The Connection Between Mrs. White’s Visions and This Movement
By George I. Butler
The Seventh-day Adventist Church claims to be giving the three angels’ messages of Rev. 14: 6-12. The visions of John the Revelator clearly foretold that in the last days, just before Christ’s second advent, these proclamations would go forth to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people; and when the world should have been warned by these messages Christ would come in his glory to gather his people home, and to destroy those not in harmony with his law. The language of Holy Writ demonstrates that these messages, though connected, are successive, the first one mentioned coming first in point of time; the second following the first, and combining with it; the third coming last, joining the other two. The proclamation of the third closes the series and brings Christ’s personal advent. The first message proclaims the hour of God’s judgment, which began at the close of the greatest prophetic period in the Bible, the twenty-three hundred days. The period began in the fall of 457 B. C., at the going forth of the decree of the Persian king for the restoring and rebuilding of Jerusalem, and reaches to the fall of 1844 A. D. This great time message went forth with mighty power. “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” The people thought at that time that by the cleansing of the sanctuary was meant the coming of the Saviour to cleanse this earth by fire. When Christ did not come as expected, the people were bitterly disappointed, but after careful study the true believers discovered that a mistake had been made—that the sanctuary to be cleansed was the temple of God in heaven, “which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Heb. 8: 2. That work is the last work of our great High Priest in the holy of holies, the final work of judgment, deciding, as it does, who are to be saved when Christ comes in glory. That work has been in progress since 1844. The great disappointment in 1844 caused the popular churches to reject the doctrine of the soon-coming Saviour, and to cast out the believers in the advent faith. The cry went forth, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” and fifty thousand believers left the popular churches. From that time the belief in Christ’s soon coming has been rejected by the churches as bodies. Adventism has become very unpopular, and the churches that rejected the message have been far less spiritual than before. Much false doctrine has been received. Respect for God’s Word has greatly decreased, and while large numbers of excellent people are still connected with those churches, the churches, as bodies, are becoming less and less spiritual. Another cry of “Babylon is fallen, is fallen” is yet to go forth. Rev. 18: 1-5. This will be just before Christ comes. The third angel’s message follows the other two, or rather joins with them. The truth of the first message still remains a glorious fact. The hour of his judgment has come, and its progress in the heavenly temple is yet a wonderfully solemn truth. The message of the second angel, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” also continues to be a very sad and solemn truth. The third angel’s message has been sounding since the passing of the time in 1844. This message brings impressively to our view the preparation which must be made for the coming of Christ. If this message is fully heeded, those who fully accept it and live out its instructions will be prepared to meet him when he comes, and those who do not accept it will be found wanting. “The third angel followed them [the other two messages], saying with a loud voice. If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark, . . . the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. . . . Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 9-12. The “beast” is the power brought to view in Revelation 13,—the Papacy. And the “image” is a last-day power, in character like the Papacy, uniting church and state, and persecuting those who keep the commandments of God. It is really apostate Protestantism joining with Rome in the very last days of time, holding the same false doctrines held by the Papacy. In other words, the Protestant Reformation was a reformation rejecting in part many false doctrines taught by the Papacy, but holding others of papal origin. The third angel’s message is a solemn call, given in the very closing scenes of time, to reject every false doctrine and return to the pure doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. This is the full, complete, and absolutely necessary work of preparation for the coming of Christ. Our Lord left a pure apostolic and holy church when he ascended on high: he will have a holy church when he returns. But in order to have such a church, he found it necessary to bestow the Spirit of prophecy on the remnant church. This is of supreme importance. “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Prov. 29: 18. The commandments of6God and the testimony of Jesus Christ stand side by side. The Spirit of prophecy accompanied God’s people when they kept God’s commandments in the Old Testament church. It accompanied the New Testament church till John wrote the book of Revelation. The commandments and prophecy are seen together again when the divine message of the third angel is proclaimed as a preparation for the second coming of Christ. When the third angel’s message was due, just after the great disappointment at the ending of the twenty-three hundred days in 1844, God gave a true vision to his chosen agent, a young girl of seventeen years, and during her long life of service she was granted many other visions. Like Moses of old, who was laid to sleep just before Israel entered the typical Promised Land, so this noble mother in Israel fell asleep triumphant in faith in 1915. All through her long, godly life this great movement steadily grew and prospered under the guidance of this heavenly agency. In every important crisis endangering the progress of this movement, light from heaven was given through the Spirit of prophecy to guide it in safety. Various crises have occurred. Misguided men have cherished unbelief; have left the work, often with bitterness. But their departure was their own great spiritual loss. The movement went forward. The loyal faith and support of our own people and their belief in this blessed gift in the church, have never yet failed in any crisis. The writer, who has had over fifty years’ experience in this cause, and has held the highest positions of trust and responsibility in it during portions of that time, firmly believes this movement could never have existed had it not been for the gift of the Spirit of prophecy, and any candid, intelligent person, knowing the facts, will be of the same opinion.