January 18  The Noise Of Angels

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Rev. 14:8.

The Millerites believed that they were preaching the first angel's message of Revelation 14:6, 7: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgement is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

For them the "hour of his judgement" was the Second Advent. Thus it was equivalent ot the cleansing of the sanctuary of Daniel 8 and the coming of the bridegroom of Matthew 25. All three passages, they believed, pointed to the return of Jesus.

The preaching of that message seemed harmless enough at first. But the nearer the expected date came, the more friction arose between the Advent belieers and others in their churches. We need to remember that the Millerites before 1843 did not have separate congregations. To the contrary, they worshipped with the non Adventist members of their local church. But they couldn't just be quiet as the expected time of the Advent neared. It was the hope closest to their hearts. The Second Coming was all they could talk about.

That was good in itself. However, many of their fellow church members had heard too much on the topic, setting the stage for conflict as the Millerites entered what they believed would be their last year on earth. Many congregations eventually concluded that they had heard more than enough from the Adventist ministers from their pulpits.

The Adventists reacted with Charles Fitch's preaching of the second angel's message: "Babylon is fallen"(Rev. 14:8), "come out of her, my people"(Rev. 18:4). To Fitch and his fellow believers, any church member who wasn't looking forward to the soon appearing of Jesus was truly confused(i.e., Babylon).

The second angle's message provided a theological justification for Adventists to separate from their congregations and form their own. More important, it gave them the independence needed to continue to study their Bibles as God led them from the message of the second angel to that of the third in the months following the October 1844 disappointment. The progressive path of truth isn't always smooth, but God is leading even when we can't see through the noise and smoke of earthly confusion.

If you have given yourself to God, to do His work, you have no need to be anxious for tomorrow. He whose servant you are, knows the end from the beginning. The events of tomorrow, which are hidden from your view, are open to the eyes of Him who is omnipotent(TFMB 100).