Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Religious Freedom in Daniel & Revelation

Jerry Finneman

Religious Freedom in Daniel & Revelation - Part 1

Father, we're thankful for the opportunity to share together.

We ask for your Holy Spirit to guide and direct our thinking and attitudes.

And we pray for your converting power to come upon all of us.

Well, just a brief overview for the week.

We're going to be dealing with, today I'm going to deal with the spiritual aspect primarily.

But we're going to get into America and prophecy, not just the nuts and bolts of it.

Well, we'll do some of that too, but we're going to deal with religious liberty primarily and see what's going on, not only here in America, but overseas.

If we have time, I'm going to deal with a study on popes and presidents.

The last 12 presidents have had an audience with the pope.

But it's coming, you know, the message that God has given to us has been pretty specific And we're seeing some of that stuff unfold.

So anyhow, before the Lord comes, the 3 angels' messages are going to go with power.

The first verse speaks about the angel speaking and the entire world is going to be enlightened with its glory.

The light is now shining and 2 aspects, the faith of Jesus and the law of God in Revelation 14, 12.

The faith of Jesus is a faith that believes not only the absence of feelings, but against them.

And that's his faith, the kind of faith that Christ had, especially in Gethsemane and on the cross.

And that's what he wants to implant within us.

And we'll get into some of that a little bit later.

But both the third and the fourth angels message, the fourth 1 would be Revelation 18, 1 through 4.

There are communications of justification by faith in Christ alone, but also with that is liberty of conscience.

And we will probably go back into the Reformation and see the foundation of that.

All of Western society is based on the premise of justification by faith.

And we'll look at that as not today, but another time.

But I thought we'd start with just reading in Revelation 14.

You're familiar with these, but it's good to just read them over again.

Some of the text will have on the screen, but I thought it'd be good just to feel the paper.

But beginning with verse 9, he says, Another angel followed them, saying, Babylon is...

Oh that's verse 8, Babylon is fallen is fallen, that great city because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Then a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or in his hand, he himself should also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives his mark, or the mark of his name.

And then verse 12, here is the patience of the saints.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

I want to point out 1 thing before, and we'll come back to this later on, but maybe not today even, but in verse 11 where it says those who worship the beast in his image, just before that it says they have no rest.

So there's a reason for that, and I think some of what we're seeing in the world today is the result of rejecting God, rejecting his law, rejecting salvation.

And so Right now we can see the turmoil going on.

Would that possibly be linked to Hebrews chapter 4?

Romans 5.1 says, Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

And in Isaiah 32, and I'll look at those another time, but Isaiah 32, 17 says that the work of righteousness, peace and assurance forever and tremendously.

Now let's go to chapter 18 and read the first 4 verses here.

This is the fourth angel that follows, and it's actually a combination of the first 3 angels of chapter 14.

Same message, and there's a repeat of the second angel in verse 2.

Verse 1 says, after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and I think the terminology here is great power.

And the earth was illuminated with his glory.

You and I, We're a part of the 3 angels' messages in that we're giving the message.

We're not talking about angels coming from heaven.

Well, they're coming, I'm sure, to strengthen that type of thing, but they're not declaring this thing unless there's isolated places in the world, and they're certainly doing that.

So then verse 2 is a repeat of the second angel's message.

And he cried mightily with a loud voice saying Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.

And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.

So before this thing wraps up, there's going to be people coming out.

Maybe I'll share an illustration of this or an example.

There's a pastor that I know was giving a series of evangelistic meetings and he was repeating several times verse 4 because he had a nun in his audience.

And so he was trying to get her to take a stand, you know, for for the truth that we hold.

And she didn't move night after night after night.

And so but 1 night she brought her Douay Rheims Bible, which is a Catholic Bible, a little Latin, it was in English.

And as the preacher was reading that, coming out of her my people, she read hers, and it says, go out from her my people.

And that's what triggered, she got out, she left the Catholic Church and became a Seventh-day Adventist.

Now what would be heard there, the church itself?

Verse 2 includes all religions of the world that have been on a slide, especially since 1844.

When they started rejecting 1844, the message, even though Miller and his associates didn't have it, it was not clear, they were mixed up on the event.

They thought that Christ was coming rather than something going on in heaven, yes.

Now, verse 2 here is talking about when the following is complete, right?

Because in Revelation 14, the followers in the fleet, that's in the process.

Right, and it's been a gradual process since 1844.

And there's still some honest people in there and maybe whole churches.

Religious Freedom in Daniel & Revelation - Part 2

Father, we're thankful again for the opportunity.

And we thank you for Jesus, for the Holy Spirit.

We ask that you'll guide and direct us according to your promise.

All righty, we'll do a little bit of a review from yesterday, and about the light that is now shining.

And we noticed that the book of Revelation is bathed in grace.

It begins with grace and it ends with grace.

And then we talked about, we read through chapter 14, 9 through 12, and Revelation 18, 1 through 4, and went from there.

