WE are now to study the place of the great nations of the earth, in their relation to the Third Angel’s Message, considered from the basis of the line of prophecy of the Seven Trumpets in Revelation.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.1

The first thing in order, therefore, is to discover that the Third Angel’s Message really has a basis in the Seven Trumpets. This, however, will be easy; for it is made perfectly plain in the Scriptures.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.2

Let us begin with the Third Angel’s Message,—Revelation 14:2,—and follow backward its direct connections.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.3

The first words in the wording of the Third Angel’s Message are: “And the third angel followed them.” This shows that some have gone before, whom the third angel “followed.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.4

Take, then, the preceding verse: “And there followed another angel.” This shows that an angel has also preceded this one, which, when this one follows, makes it “another.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.5

Go back now to the sixth verse: “And I saw another angel.” This also certifies that an angel has gone before, which causes this one, as he flies in the midst of heaven, to be “another.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.6

Following back in the book of Revelation, we find no angel, except the seventh trumpet angel, until we come to the first verse of chapter ten; and there we read: “And I saw another mighty angel.” This expression, as before, certifies that, before this, there is an angel, which, when this one comes forth, causes him to be spoken of as “another.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.7

Following further back, we find no angels, except the sixth and the fifth trumpet angels, until we reach the last verses of chapter eight; and there we reach the primal, and read: “And I beheld, and heard an angel”—not “another angel,” but, primarily, “an angel.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.8

Thus, beginning with Revelation 8:13, there is a series of angels connected by the word “another,” straight through to the third angel with his message. Thus:—ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.9

“I beheld, and heard an angel.” Revelation 8:13.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.10

“And I saw another mighty angel.” Revelation 10:1.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.11

“And I saw another angel.” Revelation 14:6.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.12

“And there followed another angel.” Verse 8.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.13

“And the third angel followed them.” Verse 9.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.14

But now notice: That angel in Revelation 8:13, the first in this series that connects straight through to the third angel,—this angel comes in right in the midst of the series of the Seven Trumpets.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.15

The first four trumpets sound in Revelation 8:7-12. Immediately following the fourth, between that and the fifth trumpet angel, comes in the first one in this other series of angels that connects straight through to the Third Angel’s Message.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.16

And this angel of Revelation 8:13 not only comes in in the midst of the seven trumpet angels, but his word relates directly to the remaining three of the seven trumpet angels. Thus reads the whole verse: “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.17

These three woes belong with the last three trumpets, one with each. This is certain by the fact that, when the fifth angel’s work is ended, it is written: “One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.” Revelation 9:12. And when the sixth trumpet is ended, “the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded.” Revelation 11:15.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.18

1st Trumpet—8:1ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.19

2nd Trumpet—8:8ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.20

3rd Trumpet—8:10ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.21

4th Trumpet—8:11ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.22

“An Angel”—Woe, Woe, Woe. 8:13ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.23

5th Trumpet—9:1-11. First woe.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.24

6th Trumpet—9:11 to 11:13. Second woe.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.25

7th Trumpet—11:13-19. Third woe.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.26

“Another mighty angel.” 10:1.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.27

“Another angel.” 14:6.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.28

“There followed another.” 14:8.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.29

“The third angel followed them.” 14:2.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.30

Thus, it is plain that the three woes pronounced by the primal angel, who comes in in the midst of the Seven Trumpets, are expressive of the character of the last three of the Seven Trumpets. Then, just at the end of the sixth trumpet, and before the sounding of the seventh, we find the words: “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven,” etc. And this angel gives his message before the seventh trumpet sounds, because he speaks directly of the seventh trumpet as yet future, in the words: “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound,” etc. Revelation 10:7.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.31

Then, when the seventh angel does sound, it is written: “And the seventh angel sounded.... And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great.” Revelation 11:15-18.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.32

Thus, under the sounding of the seventh trumpet angel, there comes “the time of the dead, that they should be judged;” and along with this comes that “other angel,” in Revelation 14:6, 7, “having the everlasting gospel to preach, ... saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment IS come.” Revelation 14:6, 7.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.33

“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship 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 God.” Revelation 14:9, 10. And of the events that occur under the sounding of the seventh angel, one is, “Thy wrath is come.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.34

