The Signs of the Times, vol. 13
December 8, 1887
“The Third Angel’s Message” The Signs of the Times 13, 47, pp. 743, 744.
THE Third Angel’s Message being that part of the truth of God which is designed especially to warn the world against the worship of the beast and his image, and which embodies the truth, the love of which will save from the deceptions of Satan all who receive the love of it; and as the enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image, and the accompanying power and signs and lying wonders, is, as we have seen, most dangerously near, it becomes especially important that we should study this message with the most intense interest. This message presents the truth of God which is to save the people of this generation, whosoever of them will be saved when the Lord comes. SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.1
The Third Angel’s Message calls all men to the keep of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The commandments of God here referred to are the ten commandments—the law of God—and that “law is the truth.” Psalm 119:142. The faith of Jesus is the faith of Him who said, “I am the way, the truth.” John 14:6. The truth of this message is therefore the very supremacy of truth itself, and to receive the love of the truth of this message is to receive the love of the very highest manifestation of truth that is known to the universe of God. How appropriate therefore that this should be the message which should be given to men to save them from the influence of the “lying wonders” of Satan’s greatest efforts—that this should be the truth the love of which should save the men of this generation from the delusion of believing only a lie. SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.2
The law of God is itself righteousness (Psalm 119:172), and therefore holds as unrighteous all the race of man, because all have transgressed it. Romans 3:19, 20. And being transgressors, the only way in which they can ever attain to harmony with the righteous law of God is through the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:20, 21. The righteousness embodied in the Third Angel’s Message, therefore, is the very supremacy of righteousness itself, and to receive the love of the truth of this message is to receive the love of the highest manifestation of righteousness that is known to the universe of God. How appropriate therefore it is that this should be the message which should be given to men in this generation to save them from all the “deceivableness of unrighteousness” which Satan will work with all “power and signs and lying wonders.” SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.3
The line is clearly drawn. The “strong delusion that they should believe a lie” comes upon men because “they believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Because men received not the love of the truth, Satan works in them with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. In the Third Angel’s Message is embodied the supreme truth and the supreme righteousness. Satan’s work is to deceive men into the making of an image to the beast and the worshiping of the beast and his image. The Third Angel’s Message is aimed directly against the worship of the beast and his image. Therefore it is absolutely certain that in the Third Angel’s Message is embodied the truth, the love of which alone will enable any person to withstand the power and the lying deceptions of Satan, which are now dangerously near to being plunged upon the world. This message alone embodies the truth, through the love of which alone any soul will ever get “the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name.” SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.4
We have found that the agency through which Satan is to develop his lying wonders is already in the world, and that the power—the tyranny of a national religion—by which Satan’s work is to be made effective is not only already in process of formation, but is near completion. But is not the Third Angel’s Message also already in the world? Most assuredly it is and has been for forty-two years. Starting in February, 1845, with but one person, it has spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from British Columbia to Mexico; building up thirty-eight Conferences; establishing two large printing-houses, issuing millions upon millions of pages of printed matter every year; building one of the largest health institutions in the world, besides other important health and educational institutions—all in our own country. From this country it has spread to Australia, New Zealand, and the smaller islands of the Pacific; to Europe, establishing missions, churches, Conferences, and printing-houses in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Russia, and Central Europe; to Central America, South America, and South Africa: thus have almost compassed the earth with its solemn warning and its gracious call. The “few” everywhere receive the love of the truth which it embodies, while the “many” believe not its truth, and receive not the love of it, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.5
That the Third Angel’s Message shall encompass the earth, even to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, giving them ample opportunity to receive the truth and the love of it, which, if received, will deliver them from the power of Satan and give them victory over all his deceivableness of unrighteousness, is clear from the word of God. This we shall now make plain. SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.6
1. This is the “third” in a series of messages in which the second and the third follow the first in quick succession. Revelation 14:6-12. The first of the three (verses 6, 7) said with a loud voice to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people; the second followed this one, and the third angel followed them. As, therefore, the first one was to go to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, and as the third one follows, it likewise must go to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.7
2. The third angel says with a loud voice, “If any man worship the beast and his image,” etc. This phrase, “If any man,” shows that it is to all men; that it is a universal message. SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.8
.3. Of the beast it is said that, “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb.” Revelation 13, 8. The work of the image of the beast is to cause the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the beast, as well as himself; therefore, the worship of the image of the beast is indirectly the worship of the beast, and it is the mark of the beast which the image causes men to receive. Now as the worship of the beast is to be by “all them that dwell on the earth;” as the Third Angel’s Message is the warning against that worship; and as obedience to this message is the only means of escaping that worship and the wrath of God; it is, therefore, certain that this message must go to “all that dwell on the earth”—the warning must be as extensive as the worship will be. SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.9
Here, then, is a message of the word of God which is to be sounded loudly to all the world, calling upon men to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, that out of “all that dwell upon the earth” there may be gathered a people of whom it can be truly said by the Lord, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” and that so all who will may escape the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. Having almost compassed the earth, the preliminary work of this message is almost done. Soon it will rise up in the strength of God, and speak with a mighty voice that will arrest the attention of the nations and kingdoms of all the earth, and turn it to such a world-wide study of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus as there has not been since the world began. This makes it incumbent upon all people now to study the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus as they have never studied them before, asking themselves the question, “Am I one o whom this scripture speaks? Am I one who truly keeps the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? Have I received such a love of this truth that I can stand against all the wiles of Satan when he shall work with all power and signs and lying wonders?” SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.10
By the evidences which we have now presented from the word of God, it is certain that we have reached the day and generation when all these things shall be. God sends no message to a people to whom its warnings do not apply. He did not send a warning of a coming flood to a people who should never see a flood; the people whom the Lord warned of a coming flood, those were the very people who saw the flood come. The people whom the Lord besought to escape from the impending doom of Sodom, those were the people who saw the doom of Sodom. So the people to whom the Lord sends this message of warning against the worship of the beast and his image, these are the people who will see the worship of the beast and his image. The people upon whom God calls to keep his commandments and the faith of Jesus, that they may escape the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, these are the very people who will see the wrath of God poured out without mixture—these are the people who will see the seven last plagues poured upon the earth. SITI December 8, 1887, page 743.11
It was necessary to bring out the points shown in this and the four preceding articles, that the reader might fully understand that which is to follow. In the next two, or perhaps three, articles we shall trace the development of the working of Satan, even to its culmination. SITI December 8, 1887, page 744.1
J.