THE THREE ANGELS OF REV. XIV by John Nevins Andrews

Publishing Committee · Saratoga Springs, N. Y. · Sep 2, 1851

THE THREE ANGELS OF REV. XIV.

By John Nevins Andrews

“Take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”

An article with the above caption appeared in the “Advent Herald” a few weeks since, which it may be proper to notice. The writer attempts to show that these messages have been misapplied, and that the stumbling-block must be removed by showing that they have no application to the present time. “If the Advent preaching fulfills the first angel’s message,” says Sister Stowe, “then there remain the messages of two angels following in succession, to be fulfilled in two distinct proclamations, before the coming of Christ.” The sad effect of the view that the third angel addresses himself to us, it is said “need not be named.” As this message is the real stumbling-block which the writer wishes to remove, we think it would have been in the highest degree proper, that its evil effects should have been specified. Facts are wanted, not insinuations. This message has had the effect to cause those who would obey God, to embrace all his commandments, and to stand in the patience of the saints, without casting away their confidence, or drawing back to perdition. Rev. xiv, 12; Heb. x, 35, 36.

If, therefore, the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, be the stumbling-block which the writer wishes to remove, we think it high time that she should stop and inquire, whether she is not laying down a stumbling-block, over which some may stumble into perdition, instead of removing an obstruction, which might turn the honest-hearted out of the way. We see souls “for whom Christ died,” stumbling over the traditions of the elders, and trampling under foot the commandments of God. Would to God that Sister Stowe would aid us in removing the real stumbling-block, instead of strengthening the hands of those who are breaking the commandments of God, and teaching men so.

That they are a stumbling-block to those who reject them, we do not deny. Even Jesus was a stumbling-block to many in his day. “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Cor. i, 23, 24. “As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and rock of offence; and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” Rom. ix, 33. We are pained that the present truth should be an occasion of stumbling to any. But how the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, together with the solemn warning against the worship of the beast and his image, can be an occasion of stumbling to any but the disobedient, we cannot tell. That all whose names are not written in the book of life, shall yet worship the beast, is clear from Rev. xiii, 8. That the two-horned beast is preparing to act its part in the final work of deception and opposition in “the time of trouble, such as never was,” is evident to all who are watching “the signs of the times.” And that one of the commandments of God, at least, is being openly trampled under foot by his professed people, is also a fact. With these things before us how can we cease to utter the solemn voice of warning, “If any man worship the beast and his image, the same shall drink the wine of the wrath of God. Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God.” That such a message is imperatively demanded everything around us testifies.

The writer affirms that there is no proof that the proclamation, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come,” has any reference to the Advent message. To this we answer: 1. It certainly is not the apostolic message. Paul reasoned before Felix of “righteousness, temperance, and

JUDGMENT TO COME.” Acts xxiv, 25. To the Athenians he declared that God “now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world.” Acts xvii, 30, 31. Then to the Thessalonians he writes, that this day of the Lord is not at hand. 2 Thess. ii. It is clear therefore that the apostles did not give this proclamation. 2. We answer further, the Advent preaching is the only message since the days of the apostles that accords with this prophecy. It has demonstrated from the great chains of prophecy, from the prophetic periods, and from the “signs of the times,” that we are in the immediate neighborhood of the judgment of the great day. There can be, therefore, but one question further to be asked, viz: The Advent proclamation, is it from heaven or of men? We ask what message can be brought out from any scenes in the past, for which such, or indeed any evidence can be offered? The objection that we could not preach the Advent as an immediate event if two other messages were to follow, is fully answered by the simple fact that our “eyes were holden” that we should not see beyond the work then present.

But an objection to the view that the second angel’s message is addressed to the present generation, is raised on the ground that the great city, Babylon, cannot be understood to include the daughters of Babylon. To this we answer that the daughters of a city are included in the city. The daughters of Jerusalem form a part of Jerusalem. Luke xxiii, 28; Lam. iii, 51. The daughters of Rabbah are a part of Rabbah. Jer. xlix, 3. The daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon. Psalm cxxxvii; Isa. xlvii, 1; Jer. l, 52. The daughters of Mystic Babylon form a part of that great Babylon that will be thrown down, as a millstone is cast into the mighty deep. There is perfect propriety, therefore, in understanding that great Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, and that when she had rejected the solemn announcement, “The hour of his judgment is come,” God left her forever by his Spirit, and called on his people to come out of her. Her destruction immediately follows. See Rev. xviii.

It is urged that the first beast must be in the height of his power when the message of the third angel is delivered. The fallacy of this may be seen by comparing Rev. xiv, 9—12, with chapter xiii, 11—18. The comparison shows clearly that the third angel’s message pertains to the work of the two-horned beast. This beast acts its part after the first beast has lost its power, and received its deadly wound. It is asserted, indeed, that the beast received his deadly wound before his reign of 1260 years, instead of receiving it at its close. No evidence that a deadly wound was then given to it is presented. But that the Papal beast did receive a deadly wound at the close of its period of triumph, when the Papal government was subverted, and the Pope carried a prisoner into France, is a fact too well known to be easily set aside.

It is asked how it could be said “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,” in immediate connection with the Advent? We answer that there is to be a “time of trouble such as never was.” Dan. xii. The third angel’s message is a warning with reference to that scene. Rev. xiv, 9—12; xiii, 11—18. Habakkuk “trembled in himself that he might rest in the day of trouble.” Hab. iii, 16. Job prays “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret till thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me.” Job xiv, 13. Jeremiah exclaims, “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Jer. xxx, 7. We understand that the language of blessing is uttered in view of this awful scene. The dead were never in danger of purgatory, hence there is no propriety in “suggesting” that henceforth they need not be in fear of it!

