Sabbath Afternoon - December 24
Memory Text:
“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” KJV — Revelation 21:5
“The Garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race were long permitted to gaze upon the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the watching angels. At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the wickedness of men determined their destruction by a flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be “a new heaven and a new earth,” it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning.” AH 539.1
Sunday - December 25
A New Heaven and a New Earth
Isaiah 65:17–25; Isaiah 66:22, 23; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1–5.
What is the ultimate message of these passages?
“Satan's work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe and causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God's creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations. “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they [the righteous] break forth into singing.” Isaiah 14:7. And a shout of praise and triumph ascends from the whole loyal universe. “The voice of a great multitude,” “as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings,” is heard, saying: “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Revelation 19:6. DD 60.1
“While the earth was wrapped in the fire of destruction, the righteous abode safely in the Holy City. Upon those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no power. While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield. Revelation 20:6; Psalm 84:11. DD 60.2
“‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.’ Revelation 21:1. The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.” DD 60.3
But the dead, “small and great,” who do not rise in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6), John saw figuratively “stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Rev. 20:12. With the close of this work, come the events---After the Judgment.
When the judgment was over and the thousand years gone, “the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. “ Rev . 20: 13
“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Rev. 21:2-4.
Having descended with the saints, who are to reign forever with Him on the earth made new, Christ calls forth the wicked dead from their graves, while simultaneously, “a great voice out of heaven” is heard, “saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them” (Rev. 21:3), whereas during the thousand years, they have “lived” with Him (Rev. 20:4). Whereupon,---Satan Is Loosed For a Little Season.
By the resurrection of the wicked dead, “…Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” Rev. 20:7, 8.
Concerning this “little season” in which Satan will be allowed to deceive the nations, the prophet Isaiah heard the Lord say:
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” Isa. 65:17-20.
The reader will observe that when the Lord creates the new heavens and the new earth, then from the time that the wicked arise from their graves to the time that they are destroyed forever by the second death, – the “little season,” – “there shall be no more thence [among them] and infant of days [no more births], nor an old man that hath not filled his days [no more deaths before man’s days are fulfilled]: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” Both the old and the young (that is, those who remain in their graves during the millennium) will afterward come forth together, each to live “an hundred years” – “the little season” in which Satan will again deceive them. There will be neither death nor birth, but all the wicked will then be forever accursed by---The Second Death.
That portion of the new earth which the feet of the wicked have trodden and defiled during the “short season,” will be purified by the fire’s coming “down from God out of heaven” and burning them and their works, while those who will inhabit the new earth for eternity, will be shielded in and about “the holy city.” Rev. 21:2.
“And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever…. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Rev. 20:9, 10, 14, 15.
Since not only Satan, but also “whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life, was cast into the lake of fire,” the fire in the lake simply continues the same destruction wrought by the fire which comes “down from God out of heaven.” Rev. 20:9. After the thousand years, in other words, the fire which comes “down from God out of heaven,” results in “the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:10) and in eternal extermination of all sinners. Of this final destruction, a pre-millennial demonstration is to be given when the beast and the false prophet are cast into the “lake of fire” – their grave for the thousand years. And as the fire does not, of course, keep burning during the thousand years, the statement, “the devil…was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are” (Rev. 20:10), shows therefore that there are both a typical and an antitypical destruction; the lake of fire before the millennium, being a type of the one after the millennium.
“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,” says the apostle,---“What Manner of Persons Ought Ye To Be?”
Monday - December 26
In the Temple of God
Revelation 7:9-15, Revelation 21:3, 22
How can we harmonize the description of the great multitude of the redeemed serving God “ ‘day and night in His temple’ ” (Rev. 7:15, NKJV) with the statement that John “saw no temple” in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:22, NKJV)?
“‘I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.’ [Revelation 22:5; 21:22.] The people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. Now we ‘see through a glass, darkly.’ [1 Corinthians 13:12.] We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in his dealings with men; but then we shall see him face to face, without a dimming veil between. We shall stand in his presence, and behold the glory of his countenance.” GC88 676.4
It is now a proven fact that "the great multitude" of Revelation 7:9, besides the 144,000, are the living saints who will be translated when Jesus comes. John, the Revelator, in what he has written, proves that they serve God in His temple before the close of probation…Therefore, the temple in which they serve Him day and night is the temple (church) on earth in the time of the "Loud Cry," which time The Lord says: "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." (Zech. 2:11.)
