a peg in a sure place

[rainbowinthesky]

In the last posts we saw that the 144,000 cannot be the first fruits because of any precedence in point of time but because through them Christ will accomplish a work without the successful accomplishment of which there can never be a harvest of the rest (general resurrection).

To understand this we need to be clear on the legal issues at stake in the great controversy itself, so that we shall comprehend what the devil is seeking to accomplish and what the Lord must accomplish before the closing of the great controversy.

That there is something very much at stake in the matter of the perfection of the 144,000 while still living, and that upon that work hinges the fate of all the righteous in all ages, as well as the security and the prosperity of the universe, is made clear from the following statement.

"Satan numbers the world as his subjects, he has gained control of the apostate churches; but here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them out from the earth, his triumph would be complete." 5 T 472-473.

The context shows that it is speaking of that time when the devil has gained control of the whole world, and only a tiny remnant remain in defiance of his determination to rule the world and break the plan of salvation. The setting is the closing scenes of the great day of atonement when only the 144,000 are left alive of all who are the faithful of God.

The only hope he has of being able to blot them out from the earth is to break their faith in the saving power of God and thus lead them into sin at a time when the sanctuary service is closed and the ministry for sin is ended. If he could do this, then he could and would destroy them out of existence and if he could do that then his triumph would be complete. In other words he would be the victor in the great controversy of the ages. he would have proved his point and thus would have proved God to be the liar in the situation.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

From the beginning of the great controversy, Satan has declared that the law of God is unjust, oppressive, and self-serving so far as God is concerned, and therefore cannot be obeyed by any created being. He made this "discovery" when he stood in the very light of God's presence and, beginning to look upon his own brightness and talent and seeing himself as being worthy of a position far better and higher than that which had been assigned to him, naturally thought at first that the Lord would see him as he saw himself and would elevate him to a position of equality with Christ.

But as time went by, he saw no evidence on the part of the Lord that He would give to him the position which, in his own eyes, he felt was worthy of himself.

Instead of checking to see if he really was what he thought he was, he then revised his attitude to the law of God and decided that the Lord was keeping him down so that he could preserve a special place and position for Himself and for His Son Jesus Christ. Thus he "discovered", because of his now warped and self centered view of matters, that the law of God was designed to serve a self-serving God, and was not for the happiness of the creatures at all but only to bind them in slavish bondage to the supreme power of God and the Son.

So it was that he purposed in his heart that if the Lord would not give him that which he deemed as being rightfully his and what he considered was being withdrawn from him by a selfish and self-serving God, he would rise up and take it by force. He reasoned that his reaction was entirely justified and the only possible course to take once he realized that he had been "deceived" as to the true character of God, whom he now looked upon as being a master imposter.

It therefore became a conviction with him that the law of God could not truly be kept at all and that those who were obeying it were only doing so because they were in the tyranny of a terrible bondage. But let those created beings only be awakened to the great "discovery" he had made, and they with him, would end forever their servitude to God and the Son.

That this is so is not a matter of guesswork or of mind reading on our part, for the devil has come right out and said it.

to be continued

 

[rainbowinthesky]

Look at the incident over Job in the Old Testament. There the evil one presented himself at the counsel of the Sons of God and was challenged by the Lord over the integrity of Job. "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and eschews evil?" Job 1:8.

In his reply Satan did not deny that Job was serving God, but he came right out and said that he was doing it only because he did not realize the true character of God. Job was so deceived that he saw God as Lucifer once saw Him, as a benefactor of His children, but let the Lord show his real character and let Job see that character as One who was an oppressor, and then Job would curse God to His face.

"Then Satan answered, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face." verses 9-11.

Thus Satan declared that rebellion is inevitable should the created beings once become aware of the true nature of the situation. With this conviction firmly in his mind, he went to work to assist the unfallen angels to a realization of their situation, and was successful in enlisting one third of the heavenly host over to his side in full and open rebellion against God. This was a significant victory on his part and gave him a great start in the now long standing controversy.

The gaining of the one third of the angel host was bad enough, if that is all that he did gain, but in actual fact the whole of the heavenly host were deceived in part and until the cross of Calvary followed God with some reservations. Up until that time there was the question in their minds that perhaps, after all, the devil was correct and that the Lord was deceiving them to a certain extent at least.

