p. 3 | Review and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 48 Extra (11/16/1914)

God's Message for Today

By F. M. Wilcox

We have reached the closing days of earth's history. The kingdoms of this world are soon to become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. The exact time we may not know. No man by the prophetic periods can figure out the day of the Master's coming, but we may know that his coming is nigh, even at the doors. And we may know it as assuredly as we may know that summer is nigh when the trees begin to put forth their leaves. Matthew 24: 32, 33.

The heralds of the morning are even now present. God would leave the world without excuse. So in the heavens above; in the earth beneath; in wind and wave and ocean's roar; in the physical, social, industrial, religious, and political worlds; in the false religious movements; in the great prophetic forecasts of the history of nations,—in many and varied ways do the Scriptures reveal that the time of the Lord's return is near.

Prophecies Pointing to Christ's Coming

Consider the evidences presented in the two diagrams accompanying this article. The first diagram presents ten great prophetic forecasts of a series of events which were to take place among the nations of men and in connection with the church of God. Every prophecy cited directs attention to the same focal point, and that is the return to this earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. They all indicate that we are living down in the comparatively little space just preceding the coming of the Lord, and that but little more remains to the complete fulfillment of the prophetic period bringing us to the coming of Christ.

The second outline presents the sign prophecies of the Lord's return,—prophecies of conditions which would exist in the world just preceding the second coming of Christ. These signs are in process of fulfillment today. They speak with one voice, “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

The Lord in his infinite mercy does not leave the world in ignorance of this great event. He gave to Noah for his generation a message of the coming flood. He warned Nineveh, through Jonah, of the coming destruction. He sent John the Baptist as a herald of the first advent of Christ. He will apprise the world of the Master's return. Says the prophet Joel:—

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” Joel 3: 1.

“The Hour of His Judgment Is Come”

This message of the Lord's coming is a judgment message. It proclaims that the hour of God's judgment is come, and calls upon men to turn away from the worship of sin and self and to give their allegiance to the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Says the revelator:—

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth; and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14: 6, 7.

The warlike attitude of the nations will be one of the conditions associated with the judgment hour. Says the Word of divine revelation:—

“And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” Revelation 11: 18.

The great rule of judgment by which God will determine the destinies of men is the law of ten commandments. Says the apostle:—

“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2: 12.

“The Seventh Day Is the Sabbath of the Lord Thy God”

Every principle of this law of the great King must be upheld by the divine government. But the study of this holy law reveals the fact that the majority of professed Christians have been unwittingly trampling underfoot one of its divine precepts. In place of the Sabbath of the Lord enjoined by the fourth commandment, another day has been substituted, and the great Christian church has accepted for ages this substitution. God, however, has never recognized it. He established the Sabbath in the beginning as a memorial of his creative work. Says the divine record:—

“On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2: 2, 3.

By three distinct acts the Creator set apart the seventh day as the Sabbath: 1. “He rested on the seventh day.” This constituted it his own rest day. 2. He “blessed the seventh day.” This constituted the seventh day holy time. 3. He “sanctified it;” that is, set it apart for a holy and sacred use, for the use of mankind.

Christ the Author of the Sabbath

Jesus Christ was the creator of all things. Colossians 1: 15-18; John 1: 1-3. As Creator he is the author and Lord of the Sabbath. Mark 2: 27, 28. The Sabbath stands not only as a memorial of his great power in the creation of the material world, but he has made it also a sign of his recreative power in the work of redemption. He declares:—

“Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations: that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Exodus 31: 12-17.

The Sabbath a Part of the Moral Law

When the Majesty of heaven descended on the blazing peaks of Sinai, and from the midst of the celestial glory spoke with an audible voice his divine law, writing it afterward with his own finger upon the enduring stone, he placed in the very bosom of this decalogue the Sabbath commandment. That commandment solemnly enjoins the observance of the seventh day of the week:—

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20: 8-11.

Christ an Observer of the True Sabbath

When the Lord came to earth two thousand years ago, he made no change in the Sabbath commandment. He declares with reference to the law and the prophets:—

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew 5: 17-19.

Christ himself observed the Sabbath. Luke 4: 16. He took particular care to instruct the people as to the true manner of its observance. Matthew 12: 1-12. And the Master's example in the observance of his holy day was carefully followed by his most intimate disciples, who, after Christ's death, “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23: 56; 24: 1.

In the same manner the great apostle to the Gentiles observed the Sabbath of the Lord. It was customary for him to worship in the synagogue on the seventh day. Acts 17: 1-3. For a whole year and a half at Corinth he preached Christ in the synagogue every Sabbath, persuading both Jews and Gentiles. Acts 18: 4, 11. And as he practiced regarding the Sabbath of the Lord, so he taught. He inquires, “Do we then make void the law through faith?” Answering his own question, he emphatically states: “God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Romans 3: 31.

By keeping the law no man can earn salvation, which is the free gift of God through Christ Jesus.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2: 8, 9.

