| The Black, the White, and the Gray Thus the two sides are pictured. Like Cain and Abel and the subsequent battles, the two sides will not be “the good and the blatantly evil,” but the righteous, pictured as evil by the pious and religious. Both sides will profess faith in Jesus Christ, both sides will be worshipers of God. What will be the issue that divides these two groups of worshipers? The issue in the book of Job is the same one that it was in the beginning of the war, and it will be the same for us: the truth about God’s character and government. What kind of person is God? How does he run his universe? We have been warned that the days ahead will be Satan’s masterpiece of delusion, when he will incorporate all the cunning he has devised over the last six millennia to deceive. We were told by Christ himself that Satan would deceive even the very chosen ones if possible[362]. It will be an almost overmastering delusion. Satan will once again be given free hand as with Job, as the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is removed. Since both sides will be claiming to be on God’s side, how will we be able to distinguish who is truly on the Lord’s side? A Special Sealing Work God tells us that he has a sign, seal, or mark that will be on every one of his people in the last days. “I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so that no wind should blow on the earth or the sea or against any tree. And I saw another angel coming up from the east with the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels to whom God had given the power to damage the earth and the sea. The angel said, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we mark the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.’ ”[363] Thus, before God allows the final conflict to be unleashed on the world, he first seals his people in their foreheads. Those who oppose God will also be marked: “The beast forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, slave and free, to have a mark placed on their right hands or on their foreheads. No one could buy or sell unless he had this mark, that is, the beast’s name or the number that stands for his name.”[364] God’s Law and the War Those who do not have the mark of the beast are contrasted with those who do by their obedience to the commandments of God[365]. While the counterfeit revival will claim to be working for God, there is a point of obedience that will be in dispute. Jesus said that many call him Lord but practice lawlessness.[366] Describing the persecution of his people in the final days, Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake... then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”[367] He particularly distinguished these false prophets as promoting lawlessness, resulting in the love of many to grow cold, contrasting the two principles in the Great Controversy. Describing how he will have to deal with these ministers in the judgment, Jesus said, “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?’ And then I will say to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’”[268] Their works are associated with lawlessness. The Greek word for lawlessness, anomia[369], literally means the condition of being without law, someone who ignores or violates the law. It is an attitude of rebelliousness. Paul told the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord could not come until a great apostasy took place. He wrote, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”[370] This “man of sin” is referred to in verse 8 as “the lawless one.” He presides over a system called “the mystery of lawlessness”[371], which Paul said was at work even in his day. This false, paganized “Christianity” was already beginning to develop within the Roman Empire. Bible prophecy and history shows that this false religious system—this counterfeit Christianity—will continue to develop until the end of this age: “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.”[372] These false ministers appear to be righteous. In reality, since Satan is the master deceiver, his servants are themselves deceived. |
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| 362 Matthew 24:24 363 Revelation 7:1-3 364 Revelation 13:16, 17 365 Revelation 14:4 366 Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV 367 Matthew 24:9-12 NKJV 368 Matthew 7:22 KJV, v. 23 NKJV 369 sometimes translated iniquity 370 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 371 v.7 372 verses 8,9 NKJV |
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