Where Are We?
"We are lost" is a phrase we never want to have to say, we have to figure out where we are and maybe ask for directions. All around it's just a bit annoying, but it happens in the physical world. A step up, however, from our current trifling annoyances is that in the past and even sometimes in the present age, the ability to determine where you are and how to get where you are going has been a matter of life and death.
In the physical world the ability to find your way home or to your intended destination has a long history of discovery and invention, spanning time from creation through the flood, aboard the Phoenician trading ships of the Mediterranean and Atlantic, across the vast and various mail delivery roads crisscrossing the Medo-Persian Empire (or Achaemenid Empire), plodding along the grassy tundra and cold desert sands of the silk road, traversing the scorching sands of the Saharan salt trade, sailing the globe during the age of sail of the 1500-1700s, flying to and fro above the clouds, and finally throwing ourselves into the vast expanse of nothingness we call space, hoping to get our position, speed, and fuel just right so that we could get to the moon and back to earth without getting forever lost in that vast expanse of nothingness.
The ability to find where we are has been and is of critical importance, as getting lost in many of the above situations was not just annoying, it was fatal. If the salt traders traversing the Sahara desert missed the oasis, they were doomed to death by dehydration. During the age of sail if you misjudged your position or the distance to a location, you were likely to have half your crew die of scurvy. If the calculations had only been slightly off for the moon landings, they could have found themselves stranded in space with no hope of rescue.
Over the centuries many and very ingenious ways of determining location have been invented. During the age of sail, a sailor would have, as his central piece of navigation equipment, a chart or map, often charting the seas he planned to cross and the land which he could be expected to encounter. However, this map on its own was of no value, he had to know how to properly interpret the map, and then more than understanding the map, he had to determine where he was on that map. For this there were several methods, first the maps would have land marks and by comparing what was on the map to what he saw around him, the sailor, if he could find one or more of these, could determine where he was on the map, and thus how far he was from his destination and what course adjustments he might need to take to arrive there. He could also determine how far he was north or south on the map, by comparing the position of the stars relative to the horizon and the sunset. In the latter years of the age of sail he could determine how far he was east and west on the map by the ingenious tool call the chronometer. The chronometer is a special clock, set to a specific time in the world, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in England. By comparing the time indicated on this clock for sunset or sunrise back in England, he could determine how far east or west he had come, by the difference in time between his local sunset and sunrise and the time that England would typically have theirs. Thus by comparing these various things, the sailors of ages past could avoid being lost in most cases.
But while all we have described istrue of the physical world, it is even more true and critical in the spiritual world. Where are we? Are we in the right religion? Does God exist? What is my duty now?
God in His word, the Bible, lays out for us how we may determine these things, He says: "Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen... Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods..." Isaiah 41:21-23. Here God challenges all other gods, and by extension any other belief system, to predict the future. If you're an atheist, if you're a pagan, a Christian, a Jew, a Moslem or of any other belief, predict the future that we may know that what you teach is true, and visa verse if I can predict the future, then I must be God, and there must be a God, if he can 100% accurately predict the future without any trickery or ambiguity, like double meanings. (See: The Pagan Greek Oracle of Delphi and its uses of double meanings.) This is the evidence that God in the Bible points to as His strongest proof of existence, and as His method of guiding us into the truth. Every message we see in the Bible was founded upon prophecy; God has always used prophecy to show the people of this world where they were in the plan of redemption and what their duty was in light of that position. Noah preached the prophecy of the flood and told them what they needed to do in light of that, repent and take refuge in the Ark. Jeremiah preached the destruction of Jerusalem and told them to repent and surrender to the Babylonians. Jesus first message that he gave to the world was, "the time is fulfilled," referring to the 69 weeks of Daniel, "repent and believe the gospel." The Bible, and in particular its prophecies, are our chart of the history of this world and the plan of salvation. God has laid out history before it happened, so that by comparing our chart, the Bible, with what we see happening all around us, we can determine where we are, and what God is asking us to do.
