Godsloveandlaw's Blog

In Early Writings, page 38 we read —

“I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of deep pity cried, “My blood, Father, My blood, My blood, My blood!” Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice, “Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.”

There is no doubt that the winds spoken of in Revelation 7, are nearly busting out at the seams. Right now there is an urgent threat upon the sovereignty and peace of us here in the United States. A  7,000 plus strong immigrant caravan is heading to our southern borders to force themselves in. These events are happening more intensely with each passing month. Riots all over the world are taking place. It seems that there is a pent-up anger that is ready to explode.

When we look at Syria, and the recent terrible war and inhumane treatment of ordinary citizens, one must ask, what truly is happening to our world right now? Well the Lord knows all about it and His angels are commanded to hold the winds of strife upon the earth. In  other words, although seemingly wide-spread is the distress among nations, it’s as the ol song goes –You ain’t seen nothing yet!

The message deals with the significance of these winds and the purpose of the holding.

THE FOUR WINDS—WHAT ARE THEY?

Question No. 53:

   Testimonies to Ministers p. 444,  states: John sees the elements of nature —earthquake, tempest, and political strife—represented as being held by four angels.” But Tract No. 8, “Mt. Sion at the Eleventh Hour,”  p. 22, says: “As the nations have always been at war, this twofold work of hurting could not represent political strife.” How are these contradictory statements reconciled?

Answer:

  We are confident that if the questioner will carefully restudy Testimonies to Ministers p. 444, he will see that it is endeavoring to show that the Divine object in holding back the winds, is, as the passage plainly says, “the safety of God’s church.” That being the case, then the winds, themselves being figurative of strife, trouble, and war, are, when let loose, to blow against the church. This is very evident because their being held from John’s day until this very hour, has never prevented and is not now preventing the nations’ warring among themselves. Always have they been at war with one another, and today they are engaged in a deadly world-wide conflict unparalleled in all history, although the angels are still holding the winds. Of necessity, therefore, the strife represented by the blowing of the winds, must be essentially religious in aim, and political only in procedure, thus religious-political, as stated in Tract No. 12, The World Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, pp. 38, 65 and in The Shepherd s Rod Vol. 2, p. 114. This conclusion is borne out in the following passage:

  “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.”—Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 152.

  The tract, in its particular statement in question, is stressing only the religious aspect of the trouble, in the endeavor to show that the trouble is not political in aim,—not to conquer territory, but to build up international religion in order to compel the world to worship the image of the beast.

  In this clear light, we see that both Testimonies to Ministers and The Shepherd’s Rod series are endeavoring to show that the strife is neither purely political nor purely religious, but religious-political. It is the church and state allied in common action.” (Answerer, vol. 3, Q-53)

Ah, we see that this holding is for the express purpose of allowing all of the remnant church of God to freely practice their religion, away from any political or governmental harm. Right now those in His church can study, speak, make acquaintances all in order to worship,express ideas, and beliefs in His word.

This is why we soundly reject those among the SDA and even a few so-called present truth believers, in claiming that the church’s incorporation status is hindering God’s people. No, not today at all. True the government may soon someday hinder our church from freely expressing its religious views, but that will not, IF it even happens, be done until after the winds are let loose.

Next we look at the after effects of these winds. That is after the church judgment–

WHEN WILL THE WINDS BE LOOSED?

Question No. 46:

If the angel who seals the first fruits, the 144,000, goes right on with the sealing of the second fruits, the great multitude (Rev. 7:9), will the four angels be holding the four winds (Rev. 7:1) throughout the sealing of both fruits?

Answer:

As Revelation 7:14 says that the great multitude (the second fruits) “came out of great tribulation,” it is conclusive that the four winds will be held, as the angel commanded, “till we have sealed the servants of our God….” Rev. 7:3. The winds, therefore, are loosed and blowing after the 144,000 are sealed and while the great multitude is being gathered and sealed. Thus only can it be said that the multitude came out of “great tribulation,” out of “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” Dan. 12:1. (Answerer, vol. 2, Q-46)

As we just read there is soon to be — “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” (Dan. 12:1) This will be so widespread that the Lord says — “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:26)

The message tells us more about our subject —

 

“I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth [at the time of the sealing of the 144,000], 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.”  Rev. 7:1-3.

   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 be fore 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.21-25)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. Since God is holding the winds back so that His people can learn the message of the hour, then why is places like Syria appear to have the winds fully blowing now?  True, there is no doubt that strife, both religious and political has affected all of Syria. However, the prophecy says that the angels are holding the four winds at the “four corners of the earth”. This shows that the winds are cumulative and the holding is a “general” worldwide holding, not relative to specific areas were a limited blowing may occur (such as Iraq as well).

2. Is there a sign or series of events that show the winds are about to immediately let loose world wide?

One of the clearest signs is happening right now. That is the world super powers collectively  are             positioning  themselves in the middle east with weapons of mass destruction.  The message tells             us that once this gigantic world war happens over the holy land, then it is that the church judgment comes and the winds will immediately be let loose afterwards.  Unfortunately the unbelieving S.D.A church members who have no knowledge of His final message of Elijah, due to their lack of searching God’s word and praying to hear His voice,  won’t be around to witness the release of these winds. God’s servants right now the Davidian S.D.A are “crying aloud” to hear His message but sadly prophecy says few will hear.

“..while the powers of earth are engulfed in a gigantic war, the wicked in the church shall be cut off, no more to pass through her.” (Tract 14, p.22)

In closing brethren, right now we are experiencing the winds nearly breaking loose, yet we must know that God will not allow them to blow until that last one of the 144,000 is sealed. Are we striving to be among that number?

 

This entry was posted on October 27, 2018 at 5:08 am and is filed under God's sealings, Present Truth, Prophecy study, Revelation teachings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.