Conditions on Sea and Land Are Portentous—Turbulence and Strife Cause Well Founded Anxiety
By Calvin P. Bollman
In giving an account of the several signs foretold by our Saviour, Luke supplies some details passed over by Matthew. For instance, after making mention of the phenomena in the sun and the moon and the stars, Luke adds, “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.” Luke 21:25, 26.
More Frequent and Violent
We need only mention the well-known and alarming increase, within the last hundred years, of tornadoes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. These have increased not only in frequency, but in violence as well.
In the last 1,700 years before Christ, there were only 58 recorded earthquakes, or an average of one in 29 years. During the first 900 years of the Christian era, there were 198 recorded earthquakes, an average of one in about four years. During the next 600 years, there was an average of nearly one earthquake each year; while for the next 300 years—that is, from 1500 A. D. to 1800 A. D.—there are records of 2,804 earthquakes, or an average of over nine a year. And all these were recorded before the invention of the seismograph, so that they were all shocks of considerable severity, though not all were what are known as destructive earthquakes.
Who But God Could Have Known?
But according to the “scientific” theory of the earth, instead of increasing, earthquakes ought to be far less frequent than formerly. Who but our Lord could have known, in His day, that before the end there would be a marked and alarming increase of these little-understood disturbances?
Probably the most destructive single earthquake was that of Lisbon, in 1755, when 90,000 lives were destroyed in a few moments of time by the earthquake and by the tidal wave that followed it. Yet there have been quite a number since that time whose victims were numbered by thousands, and some even by tens of thousands.
In the earthquake and volcanic eruption of Mont Pelée, May 12, 1902, 30,000 lives were snuffed out in a moment of time by the explosion of gases which, issuing from the volcano, overspread the city of St. Pierre, enveloping in flame and instantly destroying every living thing, not only in the city, but for some distance beyond its confines.
Appear Where Before Unknown
With the increase of earthquakes, there has been a corresponding increase in the number and destructiveness of tidal waves. Among the most notable, because the most destructive, of these, was the one that followed upon the heels of the Lisbon earthquake, and by which a large part of the destruction was wrought upon that occasion; and also the great tidal wave caused by the earthquake and volcano in the Strait of Sunda, August 26-27, 1883, when the island of Krakatoa was blown to dust, and all low-lying islands for many miles in every direction were swept by a mighty wall of water many feet in height and of almost irresistible power.
It will be necessary merely to mention the great frequency of tornadoes, popularly called cyclones. Only a generation ago these were almost unknown in this country. Now,278however, they are quite common, even in sections regarded as wholly exempt from them only a few years since.
Wars, Riots, and Pestilence
But perhaps the most significant sign of our times is the strife and commotion, not of the elements, but in society and among nations. Truly men’s hearts are to-day “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Strikes and riots render life and property unsafe in many places; murders, robberies, and other crimes of violence are frightfully common; while a large part of the world is to-day engaged in the most destructive and widespread war ever known.
Not only is this war terrible because of improved engines of destruction, but it is rendered more terrible than any war of past ages because it is fought not only upon land and sea, but under the sea and in the air. What is or can be more awful than the destruction of the lives of noncombatants by means of bombs dropped upon crowded cities from high in the air, or more terrifying than the secret attacks of submarine vessels of war, not only upon other war vessels, but upon merchant ships and even passenger-carrying craft?
And to crown it all, pestilence seems to be following in the wake of the destroying armies, so that with the opening of spring, disease is almost sure to carry off more victims than even this the most dreadful war of all the ages.
Surely this part of our Lord’s great prophecy is being fulfilled most strikingly before our very eyes.
He Is Coming Again
By Tyler E. Bowen
The Generation That Is to See the Great Event
By TYLER E. BOWEN
How do we know that Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, who walked and talked with all classes of people some centuries ago throughout Galilee, Judea, and east of the Jordan, will come back again personally, visibly, to this earth? He has been away so long, been apparently on such a long journey, what assurance have we that He will not remain away as much longer? Many generations have been born, lived a few fleeting years, and then joined the great multitude of the dead, since Christ was here. How do we know but that as many more generations shall live ere the return of the Son of man takes place?
These questions often arise in every mind. God knew beforehand that they would, and He has therefore very definitely answered them in His book.
No Man Can Guess When Christ Shall Come
In the first place, no one knows anything about it at all of himself. No man on earth could guess within a thousand years of the time. And if it depended upon us — any man — unaided by inspiration, to say, we might as well put our hands over our mouths, and lay down our pens, and give up the consideration altogether of the question of even the approximate time of the return of Jesus of Nazareth to this world. One man’s guess is as good as another’s. But laying aside all of man’s speculations, let us see what God says about it in His word.
