Words of Hope…
Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the immortality of the soul lays the foundation of spiritualism, Sunday sacredness creates ties of sympathy with Rome.
Through spiritualism, Satan appears to be someone who blesses
humanity, healing diseases and presenting a new system of religious
faith, but at the same time he leads many people to ruin. Alcohol
use overcomes reason; sensual indulgence, conflict, and bloodshed
follow. War stirs up the worst passions of the heart and sweeps its victims into eternity, covered in vice and blood. It is Satan’s goal
to prod the nations to war, because in this way he can divert people
from preparing for the judgment and eternity.
Satan has studied the secrets of nature, and he uses all his power
to control the elements as far as God allows. It is God who shields
His creatures from the destroyer. But the Christian world has shown
contempt for His law, and the Lord will do what He said He would—
remove His protecting care from those who rebel against His law
and who force others to do the same. Satan has control of everyone whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper
some in order to advance his own plans, and he will bring trouble on
others and lead them to believe that God is the one who is mistreating
them.
While appearing to be a great physician who can heal all their
illnesses, Satan will bring disease and disaster until crowded cities
are reduced to ruin. In accidents by sea and land, in great fires, in
fierce tornadoes and hailstorms, in gales, floods, hurricanes, tidal
waves, and earthquakes, in a thousand forms, Satan is exerting his
power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and misery
follow. He gives the air a deadly taint, and thousands die.
And then the great deceiver will persuade people to blame all
their troubles on those whose obedience to God’s commandments is
a constant rebuke to those who break God’s law. They will say that
these people are offending God by violating Sunday, and that this
sin has brought disasters that will not stop until Sunday observance
is strictly enforced. They will claim that those who destroy reverence
for Sunday are preventing their restoration to God’s favor and
material prosperity. They will repeat the accusation urged long ago
against the servant of God: “When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to
him, ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?’” (1 Kings 18:17, 18, NRSV).
Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be blamed as enemies of
law and order, breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing
lawlessness and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God
on the earth. They will be accused of undermining the government.
Ministers who deny that people need to keep God’s law will preach
about the duty of obeying the civil authorities. In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment-keepers will be condemned. People
will put a false slant on their words and the worst construction on
their motives.
Leaders of church and state will unite to persuade or force everyone
to honor Sunday. Even in free America rulers and legislators
will give in 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 will see the prophet’s words fulfilled: “The dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus
Christ” (Revelation 12:17).
Servants of God, their faces shining with holy devotion, will
hurry from place to place to tell the message from heaven. Miracles
will take place, the sick will be healed. Satan also works with
deceptive miracles, even bringing down fire from heaven (Revelation
13:13). These things will move the inhabitants of the earth to choose
sides.
The message will succeed not so much by argument as by the
deep conviction of the Spirit of God. The arguments have been
presented, publications have exerted their influence, yet Satan has
kept many from fully understanding the truth. Now they see the
truth in its clearness. Family relationships and church connections are powerless to stop the honest children of God now. Regardless
of the forces combined against the truth, a large number take their
stand on the Lord’s side.
People will think that those who honor the law of God are the
cause of the fearful conflict and bloodshed that fill the earth with
misery. The power that accompanies the last warning has enraged
the wicked, and Satan will stir up the spirit of hatred and persecution against all who have received the message.
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Source: Ellen G. White, The Great Hope, pp. 68-70.