Revelation 12:17, commentary and pictures

The dragon is Satan, enraged because his time is short, and the woman is the true church whose last generation living just before Christ returns is the remnant of her seed, marked by obeying all ten of God's commandments and having the prophetic gift by the Spirit's outpouring. Those two traits belong together as one saving test of loyalty, showing on which side every person stands. Keeping the commandments centers on the seventh-day Sabbath as God's memorial, sign and dividing test, honored while the Christian world keeps a Sunday sabbath without Scriptural authority. His wrath becomes determined war over that law and testimony, carried on through apostates, false shepherds and earthly powers until church and state unite to compel Sunday worship by oppressive laws, a decree forbidding buying and selling without the mark of the beast, and persecution unto death. Those who stand firm will not be overcome, but will be sealed, sheltered through the shaking and indignation, and at Christ's appearing be raised or translated to enter the city, while Satan is bound and finally destroyed and Christ triumphs in peace.

Symbols and Setting

The woman is the true church, her seed are the individual members of that church, and the remnant of her seed is the last generation of Christians living on earth just before the second coming of Christ. This remnant is the church militant in its tested condition on earth, not yet the church triumphant, and it is not made up of stray offshoots but of those bearing the seal of the living God. They are a small body awaiting translation to heaven without dying, returned to the old paths of obedience and the revival of spiritual gifts. When fully confirmed in their testimony they will lack no gift as they wait for Christ amid the signs preceding the great and terrible day of the Lord.

The dragon is Satan, the first great rebel and instigator of the great rebellion against heaven. Cast out of heaven to earth with great wrath because he knows he has but a short time, he continues his warfare by persecuting the faithful with the object of dethroning Christ. At the beginning of the prophecy he sought to destroy Christ at His birth, moving Herod to try to kill the Saviour, and he also acted as the real power behind pagan Rome, his chief agent in making war on Christ and His people during the first centuries. To the very close of time his war is carried on through earthly governments and powers symbolized as a great red dragon, a leopard-like beast, and a beast with lamblike horns, which trample upon God's law and persecute His people.

Keeping the commandments means keeping all ten of the commandments of God written by God Himself, including the Sabbath, and seen within the ark in the heavenly sanctuary. The dragon makes war on the remnant precisely because they keep all ten and teach obedience to them, raising the standard in opposition to the requirements of the beast. If they lowered the standard and yielded the peculiarities of their faith, his hostility would cease, for the great conflict is between the commandments of God and the worship of the beast and his mark. Their obedience thwarts his plans and stirs his rage, felt as bitterness from opponents.

Having the testimony of Jesus is having the spirit of prophecy as defined in Revelation 19:10, that is, the prophetic gift manifested among the last church living just before the second coming. It comes by a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit promised for the last days, with gifts placed in the church for edification and instruction to the end of time, giving the Comforter as teacher and guide in ordinary and extraordinary operation, needed more in the perils of the last days than in any other part of its experience. Instruction is conveyed to the prophets by a special angelic messenger, and the testimony includes all the gifts of the one Spirit, so that when the remnant is fully confirmed in it, it will lack no gift. The gift need not be exercised by every member to be present in the church, for a gift given to even one member is present in the whole body.

The verse belongs to the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled now and form the last message of warning that all are to hear. The prophecy begins with the dragon seeking to destroy Christ at His birth and continues as the growing conflict between Christ and Satan and the position, dangers, conflicts, and final deliverance of God's people to the very close of time. It is God's warning of perils in the last days, showing things to come when a deceived company on earth works counter to God in opposition to His faithful people. That opposition is connected with apocalyptic beasts arising from the union of church and state, a union that becomes a deadly crushing power, and it ends only when the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire and the dragon is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years before the final destruction of Satan and the wicked and the triumph and reign of Christ.

Marks of the Remnant

The remnant is known by two traits held together without separation, keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony of Jesus Christ, also called the faith of Jesus. Together those two marks are saving truth and the test of allegiance that shows on which side a person stands in the coming conflict. The dragon makes determined war with this remnant with his whole energies because they refuse to break obedience and proclaim what he hates. That war is exemplified when church and state unite to enforce worship of the beast and his image and to warn against receiving his mark. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, the prophetic gift manifested among the last church before the second coming, conveyed to prophets by a special angelic messenger.

