Revelation 14:6, commentary and pictures

Another angel flying in the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel for every nation and kindred and tongue and people means the good news is to be preached worldwide without limit of place or person until all are left without excuse. The flight does not mean literal voices from heaven but heavenly direction carried by sanctified human witnesses with pen and voice, publicly, swiftly and with increasing power under the Holy Spirit. The everlasting gospel is salvation through faith in the crucified and risen Saviour whose sacrifice magnifies God's law, and it was fulfilled in the Advent movement of 1840 to 1844 when Miller and his associates proclaimed the soon coming and the hour of judgment come from the 2300 days to every missionary station. Joined to the next verse it announces that the hour of judgment is come beginning in 1844 with Christ's closing work in the heavenly sanctuary, calling all to fear God and worship Him as Creator by keeping the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It stands as the first of three inseparable messages proclaiming judgment, the fall of Babylon, and warning against the beast and his mark, forming the last message of mercy and decisive test before the Son of man comes to reap the harvest.

Angel Flight and Scope

The verse commands the preaching of the everlasting gospel worldwide to them that dwell on the earth, to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. It is not to be confined to a few places but is to go without limit of place, caste, nationality, class, age or condition, to continents, islands, distant countries, cities, towns, and unentered and neglected places. It is for high and low, rich and poor, honored and lowly, Jew and Gentile, for all inhabitants of the world living in the last days. It must continue until the whole earth is lightened with glory and all are left without excuse before Christ comes in power and great glory.

The angel flying in the midst of heaven does not mean literal voices from heaven but symbolizes heavenly direction with human preaching on earth. Enlightened, Spirit-filled, sanctified people proclaim in order with pen and voice as agents, witnesses and light-bearers, and the church separated to God carries the warning as a sacred trust that nothing may hinder. Heavenly angels direct, oversee, open opportunities, prepare hearts and cooperate, while Christ's servants do the actual preaching and Christ's headship fulfills the prophecy through followers acting with speed and directness.

Flight in midheaven and proclamation with a loud voice mean publicly, swiftly, earnestly and with increasing power, importance and assurance under the Holy Spirit. It is in no whispered, hesitant, tame or spiritless manner, but with strong decided influence moving ever onward to arouse an idolatrous, pleasure-loving world absorbed in worldly business, to stir minds, claim undivided attention, and prepare the way for the loud cry. It swells with widening and deepening influence until the earth is filled with glory, and must continue till the close of earth's history while repentance lasts.

The everlasting gospel proclaimed is the same promise first given in Eden of enmity between the serpent and the woman and between their seeds, of a Saviour who would battle Satan with bruised heel yet bruise the serpent's head and prevail against him. Christ came to represent God's character expressed in His holy law as transcript of His character, for Christ was both the law and the gospel, so proclaiming the gospel proclaims the law and salvation brings obedience forming characters after the divine likeness. That government was first made known through Israel freed from Egypt with mighty hand and stretched-out arm, taken apart to Sinai where amid thunder and lightning and terrible majesty the law given in Eden was proclaimed and written on stone to stay clear for universal work. Its worldwide scope is shown when believers of many nations gather hearing translated preaching as one and the same message uniting hearts to prepare a people for Christ's coming. The message to everyone without exception is the faith once delivered to the saints vindicated in the Reformation, whose proclamation brings heavy pressure on the loyal who count not their lives dear while God, Christ and angels work with intense activity against Satan's wrath to quell its fierceness that God's plans be not thwarted.

Historic Advent Fulfillment

Revelation 14:6 was fulfilled in the Advent movement of 1840 to 1844, especially in 1843 and 1844 and in the autumn of 1844. Miller and his associates including Joshua Himes, Josiah Litch and others then preached the everlasting gospel, the soon coming and the hour of judgment come based on the approaching end of the 2300 days. The preaching went widely by voice, writings and missionaries to distant lands and every missionary station, with great power, unity and religious interest. They misunderstood the expected event and did not yet understand all messages or that further messages must go before the Lord came.

The proclamation included the midnight cry Behold the Bridegroom cometh fulfilling the parable of the ten virgins, to be heard by the whole world and compelling believers to go out from the churches to preach the second appearing in the clouds. It united believers in hope and faith without fanaticism, restrained fanaticism, dissension and division, tended to correct evils, separate from worldly corruption and renew allegiance to prepare to meet the Lord. It brought repentance, confession, restitution, love and joy, and had the whole church accepted it these results would have been shared by all with the Spirit and power of God restoring unity, faith and love. Those who embraced from fear of judgments rather than love of truth and desire for heavenly inheritance were exposed by the passing of the time and bitter disappointment, ridiculing, denying faith and persecuting those who welcomed His appearing.

The same warning was preached in England from 1826 onward pointing to 1844 by many Church of England ministers and by Joseph Wolff through the East among Jews, Turks, Parsees, Hindus and others in their languages with distribution of the Word. In Sweden in 1842 to 1843 adult voices were silenced so the Spirit worked irresistibly through children and young preachers calling to fear God, give Him glory and repent without delay and announcing Christ's coming and the judgment. Their preaching drew crowds, awakened from careless security to confession, mercy and reformation from drunkenness, theft and sin with return of stolen property and seeking forgiveness in Jesus. It stirred people despite persecution from clergy preserving State Church influence, yet the preachers cited the message as biblical authority and said the Spirit moved them with such power they could not resist.

The time element centers on unsealed prophecies reckoned from 1842 to the autumn of 1844, whose glad reception was the eating of the little book spread across sea and land with one foot on the sea and the other on the land. The old chart setting forth the messages was directed by the Lord down to its figures with His hand hiding a mistake until His hand was removed, not a peg to be altered without inspiration, to be made plain upon tables with necessary means not spared because the earth is the Lord's. The correct view of the daily held unity before 1844, that the word sacrifice was added by man's wisdom and does not belong to the text, while confusion afterward brought other views with darkness. Since 1844 prophetic time has not been a test and never will be again, and the seven thunders details outlining events under the first and second messages were withheld until faith was tested and the messages completed their appointed work.

