CHAPTER 6
The Seven Last Plagues And Trumpets
      —And The Battle Of Armageddon.
The Sounding of the Trumpets
Revelation 8:6-13; 9:11, 14-19.

The Emptying of the Vials
Revelation 15:1, 5-8, and chapter 16.

Satan’s Tactics, and the History of Babylon
Revelation 17.

Jesus Rides Forth
Revelation 19:11-21; 14:19, 20.

Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword:
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Isaiah 1:18-20.

Revelation 8:5, 6; 15:1, 5-8; 16:1.
The Work of Jesus as High Priest is Finished Before the Plagues Begin:
AND THE ANGEL TOOK THE CENSER, AND FILLED IT WITH FIRE OF THE ALTAR, AND CAST IT INTO THE EARTH . . .
      —When probation closes, the censer of intercession is cast into the earth by Jesus Himself—the Angel of the covenant. The great High Priest has made the last entry in the book of life. The accounts are closed! Never again will Jesus stand before His Father
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holding the censer and interceding for lost humanity. The golden censer of intercession is gone forever—and Jesus removes His priestly garments.
AND THE SEVEN ANGELS
      —God’s ministers of vengeance—
WHICH HAD THE SEVEN TRUMPETS
      —or “plagues,” (Revelation 9:20)—
PREPARED THEMSELVES TO SOUND.
      —A plague is to follow after each trumpet sounds.
      —When Jesus “leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth . . . 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 The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn.” GC 614.
      —“With unerring accuracy the Infinite One still keeps an account with all nations. While His mercy is tendered, with calls to repentance, this account will remain open; but when the figures reach a certain amount which God has fixed, the ministry of His wrath commences. The account is closed. Divine patience ceases. There is no more pleading of mercy in their behalf.” 5T 208.
      —“In every age there is given to men their day of light and privilege, a probationary time in which they may become reconciled to God. But there is a limit to this grace. Mercy may plead for years and be slighted and rejected; but there comes a time when mercy makes her last plea.” DA 587.
      —“When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God was about to deliver Israel were similar in character to those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of God’s people.” GC 627, 628.
God Warns Before He Punishes:
      —Listen to God’s warning from the third angel of Revelation 14: “. . . If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb . . .”
      —“God does not send judgments upon His people without first warning them to repent. He uses every means to bring them back to obedience and does not visit their iniquity with judgments until He has given them ample opportunity to repent.” 4T 179.
Every Man Makes His Own Choice:
      —“From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven it has been Satan’s purpose to overthrow the law of God. It was to accomplish this that he entered upon his rebellion against the Creator, and though he was cast out of heaven he has continued the
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same warfare upon the earth. To deceive men, and thus lead them to transgress God’s law, is the object which he has steadfastly pursued . . .
      —“The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering—a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.” GC 582.
      —“The warfare against God’s law, which was begun in heaven, will be continued until the end of time . . . All will be called to choose between the laws of God and the laws of men . . . All will show whether they have chosen the side of loyalty or that of rebellion. . . God gives them existence for a time that they may develop their character and reveal their principles. This accomplished, they receive the results of their own choice. By a life of rebellion, Satan and all who unite with him place themselves so out of harmony with God that His very presence is to them a consuming fire.” DA 763, 764.
      —“They chose to rebel against God’s government, notwithstanding His great mercy and compassion in giving His Son to die for them” EW 221.
God’s Ministry of Wrath is a Strange Act:
      —“To Him the work of destruction and the denunciation of judgment is a ‘strange work.’ Isa. 28:21. But it is in mercy and love that He lifts the veil from the future, and reveals to men the results of a course of sin.” DA 582.
      —“By terrible things in righteousness He will vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law . . . His long forbearance with the wicked emboldens men in transgressions, but their punishment is nonetheless certain and terrible because it is long delayed. ‘The Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act.’ Isaiah 28:21. To our merciful God the act of punishment is a strange act. ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.’ Ezekiel 33:11. The Lord is ‘merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, . . . forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.’ Yet He will ‘by no means clear the guilty.” The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked.’ Exodus 34:6, 7; Nahum 1:3.” GC 627.
      —“Men are prone to abuse the long-suffering of God, and to presume on His forbearance. But there is a point in human iniquity when it is time for God to interfere; and terrible are the issues . . . The long-suffering of God is wonderful, because He puts constraint on His own attributes; but punishment is nonetheless certain. Every century of profligacy has treasured up wrath against the day of wrath; and when the time comes, and the iniquity is full, then God will do His strange work. It will be found a terrible thing to have worn out the divine patience; for the wrath of God will fall
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so signally and strongly that it is represented as being unmixed with mercy; and the very earth will be desolated.” 2SM 372, 373.
      —“All the world will be on one side or the other of the question. The battle of Armageddon will be fought . . .” 7BC 982.
      —This great battle comes during the seventh plague. (7BC 983.) Which side will you be on?
The Seven Angels are Given Seven Golden Vials:
AND I SAW ANOTHER SIGN IN HEAVEN, GREAT AND MARVELOUS, SEVEN ANGELS HAVING THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES; FOR IN THEM IS FILLED UP THE WRATH OF GOD.
      —Let us watch with John as these seven angels step out of the sanctuary one by one.
AND AFTER THAT I LOOKED, AND, BEHOLD, THE TEMPLE OF THE TABERNACLE OF THE TESTIMONY IN HEAVEN WAS OPENED: AND THE SEVEN ANGELS CAME OUT OF THE TEMPLE, HAVING THE SEVEN PLAGUES,
      —They came out of the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, where God’s testimony—His law—is kept inside of the golden ark. See Exodus 31:18; 25:21; Hebrews 8:5; Psalm 19:7, 8.
      —As they filed out of God’s temple, the seven plagues had already been assigned to them, even before they were given the golden vials. See Revelation 15:1, 6, 7.
      —These seven angels are
CLOTHED IN PURE AND WHITE LINEN, AND HAVING THEIR BREASTS GIRDED WITH GOLDEN GIRDLES.
      —They are dressed very similar to Jesus when He appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos. Jesus also had a golden colored band across His chest. See Revelation 1:13.
      —The armies of angels who follow Jesus on white horses, in Revelation 19, also are “clothed in fine linen, white and clean”
      —“The angels are already girded, awaiting the mandate of God to pour their vials of wrath upon the world.” 7BC 983.
AND ONE OF THE FOUR BEASTS
      —God’s shining seraphim—
GAVE UNTO THE SEVEN ANGELS SEVEN GOLDEN VIALS FULL OF THE WRATH OF GOD, WHO LIVETH FOR EVER AND EVER.
      —Picture the solemn ceremony as each angel accepts His golden vial from the hand of the seraphim. This is a sad occasion!
      —(“For the wages of sin is death . . .” Romans 6:23.)
AND THE TEMPLE
      —the heavenly sanctuary
WAS FILLED WITH SMOKE FROM THE GLORY OF GOD, AND FROM HIS POWER.
      —The glory of God destroys sin.
      “In all who submit to His power the Spirit of God will consume sin. But if men cling to sin, they become identified with it. Then the glory of God, which destroys sin, must destroy them.” DA 764.
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      —Smoke, which is a symbol of God’s wrath, (Psalms 18:8), fills the temple with God’s sin-destroying glory and power.
AND NO MAN WAS ABLE TO ENTER INTO THE TEMPLE, TILL THE SEVEN PLAGUES OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WERE FULFILLED. AND I HEARD A GREAT VOICE OUT OF THE TEMPLE SAYING TO THE SEVEN ANGELS
      —Let us listen with John as God’s voice gives the final commission to His seven angel-ministers, who are waiting on the outside—
GO YOUR WAYS.
      —The hour has come for your awful mission of destruction.
      —“The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundry of their probation . . .” GC 614.
The Plagues of the Seven Trumpets and the Seven Golden Vials:
      —John was given a detailed description of this solemn and terrifying hour on two occasions:
          He saw the results that followed when the seven trumpets sounded. Revelation 8, 9, and 11.
          He also saw the effects when the seven vials were emptied. Revelation 16:1.
          Chapters 14, 17, and 19 tell more about the seventh plague.
      —When the first trumpet sounds and the first vial is emptied, plagues are cast upon the earth. Many suffer from sores.
      —After the sounding of the second trumpet and the emptying of the second vial, there are plagues on the sea. One-third of ocean vessels are destroyed.
      —The third trumpet and the third vial affect the rivers and the fountains of waters. Many men die from the bitter waters.
      —As the fourth trumpet sounds and the fourth vial is poured out, there are changes in the sun. Men are killed with great heat.
      —As the fifth trumpet makes its solemn signal, Satan’s destructive power is released, and he and his evil angels are given five months to torment their subjects.
          The pouring out of the fifth vial causes men to gnaw their tongues for pain.
      —At the sixth blast on the trumpet, and after the emptying of the sixth vial,           the great river Euphrates is affected.
          The devil’s kingdom of Babylon, the city on the banks of the Euphrates, begins to dry up, to make way for the Eternal Kings from the east.
          The devil’s angels kill one-third of the earth’s inhabitants.
      —The other two-thirds are slain in the great battle of Armageddon, which takes place under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and the opening of the seventh vial.
          The grand announcement is carried into the air, that God is about to set up His eternal kingdom, and the words sound through the heavens, with triumph, “It is done”
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      —The sounding of the trumpets and the pouring out of the vials are both future events: “Trumpet after trumpet is to be sounded, vial after vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth.” 7BC 982.
The First Plague:
Revelation 8:7; 16:2.
THE FIRST ANGEL SOUNDED,
      —proclaiming God’s judgment on those who have chosen to rebel against His holy law—
AND THERE FOLLOWED HAIL AND FIRE MINGLED WITH BLOOD, AND THEY WERE CAST UPON THE EARTH.
      —The first vial is also poured out” upon the earth.” Revelation 16:2.
      —Centuries ago there was a similar plague in Egypt:
          “And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground. . . So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous . . .” Exodus 9:23, 24.
AND THE THIRD PART OF TREES WAS BURNT UP,
      —Symbolic trees in Scripture refer to people. The “green” trees are the righteous, and the “dry” trees are the wicked. See Luke 23:28-31; Revelation 9:4; Psalms 1:3.
      —(We must follow explicitly the rules for Bible interpretation. The Bible is to be understood literally, except in the case of symbols. And when symbols are employed in Holy Writ, we must look to another place in the Bible for an understanding of the symbol. The Scripture is its “own interpreter.” See GC 320, 521, 341.
      —“. . . The Word of God, as a whole, is a perfect chain, one portion linking into and explaining another.” EW 221.)
AND ALL GREEN GRASS WAS BURNT UP.
      —Symbolic “grass,” in Scripture, is spiritual food, brought to us by the Holy Spirit.
          “Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.” Zechariah 10:1.
      —Wheat— a grass— comes after the showers of God’s Holy Spirit:
          “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat . . .” Joel 2:23, 24.
      —“In the East the former rain falls at the sowing time. It is necessary in order that the seed may germinate. Under the influence of the fertilizing showers, the tender shoot springs up. The latter rain, falling near the close of the season, ripens the grain, and prepares it for the sicker. The Lord employs these operations of nature to represent the work of the Holy Spirit.” TM 506.
      —What does it mean when all green grass is burnt up after the sounding of the first trumpet?
          Spiritual food, offered for centuries to mankind, through the
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Holy Spirit, is no longer available to those who have refused its nourishment.
—God’s Holy Spirit, the Angel of mercy, is withdrawn from the wicked!
      —“The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn.” GC 614.
      —“The world is soon to be left by the Angel of mercy, and the seven last plagues are to be poured out.” TM 182.
      —What did John see when the first angel poured out his vial upon the earth?
AND THE FIRST WENT AND POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE EARTH; AND THERE FELL A NOISOME AND GRIEVOUS SORE
      —painful and incurable—
UPON THE MEN WHICH HAD THE MARK OF THE BEAST, AND UPON THEM WHICH WORSHIPPED HIS IMAGE.
      —“With the issue thus clearly brought before him, whoever shall trample upon God’s law to obey a human enactment receives the mark of the beast; he accepts the sign of allegiance to the power which he chooses to obey instead of God . . . But not one is made to suffer the wrath of God until the truth has been brought home to his mind and conscience, and has been rejected.” GC 604, 605.
The Second Plague:
Revelation 8:8, 9; 16:3.
AND THE SECOND ANGEL SOUNDED
      —on his trumpet, to announce a further judgment—
AND AS IT WERE A GREAT MOUNTAIN BURNING WITH FIRE WAS CAST INTO THE SEA.
      —What are the Bible symbols for mountains, seas, and fire?
      —A symbolic mountain, in Scripture, is a kingdom:
          —“And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings . . .” Revelation 17:9, 10.
          —The “great mountain” in Daniel 2 is a symbol of God’s kingdom—His presence:
              “. . . The stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth . . . And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed . . .” Daniel 2:35, 44.
          —“. . . The mountains were an emblem of the immutable righteousness of Jehovah,” —“silent symbols of Jehovah’s presence.” GC 66.
      —The symbolic seas, in Scripture, are people:
      —“. . . The waters which thou sawest, . . . are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Revelation 17:15.
      —The symbolic fire, in the Bible, consumes sin:
      —“For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire . . .” Deuteronomy 4:24.
      —“To sin, wherever found, ‘our God is a consuming fire.’ Heb. 12:29.
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In all who submit to His power the Spirit of God will consume sin. But if men cling to sin, they become identified with it. Then the glory of God, which destroys sin, must destroy them . . . The prophet Isaiah had declared that the Lord would cleanse His people from their iniquities ‘by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.’ . . . Isa 4:4.” DA 107.
What is the solemn significance of the second plague?
God’s burning presence descends to begin the process of consuming sin:
      —during the seven last plagues
          —for the wicked who have held on to cherished sin;
      —during the time of Jacob’s trouble
          —for the righteous who have permitted God to give them hatred for their earthliness—the promise of Genesis 3:15.
          (“. . . It is needful for them to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected.” GC 621.)
      —God’s consuming fire destroys sin:
          —burning it out of us if we will let Him,
          —or burning it with us, if we won’t let Him.
      —“So it will be in the great final day, when judgment shall fall upon the rejecters of God’s grace. Christ, their rock of offense, will then appear to them as an avenging mountain. The glory of His countenance, which to the righteous is life, will be to the wicked a consuming fire. Because of love rejected, grace despised, the sinner will be destroyed.” DA 600.
      —When that great burning Mountain comes in contact with your life, sometime after the second plague begins, what will it do to you? What will be consumed?
      —Included in the announcement of the second trumpet, is a literal judgment on the waters of the ocean.
AND THE THIRD PART OF THE SEA BECAME BLOOD.
      —In Revelation 16 it is called “the blood of a dead man.”
      —Notice the details of a similar plague in Egypt:
      “Moses smote the waters before Pharaoh and his great men, and they saw the waters which they were adoring turned to blood. It was a putrid mass for seven days, and all the fish that were in it died.” 4SG 55. See Exodus 7:20, 21.
AND THE THIRD PART OF THE CREATURES WHICH WERE IN THE SEA, AND HAD LIFE, DIED:
      —They could not swim or exist in the offensive gelatin-like substance.
AND THE THIRD PART OF THE SHIPS WERE DESTROYED.
