THE THREEFOLD MESSAGE by A. Swedberg

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 24, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 21.

THE THREEFOLD MESSAGE.

By A. Swedberg

[By editor of Sion's Vaktare, Battle Creek, Mich.]

IN Rev. 14: 6-12 we find three messages described which are to be proclaimed immediately preceding the second coming of Christ (verses 14-16); hence these messages must be intimately concerned in preparing a people for this great event. From this we can judge of their importance, and the necessity of giving heed to the admonition and warning they contain.

A close scrutiny shows that the principle involved in these messages is whether we will obey God or man (Acts 5: 29), whether God's commandments or human enactments shall constitute our rule of life.

The first message calls attention to the fact that the time of the judgment has come, in which all cases will be eternally decided according to the only rule of action God has given man for his conduct—the law of Ten Commandments (Eccl. 12: 13, 14), and admonishes men to worship the Creator—mark, the Creator—for He only is the true God.

The second message calls attention to the fallen and confused state of Christendom, designated by Babylon, a condition which the first message would, if received, have healed, but which rejected makes necessary the fearful warning contained in the third message.

The "beast" and the "image" of the beast mentioned in the third message are fully described in the previous chapter of Revelation.

All Protestant commentators agree that the beast is a symbol of a Church-and-State power, the greatest manifestation of which we have had in this world being the Papacy. By this power human theories and laws are forced upon man in preference to God's commandments, man thus being forced to worship human power instead of divine, the created thing instead of the Creator.

The "image" of the beast is, of course, another power, which, like the beast, endeavors to enforce its own doctrines and laws upon the people instead of God's requirements. Such a power we have seen gradually, but nevertheless surely, developing within our own government, and, judging from present indications, the time can not be far distant when the creed element of this nation will by and through the State endeavor to dominate the consciences of men. These messages are not consecutive, but contiguous, following one after the other, but all uniting together in one threefold message, giving a clear-cut distinction between God's authority and

man's, admonishing the people to acknowledge the former in the worship of the only true God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and warning against yielding to the authority of man, which constitutes the worship of the beast.

Mark, the Creator has a sign whereby He distinguishes Himself from all other claimants to the right to be worshiped. This sign is the memorial He has instituted of His created works—the only true, divine Sabbath that has ever been instituted. "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." "It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever." Ex. 31: 13, 17. See also Eze. 20: 12, 20.

The beast also has a sign, whereby he seeks to draw men to worship him. This sign is necessarily of the same nature, i. e., a sabbath, yet entirely a different thing, a false sabbath. And so the State-church (the man) power says through its authorities that the proof "that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days" is found in her "very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday," and that "by keeping Sunday they [the Protestants] acknowledge the church's power to ordain feasts and command them under sin;" and, further, "thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage [worship] they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church." This constitutes the "mark" of the beast.

It is plain, then, that the messages in question could not present a clear distinction between the authority of God and the authority of man without holding up these two signs in bold comparison, that the people may see the difference, and may thus know how to choose the right side and worship the true God.

Of course it has been the duty of man to acknowledge and worship God in all ages; but how appropriate that just prior to the second advent of Christ, when all human authority shall forever cease, and only God's authority be acknowledged throughout His boundless universe—how appropriate, we say, that special attention should be called to the importance of obeying God rather than man!

And as a result of the proclamation of those three messages we see (verse 12) that a people is brought out who indeed acknowledge the authority of the Creator and worship Him, for they "keep the commandments of God [not of man, but of God], and the faith of Christ."

Reader, on which side do you stand?

A. SWEDBERG.