Part 5 (2/2)
xxvii: 46, praying these four messengers that have power on all lands, and _all_ seas, not to make any more war, either on the land or on the sea, nor with the professed people of the Prince of Peace, by disregarding their pet.i.tions. I know not in what other way these four nations could be prayed to as represented in the second verse. Now the 144,000 are sealed.
Then John brings us to the resurrection. The 9th verse says, _after this_, (mark this point,) I beheld, and lo, a great mult.i.tude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds, and people and tongues stood before the throne, clothed in white, with palms in their hands, &c. These I understand are _all_ the sleeping saints from Abel down to the very last one that falls asleep here. Their having palms in their hands, and robed in white, looks to me like the perfect uniformity there will be with _them_, and the 144,000 that have never died, that I believe will be redeemed right from, or at, the time for the feast of Tabernacles, and form a perfect phalanx, rending the air with their shouts while they are mounting up with wings as eagles to meet their glorified king and Lord; see xix: 14; Lev. xxiii: 39-44. Here, they will serve G.o.d day and night in his temple.-15th verse. Therefore all the work that is pointed out here in Revelations for the messengers, (called angels,) to perform, will all be accomplished here before Christ comes. Now we will turn again to the
FOURTEENTH CHAPTER OF REV., FIRST TO FOURTEENTH VERSE.
”And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand; having his Father's name written in their foreheads.-And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters.”
Please turn back now to the beginning of the subject 19th page, you will see it is the Father's name written in their foreheads-i. e., they are now sealed-got through with their patient waiting time, and are marked with the name of G.o.d; see iii: 10-12. In the 2d verse is the voice; this I understand is G.o.d speaking after the saints are sealed, or Christ and the saints; see i: 15, and xix: 6, as presented on the 96th page.
”And they sung as it were a new song before the throne-no man could sing that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.” [Margin says, _bought_.] Now mark! these were bought from the earth, and they sung a song that no man could learn. This must have been one which they had learned in their united experience, something like the song of Moses on the banks of deliverance from the Egyptians. No other people could have sung the song because it was the song of their deliverance, for as I have stated these first five verses show this 144,000 in their immortal state, ”redeemed from the earth,” (not out of it.) ”These are they which were not defiled with women.” ”The woman which thou sawest is the great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”-xvii: 18, called Babylon, (the nominal churches). These, then, were the same ones that had come out of the churches; see 8-11 verses, and xv: 2 verse. If the other view is insisted upon, then _all_ of this 144,000 must be men and the women would have no part in that number-no matter where they are said to come from-”_for they are virgins_.” Being clear of the harlot mother and her children; and of those in the parable of the ten virgins that went into the marriage of the Bridegroom makes them emphatically so. ”_These are they which follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth._” The above shows that they did follow him, and John shows that they do now in their glorified state; see xix chapter, 14th verse.
”_These_ WERE _redeemed from among men being the first fruits unto G.o.d and to the lamb_.”-4th verse. Redeemed or bought from among men (not from among the dead) nor from out of the earth, but from ”among men and from the earth.” The first fruits cannot be until the harvest, and that cannot be until Jesus comes to reap it with his sharp sickle, see 14th and 15th verses; remember too, that the description John is here giving, is the 144,000 with Jesus, after he has reaped the harvest of the earth.
See how perfectly it harmonizes with the type of Jesus being the first fruits, to G.o.d, or handful of the _first_ harvest of barley to represent his resurrection; since which time he has been laboring with his Father for this very harvest. To have the figure harmonize the fruit must come at the harvest time, not the seed time. This is the first fruits unto G.o.d and to the Lamb conjointly. The dead saints are no where that I know of represented as fruits, before the resurrection. This then is the harmonious view; but we will look at the view which the Bible Advocate and others, have shown, that the 144,000 shown here, were the saints that came out of their graves after the resurrection.-Matt. xxvii: 52, 53; and we are told that ”Eph. iv: 8, is to the point.” ”When he ascended upon high he led captivity captive”-[Margin says, a _mult.i.tude of captives_,] but this marginal reading so much relied on for their proof by the mark thus (||,) shows it to be the view of the bible translators. Now to get the clear view, turn to the 68th Ps. 18th verse, from where Paul quoted. Here the marginal reading marked thus [Heb.] shows it to be the original, the inspired word. Now let us read-”Thou hast led captivity captive-thou hast received gifts in _the man_, (in Jesus) yea, for the rebellious also.”
This changes the meaning, and would make this mult.i.tude of captives rebellious saints. Surely Jesus took no such present as this to his Father; therefore there will be no more necessity for straining the plain text in Cor. xv: 20, 23. This text is clear, emphatic, and repeated; which distinctly teaches Christ the first fruits of them that slept; _afterwards_ they that are Christ's at his coming, when both the dead and living will be the first fruits to G.o.d and the lamb conjointly. To harmonize the type, the saints at Christ's second coming are the next or second fruits to G.o.d at the second or last harvest in the 7th month, the revolution, or ingathering of the year, the feast of Tabernacles. Another writer J. Porter, states, that Jesus took these saints that arose at Jerusalem right up to his Father, and then received his power, and returned the same day; and he might also have added, travelled with the two to Emmaus, seven and a half miles; and as others will have it, was back time enough to keep the whole day with his disciples, for the first Sabbath after his resurrection. If we really want the truth, G.o.d will give it to us, but not by rejecting other truths.
Now let us see whether the description of character given in these five verses of the 144,000, will apply to the saints that arose in Jerusalem at the resurrection. In the first place, these were never numbered.
