Chapter 2
The first Document in Section 2,
The first Document in Section 2, Document #02_01, is a necessary step back to look at the very Claims of the Bible.
Is it the Word of God? Can we completely trust its teachings to guide us into all truth? If truth is what you seek, realize that we are of all men most miserable, if it is not what it claims to be! Without this anchor to God’s truth, we would be fully at the whim of fallen men, to guide us in our spiritual life! Read and heed!
CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE
Your Personal Encounter with the
Claims of an Ancient Book
It may seem more exciting to probe the strange markings on some cliff in Peru, or to speculate about the helmeted astronauts, or supposed ancient airfields of the latest paperback, than to pick up the Book that has been around longer than you can remember and which at the moment may even be embarrassingly dusty. But men’s bursts of speculation come and go like lightning flashes in the night storm, while the Book we call the Bible has, through the centuries:
Defied every threat
Outsold every best seller
Proved itself indestructible.
But if the Bible is Divinely inspired, no wonder history has followed its predictions like a blueprint. However, much depends on the spirit, the motives, the attitudes, that are brought to the study of the Bible! If we approach the Bible like some sort of encyclopedia of religious information, or a collection of interesting facts – it won’t do much for us.
That’s nothing more than playing games with the Bible.
Some people would rather not know what the Bible says. They rationalize that “what you don’t know won’t hurt you.” But today, aren’t we too enlightened for such reasoning?
There was a day when surgeons wore overalls in the operating room – because what sensible man would want to get his regular clothes bloodstained? But what they didn’t know cost countless lives!
There are times when ignorance is tragedy, when IGNORANCE IS SIN!
Is a man to blame if he cannot believe? Sometimes he is. A man is at fault when he refuses to expose himself to truth. Realize that doubt is often more a matter of the emotions than of the intellect.
One other caution – it would be possible to paper the walls with Bible-course diplomas and yet never know what the Good Book is really all about! The heart of the Bible is the Man, Jesus Christ. No wonder Dr. J. B. Phillips said, as he translated the letters of the apostle Paul, that he “felt rather like an electrician re-wiring an ancient house without being able to ‘turn the mains off!'”
So now we turn to the Bible to find:
The Way to Truth and Life.
1. How much of the Bible is inspired by God? What does the Bible claim?
2 Timothy 3:16:
Answer: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
2. How did the Bible come to mankind? 2 Peter 1:21:
Answer: “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
The Bible authors wrote that which Holy Spirit impressed on their minds. It was God’s thought, passed along to us through human agents.
3. What are four reasons for the Scriptures? 2 Timothy 3:16:
Answer: 1. For doctrine 2. For reproof 3. For correction 4. For instruction in righteousness
4.What else has God designed the study of the Bible to do for us?
2 Timothy 3:15:
Answer: “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
Paul tells us that studying the Bible will inform us, teach, instruct us, and make us wise regarding salvation. But God’s Word has saving power only as it awakens in us a faith in Jesus.
5. What did Peter say about God’s Holy Scriptures? 2 Pet. 1:19:
Answer: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”
The Day Star – that’s one of the many names of Jesus. So the real goal of Bible study is that Jesus, the Day Star, the Light of the world, will dwell in our hearts.
6. Do we really incorporate Jesus’ life into our life by studying the Bible? What did Jesus say on the subject? John 14:6:
Answer: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
On another occasion, Jesus prayed to His Father,”Sanctify them [My followers] through thy Truth: thy Word is Truth.” John 17:17:
Jesus is truth, and His Word is truth. There is no contradiction between Jesus and His Word in the Bible. We cannot separate Jesus from His Word, and we cannot separate the Written Word from Jesus, the Living Word. We find the saving truth about Jesus in the Scriptures.
7. What interesting term did John use to describe Jesus? John 1:14:
Answer: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
So, if we want to know what God is like, or what God’s Law and His government are like, we can look at Jesus in the Bible. We find the life of Jesus revealed in the Word of God. No wonder John called Jesus the Word!
8. Why is it so important that we study the Bible? John 5:39:
Answer: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify [“bear witness,” NASB] of Me.”
The Scriptures, you see, tell us about Jesus. They help us to become acquainted with Him. Obviously, Jesus’ words here include the Old Testament, because when He made this statement, the New Testament had not yet been written. Only the Old Testament Scriptures existed.
In fact, Jesus specifically told His disciples that the Scriptures, which today we call the Old Testament, revealed Him.
The ultimate purpose of Bible study in general and this study in particular is that we might have a life-transforming encounter with Jesus.
The Word has a unique power to change the lives of men and women.
9. Into what three divisions comprising the Old Testament do we find information concerning Jesus? Luke 24:27,44:
Answer: 1. In the law of Moses (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) 2. In the prophets. 3. In the Psalms.
10. How can we test our ideas to determine whether they are truth? What did the people in the city of Berea do when Paul preached the Gospel to them? Acts 17:11:
Answer: “They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
Apparently, these people brought the teaching of the apostle Paul to the test of the Scriptures. They checked everything he told them by the truth they found in God’s Word. In the same way we need to keep searching the Bible for ourselves. We must test every religious teaching by the great standard of God’s Inspired Word.
11. But how can we know that we understand the Bible correctly? How can we guard against incorrect interpretations? John 7:17:
Answer: “If any man will do His [God’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.”
What an assurance! If we are willing to obey, Jesus Himself promises us that we will recognize truth. We may not know all of His will right now. We may not even understand today what our Lord may ask of us tomorrow, but whatever it may be, we are willing. If that is our attitude, Jesus assures us that He will direct us into all truth. Thank You, Jesus, for that promise! That’s just what we need!
12. The Book of Daniel was sealed from man’s understanding, “till the time of the end.” How it was unsealed is of supreme importance to our being led into all truth by Jesus.
A truly earnest seeker for truth, William Miller, an obscure farmer in New England (early America), after much reading of the Scriptures, was led by Holy Spirit to recognize Isaiah 28, verses 9 to 13 (read) for what it is: a prescription for Bible study METHOD.
Whenever a question arose about a verse or sentence in Scripture, by comparing that verse with another verse somewhere else in the Bible that uses the same wording (“line upon line”) God’s own answer to the question could be found within the Bible! Amazingly, it worked every time! God somehow got every Bible writer, and even every Bible translator of the Protestant King James Version of the Bible, to use the same key-words when writing on the same subject! This was God’s doing, so that the prophecies of the Bible, in Daniel especially, and Revelation as well, would be unsealed for the “time of the end” just before our Saviour returns in the Advent!
A Concordance, a book developed to show every place in the Bible that a key-word is used, beginning in Genesis and progressing to Revelation, for each word, became William Miller’s constant companion. It should become yours too! “Whom shall He [Holy Spirit] teach knowledge, and whom shall He make to understand doctrine?” You, if you desire to be led into all truth, by Jesus! Jesus sent to us Holy Spirit, to be our teacher after He went away to Heaven to commence His work for our salvation in the heavenly Sanctuary! John 14, verse 26.
THINK IT THROUGH Prayer and Bible study are our tools of communication with God. In prayer we talk to Him. As we study the Bible, He talks to us!
WHAT WAS YOUR IMPRESSION?
You have read the lesson. You’ve looked up the Scriptures. You have seen God answer the questions [maybe they were even your questions?]
Now, please check off, after each of the following questions, the answer you believe to be correct.
Does the Bible claim to be inspired by God?
__ definitely __not sure __ in a way.
Why do the Bible writers exhibit such remarkable agreement among themselves?
__they got together __the Bible really has One Author __we can’t know
What, or who, is the real heart of the Bible? __its history __its predictions __Jesus
What is the most important thing to have as we begin Bible study?
__an intelligent mind __a willing heart __plenty of time
Analyze your own attitude. Do you have a willing heart?
