The Church of God in the end times. Part 2.

The Advent movement.

Every time God raises people or movements, He does not leave them to themselves. God equips them with what is necessary for them to carry out the mission they are meant to perform. All who accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour are endowed with various spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some receive one gift, others receive two or more, (see the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25), and the gifts the individual receives are the gifts that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians chapter 12,8-10. For 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.

As we see, the prophetic gift is something given by God. There are no churches or denominations that can choose their own prophet from the members of the church as is done in many churches and denominations. Being a prophet is a God-given gift.

For the Advent movement, or the Seventh-day Adventists, who are to be God’s mouthpieces for a world shrouded in darkness in the end times, they, as we saw, were given the spirit of prophecy. God raised the young Ellen Harmon in 1844, when she was only 17 years old. (After she and James White married, she took the name Ellen G. White.) It was just after the great disappointment of 1844 that she received her first vision, and throughout the rest of her life she received many visions and dreams that have helped the church she co-founded. In the early years, when the brothers had found one of the old truths, which had been forgotten because of events the little horn was behind, she got a vision that confirmed that what the brothers had discovered was really from God, and in this way, God confirmed through Ellen that the Advent movement was on the right track. It was not to help shape our beliefs that Ellen got these visions, for they managed well without her interference to find back to these truths, but when they were sure that they had found back to the old truths in turn and order, Ellen could ascertain this through visions and dreams. This woman, who did not even finish fourth grade in elementary school, became a prophet of God, and has written thousands of manuscripts, articles, and letters through her 68-year service to God, which has been compiled into dozens of books. From the very beginning, the Seventh-day Adventists have had the spirit of prophecy – in other words, we are a prophetic movement, and God’s end-time church.

True and false prophets.

Now there are many denominations that will claim to have a true prophet in their ranks. The question is whether we can trust such statements, for we must check both the teachings of the denomination and the fruits of the prophet before we can confirm or deny such a statement. There are certain criteria that must be met before we can see if a prophet is sent from God or if he/she is self-appointed or chosen by men.

An important criterion, not to mention the most important criterion, for being considered a prophet is that the person’s speech is completely according to Scripture, and as Isaiah 8,20 says: To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because [there is] no light in them. There are many who today pretend to be the Lord’s prophets, but if we examine their teachings, we quickly find that they do not speak according to the law and the testimony, but adapt to themselves and their teachings the daily currents that change from day to day.

Many of those who call themselves Gods prophets do not live according to the law and the testimony. They may preach Jesus Christ as the world’s only hope and Saviour, but if they do not live according to the law, it helps them very little. Many of these preach a distorted picture of God’s ten commandments, and many even go so far as to claim that the commandments no longer apply because we live under grace. However, what do they do with grace when the law does not apply? It is the law that shows us what sin is, and what is right. Without the law we do not need grace as we cannot sin if the law does not exist. They thus preach a distorted picture of either the law, or of the testimony, or of both. Compare what Jesus said to the rich young man in Matthew 19,16-22. This young man kept at least no more than six of God’s ten commandments, if we believe what the Bible says, because according to Matthew, Jesus referred only to the last six commandments, but it was not enough. Jesus asked him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. The rich young man did not like to hear this, for he was very rich, and his wealth had become his god. There are also many who keep the law in its entirety, but who do not preach Jesus as the Messiah, or who preach a distorted image of Jesus.

The result is that we then return to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7,21-23 and listen to what Jesus said about false prophets.

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The law is, as explained, God’s ten commandments, and the testimony is God’s Word, the Bible. Those who call themselves prophets and do not live and speak according to this principle are not prophets of God.

In Daniel we find a couple of other criteria, and this is in Daniel 10,9. Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground., and in Daniel 10,17: For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.

My contention is that as we went from prophetic time to end time in 1844, God raised up both a prophetic movement and a prophet who would lead His end time people on the right path. This is exactly in line with what the Bible says: Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, Amos 3,7. Instead of choosing a highly educated person, the Lord chose a young woman who had to finish school after three and a half years, due to a serious injury she received from a stone that hit her in the face. Everyone thought she would die before she was 15 years old, but 17 years old, God raised her up as a prophet for God’s end-time people. This woman bore all the signs of being a prophet of God. When she got her visions, she could tell about this while it was going on, without breathing for many, many minutes, see Daniel 10,17 where Daniel says he did not have breath left in him. The fact that he did not have breath left in him is understood so that he did not breathe while he had the vision. Other times she was like in a coma, and she did not sense anything around her, see Daniel 10,9 where the prophet says he fell into a deep sleep. In addition to this, she could take a Bible in one hand, lift it over her head and approach one of the people present, flip through the Bible with the other hand, point to a verse and quote it verbatim without be able to see it, move on to the next and repeat this until everyone had received their verses with accompanying encouragement and comfort from God, and in some cases justified refs and correction.

