In our last article, we looked at the inspired evidence in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy that defines who the dragon, the beast power and the false prophet represent. These three powers will form one worldwide confederacy in the last days. This confederacy will be accompanied by great signs and wonders and many miracles, and will persuade the world in general that the greatest revival and reformation of all time is taking place. The people will believe that they are receiving the latter rain of the Holy Spirit. Miraculous healings will take place, and people will be prophesying and casting out spirits. The greatest excitement will prevail. It will appear that war and international distress will be abolished and that worldwide peace will develop.
Ellen White describes this period in this way: “I saw our people in great distress, weeping, and praying, pleading the sure promises of God, while the wicked were all around us, mocking us, and threatening to destroy us. They ridiculed our feebleness, they mocked at the smallness of our numbers, and taunted us with words calculated to cut deep. They charged us with taking an independent position from all the rest of the world. They had cut off our resources so that we could not buy nor sell, and referred to our abject poverty and stricken condition. They could not see how we could live without the world; we were dependent upon the world, and we must concede to the customs, practices, and laws of the world, or go out of it. If we were the only people in the world whom the Lord favored the appearances were awfully against us. They declared that they had the truth, that miracles were among them, that angels from heaven talked with them, and walked with them, that great power, and signs and wonders were performed among them, and this was the Temporal Millennium, which they had been expecting so long. The whole world was converted and in harmony with the Sunday law, and this little feeble people stood out in defiance of the laws of the land, and the laws of God, and claimed to be the only ones right on the earth.” Maranatha, 209.
This three-fold union of the dragon, the beastpower and the false prophet will unite together to accomplish the following objectives:
- Bring unity and harmony into Christendom. It will be thought that this movement will answer Jesus’ prayer in John 17, and end the disharmony that has existed in Christendom since at least the second century. Eventually, in order to bring this about, all religious groups will come under severe pressures of many kinds, both from the State and the church, to conform to at least a minimum of common beliefs held by all. The absolute minimum will be that all conform to the day of worship accepted by the majority—Sunday.
- Usher in the day of the Lord—the return of Christ. Most Christian groups today believe that the day of the Lord, the end of the age, is not far away. It will be thought that this united movement will bring about the consummation of the church’s hopes.
- Bring unity not only within Christendom but with the entire world—with all non-Christian groups as well.
The above objectives will be obvious to human observers but there are other powers, spiritual powers, in the universe, that also have objectives to accomplish through these developments. First of all, the devil and his fallen angels. The following are their revealed objectives:
“The line of distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable. Church-members love what the world loves, and are ready to join with them; and Satan determines to unite them in one body, and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of Spiritualism. Papists, who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world, and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.” The Great Controversy, 588.
“Zechariah’s vision of Joshua and the Angel applies with peculiar force to the experience of God’s people in the closing scenes of the great day of atonement. The remnant church will then be brought into great trial and distress. Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects; he has gained control even of many professing Christians. But here is a little company who are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God. Men will be required to render obedience to human edicts in violation of the divine law.” Prophets and Kings, 587.
The preceding paragraph explains the reason for Sunday laws that most people know nothing about—they are inspired by supernatural powers as a way to bring all the people of the world into violation of God’s law and thereby under condemnation in the day of judgement. It is a master plan, bolstered with the highest sounding benefits to mankind, that in actuality brings man into direct violation of the Law of God and thereby in direct controversy and rebellion against his Creator. The fourth commandment, right in the heart of the Ten Commandments says,”Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your gates, for in six days, the Lord created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh-day, wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8–11.
The entire world knows when the seventh-day is because the whole world refers to a certain day of the week at Easter as “good Friday.” The whole world also knows on which day of the week Jesus arose from the dead. From this it is not hard to know when the seventh-day Sabbath is. According to the commandment of God, it is the day of the week that comes between “good Friday” and resurrection Sunday. (See Luke 23:54; 24:1.)
