Thesis. Ellen White wrote plainly that the Lord might already have come — that "had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come" (DA 633.3) — and that the delay is ours to own, not God's: "We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel" (Ev 696.3). The question this study presses is: which message, decisively ignored, held back the King? The answer offered here is the country-living message — not as a mere health or real-estate counsel, but as the natural, embodied response to the third angel's message, and therefore to righteousness by faith, which Ellen White calls "the third angel's message in verity." To get out of the cities, to make homes in the country, to come out from the marked stream of buying and selling and building and planting, demanded sacrifice and inconvenience; and God's people, like Laodicea, would rather be "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." It is the old line of Genesis: in the days of Noah men "did eat, they drank, they married wives... and knew not until the flood came," while a remnant "began to call upon the name of the LORD" and built an ark of separation; in the days of Lot the same eating and drinking and buying and selling ran on "until the day that Lot went out of Sodom" — which is why the Lord nailed one warning to the end of the age: "Remember Lot's wife." The marked contrast is the whole matter: those who separate unto God and bear the seal, and those who keep the city and receive the mark. He tarries because His people loved the city.

Method. After Haskell's Bible Handbook: ref → gloss, scannable; every symbol and doctrine defined FIRST from Scripture (Miller's Rule — the Bible defines its own figures). The argument is built from the text — Genesis 4-7 (the two seeds, the calling on the Name, the ark), Genesis 13-19 (Lot, Sodom, the pillar of salt), Luke 17 (the days of Noah and of Lot, "Remember Lot's wife"), Revelation 3 (Laodicea), Revelation 18 ("Come out of her, my people"), 2 Corinthians 6 ("come out from among them, and be ye separate"), and the seal vs. the mark of Revelation 7, 13, 14. Ellen White is the SECONDARY but indispensable witness who supplies the dated historical claim Scripture cannot — that the advent was delayed, and which message was refused — and who names the country-living message and identifies righteousness by faith as "the third angel's message in verity." Quote every refcode verbatim; verify with bible egw "REF" (the Country Living [CL], Adventist Home [AH], Testimonies [#T], Great Controversy [GC], Selected Messages [#SM], and Letters & Manuscripts corpus); never invent one, and never let a doctrine or symbol rest on the testimony where Scripture must carry it.

Part I — The Tarrying

¶1. He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours

The kingdom that "should immediately appear" was held back. Scripture fixes the fault: not in God, who is "not slack," but in His people, who said in their hearts, "My lord delayeth." He might have come — and the delay was ours.

The kingdom poised to appear — held back — Luke 19:11; Matt. 24:14:

• Luke 19:11. "they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear" — the frame: the advent was poised to come quickly, and Christ answered the expectation with a parable of a nobleman gone "into a far country," a parable of delay. Something held the kingdom back.
  • the tarrying = the prolonging of the time before the advent (the term Scripture and the parables use for the genuine prolonging), charged not to God but to His people's unreadiness — the bridegroom tarries while the virgins slumber (Matt. 25:5), the wicked servant says "My lord delayeth" (Matt. 24:48), yet the Lord is "not slack" but longsuffering (2 Pet. 3:9), and the day may be "hasted" by readiness (2 Pet. 3:12); even the vision "tarries" only to the waiting, for in truth "it will not tarry" (Hab. 2:3). Defined in full at the close.
• Matt. 24:14. "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" — the condition on which the timing turns: a finished gospel work. "And then shall the end come" makes the advent contingent on the church's completion of its appointed task.
• DA 633.3. White: "By giving the gospel to the world it is in our power to hasten our Lord's return... Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory" — the master statement: it weaves Matt. 24:14 ("then shall the end come"), 2 Pet. 3:12 margin ("hasting"), and the plain charge that the church's unfinished work, not God, holds back the advent. Christ "would have come" already.

The lie that licenses delay — "My lord delayeth" — Matt. 24:48-51; 25:5:

• Matt. 24:48. "if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming" — the wicked servant locates the delay in his own heart, not in the Lord. "My lord delayeth his coming" is the inward charge against God that licenses unwatchfulness.
• Matt. 24:49-51. "shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken... The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him" — the fruit of believing the delay is cruelty and worldliness; the very servant who said "My lord delayeth" is overtaken, for readiness, not the date, was the issue.
• Matt. 25:5. "While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept" — the tarrying defined: a real prolonging of the time before the advent, during which both wise and foolish slept. The bridegroom tarries; the failure is the virgins' lack of oil, not His unfaithfulness.
• PREX2 242.1. Litch, on Matt. 24:48-51: "One would hardly think it possible for those ministers of the gospel who say, not in their hearts only, but with their lips, 'My Lord delayeth his coming,' to read this terrible warning, and not tremble... Will not ministers see that they are literally joining hands with the drunken and vicious of all degrees, while they say My Lord delayeth his coming?" — the pioneer exposition: the "My Lord delayeth" attitude is the sin of the unwatchful servant, locating the delay in the heart of the unfaithful, never in the Lord.
• AJB 296.4. Bates, on the Advent movement: "in every important move they make, their history is likened, or compared to the history of the ten virgins in the parable, namely, 'tarry of the vision,' 'tarry of the bridegroom,' midnight cry, 'Behold the bridegroom cometh,' etc." — those who lived the tarrying time read Matt. 25:5 and Hab. 2:3 directly onto their own experience; the "tarrying" was named by the people it tested.

God flatly denies slackness — the delay is mercy — 2 Pet. 3:9, 12, 15:

• 2 Pet. 3:9. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" — God denies slackness outright. The lengthening of probation is mercy, not failure of promise; the delay is on man's account, accommodated by God's longsuffering.
• 2 Pet. 3:12. "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God" — the day of God can be "hasted" by His people. The margin reads "hasting" (DA 633.3 cites "2 Peter 3:12, margin"), making the saints' readiness a true factor in the timing — the counter-truth to the wicked servant's "delayeth."
• 2 Pet. 3:15. "account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation" — the delay reinterpreted: the longsuffering IS salvation. What looks like slowness is God holding the door open for souls, charged to His mercy, never to indifference.

Scripture's own paradox — "though it tarry... it will not tarry" — Hab. 2:3; Heb. 10:36-37; Acts 3:19-20:

• Hab. 2:3. "the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry" — Scripture's own paradox of the tarrying: it has an appointed time and yet is endured as if delayed; the call is to wait in faith, not to charge the Lord with slackness.
• Heb. 10:36-37. "ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry" — the promise follows the doing of God's will. "He that shall come will come, and will not tarry" answers the wicked servant: the tarrying is in us, not in Him.
• Acts 3:19-20. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ" — repentance and conversion bring the times of refreshing, and "he shall send Jesus Christ." The return of the Lord is linked to His people's spiritual condition; the delay turns on readiness.

The type of the delay — eleven days made forty years — Num. 14:33-34; Deut. 1:2-3; 1 Cor. 10:11:

• Num. 14:33-34. "your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years... After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities... and ye shall know my breach of promise" — the type of the delay: forty years of wandering imposed by unbelief, a year for a day. "My breach of promise" was Israel's making, not God's — the avoidable lengthening of their probation in the wilderness.
  • the delay = the avoidable lengthening of probation, the "long years" that might have been spared (the avoidable, typological lengthening that need not have been — distinct from the tarrying in that it could have been spared), typified by Israel's wilderness wandering — eleven days' journey became forty years (Deut. 1:2-3) because of unbelief; the "breach of promise" was Israel's making (Num. 14:33-34); written "for our admonition" (1 Cor. 10:11), it pictures a finished gospel work held back (Matt. 24:14), so the end which "should immediately appear" (Luke 19:11) was prolonged by the church, not by God. Defined in full at the close.
• Deut. 1:2. "(There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)" — the measure of the loss: the distance to Canaan was eleven days; the forty years were entirely the wages of unbelief.
• Deut. 1:3. "in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel" — "in the fortieth year," set against the eleven-day journey of v. 2, the gap (40 years vs. 11 days) is the exact Scriptural picture of how readiness, not God, determines the length of the wilderness.
• 1 Cor. 10:11. "all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" — Paul makes Israel's wandering a direct admonition to the last-day church. The forty-year delay is written so we will not repeat it; the type is for us.
• GC 458.1. White: "It was not the will of God that Israel should wander forty years in the wilderness... In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed... But unbelief separated them from God... In mercy to the world, Jesus delays His coming, that sinners may have an opportunity to hear the warning and find in Him a shelter" — the exact Israel-to-advent parallel this section owns: the forty-year delay and the long delay of the advent both spring from unbelief, while the present delay is God's mercy (2 Pet. 3:9, 15) toward sinners.
• Ev 696.3. White: "Charge It Not to God—We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ's sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action" (Letter 184, 1901) — the wilderness parallel (Num. 14:33-34) made personal: the delay is "insubordination," and the charge against God is forbidden.

The dated witness Scripture cannot supply — 1844 and the message refused — 8T 115.5; 1SM 68.1:

• 8T 115.5. White: "In the great disappointment of 1844 the faith of His people was tested as was that of the Hebrews at the Red Sea... If all who had labored unitedly in the work of 1844 had received the third angel's message and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit... Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work would have been completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of His people" — the dated testimony Scripture cannot give: the delay tied concretely to 1844 and the church's failure to proclaim the third angel's message. The text marks the testing at the Red Sea (the 1844 disappointment), distinct from the forty-year wandering that types the delay itself.
• 1SM 68.1. White: "Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith, and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel... the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward" — a second dated witness fixing the avoidable delay to the post-1844 unfaithfulness of Adventists. "Christ would have come ere this" makes the lengthening of probation the church's account, not God's.
• Ev 694.3. White, under "The Reason for the Delay": "Had the purpose of God been carried out by His people in giving to the world the message of mercy, Christ would, ere this, have come to the earth, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God" (6T 450, 1900) — light reinforcement of the avoidable lengthening: the work "might have been done," and Christ "would, ere this, have come," confirming Matt. 24:14's condition on a finished work of mercy.

DEFINITION — HE MIGHT HAVE COME — THE DELAY WAS OURS = the advent that "should immediately appear" (Luke 19:11) was held back, and Scripture fixes where the fault lies. The wicked servant who says in his heart "My lord delayeth his coming" (Matt. 24:48) is overtaken in his unwatchfulness, while the bridegroom genuinely tarries and finds the virgins asleep (Matt. 25:5) — yet the Lord is "not slack concerning his promise" but "longsuffering... not willing that any should perish" (2 Pet. 3:9), and the "longsuffering of our Lord is salvation" (2 Pet. 3:15): the delay is mercy, never failure. Against the lie of "delayeth" stands the counter-truth that the day of God may be "hasted" by His people (2 Pet. 3:12, margin), for "he that shall come will come, and will not tarry" once the will of God is done (Heb. 10:36-37) — the very paradox of Habakkuk's vision, which "tarries" only to the waiting (Hab. 2:3), and the times of refreshing wait on repentance and conversion (Acts 3:19-20). The promise was conditional on a finished work: "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world... and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). Scripture supplies the type — Israel's eleven-day journey stretched to forty years by unbelief, "a breach of promise" of their own making (Num. 14:33-34; Deut. 1:2-3), "written for our admonition" (1 Cor. 10:11) — and the testimony supplies the dated fact Scripture cannot: the advent was delayed by the church's failure, after the disappointment of 1844, to receive and proclaim the third angel's message in the power of the Spirit, so that "the Lord Jesus would have come" already (DA 633.3; GC 458.1; 8T 115.5; 1SM 68.1). "Charge It Not to God" (Ev 696.3): the long years were ours to spare. The whole study rests here — He might have come, and the delay was ours; the sections that follow ask which message, decisively refused, held back the King (see "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith," "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").

Symbols defined here:

• the tarrying = the prolonging of the time before the advent (the term Scripture and the parables use for the genuine prolonging), charged not to God but to His people's unreadiness; the bridegroom tarries while the virgins slumber, the wicked servant says "My lord delayeth," yet the Lord is "not slack" and the day may be "hasted" by readiness (Matt. 24:48; Matt. 25:5; 2 Pet. 3:9, 12; Hab. 2:3).
• the delay = the avoidable lengthening of probation, the "long years" that might have been spared (the avoidable, typological lengthening that need not have been — distinct from the tarrying in that it could have been spared), typified by Israel's wilderness wandering — eleven days made forty by unbelief, a "breach of promise" of Israel's own making, written for our admonition (Num. 14:33-34; Deut. 1:2-3; 1 Cor. 10:11; 8T 115.5).

Symbols carried: none — this is the opening section that establishes the TARRYING / DELAY thread (the advent held back, charged to His people and not to God) on which the whole handbook stands; the message whose refusal caused the delay is named in "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith," and traced through "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused" and "Come Out and Be Ready — Why He Tarries, and How He Comes."

For discussion:

1. The wicked servant says "My lord delayeth his coming" (Matt. 24:48) — a lie told first in his heart — and the bridegroom truly "tarried" (Matt. 25:5); yet "the Lord is not slack" but "longsuffering... not willing that any should perish" (2 Pet. 3:9). How can the delay be both real and entirely the fault of His people, with no slackness in God? What does it mean for us that the same servant who charged the Lord with delay was the one overtaken (Matt. 24:50)?
2. Israel's journey of "eleven days" became forty years, "a breach of promise" of their own making (Deut. 1:2; Num. 14:34), written "for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Cor. 10:11). If the testimony is right that the advent could have come "ere this" (1SM 68.1; 8T 115.5), what "long years" might our own unbelief be adding now — and how do we keep from wandering the wilderness when Canaan is eleven days off?
3. Scripture says the day of God can be "hasted" by His people (2 Pet. 3:12, margin), tied to a finished work: "this gospel... shall be preached in all the world... and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). If our readiness is a true factor in the timing of the King's return, what does that lay on us this week — and what is the first thing you would have to stop "charging to God" (Ev 696.3) to take up the "longsuffering of our Lord" as "salvation" (2 Pet. 3:15) and your own part in it?

¶2. The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith

The third angel's message does not end in bare commandment-keeping but in a people who keep "the commandments of God, AND the faith of Jesus" — law and gospel fused into one. That fusion is righteousness by faith, and it is not a doctrine alongside the third angel but its very life and substance; to refuse it — or to keep its form while refusing its fruit — is to hold back the harvest that ripens the advent.

