Global Rush for Land
By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear Friends,
Warm greetings and welcome once again to Keep the Faith Ministry. It is a privilege to spend this time with you. As we near the close of human probation, we need more and more of the power of God in our lives. I hope you are pleading with God to overcome your sins, and spending time every day with Christ. You cannot be an overcomer unless you are walking with Christ each moment. Your victory will be in proportion to your desire for Christ. If you want to know how to walk with Christ, listen to our sermon for January on the life of Enoch.
Thank you for your prayers and financial support. They are very important to us. Your gifts are especially meaningful at this time of year. We pray that God will bless you for your sacrifice.
Also, please go to our website and read the Prophetic Intelligence Briefings. There are new ones being posted every day because there isn’t enough room on the CD for them all. The Spanish section of our website is available now and updated on a regular basis. You can go there by clicking the link on the right side-bar and selecting the appropriate language.
A couple of months ago, we published a message on Nimrod’s Empire in which we discussed the prophetic future of globalism and its impact on your life and mine. In that message, we also predicted that nations and city-states would buy up huge tracts of agricultural land outside of their own territory in order to protect their food and water supply. Now the press is full of news stories on this very process. There is a secret war going on that few people know about. It is a “feeding frenzy” in some parts of the world over cheap land and water resources. And it is all largely going on behind the scenes, quietly, as nations are positioning themselves to control important and vital natural resources. This unprecedented development strengthens the argument that what the Bible says about globalism is true. The world is heading for the final crisis. Globalism is spreading to every area of society.
But before we go any further let us ask God’s blessing as we study His holy word. Our Father in heaven, thank you for all You have done to sustain us through the years. Your mercy is great. Your power is mighty. And we know that we will need You right through to the end, even to the second coming of Jesus our Lord and Savior. We need your power to overcome our sins as we prepare for that great event. I pray that You will send your Holy Spirit to us today as we open your word and try to grasp what the world can never understand, because they do not know You. In Jesus name, and for His sake we pray, Amen.
As we begin, I would like to read a familiar passage from the book of Matthew. It is the words of Jesus, who said in Chapter 24:7. “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”
Now let us turn to the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter five, verse three. The Bible says, “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.”
So, it is when the nations and global leaders have worked very hard for peace and safety; when peace and safety are greatly desired; when peace and safety are even within sight, then sudden destruction comes upon the earth. Globalization is purported to be in the interest of peace and safety… that is, in order to prevent economic crises, political crises, war and many other problems. But in fact, globalization is deceptive. It does the exact opposite, according to the Bible, and creates instability and conflict.
Listen to this very fascinating statement. It is from the Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 8, pages 27-28. “The world is a theater. The actors, the inhabitants of the world, are preparing to act their part in the last great drama. God is lost sight of. There is no unity of purpose, except as parties of people confederate to gain their ends. God is looking on. His purposes in regard to His rebellious subjects will be fulfilled. The world has not been given into human hands, though God is permitting the elements of confusion and disorder to bear sway for a season. A power from beneath is… working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are binding themselves together in secret societies. Those who are yielding to the passion for confederation are working out the plans of the enemy. The cause will be followed by the effect.”
Now, let us think about this statement for a few minutes. Did you notice that comment about confederation? Globalization is the process of confederation of all aspects of society under a world government. The only way they can unify is by confederations, trade treaties like NAFTA and CAFTA, Unions like the European Union, the North American Union and the Mercosur Union in Latin America, and other agreements that consolidate power. That is the only way to get them all to go in one direction, and ultimately gain their geo-political ends. What ends? They are in rebellion to God and His law and they are globalizing the planet so that they can defy His law in the last great drama before Jesus comes again. That’s what ends are being described here. That’s not what globalists teach you. That is what the Bible says about them. They are the “kings” and “merchants” of the earth. And they are working very hard to bring the whole world under their control. That is what globalism and the New World Order is all about.