Thus will they serve God day and night, showing that they are neither to backslide nor to be on God's side one day and on the devil's the next but entirely and forever separated from the world, "day and night" -- that is, both in time of joy, when everything is as bright as the sun, and in time of trials and hardships and all manner of adversities, when everything seems to be as dark as the night. However, those who serve God in His temple upon the earth are as though they serve Him in the one which is in heaven, for serving God on earth is serving God in heaven or wherever He is.
God’s throne has not always been in the heavenly sanctuary…the sanctuary was built only for the disposal of sin, as one can easily recognize through the service of the earthly. Looking forward to the time that there will be sin no more, John says: “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Rev. 21:22, 23.
Tuesday - December 27
In the Presence of God
Matthew 5:8, 1 John 3”2, 3, Revelation 22:3, 4
What do these passages tell us about the supreme privilege of seeing God?
“‘I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.’ Revelation 21:22. The people of God are privileged to hold open communion with the Father and the Son. Now we ‘see through a glass, darkly.’ 1 Corinthians 13:12. We behold the image of God reflected, as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His dealings with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without a dimming veil between. We shall stand in His presence and gaze upon the glory of His countenance. SR 432.1
“There immortal minds will study with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There is no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.” SR 432.2
“Soon we [See Appendix.] heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses’ did when he came down from Mount Sinai.” EW 14.1
We do understand from the [above] passage…that toward the close of the seventh plague, God will announce the day and the hour of Christ's coming, and that He will then pour out His Spirit upon His saints. We…understand this outpouring to be…the final manifestation of God's Spirit not to reveal to us any more of Gospel Truth, nor to enable us to proclaim it more fully, but simply to baptize us with a fitness to behold Jesus face to face, "as He is."
Wednesday - December 28
No More Death and Tears
Isaiah 25:8, Revelation 7:17, Revelation 21:4.
What comfort and hope can these passages bring us amid the trials and suffering of this present world?
“The apostle carried the minds of the Corinthian brethren forward to the triumphs of the resurrection morn, when all the sleeping saints are to be raised, henceforth to live forever with their Lord. “Behold,” the apostle declared, “I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? ... Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” AA 320.2
“Glorious is the triumph awaiting the faithful. The apostle, realizing the possibilities before the Corinthian believers, sought to set before them that which uplifts from the selfish and the sensual, and glorifies life with the hope of immortality. Earnestly he exhorted them to be true to their high calling in Christ. ‘My beloved brethren,’ he pleaded, ‘be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.’” AA 321.1
What is the seal of God upon the foreheads of the 144,000 (Rev. 7:3)? Is it the Sabbath seal or something else?
Being sealed in Christ "with that Holy Spirit of promise," after having "heard the word of truth" (Eph. 1:13; 4:30), the saints are consequently sealed by Present Truth--the truth preached in their own day.
"The seal of the living God," the Truth, by which the 144,000 are sealed (Rev. 7:2), is a special seal, being the same as "the mark" of Ezekiel 9. (See Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445; Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 267; Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211). It demands one's sighing and crying over the abominations which defile him and which desecrate both the Sabbath and the house of God, especially against selling literature and raising goals during Sabbath services. As the saints have this seal or mark on their foreheads, the angels will pass over them, not slay them. It is equivalent to the blood on the doorpost on the night of the Passover in Egypt. The angel is to place a mark upon the foreheads of all who by sighing over their own sins, and over the sins in the house of God, show fidelity to the Truth. Then the destroying angels will follow, to slay utterly both old and young who have failed to receive the seal. (See Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 505.)
So, the former seal enables the receiver to rise from the dead in the resurrection of the just, while the latter seal enables the sighing-crying one to escape death and forever to live for God.
Thursday - December 29
His Name on Their Foreheads
Revelation 22:3-5
How can we be assured that we will be among those who will have the name of God written on our foreheads? Or can we be assured?
