Our Message by A. T. Robinson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jul 20, 1905

Our Message

By A. T. Robinson

A. T. ROBINSON

The fact can not be too strongly emphasized that our message is the “third angel’s message.” This is the center from which all our activities should radiate. The more closely we work from that center, the more speedily the work committed to this people will be accomplished. But what is the third angel’s message?

Definition

The third angel’s message is that which gathers up, into a glorious system of truth, every ray of gospel light that has ever shone upon this world, and focuses that light upon the last generation of mankind. Anything short of this falls short of being the message for the hour. Whatever portions of truth men may proclaim, nothing short of the truth, the whole truth, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, will meet the specifications of the great threefold message outlined in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation.

Giving the Message

No man can give to another what he does not himself possess. Therefore the only one who can give this message is the one who can do so in a testimony backed up by an experience in the life, of all that is in the message itself. Anything short of this falls short of giving the third angel’s message. There may be the correct form of the message, and it may be given in such clear lines as to convince multitudes of its truthfulness. But the only one who can give that heaven-sent message, with the authority that is back of the message, is the one whose testimony is backed up by an experience in his own life of all that is in the message.

Let me illustrate this point by a quotation from the greatest of all teachers, and a statement concerning his manner of teaching: “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” Matt. 23:2, 3. Now what was wrong with the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees? We have the inspired testimony that they had the correct “form of the truth.” But they were robbed of all the authority that belonged to the truth they were telling, because that truth was not an experience in the life of those who were telling it. “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Matt. 7:28, 29. He not only taught the people concerning the way, the truth, and the life, but he could truthfully say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” His word was with authority because it was backed up by an experience in his own life of all that he taught.

Let us see if we do not find this in the message itself—in the very words of the message. “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel.” Ah, the people symbolized by those three angels have something. What is this thing which they have?—“Having the everlasting gospel.” What do they have the everlasting gospel for?—“Having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth.” That is the point. They must first have the message, it must be an experience in the life before they can preach it to others. The testimony of the great apostle is right to the point: “When it pleased God . . . to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen.” Gal. 1:15, 16. He might have preached about Jesus, he might have shown the time, place, and manner of his coming, so clearly as to convince all who listened to him that every specification of the prophecy had been fully met. But to preach him fully—to preach Jesus—He who is “the power of God and the wisdom of God,” must be fully revealed in his own life.

In order to give this message with a loud voice, which is to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord, like him who was the herald of his first advent, one must be the message himself. John, who gave that message “in the spirit and power of Elias,” could say, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, . . . as said the prophet Esaias.” One of our ministers, in the western part of Nebraska, who preached this message in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit, was pointed to as he walked the streets, with such expressions as, “There goes the third angel’s message,” or, “There goes the signs of the times.” The great outlines of prophecy may now be presented in such clear lines that it will convince the intellect; but we can never go forth proclaiming this message in all its Elijah spirit and power until everything in the message becomes an actual experience in the life.

The gospel is declared to be “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1:16. The gospel being the power of God unto salvation from sin, and the third angel’s message being the everlasting gospel, what less than the everlasting power of God to save from sin can this message be? But how can any man give such a message as that, backed up by the authority which belongs to the message, unless he can present in his own life the evidence that there is power in the message to accomplish that thing? We must be able to say, like one of olden time, “Such as I have give I thee.” But being thus delivered from all conscious sin is nothing more nor less than the “righteousness of God by faith.” Then what is the third angel’s message but righteousness by faith? No one need fear that this is getting away from the “old landmarks.” The spirit of prophecy has told us that righteousness by faith is “the third angel’s message in verity.” I bless God that I am learning more and more that this grand old third angel’s message, which has made us a people, is the everlasting power of God to save from sin now, and to deliver from the dominion of sin every day. That same power of God that will keep the one hundred and forty-four thousand from sin, for at least one whole year after the close of probation, is the power of God that is in the third angel’s message now.

The Judgment Hour

In 1844 the hour of God’s judgment was reached. There is no possible mistake about this great fact. The work of judgment is the final putting away of all sin. “Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Heb. 9:26. The sins of God’s people can never be borne from the heavenly sanctuary and placed back upon the anti-typical scapegoat so long as sins are going into the sanctuary, in other words, so long as sinning and repenting is continued. Therefore, until this great threefold message becomes an experience in the life of every believer, of the everlasting power of God to save from sin, and from sinning, this work can never be closed up. The cleansing of the soul temple must be an accomplished fact before the sanctuary in heaven can be cleansed. Before our High Priest gathers up the sins of the redeemed and bears them out from the sanctuary, your sins and mine will have ceased to go in there; and if our sins cease to go in there before the last one has been repented of, confessed, and forsaken, then we shall be left to perish in our own sins.

Perfect Obedience

Many people tell us that it is impossible for any one to keep the law of God. This is charging God with having given a law which it is not possible for man to keep. This is the same charge

that Lucifer brought against the principles of God’s government in the beginning of the great controversy between God and Satan. It is perfectly true that after man had sinned, he could not possibly render obedience to the law of God of himself. He stood in need of a helper, or rather of some one to come into his life, bringing to him the power to render obedience to the law of God. Man was in slavery to sin and in need of a deliverer. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.” Gal. 3:13. The curse of the law was slavery to sin, or inability to render obedience to the law of God. “For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Gal. 3:10. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law [disobedience] . . . that the blessing of Abraham [obedience or righteousness by faith] might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Gal. 3:13, 14. Sin being the transgression of God’s law, deliverance from sin is freedom to keep the law. Hence of those who experience the third angel’s message—the everlasting power of God to save from disobedience—the Lord can say, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.

Out of Babylon

The people who give this message are to extend the call to all of God’s people to come out of Babylon. Babylon is confusion. Sin and everything outside the truth of God is confusion. In order therefore to call others out of Babylon, one must himself be wholly separated from all that pertains to Babylon. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:17.

Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast

Two classes are being developed under the sounding of this message. Upon one class is being stamped the mark of the beast and of his image. The image and superscription of this world is being placed upon them. “The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.” Isa. 3:9. The other class is being sealed “with the seal of the living God.” They have the “Father’s name written in their foreheads.” Rev. 7:1-4; 14:1. The image and superscription of God, instead of that of the beast, is being placed upon them. Transformations of character are taking place which cause the holy angels to look on with amazement, and the evil angels to stand aghast. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor. 3:18.

Sabbath Rest

“There remaineth therefore a rest [keeping of a Sabbath] to the people of God. For he that is entered into his [God’s] rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Heb. 4:9, 10. Our own works are sin. Once more, then, the conclusion is reached that the realization of the third angel’s message as an experience in the life, is the everlasting power of God to deliver us from the dominion of sin. And, having ceased from our own works (sin), we can enter into spiritual rest of soul, which is the only true Sabbath-keeping.

When this kind of Sabbath-keeping is an experience in the life, we can then go forth and preach the Sabbath more fully. Then will be fulfilled that statement in “Early Writings:” “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.” By reading the following explanatory note we are not left in doubt as to when the time of trouble here mentioned will be: “The commencement of the 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, and the nations will be angry, yet held in check so as not to prevent the work of the third angel. At that time the “latter rain,” or refreshing from the presence of the Lord, will come, to give power to the loud voice of the third angel, and prepare the saints to stand in the period when the seven last plagues shall be poured out.

What is wanted to-day more than anything else, or more than everything else, is a spirit-of-the-message-filled ministry, to go to a lost and perishing world, in the spirit and power of Elias, carrying to them the last message of the everlasting gospel to humanity.

College View, Neb.