We noticed that both the third and the fourth angel, that fourth angel is the message of chapter 18, communications from heaven about justification by faith and liberty of conscience.

And then we looked at God's method of justification.

Number 1, by his grace through the death of Christ, and we believe in him alone, in Christ alone, and in the evidences of that, obedience to all the commandments of God.

And we summed it up in we're justified in Christ and we cannot separate it from Him.

If we possess Him we possess justification and sanctification in all everything.

And We looked at this in the book of Revelation, looked at the book from a standpoint of the sanctuary framework and how that you have the 7 churches, the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets, the 7 heads, and each 1 takes us so far, and then the next 1 that comes along takes a little farther, and all the way through the last 1, the 7 heads, we looked at from chapter 12, and that goes all the way through the millennium to the end of the millennium when everything is taken care of.

Then we also look, well this is a statement I had, the line of prophecy in which these symbols are found, and that's the symbols both in chapter 13 and 12, the dragon, the beast, the mark of the beast, all of these are, but that's in that line of prophecy from chapter 12.

That's the reason I called it the 7 heads in harmony with the 7 churches, the 7 trumpets, that type of thing, 7 seals.

And we noticed the light that was shining from 31 AD, the first apartment, that's where the light was.

In 1844, the light began to shine brightly from there.

From the Holy of Holies, there goes on the grand work of instruction.

The angels of God are communicating with men.

We do not follow him into the sanctuary as we should.

Christ and angels work in the hearts and the children of men.

And then we notice that the light shining in the first apartment, especially Protestantism, the message that Luther brought out, starting with him, and that's where the light was.

Then in 1888, the remnant Protestant movement that includes you and me, that's where the light comes.

We get our light from the second apartment.

That does not mean we deny what happened in the first apartment.

The work of Christ was simply carried on into the second apartment, but in additional work what had to do with the cleansing of the sanctuary.

Yeah, You say we don't enter into the sanctuary as we should.

There was clarification to that a little bit.

So I got an idea what you mean, but I want to...

Well, it's in 1844, there were people that went by faith.

You don't go in there physically, but Christ represents us, but we follow him by faith.

In the most, yeah, well, that's what I'm talking about.

And that's the light that's shining now, both Revelation 14, 12, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

So we don't settle in the holy place anymore because Christ is in the most holy.

We need to enter into faith, that's the overcoming too, obviously.

We'll get into this because we're going to be looking at justification by faith in from the most holy part.

But we talked about the latter rain coming with 10 times the power, as the midnight cry which was in 1843, and again the Protestant reformers and the remnant Protestant reformers.

And here, I think this is about where we'll be beginning, I think.

As the train of His glory filled the temple, light from the Holy of Holies was shed upon the waiting people on earth.

That's Volume 4 of Spirit of Prophecy, 273.

Men sought to close the door which God had opened.

And this is a door that goes from Philadelphia, the Church of Philadelphia, into Laodicea.

And there was some, we don't, no, we're not, we don't wanna go there.

But, and I think God did this especially, they seek to shut that door that he has closed and they try to open it that he has not opened.

Men sought to close the door which God had opened and to open the door which he had closed.

But he that openeth, this is a statement from Revelation 3, and no man shutteth and shutteth, no man openeth, had declared, behold, I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it.

But there's a dealing with going into the second apartment of Christ's Word.

I was just thinking of a text that was in Hebrews chapter 9.

When I read it, I'm thinking, this is referring to the time just before 1844, but I'm not sure if this is the way it's perceived by everybody else.

But it says in Hebrew, chapter 9, verse 8, it says, the Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing.

Now this may be actually referring to Christ going from...

Actually, what is the, in Hebrews, the 1 you're reading, the word is in the plural, holies.

But do you have verse 23, I think of chapter 9?

Therefore it is necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

That is the second apartment of ministry of Christ.

There's a transition in the chapter, and that's the cleansing of the sanctuary, cleansing of the record.

But that does not take place apart from us.

The cleansing, this is where God wants the court to take the mind and change the mind.

Well, in verse 9, it indicates that this is referring to a sequence of time.

It says that the symbol of the present, this is a, which is a symbol of the present time.

So in other words, this sanctuary is referring to a sequence of time.

Well, no, I would say starting in 31 AD when Christ entered into heaven, because this threw the Jewish believers off, even the disciples.

And you remember when Christ was ascending to heaven in Acts chapter 1, they were still thinking that he was going to establish the kingdom here on earth.

But it was after that, Pentecost was the anointing of Christ in heaven.

When that ceremony took, I think, about 10 days, when it was inauguration as high priest in the heavenly sanctuary, When it was finished, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the waiting disciples.

And that caused their minds to be fastened in Christ in that first apartment.

So I'm moving my mind forward to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain.

Religious Freedom in Daniel & Revelation - Part 3

Gracious Father, thank you for the blessings to us that are fresh and new every day.

