Greetings MOL Family!

We’re in the time, we’re told, when every wind of doctrine will be blowing. There are many other winds, too, beside the winds of doctrine. In today’s lesson, let’s study another…

The Wind of Persecution

In Revelation 7:1, we found that somebody’s holding the different winds, all of the winds. Who’s holding the winds? The angels of God; under the divine command of God, are holding the winds. That is, they’re holding them in the sense that they are not allowed to blow without restraint. They’re under control, in other words.

But the time is coming when all the winds will be turned loose. It’s going to be a wonderful thing, dear friends, to be ready for the blowing of those winds and to be successful in standing through them, not being overcome or overturned by them.

In our last lesson, we studied about a tornado. I will study about a hurricane today. Matthew, the 7th chapter, beginning with the 24th verse:

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. – Matthew 7:24-27

Yes, here we have flood, storm, hurricane, winds of hurricane force and velocity, beating upon houses. One stands and the other goes down. The difference is in the foundation.

This house that is built upon the rock fitly represents the church of Christ, which is going through the coming storm of persecution without falling. To prove that, let us turn to Matthew, the 16th chapter, and we will notice the words of Jesus in the 18th verse, speaking to Peter after his confession of faith in the Messiahship of Christ. Jesus says to him:

…Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. – Matthew 16:18

“This rock” refers to Jesus as the Son of God and Son of man. So the church is indeed the house built where? Upon the Rock. And against it, all the forces of hell combined, but the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And the winds, the storm of persecution, which soon will burst upon the church will not be able to overthrow it. However, as we saw there in Matthew 7, there will be those who have built their houses upon the sands, and their houses will go down in the coming storm. When the winds blow, they will be overthrown.

Now, if we will turn to Revelation, the 13th chapter, we will see what some of these persecutions are going to be. In Revelation 13:15 we have the setting up of the image to the beast, and eventually, what kind of a decree to enforce the worship of it? A death decree. In the 16th and 17th verses, we have an enforcement of the mark of the beast, and what method is used here to enforce it? A boycott; can’t buy or sell.

The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. The decree will soon go forth prohibiting men to buy or sell of any man save him that hath the mark of the beast. We came near having this realized in California a short time since; but this was only the threatening of the blowing of the four winds. As yet they are held by the four angels. We are not just ready. There is a work yet to be done, and then the angels will be bidden to let go, that the four winds may blow upon the earth. – Testimonies for the Church, Volume 5, pg. 152

Now, you notice that the prophet here connects the blowing of the four winds with the enforcement of the mark of the beast. And notice that the messenger to the remnant says that in California, when a Sunday Law crisis came up, she speaks of that as “the threatening of the blowing of the four winds.” That was the threatening of the blowing of the four winds. But when persecution is universal against the people of God, and the boycott is enforced and the death decree comes, this will indeed be a time when all the winds of persecution are let loose.

Now, in some parts of the world, our people are suffering persecution at the present time. And they indeed feel the force of the blowing of this wind of persecution. Back through the ages, at many times in the history of the church, there has been persecution. Think of how the apostles suffered imprisonment, martyrdom of various kinds. James was beheaded. Peter and Paul were put into prison. Peter eventually was crucified. Paul was beheaded. Every one of the apostles, except the beloved John, died a martyr.

As we come on down into the Dark Ages, we think of the millions who suffered persecution then. But as we approach the end of time, the church of Christ is going to go through a baptism of suffering and trial similar to that which the church has experienced in ages past. And this time of persecution is fitly represented by the blowing of the winds. So, we want to study this wind of persecution.

A Sifting, Purging Wind

Let’s notice some effects it’s going to have upon the church. Great Controversy, page 608. If you read the preceding paragraphs, she’s talking about the storm of persecution:

As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. – Great Controversy, pg. 608

So this wind is going to be a sifting and a purging wind. This wind, as it sweeps against the church, will sweep through the church and will blow out the chaff.

Turn to the message of John the Baptist, in Matthew, the 3rd chapter, and we’ll see how this figure of the wind blowing through the threshing floor is used. Matthew, the 3rd chapter, and the 12th verse. Speaking of Jesus:

Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. – Matthew 3:12

What does it take to separate wheat and chaff? It takes a wind. And God is going to use the very persecution which the devil blows against the church, He’s going to use that to purge out the false hearted. That’s what this is talking about here, in Great Controversy, page 608:

As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. – Great Controversy, pg. 608

Who’s the opposition? Well, they’re the ones that are making the persecution, the powers of earth, the popular churches. The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet are the symbols that are used in the book of Revelation to present that great confederacy of church and state all over the world that battle the Remnant church.

As the storm approaches… – Ibid

Volume 8, page 315, says:

A storm is coming, relentless in its fury. Are we prepared to meet it? – Testimonies for the Church, Volume 8, pg. 315

Let’s think of some of these methods of persecution. It says:

…Children will be disinherited and driven from home…Some of them [the defenders of truth] will be thrust into prison, some will be exiled, some will be treated as slaves. To human wisdom all this now seems impossible; but as the restraining Spirit of God shall be withdrawn from men…there will be strange developments. – Great Controversy, pg. 608

This is the storm of persecution which is soon to blow, friends, with hurricane force against the church –all kinds of persecution, everything– that men and devils can invent.

You know, sometimes when I hear of the terrible tortures which have been inflicted in various sorts of political strife in Europe and other places, I have thought, “The devil is just training those men and getting them ready to turn them loose upon the remnant.”

Now, what’s going to happen, as this storm approaches? A large class is going to do what? They’re going to “abandon their position.” Where is their position up to that time? It’s in the church. And they’re going to “join the ranks of the opposition.” The next sentence tells us what’s the matter:

By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side. – Great Controversy, pg. 608

You know, my dear friends, when I hear things and see things in the church today that are almost like the world, I think of these warnings. God help us not to get so close to the world that it’ll take just a little wind to blow us on over there. I want to keep as far from this danger as possible. What do you say?

The raging floods may round us beat,
A shelter in the time of storm;
We find in God a safe retreat,
A shelter in the time of storm.

As was mentioned before, I hope we use the text in Isaiah often enough that we’ll all know it by heart when this series is over. This is really the keynote text to this series – a hiding place from every wind:

And a Man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. – Isaiah 32:2

Oh, friends, be so close to Jesus that, when the storm of persecution breaks over the church, we are hidden with Him in the cleft of the Rock! Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t suffer persecution, but it means that we suffer with Him rather than apart from Him…

May this be each of our prayer… Until next week – Invite a friend, and we’ll see you then! 

-Continue on to the next study-

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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.