Obedience to Christ's requirements is the highest exercise of love on the part of the believer.

When and How the Sabbath Was Changed

The apostle Paul taught that in his day the mystery of iniquity was already at work in the church. At a later period we find this mystery developing into a great ecclesiastical system which, ignoring the precepts of the Master, laid ruthless hands upon the law of God, and tore from it the holy rest day, substituting in its place a sabbath of its own creation.

These changes were brought about slowly. During the early centuries both the seventh and the first day of the week were observed by the Christian church. Sunday was celebrated at first as an ordinary church festival, the same as Good Friday, Christmas, etc., making appeal for support to ecclesiastical authority, and not to Scriptural injunction. Indeed, to Scriptural authority it could not appeal, for nowhere in the Bible is the first day of the week called a sabbath or a holy day, or its observance enjoined by precept or example. “Opposition to Judaism,” says the historian, a desire to gain favor with their heathen neighbors, with motives of expediency and patriotism, led to the exaltation of the festival dedicated by the heathen world to the veneration of the sun, in the place of the true Sabbath.

The decree of Constantine, in A. D. 321,

requiring its observance on the part of “judges and townspeople, and the occupation of all trades,” and the decree of the Council of Laodicea, in A. D. 364, ordering that “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord's Day they shall especially honor,” gave increased impetus to first-day observance. But “down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued.”—Ancient Christianity Exemplified by Lyman Coleman, chapter 26. But God left not his truth without witness in the earth, for some in every age have observed the true rest day.

The Final Issue and Test

When we come down to the closing days of earth's history, where fulfilling prophecies clearly show that we are now living, the Scriptures of Truth indicate that there will go to the world a great reform message regarding the law of God, and particularly that part of the law relating to the Sabbath commandment. That message is now going by voice and pen to earth's remotest bounds. The attention of the world is being called to the downtrodden Sabbath of the Lord, which the prophecy represents as the seal of the living God. Revelation 7: 1-4; Isaiah 56: 1-8.

At the same time the Scriptures of Truth clearly show that in the last days of earth's history an earnest effort will be made through legal enactment to force Sunday observance upon the consciences of men. Revelation 13: 11-18. We see a literal fulfillment of that prophecy in the efforts which are now being made to secure the enactment of a Sunday law by the Congress of the United States, and by the agitation attending this question in other parts of the world. But the Word of God gives positive warning that those who, after knowing the teaching of the Scriptures, ruthlessly reject the Sabbath of the Lord, disregarding its holy requirements and giving their allegiance to the counterfeit sabbath, shall receive God's everlasting displeasure. Revelation 14: 6-14.

Walking as Christ Walked

This controversy over the Sabbath of the Lord will prove a test of character

to every believer. Dear reader, on which side of this controversy will you stand? Will you obey the law of the Lord Jesus Christ by following his example in keeping holy the day which he has ordained, or will you give your allegiance to the counterfeit sabbath which has been set up in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord? How will you stand when your case is called in the great judgment, and your life is compared with the divine law? Read Ecclesiastes 12: 13, 14. This is not a question merely of theological difference and discussion. It is a question of obedience to our Lord and Master. He says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14: 15.

“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2: 6. Let us show our love for the Lord Christ, who died that we might live, by following in his footsteps and doing as he did when he lived among men. To us as to his disciples of old he says, “Follow me.”

Approaching Armageddon

By C. M. Snow

THE MEANING OF THIS WORLD WAR

By C. M. Snow

WHAT is the meaning of this cataclysm of the nations? What means the beating of this flail of death on the quivering flesh of civilization? Is it only a step in human evolution? Is it the wreck of civilization? Is it the long-expected Armageddon of Biblical prophecy?

Yesterday this world was a neighborhood: today it is a slaughterhouse, a charnel house, a cyclone, a cemetery. Yesterday there was comparative peace and prosperity, confidence, friendly intercourse, and kindly ministration; today there is turmoil and famine, distrust, hatred, malevolence, ruin, dismay, and a mutual desire to injure and to kill. Does it mean nothing to this race but the changing of a few rulers and the making of new boundary lines?

It means much more. Civilization as a guarantor of peace has proved itself a broken reed. The hand that leaned upon it has been pierced by it; and the innocent victims of that trust are watering the storm-swept soil with their tears and their blood.

Prophecy of the Peace and Safety Cry

Centuries ago this world was warned that a time would come when the call to war would go ringing through the earth, and the nations would respond.

Certain religious leaders have been teaching the world for years that we were soon to enter upon a millennium of peace. They have deluded themselves and their hearers with the belief that some of the wishes of the human heart are the very oracles of God. They have wanted wars to cease, and have declared that they would cease. God has recorded their declarations; and then they have declared that God's record of their declaration in this matter was God's own declaration to the human race of what he purposed should be. This utterance from Isaiah they have thus interpreted:

“And he [God] shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isaiah 2:4.

