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leader they have chosen. Satan will have power over those who have
yielded themselves to his control, and he will 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
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of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin
more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.
A single angel destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians, and
filled the land with mourning. When David offended against God by
numbering the people, one angel caused that terrible destruction by
which his sin was punished. The same destructive power exercised
by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels
when he allows. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the
divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere.
Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed
in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-working demons.
The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the
whole world. Rulers and subjects will be alike deceived. Persons
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will arise pretending to be Christ, and claiming the title and the
worship which belong to the world’s Redeemer. They will perform
wonderful miracles of healing, and will profess to have revelations
from Heaven contradicting the testimony of the Scriptures.
As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan him-
self will attempt to personate Christ. The church has long professed
to look to the Saviour’s advent as the consummation of her hopes.
Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In
different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men
as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the descrip-
tion of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. [Revelation
1:13-15.] The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out
upon the air, “Christ has come! Christ has come!” The people
prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his
hands, and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed his
disciples when he was personally upon the earth. His voice is soft
and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones
he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the
Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his
assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath
to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed.
He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day
are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to
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them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering
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delusion. Like the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus,
the multitudes, from the least to the greatest, give heed to these
sorceries, saying, This is “the great power of God.”
But the people of God will not be misled. The teachings of this
false Christ are not in accordance with the Scriptures. His blessing
is pronounced upon the worshipers of the beast and his image,—
the very class upon whom the Bible declares that God’s unmingled
wrath shall be poured out. And, furthermore, Satan is not permitted
to counterfeit the ma
that “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto
the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be;” [Matthew
24:27.] that he “cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him;”
[Revelation 1:7.] that he will “descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God;” [1
Thessalonians 4:16.] that he will “come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him,” [Matthew 25:31.] and will “send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect.”
[Matthew 24:31.] Those who have received the love of the truth will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive.
By the testimony of the Scriptures they will detect the deceiver in
his disguise.
To all, the testing time will come. By the sifting of temptation,
the genuine Christian will be revealed. Are the people of God now
so firmly established upon his word that they would not yield to
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the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to
the Bible, and the Bible only? Satan will, if possible, prevent them
from obtaining a preparation to stand in that day. He will so arrange
affairs as to hedge up their way, entangle them with earthly treasures,
cause them to carry a heavy, wearisome burden, that their hearts
may be overcharged with the cares of this life, and the day of trial
may come upon them as a thief.
Satan will continue to act a double part. Appearing to be the
dispenser of great blessings and divine truths, he will, by his lying
wonders, hold the world under his control; and at the same time he
will indulge his malignity by causing distress and destruction, and
will accuse God’s people as the cause of the fearful convulsions of
nature and the strife and bloodshed among men which are desolating
the earth. Thus he will excite to greater intensity the spirit of hatred
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and persecution against them. God never forces the will or the
conscience; but Satan will employ the most cruel measures to control
the consciences of men, and to secure worship to himself. And this
work of compulsion is always in favor of human creeds and laws,
and in defiance of God’s holy law.
In the last conflict the Sabbath will be the special point of con-
troversy throughout all Christendom. Secular rulers and religious
leaders will unite to enforce the observance of the Sunday; and as
milder measures fail, the most oppressive laws will be enacted. It
will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution
of the church and a law of the land ought not to be tolerated, and a
decree will finally be issued denouncing them as deserving of the
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severest punishment, and giving the people liberty, after a certain
time, to put them to death. Romanism in the Old World, and apostate
Protestantism in the New, will pursue a similar course toward those
who honor the divine precepts.
The people of God will then flee from the cities and villages,
and associate together in companies, dwelling in the most desolate
and solitary places. Many will find refuge in the strongholds of the
mountains. Like the Christians of the Piedmont valleys, they will
make the high places of the earth their sanctuaries, and will thank