174
Last Day Events
time, to put them to death. Romanism in the Old World, and apostate
Protestantism in the New, will pursue a similar course toward those
who honor all the divine precepts. The people of God will then be
plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress described by the
prophet as the time of Jacob’s trouble.—
The Great Controversy, 615,
616
(1911).
To human sight it will appear that the people of God must soon
seal their testimony with their blood, as did the martyrs before them.
They themselves begin to fear that the Lord has left them to fall by
the hand of their enemies. It is a time of fearful agony. Day and night
they cry unto God for deliverance.... Like Jacob, all are wrestling with
God. Their countenances express their internal struggle. Paleness sits
upon every face. Yet they cease not their earnest intercession.—
The
Great Controversy, 630
(1911).
Jacob’s experience during that night of wrestling and anguish rep-
resents the trial through which the people of God must pass just before
Christ’s second coming. The prophet Jeremiah, in holy vision looking
down to this time, said, “We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear,
and not of peace.... All faces are turned into paleness. Alas! for that
day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;
but he shall be saved out of it” (
Jeremiah 30:5-7
).—
Patriarchs and
Prophets, 201
(1890).
[263]
The Righteous Have No Concealed Wrongs to Reveal
In the time of trouble, if the people of God had unconfessed sins to
appear before them while tortured with fear and anguish, they would
be overwhelmed; despair would cut off their faith, and they could not
have confidence to plead with God for deliverance. But while they have
a deep sense of their unworthiness, they have no concealed wrongs to
reveal. Their sins have gone beforehand to judgment, and have been
blotted out; and they cannot bring them to remembrance.—
The Great
Controversy, 620
(1911).
God’s people ... will have a deep sense of their shortcomings, and
as they review their lives their hopes will sink. But remembering the
greatness of God’s mercy, and their own sincere repentance, they will
plead His promises made through Christ to helpless, repenting sinners.
Their faith will not fail because their prayers are not immediately