Category Archives: 1st Angel’s Message

The First Angel’s Message

1. Angels Preaching to the Earth

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 1, mp3

The three angel’s messages are God’s warnings to his people in the last days however these warnings cannot be properly heeded without first understanding the great central truth from which all other bible truths cluster, this is the atonement of Jesus Christ. As we delve into the three Angel’s messages of Revelation 14 and the fourth angel’s message of Revelation 18, this wonderful and incomprehensible sacrifice that Christ made for us will become enlarged in our minds that we begin to understand the deep things of God in an intelligent, practical and living reality. God has elected to communicate the deep things about Himself to the human race. The scriptures reveal that these angels are actually physical movements of people which carry out and heed the messages given for their time. Read the rest of this entry

2. The Godhead

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 2, mp3

We are to glorify God in a way that is pleasing to Him so as to know Him. To know God is to understand the deep things He has revealed about Himself to us through the scriptures.  One of the deep things that God delights in us understanding about Him, is that He is three and yet He is one.

1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Through this understanding we realise that where one of the Godhead dwells, the other two persons are perfectly represented.  The Holy Trio are three separate beings who are so close to one another and share such an intimate interwoven love relationship that even when they are apart, they are the perfect manifestation of one another.  Christ during his time on this earth was the perfect representation of God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  We must understand that when we enter into a relationship with Christ, we become partakers in this great love relationship that the Godhead shares.

The scriptures reveal that one day those who become one with Christ will share in His inheritance and become joint heirs with Him.  If we are to be joint heirs with Christ and to be bestowed with the gifts that the Father has bestowed upon Him, we will be brothers and sisters with Christ and sons and daughters of God.  In our budding understanding of the great love and unity of the Godhead, let us further comprehend that we too may be partakers in this wonderful, intimate relationship that the Godhead share and have extended to the human family. Read the rest of this entry

3. God the Father

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 3, mp3

The angels are the messengers of God that communicate to humanity.  Humanity then takes the role of these messengers and proclaims the word of God to us in the three angel’s messages. Our second study was the revelation of the God whom the first angel’s message proclaims to us that we should worship.

Revelation 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Read the rest of this entry

4. God’s Holiness

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 4, mp3

In this is study we explore through the scriptures what it really means to fear God and give him the glory for the hour of his judgment has come. The hour of his judgment incorporates both God judging us as well as God being judged. If it is the righteousness of God that works in us to transform the character and create a people zealous of good works then it’s God’s righteousness within us and the resultant activity of that righteousness that will be subject to the judgment. How does God take a sinful human being and train him up in his ways of righteousness? Read the rest of this entry

5. God’s Grace

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 5, mp3

God has pledged the facility of the Godhead for the benefit of our salvation. We are to worship God, give him the glory and worship him in spirit and in truth. Our understanding of his will assists us to worship him in spirit and in truth. When we are true to our vowels he says I will receive you. The Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, these three dignitaries of heaven pledge themselves that every facility shall be given to us.

When we have accepted Christ, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit have pledged ourselves to serve God, the Father, Christ, and the holy Spirit–the three dignitaries and powers of heaven–pledge themselves that every facility shall be given to us if we carry out our baptismal vows to “come out from among them, and be . . . separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing.” When we are true to our vows, he says, “I will receive you” (MS 85, 1901). {6BC 1075.8}

Keep yourselves where the three great powers of heaven–the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit–can be your efficiency. These powers work with the one who gives himself unreservedly to God. The strength of heaven is at the command of God’s believing ones. The man who makes God his trust is barricaded by an impregnable wall. {HP 176.5}

What a wonderful thing when we submit ourselves to the heavenly Father. He is Abba Father the one in whom I can be comforted and protected by. An impregnable wall with such a God as our creator being our Father, the one who pities and cares for us. We have nothing to fear. We have seen the degree of holiness that we are to inherit because he is our Father and we are to be heirs of God. We are actually able to inherit God’s holiness. We want to enlarge and explore this grace in the heart of the Godhead in the very heart of the Father this grace and God’s activity to make us inheritors of his holiness. The word grace is qualified in the Crudens concordance as “the free mercy of God, or the “enjoyment of his unmerited favour”. Merriam-Websters Dictionary: “Unmerited Divine assistance provided for the regeneration and sanctification of the human race.” It is a favour that he extends to us – his holiness. Read the rest of this entry