But just like the sailor we must look for the land marks and the way marks. We must compare history with prophecy to see where we are. Just as the sailor studied the stars to determine how far north and south he was on the map, we must study our position in the prophetic chains of historical events laid out in the prophecies. And just as the sailors would compare their time with a central time, we must compare our position in this earth's history with the great prophetic time prophecies given in the scriptures.
However, here we should address the common conception of Bible prophecy in the eyes of the public. The understanding of prophecy in the Bible is often looked upon as uncertain and unclear. It is often viewed, especially by some, as a list of mystical symbols and words that can be interpreted to mean anything. In other words, the original writer wrote the prophecies in such uncertain language that anyone could twist the words to make it be fulfilled. This concept is often seemingly confirmed by the fact that if you look out across the sea of interpretations of Bible prophecy today, you see a hundred different interpretations for most of these prophecies, particularly when it comes to the later portions of Daniel and all of the book of Revelation. It looks like watching hundreds of sailors on dozens of different ships all using a hundred different methods to try to get to the new world, all of which are failing. Because of this, many, even among Christians are uncertain of what to make of the prophecies in the Bible, and often put them to the side as too difficult to properly understand.
But the Bible says "Despise not prophecies. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." 1 Thess. 5:20-21. All we ask is a trial, just as Daniel asked Melzar for a ten-day trial of their vegan diet to prove its benefits for health, we ask for you to give us an opportunity to share with you the prophecies of the Bible. To show you that they can be understood, that they have been literally fulfilled, that they have not used double meanings and words that can be twisted to mean anything, but that they are simple, plain, historically testable, and have used such clear and precise language as to only have one possible fulfillment. We ask for you to prove your servants as scripture tells us to do, do not just believe us because we sound sincere, do not believe us because your trusted friends or elders told you to, do not believe us because the quality of the videos are good or bad, believe or don't believe us purely from the evidence. "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days... Then... as thou seest, deal with thy servants." Daniel 2:12-13.
Come with us on a journey of discovery and revelation as we share with you where we are in the history of this world based on Bible prophecy and history. Our goal is to open people's minds to the seriousness of the times in which we live and to expose the currently prevalent misinterpretations of prophecy.
We are told in Selected Messages Vol. 2 page 111:
"Satan is working that the history of the Jewish nation may be repeated in the experience of those who claim to believe present truth."
Then we find this in Desire of Ages pages 29-30:
"While the Jews desired the advent of the Messiah, they had no true conception of His mission, They had studied the prophecies, but without spiritual insight. Thus they overlooked those scriptures that point to the humiliation of Christ's first advent, and misapplied those that speak of the glory of His second coming. Pride obscured their vision. They interpreted prophecy in accordance with their selfish desires."
Today, most Christians, Evangelicals, religionists and even Seventh-day Adventists and historic Seventh-day Adventists are heading down the path of not discerning the true meaning of prophecy and thus being caught unprepared.
Please consider our material with an open mind, praying for the spiritual eye salve we all need to be prepared.
We pray for the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds as we study the prophecies, that we won't be caught unprepared when Jesus returns.
If you have questions or comments about this material, please contact us.
We would love to hear from you!
May the Grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you and may His spirit guide you into all truth.
Amen.
by James Russell Lowel
When a deed is done for Freedom,
through the broad earth's aching breast
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic,
trembling on from east to west,
And the slave, where'er he cowers,
feels the soul within him climb
To the awful verge of manhood,
as the energy sublime
Of a century bursts full-blossomed
on the thorny stem of Time.
Through the walls of hut and palace
shoots the instantaneous throe,
When the travail of the Ages
wrings earth's systems to and fro;
At the birth of each new Era,
with a recognizing start,
Nation wildly looks at nation,
standing with mute lips apart,
And glad Truth's yet mightier man-child
leaps beneath the Future's heart.
