Joseph Bates, a retired sea captain who had been influential in Millerite movement, was instrumental in bringing the Sabbath truth to the attention of James and Ellen White in 1846. Part of his argument for the importance of Sabbath-keeping was based on his understanding of Revelation 14:12. The Whites and Bates published the broadside, "A Word to the Little Flock" in 1847, bringing together three important truths: (1) A new understanding of Daniel 8:14, based on O.R.L. Crosier’s explanation that on October 22, 1844, at the end of the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14, Jesus had begun the final phase of a ministry in heaven corresponding with the antitypical Day of Atonement; (2) That God required the observance of the 7^th day of the week as the Sabbath; and (3) That God was leading a new movement through the visions of Ellen G. White. Then, during the following year, i.e. 1848, a series of "Sabbath Conferences" took place around New England, during which the doctrinal platform of what later became Seventh-day Adventism was developed.

A prominent belief emerged through this process: That God had raised up a movement which, as Revelation 14:6 predicted, honored the "commandments of God" as well as the "faith of Jesus." They saw the "faith of Jesus" of Revelation 14:12 as parallel with the "testimony of Jesus" of Revelation 12:17, which was also joined to the "commandments of God." Both expressions, they believed, (i.e., "the testimony of Jesus" and "the faith of Jesus") referred to New Testament faith, which included the particular doctrinal understandings which their group was setting forth. Gerhard Damsteegt, in his Message and Mission of Seventh-day Adventists, has recovered the important historical development of this theme. When the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was organized in 1861, the small delegation voted to "take the name Seventh-day Adventists, covenanting to ‘keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus’". The simple creed on which this movement stood encompassed the simple statement of Revelation 14:12.

Given that Revelation 14:12 has played so important a role in the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist church, attention should be given to the exegetical meaning of the text. By exegetical is meant the contextual grammatical historical meaning of the verse. So what does the verse really mean?

"Here is the patience of the saints…" (Revelation 14:12) – At the time the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation (i.e. approximately A.D. 95), the Christian Church in general and the churches in Asia Minor which John was addressing in this pastoral letter were experiencing problems on at least three fronts. As the differentiation process between themselves and Judaism developed, they experienced opposition from the Jews (See Revelation 2:9; 3:9). The Roman Empire was capturing, torturing and executing followers of Christ. Heresies within Christianity were developing (See Revelation 2:2,6,14,15,20-23).

The call to "patience" was summoning them to hold on a little while longer until the soon-expected return of Jesus Christ. At least eight times in the Book of Revelation there is indication that they expected that event in the near future (Revelation 1:1,3; 12:12; 22:6,7,10,12,20). They seem to believe either that they were in the final time of trouble or that it was about to break upon them. Notice that in the message to the Church of Philadelphia it states, "Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth." The "hour of trial" is in Greek, "tas horas tou peirasmou." The coming trial, of course, was the Mark of the Beast crisis described in Revelation 11:19-14:20.

In the New Testament, the Gospel, or Good News, is linked with a final time of trouble. For instance, Jesus juxtaposes the proclamation of the Gospel with the rise of "the abomination of desolation" spoken of by Daniel the prophet (See Matthew 24:14,15).

In the Lord’s Prayer, as we pray for the Kingdom of God to come (the essence of the Gospel, as in Matthew 24:14), we also petition the Lord: "Lead us not into temptation (in Greek, "eisenegkas hamas eis peirasmon"), and "Protect us from the Evil One" ("alla rusai hamas apo tou ponarou" Matthew 6:13,14). The presence of the article makes it "the evil one" and it is in the masculine. This prayer is the prayer of those who are going through the final crisis predicted by Daniel the Prophet.

It is to the credit of Albert Schweitzer that he recognized that the proclamation of the Gospel must be understood in an eschatological setting (See his The Kingdom of God and Primitive Christianity and The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede). Though Schweitzer was wrong perhaps on some things, this was not one of them. During the 20th century, many Bible Scholars, among them, Ernst Kasemann, have come to affirm the eschatological setting of the Gospel.

