach that these plagues are symbolical, and that six of them, at least, have been already poured out, beginning some centuries in the past. If this be true, the three messages must all be far in the past; for the first of the plagues takes effect upon those that have the “mark of the beast, and upon them which worship his image,” chap. 16:2, and consequently is the beginning of that unmingled wrath threatened by the third angel. This warning message locates itself before the day of wrath which it threatens, being the last merciful warning before the coming of the Son of Man; hence as the first vial is the infliction of a portion of the wrath threatened by the message, they are all of them in the future, and will be until probation shall close.

The “mystery of God” is to be finished in the beginning of the sounding of the seventh trumpet. Rev. 10:7. This mystery, which is also called “the mystery of the gospel,” Eph. 6:19, is evidently the reconciliation and salvation of men through Christ; and the finishing of the mystery must be the closing work of the gospel on earth and also of the intercessions of Christ, as our great High Priest, in the heavenly temple. The third angel’s message is the closing message of the gospel, and the ministration of our Priest is finished within the second vial, before the ark of the covenant containing the ten commandments. (See works on the Sanctuary.) This apartment of the temple is opened under the sounding of the seventh angel. Rev. 11:15–19. “The temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testimony.” This ark contains the commandments which are the burden of the third angel’s message, and before this ark our High Priest closes his priestly work by blotting out the sins of his people, which are their transgressions against that law contained in the ark. The seventh trumpet brings the third woe, chap. 8:13, which is evidently identical with the wrath threatened in the third message—the seven last plagues. But the third woe does not commence with the beginning of the sounding of the seventh angel. There is a little space in the “days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound,” in which the mystery of God is finished, by the proclamation of the last merciful warning, and the close of the work of Christ in behalf of sinners in the inner temple, before the ark and mercy-seat. It has been demonstrated that the sixth trumpet closed with the fall of the Turkish power, Aug. 11, 1840. (See Sounding of the Seven Trumpets.) From this date to the ending of the 2300 days in 1844, is precisely the period for the time message (Rev. 10:6, 7; and 14:6, 7) to be given, which points forward to the sounding of the seventh angel and the finishing of the mystery of God in the beginning of his sounding. The third woe does not commence with the beginning of the seventh trumpet, but there is a little space first given to the closing of the work of the gospel—a time for the fulfillment of the commission, “Thou must prophesy again,” of chap. 10, which is identical with the third angel of chap. 14. Consequently, the precise period of time which we now occupy is expressed in the text—“The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.” Chap. 11:14.

During the time of the last merciful warning to the world, Jesus, our High Priest, ministers in “the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in Heaven,” i. e., the inner apartment where the ark of the testimony is, which is now opened; and the wrath of God waits till he shall finish his intercessions and blot out the sins of his people. When this is done, the day of salvation is closed, and the ministers of vengeance proceed from that very place where bleeding and abused mercy has been pleading for all that would heed its invitations and turn to God. Their garments are pure and spotless white, like the great white throne whence they proceed, an emblem of the immaculate righteousness of those judgments they are commissioned to execute, as they bear to earth the seven golden vials, or bowls, “FULL of the wrath of God.” No drops of pardoning mercy are mingled in those bowls: for mercy long neglected and abused has ceased to plead. A Saviour’s dying love can do no more. Those “five bleeding wounds,” received on Calvary, can no longer “pour effectual prayers” for the guilty, in the heavenly temple. There is no longer an intercessor there; for as the messengers of wrath leave the temple, it is “filled with smoke from the glory of God,” and no one can enter it until the wrathful mission is accomplished in cutting off the wicked inhabitants of the earth.

“And after that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in Heaven was opened. And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” Chap. 15:5–8.

As the plagues are all in the future, and are to be fulfilled in the great day of wrath, in which “he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land,” (see Zeph. 1:14–18; 8:6–8,) there is no reason to expect that they will be otherwise than literally fulfilled. The first is “a noisome and grievous sore upon the men that had the mark of the beast.” Rev. 16:2. This is like the plague of the boils upon the Egyptians in the days of Moses. Ex. 9:8–11. The second and the third vials turn the waters of the earth to blood. Verses 3, 4. One of the plagues of Egypt was that their waters were turned to blood. Ex. 7:17–20. These judgments are terrible, but just. The throne of God remains pure and unstained.

“And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus; For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.” Verses 5–7.

It may be asked, Will the last generation of men actually shed the blood of saints and prophets? Are not the people of God to be delivered from the last persecution, every one that is found written in the book, and translated to Heaven without death? How then can these be charged with the blood of saints and prophets? The answer is, that, with all the light of the past, they indorse the deeds of all previous persecutors by decreeing the death of the saints. The Jews who persecuted Jesus and his disciples, in the face of the light of the history of the past, assumed the blood of all the martyrs, from that of Abel to their own time. Matt. 24:34–36. So when we come to the time of great Babylon’s destruction, in her is found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of ALL that were slain upon the earth. Rev. 18:24.

The effect of the fourth vial is, that the sun scorches men with great heat. The same thing is inferred from Joel’s prophecy of the day of the Lord, where the fire is represented as burning up the pastures. See Joel 1:15–20. The fifth causes darkness, which was also one of the plagues of Egypt. Ex. 10:21–23. And here is evidence that those expositors who make these plagues symbolical, covering centuries of time, are mistaken; for when the fifth is poured out, men are still suffering from the sores produced by the first. Verses 10, 11. The sixth vial dries up the great river Euphrates—a symbolical river, the Turkish empire, chap. 9:14—and hence is a real and destructive plague upon men; whereas the drying up of one literal river, like the Euphrates, would not be so very disastrous. But the consumption of the Turkish empire prepares the way for the gathering to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, so abundantly predicted in the

prophets. At that time the unclean spirits that are now deceiving men will have gained a controlling power over the kingdoms of the earth, classed under the three great divisions of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, the last of which is the two-horned beast (compare Rev. 13:13, 14, with chap. 19:20), and will be the instrumentality which God will use in gathering them to the battle. The last plague and the second advent are now imminent; for he says, “Behold, I come as a thief.” Then comes the last plague, universal as the air which envelops the earth, and terrible beyond description. So much needs to be said concerning it, that I defer it to the next number.

R. F. COTTRELL.