God Speaks and Israel Triumphs - The Sure Word · presence of His earthbound children is found in John 12:28. Three times during the Saviour's earthly ministry God's voice was heard

GOD SPEAKS: And Israel Triumphs

Louis Were

CONTENTS. Chapter Page

1. When God Speaks Again 5

2. The Deliverance of God's People: Revealed in the book of Daniel as a Subject of Great Importance 10

3. The Deliverance of God's People: Revealed in the book of Revelation as a Subject of Great Importance .. 23

4. The Deliverance of the Saints : Revealed in Many Prophecies as the Time For the Mightiest Demonstration of God's Almighty Power 26

5. Hearing the Creator's Voice: A Sublime Event for the Saints : A Terror to the Wicked 29

6. One of the Grandest Themes of all Scripture : God's Voice Brings Deliverance to His People. Why So Seldom Mentioned? 37

7. Why Does God Send the Seven Last Plagues? .. .. 43

8. The Deliverance of the Saints : One of Earth's Greatest Events Since Creation 49

9. God's Voice Declares : "It Is Done" - What do These Words Signify? .. .. 52

10. "The Powers of the Heavens Shall be Shaken" By God's Voice .. 56

11. What is Meant By the Shaking of the Heavens? .. 58

12. The Deliverance and the Partial Resurrection : Why Does God at This Time Resurrect Those Who Have Died in His Last-day Message? 63

13. Between the Deliverance and the Second Advent–How Long? 69

14. When Does the Gathering of the Nations Take Place? 73

15. God's Great Love For His Remnant People 83

CHAPTER ONE WHEN GOD SPEAKS AGAIN

Soon God will break His long silence. The last recorded instance of God speaking audibly in the presence of His earthbound children is found in John 12:28. Three times during the Saviour's earthly ministry God's voice was heard speaking approvingly of the life and work of the world's Redeemer. When Jesus was baptised there was heard "a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). Again, on the Mount of Transfiguration the voice of God was heard, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell upon their face, and were sore afraid" (Matt. 17:5, 6). On this occasion the Father was speaking in the presence of "Peter, James, and John". If the sound of the voice of God, when speaking approvingly of His Son and urging these privileged

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disciples to hear and believe the messages which Jesus bore, made them "sore, afraid", what will be the effect of the sound of the voice of God upon the wicked when God breaks His long silence and, speaking approvingly to His people, strikes terror into the hearts of those who have just been prevented from killing the people of God!

"Now at the close of His ministry it [God's voice] was heard for the third time, by a large number of persons, and under peculiar circumstances. Jesus had just spoken the most solemn truth regarding the condition of the Jews. He had made His last appeal, and pronounced their doom. Now God again sets His seal to the mission of His Son. . . It was the crowning evidence of His Messiahship, the signal from the Father that Jesus had spoken the truth, and was the Son of God. `Now is the judgment of this world,' Christ continued ; `now shall the prince of this world be cast out' . . . This is the crisis of the world. If I become the propitiation for the sins of men, the world will be lighted up . . . a family of believing saints will finally inherit the heavenly home. This is the result of Christ's death. The Saviour is lost in contemplation of the scene of triumph called up before Him . . . But the work of human redemption is not all that is accomplished by the cross. The love of God is manifested to the universe. The prince of this world is cast out. The accusations which Satan has brought against God are refuted. The reproach which he has cast upon heaven is forever removed. Angels as well as men are drawn to the Redeemer" (DA. 625).

So that the full significance may be seen of the last occasion when the voice of God was heard by the sons of men we refer to another comment upon this occasion made by the servant of the Lord. She says : "When the last steps of Christ's humiliation were to be taken, when the deepest sorrow was closing about His soul, He said to His disciples, `The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.' `The prince of this world is judged.' Now shall he be cast out (John 14:30; 16:11; 12:31). With prophetic eye Christ traced the scenes to take place in His last great conflict. He knew that when He should exclaim, Ìt is finished,' all heaven would triumph. His ear caught the distant music and the shouts of victory in the heavenly courts. He knew that the knell of Satan's empire would then be sounded, and the name of Christ be heralded from world to world throughout the universe" (DA. 679).

Thus, it will be observed, when God's voice was last heard it was a momentous day, not only in the earthly life of Jesus, but also of the world, of Satan, and even of the distant worlds that shared in the Redeemer's triumph over the powers of darkness. God's voice was "the crowning evidence of His Messiahship, the signal from the Father that Jesus . . . was the Son of God." And in the strength of the Father's assurances, the Saviour could look with certainty to the triumphs of His death on Calvary, which would determine "the judgment of this world", and cause "the prince of this world [to] be cast out", and forever cement the entire family of God's faithful children in heaven and on earth together in love and confidence around the omnipotent throne of God.

Thus when God's voice was last heard it was an hour of tremendous importance to the world : it was "the crisis of the world" ; it was when Jesus had just pronounced the doom of the Jewish nation; at that time He saw the coming doom of Satan's empire, and the resultant triumph of righteousness throughout the vast universe. Truly that last occasion when the voice of God was heard was momentous. As we shall point out with the unfolding of our theme, the next occasion the voice of God is heard will also be a most momentous hour, for then will

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be pronounced the doom of all the nations then alive upon the earth; it will be at that hour when God's judgment will bring "the doom of Satan's empire"; it will be the time when distant worlds will rejoice in the deliverance of the saints from the hands of their Babylonian

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persecutors: then "the knell of Satan's empire [will be] sounded, and the name of Christ be heralded from world to world throughout the universe."

On the last recorded instance of God speaking audibly, Jesus prayed "Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have glorified it, and...will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to Him" (John 12:28, 29). "The hour of Christ's glorification had come" (D.A. 622). The next time the voice of God is heard by people living on the earth will be when the remnant people of God, having come through the time of Jacob's trouble, are "glorified" (1T. 354; GC. 640, 645), at the opening of the 7th plague. 'When the Father spoke to His well-beloved Son in the presence of mortals in Palestine, the people thought "it thundered". When, at the commencement of the 7th plague, God speaks so that His voice reaches throughout the entire world, it will sound "like peals of loudest thunder" (GC. 640; 1T. 354). The Revelator says that when "the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great" (Rev. 16:17, 18). Describing the sudden change of events, the turning of the tables, and the great reversal in the experiences of the saints and the wicked at the opening of the 7th plague, the Lord's servant says:

"Satan's host and wicked men will surround them, and exult over them, because there will seem to be no way of escape for them. But in the midst of their revelry and triumph, there is heard peal upon peal of the loudest thunder. The heavens have gathered blackness, and are only illuminated by the blazing light and terrible glory from heaven, as God utters His voice from His holy habitation.

"The foundations of the earth shake; buildings totter and fall with a terrible crash . . . the whole earth is in terrible commotion. The captivity of the righteous is turned, and with sweet and solemn whisperings they say to one another, ‘We are delivered. It is the voice of God.' With solemn awe they listen to the words of the voice. The wicked hear, but understand not the words of the voice of God. They fear and tremble, while the saints rejoice. Satan and his angels, and wicked men, who had been exulting that the people of God were in their power, that they might destroy them from off the earth, witness the glory conferred upon those who have honoured the holy law of God. They behold the faces of the righteous lighted up and reflecting the image of Jesus. Those who were so eager to destroy the saints cannot endure the glory resting upon the delivered ones, and they fall like dead men to the earth. Satan and his evil angels flee from the presence of the saints glorified. Their power to annoy them is gone forever" (1T. 354).

The importance of that great and glorious time when the voice of God will be heard ringing through the earth, bringing glory to the saints and fear to the wicked, cannot be over-emphasised. Next to the infinite power and glory revealed at the second advent, the opening of the 7th plague will be the occasion of the greatest display of omnipotent power and celestial glory the whole world of mankind will have ever witnessed. It is to this time, as well as to the second coming of Christ of which it is the glorious prelude, that many of the prophets have pointed in the ecstasy of prophetic vision. That will be the hour when the living saints snatched from the very jaws of death, are exalted by a loving heavenly Father before their would-be murderers, who then bow in fear before the glorified saints. It was to this hour that our Lord Jesus pointed when He said "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee" (Rev. 3: 9).





The second advent will be the day of triumph for our Lord and for the whole of the church of all ages – the resurrected saints emerge from the defeated tomb with immortal robes, conquerors over death. The opening of the 7th plague is the day of triumph for all the faithful remnant–the living saints emerge from the shadows of threatened death, glorified; conquerors over their defeated foes. The second advent brings the culmination of their hour of victory, for it is then that they, too, receive the priceless gift of immortality. But the Lord has sought to encourage His remnant people concerning the glory and the certainty of their deliverance at the opening of the 7th plague, for He has given them clear light upon the great events which are to transpire at that grand, climactic hour. And it surely would be pleasing to God for His people to find joy and satisfaction in heeding the revelation which He has given them, to strengthen their minds and nerve their courage for the trying hour which will precede their joyful, glory-filled hour of triumph.

CHAPTER TWO THE DELIVERANCE OF GOD'S PEOPLE: REVEALED IN

THE BOOK OF DANIEL AS A SUBJECT OF GREAT IMPORTANCE The deliverance of the people of God from their enemies is one of the important teachings of the book of Daniel. The king of Babylon created a crisis by erecting "an image of gold ... in the province of Babylon," and demanding that all "fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up" – a command that is mentioned six times, see Dan. 3:5, 7, 10, 14, 15, 18. This experience of the three Hebrews, in which they faced death by refusing to obey the behest of the Babylonian king, is typical of the experience through which the believers in the third angel's Message will pass, for they, too, will be faced with a very similar crisis of either bowing down to the image of the beast "in the province of [spiritual] Babylon," or suffering death at the hands of their Babylonian persecutors. As in Daniel so also in the Revelation, six references are made to the worshipping of the beast and his image – see, Rev. 13:15; 14:9, 11; 16:2 ; 19:20; 20:4. The deliverance of the people of God in the crisis that is just before them is shown in the typical experience recorded for their benefit in the book of Daniel.

The king of Babylon was furious that his authority should not be recognized and his command obeyed. Threatening the three Hebrews with a terrible death he angrily declared: "If ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" (v. 15). Thus it was plainly a contest of power between the gods of Babylon and the God of Israel, Whose explicit Commandment was being set at nought and Whose power was being defied by King Nebuchadnezzar. Trusting in their heavenly Father, Whose behest they had learned to love and obey, the three Hebrews "answered and said to the king, 0 Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God Whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, 0 king. But if not, be it known unto thee,

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0 king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up" (vs. 16-18). The remarkable deliverance which came to the ancient heroes in the service of God illustrates the manner in which the remnant people of God will be sustained by the Presence of the Lord in their fiery trial with the powers of earth, who will combine for the enforcement of Babylon's Sunday laws which will be promulgated in defiance of the explicit Command of Jehovah.





The deliverance of the three Hebrews was of such a decisive character that Nebuchadnezzar was compelled to declare: "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Who hath sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word ... there is no other God that can deliver after this sort" (vs. 28, 29). Well might God's people today, in view of the coming time of trial, say a hearty "Amen" to Nebuchadnezzar's affirmation regarding the faithfulness of the God of Israel to deliver those who put their trust in Him.

Again, in chapter six of the book of Daniel, we are given an illustration of the "final deliverance of the people of God" (GC. 341). The book of Daniel is not a book of unrelated events, but is built according to a plan of development. In the opening verses it is recorded that the people of God were subjected to the Babylonians, who had destroyed their nation, city and temple. Having thus introduced this conflict between the forces of Babylon and the Israel of God, the book depicts the struggle down through centuries between the forces of good and evil, involving the true system of mediation and worship, until the final crisis over the Sabbath at the end of time. Similarly, the deliverances recorded in the book of Daniel are cumulative and find their world-wide counterpart in the "final deliverance of the people of God".

The plot of Daniel's enemies to persuade the king to pass a law necessitating a choice between obedience to God's law or the law of the State (Dan. 6), will have its double application when the apostate churches seek government aid to enforce Sunday laws. As the king did not see the subtlety behind the request of Daniel's enemies, so many law-makers will not discern the cunning behind the appeal to the State to pass laws which will bring spiritual Israel into times of extreme peril. When Daniel's enemies reported to the king that Daniel had disregarded "the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not" he "set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him". After being reminded by these crafty enemies of Daniel "that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed" (which finds its counterpart in the boast of the Roman Catholic church that it does not change), "the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God Whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee". Darius, following a sleepless night during which he was filled with anxiety for the safety of Daniel in the den of lions, "went in haste unto the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said unto Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, Whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?"

The unmistakable demonstration of God's willingness and ability to deliver His faithful servant caused the Persian monarch to issue a proclamation in which he extolled "the God of Daniel", saying: "He delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and earth, Who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions" (Dan. 6:12-27).

Throughout the book of Daniel, Jerusalem, the temple of God, and the "perils, conflicts and deliverances" of the people of God are constantly the centre and circumference. "The final deliverance of the people of God" (GC. 341), to which the prophecies of Daniel and John point, is foreshadowed in the earlier deliverances recorded in the book of Daniel. The faithful three Hebrews trusted in the God of Israel to deliver them, and the covenant-keeping God walked with them in the fiery furnace, and "delivered" them. "The burning, fiery furnace," heated "seven times more than it was wont to be heated", will have a double, world-wide spiritual application in the experiences of spiritual Israel, who will be plunged into unprecedented, fiery trials. As our Lord's presence was with the three Hebrews, so Jesus, by His angels, will walk with His people in the world-wide, spiritual, fiery furnace, and will "deliver" them from their spiritual Babylonian enemies. Thus we see the connection between the deliverance of the three Hebrews, and the deliverance of God's world-wide, spiritual Hebrews, mentioned in Dan. 12:1.





The same antitypical application is readily recognized in the plot of Daniel's enemies to bring him into conflict with the law of the land, and thus have him branded as being disloyal

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to the nation and deserving of death. "While Satan seeks to destroy those who honour God's law he will cause them to be accused as law-breakers, as men who are dishonouring God, and bringing judgments upon the world... They will be accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment-keepers will be misrepresented and condemned" (GC. 591, 592).

The crisis which faced Daniel of a choice of obedience to God's Law or the law of the State typifies the crisis which will come to the remnant church, when Sunday laws are enforced by the State. But Sabbath keepers who are determined "to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5: 29), may be assured of deliverance as was Daniel in his hour of test. Though plunged into what appeared to his enemies to be certain death, Daniel passed through the dark night of his ordeal trusting in his God. The dawning light of the new day revealed to the king and to Daniel's enemies that Daniel had been "delivered", because the God of Israel is the great Deliverer of His people. Passing through an experience very similar to that of Daniel, God's last-day Israel, after being plunged into a period of affliction and distress necessitating implicit trust in their God, will be "delivered" (Dan. 12:1) at the time the 6th plague merges into the 7th.

In many passages of Holy Writ the Lord is depicted as the Almighty Deliverer of His people–Israel's emancipation from Egyptian bondage, their deliverance from the hosts of Pharaoh at the Red Sea, and other outstanding events in Biblical history are well known to the reader. In the book of Isaiah, deliverance for those who obey the Lord occupies a prominent place in the teachings of "the gospel prophet". In Isaiah, Jesus encouraged His people by assuring them that He would overthrow their Babylonian enemies and bring them deliverance. This same precious assurance is given the people of God in Daniel's last prophecy–chapters 10 to 12. In "The King of the North at Jerusalem", the writer draws attention to the connection between Isaiah's prophecy, the book of Revelation, and Daniel's last prophecy: "They are each dealing with the overthrow of Babylon; they each draw attention to the `first and the last'; they each deal with the deliverance of God's people. In the prophecy of Isaiah, Cyrus is named as the one who would overthrow Babylon and liberate God's people. Daniel's last prophecy commences

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with Cyrus (Dan. 10:1) the destroyer of Babylon and the deliverer of God's people, it ends (Dan. 12:1) with Jesus the destroyer of modern Babylon and the Deliverer of God's people. Thus Daniel's last prophecy is connected up with Isaiah's graphic prophecy of the doom of Babylon, in which Jesus is repeatedly said to be `the first and the last'. Cyrus (his name means `the sun'), the first king mentioned in the prophecy, God's ànointed', or `messiah' (see Isa. 45:1), is a type of the last king in the prophecy–Jesus `the Sun of Righteousness' (Mal. 4:2), `the Shepherd King', God's Ànointed', or 'Messiah'–Who will come to overthrow spiritual Babylon by drying up her waters (Rev. 16: 12; 17:1, 15), and will bring deliverance (Dan. 12:1) to His people."

Pointing down to the days described by the prophet Daniel, when the powers of earth, combining to persecute the people of God, will create a world crisis of the greatest magnitude in the annals of church history, the servant of the Lord gives an encouraging message to the remnant church. She says: "The mark of deliverance will be set upon the men who keep God's





commandments, who revere His law, and who refuse the mark of the beast or of his image" (5T. 451).

