What Are the Resolutions We Have Formed?—Are We Giving Christ the Treasure He Most Desires?
By the late MRS. E. G. WHITE
Among the valuable manuscripts left by the late Mrs. E. G. White was the following article, written for a New Year’s occasion. The matter is so appropriate at this time that we pass it on to our readers, knowing they will enjoy it, and also find it helpful.
EDITOR.
The excitement of the holidays is now in the past, and what has been the record? As we have professed to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, have our hearts been filled with gratitude for the infinite gift of God’s dear Son? Has Jesus been revered and honored? Has He been made prominent in our thoughts and plans, and have our gifts flowed into His treasury? Is it not true that in many instances, Christ and His claims have been forgotten in the feasting and the merriment, and that the honor due to Him has been given to man? Have not the thoughts, the means, and the labor been diverted from the proper object, and turned into a channel to please and exalt the human rather than the divine?
PROVE YOURSELVES
The admonition of the apostle comes down the line to every one of us, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.” God forbid that at this important hour, we should be so engrossed with other matters as to give no time to serious, candid, critical self-examination. Let things of minor consequence be put in the background, and let us now bring to the front the things that concern our eternal interests.
What advancement have we made in Christian experience? Our work—have we so done it that it will bear the inspection of the Master, who has given to every man his work, according to his ability? Inquire into the character of your thoughts, tempers, purposes, words, and works during the past year. Compare the records of your religious life with the Bible standard, and pass judgment upon yourselves. Have the fruits of righteousness testified that you are in the faith, or have the fruits that you have borne witnessed against you? Every provision has been made that we may attain a height of stature in Christ Jesus that will meet the divine standard. God is not pleased with His representatives if they are content to be dwarfs when they might grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. He wants you to have height and breadth in Christian experience. He wants you to have great thoughts, noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth, and lofty purposes of action. Each day as it passes should find you better prepared to meet new trials and bear new responsibilities. Every passing year should increase the soul’s yearning for purity and perfection of Christian character.
DIVINE PURPOSES IMPARTED
Although in one sense the first day of a new year is no more to God than any other day, yet He often puts into the hearts of His children at that time a desire to begin the new year with new resolves—perhaps with plans to carry out some worthy enterprise—and with purposes to depart from the wrongs of the old year, and to live the new year with new determinations.
Shall we not enter the new year with our hearts cleansed from selfishness and pride, and with a determination to put away every sinful indulgence?
MAY CHRIST HAVE THIS GIFT?
Many have been seeking some rare gift to bestow upon their friends. Will you not bring to Jesus the gift that He prizes above all others—the gift of your heart? If we bring to God the first gift, the value of every other is enhanced; for love makes it not merely a passing compliment, but a precious offering. From the softened heart in which the peace of Christ abides, will flow forth sincere wishes, kindly words and deeds, and worthy, appropriate offerings. Let us withhold nothing from Him who gave His precious life for us.
Many of us made great mistakes the last year. How many have cherished heartburnings and bitterness! How many have thought and spoken unkindly of those who, like themselves, profess to be followers of Jesus! We may think that we have had excuse for this; but is there any provocation of sufficient weight to excuse us in harboring unkindness and malice in our hearts? Said Jesus, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
The church militant is not the church triumphant, and earth is not heaven. The church is composed of erring, imperfect men and women, who are learners in the school of Christ, to be trained, educated, disciplined, for this life, and for the future immortal life. No one of us can in our own strength represent the character of Christ; but if Jesus lives in the heart, the Spirit dwelling in Him will be revealed in us; all our lack will be supplied. Who will seek, at the beginning of this new year, to obtain a new and genuine experience in the things of God? Make your wrongs right as far as possible. Confess your errors and sins to one another. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be put away; let patience and long-suffering and love become a part of your very being. Then whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report will mature in your experience.
DISPEL SELF-LOVE
As we stand on the threshold of a new year, there is need of an impartial examination of our own hearts, to dispel the pleasing illusions of self-love. Our condition is helpless and hopeless unless infinite mercy is granted us daily. Let us begin the new year with an entire renunciation of self; let us pray for clear discernment, that we may understand our Saviour’s claims upon us, and that we may always and everywhere be witnesses for Christ.
“Take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand”— “Strong in the strength which God supplies Through His eternal Son.”
