By John Thiel

Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the LORD [is] near, [it is] near, and hasteth greatly, [even] the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 15 That day [is] a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

Here in Australia we are poorly aware of only by hearing news just precisely how much chaos there really is at this present time. We are living in the closing moments of the work of the three angels. We have learnt that in this closing work God will work very much out of the common order of things in the time of the loud cry of the third angel. Why is this statement made? Why is it the case that in the last loud cry period of the third angel God will work very much out of the common order of things? Why not continue in the common order of things? Why does he have to work like that? The answer comes to us from Gods word.

Isaiah 59:9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, [but] we walk in darkness. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if [we had] no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; [we are] in desolate places as dead [men]. 11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far off from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them; 13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 15 Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.

Here is a very clear summary of the condition of society and the church in the time in which we live. Every word that we have read if we carefully examine the circumstances of today is true and this is why God will work out of the common order of things.

Joel 2:30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

The day hasteneth greatly. Those signs of the moon and the sun have taken place in 1780 and here we live so many centuries since that time. Our scripture reading is true indeed. We see in Joel the elements of nature and political strife also described for this time. I’d like to amplify the back drop for the loud cry so we can understand this period of the third angel as to the circumstances behind it all.

I was shown the inhabitants of the earth in the utmost confusion. War, bloodshed, privation, want, famine, and pestilence were abroad in the land. As these things surrounded God’s people, they began to press together, and to cast aside their little difficulties. Self-dignity no longer controlled them; deep humility took its place. Suffering, perplexity, and privation caused reason to resume its throne, and the passionate and unreasonable man became sane, and acted with discretion and wisdom. {1T 268.1} My attention was then called from the scene. There seemed to be a little time of peace. Once more the inhabitants of the earth were presented before me; and again everything was in the utmost confusion. Strife, war, and bloodshed, with famine and pestilence, raged everywhere. Other nations were engaged in this war and confusion. War caused famine. Want and bloodshed caused pestilence. And then men’s hearts failed them for fear, “and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” {1T 268.2}

Can you see what the prophet saw in vision? We today can look back at the history of what was shown here. War, bloodshed, pestilence, want and then a period of peace and then war and bloodshed again. As a consequence men were suffering heart stress so that their hearts failed them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. What have we just read before it happens? Two world wars is that correct? The First World War and then a time of peace and then the second world war and thereafter what has happened after 1945? Men’s hearts fearful in looking after the things to follow. What has been mans preoccupation since world war two? The war was over, but what continued? Communism came in and there was a Cold War. Men’s hearts were stressed out trying to prevent the cold war.

If you go back in history to my years, there were situations of stress between America and the USSR. Then Cuba with its communist activities got help from Russia which was a great stress. Then the cold war was over, the iron curtain was pulled down and the world was ready to express a sigh of a relief but then what comes in? Terrorism. What happened when the twin towers came down in New York? It commenced a whole new era of fear. Behind all that, the Middle East is bubbling constantly. War, bloodshed, bodies flying around everywhere in pieces. What else is coming that is causing stress today? Global warming. They are afraid. The effect of man’s polluting the planet is of such a nature that he is creating terrible storms, floods, and famines. Is it true what we have been reading? Then men’s hearts failed them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming and for us today, which are come, What else has happened? Now, another world recession. Look at Africa and places of the third world where there is extreme suffering. Think back to Rwanda. Think back to the time of Hitler and mass genocide. Rwanda was that not so long ago. Think of Darfur. We in Australia are sitting comfortable and the rest of the world is in dire straits. I thank God very much for my father’s decision to come to Australia.

Famines will increase. Pestilences will sweep away thousands. Dangers are all around us from the powers without and satanic workings within, but the restraining power of God is now being exercised.–19MR 382 (1897). {LDE 27.2}

It’s not totally let go of yet.

I want to tell you another thing. The vials of God’s wrath and the sprinkling of them are already coming. What is the matter that we do not discern it? It is because the light of truth does not affect the heart. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world. {2SM 51.3}

The sprinkling of the vials of God’s wrath already happened in Sr Whites time. This is the back drop of the three angel’s message preaching and especially leading up to the loud cry.

You hear of calamities by land and by sea, and they are constantly increasing. {2SM 51.4}

Are they not increasing? Science tells us, man is destroying his planet.