It is essential that we know who is saying this. The verse immediately preceding the one quoted reads:—

“And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Who says it?—“Many people.” And they are saying it now. And what else are they saying?—That “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,” and that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” When are they saying it? The second verse of the same chapter tells us that “it shall come to pass in the last days,” etc.

Then “in the last days” we are to hear much talk of an epoch of peace, tranquillity, and prosperity; much talk of regulating all human conduct by divine law; much talk of the church regulating all the affairs of the world; much talk of the speedy and perpetual elimination of war from the activities of this world. If we had no other proof that we are living in the last days, present-day facts fulfilling that prophecy would be proof enough. That scripture describes our times, and our times fulfill that scripture.

Now what is the truth of the matter? In the same chapter we learn what the true conditions will be in the last days. It portrays a condition of terror in the world:—

“Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low. . . . And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isaiah 2:10-21.

A very different condition of things is this from the condition which “many people” are looking for; but that scripture agrees perfectly with what our Saviour himself declared would be. He said:—

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:25-27.

We have seen the signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars. We are seeing the distress of nations and their perplexity; and men's hearts are today trembling with fear because of what they see and hear. But the Saviour declares that this condition is to be followed by his coming in the clouds of heaven. He makes no provision for an epoch of peace. Instead he tells us of a time when—

“the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, and hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?” Revelation 6:15-17.

No Epoch of Peace

There is no promise there of an epoch of peace and safety. It is a time of distress and perplexity and fear and terror, and it leads right into the coming of the Son of God, the destruction of the wicked and the reward of the righteous. We have another divine word in reference to these conditions:—

“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh

upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

Sudden destruction comes when they are saying, “Peace and safety.” They have been saying, “Peace and safety,” in all parts of the world during the last few years. They have held peace congresses, and have dedicated a magnificent palace to that idea. Every nation had armed itself to guarantee peace; and then a lesson of destruction was turned loose upon the world. Millions of men sprang to arms—and the arms were ready. Men forgot that they were armed to guarantee peace; and they began to fight one another like wild beasts, and to die like herds of cattle driven to the slaughter. Surely there was no peace, but sudden and terrible destruction.

In This Armageddon!

What the Lord says the people will be saying: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." What the Lord says the people will be doing: "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears."

The people of this world, in spite of the “peace and safety” cry, have a sort of vague and shadowy idea of a great battle that is to be the last battle of this world, and they have been taught to believe that when it has been fought, there will be no more war; but that the kingdom of God will be quietly established in the world, and tranquillity and peace will rule supreme. Of the battle of Armageddon the Bible speaks thus:—

“And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs; for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together unto the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon. Revelation 16:13-16, American Revised Version.

The spirits of demons are, according to God's Word, the actuating agencies in stirring up the awful spirit of strife which culminates in the battle of the great day of God, the Almighty—Armageddon. The demons are busy, and are gathering in the nations one by one to the great swirling vortex of mutual ruin.

Since Turkey has decided to fling herself into this fray, there is every possibility that this terrible grapple of the nations of the world is leading straight on toward Armageddon. While Turkey kept out and the war was confined to Europe, Armageddon did not seem so near. That old battle ground of the ancient nations is located in Palestine, at the foot of Mt. Megiddo, in the plain of Esdraelon, north of Jerusalem, accessible from north and south and from the sea. That is to be the gathering place of the hosts of the nations in the last mighty battles of this world. Here is the divinely recorded call that goes out to all the nations in that day:—

“Proclaim ye this among the nations: prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe; come, tread ye; for the wine press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:9-14.

The meaning of Jehoshaphat is, Jehovah does justice. Therefore it is “the valley of decision,” or the valley of Jehovah's judgment. It is a narrow glen between Mt. Moriah and Mt. Olivet in Palestine.

Reason for Armageddon

The reason for the assembly of the nations at Armageddon seems plain when we consider the logical result of Turkey's entrance into this war. If she is driven out of Europe and forced out of western Asia Minor, it would seem she must withdraw into Palestine. When Islam and other heathen religionists come to grips with armed Christendom in the Holy Land, we shall have Armageddon. The door is now flung wide open for just such a dénouement. And will peace follow it?—Nay, verily.

“Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth. And the slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.” Jeremiah 25:32, 33.

At the time of that event that power known in prophecy as “the king of the north” (Daniel 11:40-45) will establish the seat of its government in Palestine, and there fling down its final challenge to the rest of the world. Of that power it is predicted:—

“But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 11:44 to Daniel 12:2.

That marks the consummation of the gospel work in the earth, the consummation of the age. It will be a time of terror for the ungodly and the unbeliever; but they that put their trust in Jehovah shall be as Mount Zion that cannot be moved. Says the apostle:—

“To you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus; who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.

That event is synchronous with the close of the battle of Armageddon. No battles will be fought after that, for there will be no one left to fight them. That closes the history of this present world, and leaves the wicked slain upon the earth and the righteous on their way with angelic escort to the place of their reward.