Friday, March 8
Read Ellen G. White, “The Final Warning”, pp. 603-612, in The Great Controversy.
Revelation shows that at the time of the end, God’s people are commissioned with the proclamation of the end-time gospel to the world. The work before us seems daunting, all but impossible. However, we have the promise of God’s power.
“The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. …
The message will be carried not so much by argument as by the deep conviction of the Spirit of God. The arguments have been presented. The seed has been sown, and now it will spring up and bear fruit”. - Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 611, 612.
The conclusion of the proclamation of God’s final message will result in a great separation that divides people in the world into two camps: those who love and obey God and those who follow and obey the beast. This separation is portrayed in terms of two harvests: the gathering of the wheat into the storehouses (Revelation 14:14-16) and the grapes to be trampled in the winepress (Revelation 14:17-20). This final separation is the subject of Revelation 17 and 18.
Discussion Questions:
Reflect on this thought: Who is preaching the three angels’ messages other than Seventh-day Adventists? What should this tell us about just how important our work is and how seriously we should take it?
Why do you think judgment is an unpopular concept among many Christians? What relevance does the concept of the pre-Advent judgment have for Christians today? How would you help your fellow believers better understand the true meaning of the pre-Advent judgment?
Think about the question of the Sabbath in the context of final events. The issue is: Whom will we worship - the Creator of “the heaven and the earth” (Revelation 14:7, NASB), or the beast power? The Bible teaches that the seventh-day Sabbath is the oldest (Genesis 2:2-3), most foundational sign of God’s creatorship of “the heaven and the earth”. What does that truth teach us about why the Sabbath, as one of God’s commandments (Revelation 14:12), plays such a prominent role in the final crisis?