After 1844 the first and second messages became clearer to those who still believed God led, preparing them to receive and proclaim the third. Sanctuary light explained what was accomplished on the tenth day of the seventh month, giving reason to keep confidence, wait and watch patiently, and connecting Advent faith with past consecration, present preparation and future glory. After the passing of 1843 God gave a tarrying time to investigate Scripture and learn at first not understood features including the fourth commandment and seventh-day Sabbath. Faithful followers who took part from the beginning were entrusted with present truth, while shifting the first and second fulfillments into the future or far past unsettled believers until third-angel light cast light on the earlier messages and the disappointment.

The message was preached with power in eastern cities including Portland, Boston and surrounding towns, New York City and nearby populous cities, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and throughout Portland in the early Advent days warning of the near end and soon coming, moving cities and converting many. Those cities must be worked anew with the third message in the Spirit's power, from east to west and back to the east, by aroused watchmen as a burning lamp without delay. Capable men must be chosen for these avenues, talking, living and praying the truth in humility and entire trust, seconded by holy angels and heavenly agencies so hearts are moved and many souls saved. The everlasting gospel is still to go with power to rich and poor into a wide worldwide field where thousands never heard, in simplicity with promised angels, raising workers from almost all parts of the world.

Unity of Three Messages

Revelation 14:6 foretells the proclamation of the first angel's message, which with the second and third forms one threefold message and present truth for this time. The three arose in sequence in their proper fixed order and prophetic place, yet the later angels go with the first and do not merely follow after it in time, for the word rendered followed means to go with or accompany. They are linked, connected, inseparable, and ever-living, containing abiding truth that continues together as long as time lasts and as long as time is given for repentance. The third embraces, multiplies, and sheds greater light on the first and second, so there is no third without the first and second, they cannot be proclaimed separately, and all three must still be taught together by pen and voice with increasing power and widening, deepening influence and with no other fancied specialties eclipsing them. The angels symbolize the work to be done by everyone who believes these messages, whose import, time, and place must be clearly discerned though Satan seeks to obscure them and switch minds onto side issues.

These messages are foundational, established waymark truths and pillars of faith, entrusted to commandment-keeping people and confirmed by God's power and the Holy Spirit through prayerful study with scripture compared with scripture and through suffering and conflict. Their prophetic meaning was given through God-led servants at the appointed time, including truth about Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, and their place fixed by inspiration among God's established waymarks cannot be moved, set aside, or displaced. They test the world and prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and therefore must be held firmly and preserved against misinterpretation of Scripture, new teachings, heresy, and teachings that would replace or obscure them. They are not a burden for inexperienced innovators to replace with new interpretation, whether by misapplication to past or future, by efforts to tear down the foundation, or by removing a block or pin.

The verse begins a loud-voiced sequence given after the sea beast with seven heads and ten horns makes war with the saints and receives power over all kindreds and tongues and nations so that all not written in the book of life worship him, and after the vision of the 144,000, starting a new series and chain tracing God's people in mortal state through successive holy advent truth. The five angels in the chapter represent five distinct messages given before the advent, with the first representing the second advent message preached to church and world, proclaiming the judgment hour and calling to fear God, give Him glory, and worship the Creator of heaven and earth, sea and fountains of waters. The second announces that Babylon is fallen because she made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication, and the third warns in more explicit tones that whoever worships the beast and his image and receives his mark will drink the wrath of God and be tormented with fire and brimstone, ending with the patience of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Received in order this chain anchors against Satan's delusions, for the third points to the Most Holy Place where Jesus is followed by faith, those who received the earlier messages help show the way, and moving in order gives firm understanding. Under this message stand as old landmarks the temple of God seen in heaven with the ark containing the law, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment flashing its rays in the pathway of transgressors, and the non-immortality of the wicked, unfurled on the banner inscribed with the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, to be proclaimed with no faltering hesitancy but with power from on high by those who know in whom they have believed.

Together the three warn that Christ will return with power and great glory and that the world will meet the Lawgiver over His broken law, as the last warning belonging to Revelation 12-18 now being fulfilled and to be heard by all in distant lands, across oceans, and in the islands of the sea. They prepare and purify a people to stand in the day of God, test every case for life or death, show where believers stand in the conflict between truth and error, and serve as an anchor shielding from delusion when followed in order into the Most Holy Place, confirming faith in both past and future aspects of Christ's closing work in heaven and His people's work on earth. As the last message of warning and mercy the gospel invitation goes to every nation, rank, and language, to rich and poor, high and low, designed to arouse those absorbed in worldly pursuits, pleasure, and money-getting to eternal realities and Christ's soon coming and to lighten the whole earth with glory. The related announcement that prophetic time has ended is connected with the bitter disappointment of those who expected Christ in 1844.

The third message is to be proclaimed anew and repeated in its order with the first and second as one binding-off message to prepare a people for the coming of the King, as was done with great power in New England and the eastern cities in 1844 and must be done again in those same cities and from city to city and town to town. Its worldwide warning must study the situation in all large cities to reach honest souls confused by strange religious developments and waiting in uncertainty for its certain sound to meet the emergency, spoken under the Holy Spirit with assurance and with the law bound up among disciples, allowing nothing hindering its advance and using treasury means wisely. Proclaiming only the first or second does not qualify one for the third, giving up one gives up all, and partial acceptance leaves no part, so those who have not experienced the first two must receive them from those who have, the message must not be tamed down for church entrance, and it is to be revived with great power under the Spirit's anointing in soon-coming stormy times with a second call to the churches joined to the call to come out of fallen Babylon. The work is twenty years behind and time is short, so everything connected with the cause is to be brought into order and carried as widely as messengers can go into cities and unworked places.

The verse begins the first, second, and third angels' messages as the burden of truth now to be strictly followed from the Word and held up to God's people, mighty and glorious, yielding hope to its force so that a poor despised company becomes honored children of God and, moving steadily in Bible order, becomes as terrible as an army with banners. Proclaiming them is the appointed work and burden of God's people at this time for soul-saving to advance the gospel commission, while time spent spreading evil reports and criticizing fellow workers weakens churches and takes time from those ready to perish. Understanding these messages brings strength to the cause, and older experienced workers who understand them are precious and should conserve strength to continue in the work.