Also, I want you to notice that God is permitting elements of confusion and disorder to bear sway for a while. What elements of confusion and disorder is He allowing? It is Satan’s power, the power from beneath that is orchestrating things in this world. He is using human agents to accomplish his purposes. These men are bundling themselves together in secret societies and consolidating their power. Have you ever heard of secret societies? There are many of them. Perhaps you have heard of the Bilderbergers, the Tri-Lateral Commission, The Council of Foreign Relations, the Masons, etc. The list goes on and on. These secret confederations are binding the “kings of the earth,” and the “merchants of the earth” in bundles, but they are also after the common people too, whom they want to control. They are seeking to gain all the power they can, but the same process will prepare them for destruction. Globalization actually brings confusion and disorder, which Jesus called “distress of nations, with perplexity.” That’s in Luke 21:25. In other words, globalization will eventually create war, which is mass disorder.
Here is a statement from the Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 8, page 217. “The policy of consolidation, wherever pursued, tends to the exaltation of the human in place of the divine. Those who bear responsibilities in the different institutions look to the central authority for guidance and support…” Then the author says that the effect of this is that the sense of personal responsibility is weakened. In this context, globalization causes men to cease exercising their individuality and come into line with the whole society. This is a realignment of loyalty. The new sense of responsibility is no longer to a sense of personal convictions and duty, but is transferred or re-aligned to support the social system, the common good; in other words, the New World Order. When this happens, the victim is made incapable of turning against the tide, even if God’s law requires it.
Today, everything is being globalized. Along with geo-political alignment, military collaboration, economic centralization and the internationalization of the education of children and youth, there is now a consolidation of natural resources like agriculture and water. Eventually faith and worship will also be globalized, according to the Bible, though that is likely to be the last frontier of the New World Order. When it comes time for religious laws to globalize faith and worship, this realigned sense of responsibility in support of the common good, or the new globalized social order will be deadly. You can’t survive spiritually if you are part of that.
And don’t miss this. The United Nations is very concerned about “sustainability,” which is a buzz-word for global control of resources, including the use of water and agricultural land. At the same time as many nations are hurriedly plotting how to control these vital and valuable resources, globalist leaders are shrewdly taking control of these nations and cities, thus bringing these very natural resources under their control too. Globalists know what they are doing. And they are executing their plan precisely as they planned it, and implementing it as fast as the angels holding back the winds of strife will let them.
Water Could be the Defining Issue in Sustainable Development
Here is another statement. This time it is from Testimonies to Ministers, page 291. “Everything that has been planned in regard to consolidation shows that men are seeking to grasp the scepter of power and hold control over human minds.” So where is this headed? They want to control your mind. In other words, in the end, they will control your thoughts, your feelings, your character, and therefore they will control whom you worship.
Even now, if you live in a major city, you have no choice but to live by the dictates of rulers you did not elect, and who are not accountable to you or other common people. I’m not talking about the local leaders who have to face the ballot box every so often. I’m referring to the people who are behind the scenes, gradually creating and taking control of the processes and organizations that will guide your city in to the New World Order. They will tell you what you can eat, how much you will pay for it, and where you can get it.
It should be no surprise then, that God’s messenger to the Remnant Church urged God’s people to buy or live on land in a rural place where they can be free to grow their own vegetables and fruits so that they can live in the time of trouble and worship God according to His law? If they do this, they will be able to live much freer, for a much longer period of time than people living in the cities.
Global leaders aren’t telling us that ultimately the final steps will bring faith and worship into a global religion. The Vatican isn’t telling us that this is her objective and that she is working with the “kings” and “merchants” of the earth to accomplish it. But the unerring word of God tells you that the Papacy will eventually sit as a queen (Revelation 18:7) and in collaboration with the “kings” and “merchants” of the earth she will force her worship, particularly Sunday worship, on all of us. You can know in advance where this is all headed, if you trust your Bible, and if you are paying attention.
