By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry. We are living in unprecedented times. Never before have people been more confused and scared. Fear is driving them to violence that will one day explode. Fear also gives government leaders freedom to act like dictators and sycophants. Even local leaders are somewhat that way, though not all. God’s people need to urgently get ready for the coming of Jesus. We see the signs of the times rapidly fulfilling. But most people blindly go on without noticing them. And the final crisis will take them unawares. It will be to them an overwhelming surprise. Our topic today is like no other. I am going to compare the way COVID-19 is being treated, and the reactions that have made it more difficult for the unvaccinated. In fact, I will do part one this month and part two next month. So put your seatbelt on.
As we begin let us pray. Our loving Father in heaven, we see the signs of the end are now building more than ever. Society is being roiled with conflict and perplexity more than ever. The things we have long anticipated are starting to happen. We pray that the storm will not take us by surprise. But may we be ready. Please inspire us with the nearness of Jesus’ return and sober us with the evidence. Please send Your Holy Spirit to be with us as we study. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The pandemic has changed very much about the world in which we live. And it’s not going to return to the pre-pandemic normal. The movements are now so rapid that no one can keep up with them. But thankfully the word of God will help you prioritize them. Listen to this statement from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 9, page 11.
“The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.”
This statement has more significance now than it has ever had before. The globalists are consolidating their power over the global economy. World leaders are consolidating their political power over the nations. The Catholic Church is consolidating its power through environmentalism. And spiritualism is tying them all together. Through it the Catholic Church is influencing them all. Great changes are indeed upon us.
Folks, society is really changing, and not for the better. COVID-19 has brought great changes. In one stroke, lockdowns, social distancing and fear have taken over our society. This has caused more social problems, more economic problems, and more problems with crime, just as the Bible declares would happen at the end of time. And people are very perplexed and frightened. As it says in Luke 21:25, 26…“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.”
Do you think this describes our times? The Bible in a few words succinctly tells an amazing amount of information. If you thought we were going back to normal, think again. It never will. Things have changed forever. If you have young children, you had better do some serious praying and thinking about what to do. The enemy desires to have them. If you live in the city, you will be trapped. But you can expect more changes are coming. Expect other kinds of lockdowns, like in relation to climate change.
Yes, climate lockdowns are being discussed. Since the Roman church is pushing environmentalism, which is really nature worship, like Jezebel’s Phoenician god’s, we are soon likely to see Sunday as a “protect nature day” (with lockdowns to support it). When Donald Trump pulled America out of the papal climate agreement, the angels were holding back the winds of strife a little longer. Now we are back in, and it doesn’t look good for God’s people from either the political left or right.
The Bible likens Roman Catholicism as the modern Jezebel in Revelation 2:20. Speaking to the church at Thyatira John says…“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
It will take the third Elijah empowered by the Spirit of God to deal with the third Jezebel who is inspired with the Spirit of the enemy. God locked down Elijah to protect him amid Jezebel’s lockdowns of the prophets of the Lord. They were locked down in hiding. He can do the same today. The enemy is angling to lock down the small group of God’s true people. We’re in the beginning stages of it now with the broad lockdowns getting people used to them.
People are plagued with increasingly larger and more difficult problems. And the globalists, including the pope, want to strip out the middle class. So, we will see increasing ranks of people below the poverty line. People don’t understand it. They want less poverty, but they only get more of it. God reveals this plainly. Listen to this statement from Ministry of Healing, page 183. “There are largehearted men and women who are anxiously considering the condition of the poor and what means can be found for their relief. How the unemployed and the homeless can be helped to secure the common blessings of God’s providence and to live the life He intended man to live, is a question to which many are earnestly endeavoring to find an answer. But there are not many, even among educators and statesmen, who comprehend the causes that underlie the present state of society. Those who hold the reins of government are unable to solve the problem of poverty, pauperism, and increasing crime. They are struggling in vain to place business operations on a more secure basis.”
