The call of the 6th trumpet
“And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life.” (Jn. 6:40).
The plagues of the 5th and 6th trumpets torment and finally kill the conscience of Protestant America and of the world under Protestantism’s blessed influence and protection. This came upon the Protestants as the result of the first four trumpets, in which Satan poisoned their consciences by their proliferation of his lies against the Millerite movement prior to 1844 and then the Seventh-day Adventist movement, to destroy the last warning to the world.
Long before this the Protestants had lost the knowledge of unfeigned faith, a conscience of right standing before the Law of God, and charity out of a pure heart. As a group, and by far a great majority in Protestantism, they had not known the things of God, the reality of a brokenness that comes from falling helplessly on Jesus for union with God and the holy life which He came to offer, and the transformation of character accomplished by the entrance of the Holy Spirit.
By the 18th century, the spirit of the Reformation—the laying down of life for the salvation of others—had disappeared except for a minority of the Protestants. At the end of each long day of reaping the land of milk and honey they had no time or strength left for the gospel or for their own salvation. They turned their ear away from the commandments, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1Jn. 2:15;1Tim. 6:9,10). Thus, leaving the commandments of God, even their worship became an abomination. (Prov. 28:9).
Protestantism’s main purpose at its formation was to create a priesthood that would walk among the uncircumcised at heart and lead minds back to God. They were to be a holy, sanctifying influence in the world. They had had the high privilege of restarting the original charter of the apostolic church. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1Pet. 2:9,10).
But, like ancient Israel once in Canaan, they turned from the royal privilege of winning the New World for the truth and blessing from Jehovah to squandering their lives on the visible tokens of Jehovah’s approbation in the gift of a continent safe from persecution. And as the Lord forewarned Israel of desolation and bitterness if they would apostatize from Him (Lev. 26:32;Deut. 32:32,33; 29:16-23), which did come to pass because they turned away from His holy covenant to worship the land flowing with milk and honey, so the same plagues of torment and desolation and ultimate vomiting out of God’s presence were prophesied against the Protestant Americans. This final test and rejection of the Protestant denominations occurred during the 5th trumpet.
Through the specious and subtle workings of Satan, “an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” (Dan. 8:12). This prophecy was based on Israel’s disobedient history, but was fulfilled by the 2nd century apostolic church accepting paganism wholesale, and again by the Reformation in the 18th century as it lost its original fervor for the Lord and for the Bible.
Israel could not know the cost of leaving God behind; the consequences of denying Jehovah, instead of loving Him with all their heart and walking humbly before His justice and mercy, was not foreseen. Although Jehovah had spelled it out for them through Moses in Leviticus and again in Deuteronomy, He put His warning plagues in writing and expected the people to search those scriptures. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29). But, after a generation, they had no time for Him or for His scriptures. Thus, began their many trysts and entrapments of Baal and Ashtaroth worship.
Jehovah told them that the separation from Him and His wise love would leave them defenseless before their enemies and He would remove His prosperity promised to them. If they didn’t need their God, then they were on their own. They would have no hope of protection except for what they would provide for themselves. Every good and perfect gift that had come from above must come by their own hand and genius, from that time onward. Now they were God, and would discover the office of Creator and Provider to be an overwhelming scourge.
While united to the Lord through the sacrifice of the lamb and obedient to His statutes and laws, their work was filled with joy, as we hear in the following scenes. “And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee.” (Ruth 2:4). “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches.” (Ps. 104:23,24).
But, gradually the spark of love and joy no longer empowered their bodies, brains, and spirits. All the products they would manufacture, all the strategies they must devise in the marketing of their goods to Egypt, Assyria, the neighboring states, and far off lands, they must force out of themselves with a taskmaster’s lash, overworking their faculties and their inherited strength and health. Without love as their motivation, peace and rest were driven from each soul and body. Likewise did peace and rest leave their families, tribes, and nation. “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.” (Isa. 47:13). “Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.” (Isa. 57:10).
Local spiritualism and worshiping devils only exacerbated their problem of unrest. “But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Against whom do ye sport yourselves…enflaming yourselves with idols?” (Isa. 57:3-5).
The nervous system, under constant stress, became inervated and confused. “I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart.” “And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.” (Lev. 26:16,36).
“The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness.” (Deut. 28:28,29). “And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” (Isa. 8:21,22).
