n made known to the angelic host that a way of escape had
been made for lost man. He told them that He had been pleading with
His Father, and had offered to give His life a ransom, to take the sentence
of death upon Himself, that through Him man might find pardon; that
through the merits of His blood, and obedience to the law of God, they
could have the
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favor of God and be brought into the beautiful garden and eat of the fruit
of the tree of life.
At first the angels could not rejoice, for their Commander concealed
nothing from them, but opened before them the plan of salvation. Jesus
told them that He would stand between the wrath of His Father and guilty
man, that He would bear iniquity and scorn, and but few would receive
Him as the Son of God. Nearly all would hate and reject Him. He would
leave all His glory in heaven, appear upon earth as a man, humble himself
as a man, become acquainted by His own experience with the various
temptations with which man would be beset, that He might know how to
succor those who should be tempted; and that finally, after His mission as
a teacher would be accomplished, He would be delivered into the hands
of men and endure almost every cruelty and suffering that Satan and his
angels could inspire wicked men to inflict; that He would die the cruelest
of deaths, hung up between the heavens and the earth as a guilty sinner;
that He would suffer dreadful hours of agony, which even angels could not
look upon, but would veil their faces from the sight. Not merely agony of
body would He suffer, but mental agony, that with which bodily suffering
could in no wise be compared. The weight of the sins of the whole world
would be upon Him. He told them He would die and rise again the third
day, and would ascend to His Father to intercede for wayward, guilty man.
The One Possible Way of Salvation
The angels prostrated themselves before Him. They offered their lives.
Jesus said to them that He would by His death save many, that the life of
an angel could not pay the debt. His life alone could be
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accepted of His Father as a ransom for man. Jesus also told them that
they would have a part to act, to be with Him and at different times
strengthen Him; that He would take man’s fallen nature, and His strength
would not be even equal with theirs; that they would be witnesses of
His humiliation and great sufferings; and that as they would witness His
sufferings and the hatred of men toward Him, they would be stirred with
the deepest emotion, and through their love for Him would wish to rescue
and deliver Him from His murderers; but that they must not interfere to
prevent anything they should behold; and that they should act a part at His
resurrection; that the plan of salvation was devised, and His Father had
accepted the plan.
With a holy sadness Jesus comforted and cheered the angels and
informed them that hereafter those whom He should redeem would be
with Him, and that by His death He should ransom many and destroy
him who had the power of death. And His Father would give Him
the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,
and He would possess it forever and ever. Satan and sinners would be
destroyed, nevermore to disturb heaven or the purified new earth. Jesus
bade the heavenly host be reconciled to the plan that His Father had
accepted and rejoice that through His death fallen man could again be
exalted to obtain favor with God and enjoy heaven.
Then joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven. And the heavenly host sang
a song of praise and adoration. They touched their harps and sang a note
higher than they had done before, for the great mercy and condescension
of God in yielding up His dearly Beloved to die for a race of rebels. Praise
and adoration were poured forth for the self-denial and sacrifice of Jesus;
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that He would consent to leave the bosom of His Father and choose a
life of suffering and anguish, and die an ignominious death to give life to
others.
Said the angel, “Think ye that the Father yielded up His dearly beloved
Son without a struggle? No, no. It was even a struggle with the God of
heaven, whether to let guilty man perish, or to give His beloved Son to die
for him.” Angels were so interested for man’s salvation that there could
be found among them those who would yield their glory and give their life
for perishing man, “But,” said my accompanying angel, “that would avail
nothing. The transgression was so great that an angel’s life would not pay
the debt. Nothing but the death and intercessions of His Son would pay
the debt and save lost man from hopeless sorrow and misery.”
But the work of the angels was assigned them, to ascend and descend
with strengthening balm from glory to soothe the Son of God in His
sufferings and minister unto Him. Also, their work would be to guard and
keep the subjects of grace from the evil angels and the darkness constantly
thrown around them by Satan. I saw that it was impossible for God to alter
or change His law to save lost, perishing man; therefore He suffered His
beloved Son to die for man’s transgression.
