May,23, 2026 Sabbath-School Review

Derek West

Source material: Seven Trumpet Luminescence, Book, 5.2; Dec, 2019

This week we covered pages 198 to 212 inclusive.  For this blog, I offer six points of special commentary; however, before going further, I should reiterate the opening Text.  It reads as follows:

¹⁵“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. ¹⁶And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God.  ¹⁷ Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. ¹⁸And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. ¹⁹ And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” –Rev 11: 15-19

What I find most amazing in this text now inspires more commentary.  The Seventh Trumpet sound is accompanied by several “great voices”.  These voices announce the kingdom of the Lord and His christ.  These “great voices” in heaven evidently are vocalized from earthly men who have been relocated to heaven. They seem especially jubilant about the final victory of Christ.  This tells me that they had invested an historic passion for His advocacy and for His worldwide authority.  Affirmation of this is the fact that they call Him, “our Lord”.  Since during His administration, Christ appeared as God to His faithful men showing that He had power of attorney to represent God, then when they say “God”, we can know that they were making reference to Christ. The first point of precision then is that Christ was the Power for whom they saluted:  Within their hearts,

They had great zeal and hope in His final victory.  Otherwise, they would know what we now know: that Father never could be defined as One “which art, and wast, and art to come…”  Father has always ruled; so, with the blast of the last trumpet and under the auspices of the Seventh Seal, they would not be just now finding the occasion to broadcast their celebration of His, Father’s power. 

Since so far as we could know, Christ has struggled against the forces of evil with the fall of Adam, then these “great voices” must have been men of highest stature in earth’s history, and now being in heaven, they are classed among those whom we call the Enochians, a name attributed to the ancient patriarch, Enoch.  This further suggests that among that vast throng of heavenly-located saints, estimated to be about 300,000 people, there are subdivisions of rank which narrow by the ascendancy of authority.  The identity of their ranks is made more obvious by the Bible clues given to us.  So, we can discern that those who are called “great voices” —after all, it says, “and there were great voices in heaven”— are men of superior and highest stature above the total troop of Enochians and even above the 24 elders. Which brings us to a second point: To pinpoint these expatriated men of Christological valor …

We merely need to search the Scriptures to identify them, at least identify some of them.  The logic being that if Father considers them to be great voices, then they would have had to have been influential in the work of Bible history.  Could there be a great champion for Christ whom the Bible does not pinpoint?  I think not! For it is a book that defines for us the Lord’s heroes.  Thus, I conclude that Enoch himself must be one of them.  Added to his name must also include Moses and Elijah —perhaps even John the Baptist.  I include John the Baptist because he was called a voice in the wilderness, and we know that the Lord called him a great voice by saying, “²⁸ … Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist…” —Luke 7: 28.  These are at least four men from our planet, some we know are in heaven, who are also men renown to have a voice of highest regard, a “great voice”. 

For the “great voices”, we are not given any other identifying characteristic except that they call Christ their Lord, and they are joyous to declare that Christ received His empowerment in the earth.  I pause in wonderment to bring a third message home: Since you too fit into a religious society —not in heaven but on earth— then …

How powerful is your voice of advocacy for Christ? Except for your level of commitment —be you male or female, adult or child— there is no reason why you too cannot be considered by Father a great voice on earth.  This I ponder because, today more so than any time before, we now have knowledge of the name of the Lord making this day the greatest of all days.  Thereby does the Lord call us, and none others, His jewels.  Being young in that message, you still have time to amplify the vociferations of your advocacy.  The time for this work of amplification is now at hand; are you ready?  This reality check is applicable to the tithe payers for how could they otherwise be considered great if they refuse to financially boost, by their arduous work, the advancement of the Lord’s house, His heavenly pavilion?  By this medium alone can they be considered the men of greatest influence.  Are you then ready to receive your reward of honor today, the day of Kingdom exultation?  I encourage you by saying, be not intimidated in the reality that, unlike the great voices in heaven, your earthly voice is now merely a whisper.  The great voices of heaven started in the same way, but they have had thousands of years to intensify the volume, the pitch, and the resonance of their call for righteousness.  In fact, such comes by God’s provisions as you also intensify your celebrative commitment to His day of victory.  After all, until this broadcast, neither you nor they, the “great voices in heaven”, have had the added assistance of the mustard seed to increase the volume and bellicosity of the voice.  In Joel two, you are described as quote, “a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.” —Joel 2: 2.  So magnificent are you to be considered that Christ prayed for your honor when He said, Father,