      —They were buried in the coagulated mass of putrid ocean water.
      —During the time of the coming tempest, the Lord “will arise to shake terribly the earth . . . Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by millions.” MYP 89.
      —“When this restraining power [of the four angels of Revelation 7] is removed, there will come a time of trouble and anguish. Deadly
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instruments of warfare will be invented. Vessels, with their living cargo, will be entombed in the great deep.” 7BC 967.
AND THE SECOND ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE SEA;
      —in obedience to God’s command—
AND IT BECAME AS THE BLOOD OF A DEAD MAN: AND EVERY LIVING SOUL DIED IN THE SEA.
      —The plagues which follow the sounding of the seven trumpets, and the pouring out of the seven vials, are parallel
      —“These plagues are not universal, or the inhabitants of the earth would be wholly cut off.” GC 628.
The Third Plague:
Revelation 8:10, 11; 16:4-7.
AND THE THIRD ANGEL SOUNDED
      —another note of doom for those who had rejected God’s Son and His Word—
AND THERE FELL A GREAT STAR FROM HEAVEN, BURNING AS IT WERE A LAMP,
      —How are stars and lamps used symbolically in the Scriptures?
      —Stars are angels, or messengers:
          —“. . .The stars are the angels of the seven churches . . .” Revelation 1:20. See AA 586.
          —Satan drew “the third part of the stars of heaven.” Revelation 12:4.
      —The Star that will fall from heaven in the third plague is a great Star. Who is the greatest of all Stars?
          —“. . . I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning Star.” Revelation 22:16; See Exodus 23:20, 23.
          —“. . . Ye do well that ye take heed, . . . until the day dawn, and the day Star arise in your hearts.” 2Peter 1:19.
      —A symbolic lamp, in Scripture, is God’s Word:
          —“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalms 119:105.
          —The burning lamp of Genesis 15:17, 18, is a symbol of the “divine presence.” PP 137.
          —Speaking of the parable of Matthew 25, it says: “All had taken their lamps, the Bible . . .” “By the lamps is represented the word of God.” GC 394; COL 406.
      —Jesus is both the Living Word—and the Light of the world:
          —“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us . . .” John 1:14.
          —“. . . I am the light of the world . . .” John 8:12.
      —What is the solemn significance of the third trumpet?
Jesus, the Living Word, and the Bible, the written Word, are no longer available to those who refused their light.
      —The great Star, and the burning Lamp, go out forever. Those who chose not to walk in their guiding rays will never see them again —even though they may search diligently for them.
      —“In that day, multitudes will desire the shelter of God’s mercy
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which they have so long despised. ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” Amos 8:11, 12. GC 629.
      —The great Star from heaven, burning as a Lamp,
FELL UPON THE THIRD PART OF THE RIVERS, AND UPON THE FOUNTAINS OF WATERS; AND THE THIRD PART OF THE WATERS BECAME WORMWOOD:
      —Wormwood, in Scripture, is bitterness to the disobedient:
          —“And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, neither walked therein; But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.” Jeremiah 9:13-15.
      —When the light of the great morning Star goes out forever, there is bitterness of soul for those who have refused to walk in its light.
      —“. . . As mercy’s sweet voice died away, fear and horror seized the wicked. With terrible distinctness they heard the words, ‘Too late! too late!’. . .
      “The last tear for sinners had been shed, the last agonizing prayer offered, the last burden borne, the last warning given. The sweet voice of mercy was no more to invite them. When the saints, and all heaven, were interested for their salvation, they had no interest for themselves. Life and death had been set before them. Many desired life, but made no effort to obtain it. They did not choose life, and now there was no atoning blood to cleanse the guilty, no compassionate Saviour to plead for them, and cry, ‘Spare, spare the sinner a little longer.’ All heaven had united with Jesus, as they heard the fearful words, ‘It is done. It is finished.’ The plan of salvation had been accomplished, but few had chosen to accept it.” EW 281.
      —“Then I was shown a company who were howling in agony. On their garments was written in large characters, ‘Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting.’ I asked who this company were. The angel said, ‘These are they who have once kept the Sabbath and have given it up.’ I heard them cry with a loud voice, ‘We have believed in Thy coming, and taught it with energy.’ And while they were speaking, their eyes would fall upon their garments and see the writing, and then they would wail aloud. I saw that they had drunk of the deep waters, and fouled the residue with their feet—trodden the Sabbath underfoot—and that was why they were weighed in the balance and found wanting.” EW 37.
      —This “wormwood” experience will be more bitter than the actual taste of the water.
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AND MANY MEN DIED OF THE WATERS, BECAUSE THEY WERE MADE BITTER.
      —After the third plague falls, there will be blood to drink, along the banks of one-third of earths’ rivers and springs. (See Revelation 8:10.) But the bloody water of the rivers is different from that in the oceans. The ocean water will be coagulated, but the waters of the rivers and springs will flow down their channels—and through their pipes—bitter and poison. “Many men” die of the waters.
      —Notice the parallel record of Revelation 16:
AND THE THIRD ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE RIVERS AND FOUNTAINS OF WATERS: AND THEY BECAME BLOOD. AND I HEARD THE ANGEL OF THE WATERS SAY,
      —this angel who has been watching the great controversy raging between Christ and Satan for approximately 6,000 years—
THOU ART RIGHTEOUS, O LORD, WHICH ART, AND WAST, AND SHALT BE, BECAUSE THOU HAST JUDGED THUS. FOR THEY HAVE SHED THE BLOOD OF SAINTS AND PROPHETS, AND THOU HAST GIVEN THEM BLOOD TO DRINK; FOR THEY ARE WORTHY.
      —“Terrible as these inflictions are, God’s justice stands fully vindicated . . . By condemning the people of God to death, they [the wicked] have as truly incurred the guilt of their blood as if it had been shed by their hands.” GC 628.
      —“God has a controversy with the world . . . God will call the world to account for the death of His only-begotten Son, whom to all intents and purposes the world has crucified afresh, and put to open shame in the persecution of His people. The world has rejected Christ in the person of His saints, has refused His messages in the refusal of the messages of prophets, apostles, and messengers. They have rejected those who have been co-laborers with Christ, and for this they will have to render an account.” TM 39.
AND I HEARD ANOTHER OUT OF THE ALTAR SAY, EVEN SO, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ARE THY JUDGMENTS.
      —The punishment of Israel of old “was to be in proportion to their intelligence and to the warnings they had despised.” 4T 165.
      —“The rejecters of His mercy reap that which they have sown. God is the fountain of life; and when one chooses the service of sin, he separates from God, and thus cuts himself off from life . . . They receive the results of their own choice.” DA 764.
The Summary of the First Three Plagues:
      —The First:
God’s Holy Spirit, the Angel of mercy, is withdrawn from the wicked.
      —The Second:
God’s burning presence descends to begin the process of consuming sin.
      —The Third:
Jesus, the living Word, and the Bible, the written Word, are no longer available to those who have refused their light.
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      —The blessings of God, the Father;
          the pleadings of God, the Holy Spirit;
          and the intercessions of God, the Son,
              —are all discontinued for the wicked when the first three trumpets sound.
      —The withering sores on many bodies, and the blood in the oceans, rivers and springs, are physical signs:
          —that Jesus has left the heavenly sanctuary
          —that the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn from the wicked
          —and that God’s presence has come down to begin eliminating sin from the universe. (This will not be completed until after the millennium.)
The Fourth Plague:
      Revelation 8:12; 16:8, 9.
      —The sun hides its face as probation for lost mankind comes to an end, and the wicked face the eternal night which they have chosen.
AND THE FOURTH ANGEL SOUNDED, AND THE THIRD PART OF THE SUN WAS SMITTEN, AND THE THIRD PART OF THE MOON, AND THE THIRD PART OF THE STARS; SO AS THE THIRD PART OF THEM WAS DARKENED, AND THE DAY SHONE NOT FOR A THIRD PART OF IT, AND THE NIGHT LIKEWISE.
      —When Jesus “leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth.” GC 614.
      —Only one-third of the day is dark. Notice what else happens to the sun:
AND THE FOURTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE SUN; AND POWER WAS GIVEN UNTO HIM TO SCORCH MEN WITH FIRE.
      —“In the plague that follows, power is given to the sun ‘to scorch men with fire . . .’ The prophets thus describe the condition of the earth at this fearful time: ‘The land mourneth; . . . because the harvest of the field is perished . . . All the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.’. . . The fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.’ ‘The songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.’ Joel 1:10-12, 17-20; Amos 8:3.” GC 628
AND MEN WERE SCORCHED WITH GREAT HEAT, AND BLASPHEMED THE NAME OF GOD, WHICH HATH POWER OVER THESE PLAGUES:
AND THEY REPENTED NOT TO GIVE HIM GLORY.
      —Blasphemy is “an expression of contempt for the authority of God.” PP 409.
      —As the terrible panorama of the seven last plagues was being shown to John, (so that the human race could choose to avoid them if they would,) there was one thing that made a real impression on John’s mind. Three times he mentions the blasphemy of those who had rebelled against the God of heaven. (See the fourth, the fifth, and
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the seventh plagues.) John, who had felt the power of the love of Jesus in his life, and who had seen the beauty of His holiness, could not keep from crying as he heard the Satanic words of those who had lined up behind the arch-rebel.
      —And now, God gives men an additional warning!
      —John watches as a lone angel flies across the heavens, with a message that should startle all mankind.
AND I BEHELD, AND HEARD AN ANGEL FLYING THROUGH THE MIDST OF HEAVEN, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, WOE, WOE, WOE, TO THE INHABITERS OF THE EARTH BY REASON OF THE OTHER VOICES OF THE TRUMPET OF THE THREE ANGELS, WHICH ARE YET TO SOUND!
      —“When God sends to men warnings so important that they are represented as proclaimed by holy angels flying in the midst of heaven, He requires every person endowed with reasoning powers to heed the message. The fearful judgments denounced against the worship of the beast and his image (Revelation 14:9-11), should lead all to a diligent study of the prophecies to learn what the mark of the beast is, and how they are to avoid receiving it. But the masses of the people turn away their ears from hearing the truth and are turned unto fables . . .
      —“In the prophecies the future is opened before us as plainly as it was opened to the disciples by the words of Christ. The events connected with the close of probation and the work of preparation for the time of trouble, are clearly presented. But multitudes have no more understanding of these important truths than if they had never been revealed. Satan watches to catch away every impression that would make them wise unto salvation, and the time of trouble will find them unready.” GC 594.
      —The seven last plagues are “soon to be poured out upon those who have no shelter . . . Then I realized, as never before, the importance of searching the Word of God carefully, to know how to escape the plagues which that Word declares shall come on all the ungodly who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands. It was a great wonder . . . that any could transgress the law of God and tread down His holy Sabbath, when such awful threatenings and denunciations were against them.” EW 64, 65.
      —There will be nothing to fear, if we heed the warning of the lone angel flying in the midst of heaven, and the warning of the third angel of Revelation 14.
          —“When the strongholds of kings shall be overthrown, when the arrows of God’s wrath shall strike through the hearts of His enemies, His people will be safe in His hands.” 5T 754.
          —“A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with shine eyes shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee,
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neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Psalms 91:7-11.
      —Those who have the seal of God impressed in their foreheads, will not be touched by the plagues.
      —“Our own course of action will determine whether we shall receive the seal of the living God or be cut down by the destroying weapons. Already a few drops of God’s wrath have fallen upon the earth; but when the seven last plagues shall be poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation, then it will be forever too late to repent and find shelter. No atoning blood will then wash away the stains of sin.” 5T 212.
The Time of the First Five Plagues:
      —Without doubt, the first four plagues come on the same day. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit withdraw their offer of mercy at the same time. And when Jesus leaves the sanctuary, the earth is covered with a blanket of darkness, as nature’s sign that probation has closed. This is a part of the fourth plague.
      —The fifth plague also comes when the first four are poured out. As we shall see, from studying the text of the fifth plague, the “angel of the bottomless pit” (Satan) and his two million evil angels, (locusts) are going to have a five-month period to demonstrate the operation of their government. They take over when God withdraws His protection.
      —When Jesus “leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth . . . The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. 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; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then 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 . . . The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere.” GC 614. (Emphasis added.)
      —“The Saviour’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of that chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God’s mercy and trampled upon His law. Dark are the records of human misery that earth has witnessed during its long centuries of
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crime. The heart sickens, and the mind grows faint in contemplation. Terrible have been the results of rejecting the authority of Heaven. But a scene yet darker is presented in the revelations of the future. The records of the past, —the long procession of tumults, conflicts, and revolutions, the ‘battle of the warrior . . . with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood’ (Isaiah 9:5), —what are these, in contrast with the terrors of that day when the restraining Spirit of God shall be wholly withdrawn from the wicked, no longer to hold in check the outburst of human passion and satanic wrath! The world will then behold, as never before, the results of Satan’s rule.” GC 36, 37. (Emphasis added.)
      —God permits Satan to demonstrate his form of government to the universe after the close of probation! And this period of time comes during the fifth plague. Satan has entire control of his family for five months!
      —Look up into the sky and imagine you see that lone angel, as he makes that first cry of woe.
      —Don’t you long to tell everybody to prepare for the coming storm!
      —“This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it.” 7T 141.
The Fifth Plague:
Revelation 9:1-11; 16:10, 11.
AND THE FIFTH ANGEL SOUNDED, AND I SAW A STAR FALL FROM HEAVEN UNTO THE EARTH:
      —The “star” is one of God’s angels.
AND TO HIM WAS GIVEN THE KEY OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT;
      —God is in charge of all the keys. See Revelation 20:1; 1:18.
AND HE OPENED THE BOTTOMLESS PIT;
      —by releasing Satan and his angels.
      —“. . . The expression ‘bottomless pit’ represents the earth in a state of confusion and darkness . . .” GC 658.
AND THERE AROSE A SMOKE OUT OF THE PIT, AS THE SMOKE OF A GREAT FURNACE:
AND THE SUN AND THE AIR WERE DARKENED BY REASON OF THE SMOKE OF THE PIT.
      —Smoke, in Bible symbols, represents wrath.
          —“Then the earth shook and trembled; . . . because He was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured . . .” Psalms 18:7, 8.
      —The sun and the air that were darkened represent Jesus, the “Sun of righteousness,” and the Holy Spirit.
          —“The wind bloweth where it listeth, . . . so is every one that is one of the Spirit.” Malachi 4:2; John 3:8.
      —As the smoke of God’s wrath arises, at the beginning of the fifth plague, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can no longer be seen by the wicked inhabitants of the earth.
AND THERE CAME OUT OF THE SMOKE LOCUSTS UPON THE EARTH.
      —The locusts are a symbol of the devil’s angels.
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      —“And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit . . .” Revelation 9:11. (This angel is “that old serpent, which is the Devil, and, Satan . . .” Revelation 20:1-3.)
AND UNTO THEM WAS GIVEN POWER, AS THE SCORPIONS OF THE EARTH HAVE POWER.
      —releasing them to torment, according to their desires—
          —with only three exceptions.
AND IT WAS COMMANDED THEM
      —by the God of heaven—
          (“. . . All the spirits of evil are subject” to God. AA 287.)
[1.] THAT THEY SHOULD NOT HURT THE GRASS OF THE EARTH, NEITHER ANY GREEN THING, NEITHER ANY TREE.
