LAST week we showed that more than nine years ago, from what was then in sight, we called attention to the prospect that there would be a revolution backward in the principle of government in this nation; that the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would be subverted, and that Europeans and Roman principles of government would supplant the American. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.1
All this has now come to pass. The European and Roman principles of government have now been adopted as the principles of government of the United States, in all territorial and island possessions except Hawaii. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.2
Nine years ago we said that, if such things should come, the result would be the perfect likeness of the course of Rome which developed the Beast, and which, therefore, repeated here, would be only the Image of the Beast. And now, since that which we then contemplated has come to pass, and is being steadily practiced, nothing else than the Image of the Beast can be rightly expected as the result of the course upon which this nation has entered, and is now steadily pursuing. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.3
This revolution backward, the apostasy from the fundamental principles of this nation, and the actions of the nation in consequence, are, and will be, but elements in the making of the Image of the Beast. The Third Angel’s Message is a warning against the making of the Image of the Beast, as certainly as it must be a warning against the worship of the Image of the Beast when that Image shall have been made. Accordingly, it is now the work of all those to whom the Third Angel’s Message has been committed to note the working of these elements that go to make the Image of the Beast; to avoid any entanglement or alliances with them; and carefully and consistently to points out to others the inevitable result of all these things. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.4
This must be done, because the Third Angel’s Message must be given; and it is just as much our duty to do all that we can to save the people of this nation from the fearful evil that incurs the wrath of God, as it is to do what we can to save the people of the other nations from the day of ruin. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.5
The crisis in the course of this nation comes in in the completion of the making of the Image of the Beast, and giving life to that Image, and, by means of it, enforcing upon all the worship of the Beast and his Image. The nation is now in the power of the tide that will inevitably carry her to this goal marked in the prophecy. We do not say that it will reach the crisis in a year, nor in any specific time. We only say that the nation has entered upon the course, and is in the power of the tide, that will inevitably bring her to that crisis, and consequently to ruin. And all that anyone needs to do, so fully to know this that he shall be able to recognize any feature of the Image of the Beast that may appear, is simply to study the course of Rome, which culminated in the formation of the Beast and the consequent ruin of that nation. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.6
Calling attention to these things from time to time, as events have occurred that demand such notice, is what we have been doing in these columns of the REVIEW for the last two years; and this is what we must continue to do as certainly as we continue to give the Third Angel’s Message in its warning concerning the Image of the Beast. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.7
Some have thought, in the things which we have had occasion to say concerning the apostasy of this republic, that we have been attacking the present administration; but this is a mistake. We have had nothing at all to do with the present administration as such, nor has any mention of it been made because it is the present administration. All that we have done is to call attention to the facts, and to that nature and the bearing of those facts, with respect to the making of the Image of the Beast. This we shall be obliged to continue to do, because events will continue to occur, bearing the same meaning, and to which it will be necessary to call attention, as elements which mark the fulfillment of the prophecy. And this will be so, whatever administration may be in power. If the present administration were to cease to-day, and another one were to take its place, we should be obliged to call attention to facts that would just as certainly be elements in the making of the Image of the Beast as any that so far have occurred. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.8
This being the year of a presidential campaign, there are just now multitudes of people who hope, and are deliberately working, to bring about a change of administration. We do not pretend to any knowledge as to whether there will be, nor as to whether there should be, a change of administration. But we know that, even though a change of administration may be accomplished, there will be no check in the progress of the elements that go to the making of the Image of the Beast. If there should be a change in administration, much would be expected in the way of checking the present tide of imperialism. And, in such event, something might be done to check the present, particular phase of it. But where this particular phase might be checked, others would be established, and would progress just as swiftly toward that goal as the present course has been, or will be, progressing. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.9
This thing consists not in administrations. It in no wise depends upon administrations, nor change of administrations. Neither change nor no change of administration can affect it; except, perhaps, to check some, while hastening other, features of the general apostasy of the republic. The evil is in the whole nation. The nation has lost the principle and the spirit of a republic: it has lost the faculty of self-government. And the force or effect of a change of administration, whether this year or later, can be fitly expressed in the words of Cicero, at the death of Cesar (which death, indeed, was accomplished to effect a change of administration, and so to have the Roman Republic from imperialism), when he exclaimed: “We have killed the king, but the kingdom is with us still. We have taken away the tyrant; the tyranny survives.” ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.10
The Roman Republic did not reach the confirmed imperial despotism of a one-man power, in a straight, uninterrupted course. There were many changes of administration. There were many political reforms accomplished in the many changes of administration. But not one of these changes nor one of these “reforms” checked the general tide. Not one of these reforms was in any sense a true reform: it was merely political reform; selfishness and imperialism in one phase being supplanted by selfishness and imperialism in another phase. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.11
From the start that has been made by this republic in the downward course of the Roman Republic, it now is perfectly easy to know what will come in this republic, simply by reading carefully what did come in the Roman Republic. For it was the union of the apostate church with that republic which had degenerated into an imperial despotism, that made the Beast. And the Beast is presented in the prophecy as the standard of comparison by which alone we shall be able to know what is the Image of the Beast. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.12
And now, since in our study of that phase of the Third Angel’s Message which relates specifically to the Beast and his Image, we are brought into the very whirl of the events daily occurrent, all of which tend to the making of the Image of the Beast, we shall not follow this phase of the subject further in these studies. This phase of the Third Angel’s Message will be now before us constantly in the course of current events; and these events will be noted, in specific items, as they occur. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.13
And for our set studies on the Third Angel’s Message, we shall next take up that phase of it in which the place and work of ALL THE NATIONS are comprehended. These studies will begin week after next. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.14