THE DELIVERANCE OF GOD'S PEOPLE: EMPHASIZED BY GOD AS A SUBJECT OF GREAT IMPORTANCE

It should be emphasized that the prophecies of Daniel, chapters eight to twelve, do not take us beyond the deliverance of God's living saints at the opening of the 7th plague. This, of course, is how God directs our attention to the importance of this event. It will be observed that Daniel's last prophecy, which depicts the struggle between the forces of the king of the north and the people of God, ends with the overthrow of the Babylonian forces and the deliverance of the people of God. Notice how carefully the Lord has described the fate of the king of the north–"he shall come to his end, and none shall help him" (which occurs under the 7th plague)–and has declared: "And at that time [at the opening of the 7th plague] thy people shall be delivered" (Dan. 11:45; 12:1). That is, the power of the Babylonian false system of mediation terminates when God intervenes to save from violent death those who have believed in the true service of mediation. This deliverance we are definitely informed occurs at the opening of the 7th plague. Thus will be seen the clear connection between the ending of the king,

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of the north and the deliverance of God's people – they are not unrelated events, but events vitally linked together in the inspired word of prophecy. The prophet has described the struggle that has ensued down through the ages between believers in the Papal system of human mediators, and believers in Jesus as the only Mediator between God and man. The former have bitterly persecuted and slain the latter. In accordance with Divine wisdom and justice the prophetic pen describes the concluding phases of this great conflict: how the people of God will face imminent death at the hands of their infuriated enemy (Dan. 11:44) who, seemingly, is on the verge of complete triumph when, lo, the tables are turned, for God's people are delivered by the voice of God at the opening of the 7th plague, and "great Babylon" then comes "in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath" (Rev. 16: 17-19).

We repeat for emphasis that the prophecy of Daniel depicts the conflict between the two systems of mediation–the true and the false – and traces unerringly the final conflict over the Sabbath, and ends with the deliverance of God's people and the ending of the king of the north. That is, the king of the north comes to his end when and because God's people are delivered – as the living saints are exalted, the forces of Babylon go down to irretrievable ruin. Both occur as parts of one complete picture. To those who give serious study to this prophecy it will not be necessary to point out that to apply the king of the north to Turkey is not only to bring in something entirely irrelevant, but also to teach that the ending of the king of the north occurs before the deliverance of the people of God, whereas both the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation declare that God's people are delivered from the king of the north, from the forces of Babylon, and that Babylon's doom follows – the king of the north comes to his end after – and is in contrast to the deliverance of the saints.

The book of Daniel is written in two different languages. It opens in Hebrew; but from chapter 2:4 to the end of chapter 7 is Aramaic in the original, the remainder of the book reverting to Hebrew. The prophecies which cover the history of worldly empires (Daniel two to chapter seven) take us to the ending of earthly empires and the setting up of the eternal kingdom of Christ. It is a natural sequence of revelation 'to depict the continuance of earthly kingdoms during the time that God is





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extending mercy to mankind, and then to describe the destruction of all earthly kingdoms as a necessary prelude to the setting up of the heavenly kingdom. Earthly kingdoms come to their end, but the Divine kingdom will be endless. The prophecies of Daniel are written so as to make the former stand out in sombre contrast to the glory of the latter. While Daniel 7 outlines the rise and fall of worldly kingdoms, it also describes the rise of the false mediatorial system which would think itself able to change the Law of God - particularly the Sabbath Commandment. Having pointed out how the Papal power would thus mutilate the Commandments of Heaven, the remainder of the book of Daniel is entirely devoted to outlining how the true mediatorial system, first centred in earthly Jerusalem and, after the crucifixion of Jesus and the rejection of national Israel, transferred to the heavenly sanctuary, would be counterfeited by a Satanic system of human mediation, and how persecution would be the lot of God's people until God would intervene in the last great conflict by delivering His people and confounding their Babylonian enemies. Thus we observe that as the first part of the prophecies of Daniel (chaps. 2 to 7) contrasts the kingdoms – the earthly and the heavenly – so the latter half of the prophecies (chaps. 8 to 12) contrasts the two mediatorial systems – the earthly and the heavenly, and concludes by pointing out that those who are true to the heavenly system of mediation, though buffeted by their enemies, ultimately triumph over their enemies whose fate is contrasted with the glorious deliverance of the people of God.

All the prophecies of Daniel are of the highest importance, but those from chapter 7 to 12, are of special importance for the last days (see PK. 547), because of their special emphasis upon the final conflict over the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment. From Dan. 2:4 to 7:28 the book of Daniel is written in Aramaic, the ancient language of Syria, and substantially "identical with Chaldaic, the language of ancient Babylonia. The language returns to Hebrew from chapter 8 to chapter 12. Thus we see by this fact that, with the prophecy introducing the 2,300 days (Dan. 8) through to the close of the book, we are considering prophecies which have a definite bearing upon the Hebrews – the people of God who are faithful to the true mediatorial service. As the writer has shown in other publications, chapters 9, 10, 11, 12 of the book of Daniel are all explanations or enlargements of the prophecy of Dan. 8, in which the

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2,300 days and the sanctuary services are brought prominently to view. These chapters pass from the vicissitudes of the Jews (the people of God's sanctuary) during the time of their probationary period and their rejection as a nation and their destruction by the Romans, to those of the church (spiritual Israel) through the period of Papal persecutions. Then follows the unfolding of earthly events occurring during the time of the heavenly ministry of our great High Priest: the wounding of the Papacy, thus preparing the way for the rise of God's last-day Movement drawing special attention to the closing work of the High Priest in the cleansing of the sanctuary (exalting the Law of God and its seal, the Sabbath), and the return of political power to the Papacy, which it will employ in its endeavour to destroy the people of God in the final conflict over the Sabbath. Chapters 8 to 12 of Daniel deal entirely with these things–there are no side issues.

Details in the early part of Daniel 11 are given to provide features of identification whereby the powers referred to are definitely located, and to show how the struggle between the kings of the north and the south waged back and forth involved the people of God until the Roman power, eventually rising among the nations, invaded Palestine, and subsequently destroyed the Jewish nation. Then the prophecy is lifted – as, under the New Covenant, all Old Testament





prophecies are similarly lifted – out of its literal Palestinian setting on to the world-wide plane in relation to the church and her enemies. The setting of this prophecy is just the same as all other Bible prophecies relating to the Israel of God – couched in the geography of Palestine.

Chapter 9 of the book of Daniel contains an explanation or enlargement of the prophecy of chapter eight. In chapter 8 the prophet records a conversation he heard between the Lord of glory and the angel Gabriel. Gabriel asked Jesus: "How long shall be the vision concerning the daily, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?" (v. 13). How long would the forces of Satan's kingdom be permitted to tread underfoot the truths concerning the sanctuary and the people who believe in them? This question is partly answered by the angel's communication to Daniel as recorded in Dan. 9. But this chapter ends with the seventy weeks, or 490 years, which were allotted to the Jews out of the 2,300 years – though the reader is also hurried forward to the time when the "desolator" (Dan. 9:27, margin) would receive the wrath of God in the day of His anger. Thus, so far as chapter 9 is concerned, the question as to how long "the transgression of desolation" would continue its depredatory work against the truth and people of God, is not answered.

It was to answer this question completely that the Lord gave Daniel his last prophecy (from chapter 10 to chapter 12). It was in connection with the prophetic periods – the 1,260, 1,290, 1,335 years, which are integral parts of the 2,300 years – that the angel Gabriel still asks of Jesus: "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" (Dan. 12:6, see v. 8 also). First, as Jesus pointed out in Dan. 12:7, the Papacy at the end of the 1,260 years of supremacy would receive a deadly wound, and after the 1,335 years (ending about 1844) increasing light would give rise to the final movement upon the earth that would prepare a people to stand through the revival of Papal power and be delivered when the time comes for the destruction of "the abomination that maketh desolate". "The transgression o f desolation" – the power "that maketh desolate" (Dan. 11:31; 12:11) – will continue to make war upon God's sanctuary truths and His people until that glorious day when the Lord will rise in great majesty to deliver His people from the hand of their persecutors and bring destruction upon the desolator then the king of the north, the antichrist, "shall come to his end, and none shall help him" (Dan. 11:45). Thus the question asked in connection with the giving of the 2,300-year period as to "how long . . . the transgression of desolation" would continue to tread underfoot "the sanctuary and the host" is not fully answered until the deliverance of God's people at the time the 6th plague merges into the seventh. That question is only partly answered in Dan. 9, and that, too, in connection with the destruction of the Jewish nation. Therefore chapters 10 to 12 of Daniel were necessary to trace the conflict between those who proclaim the truth of God and those who proclaim the errors of Satan's Babylonian kingdom. The concluding portion of Daniel's last prophecy presents a graphic portrayal of the rise of the Papal power among the nations, which hastens the final crisis.

INTERPRETING THE LATTER PORTION OF DANIEL XI ACCORDING TO NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES.

As the earlier portion of Daniel 11 shows the struggles for supremacy between the kings of the north (the Seleucid kings, with their power centered in ancient Babylonia, "the fortress of

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the king of the north", Dan. 11:7), and the kings of the south (the Ptolemmaic rulers with their power centered in Egypt) So the latter portion of Daniel 11 outlines the conflict between the powers which to-day are represented by Babylon and Egypt–namely, Papal-led forces versus the atheistic forces of world Communism headed by Soviet Russia. When Seleucus Nicator laid the





foundations of the Seleucid kingdom he made Babylon his residence and centre of his government. And historians have pointed out that that empire remained comparatively strong so long as it was governed from the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris. "Babylon was Seleucus's first choice," says the historian ("The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy," George Rawlinson, M.A., ch. 3, p. 34). In Daniel 11:7, the prophecy declares that the king of the south "shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north." Where was that "fortress"? We quote from "Daniel and Revelation," p. 232: "Ptolemy ... invaded Syria, slew Laodice, and proceeded as far as Babylon ... took the city of Seleucia, which was kept for some years afterward by the garrison of the kings of Egypt. Thus did he enter into the fortress of the king of the north." (Italics mine).

After the rejection of the Jewish nation as God's people and the calling of the church to be spiritual Israel, the inheritors of the promises to, and the prophecies concerning, Israel, all the Old Testament prophecies have a clear line of the two dispensations drawn right across them. Sometimes it puzzles sincere seekers for truth concerning the interpretation of the latter portion of Daniel 11 in relation to the church and the Papacy, when the first part of Daniel 11 deals with military conflicts between literal nations around or to the north or south of the literal city of Jerusalem. Some have concluded that as the first part of the chapter deals with literal or national military matters around Jerusalem so the ending of the prophecy must likewise refer to literal military or national matters near or around Jerusalem. But very little thought would quickly dissipate that puzzle, for the same principle governs every Old Testament prophecy dealing with events to transpire in the Christian era and particularly in the last days: they are all governed by the principle fully explained in the New Testament, that all the promises made to, and the prophecies concerning Israel, now find their world-wide application in relation to the church

When national Israel was the chosen nation, and the land

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of Israel was her home and the place where God's blessings fell, then all the prophecies were interpreted literally: Israel was a literal nation, Jerusalem a literal city, also the temple, the sanctuary and sacrifices were literal material things in their midst. The land of Israel was a literal country, and their enemies were literal nations who employed military armies when they attacked Israel, and Israel fought with literal swords. But the New Testament is explicit that all of these things are applied spiritually in relation to the church, though the language employed is precisely the same. There is no change in the terminology employed, but there is a different application of the same words – they are spiritualized in relation, to the church. Any failure to grasp this simple rudimentary fact betrays a lamentable lack of the basic understanding of the New Testament interpretation of the Old Testament. It is upon this principle that the book of Revelation is written, and a failure to apply this principle to the understanding of the Apocalypse is sure to lead to a misapplication of the Revelator's imagery.

So, by applying the principle so clearly enunciated in the New Testament, that all the Old Testament prophecies describing, the experiences of Israel, in the land of Israel, in Jerusalem, in or concerning Babylon, etc., now depict the experiences of the church and her enemies, we know that the prophecy concerning the kingdom of Babylon – the king of the north – coming against Jerusalem, could refer to nothing else than a description of the final conflict in which the church is attacked by the forces of Babylon, as described in the book of Revelation. The prophecy of Daniel 11 cannot be made an exception to the inflexible rule laid down in the New Testament, unless one goes contrary to what the Holy Spirit has been so careful to make plain





for the people of God, and to do this means to teach something contrary to the will of our Father.

Egypt," the king of the south, is mentioned in Rev. 11:8 as the symbol of "atheism" – see also GC. 269. When the struggles ensued between the Seleucidae and the Ptolemnae they involved the people of God, whose territory lay in between these contending forces and was often involved in their warfare. To-day, the king of the north, the Papacy – the kingdom of Babylon which is represented in both the Old and the New Testaments as being on the Euphrates (compare Jer. 51:13 and Rev. 17:1, 15; 16:12) to "the north," see Jer. 46:6, 10; etc. – is contending for world supremacy with the atheistic

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forces of Communism headed by Soviet Russia. The battle now joined between the Papacy and atheistic, Russian-led Communistic forces will increase in intensity, and as it does it will more and more involve the people of God. As the Roman nation eventually came on to the stage of action and acquired the territory of the Seleucidae, thus becoming the king of the north, and also later conquered Egypt so will the Papacy, the spiritual Romans of the Scripture, eventually conquer Egypt, the symbol of the world-wide atheistic forces of Communism.

Then with the removal of her one great international rival for power, the Papacy will turn its great power against the people of God. As pagan Rome, becoming the king of the north and having conquered the power and territory of the king of the south, eventually destroyed the Jewish nation, Jerusalem and the sanctuary (permitted by God because they were no longer His people), so the Papacy, having conquered the forces of atheistic communism, will endeavour to destroy the Israel of God but will not succeed because the remnant church, keeping all the commandments of God, will be protected by their almighty Lord and Saviour. Having traced the course of world events until the Papal-led forces have vanquished their rivals and have obtained supremacy among the nations, which power it employs against the people of God, the prophecy concludes with the deliverance of God's people (Dan. 12:1) and the doom of the king of the north (Dan. 11:45).

It cannot be too strongly stressed that the prophecies of Daniel, from chapter 8 to chapter 12, bring us to the time of the deliverance of God’s people and the overthrow of their enemies, and terminate there. In Daniel 8:25 – the conclusion of that prophecy – we are informed that the Papacy would be "broken without hand," that is, by a display of Almighty power (compare Dan. 2:34; Job 34:20; Lam. 4:6; 2 Cor. 5:1, etc.) The angel's explanation (Dan. 9) of matters pertaining to the Sanctuary and the 2,300 days (mentioned in Dan. 8) also concludes with a reference to the coming destruction of the desolator of the people of God, see Dan. 9:27, margin. In both these instances, the emphasis is upon the destruction of the enemies of God's people, though, no doubt, the deliverance of God's people is a corollary of the fact that their enemies will be destroyed. For the third time, in chapters 10 to 12, the course of historic events is traced down to the eventual doom of the enemies of God's people, and on this occasion the prophecy declares that God's people will be delivered; that then the tables will be turned and the persecuting king of the north will come to his end. None will be able to help him because the Almighty God will intervene on behalf of His sorely tried people.

Thus we see that the Lord, through the prophet Daniel (chapters 8 to 12), has made the deliverance of His people from the forces of Babylon the outstanding event of the last days. Though little has been said among us as a people upon this vital subject (due largely to a misunderstanding of events under the 6th plague), the servant of the Lord has drawn our attention to its importance by devoting an entire chapter to it in "The Great Controversy,"





chapter 40, pp. 635-652; also an entire chapter in "Early Writings," pp. 285-288, and by frequently mentioning this theme throughout her publications. Thus we see that the Spirit of Prophecy places emphasis upon this theme as God does through the prophet, Daniel. As the writer has pointed out in his other publications, the Spirit of Prophecy bears evidence of inspiration in construction, emphasis, harmony with the Scriptures, and amazing accuracy in general interpretation of the Scriptures and in chronological setting of events – the full significance of some of these things being seen only after a long, sustained concentration of the prophecies concerned.

CHAPTER THREE THE DELIVERANCE OF GOD'S PEOPLE: REVEALED IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION

AS A SUBJECT OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. Turning to the book of Revelation (which was written to be supplementary and complementary to the book of Daniel, see TM. 112-118), we observe that the time when God's anger is heaped upon Babylon to destroy it is under the 7th plague, for then, we read : "And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath" (Rev. 16:19). From Daniel's prophecy we learn that the king of the north comes to his end after the deliverance of God's people, for they are delivered from death when about to be executed by the king of the north. Therefore, we know that the ending of the king of the north occurs (not during the 6th plague as those say who interpret Turkey as the supposed king of the north) under the 7th plague. By comparing Daniel's prophecy with that of the Revelator, we observe that the deliverance of God's people is occasioned by God's "great voice" coming "out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done" (Rev. 16:17).

