Friday Morning Manna January 11, 2019
Nathaniel Fajardo email: [email protected]
What Happened to the Movement Linking the Exodus and Advent Movements?
“Thus says the Lord: Keep My justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” Isiah 56: 1, 2, N.K.J.V.
We saw that the Protestant Reformation Movement was the connecting link between the Exodus in the Old and the Advent Movement in the New Testament. God commanded the gospel prophet, Isaiah, to declare then and more specifically in in its antitypical application: “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”
This heart-breaking yet salvation-determining message is part of the Third Angel’s message entrusted to the Advent Movement. God placed upon them the duty and privilege to “tell,” “show” (K.J.V.) His people “their transgression,” “the house of Jacob their sins” in trumpet tones, meaning warnings not muffled, obscure or “peace-and-safety” versions, using God’s word, unto the law and testimony” (Isa 58: 1) to reveal to them their condition.
The churches that refused to receive the first angel’s message [given in 1840] rejected light from Heaven. (Note: Since the SDA church was not yet formed and organized till 1863, these “churches” were definitely the Protestant churches at that time]. That message [the first angel’s] was sent in mercy to arouse them to see their true condition of worldliness and backsliding, and to seek a preparation to meet the Lord. God has ever required His people to remain separate from the world that they might not be allured from their allegiance to Him.
The Example of Ancient Israel. “He delivered the Israelites from bondage to Egypt because He would not have them corrupted by the idolatry with which they were surrounded. The children of this world are the children of darkness. Their attention is not directed to the Sun of righteousness [Jesus], but it centered upon themselves and the treasures of earth. Blinded by the god of this world, they have no just perception of the glory and majesty of the true God. While they enjoy His gifts, they forget the claims of the Giver. Such have chosen to walk in darkness, and they are led by the prince of the powers of darkness. They do not love and enjoy divine things, because they do not discern their value or loveliness. They have alienated themselves from the light of God, and their understanding becomes so confused in regard to that which is right, true, and holy, that the things of the Sprit of God are foolishness to them.[ .
“It was to separate the church of Christ [the Protestant churches then] from the corrupting influence of the world that the first angel’s message was given. But with the multitude, even of professed Christians, the ties which bound them to earth were stronger than the attractions heavenward. [“Remember Mrs. Lot!”]. They chose to listen to the voice of worldly wisdom, and turned away from the heart-searching message of truth.
“Peter, writing as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, described the manner in which the message of Christ’s second coming would be received: ‘There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep [are all dead], all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God . . . whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved unto the fire against the day of judgmentand perdition of ungodly men.’ (2 Pet. 3: 3-7).
“Those who perished in the waters of the flood had an opportunity to escape. All were urged to find refuse in the ark; but the multitudes refused to heed the warning. So when the first angel’s message was given, all who heard were invited to receive it, and share the blessings that follow its acceptance; but many scorned and rejected the call. . . . Inspiration declares that when the antediluvians rejected Noah’s words, the Spirit of the Lord ceased to strive with them. So when men now despise the warnings God in His mercy sends them, His Spirit after a time ceases to arouse conviction in the heart. God gives light to be cherished and obeyed, not to be despised and rejected. The light which He sends becomes darkness to those who disregard it. When the Spirit of God ceases to impress the truth upon the hearts of men, all hearing is vain, and all preaching is also is vain.
“When the churches spurned the counsel of God by rejecting the Advent message, the Lord rejected them. [Then] the first angel was followed by the second, ‘Babylon is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ Rev. 14: 8. This message wad understood by Adventists [then] to be an announcement of the moral fall of the churches in consequence of their rejection of the first message. The proclamation, “Babylon is fallen,’ was given in the summer of 1844, and as a result, about fifty thousand withdrew from these churches.
Who is the ‘Babylon” pointed out in the Second Angel’s message?
“The term Babylon, derived from Babel, and signifying confusion, is applied in Scripture to the various forms of false or apostate religion. But the message announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to some religious body that was once pure, and has become corrupt. It cannot be the Romish Church which is here meant; for that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. [the Protestant Reformation in the Old World exposed that]. But how appropriate he figure as applied to the Protestant churches, all professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable sects. The unity for which Christ prayed for does not exist. [See John 17]. Instead of one Lord, one faith, one baptism, there are numberless conflicting creeds and theories. Religious faith appears so confused and discordant that the world does not know what to believe as truth. God is not in all this; it is the work of man,— the work of Satan.
