The People Who Stand True in the Face of Great Dangers and Difficulties
God Shows the Outcome to Nerve for the Conflict
By A. R. BELL
This eighth article of A. R. Bell's continues his studies in the book of Revelation. In previous articles, he has presented the prophecy of the twelfth chapter of Revelation, which outlined the history of the church during the dark and trying hours of the Middle Ages. He gave three studies on the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, presenting the predictions of the prophet concerning the papal power, the deadly wound it was to receive, and how this deadly wound would be healed, and the influences of the Protestant image that, according to the prophet, is to enter so strongly into the work of restoring the papal hierarchy.
He gave three studies on the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, in the which he presented the messages that announce the hour of God's Judgment, the great apostasy in the church when that Judgment hour was pending, and the mighty message that God announces to the world against that apostasy.
His study next week will be on the subject of the seven last plagues as presented in the sixteenth chapter of Revelation. Editor.
SEVERAL of the prophecies in the book of Revelation reach to a certain point, then turn back into previous ages, and other circumstances and events are presented.
WHEN THE HEAVENS DEPART AS A SCROLL
In the vision of the seven seals, the work under the sixth seal is shown; and that work continues to the time when men shall flee from the surpassing glory of the King of kings, calling upon the rocks and the mountains to hide them from His face. Rev. 6: 12-17. Then chapter 7 goes back to the beginning of a work which has its time and place under the sixth seal, and which must be done before the heavens depart "as a scroll when it is rolled together," as brought to view in Rev. 6: 14.
BUSHMEN 1. Bushmen drawings on the rocks. 2. Types: of man, boy, woman. 3. A family group.
Also chapter 12 gives the history of the church of Christ from the birth of the Saviour to A. D. 1798, the end of the 1,260 days of papal supremacy. Verses 1-6. Then, there being other particulars to bring out, we are taken back, in verse 7, to the beginning of Christ's ministry, and from that time down again to and through the 1,260 days, and to the development of God's remnant people.
The vision of Revelation 14, beginning with verse 6, reaches from the time when the proclamation of the threefold message began, to the time of the faithful, waiting church, "that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (verse 12); and still further to the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, and the reaping of the "harvest of the earth"—God's elect; and from that point forward to the final and complete destruction of the impenitent, a thousand years later.
THE ANGELS THAT POUR OUT THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES
Then begins the story of chapter 15, where we see the "seven angels having the seven last plagues," in which "is filled up the wrath of God"; and we are brought onward until we view God's people delivered, and glorifying God upon the "sea of glass." Verses 1-4.
The work of the pouring out of these plagues has its fulfillment before Jesus comes, and therefore finds its place in the prophecy of Revelation 14, after the threefold message has accomplished its work, and probation is over, just before the Lord is revealed in glory.
In Rev. 15: 5-8, the seven angels are shown, to whom are given the "seven golden vials full of the wrath of God"; and "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven" is seen, "filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man ["no one," R. V.] was able to enter the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled."
THE REMNANT CHURCH PASS THROUGH IT
Through that awful experience — the pouring out of these terrible judgments — God's remnant people are to pass. It would seem as though the Lord were anxious that His people should know that in every trying ordeal, He watches over His own; and as though He were giving them a glimpse, in verses 2-4, of their final victory and deliverance; that when His people shall have reached the fulfillment of the prophecy and are passing through that fearful hour, they may take courage.
Leaving for another study the pouring out of the plagues, we shall review the experiences through which the people of God pass at that time.
TRIUMPHANT ON THE SEA OF GLASS
The prophet John sees "as it were a sea of glass." In Rev. 4: 6, he locates this "sea of glass" as being "before the throne." He sees a company who have "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name," stand on this "sea of glass, having the harps of God." Rev. 15: 2.
Here is brought to view a redeemed people, a people who would not yield obedience to the claims and commands of the papacy, nor of unfaithful Protestantism, which endeavor to force upon them, by the decrees of the powers of earth, "the mark of the beast." They face the crisis even to the last extreme, when the fiat has gone forth that "as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Rev. 13: 15.6
SATAN HAS DONE HIS WORST AND FAILED
At the time here represented, Satan will have done his utmost, and failed. He will have vented his wrath upon God's remnant church, in one last supreme, world-wide effort to force them from their allegiance to God; and failing in this, he will seek their destruction. The world, in its rejection of God, will have become a veritable cesspool of iniquity. A church world-wide, and with a profession as high as the very heavens, will have made all nations drunk with her deceptions and false doctrines, and joined in an unholy alliance with the world-wide state. The greatest apostasy in a world's history then rules supreme. Religious bigotry, in its fullest measure, will control the day. Man's individual liberty, civil and religious, will be denied him; and the eternal principle that a man's relation to his God is above human legislation, and his right of conscience inalienable, will be trampled underfoot. Probation will be closed. The Spirit of God will have been withdrawn from the earth, and every evil tendency will be doing its work without the restraint of Heaven.
