The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 77

January 23, 1900

“The Third Angel’s Message. What Is It?” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 77, 4, p. 56.

THE Third Angel’s Message—this great threefold message—is in every feature present truth. And when in its own words it is shown that this message is given in view of the fact that the hour of God’s judgment “is come,” then when the time comes for this message to be given, it will be only present truth thoroughly to believe that “the hour of his judgment is come” in truth. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.1

Indeed, that this message were ever given at all would be evidence in itself that the hour of his judgment is come; for no message of God can ever be given before the time. Therefore whenever this message shall be found sounding to the world, it will be then true that the hour of God’s judgment is come. And the word of the message that says so will be only the announcement of the fact that the hour of his judgment is come. And every one believing the message will believe that this is the fact: he will have to believe it, to be a believer of the message; because the very word of the message that he professes to believe says that this is so. And as certainly as he believes this, he will enter hourly into God’s judgment, and will constantly hold himself subject to all the tests of that judgment. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.2

That message is now due in the world. It is being given to the world. For years this has been so. Therefore for years it has been, and it now is, present truth that the hour of God’s judgment is come. Thousands upon thousands of persons profess to believe that message. Thousands upon thousands have for years professed to believe that message. Therefore the principle is that this whole people of that message are entered hourly into God’s judgment, and, as constantly as they live, do subject themselves to all the searching tests of that judgment. All these, therefore, know that as for themselves, each individually, the judgment has begun upon the living; for they are living. To them the message of God has come that “the hour of his judgment is come;” they have accepted that message, and accordingly have entered into that judgment, and so they live constantly in the presence of that awful fact. Consequently we say again that with these there is no room for any such question as to “whether the judgment has begun upon the living.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.3

And if there be any who profess to believe this message, and yet are living as they would not live if they knew that the judgment had come, and would make a revolution in their lives if only they knew that the judgment had come upon the living, but would not make this revolution if they could be certain that the judgment had not come, then to what purpose to them could be a message, even if it were sent directly from heaven to them personally, that the judgment had begun upon the living? In such case, any change that would be sought or made, would have no virtue whatever; and these persons would be no more prepared for the decision of the judgment than if they had heard nothing about it; the only change that would be made in such a life would be altogether out of fear of the consequences, and not out of any love of righteousness. Therefore, in the nature of things, in such a case the world could not be, He is righteous, “let him be righteous still;” because he is not righteous: he has not love of righteousness in his heart. This is demonstrated by the fact that, under the very profession of this judgment-message, he lived without regard to the judgment; he indulged evil things in his life,—things which he knew could not pass the judgment,—and he continued to indulge them until the startling word came to him personally that the judgment was come to him. Then, all at once, and only that he may pass the judgment, and escape the consequences of the evil things that he has indulged in spite of righteousness, he sets forth to make a grand revolution in his life! ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.4

But no such thing as that will ever work in the judgment of God. Whoever will pass in righteousness the judgment of God, will do so only because he has “loved righteousness, and hated iniquity,” whether the judgment was begun upon him or not. He loves righteousness because it is righteousness, and he hates iniquity because it is iniquity; and he will no more indulge iniquity in his life with the judgment a thousand years away than with the judgment only a minute away. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.5

There is, therefore, no room whatever for any professed believer of the Third Angel’s Message, for any Seventh-day Adventist, ever to ask whether the judgment has begun upon the living. Every true believer of the Third Angel’s Message, every true Seventh-day Adventist, KNOWS, because the word of God says it, and has said it for years, that “the hour of his judgment is come.” It is here: it is a present thing as certainly as the world is here. and, knowing this, every true Seventh-day Adventist lives accordingly: he puts himself alive into the judgment; he reins himself up hourly before the judgment seat; because “the hour of his judgment is come.” To the true believer of the Third Angel’s Message this is a fact: it is living truth. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.6

And how shall he ever give this message to the world otherwise? Can he, with any force of truth at all, preach to another man that the hour of God’s judgment “is come,” when he himself does not believe at all that it “is come,” but only that it will come? Who is there in the world that does not believe that God’s judgment will come? But the Third Angel’s Message is not that the judgment will come; but that the very time, the “hour, of his judgment IS COME.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.7