The third angel terminates in commandment-AND-faith — Rev. 14:9-12:

• Rev. 14:9-11. "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God... And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." — the solemn warning the third angel carries against the beast, his image, and his mark; the whole weight of v.9-11 lands on the character described in v.12 — the sealed company are the alternative to the mark.
• Rev. 14:12. "Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." — the message does NOT terminate in mere law-keeping; it ends in commandment-keeping faith. Law AND the faith of Jesus held together — this fusion IS righteousness by faith.
  • the third angel's message = the final warning of Rev. 14:9-12 against the beast, his image, and his mark, consummated in a people who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (v.12) — law and gospel fused, not bare law-keeping but commandment-keeping FAITH. Its substance is therefore righteousness by faith, proclaimed "with a loud voice" and the Spirit's outpouring in large measure (Rev. 14:9-11; Rev. 14:12; Rev. 14:15). Defined in full at the close.
  • righteousness by faith = the righteousness of God — which is Christ Himself, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jer. 23:6) — received by faith "without the deeds of the law" (Rom. 3:28) yet ESTABLISHING the law (Rom. 3:31), counted to the believer as it was to Abraham (Gen. 15:6); the gospel, "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16-17), a living faith that works (Jas. 2:17-18); the very "faith of Jesus" of Rev. 14:12. Defined in full at the close.
• 1SM 372.2. White: "Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message, and I have answered, 'It is the third angel's message, in verity.'" — the keystone that NAMES it: righteousness by faith is not a doctrine beside the third angel but the third angel's message "in verity," its very reality. (Review and Herald, April 1, 1890.)
• TM 91.2. White: "It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God... This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure." — confirms the fusion exactly as Rev. 14:12: righteousness received by faith is "made manifest in obedience to all the commandments," and this fused message IS the third angel's, carried by the loud cry and the Spirit.

The seed-text: the just shall LIVE by faith — Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17:

• Hab. 2:4. "Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith." — the seed-text of righteousness by faith: the just (righteous) man does not merely begin by faith — he LIVES by it. Self-exaltation ("lifted up") is the opposite; faith is the principle of the righteous life.
• Rom. 1:16. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." — Paul takes up Habakkuk and names it the gospel itself: not a side-doctrine but "the power of God unto salvation."
• Rom. 1:17. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." — the righteousness OF GOD revealed "from faith to faith." Righteousness by faith is therefore the gospel's whole content, drawn straight out of Habakkuk's seed.

The righteousness received is a Person — Jer. 23:5-6; Gen. 15:6:

• Jer. 23:5. "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch... and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." — the righteousness is a Person, the promised Branch, the King.
• Jer. 23:6. "this [is] his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." — the righteousness received by faith is Christ Himself, named THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. To receive righteousness is to receive a Person, not a credit.
• Gen. 15:6. "And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." — the pattern from Abraham forward: righteousness is COUNTED (imputed) to the one who believes. Faith, not works, is reckoned for righteousness — the doctrine is older than Sinai, woven into the everlasting covenant.

Righteousness without the law, yet establishing the law — Rom. 3:21-31:

• Rom. 3:21. "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." — the righteousness of God is "without the law" (not earned by law-keeping) yet "witnessed by the law and the prophets" — no contradiction; the law testifies to a righteousness it cannot produce.
• Rom. 3:22. "Even the righteousness of God [which is] by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference." — it comes "by faith of Jesus Christ" — the very phrase echoed in Rev. 14:12's "the faith of Jesus." The message of the third angel and the gospel of Romans speak one tongue.
• Rom. 3:24. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." — justification is free, by grace, through Christ.
• Rom. 3:25-26. "Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood... that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." — the cross shows God both just (the law upheld) and the justifier (the sinner pardoned); it satisfies the law while saving by faith.
• Rom. 3:28. "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." — justification is by faith, apart from the deeds of the law; works do not purchase it.
• Rom. 3:31. "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." — the hinge that defeats the false charge: faith does NOT make void the law — it ESTABLISHES it. Righteousness by faith and commandment-keeping are not rivals; faith is what truly upholds the law (the exact union of Rev. 14:12).
• 3SM 172.2. White: "The third angel's message is the proclamation of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. The commandments of God have been proclaimed, but the faith of Jesus Christ has not been proclaimed by Seventh-day Adventists as of equal importance, the law and the gospel going hand in hand." — names the very deficiency that holds back the harvest: the commandments were proclaimed, but the faith of Jesus was NOT proclaimed as of equal importance — the form kept (law) while the fruit (faith) was neglected. Law and gospel must go hand in hand.

The fruit: peace, and a faith that works — Rom. 5:1; James 2:17-18:

• Rom. 5:1. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." — the fruit of righteousness by faith is peace with God: not anxious law-keeping for acceptance, but reconciliation received, the assurance that frees the believer to obey from love, not fear.
• James 2:17. "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." — living faith works; faith that produces no obedience is dead.
• James 2:18. "shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." — this guards the fusion from the other side: as Romans forbids works without faith, James forbids faith without works — the two are one in Rev. 14:12. The country-living obedience is this faith's fruit shown by works (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").

The seal of the living God — the Father's name written within — Rev. 7:2-3; 14:1; Eph. 4:30:

• Rev. 7:2-3. "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God... Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." — the seal of the living God is set in the FOREHEAD (the seat of mind and choice), and the sealing must FINISH before the four winds are loosed. It marks the servants of God — the same commandment-and-faith company of Rev. 14:12.
  • the seal of the living God = the mark set in the FOREHEAD (mind, choice) on those sealed before the winds are loosed (Rev. 7:2-3); Scripture defines it as the Father's NAME — His character — written in the forehead (Rev. 14:1), an inward work of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30). It is the settling into the truth and the reproduction of Christ's character — righteousness by faith made permanent in the people of Rev. 14:12. The final Sabbath-specific contrast of seal versus mark is drawn out in "The Seal or the Mark — the Final Marked Contrast."
• Rev. 14:1. "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty [and] four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads." — Scripture defines the seal: the Father's NAME written in the forehead. In Bible idiom the name is the character (Exo. 34:5-7). To be sealed is to bear the Father's character — righteousness by faith reproduced, the law written within.
• Eph. 4:30. "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." — the sealing is the Spirit's work, holding the believer "unto the day of redemption." To grieve the Spirit is to resist the very agency that seals — the same Spirit whose "large measure" attends the third angel's message (TM 91.2).
• LDE 219.4. White: "Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads—it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved—just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come." — defines the seal as no visible mark but a "settling into the truth" so the faithful cannot be moved: the inward establishment of righteousness by faith in the sealed company. (S.D.A. Bible Commentary 4:1161, 1902.)
• LDE 221.1. White: "The seal of the living God will be placed upon those only who bear a likeness to Christ in character." — confirms the Bible definition (Rev. 14:1): only those who bear Christ's character — righteousness by faith reproduced — receive the seal. (S.D.A. Bible Commentary 7:970, 1895.)

The message refused — and the harvest held back — Rev. 14:15:

• Rev. 14:15. "Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe." — the harvest is reaped only when "ripe." The ripening IS the maturing of the commandment-and-faith people of v.12. To refuse the message that ripens the harvest — or to keep its form without its fruit — is to hold the sickle back.
• TM 92.1. White: "The message of the gospel of His grace was to be given to the church in clear and distinct lines, that the world should no longer say that Seventh-day Adventists talk the law, the law, but do not teach or believe Christ." — names the imbalance in concrete terms: the people were known for talking "the law, the law" while failing to teach and believe Christ — the very deficiency righteousness by faith corrects.
• 1SM 234.6. White: "An unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth, lay at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord's message through Brethren [E.J.] Waggoner and [A.T.] Jones... The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world." — the historical fact of the refusal: the message of righteousness by faith — the light meant to lighten the whole earth (the loud cry, the ripening of the harvest) — was RESISTED at Minneapolis in 1888 and "in a great degree kept away from the world" by Adventists themselves.
• COL 69.1. White: "'When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.' Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own." — ties righteousness by faith straight to the harvest of Rev. 14:15: the sickle is thrust in when the fruit — Christ's character reproduced, righteousness by faith matured — is brought forth. To refuse that fruit is to delay the harvest and the coming.
• Ev 694.3. White: "Had the purpose of God been carried out by His people in giving to the world the message of mercy, Christ would, ere this, have come to the earth, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God." — the cost of refusing the ripening message: had the message of mercy (righteousness by faith) been carried out, Christ would already have come. The unfinished harvest is traced to the people's failure — the same verdict that opens this study (see "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours"). (Testimonies vol. 6:450, 1900.)

DEFINITION — THE THIRD ANGEL IN VERITY — RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH = the third angel's loud-voiced warning against the beast, his image, and his mark (Rev. 14:9-11) terminates not in bare law-keeping but in a people who "keep the commandments of God, AND the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12) — law and gospel fused into one. That fusion IS righteousness by faith: the righteousness of God, which is Christ Himself, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jer. 23:6), received by faith as the just man LIVES by his faith (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17), counted to the believer as to Abraham (Gen. 15:6), "without the deeds of the law" (Rom. 3:28) yet ESTABLISHING the law (Rom. 3:31) — the exact union of Rev. 14:12. It is "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16), yielding peace with God (Rom. 5:1) and a living faith that works (Jas. 2:17-18). Ellen White names it outright: "It is the third angel's message, in verity" (1SM 372.2); justification by faith "made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God" is the very message "to be proclaimed with a loud voice" and the Spirit's "outpouring... in a large measure" (TM 91.2). The seal of the living God (Rev. 7:2-3) is this righteousness made permanent — the Father's NAME, His character, written in the forehead (Rev. 14:1) by the Spirit (Eph. 4:30), "a settling into the truth... so they cannot be moved" (LDE 219.4), placed only on those who "bear a likeness to Christ in character" (LDE 221.1). But the message was largely REFUSED: proclaimed as "the law, the law" without "the faith of Jesus... of equal importance" (3SM 172.2; TM 92.1), the light meant "to lighten the whole earth" was resisted at Minneapolis and "in a great degree kept away from the world" (1SM 234.6). And because the harvest is reaped only when ripe (Rev. 14:15), and ripens only as "the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people" (COL 69.1), to refuse this message — or to keep its form while refusing its fruit — is to hold the sickle back: "Christ would, ere this, have come" (Ev 694.3). This names the message whose refusal lengthened the tarrying, and sets up that the country-living call is the embodied OBEDIENCE of this same faith (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").

Symbols defined here:

• the third angel's message = the final warning of Rev. 14:9-12 against the beast, his image, and his mark, consummated in a people who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" — law and gospel fused, not bare law-keeping but commandment-keeping faith; its substance is righteousness by faith, proclaimed with a loud voice and the Spirit in large measure (Rev. 14:9-12; Rev. 14:15; 1SM 372.2; TM 91.2).
• righteousness by faith = the righteousness of God — Christ Himself, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS — received by faith "without the deeds of the law" yet establishing the law, counted to the believer as to Abraham; the gospel, "the power of God unto salvation," a living faith that works; the "faith of Jesus" of Rev. 14:12, "the third angel's message in verity" (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17; Rom. 3:21-31; Jer. 23:5-6; Gen. 15:6; Jas. 2:17-18; Rom. 5:1; 1SM 372.2).
• the seal of the living God = the mark set in the forehead (mind, choice) on those sealed before the winds are loosed; the Father's NAME — His character — written within by the Holy Spirit; a settling into the truth and the reproduction of Christ's character, righteousness by faith made permanent in the commandment-and-faith people of Rev. 14:12 (Rev. 7:2-3; Rev. 14:1; Eph. 4:30; LDE 219.4; LDE 221.1).

Symbols carried: the tarrying / the delay, the advent held back by the church's unreadiness (see "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours"); the seal-versus-mark contrast and the Sabbath sign, drawn out in full (see "The Seal or the Mark — the Final Marked Contrast"); the obedience of this faith embodied in the come-out call (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").

For discussion:

1. The third angel's message ends not in commandment-keeping ONLY but in "the commandments of God, AND the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12), and Paul says faith does not make void the law but "establish[es]" it (Rom. 3:31). Where, in your own walk, do you lean toward one side of that fusion — anxious law-keeping without the faith, or claimed faith without the obedience — and what would it look like to hold both as "of equal importance" (3SM 172.2)?
2. Ellen White wrote that "an unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions" lay at the root of the opposition at Minneapolis, so that the light "to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted... and in a great degree kept away from the world" (1SM 234.6) — and that had the message of mercy been carried out, "Christ would, ere this, have come" (Ev 694.3). What "preconceived opinions" might we still be unwilling to yield, and how does keeping the FORM of the message while neglecting its FRUIT still hold the sickle back today (Rev. 14:15; COL 69.1)?
3. The seal of the living God is "a settling into the truth... so they cannot be moved" (LDE 219.4), placed only on those who "bear a likeness to Christ in character" (LDE 221.1) — the Father's name written in the forehead (Rev. 14:1). What does it mean, practically, to be "settled into the truth" before the shaking, and how is that different from merely holding correct doctrine?

Part II — The Message Ignored

¶3. Out of the Cities — the Message Refused

God set man in a garden, not a city; and when the cities fill up with confusion He calls His people out of them again — yet the plain word "Out of the cities" was given to a people slow to obey, and the refusal of it belongs to the same record of insubordination that, like Israel's unbelief, has kept the church in this world far longer than God intended.

The first home was the country — and the first city was self-banished man's — Gen. 2:8, 15; 4:17:

• Gen. 2:8. "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed" — God's first home for man was a garden, not a city; the country is the original divine setting for human life.
  • the country = the place of separation, dependence on God, and refuge — where God first set man (the garden in Eden) and where He calls him again; the peaceable habitation and quiet resting place promised to His people, the retired situation away from the corruption of the crowded city (Gen. 2:8; Gen. 2:15; Isa. 32:18; Heb. 11:9).
• Gen. 2:15. "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it" — man is placed in the garden to till the soil; dependence on God and the land is the first and pattern vocation, the very life the country-living message calls back to.
• Gen. 4:17. "And Cain... builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch" — the first city is built by the first murderer, the man who "went out from the presence of the LORD" (Gen. 4:16); the city begins as the work of self-banished man, the type of gathered human self-trust.
  • the city = the world's gathered confusion and self-trust — from Cain's city (built by the man banished from God's presence) to Babel (men making themselves a name against God's command to scatter) to Babylon the great (the habitation of devils and every unclean spirit); the place of accumulated corruption, marked for destruction, of which Sodom and Babylon are the doom-types (Gen. 4:17; Gen. 11:4; Luke 17:28-30; Rev. 14:8; Rev. 18:2).