"Not until the death of Christ was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds. The archapostate had so clothed himself with deception that even holy beings had not understood his principles. They had not clearly seen the nature of his rebellion." Desire of Ages, 758.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

"Satan saw his disguise torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came forth from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ's brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken." Desire of Ages,761.

This statement clearly states that the last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken by his murdering Christ upon the cross of Calvary.

Now there is a decided difference between having a sympathy WITH and having a sympathy FOR another party. For there to exist a sympathy with or between two parties, there must be a sharing of the same attitudes and thoughts or, at the very least, a conceding that what the other man believes and does has a certain measure of justification, while on the other hand you can have sympathy for a person because of the very unfortunate situation in which he finds himself, without in the least degree symathizing with his ideology and way of life.

Thus today we can and should feel very sorry even for the devil, by which we show sympathy for him, but at the same time there must not be the least sympathy between him and ourselves over anything which he believes and does.

Right up to the crucifixion, when the love of God and the character of God appeared at their very best, while the character of Satan appeared at its every worst, the unfallen beings had not entirely lost their sympathy for the sophistries of Satan, but with that revelation of the two contending parties, Satan lost everything, so far as sympathy from the heavenly world was concerned.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

At the cross, tremendous ground had been gained by the forces of righteousness, but the final battle was not yet won. Heaven had been secured it is true, every dweller there had come to see for themselves the true nature of Satan's character and arguments, and had gladly acknowledged the fact and had taken definite action to give him not the least degree of entertainment at all.

Now the same battle must be brought to finality upon this earth so that men, both good and evil, would wholly see that Satan is the great deceiver and wholehartedly acknowledge the truth of it.

A certain situation had to be reached before the victory could be gained by which the heavenly host were fully released from Satan's deceptions, and it took all of four thousand years to do it.

Likewise, a certain situation will have to be reached before the end can come, with the complete revelation to sinful man as well as to the righteous, of the real character of Satan.

Christ was the Champion who gained the victory on Calvary, and He will again be the One who will gain the final victory; the instruments in His hands being the 144,000. What had been done in the one great battlefield, the struggle for the allegiance of the UNFALLEN beings, must now be done again in the struggle for the minds of the FALLEN beings.

As Christ fulfilled the role of the first fruits in the first such great battle, so He will again have His first fruits in the reproduction of Himself in the 144,000.

Let us see how this will be done.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

When Adam sinned in the garden of Eden, Satan exulted, for now he could point to the fact that perfect angelic nature and perfect human nature were not proof against the temptation to sin. It took only one encounter, the work of a few minutes, to overthrow Adam and Eve in their perfect Eden home. Satan thought that now he had a secure base of operations against the government of Heaven until the words were spoken:

"I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." Gen.3:15.

From that moment on, the effort of Satan has been to abolish righteousness out of the earth by destroying the people of God off the face of it, and many times he has come perilously close to succeeding. Again and again he has led Israel into sin, and thus, "he hoped to establish the claim put forth when he rebelled in Heaven--that the requirements of God were unjust and could not be obeyed. Even Israel, he declared, did not keep the law." Desire of Ages,29.

Then Jesus came in that very same human nature which had failed so miserably before, and now weakened by four thousand years of degeneration, demonstrated that the law could be kept in every particular under the most terrible possible pressures and conditions and still be for the betterment and happiness of those who kept it, thus proving that God was not unjust, arbitrary, or unkind in making such laws for His creatures.

Satan knew that he now stood to lose all, and that everything depended upon his breaking down the human nature of Jesus and causing Him to sin. Therefore, after losing battle after battle, there came the time when the final battle was to be fought out on the cross.

Satan knew that this was a do or die effort, that he either lost all or won all in this struggle, and so, at the cost of the full exposure of his character, he flung all that he had into a mighty effort to destroy the Son of God spiritually and morally--and lost.

The Son of God triumphed over the devil, proving forever the justice and love of God. Having won that victory, He became the first fruits of them that slept, in that He had certified that the devil had no power to hold the righteous in the tomb.

to be continued

 

[rainbowinthesky]

No longer able to get any hearing from the loyal angels, the devil turned his attention to the one remaining battle-field, this earth. Whereas before the cross he divided his time and energy between the earth and the angels and the unfallen worlds, now he concentrated it all upon men and women down here, for which reason it is written:

"And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before God day and night... Therefore rejoice, ye heavens and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time." Revelation 12:10-12.

