The Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus
By F. A. Bower
In contradistinction to a class of people who receive the mark of the beast, as recorded in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, the seer of Patmos calls attention to the “saints” who “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Upon those who receive the mark of the beast is to be poured out the unmingled wrath of God, which, we see by referring to the sixteenth chapter, is made up of the seven last plagues. The three angels of Rev. 14: 6-9 represent three messages, or rather one great threefold message, due the world at a certain time. The first part of that message is to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; and as the second and third angels followed the first, they must necessarily go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Those who preach the first message, have the “everlasting gospel,” which is the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ; but the time point of that message is, “The hour of His judgment is come.” It is evident, from these plainly stated facts, that this message goes primarily to those who profess to be followers of Jesus, and through them to others, that they may accept Jesus and this message. Rev. 1:1 shows clearly that this entire book of Revelation is given to God’s servants, or those who are Christians. Is such a message going to the world? We answer, Yes. It began in 1844, and sailors tell us that they know of no port where this very message is not preached. But God’s people, divided as they were into so many sects, each having some error mixed with the saving truths of God’s word, and each thinking themselves right and the others wrong, were blinded to the real beauty and force of the message, and few of them have heeded it. Then the second angel’s message followed the first. “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” Rev. 14: 8. The very last phase of this is given in Rev. 18: 4: “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Since the plagues constitute the wrath of God that is to be poured out upon those who receive the mark of the beast, and Babylon receives the plagues, we must conclude that the professed Christian world, which rejects the great threefold message, receives the mark of the beast. Now what is the difference between those whom God accepts and those whom He rejects? There are those on both sides who profess to be followers of Jesus, claim to keep the commandments. But when the individual who is not honest at heart is brought face to face with the fourth commandment, which says the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, a doubt springs up in the mind as to whether God means what He says. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, in the wilderness, on the pinnacle of the temple, and on the exceeding high mountain, He showed implicit faith in the written word of God, and met the tempter with “It is written.” He believed the word of God with all His heart, and brought His life into perfect harmony with it. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Many people do not realize that they are breaking God’s commandments, because they do not feel that they are doing wrong; but in this they are pitting their feelings against the word of God. “The just shall live by faith.” “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help.” Hosea 13: 9. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”