Daniel & Revelation

(This is my “disclaimer” I guess you’d say, on this post. I got really sick with the stomach flu and missed a bunch of information. So while everyone else was writing their posts I was having to read and catch up what I missed. So here’s what I have for this assignment so far. I’ve also heard of another view that’s been presented, but I don’t have time to study it out for myself, and I’m not sure which view I agree with. But anyways, here’s the information our teacher presented in class:)

1. The First Seal

“And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals…And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” – Revelation6:1-2

Here in Revelation 6, a horse symbolizes a church. (see Song 1:9 and Eph. 5:31,32).  This church is white – a pure, perfect church – that “went forth conquering, and to conquer”. The NASB says “he went out conquering and to conquer.”

The three angle’s messages (Rev. 14:6-12) was a call to leave the Holy Place and move into the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly sanctuary. These messages were first preached during the advent movement of 1840-1844.  Protestant churches of the day rejected these messages. The white horse symbolizes the people who went out of these churches that rejected the truth. This church is the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

“God has called His church in his day, as He called ancient Israel, to stand as a light in the earth. By the mighty cleaver of truth, the messages of the first, second, and third angels. He has separated them from the churches and from the world to bring them into a sacred nearness to Himself. He has made them the depositaries of His law and has committed to them the great truths of prophecy for this time. Like the holy oracles committed to ancient Israel, these are a sacred trust to be communicated to the world. {5T 455.2}

“The churches would not receive the light of the first angel’s messages, and as they rejected the light from heaven they fell from the favor of God. They trusted in their own strength, and placed themselves by their opposition to the first message where they could not see the light of the second angel’s message. But the beloved of God, who were oppressed, answered the message, Babylon is fallen, and left the fallen churches. {1SG 140.1}

2. The Second Seal

“And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” – Revelation 6:3, 4

“Come now, and let a reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” – Isaiah 1:18

The above verse in Isaiah says “your sins be as scarlet”. This horse that is red – or scarlet- colored – represents a protestant church that has rejected Christ’s mediation (as seen in the first angel’s message). Therefore, they’re sins are upon themselves, which is why the horse is red.

“Many look with horror at the course of the Jews in rejecting and crucifying Christ; and as they read the history of His shameful abuse, they think they love Him, and would not have denied Him as did Peter, or crucified Him as did the Jews. But God who reads the hearts of all, has brought to the test that love for Jesus which they professed to feel. All heaven watched with the deepest interest the reception of the first angel’s message. But many who professed to love Jesus, and who shed tears as they read the story of the cross, derided the good news of His coming.Instead of receiving the message with gladness, they declared it to be a delusion. They hated those who loved His appearing and shut them out of the churches. Those who rejected the first message could not be benefited by the second; neither were they benefited by the midnight cry, which was to prepare them to enter with Jesus by faith into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. And by rejecting the two former messages, they have so darkened their understanding that they can see no light in the third angel’s message, which shows the way into the most holy place. I saw that as the Jews crucified Jesus, so the nominal churches had crucified these messages, and therefore they have no knowledge of the way into the most holy, and they cannot be benefited by the intercession of Jesus there. Like the Jews, who offered their useless sacrifices, they offer up their useless prayers to the apartment which Jesus has left; and Satan, pleased with the deception, assumes a religious character, and leads the minds of these professed Christians to himself, working with his power, his signs and lying wonders, to fasten them in his snare. Some he deceives in one way, and some in another. He has different delusions prepared to affect different minds. Some look with horror upon one deception, while they readily receive another. Satan deceives some with Spiritualism. He also comes as an angel of light and spreads his influence over the land by means of false reformations. The churches are elated, and consider that God is working marvelously for them, when it is the work of another spirit.” {EW 260.1}

Just like the white horse, the red horse is also “went out.” The white horse went out conquering, while the red horse went out from being blessed by God. They did not stand up for the truth, and they “experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message of the first angel.,,” {GC 389.2}

And in what religious bodies are the greater part of the followers of Christ now to be found? without doubt, in the various churches professing the Protestant faith. At the time of their rise these churches took a noble stand for God and the truth, and His blessing was with them. Even the unbelieving world was constrained to acknowledge the beneficent results that followed an acceptance of the principles of the gospel. [Eze. 16:14 quoted]. {GC 383.1} “The great principle so nobly advocated by Robinson and Roger Williams, that truth is progressive, that Christians should stand ready to accept all the light which may shine from God’s holy word, was lost sight of by their descendants. The Protestant churches of America,–and those of Europe as well,–so highly favored in receiving the blessings of the Reformation, failed to press forward in the path of reform. Though a few faithful men arose, from time to time, to proclaim new truth and expose long-cherished error, the majority, like the Jews in Christ’s day or the papists in the time of Luther, were content to believe as their fathers had believed and to live as they had lived. Therefore religion again degenerated into formalism; and errors and superstitions which would have been cast aside had the church continued to walk in the light of God’s word, were retained and cherished. Thus the spirit inspired by the Reformation gradually died out, until there was almost as great need of reform in the Protestant churches as in the Roman Church in the time of Luther. There was the same worldliness and spiritual stupor, a similar reverence for the opinions of men, and substitution of human theories for the teachings of God’s word. {GC 297.2} The wide circulation of the Bible in the early part of the nineteenth century, and the great light thus shed upon the world, was not followed by a corresponding advance in knowledge of revealed truth, or in experimental religion. Satan could not, as in former ages, keep God’s word from the people; it had been placed within the reach of all; but in order still to accomplish his object, he led many to value it but lightly. Men neglected to search the Scriptures, and thus they continued to accept false interpretations, and to cherish doctrines which had no foundation in the Bible. {GC 298.1}

