Deeper Insights Into The Great Controversy Between Christ & Satan & The Purpose Of The Elect & The 144,000

Paul tells us that the Father dwells in a mysterious light which no one can approach unto…(approach, here, I believe means to understand or comprehend with our carnal mind).

So, this Great Controversy is for the purpose of revealing who the Father is so we can APPROACH or go into the Father’s Heart* and understand who He really is, which was the whole purpose of Christ’s mission, which He said He had completed or fulfilled….John 17:1-4.

He really thought, at that point, before He crossed the creek and went into the Garden of Gethsamane, that He had fulfilled it but in reality, He had not yet done it…because He had to drink the cup which involved and included being put on trial and crucified…and then finally He said, “It is Finished.” But only the first part was completed…not the last part which is even now being completed in our lives and will continue as the Elect and 144,000 are being formed for a special purpose…More on that later.

* Jeremiah 23:18-20. “In the latter days (now) we are going to understand it.”

Let me try and explain here quickly as my time is limited …

The good or holy angels have been learning along with the rest of the universe, even the unholy or fallen angels have been learning as well.

Please notice Job 4:18 and couple that with I Pet 1:12 and what Paul says in Gal. 1:8 re: an “angel from heaven” which is truly heavy with implications re: the total or complete understanding of even the Holy Angels, who, to this moment, have not made a final decision as to the success the Father is going to have by getting 144,000 sealed and totally bringing the Elect to perfection with His name in their foreheads.

“He charged them with folly.” Job 4:17, 18. Who are these angels? The evil angels? Yes, certainly. But notice in this verse and at Sinai, according to Paul in Galatians the word “angels” is not qualified or limited only to the good or evil but actually to all of them.

So, what is the problem. It is the issue of the Law. But now we have to reveal that there are TWO LAWS. Just as there are Two Lords, a true and a false one there are also Two Laws.

  1. The Law of Agape Love which is the Law of Psalm 19:7 and all of Psalm 119. It is the original law that the Father put in each of His creatures. It is the Royal Law of Liberty James speaks about.
  2. The false Law, which Lucifer introduced in Gen 2, is THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. This is what Jesus came to expose and destroy by His life and death. Heb 2:14. Light destroyed darkness.

Rom 8:1, 2 (after Rom 7 long discussion about the two Laws) reveals these two laws completely. Here Paul clearly states that through Jesus’ life and teachings and death we have been “SET FREE” or Delivered from this false LAW OF SIN AND DEATH, Genesis 2…via the TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

Now, I finally found the following article which I will post here and then separately as well for your consideration which goes into greater detail about this issue from Gen 2 and 3 regarding this false Law of Sin and death which originates from THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. The Father never sanctioned nor put His stamp of approval on this tree…did not authorize it at all. Actually, this Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was set in place or planted on every unfallen planet before our little was created, as the following article will reveal.

I could never have understood this concept re: how Lucifer perpetrated a lie to all the universe as well as the whole angelic realm even before this world was created, without the Shekinah, Holy Ghost explaining it to me little by little.

I also had a friend who suggested some points as well. EGW states in Patriarchs & Prophets that the Father “suffered long with Lucifer and he almost came back and confessed” but just like Judas, at the Last Supper, he wanted the riches and glory all to himself. Ezek 28 brings this out.

A friend of mine with deep insights, now deceased, stated that the Spirit had told him that the Great Controversy in heaven lasted the same amount of time before Lucifer was “cast out” as it has lasted here on this planet.

That would be now over 6,000 + as we go on into the 21st century. EGW also states that Lucifer was able to deceive everyone, even the good angels….”He deceived angels.” She is referring even to the 2/3rds loyal angels. Look at Job 4:17, 18…”His angels (all of them, even the good ones) He charged with folly.” The Hebrew word “folly” there means “making or coming to a decision based on incomplete and fragmentary evidence.

The angelic realm mainly bases their conclusions on logic and law. MB 109 states that the angels did not even realize that the Father had a “law” at the time Lucifer told them that they were all subject to and controlled “by laws.”

Yes, it was true. But it was the “Law of Love.”

But Lucifer perverted this truth into a lie by converting the Law of the Spirit of Life and Love into a “Law of Sin and Death” by inventing the concept of “THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.” Rom 8:1, 2.

That was what Jesus came to destroy…the “Power of death” which the codified law receives its strength from. “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” I Cor 15:56. (codified law of sin and death) which was codified at Sinai with the law in Stone.

The word “law” has two meanings just like other words have dual or two meanings or definitions. For example, the word “fear,” has two meanings. 1. Awe Reverence and 2. to be afraid or frightened/scared. The word “fire” also has two meanings. The first is the “fire of God” which is not literal but like the Burning Bush in Exodus 1-3, and the Tongues of Fire on the Day of Pentecost. This is not literal fire because God’s fire is never destructive but always life giving. The second kind of fire is literal, an aberration from the fall which exists only in this dream state night mare, hypnotic trance “a deep sleep” Lucifer was allowed to put Adam into first and later Abraham, into a second layer or level of sleep described in Gen 15. Jesus came to wake us up because He was never put into that Deep Sleep, but was allowed to experience it when He went into Gethsemane.

The basic temptations to sin (missing the mark causing separation from our Creators) really never changed.

DA 19 tells us that “this little world is the lesson book for the universe.” And Nahum 1:9 says “The Lord (Yahweh Father) is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble: and He knows them that trust in Him. But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies what do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: AFFLICTION SHALL NOT RISE UP THE SECOND TIME.” Nahum 1:7-9.

Why Is the 144,000 So Mysterious, Controversial & Important?

I know it takes time to read and understand some of the messages the Lord has inspired me to write. But just pray and ask the Lord for Wisdom and Understanding and I Know that you will be blessed as you learn the importance and real purpose of the 144,000. I just finished this long article yesterday which I have been working on for about 2 or 3, weeks almost day and night. It has taken me months to comprehend what the Lord was trying to explain and help me to understand about this subject or topic of the 144,000 which is mentioned two times in the book of Revelation, taking up two entire chapters, i.e. Chapter 7 and Chapter 14. When the Bible repeats even one verse or one event more than once, that repetition means that it is extremely important.

In a nut shell, to boil it down to a few sentences or paragraphs, I have written a summary of why this is so vital to understand. Before this earth was even created the Father allowed Lucifer, the most beautiful and intelligent of all the angels (Ezek 28 & Isa 14) to announce or inform all of the beings or inhabitants (Rev 12) of the universe (unfallen worlds), that the Father had authorized or commissioned or sanctioned (given Lucifer the authority) to tell them, that the Father had made a new law. And that new law was that on every planet there was to be a tree designated as THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

This one tree, on each planet, was to be a LOYALTY TEST. No one questioned this announcement because everyone loved and adored Lucifer because he was so wise and beautiful. Ezekiel 28. But it was a lie. This was exposed in the OT in principle but not clearly until Jesus came in the flesh as one of us to reveal the truth about the true personality and character of the Father.