The city's founding charter is rebellion — Babel — Gen. 11:4:

• Gen. 11:4. "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower... and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" — Babel: the city as collective rebellion, men gathering to make themselves a name and to resist God's command to scatter. The city is confusion — Babel, Babylon — by its founding charter.

The call to come out is as old as the covenant — Gen. 12:1; Heb. 11:8-10; 13:14:

• Gen. 12:1. "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee" — the foundational call to come out; God begins His covenant people with a command to separate from the established land and go where He will lead — the prototype of every "come out" message.
  • coming out = the obedient separation of God's people from the city of confusion — Babylon — in body and in spirit; the act of faith (Abraham going out), the means of deliverance (flee Babylon, escape Sodom), and the condition of God's reception (be ye separate, and I will receive you); its final form is the last message, "Come out of her, my people" (Gen. 12:1; Gen. 19:17; Isa. 48:20; Jer. 51:6; 2 Cor. 6:17; Heb. 11:8; Rev. 18:4).
• Heb. 11:8. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went" — the coming out was the act of faith; he obeyed before he saw the land, leaving the established place at God's word with nothing in hand but the word.
• Heb. 11:9-10. He "sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles... For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" — faith comes out of man's city to dwell in tents, seeking the only city God owns, the one He builds.
• Heb. 13:14. "For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come" — the believer has no abiding stake in the present city; his citizenship is the city to come. This settles the spiritual posture behind the literal call to leave the cities.

Escape the doomed city before the fire falls — Gen. 19:17; Luke 17:28-30:

• Gen. 19:17. "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed" — Lot must flee Sodom before the fire falls. Separation from the doomed city is urgent and total: no lingering, no looking back. This is the historical model of the city's destruction and the escape commanded.
• Luke 17:28-29. "as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all" — Christ Himself makes Sodom's destruction the model: the city absorbed in buying, selling, and building until the day Lot went out and fire fell.
• Luke 17:30. "Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed" — the pattern of the city ignoring the warning until destruction is fixed by Christ upon the last day; the cities of the end repeat Sodom.
• CL 5.4. White: "Instead of the crowded city, seek some retired situation where your children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation... All who would escape the doom of Sodom, must shun the course that brought God's judgments upon that wicked city" — the country-living call tied straight to the Sodom pattern of Genesis 19 and Luke 17: to escape Sodom's doom, shun Sodom's course, that is, the crowded city (Testimonies for the Church 5:232, 233 (1882)).

The country, the peaceable habitation — Isa. 32:18:

• Isa. 32:18. "And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places" — the promise that defines the country: God's people in a peaceable habitation and quiet resting place, the opposite of the crowded, corrupt city.

Go ye forth of Babylon — the literal "come out" — Isa. 48:20; Jer. 51:6; 2 Cor. 6:17:

• Isa. 48:20. "Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans... say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob" — the literal Old Testament "come out"; deliverance is bound to the going forth, and the redeemed are the ones who leave the city of captivity.
• Jer. 51:6. "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance" — flight from Babylon is the means of deliverance from her judgment; to remain is to be cut off in her iniquity. The call to come out is a matter of life and death.
• 2 Cor. 6:17. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" — the New Testament command defining "coming out" as separation, body and spirit, from the unclean; God's reception of His people is conditioned on their separation.

The city culminates as Babylon — and the last "come out" falls — Rev. 14:8; 18:2, 4:

• Rev. 14:8. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication" — the city of Genesis (Cain's, Babel's) reaches its full prophetic identity: Babylon the great city, fallen, intoxicating all nations. The city symbol culminates here.
• Rev. 18:2. "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" — Babylon defined: the city become the dwelling of every unclean spirit, the world's gathered confusion. This is what "the city" means at the end, the place to be utterly forsaken.
• Rev. 18:4. "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" — the final "come out," the last message of separation. As at Sodom and at Babylon, deliverance is for those who come out before the plagues fall; the whole pattern of Scripture converges here.

"Out of the cities" — the message named, and the reason it is urgent — CH 268.1-2; CL 9.5:

• CH 268.1. White: "'Out of the cities,' is my message. Our physicians ought to have been wide-awake on this point long ago. I hope and pray and believe that they will now arouse to the importance of getting out into the country" — the message named in her own words, the country-living call in its plainest form, given to a people slow to heed it.
• CH 268.2. White: "The time is near when the large cities will be visited by the judgments of God. In a little while these cities will be terribly shaken... let God touch these buildings, and in a few minutes or a few hours they are in ruins" — the urgency behind the call: the large cities are appointed to destruction, the same pattern as Sodom and Babylon. The reason to come out is that the city will not stand (parallel: 7T 83.2).
• CL 9.5. White: "Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country... We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts" — the call was repeated, "again and again," "over and over again," and still needed to be heeded. The very repetition is the record of how slowly it was obeyed (Letter 5, 1904).

The call was given again and again — and the refusal is of one piece with Laodicea — CL 9.5; 3T 252.1:

• CL 9.5. The plain word was not given once but pressed "again and again," "over and over again" — and a call that must be repeated is a call being refused. The very fact that God instructed His people on this point repeatedly, and still it needed to be heeded, makes the "out of the cities" message a standing test of obedience: it had been given, it was clear, and it was not done.
• 3T 252.1. White: "The message to the church of the Laodiceans is a startling denunciation, and is applicable to the people of God at the present time" — the very people who received the "out of the cities" message are the lukewarm Laodiceans of Revelation 3, under a startling denunciation; the refusal of the call is of one piece with the Laodicean state.

The message refused has a dated cost — the tarrying — GC 458.1; 8T 115.5; DA 633.3; Ev 696.3, 694.2:

• GC 458.1. White: "In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed and His people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow. But unbelief separated them from God. As they refused to do the work which He had appointed them, others were raised up to proclaim the message" — as Israel's unbelief turned an eleven-day journey into forty years' wandering, so the church's refusal of its appointed work delayed Christ's coming; the message refused has historical consequence — the tarrying.
• 8T 115.5. White: "If all who had labored unitedly in the work of 1844 had received the third angel's message and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit... Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work would have been completed, and Christ would have come" — the advent movement set beside ancient Israel's wandering, with the delay stated plainly: years ago the work would have been finished and Christ would have come. The rejection has a dated cost.
• DA 633.3. White: "Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory" — the cornerstone delay statement (1898): the church's failure to do her appointed work is why the Lord has not yet come.
• Ev 696.3. White: "We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ's sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action" — the cause of the prolonged stay is named insubordination — disobedience to the very instruction given, the call out of the cities included. Like Israel, the people wander "many more years" because the message was not obeyed (Letter 184, 1901).
• Ev 694.2. White: "The long night of gloom is trying, but the morning is deferred in mercy, because if the Master should come, so many would be found unready" — the delay is real, felt as a long night, yet God defers in mercy because the people are not ready — consistent with a message given and not heeded.

DEFINITION — OUT OF THE CITIES — THE MESSAGE REFUSED = Scripture sets the whole pattern from the first pages to the last. God's first home for man was the country, the garden where he was placed to dress and keep the soil in dependence on God (Gen. 2:8, 15; Isa. 32:18), while the city begins as the work of self-banished man — Cain's city (Gen. 4:17) — and reaches its charter of rebellion at Babel, men gathering to make themselves a name against God's command to scatter (Gen. 11:4), and ends as Babylon the great, the habitation of devils (Rev. 14:8; 18:2). From the first the answer is coming out: Abram called to get out of his country by faith, seeking the city God builds (Gen. 12:1; Heb. 11:8-10); Lot commanded to escape Sodom before the fire fell (Gen. 19:17; Luke 17:28-30); Israel told to "go ye forth of Babylon" and "deliver every man his soul" (Isa. 48:20; Jer. 51:6); the church called to "come out from among them, and be ye separate" (2 Cor. 6:17) — all converging on the last message, "Come out of her, my people, that ye... receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4). Into this stream Ellen White spoke the plain word: "'Out of the cities,' is my message" (CH 268.1), urgent because the large cities are appointed to ruin (CH 268.2; 7T 83.2), and pressed not once but "again and again," "over and over again" (CL 9.5), tied directly to Sodom's doom (CL 5.4) — a call so repeated, and still so unheeded, that it stood as a standing test of His professed people's obedience. And the test was largely failed — a Laodicean refusal (3T 252.1) belonging to the same insubordination that, like Israel's unbelief, has kept the church in this world "many more years" and deferred the coming that should long since have been: "had the church of Christ done her appointed work... the Lord Jesus would have come" (GC 458.1; 8T 115.5; DA 633.3), the stay charged to insubordination and not to God (Ev 696.3), the morning deferred in mercy because so many would be found unready (Ev 694.2). The garden was the beginning; "Come out of her" is the end; and the message ignored is why we are still here.

Symbols defined here:

• the city = the world's gathered confusion and self-trust — Cain's city, Babel, Babylon the great, the habitation of devils — the place of accumulated corruption marked for destruction, with Sodom and Babylon for its doom-types (Gen. 4:17; Gen. 11:4; Luke 17:28-30; Rev. 14:8; Rev. 18:2).
• the country = the place of separation, dependence on God, and refuge — the garden where God first set man and calls him again, the peaceable habitation and quiet resting place He promises His people, away from the crowded city (Gen. 2:8; Gen. 2:15; Isa. 32:18; Heb. 11:9).
• coming out = the obedient separation of God's people from Babylon the city of confusion, in body and in spirit — the act of faith, the means of deliverance, and the condition of God's reception, culminating in the last message, "Come out of her, my people" (Gen. 12:1; Gen. 19:17; Isa. 48:20; Jer. 51:6; 2 Cor. 6:17; Heb. 11:8; Rev. 18:4).

Symbols carried: the delay / the tarrying — the advent held back by His people's unreadiness, here traced to the refusal of the plain "out of the cities" call and paralleled to Israel's wandering (from "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours"); the obedience of faith embodied — country living as the natural fruit of "the third angel's message in verity," the cross the message demanded (from "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith"). The Lot / escape-Sodom / "look not behind thee" material developed here is taken up in "Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look," where the backward look becomes its own warning. The city, the country, and coming out are owned here and carried forward to the Laodicean heart that refused the cross (in "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal") and to the final "Come out of her, my people" (in "Come Out and Be Ready — Why He Tarries, and How He Comes").

For discussion:

1. From Cain's city to Babel to Babylon the great, Scripture makes "the city" a symbol of gathered self-trust and confusion (Gen. 4:17; Gen. 11:4; Rev. 18:2). Where in your own life are you, like Babel's builders, tempted to "make us a name" (Gen. 11:4) and resist God's call to separate?
2. Lot was told, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee" (Gen. 19:17), and Christ fixed the last day as "even thus... as it was in the days of Lot" (Luke 17:28-30). What does "not looking behind" practically require of someone who has heard the call to come out but still loves what they are leaving?
3. The "out of the cities" message was given not once but "again and again," "over and over again" (CL 9.5) — and its refusal is tied to the tarrying of the coming (DA 633.3; Ev 696.3). If the church's insubordination has kept us here "many more years" as Israel's unbelief did (GC 458.1; 8T 115.5), what is one point of God's plain instruction you have been slow to heed — and what would obeying it now look like?

¶4. Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal

The country-living call demanded sacrifice — leaving business, comfort, position; and God's people would rather keep the city and its goods. That is the Laodicean heart exactly: the boast "I have need of nothing" is the very proof of the poverty Christ sees, and the refusal of the cross of separation is at root the refusal of His own discipleship terms.

The True Witness's diagnosis — the boast that proves the poverty — Rev. 3:14-17:

• Rev. 3:14. "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God" — the last of the seven churches, and the one whose verdict comes from "the faithful and true witness" who cannot misjudge.
  • Laodicea (the lukewarm, self-sufficient church) = the last-days church of Christ that is neither cold nor hot, deceived by its own prosperity into saying "I have need of nothing" while Christ sees it "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked"; its disease is the love of the world (the goods) that displaces the love of the Father, leaving a name and a profession but no zeal, unwilling to die to self and bear the cross of separation (Rev. 3:14-17; Rev. 3:15-16; 1 John 2:15-17; Matt. 6:24).
• Rev. 3:15. "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot" — the True Witness reads the works, not the profession; the fatal state is not enmity but lukewarmness.
• Rev. 3:16. "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" — the self-satisfied middle is the one thing Christ cannot keep in His mouth; the lukewarm church is the one He is on the point of rejecting.
• Rev. 3:17. "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" — the self-estimate ("I have need of nothing") is exactly inverted from Christ's estimate ("wretched... poor"); the boast of riches is the very proof of the blindness, the goods the heart clings to are the measure of its poverty.
  • the goods / riches (false riches) = the worldly increase — business, comfort, position, possessions — that holds the heart in the city and refuses the cross of separation; the very thing the Laodicean boasts in ("increased with goods") and the very thing that makes him "poor toward God." To lay it up is to be the rich fool; to cling to it is to go away sorrowful like the young ruler (Rev. 3:17; Luke 12:16-21; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; Matt. 19:21-22; Matt. 6:19-21).
• RH November 26, 1861, par. 10. White: "They feel rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and know not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. What stronger delusion can deceive the human mind than that which makes us believe we are on the right foundation... supposing we need nothing when we need all things" — an early (1861) application of the diagnosis to satisfied Sabbath-keepers; the same heart that would later refuse to leave the cities.
• 4T 87.1. White: "The Laodicean message applies to the people of God who profess to believe present truth. The greater part are lukewarm professors, having a name but no zeal... They dare not give up wholly and run the risk of the unbeliever, yet they are unwilling to die to self and follow out closely the principles of their faith" — names the message as applying to God's own professed people, and locates the refusal precisely: "unwilling to die to self." This is the cross of separation the country-living call demanded.
• 19LtMs, Lt 101, 1904, par. 20. White: "There are many who make their boast that they are 'rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.' But Christ testifies of them, 'I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot'... 'Thou knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.' The church is in dire spiritual poverty and know not their true condition" — applies Rev. 3:17 directly to the church of her own day: the boast of goods is the proof of poverty.

