Today is the Day

There have been many people in this world who have known that a certain night was their last night—some, because they knew they were sentenced to be executed the following morning, and some because they knew they would die of medical complications before the morning. If that person were you, would you be ready?

Jesus predicted several times what it would be like for people on their last night on earth. One of those predictions is found in Luke 17:28–30: “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

Lot came to the night which was to be his last night in Sodom. Jesus used this as an illustration of what it would be like at the end of the world. It says in Genesis 19:12–14, “Then the men said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’

“So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, ‘Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!’ But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.”

Lot’s family refused to listen to the warning because they saw no visible evidence that the end was near. They carried on their regular activities until Lot went out of Sodom and then the city was destroyed. Did the time come when they would have liked to have left the city? Here is what happened early the next morning.

“Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground” (Genesis 19:24, 25).

All were destroyed. There was one person who started out of the city of Sodom with Lot and actually never made it to safety, Lot’s wife. One of the shortest texts in the gospel is Luke 17:32, where, after Jesus described the way it was in the days of Lot, He says in three words: “Remember Lot’s wife.”

In Genesis 19:26, we are told what happened to Lot’s wife. Remember, the angel commanded them to flee the city and not look back. “But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

Why did Lot’s wife look back? Her heart had remained in the city with her family and possessions. Jesus gave instructions to prevent us from having that experience by saying, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19–21).

The last night on earth will be just like that last night in Sodom. Will it be easy to make a decision for God when we come right to the end of the world? Will it be easy to make a decision to pray and to be religious on that last night? Yes, it will be easy to make a decision to pray then, but it will be too late. Revelation 6:14–17 describes this as the biggest prayer meeting there has ever been, but it will be too late then to decide to be saved.

Notice what will happen. “Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’ ”

Is there some earthly treasure that you are clinging to like Lot’s wife did that is keeping you from going all the way with the Lord? What often keeps some people from following the Lord is their money. So Jesus said in Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

For some people the thing that keeps them from following the Lord all the way is their evil habits. The Bible refers to this as the “temporary pleasures of sin.” In Hebrews 11 concerning Moses, the Bible says he chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward” (verses 25, 26).

For some people the reason is their job. They cannot keep all the commandments and keep doing what they are doing for a living. Concerning this, Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [what you need in this life] shall be added to you.”

For some people it is their jewelry or adornment. Notice what Paul said about this in 1 Timothy 2:9, 10: “In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.”

The thing that keeps other people from following the Lord all the way is their family. Jesus also had something to say about this as well. He said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;’ and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:34–39).

Did you know that you can drown in honey as well as in vinegar? There are many ways that Satan works through human influence to bind his captives. He secures multitudes of people to himself by attaching them by the silken cords of affection to those who are enemies of the cross of Christ. It doesn’t matter whether this attachment is parental, filial, conjugal, or social, the effect is the same. The opposers of truth exert their power to control the conscience of the souls held under their sway who have not sufficient courage or independence to obey their own convictions of duty.

Some people think it really doesn’t matter what you believe if only your life is right, but your life is molded by your faith. If the light of truth is within your reach and you neglect to improve the privilege of hearing or seeing it, you virtually reject it and are choosing darkness rather than light. When the last night on earth comes, people’s excuses will be swept away.

The Bible teaches that God’s mercy has a limit. That is what happened in Noah’s day. Jesus said that the end of the world would be like it was in the days of Noah. He said, “As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37–39).

People will not know until it’s too late. That is why Jesus said you need to be ready. There is a limit to God’s mercy. Notice what God said about this in the days of Noah: “The Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years’ ” (Genesis 6:3).

God’s mercy has a limit. Bible prophecy clearly shows that we are close to the end of the world. Bible prophecies that show us that we are living in the very last epochal period of earth’s history are found first of all in the book of Daniel, in chapters 2, 7, 8, 11 and 12.

As we go through those lines of prophecy, we see that we are living in the period of time that the Bible calls in the book of Daniel “the time of the end.” We have been living in that period of time for over 200 years. Through Bible prophecies, God predicted the history of the world in advance. And as we study these prophecies, we see that all have been fulfilled, except for the final scenes of earth’s history. When you compare the visions in chapters 2, 7, 11 and 12, you can see where we are today in the stream of time.

