Friday, January 25, 2019

Point by Point: Everlasting Gospel

"The first and second messages were given in 1843 and 1844,
and we are now under the proclamation of the third;
but all three of the messages are still to be proclaimed.

It is just as essential now as ever before that they shall be repeated to those who are seeking for the truth. By pen and voice we are to --sound the proclamation,
--showing their order and the application of the prophecies that bring us to the third angel's message.
--There cannot be a third without the first and second.

The book that was sealed was not the book of Revelation, but that portion of the prophecy of Daniel which related to the last days.
The Scripture says, "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" [Dan. 12:4].
When the book was opened, the proclamation was made, "Time shall be no longer." [See Revelation 10:6.] The book of Daniel is now unsealed.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice,
--Fear God, and give glory to Him;
--for the hour of His judgment is come:
--and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
 [Rev. 14:6, 7].

The only true God has been forsaken,
His law has been discarded,
His sacred Sabbath institution has been trampled
in the dust by the man of sin.
 
The fourth commandment, so plain and explicit, has been ignored. The Sabbath memorial, declaring who the living God is, the
Creator of the heavens and the earth, has been torn down, and a spurious sabbath has been given to the world in its place.
Thus a breach has been made in the law of God.
A false sabbath could not be a true standard.
In the first angel's message men are called upon to worship God, our Creator, who made the world and all things that are therein.

The message proclaimed by the angel flying in the midst of heaven is the everlasting gospel, the same gospel that was declared in Eden when God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" [Gen. 3:15].

Here was the first promise of a Savior who would stand on the field of battle to contest the power of Satan and prevail against him.

Christ came to our world to represent the character of God as it is represented in His holy law;
for His law is a transcript of His character.
 
Christ was both the law and the gospel.
The angel that proclaims the everlasting gospel proclaims the law of God; for the gospel of salvation brings men to obedience of the
law, whereby their characters are formed after the divine similitude.

In the fifty-eight chapter of Isaiah, the work of those who worship God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, is specified: "They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations" [Isa. 58:12]. God's memorial, His seventh-day Sabbath, will be uplifted.

*The message of Revelation 14, proclaiming that the hour of God's judgment is come, is given in the time of the end;

*and the angel of Revelation 10 is represented as having one foot on the sea and one foot on the land, showing that the message will be carried to distant lands, the ocean will be crossed, and the islands of the sea will hear the proclamation of the last message of warning to our world.
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer [Rev. 10:5, 6]. This message announces the end of the prophetic periods.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities
 [Rev. 18:1-5].

Thus the substance of the second angel's message is again given to the world by that other angel who lightens the earth with his glory. These messages all blend in one, to come before the people in the closing days of this earth's history.

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus (Rev. 14:12). Here we stand, under the third angel's message.
All the world will be tested, and all that have been in the darkness of error in regard to the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will understand the last message of mercy that is to be given to men.  
 
Our work is to proclaim the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. "Prepare to meet thy God" [Amos 4:12], is the warning given to the world. It is a warning to us individually. We are called upon to lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." Manuscript Releases vol.17,p.6-10,23 E.G.W.