Prophecy
12
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The second angel’s message will
unite with the first angel’s
message and together, they will
become an endless source of conflict
and contempt for the 144,000. At
first, the solution offered by
Babylon will seem reasonable to most
people on Earth.[104]
Communal suffering will unite the
religious and political leaders of
the world. Local communities
will want God’s wrath to
cease. A spiritual revival will
spring up within each religious
system on Earth like the world has
never seen. People will turn to their
religious experts for an explanation
but the people will quickly learn
that the leaders know nothing about
God, His Word, or His plans.
Like the 144,000, the leaders of
Babylon will demand that everyone
must worship God, but one question
will be on everyone’s
heart. Who speaks for
God? How does a world of
diverse religions appease and worship
one angry God?
False
religion always exhibits two
characteristics: First, it leads
laymen to think that God is impressed
with ritual, formal piety, and
worship services; and second, the
last resort of false religion is
force. Actually, the opposite
is true in both cases! In terms
of salvation, rituals and sacraments
are meaningless to God. They
cannot produce salvation. Jesus
is our Judge. He determines our
salvation[105] after
listening to the testimony of His Two
Witnesses. The Holy Spirit
tells Him if a person has a humble
and contrite spirit.[106] Jesus
only accepts the offerings of a
cheerful giver.[107] Jesus
sees the motives of each heart.
The Holy Spirit reads each mind.[108] The
Lord loves honesty and integrity.[109] Jesus
hates sexual immorality, impurity,
lust, evil desires, and greed.[110] Jesus
is pleased when a person admits and
confesses his sin[111] and
makes restitution when/as necessary.[112] Jesus
has promised eternal life to every
overcomer because faith and works are
inseparable![113] Faith
in God means loving God enough to
trust and obey Him no matter what the
consequences may be.[114]
The first
angel’s message will demand that
everyone worship the Creator.
Genuine worship is an act of
obedience. As God and Creator,
Jesus has the prerogative to command
His subjects to obey Him, but we can
choose rebellion. If a person
is willing to put His faith in Jesus
and obediently follow His teachings,[115] Jesus
will give that person peace and
serenity, not the temporal peace that
the world gives.[116] Jesus
has the ability to satisfy each
soul. He offers a better life
and the gift of salvation to every
person who will abide in Him.[117]
The second
angel’s message will be
painfully divisive. It will
drive a big wedge between
relationships. In many cases,
mother and father, brother and
sister, husband and wife will take
opposing stands. People cannot
be saved according to church
membership. People cannot be
saved according to family
membership. Each person has to
be saved according to his own
faith. Remember Jesus’
words? “Anyone who
loves his father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me; anyone who
loves his son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me; and anyone
who does not take his cross and
follow me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my
sake will find it.”[118]
The leaders
of Babylon will be adamant:
Everyone who refuses to obey
Babylon’s dictates will be
caught and severely punished.
They will do this because they think
that God’s wrath against mankind
will not cease until all forms of
offensive behaviors are
eliminated. Ironically, the
leaders of Babylon will not realize
that their actions are an insult to
God! The 144,000 will rebuke
the leaders of Babylon. They
will speak plainly and with
impressive authority. They will
speak against the laws created by
Babylon and this will put the honest
in heart in a very difficult
situation. Conflict will be
everywhere. Multitudes will
find themselves in a valley of
decision. The consequences will
be real: Obey God and be
punished by Babylon or obey Babylon
and be punished by God. This
contest will require substantial
faith in God or submission to Babylon
will be inevitable.”
Why Does God
Permit Persecution?
Contrary to
what many Christians believe, Jesus
will put the final generation through
an intense testing
process. Jesus will
permit the final generation to
determine its eternal destiny by
choosing whom it will obey.
A test of obedience always reveals
who has faith in God. Through
the ages God has allowed His people
to be tested because testing keeps
them close to Him. “In
fact,” Paul wrote,
“everyone who wants to live a
godly life in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted.”[119] Why
must it be this way? When there
are no trials and temptations, the
carnal nature will quickly focus on
self and wander away from God.
Earlier in this book, we learned that
God handed the saints over to the
little horn for 1,260 years
(538-1798).[121] Prior
to this, God handed His people over
to the Romans who severely persecuted
them and even earlier, most of
Christ’s disciples were martyred
for their faith. Ever since
Jesus lived on Earth, His followers
have been persecuted.
Christians living in Europe and the
United States over the past two
hundred years have been largely free
of religious persecution and this
explains, to a great extent, the
rapid deterioration of Christianity.