In the very last days, the Bible predicts that many people would say the following: “ ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Micah 4:2, 3). You can read the same thing in Isaiah 2. In other words, in the last days there will be an international, political, and religious peace movement.

We are living in that time when all the nations are trying to figure out a way to avoid war. This is a specific sign that we are in the last days. This is a phenomenon of our time that has never before been seen. Its first manifestation was the proposal of a world court to solve disputes, about 1899, and then the League of Nations, and now the United Nations. This kind of worldwide peace-seeking development has never been seen before. There is an international, political, religious, peace movement today. But what is actually going to be happening is just the opposite.

This is what the Lord says is going to happen. In Joel 3:9–14 the Lord says, “Proclaim this among the nations: ‘Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am strong.” ’ Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. ‘Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow—for their wickedness is great.’ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!”

We are living in a time when there is a great international, political, religious peace movement, at the same time, there are the greatest preparations for war that have ever existed since the history of the world began. This situation is exactly what the Bible predicted would happen in the last days. Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 24, that there would be wars and rumors of wars in the last days.

Jesus also said that in the last days there would be a vast increase in lawlessness, the occurrence of which has frightened people today everywhere in the world. (See Matthew 24:12.) He predicted there would be a vast increase in promiscuity of all kinds in the last days. (See Luke 17:28–30). You can read the same prediction or the same account in Ezekiel 16:49 and 50. And in 2 Timothy 3:13, Paul gives the same prophecy of the last days.

The Bible predicts that in the last days there would be an increase in all types of violence and terrorism. Notice what it says in Genesis 6:11: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” The earth was filled with violence in Noah’s day and Jesus said it would be like that at the end of the world.

The signs in the heavens that Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:29 have appeared, and it is predicted in Revelation 11:18 that in the last days the nations will be angry. Paul predicted in 2 Timothy 3:2, 3 that there will be a state of social morals where children are disobedient to parents and parental authority cannot be enforced. This prophecy is also about the last days.

Then, of all things, the Bible predicts that in the last days people will be outwardly religious, that they will have a form of godliness, but they will deny the power of it. (See 2 Timothy 3:5.)

Peter also predicted that the last days would be a great day, or time, of unbelief. In 2 Peter 3, he says, “knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which now exist are kept in store by the same word, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (verses 3–7, literal translation).

Notice, Peter says that in the last days there will be great scoffing at the Bible teaching that God created the world in seven days, that the world came into existence by the word of God. He also said that it would be said that everything has continued uniformly from the beginning of creation. That is the uniformitarian theory. Eighteen hundred years before it occurred, Peter predicted that unbelief in God’s word would happen.

Peter also predicted that in the last days people would not believe in a world-wide flood. All of these Bible prophecies have been fulfilled in our time during the last hundred years, right to the letter. So the question that comes to mind is, Why do people then make excuses instead of getting ready for the end of the age (world KJV)? There are many reasons.

Some people neglect or reject truth because they want to retain their friends. Some people say that they will accept and act on truth later. We must beware of procrastination, for the Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

There are stories in the Bible about men who decided they were going to follow the Lord later, but never got around to it. One example of this would be Felix, as recorded in Acts 24 and 25. He told Paul that at a later time when it was convenient for him he would consider what Paul told him.

There are others who don’t follow the Lord because they want to keep enjoying some sinful pleasure. Just as it was in the days of Noah, the message of truth to get ready for the end, is not popular. The end came suddenly at a time of which the scoffers were not aware. God drew a line.

God told Noah to preach that everything in this world was coming to an end. If you wanted to save your life, you had to accept the warning that God sent through Noah and get into the boat. But the people were not willing to make a big enough commitment to get into the boat. It would have required a person to risk everything on whether or not the prophecy Noah was preaching would be fulfilled. It is the same today. There are millions of people who are waiting and just watching to see if Bible prophecy will actually come true.

People say, “I would lose my job if I am obedient to everything the Bible says.” Well, friend, Jesus lost everything to make salvation possible for you, and the question needs to be asked, “Has God drawn a line today like He did in Noah’s day?” Yes He has.