Entering the New Year with New Resolutions
“ALTHOUGH in one sense the first day of the new year is no more to God than any other day, yet He often puts into the hearts of His children at that time a desire to begin the new year with new resolves—perhaps with plans to carry out some worthy enterprise—and with purposes to depart from the wrongs of the old year, and to live the new year with new determinations.
“Shall we not enter the new year with our hearts cleansed from selfishness and pride, and with a determination to put away every sinful indulgence?”
BABYLON IS FALLEN
By A. R. Bell
The Apostasy of the Church Foretold — The Mighty Call from God to Escape Her Pollution — How Protestantism Has Drifted, and What It Portends
By A. R. BELL
This sixth article of A. R. Bell’s on the book of Revelation, as promised in our last issue, continues the study of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. His article last week called attention to the message in the sixth and seventh verses, which make the announcement of the hour of God’s Judgment. The article this week deals with the apostasy that is spoken of in the eighth verse as the fall of Babylon.
The article next week will present the stirring warning in verses nine to twelve, that God sends to the world against the great apostasy which reproduces the beast power and which develops the image to the beast. EDITOR.
“AND there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Rev. 14: 8.
Under the symbol of the woman “Babylon,” an organization is brought to view in which are found many of God’s children; and the cry of the Lord to His people in Babylon is, “Come out of her, My people.” Rev. 18: 4.
The church is symbolized in Scripture under the figure of a woman. In 2 Cor. 11: 2, the true church is called “a chaste virgin.” Also in Revelation 17, under the figure of a woman, the great apostasy is brought to view, called “Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” Verses 1-5.
In the text before us, a fallen church is seen. She has committed fornication, and makes all nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of it.
As Jehovah said of Israel of old, so can it be said of her: “As a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel.” “As a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband.” Jer. 3: 20; Ezek. 16: 32.
Illicit intercourse with the world — a church unlawfully united to the state — is set before us in this figure, making the world drunken with her false doctrines.
APPLIES AT THE JUDGMENT HOUR
Notice that this is said in the time of the Judgment. It has its application in the last days. It is a message that follows the message of the Judgment, and is sounded just before the coming of the Lord. Rev. 14: 6-16.
This makes clear that the Babylon here noted is not alone the Church of Rome, for Rome has been fallen hundreds of years. Of great Babylon it is written that she is “the mother of harlots.” Where are her daughters? Who can they be but those churches which follow her in doctrines, traditions, and practices? It must be those churches which follow the example of Rome, putting tradition before the word of God, the commandments of men before the commandments of God, and that, like Rome, make flesh their arm.
WORLD-WIDE PROTESTANT APOSTASY
Now while this is a message that applies to the apostasy of Protestantism world-wide — for Babylon is to make all nations drunk — it can easily be seen that all the foregoing conclusions apply naturally to conditions here in our own land. In the study of Revelation 13, we saw that an image of the beast will be made — an exact likeness of the papacy, in all that the papacy is, in the United States. That condition never can be reached except by departing from the living God, and by denying the word of God.
It is not necessary for an organization to proclaim, in so many words, that it has departed from God, and that it denies God’s word. Its position and work prove this. Rome herself is an example. She proclaims herself the only true church, all-powerful, in constant, vital connection with God, and the defender of His word. Yet, in both teaching and practice, she exalts herself far above God; and when it comes to a question between tradition and the Bible, why, to her, “tradition is more clear and safe.”
Protestantism, with all its conflicting theories, creeds, dogmas, and sects, and seeking the help of human laws, and the co-operation and service of the state, for the furtherance of her aims, is fittingly symbolized in the Babylon we are studying — the fallen daughters of the mother harlot.
HAVING BUT A “FORM OF GODLINESS”
The apostle Paul, in his last-day prophecy — 2 Timothy 3 — sums up the matter in regard to the professed church, in the words, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof;” and his counsel is, “From such turn away.” Verse 5.
Coming back now to the application of the prophecy under consideration, we see another message following the Judgment message, and declaring that the church “is fallen.” We ask, From what can the church fall? and how can she fall?
