FOURTH QUARTER 2023
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #13
DECEMBER 30, 2023
“THE END OF GOD’S MISSION”

 

The title of this week’s lesson provides us with hope. There will be an end to God’s mission. God will save everyone who wants to live eternally while serving others in love. The wicked’s exclusion from heaven will be voluntary with themselves, and not an arbitrary restriction on God’s part. — see Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 542.  Selfishness, betrayal, lying, pride, gossip, anger, self-promotion, sickness, alienation, hurt, fear, anxiety, shame, insecurity, sadness, will all come to an end!

But this begs the question we might ask God, “Why don’t you bring your mission to an end?” If God extends the misery going on all over this planet one day longer than absolutely necessary, then He bears the responsibility for all that suffering. There must be, for His sake, for humanity’s sake, and for the universe’s sake, a compelling reason why God has not ended His mission.

The most frequent response to the inquiry about why Jesus hasn’t returned is that we haven’t “finished the gospel commission.” Matthew 24:14 tells us, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Thus, we’re told, the only hold up in the second coming of Jesus is gospel message propagation.

While we must acknowledge the blessing and necessity of the gospel going to all the world before the second coming, this answer neglects to appreciate that the first century Christians finished this gospel commission, and Jesus didn’t return. The gospel went to the world in the first century, and God’s mission did not end!

“the gospel . . . was preached to every creature under heaven” (Colossians 1:23).

“the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world” (Colossians 1:5-6).

“The commission that Christ gave to the disciples, they fulfilled. As these messengers of the cross went forth to proclaim the gospel, there was such a revelation of the glory of God as had never before been witnessed by mortal man. By the co-operation of the divine Spirit, the apostles did a work that shook the world. To every nation was the gospel carried in a single generation.” — Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 593, emphasis supplied, here and throughout.

If the delay in God ending His mission is not merely a message propagation failure, is God waiting for the world to become more wicked? I had a very recent conversation with an Adventist friend who felt that now that the world was in such an evil and terrible condition that Jesus had to come.

But this neglects the fact that the world was so wicked before the flood that God destroyed nearly the whole world, and this didn’t allow Him to end His mission. It wasn’t enough for God to point out the terrible ante-diluvian wickedness as evidence that He was right, and Satan wrong.

If we are to take Ellen White’s statements seriously that there has been a delay, that Jesus could have returned in the 1800s, then the wait was not merely for increasing wickedness.

“Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming it to the world, they would have seen the salvation of God, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward.” — Ellen G. White, Evangelism, p. 695.

The world was “wicked enough” in the 1800s. I think we all believe it’s wicked enough today.

Revelation 7 tells us that God, through His “four angels,” is holding back the final winds of strife and destruction until something happens. “Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads” (Revelation 7:2,3).

We are told that this sealing in the foreheads that must precede the second coming is a “sealing” in the “foreheads.”

“Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads--it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come.” — Ellen G. White, Manuscript 173, 1902.

What will cause the shaking?

“I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God's people.” — Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 270.

Where in Seventh-day Adventist history do we see “the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans”?

“The message given us by A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner is the message of God to the Laodicean church, and woe be unto anyone who professes to believe the truth and yet does not reflect to others the God-given rays.” — Ellen G. White, 1888 Materials, p. 1052.

There is a short line of inspired understanding that in 1888, through Elders A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner, God was desiring to bring about the “end of God’s mission.” God was sending us just what we needed to bring about repentance, revival, and reformation. A message that presented the “matchless charms of Christ.” A message that was “most precious.” A message that presented a Saviour Who was “nigh at hand and not afar off.”

Do I overstate the value and beauty and importance of the 1888 message?

The inspired counsel of 1,821 pages says, “No,” it is not overstated.

Have we as individuals and a corporate church understood, appreciated, and lived out in our experience the truths of the 1888 message?

I confess I have not!

But God is faithful!

“It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.” — Ellen G. White, Testimonies, Vol. 8, pp. 22-23.

It’s the goodness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). The 1888 message is a message of God’s goodness, meant to lead us individually and corporately to repentance. As we enter a new year, may we study it, live it, and share it – so that God’s mission can be ended.

“The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character, they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.” — Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 415. 

~Bob Hunsaker