Doesn’t that describe the time right now? You see, the poor don’t realize what is happening. Nor do the middle class. Both sides of the political spectrum, left and right are mostly in it together, working for other interests, not in the interest of liberty. They are all working to keep the poor, poor, and make more poor people by eliminating the middle class mostly, all in the name of supporting the poor, in the euphemism of today, by redistributing wealth. The pope and the Catholic Church are in it too, promoting big government and welfare socialism. But more big government is not the answer. Why do we see these things like COVID-19 and the turmoil of society?
The Holy Spirit is being withdrawn from the earth. Listen to this from Manuscript Releases, Vol. 4, page 90…“The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth, and unrepentant sinners are being left to the control of the enemy, to the destiny that they themselves have chosen.”
Man has turned his back on God and His law, including the Sabbath. Man has been doing it persistently and boldly for many years, and they have been getting bolder, even though they profess to follow God. The enemy uses this to place himself and his law where God’s law should be. While secular people boldly defy God and brazenly sin openly, professed Christians who love to sin but also like to look good will stand against the truth and accuse God’s people of being legalists and fanatics.
As the Holy Spirit is being withdrawn, gradually, the enemy is given more freedom to wreak havoc on the world. Not just in natural disasters, like hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes, but in crime, corruption, disease, prostitution, and a host of other areas.
“Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come….” Joel 1:15.
The untested experimental vaccine has caused many deaths and human damage through various side effects. The way it is being handled in many countries is with dictatorial power and coercion or even force. Some countries have to be more cautious and government leaders have to be careful to delicately handle the freedoms of their people as they become less frightened and more decided in protest and resistance. But government leaders are determined. After all they are mostly in line with the globalists.
But the thing that has our attention right now is how the excessive lockdowns and regulations are being used as a dress rehearsal, to establish the system infrastructure, popular attitudes and work out the kinks and bugs in the system so that the Sunday Law can be implemented smoothly and easily. People will be used to the measures to be taken and they will not fight it like some do today. I’m not saying this dry run is being planned by humans, though I suppose it is possible, but the great enemy of Christ is plotting a strategy to pin God’s people into a corner so that they cannot buy or sell or even live without bending the knee and acknowledging his supremacy and rulership of this world.
Listen to this from Prophets and Kings, pages 183 and 184.
“During the Christian dispensation, the great enemy of man’s happiness has made the Sabbath of the fourth commandment an object of special attack. Satan says, ‘I will work at cross purposes with God. I will empower my followers to set aside God’s memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus I will show the world that the day sanctified and blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day that does not bear the credentials of God, a day that cannot be a sign between God and His people. I will lead those who accept this day to place upon it the sanctity that God placed upon the seventh day.
“Through my vicegerent, I will exalt myself. The first day will be extolled, and the Protestant world will receive this spurious sabbath as genuine. Through the nonobservance of the Sabbath that God instituted, I will bring His law into contempt. The words, ‘A sign between Me and you throughout your generations,’ I will make to serve on the side of my sabbath.”
Do you think the enemy has done that? Do you think he is getting ready for this right now? Does the Sabbath of the Bible already have the contempt of most people? He is almost ready for his final assault on God’s people. Reading on…
“Thus the world will become mine. I will be the ruler of the earth, the prince of the world. I will so control the minds under my power that God’s Sabbath shall be a special object of contempt. A sign? I will make the observance of the seventh day a sign of disloyalty to the authorities of earth. Human laws will be made so stringent that men and women will not dare to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. For fear of wanting food and clothing, they will join with the world in transgressing God’s law. The earth will be wholly under my dominion.”
Did you hear that phrase “so stringent?” What does that mean? That means that the enemy is working to make it so difficult to live a normal life without compliance to human laws or decrees that you will be afraid to go against the law for fear that you will lose your livelihood. The welfare state has conditioned people for this. Millions are dependent on the government. And currently, the pandemic has pushed millions more onto the welfare rolls making it impossible for most people, especially people in the big cities, to survive without government help, further deepening welfare dependency. Most of them will go along with the dictates of the governors and mayors in order to keep the money flowing to survive.