Second-The record is entirely silent about their being united in their trials and experience, to sing a peculiar song of their own. Third-These were not redeemed from among men, on the earth, but out from among the dead. Fourth,-They could not be the first fruit before the harvest, for Paul says, ”Christ the first fruits, _afterwards_ they that are Christ's at his coming,” (second coming,) not them that were his at his going away at his first advent,-first harvest. That would be a clear perversion of the text; we must wait for the second harvest for the next fruit, 7th month. Fifth-To say that they were virgins, and not defiled with women, is only admitting what we know nothing about. Sixth-John saw the messenger that sealed, and says the number was 144,000; all this, was sixty years after what transpired at Jerusalem. This is out of the limits of his vision; and what will, and does forever, destroy this erroneous view, is, that the four winds are to be holden by the four Angel nations, until the whole number were sealed, and they have not let go yet; unless it can be proved that it was done 1800 years ago. That old Jerusalem was called a holy place; see Exo ix: 8; Acts vi: 13; also the testimony of Jesus, Matt.
xxiv: 15. Lastly-If it is objected that these are the living saints to be redeemed at the second advent, then we fail to find them described in this vision, which would destroy the chain of wonders which he saw respecting the living and the dead, with the varied and changing scenes through which they were continually pa.s.sing. Now, how simple, plain, and harmonious these verses appear when we apply them down at the end of all things, where they were seen in this vision, and where they most certainly belong.
The 5th verse shows them without fault before the throne, clearly in their redeemed and immortal state. Here then is the true description of their characters. In the next seven verses from 6 to 13, John describes
THEIR LABORS IN THE MESSAGES.
”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 G.o.d and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.”
This is so plain that all who have been engaged and laboring in the Second Advent Doctrine must admit it to represent William Miller, and those of his faith, as the flying messengers preaching the advent of Jesus to their fellow men, since 1840. Invisible angels never yet preached the gospel to men; but as it has been here-man preaching to man,-then these angels represent our own neighbors, preaching, lecturing, and exhorting us with loud voices to listen to their message, for the judgment was at hand.
He says he ”saw another angel.” Where did he see the first one, then?
Answer-In his description of the trumpets, viii: 13, thus he carries our minds back to the simple narration of the first description of these messengers and receivers out of which were sealed 144,000, in 7th chapter.
This message has gone to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.
”And there followed another angel saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen,”
&c., 8th verse. This fallen city, we say, was the nominal churches, embracing all of the professed followers of the prince of peace; and they have fallen, because they rejected this first message at the hour of G.o.d's judgment, and shut it out of their wors.h.i.+pping a.s.semblies, and out of their hearts-”they _made light of it_.”
And the third angel followed, saying with a loud voice, ”If any man wors.h.i.+p the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of G.o.d, which is poured out without mixture,” &c.-9th and 10th verses.
These two last described angels, which follow the first, are only a part of the flying messengers described in the 6th and 7th verses-for many of the first cla.s.s opposed the second and third messengers, and some absolutely denounced them for saying Babylon, or the nominal churches had fallen, and for calling G.o.d's people to _come out_ of them and leave them forever. In chapter xviii, 4th verse, John heard the same voice from the same people, called the third angel, telling them to come out from Babylon. In the xiv. chapter, he more particularly describes the condition of all those who _retain_ or _receive_ again the mark of the beast, or in any way connect themselves with these churches,-Jer. iii: 3; the plain English of which is, get clear of this mark, or profession, and _keep clear_; come out and stay out of this ”habitation of Devils.” For a further explanation of these texts, and definition of the locations of the heavens, &c., see _Way Marks_.
Any advent believer who undertakes to dispute this, and the two preceding angels' messages, with their clear fulfillment in advent history from 1840 to the fall of 1844, is, in my opinion, but a few steps removed from the gross darkness that surrounds the habitations of Babylon. I will venture again to reiterate the a.s.sertion, that since the days of the Apostles, G.o.d's people have never witnessed such a simultaneous and righteous movement, as they did during these three messages. I feel perfectly safe in saying that I fear no contradiction here, nor condemnation hereafter, for moving in perfect harmony, as we have done, during these three messages. Many are writing and preaching that these are, and will continue to be given, while the world stands. This mistake is as fatal as the rejection of the first, because in so doing they will not see any work which G.o.d has marked out for them, in this last work for man to fulfill and finish the history of this prophecy. We say, then, that these messages closed with the world, when they were condemned by them, at the end of a cry at midnight, in Oct. 1844. G.o.d then had other and more important work for his church to perform among themselves than they ever had before, and it is clearly marked out in the verses which follow these messages, and whoever fails here, fails to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Be a.s.sured, John has not broken the thread of this most interesting narrative here and left us in confusion, to call the testimony of _Jesus his commandments_; and our resting from this most laborious work in these messages, _the resurrection_. If our experience, for more than three years past, has not taught us that G.o.d is fulfilling his word, by having every thing in its place; one thing following another, then we have failed to profit by it. Let me entreat you, my brethren, to critically examine the next three verses: viz. ”Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of G.o.d, and the faith of Jesus.”-12th verse.
What is the faith of Jesus? Answer,-Chapter 12th, 17th verse says it is his ”testimony;” chapter 19th, 10th verse, says his ”testimony is the spirit of prophecy.” ”Teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”-Matt. xxviii: 20. Now observe, the faith, or testimony of Jesus, embraces all his teachings. Now mark, this is what our opponents call the New Testament _commandments_, or _grace_, which they say embraces all the commandments that we are bound to believe or keep!
<script>