Each shining star you see at night is actually a sun around which a number of planets are spinning or revolving. In our own planetary system there are at least nine planets which revolve around our sun which is 93 million miles from planet earth. It has been speculated that there was a plan to create beings on other planets as well but when Adam and Eve fell everything stopped/ceased.

Our world, planet earth, was the last world or planet that has been created, as far as we know. The moon was once a blazing sun itself, a lesser light, but at the time of the flood the moon’s fire, whatever it was, went out and the sun was toned down to what it is today. Isa 30:26 is a prophecy of how the Lord will “heal the stroke of their wound” when the earth is restored and brought back from the “stroke of their wound” (the fall of Adam & Eve) in Gen 1-3. This will happen after the 1,000 years when the Lord re-creates this planet and restores all things. “Behold, I make all things new.” (v 5) Rev 21:1-5.

Our little world is the LESSON BOOK OF THE UNIVERSE. DA 19. (Desire of Ages is a book by Ellen G. White, who was a 19th century writer and Messenger to the SDA Church until she died in 1915.

Lucifer was allowed (without any contradiction) to announce this “LAW OF SIN AND DEATH” regarding this concept of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil on every planet before our world, planet earth, was even created. Why? Well, how could the God family, Father Yahweh and Mother El Shaddai (Jerusalem or Zion) and Son Michael & His Shekinah (Holy Ghost, Daughter of Zion, Jere 4) expose Lucifer’s lie about this Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil being a LAW of GOD without causing a serious upheaval in the courts of heaven and the entire universe. Because of the angel’s great love and almost worship of Lucifer and the unfallen world’s great admiration of Lucifer.

They would not understand or believe that Lucifer had lied about this new Law of Sin and Death re: one tree being a “Tree of Allegiance.”

This was not a law that the Father had actually commissioned and commanded or sanctioned. It was only permitted, the same as the Father permitted “bad” laws to be passed by Israel later on. Ezekiel 20:24-26. Read Desire of Ages, 758, 759 where we are told that it was “not until the death of Christ (that) the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds.” Listen to what Jesus said on this very topic of “fruit” and “plants.” “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit.” Matt 12:33. Then in Matt 15:13 Jesus said: “Every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up.”

If you start reading from Matt 15:1 down to v 13 you will see what the issue and controversy is really all about. It has to do with the “tradition” or “laws” of the elders (v 2) which had evidently been developed after the return from the Babylonian captivity. Jesus rebuked them for trying to force this tradition on the people while they were breaking or transgressing the very “commandment of God” by their tradition. (v 3). After the disciples told Jesus that the Pharisees were offended by Jesus rebuke (v 12) Jesus made this insightful statement that “every plant” that had not been planted or authorized or sanctioned by the Father must be rooted up. So, we see that Jesus had come to do this very work of “weeding” the garden of Planet Earth from all of the false teachings and doctrines that Satan had planted from the very beginning of time, even before this earth was created. Matt 13..parable of the Sower who sowed good seed.

So, this will be the glorious work of the 144,000 to be able to speak to the whole universe through some kind of supernatural projection of their very persons via some kind of holographic imagery onto every planet so they can reveal the truth that ALL OF GOD’S TREES ARE good. Somehow the 144,000 will be able to partake of each one of the trees on every planet, which has been designated as a Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil and declare, “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in Him.” Psalm 34:8.

The Greek word for Taste is Genomai which means to “experience or perceive.” Strong’s 2938, 2940. The Hebrew word means judgment, reason and understanding. This is what Satan does not want us to experience because when we “experience” Jesus we know that Satan is a liar and a deceiver. John 8:44. In 2 Sam 14:24 – 45 is an amazing story of how the godly son of Saul, Johnathan, exposed his father Saul’s law of forbidding anyone to eat any food to be an evil and bad law. “Cursed be the man that eats any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food.” V 24. KJV.

However, v 25 tells us that “Jonathan had not heard the oath (Saul’s law forbidding anyone to eat anything until sundown) Saul had put on the army, so he dipped the end of his stick into the honey and lifted some out of it and ate it. Then he felt better. Then one of the soldiers old Jonathan, ‘Your father mad an oath for all the soldiers. He said any man who eats today will be cursed! That’s why they are so weak. Jonathan said, ‘My father has made trouble for the land! See how much better I feel after just tasting a little of this honey! It would have been much better for the men to eat the food they took from their enemies today. We could have killed many more Philistines.” CEV Version. The KJV reads: “I pray (ask) you, (look at) how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.” V. 29.

Notice the parallel here between this “bad or evil” law of King Saul and Lucifer’s law against eating of one of the trees and also of the Tree of Life even, which we read in Proverbs 3:13 and on which tells us how wonderful and life giving “Wisdom” is. “Happy is the man (person) that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding…it is better than … silver..and than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou can desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left is riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retains her. The Lord (Yahweh, Father) by Wisdom has founded the earth; by understanding has he established the heavens.” Proverbs 3:13-19.

Compare this to Proverbs 8:22-31 as well as what Jesus said about Wisdom having children who “justify her” * by their witness of her goodness in her life as on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2 when they were filled with the Shekinah glory, who is Wisdom, the feminine face of God. And what were these 120 saying in all of the languages there in Jerusalem on that glorious day of Pentecost? “We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” Acts 2:11. Psalm 19:10 tells us: “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Matt 11:19; Luke 7:35.

This is David’s conclusion of the law of God, the true and original law of love in the heart, which Lucifer perverted into a false codified law of “sin and death” when he lied to the universe by telling them that one tree on every planet was off limits because this was to be a “loyalty Test” and proof that they really loved the Lord and would serve him.

So, that is how the “Tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil” began.

Then it was decided and agreed upon by the God family that only time would reveal the truth about this new law Lucifer said He had been commissioned to announce and establish as the “Law of God.” Jesus told the Jewish leaders that they were “of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:44. The 144,000 will truly be the first fruits of all of her (Wisdom’s) children who will “Justify” her for telling Eve to eat of that forbidden tree so as to expose Satan’s lie that there was death in the creation instead of total goodness which the true God had stated after each day of creation in Gen 1.

This will be explained more fully in the following article. May the Lord bless you as you read this article. Your friend, Pastor Mike.

WHY HAVE WE BEEN TOLD TO “Strive with all of our might to be AMONG THE 144,000?” What is the real reason & purpose?

When the Lord delivered Israel out of Egyptian bondage after 430 years of sojourning (actually wandering) Exodus 12:40, He told them His plan for them was to be a “special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” Ex 19:5, 6.

As we know now, this never happened because of their rebellion in worshiping the golden calf and then continuing to rebel by complaining about Moses’ leadership every time they had any kind of difficulty or problem. This went on for 40 long years as well as after they crossed Jordan and went into the Promised Land. The books of Joshua, Judges and the Kings and Chronicles tell the story as well as Isaiah, Jeremiah and the minor prophets.

All through the sad history of the children of Israel, century after century, God’s professed people continually rejected the true Lord’s offer of salvation. Finally, Jesus came in person, in a body of flesh, like our own, to reveal in person the real truth about His Father and the God family. But only a few believed. In Matt 21:42-46 Jesus predicted that a nation of people would eventually receive the Kingdom of God. He referred them to the famous prophecy of Isaiah 28:16 regarding how the builders of Solomon’s temple kept on rejecting the true cornerstone.

