Tag: life

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