Monthly Archives: December 2019

Response to Randy Nim’s on Rev 10:7

Here’s my response to Randy Nim’s comments on Rev 10:7. Sorry for the length, but it seemed best to have it all in one document. I distinguish mine from his by the use of bold text. It was helpful to think the Greek through with his contrary reading in mind, I think you will enjoy the give and take as well:

Randy Nims comments: Revelation 10:6-7 reads, “There will be no more delay, but in the days when the seventh angel is [about] to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced (good news) to his servants the prophets.”

The 2300-day prophecy is coming to a close and it closed about the year 1844. When the sanctuary was restored to its rightful state [Daniel 8:14], then began the final phase of Earth’s history. This is when the investigative judgment began.

I believe Randy is right so far, on the basis of Rev 10:6, which signals the close of Daniel’s time prophecies.

Revelation 10:7 reads that “when the seventh angel is [about] to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.” The question becomes, what is the mystery of God and the good news. This is not the same event as Revelation 18:1 because in that passage coming down from heaven, having great authority, is the Holy Spirit that makes the earth bright with His splendor. This is the latter rain experience, which is not when the mystery of God is fulfilled. This is the final opportunity to make a decision to come into the boat before the door closes, but when did Noah start preaching? Noah revealed the truth years earlier! What was that truth?

Randy sees the blowing of the seventh trumpet as the same moment in history as the “no more delay” or “time no longer” of 10:6. The Adventist pioneers agreed. They were reading this text with the King James Version in mind. It says, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.” By this reading the finishing of the mystery could be part of the seventh trumpet. But this is based on a poor translation of the Majority text the KJV (this is not a textual issue) was based on. The NKJV corrects this: “when he is about to sound.” The finishing of the mystery of God is before the sounding of the seventh trumpet, not during it. The pioneers (and Randy) also missed the force of the “but” at the beginning of verse 7. It (Greek: alla) draws a stark contrast between verse 6 and 7: the mystery of God is not finished at the “time no more,” but just before the sounding of the seventh trumpet instead. So Rev 10:7 parallels the content of the sixth trumpet, from the “time no more” to the close of probation.

The mystery of God is described in Colossians 1:26-29 where it reads, “the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.”

So Paul was preaching the mystery of God two thousand years ago. Noah was preaching it 4000+ years ago. Were the Millerites preaching the mystery of God before the end of the 2300-day prophecy? Absolutely! Even to this day, the Seventh-day Adventist Church preaches the mystery of God. We will continue to preach it until the latter rain produces the loud cry. It isn’t about a moment in time, but a process of time.

Unfortunately, the Antediluvians, those in Paul’s day, and the Millerites all dealt with a sweet message that had a bitter result. But verse 11 tells them and us to push forward and not give up.

I agree that the meaning of the “mystery of God” is the preaching of the gospel. It has gone on from the beginning and continues even after the close of Daniel’s time prophecies.

So just prior to 1844, just before the seventh angel was about to blow, just like it was preached before the flood, the mystery of God was preached. We are still preaching it today and will continue to preach it until the latter rain produces the loud cry.

Randy here assumes that Rev 10:7 talks about the continuation of the mystery of God not its completion. The ESV translation he seems to adopt above uses the ambiguous English word “fulfilled” for what happens to the mystery of God. Fulfilled can mean “finished” or it can simply mean “carried out.” In the latter case this would not be a reference to the close of probation (which presumably happens before the sounding of the seventh trumpet as noted above). But the Greek word is much clearer than the ESV. It is etelesthĕ from the Greek root teleŏ. This is the Greek word placed at the end of books (“The End”). It means “brought to and end, completed.” This is easy to see in Rev 11:7 and 20:3, 5, 7, when the 1260 days “were ended”, when the thousand years “came to an end.”

So about the year 1844 the seventh trumpet was sounded. It wasn’t a single blow, but a sound that continues to sound until the door is closed.

This last statement does not reflect the force of the Greek. The Greek of Rev 10:6-7 indicates a point in time when Daniel’s prophecies come to an end, but the preaching of the gospel does not come to an end at that time, it comes to an end when the seventh trumpet angel is “about to sound.” That means that the seventh trumpet does not begin in 1844, it begins after the close of human probation.

Questions and Answers (18:9)

Lou: It seems there is a bit of incongruity in the Scripture. It talks about us growing up (Eph 4:13-15), but then suggests we become like little children (Matt 18:3-4). If we’re not like little children, we can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus places a high priority on being like little children, yet you’re saying, “Why don’t you grow up?” What do you do with those references?

Graham: Consider the context in Matthew where Jesus makes that statement. His audience was misbehaving, so He takes a little child and says, “Unless you’re at least like this, you’ll not see the Kingdom.” And I don’t think we should ever lose that childlike trust, the curiosity, the willingness to listen, the willingness to learn. I think that is never to be lost. But Ephesians also says that we should not remain as children, requiring much protection. We should become adults who can stand on our own. I think it’s marvelous to see mature people in their seventies, eighties, and nineties who still have the curiosity, interest and trust of a little child.

Lou: That does lead to another question: “Is it possible for a person to tell that he or she is in fact growing up?”

