Clear and Present Danger, Part 2- Tightening the Grip
By Pastor Hal Mayer
Clear and Present Danger, Part 2- Tightening the Grip
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry. I’m so glad you have joined me today as we study another important message for our times. We are truly near the coming of Jesus and it gives me great joy to know that we are nearing the end of this dark night of sin. We’re on the verge of eternity, a time the prophets of old longed to see. We pray that you will be encouraged to give your life to Jesus by today’s message, and prepare for the coming challenge to your faith. Now more than ever, we must keep the faith once delivered to the saints in our personal lives and also work for lost souls by showing them the way of salvation. And thank you for your prayers for Keep the Faith Ministry. They mean much to us.
Recently, I had an email from one of our listeners who said that her father had surrendered his life to the Lord by listening to her Keep the Faith CDs, just before he passed away. I’m so very thankful for that. What a powerful encouragement it was to hear from her. It encourages me to keep on going. It strengthens me to know that lives are being changed by God’s power through our little CD preachers.
I have an announcement for you. Our new Keep the Faith webstore is now online. Go to our website and you will find a link on the home page that takes you directly to our webstore. There you can order any CD you wish from our archives, as well as music and books that we have available.
Also, I would just like to tell you that Highwood Health Retreat in Australia is getting stronger every day. I am so thankful for the Lord’s blessing. It never ceases to amaze me how God works with our guests and helpers.
I’ve got to tell you just one short story to inspire you. Carita, a young girl from Finland came to Highwood on a “work and holiday” visa. This is a kind of exchange program for youth so they can explore Australia while working a little to fund their visit. They are permitted to work anywhere within strict limits for about six months at each location.
Carita was raised in a secular home and has never experienced Christian faith, at least not yet. She was almost overwhelmed by Highwood where the staff openly talk about their faith, have group prayers before meals, and have morning and evening worship and go to church each Sabbath. But she did her work faithfully and respectfully joined, at least passively, in the spiritual activities, perhaps not knowing what else to do. We explained to her our Sabbath principles and she complied, but mostly left campus on the weekends to go stay with her boyfriend in Melbourne. But God is working in Carita’s life.
By the end of her six months at Highwood, which is the maximum time permitted by Australian immigration in any location, Carita and our Highwood staff were strongly bonded. Carita has now moved on to other employment. But the news that has us jumping up and down with enthusiasm is that we have just heard from one of our friends that Carita, on her own volition, showed up at one of the churches in Melbourne on Sabbath morning.
While we don’t know what will happen in the future, we do trust that God spoke to Carita during her time at Highwood. And she is responding and this gives us great encouragement. Please pray for Carita, the girl from Finland.
We are now working on plans to remodel the therapy department to greatly increase its use. We have a serious plumbing problem, which will require tearing out our steam baths and replacing them, which is a major unexpected project. But as we thought about it we realized that if we restructure the design of the whole therapy area, we will be able to greatly increase its use, without expanding its size. That will be a huge blessing to our guests, day visitors and staff. So, stay tuned, and please pray for us. We’re going to need some help to bring the funds together for this important project. If you are interested in helping, please contact us.
Today’s message considers another aspect of the foundation for martial law and the ongoing assault on the U.S. Constitution and on liberty. You may remember the National Defense Authorization Act, passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into federal law by President Obama last year, which included provisions that permitted the U.S. President and the military to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens, even on U.S. soil without rights, without due process and without access to the normal constitutional and legal proceedings and protections.
The law was mainly about renewing the funding for the military, but its authors imbedded provisions in it that essentially enact martial law. This law is devastating to liberty, and lays important groundwork for a time when God’s true people will be persecuted in nations that are free today. Remember that the Bible predicts that the United States will enforce papal worship principles on the whole world in a global religion.