Keeping the commandments centers on the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment. That Sabbath is God's memorial, His sign between Him and His people showing that He makes them holy, honored under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel in loyalty to His law. The Christian world has made void the law by tearing down the seventh-day Sabbath and exalting Sunday, a common working day without authority in God's Word, as an idol in its place. The man of sin works to exalt that spurious sabbath while the disloyal Protestant world wonders after the beast, kingdoms confederate to sustain the false institution, and obedience to Jehovah's Sabbath is treated as disloyalty to national laws. The faith of Jesus and the testimony of Jesus are blended with the Sabbath commandment and are to be clearly presented together, and the Sabbath joined to the third angel's message and testimony has convicting power it lacks when separated.

The remnant is greatly in the minority, few in number, greatly outnumbered and opposed by persecuting powers, scattered in little companies yet gathered out from every nation, kindred, tongue and people. It is God's denominated, commandment-keeping people, in the world but not following worldly policy, resisting Satan's rule and enduring trials for truth with unyielding firmness when earthly governments seek to force disobedience. It is the church militant, not yet the church triumphant, bearing the seal of the living God and to be tested because the dragon is wroth. Its members show loyalty by obedience in probation, stand united with Christ, and reveal God's love through consecrated living while the closing message ripens the harvest either for the heavenly garner or for the fires of the last day.

Its significance shone out after 1844, when mediation in the Holy Place finished and the way opened into the Most Holy Place where the ark containing the Ten Commandments is, testing the people on the Sabbath truth. From then on the commandments and the testimony belong together continually in the mind, crowding out worldly thoughts and cares, meditated on lying down and rising up in reference to the coming of the Son of man. Honest believers leave the fallen churches and nominal Adventists when light shines, accept truth, publicly join this faithful company, and take their stand with the remnant on a firm platform before the plagues and the loud cry. They hold the shut door of the Holy Place and the open door of the Most Holy and cry the commandments and testimony as their battle word while Satan comes down in great power with deceptive religious excitement to hold the honest who rejected truth.

Dragon's War Waged

The dragon burns with wrath and throws his whole energy into determined war against the remnant because their obedience and the revived prophetic gift thwart his plans. This is war over God's holy law, the great controversy begun in heaven and carried on relentlessly to the end, not ceasing until probation closes and opposition to righteousness ends only when evil is destroyed. As long as human nature is controlled by the enemy of all righteousness, enmity against the righteous is shown through men, with Satan's most efficient batteries masked under pretensions to godliness. Yet this war will come to nothing and cannot prevail against truth, for he can bruise only the heel while those loyal to Christ by fidelity and piety bruise the serpent's head and contest the ground inch by inch until victory.

The war is waged by satanic agencies through human agents, for it is met not in men only but in principalities and powers. Apostates carry it on, leaving the true and faithful people, speaking the dragon's words, fraternizing with those who stand for Barabbas, and known by their fruits. False shepherds, ministers and opposers work through falsehood, misrepresentation, wresting and perverting Scripture, boasts that they will wipe out commandment keepers, threats, ridicule, lying reports to hinder the work, stirring mobs and legislatures, lawsuits against brethren, breaking in upon preaching, and shutting believers out of houses of worship. It breaks out especially when souls who search Scripture for themselves are convinced and take their stand firmly, so that opposers unable to stop conversions turn to bitter attack, and making its progress public can call it into action, though it overdoes itself and dies.

Near the close Satan comes down with great power knowing his time is short and directs his power especially against the remnant, seeking to divide and scatter them so they grow weak and are overthrown. He works to dishearten, perplex and trouble them, taking advantage of disorder, unsettled church affairs and business including property, independent action rejecting counsel, disorganized and scattered effort, self-confidence, and lukewarm profession holding theory without saving power. He also uses fanatical misrepresentation with noisy excitement and false sanctification that disgusts unbelievers. Therefore God's people must move understandingly, be of the same mind and judgment, keep and unite in maintaining order, secure church business wisely and then trust the Lord to overrule, awake to advance, so efforts are not scattered but tell forcibly for present truth and Satan gains no advantage.

