In considering the pathway of the Lord’s people from Eden down to the end, in the light of the Scriptures, there are three events that stand out in special prominence. The first is the first advent of Christ, the incarnation, the coming of Emmanuel, God manifest in the flesh; the second, the great Reformation after the Dark Ages—the 1260 years of oppression, in which the word of the Lord was almost wholly kept from the common people—a coming of the church out of her wilderness state, and the placing of the Scriptures where all might read and know his will; the third, the second coming of our Lord to bring in the times of restitution of all things spoken of by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began; this, to close up “the conflict of ages,” the conflict between sin and righteousness, to bring in the age of glory, toward which all the ages have been tending. GSAM 31.2