The Spirit of God is taken away from those who have the lives of men in their hands, and Satan is coming in to control them, because they give themselves to his control. Those who profess to be the children of God do not place themselves under the guardianship of the heavenly angels, and as Satan is a destroyer, he works through those men and they make mistakes; and they will get drunk, and because of intemperance, many times bring these terrible calamities upon us. {2SM 51.4}

When you look at the men in leading positions don’t they get drunk and do these things? They have the lives of people in their hands and what are they doing?

And see the storms and tempests. Satan is working in the atmosphere; he is poisoning the atmosphere, and here we are dependent upon God for our lives–our present and eternal life. And being in the position that we are, we need to be wide awake, wholly devoted, wholly converted, wholly consecrated to God. But we seem to sit as though we were paralysed. God of heaven, wake us up!– Manuscript 1, 1890. {2SM 52.1}

What is Satan doing? He is poisoning the atmosphere. Everyone knows they are being poisoned by the very life giving atmosphere around us. It’s poisoning. We need Gods care.

Preceding the great sign of the coming of the Son of man, there will be signs and wonders in the heavens. . . . {3SM 391.1}

Already sprinklings from the vials of God’s wrath have been let fall upon land and sea, affecting the elements of the air. The causes of these unusual conditions are being searched for, but in vain. {3SM 391.2}  God has not restrained the powers of darkness from carrying forward their deadly work of vitiating the air, one of the sources of life and nutrition, with a deadly miasma. Not only is vegetable life affected, but man suffers from pestilence. . . . {3SM 391.3}

Can you buy vegetables today that haven’t been affected by pollution? Even the organically grown ones have the drop of pollution upon them.

These things are the result of drops from the vials of God’s wrath being sprinkled on the earth, and are but faint representations of what will be in the near future. {3SM 391.4}

Near future in Sr Whites time is the last century and that is what we have been looking at.

Earthquakes in various places have been felt, but these disturbances have been very limited. Terrible shocks will come upon the earth, and the lordly palaces erected at great expense will certainly become heaps of ruins. {3SM 391.5}

Hasn’t this happened? What happened in San Francisco? That happened a long time ago. They are now training the people in San Francisco and Los Angeles for the big one.

The earth’s crust will be rent by the outbursts of the elements concealed in the bowels of the earth. These elements, once broken loose, will sweep away the treasures of those who for years have been adding to their wealth by securing large possessions at starvation prices from those in their employ. {3SM 391.6}

What was written in Sr Whites time we today can see.

We are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecies are fulfilling. Strange and eventful history is being recorded in the books of heaven–events which it was declared should shortly precede the great day of God. Everything in the world is in an unsettled state. The nations are angry, and great preparations for war are being made. Nation is plotting against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. The great day of God is hasting greatly. But although the nations are mustering their forces for war and bloodshed, the command to the angels is still in force, that they hold the four winds until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads. {1SM 221.3}

Nakedness

The loud cry commenced in 1888. As we look further into the backdrop of the three angel’s messages, what chaos and terrible confusion has taken place over the last century? We have seen society crumbling to abject spiritual confusion in morality and in every area of life. Think about it. In the time of Sr White people would not go to the beach without being totally covered. By the 1940’s they were going in a single body fitting bathing suit. In the 1960’s they were in bikinis. It is a big public show today. Morality is totally shattered. It’s not just the beaches, you walk through the city today and its virtually the same as bikinis.

Music

Over the last century, the simple country western music which was condemned in Sr Whites time has begun the devil drums of the Congo in white man’s world. Everyone is dancing to it.

Marriage and Divorce

What has happened to the marriage institution over the last century? People get married today knowing they are going to divorce one day. Over 50% of marriages break up not only in the world but also in the church.  Is everything out of the common order of things? Have a look at the world around you. The young people, how many have been involved in drugs? The brain shattering effect of marijuana and all the drugs they take out there. Even the new president elect has had his drug days and has now become the American president. What are we becoming accustomed to? The last century has been a derelict society and we have been born and grown up in it. As a baby grows it accepts what is going on around it does it not? That’s all normal. The outpouring of God’s wrath is already happening and people are in total heart attack but still thinking all is normal. They go on dressing, eating and drinking thinking it’s all normal. Growing up in it as Gods people, what do we see the impact on Gods church to be? Here is the impact of those terrible things on Gods church militant. You know well the Laodicean message. God addresses his ministers on earth.

