It is time for thee, LORD, to work:
Psalms 119:126
for they have made void thy law.
The Lord gives a special truth for the people
in an emergency. Who dare refuse to publish it?1
My fingers clasped the chain link fence and I pulled myself up onto the narrow concrete ledge for a better view. Thousands, crowding in on either side of me, pressed blank faces into the wire. It was just days after the one year anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, and I found myself staring down into the enormous pit called “ground zero.”
Fourteen months earlier, I had been on the East Coast for a family reunion, and had used the opportunity to visit the Statue of Liberty with my family. I remember looking over from Liberty Island to the twin towers punctuating the Manhattan skyline. We had even taken some pictures of them. Now, those towers were gone.
Somewhere between those two visits, during a layover in New Jersey, I remember glancing across the channel through an airport window and noticing the missing towers. A strange feeling came over me as the reality of the misshapen skyline sunk in. Even so, seeing the disaster site first hand left me dazed. Long minutes passed as I stared into the gaping wound.
Yes, the wreckage had been excavated. Everything was “sanitized” for public viewing. Industrious hawkers had even set up tables to sell 9/11 souvenirs. Manhattan was flourishing. But the empty hole was inescapable: a silent testimony that something had gone wrong.
SOMETHING IS WRONG
Of course, signs our world was heading for trouble have been accelerating for years. I remember a beautiful spring day several years back, while living in Oklahoma. I was using the time to catch up on some things in the garden. Though there was not a cloud in the sky—I suddenly heard the distant rumble of thunder. Others, inside buildings, told me they saw pictures rattling on the wall. The Oklahoma City Federal building had just been destroyed. We felt the blast some 25 miles away!
On another occasion, I was sitting at an airport in Phoenix, Arizona watching the news monitors while waiting for my connecting flight to do a week of prayer on the east coast. Suddenly, a major news story broke out: two disturbed students in Columbine, Colorado had gone to their high school to carry out some deranged fantasy of killing as many classmates as possible, and then taking their own lives. Tragically enough, two years later, I was sitting in that exact same airport, flying to another speaking engagement. And again I was watching the news monitors, trying to catch up on the latest headlines—when suddenly another horror story broke out. This time it was a thirteen year old boy in southern California, who had brought a pistol to school.
EVIDENCE IS EVERYWHERE
Yes, evidence abounds that our world is in trouble. The Middle East simmers with a suicidal hatred toward the West while the Israelis and Palestinians drag out their interminable deadlock. The Cold War shows signs of rekindling, and powder kegs sprinkled around the globe threaten to explode at any moment: North Korea, Venezuela, Kashmir, Taiwan, Tibet, Iran, Kosovo, Somalia. Where will trouble erupt next?
On the economic side, politicians labor in vain to ensure financial stability while the dollar continues to shrink and the national debt continues to expand. Much of the third world is grinding away under oppressive exploitation, causing untold misery: poverty, famine, and disease. All the while, consumers in more prosperous countries, spend billions on debased entertainment filled with violence, sensuality, and ungodly values.
Even the planet seems to be teetering. Environmental devastation is everywhere. Pollution and toxic waste. Global warming. Deforestation. Gigantic ocean dead zones. Bizarre weather patterns. Hurricanes, earthquakes, mud slides and floods, raging fires, tsunamis, and volcanoes are all becoming increasingly common. Natural disasters seem to be escalating unlike any period in recorded history.
Most students of Bible prophecy discern clearly that the restraining influence of God’s Spirit is gradually being withdrawn from the earth. There’s no other explanation.
A SPIRITUAL CRISIS
We are also seeing the dark clouds of an impending spiritual crisis gathering on the horizon. Many evangelical seminaries are riddled with higher criticism, the theory of evolution, and pop psychology—while best-selling books and movies, like the “Left Behind” series, and “The Passion” fill the minds of millions with false conceptions of Bible truth. Every wind of doctrine is blowing. Confusion is rampant.
At the same time, religion is becoming an increasingly potent force in American politics—with both Republicans and Democrats scrambling to highlight their personal commitment to God. And religious leaders are showing an increased willingness to use their positions to influence legislation. A deadly combination for both church and state.
And no longer can we count on the U.S. Supreme Court to provide much protection to religious minorities. The last Chief Justice argued: “the wall of separation between church and state … has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.” Interestingly enough, the nomination of Judge Alito to the supreme court, creating what will be the first Catholic majority on the Supreme Court in this country’s history, was announced on the exact anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 thesis. The date generally recognized as the birth of the reformation. Those concerned about our crumbling respect for religious freedom are already giving muffled warnings of “extremism,” “theocracy,” and a “march into fascism.” But no one seems to be listening.