The conflict is led by Satan as general with deceitful, wily foes who do not meet the obedient in open warfare with arguments but with felt pressure that pushes them into difficult places, annoys them, and restricts privileges and liberties because of obedience. He uses evil angels and human agents to hide shared light, undermine confidence in it, hinder Christ's work of redeeming and purifying His people, and seek to lead them into disobedience, while prejudice is excited by ministers and professed Christians who despise truth for these last days. He intensifies his efforts as Christ's coming nears to overthrow the remnant and involve them in coming ruin, working through claims of new light unsettling faith in established truth, doctrines failing the test of God's word, false reports whose repetition links repeaters with the arch-deceiver and hardens unbelief, deceptive theories blinding minds in cities, and churches stirred with power from beneath to control conscience, destroy responsibility and lead to idol worship under the black banner. Opposition to the Testimonies shows the same dragon spirit, for they add nothing to God's word but direct to Scripture and help understand it more clearly.

The attack is doctrinal war on the law and testimony, fought especially over the fourth commandment, holding the true Sabbath and refusing a spurious sabbath while the disloyal world with the man of sin who thought to change times and laws tramples law in the dust and inaugurates a false sabbath. The dragon spirit is seen when the law is denied and set aside as a yoke of bondage, when keeping it is called falling from grace, when the testimony joined with commandment-keeping is ridiculed and opposed with false charges, and when those presenting truth for their time face personal attack. The great adversary opposes the law because it reveals sin, seeking to keep people unaware they are sinners needing a Saviour so they reject salvation purchased at infinite cost. Those who reject the law harden conscience, reject light, and are driven to false witness, deception and unjust means, as with the Jews whose hostility to Christ grew despite His miracles, and Sabbathkeepers are prosecuted for Sunday work and hindered in Sabbath worship while clinging human traditions displace God's authority.

Final Crisis Foretold

The coming conflict foretold is the dragon's war upon the faithful remnant who keep God's commandments and have the testimony of Jesus, carried out when church and state unite to impose Sunday observance while liberty of conscience is denied. Protestant churches having rejected the Bible defense of God's law will join with dignitaries of church and state and with papal power to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor Sunday and acknowledge the papal Sabbath, supplying lack of divine authority by oppressive enactments. Legislators will yield to popular demand for a Sunday law, and in America this is abjuring Protestant principles to give countenance to Romish apostasy, giving vigor by national act to corrupt faith and arousing tyranny to cruelty and despotism again, a national apostasy ending only in national ruin. The Christian world tears down the seventh-day Sabbath and exalts Sunday, a common working day, as an idol in its place, and church and world unite in trampling God's commandments and call the civil power to aid in persecuting Sabbathkeepers. Calamity by land and sea, fire and flood, is charged upon Seventh-day Adventists for desecrating Sunday, and those who conscientiously refuse to do what the rest of the Christian world does and whose faith cannot be overthrown by the Bible face persecution to stop their mouths, even though persecutors may sincerely believe they are serving God because they do not know the Father or Jesus.

The crisis ripens into a decree that no one may buy or sell except those with the mark or the number of the beast, threatening with death those who refuse Sunday observance. The highest earthly authority passes a decree that the small remnant unable to defend themselves must worship the beast and receive his mark under pain of persecution and death, so they can stand in that fearful conflict only with God as their defense. The war is carried out by another beast coming up out of the earth with two horns like a lamb that speaks as a dragon, exercising all the power of the first beast before him and causing earth and its dwellers to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. He does great wonders, even making fire come down from heaven in sight of men, and deceives earth-dwellers into making an image to the beast that had the wound by a sword and lived, giving life to the image so it both speaks and causes all who will not worship it to be killed, and causing all small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in right hand or forehead so none can buy or sell without the mark or name or number. At the appointed time inhabitants unite to strike the decisive blow, with armed companies urged by evil angels rushing upon waiting ones in solitary retreats while they plead for protection, yet God raises a standard against the enemy and shelters them as hiding place till indignation passes.