In the book “Desire of Ages,” we read how Jesus cleansed this same temple over 1,000 years after Solomon had it built. In fact, He cleansed it two times. In the chapter, “The Temple Cleansed Again,” the author explains the deeper meaning and implication of why Jesus was led to do this. “Looking with pity upon them, the Savior continued, ‘Did you never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: This is the Lord’s (Father) doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof….This prophecy the Jews had often repeated in the synagogues, applying it to the coming Messiah. Christ was the cornerstone of the Jewish economy, and of the whole plan of salvation. This foundation stone the Jewish builders, the priests and rulers of Israel, were now rejecting. The Savior called their attention to the prophecies that would show them their danger. By every means in His power He sought to make plain to them the nature of the deed they were about to do.” DA 597.

On the Day of Pentecost the Lord finally found 120 human beings with whom He could fill with His Shekinah glory, the Holy Ghost. This was the former rain but this event with the 120 is a type of the final Elect today, in this last hour of earth’s history, whom He wants to fill with even greater power and glory via the Holy Ghost. This is the Latter Rain. The 144,000 will be the anti-type to fulfill the type of the 120. This same 144,000 will be the nation which both Isaiah and Jesus was predicting would finally receive “The Kingdom of God.” Matt 21:43, 44. The problem today is that the professed people of God are rejecting the this offer the same as the Jews did when Jesus made them this same incredible offer. And that offer is being made to you, my friend, right now today. Will you accept it and enter into His marvelous heart of love? This is what this study is going to be about my friend. Entering into His promised rest Paul refers to in Hebrews 4.

Although I have written several articles on the final events which will the book of Revelation has predicted, I have not explained the real purpose of the 144,000 and their mission. Why? Because the Lord had not revealed it to me until the last few weeks and months, little by little. The book of Revelation is our guidebook for the last seven years of this earth’s history.

There are two events which begin or start the last seven years and finish or complete it. The first event is the enactment of the National Sunday Law and the second is the World Wide Sunday Law Death Decree after 3 ½ years. Most people do not realize that the National Sunday Law will be progressive. It will start out like the seat belt law with just a suggestion that we should have respect for the Lord’s Day by spending more time with the family. That Sunday should not be so commercialized. During this same time more and more disasters will be taking place. Here is the prediction the Lord has given through His servant for the times we are living in right now, today, just before Sunday is going to become the focal point of the controversy in regard to the Sabbath and which day really is God’s true day of worship. The following quote is from the book “The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan,” beginning on page 589.

“Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer. His temptations are leading multitudes to ruin. Intemperance dethrones reason; sensual indulgence, strife, and bloodshed follow. Satan delights in war, for it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another, for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God.

Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would–He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.

While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. “The earth mourneth and fadeth away,” “the haughty people . . . do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” Isaiah 24:4, 5.

And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday Sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity. Thus the accusation urged of old against the servant of God will be repeated and upon grounds equally well established: “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.” 1 Kings 18:17, 18. As the wrath of the people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course toward God’s ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel pursued toward Elijah.

The miracle-working power manifested through spiritualism will exert its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men. Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error, affirming that the laws of the land should be obeyed as the law of God. They will lament the great wickedness in the world and second the testimony of religious teachers that the degraded state of morals is caused by the desecration of Sunday. Great will be the indignation excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony.

Satan’s policy in this final conflict with God’s people is the same that he employed in the opening of the great controversy in heaven. He professed to be seeking to promote the stability of the divine government, while secretly bending every effort to secure its overthrow. And the very work which he was thus endeavoring to accomplish he charged upon the loyal angels. The same policy of deception has marked the history of the Roman Church. It has professed to act as the viceregent of Heaven, while seeking to exalt itself above God and to change His law. Under the rule of Rome, those who suffered death for their fidelity to the gospel were denounced as evildoers; they were declared to be in league with Satan; and every possible means was employed to cover them with reproach, to cause them to appear in the eyes of the people and even to themselves as the vilest of criminals. So it will be now. While Satan seeks to destroy those who honor God’s law, he will cause them to be accused as lawbreakers, as men who are dishonoring God and bringing judgments upon the world.

God never forces the will or the conscience; but Satan’s constant resort–to gain control of those whom he cannot otherwise seduce–is compulsion by cruelty. Through fear or force he endeavors to rule the conscience and to secure homage to himself. To accomplish this, he works through both religious and secular authorities, moving them to the enforcement of human laws in defiance of the law of God.

Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false coloring will be given to their words; the worst construction will be put upon their motives.

As the Protestant churches reject the clear, Scriptural arguments in defense of God’s law, they will long to silence those whose faith they cannot overthrow by the Bible. Though they blind their own eyes to the fact, they are now adopting a course which will lead to the persecution of those who conscientiously refuse to do what the rest of the Christian world are doing, and acknowledge the claims of the papal Sabbath.

The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17.

This issue has been raised before in the 19th century by a man name Blair. Here is one excellent article I just found on the internet which explains not only the factual history of this bill but the emotional climate of the times as well. I will share with you now only the first few paragraphs so we can see the seeming sincerity of this Sunday Sabbath advocate 124 years ago. Only a few people believe that a Sunday law will eventually be passed, but trust me, it will be. mfc.

The entire article is available upon request if you cannot find it via Google.

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The Blair Sunday Bill of 1888:

Religious Reform or Social Engineering? By Seneca Vaught

In 1888, Senator Henry William Blair entertained an interesting proposal. The sophomore Republican senator from New Hampshire had served as lieutenant colonel in the Civil War, an episode whose deadly memory and divisive aftermath continued to mold the nation. In the fallout of the war and the demise of Reconstruction, Congress struggled to identify the proper legislative course for a nation decimated by fratricide, divided by race, and overwhelmed by immigration. The proposal at hand was a motion to reform and remedy the byproducts of these symptoms of societal transformation. Blair and his supporters saw the establishment of a national Sabbath, proposed in the Sunday Rest Bill of 1888, or the Blair Bill as it would come to be called, as a panacea to the problems of post-Civil War disunity, immorality, and immigration.

In the Fiftieth Congress, during the First Session the legislation Blair proposed, S.2983, with the intention “To secure to the people the enjoyment of the first day of the week, commonly known as the Lord’s Day, as a day of rest, and to promote its observance as a day of worship.”[1] It was the first in a series of national rest bills proposed from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The persistent reintroduction of these laws revealed as much about the direction of national culture and fears of reluctant reforms as they did about the state of religious orthodoxy in the United States.

