Chapter 23. The First Angel's Message

The Great Controversy, by Ellen G. White, [1858], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER 23

The First Angel's Message

I saw that God was in the proclamation of the time in 1843.  It was his design to arouse the people, and bring them to a testing point where they should decide.  Ministers were convicted and convinced of the correctness of the positions taken on the prophetic periods, and they left their pride, their salaries, and their churches, to go forth from place to place and proclaim the message.  But as the message from heaven could find a place in the hearts of but a very few of the professed ministers of Christ, the work was laid upon many who were not preachers.  Some left their fields to sound the message, while others were called from their shops and their merchandise.  And even some professional men were compelled to leave their professions to engage in the unpopular work of giving the first angel's message.  Ministers laid aside their sectarian views and feelings, and united in proclaiming the coming of Jesus.  The people were moved everywhere the message reached them.  Sinners repented, wept and prayed for forgiveness, and those whose lives had been marked with dishonesty, were anxious to make restitution.

Parents felt the deepest solicitude for their children.  Those who received the message, labored with their unconverted friends and relatives, and with their souls bowed with the weight of the solemn message, warned and entreated them to prepare for the coming of the Son of man.  Those cases were the most hardened that would not yield to such a weight of evidence set home by heart-felt warnings.  This soul-purifying work led the affections away from worldly things, to a consecration never before experienced.  Thousands were led to embrace the truth preached by Wm. Miller, and servants of God were raised up in the spirit and power of Elijah to proclaim the message.  Those who preached this solemn message, like John the forerunner of Jesus, felt compelled to lay the axe at the root of the tree, and call upon men to bring forth fruits meet for repentance.  Their testimony was calculated to arouse and powerfully affect the churches, and manifest their real character.  And as they raised the solemn warning to flee from the wrath to come, many who were united with the churches received the healing message; they saw their backslidings, and, with bitter tears of repentance, and deep agony of soul, humbled themselves before God.  And as the Spirit of God rested upon them, they helped to sound the cry, Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.

The preaching of definite time called forth great opposition from all classes, from the minister in the pulpit, down to the most reckless, heaven-daring sinner.  No man knoweth the day and the hour, was heard from the hypocritical minister and the bold scoffer.  Neither would be instructed and corrected on the use made of the text by those who were pointing to the year when they believed the prophetic periods would run out, and to the signs which showed Christ near, even at the doors.  Many shepherds of the flock, who professed to love Jesus, said they had no opposition to the preaching of Christ's coming; but they objected to the definite time.  God's all-seeing eye read their hearts.  They did not love Jesus near.  They knew that their unchristian lives would not stand the test; for they were not walking in the humble path laid out by him.  These false shepherds stood in the way of the work of God.  The truth spoken in its convincing power to the people aroused them, and like the jailer, they began to inquire, What must I do to be saved.  But these shepherds stepped between the truth and the people, and preached smooth things to lead them from the truth.  They united with Satan and his angels, and cried, Peace, peace, when there was no peace.  I saw that angels of God had marked it all, and the garments of those unconsecrated shepherds were covered with the blood of souls.  Those who loved their ease, and were content with their distance from God, would not be aroused from their carnal security.

Many ministers would not accept this saving message themselves, and those who would receive it, they hindered.  The blood of souls is upon them.  Preachers and people joined to oppose this message from heaven.  They persecuted Wm. Miller, and those who united with him in the work.  Falsehoods were circulated to injure his influence, and at different times after he had plainly declared the counsel of God, applying cutting truths to the hearts of his hearers, great rage was kindled against him, and as he left the place of meeting, some waylaid him in order to take his life.  But angels of God were sent to preserve his life, and they led him safely away from the angry mob.  His work was not yet finished.

The most devoted gladly received the message.  They knew it was from God, and that it was delivered at the right time.  Angels were watching with the deepest interest the result of the heavenly message, and when the churches turned from and rejected it, they in sadness consulted with Jesus.  He turned his face from the churches, and bid his angels to faithfully watch over the precious ones who did not reject the testimony, for another light was yet to shine upon them.

I saw that if professed Christians had loved their Saviour's appearing, if their affections were placed on him, if they felt that there was none upon earth to be compared with him, they would have hailed with joy the first intimation of his coming.  But the dislike they manifested, as they heard of their Lord's coming, was a decided proof that they did not love him.  Satan and his angels triumphed, and cast it in the face of Jesus Christ and his holy angels, that his professed people had so little love for Jesus that they did not desire his second appearing.

I saw the people of God, joyful in expectation, looking for their Lord.  But God designed to prove them.  His hand covered a mistake in the reckoning of the prophetic periods.  Those who were looking for their Lord did not discover it, and the most learned men who opposed the time also failed to see the mistake.  God designed that his people should meet with a disappointment.  The time passed, and those who had looked with joyful expectation for their Saviour were sad and disheartened, while those who had not loved the appearing of Jesus, but embraced the message through fear, were pleased that he did not come at the time of expectation.  Their profession had not affected their hearts, and purified their lives.  The passing of the time was well calculated to reveal such hearts.  They were the first to turn and ridicule the sorrowful, disappointed ones, who really loved the appearing of their Saviour.  I saw the wisdom of God in proving his people, and giving them a searching test to discover those who would shrink and turn back in the hour of trial.

Jesus and all the heavenly host looked with sympathy and love upon those who had with sweet expectation longed to see him whom their souls loved.  Angels were hovering around them, to sustain them in the hour of their trial.  Those who had neglected to receive the heavenly message were left in darkness, and God's anger was kindled against them, because they would not receive the light he had sent them from heaven.  Those faithful, disappointed ones, who could not understand why their Lord did not come, were not left in darkness.  Again they were led to their Bibles to search the prophetic periods.  The hand of the Lord was removed from the figures, and the mistake was explained.  They saw that the prophetic periods reached to 1844, and that the same evidence they had presented to show that the prophetic periods closed in 1843, proved that they would terminate in 1844.  Light from the word of God shone upon their position, and they discovered a tarrying time. -- If the vision tarry, wait for it. -- In their love for Jesus' immediate coming, they had overlooked the tarrying of the vision, which was calculated to manifest the true waiting ones.  Again they had a point of time.  Yet I saw that many of them could not rise above their severe disappointment, to possess that degree of zeal and energy which had marked their faith in 1843.

Satan and his angels triumphed over them, and those who would not receive the message, congratulated themselves upon their far-seeing judgment and wisdom in not receiving the delusion, as they called it.  They realized not that they were rejecting the counsel of God against themselves, and that they were working in union with Satan and his angels to perplex God's people, who were living out the heaven-born message.

The believers in this message were oppressed in the churches.  Fear had held them for a time, so that they did not act out the sentiments of their heart, but the passing of the time revealed their true feelings.  They wished to silence the testimony which the believers felt compelled to bear, that the prophetic periods extended to 1844.  With clearness they explained their mistake, and gave their reasons why they expected their Lord in 1844.  The opposers could not bring any arguments against the powerful reasons offered.  The anger of the churches was kindled against them.  They were determined not to listen to any evidence, and to shut their testimony out of the churches, so that others could not hear it.  Those who dared not withhold from others the light God had given them, were shut out of the churches; but Jesus was with them, and they were joyful in the light of his countenance.  They were prepared to receive the message of the second angel.

See Daniel 8:14; Habakkuk 2:1-4; Malachi chap. 3 & 4; Matthew 24:36; Revelation 14:6-7