In Revelation 7:1-4 we read —
“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”
In the picture above, we see the utter strength and power needed right now by these four angels. Why? Because the terrible trouble that is to come upon the earth is already starting to show, and the winds are busting through the cracks. Thank God the winds are still held but it is almost time for them to be let loose at God’s command because the 144,000 will be fully sealed and prepared for God’s last work upon mankind.
Recently all of us have seen one mass killing after another, almost now on a weekly basis. The Dallas ambush killings, and now the Paris truck slaughter, are just recent examples of the utter chaos that soon will hit the world. We are seeing more and more world-wide strife now. Yes, the winds are slipping through but the Great I Am is still in control because there is a work to be done and then we are to witness a shocking development within our SDA church.
The Spirit of Prophecy gives us good picture of what is preparing to take place–
“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.” (Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p.967)
The world is soon to witness the Lord do as long ago He promised in both Scripture and Spirit of Prophecy. Let us read.
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? ( 1 Peter 4:17)
The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: “Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.
Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” Here we see that the church–the Lord’s sanctuary–was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God’s power as in former days. Times have changed.
These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus “Peace and safety” is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God’s people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together. (Testimonies, vol. 5, p.211)
To be sure, once the judgment of the living begins within our SDA church, these four winds will then be released. There is no more need for God’s final servants to be protected, He will do so Himself. But that means the winds are then to harm the earth and the people, unless the true in heart submit to God’s true worship and the obeying of His 10 Commandments.
Imagine if you will the Super Bowl beginning kick off, or the Indy 500 green flag, or the World Series first pitch. So too the church judgment kicks off the last day events, the final “great controversy” battle for souls. No longer will politics, sports, or any other kind of news be the leading headline makers. This shocking scene as shown to us in Ezekiel 9 will be as real as your breathing right now. It will be spread around the world in front page news as an unheard of disaster and will mystify the unaware masses. This event will swing the world’s attention to the Great I AM, or to the all time great deceiver, and religion will from there on be the world’s final focus and topic.
Last week we spoke about how Satan has known since the beginning of God’s word that prophecy is extremely important to us. Yet he has tampered with it so much that nearly all of us SDA either know very little about the correct truth of the prophecies or many cases–nothing at all.
One such area is these four winds. The Bible does show winds as strife and conquest in some parts of the Word. For example in Daniel chapter 7 and Great Controversy, p.440, we see that the winds symbolize conquest and world strife. But, when we look at Rev. 7, we see that there is one purpose for the winds to be held, and that is the protect the sealing of God’s servants–the 144,000.
So we need to find out what specifically does the winds mean in this particular instance? It cannot solely mean war or nation conquests as in Daniel because we have had both world wars and conquests of nations and still the 144,000 have not been sealed. Thankfully God provided us a specific reference to show us what these specific winds represent in Rev. 7
“The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. The decree will soon go forth prohibiting men to buy or sell of any man save him that hath the mark of the beast. We came near having this realized in California a short time since; but this was only the threatening of the blowing of the four winds. As yet they are held by the four angels. We are not just ready. There is a work yet to be done, and then the angels will be bidden to let go, that the four winds may blow upon the earth. That will be a decisive time for God’s children, a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. Now is our opportunity to work.” (Testimonies, vol. 5, p.152)
S0 we see that these winds will form the mark of the beast decree, or otherwise known as the Sunday law. This action will definitely harm the great masses in that religion will be forced upon them. The right to freely practice your faith will curtail. So logically God must hold back actions right now that interferes with us as SDA learning His final message of truth, the message that helps us survive the beginning judgment in God’s house.
Awhile back we did a post called “Backed into a Corner” where we discussed the SDA church’s 501 c-3 tax situation. In it we pointed out how this situation is a “sinister overhang” over the church. Yet this is a perfect example of potential trouble capable of, yet not now, harming the church. The reason is that the four winds are still held back and as such this issue is not allowed by God to interfere with our freedoms to learn His final sealing message of Elijah.
This final message of the Lord does not disappoint in regards to thoroughly understanding these four winds. Let us read the following clear, understandable, enriched truth. In specifically describing Rev. 7:1-4 we read–
Here are brought to view two hurtings about to take place: one by the winds, the other by the angels; and two commands to the angels: one that they restrain the winds, that the winds blow not “on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree” (Rev. 7:1); the other that the angels restrain themselves from hurting “the earth,… sea,” and “the trees,” till the servants of God are sealed. Rev. 7:2, 3).
