HOLY SABBATH -4

The Test

Re 11:18 …And the time of the dead, that they should be judged…

We looked at two prophetic time periods, 1260 years of darkness, when a false religion would rule as a savage Beast-

power; and a 2300 year timetable of light, the schedule of God’s Salvation. The first part of this schedule the Plan of

Salvation was especially committed to the Jews.

Luke 21:24 … until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

The cut-off point was AD 34, the stubborn rejection of the gospel by the Jews shown in the stoning of Stephen in spite of clear

evidence that God was with him, was a turning point. Soon after the gospel went to all peoples with equal intensity. But what

happened in 1844? We will find out.

Now let’s zero in on the time of darkness. We are told: Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

Both these texts refer to the same event; both add up to 1260 day/years. God is allowing a time for Satan to demonstrate the working out of his ‘religion’. But God’s people are encouraged – it will end!

It is not that God has no care for His suffering people that they ‘are given’ into the hand of the beast power, nor does it mean He is not with them; but in His infinite wisdom He knows that all created beings must see that ‘Lucifer’ has been given a fair chance to prove his claims of a ‘superior’ government and religion.

Of God’s true ones at this time it is said: Dan 11:32,33 … but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.

It continues:

Dan.11:34,35 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.

The ‘little help’ here is the same as when Jesus said the days would be shortened. Matt 24:22. It was fulfilled by the time of the reformation and also the hordes of Saracens that began to attack the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ at that time distracting the armies from attacking the faithful believers.

Now notice the phrase ‘time of the end’ and ‘time appointed’. Here God is encouraging His persecuted ones to take courage - the end of this was coming soon.

Time of the end refers to the end of that time period – 1798. At this time great changes took place in the religious world. The Papal head was ‘wounded’, and a new nation built on the principle of religious freedom was arising in the West. To the degree in which the sacred precepts of God-given freedom of conscience were practiced, this nation grew and prospered.

The world for the first time looked upon a government without a King and religion without a pope – and the contrast was amazing!!

Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Something else was going to happen at the end of that time prophecy; the larger 2300 day/year prophecy of the book of Daniel, called the ‘Mystery of God’, (Rev. 10:7) would be unsealed as attention was drawn to the book of Daniel and people all over the world began to study into the time prophecies.

Hundreds of books and papers were written on the subject and all presented the conclusion that something notable was about to happen in the 1840s.

It was called the ‘Great Advent Awakening’ and it swept the world like wild-fire. A man named William Miller devoted many years to studying out the time prophecies of Daniel and saw they pointed to around 1843-44.

Impressed with the need of the people to know these things he began to preach in 1833 that the coming of the Lord could be looked for around that time. The Millerite movement shook the world, but when the time passed and nothing seemed to have happened, most rejected the prophecy and the preachers as deluded.

But a few faithful ones knew their studies were correct and so they searched to find out what HAD happened on that day so clearly pointed to in the Bible.

They soon learned from scripture that this date was when Jesus came into the Most Holy Pace of the sanctuary in heaven to begin the pre-Advent judgment - where the cases of all who have claimed to be God’s people were to be examined and decision made as to whether or not they were to be saved. This was to be completed before Christ returns for His people .

Daniel saw it this way:

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, (this means ‘placed’ as in place seats for a group to sit on.) and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. Daniel 7:-10

Daniel 7:13,14 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom.

Then they knew that 1844 on Oct.22 was the time the Lord came in before His Father and the final work of atonement, equal to the ‘Day of Atonement in the ceremonial year of Israel, was to begin.

As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living.

Although they do not appear in person, every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life, and the record of their good deeds will be erased from the book of God's remembrance. We are told in particular that this savage Beast-power was judged:Daniel 7:26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

Revelation 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life. It is thus the Saviour receives His kingdom of those He has redeemed.

This is the meaning of the text: Daniel 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

The ‘Cleansing of the Sanctuary’ took place once a year, when the High Priest would go in before the Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place and make an atonement for the sins of the people, symbolically removing them from the sanctuary.

This was a solemn time and pointed to the final cleansing of sin from the repentant believer and the records of that sin from the Heavenly Sanctuary by the Blood of the Lamb of God.

But there will come a point that this Investigative Judgement will proceed to the cases of those still living on earth! What then?

Remember that wounded beast-power of 1798? Well, we learned it would be healed! Revelation 13:3 “… and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.”

The wound was the loss of political power and we see a time that the political power will return and Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

Aha! We see the judgement brought out here! Those that worship this false religious-political power are blotted out of the Lamb’s Book of Life ; those that refuse to worship It - overcome and are saved! Revelation 20:4 “… which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

Notice although, the wounded Beast springs into action again—the saints are NOT given into his hand as before!

Those that worship the Beast, do it by receiving his MARK:

Revelation 7:2,3 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: …till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Those who refuse the MARK receive the SEAL of GOD! Do you remember what the Seal of God is? See #1 in this series. The Seal of God is the 4th commandment – the 7th day Sabbath that declared the right of the Creator to be obeyed by His creatures!