We ask that your Spirit might visit us now and instruct us, bring us into closer relationship with you.

All righty, we're number 3, And what I want to deal with today is primarily the Declaration of Independence and the third angel's message.

It's going to be primarily the first angel.

Let's read Revelation 14, verses 6 and 7.

We've mentioned before that the United States, I believe, was set up by God in order to get the last message of the world to go from here.

In Revelation, verses 6 and 7, it says that, I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

So that's kind of our outline that we'll be considering.

We'll go to other places too, but we've a little bit of a review.

We've talked about the Declaration of Independence and notice that there's a timeframe from 1776 the declaration and then you have the Constitution presented in 1789, the Bill of Rights in 1791, and we talked about 1844 was the beginning of the 3 Angels' Message, or the Third Angels.

What we're going to concentrate on is the Declaration of Independence and the First Angels' message that we just read in Revelation 14, 6 and 7.

But a review from yesterday, we talked about justification by faith and liberty of conscience in the United States Declaration of Independence.

Prescott, where he said that there was an unpalatable, whoops, I'm doing something, is that increasing it?

He wrote an article on, dealing with the Holy Spirit, but he mentioned something in that called the unpalatable doctrine.

And I'll just review the last part of what he said.

He said, the time will soon be here when it will be practically as unpalatable a truth to tell them, this is Babylonians, or those who consist of Babylon in the last days, that there is life and salvation only in Jesus Christ, to tell them that they do not know anything about justification by faith.

That's a pretty strong statement, but he was dealing with some of the things that were happening in his day.

That sounds almost like a prophetic statement.

We spoke about the First Department message of Luther and the Reformers, and the central point was justification by faith, or the gospel in Jesus Christ.

And along with that, Luther said that the essence of faith is liberty of conscience.

And that, then in the transfer from the first apartment to the second apartment, during that period of time, 1770, well after 1844, you have the Declaration of Independence and the 3 principles that we looked at were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Going back to Luther again, justification by faith and liberty of conscience.

The SDA church has been raised up to present justification by faith and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

And the light, the light that's shining comes out of the second apartment.

Up until 1844, all light came from the first apartment.

And when there's a transfer to Christ's last work, the light that now shines is justification by faith, liberty of conscience, freedom of thought, and pursuit of happiness.

And we noticed yesterday that before you can have the pursuit of happiness, and it is a pursuit, it's not happiness, it's a pursuit.

But before you can have the pursuit of happiness, you must have liberty.

Before you can have liberty, you must have life.

And before you can have life, you must have justification.

And that's what we looked at in Romans 5, 18, that by 1 act of Christ, all men were given justification of life.

So as I mentioned, I've already said this, pursuit of happiness, before that comes, there must be liberty.

And I've stated it so we won't read it again.

Through 1 man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.

And we need to remember that the United States of America is an unintended consequence of justification by faith.

There are many of these things, and if we have the time, we'll go over some of the history in France, Germany, Holland, Britain, and the United States, because all of these were the consequence either of rejecting that message or accepting it.

And God was working on a corporate level as well as on an individual basis.

And the Declaration of Independence is 1 of those things that we believe that was God-ordained.

On July 4, 1776, Congress voted the acceptance of the Declaration.

If you don't believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you.

But I mentioned that the oldest man who wrote, who signed the declaration was 46 years of age.

Now, I didn't take into account, forgot all about it, Benjamin Franklin.

He was 70 years old at this time and there were others that were older than that.

And then I think I mentioned that Jefferson was in his 20s, but he was 33, still a young man, as he wrote, he was the 1 that furnished the first draft of the Declaration.

And this is something I got, and I'll read it, I'll give the source afterwards.

Well, none of the members of the Continental Congress was actually tried for treason.

15 who signed the Declaration of Independence had their homes destroyed.

1 spent the winter of 76 in the woods, pursued by British soldiers who had burned his home.

Before the end of the Revolutionary War, many of those who served in the Continental Congress suffered direct personal consequences of their support of American liberty and independence.

They knew that if they failed, they would be hung as traitors.

This was a charge that King George had leveled against them.

And I read 1 of the men, I don't remember which 1 it was, but the American soldiers had cannon directed at a home and it was 1 of the men who signed the declaration.

And they said, we don't dare shoot, we don't dare destroy this.

It had become a headquarters, 1 of the headquarters for the British Army.

And so they said, let's talk to the man who owns the place.

He came, he looked, he said, shoot it down.

And so they blew it out, because he felt it was worth doing that than letting the British have an advantage point.

They were ready to die for independence, for a corporate independence of the United States.

And it wasn't even the United States at that time, but they were coming together of these colonies and, but in the Declaration, there are 5 references to God as the creator of man and the supreme lawgiver, the source of all rights, supreme judge of the world, and as far as he's our protector on whom we can rely.

These are all brought out in the Declaration.

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