“Blessed by the name of the Lord forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings [and kingdoms] and raises up kings [and kingdoms].” See Daniel 2: 20-22, NKJV.
Lest we forget or lose sight of the far greater and grander things and issues of eternal consequences with all these distractions and schemes of Satan and fall victims to the worst yet to come, we fretful, fitful, “busybody” finite mortals need to calm down and “come down to earth from our imaginary high places” and be reminded that:—
The nation and the whole world is ‘testing the waters.’ In fits and starts, afflicted, inflicted and conflicted America, sharing the same lot with the rest of the edgy, wary and weary world is “testing the waters” to see how quickly and widely it can “open up” and rescue its rapidly-sinking economy—the other pecuniary half of the health pandemic, — without prematurely reactivating a more devastating “second wave” by this fall, as feared by the health scientists.
With sustained physical (more practical than “social”) distancing, using masks (which unsurprisingly has been turned into a “novel” fashion item, or weaponized as political statement), and other aggressive yet so common-sense sanitary and cleansing protocols to mitigate the pandemic, the much-sought after covid-19 test and contact-tracing novel mechanism, is to reveal and hopefully contain and control the spread of infection of this no-longer novel virus, until either a super vaccine, “herd immunity” is acquired on a national scale or a highly improbable permanent “cure” is found.
WHAT IS THE TRUE INTERPRETATION OFREVELATION 16: 12-16? (The Threefold Union in the Battle of Armageddon (Continued)
French poet Charles Baudelaire once said that “the greatest trick the devil pulled was fooling the world into believing that he doesn’t exist.” Ellen G. White revealed back in 1884 that this deception is indeed one of the most successful agencies and heresies of the great deceiver: “Another subtle and mischievous error is the fast-spreading belief that Satan has no existence as personal being; that the name is used in Scripture merely to represent men’s evil thoughts and desires.” (Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, p. 348).
Again: “The position that it is of no consequence what men believe is one of Satan’s most successful deceptions. He knows that the truth, received in the love of it, sanctifies the soul of the receiver [John 17:17]; therefore he is constantly seeking to substitute false theories, fables, another gospel [1 Tim. 1: 4; 4: 7; 2 Tim. 4: 4; Titus 1: 14; 2 Pet. 1: 16; 2 Cor. 11: 4]. . . .The discord and division which exist among the churches of Christendom are in a great measure due to the prevailing custom of wresting [twisting] the Scriptures to support a favorite theory. Instead of carefully studying God’s word with humility of heart to obtain a knowledge of His will, many seek only to discover something odd or original. . . . Whenever the study of the Scriptures is entered upon without a prayerful, humble, teachable spirit, the plainest as well as the most difficult passages will be wrested from their true meaning . . . The word of God is plain to all who study it with a prayerful heart. “Light [of truth] is sown for the righteous.’ Psalm 97: 11. And no church can advance in holiness unless its members are earnestly seeking for truth as for hid treasure [Prov. 2: 4; Matt. 13: 44].”- Ibid, Maranatha, p. 132.
