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We Have Power Over the Nations, December 25
He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will
I give power over the nations.
Revelation 2:26
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It was our Lord Himself who promised His disciples, “If I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.”
It was the compassionate Saviour, who, anticipating the loneliness and
sorrow of His followers, commissioned angels to comfort them with the
assurance that He would come again in person, even as He went into
heaven. As the disciples stood gazing intently upward to catch the last
glimpse of Him whom they loved, their attention was arrested by the
words, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Hope was kindled afresh by
the angel’s message. The disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.” They were
not rejoicing because Jesus had been separated from them, and they were
left to struggle with the trials and temptations of the world, but because of
the angel’s assurance that He would come again.
The proclamation of Christ’s coming should now be, as when made
by the angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem, good tidings of great joy.
Those who really love the Saviour cannot but hail with gladness the an-
nouncement founded upon the Word of God, that He in whom their hopes
of eternal life are centered, is coming again, not to be insulted, despised,
and rejected, as at His first advent, but in power and glory, to redeem His
people
The gospel is to advance from conquest to conquest, from victory to
victory. The greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, and they shall take the
kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever and ever
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50
The Great Controversy, 339, 340
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51
Testimonies for the Church 9:219
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380