For the sake of clarity and emphasis we recapitulate Dan. 12:1 declares that at that time – at the expiration of the time period mentioned in the death decree – God's people will be delivered from an endeavour by the king of the north to slay them (Dan. 11:44); the king of the north, who will then come to his end. The Revelator declares that the beast and his armies will endeavour to slay the saints (Rev. 13:15 and study carefully, Rev. 16:2-6, 12; 17:1, 15) – the waters of the river Euphrates represents the multitudes of Babylon who rush to slay the saints, GC. 635, 6 –but the voice of God, almighty in power and majestic in terrifying results, saying, "It is done," brings deliverance to His people. That is, the period of trial for the people of God is then "done," the period permitting Babylon to persecute His people is "done." God's purpose for which this last outburst of fury against the church was permitted is "done". "Their power to annoy them is gone forever" (1T. 354).

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Then follow the stupendous events which occur as God's anger is poured out in all its fury upon Babylon to destroy it. Thus, by a careful comparison of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, we learn that the king of the north-the beast of the Apocalypse- comes to his end under the 7th plague after the people of God have been delivered by the voice of God. With its inspired accuracy, this is the very thing that is taught in the Spirit of Prophecy. The Lord's servant says : "God utters His voice from His holy habitation

. . . the captivity of the righteous is turned, and with sweet and solemn whisperings they say one to another, 'We are delivered. It is the voice of God.' . . . Those who were so eager to destroy the saints cannot endure the glory resting upon the delivered ones" (1T. 354). "Then we all cried day -and night for deliverance, and the cry came up before God . . . whence came the voice of





God like many waters, which shook the heavens and the earth" (EW. 34). "Then all the saints cried out with anguish of spirit, and were delivered by the voice of God" (EW. 37, 285, 6). "When the voice of God turns the captivity of His people, there is a terrible awakening of those who have lost all in the great conflict of life" (GC 653).

From our study of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, as indicated by the above-mentioned facts, we observe that the forces of Babylon have been persecuting the remnant people of God up till the time of the 6th plague. But "at that time," the death decree is to be executed. In the death decree which will be passed upon God's people there will be mentioned a time period for them to relinquish their keeping of the Sabbath. The time limit expires at midnight, and as the hour draws near, preparations are made for the slaughter of the remnant people. The whole world is united in the determination to slay the saints – this is how the whole world is gathered "to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14) – they make war upon God "in the person of His witnesses" (7T. 182, study also Rev. 17: 14). The servant of the Lord says : "There will be, in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction. As the time appointed in the decree draws near, the people will conspire to root out the hated sect. It will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow. . . . It is now, in the hour of utmost extremity, that the God of Israel will interpose for the

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deliverance of His chosen. . . . It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people . . . the voice of God . . . saying, 'It is done.' That voice shakes the heavens and the earth" (GC. 635, 6).

Now, as the opening of the 7th plague brings deliverance to the people of God, it shows that what is referred to under the 6th is the uniting of the whole world to execute the death decree upon God's people, and it further shows that the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates – upon which Babylon is said to sit (Rev. 17:1; Jer. 51:3) – refers to the Babylonian "multitudes" (see Rev. 17:15 and observe GC. 635, 6), who are about to slay the people of God when they "are suddenly arrested. Their mocking cries die away. The objects of their murderous rage are forgotten" (GC. 635, 6). No longer will the waters of the Euphrates – Babylon's river – serve Babylon, but will now become the means of its ruin, as in the type: Cyrus by drying up the waters of the Euphrates made that the way of entrance into the heart of Babylon and thus accomplished its overthrow. In His infinite wisdom, the Lord waits until the very hour for the execution of the death decree, and just as the people of the whole world, then united in their determination to slay the people of God, rush on their prey, the Lord intervenes and brings confusion to the hosts of Babylon: the persecuting waters of the Euphrates are thus dried up –this is the first thing the Lord does as He now sets His almighty hand in wrath to completely destroy Babylon. Never again will the people of God be persecuted by Satan or by the people who do the bidding of their Babylonian leaders; the waters of the Euphrates will be dried up forever – "their power to annoy them is gone forever" (1T. 354). God's "great voice" vibrates with almighty power, "saying, It is Done" – "never more shall My people be persecuted, no longer shall I wait to destroy Babylon; the final revelation of Satanic hatred against those who obey the Law of God has been given in the world's determination to slay My people."





CHAPTER FOUR THE DELIVERANCE OF THE SAINTS: REVEALED IN MANY PROPHECIES AS THE

TIME FOR THE MIGHTIEST DEMONSTRATION OF GOD'S ALMIGHTY POWER. Many of the prophecies find their fulfillment in the period between the time God's voice brings deliverance to His saints and the Saviour's glorious appearing in the clouds of heaven. When God's "great voice" proclaims "It is done," the time will have come for the fulfillment of so many prophecies which have foretold the overwhelming display of God's anger. Then commences "the battle of that great day of God Almighty" when the Lord deals with those who have fought against Him and shown their hatred of Him by endeavouring to slay His people, because they were loyal to the Commandments of God. "He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. according to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies" (Isa. 59:17, 18). "The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy [on behalf of His people and on behalf of His righteous government] like a man of war: He shall cry, yea, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies. I have long time holden My peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry... I will destroy and devour at once" (Isa. 42:13, 14). That will be the time for the fulness of God's wrath, the fierceness of His anger; it will be the time for the fulfilment of a large number of prophecies scattered throughout the prophetic word --see Isa. 2: 17-21; 13: 5-13; 26: 21; 30:27-30; 34:1-8; Jer. 25:30-38; Zeph. 3:8 ; Hag. 2:21, 22; Zech. 14: 3, 12, 13, etc.

The fact that so many of the prophecies have their fulfilment just as the 6th plague immediately merges into the 7th, reveals how important the Lord regards this time. Then will be fulfilled the prophecies against the false prophets: "Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have executed, and till He have performed the thoughts of His heart: in the

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latter days ye shall consider it perfectly" (Jer. 23:19, 20).

Then will be fulfilled the prophecies against the false shepherds “Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard : for the Lord hath spoiled their pasture. And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the Lord" (Jer. 25: 34-38).

Until the 6th plague the false prophets and the false shepherds will still be regarded highly in the world, and it is by their powerful influence that they are able to persuade people to endeavour to slay the people of God, but when God intervenes on behalf of His people – thus delivering them from violent death at the hands of murderous men – by giving a terrifying demonstration of Divine power, the false teachers in their terror are forced to publicly confess their great sin of deceiving the people. "Now in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury, `We are lost!' they cry, ‘and you are the cause of our ruin' ; and they turn upon the false shepherds. The very ones that once admired them most, will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very hands that once crowned them with laurels will be raised for their destruction. The swords which were to slay God's people are now employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and





bloodshed. À noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations: He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword' (Jer. 25:31). . . . The work of destruction begins among those who have professed to be the spiritual guardians of the people. . . Men, women, maidens, and little children perish together. `The Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity' (Isa. 26:21). Ànd this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem [i.e. His church] (Zech. 14:12, 13) . . . In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of God's unmingled wrath, fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth. Priests, rulers, and people, rich and poor, high and low. Ànd

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the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried"' (GC. 655-657).

If the reader observes the texts of Scripture which the Spirit of Prophecy applies specifically to the brief period of time from the 6th plague until the coming of Christ, he will then see how important and how mighty are the events which occur at that time. So many of the prophecies focus upon that time when God delivers His church and overthrows their enemies. It is impossible to over emphasise the magnitude of the events which will transpire between the sixth plague and the second advent; from that midnight hour when the waters of the Euphrates are dried up -when the people of Babylon will be prevented from slaying God's people, because God arrests their attention by a display of His almighty power until Jesus is seen coming in the eastern skies.

CHAPTER FIVE HEARING THE CREATOR'S VOICE: A SUBLIME EVENT

FOR THE SAINTS, A TERROR TO THE WICKED. After Adam and Eve had disobeyed their Creator they were filled with fear at the sound of His voice. The inspired Record says: "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day : and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden and I was afraid" (Gen. 3:8-10). Previously the sound of their Creator's voice was their delight, but with sin in their hearts they feared His voice. So will it be when the Lord's "great voice" shall be heard at the opening of the 7th plague: the righteous who have had their sins pardoned and their lives sanctified hear the voice of God with exquisite delight, but the wicked will be filled with frightful forebodings at the sound of Him Who will then mete out to them the reward of their evil deeds.

Reader, ponder upon the sublime fact that at the time of the deliverance of the remnant people, the voice of God will be heard. Ponder upon how that voice will be heard -and why? For those who love their heavenly Father, the thought of actually hearing, His voice will bring joy into the heart. What a privilege! What a mighty occasion ! Men and women pay handsomely to hear some celebrated singer - but what are the voices of finite creatures in comparison with the voice of the almighty Creator of all ! Some men and women have powerful voices as finite beings measure power - but the only thing we have by which to compare God's powerful voice is the sound of the loudest peals of thunder.





When an international celebrity is to give a recital, the time for it is advertised beforehand, and people look forward with pleasure to that day. Reader, ponder well on the fact that God has advertised beforehand, in His sacred Scriptures, the day when He will break His long silence. How eagerly we should look forward to that thrilling time when our heavenly Father's voice will be heard in all its vibrancy and power! How much

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those who love Him will study concerning the time He has out. lined in His inerrant Word when He will be heard speaking from His holy habitation. Ponder well, too, the glorious fact that His voice will be heard to bring deliverance to His persecuted people. He Who in His great love sent His only begotten Son into this world for our redemption, will demonstrate His love again for His faithful people by uttering His voice to save them from their foes. In His message to His people, spoken to them at this time, He assures them that they will never again be obliged to suffer for their love and faith in Him.

Notice the following texts of Scripture concerning the time when God's voice shall be heard : "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof" (Ps. 50:1). The context shows that this will occur just before the second coming of Christ to gather His people to be with Him (v. 5). From this text we learn that God's voice, coming from the east, will sound throughout the world. "And the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones" (Isa. 30:30).

The prophet Joel also encourages the people of God regarding the hour of deliverance from their enemies, and how that deliverance will be brought about by the voice of the Lord. In chapter 2:32 Joel declares that "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call". Then the prophet Joel proceeds to picture the gathering of "all nations" against the people of God who are pictured as being "in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem"–see Joel 3 : 2. In verses 9-14 God challenges all these nations of the world to destroy His people. "Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up". Because it was built on a mountain, the Scriptures speak of going up to Jerusalem, see Cruden's Concordance under, "Up to Jerusalem". As we have shown in other publications, Jerusalem, since the rejection of national Israel, is employed in these prophecies as a symbol of the church. "Ye are ... a city that is set on an hill [which] cannot be hid" (Matt. 5:14). The New Testament application of Joel 2:32 is that Jerusalem and Zion refer to the church, see Rom. 10:13; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 11:2, etc.

God continues His challenge to the enemies of His church: "Let the heathen [the nations] be awakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe... for their wickedness is great [they are filled with the spirit of Satan and are about to slay God's people]. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of concision, or, threshing [margin] for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of threshing. . . The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake [this causes the mountains to fall, and the whole earth to heave and swell making the wicked frantic with fright and filling them with fearful forebodings] : but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel" (Joel 3:9-16).





What power must be manifested in God's voice when it makes the heavens and the earth shake. His voice is raised to a "roar". Through Jeremiah, the Lord declares : "Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall mightily roar upon His habitation; He shall give a shout . . . against all the inhabitants of the earth". It will be observed that in the context (see Jer. 25:29-33) of this verse the Lord says: "I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts ... He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord." Then follows a graphic description of that horrible slaughter which will ensue among the wicked, when every man's hand will be against his brother, a description of which is often given in the Scriptures –see Hag. 2:21, 22; Zech. 14:13; Judges 7:22; 1 Sam. 14:20; 2 Chron. 20:23; Ezek. 38:21. This terrible work of slaughter will continue upon the earth "from one end of the earth even unto the end of the earth" until Jesus' coming in the heavens, in all His infinite glory, causes them to cease their bloodshed : "The clash of arms, the tumult of battle, `with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood' (Isa. 9: 5), is stilled . . . The wicked pray to be buried beneath the rocks of the mountains, rather than meet the face of Him whom they have despised and rejected" (GC. 642).

The reader is asked to note that Jeremiah, in harmony with other inspired writers, reveals that it is the voice of God that

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results in the wicked, who have just planned to kill the saints, turning their swords upon each other. After stating that "the Lord shall roar from on high . . . He shall mightily roar" he says: "A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations". God's voice reaches "even to the ends of the earth", and causes confusion among the enemies of God's people who had planned their destruction at that midnight hour' when God pours out the 6th plague and dries up the persecuting waters of Babylon's river.

Through the prophet Ezekiel (ch. 38:16-22), the Lord has depicted the forces of evil led by Gog – Satan working through the Papacy – united in their purpose to slay the Israel of God. The gathering of Gog's army against Israel described by Ezekiel is the same as the gathering described by John (Rev. 16:14, 16; 17:14, etc.), and by Joel (ch. 3), and by other prophets. By gathering to attack His people they really gather to war against God Who reigns in His church (Ezek. 39: 7; Joel 2:32; 3:16, 17, 21; Zech. 2:5; 8:3; 14:2, 3, 12, 13; Rev. 14:1; 16:14; 17:14; etc.). Before the world will combine to destroy the remnant church the work of calling out all the honest hearted people who still remain in Babylon will have been accomplished. When "the whole house of Israel" (see Ezek. 39:25-29) shall have "come out" (Rev. 18:4) of spiritual Babylon to the spiritual land of Israel, Satan will stir up the hatred of all people of all nations to unite, or "gather together", against God's people – this is the teaching of Ezek. 38 and 39; Joel 3 ; Zech. 12 and 14; Rev. 16:12-16; 17:12-14; 19:11-21; etc. In Rev. 20:8, 9 we are given the Lord's interpretation of Ezekiel's prophecy concerning the gathering of Gog's mighty army against God's "Israel": the Revelator declares that Gog's great army portrays a vast gathering of those who are led by Satan in his warfare against the city and people of God.

The Lord's servant says: "As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God" (P.K. 587, 588). After the people of God had been called out of Babylon to "the land of Israel", Satan sought to persuade their enemies "to destroy them utterly" (PK. 583). "As he influenced" then, "so in the near future" he will do the same. Then, Satan sought "to destroy them utterly." "In the near





future" Satan will seek to destroy God's people "utterly". This, of course, is precisely what is mentioned in Daniel's last prophecy regarding the king

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of the north: "he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many"' (Dan. 11: 44). "In the latter years" (Ezek. 38: 8), Gog and his armies come "from the north parts" (Ezek. 39:2) to destroy the people of God. In the last days, the king of the north comes to destroy the people of God.

That Gog and his armies refer to the same as the armies of the king of the north is obvious from the fact that both come from the north; both come in the last days; both come to destroy the people of God; both are destroyed by the God of Israel. Now the Lord has definitely told us that Gog with his army refers to Satan leading the wicked to war against "the holy city" and the people of God (Rev. 11:2 ; 14:20; 20:8, 9 ; etc.), so the same power who is referred to in Dan. 11 as the king of the north and who comes to attack the people and city of God, must also be a persecuting force led by Satan. Gog's mighty army "from the north parts", described by Ezekiel is the same as the mighty army that comes with the king of the north to attack and destroy the city and people of God. With them are "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" (Rev. 16:12-16), gathered to war against God and the Lamb (Rev. 16:14; 17:14; 19:19) Who reign within the church. God says : "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle... Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle" (Zech. 14:2, 3, 12, 13). Because the Lord makes war upon those who seek to destroy His church, that final conflict is said to be "the 'battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14). "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings" (Rev. 17:14).

As we have shown elsewhere, the term "the king of the north" (see Dan. 11) refers to "the king of Babylon" (Jer. 25: 9 ; Ezek. 26:7), whose throne was in Babylon on the river Euphrates, which is said to be "in the north country" (Jer. 46:6, 10). In both the books of Daniel and Revelation the Papal power is referred to as "the king of the north" or "Babylon". Similarly in the book of Ezekiel (ch. 38 and 39), the Lord describes the gathering of the forces of evil against His people under the leadership of Gog – Satan working through the Papacy and her confederates. Gog's army "from the north" (i.e. from Babylon, from the Euphrates "in the north country") comes to attack Israel – the church – always represented in the prophecies as being in Jerusalem. Addressing the leader of this

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His people, the Lord says : "Thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee ... a mighty army : and thou shalt come up against My people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land ; it shall be in the latter days ... And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that My fury [God's fury against the would-be murderers of His people causes Him to roar upon them – see Rev. 16:17-19; Isa. 42:13, 14, etc.] shall come up in My face. For in My jealousy [His love for His church and for the honour of the principles of His government] and in My wrath [see Rev. 16:19] have I spoken, Surely there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel ["And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great" – when God's voice sounds forth at the opening of the 7th plague] . . . all men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down . . . and I will call for a sword against him [Gog–the leaders of Babylon] throughout all My





mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will . . . rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon many people that are with him, . . . great hailstones."