His whole time, energy, and effort is now devoted to the objective of causing those who profess to be the children of the Kingdom to sin so that he can destroy them off the face of the earth and thus prove his point that human nature cannot obey the law at all.

Now it is true that Jesus, in our human nature, did obey the law, but the enemy perverts the truth of this by spreading abroad the teaching that he was not really human as we are, but that He possessed qualities and powers of which the average person knows nothing, and that He could not sin.

And down through time the sad picture is that even those who profess to be the children of God have failed Him again and again, and thus have given credence to Satan's great lie. Before the great controversy can finally be resolved, before the wicked can be led to voluntarily acknowledge that God is the Just One and the Holy One, there must be a people living upon this earth who will demonstrate that under the most forbidding circumstances the law can still be kept.

Again and again the Lord has sought to gather together such a people, and each time the devil has succeeded in bringing the great work of revival and reformation to an apparent though never complete end. If he could have at any time done this, then he would have gained the victory, for he would have proved that unrighteousness is stronger than truth and thus would have won his argument.

Finally, the Lord will have a people in whom will be perfectly reproduced the charater of Jesus. In desperation Satan sees what this means, and as he did at the cross, he will gather together all his powers and resources in a mighty determination to blot this righteous people from the face of the earth. He knows that he either wins now or he loses forever, there will never be another opportunity.

The two great forces which have been joined in battle so many times before now will enter the lists for the last time in a do or die struggle from which there will be no retreat till the victory is won by the one or the other.

to be continued

 

[rainbowinthesky]

But, as it was at the cross, so again Satan will utterly fail, and as it was then, so it will be again at tremendous cost to himself. Then the price he paid was the complete exposure of himself to the dwellers in the heavenly courts, by which he lost any sympathy which had existed between them.

Again the price he will pay for the loss will be the complete exposure of himself, not this time before the heavenly host, for that has already been done, but before the dwellers upon the earth.

Briefly, here is the development of it as revealed in the sure word of prophecy.

Satan will lead the rulers of the earth to pass the death decree against the true and the holy and then will lead on the hosts of wicked men to destroy the people of God. Things come to the place where "with shouts of triumph, jeering, and imprecation, throngs of evil men are about to rush upon their prey, when lo, a dense blackness, deeper than the darkness of the night, falls upon the earth (fifth plague). Then a rainbow, shining with the glory from the throne of God, spans the heavens and seems to encircle each praying company. The angry multitudes are suddenly arrested. Their mocking cries die away. The objects of their murderous rage are forgotten. With fearful forebodings they gaze upon the symbol of God's covenant, and long to be shielded from its overpowering brightness." The Great Controversy, 635,636.

Then the voice of God speaks and delivers His people, and it is at this time that "there is a terrible awakening of those who have lost all in the great conflict of life... The people see that they have been deluded. They accuse one another of having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping their bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied smooth things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God and to persecute those who would keep it holy. Now in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception." The Great Controversy,654,655.

"The multitudes are filled with fury. "We are lost," they cry, "and you are the cause of our ruin;' and they turn upon the false shepherds. The very ones that once admired them most will pronounce the mist dreadful curses upon them. The very hands that once crowned them with laurels will be raised for their destruction. The swords which were to slay God's people are now employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed." 656.

This is the drying up of the great river Euphrates which must be done so that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared. This is to say that the Kings of the East, whom we know from our study to be Christ and His armies, cannot come until the way has been prepared for them to come, and that preparation is the drying up of the waters of the symbolic Euphrates, which is the total withdrawal of the support which the devil will have gained at that time. "He shall come to his end, and none shall help him." Daniel 11:45. He will be divested of human support then as he was of heavenly sympathy at the crucifixion.

to be continued

 

[rainbowinthesky]

And it will have to be that way before the final victory in the great controversy can be gained by the Lord and His armies, for it is of the nature of the law of God that His people serve Him, not because they have to, but because they have a personal conviction that His way is the only right and true way. Conviction is based upon knowledge, and is gained by experience. Therefore, the devil must fully reveal himself before men, as well as before angels, before the victory is won and the conviction is truly gained that the Lord is right and true.