If there is one contribution the Adventist movement has made it has been to associate the final crisis with the final preaching of the Gospel. This is what, perhaps, distinguishes us from the Seventh-day Baptists and other Sabbatarian groups. Although the Seventh-day Baptists do understand that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday in western Christianity in the early centuries, they do not see the significance of the Three Angels’ Messages as they relate to the final proclamation of the Gospel.

In a sense, the Millerites were on the right track to focus on the Book of Daniel and Revelation when it came to trying to understand the final events. According to George Alden Ladd, in his The Blessed Hope, most Protestants for 300 years maintained the historicist system of prophetic interpretation with its twin suppositions, the year day principle and the belief that the Papal system was the biblical antichrist. Miller, therefore, was following through logically on what Protestants in general believed. Where he differed from most of them was not in the calculation of the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 as ending around 1843, but rather as to the nature of the event. The prevailing Postmillennial view was that the Millennium would begin at the end of the 2300 days/years marked by some event in the Middle East, whereas Miller and his followers identified the event as the pre-millennial visible 2^nd coming of Jesus Christ. Adventist scholar, Kai Arasola, in his The End of Historicism, has demonstrated that when no significant event occurred around the middle of the 19^th century, most Protestants abandoned Historicism and opted for either Futurism of Preterism.

In our studies, some of us have reached the conclusion that the Gospel can only be understood from a Biblical perspective when it is related to the eschatology of Daniel. Jesus is the Stone of Daniel 2, the Son of Man of Daniel 7, the Prince of Princes of Daniel 8, the Messiah of Daniel 9, Michael of Daniel 10-12. Jesus understood his own mission in terms of these passages, especially the "Son of Man" designation which he consistently applied to himself, coupling it with the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 and the pierced One of Zechariah 12:10-12.

We call for a radical new quest of Biblical studies which seeks an understanding of the eschatological portions of the Old Testament from the standpoint of how these passages were understood in New Testament times by Jesus and his followers. Perhaps this is what Ellen G. White had in mind when she wrote:

And as Jesus and the early church faced its time of trouble, so will those who preach the Gospel. When the "testimony of Jesus" is proclaimed, the proclaimers face Satan’s fierce opposition. John was exiled to the isle of Patmos because of it (Revelation 1:9). Antipas was martyred because of it (Revelation 2:13). Under the 5^th seal of Revelation 6:9-11, the martyred saints are given a white robe (their salvation) and are told to wait "until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed." And, of course, it is because of the proclamation of the Gospel,"the testimony of Jesus,’ the message of the Spirit through God’s servants (Revelation 19:10), that the persecution comes.

The final crisis facing the world is the proclamation of the gospel. According to Revelation 10:5-7:

The only other place in all of John’s writings where words related to the "gospel" and "preach the gospel" occur is in a single verse where the noun, "gospel" and the verb, "preach the gospel" occur together. That verse, as you know, is Revelation 14:6: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel (echonta euangellion aionion, literally "an eternal gospel") to preach (euangelisai) unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."

The fact that persecution accompanies the proclamation of the Gospel, especially in the final proclamation is underscored by the fact that in the three angels’ messages, after the proclamation of the gospel and the great crisis it precipitates is described, there comes this beatitude (Revelation 14:13 – one of seven in the Book of Revelation): "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me. Write. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest form their labours; and their works do follow them." Those who refuse to receive the Mark of the Beast are marked for execution (Revelation 13:15). Just as true believers have been being sealed from the time the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, so Satan has been marking his own followers, and God has been marking his. How many of you realize that the cross has something to do with the seal of God. Notice Mrs. Whites amazing statement:

Those who are thus sealed by God become the object of Satan’s wrath. In John’s description of the 1000 years we call the Millennium, it is those "that were beheaded for the witness (testimony) of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands" who "lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Because of Satan’s attack, the witnesses must live their lives in patience.

