* * STUDY #4 - Part II * *
By: Dr. Richard M. Nies - 1975 Transcribed (with permission), Edited, and Presented By: Haydn k. Piper - 1985
* * STUDY #4 - Part II * *
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OUR WORK FOR GOD REFERENCES Olson ; The Crises Ahead Ch. 12; Chaij ; Preparation For The Final Crises Ch. 5; White ; The Great Controversy 299-432, 451-491, 603-612. Early Writings 232-261, 277-279. * * OUTLINE * * I. The Three Angels Message A. What it meant to John B. What it meant to Early Adventists C. What it should mean to us II. The Sabbath A. How does this fit? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE THREE ANGLES' MESSAGE - - - At the beginning of this series of studies, back in Febuary, I suggested that the study of Eschatology is really "Seventh-day Adventism on the Line." The focus of the final events of this earth's history and the clarification that comes as a result of our message is really a basic test of whether the things we've said are really true. Today we study the heart of that message, we refer to this as the Three Angels' Message. This is really the essence of Adventist theology, the study of Revelation 12: 6- 12, that everything that is significant, comes to a focus. The question was asked of Ellen White if this message was really one of Justification By Faith,; and she said: "It is Justification By Faith in verity!" And yet as you read these messages one wonders, what does this have to do with Justification By Faith. It seems like it is written in such criptic language. The last message to be given we are told is to be one of God's Love. And yet you read the third angels message and crueler language has never been used. It raises some very striking questions: How are we to present this to the world; How do we even understand it ourselves? People say that this is very difficult to appreciate, and how can I interpret it so that it makes sense, not only to me but to other people? I would like to present this from three different points of reference in time. Let's look at it first as John saw it, writing in exile on Patmos. Then I would like to look at it as early expositers of Adventism saw it in the 1830's and 40's. Then with this two fold background I would like to consider what it means to us today; particularily as we anticipate the soon Loud Cry in which this message is buttressed by the Holy Spirit and joins as part of the Latter Rain and we go forth to preach the Sabbath Message more fully. - - - - - In the first 11 (eleven) chapters of Revelation, John focuses primarily on the issues, from his time down near to the time of the end (Christ's second comming). But, from Revelation 12 on, his particular concern is the events and issues associated with that time just before the second comming and including the second comming. This is really the scriptual basis for this series of studies. So let's keep in mind the figures as they were presented to John and let's try to appreciate how he saw this. I think this was a message for John's day and it was taken as important to early Adventism and of particular importance to us today. So we will look at it in these three time sequences. - - - - - How John Saw It - - - - - In Revelation 12, John sees the great scope of history, down through the end. Revelation 12 is an outline or skeleton for the rest of the book. It represents the grand sweep of history from the days of Christ on. There is presented the adversary, the Devil, the Dragon, Satan, as standing ready to destroy the infant Christ when He became man. We see that he does not accomplish his purpose and the anouncement is made that he has been cast down; his kingdom has really been dealt a death blow. And Satan recognizes that he must prolong his days as much as possible by keeping the fruits of Christ's life ever becomming realized in the lives of HIs people. We have discussed before that if God ever has a people who have become visibilized, so that God can say: "Here they are," then that finishes Satans kingdom, and he knows that, and so he has become quite anxious to attack the followers of Christ and he became so vicous at a certain time in history ( refered to as the 1260 days or years that the church was driven into the wilderness. It would have been ingulfed, as John saw, by a flood of water, the church would have been inundated, but earth opened up its mouths, so to speak, and protected these people. Not only was Satan vanquished in terms of the life of Christ, but even though he drove the church underground he could not destroy them. In the latter part of Revelation 12 it is described that he is going to make one last thrust toward the remnant, and this is where he becomes especially infuriated because he knows that his time is short. Now, John as he senses all of this must have become very excited as he saw this panorama spread before him. "How is all of this going to take place?" Can we be warned as to the ploys and attacks that Satan is going to utilize?" And, ofcourse, he was very interested in how all of this was going to take place; and the next thing that he see's is this Leopard like beast, which he describes in Revelation 13, and here is this massive religious power that becomes so strong that it can require even the nations to subscribe to its' tennants, its' wine, that they become intoxicated, and it shall be able to force upon the whole world the requirement that the beast be worshiped. But John knows from the study of Daniel that this beast had received a deadly wound, almost wiped it out almost killed it. Now he see's it and this wound has been healed and he hears it saying blasphemous things against God. John has always been concerned, as have all of the other prophets of God, of the establishment of the Kingdom of God; "How long God until you come out of hiding and really establish your kingdom?" So here is this beast like power, speaking blasphemous things against heaven, against the Sanctuary, against the way God is running the universe, and will require ultimately all of the inhabitants of the world to worship its' way, and will make war, and this is where the remenant