Judgment Sabbath and Law

Joined to the next verse, the verse introduces the call to fear God, give Him glory, recognize that the hour of His judgment is come, and worship Him as Creator of heaven and earth and sea and fountains of waters. It is a worldwide warning belonging to the closing work of redemption to awaken from spiritual stupor and prepare for the coming of the Lord and the day of God. The announcement points to Christ's closing work of intercession and investigative judgment which began in 1844 and continues until the cases of the living and the dead are decided at the close of human probation. God's law is the standard of character in that judgment, the message directs minds to the heavenly sanctuary and to a special work of purification and putting away of sin, and those who accept keep the commandments and the faith of Jesus, for worship without obedience is not pleasing to God. The proclamation is given with a loud voice to prepare a people to stand in perilous times, and foretells a great religious awakening through worldwide preaching of Christ's soon coming by His servants on earth under heavenly direction.

The call to worship the Creator directs attention to the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment as memorial of creation identifying Him as the living God. Its keeping is the sign of loyalty, sanctification and distinction between the true God and false gods, giving no glory to erring men, and the memorial endures eternally because God's law is immutable. The breach was made when the Sabbath memorial declaring the living God Creator of heavens and earth was torn down, the plain fourth commandment ignored, the law discarded and made of no effect, and homage paid to a human institution. That work was done by Papal authority and the man of sin trampling the sacred Sabbath in the dust, changing seventh to first and giving a spurious Sabbath to the world in its place, which cannot be a true standard. The message brings increased knowledge on this subject and belongs with the warning against worshiping the beast and receiving its mark, for Babylon is fallen because she made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication by forcing men to accept a spurious Sabbath in place of the Sabbath plainly told in Exodus 31.

If heeded, the message calls all to close examination of the Word and to the true light about the power that changed the Sabbath. Its work is to present the light on the Sabbath question, to make men see the importance God attaches to His holy law and the perpetuity of Jehovah's law, and to present obedience to the Sabbath commandment so plainly that no transgressor hearing it shall fail to discern it. It underlies the expectation that people will unite to exalt Sunday and enforce its observance by law. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the test by which each decides for or against God and reveals loyalty or transgression, contrasting loyalty to God's commandments with receiving the beast's mark, with sufficient light given to every soul so each has opportunity to decide and each judged according to light received. The final warning must not be softened but must make the seventh-day Sabbath prominent, expose the false sabbath as a human institution in place of the day God sanctified, and call men to recognize every rival to God as an idol, while a false Sabbath will be imposed as a test.

The verse presents the final conflict between those who keep God's commandments and those who make void His law, combining the first and second messages with the third to bring the work to the closing scenes. Together the messages call God's people to uphold the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, to magnify and honor God's law, and to prepare because the world will meet the Lawgiver over His broken law. Read with the following verse it gives every disloyal subject opportunity to return, leaving persistent rebels without excuse, and its worldwide proclamation as the last appeal of mercy preparing for the second coming calls for urgent devoted labor carrying light to a world in darkness. Its central theme is the uplifted Saviour whose sacrifice, merits, unchanging love and purchased blessings call to justification through faith and reception of His righteousness made evident in obedience, to be proclaimed with a loud voice under a large outpouring of the Spirit.

The first and second messages startled the world out of apathy when proclaimed in 1840-1844, and the third shines greater precious light upon them, reproducing them in the last message that lightens the earth with glory to make ready a people for the great day of preparation. Its warning, proclaimed by a holy angel, must be heeded by every person capable of reason and leads to study of prophecy to understand the mark of the beast and how to avoid receiving it. The first, second and third messages are truths to study and believe as a safeguard against error, preparing God's people to remain loyal through trials and the time of trouble. The first angel's message is to be repeated in order with the second and third as one binding-off message preparing a people for the King, to be given now with urgency after long delay under the Holy Spirit with assurance, with the law bound up among disciples, reaching honest souls in large cities confused by strange developments. While masses turn to fables because truth crosses sinful hearts, the worldwide warning must go to every nation, city, town and population center, and delay leaves some to die unwarned.

Revelation is a message to the churches, not a mystery, and those willing to hear Christ's instruction through John can understand it. With Daniel and John interpreting each other it gives truths everyone should understand, standing as a witness whose fulfillment in the last days explains itself amid the last determined battle between darkness and light and determined opposition to every inroad upon the world. What was closed up and sealed to Daniel till the time of the end is unsealed in the revelation given to John on Patmos by the Lion of the tribe of Judah, carrying history forward to the last scenes, a matter of infinite importance. In that time many shall be purified and made white and tried, and the wise understand, but the wicked do wickedly and none of the wicked understand, for sin is transgression of God's law and those in churches who will not accept light on the law will not understand the first, second and third messages. The entire fourteenth chapter is to be studied much in connection with the prophecy of worship of the beast and his image and receiving his mark, calling believers to become distinct from the world rather than assimilate, to openly conform to Jehovah's law and make it visible by observing the Sabbath as sign and mark of distinction. These old truths must be proclaimed far and near without hesitation and with power from on high, retaining value though false theories displace them, to be discerned and restored to proper place.

Everlasting Gospel in Christ

The everlasting gospel is the same good tidings of salvation through faith in Christ that were proclaimed at His first advent, now pointing forward to His second coming in glory in the clouds to redeem His people and to the hope of sharing the inheritance of the saints in light through faith and obedience. Its proclamation for this time is coupled with the definite announcement that His coming is at hand because the signs He gave have been fulfilled and the Lord is at the door, that heaven's kingdom is at hand and that the hour of His judgment is come. Preaching Christ's second coming and the announcement of its nearness is an essential part of the gospel message, and this proclamation is followed by the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. As Advent believers proclaimed it faithfully in 1843 and 1844 through house-to-house visits and tireless efforts to warn people from God's Word, so as the end approaches the effort to carry it is to be greater still with active, tireless work rather than passive grief. This first angel's proclamation of the second advent is to be repeated until the whole earth is lightened with the glory of the Lord, with power from the angel having great power given to those who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes, the pure in heart who shall see God. For this time that worldwide message includes the third angel's message, the Sabbath truth, and the truth about Christ's second coming, and it must reach places where it has not yet been preached to help prepare people to stand amid the dangers of the last days.

