Throughout these series on end-time prophecies the word “church” refers to the host of worshippers, generally the Christian churches of America but more specifically the once-Protestant churches of once-Protestant America while “Church,” even as the secular media constantly alludes to, is the Church of Rome, or in specified instances, state churches such as the Church of England. Below we continue quoting fromThe Great Controversy by Ellen G. White, 1911 ed., pp. 443-458. Comments and emphasis by this compiler are so indicated and/or enclosed in brackets.
EARTH’S FINAL CRISIS is not global warming or climate change, economic meltdown , oil and other energy sources shortage, hunger and poverty, terrorists, nuclear war, cyber war, and wars of every kind such as ethnic cleansing, genocide, water crisis, drought, famine, the blood-splattered drug wars, global human trafficking of modern-day slavery, the current heart-rending migrant crisis allegedly caused by the Syrian conflict, diseases of every grade, deterioration of society’s morals, greed and fraud in the highest places echelons of human endeavor even in the sciences, the academe, the world of sports and entertainment, increasing devastating upheavals of nature in record-breaking storms, cyclones, tornadoes, hailstorms, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.
The final crisis of eternal consequences coming upon “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” of the earth (Rev. 14: 6-12) is the prophesied end-timereligious crisis that will begin in the United States, symbolized in Revelation 13 as “the beast with two “lamb-like horns.” This gentle “beast,” however, so unlike in origin, ascent to power, and initial characteristics of the four beasts of prey preceding it, symbolizing the four successive world empires that struggled mightily against the other for world dominion, namely, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, respectively,—will sadly transform into one “speaking like a dragon.” John describes it as becoming the “image of or to the beast.”
“THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE.” Read the whole second commandment as spoken and written by God’s own finger in Exodus 20: 4-6; Deuteronomy 5:8-10. Graven is from the Hebrew pecel andpacal, “carved (graven) images;” “to carve, whether wood or stone.” See the following verses on idolatry: Lev. 26:1, 2; Deut. 4: 15-19; Judges 17: 1-6; 2 Kings 17: 41; 2 Chronicles 34: 7; Psalms 78:58; Isaiah 40: 19, 20; Jer. 8: 19; Hosea 11: 12; Micah 5: 12-15; Nahum 1: 14; Habakkuk 2: 18, 19; Acts 17: 29; 1 Cor. 8: 1-13. The prophet says: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” 1 Samuel 15: 23, K.J.V.