But they wouldn’t recognize their miserable disillusionment and irritation as divine punishment. “Therefore He hath poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.” (Isa. 42:25). They had accepted a counterfeit religion from Jeroboam, their first king. Situated right at the border to Judah, he built a temple to Baal and made a high day of worship on the tenth day of the eighth month, one month following the original which the Lord had given to Moses, and a human copy to imitate the true Lord’s Day of Atonement. Access to the southern kingdom of Judah was free to all the northern Israelites who desired to travel there. The only thing preventing them from worshiping at Jerusalem and being sanctified and saved by the death of the innocent Lamb of God, was a little extra time and effort. But because of the inconvenience, no one from the northern kingdom made the trips to the true place of worship on the true authorized days of worship.
The wilder scenes of Baal, the excitement and scantly clad priestesses of Ashtaroth, the carnival atmosphere led by the priests of Baal, the raucous sacrificing and the strong intoxicating smells and tastes of roasted swine, captivated every sense. The golden calf, gleaming in a translucent shine, never died and never provided for the conviction of sin or a humbled and broken heart. The burnished idol remained a wildly popular object of lust to the eyes and lust to the flesh.
So, the Israelites chose the torment of living apart from loyalty to the God who delivered them from Egyptian bondage, bringing them to His home, and desiring to deliver them from the bondage of self-sufficiency and independence from Him as their source of life. Just as the Israelites could have been spared all of their bitter experience and final expulsion from their land of plenty, so the Protestants could have been spared the same rejection by heaven in the first four trumpets, following 1844.
The present turmoil of Protestant Americans’ hearts and minds today, because of their lost faith in Jesus’ love and humble obedience to God’s Law, is exactly what Jesus suffered in their place as He stumbled disoriented from Gethsemane to Golgotha. Permanent, everlasting estrangement from God and from His Father’s infinite love, that shattered Jesus’ composure, and decimated His perfect hope and constant joy, all was His to experience so that by beholding Him the Spirit of God could lead the Protestants to fall before Him in contrition and lay all their chastisement of peace at Jesus’ trembling feet, and escape His torment. That emptiness of existence apart from the perfect love of God was a wrath so powerful, a loneliness so heavy, that it rattled every nerve in Christ’s body like thunder, turning His body’s every corpuscle into jello, so that blood seeped from His whole body before the first whip cut His flesh. (Num. 19:2;Lk. 22:44). All that the Protestants could have seen in this their holiest tradition, has been forgotten, and has left them to drink that cup of emptiness themselves. Today, the hedonist Protestants are consumed with every form of drug and self-indulgence; and the religious Protestants are no better off, having “trodden under foot the Son of God, and…counted the blood of the covenant…an unholy thing, and…done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” (Heb. 10:29).
But, if either, hedonistic or religious American, had come to the Bible and been awakened to their true spiritual bankruptcy, the Spirit of God would have led each one to a haven of rest in the Advent movement. From the Spirit of Prophecy they would have received more than ample description of sin that would have led them to a genuine need of a Savior. If studied intently with the three angels’ messages, the prophecy of the trumpets and would have shed greater light on their path to Christ, conviction of sin, and full preparation for Christ’s return.
During the 5th and 6th trumpets, everyone who would not be offended by the hot conviction of sin through the last day prophet and continue to seek God’s approval, would find grace in the eyes of the Lord, and be sealed with “the seal of God on their foreheads.” (Rev. 9:4). But simultaneously, every Protestant who would not seek God with all the heart in the looming potential of endless fun and fortune, would be “tormented,” “and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night” because they “worship the beast and his image, and…[receive] the mark of his name.” (Rev. 9:5;14:11). Concurrently, upon every soul the heavenly court would be decided the Mark of the beast or the Seal of God; thus the heavenly sanctuary will be cleansed of apostatized Protestants.
We are in the 6th trumpet, awaiting the Latter Rain. Tremendous forces are at work around the world and in America to cause the full possession of the human race by satanic power through the United Nations, the Vatican, and apostate Protestant America. Yet, the call still goes out to the Americans and Protestants around the globe, who have an ear to hear, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isa. 8:20). “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” (Jn. 12:32). “I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Isa. 13:12). “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa. 53:6).
The gospel message still applies, but now under the pressure of eschatological time limitations and combined with apocalyptic warning. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Jn. 3:36).
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” (2Cor. 6:17).
“Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4).