At Christ's appearing there are only two parties upon earth: those who stand under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ and those who stand under the black banner of rebellion. The one class keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus and bears the sign of obedience spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18, the other worships the power called the dragon and worships the beast and his image by keeping the first day of the week. The great conflict is between the commandments of God and the requirements of the beast, making the line of distinction between worshipers of God and those who worship the beast and receive his mark, and if saints lowered the standard and yielded peculiarities of faith the dragon would be at peace. The attack centers on the Sabbath, with the man of sin exalting a spurious sabbath without authority in God's Word while the disloyal Protestant world wonders after the beast and kingdoms confederate to sustain the false institution and treat obedience to Jehovah's Sabbath as disloyalty to national laws. The Sabbath is God's test and dividing test, every person must choose in which party to be found, with right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city for the obedient, while companies leave the Lord's army for the foe and tribes leave the enemy to unite with God's people till Christ's banner is planted to the gates. The war is not merely man against man but the Prince of Life as substitute and surety against the prince of darkness with fallen angels, producing sharp division between loyal and those casting scorn on law after church joins hands with world, with loyalty in prevailing transgression as in days of Noah putting everyone to the test with only two sides.

The persecution in Esther's day foreshadows this final conflict, for the same spirit that persecuted the true church in the past will lead to similar persecution of those remaining loyal to God. Some living now will see the prophecy fulfilled, and preparations for that conflict are already being made as Protestant churches unite with the world and papal power against commandment-keepers. The decree to go forth against God's people will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews in Esther's days. Sabbathkeepers are seen as Mordecai in the gate whose character and reverence for God's law rebukes Sabbath-breakers and must be put out of the way. On this battlefield comes the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error, pursued by rulers, ministers, and church members using voice and pen, boasts, threats, ridicule, false representations, angry appeals, and oppressive Sunday laws demanded for popularity and patronage which those fearing God cannot accept because it violates a precept of the Decalogue, and the issue is certain that as in days of Esther and Mordecai the Lord will vindicate His truth and His people.

The lamb-like beast with two horns professes the Lamb but speaks as the dragon, exercising the first beast's power and doing wonders including fire from heaven to deceive men to make an image that speaks and kills refusers, causing the mark in hand or forehead. Papists and Protestants united with spiritualism and miracles aid the tyranny over conscience, repeating past persecution by heathen nations and the fallen church that killed millions. The remnant are to warn the world against the beast power identified with the Papacy and proclaim the third angel's warning against worshiping the beast or its image and receiving its mark. Those refusing to trample God's commandments may be imprisoned, tried before councils, and fined, while the Lord defends them and opposing powers will be punished.

Faithful refusers face hardship now deepening to severity, including lost work and threat of poverty for families who obey by keeping Sabbath while refusing to honor Sunday. They will be threatened, denounced, outlawed, and betrayed even by family and friends, as Satan stirs earthly powers to destroy them and human edicts demand obedience contrary to God's law when the great day of atonement closes. They face critical watching and misjudgment, exile to mountain fastnesses, rocks, caves and dens, and stormy peril even upon centers like Battle Creek. Christ suffered on their behalf, and His strength enables them to endure to the end, with God's mercy and prayer and Jesus as Advocate their hope and defense for pardon and deliverance.

Message to Proclaim

Proclaiming the third angel's message brings the dragon's wrath, for the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus are that message, its burden and worldwide work to be given with a loud cry by voice, pen and literature to every city, nation and people. That cry is to warn the world against the beast power, the Papacy, against worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark, and it swells with increasing power to the close of probation while maintaining eternal truth from the beginning. The faith of Jesus and the testimony of Jesus are blended and are to be clearly presented together as saving truth, and refusal to obey with hatred against those who proclaim them causes the dragon to bring his whole energies to bear in most determined war. That final warfare is between those who keep God's commandments and those who make God's law void, yet careful, prayerful readers can understand these passages and see commandment keeping as the true mark of those who love God.

The verse gives God's people their banner, battle cry, watchword and standard of present truth, the commandments of God and the testimony or faith of Jesus, to be held firmly aloft at all times and in all places. Holding it firmly vindicates truth and the honor of Christ and sounds victory in the struggle, and younger believers must lift it with encouraging words beside weary, worn older soldiers, joining hands with them when their strength fails. It describes the church militant, not yet the church triumphant, the remnant of the woman's seed bearing the seal of the living God, who will be tested because the dragon is wroth and goes to make war with them. Loyalty to that standard demands refusing alliance with unconsecrated confederacies and with men who claim the name yet give no evidence of building on the Rock, keeping peculiar features without compromise and carrying the message with the experience of its first proclamation and with Spirit-inspired truth rather than uninspired fables as chaff to wheat.

