TRUTH BY THE HAND OF GOD

The Exodus movement, during which the Israelites travelled from Egypt to Canaan, is a type of modern spiritual Israel, an is intended by God to teach us valuable lessons. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-10 Paul mentions some of the incidents of the journey. Then he draws this conclusion: “All these things that happened to them were symbolic, and were record for our benefit as a warning. For upon us the fulfilment of the ages has come” verse 11). The Advent Movement is a counterpart of the Exodus movement. It has a revelation of truth, by the hand of God, appropriate for this end-time.
Today it is easy to believe that God was in the Exodus movement. Anyone who accepts the Bible record is bound to admit this. We know that God led the Israelite by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. We know that that movement finally carried the people of God triumphantly into the Land of Promise.
Can we be sure that the present Advent Movement is as truly led of God as was the Exodus movement? Can we be certain that the God of heaven is leading this movement today and that it will complete its journey into the heavenly Canaan, as the Exodus movement ended in the earthly Canaan?
These are important questions. To answer them let us compare the two movements, and if we find the latter has parallels with the former we shall have ground for adherence to the Advent Movement.
Let us first compare the fundamental purpose of each movement. Why did God call Israel from Egypt to be a separate people?
“He brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness: and gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people; that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws” (Ps. 105:43-45). God’s major desire was to develop an obedient people – a people through whom He could make known the principles of the truth to the rest of the world.
Similarly, He has called spiritual Israel to be obedient to His laws. The call of God is for His people to come out of Babylon, that we “be not partakers of her sins” (Rev. 18:4). “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). And, as previously noted, when, in the prophecies of Revelation, God refers to the last-day people, He points to them as keeping His commandments (Revelation 12:17; 14:12). So, on this point, we can drive down a stake to indicate that both movements began with the same divine objective.
In connection with the call from Egypt, God tested His people on the point of the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath (Exodus 16:4, 5, 26). The test was given in connection with food, called manna that God miraculously provide for the Israelites in the wilderness. This manna was provided for the Israelites in the wilderness. This manna was provided daily but would not keep overnight. However, God instructed them to gather extra for the Sabbath each Friday. Then, on the Sabbath none came, and that which was held over did not spoil. The record tells us that they made the necessary preparations on Friday and kept the seventh day holy, proving they were obedient to God. (Exodus 16:22-25). Those who did not make the preparation on the sixth day broke God’s holy Sabbath by going out hoping to find manna on the seventh day (Exodus 16:27, 28).
So today God is calling a people out of Babylon and asking them to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. The Israelite had practically lost sight of God’s holy Sabbath during their stay in Egypt. So today nearly all the Lord’s professed people have lost sight of the true Sabbath.
Nearly all Christians acknowledge the validity of nine commandments of the Decalogue, but many find excuses to avoid keeping the seventh day required by the fourth commandment. Thus the fourth commandment becomes a test. It becomes a test because it is one of the Ten Commandments. God still requires it to be kept, and, therefore, when people understand this, they show their attitude to God by their attitude to the fourth commandment.
In the Revelation 14 prophesies God’s last invitation and warning for the world, found in a message borne by three symbolic angels, Revelation 14:9-11. carry the warning that anyone who receives the mark of the beast will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God.” Adventists understand the mark to be not a literal brand on the forehead or hand but some sign of allegiance to the power symbolized by the beast.
Because the prophesied struggle revolves around God’s law. Particularly the fourth commandment, Adventists understand that Sunday will be that sign. The Sabbath is the sign of allegiance to God (Eze. 20:12). The issue will be the keeping of the  Sabbath, or seal or mark of God, versus the receiving of the mark of the beast. The people of the world will decide their eternal destiny in the setting of this issue.
Ancient Israel was tested on the point of the Sabbath, and God’s last Israel, His church, will be tested on the same point. And as Israel was distinguished from the surrounding nations by the keeping of the Sabbath, so God’s faithful ones in the last days will be distinguished in the same manner.
Ancient Israel came out of Egypt at the time appointed by God. He appointed that 430 years from the time Abraham left Haran to go into Canaan his descendants, the Israelites, would leave Egypt to go into Canaan (see Gal. 3:16,17). Did this come true? The record says, “If came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:41). The Exodus movement began at  the time appointed by the Lord.
The Advent Movement began in 1844 at the time God had previously appointed, as revealed to Daniel the prophet (see Daniel 8:13,14). In chapter six we say that this prophecy began in 457 a.c. and ended in A.D. 1844. This latter years was the very time the Advent Movement was born. And it came into being as a result of a group of Bible students examining the subject of the cleansing of the sanctuary prophesied in Daniel 8.
Seventh-day Adventists did not originate as an offshoot from some other religious body. They did not begin because some men wanted to start a new denomination. God raised up the Adventist people to proclaim His threefold message to all the people in the world in fulfilment of His last-day message of Revelation 14:6-12.
Note a number of ways in which the Advent movement is God’s counterpart to His Exodus movement:
1-      God unfolded to the Israelites the message of salvation as typified by the earthly sanctuary (see Ex. 25:8; Heb. 8:4,5). He raised up the Advent people and gave them an understanding of the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary (Heb.8:1-3).
2-      God gave Israel the Ten Commandments as His supreme law of righteousness (Ex. 20:1-17), based on love to God with all the heart (Deut. 6:5). This same law, as interpreted by the Lord Jesus (Matt. 22:36-40) and coupled with the true faith in Jesus (Rev. 14:12), is the foundation of Adventism.
3-      God gave the Israelite the tithing system as a means for supporting His ministers (Num. 18:21; Lev. 27:30-33). The same divine financial plan is followed in the Advent Movement.
4-      The Exodus movement had the spirit of prophecy connected with it: “By a prophet (Moses; Ps. 77:20) the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved” (Hosea 12:13). The remnant church that keeps God`s commandments has the same gift (Rev. 12:17; 19:10).
5-      The Exodus movement was an organized movement. It had companies of tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands (Deut. 1:15). Then there were the seventy elders – a sort of Supreme Court for making decisions on important questions (Num. 11:16, 17, 24, 25). The Advent Movement is similarly organized. It has local churches, local conferences, union conferences, division conferences, and the General Conference.
6-      The Israelites had the seventh-day Sabbath as the sign of the only true God, the Creator of heaven an earth (Ex. 20:8-11; 31:16, 17; Eze. 20:20), and also as a sign of sanctification (Ex. 31:13; Eze. 20:12). Similarly, Adventist uphold the same Saturday Sabbath as the sign of Jesus as the Creator and Sanctifier (Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:2).
In this time of uncertainty many people are foundering in perplexity and confusion. But God has given us in His Word evidences by which we may know where to find a star and an anchor. He has His people who are following the Star, and who have the Anchor. That Star, that Anchor, is Jesus Christ and His truths revealed in the Word.
The Advent Movement is looking to that Star an is stabilized by that Anchor. Is you, reader, have not set your sights on the Star. If you, reader, have not set your sights on the Star, if you have not found that Anchor for your lives, we invite you to carefully study the Guiding Principles at the end of this book, comparing them with your Bible, prayerfully, with open heart and mind. And let the Holy Spirit lead you.