Following the implementation of that new law, President Obama signed an executive order that spells out the authority and chain of command for when military martial law is implemented. The new executive order updates the preparations for the total onslaught that will be aimed at the very ones who honor God and His law. Of course, others will run into conflict with these laws and executive orders too. But ultimately, a huge crisis will bring all of these preparations to bear on those who today seem least likely. That crisis will be the genesis of the national and global Sunday laws that will be enacted in addition to the oppressive measures that are now being constructed.
Right now, it is all about terrorism and national defense in the minds of most people. But in reality, Satan, the ultimate despot, uses the heightened fear of terrorism to construct and install systems that he can then turn against those who keep God’s law. As a young person, I often wondered how people would be prevented from buying and selling or how a death penalty can be imposed for breaking Sunday laws. That just seemed so impossible. Terrorism is being used as the blind for constructing the arsenal that will one day be turned on God’s faithful people. Only with Bible prophecy can you see it coming and understand it.
Before we go any further, however, let us bow our heads and ask for God’s blessing as we study how prophecy is being fulfilled in our time.
Our Father in heaven, thank you, in Jesus’ name, for your protection and blessing in our lives. We are living on borrowed time. Mercy is pleading with us and warning us to live right with God, for we are near the end. It is our privilege to study Your word today and we ask for Your Holy Spirit to speak to us that we may realize the shortness of time and the vital importance of a living walk with Jesus. And it is in His holy name we pray, Amen.
Turn with me in your Bibles to the 46th Psalm, verses 1, 2. Here we find a wonderful promise that God is certain to keep for His faithful people.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”
In other words, if you are Christ’s then nothing will cause you to fear because your confidence is in God. There will be no earthly trouble that can shake your faith in the Holy One of Israel. There may be natural disasters, but you will not dread them. There may be terrorism, but it will not frighten you. There may be laws designed to destroy you, but they will not make you waver in your loyalty to the God of heaven.
Every era of history has had its test for God’s people, and that test often involves pressure to compromise their loyalty to God. Just think of the heroes of the faith; Daniel and his friends, Esther, Joseph, Paul, and of course, Christ Himself. You can add to that the Waldenses, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and a host of other faithful souls during the Middle Ages when God’s law was trampled under foot by the established church. Many sacrificed their lives for the faith that they held in their hearts.
Hebrews 11 is full of examples of this. Verse 36 through 38 tells us what they went through. It says, “And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”
Friends, this is what the Bible says happened in the past. But did you know that this is also a prophetic example of what will happen to God’s people in the future? It is very important to understand that we are soon to have a head-on collision with the powers of darkness that now control the world and are preparing to destroy God’s faithful people. The Lord Jesus has everything under control, but He must allow Satan to orchestrate his plans to manifest his real character and give everyone a clear choice.
When I read these scriptures I can’t help but think about the massive project on which the Prince of Darkness has embarked to bring the whole world under his control. Nations are working together to strengthen the globalization of all society. Secret societies and secret cabals are working behind the scenes to manipulate circumstances so that gradually power and sovereignty are shifted away from individual nations and given to the central global authority.
But there is another power behind these earthly secular leaders that also has its eye on the consolidation and control of resources, but for a vastly different purpose. Though this power is working openly in the world and is quite popular for its profession of friendliness, charity and piety, it is nevertheless prowling behind the scenes waiting for and taking every opportunity to increase its global power. It is working to restore the power it once had over the nations of the world.
This power the Bible describes as a woman. We can read about this extraordinary woman in Revelation 17:3. John was in vision and the Bible says, “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”
In Bible prophecy, a woman represents a church or religious power, while a beast represents a civil power. In this case, the beast represents Europe with its civil heads and horns of power. This civil power also engaged in blasphemy against God because of the way it acted toward God’s law and His true people while under the control of the woman. Those who kept His Sabbath during the dark centuries of the Middle Ages, and also those who disagreed with other doctrines of this repressive religious organization were often slaughtered like cattle because of their faith.
