Hebrews 12:27, commentary and pictures

Yet once more means the final taking away of everything that can be shaken because it was made, so that only what cannot be shaken will be left standing. It is a warning not to refuse Him who speaks from heaven, for there will be no escape, and a call to have grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear because those who receive Him receive a kingdom that cannot be moved, for God is a consuming fire. The shaking has already begun and goes on in the last days, and it culminates in the time of trouble when God shakes heaven and earth to deliver His people, followed by the coming of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead saints and the catching up of the living to meet Him. Among God's people the shaking sifts the true from the untrue by the straight testimony to the Laodiceans, so that those who resist and refuse to repent are shaken out while those who receive it, repent and obey remain as wheat purged for translation. To remain requires keeping the eye continually on Jesus with Christ formed within, and being rooted, grounded and settled in present truth by making the Word a refuge and understanding the strong evidences for the fundamental doctrines.

Words and Warning Context

The expression yet once more points to a final removal of shaken things as things that have been made, so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Everything capable of being shaken will be removed and shaken, leaving only what cannot be shaken. The coming time of shaking warns those who know the truth to obey God in word and deed and to work earnestly to save souls.

The verse stands within a warning not to refuse or turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, because there will be no escape for those who turn away. Its voice is the voice that then shook the earth, and its call belongs to those who receive a kingdom which cannot be moved. Because of that unmovable kingdom they are to have grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for God is a consuming fire. The warning calls people to repent and seek purification before it is too late.

That same voice that shook the earth at Sinai will speak again from the City of the living God, shaking not the earth only but also heaven. This future speaking is joined to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and of God's glory upon the saints before Christ's second coming, preparing them to stand before Him. Even Sinai's thunder and lightning, and even an angel's message, cannot move those who reject the plain truths of God's word. The shaking is already underway and will continue, removing those unwilling to stand firmly for truth and to sacrifice freely and willingly for God and His cause, with nothing compelled.

The verse lays weight upon the course of action, forbidding heedless forward movement that starts a train of uncontrollable evils. Throwing a grain of thought into humanity sets in motion what Satan keeps alive, causing the root of bitterness, meaning any kind of evil, to spring up by which many are defiled. Ministers and stewards of God's grace are forbidden to mingle the common with the sacred, and the resulting defilement is charged to them.

What Is Removed Remains

Everything that is made and capable of being shaken will be removed, so that what cannot be shaken may remain on the immutable foundation, for what is temporary and unstable and earthly must give way. This will be literally fulfilled, with everything shakable tested and taken away while God's pure and holy people stand the test, which calls each believer to examine the heart. The shaking belongs to a time of great calamity and danger when Satan works with great power before Christ comes to establish His kingdom, and its announcement of shaking of heavens and earth is a solemn warning of divine judgment that prepares the way of the Lord and calls for the message to be proclaimed without compromise. The warning applies when love of trade and gain and worldly business can draw people in and keep God's truth from shaping their lives, yet amid deception and coming calamities those whose lives are hidden with Christ in God will share in His grace and salvation. Earthly things will be shaken down by a mighty earthquake, while the heavenly mansions Christ has prepared for the faithful are the lasting home to look toward.

The shaking of heaven means the sun, moon, and stars being moved from their places by the voice of God. They are shaken, not destroyed and not made to pass away. The shaking of earth means the powers of earth, the rulers and nations who rule on it, being shaken first by war and famine and pestilence before the voice of God shakes the heavenly bodies and the earth. The turmoil among the powers in Europe is the shaking of angry nations, not the shaking of heaven.

At Christ's second coming not only earth but heaven is shaken, with the voice of God shaking heaven and earth and a mighty earthquake bringing buildings down. The present created order is removed as the created elements burn and the heavens are rolled together, and earthly things are shaken down. The earth will suffer terrible shocks because the end of all things is at hand, its crust rent by outbursts of elements concealed in its bowels, and lordly palaces built at great expense will become heaps of ruins, sweeping away the treasures and large possessions of those who for years added to wealth by taking advantage of their workers at starvation prices. In this final deliverance the faithful are freed from distress and remain under God's glory and light while their enemies fall, culminating in Jesus' coming with the dead saints rising clothed with immortality and together with the living saints changed to immortality being caught up to meet Him.

