“Satan has a thousand masked batteries which will be opened upon the loyal, commandment-keeping people of God to compel them to violate conscience.”[i]
For those who may not understand White’s use of the term battery, she is referring to an emplacement of heavy artillery. What she is saying is that Satan will use sudden, varied, and powerful attacks whose hidden agenda is to force Seventh-day Adventists to violate their conscience.[ii]
These attacks need not be aimed uniquely at Seventh-day Adventists. In fact, they are more successful if they are not discerned as being aimed exclusively at us. Firing broadly will arouse less suspicion from the true target. Thus, the devil hopes to find God’s people unwarned, and catch them off guard. For example: the shrapnel of scientism[iii], feminism, and higher-critical thinking arising out of the mid 1800’s has certainly created its fair share of societal wounds. The resultant exaltation of scientific knowledge above revelation, the destruction of the family and right relation between men and women, the elevation of abortion as a sacred right, the doubt expressed upon foundational doctrines of Christianity; all these attest that the masked batteries have fired and have been very successful indeed. The ideological bullets have lodged deep into the flesh of many a nation, people, languages, and tongues.
The populace at large is not the real target of Satan’s secret salvos. The Bible makes it clear that the real target is our Church, not the world. (Revelation 12:17) If Satan manages to strike bystanders in his volley of errors, all the better. Yet, every mortar Satan fires has our Church and message squarely in his infernal sights. So, the presence of the same errors in the Church, as exist in the world, indicate that his bullets have found lodging deep in her flesh as well.
As her leading men have not excised the shrapnel of Satan’s errors by the skillful and spirit filled application of Bible truth; wounds have been left to fester and grow. Ideological infections have led to theological shellshock and blindness. This state has impacted the Church’s ability to recognize the signs of the times. From our General Conference to the pastorate, publications, professors and medical professionals; many in these circles are supporting the current coercive covid response. For these brethren, it is no crisis of conscience for one to be faced with unwanted medical tests and chemical injections. It is Josef Mengele that said, “The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”[iv] Too many Adventists simply don’t see and don’t believe what is being done to them, no matter how absurd or coercive governmental mandates are. At this point it is clear far too many of our leading brethren are not only wearing masks over their mouth—so they will say nothing—but over their eyes—so they will see nothing. Dumb dogs that will not bark, and watchmen that will not watch. It remains to be seen if they will stuff masks in their ears, so they can eventually hear nothing as well. All the while before them is a worldwide phenomenon that resembles very much the event described in Revelation 13; where no man can buy or sell, save they have the mark.
Satan has successfully hidden his current shot across the bow of religious freedom by capitalizing on the myopic focus on Sunday laws, and deftly masking the context in which such laws will appear. The mark of the beast is Sunday rest by law, not forced vaccination and testing. However, forced vaccination and testing contain elements of the mark such as; coercion, economic sanction, social isolation, a worldwide scope, those that accept the narrative (in the forehead), and those that just go along with it for convenience’s sake (in the hand). This close parallel cannot be ignored. Just because the word SUNDAY does not appear does not mean there is no hidden moral danger or element of apostasy. As White wrote,
“Movements are being set on foot to enslave the consciences of those who would be loyal to God. The lawmaking powers will be against God’s people.” (Testimony for the Church Vol 5, p546)
Movements like the global assault against free speech and personal freedoms directly affects the conscience, services, and sacred duties of the Church.[v] So, there is no doubt that the covid crisis has unleashed those masked batteries which are aimed directly at the violation of conscience. As Robert Kennedy Jr. noted his book The Real Anthony Fauci:
“I wrote this book to help Americans—and citizens across the globe—understand the historical underpinnings of the bewildering cataclysm that began in 2020. In that single annus horribilis, liberal democracy effectively collapsed worldwide. The very governmental health regulators, social media eminences, and media companies that idealistic populations relied upon as champions of freedom, health, democracy, civil rights, and evidence-based public policy seemed to collectively pivot in a lockstep assault against free speech and personal freedoms.”[vi]
Covid is the excuse for coercion, not its cause. Colds don’t cause communism, and flus don’t breed fascism; but when people are in a grip of fear, they will accept communism, or fascism, as long as that fear is assuaged. That grip of irrational fear is the perfect environment for the erosion of freedoms, and conscience violating laws. Robert Malone, being the chief architect of the mRNA technology—said in a recent talk, the world is in the grip of a mass formation psychosis:
“The conditions to set up mass formation psychosis include lack of social connectedness and sensemaking as well as large amounts of latent anxiety and passive aggression. When people are inundated with a narrative that presents a plausible "object of anxiety" and strategy for coping with it, then many individuals group together to battle the object with a collective singlemindedness. This allows people to stop focusing on their own problems, avoiding personal mental anguish. Instead, they focus all their thought and energy on this new object. As mass formation progresses, the group becomes increasingly bonded and connected. Their field of attention is narrowed and they become unable to consider alternative points of view. Leaders of the movement are revered, and able to do no wrong.”[vii]
Mr. Kennedy has succinctly summed up what has happened in detailing the loss of personal freedoms. Dr. Malone has given a plausible explanation for how the collapse of liberal democracies has been achieved. By God’s grace Seventh-day Adventists have the advantage of clearer and deeper insight into the machinations of Satan and world powers:
“Babylon is a symbol of the world at large. When its doom was made certain, its kings and officers seemed to be as men insane, and their own course hastened its destiny. When the doom of a nation is fixed, it seems that all the energy, wisdom, and discretion of its former time of prosperity, deserts its men of position, and they hasten the evil they would avert. Outside enemies are not the greatest peril to an individual or a nation. The overthrow of a nation results, under the providence of God, from some unwise or evil course of its own.” (Signs of the Times, December 29, 1890, emphasis mine).
