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The Sabbath Proclaimed “More Fully.”

………………………DD…..

“I saw that we sensed and realized but little of

the importance of the Sabbath, to what we yet

should realize and know of its importance and

glory. I saw we knew not what it was yet to ride

upon the high places of the earth and to be fed

with the heritage of Jacob. But when

the refreshing and latter rain shall come from

the presence of the Lord and the glory

of His power we shall know what it is to be fed

with the heritage of Jacob and ride upon

the high places of the earth. Then shall we see

the Sabbath more in its importance and glory.”

--Letter 3, 1851

“And at the commencement of the time of

trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost

as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath

more fully. This enraged the church,

and nominal Adventists, as they could not

refute the Sabbath truth. And at this time,

God's chosen, all saw clearly that we had

the truth, and they came out and endured

the persecution with us.”

--A Word to the Little Flock, p. 19

Ellen G. White

………………………DD…..

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A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS

The book you now read has the material we have researched from the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy over the last several years. But we wish to communicate our findings in a little book—one that is only 92 pages! Therefore, the material has been greatly condensed. This means that you cannot read this as you would a novel. Read it as you would the Bible (see Proverbs 24:13, 14; 25:16, 27), except just realize that we do not consider that this work is infallible. We are not prophets, just laypeople with a common vision to share what is on our hearts from the writings that are divinely inspired; for we realize that the fullness of the last message of the gospel would be found there and have such a profound impact that the end of this present age will come as the harvest is ripened by knowledge. The Sabbath being proclaimed more fully will cause the earth to be filled ‘by knowing’ the glory of the Lord (Habakkuk 2:14, margin) and Jesus will be glorified in the last proclamation of the gospel; yet this glory will provoke Babylon to institute the long-awaited Sunday laws, so that the faithful ones may pass that test and live to see Jesus coming in clouds of glory!

So, again, we recommend that you, the reader, do not rush through the material here. When you come to Bible and Spirit of Prophecy quotes, read them thoroughly, not missing a word. They are there for a reason, and oh, what power there is in the Word of God. We recommend also that you will read this book, though it is not large, in segments. This allows for contemplation and proper digestion. And please pray all the way through. Finally, do not be dismayed if you do not grasp every detail the first time through. You will want to read this several times for things to sink in.

We dedicate this book to our loving Father and the Lamb of life and His Spirit, Who have worked so laboriously to produce the soon-to-come harvest, by Their Covenant that They made to save us and establish their glorious eternal kingdom. We also dedicate this work to the holy angels, in their numerous numbers, who have worked tirelessly towards that same goal of making our universe the perfect place for all who love the truth.

The work will soon be finished!

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CONTENTS

FORWARD!—EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED ….…. 4 ___ ___ ___

1 - HABAKKUK’S VISION OF TABLES ……………………………….. 9

Background A New Vision Emerges

THE RISING OF THE SABBATH LIGHT (PRELUDE)

2 - THE SABBATH PROCLAIMED “MORE FULLY” ... 20

What Does Sabbath Really Mean? The Law and the Gospel Blended Rebuilding the Sanctuary of Rest Practical Sabbath Rest A Solemn Appeal

HE SHALL COME AS THE LATTER RAIN (PRELUDE)

3 - THE PRESCRIBED LIMIT OF SACRIFICE ………….….. 35

Why This Doctrine Matters The Prescribed Limit, The Mystery of Mysteries The Messenger of the Covenant

THE SUFFERING OF OUR SAVIOUR (PRELUDE)

4 - OUR SIN-PARDONING REDEEMER TODAY ………… 51

The Sin Problem Refuse Not the Blood Vision of the Oil Press The Final Revelation of Blood

___ ___ ___ APPENDIX—A CRISIS IN OUR CHURCH ………..………. 75

The Daily The Omega OUTLINE—FOR REVIEW AND REFERENCE .……..…. 97

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FORWARD!

EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED

UST as a word went out to the little flock of Advent believers in the late 1840s regarding the restoration of the Sabbath, being the seventh day of the week, the much larger flock of today is also in need of hearing a word—this time regarding the

Sabbath in all its fullness. This word does not contain “cunningly devised fables” (2 Peter 1:16), but it is spoken by a vision that was prophesied to speak now at the end of time, and not lie (see Habakkuk 2:3). This little book is divided into four parts, each containing a critical component of the beautiful Sabbath message, now to be seen in all its glory. In the first part, we will see how the ‘tables’ of Habakkuk’s vision again speak; it began the Advent movement, and it will complete it. But this time the tables turn. A new glory is seen, and the Sabbath is there. The vision can now be seen in its ultimate fulfillment, even as the Third Chapter of Habakkuk always meant to show us. In the second part, we will behold the Sabbath, with its full implications. Some have argued that this means keeping ceremonial and even lunar Sabbaths which replace the Seventh-day Sabbath under the continuous weekly cycle since Creation. But we will examine what ‘Sabbath’ really means and thus discover the full meaning of the Fourth Commandment, just as adultery and murder and all the other Commandments have broader meanings (see “the Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5). We will find that such revelation and study— new to our understanding—will help practically prepare us for the sealing to take place in our final generation. After all, “the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the living God” (Great Controversy, p. 640; unless otherwise noted, all non-Bible quotes are from Ellen G. White). Should we not study what the sealing really is? Should we not also understand that the mark of the beast involves more than just Sunday-keeping, and why a ‘beast’ was used in the first place to symbolize Babylon, and what made Babylon, Babylon? Has the culture of Adventism so much focused on Sunday Laws that many think that trying to keep the Seventh Day will prevent them from receiving the mark of the beast and the plagues that follow? Does a mental ascent to the truth save us? Has this Laodicean and Pharisaical culture blinded us to the fact that more light is to come regarding the plan of salvation, for the purpose of preparing us for the sealing? Do we pride ourselves in knowing which day is the Sabbath, but neglect knowing the Lord of the Sabbath, thus being transformed into His image? Have we been conditioned by tradition into a complacency and non-expectancy of reaching the zenith of the rest and refreshing (Isaiah 28:12), which has always been the promised condition and heritage of Jacob? In other words, as the Jews anticipated a Messiah to come and establish a worldly kingdom, do we look for Sunday Laws and other world events instead of further development on spiritual light? Yes, we anticipate the Latter Rain, but have we been conditioned to think that the latter rain is a mystical miracle of God that comes only as we pray for it, and hence lose sight of the message, or doctrine (Deuteronomy 32:2), as the Loud Cry associated with it (Revelation 18)? Have we lost sight of our goal? Have conservatives been wrapped up in debates, and timings and events of prophecy, rather than in

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the revelation of Jesus Christ; have liberals invested all their time and talents in the things of this world? Have both flocks become so utterly distracted that we lose sight of our dear Shepherd? Many winds of doctrine are blowing about in our Church. Many messages are floating around; truth is either mixed with error, isolated from the whole, or disregarded. On one hand, there are those who fanatically proclaim ‘new light’, or some pet doctrine, but on the other hand, many say to counter it, “We already have all the light. We know the 28 fundamental beliefs and to avoid the Sunday laws. This is all we need to know (We ‘have need of nothing’)” But neither the fire of fanaticism, nor Laodicean lukewarmness, will bring about the unity that Christ called for. Unity can only come through the at-ONE-ment; and until it comes, Christ will still be up in heaven waiting and laboring for it, while the earth is all astir with schisms of confusion. But there is hope… The third and fourth parts of this little book describe the two parts of the sacrificial atonement. These are the same two images seen in the vision of Habakkuk, as seen in their full meaning. In the first, we will discover how in Christ’s “incarnation He had reached the prescribed limit as a Sacrifice” (12 Manuscript Releases, p. 409), and in the second, we will see the ministration in the Heavenly Sanctuary in the grand final revelation of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer, which began to be understood in 1888. Our message is to be, as our prophet told us many times, “LOOK AND LIVE!” or as stated by the Elijah before us, “BEHOLD THE LAMB!” And “the Lamb”, denoting Christ’s Sacrifice, should be seen as the main treasured theme in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. According to the Spirit of Prophecy (the Testimony of Jesus), no other message qualifies to swell into the Loud Cry. Regarding 1888, Mrs. White stated the following words (please highlight, read, and reread): “The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the Angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth. For it is the work of every one to whom the message of warning has come, to lift up Jesus, to present Him to the world as revealed in types, as shadowed in symbols, as manifested in the revelations of the prophets, as unveiled in the lessons given to His disciples and in the wonderful miracles wrought for the sons of men. Search the Scriptures; for they are they that testify of Him” (1888 Materials, p. 1073). The foundation of the Loud Cry was laid in 1888, and Jones and Waggoner with a few others proclaimed it for several years. In fact, they even quoted Mrs. White saying that the Sabbath would be proclaimed more fully, and they correctly interpreted it. However, since the leaders in our Church back then did not accept their straight, testing testimonies, no further light was given. Many years have since passed by. “God meant that the watchmen should arise and with united voices send forth a decided message, giving the trumpet a certain sound, that the people might all spring to their post of duty and act their part in the great work. Then the strong, clear light of that other Angel who comes down from heaven having great power, would have filled the earth with His glory. We are years behind; and those who stood in blindness and hindered the advancement of the very message that God meant should go forth from the Minneapolis meeting [1888] as a lamp that burneth, have need to humble their hearts before God and

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see and understand how the work has been hindered by their blindness of mind and hardness of heart” (Manuscript Releases Vol. 14, p. 111). “Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel’s message, and I have answered, ‘It is the third angel’s message in verity.’ [Now, highlight, read, and reread what comes next…] The prophet declares, ‘And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.’ Brightness, glory, and power are to be connected with the third angel’s message, and conviction will follow wherever it is preached in demonstration of the Spirit. How will any of our brethren know when this light shall come to the people of God? As yet, we certainly have not seen the light that answers to this description. God has light for His people, and all who will accept it will see the sinfulness of remaining in a lukewarm condition … To our brethren who are standing in this self-confident, self-satisfied position, who talk and act as if there was no need of more light, we want to say that the Laodicean message is applicable to you” (Review and Herald, April 1, 1890). What is the description for the additional light? Brightness, glory and power! This will be shown in Part 1 as we study Habakkuk. “I stated [at the 1888 Conference] that ... another Angel was to come from heaven with a message and the whole earth was to be lightened with His glory. It would be impossible for us to state just how this additional light would come. It might come in a very unexpected manner, in a way that would not agree with the ideas that many have conceived. It is not at all unlikely, or contrary to the ways and works of God to send light to His people in unexpected ways” (1888 Materials, p. 239). The following are more quotes from 1888 Materials. We share them to give the outline, character, and the essential qualities of the message we were always to expect heaven to send us…

………………………DD….. “The standard by which to measure character is the royal law. The law is the sin detector. By the law is the knowledge of sin. But the sinner is constantly being drawn to Jesus by the wonderful manifestation of His love in that He humiliated Himself to die a shameful death upon the cross. What a study is this! Angels have striven, earnestly longed, to look into this wonderful mystery… This is the mystery of godliness. This picture is of the highest value. It is to be meditated upon, placed in every discourse, hung in memory's hall, uttered by human lips, and traced by human beings who have tasted and known that the Lord is good. It is to be the groundwork of every discourse. There have been dry theories presented and precious souls are starving for the bread of life. This is not the preaching that is required, or that the God of heaven will accept, for it is Christless. The divine picture of Christ must be kept before the people. He is that Angel standing in the sun of heaven. He reflects no shadows. Clothed in the attributes of Deity, shrouded in the glories of Deity, and in the likeness of the infinite God, He is to be lifted up before men” (1888 Materials, p. 213). “Increased light will shine upon all the grand truths of prophecy, and they will be seen in freshness and brilliancy because the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness will illuminate the whole” (p. 514). “The truth is an advancing truth, and we must walk in the increasing light” (p. 574).

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“Well now, how are we going to know anything about that message if we are not in a position to recognize anything of the light of heaven when it comes to us?” (p. 609). Now, think: What attributes should we be looking for?... “As the end approaches, the testimonies of God’s servants will become more decided and more powerful, flashing the light of truth upon the systems of error and oppression that have so long held the supremacy” (p. 728). “‘And the earth was lightened with His glory.’ In this illumination, the light of all the three messages is combined … Jesus says, ‘I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me.’ Here is the secret of power, of effectiveness; for though human instrumentalities are employed in the work of salvation, it is the light shining from the uplifted cross that alone can attract hearts heavenward. We must present the truth as it is in Jesus. The light and power of an indwelling Saviour must be ours, or we cannot draw others to Him … There is one great central truth to be kept ever before the mind in the searching of the Scriptures—Christ and Him crucified. Every other truth is invested with influence and power corresponding to its relation to this theme. It is only in the light of the cross that we can discern the exalted character of the law of God … When Christ in His work of redemption is seen to be the great central truth of the system of truth, a new light is shed upon all the events of the past and the future” (pp. 804-807). “‘The earth was lightened with His glory.’ Revelation 18:1. That work is the voice of the people of God proclaiming a message of warning to the world” (p. 926). “There will be heard from human lips such a testimony as is represented in this scripture, ‘After these things I saw another Angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with His glory.’ There will be faces aglow with the love of God; there will be lips touched with holy fire, saying, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’” (p. 1007)! “The latter rain will be more abundant [than the early rain]. The Saviour of men will be glorified, and the earth will be lightened with the bright shining of the beams of His righteousness. He is the Fountain of light, and light from the gates ajar has been shining upon the people of God, that they may lift Him up in His glorious character before those who sit in darkness” (p. 1075; again, highlight, read, and reread this one). “‘After these things I saw another Angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with His glory.’ Some souls will see and receive the light; but those who have stood long in resistance of light, because it did not come just in accordance with their ideas, will be in danger of calling light darkness, and darkness light; but the power of God will sweep away the refuge of lies, and His glory will be revealed. Let not one ray of light be resisted, let no operation of the Spirit of God be interpreted as darkness” (p. 1254). And, finally (read very carefully)... “What is the message to be given at this time? It is the third angel's message. But that light which is to fill the whole world with its glory, has been despised by some who claim to believe the present truth. Be careful how you tread. Take off the shoes from off your feet; for you are on holy ground. Beware how you indulge the attributes of Satan, and pour contempt upon the manifestations of the Holy Spirit…

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The Word of God speaketh truth, not a lie. In it is nothing strained, nothing extreme, nothing overdone. We are to accept it as the Word of the living God… The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure. The uplifted Saviour is to appear in His efficacious work as the Lamb slain, sitting upon the throne, to dispense the priceless covenant blessings—the benefits He died for, to purchase for every soul who should believe on Him. John could not express that love in words; it was too deep, too broad; he calls upon the human family to behold it. Christ is pleading for the church in the heavenly courts above, pleading for those for whom He paid the redemption price of His own life blood. Centuries, ages, can never diminish the efficacy of this atoning sacrifice. This message of the gospel of His grace was to be given to the church in clear and distinct lines, that the world should no longer say, Seventh-day Adventists talk the law, the law, but do not preach or believe Christ. The efficacy of the blood of Christ was to be represented to the people with freshness and power, that their faith might lay hold on its merits. As the high priest sprinkled the warm blood upon the mercy seat, while the fragrant cloud of incense ascended before God, so while we confess our sins, and plead the efficacy of Christ's atoning blood, our prayers are to ascend to heaven, fragrant with the merits of Christ's character. Notwithstanding our unworthiness, we are ever to bear in mind that there is One that can take away sin, can save the sinner. Every sin acknowledged before God with a contrite heart, He will remove. This faith is the life of the church. As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness by Moses, and all that had been bitten by the fiery serpents were bidden to look and live, so also the Son of man must be lifted up, that ‘whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’… Now, it has been Satan's determined purpose to eclipse the view of Jesus, and lead man to look to man, and trust to man, and be educated to expect help from man. For years the church has been looking to man and expecting much from man, but not looking to Jesus, in Whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. Therefore God gave to His servants a testimony that presented the truth as it is in Jesus, which is the third angel's message in clear, distinct lines… This is the testimony that must go throughout the length and breadth of the world. It presents the law and the gospel, binding up the two in a perfect whole” (pp. 1334-1339). Let us go forward in our prophetic experience. The Lord and His army will prevail.

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PART 1

HABAKKUK’S VISION OF TABLES

HE book of Habakkuk, though hidden among what are called the ‘minor prophets’, has a wealth of inspiration. Until recently, it has been sparsely mined. The most familiar passage

for Adventists has been the first part of Chapter 2. The following are three different renderings of it, followed by the pinnacle portion of the Third Angel’s Message that strongly ties in…

King James: “Write the vision, and make [it] plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him: the just shall live by His faith” (Habakkuk 2:2-4). Greek Old Testament (LXX): “For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain: though He should tarry, wait for Him; for He will surely come, and will not tarry. If he should draw back, My soul has no pleasure in him: but the just shall live by My faith.” Paul’s quote: “For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man] draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:37, 38). Third Angel’s Message: “Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

We can see from the above that the vision can either be spoken of as an ‘it’ or a ‘He’. It will be apparent why as we unravel the vision. Three main thoughts are given. First, a vision to be made plain upon tables; this is what we must all behold at the end of time. Second, we must wait for the appointed time when it no longer tarries; we will later see when that time began according to Scripture. Third, the doctrine of justification by faith is the subject of the vision. And recall the quote from our forward, where Mrs. White says that justification by faith is the Third Angel’s Message in verity. The vision will vividly portray this.

………………………DD…..

BACKGROUND

Two historical components must be reviewed before we can capture what the vision truly displays; firstly, Habakkuk’s own time… Habakkuk was a prophet that lived during the time that Israel had gone into apostasy to the point that God allowed them to be taken into captivity to Babylon. Most of the Bible prophets lived around this general period of time, including Daniel; also, Revelation is based off this original setting, though ‘Babylon’ becomes broader in nature. Like all the other prophets, Habakkuk was really concerned about the state of God’s people. Chapter 1, Verse 4 is a key statement in his prayer to God: “Therefore the Law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.” Again, we see that God’s people had been slack concerning the Law, and that is why they were taken captive.

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Their captivity ended and the Sanctuary was decreed to be rebuilt in 457 BC, thus starting the 70 weeks of years unto the Cross as well as the 2300 years unto the cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary. Everything points forward to the great atonement of Christ. This is the hope and salvation of all Israel, and all mankind. Christ “did not die on the cross to abolish the Law of God, but to secure for man a second probation” (Pamphlet 86, p. 32). Now, did the Cross end any further need of atonement? Certainly not; “because of the continual commission of sin, the atoning sacrifice of a heavenly Mediator is essential. Jesus, our great high priest, officiates for us in the presence of God, offering in our behalf His shed blood” (Youth’s Instructor, April 16, 1903). There must be something God’s people have been missing. Everything that has happened in the past has failed to bring an end to suffering. The real problem we have is “the continual commission of sin”, and the atonement of Christ is our only remedy; this will be studied out more in Part 4. Until the remedy is applied, Israel will remain in captivity to the real problem, which Babylon is a symbolic type of. This is what bothered Habakkuk, so God providentially chose to make the remedy “plain” to him. Habakkuk was satisfied with the symbols, but it was really given over 2500 years ago for the benefit of the final generation, who will apply the remedy and end the continual commission of sin. Both Daniel and Revelation point forward to the remedy and result, the rest and refreshing. Habakkuk gives the most powerful revelation of the remedy in all inspired writings. This you will see in the bright and glorious revelation of the atonement. God’s people continue to miss the bright picture; instead they see the beasts and time charts as the end, rather than the sign posts pointing us to the true substance of all prophecy. More light is in store, but first we need to quickly review the start of revelation in Habakkuk. No past light need be cast aside. Everything has its place, but we must go forward.

………………………DD….. The Advent movement started when William Miller and others proclaimed the good tidings of the soon coming of Christ. Miller discovered time prophecies that pointed to 1844, which they earlier thought was 1843. Their mistake which was hidden in the figures of time prophecies was that they failed to realize that there was no year-zero. This threw them off by one year. Christ was first expected to come by the Spring of 1844, which would have been the end of the Jewish year of 1843. But Christ did not come as they expected Him to then. Later that summer, Samuel Snow discovered that the time prophecies would end on October 22, 1844, which was the Day of Atonement that year. They were able to connect the idea of ‘atonement’ to the cleansing of the sanctuary (Daniel 8:14), but their eyes were so set on the new kingdom that they failed to realize that atonement for sins must come first. Sin must cease by the blood of Jesus—the only agent that can cleanse both the humanly and heavenly Sanctuaries (studied in Parts 3 and 4, respectively). Hence, they took ‘the Sanctuary’ to mean this earth and that Christ would cleanse it by fire at His Second Advent. In the midst of a sermon, Samuel Snow stood up and announced his discovery at the Exeter Campmeeting that summer and cheered the tarrying saints. The Cry that Christ would come on October 22nd became known as the Midnight Cry, according to Matthew 25:6. The Cry was quickly heard far and wide: “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him.” The long night of tarrying was at its mid-point between

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that Spring when they first thought Christ would come, and October 22nd. It was Midnight. The time of ‘tarry’ in Habakkuk 2 was applied accordingly, and the ‘tables’ there described were applied to Miller’s time tables, or charts, upon which were made plain the main prophecies of Daniel and Revelation—the focus of which were the time prophecies to end at the ‘appointed time’, which was now thought to be October 22nd. But Jesus did not come, and hence the passing of that date later became known as the Great Disappointment. But this double mistake of having the timing one year off as well as the wrong event was prophesied to take place. The 1335 years (508 AD to 1843 AD) in Daniel 12:12 ended in 1843, rather than the actual appointed time in 1844. Also, John the Revelator’s stomach turning bitter in Chapter 10 of his apocalypse

reflected the bitter season of disappointment. The mistakes were guided by the hand of Providence; had they not existed, there would have never been an Advent movement. And henceforth, a much longer tarrying time has been expanding ever since then. Many lessons are to be learned...

………………………DD…..

A NEW VISION

EMERGES

We must go forward... There are still those who hang up the old charts, and proclaim them so tenaciously as if it were the gospel. Valid points may be made regarding forgotten portions, but the contention yielded only causes discord and further distances us from the precious gospel truths. Then there are a few who try to remove the most important time prophecy—the one that brings the cleansing of the Sanctuary into view. Many others spend so much time in their studies and presentations on identifying all the symbols that they fail to find their meaning and purpose. What is the whole purpose of the symbols, times, and events of Daniel and Revelation? Is it just to show us that the Bible can be trusted and give us excitement over prophecy? The true searcher of prophetic light should acknowledge that it all points forward to the remedy: the atonement of Christ. A cleansing must take place through His precious blood. Daniel and Revelation ushered in the Advent movement. And the student should come to realize that the emphasis for now should not be the same as in former time, though the legacy of the past should not be forgotten either. In the Millerite era, the emphasis was on Christ coming to establish His earthly kingdom, much like the early disciples first believed. We were but children then, but now it is time to mature in how we speak, think, and understand prophecy. In fact, prophecy must be perfected by a complete revelation, and once all is finished, all prophecy will fail to exist—for it will be fulfilled. It is time to be moving in that direction. Please study 1 Corinthians 13:8-12. The main role of the time prophecies is to lead us to the final atonement of Christ to soon finish in the Most Holy Place of

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the Heavenly Sanctuary, and that is where our focus should be. Not long after 1844, the temple of heaven was opened and we saw the tables of the Law in the Most Holy Place with the Fourth Commandment enlightened and exposed to our eyes of faith by our faithful prophet, Sister White. The lost Commandment was restored. We became Seventh-day Adventists. Yet we were told by our prophet that the brilliance of the sealing light of the Sabbath would grow brighter and brighter. But we were only in our infancy, so it was not yet time to know how. As quoted in the Great Controversy, Page 292: “Remember your church covenant, in which you have agreed to walk in all the ways of the Lord, made or to be made known unto you. Remember your promise and covenant with God and with one another, to receive whatever light and truth shall be made known to you from His written word; but withal, take heed, I beseech you, what you receive for truth, and compare it and weigh it with other scriptures of truth before you accept it; for it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once”—Martyn, Vol. 5, pp. 70, 71. As we slowly matured, it was time for another revelation: justification by faith, first presented by Jones and Waggoner in 1888. Did you realize that this is first grounded in Habakkuk? Yes, in Habakkuk 2:4, just after the revelation that the remnant used for the time charts: “The just shall live by His faith”—that tells us where we were headed. And no plainer declaration of this doctrine is given anywhere in the Old Testament. Justification by faith is the one precious message that will carry us forward unto the end. But how does the sealing light of the Sabbath fit into it? What about the atonement? How does it all swell into one complete Loud Cry that the whole world will be able to comprehend and visualize very quickly?

………………………DD…..

That which is perfect is come. A new vision emerges… How can we speak this so boldly? From whence does it come from? What will it ‘speak’ this time? Will this also be a ‘lie’, considering all the atrocious lies being carried about by zealous messengers? We need to recognize the patterns of prophecy. That is why we have reviewed our past. We need to be able to recognize what the new and climactic revelation would look like and where to go with it. So, first, let us ask ourselves: What is the final message, and where do we find it? The First and Second Angels’ Messages were based on our Advent experience, although we will find much more light in them as we continue here. The Third Angel’s Message involves two main things: justification by faith (in verity) and the Sabbath/mark of the beast issue; but as we saw in the forward, an Angel has been prophesied to bring special brightness and power to this message. The Angel is in Revelation 18, and we saw that the beginning of its light came in the message that Jones and Waggoner preached in 1888 and following—again, righteousness by faith. Can there be anything more to discover than this? Or will the pattern continue?—will Habakkuk reveal to us more substantial light just as it brought out the time charts and justification by faith? Will the tables of Habakkuk proclaim the Loud Cry of righteousness by faith as they proclaimed the Midnight Cry of endings of time? We must only link Scripture with Scripture to find the answers. Now, before we proceed, let us ask one final question: The vision to be written upon tables—is it only to be declared in vague terms?

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That is, does the prophecy ultimately identify what the vision is and what the tables are? Let us get even plainer: Would God tell Habakkuk— and thus, us—to write a vision upon tables and not make it plain what to write, or which tables to write them upon? As for the vision, only one is found in Habakkuk’s book. We find it in Chapter 3. Here it is! Behold the glory! “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And [His] brightness was as the light; He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there [was] the hiding of His power” (vs. 3, 4, margin). Look through the magnifying glass of inspired commentary… “Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: ‘He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power.’ Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God—there is the Saviour's glory, there ‘the hiding of His power.’ Mighty to save,’ through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute justice upon them that despised God's mercy. And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power” (Great Controversy, p. 674). Notice that Mrs. White used the marginal reference as well for Habakkuk 3:4. The ‘horns’ are ‘bright beams’, but it is also interesting that the non-marginal reference mentions ‘hands’ instead of ‘side’. The Hebrew word ‘yâd’ can be used either way; and in this case, it applies to both since Christ was pierced in both His hands and side… “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34). Three verses later, John quotes Scripture: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). The next chapter of Zechariah continues: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness … And [one] shall say unto Him, What [are] these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, [Those] with which I was wounded [in] the house of My friends” (13:1, 6). Do you see the vision? It is Jesus! He is the Fountain that is opened to our understanding more fully in the latter days. He is the remedy! He heals us from sin and uncleanness. All prophecies point forward to a number who will “have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14)— the 144,000, who will overcome all their sins “by the blood of the Lamb” (12:11). It will be shouted in heaven as it was before at Calvary, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (v. 10). The kingdom of our God will come when God has a testimony of 144,000 souls who prove by their words and lives that God’s Law—the basis of the kingdom— “[is] holy, and the Commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12).

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We must keep this end goal ever before us. Man was solely created to witness to God in the great controversy between good and evil. Living contrary to God’s way is misusing our existence and will bring only suffering. Our first parents fell, but the final remnant—the progeny of all past generations who grew into the faith—will restore what was lost by Christ’s glorious grace; they will have Christ in them, the hope of glory. In fact, the whole reason Christ came and died for us was to produce such a people through His Fountain to cleanse them. “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again … that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:15, 21). “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). If Calvary would have solved the entire great controversy, time would not have tarried another 2000 years. The Fountain was opened at Calvary, but it has yet to accomplish its designed purpose. It must demonstrate the power to cleanse a people from all their sins, without being forcefully compelling as to negate free choice. The “power” of Christ can only be given to those who choose to value it above their sins. We will see in Part 3 how the “power” involves the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but for now we need to view an equally valuable aspect of the power—and that is, revelation. God will reveal what His kingdom is like, but He will not force it on anyone. That is why He has progressively given it to man. The revelation is Himself—His character. While God has given wonderful revelations throughout Bible history, we will here highlight the ones most earth shaking! The first major revelation to take place was at Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given. We are told that “His law is a transcript of His own character, and it is the standard of all character. This infinite standard is presented to all that there may be no mistake in regard to the kind of people whom God will have to compose His kingdom. The life of Christ on earth was a perfect expression of God's law” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 315). And the greatest revelation of His life was at Calvary, the second major revelation given to man. What do we see when we look at Calvary? We see self-sacrificial love; and we also know that “love [is] the fulfilling of the Law” (Romans 13:10). Love first involves valuing God and His principles, and then it involves valuing the lives of our human family. This will take sacrifice. The value system we are born in is at enmity to love; therefore, to convert to the new value system of love, sacrifice must take place. But only the Sacrifice of Christ will avail. Giving up what we are used to in order to come into line with the Law will be drudgery; the value system will not change, for we view God as a vindictive tyrant. There is only one solution. We must look and live. The Lamb is our life. When we look to His sacrificial atonement, we see the way of life, and by beholding, we “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Again, supernatural power by the Spirit works together with the power of revelation—both are represented as the “power” of the bright beams Habakkuk saw coming out of Christ’s side of sacrifice. The remedy is to look to the revelation, and it is the revelation of self-sacrificial love, which is righteousness. Again, sacrifice must take place, but it is the spirit of sacrifice we attain as we look to the ultimate Sacrifice. Everything we have and are already belongs to God; we cannot give of ourselves. But Christ gave for us.