THE CONFLIT ENDED


1-      In narrating the work of creation, what statement in made concerning its completion?
“This heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made.” Genesis 2:1,2.
Note: God´s work here referred to was “very good” Genesis 1:31. Had it not been for sin, this first plan of God would not have been followed by the three steps we shall now study.
2-      When expiring on the cross, what did Christ say?
“When Jesus therefore ha received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” John 19:30.
Note: Christ came into the world to save sinners. Costly though the prince was, He paid it. Bitter as was the cup, He drank its last dregs. In that final moment He said, “It is finished.”
3-      At the pouring out of the seventh plague, what announcement will be made?
“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.” Revelation 16:17.
Note: This outpouring of God´s wrath is upon the rejecters of Weaven´s mercy. Human probation has closed, and when the great voice cries, “It is done,” Christ starts on His way to earth the second time.
4-      And when the new heavens and the new earth have appeared, and the holy city, New Jerusalem, has descended from God and become the metropolis of the new creation, what announcement will then be made?
“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, Il is done, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” Revelation 21:5,6.
A-    PLEASURES FOREVERMORE
5-      In the new earth, what will be no more?
“And God shall wipe away all tear from their eyes; shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” – v. 4. “And there shall be no more curse.” Revelation 22:3.
6-      What will then be the condition of all the earth?
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice´ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:6-9.
7-      What universal chorus of praise will then be heard?
“And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, he unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Revelation 5:13.
B-    SEEING HI AS HE IS
8-      What will finally be the privilege of God´s children?
“And they shall see his face.” Revelation 22:4.
9-      How perfect will be their knowledge of God?
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12.
10-  Whom will they be like?
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2.
11-  From what ills will the saints be forever delivered?
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4.
12-  Who will dwell with the redeemed?
“He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”  Revelation 21:3.
13-  What will it mean to dwell in God´s presence?
“In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:11
14-  How long will they possess the future kingdom?
“But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.” Daniel 7:18.
15-  How long will they reign?
“And they shall reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 22:5.
 
José Carlos Costa, Pastor