The Power of Children in the Last Times

…and stood by the altar, and had a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he should offer it with the prayer of all the saints upon the golden altar; and the smoke of the incense from the prayer of the saints ascended from the hand of the angel before GOD. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there were voices, much thunder and lightning, and an earthquake. This is a close paraphrase of Revelation 8:3–5. When the prayer of all the saints—of which the children in Silesia are a good beginning The "Silesian children" (Schlesische Kinder) refers to a 1707–1708 Pietist movement where thousands of children gathered in fields to pray and sing, which many saw as a prophetic sign., and who come together in so many congregations under the open sky, forming, as it were, a defensive circle original: Wagenburg; a military formation of wagons used for protection, here used metaphorically for the power of collective prayer. and begging GOD for their protection and that of all believers—when this truly begins in earnest, and the prayers, not just of one or another congregation, but as it says in the apocalyptic text, the prayers of all the saints original Greek: προσευχαὶ τῶν ἁγίων πάντων (proseuchai tōn hagiōn pantōn) on earth join together, then the golden censer and the golden altar—before whose holy fire and coals the smoke of the incense (that is, the prayer of the saints) is ignited and made valid through CHRIST JESUS, the High Priest in eternity—will demonstrate its full power. It will not fall to the earth without effect; rather, through this very act, the voices, thunder, lightning, and earthquakes shall arise, and the judgments of the LORD shall break forth over the enemy and the greedy. But for now, these are only preparations, which are nevertheless occurring in—

—different places with great power. These prayers prevail upon GOD to still withhold His judgments, so that He does not come suddenly and strike the earth—which is otherwise already ripe for punishment—with a curse, as is threatened in the prophet Malachi in chapter 4. This passage should rightly be considered again regarding this present time, in which so many wonders and the constant, wonderful prayer of the Silesian children are taking place.

§ 8. The text in the prophet is quite significant, which reads: Behold! I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes; he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, so that I do not come and strike the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:5–6. Here, above all things, one must investigate what time Malachi is speaking of. This can be recognized from the words included in the text: that the speech is not actually about the time of the beginning of the New Testament, when Christ came in the flesh at His first arrival, but rather about the time when He will come at His second arrival for judgment, to judge the living and the dead. For when Christ came in the flesh, He did not come to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). Then He was sacrificed once original Greek: ἅπαξ (hapax) for all time to take away the sins of many; but when He comes for the second time original Greek: ἐκ δευτέρου (ek deuterou) at His—