So the Evil's triumph sendeth,
with a terror and a chill,
Under continent to continent,
the sense of coming ill,
And the slave, where'er he cowers,
feels his sympathies with God
In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward,
to be drunk up by the sod,
Till a corpse crawls round unburied,
delving in the nobler clod.
For mankind are one in spirit,
and an instinct bears along,
Round the earth's electric circle,
the swift flash of right or wrong;
Whether conscious or unconscious,
yet Humanity's vast frame
Through its ocean-sundered fibers
feels the gush of joy or shame;
In the gain or loss of one race
all the rest have equal claim.
Once to every man and nation
comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood,
for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah,
offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand,
and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever
'twixt that darkness and that light.
Hast thou chosen, O my people,
on whose party thou shalt stand,
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals
shakes the dust against our land?
Though the cause of Evil prosper,
yet 'tis Truth alone is strong,
And, albeit she wander outcast now,
I see around her throng
Troops of beautiful, tall angels,
to enshield her from all wrong.
Backward look across the ages
and the beacon-moments see,
That, like peaks of some sunk continent,
jut through Oblivion's sea;
Not an ear in court or market
for the low, foreboding cry
Of those Crises, God's stern winnowers,
from whose feet earth's chaff must fly;
Never shows the choice momentous
till the judgment hath passed by.
Careless seems the great Avenger;
history's pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness
'twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
keeping watch above his own.
We see dimly in the Present
what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm
may turn the iron helm of fate,
But the soul is still oracular;
amid the market's din,
List the ominous stern whisper
from the Delphic cave within,
"They enslave their children's children
who make compromise with sin."
Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops,
fellest of the giant brood,
Sons of brutish Force and Darkness,
who have drenched the earth with blood,
Famished in his self-made desert,
blinded by our purer day,
Gropes in yet unblasted regions
for his miserable prey;
Shall we guide his gory fingers
where our helpless children play?
Then to side with Truth is noble
when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
and 'tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses,
while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit,
till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue
of the faith they had denied.
Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes,
they were souls that stood alone,
While the men they agonized for
hurled the contumelious stone,
Stood serene, and down the future
saw the golden beam incline
To the side of perfect justice,
mastered by their faith divine,
By one man's plain truth to manhood
and to God's supreme design.
By the light of burning heretics
Christ's bleeding feet I track,
Toiling up new Calvaries ever
with the cross that turns not back,
And these mounts of anguish number
how each generation learned
One new word of that grand Credo
which in prophet-hearts hath burned
Since the first man stood God-conquered
with his face to heaven upturned.
For Humanity sweeps onward:
where to-day the martyr stands,
On the morrow crouches Judas
with the silver in his hands;
Far in front the cross stands ready
and the crackling fagots burn,
While the hooting mob of yesterday
in silent awe return
To glean up the scattered ashes
into History's golden urn.
'Tis as easy to be heroes
as to sit the idle slaves
Of a legendary virtue
carved upon our fathers' graves,
Worshipers of light ancestral
make the present light a crime;
Was the Mayflower launched by cowards,
steered by men behind their time?
Turn those tracks toward Past or Future,
that made Plymouth Rock sublime?
They were men of present valor,
stalwart old iconoclasts,
Unconvinced by axe or gibbet
that all virtue was the Past's;
But we make their truth our falsehood,
thinking that hath made us free,
Hoarding it in moldy parchments,
while our tender spirits flee
The rude grasp of that great Impulse
which drove them across the sea.
They have rights who dare maintain them;
we are traitors to our sires,
Smothering in their holy ashes
Freedom's new-lit altar-fires;
Shall we make their creed our jailer?
Shall we, in our haste to slay,
From the tombs of the old prophets
steal the funeral lamps away
To light up the martyr-fagots
round the prophets of to-day?
New occasions teach new duties;
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward,
who would keep abreast of Truth;
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires!
we ourselves must Pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly
through the desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future's portal
with the Past's blood-rusted key.