The Mysterious Fourth Angel’s Glory

It is now time to discover what this light is. If it comes in an unexpected manner to you and is not in agreement with the ideas you have previously conceived, you have been forewarned.

So far, here is what we have uncovered—a review:

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True Worship—The First Table of the Decalogue:

1. No other gods beside Jehovah

2. No idolatry

3. No bringing His Name to naught

4. Sabbath

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The Four Angels Proclaiming True Worship:

1. Fear and worship Elohim; message includes His territory (Tr)

2. Babylon—the beast that will make an image—is fallen

3. Avoid Babylon’s name-containing mark, which brings Elohim’s Name (Nm) to naught

4. Mysterious glory lightens the earth [the seal (Sl)]

(You’ll see the significance of the abbreviations later)

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What we want to study now is the seal of Elohim. We know from the Spirit of Prophecy that it is the Sabbath, and we now see the Scriptural proof by the method of deduction—that is, we have seen how the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 correspond to the first three Words of the Decalogue and that one Word remains, thus connecting to the other angel that is linked to the first three. This is because it repeats and enlarges the same messages, with the second angel’s message being the most obvious (“Babylon is fallen”; “Come out of her, my people”). Now, notice the connection with the first angel’s message:

The “message” (according to E.G. White) of the fourth angel is in the glory it bears; so, unlike the previous three angels, where the messages are stated, we must unveil the glory to see what the great message is. It must have something to do with the eternal gospel; it was proclaimed to all the earth, but the fourth angel brings it to the point of lightening the earth. And we have this from the Spirit of Prophecy:

Here we see that the Law is linked with the gospel, creating one message; and it becomes the “great decisive question … to be brought before all nations, tongues, and peoples.” This is none other than the “Sabbath truth,” for we know this is where the great controversy comes to a head in the last days, with the antagonist to it being the mark of the beast (Sunday sacredness, at least on the surface). But how does the Sabbath link the Law and the gospel together, allowing the whole earth to be lightened with glory? What exactly is this glory? This is the big mysterious question.

Paul speaks of it in 2 Corinthians 3. Let’s see Ellen White’s commentary on it, where she clearly is referring to the Law of Moses when she speaks about “the Law”:

It is becoming clearer what the glory is: ***”Christ as revealed in the Law.”*** Which Law? It can’t be the Decalogue, which has no types pointing to the Messiah. It is “the whole”—the Torah. Our pioneers, including Ellen White, borrowed language from the Catholic Church, which divided it into “moral,” “ceremonial,” and civil laws; but in reality, there is only one Torah Law and interspersed throughout it is a parable (as Paul calls it in Heb. 9:9), containing types and shadows, which is why she says “it was connected with the moral law, and was glorious.”

In other words, it is the parable of types and shadows that is glorious, and this makes the whole glorious, and the glory is in the fact that it points to the Messiah and His righteousness!

But what does this have to do with the Sabbath? It is not apparent in the Decalogue, where we only find commandment to rest on the seventh day. We must look into the greater Torah, where Ellen White said the glory was. And it is in Leviticus 23 where the Sabbath is brought out fully in relation to the gospel (of course locked in Torah types that must be unlocked by faith). This is a chapter that Adventists need to get intimately familiar with, because Adventism has inherited from Protestantism a lot of Babylonian baggage that must be put out of the way as trash, for it is blocking out the glory which comes through the Sabbath truth, which nominal Adventists will reject.

Leviticus 23 has a profound introduction with an A-B-A pattern. The ‘A’ is “Appointed times of Jehovah which ye shall proclaim as holy proclamations; these are Mine appointed times” (v. 2); “these are appointed times of Jehovah—holy proclamations which ye shall proclaim in their appointed times” (v. 4).

Seven holy proclamations (often mistranslated as ‘convocations’) are then given, with the types and shadows of the parable to be enacted for them. The ‘B’ is the Sabbath—called a ‘holy proclamation’ and, through the A-B-A pattern and the seven other holy proclamations that follow, the exalted one (since it is first):

What is presented here in Leviticus 23 is the Sabbath being proclaimed more fully than the mere seventh day of the week, for the Sabbath (B) qualifies the seven holy proclamations that come after it. The chapter thus presents a sevenfold Sabbath proclamation (through the seven holy proclamations supporting the Sabbath one). This follows a pattern that can be found throughout the Torah: statutes more fully bringing out the Ten Principles of the Decalogue, as Ellen White states below:

The Sabbath—the Fourth Principle of the Decalogue—is indeed no exception: The seven annual holy proclamations proclaim the Sabbath more fully!