The devil’s objective has always been to take the place of God and to force others, if necessary, to worship him. “The great apostate has changed the signpost, setting up a false one—a spurious sabbath. He says: ‘I will work at cross purposes with God. I will empower my delegate, the man of sin, to take down God’s memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus will I show the world that the day sanctified and blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day bearing not the credentials of heaven, a day that can not be a sign between God and His people. I will lead the people who accept this day, to place upon it the sanctity that God placed upon the seventh day. Through my vicegerent I will exalt myself. The first day shall be extolled, and the Protestant world shall receive this spurious sabbath as genuine. Through the non-observance of the Sabbath God instituted, I will bring His law into contempt. The words, ‘A sign between me and you throughout your generations,’ I will make to serve on the side of my sabbath. Thus the world will become mine. I will be ruler of the earth, prince of the world. I will so control the minds under my power that God’s Sabbath shall be an object of contempt. I will make the observance of the seventh day a sign of disloyalty to the authorities of earth. Human laws shall be made so stringent that men and women will not dare to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. For fear of wanting food and clothing, they will join with the world in transgressing God’s law; and the earth will be wholly under my dominion.’ ” Review and Herald, April 17, 1900.
“The warfare against God’s law commenced in heaven. Satan was determined to bring God to his ideas, his way, to force Him to change the law of His government. This was the cause of the war in heaven. Satan worked upon the sympathies of the angelic host by his deceptive attitude, but he was expelled from heaven, and now he is determined to carry out on this earth the plans he instituted in heaven. If he can persuade man to be disloyal to the laws of God, he will feel that he is revenged upon God. He strives to instill into the minds of men his masterly deceptions, thus perverting judgment and justice, and trampling down the law of God. This work—the conflict between truth and error—-lies at the foundation of the trials and tribulations that the children of God will experience. This is the ‘trial of their faith.’ By pressing upon the soul the idea that God is displeased with us, Satan tries to torture us into unbelief.” Letter 24, 1895, 4–6.
“If Satan can induce a union of the church and the world, man-made commandments will supplant the Sabbath. Men do not seem to understand that they are taken in Satan’s snare when they attempt to tamper with the law of God. Satan has them in just the position he wants them when they manufacture laws to control the world and place those laws where God’s laws should be. The enemy knows that, if the church can be controlled by political enactments, she will lose her garments of light as did Adam and Eve. If he can lead the church to unite with the world and accept worldly enactments, they virtually acknowledge him as their head. Then the authority of manmade commandments will work to oppose the rule of the government of heaven. Under the leadership of Satan the knowledge of good and evil will work to dispense with the righteous, holy enactments of God concerning the Sabbath, the observance of which is to be a sign between God and His people forever.” Adventist Apocalypse (Ms. 77, 1899).
The devil is not the only supernatural power who has objectives in the Sunday law movement that will be promoted by the three-fold union mentioned in Revelation 16. God is against this movement designed to force the entire world to transgress His law, but nevertheless, God has specific objectives in allowing it to develop:
“I saw that the enemy would either contend for the usefulness or the life of the godly, and will try to mar their peace as long as they live in this world. But his power is limited. He may cause the furnace to be heated, but Jesus and angels will watch the trusting Christian, that nothing may be consumed but the dross. The fire kindled by Satan, can have no power to destroy or hurt the true metal. It is important to close every door possible, against the entrance of Satan. It is the privilege of every family to so live that Satan cannot take advantage of anything they may say or do, to tear each other down. Every member of the family should bear in mind that all have just as much as they can do to resist our wily foe, and with earnest prayers and unyielding faith, they must rely upon the merits of the blood of Christ, and claim His saving strength. The powers of darkness gather about the soul and shut Jesus from our sight, and at times we can only wait in sorrow and amazement until the cloud passes over. These seasons are sometimes terrible. Hope seems to fail, and despair seizes upon us. In these dreadful hours we must learn to trust, to depend on the sole merits of the atonement, and in all our helpless unworthiness cast ourselves upon the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. We shall never perish while we do this— never! When light shines on our pathway, it is no great thing to be strong in the strength of grace. But to wait patiently in hope, when all is dark, when clouds envelope us, requires faith and submission which causes our will to be swallowed up in the will of God. We are too quickly discouraged, and earnestly cry for the trial to be removed from us, when we should plead for patience to endure, and grace to overcome.” Review and Herald, April 22, 1862.
“God means that testing truth shall be brought to the front and become a subject of examination and discussion, even if it is through the contempt placed upon it.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 463.