          —symbols of the righteous, and their spiritual food—(Zechariah 10:1; Psalms 1:2, 3.)
          BUT ONLY THOSE MEN WHICH HAVE NOT THE SEAL OF GOD IN THEIR FOREHEADS.
          —(Precious seal! )
[2.] AND TO THEM
          —the devil’s angels—
IT WAS GIVEN
          —by God Himself—
THAT THEY SHOULD NOT KILL THEM,
          —Those who have the mark of the beast, instead of the seal of God, are to remain alive during the entire time of their torment. It is impossible for them to die!
[3.] BUT THAT THEY SHOULD BE TORMENTED FIVE MONTHS.
          —This time limit is set by God.
          —God tells the devil and his army: You may torment your people for five months, but you cannot kill them. And—keep your hands off of My people who wear My seal!
          —And the watching universe looks on aghast at the way the devil treats his subjects!
AND THEIR TORMENT WAS AS THE TORMENT OF A SCORPION, WHEN HE STRIKETH A MAN.
      —They gnaw their tongues for pain. Revelation 16:10.
AND IN THOSE DAYS SHALL MEN SEEK DEATH, AND SHALL NOT FIND IT;
      —God’s command is holding, while Satan has time to demonstrate his form of government to the universe.
AND SHALL DESIRE TO DIE, AND DEATH SHALL FLEE FROM THEM.
      —“. . . Satan had entire control of the finally impenitent.” EW 280. They longed for death, to free them from their demon-tormenters.
      —“The world will then behold, as never before, the results of Satan’s rule.” GC 37.
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      —Now John, under inspiration, gives us a description of the devil’s angels.
AND THE SHAPES OF THE LOCUSTS WERE LIKE UNTO HORSES PREPARED UNTO BATTLE.
      —Verse 17 says: “And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them.”
      —(The righteous General, Jesus, and His army of angels also ride horses in the great battle of Revelation 19.)
AND ON THEIR HEADS WERE AS IT WERE CROWNS LIKE GOLD,
AND THEIR FACES WERE AS THE FACES OF MEN.
AND THEY HAD HAIR AS THE HAIR OF WOMEN,
AND THEIR TEETH WERE AS THE TEETH OF LIONS.
AND THEY HAD BREASTPLATES,
      AS IT WERE BREASTPLATES OF IRON.
AND THE SOUND OF THEIR WINGS WAS AS THE SOUND OF CHARIOTS OF MANY HORSES RUNNING TO BATTLE.
      —“There is heard the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons upon a mission of destruction.” GC 637.
AND THEY HAD TAILS LIKE UNTO SCORPIONS, AND THERE WERE STINGS IN THEIR TAILS.
      —Satan’s “tail” drew a third part of the “stars” (angels) of heaven. Revelation 12:4.
AND THEIR POWER WAS TO HURT MEN FIVE MONTHS.
      —Again God’s orders to the devil’s angels are defined —and limited.
AND THEY
      —the locusts, or evil angels—
HAD A KING OVER THEM, WHICH IS THE ANGEL OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT.
      —the originator and instigator of sin—
WHOSE NAME IN THE HEBREW TONGUE IS ABANDON, BUT IN THE GREEK TONGUE HATH HIS NAME APOLLYON.
      —“that is to say, a destroyer.” (Margin of Revelation 9:11.)
      —“Fearful is the condition of those who resist the divine claims and yield to Satan’s temptations, until God gives them up to the control of evil spirits. . . If permitted, they can distract our minds, disorder and torment our bodies, destroy our possessions and our lives. Their only delight is in misery and destruction.” GC 517.
      —During the fifth plague, it will be exhibited before the world just how Satan treats those who have been led into sin by his devices and snares. And, —as Satan’s administration is in full sway, unfallen worlds watch, too. It will be seen by all that Satan’s “wages” include misery, as well as eternal death. (Romans 6:23.)
      —Satan is a hard taskmaster! He deals harshly with those who choose to follow him.
AND THE FIFTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE SEAT OF THE BEAST;
AND HIS KINGDOM WAS FULL OF DARKNESS;
      —The devil’s subjects have deep, spiritual blackness!
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AND THEY
      —who had disregarded God’s sacred law—
GNAWED THEIR TONGUES FOR PAIN.
      —Their torment was “as the torment of a scorpion,” inflicted by the devil’s angels. Revelation 9:5.
AND BLASPHEMED THE GOD OF HEAVEN BECAUSE OF THEIR PAINS AND THEIR SORES,
AND REPENTED NOT OF THEIR DEEDS.
      —They continued in their defiance of heaven, in spite of their misery.
      —“But in the midst of the time of trouble that is coming, —a time of trouble such as has not been since there was a nation, —God’s chosen people will stand unmoved. Satan and his host cannot destroy them, for angels that excel in strength will protect them.” 9T 17.
The Sixth Plague:
Revelation 9:12-21; 16:12-16.
ONE WOE IS PAST;
      —after five long months of excruciating pain and torment—
AND, BEHOLD, THERE COME TWO WOES MORE HEREAFTER.
      —The sixth plague is different from the first five; it cannot come until the fifth plague is “past.”
      —This plague is more merciful— it includes death to one-third of the sufferers.
AND THE SIXTH ANGEL SOUNDED,
      —five months after the beginning of the plagues—
AND I
      —John—
HEARD A VOICE FROM THE FOUR HORNS OF THE GOLDEN ALTAR WHICH IS BEFORE GOD,
      —the altar of incense in the holy place, which is before the open door to God’s throne
SAYING TO THE SIXTH ANGEL WHICH HAD THE TRUMPET,
      —an additional command, after he had already sounded—
LOOSE THE FOUR ANGELS WHICH ARE BOUND IN THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES.
      —God’s angel releases four of Satan’s angels, giving them divine permission to lead out in the slaying of “the third part of men.” Revelation 9:15.
      —These four malicious generals had been bound in the great river Euphrates. Where is this river?
          The Euphrates runs through the Mesopotamian valley—and on its banks lies the ancient city of Babylon, where the tower of Babel was built. This city was founded soon after the flood. For what purpose was it founded?
      —“. . . As Noah’s descendants increased in numbers, apostasy manifested itself. Those who desired to cast off the restraint of God’s law decided to separate from the worshipers of Jehovah. They determined to keep their community united in one body and to found a monarchy which should eventually embrace the whole
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earth . . . Accordingly they journeyed to the plain of Shinar, on the banks of the river Euphrates . . . This confederacy was born of rebellion against God.” 8T 213; PP 118; 8T 213.
      —Who is the king of Babylon—this proud city on the banks of the Euphrates?
          “. . . Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! . . . How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” Isaiah 14:4-12.
      —Who is spiritual Babylon—the devil’s city?
          “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, . . . having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH . . . And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:4, 5, 18.
      —“The term ‘Babylon’ is derived from ‘Babel,’ and signifies confusion. It is employed in Scripture to designate the various forms of false or apostate religion. In Revelation 17 Babylon is represented as a woman—a figure which is used in the Bible as the symbol of a church, a virtuous woman representing a pure church, a vile woman an apostate church.” GC 381.
      —When God gives the order to release the four angels which are bound in the devil’s kingdom, what happens?
AND THE FOUR ANGELS WERE LOOSED, WHICH WERE PREPARED FOR
—(the margin says “at”)—
AN HOUR, AND A DAY, AND A MONTH, AND A YEAR,
      —(There is a specific “hour” for them to be unloosed—and that hour is five months after the plagues begin—five months after Jesus leaves His place of intercession in the heavenly sanctuary.)
FOR TO SLAY THE THIRD PART OF MEN.
      —God again sets the bounds for Satan and his brutal demons.
      —This is the moment that the cruel hordes of the devil’s angels have been eagerly looking forward to. They delight in killing!
      —(A young musician, who left the ranks of the devil’s followers to become a Christian, tells of a popular song entitled “Revolution No. 9.” In this song of wierd sounds the word “Revolution” is repeated fifteen times. Then, in amazement, this young Christian read Revelation 9:15, which tells of the devil’s army being loosed to kill one-third of earth’s inhabitants.
      —Imagine the devil’s gleeful delight as he listens to his people singing his song—little aware that they are singing about the hour when their master and his evil angels will have divine permission to kill one-third of them! They would turn in horror if they knew what they were singing about, and could envision that terrible day as John saw it in vision.)
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AND THE NUMBER OF THE ARMY OF THE HORSEMEN
      —the devil’s angels—
WERE TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND THOUSAND:
      —two hundred million—
AND I HEARD THE NUMBER OF THEM.
      —John did not guess or estimate. God told him the exact number.
      —This is the largest army ever marshaled to kill a specific amount of people.
      —And the permission to kill one-third of the earth’s population, comes “from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.” Revelation 9:13.
AND THUS I SAW THE HORSES IN THE VISION, AND THEM THAT SAT ON THEM,
      —those disloyal traitors to their followers!
HAVING BREASTPLATES OF FIRE, AND OF JACINTH, AND BRIMSTONE: AND THE HEADS OF THE HORSES WERE AS THE HEADS OF LIONS;
      —Even the horses, pictured with the evil angels, looked fierce to John.
AND OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS ISSUED FIRE, AND SMOKE AND BRIMSTONE.
      —These are the demons’ weapons.
BY THESE THREE WAS THE THIRD PART OF MEN KILLED, BY THE FIRE, AND BY THE SMOKE, AND BY THE BRIMSTONE, WHICH ISSUED OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS.
      —One-third of the inhabitants are cut down by these ferocious hordes.
FOR THEIR POWER IS IN THEIR MOUTH, AND IN THEIR TAILS: FOR THEIR TAILS WERE LIKE UNTO SERPENTS, AND HAD HEADS, AND WITH THEM THEY DO HURT.
      —The stings of the tails, which had been tormenting under the fifth plague, are now poisonous to one-third of the population during the sixth plague. This is the figure set by God.
AND THE REST OF THE MEN WHICH WERE NOT KILLED BY THESE PLAGUES
      —(Here the sounding of the trumpets are referred to as “plagues” by Inspiration.)
YET REPENTED NOT OF THE WORKS OF THEIR HANDS,
      —They idolized their own works—their chosen life-style.
THAT THEY SHOULD NOT WORSHIP DEVILS,
      —the very ‘locusts” who were tormenting—and killing—them.
AND IDOLS OF GOLD, AND SILVER, AND BRASS, AND STONE, AND OF WOOD: WHICH NEITHER CAN SEE, NOR HEAR, NOR WALK:
      —Many things (idols) came between them and their great Creator.
NEITHER REPENTED THEY OF THEIR MURDERS, NOR OF THEIR SORCERIES, NOR OF THEIR FORNICATION, NOR OF THEIR THEFTS.
      —They patterned their lives after the devil’s own characteristics, and are hardened in rebellion still. These unrepentant followers of Satan are caught in a trap from which it is then impossible to escape.
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—These unfortunate two-thirds are to face the seventh plague as well as the previous ones. Perhaps they are some of those who have been most rebellious against God and His law.
AND THE SIXTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES;
      —where the city of Babylon lies —the devil’s worldwide kingdom—
AND THE WATER THEREOF WAS DRIED UP.
      —The false kingdom is to be consumed to make way for the true!
THAT THE WAY OF THE KINGS OF THE EAST MIGHT BE PREPARED.
      —From the east, or sun-rising, come the three Eternal Kings, who are to bring in the everlasting kingdom.
Jesus, King of kings:
      —“Who raised up the righteous Man from the east, called Him to His foot, gave the nations before Him, and made Him rule over kings? . . .” Isaiah 41:2. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about half the size of a man’s hand . . . The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man . . . As the living cloud comes still nearer, every eye beholds the Prince of life . . . His countenance outshines the dazzling brightness of the noonday sun. ‘And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.’ Revelation 19:16.” GC 640, 641.
The Father, King of Hosts:
      —“. . . Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64.
      —“He, the Lord of life and glory, would be seated at God’s right hand.” DA 708.
      —“When the sound of the last trump shall penetrate the prison house of the dead, and the righteous shall come forth with triumph, . . . (1Corinthians 15:55) —standing then with God, with Christ, with the angels, and with the loyal and true of all ages, the children of God will be far in the majority.” AA 590.
      —“. . . Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah 6:5.
The Holy Spirit, King of Salem:
      —“For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, . . . first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a Priest continually.” Hebrews 7:1-3. Study Hebrews 6:20, 7.
      —“Melchizedek was not Christ, but He was the voice of God in the world, the representative of the Father.” 1SM 409.
      —Who is the representative of the Father?
      —“From the beginning, God has been working by His Holy Spirit through human instrumentalities for the accomplishment of His purpose in behalf of the fallen race.” AA 53. See John 15:26.
      —Melchisedek not only represented the Father; He represented Jesus, too.
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      —“God has never left Himself without witness on the earth. At one time Melchisedek represented the Lord Jesus Christ in person, to reveal the truth of heaven, and perpetuate the law of God.” 1BC 1092, 1093.
      —The Holy Spirit, King of Salem, is King of His people —Jerusalem!
      —Jerusalem, where the King of Salem dwells, is the symbol of God’s church on earth. Isaiah 52:1; Revelation 3:12.
      —The King of Salem is also the King of peace. (Hebrews 7:2.) He is the mighty Comforter, “which proceedeth from the Father.” (John 15:26.)
      —The King of Salem brings eternal peace to His people Jerusalem—when the Kings of the east come to establish the everlasting kingdom.
      —The Kings of the east do not come in the sixth plague. The waters of the Euphrates, which symbolize the devil’s kingdom, begin to dry up under the sixth plague, to prepare the way for the great Kings to set up Their kingdom at the end of the seventh plague. See Daniel 2:44.
      —As John is watching, in vision, the final moves of those in the rebel camp, he sees increased activity.
AND I SAW THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS LIKE FROGS
      —which are the spirits of devils, Revelation 16:14,
COME OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE DRAGON,
      —who sponsors spiritualism, through the agency of the evil angels— (See GC 558-562.)
AND OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE BEAST,
      —who sponsors false doctrines, through the agency of the papacy—(See GC 588-592.)
AND OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE FALSE PROPHET.
      —who sponsors the image to the beast through the agency of apostate protestantism. (See GC 445-450.)
FOR THEY
      —the three unclean spirits, coming out of the mouths of the dragon, and the beast, and the false prophet—
ARE THE SPIRITS OF DEVILS
      —Satan himself is behind all three
WORKING MIRACLES
      —to deceive their followers
WHICH GO FORTH UNTO THE KINGS OF THE EARTH AND OF THE WHOLE WORLD
      —every nation on earth will be included—
TO GATHER THEM TO THE BATTLE OF THAT GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY.
      —“Satan is to make most powerful efforts for the mastery in the last great conflict. Fundamental principles will be brought out, and decisions made in regard to them . . . Satan is also mustering his forces of evil, going forth ‘unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world,’ to gather them under his banner, to be trained for ‘the battle of that great day of God Almighty.’” 7BC 983.
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      —“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, to fasten them in deception, and urge them to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government of heaven.” GC 624.
      —Satan is even now preparing for the sixth-plague events. How are his efforts described?
          “Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world . . . Little by little he has prepared the way for his masterpiece of deception in the development of spiritualism. He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the prophet: ‘I saw three unclean spirits like frogs; . . . they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Revelation 16:13, 14. Except those who are kept by the power of God, through faith in His word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion. The people are fast being lulled to a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God.