Senator Blair and his bill proved to be equally divisive. Blair was somewhat of an outsider in his own party. From the time he entered politics in the House of Representatives in 1874 until he was defeated for renomination to the Senate in 1891, Blair was divided between moderates and radicals of the Republican Party. He opposed many proposals on both wings of his party and they often opposed him. He was twice refused confirmation to appointed government posts. During Reconstruction, Blair was transformed into a staunch supporter of Andrew Johnson but paradoxically a strong supporter of educational reform for blacks in the South. His legacy is most commonly associated with the Blair Bill of 1882 (not 1888) that dedicated federal dollars to the education of former slaves now becoming American citizens.[2]

The important yet unfamiliar debate over Blair’s Sunday Bill (S.2983) raises several important questions about Blair’s policy but also the role of Seventh-day Adventists and other Sabbatarians in the reformist impulse of post-Civil War era. Aside from doctrinal and theological arguments, what other reasons urged Americans to support and oppose this policy during this era? How did the social context of immigration, labor strife, and pluralism at the dawn of a new American century influence both supporters and opponents of the bill? In 1888, how did the nascent progressive reform agenda in Blair’s Bill come both to complement and contradict the aspirations of the Seventh-day Adventist church?

This essay seeks to answer the preceding questions by carefully engaging the Congressional Record to recreate the points of the debate as they relate to these concerns. The debate over the Blair Bill of 1888 is also placed in the historical and biographical context of Senator Blair’s time. In doing so, the Adventist response to the Blair Bill of 1888 presents an interesting story that parallels and challenges our understanding of the legislation today and of the context in which it emerged.

A ‘Political Gadfly’ Presents an American Paradox

It was fitting that Blair would support the Sunday Rest Bill of 1888. In that same year, he had published a volume entitled, The Temperance Movement. The subtitle of the work, “the conflict between man and alcohol” revealed Senator Blair’s reformist instincts. One Blair biographer, Barbara Jean Stokes, identified him in the title of her dissertation as A Puritan in Washington. Blair saw himself as cosmically aligned between the forces of good and evil, and true to his Puritan beliefs, he saw compromise as unapproachable and morality legislation as natural outgrowth of moral suasion. As prohibition historian Richard Hamm argues, such legislation was a tactic of moral suasion used by Blair and other reformers of the era to create an “artificial conscience” to change public opinion and morals over time.[3]

When Senator Blair introduced Senate Bill 2983 in 1888, Sunday laws were not a new phenomenon in American history Since colonial times, Americans had implemented various laws like these to ensure puritanical observance of the first day of the week. Many of the Sunday laws generated in the colonial era and carried through the early republic prescribed harsh punishments for even the most insignificant violation of the Sabbath.[4] In 1829, a petition to end postal service on Sunday, since it violated the Sabbath by bringing non-religious reading material into the home, was presented to Congress.[5]

Differing from previous Sunday laws, that often emphasized establishing morality in communities with a common heritage, the Sunday laws of the 1880s represented an attempt to mold a national culture in the aftermath of civil war and in the face of a flood of new immigration. Between the Civil War and World War I, more than 2 million “Old Europe” immigrants relocated to the United States from Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland. Of the Irish that arrived, many were Catholics, a trait that did not go unnoticed in a nation that was largely Protestant. Some historians have argued that during the 19th century, the terms Catholic and Irish were often used synonymously, underlining the strong public association between the religious threats to American society posed by immigration.
In 1889, A.T. Jones spoke before a United States Congressional subcommittee; the topic of discussion was the “Breckinridge Bill” which proposed the compulsion of Sunday observance in the Washington, D.C. environs. Jones’s testimony helped to defeat this bill, and Jones became known for his abilities in defense of and knowledge regarding freedom of religion. In 1892, he was again called to speak before the U.S. Congress regarding the Sunday closure of the Chicago World’s Fair, known as “The Columbia Exposition”. Most people do not know the history of the SDA movement after 1844 or the leaders of it. Let me share with you my first introduction to some of this important history.

In 1955 my father moved our family to Walla Walla, Wash. where I finished my senior year of high school and entered Walla Walla College in the fall of 1956. During this time I had the privilege of meeting a pioneer pastor and missionary by the name of Elder Willy Emory. I don’t know if his name was William or Willard but I met him at the Walla Walla SDA Church where I was MV leader. He also attended the prayer meetings at the church on Wed. night. His prayers were very stirring and powerful as well as some of his testimonies. He was in his 80’s at the time and not in the best of health. He and his wife, Dolly, were two of the kindest and most loving people I can ever remember meeting at that time and since. In their youth they had been students at the old Battle Creek College in Battle Creek, Michigan and saw and heard Sister White speak. They also were acquainted with other leading figures of the church at that time, such as A. T. Jones. Elder Emory explained the history of 1888 and why the message of Jones and Waggoner was rejected. Later I studied this message out for myself and realize now why the Lord could not allow the National Sunday Law to be enacted at that time. He had to wait until 1977 to bring forth the same message with even greater power and with more proof than ever before. Just a few minutes ago the Lord led me to a testimony from 1859 by EGW which is entitled: “The Laodicean Church.” This is so important to understand because unless we get out of the Laodicean condition we cannot be translated. So, how do we get out? Just read this first and then I will answer that question later on.

This is from page 185, 186 of Vol 1 of the Testimonies. She began by telling how she sick she had been with dropsy and disease of the heart. This had caused her to be depressed in spirit with the result of almost destroying her faith and courage. She went through these kind of trying experiences off and on throughout her long life of 87 years until she passed away in July of 1915. In spite of the weakness of her physical body the Lord used this frail woman as a powerful messenger all of her life. This should give each of us courage to not give up when we have problems of various kinds. On page 186 the Lord led her to write: “I was shown that the testimony to the Laodiceans applies to God’s people at the present time, and the reason it has not accomplished a greater work is because of the hardness of their hearts. The heart must be purified from sins which have so long shut out Jesus. This fearful message will do its work.” 1T 186.

This testimony is too long to share at this time but you can read it for yourself on line or in Vol 1 of the testimonies. The point I want to make is simply that Christ is not able to speak to the Laodiceans because they will not permit the Holy Ghost, the Shekinah, to speak to their hearts. That is why the 1888 message was rejected and why the advancing character of God message today is not accepted by God’s professed people or the churches of organized religion who also profess to know the Lord and love Him. The only way to get out of Laodicea is to repent and do the first works. Rev 2:4, 5. This will take you back to become a member of the Church of Philadelphia which has a perfect character which Jesus commends. They are the church which will receive the Latter Rain first and give the final message during the first 3 ½ years after the Sunday Law begins. They are the Barley who will be translated. The Barley is the first grain of the final harvest which is mentioned in Rev 14:6, 7 (first angels’ message). Then read Rev 14:14-20 which describes “One sat (sitting) like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” This “son of man” is the same Son of Man who is described in Dan 7:13, 14 as coming into the Presence of the Father and receiving “dominion (Tamid), and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him.” Compare Hosea 11:1 which describes Israel as a Son (one entity) although that Son was the 12 tribes of Israel. Also read Psalm 2 re: this same Son who becomes the ruler of this world and the universe with Jesus. The purpose and objective of this article is to help you to realize your sacred destiny in God’s glorious plan. That is why you have certain talents which the Lord wants to help you develop and perfect for the work He has for you to do first in this life and secondly in the life to come when we are translated. All men have been bought with this infinite price. By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being. Whether believers or unbelievers, all men are the Lord’s property. All are called to do service for Him, and for the manner in which they have met this claim, all will be required to render an account at the great judgment day.