Right now the nations of the earth, and other enterprises are vying for control of valuable resources so that they can make sure that they have enough food to eat and enough water to drink for all their people. And the competition is hot! The nations are spending billions of dollars, Euros, and other money in laying the foundation for their own protection against the prowess of other nations, as well as against natural and man-made disasters. This is a silent, raging war. Right now, it isn’t guns, tanks, bombers and other war machinery. Instead the war is being conducted behind the scenes in negotiations and with money.
Here is the background. In 2010 Russia banned wheat exports because of a crop failure. There was a mega-drought with a record-setting heat wave. Twenty-two million acres, or one fifth of the wheat crop failed, and much of the rest was badly damaged. A state of emergency has been introduced in 16 regions of the nation. Facing similar circumstances their ancestors faced in 1921, famers in Russia are very concerned about next year’s crop, since its success depended on rain in 2010. But the rain in 2010 was sparse. Though the Russian government has stockpiles of grain that it can use to supply this year’s domestic needs, if another failure happens in 2011, there could be very serious consequences, not just for Russia, but for global supplies. Wheat prices world-wide are climbing rapidly right now in anticipation.
Financial Times: Russian Crop Failure
New York Times: 1921 Russian Wheat Crop Failure
In addition, the U.S. winter wheat crop was thought to be sufficient, but at the end of October, only 47 percent of the crop was rated as good or excellent. There is increasing stress on wheat crops from Colorado to Ohio. Corn and soybean crops are down a little too.
Business Week: U.S. Wheat Crop in Worse Shape
UK Telegraph: Meat Prices and Crop Failures
China too is suffering its worst drought in nearly a century. “The drought has left parched more than 16 million acres of farmland in more than four provinces, threatening the livelihood of more than 50 million farmers, according to government statistics. Up to 20 million people have been left without drinking water. The Chinese army and paramilitary have been deployed in some hard-hit areas to deliver water…” People in some places can’t even wash their hair regularly.
In the case of China, the reason for the drought is under debate. Some argue that it isn’t just the whims of nature, but the result of human pollution, overbuilding, deforestation and other man-made factors.
To combat the problem, “the Chinese government has deployed the mighty arsenal of what is called the “weather modification bureau,” using rockets and planes to shoot more than 6,000 shells into the clouds in hopes of inducing rain.”
Imagine that, my friends, China’s government is trying to manipulate the weather and seed rain by sending rockets into the sky, presumably with chemicals to stimulate condensation.
Because of China’s dams, water resources in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand are at an all time low, exacerbating drought conditions in those countries too.
Los Angeles Times; China Drought
World-grain prices soared in 2010 as the grain markets panicked. And as world population grows, global demand for increasingly strained food supplies is going to stress the markets and food prices are going to greatly increase. And those who control the grain markets stand to gain enormous fortunes.
Russia and the Ukraine have proposed a grain union which would also involve the nations around the Black Sea including Turkey, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania.
What is a grain union? It is a consolidation of interests in the grain market to control prices and manipulate supply and demand in these markets. This is designed to monopolize the industry, all in the name of protecting this important resource.
Listen to this prophetic statement written more than a hundred years ago. “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.” That is from Maranatha, page 182.
So a grain union around the Black Sea would fulfill this prophecy in that region of the world at least in part.
Speaking of trade unions, it is important to note that this may not just be talking about labor unions. It may also refer to trade agreements and treaties which is part of consolidation and confederation. This is the foundation principle of globalism.
Many nations are greatly concerned about their own future. And they should be! We are near the end of time when the judgments of God are going to fall on them. But these nations are worried about security from God’s judgments. They want to be sure that they can feed their people no matter how sinful they are, and defend themselves against God’s wrath. They sense that there is going to be severe shortage of fuel, food, water and other necessities. They fear that they will not be able to grow enough food, or that disaster will prevent them from growing enough food for their huge and growing populations on their own soil. They fear that natural disasters like drought, flood and war, will prevent them from obtaining supplies for the burgeoning populations.
