A Vindication of the Seventh-Day Sabbath and the Commandments of God / With a Further History of God's Peculiar People from 1847-1848

by Joseph Bates

Seventh & Fourteenth Of Revelations.

A further History of the Second Advent Doctrine, from its commencement to the treading of the Wine Press, &c.

With The One Hundred And Forty-Four Thousand Living Saints, Which Are To Be Gathered At The Second Coming Of Jesus, From Every Nation, Kindred, Tongue, And People; Especially Those That Are Now Occupying The Position Referred To In The Twelfth And Thirteenth Verses Of The Fourteenth Chapter.

Second Advent History.

In the fourteenth chapter of Revelations, John gives a most graphic delineation of the Second Advent movement, from its rise in about 1840, to a glorious state of immortality. He begins to describe from this never-to-be-over-looked, wonderful picture of the last days, forming, and changing in quick succession, under the deep impressions made on the heart, by the heavenly flying messengers, saying with loud voices—the hour of his judgment is come; and reminds one in some of its features, in the changing of positions, of that last dreadful conflict of nations, on the plains of Waterloo, which decided the fate of Europe. So here, in this last great conflict of contending armies, John, in his vision, hears a glorious voice, [see i: 15 and xix: 6.] and harpers harping with their harps. His eye is turned to the point from whence came the heavenly music, and he beholds a glorified company, with their Invincible Commander, standing away up on the Mount Zion, that had followed him through his fiery trying conflict, and he had brought them off victorious, and clothed them with immortality and everlasting life; and the Father had stamped “his name in their foreheads,” and they numbered 144,000, redeemed from the earth; all the living saints that are saved out of the mighty host of nations. Now read the first five verses of this chapter and methinks you will agree with me, that John is here describing the character of the 144,000 as he had seen them sealed, as stated in the seventh chapter; where he closes [pg 093] their history with the 8th verse, to describe the dead saints, and seven angels with their trumpets, and the effect produced by them, from the 7th chapter, 9th verse to the 12th chapter. Then in the 12th and 13th chapters, the dragon, the beast and his image, &c., &c. And then he takes up the history of this same 144,000, from where he had seen them sealed in the 7th chapter, 4-8 verses; and begins by describing them sealed and redeemed from the earth, in company with the Lamb—the Lord Jesus. From the 6th to the 14th verse, he gives the outline of what they had been passing through, and the mighty host with whom they had been engaged. It will here be remembered that this message, or proclamation of “the hour of his judgment,” has gone to every nation and tongue, and people; therefore as Jesus has stated that his elect are to be gathered from the four winds, or from one end of heaven to the other, then his 144,000 will be composed of all nations, particularly the poor ignorant, but honest hearted Slaves of this doomed country. But more especially those described in the 12th verse, walking out in their faith of all the living present truth.

An objection may arise with some; still, supposing that the 144,000, because they are named after the tribes of Jacob in the 7th chapter, they cannot mean the Israel of these last days. Micah, speaking of Jesus, says, “He is to be the ruler in Israel.”—v: 1-2. Gabriel said he would “reign over the house of Jacob forever.”—Luke i: 33. Paul says “they are not all Israel that are of Israel;” “If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.” When John was afterwards giving a description of the holy city, he even saw the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel inscribed on the twelve gates. This agrees with the description in the 7th chapter, and makes a perfect harmony when we understand that this vision was sixty years after the introduction of the gospel, when the church was the whole Israel of God. The other view would give the literal seed of Jacob full possession of the city; the gates being theirs by the titles on them. This would make a division wall there, and God would be a respecter of persons. The gentiles could have no claim there; thus their joint heirship with Christ would fail and so would this Revelation; for John was directed to “show (us) things [pg 094] which would shortly come to pass.”—i: 1; and to “write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” in the churches, in the future.—xxii: 16. So we see this vision was all of the present and future; besides the tribes of literal Israel had before this been rejected and were to “be trodden down until the times of the gentiles were fulfilled.”