The line that God has drawn today is found in Revelation 14:9–12. It reads, “Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.’ Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

How long did it take for a person to be saved in Noah’s day? It was only the time it took for them to get into the ark of safety.

How long does it take to be saved today? Well, however long it takes you to decide that you are going to “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” by obeying the three angels’ messages—the focal point of the latter half of the book of Revelation. It describes the eternal destiny of those who accept the last warning messages to the world and those who reject those same messages—the three angels’ messages.

 

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Bendigo Promotes Sunday Law

A group of citizens in Bendigo known as the Save our Sundays (SOS) group, has petitioned the city of Great Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, to proscribe Sunday trading. As a result, a referendum was conducted to determine the will of the citizens. “The Save our Sundays group hailed a decision to proceed with a Sunday trading referendum in April as a ‘victory for democracy.’ ” Bendigo Advertiser, December 26, 1997. Whether or not it was a victory for democracy, it was most certainly an alarming breach of religious and civil liberties.

Keith Allen, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Victoria, “threw his support behind the campaign against Sunday trading during a visit to Bendigo yesterday.” Ibid., May 30, 1997. “Anglican Bishop David Bowden supported the call for a referendum, and Catholic Bishop Noel Daly and Uniting Church’s Kerrie Graham spoke against Sunday trading.” Ibid., May 8, 1997. The Uniting Church of Australia is a 1977 union of Congregationalists, Methodists and two-thirds of the Presbyterians.

It would seem that these clerics possess little understanding of the principles of religious and civil liberties. They appear to have learned no lessons from history. Nor does each apparently recall the fact that, in centuries past, members of their denominations suffered severely because the majority religion forced their religion upon them and thus breached their convictions.

Curiously, the chief opposition arose, not from those religious organizations whose religious prerogatives would be breached by this Sunday Law (such as Sabbath-keepers like Seventh-day Adventists), members of non-Christian faiths (such as Moslems), nor even from free-thinkers, agnostics or atheists, but from “twelve Bendigo tourism and business organizations.” Ibid., February 23, 1998. Thus financial loss appeared to be a greater motivating force than potential loss of civil and religious liberties. Two Seventh-day Adventist laymen, Donald Wilson of Mildura and Lance Mc Neill of Bendigo were exceptions to this statement. They wrote a number of letters setting forth their objections to the city’s leading newspaper, The Bendigo Advertiser.

Alerted of this crisis of religious liberty upon his return from a speaking tour of Singapore and India, just one week prior to the commencement of the postal vote, with the issue being judged to be very finely balanced between those supporting and those opposing the matter, Russell Standish decided to take up the issue. Two advertisements were inserted in the Bendigo newspaper and one letter to the editor written. The statements in these media avenues were as follows:


Advertisement One—

March 14, 1998

Sunday Trading Referendum

March 16–April 3

Objection No. 1

 

This referendum has been promoted by Christians living in the Bendigo District who are convicted that Sunday is a sacred day of worship. They have organized their campaign under the slogan Save Our Sundays (SOS).

Thinking Christians, believers in other faiths and non-believers will ask themselves the crucial question before delivering their vote, Save Our Sundays From What?

Since its founding, Sunday-worshipers in Bendigo have possessed perfect liberty to:

  • Worship on Sundays
  • Close their businesses on Sundays
  • Refrain from shopping on Sundays
  • Pursue their children’s education on days other than Sunday

So from what does Sunday have to be saved?

We thank God and the Australian Constitution that all convicted Sunday observers in Bendigo possess their inalienable right to religious liberty. This is true freedom. Wise statesmen 100 years ago guaranteed this liberty in our Australian Constitution which was confirmed by the citizens of our nation in an Australia-wide referendum.

Article 116 states: “The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.”

Do the citizens of Bendigo wish to contravene our wise Constitution—

  • by establishing the religious convictions of one segment of citizens?
  • by imposing their religious observances on others?
  • by prohibiting the free exercise of religion?