So, they are determined to do something about it if they can. Are they not just going to sit and wait out their fate, or until their conditions get better? Not at all. They are acting, and they are acting now. There is an unprecedented and aggressive movement among the nation states of the world, and also the city-states such as Singapore, whose demand for food and clean water cannot be provided by their own internal resources. So they are turning to external options.
For instance, nations of the Middle East are now buying huge tracts of land in Africa in order to provide food for the supercities of the Middle East.
In Australia “more than $9 billion of prized agricultural assets have been sold to offshore interests in the past two years alone,” said The Daily Telegraph. “Nations leading the charge are predominantly Asian and Middle Eastern and include the economic powerhouse of China.”
Along with land, the United States and Britain are moving into the domestic water market at a time of heightened tension over control of that vital asset.
And these nations are not just content to own or control businesses; they want to control the resource itself by acquiring the land as well as the businesses. It is a strategic survival investment. They know that the future will be fraught with danger to food and water supplies, so these nations are trying to put themselves in a position where the complete agriculture chain, every link in that chain is under their direct control. They don’t want to be caught in the trap of not being able to supply food to their growing and increasingly demanding megacities, and have to buy food on the open market at greatly inflated prices. They have already seen how that works.
Yahoo News; Foreign Investors Buy Australian Land
Since 2008, China has been expanding a business concept known as the “go out policy” to farm and agriculture land for the first time. China is insecure about its food security, so it is abandoning its long-held intentions to be self-sufficient. China has only eight percent of the world’s tillable land, and has to feed a fifth of the world’s population.
China, along with Saudi Arabia and other nations of the Middle East, are purchasing farmland in Africa, Australia and South America to bolster its food production, and is sending Chinese laborers to work those lands.
“UK Telegraph; China to buy up land in other nations
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1942254/China-looks-abroad-to-grow-its-own-food.html
Forbes: China to buy land in Africa and South America
In Ethiopia alone, more than 3 million hectares have been offered for lease to wealthy nations and business interests. Ethiopia has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since 2007. One of the 50 wealthy people on the planet, a Saudi Arabian Sheikh has planned to purchase 500,000 hectares, or more than 1.2 million acres of prime Ethiopian farmland to develop for markets in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps he knows something that most people don’t know. Could there be a serious problem ahead in feeding massive numbers of people living in cities out in the Arabian Desert?
The Saudi Sheikh uses Spanish engineers to build the steel structures of his greenhouses, Dutch technology to minimize water use, and plans to hire 10,000 workers eventually for a huge intensive farming operation to supply food to the huge cities of the Middle East.
Here is how it works. Already, African women pick and pack 50 tons of food a day. Within 24 hours, it has been driven 200 miles to Addis Ababa and flown 1,000 miles to the shops and restaurants of Dubai, Jeddah and elsewhere in the Middle East.
This is very big business, and it is likely to increase as more than 20 African nations are in the process of selling or leasing land for intensive agriculture on an immense scale that can hardly be imagined. The UK Telegraph “estimates that up to 50m hectares of land – an area more than double the size of the [United Kingdom] – has been acquired in the last few years or is in the process of being negotiated by governments and wealthy investors working with state subsidies. In other words, nation states are using their sovereign capital to help fund the industry. That way they can control the outcome, of course.
“The land rush, which is still accelerating, has been triggered by the worldwide food shortages which followed the sharp oil price [increases] in 2008, [along with] growing water shortages and the European Union’s insistence that 10% of all transport fuel must come from plant-based biofuels by 2015.”
Governments, investors, investment banks and hedgefunds are scrambling for land in Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Congo, Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana and elsewhere, searching for the best land to supply the needs of huge cities and mushrooming populations.