The gospel to be preached is saving grace centered on the crucified and risen Saviour, the uplifted slain Lamb whose sacrifice, merits, unchanging love and purchased blessings call to justification through faith, repentance and reception of His righteousness made evident in obedience. Its broad outlines are righteousness through a crucified and risen Saviour, the third angel's message, and the faith of Jesus, with clear instruction in the plan of salvation and Christ exalted as the sinner's refuge. Its truths are not detached doctrines or loose unconnected units, but one string of varied precious gems with the person and work of Christ as the living center, linked in one grand practical essential whole for salvation of the soul by faith in Christ Jesus, a faith that sinks self into small dust. The cross of Christ lifted up prominent in the message infuses new vigor and shows the high, broad, deep, unlimited greatness of the authority of the sin-pardoning Saviour in the heart of the broken law to forgive sins. So proclaimed amid moral darkness without cringing or covering its origin and purpose, truth is separated from the rubbish of error and stands revealed in unblemished pure beauty, moving on triumphantly to elevate, ennoble, purify and give dignity to all who come under its influence.

The everlasting gospel is glad tidings that a ransom has been found for the fallen race, that in the councils of heaven Jesus Christ offered His life to purchase the right to re-create the sinner, renew him in the divine likeness, and form again the image of God in the soul. It uplifts, pardons and redeems not by the law but by Jesus Christ our Righteousness, so that God can be just and yet the justifier of him who believes in the provided ransom, the law magnified and made honorable while fallen man is restored to more than his former dignity and exalted as an overcomer of Satan. Everyone who believes in Jesus will be recreated to walk in newness of life and rebuilt from the ruin of sin into purity and holiness as the temple of the Lord, to the rejoicing of angels, cherubim and seraphim hastening through the heavenly courts to declare treasures hidden from ages in Christ displayed before a wondering universe. It is light yet to shine forth from the law of God and the gospel of righteousness, which understood in its true character and proclaimed in the Spirit lightens the earth with its glory and brings the great decisive question before all nations, tongues and peoples. Its closing work, joined to the third angel's message, goes with power that sends the rays of the Sun of Righteousness into all the highways and byways of life where decisions are made for God, and those who receive justification by faith and the righteousness of Christ become mouthpieces for Jesus declaring the grace dwelling in them wherever the way opens.

Christ's suffering without the gates of Jerusalem signified that He died not for Israel only but for all the world, Himself sinless with all iniquities laid upon Him, where type met antitype and the ceremonies of Jewish worship were no longer needed. The middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was broken down, and all nations, tongues and people are invited to partake of the salvation purchased at so great a cost, to Jew first and also to Greek. The Greeks who came to see Jesus represented the Gentiles whose gathering would follow His death, and His death and resurrection would produce a great harvest with Christ risen as its first-fruits and calling from the graves those united with Him by faith, bringing life and immortality to light and opening Heaven's kingdom to all believers. He opened the fountain of life not for the Jews only but for all, and set the church in order with a missionary character to diffuse the gospel of truth with no boundary, so that all nigh and afar off must hear, reaching to the heights and to the depths until everyone receives light and truth and transmits it to others. Preached to the Jews in their own place of worship as a Messiah come not to destroy the old dispensation but to develop the whole Jewish economy in accordance with the truth, and to the Gentiles before their own temple and in the very presence of their gods, it breaks Jewish prejudice and grafts believing Gentiles into Abraham's covenant of grace without boasting, obtaining a decided victory that salvation is for all nations, tongues and peoples upon the earth. It is to be carried the widest by combined home and foreign missions, coming near to people without erecting barriers, and its literal carrying to the ends of the earth to every kindred and people fulfills promises that the gospel church would grow and bring salvation to all nations.

The gospel is the Revelation of Jesus Christ that Christ came in person to present to John on Patmos, the grandest and most important truth ever presented to the world, yet still understood in all its bearings as babes. It must be clearly explained and defined, giving the Word just as it is with as few human explanations as possible, earnestly and prayerfully studied with utmost power to learn and comprehend, and understood and demonstrated in daily life, for this is essential to salvation. It belongs with the messages of the first and second angels under the third angel's message as the theme of greatest importance, meeting the most important issues men have ever been called to meet, a God-given warning for the last days that must be read, understood and proclaimed with no uncertain sound. In this last message of warning and mercy to the last generation the parable of the mustard seed reaches signal and triumphant fulfilment as the little seed becomes a tree, going to all peoples everywhere to take out of them a people for God's name until the earth is lightened with His glory. That gathering work takes out of every kindred and people, every class of society and every organization of error a people complete in all gospel reforms and waiting for the coming of the Son of man, and only when it is done is the unity of the faith and the fullness of Christ reached amid masterpieces of imposture in the perils of the last days. These messages John received concern events in the closing period of earth's history and make known the Lord's sure purpose for the whole earth, not only for the Jewish nation, continuing as a lamp bearing witness after John could no longer testify in person.

The truths Jesus spoke in the temple would reach every language and people through the ages to the close of time, and after His crucifixion and resurrection some who had heard Him came forward to fulfill their divine commission carrying a message that challenged long-standing superstitions and human teachings. Preaching the everlasting gospel to the world includes the temperance work as part of the warning message laid upon His people, to be fully preached accompanied by the Holy Spirit to those never enlightened in points of Bible truth instead of standing off and condemning them for not knowing and acting upon those principles. When so preached, men and women of all classes will embrace the truth, because the leaven of truth must first be put into the meal before it can do its work of leavening the whole lump.

Worldwide Work and Means

Before the second coming the everlasting gospel is to be preached as a witness to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, repeating the pattern of the gospel preached throughout the world before the fall of Jerusalem. That worldwide proclamation does not mean the whole world will be converted, but giving it is the appointed work of the church and hastens the return, so that had the work been completed the world would already have been warned and Christ would have come. The warning of Revelation 14 is not yet finished but still has great extent to be accomplished, with many new fields to open and many cities still to be worked, and it must not be delayed. Delay reflects departure from Christ's principles, while forbearance holds back judgment to give opportunity to decide, and the truth must be heard urgently by those in danger of perishing as the Spirit is withdrawn, with means used to support preachers because hearing is linked to present happiness and eternal life.