Seeing the failure of his efforts to crush out the truth by persecution, Satan had again resorted to the plan of compromise which led to the great apostasy and the formation of the Church of Rome. He had induced Christians to ally themselves, not now with pagans, but with those who, by their devotion to the things of this world, had proved themselves to be as truly idolaters as were the worshipers of graven images. And the results of this union were no less pernicious now than in former ages; pride and extravagance were fostered under the guise of religion, and the churches became corrupted. Satan continued to pervert the doctrines of the Bible, and traditions that were to ruin millions were taking deep root. The church was upholding and defending these traditions, instead of contending for “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Thus were degraded the principles for which the Reformers had done and suffered so much. {GC 298.2}

The first angel’s message of Revelation 14, announcing the hour of God’s judgment and calling upon men to fear and worship Him, was designed to separate the professed people of God from the corrupting influences of the world and to arouse them to see their true condition of worldliness and backsliding. In this message, God has sent to the church a warning, which, had it been accepted, would have corrected the evils that were shutting them away from Him. Had they received the message from heaven, humbling their hearts before the Lord and seeking in sincerity a preparation to stand in His presence, the Spirit and power of God would have been manifested among them. The church would again have reached that blessed state of unity, faith, and love which existed in apostolic days, when the believers “were of one heart and of one soul,” and “spake the word of God with boldness,” when “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” Acts 4:32, 31; 2:47.” {GC 379.1}

In refusing the warning of the first angel, they rejected the means which Heaven had provided for their restoration. They spurned the gracious messenger that would have corrected the evils which separated them from God, and with greater eagerness they turned to seek the friendship of the world. Here was the cause of that fearful condition of worldliness, backsliding, and spiritual death which existed in the churches in 1844. {GC 380.2}

The second angel’s message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message; but that fall was not complete. {GC 389.2}

When these protestant churches rejected the 1^st angel’s message, they became the third part of Babylon – which is the false prophet.

The Third Seal

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.” – Revelation 6:5

The black horse is again refurring to the protestant churches who rejected the three angels messages. Here, the color black represents the absence of light. The pair of balances in his hands, in the original Greek sometimes means “yoke of bondage”.  When Christians get caught up in obtaining righteousness by works instead of by faith in Christ, they become slaves to the law.

The second angelʼs message was a call to come out of Babylon. “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” Matt. 25:6. “As the churches refused to receive the first angelʼs message, they rejected the light from heaven and fell from the favor of God. They trusted to their own strength.” {EW 237}.

Before the three angel’s messages was proclaimed, protestant churches understood the concept of justification by faith.  However, after rejecting justification by faith  – seen in Christ’s new work in the Most Holy Place – they experienced a moral fall, and are now under a yoke of slavery.

The Fourth Seal

“And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the forth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And Power was given unto them over the forth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with beasts of the earth.” – Revelation 6:7-8

The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that “Babylon is fallen,… because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” She has not yet made all nations do this. The spirit of world conforming and indifference to the testing truths for our time exists and has been gaining ground in churches of the Protestant faith in all the countries of Christendom; and these churches are included in the solemn and terrible denunciation of the second angel. But the work of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination. {GC 389.2}

Protestantism had been progressively falling, but not until after the fulfillment of the 3^rd angel’s message is their fall complete.  By the institution of a National Sunday Law (by Protestant America), they receive the mark of the beast, and are now completely fallen.

The verse says that “Death” sat on the black horse, and “Hell followed with him.” This is stating that the destination of this Pale Horse and Death is “the second death.”

“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” – Revelation 19:20

(This is all I have so far, but more is coming!)

The Fifth Seal  (added later)

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the alter the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held; And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” – Revelation 6:9-11

The group the above verses are referring to are those who have died on the side of Christ; particularly those who have been martyred. After suffering unfathomable hardship and persecution, these courageous Christians are calling out for justice to be passed upon their enemies. However, first the work of the investigative judgment must take place. The righteous dead are judged first, starting in 1844 and closing when the U.S. National Sunday Law is passed. This also marks the beginning of the judgment of the living. At the Sunday Law, all are called to make a choice and are sealed either on the side of God or of Satan.  After this, judgment is passed, and those who were sealed on the side of God get to go to the Marriage.

“Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living.” “…the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God.” {GC 480}

“When the fifth seal was opened, John the Revelator in vision saw beneath the altar the company that were slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. After this came the scenes described in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation, when those who are faithful and true are called out from Babylon. [Rev. 18:1-5 quoted] {MS 39, 1906. 7BC 968}

“And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled’ [Rev.6:9-11]. Here were scenes presented to John that were not in reality but that which would be in a period of time in the future. [Rev.8:1-4, quoted] {20MR 197.5}

(I’m still trying to find time to finish it Mrs. Richards! And catch up with the 7 trumpets that I missed!)

Well, I’m sorry to say that due to lack of time and lots of end of the year homework, this is as far as I’ve been able to get on this assignment. Thanks for being such an awesome Bible teacher Mrs. Richards! I’ve truely learned so much in your class, and it’s really helped me learn how to study my Bible better, which has enriched my own personal devotional life. Thanks a million! -Rachie