As a born-and-bred Seventh-day Adventist, ensconced in the culture and theological conservatism at the heart of our faith, I often heard tales of fellow church members being fearful of the coming time of trouble and the fierce persecution that would attend God’s people during those days. But I truly can’t recall any of my church friends, or even older persons of my acquaintance, ever expressing such fright or apprehension. This doesn’t mean there weren’t any, of course. But all too often, like negative rumors in general, such reports can take on a life of their own, heedless of reality. It’s the sort of thing sociologists call “urban legend.”

Perhaps one reason I never heard my friends in the church speak of such fears during my youth and young adulthood is because by the time I reached adolescence, spiritual apathy and indifference had largely replaced the robust doctrinal and prophetic emphasis that had characterized Anglo-Saxon Adventism in former times. But in my home, at least, interest in classic Adventist eschatology was a major part of our spiritual life. My mother even made her own end-time charts, and was one of the first to purchase the famous Closing Events Chart, assembled by the late Elder Gordon Collier, a true treasure trove of Bible and Spirit of Prophecy material relative to the last days. This chart has since been reprinted by a ministry in the Pacific Northwest [1].

Scared of the Time of Trouble

A recent screed on a liberal Adventist website asks, “What if Adventist Time of Trouble Teachings Are Just Plain Wrong?” [2]. Lurid tales of children “quaking in their sweaty beds,” being admonished that no one (not even your loved ones) can be trusted, and of course the dreaded “perfection” requirement certain contemporary Adventists despise so deeply [3]—all are paraded before the reader as presumed evidence for the following theological indictment:

Adventism’s take on the Time of Trouble has not helped one person. Ever. Not one. In addition, millions of people have carried unwarranted, septic, contagious fears to their graves [4].

It isn’t the first time the author in question has vented rage against our classic eschatology [5]. And while one must be sensitive to those to whom certain misguided mentors have bequeathed fear in the absence of faith, such concerns don’t lend themselves to serious consideration when attended by distortion and what can fairly be called frivolity. For example, the parody of Adventist end-time expectations mimicked by this author includes the assumption that “the deceptions will fool God’s true followers” [6].

What??? When was the last time he read Matthew 24?? Jesus said, “Insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:24). When has any Adventist failed to leave out this critical phrase in our Lord’s admonition?? Can the author in question cite hard evidence for this very serious allegation?

Then he downright scoffs at Jesus’ statement about fleeing to the mountains (Matt. 24:16), writing in a mocking tone: “You should abandon everyone and flee to the hills. (Good luck, Florida.)” [7]. This kind of talk would be funny if it weren’t so serious. Has this brother totally forgotten how the Lord spirited Elijah to safety, and how the Holy Spirit snatched away Philip the evangelist when it was time for him to go elsewhere (Acts 8:39)? Wherever God wants His people to flee when it’s time to escape their persecutors, He can be trusted to provide ways and means.

In fact, Ellen White says that the angels themselves will show us places to hide in the wilderness during the coming time of trouble:

During the night a very impressive scene passed before me. There seemed to be great confusion and the conflict of armies. A messenger from the Lord stood before me, and said, “Call your household. I will lead you; follow me.” He led me down a dark passage, through a forest, then through the clefts of mountains, and said, “Here you are safe.” There were others who had been led to this retreat. The heavenly messenger said, “The time of trouble has come as a thief in the night, as the Lord warned you it would come” [8].

In another statement she writes of how angels will defend the righteous when the latter flee from the cities and villages:

The heavenly sentinels, faithful to their trust, continue their watch. Though a general decree has fixed the time when commandment keepers may be put to death, their enemies will in some cases anticipate the decree, and before the time specified, will endeavor to take their lives. But none can pass the mighty guardians stationed about every faithful soul. Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages, but the swords raised against them break and fall powerless as a straw. Others are defended by angels in the form of men of war [9].

Does that really sound so scary? Angels showing us places to hide? Angels in the form of soldiers defending the saints? God’s Secret Service in action! I say, Bring it on!!

