Signs and wonders appeared, foreboding disaster and doom. In the midst of the night an unnatural light shone over the temple and the altar. Upon the clouds at sunset were pictured chariots and men of war gathering for battle. The priests ministering by night in the sanctuary were terrified by mysterious sounds; the earth trembled, and a multitude of voices were heard crying: "Let us depart hence." The great eastern gate, which was so heavy that it could hardly be shut by a score of men, and which was secured by immense bars of iron fastened deep in the pavement of solid stone, opened at midnight, without visible agency. -- Milman, The History of the Jews, book 13. {GC 29.3}
During the escalating tensions in Waco TX, my wife and I saw in the sky over our neighborhood, fiery brassy, yellow clouds, in the distinct form of a tank spewing fire and a burning building, a week or two before the fatal military action against civilians, then we knew how things were going to end up. Waco would be a test case to see how the American populace would react to it's own government slaughtering civilians that had been marginalized in the court of the media before hand. There were also good standing SDA's in that group trying to get their family members un-brain washed and leave, but they got caught in the conflagration and died there too.
" In preparation for the coming of our Lord, we are to do a large work in the great cities. We have a solemn testimony to bear in these great centers. But in our planning for the extension of the work, far more than the cities alone, must be comprehended. In out-of-the-way places are many, many families that need to be looked after in order to learn whether they understand the work that Jesus is doing for his people. Those in the highways are not to be neglected, neither are those in the hedges; and as we journey about from place to place, and pass by house after house, we should often inquire, "Have the people who are living in these places, heard the message? Has the truth of God's Word been brought to their ears? Do they understand that the end of all things is at hand, and that the judgments of God are impending? Do they realize that every soul has been bought with an infinite price?" As I meditate upon these things my heart goes out in deep longing to see the truth carried in its simplicity to the homes of these people along the highways and places far removed from the crowded centers of population.We are not to wait for workers of the very highest talent to prepare the way and to show us how to labor; but, whether old or young, we have the privilege of understanding the truth as it is in Jesus, and as we see persons who are not in the possession of the comfort of God's grace, it is our privilege to visit them, and acquaint them with God's love for them and with his wonderful provision for the salvation of their souls. {PH113 5.3}"
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"Lt 158, 1906
St. Helena, California
May 10, 1906
Kress, Brother and Sister [D. H.]
This letter is published in entirety in 21MR.
The Lord calls for His people to locate away from the cities; for in such an hour as ye think not, fire and brimstone will be rained from heaven upon these cities. Proportionate to their sins will be their visitation. When one city is destroyed, let not our people regard this matter as a light affair and think that they may, if favorable opportunity offers, build themselves homes in that same destroyed city. {Lt158-1906} "
Great precautions were taken to make everything in San Francisco secure against earthquakes, floods, and fires; yet today, that great city is lying, a mass of debris. Where is there one who, seeing this, can fail to reason from cause to effect? {Lt158-1906}
A few days ago we passed by the great, costly Stanford University. Many of its buildings now lie in ruins. {Lt158-1906}
Yesterday, on our way home from Mountain View, we stopped to take a view of the destruction in San Francisco. Notwithstanding some of the buildings were of the most stable kind and were supposed to be proof against disaster, the city is a ruin. In some places the buildings are sunken into the ground. This city presents a most powerful picture of the inefficiency of human devising and human skill to withstand the carrying out of the Lords mandate. {Lt158-1906}
For our people to begin commercial enterprises in such a place will be to soothe the fears of those to whom they will come with the Bible message of truth. {Lt158-1906}
Let all who would understand the meaning of these things read the eleventh chapter of Revelation. Read every verse, and learn the things that are yet to take place in the cities. Read also the scenes portrayed in the eighteenth chapter of the same book. {Lt158-1906}
Saw on the net the other day that there was some huge *boom* heard in Connecticut, I think it was.
This earth is waxing old like a garment, and one day I believe there will be huge convulsions, and whole cities will go down alive into the abyss.
We need to be prepared ourselves, and warn people to get right with God while you can, because one day the door of probation will close, and Jesus wil throw down the censer and come back to take his children home, and destroy the others.