In an age when many of our church members see no compelling reason for being a Seventh-day Adventist I believe that more than ever, we need to understand that our church was brought into existence by God for such a time as this. Because of our Biblical teaching on the Heavenly Sanctuary, Jesus’ High Priestly ministry, and the Pre-Advent Investigative judgment, we are in a unique position to share these truths with the Protestants and evangelicals around us whose hearts are going to be failing them for fear because of events that will soon come to pass. On what basis do I say that? Let’s begin by looking at what Jesus says in Luke 21 regarding these events.
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity over the roaring and tossing of the seas. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25,26)
Whatever Jesus is describing, we haven’t seen it to such a worldwide extent, but the phrase, “people fainting from terror” takes me to a statement in the book Evangelism, page 29, where Ellen White says that “the terror of the people was indescribable”.
“Last Friday morning just before I awoke, a very impressive scene was presented before me. I seemed to awake from sleep but was not in my home. From the windows I could behold a terrible conflagration. Great balls of fire were falling upon houses, and from these balls fiery arrows were flying in every direction. It was impossible to check the fires that were kindled, and many places were being destroyed. The terror of the people was indescribable” (Evangelism, p. 29).
God gave Ellen White a gift for giving us such beautiful descriptions of many things throughout the Bible, but when she visited Heaven she said that there were no words to describe the beauty of the place and the majesty of Jesus, and in this vision the terror of the people was so terrible that she couldn’t describe it.
When Jesus uses the phrase, “the powers of heaven will be shaken” it reminds us of what happens when we shake a tree that is laden with ripe fruit. All the ripe fruit drops to the ground, where we can examine it to see if it is usable, or too ripe. If the heavens are “shaken”, the same thing seems to happen, but what falls is described by Ellen as destructive balls of fire.
And while some might say that the “powers of heaven being shaken” refers to all the political and economic chaos in the world, and destruction we see from natural disasters, Ellen White is very clear that this is not what Jesus meant.
“December 16, 1848, the Lord gave me a view of the shaking of the powers of the heavens. I saw that when the Lord said “heaven,” in giving the signs recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, He meant heaven, and when He said “earth” He meant earth. The powers of heaven are the sun, moon, and stars. They rule in the heavens. The powers of earth are those that rule on the earth. The powers of heaven will be shaken at the voice of God. Then the sun, moon, and stars will be moved out of their places. They will not pass away, but be shaken by the voice of God” (Early Writings, p. 41.1).
Although we don’t know exactly what Jesus might have meant by the “roaring and tossing of the seas”, Ellen was shown events that clearly fit Jesus’ description:
“The tempest is coming, and we must get ready for its fury by having repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. 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 be 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!” (Messages to Young People, p. 89,90)
And while people might say that these are part of the 7 last plagues, some of these events are clearly before the close of probation:
“I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood…Calamities will come—calamities most awful, most unexpected; and these destructions will follow one after another… Strictly will the cities of the nations be dealt with, and yet they will not be visited in the extreme of God’s indignation, because some souls will yet break away from the delusions of the enemy, and will repent and be converted, while the mass will be treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath” (Evangelism, p 27).
“The time of God’s destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have had no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter. Large numbers will be admitted who in these last days hear the truth for the first time” (SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 979).
Ellen saw that there were people who were expecting these events, and they were praising the Lord for them, while to others they were totally unexpected.
“Last night a scene was presented before me. I may never feel free to reveal all of it, but I will reveal a little. It seemed that an immense ball of fire came down upon the world, and crushed large houses. From place to place rose the cry, “The Lord has come! The Lord has come!” Many were unprepared to meet Him, but a few were saying, “Praise the Lord!” “Why are you praising the Lord?” inquired those upon whom was coming sudden destruction. “Because we now see what we have been looking for.” “If you believed that these things were coming, why did you not tell us?” was the terrible response. “We did not know about these things. Why did you leave us in ignorance? Again and again you have seen us; why did you not become acquainted with us, and tell us of the judgment to come, and that we must serve God, lest we perish? Now we are lost” (Reflecting Christ, p. 243).
If God causes, or allows such catastrophic events, what would be His purpose in doing so? How could God’s destructive judgments be a time of mercy for those who have had no opportunity to learn what is truth?
To answer that question let us first ask ourselves as Seventh-day Adventists why it is that the world needs to be woken up at this point in earth’s history? What unique teaching of this church answers that question? The Heavenly sanctuary and Jesus’ High Priestly ministry.
Because of these beliefs that God so graciously revealed to our church pioneers, we know that the pre-advent investigative judgment going on in Heaven is about to close, and the world needs to be woken up to that fact. They must hear the 3 angels’ messages that begin with “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come…”
This pre-advent judgment is about to close forever, yet in the last day events scenario held by most Protestants and evangelicals, there is no judgment until the great white throne judgment following Jesus’ 1,000-year reign of peace from Jerusalem.
As these events occur, two consequences of such calamities will become apparent:
The first involves the vast majority of Christians, who believe that before any time of tribulation begins, the righteous are raptured up to Heaven to be with Jesus. Their belief is that the secret rapture happens “pre-tribulation”, and that the only people left on planet earth after the rapture are those who are lost. And while they believe that those who remain have another 7 years to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, if the righteous were to find themselves on planet earth when the time of tribulation begins, they would be in a state of “anguish and perplexity”, believing themselves to be lost, deceived, or lied to by their pastors and God’s Word.
