NUMBER 13
BACKPACK ESSENTIALS
Surviving the coming world crisis
By Chantal J. Klingbeil
I was thinking about essentials as I struggled up the steep hiking trail with a heavy backpack. We had been warned to take only the absolute essentials for our five-day hike. We would be far from any store, so each of us had to decide on what was essential, and then be willing to lug our own food, clothing, and sleeping bags on the trail. Aching shoulders and blistered feet forced many of us to rethink what was essential at our first midday rest stop.
That evening everyone was reevaluating the essentials in their backpacks. Suddenly expensive brand names lost their attraction. No one was interested in having anything just for show. Everything was reexamined with a whole new set of standards. Was it light; was it useful? Even an expensive jar of organic honey had no takers. The next morning, as we all set off, it was amazing to see what we were all willing to leave behind in the trash bins. Only the essentials remained in our backpacks. Only the really important things stayed in our packs.
More Than a Hike in the Park
The Bible speaks of a time in the future that will be more challenging than a strenuous hike. In fact, Scripture describes it as a crisis of cataclysmic dimensions. Economically, environmentally, and spiritually we will face “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation” (Dan. 12:1). It won’t be a localized event. This will be a worldwide crisis in which all will have to decide what is really important. It will be a time in which we will not be carrying anyone else’s beliefs or sliding by on what someone else says. There will be a small group of “leftovers” who will be hanging on to what really counts. As we get ready for the biggest crisis on earth, what will we have to hang on to? What will remain—and who will remain?
What Remains
Perhaps you remember when teams were chosen at school. Not being very athletic, I dreaded being left after everyone else was chosen. It’s not very complimentary to be left as the last. Sometimes it seems that “those remaining” (or the remnant) don’t fit in. Then again, after a hurricane it is very nice to be the remnant. It means that you are a survivor.
Throughout history God has always had a remnant. There have always been those who went against the flow. They took God at His word and were more intent on being friends with God than hobnobbing with the high and mighty. Remember Noah. He was a strange one. He took God at His word and spent his time and money building a boat and inviting others to join in the promised escape. He was also part of a remnant—the only family who was left when all the earth was destroyed by a flood (cf. Gen. 6-9).
So what will it take to survive when our world will once again be destroyed—this time by fire (2 Peter 3:10-12) and not by flood? What will it take to be a survivor, to belong to the remnant?
Having the Right Contacts
Those who survive know that it is not what they are carrying in their backpacks that will guarantee their survival. They know that it is not what you know but who you know that counts. They know the Winner. “These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:4).
The book of Revelation goes on to give other identifiable characteristics of these survivors. They follow Jesus everywhere because they have “the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). They reflect Jesus’ unshakable confidence in God and the authority of Scripture. Their faith encompasses all the truths of the Bible, which Jesus believed and taught.
Revelation 14:12 also says that these individuals “keep the commandments of God.” They know that “not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). These survivors know that their survival is completely dependent on Jesus, and they are willing to do things His way (John 15:10). They are not ready to exchange any part of God’s law for human-made counterfeits.
Revelation 12:17 tells us that this “rest”—besides keeping the “commandments of God”—also have the “testimony of Jesus Christ.” John doesn’t leave us in the dark as to what “the testimony of Jesus” is; later in his book he tells us that it is “the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). Prophetic guidance helps the remnant be survivors.
We Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G. White, who meets all the biblical tests of a true prophet, was appointed by God as a special messenger to draw attention to the Bible and help prepare people for Jesus’ second coming. Ellen White herself noted that “the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Savior to open the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings.”*
Passionate Mission
The remnant is purpose driven. These survivors are not members of an exclusive remnant club who think themselves better than everyone else and lock themselves up in their own little members-only world. They have their mission statement clearly marked out for them in the book of Revelation. The three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6-12 are God’s answers to the satanic deception that clouds the world just before Christ’s return (Rev. 13:14-16). Because they are passionate about Jesus, they are passionate about getting the world prepared to meet the Jesus they love and follow everywhere.
So what remains in your backpack? Do you have it loaded with “essentials”? Why not ditch the backpack altogether and follow the Lamb? We will find Him leading us out to a world in crisis that needs to know that they too can be survivors, ready to welcome Jesus with open arms as He returns at just the right time. n
* Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. vii.
Remnant and Its Mission
The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This remnant announces the arrival of the judgment hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second advent. This proclamation is symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14; it coincides with the work of judgment in heaven and results in a work of repentance and reform on earth. Every believer is called to have a personal part in this worldwide witness. (Rev. 12:17; 14:6-12; 18:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:10; Jude 3, 14; 1 Peter 1:16-19; 2 Peter 3:10-14; Rev. 21:1-14.)
Chantal J. Klingbeil serves as an associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A. She is married to Gerald and has three teenage daughters.