I believe we have entered the time of the doom of a nation. Not just a nation, but every nation, the whole world. A doom, fixed. I believe this because I see around the world liberal democracies are collapsing due directly to the unwise and evil course charted out by leaders whose discretion seems to have made a hasty retreat. The signs are clear that we have passed some kind of Divinely marked threshold. By the madness that has gripped the nations, we may know the providence of God is active. He has determined that the world is ready for the final act, and that the Church is to be prepared to play her part. What Satan has meant as a surgical strike, God has allowed as a warning flare: we have been given a preview of what is to come. And if the testimony of Sister White is true, then it must come soon.
Since the days of Ellen White, weapons of war have changed drastically. From cannons, and muskets, to drone strikes, and directed energy weapons; similarly, Satan will draw upon his 6000 years of target practice to shift focus and weaponry. From buckshot to laser beam, he will switch from broad attacks hitting the masses, to pinpoint strikes against Seventh-day Adventists. Soon, the focus will be on the Seventh-day Adventist Church and our message. Tragically the conciliatory response from Church leaders to the opening bombardment on liberty of conscience and bodily autonomy will do nothing but embolden Satan’s next move. The succeeding strikes will come much closer to home.
Is there hope for those in leading positions of our church to see the rise of Satan’s guns in the distance? Will they sound the alarm? Will they apply the eye salve in time, so that they might see clearly and help the people of God to see clearly; that the Church is filled with wounds and sores that need to be healed before she is ready for her last great charge. I have seen some leaders that have, and I hope a great many more will. Yet:
“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…In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged.”[viii]
I am thankful that the Church is not ultimately in the hands of these men, or mine. I pray for them, but I will not follow them. They are not safe, and they are not wise. They do not see what even worldlings begin to see: a world-wide movement to constrain the conscience of every man, woman, and child. Bold steps leading to the final act, the mark of the beast.
“The program of coming events is in the hands of the Lord. The Majesty of heaven has the destiny of nations, as well as the concerns of His church, in His own charge.” (Testimony Vol 5 p753) The doom of nations is fixed. At this sign our Church agencies must awaken, and our people be roused. When these events transpire “…the people who fear God, who are loyal to his laws, who carry out the principles of righteousness in their lives, have a sure defense; God will be the refuge of those who trust in him.”[ix]
Satan is not the only one with weapons; against his 1000 masked batteries is arrayed the 1000 ways and means of the Lord God Almighty[x]. Clad in the vesture of righteousness, and with love for Jesus and man glowing in our hearts; the shells may fly over us, guns may thunder at us, the bullets wiz past us, but nevertheless, we will go forth “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.”[xi]
The doom of the nations may be fixed, but so is the glory of God and His Church.
Marko Kolic is passionate about Biblical truth and the Spirit of prophecy. He received his B.A. in Religion from Burman University [formerly Canadian University College] in 2005 and his M. Div. from Andrews Theological Seminary in 2009.
[i] Letter 30a, 1892 Preston, Victoria, Australia September 6, 1892.
[ii] The context of the letter makes her statement even more important. In this letter she is speaking about the Sunday law. In other words, there would be hidden attacks that would be used upon God’s people to lead them to violate conscience with respects to the coming Sunday Law.
[iii] excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques.
[iv] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/585304-the-more-we-do-to-you-the-less-you-seem-to
[v] Worship, the Lord’s supper, signing, praising, fellowshipping, and outreach have all been affected. These are sacred duties.
[vi] Kennedy Jr., Robert F. . The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health (Children’s Health Defense) (p. 23). Skyhorse. Kindle Edition.
[vii] https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/mass-formation-psychosis?r=ta0o1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
[viii] Testimonies for the Church vol 5 p79-80.
[ix] Signs of the Times, December 29, 1890.
[x] “Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service and honor of God supreme will find perplexities vanish, and a plain path before their feet.” (Desire of Ages, p330)
[xi] Song of Solomon 6:10