Strife

Rev 7:1  And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

Rev 7:2  And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads

Excerpt from Daniel and Revelation- by Uriah Smith

With one more question we leave these verses, upon which we have so lengthily dwelt. Have we seen among the nations any movements which would indicate that the cry of the ascending angel, "Hurt not," etc., by the blowing of the winds, "till we have sealed the servants of our God," has in any manner been answered?

The time during which the winds are held could not, from the nature of the case, be a time of profound peace. This would not answer to the prophecy. For in order to make it manifest that the winds are being held, there must be disturbance, agitation, anger, and jealousy among the nations, with an occasional outburst of strife, like a fitful gust breaking away from the imprisoned and struggling tempest; and these outbursts must be suddenly and

p 468 -- unexpectedly checked. Then, but not otherwise, would it be evident to him who looked at events in the light of prophecy, that for some good purpose the restraining hand of Omnipotence was laid upon the surging elements of strife and war. And such has been the aspect of our times for nearly half a century. Commencing with the great revolution of 1848, when so many European thrones pled into the dust, what a state of anger and political unrest has existed among all the nations of the earth! New and unlooked-for complications have suddenly sprung up, throwing matters into apparently inextricable confusion, and threatening immediate and direful war. And now and then the conflict has burst forth in fury, and a thousand voices have been raised to predict that the great crisis had come, that universal war must result, and the termination no man could foretell, when suddenly and unaccountably it has been extinguished, and all subsided into quiet again.

In our own land the terrible civil war of 1861 to 1865 is a notable instance. By the spring of the latter year, so great had become the pressure upon the nation for men and means to continue the war that it began seriously to impede the progress of the work symbolized by the ascending angel, even threatening to arrest it entirely. Those interested in these truths, believing that the time had come for the application of the prophecy, and that the words of the angel, "Hurt not," etc., indicated a movement on the part of the church, accordingly raised their petitions to the Ruler of nations to restrain the cruel work of tumult and war. Days of fasting and prayer were set apart for this purpose. The time at which this occurred was a dark and gloomy period of the war; and not a few high in political life predicted its indefinite continuance, and an appalling intensity of all its evils. But suddenly a change came; and not three months had elapsed from the time of which we speak, ere the last army of the Southern Confederacy had surrendered, and all its soldiers had laid down their arms. So sudden and entire was the collapse, and so grateful were all hearts for relief from the pressure of the terrible strife, that the nation broke forth into a song of jubilee,

p 469 -- and these words were conspicuously displayed at the national capital:  "This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."    There are those who believe there was a definite cause for this sudden cessation of the strife, of which, of course, the world is but little aware. The sudden conclusion of the Franco-German war of 1870, of the war between Turkey and Russia in 1877-78, the Spanish-American war in 1896, and the recent war between Russia and Japan, may be cited as still later examples.

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And we well know that since those wars of strife there have been NUMEROUS wars.

Will we know when those angels are stayed in order for those living to be sealed?  Only those who are living in the very end times will be sealed, those who must have that seal when Christ returns. Those who will be protected by the Holy Spirit, by the heavenly angels so they will survive all the horror of the plagues that those who aren't sealed will experience. Those who are sealed will escape death for they will be living when Christ returns. 

The things the angels are holding in check are things that WILL hurt people in ways they've never been hurt before, on a scale they've never been hurt before. The suffering will come, the plagues will fall.

We've made the plagues something of fictional movies, but they are REAL and we will be studying a lot more about them in the near future, by the grace of God. Those angels hold in check so much more than we realize.

May God help us to be among those SEALED before the angels loose those winds!

Will we KNOW when we are sealed? I don't think so. The signs all around us point more and more to the soon coming of our Savior so we know the sealing is coming.  And I know we talked about the sealing coming upon those who keep the fourth commandment- the law of God- the seal of God, and we may believe we are commandment keepers saved by grace, but truly only our God know our hearts, only He can save us from all that would keep us from Him.  

We must do all we are shown to do, all we are compelled by the Holy Spirit to do. We must trust that we will be saved by Jesus Christ our Lord and that we will be among those He and He alone saves.

Please, Lord, we would be YOURS and ONLY YOURS!

Now and forever in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior!

Amen.