But the claims of God are not recognized by all. It is those who profess to have accepted Christ’s service who in the parable are represented as His own servants. Christ’s followers have been redeemed for service. Our Lord teaches that the true object of life is ministry. Christ Himself was a worker, and to all His followers He gives the law of service—service to God and to their fellow men. Here Christ has presented to the world a higher conception of life than they had ever known. By living to minister for others, man is brought into connection with Christ. The law of service becomes the connecting link which binds us to God and to our fellow men. To His servants Christ commits “His goods”—something to be put to use for Him. He gives “to every man his work.”

“Each has his place in the eternal plan of heaven. Each is to work in co-operation with Christ for the salvation [p. 327] of souls. Not more surely is the place prepared for us in the heavenly mansions than is the special place designated on earth where we are to work for God.” This article reveals what our work will be.
COL 327.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The talents that Christ entrusts to His church represent especially the gifts and blessings imparted by the Holy Spirit. “To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.” 1 Cor. 12:8-11. All men do not receive the same gifts, but to every servant of the Master some gift of the Spirit is promised.

Before He left His disciples, Christ “breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” John 20:22. Again He said, “Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you.” Luke 24:29. But not until after the ascension was the gift received in its fullness. Not until through faith and prayer the disciples had surrendered themselves fully for His working was the outpouring of the Spirit received. Then in a special sense the goods of heaven were committed to the followers of Christ. “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” Eph. 4:8, 7. “Unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ,” the Spirit “dividing to every man severally as He will.” 1 Cor. 12:11. The gifts are already ours in Christ, but their actual possession depends upon our reception of the Spirit of God. [p. 328]. So, what work does the Lord have planned for the 144,000?

As of Jan 16th, 2012, today, the world continues on in spite of the economic problems in the USA. Everyone is hoping for a recovery and return to national prosperity. In spite of all of these problems and chaos in the USA, as well as world affairs, the character of God message continues to expand and grow in the hearts of those who accept the seven levels. This is an ongoing miracle, praise the Lord. The Lord has impressed upon my heart and mind both the importance and necessity of sharing with my readers what has been revealed to me regarding the final events which are even now coming to pass. In spite of this fact most of God’s professed people continue on in their Laodicean slumber. Only a few are aware and awake to where we are in the stream of time. More and more info is being revealed about the ongoing growth and development of the 144,000. The Lord gave me a dream on Sept 28th which I will share with you in this document. What the Lord wants me to do is help you to understand the purpose and timing of the harvest, especially of the 144,000. Let me share with you a letter I wrote to a brother a few weeks ago.

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Dear Brother:

Yes, I agree with you…the Stone Cut Out of the Mountain without hands represent what Daniel wrote in Dan 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.” Dan 7:13, 14.

This is very good. We are on the same page. Amen. Here is what I believe is the sequence of events. I sent you what Sister White wrote in Early Writings, pages 269 to 272…She heard this beautiful music, pg. 270. It is my belief that this “music” she heard is the sound of the Character of God Message going to the whole world during the first 3 ½ years. Now, here is what I have come up with so far in my research and study.

What is the TYPE OF THE 144,000? I believe it is the 120 in Acts 2.

Jesus is a type of first phase of the Harvest which is the First Fruits. But there is a First of the First Fruits. And that First of the First Fruits was Jesus to start with. The Disciples did not even believe He was the Messiah until after He rose from the grave and stayed with Him for 40 days. This is the type for us today. The Elect and all the other 23 Titles represent this Barley Group whom Sister White Calls THE EARLY GRAIN.

The 144,000 are not Barley. They are Wheat, which is the Second phase of the Harvest. Read the story of Gideon in Judges 6 and 7. He is Barley. The 300 represent the Barley. EGW calls them “THE LITTLE COMPANY.” Ruth in the little book of Ruth is also Barley. We do not know the number of the Elect or the Stone Cut out of the Mountain without hands or the Church of Philadelphia (all titles which are the same as the Elect and the Little Company). There may be 300 in number. But we do not know for sure..

But as we speak ALL OF THE VIRGINS ARE ASLEEP. And Rev 14 tells us that the 144,000 are Virgins. That is from Matt 25, the 10 Virgins. When do the 10 Virgins wake up? They do not wake up until the Time of the Death Decree, which I believe will be passed 31/2 years after the event which starts the last 7 years begins. What is the Event which will start the last 7 years? I do not know for sure. Some believe it will be the National Sunday law….and we are getting closer to this. Ok, we need to pray to be humble and not proud about some of these things…I agree. But we know the Sunday Law is being talked about and has been since 1888 … Sunday Blair law…A T Jones preached against it. Jesus will have a LITTLE COMPANY…they are the Elect. They are like Jesus. They have to stand alone and be willing to be crucified like Jesus was…but they will not die. This Little Company is the Elect. Read EW 269-272. I already sent that sequence to you. The Spirit of the Lord is being poured out more and more on those who are asking for it in these last days.

The fact that we are talking about these things now is a miracle. You are the only one in your country who believes the Character of God, as far as I know, and is willing to publicly take a stand for it. I had a dream on Sept 27th about the 144,000. I can send it to you if you would like to read it. I do not write many of my dreams down but at 3:30 am the Lord woke me up and I wrote it down as close as I could as to what I saw. Pay attention to your dreams. I personally am skeptical of “dreamers” but there are true and then there are also false ones as well as in the days of Jeremiah. You did not ask for the text which starts the final sequence of events. Let’s talk about what happens at the time of the Death decree.

Three Phases of the Sunday Law.

  1. National Sunday law in USA, probably Canada and Mexico too when the borders are open and they go to the Amero, the new currency for North America.. We will understand this more fully as the scroll is unrolled.
  2. Then finally the World Wide Sunday Law. All nations follow the USA.
  3. Death Decree World Wide Sunday Law Death Decree out of Jerusalem.

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I Cor 15:52…”In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, AT THE LAST TRUMP:” The voice said “Mike, what is the Last Trump?” I don’t know, I replied. When is it? It is the 7th Trumpet Rev 11:15. Same event, resurrection of the Wave Sheaf from the dead. Dan 12:1-4. All who died believing in the 3rd Angels’ message. EGW will be in that wave sheaf. She will be with the 144,000 but not among them because she will be raised from the dead.

But the first group to go up to the Throne of God is the Elect. Just like Jesus went up…same thing. How long was He up there? From 9 in the morning until 3 in the PM…that is a type. He fulfilled the type of the Sacrificial service…6 hours… 9 to 3 since the days of Moses. Same thing with the Elect…the Barley Group.

Read Ruth 2:23. Ruth is a type of the Barley. Boaz is Christ. She worked for Boaz in the harvest …first the Barley and then the Wheat…Grape is last. Rev 14…three grains to harvest. Grape is the Great Multitude.

Mal 3:16, 17, 18…look especially at v 18. “Then shall you (barley or the Elect) return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves Him not.” The Elect will go with Christ all over the earth for 40 days to find the True Virgins…the 5 Wise virgins. Same as Jesus did to find 108 new disciples to add to the 12 to make 120. Ok. Just think and pray about it. All who believe in the character of God message now are of the Barley or the Elect.

God bless. Your friend, Pastor Mike. Isn’t Jesus Wonderful!