To make the 14th chapter more plain, in respect to the 144,000, we will try to give an exposition of the 7th. “And after these things, I saw four Angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth, and the sea; saying hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”—1-3. I believe the general view of these four angels being the four leading governments [see 9th chapter 14, 15 verses,] is correct with the exceptions of Prussia or Rome, because neither of those nations have any maritime force on the sea. Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States of North America, possess this power over all seas, and the most part of Christendom. Our not being a party in the great christian alliance at the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1815, neither in 1840, at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, will not, I think, effect this point; but being one of these four messengers, will make it clear, at least so far as relates to the flying messengers and their work, and our power on the sea. Who does this sealing angel ascending from the east represent? Answer—I think some of the very same flying messengers brought to view in xiv: 6, 7, and x and xviii chapters. If messengers in the form, and fashion of men, symbolically represented as flying through the midst of heaven, preaching the gospel to men, and “being clothed with clouds,” rainbows and pillars of fire, lighting up the earth with their glory; standing upon the sea, and land, crying as when a lion roareth, that time should be no longer; are called angels, I see not, nor know of any other exposition of this second verse. If it is contended that an invisible angel is here described, then, according to the 9th chapter, 4th verse, [pg 095] it was done in like manner to individuals in the thirteenth century.

Ascending from the east, or sun's rising. I think this does not mean rise up out of, &c., as in chapter 13th, or ascending in a similar manner, as in chapter xvii: 8, but rather the following, for instance: these northern and middle States, and the Canadas, are now and have been the location of almost all the flying messengers, and the burden of their messages, as represented in the 14th chapter. William Miller began to proclaim the message from the west, (Low Hampton.) And now to reverse it, the sealing messenger is seen ascending from the eastern, the Atlantic States, bounded by the broad ocean, of nearly three thousand miles, which, when looking to the east, as John did at sun rising, would give the appearance of the sun's rising out of the water but a few miles off. Owing to the round surface of our globe, every 15°, or nine hundred miles that we sail from hence to the east, the sun appears ascending from his ocean bed one hour earlier in the morning. This is familiar to the mariner; as also when they discover another ship, they cry, “sail ho!” Why? Because the top of her sails are only seen, but as they approach each other, ascending up, as it were, out of the ocean bed, the lower sails, and then the hull, and soon after the men are distinctly seen upon her decks. If we look farther east for this sealing angel or messenger, even to Great Britain, or still onward to the northern coast of China, we shall find none that have been so much engaged in the work of God as those above described. But if it is still insisted upon, that this sealing angel is invisible, then we shall fail to know when we are sealed. But I think that it is a work to be done here, and the saints will understand when they are sealed or marked as readily as they did when they were rejoicing because they had got the victory over the beast and his image, on the sea of glass (or more sure word of prophecy.) Rev. xv: 2. This was their sectarian profession that bound them in Babylon; and now their second advent profession, as in Rev. xiv: 12, if adhered to, will bind them to Jesus and seal, or mark, them for the city; see xxii: 14. Ezekiel had a prefiguration of this, in his vision of the man clothed in linen with a writer's inkhorn by his side, passing through the city, marking God groaning, sorrowing [pg 096] children, (ix: 2, 4, 11,) preparatory to the awful slaughter that was immediately to follow; with the strict charge not to touch them that had the mark (or seal) in their foreheads;—just as it will be in the last days, when the 144,000, all of the living children, are sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads, having been marked or sealed in a similar manner, and by the remnant of the messengers that four years ago were writing, lecturing and exhorting the people of God to get clear of the mark of the beast by coming out of Babylon, because she had fallen; developing their true profession, or christian character, even then, by the help of the marking iron, (the steel pen and stamping type,) with the ink from the writer's ink horn; with this difference, that this simultaneous sealing of the 144,000 will show such a clear development of christian character in their lives and shining foreheads (or faces,) that it will be clearly understood that Jesus has redeemed them from all iniquity, by purifying “unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” [These good works, methinks, will be something more than simply saying we believe the Lord is coming.] Yes, says Malachi, when by his prophetic spirit, he saw Jesus “making up his jewels,” at this point of time, “then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” “In the latter (or last) days ye shall consider it perfectly.”—Jer. Then “he that is unjust, let him be so, and he that is righteous, let him be so still, and behold I come quickly, &c.”—Rev. xxii: 11, 12.

This sealing process, then, I understand to be going on with the little flock, progressing in accordance with the last eight years' peculiar labor in their experience, and will be completed and approbated by God in the agonizing time of Daniel's and Jacob's trouble, and proclaimed to the world by God's roaring out of Zion, and uttering his voice from Jerusalem; then he will be the hope of his people; (see Joel iii.) then their atonement will be finished, the Sanctuary cleansed,—16th and 17th verses; “Zion's captivity turned;” “their mouths filled with laughter;” “the jewels made up,” and the wise will understand the time of their coming deliverer.[3]