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Appendix
339
erwise, with their faith in the message which they had given,—“The
hour of his judgment is come.”
Revelation 14:6, 7
. They naturally
thought that this proclamation must close the dispensation. They
were as unable to find their bearings at once as were the disciples
when their Lord, whom they had hailed as their king coming to his
throne, was crucified and buried. In both cases they were unable to
comprehend their terrible disappointment.
But the idea that the work of the gospel was finished was soon
renounced, except by some fanatical ones who would neither be
counseled nor receive instruction. But most of those who renounced
it, and yet retained their faith in the work, continued to believe
that they who clearly saw the light of the heaven-sent warning and
persistently rejected it, were rejected of the Lord. There is no more
fanaticism in that than there is in the common belief that those
obdurate Jews who continued to reject the light of the advanced truth
sent to that generation, were rejected of God.
There was one class who soon renounced the idea that “the door
of mercy was shut,” because they discovered that
other messages
were to be proclaimed after that declaring, the hour of judgment
is come; and that that of the third angel, the last one, was to go to
“many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” They learned
that the judgment sits in heaven before the coming of the Lord; that
the judgment of the righteous is fully accomplished while Jesus
is yet their advocate before the Father’s throne; that eternal life is
instantly given to the saints when their Saviour comes, which is
proof that they have been judged and acquitted. As the hopes of
the disciples revived, and they were “glad when they saw the Lord,”
and declared his Messiahship with yet greater confidence, so did
these rejoice when they discovered the truth of the third Angel’s
message, which, to them, was like life from the dead. With renewed
zeal and strengthened confidence they began again to proclaim the
soon coming of the Lord.
With the light on the third message they also received light on
the sanctuary and its cleansing, by which they understood that the
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antitypical work of the day of atonement, which was accomplished in
the most holy place, was that which was pointed out by the message
which they had given. They saw that there were two vails or doors
in the temple of God;
Hebrews 9:3
; and that at that time one was