Great Controversy – Page 379

The first angel's message of Revelation 14, announcing the hour of God's Judgment, and calling upon men to fear and worship him, was designed to separate the professed people of God from the corrupting influences of the world, and to arouse them to see their true condition of worldliness and backsliding. In this message, God had sent to the church a warning, which, had it been accepted, would have corrected the evils that were shutting them away from him. Had they received the message from Heaven, humbling their hearts before the Lord, and seeking in sincerity a preparation to stand in his presence, the Spirit and power of God would have been manifested among them. The church would again have reached that blessed state of unity, faith, and love, which existed in apostolic days, when the believers were of "one heart and of one soul," and "spake the word of God with boldness," when "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."[1 ACTS 4: 32, 31; 2:47.]

If God's professed people would receive the light as it shines upon them from his Word, they would reach that unity for which Christ prayed, that which the apostle describes, "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." "There is," he says, "<SI one <EI body, and <SI one <EI Spirit, even as ye are called in <SI one <EI hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism."[2 EPH. 4:3-5.]

Such were the blessed results experienced by those who accepted the Advent message. They "came from different denominations, and their denominational barriers were hurled to the ground; conflicting creeds were shivered to atoms; the unscriptural hope of a temporal millennium was abandoned, false views of the second advent were corrected, pride and conformity to the world were swept away; wrongs were made right; hearts were united in the sweetest fellowship, and love and joy reigned supreme. If this doctrine did this for the few who did receive it, it would have done the same for all, if all had received it."