We are now seeing the Sabbath more in its importance and glory. And that glory is the gospel portrayed in the Purity Parable in which Israel is symbolically purified from sin and defilement through the sanctuary services, which was carried out at the appointed times. The sanctuary is thus given a special name, repeated throughout the Old Testament Scriptures: “Tabernacle of Appointed Times” (‘Congregation is a mistranslation of ‘moedim’). That is, everything done in the sanctuary was according to Elohim’s calendar, with the appointed times for worship being morning, evening, Sabbath, New Moon, and the seven holy days given in Leviticus 23—only the latter category shares with the Sabbath the honor of being holy proclamations.

The Sabbath is proclaimed, the gospel is proclaimed—both in their fullness. What we are seeing is that they are one and the same. The Sabbath truth, signified by the seventh day, is the eternal gospel in its fullness. This is the seal, and it is now beginning to shine at its zenith! The Sabbath is “a sign” (Ex. 31:13); it originally signified and celebrated a perfect work of creation. But then sin came and terribly marred it. Therefore, the gospel followed.

Now listen: What is the purpose of the gospel? It is to restore a perfect creation—that which the Sabbath signifies! Remember, a sign is not the reality but signifies it; the Sabbath is a sign and not the reality—perfect creation, which, when involving a human, means the *glory* of perfection of character. Hence, the prophetic seal placed on a person signifies that they have been restored to perfection, which is why it is associated with the Sabbath.

But Christendom does not have this gospel; they don’t have the seventh month, the Sabbatic, aspect of it—the perfection. The gospel is a long process, with the cross on the first holy day of the year only the beginning. And the way that Elohim has chosen to communicate this process toward Sabbath perfection is through proclaiming it in His appointed times. They fall in three seasons (not a quarter year but I use this term generically): spring, summer, and fall. Each of these seasons has a festival, and each of these festivals have appointed times. They are as follows:

(1) Unleavened Bread, with the first and last days being holy proclamations
(2) Pentecost, being also a holy proclamation
(3) Tabernacles, with the first day being a holy proclamation and the eighth day being a holy proclamation as an extension to the festival

There are also two preceding appointed times to that final festival, falling on the first and tenth days of that same seventh month connecting them all.

Again, this can be found in Leviticus 23. Each year of Elohim’s calendar is a cycle representing the gospel cycle, with the planting of the gospel seed in the spring within the Messiah on the cross, the early rain in the summer with the Pentecostal showers, and the great harvest in the fall, celebrated in the Festival of Ingathering (the alternative name for Tabernacles). Biblical time is circular, with the annual activity relating to the plan of redemption commencing in the first month and completing in the seventh month—eventide. This is the month in which all holy days are called ‘shabbaton’—rest, due to the perfection of the plan of redemption. After that it is full winter—the dormant resting time like the night of the daily cycle. Each year the new cycle begins again in the spring—the first month, Abib, meaning ‘green’, as in tender grain—but in the antitype to the seasonal Torah types there is but one perfection, or harvest, cycle for all time.

Creation began in perfection, but because of the fall, it will take a full circle to return back to perfection; but what we see in time with the plan of redemption is not that full circle, though it has its own circle from Pesach of 31 CE to the new creation; this is what humans can observe. The Lord Jehoshua died on the cross, beginning in the spring Pesach the cycle of redemption in time.

However, it must be realized that not only is the essence of His Spirit omnipresent in space but His Spirit is also omnipresent in time—going both backward and forward. What He perfected at the cross, within His eternal Spirit, went back to Adam and goes forward to the last of the 144,000. Thus, in the reality that we cannot see but can accept by faith, the effects of the Pesach sacrifice didn’t start in 31 CE but at the point where perfection became imperfection with sin and ends in the seventh month when the 144,000 are Sabbatically sealed. The cycle of redemption then continues on until the seventh month again when the earth is renewed at the end of the prophetic millennium.

The seal is circular. It is solar, for the Sabbath is solar, whereas the New Moon is obviously lunar. The Sabbath is the worship day of the greater light, while the New Moon is the worship day of the lesser light. Sabbath and New Moon are sometimes paired together in Scripture; both are signs, rich in spiritual meaning, but our current focus is on the seal, the Sabbath.