The goods that bind the heart — the warnings to the comfortable — Luke 12:15-21; 1 Tim. 6:9-10:

• Luke 12:15. "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" — Christ's own warning; the abundance of goods is not life, and to reckon it so is the Laodicean error.
• Luke 12:16-19. "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully... Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry" — the rich fool is the Laodicean in miniature: "much goods laid up," planning ease "for many years," settled in the very security the goods provide.
• Luke 12:20. "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" — the very night he counted on years; the goods secured nothing against the hour of reckoning.
• Luke 12:21. "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" — the verdict that names the inverse: to hoard the goods is to be "not rich toward God"; the true riches are the opposite economy.
• COL 256.2. White: "He closed his heart to the cry of the needy, and said to his servants, 'This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater... Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry'" — exposition of the rich fool: the Laodicean spirit of comfort and self-provision named in the parable.
• FE 39.1. White: "'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.'... 'Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee... So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.' An extensive fortune, or any degree of wealth, will not secure the favor of God" — drives the lesson home: wealth secures nothing with God, and the love of ease and goods is folly when the soul is required.
• 1 Tim. 6:9. "But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition" — Scripture's warning to the comfortable: the will to be rich is itself a snare, not a neutral circumstance.
• 1 Tim. 6:10. "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" — the love of money does not merely distract; it makes men "err from the faith." The refusal of the cross of separation is rooted here.
• CS 150.3. White: "Riches infatuate, and cause many who possess them to act as though they were bereft of reason. The more they have of this world, the more they desire... This class are indeed poor toward God. As their riches have accumulated, they have put their trust in them, and have lost faith in God" — echoes Luke 12:21 and Rev. 3:17: the increase of goods produces the false security and lost faith of Laodicea.
• SC 44.1. White: "The love of money, the desire for wealth, is the golden chain that binds them to Satan... But these slavish bands must be broken. We cannot be half the Lord's and half the world's. We are not God's children unless we are such entirely" — identifies the love of money as the chain (the goods) that must be broken: the exact bondage that held God's people in the city and refused the cross of entire surrender.

The pattern of the refusal — Christ's discipleship terms and the young ruler who went away — Luke 14:33; Matt. 19:21-22:

• Luke 14:33. "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" — Christ's own terms of discipleship, stated absolutely: not the surrender of some goods but the forsaking of "all that he hath." The refusal of country living was, at root, the refusal of this cross — the discipleship-terms verse in His own mouth.
• Matt. 19:21. "Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me" — Christ offers His own fellowship; the price named is the goods.
• Matt. 19:22. "But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions" — the pattern of the refusal: offered Christ's fellowship, he went away because the cost was his possessions. The country-living call asked the same — leave the goods, follow — and met the same sorrowful refusal.
• DA 520.4. White: "He showed that riches were his idol... He loved the gifts of God more than he loved the Giver... To give up his earthly treasure, that was seen, for the heavenly treasure, that was unseen, was too great a risk. He refused the offer of eternal life... Thousands are passing through this ordeal, weighing Christ against the world; and many choose the world" — the young ruler's refusal generalized to "thousands... weighing Christ against the world"; exactly the choice the country-living call forced and the comfortable failed.
• DA 523.3. White: "To those who, like the young ruler, are in high positions of trust and have great possessions, it may seem too great a sacrifice to give up all in order to follow Christ. But this is the rule of conduct for all who would become His disciples... Self-surrender is the substance of the teachings of Christ" — makes "sell all" the universal rule, not an exceptional demand: the sacrifice of goods and position the country-living call required was simply Christ's standing terms of discipleship.

Why goods and the cross are mutually exclusive — the divided heart — Matt. 6:19-24; 1 John 2:15-17; 2 Tim. 4:10:

• Matt. 6:19-20. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt... But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven" — two treasuries, and only one can hold the heart.
• Matt. 6:21. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" — the heart follows the treasure; if the treasure is the city and its goods, the heart cannot also be in the kingdom.
• Matt. 6:24. "No man can serve two masters... Ye cannot serve God and mammon" — this settles why the goods and the cross are mutually exclusive: the divided heart is impossible, and the lukewarm attempt to keep both is the Laodicean state itself.
• 1 John 2:15. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" — defines the Laodicean disease at its root: the love of the world and the love of the Father cannot coexist.
• 1 John 2:16-17. "the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life... And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" — the "goods" belong to a world that "passeth away"; the doer of God's will abides, the lover of the goods passes with them.
• 2 Tim. 4:10. "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica" — Demas is the named casualty of the love of the world: a fellow-laborer who, like the comfortable in the cities, chose "this present world" over the cross of separation.

The opposite economy — the gold the True Witness offers — Rev. 3:18; Gal. 5:6; 1 Pet. 1:7; Heb. 11:24-26:

• Rev. 3:18. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see" — the opposite economy: against the false riches that hold the heart in the city, the True Witness offers gold tried in the fire — true wealth bought only at the cost of self. The remedy is to trade the goods for the gold.
  • the gold tried in the fire (true riches) = faith that works by love — a faith proved and purified through trial — which the True Witness offers in exchange for the false goods; not hoarded ease but tested faith, "more precious than of gold that perisheth." To "buy" it is to make the exchange the young ruler refused, trading the goods for the gold (Rev. 3:18; Gal. 5:6; 1 Pet. 1:7; Heb. 11:26).
• Gal. 5:6. "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love" — defines the gold tried in the fire: "faith which worketh by love," the only true riches, set against the dead lukewarm profession that "availeth" nothing.
• COL 158.3. White: "'I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire...' The gold tried in the fire is faith that works by love. Only this can bring us into harmony with God. We may be active, we may do much work; but without love... we can never be numbered with the family of heaven" — defines the gold from the True Witness's own counsel: "faith that works by love" (cf. Gal. 5:6), the true riches set against the false goods.
• 4T 88.2. White: "The gold here recommended as having been tried in the fire is faith and love. It makes the heart rich; for it has been purged until it is pure, and the more it is tested the more brilliant is its luster" — a second witness defining the gold as "faith and love" that "makes the heart rich": the opposite economy to the goods that make the Laodicean poor.
• 1 Pet. 1:7. "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" — names the "gold tried in the fire" of Rev. 3:18: a TRIED faith, more precious than perishing gold. The true riches are bought through trial, the opposite of ease.
• Heb. 11:24-26. "By faith Moses... refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" — the faith-answer to the Laodicean refusal: Moses counted the reproach of Christ "greater riches" than Egypt's treasures; he made the exchange the rich young ruler would not — the gold for the goods.

The end of the hoarded goods, and the test that exposes the heart — James 5:1-3; AH 170.3:

• James 5:1. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you" — the end of the comfortable who kept the goods: not blessing but misery, "in the last days."
• James 5:2-3. "Your riches are corrupted... Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you... Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" — the hoarded goods end corrupted and cankered, a witness against their owners; heaping treasure "for the last days" is the precise folly the country-living call warned against.
• AH 170.3. White: "A Test for God's People—Years ago I was shown that God's people would be tested upon this point of making homes for the homeless... I have been shown more recently that God would specially test His professed people in reference to this matter" — frames the sharing and sacrifice of homes and goods as a deliberate TEST of God's professed people: the same test of sacrifice and inconvenience the country-living call applied, exposing the Laodicean heart.

The pioneer reading of the passage — William Miller on Laodicea — Rev. 3:14-22:

• MWV2 152.2. Miller: "The church in this Laodicean state, like the rich man, will be laying up goods, or making great calculations for the outward or worldly concerns of the church for many years to come... 'increased with goods.' ... 'I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire.' That is... that faith which will stand the fiery trial of temptation and persecution... Be zealous, therefore, brethren, and repent" — the pioneer's own exposition of Rev. 3:14-22: he reads the Laodicean "goods" as the church "laying up... for many years to come" (the rich fool), and the gold as a TRIED faith. A foundational reading of the very passage this section owns, a generation before the country-living message was given.

The command of separation the goods refuse — 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4:

• 2 Cor. 6:17. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" — the cross of separation in command form: "come out... be ye separate." The country-living call is this principle applied to the cities; refusing it for the sake of the goods is refusing the separation God commands.
• Rev. 18:4. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" — the final call out, sealing the separation theme: to stay in the city for the goods is to risk being a "partaker" of what God calls His people to leave.

DEFINITION — RICH AND INCREASED WITH GOODS, THE LAODICEAN REFUSAL = The country-living call required sacrifice — leaving business, comfort, and position — and God's people would rather keep the city and its goods; that refusal is, at root, the Laodicean refusal of the cross. The True Witness diagnoses the last-days church (Rev. 3:14-17): her boast "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" is the exact inverse of His estimate, "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" — the goods the heart clings to are the very measure of its poverty, and the lukewarm middle is the one state He "will spue out." Scripture defines the disease at its root: the love of the world and the love of the Father cannot coexist (1 John 2:15), "ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24), for "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). The goods are the worldly increase that binds the heart in the city: to hoard them is to be the rich fool who heard "this night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke 12:20) and was "not rich toward God"; the will to keep them is the snare that makes men "err from the faith" (1 Tim. 6:9-10), the golden chain that must be broken (SC 44.1). The pattern of the refusal is the young ruler who "went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions" (Matt. 19:22) — and Christ's terms are absolute: "whosoever... forsaketh not all that he hath... cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33), "the rule of conduct for all" who would follow (DA 523.3), not an exceptional demand. Against the false goods the True Witness sets the opposite economy: the gold tried in the fire, "faith which worketh by love" (Gal. 5:6; COL 158.3), a TRIED faith "more precious than of gold that perisheth" (1 Pet. 1:7) — the exchange Moses made, esteeming "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Heb. 11:26), and the one the rich young ruler would not. So the call to come out of the cities was a deliberate TEST of God's professed people (AH 170.3); to keep the goods rather than make the sacrifice was to be "unwilling to die to self" (4T 87.1) — the Laodicean refusal of "come out... and be ye separate" (2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4). William Miller had already read this Laodicean church as "laying up goods... for many years to come" and the gold as faith that "will stand the fiery trial" (MWV2 152.2). He tarries because His people, like Laodicea, were rich and in need of nothing.

Symbols defined here:

• Laodicea (the lukewarm, self-sufficient church) = the last-days church of Christ that is neither cold nor hot, deceived by its own prosperity into saying "I have need of nothing" while Christ sees it "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked"; its disease is the love of the world that displaces the love of the Father, leaving a name and a profession but no zeal, unwilling to die to self and bear the cross of separation (Rev. 3:14-17; Rev. 3:15-16; 1 John 2:15-17; Matt. 6:24).
• the goods / riches (false riches) = the worldly increase — business, comfort, position, possessions — that holds the heart in the city and refuses the cross of separation; the thing the Laodicean boasts in and the thing that makes him "poor toward God"; to lay it up is to be the rich fool, to cling to it is to go away sorrowful like the young ruler (Rev. 3:17; Luke 12:16-21; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; Matt. 19:21-22; Matt. 6:19-21).
• the gold tried in the fire (true riches) = faith that works by love — proved and purified through trial — which the True Witness offers in exchange for the false goods; not hoarded ease but tested faith, "more precious than of gold that perisheth"; to "buy" it is to make the exchange the young ruler refused (Rev. 3:18; Gal. 5:6; 1 Pet. 1:7; Heb. 11:26).

Symbols carried: coming out (= the obedient separation of God's people from Babylon, in body and in spirit) from "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused," here shown to be the very cross the Laodicean goods refuse (2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4; AH 170.3); righteousness by faith (= Christ's righteousness received by faith and working obedience, "the third angel's message in verity") from "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith," here named in its inward substance as the "gold tried in the fire... faith that works by love" (Rev. 3:18; Gal. 5:6; COL 158.3); and the delay (= the avoidable lengthening of probation, charged to His people's unreadiness) from "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours," here traced to its heart-cause — a people who, like Laodicea, were "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" (Rev. 3:17; 4T 87.1).

For discussion:

1. Christ says the Laodicean boast "I have need of nothing" is the very proof that she "knowest not that thou art... poor" (Rev. 3:17; 19LtMs, Lt 101, 1904, par. 20). How does prosperity itself blind a church — or a believer — to its true condition, and what would it look like to let the True Witness, rather than our own self-estimate, tell us where we stand?
2. The young ruler "went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions," yet Christ's terms are that "whosoever... forsaketh not all that he hath... cannot be my disciple" (Matt. 19:22; Luke 14:33), which DA 523.3 calls "the rule of conduct for all who would become His disciples." If the country-living call asked the same exchange — leave the goods, follow — where in your own life is a "great possession" (a comfort, a position, a security) standing exactly where Christ asks for first place?
3. The True Witness does not merely rebuke the goods; He counsels a trade: "buy of me gold tried in the fire" — "faith which worketh by love" (Rev. 3:18; Gal. 5:6; COL 158.3). Moses made that exchange, "esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Heb. 11:26). What concrete sacrifice is God inviting you to trade for that tried gold — and what makes the gold more precious than what it costs?

Part III — The Marked Contrast

¶5. As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams

Christ Himself appoints Noah's day as the picture of the last age: from one fountain the human race forks into two streams — the heedless, eating-drinking line of Cain that stays put and builds, and the faithful line of Seth that calls on the Name, walks with God, and builds an ark of separation; and the flood divides them.