Seventh-day Adventists and Jews observe the Bible Sabbath (Saturday) as a day upon which they refrain from business. They do not seek to impose their convictions upon other citizens of Bendigo.

Moslems keep Friday holy. They too have refrained from seeking to enforce their religious practice upon those citizens of Bendigo not of their faith.

Citizens of the city who possess no religious convictions whatsoever have not sought a referendum to empower the city authorities to enforce work and business activities on those who possess sincere religious objections to such practices on their days of worship. On what moral grounds then do Sunday-keepers seek the enforcement of their beliefs?

The issue at stake in this referendum is the preservation of the religious and civil liberties of every citizen of Bendigo.

Vote NO in the Sunday trading referendum and preserve the freedoms of all dwellers in Bendigo. Let Bendigo set an example to Australia as a city which by vote of its citizens has declared its city to be one of freedom for all.

Dr. Russell Standish


Advertisement Two—

March 21, 1998

Sunday Trading Referendum

March 16–April 3

Objection No. 2

(See Bendigo Advertiser, March 14 for No. 1)

 

Save Our Undeniable Liberties (SOUL)

Bendigo citizens have the unique privilege to signal their defense of freedom in the present referendum. It is vital that every citizen votes in this referendum for your civil and religious liberties are at stake. This is no trivial matter.

These liberties have been bought over the centuries by men and women who suffered imprisonment, torture and death rather than yield their inalienable rights to religious and civil liberties.

  • John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) spent seven years (1661–1668) in Bedford Prision in defense of his right to practice and proclaim his religious convictions. He was a Puritan. He followed the Calvinist theory akin to that of the Presbyterian Church today.
  • In 1661 John James was hanged, drawn and quartered in London because he preached on Saturday contrary to the convictions of the majority.
  • William Penn (founder of the state of Pennsylvania) was only preserved from execution in 1670 for his practice of preaching the Quaker faith in London by the resistance of four of the twelve jurors to convict him. These jurors suffered torture and imprisonment for their stand.

The 1688–89 British Bill of Rights which is part of the Victorian State Constitution emerged as a protection against such persecution and compulsion. Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians and other Sunday-keeping Christians all have a long and tragic history of persecutions for their faith.

Members of these faiths require and merit full religious and civil liberties as much as do Saturday-keepers (such as Seventh-day Adventists and Jews), Friday keepers (Moslems) as well as atheists, agnostics and free-thinkers.

A prohibition upon Sunday trading will deprive every citizen of Bendigo, irrespective of his or her religious persuasion, of religious and civil liberties.

Vote NO in the Sunday Trading Referendum.

Every breach of civil and religious liberties, however piously supported and however little it may appear to encroach upon our liberties, is a large step towards a state of coercion of conscience which, in a large measure, our nation has happily rejected. Sunday-keepers have as much at stake in this referendum as do other citizens.

The words of Winston Churchill spoken on October 5, 1938 in another setting, are full of challenge to the citizens of Bendigo as they consider their vote in the Sunday Trading Referendum.

“Do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless, by supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor, we arise again, and take our stand for freedom as in the olden times.” Into the Battle, 53.

Vote NO in the Sunday Trading Referendum to preserve the religious and civil liberties of

  • Sunday-keeping Christians
  • Sabbath (Saturday)-keeping Christians
  • Believers of Non-Christian faiths
  • Those without religious convictions

Dr. Russell Standish


LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Sir,

In my separate advertisements in the Bendigo Advertiser of March 14 and 21, I have dealt with the secular aspects of the religious and civil liberty issues in the present Sunday Trading Referendum.

In this letter I address the religious issues involved. The basis of this Save our Sunday campaign is the sacred nature of Sunday observance. But is Sunday worship a fulfillment of the fourth commandment which enjoins Bible believers to keep the Sabbath holy (Exodus 20:8)? The same commandment states that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Exodus 20:10. Emphasis supplied.

The Bible alone must decide which day is the seventh-day Sabbath. This it does unequivocally. Speaking of Good Friday, Scripture states, “And that day was the preparation day, and the Sabbath drew on.” Luke 23:54. Thus the Sabbath day was the day following Good Friday. Further, speaking of Easter Sunday, the Bible records, “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” Matthew 28:1. Here Easter Sunday is clearly identified as the first day of the week and the day after the Sabbath. Thus the Sabbath day is shown to be the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Only Saturday therefore can be identified as the Sabbath God declared to be holy.