There were many who would not believe this, and they flocked to the meetings she attended because they wanted to prove that it was all a hoax, and several times doctors were present to investigate this phenomenon without being able to explain what happened. But no one, neither doctor nor leymenn, could in any way prove that she was breathing when she had her visions. Whether she was silent or talking, there was no sign that she was breathing. Her eyes were wide open during the whole vision and no matter how long it lasted without blinking her eyes. Her visions could last from 15 minutes and up to three hours. They also examined the Bible she used to see if there were any ‘secret’ signs she could identify and thus find the right verses, but even here they had to admit that they were real. But they would not give up. When this small, slender lady, who did not weigh more than 40 kilos when she was young, held a 9-10 kilo Bible raised above her head in one hand, sometimes for over an hour, large grown men hung in her arm to pull it down, but they could not move it a millimetre. This woman’s name was Ellen G. White, she was the prophet God raised up for her end-time church, and she has left behind a rich legacy that we find here: Ellen G. White Writings in Multiple Languages (egwwritings.org)

What is special about God’s end-time church?

So God has raised up His church in the end times. It was formed by the Advent movement, which consisted of Christians from all denominations and churches who united in an inter-church movement to proclaim the imminent return of Jesus. This denomination has preached, and will continue to preach, the eternal gospel and the warning messages that God gives to the people who find themselves somewhere in Babylon, and in order to do this, God has equipped this church with all the spiritual gifts that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. In addition to these gifts, the members will also be anointed in a special way by the Holy Spirit, and in that way be able to stand firm on the word of God when it starts to storm around them.

This church preaches the eternal gospel.

A part of the eternal gospel is God’s fourth commandment, the Sabbath commandment, Exodus 20,8-11. This commandment points back to creation and God as Creator. For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it, (Exodus 20,11).

It is about this commandment that the last great spiritual battle will be fought soon. In the beginning, on the seventh day of the creation week, God chose to bless and sanctify the seventh day of the week, which is our Saturday. No other day of the week has been blessed and / or sanctified, only the seventh day of the week, (see Genesis 2,3). When God has sanctified this day, it means that He is especially present on this day to meet all those who want to worship Him in the way God has prescribed, and it is precisely in this that the blessing of the day lies. Those who choose God’s Sabbath, out of loving God, will be richly blessed in a way that transcends all understanding..

When God has a special day as his holy day, a day of rest and Sabbath, then Satan cannot be any worse. The devil is Mr. CopyCat personal. He always imitates what God does, and he always puts himself as close to the truth as close to the truth he can get while being as far away as possible. The best example of this is the Sabbath. God chose a day. Satan chose a day. This is as close as it can get. God chose the last day of the week, the Sabbath, our Saturday, while Satan chose the first day of the week, our Sunday. The last versus the first is as far apart as possible.

But, surely some will say, the seventh day of the week is Sunday – just look at the calendar! Well, such a claim is not entirely correct. It is obvious that Sunday appears as the last day of the week on calendars in our time, but then those who say this are ignorant, with or without wanting to be. The thing is that on January 1, 1973, the calendar was changed in large parts of the world, in that they took Sunday, which is, and will be, the first day of the week, and placed it as the seventh day of the week. This was done in order to be in harmony with the false Sabbath that the papacy has introduced.

This has happened.

We know that shortly after the flood, the people were again divided into two camps, as they were after Cain killed his brother Abel. These are a) those who followed the will of God, and b) those who followed their own will. Sunday was introduced into pagan religions shortly after the Flood about 4,300 years ago, and since then most pagan religions have worshiped the sun god, who is none other than the devil himself. The Sabbath was instituted in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve fell into sin, and is consequently as holy as God himself is. This holy day of God has been under attack since the dawn of time, and in our days the attacks are more severe than ever before. It will all escalate when the observance of Sunday is introduced by law, and will be followed up with strict sanctions so that those who do not follow the law on Sunday observance in the first place are refused to buy and sell:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name, Revelation 13,16-17 …

… and finally a death sentence will be issued on all those who break the law: And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed, Revelation 13,15.

This is now in the preparation phase, and pope Francis travels around the world promoting the family day, saying that the world must have a day off from work to be with the family, and the pope takes credit for introducing this day off. It is clear that the pope completely ignores God’s fourth commandment which says this:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD thy God. [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates. For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day, wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it, Exodus 20,8-11.

As we see, it was God’s plan from the beginning that man should work six days a week, and that the last day of the week, the Sabbath, our Saturday, should be a holiday, because God sanctified the day and He blessed you. It therefore falls on its own unreasonableness what the pope says about the family day. However, as our enemy’s henchmen, the papacy does what is the will of its god, and that is to lie so close to the will of God in everything.

