p. 55 | OUR MESSAGE by John Harvey Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 3, 1881

OUR MESSAGE.

By John Harvey Waggoner

IN Rev. 10:6, 7, an angel swears to the ending of the time, prophetic time, contained in the little book which was opened, in his hand. This was fulfilled by the first angel's message of Rev. 14:6, 7, proclaiming "the hour of his Judgment is come." The Judgment of investigation and of decision of character is identical with the cleansing of the sanctuary; a work to take place at the end of the prophetic period of two thousand and three hundred days. Dan. 8:14. Rev. 10 closes with these words: "Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."

Without a full understanding of the fact that the time referred to in the oath of the angel is prophetic time, it would be natural to conclude that this oath announced the coming of Christ, and the end of the dispensation. And this was the view of those who gave the first message. They did not understand that the Judgment was to sit, and the sanctuary be cleansed, before the coming of the Lord. They fully believed that they were giving the first angel's message, and that, with the close of their message, time should be no longer. But "their eyes were hidden," that they did not see that two messages were to follow the one they were giving, and that the coming of the Lord is after the three are all given. The words of Rev. 10:11, are a prophecy of the third angel's message, and by this we learn that it is to go to "many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."

Rev. 14:9, says the third angel proclaimed his message "with a loud voice." Thus in these texts we learn two interesting and important truths: 1. This message is to go to the nations of the earth. 2. It is to go with a loud voice, or in mighty power.

God's purposes of grace are worked out by instrumentalities. He has committed to man the work of proclaiming the gospel to his fellow-man. The responsibility of this message is upon us. Not as a burden grievous to be borne, but as a privilege granted to us by infinite mercy, that we may be "workers together with God," the highest honor that weak mortals can enjoy. This message must increase in extent and power. God's word has spoken it, and it cannot fail. But to fulfill this, those who proclaim it, who send it forth to the nations, must be clothed with power from on high. It is their privilege to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." As the message rises in power, God will clothe his servants with strength and power to rise with it. He will be "the health of our countenance," if we put our trust in him.

When Israel went out of Egypt they came to a point where they were hemmed in by the sea, the mountains, and the host of the Egyptians. At this point, with every avenue closed before them, the voice of the Lord is heard, saying, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward."

These things "were written for our learning." Let us rise up and go forward. The sea, so dark and forbidding before us, will divide as we approach it, and soon we will sing the song of victory on the other shore. J. H. W.