Certainties Of The SDA Movement
George Burnside
That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth.” Proverbs 22:21.
“I am finished with speculations, I deal now only with certainties.” Michael Faraday.
WE LIVE IN AN UNCERTAIN AGE.
Acts 21:33, 34. “He could not know the certainty for the tumult.” The world does not know. We can know certainties from the One who holds the future. Luke 1:1-4. “That thou might know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed,” “the solid truth.” Our Lord does not leave us to risk eternal life on a guess, a mere hope or hazard. He gives evidence. “Our faith must rest upon evidence.” Steps To Christ, page 110. The Advent Message does not deal with philosophies, it deals with facts. With events taking place in the fulfillment of prophecy. Not mere theories. Facts not fables or fiction.
PROPHECIES WITNESS TO THE LIVING GOD
“I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning.” Prophecy is only in Holy Writ. Here we hear the voice of the One who would leave nothing lacking to give our hearts the evidence sure and certain. Proverbs 22:20-21. “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth.” (See Rowell’s own story, “Prophecy Speaks,” “Buried Evidence,” “Why I Believe.”)
GOD’S LAST MESSAGE
Revelation 11:6-16. The last days have come. The last message of the “everlasting gospel” is due. This message of Revelation 14:6-19 is the last message. The church of the Advent proclaiming the judgment hour is the “Remnant” church which, keeps the commandments of God and proclaim God's last message.
TO EVERY NATION
This message brings out a people from among, “every nation and kindred and tongue and people.” They take their stand on the New Testament platform of truth -”the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
PROPHECY IS FULFILLING
People come into God's Movement by many thousands every year - thousands in Protestant lands, and tens of thousands from Catholic lands and also from non-Christian lands - the so-called heathen lands. People of all religions and those of no religion are heeding the call of God's last message, just as foretold.
1 Corinthians 10:11. The Exodus movement was an “example” or type, or figure of God's last movement “upon whom the ends of the world are come.” As the living God led the Exodus movement in fulfillment of prophecy, even so He is leading the Advent Movement, true to the sure word of prophecy.
THEY BOTH ROSE ON TIME
Exodus 12:40 41. “The selfsame day.”
Acts 7:17,20 “When the time of the promise drew nigh.” “In which time Moses was born.”
God never forgets. His spoken word is always fulfilled. He is never overtaken or unprepared. When the time came Moses was fully prepared.
Acts 7:22. Forty years trained in “all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” A man “mighty in words and deeds.” He was a master of armies - trained to organize and lead masses.
Daniel 8:13, 14. “How long?” God's answer - 1844. God's last movement rose on time (1844) as foretold. When the “Hour of God's Judgment carne” in 1844, the message was due. The Advent Movement arose in that “selfsame” year to preach that “selfsame” message as foretold in Revelation 14:6-16. In that year God restored the “everlasting gospel” to His people. They became the “Restorer” of Truth. Isaiah 58:12-14. It was not discovery, but recovery.
TWO IDENTIFYING MARKS OF GOD'S LAST CHURCH
AND THE EXODUS.
Revelation 12:17.
KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.
Psalm 105:43-45. In God's Exodus Movement, “He brought forth His people ... that they might ... keep His laws.” (This shows that the commandments were there before Sinai.)
Revelation 14:12. 12:17. “Keep the commandments of God.” (This shows that the commandments were not abolished at Calvary.)
THE “SPIRIT OF PROPHECY” IN BOTH MOVEMENTS
Hosea 12:13. “By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt and by a prophet He preserved it.” Revelation 12:17. “Testimony of Jesus.” is “the Spirit of Prophecy.” Revelation 19:10. In 1844 the Spirit of Prophecy was restored to the church “Ministers who have preached the truth may apostatize, and join the ranks of our enemies; but does this turn the truth of God into a lie?” “The faith and feelings of men may change; but the truth of God, never. The third angel's message is sounding; it is infallible.” “It is as certain that we have the truth as that God lives.” 4 Testimonies, page 595.
MOVEMENTS ARE ASKED TO TURN BACK
Numbers 14:4. “Let us return unto Egypt.” Israel knew Moses would not return to Egypt, so they sought a new leader.
SHOULD WE GO BACK TO LUTHER?
Luther, Calvin and Wesley never preached the Message of Revelation 14:6-16. It was not due in their day. It was due from 1844 to the end. Today there is only one people preaching this Message. Our work is to complete the Reformation, not to go back to the relics of Rome that were found in the Reformed churches, before the restoration of the “everlasting gospel” in 1844.
THE TWO MOVEMENTS GO THROUGH
Deut. 6:23. “He brought us out that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He swore unto our fathers.”
Joshua 3:17. “All the people were passed clean over Jordan.” The Exodus Movement went through.
Revelation 15:2,3. “Them that had gotten the victory over the beast and his mark are triumphant on the sea of glass. No one can get the victory over the mark of the beast if they do not know what it is. These victorious saints are the ones that heeded the message of Revelation 14:6-16 which warned against and exposed the beast and its mark. The Advent Message triumphs gloriously.
Revelation 3:11. “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”