What cannot be shaken and remains includes God's pure, holy people who stand the test, and those whose lives are hidden with Christ in God. It includes Christ Himself as the Rock higher than humanity, its Sun and Shield, the source of wisdom and conquering strength through whose might people conquer. It includes the law of God as steadfast and unalterable because it is the expression of the character of Jehovah, and the truths established by God's working and sealed by the Holy Spirit, which are to remain firm. Those rooted and grounded in the truth will abide with the unshakable things by asserting liberty as redeemed free moral agents ransomed by an infinite price, refusing subjection to sin and evil, deliberately and intelligently accepting Christ's terms of salvation, cherishing right principles and acting on them, letting divine wisdom be a lamp to the feet, being true to self and to God, and honoring the authority of the law. What is removed includes unfruitful branches and false theories that corrupt the truth and overthrow some people's faith, with error shaken and taken away while those who remain true to principle will not be shaken.

Timing and Cosmic Events

The shaking has commenced, is going on now, and will continue, for this is the present time of testing and the last days with serious times just ahead. It is imminent and comes just before the Son of man returns in glory, at a time when truth has fallen and equity cannot enter, amid an opposition between divine and satanic forces that lasts until the close of earth's history. Knowing the truth gives no excuse without obedience to God's commands in word and deed, and makes urgent the present duty to understand the spiritual condition, to live Christ's prayer for unity in practical life, and to work earnestly to win souls and bind up the law and seal it among disciples. Sacrifice for God and His cause must be freely given and not compelled, and spiritual indolence that leaves undone work that might have been done brings responsibility.

The final shaking accompanies the time of trouble when the saints cry for deliverance and God speaks His everlasting covenant, shaking heaven and earth with His voice and a mighty earthquake that brings buildings down. In that deliverance the faithful are freed from distress and remain under God's glory and light, while their enemies fall. This culminates in Jesus' coming, the resurrection of dead saints clothed with immortality, and the catching up of the living saints together with them to meet Him.

The shaking includes multiplying drought, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, and disasters by sea and land, with calamities among nations as the beginning of the end. Every city is to be turned upside down in confusion, and nations with all earthly safety, security, and strong bulwarks trusted for protection are tottering now and will in a very little time be hopelessly shaken to pieces, so that hopes centered in this world are removed. It is judgment upon cities according to wickedness and light received, with punishment measured by light so that cities long taught the truth face the greatest danger, and therefore it is not the time to put up large buildings in cities. This testing also separates the true from the untrue, calls for holding fast to Christ whose dominion and power endure forever amid deceptions that draw from the truth, and comes when the enemy works with intense power gathering the powers of darkness to unite with evil men, bringing infatuation and a pall upon minds so men step toward darkness without knowing where they go. God's people understand this crisis very little and are not half awake, and must rise to the emergency without making a time of trouble beforehand.

The final shaking is held back while angels hold the four winds, making now the opportunity to seek the Lord most earnestly and anchor life in Christ, since life is unsafe anywhere except for life hidden with Christ in God. Trials and suffering strengthen those who stand before God with hearts free of idols. God's people must be sealed in the forehead before it comes by settling into the truth both intellectually and spiritually so they cannot be moved, and the final message of mercy is to prepare people to stand when this shaking comes. The shaking has already begun as warning with the judgments of God now upon the land and coming upheaval in the cities, with the end near when every city is turned upside down with confusion and judgments no one can foresee.

Testing Within the Church

The shaking is personal testing and trying that brings a person a second time over the same ground where he once failed, to reveal whether religious experience and character can endure God's proving. To stand it he must closely examine himself whether he be in the faith, and ask where he will stand when everything that can be shaken is removed and only what cannot be shaken remains. If he falls out by the way it will be through love of praise and flattery and human ambition for the supremacy, with feet stumbling as Elder Canright stumbled, to the peril of his own soul.

Trials reveal the foundation, for hearing God's word without doing it and without bringing it into life practice builds on shifting sand and surely falls, while hearing and obeying every word from God builds on the eternal Rock and stands. Only souls riveted to the eternal Rock, constantly abiding in Christ, grounded no longer in man but in God, guided by principle and firmly rooted and settled in the truth, withstand the storm and severe trial. Those who lean to their own understanding and do not constantly abide in Christ give way to change, and in God's testing and refining their faults are consumed until His character is reflected in them.

