In this our day – Revelation 13 Foreshadowed

After the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the incredible speed with which the nations of the world rallied about the American banner was an eye-opener to students of Revelation 13. In this crisis time the United States demonstrated that its word is almost law throughout the world. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic relations with Afghanistan. Nations, long thought to be powerful enemies of America, such as China and Russia, joined the coalition for war. We do not know, of course, whether this worldwide crisis will eventually culminate in the Sunday Law, but things are certainly pointing that way in the near future.

What we have learned is just how rapidly nations of various faiths on every continent can be marshaled into a united alliance to do the will of the United States, when an impediment to security and prosperity is identified. This fact confirms to the devout student of Scripture that everything is in place for the United States to exert its prophesied role in end time events.

President Bush’s implied threat to the nations of the world – “either you are with us or you are with the terrorists” was in itself an act of injustice. Surely any nation of the world has the right to hate terrorism, yet judge that to support a war, unlikely to achieve its aim of eradicating terrorism, does not serve the best interests of the nation or the world. In the present climate prevailing in the United States, any terrorist-hating nation which takes a stand for neutrality in this war, would not be acting in weakness but in courage.

We know that “Satan delights in war, for it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another, for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God.” GC 589

When President Bush commanded American financial institutions to cease all dealings with terrorists and their organizations, he did not request the financial organizations of other nations of the world to follow suit: he commanded them to do so under threat that they would be cut off from all business with the world’s largest economy – the United States. The following day, the Group of Seven richest nations of the world complied.

Revelation 13: 17 foretells a world-wide economic boycott against faithful Sabbath-keepers. Once more, I emphasize that we do not know if this crisis will eventually generate this event, but we have learnt how the United States can effectively exert control over other nation’s financial policies, surely a prerequisite for the introduction of an economic boycott of faithful followers of Christ when the United States finally passes the National Sunday Law.

A Change in the American Mind -Set

Another alarming consequence of the terrorist acts against New York and Washington has been the sentiment that “Americans are determined to try to win a war even if it means sacrifice and loss of civil liberties.” Many are stating that if America wants full liberty, then it cannot expect security. If it desires security then the citizens must be prepared to forfeit some of its liberties. US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has stated, “We are likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country.”

The World Net Daily, Sept. 27, 2001 warned: “With Congress hotly debating whether to grant sweeping police powers to federal law enforcement agencies in the name of combating terrorism, two attorneys who have studied presidential directives in depth are concerned that civil liberties will take a beating from the executive branch as well as the legislative – and no one would realize it until it was too late.

“On Sept. 14 President Bush, responding to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon three days earlier, issued a proclamation declaring a state national emergency and reinforced it the same day with an executive order calling the Ready Reserves of the Armed Forces into active duty.

“For Constitutional attorney William Olson, alarm bells started ringing.

“This is just the beginning,’ he told WorldNet Daily. ‘1 am certain the proclamation and executive order by the president are the first of a series of executive orders that are likely to be issued as the administration identifies the powers it wants to invoke.”

Liberty and security are not mutually compatible. Governments typically remove liberties on the pretext that the measure is essential for national survival in times of peril. Unthinking citizens frequently accept these measures. Many Germans, when their prosperity was ruined in the 1920’s and early 1930’s, accepted Adolf Hitler’s abrogation of many liberties in return for his promise of prosperity and national greatness. Millions lost their lives as a consequence, a massive war ensued and German cities were reduced to ashes.

A New Crusade?

This war to exterminate Osaina Bin Laden or exterminate terrorism is likely to do neither. But what many Christian religious and political leaders are likening this war to is probably closer to the truth: a new crusade to rid the earth of radical Islam. Anything or anyone that will not go along with the Papal agenda has to be taken out of the way for Revelation 13 to be fulfilled; and the radical Muslims are the only ones not on side with the new world order that is ready to come into place in every other respect, as we can see from the world nations lining up behind America.

In examining these matters, we can discern a prototype of the events prophesied in Rev; 13:15- 17. Of course, these events are not the fulfillment of that prophecy, but they do demonstrate the astounding rapidity with which America can obtain the submission of most of the nations of the world – irrespective of the religion of their citizens to her policies and plans when a serious threat to security and prosperity is identified around the world.

We have in the past imagined that the enforcement of the Sunday law by the United States, would take a considerable time to be adopted by other nations. Now we can discern that the final movements could really be rapid ones and that many nations may adopt those laws, if urged to do so by the United States, in a matter of a few days.

Let us review, in the light of the New York tragedy, the divinely set forth scenario of the introduction of the death decree, economic boycott and the withdrawal of religious liberty. “In accidents and calamities by sea and land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstones, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more. frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. GC 589-90

What will be the response to this terrible carnage where nations are destroyed economically and many lives are lost? “And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of. the Sunday Sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troubles of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favour and temporal prosperity. GC 590.

