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The Fulfilling Word

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 24, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 47.

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The Fulfilling Word

By William Ambrose Spicer

The death of our oldest minister, Elder Frederick Wheeler, of New York, in his hundredth year, and in full assurance of the blessed hope, will lead many to review once again the wonderful work that marks this generation. Within the active life-service of some still working among us, this third angel’s message has arisen, and spread to the four quarters of the earth. The “sure word of prophecy” never fails of fulfilment.
Of the longest prophetic measuring-line in Scripture—the 2300 years of Daniel 8 and 9—the first great division was to reach from “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah,” or the Anointed. True to the sure word, at the expiration of this 483-year period, Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism; and as he took up his public ministry, he preached, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”
The remaining portion of the 2300-year period stretched down through the ages to the cleansing of the sanctuary, in these last days; “for at the time of the end,” said Gabriel, “shall be the vision.” Dan. 8:17. As the time drew near, a mighty advent awakening arose. And when the period expired, in 1844, bringing the hour of the investigative judgment, again there developed a message in the world declaring the time fulfilled, the hour of his judgment come, and the kingdom of God at hand.
Those who preached the advent doctrine before 1844 failed to see that the full message required a stepping forth upon the platform of the commandments of God. It was in May, 1844, that Elder Wheeler began to keep the Sabbath as an advent believer, joining with a few others of the blessed hope in loyalty to God’s holy day. Not yet did they see the full system of truth in the great threefold message. But when the hour came, in 1844, there stood a little band, keeping “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” and crying, “The hour of his judgment is come.” And from that time, the last message has developed into a great movement that is rapidly spreading through the world.
W. A. S.