The Last Reform Movement

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 28, 1908

The Last Reform Movement

THREE of the present series of Sabbath-school lessons are devoted to a study of “The Second Advent Movement,” and the subject of the lesson for June 6 is “The Last Gospel Message.”

A review of the history of the gospel revelation shows that there has oftentimes been the expectation of the speedy fulfilment of the promises of God, and that the faith of believers has frequently been severely tried by repeated delays in the accomplishment of the announced purpose. The promise of a Redeemer to come in the flesh was so vivid to our first parents in the declaration that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, that when Cain was born they regarded him as the promised One, and expressed that idea in the name which they gave to him. The hope that the great Deliverer might appear as one of her own family was cherished by many a mother in Israel, and the passing of one generation after another did not extinguish this hope.

To Abraham, who looked for the speedy increase of his literal seed and for the immediate possession of the promised land, it was revealed that there would be a delay of at least four centuries during which his seed would be “sojourners in a land that is not theirs,” and that he himself would “be buried in a good old age.” Thus Abraham was taught to look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the creation of the new earth as the time for the fulfilment of the promise concerning his seed. Therefore “by faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. . . . These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” They rested in hope during the long delay while the purposes of God were being accomplished.

When David desired to build a house for Jehovah, this message was sent to him through the prophet Nathan: “When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving-kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.” David, and those who followed after him, recognized this as a prophecy and a promise of the coming Messiah, the son of David, concerning whom the angel afterward said to Mary: “The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Wearied with waiting for the fulfilment of this promise, and taunted by many with its failure, the psalmist uttered this plaintive inquiry and reminder:—

“Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses, Which thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness? Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; How I do bare in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty peoples, Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Jehovah, Wherwith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.”

The coming of the Anointed had been so long delayed that some reproachfully declared that the promise had failed, and that he never would come. And yet the delay continued.

In due course of time the prophetic periods were announced, and a time limit was set before which the Messiah would not appear. First came the general predictions of the Babylonish disaster, and later the duration of the captivity was declared through the prophet Jeremiah to be seventy years. During the captivity Daniel was given a foreview of the successive world-kingdoms

which would appear previous to the setting up of the everlasting kingdom of God, and in later revelations it was made known to him that “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one [Messiah], the prince,” would be sixty-nine weeks of years, or 483 years; that the enemy of God's people, symbolized by the little horn upon the nondescript beast, would have power over saints, times, and laws for a period of twelve hundred sixty years; and that the treading underfoot of the sanctuary and the host would continue until twenty-three centuries had been measured off, when a work designated as the cleansing of the sanctuary would take place. Thus a definite limit was announced to the delay in the fulfilment of the promise concerning the manifestation of the Deliverer in the flesh, and an equally definite limit was placed upon the period during which the people of God would be held in spiritual captivity, and the true service of God in “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man,” would be despised and perverted. This deferred the final deliverance into the distant future, and interposed a long delay before the glorious hope of a complete triumph over the enemies of God and his church could be realized.

All these time prophecies have been fulfilled. The Messiah appeared “when the fulness of the time came;” the little horn arose and did his work of persecuting the saints and perverting the truth during the allotted time; and the sanctuary and the host were trodden under foot, and the ministry of Christ, the great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, was set aside in favor of a service invented by man, until the time announced to Daniel the prophet arrived. In the meantime through the prophet John the limit of all delay had been announced in these words: “The angel that I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his right hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there shall be delay no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants the prophets.” There could be no further delay. A mighty angel had announced in the most emphatic manner possible that in the time of the seventh angel all the things promised through the prophets would find their accomplishment, and the hope of the ages would be consummated.

The chronology of the line of prophecy in which the trumpet symbols are employed, indicates that the sixth trumpet closed in 1840, and that the seventh would come “quickly” after that. From the prophecies of Daniel, compared with other portions of the Scriptures, we learn that the long period of twenty-three hundred years came to a close in 1844. Thus the twenty-three hundred years included the whole time of delay, and at its close the seventh angel would sound, and the gospel work would be speedily finished. In other words, at the close of the twenty-three hundred years would be inaugurated a movement in preaching the gospel which would be the last effort for reform in the world, and which would prepare a people for the final consummation. There would be delay no longer.

The long delay in bringing to a close the mystery of God has not changed the character of the work to be done in order to prepare a people for the setting up of the everlasting kingdom of God; and the threefold message of Rev. 14:6-12, which is the last proclamation of saving truth before the Lord of glory appears in the clouds of heaven, is “the everlasting gospel,”—the same gospel of righteousness by faith which has been the comfort and the hope of God's people in all ages. In this last effort to establish the truth in the hearts of the people, all the doctrines of the complete gospel must be presented in the setting appropriate to the nearness of the advent of Christ. Truths which have been set aside must be restored, and truths which have been perverted must be again taught in their purity, and all must be taught as the development and application to the life of the one vital principle—righteousness by faith.

The great second advent movement arose at the right time to take its place chronologically as the successor of all past reform movements at the close of the long delay—a delay as viewed from the human standpoint, the explanation of which is found in the fact that the Lord “is long-suffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” It is of the utmost importance that this great second advent movement should vindicate its claim to be the last reform movement by teaching with clearness and power the same vital gospel which has been the theme in all the past movements for the salvation of the people—a righteousness by faith which is revealed in obedience to the commandments of God. This is the third angel's message.