ASI 2020: Three Angels' Messages - Our Urgent Calling

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Our Urgent Call: UNDERSTAND the Three Angels' Messages

Clinton Wahlen

Justification by Faith in the Three Angels’ Messages

I'd like to welcome each of you to our seminar this afternoon, Understanding the 3 Angels Message.

Walleen is joining us here to share with us the message, the 3 angels message, justification by faith.

Waleen, we'd like to welcome you here with us this afternoon and are very grateful that you were willing to share with us.

So with that I would like to just make an introduction here and that we apologize for starting A little bit late here.

I would just like to take a moment to explain a little bit about how the platform that we're using here works.

In the platform, you'll see that we have the opportunity to participate in chats.

So there's a chat section at the bottom depending on whether you're looking on a mobile phone or a computer.

There'll be a chat section and there'll also be a polls option for us to have a poll question that you will be able to answer as we go through the seminar here.

I would just like to tell you a little bit about Dr.

He is an Associate Director at the Biblical Research Institute.

He has pastored for 7 years in Northern California where he was converted from atheism.

Woleen received his PhD in New Testament from Cambridge University, taught New Testament for 11 years and has published numerous articles and several books.

Woleen has completed his thesis at Andrews University on the topic of Adventist history and has published writings on this topic.

He and his wife Gina have 2 children, a daughter-in-law and 2 grandsons.

Waleen, I would just like to ask that we just have a moment of prayer here.

Heavenly Father, we're just grateful for the opportunity that we have to join together here to learn more about justification by faith and the 3 angels messages.

Wollin's willingness to share with us and Lord we just pray that our hearts would be open to learn more about the message that we are privileged to be able to hear And so I pray that as we spend this time together that your Holy Spirit would convict our hearts and that we would be led to action as we listen.

And so we ask that you'd guide our time now in your name.

It's so good to be here and I'm happy to have the opportunity to present this topic justification by faith in the 3 angels messages and this is then as was mentioned I did my master's thesis at Andrews in the area of Adventist history, in particular in this area.

So I'm happy that I can share on this topic.

I'll start sharing my screen now so you can see some slides that I've prepared.

And I was looking forward to seeing you face-to-face for this seminar, but perhaps we can have an even better experience because there are some things we can do, As Curtis mentioned, that we can't do maybe so easily in the person, like we will have the 4 poles scattered at strategic points through the presentation.

There's a special gift that I have for you at the end, and there will also be some time for questions after we're finished.

I'm excited about what we have to share here.

I think it would be helpful right at the beginning to read the 3 Angels' messages.

Sometimes the familiar obscures our eyes to what we know so well.

And there may be some new thoughts that come to mind as we think of the message and look for the message of justification by faith here.

And then we'll have our first poll question.

So beginning with Revelation 14, verse 6, "'Then 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 him glory, "'for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and the springs of water.

And another angel followed saying Babylon has fallen, has fallen, that great city because she has made all nations drink 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 on his hand, He himself shall also drink the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation.

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 in his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

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

All right, now let's have our first poll question.

I think Curtis will introduce that for us.

It is, Where is justification by faith in the 3 Angels' messages?

Now we get a chance to respond to where it might be.

Yes, so on your screens you should see a poll.

The poll question again is, where is justification by faith in the 3 angels message?

And we have 5 options there, and if you can select 1 of those options, and we'll give you about 30 seconds to do that, and then I'll share the results of the poll here with you guys.

Where is justification by faith in the 3 angels' messages?

So choice A, is it in the everlasting gospel of verse 6?

B, in the judgment of verse 7, C, in the fall of Babylon of verse 8, D, in keeping the commandments of God in the faith of Jesus in verse 12, Or E, all of the above.

Alright, so if everybody can take a chance to answer that poll question.

And we had the majority of people answering all of the above.

We had some of our participants also answering option 4, the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus in verse 12.

Well, I think we have a pretty bright group here.

Yes, answer E, all of the above is correct, and we will go through and see that as we look more carefully at Revelation 14.

And there are 10 key points that we will see through this seminar.

But before we get there, I'd like for us at the beginning to consider briefly a very important passage closely related to our topic.

Knowing this first that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." So scoffers in the last days will ask this question, where is the promise of his coming?

And it's a very serious question, and it's given a serious answer later in the chapter.

I know this very well because as a teenager, I used to be 1 of those scoffers.

I think Curtis mentioned in my, I used to be an atheist.

And in Northern California, I came to know God and the Bible and Jesus as my savior.

And it was the message of justification by faith that did it.

What amazed me then, and still remarkable to me, is that God has so clearly described the condition of our world in this passage.

We don't have a lot of time to look at the whole passage, So we'll just focus on the answer to the question, where is the promise of his coming?

And as to the timing of the second coming, it's given in verses 8 through 12, and it's in 3 parts.

And in verse 8, it says, with the Lord 1 day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as 1 day.

In other words, God's time frame is not ours.

Verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises, some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So answer 2 to this question, where is the promise of his coming?