THE PROTESTANTISM OF THE REFORMATION
Of Protestantism in the days of the Reformation, the historian says it “proclaimed for its teacher, the word of God; for salvation, faith; for King, Jesus Christ; for arms, the Holy Ghost. The gospel of the Reformers had nothing to do with the world nor with politics.” And of the “celebrated protest of April 19, 1529,” the principles of which “constitute the very essence of Protestantism,” the same historian says: “Now this protest opposes two abuses of man in matters of faith: the first is the intrusion of the civil magistrate; and the second, the arbitrary authority of the church. Instead of these abuses, Protestantism sets the power of conscience above the magistrate, and the authority of the word of God above the visible church. In the first place, it rejects the civil power in divine things, and says, with the prophets and apostles, We must obey God rather than man. In the presence of the crown of Charles the Fifth, it uplifts the crown of Jesus Christ. But it goes further: it lays down the principle, that all human teaching should be subordinate to the oracles of God.”—“History of the Reformation,” D’Aubigné, volume 4, pages 103, 104, 60, 61.
MODERN PROTESTANTISM AND THE ORIGINAL
As shown in a previous article, we have only to look about us to see how far professed Protestantism has departed from these principles. Everywhere she proclaims her right to enter politics. Everywhere she is seeking help from the state. Federations and confederations are forming everywhere in an unholy alliance to force the state to yield to their demands, and to compel men to be under the jurisdiction of the magistrate in matters of conscience; and they are pressing with might and main, as regards not only the obedience of individual men and women, but also the obedience of the state, the authority of the “visible church,” not only above “the authority of the word of God,” but altogether at variance with it. Jesus said, “If any man hear My words, and believe not,7I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” John 12: 47.
But these confederations of the church today say of men who will not conform to their methods, “If they do not see fit to fall in with the majority, they must abide the consequences.” In their complete denial of the principles of Protestantism, through unholy alliance with the state, they will incorporate religion into civil law, and then have “the government” lay its hand on any religion that does not conform to it.
These are the conditions we face everywhere about us; and God declares: “Babylon is fallen. . . . Come out of her, My people.”
This religious combination has put on record that this country “will not allow those who want to keep the seventh day . . . and do secular work on the first day of the week, . . . to do that in the name of conscience, and this because the conscience of the American people is Christian.”
Notwithstanding that a man may conscientiously, and in harmony with the Bible and the God of the Bible, keep the seventh-day Sabbath, and in this very thing follow the example set by Jesus Christ Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, thereby proving himself a true follower of Christ, yet these misguided men imply that the man who keeps the Bible Sabbath is not a Christian.
Such utterances hark back to the day when the leaders of a church “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” said of the Christ of God, “This Man is not of God, because He keepeth not the Sabbath day.” Because He uncovered “the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord” from the rubbish of tradition, the accumulation of Pharisaism, and offered it to men, in the providence and purpose of God, “a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable,” and not as they had made it, a burden grievous to be borne, they declared that Jesus was an impostor, and that He had a devil. So to-day, when men drawn by the Spirit of God, through the teaching of the word of God, are led to see the truth concerning all the rubbish of tradition and the “commandments of men” that have forced Sunday keeping upon them, and to turn their feet into the pathway of God’s commandments, and keep His Sabbath, the implication is that they are not Christians.
THE CHURCH AND THE AMUSEMENT CRAZE
In departing from the living God through their departure from the truth, His word, the professed people of God as a body have lost their bearings, and are become a church whose “beautiful and glorious life is shorn of its spiritual power.” In their alliance with the state, the halls of legislation have become more to them for their petitions than the throne of God; and in their union with the world, they are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”
In their mad hunt after the things that please, the professed church to-day is giving the world a great chase. The theater, the dance, the races, cards, and entertainments that sometimes make even the world cry shame, are all found within her borders. And on the part of her ministry, “a minister may teach that ‘the Bible is an obsolete book, and no longer authority,’ and we must recognize him as a gospel preacher. He may teach that Christ was only the best of men, and only divine in the sense that all men are, only more so, perhaps, but not at all to be worshiped as Deity, and we must admit such a minister into our pulpits as a gospel preacher. He may teach that the atonement is only an example of devotion on Christ’s part, and in no sense a ransom for our sins, and we must fellowship him as a gospel minister. He may teach that the miracles were but myths, with no historic value, yea, that there is no special supernatural in the Bible, and we must fellowship him. He may teach that regeneration is but the natural evolution of the higher nature in man, and in no sense a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, and we must recognize him as a gospel minister. He may teach that Christ never founded a church, or commanded baptism, or established the Lord’s Supper, that these are only human institutions of man’s creation, and we must fellowship him as a religious leader.”—Smith Baker, D. D., Bible Student and Teacher, April, 1909.
