- Sep 18, 2006
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I was reviewing My SDA theology and the Time of Jacob's Trouble and the Sunday law came to mind. If SDA's are wrong on this what is the answer? Below is a description of the SDA view from the official ellen white answers page followed by the text of Scripture in Jeremiah 30. Notice the difference one is of personal struggle the other in speaking of the Nation.
Dear ____,
Thank you for calling the other day. Your question revealed to me that I was a bit fuzzy on these things myself, so I welcome the chance to clarify things for my own sake as well as yours.
In The Great Controversy, Mrs. White portrays the time of Jacob's trouble as coming after the close of probation, while the great tribulation is in full swing. It is a part of the tribulation that comes to God's people, but this part is not trouble from outside, but deep concern and earnestness over the completeness of our relationship to God.
A few years ago a new compilation was issued, called "Last Day Events." It brings together into one place and one coninuous narrative the issues that Adventists are interested in concerning the closing events. From that book I have copied a portion of the chapter on The Seven Last Plagues which includes the material on the Time of Jacob's Trouble. You will find it below my signature.
Perhaps this will be enough to answer your question. If not, feel free to get back in touch with me and I'll see if I can be of further service. Thank you for calling, and God bless.
-------- William Fagal, Director Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office Andrews University Berrien Springs, MI 49104-1400 USA Phone: 616 471-3209 FAX: 616 471-6166 Website: www.WhiteEstate.org or www.egwestate.andrews.edu E-mail: egw@aubranch.egwestate.andrews.edu
From "Last Day Events," pp. 261ff.
Notice: how Jeremiah talks about Isreal & Judah, Cities and lands, Nations and enemies nothing in the text sounds anything like EGW describes.
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. 3 For behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore from captivity My people Israel and Judah, declares the LORD. I will restore them to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.’ ”
4 These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah. 5 Yes, this is what the LORD says:
“A cry of panic is heard—
a cry of terror, not of peace.
6 Ask now, and see:
Can a male give birth?
Why then do I see every man
with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor
and every face turned pale?
7 How awful that day will be!
None will be like it!
It is the time of Jacob’s distress
but he will be saved out of it.
8 On that day,
declares the LORD of Hosts,
I will break the yoke off their necks
and tear off their bonds,
and no longer will strangers enslave them.
9 Instead, they will serve the LORD their God
and David their king,
whom I will raise up for them.
10 As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid,
declares the LORD,
and do not be dismayed,
O Israel.
For I will surely save you out of a distant place,
your descendants from the land of their captivity!
Jacob will return to quiet and ease,
with no one to make him afraid.
11 For I am with you to save you,
declares the LORD.
Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you,
I will not completely destroy you.
Yet I will discipline you justly,
and will by no means leave you unpunished.”
12For this is what the LORD says:
“Your injury is incurable;
your wound is grievous.
13 There is no one to plead your cause,
no remedy for your sores,
no recovery for you.
14 All your lovers have forgotten you;
they no longer seek you,
for I have struck you as an enemy would,
with the discipline of someone cruel,
because of your great iniquity
and your numerous sins.
15 Why do you cry out over your wound?
Your pain has no cure!
Because of your great iniquity
and your numerous sins
I have done these things to you.
16 Nevertheless, all who devour you will be devoured,
and all your adversaries—every one of them—
will go off into exile.
Those who plundered you will be plundered,
and all who raided you will be raided.
17 But I will restore your health and heal your wounds,
declares the LORD,
because they call you an outcast,
Zion, for whom no one cares.”
18This is what the LORD says:
“I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents
and have compassion on his dwellings.
And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins,
and the palace will stand in its rightful place.
19 Thanksgiving will proceed from them,
a sound of celebration.
I will multiply them, and they will not be decreased;
I will honor them, and they will not be belittled.
20 Their children will be as in days of old,
and their congregation will be established before Me;
and I will punish all their oppressors.
21 Their leader will be one of their own,
and their ruler will arise from their midst.
And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me,
for who would dare on his own to approach Me?”
declares the LORD.
22 “And you will be My people,
and I will be your God.”
23 Behold, the storm of the LORD
has gone out with fury,
a whirlwind swirling down
upon the heads of the wicked.
24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back
until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart.
In the days to come
you will understand this.