Since this judgment, in its decision when pronounced, is but a recognition and declaration of a condition that already exists, and is, therefore, practically instantaneous, it follows that the means of preparation for this awful decision shall be such that it shall be able to effect that preparation also instantaneously. And precisely this provision is that which is offered by the Lord in this great, glorious Third Angel’s Message; for it carries the “everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” And this everlasting gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” And those who are thus made righteous live righteously; because they “live by faith.” This power of God is creative, and is, therefore, instantaneous in its action. And any soul loving and longing for righteousness, and hating and desiring to escape iniquity, who hears this message of the everlasting gospel, announcing that the hour of God’s judgment is come, and enters into the judgment in this hour, can be by that everlasting gospel prepared for the judgment. And while he holds himself in the presence of the judgment, subject to all its searching tests, and holds fast this everlasting gospel,—its power to save, and the righteousness that it reveals,—he is ready for the crisis of that judgment at any moment in the “hour;” because, when comes the critical moment in which his name is reached, he is righteous by the “power of God” and by the righteousness of God, which that gospel has given to him; and most gladly will the Judge speak the joyous words, “Let him be righteous still.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.8

This, so far, is what the Third Angel’s Message is in spirit and in truth. And this is why it is that righteousness by faith “is the Third Angel’s Message in verity.” That message of God declares that “the hour of his judgment is come.” Do you believe it? ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.9

“Editorial” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 77, 4, p. 56.

DON’T make any rules for yourself, then you will not be found making any for others. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.1

“The Millennium” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 77, 4, pp. 56, 57.

WE have found, by many infallible proofs, that at the beginning of the Millennium, the earth is made utterly desolate, with “not a man” left to “dwell therein;” and so it remains during the Millennium, “until the thousand years are finished.” And this is for a purpose: it is for a purpose even beyond that to which reference was made last week,—that it should lay desolate during the thousand years, to make up for the sabbaths, of which, through the six thousand years, the earth has been robbed by the curse. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.1

This further purpose is shown also in one of the ceremonies of the Levitical priesthood. There, in the great day of atonement, two goats were presented before the Lord, upon which lots were cast, “one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.” Then the goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell was offered in sacrifice, and his blood was used in the cleansing of the sanctuary and the making of the atonement for all Israel. And when the high priest had “made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar,” then the live goat was brought, and the high priest laid “both his hands upon the head of the live goat,” and confessed “over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat.” And then the scapegoat was sent away alive “by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and the goat” bore “upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited.” See Leviticus 16:5-22. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.2

Now the word here translated “scapegoat” is a proper name—“Azazel.” And so the Revised Version runs: “Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set alive before the Lord.... to send him away for Azazel into the wilderness.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.3

Who, then, is Azazel?—Since one lot was for the Lord, and the other was for Azazel, it is plain that Azazel is a personality as really as is the Lord. And since only one lot was for the Lord,—the other being for Azazel,—it is also plain that Azazel is the opposite of the Lord. And as God is Spirit, and all this represents spiritual things, it follows that Azazel, being the opposite of the Lord, is a spirit personality, who is the opposite of the Lord. And, plainly, that is Satan. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.4

In a note to the passage, the Polychrome Version describes Azazel as “an evil spirit, suppose to dwell in the wilderness.” McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopedia, says: “Ewald agrees with Gesenius, and speaks of Azazel as a demon belonging to the pre-Mosaic religion. Others have regarded him as an evil spirit, or the devil himself. In the Apocryphal book of Enoch, Azazel is among the chief spirits whose doctrine and influence the earth was corrupted. The same title among the Gnostics signified either Satan or some other demon, on which account Origen did not hesitate, in the passage of Leviticus in question, to understand the devil as meant. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.5

“Among moderns this view has been copiously illustrated. The following are the arguments used in its support: (a) The contrast of terms (‘to the Lord,’ ‘to Azazel’) in the text naturally presumes a person to be intended, in opposition to, and contradistinction from, Jehovah; (b) the desert, wither the consecrated goat of Azazel was sent away, was accounted the peculiar abode of demons (Isaiah 13:21; 34:13, 14; Matthew 12:43; Revelation 18:2); (c) this interpretation may be confirmed by the early derivation of the word, signifying either strength of God, if referred to a once good, but now fallen, angel; or powerful against God, as applied to a malignant demon. Hengstenberg affirms, with great confidence that Azazel can not possibly be anything but another name for Satan.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.6

