No New Thing under the Sun

The work of God in the earth presents, from age to age, a striking similarity in every great reformation or religious movement. The principles of God's dealing with men are ever the same.The important movements of the present have their parallel in those of the past.{Great Controversy, 343}

Why is this vital for us to understand?

'God calls for a spiritual revival and a spiritual reformation. Unless this takes place, those who are lukewarm will continue to grown more abhorrent to the Lord, until He will refuse to acknowledge them as His children.'{1 Selected Messages, 127}

So the fact that this revival and reformation is salvational, it behooves us to find out how God wants to accomplish this. Well the answer is in the very first quote of this article. We need to study how God brought about a great reformation among His people in the past.

Why? Because how God brings about this work in His Church, will be the same as He did in times past:

'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See this is new? it hath been already of old time which was before us.'

{Ecclesiastes 1:9,10}

But whats more, is that the way that God will bring about the present revival and reformation, will run parallel with how He accomplished it in history. What does it mean for something to be parallel? It means when atleast two things line up. In other words, when you place them one on top of the other, they will flow in the exact order.

'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.'{James 1:17}

'Remember the former things of old: for I AM GOD, and there is none like Me declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying My counsel shall stand...I will also bring it to pass.'{Isaiah 46:9-11}

God's counsel, His principle that history will repeat, will stand. In other words, it is sure. This is what makes prophecy a more sure Word of prophecy. You can be sure of what is to come, because of how it happened in the past.

'We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.'{CET, 204}

'That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.'{Eccl 3:15}

But sad to say God's people don't even know about our past history! So how will we recognise the workings of God in the Church today? How will we experience this revival and reformation?

'There is no rememberance of former things..'{Eccl 1:11}

There are a few dangers that I am going to list, of what happens when we don't study our past history:

1. We will not recognise the great awakening which God is doing in His Church today.We will end up attributing the work of the Holy Spirit, to the workings of Satan!

'There is to be in the [Seventh-day Adventist]churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of God..In the manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will brace themselves to resist it. Because the Lord does not work according to their ideas and expectations they will oppose the work. ''Why,''they say,''should we not know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?''

{Last Day Events, 209}

'The third angel's message will not be comprehended, the light which will lighten the earth with its glory will be called a false light,by those who refuse to walk in its advancing glory.'

{Last Day Events, 210}

What does it mean to resist the workings of the Holy Spirit; to attribute the workings of the Holy Spirit to Satan?

'He tells His hearers that all manner of sin and blasphemy may be forgiven if done in ignorance..But when the power and Spirit of God rested upon His messengers, they were on holy ground. To ignore the Spirit of God, to charge it with being the spirit of the devil, placed them in a position where God had no power to reach their souls. To speak against Christ, charging His work to satanic agencies, and attributing the manifestations of the Spirit fanaticism, is not of itself a damning sin, but the spirit that leads men to make these assertions places them in a position of stubborn resistance, wher they cannot see spiritual light.'{5 Bible Commentary, 1092}

2. Another danger of not studying the great reformatory movements in the past, is that we will end up misapplying the final events before the close of human probation. Here's an example:

We are told in Inspiration that prior to the plagues falling upon the earth, true Seventh-day Adventists, will be called out from the nominal Adventist gatherings [Read Early Writings, 261]. But some have applied this statement to mean that that time is now. When we understand the order of events in the past reformations, all will be clear.

1840-1844:

I'm just going to list 3 main characteristics/waymarks, that we will find in each great awakening of God's Church.

Waymark 1. The First Angel's Message, was worldwide in its nature, and it was a message of REFORM.[see Rev 10:1,2;14:6,7;1Cor 10:31]

Waymark 2. The Second Angel's Message, was local in its nature (applied to the churches in the USA). We also see a physical separation of two classes amongst the Church.

'That message was first proclaimed by the servants of God in the summer of 1844. As a result, many left the fallen churches.' {CET, 50}

Waymark 3. We see judgment. On October 22nd, 1844, we see the investigative judgment begin.

The Three Decrees:

Waymark 1. Under the First Decree, we see that it went to all the kingdom of Cyrus-which happened to be worldwide:

'Now in the first year of Cyrus...he made a proclamation. throughout all his kingdom..The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth'.{Ezra 1:1,2}

Those who experienced the revival of the Spirit, and reform followed [see Ezra 1:5;3]

Waymark 2. They celebrated the Passover. At the first passover, when the angel of death was to destroy all the firstborn among the Egyptians, God gave to His people clear instruction to separate them and their children from the Egyptians, lest they receive of that plague too. So it isn't coincidental that the Passover which involved a separation, was celebrated at the second decree. Also God used Zechariah to call His people out of Babylon.[see Zechariah 2:6,7]

Waymark 3. Sure enough judgment was pronounced upon the Jews by Ahasuerus.