A church or a religious power guides the civil beast power. There is no other possible conclusion than that this woman represents the papacy. There is no other historical power that fits the description and that was so blasphemous as to make void God’s law and persecute those who upheld it. There is no other church that made a mockery out of the grace of Christ and perverted the religion of Christ by pilgrimages, penances and other works to earn one’s way into heaven. No other religious entity has ever defied morality like the Roman Catholic system. No other religious organization has developed the blasphemous mass, which pretends to make a piece of bread or wafer into a god to be worshipped.
When God said, “Thou shalt have no other God’s before me,” Exodus 20:3, Rome created the monstrance of the mass, or a god in a wafer. When God said, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” Exodus 20:4 through 6, the papacy created images for the people to worship. When God said, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” and that “the seventh day is the Sabbath,” Exodus 20:8 through 11, the Popes blasphemously decreed that Sunday worship would replace the Sabbath.
Every one of the Ten Commandments Rome has abused in some way or another and taught the opposite, or taught the people that breaking them had little consequence. Instead of teaching that forgiveness comes from Christ, Rome teaches forgiveness comes from the priest. Instead of teaching the power of God to overcome sin, Rome teaches that it is impossible and that all you need to do is go to confession and receive absolution. This is the cheapest form of grace there ever was. There is no self-surrender. There is no self-sacrifice. Just pay some money, do some penance, and your soul will be well.
Friends, the enemy of all is working to bring the world under a global government so eventually that very one-world government can bring religious laws into existence and enforce them globally.
Listen to it from Revelation 13:4. There are two entities that are being worshipped at the end of time. Speaking of the whole world that wonders after the beast (mentioned in verse three), John the Revelator says, “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”
Notice that the Bible says that the whole world worships both the beast and the dragon. Who is the beast? A beast in Bible prophecy represents a civil power. In this case it is speaking of the civil government of the papal beast. Remember the papacy has both civil and religious aspects. It is both a temporal power and a spiritual power. It is both a nation among the nation states of the world, and it is a church among the churches of the world. No other earthly power is also a church. And no other church is a nation state either.
There are plenty of nations that are religious and are controlled by a religious power, but they have no authority over members of that religion outside the boundaries of their government. The Pope, on the other hand, is the spiritual head of all Roman Catholics and has authority over them throughout the whole world regardless of their national allegiance. The papacy even has its own set of laws, system of justice and governing bodies that apply to Roman Catholics wherever they are. Its priests are rulers over assigned territories, which overlap the territories of secular powers. This is only possible because of the hierarchical and authoritarian nature of the papal church.
Strong Islamic states persecute non-Muslims, but Islam is not a hierarchical religion with a central authority that has power over all Muslims globally. Strong Hindu nations persecute non-Hindus, but Hinduism is not a hierarchical religion with a central religious authority that can control Hindus globally. Only the papacy has a central authority with adherents in every country on the globe over which she rules. While in western countries, there are disagreements between many Roman Catholics and their hierarchy, Rome still claims power over them, and they accept at least some of Rome’s power. But when difficulties in the world become very severe, many people will be shocked by the terrible calamities that will come upon them, so shocked will they be that most of them will put aside their disagreements and yield to Rome’s authority and push for religious laws to restore the nations to the favor of God. Protestants and evangelicals and others will join them.
Global papal rulership is what gives the papacy a unique position to manipulate governments through Roman Catholic adherents in government positions whether appointed or elected, in legislative bodies, and among the voters in the democratic nations around the world. But Rome also has a lot of influence capital in nations with monarchial or dictatorial rulership too. And as the ecumenical movement, which is bringing all the churches and religions into friendly alignment with Rome, has gained much more momentum in the last few years; Rome also has gained a lot of influence with non-Catholics around the world, including those who influence governments. They believe that they are in common cause with Rome to solve the problems of society. Meanwhile, Rome gains control over their minds.
I’m awed at the colossal structure that is being built to bring the whole world under control of fewer and fewer people. Rome supports the principle of centralization and global control because it plays to her interests. She has to manipulate fewer people that way. In fact, the Vatican herself recently called for a global economic controlling body to manage global finances. Money is what makes this world go round. So Rome is calling for global control.