6. God the Son

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 6, mp3

The first person of the Godhead became the facility of a Father to us in His effort to reach and save humanity. We now look at the facility that the second person of the Godhead provided for us when He took on the role of the Son. The Word of God laid aside all His glory and divinity and made Himself of no reputation to become begotten as a babe in Bethlehem.  This is God’s grace and mercy toward us and the wonderful facility that the Word of God pledged Himself for humanity.  We will come to realise that it was at an infinite cost and painful process that the Word of God became restricted to a seed in a woman’s womb, to grow up experiencing childhood, adolescence and manhood in the embodiment of sinful flesh.

During His life here on earth Jesus the Son was tempted in every respect that we are tempted but He overcame that He might be our example, the author and finisher of our salvation.  Through obedience He demonstrated his unwavering love to God, even to the death of the cross.  Through His sufferings He became perfected not only to be our sin bearer, but to demonstrate that sin in sinful human flesh can be overcome through our continual combined effort with the Godhead and the facilities promised to us IF we will come out from among them, be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing. The life and death of Jesus Christ is the preaching of the everlasting gospel and God’s abounding grace toward us. Read the rest of this entry

7. The Holy Spirit

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 7, mp3

There are three dignitaries of heaven. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit who have pledged themselves to offer every facility in our recovery of spiritual salvation.  The first person of the Godhead pledged himself as a ‘Father’ that we might be his sons and daughters.  The second person of the Godhead the Word became ‘begotten’ of the Father as a Son that we might be coheirs with him. The third person of the Godhead the Holy Spirit, pledged himself the facility of ‘Another Comforter’.  In the following study we will identify why Jesus said that it was expedient for him to go away and for the Holy Spirit to come in his place as another comforter.  To enlarge in our minds that the Holy Spirit is the third intelligent, creative person of the Godhead, we will study his qualities relevant to our human needs as they are revealed through the scriptures. The Holy Spirit our comforter is bestowed with the unique and intimate ability of imparting the deep knowledge of God and of Jesus into the very core of man.  He has pledged himself the facility of a comforter for our benefit that through this imparted knowledge we might have eternal life. Read the rest of this entry

8. The Fall of Man

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 8, mp3

In this study we will examine the communion that first existed between God and man in Eden. God created man upright with no bias toward evil and as long as man remained loyal to the divine law, his conception of God’s immeasurable love toward him could only deepen and grow.  But when Adam transgressed the law of God, man became infected with a bent to evil in his mind which left unaided he was powerless to overcome.  When all should have been lost through sin, God in His divine love and foresight laid out a plan of salvation to reach and save us even before the foundation of the world.

Through the appreciation that it is us who have become separated from God through sin, the enmity and fear of God that is naturally ingrained in our carnal mind is understood in its proper light.  The antidote to our fallen human way of thinking can only be received through the Great Heavenly Physician.  He laid down the life of His son to redeem us that through the mind exercise of this redemptive program that we might begin the work of healing the mind and reconciling ourselves back to God. After the foundations of the world were laid the Godhead begins the process of creating man;

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

The word man here involves both male and female.  They are separate entities and yet they are called man.  In like manner God is three and yet He is one.  The Godhead is at work in the salvation of man: Read the rest of this entry

9. Christ’s Atonement

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 9, mp3

We have sought to understand giving God the glory so that we can worship Him who made heaven and earth in spirit and in truth with reference to the everlasting gospel.  In our current study entitled ‘Christ’s Atonement’ we explore another component of God’s grace in providing the healing antidote for a fallen sin-sick race.  In His manifold grace toward us God pledged us the facility of His Son Jesus Christ that by His death we might be redeemed and that by His life we might be reconciled or made at one with the Father. We will learn in all practical reality how to apply the healing remedy of the atonement to re-create our mind anew. Read the rest of this entry

10. Christ the Man

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 10, mp3

Jesus became at one with us to cure our sinful condition. Jesus demonstrated the at-one-ment in the embodiment of his own sinful flesh because in him dwelt both the divine and human nature. This is also the ingredient of everyone who is re-born of the Spirit.

