Your ShelfYour Projects

THE TEMPLE IN HEAVEN

4%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, December 23, 1884

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 51

Read the full edition

THE TEMPLE IN HEAVEN.

By W. H. Littlejohn

THE SECOND ANGEL’S MESSAGE CONSIDERED.

BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.
Mr. Biblist.—“When we dispersed last evening, the points of agreement in the experience of the ’44 Adventists and the last generation of Christians as outlined in the parable of the ten virgins had been shown to be most complete. Do you remember, Maud, how this was done?”
Maud.—“Yes, sir; quite distinctly. You proved that the ten virgins represented the followers of the Lord at the time of the advent. Then you showed that as the virgins, when they went out to meet the bridegroom the first time, were disappointed in meeting him, so Mr. Miller and his followers at the time of the commencement of the Judgment prepared to meet the Lord, but were mistaken in their calculation; and so the Lord did not come as they anticipated.”
Mr. B.—“Did I say, Maud, that the mistake of which you speak, furnished proof that the Miller movement was not in the order of the Lord?”
Maud.—“Just the reverse of that, sir. You argued not only that the parable of the ten virgins, but also the tenth chapter of Revelation could not have applied to them had they not met with just such a disappointment as they experienced.”
Mr. B.—“That is correct, Maud. Those who cite the mistake of Mr. Miller and his friends as evidence that they did not do the work assigned to them in the providence of God, are exactly wrong. Had they not met with a disappointment, we might safely conclude that they did not give the genuine judgment message, as those who do that—according to Revelation 10 and Matt. 25: 1–13—must have had just such an experience in connection with the coming of the Lord as did the ’44 Adventists. The error of the latter and its connection with their identity can be illustrated by an incident that transpired in connection with the American Revolution. Two brothers, on opposite sides in that contest, though unknown to each other, were engaged in mortal combat on the deck of a man of war. The elder dealt a tremendous blow at the younger, which disarmed him of his cutlass, and dashed his military hat from his head. In a moment more the younger brother would have been transfixed by the blade of his antagonist; when the wind catching the unconfined hair, tossed it back from his forehead, revealing a scar nearly the shape of a half moon. That discovery saved the life of the doomed man; for it furnished to his antagonist the means of recognizing a long lost brother. Just so with the mistake of the Miller movement. Though it may seem to us to mar the symmetry of a work otherwise complete, it is in fact one of the very marks which prove that the work itself was heaven-born.”
Mr. Thoughtful.—“I thank you, Mr. Biblist, for that illustration. It meets the case exactly. How thankful I am for these talks. I verily believe that we are actually standing in the hour of God’s Judgment. The evidences are too numerous and too striking to be set aside. Never in all my life have I spent so solemn a day as the one that has just closed. Visions of the events that are taking place in the temple in heaven have been constantly passing before my mind, and I have examined my own heart and calculated my own chances in the Judgment as never before. How grateful I am that we have an High Priest that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. My whole soul is full of praise to God to-night that we have not yet passed the line where probation for the world will end. I feel like taking up the Judgment message myself, and warning men to repent before it is forever too late.”
Mr. B.—“Yes, yes, how the world might be stirred if ministers only would believe and preach the searching doctrine that relates to a Judgment actually in session and rapidly drawing to its close. If clergymen generally could be united in presenting to the people the thrilling truths that are taught by the sublime lessons of the sanctuary as set forth in the teachings of the Old and New Testaments, I firmly believe that thousands of apathetic Christians and thousands more of hardened sinners might be brought to the Lamb of God, whose blood will soon be pleaded for the last time in behalf of our fallen race. There is in this theme a power that is found in no other. It is what might be called a ‘present truth.’ The Spirit of God seems to attend its presentation in a most remarkable manner. It not only reaches the heart by assisting the hearer to see the Saviour in the character of the bleeding Lamb that died on Calvary for the sins of the world, but it also furnishes to the intellect, in the historical fulfillment of its prophetic foreshadowings, the material with which to build an intelligent and rational faith in the word of God. You let a man once become thoroughly established upon the sanctuary question, and it is a very hard matter, if not an impossibility, to move him away from his confidence in the book of God. It has been my fortune to see several such who have apostatized from the truth so far as practical experience is concerned; but not one of them, to my recollection—though despairing of his own salvation—could be induced to deny the inspiration of the Bible.
“But enough on this point. I feel to-night, Mr. Thoughtful, as if our evening talks had not been in vain by any means; since they have been the means of inducing you to accept one of the grandest truths of the Bible. You will remember that when we started out, the sole object that I had in view was that of explaining to you the significance of the Mosaic tabernacle and its services. This has been done; and we have found that in symbol it taught nearly all the grand truths that are related to the Judgment and the sacrificial work of Christ. Perhaps the time has come, therefore, when we should bring our evening interviews permanently to a close.”
Mr. T.—“While I thank you very much, sir, for the light that you have already given me, you will not be offended if I beg of you to continue our talks on Bible subjects still longer. It occurs to me that there must be other things in your peculiar faith that I would like to understand. You have already explained the message of the first angel of Revelation 14; but I notice that there were two other angels that followed the first, each of whom also had a message, as I conclude, for the world. If I am right in this, and if you have any theory in regard to the fulfillment of the predictions foreshadowed in the messages of these angels, I would be a thousand times obliged to you if you would impart it to me.”
Mr. B.—“Well, Mr. Thoughtful, it is true, as you seem to surmise, that I have a theory respecting the fulfillment of the second and third angels’ messages of the 14th chapter of Revelation. I do not know that I should have said anything about the matter, however, at this time, had you not requested me to do so; but as it is, I shall take pleasure in setting before you the views of our people on these subjects. It is not late, and I will enter upon my work to-night.”