We can’t overlook the bad stuff, of course. The same inspired author says that “many will be martyrs for Christ’s sake in standing in defense of the truth” [10]. Indeed, there are Christians being martyred for their faith in our own time [11]. This hardly qualifies as some fear-driven fantasy concocted by Seventh-day Adventists. But the modern prophet assures us that “the disciples were not endowed with the courage and fortitude of the martyrs until such grace was needed” [12]. We can be sure this is as true now as in ages past, and that it will be true again when the final crisis breaks.

A Popular Misquote

Distortions of classic Adventist teachings regarding the great time of trouble have drawn particular attention in the continuing debate in the church over what has come to be known as Last Generation Theology. In a recent lecture on this subject, one prominent Adventist scholar cited the following statement by M.L. Andreasen regarding the experience of the end-time saints following probation’s close:

God removes His Spirit from the earth…. God, to make the demonstration complete, does one more thing. He hides Himself. The sanctuary in heaven is closed. The saints cry to God day and night for deliverance, but He appears not to hear…. They must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor [13].

But the ellipses inserted in the above statement convey a very misleading, and outright erroneous, impression of what Andreasen wrote. Here is the statement as Andreasen actually wrote it, without the ellipses and especially with the inclusion of the paragraph which immediately follows:

God removes His Spirit from the earth. Satan will have a greater measure of control than he has ever had before. True, he may not kill God’s people, but that seems to be the only limitation. And he uses every permission he has. He knows what is at stake. It is now or never.

God, to make the demonstration complete, does one more thing. He hides Himself. The sanctuary in heaven is closed. The saints cry to God day and night for deliverance, but He appears not to hear. God’s chosen ones are passing through Gethsemane. They are having a little taste of Christ’s experience those three hours on the cross. Seemingly they must fight their battles alone. They must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor.

But though Christ has finished His intercession, the saints are still the object of God’s love and care. Holy angels watch over them. God provides them shelter from their enemies; He provides them with food, shields them from destruction, and supplies grace and power for holy living. (See Psalm 91.) Yet they are still in the world, still tempted, afflicted, tormented [14].

To be sure, the statement that God “hides Himself” [15] might have been better worded, but quite obviously, Andreasen is not saying that the Last Generation saints will stand on their own, without God’s help. Rather, he is saying that God “appears not to hear” their cries for help [16], that “seemingly they must fight their battles alone” [17]. But in reality, Andreasen says, “the saints are still the object of God’s love and care” [18], that God still protects them and “supplies grace and power for holy living” [19]. In no way can one fairly represent Andreasen as saying God’s people at this time are standing and overcoming in their own strength.

“He Shall Give His Angels Charge Over Thee”

One is truly saddened that anyone born and raised in Adventism has ever heard about the coming time of trouble without being constantly assured of the strength and power of God that will then sustain the true and faithful. Certainly that was my mother’s message whenever this subject came up in our family. Bible memorization was something she taught her children from their earliest years, and one of my favorite passages ever since has been Psalm 91, with its assurance that in times of peril the Lord “shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways” (Psalm 91:11).

Two Harvests in Contrast

The article in question speaks of how, instead of scaring people about the coming time of trouble, “We ought to be trumpeting the sheer decency that arises when people are in crisis” [20]. Of course, we have the inspired admonition that “it is in a crisis that character is revealed” [21], whether good or bad. Crises don’t produce character; they disclose it. And at the end of time, this dual disclosure of good and evil in the human spirit will come to full harvest fruition. The modern prophet writes:

Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own [22].

John foresaw the conflict between the remnant church and the power of evil, and said, “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

The forces of darkness will unite with human agents who have given themselves into the control of Satan, and the same scenes that were exhibited at the trial, rejection, and crucifixion of Christ will be revived. Through yielding to satanic influences, men will be transformed into fiends; and those who were created in the image of God, who were formed to honor and glorify their Creator, will become the habitation of dragons, and Satan will see in an apostate race his masterpiece of evil—men who reflect his own image [23].

