Solid Biblical Truth Never Changes or Grows Old

THE LOCUSTS ARE COMING, ARE YOU READY TO PROCLAIM THE MESSAGE; TO GIVE THE TRUMPET A CERTAIN SOUND?

“If this prophecy of Joel (Joel 2:28) met a partial fulfilment in the days of the apostles, we are living in a time when it is to be even more evidently manifest to the people of God. He will so bestow His Spirit upon His people that they will become a light amid the moral darkness; and great light will be reflected in all parts of the world. O that our faith might be increased, that the Lord might work mightily with His people.” {Ms49-1908.7} emphasis added

Who are the locusts that bring destruction?

THE BOOK OF JOEL (future prophecy)

“We must not for a moment think that there is no more light, no more truth, to be given us. We are in danger of becoming careless, by our indifference losing the sanctifying power of truth, and composing ourselves with the thought, ‘I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.’ While we must hold fast to the truths which we have already received, we must not look with suspicion upon any new light that God may send.” — Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, page 310 (written in 1915)

By definition, the word “new” is something that has never been. “New light” is NOT FORGOTTEN truths (since they have existed before), but rather, it is something that has NOT YET BEEN.

“In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation. The old truths are all essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it. It is only as the old truths are understood that we can comprehend the new. When Christ desired to open to His disciples the truth of His resurrection, He began “at Moses and all the prophets” and “expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Luke 24:27. But it is the light which shines in the fresh unfolding of truth that glorifies the old. He who rejects or neglects the new does not really possess the old. For him it loses its vital power and becomes but a lifeless form.” {COL 127.4}

The following taken from “The King of the North in the Book of Joel” by Gene Brown

Chapters 1-3

The language in the Books of Joel can be understood if the language of past history in the 9th Chapter of Revelation and Daniel 11:45 is understood. The parallels between the above passages of scripture with Joel 2:1-5 are striking. Joel describes the locusts “as the appearance of horses”. John in the Revelation describes them as “like unto horses”. Joel says “so shall they run”. John depicts them as “running to battle”. There can be no doubt they are describing the same event.  Another fact we need to note is that out of 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today, 200 million of them are considered to be radical extremists. This is the exact number of horsemen depicted in Revelation 9:16 and mentioned in Joel 2:4

“If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, [or] if there be caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness [there be];”
1Kings 8:37

Please read the book “Daniel and The Revelation” PDF or FOR SALE (1897) by Uriah Smith; endorsed by Sister White: “The great, essential questions which God would have presented to the people are found in Daniel and the Revelation. There is found solid, eternal truth for this time. EVERYONE NEEDS THE LIGHT AND INFORMATION IT CONTAINS.”{1MR 61.2}

LIFE CYCLE OF LOCUSTS IS 5 MONTHS– Five Month Prophecy of Rev 9:5

“And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment [was] as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.” Rev 9:5

There are ten Hebrew words used in Scripture to signify locust. In the New Testament locusts are mentioned as forming part of the food of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6). By the “Mosaic law they were reckoned “clean,” so that he could lawfully” “eat them. The name also occurs in Rev. 9:3, 7, in allusion to” this Oriental devastating insect. “Locusts belong to the class of Orthoptera, i.e., straight-winged. They are of many species. The ordinary Syrian “locust resembles the grasshopper, but is larger and more” “destructive. “The legs and thighs of these insects are so” powerful that they can leap to a height of two hundred times the length of their bodies. When so raised they spread their wings and fly so close together as to appear like one compact moving “mass.” Locusts are prepared as food in various ways. Sometimes” “they are pounded, and then mixed with flour and water, and baked” “into cakes; “sometimes boiled, roasted, or stewed in butter, and” “then eaten.” They were eaten in a preserved state by the ancient” Assyrians. “The devastations they make in Eastern lands are often very appalling. The invasions of locusts are the heaviest calamites “that can befall a country. “Their numbers exceed computation:” “the hebrews called them `the countless,’ and the Arabs knew them” “as `the darkeners of the sun.’ Unable to guide their own flight,” “though capable of crossing large spaces, they are at the mercy” “of the wind, which bears them as blind instruments of Providence” to the doomed region given over to them for the time. “Innumerable as the drops of water or the sands of the seashore,” their flight obscures the sun and casts a thick shadow on the earth (Ex. 10:15; Judg. 6:5; 7:12; Jer. 46:23; Joel 2:10). It “seems indeed as if a great aerial mountain, many miles in” “breadth, were advancing with a slow, unresting progress. Woe to” the countries beneath them if the wind fall and let them alight! They descend unnumbered as flakes of snow and hide the ground. “It may be `like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them” is a desolate wilderness. At their approach the people are in anguish; all faces lose their colour’ (Joel 2:6). No walls can stop them; no ditches arrest them; fires kindled in their path “are forthwith extinguished by the myriads of their dead, and the” “countless armies march on (Joel 2:8, 9). If a door or a window” “be open, they enter and destroy everything of wood in the house.” “Every terrace, court, and inner chamber is filled with them in a” “moment. Such an awful visitation swept over Egypt (Ex. 10:1-19),” “consuming before it every green thing, and stripping the trees,” till the land was bared of all signs of vegetation. A strong north-west wind from the Mediterranean swept the locusts into “the Red Sea.”, Geikie’s Hours, etc., ii., 149.”

LOCUST PLAGUE (ISLAM) IS COMING UPON UNGODLY

Liberty of Conscience  
“This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. ‘But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error,’ as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly ‘the bottomless pit’ is opened from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws—in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.”—As printed in Claudia Carlen, IHM, The Papal Encyclicals, 1740-1878 (Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Pierian Press, 1990) 1:238. {GC 694.2}

“Moses warned the monarch that if he still remained obstinate, a plague of locusts would be sent, which would cover the face of the earth and eat up every green thing that remained; they would fill the houses, even the palace itself; such a scourge, he said, as “neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day.” {PP 270.4}

“The Amalekites on the south of Canaan, as well as the Midianites on its eastern border, and in the deserts beyond, were still the unrelenting enemies of Israel. The latter nation had been nearly destroyed by the Israelites in the days of Moses, but they had since increased greatly, and had become numerous and powerful. They had thirsted for revenge; and now that the protecting hand of God was withdrawn from Israel, the opportunity had come. Not alone the tribes east of Jordan, but the whole land suffered from their ravages. The wild, fierce inhabitants of the desert, “as locusts for multitude” (Judges 6:5, R.V.), came swarming into the land, with their flocks and herds. Like a devouring plague they spread over the country, from the river Jordan to the Philistine plain. They came as soon as the harvests began to ripen, and remained until the last fruits of the earth had been gathered. They stripped the fields of their increase and robbed and maltreated the inhabitants and then returned to the deserts. Thus the Israelites dwelling in the open country were forced to abandon their homes, and to congregate in walled towns, to seek refuge in fortresses, or even to find shelter in caves and rocky fastnesses among the mountains. For seven years this oppression continued, and then, as the people in their distress gave heed to the Lord’s reproof, and confessed their sins, God again raised up a helper for them.” {PP 545.3}

“After the close of the dedicatory ceremonies, “the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.”
If Israel had remained faithful and true to God, this glorious building would have stood forever, as a perpetual sign of God’s especial favor to his chosen people. “The sons of the stranger,” God declared, “that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” And the Saviour himself, in referring to this scripture, declared that the temple was to have been known as “a house of prayer for all nations.”’ {RH November 30, 1905, par. 8-9}

“The press is now sending out books in great numbers, that teach the ignorant and unsuspecting how they may serve Satan. There are works breathing the poison of skepticism and infidelity. There are treatises on money-making, that fill thousands of minds with fancies and follies, that fire thousands with an insane desire to amass wealth. There are fascinating volumes, that portray with all the power of human eloquence the lives of those who have made fame their god. And outnumbering all other productions of the press, like the swarms of locusts that darkened the whole land, comes the flood of novels and romances, to cultivate in the youth a love-sick sentimentalism, to teach them that courtship and marriage are the great object of their existence, and to unfit them for the practical duties of a useful life.” {ST May 18, 1882, par. 25}

“The trade unions and confederacies of the world are a snare. Keep out of them, and away from them, brethren. Have nothing to do with them.” {GCB, April 6, 1903}

“There should be no reluctance on the part of man to make known the truth of the word of God, because his neighbors are not pleased with his difference of opinion. This will be a trial of faith, and there will be a temptation to shirk responsibilities because the duties presented are not agreeable. Your neighbors may choose to stand with those who do not love God with the whole heart, who selfishly serve their own interests; but is that sufficient reason why you should do the same? When the invitation is given, “Come; for all things are now ready,” will you say, “I can not come to the gospel feast; I can not heed your invitation: my neighbors will think me foolish, and will ridicule me, and I can not bear ridicule”? Will you say, “I must not displease my neighbors; I must attend to my farm; I must work on the Sabbath: if I keep the commandments of God, I can not be in harmony with my neighbors”? Jesus says that those who slight the gospel invitation,—an invitation purchased at the cost of the life of the Son of God,—shall not taste of his supper.
“For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” (Isa. 8:11, 12) What is their fear?—It is that if they obey the commandments of God, they will be despised and ridiculed; if they come out from the world, they will be left to suffer want. Such a fear reveals unbelief in him who provides all our blessings. He sends the showers upon our lands, and permits the sun to shine, that vegetation may flourish. One word from God could withdraw the rain and cut off our supplies of food. With locust and pestilence he could destroy our crops. The Lord has borne long with the perversity of men; but he has their deeds written in the books of heaven, and will repay for their unrighteousness and disregard of his commandments.” {RH January 24, 1899, par. 13}

CLOSE OF PROBATION

WE MUST BE CONVERTED BEFORE PROBATION (SALVATION) CLOSES

THAT IS BEFORE THE TURK INVADES AND OCCUPIES JERUSALEM!

A WARNING AGAINST TIME SETTING FOUND IN
MATTHEW 24 AND LUKE 12 IS CONNECTED TO
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
(Developed by obedience to the truth)

Different times were set for the Lord to come, and were urged upon the brethren. But the Lord showed me that they would pass by, for the time of trouble (Dan 12:1 plagues- time of trouble- comes after Dan 11:45 fulfilled- Islam plants tabernacle of his palace in Jerusalem) must come before the advent of Christ (2^nd Coming), and that every time a date was set, and passed, it would weaken the faith of God’s people. For this I was charged with being the evil servant that said, “My Lord delayeth His coming (Matt 24:48; Luke 12:45).” {LSMS 137.3} (Parenthesis added)

The people of God need to study what characters they must form in order to pass through the test and proving of the last days. Many are living in spiritual weakness and backsliding. They know not what they believe. Let us read and study the twelfth chapter of Daniel. It is a warning that we shall all need to understand before the time of the end. There are ministers claiming to believe the truth who are not sanctified through the truth. Unless a change comes in their lives, they will say, “My Lord delayeth His coming.” [Matthew 24:48.] {Lt161-1903.6}