Early Writings
by Ellen G. White
The Sealing
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The angels were bid to hold the four winds until the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads.
Illustration ©
Bob Bresnahan |
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At the commencement of the holy Sabbath, January 5, 1849, we
engaged in prayer with Brother Belden's family at Rocky Hill, Connecticut, and
the Holy Ghost fell upon us. I was taken off in vision to the most holy place,
where I saw Jesus still interceding for Israel. On the bottom of His garment
was a bell and a pomegranate. Then I saw that Jesus would not leave the most
holy place until every case was decided either for salvation or destruction,
and that the wrath of God could not come until Jesus had finished His work in
the most holy place, laid off His priestly attire, and clothed Himself with the
garments of vengeance. Then Jesus will step out from between the Father and
man, and God will keep silence no longer, but pour out His wrath on those who
have rejected His truth. I saw that the anger of the nations, the wrath of God,
and the time to judge the dead were separate and distinct, one following the other,
also that Michael had not stood up, and that the time of trouble, such as never
was, had not yet commenced. The nations are now getting angry, but when our
High Priest has finished His work in the sanctuary, He will stand up, put on
the garments of vengeance, and then the seven last plagues will be poured out. {EW 36.1}
I saw that the four angels would hold the four winds until
Jesus' work was done in the sanctuary, and then will come the seven last
plagues. These plagues enraged the wicked against the righteous; they thought
that we had brought the judgments of God upon them, and that if they could rid
the earth of us, the plagues would then be stayed. A decree went forth to slay [37]
the saints, which caused them to cry day and night for deliverance. This was
the time of Jacob's trouble. Then all the saints cried out with anguish of
spirit, and were delivered by the voice of God. The 144,000 triumphed. Their
faces were lighted up with the glory of God. Then I was shown a company who
were howling in agony. On their garments was written in large characters,
"Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting." I asked who
this company were. The angel said, "These are they who have once kept the
Sabbath and have given it up." I heard them cry with a loud voice,
"We have believed in Thy coming, and taught it with energy." And
while they were speaking, their eyes would fall upon their garments and see the
writing, and then they would wail aloud. I saw that they had drunk of the deep
waters, and fouled the residue with their feet—trodden the Sabbath
underfoot— and that was why they were weighed in the balance and
found wanting. {EW 36.2}
Then my attending angel directed me to the city again, where
I saw four angels winging their way to the gate of the city. They were just
presenting the golden card to the angel at the gate when I saw another angel
flying swiftly from the direction of the most excellent glory, and crying with
a loud voice to the other angels, and waving something up and down in his hand.
I asked my attending angel for an explanation of what I saw. He told me that I
could see no more then, but he would shortly show me what those things that I
then saw meant. {EW 37.1}
Sabbath afternoon one of our number was sick, and requested
prayers that he might be healed. We all united in applying to the Physician who
never lost a case, and while healing power came down, and the sick was healed,
the Spirit fell upon me, and I was taken off in vision. [38] {EW 37.2}
I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and
were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments.
He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of
deep pity cried, "My blood, Father, My blood, My blood, My blood!"
Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great
white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a
commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do
on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a
loud voice, "Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are
sealed in their foreheads." {EW 38.1}
I asked my accompanying angel the meaning of what I heard,
and what the four angels were about to do. He said to me that it was God that
restrained the powers, and that He gave His angels charge over things on the
earth; that the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that
they were about to let them go; but while their hands were loosening, and the four
winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that
were not sealed, and He raised His hands to the Father and pleaded with Him
that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to
fly swiftly to the four angels and bid them hold, until the servants of God
were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads. {EW 38.2}
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