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That is our revelation, our remedy; our righteousness, our rest. That is “the hiding”, or, secret, “of His power” (Habakkuk 3:4). Very few find it. Yet it is the same light that has ever been revealed to men, just in different phases, and brighter as we approach the perfect day. “For with Thee [is] the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light” (Psalm 36:9). The more you study this vision of the Fountain of life, the more you will realize that this is the Source of the latter rain! Sinai and Calvary must be presented together; we learned this in the beginning of the light of the Loud Cry. Many statements from Sister White and Jones and Waggoner could readily speak on this, but we need to study this for ourselves as we behold the vision of the Fountain from God’s Word… “The life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). “The Law [is] light; and reproofs of instruction [are] the way of life” (Proverbs 6:23). “The Law of the wise [is] a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death” (13:14). “For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Paul’s writing in Galatians 3, calling the Law a Schoolmaster, and saying that it cannot bring life and righteousness, does not negate the Bible texts above. Here is what we need to realize: The same life and righteousness that is in Sinai, is found in Calvary; but only when their revelations are understood together. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament pointed forward to Christ’s atonement and was in harmony with the Decalogue. This is because only Christ, through His atonement, can enable us to keep the Law. And this is the purpose of His atonement. If we do not keep the Law, it will condemn us and point us to our remedy of atonement. They work together—the holy standard, and the remedy to keep it. Life can only survive if this standard is kept, otherwise there is sin and death; but to keep it, we need the life of Christ. And both Sinai and Calvary speak of the same sacrificial love. But we still must prove that the vision we are seeing in Habakkuk is associated with the Loud Cry, and also discover what the tables are for, regarding the vision to be written upon them. Are the tables just generic tablets to record the vision on, or is there greater glory to behold? God told Prophet Isaiah, “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever” (Isaiah 30:8). The word used for ‘table’ here is ‘lûach’, the same Hebrew word that is used for ‘tables’ in Habakkuk 2:2. However, there is a major distinction between the two texts. In Habakkuk ‘lûach’ is plural, whereas in Isaiah it is singular. Now, the vision of Habakkuk is not that long, even if we include most of Chapter 3. Why would it need more than one table to be written upon? And how come every other time ‘tables’ is used for ‘lûach’ in the King James Old Testament, it is referring to the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments? Could it be that the ‘tables’ Habakkuk was to write upon are the tables of the Law? If that is not enough to decide, we can find the Law right within the vision! Look… “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran.” We also find ‘Paran’ somewhere else, with very similar language. “The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints: from His right hand [went] a fiery Law for them. Yea, He loved the people; all His saints [are] in Thy hand: and they sat down at Thy

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feet; [every one] shall receive of Thy words. Moses commanded us a Law, [even] the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 33:2-4). Teman, Paran, and Seir are all the same place—Sinai! Is that not a strong indicator of which tables Habakkuk’s vision is to appear on, since his vision begins there? Is that not the basis for the vision? In Deuteronomy 33, Moses gave blessing to the children of Israel before he died, with solemn Sinai as the basis for all blessings to the various tribes. But prophetically, the blessings will not come until after this earth is made new. Notice the strong emphasis on the Law in that chapter. The reason it is so prevalent is because it is the standard that will govern the new world; all will abide by its precepts of love. All enemies of this principle will have been destroyed. This eternal bliss will only be the result of all prophecies being fulfilled in the symbolic twelve tribes of the 144,000, who will be sealed with the Law in their temporal lobes. Behold the promise of the everlasting covenant: “I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33). Christ will establish the everlasting covenant through the 144,000, who behold the Law of life: self-sacrificial love. There is one more thing to see Deuteronomy 33. Twice appears the word ‘hand’—first, in Verse 2; second, in the next verse. The first is from the Hebrew word ‘yâmîyn’—“from His right hand [went] a fiery Law for them.” Like ‘yâd’, ‘yâmîyn’ can mean both ‘hand’ and ‘side’, just that here it is the right and not the left. It is likely that the sword that pierced Christ went through His right side and into His heart, where blood and water streamed from. Also of interest here is the word ‘pûach’, which appears as the word ‘speak’ in Habakkuk 2:3 and ‘shoot forth’ in the Greek Old Testament (LXX). Speaking and shooting forth both can describe how the ‘fiery Law’ went forth from Christ’s ‘yâmîyn’ (right hand/side). Ultimately, life comes from Christ’s heart and flows into us; study this and you will find much meaning. Secondly, the ‘hand’ in Verse 3 is actually from the word ‘yâd’, the same word used in Habakkuk 3:4—“all His saints [are] in Thy hand”. And here is perhaps a good cross-reference: “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of [My] hands” (Isaiah 49:16)—thus denoting a deep intimacy between Christ and His people in light of the fact that His hands were pierced to save them. Putting everything together, it is evident that the ‘tables’ for Habakkuk’s vision to be written upon is none other than the tables of the Law. Thus, the Law and the Gospel are combined into one glorious vision which will shine throughout eternity! Sinai and Calvary, the two greatest revelations ever given, become one! The knowledge from this vision can never be exhausted, speaking of which, behold this text: “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). This is a precursor to the vision, inserted as hope inside of darker sayings. Now, does any other special text come to mind as you read this verse? How about Revelation 18:1? Let us read it from a Spirit of Prophecy quote we already saw… “‘Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel’s message, and I have answered, ‘It is the third angel’s message in verity.’ The prophet declares, ‘And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with His glory.’ Brightness, glory, and power are to be connected with the third angel’s message, and conviction will follow wherever it is preached in demonstration of the Spirit. How will any of our brethren know when

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this light shall come to the people of God? As yet, we certainly have not seen the light that answers to this description. God has light for His people, and all who will accept it will see the sinfulness of remaining in a lukewarm condition” (Review and Herald, April 1, 1890). Dear reader, we have found the light that answers to this description. Again, here is the vision of Habakkuk; watch for the three key words: “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And [His] brightness was as the light; He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there [was] the hiding of His power” (Habakkuk 3:3, 4, margin). And not only do we find the same three key words, but just after the Lord told Habakkuk to write the vision upon tables, we find this: “The just shall live by His faith” (2:4)—the doctrine of justification by faith. And it is the Third Angel’s Message in verity—“Here [are] they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). The beginning of this light came in 1888, but Mrs. White told us that the threefold description had not been met yet. The vision—the eyesalve for Laodicea—had not been seen. Oh, yes, the concept had been newly found—Christ and His atonement was to be seen in connection with the Law, instead of just the Law. But the vision, which will give us a view of the full atonement, or cleansing, for sin, was not seen at that time. So, what do we see in our new vision? We see the faith of Jesus—displayed by His Sacrifice provided for us—made plain upon the tables of the Law! Yes, it is by the blessed faith of Jesus that we can be righteous and keep the Law—it is the faith that He has given Himself to us by an infinite Sacrifice to save us, giving us power to keep His Law. This power is in His blood. All sin can be overcome, but it is only by beholding His sacrificial atonement and receiving the power it brings to the believer. Yes! This is the power that attends the Third Angel’s Message, and we will not fully realize this power until we study the two-fold atonement in more detail. But we have found the vision! At the end it speaks, and does not lie. The time tables, like the Law (without Christ), are a schoolmaster. They bring us to the Most Holy Place where the atonement is completed for the kingdom to be established—where the tables are which are to be sealed in the 144,000! Now, how does this vision appear on two tables? Simple. John saw blood and water pouring out, whereas Habakkuk saw bright beams of light. So, we have two pictures for two tables. Which one goes on which table? Think about it. What does each of the two tables mean? Love to God, and love to man, right? Now, that is what makes it simple. Light is the glory of God, and in the next part of this little book we will see how the Fourth Commandment is largely responsible for this light on the First Table of stone. Christ pouring out blood and water on the Cross represents His love to man. Therefore, that picture is on the Second Table. Both pictures have their bearing, yet we will not realize this until we study the two-fold atonement in Parts 3 and 4 of this little book. The foundation is laid. The conditions are met for the Loud Cry. Jones and Waggoner presented the beginning of the light. They proclaimed the doctrine of justification by faith. But now we can see it in a powerful vision that will bring all light and revelation together in a glorious vision of Jesus. The vision will speak to all classes of people. We just need to read it and “run” to tell others (Habakkuk 2:2). Stay tuned to see this glorious vision proclaim the Sabbath more fully...

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“Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry … the just shall live by

His faith.” --Habakkuk 2:2-4

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of

God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

--Hebrews 4:11

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THE RISING OF THE SABBATH LIGHT (PRELUDE)

HERE did the light break out? Let Thine angels teach us where the light broke out! It commenced from a little, then Thou didst give one light after another. The testimony and

commandments are linked together, they cannot be separated; that comes first the ten commandments, by God.

The commandments never would be struck against if it were not to get rid of the Sabbath commandment. That one that has relaxed it is very foolish. It was very small, and when it rose, though it rose in strength, it was weak back there, when it came up it increased. If they won't hear it they are as accountable as though they did hear it.

He was well pleased when His law began to come up in strength, and the waste places began to be built up. Out of weakness it has become strong from searching His word. The test upon it has been but a short time. All who are saved will be tried upon it in some way. The truth arises and is on the increase, stronger, and stronger. It's the seal! It's coming up! It arises, commencing from the rising of the sun. Like the sun, first cold, grows warmer and sends its rays. When that truth arose there was but little light in it, but it has been increasing.

O the power of these rays. It grows in strength, the greatest weight and light is on that truth, for it lasts forever when the bible is not needed. It arose there in the east, it began with a small light, but its beams are healing. O how mighty is that truth; it's the highest after they enter the goodly land, but it will increase till they are made immortal. It commenced from the rising of the sun, keeps on its course like the sun, but it never sets. The angels are holding the four winds. It is God that restrains the powers. The angels have not let go, for the saints are not all sealed. The time of trouble has commenced, it is begun. The reason why the four winds have not let go, is because the saints are not all sealed. It’s on the increase, and will increase more and more; the trouble will never end until the earth is rid of the wicked. At that time neighbor will be against neighbor. That time has not yet come, when brother against brother and sister against sister; but will come when Michael stands up. When Michael stands up, this trouble will be all over the earth. Why they are just ready to blow. There's a check put on because the saints are not sealed. Yea, publish the things thou hast seen and heard, and the blessing of God will attend. Look ye! That rising is in strength, and grows brighter and brighter. That truth is the seal, that's why it comes last. The shut door we have had. God has taught and taught, but that experience is not the seal, and that commandment that has been trodden under foot will be exalted. And when ye get that you will go through the time of trouble. Yea, all that thou art looking at, thou shalt not see just now. Be careful, let no light be set aside which comes from another way from which thou art looking for.”

Ellen White’s Dorchester Vision, 1848

Recorded by Joseph Bates

A Seal of the Living God, p. 26

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PART 2

THE SABBATH PROCLAIMED “MORE FULLY”

WHAT DOES SABBATH REALLY MEAN?

HE fourth commandment is the seal of the living God” (Great Controversy, p. 640). “It is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually

and spiritually, so they cannot be moved” (Manuscript 173, 1902, p. 6). We know of these quotes, but we fail to comprehend their deep meaning, for we have not followed the sealing light as it continues rising out of the east, a direction which we haven’t been looking in because we assume that we know all there is to know regarding the Sabbath and all other light. We know that Sunday sacredness is the counterfeit light, but that is as far as we go, and many of us will still receive the mark of the beast because we fail to enter in to true Sabbath rest. The Third Angel’s Message warns us against the mark of the beast, and we assume that this is only talking about Sunday-keeping. But now we have discovered the hiding, or secret place, of the power of that Angel Who gives that message with a Loud Cry—the side of Sacrifice. We are now equipped to see how the Sabbath message merges with “the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). Of great interest to us now is “the faith of Jesus”. “‘And the earth was lightened with His glory.’ In this illumination, the light of all the three messages is combined … Jesus says, ‘I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me.’ Here is the secret of power, of effectiveness; for though human instrumentalities are employed in the work of salvation, it is the light shining from the uplifted cross that alone can attract hearts heavenward” (1888 Messages, pp. 804, 805). We have seen this in vision! But now let us begin our process of unlocking what more is in the vision… Is the Sabbath, “the seal of the Living God” there? Is this why blood was sprinkled on the doorposts to mark and protect Israel? Does the seal really come from the side of Christ’s Sacrifice? Is this where we need the faith of Jesus? Jesus, with His power to save us from our sins, is to be lifted up! He is that Angel of Revelation 18, for it is the knowledge of His glory that is to fill the earth, “as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14)! He is the Lord of the Sabbath Who gives us rest! And His Loud Cry is, “Come unto Me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke [is] easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). The Sabbath beams that Ellen White saw in vision rising out of the east “that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18) are the same bright beams that shoot forth and speak from Christ’s side of Sacrifice! This is the hiding of His power! What does it speak to us? What can we learn? The word ‘Sabbath’, in Hebrew, is ‘shabbâth’, and means ‘intermission’; it is intensively from the Hebrew word ‘shâbath’, which means ‘to repose’, or ‘rest’. Interestingly, it also means ‘to cease’, ‘leave’, ‘put away’, ‘rid’, ‘still’, or ‘take away’. It also means, of course, to keep or celebrate the Seventh Day, but if this is all we know of the Fourth Commandment, we are missing out! Christ calls us into His meekness and lowliness of heart, meaning we are to carry His spirit of sacrifice into our daily life situations. Instead of trying to rise up against what we

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perceive as trouble, we are to accept what the Lord has allowed, and, resting in Him, not covet anything else. This is what it means to have His faith. Oh, there is so much to learn about His rest, and so little time! Meekness is only one facet of sacrificial faith. There is also a putting away, a ceasing, an abstinence—and this is a cooperate effort between the sinner and the Saviour. Isaiah 58 and Hebrews 4 are the Old and New Testament Sabbath Chapters of the Bible, respectively. Behold Isaiah 58 and Verses 1-7. The word ‘fast’ means to cease. The false kind is given, followed by the true. Behold the same language that we have been seeing prophetically regarding the brightness and glory of the Angel Who gives us the power to practice His faith of fasting (ceasing, abstaining): “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward” (Verse 8). Behold the spirit of the Sabbath: “not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own] words” (Verse 13). Now couple this with Hebrews 4. Behold: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from His. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:9-11). To Sabbatically rest does not mean to sit back and do nothing—far from it! It means to rest from our own works—works to earn salvation and selfish works that keep us from salvation. This is the faith that the just shall live by—the faith that makes Seventh-day Adventism distinct from all other religions, which all involve human works. Sunday sacredness is the sign of counterfeit Christianity—and proof of the supposed authorization to substitute human works for the atonement of Christ. Only Christ can forgive sins and sanctify us from them, and yet He can only do this if we choose to rest from them. Christ forces no one, whereas Sunday-sacredness has a history and future of using force. Therefore, Sabbath rest is a choice. We sin by choice, not because we were born into it. It is the choice of depending on the power of Christ to save us from our sins and making every effort to stay connected to that power. Hence, it is choosing how to spend our time—connecting with Christ, or replacing him with entertainment. So, the Sabbath Day is a sign of having faith in God’s creative and redemptive power, as well as spending time connecting with this power that gives us eternal life—looking and living upon the faith of Jesus as demonstrated and enabled by His sacrificial atonement. But far too many, like the Jews, get so caught up into the doctrine and ceremony of this Day, that they lose sight of what Sabbath means! Religion either becomes legalistic or formalism. But Sabbath rest does not just solely consist of our vertical relationship with God and always receiving. As we see in Isaiah 58, it involves supplying those around us with rest, from the blessings that we receive from Christ. As we are doing this, we will give others the rest that we have received. People around us are hungry, or in want of, the Word of God; they are poor of spiritual things; they are naked of the white raiment of Christ’s righteousness (see Isaiah 58:7); they are spiritually, mentally, and physically ill. Thus arises the express need for medical missionary work. It is a very important part of the Sabbath experience. We see it in the ministry of Jesus Christ. He received and gave. He depended upon the Father for His own salvation, with many hours spent in fervent prayer, and He poured out salvation to others in His Words and works, followed by His death on the Cross. This is the faith of Jesus.

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THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL BLENDED

= THE LOUD CRY OF SABBATH REST

Let us go to the First Table of the Law of God, where we now see bright beams coming from Christ’s side of Sacrifice. Let us behold the glory there with Sister White: “In the ark was … the tables of stone which folded together like a book. Jesus opened them, and I saw the Ten Commandments written on them with the finger of God. On one table were four, and on the other six. The four on the first table shone brighter than the other six. But the fourth, the Sabbath commandment, shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name. The holy Sabbath looked glorious—a halo of glory was all around it” (Early Writings, pp. 32, 33). “I was amazed as I saw the fourth commandment in the very center of the ten precepts, with a soft halo of light encircling it. Said the angel: ‘It is the only one of the ten which defines the living God who created the heavens and the earth and all things that are therein. When the foundations of the earth were laid, then was laid the foundation of the Sabbath also.’ I was shown that if the true Sabbath had always been kept, there would never have been an infidel or an atheist. The observance of the Sabbath would have preserved the world from idolatry. The fourth commandment has been trampled upon; therefore we are called upon to repair the breach in the law, and plead for the downtrodden Sabbath” (Testimonies Vol. 1, p. 75).

“For the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name.” How can this be? Behold the Fourth Commandment, as it is written by the finger of God: “For [in] six days the LORD * made * heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the Seventh Day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath Day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11). Here, we see the threefold seal, of the Law which governs the universe, and thus God’s kingdom and authority. “The LORD”, or “Jehovah”, is God’s name. “Made” denotes God’s creatorship, His title. His territory is “heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is].” Thus, we have the name, title, and territory of God—the threefold seal. As we study the Sabbath more fully, so that as we ‘read’ we can ‘run’ to tell others, let us also do the same with the other Commandments on that table of brightness. But before we do so, let us have the Spirit of Prophecy admonish us… “The question has been asked me, ‘Do you think that the Lord has any more light for us as a people?’ I answer that He has light that is new to us, and yet it is precious old light that is to shine forth from the word of truth. We have only the glimmerings of the rays of the light that is yet to come to us. We are not making the most of the light which the Lord has already given us, and thus we fail to receive the increased light; we do not walk in light already shed upon us. We call ourselves commandment-keeping people, but we do not comprehend the exceeding breadth of the far-reaching principles of the law of God; we do not understand its sacred character. Many who claim to be teachers of the truth, have no real conception of what they are doing in teaching the law of God, because they do not have a living knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Review and Herald, June 3, 1890).

“‘There are but few, even of those who claim to believe it, that comprehend the third angel's message, and yet this is the message for this time. It is present truth. But how few take up this message in its true bearing, and present it to the people in its power! With many it has but little force.’ Said my guide, ‘There is much light yet to shine forth from the law of God and the gospel of righteousness.

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This message, understood in its true character, and proclaimed in the Spirit, will lighten the earth with its glory. The great decisive question is to be brought before all nations, tongues, and peoples. The closing work of the third angel's message will be attended with a power that will send the rays of the Sun of Righteousness into all the highways and byways of life, and decisions will be made for God as supreme Governor; His law will be looked upon as the rule of His government” (1888 Materials, p. 166). “It is only as the law of God is restored to its rightful position that there can be a revival of primitive faith and godliness among His professed people. ‘Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls’ Jeremiah 6:16” (Great Controversy, p. 478). (What is the Law’s rightful position? We believe that it is when it coincides with the gospel and its far-reaching, sacred principles are seen.) “Many have trusted and gloried in the wisdom of men far more than in Christ and in the precious sanctifying truth for this time. They need the heavenly anointing, that they may comprehend what is light and truth. They thank God that they are confined to no narrow groove, but they do not see the breadth and far-reaching extent of the principles of truth, and are not enlightened by the Spirit of God as to heaven's large liberality ... While you hold the banner of truth firmly, proclaiming the law of God, let every soul remember that the faith of Jesus is connected with the commandments of God. The third angel is represented as flying through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice. ‘Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’ The first, second, and third angels' messages are all linked together” (1888 Materials, pp. 1077, 1078). “The Law and the gospel, revealed in the Word, are to be preached to the people; for the Law and the gospel, blended, will convict of sin … Thus both the Law and the gospel are blended … Jesus Christ is the glory of the Law. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness are to be reflected from His messengers upon the minds of sinners, in order that they may be led to say, with one of old, ‘Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy Law’ (Psalm 119:18)” (ibid., p. 893).

Let us start with the First Commandment (Exodus 20:3). What does it mean to have no other gods before our Creator God? It means that we worship the Creator and not creation, which Satan tries to captivate our senses with to distract us from the Creator. It means to put God first in each moment and situation of our lives.

Now, we are going to take Sister White’s counsel seriously, and see if we can blend the Law and the gospel, while linking together the Three Angels’ Messages, until we truly see that “the light of all the three messages is combined.”

The First Angel’s Message introduces “the everlasting gospel”, which builds into the succeeding Messages. In other words, the Three Angel’s Messages are an exposition of the gospel, but we will only see it as we study its sacred principles alongside the Law.

The First Angel’s Message is more than the time tables announcing the Second Advent and the investigative judgment. Behold: “Worship Him * that made * heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7). This is the same seal that we found in the Fourth Commandment! What is the emphasis? Worship. Worship Who? The Creator God. It is the same sacred message that we saw in the First Commandment!

We are starting to see a pattern develop, but we must test it. Will the Second Angel’s Message of the everlasting gospel link with the Second Commandment of the Law as we saw with the First?

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What about the Third? And what happens to the Fourth Commandment—the one of great interest? Could the Three Messages combine into one? Here is one more quote to inspire us before continue: “The Lord God of heaven will not send upon the world His judgments for disobedience and transgression until He has sent His watchmen to give the warning. He will not close up the period of probation until the message shall be more distinctly proclaimed. The Law of God is to be magnified; its claims must be presented in their true, sacred character, that the people may be brought to decide for or against the truth. Yet the work will be cut short in righteousness. The message of Christ's righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other to prepare the way of the Lord. This is the glory of God, which closes the work of the third angel” (Testimonies Vol. 6, p. 19). “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Revelation 14:8). Babylon is the mother of Paganism, and of course, ‘Christian’ Paganism in these last days. Now, what is Paganism? Is it not a system where many gods are worshiped through idols and doing foolish ceremonies around those idols? Yes, Paganism is the system of idolatry (which is the violation of the Second Commandment), and this is what makes Babylon, Babylon. A bit later we will draw much more light out of this, but for now, let us just understand that the Second Commandment of the Law (Exodus 20:4-6) and the Second Angel’s Message of the gospel are essentially the same: Flee idolatry. And later we shall see the remedy. “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). What is the Lord’s name? Yes, it is Jehovah. But what makes Jehovah, Jehovah (as He has revealed Himself to us)? Don’t think too hard. God’s character is what makes Him Who He is. This comes out strong in Exodus 33 (Verses 18-20) and 34 (Verses 5-7) when Moses asks the Lord to show him His glory (another synonym for His character) and the Lord delineates His attributes of character. We also know that the Ten Commandments are a “transcript of His character” (Great Controversy, p. 434). And what do we see in the Third Angel’s Message? “Here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). It is also made manifest in that chapter that the 144,000 will have the “Father's name written in their foreheads” (v. 1). So, what is the sacred message within the Third Message? Keep the character of God. How? By the Sabbath faith of Jesus—and that is what comes next.

Thus, we have a threefold sacred Message.

1. Worship the Creator God

2. Flee idolatry

3. Keep the character of God But what about the Fourth Commandment? This is where “the light of all the three messages is combined.” The pattern has not failed us yet. Dear reader, you can call the Message of Revelation 18 whatever you like, but it is the only other reference and extension made to the Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14. Here is what Sister White had to say regarding it: “This message seemed to be an addition to the third message, joining it as the midnight cry joined the second angel's message in 1844”

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(Early Writings, pp. 277, 278). She did not call it the Fourth Angel’s Message, but she says it is “an addition to the third message”. However, now that we have seen the pattern develop between the Law and the gospel, we do occasionally use such a title. It is not an additional message like the Third is to the Second, or the Second to the First. The Message of Revelation 18 is in its own class, just as the Midnight Cry was. It combines everything before it, and adds special additional power to it! Watch how the three messages are combined in Revelation 18… The Second Message is obvious: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” (Revelation 18:2, 3). Her wine is her false doctrines, which fornicates Christian principles with Pagan ones. But the Loud Cry, as it proclaims the double atonement, will enable the lovers of truth to distinguish the true wine from the false. The true and good wine is the blood of Christ, applied to the sin-sick soul as the only remedy. The false wine only causes sin; it makes the world intoxicated with idol doctrines to take the place of God’s holy Word. These doctrines hide the humanity of Christ and the Heavenly Sanctuary. Hidden, is the fact that Christ had no innate powers to not sin, thus showing that we can have His same faith to overcome sin. Hidden, is the fact that ongoing atonement is required to take away our past sins, replacing them with righteousness found only in Christ. Hidden, because Babylon wants to keep sinning! But the vision tells us where the truth is hidden—in the sacrificial atonement of Christ! Here is what comes before the copy of the Second Angel’s Message in Revelation 18: “I saw another Angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with His glory” (v. 1). Does that sound anything like… “I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people”? Yes, the light of the everlasting gospel enlightens the world. It is the good tidings to worship God—Who not only created us, but saves us through the atonement Lamb, for we now know that the light and power of the gospel shines from Christ’s side of Sacrifice. Thus, we have seen that the First and Second Messages are given in their order in the Message of Revelation 18. What about the Third? “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4, 5). Two things should pop out: the sins and the plagues. The sins contrast “the Commandments of God” in Revelation 14:12; and, of course, we know that “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). The plagues are threatened by the third angel; those who receive the mark of the beast will receive the seven last plagues, and ultimately all who do not seek the Saviour for their sins will be burned up in the lake of fire after the 1000 years. We have seen it: The threefold message, of the Law and the gospel blended, is contained within the Loud Cry Message, just as the Fourth Commandment contains the threefold seal. But you are probably wondering, “What does the threefold seal of the Fourth Commandment have to do with the threefold message of Revelation 18?”

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Dear reader, the threefold seal is the threefold message… Recall that in the seal we saw God’s name, title, territory. Now, in which of the three messages did we find God’s ‘name’? The third one. His name is His character, of which His Law is a transcript of. What about His title, Creator? The First Message is to worship the Creator. And what is left? The territory and the Second Message. Now, at this time, the territory of this earth is governed by Babylon, right? And the battle from ancient times has always been Zion versus Babylon. But once 144,000 are sealed into God’s kingdom, Babylon must relinquish her power—Christ becomes “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16)! Speaking of the seal, it is contained in the Sabbath. And the seal contains God’s name. Thus, the Sabbath seals God’s name upon His saints. And, again, them receiving this Commandment-keeping seal ushers in the final and eternal kingdom, where Christ is King and His glory fills all the earth. But it must start with the glory of His gospel. One last thing before we make this all practical…

………………………DD…..