“God has called His church in this day, as He called ancient Israel, to stand as a light in the earth. By the mighty cleaver of truth, the messages of the first, second, and third angels, He has separated them from the churches and from the world to bring them into a sacred nearness to Himself. He has made them the depositaries of His law and has committed to them the great truths of prophecy for this time. Like the holy oracles committed to ancient Israel, these are a sacred trust to be communicated to the world. The three angels of Revelation 14 represent the people who accept the light of God’s messages and go forth as His agents to sound the warning throughout the length and breadth of the earth. Christ declares to His followers: ‘Ye are the light of the world.’ To every soul that accepts Jesus the cross of Calvary speaks: ‘Behold the worth of the soul: ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’ Nothing is to be permitted to hinder this work. It is the all-important work for time; it is to be far-reaching as eternity. The love that Jesus manifested for the souls of men in the sacrifice which He made for their redemption, will actuate all His followers.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 455.
Let’s look at a brief historical review from the first article:
When those religious bodies and groups, who claimed to derive their religion and reason for existence from the Bible (inspired writings alone), rejected the First Angel’s Message, God rejected them. Jesus turned from them with a frown and they fell from their former position of acceptance with God. They became part of what Revelation calls mystical Babylon. The rejection of the First Angel’s Message involved also the rejection of the Sabbath, because the Sabbath is clearly a part of the First Angel’s Message, the fourth commandment actually being quoted from in that message. But that was not the end of the fall into Babylon by these churches: “The Second Angel’s Message of Revelation 14, was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the Judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the Advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time, they have fallen lower and lower.” The Great Controversy, 389.
The question then must of necessity be asked, what should our relationship be to those who, according to the Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy, belong to associations and groups (churches), described by Scripture as Babylon? It is evident in Scripture that these groups cannot be reformed, because God does not call for His people to attempt to improve or reform them, but rather to come out of them. This is what the Three Angels’ Messages accomplish, as the reference quoted above clearly states.
If God is calling His people to come out of these groups, is it possible for a person who has accepted the Three Angels’ Messages and come out of those groups, to simply associate with them, and never call the people to come out of them and still have a clear conscience? Is it possible to simply say, “Well, we will work with these people as best we can on those points which we hold in common”? Is it not clearly evident that it is impossible to in any way be a part of the ecumenical movement and stay true and faithful to the Three Angels’ Messages? If we associate with these people and never call them to come out of Babylon, what do we intend to say to them when they receive the seven last plagues and reproach us for not calling them out of danger into the safety of the remnant? The following is what they will say to us: “In the visions of the night a very impressive scene passed before me. I saw an immense ball of fire fall among some beautiful mansions, causing their instant destruction. I heard someone say: ‘We knew that the judgments of God were coming upon the earth, but we did not know that they would come so soon.’ Others, with agonized voices, said: ‘You knew! Why then did you not tell us? We did not know.’ On every side I heard similar words of reproach spoken.” Testimonies, vol. 9, 28.
While we are ever to be kind and courteous to those who are in error, never by precept or example should we give the wrong impression that they are not in danger of receiving the seven last plagues. If we act like they are our brothers in Christ when, in truth, the organizations with whom they have been affiliated are rejected by the Lord, we are doing them harm. God is calling them to come out from the unclean and be separate so that they can be received of God as His children. (2 Corinthians 6:14–18.) If we want to be a part of that number who will give the final warning, the loud cry to come out of Babylon (the churches fallen because of their errors and sins), how can we now be going directly contrary to the spirit of that message by fraternizing with those that we should be calling out of their religions affiliations?
“The warnings that worldly conformity and cowardice has silenced will have to be given under the fiercest opposition from our enemies.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 463. Where will you be found? Will you be among those who give the warning or will you be one of the large class who have professed faith in the Third Angel’s Message, but not being sanctified through obedience to the truth,abandon your position, join with the ecumenical movement which is enforcing Sunday observance and fight those who are giving the last warning of God to this world? (See Great Controversy, 608.)
“Servants of God, endowed with power from on high, with their faces lighted up, and shining with holy consecration, went forth to proclaim the message from heaven. Souls that were scattered all through the religious bodies answered to the call, and the precious were hurried out of the doomed churches, as Lot was hurried out of Sodom before her destruction. God’s people were strengthened by the excellent glory which rested upon them in rich abundance and prepared them to endure the hour of temptation. I heard everywhere a multitude of voices saying, ‘Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’ “Early Writings, 278.