Are the Seven Last Plagues in the Future?
By Editor
We learn that some of our brethren are adopting the view that six of the seven last plagues are already poured out, and that the seventh alone is future. If this view is in any degree obtaining among believers in the Third Message, we think it must be because its bearing upon the main pillars of the present truth, has not been considered. By Rev. xvi, 2, we learn that the very first plague is poured out upon those who receive the mark of the beast, and who worship his image. Now if our views of the Two-horned beast be correct, that it is a symbol of these United States, which we think has been plainly proved, the image to the beast has not yet been formed; for the United States have not yet performed such a work as the erection of an image to the Papal beast. There are not yet therefore any worshipers of the image; but the plagues cannot commence until such a class is developed; for they are the ones upon whom they first take effect. If therefore six of the plagues are in the past, it follows that the Two-horned beast must have existed, and the image been formed and worshiped far back in ages gone; and if this be so, the Third Angel's Message, which is a warning against this very beast and image worship, must have gone forth long ago; and hence the first and second angels' messages, which go forth prior to the third, have been fulfilled in ages past; and if this be so, the great Advent movement of late years, 1840-4, was a false movement; and if we take this ground, we must admit that the calculation of the prophetic periods which gave rise to that move, was incorrect, that they have not ended and that consequently the closing work of our great High Priest in the heavenly Sanctuary is not now going forward; and we must then acknowledge that the move which has aroused us, and called us out to our present position is all false, a tissue of fanaticism and delusion. This is a conclusion which we do not believe any of our brethren would be willing to adopt upon any slight ground: but to such a conclusion we are inevitably driven, if we take the single position, which may at first sight in itself, seem harmless and simple enough, that six of the seven last plagues are already past. The present truth is harmonious in all its parts; its links are all connected; the bearings of all its portions upon each other are like clock-work; but break out one cog, and the work is stopped; break one link, and the chain is broken; let down one stitch and we may unravel the whole. Let us therefore move with care, critically compare all positions with the word of God, and consider well their bearing, and the harmony or discrepancy that exists between them and other portions of the Word before we step out upon them.