Consider the
following story of faith: King
Nebuchadnezzar received a vision from
God indicating that successive
kingdoms would follow the kingdom of
Babylon. In his vision, the
king saw a man made of different
metals. After receiving the vision,
the king could not recall the vision
and he demanded that his religious
experts reveal the forgotten
vision. They could not help
him. Later, Daniel revealed and
interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s
vision.[121] At that
time, Daniel and his three friends,
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were
given high positions over the wise
men of Babylon. When word got out
that the king had a vision indicating
another kingdom would eventually
overthrow Babylon, the king faced an
enormous problem. He quickly
moved to discredit the truth by
erecting a giant image made of solid
gold. (He wanted everyone to
believe that his kingdom, represented
by the head of gold, would endure
forever.) He called the leaders
of his empire together and demanded
that everyone bow down and worship
the golden image. When the
music sounded everyone bowed down
except Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. (Daniel did not
attend the service.) Their
refusal to bow down and worship the
image delighted the wise men and they
immediately approached the king to
taunt him with the rebellion of his
Jewish officials:
“At
this time some astrologers came
forward and denounced the Jews. . .
. ‘But there are
some Jews
whom you have
set over the affairs of the province
of Babylon– Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego– who pay no
attention to you, O king. They
neither serve your gods nor worship
the image of gold you have set
up.’ Furious with rage,
Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego. So these men
were brought before the king,
and Nebuchadnezzar said to them,
‘Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego, that you do not serve
my gods or worship the image of gold
I have set up? Now when you
hear the sound of the horn, flute,
zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all
kinds of music, if you are ready to
fall down and worship the image I
made, very good. But if you do not
worship it, you will be thrown
immediately into a blazing furnace.
Then what god will be able to rescue
you from my hand?’
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
replied to the king, ‘O
Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to
defend ourselves before you in this
matter. [You well know
that we worship The Creator of Heaven
and Earth and He does not permit His
subjects to bow down to idols or
worship them. [122]] If
we are thrown into the blazing
furnace, the God we serve is able to
save us from it, and he will rescue
us from your hand, O
king. But
even if he does not, we want you to
know, O king,
that we will not serve your gods or
worship the image of gold you have
set up.’ Then
Nebuchadnezzar was furious with
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and
his attitude toward them
changed. [Because the
governors of his empire were
witnesses to their defiance, he had
no choice but to order their death.]
He ordered the furnace heated seven
times hotter than usual and commanded
some of the strongest soldiers in his
army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego and throw them into the
blazing furnace.”[123]
The fire was
so hot that it killed the soldiers
that cast Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego into the furnace, but the
three men came out of the furnace
without even a hint of smoke in their
hair or clothing. What an
amazing miracle! Although God
can do marvelous things, He does
not usually honor the faith
of His faithful children with such a
show of supernatural victory.
Normally, Jesus is much more modest
in dealing with the problems of His
saints. He often resolves
problems in subtle ways or He may
even choose to let His saints perish
and honor them later at the
resurrection. His thoughtful
and wise approach to each situation
eliminates many problems later
on. For example, if one
desperate believer experiences a
miracle and another desperate
believer does not, what does this say
about God to both believers and those
who intimately know the circumstances
in both situations? A miracle
can have a terrible fallout.
The believer without the miracle may
conclude that he is unworthy, that
God does not love him, or he lacks
enough faith. On the other
hand, the believer receiving the
miracle may erroneously conclude that
God answered his prayer because he
did something right to gain
God’s favor or worse, that God
loves him more than the one who did
not receive a miracle.[124]
By
definition, a miracle occurs when the
law of “cause and effect”
is suspended. If God suspends
the law of “cause and
effect” too many times, people
would be prone to ignore the rules of
life and count on a miracle to save
them from foolish decisions.
This disconnect would create an
irrational view of life which would
produce a huge set of problems that
do not exist. Jesus still
produces miracles, but He is very
careful about each miracle because He
knows the potential for good and bad
that each miracle can have.
Because God’s wisdom and love
for His people is infinite and
constant, He requires our faith in
Him to be complete. He knows
our needs before we cry out for
help. He numbers the hairs on
our head, and He knows our
thoughts. If a miracle is
needed in a given situation, He will
produce it. If there is a
better solution, He will produce that
also.
God is pure
in heart. God is love.
His infinite wisdom is beyond
comprehension. The remaining
angels in Heaven have been studying
God’s words and actions for a
very long time and they will testify
to the redeemed someday that He never deviates
from the best possible solution that
a God of love can provide! For
thousands of years they have been
observing Him. It is their
greatest joy to meet with Him and
worship Him. There is nothing
in the universe more interesting than
the Godhead!
During the
Great Tribulation, the saints will be
surprised and encouraged by the
comforting presence of the Holy
Spirit. They will find the
Great Tribulation to be the worst of
times and the best of times all at
the same time. For about
twenty-seven months, the 144,000 will
proclaim the eternal gospel.