To bring matters to this pass, to cause things to develop to this point, is not the work of a moment. It requires a people who will live righteously. "The beauty adorning the inner temple will be seen in every soul in whom the Saviour dwells. Men will be captivated by the glory of an abiding Christ." C.O.L.420

These will be as a standing rebuke to the enemy of all righteousness. The very existence of such a people will call forth from Satan the fiercest possible opposition which will mount in intensity as he seeks by every means to destroy them.

Thus he will be forced to the point where he will overreach himself and will give to the wicked, as well as to the righteous, such a true picture of himself as to cause all to withdraw their support from him. At the same time, the demonstration will be given by the righteous that the law can be kept to advantage by those who are living in the weakest flesh of all time.

Not until this is done can the righteous of all the ages (great multitude) be called forth from the tomb and the living translated into the kingdom. But when it is done as the Word so plainly says, the way of the Kings of the East will have been prepared and the end will come.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

Thus it will be that just as the death and resurrection of Jesus accomplished something by which alone the door of eternal life could be secured to all the rest, so the victory of the 144,000 will accomplish something by which alone the end can come and the redeemed of all ages--the great harvest--will be gathered into the heavenly garner.

Today they rest in their dusty beds awaiting that harvest; the harvest which depends on that generation, which shall be the 144,000, being true and faithful all the way to final victory.

It is in this sense that they are the first fruits, just as it was in the same sense that Jesus was the first fruits of them that slept.

May God help us to see the responsibility of our own generation being that which will rise to all that God expects of His people, so that the work at last be finished in the gaining of the eternal decision in the last great conflict with the powers of darkness.

sky

* During the loud cry multitudes will join the ranks of those who are proclaiming the final message of mercy to the world but at the time of the great final test (death decree) the majority will prove to be foolish virgins and will return to where they came from and become the bitterest emenies of the little company of people who shall remained true and faithful to God. These will become the 144,000. They will have passed the great final test coinciding with the judgment of the living, and they will receive the final seal and they will be ready to go through the time of Jacob's trouble. Upon their victory depends the resurrection of the great multitude of the righteous dead who are resting in their dusty beds.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

A second theory has it that the "great multitude" are the 144,000 themselves, which belief is based upon the following arguments. First of all John hears the number of those who are sealed to make up the 144,000. Then he says, "After that I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb." Rev.7:9,10.

This seems to suggest to the mind that the prophet is now given a view of those about whom he has been hearing, a suggestion which is strengthened as further information is given about this great multitude. Shortly threafter as John is still gazing in wonder upon this great company, the question is asked, "What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence come they?" Rev.7:13.

John admitted that he did not know, and upon acknowledging that the questioner did know and could tell him, received the following information:

"These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." verses 14,15.

At once we notice that this great multitude will serve God day and night in His temple, where they will stand before His throne. We remember that when Mrs. White was in vision wherein she was being shown the glories of the heavenly home, she was about to enter the temple on Mount Zion, when Jesus said: "Only the 144,000 enter this place." Therefore it is reasoned by those who hold this theory that the great multitude are the 144,000, that inasmuch as the great multitude do serve God in His temple, they must be this special company.

What is overlooked is that there is more than one temple which will be located in the new earth, and the one into which the 144,000 alone may go is not the one in which the throne of God is located. Of this we shall learn more later.

to be continued

 

[rainbowinthesky]

Some object to the above theory on the basis of the fact that the "great multitude" is said to be such as no man could number. They reason, therefore, they must be an enormous number of people, numerically so plentiful as to be beyond the power of man to count.

The position which is laid out for us in the word of God is that the "great multitude" represents the saved of all ages. It is to be recognized that they are but the gleanings of the world's population from the gates of Eden to the final closing of probation.

The most optimistic assessment of those who would be saved would not produce a figure beyond the power of man to count in the sense of numbering their numerical totals, for man has shown himself able to count into quite astronomical figures. Therefore, a moment's clear thought will show that it is not the largeness of the multitude which makes it impossible for man to count them. The truth of this lies in another sense altogether.