      —“Saith the Lord God: ‘Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.’ Isaiah 28:17, 18.” GC 561, 562.
      —We have been studying the devil’s tactics during the fifth and sixth plagues. He knows that his time is very short, and he puts on the last frenzied attempt to strike at God by torturing the people who were originally made in His image. That death-struggle is to be made during the plagues. But what about now, while probation is still open to the fallen race —while Jesus is still interceding for sinners?
The Devil’s Tactics Today:
      —“There is nothing that the great deceiver fears so much as that we shall become acquainted with his devices.” GC 516.
      —“I was shown Satan as he once was, a happy, exalted angel. Then I was shown him as he now is. He still bees a kingly form. His features are still noble, for he is an angel fallen. But the expression of his countenance is full of anxiety, care, unhappiness, malice, hate, mischief, deceit, and every evil. That brow which was once so noble, I particularly noticed. His forehead commenced from his eyes to recede. I saw that he had so long bent himself to evil that every good quality was debased, and every evil trait was developed. His eyes were cunning, sly, and showed great penetration. His frame was large, but the flesh hung loosely about his hands and face. As I beheld him, his chin was resting upon his left hand.
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He appeared to be in deep thought. A smile was upon his countenance, which made me tremble, it was so full of evil and satanic slyness. This smile is the one he wears just before he makes sure of his victim, and as he fastens the victim in his snare, this smile grows horrible.” EW 152, 153.
      —“Satan does all he can to keep souls from Christ. He was once an honored angel in heaven, and although he has lost his holiness, he has not lost his power. He exerts his power with terrible effect. He does not wait for his prey to come to him. He hunts for it. He goes to and fro in the earth like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He does not always wear the ferocious look of the lion, but when he can work to better effect he transforms himself into an angel of light. He can readily exchange the roar of the lion for the most persuasive arguments or for the softest whisper. He has legions of angels to aid him in his work. He often conceals his snares, and allures by pleasing deception. He charms and deludes many by flattering their vanity. Through his agents he presents the pleasures of the world in an attractive light, and strews the path to hell with tempting flowers, and thus souls are charmed and ruined. After every advance step in the downward road, Satan has some special temptation to lead them still further on the wrong track.” 2T 287. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Satan well knows that all whom he can lead to neglect prayer and the searching of the Scriptures, will be overcome by his attacks. Therefore he invents every possible device to engross the mind.” GC 519. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Satan assigns to each of his angels a part to act. He enjoins upon them all to be sly, artful, cunning . . .
          “. . . Satan delights to throw professed Christians and all the world into uncertainty about the Word of God. That holy Book cuts directly across his track and thwarts his plans; therefore he leads men to doubt the divine origin of the Bible.” EW 264.
      —“The Book that is to judge him and his followers he puts in the shade, just where he wants it; the Saviour of the world he makes to be no more than a common man . . . If men reject the testimony of the inspired Scriptures concerning the deity of Christ, it is in vain to argue the point with them; for no argument, however conclusive, could convince them.” GC 557, 524.
      —“Satan is well aware that the weakest soul who abides in Christ is more than a match for the hosts of darkness, and that, should he reveal himself openly, he would be met and resisted. Therefore he seeks to draw away the soldiers of the cross from their strong fortification, while he lies in ambush with his forces, ready to destroy all who venture upon his ground. Only in humble reliance upon God, and obedience to all His commandments, can we be secure.
      —“No man is safe for a day or an hour without prayer. Especially should we entreat the Lord for wisdom to understand His word. Here are revealed the wiles of the tempter and the means by which he may be successfully resisted.” GC 530. (Emphasis added.)
      —“When we see men firm in principle, fearless in duty, zealous in the
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cause of God, yet humble and lowly, gentle and tender, patient toward all, ready to forgive, manifesting love for souls for whom Christ died, we do not need to inquire: Are they Christians? They give unmistakable evidence that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him. When men reveal the opposite traits, when they are proud, vain, frivolous, worldly-minded, avaricious, unkind, censorious, we need not be told with whom they are associating, who is their most intimate friend. They may not believe in witchcraft; but, notwithstanding this, they are holding communion with an evil spirit.” 5T 224, 225. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols, and heed the counsel of the True Witness. If they will not be purified through obeying the truth, and overcome their selfishness, their pride and evil passions, the angels of God have their charge, ‘They are joined to their idols, let them alone,’ and they pass on to their work, leaving them with their evil traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels.” 2SG 226. (Emphasis added.)
      —“I was shown the pride of the nominal churches. God is not in their thoughts; their carnal minds dwell upon themselves; they decorate their poor mortal bodies, and then look upon themselves with satisfaction and pleasure. Jesus and the angels look upon them in anger. Said the angel, ‘Their sins and pride have reached unto heaven . . .’ An innumerable host of evil angels are spreading over the whole land and crowding the churches. These agents of Satan look upon the religious bodies with exultation, for the cloak of religion covers the greatest crime and iniquity.” EW 274, 275.
      —“Behind the liquor-seller stands the mighty destroyer of souls, and every art which earth or hell can devise is employed—to draw human beings under his power . . . Like the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse, he is dealing in ‘slaves and souls of men.’ . . . Nothing is left undone to create and to foster the desire for intoxicants. On almost every corner stands the public house, with its brilliant lights, its welcome and good cheer, inviting the working man, the wealthy idler, and the unsuspecting youth. MH 338. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Indulgence in intoxicating liquor places a man wholly under the control of the demon who devised this stimulant in order to deface and destroy the moral image of God.” Te 32. (Emphasis added.)
      —“. . .While paralyzed by the indulgence of appetite, Satan controls the mind, and leads to every species of crime and wickedness.” Te 59.
      —(“Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken . . .” Habakkuk 2:15.)
      —“There is little enmity against Satan and his works, because there is so great ignorance concerning his power and malice, and the vast extent of his warfare against Christ and His church. Multitudes are deluded here. They do not know that their enemy is a mighty general who controls the minds of evil angels, and with well-matured plans and skillful movements he is warring against Christ to prevent the salvation of souls . . .
      —“While men are ignorant of his devices, this vigilant foe is upon their
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track every moment. He is intruding his presence in every department of the household, in every street of our cities, in the churches, in the national councils, in the courts of justice, perplexing, deceiving seducing, everywhere ruining the souls and bodies of men, women and children, breaking up families, sowing hatred, emulation, strife sedition, murder . . .
      —“All who are not decided followers of Christ are servants of Satan. the unregenerate heart there is love of sin and a disposition to cherist and excuse it. In the renewed heart there is hatred of sin and determined resistance against it. [This is the promise of Genesis 3:15!] When Christians choose the society of the ungodly and unbelieving, they expose themselves to temptation. Satan conceals himself from view and stealthily draws his deceptive covering over their eyes . . . Familiarity with sin will inevitably cause it to appear less repulsive. He who chooses to associate with the servants of Satan will soon cease to fear their master. When in the way of duty we are brought into trial, as was Daniel in the king’s court, we may be sure that God will protect us; but if we place ourselves under temptation we shall fall sooner or later.” GC 508, 509. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Satan is Christ’s personal enemy. He is the originator and leader of every species of rebellion in heaven and earth. His rage increases; we do not realize his power. If our eyes could be opened to discern the fallen angels at work with those who feel at ease and consider themselves safe, we would not feel 60 secure. Evil angels are upon our track every moment.” 1T 302.
      —“Unless we control our words and temper, we are slaves to Satan. We are in subjection to him. He leads us captive. All jangling and unpleasant, impatient fretful words are an offering presented to his satanic majesty.” 1T 310. (Emphasis added.)
      —“All who indulge sinful traits of character, or willfully cherish a known sin, are inviting the temptations of Satan. They separate themselves from God and from the watchcare of His angels; as the evil one presents his deceptions, they are without defense and fall an easy prey. Those who thus place themselves in his power little realize where their course will end.” GC 558, 569. (Emphasis added.)
      —“There are few who have any just conception of the deceptive power of spiritualism and the danger of coming under its influence. Many tamper with it merely to gratify their curiosity. They have no real faith in it and would be filled with horror at the thought of yielding themselves to the spirits’ control. But they venture upon the forbidden ground, and the mighty destroyer exercises his power upon them against their will. Let them once be induced to submit their minds to his direction, and he holds them captive. It is impossible, in their own strength, to break away from the bewitching, alluring spell. Nothing but the power of god, granted in answer to the earnest prayer of faith, can deliver these ensnared souls.” GC 558.
      —“Marvelous beyond expression is the blindness of the people of this generation. Thousands reject the word of God as unworthy of belief and with eager confidence receive the deceptions of Satan.” GC 561.
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Battle Between the Good and Evil Angels—Over Even One Soul!
      —“The battle waging between the two armies are as real as those fought by the armies of this world, and on the issue of the spiritual conflict eternal destinies depend.” PK 176.
      —“Satan will call to his aid legions of his angels to oppose the advance of even one soul, and, if possible, wrest it from the hand of Christ.
      —“I saw evil angels contending for souls, and angels of God resisting them. The conflict was severe. Evil angels were corrupting the atmosphere with their poisonous influence, and crowding about these souls to stupefy their sensibilities Holy angels were anxiously watching and waiting to drive back Satan’s host But it is not the work of good angels to control the minds of men against their will. If they yield to the enemy, and make no effort to resist him, then the angels of God can do but little more than hold in check the host of Satan, that they shall not destroy, until further light be given to those in peril, to move them to arouse and look to heaven for help. Jesus will not commission holy angels to extricate those who make no effort to help themselves.
      —“If Satan sees that he is in danger of losing one soul, he will exert himself to the utmost to keep that one. And when the individual is aroused to his danger, and, with distress and fervor, looks to Jesus for strength, Satan fears that he will lose a captive, and he calls a reinforcement of his angels to hedge in the poor soul, and form a wall of darkness around him, that heaven’s light may not reach him. But if the one in danger perseveres, and in his helplessness casts himself upon the merits of the blood of Christ, our Saviour listens to the earnest prayer of faith, and sends a reinforcement of those angels that excel in strength to deliver him. Satan cannot endure to have his powerful rival appealed to, for he fears and trembles before His strength and majesty. At the sound of fervent prayer, Satan’s whole host trembles. He continues to call legions of evil angels to accomplish his object. And when angels, all-powerful, clothed with the armory of heaven, come to the help of the fainting, pursued soul, Satan and his host fall back, well knowing that their battle is lost.” (Praise God!) 1T 345, 346. (Emphasis added.)
      —“I have been shown that Satan has not been stupid and careless these many years, since his fall, but has been learning. He has grown more artful. His plans are laid deeper, and are more covered with a religious garment to hide their deformity. The power of Satan now to tempt and deceive is tenfold greater than it was in the days of the apostles. His power has increased, and it will increase, until it is taken away. His wrath and hate grow stronger as his time to work draws near its close.
      —“God knows how Satan is working, and sends His angels to watch over His children, to protect them from the Devil’s power. The battle is constantly going on between the angels of God, and the Devil’s angels. The angels of God are clothed with a complete armor, the panoply of heaven, and, although surrounded with deadly foes, fear nothing, for they are doing the will of their loved Commander.
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They enter the darkest places to rescue the children of God from the snares of Satan, and their presence causes the evil angels to fall back. And as the evil angels are defeated, they utter terrible imprecations against the injustice of God, and against His angels.
      —“I saw that the angels of God are not to force or bend the will of the individual they watch over. They are to gently chide, warn and guard. Satan can never force back these holy angels from their charge. None can do this but the individuals that they are watching over. If these individuals continue to grieve these tender, holy angels; if they go astray from their counsel and warnings, and choose an independent course of their own, they will drive these angels from them. If the will is submitted to them, they will bend it in the heavenly channel, and they will ever be on the watch for their interests, leading them from a thousand dangers, preventing their lives being taken by Satan, and, if they are inclined to go a wrong course, stand in the path before them to prevent their ruin.
      —“But if individuals continue to retain their own will, choose their own course, and have their own way, the angels leave them in sadness. Then Satan comes in to control the will, and bend the mind, and smiles in hellish triumph at his success.” 2SG 277, 278. (Emphasis added.)
      —“I was shown that Satan cannot control minds unless they are yielded to his control. Those who depart from the right are in serious danger now. They separate themselves from God and from the watchcare of His angels, and Satan, ever upon the watch to destroy souls, begins to present to them his deceptions. Such are in utmost peril; and if they see and try to resist the powers of darkness and to free themselves from Satan’s snare, it is not an easy matter. They have ventured on Satan’s ground, and he claims them. He will not hesitate to engage all his energies and call to his aid all his evil host to wrest a single human being from the hand of Christ Those who have tempted the devil to tempt them will have to make desperate efforts to free themselves from his power. But when they begin to work for themselves, then angels of God whom they have grieved will come to their rescue. Satan and his angels are unwilling to lose their prey. They contend and battle with the holy angels, and the conflict is severe. But if those who have erred continue to plead, and in deep humility confess their wrongs, angels who excel in strength will prevail and wrench them from the power of the evil angels.” 1T 301. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Satan is constantly at work, but few have any idea of his activity and subtlety. The people of God must be prepared to withstand the wily foe. It is this resistance that Satan dreads. He knows better than we do the limit of his power and how easily he can be overcome if we resist and face him. Through divine strength the weakest saint is more than a match for him and all his angels, and if brought to the test he would be able to prove his superior power. Therefore Satan’s step is noiseless, his movements stealthy, and his batteries masked. He does not venture to show himself openly, lest he arouse the Christian’s dormant energies and send him to God in prayer.” 5T 293, 294. (Emphasis added.)
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      —“Could our spiritual vision be quickened, we should see souls bowed under oppression and burdened with grief, pressed as a cart beneath sheaves, and ready to die in discouragement. We should see angels flying quickly to the aid of these tempted ones, forcing back the hosts of evil that encompass them, and placing their feet on the sure foundation.” PK 176.
      —“Could our eyes be opened, we should see forms of evil angels around us, trying to invent some new way to annoy and destroy us. And we should also see angels of God guarding us from their power; for God’s watchful eye is ever over Israel for good, and He will protect and save His people, if they put their trust in Him. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. [Isaiah 59:19.] Said the angel, ‘Remember, thou art on the enchanted ground.’” EW 60. (Emphasis added.)
      —“If the curtain could be rolled back, and each one could discern the constant activities of the heavenly family to preserve the inhabitants of the earth from Satan’s seductive wiles, lest in their careless attitude they should be led astray through satanic strategy, they would lose a large degree of their self-confidence and self-assurance. They would see that the armies of heaven are in continual warfare with satanic agencies, to obtain victories in behalf of those who do not sense their danger, and who are passing on in unconscious indifference . . .
      —“I want you to consider what kind of a position we should be left in if we had not the ministry of holy angels . . . We meet the opposition of men, but there is someone behind that opposition. It is the prince of the powers of darkness with his evil angels that are constantly at work, and we want to consider, all of us, that our warfare is ‘against . . . the rulers of the darkness of this world.’ . . .
      —“But though the principalities and powers of darkness are both many in number and unceasing in activity, yet the Christian should never feel hopeless or discouraged. He may not hope to escape temptation through any lack of satanic efficiency. He who sent a legion to torture one human being cannot be repulsed by human wisdom or power alone. . .
