By Pastor Hal Mayer
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry. Thank you for joining me once again as we consider our times and the big changes that are coming upon our world. Mr. Trump’s National Emergency Declaration is not a good sign. We are living in the last days. The world has become polemic, and the powers that be are arranging themselves under the black banner of the prince of darkness. As we get closer to the end of time, will an emergency declaration to protect national security, be the basis of persecuting God’s people?
Please, whatever you do, don’t delay the preparation by yielding your heart to Jesus and let him have your whole self. Get into God’s word and let Him lead you to an overcoming experience so that Jesus can have your life. It is urgent, my friends.
As we begin, let us bow our heads in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we urgently need Your presence in our lives. The enemy is walking about seeking whom he may devour. He is a master of deception and we need the Holy Spirit to give us the power to resist his devices and temptations. May we learn to have patience as we watch and wait for Jesus’ return. Send Your Holy Spirit to teach us today as we open Your amazing word, and as we learn what to expect as we near the end of time. Thank You so much for Your longsuffering with us and with our waywardness. And thank You for providing so great a salvation. In Jesus’ name, amen.
My friends, turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 21:25, 26. Let us read this passage carefully. “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”
My friends, we are in an age of crises. Everywhere you turn the media hypes one crisis after another in an endless array of tension producing crises. Never ending, ever expanding and growing, more intense than ever, today’s crises are a portend of a final conflict between the forces of good and evil that will rage like a firestorm and eventually focus on God’s remnant as the national and global enemies because they keep the Sabbath of the Lord. Racism is rampant (on all sides by the way). Polarization is pandemic. Make no mistake about it, things will not calm down. We are getting used to a new level of tension.
No wonder people are stressed out and depressed, shaken and angry. No wonder they are ready to commit suicide, murder someone and pull off other violence. Not only do they see crises on TV and the Internet news, they see it in their own lives, and many are fed up. They are fed up with political leaders. They are fed up with civil leaders, and they are even fed up with their neighbors and friends.
Politicians take advantage of crises whether real or contrived for their own purposes. And Mr. Trump is no exception. Mr. Obama was no exception. Nor was George W. Bush or any of the presidents before him.
I started preparing this message on the very day that Mr. Trump announced that he was declaring a national emergency because of a “crisis” at the U.S. Southern border with Mexico. The Democrats were quick to label it an invented crisis, as if they have never done that themselves. The crisis, according to Mr. Trump, is the illegal drugs, gangs and criminals that are crossing the border with impunity and attacking our citizens, destroying our youth, and ruining our country. Many Americans, both Democrat and Republican, are concerned about these issues. And conservative Americans are concerned about illegal immigration in general. Whatever the political agendas are, these players may not realize that they are involved in a grander controversy; a prophetic climax that is about to unleash the principalities and powers upon them in unexpected ways.
Listen to this important statement from Prophets and Kings, page 499. Listen carefully.
“In the annals of human history, the growth of nations, the rise and fall of empires, appear as if dependent on the will and prowess of man; the shaping of events seems, to a great degree, to be determined by his power, ambition, or caprice…”
Does it seem that way in regard to the border wall? Does Mr. Trump shape the circumstances and to a great degree determine the outcome? It looks that way doesn’t it? And it gets people all stirred up. But my friends, it is God that has authorized the controversy over the wall. And He is using the controversy to bring to nothing the power of man. You watch and see what happens. No one will be able to boast legitimately. I’ll read on.
“But in the word of God the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, above, behind, and through all the play and counterplay of human interest and power and passions, the agencies of the All-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will.”
In the midst of all the political controversy and perplexity; amid the unceasing tension between liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, left and right, God draws back the curtain and those who understand prophecy can see beyond what is happening on the surface, and can comprehend the great majesty of God guiding the nations, even amid their passions and appetites for war, bloodshed and crime, working out the councils of His own will. Doesn’t that give you confidence in God? Doesn’t that give you a sense that God will let nothing happen that isn’t for the good of his people both individually and collectively? He sees your struggles. He understands your perplexities very intimately. He will care for His own.