will be attacked by this beast; using this symbolic language. I imagine that John wondered how this beast became such a great power when it had previously received such a devestating, death blow. In the latter part of the 13th chapter he see's that there is another beast that arises, looking like a Lamb but speaking like a Dragon. And he see's that this beast shall make an image to the beast; that is it shall join with the beast and reflect the very principles that the beast stands for. It is through this beast, the Lamb-like beast, that the Leopard-like beast becomes powerful once again. Now this begins to shape up in John's thinking, and he see's that things get so fearce, so intense, that the time will come that everyone receives some kind of a mark indicating their adherance to the beast, and ultimately this means the Dragon or the Devil himself, unless they display some kind of outward evidence that they will be put to death; and except that they don't bow down, Satan would have all the world under his spiritual umbrella. About this time, and in fact in earlier parts of the book of Revelation, the question had been asked: "How long? How long is this going to go on?" And there are several places in the book that this question is asked. Daniel asked the same thing: "How long are you going to allow everything to be trodden under foot?" The question is asked in Daniel 8; ansd there will come a time when God's work, God's character, everything that God stood for will be justified, would be vindicated. Well, John asks the same question. In fact in Revelation 6 the question is asked under the 5th seal: "How long Oh God just and true are you going to sit by and waite, how long is it going to be before you will come in and judge the world and set things straight, and avenge our blood?" This where the saints feel that they have been abandoned, and the question is aked again when all of this tumult takes place "Who's going to make it, who's going to stand?" In chapter 7 where this question is asked; the picture is geven that God will have a people; and the expression is used to show that God will have a people; the symbolic expression is 144,00. And after John see's this Lamb-like beast which has given power to the Leopard-like beast, which in turn has gained its power from the Dragon. Again he must have been discouraged, John was reliving the episodes of the Kingdom of God, and so, before the message of deliverence comes, once again John is reminded, "don't be discouraged". In Revelation, several times, it is mentioned; God will have people, this is one of the great moments that the Kingdom of God has been waiting for: How long, where will God's people be? All through scripture the prophets asked this question, and many of them have been discouraged because it looked like God's people didn't exist. Elijah said: "I'm the only one left." God said no, there are more but you can't see them. Well, when are they going to be seen? When will God's people be delivered, when will they stand forth in the glory of their creator? These are the questions that John is asking, as he is still feeling the pulsating movement of these two beasts, and yet with the hope that there will be a people, then he looks up and see's this angel rustling through the heavens, comming with a loud cry, announcing the eternal gospel and that the hour of God's Judgement has come. This is the deliverance that God's church has been waiting for; God is finnally going to make a stand, it has appeared thjat God has been quiet for all these generations. And now the announcement is made that you can really rejoice in God, you can look forward to Him, you can praise Him, He's going to stand-forth and deliver His people. This is what John was seeing. The natural reaction to this is to worship Him, to see worth in Him; Alright now God, you are shining forth, your glory is being seen, You are standing-forth in judgement, things are not going to end in a meaningless kaleidiscope of separate pieces. It's all brought together and God is going to stand-forth in justice and He is going to be victorious. This brought hope to the heart of John. He see's this at a time when the second angel comes in and announces that Babylon has fallen. It is not until this time that the first angels' message really makes sense. God is going to announce His kingdom, He's going to make judgement, He's going to straighten things out. As Daniel says; He is going to be vindicated, the Sancturary will be justified. Now, what's this Babylon? You'll remember that the first record we have of Babylon, is right after the flood; people decided that God wasn't going to pull a fast one on us again, not only are we going to find out how all this water came arbout, but we're going to make sure that if it comes again we are going to be able to get away from it. You recall the record of the dispersion of tounges? In fact the babylonian word means to disperse or to scatter. But the Babylonians never really liked that word and in fact latter on when they decided to utilize the word for what we know of as Babylon they changed the word from BABALOO which means in the Babylonian tongue dispersion or scattering, to BABILOO which means the porch or gate of the Gods'. Quite an arrogant name, that all the Gods consorted through Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzer became pretty big-headed about his kingdom eventually so that this kingdom becomming known as Babylon became a very powerful empire and became quit a harrassement to the children of Israel at that time. Three times Nebuchadnezzer invaded Judah and took the people of God captive, and during this time they waited for deliverance. The Jews didn't like this very much so they ofcourse when they referred to Babylon they referred to a Hebrew word BOLLAL from which we get the word confussion; they didn't see it as the gate of the Gods, but rather as confussion which goes back to the original idea. Our word of BABBLE of voices you see this idea of confussion and was a derogatory word in their useage. John new of this, and he knew of the concept of Babylon was always an anathama