And the MARK? What is the MARK of the Beast-power, that great sun-worshipping counterfeit that Satan has set up to destroy the knowledge of the True God and put himself in its place? Let’s ask that power what is its MARK of authority, shall we?

“The church...took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday.... The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom.... And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday.” Dr. William L. Gildea, The Catholic World , March, 1894.

“The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her Divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.”—The Catholic Mirror , September 23, 1893.

“The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God...is purely a creation of the Catholic Church. It is...not governed by the enactments of the Mosaic law. It is part and parcel of the system of the Catholic Church.”—John Gilmary Shea, The American Catholic Quarterly Review , January, 1883.

"Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change (Saturday Sabbath to Sunday) was her act... And the act is a MARK of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things." H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons.

"The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] church." Monsignor Louis Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today (1868), p. 213

"Reason and sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicism and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible. -James Cardinal Gibbons. Catholic mirror, December 23, 1893

"Sunday is our MARK of authority. . .the Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact" Catholic Record of London, Ontario Sept 1, 1923.

"The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed the Sabbath into Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority." Canon and Tradition, p. 263

"Is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify." -James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (1917 ed.), pp. 72, 73.

Question - Which is the Sabbath day? Answer - Saturday is the Sabbath day. Question - Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Answer - We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday." The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, p. 50, 3rd ed.

Question—"Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?

"Answer "Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modem religionists agree with her ,—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority." —Priest Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, chap. 2, P. 174 {Imprimatur by John Cardinal McCloskey, archbishop of New York. Roman Catholic}.

"If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church."—Albert Smith, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replying for the Cardinal in a letter of Feb. 10, 1920.

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

As Satan set up his counterfeit religion in opposition to God, he also set up a counterfeit of everything including the Sabbath day.

God says “REMEMBER”

Man says “FORGET IT”

God says “Obey Me!”

Satan’s False Religions say, “Do your own thing in the name of God.” (Be your own God! Or better yet, make me your God!)

God says, “The Seventh day is the Sabbath!”

Man says, “Honour the Venerable Day of the Sun!”

God says, “Choose YE who you will serve.”

Man says, “Go along with the crowd.”

There is a CHOICE to be made! Each individual has to make it for himself!

“Will I obey God? Or will I obey the resurrected Beast-power?”

Satan’s counterfeit religions have certain characteristics. It does us well to notice and avoid any such religious systems. Here are a few:

• They all exalt Man’s ideas as equal to, or superior to the Word of God.

• They put much emphasis on the Name of the Lord, and ‘Love’, but very little on the Law of the Lord. Compromise is common.

• They play down the importance of repentance and forsaking of sin.

• They exalt in ritual, ceremonies entertainment and celebrations.

• They point people to groups, unity, fellowship as the ultimate in religious experience.

• They exalt human leaders as representing God to their congregations.

• Human leaders are looked to as Specially Qualified in the things of God. The ‘lay-man’ is considered unqualified to choose his own way.

• Force, manipulation, coercion, ridicule and other subtle methods are used to get people into line with leaders’ desires.

• Those who seek to obey God’s Word are declared ‘unloving’ ‘Legalistic’ and ‘Divisive’. The ‘organisation’ is supreme; the individual is nothing.

The judgement soon will pass to the living. God has a TEST of loyalty. That

TEST is keeping the Ten Commandments, including the fourth,

by the Grace of Christ. Soon the governments of the world will follow

the false religious counterfeit and will pass laws to force all to keep the

Sunday and those who obey the Lord will be persecuted and finally

sentenced to death.

But the obedient will win, they will receive the Seal of God!

The beast will roar; but God’s truth will triumph!

Revelation 18:21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus

with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be

found no more at all.

The Bible tells the story in 3 messages that go forth at the ‘time of the end’ of the 1260 and 2300 day/year prophecy of Daniel:

Revelation 14:6-11 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 God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

Notice this clearly calls for a return to loyalty to the Creator God, the ONE God Who MADE, and the only One Who can RE-MAKE!

Fear Him! Reverence and obey the Creator God, do it NOW! Why now? Because the HOUR of His judgment is come!

Revelation 11:18 … 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; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

Babylon is the great counterfeit religion, the name means ‘confusion’ for this is Satan’s specialty. That is what she is, a confused mess of truth and error mixed together by the great deceiver to destroy! Her ‘Wine’ is her false teachings. Her fornication is using State Power to enforce her dogmas.

This warning first went out in 1844; it is to be repeated in our day:

Revelation 18:2-4 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. …And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

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, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

To receive the Mark, when the decree goes forth to FORCE all to receive it, means Eternal Death !

God has set up a TEST, by the CHOICE each person makes at the show-down, we will SEAL our destinies. We will show by our own choice – WHO IS MY GOD ! The Creator who made me? Or myself and man’s authority?

Obey God and REMEMBER the 7th Day Sabbath of the Creator!

Obey Man and Worship the SUN-day!

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the

faith of Jesus.Revelation 14:11

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Revelation 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,

and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.