Over recent decades the papacy has been growing in power, and begun making calls for the global community to enact “civil legislation” to protect the “sanctity of Sunday worship.” And many among the more militant in the Christian right seemed determined to move America that direction. Interestingly, shortly after 9/11, in a letter written to supporters, the president of the Lord’s Day Alliance wrote: “We stand on the verge of an unprecedented opportunity to proclaim the message of the Christian Sunday in a manner unseen at least in my lifetime.” The stage, it seems, is all but set. Another crisis or two, and we could soon be facing earth’s final test.
WHERE IS GOD?
In my various travels across the country, I have noticed a widespread and growing conviction among believers that time is short. Everywhere, people are expressing an urgent sense of need for a deeper spiritual preparation. And many are growing increasingly troubled by the lack of spirituality in our churches. It is almost as if the unfolding of prophecy taking place around us were some kind of slow motion movie. We sit watching, spellbound—as if powerless to act—while multitudes race on toward destruction. Something is wrong.
Which leads to an important question: where is God? Shouldn’t heaven be launching some sort of counter offensive? Shouldn’t there be some Spirit-inspired effort to revive and prepare our beloved church for what is just ahead? The enemy is clearly at work, and he is making rapid advances on every front. But what about God? What is heaven doing?
Of one thing we can be sure, heaven is at work. Whenever the moral fabric of society begins to rip apart—God always moves. “It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law” (Psalms 119:126). The signs in our world give us every reason to believe God is poised to do something special among His people. The more clearly we see Satan’s hand in current events, the more certain we can be that God’s hand is moving also, somewhere. But we must know where to look.
AN URGENT MESSAGE
In times of trial, God always works through His Word. That is, He raises up individuals to proclaim a special message from Scripture. Notice: “different periods in the history of the church have each been marked by the development of some special truth, adapted to the necessities of God’s people at that time.”2 The final crisis will be no different: “amid the confusing cries … will be borne a special testimony, a special message of truth appropriate for this time.”3
When it comes to the final crisis, we have the distinct advantage of even knowing what passage of Scripture God will use: “Christ is coming the second time, with power unto salvation. To prepare human beings for this event, He has sent the first second, and third angels’ messages.”4 Something about this passage is uniquely powerful. Which is doubtless why God’s people are told “the proclamation of the first, second and third angels’ messages” is “a work of the most solemn import … There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.”5 Clearly God is going to use the words of these three angels in a special way to prepare His church for what is soon to come.
The Bible itself suggests the same thing. In Revelation fourteen, John actually sees, in vision, the “everlasting gospel” going “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” under the symbolism of these three mighty angels (Revelation 14:6). The next few verses give the content of their messages. Then, immediately following, John sees the result: “here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). The messages have accomplished their work. They have produced at last what the universe has been waiting all these centuries to see: a people who walk in genuine obedience to God through a faith like that of Jesus himself.
SOMETHING IS MISSING
Of course, people have been studying the messages of these three angels for years. They have been preached by thousands, around the globe. We have announced the hour of God’s judgment, proclaimed the fall of Babylon, and warned of the mark of the beast. And God has blessed these efforts. No question about it. But can we say these messages have truly prepared a people for the return of Christ—even yet?
Look around you. Are the members in your church fully keeping the commandments of God? Are they genuinely living by the faith of Jesus? Is your church really ready to meet Jesus—right now? If we are honest, most of us would have to admit these messages have not yet fully accomplished their purpose in our own lives! Something is missing.
I believe it is simply that we have failed to completely grasp the meaning of these messages. Or to put it differently: “In these last days, it is our duty to ascertain the full meaning of the first, second and third angel’s messages.”6 For these messages to do their job, there must be more we need to understand!
Fortunately, it is predicted this time of deeper understanding would eventually come: “the fourteenth chapter of Revelation is a chapter of the deepest interest. This scripture will soon be understood in all its bearings, and the messages given to John the revelator will be repeated with distinct utterance.”7 These words, penned long after the main prophetic symbols in these verses had been largely unraveled, point forward to a future time when God would give his people even deeper insights into their meaning. Fresh insights would come to the surface that would so electrify the workers, they would be driven to repeat the good news everywhere—with “distinct utterance.”
Are we entering the closing scenes of earth’s history? Then we can be confident God is working. And specifically, we can expect Him to be giving His people a deeper understanding of a particular passage of Scripture: the three angels messages of Revelation fourteen. An understanding calculated to strengthen us for the final crisis. Insights that will prepare us at last to meet Christ in peace. Insights desperately needed right now.
Could it be that time is here? That the stage really is all but set for the final crisis? That we really do stand on the brink of eternity? If so, we can be confident God is at work for His people. Let’s eagerly anticipate God’s promised blessing as we study afresh the three angels messages. Let’s expect God to give us an urgent message—for such a time…