“²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; ²¹ That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. ²² And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: ²³ I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” —John 17: 20-23.

Therefore, to stich home this third lesson, I submit: The greatness of the voice directly corresponds to the level of adoration for the words dictated to us through the Testimony of Jesus as defined by the 11 disciples.  But in making my next lesson, the fourth of this blog, I remind all that …

There is in heaven an expansive group called the 24 elders.  They are distinct from the great voices who lead out in worship, though we have not much more with which to identify them.  But of the 24 elders, it says of them:

“¹⁵ And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. ¹⁶ And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God…” —Rev 11: 15-16

We know that they are distinguished from the total body of the other saints called Enochians simply by virtue that they are called elders.  The definition of an elder is no surprise to us, and it has not changed: They are saints who have earned distinction of honor above their companions.  The great voices in heaven therefore must be an exclusive class even among them.  But we can safely assume that at least some of the 24 elders may include those earthly, Hebrew elders after the Exodus.  Think for a moment: How did they at first become distinguished anciently and under Moses’ administration to become lofty elders in Israel?  They were so elected so that Moses could make them the Lord’s special witnesses, and I quote to you his words:

“¹⁹ Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel … ²¹ And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: … ²² Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.” —Deut 31: 19, 21, 22

This song of Moses boosts the evidence of Christ’s valor.  Surprisingly, it is sung in heaven, and this indicates that some of these elders who first learned it from Moses began an orchestrated choir cantata in heaven.  It says,

“² And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. ³ And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. ⁴ Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.” —Rev 15: 2-4

What better opportunity could there be for Moses to certify the Lord’s mercy than men who witnessed Israel’s rise and then her fall and then her final rise over the course of church history?  Do not become entangled by a history of sin for that is not the subject: It is the day of witness vociferations.  Witnesses can become converted from sin by an honest accounting of the records.  Thus, it is not inconceivable that some of the elders who are defined as witnesses in Deut 31, can, at the end of history, give validation to Israel’s path from prodigality to revival and reformation.  Such may be their only vocation in the Gospel.  They merely need to be beforehand resurrected so that they may add evidence to the Lord’s historic work.  We know that, with the resurrection at Calvary, many witnesses came forth. 

“ ⁵⁰ Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. ⁵¹ And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; ⁵² And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, ⁵³ And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” —Matt 27: 50-53

At Calvary, they went into the holy city —and for what other purpose but— to witness.  Afterwards, being taken to heaven, they also serve the same mission.  If they did not serve as “great voices”, they could at least be considered regular witnesses to the drama of human salvation.  Thus, they would, for this cause, be given higher rank over the other Enochians, the saints who were of gentile extraction.  This rank would warrant the title, elders —not just because of their witness credentials but also because they are men of the covenant of Moses.  Therefore, when the Lord tells the universes, “I told you so”, they can add their voice to say “Amen”. 

But, in final analysis, we come to the fifth point of this blog: The great voices lead out in the celebration of the Lord to also extol …

Another personality called the Lord’s christ. This manifests that they learned that Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob now has a separate christ of His own.  This means that, as did the Lord serve as Father’s power of attorney yielding to Him the title, Melchizedek; likewise, the son of David serves in the same function for Christ.  Father rules over all; thus, none need to presume Father’s direct involvement of educating His subjects; He merely needed Christ to serve that function in His stead before the universe.  Likewise, with the God of earth, Christ, He makes the son of David to be His own power of attorney, His Melchizedek, the voice who represents His will to humanity.  Of this mission we are assured in several places in the Bible; I will cite only one found in 2^nd Samuel.  It says,

“¹² And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: ¹⁵ But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. ¹⁶ And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.” —2Sam 7: 12-16 .   

