Identifying the Remnant

Specific Identifying Marks

1. “Keep the Commandments of God.” Revelation 12:17

God’s church today is here characterized by its keeping of the commandments of God, which, of course, would have to include the commandment that says, “The seventh day is the sabbath.”

2. “Have the Testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17

We should look for a church to which God has given the gift of prophecy.

3. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14

The everlasting “gospel,” “preached” to “every nation” just before the end, is delineated in the three-fold message of Revelation 14:6-12. The Greek word for angel (Revelation 14:6) means “messenger,” whether heavenly or human (Matthew 11:10; Luke 9:52). Since God has assigned the proclamation of the gospel not to heavenly messengers but to the church (Matthew 28:19, 20), it follows that the world-wide preaching of the message contained in Revelation 14:6-12 is a specific identifying characteristic of God’s last day church.

Notice a few details about this heavenly message as it is presented in Revelation 14:

1. It is proclaimed worldwide. We should look for the true church to be working in every country of the globe.

2. The message is proclaimed with urgency because the hour of God’s judgment is come.

3. It emphasizes that true worship acknowledges the Creator.

4. It identifies the true people of God as those who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

Additional Characteristics

1. Just as a remnant of fabric is identical to the very first yard of the bolt, so the remnant of Christ’s church will have the same characteristics it possessed in its early days.

2. Christ gave Himself for us, that He might “purify unto himself a peculiar people” (Titus 2:14). God’s people will be different from those around them.

3. Acts 11:22 illustrates that the church carried on an organized work in its early days. In Matthew 18:15-17 Christ called for definite organization in His church.

4. Any established organization that was in recognized existence during the 1260 years of Revelation 12:6 cannot be the remnant church, because the true church was in the wilderness during that time. We must look for the remnant to have emerged very shortly after 1798.

God Points Out His Remnant

Not content to just give identifying marks, God, in order to make it impossible for the genuine seeker to become confused, decided to go ahead and actually tell us exactly who His remnant are.

Who are the remnant? The remnant are identified in the Bible as that historical group of people who went through the sweet and bitter experience described in Revelation 10. This is clear from the fact that it was to them that the voice from heaven said, “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues and kings” (Revelation 10:11). Since they were the ones given the task of prophesying before many nations, and tongues, and people, they must be the ones commissioned to proclaim the messages of Revelation 14. If we can confirm that they display the identifying marks noted above, we can be sure that we’ve found the Biblical portrayal of God’s people as they came out of the wilderness!

But let’s first review the background of this story as we touched on it in Faith Point 18 – The Sanctuary.

The Great Prophetic Awakening

The prophecies of Daniel and the truths they contained were to be closed up and sealed until “the time of the end” (Daniel 8:17, 26; 12:9). In the time of the end God would increase knowledge (Daniel 12:4) and raise up a people who would restore the truths that had been “cast down” (Daniel 8:12). Especially had the sanctuary truth been “trodden under foot” (Daniel 8:13).

Certainly, something as important as the unsealing of those prophecies would not be left out of the prophetic record. We find the story in Revelation 10. The Bible says that the little book of Daniel would be opened “upon the sea” and “on the earth.” We are familiar with the Revelation 13 use of the term “sea” as representing the populated areas of the eastern hemisphere, and the “earth” as the relatively unpopulated western hemisphere in the 18th and 19th centuries.

While the prophetic awakening was experienced around the world, the most pronounced fulfillment of this prophecy occurred in the United States. William Miller, a Baptist farmer, through a systematic study of the Bible, found that the 2300-day prophecy was going to be fulfilled “about the year 1843.” Further calculations pinpointed the year to be 1844, and the date, October 22.

It was a common assumption that the cleansing of the sanctuary meant the purifying of the earth by means of the second coming of Jesus. Never had the message of Christ’s second advent been proclaimed so powerfully. Those who united in this “advent movement” sacrificed everything, that they might be ready to meet Jesus when He came.