And 3, verses 10 through 12, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

So in other words, not only is God's timeframe not ours and God is long suffering, but God's timing is related to our response.

So the timing of the Second Coming is related to all 3 of these factors.

This world and its evil works are going to be burned up, so we must focus on what will last and prepare us for heaven, which is a Christ-like character.

And that is why the everlasting gospel of Revelation 14 centers on the message of justification by faith, because through it, through this message, God produces a people, and it's God's work, He produces a people who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

First we will consider the big picture of the gospel in Revelation.

Before we briefly, we'll look at that briefly before we zoom in on Revelation chapter 14.

So let's look at 3 key references to justification by faith in the gospel in the book of Revelation.

Lewis Walton

Right Time, Right Place, Right Message

My name is Lew Walton and I'm speaking to you from the beautiful broadcast studios of Secrets Unsealed, Pastor Bohr's ministry out here in Central California.

I want to say how much I appreciate his messages on 3ABN, Very much appreciate them.

Pastor Bohr and I have a common heritage.

My granddad was Danish and actually 1 of the first to start translating the spirit of prophecy into the Danish language.

So many thanks to Pastor Bohr and Secrets Unsealed for the use of their beautiful facilities.

My topic is Revelation 14 and the 3 Angels' messages.

And to go there, let's set the stage and put those messages in a real world context.

Anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law.

The spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed are tending to involve the whole world.

In a single word laden with images of societal breakdown, Ellen White describes a world in which events are decided by angry people, in which terms like constitutional rights are swept away and 1 can't rely on safety, even perhaps in a quiet suburb.

The word is anarchy and she uses it again in volume 9 of Testimonies for the church.

The spirit of anarchy is permeating all nations and the outbreaks that from time to time excite the horror of the world are but indications of the pent-up fires of passion and lawlessness that having once escaped control will fill the earth with woe and desolation." Now reflect on the word anarchy for more than 5 seconds and you realize that's what we're beginning to see.

A pandemic brings our economy to a tire-smoking halt.

Strange new habits show up, masked faces and gloomy news reports and empty churches, while ironically liquor stores stay open for business.

A statue of Jesus is decapitated while cities burn.

And perhaps the saddest of all, precious black children just beginning life are lost to gunfire.

And Meanwhile, we're told we must rethink everything we believed about America.

Now, as you reflect on that strange new world, think about Daniel 12.

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and there will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.

Now let's compare that with events outside America.

An isolated hermit nation builds intercontinental missiles and then works to miniaturize its nuclear weapons to fit the ablative reentry nose cones of those delivery devices.

Elsewhere, winds of terrorism remind us that life is not secure anywhere.

And that's the world we find ourselves in today and we watch as governments that once could fight and win a two-ocean war seem incapable of anything except political speeches.

That's the world prophecy says we can expect to see at the end of time.

And that's the world we have been commissioned to warn.

All right, let's talk about who we are and why we are and what our mission is.

I don't have any fancy illustrations, no power points, no high tech stuff.

Open the Word, if you will, to Revelation chapter 14.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth." Revelation 14, 6 through 12 is the Advent message.

It's a profile of God's final end time church.

It outlines the messages they are commissioned to proclaim, and it begins with an angel shouting from mid-heaven.

And then step by step, those messages portray a word picture of God's real end-time saints, those who keep the commandments, all 10 of them, including the 1 that identifies God as the Creator and recognizes the day he established to remind us how life began.

Might it be important for an end-time world to know that, to be reminded of that memorial of creation when most people are convinced we're here by accident.

Well, there's 8 mighty verses in Revelation 14, 6 through 12.

They build 1 upon the other like a stairway leading somewhere.

Now let's go back and look at that series of messages that describe why we're here and what we have to say.

And we go back to Revelation 14, 6, and I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel.

Now, those 8 Verses in Revelation 14 identify what God's end time church will proclaim, but where do they begin?

See the heart and soul of the Advent message is Jesus.

If we forget to preach that starting point, then everything else we have to say has little meaning.

Everything from Revelation 14, 7 on is predicated on the foundation of the gospel.

And if we preach the Advent message without starting there, without keeping Jesus at the center of our whole system of belief, then what we have to say is only words.

With those words, you can make biblically literate, prophetically aware, probably more healthy sinners.

So heaven's final end time messages begin where they have to begin.

Now we could at this point piously nod at each other, satisfied that we had said an essential truth.

But might we have omitted something important?

Buckets of ink have been spent on periodicals and books trying to answer that question.

Much of that has only complicated what should be obvious.

It's a question that deserves a little bit of research And my recommendation is when you have a question like that you want answered, don't go to a commentary or a commendator, go to the word.

And I also suggest if you're going to do biblical research, a mighty good place to begin is Calvary because the chances are quite good you'll find the answer there.

His lacerated back is thrown down on that splintery, upright, stipe's beam of the cross.

And his arms are yanked out sideways against the horizontal patibulum.

And a calloused knee comes down on his wrist.

And somebody produces a spike that's about a quarter inch square and maybe 6 inches long.