Its worldwide scope as one worldwide whole calls for enlarged plans, faith and missionary enterprises, wholehearted effort and substantial funding, with resources and needed facilities reaching new and needy fields rather than being concentrated where the work is already established. Carrying the solemn message requires workers depending wholly on Christ for grace and power to show its importance, and trained, consecrated workers to carry Bible truth to every part of the world, with preparation of workers for every nation, kindred, tongue and people an urgent responsibility including distant countries and islands of the sea and not only the home field. Fulfilling it requires maintained self-sacrifice and faithful stewardship by those in trust, conscientiously guarding funds and preventing needless outlay, with buildings and facilities not so elaborate as to consume money unnecessarily and cripple advancement in regions beyond, for God's money is to be used both near and far without waste or centralization. Means in the treasury through tithes faithfully reserved and guarded, offerings, economy, systematic giving and wise investment must not be diverted to relieve institutional debts, sustain indiscriminate charity, exalt human names, establish institutions at home at risk to foreign lands, or be absorbed in one place, and if rightly appropriated power is not used God will remove it, while self-denial prepares true missionaries.

Carrying the message requires publications in many languages, making the first two messages plain upon tables so many decide, scattering tracts, leaflets, books and periodicals by colporteurs, canvassers and Bible workers from city to city and country to country. The press is God-ordained to reach minds preaching alone cannot reach, raise interest and bring the last warning to those in darkness, with printed present truth carried by messengers and sent where messengers cannot go so hearers can hold it and keep it from fading, combined with the living preacher, camp-meetings where entrance to churches cannot be gained, and house-to-house work. Like Noah's preaching before the flood this truth warns, tests and proves, calling those who see its light to turn from transgression to obedience, and its influence deepens and widens bringing schools, publishing houses and health institutions into being as cooperating instruments. Every believer has personal duty to ask what he can do, leaning on the living God, cooperating with Christ, obeying His directions, asking hourly for power from on high under the Holy Spirit with holy zeal proportionate to the message, accompanied by angels, including English, German, French, Swedish, Danish and Italian and the Southern field with its ignorance and destitution in home as well as foreign lands.

The worldwide proclamation calls for gospel work in foreign countries, including medical missions, sanitariums, hygienic restaurants, treatment rooms and schools to serve the sick and suffering and care for body and soul after Christ's example. Through faithful physicians, nurses, managers and other workers, sanctified skill opens fast-closed hearts to truth that saves soul as well as body, giving character to the work as right hand and arm to the third angel's message, with angels awakening spiritual joy and thanksgiving in hearts freed from suffering. Medical missionary work is helping hand, right arm and entering wedge enlightening patients physically, mentally and spiritually, yet it must remain the arm not the body or head and must not eclipse spiritual features or be made disproportionate. The special warning messages that call God's people out from worldly practices and to genuine faith and spirituality very different from the Jewish nation that rejected prophecy must not be treated as secondary to medical work nor weakened by assimilating with the world.

The message will be proclaimed again with distinct power, and through the Holy Spirit and human messengers the knowledge of salvation will spread abundantly reaching every city and town until the earth is filled with present truth. It is now to be proclaimed not only in lands far off, across oceans and to islands of the sea as final warning connected with the end of prophetic time and the 1844 disappointment, but in neglected places close by where multitudes dwell unwarned and unsaved, making city work of special importance. Carefully selected workers laboring two and two in harmony with experienced leaders under Christ's direction are to make long-delayed decided efforts, warning the world urgently while there is time, with the third angel's message including the other two and making prominent the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, guarded from hindrance and borne with courage. Work in large wicked cities like Sodom, in Europe, Oregon, England, Australia, islands of the sea, Sweden, Washington, Portland, Maine, Boston, New York and the Southern field among white and colored people is of special importance by establishing memorials, schools, sanitariums and houses of worship.

Fulfilling the commission requires many workers trained to labor in simplicity after Christ's manner, using brain and bone and muscle equally with right methods, gaining practical knowledge in building, manual work, languages, customs, printing and trades to be useful abroad as educators. Schools must establish a different order of things, ending dependence on misleading books and making the Word the study book, educating children, youth, middle-aged and all able for active service, with home, school and church preparing to carry the loud-voiced message whose power grows until the earth is filled with glory. Minds and bodies consecrated in obedience receive sanctified power, and workers sent to distant places find God has prepared hearts, requiring zeal proportionate to light, cooperation of all in earnest, and training of laymen by prayer and humility to explain truth in every tongue to convict and save.

The great work committed of proclaiming the last gospel message to everyone in every nation is hindered when believers hold houses and property in Battle Creek instead of removing where influence would count more, dishonor truth, divert money into wrong channels for worldly plans, and leave talents unused leaving fields unworked. The Lord has waited in patience because of the righteous among them, but judgments will be more signally seen there punishing greed and worldliness as the Gentiles are punished with greater severity for abundant light, without sparing absent repentance and thorough conversion. Satan works to hinder by holding workers there and absorbing time, talent and means in selfish advanced preparation keeping them out of the field, and the commission does not require erecting buildings to invite the most depraved to food, beds and treatment without money nor establishing indiscriminate charity or extended city work that drains the treasury, makes one city a receptacle for all means, retards the message and closes the way to all nations. The last warning includes ministry to the poor and neglected as one part of the larger work to be done individually as opportunity arises.

The worldwide truth to every nation, kindred, tongue and people including foreign-language publishing must not be left to foreign believers alone or to conferences near College View alone, but those conferences are to lead out with all believers assisting. The light of heaven is to be spread with all directed to the Bible, and the final mercy message is to be spread through self-sacrificing missionary work and circulation of publications. The planting among foreign tongues in Central Europe came by providence rather than human planning, Russia with many nationalities, languages and creeds is a fitting field already reaching emigrants returning with truth, and in Australasia many fields are ready with thousands hungry while few laborers carry present light. The work belongs to unenlightened fields with no standing place not only to home missions where truth is established, requiring facilities, workers and means sent there, lest withholding them hold back the commission to a temporal millennium.

