By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry once again. We are participants in a test of the system of pressure and control which is maturing the mechanisms that will be used against God’s people in the final crisis. I’m glad we have Bible prophecy to forewarn us of what is coming because otherwise we would be unprepared and scared with much perplexity. When men’s hearts will fail them for fear God’s people will be calm and peaceful, for God’s peace that passes understanding is perfect and casts out all fear. Last month we studied seven points of parallel that characterize the management of both the vaccine and the Sunday law. Today, we are going to explore more parallels and try to comprehend where this is headed.
But before we begin, I would like to warn you that time is running out for you to get your life under the control of the Holy Spirit. You must build you relationship with Jesus now before it’s too late. Also, follow His counsel in every area of your life. The final crisis is looming like dark clouds on the horizon that tell us the storm is coming. Don’t delay.
Also, please return your yellow renewal card immediately. There isn’t much time left before we remove all those from our mailing list who haven’t renewed or made a gift in the last year. You don’t have to make a gift to renew. We just want to be sure that you still want to receive the CDs. But we appreciate every gift that you give because it helps to spread the word more. Keep the Faith is committed to keeping you informed about our prophetic times and urging you to make a complete surrender to Christ, and prepare for the end-time crisis.
As we begin let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we are in serious times. Our eternal life depends on what we will do in a little moment of time, in a crisis. It will depend on a single decision. But we can prepare by making right decisions now, and every day set a pattern of decisions so that when the crises comes the right decision will be a habit. Please help us form right habits of decision-making, I pray. And please send Your Holy Spirit to influence our minds as we study our impressive times. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Often, whether we stand or fall revolves around a fateful decision. And millions make the wrong decision at the crucial moment. What if Daniel had decided to alter his prayer life when threatened with death. The sentence was carried out, but what was the result? Daniel had practiced that daily prayer life with his God for many years. He dared not change his habits just because some jealous colleagues were scheming to get rid of him. They chose the decree to worship only the king because of Daniel’s loyalty to God. His time with God was so precious to him that He felt he would lose more than his earthly life if he compromised. That should be the way our time with God should be.
And what if Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego had compromised on the Plain of Dura and obeyed the kings worship order? They were thrown into the fiery furnace, but what was the result. These are sterling examples for us to follow, for we will face the same questions. These men didn’t hesitate to risk their lives for the sake of their love and loyalty to the God of heaven, even in Babylon where there seemed to be no option but to compromise.
We must remember that Satan cannot force us to do wrong. He may make it seem like there is no option, but there is always a way of escape. For the word of God says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
And here is a statement from Great Controversy, page 510.
“Christ will give strength to all who seek it. No man without his own consent can be overcome by Satan. The tempter has no power to control the will or to force the soul to sin. He may distress, but he cannot contaminate. He can cause agony, but not defilement. The fact that Christ has conquered should inspire His followers with courage to fight manfully the battle against sin and Satan.”
So, you can expect the pressure to increase, but if you endure to the end there is a crown of life waiting for you. I believe that the pressure to vaccinate is similar to the pressure to worship on Sunday when a law is enacted in the land to coerce your conscience. Vaccination may be a conscience issue, and the Sunday law certainly is. The powers that be are wanting to take away your freedom to choose according to your conscience and force or coerce as many people as possible to vaccinate. There is no conflict with your conscience if you chose to vaccinate, but there may, and ultimately will be conflicts with your conscience if you chose not to vaccinate. The law and decrees will get tighter and tighter, with increasingly deeper consequences to your personal life. The pressure will increase to the point where those who chose not to vaccinate will be unable to live a normal life.
In fact, similar to the Sunday law there is a cabal of world leaders, presidents, chancellors, dictators, along with the pope and the Catholic Church that are conspiring together to remove your personal liberties and freedoms. They are doing all in their power to accomplish this goal. It is called “the great reset.” And it’s great because it is a worldwide adjustment of freedoms and liberties. It’s not fair. It’s not right, but it is happening, nevertheless. They are working for the enemy of souls and they want to force things upon you against your will. And there is nothing you can do about it. Protesting won’t change it. Suing someone, like those governors are doing won’t change it. You only have you. You will have to decide whether you are going to go along with the decrees or whether you are not, and suffer the consequences of the choice. And you have to count the cost. One choice may result in the loss of your family and friends. You may also lose your job and your means of earning a livelihood if you make that choice. The other choice is the easy way. You see, my friends, we will be tested. And the vaccination test will be implemented, but it is mild compared to the Sunday law test. But it is a test. And I propose that the decision you make now will set the stage for what you will decide concerning the ultimate Sunday law test.
