The fourteenth chapter of Revelation is a chapter of the deepest interest. This scripture will soon be understood in all its bearings, and the messages given to John the revelator will be repeated with distinct utterance. {7BC 978.10}
The message of Revelation 14 is the message that we are to bear to the world. It is the bread of life for these last days. {8T 27.1}
In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import–the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention. {9T 19.1}
The proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages has been located by the Word of Inspiration. Not a peg or pin is to be removed. No human authority has any more right to change the location of these messages than to substitute the New Testament for the Old. The Old Testament is the gospel in figures and symbols. The New Testament is the substance. One is as essential as the other. The Old Testament presents lessons from the lips of Christ, and these lessons have not lost their force in any particular. {2SM 104.2}
I saw a company who stood well guarded and firm, giving no countenance to those who would unsettle the established faith of the body. God looked upon them with approbation. I was shown three steps– the first, second, and third angels’ messages. Said my accompanying angel, “Woe to him who shall move a block or stir a pin of these messages. The true understanding of these messages is of vital importance. The destiny of souls hangs upon the manner in which they are received.” I was again brought down through these messages, and saw how dearly the people of God had purchased their experience. It had been obtained through much suffering and severe conflict. God had led them along step by step, until He had placed them upon a solid, immovable platform. {EW 258.3}
The first and second messages were given in 1843 and 1844, and we are now under the proclamation of the third; but all three of the messages are still to be proclaimed. It is just as essential now as ever before that they shall be repeated to those who are seeking for the truth. By pen and voice we are to sound the proclamation, showing their order, and the application of the prophecies that bring us to the third angel’s message. There cannot be a third without the first and second. These messages we are to give to the world in publications, in discourses, showing in the line of prophetic history the things that have been and the things that will be. {2SM 104.3}
While you hold the banner of truth firmly, proclaiming the law of God, let every soul remember that the faith of Jesus is connected with the commandments of God. The third angel is represented as flying through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). The first, second, and third angels’ messages are all linked together. The evidences of the abiding, ever-living truth of these grand messages, that mean so much to us, that have awakened such intense opposition from the religious world, cannot be extinguished. Satan is constantly seeking to cast his hellish shadow about these messages, so that the remnant people of God shall not clearly discern their import, their time, and place; but they live, and are to exert their power upon our religious experience while time shall last. {2SM 117.2}
The Fourteenth Chapter of Revelation:
Rev 14:1-5: The one hundred and forty-four thousand (The most important people of God in the last days)
Rev 14:6-12: The three angels’ messages (The most important and solemn messages for the last days)
Rev 14:13-20: The second advent of Jesus Christ (The most important and solemn event in the last days)
The three angels’ messages are the most solemn and important messages for the present time.
These messages will be proclaimed most widely and loudly at the end of this world history before the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Three Angels’ Messages: Rev 14:6-12
“And the third angel followed them.” The first and the second angels’ messages are of great importance, and are followed by the third angel’s message. All three should be understood and combined. The warning contained in these messages means much more to the whole world than the majority of God’s people comprehend. We are in the Lord’s great day of preparation. {17MR 236.2}
The fourteenth chapter of Revelation outlines the work that is to be done by the people of God just before the second advent of our Saviour. Three messages are there represented, which must go to all the inhabitants of the world. {ST, January 25, 1910}
The work for this time is represented by the first, second, and third angels flying in the midst of heaven. The first angel has his message, the second follows the first and bears his message. But the first is not dropped; it loses none of its force as the second is proclaimed. So also with the third. These angels represent the people of God proclaiming the word of God to the world, whereby are produced impressions so powerful that truth is separated from the rubbish of error and stands revealed in its unblemished pure beauty. These messages of truth open the most lofty contemplation of scenes through which they conduct us–solemn, refining, and awfully grand. {1888 939.3}