Today there is increasing tension in the whole world because of the news about disasters that are occurring in all parts of the earth. Continuous disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, abnormal weather phenomena, in addition to wars and conflicts—the Bible already warned of these disasters thousands of years ago. It is not too much to say that those disasters are pouring out all at once in this age—the age of the Holy Spirit which we are now living in.

The reason why God has restored the Passover in this age is to protect His people from disasters. At the time of the Exodus 3,500 years ago, God let the Israelites know about the Passover above all things. It was because a terrible disaster would come upon all the land of Egypt. Whenever a disaster was going to occur, God prepared in advance for His people to celebrate the Passover so that they would receive the sign of being God''s people and escape the disaster.

The Passover contains the promise of salvation

This happened when Joshua sent two spies to Jericho before he conquered it. The two spies were pursued by the soldiers and they entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab who feared God. She hid them even at the risk of her life. When the spies were about to return safely to Joshua, they made a promise to Rahab; they promised that if Rahab brought her family and relatives into her house and tied a scarlet cord in the window, the Israelite army would not destroy anyone in her house when they attacked the city of Jericho. Afterwards, when the city of Jericho was conquered, all the people who had fled into the house of Rahab were able to preserve their lives (Jos 2:1-21; 6:20-25).

Just as the scarlet cord became a sign to save Rahab and her family, the Passover is a sign of God''s promise to protect His people from disasters.

Heb 11:28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

Those who do not keep God''s commands insist that the Passover is merely a ceremony and rite, and that it has nothing to do with faith, quoting a verse from the Bible:
"The righteous will live by faith" (Ro 1:17). However, by faith God kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood. The Passover is not just a ritual ceremony, but it is a ceremony established by faith and a feast of God which only those who have faith can keep.

Let''s take a look at the scene when God established the Passover in Exodus, and find out what promise the Passover contains.

Ex 12:5-14 "The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. . . . This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD''s Passover. On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance."

It is God who established the Passover and told His people to celebrate it. So, the people of Israel who feared God and had faith in Him obeyed His word and kept the Passover. As a result, they were saved from the plagues and became emancipated from Egypt, the land of slavery. However, the Egyptians who had no faith and did not celebrate the Passover failed to escape the plague and lost all their firstborn; there was not a single house where someone had not died (Ex 12:29-51).

God''s warning about disasters

Was the Passover effective for God''s people to escape disasters only in the time of the Exodus, and did it lose its effect after the Exodus? Not at all. The Passover is the covenant of God, which must be celebrated as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, even until the end of the age. The Bible clearly records the history of God''s people being saved from disasters by celebrating the Passover (2 Ch 30:1-27; 2 Ki 19:32-35).

In Old Testament times, the Israelites put the blood of the Passover lambs on the sides and tops of the doorframes of their houses, as a sign of God''s people. Now, we have the flesh and blood of the Passover in ourselves, so that disasters will pass over each and every one of us. The Passover contains the promise of God: "No destructive plague will touch you." This promise proves more effective and powerful in an age when disasters are prevalent.

Eze 7:2-19 ". . . This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Disaster! An unheard-of disaster is coming. The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. It has come! Doom has come upon you—you who dwell in the land. The time has come, the day is near; there is panic, not joy, upon the mountains. I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you; I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will repay you in accordance with your conduct and the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that it is I the LORD who strikes the blow. . . . Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the LORD''s wrath. They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it, for it has made them stumble into sin."

God warned that an unheard-of disaster would come upon mankind. As the Bible prophesied, unheard-of disasters have been rampant recently. Experiencing unprecedented great earthquakes and abnormal climate changes, people say, "It''s the worst disaster in a hundred years," or, "This is a once-in-a-thousand-years disaster." This shows that today''s disasters are "unheard-of disasters."

Eze 7:25-27 ". . . Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders. The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

Those with power mourn and the officials are clothed with despair in the face of disasters; their wealth is of no use, and everything they have prepared is in vain. In the face of those impending disasters, we need God''s promise to protect us from all disasters.

The Passover, the sign of God''s promise to let every and any disaster pass over us

The Passover is a sign of salvation established between God and us. Just as God let Rahab put a mark on her house so that she and her family would preserve their lives, God has put a mark of salvation on our foreheads.