What remains for God’s faithful remnant to do in the end times?

For God’s people, it is crucial to go out and do the work God has equipped us to do. However, this does not mean that everyone should run out into the street and preach the end-time message, for not everyone has been given the gift of preaching. As mentioned earlier under the heading The Advent movement, God equips his people with various spiritual gifts, and God equips one with the word of wisdom, another the word of knowledge, until another faith, another is given the gifts of healing, to another the working of miracles, to some prophecy, to others discerning of spirits, some get [divers] kinds of tongues, while others the interpretation of tongues.

To know what spiritual gift or gifts God has given us, we must ask God to show us this, and He can do this in different ways, but if we are in harmony with the Creator of the universe, we will understand what our gift is, or gifts are. Together as God’s end – time church we are in possession of all these gifts, and together we can perform great miracles and wonders in the name of Jesus with God’s help. In ourselves we can not do anything.

To us who are part of God’s end-time church:

Let us go out and preach the everlasting gospel, and do this with the spiritual gifts with which God has endowed us. Do not understand it to the point that we have to stop what we are doing. We will continue to work, go to school and otherwise do what we do. It is exactly these places that we visit daily that are our nearest mission field. It is in the workplace, school, leisure activities and the neighborhood we live in that we can make a difference, and the way we are to preach the eternal gospel is through love, because God is love, and we are to preach His eternal gospel, which is really a great love letter from Him to us humans.

In 1 John 4,9-11, the apostle of love writes the following: In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. John is really saying that if we love God then we want to go out into the world to be a light that can call those in Babylon out of her and show them the way to God.

Everyone has been blessed with both wisdom and knowledge, and the best the best we can do is to seek the source of knowledge daily before we go out. We can help a neighbour, a random person on the bus, someone we meet in the store, a co-worker, or a classmate. Let us live the eternal gospel with our lives so that we arouse the curiosity of those we meet on our way. Then they may begin to seek God. Our mission is to sow a seed, then, the Lord will let it grow if the seed we sow falls into good soil.

We must preach the whole gospel, not only what we think others want to hear. We must tell about the coming judgment as much as we must tell about God’s infinite and boundless love. We must tell that Jesus will soon return to earth to redeem his faithful people, and that the second coming of Jesus is the end of this world as we know it. We must explain that all people who live and who have lived will receive their judgment, and that some will be acquitted in this judgment because they have chosen to seek refuge in Jesus Christ and let Him be King in their lives, they will receive their reward, which is eternal life. Jesus says about himself in John 14,6 that He is both the way, the truth and the life. The others who have rejected Jesus Christ will face eternal death, but this is the individual’s individual choice. They have chosen away Christ and life and chosen death instead, and death is, as we know, the absence of life. We must also call on the many who are in the fallen denominations, which the Bible calls Babylon, and tell that there is a way out of these:

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues, Revelation 18,1-4.

The people who have been given this honorable commission are described as follows in Revelation, the remnant of her seed, they are patient, they keep all the commandments of God, and they have the testimony of Jesus Christ, and they have the faith of Jesus.

And 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 … // … Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, Revelation 14,12.

The testimony of Jesus Christ is explained in Revelation 19,10 as the spirit of prophecy: And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See [thou do it] not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

To those of you who are still in Babylon:

Ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin in the Garden of Eden, God has called on us humans to make us realize what state we are in and where we are in relation to God. In the Garden of Eden God called where art thou? … to awaken Adam and Eve, and throughout history God has raised up prophets who have called people back to God, and in our time the last warning sounds through the message of the three angels and the loud cry. In Revelation 18,1-5 we read the following: 

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Here the words she and her are used as synonymous terms of Babylon. She is also synonymous with woman, and woman in the Bible is a picture of God’s people or the church. If we look at the history of Babylon, we see that this city was founded by Noah’s great-grandson, Nimrod, who was the one who led the rebellion against God after the flood. It is said of Nimrod that He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. (Genesis 10,9). A mighty hunter before the Lord must be understood that he was in opposition to God and led the people to fall.

God said; be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, in other words, do not build cities but live scattered over the earth

Nimrod said; let us build cities and live together in large groups.

God said; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

Nimrod said; let us build a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, in other words: so we can escape the next flood of water.

Later, Babylon has become a picture of syncretism itself, or the mixture of all the world’s religions. Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, it says in the text section above. This refers to the false church system that developed over time in the church that Jesus and His apostles founded the day of Pentecost in the year 31 AD, and which today are the fallen churches that carry on the tradition of Babylon in the form of bringing more and more paganism and human traditions into the churches.