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Why did the Spirit of the Lord impress and urge Sister White to tell us that we should “strive with all of our might to be among the 144,000. Listen:

“Let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the hundred and forty-four thousand. And let us do all that we can to help others to gain heaven. We are to have an intense interest in Christ Jesus; for he is our Savior. He came to this world to be tempted in all points as we are, to prove to the universe that in this world of sin human beings can live lives that God will approve.

Think of how much it cost Christ to leave the heavenly courts, and take his position at the head of humanity. Why did he do this?—Because he was the only one who could redeem the fallen race. There was not a human being in the world who was without sin. The Son of God stepped down from his heavenly throne, laid off his royal robe and kingly crown, and clothed his divinity with humanity. He came to die for us, to lie in the tomb as human beings must, and to be raised for our justification. He came to become acquainted with all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He rose from the grave, and proclaimed over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, “I am the resurrection and the life.” One equal with God passed through death in our behalf. He tasted death for every man, that through him every man might be a partaker of eternal life.

Christ ascended to heaven, bearing a sanctified, holy humanity. He took this humanity with him into the heavenly courts, and through the eternal ages he will bear it, as the One who has redeemed every human being in the city of God the One who has pleaded before the Father, “I have graven them upon the palms of my hands.” The palms of his hands bear the marks of the wounds that he received. If we are wounded and bruised, if we meet with difficulties that are hard to manage, let us remember how much Christ suffered for us. Let us sit together with our brethren in heavenly places in Christ. Let us bring heaven’s blessing into our hearts.

Our Savior bore all that we are called upon to bear, so that no human being could say, “He does not know my suffering and my trials.” In all our afflictions he was afflicted, and because of this, the Father has committed to him all judgment. Satan declared that human beings could not live without sin. Christ passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell, and by a sinless life placed the human race on vantage-ground, that every one might stand before the Father accepted in the Beloved.

The Savior ascended to heaven to plead before the throne of God in our behalf. Just before his ascension he gave to his disciples the commission, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” To us as well as to the disciples this commission is given. We are to speak the things that Christ has commanded us. Let us not talk of the mistakes and defects of others. Let us speak the words that Christ has given us to speak. Let us seek for the blessings that Christ has placed within our reach, that we may be made capable of receiving more and still more of his grace, and that we may be filled with a living, active, growing faith,—a faith that believes the promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

Here is an article I wrote a few weeks ago which I will add in here to help you see why the forming of the 144,000 and their translation is so important.

How Satan Was Able to Deceive the Whole Universe via the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil By Pastor Michael F. Clute 

This brings before us an important question which is both vital and critical to our being able to detect the deceiver in his disguise and thus realize how Satan tricked and deceived Adam and Eve into believing a lie about the Creator and His creation. This correct understanding of how Satan deceived and obtained “power” and “dominion” over Adam and Eve seems to be a great mystery. Yet, the answer is so simple that it has escaped almost everyone from day one. He told them a lie. But, what was that lie? That is the critical and all important question.

Satan lied to them about the goodness of God and specifically about about His creation. How? He led them to believe that the Creator had put death in His creation. This is very clear when you read Genesis 2 through the eyes of Christ who said that Satan was a liar from the beginning. John 8:44. “So, just what was Satan’s lie exactly?” someone will ask. Good question. It is very clear and plain to anyone who is not in the dream state, hypnotic trance. Remember Satan’s ambition from the beginning was to become like God, like the Most High, Isaiah 14:12-14. So, why did the Father allow Lucifer to do this? Why did He even create him in the first place? Because the Father knows all things from the beginning to the end He allowed all of these events to take place because it was the most efficient and effective way to educate the whole creation at the same time together. “Our little world is the Lesson Book of the universe.” DA 19. The test for us today is to trust and believe that the Father’s ways are the best because they are perfect. To believe in the Father’s GOODNESS no matter how bad things get ,believing and knowing that “All things work together for good to those who love the Lord.” Rom 8:28.

Remember in Genesis 1 how many times God pronounced His work “Good.” Read it in Gen 1:12, 21, 25 and then in v 31 He says: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the 6th day.” Paul emphasizes the importance of this very idea of God’s goodness in the following verse. “Or despisest thou (or do you despise) the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” The Amplified version the word “wealth” instead of riches when speaking of His goodness and substitutes “kindness” in place of the word goodness which Paul says is what leads us to repent or change our mind. Isaiah 63:7-9 also uses the word “kindness” in the plural which the prophet says the Lord had shown to the house of Israel. In spite of this they still rebelled against Him. Hosea 6:6, 7 uses the word “treacherous” in describing what Adam did in the beginning when He “transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt faithlessly and treacherously with Me.” So there is something that happened in Adam’s heart and mind that led him to decide that the fruit of that tree was not good but would actually kill him. We know Satan was allowed to put him into a “deep sleep” which obviously led to Adam’s being deceived. And yet, Adam had the testimony of Eve and the voice that had spoken to her to counteract any doubts Adam may have had about the “Goodness of God.” The main point we need to understand is that Jesus overcame where Adam failed. He came into our night mare dream state to “wake us up.” That is what it means to be “born again.” It means to wake up and become aware of the truth that Jesus came to reveal and show us about the Father. The only people who will have the Father’s name written in their foreheads are those who know the truth about our heavenly Father, that He has never hurt or killed anyone. So, right now, today, we are standing at that same tree of knowledge of good and evil. We have the privilege of passing the test by confirming that all of God’s trees are good and perfect. Jesus said, “You must eat my flesh and drink my blood.” See John 6:48-71. He begins this discourse by claiming that He is the “bread of life” which the Father had sent down to heaven. “The Crisis in Galilee” is the title of an entire chapter devoted to these shocking and mysterious words Jesus spoke to the people there that day.

Up until this discourse He had many followers but almost all of them turned away from Him that day. I find it extremely interesting that Christ connected the idea of “eating” His flesh and drinking His blood with salvation. And that Paul defines sin as “eating with doubts.” Notice: “But the man who has doubts (misgivings, an uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats (perhaps because of you), stands condemned (before God), because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful].” Rom 14:23. I believe this is what Adam did when he ate the fruit from that perfectly good tree which the “Lord God” had told him had both good and evil in it. Obviously Adam, in His sleep state, believed this lie, but Eve did not because she had not been put to sleep. If he had believed her testimony he would not have fallen into this present dark dimension. Women have been marginalized all through the history of the Great Controversy. When the women told the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead they did not believe. The question is who told Eve that the tree was ok and that the fruit of it was not bad? That is the critical question we need to answer. And who was the voice who spoke through the serpent? I believe it was the Shekinah, the Daughter of Zion of the O.T. who is the Holy Ghost of the NT.

