Third Response,(and now enlarged) Post on
SDA Pioneers and the Third Angel's Message

Read the preface of J.N. Andrews book "Three Messages of Rev. 14"

"The Bible is full of references to the second advent of the Savior and the events of the great day of God. It represents that day as the great day of his wrath; as the time when destruction from the Almighty shall come upon the wicked, and when the land shall be made desolate, the sinners thereof destroyed....shall mankind have no warning when this destruction is about to burst upon them.....

"The people of God ...will be translated into his everlasting kingdom...what will prepare the saints of the last generation for such a distinguished honor?....What mighty truths has God in reserve for the last generation, with which to accomplish this great work. In answer to these questions we cite the fourteenth chapter of Revelation."

Clearly Andrews believes the three angel's messages are the messages for the last generation of people. They could not then be "expired" long before Christ comes! The church doesn't "move on" through history away from these message. They are the messages for the end of time. They are the messages that will enable a people to stand in that final day when Christ appears.

"Such is the work presented in Revelation 14. It gives the world warning, and leaves them no excuse; it lights up the pathway of the saints; and yet it is a trial of patience, it shakes of the heartless, and gives the men of the world, not withstanding its warning, a chance to lull themselves into security, when the wrath of God hangs over their heads. (page v)

The investigative judgment is very much a part of the first angel's message. In another of J.N. Andrew's books called "Order of Events in the Judgment", he writes:

"This period of investigative judgment is ushered in by a solemn proclamation to the inhabitants of the earth; and this investigative work embraces the closing years of human probation. ..."And I saw another angel...saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgement is come and worship Him that made heaven and earth...."

"That this announcement of the hour of God's judgment preceded the advent of Christ, and is addressed to men while yet in probation, the fourteenth chapter of Revelation clearly proves. ...It is evidently that part of the judgment work which precedes the coming of Christ and determining who shall be "accounted worthy to have part in the resurrection to immortal life (Luke 20:35,36) p.12

"The first angel ushers in the hour of God's judgment by a solemn announcement to all the inhabitants of the earth that it has actually commenced. But the second and third angels, who unite with the proclamation, deliver their messages in the judgment hour itself, and they address themselves to men still in probation....There is no doubt that the hour of God's judgment announced in Rev. 14 is the time when God sits in judgment as described in Danl 7:9-14. p. 46

Andrews also makes it plain that the "historic announcement" that is the date 1844 is the ONLY right proclamation.

"These scriptures can never have their fulfillment by a succession of time messages, each disproving the truth of its predecessor, and each being in turn disproved by the one which succeeds it. When God gives these announcements they will be rightly given, though they are to be followed by the proclamation of other truths before Christ comes....the genuine movement given for the purpose of announcing the investigative judgment, and its truthfulness attested by the oath of the angel will never be retracted to make way for successive announcements of the time of Christ's revelation. The opening of the heavenly temple and the final work therein we now consider. P.60

In the writings of the pioneers we plainly see that the first angel's message, sounded prior to 1844 all over the world, (even though the people proclaiming it knew not it's full meaning at the time,) was:
1. To indeed alert the world to the nature of the soon coming of Christ.
2. But also, and more specific to the content of the 1st angel's message, that prior to the "execution" of judgment the investigative judgment had now begun in the courts of heaven.
As the disappointed ones, searched the meaning of the message, they found the truth of the sanctuary, and of the "hour of judgment that IS come, contained in the 1st angel's message, and with their understanding, the truth of the Sabbath also gained importance.

Ellen White points out the general consensus that this does indeed consititute a foundational truth.

LS.278.002
"Our faith in reference to the messages of the first, second, and third angels was correct. The great way-marks we have passed are immovable. Although the hosts of hell may try to tear them from their foundation, and triumph in the thought that they have succeeded, yet they do not succeed. These pillars of truth stand firm as the eternal hills, unmoved by all the efforts of men combined with those of Satan and his host. We can learn much, and should be constantly searching the Scriptures to see if these things are so. God's people are now to have their eyes fixed on the heavenly sanctuary, where the final ministration of our great High Priest in the work of the judgment is going forward,--where He is interceding for His people.....There is a kind of faith that takes it for granted that we have the truth; but the faith that takes God at His word, which works by love and purifies the heart, is very rare."

