How Near Is Near?

Are any Bible prophecies being fulfilled today to show that Jesus is coming soon?

Our world is filled with sickness, suffering, heartache and death. War ravages whole nations. Uncertainty about the future grips many hearts. But amidst it all, in a world out of control, Adventists have hope. That hope is in the second coming of Jesus.

Seventh-day Adventists have anticipated the coming of Christ for almost 150 years now. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers believed and taught that Jesus was coming soon. Yet where is the sense of nearness of Christ’s coming among Adventists today? How near is near? Do we have any more evidence today that Christ is going to return in our lifetime than our forefathers had in their lifetimes?

Before we consider specific events, we will review briefly the general prophetic picture as a backdrop. When we look at the “big picture” of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, we note an obvious flow of those prophecies. The image of Daniel 2, for instance, with its various parts of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and the feet of iron and clay, represents the progression of history through the kingdoms of Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the breakup of the Roman Empire. Then, in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, a rock strikes the image at its feet, symbolizing the overthrow of earth’s kingdoms by God’s coming kingdom. We see that we are living down at the toes of the image.

The symbols of Daniel 7—the lion, the bear, the leopard, and the beast with ten horns, and the rise of the little horn and then the judgment—follow the same general progression, and indicate again that we are now living in the judgment hour. In Daniel 8, the 2300 years point to 1844, and still again we see that we are living in the time of the end. When we look at the seven churches of Revelation, we find that ours is the seventh church, Laodicea, once again pointing to our time as the end time, the judgment hour. Every time-sequence prophecy of the Bible reveals that we are living at the end of time.

But haven’t Seventh-day Adventists believed and taught that for years? Didn’t our pioneers teach it almost 150 years ago? What significance does prophecy have for this hour?

If we are looking for specific events to indicate the nearness of Christ’s return, we will either misinterpret events and try to squeeze current events into prophecy, or we will be disappointed looking for an event that doesn’t transpire. But if we look at trends, we will see an increasingly clear Bible scenario of the coming of Jesus. Our hearts will beat with eager anticipation at what God is doing.

We will examine five distinct trends that the Bible says will occur before the coming of Jesus. These trends stand out against the backdrop of prophecy, so that the perceptive Bible student can have no doubt that we are living right on the verge of the coming of Jesus. We are living in the days our forefathers looked forward to.

What are these five prophetic trends?

1. GROWING CONFEDERATION IN EUROPE

Revelation predicts an emerging unity or confederation in Europe, just before the union of church and state, the ushering in of the mark of the beast and the final events on planet earth. Revelation 17 speaks of ten horns, and we recognize the symbolism from Daniel 7, where the ten horns represent the breakup of the Roman Empire. Revelation 17:12 picks up that symbolism of the divided Roman Empire and says, “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings [or kingdoms; compare Dan 7:17, 23, 24] who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.”

“One Mind.” The independent nations of Europe will be divided, separated, right up until the time of the end. Then they will receive authority [power] as kings for one hour, together with the beast.” The beast is the papal power; “one hour” represents a short period of time. Significantly, the prophecy notes, “These are of one mind” (Rev 17:13). This unity is not linguistic, nor is it the unity of a single king over Europe, but there is still a commonality, a unity of mind and thought, a confederacy, even as they preserve independence. “These are of one mind,” that is, they first find union, and then they “give over their power and authority to the beast” (vs 13). The European confederacy will prepare the way for union with Rome, and thus for the mark of the beast.

The account in Revelation 17 goes on: “They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings.” How do they make war with the Lamb? By making war with the Lamb’s people.

So our first trend takes place in Europe, where we may expect to see the nations uniting in common purpose just before the coming of Jesus.

Today’s Trend.

What is going on in Europe today? In 1957 six countries formed the Common Market in Europe, which developed slowly at first but today has twelve member nations. In 1990 they established the European Parliament, with 420 delegates from the member states. They are working on establishing a Euro-currency, a single monetary system, for all of Europe. The confederacy of Europe has become such an economic power bloc, especially now with Germany reunited, that other nations are anxious not to be left out. Turkey has applied, and the formerly communist nations of Eastern Europe are also seeking entrance. Ukraine is giving serious consideration to becoming part of this “united states of Europe.”

