Peter and John hasten to tell the other disciples that Christ has risen. That is the message that Peter would preach to-day if he were alive and among us.
If Peter were here to-day, he would be an Adventist. No doubt you will smile at this, but listen: the longing of Peter’s heart was for the coming of Jesus. “When the chief Shepherd shall appear,” said Peter, “ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” For the new heavens and the new earth, for the everlasting reign of righteousness, for the end of sin and sorrow, Peter looked forward. Moreover, he warned us against the “scoffers” of “the last days” who would deny the truth of the second coming of Christ. Do you believe in the personal, literal, visible coming of Jesus? If so, you, too, are an adventist, for an adventist is one who believes in the second advent of Christ. All the prophets and all the apostles were adventists. Jesus gave to us the promise of His second coming, and was an adventist. All true Christians are adventists.
CHARACTER OF PETER REVEALED
The character of Peter after his conversion is portrayed for us in his appearance before the Sanhedrin, which was “the board of bishops” of all Judea. They commanded him not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus. What a transformation of character from precrucifixion days! Then he denied his Lord; now he exalted Jesus as a prince and a savior, and was willing to follow Him even unto death. “We ought to obey God rather than men” was Peter’s fearless reply to the demands of the Sanhedrin. Jesus was the perfect pattern for Peter. “Leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps,” were the words of inspiration from Peter’s epistle. Walking as Jesus walked led Peter in the path of God’s commandments. The way of fellowship with Christ is the way of obedience. Obedience is life; disobedience is death. If Peter were in your town to-day, he would walk in the footsteps of Jesus, he would walk in the way of God’s commandments; and, friends, that way would lead him to the church that exalts every one of the Ten Commandments. It would lead him to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“The word of the Lord,” said Peter, “endureth forever.” “The word of God,” he declared, “liveth and abideth forever.” The word of the Eternal One established the seventh day as a memorial of creation. The Lord Himself wrote that word into the Ten Commandments. There it stands, eternal, unchangeable, as the fiat of the God of the universe. The Sabbath is the battle ground of truth and error, the Bible and tradition. Sunday is the child of tradition, the mark of apostasy. The Sabbath is the Lord’s day and His royal seal of sanctification. The church that exalts the truth of the Bible must, of necessity, repudiate every error, expose every deception. The relics of paganism and the falsisms of modernism must be cast aside, and the Bible exalted as the one standard of truth. The veneration of images, infant baptism, Sunday worship, and all other customs that were born in paganism have no place in the church of Christ. If the word declares that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” the true church will not seek, by hook or crook, to make “seventh” mean “first.”
OUT AND OUT FOR JESUS
“We ought to obey God rather than men.” Would Peter, if here to-day, follow the crowd in bowing to the traditions of Rome, or would he, as in days of old, keep the Sabbath of the Bible? Would Peter be out and out for Jesus and His truth, or would he step into the ring of popularity with the majority and with Rome? Peter felt the sting of the Roman lash and suffered the hardships of the Roman dungeon because he sought to obey God. Can you imagine Peter, if he were in your town to-day, saying, “Well, I know the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Bible, but I don’t like to lose a good job and starve to death; so I guess I’ll keep Sunday instead”? No, we can hear the words of that man of faith, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
The apostle Peter was not negligent in declaring the principles of “present truth.” 2 Peter 1:12. If he were here to-day, his voice would ring out against traditional error and in defense of Bible truth. He would call the world to commandment keeping and to preparation for the coming of Christ. In these dark days of apostasy and forsaking of God, every man’s loyalty must be tested. God has preserved for Himself a church, which, in its repudiation of error, its exaltation of every truth, marches forward under the banner bearing the inscription, “The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” God will have a converted people, a praying people, a command-keeping people. “The just shall live by faith.” Will you step out with Peter upon the platform of truth? Will you yield your life in obedience to God? Will you walk in the way of His commandments?
“If Any Man . . . Open the Door”
“Just to fail to open the door is to shut God out of life. He never intrudes. He always waits for the door to be opened from the inside.
“The richest experiences of life do not come unless we invite them. We may go through the years without once realizing that we are missing more of beauty and spiritual splendor than we are finding because we do nothing to break up the hard crust of routine and give the God of the abundant life a chance to get at us.
“Many are unvisited by high inspirations simply because they will not make time and opportunity for their coming. They charge against a hard and sterile environment absence of moral illumination and incentive when their own lack of initiative is to blame.
“Hard-driven business men consumed with the desire to make money bury themselves in a grinding routine untouched by any gleam of idealism. They have much pity for themselves, but do nothing to establish a connection with the sources of spiritual vitality.
“Pleasure-loving people who find that it takes more and more of an effort to have less and less of a good time vote that life is futile.