The Church

Revelation 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

They think they are quite alright. They say they are alright. We are living in dreadful times but we are alright. What do you expect from a church like that? People and ministers who are prancing around professing to be Gods church on earth? What do you expect from them when they think they are right and they don’t know they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked? Jesus is trying to help them but they are so preoccupied with their state of wealth. Look all these things are happening to others but we are being cared for. God then has to turn to any man who will hear his voice.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

But then even the any man must be an overcomer.

Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

In this terrible time of the hour of judgement, the people living have to overcome this dreadful catastrophe of this century that has passed and which is heading into more catastrophes. We see the perfect line up for Gods faithful loud cry people.

Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Satan makes war with the people who are not going to get drawn in with the chaos. Everything is in chaos. There is nothing that is not in chaos today and we think we are doing alright. What is the chaos in the church that faithful people have to put up with?

I was shown the churches in different states that profess to be keeping the commandments of God and looking for the second coming of Christ. There is an alarming amount of indifference, pride, love of the world, and cold formality existing among them. And these are the people who are fast coming to resemble ancient Israel, so far as the want of piety is concerned. Many make high claims to godliness and yet are destitute of self-control. Appetite and passion bear sway; self is made prominent. Many are arbitrary, dictatorial, overbearing, boastful, proud, and un-consecrated. Yet some of these persons are ministers, handling sacred truths. Unless they repent, their candlestick will be removed out of its place. The Saviour’s curse pronounced upon the fruitless fig tree is a sermon to all formalists and boasting hypocrites who stand forth to the world in pretentious leaves, but are devoid of fruit. What a rebuke to those who have a form of godliness, while in their unchristian lives they deny the power thereof! He who treated with tenderness the very chief of sinners, He who never spurned true meekness and penitence, however great the guilt, came down with scathing denunciations upon those who made high professions of godliness, but in works denied their faith. {4T 403.2}

Being dictatorial and overbearing is the result of a person who has lost self control. If you can’t control the people or yourself what will you do? You’ll use your power to control and dictate to them. Here is the backdrop of how God has to work in the loud cry. In the world chaos is creating real problems in people’s lives. In the church, total unchristian control. Who does God have to turn to in this dilemma? Who shall he pour his spirit on because it won’t be recognised or received by those we have just been reading about? Upon the young men, the old, the maids and the servants he will pour his spirit. It will be very much out of the common order of things because those who are in position he can’t work with anymore. He will use the common people.

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

2:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

We have been inclined to think that where there are no faithful ministers there can be no true Christians, but this is not the case. God has promised that where the shepherds are not true He will take charge of the flock Himself. God has never made the flock wholly dependent upon human instrumentalities. But the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor. {5T 79.4}

The history of the last century he has purged his floor.

The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. There will be gods many and lords many. Every wind of doctrine will be blowing. . Those who have trusted to intellect, genius, or talent will not then stand at the head of rank and file. They did not keep pace with the light. Those who have proved themselves unfaithful will not then be entrusted with the flock. In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged. They are self-sufficient, independent of God, and He cannot use them. The Lord has faithful servants, who in the shaking, testing time will be disclosed to view. There are precious ones now hidden who have not bowed the knee to Baal. They have not had the light which has been shining in a concentrated blaze upon you. But it may be under a rough and uninviting exterior the pure brightness of a genuine Christian character will be revealed. In the day time we look toward heaven but do not see the stars. They are there, fixed in the firmament, but the eye cannot distinguish them. In the night we behold their genuine lustre. {5T 80.1}

These people who were not brought up in the blasé of truth, what will they do?

The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church.  {5T 81.1}

The church will separate the dross from the gold.

Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the hellish torch of Satan. If doubts and unbelief are cherished, the faithful ministers will be removed from the people who think they know so much. “If thou hadst known,” said Christ, “even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” {TM 409.3}

This is the reality in the chaos in the time of the loud cry of the third angel. In this perplexing and confusing backdrop of circumstances, can you understand what a miracle it is for anyone to stand out and stand on the old truths and be faithful when they become a prey for standing stiffly for truth? What do you expect with these authoritarian attitudes we’ve been reading about?

The great apostasy is working to a point and will develop into darkness deep as midnight, impenetrable as sackcloth of hair. This is the time to employ any system that can be devised to discover and counteract the leaven of error. Let there be light. There should be one hundred light bearers in our world where there is one today. Darkness will become more dense in human minds after the truth has penetrated and been rejected. But there are some minds where the darkness will be removed. They recognize the light. . . . {PM 324.5}

God is going to work completely out of the common order of things. Anything he can find to employ to discover the leaven of error.