Its worldwide scope calls for the Bible to be made understandable to people of every age and place by enlightened teachers presenting truth clearly and persuasively. The everlasting gospel is a worldwide message to be preached and practiced through true missionary work guided by divine wisdom not human plans, part of the third angel's message concerning the whole world to be proclaimed clearly and distinctly including its distinctive features as revealed to John.

Messengers Character and Opposition

The verse lays the present commission on believers today just as on the first disciples, entrusting the church, the remnant, and every believer as stewards with life-giving food for souls starving for salvation and perishing in ignorance and sin. It is the message to bear and the work to do, to be preached and practiced in true missionary work after God's wisdom and not human devising, kept before God's people in clear straight lines and in its distinctive features, with its force and importance increasing down to the close of the work and leaving no time to lose. Salvation of souls depends on consecration and activity, with all to ask what they can do and use abilities rather than remain idle or look with indifference on the perishing, for to keep back the trust is to fail the salvation of the world. The proclamation belongs to Revelation 14, warning of God's judgment and calling to worship the Creator, and must be carried beyond enlightened churches to the unwarned and unsaved everywhere, to the neglected and perishing including rulers, the South and foreign lands, to everyone on earth in every nation, people, language and family, leaning on God under the Holy Spirit through pastors, teachers and evangelists.

Those who give this most solemn message need thorough education, the best cultivated and consecrated talent, thought, principle, tact and experience, doing excellent work in the meekness of Christ with self hid in Christ. They must be united to Christ, converted daily, emptied of self, sanctified, living near the Saviour, feeling the burden and worth of souls, putting the shoulder under burdens and responsibilities, standing widely separate from unbelievers, with works not contrary to faith, modest in dress, humble, prayerful, dying to self and pressing together in love with the Spirit and heavenly agencies. Gluttony, indulgence, intemperance and grievous sins becloud the mind and halve effectiveness, while beholding Christ changes carriers into His likeness and obedience to God's law shapes character to live its truth. The truth in the first, second and third messages must now go to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, lightening every continent to the islands of the sea as the scroll is unrolled, with nothing of human invention retarding it, for novices cannot acceptably unfold its hidden treasures to enrich souls. Those first in proclaiming it within living memory, now aged and enfeebled standard-bearers including Frederick Wheeler, H. H. Wilcox and Charles O. Taylor, are to be treated tenderly, esteemed highly for their works' sake, their words treasured as valuable testimony, with younger workers who entered into their labors rising up to call them blessed and showing much more of Christ's love toward them.

Bearing the message requires showing its truth in daily life, for sincere piety, unselfish love, clean united dependence on grace and good works reach those resisting arguments. Lives must honor God's law, reveal belief by conduct as well as words, keep the commandments, honor the Sabbath and mark open conformity and distinction from the world rather than obeying its principles, conforming to its customs or prioritizing worldly gain. Song, prayer and humble testimony impress truth, with angels accompanying workers, while the church and those who acted in the proclamation must reflect whether they left first love by offering outward service, leaving Christ out and depending on human capabilities instead of genuine heart service. The work allows no indifference or carelessness but requires fullest consecration and earnest devotion, proclaimed faithfully without fear even under persecution to prepare a people for Christ's coming, because Satan is an untiring foe seeking to devour.

Angels of God are moving upon hearts and actively clearing the way, diligently forcing back the gross darkness Satan pours in to thwart God's purposes and make truth of no effect, so there may be place for truth. They go before workers preparing hearts to receive the gospel, awakening spiritual joy and melody in those freed from suffering so thanksgiving rises, longing to help so humble messengers, including through sacred song, do not labor or pray in vain. Of themselves workers can do nothing and are as weak as water without the Spirit, but God gives conviction in a moment beyond lifetime labor to those hanging on Omnipotence, hiding in Jesus, having faith that works by love and purifies the heart, constantly learning of Jesus and growing in faith, grace and knowledge. When ministers move forward in humble faith relying fully on God, His righteousness goes before them and His glory is their rearward, Christ appears as altogether lovely and Chief among ten thousand as Helper and Shield who will not leave nor forsake, yet lack of faith, spirituality and divine power hinders the kingdom; the message will convict and convert or condemn, leaving all without excuse before Christ comes in power and great glory.

Its flight brings learning, publishing and health institutions into existence as instrumentalities cooperating with heaven, with publishing houses among the agencies represented by the angel flying in midheaven to preach with a loud voice to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. The work of warning that Christ is coming the second time with power and great glory is deepening and widening, setting in motion springs of action in thousands of hearts, and the united first, second and third messages extending from the verse to the close of Revelation 14 mean the whole gospel is to be proclaimed throughout the world with full meaning ascertained and all transactions in accordance with the Word. Yet Satan seeks to switch men off this infallible decisive test for the whole human family onto side issues, false bypaths and hellish obscurity so the remnant shall not discern import, time and place, to stir intense opposition, supply loved deceptions, engross minds with worthless things, wreck efforts and counterwork truth by making void the law. Workers must stick to the message, keep it in messengers' mouths and let truth do its work to cut away evils like a hammer breaking flinty hearts and like fire consuming dross and error, each looking to God in earnest faith to set his own soul in order; the messages are abiding ever-living truth, not extinct, living to exert power while time lasts, and he cannot prevail against Christ.

The proclamation must be clean-cut with pen and voice in demonstration of God's power, not in a tame spiritless way, not heeding counsels or following plans of unbelievers, and not making less prominent the special truths that separated God's people and made them what they are, for they are fraught with eternal interests. The everlasting gospel is to be preached to people at large in high and low places, in church and world, using all influence and talents, guarding the worldwide trust sacredly with no personal opinions and no false message added. Truths must not be displaced by side issues, minor matters, health-reform extremes binding believers in a small circle where they cannot reach the public, scientific theories or spiritualistic sophistries, and the third message must not be obscured or lose significance but shine steadily with purity and progress in its various lines. Fanaticism, false experiences, false theories, superstitions and man-made tests are not validated and had to be opposed, and those holding present truth as the last mercy must stand fast in liberty, be separate from daily new errors, not attend assemblies spreading fables and commandments of men lest angelic care be removed and minds be darkened and contaminated, but occupy minds with truth, seek wisdom for thorough knowledge of position, and give a reason of hope meekly from Scripture to stand in the day of the Lord.