Whenever in all of history has man been able to number the Israel of God? Even if there were but ten true children of God in the world today, and you were told there was just that many, could you number them? Could you declare that this one is to be numbered with the saved, and that one not? We know that we could not and never will be able to do that.

It is God who will number His people, designating this one and that one as His according to the decisions of the judgment, first of the dead and then of the living. Out of that numbering will come the great multitude--great not so much in numerical multiplicity, but in character development and moral worth. Ever and always through time, the people of God have been great, not because they have been many, for this they have never been, but because there was resident in them the greatness of the power of God, and that is Christ. (1 Cor.1:24)

 

[rainbowinthesky]

It is always of great value to turn to the Spirit of Prophecy to find the understanding contained therein of the Scriptures. The texts dealing with the great multitude are quoted in several places in which the context leaves no doubt as to what the understanding of the Spirit of Prophecy was in regard to this. Let us turn to each of these references and see what they say. We shall find that each in their turn speak of the saved of all ages as being the great multitude, and never once does it limit them to the ones who will be called in from Babylon in the last great warning. The first statement is from Education,309:

"'It does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.' 1 John 3:2. Then in the results of His work, Christ will behold its recompense. In that great multitude which no man could number, presented 'faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy'(Jude 24). He whose blood has redeemed and whose life has taught us,'shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.' Isaiah 53:11."

Here the great multitude is named as being the results of His work, which can by no means be limited to the final phase of His work but to nothing less than all of it. The all of it must include all those who have been saved from the beginning of the cotroversy in this earth to the end of it.

A similar statement is found in Acts of the Apostles,601,602.

"What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

"There the redeemed greet those who led them to the Saviour, and all unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over, tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all Heaven as the ransomed ones take up the joyful strain, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant Conqueror.

"'I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.'' These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth shall dwell among them.'"

The entire sense of this statement covers the broad field of the entire history of the work of salvation and its ultimate results. There is not a hint of a suggestion in it anywhere that it is referring to the people of the last days.

In the first paragraph, as we are told of that which sustained the Saviour, we learn that "He beheld the happiness of those who through His humliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb."

When He beheld the happiness of those who had received pardon and everlasting life, He was quite evidently seeing the joy of the entire company of the redeemed and not just a final section of them. And so, as it goes on to talk about the redeemed in the city of God, it is evident that all the redeemed are being spoken of and then in the light of all this context, the texts are directly quoted from Revelation 7:9-17, which tell about the total sum of the redeemed from all ages. This is so clear and plain that no further comment would seem necessary so far as this statement is concerned.

to be continued

 

[rainbowinthesky]

The next statement, found in The Great Controversy,665, is about the clearest of them all. It speaks of that time when the end of the thousand years has come and the righteous are gathered around their Saviour while the wicked encircle the City of God in the last great judgment day. As the righteous stand there, they are divided into certain easily indentifiable classifications.

Here is the statement in full:

"Nearest the throne are those who were once zealous in the cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the burning, have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. NEXT are those who perfected Christian character in the midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who honored the law of God when the Christian world declared it void, AND the millions of all ages, who were martyred for their faith. And BEYOND is the great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues... before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.' Their warfare is ended, their victory won. They have run the race and reached the prize. The palm branch in their hands is a symbol of their triumph, the white robes an emblem of the spotless righteousness of Crhist which now is theirs."

On this particular occasion those who will stand nearest the throne are those who were once zealous in the cause of Satan but who, having been plucked as brands from the burning, have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion. The apostle Paul would surely come under this classification, and there have been others like him down through history.

Next come those who have perfected Crhistian characters in the midst of infidelity and falsehood, those who honored the law of God when the Christian world declared it void. The 144,000 must be numbered among this group, for they will have lived in the greastest period of infidelity and falsehood of all time and will most certainly be the ones who will honor the law of God when the Christian world will make it void.

Next in line stand the martyrs of all ages, millions of them. They are the ones who have given their life for the Master. It must be evident that some can qualify to stand in more than one category. Paul, for instance, is an outstanding example of those who will stand in the first category and be the nearest to Christ, but at the same time he also was a martyr and thus could also stand in this section too.