That this is a description of events to occur following the voice of God, which brings deliverance to His people at the opening of the 7th plague, is quite obvious as one observes the various points of identification, another of which is seen in the Revelator's reference to the "great hailstones" mentioned also in Ezekiel's prophecy, John says: "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent : and men blasphemed God because of the plague of hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great" (Rev. 16: 21).

From the prophet Haggai (who wrote shortly after the overthrow of ancient Babylon) we also learn that when the Lord's voice shakes "the heavens and the earth" it will be followed by a fratricidal slaughter among the hordes of modern Babylonians, and thus will spiritual Babylon be overthrown. God declared: "I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen ... every one by the sword of his brother" (Hag. 2:21, 22).

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The great apostle Paul also points to the time when the voice of God will shake the heavens and the earth. He directs our minds back to the giving of the Law from Mt. Sinai where, amid awe-inspiring splendour and a terrifying display of omnipotent power, God's voice shook the very earth on which the emancipated Israelites were standing. The Lord made this an occasion to be remembered. Not only that His ancient people might learn the power and the majesty that accompanies His Law, but that people of all generations, and particularly earth's last generation that will be alive when His "great voice" will resound around the globe, might learn to regard with awe the holiness of Heaven's precepts. The sacred historian records an account of the occasion of God's proclamation of His Commandments: "There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that were in the camp trembled . . . And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered by a voice" (Ex. 19:16-19). What Moses said to the Lord at that time is revealed by Paul's inspired account : "And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake" (Heb. 12:21). If Moses, who served God so faithfully over a long period, was exceedingly afraid and trembled before such manifestation of Divine power, we can well visualize the terror possessing the hearts and lives of all those who have sought to slay the Lord's obedient people when the voice of the God of heaven is heard throughout the whole earth, and manifestations of omnipotence far exceeding that revealed at Sinai are displayed across the vaulted heavens and felt by the whole of mankind.

When God proclaimed His holy precepts, the people, in their great fear of God's voice and the power associated with it, pleaded with Moses to ask God to speak no more to them "They said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear but let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Ex. 20:19). Referring to this incident in the life of ancient Israel, the apostle Paul admonishes us: "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that

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speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven" (Heb. 12:19, 25-37).





Having examined the Scriptures which speak of that coming momentous hour when the voice of God will be heard like peals of loudest thunder traversing the entire globe, and having observed the colossal display of power which accompanies it and the stupendous events which follow upon this terrestrial ball: the greatest earthquake ever felt upon this earth, the falling of all the cities and every wall in the world, the removing of mountains into the sea, etc. (see Rev. 16:17-19; Ezek. 38:19, 20; Ps. 46:1, 2 ; etc.), let us now quote from the pen of the servant of the Lord with respect to this time.

"Soon I heard the voice of God, which shook the heavens and the earth. There was a mighty earthquake. Buildings were shaken down on every side" (EW. 272). ". . . whence came the voice of God like many waters, shaking the heavens and the earth. There was a mighty earthquake" (EW. 285).

"That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake... The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side. There is a roar as of a coming tempest. The sea is lashed into fury . . . The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains are sinking. Inhabitated islands disappear ... Babylon the Great hath come in remembrance before God, `to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath' (Rev. 16: 19)" (GC. 636, 7).

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CHAPTER SIX ONE OF THE GRANDEST THEMES OF ALL SCRIPTURE: GOD'S VOICE BRINGS

DELIVERANCE TO HIS PEOPLE. WHY SO SELDOM MENTIONED? From the foregoing descriptions of that amazing time, depicted so fully and so frequently throughout the Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy, it is readily seen that its overwhelming importance cannot be over-exaggerated. But have we as a people appreciated as fully as we should the mightiness, the grandeur, the majesty, and the thrilling import of that glad hour when our heavenly Father's "great voice" shall bring deliverance to His people and terror to their enemies? How many sermons, dear reader, have you heard on this theme of the imminent peril of death to the people of God at that midnight hour when God dries up the waters of persecution – the river Euphrates, Babylon's persecuting river – and utters His mighty voice to bring deliverance to His people and terror and death to their enemies? Is it not remarkable that a subject which the Lord, throughout His Word and the Spirit of Prophecy, has made so prominent, should receive such little consideration?

We do not need to look far to discover the reason for this neglect of an important teaching – it is because the Revelator's description of events under the 6th and 7th plagues have been misinterpreted. The Futuristic interpretation of Armageddon – i.e. a military war in Palestine – has wrenched Rev. 16:12-16 completely out of its setting, and the significance of the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates in relation to the 7th plague has been entirely missed. As the writer has had occasion to point out before in some of his other publications where an analysis of the foundation principles of the third angel's Message have been considered, wherever the passages of Scripture are interpreted to sustain the teaching concerning a supposed military war





in Palestine as "Armageddon", such interpretation wrenches the Scriptures concerned out of their settings and is foreign to the teachings of God's last-day Message.

To interpret Rev. 16:12-16 as a military war in Palestine, having nothing to do with God's people, is completely out of harmony with the laws of interpretation enunciated in the

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Scriptures. We have dealt with these principles of interpretation in other publications. We could not do justice to their study in this brief outline, but we would urge the reader to obtain some of the publications advertised on the back page of this book where, in considering the foundation principles of the third angel's Message, we have shown that the interpretation of certain prophecies, such as Rev. 16:12-16, etc., in relation to a supposed military war among nations in Palestine, is utterly at variance with those principles.

We must be content here to draw attention to a principle mentioned by Uriah Smith in his "Daniel and the Revelation", p. 46. He says: "It is a manifest rule of interpretation that we may look for nations to be noticed in prophecy when they become so far connected with the people of God that mention of them becomes necessary to make the records of sacred history complete". This principle – this "manifest rule of interpretation" – of nations and battles being brought into the Word of God as they become "connected with the people of God" is thrust aside by the belief that Rev. 16:12-16 refers to a Palestinian "Armageddon", for such a belief applies this last great struggle, not as it should be in connection with the battle involving the people of God, but to nations fighting against nations. Thus a principle that has operated throughout the Word of God is thrust aside in connection with what is admitted to be the last and greatest of all conflicts! Further, the word "war" or "battle" is employed in Rev. 11:7 ; 12: 7, 17; 13:4, 7; 16:14; 17:14; 19:11, 19; 20: 8, and all these passages refer to "the great controversy between Christ and Satan" –the great spiritual conflict that has raged down through the ages. Thus to interpret the "battle" mentioned in Rev. 16: 14 in a way foreign to the use of the same original word employed from Rev. 11:7 to Rev. 20:8 reveals that it is opposed to the truth the Revelator thus seeks to convey. The Revelator, in Rev. 16:12-16, describes that final conflict in which all the world will have united in "a simultaneous movement for the destruction" (GC. 635) of God's people. It is by this attempt to slay God's people that the world makes war upon God – "in the person of His witnesses" (7T. 182). It is in this way that nations supporting the Papacy "make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings : and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful" (Rev. 17: 14).

After having informed us that the whole world will be

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united upon a "simultaneous movement for the destruction" of God's people, the servant of the Lord then proceeds to describe the deliverance of God's people by the intervention of God at the opening of the 7th plague, when His "great voice" strikes terror into the hearts of the would-be murderers of His people; and then, graphically describing the reactions of these doomed people, says: "They find that they have been fighting against God" (GC. 640). The Spirit of Prophecy has never countenanced the teaching of a supposed war of nations against nations as the "Armageddon" of Rev. 16:12-16. The Lord's servant, not only in the passage quoted above when describing conditions to exist under the 6th and 7th plagues, but in a number of other extracts, guides us in our interpretation of "Armageddon" by teaching that "Armageddon" is, as declared by the Scriptures, "the battle . . . of God Almighty", a battle in which those who have





fought against the Lord by opposing His truth and seeking to destroy His church, meet their doom at the hands of a wrathful, but just and holy God.

In no less than four separate passages in "The Great Controversy" the servant of the Lord has given the true interpretation concerning "the battle of that great day of God Almighty". On pages 561, 562, Rev. 16:13, 14 is quoted and applied to the Satanic deceptions that will lead "the whole world" to go contrary to the Commands of their Creator. "Satan has long been preparing for his final effort [which will be reached at the time of the 6th plague] to deceive the world... He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the prophet: ... [Rev. 16:13, 14 is then quoted]. Except those who are kept by the power of God, through faith in His Word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion. The people are fast being lulled to a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God." Thus Rev. 16:13, 14 is applied as a worldwide conflict, led by Satan and his evil angels, against God.

The same teaching is clearly enunciated on page 623 (GC) "Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-working demons. The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world [which is a quotation from Rev. 16:13, 14], to fasten them in deception, and urge them on to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government of Heaven." Thus the Lord interprets Rev. 16:13, 14 for us: He

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declares that the work of demons "to gather" all mankind, "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" – means "to fasten them in deception" – not to go to Megiddo, but "to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government o f Heaven." Surely we should not teach that this battle is to be a battle between nations when our Lord explicitly declares that it will be between men and God, between those who have been deceived by evil spirits into uniting "with Satan in his last struggle against the government of Heaven" and "God Almighty".

Bringing us definitely to events to transpire under the 6th and 7th plagues, and describing the events after the deliverance of God's people by the voice of God, we are told on page 640 (GC) that those who had up till that time been deceived into fighting against God's truth and His people, now "find that they have been fighting against God." Again referring to the same time, and enlarging on the details of the tragic events which mark the close of the reign of deception and sin, the Lord's servant says: " À noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations: He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword' (Jer. 25:31). For six thousand years the great controversy has been in progress; the Son of God and His heavenly messengers have been in conflict with the power of the evil one, to warn, enlighten, and save the children of men. Now all have made their decision; the wicked have fully united with Satan in his warfare against God. The time has come for God to vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. Now the controversy [or "war" or "battle"] is not alone with Satan, but with men" (GC. 656).

Another reference to Rev. 16:14 is also found in Test. to Min. p. 465: "Every soul that is not fully surrendered to God . . . will form an alliance with Satan against Heaven, and join in battle against the Ruler of the universe." Compare with Weymouth's Translation of Rev. 16:14. As explained by this and every other reference the Spirit of Prophecy makes to this passage of Scripture, the coming "battle of that great day of God Almighty" vitally concerns "every soul" which if "not fully surrendered to God" will be found on Satan's side fighting – not some soldier





of another nationality over in Palestine – "against Heaven", and thus joined "with Satan . . . in battle against the Ruler of the universe."

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In Testimonies Vol. 6, p. 406, the Lord's servant writes interchangeably of the second advent and "Armageddon". We also quote from E. G. White, Ms. 172, 1899: "The battle of Armageddon is soon to be fought. He on Whose vesture is written the name, King of kings and Lord of lords is soon to lead forth the armies of heaven on white horses, clothed in fine linen, clean and white. John writes : [Rev. 19:11-21 being then quoted]". Thus we see that the Spirit of Prophecy applies Rev. 19:11-21 as a description of "the battle of Armageddon" – the finale of the worldwide conflict between the forces of good and evil in which all of God's enemies are destroyed.

Again quoting from the pen of the servant of the Lord:

"A terrible conflict is before us. We are nearing the battle of the great day of God Almighty. . . The angel of mercy is folding her wings preparing to step down from the throne, and leave the world in control of Satan. The principalities and powers of earth are in bitter revolt against the, God of heaven. They are filled with hatred against those who serve Him, and soon, very soon, will be fought the last great battle between good and evil. The earth is to be the battlefield – the scene of the final contest and the final victory. Here where for so long Satan has led men against God, rebellion is to be forever suppressed." – Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, May 13, 1902. (Italics mine.)

"We need to study the pouring out of the seventh vial. The powers of evil will not yield up the conflict without a struggle. But Providence has a part to act in the battle of Armageddon. When the earth is lighted with the glory of the angel of Revelation eighteen, the religious elements, good and evil, will awake out of slumber and the armies of the living God will take the field." E. G. White, Ms. 175, 1899.

Thus the Lord has given faithful instruction and urges His people to study the theme of "the battle of Armageddon" in connection with "the religious elements" and "the pouring out of the seventh vial" which, as we have seen, coincides with the execution of the death decree in that midnight hour when the people of Babylon are rushing to slay the people of God. At that climactic hour, when the whole world in its rebellion against God has united in its "simultaneous movement for the destruction" (GC. 635) of God's people, God pours out His judgments upon the rushing waters of the Euphrates–the people and multitudes who until then are under Babylon's power,

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see Rev. 17:1, 15, compare Jer. 51:13; etc. -and utters His "great voice" (Rev. 16:17) "against His enemies" (Isa. 42: 13, 14), and thus by terrible acts of righteousness brings terror, confusion and destruction to all the followers of Babylon.

CHAPTER SEVEN WHY DOES GOD SEND THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES?

God does not send the plagues as judgments upon the world because of its wickedness in general, but because the world is determined to persecute and to kill His people. Not only should "Armageddon" be seen in the light of its relation to the spiritual war over the Law of





God, but the whole of Rev. 16 should also be viewed in the light of this spiritual conflict. Of course, in some respects this has usually been done, though more emphasis could be placed upon this feature. It is remarkable how some who have viewed the plagues as the Lord's reply to the forces of evil, have failed to apply the same principle to the 6th and 7th plagues. Why will the seven last plagues fall? Because the world generally will have rejected God's last-day Message and will have taken a stand with God's enemy. Upon whom are we told the plagues fall? They fall upon those who "worship [i.e. a spiritual act] the beast and his image, and receive his mark" (Rev. 14:9). The burden of the third angel's Message is to warn against the worship of the beast and his image and to declare that all who are heedless of God's last-day Message will receive of "her [Babylon's] plagues" (Rev. 14:8-11; 18:4, 8, 10). Concerning the first plague we read: "And there fell ... upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image" (Rev. 16:2): that is, those who persist in observing the Papal sabbath and break the Sabbath commanded in God's Decalogue, and worship (or obey) the combination of Protestant churches with the State in enforcing this false sabbath by coercive legislation, will be the recipients of the wrath of God in the seven last plagues. Every plague that follows is given to the same people for the same reason.

As the writer has explained in his book, "Before Probation Closes", stringent Sunday observance laws will be followed by the passing of a death decree upon all those who refuse to obey the law of the land enforcing the Papal sabbath and refuse to desist in keeping the 7th-day Sabbath. That death decree will have in it a time period extending some months, at the end of which, if not heeded, the sentence of death will be executed. With

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the passing of this death decree will come the test for everyone on the planet. "As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the Papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honour the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example" (6T. 18). "Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world" (6T. 395). Shortly after the passing of the death decree when every soul will be obliged to take a stand for or against the government of Heaven, probation closes. Then God's answer to that death decree upon His people is given by the pouring out of the first plague upon those who have received the mark of the beast and who have worshipped his image – his image is the likeness of the Papacy, which believes in employing the arm of the State to enforce its religious dogmas. Thus upon those who subscribe to this system of intimidation and terrorization of the saints to turn them from their allegiance to the Commandment of Heaven, falls the anger of God.

Each plague as it falls has a definite bearing upon the people of God being threatened by the church-ridden State to disobey God's holy law. As each plague falls, the Lord reveals His righteous anger against the steps being taken by the powers doing the bidding of Babylon in persecuting His church. The third plague is said to fall "for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy" (Rev. 16:4-6). The comment given in the Spirit of Prophecy reads: "By condemning the people of God to death they have as truly incurred the guilt of their blood, as if it had been shed by their hands" (GC. 628). Instead of repenting of their iniquitous design to slay the saints unless they yield to the demand to turn from their keeping of the Commandment of heaven, the hour draws near for the execution of the death decree, and the States prepare for this crisis hour. But the Lord answers their demands that Sunday–the day that was anciently dedicated by sun-worshippers to the honour of their sun-god–be observed by pouring out His fourth vial of wrath upon the sun "and men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over





these plagues: and they repented not to give Him glory" (Rev. 16:8-10). Though the significance of this plague must burn into their minds – that their demand for the saints' recognition of the Sun-day is met with Heaven's reply in giving power to the sun to scorch

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them – yet they will not repent of their devilish delusion to slay the saints for their refusal to observe the day dedicated to the worship of Satan in his false system of worship.

The fifth plague is poured out upon "the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness" (Rev. 16:10, 11). How fitting that men who have not only been content to dwell in darkness themselves but who have endeavoured to force others into that same darkness of false doctrines, superstition and disobedience, should be the recipient of a plague of darkness from the Lord of light, Whose glorious light they have refused to follow. Now, despite the Lord's significant handling of this mighty world crisis, despite the fact that each step that the followers of Babylon have taken to oppress and persecute the people of God has been correspondingly opposed by God, still at the very hour when the death decree is about to be executed upon the people of God, there is no sign of them deciding to rescind their decision to execute the saints for their loyalty to the government of Heaven. The Scripture, pointing to this time, says: "And they ... repented not of their deeds" (v. 11).