The motto for the Common Market is, “Many Tongues, One Voice.” On the cover of the brochure for this confederation of Europe, along with that motto, is a picture that symbolizes their union—a picture of the Tower of Babel. Babel, or Babylon, was the place where the nations and languages were divided; now it becomes the symbol for the uniting of the nations of Europe. Though a union on economic matters is not yet the “one mind” of Revelation 17, and its future in this form is not assured, it demonstrates the willingness of these nations to work together for a common purpose, despite their historic animosities.

I believe it no coincidence that the cooperating states of Europe have chosen as their symbol the tower of Babel.

I believe it no coincidence that the cooperating states of Europe have chosen as their symbol the tower of Babel. Thoughtful students of Bible prophecy recognize that Revelation 17 describes modern spiritual Babylon. So Revelation 17 says that these ten tribes, divided Europe, will unite in a confederacy just before the giving of the mark of the beast, and under spiritual Babylon’s leadership there will be a common Europe again. Adventists can recognize that the situation today is different from what it was even twenty-five years ago. Those who have their minds filled with the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation recognize that we are living on the verge of the coming of Jesus.

2. GROWING PAPAL INFLUENCE

We should expect to see the influence of the papacy growing worldwide. We should expect to see the papacy challenge the atheistic power of communism and set its eyes on the former communist states.

Daniel 11 has often fascinated Bible students. About ten years ago, in studying that chapter, I came to the conclusion that the last part of Daniel 11, starting with verse 40, applied with special significance to our day. Many Adventist interpreters from James White onward have seen the papacy represented by the king of the north in the last part of the chapter. The problem has been to identify the king of the south, who opposes the king of the north. The logical candidate for a major power who challenges the papal king of the north in our day is atheistic communism. Ten years ago in my Daniel classes we taught that we should expect to see in the rising king of the north the emerging power of the papacy that would ultimately triumph over communism.

Kings Attack.

How do we get that out of the symbols of the king of the north and the king of the south? Note Daniel 11:40: “At the time of the end the king of the south shall attack him; but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through.”

Adventists understand “the time of the end” to have begun at the end of the 1260 years, the “time, two times, and half a time” (see Dan 7:25, Rev 12:6, 14), or about 1798. At that time, says Daniel 11:40, “the king of the south shall attack him.” The King James Version uses the verb “push” here; it may also be translated “gore,” as it is in Exodus 21:28. An animal with one or more horns may attack another animal, jabbing and ripping with its horn, opening the side of its enemy and causing it to bleed. Thus it gores or wounds its opponent. So “the king of the south shall attack [gore or wound] him”—the king of the north. But then the king of the north would come back against the king of the south with a mighty force, entering into countries and passing through them. What is this possibly talking about?

In Daniel’s day Israel was the center of prophecy and Jerusalem the center for God’s people. To their south was a powerful nation, Egypt, whose pharaoh had once said defiantly, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?” Egypt had many gods, but it refused to recognize the only One who was truly God. In Biblical history, this was Egypt’s defining moment; it would henceforth oppress and threaten God’s people. In our day, even those who say they believe in no god in fact worship the “Egyptian” gods of their own devising—power, fame, money, philosophy, hedonism, and even Marx and Lenin—while they refuse to recognize and obey the only true God. In that sense Egypt represents all who deny the true God and thus manifest the spirit of atheism.

Egypt threatened Israel from the south, but the Babylonians threatened from the north. Though they were actually to the east of Israel, they never came from that direction, across the desert; they came down from the north. Babylon represents false religion in the Bible. So Babylon, false religion, invaded God’s people from the north, and Egypt, representing denial of God (“Who is the Lord?”), invaded from the south. In Daniel 11 you have this crossfire: God’s people are caught in the middle of a titanic struggle between false-religion Babylon from the north, and God-denying Egypt from the south.

The philosophical and intellectual seeds sown in the French Revolution germinated and bore fruit later in the 1917 communist revolution.

