Introduction.
In all ages God has had His witnesses on earth. These have been men and women who have stood up for the word of God and preached that which God has charged them to do. We may safely say that Adam and Eve were the first witnesses God had. Although they had caused sin to enter the world by their fall, they preached the love of God by telling what God had done for them. Enoch, who was born 622 years after creation, was also a witness for God, and it is written of Enoch that God took him alive to heaven: And Enoch walked with God: and he [was] not; for God took him, (Genesis 5:24).
About Enoch, Ellen G. White says the following in The Signs of the Times, October 4, 1899, section 1: It is our privilege to walk as Enoch did. Christ has assured us that those who walk in His footsteps are His disciples, His true representatives. He says, “I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.» Is this not sufficient assurance? Should not these words fill us with holy peace and joy?
The Lord instructed Enoch and made him His watchman. He was a faithful witness for God, warning the inhabitants of the old world not to follow the example of the Cain-worshipers, but to serve the living God. “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him”, (Letters and Manuscripts vol 14, 1899, paragraph 17).
In Spiritual Gifts vol 3, page 59.2, Ellen G. White says this: Enoch instructed his family in regard to the flood. Methuselah, the son of Enoch, listened to the preaching of his grandson, Noah, who faithfully warned the inhabitants of the old world that a flood of waters was coming upon the earth. Methuselah and his sons, and grandsons, lived in the time of the building of the ark. They, with some others, received instruction from Noah, and assisted him in building the ark.
As we see, Enoch’s son Methuselah was also a witness of God on earth and perhaps the closest person to Noah when the ark was built. Ellen G. White says this about how the ark was built: Amid the prevailing corruption, Methuselah, Noah, and many others labored to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to stay the tide of moral evil. A hundred and twenty years before the Flood, the Lord by a holy angel declared to Noah His purpose and directed him to build an ark. While building the ark he was to preach that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy the wicked. Those who would believe the message and would prepare for that event by repentance and reformation, should find pardon and be saved. Enoch had repeated to his children what God had shown him in regard to the Flood, and Methuselah and his sons, who lived to hear the preaching of Noah, assisted in building the ark, (Patriarchs and Prophets 92.2).
Noah was a witness of God both before and after the flood, and we can assume that Abraham heard Noah’s preaching. Abraham also became a witness of God, and at the same time he became the ancestor of God’s special people, both the fleshly descendants and the spiritual descendants.
All the prophets that God raised up to lead his people, and to chastise them for their wickedness, were also witnesses for God. So were the disciples and apostles of Jesus who founded the church, and all those who kept the word of God pure and undefiled throughout the Middle Ages and during the Reformation, despite being mocked by everyone.
Common to all of God’s witnesses throughout history is that they have been ridiculed for their faith, stigmatized, persecuted, and millions have been killed for their faith.
How is it in the end times? Does God still have his witnesses who stand up for God’s word, and who proclaim what God reveals to them? We must try to find out this, because God says He does not change, that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever, (Hebrews 13:8). He should therefore have some witnesses in our time as well.
All Bible texts are taken from the King James Version 1611/1769 unless otherwise stated.
Called to be witnesses and watchmen.
This title may be a problem for many Christians, but just as God raised up and called witnesses in ancient times, He has always raised up and called witnesses in modern times. God does not change, and He wants His people to obey His voice, as Enoch, Noah, and Abraham did, just to name a few. But just as in the time before the flood, not all of God’s people, who today are those who call themselves Christians, will obey Him. The majority of those who call themselves Christians and who belong to one of the almost 50,000 different denominations that exist, are not willing to listen to the Lord. They would rather live as they please, they take teachers who tell them what tickles their ears or what they want to hear. This first led to a split in the Catholic Church in 1517, because this church had become full of heresy. This split we call the Reformation. Then it was only about 300 years before things were just as bad in the Reformed churches, and then a new split was necessary.
When wickedness was just as great in the Reformed churches, at the beginning of the 19th century, God raised up a deist* named William Miller. What he did is a fulfilment of several Bible prophecies. We see in the book of Daniel that this book would be closed, or sealed, so that it would not be understood in its entirety until we approached the end times in extended sense**.
* Deism is a view of God that implies that there is a transcendent being, that is, a supernatural being who is not possible to perceive or understand, who is also personal in himself and not just something diffuse, a God who has created the world, but who has withdrawn and no longer intervenes in the course of the world.