      —“If we have on the heavenly armor, we shall find that the assaults of the enemy will not have power over us. Angels of God will be round about us to protect us. 6BC 1120, 1119. (Emphasis added.)
      —“There is power and strength with the angels of God, and I pleaded that I might be shielded. Then our past life was presented before me, and I was shown that Satan had sought in various ways to destroy our usefulness; that many times he had laid his plans to remove us from the work of God; he had come in different ways, and through different agencies to accomplish his purposes; but through the ministration of holy angels he had been defeated. I saw that in our journeying from place to place, he had frequently placed his evil angels in our path to cause accident which would destroy our lives; but holy angels were sent upon the ground to deliver.” 1T 346, 347.
      —“The wicked one cannot break through the guard which God has stationed about His people.” GC 517.
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Precious Promises to Praying Parents—and Others:
      —“Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, [Satan] or the lawful captive [“captivity of the just,” margin,] delivered? But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” Isaiah 49:24, 25. (Emphasis added.)
      —(In order for parents—or any one else—to be “just,” they must let God put enmity in their hearts against sin, so they may be clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Genesis 3:15; 1SM 360.)
      —“Children who have not experienced the cleansing power of Jesus are the lawful prey of the enemy, and the evil angels have easy access to them . . . By the faithful and untiring efforts of the parents, and the blessing and grace bestowed upon the children in response to the prayers of the parents, the power of the evil angels may be broken, and a sanctifying influence shed upon the children. Thus the powers of darkness will be driven back.” CT 118. (Emphasis added.)
      —“For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid Me, and was wroth, and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners . . . Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.” Isaiah 57:16-19.
      —“For He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.” Psalm 102:19, 20. (Emphasis added.)
      —“As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee.” Zechariah 9:11:12.
      —“Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and shine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in shine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.” Jeremiah 31:16, 17.
Here are two promises for grandparents —and grandchildren—too!
          —“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.” Isaiah 59:20, 21. See verse 19 also.
          —“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded
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us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him . . . The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them.” Psalm 103:8-18.
      —“And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” Isaiah 55:13.
      —“And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places . . .” Isaiah 58:12. Read verses 6-11 also.
      —“When you take up the cross, and follow Christ, when you bring your lives into conformity to the will of God, your children will be converted . . . In word and deed they will bear witness to the power of Christ’s grace. ‘ RH July 15, 1902. (Emphasis added.)
      —“If parents would see a different state of things in their family, let them consecrate themselves wholly to God, and the Lord will devise ways and means whereby a transformation may take place m their households.” SD 32. (Emphasis added.)
      —“In answer to fervent prayer, God can turn the thoughts and hearts of men as He turns the waters of the sea.” RH Dec. 30, 1902. \
      —Fervent prayer, from one who holds no cherished sin, will untie God’s hands, and makes it possible for Him to do what He is eager and longing to do. He loves these bound captives of Satan infinitely more than we do. But God is fair with Satan. When one deliberately chooses to be under Satan’s banner—and no one prays—God can only entreat and woo with love, while protecting him from Satan’s destruction. In that instance, the final decision lies with the individual. But when someone intercedes for a prisoner of Satan’s, with a fervent, sincere heart, and fulfills the conditions of answered prayer, God is free to begin releasing the captive. No power in earth or hell can keep the captive chained! God’s promises are certain! —as certain as is His throne.
      —However, if the conditions for answered prayer are not fulfilled, Satan is on hand to remind God.
Conditions of Answered Prayer:
      —“There are conditions to the fulfillment of God’s promises, and prayer can never take the place of duty. ‘If ye love Me,’ Christ says, ‘keep My commandments.’ . . .
      —“The promise is, ‘If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’ [John 15:7.]
      —“One of Christ’s last commands to His disciples was, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ [John 13:34.] Do we obey this command, or are we indulging sharp, unchristlike traits of character? If we have in any way grieved or wounded others, it is our duty to confess our fault, and seek for reconciliation. This is an essential preparation that we may come before God in faith, to ask His blessing.
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      —“There is another matter too often neglected by those who seek the Lord in prayer. Have you been honest with God? By the prophet Malachi the Lord declares, ‘. . . Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings.’ . . . If we are unfaithful stewards of earthly things, how can we expect Him to entrust us with the things of heaven? It may be that here is the secret of unanswered prayer . . .
      —“So it is with every other one of God’s requirements. All His gifts are promised on condition of obedience. God has a heaven full of blessings for those who will cooperate with Him. All who obey Him may with confidence claim the fulfilment of His promises.
      —“But we must show a firm, undeviating trust in God. Often He delays to answer us, in order to try our faith or test the genuineness of our desire. Having asked according to His word, we should believe His promise, and press our petitions with a determination that will not be denied.
      —“God does not say, Ask once, and you will receive. He bids us ask. Unwearyingly persist in prayer. The persistent asking brings the petitioner into a more earnest attitude, and gives him an increased desire to receive the things for which he asks . . .
      —“Speak and act in harmony with your prayers. It will make an infinite difference with you whether trial shall prove your faith to be genuine, or show that your prayers are only a form . . .
      —“We need to have far less confidence in what man can do, and far more confidence in what God can do for every believing soul. He longs to have you reach after Him by faith. He longs to have you expect great things from Him . . .
      —“Plead for the Holy Spirit. God stands back of every promise He has made. With your Bible in your hands, say, I have done as Thou hast said. I present Thy promise, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’”
      —“We must not only pray in Christ’s name, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This explains what is meant when it is said that the Spirit ‘maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered.’ [Romans 8:26.] Such prayer God delights to answer. When with earnestness and intensity we breathe a prayer in the name of Christ, there is in that very intensity a pledge from God that He is about to answer our prayer ‘exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.’ [Ephesians 3:20.] . . .
      —“The rainbow round about the throne is an assurance that God is true, that in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We have sinned against Him, and are undeserving of His favor; yet He Himself has put into our lips that most wonderful of pleas, ‘Do not abhor us, for Thy name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory; remember, break not Thy covenant with us.’ [Jeremiah 14:21.] When we come to Him confessing our unworthiness and sin, He has pledged Himself to give heed to our cry. The honor of His throne is staked for the fulfilment of His word unto us.
      —“Like Aaron, who symbolized Christ, our Saviour bears the names of
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all His people on His heart in the holy place. Our great High Priest remembers all the words by which He has encouraged us to trust. He is ever mindful of His covenant.” COL 143-148. (Emphasis added.)
      —“With the great truth we have been privileged to receive, we should, and under the Holy Spirit’s power we could, become living channels of light. We could then approach the mercy seat; and seeing the bow of promise, kneel with contrite hearts, and seek the kingdom of heaven with a spiritual violence that would bring its own reward. We would take it by force, as did Jacob . . . Our supplications would be full of a sense of our great need; and we would not be denied. The truth would be expressed by life and character, and by lips touched with the living coal from off God’s altar. When this experience is ours, we shall be lifted out of our poor, cheap selves, that we have cherished so tenderly. We shall empty our hearts of the corroding power of selfishness, and shall be filled with praise and gratitude to God.” 5BC 1089. (Emphasis added.)
      —“When self-ceases to wrestle for the supremacy, and the heart is worked by the Holy Spirit, the soul lies perfectly passive, and then the image of God is mirrored upon the heart. When the emptying of sin and this infilling of the Holy Spirit takes place in our hearts, we may expect to see spectacular manifestations of God’s power, not in fire, but in deliverance from sickness and disease. We shall see the long-delayed answer to many prayers for the conversion of souls. We shall see and feel a mighty surge of power that will quickly finish God’s work in our hearts and throughout the world.” MS 176, 1898.
      —“It is possible to reach the hardest heart.” RH Nov. 6, 1888.
      —“If you will find voice and time to pray, God will find time and voice to answer.” RH April 1, 1890. (Emphasis added.)
      —“‘Master,’ he said, ‘I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him . . . The boy was brought, and as the Saviour’s eyes fell upon him, the evil spirit cast him to the ground in convulsions of agony. He lay wallowing and foaming, rending the air with unearthly shrieks.
      —“Again the Prince of life and the prince of the powers of darkness had met on the field of battle, —Christ in fulfillment of His mission to ‘preach deliverance to the captives, . . . to set at liberty them that are bruised’ (Luke 4:18), Satan seeking to hold his victim under his control. Angels of light and the hosts of evil angels, unseen, were pressing near to behold the conflict. For a moment, Jesus permitted the evil spirit to display his power, that the beholders might comprehend the deliverance about to be wrought.
      —“The multitude looked on with bated breath, the father in an agony of hope and fear . . . ‘If Thou canst do anything, . . . help us.’ . . . Even now the father questioned the power of Christ.
      —“Jesus answers, ‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’ There is no lack of power on the part of Christ; the healing of the son depends upon the father’s faith. With a burst of tears, realizing his own weakness, the father casts himself upon Christ’s mercy, with the cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.’” DA 428.
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The History of Babylon—and Her Judgment During the Plagues: Revelation 17.
AND THERE CAME ONE OF THE ANGELS WHICH HAD THE SEVEN VIALS,
      —probably the angel in charge of either the sixth or seventh plague
AND TALKED WITH ME,
      —John
SAYING UNTO ME, COME HITHER; I WILL SHEW UNTO THEE THE JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT WHORE THAT SITTETH UPON MANY WATERS.
      —How does John describe this woman’ Verses 4, 5:
AND THE WOMAN WAS ARRAYED IN PURPLE AND SCARLET COLOUR, AND DECKED WITH GOLD AND PRECIOUS STONES AND PEARLS, HAVING A GOLDEN CUP IN HER HAND FULL OF ABOMINATIONS AND FILTHINESS OF HER FORNICATION. AND UPON HER FOREHEAD WAS A NAME WRITTEN, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
      —Who is this woman Babylon? Verse 18:
AND THE WOMAN WHICH THOU SAWEST IS THAT GREAT CITY, WHICH REINETH OVER THE KINGS OF THE EARTH.
      —What is the extent of Babylon’s dominion? Verse 15:
AND HE SAITH UNTO ME, THE WATERS WHICH THOU SAWEST, WHERE THE WHORE SITTETH, ARE PEOPLES, AND MULTITUDES, AND NATIONS, AND TONGUES.
      —What two groups does Babylon have influence over
[1.] WITH WHOM THE KINGS OF THE EARTH HAVE COMMITTED FORNICATION,
[2.] AND THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH HAVE BEEN MADE DRUNK WITH THE WINE OF HER FORNICATION.
      —Babylon manipulates two groups of people:
            She rules over the kings of the earth. Verse 15.
            She tells the people of the earth what to think. Verse 2.
      —“This cup of intoxication which she presents to the world represents the false doctrines that she has accepted as the result of her unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth. Friendship with the world corrupts her faith, and in turn she exerts a corrupting influence upon the world by teaching doctrines which are opposed to the plainest statements of Holy Writ.” GC 388.
SO HE
      —the angel with one of the seven vials of the seven last plagues
CARRIED ME
      —John
AWAY INTO THE WILDERNESS
      —to show me the corrupt history—and the violent ending—of that woman Babylon.
AND I SAW A WOMAN SIT UPON A SCARLET COLOURED BEAST,
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Who is the beast that carries the woman Babylon? Verse 8:
THE BEAST THAT THOU SAWEST . . . SHALL ASCEND OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT . . .
      —Compare this beast from the bottomless pit with the beast of Revelation 11:7, who made war against God’s Two Witnesses at the time of the French Revolution. (He will also make war during “The Impending Conflict.” See Chapter 4.)
      —“And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them.”
      —“Bottomless pit” “represents the earth in a state of confusion and darkness.” (GC 658.) This beast from the bottomless pit is
FULL OF NAMES OF BLASPHEMY,
      —fighting against God and supplying substitute gods
HAVING SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS.
      —Compare this scarlet-colored beast from the bottomless pit, which is described in Revelation 17, with the great red dragon of Revelation 12:3:
      —“And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”
      —What is the name of this beast? Revelation 12:9 tells us that he is “. . . the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world . . .”
      —This anti-God power, with seven heads, is the beast who carries the woman Babylon. He is in charge of her. He takes her where he wants her to go. She follows his directions.
      —Who are the seven heads’ verses 9, 10:
. . . THE SEVEN HEADS ARE SEVEN MOUNTAINS, ON WHICH THE WOMAN SITTETH. AND THERE ARE SEVEN KINGS . . .
      —Mountains, in Bible symbols, represent kingdoms. See also Daniel 2:35, 44.
      —The woman Babylon is sitting on these seven mountains. (Verse 9.) She is “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” (Verse 18.)
      —Therefore, we see that the woman, who receives orders from the beast, relays these orders on to the ruling powers of earth. There is a corrupt harmony existing between them, which is called spiritual fornication.
      —“The term ‘Babylon’ is derived from ‘Babel,’ and signifies confusion. It is employed in Scripture to designate the various forms of apostate religion. In Revelation 17 Babylon is represented as a woman—a figure which is used in the Bible as the symbol of a church, a virtuous woman representing a pure church, a vile woman, an apostate church . . .
      —“Babylon is said to be ‘the mother of harlots.’ By her daughters must be symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world.” GC 381-383.
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      —What are the characteristics of Babylon?
      1. Babylon is a false religious power —churchcraft— apostate priestcraft. She is sponsored by the devil himself.
      2. She reigns over the kings of the earth, thus mingling statecraft with her churchcraft.
      3. Together churchcraft and statecraft corrupt the inhabitants of the earth, through the wine of false doctrine in Babylon’s golden cup.
      4. But there are many through the centuries who have refused to drink of her poisonous beverage. The state gives the church authority to persecute the minority.
      5. As John sees the woman Babylon, she is intoxicated:
AND I SAW THE WOMAN DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS, AND WITH THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JESUS.
      —these faithful ones give their lives to defend God’s truth.
AND WHEN I SAW HER,
      —when John sees Babylon riding on the seven-headed beast
I WONDERED WITH GREAT ADMIRATION.
AND THE ANGEL SAID UNTO ME, WHEREFORE DIDST THOU MARVEL? I WILL TELL THEE THE MYSTERY OF THE WOMAN, AND OF THE BEAST THAT CARRIETH HER, WHICH HATH THE SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS.
      —The angel takes John back into history now, to help him understand more about the devil’s organization, and why Babylon is to receive a part in the seven last plagues.
THE BEAST THAT THOU SAWEST WAS, AND IS NOT;
      —There was to be a temporary interruption in his usual pattern of persecution.
AND SHALL ASCEND OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT,
      —for his final conflict against God’s remnant people,
AND GO INTO PERDITION.
      —total destruction by God Himself.
AND THEY THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH SHALL WONDER, WHOSE NAMES WERE NOT WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.
      —A registry was provided at creation for the names of God’s children. They have the Holy Bible to reveal to them the issues in the great controversy between Christ and Satan. But those who do not accept God’s Word to guide them, nor His Son to redeem them, will not be found written in this registry.
      —They are the ones who will wonder
WHEN THEY BEHOLD THE BEAST THAT WAS, AND IS NOT, AND YET IS.
      —One of the heads of the beast is to receive a “deadly wound.” But the “deadly wound” is healed, and the beast resumes his former activities of persecution as before. See Revelation 13:3.