The enemy is behind all this. He is binding the whole world into bundles to be burned. If you live in the city you will be trapped, as I have been warning of this for years. Maybe city dwellers are already trapped. But you cannot survive eternally if you don’t obey God. He will not hear your prayers or deliver you.
Listen to this from Counsels on Health, page 525…“The enemy has used the chain of dependence draw men together. They have united to destroy God’s image in man, counterwork the gospel by perverting its principles. They are represented in God’s word as being bound in bundles to be burned. Satan is uniting his forces for perdition.”
He plans first to coerce you by threatening to take away your livelihood. This will bring most people into line with his plans. You won’t be able to move or even live without his approval. Then, if that doesn’t work, other more severe measures will be implemented to pressure you. We have already seen travel restricted. But it is getting more refined. Soon only vaccinated people will be allowed to travel internationally. While the United States leads in this, other nations will follow suit. It can even come down to buying and selling by only vaccinated people.
Exclusive: U.S. developing plan to require foreign visitors to be vaccinated, official says [1]
Then at last he will threaten you with death. There are a lot of steps to get to that point, but be assured that it is coming. Once again, I plead with you, if you live in or near a big city, if you have any possibility to get out, do so, and quickly. Things will be much more difficult for those living in the city.
How can the enemy make laws and regulations so stringent that you can’t live a normal life without obeying them? COVID-19 and its related vaccines are the perfect way to get the whole world to obey the requirements without much protest. It is a different issue than that which will involve the final crisis.
Scripture tells us the methods that the dragon, co-opting the second beast of Revelation 13, will use. Your Bible, if it is the King James Version, says in Revelation 13:11-18, “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”
Notice that he uses his power which involves authority to accomplish his goals. Reading on…
“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.”
Notice that he uses deception to achieve his goals. This is his mode of working. You don’t have all the facts, or even the true facts. You just have to have a narrative that can justify all the things the government wants to do.
“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”
Eventually, the followers of Jesus will have a death penalty on them. Which is a serious offence to God. Reading on…
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 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.”
We can see from the way the pandemic has been handled, how that this scripture will be fulfilled. COVID also creates a lot of parallels.
First there is fear and perplexity, which turbo charge the process of getting people to comply. Fear and perplexity will do the same for the Sunday law crisis.
The enemy will use fear to get most people to comply. He has done that during this pandemic. Fear has driven many people to isolate themselves, social distance, and stop working. Governments and media have fear-mongered, then mandated masks and all kinds of measures to make people comply with measures that remove their freedom. They have taken away much of their God-given rights and liberties in the process. The more fear there is, the more pressure people feel to comply with dictatorial measures. Fear is the way to arm-twist people. It is also the way to get the fearless under pressure to comply. And people despise those who don’t fear. They will do strange things, even to loved ones, if there is enough fear.
In the final crisis, an artificial fear will be summoned to put a lot of pressure on God’s people to yield to human laws in place of the law of God. The powers that be will use natural disasters to cast fear and blame on the people of God as the cause of those natural disasters. They will fear the loss of family and friends. Their enemies will try to scare them into keeping the false day of rest instead of the Sabbath.
This statement from Great Controversy, page 597 is relevant.
“God never forces the will or the conscience; but Satan’s constant resort—to gain control of those whom he cannot otherwise seduce—is compulsion by cruelty. Through fear or force he endeavors to rule the conscience and to secure homage to himself. To accomplish this, he works through both religious and secular authorities, moving them to the enforcement of human laws in defiance of the law of God.”
Here it is from Sign of the Times, January 17, 1884.
“Men in responsible positions will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves, but from the sacred desk, will urge upon the people the observance of the first day of the week, pleading tradition and custom in behalf of this man-made institution. They will point to calamities on land and sea—to the storms of wind, the floods, the earthquakes, the destruction by fire—as judgments indicating God’s displeasure because Sunday is not sacredly observed. These calamities will increase more and more, one disaster will follow close upon the heels of another; and those who make void the law of God will point to the few who are keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment as the ones who are bringing wrath upon the world. This falsehood is Satan’s device that he may ensnare the unwary.”
