[Sabbath Controversy #3] A Vindication of the Seventh-day Sabbath, and the Commandments of God

CHRIST’S SECOND COMING TO GATHER HIS PEOPLE

According to the Scriptures, God will deliver his people out of the time of trouble that is now flying from the coasts of the earth, and to all appearances forming a junction in this retributive land of blood and slavery; by his VOICE from heaven, when he sealed them, and Christ has made the atonement and fitted the mansions in the New Jerusalem, then they will be his chosen ones to execute the “judgment written.” After this, in the order of events, the Lord Jesus “will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, etc. When God speaks from Jerusalem, then, I believe the “wise will understand” how long it will be before Jesus comes. “The times and seasons are with the Father.” I believe that the Scriptures most clearly teach Christ’s second coming at the feast of Tabernacles, and no where else; and that our history, in the fulfillment of prophecy, has been imperceptibly tending us there. Here is the chain in the types: “THREE times a year shall ALL thy males appear before the Lord thy God.” These three feasts are typical of three of the most important events since the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and every advent believer should have a clear understanding of them. 1st, The feast of the Passover; 2nd, Feast of Weeks; 3rd, Feast of Tabernacles. SC3 206.1

First feast was the crucifixion of our Lord at the Passover, on the 14th day of the first month, at 3 o’clock P.M.; the very day and hour the lamb was offered in the type for sixteen hundred and seventy years. SC3 207.1

Second feast - the day of Pentecost, 1670 years from the time that the commandments were uttered by the voice of God, in the morning. - Exodus 19:16; see Acts 2:15, undoubtedly at the same hour. Now as these two feasts are perfectly fulfilled, we have nothing farther to do with them here; only to say, that God never taught any other way to find the fulfillment of these two most important events, than by their typical observance. SC3 207.2

Third feast - on the 15th of the seventh month; the feast of the Tabernacles. This undoubtedly represents the gathering of all Israel at the coming of Christ; the ingathering of the harvest; the end of the 6000 years; the end of the world. I see no other point of time for Christ to come than at the feast; see Deuteronomy 16:1-16; Leviticus 23; Numbers 28, and 29. It cannot be possible that God has been so exact in the fulfillment of the first two, to the very hour of the day, and then left the other without order or time! No, no! Here is the gathering of all Israel; see Leviticus 23:39-44 Now, this being true, all of the other events which precede this in this chapter, must, to harmonize with the types, be fulfilled first. Now there are three types in this feast; their harmony and order are as follows: First, - 24th verse is the memorial of trumpets. This is the type of the sounding of the seventh trumpet; there is nothing else for an anti-type - [try and see]. Then it is fulfilled by Revelation 10:7 - “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the Mystery of God should be finished,” etc. This then, we have shown, sounded on the first day of the seventh month, 1844 Here the virgins were divided, and the wise ones got ready for the coming of the Bridegroom to the marriage. See Way Marks, 35 to 37th pages. SC3 207.3

Second type - 27th verse - “Also on the 10th day of the seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement, - ye shall afflict in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.” This, of course, was artificial; but it was a type to represent the tried state which the virgins in the parable entered into on the tenth day of this seventh month, 1844, when they see their Lord did not come, Here is where the atonement commenced with the affliction, and as they ended together in the type, so we believe they will in the anti-type, when God speaks from Zion. - Joel 3:16, 17; see Way Marks, pp.58,59 Now it is certainly evident that God’s people are in this very state. This, then, according to the type, proves the Bridegroom as High Priest, officiating in the Sanctuary, making the atonement for this same people. SC3 208.1

The third type in order, and the last in this feast, is the feast of Tabernacles, 34-39-44th verses. This is yet to come - the true point of our deliverance. What a harmonious perfect chain is here. Just see first day of seventh month, 1844; the seventh trumpet sounds, and the Mystery of God is finished; third woe come; virgins divide; on the tenth day of the same month, Bridegroom comes to the wedding; marriage takes place; door shut; Jubilee trumpet sounds to prepare for the Jubilee and Supper in the kingdom of heaven; cleansing of the Sanctuary commenced; the virgins on their trial; the appointed time, the 2300 days ended, and a cry at midnight, with all its messages. If the seventh trumpet has began to sound, then the rest have followed. If the saints are now in their trial, then the seventh trumpet must have sounded first, or confusion would follow in the types. Destroy one link and the chain is broken. Take it in all its parts, it is perfect, harmonious, and complete. Here, too, understand, ends all the days of Daniel. The chart is perfect, and has answered its end. The world here also received their last warning. The Gospel age ends; the message is, “comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” If this was not all done before Christ should come, the Scriptures would be broken. It is perfect nonsense to talk of having these things done at his coming, or after he comes. Tell me, if you can, how Christ can atone for his people in the Holiest of Holies, at his coming? And then tell me where the saints are to be on their trial, if they wait his coming first? Tell me, if you can, where you will place the third woe, which brings in the time of trouble, of which the saints are to be delivered? Tell me, if you can, how, and for what purpose the seventh messenger will begin to sound his trumpet, while Jesus is sounding the trump of God, and shouting for his saints to leave the earth in a moment? And as the seventh messenger is some of the living saints, tell me, if you can, how they will have time even to turn and say the Mystery of God is finished? Tell me, if you can, why God is going to have every thing in confusion at that day, when he has always had perfect order in heaven and earth, ever since the creation? Two things to be kept in remembrance: SC3 208.2

FIRST - The 11th chapter of Revelations does not teach the coming of Christ in the spring, nor at any other point. SC3 209.1

SECOND - The ingathering of all Israel after the Voice of God is most clearly taught to be at the feast of Tabernacles, the last type in the feast, yet unfulfilled. All the others that have been, and are now fulfilling in these feasts of the Lord, have been tested to the day, and even to the hour of the day. SC3 209.2