to the chikdren of God. It was through Babylon that God disciplined the people and took them captive. About the time that they were taken captive, they were promised that if they were willing to shape-up, they would be delivered; and so, particularily in Isaiah 21 and Jeremiah 51 the time comes when they announce that Babylon has fallen. Nebuchadnezzer had really made all the othre nations subservient to him and sort of intoxicated them with his power and his might, and because the nation reached such a point that they were nolonger of meaningful service in the program of God that the prophets announced that they were fallen; this was in prelude to their deliverance. You'll remember that they Persians went in and defeated the Babylonians and the children of God were able to go back to their land, they were able to set up their Sancturary, it was able to be restored, the worship of God was to be promoted again. When John sees that the time is going to come when God is going to come to His own, God is going to be glorified Gods' finally going to take a stand, He's not going to remain behind the scenes. It is going to take place at a time that Babylon has fallen. So this reinforces and buttresses the message of the First Angel, that God is going to come to HIs own because Babylon had had it. Hewasn't thinking in terms of ancient Babylon, but it certainly carried to him the connotation that what ever was existing in the days to come, that God was going to take a stand when human organization had exhausted the alternatives for good living. So now he comes to this third message when he hears this Third Angel giving one of the most terrifing warnings to those who reflect the characteristics of these beasts. Babylon representing all of the basic religous organizations which have fought against God. This is what the symbol meant to John. All of the great efforts of man that would combine in their attack on God would ultimately be fallen. There would be one last opportunity, not only for individuals to come out of Babylon, but to understand that it was a very dangerous thing to receive any of the earmarks that characterized this conglomerate power. We look at this message that says if anyone worship the beast and/or the image of the beast and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand, why he's going to be tormented night and day, and he is going to be burned with fire and sulfer and the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever. What an ugly picture and how could this be a message of love. How could John receive any comfort from this unless you would say he was sadistic and suddenly would enjoy the fact that God would come down and wipe out the enemies. But I don't think that is what John had in mind, nor is that what he understood and if we are going to understand what John understood when he wrote this we are going to have to understand the culture of his day. So now, let's go back again and see what this meant. There was a time, out-side Jersualem, (what latter developed as Jerusalem) that the heathens errected a God called Molloch, in which they burned little children in an effort to appease the God; and had all kinds of liscentious practices associated with their idolatry. This became an anathama to the Jews and king Josiah ultimately wipped all the alters, and because of the sins in what they did in terms of burning these human sacrifices, Jeremiah tells them that this is going to be a valley of ultimate slaughter, and where all of this took place was south of Jerusalem in a valley which was called Hinom. The Greek word is G'Hinom which means "the valley of Hinom" and Jeremiah says it is going to become a valley of slaughter. And it did become just that, because in latter years it became a huge garbage pit, out side Jerusalem, outside the temple area where all of the things which were despised were thrown away. It became a place for all kinds of refuse and garbage and they threw dead animals out there and to anyone who was considered very base and very low, they never got a descent burial, they were thrown out into this pit. This G'Hinom became the word that we understand as G'Hennah which is the word that is translated as Hell. Christ used this word many times, refering to this vast garbage pit. Now what did that mean to the Hebrew mind? It wasn't a place of suffering because it was just scraps that were there whether it be human or animal, everything was just dead, and ofcourse there was all kinds of decay and a vast stench. It was finally decided to keep the place abalze night and day, so they kept it burning and one could go outside Jerusalem in that day and see this vast barbeque pit of dead flesh, and it stunk and it was a horrible mess. But, the thing that made it so horrible was the fact that to anyone who was thrown out there they were considered an out cast. To the Jewsish mind they were very concerned with preserving their lineage, their genealogies were very important to them, and to get to the point of having no identity, to be a nothing, to be on the scrap heap, was the worst end that anyone could ever come to. It meant to their mind that that they would loose their identity, they would be no-more, they would be utterly foresaken. Many of the symbolisms that are described in this final destruction; such as the "worm dieth not", well ofcourse there was all kinds of decay, and if the worms didn't get you the fire would. In one way or the other there was complete anihalat- ion, and I'm not sure whay this has never really been brought out, except that Satan has been able to influence our thinking over the centuries to develop this concept of purg- atory as a place of suffering. If you can look and see and understand the language and cultur of that day, this is what Jesus was talking about. He wasn't speaking literally, they had this concept and knew what He was talking about; it was a figure of speech, talking about total anihalation. The word WRATH is used. It's interesting that this word is used. It is a very horrible word; we get our word orgy from it. The word literally means a very passionate experience where