page : 1 : 2 :
In
America
Laws establishing
reverence for Sunday will be
enforced in America. (Most states
already have laws regarding the
sanctity of Sunday observance on
their legislative books. However,
these laws are not uniformly
enforced at this time.) At first,
Sunday laws will be defended in
the name of economic necessity,
but as time progresses, the cry,
“We have forgotten
God,” will be loudly
proclaimed as the reason for the
trumpets. The irony of this
matter is man’s solution to
the trumpets will be opposite to
the gospel invitation! At the
very time the gospel is
proclaiming, “Worship the
Creator on His holy day,”
men will be making laws
respecting a day of worship
contrary to God’s law!
Because the majority of people in
America think Sunday is the
Lord’s Day, laws will be
respecting the sacredness of
Sunday. Thus, reverence for
Sunday will appear to be a
reasonable solution to the
problem. It is interesting to
note that today, very few people
actually feel Sunday is all that
sacred and thus keep the day
holy. The trumpets will change
this attitude overnight!
The
centerpiece of Revelation’s
story for America is that Sunday
is not, nor has it ever been, the
Lord’s Day. There is no
support for the sacredness of
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or any
other day in the Bible except the
seventh day. Even more, there is
no commandment explaining how
another day is to be kept if it
is indeed a day of worship.
When laws are made
respecting Sunday as a day of
worship, a number of dissidents
will arise. Some will argue the
loss of “constitutional
rights” and others will
intellectually argue for
“freedom of worship.”
However, neither of these groups
will be able to hold back the
tide of religious zeal.
Another group will
argue that the trumpets have a
specific purpose. The purpose is
to call attention to the worship
of the Creator of earth on His
holy Sabbath, the seventh day of
the week. The resulting
controversy that attends the
issue of worship will totally
eclipse all other controversies
in America such as abortion,
human rights and environmental
problems. (These current
controversies are nothing
compared to the coming
controversy surrounding the
gospel!) As a result of the
trumpets, America will experience
economic, religious and civil
anarchy. Under the guise of
patriotism, America will
repudiate its Bill of Rights!
As the
controversy matures, the issues
become clearly stated. By the
time the fourth trumpet occurs,
survival will be the
all-consuming issue before every
mind. All over the world, the
story of Revelation will be told.
Americans will hear why the seven
first plagues are falling and why
they should obey the Law of God.
They will hear the first
angel’s message that says,
“Worship the Creator
according to His holy law.”
All will be invited to receive
the everlasting gospel and live
by faith. The clarity of
Revelation’s story and the
power of the Holy Spirit will
attend these presentations. The
Bible and the Holy Spirit will
witness to every man, woman and
child. The gospel will reach 300
million Americans in a very short
period of time.
America
chooses the lamblike beast
In spite of the
unmistakable evidence provided
from scripture and the power
attending the first angel’s
message, America will continue
her downward course. She will
make more laws regarding the
sanctity of Sunday and increase
the penalties for disobedience.
Satan personally
arrives upon earth during the
fifth trumpet claiming to be God.
Most Americans (and the world)
will ultimately accept this
villain of mankind as the true
God. The great American motto,
“In God we Trust,” will
be dedicated tot eh lamblike
beast.
Satan knows all
about Revelation’s story.
His greatest thrill will be to
deceive people at a time when the
truth was never so clear. His
goal is simple. He wants to
destroy the world before Jesus
returns. Over a hundred years
ago, a great author summed up the
devil’s plans saying,
“The first day will be
extolled, and the Protestant
world will receive this spurious
Sabbath as genuine. Through the
nonobservance of the Sabbath that
God instituted, I will bring His
law into contempt… Thus, the
world will become mine. I will be
ruler of the earth, the prince of
the world. I will so control the
minds under my power that
God’s Sabbath shall be a
special object of contempt. A
sign? I will make the observance
of the seventh day a sign of
disloyalty to the authorities of
earth. Human laws will be made so
stringent that men and woman will
not dare to observe the seventh
day Sabbath. For fear of wanting
food and clothing, they will join
with the world in transgressing
God’s law. The earth will be
wholly under my dominion.”
Ellen G. White, Prophets and
Kings, page 184.