AND HERE IS THE MIND WHICH HATH WISDOM.
      —“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things . . .” John 14:26.
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THE SEVEN HEADS ARE SEVEN MOUNTAINS, ON WHICH ‘,THE WOMAN SITTETH. AND THERE ARE SEVEN KINGS:
      —The woman Babylon is sitting on all seven of these mountains. She is to reign over all seven of Satan’s kingdoms.
      —The woman—churchcraft, is to intoxicate seven world governments—statecraft, with her false doctrines.
AND THERE ARE SEVEN KINGS:
FIVE ARE FALLEN,
AND ONE IS,
AND THE OTHER IS NOT YET COME;
AND WHEN HE COMETH HE MUST CONTINUE A SHORT SPACE.
      —When John received this vision, five world governments which had been dominated with churchcraft, had become inactive—had “fallen.” The sixth government was in power. The seventh world kingdom was yet to come, but would be of only a short duration.
AND THE BEAST THAT WAS, AND IS NOT,
      —the beast that received the “deadly wound,”
EVEN HE IS THE EIGHTH, AND IS OF THE SEVEN, AND GOETH INTO PERDITION.
      —The beast power, or Satan, is a part of all seven kingdoms. He is the body for the seven heads. He has no other head but theirs. He uses each head as it comes into world power.
AND THE TEN HORNS WHICH THOU SAWEST ARE TEN KINGS, WHICH HAVE RECEIVED NO KINGDOM AS YET; BUT RECEIVE POWER AS KINGS ONE HOUR WITH THE BEAST. THESE HAVE ONE MIND, AND SHALL GIVE THEIR POWER AND STRENGTH UNTO THE BEAST.
      1. These ten kings have unity of “mind.”
      2. They have not received their kingdom yet.
      3. When the time comes for their short term of kingship, they will give their “power and strength” unto the devil.
      4. The devil is also king at this same time.
      5. These ten kings reign under the beast power.
      —What relation do the ten horns have to the woman Babylon?
AND THE TEN HORNS WHICH THOU SAWEST UPON THE BEAST, THESE SHALL HATE THE WHORE, AND SHALL MAKE HER DESOLATE AND NAKED, AND SHALL EAT HER FLESH, AND BURN HER WITH FIRE.
      —The ten horns are to inflict the “judgment” which Babylon is to receive during the plagues. This is the punishment which John was called to witness, when the angel spoke to him in Revelation 17:1: “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.”
      —The ten horns are to have a part in destroying Babylon. In the chain-of-command, they have authority over Babylon.
      6. During their kingship, the ten horns have great hatred for Babylon.
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The Totem Pole of Evil Forces:
      —In the forces of evil there are five groups mentioned in Revelation 17.
          —The woman Babylon—false churchcraft—is in the middle.’ Two of the evil forces manipulate her—and she manipulates two.
      1. Top position: Satan himself, the body of the seven-headed beast, and the power influencing the heads, controlling the horns, and carrying the woman where he wants her to go;
      2. Under Satan: the ten horns who give their power to the beast, and who, during their short kingship, have united hatred for the woman Babylon, tearing her flesh and burning her with fire;
      3. Center place: the woman Babylon, —apostate priestcraft—who reigns over the kings of the earth, and gives the inhabitants to drink of her poisonous beverage, —false doctrines. She goes wherever the beast wants to take her, and is at last destroyed by the ten horns.
      4. Fourth place: the seven heads of the beast, or seven world governments, who have the woman Babylon reigning over them; there is an unlawful alliance—spiritual fornication.
      5. Bottom of the totem pole: many of earth’s inhabitants who are ensnared by the top four.
      —John continues to tell us more about the ten horns:
FOR GOD HATH PUT IN THEIR HEARTS TO FULFIL HIS WILL, AND TO AGREE, AND GIVE THEIR KINGDOM UNTO THE BEAST,
      —during the “one hour” of their short kingship, (verse 12)
UNTIL THE WORDS OF GOD SHALL BE FULFILLED.
      —What are the words of God which bring an end to Satan and his evil forces?
      —During the seventh plague, these solemn words are announced: “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.” Revelation 16:17.
      —And after the seventh blast on the trumpet, these triumphant words ring out through the heavens:
“. . . The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15.
      —The ten horns are to have power, until these words of God shall be fulfilled! When their power is broken, Christ takes complete control of all earthly kingdoms and forces.
      —The ten horns unite with Satan to fight in the great battle of Armageddon:
THESE SHALL MAKE WAR WITH THE LAMB
      —“We need to study the pouring out of the seventh vial The powers of evil will not yield up the conflict without a struggle. But Providence has a part to act in the battle of Armageddon.” 7BC 983.
AND THE LAMB SHALL OVERCOME THEM FOR HE IS LORD OF LORDS, AND KING OF KINGS:
      —Christ is to be victorious over all of the forces of evil!
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      —Who are these ten kings who have such united hatred for the woman Babylon, during the time she receives her “judgment?”
      —Who are these ten kings who are to reign “one hour” with the beast, and give him their loyal “power and strength?”
      —Where do we have a record of powerful leaders focusing their hatred on the people of Babylon? Let us turn back to the record of the sixth plague:
      —Compare the hatred and the burning of Revelation 17, with the hatred and the burning of Revelation 9, during the sixth plague:
      “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit . . . And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for [margin, “at”] an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men . . . And out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.” Revelation 9:11-18. (Emphasis added.)
      —“The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the firey impenitent . . . Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the evil one. Satan will then 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 same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere.” GC 614.
      —At the beginning of the sixth trumpet, or plague, Satan and his evil angels are permitted to kill one-third of their subjects. The other two-thirds are to be killed sometime during the seventh plague.
      —When Jesus comes for the battle of Armageddon, with the angels of heaven following Him upon white hoses, He is to rule all nations with a “rod of iron.” Notice one way which Jesus uses this rod:
      —“God bears with divine patience with the perversity of the wicked; but He declares that He will visit their transgressions with a rod. He will at last permit the destructive agencies of Satan to bear sway to destroy.” 4BC 1171. (See Revelation 19:11-16.)
      —Satan’s angels destroy many of their people in the last two plagues. Others, “the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2Thessalonians 2:8.
      —All of “Babylon” will not be alive when the seven last plagues start, for Babylon—or churchcraft—has been corrupting Satan’s seven world governments for centuries. But a special resurrection takes place at the beginning of the seventh plague, which will include the leading forces of Babylon through all time. Included with these are “they also which pierced Him.” (Christ); Revelation 1:7.
      —“Graves are opened, and ‘many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth . . . awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ Daniel 12:2 . . . The most violent opposes of His truth and His people, are raised to behold Him in His glory . . .” GC 637.
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Satan’s Seven World Governments:
      —When God presents something true,
          Satan comes up with a counterfeit.
God prepares a people to be the guardians of His law;
          Satan prepares a people to work against it.
      —“Both the people before the flood and the descendants of Noah cast off the divine authority. Then God entered into covenant with Abraham, and took to Himself a people to become the depositaries of His law. To seduce and destroy this people, Satan began at once to lay his snares.” PP 332. (Emphasis added.)
1. Egypt—United Churcheraft with Statecraft and Persecuted God’s People:
      —“From the palace of the Pharaohs his [Joseph’s] influence was felt throughout the land, and the knowledge of God spread far and wide. . . The idolatrous priests were filled with alarm as they saw the new religion finding favor. Inspired by Satan with his own enmity toward the God of heaven, they set themselves to quench the light. To the priests was committed the education of the heir to the throne, and it was this spirit of determined opposition to God and zeal for idolatry that moulded the character of the future monarch, and led to cruelty and oppression toward the Hebrews . . . From first to last Pharaoh’s opposition to the divine command was not the result of ignorance, but of hatred and defiance.” PP 332, 333.
      —“By the laws of Egypt, all who occupied the throne of the Pharaohs must become members of the priestly caste . . .” PP 245.

2. Assyria—United Churcheraft with Statecraft and Persecuted God’s People:
      —“But the rulers of Assyria, instead of using their unusual blessings for the benefit of mankind, became the scourge of many lands. Merciless, with no thought of God or their fellow men, they pursued the fixed policy of causing all nations to acknowledge the supremacy of the gods of Nineveh, whom they exalted above the Most High. God had sent Jonah to them with a message of warning, and for a season they humbled themselves before the Lord of hosts and sought forgiveness. But soon they turned again to idol worship and to the conquest of the world . . .
      —“At the time of Hezekiah’s accession to the throne of Judah, the Assyrians had already carried captive a large number of the children of Israel from the northern kingdom; and a few years after he had begun to reign, and while he was still strengthening the defenses of Jerusalem, the Assyrians besieged and captured Samaria and scattered the ten tribes among the many provinces of the Assyrian realm.” PK 363, 351.
      —God became the defense of His people during the time of the Assyrians, just as He was at the Red Sea. (Exodus 13:30.) “Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand . . .” Isaiah 37:36.
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3. Babylon—United Churchcraft with Statecraft, and Persecuted God’s People:
      —“From his rich store of treasure, Nebuchadnezzar caused to be made a great golden image . . . And it is not surprising that in a land where idol worship was of universal prevalence, the beautiful and priceless image on the plain of Dura, representing the glory of Babylon and its magnificence and power, should be consecrated as an object of worship . . . On that eventful day the powers of darkness seemed to be gaining a signal triumph; the worship of the golden image bade fair to become connected permanently with the established forms of idolatry recognized as the state religion of the land. Satan hoped thereby to defeat God’s purpose of making the presence of captive Israel in Babylon a means of blessing to the nations of heathendom.
      —“But God decreed otherwise. Not all had bowed the knee to the idolatrous symbol of human power. In the midst of the worshiping multitude there were three men who were firmly resolved not thus to dishonor the God of heaven. Their God was King of kings and Lord of lords; they would bow to none other . . .
      —“The kings wrath knew no bounds . . . Directing that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than its wont, he commanded the mighty men of his army to bind the worshipers of Israel’s God, preparatory to summary execution . . . But the Lord did not forget His own . . . In prosperity and adversity they honored God, and God honored them.’ PK 505-508; 479. (Emphasis added.)

4. Medo-Persia—United Churcheraft with Statecraft, and Persecuted God’s People:
      —“Misled by the false statements of Haman, Xerxes was induced to issue a decree providing for the massacre of all the Jews ‘scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces’ of the Medo-Persian kingdom. Verse 8. [of Esther 8.] A certain day was appointed on which the Jews were to be destroyed and their property confiscated . . . Satan himself, the hidden instigator of the scheme, was trying to rid the earth of those who preserved the knowledge of the true God . . . But the plots of the enemy were defeated by a Power that reigns among the children of men.” PK 600, 601.
(Emphasis added.)
      —“The Medo-Pesian kingdom was visited by the wrath of heaven because in this kingdom God’s law was trampled underfoot. The fear of the Lord found no place in the hearts of the people. The prevailing influences in Medo-Pesia were wickedness, blasphemy, and corruption. The kingdoms that followed were even more base and corrupt. They deteriorated because they cast off their allegiance to God. As they forgot Him, they sank lower and still lower in the scale of moral value.” 4BC 1168.

5. Greece—United Churchcraft with Statecraft, and Persecuted God’s People:
      —“Prophecy has traced the rise and fall of the world’s great empires—
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Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. [See Daniel 2, 7, 8.] With each of these, as with nations of less power, history repeated itself. Each had its period of test, each failed, its glory faded, its power de’ parted, and its place was occupied by another. While the nations rejected God’s principles, and in this rejection wrought their own ruin, it was still manifest that the divine, overruling purpose was working through all their movements.” Ed 177.
      —“The deification of the dead has held a prominent place in nearly every system of heathenism, as has also the supposed communion with the dead. The gods were believed to communicate their will to men, and also, when consulted, to give them counsel. Of this character were the famous oracles of Greece and Rome . . . The same belief in communion with the dead formed the chief cornerstone of heathen idolatry.” PP 684.
      —From history, we learn that Antiochus IV (Ephiphanes), who ruled from 176T o 164 B.C., made special war against God’s people who were commissioned by Him to be the depositaries of His law:
      “During his brief reign of 12 years Antiochus very nearly exterminated the religion and culture of the Jews. He stripped the sanctuary of all its treasures, plundered Jerusalem, left the city and its walls in ruins, slew thousands of Jews, and carried others into exile as slaves. A royal edict commanded them to abandon all rites of their own religion and to live as heathen. They were forced to erect pagan altars in every Judean town, to offer swine’s flesh upon them, and to surrender every copy of the Scriptures to be torn up and burned. Antiochus also set up a heathen idol on the Temple altar in Jerusalem and offered swine’s flesh upon it . . . The threat posed by Antiochus Epiphanes confronted the Jews with a crisis comparable to the crises precipitated by Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, and Titus.” SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, 868. (Not EGW.)
      —“And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come . . .”
      —And one is!

6. Rome—.Unites Churcheraft with Statecraft and Persecutes God’s People:
      —The beast, shown to Daniel in chapter 7, “shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it to pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws . . .” Daniel 7:23-25.
      —This great beast which Daniel saw coming up out of the sea, represents Rome, in both its pagan and papal forms. (See the Introduction.) Both phases of the Roman government are included in this one beast, with its horn-powers.
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      —The beast shown to John in vision—the devil’s beast with seven heads—is different from the one Daniel saw which represented Rome. But when the sixth head on the devil’s beast is active, it also represents Rome. After five of the heads had “fallen,” Rome was the next world government to come into power. First through pagan Rome, and later through both pagan and papal Rome, the sixth head exerts its influence on mankind. Their principles are still affecting the inhabitants of earth today, even as the influence of Daniel’s beast is still permeating civilization.
      —Statecraft and churchcraft were united again, as in the previous five world governments, when Rome, in both its pagan and papal forms, joined hands in working against God’s law and His people.
      —In the following quotation, notice the overlapping of the pagan and papal influences:
      “The apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, foretold the great apostasy which would result in the establishment of the papal power . . . Even at that early date he saw, creeping into the church, errors that would prepare the way for the development of the papacy. Little by little, at first in stealth and silence, and then more openly as it increased in strength and gained control of the minds of men, ‘the mystery of iniquity’ carried forward its deceptive and blasphemous work. Almost imperceptibly the customs of heathenism found their way into the Christian church. The spirit of compromise and conformity was restrained for a time by the fierce persecutions which the church endured under paganism. But as persecution ceased, and Christianity entered the courts and palaces of kings, she laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and His apostles for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers; and in place of the requirements of God, she substituted human theories and traditions. The nominal conversion of Constantine, in the early part of the fourth century, caused great rejoicing; and the world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church. Now the work of corruption rapidly progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ.
      —“This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of ‘the man of sin’ foretold in prophecy as opposing and exalting himself above God. That gigantic system of false religion is a masterpiece of Satan’s power—a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will.” GC 49, 50. (Emphasis added.)
          —When pagan Rome was in its infancy—
            the “mystery of iniquity” was already at work. (2Thess 2:3-7.)
          —When papal Rome increased in power
            “paganism. . . became the conqueror.” GC 50.
      —The principles of papal Rome were developing during the time of pagan Rome; and the principles of pagan Rome are still existing today in papal Rome.
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The Sixth Head Feels A Temporary Interruption of Its Power:
      —“And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven . . .” Revelation 17:11.
