Dear Reader,
The following words penned by Ellen G. White, are most apropos in light of the recent earthquake in Southeast Asia and the many disasters that are now occurring around the world on a daily basis:
"While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can
heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until
populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is
at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great
conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in
tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every
place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He
sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He
imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the
pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent
and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast.
And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve
God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the
displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those
whose obedience to God's commandments is a perpetual reproof to
transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the
violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has brought
calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be
strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the
fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are
troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine
favor and temporal prosperity. Thus the accusation urged of old
against the servant of God will be repeated and upon grounds equally
well established: "And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that
Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he
answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's
house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and
thou hast followed Baalim." 1 Kings 18:17, 18. As the wrath of the
people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course
toward God's ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel
pursued toward Elijah.
They will lament the great wickedness in the world and second the
testimony of religious teachers that the degraded state of morals is
caused by the desecration of Sunday. Great will be the indignation
excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony.
So it will be now. While Satan seeks to destroy those who honor
God's law, he will cause them to be accused as lawbreakers, as men
who are dishonoring God and bringing judgments upon the world.
God never forces the will or the conscience; but Satan's constant
resort--to gain control of those whom he cannot otherwise seduce--is
compulsion by cruelty. Through fear or force he endeavors to rule
the conscience and to secure homage to himself. To accomplish this,
he works through both religious and secular authorities, moving them
to the enforcement of human laws in defiance of the law of God.
Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of
law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society,
causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of
God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced
obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be
accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny
the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the
duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of
God. In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment keepers
will be misrepresented and condemned. A false coloring will be given
to their words; the worst construction will be put upon their
motives.
The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade,
or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine
authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political
corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and
even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure
public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing
Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a
sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict
we shall see exemplified the prophet's words: "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." Revelation 12:17." E.G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 589-592 on the Impending Conflict.