That the remnant is thus identified indicates that the commandments of God will be especially controverted in this struggle between the dragon and church (see on ch. 14:12; see GC 445-450).

Gr. loipoi, “remaining ones,” from leipō, “to leave,” “to leave behind.” See Additional Note at end of chapter.

 In an endeavor to destroy the Christian church. His supreme effort in this direction is still in the future (see on chs. 13:11-17; 16:12-16; cf. GC 592).

Or, “was enraged.” Failure to destroy the church in the wilderness intensifies the wrath of the dragon, so much so that he sets about with great determination to wage war upon the people of God, particularly the “remnant of her seed.”

 Or, “witness of Jesus Christ.” In the Greek this phrase may be understood either as the “testimony” (or “witness”) Christians bear concerning Jesus or as the “testimony” (or “witness”) that originates with Jesus and is revealed to His church through the prophets (see on ch. 1:2). A comparison with ch. 19:10 clearly favors the latter interpretation. There the “testimony of Jesus” is defined as the “spirit of prophecy,” meaning that Jesus is witnessing to the church through the medium of prophecy.

 The close relationship between the “testimony of Jesus” and prophecy is further demonstrated by a comparison between chs. 19:10 and 22:9. In ch. 19:10 the angel identifies himself as “thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus,” and in ch. 22:9 as “thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets.” Thus, on the reasonable conclusion that these two expressions of the angel are parallel, those who have the testimony of Jesus are identified with the prophets. Since it is the distinctive work of the prophets to bear messages from Jesus to the people (see on ch. 1:1), the interpretation that the testimony of Jesus refers to the “testimony,” or “witness,” that Jesus bears to the church is strongly supported. Seventh-day Adventists thus interpret the passage and believe that the “remnant” will be distinguished by the manifestation of the gift of prophecy in their midst. The “testimony of Jesus Christ,” they believe, is the witness of Jesus in their midst through the medium of the prophetic gift. See Additional Note on Chapter 19.

 Inasmuch as the language and imagery of the Revelation are drawn largely from the OT (see p. 725; cf. on Isa. 47:1; Jer. 25:12; Isa. 50:1; Eze. 26:13; see Additional Note on Rev. 18), a correct understanding of the word “remnant” as used in Rev. 12:17 calls for consideration of its Hebrew equivalents in the setting of OT usage. The three Hebrew words most commonly used for “remnant” are:

 (1) peleṭah (or paleṭ, paliṭ), “what escapes,” “those who escape,” from palaṭ, “to escape,” “to deliver”;

 (2) she’erith (or she’ar), “the rest,” “what remains,” “remainder,” “remnant,” and its verb form sha’ar, “to leave over,” “to be left over,” “to remain”;

 (3) yether, “what remains,” “remainder,” “remnant,” from yathar, “to leave over,” “to be left over.” Instances of the use of these words with respect to God’s chosen people may be classified as follows:

 1. Members of Jacob’s family preserved under Joseph’s care in Egypt are spoken of as “as posterity,” literally, “a remnant” (she’erith; Gen. 45:7). Here, emphasis is upon the fact of preservation. So far as is known the entire family was preserved.

 2. In the midst of general apostasy Elijah protested, “I, even I only, remain [yathar] a prophet of the Lord” (1 Kings 18:22), “I, even I only, am left,” but God declared, “I have left [sha’ar] me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal” (1 Kings 19:14, 18; cf. Rom. 11:4, 5).

 3. A small “remnant” (peleṭah) of the ten tribes “escaped [sha’ar] out of the hand of the kings of Assyria,” who had led the vast majority of the nation into captivity, and remained in Palestine (2 Chron. 30:6). By 722 B.C. Judah alone was “left” (sha’ar) to function as a nation (2 Kings 17:18). Accordingly, it became the “remnant” (she’ar) of the twelve tribes and sole heir to the covenant promises, privileges, and responsibilities that originally belonged to all twelve (Isa. 10:22; see Vol. IV, pp. 26-32).