__yes __no __I want to have
What personal benefits do we receive from studying God’s Word?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A MOMENT OF MEDITATION
Dear Father, why have I waited so long to open the only Book that counts? Why have I thought of it as something theological that I could never understand? I see now that the Book lives, because Jesus is in it. It tells me about Jesus; why He came, and why He died. I want to know the Book, because I want to know Jesus! Thank You for making that possible. In the name of Jesus, our High Priest in the Sanctuary, Amen.
Document # 02_02,
Present Truth, is the longest document in the series, necessarily long. What happened throughout the Great Awakening, and how were events orchestrated by God to bring out the Three Messages for our time, on the prophetic time-line, till Jesus Comes?
PRESENT TRUTH
Hear these words from the Bible, from Revelation 14, vs. 6-12: “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. 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.
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation: and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus!”
Biblical “Present Truth” usually doesn’t just appear. It comes into focus, as it were, as a series of events are directed by the living God, leading to the discovery. It is as we look at the history of those events, that the focus becomes sharpened into a movement that proclaims that present truth.
What is the “beast?” What constitutes worship of the beast and his image? How do we get, or avoid getting, the “mark” of the beast? These things were hidden for many centuries, until the time came for the key that unlocked these mysteries to be discovered through the Providence of God’s leading.
So let’s begin at the beginning, and watch it come into focus.
In America, it began with the desire, of a farmer by the name of William Miller, to prove to himself if the Bible was really “the Word of God” or not. For some time he had been skeptical of the Bible, but by then, in the 1820’s, the Bible was easily obtainable, and an invaluable tool for its study, the Concordance, was also available.
Eventually, his interest was drawn to the study of the prophecies as an indicator of the Divine origin of the Bible.
The book of Daniel contains an intriguing mathematical mystery whose time had come. A large part of the last 5 chapters of Daniel has to do with its pinnacle statement – Daniel 8:14: “unto 2300 days, then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed.”
When he saw that one portion of Scripture explains another, and that when one passage was closed to his understanding, another part of the Word of God explains it, he found himself applying the Bible’s own prescription for Bible study method, which he found in Isaiah 28:9 to 13, in the K.J.V. – the Bible that God’s Providence made available to the English- speaking world at that time, for that time.
There, the Bible says: “Whom shall He [Holy Spirit] teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine?…For precept must be upon precept [law compared with law] line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people, to whom he said, “This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing:” yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. [By Satan!].
This study method was the key that unlocked the prophecies! Thus William Miller finally discovered that this “2300 days” in Daniel 8:14, this pinacle statement, meant 2300 years! He found two places in the Scriptures that revealed that for time prophecies, we are to take a prophetic “day” as a literal year.
Numbers 14:34 is about the arrival of the Exodus at the entry to the Promised Land, but they lost faith and refused to go forward, after spying out the land. It says, Numbers 14, verse 34, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each “day” for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.”
The second one is Ezekiel 4:6.
There the Scripture says, “And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.”
The book of Daniel, so long sealed in respect to this important time prophecy, was then unsealed! (It was to remain sealed “until the time of the end”). Dan.12, verse 4, 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.” Its unsealing means that we are now in the “time of the end!”
This unsealing was another indication, beyond the three signs Jesus gave, that His coming was “at the very doors;” that we are in the very time of the end. Rev. 6:12 and 13, give us the three signs. “And I beheld, when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake: and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Past was the huge earthquake centered in Lisbon Portugal, in 1755; past was the dark day of May 19, 1780, when “the moon turned to blood,” as occurred the night following the dark day; and, just 2 years after the beginning of the proclaiming of the unsealing of Daniel’s book, in 1833 came the falling of the stars, “like the casting of figs from a fig tree shaken of a mighty wind.”
The mainly Protestant population of North America generally believed that this was the third and last sign pointing to the Advent near (the Second Coming of Jesus!) A global Great Awakening of religious fervor resulted from the combination!
As Bible students world-wide picked up on the Bible Study Method Mr. Miller had employed, “line upon line, here a little, there a little,” and applied it to Dan.8:14, they recognized that the “cleansing” of the Sanctuary (the Temple established under Moses), was the Judgment day for ancient Israel at the end of each Jewish religious year – Leviticus 16:29 and 30 – found by using the key-word “cleanse:” “…in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls…For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.” On that Day, the “day of Atonement,” God judged the people’s sins that had been brought to the Sanctuary throughout that year, and the High Priest symbolically removed the record of the forgiven sins from the Sanctuary (thus “cleansing” the Sanctuary).
The High Priest came back out and put all of those sins on the head of a goat called the “scapegoat”, which represents Satan, and sent it off into the wilderness (a land uninhabited) where it would eventually perish (same chapter of Leviticus).
As Mr. Miller taught, this all was a type of, or illustration of, the final Judgment day at the end of the number of days (years) outlined in Daniel 8:14. The book of Hebrews, chapter 8, vs. 1 and 2, tell us:
“We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the Sanctuary, and of the true Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” This chapter revealed to them that the ancient Jewish Tabernacle or tent-Temple (the Sanctuary) given to Israel by God at Sinai, and its services, were to “serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,” being “a figure for the time then present.” (Hebrews 8:5; and Hebrews 9:9).
Therefore, there is a heavenly Sanctuary, which John the Revelator was shown opened (to our view) in heaven (sometime after the French Revolution, revealed in
Rev.11, ended, in 1796) Rev. 11:18,19. (NOTE end-time context).
There it is proclaimed, “And the nations were angry, but Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be Judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the Temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His Temple the ark of His testament!” (- the golden box that contained the Ten Commandments, in the second of the two rooms of the Sanctuary, beyond the vail that separated the two rooms).
What was done at the end of each year, only once a year, on “the day of atonement;” – the “cleansing of the Sanctuary,” of the earthly “example and shadow of heavenly things,” was to be done at the end of the ages, in the “cleansing of the [heavenly] Sanctuary” at the end of the 2300 days (years) prophecy!!
Kept from the knowledge of the people, even today, is the fact that Jesus, after His ascension, entered the first room of the heavenly Sanctuary, as our High Priest-Intercessor, before the vail, having obtained eternal redemption for us! Heb.9, verses 11 and 12 state, “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He enteredin once, into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
Here, please take a break, to keep your focus sharp.
Let’s continue where we left off before the break. “…neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, He [Jesus] entered in once, into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hebrews 9:11,12.
Verses 24 and 28 nail it down: “For Christ is not entered into the Holy Places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them without sin that look for Him shall He appear the second time unto salvation.”
In 1844, at the end of the 2300 “days,” Jesus entered the work of the “cleansing of the Sanctuary,” which relates to the entry of the Jewish High Priest into the second room of the Sanctuary, on earth, beyond the vail, once a year. Thus the “hour of His Judgment,” that of our High Priest, Jesus, began in 1844!! Not only the year of the day of Judgment, but even the very day, “the day of Atonement,” the 10th day of the seventh Jewish month, was calculated, and found to be October 22,1844. On that day, every believer thought that Jesus would come – the Second Advent or Second Coming of Christ!! Since part of the 2300 day prophecy so perfectly pointed out the timing of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus as Messiah, His death 3 1/2 years later, and the rejection of Israel as the chosen people, again 3 1/2 years later (making up the 70th week of Dan.9:27) these three events sealed the entire prophecy as being a year for a “day.”
Thus, the 2300 days is guaranteed to have ended in 1844, by the facts fulfilled by the 1st coming of Jesus as Messiah, which “seals up the vision and prophecy” into a year for a “day.” (Dan.9:24).
The very decree that fits the prophecy, to restore Jerusalem, was written out by Ezra in chapter 7 of the book of Ezra (See Ezra 7:7-26) That date was so important to the Jews that it is now one of the most solid dates of history before Christ: 457 B.C.