Mr. Trump has a difficult problem to solve. To keep his voting base behind him he must give them something really important to them and at the same time something that they can focus on. So, a border wall is a good controversial way for him to divide the nation and consolidate conservatives and bring them behind him.
The process promises to be quite a political fight. But, the politics is not what interests me. I want us to think about the prophetic side of Mr. Trump’s declaration. Our mission is to understand how his declaration fits into the prophetic record. I want you to see how we are preparing for the very events that some are currently saying aren’t going to happen any time soon. What a shock they are going to have!
Do you see America heading for a bigger crisis? I do. Mr. Trump sees it too, but cannot really put his finger on the real problem. Besides, he is thinking politically, not prophetically anyway.
Mr. Trump is using the border problem as a way to appeal to his voter base. It works like gravity. But, my friends, while illegal immigration is a problem for America, it is not the real issue. Just like the French yellow jackets movement is not just about fuel prices. There is an underlying issue. That dissatisfaction, that disaffection, is one of God’s ways to create inquiry, draw attention and get people thinking more deeply.
Mr. Trump’s declaration is not the first of its kind. The U.S. Congress gave the president the current set of emergency powers in 1976. And there are 123 different powers enumerated today. The constitution does not provide for unilateral presidential powers in a national emergency. This is a relatively new arrangement voted by congress back when there was no burning issue at hand. In fact, you might be interested to know that at the time Republican Gerald Ford was President of the United States and the Democrats controlled both houses of the U.S. Congress. By the action of a Democratically controlled congress, they have created circumstances that gives the U.S. President extraordinary powers, which in turn means that he can go around them and act in a unilateral way, or, more starkly, in a dictatorial way. It is their own fault and the Democrats were especially responsible for it, though there would have also been Republicans who voted for it as well. Now it is coming back to haunt them. And history is replete with executives who grasp for more power to achieve their goals. An obliging congress makes decisions that they do not understand.
A national emergency can be declared if circumstances arise in which immediate or quick action must be taken, because Congressional processes would be too slow. The president can essentially take dictatorial control over the various sectors of society for which he believes he needs to achieve a resolution. And Mr. Trump is certainly using the declaration to give him authority to do what Congress is unable or unwilling to do – build a wall.
Up until now there have been 58 National Emergencies that have been declared since 1976. Most of them you’ve never heard of. But the surprise is that 31 of them are still ongoing. They have mostly been declared for universally recognized circumstances that all political parties and people see as national emergencies or at least dangers to the national security of United States from outside. For instance, the first national emergency after the National Emergency Act was passed in 1976 was in 1979. It was declared against Iranian government property. Some were related to prohibiting the creation of biological weapons or weapons of mass destruction. A national emergency was declared on 9-11, and one was declared during the swine flu epidemic. No one argues that a national emergency was necessary during those times.
Can Donald Trump Invoke Emergency Powers to Get His Wall? [1]
Mr. Trump, however, has started the process of declaring a national emergency to get around an intractable and polarized congress. This appears to be a first time it has been this blatant and obvious. And it is a very contentious issue. Mr. Obama actually declared 12 national emergencies. And Mr. Trump has now declared 4 of them since his presidency began. This trend will certainly continue… and not just with Mr. Trump. Mark my word. But the contentiousness of this one may push America farther into polarization, even to the breaking point eventually.
I dare say many of God’s people support or oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda for the wrong reasons. There are big prophetic issues involved and while we are busy reacting to the political issues, we are missing the larger and far more significant question. How Bible prophecy is being played should be our focus, not the political thrust and parry to get a job done.
Think for a minute about the reaction of politicians to Mr. Trump’s National Emergency Declaration. Keep in mind, our focus is not on politics here, but prophecy. But it necessitates that we review a few of these reactions, among many, so that we can see the trajectory where it is going.
Even before Mr. Trump declared a national emergency, while he was threatening to do it, Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader of the Senate, visited Mr. Trump and urged him not to do it.