In A.D. 34, the gospel went to the Gentiles, and God’s church became spiritual Israel. No longer would literal Babylon attack literal Jerusalem, but spiritual Babylon would attack the church. In the first six chapters of Daniel, literal Babylon attacks Jerusalem; in the last six, spiritual Babylon focuses its anger on the sanctuary in heaven and God’s law, and false religion tries to destroy God’s people. Spiritual Babylon was manifest in the papacy—that’s the king of the north in the last part of Daniel 11.

Application.

What is the application of the conflict between the king of the south and the king of the north? Just as Egypt represented a denial of the true God, so in 1798 France was the great God-denying power which attacked the papacy, giving it a “deadly wound.” Here is the meaning of Daniel 11:40: at the time of the end (which began in 1798) the king of the south (denial of God as embodied in France) would attack (gore, wound) the king of the north (the papacy).

But the philosophical and intellectual seeds sown in the French Revolution germinated and bore fruit later in the communist revolution of Lenin in 1917. The flag of atheism, denying the God of heaven and setting up its own “gods,” went from France to communism and the Soviet Union. But the prophecy says that the king of the north would come against the king of the south like a whirlwind, and he would be victorious. What should we expect? Just before Jesus comes, we should expect communism to fall; we should expect the papacy to set its sights on those lands in which communism was dominant; we should expect the papacy to begin to evangelize those lands; and we should expect a growing influence of the papacy.

Healed Wound.

Revelation 13:3, last part, tells us something to expect just before the setting up of the mark of the beast: “Its [the beast’s] mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder.” This verse makes it clear who the leading influential power would be near the end of time. Do we have any evidence that things are going in his direction, or that the papacy even has such aspirations?

Malachi Martin, longtime confidant of Pope John Paul II, recently wrote a book called, The Keys of This Blood: The Struggle for World Dominion between Pope Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Capitalist West. Martin believes John Paul II has been hand-picked by God to become the world’s political leader. On page 480 he makes this statement, highlighting a striking fulfillment of Bible prophecy:

“From the beginning of his pontificate, John Paul has been talking incessantly about the convergence of the nations. . . . He would endow his papacy with an international profile, and, as Pope, move around among world leaders and nations, vindicating a position for himself as a special leader among leaders, to emerge as the victor.”

Can it be stated any plainer than this? “And the whole earth” would “follow the beast with wonder.” According to Martin, John Paul’s goal is to fellowship with the leaders of the world so that he may establish himself as the new world leader at a time of political decay when the world is looking for moral and spiritual leadership.

Have you noticed these recent articles in secular news journals? Time, December 4, 1989, described an upcoming meeting between Mikhail Gorbachev and John Paul II. “Of all the events that have shaken the Soviet bloc in 1989, none is more fraught with history or more implausible than the polite encounter that will take place this week [December 1989] in Vatican City. There, in the spacious ceremonial library of the sixteenth-century apostolic palace, the czar of world atheism, Mikhail Gorbachev, will visit the vicar of Christ, John Paul II.” So Time described this as a meeting between the chief proponent of the world’s atheistic powers and the “vicar of Christ.”

The August 13, 1990 issue of U.S. News and World Report carried this notice in its “Washington Whispers” column:

“John Paul II discusses world affairs on the telephone with George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev once a week. The Pope advised Gorbachev against violence, and in return he counseled Baltic and Ukrainian Catholics against pushing Gorbachev into a corner. He offers President Bush informed analysis prepared by the Vatican’s intelligence network about developments in Eastern Europe.”

According to Time magazine (Dec. 3, 1990, p. 89), the pope has given a special assignment to the Jesuits: to direct the task of training priests and rebuilding the clergy in Eastern Europe in order to re-evangelize the formerly communist countries. Eastern bloc clergy are being brought to Rome for training in Jesuit institutions, from which they will return to their homelands as seminary teachers to educate thousands of priests and thus to retake Eastern Europe.

