All the Earth is at Rest

By C. Eldon McNabb

In Zech. 1:1-17, God gave Zechariah a vision concerning the work of at least some of the four Spirits of the Heavens, of Zech. 6:1-8.  When those horsemen (Spirits) had finished their “walk,” they reported back to the Angel of the Lord, saying, “We have walked to and fro through the Earth, and, behold, all the Earth sitteth still and is at rest.”

On September 11, 2001, God gave a sobering sign of warning to Christianity.  But, as pointed and awesome as that great calamity was, the Children of the Kingdom still slumber and sleep (Matt. 25), not believing that God might have had a hand in that tragedy.  In the year 2000, I came to understand that 2001 would be a milestone year in God's work, and I thought that, in early April, we would see some prominent move of God. However, in the last few days of March, God, knowing my expectation, spoke to me in a vision that He was waiting for Satan to do some special work first.  Satan surely launched his campaign on September 11th.

I want us to soberly consider the warning which the Apostle Paul gave to Gentile Christianity in Rom. 11:1 - Rom. 12:2.  In Rom. 11:20-22 he said, “Because of unbelief (the Jews) were broken off, and thou standest by faith.  Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”  He did not say, “If thou believe.”  Satan himself believes and trembles.  God wants faithfulness from us.

Paul’s declaration is even more severe in Rom. 2:6-11.  “(God) will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteous­ness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that work­eth good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.”

The first thing the Lord said to Zechariah was, “The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers.”  It is certain that He is speaking of our time, because He said further, in verse 15, I am very sore displeased with the heathen (Hebrew “goy” or Gentiles) that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.”  This is not about the secular world.  It is about the existing condition of God’s People.  God has been unhappy with the waywardness of his children for a long time, but in recent years, the offences have become even greater.  And truly, the judgment of God will soon come upon this “untoward (perverse) generation” of Chris­tian­ity.  God will bring  judg­ment upon His people before He pours out His wrath upon the secular world.  (1 Peter 4:17) 

 If you will read carefully Zeph. 1:10-16, you can see how God has used the great calamity of 9-11-‘01, to reveal what He was beginning to do.  He said, The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord.”  That is to say, God has sent a man to declare the meaning of it all, and to lead us in making prepara­tions for the arrival of our King, just as He sent John the Baptist to prepare for the arrival of our Savior.  What a God!  He always works the same way, so that we will not miss the move of the Lord, if we are watching at all.  Surely the anarchists among us will disagree with me, going after the gainsaying of Korah, but what can I say?  Does the unbelief of some change God or His plans?

The Lord said further in Zeph. 1:15,16, “That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of dark­ness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,  A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.  And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, (Isn’t that exactly what happen­ed to the unfortunate occupants of the twin towers when they fell?) and their flesh as the dung.”  Those fenced cities are certainly not literal, American cities, but are used in this pro­phe­cy to represent the churches of America.  (I know that He seems to be speaking of Israel.  That is because He is us­ing their condition as an exam­ple.  Do not forget Rom. 2:6-11.)

In these verses, God is still speaking of His wayward chil­dren which He already mentioned in verses 4-6.  The Lord also shows in Amos 5:18-20, it is Christianity which shall first suffer the judgment of the day of His wrath.  It is the time of the voice of the Seventh Angel.  He will “sound his trum­pet,” declaring God’s message of the hour, to call us unto the unity and consecration of Zeph. 2:1-3.

We are now hasting toward the declaration in Rev. 11:15, when the seventh trum­pet shall sound.  Are you ready to hear those “great voices in Heaven saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever’?”  The “day of his preparation” has come, and Jesus will come, and sit upon the throne of His glory, when “His wife hath made herself ready.” (Rev. 19:6-9)