But no sooner had President Trump announced the National Emergency over the contentious issue of border security, lawmakers, pundits and others, both Democrat and Republican weighted in on a very important point.
Nancy Pelosi seemed to think rather expansively concerning the possibilities. “Just imagine,” she said, “what a president with different values would give to the American people.” She was suggesting that a Democratic president could follow Mr. Trump’s precedent and bypass Congress with other national emergency declarations designed to promote their liberal agenda. Many liberals see the advantage too. After all, Mr. Trump will not always be the president. They recognize that they will one day get an opportunity to achieve some key goals of their own by this newly revised tool of power. One of them could be gun control, for instance, because of the epidemic of gun violence in the United States.
But Marco Rubio, a Republican senator, added another possibility and said, “If today, the national emergency is border security… tomorrow the national emergency might be climate change.”
What most Americans don’t realize is that under National Emergency provisions, there is a parallel legal regime that allows the president to sidestep the normal restraints on his power. He actually can become a dictator. “The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion,” wrote the Atlantic “—more than 100 special provisions become available to him…” With the flick of his pen, the president can “activate laws allowing him to shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the United States or freeze Americans’ bank accounts.” Mr. Bush did this after 9-11 to accused terrorists. Certain powers are available even without a declaration of emergency, including laws that allow the president to deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest.
But the “premise underlying emergency powers is simple: The government’s ordinary powers might be insufficient in a crisis, and amending the law to provide greater ones might be too slow and cumbersome. Emergency powers are meant to give the government a temporary boost until the emergency passes or there is time to change the law through normal legislative processes.
The U.S. Constitution itself includes no comprehensive separate regime for emergencies. But over the 240+ years of U.S. constitutional history, Congress has provided the president with various emergency authorities to give him leeway during military, economic and labor crises. But these statutory authorities piled up over time and became confusing, and in 1976 Congress passed the National Emergencies Act to reign in this dis-coordinated patchwork of powers. Under the act, the president still had complete discretion in issuing an emergency declaration, but had to specify which powers he intends to use, and report to Congress every six months relating to expenditures.
There are 123 emergency powers currently available to the president when he declares an emergency. Keep in mind that he might only use some of them, but that they must be declared to congress. These special provisions of power range from military composition to agricultural exports, to public contracts, etc. This parallel regime provides the ingredients for a dangerous encroachment on American civil liberties, including religious liberty.
Under normal and calmer times, no president would consider a national emergency, unless there was a real one, like, for instance, 9-11. That event was gripping enough for President Bush to declare a National Emergency, and act unilaterally to “protect” the American people. Never mind, that he knew the terrorists were planning and training to attempt to take over planes and fly them into buildings. Perhaps he saw this foreknowledge as a key opportunity to get almost unilateral support among the American people so he could vacate the constitution’s provisions and start the process of extra constitutional legal powers on a war against terror; a war that would never end.
Don’t forget that Mr. Bush was very intimate with the bishops and no doubt the Jesuits who had a lot of influence over him in those days. Is it possible that he was influenced to allow the devastating blow to fall so that he could take more power? I believe it is entirely possible.
As I watched the events unfold after 9-11, I could see clearly that the way they were fighting the terrorists, was prophetically aligned to the way the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy describe the events of the last days and the way those provisions will be used against God’s people.
Just think about what we are told will happen to God’s people in the last days. It reads like a national emergency of major proportions. In the past, presidents have claimed constitutional authority to place Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II, or the post 9-11 torture program known as extraordinary rendition. But all of this is legal in the event of a national emergency. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson who opposed the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, each emergency power is “like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.”
The torture in secret prisons reminds me of the statement that says Rome “is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated.” That’s from The Great Controversy, page 581. What were those former persecutions? That would be torture, my friends.
