p. 170 | Signs of the Second Advent

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, March 17, 1885

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 62, No. 11

Signs of the Second Advent

By Dudley Marvin Canright

The Bible declares in the most positive manner many times over, that the end will come sometime. The world will not always go on as it is now. He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world.” Acts. 17:31. Jesus will come the second time. “Behold he cometh with clouds.” Rev. 1:7. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven.” 1 Thess. 4:16. The dead will be raised. “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” John 5:28, 29. The end of the world will come. “The harvest is the end of the world.” Matt. 13:39.

No one can tell the definite time,—the hour, or day, or year,—when these awful events will come. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Matt. 24:36. Hence we have no fellowship with those who set time for the Lord to come. Nor, on the other extreme, can we agree with those who assert that we can know nothing about the end; that it may come to-night or that it may not come for a thousand years yet; that there will be no signs, no warning to the world, no preparation of the righteous. Is this the way God has done in the past? Go back to the first advent. God warned the world of the coming event. The righteous knew it was coming, and were ready for it. Sodom was warned, Nineveh was warned, and John came preaching before the first advent. Will God act differently in the last days than he has always done before? No, there will be signs, and a warning, too.

In answer to the question as to what should be the sign of his coming, Jesus said, “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.” Luke 21:25. What are these signs for? “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Verse 28. Then there certainly will be signs to show when that event is near. The generation which has these signs is not to pass away till the Lord comes. Verses 25–32. We firmly believe these signs have already appeared, and that we are now living in the last generation. The coming of Christ is right at the doors. We can only briefly notice a few of these signs.

Daniel 12 relates wholly to last day events,—time of trouble, the judgment, the resurrection, the “time of the end.” The prophet says that “the time of the end many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Verse 4. Then in the time of the end there is to be a marked increase in travel, so that people would be properly described as running to and fro, traveling as never before. The invention of the steamboat and cars in this country has exactly fulfilled this prophecy. Now people are constantly running to and fro. The prophet says “and knowledge shall be increased.” The most remarkable characteristic of our age is the wonderful increase of knowledge in every possible direction. It is so remarked by everybody, by the private citizen, by the public speaker, and by the daily press. All agree that more has been done in this respect within this century than in all the previous history of the world. What does this mean? Is it accidental? No, indeed. It is a sign of the end. God foretold and meant it should be so. The last generation has more light and knowledge, and a clearer warning, than any previous age.

Take another sign. Jesus said: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. This sign is plain and positive. A child can understand it. Just as soon as the gospel is preached in all the world to every nation, then the end will come. Jesus says so. Then it will be so. This has been literally fulfilled within the last few years. Bible societies, tract societies, mission societies, have rapidly sprung up in all Christian lands, till every nation on earth has the gospel preached to it. Says the Christian Union: “The whole world has been ransacked and explored; there is not a corner on the globe where Christianity is not known.” Says the Phrenological Journal: “The whole heathen world is dotted with missions.” Bible is translated into about three hundred languages, while religious reading is scattered all over the earth like leaves of autumn. This sign is fulfilled, the gospel is now preached to all nations, the end is at hand.

Take another fact. The light of the Bible has made the entire circuit of the globe. It began in Asia, and has gradually gone westward with empire

and civilization till the whole world has been enlightened. Why shouldn’t the end come? It has always been the traditional faith of the church that the termination of the 6,000 years would bring us to the end. That this time expires just about here all agree. It is a little less than 2,000 years from the creation to Christ; a little over 2,000 years thence to the first advent; and now a little less than 2,000 years till the end. Just when the 6,000 years expire none can tell; it cannot be far off.

In the last generation, as signs of the end, the sun was to be darkened, the moon was not to give her light, and the stars were to fall. We have not space to quote these prophecies, so the reader is referred to Matt. 24:29–33; Mark 13:24–30; Luke 21:25–33. Nothing could be plainer. These signs are to mark the last generation. The sun was supernaturally darkened May 19, 1780. It was generally accepted at the time as a sign of the end. It was referred to by the writers of those times as something fearful and supernatural. The following night, the moon, though full, gave not one ray of light. The darkness was total. In 1833 the stars fell. For hours the heavens was one blaze of falling stars, tens of thousands falling in every direction. Nothing like it was ever seen before or since. Thus these signs were fulfilled.

Fearful storms on sea and land, thunders, lightnings, hailstones, earthquakes, and other fearful convulsions in the elements, were to mark the end near. Luke 21:25; Rev. 11:18, 19. All these have been increasing at a fearful rate during the past few years. All are familiar with the fearful destruction of late that has been wrought by cyclones, tornadoes, waterspouts, freshets, and earthquakes. Coal and natural gas are coming to the surface all over the earth. Why just now? To prepare the earth for the burning day.

Moral corruption, like that in the days of the flood, was to characterize the last days. Matt. 24:37. Now we see the rapidly increasing wickedness, dishonesty, and crime of our times. In the church, formality, fashion, style, and love of pleasure were to abound. Is not this painfully true? Miracles were to be wrought everywhere by “the spirits.” Rev. 16:14. This is being literally fulfilled by Spiritualism, which sprang up in 1848. In connection with all these, there was to be a warning to all the world that “the hour of God’s Judgment is come.” Rev. 14:6, 7. For forty years the Adventists have been giving such a warning. Everywhere the cry has been heard, “The Lord is coming, the end is at hand.” Their papers are numbered by hundreds, their converts by thousands, and their publications by millions. All things show that the end is at hand. Look at our list and read further.

D. M. Canright.