Pope calls for a “global authority” on economy
Centralization and control of all manner of resources is essential to the globalist plan. Most global leaders, think that globalization will help strengthen their hold on power in a temporal way. Some perhaps naively think that this is about solving the world’s problems. But globalism, or internationalism, as it is sometimes called, is actually going to increase the world’s problems. But that is a discussion for another time. Internationalists are globalizing the world for their own secular purposes, and this is putting them in charge of all things earthly. But the Bible says these merchants of the earth are cooperating with the Vatican in order to accomplish their purposes.
Let us read it from Revelation 18:2-4. “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
This is God’s last call to separate yourself from spiritual Babylon, but it is also telling us that the merchants of the earth and the kings of the earth are cooperating with Rome or spiritual Babylon and benefiting by their relationship with her. These kings and merchants are seeking to establish a one-world government with just a few key people at the top who will control everything else. They work within their own countries as well as on the geo-political plane to bring all the nations together and centralize power in a globalized fashion. They may not even realize that what they are doing now perfectly suits the purposes of the papacy, for one day she will co-opt all their efforts and rise to the top of the global hierarchy as the global moral guide.
And while the nations are working together for global civil unity and gradually yielding their sovereignty to global institutions, the churches are uniting through the ecumenical movement and yielding their spiritual sovereignty and allegiance to the papacy and the pope. This dangerous movement is intriguing to watch. There are two fronts involved in the papal principle. One is working on the temporal sphere, and the other on the spiritual sphere. The papal leaders know that once they have the allegiance of the churches and people, they can also pressure government leaders to yield allegiance to them too and enact oppressive religious laws for all mankind.
The Bible predicts that this will happen. Note that the woman is riding on the beast in Revelation 17:3. This clearly portrays that the church controls the civil government. The seven heads and ten horns represent the powers of Europe in the Middle Ages. The empire is represented by a beast, which has united the nations. Medieval Europe was united under the government, military and economy of Charlemagne, who also united the nations under the spiritual and temporal control of the pope. Charlemagne was the temporal ruler, but the pope was the spiritual ruler. It was the pope however, that manipulated the temporal interests of medieval Europe to do his bidding.
And today the papacy is working very diligently to regain control of Europe again and resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. You can learn more about that by asking for some of our previous messages through our online store that will tell you in detail how this is being worked out.
But as the Vatican works diligently for the control of the new Europe, she is also working to control and manipulate the United States and other nations of the world. Silently, stealthily she gradually gains more influence and power. “In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends…” That’s from Maranatha, page 169. So, the aim then, is for the religious power to control the civil government, just as Revelation 18 says it will happen. Like the woman that rides or controls the beast, the church controls the secular power.
Listen to what is said in Great Controversy, page 581. “God’s word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.”
And this is not just an idle statement. These things are actually happening today. We are getting very near to the close of human probation, my friends. Our time to work is getting shorter and shorter as we watch the creation of a massive control system, from which, when implemented, it will be impossible to escape. Only the hand of God will carry His faithful children through the crisis. Friends, now is the time to cement a consistent and unyielding relationship with God.
Globalism marches on, and an overwhelming surprise is soon to fall upon us. The United States continues to undermine the very principles that made it the admiration of the world. Its constitution, which has instructed its course for more than two centuries, is not much more than a shell now. It is there on paper, but presidents, Congress and the courts have stripped it, mostly, of the protections in the Bill of Rights. It is only a matter of time before religious liberty is directly assaulted. The very ones who have been sworn to uphold it are supplanting the U.S. Constitution with new principles, new laws that will remove its protections against tyranny. The U.S. Constitution is being repudiated step-by-step, day-by-day, hour-by-hour. Tragically, most people don’t see the danger. The vast majority of its citizens don’t recognize the determined efforts by those in power to undermine the very freedoms they are told are being defended.
