In two days Americans will go to the polls to cast their votes, many have already done so. This year's election, I believe, is as important as the election of 1860. I hope everyone who can vote, will vote. The events of this year - natural disasters, disease, violence, political unrest - so far are certainly unlike anything we've experienced. But the writer EG White gave us words of counsel about this time over 100 years ago. When we read her words along with those from the prophet Joel it would seem we are very near the return of Jesus.
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The excerpt below is from pages 536 and 537 from the book Prophets and Kings by EG White:
The prophecies which the great I AM has given in His word, uniting link after link in the chain of events, from eternity in the past to eternity in the future, tell us where we are today in the procession of the ages and what may be expected in the time to come. All that prophecy has foretold as coming to pass, until the present time, has been traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.
Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour's prophecy of the events to precede His coming: "Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . . Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." Matthew 24:6, 7.
The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place--that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, events that already are casting their shadows before, the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear.
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The Book of Joel from the Holy Bible:
Joel 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation.
4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.
7 He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests mourn, who minister to the LORD.
10 The field is wasted, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine is dried up, The oil fails.
11 Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree-All the trees of the field are withered; Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.
13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; Wail, you who minister before the altar; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, You who minister to my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.
14 ¶ Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD.
15 Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seed shrivels under the clods, Storehouses are in shambles; Barns are broken down, For the grain has withered.
18 How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, Because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.
19 O LORD, to You I cry out; For fire has devoured the open pastures, And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20 The beasts of the field also cry out to You, For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has devoured the open pastures.