This was not Rome’s only plan. The cover story of Time magazine for February 24, 1992 was entitled, “Holy Alliance.”It revealed how over the last ten years the Vatican and the United States conspired together to overthrow the communist regime in Poland and thereby deal a death blow to Soviet communism. We have witnessed the success of their efforts.

What did prophecy predict? Precisely what is now taking place before our eyes: the growing power of the papacy and an emerging union in Europe.

3. GROWING U.S. INFLUENCE

As Europe consolidates and as the power and influence of Rome grows, we should expect the United States of America to grow in influence in the world. If indeed Protestant America is going to reach across the abyss and unite with the papal power, there must be a resurgence of America’s influence just before Jesus comes. America must emerge as the premier political superpower in the world.

In Revelation 13:11, John says, “Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.” Here is another power, a kingdom separate from the first beast in Revelation 13, which was the papacy. When the papacy goes into captivity (Rev 13:10), this second beast, this second power, springs up rapidly in an unpopulated area. If the sea, from which the first beast came up, represents multitudes (Rev 17:15), then the earth represents a relatively unpopulated area.

“It had two horns like a lamb,” with no crowns on those horns; it is not ruled by a king. In Revelation, references to a lamb remind one of Christ, who did not compel men to serve Him. Ellen White notes (The Great Controversy, p. 441) that “the lamblike horns indicate youth, innocence, and gentleness, fitly representing the character of the United States” at its beginning around 1798. Its founding documents established the government on a broad foundation of civil and religious liberty.

But when this lamb opens its mouth, it speaks like a dragon, the Lamb’s enemy.

Superpower.

This beast would rise to world dominance. Verse 12 says, “It exercises all the authority of the first beast,” and “it makes the earth and its inhabitants” do what it commands. It is the premier superpower in the earth. The recent demise of Soviet communism and the splintering of the Soviet Union into ethnic nations, loosely associated in a “Commonwealth of Independent States,” has left the United States as the only remaining political superpower, with political and military muscle to wield in the world without major challenge.

Recently we have heard President Bush speak of a “new world order.” The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait presented a major threat to world stability. President Bush knew that the only way to safely defend Kuwait was to develop a coalition among nations. Twenty-five nations participated in the coalition. Out of that experience the term New World Order was coined. The Washington Post(Dec. 3, 1990, p. A15) carried an opinion piece by Jeanne Kirkpatrick entitled, “Not Just the Gulf, but the Globe.” She observed, “Bush is not only trying to turn back Saddam Hussein’s aggression. . . . Bush’s dream is global. His identifications are universal. When he says ‘we’ he means ‘the civilized world.’ When he says ‘our’ he means ‘the world community.’ When he says ‘we must turn back Saddam Hussein,’ he means ‘all would-be Saddam Husseins.’ His goal is nothing less than a world community based on law.”

Can you see what is happening? Those who go early enough to a play may see stage hands come out and set up a chair over here, a couch over there, and flowers on the table. They are watching the stage being set. Today many Adventists may be looking for the play without realizing that right now the stage is being set. And they’re asking themselves, “When is the play going to begin?” We are waiting for the final events. When is this time of trouble before the coming of Jesus?” But the stage is being set right now.

Note the trends.

1. The growing union of Europe (see Rev 17): an emerging cooperation of Europe, a common market, one European currency; the Bible said, “These are of one mind and give over their power and authority to the beast.”

2. The rising power of the papacy (see Rev 13, Dan 11): the growing dominance of the papal power among world leaders and its expanding influence in places like Eastern Europe.

3. Increasing U.S. influence (see the last part of Rev 13): the United States becomes the superpower dominating the community of nations, the global village.

When these trends are in place—a confederacy in Europe, the Eastern Bloc countries under papal influence, and the United States a politically dominant superpower—it will be so easy to establish unified world control.