Listen to this familiar statement from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, and page 451. This statement reveals who is really behind the secret plot to change the Constitution. It unveils the clandestine cabal that will, one day, overthrow religious freedom and force the worship of the beast and the dragon. If it were not for Bible prophecy, no one would understand how all this works. It is too subtle, too carefully planned. And most people are oblivious to it all. They don’t understand Bible prophecy, and they cannot discern the sinister powers at work. Let me read you the statement.
“By the [Sunday law] decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation [the United States] will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.”
So, through Romanism, spiritualism and apostate Protestantism, Satan is going to overthrow the U.S. Constitution, which protects your freedom of conscience, and enforce Sunday worship. This three-fold cabal is going to make your life very difficult. You will not be able to buy and sell. You will not be able to live a normal easy life like you do now. You won’t be able to use your cell phone. You won’t have access to food unless you grow your own, or the angels provide it. And this goes for those living in other nations too. While the United States leads the way, other nations will follow in enacting national Sunday laws of their own. This will then lead to a universal Sunday law, which will force the whole world to worship the papacy and the dragon, just as the Bible predicts.
Let me share the prophetic and ominous statement with you from Maranatha, page 214. “As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example. Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.”
This statement tells us about how things will develop in regard to the universal Sunday law. First it starts in America, and then spreads to the rest of the world. But this is also true for the preparations. As the United States makes preparations for these events, knowingly or unknowingly, the rest of the world follows. Mechanisms are copied from one country to the next, processes and policies are aligned between countries, and centralized global institutions are constructed to orchestrate the collusion. There are many reasons given for all of the developments, but the work of building the new world order is ultimately to establish global worship. Most people don’t understand this, but this is what Bible prophecy is telling us.
There may be those who think that this could never happen, my friends, but it most certainly will. God’s word cannot fail. God’s promises and instruction cannot fail. His warnings are not idle threats. And as we watch the signs of the times unfold, we can see more and more clearly how these things will come to pass.
Most people want to bury their heads in the sand like the ostrich. Perhaps they think that if they don’t know about it, it won’t happen. They vainly hope that everything will turn out all right, and that they don’t have to concern themselves with the signs of the times. They don’t pray. They don’t study their Bibles. They rarely give thought of God. Their secular lives keep their attention elsewhere. Others are afraid to think about the fearful things that are coming upon the world. They accuse those who explain these dreadful events of being fear-mongers. But, it was Jesus Himself who predicted these terrible developments. And He did so that we may know the shortness of the time and the urgent need to get our lives ready.
My friends, we are not living in usual times. These are grand and awful times that require us to do just as Jesus told us to do. We are to watch and pray. We are to watch the signs of the times and pray that we may be accounted worthy to escape the fearful things that are coming upon the world. That’s Luke 21:36. We do not need to fear, for when you are in Christ, there is no fear. He promises to sustain His faithful ones. But we do need to be aware of the developments that bring us to the crisis and take action in our own lives. Ask Jesus to come into your heart and cast out sin and give you victory over Satan’s temptations. When you have this experience there is no fear of the future. There is no fear of the total onslaught that will break out upon God’s people, for Christ stands by their side. Oh friends, don’t make the mistake of overlooking these things.
Let me share with you another recent development. Recently, the U.S. Congress passed a law, which permits the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely without trial or due process if they are labeled terrorists, or enemies of the United States. President Obama signed the bill at the very end of 2011. This is one major step in the militarization of America and part of the plan for total control of the citizens of the United States. It is the legal framework for martial law, which is just waiting for an opportunity to exert itself. And don’t forget, as America goes, so goes the world – eventually.
There were those who thought that the citizen detention provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 would be removed because there was so much opposition from those in the U.S. Congress who pointed out how unconstitutional it was. But it passed both the Senate and the House of Representatives anyway.