I am reminded of the statement that says of God’s people in the time of trouble; “The beloved of God pass weary days, bound in chains, shut in by prison bars, sentenced to be slain, some apparently left to die of starvation in dark and loathsome dungeons. No human ear is open to hear their moans; no human hand is ready to lend them help.” This is also from The Great Controversy, page 626. That sounds like indefinite detention, doesn’t it? Will those who are genuinely part of the last generation be detained in internment camps like the Japanese under a national emergency declaration? Would that be in FEMA camps?
I am also reminded how President Bush declared that the assets of the terrorists would be frozen. Does that not sound like the no-buy, no-sell law mentioned in Revelation 13:17? “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
These and many other so-called emergency powers, will be used again one day to restrain and control God’s people. Do you think a border wall would prevent God’s people from fleeing to Mexico when they are persecuted in the United States? While I’m tempted to be opposed to a border wall for this reason, I’m sure God has it all under control and He knows how to hide his people. Listen to this one from Maranatha, page 270.
“During the night a very impressive scene passed before me. There seemed to be great confusion and the conflict of armies. A messenger from the Lord stood before me, and said, ‘Call your household. I will lead you; follow me.’ He led me down a dark passage, through a forest, then through the clefts of mountains, and said, ‘Here you are safe.’ There were others who had been led to this retreat. The heavenly messenger said. ‘The time of trouble has come as a thief in the night, as the Lord warned you it would come.’”
Friends, there is no better place to be when all the power and passions of men are let loose than under the protection of the almighty. While Rome has its hidden recesses in which she can torture God’s true people, God has His own recesses where He can protect them.
While the use of emergency powers would be illegal during ordinary times, they are not in a national emergency. And we are seeing less and less ordinary times and more and more crises, aren’t we. One just wonders what crisis will be next.
These [special provisions] vary dramatically in content and scope. Several of them authorize the president to make decisions about the size and composition of the armed forces that are usually left to Congress… Other powers are chilling. Take a moment to consider that during a declared war or national emergency, the president can unilaterally suspend the law that bars government testing of biological and chemical agents on unwitting human subjects.
The president could seize control of U.S. Internet traffic, impeding access to certain websites… One power poses a singular threat to democracy in the digital era. [It allows] the president to shut down or take control of “any facility or station for wire communication” upon his proclamation…” In this generation, when society depends on Internet communications, this could be particularly dangerous as it would itself create havoc and chaos, because it could also give the president power to assume control over U.S. Internet traffic. A president could rig the web to provide favorable Internet search results, for instance.
I don’t lose sleep at night over these special provisions. God knows how to take care of me, and you and anyone who is under His protection. But what does concern me is how the websites of God’s people who try to give the third and most difficult angels message of Revelation 14 and try to expose Rome’s deeds of darkness, will be treated.
And there are more special provisions. Freedom of speech could come under serious restrictions. And during much of the country’s history, the Supreme Court was willing to tolerate significant encroachments on free speech during wartime. “The progress we have made is fragile,” Geoffrey R. Stone, a constitutional-law scholar at the University of Chicago, has written. “It would not take much to upset the current understanding of the First Amendment.” Indeed, all it would take is five Supreme Court justices whose commitment to presidential power exceeds their commitment to individual liberties. My friends, do you realize what this could mean for religious liberty? Your ability to proclaim the three angels’ messages would be curtailed dramatically. But wouldn’t you expect the enemy to be working on that under cover, so to speak, over a long period of time. Oh yes!
“Next to war powers, economic powers might sound benign, but they are among the president’s most potent legal weapons. All but two of the emergency declarations in effect today were issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Passed in 1977, the law allows the president to declare a national emergency “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat”—to national security, foreign policy, or the economy…” The president can then order a range of economic actions to address the threat, including freezing assets and blocking financial transactions in which any foreign nation or foreign national has an interest.
So, in other words, while terrorists or terrorist regimes are the present target, what is to stop a president from exercising emergency powers, against those within the U.S. who have run afoul of a religious worship law? Strangely, but certainly prophetically, the Bible has actually predicted such an event in Revelation 13:17, which we read earlier. The mark of the beast is defined elsewhere in Revelation 13 as a worship law, namely a Sunday worship law. While originally this law was used primarily for sanctions against other nations, it eventually became used to control foreign political parties, terrorist organizations, and suspected narcotics traffickers.