They will denounce Babylon’s
doctrines and laws. Persecution
will abound, but the suffering
inflicted on the honest in heart will
not be pointless. The Holy
Spirit will do many things through
the 144,000. The sick will be
healed, the blind will see, and the
deaf will hear. The saints will
be busy encouraging and helping new
converts each day. Most of all,
the saints will experience a
camaraderie of love with other saints
that words cannot express. When
the wicked see the love that the
saints have for one another, when
they see the extent of their losses
and suffering for God’s truth,
when they see the saints take a bold
and deliberate stand for Jesus, many
of the wicked will be moved to
rethink the importance of the
testimony of the 144,000. The
Holy Spirit will use the persecution
of God’s people to soften many
hearts and the result will be a
harvest of a numberless multitude.[125]
When
two-thirds of the 1,335 days allotted
to the Great Tribulation expire, the
world will be in a most desperate
condition. Famine and suffering
will be everywhere. The misery
index will be great. Most of
the people on Earth will have heard
and made a decision regarding the
eternal gospel. Billions of
people will have joined up with
Babylon to receive rations and avoid
persecution. Meanwhile, most of
the saints will be in prison or
fleeing from place to place to avoid
capture. For 890 days, the
144,000 will faithfully present the
first two angel’s messages, but
their endeavor will stall and come to
a standstill a few weeks before the
890th day. Day after day,
Jesus will continue to speak through
the 144,000. The wicked will
not listen and decide the price for
worshiping Jesus is too great.
The proclamation of the eternal
gospel and the formation of Babylon
will create three distinct groups of
people around the world: The
saints (those who will obey the
commandments of God and believe the
testimony of Jesus), the religious
wicked (those who will obey the laws
of Babylon), and the non-religious
wicked (those who will refuse to obey
the laws of God and the laws of
Babylon).
When the 891st day
of the Great Tribulation arrives, the
fifth trumpet will sound in
Heaven’s temple.[126] The
devil and his angels will be released
from prison. They will rise
quickly from the Abyss (the spirit
realm)[127] and
take flight. Masquerading as
Almighty God, the Bible indicates the
devil and his attending angels
will descend to Earth in
a great show of brilliance and power.[128] As the
devil and his angels travel the
world, they will imitate the Second
Coming over and over. Lucifer
and his angels will be seen
approaching Earth for miles
away. When they decide to leave
a particular area, the devil and his
angels will ascend into the sky as
Jesus did when He returned to
Heaven. This will be an over
powering deception. It is
interesting to notice that Lucifer
and his angels will not be permitted
to hover in the sky over Earth as
Jesus will do at the Second Coming.[129]
Lucifer’s appearing will be a
series of local events.[130] In
other words, the devil and his
entourage can only appear at one
place at a time. As time goes
by, the devil’s fame and news of
his appearing will grow.[131] Huge
crowds will go out to see him.
After
descending from the sky,[132] the
devil will perform incredible signs
and wonders,[133] even
calling fire down out of Heaven,[134] to
convince the multitudes that He is
Almighty God.[135] God
will not allow the 144,000 to perform
this miracle and this overpowering
delusion[136] will
cause many of the non-religious
wicked to join Babylon.
Everywhere Lucifer goes, he will
speak gracious words of hope and
promise. He will feed the
multitudes and heal the sick.
He will be worshiped and adored as
“Almighty God.” Of
course, the saints know the true
identity of this glorious being and
they will refuse to go out to see
him.[137]
The Third
Angel’s Message: An Ultimatum
Revelation
14:9-10
And
the third angel followed them, saying
with a loud voice, If any man worship
the beast and his image, and receive
his mark in his forehead, or in his
hand, The same shall drink of the
wine of the wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture into the
cup of his indignation; and he shall
be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb:
{9} I
saw a mighty angel descend from
God’s throne. As he
orbited the Earth, he said in a loud
voice, “Listen!
Listen! If anyone worships
Lucifer, if anyone participates in
Lucifer’s theocracy, if anyone
receives Lucifer’s tattoo on the
forehead or on their right hand
{10} that
individual will drink the wine of
God’s wrath which has been
poured full strength into the cup of
His fury.
This is a
very serious message and it will be
presented to the wicked when Lucifer
appears at the fifth trumpet.
This message contains a
promise. Everyone who obeys and
worships Lucifer will experience the
full fury of God’s wrath.
Everyone who receives the mark of the
beast will be condemned to
death. There will be no
exception because once a person
chooses to swallow the devil’s
poisonous lies, the victim will have
no control over the outcome.[138] All
who join up with Lucifer to carry out
his evil schemes will be tormented
with burning sulfur in the presence
of the Lamb and His holy angels.
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