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Appendix Notes in Chapter 25
God's Immutable Law
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Appendix Notes for Chapter 25: Click for page 435.2 - - page 447 -
| Those who had accepted the light concerning the mediation of Christ and the perpetuity of the law of God found that these were the truths presented in Revelation 14. The messages of this chapter constitute a threefold warning ( see Appendix ) which is to prepare the inhabitants of the earth for the Lord's second coming. The announcement, "The hour of His judgment is come," points to the closing work of Christ's ministration for the salvation of men. It heralds a truth which must be proclaimed until the Saviour's intercession shall cease and He shall return to the earth to take His people to Himself. The work of judgment which began in 1844 must continue until the cases of all are decided, both of the living and the dead; hence it will extend to the close of human probation. That men may be prepared to stand in the judgment, the message commands them to "fear God, and give glory to Him," "and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." The result of an acceptance of these messages is given in the word: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." In order to be prepared for the judgment, it is necessary that men should keep the law of God. That law will be the standard of character in the judgment. The apostle Paul declares: "As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." And he says that "the doers of the law shall be justified." Romans 2:12-16.Faith is essential in order to the keeping of the law of God; for "without faith it is impossible to please Him." Hebrews 11:6; And "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Romans 14:23. {GC 435.2} |
Appendix Note for page 435.2
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A Threefold Message
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Page 435. A threefold message. — Revelation 14:6, 7 foretells the proclamation of the first angel’s message. Then the prophet continues: “There followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen.... and the third angel followed them.” The word here rendered “followed” means “to go along with,” “to follow one,” “go with him.” See Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, Greek English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940), Vol. 1, p. 52. It also means “to accompany.” see George Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1950), page 17. It is the same word that is used in Mark 5:24, “Jesus went with him; and much people followed Him, and thronged Him.” It is also used of the redeemed one hundred and forty-four thousand, Revelation 14:4, where it is said, “these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” In both these places it is evident that the idea intended to be conveyed is that of “going together,” “in company with.” So in 1 Corinthians 10:4, where we read of the children of Israel that “they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them,” the word “followed” is translated from the same Greek word, and the margin has it, “went with them.” From this we learn that the idea in Revelation 14:8, 9 is not simply that the second and third angels followed the first in point of time, but that they went with him. The three messages are but one threefold message. They are three only in the order of their rise. But having risen, they go on together and are inseparable. { GC 693.1 }
Return to Chapter 25
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Great Controversy, page 447
| "While the worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandments,--since this is the sign of His creative power and the witness to His claim upon man's reverence and homage,--the worshipers of the beast will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator's memorial, to exalt the institution of Rome. It was in behalf of the Sunday that popery first asserted its arrogant claims ( see Appendix ); and its first resort to the power of the state was to compel the observance of Sunday as "the Lord's day." But the Bible points to the seventh day, and not to the first, as the Lord's day. Said Christ: "The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." The fourth commandment declares: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord." And by the prophet Isaiah the Lord designates it: "My holy day." Mark 2:28; Isaiah 58:13. {GC 446.3} |
Appendix Note for page 447
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Page 446.3. Supremacy of the Bishops of Rome
| Supremacy of the Bishops of Rome. — For the leading circumstances in the assumption of supremacy by the bishops of Rome, see Robert Francis Cardinal Bellarmine, Power of the Popes in Temporal Affairs (there is an English Translation in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.); Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ (London: Burns and Lambert, 2d ed., 1862); and James Cardinal Gibbons, Faith Of Our Fathers (Baltimore: John Murphy Co., 110th ed., 1917), Chs. 5, 9, 10, 12. For Protestant authors see Trevor Gervase Jalland, The Church and the Papacy (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1944, a Bampton Lecture); and Richard Frederick Littledale, Petrine Claims (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1899). For sources of the early centuries of the Petrine theory, see James T. Shotwell and Louise Ropes Loomis, The See of Peter (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927). For the false “Donation of Constantine” see Christopher B. Coleman, The Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine (New York, 1914), which gives the full Latin text and translation, and a complete criticism of the document and its thesis. { GC 693.2 } |
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