Three Angels’ Messages: The Heart and Soul of the Adventist Church

The “Three Angels’ Messages” is a common and all-too-familiar phrase for most Seventh-day Adventists. While most have heard this term in the Adventist environment, many frequently misunderstand or are unaware of what these messages are, why they matter, and how they apply to our practical Christian experience.

On October 6, at the 2022 Annual Council, Kenia Reyes-de León, Youth Ministries department senior editorial assistant, and Justin Kim, then Sabbath School and Personal Ministries assistant director, cohosted the Three Angels’ Messages Committee Report. Throughout their presentation, Reyes-de León and Kim interviewed leaders from the General Conference (GC) Three Angels’ Messages Committee and other GC leaders who introduced resources available to equip people of all ages to share this biblical truth with the world. 

The Three Angels’ Messages are based on Revelation 14. While these messages are meant for the entire world, 2022 Annual Council delegates learned that approximately 40 percent of the world is still unreached. Since Jesus called everyone to be part of the gospel mission, many methodologies have been applied to sharing this message.

Nevertheless, understanding the messages’ content is critical for effective evangelism. Elias Brazil de Souza, Biblical Research Institute (BRI) director and committee secretary, explained, “The Three Angels’ Messages touch on creation, salvation, the Christian life, and the eschatological hope we have. The essence of the Bible message is contained here.”

Guillermo E. Biaggi, a GC vice president, corroborated the messages’ significance, noting that they are proclamations of hope for a hurting world. De Souza added, “They are not just a chapter in the Bible, but they encapsulate God’s final message to the world. As such, they have a global impact.”

“It’s going to take an entire church to proclaim this message,” Michael Ryan, general field secretary for Global Mission and committee chair, said. He added, “We have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers … as a church, we must go.”

Equipping Members for Evangelism

Many members may be willing to respond, “I Will Go,” to Christ’s commission to proclaim the gospel. However, limited knowledge or resources can often hinder church members from actively participating in evangelism. For this reason, Reyes-de León and Kim highlighted numerous GC-produced resources designed to equip people of all ages and walks of life with the knowledge and tools needed to share these messages of hope within their communities.

Alberto Timm and Frank Hasel, BRI associate directors, shared the new Ellen G. White compilation titled The Three Angels’ Messages: God’s Proclamation for the Last Days. This new compilation contains all of White’s quotes related to the topic, highlighting Revelation as its foundation. This resource is designed to provide the global church body with informative insights about this critical topic.

Hasel highlighted the importance of the global church having a solid, biblical interpretation of God’s Word, noting that “without sound hermeneutics, the Three Angels’ Messages will not fly.” For this reason, the BRI developed Biblical Hermeneutics: Sound Perspective and a pamphlet called Creation and the Three Angels’ Messages. With these resources, the BRI intends to help church members apply sound biblical principles to their understanding of the Bible. It also reinforces the connection between Christ, creation, and these messages.

Involving Members of All Ages

Understanding and sharing the gospel is not limited to adults and church pastors. It is a responsibility that can involve even the youngest members of local church congregations. In 2020, the GC Children’s Ministries department created a series of three animations for children about sharing the Three Angels’ Messages. The videos include subtitles for the hearing impaired and will soon include American Sign Language to meet their needs further. Linda Koh, former GC Children’s Ministries director, explained that the series was developed with accessibility for all in mind.

Koh also highlighted Three Angels and You, an eight-part Bible study set intended to help children understand these critical messages and why it matters to them. These illustrated studies include interactive activities and discussion questions to help children engage with the topic. “We hope to eventually develop more resources to help children know a lot more about these end-time messages,” she said. 

Women also have an essential responsibility in spreading the Three Angels’ Messages. Heather Dawn-Small, GC Women’s Ministries director, said, “Women are generally not inclined to study prophetic books.” Therefore, the department created an attractive, comprehensive, simple-to-understand, seven-lesson guide titled A Reason for Courage: A Study of Revelation 14:6-13. Dawn-Small concluded her segment by saying, “It is our hope that women realize the role God has for them in proclaiming this message.”

Almir Maroni, GC Publishing Ministries director, introduced the Great Controversy Project 2.0, a global initiative that invites people of all ages to share the news of the Great Controversy with the world. This project encourages local church members worldwide to distribute physical and digital copies of White’s The Great Controversy to people within their local communities.