4. FALSE SECURITY

The fourth trend we should look for is this: prophecy predicts that just before the coming of Jesus the world apparently will become safer, but in actuality will be less safe. The Bible says regarding “the times and the seasons” that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them . . . , and there will be no escape” (1 Thess 5:1–3). As part of the “stage-setting,” we should expect to find great emphasis on peace and a safe world. In January Boris Yeltsin addressed fifteen nations in the United Nations Security Council about continued disarmament in a safer world. Our own country is discussing the “peace dividend.” We can expect to hear more and more talk about reducing and destroying nuclear weapons. But thoughtful Seventh-day Adventists will not be caught off guard. Despite talk of a safe world, prophecy indicates the world will become less safe. Politicians may herald the coming of a secure world, a world in which we can bring up our children and grandchildren, a world in the grand millennial age of peace and love. But when world leaders strategize for “peace and security,” the Bible tells us, “then sudden destruction will come upon them.”

Smaller countries reportedly are interested in hiring Soviet scientists to help them develop nuclear weapons.

The news media have been reporting economic disaster in the former Soviet Union. Blocks-long bread lines and riots over food have affected all segments of Soviet society. The 14,000 nuclear scientists in the Soviet countries now receive an average salary of twelve to fifteen dollars a month. They can’t survive on that. The former regime guarded them carefully; to keep nuclear secrets secure, the scientists couldn’t leave the country. But now smaller countries such as Qaddafi’s Libya reportedly are interested in hiring Soviet scientists (at substantial salaries) to help them develop nuclear weapons. Though at this writing none are known to have gone, the potential is real. What if these nuclear scientists begin leaving by the droves?

Another concern is that underpaid military personnel could succumb to large bribes to turn the other way while some of the Soviet Union’s 30,000 tactical nuclear weapons are removed from their bases and smuggled out of the country. Reports of several such disappearances have already surfaced. This is a truly fearful prospect amid all the talk of peace and security.

China has a well-developed nuclear program. Many political analysts believe North Korea to be on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Saddam Hussein was much closer to achieving nuclear capability than most western political analysts had thought possible. The Soviet Union may no longer be a nuclear threat, but third-world countries may prove altogether too willing to use newly-acquired nuclear weapons, especially if they face famine or other severe hardship. Yet the hearts of those who know Jesus are not failing for fear, but are anticipating the coming of Christ.

The Bible predicted that while people are talking about peace and safety, the world will become increasingly unsafe. Could it be that we will see a limited nuclear war unleashed? Revelation 11:18 certainly makes us consider that possibility: “The nations raged, but thy wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, for rewarding thy servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear thy name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Today, in the time of the end, nuclear secrets have been opened and nuclear weapons are proliferating among the nations, giving human beings the tools to destroy the earth quickly should the nations rage. Will limited nuclear destruction become the catalyst leading the nations to seek a moral underpinning for society, and thus to unite under the superpower America and the supreme religious leader in Rome? Are all these things weaving together into one tapestry?

We cannot predict just what turn events will take, but the Bible points us to trends.

We cannot predict just what turn events will take, but the Bible points us to trends which may develop in this way. At a time of world calamity, if some maniac starts pushing buttons and there is limited nuclear war, we could expect a backlash and a call for people to return to God. In such dire times, under the joint leadership of America and Rome, there would be little room for dissent from the religious program instituted to “save the world.”

Are not these times significantly different than the times of our fathers? Can we doubt that Jesus is soon to come? Seventh-day Adventists do not set a time—we don’t say five years or ten years or by the year 2000. We watch the trends, the steady pace of events. As careful students of prophecy, we believe that we are living just before the coming of our Lord.

5. UNLEASHING OF THE GOSPEL

The Bible predicts that just before the coming of Jesus, barriers inhibiting the proclamation of the gospel will be overthrown, and dictatorial rulers will no longer be able to inhibit the powerful preaching of God’s word. Revelation 14:6 says, “Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” The angel is flying, not floating, and he’s moving quickly, startling fast. His message goes to every nation, tribe, tongue and people, just before Jesus comes.

Despotic regimes cannot hold the gospel back. In fact, atheistic government leaders today are themselves surprised at what is happening.

Recently in Washington I was privileged to meet with one of Mikhail Gorbachev’s top aides. This man, who had been a leading cabinet member and Politburo member, is currently a top officer of the Gorbachev Foundation, which Gorbachev established when he lost his position at the head of the Soviet government. As a trusted advisor to Gorbachev, he had been an architect of the Soviet government.