“TELL me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free.” ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.1
The first covenant was faulty. It was faulty in the promises; because it rested primarily upon the promises of the people wherein the people promised something that it was impossible for them to do. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.2
Why, then, were they allowed of the Lord to enter into such a covenant? Did he not know that the people could not do what they promised?—To be sure, he did. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.3
But the people did not know it. “Living [in Egypt] in the midst of idolatry and corruption, they had no true conception of the holiness of God; of the exceeding sinfulness of their own hearts; their utter inability, in themselves, to render obedience to God’s law; and their need of a Saviour. ALL THIS THEY MUST BE TAUGHT. God brought them to Sinai; he manifested his glory; he gave them his law, with the promise of great blessings on condition of obedience.... The people did not realize the sinfulness of their own hearts, and that without Christ it was impossible for them to keep God’s law; and they readily entered into covenant with God. Feeling that they were able to establish their own righteousness, they declared, ‘All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.’” ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.4
Since the people did not know these essential things concerning themselves;—“their utter inability, etc.;—since they would not believe God, so that they could know;—and since “all this they must be taught,“—the only sure means by which they could be caused to learn this which they did not know was to have them try, and fail; and so learn by experience that they could not of themselves establish their own righteousness as the righteousness of God. Then they would be willing to accept by faith God’s righteousness, which is established by faith. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.5
This is all perfectly plain from the circumstances of the case. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.6
As we have seen in a former study, before they left Egypt the Lord had said: “I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.” Now is it not perfectly plain that if they had believed this, they would never known that was already the Lord their God (Exodus 6:7), would they have needed to enter into any bargain to get the Lord to be their God, and to make themselves his people? ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.7
If they had believed, by his own word, that he was already their God, and that so they were already his people; and if they had known that he was already the Lord their God (Exodus 6:7), would they have needed to promise that they would keep his law “indeed” so that they might be his people, and he be their God?—Plainly, no. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.8
If they had believed that the Lord would “give” to them “for an heritage” the inheritance that he had sworn to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob (Exodus 6:8), could there ever have been found any place for a bargain into which they would enter, and according to which they would, by works, earn that inheritance?—Plainly, no. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 456.9
In other words: If they had received God, by faith, in these things which he had promised to them before they left Egypt, would they have needed to undertake to win him to the in those things, by their own works?—Plainly, no. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.1
In other words: If they had known, and had been in, God’s covenant with Abraham, the everlasting covenant, would they have ever needed to know, or to enter into, this other covenant at Sinai, which in substance was only their own, because it rested only on their promises?—Plainly, no. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.2
Following back the thought to its original in the parallel, in these verses in Galatians, the parallel question is,— ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.3
If Sarai and Abram had believed God’s promise, and had held fast only to that, would Ishmael ever have found a place in the family of Abraham? Would two sons ever have been born to Abraham?—Plainly, no. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.4
Plainly, then, there never was any need of Abraham’s having more than one son, the son that God had promised. Yet, “these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.” ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.5
And just as there was never any need of Abraham’s having but one son,—the son that God had promised,—so there was no need for Israel ever to have but the one covenant—the covenant of God with Abraham—the everlasting covenant. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.6
Just as there was no need of those two sons, so there was no need of the two covenants. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.7
And as, through unbelief and distrust of God, Hagar and Ishmael were brought in on the side; just so, through unbelief and distrust of God, the covenant at Sinai was brought in on the side. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.8
And as Hagar and Ishmael never had any recognition at all in the promise that God made to give Abraham a son, just so the covenant at Sinai never had any recognition at all in God’s promise of salvation to mankind. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.9
As Hagar and Ishmael had to be cast out, and all that had brought them in had to be utterly repudiated, in order that the son whom God had promised should have the place that belonged to him; just so the covenant at Sinai had to be cast out, and all that brought it in had to be utterly repudiated, on the part of the people, upon whose promises alone that covenant rested, in order that God’s original covenant—the covenant with Abraham—the everlasting covenant—should have the place that belongs to it, in the life and salvation of men. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.10
Yet, as the troubles and the failure of Sarai and Abram in the scheme that brought in Hagar and Ishmael, were instrumental in bringing them at last to the point where they did trust implicitly in the promise of God alone; so the trouble and the dismal failure that Israel experience in the first covenant brought them to the point where they appreciated, and implicitly trusted in, God’s original covenant,—the covenant with Abraham,—his everlasting covenant,—which he had given them before they left Egypt at all. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.11
For, as we have seen, Israel broke both the law of God and their covenant not to break it. And when Moses came down from the mount, having in his hands the table of the law that they had covenanted to obey “indeed,” and saw what they had done, “he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount” (Exodus 32:19), “thus signifying that as they had broken their covenant with God, so God had broken his covenant with them.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 320. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.12
They thus found themselves stranded, and utterly helpless, with all their resources utterly exhausted. For “they could not hope for the favor of God through a covenant which they had broken; and now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour revealed in the Abrahamic covenant, and shadowed forth in the sacrificial offerings. Now they were prepared to appreciate the blessings of the new covenant.”—Id., 372. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.13
Thus the covenant from Sinai brought them to the covenant with Abraham. The first brought them to the second covenant. The old covenant brought them to the new covenant. And thus the law, which was the basis of that covenant,—the broken law,—was the schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, that they might be justified by faith. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.14
Please study this study closely and carefully; for, in the next studies, we pass from this to the study of the new covenant. ARSH July 17, 1900, page 457.15