Eventually, this provision was expanded dramatically. After 9-11 President Bush made it illegal for anyone to provide a designated terrorist a job, rent an apartment to him, provide him with medical services or even sell him a loaf of bread without a government license. “The target is generally given no advance notice and no hearing. He may request reconsideration and submit evidence on his behalf, but the government faces no deadline to respond. Moreover, the evidence against the target is typically classified, which means he is not allowed to see it. He can try to challenge the action in court, but his chances of success are minimal, as most judges defer to the government’s assessment of its own evidence.
Do you think you will be treated like that one day, my friends? The Sabbath will become a special point of controversy, and it is now clear to me, that there will be a National Emergency likely used against God’s people. And with a newly reconstituted Supreme Court making the final call, resistance to a Sunday law could have quite a different outcome than under previous SCOTUS configurations. After all, almost all the Supreme Court Justices are now Roman Catholic.
“The idea of tanks rolling through the streets of U.S. cities seems fundamentally inconsistent with the country’s notions of democracy and freedom. Americans might be surprised, therefore, to learn just how readily the president can deploy troops inside the country. Posse Comitatus does not prohibit the use of the military for police activity. It only says that any such authority must come from the Constitution or from a statute. The military could be reassigned to assist law enforcement in the arrest and detention of Americans tagged as security threats.” Would that eventually include Sabbath keepers?
What would the Founders think of these and other emergency powers on the books today. “They knew what emergencies were, knew the pressures they engender for authoritative action, knew, too, how they afford a ready pretext for usurpation,” Justice Jackson wrote. “We may also suspect that they suspected that emergency powers would tend to kindle emergencies.” In other words, one national emergency would create an opportunity or precedent for another.
“In the past several decades, Congress has provided what the Constitution did not: emergency powers that have the potential for creating emergencies rather than ending them. Presidents have built on these powers with their own secret directives…
“The misuse of emergency powers is a standard gambit among leaders attempting to consolidate power. Authoritarians…—including the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—have gone this route.
Of course, Mr. Trump might also act entirely outside the law. Presidents in the past have done exactly that, including Lincoln and Roosevelt. But there is little that can be done in advance to stop this, other than attempting deterrence through robust oversight. The remedies for such behavior can come only after the fact, via court judgments, political blowback at the voting booth, or impeachment.
In the meantime, innocent and non-violent, but illegal immigrants, though they may mean no harm, will continue to be caught in the wake of an increasingly politicized immigration debate. And eventually the law and its tools of power will be invoked against those never intended in the original versions, such as demonizing those who reprove the sins of the nation.
The Alarming Scope of the President’s Emergency Powers [3]
What if declaring a national emergency becomes the normal method of getting things done in a very polarized society and a gridlocked congress? We would see a cascade of never-ending emergencies that need presidential intervention. Presidents these days, because of this national emergency powers, are just a step or two away from monarchs or dictators. And this is one place where prophecy intersects with this political maneuver. And it’s huge! Most people will miss this point because they are not thinking prophetically.
Think about climate change for a minute. Who was the one that worked the hardest to get a climate agreement in Paris a couple of years ago? That’s right. Pope Francis. And he even wrote a papal encyclical to support it, called Laudato Si. In this document he linked Sunday observance or Sunday rest to climate change.
He references Exodus 23:12 and says, “The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day, ‘so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant, and the stranger, may be refreshed.’” And while he didn’t actually say that Sunday laws should be imposed, it is important to understand that this is the goal. Taken together with other papal encyclicals such and Dies Domini, by Pope John Paul II, there is a clear sense that Sunday would be enforced as a day of rest if it were possible.
