The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

“Remember How Thou Hast Heard”

In the address to the Sardis church we read, “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” ⁶ The Sardis church seems to have been brought out by the Reformation, after the dark period of the work of “Jezebel”—the apostate church. The church of Sardis was told that she had been a live church; but when she heard and rejected the doctrine of the Lord’s coming, she placed herself where she was liable to be overtaken by that event as by a “thief in the night.” So, it is stated by the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5, will be the condition of those who cry, “Peace and safety,” when the Lord’s coming is near. Those who follow the light of truth are called the “children of the day,” and the Lord will not come on them as a thief. GSAM 172.1

In this prophetic description of the seven churches, we see the fall of the Sardis church is immediately followed by the Philadelphia, or (as the word signifies) brotherly love, church. Such, indeed, were the 50,000 believers who, by the second angel’s message, were brought out from all the varied churches, and united in one bond of brotherly love on the great cardinal truth of the immediate advent of Christ. GSAM 172.2