John Thiel, Third Angel’s Message, study 5, mp3

The latter rain is the teacher of righteousness according to righteousness. As the Holy Spirit worked through the angels it could be identified in the first angel’s message as the former rain, which prepared the way for the third angel’s message, which then becomes the latter rain. The people who were under the teaching of the first angel’s message understood the work of justification and sanctification, of Christ and His righteousness, all this apprenticeship that they entered into, as being the activity by which they were to gain perfection. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit they were ultimately to receive the finishing touch in the latter rain, which was their graduation, as it were. As we have seen through the statements of the Spirit of Prophecy, only the people who had been prepared and purified could receive the latter rain. This is summarized here:

Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding power, which works in the children of men unto obedience to God, or unto disobedience. {RC 294.2} Read the rest of this entry →