Here is a statement that reveals how this will be achieved in the final crisis. It’s found in 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, the powers of earth will unite against the commandments and commandment keepers. They will eventually declare the death penalty for disobedience. Here is another statement that comes from the same book, page 615.
“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. 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.”
Second, the pandemic involves the whole planet. So will the Sunday law crisis, eventually.
While the same methods will be used to implement any law and enforce any regulation, right now COVID is especially being used to establish precedent and get compliance to the dictates of human laws that don’t presently seem to be the kind to bind the conscience. Then when everybody is used to it, and most have complied with it, there will be a switch that will target the religious scruples of a few who are following Christ. And the final push will be on.
The pandemic is of a universal nature. It has made a worldwide impact. So will the final crisis and the Sunday law impact all over the world. Listen to Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 6 page 395.
“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.”
Here is another one from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 7, page 141.
“More and more the world is setting at naught the claims of God. Men have become bold in transgression. The wickedness of the inhabitants of the world has almost filled up the measure of their iniquity. This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it. The substitution of the laws of men for the law of God, the exaltation, by merely human authority, of Sunday in place of the Bible Sabbath, is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal Himself. He will arise in His majesty to shake terribly the earth. He will come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity, and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”
I tell you friends, COVID is a dress rehearsal. It is also being staged to get ready for the final crisis through establishing the necessary laws and policies that remove freedoms. But COVID is nothing like what will come upon the world at the very end of time during the Sunday law crisis. We are almost there.
Third, deception is being used in this pandemic. Facts are hidden from the public. Some information is suppressed. And there’s outright deception being used to create fear. The mainstream media is being used to create fear and promulgate deception too. You can be sure that in the Sunday law crisis Sabbath keepers will not be given opportunity to tell the truth. Falsehoods will be told about them to generate fear. Through this means the enemy will coerce the consciences of many. And through lies he will get the masses to believe him and accept his narrative.
Fourth, vaccine passports are being debated right now. They are being used in France to authorize people to enter bars, restaurants, cafés and other venues, and they are keeping all unvaccinated out, which is really the point. Those who don’t vaccinate cannot go in to buy anything. They will be used for places where people gather, like theaters, concert halls, sporting events. Students, to attend schools are already required to be vaccinated. Eventually, they will be used even for grocery supermarkets and other more basic shops.
Travel on planes, trains, busses and trams and other public transportation, will require proof of vaccination. This will effectively lock down those who are unvaccinated. But others will be free to engage in life. Here is a statement from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, 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. 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. 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.”
Fifth, the COVID lockdowns revealed animosity against Christians by closing churches and limiting the ability of people to attend church or worship according to their conscience. At the same time, casinos, restaurants, bars and nightclubs remained opened in some places, revealing a discrimination against churches and the Christian religion.
Supreme Court says Nevada can impose tighter virus limits on churches than casinos [2]
Discrimination will be a continuing feature of COVID reaction, but it will become more precise and focused. In other words, it will change its intended target. The precious freedom of religious belief and practice according to the conscience, is in danger of being destroyed by those who would force the conscience of the minority to conform to the wishes of the majority. COVID restrictions are creating a two-tiered system that leaves those who have convictions about the vaccine or who just don’t want to get the vaccine, isolated and marginalized. This coercion will be the same for the Sunday law crisis for those who keep all the commandments of God. They will also be isolated from society, made to feel criticism and scorn for their stand, and restricted from full participation in society. In fact, they become outcasts from society.
Listen to this from Newsweek, August 6, 2021. “A May survey from MyBioSource.com, a biotechnical products distribution company, found that an average of 48 percent of people would avoid the unvaccinated…”
People are also angry and raging at the unvaccinated. Listen to this: “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks,” an angry Gov. Kay Ivey, Republican of Alabama, told reporters “It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down…”And people are angry at the unvaccinated.