Both Catholics and Protestants freely agree. The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine by Rev. Peter Geirmann, says thus:

“Question—Which day is the Sabbath day?

Answer—‘Saturday is the Sabbath day,’

Question—Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?

Answer—‘We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic church, in the Council of Laodicea (336 A.D.) transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday’ ” Second edition, 50.

Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of The Baptist Manual, says: “There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath Day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week . . . Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament—absolutely not . . . Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come in use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!” Source Book, 513, 514.

Sir William Domville of the Church of England says: “Centuries of the Christian era passed away before Sunday was observed by the Christian church as the Sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in 321 A.D.” The Sabbath Or An Examination of Six Texts, 291.

The Presbyterian Christian at Work said this: “So some have tried to build the observance of Sunday upon apostolic command, whereas the apostles gave no command on the matter at all . . . The truth is, as soon as we appeal to the ‘Litera scripta’ [the literal script] of the Bible, the Sabbatarians have the best of the argument.” (Edition, April 19, 1883.)

The Methodist Theological Compendium states: “It is true, there is no positive command for infant baptism . . . nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week.”

Dr. W. R. Dale (Congregational) in The Ten Commandments, 106, 107, says, “It is quite clear that however rigidly or devotedly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath.”

The Lutheran position as revealed in The Augsburg Confession of Faith states: “The observance of the Lord’s day (Sunday) is founded not on any commandment of God, but on the authority of the church.”

Episcopalian spokesman Neander writes in The History of the Christian Religion and Church, 186: “The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them and from the early apostolic church to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.”

Since there is no Biblical basis for Sunday-keeping, the case for the abolition of Sunday trading possesses no religious basis. In addition, there is no moral mandate to enforce one’s personal convictions upon all the citizens of the city.

Yours faithfully,

Russell Standish

BA MB BS (Sydney University) MRCP (UK), FRCP (Edinburgh) FRCP (Glasgow)

 

Current Events – Religious Freedom Denied

China

Freedom of religion is supposedly guaranteed in China. However, Beijing’s leaders are deeply suspicious of any organization which does not come under its rigid controls.

Many of China’s 60 million Christians refuse to join the churches that are sanctioned by the Communist Party and instead choose to worship at independent churches, sometimes known as house churches.

A huge church purportedly built with almost £2 million raised from local worshipers in one of China’s poorest regions has been demolished by authorities, the latest flashpoint between religious groups and the officially atheist Communist Party.

The Golden Lampstand Church in the city of Linfen in the northern Shanxi province was destroyed with dynamite and heavy machinery, witnesses and overseas campaign groups said.

Chinese state media dismissed the demolition as part of routine removal of illegal buildings, but critics fear a more political motivation.

Officials have removed crosses from more than 1,200 churches in the eastern province of Zhejiang since early 2014. Many other churches have been demolished in the province.

www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-authorities-demolish-well-known-evangelical-church-061029917.html

Russia

Russia has placed the Jehovah’s Witnesses on its register of banned “extremist” organizations.

The Christian sect’s administrative center near St Petersburg and 395 local organizations were added to the list by the justice ministry on Thursday.

Believers can now be charged for proselytizing or gathering together.

In April [2017], Russia’s Supreme Court decided in favor of the justice ministry’s characterization of members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses as posing “a threat to the rights of the citizens, public order and public security.”

The denomination’s properties, known as Kingdom Halls, will also be seized by the state. The Independent, August 22, 2017

The Lord has shown us how to prepare for the time when these freedoms are taken away. “As religious aggression subverts the liberties of our nation, those who would stand for freedom of conscience will be placed in unfavorable positions. For their own sake, they should, while they have the opportunity, become intelligent in regard to disease, its causes, prevention, and cure. All those who do this will find a field of labor anywhere. There will be suffering ones, plenty of them, who will need help, not only among those of our own faith, but largely among those who know not the truth. The shortness of time demands an energy that has not been aroused among those who claim to believe the present truth.” Counsels on Health, 506.