“Saudi Arabia, along with other Middle Eastern emirate states such as Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, is thought to be the biggest buyer. In 2008 the Saudi government, which was one of the Middle East’s largest wheat-growers, announced it was to reduce its domestic cereal production by 12% a year to conserve its water. It earmarked $5 [billion] to provide loans at preferential rates to Saudi companies which wanted to invest in countries with strong agricultural potential.”
“By turning to Africa to grow its staple crops, Saudi Arabia is not just acquiring Africa’s land but is securing itself the equivalent of hundreds of millions of gallons of scarce water a year. Water, says the UN, will be the defining resource of the next 100 years.”
“Indian companies, backed by government loans, have bought or leased hundreds of thousands of hectares in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique, where they are growing rice, sugar cane, maize and lentils to feed their [own] domestic market.”
Even British firms have gotten into the act and have secured tracts of land in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania to grow flowers and vegetables.
Sudan is also getting a lot of attention now that its civil war is over. South Korean companies last year bought 700,000 hectares of northern Sudan for wheat cultivation; the United Arab Emirates have acquired 750,000 hectares and Saudi Arabia [recently] concluded a 42,000-hectare deal in Nile province. These are very large tracts of land, and will provide huge resources of food when developed. Even a couple of Danish groups are in discussions with Sudan to use land near the Nile.
The thinking among the nations involved in the buying frenzy is that agricultural development is not only sustainable, but it is very important to the future. Without investment in agriculture and water resources, by 2050 the nations and cities will be experiencing serious food and water shortages. But shortages may start happening a lot sooner than that. Severe drought may well accelerate the problem.
The tragedy is that the modern “land grab” does not benefit the local people. In fact, African governments hungry for cash do the deals secretly, and forcefully take the land from their own people without compensation in many cases. Foreign companies arrive and the people have to work for them. The land is cheap, costing the lessee about $1 per year per hectare. The food is shipped abroad and does not help local people who often need it badly, probably because the profit margins are not as good. Ironically, because of this, the number of people going hungry will likely increase some analysts predict.
UK Guardian: African “Land Grab”
As the consolidation of agricultural resources intensifies, Jesus’ prophecy about famines actually becomes a very real potential in at least a couple of different ways. There is a serious consequence of all this globalization and monopolization of the agriculture industry. These huge deals are eventually not going to yield enough food to supply the demands of their intended populations… at least not according to the Bible.
Let us think about this for a minute. The existing megacities, or supercities as they are often called, have enormous demands for food and water. And more are being constructed. Governments and businesses think that they are in the process of securing their future through buying up these lands. Yet the centralization and globalization of farming is actually going to make these cities and their populations more vulnerable to distress. If there is a serious drought, a disruption of fuel supplies, or disease; if a volcano interrupts air travel, or any number of other disruptive events, food delivery could come under serious threat, or even to a standstill, which in turn could destabilize the very survival mechanisms that these nations and city states are erecting. A food production problem could cause serious famine in the huge metropolises of the world, not just in the rural areas where famine and malnutrition are already a problem. Starvation could spread to the huge supercities with their tenements, shantytowns, slums and favellas.
One investor, who is placing his money in agricultural land in Africa said, “When food becomes scarce, the investor needs a weak state that does not force him to abide by any rules.”
And Africa has many weak states with rulers willing to bargain away their land to line their own pockets. So in other words, there is likely to be a lot of fraud as well. Could not being forced to follow any rules mean that these investors can pay unreasonably low wages? Could it mean that they can require excessive hours of work? Does it mean that they can bribe their way out of customs duties and other export costs?
But the significance of this statement is that the investor openly suggested that food will likely become scarce. If food demand increases, and food supply becomes short, the first people to lose access to the food are the local workers. The second group to lose their access to food is the destination cities where the food is normally sent after being produced.
