On the Edge of a Stupendous Crisis, December 16

Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Joel 1:15.LHU 364.1

Today 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. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour's prophecy of the events to precede His coming: “Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars.... Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matthew 24:6, 7).LHU 364.2

The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place—that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.LHU 364.3

The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, events that already are casting their shadows before, the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear.LHU 364.4

“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty.... The earth ... is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant” (Isaiah 24:1-5)....LHU 364.5

“I am pained at my very heart; ... I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled” (Jeremiah 4:19, 20)....LHU 364.6

“Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge,
Even the most High, thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee,
Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling” (Psalm 91:9, 10)....LHU 364.7

God will not fail His church in the hour of her greatest peril. He has promised deliverance. “I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents,” He has declared, “and have mercy on his dwelling places” (Jeremiah 30:18).LHU 364.8

Then will the purpose of God be fulfilled; the principles of His kingdom will be honored by all beneath the sun (Prophets and Kings, 536-538).LHU 364.9