Lesson 6 — The Final Conflict.

February 11, 1905.

Questions

  1. What has been the common experience of God’s people down through the ages? Note 1.
  2. What direct issue is brought to view in the closing conflict? Rev. 13:14, 15; 14:9, 10.
  3. How will this conflict compare with all preceding conflicts? Note 2.
  4. Because of the universal apostasy, what will God bring upon the world? Isa. 24:1-6. What did He bring upon Israel of old because of their apostasy? 1 Kings 17:1; James 5:17.
  5. Who was accused of troubling Israel during her judgments? 1 Kings 18:17. And what was the prophet’s reply? Verse 18.
  6. Who will be accused of causing these latter-day judgments? Note 3.
  7. Show the parallel between the tests which came to the three Hebrew worthies and to Daniel, and the test that is to come to the remnant people of God. Note 4.

    “One dollar now is of more value to the work than ten dollars will be at some future period.”

  8. How universal is to be the decree to receive the mark of the beast? Rev. 13:16. How general do the advocates of Sunday legislation say that Sunday must be observed? Note 5.
  9. What is meant by receiving the mark in the right hand or the forehead? Note 6.
  10. What measure is to be adopted to compel all, by force of circumstances, to keep Sunday sabbath? Rev. 13:17.
  11. What will be the character of the final decree that will be issued against the loyal and obedient? Rev. 13:15. Note 7.
  12. What will the people of God then do? See note 4, under lesson 1.
  13. In this conflict, against whom are the powers of earth arrayed? Rev. 19:19.
  14. What will be their fate? Rev. 19:20; 2 Thess. 1:7-10.
  15. Where did the prophet see the saints after this conflict? Rev. 15:2. What song of triumph will they sing? Verses 3 and 4.
  16. Before God sends His final judgments on earth, what will He do? Mal. 4:5, 6. Note 8.
  17. After all the conflicts, trials, and afflictions are over, what will the righteous be able to say? Ps. 119:71. Note 9.

    “There shall be delay no longer” — our confidence.

    Notes

  18. The common experience of God’s people down through the ages has been that of conflict with the powers of darkness and with the rulers of this world. Witness Israel in Egypt, in Babylon, and under Persian rule. See the Christians under pagan emperors, under so-called Christian emperors, and finally under the papal power. A double object has been accomplished in all these experiences. By them God has tried and purified His people, and brought light to those in darkness.
  19. “A great crisis awaits the people of God. A crisis awaits the world. The most momentous struggle of all the ages is just before us. Events which, for more than thirty years, we have, upon the authority of the prophetic word, declared to be impending, are now taking place before our eyes.” - Testimonies, No. 33, page 239. “Fearful is the issue to which the world is to be brought.” — Great Controversy, page 604.
  20. “Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth.” — Great Controversy, page 592. (See, also, pages 590, 591, 614.)
  21. Nebuchadnezzar’s decree was in violation of the second commandment, or a command to worship in a false way. The decree under Darius was in direct conflict with the first commandment, or a prohibition to worship in the right way. One decree meant that “you must worship a false god,” the other “you can not worship the true.” So in the closing conflict “the decree will go forth that they must disregard the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and honor the first day, or lose their lives,” — Testimonies, Vol. I, pages 353, 354. The test with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answers to the requirement that we must keep Sunday, and Daniel’s test to the prohibition to keep the seventh day, the true Sabbath.
  22. “Let a man be what he may — Jew, seventh-day observer of some other denomination, or those who do not believe in the Christian sabbath — let the law apply to every one, that there shall be no public desecration of the first day of the week, the Christian sabbath, the day of rest for the nation. They may hold any other day as sacred, and observe it; but that day which is the one day in seven for the nation at large, let that not be publicly desecrated by any one, by officer in the government, or by private citizen, high or low, rich or poor.” — Dr. McAllister, in speech at Lakeside, Ohio, July, 1887.

    “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.”

  23. The hand is the symbol of labor. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might.” Eccl. 9:10. The mind is that with which we worship. “With the mind I myself serve the law of God.” Rom. 7:25. To receive the mark in the hand will be for men, in the last final issue, to cease to labor on Sunday in deference to the law. To receive it in the forehead will be to voluntarily and wilfully keep the day in the face of light and opportunity to know that another day is the Sabbath of the Lord.
  24. Justinian gave non-believers six months in which to embrace Christianity, under pain of loss of office and the right of inheritance. Pope Leo X gave Luther sixty days in which to recant his “errors,” otherwise “to be seized and sent to Rome to be dealt with as a heretic.” In the decree against the Jews, King Ahasuerus gave just eleven months to prepare for the slaughter. Esther 3:12-15. “The decree which is to go forth against the people of God will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews in the time of Esther.” — Testimonies, No. 32, page 206. See “Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews,” Book XI, ch. 6, on this.
  25. “The Lord of heaven will not send upon the world His judgments for disobedience and transgression until He has sent His watchmen to give the warning. He will not close up the period of probation until the message shall be more distinctly proclaimed. The law of God is to be magnified; its claims must be presented in their true, sacred character, that the people may be brought to decide for or against the truth. Yet the work will be cut short in righteousness. The message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other to prepare the way of the Lord. This is the glory of God, which closes the work of the third angel.” — Testimonies, Vol. VI, page 19. 9. “Sometime when all life’s lessons have been learned, And sun and stars forevermore have set, The things that our weak judgments here have spurned, The things o’er which we grieved with lashes wet, Will flash before us, out of life’s dark night, As stars shine most in deepest tints of blue, And we will see how all God’s ways were right, And how what seemed reproof was love most true.

“One dollar now is of more value to the work than ten dollars will be at some future period!”

Updated: