Christ’s threefold message in Revelation 14:6-12 is his great truth our day. It contains timeless truths of former times plus His appointed truths for our day.Let us examine some of these truths. The first is “Fear god, and give glory to him; for (because) the hour of his judgement is come” (verse 7).
Every soul is directed to fear God, in modern terms we would say “Stand in awe of “ or “Reverence” Him, Why? Because the hour oh His judgement is come; the time has arrived when the acts of every life and the innermost secrets of every heart are to be evaluated in terms of eternity. In the preceding chapter we showed that this time of judgment began in 1844.
The second special truth is “Worship his that made heaven, and earth” (verse 7).
The true ground of all worship is found in man’s distinction between the Creator and the creature. How do we show that we worship God as the Creator? Some say, “By praying to God, reading the Bible, attending worship services, giving tithes and offerings, and obeying the Lord Jesus.” These are essentials in worshiping the Creator, but none of them is the distinguishing sign God Himself has appointed as His mark that He is the Creator. The followers of false religions pray to their gods, read so-called sacred writings, attend temple worship, give offerings, and so on.
What then is the distinguishing sign that we worship Him that made heaven and earth? True worship springs, of course, from a surrendered heart and will. But as an outward sign of this inward commitment God has instituted the keeping of the seventh day: “For (because) in six day the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed” (Ex. 31:17). The keepings of the seventh day is the distinguishing sign by which we show that we worship the true God.
Some object to this conclusion, based on Exodus 31:16, 17, because this text says the Sabbath is a sign between God and the children of Israel, and therefore it applied only to the Jews. But let us remember that Jesus declared, “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). Therefore, the Sabbath is a sign of Christ as Creator-Redeemer between Himself and His followers.
After the apostles died, there was a widespread departure from true Christian faith. As a result, the keeping of Sunday was established in the place of Christ’s true seventh-day Sabbath. This last-day call to “worship him that made heaven, and earth” signifies that Christ is calling His people back to His true Sabbath, lost sight of during centuries of departure from the true way of Jesus. The threefold message foretold the raising up of a Christian people, around 1844, who would keep the seventh-day Sabbath of the Decalogue.
The third special truth in this threefold message is “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Rev. 14:8).
In this instance, the word “Babylon” symbolizes all religions or other movements aside from those that obey the threefold message. The word “fallen” signifies a spiritual falling away from the true way of Christ. “The wine of…her fornication” signifies an unlawful union of the churches with the sinful ways of the world (see James 4:4), and also alliances with civil power to enforce their doctrines.
Later, in connection with this message, there comes a final appeal to God’s people. We call this the fourth special truth: “Babylon the great is fallen. … Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that we receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:2-4).
The fifth special truth is, One must not obey the beast and its image (anti-God powers), neither receive the mark of the beast (chap. 14:8-11).
Revelations 13:1-10, 18 presents certain specifications regarding the beast power. A careful study of these specifications shows they cannot apply to any other power than the papacy. The picture of the image to the beast suggests that a religious movement other than the beast will set up a counterpart of the beast that will succeed in getting its doctrines enforced by civil law (see verse 14). The chief of these will be the observance of Sunday. Many bible scholars are convinced that the image to the beast will be set up by the United States under the influence of its churches.
The mark of the beast pertains to the change the papacy has attempted to make in Christ’s Sabbath by substituting Sundaykeeping for it. No one has yet received the mark of the beast. But in the final test all people will have to choose between obeying Christ as supreme – which means they will have to obey His commands to keep the seventh day, as well as His other commandments – and obeying the laws of men as being above Christ’s, with regard to the first day of the week. Those who knowingly choose to keep the man-made Sabbath on the first day of the week will receive the mark of the beast. May none who read these pages be among those who make that choice?
Many think it makes no difference whether a Christian keeps Sunday or the Sabbath. But there is no neutral ground. When the issue becomes clear, every living soul will make a choice between keeping the seventh-day Sabbath in loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Creator-Saviour and keeping Sunday as a sign of submission to another power.