Current Events – According to the World or God?

According to the World

In an article by Lindsey Bever, Sarah Kaplan and Abby Ohlheiser, published in The Washington Post 01/25/2018, they wrote:

The Doomsday Clock is now just 2 minutes to ‘midnight,’ the symbolic hour of the apocalypse.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the symbolic Doomsday Clock a notch closer to the end of humanity Thursday, moving it ahead by 30 seconds after what the organization called a “grim assessment” of the state of geopolitical affairs.

“As of today,” Bulletin president Rachel Bronson told reporters, “it is two minutes to midnight” — as close as the world has ever been to the hour of apocalypse.

The organization — which has 15 Nobel laureates on its board — now believes “the world is not only more dangerous now than it was a year ago; it is as threatening as it has been since World War II,” Bulletin officials Lawrence M. Krauss and Robert Rosner wrote in an op-ed published Thursday by The Washington Post. “In fact, the Doomsday Clock is as close to midnight today as it was in 1953, when Cold War fears perhaps reached their highest levels.”…

At a news conference Thursday, Bronson and a group of colleagues that included Krauss and Rosner listed a litany of grim developments over the past year: North Korea made rapid progress in developing a thermonuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States. Relations between the United States and Russia deteriorated. …

The decision to move the clock forward was motivated largely by the Bulletin’s sense of looming nuclear peril. But the danger is compounded by humanity’s continued inaction on climate change. …

The clock is symbolic, sitting at the intersection of art and science, and it has wavered between two and 17 minutes until doom since its inception in 1947. …

Since then, the Bulletin’s board has determined when the clock’s minute hand will move, usually to draw attention to worldwide crises that it believes threaten the survival of the human species. …

Several times, the Bulletin members reiterated that their goal is not to scare people — just to warn them and, hopefully, to motivate them to act.

“People of the world: If governments are not acting to protect you as they should, you need to take the lead,” Krauss said. “It is not yet midnight, and we have moved back from the brink in the past. Whether we do so in the future may be in your hands.”

 According to God

“The world is no more ready now to credit the warning than were the Jews in the days of our Saviour. Come when it may, the end will come unawares to the ungodly. When life is going on in its unvarying round; when men are absorbed in pleasure, in business, in traffic, in money-making; when religious leaders are magnifying the world’s progress and enlightenment, and the people are lulled in a false security—then, as the midnight thief steals within the unguarded dwelling, so shall sudden destruction come upon the careless and ungodly, ‘and they shall not escape.’ ” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 38.

“Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing or in the morning” (Mark 13:35).

Current Events – Your Brain on Cellphones

According to Heather Wilhelm, NationalReview.com, our addiction to our smartphones is “damaging American mental health.” Today’s phones are so powerful, fast, and filled with dazzling images and alluring tidbits of information from social media and the internet that they are virtually impossible to resist. She said, “Who among us hasn’t looked up at least once, smartphone in hand, slightly dazed, only to discover that precious bundles of minutes or hours have somehow slithered by, lost to all eternity usually in exchange for no discernible enlightenment at all?” 

The average smartphone user checks in about 80 times a day; click on one Facebook or Instagram feed or web link, and down you go into the digital rabbit hole. Americans now “eat, sleep, and breathe media,” consuming some form of it 12 hours a day. Not surprisingly, scientific research has linked smartphone use to decreased concentration, lower problem-solving skills, and depression. For youngsters, smartphone addiction is truly disastrous, with the incidence of depressive episodes souring to 60 percent. Why give kids under 12 what for them is “a very expensive portable internet porn finder/social-media stalking system/mean girls text center”? Adults should limit their kids’ smartphone minutes—and their own. Our collective mental health may depend on it.

The Week, October 27, 2017

Current Events – Sunday’s Coming – Poland votes to make Sunday a Day of Rest

“The bishops underscore the need to restore Sunday to society.”

Poland, once a communist-controlled nation, has very quickly exceeded Western Europe in morality. It has some of the most strict abortion laws on the continent, and has further solidified its Christian nation cred by voting to proclaim Sunday a day of rest and phase out shopping on Sunday by 2020.

