The Patience of the Saints by George Ide Butler

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 13, 1916

“The Patience of the Saints”

By George Ide Butler

GEO. I. BUTLER

The heading of this article presents an experience peculiar to the people of God in the last generation, just preceding the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It occurs in a description of that people and their work in the closing message, designed to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord. In Rev. 14: 6-14 we have the clearest, fullest, most vivid description of the closing work of the true people of God in the last days to be found in the whole canon of Scripture. It is symbolized by the proclamation of three angel messengers, flying in the vault of heaven, their impressive proclamations constituting a great movement to warn the inhabitants of this world just before Christ comes with all the angels of heaven.

The first proclamation was an announcement of the beginning of the great day of judgment in the heavenly courts, necessarily preceding the Saviour’s coming to gather all his saints. It is the final proclamation of the glorious gospel of all the ages.

While this first warning message is sounding, the second angel appears, joining the first, and proclaiming the consequence of rejecting the first message— the moral fall of spiritual Babylon, or of religious sects, coming originally from the so-called “holy mother church,” and holding doctrines in which truth and error are mingled. While these have had great light, yet they have brought with them from the mother church more or less of her errors. They are reformers only in part. They have received great light, but have failed to part with some of their errors. They reject the great truth of Christ’s soon coming. The consequence is a moral fall somewhat similar to that of the Jews who rejected Christ’s first advent. Therefore this second angel announces the consequence of rejecting the message of the first angel.

The third proclamation, which completes the series of three, vividly presents the great apostasy from the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Proclaimed by them after the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord, it went to the whole world. Col. 1: 6, 23. In the early centuries this glorious gospel was greatly perverted. This perversion practically became a great apostasy, a vast worldly church, cruel, lordly, persecuting the saints of God. The third message gives notice of the terrible fate awaiting all who affiliate with that apostate power, and calls on all true Christians to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. It thus describes those who accept this message: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 12.

The next view the revelator beholds is this: “I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” Verse 14. Christ here appears, to reap the harvest of the earth. In the parable of the tares of the field (Matthew 13) Christ himself declares, “The harvest is the end of the world.” Therefore we know that these three angels’ messages represent the great warning proclamation of the coming of Christ. They constitute the world-wide warning given to prepare a people to meet the King in peace. Those who accept them and obey them will be prepared for his coming, and the conclusion is inevitable that those who reject them will not be prepared to meet Christ in peace.

Let us now notice the significance of the phrase which heads this article, “Here is the patience of the saints.” What does the word “patience” mean? Webster defines it as follows: “State or quality of being patient; the power of suffering or enduring with fortitude; uncomplaining endurance of wrongs or misfortunes, as toil, pain, poverty, insult, oppression, calamity, etc. Act or power of calmly waiting for something.” The use of the word “patience” in the text evidently comes under the head of the second definition. “The patience of the saints,” implies a long period of waiting for Christ’s coming.

Our Saviour declares, when speaking of his coming, that the world will be as it was in the days of Noah. The deluge of which Noah warned the world was not an event precipitated upon the people without warning. Noah was a preacher of righteousness for one hundred and twenty years. God had revealed to him that he would bear that length of time with a wicked generation. Gen. 6: 3. We must suppose that Noah warned them of the coming of the flood, both by words and by actions. He preached to them, and he began preparing for it by building a great ark, or vessel, in which to save his family and those who would believe his message; also for the preservation of animals of all kinds.

We cannot suppose that Noah and his three sons alone could have built that vast ship, as large almost as any ship of modern times. Many carpenters doubtless worked upon it, and very likely some had more or less faith in Noah’s message. But the time was so long that they did not hold out to the end. Some of Noah’s long-lived ancestors died only a short time before the deluge.

We cannot doubt that the antediluvians ridiculed Noah much because of his supposed folly, but at last the long-foretold flood came in all its fury. The waters bore up the ark. The ridicule of the wicked gave way to cries for mercy and groans of anguish. At last Noah and his family were rewarded for their faith.

The proclamation of the great advent message of 1844 is well remembered by many people. The writer can recall it easily. I remember seeing William Miller in my father’s house. Many gathered to hear his message, and were stirred by it. Thousands of believers were sadly disappointed that the Lord did not come in 1844. The third angel’s message began to be proclaimed just after that, and the people developed by it were those of whom the revelator said, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

There has been a long period of waiting, yet all the while the evidences have been increasing which show that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Never were the evidences so strong as now, and we may know that he is near, even at the door. Surely no other generation has ever resembled the antediluvians so much as this in which we are living. Let us never forget that we are living in the time of the saints’ patience. The last warning message is gloriously going forth to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. Soon, yes, very soon, our Lord will come.

Bowling Green, Fla.