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” (Rev. 22:17).
The plagues of the 5th and 6th trumpets torment and finally kill the conscience of Protestant America and of the world under Protestantism’s blessed influence and protection. This came upon the Protestants as the result of the first four trumpets, in which Satan poisoned their consciences by their proliferation of his lies against the Millerite movement prior to 1844 and then the Seventh-day Adventist movement, to destroy the last warning to the world.
Long before this the Protestants had lost the knowledge of unfeigned faith, a conscience of right standing before the Law of God, and charity out of a pure heart. As a group, and by far a great majority in Protestantism, they had not known the things of God, the reality of a brokenness that comes from falling helplessly on Jesus for union with God and the holy life which He came to offer, and the transformation of character accomplished by the entrance of the Holy Spirit.
By the 18th century, the spirit of the Reformation—the laying down of life for the salvation of others—had disappeared except for a minority of the Protestants. At the end of each long day of reaping the land of milk and honey they had no time or strength left for the gospel or for their own salvation. They turned their ear away from the commandments, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1Jn. 2:15;1Tim. 6:9,10). Thus, leaving the commandments of God, even their worship became an abomination. (Prov. 28:9).
Protestantism’s main purpose at its formation was to create a priesthood that would walk among the uncircumcised at heart and lead minds back to God. They were to be a holy, sanctifying influence in the world. They had had the high privilege of restarting the original charter of the apostolic church. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1Pet. 2:9,10).
But, like ancient Israel once in Canaan, they turned from the royal privilege of winning the New World for the truth and blessing from Jehovah to squandering their lives on the visible tokens of Jehovah’s approbation in the gift of a continent safe from persecution. And as the Lord forewarned Israel of desolation and bitterness if they would apostatize from Him (Lev. 26:32;Deut. 32:32,33; 29:16-23), which did come to pass because they turned away from His holy covenant to worship the land flowing with milk and honey, so the same plagues of torment and desolation and ultimate vomiting out of God’s presence were prophesied against the Protestant Americans. This final test and rejection of the Protestant denominations occurred during the 5th trumpet.
Through the specious and subtle workings of Satan, “an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” (Dan. 8:12). This prophecy was based on Israel’s disobedient history, but was fulfilled by the 2nd century apostolic church accepting paganism wholesale, and again by the Reformation in the 18th century as it lost its original fervor for the Lord and for the Bible.
Israel could not know the cost of leaving God behind; the consequences of denying Jehovah, instead of loving Him with all their heart and walking humbly before His justice and mercy, was not foreseen. Although Jehovah had spelled it out for them through Moses in Leviticus and again in Deuteronomy, He put His warning plagues in writing and expected the people to search those scriptures. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29). But, after a generation, they had no time for Him or for His scriptures. Thus, began their many trysts and entrapments of Baal and Ashtaroth worship.
Jehovah told them that the separation from Him and His wise love would leave them defenseless before their enemies and He would remove His prosperity promised to them. If they didn’t need their God, then they were on their own. They would have no hope of protection except for what they would provide for themselves. Every good and perfect gift that had come from above must come by their own hand and genius, from that time onward. Now they were God, and would discover the office of Creator and Provider to be an overwhelming scourge.
While united to the Lord through the sacrifice of the lamb and obedient to His statutes and laws, their work was filled with joy, as we hear in the following scenes. “And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee.” (Ruth 2:4). “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches.” (Ps. 104:23,24).
But, gradually the spark of love and joy no longer empowered their bodies, brains, and spirits. All the products they would manufacture, all the strategies they must devise in the marketing of their goods to Egypt, Assyria, the neighboring states, and far off lands, they must force out of themselves with a taskmaster’s lash, overworking their faculties and their inherited strength and health. Without love as their motivation, peace and rest were driven from each soul and body. Likewise did peace and rest leave their families, tribes, and nation. “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.” (Isa. 47:13). “Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.” (Isa. 57:10).
Local spiritualism and worshiping devils only exacerbated their problem of unrest. “But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Against whom do ye sport yourselves…enflaming yourselves with idols?” (Isa. 57:3-5).
The nervous system, under constant stress, became inervated and confused. “I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart.” “And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.” (Lev. 26:16,36).
“The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness.” (Deut. 28:28,29). “And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” (Isa. 8:21,22).
But they wouldn’t recognize their miserable disillusionment and irritation as divine punishment. “Therefore He hath poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.” (Isa. 42:25). They had accepted a counterfeit religion from Jeroboam, their first king. Situated right at the border to Judah, he built a temple to Baal and made a high day of worship on the tenth day of the eighth month, one month following the original which the Lord had given to Moses, and a human copy to imitate the true Lord’s Day of Atonement. Access to the southern kingdom of Judah was free to all the northern Israelites who desired to travel there. The only thing preventing them from worshiping at Jerusalem and being sanctified and saved by the death of the innocent Lamb of God, was a little extra time and effort. But because of the inconvenience, no one from the northern kingdom made the trips to the true place of worship on the true authorized days of worship.
The wilder scenes of Baal, the excitement and scantly clad priestesses of Ashtaroth, the carnival atmosphere led by the priests of Baal, the raucous sacrificing and the strong intoxicating smells and tastes of roasted swine, captivated every sense. The golden calf, gleaming in a translucent shine, never died and never provided for the conviction of sin or a humbled and broken heart. The burnished idol remained a wildly popular object of lust to the eyes and lust to the flesh.
So, the Israelites chose the torment of living apart from loyalty to the God who delivered them from Egyptian bondage, bringing them to His home, and desiring to deliver them from the bondage of self-sufficiency and independence from Him as their source of life. Just as the Israelites could have been spared all of their bitter experience and final expulsion from their land of plenty, so the Protestants could have been spared the same rejection by heaven in the first four trumpets, following 1844.
The present turmoil of Protestant Americans’ hearts and minds today, because of their lost faith in Jesus’ love and humble obedience to God’s Law, is exactly what Jesus suffered in their place as He stumbled disoriented from Gethsemane to Golgotha. Permanent, everlasting estrangement from God and from His Father’s infinite love, that shattered Jesus’ composure, and decimated His perfect hope and constant joy, all was His to experience so that by beholding Him the Spirit of God could lead the Protestants to fall before Him in contrition and lay all their chastisement of peace at Jesus’ trembling feet, and escape His torment. That emptiness of existence apart from the perfect love of God was a wrath so powerful, a loneliness so heavy, that it rattled every nerve in Christ’s body like thunder, turning His body’s every corpuscle into jello, so that blood seeped from His whole body before the first whip cut His flesh. (Num. 19:2;Lk. 22:44). All that the Protestants could have seen in this their holiest tradition, has been forgotten, and has left them to drink that cup of emptiness themselves. Today, the hedonist Protestants are consumed with every form of drug and self-indulgence; and the religious Protestants are no better off, having “trodden under foot the Son of God, and…counted the blood of the covenant…an unholy thing, and…done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” (Heb. 10:29).
But, if either, hedonistic or religious American, had come to the Bible and been awakened to their true spiritual bankruptcy, the Spirit of God would have led each one to a haven of rest in the Advent movement. From the Spirit of Prophecy they would have received more than ample description of sin that would have led them to a genuine need of a Savior. If studied intently with the three angels’ messages, the prophecy of the trumpets and would have shed greater light on their path to Christ, conviction of sin, and full preparation for Christ’s return.
During the 5th and 6th trumpets, everyone who would not be offended by the hot conviction of sin through the last day prophet and continue to seek God’s approval, would find grace in the eyes of the Lord, and be sealed with “the seal of God on their foreheads.” (Rev. 9:4). But simultaneously, every Protestant who would not seek God with all the heart in the looming potential of endless fun and fortune, would be “tormented,” “and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night” because they “worship the beast and his image, and…[receive] the mark of his name.” (Rev. 9:5;14:11). Concurrently, upon every soul the heavenly court would be decided the Mark of the beast or the Seal of God; thus the heavenly sanctuary will be cleansed of apostatized Protestants.
We are in the 6th trumpet, awaiting the Latter Rain. Tremendous forces are at work around the world and in America to cause the full possession of the human race by satanic power through the United Nations, the Vatican, and apostate Protestant America. Yet, the call still goes out to the Americans and Protestants around the globe, who have an ear to hear, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isa. 8:20). “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” (Jn. 12:32). “I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Isa. 13:12). “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa. 53:6).
The gospel message still applies, but now under the pressure of eschatological time limitations and combined with apocalyptic warning. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Jn. 3:36).
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” (2Cor. 6:17).
“Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4).
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” (Rev. 22:17).
posted by David | 12:39 PM
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