“‘And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with Him a hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads.’ Revelation 14:1. In this world their minds were consecrated to God; they served Him with the intellect and with the heart; and now He can place His name “in their foreheads.” “And they shall reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 22:5. They do not go in and out as those who beg a place. They are of that number to whom Christ says, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” He welcomes them as His children, saying, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Matthew 25:34, 21. AA 590.4
“‘These are they which follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.’ Revelation 14:4. The vision of the prophet pictures them as standing on Mount Zion, girt for holy service, clothed in white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. But all who follow the Lamb in heaven must first have followed Him on earth, not fretfully or capriciously, but in trustful, loving, willing obedience, as the flock follows the shepherd. AA 591.1
“‘I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne: ... and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.... In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.’” Verses 2-5. AA 591.2
The call, "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem," is applicable to the Laodicean church, the last of the seven churches, and the one which terminates the period of the "wheat" and the "tares" commingled, because after she puts on her beautiful garments, "the unclean shall no more come into" her. Those who will awake to the rousing call, put on strength by separating from the wicked, and put on the beautiful garments by turning to righteousness, are those who will, in the "latter days," make up Zion and Jerusalem--the princes and rulers of the people in the Kingdom-church restored.
Then "clad in the armor of Christ's righteousness, the church is to enter upon her final conflict. 'Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,' she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer."--Prophets and Kings, p. 725.
Hence, "only those who have withstood temptation in the strength of the Mighty One will be permitted to act a part in proclaiming it [the Third Angel's message] when it shall have swelled into the loud cry."--The Review and Herald, No. 19, 1908.
Now as to the meaning of the two terms, Zion and Jerusalem as used in Revelation 14:1, the second reference in question, the Revelator explains that the 144,000 of the twelve tribes of Israel are those who make up Zion. His words are, "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads." Rev. 14:1.
These being the first fruits (Rev. 14:4), it further shows that they are the first of the harvest in "the end of the world." Matt. 13:39. Obviously, then, those who were seen after them, the "great multitude...of all nations" (Rev. 7:9), are none other than the second fruits of the harvest, some of whom will dwell in Jerusalem.
So at this harvest time, "it shall come to pass...that the mountain of the Lord's house [Mt. Zion] shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." Isa. 2:2.
Friday - December 30
Further Study
“The time is near when He will say, “Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” Isaiah 26:20, 21. Men who claim to be Christians may now defraud and oppress the poor; they may rob the widow and fatherless; they may indulge their Satanic hatred because they cannot control the consciences of God's people; but for all this God will bring them into judgment. They “shall have judgment without mercy” that have “showed no mercy.” (James 2:13.) Not long hence they will stand before the Judge of all the earth, to render an account for the pain they have caused to the bodies and souls of His heritage. They may now indulge in false accusations, they may deride those whom God has appointed to do His work, they may consign His believing ones to prison, to the chain gang, to banishment, to death; but for every pang of anguish, every tear shed, they must answer. God will reward them double for their sins. Concerning Babylon, the symbol of the apostate church, He says to His ministers of judgment, “Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” Revelation 18:5, 6. COL 178.4
“From India, from Africa, from China, from the islands of the sea, from the downtrodden millions of so-called Christian lands, the cry of human woe is ascending to God. That cry will not long be unanswered. God will cleanse the earth from its moral corruption, not by a sea of water as in Noah's day, but by a sea of fire that cannot be quenched by any human devising. COL 179.1
“‘There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time Thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.’ Daniel 12:1. COL 179.2
“From garrets, from hovels, from dungeons, from scaffolds, from mountains and deserts, from the caves of the earth and the caverns of the sea, Christ will gather His children to Himself. On earth they have been destitute, afflicted, and tormented. Millions have gone down to the grave loaded with infamy because they refused to yield to the deceptive claims of Satan. By human tribunals the children of God have been adjudged the vilest criminals. But the day is near when “God is judge Himself.” (Psalm 50:6). Then the decisions of earth shall be reversed. “The rebuke of His people shall He take away.” Isaiah 25:8. White robes will be given to every one of them. (Revelation 6:11.) And “they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.” Isaiah 62:12. COL 179.3
“Whatever crosses they have been called to bear, whatever losses they have sustained, whatever persecution they have suffered, even to the loss of their temporal life, the children of God are amply recompensed. “‘They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.’” Revelation 22:4. COL 180.1