Decency and indecency, justice and injustice, purity and impurity, self-sacrifice and self-indulgence—all will be on full display in the final conflict. The harvest of the earth will be fully ripe (Rev. 14:14-20). The only question is, With which harvest will we be found?

Conclusion

The article in question rightly recounts oft-ignored manifestations of positive behavior in challenging moments [24], underscoring yet again the sad fact that negative news generally makes bigger headlines. I would venture to say the same holds true so far as unbalanced depictions of the time of trouble in Adventist circles are concerned.

When I was in college, it was my pleasure to attend a Sabbath School class taught by the late Elder Melvin Venden, who with his brother Dan had served as a notable evangelist for many years. Listening to Elder Venden talk about the time of trouble, you almost got the idea that it was going to be fun! He would speak of how blessed the righteous would be even in dungeons, with angels bringing their food, etc, rather than being outside suffering the seven last plagues. He would speak of the joy that would sweep over the saints as the walls of their confinement would be rent asunder and their bondage ended, and of the reuniting of God’s people with resurrected loved ones in the days to follow.

As with so many other perversions of God’s truth that have at times tarnished the witness of God’s people, we can’t deny that inordinate fear of the final crisis has been a problem with certain ones among us. But we have to remember it was Christ Himself who encouraged His disciples to follow the signs betokening His return. When He spoke of “men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:26), He was talking about the wicked, not the righteous. Speaking to His followers, the Lord made plain that the multiplying of signs indicating His soon coming would be cause, not for terror, but for rejoicing:

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh (Luke 21:28).

REFERENCES

1. https://sealingtime.com/store/product/the-closing-events-chart-by-gordon-collier-sr-1970

2. Chris Blake, “What if Adventist Time of Trouble Teachings Are Just Plain Wrong?” Spectrum, Sept. 5, 2024 https://spectrummagazine.org/views/opinion/what-if-adventist-time-of-trouble-teachings-are-just-plain-wrong/

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. ----“Let’s Stop Talking About It,” Adventist Review, May 17, 2001, p. 29.

6. Blake, “What if Adventist Time of Trouble Teachings Are Just Plain Wrong?” Spectrum, Sept. 5, 2024 https://spectrummagazine.org/views/opinion/what-if-adventist-time-of-trouble-teachings-are-just-plain-wrong/

7. Ibid.

8. Ellen G. White, Maranatha, p. 270.

9. ----The Great Controversy, p. 631.

10. ----Last Day Events, p. 150.

11. See Johnnie Moore and Jerry Pattengale, The New Book of Christian Martyrs: The Heroes of Our Faith from the 1st Century to the 21st Century (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2023).

12. ----The Desire of Ages, p. 354.

13. M.L. Andreasen, The Sanctuary Service (second edition) (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Assn, 2006), pp. 317-318, as quoted by Jiri Moskala, “Last Generation Theology and Oft-Misinterpreted End-Time Issues Related to Assurance of Salvation in Christ,” http://www.lastgenerationforchrist.org/articles (tape recording, 6:44).

14. Andreasen, The Sanctuary Service, pp. 317-318.

15. Ibid, p. 317.

16. Ibid, p. 318 (italics supplied).

17. Ibid (italics supplied).

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. Blake, “What if Adventist Time of Trouble Teachings Are Just Plain Wrong?” Spectrum, Sept. 5, 2024 https://spectrummagazine.org/views/opinion/what-if-adventist-time-of-trouble-teachings-are-just-plain-wrong/

21. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 412.

22. Ibid, p. 69.

23. ----SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 974.

24. Blake, “What if Adventist Time of Trouble Teachings Are Just Plain Wrong?” Spectrum, Sept. 5, 2024 https://spectrummagazine.org/views/opinion/what-if-adventist-time-of-trouble-teachings-are-just-plain-wrong/

Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan