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FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
WILL LIFE “RETURN TO NORMAL’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part III)
Jesus said that following the “trodding down of Jerusalem and the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24)—a triple application prophecy—this one referring to the Dark Ages when the “Gentiles trod down spiritual “Jerusalem” of the “Israel of the Alps,” the Waldenses, and the rest of the unnumbered millions of faithful Sabbath-keeping saints of the ages, persecuted and martyred by the Roman papal church by the Church of Rome onward for 1, 260 years ending in 1798.
After this, in this broad outline of the end-time prophecies given in its details in Daniel and Revelation, Jesus said. “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth DISTRESS OF NATIONS, WITH PERPLEXITY; THE SEA [of peoples, humanity] AND THE WAVES ROARING; MEN’S HEARTS FAILING FOR FEAR, AND FOR LOOKING AFTER THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE COMING ON THE EARTH; FOR THE POWERS OF HEAVEN SHALL BE SHAKEN.” Luke 21: 25, 26, KJV.
Note that Jesus was declaring a prophecy, and therefore used prophetic language. “Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.” Following the prophetic chronology after the end of the 2300-day prophecy in 1844, to the present time of a disturbingly unsettled state in the world, then consider the following excerpts from the book The Great Controversy by E. G. White, 1912 ed., ‘The Impending Conflict,’ ch. 36, pp. 589, 590 (be sure to read the whole chapter for yourself).
“Through Spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the (human) race, HEALING THE DISEASES of the people, and professing to present a NEW AND MORE EXALTED SYSTEM OF RELIGIOUS FAiTH; but at the same time he works as a destroyer. His TEMPTATIONS are leading multitudes to ruin. INTEMPERANCE dethrones reason; sensual indulgence, strife, and bloodshed follow.
“Satan delights in WAR: for it excites the worst passions of the soul [the whole living person], and sweeps into eternity it’s victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to INCITE NATIONS to war against one another; for he can thus DIVERT the minds of the people FROM THE WORK OF PREPARATION TO STAND IN THE DAY OF GOD [the pre-advent, investigative judgment currently taking place in the heavenly sanctuary with Christ as both High Priest and Judge of all the earth].
“Satan WORKS THROUGH THE ELEMENTS also to garner HIS HARVEST OF UNPREPARED SOULS. He has studied the SECRETS OF THE LABORATORIES OF NATURE, and he uses all his power to control the elements, as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job [read the book of Job], how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, his [ten] CHILDREN were swept away, ONE TROUBLE SUCCEEDING ANOTHER AS IN A MOMENT.
“It is GOD that shields His creatures, and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer [Satan].”
To be continued. Bless all, NMF
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part II)
Here’s one take, among countless others and counting, in hindsight, sadly, yet understandably a common assessment shared among the whole spectrum of humanity, this side of the pandemic:
“The most menacing, disruptive, psychologically aggressive period that our world has been in since the ‘60s.” – Sharon Stone, as told in The NY Times story and quoted in People, on-line news, Mar. 24, 2021.
Experts, pundits, preachers, modern, self-anointed, self-sent, time-setting prophets and seers of all stripes and different, dissonant, and even conflicting religious persuasions, will divine their individual “tea leaves” and either “see a bad moon rising” and the start of the “battle of armageddon, or the “dawning” of another “Age of of Aquarius (since the first, touted in the Hippie generation, proved to be an illusion) that finally ushers in global peace, love, unity. and untrammeled liberty to whatever desire dictates, etc. that finally ushers in the long-awaited global peace, love, prosperity, and untrammeled liberty to indulge whatever desire dictates.
l dare not hazard any personal opinions, insights, or interpretations on a subject that is increasingly moving up, front and center of the global discourse for it not only impacts the present but shapes the trajectory of everyone’s future and plans. In fact there is absolutely no need for all these vain efforts of mortals with finite minds! The divine Revealer of secrets and the eternal destiny of mankind has already “revealed His secrets to and through His servants, the prophets” (Amos 3:7).
Here is perhaps one the greatest of opportunities to test and prove beyond a doubt whether the writings of Ellen G. White are truly inspired by the Holy Spirit and is “the gift of prophecy given to the remnant church” of Revelation.
All by now, nationally and globally, are expecting that the worst is soon to be over and that light at the end of the dark pandemic tunnel is already getting brighter and brighter and that soon this pandemic will enter the books of history with whatever degree of ignominy the historians and writers assign it but was conquered by the wisdom, innovative and creative powers of man.
