Articles by Pastor Joseph Costa

THE THREE ANGELS’ MESSAGES

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 21:49:09 GMT

THE THREE ANGELS’ MESSAGES

A few years prior to the end of the period of 2300 years (Daniel 8:14), shortly before Christ as our High Priest entered into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, there began a worldwide revival in expectation of the soon coming of Christ. Faithful Advent believers recognized the message of Revelation 14:6-8 as being entrusted to them by God. Although the majority among the Christian denominations rejected the solemn message of preparation, the first angel’s message, and thus became Babylon (confusion), the second angel’s message, serving as a warning, prepared the way for the third. Revelation 14:9-12. Since then, the everlasting gospel truth, which includes the commandments of God, is being proclaimed to all peoples, nations, and tongues. The gathering of the last church before the second coming of Christ is under way.

The closing work of the Gospel is represented in prophecy as being accomplished by three angels with important messages of present truth for mankind. These angels symbolize the people of God (movements) who proclaim the warnings entrusted to them. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, these messages call for men to make their final decision between truth and error and prepare to stand before the judgment seat of God and to be ready for the second coming of Christ.

“The three angels of Revelation 14 represent the people who accept the light of God’s messages and go forth as His agents to sound the warning throughout the length and breadth of the earth.”—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, pp. 455-456.

The First Angel.
The message of the first angel, having the “Everlasting Gospel,” calls upon all nations to fear God, give glory to Him, and worship Him as the Creator. Romans 1:16; Mark 13:10. It also points to the fact that the time of the investigative judgment has come. Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14; Matthew 12:36; Romans 14:12; 1 Peter 4:5, 17. Many, having forgotten God, felt that they were the rulers of their own destiny. Therefore, their allegiance must be called back to their Maker. It is their responsibility to obey God instead of pleasing themselves. This message points to the work of restoration of the original principles and institutions given by God in the beginning. Revelation 14:6, 7; Acts 3:19-21.

The Second Angel.
After the great Deluge in the time for Noah, God promised never again to destroy the earth by a flood. Unregenerate man disbelieved the promise of God and began to build the tower of Babel, which resulted in confusion. Genesis 11:1-9. During the early centuries of the Christian era, compromise between Christianity and Paganism led to the development of the papacy as prophesied in Revelation 13:1-10. In the book of Revelation, Babylon, represented by the woman riding upon a scarlet colored beast, together with her harlot daughters, is a fitting symbol of all apostate professed Christian denominations that have turned away from the law of God. The message of the second angel announces the fall of Babylon because they rejected the message of the first angel and denounces the corruption of the Protestant churches which are following the example of the Roman Catholic church. Apostatized Christianity, united with the State, will bring about persecution of the faithful believers and the final crisis. Revelation 14:8; Revelation 17:3-6.

The Third Angel.
The third angel’s message is a strong warning against worshipping the beast and his image and receiving the mark of the beast (deliberate Sunday-keeping). “The papacy has attempted to change the law of God. The second commandment, forbidding image worship, has been dropped from the law, and the fourth commandment has been so changed as to authorize the observance of the first instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. But papists urge, as a reason for omitting the second commandment, that it is unnecessary, being included in the first, and that they are giving the law exactly as God designed it to be understood. This cannot be the change foretold by the prophet. An intentional, deliberate change is presented: ‘He shall think to change the times and the law.’ The change in the fourth commandment exactly fulfills the prophecy. For this the only authority claimed is that of the church. Here the papal power openly sets itself above God.”—Great Controversy, p. 446.

This angel identifies the remnant people of God living in the last days. When Protestantism in America shall call upon the secular powers to enforce Sunday observance (the false sabbath), then an image to the beast will have been formed. All will then be called to decide between showing allegiance to the law of God on the one hand or accepting the decree of the beast (the Antichrist) on the other hand. And God will honor the choice of each individual. He will render eternal life to those who, in spite of the death decree, keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and eternal death to those who disobey Him. Revelation 14:9-12; 13:11-18.

“The third angel’s warning is: ‘If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.’ ‘The beast’ mentioned in this message, whose worship is enforced by the two-horned beast, is the first, or leopardlike beast of Revelation 13–the papacy.”—The Great Controversy, p. 443.

The Image of the Beast.
“The ‘image to the beast’ represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas.”—The Great Controversy, p. 445.

“The professed Protestant world will form a confederacy with the man of sin, and the church and the world will be in corrupt harmony.”—SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 975.

“When the Protestant churches shall unite with the secular power to sustain a false religion, for opposing which their ancestors endured the fiercest persecution; when the state shall use its power to enforce the decrees and sustain the institutions of the church–then will Protestant America have formed an image to the papacy, and there will be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin (ST March 22, 1910).”—SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 976.