Before leaving this point, I wish to linger a little longer here. The great "peirasmos" of the New Testament, calling for the patience of the saints, is none other than the last half of the 70^th week of Daniel 9:27. There is speaks of the taking away of the sacrifice and offering and the placing of the abomination of desolation at the middle of the 70^th week. And because Daniel 9:24-27 is Gabriel’s 2^nd explanation of Daniel 8:1-14, it is not surprising that it also relates to the vision of the desolation of the temple and its restoration of Daniel 8. The "peirasmos" was a period of half a seven, or 3 ½. This is without a doubt the same period of "time, times and half a time" of Daniel 7:25 in the Aramaic portion of Daniel and the "time, times and half a time" of Daniel 12:7. Thus, there are three references in Daniel to this same period – a significant period leading up to the final restoration.

The six items mentioned in Daniel 9:24, in Gabriel’s first part of the explanation of the vision of Daniel 9, are Day of Atonement items, and they correspond with the "vindication of the sanctuary" of Daniel 8:14. Two of of them have direct reference to Daniel 8:13,14: "restored" is from "nitsdaq" the passive verb for "righteoused" and "everlasting righteousness" of Daniel 9:24 is the noun form of the same Hebrew root. Both indicate vindication. Secondly, the anointing of the "holy of Holies" of Daniel 9:24 corresponds with the word for sanctuary, "Qodesh" of Daniel 8:14. In Daniel 9:24 what is anointed is the Qodesh Qodeshim, or "Holy of Holies". There is also a parallel of the "transgression" in both places, "transgression" being from Pesha, the word for highhanded sin. It was when Israel transgressed that covenant curses were forth coming.

The Babylonian Captivity itself was a time of trouble for Judah, and this had been foretold in Deuteronomy 28-30 as well as in Leviticus 26. A captivity was to be associated with covenant breaking. And, according to Leviticus 26, if Israel was unfaithful in its observances of the Sabbatical Years of allowing the land to rest, then God would force the land to rest during the time of their exile. That this is what actually happened is indicated in 2 Chronicles 36:21. This explains the time framework of the prophecy of the seventy sevens of Daniel 9:24-27. Jeremiah had predicted 70 years of captivity (Jeremiah 25:12; 29:10) and this is what Daniel was contemplating at the time Gabriel approached him with his 2^nd explanation of the vision of Daniel 8:14 (See Daniel 9:2).

The 70 years of Babylonian Captivity were 1/7 of a period of 490 years which constituted a Grand Jubilee. At the end of this period, God intended to liberate Judah from Babylonian Bondage. The "first year of Darius" mentioned in Daniel 9:1 was the very occasion of Babylon’s fall, and so it is not surprising that Daniel was contemplating the liberation and the meaning of Jeremiah’s 70 year prophecy. What had troubled him previously was that in the vision of Daniel 8:14, liberation did not come until the rise and fall of Medo-Persia and Greece. He feared that God would not allow the Jews to go back to their homeland, and thus his prayer of the first part of the 9^th chapter of Daniel. And on this occasion, Gabriel came to assure Daniel that his people would return as the decree of a Persian monarch would insure that (Daniel 9:25). Thus, at the end of this Grand Jubilee, marking the end of the 490 years, a Day of Atonement Jubilee was to occur.

Gabriel explained that as one Grand Jubilee was ending, so another future one was beginning, one which would, in its latter period usher in the coming of the Messiah as well as a great time of trouble, the peirasmos. The crisis of the "little horn" of Daniel 7, the "little horn" of Daniel 8 correspond with the crisis ushered in during the last half of the 70^th 7 or Daniel 9:25. And after this crisis would come the resolution and restitution of the sanctuary. Whereas Daniel 8:14 has the time of the end coming in connection with the end of the 2300 evening and mornings, Daniel 12:7, part of the 3^rd heavenly explanation of the vision of Daniel 8:1-14, has the end coming after 3 1/2 times. Again, it is for a "broken 7" that the peirasmos occurs. And at the end of this time, there is restoration.