Work for temporal needs and health principles must be united with this last gospel message of obedience, testimony and Christ's soon coming, as the arm to the body, in proportionate, symmetrical, well-balanced development in both home and foreign fields. Presentation of health principles must not be separated, made independent, allowed to eclipse the spiritual necessities, or take their place and absorb talent and means belonging to more directly spiritual effort. Keeping God's holy law, especially the Sabbath, is forever the test, sign and burden of the work between God and His people throughout their generations, while whether to eat butter, meat, cheese or eggs is not to be presented as a test like this. Meat, eggs, butter and cheese are not to be placed on the same ground as tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, wine and all spirituous liquors, nor borne in front as the burden, and wholesome alternatives make it counsel to discard flesh meats, tea, coffee and other harmful foods.

These truths form one clear platform, chain and foundation of heavenly origin, sought point by point by prayerful study and careful searching of Scripture and established by the working of the Holy Spirit, including the ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary and the message of heaven for these last days. They are waymark doctrines and fundamental principles based on unquestionable authority, to be preserved and held firmly with the grip of faith without moving pin or pillar, without taking a step toward forbidden paths, deceptive false testimonies, commingling worldly science with truth, or bringing in new light. God's people are thereby led onto one platform of Bible truth and brought to unity of faith through the gifts and order placed in the church, rather than each promoting independent, opposing beliefs, maintaining harmony, cooperation, unity and love while constantly digging for truth as for hidden treasure. That digging requires a clear mind and deep study, especially of what relates to the closing scenes, without opening new and conflicting opinions, without consuming time in controversy over the daily, without dwelling too much on doctrines and argumentative discourses to neglect of practical godliness, and without indulging perverted appetite in eating and drinking that confuses the brain and leaves one unable to bear the strain.

The remnant must arise and shine because light has come and glory has risen, raising the standard more decidedly and advancing with the advancing work, for truth will triumph and God's people must triumph with it by far more living faith or be left behind. Companies are raised up to bear witness to the commandments and testimony, and the power of the gospel comes upon them for this work, enabling men, women and children to make the light shine, to come into a deeper and wider religious experience, to reveal Christ's love and grace through living faith and sanctified obedience, and to call out a people true to His commandments. In the terrible final conflict they serve under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel against the army bearing the world's insignia, as some leave the Lord's army for the foe and tribes leave the enemy to unite with God's people, and new churches are planted where none existed. They are called to come into line, take their position, come out from among the enemy, be separate, touch not the unclean, and come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, with promise of reception as sons and daughters, gloriously triumphant to plant Christ's banner to the gates and establish the kingdom of peace and everlasting righteousness where God's will is done on earth as in heaven.

Call to Endure

The warfare against the remnant is short-lived and will come to nothing, for nothing can be done against the truth, and even what is said and done against the faithful will confirm and strengthen them if they hold fast to Jesus. The dragon is wroth because he knows he has but a short time, having been cast to earth, and he continues his warfare by persecuting the faithful with the object of dethroning Christ, yet he will not prevail. The conflict belongs to the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 now being fulfilled as the last warning, and its end comes when the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire and Satan is bound in the bottomless pit a thousand years, followed by the resurrection of the wicked and their final destruction with him. The side of the obedient is gloriously triumphant, planting Christ's banner to the gates and establishing peace and everlasting righteousness where God's will is done on earth as in heaven, with truth itself triumphing as God's people triumph with it by raising the standard and advancing with the advancing work. The conflict continues until the close of time, with the faithful greatly outnumbered and opposed by persecuting powers and earthly governments seeking to force disobedience, yet they finally triumph over the beast and its image.

Near the close Satan wages war especially against the remnant by seeking to divide and scatter them so they grow weak and are overthrown, disheartening, perplexing and troubling them. To withstand this the remnant must move understandingly, be of the same mind and of the same judgment, and be united in effort so their efforts are not scattered but tell forcibly in upbuilding present truth. They must observe order and unite in maintaining it, or Satan will take advantage of disorder and unsettled church matters to retard the work, control affairs, and draw means meant for God's cause into the enemy's ranks. They must also act wisely to place church business including church property in a secure state, then trust the Lord to overrule, and awake to make an advance move so they stand securely. God has not departed from His people, but they may depart from Him and become lukewarm, holding the theory of truth without its saving power.