REBUILDING THE SANCTUARY OF REST

Three decrees were made for the temple of Jerusalem to be rebuilt after Babylonian captivity. Here is the first: “the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and [put it] also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:1, 2). Approximately 50,000 heeded the call (see 2:64, 65). The foundation of the temple was laid, but the temple was not finished (5:16); this is because there was much opposition from Babylon (see Chapters 2 to 5). So, a second decree was made by Darius (see Chapter 6), and the temple was finished (Verse 15). However, Israel still did not have an autonomous nation. Therefore, Artaxerxes made a third decree (7:21), where he commanded that Israel have their God-given laws restored to them (see the rest of the chapter); this was in 457 BC. Ezra and many captive Israelites returned to Jerusalem. But even this did not complete the work. The walls of the city were in ruins, and there was a long lagging time in the work. The three decrees made by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes (6:14) had to be revived for Jerusalem to be fully restored. Ezra’s ministry ended and Nehemiah’s began, still during the time of Artaxerxes’ decree. Nehemiah wept before God for the situation and sins of the people; he prayed for revival to take place (see Nehemiah 1). God opened the way. A fourth decree was made by Nehemiah: “Let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach” (2:17). Once this decree was given, the work was speedily wrought. There was terrible opposition, but Nehemiah cried to the opposers, “I [am] doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: Why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” (6:3). “So the wall was finished … in fifty and two days” (v. 15); this was in 444 BC. Revival and reformation was yet to be made under His governorship, which ended 49 years after the third decree, hence 408 BC; the Sabbath prominently stands out during this time of revival (see 13:15-22; also 9:14 & 10:31). You have probably figured out why we have brought this all out, but did you see all the parallels? Let us go through them, one by one (notice the italicized words)…

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Three decrees were made for the spiritual temple of God to be rebuilt after captivity to spiritual Babylon—these are the Three Angels’ Messages. The first one lays the foundation— the proclamation of ‘the everlasting gospel’. “At the proclamation of the first angel’s message, the people of God were in Babylon; and many true Christians are still to be found in her communion” (Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, p. 239). But “in the summer of 1844 about fifty thousand withdrew from the churches” (Great Controversy, p. 375). A separation was found necessary, and a cry was embodied in the Second Angel’s Message to come out of the fallen Churches; thus, a special Advent denomination was completed for God’s people. Yet, the Law had not been restored. So, the Third and main decree went out on October 23rd, 1844, when Hiram Edson was given a vision of the Heavenly Sanctuary, where the Law was contained: “Here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” So, just as the typical third decree commenced the 2300 years unto the restoring of the heavenly sanctuary, the antitypical one ended it, thus beginning the time when “the mystery of God should be finished”—“[even] the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints … which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Revelation 10:7; Colossians 1:26, 27). However, the mystery which should have been finished shortly after the Decree went out to restore the Law, never came to fruition. We are still a scattered, broken people, for Christ is still not perfectly formed within us; the work of full restoration has been lagging for many years. That is why a reviving Fourth Decree is now sounding to more fully proclaim the Sabbath, for that’s the seal that fully restores God’s kingdom, Jerusalem. Christ comes into us, the hope of glory, as we find rest in Him; and for that to happen, we must practically experience the Sabbath through living its principle and receiving it in Christ’s twofold atonement. The ‘faith of Jesus’ in the Third decree, even the Fourth of the ‘Commandments of God’ (The Commandment of Resting Faith), must be revived in a Fourth decree (The Sabbath Decree). To us, Christ says, “[They that shall be] of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in” (Isaiah 58:12). We know from the context that this is referring to the Sabbath. The breach in the wall of God’s people is Sabbath rest, but we still lay waste because the atonement of Christ has been replaced with rubbish. The knowledge of our Burden Bearer has been decayed; we have never fully experienced the rest that He offers that comes from knowing Him in His fullness of revelation. “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work. But it came to pass, [that] when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, [and] that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, and conspired all of them together to come [and] to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it. Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and [there is] much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall” (Nehemiah 4:6-10). In the type, we see it took 52 days for the wall to be rebuilt. Where do we see this in antitype? Christ died on the Passover, and like Nehemiah, He did not ‘come down’ from the Cross,

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for He was doing a ‘great work’; and His work continues— He cannot ‘come down’ from the Sanctuary in heaven until the wall is built and we give Him rest from our sins! Starting at Passover, the Pentecost is the 52nd day. Behold: “There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3). But now we are living in the time of the latter rain, the second Pentecost. “For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her … Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest [with] the daughter of Babylon … Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be My people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent Me unto thee” (Zechariah 2:5-12). This third vision of Zechariah comes after his second one, which is short, but sweet… There we see “four horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem” (1:19). These are most certainly Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. But could it be that the “four carpenters” that “cast out the horns of the Gentiles” (vs. 20, 21) are the four decrees to build up the temple of God given by His human messengers, His carpenters who build up His name by building up His Sanctuary? Is it not the Fourth Decree that builds up the spiritual wall, even the wall of the Lord Who is that Fourth Angel? Christ is formed around us and in us, until the saints are sealed; and then Babylon is broken! The Fourth Carpenter must complete the work that the third one established. “Is not this the Carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon?” (Mark 6:3). Is this not this the Lord Who gives us Sabbath rest from our captivity to sin? Is this not He Who says, “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My name, saith the LORD that doeth this” (Amos 9:11, 12)? Christ wants to dwell among us to give us rest and establish His Father’s kingdom in us. The Father sends Him to us, and when this fully occurs, the mystery of God will be finished. But the temple must be perfected. Rubbish must be swept away; the atonement, with the Sabbath rest it brings, must be fully restored. Those of the spirit of Babylon will be ‘wroth’ with this work, but it will be finished. Christ does the carpentry; He only seeks access into our hearts. Just as Pentecost is the 52nd day from Passover, there are 49 days, or seven weeks, from Christ’s resurrection to Pentecost. 49 is also the prerequisite number before a Jubilee, which typifies the eternal rest that will come. We also saw how 49 years fell between when the main decree went out to “to restore and to build Jerusalem” (457 BC) and the close of Nehemiah’s ministry to finish it (408 BC). This is the same “seven weeks” that precede the “threescore and two weeks” “unto Messiah the Prince” (Daniel 9:25). That was for the physical Jerusalem, but we are at the other side of the 2300 years when spiritual Jerusalem is to be rebuilt. The antitypical spirit of the ‘seven weeks’ is similar to the 6000 years of our earth’s history leading up to the Sabbath millennium; the ‘seven weeks’ is a laboring to enter into the Jubilee of eternity. Let us next learn how to practically enter into this Sabbath rest of God’s eternal kingdom. We will learn how to practically build upon Christ—the “Chief Corner Stone” “which the builders rejected”— in our daily lives (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6; Matthew 21:42)…

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PRACTICAL SABBATH REST

We have covered all the prophetic bases for the final message, now it is time to make it practical. Earlier, we saw that the Sabbath is more than just a Day and means ‘rest’. Jones and Waggoner, along with others who preached their message, have taught this (quotes can be found at www.brightbeams.org). We examined in Isaiah 58 and Hebrews 4 that Sabbath rest is having the faith to fast from our own ways and immerse ourselves into Christ. Now that we have established the prophetic framework, we can make the point plainer that the Sabbath is the Commandment of faith, even “the faith of Jesus.” This section is of utmost importance for all to understand. Sister White used a curious phrase a couple of times in her writings... “‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass’ (Psalm 37:5). This patience of the soul is the rest of faith” (Upward Look, p. 69). “Another than Joshua must guide His people to the true rest of faith” (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 1). Joshua is the man of God that led the children of Israel out of the wilderness and into Canaan, the land of rest. But did they attain “the true rest of faith”? No, “for if Joshua had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from His. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:8-11, margin). God’s people slowly degraded in faith until they were taken into captivity by Babylon; their territory was lost. The promised Everlasting Covenant never came. It will continue to tarry until the 144,000 are sealed with the Law. How will this happen? Keep in mind what the seal is: the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is “the command of faith” (as M.L. Andraeson calls it). All of the other Commandments are kept through this one, because righteousness is only attained by faith—the faith that takes ahold of God’s power given by grace, and we know where His power hides now: in Christ’s side of Sacrifice. We take ahold of that power by faith, and that is the power we need to keep us from sinning—the power of the blood of the Lamb. It is the same power with which Christ created all the worlds. He did not have to create any life. But by sacrifice—knowing in advance that many would choose to fall from His grace—He chose to create us anyway. This was faith on His part. Yes, He could see all things in advance, but faith involves much more than not seeing something. Faith takes fortitude. He knew that there would be many trials but chose to do what was right anyways by Sacrifice, for the sake of His creation. Christ created all things, and He died to redeem all things. This is His power—even His power of faith! Yes! It is by faith that He created and redeemed us, and the Sabbath Day is the sign (Exodus 31:17, 13). And it is by faith that we take ahold of this creative power to take away our sins and give us life. It is the faith of Jesus—the only mechanism whereby we can keep the Commandments of God and have life that lasts for eternity! What does this faith look like? How can we practically live it? This is where our prophetic knowledge comes in. We must see it in light of the great controversy, and the first thing we must recognize is that the spirit of Babylon is in all of us. That is why the Loud Cry, which is the Fourth Message that contains all light—even the Sabbath proclaimed more fully!—is a “calling upon God's people to come out of her” (Early Writings, p. 278). This Sabbath and atonement message will cause

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a shaking among God’s people, because most are unwilling to humble themselves and realize that the spirit of Babylon is in them and that they themselves need to come out of her false thinking and teachings. That is why things are taken out of context so that it is said that the Loud Cry will take place in the future and is just for us to give to the Gentiles. What Laodicean pride! There are really only two classes of people: those who have faith, and those who have unbelief. Hebrews 3 and 4 explain that Israel never fully entered into true Sabbath rest—the rest of faith— because of their unbelief. And since the Sabbath is the seal of faith— the means of stamping God’s character in us—then the mark of the beast would broaden to become unbelief. Unbelief in what?—in God’s Sabbath power to take away our sins through Christ’s atonement. Some nominal Adventists will be enraged with this message because they feel that keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath is our message and there is therefore no new light. Deep inside, really the problem is not wanting to face the Babylon in themselves. Many more nominal Adventists will be enraged when they find out what the full atonement Christ made for our sins really involves. Again, this forces them to face their sin problem. But Sister White declares: “The last great conflict will be short, but terrible. Old controversies will be revived. New controversies will arise … Decided efforts should be made to bring the message for this time prominently before the people. The third angel is to go forth with great power. Let none ignore this work, or treat it as of little importance … The light that we have upon the third angel's message is the true light. The mark of the beast is exactly what it has been proclaimed to be. All in regard to this matter is not yet understood, and will not be understood until the unrolling of the scroll; but a most solemn work is to be accomplished in our world. The Lord's command to His servants is, ‘Cry aloud; spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins’” (General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 2, 1899). Showing people their sins will always cause a shaking. But it means much more than exposing the apostasy in the church and pointing out reforms. There is a time and a place for that, but the Loud Cry must go beyond that. This alone would only produce Pharisaical pride in those who think they are better than those who do not do the reforms, but it does not get down to the root issues. The true shaking message involves the blood of atonement—see Hebrews 12:24-29. The ones who are weary of sin will find rest, but those who think they already know everything will be shaken out as the Angel of Revelation 18 comes down from heaven in the latter rain. We will soon get to the twofold sacrificial atonement, but first, how do we practically get to the root of our sins and find the remedy in rest? Again, the words of our prophet echo… “The Law of God is to be magnified; its claims must be presented in their true, sacred character, that the people may be brought to decide for or against the truth.” We learned that Babylon is the mother of Paganism, which is the system of idolatry…

Now, has it ever occurred to you that we are practicing idolatry every time we sin, thus bringing us into Babylonian captivity and preventing us from entering into our rest? Let us make this simple…

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What is idolatry? “Covetousness ... is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). What is covetousness? “All selfishness is covetousness, and is, therefore, idolatry” (Counsels on Stewardship, p. 223). And, finally… “selfishness is the root of all evil” (Letter 113a, 1897). Now we see the root of all our problems. We have found the source of the great controversy. We become dissatisfied with what God has allowed us to have and covet what is not ours to have, and those things that we covet are idols to us. And this explains why we break God’s Sabbath rest: “They … polluted My Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols” (Ezekiel 20:16). Unrest, or dissatisfaction, results from the idolatry, or selfishness, of coveting more than what we ought to have. And what was the first idol? Lucifer wanting to be as Christ—a God. The same idol he passed down to Eve: “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Yet, Christ always had had such powers, but was willing to give them up, as we will see. So, what explains this difference between them? Oh, dear reader, it is Sabbath rest! And that is the only remedy! This is where “the people may be brought to decide for or against the truth”. You see, Sabbath rest has always been the test—do we covet what is not ours to have, or rest in what God allows us to have? The coming Sunday Laws only reflect this greater reality, for the seal of God and the mark of the beast have always existed in their broad forms, being at odds with each other: faith… and unbelief. Did you know that there is a reason why a ‘beast’ is the symbol used for Babylon? Well, what do beasts do? They live by five senses; they have no moral one. Nebuchadnezzar, the original king of Babylon, was turned into a beast, for that is how he was. Now we can know how “if the true Sabbath had been kept, there would never have been an infidel or an atheist. The observance of the Sabbath would have preserved the world from idolatry” (Christian Experience and Teachings, p. 86). We can see how “if men keep the fourth commandment, they will keep all the rest” (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 134). The question of faith or unbelief is the question of life or death. Do we follow what our senses and passions dictate, or do we rise above them in the rest of faith? Do we choose to do those things that please God—No, not to be saved, but to fulfill our purpose, which is to shine forth God’s glory of character? What will we do when things go wrong from day to day? Covet what is not ours to have—a present world of no sorrow? If we do, we will complain, and complaining is sin. Or we will yell in wrath at our family members. What will we do if there is some sensual or sexual pleasure that we are tempted to enjoy? Will we covet it, and then pursue it? Or will we rise above this in the rest of faith, accepting that it is not ours to have? Choosing sinful pleasures will only bring unrest. But choosing the Sacrifice of Christ alone will bring rest. He sacrificed so much to save us, all by Sabbath faith; what will we do as a response? Whether it is an appealing thing that we covet to have, or a threatening thing we covet not to have, we always have two options: Sabbath faith in Christ’s power to save us, or unbelief that what God allows us to have or not have is for our best interests. These two patterns of thinking are what separate the living and the dead in eternity. What we just covered is so very crucial. No wonder Satan sought to hide the Second Commandment, which exposes the root cause of every sin! And which Commandment does he change to make ten again?—its counterpart on the Second Table, the Tenth! And what is the sign of his spirit of unbelief? It is changing the Sabbath from the Seventh Day to the first day,

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the day of the sun, which will result in the final test given to mankind before the controversy closes.

Why the first day? Why Sunday? The first day means ‘me first’—then the labor of love later on;

whereas God’s plan has been to have a Sabbath millennium, which we have been laboring to enter into by faith, for 6000 years. Jesus says, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things” first, and then “to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). But Satan says, “Don’t worry about laboring to enter into rest from your sins now. Put it off; first have some fun.” Also, the day of the sun mocks the sealing light of the Sabbath. Light was created on the first day, and Satan covets to be it. But he can no longer be the light-bearer, because he chose to no longer rest in the Sabbath beams of Christ’s Presence, for he wanted to be that Presence. So now he can be ignorantly worshiped as the day of the sun is honored in place of the Lord’s Day.

We must all face that same conflict. Do we want the Presence of Christ in our lives? Will we accept His atonement that makes it possible?

………………………DD…..

A SOLEMN APPEAL

“What thing shall I take to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach [is] great like the sea: who can heal thee?” (Jeremiah 2:13). “Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound” (Isaiah 30:26). “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old ... and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt” (Amos 9:11-13). As the Sabbath shines brighter and brighter, the sweetness of Christ will melt our hearts, as we behold His wondrous love in atoning for our sins.

But a major hindrance to beholding Christ has arisen, outside of the rubbish of doctrines that replace His atonement (which is as sweet wine to the saints). And that is the entertainment media. It is full of brainwashing techniques to get us to think a certain way, and Satan uses it to stimulate our senses. It is mass idolatry; we become what we behold. Through the games, music, movies, television programs, pornography, and various frivolities on the internet, many lives are filled with everything but Christ. Our plea is that those who desire the latter rain would, once and for all, make a resolution to put away the entertainment media from their lives. This will take Sabbath faith. Now that you have seen how beautiful the final prophecies are that God is sending us, why not walk in them? How our time is spent means everything. And the entertainment media is a special curse that Satan has designed to keep us from experiencing Sabbath rest, even if we know all about it intellectually. It is the single largest corruption that has entered our people since 1844, and it is much responsible for the worldly worship styles, comical sermons, and lack of reverence. It is plaguing our churches and society.

One more question for you… How will you spend Sabbath Days? What will you talk about?

What activities will you partake in? Will you reflect triviality or solemnity? You now see the solution to overcoming sin. Apply it here,

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and it will be a second large strength for you, in addition to severing ties with worldly entertainment. Spend Sabbath time in holy communion with Christ, studying especially the special present truths of these last days. Keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and resting in Christ 24/7, work synergistically (they strengthen each other). The showbread demonstrates this. It was placed on the table in the holy Sanctuary every Sabbath Day. It literally means ‘the bread of the Presence’. It stays there until the next Sabbath Day. And so it is, that each Sabbath Day, Christ’s Presence is to be renewed in our lives and remain with us continually all week. Every moment, especially on the Sabbath Day, we should be mindful of His Presence that gives us rest; and let there be unbroken communion. This will take practice, but oh, what power, what power over sin, when these habits become firmly established! What joy you will have when you find that Jesus is yours—no more a distant acquaintance!

Sin must be taken seriously. There will be a people in this generation who will experience rest from all of their sins. Therefore, it is important that we identify our weak points and make plans on how we will conquer them through the power of Christ. There must be decided plans, otherwise the same sins will get repeated and become increasingly difficult to overcome. Communion with Christ, praising Him and the Father, and claiming Bible promises are key, because then the focus is on Christ’s power; then we will not be trying to use our own supposed ability. These things we will bring out more plainly in the next part of our little book, for a striking revelation will bring this needed experience of Sabbath rest much power. Dear friend, it is time turn off the world and turn on Jesus in our daily lives. Only then will He come to us as the Latter Rain.

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HE SHALL COME AS THE LATTER RAIN

(PRELUDE)

IS going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” --Hosea 6:3

“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.” --Psalm 72:6 “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for He hath given you a Teacher of righteousness according to righteousness, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain.” --Joel 2:23, margin

“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of My mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.” --Deuteronomy 32:1-4

“After My words they spake not again; and My speech dropped upon them. And they waited for Me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.” --Job 29:22, 23

“Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.” --Zechariah 10:1 “And His brightness was as the light; He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power.”

--Habakkuk 3:4, margin

“Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” --Jesus, John 14:18 “If we keep our minds stayed upon Christ, He will come unto us as the rain, as the former and latter rain upon the earth. As the Sun of Righteousness, He will arise with healing in His wings. We may grow as the lily, revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.”

--Selected Messages Vol. 3, p. 204

“The latter rain will be more abundant. The Saviour of men will be glorified, and the earth will be lightened with the bright shining of the beams of His righteousness. He is the fountain of light, and light from the gates ajar has been shining upon the people of God, that they may lift Him up in His glorious character before those who sit in darkness.” --1888 Materials, p. 1075

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PART 3

THE PRESCRIBED LIMIT OF SACRIFICE

WHY THIS DOCTRINE MATTERS

here is growing recognition for the need of our Church receiving the latter rain. This is a good thing, and the Lord will honor the petitions of many thousands around the world who are

praying for it. Yet few realize certain key attributes of the latter rain; it is not seen for what it really is. But the Lord has not left us without knowledge. He is sending us light as our prophet said He would. Most people realize that the latter rain involves an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, since this is what we saw in the early rain at Pentecost. And this is true. But there are other key attributes that we should understand. First, we should realize that the latter rain comes with a Message. We have examined the prophetic framework of this message as well as how to apply it practically. The Sabbath experience of resting in Christ from our sins is immeasurably important so that the prophetic light is translated into daily life experiences, and this little book does limited justice to that study; a bit more information can be found at www.brightbeams.org. The Sabbath is the rest and refreshing of the latter rain, as we saw in our first Spirit of Prophecy quote at the opening. It is the precious experience we are to have as we receive the drops of doctrine from Christ associated with it. Unfortunately, one doctrine that has been given very little recognition in its connection with the latter rain is the atonement of Christ, not to mention seeing it full and complete. All along, the atonement has been the very epicenter of all prophetic light, stemming way back when the ceremonial law was given, and in a limited sense, way before that. The message of John the Baptist, the greatest prophet unto Christ’s day, was, “Behold the Lamb of God!” “…which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:36, 29). Sister White, Jones, and Waggoner all presented the atonement very ardently, and yet so many of our teachers have presented all of our doctrines with insufficient emphasis on Christ and the atonement. And when it comes to the latter rain, the atonement is hardly given half a thought. Yet, in reality, the sacrificial atonement of Christ has everything to do with the latter rain of Christ. The vision of Habakkuk brings this to view. Christ is seen as the Fountain, Who, through His Sacrifice, pours out the latter rain in the Loud Cry Message. All along, the Bible has presented the rain as a Message and a Person.

That Person is Jesus Christ, the Teacher of Righteousness, and His Message is His at-one-ment. Through His infinite Sacrifice, and the refreshing and rest it brings to His people, He wishes to make mankind one with God. At Pentecost, His messengers were given the gift of tongues to bring the message of Christ and Him crucified to all parts of the civilized world. The good tidings were that the Messiah had come, and He died on the Cross to save them from their sins. But that message deteriorated with time due to the superstitions beliefs of darkness abounding in the Church. The atonement of Christ was made of none effect. Satan barred the way for man to realize the prescribed limit of Christ’s Sacrifice. And yet there is no doctrine, no reality, which is so invested with light and glory, even “which things the angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:12).

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God designed that the Advent movement would completely restore Christ’s precious atonement. But the Church had lost so much which also had to be restored first. The Second Advent of Christ, the Sabbath Day, and other important kindred truths, that had been lost, had to be restored as well. Without the forcefulness of the Law, the gospel would have no strength, no purpose. But this went too far, and Jones and Waggoner delivered the beginning of the light to come more fully in our time. Precious light came from the storehouse of heaven. The faith of Jesus was restored so that Christ, and only Christ, would be the foundation of all our hopes. He became the center.

Nevertheless, light was largely rejected. Shadows of darkness crept in and threatened to turn us into Babylon, but the Lord has always intervened. Just as the Dorchester vision of the sealing light opened the first generation of true Seventh-day Adventism in 1848, further light opened the second generation—Jones and Waggoner presented righteousness by faith in 1888. Well, no more light came in the third and fourth generations, who bore the iniquities of their fathers. But now we are living in a very special time. Those dark generations are over. Though the nominal Adventists will fall into further darkness, those who are abiding in Christ are privileged to walk in the zenith of all light until 144,000 are sealed. The Sabbath has been proclaimed more fully since about 2008, which is 120 years after the preaching of righteousness by faith (see 2 Peter 2:5). Floods of light have been falling from heavenly places, and we are in the “appointed time” for the vision of Habakkuk to plainly speak. Some have been aware of the four generations, followed by a generation for the sealing to take place, but now it is time for all to understand what the sealing light really entails. We must see what the darkness held back when bright beams tried to shine in 1848 and 1888.

The Sabbath, as it is understood more fully, is the sealing light. The Day itself can seal no one, but it is the faith of Jesus in the very Sabbath promise that will seal the saints who will live to see Jesus come. But now it is time to ask some more questions… How does Christ come down to us as the latter rain and give us rest and refreshing? How does His atonement provide the Source of this outpouring, as we saw in vision? We will not see these answers at once, but revelation will come.

The atonement is the only means to reach the great goal for mankind—that is, Christ in us, the hope of glory. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and He needs to somehow come down as the rain and be received into us, just as His final words indicate to Laodicea: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 3:20-22).

Ultimately we need the life of Christ in us, which comes from His Sacrifice, so that we can overcome our sins, and we can be in Him, and Him in us, as He is in the Father, and the Father in Him. This is what the at-one-ment accomplishes. This is “[even] the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: to whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26, 27). This Scripture was written directly to us: “Ye are a chosen generation” to “show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

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“A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness.” Yes, “this [is] the generation of them that seek Him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who [is] this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift [them] up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He [is] the King of glory. Selah” (Psalms 22:30, 31; 24:6-10).

Christ longs to come into us, even His precious Humanly Sanctuary. “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven [is] My throne, and the earth [is] My footstool: Where [is] the house that ye build unto Me? And where [is] the place of My rest? For all those [things] hath Mine hand made, and all those [things] have been, saith the LORD: but to this [man] will I look, [even] to [him that is] poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word” (Isaiah 66:1, 2). Now we can see the Sabbath with even brighter rays than before! It is ultimately our Lord Who needs rest! He has been on a long trial and has suffered much pain. His character has been disputed, and He is waiting for a final generation to receive Him into their hearts. Oh, how sweet the words: “For the LORD hath chosen Zion; He hath desired [it] for His habitation.” He says, “This [is] My rest for ever: Here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (Psalm 132:13, 14). How will we treat His Word? Do we care that He gains His greatest desire?

“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe [He is] precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, [even to them] which stumble at the Word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. But ye [are] a chosen generation” (1 Peter 2:5-9).

Will we tremble at His Word, or stumble at it, finding fault with it? It all depends upon whether we believe Jesus is precious. Our prayer is that you, dear reader, after hearing the Word of His greatest desire, even the hope of glory, will believe that He is precious—after hearing what He has infinitely done to save you. He has called you out from the quarry of the world, and you are to Him a pearl of great price. He paid an infinite price to save you to be part of His holy, eternal house of glory! What do you say? Will He be precious to you? Will He be more precious than your cherished sins or false ideas, no matter how popular they are?

………………………DD…..

THE PRESCRIBED LIMIT

THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES

“The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us. It is the golden chain that binds our souls to Christ, and through Christ to God. This is to be our study. Christ was a real man; He gave proof of His humility in becoming a man. Yet He was God in the flesh. When we approach this subject, we would do well to heed the words spoken by Christ to Moses at the burning bush, ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground’ (Exodus 3:5). We should come to this study with the humility

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of a learner, with a contrite heart. And the study of the incarnation of Christ is a fruitful field, which will repay the searcher who digs deep for hidden truth” (Selected Messages Vol. 1, p. 244).

“The doctrine of the incarnation is invested with a soft radiance. They see that the Scripture is the key which unlocks all mysteries and solves all difficulties. Those who have been unwilling to receive the light and walk in the light will not be able to understand the mystery of godliness, but those who have not hesitated to take up the cross and follow Jesus will see light in God's light” (Manuscript 176, 1899).

“The incarnation of Christ is the mystery of all mysteries” (Letter 276, 1904).

“There are yet new views of truth to be seen, and much to be understood of the character and attributes of God—His benevolence, His mercy, His long forbearance, His example of perfect obedience. ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.’ This is a most valuable study, taxing the intellect, and giving strength to the mental ability. After diligently searching the Word, hidden treasures are discovered, and the lover of truth breaks out in triumph, ‘Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.’ ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 444).

“In His incarnation He had reached the prescribed limit as a Sacrifice” (Manuscript Releases Vol. 12, p. 409).

………………………DD…..

At Calvary, Christ reached the prescribed limit of experience to become our Redeemer. He had lived a perfect life and sealed it with His own blood. He felt the wrath of God for the sins of the world and then died of a broken heart. “All heaven suffered in Christ's agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God” (Education, p. 263). We can see that Calvary accomplished the task of Christ becoming our Redeemer, but this is not, however, when He reached the prescribed limit as a Sacrifice. This took place at His incarnation. How can this be?

In order to understand this mystery, we need to understand the everlasting covenant. In our Sabbath message, we have already seen the results of the covenant—that is, the Law will be sealed in the saints, followed by everlasting rest. But for this everlasting life of rest to come, there must be an everlasting death, and this is what the Father and the Son agreed to. They knew the future, the fall of man.

God had to have a plan to save man and yet never void the Law, for to void the Law would mean there would be no end to sin, because it can only be ended by permanent death. Another option would be to take away free choice so that the fall would not happen, but to do this would make it impossible for us to love, which means we could not keep the Law of love anyways, for love is a choice and cannot be forced. A third option would be to destroy sinners and offer no second probation after sin. The problem with this is that we would serve God out of fear rather than love; so, again, we would still be breaking the Law of love.

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There is only one option. Sin is a mystery. We cannot say that it had to happen, but we can confidently say that after the plan of salvation has been worked out, sin and suffering will be prevented from reoccurring entirely. We will always have free choice, but because of the glory that we will behold coming from Christ’s side, we will all be preserved, including all other worlds! Seeing the terrible results of sin is only a small part to the solution. The big revelation is seeing the love of God in what Christ did to save a fallen race. The humility he chose, the suffering He has experienced, the sacrificial compassion He has had for those Who have caused Him great pain—this is the glory that will enlighten this world and all other worlds for all eternity. But eternity cannot come until this chosen generation sees it and surrenders. There is only one option. Christ had to die an eternal, infinite death, and from this eternal, infinite death there is eternal, infinite glory. This is the only reason why sin and its “affliction shall not rise up the second time” (Nahum 1:9). Again, without a permanent death, the end of sin could not be permanent. And if Christ did not die an eternal death, then there would be no justification for sinners to die an eternal death. But “He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His” (Desire of Ages, p. 25). Christ will not allow sinners to die a greater death than His own. But where do we find Christ dying such a death—a death that will bring eternal glory, and yet bring an eternal non-existence for Christ, Who we know will always live??? Habakkuk opened the way for us, but now we will find that Hebrews is also a special treasure chest for truth. Much is left there for the last generation to mine. Behold: “where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament [is] of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth” (Hebrews 9:16, 17).

The Old Testament pointed forward to the new and everlasting covenant. Animals had to die. Were they resurrected? Will sinners be resurrected? Then how can we say that when Christ resurrected from His death on Calvary, this meets the prescribed limit of His Sacrifice, which is a permanent death? And the Scripture taught us that the covenant—even the one that the Father and the Son made before Creation—is of no strength at all while the testator lives. Christ is the only Testator there can be. He is the one Who dies and makes the Covenant possible through that death.

Now think this through: Is Christ incarnate still living today? Of course! Will He die in the future? Of course not, for He is “the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25). This only leaves us with one option. Christ must have died in the past, and is still dead, and yet lives. Now consider this: Did Christ incarnate—“the man Christ Jesus”—always exist? No. “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14). Then what was it like before that? Did the Word exist? Yes, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). So, we see a new creation, the Word made flesh, but this does not solve our question of the death… or does it?

Now, does the pre-incarnate Word exist anymore? No, and there will never be a resurrection of this form of Christ. We have the criteria now; however, things are still a bit foggy

and perplexing. But we know where to search. We must reverently study the mystery of mysteries, the incarnation of Christ. We are told that it is invested with light and that it is a fruitful field to study from.

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It is time to get our magnifying glass to help us find the precious ore we are looking for. Perhaps we will also find the answer to how the Christ comes to us the latter rain, through His precious sacrificial atonement…

Behold, an angel said to our prophet, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die an everlasting death—a death from which there will be no hope of resurrection; and then the wrath of God will be appeased” (Early Writings, p. 218). Nothing short of this will meet the demands of the Law; any other death is only a sleep.

“When Christ was crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been impossible” (Manuscript Releases Vol. 21, p. 418). There is much here to contemplate. Deity cannot die! Christ’s body died at Calvary, but His immortal soul—the soul of His life—did not die. Now we run into a peculiar dilemma. We, as Seventh-day Adventists, teach that Christ was dead until His resurrection; we do not believe as many others do— that He went and “preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19). Then how can we agree with inspiration that it is ‘impossible’ for Deity to die? Well, our doctrine is correct—the human nature of Christ died; but that was only a sleep. Precious ore is resurfacing…

The prescribed death took place at His incarnation— the pre-incarnate Christ died! This is the great everlasting covenant that He entered into before Creation with His Father, of which His death on the Cross sealed since He had lived a life without sin in His new form. “Christ was not alone in making this great sacrifice. It was the fulfillment of the covenant made between the Father and the Son before the foundation of the earth was laid. With clasped hands they entered into the solemn pledge that Christ would become the substitute and surety for the human race if they were overcome by Satan’s sophistry” (Manuscript Releases Vol. 12, p. 408). The Testator was not human when the Testament was made; He existed “in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6).

At the storm on sea, “it was not as the ‘Master of earth and sea and sky’ that [Christ] reposed in quiet. That power He had laid down and He says, ‘I can of Mine own self do nothing’ (John 5:30). He trusted in the Father's might. It was in faith—faith in God's love and care—that Jesus rested, and the power of that word which stilled the storm was the power of God” (Desire of Ages, p. 336). Dear reader, Christ exercised Sabbath faith in the Father; He died from His pre-incarnate powers! The babe in Bethlehem, though still God in origin, became as one of us and “was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). And what chapter did we just quote? The Sabbath rest chapter of the New Testament! So, we can believe as the rest of the world believes—that we cannot overcome because Christ had powers that we do not possess—or we can believe what the Bible teaches.

“Christ, ‘being in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men’ (Philippians 2:6, 7, R. V., margin)” (Desire of Ages, p. 22). Oh, listen! Christ, by Sabbath faith, emptied Himself of the power He once had, and became a baby in Bethlehem to save every one of us—What great love is that?!

But then, What happened to this power? Here is a clue: we know

it is impossible for Deity to die. Oh, friend, what comes next explains why the incarnation, the mystery of mysteries, is full of radiance and power…

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Christ “divested Himself of the form of God, and in its stead took the form of man. He laid aside His glory, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich” (Manuscript Releases Vol. 17, p. 339). But why would His poverty make us rich? Keep beholding…

“Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent” (Manuscript Releases Vol. 14, p. 23). “Christ declared that after His ascension, He would send to His church, as His crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take His place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit—the soul of His life, the efficacy of His church, the light and life of the world. With His Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin” (Review and Herald, May 19, 1904).

