03/05/2026
What happens first? The latter rain/final Loud Cry or Sunday laws?
The love of Christ, the love of our brethren, will testify to the world that we have been with Jesus and learned of Him. Then will the message of the third angel swell to a loud cry, and the whole earth will be lightened with the glory of the Lord. {6T 401.1}
How will it happen? By brethren who have the love of Christ, the love of their brethren. There will be a people on earth who are so imbued with love and affection to God that they are sealed with the seal of God, the Sabbath
God’s people were strengthened by the excellent glory which rested upon them in rich abundance and prepared them to endure the hour of temptation. I heard everywhere a multitude of voices saying, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” {EW 278.2}
This is the loud cry in conjunction with the latter rain, which is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is the glory of God in character and practice and in pen and voice. Any portion of that is not sufficient; it has to be the entirety of it. Through this loud cry the world has been subdued and then, when the loud cry has been given, there comes the enforcement of the Sunday law and the death decree.
In the late 1880s, especially in places like Tennessee and Arkansas, there were Seventh-day Adventists arrested, fined, and imprisoned for working on Sunday. Some cases did involve chain gangs, which was a common punishment in the American South at the time.
A key example often cited is R. M. King, who was imprisoned in Tennessee for Sunday labour. There were also others like W. B. Armstrong. These weren’t isolated incidents.
The “loud cry… has already begun” in a preliminary sense. But this is described as the beginning of light, not the full final outpouring.
The loud cry and Sunday laws don’t happen as one first and then the other, but as events that develop together and intensify each other. “The loud cry of the third angel has already begun” and that “this is the beginning of the light whose glory shall fill the whole earth,” showing that the work of the loud cry starts before the final crisis fully breaks. At the same time it’s placed in context of rising Sunday legislation, saying “the time of test is just upon us” while referring to the introduction of a Sunday law bill, which shows that the beginning of the loud cry and the agitation for Sunday laws are happening in the same period.
The proclamation itself brings about opposition, stating that “the people of the loud cry are going to meet such opposition” and that “they will be brought before kings and great men of the earth,” which directly links the giving of the message with persecution and legal pressure. This means the loud cry is not something that waits until after Sunday laws, but rather something that provokes the very conditions that lead to enforcement. The loud cry reaches its greatest strength in crisis conditions, saying “it’s going to come in the darkest moments of earth’s history,” which shows that its full power is manifested during the time of pressure, not before everything unfolds.
We can’t wait for Sunday laws before responding. “many people think when the Sunday law comes they are deluded,” which destroys the idea of a clean timeline where nothing significant happens until legislation is enforced. Instead the work is already underway and increasing.
The loud cry begins first in an initial phase as light increases and the message starts to swell. As that message grows it brings opposition and agitation which contributes to the rise of Sunday laws. Then under that pressure, in what they call the darkest moments, the loud cry reaches its full global power. So rather than a simple sequence, there is a buildup where the loud cry and Sunday law crisis develop together, interact with each other, and finally reach their peak at the same time.
It is no time now for God’s people to be fixing their affections or laying up their treasure in the world. The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation in the decree enforcing the papal sabbath will be a warning to us. {5T 464.3}
We sometimes think future, she is writing about our future but she was writing about the future at their moment. It was being written that the Sunday laws were right upon them in which they would cause that all the world would ultimately keep Sunday. The siege of Jerusalem by the roman armies and the decree of enforcing the papal Sabbath are one package.
Those whom God has appointed to give this message will be brought before kings and great men of the earth, who, with those who are at enmity with you and your faith and character, will be misrepresented before them. 6T 129.2-3
These men of high positions and the authorities of the land, they don’t know you. How will they come to know you? It says to you, “Those who are at enmity with you are going to be reporting you.”
As we become reported to those in authority, “God will help you to be the means of bringing the light before those who are called the great men of the earth. If you have studied the Bible, if you are ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, your enemies will not be able to gainsay your wisdom.”
That’s how the loud cry will take place. That’s the method by which God’s people are going to be brought before the authorities. Those who know us are going to put us in.
We are to let the circumstances bring us to the forefront, not we running ahead of God. Because when you see all these atrocities around you, don’t you want to go and tell them straight? Many people think that this is the way to do it.
Amos 5:10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Because the people are like this—they hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. That’s the way that people are out there. You don’t dare not really tell them clearly what’s wrong and right.
Amos 5:11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. 12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
As that is happening, as they hate to be corrected, as that is happening, what will the—what will God’s faithful people do?
Amos 5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time.
This almost sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? When the world is in utter darkness and they’re putting pressure on God’s people by their corrupt ways, God’s people are called upon to be careful here. If you are prudent, you will zip up. You will be silent.
The loud cry reaches power during crisis conditions, not before everything is calm.
