P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

GALACTIC NEWS FROM THREE ANGELS #17

AMERICA’S LAST PRESIDENT REVEALED

It caused a bit of a ruckus when the rumor started in my denomination. One of our faithful Adventist pioneers — it was alleged — had received a prophetic message from God. And in the message, this particular person had been told, flat-out, the name of the person who would be President of the United States at the time in history when Jesus Christ returned to earth.

Now, this was decades ago, and I hasten to inform anyone listening today that the entire rumor was exactly that: a false rumor. There wasn’t a word of truth to it. But you know, as we human beings struggle mightily to slog through these difficult, intricate Bible passages found in the book of Revelation, we might sometimes wish that God would simply sweep aside the smoke and the mirrors and tell us: “Here it is. I’m coming on such-and-such date. So-and-So will be President. All My faithful followers should wait for Me at the base of X Mountain, and I’ll be there at the stroke of midnight.” Would it be good if God were to communicate with such clarity?

In his standout book, Disappointment With God, Philip Yancey echoes the frustration some of us feel as we grapple with these dark mysteries: the beasts and the metaphors. Why doesn’t God just show up? we wonder. Why is He so hidden? Why doesn’t He seem to answer our prayers? Why can’t it be like in the days of Israel, where God was right there with them in that cloud? There wasn’t any mystery when God spoke from Mount Sinai. Every person within 50 miles heard Him, and God didn’t stutter on a single syllable.

But Yancey goes on to ask: Did the presence of God among them make Israel more mature? Did they grow into abiding faith, a deeper relationship? Or did they stay childlike and vacillating, blown this way and that by every temptation that came along, even with God right there in the camp? Did God perhaps want people who would become seasoned and faithful through adversity, like Job, who would trust Him even in His absence? Does He want people who look for His coming ALL the time, and not just when the predicted President Jones takes the oath of office?

And maybe we could ask the same here. Revelation is a hard book, with baffling interpretations. People disagree on what the beasts and dragons mean. Why doesn’t God just say: “Here I come, on such-and-such date. Sometime before that date . . . please get ready”? Well, friend, you know and I know that most of the world would pick up a Bible and get on their knees about three minutes before the announced arrival. Are those the kinds of eternal friendships God wants to have with us? Does He want people who simply want a free ride to a mansion in heaven, or people who will trust Him as a good God even in the darkness, even when some parts of His Word to us remain mysterious?

The skilled Christian author, Pastor F. D. Nichol, who answered the scurrilous rumor about someone knowing the name of the President when Jesus returns to earth had this to say:

“We need to be careful lest our pious desire to learn more fully God’s purposes for this world be displaced by an idle curiosity to discover what God has not seen fit to reveal.”

And the fact of the matter is this, friend: God hasn’t told us when His Son is returning. In fact, Jesus Himself was very explicit that this was something we weren’t going to be told. “No one knows the day or the hour,” He calmly told His followers, and that was 2000 years ago.

I find this to be helpful whenever I read passages in my Bible where all the answers aren’t evident. And that’s especially true here in Revelation. Have I successfully assigned meanings to every metaphor? Do I know what every beast and every seal and every trumpet stands for? No, I don’t. Even when I have opinions, I share them with reluctance, because I’m a very human person, and all humans are fallible. What seems obvious to us might not be obvious to someone else, and it might appear absolutely ludicrous to God, who alone knows what He’s planning to do. But that doesn’t keep me from studying. That doesn’t cause me to stop my spiritual digging at the end of Jude verse 25. As we mentioned yesterday, the book of Revelation is supposed to be exactly that: a revelation. A revelation of Jesus Christ. So I accept what I do understand, I patiently wait on the rest, and I hang onto the hand of the Revealed One, Jesus Christ, every step of the way.

With that in mind, friend, let’s return to this fascinating piece of apocalyptic literature, and move now to the message of the third and final Angel. We’ve seen that this chapter 14 is a call to worship. It’s an announcement about Judgment. It’s a warning that Babylon has fallen. And now the first two Angels are followed by this third One, who begins his proclamation in verse 9:

“If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too [along with fallen Babylon] will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured out full strength into the cup of His wrath.”

Now, right here we could make a pretty substantial list of the things we don’t know for sure. Who is the beast? What about this “image”? And what about this mark, in the forehead or in the hand? The Word of God doesn’t tell us exactly what these three things are. And if a person says he or she knows, then they’re providing an interpretation of prophecy. Which . . . might well be right. I know some incredible Bible students and seminary theologians, and I have great respect for their skills of interpretation. Especially as I realize that some of them are humble, committed Christians who submit their own minds to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

But here on the radio, you and I need to focus on what the Bible clearly does tell us. What message has God NOT hidden?

First of all, it’s not a great leap of logic to say that we do not want to be found in the circumstances described in Revelation 14, verse 9. Whatever the Beast power in Revelation is, friend, we do not want to be found worshiping it.

We said at the very outset of this journey together that Revelation 14 is all about worship. Go back just to the message of this first Angel, which is found in verse seven. And what do we find? A divine invitation to do what? To worship.

“Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Right here I have to say this: I’m not too overly concerned about identifying this “beast” of the third Angel’s message. Why? Because all I have do to is to focus all of my worship, 110% of it, 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the God of heaven. I make sure I’m not worshiping the beast — any beast — by determining that I’ll only worship God.

And I find a second not-mysterious invitation here as well. Friend, you and I want to focus like a laser, not just on worshiping the God of heaven, but worshiping Him with a renewed emphasis on His role as our Creator. Notice again:

“Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of waters.”

I want to make sure that in my daily personal devotions, I kneel before God as my Creator. I want to make sure that in the books I read and the television programs I watch and the CDs I play in my car, God doesn’t lose His role as my Creator. I want to make sure that in the church services I attend, there’s not one element detracting from God as my Creator . . . whether it’s from the Sabbath sermon, the hymns, the theology, the mission work, the prayers, the Bible study curriculum, anything. Because I read here in chapter 14 that I can be protected from falling under the influence of this beast power by remembering always that God is my Creator.

And again I say, this is what we can KNOW. The things we don’t know . . .we don’t know. But we do know that in these last days, the central issue is this: Worshiping God as our Creator.

I confess — and this is very personal — that right here is one key reason why I chose the Adventist fellowship for my own spiritual home. Because in the heart of the Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath commandment, is the eternal reminder:

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. . . . For in six days the Lord MADE the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

And there you have it. So many things in the Bible we don’t know, but right here in Exodus 20, I’ve found a wonderful way, a weekly way, a glorious full 24-hour way to always be reminded that I don’t worship the beast, I worship the God of heaven who made this world in six days and rested on the seventh.

If you want last-day protection, you can’t do much better than that.