Do you now see the infinite Sacrifice and what it means for us? Oh, it is so glorious—Jesus is now glowing with the bright beams

we saw in vision! Christ, by an infinite Sacrifice, emptied out the soul of His life, the Holy Spirit, and gives it to us, as a power that takes away sin—and it is Himself! “He had bright beams coming out of His side, and there was the hiding of His power”! His poverty makes us rich!

We now know how Christ could be laid to rest in Joseph’s tomb, and yet His Deity stays alive, for He had emptied Himself in the incarnation—which was the prescribed limit of Sacrifice. Prescribed, by what limit? Prescribed by the Law, which declares, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die an everlasting death—a death from which there will be no hope of resurrection.” And this is the covenant that Christ made with the Father before time began. It was the only option—a costly, yet a glorious one. We can now behold, with fresh brilliancy, what wondrous love God has bestowed upon humanity—“He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, even His own (John 3:16)! Yea, God eternally gave His only Son—Who was just like Himself (in the form of God)—but eternally became a human being like us, to be our Redeemer so we don’t perish in our sins.

Behold: “We are to make supplication according to the will of God, relying on the precious Word, and believing that Christ not only gave Himself for but TO His disciples. The record declares, ‘He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’ Jesus is waiting to breathe upon all His disciples, and give them the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit, and transfuse the vital influence from Himself to His people” (Signs of the Times, October 3, 1892).

Now we can behold the double tie of the atonement, whereby God is made at one with humanity, so that there can be eternal rest from sin:

(1) Christ gave the soul of His life to humanity, as an omnipotent power that takes away sin, to cleanse the Humanly Sanctuary.

(2) Christ embraced humanity, with all of our frailties (including our inability to be omnipresent), so that He could live a perfect life as our Redeemer, then bear our sins, and transfer them to the Heavenly Sanctuary, to be cleansed once a remnant of humanity is cleansed.

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Christ, now cumbered with humanity, can only be in one place at once, and that is why the Holy Spirit had to come at Pentecost. But didn’t the Holy Spirit always exist? Of course! God, the Father, has always existed, and so has the Word; and the Holy Spirit has always existed as the Word of God (see John 6:63; Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12; 9:14). This is the power by which all the worlds were made and which “moved upon the face of the waters”; it is the same power that takes away sin as we rest in it. It is the power found in every Scripture to the fervent believer. It can discern our every thought. It knows the end from the beginning. This power is not a mysterious essence; this power is a Person, even Jesus, the mighty Word of God. ‘It’ is a ‘He’. Yes, the vision of Habakkuk is a ‘He’. He shall come to us as the rain and not tarry!

After the Word was made flesh, this power had to be divested into twain (two parts) to make us one with Him—thus forming the double tie with humanity. “For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition [between us]; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace” (Ephesians 2:14, 15). Are we seeing here that Jesus is now two Persons? Yes! Christ incarnate, and Christ the Comforter—divested from each other by the prescribed limit of Sacrifice. And who is the “new man”? It is Christ in us, the hope of glory—a Christ-filled humanity; us in Him and Him in us. That is the “new man” we are to put on (4:24). How? By receiving our Saviour!

“The Saviour is our Comforter. This I have proved Him to be” (Manuscript Releases Vol. 19, p. 293). “As by faith we look to Jesus, our faith pierces the shadow, and we adore God for His wondrous love in giving Jesus the Comforter” (ibid., pp. 297, 298). “The reason why the churches are weak and sickly and ready to die, is that the enemy has brought influences of a discouraging nature to bear upon trembling souls. He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them, saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it.’ Christ has all power in heaven and in earth, and He can strengthen the wavering, and set right the erring” (1888 Materials, p. 696). Now we can see Christ as our precious Saviour in a whole new light! He is not far away! “The Holy Spirit is Himself”—the Third Person, yes, but only our dear Saviour Who died to give us His own life.

This revelation should make you tremble at the Word from now on, because in that Word is the soul of Christ’s own life, provided by an infinite Sacrifice. And now we can appreciate more what Jones and Waggoner taught us—that the Word will do what it says. In asking, believing, and claiming (ABC) the precepts and promises (Mark 11:24), we will not only have early rain, but Latter rain power, for now we know that the Word is the precious life of Christ, provided at infinite expense, even by the Father—Who no longer has someone else to share His likeness with, just as was the case of Adam. He had God and multitudes of beasts, but he would feel alone until he was given a companion like himself. But God, in giving up His Son, gained humanity. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6).

“Said the angel, ‘Think ye that the Father yielded up His dearly beloved Son without a struggle? No, no.’ It was even a struggle with the God of heaven, whether to let guilty man perish, or to give His darling Son to die for them. Angels were so interested for man's salvation that there could be found among them those who would yield their glory and

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give their life for perishing man. ‘But,’ said my accompanying angel, ‘that would avail nothing.’ The transgression was so great that an angel's life would not pay the debt. Nothing but the death and intercession of God's Son would pay the debt and save lost man from hopeless sorrow and misery” (Early Writings, p. 127). This struggle was over more than just 33 years of separation. Christ became a permanent human being and cannot be in all places at once as the Father can. The union between the Father and the Son, in sharing the same kind of form, was forever broken as the Son was made ‘twain’—all to make us one with Them in character.

Now, we are beginning to see how expensive the atonement is—how expensive every Word of God is! And, behold: The bright beams from Christ’s side represent His emptying of His Holy Spirit through the prescribed limit of Sacrifice. This is the Source of the latter rain!

Our questions are answered—we can now see how the latter rain comes to us through sacrificial atonement. Not only this, but we can now see how Christ, in the Person of His Spirit, comes to us as the latter rain—and the purpose is for Christ in us, the hope of glory! The everlasting covenant, from cause to effect is seen: The Father gave His Son to us, and as we receive the Gift of His Son in doctrine and in Person, in revelation and in reality, He will give us rest from our sins. And that is the seal we receive by faith. By beholding His infinite sacrificial love in revelation, and receiving the actual power of the Spirit given, we will become one with Christ.

This message carries such glory, brightness, and power (as we see earlier in Habakkuk’s vision), and yet many will be discouraged because it is not in accordance with the ideas they have been taught. But where does the Bible or Spirit of Prophecy reveal three separate Persons in the beginning before the entrance of sin? And why should this message receive prejudice because it is classed with the anti-trinitarians who believe that Christ is a created being and that there is no Third Person, even today? It is not our goal to bash the traditional Trinitarian view, nor the Arian view as our early pioneers held. We see the flaws of both. Our intent is to present the light of the incarnation and atonement of Christ. Arguments are better left alone, because they can be hairsplitting, as they have been for many centuries; and the subject of the atonement is lost sight of. So, please, whatever your conclusion becomes, ask yourself why you believe it. Make sure it is based on Scripture and Spirit of Prophecy. Know the truth for yourself, and do not base your decision on what others think, including brothers Brent and Ricky.

“By the power of the truth how many things might be adjusted,

and controversies hoary with age find quietude in the admission of better ways” (1888 Materials, p. 1699).

“Errors may be hoary with age; but age does not make error truth, nor truth error. Altogether too long have the old customs and habits been followed … We are not at liberty to teach that which shall meet the world's standard or the standard of the church, simply because it is the custom to do so. The lessons which Christ taught are to be the standard” (Testimonies Vol. 5, p. 142).

“Thousands have a false conception of God and His attributes. They are as verily serving a false god as were the servants of Baal. Are we worshiping the true God as He is revealed in His Word, in Christ, in nature, or are we adoring some philosophical idol enshrined in His place?” (ibid., p. 174).

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THE MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT

“Behold, I will send My Messenger, and He shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He [is] like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years” (Malachi 3:1-4). Who is the Messenger of the Covenant who prepares the way before Christ’s Second Coming? With knowing the Sabbath more fully we can now see—how the Lord and His Messenger are two, and yet the same! In fact, in this section we will realize the Advent more fully, the second part of our God-given name: Seventh-day Adventist! “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; [even] the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:16-18). It is Christ! He comes to us as the latter rain to prepare the way for His Second appearing! Could it be that just as the Jews of old did not receive the Saviour when He came—because He did not come in the way they expected Him to come—that the spiritual Jews of today will not receive Jesus as the latter rain, because they are too focused on the Sunday Law issue and the physical Second Coming?—the physical rather than the spiritual? Could this be how the latter rain will fall all around us, but many will not recognize it because they do not realize it is their comforting Saviour coming to take away their sins before He physically comes in the clouds of heaven? Do we fail to realize, as the Jews did, that Christ’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, and that it must be prepared in us, by His Messenger, before He can physically come? “God calls upon all who claim to believe present truth to work diligently in gathering up the precious jewels of truth, and placing them in their position in the framework of the gospel. Let them shine in all their divine beauty and loveliness, that the light may flash forth amid the moral darkness. This cannot be accomplished without the aid of the Holy Spirit, but with the aid of the Spirit we can do all things. When we are endowed with the Holy Spirit, we by faith take hold of infinite power. There is nothing to be lost of that which comes from God. The Saviour of the world sends His divine messenger to the soul, that men may dig for the truth, that by its revelation they may dispel the multitude of errors … The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, as the personal presence of Christ to the soul. He who looks to Christ in simple, child-like faith, is made a partaker of the divine nature through the agency of the Holy Spirit … As Christ was glorified on the day of Pentecost, so will He again be glorified in the closing work of the gospel, when He shall prepare a people to stand the final test, in the closing conflict of the great controversy. When the earth is lightened with the glory of God, we shall see a work similar to that which was wrought when the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed the power of a risen Saviour. The light of heaven penetrated the darkened minds of those who had been deceived by the enemies of Christ, and the false representation of Him was rejected; for through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, they now saw Him exalted

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to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins. Christ was glorified through the power of the Holy Spirit resting upon men. The revelation of Christ by the Holy Spirit brought to them a realizing sense of His power and majesty, and they stretched forth their hands unto Him by faith, saying, ‘I believe.’ Thus it was in the time of the early rain; but the latter rain will be more abundant. The Saviour of men will be glorified, and the earth will be lightened with the bright shining of the beams of His righteousness. He is the fountain of light, and light from the gates ajar has been shining upon the people of God, that they may lift Him up in His glorious character before those who sit in darkness” (The Missionary Magazine, November 1, 1893).

“Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own” (Last Day Events, 39). Dear reader, it is just as we see on the First Table in vision! The power that takes away sin is Christ, divested of humanity. It is the Holy Spirit, the Messenger of the Covenant. But He uses us! We are the vessels, and the bright beams are to pour out from us—our lives and our literature. This is how the world will be enlightened. The Lord will be glorified, thus, the purpose of the First Table fulfilled. The Sabbath beams will bring rest to all who reflect them in their hearts. The kingdom of God will be established so that Christ can be King and reign here as His primary territory after the 1000 years.

“And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in.” “To whom coming, [as unto] a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, [and] precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4, 5). “He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD.”

What is the offering? Christ! Christ, where? Christ, in us, the hope of glory! He suddenly comes as the latter rain! This is the Advent we should be most concerned about, and the rest that He gives us is the Sabbath we should be most concerned about. We must mature in faith.

“The Lord is to do a strange work very soon. A representation has been given me that I have not yet had strength to trace upon paper. I must know when to speak and when to keep silent. When the Lord bids me speak, I cannot keep silent. The Lord will work. Great facts will be revealed in the Word. There are rich experiences to be received from the great Medical Missionary. The knowledge of salvation through faith and a full trust in a personal God and a personal Saviour, will be manifest. Those who have held the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end will have the proof of the things which they have learned by personal experience. The gospel will be revealed and verified. The experience of the day of Pentecost will surely be repeated. Some will receive the Holy Spirit of truth; yes, some who are now in uncertainty … There are those who will never receive the gospel message in its fullness. They will never see the greater light and working of the Holy Spirit. There is a depth of depravity in unbelieving human nature that will never be healed, because the true light has been misinterpreted and misapplied. The Lord has given His Spirit in abundance of assurance to enable men and women to understand the fallacies and errors of Satan,

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and to guard against them. Some will soon turn from their deceptive errors and calculations. To these who will be born again, the Bible will become a new book. There is a higher elevation to reach … Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Our great need is to have Him formed within, the hope of glory. He is to come into our individual experience, as a personal Saviour. He is the foundation of our faith, the Rock of Ages. ‘Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.’ When Christ shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then will all men be convinced of the truth that God hath set apart him that is godly for Himself. But the words of Isaiah will come to many minds. ‘Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.’ The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah gives a wonderful presentation of truth” (Loma Linda Messages, pp. 143, 144). That’s the Sabbath chapter. Glory!

Did you notice that she mentions His spiritual Coming before the Second Coming and calls it “our great need”? Watch for the same pattern in the next quote. And please understand that we are not trying to just focus on the newfound doctrine of the Holy Spirit being the soul of Christ’s life, but our attention is on the entire revelation of His character, as revealed by His entire sacrificial atonement. Great facts are revealed, not to glorify themselves, but to glorify the goal—the hope of glory.

“The revelation of His own glory in the form of humanity will bring heaven so near to men that the beauty adorning the inner temple will be seen in every soul in whom the Saviour dwells. Men will be captivated by the glory of an abiding Christ. And in currents of praise and thanksgiving from the many souls thus won to God, glory will flow back to the great Giver. ‘Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee’ (Isaiah 60:1). To those who go out to meet the Bridegroom is this message given. Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with His own glory and with the glory of the Father. He is coming with all the holy angels with Him. While all the world is plunged in darkness, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of His second appearing. The unsullied light will shine from His splendor, and Christ the Redeemer will be admired by all who have served Him. While the wicked flee from His presence, Christ's followers will rejoice … They are prepared for the communion of heaven; for they have heaven in their hearts. With uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draweth nigh, they go forth to meet the Bridegroom, saying, ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us’ (Isaiah 25:9)” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 420).

The bright beams that the Messenger of the Covenant brings with Him by the prescribed limit of Sacrifice are spiritually the same bright beams that will physically shine at the Lord’s appearing. By divine revelations, we are to capture glimpses of their glory to prepare us for the physical kingdom. Spiritually, now, and physically, later, the wicked will flee from the presence of the Lord, while those who tremble at the Words given for these last days and see the Sacrifice as precious, rather than a burden to stumble upon—these dear saints will be gathered into those bright beams and abide in them for all eternity!

Our sins are what caused the Sacrifice to take place. We murdered our Saviour. The pre-incarnate Christ, Who was in the same likeness as His Father, no longer lives. Instead, bright beams shine from that infinite Sacrifice. These bright beams reflect infinite love

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that could have otherwise never been seen. There would have been no sure preservation from sin entering the universe, and no dramatic way to reveal the self-sacrificial love of God. So, we slew the pre-incarnate Christ, and now bright beams shoot forth. We have two options. We can behold these beams and be changed into the same glory, or we flee from them because we do not want to face our sins. If we do this, we will also flee when those bright beams become physical, but in vain.

How will you deal with the bright beams, dear friend? How will you deal with your sins? Will the Bible become a new book to you as you see that the living Word is the great transforming power that comes to you from an infinite Sacrifice of love? You should now have enough insight to see what the following quote means… “In the cleansing of the temple, Jesus was announcing His mission as the Messiah, and entering upon His work. That temple, erected for the abode of the divine Presence, was designed to be an object lesson for Israel and for the world. From eternal ages it was God's purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God. Darkened and defiled by evil, the heart of man no longer revealed the glory of the Divine One. But by the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of Heaven is fulfilled. God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace the heart of man becomes again His temple. God designed that the temple at Jerusalem should be a continual witness to the high destiny open to every soul. But the Jews had not understood the significance of the building they regarded with so much pride. They did not yield themselves as holy temples for the Divine Spirit. The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts. In cleansing the temple from the world's buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin—from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul.

‘The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, Whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver’ (Malachi 3:1-3). ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are’ (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17). No man can of himself cast out the evil throng that have taken possession of the heart. Only Christ can cleanse the soul temple. But He will not force an entrance. He comes not into the heart as to the temple of old; but He says, ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him’ (Revelation 3:20). He will come, not for one day merely; for He says, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them . . . and they shall be My people.’ ‘He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea’ (2 Corinthians 6:16; Micah 7:19). His presence will cleanse and sanctify the soul, so that it may be a holy temple unto the Lord, and ‘an habitation of God through the Spirit’ (Ephesians 2:21, 22)” (Desire of Ages, p. 161, 162). Amen!

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The Messenger of the Covenant is the One Who comes to you because of the Covenant made. He is your Saviour, Your Comforter. He has covenanted to come to give you rest. But a cleansing must happen for you to experience that rest. Only Christ can cleanse the soul. The Third Person of the Godhead is the soul of His life—His Messenger. He is as the blood of the pre-incarnate Christ (of course, symbolically), for He is the soul of His life. Behold His blood speak to you: “The life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). The Bible is becoming a new book.

We have known that only the blood of Christ can save us from our sins, but we never connected it to sanctification, and yet our prophet says, “His presence will cleanse and sanctify the soul.” Sanctification is a necessary part of salvation, unlike the rest of the world teaches. We can only be saved from our sins, not in our sins. But until now, we could not see how only the blood of Christ can do this, and how this blood is symbolic for the Holy Spirit. “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). We need to have faith in the power of this sanctifying blood, just as we do the justifying blood in heaven. This glory has been hiding in the side of Christ’s Sacrifice, but now we see it with bright beams in the vision the Lord has given us. “O the power of these rays” to bring rest to the sin-sick soul! That power has been available ever since the incarnation, even the power of the latter rain, but we just have not had the faith of Jesus we can now have to take ahold of it. Perhaps this is why our prophet also wrote: “For a long time I have desired to have something prepared on the subject of Sanctification by Faith; for this subject has not appeared in the form that it should” (Letter 59, 1895, p. 5).

Behold the Word of God: “Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12). “He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (10:28, 29). The blood of the covenant and the Messenger of the Covenant are the same power! But why do we not see this type of blood in the Old Testament types? We do! Study Leviticus 16—the day of atonement, when sins were to be cleansed from Israel once a year… Two sacrifices were made: the Lord’s goat and the bullock. The Lord’s goat had no sins confessed upon it before it was slain, just as the Holy Spirit does not bear our sins. Christ bears our sins in His humanity, the antitype of the bullock, which we will examine in Part 4 of this little book. But the role of the Lord’s goat had another goal: “Because the blood of the goat is not sin laden, it has cleansing efficacy and makes possible the cleansing of the sanctuary” (M.L. Andraeson, The Sanctuary Service, p. 66).

The bullock bears the sins, its blood transfers those sins into the Sanctuary, thus defiling it, and the blood of Lord’s goat cleanses the Sanctuary (Humanly and Heavenly); finally, the scapegoat bears the sins in the wilderness as the type of Satan during the 1000 years.

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The Bible is becoming a new book. The Holy Spirit, which was shed forth to make atonement for our sins, is the antitypical blood of the Lord’s goat. And now, in the times of refreshing, after the 2300 days, the Sanctuary is to be cleansed—both in humanity and in heaven.

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you” (Acts 3:19, 20). “My presence shall go [with thee], and I will give thee rest” (Exodus 33:14). “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18). “When the refreshing and latter rain shall come from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power we shall know what it is to be fed with the heritage of Jacob and ride upon the high places of the earth. Then shall we see the Sabbath more in its importance and glory” (Letter 3, 1851). “This [is] the rest [wherewith] ye may cause the weary to rest; and this [is] the refreshing: yet they would not hear” (Isaiah 28:12).

“Come unto Me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Christ has given His own life, His own blood, to us to give us rest from our sins. And now that the Bible is a new book to us, we can also see more light in the 70-week prophecy.

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” (Daniel 9:24). The time part has already been fulfilled, and it pointed us to the atonement of Christ, which the Cross is a revelation to our dull senses of. But still the prophecy has not been all fulfilled. The Cross provided the Sacrifice of the antitypical bullock, but not the Lord’s goat. And this 70-weeks of years was cut off from the larger period of 2300 years, which points to the Day of Atonement—and that is today.

The Bible is becoming a new book. We now know the Source of the power

to take away our sins, and this power is in every precept and promise

of the Scriptures. The infinite expense to provide us this power

should make us tremble, so that the purpose is fulfilled.

Transgression must be finished. There must be an end of sins.

Christ, anointed in us, Will bring in everlasting righteousness.

The Messenger is waiting on us To receive Him as the latter rain.

The times of refreshing No longer tarry.

Revelation has come. And now it is time for the reality.

It is time to go forward…

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THE SUFFERING OF OUR SAVIOUR (PRELUDE)

n order to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, it is essential that you meditate much upon the great themes of redemption. You should ask yourself why Christ has taken humanity upon Himself, why He suffered upon the cross, why

He bore the sins of men, why He was made sin and righteousness for us. You should study to know why He ascended to heaven in the nature of man, and what is His work for us today. If thoughts of Christ, His work and character, are cherished, you will be led to sink deep the shaft of truth, and you will be enabled to come into possession of precious jewels of truth. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to you. As you meditate upon heavenly things, and walk with God, as did Enoch, you will lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset, and will run with patience the race set before you. We think that we are familiar with the character of Christ, and we do not realize how much is to be gained by the study of our glorious Pattern. We take it for granted that we know all about Him, and yet we do not comprehend His character or mission. If we neglect to search the Scriptures, which testify of Him, we shall be led from the truth into the error of the wicked one.”

--Signs of the Times, December 1, 1890

“Those who think of the result of hastening or hindering the gospel think of it in relation to themselves and to the world. Few think of its relation to God. Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ's agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him.” --Education, p. 263

“In the person of Christ, the Father purchased the human race with an infinite sacrifice. O grand and awful mystery, that the innocent Sufferer could bear our guilt and carry our sorrows! O what love, what matchless love! Let this love be presented to others by both precept and example.” --Review and Herald, September 30, 1890

“We are to look unto Jesus as our only hope for the taking away of our sins; for in Him is no sin. He became sin for us, that He might bear our guilt, standing before the Father as guilty in our place, while we who believe in Him as a personal Saviour shall, because of His merits, be accounted as pure from the contaminating influence of sin. Through the imputed righteousness of Christ, we are accounted guiltless. Christ has given to every human being the evidence that He alone is able to bear human grief, sorrow, and sin.” --Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895

“Children of the Lord, how precious is the promise! How full the atonement of the Saviour for our guilt! The Redeemer, with a heart of unalterable love, still sheds His sacred blood in the sinner's behalf. The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead eloquently for fallen man, whose redemption is purchased at so great a cost. Oh, matchless condescension! Time nor events can lessen the efficacy of the atoning sacrifice.” --Review and Herald, January 9, 1883

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PART 4

OUR SIN-BEARING REDEEMER TODAY

n His incarnation He had reached the prescribed limit as a Sacrifice, but not as a Redeemer” (Manuscript Releases Vol. 4, p. 409). We have seen that Christ was willing to empty Himself of His all-powerful Word. He is still the divine Word, by

origin, but His powers are divested into the Spirit of Truth, the soul of His life, Who comes down to us as the latter rain in these latter days. This is the power that takes away our sins, and it comes to us by the prescribed limit of Sacrifice, which was the permanent death of the pre-incarnate Testator. Behold: “His rest shall be glory” (Isaiah 11:10, margin)! Christ eternally rests from His omnipotent and omnipresent works, and if we choose His same Sabbath faith in resting from our own works, then we will receive Christ in us. And that will be glory! Once the 144,000 are sealed, every child of God will eternally shine forth Christ’s glory of character, making up the living dwelling place of the Lord’s rest.

But there is more. Christ says, “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, [that] shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show [it] unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show [it] unto you” (John 16:13-15). There are two things to see here; first, “He shall receive of Mine”; then, next, He “shall show it unto you.”

Just because Christ was made twain, the Holy Spirit and the Christ in the Person of humanity work closely together. We still have one Saviour. He sanctifies us by His Holy Spirit, and He justifies us as our human Redeemer. He lived on this earth, and though sorely tempted, He lived a perfect life. And it is a mystery, but somehow His righteousness, which was tested through many trials here on earth, is able to be transferred to us through the Holy Spirit. The words, “He shall take of Mine” are uttered twice, so it does have important bearing. It is beautiful! Christ’s victorious righteousness that He developed on earth is received by the Holy Spirit, to be received into us—combined with the already omnipotent power of the Word.

The Holy Spirit always enabled man to be righteous, but after Pentecost we could receive Christ’s own tried and tested righteousness. That early rain has fallen ever since then, and it is the same rain that is in the latter rain. The rain is the righteousness and rest offered in the Holy Spirit through the full atonement and could not be offered before Pentecost in the same way. But going further, what makes the latter rain more abundant than the moderate former rain (Joel 2:23)?

To see the distinction, we must review what the Source of the latter rain is and what is associated with the latter rain. The Source is Christ, through His Sacrifice—this is how He Himself can come down to us as the rain. But the rain is also inseparably connected to doctrine—and this is what Holy Spirit shows unto us. The doctrine of the early rain was Christ and Him crucified, and the same is carried into the latter rain. But the early rain did not carry the Loud Cry Message. The Loud Cry was introduced to us by Jones and Waggoner as the Message of righteousness by faith. But that was only the beginning of the light. Through the vision of Habakkuk, we now know the Source of the light—

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the bright beams coming out of Christ’s side of Sacrifice— so that we can see all the light. But that light includes more than just what is on the First Table: the antitypical Lord’s goat atonement.

We must have the full revelation, for that is what distinguishes the early rain from the latter rain. The full reality of righteousness and rest cannot come but through revelation—we must look and live. And that means also looking upon the Second Table: the atonement of the antitypical bullock. As our attention goes there, we will not lose sight of the bright beams on the First Table. Though twain, there is still one atonement for our sins, just as the Two Tables they are written upon are still one Law, and as the omnipotent Word and the Word made flesh are still one Saviour. It is all one perfect Covenant: the Law (love to God, love to man), and the Gospel of sacrificial grace (Christ in us, Christ for us).

………………………DD…..

THE SIN PROBLEM

Physical blood appears on the Second Table. This indicates suffering. There would be no glory, if there were no suffering; without blood, there would be no bright beams. So, it is time to behold the suffering of our Saviour. But why?

Why must we look upon Him Whom our sins have pierced (Zechariah 12:10)? Why must we have to mourn? Why can’t our religious experience always be a feel-good experience? Can’t we just be glad that Christ pardons our sins and not have to worry about the sins we have Him bear, since, after all, His suffering and bleeding all ended at the Cross? Right??! Why would it matter if we indulge a little bit now and then—no, not like the world does—but what’s wrong with having a little coffee, or showing a little bit of skin, or looking at the skin of others, or watching PG-rated movies that aren’t too bad, or talking about things that don’t really matter with friends sometimes just to have a good time, or playing a little music that sounds like the world but is not all that bad because it has Christian lyrics?

The list could go on and on, but identifying specific sins is not our point here. Most people already know in their conscience, and from hearing inspiration, what their pet sins are, even though they pretend not to know. And if they truly don’t know, it’s because they are not spending time in the Bible or the Testimonies, even though they know they ought to—and there again is sin. But the real issue is that we are desensitized to sin. Sin doesn’t bother us anymore like it did to people 100 years ago, thanks to the entertainment media, and this is why we make the appeal for those who are preparing for Christ’s Second Appearing to give it up completely—but even that is not our main point, as beneficial as it would be. And even 100 years ago, sin did not bother people nearly as much as it should. So, what is the solution? And why are just petty sins that don’t seem to bother anyone a big deal anyway? Don’t we all do those things and Jesus overlooks it since He knows we are all growing, in need of His grace? Why do we need a solution? Don’t we already have it in our Church? Don’t we just try our best, and have ‘faith’ that He will make up for our lack of holy living?

Though the following is not the solution yet, and our motives should not be of self-preservation but of love, please behold the alarming reality: “When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time” (Testimonies Vol. 2, p. 355).

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The time we are to be cleansed from our sins is now, during the latter rain, and its reality can only be received if its revelation is received. What is revealed? The remedial Fountain that the rain falls from. The brightness of it will destroy sin; therefore, if sin is still not cleansed by the time He appears, His brightness will destroy both sin and sinner.

Now, before we go on, let us take a step back and make a couple of things clear. First, we are not talking about going around and pointing out peoples’ sins, though there is a time and a place for that. And secondly, we are not talking about leaving God’s grace of forgiveness out of the equation. Even with all the light of prophecy and the best of conditions, we will still have to grow in grace to a certain extent. We will still sin as we learn how to overcome sin, and dear Jesus will bear our guilt for us. New habits of thoughts and practices will have to be formed. Preparing for His return will be a process.

Yet the process will be more accelerated than at any time ever in the earth’s history. Even most of us in God’s remnant church are in more sin than other generations. And this is the generation where 144,000 are to be sealed! But God has given us provision. Now, in the 21st Century, we have more prophetic light than we ever had in times past, not to mention the accessibility to the truth through technology. As the Sabbath is being proclaimed more fully—with the end result being rest from all our sins—both prophetic and practical light is given on how to overcome sin. And now, in this last portion of our little book, we will discover the solution to our sin problem. In short, it is, ‘Look and live’! But be warned beforehand that the majority will not want to ‘look’ at what is presented as part of the Second Table of Habakkuk’s vision. The reason for this is intimated in the questions that have just been asked— people don’t want to take their sins seriously, thus, when a remedy is given, they refuse it. Sin is too comfortable. Sin doesn’t appear as sin, let alone “exceeding sinful” (Romans 7:13), so the same sins get repeated over and over again with little hesitation or worry…

But there is a solution, though it will make us very uncomfortable unless we are serious about giving up our sins, and even then, it will still be uneasy at times. It is time to mourn for our sins, but how can we mourn for our sins if we do not mourn for our Saviour? And how can we mourn for our Saviour if we have no vision of Him—if we do not see Him for Who He really is and what He is currently doing to provide us the solution—not only what He did 2000 years ago? We now know the vision of the atonement, made plain upon the tables of the Law of love. Those who do not look and live will “perish: but he that keepeth the Law, happy [is] he” (Proverbs 29:18). They behold wondrous things out of the Law—“that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful” (Romans 7:13). They look there, and not only see Commandments and condemnation, but also crimson and cleansing—the remedy! They see Christ is now there, pouring out His Law of life: self-sacrificial love!

………………………DD…..