Christ sets the type — the days of Noah are the last age — Luke 17:26-27; Matt. 24:37-39:

• Luke 17:26-27. "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all" — the Lord Himself fixes the type: the last age is the antitype of Noah's day, an ordinary eating-drinking-marrying world swept off by sudden judgment. This is the master text governing the whole section.
  • the days of Noah = the antitype of the last age — an ordinary eating, drinking, marrying world, advanced in arts and industry yet morally corrupt, heedless and "knowing not" until sudden judgment falls; Christ Himself appoints it as the picture of the time of His coming (Luke 17:26-27; Matt. 24:37-39; Gen. 6:5; Gen. 4:17; Gen. 4:21-22).
• Matt. 24:37-39. "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be... they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage... And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away" — the parallel record. The fatal mark of the heedless stream is "knew not": not gross crime but unconscious absorption in the ordinary current of life — eating, drinking, marrying, all lawful — right up until the flood came and took them all away.
• DA 633.1. White: "Christ does not here bring to view a temporal millennium... He tells us that as it was in Noah's day, so will it be when the Son of man comes again" — Luke 17 and Matthew 24 are a direct type of the last age, not a coming golden age but a heedless world cut off by sudden judgment.
• CD 435.2. White: "The world's Redeemer, who knows well the state of society in the last days, represents eating and drinking as the sins that condemn this age... Just such a state of things will exist in the last days" — the very "eat and drink" clause of the type, applied to our own day: the ordinary current of life, not gross crime, condemns the heedless stream.
• EP 59.4. White: "In Noah's day philosophers declared it was impossible for the world to be destroyed by water. So now men of science endeavor to show that the world cannot be destroyed by fire. But when all regarded Noah's prophecy as a delusion, then it was that God's time had come" — the modern heedless stream, like Noah's contemporaries, dismisses the warning as delusion right up to the moment judgment falls.

The first stream — the line of Cain, the city-builders — Gen. 4:17, 21-22; 6:5:

• Gen. 4:17. "And Cain knew his wife... and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch" — the line of Cain is the city-builder. The first city in Scripture is built by the murderer's seed: the headwater of the stream that stays put and fortifies itself in the world.
• Gen. 4:21-22. "Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron" — Cain's civilization: music (harp and organ) and metalworking (brass and iron), the arts and industry of a culture advancing in skill while forgetting God — a society that "did eat and drink" with no thought of the LORD.
• Gen. 6:5. "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" — the moral fruit of the Cainite stream: wickedness great, imagination only evil continually. This defines the spiritual condition of the eating-drinking world the days of Noah picture.

The second stream — the line of Seth, who call on the Name — Gen. 4:26; 5:24; 6:8-9:

• Gen. 4:26. "And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD" — the headwater of the other stream. The line of Seth marks itself off by open worship: the separation begins not with a wall but with a confessed allegiance to the Name.
  • calling on the name of the LORD = the dividing act of the faithful seed — open, avowed worship of and dependence on God, by which the line of Seth marks itself off from the line of Cain (Gen. 4:26; Gen. 5:24; Gen. 6:9).
• Gen. 5:24. "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" — the Sethite stream's crown. Enoch "walked with God" in the midst of the corrupt age and was translated: proof that one can keep the upward current while the world keeps the downward one.
• Gen. 6:8-9. "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD... Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" — Noah inherits Enoch's walk. "Found grace" and "walked with God" set him apart from a generation given to eating, drinking, and violence: the one through whom the faithful stream survives the flood.
• GW 51.2. White: of Enoch, "The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ, became the subject of his meditations day and night. With all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt" — Enoch walked with God in the heart of the corrupt age, the faithful current of those who call on the Name while the world flows the other way.
• GW 52.1. White: "In the midst of a life of active labor, Enoch steadfastly maintained his communion with God... He would withdraw, to spend a season in solitude, hungering and thirsting for that divine knowledge which God alone can impart" — Enoch's walk as a rhythm of separation, withdrawal from the world's current into communion with God: the inner form of the ark principle.

The ark — the act of separating faith that divides the streams — Gen. 6:14, 22; Heb. 11:7:

• Gen. 6:14. "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch" — the command to build the ark. The ark is a divinely-appointed structure of separation, the visible act that will divide the two streams.
  • the ark = the God-appointed structure of separating faith that divides the two streams and saves the remnant; to build it is itself the act that "condemned the world," and to enter it is to be shut in by God before judgment — the pattern of every later call to "come out and be separate" (Gen. 6:14; Gen. 6:22; Heb. 11:7; Gen. 7:1; Gen. 7:16; 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4).
• Gen. 6:22. "Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he" — faith that obeys to the letter. Noah's whole-souled compliance is the faith that works, building while the world ate and drank.
• Heb. 11:7. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" — the inspired interpretation of the ark: it is the act of separating faith. "By the which he condemned the world" — the ark-building itself is the dividing line that judges the heedless stream and saves the remnant. And the same act made Noah "heir of the righteousness which is by faith" — the faith-that-works of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith," worn here as a coat of separating obedience.
• CTr 55.4. White: "If Noah had been like many in our day who say, 'Believe, believe; all you have to do is believe,' then he would not have condemned the world. But Noah had that genuine faith, that faith that works... he believed just what God had said, and carried it out by his works" — the ark is faith that WORKS; the building itself, not mere profession, condemned the world and divided the two streams.
• AG 132.3. White: "Noah was to preach to the people, and also to prepare an ark... He was not only to preach, but his example in building the ark was to convince all that he believed what he preached" — the ark as a visible act of separating faith; the example of building, while the world ate and drank, was itself the testimony.

The Lord shuts the door — probation closes while the world eats and drinks — Gen. 7:1, 16; 1 Pet. 3:20:

• Gen. 7:1. "And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation" — the call to enter. Separation is completed by a personal "Come" from the Lord to the righteous remnant, the household that came out of the heedless current.
• Gen. 7:16. "And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in" — "and the LORD shut him in." The day of separation closes; the ark seals off the saved remnant from the doomed world. Probation ends while the world still eats and drinks.
• 1 Pet. 3:20. "when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water" — confirms the smallness of the saved stream — "few, that is, eight souls" — and that the ark-building era was a probationary space of divine longsuffering before judgment.
• PP 95.2. White: "Many at first appeared to receive the warning; yet they did not turn to God with true repentance... Overcome by the prevailing unbelief, they finally joined their former associates in rejecting the solemn message" — many drifted back into the heedless current rather than separate, leaving only the small remnant in the ark.

The last-day antitype — "Come out of her, my people" — 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4:

• 2 Cor. 6:17. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" — the New Testament restatement of the same principle: "come out... and be ye separate." The ark-building separation of Noah is the abiding pattern for God's people.
• Rev. 18:4. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" — the last-day antitype of "Come into the ark." The final call summons the faithful stream out of the doomed world-system before the plagues fall: the modern ark of separation, sounded today as the message of "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused."
• CH 268.1. White: "'Out of the cities,' is my message... I hope and pray and believe that they will now arouse to the importance of getting out into the country" — the modern application: "Out of the cities" is the present-day ark-building, the same call to come out of the heedless stream into a place of separation.
• CL 8.3. White: "The time is near when large cities will be swept away, and all should be warned of these coming judgments" — the cities (the modern line-of-Cain civilization) face being "swept away" by sudden judgment, and the warning is to be sounded as Noah sounded his.
• CL 5.2. White: "Parents flock with their families to the cities, because they fancy it easier to obtain a livelihood there... it will require a sacrifice to correct their error, and they stay where they are, until Satan gains full control of their children" — the modern heedless stream: like Noah's world, the multitude stays in the city-current pursuing livelihood, refusing the sacrifice of separation until it is too late.
• LDE 38.2. White: "Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory" — the ark-building separation and warning is the appointed work that, had it been done, would already have brought the end; the delay belongs to the church, not to God (see "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours"). This is why the world still eats and drinks.

DEFINITION — AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH — THE TWO STREAMS = Christ Himself appoints Noah's day as the type of the last age (Luke 17:26-27; Matt. 24:37-39; DA 633.1): an ordinary eating-drinking-marrying world, advanced in arts and industry yet morally corrupt and "knowing not," swept off by sudden judgment. From the one race two streams diverge. The first is the line of Cain — the city-builders who stay put and fortify themselves in the world, with music and metalworking and no thought of God (Gen. 4:17, 21-22), whose moral fruit is that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5); this is the eating-drinking stream Christ says "condemns this age" (CD 435.2). The second is the line of Seth, who mark themselves off the moment "men began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Gen. 4:26) — the dividing act of avowed dependence on God — and whose crown is Enoch, who "walked with God" in the heart of the corrupt age (Gen. 5:24; GW 51.2). Noah inherits that walk (Gen. 6:8-9) and builds the ark: the God-appointed structure of separating faith, the faith that WORKS, "by the which he condemned the world" and became "heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (Heb. 11:7; Gen. 6:22; CTr 55.4; AG 132.3). The streams are sealed apart when "the LORD shut him in" (Gen. 7:16) — probation closes while the world still eats and drinks, and only "eight souls" are saved (1 Pet. 3:20). The principle abides: "come out... and be ye separate" (2 Cor. 6:17), and the last-day antitype of "Come into the ark" is the final cry, "Come out of her, my people," before the plagues fall (Rev. 18:4) — sounded today as "Out of the cities" while the great civilization of Cain hurries toward sudden judgment (CH 268.1; CL 8.3; CL 5.2). That this judgment still tarries is no fault in God: had the appointed warning been given, the Lord would already have come (LDE 38.2).

Symbols defined here:

• the days of Noah = the antitype of the last age — an ordinary eating, drinking, marrying world, advanced in arts and industry yet morally corrupt, heedless and "knowing not" until sudden judgment falls; appointed by Christ as the picture of the time of His coming (Luke 17:26-27; Matt. 24:37-39; Gen. 6:5; Gen. 4:17; Gen. 4:21-22; DA 633.1; CD 435.2).
• calling on the name of the LORD = the dividing act of the faithful seed — open, avowed worship of and dependence on God, by which the line of Seth marks itself off from the line of Cain (Gen. 4:26; Gen. 5:24; Gen. 6:9; GW 51.2).
• the ark = the God-appointed structure of separating faith that divides the two streams and saves the remnant; to build it "condemned the world," to enter it is to be shut in by God before judgment — the pattern of every later call to "come out and be separate" (Gen. 6:14; Gen. 6:22; Heb. 11:7; Gen. 7:1; Gen. 7:16; 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4).

Symbols carried: faith that works — separation proven by obedience, Noah made "heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (Heb. 11:7; CTr 55.4), the same justifying faith defined in "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith"; the modern ark of separation, "Out of the cities," carried forward to "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused"; the delay that holds back the flood — the appointed work undone, "the Lord Jesus would have come" (LDE 38.2) — defined in "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours."

For discussion:

1. Christ names the mark of the doomed stream not as gross crime but as "they knew not" amid eating, drinking, and marrying — all of it lawful (Matt. 24:38-39; CD 435.2). Where in ordinary, lawful daily life is the current of "the days of Noah" most likely to carry us along unaware today?
2. The faithful stream is divided off the moment "men began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Gen. 4:26), and the ark "condemned the world" not by words but by works (Heb. 11:7; CTr 55.4). What is the difference between a faith that merely professes — "believe, believe" — and the "faith that works" that actually separates the two streams?
3. "Come thou... into the ark" (Gen. 7:1) and "Come out of her, my people" (Rev. 18:4) are the same call in two ages, and "the LORD shut him in" closed probation while the world still ate and drank (Gen. 7:16). How should the certainty that the door will one day shut shape the way we respond now to the call to "come out and be separate"?

¶6. Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look

The Lord nailed three words to the very end of the age: to leave the city in feet while the heart clings to it is to perish in sight of safety — the backward look is the exact opposite of the ark-builder's forward faith.

The drift INTO the city — toward, in, gate — Gen. 13:10-13; 14:12; 19:1:

• Gen. 13:10-11. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where... Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan" — the drift begins with the EYES; Lot chooses the well-watered plain for ease and profit.
• Gen. 13:12. Lot "pitched his tent toward Sodom" — step one: the half-measure, a tent that merely FACES the city.
  • Sodom = the doomed city whose ease and plenty entangle the righteous who linger in it; Scripture defines its iniquity not first as gross crime but as the comfortable city-life that snares — "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness" (Eze. 16:49) — and its end as fire and brimstone (Gen. 19:24-25), set as an "ensample" to the last ungodly age (2 Pet. 2:6), the city out of which God's people must come (Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:17). Defined in full at the close.
• Gen. 13:13. "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly" — the text brands the place before Lot ever moves in; the drift runs toward a city already condemned.
• Gen. 14:12. "And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed" — step two: the tent that faced Sodom is now a house IN Sodom; the half-measure has become full residence, and Lot is swept up with the city's spoil.
• Gen. 19:1. "And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom" — step three: the gate was the seat of the city's elders and judges; the man who once faced Sodom from a tent now governs in it. The drift is complete — toward, in, gate.
• PP 168.1. White: "Lot had chosen Sodom for its pleasure and profit. Leaving Abraham's altar and its daily sacrifice to the living God, he had permitted his children to mingle with a corrupt and idolatrous people; yet he had retained in his heart the fear of God, for he is declared in the Scriptures to have been a 'just' man... How terrible were the results that followed one unwise step!" — the drift named: pleasure and profit chosen, the fear of God kept, ruin reaped from one unwise step.

The inspired key — "just Lot," vexed yet lingering — 2 Pet. 2:6-9:

• 2 Pet. 2:6. God turned "the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes... making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" — the inspired verdict: Sodom's ashes are an "ensample" to the last ungodly age.
• 2 Pet. 2:7-8. "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them... vexed his righteous soul from day to day...)" — here is the type: Lot is "just" and "righteous," his soul tormented day by day — yet he STAYED. God's people caught in the city, vexed yet lingering.
• 2 Pet. 2:9. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations" — the deliverance is God's to work; the righteous man could not extract himself.

Mercy must HASTEN the lingering man — body AND heart — Gen. 19:15-17:

• Gen. 19:15-16. "And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife... lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife... the LORD being merciful unto him; and they brought him forth, and set him without the city" — the angels must HASTEN him; "while he lingered" they seize his hand. Mercy drags out the man whose feet would not move.
• Gen. 19:17. "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain" — the command is total: body AND heart must come out; not behind, not even in the plain.
  • the backward look = the divided heart that forfeits the kingdom, the exact opposite of the ark-builder's forward faith; not the eyes only but the heart still tethered to what was left behind (Gen. 19:17; Luke 9:62; Heb. 10:38-39; Luke 17:31-32). Defined in full at the close.
• PP 160.1. White: "Stupefied with sorrow, he lingered, loath to depart. But for the angels of God, they would all have perished in the ruin of Sodom. The heavenly messengers took him and his wife and daughters by the hand and led them out of the city" — confirms Gen. 19:16 exactly: the lingering, and the hands that had to lay hold and lead them out.
• PP 160.2. White: "Hesitancy or delay now would be fatal. To cast one lingering look upon the devoted city, to tarry for one moment from regret to leave so beautiful a home, would have cost their life. The storm of divine judgment was only waiting that these poor fugitives might make their escape" — confirms the deadly weight of the backward look: one glance, one moment of regret for the home, was fatal.