The Papacy continues to bring up Sunday observance whenever she has an opportunity. And she is stealthily pressing her agenda on the nations of the world through her various means. She bides her time. She doesn’t openly press Sunday observance on western democracies because she knows that most Protestants as well as Catholics keep it anyway. Instead, Rome focuses on the infrastructure to force compliance once it is in place. No wonder, there are those that are saying that society is going away from a Sunday law. Besides, you may think that the Papacy is largely discredited over the systemic sex scandals, banking scandals and other matters of record. But friends, just as we are told, Rome is gaining power and might, preparing for a final conflict between the powers of light and the powers of darkness.
ENCYCLICAL LETTER, LAUDATO SI’, OF THE HOLY FATHER, FRANCIS, ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME [4]
And let me remind you of this very interesting statement about proclaiming the Sabbath more fully. It is from Maranatha, page 239.
“The psalmist says, “They have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold” (Psalm 119:126, 127). When men press close to the side of Jesus, when Christ is abiding in their hearts by faith, their love for the commandments of God grows stronger in proportion to the contempt which the world heaps upon His holy precepts. It is at this time that the true Sabbath must be brought before the people by both pen and voice. As the fourth commandment and those who observe it are ignored and despised, the faithful feel that it is the time not to hide their faith but to exalt the law of Jehovah by unfurling the banner on which is inscribed the message of the third angel, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
Did you get that? The love of the commandments grows stronger in proportion to the contempt heaped upon God’s holy law. So, in the midst of national emergencies; amid the devastating disasters that fall upon the large cities of the world, and especially at the very time of controversy over the seventh day Sabbath and laws are enacted for Sunday worship, as man depreciates and despises the Sabbath and turns his back on God’s law; and as persecution begins to take its course, God’s people will more fully defend his truth and his law. At the very time when nations are poised for war, and God’s people are poised for destruction, God will use them mightily to defend his honor and glory.
Friends, Republicans and Democrats are unable to see eye to eye on climate change. They will never get together in congress. So, wouldn’t it make sense for a future Democratic president, who is a strong believer in climate change to use a national emergency to avoid the conflict in Congress and impose a green law on America? Or what if the current president has a change of heart?
Climate change has taken the blame for the massive disasters that frequently hit various parts of our world, from drought and ferocious bush fires, to massive hurricanes and powerful tornadoes, to ice cap melt, mass animal and bird die-offs and the list goes on and on.
Listen to this statement from The Great Controversy, pages 589 and 590. This is the clear statement that tells us how to understand disasters in connection to the Sunday law. But it also points out something about climate change.
“Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows… While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations [fires], in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast… And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity. Thus the accusation urged of old against the servant of God will be repeated and upon grounds equally well established: “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.” 1 Kings 18:17, 18. As the wrath of the people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course toward God’s ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel pursued toward Elijah. The Great Controversy, page 590.
Did you notice that at the end of time, God’s people will experience much the same thing that Elijah experienced? The last remnant of God’s true people will give the reproof to both church and national leaders. They will often stand alone to all appearances, but angels of God will stand with them. Martin Luther understood this when he said, “In every age, the saints have had to reprove the great, kings, princes, priests, and wise men, at the peril of their lives… I do not say that I am a prophet; but I say that they ought to fear precisely because I am alone and that they are many. I am sure of this, that the word of God is with me, and that it is not with them.”—Ibid., b. 6, Ch. 10. The Great Controversy, page 142.
What happened in the time of Elijah? There was a drought. The climate had changed. And now everything was dying, even the beasts. So who is in charge of the climate? God is! God’s servant was accused of being the cause of the drought. Likewise today, when God’s judgments or Satan’s malice, is poured out in massive disasters beyond what we have ever seen, a national emergency will be declared to enact a decree for a Sunday law. When massive, frequent and unrelenting natural disasters are poured out on the earth, the enemy will use them to promote Sunday worship. The theology of Rome in regard to Sunday observance is already laid out. They have been promoting it for years. So, it will be as natural as gravity for Sunday to become a law of the land, apparently, not through congress or parliament, but by executive decree, likely based on a national emergency, as such a disaster would evidently be.