Why am I going into this? In the Book of Revelation, the 10^th chapter, there is presented the section of the Angel with the Book. John is told to take a book from the hand of the angel and eat it. It will taste sweet at first but then the taste will turn sour. Obviously, this is the Book of Daniel with its Messianic prophecies. The disciples experienced the sweetness of knowing Jesus and witnessing his life, death and resurrection. As time had lingered, however, the book had become sour. They had expected the end to come earlier and in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, as Jesus had predicted in the Olivet Discourse. John was writing around A.D. 95, and the hope for the future was dismal.

Revelation 10 and 11 constitute a unit, comprising the interlude between the 6^th and 7^th Trumpets. Interludes, in the Book of Revelation, view the entire period from a divine perspective and parallel the sequence of 7 in the body of the section. I have noticed that there seems to be a double perspective in these interlude sections. The duality has to do with God’s covenant promises to Israel, on the one hand, and to the impact of God’s promises on the Wordl, on the other hand. For instance, the 144,000 Israelites who are sealed in the Seals Interlude turn out to be the Great Multitute of the Lamb in Revelation 7. Likewise, the eschatological hopes of the Book of Daniel of Revelation 10 (the 1^st half of the Trumpet Interlude) give way to John’s being told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings." (Revelation 10:11). John is asked to provide a further explanation of Daniel’s eschatological prophecies.

It has been said that the Book of Revelation unseals the Book of Daniel. For instance,

I am building up to a very significant point – and that is that we are going to look now at the 2^nd half of the Trumpet Interlude, namely, Revelation 11. Here is the new spin John is putting on Daniel’s sealed prophecy which is to bring comfort to the people of God in the late first century. John is told to measure the temple, the altar and the worshippers. He is to exclude the court because it is given to the Gentiles to be trampled for 42 months. Notice that his corresponds with the last half of the 70^th 7 of Daniel 9:27. It says there that during the last half of the 70^th 7, an abomination would be placed on the "wing" of the temple or the "outskirts" of the temple. This corresponds with the prophecy perfectly. Yet, Daniel 9:27 is part of the explanation of Daniel 8:1-14. Thus, when John’s attention is directed to measure the Temple, he is being given the New Testament explanation of Daniel 8:1-14, the part that was sealed along with the Book of Daniel as a whole.

Commentaries mention that the trampling of the temple courts is a reference to Daniel 8:1-14. John does not speak of this in terms of the "2300 evenings and mornings" but rather in terms of 42 months, the equivalency of the last half of the 70^th week of Daniel 9:24-27. He is virtually equating the "2300 evenings and mornings" with the period of the 42 months, or the broken 7 of the Book of Daniel which we saw was mentioned 3 times in Daniel (Chapters 7,9,12).

John deals with this same period 5 times. Here it is called 42 months (Rev. 11:2) and also in Revelation 13:5, where the same expression is used. Twice he uses the expression, "1260 days" (Revelation 11:3 and Revelation 12:6). And once he refers to "a time, times and half a time," the same expression found twice in Daniel (See Revelation 12:14). For John, these are qll equivalent and they refer to the peirasmos or time of trouble which the church would face, and through which patience is called for. If we could understand when this period begins and when it ends, we would have solved the mystery of the time prophecies of the Book of Daniel.

In Revelation 11, the Temple is presented as two witnesses who do their work for 1260 days. From Revelation 10:7, we may draw that their work is to preach the Gospel. As the Temple stood for the symbol of God’s saving work in the Old Testament, so the community of believers was the Temple of God in the New Testament. They are Kings and Priests, such as Joshua and Zerubbabel of Zechariah’s prophecy from which the imagery of Revelation 11 is drawn. They are Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus. These witnesses are protected not in the sense that there are no martyrs, for we know that is not the case, but rather in the sense that their collective work cannot be extinguished. Like the symbol of the church in Revelation 12, the two witnesses are protected as they take the gospel to the world. Satan cannot stop them. He is bound, in a sense. He deceives the nations no longer because the Gospel witness is going forth.