And the hammer starts to ring and then the pain begins.

See when the head of that spike comes down on the tissue of the hand, chances are it compresses the sensory motor median nerve.

You've had a little hint of that if you've ever bumped your elbow on the corner of a desk.

But this time the nerve stays compressed.

It's just electric jolts going up both arms.

And at that point, the crucified victim typically just began to scream and curse.

And this man did that for a while, cursed everything and everybody.

And so they'd curse everything in sight, even the emperor.

He couldn't hurt them any worse than he had.

And then he takes a look at the fellow victim.

And he recognizes coming from the lips that Hebrew prayer.

Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu melech halem, blessed father, king of the universe, forgive.

And something clicks in that thief's mind.

Don't know exactly what it was, maybe a Torah excerpt he had heard in synagogue, maybe if his family was lucky enough, wealthy enough to own a little segment of a scroll, maybe something Mamilla read to him 1 night.

But he recognizes in that victim next to him, Mashiach.

And then he does 3 things Worth thinking about.

Number 1, he confesses his own unworthiness.

Steven Grabiner

God’s Wrath in Revelation

Well, good afternoon and welcome to this last seminar of our ASI convention for this year, our last series of seminars.

And we're so glad that you've joined us here this afternoon for this important topic.

And I would just like to thank each of you for taking the time to join us here.

I see we have 13 participants so far and we're just excited for the people that have taken the time to join us here.

We're also very grateful for Stephen Grabner being willing to do this presentation for us and this topic that we'll be discussing this afternoon is entitled God's Wrath in Revelation.

And I would just like to, before we go into an introduction of our presenter, for those that are perhaps just joining us for the first time on a seminar here, I'd like to just explain a little bit about the platform that you're watching this on.

So of course you have your video screen in front of you there, but you'll also notice that there's a chat section below depending on whether you're joining on a computer or a mobile device.

It'll be in different places depending on which 1, but there'll be a chat section there that you'll be able to post any comments or questions.

I see that a number of people have made a few comments here already and we're just welcoming any of those comments or questions throughout the presentation.

You can post those questions and then we're going to reserve about 10 or 15 minutes at the end of the presentation for any of those questions to be asked to Stephen here.

And so we'll get right into our introduction here.

Stephen, if you'd be willing to join us here, you can turn your video on.

And I'm just gonna Make sure that everyone can see you.

So with the presentation today, Stephen will be presenting to us.

Again, the topic is God's wrath in Revelation.

And Stephen comes to us from a very diverse and rich background of experience.

He's currently president of OCI International, a ministry dedicated to serving and supporting ministries in over 70 countries.

He has served as pastor, educator, and evangelist.

Stephen is also adjunct professor at Southern University, teaching Revelation for the graduate program.

He's a leading scholar on the hymns in Revelation.

He received his Masters from Yale University and doctorate from University of South Africa.

Stephen's interest in Revelation precedes his conversion.

Raised in a Jewish family, he encountered Revelation for the first time while reading the New Testament in his early twenties.

This sparked a lifelong interest to more fully understanding this fascinating book.

So Stephen, we're very grateful that you would share from that experience with us this afternoon.

Before we begin, I'd like to just ask if we could join in prayer as we begin our time together in this important topic.

Heavenly Father, we've just been so blessed over this past few days here to be spending time learning more about Revelation.

And Lord, there is perhaps a lot of questions people have about your wrath and revelation and how to relate to that and what exactly it means.

So I pray that in this time that we spend together Lord that you would be able to provide the clarity and a true picture of your character and how much you love us.

And so I pray that in this time together your Holy Spirit would inspire, would guide and direct our thoughts and that you would also be with Stephen as he shares.

So we ask this in your precious name, amen.

And again, just please keep in mind, you're able to just use the chat box there to ask any questions as we go along here and we'll address those at the end.

And I just want to echo what Curtis mentioned about writing down or jotting down any questions.

Just for those of you that have joined us from this end of the platform, you know, where I'm on Zoom with Curtis, and that's the rest of you I can't see at all.

And I'd like to do is shift and share my screen.

So that'll give me a moment to get that up.

Again, our topic today is God's wrath in Revelation in the book of Revelation.

And I'm gonna begin clearly with Revelation chapter 14 and the third angel's message in particular.

So our theme for this ASI conference has been the 3 angels message.

And each of the seminars have been dealing with a different aspect or a different view.

This track has been on understanding Revelation and I was able to join in yesterday morning with Dr.

But again, we're trying to bring out some of the meaning, the structure of the book of Revelation as a whole.

And the 3 angels' message without question are vital for Seventh-day Adventists.

And so the third angel's message, as we have on the screen, there was another angel, a third 1 following them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand.

He also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger.

And he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of the lamb." So as we read this passage, this part of the third angel's message, naturally lots of imagery comes to our mind.

First of all, thinking back to the first part here, a third 1 followed them.

This refers us back obviously to the first and second angels' messages.

Series

Our Urgent Call: UNDERSTAND the Three Angels' Messages

God’s Wrath in Revelation

Transcript

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