The time of the prophecy’s end, October 22, 1844, was certain!
The fact that it was the Judgment day was also certain. Suddenly, it was realized that Rev.14:6-12 was now “Present Truth!!”
“The hour of His Judgment is come!” The prophetic time-line had come to that point!
In 1844, Jesus entered the work of the “cleansing of the Sanctuary,” by entering into the second room of the heavenly Sanctuary, beyond the vail, where He is judging all believers, from Adam to the last living professed believer, till the fate of all are sealed by the decree of Jesus stated in Rev.22, verses 11 and 12, which is proclaimed in heaven: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
How are we judged? All are judged by the great Moral Standard, the 10 Commandment Law. We “…shall be Judged by the Law.” James 2:12.
Adam and Eve broke the 1st Commandment (wanting to make themselves as gods)
opening the flood-gate of sin onto this world. Do you keep His Commandments and have the faith of Jesus? – faith in the Word of God?
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” (Rev.14:12)
Since the “cleansing of the Sanctuary” is the work of our High Priest, Jesus, called “the hour of His Judgment” in the heavenly Sanctuary, it is time for all believers to “afflict themselves.” Those who do not seek to know if there is perhaps even one sin that they have not repented of, will be “cut off” from the people of God. From the parallel passage to Lev. 16, in Lev. 23:29, we read, “For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among His people.”
Sin is “the transgression of the Law:” (definition in 1st John 3:4).
Therefore, in this Judgment time, carefully examine the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20), to see if you are breaking even one of them! We “…shall be Judged by the Law.” James 2:10-12.
Since Jesus has His reward “with Him” when He comes (Rev.22:12) the Advent, or Second Coming of Christ, should shortly follow the day of Judgment, which began on the 10th day of the 7th month of 1844! Mr. Miller’s followers, world-wide, believed it would be that very day! God could do it in a moment, couldn’t He?? That’s over 160 years ago, but don’t blame them: realize that Noah preached the end of the world for 120 years before the flood came and destroyed all who refused the Ark of safety.
How soon will His Judgment come to us in the books of heaven? We won’t know until the door of probation closes and the 7 last plagues begin to fall upon those who have been deceived into receiving the “mark of the beast!”
Don’t follow the majority on that!
Now: what happened historically, as a result of the work of men like William Miller, in America? As the 2300 day prophecy was nearing its end, in 1843, right on time, the First Angel’s Message of Rev. 14 began to be preached world wide! “The hour of His Judgment is come: worship Him who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
NOTE: before 1844, it was not yet revealed to them that they did not yet have the Everlasting Gospel to preach (Rev.14:6) because they did not know that almost all Christians were breaking (transgressing) at least one of the 10 Commandments, without knowing it! The “beast” had already long since developed his “mark!” – More on that just ahead!
The Everlasting Gospel is the good news that all of us can keep all of the Commandments of God, through the Spiritual power of Jesus in you. Colossians 1:27, “God would make known…this mystery…which is, Christ in you, the hope of glory!”
This really good news is to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people (world-wide). It would now include the preaching of “the hour of His Judgment is come!” Further, they were to be admonished to “worship Him who made (Created) heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” It is Jesus who created heaven and earth! John 1:1-3, v.10, and v.14 tell us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made… He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, but the world knew Him not… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” Also, there is Hebrews 1:2: “God…hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made [Created] the worlds.”
About the beginning of 1844, the Second Angel’s Message was joined in with the First Angel’s Message. Rev.14:8:
“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!” The churches of Protestantism, as a whole, were rejecting the message of the Advent near, with scorn and scoffing, even forcing the people who supported the Advent Message to have to leave the denominational churches. The believers proclaimed against them, as the daughters of Babylon (“mother of harlots!!” – Rev. 17:5): “Babylon is fallen, is fallen!!” – the 2nd Angel’s Message. First was Rome’s spiritual fall, under the Papacy, but now Protestantism, the rest of Babylon, was also fallen spiritually!
In anticipation of the great final movement, as we now realize, of Rev.18:1-4, those proclaiming the Second Angel’s Message added, “Come out of her, My people.”
The churches were rejected of God, just like the Jews of the 1st century were, for they then plainly betrayed the fact that their hearts were with the world, not with the Lord Jesus, and that they preferred to have it so!!
A marked change then came over the churches in respect to their spiritual condition. In 1844, the ‘Religious Telescope’ used the following language:
“We have never witnessed such a general declension [decline] of religion as at the present. When we call to mind how ‘few and far between’ cases of conversion are, and the almost unparalleled impenitence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim…is the door of mercy closed??”
Charles G. Finney, well-known evangelist, said in February, 1844:
“…We have also another corroborative fact – the almost universal absence of revival influence in the churches. The spiritual apathy is almost all-pervading, and is fearfully deep; so the religious press of the whole land testifies. The churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate. They have gone very far from the Lord, and He has withdrawn Himself from them!”
The acceptance by Protestantism of the First Angel’s Message would have enabled the church to become “a light to all nations.” But, betraying her trust, by her rejection of the Message, she left the nations without the witness of present truth that they might have had, to grope in the darkness of error and superstition resulting from the systems of false doctrines she had built up and refused to relinquish. The Bible would not now be considered “out-of-date,” as it is today, even by Christianity itself! In the latter part of the nineteenth century, a marked change was seen in the attitude of both leaders and people of the Protestant churches toward the basic doctrines of the Scriptures of truth. Having rejected the true, they accepted the false.
The theory of evolution, accepted by many church leaders, in the words of one great religious writer, “turned the Creator out of doors!”
The great final movement, that revealing the true meaning of the Third Angel’s Message, followed the other two Messages soon after October 22, 1844.
Here, please take another break to keep your focus sharp.
The Third Angel’s Message. Before the year was out, the Movement’s leaders were shown the true Sabbath (which had been obscured since the 4th century!) by a Seventh-day Baptist woman. Seventh-day Baptists find their roots with John the Baptist, and had returned to keeping the true Sabbath of the 10 Commandments.
The 4th Commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Rev.14’s antidote to the false worship of worship of the “beast” and its “image,” is v.12: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” [-faith in the Scriptures as the Word of God.]
What then, is the mark of the beast that we must avoid? How can we keep from being deceived into worship of the “beast” and his “image?” There is no other denomination extant today, except that of the Seventh-day Adventists, which claims to be a fulfillment of the 3 Angel’s Messages – no other which holds forth as its prominent themes the subjects of which Revelation is composed!
The final reformation of all Christianity must now take place!!
Carefully remember that all three Messages of Rev.14 are now combined and relate one to the other. What is the connecting link? It is in the 1st Angel’s Message, where we would expect to find it. There, men are admonished to “worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters.” The 4th Commandment states, “…the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:11.
“Remembering,” and keeping the Sabbath holy, is to worship the Creator, the maker of heaven and earth.
Opposed to that is worship of the “beast” and his image, and receiving of his “mark!” This is the connecting link, unrealized by the Advent movement, till God revealed that the truth of the seventh-day Sabbath would finally separate those who serve God the Creator from those who worship the beast and his image!
Now: we must back-track a little for the sake of clearer understanding of the wording of the three angel’s messages.
In prophecy, God reveals the future using symbolic representations. In Daniel chapter 2, an image, made up of different metals, denoting succeeding kingdoms on earth, is replaced at a later time in Daniel’s life, by 4 different beasts (note that key word) denoting the same 4 kingdoms. Dan.7, verse 17, states, “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings [kingdoms] which shall arise out of the earth.”
Important to our understanding is the fact that Revelation also uses 2 different representations. Following the lead from Daniel, a strikingly similar “beast” imagery is used, tying Daniel’s visions to that of Rev.13!