We know when the 1260 days / 42 months / 3 ½ times end. According to Revelation 11:7, the period ends when their work is completed, i.e. the work of preaching the Gospel. When that is finished, the final climactic time of peirasmos commences with the martyrdom of the witnesses. In a remarkable parody of the Lord Jesus Christ, they do their work for 1260 days, are killed and raised the third day and ascend to heaven to the amazement of their enemies. The two witnesses, of course, parallel Satan’s two witnesses of Revelation 13, the Sea Beast and the Land Beast. The Sea Beast, the Antichrist of Daniel 7, also, like the 2 witnesses and Christ, receives a deadly would and the wound is healed and the world wonders. The point I want to make is that the peirasmos ends with the preaching of the Gospel. Right after the Two Witnesses Story, the 7^th Trumpet sounds announcing the final judgment (Revelation 11:15-19).

We also know when the period begins. Twice, in Revelation 12, the 1260 days of the woman’s wilderness protection begins with the ascension of the Male Child, which we know was in A.D. 31. Revelation 12:5,6,13,14. The peirasmos is the period of the Christian church extending from the time of Jesus Christ’s ascension through the time when the Gospel has been preached to the world. In the traditional Adventist scheme based on the Historicist Method of prophetic interpretation, we have large gaps at the beginning and at the end of the prophecy which we have said extends from A.D. 538 to A.D. 1798. John’s understanding, however, was that this period would be from the time of Jesus ascension to the time the Gospel is preached to the world.

It can be shown that Revelation 11:19 through Revelation 1419 constitute the Fourth Section of the Book. This section of un-numbered parts is between the 7 Trumpets and the 7 Bowls. In fact it is the first of four un-numbered sections. Of the first five sections in Revelation, it is the only unnumbered section. Based on the structure of the other four numbered parts, we find a structure in this section, as well. There are 7 personages which appear in this section (Woman, Dragon, Male Child, Michael, Sea Beast, Land Beast, Son of Man). Between the 6^th and 7^th parts is an interlude found in Revelation 14:1-13. Like the Interludes of the Seals and Trumpets, there are 2 parts – the 144,000 (Revelation 14:1-5) and the 3 Angels’ Messages (Revelation 14:6-13). Like these two-part interludes, they depict a perspective of Israel (i.e., the 144,000) and the perspective of the nations (i.e. the message to "every nation, tribe, language and people." (Revelation 14:6). Significantly, the 144,000 which were only Israelites in Relation 7 are describes as being with the Lamb, whereas in Revelation 7, the Great Multitude was with the Lamb. Thus, in the 144,000 part of the Interlude of Revelation 14:1-5 John has combined the attributes of the Great Multitude and the 144,000 into a unity centering in Christ. This contributes to the theme of relating the world to Israel. In the 2^nd part of the Interlude, i.e., Revelation 14:6-13, or the Three Angels’ Messages John focuses exclusively on the message to go to the world, the Everlasting Gospel and the crisis, or peirasmos which the preaching of the Gospel precipitates.

This all calls for patience on the part of the saints. Their bearing up under these trials brought against them by Satan and his followers.

"…Here are they that keep the commandments of God…" (Revelation 14:12) – The "commandments of God" in the fourth division of the Book of Revelation, extending from Revelation 11:19 through the end of Chapter 14, points to the Ten Commandments in general and the first four in particular. For instance, the section is introduced with John’s vision of the Ark of the Covenant (Revelation 11:19), in which the Ten Commandments were concealed. With such an introductory statement, the section would expect to develop a theme related to the Ark of the Covenant itself. Again, the double mention of the "commandments of God" (Revelation 12:17; 14:12), features what John considered important, and the "commandments of God" was what the original readers would have understood by this expression".