Giving the last warning requires blending harmoniously in service in Christ's lines, with self out of the way, answering continual calls to missionary fields and supporting with means those who cannot go. Workers must remain free from secret societies and trade unions, relying on Christ for guidance at every step while doing a special work for the world without contamination from its spirit. Work in one part of the field is to be done with reference to other parts, duly considering progress worldwide with heaven-born interest in every plan, for wisdom, skill and tact tell whether it bears heaven's inscription, and where it does not the cause is to be searched out, without criticizing, hindering or burdening with human judgment those on the ground in foreign fields whom God prepares and works through. Its swift flight demands immediate forward movement on a go-forward not pull-back principle, not held back by extreme caution and saving means, but doing something now with an extensive view growing with the work, seeing talent, seizing, educating and using it, with experienced workers taking young men and others two and two to visit families, revive dying churches, enter new places and serve as Bible readers, canvassers and visitors, thrust into harvest and encouraged with mistakes tenderly corrected, for God will not work a miracle apart from men and women led with tact, skill and far-seeing judgment.

Final Test and Application

The flying angel is the last message of mercy, warning and invitation to the world before the second advent, committed to servants when Christ entered the most holy place to perform the closing work of atonement, and immediately after its proclamation the Son of man is seen coming in glory to reap the harvest of the earth. It foretells a great religious awakening through worldwide proclamation of Christ's soon coming, calling all on earth in every nation, kindred, tongue and people to fear God, give Him glory, recognize His judgment come, and worship Him as Creator. Its subject is the everlasting gospel and its burden is that the end of all things is at hand, given to a pleasure-loving world absorbed in worldly business with no time or thought for salvation of the soul. It is to be given with a loud voice, meaning with strong decided influence and importance to arouse an idolatrous world to take heed, of more consequence than all else, standing together with the second and third messages, containing special light for earth's closing scenes whose great truths fill minds and bear fruit when received and worked in harmony. It is the great closing work before another angel lightens the earth with glory.

It is part of the infallible great decisive test for the whole human family approaching the close of probation, to be proclaimed with a loud voice meaning with increasing power and maintained in all its increasing importance to the end. Together the first, second and third form one ever-living message and present truth for this time, a firm established platform built step by step through suffering and severe conflict, whose true understanding is vital because destiny of souls hangs on how it is received. It must be stood upon well guarded and firm, made the prominent warning, made intelligible to reasoning minds, talked, prayed and presented with pen and voice with certain sound and no uncertain sound, in eternal faith in past and present truth held from the beginning. Satan seeks to switch men off this track onto side issues and false bypaths, and woe to him who moves a block or stirs a pin, finds fault with the foundation, wishes improvement, or steps off to examine it. Hearing brings testing according to light, the truth cuts like a hammer breaking flinty rocky hearts and burns like fire consuming dross and rubbish of error and sin while each looks to God to set his own soul in order, and when probation closes those who refused have no further opportunity.

The warning calls God's people to show genuine faith and spirituality, to come out from worldly practices and not assimilate with the world, to come to their senses and make life an expression of faith. It is the last invitation to the Lord's table designed to arouse men absorbed in worldly pursuits, pleasure and money-getting to eternal realities and Christ's soon coming, to lighten the whole earth with glory and reach all classes rich and poor high and low. Believers must cooperate with the angel flying in midheaven by uniting with one another and with God in heart mind and strength, advancing into new territories while sustaining pure principle, forwarding the solemn second appearing in clouds with power and great glory. The work is not to stop or be smothered but to increase in the Spirit's power until it swells into the loud cry, carrying sanctifying present truth needed as in Noah's days, calling true believers to become more distinct, openly conform to Jehovah's law, and make conformity visible by observing the Sabbath as sign and mark of distinction between God's chosen and the world.

Like Noah bearing God's message to an impenitent pleasure-loving corrupt world and condemning it while only eight were saved, God will have men give this warning now amid moral darkness and the same unbelief, taking precedence over other interests. It warns, tests and proves, calls to notice God's broken law and to repent and reform into harmony with His law including restoring the Sabbath, and response decides destiny and escape from the seven last plagues. It is the last invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb proclaimed by the remnant to glorify His name, fulfilled by the Lord Himself through human agents making sacred eternal truth stand amid last-day heresies and delusions, a light entrusted to those who know truth that cuts away superstition and priestcraft as the Lord gives the true perfect sound. It is to be given without delay and with more determined effort to lead all to see judgment at hand, requiring the Spirit to quicken understanding and constant humble contrition to make known His will day by day in word and deed, with carriers living its truth in obedience shaped character and Christlike likeness by beholding.

The message was sent to test and purify the church and restore it by correcting evils separating people from God, supported by prophetic periods and signs of Jesus' coming. Many ministers failed to recognize it, discouraged study of prophecy, trusted pastors, feared confession, and diligently resisted with argumentative power what did not vindicate their church, while many members rejected it or would not confess it. Refusing meant turning from Heaven's means of restoration to worldly ties, exposing strength of worldly attachments, and this lay behind worldliness, backsliding and spiritual death in 1844. Humble reception would have restored Spirit and power, but nominal churches commit the great error of all ages by anchoring at a point of understanding and refusing to go forward as if needing no more light. After warning given they form a confederacy that will not receive it, barricaded for fear light leads through a trapdoor into danger, deceived together with stakes set fast, while ceremonial worship is valueless and truth long covered by tradition requires searching Scripture for evidence unto change of doctrinal views into harmony with God.

Its threefold warning accomplishes its work when truth reaches open hearts including God's people still in Babylon, and rejecting it leads to the condition described by the second angel and to the final call to leave Babylon. The first angel's light rejected left churches unable to see the second angel's light, and God's oppressed people answered Babylon is fallen by leaving fallen churches. The call to come out of Babylon given by the first is the same as Come out of her, my people, given also by the second and repeated by the third. The first message was proclaimed while God's people were in Babylon, and many true Christians still in her communion have never seen special truths for this time yet are dissatisfied, longing for clearer light and Christ's image in the church. As churches depart wider from truth and ally closer with the world, those fearing and honoring God can no longer remain, while those believing not truth but having pleasure in unrighteousness are left to strong delusion to believe a lie with persecution again revealed; light will shine on all open hearts and all the Lord's children still in Babylon will heed and come out, with revival leading many to accept truth and separate from world-loving churches, whereas churches refusing warnings refuse truth for a lie and become fallen.