Daniel faced a health test before his worship test. Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego faced the health test with him before their worship test. The whole world is in a health crisis. Could the vaccine be a conscience test like those men of renown faced in their day? It has similarities but it is not as severe. Now Jesus’ true followers will be tested. I suggest that we are going to experience the health test now, not at some future date. But it also means that the Sunday law test will come very soon – perhaps on its heels. Your choices now will prepare you for the choice you will make then. I used to say that the vaccine wasn’t the mark of the beast, and it still isn’t. But there was a significant health test that came before the worship test. Could we be in that time? We have a health message. And we are going to be tested on our lifestyle.
Jesus also faced two health tests, one in the wilderness of temptation when His enemy tempted Him when He was really hungry, the other test was on the cross when they gave Him vinegar to drink. The vinegar would cloud His mind so he couldn’t think clearly. One of the known side effects of the vaccine is a foggy mind. It is sometimes so bad that it is debilitating. I know of people who have struggled with this for months right after taking the vaccine. They can’t think clearly. Listen to this from Evangelism, page 18.
“The words of Jesus Christ are spoken to us living down here at the close of this earth’s history. ‘When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.’ The nations are in unrest. Times of perplexity are upon us. The waves of the sea are roaring; men’s hearts are failing them for fear and for expectation of those things that are coming upon the earth; but those who believe on the Son of God will hear His voice amid the storm, saying, ‘It is I; be not afraid…’ We see the world lying in wickedness and apostasy. Rebellion to the commandments of God seems almost universal. Amid the tumult of excitement with confusion in every place, there is a work to be done in the world.”
If you are not prepared to be self-sufficient in your soul as well as your body, as I have said in various words many times over the years, you will give in to the pressure in order to survive. Years ago, you should have been like Lot and escaped the cities. And if you are still there and can, leave them now. “Look not behind thee.” There is relative freedom in the country. If you are sincerely praying, and doing what you can about it, the Lord has not forgotten you. He will give you a way to escape.
Listen to this statement from Country Living, page 9.
“The time is fast coming when the controlling power of the labor unions will be very oppressive. Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies.”
Friends, city living is dangerous for your body and soul. The problem of buying and selling won’t just be related to the Sunday law. There could be shortages, riots and the breakdown of law and order. Please get out of the cities. They are death traps.
So here we go. Number eight. We have had long debates about vaccine mandates and freedom. There will be long debates about Sunday laws and freedom too. Listen to this from Great Controversy, page 605.
“Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel’s message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd. It has been confidently declared that this land could never become other than what it has been—the defender of religious freedom. But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before.”
When something is widely agitated that means it is being debated. This will be a time when God’s people who stand for the Sabbath can influence the minds of those who are seeking for light. Here is a statement from Review and Herald, March 9, 1911.
“In our work, we are to watch for special opportunities to do effective labor. When the minds of the people are agitated regarding Sunday laws, it is an opportune time to enlighten them concerning the principles involved. We are to teach in a positive way the binding claims of God’s law, rather than to attack or denounce men, some of whom may be acting conscientiously, and possibly are susceptible to the truth, if it is presented in a winning way.”
So mandating obedience to the Sunday law is like mandating obedience to the vaccine decrees. President Biden, who is part of the cabal of globalists trying to take away your liberty, declared that businesses with over 100 employees must have a vaccine mandate for their employees which involves termination for non-compliance. He also decreed a vaccine mandate for federal workers and contractors. And he mandated the vaccine for those health workers whose companies accept Medicare and Medicaid.
Biden outlines plan to mandate Covid vaccines for millions: ‘Our patience is wearing thin’ [2]
Number nine. Friends, every earthly support will be taken away from God’s true people during the Sunday law crisis. And now there are laws requiring workers, all of them in some countries and most of them in America and some other developed nations.