Further: the Third Angel’s Message is followed immediately by the coming of the Lord; for it is written: “I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” Revelation 14:14. It is at the coming of the Lord that the saints of God are rewarded. For he says: “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:12. And one of the events that occur under the sounding of the seventh trumpet is “that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.35

Thus, by every consideration of the word of God on the subject of the Third Angel’s Message and the Seven Trumpets, it is certain that the Seven Trumpets are a basis of the Third Angel’s Message.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.36

This being so, it is certain that the Third Angel’s Message is held in view from the very first of the Seven Trumpets, unto the last one. Therefore, in studying the Seven Trumpets, from beginning to end, we are studying the Third Angel’s Message, from its foundation unto its end.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.37

“Studies in Galatians. The Two Covenants. Galatians 4:21-31; 5:1” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 31, pp. 488, 489.

“TELL me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now, we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.1

The first covenant depended upon the promises of a people, who knew only the birth of the flesh. These promises were that they would keep the ten commandments “indeed.” But, knowing only the birth of the flesh, they were, at the time, transgressors of the law of God, and so were in bondage to sin. And knowing only the birth of the flesh, and having only the mind of the flesh, their promise to obey the law of God “indeed,” was worthless, because “the minding of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.2

If they had made no promise at all to obey the law, they would have broken it; because they knew only the birth of the flesh, and “they that are in the flesh can not please God.” Therefore, without any promise to keep the law, without the new birth, they would have continued in the bondage of sin. And when they promised to keep the law “indeed,” and then broke their promise (which, having only the mind of the flesh, it was inevitable that they would do), this brought them only yet deeper into bondage, because to “vow a vow unto the Lord,” and then “slack to pay it,” is “sin in thee.” Deuteronomy 23:21.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.3

Therefore, that covenant being entered into by those who were already in bondage, and being a covenant which, by its terms, gendered to bondage, it was only a covenant of bondage—a covenant in which their very efforts to deliver themselves from the bondage in which they already were, brought them only deeper into bondage, the bondage of sin, the bondage of their own works and broken promises, which were only sin.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.4

Consequently, all that was seen, or could be seen, in the first covenant was, and is, the broken law. And that this should be forever so plain that no one could fail to see it, when Moses came down from the mount and saw their idolatry, he, having the tables of the law of God in his hands, “cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.” Exodus 32:19.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.5

They were at first breakers of the law. They promised never-more to break the law. They again broke both the law and their promise not to break it. And when, therefore, because of this, Moses cast out of his hands the tables of the law of God, and broke them, this was to give to them, and to all people forever, a divine object lesson, that in the first covenant, in all their efforts at self-righteousness, and in all their promises not to break the law, no one can ever see anything but THE BROKEN LAW.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 488.6

But, there was then and there present the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant of faith, God’s everlasting covenant, to deliver them from the bondage and the yoke of bondage that was upon them because of the covenant of works, of unbelief, into which they had entered. “They could not hope for the favor of God through a covenant which they had broken”—through a covenant in which nothing could be seen but the broken law of God. “And now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour, revealed in the Abrahamic covenant and shadowed forth in the sacrificial offerings.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.1

It was the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which Moses pleaded to God, for mercy to the people worshiping the golden calf at the foot of the mount, while he was yet in the mount, before he had come down the first time. Notice: in Exodus 32:1-6 is given the account of the people’s making the golden calf and worshiping it. In verse seven “the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it.... Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them.” Verses 7, 10.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.2

“And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou halt brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? ... Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” Verses 11-14.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.3

Thus it was the Abrahamic covenant, God’s everlasting covenant, that saved the people from the bondage and the curse of their sins, in the first covenant. And so it is ever. Hebrews 9:15.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.4

Then Moses came down from the mount, with the tables of the law in his hands, and cast out of his hands the tables of the law, and broke them, thus “signifying that as they had broken their covenant with God, so God had broken his covenant with them;” and signifying that in that covenant there was nothing to be seen but the broken law; and that they “could not hope for the favor of God through a covenant which they had broken.” And “now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour revealed in the Abrahamic covenant, and shadowed forth in the sacrificial offerings. Now by faith and love they were bound to God as their deliverer from the bondage of sin. Now they were prepared to appreciate the blessings of the new covenant.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 373.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.5