Satan again rejoiced with his angels that he could, by causing man’s
fall, pull down the Son of God from His exalted position. He told
his angels that when Jesus should take fallen man’s nature, he could
overpower Him and hinder the accomplishment of the plan of salvation.
I was shown Satan as he once was, a happy, exalted angel. Then I was
shown him as he now is. He still bears a kingly form. His features are still
noble, for
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he is an angel fallen. But the expression of his countenance is full of
anxiety, care, unhappiness, malice, hate, mischief, deceit, and every evil.
That brow which was once so noble, I particularly noticed. His forehead
commenced from his eyes to recede. I saw that he had so long bent
himself to evil that every good quality was debased, and every evil trait
was developed. His eyes were cunning, sly, and showed great penetration.
His frame was large, but the flesh hung loosely about his hands and face.
As I beheld him, his chin was resting upon his left hand. He appeared to
be in deep thought. A smile was upon his countenance, which made me
tremble, it was so full of evil and satanic slyness. This smile is the one he
wears just before he makes sure of his victim, and as he fastens the victim
in his snare, this smile grows horrible.
In humility and inexpressible sadness Adam and Eve left the lovely
garden wherein they had been so happy until they disobeyed the command
of God. The atmosphere was changed. It was no longer unvarying as
before the transgression. God clothed them with coats of skins to protect
them from the sense of chilliness and then of heat to which they were
exposed.
God’s Unchangeable Law
All heaven mourned on account of the disobedience and fall of Adam
and Eve, which brought the wrath of God upon the whole human race.
They were cut off from communing with God, and were plunged in
hopeless misery. The law of God could not be changed to meet man’s
necessity, for in God’s arrangement it was never to lose its force nor give
up the smallest part of its claims.
The angels of God were commissioned to visit the fallen pair and
inform them that although they could
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no longer retain possession of their holy estate, their Eden home, because
of their transgression of the law of God, yet their case was not altogether
hopeless. They were then informed that the Son of God, who had
conversed with them in Eden, had been moved with pity as He viewed
their hopeless condition, and had volunteered to take upon Himself the
punishment due to them, and die for them that man might yet live, through
faith in the atonement Christ proposed to make for him. Through Christ a
door of hope was opened, that man, notwithstanding his great sin, should
not be under the absolute control of Satan. Faith in the merits of the Son
of God would so elevate man that he could resist the devices of Satan.
Probation would be granted him in which, through a life of repentance
and faith in the atonement of the Son of God, he might be redeemed from
his transgression of the Father’s law, and thus be elevated to a position
where his efforts to keep His law could be accepted.
The angels related to them the grief that was felt in heaven as it was
announced that they had transgressed the law of God, which had made it
expedient for Christ to make the great sacrifice of His own precious life.
When Adam and Eve realized how exalted and sacred was the law
of God, the transgression of which made so costly a sacrifice necessary
to save them and their posterity from utter ruin, they pleaded to die
themselves, or to let them and their posterity endure the penalty of their
transgression, rather than that the beloved Son of God should make this
great sacrifice. The anguish of Adam was increased. He saw that his sins
were of so great magnitude as to involve fearful consequences. And must
it be that heaven’s honored
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Commander, who had walked with him and talked with him while in his
holy innocence, whom angels honored and worshiped, must be brought
down from his exalted position to die because of his transgression?
Adam was informed that an angel’s life could not pay the debt. The
law of Jehovah, the foundation of His government in heaven and upon
earth, was as sacred as God Himself; and for this reason the life of an
angel could not be accepted of God as a sacrifice for its transgression. His
law is of more importance in His sight than the holy angels around His
throne. The Father could not abolish or change one precept of His law to
meet man in his fallen condition. But the Son of God, who had in unison
with the Father created man, could make an atonement for man acceptable
to God, by giving His life a sacrifice and bearing the wrath of His Father.