Does this remind you of a statement in Desire of Ages, page 121 that says:
“In the last great conflict of the controversy with Satan those who are loyal to God will see every earthly support cut off. Because they refuse to break His law in obedience to earthly powers, they will be forbidden to buy or sell. It will finally be decreed that they shall be put to death.”
The vaccination mandate hasn’t gone that far, but it is certainly cutting off earthly support, a lot of it.
The vaccine passport is individualized lockdown, or a personal lockout. Those who can’t show proof of vaccination on their digital passport can’t go to most places and even to work.
Take Italy for example. It has the most draconian rules in Europe. It announced that workers will be required to show proof of vaccination, or a negative test (which can get expensive), or recovery from COVID in order to work. The green passport is mandatory for all public and private sector workers. Failure to have a Green Pass results in workers being suspended and losing their pay. Italy has already seen some 700 doctors suspended without pay as well as other health care workers.
Covid: Italy to require all workers to show ‘green pass’ certificate [3]
President Macron of France, who is part of the cabal seeking to take away French citizens liberties, has a law that requires proof of vaccination for entry into bars, restaurants, gyms and museums as well as for all health care workers to keep their jobs. While there has been a massive uptake in vaccinations, recently 3000 health care workers, with 450 from just one hospital in Nice, were suspended across France because they were non-compliant with the law. This cuts off their earthly support to a significant degree.
Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria and Ireland plan to enact similar laws to France.
France suspends 3,000 health staff as Europe targets vaccine refusal [4]
Europe Sees Vaccine Passport Explosion For Hotels, Restaurants, Museums And More [5]
Tenth. Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organization recently said there is no going back to the “old normal.”
“It’s completely understandable that people want to get on with their lives, but we will not be going back to the old normal.”
WHO warns there’s no going back to ‘old normal’ as coronavirus accelerates in three countries [6]
What he means, of course, is not entirely clear. But we can be sure that our freedoms are not coming back to the way they were, and that’s for the unvaccinated and the vaccinated, though for the unvaccinated the new “normal” life will be much more difficult. Those who do not comply with the Sunday law will also not have a normal life. They will be treated in similar ways to the unvaccinated.
Eleventh. And this is a more lengthy one. The great reset that the globalists have been talking about, and that is happening in the economy right now, and for that matter politically also, is also happening to religious faith. Pope Francis himself called for a new world order after the pandemic. In his new book, called God and the World to Come, the antichrist says that after the coronavirus pandemic, “no one today can afford to rest easy… The world will never be the same again. But it is precisely within this calamity that we must grasp those signs which may prove to be the cornerstones of reconstruction.”
What signs is he talking about? Rest assured he is not talking about the signs of the times as we know them. He sees the signs that indicate the rise of the Roman Catholic Church to power with an agenda to take over influential control of the world. Reconstruction means the changes required to remake the world in the image of the feudal system of the middle ages. A dependent populace and a controlling government united with a dominating church that can enforce Sunday laws for which she has so patiently worked to reestablish for so long. He continues, We can heal injustice “by building a new world order based on solidarity, studying innovative methods to eradicate bullying, poverty and corruption… All working together, each for their own part, without delegating and passing the buck.”
For the pope, this new world order will be based on eradicating inequalities by wealth redistribution and attending to the environment, “We can no longer blithely accept inequalities and disruptions to the environment… The path to humanity’s salvation passes through the creation of a new model of development, which unquestionably focuses on coexistence among peoples in harmony with Creation… If we don’t roll up our sleeves and immediately take care of the Earth, with radical personal and political choices, with an economic ‘green’ turn by directing technological developments in this direction, sooner or later our common home will throw us out the window.”
Salvation? The Bible says that humanity’s salvation is dependent on Christ, not the environment. This is nature worship as I pointed out last month.
“Against this planetary discord that is nipping the future of humanity in the bud, we need political action that is the fruit of international harmony,” he declares, urging for an end to “short-sighted nationalism” and other forms of “political selfishness” in favor of multilateral solutions.
What is “international harmony?” The pope is tying it all together so an important prophecy can be unwittingly fulfilled. He is calling for the world to come together and be of the same mind. He is actually giving a strong appeal to world governments to let him lead the nations onward.