That service of the high priest in the earthly sanctuary was representative of the service of Christ our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Hebrews 9. When our great High Priest shall have blotted out all the sins of his people in all ages, and shall have cleansed the heavenly sanctuary from all their transgressions in all their sins, then shall be brought Azazel indeed, Satan, the originator of all sin and by our High Priest there shall be laid upon him all the iniquities of all the people in all their sins, putting them upon the head of Azazel. Then shall come the great and mighty angel of Revelation 20:1, having “a great chain in his hand,” and shall lay hold on Azazel, “the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan,” and shall bind him, and shall cast him into the wasted and desolate earth, and shall shut him up, and set a seal upon him, for a thousand years. And thus Azazel “shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited.” Read Leviticus 16:15-22; Revelation 20:1-3; Isaiah 14:22-27; Jeremiah 4:23-27. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 56.7

And this is the great purpose of the desolation of this earth at the coming of the Lord and through the thousand years. This earth at that time will be the only “land not inhabited” that Satan has had anything to do with. And that this desolated earth is certainly the very “land no inhabited” into which Azazel, the real scapegoat, is led, is made plain by the fact that the word translated “bottomless pit” in Revelation 20:1-3 is the identical word which, in the Septuagint, in Genesis 1:1, is translated “the deep,” and which refers to this earth in its waste, void, dark, and desolate condition, as its first existed. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.1

The Revised Version translates the word in Revelation 20:1-3 by the term “abyss.” Jeremiah’s description of the earth in this time makes the connection between Revelation 20:1-3 and Genesis 1:1; for, in describing the earth in the thousand years, Jeremiah uses almost the very words of Genesis 1:1. Read: “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had not light.” The word in Genesis is “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” And Revelation 20, using, with reference to the earth in that time, the very word that is used by the Septuagint in Genesis 1:1, not only settles the fact that this earth during the thousand years is in a condition of darkness, wasteness, and desolation comparable to that “in the beginning,” but also settles the fact that it is in this waste and desolated earth that Satan is confined during the thousand years, and that this is “an land not inhabited,” and this is the real Azazel led into it, which were typified in the ceremonies of the earthly sanctuary and priesthood. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.2

And this is the Millennium upon the earth. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.3

“Abraham Did Pass Through” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 77, 4, p. 57.

THAT statement was wrong that I made two weeks ago in connection with God’s covenant with Abraham, in saying that “only God passed through” between the parts of the sacrifices offered by Abraham. Abraham also passed through. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.1

This fact, however, is not stated in Genesis. It is given in Jeremiah 34:18: “I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, where they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts of the calf.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.2

This was spoken to the people in the days of Zedekiah; and the only way in which it was possible for them to have passed “between the parts of the calf” was in the fact of Abraham’s having passed through; just as in Hebrews 7:9, 10, it is said that Levi, “who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham.” I have many a time used Jeremiah 34:18 to show that the people in the days of Zedekiah were included in God’s covenant with Abraham: I do not know how it slipped my mind in the article of two weeks ago, unless it was that my mind was just then absorbed in discovering and describing what God had put into that blessed covenant. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.3

This is the more singular, too, from the fact that many a time I have read, even in the galley-proofs, the words in “Patriarchs and Prophets,” to which a brother in Illinois has just now called my attention, that, when Abraham had arranged the sacrifices according to the divine direction, “This being done, he reverently passed between the parts of the sacrifice, making a solemn vow to God of perpetual obedience;” and “as a pledge of this covenant of God with men, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, symbols of the divine presence, passed between the severed victims, totally consuming them.”—Page 137. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.4