Graham: This contrast between genuine love and the behavior of children gives us some ways to tell if we are growing up. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says, “I once thought like a child, but now I’ve given up childish ways” (1 Cor 13:11). Think of how little children boast, and how impatient and demanding they often are. The rest of the chapter, in contrast, explains how a grown-up behaves. Grown-ups love. Love is never rude, never impatient, never arrogant, never boasts, never insists on having its own way.
I think there’s an additional thing to consider. Why am I behaving the way I do? Am I doing it because somebody in authority has told me to, and He has the power to reward and destroy? Or am I sold on Paul’s message of love? In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is describing how Jesus behaved. Not only that, ultimately he is telling us what God the Father is like (John 14:9; 1 John 4:8). In the end, maturity means to want to be like God. As I mature, God doesn’t have to tell me not to murder my mother-in-law anymore (by the way, my mother-in-law died before I met my wife, so this illustration is not personal). I no longer like the idea myself, you see. Eventually we will do what is right because it is right. We become like the God we worship. That’s all part of growing up.

Lou: Are you saying, then, that there is a certain legitimacy in evaluating the way we act, or the way we feel about other people?

Graham: I think if we see no progress at all on these matters over the past year, we should be concerned.

Lou: But there’s a certain danger in focusing on our growth, isn’t there? You don’t grow by trying to grow or by looking at yourself and hoping to grow. And how can you avoid the self-confidence of the Laodiceans, who felt very content with their spiritual situation?

Graham: One of the evidences that one is growing up is that one is becoming less and less arrogant. It’s little children that insist, “My daddy says it, and he’s bigger than your daddy, and therefore it’s true.” It would be a mark of great immaturity for an adult to talk like that. Boasting and arrogance suggest one is still a child. For someone to say, “I think I’ve almost made it now,” suggests they may not have even started. On the other hand, humility and the willingness to listen should become even greater as one gets older.

Questions and Answers (18:8)

Lou Venden: The title of this chapter leads to the question: “How much longer do you think God is going to wait?”

Graham Maxwell: I think that subject is so important that it’s the topic for the entire next chapter: “How Soon Will the Conflict Be Over?”

Lou: The idea of waiting also raises the question: “How is He waiting? Is God Himself uncertain about just how and when things will turn out? How does this relate to God’s knowledge about the future?”

Graham: My personal preference is not to limit God’s knowledge of the past, present or future in any way. I believe He knows precisely when He’s coming, but He speaks of waiting, and in some places He speaks of delay. We’ll cover those texts in the next chapter. The language of waiting indicates to us what is most important to Him. He will not come until the conditions are right. It does not suggest that He’s ignorant of these matters.

Lou: The idea of growing up raises another question: Most congregations include people at different ages and different stages of spiritual growth. Won’t there always be babes in the truth, people who need to grow up, new converts? How could it ever happen that everybody will be all grown up at the very same time? What exactly is God waiting for?

Graham: That’s why we included a whole chapter on perfection (Chapter Fourteen). Some in the church have made perfection almost unattainable, but I would define perfection as growing up, God healing the damage done by sin. Everything depends on what it means to be grown up. One does not have to be thirty or fifty or ninety to be grown up. I’m impressed with the maturity of Jesus at the age of twelve. He was so settled into the truth that, when He talked with the theologians of the day, He understood things better than they did. Perhaps we think maturing takes a long time, because we’ve made the truth too complicated. I think we will be amazed at how young people and new converts will be immovably committed to the truth that God is different than His enemies have made Him out to be. If we rightly understand what it means to be grown up and settled into the truth, it would make this much more attainable in the End.

Lou: I hear you suggesting that what really matters is simple, and yet profoundly important.

Graham: Both of those things, just the way you said it. The simplest statement is about the sublime truth that holds the universe together.

Maturity in the Last Days (18:7)

In the last days, our experience will be very much like that of Job. If we do not have a bigger perspective, based on all sixty-six books of the Bible, we will not be ready for what is coming. Unless we are grounded in the universe-wide understanding of God, the Great Controversy and the plan of salvation, we will be no help to ourselves. We will be very vulnerable when Satan seeks to deceive us, when he tells us that God is an arbitrary, vengeful Deity. And we will be no help to anyone else.

It seems to me that a great deal of current Christian theology is preoccupied with our legal standing before God. Is that why God still waits until we grow up into a much larger understanding of the truth? For without that larger understanding of the truth, we will never survive the time of trouble at the End. That’s why Paul says, “Put on the whole armor that God has supplied, and particularly the armor of truth.” And in Ephesians 6 he places that theme in the context of the Great Controversy:

Put on all the armour which God provides, so that you may be able to stand firm against the devices of the devil. For our fight is not against human foes, but against cosmic powers [Satan and his angels], against the authorities and potentates of this dark world, against the superhuman forces of evil in the heavens. Therefore, take up God’s armour; then you will be able to stand your ground when things are at their worst, to complete every task and still to stand. Stand firm, I say. Fasten on the belt of truth [emphases supplied]. Eph 6:11-14, NEB.

We know what that truth is: the good news about our God.