Revelation 17:13 explains this in a few succinct words: “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”
Pope Francis Calls for ‘New World Order’ After the Pandemic [7]
Pope Francis Calls For ‘New World Order’ For Post-Pandemic World [8]
The pope has also called for Sunday laws as an evidence of solidarity and brotherhood, or one-mindedness. And just like with the pandemic, he and his evangelical friends will use every argument available to dupe people into accepting the Sunday law as the panacea for the ills of mankind.
Twelfth. The unvaccinated are being accused of endangering the vaccinated. This is especially troubling because one wonders how that could be. But the excuse is being made that the new variants like Delta can breakthrough vaccine defenses, so unvaccinated spreaders are dangerous because they can carry the Delta variant and spread it to the vaccinated. What this means to me is that the vaccines don’t work. They are not designed to work that way. They will not eradicate COVID as if it was like polio and smallpox. The mRNA vaccines change the way the body functions genetically, not by directly dealing with the virus. So, it is a different agent. A more dangerous agent. The long-term effects of these COVID vaccines are unknown. Yet we are just expected to accept the advice and demands of those in league with the enemy. And the enemy knows that the evidence is damning, so the whole world is being frightened into taking the vaccine before they find out the truth. That’s why the urgency in my opinion. So, currently, the unvaccinated are being blamed for new variants that arise. And the pressure is rising.
Fauci warns US could ‘really be in trouble’ from variant worse than Delta [9]
Similar to the way unvaccinated people are being blamed and shamed for supposedly endangering even the vaccinated, Sabbath keepers will be falsely blamed for calamities that come upon Sunday keepers.
Thirteenth. Many colleges and universities mandated that all students and staff get vaccinated before they came back to class. This, of course, is a violation of their rights, but especially will it abridge the religious liberty rights of students and staff who have religious objections to the vaccine. The enemy wants to remove the God-given rights of all people, especially religious freedom. He hates God-given rights. And those few who cling to them he will persecute and destroy, if they are not protected by God.
Colleges and unvaccinated students are set for a standoff this fall [10]
Fourteenth. Now we face government mandates around the world. People have been bribed to get the vaccines and some are being threatened with the loss of a job. Some who object are being treated with fines. Things will get worse. And when the nations are stirred to enact Sunday laws conscientious objectors will again be treated similarly.
Reading the whole scenario from Great Controversy, page 607, we can see that the vaccine is really about preparing the world, and especially as many of God’s remnant people as possible to easily accept Sunday laws. And there is a large percentage of church members who are superficial and will fall for it lock stock a barrel.
“As the controversy extends into new fields and the minds of the people are called to God’s downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and, in this work, papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence, and other rewards and advantages [or bribes], as inducements to renounce their faith. But their steadfast answer is: ‘Show us from the word of God our error’—the same plea that was made by Luther under similar circumstances.”
Fifteenth. The Sunday law will mirror the implementation of the vaccines. People with conscientious objections to the vaccine are already being treated as the cause of the new variants to COVID. They are being isolated and marginalized. Bribes of beer, donuts and lottery tickets haven’t convinced them to come over and get the jabs. So other measures with more severe consequences are being tried, like threatening to take away your job. This is similar to the way Sabbath keepers will be treated.
If the enemy cannot get you to comply by fear, he will lock you down by directives of government officials. And he will have the support of a frightened population so that they will demand laws to deal with the small minority that refuse to go along with vaccination laws. It is the same with the coming Sunday worship laws.
Listen to this from Great Controversy, page 592.
“Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false coloring will be given to their words; the worst construction will be put upon their motives.”
“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.”
Sixteenth. Famous pastors and churches support the vaccine. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, said he and his staff “are neither offering nor encouraging members to seek religious exemptions from the vaccine mandates,” and that “There is no credible religious argument against the vaccines.”
Well there is if you see the issues in the great controversy.
“The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York said that any priest issuing an exemption letter would be ‘acting in contradiction’ to statements from Pope Francis that receiving the vaccine is morally acceptable and responsible.”