REFUSE NOT THE BLOOD

Jesus cries to those who are weary with their sins and suffering, “Behold Me, Behold ME”! (Isaiah 65:1). Rest in Me! “I have spread out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way [that was] not good, after their own thoughts” (v. 2). Oh, what a tender, loving Saviour we have! He still, as on Calvary, spreads out His hands to the sinners, offering up His shed blood on their behalf, if they would but rest from their own habitual thoughts and behold Him!

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It is time to behold our dear Sufferer for our sins. His suffering should make us cringe—both for what suffering He endures and for our sins that cause that suffering. This, along with His glory of character in enduring that suffering because He loves us to such extreme levels, should cause us to cease our sins—of course through His remedy of rest. The revelation will be quite a sight to behold, but oh how blessed the results. We will be cleansed to reflect the bright beams of His glory! Let us not refuse His double grace of atonement—so expensive, so glorious!

“And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more [shall not] we [escape], if we turn away from Him that [speaketh] from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this [Word], Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God [is] a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:24-29).

“[According to] the Word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it [is] a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry [land]; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts … Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth” (Haggai 2:5-7, 21). “This [is] the Word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who [art] thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel [thou shalt become] a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone [thereof with] shoutings, [crying], Grace, grace unto it. Moreover the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you” (Zechariah 4:6-9).

Oh, what revelation! It is all connected; study carefully, because there are several things to glean here...

The shaking, brought by the Lord and His blood speaking from heaven, is caused by the two-fold blood message that speaketh in the last days; this is the double grace spoken of by Prophet Zechariah, one of which is the Desire of nations, even the Messenger of the Covenant, Who has covenanted His holy Presence to be among us and make His Sabbath rest with us. We are the spiritual house, His desire of rest; and He is our desire of rest. He desires us because we are the ones who will vindicate His glory of character. We desire Him for the atonement He has given us.

Zerubbabel brought the Israelites out of Babylon to build the holy temple in Jerusalem; but as we have said before, that was all symbolic, pointing to us coming out of spiritual Babylon and being built up as the Lord’s spiritual house of glory. Zerubbabel literally means to come out of Babylon, just as we see in the Loud Cry Message: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen … Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins” (Revelation 18:2, 4).

Dear reader, the Loud Cry is the straight testimony to Laodicea. We are the final church and that is our Message to live and proclaim. We see it in the counsel given to Laodicea in Revelation 3,

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Verses 14 to 22. Christ desires to come into His Temple, and He is our Desire, whether we recognize it or not. He keeps knocking, but few are letting Him in. Our problem is that we are partakers of sin—Babylon is in us—and it does not bother us. But now He comes to us as the Desire of nations, the Messenger of the Covenant, the Angel of Revelation 18, to reveal to us our Desire. How does He do this?

It is through a Message. What kind of a message? A message of blood—this is what speaks to Laodicea. Why blood? Because it awakens deep in our hearts our desperate danger. It causes us to finally see—both that we are crucifying our loving Saviour afresh with our fresh sins, and that we are in danger of being consumed with our sins by the brightness of His Appearing. He bids us to see! To see what? It is the Cry…

“Behold Me, Behold ME”! I bleed for thee! But to receive such a vision is costly. We must buy the eyesalve.

Why? Because He will not force us to believe such a vision. How do we buy it? Through the currency of self-sacrifice—the same spirit that is in the vision of blood. Practically speaking, no one who is unwilling to give up their sins will receive this vision. They will be enraged by it and try to rise up against it; they will try to refute it but will be unable to.

Blood makes us cringe. To those without the currency of heaven, the cringing will be from the thought that there could ever be blood in heaven—not considering that the spirit behind it is the currency of heaven. But they cannot refute that blood—only be enraged. Whereas those who deal with the currency of self-sacrifice will humbly accept the revelation that exposes their sins, because their sins make them cringe. They become awakened to their sin problem and have Sabbath rest from it. And possessing this currency will also buy them the white raiment of purity and gold tried in the fire. Why tried in the fire? Because God is a consuming fire—and through His Presence leading them through trials, their dross of sins will be consumed, while faith and love remain. Thus, they will come out of Babylon and have their wedding raiment on—prepared to meet their precious Saviour Who gives them rest!

The vision is costly—infinitely, to the One Who gives it, and little, to the partaker of sins that must be sold. All must be willing to be sold to receive the vision of blood that transforms the heart—Matthew 13:44-46.

But it is too expensive to many, for Mrs. White says, “I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen, and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God's people. I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded. The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the church hangs has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified” (Early Writings, p. 270). Wow!

“And at the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully. This enraged the church, and nominal Adventists, as they could not refute the Sabbath truth” (ibid., p. 33). This is why our Messenger of the Covenant lovingly tells us to refuse not His blood. Nothing else can bring rest to the sin-sick soul. We are Laodiceans because we our blind to the severity of our sins, but we do not have to remain that way. We can sell all our little idols that we covet after, for soon they won’t be worth

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a penny anyway, when the Lord comes and terribly shakes the earth in the seven last plagues. Let us have grace! Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken, in our current belief system; our faith will be tried; but wrath will fall upon those who refuse Him that speaketh His blood.

“Brightness, glory, and power are to be connected with the Third Angel’s Message, and conviction will follow wherever it is preached in demonstration of the Spirit. How will any of our brethren know when this light shall come to the people of God? As yet, we certainly have not seen the light that answers to this description. God has light for His people, and all who will accept it will see the sinfulness of remaining in a lukewarm condition … To our brethren who are standing in this self-confident, self-satisfied position, who talk and act as if there was no need of more light, we want to say that the Laodicean message is applicable to you” (Review and Herald, April 1, 1890). Dear reader, we are now seeing the full atonement that the vision of Habakkuk opened to us as the straight testimony. That our sins cause this painful atonement should bring conviction to the heart. The high cost of our sins will be seen; this is the eyesalve we must purchase.

More glory is to be seen in Zechariah’s vision. And once we see that, we will go right into the last and solemn section: the final revelation of blood. Make up your mind now: Will you tremble in humility at the Word of God, or will you stumble and try to find fault with it?

………………………DD…..

VISION OF THE OIL PRESS

Christ “[was] wounded for our transgression, [He was] BRUISED for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). “Thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure olive oil BEATEN for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always” (Exodus 27:20). “His brightness was as the light. He had bright beams coming out of His side” (Habakkuk 3:4, margin).

Do you see it? Christ is the antitype for the beaten olive— He poured Himself out to give us life, and in that Sacrifice is glory and light! That is why “it pleased the LORD to BRUISE Him; He hath put [Him] to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see [His] seed, He shall prolong [His] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:10, 11). “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

We oftentimes use Zechariah 4 to show that oil represents the Holy Spirit, and this is rightly so. And since we know that the Holy Spirit comes from the infinite Sacrifice of Christ, the depiction of olives being BEATEN for olive oil gives us yet another proof for Christ shedding forth the soul of His life! But we don’t want to stop here. Just receiving the Holy Spirit, without the messages He has for us, as the Messenger of the Covenant, is not enough…

“‘What are these two olive-trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive-branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones,

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that stand by the Lord of the whole earth’ (Zechariah 4:11-14) … The golden oil represents the grace with which God keeps the lamps of believers supplied, that they shall not flicker and go out. Were it not that this holy oil is poured from heaven in the messages of God's Spirit, the agencies of evil would have entire control over men. God is dishonored when we do not receive the communications which He sends us … But if God's Holy Spirit is asked for, if we plead, as did Moses, ‘Show me Thy glory,’ the love of God will be shed abroad in our hearts. Through the golden pipes, the golden oil will be communicated to us. ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.’ By receiving the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, God's children shine as lights in the world … But many of those who profess to believe in Christ do not know God. They have only a surface religion. They do not love God; they do not study His character; therefore they do not know how to trust, how to look and live. They do not know what restful love is, or what it means to walk by faith. Opportunities to hear and receive the messages of God's love are unappreciated and unimproved … They do not receive Him as the One who takes away their sins, and imputes to them His righteousness” (Review and Herald, July 20, 1897).

Do you see the theme of the messages God sends us through the oil of grace? Mrs. White often uses the phrase “bright beams” in her writings, including here; and in the whole Bible, that phrase only appears in the vision of Habakkuk. After seeing the vision, we now know where the glory of God’s character is hidden: in the sacrificial side of His Son! There is where we look and live— we behold the love of God, and become the love of God. The messages come from there. There is the hiding of His power to take away our sins, and as He does, He imputes to us His righteousness through an expensive, laborious process. What makes it this way? We will soon see.

Did you know that ‘Gethsemane’ means ‘oil press’? Yes, it does! And the garden is actually at the foot of the Mount of Olives! That is where Christ spent whole nights in prayer, so that He would be able to save us with His own righteousness. That is where He sweat great drops of blood as He began taking upon Himself the sins of the world; as He dripped blood in Gethsemane and Calvary, it was as “oil of gladness” for our salvation. That is where He ascended to heaven, thus revealing His oil-press ministry in heaven. And that is where He will descend after the millennium to set His eternal throne on this earth, thus revealing that His kingdom is founded upon His great Sacrifice. Glory!

“Christ's enemies had demanded a miracle as evidence of His divinity. They had evidence far greater than any they had sought. As their cruelty degraded His torturers below humanity into the likeness of Satan, so did His meekness and patience exalt Jesus above humanity, and prove His kinship to God. His abasement was the pledge of His exaltation. The blood drops of agony that from His wounded temples flowed down His face and beard were the pledge of His anointing with ‘the oil of gladness’ (Psalm 45:7; Hebrews 1:9) as our great High Priest” (Desire of Ages, p. 734). Oh, what glory! The power of Christ is not in miracles but in His self-sacrificing love! His crown of thorns will become a crown of glory after 144,000 declare Him as King by choosing His character, which they beheld in His suffering for their sins! And, oh, how wonderful: Christ chose to permanently give up His divine powers to fulfill His Covenant with us. Why? Because His character of sacrificial love and having us with Him for eternity are more important to Him than all the powers of the universe!

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The power of Sacrifice defeats the power of supremacy! Zerubabbel signifies (Haggai 2:23) that there must be a shaking

of our current belief systems, and that we must come out of Babylon, which covets the power of supremacy and control rather than the humble service of the Oil Press. Zerubbabel testifies that the kingdom to last will be built upon the tested and tried cornerstone of self-sacrificial love, as seen in Jesus—Whose infinite powers were rightfully His to have, but He gave them up, coveting instead the glory of restful love. And there is more… “These [are] the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” The Hebrew word for ‘anointed’ is ‘yitshar’. It means ‘oil’ or ‘anointing’ used to make light, or shine; it comes from the Hebrew word ‘tsahar’, which means ‘to glisten’, and also ‘to press out oil’! Oh, how glorious! Next to it, the King James word ‘ones’ is actually ‘sons’, which is ‘ben’ in Hebrew. ‘Ben’ means ‘to build the father’s name’, and it comes from the word ‘banah’, which means ‘to build’. And there are two of these sons. So, putting together the words ‘anointed’ and ‘sons’, what do we have?

Two sons press out oil that is used to shine! Now, of course, these two covering cherubs do exist in heaven, but why are they there hovering over the ark of the Covenant? It is because they represent Jesus! But why two of them? Dear friend, what do we see in the vision of Habakkuk? Two pictures of Jesus, pouring out His twofold atonement—two Sons!

Jesus says, “Buy of Me”! But “the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, [Not so]; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to Them that sell, and buy for yourselves” (Matthew 25:8, 9). ‘Them that sell’ are the two Sons of fresh oil. We must today have an experience with the twofold Olive Press for ourselves; soon He will pour out no longer. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

“It pleased the LORD to BRUISE Him.” Why? Is He a cruel Father? No, Listen! It pleased the Father to have His Son pour out His life, even unto eternal death to His previous form of God, and allow Him to suffer as the bruised Lamb for the last 2000 years, because it builds up the Father’s name—His character! And without this, there can be no rest. The Father and the Son have been hurt beyond what we can imagine, but they still went through with it because of their self-sacrificial love, which they want to implant in us! And, oh glory, there is still more to reveal…

The vision of Habakkuk is written with pictures upon the tables of the Covenant. But what is significant about these tables?

Behold: “He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18). “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For [Thou] only [art] holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened” (Revelation 15:4, 5). Listen! The whole reason that there is a temple is for the tables inside it. And the whole reason there are tables are for the testimony they bear.

What is the testimony? It is the testimony of Jesus—the Omega of all prophecy! Through the vision of Habakkuk, we can now see the spirituality of the Law in Christ. And what does Jesus on those tables testify? That God is self-sacrificial love! We behold His double atonement. On the First Table, we see the Holy Spirit which comes from Jesus to cleanse the spiritual temple in the latter rain.

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Ultimately, we are to be the Lord’s temple. We will dwell in Jerusalem, as the bride of Christ, and God will dwell among us as we shine forth bright beams of love, with eternal rest from sin!

“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on His name”—His character (John 1:12)! “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:18, 19; see also 1 John 3:1-6).

Christ and all creation wait in earnest expectation for the manifestation of the sons of God; that is, those who will build the eternal Sanctuary for the Father’s name—as lively stones to be polished with His golden oil of grace and gladness and shine in full luster. And for this grandiose purpose, Christ poured Himself out to us from two prophetic olive trees; He was made “twain … Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner [stone]; in Whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in Whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:15, 19-22). Zerubbabel “shall bring forth the headstone [thereof with] shoutings, [crying], Grace, grace unto it.”

Christ is waiting with longing desire for us to let Him in so that we can buy of Him eyesalve with the currency of self-sacrifice. The eyesalve is the oil from the oil press—the messages that the Messenger of the Covenant brings us regarding His Sacrifice, with the ‘shoutings’ of the Loud Cry! We have seen some of them already, but now He wants us to see His blood of suffering. This will speak to the heart to work deep repentance. We must see how costly our sins are to Him, and how they are polluting the Sanctuary of Strength that holds His Father’s name in heaven. Now, John, beholding the future of eternity, said, “I saw no temple therein”, meaning, no temple as exists now with a Holy and Most Holy Place (Revelation 21:22). But why is it there now? Why is there a need for a Sanctuary that will soon pass away? It must be for our sins, until sin ceases. But weren’t our sins taken care of 2000 years ago?

There is much to behold. The expense and labor to serve for our sins are enormous. It is time for us to earnestly expect the unexpected.

………………………DD…..

THE FINAL REVELATION OF BLOOD

Through the shedding forth of the Holy Spirit, which required an infinite death, we have the only power that can sanctify us of our sins. Sanctification by faith is real to us now. But the latter rain of the Messenger also brings with Him a Message. Part of that is the infinite Sacrifice, and parents can partially understand what this meant to the Father in giving up His Son; but for the most part, we cannot relate real well with it, except somewhat realizing that it took enormous love for the prescribed limit of Sacrifice to be reached. But the Second Table speaks more to the heart, and it involves something we can all relate to: blood. This is why the Cross of Calvary has had such a great impact on our world, and it speaks even to non-believers. The symbol of the Cross is the focal point of all spiritual light. The sight of blood communicates something very serious, and that is because our sins are very serious. If there were no sins, there would be no shedding of blood. And yet the shedding of the Lamb’s blood removes those sins.

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The vision of the oil press opened the way for what we shall now study. In Part 3, we saw the need for the incarnational Sacrifice— Christ dying the death that we deserve and giving us the eternal life He deserved to have. If Christ had not shed forth the Holy Spirit, His righteousness that He lived on earth would not have been acceptable, since He must have a comparable nature as ours in order to be our Advocate on our behalf. And though His death on the Cross did not qualify as the eternal death sentence on our behalf, taking upon Himself the sins of the world could not but result in breaking His heart to the point of physical death; and He did this to feel the separation of God that the sinner will feel before the second death—He drank the bitter cup. He became the Sacrifice, the Lamb, the Sin-Bearer. His physical death, followed by the spear thrust in His side, opened up the oil press. But when Christ uttered the illustrious words on the Cross, “It is finished”, He did not mean that His work was done in saving us from our sins. The Greek word for ‘finished’ is ‘teleō’, which means ‘to end’. However, teleology means that a process is in place to bring an end; therefore, any action in a teleological process would serve as a completion point, among others, to reach a goal, and this is how it was in Christ dying on the Cross. He executed a perfectly righteous life to atone for our sins, and now He would seal it by blood. In the 70-week prophecy leading up to this, it says He would “make an end of sins” (Daniel 9:24). He did this in His own body, but what about the body of His believers? In the Creation account, it says that “the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (Genesis 2:1). Thus, Sabbath rest could come. But was God finished with Creation? Only in that point of His teleological process of the end goal of having a perfect Creation permanently free of sin. After Christ said “It is finished” the second time (on the cross), the Sacrifice was prepared; again, Sabbath could come, for He rested in the grave on the high Sabbath. Christ will say, “It is done” a third time (see Revelation 16:17). That will be after the plagues come. By that time Christ will have a people who will “make an end of sins”; hence, again, the Sabbath will be able to come—the Sabbath millennium, that is. A fourth time Christ will say, “It is done” (see Revelation 21:6). That will be when the new Jerusalem shall descend from heaven and all the wicked will receive their just retribution. Again, God will “make an end of sins”, for no sinner will ever live again; so, again, Sabbath will be able to come—this time, an eternity of perfect bliss with no sin to spoil it. Therefore, we can see how the Sabbath means an end to sin, and before it comes, Jesus cries, “It is finished”—“It is done”!

This leads us to the fact that atonement must continue, for an end has not been made to our sin problem. Atonement for sins must take place in heaven, and that is why a Sanctuary must be there.

So, let us compare the two phases of His atonement in heaven with the blood that He shed on the cross. Dear reader, you must have, for yourself, a working knowledge of Hebrews 8 to 10, with its magnifying glass of Great Controversy, Chapters 23 and 28. Next, are some portions.

………………………DD….. Hebrews 8: “Now of the things which we have spoken [this is] the sum: We have such an High Priest, Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the Sanctuary, and of the True Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man … seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when

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he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, [that] thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first [covenant] had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My Laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

Hebrews 9: “Verily the first [covenant] had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary … Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service [of God]. But into the second [went] the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and [for] the errors of the people … But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption [for us] … And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. [It was] therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, [which are] the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood” that is not his own (as other translations say); “for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

Hebrews 10: “The law having a shadow of good things to come, [and] not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins? But in those [sacrifices there is] a remembrance again [made] of sins every year. For [it is] not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins … For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. [Whereof] the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before, This [is] the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these [is, there is] no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and [having] an High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled

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from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of [our] faith without wavering; (for He [is] faithful that promised) … For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? … Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward … For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man] draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

Before we get out our magnifying glass, let us make a few observations, even though this will not do it justice. There is great insight in those Scriptures; ultimately, you will need to study this on your own. First of all, we need to see what Paul is actually writing about. What is the context? Is it revolving around Christ’s death on the Cross or His ministry as High Priest in the Heavenly Sanctuary? The answer is obviously the latter. Secondly, what are the old and new covenants? Behold, one everlasting covenant is designated by God— where sins are removed and the Law is written in the heart, thus commencing everlasting rest! This has not happened yet. You see, we are living in the new covenant era, but still largely under the old covenant experience! The old covenant can be defined as needing continual sacrifices for the continual commission of sins. Animals were offered day by day, year by year, and yet sin continued, and still does to this day! The new covenant can be defined as claiming the merits of Jesus and being cleansed by His double atonement until “there is no more offering for sin” in heaven. Generation after generation has gone by, and this has not happened yet. Though we live in a new era where Jesus provides atonement for us instead of animals, He has not been able to cease His offering for sin. There is still “a sacrifice for sins”, but only for those who claim His blood, rather than treading it underfoot by continuing in their sins with no repentance. Willfully sinning means we plan on continuing a sin. If we refuse repentance, thus refusing His blood, how can He cleanse that sin with that blood, especially since we now are having knowledge that a sacrifice is still taking place in heaven, for our sins? Type must meet antitype. Just as once a year the high priest of the Old Testament entered into the Most Holy Place to cleanse the Sanctuary, so Christ entered once into the Sanctuary, and once into the Most Holy Place (in 1844). This offering is not a one-time occasion; it is perpetual. Sacrifice is still taking place. Christ was sacrificed once, but only teleologically. Once, He shed forth the Holy Ghost. Once, He shed forth His blood on the Cross as a ransom for mankind. And once, He entered into the Heavenly Sanctuary. But the process continues…

Paul focuses primarily upon the Most Holy Place experience, where a cleansing takes place so that sin is removed. Hebrews 9, Verses 25 to 28, may be confusing, but, again, when brought into proper context, there is no contradiction here. Paul is not denying a perpetual atonement, but he is saying that Christ did not have to repeatedly die on the cross and re-enter the Sanctuary and the Most Holy Place multiple times (like the high priests of old). Though He entered once,

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by one Sacrifice, He still suffers for our grievous sins. Except for the 144,000, all must die one physical death; this could not be exhibited by animal sacrifices, and that is why they can only atone for sins in figure. But everything done in heaven is in fact.

A second distinction from the old sanctuary system is that the high priests of old would bring the blood of various animals into the temple, whereas Christ only brings in His own blood. His blood is perfect because He lived a life without sin, and it is only through His blood that His righteous life can be attributed to our sinful lives. Precious Saviour!

A third distinction is that Jesus holds a double office in heaven: as High Priest and Lamb, which means that the Lamb must also enter in the Sanctuary, whereas in the Old Testament, only blood was brought in.

The only other distinction that can be made is that Christ does not need to bear His own sins into the Sanctuary, for He never sinned! Therefore, why should we allow our preconceived minds to make any other distinctions? Should not the true Pattern set in heaven be more literal and real than the earthly shadows of old?

It is time to get out our magnifying glass for clarification.

Great Controversy, Chapter 23:

“In the temple in heaven, the dwelling place of God, His throne is established in righteousness and judgment. In the Most Holy Place is His Law, the great rule of right by which all mankind are tested. The ark that enshrines the tables of the law is covered with the mercy seat, before which Christ pleads His blood in the sinner's behalf. Thus is represented the union of justice and mercy in the plan of human redemption. This union infinite wisdom alone could devise and infinite power accomplish; it is a union that fills all heaven with wonder and adoration. The cherubim of the earthly sanctuary, looking reverently down upon the mercy seat, represent the interest with which the heavenly host contemplate the work of redemption. This is the mystery of mercy into which angels desire to look—that God can be just while He justifies the repenting sinner and renews His intercourse with the fallen race…

His intercession is that of a pierced and broken body, of a spotless life. The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead for fallen man, whose redemption was purchased at such infinite cost. ‘And the counsel of peace shall be between Them both.’ The love of the Father, no less than of the Son, is the fountain of salvation for the lost race…

But the most important question remains to be answered: What is the cleansing of the sanctuary? That there was such a service in connection with the earthly sanctuary is stated in the Old Testament Scriptures. But can there be anything in heaven to be cleansed? In Hebrews 9 the cleansing of both the earthly and the heavenly sanctuary is plainly taught. ‘Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [the blood of animals]; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these’ (Hebrews 9:22, 23), even the precious blood of Christ.

The cleansing, both in the typical and in the real service, must be accomplished with blood: in the former, with the blood of animals; in the latter, with the blood of Christ. Paul states, as the reason why this cleansing must be performed with blood, that without shedding of blood is no remission. Remission, or putting away of sin, is the work to be accomplished. But how could there be sin connected with the sanctuary, either in heaven or upon the earth? This may be learned by reference to the symbolic service; for the priests who officiated on earth, served ‘unto the example and shadow of heavenly things’ (Hebrews 8:5).

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The ministration of the earthly sanctuary consisted of two divisions; the priests ministered daily in the holy place, while once a year the high priest performed a special work of atonement in the most holy, for the cleansing of the sanctuary. Day by day the repentant sinner brought his offering to the door of the tabernacle and, placing his hand upon the victim's head, confessed his sins, thus in figure transferring them from himself to the innocent sacrifice. The animal was then slain … The broken law of God demanded the life of the transgressor. The blood, representing the forfeited life of the sinner, whose guilt the victim bore, was carried by the priest into the holy place and sprinkled before the veil, behind which was the ark containing the law that the sinner had transgressed. By this ceremony the sin was, through the blood, transferred in figure to the sanctuary…

Important truths concerning the atonement are taught by the typical service. A substitute was accepted in the sinner's stead; but the sin was not canceled by the blood of the victim. A means was thus provided by which it was transferred to the sanctuary …

Such was the service performed ‘unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.’ And what was done in type in the ministration of the earthly sanctuary is done in reality in the ministration of the heavenly sanctuary. After His ascension our Saviour began His work as our high priest … It was the work of the priest in the daily ministration to present before God the blood of the sin offering, also the incense which ascended with the prayers of Israel. So did Christ plead His blood before the Father in behalf of sinners, and present before Him also, with the precious fragrance of His own righteousness, the prayers of penitent believers. Such was the work of ministration in the first apartment of the sanctuary in heaven…

For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the sanctuary. The blood of Christ, pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon the books of record. As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ's work for the redemption of men is completed there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary…

As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. But before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation— a work of judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people; for when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works…

Great Controversy, Chapter 28:

“At the termination of the 2300 days in 1844 … Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies and there appears in the presence of God to engage in the last acts of His ministration in behalf of man—to perform the work of investigative judgment and to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits. In the typical service only those who had come before God with confession and repentance, and whose sins, through the blood of the sin offering, were transferred to the sanctuary, had a part in the service of the Day of Atonement. So in the great day of final atonement

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and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God…

Satan invents unnumbered schemes to occupy our minds, that they may not dwell upon the very work with which we ought to be best acquainted. The archdeceiver hates the great truths that bring to view an atoning sacrifice and an all-powerful mediator. He knows that with him everything depends on his diverting minds from Jesus and His truth. Those who would share the benefits of the Saviour's mediation should permit nothing to interfere with their duty to perfect holiness in the fear of God. The precious hours, instead of being given to pleasure, to display, or to gain seeking, should be devoted to an earnest, prayerful study of the word of truth. The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill…

All who have received the light upon these subjects are to bear testimony of the great truths which God has committed to them. The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in behalf of men. It concerns every soul living upon the earth. It opens to view the plan of redemption, bringing us down to the very close of time and revealing the triumphant issue of the contest between righteousness and sin. It is of the utmost importance that all should thoroughly investigate these subjects and be able to give an answer to everyone that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them. The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven…

We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians must be put away.”

We have studied Hebrews 8 to 10 with its magnifying glass,

thus describing to us the greatest truth in this universe: Christ’s atonement for our sins. It is time to fully realize what our Sin-Pardoning Redeemer is doing today with our sins. Before we can see anything more, we need to cover a very important misconception, which also will shed some more glorious light…

In the Old Testament system, daily corporate offerings were made morning and evening. It was a “continual burnt offering”, meaning that day by day, a Sacrifice would always be there burning (see Exodus 29:38-46). Its domain was for the entire congregation of Israel, and its function was to open the way for individuals of the congregation to offer their sin offerings for atonement for their individual sins, as needed. Now, if these offerings of individuals were not made, their sins would not be brought into the Sanctuary, to eventually be cleansed and placed upon the scapegoat on the annual Day of Atonement, when the final atonement was made to figuratively remove the sins of Israel. For sacrifices initiated by individuals, confession was made over the victim and the shedding of blood aroused intense remorse to the penitent sinner. The blood from the offering

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would then be sprinkled in the Sanctuary to remain there. These are the types, but how do they correspond to the antitypes in heaven? We have seen how Christ entered once into the Sanctuary for the atonement, and once into the Most Holy Place for the final atonement. Everything that was done ‘in figure’ in the Old Testament system now takes place ‘in fact’. Fulfilling a “double position”, Christ is our one daily, teleological “Offerer and of Offering” (Loma Linda Messages, p. 180). And this is what Babylon seeks to take away from our understanding. Our Appendix, “A Crisis in Our Church”, covers this dilemma in detail.

Calvary opened the Fountain for our salvation, just as Moses once struck the Rock in the wilderness which continued flowing living waters for them. Likewise, our continual High Priest and Lamb exchanges our continual confessions of sin for His righteousness. Calvary was not a one-day event of the past, but Calvary continues within the veil of heaven. But this requires our “Abiding Sacrifice”, Jesus, to still take upon Himself our sins as we confess them upon Him. Corporate Calvary provided us our daily Lamb, but nowhere in the typical service are we taught that the corporate continual burnt offering satisfied the need for individual sacrifices to be brought to the sanctuary for individual sins. So, how do we reconcile this with the antitypes? “If God could have changed one iota of His law, Jesus need not have come to our world to suffer and die; but He who was equal with the Father came and suffered even the death of the cross, to give man another probation” (The Bible Echo, June 11, 1894; also see 1888 Materials, p. 814, par. 1 & Signs of the Times, November, 24, 1887, par. 8). “When the loud cry, ‘It is finished,’ came from the lips of Christ, the priests were officiating in the temple. It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb representing Christ had been brought to be slain … The priest is about to slay the victim; but the knife drops from his nerveless hand, and the lamb escapes. Type has met antitype in the death of God's Son. The great sacrifice has been made. The way into the holiest is laid open. A new and living way is prepared for all” (Desire of Ages, p. 756).

It does not get any plainer than that. Christ dying on the Cross gave us all another probation, another trial, after sin, and this was the antitype of the corporate sacrifices of old. He purchased humanity with His own blood to pave the way for atonement for our individual sins to be made in heaven, which is the other antitype.

Individual sins must be placed upon Christ, and then transferred into the Sanctuary by His blood, and there remain until the final atonement—the era which we have been living in since 1844. Yet, we are now also in the “times of refreshing” which comes “from the Presence of the Lord”—even “Jesus Christ” in His abiding, omnipotent, omnipresent power, Who now gives us the refreshing message of His double blood of atonement to wash us from our sins and give us Sabbath rest (Acts 3:19, 20)! Therefore, it behooves us to distinguish the corporate Sacrifice from the individual offerings: Our one corporate Sacrifice Himself makes the individual offerings, and that is how Calvary becomes immortalized; and for sins to end, sinners must behold this close, cutting, ever-present reality. God foreknew that a one-time event in the past would be taken too lightly, for sin would be taken lightly and not perceived as a present emergency situation. Therefore, our corporate Lamb still atones for us in heaven, for He still makes offerings for our sins (see Hebrews 9:23).

