Chapter 20: The Great Time of Trouble
(After probation's close)




Who today is keeping the forces of destruction from 
sweeping over our earth?
              Revelation 7: 1-3-- After this I saw four angels standing at the
      four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent
      any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.  Then I saw
      another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God.  He
      called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm
      the land and the sea:  "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we
      put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."
              "Angels are belting the world, refusing Satan his claims to supremacy,
      made because of the vast multitude of his adherents.  We hear not the voices,
      we see not with the natural sight the work of these angels, but their hands are
      linked about the world, and with sleepless vigilance they are keeping the 
      armies of Satan at bay till the sealing of God's people shall be accomplished"
      (7BC 967).
              "John sees the elements of nature--earthquakes, tempest, and political
      strife--represented as being held by four angels.  These winds are under control
      until God gives the word to let them go" (TM 444).
              "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).
          
What is the last act in the drama, after which probation will be closed
and Satan will be allowed to work his will on the earth?
              "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 disclose her blood and 
      shall no more cover her slain" (7T 141).
          
When probation closes, how complete will
Satan's control of the wicked be?
              "He will say to the angels, 'No longer combat Satan in his efforts to
      destroy.  Let him work out his malignity upon the children of disobedience; 
      for the cup of their iniquity is full'" (RH Sept. 17, 1901).
              "When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the
      earth.  In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God
      without an intercessor.  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" (GC 614).

How does the Bible speak of this time?
              Daniel 12: 1--"At that time, Michael, the great prince who protects
      your people, will arise.  There will be a time of distress such as has not happened
      from the beginning of nations until then.  But at that time your people--everyone 
      whose name is found written in the book--will be delivered."

When the fires of passion and lawlessness escape
control, what will the world be like?
              "The spirit of anarchy is permeating all nations, and the outbreaks that from time
      to time excite the horror of the world are but indications of the pent-up fires of 
      passion and lawlessness that, having once escaped control, will fill the earth with
      woe and desolation.  The picture which inspiration has given of the antediluvian world
      represents too truly the condition to which modern society is fast hastening" (PP 102).

Is large-scale international warfare a real possibility?
              Preparations for war now being made.  "Everything in the world is in an 
      unsettled state.  The nations are angry, and great preparations for war are being made.
      Nation plotting against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  The great day of God is 
      hasting greatly.  But although the nations are mustering their forces for war and
      bloodshed, the command to the angels is still in force, that they hold the four winds
      until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads" (7BC 968 [1909]).
              Nation will rise against nation.  "Just before we entered it [the time 
      of trouble], we all received the seal of the living God.  Then I saw the four angels
      cease to hold the four winds.  And I saw famine, pestilence and sword, nation rose 
      against nation, and the whole world was in confusion" (ibid. [1846]).
              Vessels will be entombed in the deep.  "Four mighty angels hold back the
      powers of this earth till the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.  The nations
      of the world are eager for conflict; but they are held in check by the angels.  When this
      restraining power is removed, there will come a time of trouble and anguish.  Deadly 
      instruments of warfare will be invented.  Vessels, with their living cargo, will be 
      entombed in the great deep.  All who have not the spirit of truth will unite under the
      leadership of satanic agencies.  But they are to be kept under control till the time shall
      come for the great battle of Armageddon" (ibid. 967).
              A general engagement is coming.  "Only a moment of time, as it were, yet
      remains.  But while already nation is rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, 
      there is not now a general engagement.  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" (6T 14 [see also 7BC 968]).

Is nuclear warfare a possibility?
              "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" (GC 614).
              "Both the city [of Jerusalem] and the temple were razed to their foundations, and
      the ground upon which the holy house had stood was 'plowed like a field' (Jer. 26: 18).  
      In the siege and the slaughter that followed, more than a million of the people perished" 
      (ibid. 35).
              "The Saviour's prophecy concerning the visitation of judgements upon Jerusalem 
      is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow.
      In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God's 
      mercy and trampled upon His law" (ibid. 36).
              "On one occasion, when in New York City, I was in the night season called upon to 
      behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven.  These buildings were warranted to
      be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify their owners and builders...
              "The scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire.  Men looked at the
      lofty and supposedly fireproof buildings and said: 'They are perfectly safe.' But these 
      buildings were consume as if made of pitch.  The fire engines could do nothing to stay 
      the destruction. The firemen were unable to operate the engines" (9T 12, 13).

Is it possible for us to form a clear picture in our minds of the utter
ruin and strife that will occur after probation closes?
              "Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, that they may not blow until
      the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to 
      burst upon the earth; and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there 
      will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture" (Ed 179, 180 [see also 6T 408]).

Who will be blamed for all of Satan's desolating activities?
              "When the angel of mercy folds her wings and departs, Satan will do the evil 
      deeds he has long wished to do.  Storm and tempest, war and bloodshed--in these 
      things he delights, and thus he gathers in his harvest.  And so completely will men
      be deceived by him that they will declare that these calamities are the result of the 
      desecration of the first day of the week.  From the pulpits of the popular churches
      will be heard the statement that the world is being punished because Sunday is not 
      honored as it should be.  And it will require no great stretch of imagination for men
      to believe this" (RH Sept. 17, 1901).

In addition to the havoc that God allows Satan to cause, what heaven-sent
scourges will be poured out on the impenitent?
              Revelation 15: 1, 8; 16: 1--I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: 
      seven angels with the seven last plagues--last, because with them God's wrath is 
      completed...And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from 
      his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven 
      angels were completed.  Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the 
      seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth."
              "I saw that the four angels would hold the four winds until Jesus' work was
      done in the sanctuary, and then will come the seven last plagues" (EW 36).