You may think it is expedient to declare a national emergency to end the partisan foolishness and get the wall built. But think about the backside. Will this open the door to a national emergency that will be seen as necessitating a Sunday law? A precedent set one day, matures and fills out in its fullness even years later.
Pope Francis emphasized in Laudato Si, that Sunday is a day of rest just as the Sabbath of Creation was. He pointed out that climate change is an urgent matter for the world to address. This is globalism at its best. And it is being linked to Sunday rest. It will one day be linked to Sunday worship and other anti-Sabbath laws. It will involve a national and global apostasy (Sunday worship laws), and it will lead to nation ruin.
Now, we have some members of the U.S. Congress pushing for a new Green Deal. It is so radical that if it were passed, all flying would stop, and of course, that isn’t ever going to happen. However, there may be restrictions on flying or travel in general, which could become so strict as to prevent any non-essential travel – for climate reasons of course.
That’s only one area of concern to these climate change promoters. It will also affect the use of vehicles. Can you imagine the roads being free of rush hour traffic?
How will a Sunday law be enacted? First by decree, according to The Great Controversy. I want you to listen to this from the point of view of a national emergency.
“As the Sabbath has become the special point of controversy throughout Christendom, and religious and secular authorities have combined to enforce the observance of the Sunday, the persistent refusal of a small minority to yield to the popular demand will make them objects of universal execration. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the state ought not to be tolerated; that it is better for them to suffer than for whole nations to be thrown into confusion and lawlessness…”
Satan will get the people thinking that they have to get rid of Sabbath-keepers, or we will never see the end of the calamities. He will likely present it as a national emergency, which will enflame the passions of the people as their state of tranquility has been attacked. Reading on.
“The same argument many centuries ago was brought against Christ by the “rulers of the people.” “It is expedient for us,” said the wily Caiaphas, “that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” John 11:50. This argument will appear conclusive; and a decree will finally be issued against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, denouncing them as deserving of the severest punishment and giving the people liberty, after a certain time, to put them to death. Romanism in the Old World and apostate Protestantism in the New will pursue a similar course toward those who honor all the divine precepts.” The Great Controversy, page 615.
Does this sound like a national emergency? It sure does. Mr. Trump is actually preparing for this time. And he probably doesn’t even realize it. It may be some future president that wields the power of a National Emergency to bring on the close of probation and the so-called “necessity” of getting everyone back in church.
Declared National Emergencies Under the National Emergencies Act, 1978-2018 [5]
Now political leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a radical leftist and a Democrat is already saying that climate change is a “life and death matter.” That’s national emergency talk, my friends.
Even House Republicans have expressed concern that because of Mr. Trump’s national emergency to bypass congress, a Democratic president could enact a Green New Deal on the American people just as Mr. Trump hopes to have a wall with Mexico.
The New York Times headline asked: Could a Future President Declare a Climate Emergency?
Could a Future President Declare a Climate Emergency? [6]
Republicans are also very concerned about the use of Emergency powers by a Democratic president. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and chairwoman of the House Republican Conference tweeted this;
“While I share President Trump’s concerns about the important need to secure our southern border and his frustration with Democrats’ refusal to keep our country secure, this is not the right approach to achieve our shared goals. I do not support this decision because declaring a national emergency sets a very dangerous precedent that undermines our constitutional separation of powers. By circumventing Congress and Article I of the Constitution, President Trump is opening the door for any future president to act alone without Congressional approval.
“If elected president, how would Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders use this precedent for a national disaster declaration to force the Green New Deal on the American people?”
McMorris Rodgers, Cantwell disagree with Trump’s national emergency declaration [7]
Climate change is blamed for massive disasters that have happened in recent years, including the drought in California, Washington and Oregon, which has resulted in the destruction of Paradise, Santa Rosa, parts of Redding and thousands and thousands of acres of forest lands. It is blamed for huge hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes and even earthquakes.
But the climate issue is closely related to Sunday. While some may think that Pope Francis’ emphasis on Sunday in connection with global action on climate change, it would be no surprise to me if global leaders, many of whom are Roman Catholic or who are close to Rome, would find this of little or no consequence.