The wife — feet out, heart in — Gen. 19:24-26:

• Gen. 19:24-25. "Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities" — the literal sentence falls, the very judgment Luke will quote.
• Gen. 19:26. "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" — her feet had left the city but her heart had not; she "looked back from behind him" and froze into a pillar of salt — lost in sight of refuge.
  • Lot's wife = the half-separated soul — body out of the city but heart still in it — lost in sight of refuge; her feet left Sodom but she "looked back from behind him" and became a pillar of salt, named by Christ as the standing warning to the last generation (Gen. 19:26; Luke 17:32; Luke 17:31). Defined in full at the close.
• PP 161.2. White: "But one of the fugitives ventured to cast a look backward to the doomed city, and she became a monument of God's judgment... While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it... Instead of thankfully accepting deliverance, she presumptuously looked back to desire the life of those who had rejected the divine warning" — the centerpiece: "while her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom" — the half-converted move named exactly.
• Hvn 106.2. White: "If Lot himself had manifested no hesitancy to obey the angels' warning, but had earnestly fled toward the mountains, without one word of pleading or remonstrance, his wife also would have made her escape... But his hesitancy and delay caused her to lightly regard the divine warning. While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it" — Lot's own lingering bred his wife's ruin; the divided heart in sight of refuge.

Christ makes Sodom the second age-end type — Luke 17:28-32:

• Luke 17:28-29. "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all" — Christ Himself makes Sodom the second great age-end type, set beside the days of Noah (see "As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams"). The sin named is not gross crime but ORDINARY commerce — bought, sold, planted, builded — life so absorbed in the city that the fire finds them at home in it.
• Luke 17:30. "Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed" — "even thus" = the day He is revealed; the type reaches to the advent.
• Luke 17:31. "In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away... let him likewise not return back" — the housetop man is forbidden to come down for his "stuff"; the man in the field is forbidden to "return back." The peril is the backward reach for what was left behind, the heart still tethered to it.
• Luke 17:32. "Remember Lot's wife" — the Lord crowns the whole warning with three words. Remember HER: she perished within sight of safety.
• CTr 79.5. White: "What shall worldly pleasures avail you when all the world shall be overwhelmed as was Sodom and destroyed like Gomorrah? These cities are set forth as examples to other sinners that they may know that their day is coming" — confirms 2 Pet. 2:6 and Luke 17:29-30: Sodom and Gomorrah are examples that the world's day of fire is coming.

The principle — forward faith vs. the drawing back — Luke 9:62; Heb. 10:38-39:

• Luke 9:62. "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" — the principle behind "Remember Lot's wife": the hand on the plough must drive forward; the eye that turns back disqualifies. To leave the city in body but keep it in heart is to be unfit for the kingdom.
• Heb. 10:38. "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" — the "just" man (like "just Lot") lives by faith — FORWARD faith. To "draw back" is the wife's sin written as doctrine — the same righteousness by faith of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith," here in its backward shadow.
• Heb. 10:39. "But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul" — the two ends laid bare: drawing back is unto perdition, believing is unto the saving of the soul. The forward look of the ark-builder against the backward look of Lot's wife.

Why the city is doomed and the call is to come OUT — Eze. 16:49-50; 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4:

• Eze. 16:49-50. "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters... And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away" — Scripture defines Sodom's iniquity not first as vice but as the EASE and plenty of the city; the very things that entangle the righteous who linger in it — the same self-sufficient ease exposed in "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal."
• 5T 232.3. White: "Instead of the crowded city seek some retired situation where your children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation... The prophet Ezekiel thus enumerates the causes that led to Sodom's sin and destruction: 'Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness...' All who would escape the doom of Sodom must shun the course that brought God's judgments upon that wicked city" — ties the Sodom symbol straight to the country-living call: to escape Sodom's doom one must leave the crowded city and shun its course.
• 2 Cor. 6:17. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" — the standing command the Lot-type illustrates: come OUT and be SEPARATE; not a partial move but a whole separation — the opposite of body-out, heart-in (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").
• Rev. 18:4. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" — the last-days antitype of the angels hastening Lot: "Come out of her, my people," the final call to leave the doomed city in body AND heart before the fire (the plagues) falls. To linger is to share her plagues.
• CH 268.1. White: "'Out of the cities,' is my message. Our physicians ought to have been wide-awake on this point long ago. I hope and pray and believe that they will now arouse to the importance of getting out into the country" — the last-days antitype of Rev. 18:4 stated plainly: "Out of the cities is my message."
• CL 13.3. White: "In country places abundant useful exercise will be found in doing those things that need to be done, and which will give physical health by developing nerve and muscle. Out of the cities is my message for the education of our children" — reinforces that the message is not merely to move but to come WHOLLY out of the city.

DEFINITION — REMEMBER LOT'S WIFE, THE BACKWARD LOOK = the second great age-end type, set beside the days of Noah by Christ Himself (Luke 17:28-30). The drift into the city is deliberate and gradual — Lot pitches his tent toward Sodom (Gen. 13:12), then dwells in Sodom (Gen. 14:12), then sits in the gate of Sodom (Gen. 19:1): toward, in, gate — choosing it "for its pleasure and profit" (PP 168.1), a "just" and "righteous" man whose soul was "vexed... from day to day" yet who STAYED (2 Pet. 2:7-8). Sodom's iniquity is defined not first as gross vice but as "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness" (Eze. 16:49-50) — the comfortable, self-sufficient city-ease that snares the righteous who linger in it, the same spirit named in "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal." When mercy at last HASTENED him out, "while he lingered" the angels seized his hand, and the command was total: "look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain" — body AND heart out (Gen. 19:15-17). His wife obeyed with her feet but not her heart: she "looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" (Gen. 19:26) — for "while her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it" (PP 161.2; Hvn 106.2), lost in sight of refuge. This is why the Lord nails one warning to the very day of His revealing — "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:31-32): the peril is the backward reach for the "stuff" left in the house, the heart still tethered to what was left behind. It is the law of the kingdom itself: "no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62), and "if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him," while the just "live by faith" — FORWARD faith (Heb. 10:38-39), the backward shadow of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith." So the country-living call (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused") is not merely to MOVE but to come WHOLLY out — "come out from among them, and be ye separate" (2 Cor. 6:17), "come out of her, my people" (Rev. 18:4); the half-converted move — body out, heart in Sodom — is Lot's wife, and "Out of the cities is my message" (CH 268.1; CL 13.3) means heart as well as feet. The backward look, then, is body-out-heart-in: to leave the city in flesh while clinging to it in spirit is to perish in sight of refuge.

Symbols defined here:

• Sodom = the doomed city whose ease and plenty entangle the righteous who linger in it; its iniquity is "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness," not first gross crime (Eze. 16:49-50), its end fire and brimstone (Gen. 19:24-25), set as an "ensample" to the last ungodly age (2 Pet. 2:6), the city out of which God's people must come (Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:17).
• Lot's wife = the half-separated soul — body out of the city but heart still in it — lost in sight of refuge; she "looked back from behind him" and became a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26), named by Christ as the standing warning to the last generation (Luke 17:32; Luke 17:31).
• the backward look = the divided heart that forfeits the kingdom, the exact opposite of the ark-builder's forward faith; the hand on the plough that turns back is "not fit for the kingdom" (Luke 9:62) and to "draw back" is "unto perdition" (Heb. 10:38-39) — not the eyes only but the heart still tethered to what was left behind (Luke 17:31-32; Gen. 19:17).

Symbols carried:

• the days of Noah, the ark, calling on the name of the LORD — defined in "As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams"; Lot is the second age-end type set beside Noah, and the ark-builder's forward faith is the exact contrast to Lot's wife's backward look.
• the city, the country, coming out / separation — defined in "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused"; Sodom is that city in its doomed extremity, and "look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain" is the whole coming-out demanded in body and heart.
• the Laodicean ease — "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" — defined in "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal"; Sodom's "fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness" (Eze. 16:49) is the same self-sufficient ease that holds the heart in the city.
• righteousness by faith, the third angel's message — defined in "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith"; the "just" who "live by faith" and do not "draw back" (Heb. 10:38-39) are the forward-looking faithful, while Lot's wife is that faith's backward shadow.
• The final form of this marked contrast is carried forward to "The Seal or the Mark — the Final Marked Contrast."

For discussion:

1. Lot's drift was three steps — tent toward Sodom, house in Sodom, seat in the gate of Sodom (Gen. 13:12; 14:12; 19:1) — by small "unwise step[s]" (PP 168.1). Where in your own life has a thing once kept at tent's-length toward ease or profit quietly become full residence, and what would the first step back out look like this week?
2. Lot's wife left the city in body but her "heart clung to Sodom" (Gen. 19:26; PP 161.2); it is possible to obey the call to come out with one's feet while the affections stay behind. How can a person tell whether their separation from the world is true — heart and body — or only the wife's half-measure?
3. Sodom's named sin was "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness" (Eze. 16:49), and the gospel-day sin is the ordinary "bought... sold... planted... builded" (Luke 17:28) — not crime but comfort. How does "come out... and be ye separate" (2 Cor. 6:17) ask more of you than a move, and what would it mean to answer it in heart as well as in body before the day He is revealed?

Part IV — The Seal or the Mark

¶7. The Seal or the Mark — the Final Marked Contrast

The whole study narrows here to two companies and one question: every soul will bear either the seal of God or the mark of the beast — both set in the same forehead, both fought over the same commerce — and where a man lives, in the city's buying-and-selling stream or in separated dependence on God, proves which he has chosen.

The first company — sealed with the Father's name, following the Lamb — Rev. 14:1-5:

• Rev. 14:1. "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads." — the sealed remnant stand on Mount Zion bearing the Father's NAME in their foreheads, the seal set in the very place the mark is counterfeited.
  • the seal of God = the Sabbath sign and the settled, sanctified character of the commandment-keeping, faith-of-Jesus remnant, set in the forehead — the mind and allegiance. Scripture itself defines it: God's Sabbath is "a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them" (Eze. 20:12; Exo. 31:13), and the angel seals God's servants "in their foreheads" (Rev. 7:2-3); the sealed keep "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" and are "without fault" (Rev. 14:1, 5, 12). Defined in full at the close.
• Rev. 14:4. "These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." — the sealed are defined by total separation and unreserved following — "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" — the very come-out obedience of leaving the city's defiling stream (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").
• Rev. 14:5. "And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God." — the seal produces settled, faultless character; the righteousness by faith of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith" finished in them — the seal's inward reality, not a visible badge.
• 3AM 90.2. White (confirmation, after Scripture): "Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads—it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved." — the seal is settled, immovable character, corroborating "without fault" (Rev. 14:5) as its inward substance.

The second company — marked, worshipping the beast, having no rest — Rev. 14:9-11:

• Rev. 14:9. "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand," — the opposite company: those who worship the beast and receive the mark, placed in forehead OR hand, the very seat of the seal (Rev. 7:3).
  • the mark of the beast = forced conformity to the beast's worship — its counterfeit Sabbath, its false day — received in the forehead or hand, the very places God sets His seal and bound His law ("upon thine hand... between thine eyes," Deut. 6:8; Rev. 13:16). It is enforced through commerce: none may buy or sell without it, and its wage is the unmingled wrath of God and "no rest," the exact antithesis of the Sabbath rest of the seal (Rev. 13:17; 14:10-11). Defined in full at the close.
• Rev. 14:10. "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:" — the mark's wage is the unmingled wrath of God: the eternal stakes that make the city-or-country choice a salvation issue, not a lifestyle preference.
• Rev. 14:11. "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." — the marked "have no rest" — the precise opposite of the Sabbath REST that is the seal; the final contrast is rest-keepers versus the restless.
• Rev. 14:12. "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." — the sealed company defined exactly between the two doomed verses: commandment-keeping plus the faith of Jesus — the law and the gospel, the righteousness by faith of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith" made the very substance of the seal.

One forehead, two writings — the seal and the mark set in the same place — Rev. 7:2-3; 13:16:

• Rev. 7:2. "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," — the seal of the LIVING God is held back until His servants are sealed: judgment itself waits on the sealing.
• Rev. 7:3. "Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." — the seal is set "in their foreheads," the same locus as the mark; the contest is over what is written in the forehead — the mind, the allegiance.
• Rev. 13:16. "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:" — the mark is forced upon all, and set in the hand or forehead, the two places God sets His seal (Rev. 7:3) and bound His law (Deut. 6:8): a deliberate, point-for-point counterfeit.
• 3AM 94.3. White: "When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labor on Sunday and worship God, while you know that there is not a word in the Bible showing Sunday to be other than a common working-day, you consent to receive the mark of the beast, and refuse the seal of God... But the seal of the living God is placed upon those who conscientiously keep the Sabbath of the Lord." — the marked contrast itself: to receive the mark is to refuse the seal, and the seal rests on Sabbath-keepers; the two are mutually exclusive choices.
• TTAM 6.1. Andrews: "In the third angel's message, and in chaps. 15 and 16, but two classes are brought to view. One is oppressive, and persecutes the saints, and has the mark of the beast, and worships the beast and his image... The other class is oppressed and driven... they get 'the victory over the beast, and his image, and over his MARK' and are sealed with the seal of the living God by keeping 'the commandments of God.'" — pioneer confirmation that there are two companies only: the marked, and the sealed who gain victory over the mark by keeping the commandments — exactly the Rev. 13-14 frame of this section.

The seal is the Sabbath sign — God's own definition — Eze. 20:12, 20; Exo. 31:13:

• Eze. 20:12. "Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them." — God's own definition of the seal: His sabbaths are "a sign between me and them" that He is the LORD that sanctifies — sealing IS sanctifying.
• Eze. 20:20. "And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God." — the Sabbath is the sign of knowing the true God: the very knowledge counterfeited by the mark's false worship. The Sabbath is the seal.
• Exo. 31:13. "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you." — the Sabbath named a perpetual SIGN of sanctification — Scripture's own basis for equating sign and seal (cf. Rom. 4:11).
• THB 44.2. Smith: "Sign and seal are synonymous terms. See Romans 4:11... 'a seal of the righteousness of the faith.' The Sabbath is a sign between God and his people; hence it seals his law as genuine... Take this fourth commandment from the ten, and the seal of the living God is gone." — pioneer confirmation defining the seal from Scripture: the Sabbath sign IS the seal of the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:11), and to remove the fourth commandment is to remove the seal.
• DD 49.2. White: "Too late they see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the living God. Too late they see the true nature of their spurious Sabbath and the sandy foundation upon which they have been building." — the seal is the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, set over against the "spurious Sabbath" that constitutes the mark.