Then there were trusting people who said that President Obama would not sign the bill because he was openly opposed to the detention provisions. Mr. Obama actually said that he would not sign it. But he signed it anyway, and merely issued a non-binding signing statement saying that he was uncomfortable with those provisions and would not use them.
Then there were those who said that the provisions don’t apply to American citizens, but President Obama corrected them when he declared that the new law did apply to U.S. citizens and that he did have these new powers. At the same time, he said that he would use restraint and not use these new powers against U.S. citizens. But the law is still on the books, my friends, for a future president or even President Obama to use, should he change his mind again.
In essence, the law strips the Bill of Rights right out of the U.S. Constitution. Make no mistake about it; plans for the total takeover of America are maturing even now.
Then something else has happened which adds to the magnificent and colossal structure of control. On March 16, 2012 President Obama issued an executive order entitled “NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS,” which details the chain of command under martial law and the breadth of federal control over all resources in support of national defense. Note that it involves ALL resources.
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order…)
This type of executive decree is not new. In fact, this executive order basically updates previous executive orders of previous presidents. It is nevertheless important to consider the status of the provisions of this executive order. This order would go into action if the President determines that there is a significant threat to national security and that the United States needs to be defended either from external threats or internal danger. The last time such an order was executed was 18 years ago under President Bill Clinton. This one is almost identical.
This executive order is intended to provide instruction to the various heads of government departments and delegate authority in advance concerning the control of resources in a national defense emergency. It states that the President alone has the authority over the resources in the nation including food, water, energy, medical, transportation, labor and industry. It also says that the president can exercise this power in order “to promote the national defense.” This rather broad and vague phrase could be used to justify implementing martial law for almost any reason. It could be used to defend the nation against religious fanatics or those who have been characterized as religious extremists. After all, it is religious fanatics and extremists that are the target of current anti-terrorist operations, mostly. So, the United States and many nations of the world are primed to suspicion anyone who is portrayed as extremist. “To promote national defense” is a very broad concept that can be used to justify almost anything, and can include all manner of real or perceived crises.
What do global leaders think is coming upon the world anyway? Do they envision catastrophes so great that it would necessitate the central and dictatorial control of everything? I think so. Do the president and those around him believe that they will need this kind of power to take control of every resource regardless of who it belongs to, and use it for their own purposes. That is what martial law is, my friends; total control of every aspect of society.
Underlying this development is the idea that the government is responsible for taking care of everyone. Now days, whenever there is a crisis, everyone looks to the government for a solution. They criticize the government when it cannot deliver protection or resources. This justifies the government in assuming control. And if people take government benefits, then the government has the right to control them. But, as is always the case, it is unwise to depend on the government. If you are faithful to God, you won’t have access to those government resources anyway.
The fact is, Bible prophecy clearly portrays what is coming upon the world at the end of time. Perhaps you remember what happened in the city of Jerusalem when there was a national defense emergency. Violence was everywhere as people became more desperate to find food. Everything was up for sale or exchange in order to buy food. Some took food out of their children’s mouths. The excruciating food shortage was deadly in more ways than one. At the end of time, people concentrated in the cities will vie with one another to hoard food resources. Violence will erupt as we have seen in recent times in major cities around the world, but at that time it will be out of desperation and survival instinct.
The updated executive order delegates control over the various resources to the following governmental, non-elected secretaries.
(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;
Food is one of the most important resources in any society. Without food, a society cannot survive. In other words, the U.S. President is saying that in the promotion of national defense, he can control anything relating to food. It can be confiscated or redistributed and re-prioritized. Food animals can be taken over and managed in a way quite different from what a farmer would normally do. Food supplies could easily be limited and you might be left without the ability to buy food from store shelves in the event of a severe national emergency. Perhaps you will have to use your Real ID compliant Identification card to buy food or fuel.