Ezekiel 33:10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins {be} upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Read the rest of this entry

11. Jesus Our Ransom

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 11, mp3

The first angel message declares that we need to fear God and give Him the Glory for the hour of His judgment is come.  In order to understand what is meant by the hour of God’s judgment, we first need a correct understanding of the everlasting gospel.  The atonement is the very hub of the everlasting gospel and it is through the atonement process that the God of heaven, the second person of the Godhead became at one with humanity.  The activity of Jesus becoming at one with us is the remedy for our sin sick minds.  We now look at the atonement of Jesus the man in terms of his becoming a ransom for us.

We were captives in the strongman’s house condemned to death but Jesus through the immeasurable cost of his sinless life and death was found worthy to be our ransom. The condition of man after the fall was hopelessly captive.  Our condition is so deplorable that we are now powerless to release ourselves from it.  In this sense, we truly are captives. Read the rest of this entry

12. The Old and the New Covenant

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 12, mp3

Jesus became a ransom to pay out the captives from sin and death. Though kidnapped and held in captivity to sin and to death by Satan, the ransom was paid to release us. The manner in which Jesus accomplished this was that he himself became a captive of the strong man. Jesus entered into the strong man’s house and he came into the captivity and was held in a body of sinful flesh. It was through this process that he was entombed into death but he broke the fetters of both these captivating forces. He broke the fetters of sin in the flesh and he broke the fetters of death because in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Read the rest of this entry

13. Messianic Prophecies

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 13, mp3

The second person of the Godhead the facility of ‘The Word’ was provided for our salvation.  This enlarged to us that the work of Jesus as our ransom was of such a degree and that he actually had to become the very package of paying us out of our captivity.  He did this by becoming one with us and by dying the death that we have to die.  This beautiful ransom will not be effective for us unless we have entered into the experience of the Old Covenant leading on into the New Covenant.  This is a process whereby we actually need to make an agreement with God that we will promise to keep His law but then fail miserably in our sincere efforts to keep it.  It is only through this experience that we can actually come to understand what the ransom is really all about.  Our failure to keep the Old Covenant provides us with a deeper appreciation of our great need for Christ’s atoning work through the New Covenant and it is the depth of our appreciation of the atonement that determines its effectiveness in our lives.  In the scriptures the New Covenant is also referred to as the everlasting covenant or the everlasting gospel which is the very presentation of the first angel.  As we commence our study we will bring to mind the detail of the covenant as entailed in Jeremiah. Read the rest of this entry

14. The Sanctuary

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 14, mp3

In seeking to comprehend the first angel’s message we have been searching deep into the everlasting gospel to see what the first angel is preaching. We discovered previously that the first angel is actually the proclamation of our Lord Jesus Christ through the everlasting gospel.  In this study we explore the work of Jesus as the anointed one- the messiah through the sanctuary prophesies. Christ’s messiahship as the anointed one involved Jesus coming to this earth and carrying our His anointed work in atoning for the estranged sinful human race. This was revealed by God aforetime that we might have a sure hope in the prophecies of the everlasting gospel.  Read the rest of this entry

15. The Marriage Supper

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 15, mp3

Each member of the Godhead pledged themselves to become a facility for us, to help us out of our sinful fallen condition so that we might become holy as God is holy.  Mankind became estranged from God through sin.

Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

This scripture reveals that it is our iniquities that have estranged us from God.  The sins that commenced with Adam and continued right down through the line have created a separation of the precious relationship between man and his creator.  As we explored earlier in Adam’s experience, He became afraid of God because the sin he committed caused the love in his heart to be removed.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

The fear in Adam and Eve arose from of a condition of the heart that lost its love.  The love had been driven out of their lives through sin but despite this condition, God’s love was not affected towards them.  The Word entered into a decree with God that He would leave his lofty position in heaven to become the facility of Jesus Christ the Son here on this earth.  The mission of ‘The Son’ on this earth would be to rekindle the love in man which he had lost towards his creator.  The perfect love of Jesus would cast out all fear.  This was the messianic mission of Jesus and it is beautifully recorded in John 12. Read the rest of this entry

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