Do you dare to take the chance to stay in Babylon when you know that one day in the near future God will take the final settlement with the fallen church? God is calling YOU, and he is says: … Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

This may be the last chance for you to turn to God and get out of her – Babylon – and God himself calls YOU his people. God loves you, and there is nothing more important to God than that YOU get out of Babylon and seek refuge with Him.

In Revelation 14,7 we see that the first angel says: … Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

The question is why we are given this message. Why should we worship Him who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and the fountains of water? Could it be because there is another way to worship God? Is there anyone who preaches that there is an easier way than the only way that leads to God? What does this text remind you of? The message of the first angel (Revelation 14,6-7) is a clear repetition of God’s fourth commandment which reads as follows: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD thy God. [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates. For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day, wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it, Exodus 20,8-11.

As we have seen, God’s Ten Commandments have been subject to change by the Catholic Church. God has shown this to his servants the prophets in ancient times, and we see that this prophecy has been fulfilled to the letter. (See Daniel 7,25 and changing times and law).

I do not know who you are, but God knows who you are, and He longs for you to leave Babylon and receive the pure and unadulterated word that God has preserved in His end-time Church. Our church is really a movement, an inter-church movement, and as the beginning of the movement was, so will the end. Today, the Advent movement consists of people who have come out of all churches and denominations along with former Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists who all have in common that they have heard God call on them and left Babylon and taken refuge in God’s end-time church.

As God called Adam in the Garden of Eden, using his name saying: Adam, where art thou?, so God also calls on you, and he calls on you by your name because He loves you so much that He let His own Son die so that you could live, live forever with your God, Creator and Saviour.

The time is short, and Jesus will soon finish his work in the heavenly temple, and then the fate of all will be decided, either to eternal life in fellowship with the ruler of the universe, our dear God, Creator and Saviour, or to eternal death. When Jesus leaves the heavenly temple, the door of mercy will be closed, which means that there will no longer be salvation for those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Nevertheless, before the door of grace closes, the world will be put to the last test. Who we want to worship is the core of this test. There are only two choices. Either we actively choose to follow the ruler of the universe, our God, Creator, Saviour and Redeemer, or we actively choose to follow the beast. There are no other choices, and no one can be indifferent to this, there is either or, no middle ground.

Soon there will be a Sunday law on to which we all have to take a position, and even those of us who today have chosen to follow God’s ten commandments must actively choose side on the day the Sunday law comes. It is the choice you make when the Sunday law comes that will seal your destiny, and this choice will follow you into eternity. If you want to follow God, then you cannot accept the Sunday law no matter what sanctions the world will impose on you. Just remember that God is powerful enough to deliver you from all trials and tribulations only if we surrender ourselves in his hands. God has promised to deliver his faithful people in the end times, and God’s promises never fail, they stand forever.

Many say that this with a worldwide Sunday law will never come true, but the Bible has a wonderful principle. This is called typology, and is about type and antitype. The type is an event that has happened once in the past, and the antitype is a similar event that will occur in the future (seen in relation to image). If we go to the book of Daniel, we find a story that is a type of a future event. What happened in Babylon applied to the whole world, which in Daniel’s time was the Babylonian Empire. The antitype of what happened on the plains in the Duradalen 2600 years ago, we will soon we will face very soon.

We find the type in Daniel 3,1. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height [was] threescore cubits, [and] the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon … // … and in verses 4-6 it says. Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, [That] at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up. And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

The antitype is found in Revelation 13,14-15. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And, he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

As we see, it is prophesied that this will happen. We are to be forced to worship the beast, which here is a picture of the fallen church, and it happens when the beast’s closest collaborator in the end times, the second beast in Revelation 13,11, sets up an ‘image‘ of the first beast. In this case, it is to worship the first beast by accepting the false Sabbath in question. There will be a Sunday law, and, we will be forced to take a stand on this law, and the sanctions for those who do not obey the law are the death penalty. However, God would not be the God of love if He had left His faithful people to themselves in these difficult times. If we choose to follow God and keep God’s Ten Commandments, all of God’s Ten Commandments, then He will provide for us so we do not suffer more than we can endure until redemption comes. This is what God has promised us:

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; [but] it shall not come nigh thee, Psalm 91,7.

Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken, Proverbs 3,25-26.

If you open your heart to God, you will hear Him calling on you. He shouts: Man, where are you? Get out of her you who are so dear to me. Yes, you are so dear to God that He let His own Son die on the cross for you to escape eternal death. The Son of God took your guilt and your punishment and died in your place so that He can dress you with His righteousness and give you eternal life. But God does not force anyone. You have to choose, you have to make an active choice.

Dear friend. What do you choose? It costs you nothing to follow all of God’s Ten Commandments and leave Babylon while there is still time, but on the other hand, it will cost you everything to stay in Babylon.

The Spirit says come! Are you coming? It is your choice!