You can already see that it is vital to have your own garden when this level of control is implemented. While there might be ways and means invented to control even family gardens eventually, it is the food production resources such as commercial greenhouses, commercial chicken farms, dairy and beef cattle, vast fields of crops throughout the nation, as well as packaging and distribution resources that a government would takeover first. Later, perhaps, as controls mature, even private family gardens can be controlled too. I might add that you should prepare your compost pile so that you don’t have to buy fertilizers on the market. You may not be able to get them at some stage. Also, you can see that it would not be a good idea to live in the city at a time like this. There could well be panic, and like in the time of the destruction of Jerusalem people will resort to violence to find food.
There could be a number of ways in which this would play out, but just imagine, for instance, trying to get food in the city when the government re-directs it to the military for defense purposes.
(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;
“All forms of energy” would include electricity, gas, petrol, diesel fuel, jet fuel, coal, hydroelectric power, nuclear energy plants, etc. it would also include all forms of distribution from power grids to fuel tanker trucks and railroad tanker cars. If there is a major crisis, which would be justification for these provisions of national defense to be implemented, do you think it is possible that there could be limits on the amount of electricity you can use, or the amount of gas or petrol you could buy? Will there be limits on travel?
No doubt the government would give authority to trucking companies for diesel fuel if they are carrying produce into cities, but that doesn’t mean that the food would necessarily arrive. Perhaps there would have to be military convoys to protect the truckers.
What if there is a shortage of jet fuel if production facilities are destroyed by natural or human causes? How would cargo planes bring in supplies, parts and even food to the big cities from all over the world as they do now? How would people travel? How would they drive to work, if fuel is rationed? Historically, in times of national emergency there has often, if not always, been fuel rationing. This will keep people close to home and will make mobility very difficult.
In such an emergency expect prices for any type of energy to skyrocket. The high prices we pay now for energy will be merely small change compared to what it could be. People on fixed incomes would not be able to afford food or energy.
This would begin the unraveling of society, and it would be under government supervision. The military and the National Guard would have to be called in to maintain order and stability by force. Just think about what could happen.
(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;
Imagine being denied health services or having limited health services because they are prioritized for those who are more important to society’s function than others.
Over-the-counter as well as prescription drugs could be rationed. Supplements can be restricted. Procedures and surgeries could also be prioritized, leaving some people out.
(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;
Civil transportation includes your car, buses, small and large airplanes, taxis, commercial trucks, boats, ferries, trains and any other mode of transportation. You could be very limited in any kind of travel.
Listen to this surprising statement about travel from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, and page 22. “We have no time to lose. The end is near. The passage from place to place to spread the truth will soon be hedged with dangers on the right hand and on the left.”
Isn’t that interesting? It will be very difficult to fly around from place to place like we do now. If your name is on a government “black list” because you obey God in everything, you would hardly be able to drive your car anywhere without danger, let alone get on an airplane or any other mode of public transportation.
Let me read on. “Everything will be placed to obstruct the way of the Lord’s messengers, so that they will not be able to do that which it is possible for them to do now.”
Can you see how that terrorism has been used to construct obstructions? They aren’t working that way now, but they are deployed nonetheless. Eventually, they will one day be laid in the way of those who teach the real and full truth for this time. Can you see that there is coming a very difficult time for normal people to travel in normal ways? Even though the statement I just read tells us that travel is going to become more difficult for God’s messengers to preach the truth, there is no doubt that it is going to be difficult for everyone. It’s just that those who have God’s special end-time message to come out of Babylon will have additional restrictions and it will become very dangerous.
In some countries where I travel, there are sometimes roadblocks and all cars are checked, drivers and passengers must show their IDs. This can easily be done in a more general way making it very difficult to get from place to place with the truth.
Mechanisms like the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 and the executive order on National Defense Resources Preparedness are doing that now.
I’ll continue reading from the statement. “We must look our work fairly in the face, and advance as fast as possible in aggressive warfare. From the light given me of God I know that the powers of darkness are working with intense energy from beneath, and with stealthy tread Satan is advancing to take those who are now asleep, as a wolf taking his prey. We have warnings now which we may give, a work now which we may do; but soon it will be more difficult than we can imagine.”