Do you think the end of time will be visited with climate change? Christ Himself predicted the results of climate change, famines, pestilences and even earthquakes. How closely these are related to climate change is still being debated, but there is no doubt in my mind that climate change played a big part during the time of Noah’s flood. The climate was quite different when Noah came out of the Ark. It wasn’t so warm as it used to be. It was not so humid either. The cooler air meant that he and his family had to make heavier clothing, use different methods of agriculture, etc.
There was a severe climate change in the time of Elijah. The drought lasted for 3.5 years, almost destroying everything and putting the nation under great stress.
Think about the seven last plagues. Do you think climate change will have a part to play in the sun as it scorches men with fire, or when the sea turns to blood? It is very possible that climate change is preparing for the seven last plagues.
While many people will debate whether or not Mr. Trump has the right to declare a national emergency, the fact is that congress gave him that authority. They may not like it. They may initiate lawsuits. And they may try to prevent it. But he’s within his congressional rights.
The more important question is: how will a national emergency be used in a manufactured crisis or a real crisis to curtail the freedom of God’s people. Listen to this statement from the Great Controversy, page 604.
“Fearful is the issue to which the world is to be brought. The powers of earth, uniting to war against the commandments of God, will decree that “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Revelation 13:16), shall conform to the customs of the church by the observance of the false sabbath. All who refuse compliance will be visited with civil penalties, and it will finally be declared that they are deserving of death. On the other hand, the law of God enjoining the Creator’s rest day demands obedience and threatens wrath against all who transgress its precepts.”
So, which is more important to you? You are going to get wrath, one way or the other. Do you prefer to have the wrath of man for disobedience of human laws, or would you rather have the wrath of God for disobeying divine law. Take your pick. I think I would rather suffer the wrath of angry humans and preserve my place in heaven.
Things are going to get pretty intense. They already are. But I expect a big change to happen that will push both parties and conservatives and liberals over the edge, which will precipitate the final crisis for God’s people. Listen to this interesting statement. Consider whether it could include climate change, and precipitate a national emergency declaration by the president, and other government leaders around the world.
“There will soon be a sudden change in God’s dealings. The world in its perversity is being visited by casualties,—by floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, famines, wars, and bloodshed…”
Many of these are related to climate. I’ll read on;
“The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power; yet He will not at all acquit the wicked.
‘The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.’ O that men might understand the patience and longsuffering of God! He is putting under restraint His own attributes. His omnipotent power is under the control of Omnipotence. O that men would understand that God refuses to be wearied out with the world’s perversity, and still holds out the hope of forgiveness even to the most undeserving! But His forbearance will not always continue. Who is prepared for the sudden change that will take place in God’s dealing with sinful men? Who will be prepared to escape the punishment that will certainly fall upon transgressors?
So that sudden change has to do with judgment and punishment of transgressors. When they make void God’s law. When Sunday observance becomes the law of the land, that is when, it seems to me, to be the time for God to change His dealings.
Psalm 119:126 says: “It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.”
In other words, when God’s law is made void by human laws that oppose those who wish to keep all of God’s law, God will clearly work for His people. He will have to take matters into His own hands, and punish the wicked. The world will see the contrast between those that serve God and those that do not.
Friends, I know you want to be protected by heavenly angels during the time of trouble. This is the time to prepare. Spend time in God’s word. In fact, memorize God’s word and give Jesus your whole heart. When you have a difficulty, turn to God and trust Him. Learn to live by faith. Learn to live by the power of God in your life rather than your own power. And my God bless you as you prepare for the coming crisis. Stay tuned. There is more to come. And unless God intervenes and prevents it, Mr. Trump is just getting started.
Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father. We see the movements taking place and we see that there is little time left to prepare. Please Father in heaven, have mercy on us and get us ready quickly. We need Jesus in our lives at all times. May we find peace and rest in him. Thank you so much for showing us how the end-times is unfolding. Please keep us alert to the signs of the times. In Jesus name I pray, amen.