Currently available in 110 languages, The Great Controversy was named the missionary book for 2023-24. In a video presentation, the narration stated, “This project seeks to reach every home.” As a result of this project, “every member can be involved in sharing hope with the world.”

Digital evangelists and content creators have not been forgotten. Sam Neves, GC Communications department associate director, expressed, “The most important social media pages are those that belong to our members.” For this reason, they developed an open-source, royalty-free website where digital evangelists can obtain videos, music, animations, scripts, and more. Digital evangelists can incorporate these resources into their content as they share the Three Angels’ Messages on their social media platforms. 

Reaching the Cities and the Unreached

“While more than 50 percent of the world’s population live in cities, they can often be one of the loneliest places for most,” explained Jim Howard, Sabbath School and Personal Ministries (SSPM) director. For this reason, SSPM developed the Sidewalk Evangelism initiative to share the gospel with people living in major cities. 

Although Sidewalk Evangelism doesn’t necessarily require a sidewalk, this form of evangelism takes place in highly populated areas. Here, people are handed an invitation to Bible studies or seminars. Howard describes Sidewalk Evangelism as “mingling, inviting, studying, and repeating.” This approach makes it possible to reach more people in less time. 

Howard also announced the availability of GC funding for divisions participating in Sidewalk Evangelism initiatives. He invited delegates to consider how they could implement Sidewalk Evangelism within their divisions. “The hope is that every division will start by sponsoring 10 churches in 10 different cities that will be actively involved in Sidewalk Evangelism,” he said. The long-term goal is to engage people in Bible studies, leading them to give their hearts to Christ. 

During this segment, several speakers also shared their experiences of participating in Sidewalk Evangelism in New York City. Ramon Canals, GC Ministerial Association secretary, reminded attendees, “We should never underestimate the power of an invitation. When we extend an invitation, it’s an opportunity for them to be saved.” Ted N. C. Wilson, GC president, and his wife, Nancy Wilson, emphasized the importance of becoming involved with Mission to the Cities because that it is where people are. 

We must also share the Three Angels’ Messages with the unreached. Michael Eckert, GC Publishing Ministries associate director, shared that the effectiveness of evangelism to unreached groups increases when resources are tailored for unreached people. Translating these resources into other languages and making them available to people worldwide will allow the gospel to reach greater parts of the world. For this reason, the GC Publishing Ministries developed the SCORE (Supplying Contextualized Open-Access Resources for Evangelism) Project. The SCORE Project provides globally accessible, contextualized, downloadable, multilingual, royalty-free, searchable, and printable resources.  

Initially, the department was producing evangelistic resources in 50 languages. However, upon learning that over 20 million people speak diverse languages within the 10/40 Window and have no access to Adventist publications in their native languages, the publishing department took on the challenge and now produces evangelistic resources in over 85 languages. According to Eckert, the SCORE Project is currently reaching five unreached people groups: Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Secularism. 

Jonathan Walter, GC Ministerial Association media and communications manager, shared information about the Threeangels.info website, a hub containing resources to understand and share the Three Angels’ Messages. While the plan is to expand the website’s languages, resources are currently only available in English. As the website continues to grow, Walter invited Annual Council delegates to connect with the GC Ministerial department to share other resources that could add value to the website. 

With over 77 channels, Hope Channel International (HCI) is also involved in sharing these end-time messages, having created a new channel brand, 3AM: Morning Is Coming. Vyacheslav Demyan, HCI vice president of programming, stated, “We want to reach non-Adventists. The new channel’s name was inspired by the idea that while I may be in troubles, I can rejoice because hope is coming.” 

Due to the channel’s evangelism focus, HCI has been working on translating eight sermons and TV programs into over 70 languages, including Romanian and Urdu. Furthermore, HCI aims to train and equip nearly 630 young people for digital evangelism. 

Finalizing the report, Erton Köhler, GC executive secretary, noted that in the last 20 years, the worldwide Adventist Church grew in overall membership by 10 million members, resulting in a total of 22 million members to date. He asked, “How can we make it so that our members can understand and be equipped to share these messages? Are you sharing and preaching the Three Angels’ Messages in your regions?”

In conclusion, Köhler said, “God has called the SDA church to proclaim these final three messages.” Therefore, let the vision, mission, and focus of all world church members be to proclaim these messages throughout the entire world faithfully. Jesus is coming. Get involved. 

The original version of this story was posted by Adventist News Network.