Part II — The Message Ignored

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.
• WitnessCL 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:

• WitnessCH 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.
• WitnessCH 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).
• WitnessCL 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:

• WitnessCL 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.
• Witness3T 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:

• WitnessGC 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.
• Witness8T 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.
• WitnessDA 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.
• WitnessEv 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).
• WitnessEv 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.

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).
• WitnessRH 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.
• Witness4T 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.
• Witness19LtMs, 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.
• WitnessCOL 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.
• WitnessFE 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.
• WitnessCS 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.
• WitnessSC 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.
• WitnessDA 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.
• WitnessDA 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.
• WitnessCOL 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.
• Witness4T 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.
• WitnessAH 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:

• WitnessMWV2 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.