A Definite Message by R. C. PORTER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 20, 1914

A Definite Message

By R. C. PORTER

MORE than nineteen hundred years ago the isle of Patmos was lighted with the glory of the presence of a Heaven-sent messenger, the angel Gabriel. The keynote of his mission was to declare that “the Lord of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” Rev. 22:6, 7.

The message was definite. It embraced two definite doctrines: the nearness of the second advent of Christ, and the preparation necessary for that event by keeping the sayings of the book of divine revelation. The book of Revelation opens with God’s sending his angel, through Christ, to communicate this light through the spirit of prophecy to his servant John, “who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.” Rev. 1:2.

The Message Based on Prophecy

This message, like that given by John the Baptist prior to the first advent of Christ, is based on a direct commission plainly revealed in prophecy. John said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.” John 1:23. His message was definite. It had been clearly defined by the prophet Isaiah. He knew that he was called of God to give that definite message to the people to prepare the way for Christ’s first advent.

It is a message that deals with last-day issues. See Rev. 14:6-14. The last act of Christ before his second advent is the announcement that the work of the judgment, which has passed upon the cases of the righteous, is finished, and that he comes quickly to reward them for their faithfulness. See Rev. 22:10-12. The last message must therefore of necessity announce that the “hour of his judgment is come.” Rev. 14:7.

“And 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.” Rev. 12:17. The remnant of the seed of the woman, the last church of Christ, will “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” When Christ said to the young man that if he would enter into life he must keep the commandments, he quoted five of them in order that there might be no misunderstanding of his meaning. Matt. 19:16-22. So when the last message says, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God,” it is the keeping of the ten commandments that is enjoined. It is this that brings upon God’s people the

wrath of the dragon. See Rev. 12:17.

The commandment keeping here specified is not merely a formal observance. “Love is the fulfilling of the law,” John says, “This is the love of God that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” He also says, “And we have known and believed that love that God hath to us.” “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:16-18.

The people who are giving this last judgment message are to become so transformed by the message that as Christ is, so are they in this world. It is this that prepares them to meet the judgment without fear. Dwelling in God, they dwell in the fullness of the love of God. They “know” that they “have passed from death unto life, because” they “love the brethren.” 1 John 3:14. As Christ, though rich, became poor that the world through his sacrifice might become rich, so every loyal believer in this message will, in the spirit of Christ, give himself and his all to the giving of the last-day message. He will be willing to surrender hatred, property, and even life if need be, for the finishing of this message. As in the parable it took all to buy the field, so in the life of Christ he surrendered all in the interests of the work he came to do, and this last-day people who are to be “as he is . . . in this world” will be equally consecrated to the work of giving to the world the closing message.

The Faith of Jesus

While giving the judgment message and keeping the commandments of God as expressed in the life of Christ, they keep “the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. It is not merely faith in Jesus, but the faith of Jesus. It is this faith that enables them to live in this world as he is. His faith manifested in the remnant church will enable them to live now as he lived nineteen hundred years ago. It will give to that church the same self-surrender, the same love, the same warmth of devotion to the saving of the lost, and the same fearlessness in giving the message of warning against the beast and his image as were manifest in the life and teaching of Christ, in meeting the false traditions of his time.

The Testimony of Jesus

The faith of Jesus embraces the testimony of Jesus; and “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Rev. 19:10. As Christ believed the testimony of John the Baptist, saying, “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist,” so the remnant church which gives the last message, in the faith of Jesus, will have a definite faith in the spirit of prophecy as manifested in it in the last days. They will have not merely a general faith, but a specific faith in that gift as manifested in the last church. That was what the faith of Jesus was in him, and that is what it will be in the church which gives the last message. None but those having “the testimony of Jesus” are prepared to give the message a certain sound, sending forth its ringing notes with clear conviction, that will arouse a slumbering church and an indifferent world.

The time has come for such a message. The world is ripe for the harvest when this message is given in its fullness, in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit. A people in every nation are waiting the call of such a life-giving invitation as this message contains. It alone meets the needs of the last days. It alone is prepared to offer the solution of the problems that perplex the hearts of men in the closing hours of human history. Its platform is none too broad. It needs no human pruning knife to shape it to last-day needs. As God gave it, it must be given.

R. C. PORTER.