“More difficult than we can imagine?” Yes, the work that we have failed to do in times of peace and prosperity will have to be done under severe difficulties.
From Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, and page 463 we read. “The work which the church has failed to do in a time of peace and prosperity, she will have to do in a terrible crisis, under most discouraging, forbidding circumstances. The warnings that worldly conformity has silenced or withheld, must be given under the fiercest opposition from enemies of the faith… The members of the church will individually be tested and proved. They will be placed in circumstances where they will be forced to bear witness for the truth.”
(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources;
Even water resources will come under government control. You may not even be able to pump much water out of a private well or bore hole. Droughts may be so bad that water will be rationed severely.
I am reminded of the statement in scripture found in Isaiah 33:15, 16 which clearly tell us who is going to have bread and water when the government takes over and imposes martial law on these basic necessities. Here it is, “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.”
What a promise for those who turn from all evil and wickedness. God promises to send angels to provide bread and water to His faithful people when the wicked are dying of hunger and thirst. They may have to live in nature, among the mountains and munitions of rocks, but the God of heaven will overshadow them and provide for their needs. Isn’t that wonderful, my friends?
Here it is from the Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, and page 446, “Though the people of God endure privation, and even suffer for want of food, they are not left to perish. While God’s judgments are visited upon the earth, and the wicked are dying from hunger and thirst, angels provide the righteous with food and water.”
(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.
Of course that could include telephone communications, the Internet, television and cable services, radio, raw materials like minerals, manufacturing and building materials. It could include industrial production, courier services and postal services. It would certainly include labor unions and their minions, interstate and international commerce and trade, the stock markets, the commodity exchanges, the bond markets, banking institutions, loan agencies, and investment brokers. It could even include the confiscation of gold and silver. Don’t expect to be able to survive with gold coins and silver coins. These will not help you then. Remember what happened to those who where in Jerusalem that went out of the city with the gold hidden in their bellies? Gold and silver will not save you.
Also, the executive order actually says, “the head of each department or agency… is authorized to exercise the President’s authority to employ civilian personnel… and to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation and to employ experts, consultants, or organizations.”
Friends, this is sweeping, and could certainly involve you, unless you are too sick or too old to comply with these orders should they be handed out to you.
No doubt this resource preparedness is designed to authorize government agencies to confiscate supplies and stockpile them for military use, as well as provide human resources to accomplish all that the government cannot.
And all it requires is a signature of the president on a single statement claiming that this is all necessary to promote the national defense.
The executive order says “the authority delegated by section 201 of this order may be used only to support programs that have been determined in writing as necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense:”
Oh friends, we are nearing the very time when every principle of the U.S. Constitution will be repudiated and overthrown. Then the constitutions of other nations will fall too, and oppression shall rise. Because of enormous natural disasters, a constant state of crises and other calamities that will befall the nations, the panic will become so great that the people, pastors and priests, will call for a revival of religious legislation to get the nation back under God’s favor. When martial law is imposed, and it is only a matter of when, the masses of human beings huddled in the great cities will feel the hand of oppression. They will hanker to cast blame on someone. They will look for a scapegoat. Those who honor all the divine laws of Jehovah will then become the objects of universal loathing.
From 1 Thessalonians 5:1 to 3 we read this. “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”
We are living in a time of freedom. This will pass away when human governments, in the name of peace and safety, will use martial law to oppress the people in the name of protecting them. Then sudden destruction comes upon them.
Don’t you want to be under the care of the Almighty when that happens? Now is the time to prepare, my friends. Now is the time to make your calling and election sure.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, Once again we plead for Your power in our lives. We need Your victory to overcome the evil one. Send Your holy angels to protect us as we do our best to share our faith with those around us. Make us your possession, we pray. Let us not fear the things that are coming upon the world, but give us courage to fight the good fight of faith and live for Jesus today. In His precious name, I pray, amen.