Originally published on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 1:04 am in German at www.letztercountdown.org
In the first part of this series about the wrath of God, I showed from the Bible where the seven last plagues will come from. Revelation 15:7 indicates that the vials of plagues will be given to the seven angels by one of the four living creatures, which we identified in the Orion Message as the four hand and foot stars that mark the wounds of Jesus. Once we understood that it is the right hand of Jesus that will execute His vengeance upon the nations, we followed the hint to Betelgeuse and learned in the second part that this red supergiant is actually about to explode as a type II supernova. There is a high probability that it will emit a gamma-ray burst, which—if directed to the earth—will wipe out all life on this planet within a year. The latest images of the hotspots of Betelgeuse suggest that the scientists are conveying a false sense of security, saying with their claiming voices that the rotation axis of this monster is not directed to the earth.
In this final part, I’ll tie up the loose ends and explain to you how and when the Adventist Church, along with the other equally apostate churches which claim the faith of Jesus Christ, received the second and last sign of Jonah on April 27, 2013. It was this sign which Jesus once promised to another unfaithful generation, namely the Israelites. It represents a final warning, both then and now, to those who had the truth right before their eyes for three and a half years and still waited for more signs from heaven...
But he [Jesus] answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: (Matthew 12:39)
Despite a few good responses to our last article, some worry-filled emails came to me from supposed “Christians” who are apparently only concerned about their own salvation. Instead of developing an understanding of what our purpose in life really is and what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus by studying the many hundreds of pages we’ve published here, they only fear for the salvation of their own pathetic souls. Some just attack the article and dismiss everything we have written as complete nonsense instead of seeking to know what they need to do to escape the plagues. But the vast majority does what the Israelites did when Elijah confronted them with the choice:
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. (1 Kings 18:21)
Breaking the general silence, we get occasional statements from so-called Bible-believing Protestants like “The scientists all say that Betelgeuse is not dangerous! A layman like you shouldn’t claim the contrary!” Thus they deny the words that came not from me, but from God. I leave it confidently to the Lord Himself who sees into the heart of the individual to judge whether they react out of fear or panic or simply foolishness. Regardless, the universe is only slowly being understood by scientists, and the statements in God’s Word that relate the plagues and wrath of God to events in the universe are apparently still not clear for many. Therefore, I make one last attempt at explaining it for those who still have open ears and hearts.
Orion the Great Hunter
On slide 168 of the Orion presentation, I drew your attention as early as 2010 to the meaning of Orion which has existed among almost all ancient peoples. I showed that there is a special connection to two important Bible verses:
Once again, none of you had the idea of putting an arrow on the bow to see which hand would shoot it.
Yes, the arrow-hand is clearly Betelgeuse! And since you now know the nature and effects of gamma-ray bursts, you can easily understand that a burning arrow that is aimed in a certain direction and shot from a bow is the perfect representation of the terrible event coming upon humanity from Betelgeuse.
Let’s take the opposite approach: Are there verses in the Bible, other than Revelation 6:2, where God uses the image of a bow and arrow for the execution of His vengeance? Are there verses that relate the arrow to a flash of light, or lightning flash (gamma-ray burst)?
When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the [sixth] trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour [the enemy by fire], and subdue with sling stones [the seventh plague]; and they shall drink, and make a noise [the joy of victory] as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls [with blood], and as the corners of the altar. And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. (Zechariah 9:13-16)
This verse refers directly to the time of plagues, since the Lord will save the flock of His people in that day [= year of plagues]. Daniel 12:1 likewise says:
And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. (Daniel 12:1)
Ellen G. White leaves no doubt that Prince Michael symbolizes Jesus, who will have completed His work of intercession in the heavenly sanctuary by the time the plagues start:
I saw that the anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead were separate and distinct, one following the other, also that Michael had not stood up, and that the time of trouble, such as never was, had not yet commenced. The nations are now getting angry, but when our High Priest has finished His work in the sanctuary, He will stand up, put on the garments of vengeance, and then the seven last plagues will be poured out. {EW 36.1}
Since 1844, the Arrow of God has been held throughout four time periods spanning Jesus’ intercessory service:
I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of deep pity cried, “My blood, Father, My blood, My blood, My blood!” Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice, “Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.” {EW 38.1}
Once all the martyrs and the 144,000 are sealed, then Jesus will take off His priestly garments and will let loose His fiery arrow of vengeance upon the rest of mankind.
Arise, O Lord, in Your anger; Lift Yourself up because of the rage of my enemies; Rise up for me to the judgment You have commanded! So the congregation of the peoples shall surround You; For their sakes, therefore, return on high. The Lord shall judge the peoples; Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, And according to my integrity within me. Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, But establish the just; For the righteous God tests the hearts and minds. My defense is of God, Who saves the upright in heart. God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day. If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready. He also prepares for Himself instruments of death; He makes His arrows into fiery shafts. (Psalm 7:6-13 NKJV)
Only God’s people will be able to endure through the chaos of His wrath.
The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. (Psalm 18:13-17)
They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded. So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away. And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing. The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory. (Psalm 64:6-10)
More terrible manifestations than the world has ever yet beheld, will be witnessed at the second advent of Christ. “The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger?” Nahum 1:5, 6. “Bow Thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out Thine arrows, and destroy them.” Psalm 144:5, 6.