 4. A few years later Sennacherib conquered all of Judah except Jerusalem, which, in turn, is spoken of as a “remnant.” This “remnant [peleṭah] that is escaped [sha’ar] of the house of Judah” was to “take root downward,” to “bear fruit upward,” and to “go forth” as the “remnant” (she’erith) of God’s chosen people, His appointed instrument for the salvation of the world (2 Kings 19:4, 30, 31; Isa. 37:4, 31, 32; cf. Isa. 4:2; 10:20). God also purposed to “recover” a “remnant” (she’ar) of the Israelites and Judahites that had gone captive into Assyria, and to prepare a “highway” for this “remnant [she’ar] of his people,” as He formerly had when their ancestors left the land of Egypt (Isa. 11:11, 12, 16).

 5. When the “king of Babylon” invaded Palestine a century later, he too “left [yether; sha’ar in 2 Kings 25:22; cf. ch. 24:14] a remnant [peleṭah; she’ar in 2 Kings 25:22]” (Eze. 14:22; cf. Jer. 40:11; Jer. 42:2), which was to “escape” (palaṭ), that is, survive, the sword, pestilence, and famine that accompanied the siege of Jerusalem (Eze. 7:16). But Jeremiah warned that even some of this “remnant” (yether; ch. 39:9), or “residue [sha’ar] of Jerusalem,” that God desired should “remain [sha’ar] in this land,” would later be “removed into all the kingdoms of the earth” (ch. 24:8, 9). Most of this “remnant” fled to Egypt, but Jeremiah warned that “none of the remnant [she’erith] of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there,” should “escape [paliṭ] or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah” (ch. 44:14).

 6. The Lord promised to “leave a remnant” (yathar) of those taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, which would “escape the sword” and “remember” God in the lands of their captivity (Eze. 6:8, 9). A “remnant” (she’erith) of those in captivity (Jer. 23:3; cf. ch. 31:7) would eventually “escape [palat] out of the land of Babylon” (ch. 50:28). Nehemiah speaks of the returned captives as “the Jews that had escaped [peleṭah],” “the remnant [peleṭah] that are left [sha’ar] of the captivity” (ch. 1:2, 3). To this “remnant” (she’erith) God entrusted all the covenant responsibilities and promises (Zech. 8:12; cf. Vol. IV, pp. 30-32), but warned that if they should again break God’s commandments He would consume them, “so that there should be no remnant [she’erith] nor escaping [peleṭah]” (Ezra. 9:14).

 7. Many references to the “remnant” occur in a context that clearly anticipates the Messianic kingdom (see Isa. 4:2, 3; 11:11, 16; cf. ch. 11:1-9; Jer. 23:3; cf. ch. 23:4-6; Micah 4:7; cf. ch. 4:1-8; 5:7, 8; cf. ch. 5:2-15; Zeph. 3:13).

 A composite description of the “remnant” in these and other OT passages identifies the group thus designated as composed of Israelites who survived calamities such as war, captivity, pestilence, and famine, and who were spared in mercy to continue as God’s chosen people (Gen. 45:7; Ezra. 9:13; Eze. 7:16). Repeatedly, this “remnant” was “left [she’ar] but a few of [from] many” (Jer. 42:2; cf. Isa. 10:22). Remembering the true God and turning to Him (2 Chron. 30:6; Isa. 10:20; Eze. 6:8, 9), they renounced the authority of false religious systems (1 Kings 19:18) and refused to do iniquity (Zeph. 3:13). Loyal to God’s commandments (Ezra. 9:14), they were “called holy” and were “written among the living in Jerusalem” (Isa. 4:3). Accepting anew the responsibilities and privileges of God’s everlasting covenant, they “take root downward, ... bear fruit upward,” and “go forth” to declare His glory among the Gentiles (2 Kings 19:30, 31; Isa. 37:31, 32; 66:19).

The “remnant” of OT times is thus composed of successive generations of Israelites—God’s chosen people. Again and again the majority apostatized, but each time there was a faithful “remnant” that became exclusive heirs to the sacred promises, privileges, and responsibilities of the covenant originally made with Abraham and confirmed at Sinai. This “remnant” was the formally appointed group to which God purposed to send the Messiah and through which He proposed to evangelize the heathen; it did not consist of scattered individuals as such, however faithful they might be, but was a corporate entity, God’s visible, divinely commissioned organization on earth. It should also be noted that the various Hebrew terms translated “remnant” do not connote the last of any thing or group of people, except in the sense that, in each instance, those who “remain” are temporarily, in their generation, the last existing link in the chosen line.