Eze 9:4-6 . . . and said to him, "Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it." As I listened, he said to the others, "Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. Slaughter old men, young men and maidens, women and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary." So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple.

Here God tells the destroying angels not to touch anyone who has the mark. Those who have the mark are the people who need to be protected. At the time of the Exodus, God urged the Israelites to celebrate the Passover and protected them by letting the destroying angels pass over the people who kept the Passover. Even today, God puts a sign of promise on all His people who must be protected, so that they can escape disasters.

On the island of Patmos, the Apostle John also saw the same vision as the prophet Ezekiel.

Rev 7:1-3 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."

"After this" means after the occurrence of the event described in Revelation 6: "The stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind." Here the stars in the sky and a fig tree represent the nation of Israel. And wind means war. Israel was involved in a great war during which the Jews suffered horribly as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind; 6,000,000 Jews were killed by the German Nazis during that war, which was the Second World War. Therefore, "after this" means "after the Second World War" (Rev 6:12-17).

Then, what is the seal of God that is to be put on the foreheads of God''s people after that? God puts His seal on the foreheads of His people to let them escape disasters.

That is the Passover, which God promised as a sign of redemption at the time of the Exodus. All who keep the Passover holy and dwell in the truth of the new covenant are those who have received the seal of God. As Joshua ordered the whole army of Israel to protect Rahab and her family, so God commands the destroying angels not to bring any disaster on His people who keep the Passover.

God''s work of putting His seal spreads from the east to the whole world

God''s work of putting His seal is to begin from the east. The fact that the sealing work starts from the east where the sun rises shows that something urgent is to take place there.

Isa 24:1-6 See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants . . . The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth''s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.

Isa 24:13-16 So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest. They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the LORD''s majesty. Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: "Glory to the Righteous One."

When the earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered, God''s work of sealing His people starts from the ends of the earth in the east. The ends of the earth in the east is Korea, sharing the same latitude as the island of Patmos where John saw a vision. For this reason, the Passover—the truth of the new covenant—has been restored in Korea in these last days and the seal of God is now being put on all the people around the world.

Now, many of God''s prophets including short-term and long-term missionaries are going out into the world and preaching Heavenly Mother, the New Jerusalem, and the New Covenant Passover. This is the process of putting the seal of God on God''s people.

Whoever receives the promise of God with gratitude will be saved, and whoever does not receive it will be condemned (Mk 16:15-16).

Jacob''s trouble and God''s salvation

Considering all those facts, we can figure out that the Passover is the greatest truth of all, which God has prepared for our salvation. Jesus has said that the last disaster will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth.

Lk 21:34-36 "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."

We must always give ourselves fully to the work of God while keeping watch and praying continually. When Jacob returned to his hometown, he wrestled with the angel of God at the ford of the Jabbok all night long. Even when his hip was wrenched from its socket, he would not give up. Only after receiving God''s blessing did Jacob return to his home. Likewise, we are to go through a time of hardship at least once on our journey to heaven, our eternal home. The book of Jeremiah calls it "a time of trouble for Jacob."

Jer 30:6-9 " ‘Ask and see: Can a man bear children? Then why do I see every strong man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor, every face turned deathly pale? How awful that day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it. In that day,'' declares the LORD Almighty, . . . "

We must realize the value of our salvation and have faith strong enough to overcome any hardship and suffering. Just as Jacob returned to his hometown amid God''s blessing, we must also return to our heavenly home amidst the abundance of God''s blessings by keeping our faith and enduring to the end, no matter what kind of hardship and suffering we encounter.

God has given the children of Zion a sign of promise through the Passover. As God let the Israelites prepare themselves for the coming plague through the Passover as a sign of His promise, so God allows us to escape disasters through the Passover in this age, too. Even though disasters occur all around the world and a thousand may fall at our side, ten thousand at our right hand, God stops all the disasters from coming near us (Ps 91:7-16). God has promised through His word that He will keep our future safe and protect us. Engraving the gracious word of God deep in our hearts and abiding in God''s promise, let us all give glory and praise to God forever and ever.