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The Plan of Salvation will soon reach the 6000-year limit. The Judgment of the Living is soon to begin in heaven. God’s people perish for lack of knowledge! This important study will help prepare for the trials just ahead.
Introduction
The time of testing for God’s people has begun. The world began with an obedience test in the Garden of Eden. The world will end with an obedience test. Adam and Eve failed. We don’t get to fail! If we fail it means eternal death, eternal separation from God. We MUST pass the final test. God gave us Christ’s three victories as our example: He defeated Satan in the desert, He willingly laid down His life at the cross, and He triumphed over death when He resurrected.
Earth’s final test, which Adventists call “the National Sunday Law”, will determine the eternal destiny of every person on the planet. Because God is so merciful, He’s allowing a pre-test or pre-qualifier to get us ready, what I call the semi-finals. That test is the Covid vaccine which they’re aggressively rolling out even as I speak. The Covid vaccine I believe is a qualifying test. If you don’t pass the vaccine test, it will be much more difficult for you to pass the Sabbath obedience test. You would stand a much higher chance of receiving the mark of the beast.
Even if you do pass the vaccine test, how do you know whether you’ll be able to stand in the final test? None of us can even begin to fathom the horror of the coming crisis. How do you protect yourself from selling your eternal inheritance in a moment of weakness, as Esau did? How can you be sure that you’ll be able to achieve the perfection required of God’s Remnant people? (Proverbs 2:21: For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.)
In today’s study we’ll:
- Demonstrate how close we are to the final Sabbath obedience test – and how the Covid vaccine really is a preparatory test allowed for our training. We’ll go to the bible to understand the spiritual implications of both.
- Consider the relationship between what’s going on in heaven right now and what’s happening on the earth: in other words, we’re going to consider the relationship between the Judgment of the Living and the National Sunday Law.
- Expose the relationship between Covid 19 and Climate Change: Climate Change being the door through which the Sunday Law will enter
- Look at what’s planned to take place this coming month of May to show how close we are to the Sunday Law.
- Understand what God wants us to do that will help us to meet His requirement of perfection for the Remnant
This is a very critical overview of where we stand right now and how you can strengthen yourself to gain the victory in the final test. That you and I may be able to say, as Job did, “When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). You’ll be blessed if you stay with me until the very end.
Let’s get started!
A People Under Judgment
We’re all familiar with the description of the Church of the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:14-22. John the Revelator’s letter to the Laodiceans was written not only for the actual church in Asia Minor in the early days of the Christian Church. It was also written for the last generation.
Laodicea is a compound Greek word that means “people under judgment”, in other words, a people on whom judgment shall be executed.
Well, sadly, Jesus had nothing good to say about this church! First, He tells them they’re lukewarm, and that He will spew them out of His mouth. Let’s read the second rebuke Jesus had for the Laodiceans:
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich (G4145 ploúsios), and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
This passage could be an entire study in itself! But let’s just highlight a couple of things:
- Jesus’ reproach to the Laodiceans is that they know not their condition. He doesn’t reproach them for their condition. He doesn’t mind if they’re poor, miserable, wretched, blind and naked. What He does mind is their lack of knowledge about their true condition. If they knew their true condition they would come to Him for help. Unless the Laodiceans understand their true condition and follow Jesus’ counsel, “they shall perish”. The Word of God says in Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children”. The Lord is telling us that this lack of knowledge, and rejection of knowledge, is related to the keeping of His law. We’ll see shortly how this is going to play out.
- Jesus counsels us to buy three things from Him: gold tried in the fire, white raiment and eye salve. Today I want to focus on the “gold tried in the fire”. Let’s look at three other mentions of gold tried in the fire:
“And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness”. (Malachi 3:3)
“Now if any man build upon this foundation (Jesus Christ) gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” (1 Corinthians 3:12-13). Fire shall reveal our true character.
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” (1 Peter 1:7)
Jesus is telling us Laodiceans that we need to walk through a trial of faith in order to be purified and refined. The trial is intended to produce righteousness, and the fire will reveal our true character.
Peter says that our faith is much more precious than gold. It’s interesting that there’s another verse in the book of Proverbs that talks to us about something else that is also better than gold. Let’s read in Proverbs 3:14, referring to wisdom: “For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.”
So there are two precious things that will help us to come through the trial victorious: faith, and wisdom. We won’t make it without them. In a short while we’ll be focusing on wisdom: what it is and how to get it. But before we do that, let’s set the context in which these trials are coming upon us.
God spared the Church of Philadelphia from the final hour of trial: “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” (Revelation 3:10)
Unlike the Church of Philadelphia, the Church of Laodicea will receive God’s judgments and be severely tested.
The End of the 6000-Year Timeline
We’re approaching the end of the 6000-year timeline of the Plan of Salvation. We don’t have time today to develop this topic fully.