The everlasting gospel urges preparation for Christ's soon return with only a comparatively brief period left, requiring development of Christian perfection under the gospel to stand at His appearing. The angel's loud call to fear God and give glory to Him means giving no glory to erring sinful men, for the hour of judgment is come, the same Spirit's work as the flying roll shown to Zechariah commanding fear of God alone. Many will not understand but will stumble at words contained in the roll, and even plain truths will not awaken those refusing God's Word. The message goes forth during the mighty shaking that removes all unwilling to take bold unyielding stand and sacrifice freely for God and His cause, costing all to buy the field, and those unmoved by Scripture will not be moved by anything greater, not by Sinai's thunders nor by an angel's message. Because the work differs from anything the world undertook, preparation including educational preparation must differ correspondingly, and patterning after the world is inconsistent, requiring coming out and being separate with self-denial and lifting the cross in close connection with God.

Neglecting the worldwide work causes the message to be lost from sight, for the first, second and third messages are God's last-days message to communicate to the world. Proclaiming them is a solemn last warning entrusted, a work of supreme importance with eternal consequences that must not be displaced by other concerns, must reach everyone, must not be hindered, and commands the world's attention with power intensified in the third warning. The angel represents those accepting light and serving as agents carrying warning through earth, requiring use of every ability to reach those in ignorance in darkest places despite obstacles, calling workers from ordinary occupations to the closing work for the sinful world. The entrusted final mercy brings accountability to awake, gain Bible understanding, devote means to support preachers, let truth shine clearly while the world perishes, and count it worth every sacrifice without delay.

Those who receive and believe live, while those who reject are condemned and left without excuse, so the message is a savor of life unto life to acceptors and of condemnation unto death to rejecters, to be given to all cities villages nations kindreds tongues and people accessible, sowing beside all waters even where immediate results are unseen. The angel's voice is heard in God's visible human servants preaching words of solemn import as trumpet warning and last mercy, though angels themselves are unseen; those rejecting their words and counteracting God's messages place themselves where the Jews stood who rejected Christ. Those entrusted are a spectacle to world angels and men, and contention and strife among them testifies against their boast that the Word is guide and against claim to love as Christ commanded. Knowingly calling the Spirit's work demonic and rejecting the third message shuts out, and to give up position on that message and go in for holiness apart from it is to give up truth, come out against the Spirit's testimonies, unite to another light, and settle into apostasy and delusion.

Now is the time of grace while angels hold the four winds and a brief respite is granted; the end is at hand yet God holds back judgments until the testing message sounds in the Spirit's power to all who have not heard. Consecrated members must cooperate with waiting angels, for salvation of souls depends on consecration and activity and Christ's sacrifice must not be vain; many endued from on high will leave ordinary employment for fields never warned, laboring wisely without lavish outlay to bring souls from sin to truth for love of Christ. Every believer is to be a living missionary in partnership with Christ under divine instruction, with angels going before preparing hearts, His righteousness before and the Lord's glory as rearward, while lack of faith spirituality and divine power hinders the kingdom. It means waiting watching praying to prepare the Lord's way and make highway in desert, standing each in lot and place as consecrated channel, wide awake as vigilant watchers with oil in vessels, of good courage under trial, bearing patiently, looking upward, shutting soul to earth and opening heavenward, crowding all possible good into earthly life while homeward bound, working with multiplied facilities earnest labor and willingness to suffer before cities are swept away, with God's power as defense until finished though Satan stirs intense activity and loosing winds soon bring dissension strife war and bloodshed everywhere. Laborers must enter the field including opening cities of Europe, with means in treasury used wisely with no extravagant outlay except for progress, giving men voice and means to lay up heavenly treasure.

The verse stands cited with unmingled wrath on beast-worshipers receiving the mark, falling when Christ ceases interceding in the sanctuary just before final deliverance of God's people. It promises faithful witnesses from every nation language and people amid deep apostasy and enforcement of a false rest day even under death threat, shining by transforming obedience to God's law. After warning given, those refusing form a confederacy shutting against further light, barricaded lest receiving let them through a trapdoor, deceived together and becoming fixed with stakes set fast.

In Europe where the warning has but just begun and men of experienced knowledge of truth are scarce, servants delegated with solemn truth of eternal results must be preserved in physical strength and balanced mind for the great soul-saving work yet to be done. The truth is precious weighty strong meat so different from popular pulpit errors that it almost takes breath and senses, involving great changes and a cross at every step, and must be dealt discreetly point after point in small portions with time to digest, a few essentials spoken distinctly with clear utterance carrying understanding and sympathies, not placing the crib too high, so hearers hunger for more, with no worker required to do two men's or two weeks' work in one. Those believing the last mercy is being given are to keep separate from error, avoid assemblies spreading it, and give attention to profitable matters.

The advancing testing truth for this time, truth as in Daniel and Revelation including exalting God's memorial of creation, must be given with utmost force and let nothing take its place, presented at the very beginning of camp-meeting with startling abruptness to arouse those otherwise unstirred, deepening impression and giving new significance showing reception or rejection means something and meeting expectation of something surprising. It is precious advancing light to be triumphed with at last, given for personal and family benefit and duty-bound to impart to all within influence, laying up treasure by the throne if confidence is held firm to the end. It requires setting helpful family example, treasuring truth above gold silver precious stones, weeding vanities indulgence gratification, arousing world-lovers to bear fruit for the garner, putting away masterly manner love of supremacy and dictation, learning of Jesus by precept and example, taking Christ as partner without hiding talents in business, cooperating in unity with Him and commandment-keeping brethren in earnest soul-saving.

The verse opens the last mercy to people who never had the third angel's message, and its preaching opens precious Scriptures even to intelligent longtime members who see how little of the Bible they know.