“And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Rev.13’s “beast” (see the key word?) is the “beast” referred to in Rev.14, whose image and whose mark the 3rd Angel’s Message severely warns against!
Further, the “beast” is explained in more detail by changing its representation to a second symbolism, that of a vile “woman” (key word) Rev. 12 symbolizes the true church as a pure woman. (See Jeremiah 6:2). Rev. 17 symbolizes the fallen church as a vile woman – Babylon the Great, mother of harlots. She and the beast are the same power, just a different symbol. This is key to the correct understanding of the 3 Angel’s Messages. Both symbols refer to the Papacy! One symbol denotes her as a civil power (a “beast” is a kingdom we were told in Dan.7:17), the other as a religious power (a woman is a church). By her civil power she has enforced her mark (throughout the Dark Ages) and by her religious power she replaced the worship of the true Creator God with worship of herself, and her image, MARY!!
Thus, the 2nd Angel’s Message simply points to the second symbol as being the best revelation of what to look for – a spiritual fall among the rest of the world church – the Protestant daughters of Babylon. The 3rd Angel’s Message uses the “beast” symbol again, as the best revelation of what to look for – the worship of “the beast” and his image, this time enforced by the civil power it will control, fallen Protestant America, in place of the worship of Him who made heaven and earth and the sea! Rev.13, vs.11 and 12 tell us, “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; [here America is introduced into prophecy!] and he had two horns like a lamb [the bison!] but he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”
Compare this with the First Angel’s Message -Rev.14, verse 7: “Fear God, and give glory to Him…and worship Him, that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
Revelation 17, verse 18, “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
Compare that (“line upon line”) with v. 9, “The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” Rome is the city that sits on 7 hills or mountains!
The Papacy it is who will, in her revived state, cause American Protestantism to make an image to the “beast” (which at that time Protestants will be willing to worship! WATCH OUT – the High Anglican Church of England, NOW openly worships MARY. A lady of that church, in Canada, left her church. She would not worship that “graven image,” which would break the Second Commandment!).
Rev.13, verses 14 and 15 reveal this. “And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” The symbol representing Protestant America is a lamb-like “beast” that will soon speak like a dragon (a persecuting power)!!
It is the buffalo, which used to be the symbol of America, on the back of the nickel. I possess a 1913 American nickel with that symbol on the back!
The Papacy it is whose deadly wound, received when Napoleon’s army stripped the pope of his kingdom, and his power to persecute, in 1798, is healed.
Rev.13, verse 3, “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast.”
The pope again received a kingdom (making him once more a “beast”) from Mussolini, in 1929, in return for financing the fascist movement in Italy. (But the pope’s power to persecute has not been restored – – yet.)
At this point, please take another break.
There are more proofs that the “beast” is the Papacy.
Rev.13, v.18: “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.” (666)
The Papacy it is whose blasphemous name has a numerical value. Called the “vicar of the Son of God” – “vicarius filii dei,” – this is the Latin name he claims as his own title. In the Latin language certain letters are numbers – Roman numerals.
Taking the letters out of this title which are used as Roman numerals, we have: V=5; I=1; C=100; I=1; U (formerly the same as V) =5; I=1; L=50; I=1; I=1; D=500; I=1 – they add up to 666!!
The Papacy it is who persecuted Bible-believing Christians for a time, times (which is 2 times) and half a time – a prophetic period of 3 1/2 years, which is 1260 days. We find this by comparing Rev.12 v.14 with v.6:
“And to the woman (a pure woman, the true church) were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”
Verse 6 is a parallel verse: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there, a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” In prophecy that equals 1260 years (Ezekiel 4:6, Numbers 14:34). This time period was exactly fulfilled.
Roman Emperor Justinian decreed the pope “head of the church and corrector of heretics” which came into effect in 538 A.D. That power was removed by Napoleon’s army exactly 1260 years later, in 1798 A.D., when the Papal head of the beast received its “mortal wound!” Revelation 13, verses 2 and 3:
“And the beast which I saw…and I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death: but his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Verse 5 of Revelation 13 tells us that forty-two months is also 1260 years. “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” (thus 30 days to a month)
And, most important, the Papacy it is that thought to change times (the prophetic times which point directly to it as the “beast”) and Laws. Dan.7, verse 25, “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Man-made laws are changed all the time, but God’s Law is written in stone, by His own finger! Exodus 31, verse 18, “And He gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”
The Papacy took away the Bible from the people and replaced it with the Catechism. In it, she thought to change God’s Law! She removed the Second Commandment – that against idols [so she could advance her idol, the “graven image” of Mary]- and split the 10th into two to make up 10 again.
Also, she changed the 4th Commandment (therein the 3rd) transferring the solemnity of Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week, a change made official about 364 A.D.
In a statement from the office of Cardinal Gibbons, in 1895, she boasts that the change of the Sabbath is a mark of her power that she could even change the Commandments of God! That is the very word used! By both changes, the Papacy took away the worship due only to “Him who made heaven and earth and the sea.” – the One who has a right to man’s worship!
The Papacy is the “beast!”
The “mark” of the beast is the false Sabbath she instituted, by which she receives the worship due only to God! The “image of the beast” is MARY. Her idols are all around us today!
Babylon’s daughters, the Protestant churches of Europe and America, after rejecting the message of the Advent near in 1844, also rejected the Sabbath truth when it entered the movement, thus rejecting the 3rd Angel’s Message also. Thus Babylon’s daughters have received the “mark,” the change of the Sabbath by the “beast” (although they have not yet in America made an image and accepted the worship of Mary as well!) Rev.13:11-18 reveals that Protestant America, (called the “false prophet” in Rev.16:13) will make an “image” to the beast and “cause the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the beast whose deadly wound was healed.”
The world today is full of millions of Christians who honestly think that their denomination, be it Catholic or Protestant, is teaching them the truth that leads to eternal life: but the religious systems of Christianity have fallen and are today deceiving the people deliberately!! They have continued to keep the 1st day of the week, Sunday, the spurious Sabbath instituted by the Papacy!
Even Billy Graham, who has the knowledge of the true Sabbath, preaches openly that the Sabbath is Sunday, because his greatness would dissolve if he were to proclaim the truth!!
The Papacy, now again a world power, is preparing once again to war against “the remnant, who keep the Commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.” (Rev. 12, v.17) The “remnant” understand prophecy and reveal that the Papacy is “the beast” by proclaiming the 3 Angel’s Messages!
Because of that, the Papacy (the “beast”) will war against the “remnant” by an alliance with the “false prophet,” (Protestant America) and with Satan (with all of the non-Christian kingdoms of the world). Revelation 16, verses 13 and 14: “And I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs [frogs catch their prey with their tongues] come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet [who calls down fire from heaven in the sight of men – like Elijah the prophet did: but this miracle “deceives them that dwell on the earth!”] Watch for
this one!
Revelation 13, verses 13 and 14: “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast.” [More on this in the document, Watch Out!]
Continuing with Revelation 16, verse 14 clears it all up:
“For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”
Thus all the world will war against the “remnant” of God’s people and Jesus Himself! But now listen to Rev.19:11-21:
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse: and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire; and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on his vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” [-carrion birds.] Whose side will you be on??
A 4th Angel has now joined the 3 Angels of Rev.14!
Rev.18: 1-8: “After these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication [her false doctrines] and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 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.”
Jesus is calling you! These are His words!
If you have been worshipping on Sunday, you have been keeping the Commandment of the Papacy, as if he was god, and have been breaking the 4th Commandment of Creator God!!
As on the day of Pentecost, after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, you may be asking yourself:
“What must I do?”