** By the expression in expanded sense, I mean the time from when we entered the end times in 1844 until the return of Jesus.
We find the following prophecies about this in the following places:
And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told [is] true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it [shall be] for many days, (Daniel 8:26).
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, [even] to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased, (Daniel 12:4).
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words [are] closed up and sealed till the time of the end, (Daniel 12:9).
* The expression for it [shall be] for many days actually refers to the end times.
For the sake of the record, I must add that it is not necessarily the book itself that is sealed, but that it is the minds of men that cannot understand what the contents of a sealed book tell us. In the book of Isaiah we find a text that explains this phenomenon: And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which [men] deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it [is] sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned, (Isaiah 29:11-12).
There are therefore two ways in which a book can be sealed, and the one who can read, who is therefore not illiterate in the first place, says that the book is sealed. This is because he does not have the necessary knowledge to understand the book, while the other who cannot read, cannot do so for natural reasons. Both can in fact be considered illiterate. He who cannot read is illiterate in the ordinary sense, while he who can read is spiritually illiterate.
During the British/American War of 1812-1814, something happened that made W. Miller start studying the Bible when the war ended. What happened was that a shell fell three feet from where he was standing. This shell killed a couple of his soldiers and wounded several more who were standing further away from where the shell fell than Miller, but he was not even hurt. When W. Miller began studying the Bible after the war to understand it, and perhaps find a personal God, God gave him the ability to understand the text in the book of Daniel, and this led to W. Miller fulfilling the prophecy that chapter 10 of Revelation has given us. I recommend that you all read this chapter, it is a short chapter of only 11 verses. But it is very important. Here are the five verses I want to highlight:
Verse 6: And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer. This verse sets the time for us. In God’s economy we find two time periods that are of a different nature. The first period is called prophetic time, and within this period time is an important factor. The happening of what is prophesied can be dated to the year it was to begin and the year it was to end. In many cases as precisely as to specific dates, even though they are not given in the Bible. The second period is the end time which began on the day prophetic time ceased. Now it no longer matters how long it will take, but God’s plan will be carried out without setting dates for the various events. This is what the last sentence of verse 6 tells us, where it says: that there should be time no longer.
Verse 8: And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go [and] take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. In this prophecy it is John who represents God’s people in the end times, and it is he who in the prophecy goes and receives the message from the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the land. Verse 1 tells us that this angel is Jesus Christ. The essential point in this verse is that the angel, Jesus, says that the little book is opened. When it is said that the little book is opened, it must mean that it was previously closed, or sealed, and the only book in the Bible that has been sealed is the book of Daniel.
Verse 9: And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take [it], and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. Then John is told to eat the book, and this means that the book should be carefully scrutinized so that its contents can be understood. But there are a couple more cryptic statements in this verse. The book should be sweet in the mouth but give bitter pain to your stomach.
Verse 10: And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. Here we see that those who examined the book were able to understand its contents. This gave them a feeling that the book was sweet as honey in their mouths. All calculations of prophetic times and the like were 100% correct. But there was one thing they were wrong about, and that was what would happen at that time.
At this time everyone believed that the earth was God’s sanctuary, and therefore W. Miller and the Millerites believed that it was the earth that was to be cleansed as stated in Daniel 8:13-14. A date was set for the return of Jesus, because that was the result of the misinterpretation of the word «sanctuary» in Daniel 8:14: And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. When Jesus did not return at the time they thought, this led to a tremendous disappointment. Therefore the prophecy says that the book should give bitter pain in the belly.
Verse 11: And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. In the last verse of chapter ten we find the order of work of the church of God in the last days. God had now called a people to be His witnesses and watchmen in the end-time. It began as a movement that awaited the return of Jesus in 1844 and has become a church denomination that calls itself the Seventh-day Adventists.
Concerning these, to whom Revelation 10:11 refers, Ellen G. White says the following: God expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent Him in thought, word, and deed. Their thoughts are to be pure and their words and deeds noble and uplifting, drawing those around them nearer to the Saviour … In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in this world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last message of mercy for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God. What manner of persons, then, ought they to be? (In Heavenly Places 332.2).
Is there anything in the Bible that supports these claims?