Just as the sinner of the Old Testament had to come into ongoing contact with blood, the sinner of the New Testament must come into

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ongoing contact with blood, this time through a revelation from heaven. This will have its designated effect on the heart as Jesus Christ, the Messenger of the Covenant, is sent to us with a message of His blood.

So, let us get our magnifying glass out again to verify that Jesus is, ‘in fact’, fulfilling the antitype of individual offerings as we confess upon Him our fresh sins. Now is not the time to discredit the Spirit of Prophecy, or to spiritualize it away. Our Church has been forewarned, and we must take heed, for the issue of the atonement is the very issue Satan hates most and the one we most need to understand. No greater power exists in the universe—the blood of Christ’s Presence (the bright beams which Satan must flee from) and Christ’s physical blood which removes sin—which Satan is the author of and he must bear in the wilderness of our world for 1000 years. We have seen it plain upon tables, and we must keep beholding until we see the complete picture of redemption so that we can be remedied by it and enter into eternal rest.

“As the sins of the people were anciently transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary by the blood of the sin-offering, so our sins are, in fact, transferred to the heavenly sanctuary by the blood of Christ” (Spirit of Prophecy Vol. 4, p. 266). Why must we get it the other way around? Has our adversary worked his false theology into us until we now take everything in the Old Testament and make it literal, and then spiritualize away everything in the True Tabernacle? Has this been his master plan to try to overthrow the elect so that he will never have to bear our sins? Does he want to keep Christ suffering with our sin problem as long as he can? Let us go on…

“What is Christ doing in heaven? He is interceding for us. By His work the threshold of heaven is flushed with the glory of God which will shine upon every soul who will open the windows of the soul heavenward. As the prayers of the sincere and contrite ones ascend to heaven Christ says to the Father, ‘I will take their sins. Let them stand before you innocent.’ As He takes their sins from them, He fills their hearts with the glorious light of truth and love” (Manuscript 28, 1901).

“The priests were commanded to eat in the tabernacle of certain portions of the peace-offering. By partaking of the sacrifice, and bearing their sins before God, they represented the work that Christ would do for us in the Heavenly Sanctuary, by bearing our sins in His own body” (Signs of the Times, April 6, 1888).

“As you confess your sins, as you repent of your iniquity, Christ takes your guilt upon Himself, and imputes to you His own righteousness and power” (Youth’s Instructor, January 16, 1896).

The startling reality is that Christ bears our sins as we confess them upon Him, just as was done in figure in the individual sin offerings. In Gethsemane and at Calvary, He bore our sins as well, but for a different purpose: to bear the just punishment that every sinner will feel before the second death. But that does not justify the sinner. The sinner must penitently confess his sins upon Christ in the atonement going on in heaven; then, is he justified.

What is it like for Christ to bear our sins? And what do sins make Him feel like before they are confessed? Mysteries like these we cannot understand completely, but let us look to Gethsemane and Calvary in the Bible and “Desire of Ages” and see how sin makes Him feel. He has been suffering from our sins for nearly 2000 years, so please do not ever feel that you will burden Him more by confessing your sin upon Him. After sins are transferred to the Sanctuary and you are cleansed, imagine how heaven rejoices! And it makes the Sanctuary one step closer to being

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cleansed, for the final saints must be cleansed before this can happen; and until then, the Saviour will still suffer from our sins. The message we wish to communicate is the terrible malignancy of sin so that it can be ended, and this next quote brings it out clearly, also directing our steps to the final revelation that heaven desires us to see…

Behold: “Christ as High Priest within the veil so immortalized Calvary that though He liveth unto God, He dies continually to sin, and thus if any man sin, he has an Advocate with the Father” (Selected Messages Vol. 1, p. 343).

We bore the shaking testimony that Christ eternally died to give us His Spirit, but now we have another question that needs an answer…

How does Christ die continually to sin? We must undergo another shaking, the final startling revelation.

Are you prepared? Is your heart right with God, dear friend? Is Christ your dearest Friend? Do you love His truth more than anything in the world? Do you love Christ more than your sins? Do you desire to stop offending Him with sin? Do you want rest from your sins? More importantly, do you want Christ to have rest from your sins? Do you desire to be among those who make an end to sin by being washed in the blood of the Lamb—in revelation and reality?

Let us rewind nearly 2000 years to when Christ spoke the shaking message of His blood and then get our magnifying glass. We will hear Christ speak, and realize that it is the same message now, just in different settings—even in holy places not made with hands. As an introduction to this, listen to Paul exhort us here at the end of time…

“Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (for they could not endure that which was commanded … and so terrible was the sight, [that] Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) but ye are come unto … Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more [shall not] we [escape], if we turn away from Him that [speaketh] from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven” (Hebrews 12:18-26). Dear friend, we have come unto the final shaking at the end of time. We have come unto another Sinai—not merely to the tables with words, but to tables that speak to the heart the same Law of self-sacrificial love, and our great need for atonement to put away our sins. The only reason we would refuse such love that we now see on the tables is that we cannot endure what is commanded there; sins are more precious than the Saviour.

Now, behold the Saviour’s Words, as they echo down to the final generation. Will you tremble at them in reverential awe, or stumble at them, trying to find fault? Will His Words startle you unto repentance, or unto returning to Babylon?

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you ... Many therefore of His disciples, when they had heard [this], said, This is an hard saying; Who can hear it? When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Doth this offend you? [What] and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the Words

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that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life. But there are some of you that believe not … from that [time] many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:53-68).

When the shaking Message of blood comes to us in Laodicea, we must decide whether we will follow the masses or remain with Christ. But if we decide the former, then we need to ask, “Where else can we go? Where else can we find life? Can anything but the blood of Christ give us life?” The masses do not like the mention of blood, because their conscience tells them it means their sins caused it— that their sins are the problem. Also, their conscience tells them that Christ is speaking of a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly; thus, if they accept the Message, they must give up all their earthly desires of carnality. By the very word of ‘blood’, ‘sacrifice’ is attached. Sin must be given up. So, what is used for an excuse, to try to silence their conscience and cling to their sins? They’ll repeat the words of the masses 2000 years ago: “This is an hard saying! How can we drink Christ’s blood and eat His flesh? That sounds horrendous!” And, today, in new settings, the masses will shout, “This is an hard saying! How can Christ bear our sins in heaven? How can there be blood there? That sounds horrendous!”

In reality, our sins are horrendous; sin must be taken away! But no, Babylon wants to take away the only remedy that takes the sin away—even the daily ministration of the blood of Christ! What an abomination!

Through the blood of Christ, He can be in us and us in Him. There is no other way for Him to be in us, lest we spiritualize it into meaning that the Spirit of Christ is not really the Spirit of Christ— His own life-blood. Likewise, we can only enter into Christ in heaven through His blood, which covers our sins, and replaces our unrighteous life of the past with His righteous life. Precious Saviour!

The Word means what it says. When it says that the Seventh Day is the Sabbath Day, it means it. When it says that the Second Coming is literal, it means it. Same with Creation. Same with death. Same with the Heavenly Sanctuary. The flesh of Christ is the literal flesh of Christ of Calvary; few have a problem with this, because they understand this as meaning that His body only bore their sins 2000 years ago; therefore, they do not have to deal with them today either. But Calvary is immortalized. The flesh alone is not enough; we must also drink the blood. Just as the corporate sacrifice of old would not undo the need for individual sin offerings, His flesh hanging on the Cross does not do away with the need for blood to be brought into the Heavenly Sanctuary.

It is almost time to get our magnifying glass to see how crimson Calvary really is when it is immortalized, so that we can see how serious our continuing sin problem is. How does Christ continually die to sin?

Are we willing to accept an hard saying for an answer? If not, where would we stop if we start spiritualizing away reality? What about sin? Is sin literal? What did we see when we discussed the vision of the oil press? We saw a picture of Jesus, Who was made twain, pouring out His oil to build up the Father’s name. We also saw there how the Sanctuary is based on the character of God for which it holds. But then we have our sin problem which pollutes it. Yet, instead of destroying us, God gave us probation through Calvary, but it was extremely costly. Sin is polluting the Sanctuary, but what does this look like? How can it be so expensive and laborious? How does Christ continually die to our sins?

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We have reached the final revelation…

“I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint: My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaveth to My jaws; and Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death” (Psalm 22:14, 15). Thou, O Father, made a covenant with Me to make Me continually die to sin that others may have life from My oil press of Gethsemane, which still pours out like water…

“Children of the Lord, how precious is the promise! How full the atonement of the Saviour for our guilt! The Redeemer, with a heart of unalterable love, still sheds His sacred blood in the sinner's behalf. The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead eloquently for fallen man, whose redemption is purchased at so great a cost. Oh, matchless condescension!” (Review and Herald, January 9, 1883).

“The smitten rock was a figure of Christ, and through this symbol the most precious spiritual truths are taught. As the life-giving waters flowed from the smitten rock, so from Christ, ‘smitten of God,’ ‘wounded for our transgressions,’ ‘bruised for our iniquities’ (Isaiah 53:4, 5), the stream of salvation flows for a lost race. As the rock had been once smitten, so Christ was to be ‘once offered to bear the sins of many’ (Hebrews 9:28). Our Saviour was not to be sacrificed a second time; and it is only necessary for those who seek the blessings of His grace to ask in the name of Jesus, pouring forth the heart's desire in penitential prayer. Such prayer will bring before the Lord of hosts the wounds of Jesus, and then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood, symbolized by the flowing of the living water for Israel” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 411).

“Christ is our Mediator and officiating High Priest in the presence of the Father. He was shown to John as a Lamb that had been slain, as in the very act of pouring out His blood in the sinner's behalf” (Testimonies Vol. 4, p. 395).

“Jesus stands before the Father, continually offering a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is the minister of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. The typical offerings of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess any virtue. A daily and yearly atonement is no longer necessary. But because of the continual commission of sin, the atoning sacrifice of a heavenly Mediator is essential. Jesus, our great high priest, officiates for us in the presence of God, offering in our behalf His shed blood. And as Christ intercedes for us, the Spirit works upon our hearts, drawing forth prayer and penitence, praise and thanksgiving” (Youth’s Instructor, April 16, 1903).

“The work of Christ in the sanctuary above, presenting His own blood each moment before the mercy seat, as He makes intercession for us, should have its full impression upon the heart, that we may realize the worth of each moment. Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us; but one moment carelessly spent can never be recovered … Consider this great fact that Christ ceases not to engage in His solemn work in the heavenly sanctuary, and if you wear Christ's yoke, if you lift Christ's burden, you will be engaged in a work of like character with that of your Living Head” (Testimonies on Sabbath School Work, pp. 85, 86).

“He has taken the blood of His atonement into the holiest of all, sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat and His own garments, and blessed the people. Soon He will appear the second time to declare that there is no more sacrifice for sin” (The Youth’s Instructor, July 25, 1901).

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It is a hard saying to hear that Christ continually dies to sin by shedding forth fresh blood because of our continual commission of sins, but it is the only way for sins to be transferred into the Heavenly Sanctuary from His body. The blood shed on the Cross was for the corporate Sacrifice, to give mankind a second chance after sin—thus opening the way for individuals to have their sins confessed upon their Saviour and then transferred into the Sanctuary. His death on the Cross was also “for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament” (Hebrews 9:15)—those living before the Cross who confessed their sins upon their sin offerings in anticipation for the great Lamb of God. But we are living after Christ became the Lamb; nothing is figurative anymore. Everything is done in fact. Sin is deadly serious.

The Cross was for all mankind—that all may have an opportunity to be saved; but only those who have their names recorded in heaven will be saved because their sins will have been confessed, placed on Christ, and then covered by His blood, while the sin yet abides in the Sanctuary. Therefore, if the corporate Sacrifice alone were sufficient for salvation, then everyone would be saved. There would be no need for a Heavenly Sanctuary, where names and sins are recorded, because they would already have been forgiven in advance. But we know that there is a Heavenly Sanctuary, and that the shedding of blood is necessary for the remission of sins, and that the shedding of blood on the Cross was for corporate humanity—so that everyone could have a chance to be saved; whereas the shedding of atoning blood in heaven is only for the individuals who profess Christ as their Saviour; this is the only blood that can bring remission (justification) of sins. And the context of Hebrews 9, Verse 22, shows that Paul, as he mentions blood, is referencing the Heavenly Sanctuary, not the Cross.

God has winked at our past ignorance, because we never thought these things through. We looked to Calvary, had our hearts melted with the love of God, and had our sins removed, though a veil of ignorance kept us from understanding the whole process. But we are now living in the times of refreshing—the Messenger comes to us as the Latter Rain. Soon the fountain of Christ’s physical blood will cease to flow, because 144,000 will have looked and lived. They will behold the exceeding sinfulness of their sins, by seeing what it is still doing today to their Sin-Bearing, Sin-Pardoning Redeemer. So strong will be their conviction of sin, combined with the sacrificial love of their Saviour, that their sins will cease. The atonement will be complete, God’s kingdom established.

Sinner, do you understand what takes place in the atonement now? Do you see your need for the double blood of Christ to cleanse you of your sins, so that you can be part of the greater work of God’s Sanctuary being cleansed? Do you want to “lift Christ’s burden” and be part of the effort to hasten the end of the cruel suffering of God, the Lamb, the angels, and mankind, including yourself?

Do you want to live and proclaim the Sabbath more fully? If the thought of blood in heaven is offensive for you, don’t walk

away with the masses so quick. Question yourself, “How offensive is my sin to me?” If you keep sinning that sin, then it is not offensive enough to you, and it means you need to behold more of the suffering and self-sacrificial love of your Sin-Pardoning Redeemer. It is evidence that you need this revelation of blood.

People will want to get all caught up in trying to refute the blood message, because it offends them. They are missing the whole point. The blood does not speak for itself; it speaks the message that there must

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be an end to sin, more than any other revelation could ever preach. This is really the Sabbath message—the one Commandment of faith that people have a problem with. And though it is not outwardly refuted by those who profess to keep the Sabbath, and thus the Advent message, the prophet’s words do not lie: “We went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully. This enraged the church, and nominal Adventists, as they could not refute the Sabbath truth” (A Word to the Little Flock, p. 19). There can be no Advent of eternity without Sabbath rest of sin by the blood of Christ. Many words are used to refute the literal things of Scripture, but without any Scriptural grounds.

Spiritualism is a slippery slope. If blood is taken to be spiritual, then sin can be symbolic as well; and if sin is symbolic, then the Sanctuary and the Law can be as well. Everything collapses.

But Christ always goes all the way when it comes to saving us. Hopefully we have learned the lesson from beholding the First Table. And do we not see streams of blood and water flowing out on the Second Table of the vision of Habakkuk? And do we not see a Lamb that is still being slain with sins in John the Revelator’s vision? Do we not see the picture of a sin-cleansing Fountain all throughout Scripture?

Ultimately it is not the many arguments that could be made in favor of the double atonement of Christ that makes it powerful— it is instead the conviction of the Messenger of the Covenant and His life-transforming Word. What is the fruit of this final message? Fanaticism, or just what the Church needs at this time? Does it promote legalism? Worldliness? Or does it promote Christ-centeredness? Does it strengthen the pillars of Seventh-day Adventism or weaken them? If you accept it, how will it affect your walk with Christ? Will you be closer to Him or farther away? You need to decide for yourself what present truth looks like compared with false doctrine. You must know what you believe and be able to defend it from the Bible. Do not let others do your thinking.

As we close, let us make everything practical by an illustration. And please keep in mind that we do not claim to know how it all works…

You sin your usual sin, and then you feel awful about it because you just remember that an Offering must be made for your sin. You adore Christ because you have been beholding His matchless love and spending much time in communion with Him instead of what you used to do in the entertainment media. But you still fell! Your heart is crushed, and your dear Saviour’s heart is crushed. But you still deeply love each other. So, you penitently confess your sin. The Spirit of Christ has already worked your repentance into you. And now you shed some tears, and then thank God and the Lamb for forgiving you, as He has promised in 1 John 1:9. And, by the way, no matter how terrible your sin is, God will forgive you, so any doubt of this is from the devil. The more serious your sin, the more serious your Saviour suffers, but forgiveness is a promise that God will never break.

What happens to your sin?

Your sin is placed on Christ. You are in Him. Your name, or character, which is defiled with sin, is now inside Him. But also keep in mind that if you choose to not confess your sin, and yet bear the name ‘Christian’, the Christ will still grievously bear your sin. So, you choose to pray, pouring out your heart to God. “Such prayer will bring before the Lord of hosts the wounds of Jesus, and then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood.” You die to your sin by the blood of another—

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even the Holy Spirit, Who takes it from you. And Christ dies to your sin by His own crimson blood, transferring it into the Sanctuary. You are forgiven! And right away you receive the bright beams of righteousness from the atonement seen on the First Table. That brightness will grow as you continue appropriating it through the omnipotent Word of life.

Your sin is kept in the Sanctuary. Record books are kept to log the transactions that take place. Your name will be there, but your sins will be covered, even though they remain in the Holy Sanctuary, which bears God’s name. And, so far, this is how it has been ever since the early rain started at Pentecost. But now, we are in the latter rain.

Names are coming up for review before God. The dead are being judged based upon whether there is a record of their sins that remain or not; soon the cases of the living will be determined. If you do not die before the end (and many righteous will die either through various disasters and diseases, or as martyrs), and all your sins are confessed and repented of, you will be one of the 144,000. You will have developed the Sabbath faith of Jesus in all areas of your life, unlike the righteous in past generations, because you have received the latter rain, in revelation and reality. Christ will be freed from His misery and be crowned as King, receiving Jerusalem, which will be your Eternal City with Him, all because you and 143,999 others accepted the latter rain that comes from His side of Sacrifice. Satan will then bear your sin for 1000 years, but God’s name will no more be blasphemed with it. After the millennium, Satan will be the last one to die, and then all sin will forever be destroyed and eternal rest will remain!

Now, let’s rewind back to the present. You and your precious Saviour died to your sin together! Now it is time for you to make a firm plan on how you will not repeat that sin again. You must get to the root of it right away. What prompted your sin? What was the idol that you coveted, that prevented you from experiencing Sabbath rest from that sin? Good—you found it by God’s grace! Now, what is your plan to resist it? It will have much to do with the root cause.

Keep in mind that just stopping something bad is not enough; you must replace it with something good. Spending more time in communion with Christ and in His Word have great power, and now you know the infinite expense that it took to receive that power! Find promises that are directly linked to your sin problem and frequently claim them. Most importantly, just keep beholding Christ. And what did you learn in vision? You learned upon the First Table that Christ is right with you wherever you are and He has direct access to both the Father and Christ incarnate. By way of the Spirit, send forth praises to Them continually! This is the best medicine and the best replacement for sinful activity. You learned upon the Second Table that Christ is still pleading His blood for you. If you have suffering, He will suffer with you. Come close to His bleeding side in reverent devotion.

Let us worship our Lord with adoration and wonder. Just as He has always had compassion on us, we are to now have compassion on Him. It is time to lament our sins. “O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches” of your last generation, “pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord.” Zion, How long “shall the Priest and the Prophet be slain in the Sanctuary of the Lord?” (Lamentations 2:18-20).

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“Christ, our Mediator, and the Holy Spirit are constantly interceding in man's behalf, but the Spirit pleads not for us as does Christ, who presents His blood, shed from the foundation of the world; the Spirit works upon our hearts, drawing out prayers and penitence, praise and thanksgiving … They ascend not in spotless purity, and unless the Intercessor, who is at God's right hand, presents and purifies all by His righteousness, it is not acceptable to God. All incense from earthly tabernacles must be moist with the cleansing drops of the blood of Christ” --Selected Messages Vol. 1, p. 344 “The wonderful symbol of the living bird dipped in the blood of the bird slain and then set free to its joyous life is to us the symbol of the atonement. There were death and life blended, presenting to the searcher for truth the hidden treasure, the union of the pardoning blood with the resurrection and life of our Redeemer. The bird slain was over living water; that flowing stream was a symbol of the ever flowing, ever cleansing efficacy of the blood of Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the fountain that was open for Judah and Jerusalem, wherein they may wash and be clean from every stain of sin. We are to have free access to the atoning blood of Christ. This we must regard as the most precious privilege, the greatest blessing, ever granted to sinful man. And how little is made of this great gift! How deep, how wide and continuous, is this stream. To every soul thirsting after holiness there is repose, there is rest, there is the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, and then the holy, happy, peaceful walk and precious communion with Christ. Then, O then, can we intelligently say with John, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.’ Talk it, pray it. Let it be the theme of sacred song—to be washed, to be cleansed—the believing soul claims that love, and by its virtues stands before the throne of God, pardoned, justified, sanctified. Our success in presenting the truth before the people is in our experimental knowledge of the efficacy of the blood of Jesus to our own souls. Its cleansing virtue gives strength and vigor to faith, power to prayer, and happiness in cheerful obedience.”

--Letter 87, 1894

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APPENDIX

A CRISIS IN OUR CHURCH

HE scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith was the declaration: ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days;

then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed’ (Daniel 8:14)” (Great Controversy, p. 409).

………………………DD…..

THE DAILY

We have lost sight of our mission as Seventh-day Adventists. God directed the tables of time prophecy, as a pre-fulfillment of the vision of Habakkuk. One purpose was to direct our minds to the Second Advent of Christ, revealing to us that we are living at the time of the end. But a greater purpose was to point us to the greater vision: Christ’s atonement and the cleansing of the Sanctuary, bringing eternal rest to sin; this commenced after the passing of the 2300 years.

The Hebrew word for ‘cleansed’ in Daniel 8:14 is tsâdaq, which means ‘to make right’. Hence, the verse could be read as, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be made right.” In Part 4 of our little book, we brought out how the Sanctuary shall be cleansed of sin. This is the effect of Daniel 8:14. The Sanctuary, which bears the name of God, will be cleansed of defiling sins, and Part 4 brings out the process of how this takes place. But here in the Appendix we want to more plainly bring out the cause of the cleansing. This is where the ancient controversy lies, which must be resolved before the end. The revelation of the Sanctuary and the atonement there must come before the reality; we saw this same principle with the Latter Rain, the Message must come before the experience.

The Sanctuary is to be ‘made right’ in the minds of God’s people before the end of time; this revelation will lead to the reality of producing the long labored for “perfection of the saints” (Ephesians 4:12, 13). The revelation of the Sanctuary—in other words, the Sanctuary being ‘made right’ in the minds of God’s people— actually more precisely fits the criteria, for it is to happen after the 2300 years. We are now about 170 years after October, 22nd, 1844, still laboring with Christ for the final cleansing of the Sanctuary, but on October 23rd, 1844—the very next day after the 2300 years ended—Hiram Edson was given a vision of the Heavenly Sanctuary in a cornfield. Not only this, but as we proceed in studying Daniel 8, we will see that the context is more focused toward the revelation of the Sanctuary.

A conspiracy has kept hidden the atonement of Christ since ancient times (see Ezekiel 22:24-28). The ancient attack against it is the system of Paganism. We saw in Part 2 how it is behind every sin and that Sabbath rest is the solution to it. Pagans used to offer sacrifices to idols and perform various rites as part of the false atonement. The purpose was to appease the wrath of the angry gods. It was a performance-based religion where various works were done to give themselves favor to the gods. This also meant that they could indulge in evils as their good works to appease the gods would counteract it. The concept of putting away sin was foreign to them, let alone the mechanism of doing so, which can only be the sanctifying and justifying blood of Christ.

T

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The Old Testament Sanctuary system was meant to vividly point forward to that mighty mechanism, but Paganism counterfeited it; and sadly, the Israelites had a long record of mingling Paganism with the true religion, which was, is, and always will be centered on the sacrificial atonement of Christ. The ceremonies that God designed should point them to Christ, became meaningless forms; His atonement was made of none effect. If they would have not forgotten that focus, and the rest which only comes from the atonement, they would have never been brought into captivity to Pagan Babylon.

We need to remember the following principle as we proceed: “The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). What happened to Israel of old, happened again to the Christian Church through the abomination of desolation, and will happen once more to the nominal Adventists due to the omega of apostasy. But praise God! The attacks against the foundation of all truth—even the precious atonement of Christ— only bring out more beauty and glory therein. The glad tidings of His atoning rest only become more plain and distinct by the controversy.

We embark on this study of ‘the daily’ because this is where the great controversy lies, and yet it is altogether glorious! It will strengthen all four parts of this little book, especially the culminating message that Christ still deals with our sins in heaven. It will also strengthen the great Scriptural pillar of our faith— that the Sanctuary shall be cleansed, in revelation and reality! We could not understand ‘the daily’ until now, for we had no clear view of what takes place in the Sanctuary in heaven. Before it was an unfruitful discussion, but now, if we can clear away our spiritual cataracts, we can behold just what we need to give a strong impetuous to our glad tidings of a Sin-Pardoning Saviour who gives us rest from our sins!

The following is our passage of interest—Daniel 8:8-14, margin.

“The he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even against the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and from Him the daily was taken away, and the place of His Sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto the Wonderful Numberer of secrets, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And He said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed.”

The ‘he goat’ with four horns, which are four sub-kingdoms, represents Grecia (v. 8). Rome came out of the sub-kingdom of Macedonia in 168 BC and expanded much further than the previous monarchies before it. No other reference in the passage can be found regarding pre-Christianized Rome. Before pure Paganism disappeared, it did not magnify itself to heaven, because it made no heavenly claims.

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Everything after that is Sanctuary language. In fact the ram and he goat are Sanctuary animals, thus illustrating the counterfeit of Paganism!

Now, William Miller and others taught that the sanctuary was this earth and that it was to be cleansed after the 2300 years when they expected Christ to come. This was proved wrong at the midnight of October 23rd, 1844. Now we know that the Sanctuary to be cleansed after 2300 years is the Heavenly Sanctuary. The Prince of the host of heaven is the “Prince of princes” in Verse 25, where the vision is explained to Daniel; and that is Jesus Christ. Hence, the only two things left to define are ‘the daily’ and ‘the transgression of desolation’…

The Hebrew word for ‘daily’ is ‘tâmîyd’. It means ‘continual’, or ‘perpetual’, and its root meaning is ‘to stretch’. Nearly every occurrence of this word in Scripture is associated with the continual administration of God’s Sanctuary. Though the word ‘sacrifice’ appears after ‘the daily’ in the King James Version, it is a supplied word, meaning that it was not in the original text. We understand that most Bible scholars believe that mainly the morning and evening burnt sacrifices are what is indicated in the simple phrase ‘the daily’, meaning the ‘continual burnt offering’; but we believe that ‘the daily’ certainly also indicates more than this… It points to the overall continual, perpetual nature of the rituals in the Sanctuary: water always in the laver, the ‘Bread of the Presence’ always on the table, oil in the candlestick, incense on the altar. Everything had to be there continually in type, for now Christ administers continually, in antitype, in the Most Holy Place. “Christ as high priest within the veil so immortalized Calvary that though He liveth unto God, He dies continually to sin” (Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 343).

Calvary is continually stretched into the Heavenly Sanctuary, until His atonement ceases—only when sin ceases. And because Babylon does not want sin to cease, “it cast down the truth to the ground”. In the previous verse, it says that “the place of His Sanctuary was cast down.” ‘The place’ and ‘the truth’ communicate the same thing. The Hebrew word for ‘place’ is ‘mâkôn’, which means the ‘basis’, or the ‘foundation’. Therefore, the foundation of the Sanctuary is Jesus! Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. How? By His life-giving atonement! Behold: “The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith was the declaration: ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed’ (Daniel 8:14)” (Great Controversy, p. 409).

But “by reason of transgression”, even “the transgression of desolation”, Satan seeks to take away the perpetual nature of Christ’s Sacrifice from our minds! Not only this, but he wants the stretching of Calvary to be longer and longer! And how does he do this? He does this by hiding from us ‘the daily’. Why? Because the meaning of ‘the daily’ in Daniel provides the first theological construct that reconciles the two truths seeming to be in opposition: 1.) that Christ was to be sacrificed “once”, and 2.) that our Lamb continues to take sin and guilt upon Him today. Satan also knows that “Right believing means right doing” (Upward Look, p. 176). Friend, Satan hides Christ’s continual ministration in the Heavenly Sanctuary—even Christ still bearing our sins and transferring them into the Sanctuary by His blood—he hides it so that we do not believe in it happening, because as long as we do not believe it we will not cease doing our own ways! We will not have the Sabbath experience until we fully look upon Whom our sins have perpetually pierced! We will not be awakened to our need to cease sinning

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if we believe that atonement was all completed at the Cross. And this truth, this foundation, became hidden by counterfeiting it.

This is the great abomination. We have now made the connection between ‘the daily’

and ‘the transgression of desolation’. But things are still foggy. So, we must study how “the daily was taken away”, and to do this we are given further light in Daniel 12, which gives us the timing of it…

We already know that the 1260 prophetic days mentioned in Daniel and Revelation are the Dark Ages, which began in 538 AD. This is when the last of three horns were plucked out (see Daniel 7:8); the Ostrogoths were defeated and the Roman Catholic Church no longer had resistance to enforcing her transgression against ‘the daily’. She then ‘prospers’ because the continual atonement is not a popular doctrine. The 1290 days and 1335 days are lesser known, but they both have a common starting point, and that is 508 AD, which is 30 years before the 1260 days begin. But what happened that year? This gets interesting…

The time tables of Habakkuk do not lie, just as the tables of the Law do not lie. The dates are there, but not the description of what happened that year. Was William Miller correct in all his theology? Of course not. We need only to go to Daniel 8, Verse 12: “An host was given him against the daily” for the purpose, or “reason”, of the transgression, or “abomination” (12:11), to be set up. ‘Host’ means ‘army’, and many translations have it that way. So, here is what we have: ‘An army was given to Rome against ‘the daily’ atonement of Christ, for the abominable purpose of taking it away.’ So, what was this army?

Before 508 AD, the Germanic tribes were gaining power. They were labeled as ‘Arians’ after Arius, who taught that Christ had a beginning, therefore disregarding the Trinity doctrine. There were many Bible-believing, God-fearing people within those tribes, and they did not believe in the teachings of Arius, even though they were labeled as Arians and accused as heretics; many kept the Seventh-day Sabbath as well! The Godhead debate was the hottest issue at that time, but it was only a giant smokescreen to the greater issue: Should popes and priests carry on the intercessory work for sin in place of Christ? The so-called Arians protested this as well as Sunday-keeping. These were the two real issues. And they are connected when we realize what the Sabbath is all about—resting from human works so that Christ can work salvation for us. That was the two-fold issue then, and it will be at the end of days, with the Sunday Law as the test for who will receive Christ’s atonement for their sins. What a master plan Satan had! And this created war… literally…

In 508 AD, Clovis, the king of the Franks, officially converted over to Catholicism. What significance does this bear? Clovis was a fierce warrior and civil and military power. Therefore, an army was given to Rome. And for what purpose? Well, within 30 years, the three main Germanic tribes were cast down— the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths. Again, the war was over their very unwelcome protesting against the popes and priests counterfeiting Christ’s continual atonement and the mark of their authority to do this: Sunday. Therefore, Satan gave to Rome Clovis and his army to “take away the daily” in 508 AD. This is when the 1290 years began. And in 538 AD, the abomination could now be universally set up, for the three trouble-makers were cast down, and in doing this, the foundation of all truth was cast down in the Protestants proclaiming it.

Paul prophesied this as well: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away

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first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4). Daniel prophesies the army again in Chapter 11, Verse 31: “And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.” The Hebrew word for ‘pollute’ is ‘châlal’, which can also mean to ‘break’ or ‘dissolve’. The Hebrew word for ‘strength’ is ‘maoz’ and means ‘a fortified place’ or a ‘defense’. Hence, Rome used the army given her to break down our only defense to sin: Christ, our ‘Rock of Ages’ (Hebrew: ‘Maoz Tzur’), pouring out healing streams on our behalf in the Sanctuary of Strength.

Ironically, the same horn that gave power to the Papacy at the beginning of the 1290 prophetic days took it away at the close! General Berthier of France took the pope captive at the close of the 1260 and 1290 years, which was 1798. At the commencement of that period, the dear saints had to flee; the Waldenses went into the wilderness just as their Commander had given them orders to do: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” (Matthew 24:15). This was actually the second of three fulfillments of this prophecy. The first was when the Romans invaded Jerusalem and the Christians fled that doomed city (70 AD). The third we will study in our next section. The Bibles were burned, so the witnesses could no longer be in the open as the three horns had been plucked up; they had to prophesy from the wilderness “clothed in sackcloth”, or hidden (Revelation 11:3). However, about three-quarters through that period, Protestantism again grew strong. Much had been lost; the reformers did not prophesy the pure truth—the atonement in the Heavenly Sanctuary—but their protests did focus on the same basic concept of Christ being our Advocate instead of popes and priests. The pope was declared to be the ‘Antichrist’, and ‘anti’ means ‘in place of’ in the Greek. The pope had already taken on the name and number of the beast: ‘Vicarius Filii Dei’, which adds up to 666 and means ‘Vicar of the Son of God’. The more common papal title has been ‘Vicarius Christi’, which means ‘Vicar of Christ’, and ‘Vicar’ has similar meaning to ‘anti’, again, meaning ‘in place of’. Therefore, in the very name and number prophesied, the devastating abomination is evident: the Papacy taking the place of Christ for the atonement of sins! As the Protestant reformation grew in popularity, a counter-reformation was established, most notably under the Jesuit order. It was no longer politically correct to hide and burn Bibles from the people, so interpretations of the Bible now had to be tampered with. Two opposing dialectic views were established, virtually covering all of Daniel and Revelation for the sole purpose of hiding ‘the daily’ and the abomination that took it away. Preterism teaches that most of prophecy took place way in the past, and futurism teaches that most of prophecy takes place in the future. The Seventh-day Adventist view is distinct and is called historicism, where the Bible interprets itself and places prophecy in the biblical order. The Protestant reformers held to this view, and it identifies the Roman Catholic Church as the culprit of cruel confusion.

Many years have passed since the Dark Ages.

A new war has begun as new Protestants arise to meet a new conflict, even the Omega, for troubling tidings of the end of sin can no longer remain silent…

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THE OMEGA

The focus now shifts to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Our mission was to restore what was lost because of Babylon in the Dark Ages, but instead, Babylon has come into us. No, the Church will never become Babylon, but we must all come out of her antichristian spirit. The Loud Cry to our people does not include coming out of churches as it does to the Gentiles, but the Cry to us is to come out of our apostasy.

The Alpha of apostasy is past, but now the Omega is of concern.

Christ is the true “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Revelation 22:13). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Then an everlasting covenant was made between Them—that the Word would be made flesh, to dwell among us, if sin should come, which it did; and through the twofold atonement, all would be restored in the end. Laodicea is the last Church and by which comes the end of all things— the Omega: Christ ending sin and death through His final atonement in heaven, to finish restoring His image in His people… “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David; and He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this [is the name] wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness” (Jeremiah 33:14-16). Laodicea, be “confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). “[Even] the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints … which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26, 27).

Zechariah prophesies some glorious things to us…

Jesus is that mysterious Branch of Righteousness that is formed in “the men wondered at”, even the 144,000! “For, behold, I will bring forth My Servant the BRANCH” (Zechariah 3:8). We see this in the First Table of vision. It is interesting what precedes that verse; behold “Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him” (Verse 1). This represents Satan resisting Christ’s ‘daily’ role of High Priest, offering His own Sacrifice in the Sanctuary. He takes our “filthy garments” of character and gives us a “change of raiment” (Verse 3). Our robes can only be washed by His precious ‘daily’ blood. The “men wondered at” are “they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). It is only through His atoning blood that Christ will perform that good thing. Lo, He says, “I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day” (Zechariah 3:10). Then Jesus the High Priest will have a change of raiment: “He hath on [His] vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16)! Behold the BRANCH once again appear, this time as we see the Second Table. “Behold the Man whose name [is] The BRANCH; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the LORD: Even He shall build the temple of the LORD; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between Them both”

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(Zechariah 6:12, 13). He was born in Mary, a descendent of Jesse and David, lived righteously, and became High Priest in heaven. Why? Because in the Omega, He will build up His Sanctuary of strength, which was broken by the army of Rome, for tidings will be brought to all: that He still dies to our sins until they reach an Omega—an end!

Behold: “the Man whose name is The BRANCH” of Righteousness is at war with ‘the man of sin’, even Vicarius Filii Dei. They both want to be the Omega. The Former wants to put an end to sin and the latter wants to take His place to hide this reality in the longstanding abomination, to culminate in the Omega of apostasy and Sunday laws. Where is this war at? In Laodicea, the Seventh-day Adventist Church! Of course, the pope is not there, but ‘the man of sin’ is the whole antichristian system of replacing Christ’s ‘daily’, sin-bearing, sin-pardoning, sin-transferring, sin-ending atonement with doctrines and traditions of men. Satan well knows the purpose of our Church—to restore and build the temple of the Lord in the minds that he has deceived through his abomination. And over the years, the Good Shepherd’s little flock has become a large “flock of slaughter” (Zechariah 11:4, 7), for their defense has been taken away from them by idol shepherds who make the Sanctuary of strength, and its atoning foundation, of none-effect—not openly, as Rome has, but by preaching other things instead in this Omega of apostasy. That is why the war is here in Laodicea. A word in due season must be fed to the flock.

Dear reader, choose your ‘daily’, for your ‘daily’ will become your Omega; choose wisely, for we are at war. Flee the words of a “foolish shepherd” (Zechariah 11:15-17). Behold: Christ is being slain by our sins and no one seems to care; but when the troubling tidings come, many will be aroused. “Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered” (13:7), even divided. The message of Christ’s blood (12:10; 13:1, 6) causes a shaking. This “cup of trembling” (12:2) is offensive to the lover of sin, but the wine of Babylon which causes Calvary to still be stretched becomes offensive to the lover of God. Therefore, “if unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war” (Great Controversy, p. 45). “Are we awake to the work that is going on in the heavenly sanctuary, or are we waiting for some compelling power to come upon the church before we shall arouse? Are we hoping to see the whole church revived? That time will never come” (Selected Messages Vol. 1, p. 122).

It is time to track down the apostasy. Choose your Omega wisely. The following is a sampling of Sister White’s sermon,

entitled “The Foundation of our Faith”, which can be found in Sermons and Talks Volume 1, Pages 340 to 348, where she addresses the Alpha and Omega of apostasy, with the Alpha being the error of Pantheism, as subtly taught in Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s book, Living Temple. We will see that defining the Omega is not as clear-cut as defining ‘the daily’, because there is “a long list of deceptive theories” that follows the Alpha to make the Omega; yet, the patterns we shall see are definite. All the deceptive theories have one thing in common, and our knowledge of ‘the daily’ will help us identify it; then we shall see how the Omega will intersect with the third and final fulfillment of the abomination of desolation. God’s dear Church must be prepared to meet the Omega crisis…

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“Living Temple contains the Alpha … The Omega would follow in a little while. I tremble for our people. These beautiful representations are similar to the temptation that the enemy brought to Adam and Eve in Eden … In Living Temple the assertion is made that God is in the flower, in the leaf, in the sinner. But God does not live in the sinner … There are some things upon which we must reason, and there are other things that we must not discuss. In regard to God—what He is and where He is—silence is eloquence ... I was instructed that certain sentiments in Living Temple were the Alpha of a long list of deceptive theories. These sentiments have had an effect on our people everywhere … In a representation which passed before me, I saw a certain work being done by medical missionary workers. Our ministering brethren were looking on, watching what was being done, but they did not seem to understand. The foundation of our faith, which was established by so much prayer, such earnest searching of the Scriptures, was being taken down, pillar by pillar. Our faith was to have nothing to rest upon—

the Sanctuary was gone, the atonement was gone… In the visions of the night I saw a large ship far out at sea. Suddenly the man on the lookout cried, ‘Iceberg ahead!’ Without hesitation the command rang out, ‘Meet it.’ The engines were put on at full force, and the vessel crashed into the iceberg. There was a tremendous shock, and the ship quivered from stem to stern; but she rebounded from the shock unhurt, and went safely on her way. After seeing this representation. I knew what work I must do. I knew that I must meet the errors that were coming in among us. I have been hoping that there would be a thorough reformation, that the principles for which we fought in my girlhood, and which were brought out in the power of the Holy Spirit, would be maintained. Night after night in our early experience our brethren studied out the truths which we now hold … Thus light was given in regard to Christ, His mission, and His priesthood, and the great points of our faith were firmly established … Do you wonder that I have something to say when I see the pillars of our faith beginning to be moved? Seductive theories are being taught in such a way that we shall not recognize them unless we have clear spiritual discernment. I will stand firmly with everyone who will stand for the truth.”

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Let’s meet the crisis! Next, is a sampling of Chapter 24 from Selected Messages Vol. 1, entitled “The Alpha and the Omega”…

“Physicians, have you been doing the Master's business in listening to fanciful and spiritualistic interpretations of the Scriptures, interpretations which undermine the foundations of our faith, and holding your peace? God says, ‘Neither will I be with you any more, unless you awake, and vindicate your Redeemer’ … God calls upon men and women to take their stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. I have been instructed to warn our people; for many are in danger of receiving theories and sophistries that undermine the foundation pillars of the faith … Be not deceived; many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. We have now before us the alpha of this danger. The omega will be of a most startling nature … I am instructed to speak plainly. ‘Meet it,’ is the word spoken to me. ‘Meet it firmly, and without delay.’ But it is not to be met by our taking our working forces from the field to investigate doctrines and points of difference. We have no such investigation to make. In the book Living Temple there is presented the alpha of deadly heresies. The omega will follow, and will be received by those who are not willing to heed the warning God has given … Dangers that we do not now discern will soon break upon us.”

Finally, we will see the beginning and the ending of Chapter 25. The chapter is again entitled, “The Foundation of Our Faith”.

“The Lord will put new, vital force into His work as human agencies obey the command to go forth and proclaim the truth. He who declared that His truth would shine forever will proclaim this truth through faithful messengers, who will give the trumpet a certain sound. The truth will be criticized, scorned, and derided; but the closer it is examined and tested, the brighter it will shine. As a people, we are to stand firm on the platform of eternal truth that has withstood test and trial. We are to hold to the sure pillars of our faith. The principles of truth that God has revealed to us are our only true foundation. They have made us what we are. The lapse of time has not lessened their value. It is the constant effort of the enemy to remove these truths from their setting, and to put in their place spurious theories. He will bring in everything that he possibly can to carry out his deceptive designs. But the Lord will raise up men of keen perception, who will give these truths their proper place in the plan of God… For the past fifty years every phase of heresy has been brought to bear upon us, to becloud our minds regarding the teaching of the Word—especially concerning the ministration of Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary, and the message of Heaven for these last days, as given by the angels of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. Messages of every order and kind have been urged upon Seventh-day Adventists, to take the place of the truth which, point by point, has been sought out by prayerful study, and testified to by the miracle-working power of the Lord. But the waymarks which have made us what we are, are to be preserved, and they will be preserved, as God has signified through His Word and the testimony of His Spirit. He calls upon us to hold firmly, with the grip of faith, to the fundamental principles that are based upon unquestionable authority.”

After taking a survey through the Spirit of Prophecy on the Omega, we need to ask some pertinent questions…

Is the Omega something that we have not seen yet or something that developed and we can identify? Is it an experience-based situation such as spiritual formation and the like, or is it a theology-based one? Spiritual formation is definitely a delusion from Babylon, but does this most greatly fit the criteria, or is Satan trying to use it to divert the reformers’ attention away from the real issue?

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The foundation of our faith is the cleansing of the Sanctuary after the 2300 years of prophecy, which Christ has ‘daily’ been laboring for since Pentecost. It led us to the Law of God and the Sabbath seal, thus the Third Angel’s Message. But the spirit of Babylon entered our Church, most notably through a second book, called “Questions on Doctrine” (QOD) in 1957. Two main issues for disagreement arose, causing a major split in our Church ever since that time:

(1) The nature of Christ (2) His atonement

Up until that time, the main consensus was that Christ fully took upon Himself fallen humanity and that the atonement continues in the Heavenly Sanctuary. QOD mitigated these key truths in subtle ways. Why? It was to appease the general public of Babylon who refuse to see the need for continuing atonement for sin and to prevent them from labeling us as a ‘cult’. But if Christ had advantages over us to not sin, and if sin does not have to still be dealt with in heaven today and finally put away, then sin does not have to cease before the second coming! The tables will speak against these lies, but first, one more piece of the puzzle needs to be put in place (it is tied to the nature of Christ)…

The Alpha of apostasy gives us clues as to what the Omega will look like. Kellogg subtly taught that God was in everything. He sought to explain what and where God is, which he was counseled not to meddle with. The result of this false view of God leads to the notion that God can be in the sinner; in other words, atonement for sin is not necessary, for the sinner is already with God. How does this relate to the Omega? It is dangerous to speculate what and where God is in relation to His Creation. Spiritual formation meddles with this somewhat, but is this really what Mrs. White was so alarmed about in vision? More questions need to be asked. Does our understanding and teaching of the incarnation and the infinite Sacrifice go against the counsel to not meddle with what God is, or does another theory do so instead—such as saying that God is Three Persons, yet still numerically and literally one? Does the church’s acceptance of the Trinity doctrine—which is historically and currently associated with defining the nature and substance (often called ‘essence’) of God—violate the warnings of our prophet? Does any inspiration reveal that three separate Beings existed in the beginning (before sin entered)? And why does Sister White never use the word ‘Trinity’ in her writings when that word had been in use for 1500 years before she lived? These questions are all that will be said in disputing the Trinity, for Sister White was told to tell us to “meet it” dead on—but not with arguments, rather the truth. This is the advice we pass on to the reader. The truth is plain enough.

The Omega of apostasy is holding onto views of Christ, carried over from Babylon, that restrict His prescribed limit of Sacrifice and His continual crimson atonement, thus preventing us from receiving our rest and refreshing from sin in the Latter Rain!

LeRoy Froom was the first and foremost to publish the Trinity into our Church—“Coming of the Comforter” in 1928. And the book QOD (which he took a lead role in) reinforced it. The Trinity, together with suggesting that Christ did not fully take our fallen nature, prevents us from seeing the prescribed limit of Sacrifice in Christ’s incarnation (as displayed by the First Table of Habakkuk). But worst of all, Christ’s ongoing atonement (as displayed by the Second Table) has been mitigated.

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Altogether, public opinion—within and without the Church— has dramatically been altered. We are no longer viewed as a ‘cult’; but to what expense?—Calvary stretching longer and longer; and no end to sin.

The ‘new theology’ that emerged in the 1950s has not been remedied by our decades of debates. Something else must take place: The tables again must be displayed and their full implications seen. Being an expert of prophecy, Satan knew this would come, so he knew where to precondition us to not receive the vision, which will bring an end to his kingdom. In the Trinity, Christ is seen as not taking our fallen nature, and, worst of all, the idea of atonement ending at the Cross—this was all the beginning of the Omega of apostasy. But now the Omega of Christ’s righteousness is displayed, to unmask all his lies. The full Omega crisis is come. A war on error has been declared. For “Thou”, O Lord, “hast showed Thy people hard things: Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah” (Psalm 60:3, 4).

“The spiritualistic theories regarding the personality of God, followed to their logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy … They make of no effect the truth of heavenly origin, and rob the people of God of their past experience, giving them instead a false science ... The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed … Books of a new order would be written … But in the providence of God, the errors that have been coming in must be met” (Selected Messages Vol. 1, p. 204).

Alas, it is written in “Seventh-day Adventists Believe” (a book that attempts to delineate our beliefs in 27 doctrines, 1988): “Jesus' resurrection and ascension direct our attention to the heavenly

sanctuary, where, no longer the Lamb, He ministers as priest” (#23, p. 313). Where is our Lamb? Gone! But God will have a remnant, in whose minds the Sanctuary will be made right, for they, like John, will look into the Heavenly Sanctuary and there behold “a Lamb as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). They will realize that “without shedding of blood is no remission” of sins (Hebrews 9:22) and that “because of the continual commission of sin, the atoning Sacrifice of a heavenly Mediator is essential.” But without “His shed blood” (Youth’s Instructor, April 16, 1903), in heaven, there would be no need for a Lamb there, for a lamb must die to be a sacrifice, and today, it is through the shedding of blood that our Abiding Lamb dies to sin and transfers it into the Sanctuary. And not seeing this is why it was so easy for us to let go of the Lamb and His continual ‘atoning Sacrifice’.

“The uplifted Saviour is to appear in His efficacious work as the Lamb slain”, and in this message there “is nothing strained, nothing extreme, nothing overdone. We are to accept it as the Word of the living God” (1888 Materials, pp. 1335, 1337). We must go forward, not backward, in following the Lamb withersoever He leads us in understanding Him more fully, so that we become like Him. The shedding of His atoning blood, is why we have an atoning Lamb in heaven; even our prophet told us so and we were to take it by faith until we received more light (just as is the case with the health message, as research has long been indicating).

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Spiritualistic interpretations of Scriptures and Spirit of Prophecy are used to make of none effect the Lamb and His atoning blood...

Behold: “The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God” (Letter 12, 1890). So, when she says that Jesus “still sheds His sacred blood” and that the Comforter is “the soul of His life” and we hold to spiritualistic interpretations, believing it is not as she plainly says and especially after we have heard what is the truth in these last days, then we are making her testimonies of truth, and truth itself, of none effect. Behold: “It is not alone those who openly reject the Testimonies, or who cherish doubt concerning them, that are on dangerous ground. To disregard light is to reject it. If you lose confidence in the Testimonies you will drift away from Bible truth. I have been fearful that many would take a questioning, doubting position, and in my distress for your souls I would warn you. How many will heed the warning?” (Testimonies Vol. 5, p. 94).

The two-fold blood of Christ has been mystified, so that neither the Holy Spirit nor the blood in heaven can be seen as Christ’s literal life being freely poured out in mercy to bring rest from all sin. Without the life of Christ, which is in His blood, our whole foundation crumbles. Alas! “From Him the daily was taken away, and the place of His Sanctuary was cast down” (Daniel 8:11)! “Our faith was to have nothing

to rest upon—the Sanctuary was gone, the atonement was gone”! “Now, it has been Satan’s determined purpose to eclipse the view of Jesus, and lead man to look to man, and trust to man, and be educated to expect help from man. For years the church has been looking to man and expecting much from man, but not looking to Jesus, in Whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. Therefore God gave to His servants a testimony that presented the truth as it is in Jesus, which is the third angel’s message in clear, distinct lines” (1888 Materials, p. 1338). The same is being repeated in the very last days.

Do you see the Omega? It is not merely one book, QOD, but a whole new environment that has entered our Church, of which QOD was a major catalyst for. And it is not that the majority have rejected the doctrines of the investigative judgment and the cleansing of the Sanctuary commencing after the 2300 years. Friend, the Sanctuary is gone, the atonement is gone… from our sermons, our affections, our ‘daily’ thoughts. It is neutralized, made of none effect, in our Church. We still have the Sanctuary message, but we do not consider that it has been hidden from us that Christ as a Lamb slain in heaven is even today yet suffering unto blood because of sins still committed and confessed by His people. This knowledge, even as the ritual service of old in type, is calculated to cause the remnant of God to be very serious about ceasing from their sins that Christ may enter His rest!

“There are many precious truths contained in the Word of God, but it is ‘present truth’ that the flock needs now. I have seen the danger of the messengers running off from the important points of present truth, to dwell upon subjects that are not calculated to unite the flock and sanctify the soul. Satan will here take every possible advantage to injure the cause. But such subjects as the Sanctuary, in connection with the 2300 days, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, are perfectly calculated to explain the past Advent movement and show what our present position is, establish the faith of the doubting, and give certainty to the glorious future. These, I have frequently seen, were the principal subjects on which the messengers should dwell” (Early Writings, p. 63).

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………………………DD…..

We have traced down the Omega, now it is time to see the final Omega crisis. It should be good tidings that a way has been made to make an end of sins. It is for heaven! But we still cling to sin, so the tidings trouble, or offend, us. Instead of flocking around Christ, we flock around foolish shepherds who give us the false hope that we can live in our sins and still have Christ. But God’s Word plainly refutes that; for Christ “was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous” (1 John 3:5-7). And we know that “Right believing means right doing” (Upward Look, p. 176). We are to believe that Christ takes fresh sins upon Himself, even today. But before we can believe, we must behold. But where do we look?

It is time to see things from a prophetic geographic perspective… Behold: “Arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute

the Sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate … But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Daniel 11:31, 44, 45).

Many things take place between 538 AD and the 21st Century, hence the verses we left out, but the original problem is that Babylon took away Christ’s ‘daily’ ministration in the Heavenly Sanctuary and replaced it with spurious theories and practices. Many Seventh-day Adventists have bought into it. But what do we see as the end of all things? Tidings out of the east and north trouble Babylon and all those in the Church who have the spirit of Babylon. So, Babylon reacts by enacting Sunday Laws, even the barrier palace between the seas of people and Mount Zion, God’s chosen people. This palace of “protection” offers the ability to buy and sell the things of this world, but a special number in Zion do not come down from the mountain to fall prey. Therefore, Babylon reaches its end, for these men wondered at testify against Babylon. It is really the troubling tidings that cause the end of all things. The Sunday Laws are only the reaction to it.

Hence, we must identify what these tidings from the east and the north are, for hearing and heeding them will strategically win the war against the great abomination—the war in every soul and the war between Satan’s kingdom and God’s kingdom being established. Ezekiel, in Chapters 8 and 9, shows us where we are to look for the Omega crisis.

“Then said He unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? [Even] the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from My Sanctuary? But turn thee yet again, [and] thou shalt see greater abominations … Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about … and a thick cloud of incense went up” (Ezekiel 8:5-11). Does this not sound like counterfeit atonement—human works combined with spiritualism? The Israelites had brought Babylonian beliefs into their religious experience. Is not this what happened in 538 AD? What about Laodicea today? Has

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not Christ been far off from His Sanctuary in the minds of people? Is this why Babylon has not come to its end and Christ received His Kingdom?

There is a reason why Ezekiel was taken to the north gate. ‘North’ represents God’s throne. We see this in the Sanctuary: “and thou shalt put the table on the north side” (Exodus 26:35). The table of showbread (‘bread of Presence’) represents God’s throne, where both the Father and Son are present—hence, the two stacks of bread. But Satan wants to be there: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [How] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15). “Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Daniel 11:45).

In a section of Early Writings, entitled ‘End of the 2300 days’ (pp. 54-56), Mrs. White explains an important vision God gave her which illuminates the counterfeit work Satan seeks to carry out, while coveting to be on God’s throne. She also alludes to great light that God sends us concerning the Sanctuary and atonement work, as well as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (the Latter Rain), which we know is connected to the atonement. Hence, the vision has double fulfillment: both for the early Adventists and the nominal ones who refused to believe in the Heavenly Sanctuary, as well as the final Adventists and the nominal ones who refuse the final revelations of it as the Sabbath is fully proclaimed…

“I saw an exceeding bright light come from the Father to the Son, and from the Son it waved over the people before the throne. But few would receive this great light. Many came out from under it and immediately resisted it; others were careless and did not cherish the light, and it moved off from them. Some cherished it, and went and bowed down with the little praying company. This company all received the light and rejoiced in it, and their countenances shone with its glory.”

After this, she saw the Father and the Son move from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place, and a little company followed Them there, by looking and living. “I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray, ‘Father, give us Thy Spirit.’ Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace. Satan's object was to keep them deceived and to draw back and deceive God's children.”

Those who came through the Great Disappointment and believed in Christ’s work in the Heavenly Sanctuary, coupled with the light of the Sabbath Day, have been the faithful remnant. But the final faithful remnant must receive fuller understandings. They receive Christ’s Holy Spirit, as “sent forth” (Galatians 4:6) by the Father, instead of Satan’s unholy spirit. We must be prepared for counterfeit revival; only “a little company” will escape deception. Satan’s unholy spirit will be a mystical one which is not provided by an infinite Sacrifice, and its message will not include the ‘daily’ atonement going on in the Most Holy Place. All who receive this spirit will not believe in their sins being transferred to the Sanctuary by Christ’s atoning blood, there to be cleansed once their sins cease.

The north is God’s throne that Satan wants to have, which he has forged through Babylon ever since Israel’s captivity and the departure

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of God’s Shekinah glory. The troubling tidings out of the north are:

“Babylon is fallen, is fallen! Christ is King, is King!” Let us pass over several greater abominations described in

Ezekiel 8 and go to the greatest of all, as we look in the east. Behold: “Turn thee yet again, [and] thou shalt see greater

abominations than these. And He brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, [were] about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east” (Ezekiel 8:15, 16). Notice that before ancient Israel could worship the sun toward the east, they had to first turn away from the Lord’s temple. Worshiping the sun toward the east is the Pagan counterfeit worship of the true Daystar Whose seal arises in the east, which we find in Ezekiel’s next chapter.

“I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God … And I heard the number of them which were sealed: [and there were] sealed an hundred [and] forty [and] four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (Revelation 7:2, 4).

“The LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old [and] young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom [is] the mark; and begin at My Sanctuary” (Ezekiel 9:4-6). The destroying angel here is who acts during the seven last plagues; those who do not receive the Lord’s mark—His Sabbath seal—will be destroyed. This seal comes out of the east, just as the counterfeit sun worship is in the east. We already know that the war is over more than just a Day; it is over what the Day stands for. In Part 2, we saw that the Sabbath is an experience of resting in Christ and the counterfeit to that is coveting idols. Just as the sun god was the epitome of idol worship in ancient times, Sunday observance is the epitome of modern idolatry, and it will reach its climax when the Sunday laws pass (the literal counterfeit mark). But in Parts 3 and 4, we came to realize that the Sabbath experience can only come from Christ’s atonement—and believing what Christ does for us will cause us to do the right things. Therefore, when we look in the east, we should see the ‘daily’.

Now knowing what the war is all about, we can discover that the troubling tidings out of the east is the Sanctuary being made right in the minds of people, as described in Daniel 8:14. It is troubling to Babylon because this is what Babylon always sought to hide from the people, but no one seems to care! They don’t care because “popery is the religion of human nature, and the mass of humanity love a doctrine that permits them to commit sin, and yet frees them from its consequences … Satan's masterpiece of deception is popery … Rome claims infallibility, and Protestants are following in the same line. They do not desire to search for truth and go on from light to a greater light. They wall themselves in with prejudice, and seem willing to be deceived and to deceive others” (Signs of the Times, February 19, 1894).

The spirit of popery is in Laodicea—the only Church left that still professes Protestant principles. They want to believe that their views of Scripture are infallible, because they know if they go on to greater light, they must meet with the consequences of their sins! Behold: “As a people

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we are certainly in great danger, if we are not constantly guarded, of considering our ideas, because long cherished, to be Bible doctrines and on every point infallible, and measuring everyone by the rule of our interpretation of Bible truth. This is our danger, and this would be the greatest evil that could ever come to us as a people” (1888 Materials, p. 830). Dear friend, the Omega of Satan’s masterpiece of deception—even the mystery of iniquity—is when he can bring it into Laodicea. For what purpose? Why us?! Because he believes that he can deceive everyone in the glorious holy mountain to come down to the Sunday palace when he raises it up; and hence prevent God’s kingdom from coming. He knows that their belief in the Sabbath Day to be the seventh day of the week will not prevent them from coming down. And he thinks that through many centuries of working his mystery, that it will be firmly engrained in all, even in the very elect of God’s people. He knows that once he gets God’s people to turn their backs on the Temple in heaven that he can get them to look to the palace in the east. He and his host are therefore very ‘troubled’ when his Omega deception is unmasked through the revelation of the Man whose name is The BRANCH of Righteousness— His atonement—thus revealing the man of sin who seeks to take away His ‘daily’. Do you see the crisis now, and why this will be a great war? Behold how our prophet reveals the two-fold atonement, then showing it is the last great crisis (controversy concerning the Holy Spirit and the atonement) afterwards she magnifies an important Scripture…

“Our salvation is complete, because it is founded on the accomplishment of a plan laid before the foundation of the world. Before Christ came, a ceremonial holiness could be obtained by offering the blood of bulls and of goats; but these sacrifices could not cleanse the conscience. They were but a representation of Christ, the great Sacrifice. The substance of all the sacrifices and offerings, He came to this world to do God's will by offering Himself. He came as the world's Redeemer, to stand at the head of humanity. The Holy Spirit comes to man through Christ. We are given a decided testimony regarding the value of Christ's offering. God's word declares, ‘By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ It was a whole and entire sacrifice that was made for us. The last great crisis is upon us. The working of the man of sin is revealed. ‘The mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness’ (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12)” (Review and Herald, July 25, 1899).