Through a translator, I told him how much I enjoyed the new Soviet Union, and that I appreciated the new openness of glasnost and perestroika for which Gorbachev had risked so much and paid such a price. I told him, “I’m really looking forward to returning to the Soviet Union, because in March I’ll be holding an evangelistic meeting inside the Kremlin.” The Kremlin is that three-mile-square center of government which, under the Soviet regime, was the equivalent of the American Congress, Senate and Capitol Hill. We have received permission to hold an evangelistic series in the Communist Congress Party building inside the Kremlin!

At first we were told we could not take a Bible in, but things are different now, and we will take about 20,000 Bibles that we will take in. The auditorium seats 6,500 people. We’ll use it for two sessions a day over eleven consecutive days for a major evangelistic series. When I told the official about our meetings, his mouth dropped open in amazement, and he was speechless. One of my companions described him as “shellshocked.”

Hand of God.

God’s power is greater than any communist government or despotic regime. Seventh-day Adventists see in the changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe not merely political events but the hand of God working miracles, opening doors, sweeping away totalitarian leaders so the gospel may go to these countries.

What should we expect next? I am not a prophet, but I read prophecy. We should expect China to open in the very near future. If we are wise, we should prepare literature right now for China, and prepare people who understand the Chinese language to be able to move quickly. We should expect changes in the Middle East that will predispose the Muslim mind to the gospel. We should expect unusual movements among many peoples.

I was amazed when I went to the Soviet Union. Never before have I seen people movements like that for the gospel. Masses of people, from KGB officers to university presidents to bank executives to government officials, came and sat on the floor because they could not get a seat for the preaching of the gospel. We started a Bible course after one week of our 1991 meetings and we had 4,000 Bible students. In three weeks, 4,000 people did 77,000 Bible lessons, and a hundred of our pastors and people there corrected them all by hand. In Moscow, where we had just one church of 700 members, we now have a second church of about the same size.

Seventh-day Adventists recognize that this is not a time for business as usual, because Jesus is coming soon. This whole world will be illuminated with the glory of God. Here is how He made provision for it in one difficult place.

Until 1991, Albania was the only constitutionally atheistic country in the world. The Soviet Union never was officially atheistic, though the ruling Communist Party was, and the government tried to control and discourage religion. But the Soviet constitution guaranteed religious freedom, and Muslims, Jews, and Christians of various kinds were all openly represented there. Likewise, China is not constitutionally atheistic nor is any other country in the world. But in 1967 Albania’s leaders wrote into their country’s constitution that the Albanian state “recognizes no religion whatsoever.”

Albania.

For years Albania was shut off from Europe and the rest of the world. We did not know whether there were any Adventists left there. We knew that in the 1930s a certain Daniel Lewis, a pharmacist and native-born Albanian, had gone from Boston as a missionary to Albania. We also knew that he had two children. In 1947, the communist regime put Lewis in prison, where he died in 1951. But we knew nothing about his children.

In late 1990 things began to change in Albania. We learned that members of the Lewis family were alive and living in the southern town of Korce. We also learned that Daniel’s wife, Flora, and their daughter, Esther, had kept their Adventist Christian faith. So we wanted to go to Albania and try to find these lone Adventists who had been so faithful through the years.

After several months of negotiations through good contacts, the church was able to obtain a visa for Pastor Ray Dabrowski, a friend of mine who is the Communication and Public Affairs director at the Trans-European Division office, and who also carries a passport from one of the former Socialist countries in Eastern Europe. He, together with John Arthur from the division’s Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) office, went to Albania to offer humanitarian aid. Arriving in the capital city of Tirana, they quickly discovered that the whole country was moving toward democratic reform. The state officials welcomed them warmly. They were given a royal tour of the city and were offered transportation to other parts of the country. ADRA made commitments of humanitarian support.

With them they brought a bag full of food and toiletries. After learning that they would be able to travel outside of Tirana, they asked to go to Korce, where there was a home they would like to visit. The home was that of Flora Lewis.