The dragon's wrath is aimed at those who honor Jesus by keeping the commandments and vindicating His law, led by Satan as the great rebel with his armies, and opposition to righteousness will not end until evil is destroyed because enmity against the righteous is manifested through men as long as human nature is controlled by the enemy. The raid against commandment keepers will not cease until probation closes, with the same testing upon truth occurring in every age, and Satan will not let one go from his ranks without desperate resistance, contesting inch by inch every advance to light and truth. Servants of God must expect to be reviled, misrepresented, maligned, persecuted and oppressed, with Satan's most efficient batteries masked under pretensions to godliness, and must expect intense conflict and suffering in the last days. They will stand firm to the faith only through the grace of God, hanging their helpless souls upon Christ by faith, plainly understanding doctrine and being anchored in truth, and standing with the whole armor on, especially when rebellion and apostasy are in the air and Satan personates Christ and works miracles. They are to trust in Jesus as their Advocate and rely on God for grace and wisdom to withstand Satan's schemes, praying for the Lord to work while men make void the law, gaining the mastery through Christ and contesting the ground inch by inch until victory, for though he can bruise only the heel, those loyal by fidelity and piety shall bruise the serpent's head.

God is the defense, tower, hiding place and refuge of His people, raising a standard against the enemy and sheltering them till the indignation passes, though Satan boasts his larger army, and Satan cannot defile their souls or cause Christ's little ones to perish. Those who flee to Jesus in earnest prayer to know the truth and go to God and their Bibles will ascertain the truth as it is in Jesus, while those who from policy refuse to obey God go to any lengths in deception until the light in them becomes darkness. Present faithfulness tests fitness for the coming conflict, for those unfaithful in small tests will be unprepared. The remnant are in the world but do not follow worldly policy, refusing unconsecrated confederacies and alliance with those who claim to be Adventists yet give no evidence of building on the Rock, whose wisdom is foolishness.

They are called to take their place under Christ's bloodstained banner against the army bearing the world's insignia, to come into line, take position, come out from among the enemy, be separate, touch not the unclean, and come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, with the promise that God will receive them as His sons and daughters. They must stand distinct and separate, keep their peculiarities without sleepy indifference, teach their children to resist, avoid provoking opposers or retaliating, and remain overcomers to be saved, carrying forward God's work and establishing churches as memorials of the people who bear His sign. They proclaim the treason of Satan and the holiness of the Sabbath instituted when the morning stars sang together, bearing a message of no human invention as the last warning to the world, with practical godliness, purity and holiness seen as its truths enter daily life.

The remnant described is the church militant, not yet the church triumphant, bearing the seal of the living God by keeping the commandments and having the testimony, and they will be tested because the dragon makes war with them. At the appearing of the Lord there will be only two parties, the obedient distinct from those who worship the beast and his image by keeping the first day, and every person must choose, with right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city for the commandment-keepers. They keep the commandments and testimony continually in mind, pushing worldly thoughts and cares aside, meditating on them lying down and rising up, and living wholly in reference to the coming of the Son of man, for the sealing time is very short and now while the four angels hold the four winds is the time to make calling and election sure. Those who on earth witnessed to loyalty by keeping the commandments and the testimony and owning the crucified One as Saviour are the servants where there is no more curse, with the throne of God and of the Lamb among them, serving Him, seeing His face, and having His name in their foreheads.

The commandments and the testimony are testing questions of obedience and salvation for every person, and presenting the true light about them is the work to be done at this time. They are priceless gems requiring deep digging in the Word with clear minds by careful, prayerful readers who can understand, connected with the last-days proclamation of the third angel's message and the final warfare between those who keep the commandments and those who make void the law. People are accountable for the light received, and those faithful and obedient are blessed as God's chosen people, whose perfect faith, love and obedience make them a powerful influence dispelling darkness, uplifting others, and leading the willing to know truth in humble obedience. They must be kept as the apple of the eye, taught plainly to children, proclaimed individually as warning to prepare, meet God and be born again, and lived in practical godliness, missionary service, unity vindicating God's Word, and special help to worthy poor saints who lose employment rather than break the Sabbath.