THE FALLEN ANGELS

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 1, 1862

THE FALLEN ANGELS.

ZION'S HERALD takes occasion from the present rebellion to moralize on an ancient rebellion in heaven by wicked angels, and the truths it suggests are worthy of patient thought:

“The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.”—Jude 6.

Let us notice,

I. The character of this rebellion.

1. God's law, which was holy, just and good, required, a loving obedience. This they attempted to nullify, being too proud to obey their rightful Ruler.

2. They seceded from heaven and attempted to set up a Confederate government of their own; resolved to rule or ruin.

3. Their first rebellious attempt was to take the capital, hurl the rightful Leader from his seat, and raise their leader to the eternal throne.

4. Failing in this, they resolved to take all the new territory of earth that God had just added to His dominion, and reduce its inhabitants (another race) to perpetual slavery.

5. Having commenced their depredations, they demanded to be let alone. “Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth?” &c.

6. Finding their task a hard one, they proposed a compromise. (See the temptation in the wilderness.)

Let us consider,

II. The end of this rebellion.

1. God, the rightful Ruler of the universe, has undertaken its overthrow.

2. For its accomplishment He has sent His hosts into the field, marshaled and led by His Son.

3. He has furnished them with arms. (See Eph. vi, 13–18, and 2 Cor. x, 4.)

4. He has proclaimed liberty to the captives, and provided means for their escape from their oppression.

5. He has directed them to follow a guiding star in their escape from bondage to the land of freedom, and though Satan has a fugitive slave law, and though he sends his bloodhounds in pursuit of the fugitives, and though some are captured and sent back to bondage in the form of backsliders, yet, thank God, myriads have escaped and enjoyed freedom. “For whom the Son makes free, is free indeed.”

6. The object of this contest is nothing short of the overthrow of the devil and all his works, and the restoration of this world to freedom and to God. (See 1 Cor. xv, 24, 25; Dan. vii, 27; Rev. xi, 15.)

REMARKS.

1. We learn from the subject that the devil is the great author of secession and slavery.

2. None can remain neutral in that cause. “He that is not for Me is against Me.”

3. We see from the side we take in the contest, whose cause we are interested in, and whose servants we are.

4. We may learn our fate, if we are finally found in arms against God and His cause. The prison and the chain are already prepared for the rebel leader, and all who persist in following him must share his fate. (See Rev. xx, 1; Matt. xxv, 41.)

5. Freedom is offered to all who will abandon his cause, and submit fully and sincerely to the Son of God. “Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”