Here is what is written in Malachi:

Those who fear the Name of Jehovah will receive the seal of Elohim, which is the Sabbath, associated with the sun. The sun is the sign that tells one when the Sabbath Day is, so it stands to reason that it is indeed the sign of the Sabbath truth—perfect creation, perfect righteousness, the righteousness of the Messiah, the *glory* of the fourth angel! The sun fitly represents this *glory*! Remember, Sunday is the counterfeit sun seal—the mark of the beast. The sun does not belong to the enemy, rather Elohim created it to illustrate the Sabbath glory which contains perfection of character—the Name of Jehovah contained in the Sabbath seal, delivered by the wings, or rays, of the Sun of Righteousness.

Recall that the third angel’s message primarily deals with the name part of the seal. But the Fourth Word of the Decalogue declares all three elements of the seal, since it repeats and enlarges the three angel’s messages containing the three parts of the seal. Do you remember what they are? Here they are originally in the Fourth Word of the Decalogue:

Now, watch the connection with the four angels’ messages, with the three angels in Revelation 14 corresponding to the three parts of the seal, and the fourth angel uniting them into a whole, with the full glory—the seal:

1. First angel’s message (Tr)

2. Second angel’s message (Tt)

3. Third angel’s message (Nm)

4. Fourth angel’s message (Sl)

Why is Elohim’s title associated with the second angel’s message? It is because, as we have seen, Babylon is associated with idolatry; and idolatry denigrates Elohim’s title as Creator. To realize this, we need to compare the Fourth Word, which we just quoted from, with the Second Word, which is here:

Again, the seal in the Fourth Word says, “Jehovah (Nm) made (Tt, Title) the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them (Tr).” We find the same territory description in both places, as well as in the first angel’s message. Babylon rejects the message and will eventually form an image. The significance is that the Fourth Word addresses why that which is written in the Second Word is forbidden. Do you see it?

Jehovah alone, as the One who made it, has the title (entitlement) over His creation—the territory. We cannot—and I literally mean, can not—create living things. The closest humans have been able to come is genetic engineering, which I see as a violation of the Second Word, because it declares that we can make something superior to what Elohim made—which is beyond idolatry. We should have learned our lesson from the Flood, but we forget. Instead, we build the tower of Babel; we build idols of human creeds (the issue in 1844 CE and why Adventists came out of the fallen denominations) and various other things.

Why is idolatry wrong? Because making graven (3D) images of what Elohim has created is an attempt to worship creation over the Creator. He alone has entitlement to create living things, and to make 3D images of living things is an attempt to take away that prerogative and has the tendency to exalt creation (which we are) over the Creator—in exalting the human artist, the image, and what it represents.

Even 2D images if exalted as artwork to be displayed can violate the Second Word in principle, though not in letter; the same is true of mental idols. All 2D images should be used for communication purposes only (they say a picture is worth a thousand words)—and never of anything heavenly (as Ellen White counsels us), for we were never given light on such things and to attempt to depict them is not only bearing false witness but idolatrously exalting creation above Elohim; it is purely art and cannot communicate anything Elohim would want us to know. Art is mainly a product of Greek culture, adopted by Rome, and then “Christianized” into Roman Catholicism; art, for the sake of art, is idolatry.

But all 3D images (not 3D objects that have practical purposes but images of Elohim’s creation) are condemned by the Second Word in letter. Some translations place an “or” between graven images and likenesses, as if both 2D and 3D representations are forbidden. But there is a distinction. And we know this because if any 3D object was forbidden, we should have no chairs, no beds, no houses, no cars. Rather, the “likeness” and what follows after that in that verse qualifies what kind of graven image. The verse after that about not bowing down to them is a separate command. 3D images and all art glorify the creator of the art. We are to worship the Creator when we are dealing with His creation; and when we take photographs of it, He should be the One glorified, rather than attaching a decorative human name at the bottom of it. The Sabbath is a weekly reminder of not only Jehovah as being our Creator, but that “His work is perfect” (Deut. 32:4); and the Sabbath glory—the mysterious glory of the fourth angel—is the glory of that perfect work in the Messiah.

Babylon, from its very beginning as a tower, was to exalt the work of men’s hands; it has always been the system of idolatry in opposition to Jehovah’s entitlement of Creatorship of all that is in the creation. By not following after Babylon (and her idolatrous ways) in the second angel’s message, we are accepting the first angel’s message to worship the Creator.