Now, having brought us down to the very hour when the death decree promulgated just before probation closes (Rev. 13:15) is about to be executed – the time period allotted being about to expire – would the Revelator, whose graphic account of the great spiritual conflict over the law of God we have followed step by step with bated breath, suddenly, without any reason, break off his intensely interesting and inspiring portrayal just at the climax of his picture of the awful age-long, eternity-deciding, world-wide conflict between the forces of good and evil, in order to introduce that which is entirely foreign and utterly irrelevant to the controversy – a war between nations over in Palestine?

Every symbol employed in the Revelator's description of the outpouring of the plagues is distinctly Babylonian and all are employed because of their relation to the spiritual conflict. They are enumerated as follows: "the mark of the beast . . . his image", "the seat of the beast". Then in the events associated with the 6th plague, the dragon, the beast, the false prophet, the waters of the Euphrates, and Armageddon are mentioned. Other symbols are brought to view in Rev. 16: 19: "And the great city was divided into three parts . . . and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath." "The beast," "his image," "the dragon," "the false prophet," "the water" of the "Euphrates", "the great city," and "Babylon" – all mentioned in the description of the plagues – symbolize the people of the three sections of spiritual Babylon. The "mark of the beast" is the sign of allegiance to Babylon; the cup and wine denote the wrath of God to be poured out upon the people of Babylon.

Thus all the symbols in the seven last plagues either represent or are associated with the people of Babylon. There are two features of these symbols which deserve our attention, namely, the world-wide nature of all of them, and also their definite use in relation to the conflict between the forces of good and evil. As we have pointed out in other publications, the belief of a military "Armageddon" causes each Scriptural feature brought to view in relation to this theme to be applied in a manner foreign to the rest of the Scriptures. In this instance, it takes the river Euphrates from among the other symbols which are world-wide in character and gives it a limited regional meaning in relation to Turkey or other nations living adjacent to the Euphrates. The Euphrates, undoubtedly, is spiritual Babylon's river. To apply the Euphrates in the plagues to





something of a military nature – something non-Babylonian is out of alignment with the fact that all the other symbols mentioned in the plagues are definitely Babylonian symbols it would be the only symbol in the plagues to be interpreted militarily, and the only symbol not a Babylonian one. It is evident that both the Euphrates and Armageddon are employed as symbols of world-wide import in connection with the people of Babylon. A great slaughter follows the drying up of the water of the Euphrates. That slaughter will be real, though the events that lead to or are associated with it are symbolized by the drying up of the Euphrates. That slaughter is real, though it is pictured under the symbolic name of "Armageddon".

What does the Revelator say will occur when the persecuting water of the Euphrates has been dried up and God's voice at the opening of the 7th plague has brought deliverance to the people of God? He says: "And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell : and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath". The very language thus employed shows that until the time of the deliverance of the saints, the wicked comprising Babylon have been united, for it

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is not until the voice of God brings deliverance to His people and strikes terror into the hearts of their would-be murderers that "the great city" Babylon becomes "divided into three parts".

These three divisions are mentioned in Rev. 16:13: (1) the dragon represents the State that enforces the mark of the beast; (2) the beast–the Papacy; (3) the false prophet–apostate Protestantism that will have joined hands with the Papacy in persecuting the people of God. When the waters of the Euphrates, representing the multitudes doing the bidding of their Babylonian leaders, are prevented by the Lord's intervention from drowning the people of God, which is followed by the Lord's "great voice" as with anger He displays His omnipotent power on behalf of His people, then those who had been united in their determination to slay the saints now turn upon each other with bitter recriminations. We have already given a number of verses giving details of this time when the people of Babylon, realising that they have been deceived first turn upon their religious leaders, and then upon themselves : "every man's sword shall be against his brother" : thus "the great city [Babylon] is divided into three parts", and the world-wide slaughter which ensues continues until the Saviour is seen coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory to complete the work of destruction.

The word "Armageddon" means "the mountain of slaughter". The slaughter, of the multitudes of Babylon commences, as we have seen, with the opening of the 7th plague and continues until the Saviour's coming-during this time the wicked are being given over to the sword (see Jer. 25:31, etc.) as with uncontrolled fury they are bent upon mutual slaughter. Quoting briefly extracts from the Spirit of Prophecy which we have previously given, we see the significance of the following statements: "The earth is to be the battlefield". "We need to study the pouring out of the seventh vial ... But Providence has a part to act in the battle of Armageddon". "The battle of Armageddon is soon to be fought. He on Whose vesture is written the name, King of kings, and Lord of lords, is soon to lead forth the armies o f heaven." (6T. 406). The slaughter of the wicked commences with the realization of their lost condition after the voice of God has delivered His people : with the swords they intended to slay God's people, they now slay each other. Thus "the work of destruction begins among those who have

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professed to be the spiritual guardians of the people" (GC. 656) and continues until Jesus, at His coming, destroys "the remnant" (Rev. 19:21) of the wicked who live to see the Saviour coming.





"In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of God's unmingled wrath, fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth . . . Ànd the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried' (Jer. 25: 33)" (GC. 657).

CHAPTER EIGHT THE DELIVERANCE OF THE SAINTS:

ONE OF EARTH'S GREATEST EVENTS SINCE CREATION It is God's "great voice" coming "out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done" (Rev. 16:17) that brings deliverance to the living saints (see 1T. 345; EW. 37; etc.) from the hands of their would-be murderers. That God should thus break His long silence indicates the importance of this time in the plan and purpose of the Lord. The fact that our Lord Jesus uttered a similar phrase when He had completed His work on earth should arrest the attention of all Bible students as to the greatness of the hour when the 6th plague merges into the 7th. After being subjected to all that Satanic cruelty and fury could heap upon the Saviour, and He had forever finished His earthly work, Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). This was not only the hour of triumph for our Lord Who had remained true in the face of overwhelming odds, bearing in His body the sins of the world and thus carrying the crushing burden of the just demands of a righteous law and a holy God; it was also the hour of triumph for His Father – it proved that Jesus in His human strength (without using His infinite power on His own behalf), through the keeping power of God, was able to withstand all the power of the evil one and obey the holy law of God. Similarly, though of course in a limited way, the remnant people will also triumph when they are delivered by the voice of God, after they have remained true in the face of overwhelming odds; it will also be a day of triumph for the Father because the remnant will have demonstrated that it is possible for human beings to be true to God when kept by His almighty power.

THE EXPERIENCES OF GOD'S REMNANT PEOPLE TO BE SIMILAR TO THOSE OF JESUS

Were our space not so limited we could point out that in many ways the experiences of the remnant people of God will be very similar to those Jesus experienced in His earthly life. We pause to mention just two of many similarities – as Jesus went through an experience in which there was no Mediator,

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so must the remnant people of God pass through the time of the wrath of God when there will be no Mediator; they will be obliged to stand free from sin, but held by Divine keeping power because they have learned to lean wholly on the arm of the Lord, while the billows of Divine wrath sweep over this sin-cursed earth.

The death decree which will be passed by earthly powers to destroy the remnant people of God will be similar to that passed upon our Lord by the Jewish Sanhedrin – and the arguments employed to bring it about will be similar. Comparison is made in GC. 615, 616, between the arguments employed in bringing this decree about, and the experience of Jesus under Caiaphas: "The persistent refusal of a small minority to yield to the popular demand [regarding the enforcement of the observance of Sunday], will make them objects of universal execration. It





will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the State, ought not to be tolerated; that it is better for them to suffer than for whole nations to be thrown into confusion and lawlessness. The same argument eighteen hundred years ago was brought against Christ by the `rulers of the people'. Ìt is expedient for us,' said the wily Caiaphas, `that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not' (John 11:50). This argument will appear conclusive; and a decree will finally be issued against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment denouncing them as deserving of the severest punishment, and giving the people liberty, after a certain time, to put them to death... The people of God will then be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress described by the prophet as the time of Jacob's trouble." This term "the time of Jacob's trouble" has reference to the fear that possessed Jacob, that his brother Esau would kill him and all his family. "He did all in his power to atone for the wrong to his brother, and to avert the threatened danger, and then in humiliation and repentance, he pleaded for divine protection" (PP. 195). "Jacob's experience during that night of wrestling and anguish represents the trial through which the people of God must pass before Christ's second coming ... When Christ shall cease His work as Mediator in man's behalf, then this time of trouble will begin ... As Jacob was threatened with death by his angry brother, so the people of God will be in peril from the wicked who are seeking to destroy them. And, as the patriarch wrestled all night for deliverance from the hand of Esau, so the righteous will cry to God day and night for deliverance from the enemies that surround them" (PP. 201).

GOD WILL AVENGE HIS OWN ELECT It was Jesus Who spoke the parable of the importunate widow for the encouragement of His last day people who would pass through experiences similar to those of His own. "He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." As shown in the concluding verses of the previous chapter (Luke 17), the Lord had been speaking concerning the last days, and in particular to the close of human probation, and the necessity of each believer knowing from personal experience what it means to be individually right with God and to be sustained by divine power. He then shows how the remnant people of God will pass through an experience like that of a widow, helpless, and needing to be avenged upon her adversary. In this parable God the Father is contrasted with an "unjust judge". The unjust judge eventually came to the aid of the oppressed widow merely because he knew she would keep troubling him until she was avenged upon her adversary. The judge said: "I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:1-8). In these words, our Lord would encourage those who are to pass through the coming hour of severe trial, that, though they will be sorely tried and will cry for a long time for God to intervene on their behalf, just as soon as the purpose of the Lord has been fulfilled, He will quickly come to their aid and "will avenge them speedily". That avengement will come at the opening of the 7th plague, and will be the occasion of one of the mightiest demonstrations of divine power since the creation of the world.





CHAPTER -NINE GOD'S VOICE DECLARES: "IT IS DONE"-WHAT DO

THESE WORDS SIGNIFY? When Jesus said "It is finished" He thus announced the completion of one phase of His work of redemption that would never be repeated : one tremendous phase of His work of salvation was finished and He was about to commence another important work, when His position was to change from His earthly life of humiliation, suffering and death, to His exaltation on the Father's throne. When God's "great voice" is heard, in response to the cries of the remnant church for deliverance from their foes, saying, "It is done", He thus announces the completion of a demonstration that will never be repeated, never again will the people of God be obliged to suffer at the hands of men or of demons – at that time "their [demons and men] power to annoy them [the delivered saints] is gone forever" (1T. 354). As the words "It is finished" indicated a change in the experience of Jesus from that of humiliation and suffering to that of glorification and exaltation, so the words "It is done" indicate a change in the experience of the tried and trusted saints, from that of humiliation and suffering to that of glorification (see GC. 637, 645) and exaltation.

The death of Jesus was an event so mighty that our finite minds fail to grasp its magnitude. His statement "It is finished," when He had completed His earthly ministry and was about to commence His far-reaching heavenly ministry, illustrates the significance intended when a similar expression is employed in Rev. 16:17; it denotes that the time has arrived for a colossal step to be taken in the execution of the Divine plan. When Jesus said, "It is finished", it was an indication that Satan had done all he could do to the Son of God, and that the time had come for God to do something mighty. The words "It is done", in like manner, indicate that Satan at that time will have done all he will be permitted to do against the people of God, and that the time has arrived for God to do something mighty. That this is the significance attached to the use of such a phrase at such a time is further shown by the fact that in Rev. 21:6 we again read the words: "It is done". At what time is this same expression employed?

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- after Satan and all sinners have been destroyed and the last traces of sin have been completely eradicated, and the saved have begun their eternal bliss in the glorified new world.

GOD'S VOICE: THE GREATNESS OF THAT SUBLIME HOUR

Thus it becomes obvious that the expression "It is done" is employed to indicate that the time has come in the divine programme for the passing of a huge mountain peak, the time when some momentous event will announce a colossal forward move in the unfolding of the plan of God: some great and far-reaching event is then to transpire. The fact that the same words are employed in the same book to indicate the ending of Satan and his followers, and the burning of the world he has ruined, and to mark the ending of everything that had been spoilt by sin, and the making of "all things new", leaves no possible room for doubting that the events to transpire under the 6th plague bring us to the time in God's programme when He will intervene on behalf of His people and give a demonstration of almighty power such as the world has not witnessed since the creation of the earth. As we have shown in the book, "Before Probation Closes", the 6th plague refers to the time when the whole world will have united in its determination to slay the saints: just as the people of Babylon are about to execute the death sentence passed upon God's people, the Lord reveals His mighty power on their behalf. This demonstration of power





prevents the wicked from carrying out their plan to destroy the people of God. Concerning this time, the Lord's servant says:

"With shouts of triumph, jeering, and imprecation, throngs of evil men are about to rush upon their prey, when lo, a dense blackness, deeper than the darkness of night, falls upon the earth. Then a rainbow, shining with the glory from the throne of God, spans the heavens, and seems to encircle each praying company. The angry multitudes are suddenly arrested. Their mocking cries die away. The objects of their murderous rage are forgotten. With fearful forebodings they gaze upon the symbol of God's covenant, and long to be shielded from its overpowering brightness . . . It is at midnight that God manifests his power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears,

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shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. The wicked look with amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out, of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark, heavy clouds come up, and clash against each other. In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying, Ìt is done' (Rev. 16:17). That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, `such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great'" (GC. 635, 636).

The description given (in GC. 636-644) by the servant of the Lord, of events to transpire following the words "It is done", could not fail to impress upon the reader the greatness of that time: "The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way. The seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness, are swallowed up by the angry waters. Babylon the Great hath come in remembrance before God, `to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath' (Rev. 16:19). Great hailstones, every one àbout the weight of a talent,' are doing their work of destruction. The proudest cities of the earth are laid low. . . Graves are opened, and `many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth' àwake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt' (Dan. 12: 2) ... Fierce lightnings leap from the heavens, enveloping the earth is a sheet of flame. Above the terrific roar of thunder, voices, mysterious and awful, declare the doom of the wicked... Their wails are heard above the sound of the elements. Demons acknowledge the divinity of Christ, and tremble before His power, while men are supplicating for mercy, and groveling in abject terror ...

"Then there appears against the sky a hand holding two tables of stone folded together. Says the prophet, `The heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is Judge Himself' (Ps. 50: 6) . . . The hand opens the tables, and there are seen the precepts of the Decalogue, traced as with the pen of fire. The words are so plain that all can read them."

Never has the world seen such a scene. Truly the words, "It is done," spoken when the 6th plague merges into the 7th,

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indicate a mighty movement made in the unfolding of the plan and purpose of God, for at that climactic hour when the forces of Babylon endeavour to destroy His people, the Lord sets His hand to reveal His almighty power to save His obedient and trusting children, and exercises that power in the destruction of their enemies. Obviously to study the 6th and 7th plagues without seeing them in relation to the world's attempt to slay God's people, and the Lord's intervention





on their behalf, is to completely miss the purpose for which the Revelator's description was given.

CHAPTER TEN "THE POWERS OF THE HEAVENS SHALL BE SHAKEN"

BY GOD'S VOICE That we have by no means exaggerated the importance and the greatness of that hour when God's "great voice" brings deliverance to His people, is readily observed when we see the connection between that mighty event and the fulfillment of the Saviour's prophecy that "the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:29, 30). It will be observed that the Saviour links up together two events which are about of equal magnitude, namely (1), the shaking of the powers of heaven and (2), His second advent. No one has ever been able to over emphasise the importance of the second advent nor to exaggerate its greatness – no matter how eloquent the tongue or facile the pen; neither can a human being exaggerate the greatness of the events when the Father's "great voice" – uttered in bringing deliverance to His remnant people, thunders in almighty power from His throne in the heavens.

So great is that event that Jesus linked it up with the glory and majesty and power of His second coming. And it is obvious that Seventh-day Adventists, who rightly glory in preaching the wonders and the omnipotence displayed at the time of the Saviour's return to earth, should also preach concerning that mighty hour when God the Father will reveal His omnipotent power in the deliverance of His persecuted people. As the Saviour's return is imminent and that fact must be heralded to the sons of men, so the time of the Father’s display of power is also imminent, being a little while previous to the second advent, and should also be proclaimed with certainty and gladness to the children of men. The order of events, as given by the Saviour, is: "The powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven."

The Lord has been careful to advise us that it is the voice of God, uttered when delivering His persecuted people, that shakes the heavens and the earth. We have dealt with this

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feature more fully in another chapter, and must refer the reader to that chapter for the Scriptural proof for this statement. In those Scriptures therein presented, we are definitely informed that the voice of God will not only shake the earth, but will also shake the heavens. This, of course, is precisely what Jesus referred to when He declared that prior to His coming "the powers of the heavens shall be shaken". Surely, then, the time of the deliverance of God's people from their Babylonian persecutors–when the waters of the Euphrates are thus dried up –and they are to be freed forever from their tormentors, is regarded in the Scriptures as one of, if not the greatest event in the history of the church, and is thus presented as a subject to which far greater attention should be paid by Seventh-day Adventist preachers and writers.