Dear ____,
Thank you for calling the other day. Your question revealed to me that I was a bit fuzzy on these things myself, so I welcome the chance to clarify things for my own sake as well as yours.
In The Great Controversy, Mrs. White portrays the time of Jacob's trouble as coming after the close of probation, while the great tribulation is in full swing. It is a part of the tribulation that comes to God's people, but this part is not trouble from outside, but deep concern and earnestness over the completeness of our relationship to God.
A few years ago a new compilation was issued, called "Last Day Events." It brings together into one place and one coninuous narrative the issues that Adventists are interested in concerning the closing events. From that book I have copied a portion of the chapter on The Seven Last Plagues which includes the material on the Time of Jacob's Trouble. You will find it below my signature.
Perhaps this will be enough to answer your question. If not, feel free to get back in touch with me and I'll see if I can be of further service. Thank you for calling, and God bless.
-------- William Fagal, Director Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office Andrews University Berrien Springs, MI 49104-1400 USA Phone: 616 471-3209 FAX: 616 471-6166 Website: www.WhiteEstate.org or www.egwestate.andrews.edu E-mail: egw@aubranch.egwestate.andrews.edu
From "Last Day Events," pp. 261ff.
Like the Time of Jacob's Trouble
A decree will finally be issued against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, 262 denouncing them as deserving of the severest punishment, and giving the people liberty, after a certain 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.--GC 615, 616 (1911). {LDE 261.4} 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.--GC 630 (1911). {LDE 262.1} Jacob's experience during that night of wrestling and anguish represents 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" (Jer. 30:5-7).--PP 201 (1890). {LDE 262.2}Notice: how Jeremiah talks about Isreal & Judah, Cities and lands, Nations and enemies nothing in the text sounds anything like EGW describes.
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. 3 For behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore from captivity My people Israel and Judah, declares the LORD. I will restore them to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.’ ”
4 These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah. 5 Yes, this is what the LORD says:
“A cry of panic is heard—
a cry of terror, not of peace.
6 Ask now, and see:
Can a male give birth?
Why then do I see every man
with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor
and every face turned pale?
7 How awful that day will be!
None will be like it!
It is the time of Jacob’s distress
but he will be saved out of it.
8 On that day,
declares the LORD of Hosts,
I will break the yoke off their necks
and tear off their bonds,
and no longer will strangers enslave them.
9 Instead, they will serve the LORD their God
and David their king,
whom I will raise up for them.
10 As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid,
declares the LORD,
and do not be dismayed,
O Israel.
For I will surely save you out of a distant place,
your descendants from the land of their captivity!
Jacob will return to quiet and ease,
with no one to make him afraid.
11 For I am with you to save you,
declares the LORD.
Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you,
I will not completely destroy you.
Yet I will discipline you justly,
and will by no means leave you unpunished.”
12For this is what the LORD says:
“Your injury is incurable;
your wound is grievous.
13 There is no one to plead your cause,
no remedy for your sores,
no recovery for you.
14 All your lovers have forgotten you;
they no longer seek you,
for I have struck you as an enemy would,
with the discipline of someone cruel,
because of your great iniquity
and your numerous sins.
15 Why do you cry out over your wound?
Your pain has no cure!
Because of your great iniquity
and your numerous sins
I have done these things to you.
16 Nevertheless, all who devour you will be devoured,
and all your adversaries—every one of them—
will go off into exile.
Those who plundered you will be plundered,
and all who raided you will be raided.
17 But I will restore your health and heal your wounds,
declares the LORD,
because they call you an outcast,
Zion, for whom no one cares.”
18This is what the LORD says:
“I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents
and have compassion on his dwellings.
And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins,
and the palace will stand in its rightful place.
19 Thanksgiving will proceed from them,
a sound of celebration.
I will multiply them, and they will not be decreased;
I will honor them, and they will not be belittled.
20 Their children will be as in days of old,
and their congregation will be established before Me;
and I will punish all their oppressors.
21 Their leader will be one of their own,
and their ruler will arise from their midst.
And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me,
for who would dare on his own to approach Me?”
declares the LORD.
22 “And you will be My people,
and I will be your God.”
23 Behold, the storm of the LORD
has gone out with fury,
a whirlwind swirling down
upon the heads of the wicked.
24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back
until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart.
In the days to come
you will understand this.