These are questions each individual in his heart and mind must answer. It is very serious because Jesus said that to reject the Holy Ghost is blasphemy. Matt 12:31, 32. But notice what He says in the very next verse. “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.” Matt 12:33. Just connect the dots my friend. The first sin was about believing in the goodness of God. The voice speaking through the serpent declared that the fruit of the tree was good, harmless and life giving, just like Jesus, who is “holy, harmless and undefiled.” Heb 7:26. The early church taught that the voice speaking through the serpent was actually the Divine Mother of Eve, Wisdom. Proverbs 8:22-31 confirms that Wisdom truly is in deed, the Mother of all mankind. See Introduction xvii and pages 48-69 of the “The Gnostic Gospels” by Elaine Pagels. Also “Adam, Eve and the Serpent,” pages 68, 69.

All of this is extremely important in order for us to be able to detect the deceiver in his disguise in these last days so we may be able to pass the final test. Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” Mark 11:22. But what does the enemy say? He tells us that God cannot be trusted. He even goes so far as to tell people that God destroys. This was the testimony of the evil angels in the synagogue of Capernaum. “And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.” Mark 1:23, 24.

Satan learned how to deceive before this world was created by deceiving one third of the angels. How did he do that? He told them that God had a law and that it was by this law that He controlled everyone. This was a shocking revelation to the angels. They had not heard of any written law or code. Remember that Jesus said that the greatest law of all is the Law of Love. I have written about how Satan was able to deceive all of the angels as well as all of unfallen worlds by telling them that on each planet there was going to be a loyalty test which involved one tree which he told them was going to be called “The Tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil.” Naturally, Lucifer told everyone that God the Father had authorized him to announce this to all of the planets. This was his first lie. And it worked like a charm because he was able to convince one third of the angelic realm that the Father really had authorized this law of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. How did I come to this understanding? I found it on page 40 of the book, “EARLY WRITINGS,” published in 1858 as a republication of her first three books. Let me explain what I mean by “finding it on page 40.”

I have read all of the published writings of EGW and many of the unpublished ones, some of which are on line and others in manuscript form of various types. I had read page 40 of Early Writings scores of times but one day the Spirit led me to read it again and notice what the angel told EGW when she was taken in vision to view other worlds. It was explained to her that if she was faithful she would have the privilege of visiting all of the planets with the 144,000. I was impressed to consider the deeper implications of the purpose of the 144,000 visiting all of the unfallen worlds. EGW asked why this one planet she was on was so much more beautiful than planet earth. “The reply was, ‘We have lived in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and have not fallen by disobedience, like those on earth.” She then said she saw two trees, one of which looked like the tree of life but she did not say it was the tree of life but it may have been for them. “They had power to eat of both, but were forbidden to eat of one. Then my attending angel said to me ‘None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree; but if they should eat, they would fall.’” EW 40.

This caused me to ponder about how that tree of knowledge of good and evil was placed there on that planet as well as on all of the planets in God’s vast universe. It began to dawn on my mind that if the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” in the Garden of Eden was not put there by our heavenly Father then who put it there? Jesus even stated that every plant that had not been planted by our God the Father would be rooted up. Matt 15:13. I have been writing about Genesis 1-3 now for many years but this aspect of the Two Trees only during the last two years. You can read a much deeper and detailed explanation of the temptation and fall in my book, “INTO THE FATHER’S HEART” in chapter 26. It also occurred to me that even the angels themselves have believed this lie that one of the trees in the Garden of Eden was forbidden by the true God. That is why Job 4:17, 18 is important because it clearly states that the Lord does not put any trust in man and that his angels he charged with folly. That is an amazing verse. Then Dan 10:21 reveals that Michael and Gabrielle were standing alone against the enemy. So, you add all of these facts and information together and it makes sense that the Great Controversy will not be finished by the angels, per se, but by translated human beings whom the Lord will use to teach both the angels and unfallen worlds the real truth about our heavenly Father.

In fact, Rev 19:10 indicates that the messenger John is speaking with and bowing down to is a human being from our time. Just think what that understanding implies. It means that the Elect will truly have a very special work to do after they are translated and given immortal bodies. It occurred to me that one of the first jobs the Elect with the 144,000 will be is to visit all of the planets of the universe and remove the “fear of death.” How? By going up to that one tree which is designated on each planet as “the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and taking that fruit and eating of it right in front of all of the inhabitants of each planet to prove to them that there is no death in any of God’s trees: Furthermore, that this “Law of the Forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” was not authorized or sanctioned by the Father at all, but by Lucifer, the first rebel who on his own authority announced that this was to be a new “Loyalty Test” for the whole universe. Listen to this insightful statement by the servant of the Lord on page 109 of Mount of Blessings. “But in heaven, service is not rendered in the spirit of legality. When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels as an awakening to something unthought of.” So, why didn’t they realize or think that the Father, Creator, had a law? That is, a written codified law, like the law(s) given at Mt Sinai. The reason is very simple. There was no “codified law” until Mt Sinai because the true law from the beginning was simply the law written in the hearts of all His creatures, i.e. the law of God written “In their hearts.” This is what Jeremiah predicted the Lord would do when Jesus came. Jere 31:31. So, there are two sets of laws. The first one is the Law of Love or the Law of Life in Christ Jesus which was the true law from the beginning. And then there is the “Law of Sin and Death” which Paul speaks about in Rom 8:1, 2. Read Gen 3 and notice how much condemnation there is from the angry and evil Lord God, Yahweh Elohim. John says that the “Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

John 1:17. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Rom 8:1, 2. And where did that law of sin and death begin or originate? It started with the evil “Lord God” of Genesis 2. Once again, where did death begin? It began in Gen 2 by the Lord God who made that law which forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

So, far my friend, I have never been able to find any mention of that Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil anywhere else in the whole Bible. It certainly is not mentioned in the book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22. It is not in the city of New Jerusalem. Nor is it mentioned in Isaiah 65 or 66. Carefully analyze Gen 2 and realize that “Lord God” there is a liar and Indian Giver. He is a false God. Ezek 28 refers to him under the title of “Prince of Tyrus and even says he was in the Eden the Garden of God, but not as a serpent, but as an intruder who took one of God’s perfectly good trees and renamed or labeled it as forbidden and off limits, contradicting the true Elohim of Gen 1. Most of these points have already been made, but I just wanted to cover it again in order to make sure we understand what the purpose and work of the 144,000 will be when they are taken to the Father’s throne to receive their gifts as described in Dan 7:13, 14.

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Mrs. White and the 144,000

“The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious. The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. . . . I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, ‘You must go back, and if you are faithful, you, with* the 144,000, shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God.’”–Early Writings, pp. 39, 40.

*Note: Observe that the promise was given to Mrs. White that if she was faithful, she with the 144,000 would have certain privileges.

Mrs. Hastings to Be With the 144,000

“I saw that she [Mrs. Hastings, who had just died] was sealed and would come up at the voice of God and stand upon the earth, and would be with the 144,000. I saw we need not mourn for her; she would rest in the time of trouble.”–Letter 10, 1850 (2SM 263).

Strive to Be Among the 144,000

“Let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the hundred and forty-four thousand. And let us do all that we can to help others to gain heaven.”–Review and Herald, March 9, 1905.

I just searched for the above statement on Goggle and found the entire article which this famous statement was taken from in a sermon Sister White preached on 4 12 1903. In Early Writings she also stated that the angel had told her that if she was faithful she would be with the 144,000
and visit all of the worlds with them. That statement is from Early Writings, page 39 and 40 which you will find below also.