“I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.” Acts 2:19. “And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” “And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent.” Revelation 16:18, 20, 21.
As lightnings from heaven unite with the fire in the earth, the mountains will burn like a furnace, and will pour forth terrific streams of lava, overwhelming gardens and fields, villages and cities. Seething molten masses thrown into the rivers will cause the waters to boil, sending forth massive rocks with indescribable violence and scattering their broken fragments upon the land. Rivers will be dried up. The earth will be convulsed; everywhere there will be dreadful earthquakes and eruptions.
Thus God will destroy the wicked from off the earth. But the righteous will be preserved in the midst of these commotions, as Noah was preserved in the ark. God will be their refuge, and under His wings shall they trust. Says the psalmist: “Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee.” Psalm 91:9, 10. “In the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me.” Psalm 27:5. God’s promise is, “Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.” Psalm 91:14. {PP 109.3–110.3}
Not one will have an excuse, because these things were revealed by God from heaven. Every person could have understood through the things that God made in the heavens that he himself restrained the truth of the fourth angel’s message by his own unrighteousness...
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:18-20)
The Cry for Vengeance
It is difficult for some people to understand that if the cosmic radiation and gamma-ray burst arrive here in October of 2015, then Betelgeuse must have exploded as a supernova long ago. The gamma-ray burst travels at the highest possible speed in the universe, the speed of light. Even at such an incredible speed of around 186,000 miles per second, light itself still needs more than six centuries to get here from Betelgeuse. When we look at the stars, we look into the past; the farther away the star is, the farther back in time we look.
Our own sun is nine light-minutes away. That means if we look at the sun, we look nine minutes into the past. With Sirius, we look almost nine years back, and with Betelgeuse it is more than 600 years. Unfortunately, the distance to Betelgeuse is very difficult to measure. It is a so-called variable star whose size varies making its distance difficult to determine. We have some hints (which I will discuss later in this article) that lead us to assume that Betelgeuse is as far away from the Orion Nebula as it is from us.
The distance to the Orion Nebula is 1344 light-years, determined to a precision of ± 20 light-years. The distance to Betelgeuse with all its difficulties, however, is quoted by Wikipedia as 640 ± 150 light-years. The greater uncertainty allows for a wide range anywhere from 490 to 790 light-years away. From the above premise that Betelgeuse is halfway between us and the Orion Nebula, it must be farther away than 640 light-years. The minimum distance would be (1344 - 20) ÷ 2 = 662 light-years, but since Betelgeuse is not exactly on the line of sight between Earth and the Orion Nebula, the distance would be a little greater. We took the trouble to calculate it precisely using the coordinates of the stars and came to a minimum distance of 681 and a maximum distance of 702 light-years. Given that range, 700 light-years are a safe assumption, still well within the range of 640 ± 150 light-years given by Wikipedia.
So when would Betelgeuse have actually exploded as a supernova? 2015 - 700 years = AD 1315.
In the first part of this series, I mentioned that the souls under the altar have been crying out for vengeance since the fifth classical seal. Although our Adventist interpreters (arbitrarily) set the period of the fifth seal from 1571 to 1755 (see History Repeats - Part II), we know better from Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation.
We know better from history, too. An article entitled John Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation accurately takes us back to the birth of the Reformation and the first pyres for burning the reformers. That time is precisely marked by the Betelgeuse supernova. Since the birth of John Wycliffe is not exactly known, most sources place it “no later than 1330”. The year of his death, however, is known to be 1384.
Wyclif’s Times
The historian, de Sismondi, called the 14th century “a bad time for humanity.” He did not exaggerate. Most Englishmen were illiterate, and those who could read did so in Latin, the language of the intelligentsia and the church. The Bible was also in Latin. But since the printing press did not yet exist (all Bibles were hand copied), the cost made them inaccessible to all but the wealthy. Almost no one had considered the heretical idea of an English translation. For those who did, the thought of burning at the stake quickly cooled their fervor.
Wycliffe is also described as the initiator of the Reformation by Ellen G. White:
In the fourteenth century arose in England the “morning star of the Reformation.” John Wycliffe was the herald of reform, not for England alone, but for all Christendom. The great protest against Rome which it was permitted him to utter was never to be silenced. That protest opened the struggle which was to result in the emancipation of individuals, of churches, and of nations. {GC 80.1}
In his book Accident, Plan and Delusion - Chronicle of World-Changing Developments, the author Hartmut Bossel states the following [S. 66, translated]:
In the 14th Century, the persecution of alleged ‘heretics’ by the Inquisition of the Catholic Church reached a new height of cruelty. The persecution was directed especially against the Waldenses, Beguines and critical thinkers. The English reformer John Wycliffe, whose teachings later influenced the Czech reformer John Huss, escaped persecution because the King of England favored greater autonomy from the Church of Rome.
Under the ever-worsening Inquisition, the first recorded burning of heretics took place in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in Prague in the year 1315. 14 people were burned with the cooperation of the local bishop (source: German Wikipedia). The year we calculated for the explosion of Betelgeuse coincides exactly with that date. It was said to the souls under the altar that they “should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Revelation 6:11) God loves to use multiples of the biblical number of perfection in Christ, so it should not surprise us that the round number of 700 light-years, that we opted for, actually represents an accurate measurement of the distance to His star of vengeance.