      —It is during the time that the devil is working through his sixth head, that his power to persecute is temporarily interrupted. His sixth head receives a “deadly wound.” This severe trauma is pictured in Revelation 13:3:
            “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death . . .”
      —But his restrictions are not permanent:
            “. . . and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:3.
      —When the deadly wound is healed, the beast will again have his former power of persecution restored, so he can continue his pattern of oppression and tyranny.
      —When did the sixth head of the devil’s beast receive its deadly wound?
      —“At that time [1798] the pope was made captive by the French army, the papal power received its deadly wound, and the prediction was fulfilled, ‘He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.’ . . . A French army entered Rome and made the pope a prisoner, and he died in exile. Though a new pope was soon afterward elected, the papal hierarchy has never since been able to wield the power which it before possessed.” GC 439, 266.
      —The deadly wound will be healed when it again has the same power “Let the principle once be established in the United States that the church may employ or control the power of the state; that religious observances may be enforced by secular law; in short, that the authority of church and state is to dominate the conscience, and the triumph of Rome in this country is assured.” GC 581.

      —“And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.”
      —A short space!

7. A Threefold Union—Will Unite Churchcraft With Statecraft—and Persecute God’s People:
      —“By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.” 5T 451. (Emphasis added.)
      —“As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy m forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.” 6T 18. (Emphasis added.)
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Satan’s seventh kingdom is just ahead of us!
      —“Can we not discern the signs of the times? Can we not see how earnestly Satan is at work binding the tares in bundles, uniting the elements of his kingdom’ that he may gain control of the world?” 5T 383, 384. (Emphasis added.)
      —“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 . . . The same policy of deception has marked the history of the Roman Church. It has professed to act as the vicegerent of Heaven, while seeking to exalt itself above God and to change His law . . . While Satan seeks to destroy those who honor God’s law, he will cause them to be accused as lawbreakers . . .
      —“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.” GC 591, Chapter entitled, “The Impending Conflict.” (Emphasis added.)
      —The seventh head on Satan’s beast is also comparable to the iron and the clay on the toes of the great image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, recorded in Daniel 2. (See the Introduction.)
          —“But statesmen will uphold the spurious sabbath, and will mingle their religious faith with the observance of this child of the papacy, placing it above the Sabbath which the Lord has sanctified and blessed, setting it apart for man to keep holy, as a sign between Him and His people to a thousand generations. The mingling of churchcraft and statecraft is represented by the iron and the clay.” 4BC 1168, 1169. (Emphasis added.)
      —There are seven forces presented to us in Revelation 17.
      Five are evil—and two are righteous.
      —Of the evil forces, the woman Babylon is in the center:
      The beast carries her, and the ten horns destroy her.
      She reigns over many rulers, and poisons all the people she can.
      —The other two groups are brought to view in verse 14:
      “These [from the evil forces] shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them:
FOR HE IS LORD OF LORDS, AND KING OF KINGS:
AND THEY THAT ARE WITH HIM
ARE CALLED, AND CHOSEN, AND FAITHFUL.
      —In these seven groups—five evil and two righteous—are included both leaders of the great controversy, and everyone who is alive upon the earth during this last conflict.
      —If you are alive, you will be in one of the seven groups!
      All of Adam’s children are called—but only a few are chosen and faithful. Will you receive the “wine” which Babylon is offering you, or take your place under the beautiful banner of King Emmanuel?
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      —As our Saviour portrays to John the vast panorama of the seven last plagues, and the preparations for the “battle of that great day of God, Almighty,” (Revelation 16:14) His heart of mercy goes out to the& purchase of His blood. After John has been shown six of the plagues, and before he is shown the seventh, Jesus makes this love-appeal to all of His children: (Revelation 16:15.)
BEHOLD, I COME AS A THIEF. BLESSED IS HE THAT WATCHETH, AND KEEPETH HIS GARMENTS, LEST HE WALK NAKED, AND THEY SEE HIS SHAME.
      —Blessed is he that keepeth his garments—the beautiful robe of righteousness from Jesus. He may keep this garment of perfection as long as he seeks pardon for sin, and permits God to give him hatred for it.
      —Blessed is he that watcheth! Jesus comes as a thief to each of the records of His children during the great pre-advent judgment.
      —This blessing, inserted right during the description of the plagues, is one of seven blessings found in the book of Revelation.
      —“Everything in the world is in agitation. The signs of the times are ominous. Coming events cast their shadows before . . . Where is security? There is assurance in nothing that is human or earthly. Rapidly are men ranging themselves under the banner they have chosen. Restlessly are they waiting and watching the movements of their leaders. There are those who are waiting and watching and working for our Lord’s appearing. Another class are falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. Few believe with heart and soul that we have a hell to shun and a heaven to win.
      —“The crisis is stealing gradually upon us . . . Men are still eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying, and giving in marriage. Merchants are still buying and selling. Men are jostling one against another, contending for the highest place. Pleasure lovers are still crowding to theaters, horse races, gambling hells. The highest excitement prevails, yet probation’s hour is fast closing, and every case is about to be eternally decided. Satan sees that his time is short. He has set all his agencies at work that men may be deceived, deluded occupied and entranced, until the day of probation shall be ended, and the door of mercy be forever shut.
      —“Solemnly there comes to us down through the centuries the warning words of our Lord from the Mount of Olives: ‘Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.’ ‘Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.’” DA 636. (Emphasis added.)
AND HE GATHERED THEM TOGETHER INTO A PLACE CALLED IN THE HEBREW TONGUE ARMAGEDDON.
      —In that great gathering day, which banner will you be under? Who will be your general? Today’s decision will affect tomorrow’s position!
      —Both generals have their agents on the field even now. There are good angels, and there are evil angels. The contest rages over every living soul. Your destiny is determined by your deciding vote!
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The Seventh Plague—the Battle of Armageddon:
Revelation 11:14-19; 16:17-21; 19:11-21; 14:19, 20.
THE SECOND WOE IS PAST;
      —One-third of earth’s population lie dead—killed by the general they chose to follow, and by his vicious angels.
AND, BEHOLD, THE THIRD WOE COMETH QUICKLY.
      —The other two-thirds, who rejected the truth and permitted themselves to be deceived by the devil’s miracles, are to be slain sometime during the seventh plague.
AND THE SEVENTH ANGEL SOUNDED . . .
      —This is God’s battle signal to the armies that had been gathered together during the sixth plague. The time for the battle of Armageddon has come!
      —“We need to study the pouring out of the seventh vial The powers of evil will not yield up the conflict without a struggle. But Providence has a part to act in the battle of Armageddon. When the earth is lighted with the glory of the angel of Revelation eighteen, the religious elements, good and evil, will awake from slumber, and the armies of the living God will take the field.” 7BC 983.
      —The battle of Armageddon is both literal and spiritual. It is a literal battle, fought in a literal “place,” by literal men and literal “spirits,” (both good and evil angels,) with literal generals—Christ and Satan. The battle is fought over spiritual issues, and every person on earth will be involved. There will be no neutral position.
      —“There are only two parties in our world, those who are loyal to God, and those who stand under the banner of the prince of darkness . . . Every form of evil is to spring into intense activity . . . All the world will be on one side or the other of the question. The battle of Armageddon will be fought, and that day must find none of us sleeping. Wide awake we must be, as wise virgins having oil in our vessels with our lamps . . .
      —“The power of the Holy Ghost must be upon us, and the Captain of the Lord’s host will stand at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle. Solemn events before us are yet to transpire. Trumpet after trumpet is to be sounded, vial after vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth. Scenes of stupendous interest are right upon us.” 7BC 982. (Emphasis added.)
      —“As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle. Satan is busily laying his plans for the last mighty conflict, when all will take sides.” 6T 14.
AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY,
      —The devil’s angels stir up the intense emotions of the human heart. This is also their battle against Jesus and the heavenly angels, and they imbue all of their followers with their own anger—and hatred.
AND THY WRATH IS COME.
      —“‘A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh;
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He will give them that are wicked to the sword.’ Jeremiah 25:31. For six thousand years the great controversy has been in progress, the Son of God and His heavenly messengers have been in conflict with the power of the evil one, to warn, enlighten, and save the children of men. Now all have made their decisions; the wicked have fully united with Satan in his warfare against God. The time has come for God to vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. Now the controversy is not alone with Satan, but with men. ‘The Lord hath a controversy with the nations;’ ‘He will give them that are wicked to the sword.’” GC 656. (Emphasis added.)
      —The hour has come; God’s great time-clock points to three things:

[1.] AND THE TIME OF THE DEAD THAT THEY SHOULD BE JUDGED.
      —“During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection the judgment of the wicked takes place.” GC 660.

[2.] AND THAT THOU SHOULDEST GIVE REWARD UNTO THY SERVANTS THE PROPHETS, AND TO THE SAINTS, AND THEM THAT FEAR THY NAME, SMALL AND GREAT.
      —“Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come ye, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 25:34.
      —What is the difference between the small and the great, according to heaven’s records?
      “The value of man is estimated in heaven according to the capacity of the heart to know God.” COL 354, 355.
      —Who else may be called “servants” besides the prophets?
      “Servants” are also the “laborers together with God.” 7BC 969.

[3.] AND SHOULDEST DESTROY THEM WHICH DESTROY THE EARTH.
      —“. . .‘Destruction is coming like a mighty whirlwind.’ . . . Sudden destruction is right upon the people, and yet they are not fearfully alarmed.” EW 49; 2T 205.
      —“God destroys no man. Every one who is destroyed will have destroyed himself. Every one who stifles the admonitions of conscience is sowing the seeds of unbelief, and these will produce a sure harvest.” COL 84.
AND THE TEMPLE OF GOD WAS OPENED IN HEAVEN,
      —Envision, with John, the glory of God’s temple through the clouds.
AND THERE WAS SEEN IN HIS TEMPLE THE ARK OF HIS TESTAMENT.
      —The ark is the holy treasure chest for God’s ten commandment law.
      —“Then there appears against the sky a hand holding two tables of stone folded together . . . That holy law, God’s righteousness, that amid thunder and flame was proclaimed from Sinai as the guide of life, is now revealed to men as the rule of judgment. The hand opens the tables, and there are seen the precepts of the Decalogue, traced as with a pen of fire. The words are so plain that all can read them. Memory is aroused, the darkness of superstition and heresy is swept from every mind, and God’s ten words.
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brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, are presented to the view of all the inhabitants of the earth. It is impossible to describe the horror and despair of those who have trampled upon God’s holy requirements.” GC 639. (Emphasis added.)
AND THERE WERE LIGHTNINGS,
      —“Fierce lightnings leap from the heavens, enveloping the earth in a sheet of flame.” GC 638.
AND VOICES, AND THUNDERINGS, AND AN EARTHQUAKE, AND GREAT HAIL.
      —“As lightnings from heaven unite with the fire in the earth, the mountains will burn like a furnace, and will pour forth terrific streams of lava, overwhelming gardens and fields, villages and cities. Seething molten masses thrown into the rivers will cause the waters to boil, sending forth massive rocks with indescribable violence, and scattering their broken fragments upon the land. Rivers will be dried up. The earth will be convulsed; everywhere there will be dreadful earthquakes and eruptions . . .
      —“But the righteous will be preserved in the midst of these commotions, as Noah was preserved in the ark. God will be their refuge, and under His wings shall they trust. Says the psalmist: ‘Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee.” In the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me.’ God’s promise is ‘Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.’” PP 110; Psalms 91:9, 10, 14; 27:5.
AND THE SEVENTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL INTO THE AIR; AND THERE CAME A GREAT VOICE OUT OF THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, FROM THE THRONE,
      —the voice of God—
SAYING, IT IS DONE.
      —“In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying: ‘It is done.’ Revelation 16:17. That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, ‘such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great.’ Verses 17, 18. The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through.” GC 636, 637.
AND THERE WERE VOICES,
      —some vibrant with joy at the tokens of the coming morning, and others filled with agony and terror.
      —Still other voices were making a fearful announcement:
      “Above the terrific roar of thunder, voices, mysterious and awful, declare the doom of the wicked. The words are not comprehended by all; but they are distinctly understood by the false teachers. Those who a little before were so reckless, so boastful and defiant, so exultant in their cruelty to God’s commandment-keeping people, are now overwhelmed with consternation and shuddering in
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fear. Their wails are heard above the sound of the elements. Demons acknowledge the deity of Christ and tremble before His power, while men are supplicating for mercy and groveling in abject terror.” GC 638.
      —“. . . The ministers did not escape the wrath of God. Their suffering was tenfold greater than that of their people . . . The false shepherds had been the signal objects of Jehovah’s wrath. Their eyes had consumed away in their holes, and their tongues in their mouths, while they stood upon their feet.” EW 282, 289, 290.
      —“Through a rift in the clouds, there beams a star whose brilliancy is increased fourfold in contrast with the darkness. It speaks hope and joy to the faithful, but severity and wrath to the transgressor of God’s law. Those who have sacrificed all for Christ are now secure, hidden as in the secret of the Lord’s pavilion. They have been tested, and before the world and the despisers of truth they have evinced their fidelity to Him who died for them. A marvelous change has come over those who have held fast their integrity in the very face of death. They have been suddenly delivered from the dark and terrible tyranny of men transformed to demons. Their faces, so lately pale, anxious, and haggard, are now aglow with wonder, faith, and love. Their voices rise in triumphant song: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains: shake with the swelling thereof.’ Ps 46:1-3.” GC 638, 639. (Emphasis added.)
      —Yes, there are many kinds of voices,
AND THUNDERS, AND LIGHTNINGS: AND THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE MEN WERE UPON THE EARTH, SO MIGHTY AN EARTHQUAKE AND SO GREAT.
      —“The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side. There is a roar as of a coming tempest. The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons upon a mission of destruction.” GC 637.
AND THE GREAT CITY
      —Babylon
WAS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS.
      —The “three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” Revelation 16:13.
AND THE CITIES OF THE NATIONS FELL:
      —“The proudest cities of the earth are laid low. The lordly palaces, upon which the world’s great men have lavished their wealth in order to glorify themselves, are crumbling to ruin before their eyes . . . The seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up by the angry waters.” GC 637.
AND GREAT BABYLON CAME IN REMEMBRANCE BEFORE
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GOD, TO GIVE UNTO HER THE CUP OF THE WINE OF THE FIERCENESS OF HIS WRATH.
      —“. . . If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation . . .” Revelation 14:9, 10.
AND EVERY ISLAND FLED AWAY,
      —“Inhabited islands disappear.” GC 637.
AND THE MOUNTAINS WERE NOT FOUND.
      —“The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. It’s very foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains are sinking.” GC 637.
AND THERE FELL UPON MEN A GREAT HAIL OUT OF HEAVEN, EVERY STONE ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF A TALENT.
      —A talent weighs about sixty-six pounds.
      —“Great hailstones. . . are doing their work of destruction.” GC 637.
      —“. . . Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” Job 38:22, 23.
      —“Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies . . .” Isaiah 28:17.
AND MEN BLASPHEMED GOD BECAUSE OF THE PLAGUE OF THE HAIL: FOR THE PLAGUE THEREOF WAS EXCEEDING GREAT.