STAND TRUE IN THE FACE OF DIFFICULTIES
Against the wickedness of the world, God's remnant people stand proof. In the midst of the hollow mockery of religious cant, they will remain pure. Against every pressure to compel them to yield their conscientious scruples in the matter of their service and worship to God, they will successfully resist. And though, in a last great effort to force upon them "the mark of the beast"—the observance of Sunday—they will face the extreme penalty of the law, yet they will not flinch; but with an abiding faith in God, and an obedience that meets the approval of Heaven, they will calmly await the outcome. Kept by the power of God, they will render to Him the "full measure of devotion," and God will not fail them.
Under the inspiration of the evil one, Rome and apostate Protestantism will seek to put out of the way God's faithful commandment keepers. God's remnant are to them, as was Elijah to the apostate Ahab, the troubler in Israel. 1 Kings 18: 17. But as Ahab, and not the fearless and faithful prophet, was the transgressor, having "forsaken the commandments of the Lord," so in this experience, the professed church, in her apostasy, raises her hand in rebellion against God, to smite His faithful remnant.
The hour comes for them to do their terrible deed; but God mercifully draws the curtain. He hides, even from these violators of His law, and destroyers of His people, the awful depravity they have reached, in seeking to stain their hands with innocent blood; and then, as the curtain is again pulled aside, the scene is given us of His people singing upon the sea of glass before the throne of God.
THE SONG OF DELIVERANCE IS SUNG
The song they sing is "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." Rev. 15: 3, 4. That song of Moses was a song of deliverance. See Exodus 15. The deliverance of Moses and the children of Israel was from the hands of wicked men—Pharaoh and his army, bent on their destruction. The song was the song of their experience.
The song of the Lamb is the song of victory. This was the experience of the Lamb of God. Not victory over wicked men, for they took Him and put Him to death. His was victory over sin. Born of sinful human flesh, and in sinful human flesh, He overcame sin, that you and I, by His indwelling in our sinful human flesh, might overcome sin.
He became a sacrifice for sin, but He "knew no sin." 2 Cor. 5: 21. He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." 1 Peter 2: 22. Touched though He was with all the weaknesses of the flesh, like the rest of us, and "in all points tempted like as we are" (Heb. 4: 15), yet He gained victory over sin; and in that victory was the assurance that poor, erring, wayward humanity would not fail.
God's remnant people will sing "the song of Moses . . . and the song of the Lamb." This is the song of their experience. They will be delivered; and that, too, from the hands of wicked men—religious zealots, who in willful sin do despite to the Spirit of grace, and seek their destruction. And they will have "victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark." They will in fact, in the very experience through which they pass, gain the victory over all sin. They will pass the test of the Judgment; and as of the victory of Christ over sin we read, "Neither was guile found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2: 22), so we read of God's faithful remnant, "And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God" (Rev. 14: 5).
This is the song of the one hundred forty-four thousand, God's delivered, victorious, translated children. It is the song of that company who are seen on Mount Zion with the Lamb, and who have "His Father's name written in their foreheads." Rev. 14: 1. It is their song only. Verse 3. They will be sealed "in their foreheads" with "the seal of the living God." Rev. 7: 1-4. Under the proclamation of God's last message of mercy, the threefold message of Revelation 14, they turn from the traditions of men to the word of the living God, and from the commandments of men to the commandments of God. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment—the seventh day of the week—the seal of the living God, is to them, as God has declared it, "the sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Ezek. 20: 20.
God will signally honor these faithful servants. He will make them His "first fruits." Rev. 14: 4. He will deliver them from the destruction of men; and in our study, we see them as His translated ones, "redeemed from among men," before the throne, a glorified company.
It would be well for you and me to be numbered among that triumphant, happy throng. In the solemn messages we have been studying together, is the invitation to this glorious realization. The call of the Infinite One is to you and me. The call of faith is to the keeping of the commandments of God. The call of God to eternal life is by the pathway of obedience. His law is the test of character in the Judgment, now almost over. Character alone is what saves. He whose character is formed upon the eternal principles of God's holy law, and in whose life the principles of that law are seen—he alone can stand the shock of sin. "They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My special treasure; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." Mal. 3: 17, margin.
They were loyal and obedient. They honored God's Sabbath. They "loved not their lives unto the death," and God will crown them with honor and glory.
They gave their hearts and their all in absolute surrender to God; and in submission to the will of God, they overcame. And the promise in glad fulfillment to them is: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." Rev. 21: 7.
May you, dear reader, through surrender, share with this "remnant" people these glorious things.
