The Lost Condemn Their False Shepherds
Church members who have seen the light and been convicted, but who have trusted the salvation of their souls to the minister, will learn in the day of God that no other soul can pay the ransom for their transgression. A terrible cry will be raised, “I am lost, eternally lost.” Men will feel as though they could rend in pieces the ministers who have preached falsehoods and condemned the truth.—The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 4:1157 (1900).
All unite in heaping their bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied smooth things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God and to persecute those who would keep it holy. Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. “We are lost!” they cry, “and you are the cause of our ruin”; and they turn upon the false shepherds. The very ones that once admired them most, will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very hands that once crowned them with laurels, will be raised for their destruction. The swords which were to slay God's people, are now employed to destroy their enemies.—The Great Controversy, 655, 656 (1911).
Here we see that the church—the Lord's sanctuary—was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men [Ezekiel 9:6], those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust.—Testimonies for the Church 5:211 (1882).
God's Word is made of none effect by false shepherds.... Their work will soon react upon themselves. Then will be witnessed the scenes described in Revelation 18 when the judgments of God shall fall upon mystical Babylon.—Manuscript 60, 1900.
The Sixth Plague
The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to fasten them in deception, and urge them on to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government of heaven.—The Great Controversy, 624 (1911).
The Spirit of God is gradually withdrawing from the world. Satan is also mustering his forces of evil, going forth “unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world,” to gather them under his banner, to be trained for “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” [Revelation 16:14].—The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 7:983 (1890).
After John's description in Revelation 16 of that miracle-working power which was to gather the world to the last great conflict, the symbols are dropped and the trumpet voice once more gives a certain sound: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame” [Revelation 16:15]. After the transgression of Adam and Eve they were naked, for the garment of light and security had departed from them.
The world will have forgotten the admonition and warnings of God as did the inhabitants of the Noatic world, as did also the dwellers in Sodom. They awoke with all their plans and inventions of iniquity, but suddenly the shower of fire came from heaven and consumed the godless inhabitants. “Thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” [Luke 17:30].—Manuscript Releases 14:96, 97 (1896).
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