The Closing Message of the Gospel.
By R. F. Cottrell
The common reader can see that in Rev. 14: 6 and onward to the end of the chapter, is described the closing work of the gospel. Great learning is not necessary in order to come to this conclusion, for it is evident to every ordinary mind. And it is remarkable that the last message brings a test upon the “commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Had there not been a great apostasy from the commandments and the faith, this test would never have been brought upon the professed worshipers of God in the last days. The result of the warning against the worship of the beast and his image is the development of the true people of God, who are described as those who keep both the commandments and the faith. These obey the warning; therefore it is evident that the worship of the beast is something which is opposed to the commandments and the faith. If the professed worshipers of God were really keeping all his commandments, such a terrible warning and trying test would not be needed at the close of the gospel day to prepare a people for the coming of the Son of man. The fact that such a fearful warning closes the preaching of the gospel, proves that till then the great apostasy, at the head of which is the beast, has not been cured, but that there is still a strong tendency to follow it, and consequently great danger of falling under the threatened wrath of God. Now what is described under the symbol of the beast? and what has he done in opposition to the commandments of God? The beast is described in Rev. 13: 1-10. Its ten horns identify it with the fourth beast of Dan. 7, and his likeness to the leopard, with the feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion, shows that it succeeds those beasts in Daniel's prophecy, and the description given identifies it with Daniel's fourth beast under the rule of the little horn which came up among the ten. It is generally admitted by students of prophecy that this fourth beast is the Roman empire; that the ten horns are the ten kingdoms into which Rome was divided, and the little horn before whom three fell is the Roman papacy. This little horn of Daniel, the beast of Revelation, and the “man of sin,” described in 2 Thess. 2, all point to the same papal power, which resulted from “a falling away,” or apostasy in the church. What has this power done, or what are its claims, that the people of the last generation should be so solemnly warned against following or worshiping it? The most succinct description of it is given in Dan. 7: 25: “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time.” Each of these specifications have been fulfilled by the papacy. It has been a blasphemous and persecuting power, and has reigned the full time assigned to it—1260 prophetic days, that is, literal years. But the point on which it has led the people astray, so as to make necessary a severe test on the commandments of God in the closing up of the great controversy, is the fact that, in the fulfillment of the prediction, it has thought to change the times and laws of God. The papal church claims to have power to ordain feasts and to command them under sin, that is, to make that a sin which was not a sin before. This she claims is proved “by the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday.” She claims to have “substituted the observance of Sunday, the first of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.” This is the language of accredited Roman Catholic writers. They “think” they have changed the law of God, and the great majority of Protestant Christendom accept of, and hold to, the change. Now the meaning of the last warning to mankind can be seen. The beast has thought to supersede the commandments of God by a law of his own. In the dark ages of the world, when the Bible was kept from the people, he succeeded in making them accept the false claim and yield to his dictates. Now, that the Bible has been put into the hands of all the people, God will test the people on his commandments as therein written. Hence the message: “If any man worship the beast,” etc., and, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God.” At the present time this solemn message of warning is spreading over the earth. In almost all the States and territories of this Union, and in almost every country of Europe, besides some in Africa, and in the islands of the ocean, there are those who have returned to the observance of the Sabbath which God commanded. The prophetic words are being fulfilled and the prophetic people are appearing all over the earth. Will the reader be one of the number, and so be prepared for the coming of the Son of man?