The Great Crisis of the World
By A. R. Bell
*A Message Proclaimed to Every Nation and Tongue on the Earth
Decisions of Eternal Moment—A Strong Prophecy of the Bible Announces the Judgment Hour* This fifth article of A. R. Bell’s series on the book of Revelation enters upon the study of the thrilling messages announced in the fourteenth chapter of that interesting prophecy. His first article was a study of the history of the church during the dark and trying hours of the Middle Ages, as outlined in the twelfth chapter of Revelation. His last three articles have been studies in the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, giving the predictions of the prophet concerning the papal power, the “deadly wound” it was to receive, and how this deadly wound would be “healed,” the influences of the Protestant image entering strongly into the work of restoring the papal hierarchy. His article this week and the two articles that follow will present the great warning against the apostasy of the beast and his image. These thrilling prophecies should be carefully studied, and men should think earnestly as the conditions of this time are held up before the searchlight of the prophetic page. EDITOR. FINISHING the vision of Revelation 13, which vision brings us down to verse 5 of chapter 14, another revelation is brought to the apostle John’s attention, beginning with Rev. 14: 6. The scene presented before the seer of Patmos is the story of a great work to be done in the earth. A messenger is seen with a message to be given “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” The solemn announcement of a Judgment begun, is the burden of the message. The apostle Paul reasoned of a “Judgment to come”; this message proclaims that the hour of God’s Judgment “is come.” The greatest crisis in individual experience faces men when this message is preached. We are all Judgment bound. Every soul of us has a case pending at the bar of God. From the decisions of that court there is no appeal. When that tribunal is ended, the destiny of every soul is sealed. On the one hand, it will mean a living faith, becoming a glorious reality in the kingdom of God when Jesus comes; on the other hand, it will mean “the wrath of God . . . poured out without mixture.” How important it is that we understand the vision, and relate ourselves intelligently to it! ATTRACTS ATTENTION OF THE WHOLE WORLD
The angel “flying,” and crying “with a loud voice,” symbolizes a world-wide movement. The everlasting gospel is to be preached “unto them that dwell on the earth.” Verse 6. When men cry with a loud voice, they attract attention. So this message will attract the attention of the whole world. The “everlasting gospel” is to be preached. This is solely man’s work. Heavenly beings may coöperate with men, but to men alone is it given to preach. The burden of the message under consideration is, “The hour of His Judgment is come.” And in view of that great crisis, we are called upon to “worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Verse 7. GOD AS CREATOR PROCLAIMED
Right when the Judgment of God is upon men, their minds are directed to God, the Creator of all things. It would seem, from the prophecy, that at that time, the world’s attention is called to another than God, and for the express purpose of worship. Hence in this message of the Judgment, and in view of the Judgment, we are admonished to “worship Him,” the Creator of the heavens and the earth. In our study of Revelation 13, we have dealt with the papacy as a last-day power, a subject of the prophecy, who will turn the worship and service of men away from God, and direct it to himself; and in 2 Thess. 2: 1-4, the apostle Paul pictures this very power as “that man of sin, . . . the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” The Judgment message, in the providence of God, will save us from every deception, and from this great apostasy which is today leading even Protestantism captive, and it will clothe us with characters meet for the Judgment, and for the kingdom of God. THE PROPHECY AND THE EVENT MEET IN FULFILLMENT
It is a definite message for a definite time. When, in the purpose and providence of God, that message is given, it will be in fulfillment of this prophecy, and the time of the Judgment will be declared. And when the clock of God shall strike the hour, not only will a prophecy be fulfilled, but a movement will have begun that will not be finished until Jesus comes to reap “the harvest of the earth.” Rev. 14: 14-16. In connection with this prophecy concerning a definite work and a definite time, the mind turns to the vision of Daniel, as recorded in Daniel 8. In this vision, the empires of earth are brought in review before him. Medo-Persia passes, and Grecia stands. Grecia in turn passes to make way for Rome. And Rome is seen in both its phases, in a supreme effort to crush the church of Jesus Christ, and to destroy the truth. “HOW LONG SHALL BE THE VISION?”