Here are some other comments:
“I am angry, I am resentful, and I think it’s a fair and appropriate response,” says Jonathan Hyman, a Berea, OH, attorney who blames the unvaccinated for the backslide in pandemic progress.
Another person commented:
“‘I can’t fathom the fact that people have seen over 600,000 Americans die from COVID, yet are resistant to a vaccine that provides direct protection for themselves and others,’ says [James] Simmons, 63, who received the shot early. ‘Their irresponsible decision is an affront to those of us who are vaccinated and still wear masks for the benefit of our society.’”
And here’s another:
“In the interest of public safety, I believe the government and private businesses need to [make] life difficult for the unvaccinated,” says Jaffe, 29, whose parents both contracted the virus but recovered. “They should not be allowed to dine at restaurants, ride public transportation, attend concerts, or broadly be in spaces with large concentrations of people without passing a COVID test at the door.
“They’ll stand in long lines and be inconvenienced at every turn, while vaccinated people get to fly through security, TSA PreCheck-style. The holdouts at [this] point are beyond convincing. The vaccinated should be able to return to a level of normalcy, and the unvaccinated should face restrictions. Any other dynamic puts the stress on citizens who did the right thing.”
That’s the same way Sabbath keepers were treated in the past. They were avoided they were limited in participation in society. People were so angry at them that they were willing to kill them. And it will be the same way Sunday holdouts will be treated in the future. Hebrews 11:38 explains that the world was not worthy of true followers of Jesus…“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..”
We are getting ready to see this verse fulfilled again, brothers and sisters. Listen to this from Great Controversy, page 615.
“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.”
What does execration mean? It means something detested, something cursed. Do you think God’s people will be given liberty to participate in society with that kind of hatred and loathing? Not hardly.
Sixth, government leaders have been ruling by decree during the COVID pandemic. And the people are getting used to being ruled by decree. It will be an easy thing for most people to go along with a decree from whatever government has jurisdiction, that restricts their religious liberties to Sunday observance. They will be willing and able to comply. In fact, they will want to comply. The pandemic is showing how they will achieve their goals as well as what those goals are. The Sunday law will be enforced by decree in an emergency authorization.
Seventh, vaccine passports are being debated right now. These will be used to allow travel for those vaccinated and restrict travel for those who are not. They will be required for sporting events, restaurants, bars and nightclubs. Then they will be expanded to go deeper into society by restricting grocery and pharmacy shopping to the vaccinated only. The result is that you won’t be able to buy or sell without a vaccine. So, people are getting used to such requirements during the pandemic and will be afraid to go against the vaccine requirements for fear of losing their ability to survive. Friends, does this sound like anything you have read about in prophecy?
Revelation 13:16, 17 says… “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 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.”
France is the first country to require the vaccine passport for almost everything including, cinemas, museums, restaurants and cafés, planes and trains and gatherings of 50 people or more. The vaccine has been mandated for all health workers and maybe others. While there have been protests, there is not much opposition. Those who refuse the vaccine and try to do business at these establishments risk a fine or even jail time.
Do you think this is a trial or a dry run for some other issue that the enemy thinks is very important to his complete control and his kingdom?
Indonesia and Turkmenistan have made the vaccine mandatory for all adults. Others will, no doubt follow. Germany is not using mandates, but making it difficult for those without a vaccine. Listen to the Washington Post from July 17.
“When France and Germany launched their coronavirus vaccination programs late last year, officials in both countries assured that the shots wouldn’t be mandatory in their societies, where vaccine skepticism is widespread. But more than half a year later, the two nations are going further than most other Western countries in granting privileges to people who have been vaccinated and making daily life difficult for those who aren’t. These aren’t mandates they claim. Not formally, maybe. But in practice, some of the measures come close.”
Friends, while this is really coercing people to do something that may be against their will, it is nevertheless the enemy’s agenda. He coerces people who aren’t willing and ready to follow his plan. But the really important thing to consider is that he is planning to implement this whole scenario against a smaller group over a completely different issue. This is being staged right now without the knowledge or awareness of all of those leaders, largely, who impose the mandates.
