Good News About the Time of Trouble

[This paper has been reformulated from old, unformatted electronic files and may not be identical to the edited version that appeared in print. The original pagination has been maintained, despite the resulting odd page breaks, for ease of scholarly citation. However, scholars quoting this article should use the print version or give the URL.] Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 7/2 (Autumn 1996): 125-141. Article copyright © 1996 by Norman R. Gulley. Good News About the Time of Trouble Norman R. Gulley School of Religion Southern Adventist University Near the beginning of a recent semester a student blurted out in my “Last Day Events” class, “I want to go to heaven via the resurrection!” Another student told me, “I don’t want to run to the mountains in the great time of trouble!” In an anonymous questionnaire taken by students in Last Day Events classes at Southern Adventist University the following data surfaced: 1. 49% worried about the present pre-advent judgment. 2. 56% were scared of last day events. 3. 41% would rather die than go through last day events. 4. 37% believed we gain entrance to heaven through Christ’s sacrifice plus our human works. 5. 50% were not sure if they would be saved if they died today. 6. 88% claimed they know Christ as a personal friend. This is a stunning revelation, when you realize these students represent a cross section of Seventh-day Adventist youth, from around the States and other countries, studying a variety of majors. These may be among the final genera- tion, yet do not want to be. There is something radically wrong here. The Great Time of Trouble When the Sunday law is enforced by a death decree (Rev 13:12-15) Sev- enth-day Adventists will be in the Great Time of 125 JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Trouble. Daniel 12:1 says, “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people–everyone whose name in found written in the book–will be delivered.” This text speaks of two things: 1. The greatest time of trouble ever! 2. The greatest deliverance ever! These two need to be held together. If we study this verse in its biblical context in Daniel and Revelation, then there is no need for Seventh-day Adventists to be afraid of the great time of trouble. The Greatest Time of Trouble Ever. This period begins with the close of human probation. It is a time when Christ’s mediation is finished in heaven (Dan 12:1): “the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an interces- sor,” and the Spirit of God is withdrawn from the wicked world. It is a time when nation will rise against nation, and the whole world will be “in confu- sion.”1 “Satan will then 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 of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be in- volved 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. The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desola- tion everywhere.”2 “The angel of mercy is folding her wings, preparing to step down from the throne and leave the world to the control of Satan.”3 Then “Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent.”4 It is a time when there is no goodness in the wicked. It is a time when “Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it” (Amos 8:12). It is a time when the whole world is wondering after and worshiping the 126 GULLEY: GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE TIME OF TROUBLE beast (Rev 13:3-4). It is a time when America leads the rest of the nations to give homage to the papacy (Rev 13:11-12). It is the time when Satan is here on the planet pretending to be Christ.5 It is the time of Jacob’s trouble, when a wrestling with God akin to Jacob’s will be experienced (Gen 32:22-32). It is the time of the last seven plagues that will decimate and destroy (Rev 16:1-21). It is the time of Armageddon, the final preadvent battle in the great controversy, when Satan plans to annihilate Sabbathkeepers and become supreme ruler of the world, a dream he has had for millennia (Rev 16:12-16; 19:11-21). It is the time when a death decree is issued to enforce Sabbathkeepers to conform or die (Rev 13:15). “Says the great deceiver. ‘Our principle concern is to silence this sect of Sabbathkeepers. We will finally have a law to exter- minate all who will not submit to our authority.’”6 “It is the purpose of Satan to cause them to be blotted from the earth in order that his supremacy of the world may not be disputed.”7 This is the time when “many of all nations, and of all classes, high and low, rich and poor, black and white, will be cast into the most unjust and cruel bond- age. The beloved of God pass weary days, bound in chains, shut in by prison bars, sentenced to be slain, some apparently left to die of starvation in dark and loathsome dungeons. No human ear is open to hear their moans; no human hand is ready to lend them help.”8 It is the time when “Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed in the heavens, in token of the power of miracle-working demons.”9 It is the time when spirits of devils will go to the whole world, using miracles to deceive (Rev 16:12-16). It is the time when fire falls from heaven (false Mt. Carmel, 1 Kings 18:16-40) to deceive the world to worship of the papacy (Rev 13:13-14). These items listed above are numerous. No wonder Daniel 12:1 calls it the worst time of trouble ever! But these events are only one side of the 127 JOURNAL OF THE ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY story. Daniel 7 begins to open up the other side of the great time of trouble. The Preadvent Judgment and Implementation Daniel 7: An Additional Insight. Perhaps some Seventh-day Adventists read about certain aspects of the great time of trouble and overlook the full pic- ture of what will happen during that time. It is true that the whole world will be against Sabbathkeepers, but it is also true that God will be against the whole world. God will manifest this fact by bringing a far greater time of trouble upon the wicked than will be experienced by Sabbathkeepers. We need to see the judgments upon the wicked in all their stark reality in order to comprehend the care God will extend over His people during this period. This comparison will enable us to reject the idea that the time of trouble is all bad news for God’s saints. We begin by looking at Daniel 7. This chapter introduces the little horn for the first time in Scripture. Daniel 1-6 is history, followed by 7-12 as prophetic insights into last day events. The facts of history give a sneak preview of what is coming in the future. This is true in Revelation10 and in The Great Contro- versy.11 God has used the same method in all three: to give insights into the future from the historical accounts. The historical accounts of Daniel record two decrees about worship: the worship of the image on Dura’s plain (Dan 3), and the worship of king Darius (Dan 6). Both worship decrees contained a death decree for non-compliance (Dan 3:6; 6:7). God’s saints, the three Hebrew worthies and Daniel, were thrown into their great time of trouble, into a fiery furnace and a lion’s den respectively. But that was not the end of the stories. In both incidents these loyal wor- shipers of God were gloriously delivered (Dan 3:25-27; 6:21-23). Furthermore, those who conspired to enforce the false worship onto the three worthies and Daniel were themselves destroyed (Dan 3:22; 6:24). These two historical incidents are a 128 GULLEY: GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE TIME OF TROUBLE powerful insight into the eschatological scenes of Daniel 7 and Revelation 16- 19. The preadvent Judgment is vital to the context of the great time of trouble. It forcefully shows that the great time of trouble is only bad news for the con- federation of the wicked who oppose God’s people with a Sunday law and a death decree. Three times the little horn is mentioned (Dan 7:8, 20, 25), and the little horn is mentioned (Dan 7:8, 20, 25), and each time the judgment is immediately mentioned (vss. 9-10, 21-22, 26). So the papacy, whom the whole world will worship (Rev 13:3-4), is itself under judgment.

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