Let us first look at a verse from the prophet Amos: Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, (Amos 3:7).
Every time God has intervened in history to try to turn the fallen human race around, He has always raised up men to speak for Him. I mentioned this at the outset. Therefore, it was expected and entirely in God’s order that He would raise up a movement with the prophetic gift as the world entered the end times. Some of those God raised up in ancient times, besides those already mentioned, were the prophet Elijah and the Baptist John. These two had a very special mission, and that was to preach repentance to kings and people.
We have been given a divine mission.
It has ever been the design of Satan to draw the minds of the people from Jesus to man, and to destroy individual accountability. Satan failed in his design when he tempted the Son of God; but he succeeded better when he came to fallen man. Christianity became corrupted. Popes and priests presumed to take an exalted position and taught the people to look to them for the pardon of their sins, instead of looking to Christ for themselves, (213.2).
The people were wholly deceived. They were taught that the popes and priests were Christ’s representatives, when in fact they were the representatives of Satan, and those who bowed to them worshiped Satan. The people called for the Bible; but the priests considered it dangerous to let them have it to read for themselves, lest they should become enlightened and expose the sins of their leaders. The people were taught to receive every word from these deceivers as from the mouth of God. They held that power over the mind which God alone should hold. If any dared to follow their own convictions, the same hate which Satan and the Jews exercised toward Jesus would be kindled against them, and those in authority would thirst for their blood, (214.1).
Satan decided to go still farther. He told his angels that some would be so jealous of God’s law that they could not be caught in this snare*; the ten commandments were so plain that many would believe that they were still binding, and therefore he must seek to corrupt only one of the commandments. He then led on his representatives to attempt to change the fourth, or Sabbath, commandment, thus altering the only one of the ten which brings to view the true God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth. Satan presented before them the glorious resurrection of Jesus and told them that by His rising on the first day of the week, He changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, (215.4).
* These are the Seventh-day Adventists. Many will probably ask why I claim this. As we can see from the description in this section, it is about a group of people who keep all of God’s Ten Commandments. This is only done by Adventists.
It is true that there are church denominations that keep God’s Sabbath, the seventh day of the week – our Saturday, but they do not keep the other Ten Commandments of God, but the pope’s ten commandments that the papacy has adapted according to its own discretion, by removing the Second Commandment of God in its entirety and dividing God’s Ten Commandments into two.
Special watchmen and light bearers in the Bible.
The prophet Elijah and the Baptist John were not only witnesses of God, but they were also watchmen and light bearers. They had both been given a great and honorable task, a special mission; they were to restore true worship at a time when almost everyone had forgotten God the Creator. These two, the prophet Elijah and the Baptist, were raised up to be witnesses, watchmen, and light bearers in a world shrouded in Satan’s darkness. Although these two missions were not entirely identical, there are still many similarities between them.
The main task of the prophet Elijah was to denounce the paganism that King Ahab and his queen Jezebel had introduced among God’s people at that time, and he was to spread the light of God’s word through his preaching so that God’s people could find the way back to God. At the same time, Elijah also had another important task. He was clearly a man of prayer, and he resurrected the son of a widow in Zarephath through a deep and urgent prayer to the Almighty, (see 1 Kings 17:17-24).
The main task of John the Baptist was to prepare the way for the first coming of Jesus, (see Matthew 3:1-3). At the same time, he denounced the injustice and paganism that both King Herod and the people had become involved in. His denunciation of the king’s adultery with his brother’s wife Herodias caused her to demand John the Baptist’s head on a platter.
Both of these two men of God carried out the task that God gave them to the letter. Both did so at the risk of losing their own lives, but both were able to complete their mission because God was with them all the way.
Elijah alone challenged King Ahab’s 450 Baal prophets and put God’s people on a choice: And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD [be] God, follow him: but if Baal, [then] follow him. And the people answered him not a word, (1 Kings 18:21). In fact, Elijah asked the people to choose which God they would worship. Who will you worship, the Lord God or Baal?
John the Baptist alone challenged King Herod and put God’s people on a similar choice to Elijah and said: … … Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, (Matthew 3:2-3). What John the Baptist preached was repent and be baptized.
