Questions on the Time of Trouble
1055. Ps. 78:49.—God uses all things in heaven and earth. What He permits to come He is sometimes said to send. When He withdrew His protecting care, His guardian angels, from a rebellious people, the evil angels rushed in. God permitted them to work their way among a people who had chosen evil. "The wrath of man shall praise Him." 1056. J. E. A. Rev. 13:17.—The power that decrees that no man can buy or sell save he that has the name of the beast or the number of his name is this country, and the time is in the near future. 1057. J. S.—We know no reason why there will not be aged or afflicted ones on the earth when the Lord comes, as well as children. Those who receive of the plagues will certainly be afflicted, and doubtless some will be old. These plagues reach beyond the coming of Christ. Evidently the weaker ones will fall during the earlier part of the plagues. See Eze. 9:6. Among the people of God there will be no feeble ones (Ps. 105:37), tho there will doubtless be "old" persons and "young," as men measure age, as well as those who are defective in some of their parts. It is not wise to speculate as to just how all these things will be; God is all-wise and powerful and loving, and He will do all things well. He can carry through the plagues the youngest and oldest, the deaf and the crippled. But when He is revealed, praise God, He will "fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory." Phil. 3:21, R.V.