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On The Edge of Time
Armageddon
"At that time shall Michael stand and up, the great prince
which standeth for the children of Thy people: and there shall be a time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and
at that time Thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found
written in the book.” Dan. 12: 1.
The season of distress and anguish before us will require a
faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger,— a faith that will not
faint, though severely tried. The period of probation is granted to all to
prepare for that time. Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and
determined. His victory is an evidence of the power of importunate prayer. All
who will lay hold of God’s promises as he did, and be as earnest and persevering
as he was, will succeed as he succeeded. Those who are unwilling to deny self,
to agonize before God, to pray long and earnestly for His blessing, will not
obtain it. Wrestling with God, how few know what it is! How few have ever had
their souls drawn out after God with intensity of desire until every power is on
the stretch. When waves of despair which no language can express sweep over the
suppliant, how few cling with unyielding faith to the promises of God.
Those who exercise but little faith now are in the greatest
danger of falling under the power of Satanic delusions and the decree to compel
the conscience. And even if they endure the test, they will be plunged into
deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, because they have never made
it a habit to trust in God. The lessons of faith which they have neglected they
will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement.
We should now acquaint ourselves with God by proving His
promises. Angels record every prayer that is earnest and sincere. We should
rather dispense with selfish gratifications than neglect communion with God. The
deepest poverty, the greatest self-denial, with His approval, is better than
riches, honors, ease, and friendship without it. We must take time to pray. If
we allow our minds to be absorbed by worldly interests, the Lord may give us
time by removing from us our idols of gold, of houses, or of fertile lands.
The time of trouble such as never was, is soon to open upon
us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess, and which many
are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in
anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The
most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. And now, while
the precious Saviour is making an atonement for us, we should seek to become
perfect in Christ. God’s providence is the school in which we are to learn the
meekness and lowliness of Jesus. The Lord is ever setting before us, not the way
we would choose, which is easier and pleasanter to us, but the true aims of
life. None can neglect or defer this work but at the most fearful peril to their
souls.
The apostle John in vision heard a loud voice in heaven
exclaiming, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is
come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a
short time.” Rev. 12:12. Fearful are the scenes which call forth this
exclamation from the heavenly voice. The wrath of Satan increases as his time
grows short, and his work of deceit and destruction reaches its culmination in
the time of trouble. God’s long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His
mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the
boundary of their probation, and the Lord withdraws His protection, and leaves
them to the mercy of the leader they have chosen. Satan will have power over
those who have yielded themselves to his control, and he will plunge the
inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God
cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of
strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible
than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.
A single angel destroyed all the firstborn of the Egyptians
and filled the land with mourning. When David offended against God by numbering
the people, one angel caused that terrible destruction by which his sin was
punished. The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands,
will be exercised by evil angels when He allows. There are forces now ready, and
only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere.
Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be
revealed in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-working demons. The
spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole
world. Rulers and subjects will be alike deceived. Persons will arise pretending
to be Christ, and claiming the title and the worship which belong to the world’s
Redeemer. They will perform wonderful miracles of healing and will profess to
have revelations from heaven contradicting the testimony of the Scriptures.
As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan
himself will attempt to personate Christ. The church has long professed to look
to the Saviour’s advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver
will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan
will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness,
resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation
(Rev. 1:13-15). The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that
mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air,
“Christ has come! Christ has come!” The people prostrate themselves in adoration
before him, while he lifts up his hands, and pronounces a blessing upon them, as
Christ blessed His disciples when He was personally upon the earth. His voice is
soft and subdued yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents
some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals
the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he
claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day
which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the
seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to
them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion.
Like the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from the
least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying, This is “the great
power of God.”
But the people of God will not be misled. The teachings of
this false Christ are not in accordance with the Scriptures. His blessing is
pronounced upon the worshipers of the beast and his image, the very class upon
whom the Bible declares that God’s unmingled wrath shall be poured out. And,
furthermore, Satan is not permitted to counterfeit the manner of Christ’s
advent. The Scriptures teach that “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be”
(Matt. 24:27); that He “cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him” (Rev.
1:7); that He will “descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God” (I Thess. 4:16); that He will “come in His
glory, and all the holy angels with Him” (Matt. 25:3 1); and will “send His
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His
elect.” Matt. 24:31. Those who have received the love of the truth will be
shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive. By the
testimony of the Scriptures they will detect the deceiver in his disguise.
To all, the testing time will come. By the sifting of
temptation, the genuine Christian will be revealed. Are the people of God now so
firmly established upon His word that they would not yield to the evidence of
their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible, and the Bible
only? Satan will, if possible, prevent them from obtaining a preparation to
stand in that day. He will so arrange affairs as to hedge up their way, entangle
them with earthly treasures, cause them to carry a heavy, wearisome burden, that
their hearts may be overcharged with the cares of this life, and the day of
trial may come upon them as a thief.
