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“Oh, the unspeakable greatness of that exchange,—the Sinless One is condemned, and he who is guilty goes free; the Blessing bears the curse, and the cursed is brought into blessing; the Life dies, and the dead live; the Glory is whelmed in darkness, and he who knew nothing but confusion of face is clothed with glory.”

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A person God turned around many times.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

A larger Thanksgiving picture


The great controversy of Lucifer has been replayed all through history. He has been one who could not accept discipline and punishment. We hear his pride in the words of Cain, “And Cain said to the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, Thou hast driven me this day from the face of the earth; and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth.” (Gen. 4:13, 14).

In Bible history and prophecy we see the first great rebel raise up more rebellions in the earth. The anteluvian world, Babel, primeval Babylon and Egypt, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Canaanite Amalekites, the Philistines, the Chaldeans of neo-Babylon, imperial Greece and Rome, Papal Rome, the Counter-Reformation and Papal Britain, today’s developing Puritanical and tyrannical Evangelical America during the fifth and sixth trumpets, and finally, the near future New pagan World Order of the seventh trumpet.

At each earthly manifestation of Luciferian rebellion, the biblical beast has ascended from the bottomless pit and gone into perdition. Revelation shows this happening only once in Revelation 9:1; 11:7;17:11, but it also shows the dragon being thrown back into the bottomless pit at Christ’s return in Revelation 20:1.

“And it grew great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yes, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered. ” (Dan. 8:10-12, cf Isa. 14:12-14; Acts 20:29-31).

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that Man of sin be revealed, the Son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God…. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of His mouth, and will destroy with the brightness of His coming.” (2Thess. 2:3, 4, 8).

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season.” (Rev. 20:1-3).

This ascent out of and descent into the bottomless pit indicates a cycle, and Daniel 8 alluded to that cycle as having occurred several times before the final three that that prophecy specifically addressed, Dark Ages papal Rome and its deadly Counter-Reformation response, the fifth and sixth trumpets revival of the Jesuit power as the beast is healed from its Reformation wound, and the Jesuits’ prosperous end in the total enslavement of the world to Satan.

“The beast that thou sawest, was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: 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, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” (Rev. 17:8).

But, as 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4,8 and Revelation 20 show, the final swing of the Dragon’s pendulum is in the Father’s favor. And better still, in the process of punishing the Dragon (Satan), and the beast (the Jesuit Papacy and the whole world, like on board a seemingly endless train), the Father has an amazing promise to the very small remnant in the end. They will be rare indeed.

“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He will destroy its sinners out of it. 
For the stars of heaven and its constellations shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 
And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 
I will make a man more preciousH3365 than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Isa. 13:9-12).

H3365
יָקַר
yâqar
yaw-kar'
A primitive root; properly apparently to be heavy, that is, (figuratively) valuable; causatively to make rare (figuratively to inhibit): - be (make) precious, be prized, be set by, withdraw.

Jesuits beware! Rare saints be of good cheer! The rarer the saints get, the more holy and precious they get.

“I will sing to the LORD, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. 
The LORD is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him a habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him. 
The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is His name. ” (Ex. 15:1-3).

Jehovah is a man of war, but only to the warmongers, the enslavers, the abusers of mankind.

“For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. 
If I shall whet My glittering sword, and My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to My enemies, and will reward them that hate Me. 
I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. 
Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people: for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will be merciful to His land, and to His people.” (Deut. 32:40-43).

“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.” “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people will He remove from all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.” (Isa. 25:9,8).

“O LORD, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. 
For Thou hast made of a city a heap; of a fortified city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. 
Therefore shall the strong people glorify Thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear Thee. 
For Thou hast been a defense to the poor, a defense to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. 
Thou wilt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shade of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low. 
And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls will He bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.” (Isa. 25:1-5,12).

“And on this mountain will the LORD of hosts make to all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And He will destroy on this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations…. ” (Isa. 25:6,7).

“And He will spread forth His hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and He will bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.” (Isa. 25: 11).

And “on this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest.” (Isa. 25: 10).