Peter’s answer is there in Acts 2:36-41: “Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Dear friend, seek out the Seventh-day Adventist church nearest your home. Study the Bible lessons you can get there. Jesus wants to spend time with you teaching you His Truth. Study to show yourself approved unto God, rightly dividing the Word of Truth for yourself! Thus you will prepare for baptism into the “remnant.” Thus you will make your personal Covenant with God to keep His Commandments and be His obedient child. He promises that He will be your God!
Jeremiah 31:31-33 is quoted in the book of Hebrews [after Jesus’ ascension to
heaven] Hebrews 10, verses 16 and 17, which quote says: “This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days,” saith the Lord: “I will put my Laws into their hearts [through gratitude and love for Jesus, the Son of God, who gave His life to redeem us] and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I
remember no more.”
A MOMENT OF MEDITATION
Our Father in heaven, we want You to be our God! When Jesus comes, I must be
ready! Thank you for revealing the truth to us and opening our eyes! Please guide us into the path of salvation – save us from this untoward world! In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen, and Amen!
PLEASE DO NOT SIMPLY STUDY THIS MATERIAL ONCE –
GO BACK THROUGH IT TO STUDY EVERY PART
OF IT AND MAKE ITS TRUTHS YOUR OWN!
Document #02_03,
Present Truth Supplement, steps back from the detail of the previous Document, to note God’s full involvement in the events of the Great Awakening of the early 1800’s.
Scripture Text: Daniel 12:4
Title: Present Truth supplement.
Do we glorify the name William Miller? He unsealed the great prophecies of Daniel, and was responsible for causing a Great Awakening of religious fervor that spread world-wide. Why don’t we Adventists acclaim him as the greatest Bible scholar since apostolic times?
The reason is, It was God’s doing that our message came into being, not any man’s. He was indeed a prophet!
That was not recognized, officially, by the pioneers of the movement.
Daniel’s book was “sealed, even till the time of the end.”
By the way, do you think that William Miller was late? The time of the end began at what date? At the end of the time, times, and half a time, which was 1798. Daniel 12:7. On the surface, we might think that he was late. But he wasn’t. God was preparing what was needful for it to happen, and accomplished His purposes right on time.
In 1798, the Papacy was “taken out of the way” (2Thessalonians 2:7) by the “mortal wound” (Rev.13:3). She had kept the Bible from the people through the Dark Ages. God caused the Bible Societies, which sprang up in England and America, by 1805, to distribute the Word of God freely, in the English language – our trusty King James Version. It was God’s good pleasure to by-pass the great and the learned, and use the humble and the meek, so that the glory would be His, not man’s.
And so, a humble farmer in New England in the United States of America, was the one who studied through the prophecies at the direction of Holy Spirit. God unfolds His Word. He was about to begin the Investigative Judgment, and man must be warned.
“Surely the Lord God will do nothing but He revealeth His secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7
“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” Dan.12:12.
I bet you haven’t heard that one explained, have you? Here’s the answer. 1798 (the Papacy taken out of the way) plus the difference from 1290 days (which led to 1798) to 1335 days, which is 10 days to 1300, plus 35 to 1335 days, equaling 45 days, brings us to 1843. (1798 + 45=1843). It was in 1843 that the Great Awakening exploded upon the scene, as Bible students world-wide checked out the date William Miller had proclaimed would bring “the hour of His [God’s] Judgment:” and the Second Advent of Jesus! Be aware that in 1843, other Bible students corrected William Miller’s math, and finally settled on October 22, 1844 as the absolute correct date!
It was by using the Bible’s own prescription for Bible study method, inspired by Holy Spirit Himself for us to use, “line upon line, here a little, there a little,” that William Miller, and all of these Bible students, unfolded the prophecies to warn the world of what was to come! William Miller’s nickname was, “the old man and his Concordance!”
So let’s give the glory for the development of the Advent Movement, and of the
Seventh-day Adventist Movement, to Whom it is due! God caused the Bible to be
freely distributed through the Bible Societies. Only because of the availability of the Bible could the discoveries be found that unsealed the book of Daniel (and subsequently, the book of Revelation also)! Daniel’s book was sealed till the time of the end, till God released the Bible for distribution, by taking “the man of sin” “out of the way!” 2 Thess. 2:7.
William Miller was no more intelligent or learned than the average one of you or I. It was by using Holy Spirit’s simple prescription for Bible study, and faith in its reliability, that all of this that he did was accomplished! He became a prophet after the kind who unfold and proclaim prophecy – like John the Baptist. Just as surely, you can become a prophet!
Glory to God for all His wondrous works through His humble servants in this world!!
Document #02_04,
Your Personal Bible Study, is your key to real Bible Study, as was revealed to the pioneers of our end-time faith! Do not fail to understand its message!
Scripture Text: Daniel 12:4 (Always Read, just before the study).
Title: Your Personal Bible Study
According to time prophecies, well over 170 years have passed since we entered “the hour of His Judgment.” Yet, time is still going on. We are supposed to be in “the time of the end.” So we want to answer two questions today:
First: Are we really in “the time of the end?” and Second: If we are, why hasn’t Jesus yet come in the clouds of Glory?
I need to give you proofs that it is “the time of the end.” My first one is very simple, but extremely important, so I don’t want you to miss it. The Book of Daniel would be sealed from man’s understanding until when? Are you with me? Until when?
Until “the time of the end.” When we see that the Book of Daniel has been unsealed, are we not then in “the time of the end?” That settles it for me.
Since some of you may still be unsure, we need to pick up the history of the unsealing of the Book of Daniel. What prophet unsealed the Book? Yes, he was a prophet. Many of you may not realize that there are two kinds of prophet in Scripture. A lesser noted kind of prophet were those that explained Scripture and prophesy. Many, taught by Holy Spirit, were such prophets in the first century. John the Baptist was pre-eminently such a prophet!
Further, “Prophecy is history before it happens.”
Because we know this, and apply history to a prophecy to prove our interpretation to be correct, the prophets today are called “historicist” in our interpretation of prophecy. Do you know your history? Even the history of the Great Awakening of the 1800’s? What prophet unsealed the Book of Daniel?
William Miller, an obscure farmer in pioneer New England, unsealed the book of Daniel. But people, it didn’t happen all by itself. God brought it to pass, along with several other fulfillments of prophecy. Lots of things are to happen “at the time of the end.” Remember the 3 signs of Jesus’ Coming? They gave power to his Message!
Daniel 12, verses 4 all the way to verse 9, and especially verse 7, are explanation of when to expect “the time of the end.” The answer? “…it shall be for a time, times, and an half.” You may now be aware that that is 1260 days, which is 1260 years, because William Miller, the prophet God used for the purpose of unsealing the Book of Daniel, discovered that in Scripture prophecy, a prophetic “day” is a literal year.
That’s what unsealed the book of Daniel!
A year for a “day,” in prophecy, unsealed the book.
What prophetic history applies here? The Papacy of the Dark Ages was taken out of the position of power to persecute God’s people, by Napoleon’s General Berthier. The “man of sin” being thus “taken out of the way,” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) through God’s direction, allowed that by 1805 the Bible Societies began to distribute the Bible freely in England and the United States – our trustworthy KJV – leading to the unsealing!
Let us next look to the latter half of our Scripture text in Daniel 12, verse 4. It says, “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
Shawn Boonstra, speaker on the “It is Written” Television program, rightly
interpreted this verse recently. It doesn’t have to do with the explosion of our finite knowledge in this industrial age. It has to do with the context of this verse, the unsealing of Daniel’s Book! You will find that to be true in thousands of places in Scripture, that the immediate context reveals what the words really mean.
Knowledge of Scripture prophecy was exponentially increased.
Because Daniel’s Book was unsealed, Revelation as well was revealed to our understanding. To “run to and fro” refers to the Bible Study Method by which
knowledge of Scripture prophecy has increased!