The wrath
of God – full strength
By the time
probation closes, every person on
earth will have heard the
arguments of the everlasting
gospel and made a decision. The
people of earth will stand in two
camps: those obeying Jesus and
those obeying Satan. Those
obeying Satan have put their
faith in him, and they will join
with Satan in warring upon those
that refuse to go along. Those
receiving the mark of the beast
rejected the clearest
presentations of Bible truth.
These will their backs upon
God’s mercy. Even worse,
these people will passionately
work to destroy the saints and
covet the commendation of the
devil!
Even though Satan
and Babylon conquer, the world
(Revelation 13:7) John saw the
victory of the saints over Satan
and his followers. “And I
saw what looked like a sea of
glass mixed with fire and,
standing beside the sea, those
who had been victorious over the
beast and his image and over the
number of his name. They held
harps given them by God and sang
a song of Moses the servant of
God and the song of the
Lamb…” (Revelation
15:2,3) In losing, they win!
Jesus said, “Whoever finds
his life will lose it, and
whosoever loses his life fro my
sake will find it.” (Matthew
10:39)
The seven
last plagues
The seven last
plagues fall upon all who receive
the mark of the beast. The seven
last plagues will be horrible
reward for the wicked. They will
be rewarded for their cruelty to
God’s people. The seven last
plagues contain the wrath of
God-full strength. In brief, the
plagues are:
1.
Terrible sores
2.
Sea turns to blood
3.
Springs of water turn to blood
4.
Sun scorches people with fire
5.
Satan’s kingdom plunged into
darkness
6.
Armageddon
7.
Second coming / Great fiery hail
stones
These plagues do
not affect God’s people.
“A thousand may fall at your
side, ten thousand at your right
hand, but it will not come near
you. You will only observe with
your eyes the punishment of the
wicked.” (Psalms 91:7,8)
These plagues are beyond the
comprehension of man for the
world has never seen the wrath of
God-full strength! In fact,
Daniel says it will be a time of
trouble as never before! (Daniel
12:1)
Interesting
points
Three points need
to be made:
- Many of
the seven last plagues
parallel the destruction
caused by the seven
trumpets. As the first
four trumpets affected
one-third of the entire
earth, the seven last
plagues affect the entire
world!
- Notice the
parallel. The fifth
trumpet marks the arrival
of Satan and the fifth
plague marks the
“unmasking” of
Satan! Satan, prior to
the fifth plague, blames
the trumpets and the
first four last-plagues
upon the saints and their
“rebellious”
behavior. When Jesus
pours out the fifth
plague, the world sees
that this creature
claiming to be God is not
God-for God would not
destroy His own throne!
See Revelation 16:10,11.
The light of truth
shines. The religious and
political leaders of the
world recognize they have
been following a demon.
This realization starts a
domino-like collapse of
Babylon. John says,
“The beast (Babylon)
and the ten horns you saw
will hate the prostitute
(World Congress). They
will bring her to ruin
and leave her naked; they
will eat her flesh and
burn her with fire.”
(Revelation 17:16)
- To
maintain control of what
is left, Satan rallies
the world one last time
by sending his evil
angels throughout the
earth in a great
deceptive ploy to destroy
the saints, who allegedly
“put the curse upon
his throne.” Satan
entices the kings of the
earth to unite in a
universal death decree.
John says of Satan’s
representatives, “They
are the spirits of demons
performing miraculous
signs, and they go out to
the kings of the whole
world, to gather them for
the battle on the great
day of God Almighty…
Then they gathered the
kings together to the
place that in Hebrew is
called Armageddon.”
(Revelation 16:14,16)
Armageddon
The battle called
Armageddon is the sixth plague.
John warns us that Satan’s
demons will deceive the world
into unity for the final
desolation of the saints through
a universal death decree. Daniel
also saw the intended destruction
of the saints. (Daniel 12: 11)
The kings of the earth agree on
the simultaneous destruction of
those worshiping on Saturday and
gather to the place that in
Hebrew is called,
“Armageddon.”
Remember, in
Revelation 9 the name of the
angel king from the Abyss meant
“destroyer” both in
Greek and in Hebrew. See
Revelation 9:11. Just as this
title describes Satan, the Greek
equivalents of Armageddon come
from two words, “har
megido” and are
translated-Armageddon. These two
words mean “the mountain of
God”, or “the place of
God.”