In this scenario, I believe that the people Ellen observed whose terror was indescribable were probably the Protestants and evangelicals, who, instead of finding themselves in Heaven with Jesus before the seven-year period of tribulation began, have found themselves in a hell on earth. You can imagine that their terror would be indescribable. They will be seeking answers!
However, in Ellen’s vision she saw people who were expecting these events to come, and were praising the Lord. And while she doesn’t say as much, I believe that because of our Biblical understanding of last day events, we will have the wonderful opportunity to have “walks to Emmaus” with many of our dear protestant and evangelical friends and neighbors. Just as Jesus did with Cleopas and his friend who were devastated when they saw their long-expected hopes of a conquering Messiah dashed, we will have the amazing opportunity to share with those around us the Biblical truths regarding the pre-advent investigative judgment, Jesus’ high priestly ministry, the three angel’s messages, the “real” second coming of Jesus, the Biblical identity of the antichrist power, the truths regarding the 70th week of Daniel 9, and the other teachings of the “left behind” scenario of last day events.
By God’s grace, we who have a Biblical understanding of these truths can be used by the Holy Spirit to bring hope to those around us, so that just like Cleopas and his friend, their hearts will “burn within them” because of the Bible truths that will make sense out of what is happening.
The second consequence is what would be the physical, political, and religious aftermath from such worldwide, catastrophic events.
Whatever is being described here, they are “most awful and most unexpected”, and will certainly wake up the entire world. Because of the unexpected nature of these events, they will likely be declared “acts of God”. When disasters happen on this scale, people turn more religious, and are willing to take unprecedented measures to get through the situation, and prevent it from happening again. We learned under Covid that fear can cause governments and leaders to enact unheard of restrictions, which people will accept in order to resolve the crisis. Here is a possible “aftermath” of events such as those Ellen saw in vision:
When disasters strike, humans turn more religious – after 9/11, church attendance in America was up dramatically...for a few months.
In times of disaster, we are willing to legislate control upwards to solve the problem. Because of 9/11 we now have the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, and TSA in our airports. What would we do after something as catastrophic on a global scale as Jesus and Ellen White describe?
If the world turns more religious, the pope will be seen as the religious leader of the world. Most people already view him that way, and covid showed us the day of worship he will enforce.
In order to turn back to God, and avoid further judgments, world leaders and the pope will urge people to honor the lord’s day by worshiping on Sunday, and it will seem logical to do so.
Governments and people of the world will support the plan, and those who oppose it will be seen as worse than terrorists, because they don’t care about protecting the world from further divine judgments.
Overnight, our “unique” view of last day events will be completely logical.
The 4 points of the Loud Cry message, as Ellen White outlines in the Great Controversy, pg. 606 will make perfect sense:
The sins of Babylon will be laid open
The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority
The inroads of spiritualism
The stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power
As we proclaim the final warning message, many will be shocked that they are in the churches that the Bible describes as Babylon, and until they hear these warning messages they will feel no need of change. This is described right after the 4 points of the Loud Cry message:
“By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven. As the people go to their former teachers with the eager inquiry, ‘Are these things so?’ the ministers present fables, prophesy smooth things, to soothe their fears and quiet the awakened conscience. But since many refuse to be satisfied with the mere authority of men and demand a plain “Thus saith the Lord,” the popular ministry, like the Pharisees of old, filled with anger as their authority is questioned, will denounce the message as of Satan and stir up the sin-loving multitudes to revile and persecute those who proclaim it” (Great Controversy, p. 606,7).
Please let what you just read sink in: In the very near future, “Protestant” pastors will be stirring up the multitudes to persecute Bible-believing Christians, who are refusing to obey Catholic inspired teachings that are in direct defiance of God’s eternal Word and law.
From this passage we see that persecution is coming for God’s faithful followers. Sadly, in the affluent West we’ve swapped the cross of Christ for a couch of comfort and ease. But God never promised us comfort. He never promised us ease or applause. The only thing He promised is that if we follow Jesus Christ we will be hated, rejected and persecuted. We will suffer for His sake. And that is not the fine print – it’s the headline, spoken by Jesus and His apostles.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in Heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).
“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
If you are one who is afraid of what lies ahead for God’s people, take hope – these next words of encouragement were written by Peter, who first faced “persecution” on the night of Jesus’ trial, when a servant girl simply asked if he was a follower of Jesus. By God’s grace, He can enable us to stand faithfully for Him no matter what lies ahead.
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified” (1 Peter 4:12-14).
New Testament followers of Jesus embraced suffering for the glory of Christ. We are in a very similar religio-political environment to what the New Testament church faced, and we know from the Bible and Ellen White that intense persecution is coming! May God give us a deeper understanding and appreciation for the words of that familiar hymn, “Faith of Our Fathers”.
“Our fathers, chained in prisons dark, Were still in heart and conscience free; How sweet would be their children’s fate, If they, like them, could die for Thee! Faith of our fathers! Holy Faith! We will be true to Thee till death.”
Just as the faithfulness of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah enabled God to intervene miraculously in their behalf, I believe that God is waiting for His end-time friends to refuse to bow to the demands of spiritual Babylon and all of satan’s forces that will be arrayed against God’s people. And because the New Testament isn’t concluded, the stories of God’s miraculous intervention in the lives of His faithful friends will be told to His glory right alongside the stories we know so well from the Bible. Even more we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
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Dean and his wife, Lorrie, have ministered for the past 40 years in Adventist education. They have been missionaries in Hong Kong, Singapore and Guam, and currently Dean serves as the Executive Director of FoundationONE, an endowment organization that provides financial aid for students attending Upper Columbia Academy, in Spangle, Washington.