Two Great Movements by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 15, 1906

Two Great Movements

By W. A. S.

THE exodus movement was organized of God. It came in fulfilment of the promise and prophecy uttered four hundred years before to Abraham.

“When the time of the promise drew nigh,” a divine providence began to shape events for the movement. Then the nations beheld a people called out from the world, led of God by his chosen prophet through many years of wanderings, and brought into the promised land at last. The exodus movement was a fulfilment of prophecy, and a sign to all peoples that God was carrying out his purposes in spite of the world’s apostasy.

The story of the exodus movement was recorded as a lesson for all time after, but especially for “our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

In this day another great movement is on in the development of God’s plan. Again the time of the prophecy and promise is come, and here is the great advent movement fulfilling the prophetic word. The Lord has called out a people from the world, and is leading them to the eternal land of promise. It is an organized movement. The Lord has spoken through all its history by the voice of the spirit of prophecy. In this also the exodus movement was an “ensample,” for of that former time we read: “By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.” Hosea 12:13.

As there was murmuring and apostasy in the exodus movement, so there has been in the advent movement. But God has never turned from his purpose. As surely as he led the organized exodus movement out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan at last, just so surely, according to the sure word of prophecy, he has called out the Advent people from the world, to lead that same organized advent movement into the eternal Canaan.

The only hope of any man in Israel in the days of the exodus was to hold to the exodus movement. Not even a Caleb or a Joshua could go in alone, or separate from the movement, without losing his inheritance.

The only hope of any instructed Seventh-day Adventist to-day is in holding to the advent movement. John in the Revelation saw the very movement called out by the threefold message of Revelation 14, sweeping victoriously into the kingdom after the trials and tribulations of the wilderness wanderings had been overcome.

The Lord is leading the remnant church into the land of promise. Every form of rebellion and apostasy that the subtle philosophy of Satan can devise will spring up to sift the ranks. But the advent movement, as organized under the Lord’s own leadership, is to keep straight on to the finished work and the city of God. W. A. S.