The Mark of the Beast.
“The sign, or seal, of God is revealed in the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, the Lord’s memorial of creation. The mark of the beast is the opposite of this–the observance of the first day of the week. This mark distinguishes those who acknowledge the supremacy of the papal authority from those who acknowledge the authority of God.—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 117.

“John was called to behold a people distinct from those who worship the beast and his image by keeping the first day of the week. The observance of this day is the mark of the beast (Letter 31, 1898).”—SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 979.

The third angel identifies the remnant people of God by the following three main characteristics:

(a) The patience of saints, which is developed under great tribulation. Romans 5:3, 4; James 1:3; 1 Peter 1:7.

(b) The keeping of the commandments of God, including the seventh-day Sabbath, which is the seal of the living God and the special sign between Him and His people. Matthew 5:17-20; Luke 16:17; James 2:10-12.

(c) The upholding of the faith of Jesus which is the everlasting gospel and faith in His power to save to the uttermost those who accept Him as their personal Saviour. Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 1:9; 2:1-6; Ephesians 2:8.

“What constitutes the faith of Jesus, that belongs to the third angel’s message? Jesus becoming our sin-bearer that He might become our sin-pardoning Saviour. He was treated as we deserve to be treated. He came to our world and took our sins that we might take His righteousness. And faith in the ability of Christ to save us amply and fully and entirely is the faith of Jesus.”—Selected Messages, bk 3, p. 172.

“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.

“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.”—Selected Messages, vol. 2, pp. 104-105.

“Prophecy declares that the first angel would make his announcement to ‘every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.’ The warning of the third angel, which forms a part of the same threefold message, is to be no less widespread. It is represented in the prophecy as being proclaimed with a loud voice, by an angel flying in the midst of heaven; and it will command the attention of the world.”—The Great Controversy, pp. 449-450.

“The three angels of Revelation 14 are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, symbolizing the work of those who proclaim the first, second, and third angels’ messages. All are linked together. The evidences of the abiding, ever-living truth messages, that means so much to the church, that have awakened such intense opposition from the religious world, are not extinct. Satan is constantly seeking to cast a shadow about these messages, so that the people of God shall not clearly discern their import, their time and place; but they live and are to exert their religious power upon our religious experience while time shall last.”—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, pp. 17-18.

“The true understanding of these messages is of vital importance. The destiny of souls hangs upon the manner in which they are received.'”—Early Writings, pp. 258-259.

THE SANCTUARY

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 21:49:08 GMT

The sanctuary

The Lord directed the Israelites to build a sanctuary, or tabernacle, which was a type of the heavenly ministration. Exodus 25:8; Psalm 77:13. It was composed of a court with an altar of burnt offerings and a laver for the priests to wash themselves before entering the sanctuary. The tabernacle itself contained two apartments, the holy place and the most holy place. The service of the priests connected with the sanctuary was a representation of the work of Christ, our great High Priest, in the true tabernacle “which the Lord pitched and not man.” Hebrews 8:1-5; 9:19-28.

At His ascension to heaven, Christ began His intercessory ministry in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, where, for over 1800 years, He offered the merits of His blood as an atonement for all confessed sins. John 1:29; Romans 5:8-11; 8:34. In 1844, according to the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, Christ entered upon the second and final phase of His ministry in the most holy place to cleanse it from the sins of the repentant sinners.

This work is also called the investigative judgment. Revelation 11:18, 19; 20:12; 22:12. Although the lives of all who have their names written in the book of life, both from among the dead and the living, are to be examined, only the ones who have confessed and forsaken their sins will have their names retained in the book of life and their sins blotted out from the books of record. Daniel 7:9-14; 1 Peter 4:17, 18.

When Christ, through the merits of His own blood, removes the record of the sins of His faithful children from the sanctuary at the close of human probation (Revelation 22:11, 12), He will place those sins upon Satan, the scapegoat, who, in the execution of the judgment, must bear the final responsibility for all the sins that he has caused the saints to commit. Leviticus 16:8-10, 21, 22.

“As a people, we should be earnest students of prophecy; we should not rest until we become intelligent in regard to the subject of the sanctuary, which is brought out in the visions of Daniel and John. This subject sheds great light on our present position and work, and gives us unmistakable proof that God has led us in our past experience. It explains our disappointment in 1844, showing us that the sanctuary to be cleansed was not the earth, as we had supposed, but that Christ then entered into the most holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and is there performing the closing work of His priestly office, in fulfillment of the words of the angel to the prophet Daniel, ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’”—Evangelism, pp. 222-223.