In his video, “Prophecy and the New Times, “Ted Flynn, the Roman Catholic devot~e9f Mary, reported that in an apparition “Mary” stated that terrible disasters were about to strike America. “She” stated that they were the result of sin and that the only solution was for Americans to return to God. The solution offered was to close all shops on Sunday; to ban sporting events on Sunday, to attend Mass and Confession and to say the Rosary.

Make no mistake, such deceptions of Satan will playa pivotal role in turning secular mankind to religion. But they will not sanctify the soul. A religious zeal will ensue. How easily this will generate Sunday Laws as a means of regaining divine favour! Such religious zealots, unsanctified at heart, will not hesitate to persecute faithful Sabbath-keepers in a vain effort to restore security and prosperity.

Sunday Laws Upheld by the Supreme Court

Already the United States Supreme Court in 1961 by an 8-1 decision, ruled that Sunday Laws do not violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees religious liberty. In 1990 the Supreme Court by a 5-4 majority in the case of Smith vs. the State of Oregon, “went far beyond the case and declared that when religious rights clash with the government’s need for uniform rules, the court will side with the government.”

All is ready for the fulfillment of Rev. 13:15-17. The New York-Washington, D.C. terror attacks have demonstrated how fragile are our own security and well-being. It has also highlighted the remarkable reliability of Sr.-White’s prophetic gift. At a time when the greatest attacks have been leveled against the truth of the Spirit of Prophecy within Adventism, God has dramatically reminded us how accurate were His revelations to His servant. To ignore this lesson would be to imperil our own salvation. (What many don’t realize is just how accurate that testimony was because the U..S. government and large corporations have ground down the poor with oppression, dealt fraudulently in trade and very proudly set up U.S. interests around the world, just as Testimonies Volume 9 said in context of New York’s big buildings being “destroyed: How did they do this? You ask. The U.S. has, by signing “Free Trade agreements” with Third world countries and getting them to sign over their sovereignty, rights to own land for their lower classes and their natural resources – all for the right to have “American prosperity- ground down the poor with oppression and dealt fraudulently.)

“In the night I was, I thought, in a room but not in my own house. I was in a city, where I knew not, and I heard explosion after explosion. I rose up quickly in bed, and saw from my window large balls of fire. Jetting out were sparks, in the form of arrows, and buildings were being consumed, and in a very few minutes the entire block of buildings was falling and the screeching and mournful groans came distinctly to my ears. 11 MR 361

Sister White saw the conditions of today with great accuracy:
“The nations are in unrest. Times of perplexity are upon us. Men’s hearts are failing them for fear of the things that are coming upon the earth. But those who believe in God will hear His voice amid the storm, saying, ‘It is I; be not afraid.'” Last Day Events 18.

“The plagues of God are already falling upon the earth, sweeping away the most costly structures as if by, a breath of fire from heaven. Will not these judgments bring professing Christians to their senses? God permits them to come that the world may take heed, that sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him.” Last Day Events 27,28

“Men will continue to erect expensive buildings costing millions of money. Special attention will be called to their architectural beauty and the firmness and solidity with which they are constricted, but the Lord has instructed me that despite the unusual firmness and expensive display, these buildings will share the fate of the temple in Jerusalem;” Last Day Events 111,112

Even worse times are ahead:

“The tempest is coming and we must get ready for its fury by having repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We shall see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by millions. Fires will break out unexpectedly and no human effort will be able to quench them. The palaces of earth will be swept away in the fury of the flames. Disasters by rail will become more and more frequent. Confusion, collision, and death without a moment’s warning will occur on the great lines of travel. The end is near, probation is closing. Oh, let us seek God while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near!” MYP 89,90

“In the last scenes of this earth’s history, war will rage. There will be pestilence, plague and famine. The waters of the deep will overflow their boundaries. Property and life will be destroyed by fire and flood. We should be preparing for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him.” Maranatha 174

“The end is near and every city is to be turned upside down every way. There will be confusion in every city. Everything that can be shaken is to be shaken and we do not know what will come next. The judgments will be according to the wickedness of the people and the light of truth that they have had.” 1 MR 248 (1902)

“0 that God’s people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry!” Evangelism 29 (1903)

While God is holding back the winds of strife, let us work with greater diligence and sacrifice for our Lord. “In the great closing work we shall meet with perplexities that we know not how to deal with, but let us not forget that the three great powers of heaven are working, that a divine hand is on the wheel, and that God will bring His purposes to pass.” Ev. 65 (1902)

“I asked my accompanying angel the meaning of what I had heard, and what the four angels were about to do. He said to me that it was God that restrained the powers, and that He gave His angels charge over things on the earth; that the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that they were about to let them go, but while their hands were loosening, and the four winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that were not sealed, and He raised His hands to the Father and pleaded with Him that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels and bid them hold, until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads.” EW38

“My dear brethren and sisters, let the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ be in your minds continually and let them crowd out worldly thoughts and cares. When you lie down and when you rise up, let them be your meditation. Live and act wholly in reference to the coming of the Son of Man. The sealing time is very short, and will soon be over. Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.” EW 58.
AMEN

Edited by Jerry Eaton