To such an extent has this gone that even Rome relates herself to the matter as follows: “It is not a question now of quoting the Bible, but of contradicting it. As long as Protestantism held to the Bible, it retained something of Christianity; but now that it is ever flirting with infidelity, it has only one means of living — sensationalism.”—The New World (Roman Catholic), Chicago, July 24, 1909.
Surely is Babylon fallen; and the cry of the Almighty is, “Come out of her, My people.”
’TIS not the costly raiment of the world
God’s children crave,—the jewels and the pearls,
The gold, the ermine, and the tossing plumes;
But rather that adorning of the soul —
That perfect robe of righteousness — which makes
Us one with God. And how may we be clad
In that blest vesture, undefiled? It will
Not cover sin. The character of Christ
Must woven be in woof and warp of mind
And brain, and stamped upon the muscles and
The nerves. Christ kept His Father’s law, and so
Should we. Our hearts should beat with His great heart,
His will be ours. Then He will give the power
To live His own sweet life, and so shall we
Be clothed upon with linen clean and white —
The wedding garment furnished by the King.
By ministration of the Spirit’s power,
The work of God on earth will onward sweep,
Until the world is warned, and Jesus comes.
And when, at length, the last great day shall dawn,
The trumpet sound, the sleeping dead be raised,
The bodies of the saints will be transformed,
Or “clothed upon” with houses from above,
With tabernacles from the Lord, “not made with hands,
Eternal in the heavens.” ’Tis then, e’en then,
The natural and the earthly disappear,
And incorruption takes the place of that
Which now is mortal, subject to decay.
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is
Thy victory?” The victory must come
Through Christ. To Him be praise forevermore.
Let all the universe proclaim His praise.
RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION BEFORE CONGRESS
By S. B. Horton
Proposed Laws to Restrict the Mails — Would Exclude Publications That Criticize Religious Creeds — Would Enact More Sunday Laws
By S. B. HORTON
Many persons may fail to see anything particularly significant in the facts presented by Elder Horton in the following article. They may think not only that the open letter to Congress is unnecessary, but that the ground over which the appeal is made has no significance. But the readers of this paper who for the last forty years and more have been following the developments pointing in the direction of fulfilling the prophecy of Revelation 13 and 14, will see something very significant in these persistent efforts to secure religious legislation through our national Congress. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press has been one of the great bulwarks of our American civilization. And the fact that persistent efforts were made, in the last Congress, to prohibit the use of the mails to publications which criticized creeds, and that the same effort is made in this Congress, shows that there are men who think sufficient sentiment has been manufactured in this country to warrant them in pressing such legislation. Things like these show unmistakably the trend toward a religious despotism such as the prophecy calls for.
EDITOR.
THE wheels of the sixty-fourth Congress had hardly been put in motion before it was discerned that history would repeat itself in the matter of introducing measures involving the principles of civil and religious liberty. At this writing, not less than four measures have been introduced in behalf of Sunday laws, and amending post office regulations so as to prohibit the use of the mails to certain publications.
Prior to the meeting of Congress, which took place December 6, the press of Washington reported that such measures would be introduced; and the Religious Liberty Association, with headquarters at Washington, anticipating that these newspaper reports would be focused into proposed legislation, issued the following open letter to the sixty-fourth Congress:
“To the Sixty-fourth Congress:
“The sixty-fourth Congress of the United States takes up its duties at a most critical moment in our national history. The world war, and this nation’s relation to it, as well as domestic problems of intense moment, will require of this Congress perhaps as great if not greater intelligence, deeper patriotism, and calmer judgment, than ever before demanded of any Congress, even when our country was itself convulsed with civil strife, or its sovereignty threatened by foreign war.
“The survival of our liberties has been largely due to the rule loyally followed in the past of adhering strictly to the original American ideals in settling domestic problems as well as in adjusting foreign relations.
“No Congress could be confronted with graver problems than those involving the foundation principles upon which the nation was established; and such are some of the issues with which the sixty-fourth Congress stands face to face.
“In this communication, we beg to raise a question in regard to certain proposed legislation, contravening, in our judgment, the fundamental principles of American liberty. For example, we have reason to anticipate that an attempt will be made to persuade you to nullify the intent and purpose of the first amendment to the constitution. The Intermountain Catholic, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 6, 1915, had this item:
“Congressman Elect Siegel, of New York, will advocate the passage of a bill in the next Congress that will prohibit the use of the mails to any publication making it a practice to defame any creed, race, or religion.’
