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The Power of the Second Angels Message "

Babylon is fallen, but truth still needs to be proclaimed to all nations, tongues and people.

The first angel's message was being proclaimed in the early 1840's, Having mapped out the 3200 years of Daniel 8:14, the message that the "hour of God's
'judgment had come," and the sanctuary was to be cleansed and people were urged to prepare their hearts and minds to meet their Creator and Savior.
True, they mistakenly thought the sanctuary to be cleansed was this earth. They had not yet studied about the heavenly sanctuary where Jesus, our High Priest was ministering for His people. Never the less, they preached the message that the "hour of the judgment had come. They prayed together, confessing their sinners and seeking after righteousness, urging people to worship God.

But the denominational churches scoffed. They rejected the evidence from scripture that gave them a time line announcing a great change was being marked out, in the heavenly time table in relationship to the salvation of human beings. Thus they placed themselves in a position so they could not see the light of the second angel's message.

Being rejected and scoffed at by the human religious leaders as well as the common people, would discourage anyone.
But those who had heard the first angel, now heard the second, and were ENCOURAGED!
Their message urging people to be serious in their worship of God, coupled with the 2300 days, the sanctuary being cleansed, the hour of God's judgment having come, was not of human origin!

There was a great shaking! They had felt the moving of the Holy spirit in a mighty way, and seen convincing truth in scripture, would they now deny all that and go back into the fellowship of those heaping ridicule and mocking their experience?

The second angel message encouraged them to LOOK UP, don't look at earthly religious leaders, they are fallen. babylon is fallen. The Lord is leading you out of babylon! The message was heart searching, and led the believers to seek a living experience for themselves . Now they knew that they could not lean upon any scholar, or religious leader. They had to search the scriptures for themselves.
And they found it, in scripture. The timeline and the message from scripture WAS correct. But nowhere did scripture say the "sanctuary: was this earth. And Scripture plainly told them the 1st angel was not the last, they had more work to do before the second coming/ They were to dig deeper and uncover the truths babylon had hidden. They were to see the work of Christ more clearly..

During this "time of the end" beginning in 1844, it is God's intention to restore every lost or downplayed truth. --- Many truths had been rediscovered previously during the Reformation, but the Reformation faltered, even men like Luther, back tracked in several points to fit in a little better with the state church. Now again doctrines that are in clear opposition to standard mainline churches' doctrines were brought forth:
The Sanctuary
The Sabbath
Death the wages of sin and man's condition in death.
The second coming and the millennium
Creation/fall/restoration theme
All had beeen to some extent (or fully) been replaced by man's traditions and philosophies, and/or merging with pagan ideas, and the pure truth needed to be found in Scripture and understood in the light of Christ and His work in saving sinners

The Second angel's verification that "Babylon" was fallen, as well as seeing various churches' doctrines in contradiction to the voice of God in scripture, enabled those who came through the experience to find truth from scripture, for themselves. They were sure God had led them through their past experience and would lead them to fuller truth concerning doctrines and prophecy. .

The power of the second angel, alerts us that the world's explanations of the things of God are shifting sand, look to the rock, the Word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to guide the seeker to truth.


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God's commandments and the three angel's message.

The third angel's message, embracing the messages of the first and second angels, is the message for this time. We are to raise aloft the banner on which is inscribed: "The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." The world is soon to meet the great Lawgiver over His broken law. This is not the time to put out of sight the great issues before us. God calls upon His people to magnify the law and make it honorable. {8T 197.2}

The Sabbath is a sign of the relationship existing between God and His people, a sign that they are His obedient subjects, that they keep holy His law. The observance of the Sabbath is the means ordained by God of preserving a knowledge of Himself and of distinguishing between His loyal subjects and the transgressors of His law. This is the faith once delivered to the saints, who stand in moral power before the world, firmly maintaining this faith. {8T 198}

The Lord has a work for every one of His loyal people to do to bring the faith of Jesus into the right place where it belongs--in the third angel's message. The law has its important position but is powerless unless the righteousness of Christ is placed beside the law to give its glory to the whole royal standard of righteousness. "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good" (Romans 7:12). {16MR 235.2}
A thorough and complete trust in Jesus will give the right quality to religious experience. Aside from this the experience is nothing. The service is like the offering of Cain--Christless. God is glorified by living faith in a personal, all-sufficient Saviour. Faith views Christ as He is--the sinner's only hope.{16MR 235.3

The soul-saving message, the third angel's message, is the message to be given to the world. The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are both important, immensely important, and must be given with equal force and power. The first part of the message has been dwelt upon mostly, the last part casually. The faith of Jesus is not comprehended. We must talk it, we must live it, we must pray it, and educate the people to bring this part of the message into their home life. .

As the ministration of Jesus closed in the holy place, and He passed into the holiest, and stood before the ark containing the law of God, He sent another mighty angel with a third message to the world. A parchment was placed in the angel's hand, and as he descended to the earth in power and majesty, he proclaimed a fearful warning, with the most terrible threatening ever borne to man. This message was designed to put the children of God upon their guard, by showing them the hour of temptation and anguish that was before them.
Said the angel, "They will be brought into close combat with the beast and his image. Their only hope of eternal life is to remain steadfast. Although their lives are at stake, they must hold fast the truth." The third angel closes his message thus: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." As he repeated these words, he pointed to the heavenly sanctuary.
The minds of all who embrace this message are directed to the most holy place, where Jesus stands before the ark, making His final intercession for all those for whom mercy still lingers and for those who have ignorantly broken the law of God. This atonement is made for the righteous dead as well as for the righteous living. It includes all who died trusting in Christ, but who, not having received the light upon God's commandments, had sinned ignorantly in transgressing its precepts[Early Writings 225}