Moses' Ministry:

Waymark 1. At the beginning of Moses'work in delivering Israel out of Egypt, He sought to bring about a reformation. What was that reformation? It was to do with Sabbath reform:

'In their bondage the Israelites had to some extent lost the knowledge of God's law, and they had departed from its precepts. The Sabbath had been generally disregarded, and the exactions of their taskmasters made its observance apparently impossible. But Moses had shown his people that obedience to God was the firts condition of deliverance and the efforts made to restore the observance of the Sabbath had come to the notice of their oppressors.'{Patriarchs and Prophets, 258}

We don't see worldwide, here. But that's Ok. Prophecy deals with repeating that which God wants to repeat, and enlarging that which God wants to enlarge.

Waymark 2. Prior to the final plague upon the Egyptians, God's people separated themselves from the environment of the Egyptians. It is no accident that at the second decree, Israel kept the Passover.

Waymark 3. Then we see judgment upon the first born. Please bear in mind that I am only barely touching the surface regarding these histories. There is so much more to say about them. But I just am introducing this subject for those who may never have even heard these truths before. It was a serious eye opener to me. There are plenty other histories in the Bible where we can see the same workings of God in bringing about a revival and reformation.

On the testimony of at least two, a thing is ESTABLISHED. So lets look at the antitype of those histories:

Daniel 11:40-45:

Waymark 1. Verse 40, has two parts to it.

Part (a)is the history before the colon-the history beginning at 1798 all the way through to October 22nd 1844.I n this history, we find the events that transpired under the first, second and third angel's messages.

The history after the colon, part (b), is the history beginning at 1989 and ending at Daniel 12:1, when human probation closes. Part (b), is simply the repeat of history part (a).

The events in part (b), will therefore repeat the workings of God, under the first, second, and third angel's messages. So in Daniel 11:40 (b) through to verse 45, we should expect to see:

Waymark 1 repeated.

Waymark 2 repeated.

Waymark 3 repeated.

And we do!

1. At the First Angel's Message, on August 11th, 1840, the present truth message for that time (the first angels message)was empowered by the 6th trumpet-Islam. Before that date, Josiah Litch, predicted that the Ottoman Empire would collapse (the close of the 6th trumpet/2nd woe) on that very date. To come to this conclusion, he used the day for a year principle in the Bible. The rest of the Millerites also used this principle to predict that Jesus was going to return to the earth in the year of 1843. They used the day for a year principle too. The world laughed them all to scorn, until on that very date August 11th 1840, the prediction proclaimed by Josiah Litch, came to fruition. And all of a sudden,t he world stopped laughing at these preachers, and they were convinced of the day/year principle. They also reasoned in their minds that if the day/year principle was correct in predicting the close of the 6th trumpet, therefore they also must be correct in saying that Jesus was to come in 1843! Immediately a great impetus was added to the First Angel's Message, and it went rapidly worldwide.

So, I've said all that to say this:

On September 11th, 2001(which belongs to the history of part b,beginning 1989), the 7th trumpet re-emerged(being as it began in 1844,but because the virgins weren't ready,there was

a break in continuity). Once again Islam came into present day history, repeating what it did during the 5th and 6th trumpet(study Daniel and Revelation, by Uriah Smith). 1840 began to get repeated. It contained the same characteristics of what transpired during 1840. Friends, the present truth message, which is the third angel's message, was empowered by the 7th trumpet-Islam. We could have known that 9/11 was to take place, according to Testimonies volume 9 and studying the 5th and 6th trumpet. Not the date, just the event. But we are not Philadelphians, we are Laodiceans, and so its taken much longer to wake us up out of our death like stupor.

2001 was worldwide. It was a powerful opportunity to have convinced the world that the the coming of the Lord is at the door, because the sealing was finishing. If only we proclaimed it prior to that event.

2. Verse 41, we see the separation of the two classes existing among the professed people of God.

3. Daniel 12:1, we see judgment. Michael stands up and the plagues fall.

NOTE:There is NO PHYSICAL SEPARATION,BEFORE the SECOND WAYMARK!

ARE YOU READY TO STAND FAITHFUL TO GOD IN THE SUNDAY LAW CRISIS THAT IS ABOUT TO BURST UPON THIS WORLD AS AN OVERWHELMING SURPRISE?