      —“Many of the wicked were greatly enraged as they suffered the effects of the plagues. It was a scene of fearful agony. Parents were bitterly reproaching their children, and children their parents, brothers their sisters, and sisters their brother. Loud, wailing cries were heard in every direction, ‘It was you who kept me from receiving the truth which would have saved me from this awful hour.’ The people turned upon their ministers with bitter hate and reproached them, saying, ‘You have not warned us. You told us that all the world was to be converted, and cried, Peace, peace, to quiet every fear that was aroused. You have not told us of this hour; and those who warned us of it you declared to be fanatics and evil men, who would ruin us.’” EW 282.
      —“The people see that they have been deluded. They accuse one another of having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping their bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied smooth things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God and to persecute those who would keep it holy. Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. ‘We are lost!’ they cry, ‘and you are the cause of our ruin;’ and they turn upon the false shepherds. The very ones that once admired them most will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very hands that once crowned them with laurels will be raised for their destruction. The swords which were to slay God’s
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people are now employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed.” GC 655, 656.
      —“Now they are condemned by that law which they have despised., With awful distinctness they see that they are without excuse. They chose whom they would serve and worship.” GC 640.
      —They are now destined to “sink into hopeless, eternal oblivion.” GC 545. (Emphasis added.)
      —“No language can express the longing which the disobedient and disloyal feel for that which they have lost forever—eternal life.” GC 655
      —“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Jeremiah 8:20. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Christ [on the cross] felt much as sinners will feel when the vials of God’s wrath shall be poured out upon them. Black despair, like the pall of death, will gather about their guilty souls, and then they will realize to the full extent the sinfulness of sin. Salvation has been purchased for them by the suffering and death of the Son of God. It might be theirs, if they would accept of it willingly, gladly; but none are compelled to yield obedience to the law of God. If they refuse the heavenly benefit and choose the pleasures and deceitfulness of sin, they have their choice, and at the end receive their wages, which is the wrath of God and eternal death. They will be forever separated from the presence of Jesus, whose sacrifice they had despised. They will have lost a life of happiness and sacrificed eternal glory for the pleasures of sin for a season.” 2T 210. (Emphasis added.)
      —“Oh, that human agencies might consider what will be the sure result of their ingratitude to Him, and of their disregard of the infinite gift of Christ to our world! . . . They may for a time choose to engage in worldly amusements and sinful pleasures, rather than to check themselves in their course of sin, and live for God and for the honor of the Majesty of heaven; but when it is too late for them to see and to understand that which they have slighted as a thing of naught, they will know what it means to be without God, without hope. Then they will sense what they have lost by choosing to be disloyal to God and to stand in rebellion against His commandments . . . Then they will realize that they have lost happiness—life, eternal life, in the heavenly courts . . .
      —“In the time when God’s judgments are falling without mercy, oh, how enviable to the wicked will be the position of those who abide ‘in the secret place of the Most High’ —the pavilion in which the Lord hides all who have loved Him and have obeyed His commandments.” 3BC 1150. (Emphasis added.)
      —“. . .Years of probation were granted them, that they might form characters for heaven; but they have never trained the mind to love purity; they have never learned the language of heaven, and now it is too late. A life of rebellion against God has unfitted them for heaven. Its purity, holiness, and peace would be torture to them; the glory of God would be a consuming fire . . . The destiny of the wicked is fixed by their own choice. Their exclusion from heaven is voluntary with themselves . . .” GC 542, 543. (Emphasis added.)
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AND I SAW HEAVEN OPENED,
      —As John is watching the great panorama of the seven last plagues, he sees the heavens separate
AND BEHOLD A WHITE HORSE: AND HE THAT SAT UPON HIM WAS CALLED FAITHFUL AND TRUE, AND IN RIGHTEOUSNESS HE DOTH JUDGE AND MAKE WAR.
      —“The battle of Armageddon is soon to be fought. He on whose vesture is written the name, King of kings and Lord of lords, leads forth the armies of heaven on white horses, clothed in fine linen, clean and white.” 7BC 982.
      —“Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about half the size of a man’s hand. It is the cloud which surrounds the Saviour and which seems in the distance to be shrouded in darkness. The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of man. In solemn silence they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and more glorious, until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus rides forth as a mighty Conqueror . . . ‘Faithful and True,’ ‘in righteousness He cloth judge and make war.’ And ‘the armies which were in heaven’ (Revelation 19:11, 14) follow Him.” GC 640, 641.
HIS EYES WERE AS A FLAME OF FIRE,
      —They pierce to the inner thoughts and purposes of each individual.
AND ON HIS HEAD WERE MANY CROWNS;
      —“. . . His crown looked brilliant and glorious. It was a crown within a crown, seven in number.” EW 53, 54.
AND HE HAD A NAME WRITTEN, THAT NO MAN KNEW, BUT HE HIMSELF.
      —His new name is also to be written on the Philadelphian overcomer. See Revelation 3:12.
AND HE WAS CLOTHED WITH A VESTURE DIPPED IN BLOOD.
      —It was for every child of Adam—for you and me—that His clothing was soiled at Calvary! (See Isaiah 63:2-4.)
AND HIS NAME IS CALLED THE WORD OF GOD.
      —“Jesus is called the Word of God. He accepted His Father’s law, wrought out its principles in His life, manifested its spirit, and showed its beneficent power in the heart. Says John: ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as the Only Begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.’ 5T 576; John 1:14.
AND THE ARMIES WHICH WERE IN HEAVEN
      —the holy angels, loyal and devoted
FOLLOWED HIM UPON WHITE HORSES, CLOTHED IN FINE LINEN, WHITE AND CLEAN.
      —The devil’s angels are also pictured on horses in Revelation 9:17.
AND OUT OF HIS MOUTH GOETH A SHARP SWORD,
      —“. . . an emblem of the power of His word.” AA 582.
THAT WITH IT HE SHOULD SMITE THE NATIONS:
      —in this great battle of Armageddon.
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AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON:
      —This “rod” is to release Satan’s “destructive agencies”:
      “The figures of guilt rapidly accumulate, yet the judgments of God are tempered with mercy, until the figures have reached their appointed limit . . . God bears with divine patience with the perversity of the wicked; but He declares that He will visit their transgressions with a rod. He will at last permit the destructive agencies of Satan to bear sway to destroy.” 4BC 1171.
AND HE TREADETH THE WINEPRESS OF THE FIERCENESS AND WRATH OF ALMIGHTY GOD.
      —“That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. [Could these be skyscraper?] And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy: for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.” Zephaniah 2:15-18.
AND THE ANGEL
      —Jesus, the Angel of the Covenant
THRUST IN HIS SICKLE INTO THE EARTH, AND GATHERED THE VINE OF THE EARTH, AND CAST IT INTO THE GREAT WINEPRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD. AND THE WINEPRESS WAS TRODDEN WITHOUT THE CITY, AND BLOOD CAME OUT OF THE WINEPRESS, EVEN UNTO THE HORSE BRIDLES, BY THE SPACE OF A THOUSAND AND SIX HUNDRED FURLONGS.
      —“Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in Mine anger and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come.” Isaiah 63:2-4. (Emphasis added.)
AND HE HATH ON HIS VESTURE AND ON HIS THIGH A NAME WRITTEN, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
      —All ye who call Him Lord, look up into the heavens with John, and see Him riding forth! Bow in reverence before your King!
      —“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isaiah 25:9.
      —“Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping, saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising Hi] hands to heaven, He cries: ‘Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in
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the dust, and arise!’ Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying: ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ 1Corinthians 15:55. And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.
      —“All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the race. But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth. . . All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave. Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will ‘grow up’ (Malachi 4:2) to the full stature of a race in its primeval glory . . . Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
      —“The living righteous are changed ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’ [1Corinthaians 15:52.]. . . Angels ‘gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.’ [Matthew 24:31.] Little children are borne by holy angels to their mothers’ arms. Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part . . .” GC 644, 645. (Emphasis added.)
      —“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
AND I SAW AN ANGEL STANDING IN THE SUN: AND HE CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE. SAYING TO ALL THE FOWLS THAT FLY IN THE MIDST OF HEAVEN, COME AND GATHER YOURSELVES TOGETHER UNTO THE SUPPER OF THE GREAT GOD: THAT YE MAY EAT THE FLESH OF KINGS, AND THE FLESH OF CAPTAINS, AND THE FLESH OF MIGHTY MEN, AND THE FLESH OF HORSES, AND OF THEM THAT SIT ON THEM, AND THE FLESH OF ALL MEN BOTH FREE AND BOND, BOTH SMALL AND GREAT.
      —After this call to the fowls of the heavens, John watched another army that was assembled:
AND I SAW THE BEAST, AND THE KINGS OF THE EARTH, AND THEIR ARMIES
      —the devil—and all who have accepted him for their leader, who are yet alive
GATHERED TOGETHER TO MAKE WAR AGAINST HIM THAT SAT ON THE HORSE, AND AGAINST HIS ARMY.
      —“Evil angels unite their powers with evil men, and as they have
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been in constant conflict and attained an experience in the best modes of deception and battle, and have been strengthening for centuries, they will not yield the last great final contest without a’ desperate struggle.” 7BC 982.
      —What is the final outcome of the great battle between the two opposing forces?
AND THE BEAST WAS TAKEN, AND WITH HIM THE FALSE PROPHET THAT WROUGHT MIRACLES BEFORE HIM.
      —Victory goes to Him who sat on the white horse, and to His armies!
      —The false spiritual leaders are “taken.”
      —It was the false prophet—apostate protestantism—that wrought miracles
WITH WHICH HE DECEIVED THEM THAT HAD RECEIVED THE MARK OF THE BEAST, AND THEM THAT WORSHIPPED HIS IMAGE.
      —(“. . . This wonderful, miracle-working power is to sweep in the whole world.” 2SM 51.)
THESE BOTH
      —the beast, (the sixth head power) and the false prophet
WERE CAST ALIVE INTO A LAKE OF FIRE BURNING WITH BRIMSTONE.
      —These false spiritual leaders are burned before the millennium begins, as well as after. (See Revelation 20:9, 10, 14. The dragon power behind the sixth head is not burned. He is cast into dark isolation for a thousand years. See Revelation 20:1-3.)
      —Some of Satan’s leaders are to receive double punishment:
      “. . . Double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” Revelation 18:6.
      —These are no doubt the group who have been “rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same.” GC 589.
      —These have also been worshiping Satan.
“Satan is working to the utmost to make himself as God and to destroy all who oppose his power. And today the world is bowing before him. His power is received as the power of God. The prophecy of the Revelation is being fulfilled, that ‘all the world wondered after the beast.’ Revelation 13:3 . . . They have accepted him as God, and have become imbued with his spirit. But the cloud of judicial wrath hangs over them, containing the elements that destroyed Sodom.” 6T 14, 15. (Emphasis added.)
AND THE REMNANT
      —the wicked who were not destroyed by fire
WERE SLAIN WITH THE SWORD OF HIM THAT SAT UPON THE HORSE, WHICH SWORD PROCEEDED OUT OF HIS MOUTH:
      —“. . . He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.” Jeremiah 25:31-33.
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      —“After the saints had been delivered by the voice of God, the wicked multitude turned their rage upon one another. The earth seemed to be deluged with blood, and dead bodies were from one end of it to the other.” EW 290.
AND ALL THE FOWLS WERE FILLED WITH THEIR FLESH.
      —“The earth looked Like a desolate wilderness. Cities and villages, shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains had been moved out of their places, leaving large caverns. Ragged rocks, thrown out by the sea, or torn out of the earth itself, were scattered all over its surface. Large trees had been uprooted and were strewn over the land. Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Here he will be confined, to wander up and down over the broken surface of the earth and see the effects of his rebellion against God’s law.” EW 290.
      —When the seventh angel sounds on his mighty trumpet, it brings more than just the third woe:
          —“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets.” Revelation 10:7.
          —“The morning and the night are both at hand—the opening of endless day to the righteous, and the settling down of eternal night to the wicked . . . The Sun of Righteousness is about to shine forth.” GC 632.
AND THERE WERE GREAT VOICES IN HEAVEN
      —to thrill the hearts of everyone who loves God
SAYING, THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD, AND OF HIS CHRIST:
      —The kings of the earth who have been drinking Babylon’s wine, are destroyed in the battle of Armageddon, and Christ’s kingdom rules!
AND HE SHALL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER.
      —“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed . . .” Daniel 2:44.
      —“The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice . . .” Psalms 97:1. Alleluia!
      —After the seventh trumpet sounds, and before our Lord leaves heaven to deliver His people, the twenty-four elders, who have been redeemed from this earth, pour out the adoration and gratefulness of their hearts.
AND THE FOUR AND TWENTY ELDERS WHICH SAT BEFORE GOD ON THEIR SEATS FELL UPON THEIR FACES, AND WORSHIPPED GOD, SAYING, WE GIVE THEE THANKS, O LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, WHICH ART, AND WAST, AND ART TO COME: BECAUSE THOU HAST TAKEN TO THEE THY GREAT POWER, AND HAST REIGNED.
      —Grateful thanks to God for His infinite love is the theme of this heavenly anthem—sung by human beings. And throughout the ceaseless ages, this song will echo and reecho through the heavens, as the redeemed sing with unending joy and deep devotion:
            “. . . We give Thee thanks, O Lord . . .”
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The Empty Vials:
      —“The words will soon be spoken, ‘Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.’ . . .With unswerving fidelity they go forth clothed in pure white linen, having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And when their task is done, when the last vial of God’s wrath is poured out, they return and lay their emptied vials at the feet of their Lord.” TM 432. (Emphasis added.)
      —Look at those empty vials. Close your eyes and picture the seven angels as they file by their General, one by one. See those powerful custodians as they stoop at Jesus’ feet and return their empty vials.
      —Meditate on the eternal consequences which millions will suffer when these seven vials are emptied.
      —Then remember—this is a picture which has been given us by Inspiration of things yet to be. Probation is still open! There is still opportunity to help others prepare! The vials have not been emptied yet!
Accept this commission from God:
      —“‘Son of man, I have set thee a watchman upon the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at My mouth, and warn them from Me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou cost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at shine hand.’ Ezekiel 33:7, 8.
      —“Never did this message apply with greater force than it applies today. More and more the world is setting at nought the claims of God. Men have become bold in transgression. The wickedness of the inhabitants of the world has almost filled up the measure of their iniquity. This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it. The substitution of the laws of men for the law of God, the exaltation, by merely human authority, of Sunday in place of the Bible Sabbath, is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal Himself. He will arise in His majesty to shake terribly the earth. He will come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity, and the earth shall . . . no more cover her slain.
      —“The great conflict that Satan created in the heavenly courts is soon, very soon, to be forever decided. Soon all the inhabitants of the earth will have taken sides, either for or against the government of heaven. Now, as never before, Satan is exercising his deceiving power to mislead and to destroy every unguarded soul. We are called upon to arouse the people to prepare for the great issues before them. We must give warning to those who are standing on the very brink of ruin. God’s people are to put forth every power in combating Satan’s falsehoods and pulling down his strongholds. To every human being in the wide world who will give heed, we are to make plain the principles at stake in the great controversy—principles upon which hangs the eternal destiny of the world. To the people far and near we are to bring home the question: ‘Are you following the great apostate in disobedience to God’s law, or are you following the Son of God, who declared, ‘I have kept My Father’s commandments?” 7T 140, 141. (Emphasis added.)
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