Last Day Tokens

THE LORD’S MESSAGE

The points briefly noted in the above summary stamp this second advent movement as the Lord’s message, developed in His own appointed time; hence it is neither a false fulfilment of prophecy, nor a spurious message. Being settled in the conviction that the Lord is in the work, we are fully justified in the claim that this movement is the Lord’s method of warning the world, and that He has set His hand to the work of preparing a people for His coming; therefore the question asked by Israel of old, “Is the Lord among us or not?” would in our case be unreasonable. LDT 197.1

In the preceding chapters, attention has been especially given to the first and second messages. The third angel was to follow them; as expressed in some translations, it “went with them,” implying that in the last call the three were to unite. The advent message now is, in fact, a threefold warning, the truths relating to the first and the second being taught with the third. So also is this threefold message now to reach the same classes mentioned in the three calls of Luke 14. The invitation is to those who have been “bidden;” to the wounded and oppressed in the “streets and lanes of the city;” and most emphatically to those in the highways and hedges is now the call, “Whosoever will, let him come.” LDT 197.2

In the fall of 1844, soon after the close of the twenty-three hundred days, Elder Joseph Bates, of Fairhaven, Mass., who, because of his former seafaring life, is designated as LDT 198.1