Buying and selling — the lever of the mark — Rev. 13:17; Luke 17:28-30; Rev. 18:4:

• Rev. 13:17. "And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." — the mark's whole leverage is commerce: buying and selling is the lever. To be free of dependence on the buy-and-sell system is to be free to refuse the mark.
  • buying and selling = the world's commercial dependence — the very lever by which the mark is enforced ("no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark"). It is the life of Sodom that Christ names ("they bought, they sold") in the day of His revealing, and the merchandise of doomed Babylon whose merchants weep (Rev. 18:11). The separated, self-provisioning country life breaks that dependence, freeing the soul to refuse the mark (Rev. 13:17; Luke 17:28; Rev. 18:4). Defined in full at the close.
• Luke 17:28-30. "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." — Christ Himself ties "they bought, they sold" to the day of His revealing; the buy-and-sell city life of Sodom is the very condition He warns His people to come OUT of (see "Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look").
• Rev. 18:4. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." — the end-time call is literal separation from the doomed commercial city — Babylon, whose merchants weep (Rev. 18:11) — the same come-out that frees from the mark (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").
• AH 141.4. White: "Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one." — names the buy-and-sell crisis of Rev. 13:17 and prescribes the country-living provision ("raise their own provisions") as the preparation to stand free of the mark.
• CL 21.1. White: "The Protestant world have set up an idol Sabbath in the place where God's Sabbath should be, and they are treading in the footsteps of the Papacy. For this reason I see the necessity of the people of God moving out of the cities into retired country [places,] where they may cultivate the land and raise their own produce... I see the necessity of making haste to get all things ready for the crisis." — joins the counterfeit-Sabbath/mark crisis directly to the command to leave the cities and self-provision: this section's whole thesis in one line.

DEFINITION — THE SEAL OR THE MARK — THE FINAL MARKED CONTRAST = the whole age-end resolves into two companies and no third. The sealed (144,000) stand on Mount Zion with the Father's NAME in their foreheads, follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, and are "without fault" (Rev. 14:1-5); the marked worship the beast, receive his mark in forehead or hand, drink the unmingled wrath of God, and "have no rest day nor night" (Rev. 14:9-11). The seal of God is set "in their foreheads" (Rev. 7:2-3), and the mark of the beast is forced into "their right hand, or in their foreheads" (Rev. 13:16) — the same locus, a deliberate counterfeit; the contest is over what is written in the mind and allegiance. Scripture defines the seal as the Sabbath: "a sign between me and them, that I am the LORD that sanctify them" (Eze. 20:12, 20; Exo. 31:13), the "seal of the righteousness of the faith" (Rom. 4:11; THB 44.2) — so the sealed company is precisely they who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12), the righteousness by faith of "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith" settled into immovable character (3AM 90.2), and the seal's REST is the antithesis of the marked's restlessness (Rev. 14:11). To consent to the counterfeit-Sabbath decree is, by the same act, to refuse the seal (3AM 94.3; DD 49.2). And the mark's whole leverage is commerce: "no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark" (Rev. 13:17) — the buying-and-selling life of Sodom (Luke 17:28) and of doomed Babylon (Rev. 18:4, 11). Therefore the country-living message is not real-estate counsel but preparation to stand: out of the city, out of the buy-and-sell dependence ("raise their own provisions," AH 141.4; CL 21.1), sealed and separate — the final form of the whole study's call.

Symbols defined here:

• the seal of God = the Sabbath sign and the settled, sanctified character of the commandment-keeping, faith-of-Jesus remnant, set in the forehead (the mind/allegiance); the "seal of the righteousness of the faith," producing faultless, immovable character (Eze. 20:12, 20; Exo. 31:13; Rom. 4:11; Rev. 7:2-3; Rev. 14:1, 5, 12; THB 44.2; DD 49.2; 3AM 90.2).
• the mark of the beast = forced conformity to the beast's worship — its counterfeit Sabbath — received in forehead or hand, the very places God sets His seal and bound His law; enforced through commerce, its wage the unmingled wrath of God and "no rest," the antithesis of the Sabbath rest of the seal (Rev. 13:16-17; Rev. 14:9-11; Deut. 6:8; 3AM 94.3).
• buying and selling = the world's commercial dependence, the lever by which the mark is enforced; the life of Sodom Christ names in the day of His revealing and the merchandise of doomed Babylon, broken by the separated, self-provisioning country life (Rev. 13:17; Luke 17:28-30; Rev. 18:4, 11; AH 141.4; CL 21.1).

Symbols carried: righteousness by faith / "the third angel's message in verity," the substance of which the seal is the settled fruit ("The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith"); the city and the call to come out of Babylon, here shown to be the lever of the mark ("Out of the Cities — the Message Refused"); the buying-and-selling life of Sodom and Lot's lingering ("Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look").

For discussion:

1. The seal (Rev. 7:3) and the mark (Rev. 13:16) are set in the same place — the forehead. From Ezekiel 20:12, 20 and Revelation 14:12, what exactly is the seal, and why is the forehead — not the hand only — the decisive battleground?
2. Revelation 13:17 makes buying and selling the lever of the mark. Trace from Luke 17:28-30 and Revelation 18:4 why Christ ties "they bought, they sold" to the day of His revealing — and how does a self-provisioning, separated life (AH 141.4) free a soul to refuse the mark?
3. The marked "have no rest day nor night" (Rev. 14:11) while the sealed keep the Sabbath rest. If the seal is "a settling into the truth... so they cannot be moved" (3AM 90.2), what in your own life is still unsettled — and what would it cost to come out and be sealed before the decree?

¶8. Come Out and Be Ready — Why He Tarries, and How He Comes

He tarries because His people loved the city — refused the cross of separation, and so refused in deed the righteousness by faith that is the third angel in verity; yet the door is not shut, the voice still cries "Come out of her," and the same condition that explains the delay names the remedy: finish the work, come out and watch, and the unready dread of His coming becomes the ready heart's longing — "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

The pattern of the end — Noah and Lot, the two types of the unheeded call — Luke 17:26-30:

• Luke 17:26-27. "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all." — ordinary life runs on undisturbed until the very day the door shuts; Christ names Noah as the first type of the end (see "As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams").
• Luke 17:28-30. "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." — the second type: the buying-and-selling city life of Sodom ran on to the very day Lot went out (see "Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look"). The two types together are the whole matter — the call to come out goes largely unheeded while the world is busy.
• CL 5.4. White: "All who would escape the doom of Sodom, must shun the course that brought God's judgments upon that wicked city." — ties the country-living call directly to the Sodom type of Luke 17: to escape Sodom's doom one must come out and shun her course.

Even the saved one lingered — and the looking-back perished — Gen. 19:16, 26:

• Gen. 19:16. "And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city." — even the saved one lingered; mercy had to lay hold of Lot's hand to drag him out — a picture of how reluctantly God's people answer the call to separate before judgment falls.
• Gen. 19:26. "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." — she came out in body but her heart stayed in Sodom; Christ makes her the standing warning, "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32), for the generation called out of the city (see "Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look").
• PP 161.2. White: "While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it. She rebelled against God because His judgments involved her possessions and her children in the ruin... Instead of thankfully accepting deliverance, she presumptuously looked back to desire the life of those who had rejected the divine warning." — the exact failure of readiness: moved in body, heart kept in Sodom — clinging to possessions and to the children left behind — and so the looking-back perished.

Why He tarries — Laodicea's self-deception, the refused message — Rev. 3:17:

• Rev. 3:17. "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" — the diagnosis of the delay: a people rich and in need of nothing, blind to their true poverty (see "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal"). This is why the message tarries — the gold and raiment they think they do not need is the third angel in verity, the righteousness of Christ.
• 1SM 92.1. White: "The Laodicean message is applicable to the church at this time. Do you believe this message? Have you hearts that feel? Or are you constantly saying, We are rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing?" — confirms Rev. 3:17 applied to the present people: the "rich and in need of nothing" self-deception that explains why the message tarries and the world goes unwarned.
• GC 458.1. White: "In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed and His people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow. But unbelief separated them from God. As they refused to do the work which He had appointed them, others were raised up to proclaim the message. In mercy to the world, Jesus delays His coming, that sinners may have an opportunity to hear the warning." — names the delay as conditional, not arbitrary: Christ tarries because His people refused their appointed work, paralleled to Israel's forty years (see "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours").
• Ev 696.3. White: "We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ's sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action." — the "many more years" line: the tarrying is the consequence of the people's refusal, not God's failure to keep promise.
• TM 91.2. White: "The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones... It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ... This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message." — names the 1888 message of righteousness by faith as "the third angel's message" — the verity refused in the delay (see "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith").
• 1SM 372.2. White: "Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message, and I have answered, 'It is the third angel's message, in verity.'" — the exact statement, dated RH April 1, 1890: to refuse righteousness by faith is to refuse the third angel in verity — the deed-level refusal behind the tarrying.

The door is not shut — the True Witness still knocks — Rev. 3:18-20:

• Rev. 3:18-19. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed... and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." — the remedy: the True Witness counsels Laodicea to buy the very gold and raiment she lacks (see "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal"); the rebuke is love, the case not hopeless.
• Rev. 3:20. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." — the door is not shut; the call is personal and present — "if any man hear my voice, and open the door."
  • the present call = the still-open summons to come out of Babylon and the city, sounding now before the door shuts — a present voice, not a closed verdict. Scripture sets it as the True Witness "at the door" knocking, "if any man hear my voice, and open the door" (Rev. 3:20), and as the heaven-voice still crying "Come out of her, my people" (Rev. 18:4); it is conditional, personal, and answerable by any who will hear, remaining open until the plagues fall and the door is shut (Rev. 18:4; Matt. 25:6, 10; 2 Cor. 6:17-18). Defined in full at the close.
• JNN 285.3. White: "the counsel of the True Witness does not represent those who are lukewarm as in a hopeless case. There is yet a chance to remedy their state, and the Laodicean message is full of encouragement; for the backslidden church may yet buy the gold of faith and love, may yet have the white robe of the righteousness of Christ." — confirms Rev. 3:18-20 as the still-open door: the case is "not hopeless," the door not yet shut — the gospel turn of the section.

Come out of her, my people — the present call sounding now — Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:17-18:

• Rev. 18:4. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." — a voice still sounding, addressed to "my people" yet in Babylon — proof the door is not shut and the summons to come out stands open before the plagues fall (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").
• GC 604.1. White: "But God still has a people in Babylon; and before the visitation of His judgments these faithful ones must be called out, that they partake not of her sins and 'receive not of her plagues.'... In connection with his message the call is heard: 'Come out of her, My people.' These announcements, uniting with the third angel's message, constitute the final warning to be given to the inhabitants of the earth." — confirms Rev. 18:4 as a present call before the plagues, bound to the third angel's message — exactly the present call, the still-open summons before the door shuts.
• 2 Cor. 6:17-18. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." — the cross of separation the call requires, and the conditional promise attached: full separation is the condition ("be ye separate... touch not the unclean thing"), sonship the reward ("I will receive you"). To refuse the separation is to refuse, in deed, the reception.
• CH 268.1. White: "'Out of the cities,' is my message. Our physicians ought to have been wide-awake on this point long ago. I hope and pray and believe that they will now arouse to the importance of getting out into the country." — the country-living call in her own words; the delay in heeding it was real (see "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused").
• CL 9.5. White: "Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country... We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts." — documents that the call to leave the cities was given "again and again... over and over," establishing that refusal to heed was the historical fact behind the delay and the cross of separation refused.

The come-out remnant build the ark and do not look back — Heb. 11:7; Joel 2:32:

• Heb. 11:7. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." — building the ark IS righteousness by faith: Noah's faith in the unseen warning moved him to separate and prepare, and by that act he "became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (see "As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams"). The remnant who come out and build the ark do not look back: they will see Him.
• Joel 2:32. "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call." — deliverance is for the remnant who call on the Name; the same Lord who calls ("the remnant whom the LORD shall call") promises deliverance to those who answer — the come-out company are the saved.

The remedy that ends the delay — finish the work, hasten the day — Matt. 24:14; 2 Pet. 3:12:

• Matt. 24:14. "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." — the conditional promise that both explains the delay and names the remedy: "then" — when the gospel has been preached to all — the end comes. The end waits on the work; finish the work and the end follows.
• 2 Pet. 3:12. "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" — the day can be hastened: the same delay the gospel-condition explains, the gospel-work can shorten — believers are not merely to look for but to hasten His coming by giving the message.
• 8T 115.5. White: "If all who had labored unitedly in the work of 1844 had received the third angel's message and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit... A flood of light would have been shed upon the world. Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work would have been completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of His people." — the dated claim that the work could have been finished and Christ would already have come, anchoring the conditional-delay reading of Matt. 24:14 (see "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours").
• Ev 696.4. White: "By giving the gospel to the world it is in our power to hasten our Lord's return." — the remedy stated as plainly as the delay: the same gospel-work that was withheld can hasten His coming. Directly confirms Matt. 24:14 and 2 Pet. 3:12.

The tarrying is in the parable — yet the midnight cry still comes — Matt. 25:5-6:

• Matt. 25:5-6. "While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." — the tarrying itself is written into the parable: He tarries, and while He tarries all sleep — but the midnight cry still comes, "go ye out to meet him." The delay is real, yet the call to go out and meet Him is renewed even at midnight.