Investors, governments, and others are obviously concerned about food and water shortages. They expect stress to come upon them and their populations. They expect hard times. They expect famine. What do they know that most of the populations of the world don’t know? Only students of prophecy can really know what is going to happen. The Bible gives it to us in the clearest and plainest language. Jesus himself said there would be famines and pestilences. What if whole cities or groups of cities were affected by these things? Imagine the horror of a whole city that can’t get food, or destroyed by a virulent pestilence? The buildings remain in tact, but the people are gone.
Very few people are happy with globalism or its consequences, except those who actually control it perhaps, or who have a piece of control, at least, over their own nation or city. But even that will wear thin over time. Globalization actually increases dissatisfaction between governments as well. Just look at the way China and the United States argue and posture against each other on trade issues. Under globalism, they will not like the controls put upon them because it will limit their political weapons.
Listen to this statement from the pen of God’s messenger for the last days. It is from Selected Messages, Vol. 1, pages 221, 222. “We are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecies are fulfilling. Strange and eventful history is being recorded in the books of heaven—events which it was declared should shortly precede the great day of God. Everything in the world is in an unsettled state. The nations are angry, and great preparations for war are being made. Nation is plotting against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. The great day of God is hasting greatly. But although the nations are mustering their forces for war and bloodshed, the command to the angels is still in force, that they hold the four winds until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.”
The extraordinary competition over agricultural land is leading to a surprising, unexpected and unintended problem that will destabilize the world. It will help prepare the nations for war, just as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24. The international land grab of agricultural and water resources is already pitting “nation against nation,” and “kingdom against kingdom.” It will certainly lead to open war eventually. That is the purpose of globalization. It actually creates circumstances for war, all in the name of peace and safety. And by the way, the nations and city-states are not just competing for land and water. They are also after minerals, oil, and other natural resources. The competition will become so hot that wars will likely break out over their control.
Jesus wanted us to know that at the end of time there will be great distress of millions of people. In fact, He also said that men’s hearts will fail them for fear. Now you see how it can happen. But the consolidation and confederation of society will lead to such a serious set of circumstances, such overwhelming crises, that many religious leaders will say that the people are being punished because they are not obeying God. Many nations will eventually enact religious laws, like Sunday laws, to get their citizens and their nations back into favor with God.
Most of God’s people don’t make the connections between the rise of globalism and its prophetic consequences. But the painful results are real. While the current attempt to resurrect globalism may not completely mature as far as modern globalists intend, it will still have a large impact on society and lay the foundation for the coming global religion predicted by the Apostle John in Revelation 13:8. “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.” This will affect you and your family. It will affect your neighborhood. It will impact your relatives. Everyone will be required to make a decision. Are you going to follow the Lord Jesus and His ten commandments, or are you going to follow man-made religious laws set up by the anti-Christ, or the beast of Revelation? The papacy is now positioning itself to eventually pressure the nations to enact worship laws that will require you to accept the mark of the beast.
Urbanization is one of Satan’s ways of increasing wickedness and rebellion to God’s perfect law of liberty, and enslaving millions in his devices. The true followers of Christ are chaffed by city life. They don’t enjoy living there, and they feel very out of place in a city because everywhere they turn they see evidence of Satan’s power. While many of God’s people have to connect with the cities to do their work of saving souls, it is never a pleasant place to be. Some of them may even get used to living in a large city, and may even avoid being victims of a crime, and perhaps consider themselves protected by God’s grace.
But so often, those who claim to be God’s children are caught up in the lifestyle of the city. The cities of the earth provide no peace and happiness. They only provide diversions so that people don’t realize that they are not in peace. No one can change the cities, because they are unchangeable. People who live there are totally dependent on what their leaders design for them. Water supplies, sewer systems, food distribution, roads, sidewalks, electricity, shopping centers, all are under the control of city planners and city government. That means that those who live in the cities are utterly dependent on the leaders for survival.