Friends, with religious leaders, especially evangelicals and Catholic leaders working together to push the vaccines, there are limited options for people with convictions against taking them. They are circling the wagons, pulling in tighter and tighter. In the United States a pastoral letter only somewhat bolsters your argument that you have a religious objection. It doesn’t really give you any guarantees that an employer will make an accommodation. Other countries are even more dismissive of personal convictions with some ignoring them altogether.
The tragedy is that even the remnant church is compliant and complicit with government regulations with many leaders and pastors urging members to get vaccinated. They also attempt to cancel anything that supports an alternative narrative, and most damaging, actually adopting a policy of support for government regulations regarding the vaccine.
When a local church does something not in harmony with the dominant narrative of the government, that church is pressured to stop what they are planning. For instance, Beacon Light Tabernacle in Wappinger Falls NY, in the Northeastern Regional Conference, was planning to hold a zoom meeting on July 31 titled Right to Choose to discuss the vaccinations. On Friday the 30th of July, the day before the event, the pastor cancelled the zoom conference saying that his conference president had contacted him and told him that this zoom meeting doesn’t reflect the position of the Northeastern Regional Conference and that the General Conference supports the vaccinations. As a result, the meeting was sponsored by another church in a different conference whose pastor had a lot more backbone. This begs the question, does the remnant church believe in liberty of conscience? Or does it suppress attempts to defend it.
The village church at Berrien Springs, MI recently held a symposium on the COVID vaccine and the implications of vaccine mandates on religious liberty. The symposium was called “COVID, Coercion and Conscience.” Lake Union personnel were apparently assigned to try to dissuade it from holding the symposium. Thank God they didn’t succeed. Also, one Andrews University professor who was scheduled to participate was told by Jiri Moskala, the Dean of the Seminary, that his job was on the line if he did. This sermon was completed before we know what happened.
Despite Opposition Village Church In Berrien Springs Will Host Covid, Coercion & Conscience Meeting [11]
Adventist Cancel Culture Raises Its Ugly Head [12]
But its more than that. The Lake Union Herald, stated that it is “appropriate” for those conscientious individuals who remain unvaccinated to have their travel, employment, and participation in society restricted. Nick Miller wrote: “I’m not arguing for mandatory vaccination. But I am saying that your choice not to be vaccinated will appropriately come with limitations on community participation, work and travel.” (Emphasis supplied)
That’s support for coercion! When the Sunday law comes will Nick and the Lake Union side with those who advocate that compliance with government policy? Will they be part of the engine that tries to enforce something unthinkable upon those who believe in the three angel’s messages and liberty of conscience?
Just in case you are wondering, historically, the church has almost always complied with government requirements even at the expense of the Ten Commandments. I say “almost always” not because I can think of an instance where the church organization has stood faithful in opposition to the government, but because there may be a remote instance of which I’m not aware.
Compromise and support for government policy happened in Germany during World War I and World War II, for instance. Believers were discriminated against and persecuted for refusing to bear arms, refusing to work or send their children to school on the sabbath, and some were imprisoned and even executed for their conscientious objection to bearing arms in the military. Persecution by church leaders was endured by conscientious individuals in at least Germany, Austria, Russia, South Korea, and Hungary. There were probably others.
In another flagrant violation of trust, the South German Conference recently apologized for disfellowshipping members of Jewish descent during the holocaust 60 years after the war, after all of those that participated in that horrible persecution were dead. Some apology. Will they do the same in the future?
Europe: German, Austrian Churches Apologize for Holocaust Actions [13]
Hungarian Adventists Disfellowshipped [14]
We are warned that our worst enemies will be our former brethren and members of our own household. That can be referring to either those of your immediate family or those of your church family. Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:36. “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”
And now hear this from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, page 463.
The work which the church has failed to do in a time of peace and prosperity, she will have to do in a terrible crisis, under most discouraging, forbidding, circumstances. The warnings that worldly conformity has silenced or withheld, must be given under the fiercest opposition from enemies of the faith. And at that time the superficial, conservative class, whose influence has steadily retarded the progress of the work, will renounce the faith, and take their stand with its avowed enemies, toward whom their sympathies have long been tending. These apostates will then manifest the most bitter enmity, doing all in their power to oppress and malign their former brethren, and to excite indignation against them. This day is just before us. The members of the church will individually be tested and proved. They will be placed in circumstances where they will be forced to bear witness for the truth. Many will be called to speak before councils and in courts of justice, perhaps separately and alone. The experience which would have helped them in this emergency they have neglected to obtain, and their souls are burdened with remorse for wasted opportunities and neglected privileges.