Thus the covenant from Sinai brought them to the covenant with Abraham. The first covenant brought them to the second covenant. The old covenant brought them to the new covenant. And thus the law, which was the basis of that covenant,—the broken law,—was the schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, that they might be justified by faith.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.6

Thus “the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these table the words that were in the first tables, which thou breakest.” Exodus 31:1. And, says Moses, “I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.” Deuteronomy 10:3-5.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.7

There was then established among the people the sanctuary service, with “the Saviour shadowed forth in the sacrificial offerings;” and with Christ, “the Mediator of the new covenant,” the “one Mediator between God and men,” represented in the high priest in his ministration in the sanctuary. To that sanctuary they brought, in penitence and faith, their offering, and confessed their sin. The blood of their offering was taken by the high priest into the sanctuary, atonement was made for them, and the sin was forgiven. And in the great day of atonement the blood of the offering for all the people was sprinkled upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy seat, which was upon the top of the ark, over the tables of the law.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.8

Thus between the sinner and the law there was always the sacrifice, representing Christ (and which, in his faith, was Christ, the Surety of the “better testament”), by which was brought to the sinner the forgiveness of sins, and the righteousness of God, which satisfied all the demands of the law. And thus, through faith in Christ, in this covenant in which Christ is Mediator, and of which he is the Surety, there is seen only the unbroken law.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.9

Such was, and is, the true meaning of the new order of things at Sinai, after the breaking of the table, and after the complete nullification of the first covenant. It was the way of faith, the way of the “righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.10

But, behold, in their unbelief Israel afterward turned all this into a system of works, precisely as was the first covenant. And those sacrifices and offerings, and the ceremonies connected therewith, were given by the Lord to be altogether the expression of faith. But Israel, in their unbelief, missed all this, and made it only a system of works, of ceremonialism. Instead of righteousness coming by faith, and the sacrifices and offerings being but the expression of the faith, they expected righteousness by means of the offering itself, and because of their good work in making the offering.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.11

Thus it was in the time of Christ on earth, and in the time of Paul and the Galatians. Thus it was with “the Pharisees which believed,” who had confused the Galatians and driven them back from righteousness by faith to righteousness by works and ceremonialism. And, therefore, Paul could write, and did write, “that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.12

Thus the very means that God had given to deliver them from the bondage of the old covenant they, through unbelief, had turned into a system of bondage, which corresponded exactly to that bondage of the old covenant. They had, indeed, perverted the new covenant as then expressed, into the very principle of the old covenant—righteousness by works. That which was the gospel as expressed in the sacrifices, offerings, and ministry of that time, they perverted to the bondage of righteousness by works, and ceremonialism, exactly as among the Galatians the “Pharisees which believed” were perverting the gospel as expressed in the sacrifice and ministry of Christ himself.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.13

And just as Hagar and Ishmael were cast out, that God’s covenant with Abraham might be fully enjoyed; and just as the covenant at Sinai had to be repudiated and cast out, that the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant, the new covenant, might be enjoyed; so when Christ came, and, by the sacrifice and offering of himself and by his own ministration, brought in the fullness of the gospel,—in order that this should be fully enjoyed, there must be repudiated and cast out that system of ceremonies and ceremonialism, that system of righteousness by works, into which Israel had perverted that which in its time was indeed the expression of the true gospel, of righteousness by faith. “Jerusalem which now is... is in bondage with her children... Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.” “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all... Now, we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.14

And thus was cast out forever the very principle of ceremonialism,—the very principle of the bondage of righteousness by works in whatever form it might present itself; and there was established it its place the principle of divine liberty in righteousness by faith. “So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” And because of this there is sounded to all people forever the blessed rallying cry, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.15

The old covenant, the covenant from Sinai, is summed up in the word “SELF.” The new covenant, the everlasting covenant, is summed up in the word “CHRIST.”ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.16

The old covenant is self and his righteousness. The new covenant is Christ and the righteousness of God.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.17

The old covenant is self and the bondage of sin and works of law. The new covenant is Christ and the liberty of righteousness which is by faith.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.18

The old covenant—self—must be cast out, and utterly repudiated, that the new covenant—Christ—may have its proper place and may manifest its saving power, for the son of the bondwoman can never be heir with the son of the free.ARSH July 31, 1900, page 489.19

July 24, 1900

August 7, 1900