[A portion of a sermon by Mrs. E. G. White at Oakland, Cal., Sunday, April 12, 1903.]

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

Those whom the Lamb shall lead by the fountains of living waters, and from whose eyes he shall wipe away all tears, will be those now receiving the knowledge and understanding revealed in the Bible, the Word of God. To us has been given the privilege of receiving the wisdom that cometh from God, of seeing the beauty and the glories of that Word which lies at the foundation of all true knowledge. The Bible teaches us what a Christian ought to be, and what he ought to do.

We are to copy no human being. There is no human being wise enough to be our criterion. We are to look to the man Christ Jesus, who is complete in the perfection of righteousness and holiness. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the pattern Man. His experience is the measure of the experience that we are to gain. His character is our model. Let us, then, take our minds off the perplexities and the difficulties of this life, and fix them on him, that by beholding we may be changed into his likeness. We may behold Christ to good purpose. We may safely look to him; for he is all-wise. As we look to him and think of him, he will be formed within, the hope of glory.

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My Commentary

I just read one article tonight in which the writer stated that the 144,000 would be greatly persecuted and many of them would die. This could not be true based on Rev 7:4 and 14:3.

“And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.” Rev 7:4. If they are “sealed” that means they have been kept alive, protected and preserved for a special purpose and work. Then in Rev 14 we read that these same 144,000 “were redeemed (saved) from the earth.” If they had died or been killed (martyred) it would have stated that they were raised from the dead. But that is not what the text says.

Next let us understand that the 144,000 is a literal number. Why do I believe that the 144,000 is a literal number. The answer is that all of the numbers in the book of Revelation are literal numbers in all 22 chapters. The 7 candlesticks and 7 churches are literal numbers of churches.

The 7 seals and the 7 trumpets are literal. The 7 last plagues are literal numbers and literal plagues. The one thousand years or millennium is a literal 1,000 years.

Further more, this literal number, 144,000 is the number of human beings John had been counting, as we read in Rev 11:1. It is a census. And, as in any census it would be a literal number as all of the census of the Bible as well as today is a literal number, not a symbolic number. Just as God took a census of the 12 tribes of Israel before they entered the Promised Land He is going once again number all of His children, the 144,000 as well as the great multitude which no man can number, Rev 7. One more point to prove that the 144,000 is a literal number, not a symbolic number. “The living saints (not saints raised from the dead but saved alive and preserved), 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice (of God), while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake.” Early Writings, page 15.

Rev 14:4 states that “they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. (Rev 19) These were redeemed from among men, being first fruits to God and to the Lamb.” Rev 14:4. The phrase, “from among men” means from “the human race.” There will be both male and female among them just as the 12 tribes had both male and female. See Gal 3:28 where it clearly states: “There is neither Jew nor Greek…slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And so the 144,000 will be composed of men and women coming from every nation, kindred, tongue and people. They will not come from or originate from one particular church or denomination but from all walks of life and from all denominations and beliefs when the cry goes forth, “Come out of her my people.” Rev 18. There is another point that needs to be made here and repeated. The 144,000 come from the sleeping virgins who are sleeping right now as I write this in Jan of 2012. They will not wake up until the death decree. At that time all Ten Virgins will wake up. But five will be wise and five will be foolish. This is very clear from Matthew 25. Notice Rev 14:3 states that “no one could learn” the new song. So, the 144,000 did not know the song before. That is why they had to learn it. This means that some one had to teach them this “New Song” which is designated as the “Song of the Lamb” in Rev 15 which is combined with the “Song of Moses” for these same saints described in Rev 14. So, who is it who will teaching the 144,000 this “New Song?” It would have to be someone who already knows the song. Right? Right. So, who would that be? It would be those who are among the first wave of the Harvest, which is the Barley or the Elect, also known as the First of the First Fruits. There are 24 titles for them in all. They are the ones who are translated in Rev 11 and 12. In Rev 11 they are referred to as the Two Witnesses and in Rev 12 they are called the Man Child. Rev 11:15 also refers to them as the Christos. They are also known as the Church of Philadelphia and the Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands. I will share with you all 24 titles later on in this article.

Here is a letter I wrote on this topic to a brother in Canada earlier this year:

“The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious. The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. . . . I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, ‘You must go back, and if you are faithful, you, with* the 144,000, shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God.’”–Early Writings, pp. 39, 40.

*Note: Observe that the promise was given to Mrs. White that if she was faithful, she with the 144,000 would have certain privileges.

“I saw that she [Mrs. Hastings, who had just died] was sealed and would come up at the voice of God and stand upon the earth, and would be with the 144,000. I saw we need not mourn for her; she would rest in the time of trouble.”–Letter 10, 1850 (2SM 263).

 

Here is Ellen G. White’s basic statement on the 144,000 of Revelation 7 and 14:

Upon the crystal sea before the throne, that sea of glass as it were mingled with fire,–so resplendent is it with the glory of God,–are gathered the company that have “gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name.” With the Lamb upon Mount Zion, “having the harps of God,” they stand, the hundred and forty and four thousand that were redeemed from among men; and there is heard, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of a great thunder, “the voice of harpers harping with their harps.” And they sing “a new song” before the throne, a song which no man can learn save the hundred and forty and four thousand. It is the song of Moses and the Lamb–a song of deliverance. None but the hundred and forty-four thousand can learn that song; for it is the song of their experience–an experience such as no other company have ever had. “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” These, having been translated from the earth, from among the living, are counted as “the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.” Revelation 15:2, 3; 14:1-5. “These are they which came out of great tribulation;” they have passed through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation; they have endured the anguish of the time of Jacob’s trouble; they have stood without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God’s judgments. But they have been delivered, for they have “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” “In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault” before God. “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.” They have seen the earth wasted with famine and pestilence, the sun having power to scorch men with great heat, and they themselves have endured suffering, hunger, and thirst. But “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” Revelation 7:14-17. (The Great Controversy, pp. 648, 649)

A Non-Essential Question

“Christ says that there will be those in the church who will present fables and suppositions, when God has given grand, elevating, ennobling truth, which should ever be kept in the treasure-house of the mind. When men pick up this theory and that theory, when they are curious to know something it is not necessary for them to know, God is not leading them. It is not His plan that His people shall present something which they have to suppose, which is not taught in the Word. It is not His will that they shall get into controversy over questions which will not help them spiritually, such as who is to compose the hundred and forty-four thousand. This those who are the elect of God will in a short time know without question.

“My brethren and sisters, appreciate and study the truths God has given for you and your children. Spend not your time in seeking to know that which will be no spiritual help. ‘What shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ This is the all-important question, and it has been clearly answered. ‘What is written in the law? How readest thou?’”–Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 174, 175.

Strive to Be Among the 144,000

“Let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the hundred and forty-four thousand. And let us do all that we can to help others to gain heaven.”–Review and Herald, March 9, 1905.

Mrs. White and the 144,000

“The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious. The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. . . . I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, ‘You must go back, and if you are faithful, you, with* the 144,000, shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God.’”–Early Writings, pp. 39, 40.

 

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