Angels informed Adam that, as his transgression had brought death and
wretchedness, life and immortality would be brought to light through the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
A View of the Future
To Adam were revealed future important events, from his expulsion
from Eden to the Flood, and onward to the first advent of Christ upon
the earth; His love for Adam and his posterity would lead the Son of
God to condescend to take human nature, and thus elevate, through His
own humiliation, all who would believe on Him. Such a sacrifice was
of sufficient value to save the whole world; but only a few would avail
themselves of the salvation brought to them through such a wonderful
sacrifice. The many would not comply with the conditions required of
them that they might be partakers of His great salvation. They would
prefer sin and transgression of the law of God rather
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than repentance and obedience, relying by faith upon the merits of the
sacrifice offered. This sacrifice was of such infinite value as to make a
man who should avail himself of it more precious than fine gold, even a
man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Adam was carried down through successive generations and saw the
increase of crime, of guilt and defilement, because man would yield to his
naturally strong inclinations to transgress the holy law of God. He was
shown the curse of God resting more and more heavily upon the human
race, upon the cattle, and upon the earth, because of man’s continued
transgression. He was shown that iniquity and violence would steadily
increase; yet amid all the tide of human misery and woe, there would
ever be a few who would preserve the knowledge of God and would
remain unsullied amid the prevailing moral degeneracy. Adam was made
to comprehend what sin is—the transgression of the law. He was shown
that moral, mental, and physical degeneracy would result to the race, from
transgression, until the world would be filled with human misery of every
type.
The days of man were shortened by his own course of sin in
transgressing the righteous law of God. The race was finally so greatly
depreciated that they appeared inferior and almost valueless. They were
generally incompetent to appreciate the mystery of Calvary, the grand and
elevated facts of the atonement, and the plan of salvation, because of the
indulgence of the carnal mind. Yet, notwithstanding the weakness, and
enfeebled mental, moral, and physical powers of the human race, Christ,
true to the purpose for which He left heaven, continues His interest in the
feeble, depreciated, degenerate specimens of humanity, and invites them
to hide their weakness and
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great deficiencies in Him. If they will come unto Him, He will supply all
their needs.
The Sacrificial Offering
When Adam, according to God’s special directions, made an offering
for sin, it was to him a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised
to take life, which God alone could give, and make an offering for sin. It
was the first time he had witnessed death. As he looked upon the bleeding
victim, writhing in the agonies of death, he was to look forward by faith
to the Son of God, whom the victim prefigured, who was to die man’s
sacrifice.
This ceremonial offering, ordained of God, was to be a perpetual
reminder to Adam of his guilt, and also a penitential acknowledgment of
his sin. This act of taking life gave Adam a deeper and more perfect sense
of his transgression, which nothing less than the death of God’s dear Son
could expiate. He marveled at the infinite goodness and matchless love
which would give such a ransom to save the guilty. As Adam was slaying
the innocent victim, it seemed to him that he was shedding the blood of the
Son of God by his own hand. He knew that if he had remained steadfast to
God, and true to His holy law, there would have been no death of beast nor
of man. Yet in the sacrificial offerings, pointing to the great and perfect
offering of God’s dear Son, there appeared a star of hope to illuminate the
dark and terrible future, and relieve it of its utter hopelessness and ruin.
In the beginning the head of each family was considered ruler and
priest of his own household. Afterward, as the race multiplied upon
the earth, men of divine appointment performed this solemn worship of
sacrifice for the people. The blood of beasts was
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to be associated in the minds of sinners with the blood of the Son of
God. The death of the victim was to evidence to all that the penalty of
sin was death. By the act of sacrifice the sinner acknowledged his guilt
and manifested his faith, looking forward to the great and perfect sacrifice
of the Son of God, which the offering of beasts prefigured. Without the
atonement of the Son of God there could be no communication of blessing
or salvation from God to man. God was jealous for the honor of H