Readiness — the watching, separated, sealed state of those who will meet Him — Luke 12:35-37; Matt. 24:42-44; 1 Thess. 5:6:

• Luke 12:35-37. "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord... that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching... he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." — readiness defined positively: loins girded, lights burning, waiting, watching, opening immediately. The watching servant is blessed; the Lord Himself will serve him.
  • readiness = the watching, separated, sealed state of those who will meet the Lord without looking back. Scripture defines it as loins girded and lights burning, waiting to open immediately (Luke 12:35-37); as watchfulness because the hour is unknown — "be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matt. 24:42-44); as not sleeping but watching and being sober (1 Thess. 5:6); as a full coming-out that does not look back (Gen. 19:26, Lot's wife; Luke 17:32). Its end is the longing cry, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20). Defined in full at the close.
• Matt. 24:42-44. "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come... Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." — the command of readiness: because the hour is unknown, watch; because the thief comes unawares, be ready.
• 1 Thess. 5:6. "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." — readiness as a present discipline against the Laodicean and antediluvian sleep: not to slumber as the world slumbers, but to watch and be sober — the wakeful posture of the come-out remnant.
• MWV1 194.2. Miller: "Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come... Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh... Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning... Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." — a pioneer marshaling the very readiness texts of this section to define watching and being ready, confirming the symbol from Scripture itself.

The closing summons and the answering cry — Rev. 22:20:

• Rev. 22:20. "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." — Christ's promise "Surely I come quickly" meets the ready heart's answer, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." The come-out, watching remnant longs for the very coming the unready dread.

DEFINITION — COME OUT AND BE READY — WHY HE TARRIES, AND HOW HE COMES = the whole study gathers here. He tarries because His people loved the city — they refused the country-living message and the cross of separation it required (2 Cor. 6:17-18; CL 9.5; CH 268.1), and so refused in deed the righteousness by faith that is "the third angel's message in verity" (TM 91.2; 1SM 372.2); like Laodicea they were "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" (Rev. 3:17; 1SM 92.1); like the days of Noah and of Lot they ate and drank and bought and sold while the call to come out went largely unheeded (Luke 17:26-30), and many who moved kept their hearts in Sodom and perished looking back (Gen. 19:16, 26; PP 161.2). The delay is therefore conditional, not arbitrary — laid to the people's unbelief and insubordination, the "many more years" of an Israel that wandered for refusing its appointed work (GC 458.1; Ev 696.3; 8T 115.5). But the door is not shut: the present call still sounds — the True Witness stands and knocks, "if any man hear my voice" (Rev. 3:20), and the heaven-voice still cries "Come out of her, my people" before the plagues fall (Rev. 18:4; GC 604.1; JNN 285.3). And the same condition that explains the delay names the remedy: when "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world... then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14), and the day can be hastened (2 Pet. 3:12; Ev 696.4). The remnant who come out, call on the Name (Joel 2:32), build the ark by faith (Heb. 11:7), and do not look back will see Him. Even at midnight the cry renews, "go ye out to meet him" (Matt. 25:5-6); and readiness is the watching, separated, sealed state Scripture commands — loins girded and lights burning, watching and sober, ready for the hour we think not (Luke 12:35-37; Matt. 24:42-44; 1 Thess. 5:6; MWV1 194.2). Its end is the longing cry that answers His promise: "Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20) — the come-out, watching remnant desiring the very coming the unready dread. This is the whole call of the study in its final form: come out, separate fully, watch, and be ready.

Symbols defined here:

• the present call = the still-open summons to come out of Babylon and the city, sounding now before the door shuts — a present voice, not a closed verdict; the True Witness standing and knocking and the heaven-voice crying "Come out of her, my people," conditional and personal, answerable by any who will hear, open until the plagues fall (Rev. 18:4; Rev. 3:18-20; 2 Cor. 6:17-18; Matt. 25:6, 10; GC 604.1; JNN 285.3).
• readiness = the watching, separated, sealed state of those who will meet the Lord without looking back — loins girded and lights burning, waiting to open immediately, watching because the hour is unknown, not sleeping but sober, a full coming-out that does not look back; its end the cry "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Luke 12:35-37; Matt. 24:42-44; 1 Thess. 5:6; Gen. 19:26; Rev. 22:20; MWV1 194.2).

Symbols carried: the tarrying and the delay, here shown conditional and now answerable ("He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours"); righteousness by faith, "the third angel's message in verity," the refusal of which held back the King ("The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith"); the city and the call to come out of Babylon, here renewed as the present, still-open summons ("Out of the Cities — the Message Refused"); the Laodicean "rich and in need of nothing" that explains the delay ("Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal"); the days of Noah and the ark of separating faith ("As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams"); Lot's lingering and the backward look that is failed readiness ("Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look"); the seal of the come-out remnant set over against the mark ("The Seal or the Mark — the Final Marked Contrast").

For discussion:

1. Ellen White says plainly the advent was delayed by the church's refusal of its appointed work — "many more years, as did the children of Israel" (Ev 696.3; 8T 115.5) — yet the same gospel-work can "hasten" His coming (2 Pet. 3:12; Matt. 24:14; Ev 696.4). If the delay is ours and the day can be hastened, what does that lay personally on you this week — and what is the one thing you have been "rich and... need of nothing" about (Rev. 3:17)?
2. The door is not shut: the True Witness still knocks, "if any man hear my voice, and open the door" (Rev. 3:20), and the voice still cries, "Come out of her, my people" (Rev. 18:4). The call is conditional and personal. What does it mean for you, concretely, to "open the door" and "come out" today — and what unclean thing must you cease to "touch" for the promise "I will receive you" to be yours (2 Cor. 6:17-18)?
3. Lot's wife came out in body but her heart clung to Sodom, and the looking-back perished (Gen. 19:26; PP 161.2); Christ's whole age-end warning is three words, "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32). Measured against the readiness Scripture commands — loins girded, lights burning, watching and sober (Luke 12:35-37; 1 Thess. 5:6) — where is your heart still in the city though your feet have left, and can you yet say with the ready, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20)?

¶Appendix — Symbol Dictionary

Every symbol defined in this handbook, alphabetically (leading articles ignored), with its receipts and owning section.

• the ark = the God-appointed structure of separating faith that divides the two streams and saves the remnant; to build it "condemned the world," to enter it is to be shut in by God before judgment — the pattern of every later call to "come out and be separate" (Gen. 6:14; Gen. 6:22; Heb. 11:7; Gen. 7:1; Gen. 7:16; 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4). — defined in "As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams".
• the backward look = the divided heart that forfeits the kingdom, the exact opposite of the ark-builder's forward faith; the hand on the plough that turns back is "not fit for the kingdom" (Luke 9:62) and to "draw back" is "unto perdition" (Heb. 10:38-39) — not the eyes only but the heart still tethered to what was left behind (Luke 17:31-32; Gen. 19:17). — defined in "Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look".
• buying and selling = the world's commercial dependence, the lever by which the mark is enforced; the life of Sodom Christ names in the day of His revealing and the merchandise of doomed Babylon, broken by the separated, self-provisioning country life (Rev. 13:17; Luke 17:28-30; Rev. 18:4, 11; AH 141.4; CL 21.1). — defined in "The Seal or the Mark — the Final Marked Contrast".
• calling on the name of the LORD = the dividing act of the faithful seed — open, avowed worship of and dependence on God, by which the line of Seth marks itself off from the line of Cain (Gen. 4:26; Gen. 5:24; Gen. 6:9; GW 51.2). — defined in "As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams".
• the city = the world's gathered confusion and self-trust — Cain's city, Babel, Babylon the great, the habitation of devils — the place of accumulated corruption marked for destruction, with Sodom and Babylon for its doom-types (Gen. 4:17; Gen. 11:4; Luke 17:28-30; Rev. 14:8; Rev. 18:2). — defined in "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused".
• coming out = the obedient separation of God's people from Babylon the city of confusion, in body and in spirit — the act of faith, the means of deliverance, and the condition of God's reception, culminating in the last message, "Come out of her, my people" (Gen. 12:1; Gen. 19:17; Isa. 48:20; Jer. 51:6; 2 Cor. 6:17; Heb. 11:8; Rev. 18:4). — defined in "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused".
• the country = the place of separation, dependence on God, and refuge — the garden where God first set man and calls him again, the peaceable habitation and quiet resting place He promises His people, away from the crowded city (Gen. 2:8; Gen. 2:15; Isa. 32:18; Heb. 11:9). — defined in "Out of the Cities — the Message Refused".
• the days of Noah = the antitype of the last age — an ordinary eating, drinking, marrying world, advanced in arts and industry yet morally corrupt, heedless and "knowing not" until sudden judgment falls; appointed by Christ as the picture of the time of His coming (Luke 17:26-27; Matt. 24:37-39; Gen. 6:5; Gen. 4:17; Gen. 4:21-22; DA 633.1; CD 435.2). — defined in "As in the Days of Noah — the Two Streams".
• the delay = the avoidable lengthening of probation, the "long years" that might have been spared (the avoidable, typological lengthening that need not have been — distinct from the tarrying in that it could have been spared), typified by Israel's wilderness wandering — eleven days made forty by unbelief, a "breach of promise" of Israel's own making, written for our admonition (Num. 14:33-34; Deut. 1:2-3; 1 Cor. 10:11; 8T 115.5). — defined in "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours".
• the gold tried in the fire (true riches) = faith that works by love — proved and purified through trial — which the True Witness offers in exchange for the false goods; not hoarded ease but tested faith, "more precious than of gold that perisheth"; to "buy" it is to make the exchange the young ruler refused (Rev. 3:18; Gal. 5:6; 1 Pet. 1:7; Heb. 11:26). — defined in "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal".
• the goods / riches (false riches) = the worldly increase — business, comfort, position, possessions — that holds the heart in the city and refuses the cross of separation; the thing the Laodicean boasts in and the thing that makes him "poor toward God"; to lay it up is to be the rich fool, to cling to it is to go away sorrowful like the young ruler (Rev. 3:17; Luke 12:16-21; 1 Tim. 6:9-10; Matt. 19:21-22; Matt. 6:19-21). — defined in "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal".
• Laodicea (the lukewarm, self-sufficient church) = the last-days church of Christ that is neither cold nor hot, deceived by its own prosperity into saying "I have need of nothing" while Christ sees it "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked"; its disease is the love of the world that displaces the love of the Father, leaving a name and a profession but no zeal, unwilling to die to self and bear the cross of separation (Rev. 3:14-17; Rev. 3:15-16; 1 John 2:15-17; Matt. 6:24). — defined in "Rich and Increased with Goods — the Laodicean Refusal".
• Lot's wife = the half-separated soul — body out of the city but heart still in it — lost in sight of refuge; she "looked back from behind him" and became a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26), named by Christ as the standing warning to the last generation (Luke 17:32; Luke 17:31). — defined in "Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look".
• the mark of the beast = forced conformity to the beast's worship — its counterfeit Sabbath — received in forehead or hand, the very places God sets His seal and bound His law; enforced through commerce, its wage the unmingled wrath of God and "no rest," the antithesis of the Sabbath rest of the seal (Rev. 13:16-17; Rev. 14:9-11; Deut. 6:8; 3AM 94.3). — defined in "The Seal or the Mark — the Final Marked Contrast".
• the present call = the still-open summons to come out of Babylon and the city, sounding now before the door shuts — a present voice, not a closed verdict; the True Witness standing and knocking and the heaven-voice crying "Come out of her, my people," conditional and personal, answerable by any who will hear, open until the plagues fall (Rev. 18:4; Rev. 3:18-20; 2 Cor. 6:17-18; Matt. 25:6, 10; GC 604.1; JNN 285.3). — defined in "Come Out and Be Ready — Why He Tarries, and How He Comes".
• readiness = the watching, separated, sealed state of those who will meet the Lord without looking back — loins girded and lights burning, waiting to open immediately, watching because the hour is unknown, not sleeping but sober, a full coming-out that does not look back; its end the cry "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Luke 12:35-37; Matt. 24:42-44; 1 Thess. 5:6; Gen. 19:26; Rev. 22:20; MWV1 194.2). — defined in "Come Out and Be Ready — Why He Tarries, and How He Comes".
• righteousness by faith = the righteousness of God — Christ Himself, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS — received by faith "without the deeds of the law" yet establishing the law, counted to the believer as to Abraham; the gospel, "the power of God unto salvation," a living faith that works; the "faith of Jesus" of Rev. 14:12, "the third angel's message in verity" (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17; Rom. 3:21-31; Jer. 23:5-6; Gen. 15:6; Jas. 2:17-18; Rom. 5:1; 1SM 372.2). — defined in "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith".
• the seal of God = the Sabbath sign and the settled, sanctified character of the commandment-keeping, faith-of-Jesus remnant, set in the forehead (the mind/allegiance); the "seal of the righteousness of the faith," producing faultless, immovable character (Eze. 20:12, 20; Exo. 31:13; Rom. 4:11; Rev. 7:2-3; Rev. 14:1, 5, 12; THB 44.2; DD 49.2; 3AM 90.2). — defined in "The Seal or the Mark — the Final Marked Contrast".
• the seal of the living God = the mark set in the forehead (mind, choice) on those sealed before the winds are loosed; the Father's NAME — His character — written within by the Holy Spirit; a settling into the truth and the reproduction of Christ's character, righteousness by faith made permanent in the commandment-and-faith people of Rev. 14:12 (Rev. 7:2-3; Rev. 14:1; Eph. 4:30; LDE 219.4; LDE 221.1). — defined in "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith".
• Sodom = the doomed city whose ease and plenty entangle the righteous who linger in it; its iniquity is "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness," not first gross crime (Eze. 16:49-50), its end fire and brimstone (Gen. 19:24-25), set as an "ensample" to the last ungodly age (2 Pet. 2:6), the city out of which God's people must come (Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:17). — defined in "Remember Lot's Wife — the Backward Look".
• the tarrying = the prolonging of the time before the advent (the term Scripture and the parables use for the genuine prolonging), charged not to God but to His people's unreadiness; the bridegroom tarries while the virgins slumber, the wicked servant says "My lord delayeth," yet the Lord is "not slack" and the day may be "hasted" by readiness (Matt. 24:48; Matt. 25:5; 2 Pet. 3:9, 12; Hab. 2:3). — defined in "He Might Have Come — the Delay Was Ours".
• the third angel's message = the final warning of Rev. 14:9-12 against the beast, his image, and his mark, consummated in a people who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" — law and gospel fused, not bare law-keeping but commandment-keeping faith; its substance is righteousness by faith, proclaimed with a loud voice and the Spirit in large measure (Rev. 14:9-12; Rev. 14:15; 1SM 372.2; TM 91.2). — defined in "The Third Angel in Verity — Righteousness by Faith".