The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

An Angel a Symbol of Human Messengers

As already shown, the work of preaching the gospel has been committed to man, and the Lord has promised his blessing on that instrumentality till the “end of the world.” ² So the angel bearing this message must be a symbol of a message concerning time which is to be preached to earth’s inhabitants. The message is proclaimed from a book that is “open,” clearly implying that it had once been closed. These messengers are esteemed of God; for the “bow,“ a token of God’s covenant, is over them, and they stand clothed with the light of God’s glory, and declare the message on the authority of the Creator of all things. That which is here declared is a time message, once “sealed,” but now proclaimed from an “open” book. GSAM 126.2

In previous chapters it has been proved that the Lord marked the time when the light should be given relative to the close of the great prophetic period—twenty-three hundred days—leading to the investigative judgment; that the prediction that knowledge should be increased was accurately fulfilled by the raising up of many to whom he revealed that light; and that he also marked the time when the “parable of the fig-tree” should be learned, by raising up his teachers then and there to go forth and herald that parable to the world. Just so accurately has he marked the point when the time message should swell to its loud cry, and just so accurately was that fulfilled. GSAM 127.1