FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER SEVEN – Part 14
We are standing on the threshold of the Crisis of the Ages!
The first angel’s message: Fear God and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Revelation 14: 6, 7, K.J.V.
Ellen G. White wrote in Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 275-277:
“There is coming rapidly and surely an almost universal guilt upon the inhabitants of the cities [like Sodom, Gomorrah, Nineveh, etc. in OT times] because of the steady increase of determined wickedness. The corruption that prevails is beyond the power of the human pen to describe. Everyday brings fresh revelations of strife, bribery, and fraud; everyday brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering, of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide.
“From age to ages Satan has sought to keep men ignorance of the beneficent designs of Jehovah. He has endeavored to remove from their sight the great things of God’s law,—the principles of justice, mercy, and love therein set forth. Men boast of the wonderful progress and enlightenment of the age in which we are now living; but God sees the earth filled with iniquity and violence Men declare that the law of God has been abrogated, that the Bible is not authentic; and as a result, a tide of evil, such as has not been since the days of Noah and of apostate Israel [antitypically, the world-at-large, and the worldly churches in general], is sweeping across the world. Nobility of soul, gentleness, piety, are bartered away to gratify the lust for forbidden things. The black record of crime committed for the sake of gain is enough to chill the blood and fill the heart with horror [in hearts and consciences not yet fully hardened and seared by familiarity with and enjoyment of criminality, violence, dissipation, moral depravity and deviant behavior promoted as “entertainment” and ‘expressions of art only’].
“Our God is a God of mercy. With long sufferance and tender compassion He deals with the transgressors of His law. And yet, in this our day, when men and women have so many opportunities for becoming familiar with the divine law as revealed in the Holy Writ, the Great Ruler of the universe cannot behold with any satisfaction the wicked cities, where reigns violence and crime. The end of God’s forbearance with those who persist in disobedience, is approaching rapidly.
“Ought men to be surprised over a sudden and unexpected change in the dealings of the Supreme Ruler with the inhabitants of a fallen world? Ought they to be surprised when punishment follows transgression and increasing crime? Ought they to be surprised that God should bring destruction and death upon those whose ill-gotten gains have been obtained through deception and fraud [see James 5: 1-6, etc]. Notwithstanding the fact that increasing light regarding God’s requirements have been shining on their pathway [light of truth exposing hypocrisy and wickedness in the ‘high and mighty places’ of the earth], many have refused to recognize Jehovah’s rulership, and have chose to remain under the black banner of the originator of all rebellion against the government of heaven.
“The forbearance of God has been very great,—so great that when we consider the continuous insult to His holy commandments, we marvel [not in awe but in astonishment!] The Omnipotent One has been exerting a restraining power over His own attribute [of perfect righteousness and justice]. But He will certainly arise to punish the wicked who so boldly defy the just claims of His Decalogue [historically officially established done during the Thyatira stage of the church and will be repeated antitypically as the final global apostasy that ends earth’s probation].
“God allows men a period of probation [Adam and Eve, sinless parents of mankind, were placed on the firstprobation in Eden, and failed. God’s love granted fallen man a second and last probation by the plan of redemption immediately activating since, till he ends it itself by “reaching the point of no remedy” in persistent rejection of the merciful invitation to repent over the centuries]; but there is a point beyond which divinepatience, not agape love!] is exhausted, and the judgments of God are sure to follow. The Lord bears long with men, and with cities, mercifully giving warnings to save them from divine wrath; but a time will come when pleadings for mercy will no longer be heard [by hearts hardened by rebellious choice to transgress God’s law of love and righteousness], and the rebellious element that continues to reject the light of truth will be blotted out, in mercy to themselves, and to those who would otherwise be influenced by their example.
“The time is at hand when there will be great sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters by sea and land follow one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear [right now!] of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man; but in them all, God’s purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger. “- Ibid, pp. 275-277. [Precious additional insight for ‘global warming’ scientists an activists!]
“God’s message for the inhabitants of the earth to-day is, ‘Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.’ Matt. 24: 44. The conditions of prevailing in society, and especially in the great cities of the nations, proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of judgment is come [see Rev. 14: 6, 7], and that the end of all things is at hand. We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another,—fire and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed. We are not to be surprised at this time by events both great and decisive; for the angel of mercy [the Holy Spirit] cannot remain much longer to shelter the impenitent.
“’Behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain’ Isa. 26: 21; Rev. 14: 18-20, etc.] The storm of God’s wrath is gathering; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy, as did the inhabitants of Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah [Matt. 12: 38-45; 11: 20-24], and became sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler. The righteous alone shall be hid with Christ with God till the desolations be overpast [Isa. 26: 20; cf. Ps. 57:1].” – Ibid, p. 278.
NOW, more to the point on: a)why suddenly all these unprecedented, record-breaking catastrophic calamities are overlapping one another b) who is the real mastermind and his agencies who are creating them, and c) where will all these culminate and its clear prophesied final result in the context of the great controversy. Ellen G. White penned the following in The Great Controversy, (1911 edition), pp. 589, 590: Prayerfully studied with the Bible, it is as my practical and spiritual handbook, map, and guide for these closing hours of earth’s probation.
“Through Spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but as the same time he works as adestroyer. [How?] 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 and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the 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.
“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 and appreciate how relevant it is, particularly now!] how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, 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. But the Christian world has shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will just what He has declared that He would—withdraw His blessings from the earth, and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same.
“Satan has control over of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some [as ‘the god of this earth,’ and ‘prince of the world’] in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.
“While appearing to the children of men as a great physician, who can heal all their maladies [through Spiritualism], he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps way the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, , and thousand perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction shall be upon both man and beast. [Thousands of animal and plant species have become extinct.] ‘The earth mourneth and fadeth away,’ ‘the haughty people. . . . do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.’ Isa. 24: 4, 5.
“And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease untilSunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity [ever heard of the ‘prosperity gospel’?]
“Thus the accusation urged of old against the servant of God will be repeated and upon grounds equally well established : ‘And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye, have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.’ 1 Kings 18: 17, 18. As the wrath of the people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course toward God’s ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel pursued towards Elijah.” –Ibid, pp. 590.
Elijah means “Jehovah is God.” He was the second man on earth that was translated to heaven without tasting death. 2 Kings 2: 1-15. The first was Enoch, the seventh patriarch from Adam. Gen.5: 22-24; Heb. 11: 5. Together with Moses, the first man resurrected and taken to heaven immediately, Elijah appeared with Christ at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17: 1-4), “the future kingdom of glory represented in miniature”.
Baalim. “The Old Testament testifies also that the cult of Baal was accompanied by the burning of children in the fire (Jer. 19: 5] and the kissing of the image (1 Kings 19:18). It was probably also accompanied by gross lasciviousness. Associated frequently with Baal is the goddess Ashtoreth (Judges 2: 13), and on the high places dedicated to Baal was usually found an Asherah (Judges 6: 30; 1 Kings 16; 32, 33, R.S.V. In various places Baal came to be identified with Helios (the sun), with Hercules, or with the chief Greek god, Zeus (the Roman Jupiter).” – SDA Bible Dictionary, Commentary Reference Series, Vol. 8, p. 100, art., “Baalim.”
(To be continued next week)