This misunderstanding resulted in their sweet expectations turning to a most bitter disappointment (See Revelation 10:8-10). This experience would separate the wrongly-motivated ones from those who, denying all self-interest, clung to the word of God, desiring to follow the Lord’s leading regardless of consequences.

The Little Flock

After the disappointment of October 22, 1844, those who renounced their confidence in the prophetic word quickly dropped out of the picture. This amounted to the greater number of those who had embraced the Advent message.

A small group, however, clung to the word of God in earnest prayer. They knew their calculations were correct. There could be no mistake on the date. Realizing that it had to be the event that had been misunderstood, they soon discovered that in fulfillment of the ritual cleansing of the sanctuary (Leviticus 16), Jesus, on October 22, had entered the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary, there to begin the solemn work of judgment prior to His coming in the clouds of heaven. “Where is the God of judgment? . . . The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple.” Malachi 2:17 - 3:1.

It was to this group that the words of Revelation 10:11 were addressed, “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Their minds were directed to the temple of God in heaven (Revelation 11:1) and the ark of His testament, which contains the law of God, enshrined in that temple (Revelation 11:19).

The realization that God had called them to do a special work for Him soon overshadowed the disappointment they had experienced. The judgment-hour message had begun to be proclaimed in the preaching of Miller in 1831. As the movement had drawn toward its climax in 1843 and 1844, the call of the second angel had been added. With the addition of the charge to “prophesy again,” their task now embraced all three messages, which were to be preached to all nations before the end would come.

The Identifying Characteristics Fit

Now let’s notice how each of the Biblical identifying marks of the remnant church fit the group we are describing.

#1 “Keep the Commandments of God”

In the winter of 1844 someone approached a Millerite preacher in the little town of Washington, New Hampshire about the obligation of the fourth commandment. The minister, Frederick Wheeler, accepted the truth; and before long, several members of his congregation were observing the Sabbath.

In February 1845, a neighboring minister, T. M. Preble, wrote an article about the Sabbath for a Millerite paper. From that article another man, Joseph Bates, learned the truth. He in turn published a pamphlet on the subject. From that pamphlet others accepted the message, until the little scattered flock, which because of their belief in the soon coming of Jesus were known as “Adventists,” had become “Sabbath-keeping Adventists.” They now showed the first specific identifying mark of the remnant.

#2 “Have the Testimony of Jesus Christ”

The days following October 22, 1844 were difficult for the little advent company. But the gloom soon turned into hope and confidence as God gave the second specific identifying mark of the remnant, “the testimony of Jesus Christ,” which the Bible says is the spirit of prophecy.

The Lord chose as His messenger a frail 17-year-old girl by the name of Ellen Harmon. Ellen had experienced the disappointment, but had continued to put her confidence in God. In December 1844 she was at the home of a friend with a small group of other Adventist women who had assembled for prayer. During the prayer the Lord gave Ellen a vision showing the experience of the Advent people. She was shown that the Lord had placed the Millerite experience as a bright light behind them to lighten their new path, which would lead them on to the kingdom of heaven.

That was the first of 2,000 visions Ellen would receive in her lifetime. In 1846 she married an Adventist minister, James White, and became Mrs. Ellen G. White. Through her, the Lord fulfilled the second specific identifying mark of the remnant.

#3 World-wide Preaching of the Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14

Very early, Sabbath-keeping Adventists recognized their need for a worldwide work. From that small beginning the Seventh-day Adventist Church (officially organized in 1863) has become the most extensive Protestant denomination, working in essentially every country of the world. Thus the third specific identifying mark is met.

The church established by Jesus when He was on earth – the prophetic “woman” that went into the wilderness at the beginning of the 1260 years and emerged once again at the end of that prophetic period – the remnant of that church, which keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus Christ, is now giving God’s final call to all His people who are not yet in His fold (John 10:16), to hear His voice and follow Him (John 10:27).