Those martyrs were killed with fire, thus by fire the killing on the earth will be brought to an end once and for all—this time through the gamma-ray burst. No more martyrs will die once the great tribulation begins, because there will be no one who would be converted through their blood. That time was spoken of as follows:
The end will come more quickly than men expect. The wheat will be gathered and bound in sheaves for the garner of God; the tares will be bound as fagots for the fires of destruction.
The heavenly sentinels, faithful to their trust, continue their watch. Though a general decree has fixed the time when commandment keepers may be put to death, their enemies will in some cases anticipate the decree, and before the time specified, will endeavor to take their lives. But none can pass the mighty guardians stationed about every faithful soul. Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages; but the swords raised against them break and fall powerless as a straw. Others are defended by angels in the form of men of war. {GC 630.2–631.1}
Those who still believe that God will change His mind and set up a millennial kingdom of peace on Earth for everyone (even for atheists according to the new pope) should finally understand that God’s decision to destroy mankind was not made today, but some 700 years ago when the Roman Church burned the first reformers. If He had prevented the explosion of the supernova back then, we wouldn’t see the star collapsing today—Betelgeuse with the deadly hotspots of its GRB muzzle pointed directly at us.
The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: ... This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? (Isaiah 14:24,26-27)
“I Make All Things New”
In the second part of this series, we also learned that the destruction caused by the supernova and the accompanying gamma-ray burst will not only destroy the earth and bring humanity to an end, but will also spark the beginning of a new creation. The heavy elements that we call natural resources, the iron that makes up our building and construction materials, and even carbon—the basic element of all life—are all produced by the explosion of giant stars. Everything from which our solar system, the entire planet Earth, and even we ourselves are made of was once produced by the death of such a star. In these end times, we can recognize and understand that that is God’s preferred method of creation. (Of course, God created the earth in six days like the story of creation tells us, but that is not His preferred method, which we can see by observing the birth of stars and planets in the universe.)
Slowly we begin to understand what Jesus meant when He said to John:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21:1-6)
Jesus is the life! He is the beginning and the end, and an end through Him does not come without a new beginning. Even though His right hand will destroy the impenitent, it also creates new suns and planets, and among those a new heaven and a new earth.
In the video about supernovae, we learned that the matter ejected from a supernova stimulates the formation of new star systems when it hits the vast clouds of gas that are in its path. The Great Orion Nebula is one of the nebulae that are in the annular—or better said spherical path of the cloud of material to be ejected from the Betelgeuse supernova.
Jesus Christ led the modern prophet Ernie Knoll to this Great Orion Nebula before his second fall. The article At the Hand of Jesus shows how the following directions from Ernie’s Two Cars dream correspond perfectly to the path that an imaginary spaceship would fly on its way from Earth to the Orion Nebula via each star of the Orion clock:
Next the Herald says he is to take me somewhere special. Instantly I am with Jesus. He is holding my right hand as we walk through a corridor that is not straight. We turn right for a ways, then left, right and left again. The corridor does not have regular square walls or a ceiling. Instead they appear as mirrors of different sizes and shapes and are placed at different angles. We continue on in silence, turn and begin walking straight, then descend down a walkway.
At Jesus’ hand, Ernie Knoll now enters the Orion Nebula, which Ellen G. White called “the open space in Orion”:
We enter into what I think is a very, very large room but yet at the same time I know it is not a room. It is as if I am seeing our galaxy where our planet would be. I see what appear to be many, many more mirrors. There are even small dime-sized mirrors placed in different areas. All the mirrors do not have a flat surface but are rounded in one way or another and are not sharp or hard. I am made to know that the mirrors are not really mirrors. The floor is very soft to walk on.
To get a visual idea of what such a trip would be like, please watch this fantastic video made possible by the most modern technologies like the Hubble Space Telescope. Pay attention to what is happening in the Orion Nebula to understand what the strange “mirrors” of different sizes represent.
The term “open space in Orion” is in fact a perfect description because the Orion Nebula is open toward Earth so we can see inside it. If that weren’t the case, these wonderful images would not have been possible. God gives us a glimpse into the nursery of His creation. In reality, the “mirrors” are stars or suns of different sizes, as we saw in the videos of the previous article. The “dime-sized mirrors” represent the cocoons of nascent solar systems, with their young baby stars in the center. Jesus describes Himself in the Bible as “the sun of righteousness.” The suns of His creation reflect His light and His character like mirrors. That is why four giant and majestic stars were chosen to symbolize the four “living creatures” that represent His four character traits: they are the hand and foot stars of “Orion the Hunter”.
Jesus continues to teach in the dream:
As we come into the large area [the Orion Nebula], it is filled with things that I do not have human words with which to describe. I feel awed as I look around. We stop and I am placed so that the walkway and corridor we just came from is behind me. Suddenly the room begins to glow with a brightness that illuminates the area. It is a beauty that again I cannot explain. I am made to understand that because of my sinful state, His brightness must be kept very low. If there was a knob that could be turned to allow the brightness, in which 0 is off and 10 is on high, the knob would be at a setting of 0.00000005.