So, here is what we have. The seal of Elohim is the Sabbath, which is to be proclaimed in all its glory in the last days. The seal is thus portrayed as the glorious sun. And its circular sign also symbolizes the circular nature of the year, hence, the process of the glorious gospel. The Sabbath truth is the source of those rays, but those rays are necessary for lightening the earth.

Just as the sun itself is far from the earth and cannot lighten it, but sends its rays, so the Sabbath is in the Decalogue—the summary of perfect righteousness—where there is no mechanism to bring that righteousness to us. There must be gospel proclamations for the Sabbath of the Decalogue to have its intended effect of enlightenment.

So it is, that the rays of the Sabbath truth—a seal to be placed upon the foreheads of the 144,000, whose minds settle into that great truth—are the seven annual holy proclamations, conveying the fullness of the eternal gospel to lighten the earth. And it is not only the knowledge of the gospel that is to lighten the earth, but the effects of it, being the perfection of Elohim’s character exhibited by His people before the world—hence, His Name (denoting character) being on the seal, along with His title of Creator and the territory of all the earth. And who will be the King of this territory? The One whose Name is also on the seal (according to most manuscripts): Jehoshua—the Messiah King, who shares the Name Jehovah with His Father.

Those who have died victorious in the third angel’s message since the sealing began in 1848 CE did not understand the meaning of the proclamatory rays proceeding from their Sabbath seal (the seven annual Sabbath proclamations), but they will learn when they are resurrected on the Day of Shouting—the New Moon of the seventh month. They, with the saints who have never died, will shout their victory before the gathered nations, proclaiming the glory of Elohim in perfecting the gospel in them.

But those living just before that special resurrection must understand; it is part of the same Sabbath test, for we read the following from Zechariah 14, which speaks of one class receiving the latter rain and the other class receiving the final plague:

Since the Festival of Tabernacles is associated with the last two holy proclamations, proceeding as proclamatory rays from the Sabbath, it is part of the same Sabbath-seal – Sunday-mark controversy. In fact, here is what Ellen White prophetically says regarding the mark of the beast:

That prophetic scroll is now being unrolled before our very eyes. The mark of the beast is Sunday, true; but, like Sabbath, Sunday is a symbol—it signifies a greater reality, a different sun. Babylon’s sun is not the Sun of Righteousness, whose Holy Spirit is the seal (Eph. 1:13; 4:30) that impresses the Sabbath truth on the mind. Babylon’s sun does not contain the Name, or character, of Jehovah and of His Son, Jehoshua, which is His creatorship and not man’s. Babylon’s sun does not contain the Son’s Kingdom—the territory of the new earth with its New Jerusalem capital. But Babylon’s sun is a deceptive vision, just as how its original king, Nebuchadnezzar, was deceived with the glory of having his own eternal kingdom.

The greater significance of Sunday is the supposed glory, or salvation, attained without the Sabbath truth—that is, without the Messiah providing His perfect righteousness, through the seven holy Sabbath proclamations, to bring an end (shabbat) to sin. Counterfeit salvation is attained by the works of man—symbolized by 666, with the six being magnified due to its meaning of working, since there are six days of work—by both allowing the works of sin and absolving it by the works of changing Elohim’s Sabbath to Sunday and the annual appointed times to counterfeit holidays. By changing the times, the plan of salvation is thus changed. By changing Pesach (Passover) to Easter, the resurrection (which was not on a holy day) is emphasized over the crucifixion (which was on a holy day and symbolizes the reality of dying to sin). By totally obliterating the seventh month holy days, there is no necessity for the end of sin; forgiveness comes by the works of man—saying magical prayers, attending mass, man administrating the blasphemous eucharist, etc.

And where did the Papacy derive Sunday sacredness from? Pagan Rome—the dragon—which established that day to venerate the sun god, which was worshipped by Pagans since very ancient times. Why? Well who is the dragon? The devil. He likes to be called ‘Lucifer’—the Luminous One. He is ultimately the one who receives worship through Sunday, either willingly or ignorantly. He is the one who wants to eternally reign over the world, and his goal is to do this by getting the whole world to honor Sunday instead of Sabbath.