“You will doubtless recall that in the sixty-third Congress, this very question was considered in the form of two bills (H. R. 2064 and H. R. 20780) introduced into the House and referred to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, which conducted a hearing on the subject February 1, 1915.
“It was held, by the opponents of these measures, that the legislation proposed was indefensible, ‘inasmuch as it enables the government to exercise indirectly a power which was not conferred upon it either directly or indirectly by the constitution’; namely, the power to control the press in favor of religion; and maintaining with Chancellor Kent that it has become a constitutional principle in this country, that ‘every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments, on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right, and that no law can rightfully be passed to restrain or abridge the freedom of speech or of the press.’—‘Commentaries on American Law,’ James Kent, 1848, volume 2, sixth edition, page 17.
“We respectfully submit that the principles of liberty are directly involved in proposed legislation compelling the closing of barber shops in the District of Columbia on Sunday, and other similar measures.
“The present Congress is not the first to be urged to enact laws of this character. In the twentieth and twenty-first Congresses, the subject of Sunday observance was considered from every viewpoint; and it was decided by the statesmen of that day that the whole question belonged to the realm of religion, and that Congress could not determine for any citizen the duty of regarding one day above another. That this was the attitude of the fathers of our country may be drawn from the following excerpt from House Report on Sunday Mails, communicated March 4 and 5, 1830:
“It is perhaps fortunate for our country that the proposition (to enact Sunday legislation) should have been made at this early period while the spirit of the Revolution yet exists in full vigor.’—‘American State Papers,’ class 7, page 229.8
“Congress has uniformly decided against legislation of this character, regarding it as violative of that part of the first amendment which provides that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.’”
“We request, therefore, that the present Congress adhere strictly to the precedents of the past on this subject, and that our liberties be as jealously guarded by our national legislators during 1915-1916 as they were by the lawmakers of three quarters of a century ago.
“Most obediently,
“RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION.”
The SIGNS OF THE TIMES will furnish its readers, from time to time, with information as to the progress of this legislation, which, it is to be hoped, will not receive the favorable consideration of Congress.
The Next Universal Kingdom
By Tyler E. Bowen
It Will Be Literal, and Stand Forever—An Ancient Prophecy Concerning It—All Earthly Kingdoms Go Down Before It
By TYLER E. BOWEN
Since nations began to form, they have waged battles to determine the boundary lines of their territory. They fight to increase their territory, or to maintain that already possessed. A kingdom is dependent upon subjects and territory.
The Bible clearly states that just ahead, ere all the generation now living shall pass off the stage of action, another universal kingdom shall be ushered in. Not that this kingdom will begin its reign here then; but its King comes to get His subjects, and make desolate all other kingdoms by making desolate the earth itself.
That kingdom will be as literal as any universal kingdom of the past. There will be a literal King,—a Man once born into our world, a Man as well as God, being the Son of God; literal subjects,—men, women, and children, the same as have composed other kingdoms of earth, yet changed into saints; and likewise territory as literal and tangible as has formed any kingdom upon the earth—this very same earth upon which we now live, rebuilt into its Edenic state. And when this new kingdom shall be set up here on this earth, one thousand years and more hence, it will not be supplanted by another. It shall remain forever.
SPIRITUAL THINGS NOT VISIONARY
The moment one refers to spiritual things, which are not now seen, that moment many minds at once wander blankly into space. They think something like this: “Oh, how do you know? We can see what we now have. These things about us are real; but as to some future state—a heaven to which you refer—all that seems visionary, unreal, and far off. We prefer clinging to what we know we now have, that we can sense and feel, and let the future take care of itself.”
Thousands reason like this. But such reason very foolishly. They are wonderfully shortsighted. The things that now are, are transient, and soon to pass away; while the things that are not now seen, are as literal as are the things about us, and these shall, when they come, continue to all eternity. The very truth of it is, these things that we now see, are really the visionary, the unreal, the most transient and easily to pass away from us of all things in the realm of human thought; while those which are just ahead are of all things that the mind can contemplate the most literal, the most tangible, the most enduring.
DANIEL SAW FIVE KINGDOMS
Twenty-five hundred years or more ago, the Infinite One, the Framer of all worlds, including the earth, opened up to the mind of the prophet Daniel the history of the earth from that time until the years of eternity should measure off the cycles of its enduring history.
