Luke 21:8

Christian, Be Not Deceived!

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3. WHY THE SAINTS NEED TO BE SEALED

THEIR PRESERVATION THROUGH THE INDESCRIBABLE CONDITIONS OF THE TIME OF TROUBLE: DIRE DISASTERS TO OVERWHELM THE WHOLE WORLD WHEN PROBATION CLOSES

Every act of God is wise and loving. The angels, mighty and wise in their angelic status, are, nevertheless, finite. When sudden destruction is falling all around the inhabitants of the earth the angels must know for sure, and quickly, at any moment, just who are to be protected. It is not their work to judge anyone. That is God’s prerogative alone. The decisions concerning the individuals to be afforded protection must have been previously decided by the infinite judge. It must be indicated by God who are to be protected, and those without the seal of God who are not to be protected. The fearful, overall picture presented of the colossal catastrophic calamities to befall the world when probation closes should of itself present to the thoughtful the adequate reason for sealing those whom God desires His angels to protect. The Lord’s servant, writing on this very theme, says:

“We hear now of earthquakes . . . of fires, of tempests, of disasters by sea and land, of pestilence, of famine. This is only the beginning of what shall be. The description of the day of God is given through John by the Revelator. The cry of the terror-stricken millions has fallen upon the ear of John. ‘The great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?’ The apostle himself was awed and overwhelmed. If such scenes as this are to come, such tremendous judgments on a guilty world, where will be the refuge for God’s people? How will they be sheltered until the indignation be over past? John sees the elements of nature -earthquake, tempest, and political strife represented as being held by four angels. These winds are under control until God gives the word to let them go. There is the safety of God’s church. Only those . . . who are repenting and confessing their sins in the great anti typical day of atonement will be recognized and marked as worthy of God’s protection. This sealing of the servants of God is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision. John saw the sea and the waves roaring, and men’s hearts failing them for fear. He beheld the earth moved, and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea ... the water thereof roaring and troubled, and the mountains shaking with the swelling thereof. He was shown plagues, pestilence, famine, and death performing their terrible mission. The same angel who visited Sodom is sounding the note of warning, ‘Escape for thy life’. The bottles of God’s wrath cannot be poured out to destroy the wicked and their works, until all the people of God have been judged, and the cases of the living as well as the dead are decided. And even after the saints are sealed with the seal of the living God, His elect will have trials individually. The indelible mark of God is upon them. God can plead that His own name is written there. The Lord has shut them in. Their destination is inscribed – ‘God, New Jerusalem’. They are God’s property, His possession” (Testimonies to Ministers, page 444-446).

In the vision of Ezekiel 9, which is stated to be the same as .the sealing of the saints in Revelation 7, the command is given: “Set a mark upon the foreheads. And to the others He said in mine hearing, Go you after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have you pity: slay utterly old and young but come not near any man upon whom is the mark” (verses 4-6). Nothing is said concerning the mark being given so that these marked ones can go and preach the loud cry - this idea is simply a human addition to God’s Word that confuses the revelation of last-day events. Briefly, it is simply, be marked -or be slain! This position is clearly expressed by the Lord’s servant, for, after quoting Ezekiel 9:1-6, she says: “Jesus is about to leave the mercy seat of the heavenly sanctuary, to put on the garments of vengeance, and pour out His wrath in judgments upon those who have not responded to the light God has given them. The prophet, looking down the ages, had this time [when Christ’s mediation ceases and the day of wrath begins] presented before his vision” (5 Testimonies, page 207, 208). “When the Lord comes forth as an avenger, He will also come as a Protector of all who have preserved the faith in its purity” (p. 200). “The day of vengeance is just upon us. The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those only who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land. Our own course of action will determine whether we shall receive the seal of the living God, or be cut down by the destroying weapons” (p. 212).

When the Lord’s servant makes reference to God’s people receiving the seal of God, the seal is given so that those sealed will not be destroyed by the destroying angels who are pictured as following immediately upon their sealing. Not once in all these many references does the Lord’s servant intimate that the sealed ones receive that seal in order to preach the loud cry. As stated by the inspired pen: “Soon the

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dead and dying will be all around us. Those only who have the seal of the living God will be sheltered from the storm of wrath that will soon fall on the heads of those who have rejected the truth” (see “Mrs. E. G. White and Her Critics”, by Francis D. Nichol, p. 634).

The more realistically we grasp the terrible pictures painted by the prophets, the more we shall appreciate the reason why God seals His people - so that the angels will afford them protection. Daniel 12:1 declares that ‘when Christ ceases His heavenly ministry, “There shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time”.

The following extracts will enable us to understand better why the Lord seals His people just as probation is about to close. From these presentations of the frightful days ahead the saints will derive comfort from the Lord’s assurance given in the seal that those who seek earnestly to do His commandments will be protected, as He has promised in the 91st Psalm.

“The restraining Spirit of God is even now being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land follow each other in quick succession. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they shall not blow until the servants of God are sealed. But when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture the judgments of God that are about to fall upon a doomed world” (6 Testimonies, page 408).

“The world is stirred with the spirit of war. Soon the scenes of trouble spoken of in the prophecies will take place” (9 Testimonies, page 14).

“Everything was in the utmost confusion. Strife, war, and bloodshed, with famine and pestilence, raged everywhere” (1 Testimonies, page 268). “Soon grievous troubles will arise among the nations - trouble that will not cease till Jesus comes. The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand” (Review & Herald, November 30, 1904). “Everything is preparing for the last great day of God . . . then the wrath of God, which has so long slumbered, will awake. The desolating power of God is upon the earth to rend and destroy. The inhabitants of the earth are appointed to the sword, to famine, and to pestilence” (1 Testimonies, page 363). “This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it. He will arise in His majesty to shake terribly the earth” (7 Testimonies, page 141).