Mr. T.—“Very good, sir; that will please me much.”
Mr. B.—“In discussing the two remaining messages it is not necessary to go over the same ground again that we have already traversed. We have seen that the first angel typified a movement that was to take place in the church. As the second and third angels belonged to the same series with the first, they also must symbolize like movements. It has already been seen that the first angel’s message was given in 1844. As a consequence, the second and third angels’ messages would be due somewhere this side of that time. Now what are the facts of history bearing upon this subject? I answer, That there are those who claim that the second and third, as well as the first, angels’ messages are now going to the world.”
Mr. T.—“Do I understand you, sir, that the first angel’s message is still being proclaimed?”
Mr. B.—“Certainly so. It would be a manifest incongruity to have a Judgment message proclaimed only at the time of the commencement of the Judgment. Every consideration of propriety or advantage demands that it should continue to be announced so long as the Judgment lasts. In short, I believe that the first, second, and third angels’ messages are alike in this particular; i. e., they will continue to be preached to the world so long as probation shall last. They are designed to make ready a people for the coming of the Lord, and they will therefore be proclaimed to the world until the Lord closes his work in the heavenly sanctuary.”
“But to return to my argument. I will take up the second and third messages in their order. It is a well-known fact that the Adventists, subsequently to 1844, under the leadership of William Miller, claimed to give the second angel’s message. The positions taken by them, in brief were as follows: First, that the term ‘Babylon’ is one which, in the Scriptures, is applied to corrupt forms of religion generally. Secondly, that this application, though frequently given to the Romish church in the New Testament, is also used at times in that book in such a manner as to indicate that it cannot be confined to that church; but must cover other corrupt Christian sects. Thirdly, that in Revelation 14: 8, the ‘Babylon’ spoken of cannot be the Romish communion alone; as the fall mentioned therein was a moral one, and as the Romish church at the time in question—that is, the time for the session of the Judgment—had been a fallen church for centuries. Fourthly, that the Babylon of Rev. 14: 8 must comprehend the Protestant denomination, as, according to Rev. 18: 1, 4, which furnishes another allusion to the same corrupt body, it is a place where the people of God are evidently found in large numbers; since they are there called upon to come out of Babylon, lest they should be ‘partakers of her plagues.’ Fifthly, that the Protestant churches, by rejecting the Judgment message and persecuting those who gave it by withdrawing from them the hand of fellowship and blackening their characters, arrayed themselves against the special work of God for their time; thus rejecting the only movement which could heal their former backslidings.”
Mr. T.—“How does that second message read?”
Maud.—“I have it right here, and I will read it. ‘And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’”
Mr. T.—“I don’t know about this, Mr. Biblist; I don’t know about this. You would include the grand old Methodist church in Babylon, would you not?”
Mr. B.—“Certainly, sir. Unfortunately that communion, in common with the other Protestant sects, was found fighting the work of God in 1844. It is a pretty serious thing, Mr. Thoughtful, for the church to array itself against the great Head of the church by endeavoring to overthrow the work that he is seeking to establish. Do not get the impression, however, that according to Mr. Miller’s theory, the orthodox churches in his day had fallen so far that none of the people of God were to be found within them. His idea was this: the churches of the Reformation, when they separated themselves from the Romish connection, were comparatively pure, and in the providence of God furnished a nucleus around which those could gather whom the Lord called out from the apostate Roman body. In process of time the orthodox sects lost the spirit and power of the Reformation, became more and more conformed to the world, refused to follow on in the progressive path that would have led them finally to the rejection of all of the errors that they had brought with them from the Mother Church, and at last reached the point where God was compelled once more to organize a body of believers outside of their ranks, who, in turn, should seize the standard of reform, and hold themselves in readiness to accept joyfully any new light that God might vouchsafe to them.
“That the orthodox churches must eventually drop to a much lower level than they have struck as yet, might be proved from prophecy as well as history. From the very nature of the case, this must follow. For what there is in them at the present time of power and vitality, they are indebted to the thousands of good souls who still remain within their borders. In process of time, these will be called out and connected by degrees with the special work of God for this day, thus rendering the spirituality of the churches from which they came out, less and less.”
Mr. T.—“This is a hard saying; who can hear it?”
Mr. B.—“I am aware, Mr. Thoughtful, that the theme I am now discussing is by no means a pleasant one to an orthodox ear. Indeed, it is quite painful to myself. But be patient. If I dash from your hand the beautiful chalice from which you have taken many a pleasing draught, and give to you in its place one more beautiful still and filled with water more clear, sparkling, and healthful than you have hitherto enjoyed, assuredly you will have no cause for complaint. Why should we look upon it as a thing impossible, or even improbable, that orthodoxy should meet with a moral fall. In so doing, it but repeats the history of the past. The Jewish church once represented the highest type of the church of God on the earth. But how changed in the days of Christ! Then it crucified the divine Son of God. Out of that church was then called the body which was organized into the church of Christ, clothed with power, adorned with holiness, and sent forth to the conquest of the world. Alas! that such a church should finally descend to the status of the mother of harlots, as brought to view in the 17th chapter of Revelation! This it did, however; and out from it the churches of the Reformation were called, lest otherwise the light of God’s truth should become extinct in the earth. I repeat, that in view of these facts, it should not be considered impossible for orthodoxy to degenerate so far, that at last it, in turn, should reach a point where God could no longer use its organizations as such in his special work. The presumptions all favor such a possibility, and to-morrow evening I will present some external proofs that this condition of things has already been reached.”