Hear these words outlining the purpose of Jehovah concerning the earth: “These great beasts [that Daniel had seen in a vision], which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.” Dan. 7:17, 18.
Notice how lightly God speaks of the four kings arising “out of the earth” as compared with the reign of “the saints of the Most High” who are to possess the same kingdom, the same territory over which these four universal kings ruled, and that their possession, or reign, was to continue “forever, even forever and ever.”
After Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome (for these are the four kings mentioned), with their mighty world sway, have all been swept away—all become like a tale that is told, a watch in the night forever past—then on and on and ever on, so long as the Most High Himself shall exist, the kingdom of the saints shall literally continue, and be possessed by them. Ah, which then will be the visionary, the far-away, and unreal? The eternity of the past is as far away as the eternity of the future. But in never-ending delights, the ever-present present shall be within the grasp of the dwellers of that real country, that real home, “even forever and ever.”
REVEALED TO NEBUCHADNEZZAR
To Nebuchadnezzar, the first monarch to wield the scepter over the whole earth, the Most High revealed the same future history of the earth. And of the time when the fourth kingdom should become old, crumbling with age, even as iron and clay reveal weakness, we read this:
“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” Dan. 2:34, 35, 44.
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE FIFTH EARTH KINGDOM
These are very important statements. From them we learn: (a) that the God of heaven brings to an end these earthly kingdoms which we think are so tangible and real; (b) that they are all consumed together; (c) that the instrument used to smite these wicked kingdoms becomes like a mountain, and fills the whole earth; (d) that this fifth kingdom, as literal and real as the others, shall have no end.
When is it that God smites these kingdoms? and what is the stone? Their being smitten and broken is one event, their being carried away is another.
“And I saw,” writes the apostle John, “heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called the Word of God. [“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” John 1:1, 14.] And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Rev. 19:11-16.
EARTH KINGDOMS SMITTEN
The second coming of Jesus Christ in power and great glory is depicted in the above scripture. Just prior to that event, a special resurrection will take place (see Dan. 12:2), in which representatives from past generations will be raised, some to be saved, and some who will not; and all these witness that majestic scene. The nations will then be smitten by the Stone, Christ; and from His mouth will go forth the word—the “sword”—before which the ungodly cannot stand. At that time, the earth will be broken down at the presence of the Lord. Isa. 24:19, 20. The earth will be turned, so to speak, upside down. There will be left no inhabitant in it. The cities thereof will all be broken down. Truly the nations will then be smitten.
WHEN NO PLACE IS FOUND FOR WICKED NATIONS
But it will be one thousand years after Christ’s second coming that these four kingdoms shall all be consumed together, and no place found for them any more. They have made the saints transients in the earth. They have persecuted them, sawn them asunder, made them wander in sheepskins and goatskins, while they themselves acted as though they possessed the whole earth, and were to have possession forever. Then, at the end of the one thousand years, by the voice of Jesus Christ, all the unsaved Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Grecians, and Romans will be brought out of their graves, and be together here before their Judge, and again see these very ones whom they have persecuted. It is at that time that the wicked are to become like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind, figuratively speaking, is to carry them away, “that no place” is “found for them.” They will then become the offscourings of the earth, as they have made the saints to be; and a whirlwind of fire from God in heaven will burst in upon them, and they will be consumed from off the earth. Literally there will be no place9found for them any more. The earth is not theirs, they have no other dwelling place prepared for them, and consequently they must cease to exist.
A REAL PLACE PREPARED FOR THE SUBJECTS OF CHRIST’S KINGDOM
But with the people of God it is not this way. Jesus said: “Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 1-3, A. R. V.
Just as literally as Peter, James, and John, and the others listening that day to Jesus, were men; just as literally as they were sitting in an upper room in Jerusalem; just as real and tangible as was Jesus, their divine Lord, telling them these things,—likewise real and tangible and visible are the place He has prepared—that glorious city above, which shall come down upon this earth of ours—and the people who shall be the dwellers there. And as literal shall be the reign, in much splendor and glory, of the fifth and last kingdom, soon to be ushered in, to occupy the earth, as has been the reign of these kingdoms we know.
Who would not want to be there? The King has invited you to become one of His subjects in that glorious kingdom just ahead. Will you accept His invitation?