“The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise, it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time, or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill. Every individual has a soul to save or to lose. Each has a case pending at the bar of God.”—The Great Controversy, p. 488.

“The correct understanding of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the foundation of our faith.”—Evangelism, p. 221.

“We are now living in the great day of atonement. In the typical service, while the high priest was making the atonement for Israel, all were required to afflict their souls by repentance of sin and humiliation before the Lord, lest they be cut off from among the people. In like manner, all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart. The light, frivolous spirit indulged by so many professed Christians must be put away. There is earnest warfare before all who would subdue the evil tendencies that strive for the mastery. The work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Everyone must be tested and found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” — The Great Controversy, pp. 489-490.

“Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For many years this work has been in progress. Soon—none know how soon—it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Saviour’s admonition: ‘Watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.’ Mark 13:33. ‘If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.’ Revelation 3:3.

“When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. Christ in the Revelation, looking forward to that time, declares: ‘He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.’ Revelation 22:11, 12.”—The Great Controversy, pp. 490-491.

SUNDAY LAW IN POLAND. KING OF THE NORTH’S FIRST STEP

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 21:49:07 GMT

SUNDAY LAW IN POLAND. KING OF THE NORTH’S FIRST STEP

On January 31, 2018, new legislation hoping to help Polish families to spend more time together and to give shop workers rest on Sunday has been signed into law by President Duda, and will come into force in March. As of March 1, shops and markets will be closed on two Sundays per month; in 2019 only one Sunday a month will be open for shopping; and starting in 2020, there will be no Sunday shopping, with a few exceptions—including for the weeks leading up to Christmas, and for small independent traders. The legislation, worked out by the conservative government and the Solidarity trade union, is expected to draw protests from large Western supermarket chains that are the main target of the law. A large part of their profit is earned on weekends.

Duda praised the law on Tuesday as giving children a chance to be with parents and giving shop workers some needed time off. The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said of the law in 2017: “We don’t want Poles to work the longest hours, we want them to work efficiently for decent pay. We want them to have more time for their families, for their loved ones… this is the goal of our development strategy.” The change resembles the first significant pushback against decades of erosion of Sunday as a day of rest.

In a country where 88 percent of the people profess the Roman Catholic faith, the new law received wide support from church leaders who argue it will greatly benefit the family life of Polish workers. What happens in Poland should not be dismissed as insignificant to the rest of Europe and the world. Remember, the fall of communism began with a movement in Poland.

In 1984 the Papacy (a.k.a. “The King of the North”) made a “Holy Alliance” with the U.S.A. under Ronald Reagan, when for the first time the US sent an ambassador to the Papal See. In 1989 the King of the North used the Holy Alliance and the Polish Labor Union “Solidarity,” to battle with atheistic Communism (the King of the South— the power that gave the Papacy its deadly wound through the atheist French Directory in 1798). The 1989 attack came like a “whirlwind” (Daniel 11:40,41) and within two years Atheistic Communism fell in twenty-two countries— including the Soviet Union! Now, 29 years later, the King of the North is firmly establishing its presence in Poland where the attack began with the enactment of this Sunday Law. Poland want to recreate its medieval glory (when the Catholic Church was entwined with the state) and make Poland great again.

In October of 2017, a million Poles gathered around Polands’s 2000 mile border to pray to Mary (who is dead and resting in the grave) for protection of the country from the onslaught of Muslim immigration.

Will other countries follow this lead? There are still 5 or 6 countries that still hold to Communism. The Second Angel’s message predicts that these countries will fall as well so that “All nations will drink of the wine of Babylon.” Rev. 14:8. The European Union flag itself—12 stars on a blue background— symbols of Catholic Mary—suggest that all of Europe will indeed follow Poland’s lead to recreate a revived Holy Roman Empire. The pendulum is shifting.

Meanwhile, in Poland, the foolish servant of Matt. 24 is eating and drinking with the drunken. Agents of Rome within the SDA Church in Lublin, Poland with the SDA pastor (center wearing a red tie). This was a worship meeting and ecumenical dinner sponsored by the SDA Church in Poland to show the interreligious unity. From left to right: The Roman Catholic priest Jerzy Wazny; the Roman Catholic priest Andrzej Gontarek; Baptist pastor Rendy Hacker; Seventh-day Adventist pastor Mariusz Maikowski; the Catholic theologian Jacek Pelica, of the John Paul II Catholic University; the Roman Catholic priest Slawomir Pawlowski; and the Catholic theologian Tomasz Ozog of the John Paul II