Now listed last of all are the great multitude as directly quoted from Revelation 7:9. Standing thus, it is evident that they belong to a category wich cannot be included in any of the other groups, thus indicating that they are made up of the righteous of all ages and not of a special group down at the end of time.

Thus it is that the Spirit of Prophecy verifies the fact that the great multitude are not a generation of the last days but the saved of all ages.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

As we have seen before, the very reason why the Lord has permitted the great controversy to go on all these years is to that the real character of Satan will stand revealed. We have studied how this will be done, and have seen that it will be accomplished by the living in fallen humanity, the perfect righteousness of the law of God by a remnant of people in these last days, as it was by Jesus in the same fallen humanity in His day.

Then, in the face of this unimpeachable and inconquerable righteousness, the evil one will be forced to so reveal himself as to lose even the support of those nearest and dearest to him. Already, as we have seen, that purpose of the great controversy has been achieved for the unfallen beings of heaven and the other worlds, but it has not yet been accomplished for mankind.

But accomplished, it must be. If there is one thing we have to understand, it is that the Lord is never going to bring the great controversy to an end until the purpose for which it was allowed to go on is fully and finally accomplished.

Until that objective is reached, even though it should take another thousand years, which let us praise the Lord it will not, as the sure word of prophecy assures us, the controversy must and will go on. When, on only when, the objectives have been reached will it come at last to its end.

Until that time, the great multitude will remain in their dusty beds awaiting the final victory and the full revealing to men of the true character and work of Satan to the point where even his followers will withdraw all support from him. This is to be accomplished by the full and complete dedication of a remnant by the power and leadership of Christ. These will be, as it were, the key in the hand of Christ to unlock the prison house and set the prisoners free.

In other words, until they have come to full fruition, then the rest of the harvest cannot be reaped. This is to say that those of us who have professed to be the children of the Lord but have failed to come to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, even though He has provided all the means necessary, are preventing the early harvest of that great multitude which await in their graves the rerurrection morning.

to be continued

 

[rainbowinthesky]

Sometime at last the Lord is going to have a people. John heard the sealing of them, as recorded in Revelation 7. When at last He does in very fact have them, then through them the objectives of the great controversy will be finally and fully achieved, and then there is nothing to delay the gathering of the harvest and the end of this world's history.

Therefore, exactly as portrayed in Revelation 7, with the sealing of the 144,000, the wrath of Satan is excited to its limits, his self-exposure is complete, and the work is finished.

Then at once appear the great multitude. In other words, the whole arrangement of the information of Revelation 7, shows that the 144,000 are the first fruits, in the sense that when through them the final objectives of the great controversy have been achieved, the rest of the harvest can, and will, at once be reaped.

What a responsibility rests upon those who claim to be the people of the Lord at the present time, to put away sin and wrong of every and any kind, to live the fullness of the righteousness of the life of Christ, and to plan, not for time, but for eternity.

The dead righteous cry out from their dusty beds: "How long, O Lord, how long?" And His answer must always be, "Until I have a people through whom at last can be achieved the final objectives of the great controversy. Then, O great multitude, the first fruits will have been gathered, and your reaping will come in the releasing of you all from your graves."

May the Lord of Heaven find in His people of this generation the faithful and chosen company for whom He is searching.

Can we cath a vision of the implications and the responsibilities of this hour and rise to it? May God help us to do just that before we join those in their dusty beds instead and wait there until at last some other righteous generation rises to do what we might have done but failed to do.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

Last word:

It is said that the "great multitude" will have come out of great tribulation. In the Word of God specific times of trouble and tribulation are spoken about and described. In Matt.24:21, Jesus said, ""For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be." Then He declared that "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall got give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken." verse 29.

This, especially as borne out by The Great Controversy,306, clearly shows that the tribulation referred to here is the period of the dark ages, that terrible period covered by the 1260 days of prophecy. We have already seen that the great multitude does not come alone from this period of history. Therefore it cannot be to that tribulation we are being referred to in Revelation 7.

Then there is the great time of trouble or tribulation spoken by Daniel the prophet in Daniel 12:1: ""And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."

This is that time when the believers will have to develop and perfect Christian characters when the rest of the world will have declared the law of God to be void. Those who do this will be the 144,000, and not the great multitude. Therefore it is neither of these periods of tribulation to which we are referred to in Revelation 7. This leaves us with the question as to which is being referred to, and the answer is quite simple.