The world under
Satan’s leadership reaches
the height of rebellion against
God and His saints during the
fifth plague, for the entire
world is agreed upon the
simultaneous destruction of the
very people Jesus is coming to
save. This is the final straw.
Now the wrath of Jesus knows no
restriction. The world is
planning to destroy the
“apple of His eye.”
Rebellion has brought the world
to “the mountain of
God.” Now the world will
know, as in Elijah’s day on
Mount Carmel, who is the true
God. The world will see Him and
face His true wrath. John says,
“The seventh angel poured
out his bowl into the air, and
out of the temple came a loud
voice from the throne saying,
‘It is done.’ Then
there came flashes of lightening,
rumblings, peals of thunder and a
severe earthquake. No earthquake
like it has ever occurred since
man has been on earth, so
tremendous was the quake. The
great city split into three
parts, and the cities of the
nations collapsed. God remembered
Babylon the Great and gave her
the cup filled with the wine of
the fury of his wrath. Every
island fled away and the
mountains could not be found.
From the sky huge hailstones of
about a hundred pounds each fell
upon man. And they cursed God on
account of the plague of hail,
because the plague was so
terrible.” (Revelation
16:17-21)
John also says
that the people of earth cry out:
“They called …to the
mountains and the rocks,
‘Fall on us and hide us from
the face of him who sits on the
throne and from the wrath of the
Lamb! For the great day of their
wrath has come, and who can
stand?’” (Revelation
6:16,17)
Paul tells us the
splendor of Christ’s coming
destroys all the living.
“And then the lawless one
(the man of sin) will be
revealed, whom the Lord Jesus
will overthrow with the breath of
his mouth and destroy by the
splendor of his coming.” (2
Thessalonians 2:8)
Zephaniah says,
“Neither their silver nor
their gold will be able to save
them on the day of the
Lord’s wrath. In the fire of
his jealously the whole world
will be consumed, for he will
make a sudden end of all who live
in the earth.” (Zephaniah
1:18)
The earth
is left desolate
The hail that
falls upon the earth at the
second coming is like the fiery
hailstones that fell upon the
earth during the first trumpet.
The basic difference between them
is size and the amount of
devastation. The hail of the
first trumpet burns up 1/3 of the
earth (grass, trees, etc.) while
the hail of the seventh plague
burns Babylon up. John says that
the beast (Babylon, having seven
heads and 10 horns) and the False
Prophet (Babylon’s eighth
king, its lamblike leader-the
devil) are destroyed by this fire
at the second coming.
“…The two of them were
thrown alive into the fiery lake
of burning sulfur. The rest of
them were killed with the sword
that comes out of the mouth of
the rider on the horse, and all
the birds gorged themselves on
their flesh.” (Revelation
19:20,21)
The rider on the
horse is King Jesus. John says,
“I saw heaven standing open
and there before me was a white
horse, whose rider is called
Faithful and True. With justice
he judges and makes war. His eyes
are like blazing fire, and on his
head are many crowns… On his
robe and on his thigh he has the
name written: King of Kings and
Lord of Lords.” (Revelation
19:11-16) At this time, the
conquering that Jesus set out to
do with the opening of the first
seal is finally completed!
The saints taken
to heaven
The second
coming will be a scene beyond
expression. As Jesus draws near
the earth, the righteous dead are
resurrected to behold Jesus. Paul
says, “For the Lord himself
will come down from heaven, with
a loud command, with the voice of
the archangel and the trumpet
call of God, and the dead in
Christ will rise first. After
that, we who are still alive and
are left will be caught up with
them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air…” (1
Thessalonians 4:16,17)
It is important to
note that Jesus does not stand
upon the earth at the second
coming. The saints meet Him in
the air! They return with Jesus
to heaven for one thousand years.
John says of the righteous dead,
“They came to life and
reigned with Christ a thousand
years. The rest of the dead did
not come to life until the
thousand years were ended.”
