Second Angel’s Message and the Midnight Cry

Question: When was the second angel’s message given?

Answer: the first proclamation of the second angel’s message was during the summer of 1844.  It was when the believers of the advent movement were called to emerge from the churches that rejected the message of the first angel

Support: THE SECOND ANGEL’S MESSAGE HAD ITS INITIAL SOUNDING EARLY IN THE SUMMER OF 1844 IN THE CALL TO THE ADVENT BELIEVERS TO COME OUT OF THE NOMINAL CHURCHES THAT HAD REJECTED THE PROCLAMATION OF THE FIRST ANGEL’S MESSAGE. AND WHILE IT IS TRUE THAT THE SECOND ANGEL’S MESSAGE CONTINUES TO BE PRESENT TRUTH, THERE WAS A CLIMACTIC CLOSING UP OF THE SECOND ANGEL’S MESSAGE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING OCTOBER 22, 1844. WHEN THE MESSAGES OF THE THREE ANGELS COME PROMINENTLY BEFORE THE WORLD AGAIN JUST BEFORE THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST, THE ANGEL OF REVELATION 18:1 JOINS IN THE PROCLAMATION OF THE SECOND ANGEL IN THE MESSAGE THAT “BABYLON IS FALLEN.” “COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE.” {EW 304.1}

Question: Who did the second angel’s message have a more direct application to?

Answer: The United States, which was where the judgment was proclaimed the most extensively and where the warning was most broadly rejected, was where the second angle’s message had its most direct application towards.

Support: The second angel’s message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and lower. {GC 389.2}

Question: Why was the second angel’s message given?

Answer: the second angel’s message was given to the Adventists as an announcement of the moral fall of the churches that rejected the message of the first angel. To the people who abided to the significance of the second message, the Lord gave them the Holy Spirit to withdraw from the corrupt churches.

Support: When the churches spurned the counsel of God by rejecting the Advent message, the Lord rejected them. The first angel was followed by a second, proclaiming, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” [REV. 14:8] This message was understood by Adventists to be an announcement of the moral fall of the churches in consequence of their rejection of the first message. The proclamation, “Babylon is fallen,” was given in the summer of 1844, and as the result, about fifty thousand withdrew from these churches. {4SP 232.1}

Question: What were the consequences to the churches when they rejected the first angel’s message?  [A how problem]

Answer: Because of the church’s decision of rejection towards the first message given, the Lord rejected them. The church experienced a moral fall because of their rejection and has fallen much lower since this incident.

Support: As the churches refused to receive the first angel’s message, they rejected the light from heaven and fell from the favor of God. But the beloved of God, who were oppressed, accepted the message, “Babylon is fallen,” and left the churches. {EW 237.2} The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and lower. {GC 389.2}When the churches spurned the counsel of God by rejecting the Advent message, the Lord rejected them. The first angel was followed by a second, proclaiming, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” [REV. 14:8] {4SP 232.1}

Question: What is the “action step” of the second angel’s message?

Answer: The implied meaning of the second angel’s message which is to be carried out is for the people of God to come out of corrupted and degraded churches that declined the message of the first angel’s message.

Support: Furthermore, in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation the people of God are called upon to come out of Babylon. {GC 382.3}THE SECOND ANGEL’S MESSAGE HAD ITS INITIAL SOUNDING EARLY IN THE SUMMER OF 1844 IN THE CALL TO THE ADVENT BELIEVERS TO COME OUT OF THE NOMINAL CHURCHES THAT HAD REJECTED THE PROCLAMATION OF THE FIRST ANGEL’S MESSAGE. {EW 304.1}

Question: When was the climactic closing up of the second angel’s message?

Answer: Previous to the date October 22, 1844, the closing of the second angel’s message initiated its starting time. Before the second coming of Christ commences, the three angel’s messages will be revealed yet again.

Support: THERE WAS A CLIMACTIC CLOSING UP OF THE SECOND ANGEL’S MESSAGE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING OCTOBER 22, 1844. WHEN THE MESSAGES OF THE THREE ANGELS COME PROMINENTLY BEFORE THE WORLD AGAIN JUST BEFORE THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST, THE ANGEL OF REVELATION 18:1 JOINS IN THE PROCLAMATION OF THE SECOND ANGEL IN THE MESSAGE THAT “BABYLON IS FALLEN.” “COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE.” SEE THE CHAPTER “THE FINAL WARNING” IN THE GREAT CONTROVERSY, PAGES 603-612.  {EW 304.1}

Question: What was the Midnight Cry?