These are the tasks that Adventists have been given by God in the end times. We are to prepare for the return of Jesus by preaching the three angels’ messages, the loud cry, and the midnight cry. We must awaken people with our preaching, and then it is no use to fawn over the fallen churches that are gathered in ecumenical cooperation. We must go to the kings of the world, all nations, peoples, tribes, and tongues, and not least the Christians, those who call themselves by the name of Jesus Christ, to rebuke their sins and the paganism in which they live.
Ellen G. White says this about the watchmen and light bearers of the end times: In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import—the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention, (9T; 19.1).
So what are the different messages and why should they be preached?
These five messages are God’s final warning to a fallen human race. They are a symbol of God’s infinite and boundless love and are given because God wants everyone to turn to Him and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. God does not force anyone, and therefore it is important that we who believe in these messages go out and preach them. They are not only given to a fallen human race, but they are also given to awaken those of God’s faithful who have become a little lethargic and have therefore fallen asleep.
This does not mean that all Adventists should go out into the streets and talk to everyone, because we have all been given special gifts of grace from the Holy Spirit, and thus we are equipped in different ways. Some go out and preach, others write blogs, some participate in various missionary activities, etc. etc. Regardless of the way we preach, the preaching must contain these five messages.
1) The first angel’s message:
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters, (Revelation 14:6-7).
This message was first preached by the Advent movement in the time before 1844, and it will be heard again and then with greater power than the first time it was preached. The first angel’s message tells us who the Creator is and that we should fear him. Fear in this context does not mean being afraid of God, but honouring God by worshiping him as he should be worshipped and giving him all the glory for what he has done for us. This message also tells us that God’s judgment has come. The conjugation of the verb to be (is come) is the present participle active, which implies that this is an ongoing action. This is a universal message since it is to go out to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. The first angel’s message also points directly back to creation when God blessed and sanctified the seventh day of the week, (see Genesis 2:2-3), and to God’s fourth commandment, (see Exodus 20:8-11).
The reason why we are to preach this message is to make sincere seekers understand that they must turn to God and Him alone for salvation. There is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ, no matter what popes and prelates say.
2) The second angel’s message:
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, (Revelation 14:8).
The second angel’s message tells us that Babylon, which is a symbol of all unclean denominations, has fallen. This was also preached in the time before 1844, and this will also be preached again, with greater power and impact than it had the first time. The verse also tells why Babylon has fallen, and it is because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. It simply means that the fallen churches have preached a different gospel than what the Bible teaches us, adopted all the pagan doctrines from Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece, and that the Catholic Church has created and continues to create new unbiblical doctrines with which Babylon poisons the world.
This message is to be preached to make men aware of what is right and wrong. It is all about worship, just as it did in the days of Elijah. Whom do you want to worship? I have no doubt who I want to worship. It is God the Creator of the universe. Even if it costs me all I have and am, my reward, if I endure to the end, will be more valuable than all the fairy tales that the fallen churches preach. Shall I turn my back on Him who died for me that I might be saved?
3) The Third Angel’s Message:
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, (Revelation 14:9-12).
This message tells us what awaits the fallen church denominations, Babylon. It is not a cheerful reading, for the punishment that awaits those who do not repent is horrible. The worst thing is that they choose this themselves, by not turning to God, honouring God as the Creator, and doing His will. The sins contained in these verses are the sins that the church has added to itself since the establishment of the primitive church in the year 31, and also the sins that Babylon will impose on people in general and Christians in particular in the time that lies ahead of us. So far, no one has taken the mark of the beast that is specifically mentioned in verse 11, it cannot happen until the image of the beast is set up (also verse 11). But God’s saints, who live in the last days before Jesus’ return, will not take the mark of the beast. They would rather die than give up their faith and leave God, and that is what verse 12 tells us. God’s saints all keep God’s Ten Commandments and the faith of Jesus.
We who consider ourselves to be God’s small remnant in the end times, must preach this message to tell two things: 1) what punishment awaits those who do not turn to God, and 2) that it is entirely possible to turn to God and join God’s end-time church.
Now in the end times these messages will sound with even greater force than they did in the 19th century. Now they will also be amplified with the loud cry.
4) The loud cry:
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, (Revelation 18:1-5).
In the loud cry it is said that the church founded by the apostles has fallen as deeply as it is possible for a church to fall, she has simply turned against God. This church and all the approximately 50,000 denominations that it has gradually become, are explained as follows by the angel who gave John the Revelation: and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. That is far from a flattering description. These churches, with the Catholic Church as the mother church and all the others that are her daughters, are described as follows in Revelation: And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH, (Revelation 17:5).
Woman in the Bible is a symbol of God’s church or congregation. Here it is the Catholic Church that is being talked about, and this church calls itself the mother church, and she even boasts about it, and says that all the denominations that follow her are her daughters, or as Revelation 17:5 says; the harlots!
As we see in verse 4, God says: come out of her, my people, which means that God knows that there are sincere seekers in all the fallen denominations. This is the reason why we are to preach the three angels’ messages and the loud cry. They need a push in the right direction so that they can get out of the confusion they are caught in. If we fail to preach the end-time message, we must bear the penalty for their being lost.
There is great disagreement about who is to preach the midnight cry.
When it comes to the preaching of the three angels’ messages and the loud cry, no one claims that there are others than God’s faithful remnant who preach and who will preach this in the end times. When it comes to the midnight cry, however, there are divided opinions about who is to preach this message. Many say that all Christians fell asleep while waiting for the bridegroom, but who then woke up those who were waiting and who were sleeping?
In these four messages we see that there is an angel involved in the preaching, and an angel, in Greek a’nggelos, is translated as messenger and angel. A’nggelos can also be translated as pastor or leader of the congregation/church. This means that the four messages we have looked at are to be preached by people.
God has always had watchmen who have walked on the walls of Zion. These have looked for enemies who have approached God’s people, and in the time after the cross they have scouted especially for the return of Jesus. It is God’s faithful remnant who have been given the honourable and important assignment of being both witnesses for God and watchmen. Therefore, it must be the small remnant that consists of God’s faithful congregation that is behind the preaching of the midnight cry as well.
5) The Midnight Cry:
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five [were] foolish. They that [were] foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him, (Matthew 25:1-6).
Now this is a parable, and a parable is in many ways similar to a prophecy. Therefore, we cannot interpret a parable literally. Jesus always used familiar images from everyday life in his parables when He spoke to the people, so also in this parable.
The common understanding of this parable is that all Christians fall asleep, but who then preaches the midnight cry? When the midnight cry first sounded in the 1840s, it was William Miller and the Millerites who preached it. Why should there be others preaching it in the absolute end times? It makes no sense.
Those who proclaim the return of Jesus are the watchmen who walk on the walls of Zion and scout for the Savior’s return. We must therefore proclaim the imminent return of Jesus with power and anointing every day and use every opportunity to tell that Christ is soon coming again. We were given the fig tree as a model for how to understand the signs of the times. We see that all the signs that Jesus has given us in Matthew, but with the exception of two, are fulfilled at the same time before our eyes. This is what Jesus meant when he said: Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh, (Matthew 24:32). The branches on our fig tree are certainly tender, and it has begun to put forth leaves, so we know that Jesus’ return is near, very near.
We are Adventists for several reasons. We are because we have responded to God’s call to be watchmen, and we, Seventh-day Adventists, are called the third Elijah because we have been given the honourable mission of proclaiming the return of Jesus so that the world can be prepared for this event.
God has many faithful and seeking people who are still in Babylon. These we must try to reach with our preaching so that they can be set free in Christ. In Old Testament times, a call was given to get out of literal Babylon, and we find this in Isaiah and Jeremiah, among other things: Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it [even] to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob, (Isaiah 48:20) … // … Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks, (Jermiah 50:8) … // … Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this [is] the time of the LORD’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense, (Jeremiah 51:6) … // … My people, go ye out of the midst of her, (Babylon) and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD, (Jeremiah 51:45).
Just as God’s people were called to come out of literal Babylon, we must preach the same message in our day to all those who are still in the mystical Babylon of our day, so that they may return to the Lord.
We know from history that not all the Jews who lived in Babylon cared to come out of her. This will also happen in the end times, for not all who hear the call to leave mystical Babylon in the end times will make any attempt to get out. Fortunately, there are many who are sincere in their search for God hear God’s voice through the preaching of the end-time messages that God’s witnesses, watchmen, and light bearers proclaim.
God’s end-time message will sound regardless of whether you are with us or not, for God has a small but faithful remnant who are willing to follow their Savior wherever He asks them to go, even to a cross.