Here are Verses 3 and 4 again, followed by our magnifying glass: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall

not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” “The mystery of iniquity, which had already begun to work in Paul’s day, will continue its work until it be taken out of the way at our Lord's second coming. The climax of the working of iniquity will soon be reached. When the land which the Lord provided as an asylum for His people, that they

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might worship Him according to the dictates of their own consciences, the land over which for long years the shield of Omnipotence has been spread, the land which God has favored by making it the depository of the pure religion of Christ—when that land shall, through its legislators, abjure the principles of Protestantism, and give countenance to Romish apostasy in tampering with God's law—it is then that the final work of the man of sin will be revealed” (Signs of the Times, June 12, 1893).

Sister White not only refutes William Miller’s interpretation (that it was Paganism that was ‘taken out of the way’), but she also shows that when the Sunday Laws are passed the ‘final’, or Omega, work of the man of sin will be revealed. Reformers like Luther revealed the pope to be the antichrist towards the end of the Dark Ages, and then the good tidings of the Second Advent of Christ could be preached. But prophecy is repeated. Towards the end of the darkness of Laodicean apostasy, the final work of the man of sin will be revealed—even the work of making Christ’s Sanctuary and atonement of none effect in our churches so that so-called Sabbath-keepers will enter the popish palace with the rest of the world when the test comes! That revealing is happening now in the troubling tidings coming out of the east and the north!

What comes out of the east? Lo, bright beams of power coming from Christ’s side of Sacrifice—the atoning power to put away all sin! The Sabbath Day is the sign of this, so when the test comes, it will prove who received the tidings to stay in the glorious holy mountain. But what do we see coming out of the north? It is the tidings that Babylon—who Satan thinks will always rule in the north—is fallen! And that Christ will reign, for ever and ever! Remember, whoever rules the prophetic north, rules the world. Right now it is Satan. The elite of the world worship him, and they externalize their worship through the entertainment media and the doctrines in the churches that take away the ‘daily’. Dear friend, flee Babylon; “flee [as] a bird to your” glorious holy “mountain … For, lo, the wicked bend [their] bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart”—even “making the Word of God of none effect through” their traditions (Mark 7:13)— “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The LORD [is] in His holy temple, the LORD'S throne [is] in heaven” (Psalm 11:1-4).

Lo, “the LORD [is] in His holy temple” doing His atonement work, waiting and longing for a people to proclaim these glad tidings of the east that will trouble Babylon, for this is the foundation Babylon has successfully destroyed in the minds of people far and wide. But we can yet flee to the glorious holy mountain and receive the healing streams for our sin and uncleanness. We can gather, like eagles, around the great Sacrifice of the Lord. Lo, “The LORD’s throne [is] in heaven”. He is the true King of the North and will receive His kingdom as soon as the saints receive the seal that comes out of the east. He is the true Omega that will finish and restore all things back to perfection. He does this now as the Sanctuary and its ‘daily’ foundation are made right in the hearers of the tidings—this is the cause, the tidings out of the east. And the effect is no new sins entering the Sanctuary in heaven, for the believing brings the doing. The effect is Babylon falling and Christ taking over the north.

Do you see the order of events? First comes the troubling tidings. That is now. This troubles Babylon, because the man of sin is revealed in the revelation of the Lord our Righteousness. Babylon reacts by making Sunday laws. A final Cry goes out to the Gentiles to flee to the mountain and behold the Lamb of God. 144,000 pass the test and are sealed. Babylon falls, and Christ receives His kingdom. Praise God!

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………………………DD…..

The Sabbath is more than just a Day and the Advent of Christ is more than just His physical appearing. Those under the influence of the wines of Babylon, who think their views are infallible, will not receive the bright beams out of the east. They will not be refreshed from their sins in the atonement of their Lamb that was slain for them. For they refuse Him that speaks by His blood. They do not gather around Him now in the feast of the Lord. Instead, they will flock around the men wondered at when it is all too late, and they will die in the famine…

“As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the Carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matthew 24:27). The feast of the east is now, friend, for soon we will go forth to the north to coronate the Lamb, made King!

“He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power” (Habakkuk 2:14, margin).

“Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; [so] the LORD shall make lightnings, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field” (Zechariah 10:1, margin). “What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?” (Hosea 9:5).

“Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Gather yourselves on every side to My Sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, [even] a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood … And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of My Sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you” (Ezekiel 39:17, 19). Come! Come up to the feast of the Lord!

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you … Doth this offend you?” (John 6:53, 61).

“On entering the building, I saw that the vast temple was supported by one immense pillar, and to this was tied a lamb all mangled and bleeding. We who were present seemed to know that this lamb had been torn and bruised on our account. All who entered the temple must come before it and confess their sins. Just before the lamb were elevated seats, upon which sat a company looking very happy. The light of heaven seemed to shine upon their faces, and they praised God and sang songs of glad thanksgiving that seemed like the music of the angels. These were they who had come before the lamb, confessed their sins, received pardon, and were now waiting in glad expectation of some joyful event. Even after I had entered the building, a fear came over me, and a sense of shame that I must humble myself before these people; but I seemed compelled to move forward, and was slowly making my way around the pillar in order to face the lamb, when a trumpet sounded, the temple shook, shouts of triumph arose from the assembled saints, an awful brightness illuminated the building, then all was intense darkness. The happy people had all disappeared with the brightness, and I was left alone in the silent horror of night. I awoke in agony of mind, and could hardly convince myself that I had been dreaming. It seemed to me that my doom was fixed; that the Spirit of the Lord had left me, never to return” (Early Writings, p. 79).

The preceding vision was given as both revelation and warning. Unusually, in this vision our prophet experienced the lot of the wicked—those who refuse the Lamb. It is a warning to receive the revelation which comes as lightnings out of the east, so that we will not be left in gross darkness…

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The ‘Lamb all mangled and bleeding’ is Jesus who still sheds His sacred blood on behalf of our sins. He is tied to one immense pillar. What is this pillar? Behold: “The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith was the declaration: ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed’ (Daniel 8:14)” (Great Controversy, p. 409). The Old Testament “offerings were to typify Christ and to rivet the great truth in their hearts that the blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanseth from all sin, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins” (Selected Messages Vol. 1, p. 107). The ‘immense pillar’ is the Sanctuary being cleansed after 2300 days. First, our hearts are cleansed from error by the revelation of His blood, then the reality: the Sanctuary being cleansed of our sins, for right believing will bring right doing. Then Christ can be loosed from that pillar, for the cleansing is completed!

That immense pillar where our Saviour is tied is our only hope—the pillar that through His shedding of blood, the Sanctuary will one day be cleansed, Christ untied from His painful role, and the Sanctuary become His redeemed people to dwell in for all eternity, with the only reminder of the pillar and blood being His scars where bright beams will ever shine from! The tidings must go out and bring this Omega!

So, the question is not, “What Day do you believe the Sabbath to be?” The question is, “Will you receive the greater tidings, which are even more troubling to our fallen nature—that Sabbath rest can only come from all our sins being removed, and that happening only by the blood of the Lamb Who is all mangled and bleeding because of our continual commission of sins?” The Day is a sign thereof; thus, the Sunday Laws are a sign of the abomination and tells us when to “flee into the mountains” (Matthew 24:16)—even “the most desolate and solitary places” (Great Controversy, p. 626). But the ultimate fleeing is to the mountains of Israel, where a great Sacrifice is prepared. The ultimate abomination has been, and will continue to be, the taking away of ‘the daily’; and dear friend, ‘the daily’ is none other than the atonement experience we are to ‘daily’, or, continually, have with Christ—until we are completely sealed. But this ‘daily’ is replaced with idols in our lives that we covet to have in His place, because we love our sins more than Him—we do not appreciate His unspeakable Sacrifice on our behalf!

So, please do not point your fingers at the Catholic Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, or any other religion or government. Buy the eyesalve to see yourself. You need to see the Omega of apostasy in yourself. What are you replacing your ‘daily’ Jesus with? The doctrine of the double atonement of Christ may have been very difficult for you to accept, but if you have accepted it, that is only the beginning of your battle. Selfish self is still your worst enemy, and you will have no rest, day or night, until you gain victories over your flesh by appropriating the double atonement of Christ, which includes His Word that comes to you as the Messenger of the Covenant, ‘daily’! Otherwise you will be left in the darkness that was felt by Sister White in her vision of the shaking of the temple—you will not pass the final test, the Sunday Law that will try the faith of everyone living in our generation. The majority will fail, for they will have not passed their ‘daily’ exams!

Now, let us make something abundantly clear. Receiving the tidings we have studied is not enough. Studying the two-fold atonement of Christ, even every day, is not enough to pass the final test in the Omega crisis. These revelations are essential and will motivate you, but you need to practice the sure and simple remedy for sin. What could this be?

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It is vital to know the ‘daily’ in Daniel, but you also must dare to BE a ‘daily’ Daniel. You know from Part 2 the essentials of the Sabbath experience, but it can be simplified into a sure way for every trigger and temptation to sin to be silenced… It never fails… You must develop the habit of applying the power of the Word and the power of your will, to your ‘daily’ sin problem that keeps Christ ‘daily’ tied up to serving you in heaven. He is now saying to you, “Thou hast bought Me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled Me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities. I, [even] I, [am] He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put Me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified” (Isaiah 43:24-26). I will relieve your crisis of continual sin.

What does this mean practically? It is very simple! Our loving Saviour says, “Watch and pray”. Watch for what triggers you, and watch for temptations. Then, when they come, pray thou a promise in Scripture, that thou mayest be justified. You now know the power of the infinite Sacrifice behind every Word of Christ; now you need to apply it. When you are tempted, be like Daniel and simply say, “NO.” That is your willpower at work. Then pray a Scripture like this: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). Now, Christ has the throne, even the north, of your heart. Your flesh is no longer in charge. This especially works for habitual, deep-seated sins. The more and more this simple remedy is repeated, the less and less your desire to sin will be. You will always need to be on guard, but eventually your sinful desires will dissipate. Victory is yours! Lo! The iceberg! Meet it!

BE a daring, ‘daily’ Daniel that stands in the lot of prophecy—not just prophesying it, but living it! BE a Nehemiah, not only proclaiming the Fourth Decree, but building the Sabbath wall yourself during these symbolic 52 days until we receive the final outpouring of the Pentecostal Latter Rain, when a mighty army of saints gives the final call to the

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Gentiles! You must build a wall around your own soul and determine to refuse the wine of Babylon through the entertainment media and every other sinful practice. Again, the Word is the “wall of fire” of the Lord’s Presence and will always resist a trigger or temptation for you to sin—they will flee as you flee to your glorious mountain of rest. BE an Elijah! Cry, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and behold Him yourself! Cry, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him”—and meet Him yourself as He comes to you as the rain to sup with you, preparing you for that wedding supper. These tidings may be troubling to you since they are so direct, but much greater troubles will come upon those who must hide themselves from the ‘joyful event’ when it comes. Instead of joy, intense fear will crush them, for they will have no bleeding Saviour to bear their shame and guilt, freely giving them pardon and the joy of salvation in return. That work is done; the sacrificial feast, in preparation for the wedding feast, is over. When ‘the light of heaven’ came to them, they refused it. Now all is ‘intense darkness’ to them and they must hide from the ‘awful brightness’ of the Lord’s physical appearing.

There is no time to lose! Truth no longer hides! The Way is no longer obscured! Life, Eternal Life, must arise and shine—in us! It is time to have a ‘daily’ experience with the Lamb of life, for soon the true Omega will come—Christ in us, the hope of glory, bringing an end to sin!

The men wondered at will stand so stiffly for the name of the Lord and the foundation of our faith—Christ’s sacrificial love as displayed in His complete atonement for sin—guarding that more than their very lives… so stiffly, that they will never taste death, from their birth to infinite eternity! That mighty number which Zion longest for cometh from the east; for they behold the glory of the Saviour there and flee the shadow of this world unto Mount Zion—where a great Sacrifice is prepared, Who soon will be King. They are the firstfruits who will sin not, and also die not, for they look for their Shepherd and find His everlasting light—yea, everlasting rest—and be sealed to fulfill the Law of the Lord. “The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and [there shall be] none” (Jeremiah 50:20), for they will receive the Gift that is given them— the double atonement of their Lamb of life—and be sealed, for they had feasted in the feast of the Lord and gathered faith for a treasure, even the Sabbath faith of Jesus. Evil shall be put out; as for faith, it shall flourish; and the truth, which hath been so long without fruit, shall be declared!! The spirit of Ezra lives on to rebuild the temple after the abomination of devastation and the Omega of apostasy—where a city is builded, and everlasting rest is allowed and never again taken away!!

“For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge

of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD

is risen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:1). “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth

even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the Carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matthew 24:27, 28).

“He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there is the

Hiding of His Power” (Habakkuk 3:4, margin).

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“Come out of her, My people”!!! Rev. 18:1-4

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OUTLINE FOR REVIEW AND REFERENCE

PAGE NUMBER I. FORWARD!—EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED 4 A. Our current culture of Adventism must be challenged.

1. Many are not expecting more prophetic and spiritual light to come. 2. Many do not have the correct focus. Should be… a. Christ-centered: Christ is the center of Christianity b. Sanctuary-oriented: the foundation for Seventh-day Adventism c. not merely times and events, (e.g., Sunday laws) d. neither fanatical divergences, nor formalist dryness e. not powerless messages that can be heard in any Sunday church 3. The correct focus shows us where additional light should come from. 4. Our Laodicean culture leaves us unprepared for the Sunday Laws which so many think they are prepared for. 5. The latter rain is associated with a Message, does not come without it.

B. Our prophet has told us many times that we should expect additional light… 1. that is connected with the Loud Cry Message of Revelation 18

2. that does not contradict the old, but brings glory to it 3. that is focused on the atoning, redemptive power of Christ 4. might come in a very unexpected manner (she was right) 5. that is despised because Christ is lost sight of (this is Satan’s purpose) 6. which began with Jones’ and Waggoners’ stirring preaching in 1888

II. HABAKKUK’S VISION OF TABLES 9

A. Introduction Three points of Habakkuk 2:2-4: a. A vision is to be made plain upon tables. b. It is to come at an appointed time (“the end”); double fulfillment… - 1st and 2nd Angels’ Messages after 1798; resulting in Midnight Cry - 4 generations under the 3rd Angel’s Message; then Loud Cry c. The message encompasses justification by faith (Verse 4). B. Background 9 1. Habakkuk lived in typical circumstances; he prophesies the antitype. a. He and all Israel were brought into Babylonian captivity. b. He and Daniel prophesy of the restoration; typically, antitypically 2. William Millers’ time prophecy tables are the first fulfillment. a. They point us to the Heavenly Sanctuary. b. They are the means, not end (as the Law pointing to the Gospel). C. A New Vision Emerges—“And there is the hiding of His power”! 11 1. The definite vision of Habakkuk is in his third chapter (Verses 3 and 4). 2. Sister White quotes the vision; uses margin, makes right application… 3. Bright beams come out of Christ’s side of Sacrifice!

4. The revelation and reality of Christ saving us through His complete Sacrifice is the foundation of all truth. There is no greater light! 5. The vision unites Sinai (the Law) and Calvary (the Gospel) 6. The tables are of Sinai; ‘Paran’ is Sinai (see Deuteronomy 33:2-4). 7. The two tables indicate a double atonement for our sins. a. 1st Table displays the bright beams; glory to God! b. 2nd Table displays the blood and water seen at Calvary; love to man 8. This vision qualifies as the “brightness, glory, and power” that the Angel of Revelation brings with Him from heaven (see R & H, 4/1/1890). 9. The twofold atonement displayed must be the Loud Cry Message.

III. THE SABBATH PROCLAIMED “MORE FULLY” A. What Does Sabbath Really Mean? 20 1. It is more than just a Day.

2. Sabbath literally means ‘rest’; it is defined in Isaiah 58 and Hebrews 4. 3. It is the “faith of Jesus”, “the seal of the living God”. 4. Christ is that Angel of Revelation 18 Who gives us rest to all our sins!

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B. The Law And The Gospel Blended = The Loud Cry Of Sabbath Rest 22 1. The Three Angels’ Messages essentially teach the following… a. Worship the Creator God (Who made all things) b. Flee idolatry (the system of Babylon) c. Keep the character of God (which is His Law, His name) 2. The first three Commandments teach the same messages.

3. The Fourth Commandment proclaimed “more fully” is the Fourth Angel’s Message, following the same pattern.

4. The Sabbath is the seal and bears all three Messages with power! 5. The bright beams on the First Table are Sabbath beams! 6. Christ’s atonement gives rest from sin, the only way Law can be kept.

C. Rebuilding The Sanctuary of Rest—“Ye are the temple of the living God”! 26 1. The Four Decrees (Carpenters) to rebuild the temple typify the Four Angels’ Messages (separated by 2300 years).

2. We are all in captivity to sin; we must be rebuilt as the spiritual temple. 3. We are the lively stones; Christ is the chief cornerstone. 4. The Fourth Decree is Sabbath rest, remedy and result of completion. 5. Christ is the Master Carpenter to bring it forth; His glory is to be in us.

D. Practical Sabbath Rest—“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest”! 29 1. Sister White uses the term “rest of faith”. This is our great need. 2. M.L. Andraesson uses the term “Command of faith”. 3. We must rest from our own ways; then we’ll keep all other Commands. 4. Idolatry is behind every sin: coveting what is not ours to have. 5. Babylon is in us if we still sin; we must flee from her idolatry! 6. Sabbath rest is the practical remedy, just as we saw prophetically. 7. We will not enter sweet Canaan until 144,000 are Sabbatically sealed.

IV. THE PRESCRIBED LIMIT OF SACRIFICE 35 A. Why This Doctrine Matters 1. There is a lack of understanding as to what the latter rain is. a. The latter rain comes with a Message. b. The Sabbath is the rest and refreshing of the latter rain. c. Source of latter rain is Christ’s atonement, Fountain of life 2. Purpose of the Advent movement was to restore Christ’s atonement a. We have failed to do this, but now we have a vision! b. Christ coming as the latter rain is half of the full atonement. 3. Christ is to be the great center of focus; other things have crept in. 4. Questions to be answered…

a. How does Christ come to us as the latter rain? b. How does His atonement provide the Source of this outpouring? 5. Christ needs to be formed in us! We are His eternal place of rest!

B. The Prescribed Limit, The Mystery of Mysteries 37 1. We must study the incarnation; it is…

a fruitful field, invested with a soft radiance, mystery of mysteries 2. “In His incarnation He had reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice” 3. To know this mystery, we must know the everlasting covenant. a. Through the Word, God must become one of us, to save us. b. Christ died a permanent death, to make a permanent end to sin. 4. The Testator must be dead for the His Testament to be in effect. 5. How could Christ remain dead, and yet live? a. The pre-incarnate Word died; Oh, matchless condescension! b. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could no longer be omnipresent. c. Deity cannot die, so His omnipresence stayed in the Holy Spirit. - That is why there are Three Persons in the Heavenly Trio. - Nothing proves this was the case before sin, before incarnation

(“in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”). 6. This covenant was made between the Father and the Son before the foundation of the earth, before “He divested Himself of the ‘form of God’”. 7. “The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof”, “the soul of His life”; His life is in His blood. 8. His bright beams are as the blood of His prescribed limit of Sacrifice 9. This is the sanctifying power of His blood “that takes away sin”. 10. Christ, our Comforter, comes as the rain! Lo, the sacrificial Source!

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C. The Messenger Of The Covenant 43 1. “I will send My Messenger, and He shall prepare the way before Me.”

a. “His divine Messenger” is “the Holy Spirit” who “shall prepare a people” “when the earth is lightened with the glory of God”. b. The Second Advent can come after those people are prepared. 2. “The Messenger of the covenant” “shall suddenly come to His temple”. a. He suddenly comes just as Christ did 2000 years ago. b. Just as before, few will recognize and receive Him. c. He fulfilled the earthly temple, but we’re the temple He died for! d. Now He comes as a Carpenter to build up His Father’s name, in us. e. The Messenger comes with a Message: “Behold Me”! Behold “My Sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice…”! f. “John truly baptized with water” from this earth, but “the Holy Ghost” baptizes with water of rain from heaven! 3. “Only Christ can cleanse the soul temple” by His sanctifying Presence. 4. We are in the antitypical day of cleaning and atonement. a. Typically, two sacrifices were made: the Lord’s goat, the bullock. b. Antitypically, we see the two sacrifices of Christ (a dual cleansing) - The blood of the Lord’s Goat is the pre-incarnate life of Christ. - The blood of the Bullock is of Calvary, extended into heaven. c. Next, we see the Bullock and its important role in the latter rain…

V. OUR SIN-BEARING, SIN-PARDONING REDEEMER TODAY 51 A. The Sin Problem 1. The problem is not that we do not know what our sins are. 2. The real issue is that we are desensitized to sin; sin isn’t terrible to us. 3. We have more sin than ever, yet 144,000 must be cleansed from all sin. 4. We do not have a lifetime to be sanctified as previous generations had. 5. We must find a quickening solution for our great and desperate need: “to make an end of sins” “and to bring in everlasting righteousness”. B. Refuse Not The Blood—“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh”! 53 1. “The blood of sprinkling” speaketh. This is the solution for our sins! 2. The Messenger of latter rain speaks the Message of atoning blood. 3. It is by Christ’s Spirit that double grace is poured out unto us (Zech. 4). a. The grace of the infinitely expensive Holy Spirit sanctifies us.

b. The grace of the shed blood justifies us as the Spirit speaks it to us. c. They join in the believer’s heart as well as in the Sanctuary above. 4. This straight testimony of double blood will cause the shaking. a. Another Sinai speaks. Even heaven is shaken (Message is there). b. People rise against it because it exposes their sins. c. The Ten Commandments speak in letter, not spirit (Read 2 Cor. 3.) - A veil is upon the heart of those who refuse Him that speaketh.

d. Now, as a new vision emerges, the tables speak to the heart. - This truth must come last, and does not lie, for it seals the saints. - This is the eyesalve Laodicea needs! (That we may look and live!) - “This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey and be purified” (Early Writings, p. 270).

- This is the Sabbath in full. Sin will cease by the blood of Jesus! - This enrages the nominal Adventists, for they cannot refute it. C. Vision Of The Oil Press—“He was bruised for our iniquities”! 56 1. The olive oil in the Old Testament was “beaten for the light”. 2. Zechariah saw two olive trees; oil came out through pipes. 3. “This holy oil is poured from heaven in the messages of God's Spirit”.

- What could these messages be? “Today, if you hear His voice”… 4. Gethsemane, at the foot of Mount Olives, means ‘oil press’. 5. “These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord”. a. ‘Anointed’ is derived from a word that means ‘to press out oil’. b. ‘Ones’ is ‘sons’, which means to build the Father’s name. c. Putting together their meanings we have the messages: - Two Sons press out oil to build the Father’s name. - “Go ye rather to Them that sell”: Christ in Spirit, Christ in flesh. - The double grace of Christ builds up God’s name. “It pleased the

LORD to bruise Him”, for self-sacrificial love is displayed to all!

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D. The Final Revelation Of Blood 59 1. Blood communicates something very serious; our sins are very serious! 2. “It is finished” (‘teleō’), meaning a process to bring an end. a. The Cross is only part of the Sabbath process (the Day as a sign)… - Christ finished creation, then Sabbath Day came. - Christ lived a perfect life as a Redeemer, then Sabbath came. - Christ will perfect Himself in us, then the Sabbath Millennium! - Sin and sinners will be destroyed, then an eternal Jubilee of rest! b. Calvary began the final process of atonement for our sins. c. Christ has been laboring for us so we can all enter into His rest. d. Atonement must continue, for sin (which separates us) continues. 3. Hebrews 8 to 10 reveals a crimson atonement for sins in heaven. a. Christ died once, entered heaven once, for an ongoing sacrifice. b. The purpose is “to put away sin” and write His Law in our hearts. c. The context is the atonement in heaven, not 2000 years ago.

d. “Shedding of blood” is “necessary”; “sacrifice for sins” is implied. e. Sister White’s “Great Controversy” verifies these cutting facts.

4. In the Old Testament system, two kinds of sacrifices were offered: a. “Continual burnt offering” was made daily for corporate Israel. b. Sin offerings were made by individuals, for their individual sins. c. All sins required sin offerings; the corporate couldn’t replace this. 5. Both kinds of sacrifices are made in antitype: a. Christ died on the Cross for all (corporate) humanity. - This gave us all a second chance (another probation) after sin. - This opened the way for Him to make atonement for sins above. b. Christ ministers continually for us in heaven. - His one corporate death makes Him continually available for us. - Our new sins require individual Offering; Calvary is continued. 6. Sister White verifies startling facts from God’s Word… a. What was done in type, figuratively, is done in antitype, in fact. b. Christ bears our confessed sins in the Heavenly Sanctuary. c. Calvary is immortalized; “He dies continually to sin”. - How does Christ die continually to sin? 7. Christ “still sheds His sacred blood” in the sinner's behalf. After

penitential prayer, “then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood”. - Why does Christ die to our sins by shedding His sacred blood? 8. “Sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred,

in fact, to the Heavenly Sanctuary”, even by the shedding His blood. - They remain in the sanctuary, there until sin ceases. - Then Sanctuary is cleansed, sins placed upon Satan (scapegoat).

- This revelation should cause us to “lift Christ’s burden” and mourn for our Him, that He must still bear sin in heaven today!

VI. A CRISIS IN OUR CHURCH 75 A. The Daily—“Unto 2300 days; then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed”! 1. We have lost sight of our central pillar and our Lamb that tarries there. a. Both fulfillments of Habakkuk’s tables are to lead us there. b. The Hebrew word for ‘cleansed’ means ‘to make right’. - The Sanctuary atonement must be made right in our minds. - Our minds must be cleansed from error and indifference,

only then will the final reality come: our sins being cleansed. 2. The Sanctuary system has been hidden from our view by… a. First: Paganism (sacrifices made to idols instead of to God) b. Second: Papacy (popes & priests ministering in place of Christ) c. Third: Omega of apostasy! 3. The Definition of ‘the Daily’ a. It is nearly always used in connection with the Sanctuary system. b. It means continual or perpetual, and pointed to Christ’s Offering. c. It also means ‘to stretch’. - Calvary is continually ‘stretched’ into the Heavenly Sanctuary.

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4. ‘The daily’ was taken away by Babylon in 508. a. Clovis, the king of the Franks, converted to Catholicism. b. His military powers were handed over to the Papacy. c. Force was now used upon ‘heretics’ who refused the new doctrine. d. 3 heretic horns (Heruli, Vandals, & Ostrogoths) refused the wine. - They were plucked off within 30 years. 5. ‘The daily’ was replaced with ‘the transgression of desolation’ in 538. a. Babylon doesn’t want sin to cease, because then Babylon must die. b. The ‘transgression’ is that Rome can forgive unlimited sins. c. Sins can be indulged in as long as human works make atonement. 6. 1260, 1290, and 1335

a. 1290 years from when ‘the daily’ was taken away (508), b. and 1260 years from when ‘the transgression’ was set up (538), c. Adventism proceeds (1798), two Decrees to rebuild the Sanctuary. d. 1335 stretched from 508 to meet up close to end of 2300 (1843). e. After a tarrying, the Third Decree was made (1844): - Justification by Faith f. After a much longer tarrying, a fourth decree added power to it. - Justification by Faith, in our ‘daily’ Jesus in the Sanctuary above! - Only His continual atonement can bring Sabbath rest to our sins.

B. The Omega—“The end of all things is at hand”! 80 1. Christ is the true “Alpha and Omega”.

a. He began a good work and will perform it unto the end - “to make an end of sins” as the Branch of Righteousness b. The “man of sin” does not want an end of sins. - He wants to be the Omega, the final kingdom that never ends. - How will he do this? Where will he go?

2. The focus of the controversy now shifts to the SDA Church. a. Satan knows the purpose of our Church; he wants us to forget it. b. Babylonian wine has been served to us, and we are drunk. c. If Satan can get us to fall (Sun. laws), he will have the whole world. - That is why he is going after us, then Babylon won’t utterly fall.

3. Sister White warned us of the Alpha and Omega of apostasy. a. The Alpha was Pantheism (God in all things, including the sinner).

b. She does not tell us exactly what the Omega will be. c. She gives us helpful clues

- The foundations of our faith would be destroyed, “especially concerning the ministration of Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary”.

d. The Omega follows the patterns of the Alpha. - What and where God is (Pantheism: God in all things, sinner) - Result: Can be saved in sin. No need for atonement.

4. “The Omega will be of a most startling nature”. a. We are to “meet it firmly, and without delay”. b. The Trinity follows the error of Pantheism (in describing God). - It says God is both numerically one and three: of one substance. - It says before incarnation Christ and Holy Spirit were separate. c. What is the effect of the Trinity, as it is commonly believed? - The eternal Sacrifice of Christ is impossible to believe. d. LeRoy Froom was the first to publish the Trinity doctrine. e. He later led in the book “Questions on Doctrine”, the purpose was to appease those who call us a cult (heretics).

- ‘New theology’ (to 1950s) crept in: - Christ’s human nature and atonement mitigated - Major repercussions: Church became split - Prevents us from seeing the two-fold atonement (seen on Tables) g. The Omega of apostasy is denying or ignoring light, old and new. h. “The Santuary was gone, the atonement was gone”! (EGW) i. “The daily was taken away … His Sanctuary was cast down”! (Dan.) 5. “Tidings out of the east and out of the north trouble” “the man of sin”. a. The north is God’s throne. Tidings: Babylon is fallen, is fallen! b. The sealing light comes out of the east to seal His kingdom, in us! - Tidings: Sabbath ‘more fully’, Refreshing rest plain upon tables…

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“He had Bright Beams coming out

of His side…

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...and there (is) the Hiding of His Power.”

Habakkuk 3:4 (KJV margin)

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“The Voice of Him that Crieth in the Wilderness”…

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, And all the goodliness thereof Is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, The flower fadeth: Because the Spirit of the LORD Bloweth upon it: Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, The flower fadeth: But the Word of our God Shall stand for ever.

(Isaiah 40:6-9, 5) O Zion, That bringest good tidings, Get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, That bringest good tidings, Lift up thy voice with strength; Lift [it] up, be not afraid; Say unto the cities of Judah,

Behold your God!

And the glory of the LORD Shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together: For the mouth of the LORD Hath spoken [it].