The Hour of His Judgment
FIRST QUARTER 2023
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #6
MAY 6, 2023
“THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT”
This week’s lesson, The Hour of God’s Judgment, is about God’s exact mathematical science. Several divine mathematically calculated and measured elements of simple arithmetic and an algebraic formula are directly connected to God’s pre-advent judgment. These include, but are not limited to, the time prophecies of the 2300 days presented in Daniel 8:14 and the 70 weeks in chapter 9:24-27. Other prophetic time elements such as the 1260 days/years are also connected with the hour of God’s judgment (Daniel 7:25-26; Revelation 13:5-10).
The prophetic time elements of the 5th trumpet “woe” of “five months” (Revelation 9:10) contiguous with “the hour and day and month and year” of the 6th trumpet “woe” (verse 15) are likewise connected with the time of God’s judgment. These prophetic time messages are basic to the pre-advent judgment hour message announcement presented in 1840. The first two trumpet proclamations are followed by the 7th trumpet which calls our attention to the opening of the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Temple (Revelation 11:19, 18) in 1844. It is during the time of the 7th trumpet when “the mystery of God” (“the everlasting gospel”) will be finished. (Revelation 10:7).
The trumpet messages are historical, prophetical and theological events fulfilled in the past, but are still present truth today, enabling us to trust in the truthfulness of God’s promises. Note the following: “All the messages given from 1840-1844 are to be made forcible now, for there are many people who have lost their bearings. The messages are to go to all the churches.” —Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases Vol. 21, p. 437.
And this:
In the year 1840 another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire. According to his calculations [of the time elements in Revelation 9:10 and 15], this power was to be overthrown “in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August;” and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: “Allowing the first period, 150 years [Revelation 9:10], to have been exactly fulfilled before Deacozes ascended the throne by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years, fifteen days [Revelation 9:15], commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken. And this, I believe, will be found to be the case.” - Josiah Litch, in Signs of the Times, and Expositor of Prophecy, Aug. 1, 1840.
At the very time specified, Turkey, through her ambassadors, accepted the protection of the allied powers of Europe, and thus placed herself under the control of Christian nations. The event exactly fulfilled the prediction. When it became known, multitudes were convinced of the correctness of the principles of prophetic interpretation adopted by Miller and his associates, and a wonderful impetus was given to the advent movement. Men of learning and position united with Miller, both in preaching and in publishing his views, and from 1840 to 1844 the work rapidly extended. —Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 334-335.
The prophecy of the first angel's message, brought to view in Revelation 14, found its fulfillment in the Advent movement of 1840-1844. In both Europe and America, men of faith and prayer were deeply moved as their attention was called to the prophecies, and, tracing down the inspired record, they saw convincing evidence that the end of all things was at hand. The Spirit of God urged His servants, to give the warning. Far and wide spread the message of the everlasting gospel, “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His Judgment is come.” [Revelation 14:7] —Ellen G. White, Spirit of Prophecy Vol. 4, p. 222.
The first angel’s message of 1840 went to every mission station in the world.
The advent movement of 1840-44 was a glorious manifestation of the power of God; the first angel's message was carried to every missionary station in the world, and in some countries, there was the greatest religious interest which has been witnessed in any land since the Reformation of the sixteenth century; but these are to be exceeded by the mighty movement under the last warning of the third angel. —Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan, p. 611.
Within a couple of years of my baptism into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I was studying the writings of Jones, Waggoner and Prescott. Jones, in one of his sermons at the General Conference in 1893 titled “The Third Angel’s Message – 7” in which he quoted the following from an unpublished manuscript by Mrs. White about the power attending the message for this time, riveted my attention:
Another testimony that has never been printed says, that this will come as suddenly as it did in '44, and with “ten times the power.” —A.T. Jones, General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 5, 1893, p. 152.
Thinking that this quote most certainly would have been published by the time it was read by me, I began to search for it but to no avail. Concluding that this was one of those so-called apocryphal statements assumed to have been written by Mrs. White, I stopped searching for it. More than twenty years later I purchased the Spaulding and Magan “Miscellaneous Collections” which was a compilation of her writings. On page four I read: “I saw the latter rain was coming as [suddenly as] the midnight cry, and with ten times the power.”
The time for this message and its convicting and converting power is long overdue. It will come, and when it does, the greatest movement in the history of mankind will happen. Nothing will be able to prevent nor stop it. But it will not come until we, as a corporate entity, have incorporated through faith and repentance, the messages of the three angels into our individual and collective minds and hearts. This will come through believers who make up the rank and file of the Church. The greatest Bible studies are just ahead; the greatest preaching is yet to be; and the greatest proclamation of the everlasting gospel is straight ahead. Angels of heaven will unite with God’s Remnant who have experienced God’s deep work of justification by faith in mind and heart, which lays our glory in the dust, both individually and corporately.
I was particularly interested in articles by Jones in our magazines and in his historical books regarding the relationship between the messages of the three angels of Revelation 14 and those of the trumpets in Revelation 8-11 which are the basis for the Three Angels’ Messages.
Here are a few examples:
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.
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. —A.T. Jones, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, July 31, 1900.
In several chapters in his book “The Great Nations of Today” Jones presents the Seven Trumpets and the Third Angel’s Message. We have additional information today about the Ottoman Empire or Turkey that he did not have when he wrote this book. Nevertheless, the demonstrated historic principles of interpretation used by Jones are solid.
Jesus gave the time elements in the book of Revelation, and He did the same in the book of Daniel. The trumpet messages of Revelation 8-11 point to Christ’s closing ministry in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly Sanctuary, just as the prophecies in Daniel 7-9 point to His final work of atonement.
Not only did Daniel write about the time for the beginning of the cleansing of the sanctuary in 1844 (chapter 8:14), he also wrote of the time of the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus in A.D. 27 and 31. Jesus verified the validity of the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 shortly after His baptism as recorded for us in Mark 1:14-15 as He proclaimed “the time is fulfilled, repent and believe the gospel.” The only time element He could have been referring to is Daniel 9:25-27.
Daniel 9 and the crucifixion of Jesus are the foundation for the cleansing of the sanctuary as outlined in chapter 8.
The time given for the beginning of the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14 (the 2300 days/years) was proclaimed by Christ to Daniel. He then commanded Gabriel to explain it to Daniel in verse 15.
In verse 13 “a holy one” directed a question about time to “that certain one.” He asked, “How long will the vision be?” “That certain one” answered and proclaimed to Daniel the 2300 days/years prophecy in verse 14.
“That Certain one” is Jesus. In the marginal reference the name “Palmoni” is given and translated as the Wonderful Numberer.” This term is related to the term “Wonderful” is “His name” (among other titles) by which He “will be called” (Isaiah 9:6) — “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
We are thankful to God for this quarter’s Sabbath School Lessons about the Three Angels’ Messages. These are the last messages of mercy and of warning that when believed from the heart and proclaimed by the lips will prepare people for the second coming of Christ (Revelation 14:6-20).
In closing, these messages begin and end with justification by faith. The “everlasting gospel” is the message of Christ and His righteousness as the justifying, changing power of God (Romans 1:16-17) and the Faith of Jesus is justification by faith. Thus, these two are the bookends of the three-fold message. These are the messages that are solidly supported by the precise mathematical science of the time elements in Daniel and Revelation in this very hour of the pre-advent judgment of God.
~Pastor Jerry Finneman