Jesus Went to Heaven
We know that Jesus will come back to this earth, because He said He would. He told His disciples, before He left them, that He was going away. They seemed to be of the opinion then that He would stay with them right along, set up a kingdom here on earth, in which they were to hold high positions.
The Lord disabused their minds of this error by telling them plainly, again and again, that He was going away. “The poor always ye have with you,” He said, “but Me ye have not always.” John 12:8. He would soon be gone. His chair at the table would be vacant. When they went out to work for the people, they would have to go alone, so far as His bodily presence was concerned. He would not be along to lead the way.
And He went away, as He said He would. They saw Him go, through eyes blurred with tears. They saw Him go, too, where He told them He was going, to His Father and their Father. And they knew that meant that He was going to heaven.
The Disciples Knew Where
The disciples went back to Jerusalem that day sorrowful, in a way, and yet happy. Likely some of the unbelieving world slurringly insinuated that this was just as they expected it would turn out. Their Master, whom they so much doted on, had abandoned them, and nobody knew where He was. But they knew. Eleven men, perhaps more, knew where Jesus was. They saw Him go up into a cloud as plainly as they ever saw anything with their eyes. This was forever settled. Their Lord and Master had gone to heaven. That was sure. The question with them now was, not as to where Jesus was, but the rather, Shall we ever be able to follow Him where He has gone? This was the main point with them.
So Surely Will He Come
But just as surely as Jesus had told them that He was going away, and they had seen Him go, just so surely He had said that He would come back. His words were—and they all heard them: “If I go, . . . I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Yes; but when?
Jesus did not promise to return while those men were living. He did not say that centuries would not pass before He came back. True, there was a hope in the breasts of His true followers that He would come while they lived. But you can find no promise of the Lord’s that He would return during these earlier generations of the Christian era.
He Foretold the Generation
But before He left these same eleven, there upon that same mount from which, a little afterward, He departed from them. He had pointed out the very generation that should witness His return. He left no one in uncertainty as to the approximate time when He would come back.
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days,” Jesus said—that terrible persecution of His saints that was to be permitted to go on, under Satan’s inspiring, for the twelve long centuries that the papal church had control of the governments of earth, this persecution abating about 1770–75, although the allotted time given the papal power went on to 1798—“shall the sun be darkened [1780], and the moon shall not give her light [the night following], and the stars shall fall from heaven [1833]. . . . Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. . . . Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matt. 24:29–34.
“This generation”—what generation? Any of those enduring the persecution He said was coming?—No. What generation did He single out, then, that should not pass until they saw the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven?—Evidently the generation that should see these signs He pointed out, as signs of His coming.
The Generation That Sees the Signs
From 1833 the darkening of the sun and the moon and the falling of the stars were preached to the world as signs of the near approach of the Son of man. The generation, then, that follows these great signs, and hears of them as signs of the appearing of Jesus—this generation shall not all pass away until “all these things be fulfilled,” is the sure promise of Him who told the disciples that He was going away, and would return.
We have now come to the very generation pointed out by the Lord. He Himself darkened the sun and the moon, and shook the stars as a fig tree is shaken by a mighty wind. He Himself attended to the giving of the signs. And they were held out where people could see, in the heavens, by the Lord Himself.
The generation mentioned is now growing old, but it has not yet passed away, neither shall, according to Christ’s promise, until all is fulfilled.
C. P. BOLLMAN
By C. P. Bollman
What means this desolation dire,
This wreck by shot, by sword, by fire?
What means the tramp of heavy feet?
Ah, sounds of war our ears now greet;
For men are rushing to the fray,
And thousands perish every day,
Yielding their homes, their lives, their all,
Responding to the war god’s call;
For death in earth and sky and sea
Has set a thousand furies free,
And mankind trembles in dismay,
As onward comes the Judgment day.
C. P. BOLLMAN
The Standard in the Judgment
By A. C. Gilbert
The Judgment Is Certain—The Investigations Now in Progress—The Solemn, Eternal Decree Soon to Be Pronounced—The Joyous Climax for All Who Are Prepared
By A. C. Gilbert
ALL men look forward to a Judgment. The Judgment day, the bar of God—these have been made the subject of solemn discourse, the pith of repartee, of joke and jest. Fancy has painted the picture of earth's motley throng filing in line before the bar of heaven's chancery, to receive the decisions of the tribunal, and the consequent reward, according to what they have done, “whether it be good or bad.”
Each Has a Case There
Whatever may have been the reason for reference to this subject, in joke or jest, in fancy or fact, there is no escaping the conclusion that there is a time of judgment appointed by the “Judge of all the earth,” and that every human being has a case pending. These facts are clearly revealed in the Scriptures. See Acts 17:31; Eccl. 3:17; Jude 6; Eccl. 12:14; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:12.