Suffice it to say that God performed the work of Creation during 6 days and rested on the seventh day, a cycle of seven days. Following the same template, God’s work of Redemption will last 6000 years, with a thousand years of “rest” at the end, a cycle of 7000 years. So the timetable of Creation is applied to the lifespan of Creation based on the bible principle of “Symmetry and Parallelism”.
What evidence do we have for this?
Firstly, God works in cycles of seven: 7 days in a week, 7 months in God’s sacred calendar, 7 holy feasts in God’s sacred calendar, 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 plagues….
Secondly, a couple of bible passages give us this equivalence of a thousand years to one day. Both passages are dealing with God’s wrath, judgment and the destruction of the wicked.
The first passage is Psalm 90:4: “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.”
The second passage is in 2 Peter 3:8, where the whole chapter is dealing with the destruction of the last day and the coming of the Lord Jesus: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
We’re very close to the end of that 6000-year period of probation. Shortly before the end of the 6000 years, Probation will close for the world. The door of mercy will be shut. Jesus will have finished His work as High Priest in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly Sanctuary. There will no more intercession on behalf of men.
This is when Michael stands up in Daniel 12:1: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book.”
Let’s read a paragraph from the Great Controversy, page 613:
“When the third angel’s message closes, mercy no longer pleads for the guilty inhabitants of the earth. The people of God have accomplished their work. They have received “the latter rain,” “the refreshing from the presence of the Lord,” and they are prepared for the trying hour before them. Angels are hastening to and fro in heaven. An angel returning from the earth announces that his work is done; the final test has been brought upon the world, and all who have proved themselves loyal to the divine precepts have received “the seal of the living God.””
“Then Jesus ceases His intercession in the sanctuary above. He lifts His hands and with a loud voice says, “It is done;” and all the angelic host lay off their crowns as He makes the solemn announcement: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still” (Revelation 22:11). Every case has been decided for life or death. Christ has made the atonement for His people and blotted out their sins. The number of His subjects is made up; “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,” is about to be given to the heirs of salvation, and Jesus is to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.”
No one knows exactly how long we have left before the Close of Probation. But we do know one thing: listen to this very succinct statement by Ellen White in “The Great Controversy” in the same chapter called “The Time of Trouble”: “The period of probation is granted to all to prepare for that time”. All of our names will be called in heaven for judgment. The decisive criteria will be: Did we receive the seal of God, or did we take the mark of the beast? Depending on the answer, our names will be either confirmed in the Lamb’s book of Life for eternal life, or blotted out for eternal death.
The Judgment of God’s People
Brothers and sisters, this is incredibly solemn. “The period of probation is granted to all to prepare for that time”. Once the crisis explodes, it will be impossible to prepare. Do you think you’ll be able to put on your life-jacket after you’ve been pushed into the raging sea? Impossible! The time to prepare is now and we’re seriously running out of time.
What does the Lord want us to do? He wants us to know where we stand right now in the stream of time. He doesn’t want us to perish for lack of knowledge. Yet, most Adventists seem blissfully unaware that very soon all our names will be called in heaven. The Church that was given the light regarding the resolution of the Great Controversy between God and Satan will be judged before the rest of God’s people. Therefore, our probation also closes before theirs.
The same ignorance abounded among God’s people in the time of Jeremiah, when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the King of the North, was about to come down upon Jerusalem to destroy it: “Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord” (Jeremiah 8:7).
Does this sound like Laodicea? Let us not be lacking in knowledge.
Remember Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children”. Let us be wise unto salvation and not reject knowledge. We need to take these warnings very seriously…
What should we be saying to the Lord? “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
What has the Lord revealed about the Judgment? Jesus has been judging the righteous dead since He entered the Most Holy Place in 1844. “When that work shall be completed, judgment is to be pronounced upon the living” (Selected Messages 1:125).
When will the judgment of the living begin? Ellen White answers, “Soon—none know how soon—it will pass to the cases of the living” (The Great Controversy, 490). Though we don’t know how soon, we do know that “The great work of judging the living is about to begin” (Testimonies for the Church 6:130). That statement was written in the year 1900.
God has simply been waiting for His people to get ready. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But the Lord can only wait so long. He has to honor the timeline. Remember that the entire universe is watching what’s unfolding here on earth. God’s work of Redemption needs to be finished on time. And you and I need to be ready.
It needs to be very clear that God is on the throne. He’s the Potentate of Time. He’s driving the end-time prophetic timeline, not Satan. And the Lord will not leave behind even one earnest, diligent seeker who is committed to having the Lord finish the work in him. But He does require our diligence.
The Lord has declared that “he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth” (Romans 9:28). How much time will the Lord cut off the timeline, we don’t know. We need to focus on our preparation with a Burning sense of urgency.
Let’s shift gears now and consider what’s happening down here on earth. We can’t separate what’s happening on earth from what’s happening in heaven. The passing of the National Sunday Law in the United States is the sign that judgment in heaven has passed from the dead to the living. Let’s explore now how the Corona Virus pandemic has set the stage for the Sunday Law.
Join us again soon for Part 2 of this study on “The Time of Testing Has Begun”.