The great tribulation from Heaven's point of view and from the point of view of eternity emcompasses the whole of the period of the great controversy. Before this trouble started there was peace and harmony in Heaven, and no tribulation at all. But since the beginning of the controversy there has been nothing but tribulation. Even the most peaceful and prosperous periods of the church have been times of tribulation. If it were not so, then the devil must have had times when he left the church alone and unpersecuted. This, we know he never did.

The great tribulation, in the full sense of the term, has been something like 6,000 years long, and it is out of that period that the great multitude will come as the great harvest of the ages, the fruition of the work of Jesus Christ in giving His life as a ransom for many.

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[rainbowinthesky]

There is a time of probation for the professed church of Christ, not to be confused with the general time of probation.

More on this soon.

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[Castaway57]

Last word:

This is that time when the believers will have to develop and perfect Christian characters when the rest of the world will have declared the law of God to be void.
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Through the cross of Christ, which has dealt with sin, and through His decree against all human obligation and merit as related to salvation, God is righteously free to preserve His child forever. And since His supreme purpose in all the ages will not be realized until the sinner is saved, transformed into the image of Christ, and lifted up to the highest glory, He will continue the exercise of His grace toward every believer until the divine objective is consummated. How perfectly He has delivered Himself from every limitation! How absolutely gracious are all His ways with those whom He saves! And how irresistible is His purpose and power!

The great covenant promises of salvation are not limited to the moment when the sinner accepts the saving grace that iβ in Christ Jesus; they all reach on and guarantee every step of the way from the first moment of faith to the last moment of fruition. Even the word salvation, in its largest biblical meaning, covers all that is past, all that is present, and all that is future, in the outworking of the grace of God for the one who believes.

"He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

In the great promises of grace there is no measurement as to time, nor any human condition imposed other than believing. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). "And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom. 1:16). "That he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:4).

For such is the unalterable and unconditional covenant of God in grace.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

It is imperative that we understand where we are in the unrolling of the prophetic scroll, especially as far as the professed church is concerned. We need to study the past and the prophecies which delineate past, present, and future events and we need to remember that

"We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church than from the world." 1 S.M.122.

Note that the disciples of Christ did not turn to a broken world until the professed church (Jewish church) had definitely sealed her rejection of God's mercy and we all know that didn't happen until after the stoning of Stephen in A.D.34 which ended the second call of the parable of the Wedding Garment (Matt.22) coinciding with the end of the 70 week prophecy of Daniel 9.

Then the bearers of the message turned to the Gentile world to proclaim the message that the professed church had rejected. This action is represented by the third call of the parable.

But this parable was more for us than for the Jewish people. When Jesus spoke it, He was looking down the ages with His eyes fixed upon our time. The parable delineates the history of the Advent Movement from the time Jesus entered the Most Holy Place in 1844 until the close of general probation at the end of the third call--loud cry--of the parable.

Not until the second call of that parable has been definitely rejected by the Advent people and the bearers of the message character assassinated will the message go to the world in a loud cry fashion. (The first call came in 1888 and was rejected as predicted in the parable)

According to Christ's Object Lessons,218, we are now living in the time of "added probation" during which the second and final call to the church is to be proclaimed. The 1888 message of the offer to receive the righteousness of Christ through faith in His merits is to be proclaimed one more time in demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit.

The proclamation of this message will bring the receiver into oneness with Christ and the Father by the Holy Spirit. Being joined to the Godhead they will be "enabled to do the deeds of Omnipotence." (D.A.827)

"Persecution will spread the light." D.A.354.

The bearers of this last message of mercy, being persecuted by the religious leaders, will then turn to the world and the message will swell into the loud cry and when the mission of the Gospel is completed, there will come the great final test (death decree) and the judgement (of the living) will accomplish the final separation between the wise and the foolish, between the good and the evil, and their destiny will be forever fixed.

Only those who pass the great final test (death decree brought upon the professed people of God by the beast and his image) will receive the final seal and become the 144,000 and these will go through the time of Jacob's trouble and be translated without seeing death and, with the great multitude who will have just been raised from the grave, will, together, go to meet Jesus in the air at His appearing.

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