Daniel sickens at the sight (verse 27), and the question of his heart, “How long shall be the vision, . . . to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?” is voiced by one of the holy ones seen standing by in the vision; and the one to whom the question is put, turns to Daniel in reply, and the prophet records: “And he said unto me, ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’” Verses 13, 14. In the interpretation of that vision by the angel Gabriel, the time of it is given “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” Dan. 9: 25. We learn, from the book of Ezra, that the decrees of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes constituted “the commandment of the God of Israel.” Ezra 6: 14. The last decree, which made the “commandment” full and complete, was given B. C. 457. Counting from this, the 2,300 days, or years, would bring us to A. D. 1844. According to the prophecy of Dan. 8: 14, this date marks the cleansing of the sanctuary. In the book of Leviticus, where is given the story of the sanctuary, or tabernacle, the tenth day of the seventh month is brought to view as the time, in the yearly round of service, when the high priest went in before God to cleanse the sanctuary. See Leviticus 16. This work was the putting away of sin — the sin that during the year had been confessed by a penitent people, and had been forgiven them, and had been deposited in figure by the sprinkling of blood upon the altar in the holy place. This work was Israel’s day of Judgment, the day of the blotting out of sin. That tenth day of the seventh month is still observed by all orthodox Jews as the most792solemn day in their experience, and is known as the annual fast of Yom Kippur. A clipping from one of the leading Philadelphia daily papers gives the following: “FAST OF YOM KIPPUR
WILL BEGIN TO-NIGHT “IS THE MOST SACRED DAY IN THE WHOLE JEWISH CALENDAR “Yom Kippur, or the day of atonement, the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar, will be ushered in to-night. With the setting of the sun to-day, a twenty-four-hour fast will begin. Not a morsel of food nor a drop of water will touch the lips of any orthodox Jew until to-morrow night, when a long blast of the shophar, or ram’s horn, will announce the fast at an end.” “Pious Jews will spend all day to-morrow in the synagogues, and the ultra pietists spend even the entire night in prayer.” “Yom Kippur is the Judgment day, when the fate of every man is sealed for the ensuing year, on the strength of his past record.” Now the priesthood and service and tabernacle of the Levitical dispensation were a type of the priesthood and service of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, and of “the true tabernacle” in heaven, where He ministers in behalf of penitent men and women. “MINISTER OF THE TRUE TABERNACLE”
All this is shown us in the book of Hebrews. In chapter 8, Jesus is seen “an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Verses 1, 2. In chapter 9, we are told that the earthly tabernacle, with its services, including the day of atonement, “was a figure.” Verses 1-12. And in chapter 8, verses 3-5, we are told that the tabernacle, with its priesthood and service, was in “all things according to the pattern showed to thee [Moses] in the mount.” Then just as surely as the earthly sanctuary was made after the pattern of the heavenly, and just as it was in all its service and priesthood a type of the true tabernacle and priesthood and service, just so surely may we understand the work of the “true,” or antitype, by the work of the “figure,” or type. The 2,300-day prophecy brings us to the year A. D. 1844, at which time, we are told, a work is to be done—the work of the day of atonement, the cleansing of the sanctuary. When we come to the tenth day of the seventh month, Jewish time, that year, we reach the time to which the prophecy points. The tenth day of the seventh month, Jewish time, in A. D. 1844, was October 22. That date reached, the antitype of the type is reached, and the antitypical day of atonement begins the work of the cleansing of the sanctuary. THE SANCTUARY OF THE PROPHECY
There is no sanctuary in the earth, but we have seen that there is one—the true—in heaven. In that sanctuary, Jesus Christ is our great High Priest. In the earthly sanctuary, the yearly round of service ended with the day of atonement. And as the earthly sanctuary and its service were given to point us to and teach us of the heavenly sanctuary, therefore we conclude that when the end of the 2,300 days was reached, the time of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary was reached also. And as that day and work in the type were the day and work of the Judgment, so also are they the day and work of the Judgment in the antitype. And that day and work of the Judgment of heaven was reached when type met antitype, October 22, 1844. It is a remarkable coincidence that in 1844, the very message of Rev. 14: 6, 7, “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His Judgment is come,” was proclaimed with great power, God Himself verifying the fulfillment of the prophecy of Dan. 8: 14 by the proclamation of the message of Rev. 14: 6, 7. That message is still preached. Almost every people of earth has been reached with it. It is attracting the attention of the whole world. Soon, very soon, will the work be finished, and the message closed. The law of Jehovah, God’s great rule of right, is the test of character at His Judgment bar. See Rom. 2: 12-16; James 2: 12. Through the preaching of the Judgment message, the mold of heaven is transforming men and women of earth. And the product of its finished work—a people prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ—is set forth in the words: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 12, 16.