(Revelation 20:4,5)
What do the saints
do for a thousand years? John
says, “I saw thrones on
which were seated those who had
been given authority to
judge… they will be priests
for God and of Christ and will
reign with him for a thousand
years.” (Revelation 20:4,6)
For one thousand
years, the saints will open the
books and review the judgment
process of God. They will be
fully satisfied with the eternal
decision of each person. No
doubts will remain as to the
fairness and judgment of Jesus
for each person. Meanwhile, the
earth is desolate. The wicked are
dead and Satan and his angels are
put back into the Abyss where
they wait for divine justice.
Satan
lives on
If Satan is the
False Prophet mentioned in
Revelation 19, and the False
Prophet is burned up at the
second coming, how can he remain
alive during the millennium? The
answer is that Satan (like Jesus)
is not limited to the body
of a man. Remember, Satan was
allowed out of the Abyss (or
spirit world) during the fifth
trumpet. He takes the form of a
man, but Satan is still an angel.
At the second coming,
Satan’s apparition of a man
claiming to be God is destroyed,
but the evil angel king and his
demons remain alive until the end
of the thousand years. At the
time of the second coming, John
says, “And I saw an angel
coming down out of heaven, having
the key to the Abyss and holding
in his hand a great chain. He
seized the dragon, that ancient
serpent, who is the devil, or
Satan, and bound him for a
thousand years. He threw him into
the Abyss, and locked and sealed
it over him, to keep him from
deceiving the nations any more
until the thousand years were
ended. After that, he must be set
free for a short time.”
(Revelation 20:1-3)
The
saints returned to earth
When the thousand
years of research into God’s
character are finished, the New
Jerusalem and the saints return
to earth with Jesus. The second
resurrection now takes place. The
first resurrection took place at
the second coming, and the second
resurrection occurs a thousand
years later. Jesus said,
“Blessed and holy are those
who have part in the first
resurrection. The second death
has no power over
them…” (Revelation
20:6)
The Bible is very
clear that there are two
resurrections: one to eternal
life and one to eternal death.
Jesus said, “Do not be
amazed at this, for a time is
coming when all who are in their
graves will hear his voice and
come out – those who have
done good will rise to live, and
those who have done evil will
rise to be condemned.” (John
5:28,29)
After the wicked
are resurrected at the end of the
thousand years, Satan is released
from the Abyss (spirit world) for
a short time. He immediately
stirs the vast multitude into
rebellion. He convinces the
numberless crowd that Jesus
intends to do them great harm. He
incites a dramatic uprising to
destroy the New Jerusalem and the
saints that have come down to
earth. (Revelation 20:7-10)
As the wicked rush
with rage upon the holy city,
Jesus speaks. The multitude stop
in their tracks. Silence falls
upon the breathless mob for about
half an hour. (Revelation 8:1)
Jesus, as King of Kings and Lord
of Lords, speaks. The anger and
rebellion of the numberless mob
dissipates. As lightening pierces
darkness, the wicked realize they
stand before their Maker. He is
not a tyrant. He is not angry. He
speaks with great authority.
Jesus explains the
plan of salvation to the waiting
multitude. As the wicked behold
the love of God, each person
understands the economy of
salvation. Each person’s
life is presented from the open
books of record. The wicked see
their deeds just as God saw their
deeds. There is no room for
excuses or self-justification.
There is no place to run. He who
sees the hearts and reads the
motives presents each life record
of sin and rebellion for what is
really is with unvarnished
clarity. The wicked know they are
condemned. They now know who
Jesus is, why He died on Calvary
and why they cannot be saved. The
wicked clearly see that they are
outside the gates of the holy
city because they chose evil
rather than righteousness.
At the end of this
revelation, every knee bows
before Jesus with deepest
emotion. The wicked bow before
the justice of Jesus and the
righteous bow before the mercy of
Jesus. Jesus said, “Before
me every knee will bow; by me
every tongue will swear. They
will say of me, ‘In the Lord
alone are righteousness and
strength.’ All who have
raged against him will come to
him and be put to shame. But ion
the Lord all descendants of
Israel will be found righteous
and will exult.” (Isaiah
45:23-25)
Every knee will
bow before Jesus. Those who bow
in faith before the close of
probation will be saved. Those
who bow after the close of
probation will be lost. In both
cases, all creatures will
recognize that, “In the Lord
alone are righteousness and
strength.”
Notes
