Close of Probation
155
When ministers, farmers, merchants, lawyers, great men and pro-
fessedly good men shall cry, “Peace and safety,” sudden destruction
cometh. Luke reports the words of Christ, that the day of God comes
as a snare—the figure of an animal prowling in the woods for prey,
and lo, suddenly he is entrapped in the concealed snare of the fowler.—
Manuscript Releases 10:266
(1876).
When men are at ease, full of amusement, absorbed in buying and
selling, then the thief approaches with stealthy tread. So it will be at
the coming of the Son of man.—
Letter 21, 1897
.
Religious Leaders Will Be Full of Optimism
When the reasoning of philosophy has banished the fear of God’s
judgments, when religious teachers are pointing forward to long ages
of peace and prosperity, and the world are absorbed in their rounds
of business and pleasure, planting and building, feasting and merry-
making, rejecting God’s warnings and mocking His messengers—then
it is that sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not
escape.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 103
(1890).
Come when it may, the day of God will come unawares to the
ungodly. When life is going on in its unvarying round; when men
are absorbed in pleasure, in business, in traffic, in money-making;
when religious leaders are magnifying the world’s progress and en-
[234]
lightenment, and the people are lulled in a false security—then, as the
midnight thief steals within the unguarded dwelling, so shall sudden
destruction come upon the careless and ungodly, “and they shall not
escape.”—
The Great Controversy, 38
(1911).
Satan Infers That Probation Has Closed
In the time of trouble Satan stirs up the wicked, and they encircle
the people of God to destroy them. But he does not know that “pardon”
has been written opposite their names in the books of heaven.—
The
Review and Herald, November 19, 1908
.
As Satan influenced Esau to march against Jacob, so he will stir
up the wicked to destroy God’s people in the time of trouble.... He
sees that holy angels are guarding them, and he infers that their sins
have been pardoned, but he does not know that their cases have been
decided in the sanctuary above.—
The Great Controversy, 618
(1911).