These two questions strike into the heart of the issue:
1- When a Christian regards the seventh day, or Saturday, as the Sabbath, whom does he obey? There is only one correct answer. The seventh day is the only day of the week Jesus Christ ever asked man to keep holy. So when a Christian keeps the seventh day, he is obeying the Lord Jesus. In the light of the scriptural principle “To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servant ye are” (Rom. 6:16), he shows that he is a servant of Christ.
2- When a person regards the first day of the week, or Sunday, as a holy day, whom does he obey? He may sincerely believe he is obeying the lord Jesus. And if he does not understand, God does not hold him responsible (James 4:17). But he is nevertheless wrong, because Jesus has never commanded anyone to keep Sunday. The celebration of Sunday rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not and not upon the divine warrant of the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, the observance of Sunday when one knows which is God’s true day, is a sign of submission to the authority of the Catholic Church.
This presents a decisive challenge. Which of the two signs do you choose for your life? Under whose banner do you choose to stand? Surely your choice is for Jesus, and to keep His Sabbath as His sign that he is your Creator-Saviour. You are ready to say, “Take the world, but give me Jesus.”
The sixth special truth of Christ’s threefold message is the keeping of “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).
There is much confusion today about faith and works. Genuine faith works by love for obedience (Gal. 5:6), as contrasted with a so-called faith without appropriate works. There is also confusion regarding true grace – by which the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us (not by us or for us only) when we “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4) – and so-called free grace, which sets aside the obligation to obey the Decalogue. The true way of Christ in His threefold message presents the right balance between faith and works and grace and lay in that perfect guideline – keeping of the commandments of God and maintaining an unshaking truth in Jesus – set forth in Revelation 14:12.
There are millions of Christians who believe that all of the Tem Commandments are binding, but who keep Sunday. If you are one of them, we appeal to you to go all the way with Jesus by also adhering to His Sabbath commandment.
Connected with this threefold message is the seventh special truth: The literal, visible, personal, imminent return of Christ to reap the harvest of the gospel (verses 14:16). We discussed this truth of Jesus` second coming.
These seven truths are only a part of the threefold message. But they help us to discern the true way of Christ, which we want to follow. They also help us identify the group of Christians by whom this prophecy of Revelation 14:6-12 is being fulfilled.
Here are four specifications that characterize that group:
1- They are a people who adhere to those truths Christ has appointed for our day, plus His timeless truths from previous centuries.
2- Since they “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12), they are a Christian seventh-day (Saturday)-keeping people, according to the fourth commandment of the Decalogue
3- Since this threefold message came due when the hour of God’s judgment began in heaven (Rev. 14:7), in fulfilment of Daniel 7:9, 10; 8:14. The Seventh Day Adventist are a people who came into existence around 1844 and began to proclaim this threefold message, as called for in Revelation 14:6,7.
4- They are proclaiming to every nation the truths about the hour of God’s judgment, the worship of the Creator in keeping the Sabbath as His sign of Creation, the fall of Babylon, the call to come out of her, and the warning against obeying any power contrary to what God has commanded.
Actually, there is only one group of people who meet the four specifications, and they are called Seventh-day Adventists.
We would not suggest that only they will be saved. Many now connected with that movement will no t be saved because they do not have Christ living in them. God saves every person who fully accepts Christ and lives up to he light he has received.
The fulfilment of Revelation 14:6-12 by Seventh-day Adventists does not mean that they alone constitute God’s people. God has true followers in all denominations. But before Jesus returns, the world will clearly learn the issues involved (see Rev. 18:1-4), and the true one will join with those who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
There never was a time when so many religious beliefs were being proclaimed over the air and by the printed people to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life. But let none lose sight of this: In this end-time, as Revelation 14:6-14 shows, God has placed a priority on the acceptance of salvation by faith in Jesus in the setting of His special truths for this closing age. It is His will that we recognize this priority and adhere to these special truths proclaimed in that threefold message from heave, plus the timeless truths from former centuries. Every soul should respond to the call of God to follow through on His message for our day.
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