The marvel in all of this is that none of these themes were known in any religious circles until the Lord projected this light to all humanity by way of the mustard seed.  Yet, the great voices in heaven now declare it as a reason for celebration.  They celebrate the Lord and His christ.  And whom can we thank for this keystone message of rejoice?  We can thank the tithe payers who have delivered this meat to the Lord’s pavilion.

After-sabbath-school discussion, we lingered with issues of ponderment.  And the core of that issue leads to our final point of emphasis:

The Intellectual Acuity of the Angels.  Some expressed perplexity about the work and the status of the angels.  The book Seven Trumpet Luminescence was tributary to this quandary since therein it quoted EG White about the demeanor of the angels after Calvary.  She said,

“Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted …The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.” 

“Yet Satan was not then destroyed. The angels did not even then understand all that was involved in the great controversy. The principles at stake were to be more fully revealed..” –EG White, Desire of Ages, 761.2, 762.0 

She says, “The angels did not understand”, but our challenge is not to map the quality of angelic comprehension —for any to make, as a matter of primary focus, the analysis of angelic comprehension means that they have been diverted from their primary work.  We have not been given the mission to gauge the full range of angelic variable IQ: though EG White had the authority to allude to that subject to explain the impact of Calvary on the universe.  So why are any perplexed by her statement about their understanding? We must remember, the Plan of Salvation was given for our graveyard exculpation: We are under the penalty of death, not the angels; yet we fail to understand those themes for much of our very own IQ limits!  Is it not then challenging enough to absorb the intricacies of God’s workings for our salvation?  Therefore, unable to yet fully comprehend the refinements of our own redemption —we do not even fully appreciate the varying levels of human intellect amongst ourselves— how then dare we venture beyond that fog to assume the luxury of mental exhaustion in an attempt to master angelic IQ and the speed of their comprehension!? We know that Father is omniscient, but EG White did not make a claim of Father’s failed comprehension. She spoke of angelic understanding. We must accept the statement as it stands when she says that it took Calvary to convince them about the wickedness of Satan.  The burning question should be, do we ourselves know of Satan’s wickedness?  If so, why has it taken so long for Christians to, as a matter of public decree, denounce Masonry? Thus, we should ponder, why have we not yet been fully convinced of Satan’s deceptive powers? 

How is it that we do not understand, after 10 generations of Adventism, all that was involved in the Great Controversy?  Let us therefore focus on what is written in the Bible to know that if even Christ Himself had lessons to learn, then why would not the angels under His authority likewise have even more lessons to learn?  Paul gives more insight; so we must accept his rendering as valid Bible insight worthy of our ponderment.  He said that on Calvary, Christ Himself learned the lessons of obedience.  From Him, I quote:

“ ⁷ Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; ⁸ Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; ⁹ And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; ¹⁰ Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. ¹¹ Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing… ¹ Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection…” —Heb 5: 7 – 6: 1.

Only after Calvary did Christ become the Author of human salvation.  Christ, the Dove who abode upon Jesus for three-and-one-half years gave evidence that He, by Father’s endorsement, can define the intricacies of our redemption as the Author of human salvation.  If beforehand, “though he were a Son”, He did not know the intricacies of obedience, then none other did either, except the All Wise, the Father.  And even more to the point, if we have more to learn about Melchizedek whom Paul called Christ, saying, “ ¹⁰ Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec … ¹ Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection…”  then in this finding, though we escape the flames of hell, there is still a part of us that must be burned: We must rise to the great challenge to burn our inherited preconceptions.  In this way, we may be able to unite with the Enochians to become great voices both in heaven and in earth. 

I look forward to closing the book Seven Trumpet Luminescence with you in the upcoming Sabbath School Session. 

Derek