Answer: the essence of the Midnight Cry, which was for the purpose of giving power to the second angel’s message, was the encouragement of saints that Jesus is to come.  It is found in Matt. 25:6, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” The angels set out to encourage and support the discouraged Christians that the Bridegroom is to come and that they were to go and meet him. This was the essence of the Midnight Cry.

Support: Near the close of the second angel’s message, I saw a great light from heaven shining upon the people of God. The rays of this light seemed bright as the sun. And I heard the voices of angels crying, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him!”  {EW 238.1}

Question: When was the Midnight Cry given?

Answer: When the closing o the second angel’s message was initiated, which was in the summer of 1844, the midnight cry was announced.

Support: Near the close of the second angel’s message…I heard the voices of angels crying, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him!”  {EW 238.1}

Question: What was the purpose of the Midnight Cry?

Answer: the main purpose of the Midnight Cry was to give supremacy and authority to the second angel’s. Those people assigned to spread the message swiftly went to accomplish their mission to encourage the disheartened brethren. The Lord gave these people the Holy Spirit in order to broaden this message promptly and successfully.

Support: This was the midnight cry, which was to give power to the second angel’s message. “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him!” Those entrusted with the cry made haste, and in the power of the Holy Spirit sounded the message, and aroused their discouraged brethren. This work did not stand in the wisdom and learning of men, but in the power of God, and His saints who heard the cry could not resist it. The most spiritual received this message first, and those who had formerly led in the work were the last to receive and help swell the cry, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him!” {EW 238.2}

Question: For those who had received the first angel’s message, how did the Midnight Cry prepare them to enter with Jesus by faith into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary?

Answer: the message was given to lead the ones who believed the message, to pursue an existing and obtainable familiarity of God’s truth for themselves. It was for the followers of this first message to examine their own character and disposition

Support: In every part of the land, light was given upon the second angel’s message, and the cry melted the hearts of thousands. It went from city to city, and from village to village, until the waiting people of God were fully aroused. In many churches the message was not permitted to be given, and a large company who had the living testimony left these fallen churches. A mighty work was accomplished by the midnight cry. The message was heart-searching, leading the believers to seek a living experience for themselves. They knew that they could not lean upon one another. {EW 238.3}Those who rejected the first message could not be benefited by the second; neither were they benefited by the midnight cry, which was to prepare them to enter with Jesus by faith into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. And by rejecting the two former messages, they have so darkened their understanding that they can see no light in the third angel’s message, which shows the way into the most holy place. I saw that as the Jews crucified Jesus, so the nominal churches had crucified these messages, and therefore they have no knowledge of the way into the most holy, and they cannot be benefited by the intercession of Jesus there. Like the Jews, who offered their useless sacrifices, they offer up their useless prayers to the apartment which Jesus has left; and Satan, pleased with the deception, assumes a religious character, and leads the minds of these professed Christians to himself, working with his power, his signs and lying wonders, to fasten them in his snare. Some he deceives in one way, and some in another. He has different delusions prepared to affect different minds. Some look with horror upon one deception, while they readily receive another. Satan deceives some with Spiritualism. He also comes as an angel of light and spreads his influence over the land by means of false reformations. The churches are elated, and consider that God is working marvelously for them, when it is the work of another spirit.”   {EW 260.1}

Question: Just as Jesus cleansed the temple both at the beginning and at the end of His public ministry, so in the last work for the warning of the world, two distinct calls are made to the churches. What are the two distinct calls to the churches, and when are these two calls made?

Answer: there are two separate calls that were directed to the church. The first call is the second angel’s message which was given before and is to be given now as the “harvest message”. the second call would be the third angel’s message which is calling us (God’s people) to come away from the corrupted church and have nothing to do with them.

Support:

The message of the angel following the third is now to be given to all parts of the world. It is to be the harvest message. –Letter 86, 1900.  {LDE 208.1} In the last work for the warning of the world, two distinct calls are made to the churches. The second angel’s message is, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” And in the loud cry of the third angel’s message a voice is heard 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. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” {Mar 189.1}

Question: Why are there only two distinct calls made to the churches?

Answer:  In the spirit of prophecy, Mrs. White portrays a thorough association between Christ’s cleansing and the calls to the churches. Christ cleansed the sanctuary during the beginning of his work, showing the starting point of his mission; and then he cleansed it once again marking the end of his work. There was a first call ( the second Angel’s message) to the churches in the beginning of Christ’s work calling God’s people out of Babylon and showing the starting fall of the corrupted churches. The very last call, showing the ending fall of the churches, was to tell people that the time is running out before the coming of Jesus; therefore there will be no more calls to be announced afterward to warn us of his coming.