Eating the Little Book

Revelation is a sealed book, but it is also an opened book. It records marvelous events that are to take place in the last days of this earth's history. The teachings of this book are definite, not mystical and unintelligible. In it the same line of prophecy is taken up as in Daniel. Some prophecies God has repeated, thus showing that importance must be given to them. The Lord does not repeat things that are of no great consequence.--Ms 107, 1897, pp. 1, 2. 8MR 415

The above statement, written in 1897, is very significant for Adventists because it goes against the premise held by many historicists that the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation were fully unsealed during the Millerite movement. According to the above quote, and to several others, Revelation is not fully unsealed even today.

These statements give some historicists indigestion because one of their main goals is to relegate to the past all references to the 1260 days. One of their methods of accomplishing that is to place all time prophecies in the past. But here, Ellen White is clearly warning us not to do that. Of all the teachings of the two books, this one is the most often repeated - not once or twice, but seven times, the number of perfection. It is therefore, according to inspiration, of great importance to the prophetic understanding of the end-time church.

Ellen White makes a number of other statements in the same vein that reapply the prophecies of Revelation to the future. We as Adventists have generally ignored these or worse, have explained them away in an attempt to preserve a purely historical interpretation. This has been a major problem, limiting the work of the Holy Spirit and derailing Adventism from its commission as a prophetic movement.

Sister White was keenly aware of the problem and she urged the church to reevaluate its position regarding prophecy, saying that when Revelation is truly understood, it will ignite an unstoppable revival that will result in the return of Christ. She writes:

When we as a people understand what this book [Revelation] means to us there will be seen among us a great revival. Testimonies to Ministers, Page 113.

The implications of the above statement are huge. This issue, our faulty understanding of Revelation, is on par with or may even supersede the rejection of the 1888 message as a cause for our wandering in a spiritual wilderness for decades. Revelation itself testifies that it is a revelation of Jesus Christ. Nowhere in scripture is Christ, the Word, more fully revealed than here. The contents of this book go hand-in-hand with the 1888 message of Christ our Righteousness. Why? Because in Revelation, Christ reveals himself and the Father to us by their great interventions in human history, past and future. Ellen White states:

Those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God will bring from the books of Daniel and Revelation truth that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. They will start into action forces that cannot be repressed. The lips of children will be opened to proclaim the mysteries that have been hidden from the minds of men. -- Review and Herald, August 17, 1897.

Did you catch the significance of the bolded sentence? Ellen White is saying that there are truths in Revelation that will bring on the unstoppable forces of the latter rain. Here she strikes the right balance; in allowing the words of prophecy to speak to our souls, not reading into them our own bias, but looking to harmonize all that’s been revealed and acting on it, we are opening our mouths wide and receiving the word.

Adventists who resist future applications claim it’s essential to avoid time-setting fanaticism. But, as we’ve seen in my posts on the seven thunders, that’s not the case. Ellen White repeatedly makes sweeping future applications of these and other prophecies without falling into that error. Unless we follow her example, which is the Berean study model, I suggest we’ll not be able to glean the essential insights from the prophecies that will “start into action forces that cannot be repressed” and we may well find ourselves without the oil of the Spirit when the announcement is given, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh!”

Does this mean that re-applications of prophecy to the future are the key to revival? No, the key to revival is repentance and prompt, wholehearted obedience to the Holy Spirit. As scripture states, we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God - all of it.

The Jehovah of scripture, the great I AM, inhabits eternity. The future which He reveals to us prophetically is as certain as the facts of the past. It’s essential that we see His future works of judgment and atonement clearly, so that we can take inspiration from them and, in so doing, be sanctified in the truth and take on the attributes of His character.

The Descent of the Mighty Angel

As I discussed in earlier articles, the cry of the mighty angel and the seven thunders that follow in Revelation 10 are unique in Adventism because we see them as a fulfillment of the Millerite movement. However, after the Great Disappointment of 1844, Adventists did not adopt any official position or reach any consensus regarding them. Some thought that perhaps the thunders were fulfilled in the Millerite movement. The problem, as I pointed out in my last article, is there are no seven events that match up. To their credit, the early Adventists acknowledged this.