The bill was proposed by trade unions that want shop workers to spend more time with their families with support from the ruling party that adheres to Catholic values. Critics say it would negatively affect Poland’s economy, eliminating tens of thousands of jobs as well as supermarket chains, which are mostly western.

Votes were dominated by the ruling party 254 for, with 156 against it with 23 abstentions to limit Sunday shopping to the first and last Sunday of the month from March 1 until the end of 2018; during 2019 only on the last Sunday each month; and a total ban starting in 2020. There will be exceptions that allow shopping before major holidays like Christmas and Easter. The Polish senate is expected to pass the bill which will be signed into law by President Duda.

Poland has continued to maintain a strong connection to its Catholic heritage in recent years, rejecting the progressive quest for abortion on demand and thwarting assaults on traditional marriage.

Poland›s Catholic bishops have praised the move as a bold step forward, though with reservations. Father Paweł Rytel-Andrianik, spokesman for the Polish Bishops Conference, said the bill is welcomed while still “unsatisfactory.”

“The bishops underscore the need to restore Sunday to society as a day of rest and time of building family ties as well as strengthening social relationships,” he said. “They point out also that Sunday rest cannot be a luxury for a chosen few but is an integral part of equal treatment for all employees. Therefore, there is an urgent need to make all Sundays free from work, just as is already the case in many European Union countries.”

Economists disagree and have denounced the bill as a “disgrace.”

“The government’s attempt to coerce part of the population not to sell or shop on Sundays is a disgrace and has nothing to do with Catholicism,” Wrocław-based economist and entrepreneur Piotr Zapałowicz told LifeSiteNews. “Some people will lose their jobs or part of their income, especially those employed on hourly wages.”

Michal Dybula, a Warsaw-based economic strategist at Bank BGZ BNP Paribas, said “any restriction of economic activity, such as retail trade, results in weaker economic growth.”

Extracts from www.dailywire.com/news/24046/christian-nation-poland-votes-make-sunday-day-rest-paul-bois?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=062316-news&utm_campaign=benshapiro

Current Events – Labor Unions

The work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future, which will soon come upon them with blinding force. In the world gigantic monopolies will be formed. Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy. A few men will combine to grasp all the means to be obtained in certain lines of business. Trades unions will be formed, and those who refuse to join these unions will be marked men. Letter 26, 1903.” Country Living, 10.

“The trades unions will be one of the agencies that will bring upon this earth a time of trouble such as has not been since the world began. Letter 200, 1903.” Ibid.

In the United States of America, 23 states currently have right-to-work laws, with the majority of them in the Southeast and through the Great Plains. Right-to-work laws restrict the financial and political power of unions, which is why the issue is generally fought along partisan lines. The ability to create such a provision was created as part of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act.

Right-to-work states basically believe that the right to live includes the right to work, and that the exercise of the right to work must be protected and maintained free from undue restraints and coercion. Therefore, in these states the right of persons to work will not be denied because of membership or nonmembership in any labor union or labor organization or association.

Contrary to the right-to-work states’ fundamental beliefs, a major large labor organization in the United States has stated that labor unions are a fundamental institution for democracy and economic development.

In January 2012, the United States President signed three union-friendly Executive Orders. The Executive Orders expressly noted the need for “strong labor unions” to support a strong middle class, and the “need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests.”

Labor unions, however, are not active only in the United States. For example, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), a worldwide union network based in Brussels, Belgium, represents 175 million workers in 155 countries and territories and has 311 national affiliates. An Internet visit to LabourStart provides daily news of labor union activity throughout the world. A recent visit there carried news from 37 countries.

Resources:

Current Events – In the News

Consider Job 10:8, 11, “Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; … Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

”There are scriptures that teach we must defend and protect the weak, the defenseless, the innocent, the needy, and the unwanted, such as Proverbs 31:8 NKJV: “Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die.”

The United States Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

“Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) The pro-abortion government-run health care bill was signed into law March 23, 2010. The bill requires that at least one health care plan be promoted across the country [United States] that pays for abortions.” www.lifenews.com/2010/03/23/nat-6180/

In its March 15, 2011, issue, the Adventist Review shared the following world news from Religion News Service as a service to readers.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved May 25 [2011] a measure that would bar federal funding for the training of medical residents to perform abortions.

The House voted 234-182 for an amendment by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R.-N.C., that would have the following effects on a new program established by last year’s controversial health-care reform law:

  • Prohibit the project, which helps teaching health centers form or enlarge residency programs, from funding abortions.
  • Ban money in the program from paying for the training of abortion doctors.
  • Bar health centers funded through the program from discriminating against residents and other health-care professionals who refuse to provide or refer for abortions.

The roll-call vote on Foxx’s amendment broke down largely along party lines: 221 Republicans and 13 Democrats voted for the proposal, while 172 Democrats and 10 GOP members opposed it.

“Should taxpayers foot the bill for elective abortions or to train abortion doctors? I don’t think so,” Foxx said in a written statement after the vote. “If organizations want to provide elective abortions or train abortion doctors they need to find someone other than taxpayers to write the checks. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for subsidizing the abortion industry.” www.adventistreview.org

Current Events – Mob Mentality

“In every mob wicked angels are at work, rousing men to commit deeds of violence.” Last Day Events, 23.

Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began in September 17, 2011. Solidarity encampments and demonstrations have been organized across the United States and throughout the world to call for economic, political and social change. It’s unclear what the Occupy protests have accomplished, but millions of dollars in costs of repair and maintenance and police overtime have been incurred by cities since the protesters began gathering, and protesters are beginning to camp out again. www.washingtonpost.com; www.democracynow.org, April 25, 2012.

Saudi Arabia closed its Cairo embassy and recalled its ambassador following protests over a detained Egyptian human rights lawyer in a sharp escalation of tension between two regional powerhouses already on shaky terms due to uprisings in the Arab world. The unexpected Saudi diplomatic break came following days of protests by hundreds of Egyptians outside the Saudi Embassy in Cairo and consulates in other cities. www.miamiherald.com, April 28, 2012.

Bahrain is a small desert island kingdom in the Persian Gulf, an oil-producing nation of about one million. In mid-February 2011, Bahrain was gripped by a series of pro-democracy demonstrations in Manama, the capital, set off by the example of revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. At least 70 people have been killed in violence related to the uprising. topics.nytimes.com, April 23, 2012.

Tens of thousands of anti-regime protesters have taken to the streets in Syria on the second day of the UN [United Nations] and Arab League-brokered ceasefire. Security forces were widely deployed and despite the agreed truce, activists claim that more than 15 people have been killed. Syrian troops fired tear gas and bullets on thousands of protesters who spilled out of mosques after noon prayers on Friday, activists said. State media reported that bombs and shootings killed 17 soldiers as the latest diplomatic efforts failed to halt more than 13 months of bloodshed in the country. www.guardian.co.uk, April 20, 2012; ibnlive.in.com, April 21, 2012.

KANO, Nigeria (AP) – Gunmen attacked church services on a university campus on Sunday in northern Nigeria, using small explosives to draw out panicked Christian worshipers, who were then shot in an assault that killed at least 16 people, officials said. www.nytimes.com, April 29, 2012.

A Tibetan exile who set himself on fire in Delhi [India] earlier this week has died, as Indian police and paramilitaries launch a security crackdown to prevent further protests or self-immolations during the visit of the Chinese premier, Hu Jintao. Authorities fear that more Tibetans will follow suit to protest at Chinese policies in their homeland. About 30 Tibetans have died and another dozen have been seriously injured in the past 13 months in similar protests, mainly inside China. guardian.co.uk, March 28, 2012.

The protesting employees of the National Commission for Women Development staged a demonstration outside the Karachi [Pakistan] Press Club on Monday. They were forced to disperse when personnel of the police department were apparently ordered to use high-pressure water cannons on them. Moreover, a large number of demonstrators were baton-charged and some of them arrested, because nothing the law enforcers did was enough for making the protesters stop voicing their grievances and demands.

www.pakistantoday.com, April 3, 2012.