William Miller was led by Holy Spirit to the key to Bible Study Method and prophetic interpretation.
Believers, in our time, are to possess “the Spirit of Prophecy!” What is Holy Spirit’s prescription for personal Bible Study? Do you know it? Do you use it? Do you study your Bible, or do you just dabble in it? Do you have a relationship with Holy Spirit, when you study, or are you alone? That’s how important using Holy Spirit’s prescription for Bible study is!!
Jesus told the disciple John, who wrote the Book of John, as well as Revelation, that
“the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.” John 14:26. Put with that the Scripture that says, “Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? …For precept must be upon precept [law compared with law] line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing.” Isaiah 28:9 to 12.
People, this is Holy Spirit’s Prescription for Personal Bible Study!! If you get nothing else from this seminar today, get this! This is how William Miller unsealed the Book of Daniel! This is how he and millions of others “run to and fro” and increase knowledge of the Bible prophecies. This is how you can prove all things that we will learn here, from the Scriptures!
But NOTE this WELL: God Provided the KJV of the Bible so that His prophecies would be unfolded, and only the KJV even contains this Prescription.
Without the KJV, Daniel’s Book might never have been unsealed! And that is still true of new light today! Line upon line is still unfolding prophecy.
Therefore, use the KJV as your study Bible because God miraculously Provided it! All other versions change the key-words!
So: how does the prescription work? William Miller’s nick-name was, “The old man and his Concordance.” The Concordance is a book still available today, that he used to compare line with line of Scripture, to find the answers Holy Spirit is willing to give you, yes even you, so that you may rightly divide the Word of God. William Miller sought to understand the words, in the 8th chapter of Daniel, verse 14, “unto 2300 days.” He looked up the key-word “day” in the Concordance, and found a pair of texts that clearly revealed that a prophetic day was to be understood as referring to a year! They were Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6.
Now: here is the big proof that he was right. Daniel 9:25, teaches that sixty-nine weeks (sixty-nine sevens) was to lead unto Messiah. Not four hundred and eighty three literal days would lead to the beginning of the work of Jesus as the Messiah, but 483 years came exactly to when Jesus began his ministry. This fulfillment, according to Dan.9:24, sealed prophecy into a year for a day!
So: Do you want to study your Bible alone, or do you want to study it with your Divine Teacher, Holy Spirit?
Allright: what other proofs should I give you that we are in “the time of the end?” It was to be at the end of the 1260 days, which is 1260 years. What happened during this 1260 years? The Papacy, as the Emperor of Rome decreed, was given the power to be “the corrector of heretics.” He forced all of the people of the so-called Holy Roman Empire, to worship as he dictated, or die: to believe as he dictated, or die.
He removed from their possession the Holy Bible, trying to keep them from knowing Truth.
For 1260 years he continued. Then, he was “taken out of the way.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7. What was he taken out of the way of? Why on earth do men put themselves
“in the way of” the revealing of Truth?
In 1798, at “the time of the end,” at the end of “a time, and times, and an half” (Dan.12:7) – 1260 days which is 1260 years, the Papacy was “taken out of the way” of the Bible. The Bible was given back to the people. By just seven years after he was taken out of the way, the Bible Societies of England and America were up and running, distributing the Bible to everyone who wanted one. By 1831, William Miller had unsealed the Book of Daniel. God caused it to happen. God called William Miller to the task, and gave him the tools to be His prophet. It was time to prepare the world for the Judgment Hour, that would begin in 1844! Amos 3, verse 7, says, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” (Do you still think William Miller wasn’t a prophet?)
You may be chosen to be one of God’s Elijah prophets of these last days!!
What else marked the beginning of “the time of the end?”
John tells us, in Revelation 6:12 and 13, “I beheld, when he had opened the sixth
seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Do you know that history now? Can you remember it to tell it to others?
In 1755, a huge earthquake centered in Lisbon, Portugal, affected 4 million square
miles. 90,000 perished in Lisbon alone. Many cities were destroyed. The worst hit were Portugal, Spain, and North Africa. 1755.
25 years later, in 1780, the Dark Day covered the entirety of New England (early
America) from 10 in the morning till 1 a.m. the next night. People were filled with fear that the Judgment Day was at hand, a very general opinion. The full moon appeared finally, but it was blood red! There was no mistaking this sign! The newspapers of the day shouted, “This is the second sign of the soon return of Jesus!” Mt.24:33 says:
“…when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors!”
In 1831, William Miller began to give a seminar series that unsealed the Book of Daniel. Two years into that movement, the third sign occurred. 1833. Again centered
over Protestant early America, the New England States, a falling of the stars such as had never been recorded before occurred: just two years after William Miller began
to preach the Judgment Day at hand and the return of Jesus in the Second Advent.
The Great Awakening, world-wide, had begun! In 1838, Josiah Litch, another “minor” prophet, took the “year for a day” principle taught by William Miller, and proclaimed that if it was right, the Turkish power (the king of the north of Daniel 11 verse 40) would end August 11, 1840, at the end of a prophecy of 391 years and 15 days from Rev. 9:15. NOTICE – Daniel 11:40; August 11, ’40. Thanks Holy Spirit.
It came to pass exactly on that day! The surety of the 1844 date that the Millerites
pointed to for the Judgment was strengthened still more!
The answer to our second question, that we began with today, I can answer in short order. If we are really in “the time of the end,” why hasn’t Jesus yet come in the clouds of Glory? It is partly because there are fulfillments yet to happen.
The Three Angel’s Messages of Rev.14, that were proclaimed in 1844, are to be repeated, along with the up-dated Fourth Angel’s Message of Revelation 18.
But the problem is that, as a Christian, none of you know, in detail, those Bible Messages for this time!
Will you dedicate yourself to learn your message here, seminar by seminar? Those who do, will “Prepare the Way of the Lord!”
Document #02_05, Presenting…Jesus, opens our minds to the declarations in Scripture, as to who He is! You will be surprised!
Scripture Text: Revelation 22:14 (Read before the study).
Title: Presenting…Jesus
Presenting who Jesus is and what He is doing is the way to lead people to the Present Truth – “the hour of His Judgment is come!”
I will begin before the beginning of this world. When did Jesus become the only begotten Son of God? Did He become the only begotten Son of God when He was begotten in the womb of the virgin Mary? For the answer, turn to Psalm 40:6 to 8. (read) Your Bible presents these verses as prophetic statements because of Hebrews 10:5 to 7. Please turn there (read). “…a body thou hast prepared me.”
Jesus pre-existed according to the Word of God, didn’t He? This is most important, because only Jesus, the Son of God, could be sent to be the Saviour. As the Son of God, Jesus was given the work of being the Creator of the Earth, because only as Creator could He pay the wages of sin for every one of us, His created beings. No man, not even an angel, could be created with this capability. They could die for only 1 person! Only the Creator Himself could accomplish Redemption! We find that Jesus was the Creator in several texts:
Jesus formed man with His own hands and breathed life into him. Genesis 2:7.
“God, who…spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; Who, being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person…when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:1-3.
You may also remember, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things
were made by Him…” and, for emphasis, “and without Him was not any thing made
that was made.” John 1:1-3. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, (His character) the glory as of the only begotten of the Father…” John 1:14.
And so, Jesus was born, grew up, and came as the Messiah, saying, according to Mark 1:15, “the time is fulfilled: the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (that the Son of God had come to pay the penalty for sin in our place, as foretold so long ago in Eden – Genesis 3:15!)
“The time is fulfilled…” What time is fulfilled?
Turn to Daniel 9:24, 25 (read). From the going forth of the command, to the time of the Messiah, Jesus, was to be 69 weeks, prophetic weeks, each day of it for a year, exactly 483 years to the year that Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled!”(Ezekiel 4:6 & Numbers 14:34 prove that a prophetic”day” is a literal year). Jesus came right on time! He is the Messiah.