None have claimed that the two-horned beast has yet exercised all the arbitrary power of the first beast. It is in view of what he will do that the third angel utters his voice of warning. That the predicted “wonders” of this beast are being rapidly developed we most firmly believe. The Protestant church has rejected greater light than the Catholic church was ever favored with. It remains, therefore, that greater darkness and deception come upon it. Luke xi, 34, 35; 2 Thess. ii, 9—12. The Jewish church rejected the truths of the first Advent, though based on overwhelming evidence, and as a natural consequence the “hour and power of darkness” came upon them, [Luke xxiii, 53,] and they seized the Son of God and put him to a shameful death. The Protestant church has rejected the truths of the second Advent though based on greater evidence than that which was presented to the Jewish church. The hour of temptation is coming on all those who have not kept the word of Christ’s patience. We may then expect the same bitter work of persecution. One thing is certain “the image” is something distinct from the beast. The beast and the image cannot both be applied to Papacy.

The first beast is applied to the Roman civil power. The two-horned beast is applied to the Roman hierarchy, or priesthood. To this we answer that the thirteenth chapter of Revelation gives us an account of the dragon’s act of giving power and authority to the beast. This power he was to retain forty and two months, and exercise it in oppressing and wearing out the saints of God. If this does not refer to the reign of that blasphemous power, Papacy, we know of no place where his reign is described. The Roman priesthood never yet sought (as this theory declares,) to make the world worship the civil power, but instead of that it has always sought to subject the civil power to the priesthood. The idea that an ecclesiastical body is ever termed a beast in the prophecies, will be found, if examined, to be without any foundation. Dan. vii, 17, 23.

Sister S. next proceeds to make an application of the first message. This we are told was fulfilled in the twelfth century, in the days of Peter Waldo. On what foundation this application rests we now proceed to inquire. The first angel announces that the hour of God’s judgment is come. Could it be said that the hour of God’s judgment had come in the twelfth century? No! Certainly not. The writer does not tell us how it could be. Was it nigh at hand? To answer this we will refer to the prophecies which mark the time of the judgment. The seventh chapter of Daniel, which gives the 1260 years reign of the little horn, shows that at least six centuries from the days of Waldo must elapse, before the Ancient of days should sit in judgment. The Lord Jesus told his disciples that when they should see certain signs, they might know that his coming (to judge the quick and dead) was nigh at hand. These signs were not witnessed in the twelfth century, for our Lord locates them near the close of the days of tribulation, where they actually began to occur, viz. in 1780. Matt. xxiv, 29, 30; Mark xiii, 24. Until then Jesus did not authorize the disciples to believe that the judgment was at hand. They certainly could not find evidence from the word of God, that the hour of God’s judgment had come in the twelfth century, or that it was nigh at hand, for the evidence was of a contrary character. But there is another astonishing feature of absurdity in this view. The very prophecies which determine our relative distance from the judgment, were closed up and sealed until the time of the end. That is, until about 1798. Dan. xii. Nothing can be more absurd than the view that this proclamation, “The hour of his judgment is come,” was made before the signs which were to precede it had been seen, or the prophecies which contain the evidences on the point, had been opened. To assert that this proclamation was made, before the church understood those prophecies on which it is based, or rather to suppose that it was made at a time when the prophecies contained a large amount of evidence to the contrary, is to assume that a message without any scriptural foundation, and absolutely contradicting the Bible, could be a fulfillment of this prophecy! No such proclamation, however, was made by Peter Waldo, and we ought to be slow to wrest things to make them answer a desired purpose. Nor can it be said that the hour of God’s judgment on Babylon had then come, for the writer shows that it did not reach the height of its power till near a century and a half later. The eighteenth chapter of Revelation shows that the hour of Babylon’s judgment, follows the second angel’s message, and that it is even yet future. See verses 8—10, 15—17.

The fact that the first message could not be given until the prophecies on which it is based were unsealed and understood, is conclusive proof that the second and third angels could not have given their messages centuries before that event. The entire family of Babylon now exists. The people of God at the time of the first angel’s message, were to a greater or less extent united with that great city. As the glorious truth of the speedy coming of Jesus Christ was utterly rejected by her, nothing more could be done to heal, and to save her. The people of God were then called by the second angel to flee out of her. This has left her the hold of foul spirits, and the cage of unclean and hateful birds.

As we are approaching the time of final conflict with the beast and his image, we are constrained to lift the voice of warning and sound the alarm to others. The Lord helping us we shall still strive to vindicate the commandments of God, which the beast has vainly attempted to destroy.

It is little short of downright folly, to apply these messages to the period when the church was in the wilderness, and the witnesses were clothed in sackcloth. Rev. xii, 6, 14; xi, 3. The plain reading of the messages, and their associated events, shows that they are intimately connected with the opening scenes of the day of God. When the Jews wished to evade the words of the prophets they set them far ahead. “The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of times that are far off.” Ezekiel xii, 27. In order to rid ourselves of those cutting truths by which the Lord would separate us from the world, we throw them away back in the past. Though we may thus deceive ourselves, we may rest assured that God is not mocked. We entreat our friends, and all who have an “ear to hear,” that they no longer break the commandments of God, that they may cherish the institutions of the beast. To us is addressed the voice of warning, and of instruction. “If any man worship the beast and his image, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” J. N. A.