CHAPTER ELEVEN WHAT IS MEANT BY

THE SHAKING OF THE HEAVENS? In a number of places in the Spirit of Prophecy, the servant of the Lord has stated that the voice of God shakes the heavens as well as the earth. Notice the following brief extracts : "The voice of God ... shook the heavens and the earth" (EW. 34, see also p. 285). "That voice shakes the heavens and the earth" (GC. 636).

What is meant by the shaking of the heavens? The Lord has seen the necessity of giving His children special instruction upon this subject, thus again indicating its importance. Under a chapter heading "Shaking of the Powers of Heaven", the Lord's servant has written:

"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 èarth' 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 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. Dark, heavy clouds came up, and clashed against each other. The atmosphere parted and rolled back; then we could look up through the open space in Orion, whence came the voice of God ... the voice of God will shake the sun, moon, and stars, and this earth also" (EW. 41).

Even if only our earth, the sun and moon, and the planets of our solar system were affected by the voice of God, it would be a colossal event, indeed! But the statements of Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy indicate that even beyond the enormous scope of our own solar system, some at least of the heavenly bodies will be shaken by the voice of God, which is uttered to bring deliverance to His persecuted people; that persecution, as we have fully shown in other publications, is symbolized by the overflowing of the river Euphrates threatening to drown the people of God. The drying up of those waters of persecution and

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the deliverance of the people of God by the voice of God, is the subject of the Revelator's description of events to transpire under the 6th and 7th plagues. Surely the Lord has made it clear that the events of those plagues, involving the deliverance of God's people from the hands of their Babylonian persecutors, are among the most important in the Lord's programme of earthly events. Surely, by informing us that our earth, the sun and moon, and distant orbs, are to be shaken with His voice when He delivers His people, the Lord has made it clear that He regards that time, and thus the consideration of the events described in Rev. 16: 12-21, of the highest importance and of the greatest magnitude.

It surely would not be honouring to God to belittle the study of that which the Lord has so greatly magnified. How could a subject be more exalted than by the way the Lord has written concerning it in His Word and through the Spirit of Prophecy? In the face of the facts presented, it would surely be an insult to, and a mockery of, Divine wisdom to maintain that the 6th plague has reference to the ending of Turkey, or even of nations living adjacent to the Euphrates, and that the ending of the king of the north, which is associated in the Word of God with the deliverance of God's people (Dan. 11:45; 12:1), also refers to the ending of Turkey! Surely the ending of Turkey or a few of her small neighbouring nations is not such a noteworthy event in God's programme of events in connection with redemption that it is linked in His Word with the





deliverance of His people and the moving "out of their places" of "the sun, moon, and stars" ! But the linking together in the prophecies of the overthrow of the forces of Babylon – represented by the ending of the king of the north and the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates and the consequent "Armageddon" slaughter of Israel's enemies – with the deliverance of God's people, and the effect of such upon distant worlds, is in perfect harmony with what is clearly revealed to us regarding the interest the other worlds have taken in the progress of Satan's rebellion and his kingdom upon this world, and how keenly they have watched the development of Christ's work of salvation upon this earth.

"The fall of man filled all heaven with sorrow" (PP. 63).

"Joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven" when told of God's plan for man's redemption (PP. 65). The glad tidings of Christ's birth upon this earth filled "heaven with rejoicing" (DA. 44). "When Christ came to our world in the form of humanity, all

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were intensely interested in following Him as He traversed, step by step, the blood-stained path from manger to Calvary. Heaven marked the insult and mockery that He received, and knew that it was at Satan's instigation. They marked the work of counter-agencies going forward; Satan constantly pressing darkness, sorrow, and suffering upon the race, and Christ countering it. They watched the battle between light and darkness as it waxed stronger. And as Christ in His expiring agony cried out, Ìt is finished!' a shout of triumph rang through every world, and through heaven itself . . . With one voice the loyal universe united in extolling the divine administration" (PP. 69, 70). "All heaven was waiting to welcome the Saviour to the celestial courts . . . The commanders of the heavenly hosts, the sons of God, the representatives of the unfallen worlds, are assembled. The heavenly council before which Lucifer had accused God and His Son, the representatives of the sinless realms over which Satan had thought to establish his dominion – all are there to welcome the Redeemer" (DA. 833, 4).

"Age after age there has gone up from our earth a continual cry of mourning, and the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain, as a consequence of man's disobedience. Heaven itself has felt the effects of his [man's] rebellion against God" (Steps to Christ, p. 38). "All heaven is interested in our salvation" (1T. 124). "All heaven is watching the warfare which, under apparently discouraging circumstances, God's servants are carrying on" (7T. 17). Numbers of Scriptures and statements from the pen of the servant of the Lord could be given which tell of the keen manner in which the inhabitants of other worlds have watched the growing church and the development of the apostate church, and have followed with intense interest the progress of the remnant church; how they will watch with mounting intensity the increasing power of the Papacy until she grows politically strong enough to be in a position to influence apostate Protestantism to join her in making war upon the remnant church; how they will watch the closing scenes in the great conflict between the forces of good and evil in which the church will face imminent death at the hands of their infuriated enemies! They will see "the waters of the river [Euphrates], strong and many . . . pass through Judah [overflowing and going over and reaching] "even to the neck" (Isa. 8:7, 8). Describing this time the Lord's servant says: "The angels longed to deliver them, but they must wait a little longer; they must drink of

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the cup [like their Master in the garden of Gethsemane], and be baptised with the baptism [i.e. of sorrow, like unto Jesus, Luke 12:50; Matt. 20:22; etc.]. The angels, faithful to their trust, continued to watch" (EW. 284).





Thus we are brought right down to the time when the waters of the Euphrates, like swirling torrents threatening to drown those whose heads alone are above the murky waters, are about to destroy the people of God, when God intervenes on behalf of His people, and after arresting the people of Babylon and preventing the fulfillment of their murderous designs, utters His "great voice" for the deliverance of His people. "The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: He shall cry, yea, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies" (Isa. 42:13). That voice shakes the heavens and the earth: worlds afar that have followed with deepening interest the unfolding of the plan of redemption and the machinations of Satan against the work of God, worlds that thrilled when in triumph our Lord Jesus cried out on the cross "It is finished", now rejoice that God has decided to step in and deliver His faithful people and bring complete destruction to Satan's Babylonian kingdom. "And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever . . . We give thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned" (Rev. 11:15, 17).

The reader will recall that in our opening pages we drew comparison between the last occasion when the voice of God was heard by the people of this world and the next, at the opening of the 7th plague: the former was when Jesus heard loving words of commendation from the lips of His Father, at a time when Jesus had pronounced the doom of the Jewish nation ; when "He knew that the knell of Satan's empire would be sounded, and the name of Christ be heralded from world to world throughout the universe" (DA. 679). The next occasion the voice of God is heard, the delivered saints will hear loving words of commendation from the lips of their heavenly Father, it will be the occasion of the doom of all nations then living upon the earth, and the time for the doom of Satan's empire; it will also be the time when the deliverance of the saints by God's

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intervention will "be heralded from world to world throughout the universe."

Surely by informing us that our earth, the sun, moon, and distant orbs and worlds, are to be shaken with His "great voice" when He delivers His people, the Lord has made it perfectly clear that He regards that event, which occurs as the 6th plague merges into the 7th, of the greatest magnitude, and therefore the consideration of the events described in Rev. 16: 12-21 of the highest importance. Those who love the Lord will heed the Lord's obvious counsel and give special study to the mighty events to transpire under the 6th and 7th plagues, for through the Revelator, in conjunction with the prophet Daniel -whose prophecies, from chapter 8 to chapter 12, end with the deliverance of the saints - the Saviour depicts the glory awaiting His remnant people when they will share with the Father and distant unfallen worlds the wonderful triumphs of that great and glorious day of deliverance - that day so very important to God that He will make it the occasion for the greatest display of omnipotent power since the creation of the world.





CHAPTER TWELVE THE DELIVERANCE AND THE PARTIAL RESURRECTION:

WHY DOES GOD AT THIS TIME RESURRECT THOSE WHO HAVE DIED IN HIS LAST-DAY MESSAGE?

The opening of the 7th plague is not only the time appointed for the deliverance of God's people and the routing, confusion, terror and destruction of their enemies, but it will also be a glorious hour of comfort and joy, for after the living righteous have been delivered from their enemies the saints have great joy in having restored to them their loved ones who now sleep in the tomb. It is obvious that our loving heavenly Father plans to make that hour one of exceeding joy for His faithful children who will have endured much for His sake during the final conflict with the forces of Babylon.

In His Word, the Lord teaches us that He may bring us through trying circumstances for the development of our characters and also for the glory of His name, but He has assured us that after our trial, if faithfully endured, He will richly endow us with His precious blessings. After Job had endured his heavy trial, "the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12). "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Ps. 30: 5). It is testimony to the keeping power of God that one endures trials and tribulations for Christ's sake. To keep one's faith, integrity, and Christian spirit, while passing through times of stress and strain, provides practical evidence that one is "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1:5-7).

It is a principle of God's government that "our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy

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to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). The Lord never asks His children to endure any trial without assuring them that beyond that trial awaits a rich blessing. After Nebuchadnezzar's period of humiliation the Lord illustrated the principle of blessing after trial. Nebuchadnezzar testified: "And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High . . . at the same time my reason returned unto me . . . and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me" (Dan. 4:36).

The more one studies the details of prophecy the more it becomes evident that God is love, that He has great tenderness toward those who seek to serve Him in this world of woe, weakness and wickedness. God desires His children to glory in this fact : "Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord" (Jer. 9:24). "The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Thy works shall praise Thee ; and Thy saints shall bless Thee" (Ps. 145:9, 10). It has been the writer's privilege to write a number of books dealing with the interpretation of prophecy, and if one thing has been more clearly revealed to the writer than another in his meditations on the details of the prophecies, it is the wonderful love God has for His earth-born children, His tender provisions for their every need. This is, of course, the very thing the servant of the Lord declared would





come from a "better" understanding of the books of Daniel and Revelation: "One thing will certainly be understood from the study of Revelation-beat the connection between God and His people is close and decided. A wonderful connection is seen between the universe of heaven and this world" (TM. 115).

God's tender love for His people is shown in His purpose to resurrect from their dusty beds those who believed in the soon coming of Christ and laboured to spread abroad the knowledge of the third angel's Message; those who longed to be alive to witness the coming of their Lord in power and great glory. He put that desire in their hearts, and they gladly followed the light, but death's icy hand frustrated their desire to live to see His coming. He will give them the desires of their hearts, as He has graciously promised so to do –see Ps. 37: 4, 5. But not

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only that those who die in the last-day Message might have their desires fulfilled, will a covenant-keeping God bring those sleeping ones back to life to witness that which they so much desired to see, but also for the added joy of those who will have lived through the most trying conflict of all the ages. The opening of the 7th plague will not only be the wonderful day of triumph for living Seventh-day Adventists, but it will also be the time for the resurrection of those who have died in the Message; a day of triumph for the living and also for those who come forth from their untroubled sleep.

To encourage His people to go with strength through the trying hour before them, the Lord has encouraged them with the blessed assurance of their deliverance from their Babylonian persecutors. As we have shown, the book of Daniel, from chapter eight to the end of the book, ends with the triumphant hour of deliverance for the people of God –see Dan. 12:1. This is obviously to be the outstanding day in the experiences of God's remnant church, and a day which the Lord evidently finds joy in anticipating. It will be observed from the prophecy the Lord gave the prophet Daniel, that while pointing in triumph to the deliverance of His people, He also graciously declared: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise [or "teachers", margin] shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. 12: 2, 3).

How like God's wise and loving ways to resurrect His advent people to witness the triumph of the message they so ardently preached, and to see and to talk with the living saints, many of them the direct or indirect results of their consecrated labours. How the hearts of these old pioneers, and their successors, will throb with overwhelming joy when they realise that numbers of those who have passed through the final conflict are the harvest of their seed sowing. Then all teachers of righteousness will fully realise as they see glorified men and women rejoicing in salvation which they brought to their knowledge, that the winning of souls is the essence of wisdom. In that hour all the saints, the living and those from their graves, will be glorified and "shine as the brightness of the firmament ... as the stars", a glory that will continue to shine on with added lustre "for ever and ever."

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Having first observed the teaching of the inspired Word, as has been our custom when interpreting the Scriptures, we now turn to the Spirit of Prophecy for confirmation of what we have discovered from the prophecies themselves. The servant of the Lord, writing of events to occur after the voice of God has delivered His living saints, says: "Graves are opened, and ‘many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth' ‘awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame





and everlasting contempt' (Dan. 12:2). All who have died in the faith of the third angel's Message come forth from the tomb glorified, to hear God's covenant of peace with those who have kept His law. `They also which pierced Him,' those that mocked and derided Christ's dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of His truth and His people, are raised to behold Him in His glory, and to see the honour placed upon the loyal and obedient" (GC. 637).

Much could be said regarding the wisdom and justice of God in resurrecting at this time, to share in the horrors of the living wicked who have thought to slay God's people, many of those who exercised the same malignant spirit when they murdered the Son of God (Matt. 26:64; Rev. 1:7; etc.), and others who were among "the most violent opposers of His truth and His people". However, we will not pursue thoughts concerning the lot of the wicked who will be alive at the opening of the 7th plague, nor of those who will be resurrected to behold the righteous indignation of the Lord against those who thrust aside His offers of pardon and salvation and continued in a life of rebellion against His government and of hatred for His people - both the living and those resurrected at that time will feel the Lord's anger and see demonstrations of His almighty power, and be destroyed in the fire of His wrath.

It is possible that among those who are awakened from their slumber and are resurrected at the time of the partial resurrection, will be the prophet Daniel, and others who, like him, have carried a special burden for the work of God down through the ages. As some of the wicked who are raised are those who were at one time "the most violent opposers of His truth and His people", it is reasonable to conclude that some, also, who, down the millenniums of church activity were at one time "the most ardent workers in His service and for His people", will be resurrected at that time. The book of Daniel closes (12:13) with a promise to Daniel : "But go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the

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days". As the writer has shown at greater length in "The King of the North at Jerusalem", the reference to the "lot" directs us back to the history of ancient Israel (which is typical of the experiences of the remnant church, 1 Cor. 10:6, 11, margins), when Israel divided the promised land, into which they shortly expected to enter – see Num. 26:55; 33:54; 34:13, etc. "When Israel was about to enter the promised land, the lot was cast, and the possession of each tribe was assigned. The tribes thus stood in their respective `lots' long before they entered the actual possession of the land" (Daniel and Revelation, p. 317). Were Daniel to be among those resurrected in the partial resurrection, this promise (Dan. 12:13) to him would have particular significance – as well as for all those who participate in that resurrection – for they would be glorified and assured of a place in the eternal kingdom some days before the actual coming of Christ when all the ransomed of the Lord are endowed with the priceless heritage of immortality.

The glorification of the living and the resurrected saints following the utterance of the Lord's "great voice", will be by no means a minor bestowal, as the following extracts from the pen of the servant of the Lord clearly reveal: "The voice of God is heard from Heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming, and delivering the everlasting covenant to His people. Like peals of loudest thunder, His words roll through the earth. The Israel of God stand listening, with their eyes fixed upward. Their countenances are lighted up with His glory, and shine as did the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked cannot look upon them. And when the blessing is pronounced on those who have honoured God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of victory" (GC. 640).





"The captivity of the righteous is turned, and ... they say to one another, `We are delivered. It is the voice of God' .. . The wicked ... fear and tremble, while the saints rejoice. Satan and his angels, and wicked men, who had been exulting that the people of God were in their power, that they might destroy them from off the earth, witness the glory conferred upon those who have honoured the holy law of God. They behold the faces of the righteous lighted up and reflecting the image of Jesus. Those who were so eager to destroy the saints cannot endure the glory resting upon the delivered ones, and they fall like dead men to the earth. Satan and evil angels flee from the

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presence of the saints glorified. Their power to annoy them is gone forever" (1T. 354).

Surely Seventh-day Adventists should find it sweet to contemplate the wonders of that deliverance to come to them as the 6th plague merges into the 7th and the mighty voice of God is heard throughout this world and worlds afar, to be followed by the resurrection of those who have died in the message who, glorified together with the living saints, will be with them to share in the triumph of the remaining few days which will elapse before the Saviour is seen coming in the skies with all His regal glory and omnipotent power.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN BETWEEN THE DELIVERANCE AND THE SECOND

ADVENT–HOW LONG? The events which transpire between the deliverance of the living saints and the second coming of Christ are remarkable and indicate the greatness of that time, but the events will occur in quick succession. They may be summarised as follows, though not necessarily in exact order of sequence: God's voice travels from heaven and around the earth from east to west: "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof" (Ps. 50:1), saying, "It is done" (Rev. 16:17; Joel 3:16; etc.), "That voice shakes the heavens and the earth" (GC. 636).