Arriving at the house, they were happy to meet Esther. Her mother wasn’t home. Esther had never become a baptized member of the church. Her mother had brought her up to know God, and she understood the Adventist message in her heart. Circumstances had prevented her from being baptized or attending a church for over forty years. Ray suggested he could take the supplies into Esther’s kitchen; John occupied the state officials in animated conversation.

In the seclusion of the kitchen, behind closed doors, Ray said to Esther, “I am a Seventh-day Adventist.” Her face changed; tears started rolling down her cheeks. She gave him a hug and could not believe that this was happening to her. Ray then gave her the supplies and said, “I brought some Bibles for you.” She took them in her hands and kissed them. Additional tears prevented her from saying anything more.

After a few moments she asked, “Are missionaries coming to Albania?” Ray assured her of the Adventist church’s intentions to reclaim Albania for Christ. “That’s the reason I’m here,” he said. Esther expressed her disappointment that the foreign visitors could not meet her mother. “Please come back. We will wait. Please come back.”

Holy Ground.

Ray returned to Albania a few months later. By then he had learned that another Adventist family lived in Tirana. As he went into the house of 87-year-old Meropi Gjika, he felt that he was stepping into holy ground, not into a house for formal greetings. Meropi Gjika could not contain her tears as she put her arms around him and said, “I knew someone would come one day. For forty-six years I have been waiting for you to come. For forty-six years I have kept the Sabbath, but all this time there was one problem I could not solve.”

She then went into her little kitchen-bedroom and brought out a cardboard box. “All these years I have kept my tithe. Can you take it?”

During subsequent visits her story of faith unfolded. Ray learned how our unbaptized Adventist sister and her children copied Bible texts by hand, sharing God’s Word on tiny pieces of paper with their neighbors and others whom they trusted. In January, her forty-six years’ worth of tithe was deposited in a bank account in Tirana. In April of this year Pastor David Currie, the division’s Ministerial Director, will hold the first evangelistic series in Tirana, financed in part by the tithe of a faithful 87-year-old Adventist. Plans are underway to realize another dream of Meropi Gjika and a group of other faithful believers: a baptism. This will be the first baptism ever held in Albania by the Seventh-day Adventist church.

The Bible predicted that before the coming of Jesus the doors of every country would open to the preaching of His Word. This is the hour in which we live. When I think of the example of this 87-year-old woman, faithful with her tithe for forty-six years, I determine anew not to put one finger of mine on the Lord’s money. When I think of her faithfulness in keeping the Sabbath and her commitment to Christ, the little trials that I go through seem small. The witness of this dear woman in her faithfulness to Jesus, in her love for Jesus, speaks to my heart.

“For forty-six years I have been waiting for you to come. For forty-six years I have kept the Sabbath, but all this time there was one problem I could not solve.”

We sense that we are living in the final days, the days our fathers looked forward to. We are not time setters or calamity howlers, nor are we anxious for some emotional experience. But the serious, solemn nature of our times calls us to our knees, to be sure that we know the Christ who died for us, and who is coming back for us. As the Albanian sister eagerly waited forty-six years for another Adventist to come, so we wait for the coming of Jesus, with hearts burning and longing for that day, and with a determination to be faithful in all things until He comes.

Jesus promised, “Surely I come quickly.” With John we respond,

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).

Since submitting this article, Pastor Finley has completed the Kremlin evangelistic series, in which up to 12,000 people per night crowded the double sessions. Over 21,000 Bibles were distributed, and attendees completed 350,000 Bible lessons in a five-week period. Over 3,200 made decisions for baptism; 1350 have been baptized so far. Membership in Moscow stood at 900 a year and a half ago; today we have over 3000 members in four congregations, though we own no church buildings.

According to Ray Dabrowski in the Adventist Review, 2500 people attended Pastor Currie’s meetings in Tirana. In the first baptism at the close of the series (Albania’s first Adventist baptism ever), 32 people were baptized, among them Meropi Gjika, who had waited 51 years for the opportunity. Her daughter and granddaughter were also among those baptized. A church will be organized. —Editor