There is only one city that is a pleasant, safe place to live. And that city is the New Jerusalem, a supercity that will be home to millions upon untold millions. In fact, there will be no census count in that city because it is home to a great multitude that no man can number. Yet, it is a city that is clean, holy and undefiled by tenements, garbage, vacant lots, rats and other pests, gangs, mobs, and labor strikes. It has no greed, no stock market, no sports stadiums, no gambling casinos, and no potholes in the streets, no concrete jungle, and no crime. I want to live there. Don’t you?
Because of their wickedness, God will, one day, destroy the cities. Globalization will come to nothing just as it did in Babel. Listen to this statement from Evangelism, page 27: “The Lord will not suddenly cast off all transgressors or destroy entire nations; but He will punish cities and places where men have given themselves up to the possession of Satanic agencies. Strictly will the cities of the nations be dealt with, and yet they will not be visited in the extreme of God’s indignation, because some souls will yet break away from the delusions of the enemy, and will repent and be converted, while the mass will be treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.”
Even Satan will be permitted to destroy cities and kill thousands upon thousands, and thus carry his unwary and unprepared captives, trapped in sin, into eternal destruction. Listen to it from Isaiah 14:16-17. Speaking of Lucifer, who was cast out of heaven the Bible says, “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?”
If a major disaster happens to a city, the people are trapped. They can’t get out easily. Perhaps you remember the pictures of the people fleeing New Orleans just before hurricane Katrina. All the roads leading out of the city were jammed with cars. It was far worse than the daily traffic jams of commuters that were going out of the city each afternoon. The police even closed lanes of incoming traffic to allow for more cars to escape the city, and still it was jammed.
If the police or military lock-down the city to prevent people from leaving or coming in because of some virulent disease, pestilence, or biological warfare, the problem only gets worse. There would be panic, riots and violence, as people desperately search for food and water.
But there are other types of disasters that can affect cities too. There are fuel shortages, food shortages and other disruptions to normal everyday life. Most stores only keep about three days worth of supplies to sell to the people. If there is panic, those supplies can be gone in a matter of hours. Friends, this is the time to follow God’s counsel and live by His word. Learn to depend on Him, not on society. To escape the effect of the secret war for land and water, you must have Jesus by your side at all times.
Before I close, let me read to you the account of a vision that God’s messenger to the Remnant saw. It is found in Early Writings, page 88, 89.
“A train of cars was shown me, going with the speed of lightning. The angel bade me look carefully. I fixed my eyes upon the train. It seemed that the whole world was on board, that there could not be one left. Said the angel; ‘They are binding in bundles ready to burn.’ Then he showed me the conductor, who appeared like a stately, fair person, whom all the passengers looked up to and reverenced. I was perplexed and asked my attending angel who it was. He said, ‘It is Satan. He is the conductor in the form of an angel of light. He has taken the world captive. They are given over to strong delusions, to believe a lie, that they may be damned. This agent, the next highest in order to him, is the engineer, and other of his agents are employed in different offices as he may need them, and they are all going with lightning speed to perdition.’
“I asked the angel if there were none left. He bade me look in an opposite direction, and I saw a little company traveling a narrow pathway. All seemed to be firmly united, bound together by the truth, in bundles, or companies. Said the angel, ‘The third angel is binding, or sealing them in bundles for the heavenly garner.’ This little company looked careworn, as if they had passed through severe trials and conflicts. And it appeared as if the sun had just risen from behind a cloud and shone upon their countenances, causing them to look triumphant, as if their victories were nearly won.”
Where are you, my friends? Are you on the train speeding to perdition? Or are you on the narrow pathway with the people of God? Now is the time to be sure that you are on the narrow pathway, not on the train. Satan’s agents are human beings (as well as unseen forces) who are working to take the world captive and force them to reverence and worship their master. I don’t want to be on that train. I must be sure that am following Jesus Christ and accepting every ray of light that he sends me. And so must you. Give Jesus everything in your life today.