the blood rushed to your head and the blood vessels stand out, and you are just beside yourself with com- passionate concern. Why did God allow Himself to be portrayed in such language? I can imagine that if God wanted to give one last message that He is going to allow the prophets to describe this anihalation as one of the most horrible events of all history. And for God to allow Himself to be described in this way... Other passages of scripture portray God's wrath from the standpoint that He senses that a person is utterly beyond hope and HE must say to them; "There is nothing more I can do for you, except to leave you alone." This was the agony that Christ had on the Cross. "Why have You foresaken Me?" Read Romans 1; three times Gods' wrath is defined as where God gets to a point where there is nothing left for Him to do for the individual who has suppressed the Holy Spirit, the Truth, such that they hold it down in unrighteousness and they will not have it; and three times His wrath is defined as let them alone, let them go. God is not adding anything to the sinner. Sin is so horrible that God doesn't have to add anything. The worst judgment that God can make is that there is nothing else I can do, you must be left alone, and that is the worst thing that God could do to anyone. But He has no-other choice, and it is considered a strange act. And so, when John sees this, all this symbolism, all this anihalation the worst thing that could happen to him as a Jew, this must be aweful, God must feel very strongly about this to send such a message. And certainly when people sense the awefullness of what it means to be separated from God, and if you want to get a feeling of this look at the separation that Christ experienced on the cross. Christ was loosing His identity, He was foresaken, He felt that He was a nothing. That was so great that He sweat "great drops of blood." The blood surging though HIs capillaries was so great that it just broke through the walls in His stress. Dr. Neis commented that he often wondered why Christ never became psychotic, because anyone who is totally rejected, totally alienated, becomes psychotic. There is no other alternative. The only reason Christ didn't become psychotic is that He was (is) such a balanced person, He was so in touch with reality and He had that trust in His Father that even though His senses betrayed Him and He felt the full impact of the wrath of God, unmixed without mercy, (this expression that we find in Revelation) that it just tore Him apart, it just anihalated Him. So this is this third Angels' message that John wrote down. It must be of tremendous moment that it could be so horrible. Dr. Neis illustrated this with the example of theri daughter who had a traumatic experience on time in growing- up of becoming nauseated and throwing up; to her there was nothing worse than throwing up. This was impressed on the parents one day when they overheard her tell her brother to quit riding his bike in the street. She told him that if he didn't get out of the street a car might come by and run over him and kill him, and then he would throw-up. I think, that at times, God wants to hit us where it really grabs us. The first time that He really did this, of the stomach's turning point was when Adam was required to slay an innocent Lamb. Some of you have been in an operating room and watched surgery; you have probbaly never forgotten the first time you heard the surgeons knife cutting open the flesh. I observed an autopsy when I was in High school. I stood six inches from the table while the technician opened the chest and snapped the ribs with some giant cutters, I haven't forgotten that sound. I was reading the notes I took of the duty I stood in an emergency room of a Hospital in Salt Lake City about 5 years ago, and it brought back some sensations of this wrath, when a little 7 year old boy was brought in with the tip of his finger cut off and I had to clean the hand and wound while waiting for the Doctor to arrive and then listen to him scraping the bone that was sticking out to really clean it before it was sewen up; and the older gentleman who was working on his roof and ripped open the back of his hand on some loose flashing around the chimney, to where it almost took his thumb off. I have been at several automobile accidents where I have become nauseated at the damage to those involved. I don't have to imagine how Adam felt when he slew that first Lamb; I had to kill an animal once who was suffering, and I had to shoot it while it looked at me. But I have become calloused through what happens on television and what happened in the concentration camps and Afganistan and South East Asia, Cambodia. But Adam, he never even seen death. He must have said to God: "You are making me nauseated". And I can imagine God agreeing, and saying that's exactly what I want you to experience; I want it to be so terrible that you will never forget the horribleness of what has happened. If God really loves He has to reach people in the language they understand. This is what is being sayed to John. There will be a message of God's love; God is going to stand-forth, He is going to be counted and He is going to be vindicated through His saints, and it is going to be at a time when all human efforts have failed, Babylon has fallen, But God pleads with them: "Please come out of her. Don't experience the most horrible anihalation that has ever occured. Don't receive any of the ear marks of this character of the beast. And there will be a people who refuse these marks, because they will have the seal of God, the character of God. The John is encouraged in the 12th verse where he says: "Ah, here is the patience, the endurance, the steadfastness of the saints. They are loyal to God. They have the same faith that Christ had." And after seeing this very poignant very powerfull message John must have breathed a sigh of relief: "Here they are, they will make it, they will endure, and they will have this message." That must have encouraged John, speaking the language of his day.
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