“We are created for visions we never see, for emotions we never feel, for exploits we never undertake. More life and fuller is trying to break in upon us all the time.
“Clearly to possess the insight that God is ready to enter our inner life if we but open the door is to lay hold upon a truth which if rightly used in practical living will connect us with the soul-renewing energies of the world of the Spirit.”
RUNNING Away from GOD
By BAXTER L. HOWE
Hagar called the name of the Lord, "Thou God seest me."
BAXTER L. HOWE
“The darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day.”
A FATHER and son went out into the darkness of night to steal corn. They climbed over the fence, and the father began to break the ears of corn and slide them into a bag. Jimmy had a bag, but he gathered no corn. “Hurry up there, Jimmy. The moon will soon be up. No one will see us.”
“Won’t God see us, papa?”
The father picked up his sack at the bottom and spilled out on the ground the ears he had broken. They climbed over the fence, and went home without any corn.
Hagar went out from the home of Abraham. The angel found her wandering in the wilderness and told her to return to her mistress. Hagar called the name of the Lord that talked with her, “Thou God seest me.” Hagar was not looking for God, but God saw her. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:3.
“Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.” A generation of wicked men followed him. They tried to get away from God. “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.” God saw their wickedness that it was very great, yet they “knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away.”
GOD IS NOT LIMITED AS MAN IS
Man deceives himself and thinks, God is altogether such a one as I am. Yet God knew the way Balaam went, and He met him in the narrow path. When Ahab met the man of God in the vineyard of Naboth, he gave voice to the bitter wail, “Hast Thou found me, O mine enemy?”
Jonah was a prophet of God. A prophet is supposed to deliver the message God gives him. God gave Jonah a message for Nineveh, but Jonah did not want to deliver the message God gave him. So the story says, “Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Just why Jonah chose Tarshish as a place to escape from the presence of the Lord the record does not state; but incidentally the way is given that a man takes when he flees from the presence of the Lord. The road away from the presence of God is always down. Jonah went down to Joppa. He purchased a ticket and went down into the ship. In the ship he went down into the sides of the ship and went to sleep.
But Jonah was awakened from his sleep. The God from whose presence he was fleeing has “His way . . . in the storm.” Jonah was not yet at the end of the way he had chosen to reach Nineveh. The road leading down always has a bumper at the end. The bumper on this particular road was at the bottom of the mountain, at the bottom of the sea. When Jonah struck it, the shock seems to have brought him to his senses. He did the only thing anyone can do under like circumstances. He confessed his folly, and called on God for deliverance. After a short, swift ride he found himself on the seashore, face to face with the One from whose presence he had sought to flee. He seemed to be satisfied with his trip to Tarshish, and started on his mission to Nineveh. It is interesting to note that, for the four steps down in Jonah’s story, God made four preparations. First He prepared a fish; next He prepared a gourd; then He prepared a worm; and lastly, He prepared a vehement east wind. We are left to wonder just what lasting effect all this discipline had upon the prophet. The story leaves this part unrevealed. But we are left in no doubt as to the wonderful love of Him whose eyes run to and fro throughout the earth. Not only was His compassion stirred by the repentance of the Ninevites, but His heart was touched for the 120,000 persons who could not discern the right hand from the left.
PLEASURE IN GOD’S PRESENCE
France tried to put the presence of God away from the nation. She got a “Reign of Terror.” What will result to Russia if she puts through the same experiment? What will be the fate of the world if the atheists and evolutionists succeed in making the rising generation believe that there is no God? Soon all the great men of earth, with every bondman and every freeman, will see Him and know that He is present. See Revelation 6. From His presence the earth and heaven shall flee away (Revelation 20:11), and every one who denies Him will receive His assurance that God lives, by the punishment that is meted out to him in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9-11.) Surely there is no “creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:13. Those who walk with God day by day and love His presence can say with the psalmist, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11.
The SANTO DOMINGO HURRICANE
By Alfred R. Ogden
As told by our correspondent in the West Indies, who arrived in the destroyed city shortly after the holocaust.
ALFRED R. OGDEN
Havana, Cuba
One can best appreciate the tremendous power of these tropical hurricanes when he considers the force necessary to wrest in two a great, strong bridge like this constructed of steel and concrete.
ANOTHER catastrophe of unusual severity was witnessed in the recent Caribbean hurricane that struck with such terrific force the capital city of the Republica Dominicana, better known as Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo is the east portion of the island more familiarly known as Haiti. The island of Haiti is divided into two republics, the French-speaking Republic of Haiti, comprising about one third of the west end of the island, and Spanish-speaking Santo Domingo, comprising the larger portion of the east end of the island. Though Santo Domingo has about two thirds of the territory of the island, yet the population is only about one million people, as compared with nearly three millions in Haiti.