The other SDA pioneers came to the same conclusions:

James White
"The 2300 days (Daniel 8:14) reached to the cleansing of the Sanctuary, or to the great day of atonement in which the sins of all who shall have part in the first resurrection will be blotted out. These days terminated in 1844. We think the evidence clear that since that time the judgment of those who died subjects of the grace of God has been going on, while Jesus has been offering His blood for the blotting out of their sins."
RH Jan. 29,1857

Now James White does write an article entitled "Brief Exposition of the Angels of Revelation 14" that needs to be looked at. In this article he does make some strong statements that the 3 angels each had their specific message to be sounded at a specific time, and if these statements are taken out of the context of the pioneers understanding of the whole picture, as "Tom" has done, it could seem that the first and second angel's messages are finished. But then we would have the pioneers totally contradicting themselves all over their writings.

To really understand what they were saying we must put them into the context which "Tom" doesn't want them in, and that is the context that the 1st angel's message announced the beginning of the investigative judgment, and not just an earthly revival.

Indeed, if the first angel ONLY announced an earthly revival in a hope of the coming of Christ, it would seem the message is finished, expired, because that revival is simply history. But no, the first angel's message announces that Christ's investigative judgment is the "hour of judgment that IS come". It began in 1844-- AND THAT IS HISTORICAL FACT and cannot be moved into any other time period. It is correct to say that the first angel isn't going to ever again announce a new time for the beginning of the investigative judgment. Never again will it be announced that "the hour IS come" for that judgment, which takes place while probation is still open, to begin. For Christ began His judgment in 1844, the announcement is past as far as history goes. The judgment began in 1844. But that doesn't mean the significance of that truth and it's impact on the rest of the messages is no longer preached. The investigative judgment continues until the close of probation.

Stephen Haskel writes in his book "The Cross and It's Shadow" p. 40

"The time arrived for the opening of the great judgment in heaven when the Father and the Son, with their retinue of holy angels, passed in state into the most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. No earthly pageant could ever compare with that majestic cortege. God designed that it should be recognized on earth, and He caused a message to be proclaimed to the inhabitants of earth, directing their attention to the movements of the Son of God. This is known as the first angel's message of Rev. 14:6,7. A large company accepted the message and their attention was centered on the Saviour; but they did not understand the antitypical work of the sanctuary, and hence they expected the Savior to com to the earth. Instead of coming to the earth, however, He went into the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary.

A company, who had been gathered out by the message of the first angel, loved their Lord; and desired to find why He had not come to the earth...in answer to their earnest prayers, He directed their attention to the heavenly sanctuary. There they saw the ark of God's testament containing His holy law, and they acknowledged its claims upon them, and began to keep holy the Sabbath of the Lord.

The Sanctuary, the Sabbath, and the Spirit of Prophecy were ever united in olden time.

People were, and still are denying the DATE and the MEANING OF THE EVENT-- of what really was fulfilled at the end of the 2300 years. But, the 1st angel's message was sounded, the judgment has begun. It began in 1844. That is the point the pioneers were making. The majority of Millerite Adventists rejected the message and were seeking other explanations.

In reading these earliest writings, we must also keep in mind that the SDA pioneers BELIEVED that Christ would come in a matter of a very short time, in their generation. The world had been shaken by the "Advent Voice" in the early 1840's. The religious bodies had largely rejected it. The call to leave those who rejected it was given and now they saw the third angel as the warning to those who despised God's commandments and were worshipping the beast.

The idea that time would go on and people would largely forget the impact of the 1844 event wasn't the problem then,-- the problem was in denying the event as being the fulfilment of prophecy and saying the "judgment hour was the coming of the Lord" rather than the preporatory investigative judgment while probation was still open.

Here are some quotes from James White's paper "A Brief Exposition of the Angels of Revelation 14":

"To avoid the natural and reasonable conclusion that the third message is to be given now, efforts are being made to show that the Advent people have been entirely mistaken in their application of the first and second....

"We will now examine the messages of the three angels.
FIRST ANGEL. "And 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, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him: for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountain of water. "

This proclamation not only relates to the judgment,
but also to the hour, period, or time of the judgment.
It fitly applies to the proclamation of the judgment at hand,
that has been given
to the present generation, and it cannot possibly apply to any other period of the church.

We say that this angel's message cannot be properly applied to the preaching of the apostles, because they did not preach that the period of the judgment had come. Paul reasoned before Felix of "righteousness, temperance, and JUDGMENT TO COME. " Acts xxiv, 25. He declared to the Athenians that God "now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world. " Acts xvii, 30, 31.

....It can not be the last, because two distinct messages follow it, prior to the Son of man taking his place on the "white cloud. " But that it applies to the past proclamation of the Advent, we fully believe. But some, who profess to be looking every day for Christ's coming, and say, "he may come to-day, or at any time, " object to the view that the first angel is fulfilled in the past, for they think the "everlasting gospel" of the coming kingdom has not yet been preached sufficiently extensive to fulfill the prophecy of Rev. xiv, 6, 7.

