The Great
Controversy- Chapter XXXVI- The
Impending Conflict -- To be continued….
Mat_13:39 The
enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and
the reapers are the angels.
Mat_25:41 Then
shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels
Luk_8:12 Those
by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the
word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
Joh_8:44 Ye
are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
and the father of it.
Eph_6:11 Put
on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil.
(Discussing Satan- )
Even now he is at
work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations,
in fierce tornadoes and terrific hail-storms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal
waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising
his power.
He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and
famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands
perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more
frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. “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.” [Isaiah
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 until Sunday 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. 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 toward
Elijah. The miracle-working power manifested through Spiritualism will exert
its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men.
Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince
the rejecters of Sunday of their error, affirming that the laws of the land
should be obeyed as the law of God. They will lament the great wickedness in
the world, and second the testimony of religious teachers, that the degraded
state of morals is caused by the desecration of Sunday. Great will be the
indignation excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony. Satan’s
policy in this final conflict with God’s people is the same that he employed in
the opening of the great controversy in Heaven. He professed to be seeking to
promote the stability of the divine government, while secretly bending every
effort to secure its overthrow. And the very work which he was thus endeavoring
to accomplish, he charged upon the loyal angels. The same policy of deception
has marked the history of the Romish Church. It has professed to act as the
vicegerent of Heaven, while seeking to exalt itself above God, and to change
his law. Under the rule of Rome, those who suffered death for their fidelity to
the gospel were denounced as evil-doers; they were declared to be in league
with Satan; and every possible means was employed to cover them with reproach,
to cause them to appear, in the eyes of the people, and even to themselves, as
the vilest of criminals. So it will be now. While Satan seeks to destroy those
who honor God’s law he will cause them to be accused as law-breakers, as men
who are dishonoring God, and bringing judgments upon the world.
God never forces the
will or the conscience; but Satan’s constant resort—to gain control of those
whom he cannot otherwise seduce—is compulsion by cruelty. Through fear or force
he endeavors to rule the conscience, and to secure homage to himself. To accomplish
this, he works through both religious and secular authorities, moving them to
the enforcement of human laws in defiance of the law of God.
Those who honor the
Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down
the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling
down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced
obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of
disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the
divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the
civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative halls and courts of
justice, commandment-keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false
coloring will be given to their words; the worst construction will be put upon
their motives.
As the Protestant
churches reject the clear, scriptural arguments in defense of God’s law, they
will long to silence those whose faith they cannot overthrow by the Bible.
Though they blind their own eyes to the fact, they are now adopting a course
which will lead to the persecution of those who conscientiously refuse to do
what the rest of the Christian world are doing, and acknowledge the claims of
the papal Sabbath. The dignitaries of church and State will unite to bribe,
persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine
authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is
destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America,
rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the
popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience,
which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the
soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: “The dragon
was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,
which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
[Revelation 12:17.]
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