Now, here’s what the book, The Great Controversy reveals, in the context of all Biblical prophecies of the last days of the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament, the mini apocalypse of Christ recorded in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, particularly the last part of Daniel and amplified in greater and end-time detail in Revelation?
Read it here tomorrow, then test it’s truthfulness and reliability by the coming events on the horizon, anticipated or otherwise. Be patient, remain calm, pray as you never did before and place your souls in God’s hands. Remember that salvation, has, and always will be individual to the close of probation. God bless all, NMF
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
WILL ‘LIFE RETURN TO NORMAL’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID VIRUS PANDEMIC ENDS? (Part I)
Before we hastily and perhaps presumptuously answer either YES or NO, we need to “count the cost” by first arming our minds with the principles expressed in the following:
Firstly, no “good news” is truthfully good, no matter how “positive” or “reassuring” it sounds or looks if it is too-good-to-be-true, irrational, too far deep in either extreme ends of the reality spectrum, highly speculative, with many loose ends dangling, sensational, fanatical, is a confirmed conspiracy, contradicts common-sense and causes confusion, anxiety, fear of phantom-like enemies that leads to panic mode decision-making.
Desperation under intense and prolonged duress renders those who are not firmly grounded spiritually to become virtually sitting ducks for any “duck-hunter” to shoot down with hardly any effort or skill. It’s open season in Satan’s enchanted hunting grounds.
In fact, paraphrasing the original saying, many who look strong and unflinching in their faith, will, when this prophesied crisis finally comes, surrender their God-given inalienable, thus ESSENTIAL freedoms and rights in exchange for TEMPORARY safety. As the saying concludes, such compromising cowards do not deserve to enjoy either the inalienable essentials nor the temporary safety and conveniences extended by fellow mortals and sinners who act as though they were Gos in earth.
Remember that “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” To fall asleep and fail to be a trustworthy spiritual “watchman in the tower” is suicidal and exposes the helpless and unwary around you to the predation of the “ravenous, night wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Let’s all be be thinkers, with the mind God has given us, not mere reflectors, automaton-like of other men’s ideas and assertions. To be continued tomorrow, God willing. NMF
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
ROME’S ANATHEMAS AND BULLS AGAINST THE GENTLE AND GODLY WALDENSES
They were hunted like wild beasts! “The Earl of Tholouse (in France) was finally forced to bow to Rome, and God’s people [at that time] were hunted as wild beasts everywhere. Here are some of the laws of Louis IX, King of France, A.D., 1229:
Canon 3: The lords of the different districts shall have the villas, houses, and woods diligently searched, and the hiding-places of the heretics destroyed.
Canon 4: If anyone allows a heretic to remain in his territory, he loses his possession forever, and his BODY is in the hands of the magistrates to receive due punishment.
Canon 5: But also such are liable to the law [man’s, not God’s], whose territory has been made a frequent hiding-place of heretics, not by his knowledge, but by his negligence.
Canon 6: The house in which the heretic is found, shall be torn down, and the place or land confiscated.
Canon 14: Lay members are NOT ALLOWED TO POSSESS THE BOOKS OF EITHER THE OLD OR NEW TESTAMENT.’ – ‘Hefele’s Councils,’ Vol. 5, pp. 981, 982. ‘History of the Sabbath,’ New, p. 558.
“These laws were only ECHOES of the ‘BULLS’ of the Popes. But while the Waldenses of the French side of the Alps were being EXTERMINATED, the pope had a more difficult task to destroy them in the Piedmont Alps.
“From Pope Lucius III (A.D. 1181-1185) to the Reformation of the seventeenth century the persecution of the Waldenses was the subject of many papal ‘ANATHEMAS.’ Army after army were sent against them, and, ALL MANNER OF TRICKERY was resorted to in order to destroy these HONEST, PLAIN, CHRISTIAN PEOPLE.
“In 1488 Albert Cataneo, the papal legate came with an army into the midst of Val Louise. The inhabitants fled to a cavern for shelter, and the soldiers started a fire at the mouth of the cavern and smothered the entire population of 3,000, including 400 children.”……”In 1544 the treacherous and heatless Catholic leader, D’Oppede caused the terrible butchery of thousands of Waldenses. At Cabrieres he wrote a note to the people, saying that if they would open the gates of their city he would do them no harm. They, in good faith, opened the gates, and D’Oppede cried out: ‘Kill them all.’ Men, women, and CHILDREN were massacred or burned alive.