“The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the evil one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old. The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere [God’s people] will be regarded as the cause of the fearful convulsions of nature, and the strife and bloodshed among men that are filling the earth with woe” (Great Controversy, Page 614).

“The Lord is removing His restrictions from the earth, and soon there will be death and destruction, increasing crime. Those who are without God’s protection will find no safety in any place or position. Human agents are being trained, and are using their inventive power to put in operation the most powerful machinery to wound and to kill” (8 Testimonies, page 49).

“Four mighty angels hold back the powers of earth till the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads. The nations of the world are eager for conflict; but they are held in check by the angels. When this restraining power is removed, there will come a time of trouble and anguish. Deadly instruments of warfare will be invented. Vessels, with their living cargo, will be entombed in the great deep. All who have not the spirit of truth will unite under the leadership of satanic agencies. But they are kept tinder control till the time shall come for the great battle of Armageddon” (Letter 79, 1900, quoted in Our Firm Foundation, Volume 2, page 287).

“Everything in our world is in agitation. There are wars and rumors of wars. The nations are angry, and the time of the dead has come, that they should he judged. Events are changing to bring about the day of God. But while already nation is rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, there is not now a general engagement. As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle. Satan is busily laying his plans for the last mighty conflict, when all will take sides” (6 Testimonies, page 14).

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“The tempest is coming, and we must get ready for its fury. 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 the 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” (Signs of the Times, April 21, 1890).

“In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another. Fire and flood and earthquakes, with war and blood-shed. Something great and decisive will soon of necessity take place. The scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire. Men looked at lofty and supposedly fireproof buildings, and said, ‘They are perfectly safe’. But these buildings were consumed as if made of pitch. The fire engines could do nothing to stay the destruction” (Life Sketches, New Edition, pages 413, 414).

“During a vision of the night 1 stood on an eminence, from which I could see houses shaken like a reed in the wind. Buildings, great and small, were falling to the ground. Pleasure resorts, theatres, hotels, and the homes of the wealthy were shaken and shattered. Many lives were blotted out of existence, and the air was filled with the shrieks of the injured and the terrified. The destroying angels were at work. One touch, and buildings so thoroughly constructed that men regarded them as secure against every danger quickly became heaps of rubbish. There was no assurance of safety in any place” (9 Testimonies, page 92, 93).

“Everything in the world is in an unsettled state. The nations are angry, and great preparations for war are being made. Nation is plotting against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. The great day of God is hastening greatly. But although the nations are mustering their forces for war and bloodshed, the command to the angels is still in force, that they hold the four winds until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads” (Review and Herald 28 January, 1909). “Just before we entered it [the time of trouble], we all received the seal of the living God. Then 1 saw the four angels cease to hold the four winds. And I saw famine, pestilence and sword, nation rose against nation, and the whole world was in confusion” (Day-Star, March 14, 1846).

THE TIME OF TROUBLE ILLUSTRATED BY THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM

“The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old . . . desolation everywhere” (Great Controversy, Page 614).

They became Satanic in their cruelty. In the family and in the nation, among the highest and the lowest classes alike, there was suspicion, envy, hatred, strife, rebellion, murder. There was no safety anywhere. Friends and kindred betrayed one another. Parents slew their children and children their parents. The leaders of the opposing factions at times united to plunder and torture their wretched victims, and again fell upon each other’s forces, and slaughtered without mercy. Unhappy Jerusalem! Rent by internal dissensions, the blood of her children slain by lone another’s hands crimsoning her streets while alien armies beat down her fortifications and slew her men of war. The horrible cruelties enacted in the destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan’s vindictive power over those who yield to his control. The Savior’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow the doom of a world. The records of the past, the long procession of tumults, conflicts, and revolutions, the ‘battle of the warrior, with. confused noise, and garments rolled in blood’ - what are these in contrast with the terrors of that day when the restraining Spirit of God shall be wholly withdrawn from the wicked, no longer to hold in check the outburst of human passion and Satanic wrath!” (Great Controversy, Page 28, 29, 36, 37).

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ILLUSTRATES THE TIME OF TROUBLE

‘The reign of terror’. Peace and happiness were banished from the homes and hearts of men. No one was secure violence and lust held undisputed sway. The cities of the kingdom were filled with scenes of horror. One party of revolutionists was against another party, and France became one vast field for contending masses, swayed by the fury of their passions, citizens were divided into a medley of factions that seemed intent on nothing but mutual extermination. And to add to the general misery, the nation became involved in a prolonged and devastating war with the great powers of Europe. All this was as Satan would have it. His steadfast purpose is to bring woe and wretchedness upon men. He urges them on to excesses and atrocities. The restraining Spirit of God, which imposes a check upon the cruel power of Satan, was in a great measure removed, and he whose only delight is in the wretchedness of men was

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permitted to work his will. The land was filled with crimes too horrible for pen to trace” (Great Controversy, Page 282-288).

If this occurred when God’s Spirit “was in a great measure removed”, what will the whole world be like when Satan has no restraint to his cruelties? “The earth became one vast field of strife” (Great Controversy, Page 655). “Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed” (Great Controversy, Page 656).

There will be no safety anywhere, yet through it all God will protect His people, for this is the significance of His sealing them.