The Mother and Her Daughters
“In Revelation 17, Babylon is represented as a woman, a figure which is used in the Scriptures as the symbol of a church. A virtuous woman represents a pure church, a vile woman an apostate church. Babylon is sad to a harlot, and the prophet [John] beheld her drunken with the blood of saints and martyrs. The Babylon thus described represents Rome, that apostate church which has so cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ. But Babylon the harlot is the mother of daughters who follow her example of corruption. Thus are represented those churches that cling to the doctrines and traditions of Rome and follow her worldly practices, and whose fall is announced in the second angel’s message.
“The close relation of the church to Christ is represented under the figure of marriage. The Lord has joined His people to Himself by a solemn covenant, He promising to be their God, and they pledging themselves to His, and His alone. Said Paul, addressing the church, ‘I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ.’ 2 Cor. 11: 2. But when her confidence and affection were turned away from Him, and she sought vanity, and allowed the love of worldly things to separate her from God, she forfeited the privileges included in this peculiar and sacred relation. By the apostle James those who assimilate to the world are addressed as ‘adulterers and adulteresses.’ James 4: 4.
The Illicit Relations of the Churches with the World
“A profession of religion has become popular with the world. Rulers, politicians, lawyers, doctors, merchants, join the church as a means of and advancing their own worldly interests. Thus they seek to cover all their unrighteous transactions under a profession of Christianity. The various religious bodies, reinforced by the wealth and influence of these baptized worldlings, make a still higher bid for popularity and patronage. Splendid churches, embellished in the most extravagant manner, are erected on popular avenues. The worshippers array themselves in costly and fashionable attire. A high salary is paid for a talented minister to entertain and attractthe people. His sermons must not touch popular sins, but be made smooth and pleasing for fashionable ears Thus, fashionable sinners are enrolled on the church records, and fashionable sins are concealed under a pretense of godliness. God looks down upon these apostate bodies, and declares them daughters of a harlot. To secure the favor and support of the great men of the earth, they have broken their solemn vows of allegiance and fidelity to the King of Heaven.
What is the ‘wine of Babylon’?
“The great sin charged against Babylon is, that ‘she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ This cup of intoxication which she presents to the world, represents the false doctrines which she has accepted as the result of her unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth. Friendship with the world corrupts her faith, and in her turn she exerts a corrupting influence upon the world by teaching doctrines which are opposed to the plainest statements of the Word of God.
What are the most popular and most intoxicating of the Babylonian wines?
“Prominent among these false doctrines is that of the temporal millennium,–a thousand yeas of spiritual peace and prosperity, in which the world is to be converted, before the coming of Christ. [Rapturists of all denominations, etc.]. This siren song has lulled thousands of souls to sleep over the abyss of eternal ruin.
“The doctrine of natural immortality of the soul has opened the way for artful working of Satan through modern Spiritualism; and besides the Romish errors, purgatory, prayers for the dead, invocation of saints, etc., have sprung from this source, it has led many Protestants to deny the resurrection and the Judgment, and has given rise to the revolting heresy of eternal torment, and the dangerous delusion of Universalism. [all mankind will be saved eventually!]
“And even more dangerous and more widely held than these [the above false doctrines] are the assumption that the law of God was abolished at the cross, and that the first day of the week is now a holy day, instead the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
“The most fearful threatening ever addressed to mortals is contained in the Third angel’s message. That must be a terrible sin which calls down the wrath of God unmingled with mercy. Men are not to be left in darkness concerning this important matter; the warning against this sin is to be given to the world before the visitation of God’s judgments, that all may know why they are to be inflicted, and have the opportunity to escape them.
The antitypical showdown between the Elijah Messengers and the Baalim Sunday Priests of the Last Days.
“In the issue of the great contest, two distinct, opposite classes ae developed. One class’ worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark,’ and thus bring upon themselves the awful judgments threatened by the Third Angel. The other class, in marked contrast to the world, ‘keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ (Rev. 14: 9, 12). Though the powers of earth summon their forces to compel ‘all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond,’ to receive the mark of the beast, yet the people of God [living at that time of final test] do not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds ‘them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God,’ (Rev. 15: 2), and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. “Such were the momentous truths that opened before those who received the Third Angel’s message. (Continued next week)