 Ever since the days of Abraham there has been “a remnant” according to God’s “grace” (cf. Rom. 11:5).

 God warned those who returned from Babylonian captivity that there would be “no remnant nor escaping” should they again prove disloyal to Him (Ezra. 9:14; cf. Deut. 19:20). Accordingly, when the Jews rejected the Messiah and renounced their allegiance to the covenant (DA 737, 738), the “kingdom of God” was to be taken from them as a people and “given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43; cf. 1 Peter 2:9, 10). This meant the permanent, irrevocable cancellation of their special standing before God as a nation and the transfer of the promises, privileges, and responsibilities of the covenant relationship to the Christian church (see Vol. IV, pp. 32-36).

 In Rom. 9:27 Paul declares that “though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant [kataleimma] shall be saved” (see on Rom. 9:27). He is here applying the term “remnant” of Isa. 10:22 to Jews of his day who, as individuals, had accepted Christ as the Messiah. But it was as members of the Christian church, and no longer as Jews, that they had a right to this title. In Rom. 11:5 he speaks of these Christian Jews as “a remnant [leimma] according to ... grace.” In chs. 9 to 11 Paul presents the Christian church as heir to the promises, privileges, and responsibilities of the everlasting covenant. Thus it is the divinely commissioned successor to Judaism as trustee of the revealed will of God, as the corporate representative of His purposes on earth, and as His chosen instrument for the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of men (see Vol. IV, pp. 35, 36).

 Aside from Rom. 9:27; 11:5; Rev. 12:17, the term “remnant” in the NT (Matt. 22:6; Rev. 11:13; 19:21) is not significant with respect to God’s people. In Rev. 3:2, however, the expression “which remain” is from loipos, the same word translated “remnant” in ch. 12:17.

 A few centuries after Christ the church experienced the great papal apostasy. For some 1260 years papal power more or less effectively suppressed and scattered God’s true representatives on earth (see Additional Note on Dan. 7; see on Dan. 7:25; cf. Rev. 12:6). Through the Reformation of the 16th century (see on ch. 12:15, 16) God purposed once more to lead forth a “remnant,” this time from mystical Babylon. Various Protestant groups served as Heaven’s appointed harbingers of truth, point by point restoring the glorious gospel of salvation. But group after group became satisfied with its partial concept of truth and failed to advance as light from God’s Word increased. With each refusal to advance, God raised up another group as His chosen instrument for the proclamation of truth.

 Finally, with the passing of the 1260 years of papal supremacy (see on ch. 12:6, 14) and the arrival of the “time of the end,” the time when Heaven’s last message (ch. 14:6-12) was to be proclaimed to the world (see on Dan. 7:25; 11:35), God raised up another “remnant,” the one designated in Rev. 12:17 (cf. vs. 14-17). This is the “remnant” of the long and worthy line of God’s chosen people that has survived the fierce onslaughts of the dragon down through history, most particularly the darkness, persecution, and error of the “time, and times, and half a time,” or 1260 “days” of vs. 6, 14. It is God’s last “remnant” by virtue of the fact that it is the appointed herald of His final appeal to the world to accept the gracious gift of salvation (ch. 14:6-12).

 From the very first, Seventh-day Adventists have boldly proclaimed the three messages of ch. 14:6-12 as God’s last appeal to sinners to accept Christ, and have humbly believed their movement to be the one here designated as the “remnant.” No other religious body is proclaiming this composite message, and none other meets the specifications laid down in ch. 12:17. Hence none other has a valid, scriptural basis for claiming to be “the remnant” of v. 17.

 However, Adventists repudiate emphatically and unequivocally any thought that they alone are children of God and have a claim upon heaven. They believe that all who worship God in full sincerity, that is, in terms of all the revealed will of God that they understand, are presently potential members of that final “remnant” company mentioned in ch. 12:17. Adventists believe that it is their solemn task and joyous privilege to make God’s last testing truths so clear and so persuasive as to draw all of God’s children into that prophetically foretold company that is making ready for the day of God.