WHERE COLUMBUS LANDED
This island was discovered by Christopher Columbus on the occasion of his first trip and discovery of the New World. He first landed on San Salvador, one of the islands of the Bahama group, October 12, 1492. From there he steered his course to the south, discovering Cuba, “the Pearl of the Antilles,” as it is familiarly known. After spending some days along the northern shores of Cuba, thinking that he had discovered the mainland of the East Indies, the continent that he had set out to reach by a shorter and more direct route than had hitherto been known, he turned his course eastward, soon discovering the island of Haiti, known in early history as “Hispaniola.” His first landing was on the northwestern portion of this island. Later he went around to the south of the island, finally landing at the point where the capital of the present Santo Domingo Republic is located. Here was established the headquarters of the newly discovered world, hence Santo Domingo City became the first permanent settlement in the New World by the white man, and is the oldest city in the Western Hemisphere.
It is a city full of historic interest. The body of the discoverer is kept in a metal casket in one of the Catholic cathedrals. But it is not of the historical settings that surround this interesting spot of this great Western Hemisphere of ours that I began to write, but rather to bring to the readers of this magazine a brief report of the terrible hurricane that struck this city on September 3, 1930.
A CIRCLE OF DESTRUCTION
These storms, known as “Caribbean hurricanes,” have been of more or less frequent occurrence since the early days of the discovery of this territory. Much as the cyclones of the Central States in America begin away out on the prairies by the changing currents of air that begin to move in a circular order, gathering momentum and force in their onward course, so these hurricanes of the Caribbean begin out in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, though operating in a much larger circle than the cyclones of the States. The cyclones of our Central States of America are usually of a very narrow circle, often covering not more than a few hundred feet in width, though they may travel long distances, usually in a northeasterly direction. The Caribbean hurricanes differ from the ordinary cyclone in this respect that they travel in large circles, often covering a breadth of a hundred miles or more; and while traveling in the circle at a tremendous speed the forward movement of the storm in a direct, straight-ahead course is rather slow. The force and destruction come from the excessive speed in the circle. This causes much damage, destroying life and property in the path of its onward course. The regularity of the time of year during which these storms occur is also interesting, as they nearly always come during the months of September or October, September, however, being the usual time of their appearance.
The path of the recent hurricane, known as the Santo Domingo hurricane, however, was not so wide as most, or many at least, of the storms of the past. The force of the storm seemed to center on the capital, Santo Domingo City, which before the storm had a population of approximately fifty thousand inhabitants. The storm was of such severity that scarcely a structure in the entire city was left standing unharmed, and most of the buildings were left in complete ruin.
ONLY A MASS OF DEBRIS
Two weeks after the terrible visitation I arrived at Santo Domingo City, which I had frequently visited during the past three years, and I could scarcely believe my eyes as I walked about over the city after landing and saw the heaps of wreckage and ruin everywhere. What less than two weeks before were the residences and business shops and public buildings of the city were one mass of indescribable wreckage. There was hardly a building but that was a heap of stone and mortar, or the scattered kindling wood of what before was a frame structure. Words altogether fail to begin to describe the awful destruction, not in one section only but throughout the entire city and reaching for a distance of fifty miles into the interior. Santo Domingo City is located on the southern shore of the island. This hurricane, true to the usual custom of the Caribbean hurricanes, came from the southeast, traveling in a northwestern course.
The Santo Domingo Hurricane
(Continued from page 16)
HOW DID ANYONE ESCAPE?
To view the wreckage, the marvel is that any person could have escaped instant death or at least very serious injury of body, as many indeed did. It is estimated from the most reliable figures and reports gathered that at least from three to four thousand persons were killed during the storm and from fifteen to twenty thousand were injured. Thus out of a population of fifty thousand nearly one half were either killed or injured. Many of the injured have since died from the severity of the injuries sustained or from gangrene and other causes incident to the storm. The death toll was so large that no attempt could be made to gather and bury the bodies. Many of them were gathered in heaps and burned in the streets. In one spot in one of the main streets witnesses testify that one hundred twenty bodies were burned at one time. Whole families were found dead in the ruins of their homes. But space forbids an attempt at detail. The suffering and death were indescribable. Three weeks after the storm it is estimated that the daily deaths from the injuries received numbered around forty.
In this calamity we have another evidence of the uncertainty of all things earthly. It is one more evidence that no person knows what a day may bring forth. The people of Santo Domingo City were busily engaged in their daily work, business, and pleasure during the early portion of the day, Wednesday, September 3. Suddenly in the afternoon the storm approached, increasing rapidly in its fury, leaving wreckage and ruin, suffering and death in its track, as evidenced by the facts and figures cited, and as seen with my own eyes in the almost complete annihilation of what a few days before was a thriving and prosperous city of the West Indies.