French parliament set to adopt vaccine passports law after protests [3]
Vaccinations surge and protests grow after new COVID policies announced in France [4]
How vaccine-skeptic France and Germany came to support near-mandates [5]
The United States is also following a similar trajectory, though with some variations, because of its strong history of freedom. The Biden administration has mandated that all government workers be vaccinated. United Airlines, Microsoft and meatpacker Tyson Foods have mandated that all their employees get vaccinated. Walt Disney Co. will require its non-hourly workers to get vaxxd. And this is just the beginning. After committed and vested workers are vaccinated what then? My guess is that the vaccinations will be eventually required for all employees.
Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates Split Corporate America [6]
It will become more and more difficult for the unvaccinated to live a normal life. Once everybody has a vaccine passport, what is to stop governments from using them for other purposes, or to limit access for those who run amuck of various laws or requirements. They can even track your contacts, which is very useful for identifying your friends. They can use it to track church attendance and verify compliance with Sunday laws. That’s not being talked about now days at all, but I’ll bet you that it will be a reality before you know it. And I bet it is part of the enemy’s coercive agenda.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece said:
“After a year and a half, no one can claim ignorance about the coronavirus anymore,” he announced in a nationally televised address. The country will not shut down again due to attitude adopted by certain people … It’s not Greece that’s a danger, but unvaccinated Greeks.”
Greece enforces mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for health workers [7]
Greece toughens stance on unvaccinated [8]
While this is not true and based on a false narrative, yet it is being used to coerce people into receiving a vaccine and to put pressure on the unvaccinated by gullible people. The people of God will be blamed for the calamities that will come. It will not be true, and will be based on a false narrative, but it will be used to bludgeon the hated sect of Sabbath keepers and to support the prevailing political agenda. The same policy will be invoked to deal with those who remain true to God as for the vaccine.
Friends, the end is near. Somehow, I sense that God is urging us to get ready. The crisis is close at hand.
“Thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace…. All faces are turned into paleness. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. Jeremiah 30:5-7.
The time of Jacob’s trouble is very near. Here is a description of it found in Great Controversy, page 616.
“Jacob’s night of anguish, when he wrestled in prayer for deliverance from the hand of Esau, [Genesis 32:24-30.] represents the experience of God’s people in the time of trouble. Because of the deception practiced to secure his father’s blessing, intended for Esau, Jacob had fled for his life, alarmed by his brother’s deadly threats. After remaining for many years an exile, he had set out, at God’s command, to return with his wives and children, his flocks and herds, to his native country. On reaching the borders of the land, he was filled with terror by the tidings of Esau’s approach at the head of a band of warriors, doubtless bent upon revenge. Jacob’s company, unarmed and defenseless, seemed about to fall helpless victims of violence and slaughter. And to the burden of anxiety and fear was added the crushing weight of self-reproach; for it was his own sin that had brought this danger. His only hope was in the mercy of God; his only defense must be prayer. Yet he leaves nothing undone on his own part to atone for the wrong to his brother, and to avert the threatened danger. So should the followers of Christ, as they approach the time of trouble, make every exertion to place themselves in a proper light before the people, to disarm prejudice, and to avert the danger which threatens liberty of conscience.”
Friends, are you ready for this? This will be the reality. Listen to this statement from Great Controversy, page 622.
“The “time of trouble, such as never was,” is soon to open upon us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial, every soul must stand for himself before God. “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job” were in the land, “as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” Ezekiel 14:20.
We will continue to examine this more next month.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we see our liberties and freedoms waning quickly. And we feel so unprepared. Please come close to us and help us Lord. We want to be more devoted, more obedient, more like Jesus. As we see these movements, we are amazed to realize they are a dress rehearsal for the Sunday law. Give us Your protection and a loving spirit to even those that persecute us. May we have victory over sin in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.