The greatest of all earthquakes strikes the earth, accompanied by "Voices, and thunders, and lightnings" (Rev. 16:17, 18). Between the time of the 6th plague (commencing when the saints' deliverance is at hand) and the second coming of Christ, the voice of Deity is heard seven times, as will be noticed by the careful reader in GC. pages 636-644. The last two are when Jesus nears the earth, and others are all from heaven. The reader would be amply repaid for the effort taken to observe the contents of these occasions when the love of God for His people is revealed in His earnest solicitude for their welfare and comfort shown in the assurances, He gives them in the midst of the extraordinary events which mark that brief period.

The voice of God mightily shakes the earth – it causes the greatest of all earthquakes. Isaiah pointed to the time when the Lord would intervene on behalf of His sorely tried people. He said: "The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day... And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth" – twice Isaiah declares that the Lord will arise "to shake terribly the earth" (Isa. 2:17-21). The Lord also inspired Ezekiel to write of the same mighty event: "And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel [to attempt





to destroy God's people], saith the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face. For in My jealousy and in the fire of My

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wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel [i.e. in the whole world where His people will be found]; so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground" (Ezek. 38:18-20). The earth will be shaken so terribly that "the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground". Describing the events following the utterance of the voice of God, the prophet John says: "The cities of the nations fell.. . and every island fled away, and the mountains were not found" (Rev. 16:19, 20).

The partial resurrection takes place (Dan. 12:1, 2 ; Matt. 26:64; Rev. 1:7), some from among the righteous and some from among the wicked.

God proclaims the everlasting covenant to His enraptured people (Jer. 50:5 ; Ps. 50:4, 5 ; GC. 637, 640; EW. 285, 6). He informs His people of the day and the hour of Jesus' coming (EW. 15, 285; GC. 640; Rev. 3:3) –the Father does all He can to comfort and bless His people, and now that there is no further need to keep secret the day and hour of Jesus' return, His people being no longer under discipline, He encourages their hearts with the knowledge of the exact day and hour of the coming of Jesus. It will be observed that God's love for His people is very great, and wherever possible, He reveals His love and care over them. It will be observed that the Lord's advent at that time is only a matter of days.

In describing God's anger against Babylon, Jeremiah says "The Lord hath opened His armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of His indignation" (Jer. 50:25). Then the armoury of heaven is open, and God's wrath is shown in tempest, hailstones, etc., and the things of nature are thrown out of order as He pours out His unmingled wrath upon Babylon to destroy it (Rev. 16:19-21; GC. 636-639).

The wicked, now awakened to the fact that they have been deceived by their spiritual advisers, and fully conscious that they are lost eternally, turn first upon their religious leaders and then upon themselves in their maddened fury the whole world then becomes one vast field of strife and bloodshed, see GC. 655-657; EW. 290; etc.

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The Ten Commandments appear in the heavens --- it is God's Judgment Day, when He executes His wrath upon His enemies (Ps. 50:6; 97:6; GC. 639).

Later, our Lord Jesus is seen coming in the eastern skies in flaming glory, Ezek. 43:1, 2, 4 ; Matt. 24:27; GC. 640; EW. 15.

The wicked who have been slaughtering each other with the swords with which they had intended slaying God's people, now cease their tumult and clash of arms to first gaze upon, and then to flee from, the increasing glory of the returning Saviour (Rev. 1: 7 ; 6 : 15-17; GC. 642-644).

These are the main events occurring between the time for the deliverance of God's people and the second coming of Christ. The tremendous nature of these occurrences, with all that they connote, reveal the greatness of that time - a time, as we have pointed out elsewhere, when numbers of prophecies are to meet their fulfilment.





THE TIME ELEMENT INVOLVED IN THE 6th AND 7th PLAGUES We have considered this aspect of these two plagues in "The Certainty of the Third Angel's Message Proved by Important Principles of Prophetic Interpretation", pp. 271-276. After quoting the prophecies referred to in Rev. 16:10; Zech. 14:12, 13; GC. 657 and EW. 289, concerning the 5th plague – the plague of darkness – we stated : "In GC. p. 657, and E W. p. 289, the description of Zech. 14:12, 13 is applied to the very last events occurring at the time of the second coming of Christ. Thus the 5th plague of darkness, when the false shepherds and people ('the beast and his kingdom') who `have fought against Jerusalem' (the church) will be `gnawing their tongues for pain', is poured out but a very short while before the second advent, and is associated with the events occurring at the second coming of Christ. The fifth, sixth and seventh plagues, therefore, are really parts of the one picture giving the final acts in the great drama. Apart from the fact that the darkness of the 5th plague falling ùpon the earth' would prevent a literal gathering of nations to Palestine, the events of the 5th, 6th, and 7th plagues, as described in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, occur within a very short space of time, as parts of one dramatic climax.

"In the Òrder of Events in the Travels of the Advent People to the Holy City', drawn up by Pastor E. L. Pingenot and published by `The Signs Publishing Co.', he suggests from his reading of the Spirit of Prophecy, that Èvents from 6 to 10’

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(on his chart) will occur `perhaps within the compass of a few days.' The first event Pastor Pingenot gives under number 6 is `the deliverance of the living saints"'.

From the present writer's own study of the Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy, this is the conclusion reached. Fortunately the Lord has given us information as to the time involved between the deliverance of the saints and the second advent, we refer the reader to the following statement taken from the pen of the servant of the Lord.

After seeing the scenes of the time of trouble, she states "Then we cried to God day and night for deliverance, until we began to hear the bells on Jesus' garments. And I saw Jesus rise up in the holiest and as He came out, we heard the tinkling of the bells and knew that our High Priest was coming out. Then we heard the voice of God which shook the heavens and the earth, and gave the 144,000 the day and hour of Jesus' coming. Then the saints were free, united and full of the glory of God, for He had turned their captivity. And I saw a flaming cloud come where Jesus stood. Then Jesus laid off His priestly garment and put on His kingly robe and took His place on the cloud, which carried Him to the east, where it first appeared to the saints on earth as a small black cloud which was the sign of the Son of Man. While the cloud was passing from the Holiest to the east, which took a number of days, the synagogue of Satan worshipped at the saints' feet." Ellen G. Harmon. (Copied from "Fruitage of Spiritual Gifts", p. 150.)

Whenever the Lord's servant has written concerning the length of time between the deliverance of the saints – the 6th plague is followed immediately by the 7th as parts of one dramatic climax - and the second advent she has used the words "days", "soon", "close upon". She says : "God spoke the day and the hour of Jesus' coming . . . Soon appeared the great white cloud, upon which sat the Son of Man" (E W. 285, 6). "The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming. .. Soon there appears in the east ... the cloud which surrounds the Saviour" (GC. 640, ed. 1893).





Commenting on this statement, the Lord's servant wrote on August 11, 1888: "I heard the hour proclaimed, but had no remembrance of that hour after I came out of vision. Scenes of such thrilling, solemn interest passed before me as no language is adequate to describe. It was all a living reality to me, for close upon this scene [God's voice bringing deliverance to the saints and "declaring the day and hour of Jesus' coming"] appeared the great white cloud upon which was seated the Son of Man.” (E. G. White Letter 38, 1888).

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN WHEN DOES THE GATHERING OF THE NATIONS TAKE

PLACE (REV. 16:12-16)? When Rev. 16:12-16 is interpreted as depicting a supposed gathering of all the nations of the world for a military war in Palestine, it is assumed that the gathering occurs subsequent to the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates; but as we have briefly shown in this book, and have presented further positive evidence in other books dealing more fully with the subject of Armageddon, such conception is utterly at variance with what the Revelator and other prophets have written.

Would it not be a remarkable oversight for the servant of the Lord to go thoroughly through the conditions to prevail during the outpouring of the plagues and yet say absolutely nothing about this supposed gathering of nations to Palestine? This apparent oversight would be an outstanding example of complete silence on what others have regarded as an important event in the consideration of the 6th and 7th plagues, especially when the servant of the Lord deals most fully with the events of these plagues. The reader is requested to observe that God's servant commences explaining the Scriptures dealing with the plagues on page 627 (of GC.) and continues up to page 657 to present full graphic details from the first plague until the coming of Christ, but throughout all those pages not one word is said regarding the supposed gathering of nations to Palestine. Could the reader imagine any believer in the supposed Palestinian Armageddon making such a noticeable omission? It is obvious that the servant of the Lord had no light on such teaching. But the careful reader will observe where the Lord's servant, having dealt with the first four plagues on only two pages, deals with those stirring events to occur under the 5th, 6th, and 7th plagues, employing no less than twenty-eight pages. The emphasis the Lord's servant makes upon the events occurring at the time of the 6th and 7th plagues is really outstanding, and surely those who are guided by the instruction given through the Spirit of Prophecy will heed that which the Lord has emphasised, and keep silent when the Lord has kept silent!

Further, the Lord's servant informs us why these plagues

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fall and upon whom: "God's judgments will be visited upon those who are seeking to oppress and destroy His people" (GC. 627). In harmony with this instruction regarding the interpretation of the events revealed in the prophecy of Rev. 16, as we have shown, the 6th plague is poured out upon the "multitudes" of Babylon who endeavour to slay the people of God. By observing the events which the Lord's servant so fully explains as coming under the 7th plague we know that her description of the unity of purpose among the forces of Babylon to slay the saints, a purpose which is frustrated by God's judgment being poured out upon the people of Babylon – the waters of the Euphrates – is her interpretation of the prophecy concerning the 6th plague,





and in that interpretation nothing is said regarding Turkey, Palestine or a gathering of nations for war; not one word regarding these things, but many pages are devoted to explaining the Scriptures concerning, and outlining the efforts of the forces of Babylon to slay the saints, and their deliverance as the 6th plague merges with the 7th.

What, then, does the prophecy mean in the reference to the gathering of the nations to Armageddon? First of all it should be remembered that the Revelator is not endeavouring to point out national events, as such, but depicts how the enemies of God's people have passed a death decree upon them (see Rev. 13: 15; etc.) for their loyalty to the Law of God. Revelation 14 describes God's last-day Message, the warning against worshipping the beast and his image, and the character of the people who proclaim it. Those who give this message will live to welcome the Lord as He returns to reward the faithful and to destroy those who have opposed His people. In Rev. 15 we are brought to the close of Christ's mediatorial work in the heavenly temple. Then Rev. 16 describes the plagues that will fall upon the people who worship the beast and his image: the people who are persecuting His faithful people. As we have shown elsewhere, these plagues are God's answer to the efforts made by the forces of Babylon against His people – the greater the persecution the greater fall the plagues, until finally the hour draws near for the death decree to be executed. By then "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" have unitedly determined to slay the people. of God. As stated by the Lord's servant : "There will be in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction . . . it will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow, which shall utterly silence the voice of dissent and reproof"

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(GC. 635) – then follows a description of the world's efforts to slay the saints and their deliverance by God's intervention on their behalf, and this is followed by a description of the slaughter of the would-be murderers of God's people. This is precisely what is taught by the true interpretation of Rev. 16:12-16.

It is by their uniting to slay the saints that "the kings of the earth and of the whole world, gather to the battle of that great day: of God Almighty", for it is then that God intervenes on behalf of His people and brings complete destruction to the forces of Babylon, which is described under the 7th plague (Rev. 16:17-21).

That Rev. 16: 12-16 describes the manner in which the people and forces of Babylon are influenced by "unclean spirits" to oppose God's truth and His people, and eventually to pass the death decree upon God's people and then later, still under the influence of these evil spirits, are unitedly determined to execute it, and are thus led to their destruction -to their "Armageddon" slaughter – is shown by what is explicitly declared to transpire under the 7th plague. After describing, under the 6th plague, the world's determination to slay the saints at the time of the expiring of the time period stated in the death decree and God's intervention on behalf of His people at the midnight hour when the death decree is to be executed, John passes immediately to the events of the 7th plague, declaring that then "great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath." This very fact shows that under the 6th plague Babylon commits that final act of wickedness – the attempted slaughter of God's people – which brings upon her the fulness of His wrath and causes Him to slaughter the would-be murderers of His precious people. Thus the forces of Babylon are led "into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon". "Armageddon," like all the other places brought to view in the prophecies of the Revelation before the second advent, is mentioned in a symbolical sense, and this is emphasised by the fact that we are to notice its significance in the





"Hebrew tongue" – were it not for the meaning of the word in the Hebrew tongue there would be no reason for mentioning that it was to be noted in the Hebrew tongue – and the Hebrew of "Armageddon", according to many Hebraists, conveys the meaning of "The mountain of slaughter", referring to the great multitudes who will be destroyed when the Lord's anger is poured out to completely destroy the forces of Babylon.

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(The writer must refer his readers to his other publications for further proofs regarding the interpretation given here.)

As we have also shown in other publications, the church, having taken the place of Israel, is always represented in the prophecies as being in Palestine and Jerusalem the place of the Lord's throne. That is, by using the imagery obtained from the fact that ancient Israel occupied Palestine and God reigned over His chosen people in Jerusalem, the church in New Testament times is now represented as if it is in Palestine with Jerusalem the seat of the Messiah's throne. This is the position in which the church is represented in the prophecies of the book of Revelation. To illustrate briefly, when God's people come out of Babylon (Rev. 18:4) they are pictured as going to Jerusalem, and, when the beast and his armies combine to attack the church, they are represented as being with the Lamb on Mt. Sion – see Rev. 19:19; 17:14; 14:1, etc. Thus there is pictured in the prophecies of the Revelation a gathering of the forces of Babylon to invade Palestine–not to fight each other–but to fight against the Lord and His church. There is a gathering to Palestine pictured in the Apocalypse and other prophecies, but it is a symbolical representation of the conflict between the followers of the beast against the followers of the Lamb, which ends in the destruction of the armies of the beast and the false prophet in the symbolical place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. It is this conflict which the Lord's servant so fully describes in "The Great Controversy", and other books, and thus explains why she says absolutely nothing concerning a supposed gathering of nations to a military war against each other in Palestine, for the same Scriptures cannot be made to refer to two wholly different conflicts.

We have also shown in other publications that the gathering of the nations is not something done after the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates. In Rev. 13:15 the death decree is brought to view, but it will be observed that, following this verse, the Revelator refers to the boycotting of those who refuse to receive the mark of the beast and gives certain identifications concerning the beast. Needless to say, the description of the beast, or understanding what power is referred to (Rev. 13:16-18), must precede the death decree (mentioned in v. 15), as also must the stringent Sunday laws intimated in verses 16, 17. In many places of the Revelation, we observe that the Revelator presents the crisis point of his prophecy and then goes back

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to trace the unfolding of the events which lead up to that crisis hour. He follows this custom in Rev. 16:12-16. The drying up of the waters of the Euphrates is the only thing that actually occurs under the 6th plague. Verses 13, 14 describe the events which lead up to the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates, which, we have shown, refers to God's intervention on behalf of His people to save them from death at the hands of their Babylonian enemies. The evil spirits work miracles to prove that Sunday is the day to be observed (see Rev. 13:12-14 and compare with Rev. 19:19: Note that the Scriptures explicitly declare that the miracles are wrought in connection with the mark of the beast). In this connection notice GC. 591. Nowhere in the Scriptures are "miracles" employed in reference to military matters, but in connection with the





great spiritual conflict: everywhere in the Scriptures they are used by the followers of Christ or of Satan as a sign of their spiritual power.

In his, "Daniel and the Revelation", pp. 716, 717, Uriah Smith says : "But it may be asked how a work which is already going on, can be designated by that expression [spiritualism], when the spirits are not introduced into the prophecy until the pouring out of the 6th plague, which is still future. We answer that in this, as in many other movements, the agencies which Heaven designs to employ in the accomplishment of certain ends, go through a process of preliminary training for the part which they are to act. Thus, before the spirits can have such absolute authority over the race as to gather them to battle against the King of kings and Lord of lords, they must first win their way among the nations of the earth, and cause their teachings to be received as of divine authority, and their word as law. This work they are now doing . . . To many it may seem incredible that the nations should be willing to engage in such an unequal warfare as to go up to battle against the Lord of hosts; but it is one province of these spirits of devils to deceive, for they go forth working miracles, and thereby deceive the kings of the earth, that they should believe a lie. . .

"But what is the force of the caution thrown out in verse 15? Probation must have closed, and Christ have left his mediatorial position, before the plagues begin to fall. And is there danger of falling after that? It will be noticed that this warning is spoken in connection with the working of the spirits. We infer, therefore, that it is retroactive, applying from the time these

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spirits begin to work to the close of probation; that by an interchange of tenses common to the Greek language, the present tense is put for the past; as if it had read, Blessed is he that hath watched and kept his garments, as the shame and nakedness of all who have not done this will at this time appear".