WHAT THESE THINGS MEAN
In every such calamity the student of God’s word and prophecy can find increasing evidence of the hastening of that great, grand, and glorious consummating event of all earth’s history, the second advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In speaking of the last generation before His second coming Christ prophesied: “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 which 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.
Glad day, yes, happy day, for with this event comes the end of the reign of sin and death, and the ushering in of that happy time described by the prophet John. “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4.
After viewing such ruin and witnessing such suffering and death as were seen in the Santo Domingo hurricane, our hearts cry out anew and long as never before for the hastening of that glad time when indeed “the former things are passed away,” for that blessed age when “there shall be no more curse.” Revelation 22:4. We unite as never before in praying, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Come, Lord Jesus, and come quickly. May the uncertainties of things earthly inspire all earnestly to prepare for that great event which, according to the prophecies of God’s word, is drawing near. The prophet Amos admonishes, “Prepare to meet thy God.”
EXPLORING YOUR BIBLE
By Rose E. Boose
with the guidance of an expert Bible teacher
Miss ROSE E. BOOSE
THE NEW EARTH
You will remember that the last Bible study dealt with the desolation of the earth and the binding of Satan during a period of one thousand years. At the second coming of Christ the saints are taken to heaven, the wicked are slain, the earth is laid desolate, and Satan is bound. During the thousand years the righteous reign with Christ on thrones of judgment. (Revelation 20:4.) When the thousand years are expired, Christ, with the saints and the New Jerusalem, descends to the earth; the wicked are raised, and Satan is loosed. He leads his vast army of wicked against the holy city, and as he makes ready for battle against the city, fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them. In this lake of fire sin will be destroyed root and branch, and God will have a clean universe.
In 2 Peter 3:10-13 we read, in part: “The day of the Lord will come; . . . in the which the heavens shall pass away, . . . and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
PROMISE OF NEW EARTH
In the book of Isaiah we find the promise of a new earth in these words: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isaiah 65:17. Thus in re-creating this earth—bringing it back to its original beauty—God will have defeated Satan’s plan to establish his kingdom, and perpetuate sin and a reign of wickedness. Satan and sin have been destroyed, and when this earth is clothed in its Edenic beauty, the “former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Then the meek “shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5. David also expressed the same truth: “The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalm 37:11. Surely “peace” will be a delight to those who have endured strife and hardship on the earth during a long reign of sin.
Concerning the beauties of this new earth we read: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.” Isaiah 35:1, 2.
“They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for . . . Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 65:21-25. Read also Isaiah 11:1-9.
ALL THINGS ARE MADE NEW
John the revelator was given a vision of the new earth. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. . . . Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them. . . . And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more . . . pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:1-5.
Then follows the beautiful description of the New Jerusalem. The city is of pure gold (verse 18); with streets of gold (verse 21). It is surrounded by a “wall great and high” of jasper “clear as crystal.” Verses 2, 11. There are twelve gates, three on each side, each gate of one solid pearl. (Verses 12, 13, 21.) Over these gates will be the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. (Verse 12.) The foundations of the wall are twelve in number, and on them are inscribed the names of the twelve apostles of our Lord. (Verse 14.) The city is laid out in a perfect square, and measures twelve thousand furlongs, or one thousand five hundred miles. (Verse 16.) In the center of this city will be the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Verses 22, 23.) From the throne flows the river of life, and by the banks of that river grows the tree of life, giving its life-giving fruit new every month. (Revelation 22:1, 2.) And, best of all, “there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.” Revelation 22:3, 4.
This is the home of which Jesus spoke when He said: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3.
In the teachings of our Saviour, He pointed to this complete restoration in these words: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10.
ALL THINGS RESTORED
The question is sometimes asked, “Will all be restored again as it was in the beginning, before sin entered this fair world?” The only way in which we can be certain is to take a brief survey of the conditions as they were in the beginning, the record of which isFourteengiven in Genesis 1 and 2, and compare them with the promises we have read. Will you take your Bibles and follow a few texts through?
Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Isaiah 65:17: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.”
Genesis 2:1-3: The Sabbath was made and given to man (Mark 2:27, 28) for a memorial of God’s creative works.
Isaiah 66:22, 23: “As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.” All this is possible through the plan of redemption.
PROMISES WILL BE FULFILLED
Surely the promise to make all things new will be fulfilled. Then we shall better understand what the Lord meant when He said: “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:17, 18.
Then Jesus will “sit upon the throne of His glory,” “for God also hath highly exalted Him . . . that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11.
The redeemed of all ages will “cast their crowns before the throne,” and heaven’s arches will ring with their adoration of Jesus their Redeemer and King as they say: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 4:11.