Among God's people the shaking is caused by the straight testimony to the Laodiceans: some resist it, while those who receive it are led to repentance and obedience. In that shaking earnest believers plead with God and resist spiritual darkness, but the indifferent make no effort and are left without the angels' help. The careless and indifferent who do not persevere in seeking victory and salvation are shaken out, while those who hold fast to the truth remain and are victorious. Those who do not meet the gospel standard are removed, while those forming characters fit for translation remain, for the shaking time has come and the Lord thoroughly purges His floor and gathers His wheat, warning those who dishonor Him of punishment unless they change, while repentance brings His pity.

Shaken out are all who are not willing to take a bold and unyielding stand firmly for the truth and to sacrifice freely for God and His cause. The sacrifice God requires is not compelled but must be a freewill offering of willing, wholehearted commitment, and it will take all to buy the field. The mighty shaking has commenced and is going on and will continue, and judgments are coming swiftly, yet even Sinai's thunder and lightning, or an angel's message, cannot move those who reject the plain truths of God's word.

The shaking reaches every institution in operation in the world and the churches and every position, with every case coming under God's review as He measures the temple and its worshipers. Those who leave the Lord's way and follow their own course may be removed from their positions, while what endures is preserved. The lordship of finite men over the minds and principles of others is removed when their own minds and principles are shaky, and the uncertainty communicated by men in prominent positions and the unbelief in the very atmosphere are removed, for their uncertainty spreads to the churches and what is unstable will be removed while what is firm remains. A great trial is to come to all in Battle Creek in which everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and none of the warnings God has given about it are idle tales, including work that unsettles faith in the testimonies by one who has not been walking in the light for years and who seeks by lawyer-like policy to carry deceived minds with him in his own way. Welcoming physicians who claim to be Seventh-day Adventists yet work for gain brings injury rather than benefit to the churches, because testing and trial shakes them and reveals the un-Christlike selfish spirit that moves them, making manifest traits of character that can never enter heaven and proving they follow the bent of their own mind and not the counsels of God. In trials and upheaval in the work the principle applies to stand firm, pray, and guard words and actions, and difficulties reveal who is wholehearted, true to principle, and dependable in battle.

The shaking sifts and separates the true from the untrue in a time of fierce conflict with the powers of darkness, to reveal who stands on a sure foundation and who is on the Lord's side. Amid the perils of the last days the world rapidly takes sides in the great conflict between good and evil, while Satan works with all craft to secure souls and to lead even those who know the truth to walk contrary to light and to close their ears to warning. Those uncertain regarding God's messages of warning are forced by the shaking to take their stand either for or against the truth, and people take sides with Satan or with Christ as God sifts His people and their true character is revealed. Those who reject God's warnings and walk contrary to the light take their stand against the truth while others stand for it, repeating the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram till the close of time.

The shaking comes in the present time when Satan works with great power and all deceivableness of unrighteousness, when truth has fallen and justice cannot enter, making understanding of spiritual condition and present duty urgent. It belongs to a time of great calamity and danger before Christ comes to establish His kingdom, when Satan's deceptions lead many astray who lack the clear, deep experience needed in proportion to the light and advantages God has given them. Love of trade and gain and worldly business and commercialism can draw people in and keep God's truth from shaping their lives, while those whose lives are hidden with Christ in God find grace and salvation amid deception and coming calamities. The perils of the last days test faith by false teachings, seducing spirits and doctrines of devils with false prophets and spurious holiness, false theories overthrowing superficial faith, mist and clouds of doubt and unbelief sifting souls as wheat, and smooth words and fair speeches tossing the unsettled as children, so that understanding and grounding faith in Scripture is essential. It is also a time when God's law is no longer respected and men in position reveal what the world will be.

These trials test on every side by every temptation Satan can invent, and they cleanse from selfishness and pride and purify those who remain. Trials and suffering strengthen the faith of those who stand before God with hearts free of idols, while multiplying droughts, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, and disasters at sea and on land continue as the four winds are held to give opportunity to seek God earnestly and anchor life in Christ. The shaking also accompanies new advances of the gospel amid conflict within and outside the church, when everything capable of being shaken is shaken and every false support is broken up, including God's judgment on those who harden themselves against His warnings and oppress others.

