Twice Upon A Time...

For now, the news is all about health care reform. My mind is exercised more by the process than the product; the rhetoric, manicured finger chest-poking, political smoke seeping under closed doors, partisan determination, public opinion be damned, all ahead flank speed. What is both fascinating and fearsome about these goings-on is the ferocity of it all.
The message to me in all this is (of course) spiritual in essence and prophetic in particular. Clearly, if the congress and the White House are determined to accomplish, to achieve, they can do so; they will do so. So what has that to do with things spiritual or prophetic? (Thank you for asking). Seventh-day Adventists believe that the government of the United States will eventually repudiate virtually every point on which this nation was founded.
Of course, many sigh, roll their eyes, or snort in disgust and disagreement with this view. Yet, as I watch the health care drama unfold; as I see what determined politicians have set out to change, I am convinced we are witnessing something far more insidious than the mere politics of health care. We are front-row-seated spectators of the mechanics of how this nation can change whatever it is determined to change; and that includes all- and anything(s) political and constitutional.
Already we understand the power of majority...not just from this show of power...but from our perspective of issues clearly moral that stand athwart humanist public opinion. (I won't be making a list: re ipsa loquitor). If the powers of governance can do this once, it can be done again: Twice upon a time, so to speak.
As I write, the powerful and provocative words of Ellen White come to mind. I realize that many have discarded the little lady onto their trash heap of Adventist ancient history. That is their choice. It is my choice to remain faithful to the Word of God and to seek a better understanding of unfolding events, first in the glaring light of Scripture, and secondly in the unfolding of events she outlined more than a hundred years ago. Here are those words: " By the decree of enforcing the institution of the Papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and Republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near." Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 451.
Blessings: we need them. e.c.