Since writing that article, I have found the following account of an incident in the journey of General Grant around the world, which more fully, and in great beauty, illustrates the meaning of the “passing between the pieces.” The General Wassef Khayat, at Assiout, in Egypt; and the account says: “When General Grant alighted at the consul’s house, he was detained from entering until a beef, beautifully garlanded with flowers, had been brought out. It was killed, and cut into two pieces, which were laid on either side of the doorway. Then the consul invited General Grant to enter his home with him. They stepped over the blood on the threshold, and between the pieces. By this act they entered into the most solemn covenant known to the Oriental,—the blood covenant,—and thus became ‘blood brothers,’ a relation which outranks every other relation in life. One blood brother can not ask anything that the other will refuse.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.5

These things show that Abraham “passed between the pieces;” that when he did so, all his children also passed between them; and that since we, being Christ’s, are Abraham’s seed, WE PASSED BETWEEN THE PIECES, and thus became “blood brothers” with the Lord; that we can not ask of him anything that he will refuse, and that he can not ask anything of us that we will refuse. John 14:13, 14; 15:7, 16. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.6

ALONZO T. JONES.

“Studies in Galatians. Galatians 3:16, 17” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 77, 4, pp. 57, 58.

“NOW to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God, in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, can not disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.1

We have seen that Israel made the mistake of putting in the place of God’s covenant the things which the Lord gave to them to aid them in arriving at the full light and blessing of the covenant. There is another great mistake that Israel made, and the same mistake is made to-day by thousands of persons concerning Israel; and that is that the things which God gave to them were for them alone, not for the people of the world in general. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.2

Israel, thinking thus, naturally shut herself away from the nations, and made all these things specially her own. Thus she separated herself from all the nations, and held herself aloof from, and above, the nations, as being holier than they, and because of this special holiness, as more highly regarded by God than were the other nations. Yet this whole conception of things was an utter mistake, and was a perversion of the intent of the things that God had given. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.3

Everything that the Lord gave to Israel was for the benefit of the whole world. Israel was to be the missionary people who should extend to all nations the light and blessing given to her, in order that all nations might enjoy the light and blessing of God, as revealed in the Abrahamic covenant, to the full knowledge of which all these things that were given were to lead Israel, and all people. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.4

We again set down here, for study, the passage from “Patriarchs and Prophets,” which was quoted in last week’s article:— ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.5

If man had kept the law of God, as given to Adam after his fall, preserved by Noah, and observed by Abraham, there could have been no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision. And if the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which circumcision was a sign, they would never have been seduced into idolatry, nor would it have been necessary for them to suffer a life of bondage in Egypt. They would have kept God’s law in mind, and there would have been no necessity for it to be proclaimed from Sinai, or engraved upon the tables of stone. And had the people practiced the principles of the ten commandments, there would have been no need of the additional directions given to Moses. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.6

The sacrificial system, committed to Adam, was also perverted by his descendants. Superstition, idolatry, cruelty, and licentiousness corrupted the simple and significant service that God had appointed. Through long intercourse with idolaters, the people of Israel had mingled many heathen customs with their worship; therefore the Lord gave them at Sinai definite instruction concerning the sacrificial service.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 364. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.7

It was the apostasy of mankind in general that was the cause of God’s calling Abraham, and setting him as a light to the nations. It was the unfaithfulness of the descendants of Abraham that caused them “to suffer a life of bondage in Egypt.” In Egypt, amid its darkness of every sort, the ideas that they had received in descent from Abraham were more and more obscured until they were practically lost. And thus “in their bondage the people had, to a great extent, lost their knowledge of God, and of the principles of the Abrahamic covenant.” ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.8

As they had thus lost the law of God from their minds, all this must be renewed. But, having no true conception of the law of God as in the Abrahamic covenant, this had to be taught them. Therefore God proclaimed his law with his own voice to all the people, then gave it in written form, that they might under his guidance, discern its deep, spiritual principles. And that this might the better be done in their obscurity of mind, the principles of the ten commandments were drawn out in detail, in the writings of Moses, which the people had in their hands, and which they were to study constantly until these words of God and these holy principles should be engraved upon their hearts, imbedded in their souls and written in their minds; that is, until they had attained to the glory of the covenant with Abraham. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.9