Finally, within Revelation 11:19 through the end of Chapter 14 are a number of references to the Ten Commandments. Besides the reference to killing (the 6^th commandment), the first four commandments are present of implication. The world worships the dragon and the beast rather than the Creator God. An image of the Beast is formed and worshipped by the inhabitants of the world. God’s name is blasphemed. The Beast (which literally means, "Creature"), rather than the Creator is worshipped; Revelation 14:7, as part of the First Angel’s Message has within it some of the exact wording of the Fourth Commandment. We should not be surprised that an Apocalyptic Book, like the Book of Revelation, would feature issues relating to worship, since similar ones are the subject of the companion volume, the Book of Daniel. There, the question arose whether to eat foods offered to idols and the question of whether to worship the idol Nebuchadnezzar had set up. In Daniel it was predicted that the anti-Christ power which would arise would seek to change "times and laws" (Daniel 7:25).

Apocalyptic literature seems to figure issues relating to the first four commandments relating to one’s relation to God, whereas in some other New Testament passages the emphasis is on commandments relating to one’s relationship with other humans. When one takes into consideration the entire Book of Revelation, a number of the Ten Commandments are implicated. For instance, in Revelation 20 & 21, those who end up in the Lake of Fire include idolators, adulterers, murderers and liars, i.e. Commandment Breakers. Whatever the expression, "the commandments of God," means in the Book of Revelation, one cannot exclude the Ten Commandments, including the Fourth Commandments from the semantic range of this expression.

Some have associated the "commandments of God" with the expression, "the word of God" since the latter is used a number of places in the Book of Revelation together with the "testimony of Jesus". Thus, the combination, "the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" might be though to be parallel with "the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus". Certainly God is featured in both expressions and there is an attempt to correlate something about God together with something about Jesus. The "commandments of God" and the "word of God" both would denote an expression of God’s will for humanity. In this regard, the "word of God" may very well include the idea of the entire Old Testament, including the Ten Commandments even as the "testimony of Jesus" and the "faith of Jesus" may very well include the New Testament Revelation centered as it is in Jesus Christ. Thus, the Messianic Hope of the Old Testament is realized in the coming of the Messiah with the New Testament era. Such ideas are not foreign to the Book of Revelation and, in fact, seem to be at the heart of the meaning of these expressions. This thought will be developed more further in this paper.

"…Here are they that keep…the faith of Jesus." –

The "faith of Jesus" and the "testimony of Jesus" are the same thing. This refers to the witness of Jesus himself as well as believers witness to him. I will not take the time to develop this theme. Suffice it to say that Seventh-day Adventists were slow in seeing the real significance of "the faith of Jesus," which is none other than the "Everlasting Gospel" of Revelation 14:6.

In conclusion, I want to say that it is not in any of these three expressions alone that the final message finds its power. It is in the correlation of these. The Law and the Gospel must be properly related. The proper function of the law must be maintained in order for the Gospel to have validity. And both of these must be understood in the framework of the New Testament eschatology. Our sanctuary message attempts to bring about a union of these elements. In my opinion, we need to see that Jesus Christ Himself is the key to unlocking these prophecies as John also realized.

The pioneers of our movement were correct in seeing Daniel 8:14 as a significant text and that Daniel 9-12 explains it. They were correct in seeing Daniel 8:14 as a Day of Atonement text, as is clearly the case when we consider that Daniel 9:24-27 is explaining it. The Adventists have been correct to see the Three Angels’ Messages as vital to the final proclamation of the Gospel with a proper understanding of the role of the Law, including the Fourth Commandment. We have more work in recovering the New Testament perspective of the time elements of the prophecy. When we do, we shall find the forces which Mrs. White spoke of unleashed and a message so simple that children can explain it.