Since, therefore, as soon as the servants of God are sealed both the winds and the angels will begin to hurt the question arises as to what the work of the winds and the work of the angels represent — political strife or something else? As the nations have always been at war, this two-fold work of hurting could not represent political strife. And as Jesus says that at the time of the end “nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt. 24:7), it is clear that the hurting by the winds, also the hurting by the angels both of which are kept back until the 144,000 are sealed, must be figurative of holding back the “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.” Dan. 12:1.
Accordingly, God’s restraining of the four winds is His holding back the image of the beast’s activity (Rev. 13:15-17) against the saints, while His restraining the four angels that they hurt not is His holding back the executing of His vengeance (Isa. 63:1-4; Jer. 51:18) upon the sinners who trouble the church, until after the sealing of the 144,000 is completed. Being coupled, these two hurtings bring the time of trouble such as never was.
Revelation 7:1-3, therefore, reveals a two-fold conflict: wicked men against God (the blowing of the winds) and God against them (the angels hurting them). But though the blowing of the winds and the hurting of the angels after the servants of God are sealed, will bring the “time of trouble,” yet “every one that shall be found written in the book” “shall be delivered.” Dan. 12:1.
From these facts we see that this time of trouble is held back in order to safeguard the sealing of the 144,000 servants, lest they, “the very elect,” be brought down to worship the image of the beast, or be killed for refusing.
Since “in the Revelation all the books of the Bible meet and end” (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 585), the sealing of the servants of God (Rev. 7) must necessarily be found also in the prophecies. In Ezekiel, chapter nine, is envisioned the marking of those who sigh and cry “for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (in Judah and in Israel), and the slaughter of those who do not thus sigh and cry.
And the fact that God has at no time taken the sinners from among the righteous in Judah and in Israel, shows that this prophecy of purification by slaughter has never been fulfilled. So, therefore, as the marking is the same as the sealing, the angels’ slaying is the same as the angels’ hurting.
This hurting and sealing which John saw, and the slaughter and marking which Ezekiel saw are again identified as one and the same: “This sealing of the servants of God is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision.” — Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445; Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211; Vol. 3, p. 267.
Although the marking and the slaughter (Ezek. 9) include only the church, — Judah and Israel, — the hurting by the winds and the hurting by the angels (Rev. 7) include all the world — both “the earth” and “the sea,” each of which is indicative of a different locality: the sea, in the realm of nature the storehouse (home) of the waters, is therefore in the realm of symbols the birth-place of the nations — the Old Country, the earth, the opposite of the sea, is correspondingly a domain away from the Old Country. It is located to John in the symbol of the two-horned beast’s coming up, not out of the sea, but “out of the earth” (Rev. 13:11), the only place where trees naturally grow.
And as according to Daniel 4:20-22, trees are figurative of rulers, therefore the trees in this instance represent “the ancient men…before the house” (Ezek. 9:6) — a fact which reveals that in this period, the church’s headquarters are in the two-horned beast’s dominion — the New World, “the earth.”
In the light of the clear cut facts before us, we see that the main object of the sealing or marking of the servants of God is to cleanse the church from sin and sinners, so that she may be able to stand strong against the image-beast in the time of trouble; and that when this purifying work is completed, “it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.” Isa. 4:3, 4.
When this “special work of purification, of putting away of sin among God’s people,” is accomplished, then “the church is to enter upon her final conflict. ‘Fair as the moon, clear as the sun and terrible as an army with banners,’ she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.” — The Great Controversy, p. 425; Prophets and Kings, p. 725. (Tract 8, p.22-25)
These winds as we now understand are symbolic of the Sunday law and the subsequent time of trouble, and the Word shows us in the following very clear and unmistakable time-table that we must know and prepare for.
1) The sealing takes place before the winds are let loose.
2) The sealing is “one and the same” as Ezekiel 9, the church judgment.
3) The four winds will be let loose after the sealing/judgment upon the house of God (our SDA church).
“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.” (Maranatha, p.244)
4) Satan will then be “wroth” with God’s people and go to make war with them (persecute and ultimately form the Sunday law). For the first time since the early Christian church, the people of God now have a pure church with only converted believers in their midst.
“And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:16-17)
5) The Sunday law shall be put in place soon after the release of the winds. Yet not right away because of the final proclamation of the Gospel–the Loud Cry.
In closing, what we are witnessing today is the winds beginning to blow, though not fully, and the world about to take a turn for the dominant subject of religion. As soon as that fateful 144,000th person is found and marked, the winds will be let loose and as they say, “all hell will break loose”. Let’s be ready and learn, obey and practice His final message to us as Seventh-day Adventists. To do otherwise is to be left without the seal and miss out on eternity.
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