Other Adventists from this time, such as Uriah Smith, believed the thunders were future and still sealed. In 1867 he wrote:

It would be vain to speculate to any great length upon the seven thunders, in hope of gaining a definite knowledge of what they uttered. We must acquiesce in the directions given to John concerning them, and leave them where he left them, sealed up, unwritten, and consequently to us unknown. - - U Smith, Daniel and the Revelation, page 523.

But Ellen White took a different approach. In the quote below, which I focused on in my last two articles, White, like Smith, also placed them in the future but, unlike Smith, she tells us how they will unseal the little book and, significantly, links them to when the three angel’s messages are repeated under the latter rain.

After these seven thunders uttered their voices, the injunction comes to John as to Daniel in regard to the little book: "Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered." These relate to future events which will be disclosed in their order. Daniel shall stand in his lot at the end of the days. John sees the little book unsealed. Then Daniel's prophecies have their proper place in the first, second, and third angels' messages to be given to the world. {7BC 971.4}

We can picture the seven thunders as the seven chapters of the little book of end-time prophecy. Ellen White is saying that those who participate in the repetition of the three angels’ messages under the power of the latter rain will supplement these messages with the hitherto sealed seven chapters of the book. This agrees with Daniel 12:4. Like John, Daniel is told to seal up the book until “the time of the end”:

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge [of those prophecies that have been sealed] shall increase. Dan 12:4.

So, let me ask, are we living in “the time of the end”? If so, isn’t it time to do what the angel says, to eat the little book, to study the prophecies and to run “to and fro”, sharing and comparing our findings in order to enhance our collective understanding? Isn’t it time to obey the divine direction so we’re qualified to fulfill the commission of the remnant to rise and “prophesy again”? Rev 10:11, 11:1. By the Spirit of the Lord, brothers and sisters, let’s arouse from our lethargy and get started by obeying the divine command to eat the little book.

To do that, our first task is to identify where we are prophetically in the books of Daniel and Revelation. In my last two articles I made the case that we are at the start of Revelation 10 when the angel Michael descends from heaven to earth, puts his feet which are like flaming pillars, on the earth and sea and then cries out with the roar of a lion. The parallel passage to this scene is Revelation 4-6. Notice in Revelation 4, when the father takes his seat on the throne with the seven-sealed roll in his right hand, the only one found worthy to open the book is the Lion-Lamb of the tribe of Judah. Rev 5:5-8. When Christ takes the book, but before he breaks a seal, he is exalted and worshipped by the four beast, the twenty-four elders, and the heavenly hosts.

But notice carefully, when their majestic anthems of praise to the Lamb resonate throughout the universe, they penetrate even to the lowest parts of our earth:

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Rev 5:13.

The good news is this scene is just ahead. Revelation 4 and 5 run parallel to the moment Michael, encircled by the covenant bow, descends from heaven and puts his mighty feet on the earth and sea. When he does, there is no mistaking it by those who are spiritually awake. Not only the heavens, but the earth also reverberates with his praise, “and every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth” says, “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Rev 5:13.

Many conservative Adventists, futurists and historicists alike, think the next major prophetic event that sets the end-time domino’s falling is Sunday rest legislation. I suggest it’s something much bigger and infinitely better – the second coronation of Christ depicted in Revelation 4 and 5, the result of which is His descent in power to the earth, encircled by the covenant bow. When this event occurs and he cries out like a lion, the seven thunders progressively unseal the little book as he simultaneously breaks open the seals of the scroll, one by one.

The difference between his breaking of the seven seals and his unsealing of the seven thunders is the difference between the great scroll and the little book. Both are unlocked by the Lion-Lamb, but they are two very different books. To understand the difference, besides studying the relevant passages, I suggest also reviewing and studying these references by Ellen White: 9T 267.1; 20MR 197.2-5; Ms59-1900, pp. 1-5; Ms 107, 1897, pp. 1, 2. If you still have questions please feel free to pass them on to me and I’ll do my best to answer them, either directly, or in my next post in which I’ll review the best scriptural candidates for the first thunder; particularly whether Sunday rest legislation is a front runner.