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Do Not Disturb


More and more, the heart of the world is closing to the truth. They put their fingers in their ears, they shut their eyes, and open their mouths to keep from being disturbed in their vanity and madness.

We live in a time awaiting the return of Christ in power. What is Jesus’ purpose in this waiting time? The delay has a two-fold purpose—to “cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and …. lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” (Isa. 13:11). And also to “make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man [of moral worth greater] than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (vs. 12).

“They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole land. 
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 
Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: 
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. 
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 
And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 
I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger. ” (Isa 13:5-13).

To prepare His children for that awful day, Jesus has given them a period of relative peacetime. This time that has some trouble and tragedy, has had the design to best facilitate the sobriety necessary in the mind of all who will accept the rebuke of the Law, and then drink of the water of life freely. This period is called the Investigative Judgment.

Christ declares, “And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” (Rev. 22:12).

His reward will have been decided by a joint courtroom of the soul within each of His children, between His Spirit and theirs. “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” (Job 32:8).

Would they, or would they not, be made more precious than fine gold? This is the question that they must all answer at this time. Graciously Jesus has given His Protestant America, and the world over which it has reigned, deliverance and continued protection from the despotic Dark Ages. However, as a righteous counterbalance for His peace and rest to our current world He has also allowed increasing and accelerated freedom to the old despot of Christendom.

During this time of abundant, but shrinking, quiet in the land, Protestant hearts were to be opening wider and ears becoming more sensitive to the still small voice of the great High Priest, Jesus Christ the righteous. His work has been to mediate the growing wrath of God, as our Father anticipates the restoration of His kingdom that Satan stole from Him in His children’s minds.

These past 175 years have had heaven’s utmost concern and focus toward garnering every honest Adventist Protestant. For that great enterprise our patient Jesus gave to His Advent movement His own voice from a frail, but faithful, human representative — Ellen G. White.
Although at times harsh and clear-cutting, His description of sin through her would lay open His children’s naturally proud hearts. But, in accordance with the repeated requirement to rest on the typical Day of Atonement (see Lev. 23:26-32), the seventh day Sabbath of the Lord was brought out from its burial under mounds of papal encyclicals and pagan falsehoods. The Sabbath was for the whole world to utilize. This, so that humanity could open its hearts and ears to the still, small voice of Jesus, for the purpose of soul-searching, and for the resolving the Law’s initial offense to their conscience from Ellen White, all of which also was the anti-type of the original type (see Lev. 16:29,31; 23:27,32; Num. 29:7).

All along the last days timeline since the 1849, during the five prophetic month fifth trumpet for awakening the world to judgment, another power worked to deceive minds and to sedate hearts so that they would arrive at judgment day unprepared. Sidetracks and distractions galore have prevented the affliction of the soul. But, for their sakes, during this time of growing delusion, intoxication, and distraction, the message through Ellen White, that great woman of God, disturbed and agitated. Now, in the sixth trumpet that began in 2000, the powers of heaven and hell are gearing up for the crescendo of God’s Seal and the Beast’s mark, the big and final 6,000 year clash between those two powers.

During these past two fifth and sixth Revelation trumpets, and their woes, evolution and humanism have been forced on the world’s intellect and the conscience, especially upon Protestant Americans. And atheism has had its deleterious effects on every Protestant. Intoxicating foods and drinks have left the Protestant American body compromised, and its soul addicted to self-indulgence. The mental and physical health of the Protestants are woefully unready and sleeping like the virgins of Matthew 25. The people have been dumbed down concerning their Protestant religion, so that with the new world agenda will have no dissenters. Yet they all believe they are perfectly fine. Their technological world will save them from all future difficulties. Their experiment in humanism and evolution that has thrust their Creator into a myth and fantasy, their brave new world, will sail pleasantly on into an eternal future. Yet, I doubt seriously if the perpetrators against Protestant America believe their scientific lies and nonsense. All they want is control, domination over a world of slaves.

But, God has other plans for His Protestants. For the sake of His Protestant and Adventist remnants, He will judge the whole body of Protestantism and Adventism. Then He will judge the world. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Ps. 2:4).

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain” (1Cor. 3:19,20).

“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith…. 
Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? 
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:4,13,14).

All their hopes in a godless world will end in the judgment that their God sought to save them from.

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.… Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary.” (Jer. 51:58,64).

When the new world of lawlessness comes crashing down all around, what will the “wise” people do? They will put forth the utmost effort to hold it together, but to no avail. The experiment of life without the Life-giver will utterly become untenable, the hopes for sustainability will become unsustainable. And the declaration from the 144,000, that the flawed human plans for a better world than the one Noah established does not compare with Noah’s system of God-given righteousness, will only burn in the souls of all the people who thought they were smarter than their Reformation forebears, and their omniscient and selfless Creator.

“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 
For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 
Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. 
How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. 
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. 
And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, 
Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.” (Rev. 18:2-11).

Soon all the evidence will point to an intelligent, omniscient Creator as the origin of life and complex life, rather than to evolution from blind forces. Then, all that supports atheism will unravel on the day that Jesus arrives.

In the meantime, the big response they give us is, Talk to the hand!

Thankful that God's forever doesn't have to be forever

“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, 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: 
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:9-11).

“For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. 
I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend Mine arrows upon them. 
They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. 
The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. 
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men.” (Deut. 32:22-26).

Sometimes the ways of God are incomprehensible. His strange act seems overly harsh. His discipline seems overbearing. His anger seems like sin. Yet, how can a holy God sin? How can the God of love ever be anything but loving?

Can we be humbled and drawn away from our self-sufficiency and natural-born pride by God’s infinite expressions of disapproval? That is the question we need to answer. Probably more than the ever burning hell misconception that has driven so many away from Protestantism and into atheism, God’s punishments have offended and caused the whole world to desire the service to Satan. As King of kings and Prophet of prophets, God as Preacher of preachers is the ultimate “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).

Therefore, the devil easily uses his “happy” Ashtoreth mask to woo the world away into his do-as-you-please camp and away from God’s firm stance against sin. Yet, the divine Preacher of righteousness doesn’t back down from His stance. The Father of glory, “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas. 1:17), and who says, “I am the LORD, I change not” (Mal. 3:6), remains unbending for our sakes. His remnant would certainly all be lost if He ever deviated from His infinitely high, enduring standard. We tremble before the Law of God because something in us causes us to doubt that we can trust the Law. Despite our profession of service, none of us are wholly surrendered to God’s good will. Our fallen nature won’t let us be completely trusting and committed to Him. But, His mercy maintains us in our journey to His holiness and His firm truth is our stability. When His righteousness has brought us to surrender, then we are glad in His peace.

In what seems an eternal darkness, He has grinded us down and shapen us into His image. His working for our redemption seems eternal.

“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills. 
O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders. And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in Mine anger, which shall burn for ever. ” (Jer. 17:1-4).

But, His ever-burning wrath is not a human ever-burning wrath that is full of malice and the cruel venom of asps, and does last forever.

“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 us according to our iniquities. ” (Ps. 103:8-10).

Divine wrath doesn’t change divine love. Those judgments were Jesus’ judgments. The Messiah, the Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of peace. His judgments were aimed at the present tyranny. “But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.” (Isa. 11:4). All of His forever wrath is made to humble His children into meekness, and then to deal with all who refused to be humbled.

His wrath consigns the tyrannical to an unchangeable state of death. And it also delivers a remnant that have been grinded down and shapen into righteousness by the abuse of the tyrannical. His wrath separates the genuine rebels from the apparent rebels. It separates those who Jesus can redeem from those who have given themselves completely over to Satan. Under  the overly unbearable thunders of God everyone who desires to repent will repent, and everyone who is determinedly atheistic will be driven to utter darkness. This is the purpose of God in His “forever wrath” and His authoritative judgments.

“I have forsaken Mine house, I have left Mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies. 
Mine heritage is unto Me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against Me: therefore have I hated it. 
Mine heritage is unto Me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour. 
Many pastors have destroyed My vineyard, they have trodden My portion under foot, they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. 
They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto Me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart. 
The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace. 
They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD. 
Thus saith the LORD against all Mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. 
And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. 
And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, The LORD liveth; as they taught My people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of My people. 
But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD. ” (Jer. 12:7-17).

Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. 
I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness.
In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. 
In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 
Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. 
Feed Thy people with Thy rod, the flock of Thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. 
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things. 
The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 
They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee. 
Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. 
He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. ” (Mic. 7:8,9,11-20).

“They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. 
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. 
And when the LORD saw it, He abhorred them, because of the provoking of His sons, and of His daughters.” (Deut. 32:17-19).

Was Jehovah unrighteous to threaten and burst forth in uncontrollable anger when He sees His children murdered under the direction of Moloch (Baal, Satan) and his priests, and at the hand of their parents?

“And He said, I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. 
They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 
For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. 
I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend Mine arrows upon them. 
They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. 
The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. 
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men” (Deut. 32:20-26).

“For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. 
O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! 
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? 
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. 
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: 
Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. 
Is not this laid up in store with Me, and sealed up among My treasures? 
To Me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. 
For the LORD shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. 
And He shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, 
Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. 
See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand. 
For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. 
If I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me.” (Deut. 32:28-41).

We have a good God. But He only seems good to those who are not among the genuine rebels. But, to which group, the thankful few or the angry majority, do we belong? Have we been privileged with God’s temporal blessings? So had the group against whom Jesus was whetting His glittering sword.

“He made him (Israel) ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; 
Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. 
…thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness….” (Deut. 32:13-15).

But, what did they do with all that prosperity? Were they thankful for His abundance? No. “Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:… then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” (Deut. 32:15).

Have we been privileged with God’s spiritual blessing, the gift of God? So had the above group.

“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. 
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 
So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.” (Deut. 32:10-12).

When Jesus begins His return, His divine presence will precede Him in the Latter Rain. And there will be two groups within His people waiting—the wise and the foolish. In Jesus’ Matthew 25:1-13 parable, both groups professed to eagerly look for their Lord. But, only some were actually ready, and the rest were not. And, in all actuality, those who were ready weren’t perfectly ready, because everybody was asleep. Everyone was in darkness, no one knew who dark the world had become. None of them looked worthy of being called virgin. Not until they woke up do we know who was wise and worth of salvation.

Not until we wake up will we know who of us is wise. Who will be wise and worthy of being suited up to give the Latter Rain? Who of us are being sealed, even today? Yes, the sealing has been happening since 1844. That may come as surprise to many Adventists today because we have lost the reality of the sealing. Revelation 7-10 are all about the seal of God and the mark of the beast. A post I wrote gives an overview of this. It is my  March 20, 2017 post.

Certainly, the wise virgins will be those who, during the tarrying time, feared before the righteous judgments of God. Who else, surrounded by a world with a palpable atmosphere of sin and idolatry, would expend the effort to be adding to their faith in case the time of trouble might be worse in reality than in anticipation? Who else would let the threats of a jealous God rumble against their sinfulness? Who else would stand before the Law of liberty, and not be able to deny that they were chiefest among sinners? To whom else would Paul’s experience apply,

“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me…. 
But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. ” (Rom. 7:9-13).

Who else would conclude, “Wherefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Rom. 7:12).

Who else would wind up humbled before God, overwhelmed in despair, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). Who else would find themselves beseeching the Schoolmaster face to face, propelled by a faith that He gave them during the process of Romans 7?

And who else would find themselves justified by that struggle and its faith, and ready for Jesus’ appearance at the head of His Latter Rain?

“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. 
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. ” (Rom 7:25-8:2).

Therefore, were it not for the firm judgments of God, His ever-burning wrath, the 144,000 would never be wise and able to trim their lamps for the Latter Rain. They would never be part of the sealing, the “great time of trouble such as never was”, Jacob’s troubles, and finally the visible return of Jesus in power.

At this time of Thanksgiving, even though darkness is covering the earth and gross darkness the people, even though a great evil is sweeping over the world, we can be thankful that these are the fierce judgments of God that will be perfectly tailored to arrest our fixation on the things of the world, and turn our whole heart to our coming Saviour. We need His jealous punishment. We need His rod. His rod and staff settle us, comfort us, and establish us in Him.

I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness.” (Mic. 7:9).