Persecution in the Last Days
By , last updated Nov.
In her apocalyptic book Great Controversy, Ellen White paints a chilling picture of the end times. It is a scenario where Catholics and Protestants unite to hunt down Sabbath-keepers, mobs fill the streets, and the faithful flee to forests and mountains to escape a Sunday law death decree. It is a vision of terror, isolation, and hiding. But when Jesus described His return, He told a very different story.
Ellen White's End-Time Scenario
In Mrs. White's frightening vision of the last days, she describes in vivid detail what happens when Sunday laws are passed:
As the decree issued by the various rulers of Christendom against commandment keepers shall withdraw the protection of government, and abandon them to those who desire their destruction, the people of God will flee from the cities and villages and associate together in companies, dwelling in the most desolate and solitary places. Many will find refuge in the strongholds of the mountains.... many...will be cast into the most unjust and cruel bondage. The beloved of God pass weary days bound in chains, shut in by prison bars, sentenced to be slain, some apparently left to die of starvation in dark and loathsome dungeons.The people of God--some in prison cells, some hidden in solitary retreats in the forests and the mountains--still plead for divine protection, while in every quarter companies of armed men, urged on by hosts of evil angels, are preparing for the work of death.1
The above quote states that in the last days, the righteous are either in prison or hiding in the forests and mountains. Mrs. White informs her readers that the righteous have been driven from their homes by mobs:
Houses and lands will be of no use to the saints in the time of trouble, for they will then have to flee before infuriated mobs...2
She writes that believers must flee to the mountains like Lot fled from Sodom:
Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains... They must not tarry to secure anything from their possessions...so it will be in the last days.3
The Bible's End-Time Scenario
The Bible paints a different picture of Christ's Second Coming. In Luke 17, Jesus is describing the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and this passage also foreshadows the destruction of the world at the end of time:
I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left (Luke 17:34-36).
Notice from the above verse:
- Righteous and unrighteous men will be sleeping together in the same bed, apparently in their own homes.
- Righteous and unrighteous women will be working together, apparently preparing food in their own homes.
- Righteous and unrighteous men will be working together, apparently in their own fields.
While Mrs. White said the righteous will flee their homes before infuriated mobs, Jesus said the righteous and the wicked will be sleeping and working together in their own homes and fields when He returns. The two scenarios are incompatible. Jesus never taught that believers would be hiding in the mountains or languishing in dungeons in the last days. He told his servants to "Occupy until I come" (Luke 19:13).
Jesus also said that the last days would be like the "days of Noah" (Luke 17:26) and the "days of Lot" (Luke 17:28). Neither Lot nor Noah was hiding in the mountains or languishing in prison. They were living in their homes and working at their jobs right up to the very commencement of the judgments of God.
Of course, this does not mean that there will be no persecution before Christ's return. Persecution started during the time of Christ and the Bible says that "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12). Millions of martyrs have shed their blood for Christ down through the ages. Today, in our "enlightened" world, more Christians are being martyred than at any time in human history. Literally millions of Christians have been slaughtered in Sudan, and other parts of the world. Believers do not have to wait until a supposed Sunday law is passed before encountering persecution. Those who "live godly in Christ Jesus" are suffering persecution in various forms today.
Conclusion
Luke 17 teaches that the righteous and wicked will be together until the end. While Mrs. White envisions the righteous at the end of time separated from the wicked, hiding in forests and mountains, Jesus says the wheat and the tares will "grow together until the harvest" (Matt. 13:30).