Prophecy from 600 years earlier makes it certain!
But this 70 week prophecy does even more! The great 2300 day (year) prophecy of Dan.8:14 (read) is also illuminated and made sure by the 70 week prophecy.
Let’s pick up the story from Daniel 8. After hearing that the Temple would be cleansed at the end of 2300 years, Daniel misunderstood and thought the angel was referring to the earthly Sanctuary in Jerusalem instead of the heavenly Sanctuary. Daniel’s focus was on the Jewish return from exile in Babylon, maybe within his own lifetime. For it to be deferred to the end of 2300 years “blew him away” and he fainted! (Dan. 8:27)
When Babylon was taken over by the Medes and Persians, his hopes revived, and he discovered that Jeremiah the prophet had predicted their return from exile in but 70 years, which was almost complete! (see Dan. 9:2).
So, Daniel humbles himself in sackcloth and ashes, with fasting, and prays for God to “defer not” their return. (read Dan. 9:16-19) The angel returned immediately (v.21) and would now, by the information contained in the 70 weeks prophecy, correct Daniel’s misunderstanding. He says, “…therefore, understand the matter, and consider the vision” (of the 2300 days! – v. 23). Note the connection in verse 24. The 70 weeks would “seal up…the vision.” If the 69 prophetic weeks of years led unto Messiah in exactly 483 years, then the 2300 days, beginning at the same point, would end in 2300 years!
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city…” (9:24) The word for “determined upon” has the further meaning, in this context, of being “cut off from,” as the first part of, the 2300 day prophecy!
Daniel’s misunderstanding is cleared up fully in v. 25. The Jews would return to rebuild Jerusalem and the Sanctuary (Temple) completing both in “seven weeks” of the 70! (49 years) (re-read v. 25 carefully – the last part from “the street…” explains why the seven weeks are a separate part of the 69 week total unto Messiah.)
As surely as the 69 weeks (which began in 457 B.C.) was fulfilled in exactly 483 years, when Jesus took up His work as the Messiah (27 A.D.) the 2300 years would lead to when the heavenly Sanctuary would be “cleansed,” (1844!)
As surely as Jesus became “the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) He also became, at His ascension, our High Priest in the Heavenly Sanctuary, mediating His sacrificial blood on our behalf, when we repent and confess our sins unto Him in prayer. Turn first to the first letter of John, 1 John 1:9 (read). Now compare that with Hebrews 8:1 to 5 (read).
Since His ascension, till 1844, Jesus, our High Priest, has been our Intercessor in the first room of the Sanctuary in heaven, before the veil between the two rooms, bearing our sins in His own body and atoning for them with His own blood as the Lamb of God. Please read with me the first letter of Peter, 1 Peter 2:24 (read). I want you to see something. Jesus was acting as our High Priest even before His crucifixion. Jesus bore our sins in His own body, after the decision was made that fateful night at Gethsemane! He bore our sins when He atoned for them by the sprinkling of His own blood before the vail.
How? The vail of the Old Testament Temple (Sanctuary) symbolized the veil of darkness that settled over the cross, put there by the Father Himself, so that Jesus could substitute His blood for ours! We ourselves should have each been upon that cross, paying the penalty for our sins! Since His ascension, Jesus has, as in the earthly Temple example, applied His atoning blood, with His intercessory prayer for us, as we repent of sins and turn to Him asking forgiveness and cleansing.
(Cleansing is accomplished as we receive His Spirit into our lives. We must put Him on the throne in our mind and refuse to sin against Him, by the power of His Spirit, which has already wrought total overcoming in Jesus! However, if we put self back onto the throne in our mind, we are power-less to keep from sinning!)
But let’s not forget the end of the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14 (read). The 2300 years ended in 1844, made certain by the events of Jesus’ first coming as Messiah. In 1843, as you would expect God to cause to happen, there was indeed a world-wide Great Religious Awakening. All the Christian world thought that 1844 would be the year that Jesus would come again and cleanse the world by fire! But was it the date of the Second Advent of Jesus in power and great glory? The whole Christian world thought so in 1844. But it would lead to what the Bible says it would lead to, not men’s expectations.
“Unto 2300 days, then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed.” Reference to a Bible
Concordance, using the key-word “cleanse,” leads us to Leviticus 16 – the description of the “cleansing” of the earthly, example Sanctuary, thus explaining the cleansing of the real one in Heaven! Lev. 16:30, and the whole chapter.
What is this “cleansing?” It is the cleansing of the Sanctuary of the record of sins transferred there and dealt with by the atoning blood of Jesus. The example Sanctuary shows us that this is accomplished in a Judgment Day, wherein the books of record in Heaven are opened and the sins of the people are assessed to see if their repentance for sin was real: their repentance had to be followed by reform and sanctification (choosing to refuse to sin) during their probation. (remaining life).
The same truth applies to us today! Let’s wrap together Daniel 7:9 and 10, with Leviticus 16. First, Daniel 7:9 and 10 (read).
The books are the books of record (for the court) of each person’s deeds who looked to the Heavenly Sanctuary and our High Priest, Jesus, for atonement for their sins. Now, Leviticus 16:30: the focus of the ceremony:
“For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.”
So when, according to Daniel, does the Judgment begin? At the end of the 2300 days …1844 and beyond, including right now! What does Jesus want to do? Cleanse us from all sin, while we live! Ask Him to accomplish that work in you!
When the 69 weeks was fulfilled, Jesus came preaching, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mark 1:15. But the Jews failed to accept the Son of God as their King-Saviour. They failed to confirm the Covenant. They murdered the Son of God and refused to repent. Therefore, the gospel went to the Gentiles, till the time of the Gentile Christian Church would be fulfilled. That time reached to 1844. Then the Judgment hour began! The Gentile Christian Church was Judged – but found fallen!
Turn to Revelation, chapter 14:6 and 7(a) (read).
“…the hour of His Judgment is come!” It is long since time that we go, saying, “The time in Daniel 8:14 is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God (the Son of God) is at hand: repent, and believe the Everlasting Gospel (that Jesus has paid for our sins in our place, and offered us His Spirit to live within us!) and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters…” the Creator! That’s Jesus, our Creator, Saviour, High Priest, and Lord (King) of our lives; IF we receive Him!
Jesus made a Covenant with Israel, which they finally and irrevocably broke. So, Jesus made a new Covenant with spiritual Israel, the Christian Church.
Let’s see it in Hebrews chapter 8. Turn there please. Hebrews 8:6 to 10 (read). Do you see that the Covenant Jesus made in the Lord’s Supper, writes His Law in our hearts? “If you love Me, keep My Commandments.” John 14:15. Animal sacrifices failed to cause this. But Jesus, lifted up on a cruel cross, for me, has accomplished causing me to love Jesus. That is the secret to His power over sin in my life. Because I love my Creator God, who left all heaven to come to die that cruel death for sin; my sin; I can love Jesus more than sin! I don’t want to sin, any sin, anymore! And I am being cleansed by the blood of the Lamb! I have not yet achieved, but I press toward that mark. Is that your experience? Friend, if that is not yet your experience, won’t you look upon Jesus, on that cruel cross, lifted up before you? Won’t you look and live??
When you love Jesus, you will keep His Commandments. You will be sanctified! Read John 14:15-26.
Now: turn to Exodus 31:13 to 18 (read).
The Sabbath is the sign of the Covenant. It was then, and is now, because Jesus is the Creator. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.” Exodus 20:8, 11.
That is the 4th Commandment: and it is the focal point of Revelation 14:7…”the hour of His Judgment is come! Worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea!”
Then, Jesus says in Revelation 14:8, through the figure of the Second Angel’s Message, that the Gentile Christian Church is fallen. Not even just once, but twice! Where is it: a Christian Church identified as in Babylon? Turn to the first letter of Peter, 1 Peter 5:13 (read). This letter was written from Rome, and Peter refers to the church at Rome as the church in Babylon! (compare Rev.18:10, with Rev.17:1, 9, and 18). The original Christian church, which prophecy and history show devolved into the Papal Church at Rome, fell into false worship: worship of the Pagan (inspired by ancient Babylon) deity, the Sun-god. This false worship finally caused the “deadly wound” to the Papal form of the church, in 1798, when Berthier, a general of Napoleon’s army, took the pope prisoner and stripped him of his kingdom and his power to persecute true Christians. (read Rev.13:3)
The Papal Catholic Church has continued in the same sin, since its healing of the deadly wound, and the rebuilding of its power throughout the world.
But by 1844, the prophecy now refers also to the rest of the Christian Church, now including the Protestant daughter churches. All of the Christian Church has fallen, since 1844, continuing in the same sin of false worship as caused the deadly wound to the Papal Church in 1798. (read Rev. 17:1-6 – NOTE: “Mother of Harlots”) After 1844, Babylon and her daughters, which had become the very image of their mother church, rejected the Sabbath truth, and accepted the false Sabbath, Sun-day worship, which Papal Rome put in place of the true Sabbath. Sunday is not the Sabbath! The mark of Papal Rome’s power is that it has thought to change this focal point of God’s Law! How do we know? God’s Word foretold it!
Turn to Daniel 7 again, Daniel 7:25 (read to “laws”).
That is talking about God’s Laws, and God’s prophetic times! In the hour of God’s Judgment, since 1844, every person is to repent of breaking God’s Laws and believe the gospel, the good news that you can be forgiven the sins that are past (Romans 3:25) and that you can keep the Commandments of God, all of them, by looking to Jesus our Creator, who became the Lamb of God, lifted up upon the cross: Jesus, who ascended as our High Priest-Intercessor, to the heavenly Sanctuary: Jesus, whom we can learn to love more than sin!
Since 1844, those who have received the true Sabbath, and come out of Babylon, to worship the Creator God, have rejected false worship and can stand in the Judgment if they remain firm to the end!
False worship is worship of Rome’s man of sin (see Second Thessalonians 2:3 and 4), by keeping his commandment to keep Sunday holy, in place of the Sabbath of Jesus, instituted at Creation! People who have rejected the Sabbath truth, from 1844 till now, have instead received the “mark” of the “beast!”
Return to Revelation 14:9 to 11.
This is the greatest warning in the Bible: the 3rd Angel’s Message (read).
Those who will not receive of the wrath of God, will fulfill verse 12! (read).
God’s remnant, the left-over part of His true Christian Church, will keep God’s Commandments and “have the faith of Jesus,” which is faith in the Scriptures!
Turn back a little to Rev. 12:17 (read). Here again the remnant are identified. They are found in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, which reveals Babylon, and it’s “mark,” and it’s “image” (idols of MARY)!
Now, in the closing scenes of earth’s history, another angel, another messenger, is emphasizing the messages of the second and third angels.
(read Rev. 18:1-5)
So, ours are all four Angel’s Messages. We are to proclaim the true, Everlasting Gospel – that the love we can have in us for Jesus will cause us to be able to keep His Commandments, including worshipping Him, our Creator, by keeping His Sabbath holy! We are to proclaim the Judgment hour: reveal the sin that the Christian Church has fallen into: (false worship) and, show how to be saved from the wrath to come. (“Come out of Babylon, My people!”). Friends, by teaching who Jesus is, and what He is doing, we can lead our hearers to the present truth – the four Angel’s Messages! When Jesus returns in the Second Advent, will you be found on His side in the conflict between truth and error, good, and evil?
This study can be photo-copied so that you can share this subject with people you come into contact with. May it help you to warn people that it is time to choose the kingdom of heaven! Download the pamphlet form.
Document #02_06,The Real Issue, will make your choice clear. Choose you, this day, whom you will serve!
The Real Issue
The Real Issue in the Three Angel’s Messages of Revelation 14:6-12, is true versus false worship. It is the Creator, who made heaven and earth, not the “beast” nor his “image,” who has a right to our worship!
God’s seal, the sign of His creative power, is the true Sabbath, God’s rest day. It follows that the seal or mark of this other power, would be that power’s rest day, or the false day of worship he instituted in place of the Sabbath. When the apostolic faith was taken over by the Catholic Church of Rome, she quickly accepted pagan practices and fell away from the truth. See Daniel 11:30. Among other things, as the Papacy arose to power, the church took the pagan Sunday, and made it the Christian Sunday, in order to unite the whole Roman empire under the church! The Emperor of Rome, (Constantine) “had intelligence with” (a strategy session with) (the bishops of Rome) “them that forsake the Holy Covenant.” [the Commandments, kept in the ark of the Covenant!] Daniel 11:30, part “b.”
By this act of the bishop of Rome, in changing this sign that has to do with worship, the Papacy thereby claims to be a god, greater than the Creator!
“The Christian Sabbath is therefore to this day the acknowledged offspring of the Catholic Church, as Spouse of the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant world.”- The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893.
To fully worship the Creator, we must recognize the sign of His Creative power, and that sign is the Sabbath. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth…and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:11. This means that He separated it from a common to a religious use; to be a perpetual memorial or sign that all who thus observe it would show themselves to be the worshipers of that God who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. See Exodus 31:17 and also v. 13. The importance of the Sabbath as a memorial of Creation is that it keeps ever present the true reason why worship is due to God – it is because He is the Creator, and we are His creatures.
The Sabbath, therefore, lies at the very foundation of divine worship; for it teaches this great truth in the most impressive manner, as no other institution does. The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God. It follows that the Message which commands men to worship “…Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters,” will especially call upon them to keep the Fourth Commandment.
The “mark” of apostasy is thus clearly identified. It is the false day of worship instituted by the Papacy in place of the true “day of the Lord” – the Sabbath. See Mark 2:28! The third angel warns against receiving this “mark” of the “beast.”
When the decree shall go forth enforcing the counterfeit Sabbath – Revelation 13:17, will you be found worshiping the “beast,” or the Creator of heaven and earth?
Further, the Papacy’s “image” has always been Mary, the “mother of God.” Their chant, in the Rosary, is, “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us…[that our sins might be forgiven.]” That replaces Jesus as the Mediator between God and man with Mary. It is Mary that they say was immaculately conceived! It is Mary that they have made a god, and they have made an image of her to be worshiped! “…and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.” Daniel 11:38 – see also v.39. Worship of images and false gods breaks both the first and second Commandments!
Revelation 13:14 and 15, reveal that America, Protestant America, will finally also “make an image to the beast,” and institute worship of Mary. America will then decree death to those who refuse to worship her!
Take notice of what’s going on around you. The High Anglican Church, the Protestant Church of England, now openly worships Mary! Can the rest of Protestantism be far behind? (Take note of Ecumenism!). Images of Mary are in homes all around us, world-wide! Apparitions (sightings) of Mary are proliferating in all the world, and also in the United States. The Christian Coalition, gaining power in U.S. politics, wants to enforce moral legislation “to protect our Christian nation.” The corruption of politicians such as former President Clinton is playing right into their hands!
Rev.13:14,15 is in process of coming to pass!
When a death decree is issued over worship of Mary, will you obey God…or man? How did Peter and the other disciples answer the High Priest before the council, when he asked them, “Did we not straitly command you that you should not teach in this name?” They boldly answered, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:27-29.
Dear friend: If you would have the gift of God, eternal life, you must obey God, not man! Read Mt.10:32, 33!
Prepare yourself to confess your belief in Jesus as your Creator…and KING, whose Ten Commandments you obey!