Many people think when the Sunday law comes they are going to resist the attacks of the Protestants and Catholics, they are deluded as they don’t know what the real issues are. The real issues are my own, our own, our natural condition. If we are going to be the church triumphant to proclaim the loud cry, we will never be amongst that company unless we are engaged in this.
Kings, governors, and great men will hear of you through the reports of those who are at enmity with you, and your faith and character will be misrepresented before them. But those who are falsely accused will have an opportunity to appear in the presence of their accusers to answer for themselves. They will have the privilege of bringing the light before those who are called the great men of the earth, and if you have studied the Bible, if you are ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, your enemies will not be able to gainsay your wisdom. RH, April 26, 1892. {Mar 253.3}
This is the actual method by which the loud cry will take place. “Arise, shine” doesn’t mean I am going to become boastful about things, but because I have proceeded through the apprenticeship of Christ in my life with Him, there comes a point in time when God is going to make us prominent, not we ourselves. He will make us prominent through perplexities. It is through people who are at enmity with us that we are going to be brought before the courts. That’s how it’s going to happen. The world has already been so geared through the events of laws that take away the specific beliefs that God’s people are to have under the three angels’ messages that they will become prominent because of those very processes. We will be brought into prominence by those who are watching us, our own relatives, friends, church members.
But as the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold, that is what will bring the faithful people into prominence. While God’s people are receiving the latter rain and their characters are being perfected and they are reflecting the glory of God, that in itself will be a catalyst to cause many religionists to say, These are getting too powerful. You can see this. People don’t like the power of the gospel in people. They want to just have everybody under an umbrella of their making. What actually transpires is a simultaneous move of the latter rain and the loud cry stimulating and arousing the people, which will then cause the enforcement of the Sunday laws.
But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before. {GC 605.3}
We recall, as we saw in the previous studies, that the loud cry comes because the people of God have received the latter rain, and the latter rain is the teacher of righteousness according to righteousness. The Holy Spirit imparts the truth of righteousness in the lives of the people, and the loud cry comes as a consequence of the people receiving the teacher of righteousness.
Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
The lead up to the arising and shining is that the Lord, who is working for His faithful people, implants into His people His words, which He puts into their mouth, and it will be embedded and sealed into them so that they will not depart out of their mouth. Those are the people that He has prepared so that when the world is in gross darkness, they are called upon to arise and to shine. As the Holy Spirit has been working in their lives in the former and the latter rain, they are finally to arise and shine so that the Lord’s glory shall be seen upon them.
His glory upon them is that which is identified in Revelation 18:1. There is a ministry, a people, who have such an influence upon the planet:
Revelation 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
s this powerful glory of God is manifested, a people living up to the light that will shine in all its glory, what is the consequence of the loud cry?
2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
This is a clear indication that, if you are going to really meet up with God’s expectations, if you are going to live godly in Christ Jesus, it will inadvertently cause persecution. That is what this study is about, Sunday laws in consequence of the loud cry. The loud cry is that there will be standing a people so powerfully representing the glory of God that they will suffer persecution. In the time of the end, the time of the three angels, it will call down a worldwide reaction. Why is it going to be a worldwide reaction?
The whole world has been prepared, conditioned under the papacy and apostate Protestant America, to accept the Sunday as a day of worship. As these faithful people arise with the loud cry, the whole world is aroused because they are all conditioned. Here are these people with the glory of God shining upon them and through them. It’s a startling effect. It arouses the whole world.
The world is geared against these people who have been giving the loud cry, and who are demonstrating the power of the Lord. The great majority is geared against it by these powers because it has been caused that way. What will happen?
Movements are at work to bring us to the front, and if our theories of truth can be picked to pieces by historians or the world’s greatest men, it will be done. {Ev 69.1}
While we lovingly and kindly work together with Jesus and do all the work that Jesus wants us to do, if we are not brought into prominence, we are unnoticed, and we can worship God freely without problems, but movements are at work to bring us to the front. What are those movements?
We must individually know for ourselves what is truth, and be prepared to give a reason of the hope that we have with meekness and fear, not in a proud, boasting, self-sufficiency, but with the spirit of Christ. We are nearing the time when we shall stand individually alone to answer for our belief. Religious errors are multiplying and entwining themselves with Satanic power about the people. There is scarcely a doctrine of the Bible that has not been denied.–Letter 6, 1886. {Ev 69.2}
Sequence:
• Early movement / awakening
• → beginnings of the loud cry (light starts increasing)
• Latter rain begins to fall on prepared people
• → empowers the message
• Loud cry increases in power
• → strong proclamation of Sabbath truth
• Reaction from churches and world
• → Sunday laws are pushed/enforced
• Crisis intensifies
• → loud cry reaches its full global climax