Now, since all this was necessary to Israel because of her unfaithfulness and the confusion of Egypt, it is certainly plain enough that all these things were necessary to the people of Egypt and the other nations that were in darkness, as she was, that these might find the knowledge of God and his salvation. Then, in the very nature of things, all these things, and all this teaching that came to Israel to bring them to the light of God, were intended by the Lord to be passed on by Israel to the other nations, that these also might be brought to where they should walk in the light of God. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.10

Thus it is perfectly plain that the law of God in all its forms—as spoken from heaven, as written on the tables, and as drawn out in detail in the writings of Moses—was just as much for the nations of the world as it was for the people of Israel. And both Israel and the nations made the mistake of thinking that it was only for Israel,—Israel thinking so, and confining it to herself, and shutting it away from the nations; and the nations thinking so, and therefore despising it. And the nations were, indeed, helped in their mistake by the attitude that was assumed by Israel in her mistake. For when, in her self-righteousness, Israel shut herself away from the nations, despising them, this only resulted in the nations seeing her as shut away from them in self-righteousness, and despising them, and consequently, further resulted in their despising her, and all that was given to her for their benefit. And that same thing continues to this day concerning those things in the Bible which were given to Israel for all the nations. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.11

This is true, not alone of the moral law, but of the ceremonial law—the sacrificial system—as well. Before Adam left Eden, the sacrificial system was instituted. By Noah it was observed. Thus the sacrificial system pertained to all mankind; it was simply the means of expressing faith in God’s sacrifice, which he had made to save man from sin. As God has given the firstling of his flock, the best that he had, so every soul who accepted that gift of God, and would show his faith therein, would, in very gratitude to God, offer the firstling of his flock, the best of all that he had. That was true faith in God, and in the Lamb that he had given. “By faith Abel offered unto God” his sacrifice, “the firstlings of his flock,” “by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.” Thus Abel’s righteousness was true righteousness by faith. And that was the way for all mankind. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.12

But as the nations apostatized, and came more and more under the darkening influence of Satan, they began to look upon God as, like themselves, a stern, forbidding, exacting judge, who was angry with them, and waiting only for the opportunity to punish them for their evil doing. Therefore they thought they must offer sacrifices to appease him, and the more precious and costly the sacrifice, the more favor they should gain, and so they were led to sacrifice their own sons and daughters. Thus the sacrificial system, which God had given to Adam, and which was observed by Noah, and which was included in the covenant with Abraham, was altogether perverted and lost sight of in this apostasy of the nations. And the descendants of Abraham, in their unfaithfulness, through their association with the nations, and amid the darkness of Egypt, also lost sight of the true, the simple, and the significant service that God had given to Adam, and had continued with Abraham. Accordingly, when they came out of Egypt, the Lord renewed to Israel the sacrificial system, with definite instruction in it, that they might, according to his own direction, offer his sacrifices in purity, and according to truth; that they might see in these the true meaning that God put there at the beginning, which was the sacrifice that he had made,—the offering of his only begotten Son,—the firstling of his flock,—the best of all that he had. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 57.13

Thus it is plain that the sacrificial system that was given to Israel was for the enlightenment and instruction of all the people of the world as certainly as it was for Israel; because it was Israel’s likeness to all the other nations in their darkness that made it necessary that this should be given to them. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 58.1

God has no favorites, and never had any. All that he ever had is free to all people. All that he ever gave to anybody is free to all others, and he gives to any only that they may pass it on to all others. And those who receive, and do not pass it on to all others, but confine it to themselves, lose that which God has in truth given, and can cling only to the empty form of the truth, absolutely dry and barren. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 58.2

This principle is present truth to-day, to the people of the Third Angel’s Message. There is positive danger, and there has been for years, that these shall repeat the history of the Jews. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 58.3

“Back Page” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 77, 4, p. 64.

LAST week in the United States Senate, in a speech that has been accepted as expressing the intent of the nation, it was declared that if the late and present course of the United States in the farthest East “be imperialism, its final end will be the empire of the Son of God;” and that “the American people move forward to the future of their hope, and the doing of His will.” Thus the evil seeds of National Reform that have been sown in these thirty-five years are springing up now everywhere, and soon will be producing their baleful fruit everywhere. ARSH January 23, 1900, page 64.1