What does the Lord want to explain to us as well as Ernie Knoll? What’s does the unusual number 0.00000005 mean? Do you remember the “word problems” from school math classes? Calculate with me how much brighter the room would shine if the knob were set to 10. The math is simple:
10 ÷ 0.00000005 = 200,000,000 (two hundred million)
That is a biblical number which we’ve already seen before:
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:13-16)
That number, 200 million (represented as 2 × 10,000 × 10,000 in some translations) is directly connected with the sixth trumpet, which represents God's very last warning to the impenitent, mingled with grace. It is scheduled for an exact time: an hour, day, month and year. Even the classical sixth trumpet was predicted to the very day by Josiah Litch a little more than two years before the event, the fall of the Ottoman Empire. He was a preacher in the Millerite movement and understood the time. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that it repeats now right before your eyes. Since 2013, we’ve known the hour, day, month and year that Betelgeuse will destroy one third of humanity: October 25, 2015, and since January 31, 2014 we know when the ultimate sixth trumpet will sound (the Third World War) to warn of the destruction with its special number once more.
Ernie Knoll’s dreams, however, are only confirmations of our studies and should never stand on their own as unfortunately happened when Ernie Knoll’s pride lifted him up. That’s why I mentioned the number 200 million in the second part of this article series, and I asked you to remember it. It was mentioned in connection with the largest supernova ever observed, which was in 2004. The star exploded with a brightness of 200 million suns. An interstellar gas cloud would light up with just that intensity when struck with that amount of light, combined with cosmic radiation and a shock wave. That is what the Lord wants to show us. The Betelgeuse supernova will cause the Orion Nebula to shine, and indeed with all its strength of 200 million suns! That will be magnificent lighting for the wedding supper of the Lamb, when we get there!
The matter that will emanate in a shock wave from the Betelgeuse supernova will incite the Orion Nebula to an unprecedented level of new creation. It will provide the necessary elements and compress the materials together. Now we can also understand why the heavenly sanctuary will be filled with smoke at the beginning of the plagues:
And one of the four beasts [Betelgeuse] gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. (Revelation 15:7-8)
New worlds and new life will emerge from the “smoke” of Betelgeuse’s shock wave. The Orion Nebula will be filled with it until the plagues are over. Please, consider that time is relative in the universe. Perhaps that is where a new earth, a new sun and a new solar system will be created for us, so that we can see this miracle. In any case, the number 200 million should make us realize that the Betelgeuse supernova will be far more powerful than many astronomers can imagine or calculate with their lack of knowledge and data.
Now it should be obvious how we know that Betelgeuse is the same distance from Earth as from the Orion Nebula. As we have just seen, no one can enter the temple, because it is full of smoke. ... Ellen G. White saw that we will take one week to arrive at the sea of glass, the Orion Nebula, before entering the temple.
We all entered the cloud together, and were seven days ascending to the sea of glass, when Jesus brought the crowns, and with His own right hand placed them on our heads. He gave us harps of gold and palms of victory. Here on the sea of glass the 144,000 stood in a perfect square. Some of them had very bright crowns, others not so bright. Some crowns appeared heavy with stars, while others had but few. All were perfectly satisfied with their crowns. And they were all clothed with a glorious white mantle from their shoulders to their feet. Angels were all about us as we marched over the sea of glass to the gate of the city. Jesus raised His mighty, glorious arm, laid hold of the pearly gate, swung it back on its glittering hinges, and said to us, “You have washed your robes in My blood, stood stiffly for My truth, enter in.” We all marched in and felt that we had a perfect right in the city. {EW 16.2}
And as we were about to enter the holy temple, Jesus raised His lovely voice and said, “Only the 144,000 enter this place,” and we shouted, “Alleluia.” {EW 18.2}
Therefore, the shock wave of cosmic radiation that filled the Orion Nebula with “smoke” has to move on by that time. We know from the Bible that it will fill the “temple” only during the time of plagues. The effects on the earth, which God calls the seven plagues, correspond to the smoke in the heavenly sanctuary, which is located in the Orion Nebula. The smoke will have cleared from the “temple” by the end of the time of plagues, and we will be able to enter it after Jesus travels seven days to Earth and another seven days taking us back with Him to the Orion Nebula. The effects of the supernova will happen on Earth and in the Orion Nebula at the same time--in the year of the plagues--which allows us to conclude that Betelgeuse's distance from Earth corresponds exactly to its distance from the Orion Nebula, since a blast in the universe expands in a sphere. While the right hand of the giant brings destruction and death to the earth, it simultaneously creates new suns, new planetary systems and new life in the Orion Nebula.
This part of the Two Cars dream ends by demonstrating the love and creative power of the Lord:
I now hear a voice that I have heard before in my dreams. It is the sound resembling a small trickle of water as well as a mountain stream and a large waterfall. The voice says, “Behold, I make all things new.” Prior to this Jesus had not spoken a word. As I hear the voice coming from behind me, I see Jesus talk at the same time and say the exact words that I hear from behind me. I then notice words in the air above me that are being written as I stand there. I am in awe as I read the words. At the end it says, “Revelation 21:3-7.”