Standing Firm in Shaking

To remain when everything shakable is removed is to repent and seek purification before it is too late, serving with reverence and godly fear. Each one must examine the heart and search it, for the shaking tests and removes all that can be shaken and leaves a pure, holy people who have stood the test. To endure is to look above the whirl of daily occurrences and turmoil to the One who never changes, enduring as seeing Him who is invisible, and to look forward with joy to the finishing of the mystery. While this testing and proving goes on, angels and heavenly intelligences watch the development of character with intense solicitude and weigh the moral worth of professed followers.

Remaining requires refusing every false hope, for every soul trusting in false hopes will be shaken out. The eye must be kept continually looking up to Jesus as the only help, never taken off Him for one moment, remaining firmly attached to Christ and holding fast to Him whose dominion and power endure forever. To stand in that day a person must have Christ formed within as the hope of glory, standing fast firm and courageous and decided in faith through perseverance and patient hope, looking to Jesus as author and finisher of faith amid mist and clouds of doubt and unbelief and the sifting temptations of Satan in his short time of great power and intense activity. So kept safe, the soul becomes an instrument to save others, even amid coming world turmoil, earthquakes and foretold signs, and deceptions that draw from the truth.

Remaining requires being firmly settled, rooted, grounded and established in present truth and in the truth for this time, with lives hidden in God, so as to stand by principle in severe trial rather than let the steps slide. The Word is the standard for resisting the enemy and the refuge for those who abide, made a part of the being and sought with God's wisdom, for without it none can be firmly rooted amid the shaking, and abiding means knowing it and obeying it. Believers must understand the reasons for faith by close searching of Scripture and strong evidence for fundamental doctrines, including Daniel, Revelation and the third angel's message studied text by text. No man can be leaned on or trusted to carry another through, so each must look to God for himself, cease from man, receive light from Jesus and do the Word to remain unshaken and have everlasting life.

Remaining calls for watchfulness and for strengthening what remains, with vital godliness and a religion meeting the highest standard, in watchfulness and prayer. Those entrusted with responsibility must stand steadily by principle rather than waver or follow impulse, persevering in the right direction, enduring trial, remaining steadfast in God's love and true to principle, for fluctuating impulsive people are not dependable. Safety is found only in serving in strictest integrity and humility of mind, trusting in Jesus, becoming as a little child, not acting as kings and rulers striving to make great display, but realizing lack of knowledge and experience, which alone fits for admission into the city. It requires constant intimate communion, steadiness through trial and temptation when false theories return to overthrow faith, and the whole armor with sanctified tongues used to glorify Him and ceaseless work to make openings for truth.

Remaining requires living out the prayer for unity among disciples in practical life, in unity and love with Christ and one another, for only those who do so will stand the test in the shaking time now come. God's people must stand firm in duty and place while everything vulnerable is shaken and removed. As the shaking time comes just before the return in glory, believers must become firmly established in faith and gather within themselves what makes them steadfast and unmovable, refusing to surrender to distracting cares or swerve from principle amid abounding iniquity and cooling love.

Remaining requires that those who know the truth obey in word and deed, for knowledge gives no excuse without obedience, and the present shaking time tests response to the light thrown upon the pathway. Those of the kingdom must work earnestly for the saving of souls, bind up the law and seal it among the disciples, and make openings for truth and draw souls, for spiritual indolence leaves responsibility for work left undone. True conversion with the life hid in God keeps a person unshakable to see grace and salvation at the very soon coming when truth has fallen and commercialism and love of trade and gain keep truth from the life, amid satanic agencies and calamity. Binding to the world brings its judgment, so coming out and separating from its influence is necessary, and hanging back on the outskirts in idleness leaves one to fall to the enemy, while welcoming selfish gain-seeking physicians or workers reveals unChristlike traits that can never enter heaven.

The shaking among God's people is not the present truth to carry constantly to the churches to bring trouble beforehand, and it must not be kept constantly before the people to bring on a time of trouble beforehand. It will be the result of refusing truth presented, when nations and all earthly safety, security and strong bulwarks totter and are hopelessly shaken to pieces so that hopes centered in this world are removed. Ministers must not claim wonderful advanced ideas and threaten that unless all receive them they will be shaken out and another people will arise to victory, for running ahead to do unentrusted work accomplishes the enemy's object just as surely as remaining lukewarm, and both classes are stumbling blocks amid serious times just ahead when powers of darkness gather with evil men and bring infatuation and pall upon minds.