Now the word of the Lord came to Joe, the son of a Seventh-day Adventist, saying, “Arise, and go to Babylon, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
Who? Me?
The last thing young Joe wanted to do was preach an unpopular message that was politically incorrect, so he decided to jump on the bandwagon with the other Protestant churches and the Papacy crying,”Peace, peace, when there was no peace.”
But the Lord was displeased with His unfaithful servant and allowed troublesome times to come upon Joe, His church, and his country. Although he and his friends all agreed that time was short and the signs of Christ coming were taking place right before their very eyes, they continued in their Laodicean state, asleep in their wealth of religious knowledge and the Lord’s many material blessings that had been lavishly bestowed upon them.
But the nonbelievers of the world were afraid of the times in which they lived, and they cried out to God, begging Him for understanding of the prophecies of His Word. And since they had heard of Seventh-day Adventist’s historic reputation of their vast Biblical knowledge, they went to Joe and shook him awake, crying, “Why are you sleeping in such a time as this? Arise, and call out to your God! Perhaps the Lord will have mercy upon us so that we might not perish at His Second Coming!”
“We have gone from one Protestant church to another, trying to find the prophetic truth in God’s Word, but all we hear in the popular churches is what we already know from watching the Left Behind movies on TV. Please tell us why all these judgments are coming upon our families and the United States? Aren’t you a Christian denomination that claims to understand Bible prophecy? We have been told that you have a prophetess that has been given an abundance of counsel on this subject. Why are we not hearing her advice in your church services and evangelistic meetings? Doesn’t your very name—Seventh-day Adventist—demand a responsibility of sharing the Three Angels Message with us and our children?
Joe sleepily replied, “Yes, I suppose it does. But the founders of our church were much more up on prophecy than I am. I can tell you all about grace, through. I just don’t want to scare people with all those wild beasts of Daniel and Revelation or their meanings for us today. I certainly don’t want to be accused of judging anyone if they want to continue in their modern secular lifestyles.”
Then the crowd of unbelievers were exceedingly dismayed at Joe’s lackadaisical attitude, for they realized their only hope of understanding God’s prophetic truth was being dismissed as unimportant and unnecessary. So they prayed to God in their hopeless situation that they would not be held responsible for the light that Joe didn’t care to share with them.
Now the Lord heard their desperate cries and allowed double trouble to fall upon Joe because of his unfaithfulness to the Lord’s special calling. And Joe cried out from the belly of despair begging God to forgive his disobedience in keeping God’s Truth all to himself. So the Lord had mercy upon Joe and His people and gave them another opportunity to tell the world of its coming judgment and His soon return.
And the Lord said to Joe and his fellow church members, “Arise, go to Babylon, that great city, and preach the Three Angels Message that I gave you back in 1844.”
I'll Go
So this time, Joe obeyed, although he was still reluctant to share a message of the world’s soon destruction when all his friends were going “green” in order to save the earth. However, feelings of guilt and fear of further trouble impelled him to cry out, “The Lord says that Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons . . . For all the nations have drank of the wine of the wrath of her fornications. . . . Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues!”
And the people listened—and many repented—which dismayed and dumbfounded poor Joe! He had never expected such a turn of events because his theology professors in college had told him that preaching the unadulterated truth of God’s Word to the masses didn’t work. What should he do now?
Having fulfilled his religious duty, Joe quickly left and went back home where he could escape the tedious task of answering a bombardment of questions from the crowds.
Feeling like a great weight was still pressing down on his shoulders, Joe had time to ponder his newfound success. What would all his friends think when they heard what he had done? His message of imminent judgment certainly didn’t fit the popular model of “mingling among the people and meeting their needs.” This could really hurt his reputation! Who would want to hang out with Doomsday Preacher Joe? He just wished that God would let him be free of this special calling and go back to his easy lifestyle of watching TV, checking his social media, and playing video games.
However, the Lord did not give up. He continued to plead with Joe and His church to share the Three Angels Message with the world before it was too late . . . .
How this story ends is up to you.
Melissa Sexson Hanson is an avid student of Bible prophecy and an active member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She has elementary education and English secondary degrees from Union College and is currently working as a freelance writer with the purpose of preparing souls for Christ’s soon return. She writes from Arkansas.
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CALL TO ACTION TODAY FOR SDA’S:
A company was presented before me under the name of Seventh-day Adventists, who were advising that the banner or sign which makes us a distinctive people should not be held out so strikingly; for they claimed it was not the best policy in securing success to our institutions. This distinctive banner is to be borne through the world to the close of probation. In describing the remnant people of God, John says, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). This is the law and the gospel. The world and the churches are uniting in harmony in transgressing the law of God, in tearing away God’s memorial, and in exalting a sabbath that bears the signature of the man of sin. But the Sabbath of the Lord thy God is to be a sign to show the difference between the obedient and the disobedient. I saw some reaching out their hands to remove the banner, and to obscure its significance.... {2SM 385.2}
When the people accept and exalt a spurious sabbath, and turn souls away from obedience and loyalty to God, they will reach the point that was reached by the people in the days of Christ.... Shall anyone then choose to hide his banner, to relax his devotion? Shall the people whom God has honored and blessed and prospered, refuse to bear testimony in behalf of God’s memorial at the very time when such a testimony should be borne?—Manuscript 15, 1896. {2SM 385.3)