In God’s providence the seeds of the truth eventually burst into new life, growing for the final showdown. For three hundreds years at least they developed against great odds. And on God’s predicted timetable, about the time this long-lived lie system received a near-fatal blow, they finally flowered into an unprecedented exhibition of civil and religious liberty. The special place He created to harbor and spread the end-time messages was the nation with the greatest development of those God-given liberties. These events were preparing the way for the reception and proclamation of the final messages against the kingdoms based on the lie, and in favor of God’s everlasting kingdom. At the same time a counterfeit flowering of license masquerading as liberty sprung up and grew alongside, a never-before-seen tare that would confuse most, and lead to such moral corruption that, looking for solutions, people would think the system that had amalgamated Messiah’s religion with paganism was desirable once again. It was in this context that God began to send the last messages of mercy, as He called messenger after messenger, and opened understanding of the prophecies given to Daniel and John. In receiving the light from God, people began to see in these amazing developments the fulfillment of those very prophecies, as related to the end. In an experience parallel that of the early disciples of Messiah, the understandings and expectations were not all correct from the beginning, but the messages were God-ordained. In sending these end-time calls, God has begun the final judgment, following the pattern He had used since lovingly confronting the first sinful humans. He is repeating the process He used globally in the days of Noah and locally in the days of Lot. Especially we see parallels to what happened on the local scale in the days of Messiah’s first visit to earth. The message is to go globally for a last time, opening the books (the story of the everlasting gospel from creation to present), explaining the verdict (what it is that has caused the final spiritual fall, which foreshadows the coming physical fall), and describing the sentence (how the ultimate and horrendous global execution of judgment can only be grasped by what happens when incurable self-seeking encounters the unveiled presence of Him who is self-sacrificing love). Therefore the cross is presented in unprecedented glory, showing the meeting of mercy and justice, in the wrath of God against sin, the passionate hatred the self-giving One has, in His pure other-centeredness, against all the desolation self-seeking has caused His creation. This process is an intensely practical preparation for a never-before-experienced transition from earthly kingdoms to God’s everlasting kingdom. And again the sanctuary types reveal the bigger picture, as the fall festivals in their order began to meet their fulfillment, including the ministry depicted as occurring in the Holy of Holies, as the blood from the courtyard is brought within the veil. But sensing his end nearing, the father of the lie is releasing his final effort to bring as many as he can to believe it, by rejecting the truth and the evidences for it, through the emotional and pseudo-intellectual appeal of self-love.