Many have experienced the love of a mother or father, a brother or sister, the love of a husband or wife. However, no kiss or embrace could ever compare to the love I sense from the voices that I am hearing. There are absolutely no words that can express it.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. (Revelation 21:3-7)
Do you think you know and understand everything already now? If so, then think about why Jesus’ words were “written in the air above him” and why the Bible compares the voice of God from Orion with the noise of many waters (e.g. Ezekiel 1:24 and Revelation 19:6)? Why do you think this is specified in more detail in Ernie’s dreams: “It is the sound resembling a small trickle of water as well as a mountain stream and a large waterfall”? Ernie Knoll and his followers have had so much time to pursue all of these hints, but have failed miserably to decipher these marvelous revelations. Can my readers decipher it?
One Last Sign
The Adventist Church organization fell away from the truth that it once received. The truth still exists, but it is no longer taught. The teachings that made the Adventist Church God’s light bearer were hidden under a bushel by its leadership. The same thing happened with the first nation of God’s choosing, the Israelite nation, which serves as the type for the latter. Most of our readers react like the people of Israel to our warnings... they say “nothing.” Apparently they are waiting for a sign from heaven to prove that we’re right.
Just as the Jews of Jesus’ day failed to recognize the Messiah in their midst, the Adventist Church didn’t recognize its Savior in the place where it was instructed to look toward since its birth. Hiram Edson had seen in vision the truth of the beginning of the investigative judgment in the heavenly sanctuary. He made it clear that the explanation for the Great Disappointment of 1844 was there. Jesus went from the Holy Place into the Most Holy Place and thus began the last phase of the plan of salvation on Earth. From then on, the church was asked to follow its Lord to where He had gone. It didn’t! That’s why it treated the sign given to it since 2010 by the voice of God from Orion as null and void.
Neither did the Jews appreciate the signs that the expected but despised Messiah worked among them for three and a half years. Despite all the evidence for His authority, despite all the healings which He had wrought, the resurrections, and the restoration of the original meaning of the teachings entrusted to them, the Jews still refused to believe and follow Him. He came unto His own, and His own did not recognize him. Instead, in their blindness they called for another sign from heaven to prove the authenticity of Jesus:
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: (Matthew 12:38-39)
Our readers do the same. They demand more and more evidence that we are right and despise the provided evidence in the harmonies that we’ve discovered in God’s Word. Adventists everywhere are waiting for “their” big sign: the Sunday law, according to their belief. They forget that the Sunday law can only come after the people’s paradigm has changed so that they themselves demand the law. Everything is in place—be it in the U.S. or Europe—but a big disaster must come to give the final impetus. However, when the big disaster comes, things will happen so quickly that no one who had received so much light from God would be able to turn to His side, not having lived up to that light.
On October 27, 2012, the Adventist Church organization passed the point of no return. Their transgressions had reached the point that they were openly following the pope’s ecumenical decrees. As we will see in a later article, a divine timeline started to tick on this day, which should find its end in the last warning of the sixth trumpet of the judgment cycle for the Adventist Church. The door of mercy irrevocably started to close for the organization on that sevenfold-holy Day of Atonement. One year later, God gave the authority to be His voice to others who form the faithful part, and who are thus the true Adventist church. The others removed themselves so far from the truth of God that they were sifted out.
For the individual members, however, God still had many warnings prepared. The beginnings of the three timelines of Daniel 12 fulfilled precisely from February 27, 2013 onward as we foretold by our countdown dates. The events followed in rapid succession: the sensational public resignation of Benedict, the election of the first Jesuit pope (March 13) and his declaration of a revolution in the leadership of Vatican City State with the creation of a world-ruling body of Cardinals (April 13).
Yet the Adventist Church, and all the people who are still in Babylon with it, would still get one more sign. Indeed, the one that Jesus had already promised to an evil and adulterous generation. It would be a sign that would be very different than what was anticipated or asked for. We studied this topic for a long time, and the Holy Spirit shined His light at the right time for you to recognize it now too.
The Sign for Israel
The type for the sign that Christianity, today’s alleged people of God, would get is the sign of Jonah. We need to study the type carefully to find out what “our” sign should be. First, we need to recognize that the sign back then was nothing trivial, as the Bible text might seem to suggest when it says “no sign but the sign of Jonah.”
Jesus explained very well what the sign would be:
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)
I dealt with the sign in detail in Part II of the Cross Shadows. I explained that the three days and three nights began in Gethsemane when Jesus took the burden of all humanity’s sin upon His shoulders. He went with that burden “into the heart of the earth,” into the darkness that corresponds to the darkness that Jonah must have felt in the belly of the whale. That burden didn’t fall from His shoulders until He had risen that morning and ascended to the heavenly sanctuary. That is when He brought the burden of the sin of mankind together with His atoning blood to the Father. That is when He came back to the light, like Jonah when the whale vomited him ashore.
In that short visit to the Father, Jesus also presented the firstfruits to Him. Those were the people who were resurrected at His crucifixion:
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. (Matthew 27:50-53)
At the time of His death, Jesus showed to the apostate people that His power is in His sin-pardoning blood. His blood affords justification of those who receive it and let themselves be cleansed from sin. At the crucifixion, His blood caused the resurrection of many “saints”, which then bore witness for God in Jerusalem for three days. Their witnessing was enough to grant not only justification, but also the sanctification necessary to ascend to the Father in heaven on the third day with Jesus, where they remain alive today.
Those events showed with the example of a few what would happen later on a grand scale. The power of Jesus’ blood would cause the dry bones of church members in the valley of the dead to get flesh and tendons and come to life (Ezekiel 37) as the last generation to finish their testimony in the loud cry that began at that time. The 144,000 will soon be spiritually resurrected to bear witness for the Father. This is our high calling.
Why did Jesus choose that combination of events to give as the last sign to the former evil and adulterous generation? He wanted to remind them of their original evangelistic mission, which they had forgotten. The entire Jewish nation had been chosen to proclaim the first advent of Jesus. Their statutes, their festivals, the sacrificial system—everything pointed to the first coming of Jesus and His sacrifice for all of humanity. They had the old scriptures, and could read all of the prophecies that pointed toward the Messiah and the effect of His blood. They would have recognized Him if they had studied and understood the prophecies. Behind the prophecies, they should have seen the good news of a sin-pardoning and sanctifying Saviour instead of falling into a delusion of religious form. They should have seen that all of the people who love Him can be resurrected and receive eternal life, but they decided to proclaim human traditions instead of the truth of the living God.
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:8-9)
The sign began in Gethsemane at His arrest, when the first drops of the Savior’s blood fell, and it ended when all of His blood was brought into the heavenly sanctuary to the Father. Therefore, it was soon clear to us that the sign for today’s adulterous generation would take place during the Passover feast days, and especially on the day of the wave sheaf. That day represents the firstfruits, the people that Jesus took to heaven after His resurrection.
One study stands at the center of all our studies. It is the study of God’s true calendar, which we found as we examined in detail the events surrounding Gethsemane. Therefore, we called the study Full Moon at Gethsemane. God’s calendar has not only enabled us to find out Jesus’ true crucifixion date, but also to calculate astronomically any of God’s appointed feast days, past or future. We knew that in a particular year on the second day after the Passover, which would be the day of the wave sheaf, we would be given a sign from heaven that would correspond to the sign of Jonah.
This time, it would be a sign that would show the failures of especially the Adventist Church in accomplishing its preaching mission. It would be a sign that would show on a small scale what would later happen on a large scale during the time of Jesus’ second coming.
Herald of the Three Angels’ Messages?
To recognize the sign, we must first investigate what the true preaching mission of the Adventist Church was. It sees itself as the bearer of the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14. First, let’s examine whether or not it has done its job.
The first angel’s message includes the proclamation of the “judgment hour”:
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:6-7)
That includes more than just the first midnight cry of William Miller, because an “hour” is a period of time that has a beginning and an end! God is precise in His Word. If He had meant an indefinite period of time, then he would have said “for the beginning of His judgment is come,” but the term “hour of His judgment” includes the beginning and the end, and thus the second and true midnight cry that the bridegroom is really coming now.
Does the Adventist Church still preach the investigative judgment which began in 1844? No, the corresponding chapters were taken out of the “Great Hope” (the evangelistic edition of the “Great Controversy” by Ellen G. White, to be distributed by the hundred-millions worldwide). In the book, they deny the greatest pioneer of the Advent movement, William Miller. His name does not even appear anymore. Neither does the book contain the chapters about the sanctuary doctrine or the name of he who brought it to life: Hiram Edson.
Does the Adventist Church preach the second midnight cry for the judgment hour’s end? No—quite the contrary. There is a fanatical antagonism towards anyone who even tries to harmonize biblical prophecy with contemporary events or with time in general. That is why I had to write a whole series of articles, Day and Hour, which Adventists reject at the outset.
The only thing left is the knowledge that the God of creation must be worshiped on the day He chose and sanctified: the Sabbath, and the Church stamped that very remnant of the first angel’s message into the dust on October 27, 2012 as it observed the Creation Sabbath decreed by the pope.
The second angel’s message was the movement of Samuel Snow, the man who calculated the exact date of the start of judgment in heaven. He warned the Protestant churches before their great apostasy to the Babylonian-Catholic teachings. You might call him the first anti-ecumenist.
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. (Revelation 14:8)
The Bible tells us that the second angel’s message must repeat, particularly in the message of the fourth angel:
And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. (Revelation 18:1-3)
Ellen G. White helped us understand that the repetition was especially about the corruptions that entered the Adventist Church after 1844:
The message of the fall of Babylon, as given by the second angel, is repeated, with the additional mention of the corruptions which have been entering the churches since 1844. The work of this angel comes in at the right time to join in the last great work of the third angel’s message as it swells to a loud cry. And the people of God are thus prepared to stand in the hour of temptation, which they are soon to meet. I saw a great light resting upon them, and they united to fearlessly proclaim the third angel’s message. {EW 277.1}
The Orion and Vessel of Time messages have enumerated exactly these corruptions of the Adventist Church by name. God recorded every single deviation from His plan with His own finger in the firmament, and in the courses of the sun and moon.
Does the Adventist Church preach the message of Samuel Snow that all churches that lean upon the Catholic Church have fallen? No. All of the chapters from the Great Controversy that might give the appearance of a belief that the Roman Church is the Antichrist were removed in the “Great Hope”.
Does the Adventist Church preach the message of the fourth angel and admit its own errors, as presented by the Lord? Not at all! On the contrary, it silences, marginalizes, and excludes all those who want to preach it. It excludes and expels them, persecutes them, and even wants to declare some of them insane. In so doing, it behaves just like its example, the hypocritical Jewish nation at the time of Jesus.
Now we come to the heart of Adventism. The Church sees itself as the movement of the third angel! What is the message of the third angel?
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:9-11)
Ellen G. White was right when she called this the most terrible of all of the angels’ messages:
As the ministration of Jesus closed in the holy place, and He passed into the holiest, and stood before the ark containing the law of God, He sent another mighty angel with a third message to the world. A parchment was placed in the angel’s hand, and as he descended to the earth in power and majesty, he proclaimed a fearful warning, with the most terrible threatening ever borne to man. This message was designed to put the children of God upon their guard, by showing them the hour of temptation and anguish that was before them. {EW 254.1}
This message is not just about the warning not to break the Sabbath commandment. We are ordered to clearly warn about the consequences, and that includes an understanding of what the plagues are so that sleeping people will wake up for their salvation. Note that Ellen G. White speaks of the hour again. Remember, the term “hour” includes the beginning and end of a time period, so this speaks of a time message.
Does the Adventist Church really preach the third angel’s message as it claims? Do you hear warnings about the plagues from the pulpits? I have said in my articles that what is preached and practiced, if someone mentions the subject, is a belief that the plagues will only last 14 days. No one “shows the hour of temptation and anguish” because that would be anti-ecumenical. The Adventist Church ceased giving the true third angel’s message years ago.
Thus, the Church has failed in the proclamation of the three angels’ messages, and particularly in its own third angel’s message. Not to mention the fourth angel’s message or the loud cry, which also point to the plagues:
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18:4-5)
Why didn’t Adventists listen to what the messenger of God told them?
John came in the spirit and power of Elijah to proclaim the first advent of Jesus. I was pointed down to the last days and saw that John represented those who should go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to herald the day of wrath and the second advent of Jesus. {EW 155.1}
Read the quote twice! The contents of the loud cry are described there: the heralding of the “day of God’s wrath and the second coming of Christ.” A Church that rejects all time prophecy cannot fulfill this work and thus can have neither the spirit nor the power of Elijah.
So, what sign should be given to a Church which had been so richly blessed by God and had received so much light, but still refused to preach the new light that would have caused the old light to shine ten times brighter? What sign should be given to a Church that instead committed adultery with the Roman Jezebel? What sign would show on a small scale what would happen later on a grand scale?
The Biggest Lightning Flash of All Time
When the Karaites reported on their website that the barley search in March 2013 was successful, we knew that the sign of Jonah would be given on April 27, 2013, the second day after the true Passover in accordance with God’s calendar. As I already mentioned in The Loud Cry under the heading “God’s Last Warning”, part of Ernie Knoll’s Two cars dream also pointed to this date, but the dream was so general that it could have applied to the second day after any possible spring full moon.
We had more precise knowledge because we have what Ernie Knoll does not have... the biblical understanding of God’s feast-day prophecies. When our second-to-last countdown expired on April 13 after successfully indicating the beginning of the 1260 days of visible events, we immediately set a new countdown. We set it to the date of April 27, which we had known about for a long time. So we waited anxiously to see what would happen on that day. We were especially interested in the hour in which the wave sheaf would have been waved in the temple in Jerusalem, between 9 am and 12 noon.
That time range in Jerusalem also agreed with the fact that it would still be night at Ernie’s residence in Brownsville, California when the following event would happen in his dream:
Everything now comes to a quick halt. All sound stops. Everything is still and quiet. Suddenly there is an incredibly loud sound that does not have a description. It resembles the sounds of a million train or truck horns blowing at the same time. The black fabric of the still night sky now rips apart and there is a brightness that has no description.
April 27, 2013 was a Sabbath. It was even more than a Sabbath. It was the first ceremonial feast day in the new Jewish year that fell on a seventh-day Sabbath. We always considered it to be a special day because we thought this Sabbath feast day would begin the last triplet of the High Sabbath List, and thus the time of the loud cry.
We also found that Ernie’s dream confirmed that it would be a Sabbath, because he says: “Everything now comes to a quick halt. All sound stops. Everything is still and quiet.” What better description could there be for a quiet Sabbath evening? The Sabbath began on Friday evening, April 26, and during those night hours (in California) the great sign would come. According to Ernie’s dream, it should show that the final rapid movements had already begun, and according to our studies we expected that the Adventist Church would receive the sign of Jonah.
As we’ve previously explained, it’s often difficult to assign an event to a date. Sometimes it can take days until we find what really happened by rummaging through press releases. This time we had to wait patiently until May 5 for the news bomb to finally explode. NASA reported on May 5, 2013 the following:
NASA’s Fermi, Swift See ‘Shockingly Bright’ Burst
A record-setting blast of gamma rays from a dying star in a distant galaxy has wowed astronomers around the world. The eruption, which is classified as a gamma-ray burst, or GRB, and designated GRB 130427A, produced the highest-energy light ever detected from such an event.
