henceforth, that is, from a point of time as late at least as the third angel's
message, presents a testimony which cannot be evaded. It demonstrates that
this part of John's vision relates to a period prior to the first resurrection; for the
saints cannot die after being made immortal. 1 Cor. xv, 51-56. Our Lord testifies
that they can die no more, but are equal unto the angels, and are the children of
God, being the children of the resurrection. Luke xx, 36. If any are still disposed
to locate these angels' messages in the day of God itself, let them carefully read
the following scriptures. Matt. xxiv, 37-39; Luke xvii, 26-30; Gen. vii, 21, 22; Luke
xxi, 35; Ps. ii, 6-9; Rev. ii, 26, 27; xix, 11-21; xxii, 11, 12; 2 Thess. i, 6-10.
The next inquiry relates to the past. Have not these messages met their
fulfillment in the history of the church in past ages? We think not. Our reasons for
this conclusion are, in part, the following:
1. No proclamation of the hour of God's judgment come, has ever been made
in any past age.
2. If such a proclamation had been made many centuries in the past, as some
contend, it would have been a false one.
3. The prophecies on which such a proclamation to men in a state of
probation must be based, were closed up and sealed to the time of the end.
4. The Scriptures plainly locate the message of warning respecting the
judgment in a brief space immediately preceding the advent of our Lord; thus
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directly contradicting the view that locates these messages in past ages.
We now offer proof in support of the foregoing propositions. If they are
sustained, they establish the fact that the present generation is that one to which
the angels' messages are addressed. We earnestly invite all who wish the truth
to weigh this part of the argument with especial care. No truths of greater
moment than God's voice to us at the present time, can engage our attention.
1. Has the proclamation of the hour of God's judgment come been made in
any past age? If such a proclamation has never been made in past centuries,
there is an end to controversy on this part of the subject. No persons have ever
been able to show any such proclamation in the past. The apostles did not make
such a proclamation. On the contrary they plainly inform us that the day of the
Lord was not then at hand. Martin Luther did not make this proclamation, for he
thought the judgment about three hundred years in the future. And finally the
history of the church presents no such proclamation in the past. Had the first
angel preached to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, that the
hour of God's judgment had come, the publicity of such a proclamation would be
a sufficient guaranty that the history of the world would contain