“In 1655 there was another massacre of Waldenses. After the Catholic leaders made several vain attempts to break into the fastness of the mountains where the Waldenses lived, and were defeated, the Marquis of Piannese wrote the various Waldensian towns to entertain certain regiments of soldiers to show their good faith. These CHRISTIAN people, who always had such SACRED REGARD for their own word, NEVER SEEMED TO LEARN that it is a FUNDAMENTAL CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, that Catholics need not, and SHOULD NOT, ‘keep faith with heretics when the INTEREST OF THE CHURCH [not Christ and His truth!] IS AT STAKE. After they had sheltered the soldiers, and fed them of their SCANTY store, a signal was given at 4 AM., April 24, 1655, and the butchery began.
“LITTLE CHILDREN, Leger says, were torn from the arms of their mothers, and dashed against the rocks, and cast carelessly away. The sick or the aged, both men or women, were either burned in their houses, or hacked in pieces, of mutilated, half murdered, and flayed alive, they were exposed in a dying state to the heat of the sun, or to the flames, or to ferocious beasts.’ – ‘Israel of the Alps,’ Dr. Alexis Muston, Vol. I, pp. 349, 350.
“These people [Christlike and apostles-like] suffered tortures TOO TERRIBLE to mention, which only DEVILS in human form could have invented. The towns in the beautiful valleys were left smoldering ruins. A few people saved themselves by fleeing to the mountains.” – ‘Facts of Faith,’ C. Edwardson, pp. 131, 132, 133, Southern Publishing Asso., Nashville 8 TN: 1943.
If we claim to be part of the remnant of spiritual Israel in these last days, our profession of faith will soon be tested even as the “Israel of the Alps” were tested and tried, and passed the test in ignominy but to God’s glory! Truly indeed, “the blood of martyrs was the seed of the genuine gospel,”—-not the “peace-and-safety prosperity gospel” which is “another gospel.”
Bless all in your study, NMF
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
MY PERSONAL PRAYER AND DESIRE FOR YOU
This prayer and desire embraces all the law-abiding, law-loving living saints of God, because we can only pray for the living, not the dead saints, for “the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward [such as “posthumous rewards,” etc.]; for the memory of them is forgotten.”…. “for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, wither thou goest” (Eccl. 9: 5, 10).
This personal prayer and desire for you during these most solemn, dwindling hours of probation, are inspired by, contained in, and expressed through a personal emphasized, reading of Colossians 1: 9-14, KJV. Please open your bibles and join me as we establish and reinforce our church family fellowship connection and interrelationships, and electrify the loop and enrich the content and substance of our communications and interactions. So here it is:
“For this cause (“the word of the truth of the gospel,” “the knowledge of the grace of God in truth,” and our “love in the Spirit,” vs 5, 6, 8) I also, since the day I heard it, do not cease to PRAY for you, and to DESIRE that you might be FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WIlLL IN ALL WISDOM AND SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING.
That you might walk (live the course of your life) WORTHY OF THE LORD unto all, pleasing, BEING FRUITFUL (not barren or “reprobate”) IN EVERY GOOD WORK (for “faith without works is dead”), and INCREASING (daily) in the KNOWLEDGE of God, STRENGTHENED WITH ALL MIGHT, according to CHRIST’S GLORIOUS POWER, to ALL PATIENCE AND LONG SUFFERING WITH JOYFULNESS.
Giving thanks (“without ceasing,” meaning having the attitude of) unto the Father, who has made us meet (fitted through sanctification) to be PARTAKERS of the INHERITANCE [justification is our title to, and sanctification is our fitness for this] OF THE SAINTS.
For Jesus, through the workings of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds has delivered us from (not in) the power of darkness of the prince of darkness and his HOSTS of evil into the KNOWLEDGE of His dear Son:
In and through whom we have REDEMPTION [purchased through HIS BLOOD not by our good works], even the forgiveness of our sins [that have been repented of, and turned away from].”
In the only name under heaven by which and whom we are saved from sinning, Jesus Christ, first, the Son of God, then the Son of man. Amen.
Remember to overcome one day at a time progressively, and one prayer at a time, hence the need to pray daily! NMF
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