Babylon has rays proceeding from its counterfeit sun. Rome’s primary ‘feast of obligation’ (the term Rome uses) is Sunday, but it also has other ‘feasts of obligation’—not all of which may be embraced by the “Protestant” world, but no Adventist should think that holidays like Easter and Xmas would not be enforced along with Sunday. There will be holiday laws opposing the holy days of Jehovah, just as there were such laws made by Justinian when he fulfilled the words, “he shall think to change appointed times” to commence the “times, time, and half a time” (Daniel 7:25). The counterfeit holidays counterfeit Elohim’s holy days just as surely as Sunday counterfeits the Sabbath Day.

Ultimately, the following is the mark of counterfeit worship:

1. Worship of the beast, who will reign over the nations of the earth (Tr)
(for “one hour,” Rev. 17:12)

2. Salvation by the works of man (Tl),
instead of by his Creator’s righteousness

3. Vicarius Filii Dei (Nm), which brings Elohim’s Name to naught

4. The above making up the counterfeit seal (Sl), the mark of the beast,
whose name’s number is 666—
the emphasis of six (the works of man), falling short of seven (perfection)

Now, regarding the meaning of the seven holy proclamations—proclaiming that which brings about the perfection—if you have not yet read the book Seventh Month Revival and its sequel Discovering Mysteries of the Lost Calendar, please do so. There is such great depth of meaning in each of the seven Sabbath proclamations, as well as with the New Moon and the daily worship times. The knowledge and experience attained in learning and celebrating Elohim’s special times is the latter rain, which will especially fall during the Advent Festival of Tabernacles each year for the final harvest of souls that will take place during that very time. This is what will enable the saints to shine the glory of Elohim’s character throughout the earth and give the loud cry, which is the manifold Sabbath proclamation. The Advent festival is not like the feasts of the feast-keeping movement, which are mainly retreats like the modern so-called ‘camp meetings’, but it is evangelistic just as Zechariah 14 suggests, in that the whole world is invited to attend.

The seventh day will not save anyone. It symbolizes the gospel glory, which can only be fully proclaimed through the designated proclamations. Adventists first discovered the Day of Covering (aka. Atonement) as having fulfillment in 1844 CE, but even that day has so much more meaning and fulfillment that is coming to light in our generation. Every event of the plan of redemption occurs in time according to the seven annual appointed times, and it is not enough to gain a mere head knowledge of them. There is no substitute to celebrating them each year, and in the celebration, we proclaim that we acknowledge each gospel truth.

Various arguments and Scriptures being twisted have been suggested as reasons why Elohim’s appointed times should not be celebrated, but the Book of Acts is clear that the apostles observed them decades after the cross, and Chapters 33 and 66 of Isaiah reveal that the annual appointed times, along with New Moon and Sabbath, will be observed for all eternity. The types that were associated with them were only for veiling the glory of the antitypes to be fulfilled on them, not for causing holy times themselves to end along with the types; remember, as the Sabbath shows us, holy times cannot be types, for they are the “appointed times” spoken in Creation on the fourth day, when the earth was put into motion in harmony with the greater and lesser lights; and Genesis shows calendation according to the New Moon. Also, Colossians 2, in its context and properly translated, makes it clear that the holy day, New Moon, Sabbath trio are still to be observed and that the false teachers of Paul’s day were judging people for properly observing them with celebratory eating and drinking, just as many are teaching today.

But please don’t get wrapped up in the controversy of it all. You may be tempted to think that this message is a message to ‘keep the feasts’, but that is not the message of the fourth angel’s message, though observing all of Elohim’s appointed times, starting with morning and evening, is indeed a part of it. Don’t just go and join the generic feast-keeping movement. That is not the point at all here.

The message is the Sabbath truth—conveyed through the holy seven annual Sabbath proclamations in the revelation of the antitypes fulfilling the types that are in association with them. It is the full gospel, founded at the cross and completed in the seventh month. The message is the same message that was introduced through Jones and Waggoner in 1888 CE: the Messiah our Righteousness, especially as He is revealed in the Torah. We are to meticulously study the appointed times with the types and antitypes as they relate to the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. And the full latter rain experience can only come through holy celebrations. Therefore, “Let no one therefore judge you in eating and drinking, either in part of a holy day, or New Moon, or Sabbath, which are a shadow of the things to come, and the body is of the Messiah; let no one condemn you…” (Colossians 2:16-18).

I will close with this quote: