This is what the prophet Ezekiel saw when before his astonished gaze God portrayed symbols that revealed a Power overruling the affairs of earthly rulers. Wheels intersecting one another were moved by four living beings. High above all these “was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man.” Ezekiel 1:26. RR 189.6
The wheels, so complicated that at first sight they appeared to be in confusion, moved in perfect harmony. Heavenly beings were powering those wheels. The complicated play of human events is under divine control. Amidst the strife and tumult of nations, He that sits above the cherubim still guides the affairs of this earth. To every nation and individual God has assigned a place in His great plan. By their own choices, men and nations today are deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all to accomplish His purposes. RR 189.7
The prophecies that the great I AM has given in His Word tell us where we are in the procession of the ages. Everything that prophecy has foretold until the present time has been recorded on the pages of history, and all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its time. RR 190.1
The signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. The Savior prophesied of events to precede His coming: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. ... Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” Matthew 24:6, 7. Rulers and statesmen recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place—that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis. RR 190.2
The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of events that already are casting their shadows before. The sound of their approach is causing the earth to tremble and people’s hearts to fail them for fear. “Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste, distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants.” “Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate.” Isaiah 24:1, 5, 6. RR 190.3
“Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” Jeremiah 30:7. RR 190.4
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. Psalm 91:9, 10 RR 190.5
God will not fail His church in the hour of her greatest danger. He has promised deliverance. All beneath the sun will honor the principles of His kingdom. RR 190.6