The truth must not be muffled now. Plain statements must be made. Unvarnished truth must be spoken, {9T 230.4}

In German we say, stop talking through the flour. That means you’re saying it so nicely but you’re really trying to get a point across.

“But let all walk and work circumspectly under the moulding influence of the Holy Spirit. There is little wisdom in binding about the work in any line.” MR 19 page 383.3

It doesn’t quite work according to the common order of things so you have to bind it up.

“God has not given his sanction to any branch of his work being bound about. There are now those who show just what they will do under temptation in an emergency. They cannot be depended upon. The lord has given them great light but they choose Barabas rather than Christ. They crucify afresh the son of God putting him to an open shame but the unsetting son of righteousness is to shine forth and those who have worked to counter work in what God has appointed will be bundled the tares”. MR 19 page 383.3

This is being enacted in our very midst. As those who will respond to the light that is penetrating the minds, some will recognise the light and as they recognise it what will they do and how will they work?

It is through much tribulation that we shall stand as faithful sentinels for God, not swerving one hair from truth and righteousness. Famines will increase; pestilences will sweep away thousands. Danger are all around us from the powers without and satanic workings within, but the restraining power of God is now exercised. {19MR 382.3}

What will happen if you do this? You’ll become a prey and you’ll have to work through much tribulation. The effect of end time chaos on the faithful common people who see the light will have to work in tribulation because of the chaos. Everything is out of the common order of things. God will work through any agency not relying on the leaders anymore but very few of those who are great men in the church, very few. What is their work in the loud cry? Because the situation is so grotesque and we don’t realise it unless the light shines upon our pathway and stand out and be different you will be maligned and a prey and you will have to work like this.

He will work through those who can see mercy in misery, and gain in loss. When the Light of the world passes by, privilege will be discerned in hardship, order in confusion, success in apparent failure. Calamities will be seen as disguised blessings; woes, as mercies. Labourers from the common people, sharing the sorrows of their fellow men as their Master shared the sorrows of the whole human race, will by faith see Him working with them. {Ed 270.2}

If you are in the situation of a broken home, that is misery. Why is it a misery? Because we have grown up in a mad world.  It’s normal to fall into love today but that is not normal according to God’s word. Never fall in love young people and think you can marry them. It doesn’t work. To fall into love is not the way to get married. That is one of the corruptions of today and there are many others. We must when everything is totally out of order see mercy in misery. Those in the last days will be bound. Some wives by their husbands, some children by their parents. What will happen in the loud cry? They will be released. With the common people today, what a shattered mess you go into. I want to testify I have been shattered and because I have I am able to help my shattered brethren and sisters and the human world around me. If I wouldn’t have been shattered and the smart Mr John Thiel well trained at the Sanitarium and well trained in preaching, if I stayed that way, I wouldn’t have been able to help people. I see it with my own experience today. As we see the madness through Gods world illuminated before us, brace yourself to do just what we read.

Human histories relate man’s achievements, his victories in battle, his success in attaining worldly greatness. God’s history describes man as heaven views him. In the divine records all his merit is seen to consist in his obedience to God’s requirements. . . . {SD 338.3}

Everything is changing. Cities and nations are being measured by the plummet in the hand of God. He never makes a mistake. He reads correctly. Everything earthly is unsettled, but the truth abides forever. {SD 338.4}

What do people say today? Come on you have to keep up with the times. You’re way back there you old fashioned so and so. That’s what they call us. Everything is changing but what is it changing to? Everything is madness. Have a look at the releasing of criminality for homosexuals. Governments talk about it and say we have to give them their rights. What idiocy, what madness. They are suffering under the pestilence of a terrible disease that is wiping out millions. What is that?

In the eyes of the world, those who serve God may appear weak. They may be apparently sinking beneath the billows, but with the next billow, they are seen rising nearer to their heaven. I give unto them eternal life, saith our Lord, and none shall be able to pluck them out of My hand. Though kings shall be cast down, and nations removed, the souls that through faith link themselves with God’s purpose shall abide forever. {SD 338.5}

Here are the truths that you and I must be part of.

God’s people are to be distinguished as a people who serve Him fully, wholeheartedly, taking no honor to themselves, and remembering that by a most solemn covenant they have bound themselves to serve the Lord and Him only. {9T 17.2}.

Amen.