But if the prophecy is not fulfilled, then certainly they should not expect the Advent now. Those looking for the world's conversion, cannot expect Christ's coming now; neither should those who are looking for a much wider spread of the first angel's message profess to be looking for the Second Advent, until that work shall first be accomplished.

But when we look to the past mighty movement relative to the coming and kingdom of Christ, we see the prophecy fulfilled, the great work accomplished. Advent Lecturers and Editors have testified that Rev. xiv, 6, 7, was fulfilled. The "Voice of Truth" for Dec. 1844, says: "No case can be more clearly demonstrated with facts than that this message has been borne to every nation and tongue under heaven within a few years past in the preaching of the coming of Christ in '43 or near at hand. Through the medium of lectures and publications, the sound has gone into all the earth, and the word unto the ends of the world. "

Our advent brethren well know that from about the year 1840 to 1844, the judgment hour message was given with astonishing success and power, and that the public mind was moved by it. They also know that the message has ceased to arrest the public mind, that the world and church have fallen asleep to the subject, and that those who profess to be giving this message now, have lost the energy and power they once had. With these facts before us we have no reason to expect that the first angel's message will again arrest the public mind. And those who are looking for a much more extensive proclamation of this message than the past movement, may as well look for the conversion of the world."

LeRoy Froom writes about the progressive steps in understanding the three angel's messages:

"The Millerite Adventists had moved with crusading zeal and devotin in the convictin that they were fulfilling the prophecy of the flying angel (1st angel of Rev.)....many Millerites had been cast out of their respective churches...the second message of separation had been proclaimed..but somehow no one had seemed to notice the third angel that was to follow.

The conference pariticipants now saw that to prepare a people for the supreme event of the ages--the glorious second advent--these THREE mighty angels of heaven appear, in symbol, proclaiming the call through the preaching of men, to worship God who created heaven and earth, to come out of spiritual Babylon, and to refuse to worship the Beast or his image or receive his dread mark.

They came to see that the threefold message began with the proclamation, in the years shortly before 1844, of God's imminent judgment hour, each symbolic angel adding his special emphasis, until their combined voices swell into a loud cry just before the second appearance of Christ Jesus the Lord in power and great glory. But this dawned upon them gradually.

The first thought was to seek to rally the old 1844 Adventists, who had proclaimed the first and second messages, to a realization that a third message was due--to accept the Biblical fact that "the third angel followed them", gathering up and enforcing the truths of the first and second messages, investing them with a meaning and a content not before perceived, adding the newly recovered truth of the Sabbath and continuing thenceforth as a threefold advent message. This led them later to see that a sealing message (Rev. 7:1-3) involving the Sabbath was to go to the world. (Prophetic Faith of our Fathers V.4, p. 1036)

Froom continues to outline that the nature of Christ's coming preached in Miller's message ---of the premillennial position of the advent, the first resurrection, the destruction of the earth, the thousand years in heaven, the second resurrection, the new heavens and the new earth springing out of the ashes of the old and to continue forever, "were tenaciously held." p.1039

He also shows the importance the understanding of the heavenly judgment commensing in the heavenly sanctuary in 1844 had in recognizing the seventh-day Sabbath.

"Although the Seventh-day Sabbath came to the attention of a group of Adventists through the Seventh-day Baptists, it was the light on the sanctuary and the prophecies of Daniel 7:25 coupled with that of Revelation 14:9-12 that invested it with a significance and an importance that the Sabbath had never had under the Seventh-Day Baptists. They had long held that all the Ten Commandments are moral, not ceremonial...but only in the santuary setting did it begin to grip hearts. The belief that men were living in the judgment hour, and were to be judged by the great unchanged standard of the judgment, with the coming of Christ drawing near, drove home the conviction that the Lord was calling men to obey all of His commandments.

Only after Edson had grasped the larger principle of the sanctuary service...and Bates unfolded the Sabbath truth with the logical clarity for which he was noted...was the connection made between the Sabbath message and the sanctuary message, which from that time forward were increasingly and inseparably assiated. (Prophetic Faith VI p. 960)

J. Loughborough acknowledges these steps as well. In his "Great Second Advent Movement" p. 210 he writes:

From that time the third angel's message, as connected with the other two, began to be proclaimed. The Sabbath truth, as connected with the ark of God and the light developing with reference to the sanctuary, confirmed what had been previously shown,-that the past advent movement was right, and in the order of the Lord. They could now understand more fully than ever before the meaning of the "three steps up on to the pathway to the city of God."

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