Oh friends, we need to learn quickly to have a deeper and unshakable faith in Christ. We will have to face enemies that we don’t understand. How can our friends turn against us? I have experienced this very pointedly and can tell you that it is very, very hard. But somehow, we have to get used to it. We will have to endure it.
Vaccine mandates are here. What will happen to those with religious objections? The Deseret Times published an article which pointed out that the Supreme Court has made a ruling that makes it easier to challenge vaccine mandates in court. But it also mentioned that many religious leaders, churches and denominations support the vaccine mandates. This court ruling is one of the last gasping attempts at maintaining a modicum of religious liberty.
Vaccine mandates are here. What will happen to religious objectors? [15]
Do not give religious exemptions for Covid vaccines, New York archdiocese tells its priests [16]
Listen to this from Maranatha, page 204.
“An apostate church will unite with the powers of earth and hell to place upon the forehead or in the hand, the mark of the beast, and prevail upon the children of God to worship the beast and his image. They will seek to compel them to renounce their allegiance to God’s law, and yield homage to the papacy. Then will come the times which will try men’s souls; for the confederacy of apostasy will demand that the loyal subjects of God shall renounce the law of Jehovah, and repudiate the truth of His word. Then will the gold be separated from the dross, and it will be made apparent who are the godly, who are the loyal and true, and who are the disloyal, the dross and the tinsel. What clouds of chaff will then be borne away by the fan of God! Where now our eyes can discover only rich floors of wheat, will be chaff blown away with the fan of God. Every one who is not centered in Christ will fail to stand the test and ordeal of that day. While those who are clothed with Christ’s righteousness will stand firm to truth and duty, those who have trusted in their own righteousness will be ranged under the black banner of the prince of darkness. Then it will be seen whether the choice is for Christ or Belial.”
Seventeenth. Victoria, Australia has required its construction industry to show proof of vaccination for employment as part of its draconian restrictions. There were violent clashes outside the union headquarters, where the police used rubber bullets to quell the riot. Victoria went further and shut down its building industry for two weeks. Other violent riots followed.
Construction industry to be shut down for two weeks after clashes at CFMEU [17]
Is it likely that authorities will do the same to religious institutions when the Sunday law is enacted, shutting them down? Religious hospitals, educational institutions, and other organizations and ministries will be pressured to compromise or lose funding. What do you think leaders of these institutions are going to do? Will they not comply? Will they be part of the juggernaut that crushes out human liberty? It is the mission of an administrator to preserve the institution at all costs. It takes a rare individual and a very unique board of directors to stand against that pressure. They have compromised for so long, and we have taken so much government money year after year, that it will be very hard to change, much as they would like to.
So, what are you going to do? The time is near, perhaps it is even now time to start an underground church, something that has been done through every such crises in the past. Even today there is, in some places, underground churches where persecution exists. But even in North America, Australia, Europe and Japan there is a nucleus of the underground church which has been around for a long time. They have already experienced cancel culture long ago. Some have been spied on, accused of siphoning off members and generally falsely dismissed as anti-church, or anti-conference. They are self-supporting and operate completely free of any conference control. They operate without the organizational constraints that are found within the official organization. They have been looked upon as rouge offshoots, but they are free. I won’t say that they don’t have some problems and sadly some of them have false doctrines, but many are uniquely positioned to pioneer the underground church in these places. The less official they are, and the less laterally connected they are, the better. They will become the spiritual resistance to the organized effort that seeks to destroy liberty.
Friends, we’re there. It is only a matter of time until Sunday laws are enacted on some pretext. The legal and social structures are now being constructed. May God help those who are not ready to get ready quickly.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we are sobered by the way in which the enemy is working. Please help us to be ready for the almost overwhelming surprise. Mature our faith quickly. Help us to see opportunities to win others to the three angel’s message. Lord, please make us faithful to the end. In Jesus name, amen.