The Closing Messages of the Gospel

THE torment with fire and brimstone which is threatened in the last message, must be executed, either at the coming of Christ when the beast and the false prophet (the two-horned beast, compare Rev. 13:13, 14 with 19:20), are "cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone," Rev. 19:20, or at the time when all the wicked, raised from the dead at the end of a thousand years from the advent of Christ and the first resurrection, shall receive their final punishment in the lake of fire which is the second death. Rev. 20:7-10, 14. In either case the punishment will be inflicted upon the earth; and since the earth is to be renewed, and become the everlasting dwelling of God's people, (Ps. 37:9-11, 20, 28, 29), after the great burning day in which ungodly men come to perdition, 2 Pet. 3:7-13, the duration of the torment cannot be unlimited.

"There is a remarkable passage in Isaiah to which we are obliged to refer in explanation of the phraseology of the threatening of the third angel, and which unquestionably describes scenes to take place here at the second advent, and the desolate state of the earth during the thousand years following. That the language of the Revelation was borrowed from this prophecy can hardly fail to be seen. After describing the Lord's anger upon the nations, the great slaughter of their armies, the departing of the heavens as a scroll, etc., it says, 'For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.' Isa. 34:8-10. And since there is to be a lake of fire at the end of the thousand years, we can only conclude that the destruction of the living wicked at the commencement, and the final doom of all the ungodly at the end, of this period, are very similar." Thoughts on Revelation. The Greek, word here translated "forever" is defined by Schrevelius in his Greek Lexicon, "An age; a long period of time; indefinite duration; time, whether longer or shorter."

The third angel's message presents a final test upon the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. It denounces the unmixed wrath of God on all who worship the beast and his image, instead of keeping these commandments and this faith. On the other hand, the image will require, on pain of death, that all shall do the very things which the message has warned us not to do. This will inevitably bring a severe conflict. Those who obey the voice of God in the message will be exposed to the fiercest rage of men, abandoned of God and only controlled by the spirit of Satan, and who have the laws of civil government to sustain them in persecuting to death all who will not yield to their impious demand.

The way is being prepared for this, as we have shown. A "religious amendment" of our national constitution is sought which will give power to enforce the observance of the Sunday, an institution which the church of Rome has put in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord. A multitude are pleading for a legal enforcement of a better observance of this day, a day which has no sacred character in the Scriptures; and this they claim on the authority of the commandment of God, a commandment which requires the observance of another day—the seventh day, the rest-day of the Lord—a requirement which they openly tread under foot every week.

According to the prophecy they will succeed in their efforts, so that an image of the papal beast will be formed. And when the engine of persecution shall have been formed, it will be used as far as God permits. No church that has leaned on the arm of the State and obtained civil power to enforce its creed, was ever found too good and pious to use that power. The persecution will come. Will God's true, commandment-keeping people be put to death? No. They will "be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Dan. 12:1.

Though the way is now preparing to form the image and bring the persecution, probation will close before the conflict comes. Both classes will have been sealed—their destiny forever decided. It will have been decided whose names are to be retained in the book of life. Other names which have had a place there will have been blotted out. Rev. 3:5.

But the trial will be severe. The distress of the people of God will be like that of Jacob when he heard that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. Gen. 32:6-11. Says the prophet, "It is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." Jer. 30:7. The deliverance will be glorious. It will be like the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptians at the Red Sea. While the children of Israel were fenced in by the mountains on each hand and the army of the Egyptians behind them, and there seemed to be no way of escape from destruction—that they must be slain with the sword, or be driven into the sea—God interposed for them, opened a passage for them through the midst of the sea, and the Egyptians presumptuously venturing to follow them, were overwhelmed and drowned in the sea. Then was sung by Israel, on the farther shore, the song of Moses —the song of their miraculous deliverance— saying, "I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." Ex. 15:1.

In like manner it is predicted of them that will have heeded the last message, and thus "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name," being translated to the sea of glass which is before the throne of God, that they "sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." Rev. 15:3, 4.

The last persecution of the church is described in the last part of Rev. 13. The image of the beast decrees that all shall bow to his mandate or be killed. All must receive the mark, or be deprived of the rights of buying and selling. The chapter closes with the people of God, those who have obeyed His voice and do not worship the beast nor his image, in this distress and under the decree of death. But God does not leave them there. Chapter 14 opens with the view of the saints standing in triumph with the Lamb upon Mount Zion, in the city of God. They have the Lamb's "name and the name of his Father," according to Whiting's translation, written on their foreheads. Under the severest trial they had shown their loyalty to God and his Son by keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Rev. 14:12. They had honored both the Father and the Son. John 5:23. And now they are honored of God and of the Lamb. With the harps of God they sing "a new song," and "no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth." These are the remnant of the people of God upon the earth, those who are alive and are translated without death at the coming of Jesus Christ. "These were redeemed from among men."

As God saved Noah and his family while the flood swept away the wicked of the whole earth, and as he saved Israel at the Red Sea and overthrew the pursuing host of the Egyptians, so will he deliver his faithful and obedient people from the hands of their persecutors, and take them up to Jerusalem above, where they shall sing before his throne; but their enemies shall fall beneath his wrath. Who would not choose the part of the people whose God is the Lord?