Satan will continue to act a double part. Appearing to be the
dispenser of great blessings and divine truths, he will, by his lying wonders,
hold the world under his control; and at the same time he will indulge his
malignity by causing distress and destruction and will accuse God’s people as
the cause of the fearful convulsions of nature and the strife and bloodshed
among men which are desolating the earth. Thus he will excite to greater
intensity the spirit of hatred and persecution against them. God never forces
the will or the conscience; but Satan will employ the most cruel measures to
control the consciences of men and to secure worship to himself. And this work
of compulsion is always in favor of human creeds and laws, and in defiance of
God’s holy law.
In the last conflict the Sabbath will be the special point of
controversy throughout all Christendom. Secular rulers and religious leaders
will unite to enforce the observance of the Sunday; and as milder measures fail,
the most oppressive laws will be enacted. It will be urged that the few who
stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the land ought
not to be tolerated, and a decree will finally be issued denouncing them as
deserving of the severest punishment, and giving the people liberty, after a
certain time, to put them to death. Romanism in the Old World, and apostate
Protestantism in the New, will pursue a similar course toward those who honor
the divine precepts.
The people of God will then flee from the cities and
villages, and associate together in companies, dwelling in the most desolate and
solitary places. Many will find refuge in the strongholds of the mountains. Like
the Christians of the Piedmont valleys, they will make the high places of the
earth their sanctuaries, and will thank God for the “munitions of rocks.” But
many of all nations and all classes, high and low, rich and poor, black and
white, will be cast into the most unjust and cruel bondage. The beloved of God
pass weary days, bound in chains, shut in by prison bars, sentenced to be slain,
some apparently left to die of starvation in dark and loathsome dungeons. No
human ear is open to hear their moans; no human hand is ready to lend them help.
Will the Lord forget His people in this trying hour? Did He
forget faithful Noah when judgments were visited upon the antediluvian world?
Did He forget Lot when the fire came down from heaven to consume the cities of
the plain? Did He forget Joseph surrounded by idolaters in Egypt? Did He forget
Elijah when the oath of Jezebel threatened him with the fate of the Baal
prophets? Did He forget Jeremiah in the dark and dismal pit of his prison-house?
Did He forget the three worthies in the fiery furnace? or Daniel in the den of
lions? Christ cannot forsake those who are as the apple of His eye, the purchase
of His precious blood.
Though the people of God endure privation, and even suffer
for want of food, they are not left to perish. While God’s judgments are visited
upon the earth, and the wicked are dying from hunger and thirst, angels provide
the righteous with food and water. Said Jesus, in His lessons of faith to His
disciples: “Consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor reap; which neither
have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them; how much more are ye better than
the fowls?” Luke 12:24. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of
them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of
your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than
many sparrows.” Matt. 10:29-31.
Yet to human sight, it will appear that the people of God
must soon seal their testimony with their blood as did the martyrs before them.
They themselves begin to fear that the Lord has left them to fall by the hand of
their enemies. It is a time of fearful agony. Day and night they cry unto God
for deliverance. The wicked exult, and the jeering cry is heard, “Where now is
your faith? Why does not God deliver you out of our hands if you are indeed His
people?” But the waiting ones remember Jesus dying upon Calvary’s cross and the
chief priests and rulers shouting in mockery, “He saved others; Himself He
cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross,
and we will believe Him.” Matt. 27:42. Like Jacob, all are wrestling with God.
Their countenances express their internal struggle. Paleness sits upon every
face. Yet they cease not their earnest intercession.
Could men see with heavenly vision, they would behold
companies of angels that excel in strength stationed about those who have kept
the word of Christ’s patience. With sympathizing tenderness, angels have
witnessed their distress and have heard their prayers. They are waiting the word
of their Commander to snatch them from their peril, but they must wait yet a
little longer. The people of God must drink of the cup and be baptized with the
baptism. The very delay, so painful to them, is the best answer to their
petitions. As they endeavor to wait trustingly for the Lord to work, they are
led to exercise faith, hope, and patience which have been too little exercised
during their religious experience. Yet for the elect’s sake, the time of trouble
will be shortened. The end will come more quickly than men expect.
As the wrestling ones urge their petitions before God, the
veil separating them from the unseen seems almost withdrawn. The heavens glow
with the dawning of eternal day; and, like the melody of angel songs, the words
fall upon the ear, “Stand fast to your allegiance. Help is coming.” Christ, the
Almighty Victor, holds out to His weary soldiers a crown of immortal glory; and
His voice comes from the gates ajar: “Lo, I am with you. Be not afraid. I am
acquainted with all your sorrows; I have borne your griefs. You are not warring
against untried enemies. I have fought the battle in your behalf, and in My name
you are more than conquerors.”
The precious Saviour will send help just when we need it. The
way to heaven is consecrated by His footprints. Every thorn that wounds our feet
has wounded His. Every cross that we are called to bear, He has borne before us.
The Lord permits conflicts, to prepare the soul for peace. If we had no storms,
no shadows, we could not appreciate the sunshine. The time of trouble is a
fearful ordeal for God’s people; but it is the time for every true believer to
look up, and by faith he may see the bow of promise encircling him.
Chapter 9
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