The Beginning of Sorrows
TimeWatch Editorial
February 1, 2016
There is a time coming when laws will be passed upon the land that will surely conflict with the law of God. The times in which we live show the swift changes that are taking place around us. The uncertainty of the weather, the conflict of nations, the rise in crime and disease have all been foretold as an introduction of a time of trouble. Matthew 24 describes just such a scenario.
Matthew 24:6 - And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Matthew 24:7 - For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Matthew 24:8 - All these [are] the beginning of sorrows.
The text is quite clear that this is introductory to a shift in direction that will affect the entire world. What follows, however, is rather serious. The next few verses describe legal action being taken against those who insist on obeying God rather than man.
Matthew 24:9 - Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
Matthew 24:10- And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Matthew 24:11- And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
This will indeed be a troublous time. The concept of obedience will be challenged. We are counseled to be obedient to the laws of the land as long as they do not conflict with the Law of God.
“I saw that it is our duty in every case to obey the laws of our land, unless they conflict with the higher law which God spoke with an audible voice from Sinai, and afterward engraved on stone with His own finger. "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people." He who has God's law written in the heart will obey God rather than men, and will sooner disobey all men than deviate in the least from the commandment of God. God's people, taught by the inspiration of truth, and led by a good conscience to live by every word of God, will take His law, written in their hearts, as the only authority which they can acknowledge or consent to obey. The wisdom and authority of the divine law are supreme. {Counsels for the Church 314.3}
We are also counseled to avoid political action. The example we have been given is that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Listen to this!!
“The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on every hand were crying abuses—extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart. {Counsels for the Church 314.4}
This above quotation is specific. Ours is not a political objective, for there is no political solution. The ultimate resolution must be character based.
“Not by the decisions of courts or councils or legislative assemblies, not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom of Christ established, but by the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit.”As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12, 13. Here is the only power that can work the uplifting of mankind. And the human agency for the accomplishment of this work is the teaching and practicing of the word of God.” {DA 509.4}
The work that must be done must be done within. The heart must be riveted in Christ. The soul must be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16 is the answer.
Galatians 5:16 - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
To be forewarned is to be prepared.
Cameron A. Bowen