“We have waited a long time for a gamma-ray burst this shockingly, eye-wateringly bright,” said Julie McEnery, project scientist for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “The GRB lasted so long that a record number of telescopes on the ground were able to catch it while space-based observations were still ongoing.”
Please allow me to explain something about this image in my own words. We needed a little time to understand what it shows, and how scary the magnitude of the gamma-ray burst of April 27 really was. It outshined everything that had previously been seen. The blue spots on the sphere don’t just represent stars in the universe in a blue spectrum. Rather, they are all captured and measured gamma-ray bursts. Each one was already a huge flash with an unimaginable power of more than 100 million electron volts (MeV). The Fermi team used this illustration to show how incredibly bright GRB 130427A was compared to other GRBs. (The GRB designation is actually the date in the year/month/day format.)
Just after 3:47 a.m. EDT on Saturday, April 27, Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) triggered on an eruption of high-energy light in the constellation Leo...
Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) recorded one gamma ray with an energy of at least 94 billion electron volts (GeV), or some 35 billion times the energy of visible light, and about three times greater than the LAT’s previous record. The GeV emission from the burst lasted for hours, and it remained detectable by the LAT for the better part of a day, setting a new record for the longest gamma-ray emission from a GRB.
Furthermore, the scientists found that this large history-making astronomical event was fortunately triggered at the unimaginable distance of 3.6 billion light-years in a distant galaxy. If that burst had happened in our galaxy, it would have burnt our planet to a crisp in a split second.
If we convert the time that GRB 130427A struck to Jerusalem time, we come—incredibly—to Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 10:47 a.m. That was exactly within the timeframe we expected on the morning of the antitypical resurrection day when Jesus was with the Father. This time, our countdown pointed to the exact hour of the event.
Friends and brethren, it is no exaggeration to call this gamma-ray burst a sign. We know that this flash struck Earth, because gamma-ray bursts can only be measured if they are directed towards Earth. The others which are directed away are not visible to us. If you could make such a gamma-ray burst audible, then all our eardrums would burst and it would almost turn Ernie’s words into an understatement: “It resembles the sounds of a million train or truck horns blowing at the same time.”
This flash was also the brightest ever seen, measured or experienced by humans. Even hard scientists described it as “eye-wateringly bright”. “The black fabric of the still night sky now rips apart and there is a brightness that has no description.”
We are not here to justify Ernie Knoll. The poor man does not even know that his dreams are finally about to come true (and we have only divulged a tiny bit of our understanding). He must go by himself to Jesus to ask Him for forgiveness for entering the territory of Satan in his more recent dreams. Nevertheless, the final rapid movements have actually begun.
What sign would have been better suited to the Adventist Church to show their transgression with respect to the preaching of the combined third and fourth angel’s messages? Both messages contain the great and terrible warning about the plagues.
Which sign would have been better suited to show the Sunday-keeping and thus sun-worshiping churches where they are leading their “sheep” to? Those who worship the sun must perish by a sun!
Now I have shown you in three articles where the plagues come from and that a GRB from nearby in our own galaxy will trigger the end of humanity and this planet.
It is fueling the furnace which Malachi spoke about:
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. (Malachi 4:1)
And it is the fire under the crucible of Peter:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:9-10)
Please take Peter’s advice:
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. (2 Peter 3:11-14)
I’ve accompanied you up to this point. Please hear what I still have to say, because I do not know if the Lord Jesus, Alnitak, will allow me to write more to you once everything has begun...
Did the Jewish nation learn its lesson from the sign of Jonah that was given to it? Did they understand that when He brought the holy firstfruits to the Father, which was symbolized by spitting the prophet out of the fish’s mouth, Jesus didn’t point only to the redemption and the resurrection in the light of a new earth, but that everyone who does not accept this redemption is lost forever? Will the Adventist Church and the apostate Protestant Churches learn from the sign of the greatest flash of all time and turn back as an organization to proclaim the true Sabbath of God and the complete three angel’s messages?
Probably not!
It’s about the individual, no matter what church he belongs to. Everyone is called to come out of Babylon. Everyone has to leave the Roman Catholic system and the “Brave New World Order” that it established if they do not want to partake of the plagues. Redemption is not corporate but individual. Anyone can be saved, but not without loving obedience and not without fruits through the power of Jesus. Now every individual must stand alone before God in judgment and yet work for their fellow man:
All men have been bought with this infinite price. By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being. Whether believers or unbelievers, all men are the Lord’s property. All are called to do service for Him, and for the manner in which they have met this claim, all will be required to render an account at the great judgment day.
But the claims of God are not recognized by all. It is those who profess to have accepted Christ’s service who in the parable are represented as His own servants.
Christ’s followers have been redeemed for service. Our Lord teaches that the true object of life is ministry. Christ Himself was a worker, and to all His followers He gives the law of service—service to God and to their fellow men. Here Christ has presented to the world a higher conception of life than they had ever known. By living to minister for others, man is brought into connection with Christ. The law of service becomes the connecting link which binds us to God and to our fellow men. {COL 326.1–3}
Only those who pray like Jonah will come out of the dark dungeon of the whale’s belly and into the light:
Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. (Jonah 2:1-10)
May God bless you—especially those who have thus far spurned His blessings and His light.