In our previous publication – "Before Probation Closes" – we have shown that Rev. 16:15 is Christ's message to His people before probation closes, urging them to stand fast as the forces of Babylon seek to persecute and intimidate them with threats of starvation, imprisonment, violence and with death in the final crisis over the Sabbath. In other publications we have also shown that there are two gatherings now in progress God's people coming out of Babylon and gathering to the city of Jerusalem - i.e. in the symbolism or imagery of Bible prophecy – (see Isa. 11:11, 12; 60:1-12; PK. 375, 376; EW. 74, 75; 6T. 133; 7T. 172; 9T. 51; etc.), and the symbolical gathering of the wicked against the people of God in Jerusalem (see Joel 3:2, 11; Zech. 12:3, 12, 13; etc.). The gathering of the tares for the burning is now in progress (Matt. 13:30; 7T. 84; 5T. 384, though at the end before probation closes the whole world will have been gathered as ripe grapes for the winepress of God's wrath – see Rev. 14: 18-20). The righteous are now gathering to be with the Lamb (Rev. 17:14; 14:1). Both gatherings are now in progress (EW. 88, 89; 5T. 216). Again we must refer our readers to the writer's other publications where further facts are presented in proof of the positions briefly stated in this book.

We will limit reference to one extract from the Spirit of Prophecy in this connection. The Lord's servant, quoting Rev. 16:13, 14, which mentions the gathering of the nations under the influence of evil spirits, says: "Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. . . He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the prophet: [Rev. 16:13, 14 then being quoted]." This shows that "the battle of that great day of God Almighty" comes as the culmination of events which have preceded it. The gathering mentioned in Rev. 16:14, 16, the Spirit of Prophecy has shown, means being deceived into uniting with Satan and his evil angels against God. Satan has been





deceiving mankind for a "long time"; he wants "to deceive the world. . . He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached" by the time of the 6th

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plague. As under the 6th plague the whole world is pictured as having been "gathered" by miracle-working spirits who have deceived the people concerning the mark of the beast by these miracles, and that is to be "the full accomplishment of his designs," and as that work of deception is said to be the gathering or uniting of the people of Babylon before the climax is reached at Armageddon, it demonstrates that the gathering, brought to view under the 6th plague, has been going on for some time. Therefore, the gathering pictured in Rev. 16:13, 14, 16, does not refer to some sudden military manoeuvre by nations to Palestine, but refers to the culmination of the work of deception carried on through the years with increasing intensity by Satan as he prepares to join the forces of Babylon with him "in his last struggle" against God. "The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to fasten them in deception [not to go to Palestine, literally], and urge them on to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government o f heaven" (GC. 623).

"The enmity of Satan against good, will be manifested more and more, as he brings his forces into activity in his last work of rebellion; and every soul that is not fully surrendered to God, and kept by divine power, will form an alliance with Satan against heaven, and join in battle against the Ruler of the universe" (TM. 465).

By the time of the sixth plague, "the wicked have fully united with Satan in his warfare against God" (GC. 656).

Thus we see that Rev. 16:12-16 does not envisage a literal gathering of nations to a military war in Palestine, but what is presented therein is a symbolical representation in which the great conflict between the forces of good and evil is depicted as two armies : one with the Lamb on Mt. Sion; the other with the beast coming to attack Israel in Jerusalem. It will be observed that the interpretation of those prophecies depicting a gathering of the nations against Jerusalem (Joel 3 and Zech 14, etc.) as given by the Spirit of Prophecy, is that of the gathering of the forces of evil against the church. Citing here just one example, we turn to Zech. 14:3, 12, 13, where "all nations" are pictured as being gathered "against Jerusalem to battle." In GC. 656, 657; EW. 289, the Lord's servant applies these verses which describe enemies attacking the people of God in Jerusalem, in connection with the religious leaders, -"false shepherds," "the spiritual guardians of the people,"

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"false watchmen," who have led the people to attempt to slay the saints in the final conflict over the Sabbath. The reader does not need to be reminded that those religious leaders lead their people to war against God's people before the opening of the 7th plague, and, as we understand, before even the 6th plague, for it is by the 6th plague that God intervenes to prevent His people from being destroyed by the people who have already gathered around them (pictured as the city of Jerusalem) .

That this gathering of "all nations" to fight "against Jerusalem" – the gathering of all forces of the world against the people of God – occurs before the 6th plague (and not after, as required by the interpretation of Rev. 16:12-16 in connection with a supposed Palestinian military conflict of various nations against each other), is indicated by a comparison of Zech. 14:12, 13 with the Revelator's description of the 5th plague. Observe that Zechariah declares: "And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their





flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth." The Revelator says that the 5th plague falls upon "the seat (or throne) of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds." Thus the Revelator points back to the prophecy of Zechariah. Zechariah describes those who have gathered against Jerusalem to fight against the people of God as being afflicted in their tongues; John describes those who have gathered against the people of God (whom, in Rev. 14:1, etc., he pictures as being in Jerusalem) as "gnawing their tongues for pain."

As the Revelator thus describes events to transpire before the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates, we know that the gathering of "all nations against Jerusalem to battle" refers to the uniting of the world against the people of God before the 6th plague, for it is under that plague that God prevents the forces of Babylon from destroying God's people. With the outpouring of the 6th plague, the forces of Babylon are completely routed and disorganised. Then, in the language of the Revelator, "the great city (Babylon) was divided into three parts" (Rev. 16:19). From that time, conditions in the world

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will be so utterly chaotic as to make impossible a gathering of all the nations of the world to Palestine.

Thus a true understanding of Rev. 16:12-16, as taught in the Spirit of Prophecy, is that the gathering of the nations to fight against God–"in the person of His witnesses" (7T. 182) –takes place before the 6th plague, for it is under that plague that the Lord prevents them from slaughtering God's people, around whom they are menacingly poised, waiting the midnight hour, when the death decree is timed for execution. The interpretation that applies these verses in reference to a conflict of nations in Palestine, teaches that the gathering of the nations is after the drying up of the river Euphrates – a conception which is contrary to the import of the Revelator's prophetic presentation and utterly foreign to that which is presented in the Spirit of Prophecy.

As we have shown, the Spirit of Prophecy says that from the deliverance of the people of God, when the 6th plague merges into the 7th, until the coming of Christ, will be a short period of time – "a number of days" only. Apart from the fact that there would not be sufficient time for the nations of the world to prepare for war and organise their forces, the conditions then prevailing in the world would not permit such a gathering, nor would the wicked be thus minded. If the reader will but read the descriptions given in various books of the Spirit of Prophecy of events under the 7th plague, there will not be left any doubt as to the impossibility of there being a gathering of the nations of the world for a war in Palestine. Conditions on the planet will then be chaotic, with the surface all broken up, tempests raging in the skies, and all manner of phenomena occurring in nature, mountains torn from their foundations and hurled into the sea, inhabited islands disappearing, "The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side. . . . The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the shriek of the hurricane . . . the whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains are sinking. Inhabited islands disappear. The seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness, are swallowed up by the angry waters. . . . Great hailstones . . . are doing their work of destruction. The proudest cities of earth are laid low" (GC. 636-637).

During the world-shattering events in this abbreviated





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description of events under the 7th plague as described by the Lord's servant, there is supposed to be the gathering of the nations of the world for conflict in Palestine. But it is obvious from the conditions then prevailing on this planet that no such gathering would be physically possible, and further, the wicked will be so filled with terror in the face of such a demonstration of divine power that they would be incapable of planning to go to Palestine for conflict, and so taken up with things in their own vicinity that there would be no object in going, even if possible, to Palestine.

It is true that there will be a terrible slaughter among the wicked, as we have shown, and this slaughter will take place during the 7th plague, as definitely taught by the Spirit of Prophecy, but that slaughter will be of an individual character, and not on an organised national or international basis. It will not be a slaughter of people of another nation in order to obtain territory, etc., but done by those who are motivated with a desire to have revenge upon those persons who have been instrumental in deceiving them and thus causing them to lose eternal life: each sees in the other, one who was responsible for his loss of eternal life. Says the Lord's servant: "The people see that they have been deluded. They accuse one another of having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping their bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied smooth things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God and to persecute those who would keep it holy. Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. `We are lost!' they cry, ànd you are the cause of our ruin' ; and they turn upon the false shepherds. . . . The swords which were to slay God's people are now employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed" (GC 655, 656).

Under such conditions and with such internal confusion and slaughter of high and low, it would be impossible for all the nations of the world to prepare, organize, and go to Palestine for a war of any kind, and certainly not for what is sometimes referred to as the greatest war of all time. In the light of the revelations God has given us of conditions to prevail from the time of the 6th plague, such a conception is shown to be utterly preposterous.

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN GOD'S GREAT LOVE FOR HIS REMNANT PEOPLE

What gigantic events occur from the time the death decree is about to be executed upon God's people until the second advent, and how swiftly they follow one another in quick succession ! When God's "great voice" shakes the heavens and the earth, followed by the mightiest earthquake this world will have ever known, and all manner of supernatural wonders, which testify to the almighty power God exercises on behalf of His people and against their enemies, there should be no doubt as to what the Revelator seeks to portray in his powerful presentation.

Truly the time from the deliverance of the saints until the coming of Christ is one of the greatest in the annals of all earthly time. No wonder it has been so fully and so frequently described throughout the sacred Scriptures. Those who are guided by the emphasis given to it by the Lord in His Word and through the Spirit of Prophecy, will give it the consideration it deserves.





From our study of this theme we have been led to see the loving, tender watchcare the Lord exercises over His church, which "is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard" (AA. 12). How lovingly He has outlined before her the perils that will beset her, and how very earnest has been His repeated assurances that He will deliver His remnant people from the very jaws of death and work so wondrously on their behalf. How much power He manifests at the time of their deliverance; how He puts their enemies to rout and destroys them. How He provides for their joy and happiness by resurrecting those who fell asleep while the message still had to be sounded. How He rejoices over His people as He delivers the everlasting covenant to His living and resurrected saints. How often after they have endured persecution for His sake, does Heaven speak words of encouragement and comfort to His triumphant people. How the Father hastens to tell his victorious people the day and the hour of the coming of Jesus – as if comforting His people after their trying ordeal, saying : "Now My children, be of good cheer,

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for your Saviour, My well-beloved Son, will soon take you away from this sin-cursed world–only a few days now and you will come to be with Me in Heaven."

It was God's love for His church that caused Him to inspire His prophets with the revelations concerning the death decree – not only to warn of its coming and thus to prepare for it, but so that His people might know just about how long it will take for that terrible ordeal to reach its climax when God would intervene for the deliverance of His beloved remnant people. As that death decree "will be very similar to that issued by Ahasuerus against the Jews" (5T. 450), which was passed eleven months before the date of its execution (see Esther 3:12, 13; 9:1-16), so God's people to-day will know that from the time the death decree is passed there will be a period of about eleven months until the time for its execution. This length of time is not only suggested by the similarity of the two death decrees, as stated by the Spirit of Prophecy, but by other considerations. If the statement that the plagues come upon Babylon in "one day" (Rev. 18:8) is to be understood as indicating the length of time taken for the outpouring of the plagues, according to the principle of a day for a year, this would indicate that it would take approximately one year for all the plagues to fall.

In this connection, it should be remembered that the experience of the church during the period of Papal supremacy will be repeated in the final time of trouble. Of the days of persecution during the period of Papal supremacy, the Lord declared: "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved : but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. 24:22). Referring to the period of severe trial to the remnant church, during the outpouring of the plagues, as the people of God pass through the time of Jacob's trouble, the Lord's servant declares : "For the elect's sake, the time of trouble will be shortened. `Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him? . . . I tell you that He will avenge them speedily' (Luke 18:7, 8). The end will come more quickly than men expect" (GC. 631). In His great love for His remnant people, the Lord will shorten their time of trouble. All this light is given to the remnant church so that God's people may have an intelligent understanding of the length of time involved in the greatest period of their suffering: this knowledge being thus revealed shows to the members of

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the church that God knows all that will befall them, and knowing that He knows all about it and possesses love and interest enough to exercise His almighty power on their behalf, enables





them to go through their fiery trial leaning upon their Father's everlasting arms, trusting Him fully.

God desires that the revelation to His children of His intimate knowledge of all that will transpire in their experience shall give them strength and confidence to pass through the coming trial with the comfort that God knows and will sustain. Jesus said to His disciples who were to pass through their trying hours associated with His crucifixion and death: "Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He" (John 13:19). The Saviour's great love for His disciples, who would be plunged into great perplexity and anxiety and darkness by His crucifixion, prompted Him to repeat in His last night with them : "And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe" (John 14:29).

As the Sunday laws are passed, the people of God will know that the close of probation is not far away. The passing of the death decree will inform them that probation's door is about to close (see the writer's "Before Probation Closes"), and knowing that the time period mentioned in that death decree will expire at that midnight hour when the 6th plague is poured out, God's people will have an approximate idea of where they stand in the stream of time. The passing of each of these events, being outlined by a loving Heavenly Father for the comfort and guidance of His children, will inspire the people of God with confidence in the certainty that they have not followed any cunningly devised fable, but, rather, they will see indubitable proofs that they have been led along the path chosen by their Father, and will find satisfaction in knowing that everything else will work out as He has said they would. With the passing of the death decree, God's people will know that about eleven months hence they will have passed through their trying experience, and that their glorious hour of deliverance will have come. They will know that at that time, when the Father's "great voice" brings them deliverance from all their enemies, He will also tell them the exact day and hour of Jesus' coming, which they may know now, will occur very shortly after their deliverance – from that wonderful memorable occasion it will be only "a number of days" until the

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Saviour will be seen coming in the clouds of heaven with almighty power and glory.

These facts have been revealed to the remnant church for their comfort and strength. They reveal the great love God has toward His remnant people. Let each member rejoice in the abundant goodness of the Lord in revealing these things through the Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy. Why should the Father inform us beforehand, even now, that He will tell His people when He delivers them with His "great voice," that at that time He will tell them the day and hour of Jesus' coming? What prompts Him to hasten to tell His victorious people who will have just passed through that terrible hour of trial the day and the hour of His Son's appearing? His great love and tenderness toward them. It is that same love in the heart of the Saviour which prompts Him to speak comfortingly to His people when He descends the heavens in such terrible majesty and power that finite beings are terrorized before a revelation of such infinite power and splendour. Describing the scenes associated with the coming of Jesus, the Lord's servant says:

"Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror. . . . He comes . . . to judge the living and the dead . . . ìn righteousness He doth judge and make war.' And `the armies in Heaven follow Him.' With anthems of celestial melody the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered throng, attend Him on His way. The firmament seems filled with radiant forms–'ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.' No human pen can portray the scene, nor mortal mind is adequate to





conceive its splendour. . . . Before His presence, àll faces are turned into paleness'; upon the rejectors of God's mercy falls the terror of eternal despair. `The heart melteth, and the knees smite together,' ànd the faces of them all gather blackness' (Jer. 30: 6; Nah. 2: 10). The righteous cry with trembling, `Who shall be able to stand?' The angels' song is hushed, and there is a period of awful silence. Then the voice of Jesus is heard, saying, `My grace is sufficient for you.' The faces of the righteous are lighted up, and joy fills every heart" (GC. 641). How lovingly the Lord Jesus speaks to His people as, with unparalleled splendour and Divine majesty, He descends the flaming skies, bringing terror and death to the wicked. Then the Lord will fulfill the blessed promises He made to His people ere He departed from this world, that He would return and take them to be with Him and His Father for eternity.

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A proper study of the prophecies will reveal the love and goodness of the Godhead, and reveal the Gospel just as plainly as other portions of the Word of God. We have seen God's hatred of sin and His righteous anger against those who continue in sin and how, when nothing can be gained by permitting the continuance of the reign of sin, He manifests His abhorrence of that which is evil. We have also seen the vehemence of God's anger against unrighteousness, and the fullness of His wrath when the time comes for Him to deliver His people and to bring to an end Satan's kingdom of rebellion. We have also seen the great love He has for those who love Him and seek after righteousness. He Who says : "I am the Lord, I change not" (Mal. 3:6); He Who is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever" (Heb. 13:8) ; "the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17), is the same now as He will be then. As He will then be tender and loving and watchful over His people; as He will then come to the aid of His troubled and persecuted children; as He will then deliver them out of all their troubles and distresses; as He will then manifest Himself to His people; as He will then make every provision for their joy and happiness; as He will then speak wonderful words of encouragement to His beloved people ; as He will then point to the coming of the Saviour, so will He do now for them that trust and obey Him. In the light of what we have been able to study concerning God's dealing with His children in the final conflict - His faithfulness and love – shall we not "commit the keeping of our souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator" (1 Pet. 4:19), Who has promised: "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3:10).



God Speaks and Israel Triumphs - The Sure Word · presence of His earthbound children is found in John 12:28. Three times during the Saviour's earthly ministry God's voice was heard

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