According to an interesting prophecy in the Bible (Dan. 8:13, 14; 9:23–27; 7:9, 10; Rev. 14:6, 7), a work called the Investigative Judgment began in the fall of 1844 A.D. At this point terminated the longest prophetic period in all the Bible. Then began the investigation of every name entered in the book of life, in order to determine the nature of the reward to be bestowed by the Lord when He comes to execute the decisions rendered by this grand and solemn assize.
As in an earthly court, so in the heavenly, decisions for or against the individual are not rendered until examination has first taken place. The general rewards of eternal death or eternal life are apportioned at the close of probation, when Jesus comes. See Isa. 40:10; Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12.
With the awe-inspiring thought of the Investigative Judgment now in progress in heaven, comes the natural question as to the role of this court. What is the basis upon which decisions are determined? What is the standard to which appeal is made by this solemn tribunal? In order that equity be given in each case, there can be only one rule or law by which justice is decreed, and only one interpreter of that law.
Christ as Judge
God is “Judge of all the earth.” Gen. 18:25; Ps. 94:2; Rom. 3:6. But He has given the work of Judgment into the hands of His Son, as expressed in the following texts: Acts 17:31; 10:42; John 5:22, 27. In the Bible is expressed the combined purpose and united will of both the Father and the Son as pertaining to the work of the Judgment, investigative and executive, as well as other matters that appertain to moral duties. The Word, seeing it is the expressed will of the Godhead, becomes, therefore, the interpreter of the rules or law of the Judgment.
Must Be Governed by Law
Law is the foundation of all government. The citizens of this world who enjoy or expect to enjoy the blessings and favors that civilization and government afford, must recognize the law of the land, and must allow it to enter into all their plans for their future happiness. And should a contingency arise whereby it becomes necessary to have a cause recorded for examination by a court of equity, conviction or exoneration is decreed by this court just according to the individual's relation to the fundamental law that governs in the examination.
An Advocate Appointed
As stated above, we all have a case pending in the Investigative Judgment. 2 Cor. 5:10. Jesus Christ is the Advocate (1 John 2:1), and pleads the cause of all persons who accept Him as their only help, their substitute, their righteousness. See Rom. 8:34; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:25. He pleads every cause upon its own merits, and the decision in regard to every name is determined according to the individual's relation to the fundamental law of God's government.
One Standard for the Universe
There is only one standard in the universe that can determine fitness or unfitness of character for the kingdom of heaven, and that is the moral law. The apostle James calls it the “royal law.” James 2:8. This fundamental law of the heavenly land is therefore the only test applied to ascertain whether we are pure gold or worthless dross.
This principle is emphatically stated by the wise man: “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Why shall we fear God? Why shall we be so urgent in regard to keeping all His commandments?—Because “God shall bring every work into Judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13, 14. Thus we see how closely the moral law is associated with the work of the Investigative Judgment.
Seeing that the court of heaven is so thorough in the examination of character, the rule applied must be one that can measure every act of man. The only law recognized by God as able to do this is the moral law, the Ten Commandments, in which is enshrined “the whole duty of man.” Eccl. 12:13, 14; Rom. 7:7; Rev. 22:14.
Ought to Study the Law That Decides
Perfection is the standard of entrance into the kingdom. Therefore those who expect to be citizens of the world to come, and would like to know whether their case in the Judgment will receive a favorable decision or not, ought now to be considering their relation to the sovereign law of the universe. They should bring it to bear in every condition in life. Why?—Because in all the details of life, we are either doing or not doing our duty.
Seeing that the Investigative Judgment now in session in heaven examines the whole duty of man, and seeing that the law of God comprehends man's whole duty, of necessity every person must be obedient to the law in every particular in order to do his whole duty and eat of the good of Canaan's heavenly land.
Must Have Help
Man of himself is utterly unable to keep the holy, perfect law of God. “I can of mine own self do nothing,” should be the feeling of all. But the apostle Paul's victory may be ours. He said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Phil. 4:13. When the life is wholly surrendered to the working of the Holy Spirit, the Lord comes and dwells in that life, and keeps His commandments in us and for us. Phil. 2:13; Eph. 3:16, 17.
Christ kept the law perfectly in humanity while here on earth. He was perfectly obedient to all the requirements of the perfect moral law. He desires to live His perfect obedience in every heart. “And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience.”
Eternally Settled
The work of the Investigative Judgment will soon close. That tribunal will render its decisions according to heaven's law in the following awful words: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Rev. 22:11. Then will appear the Lord to apportion the rewards. “And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Verse 12. “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Eccl. 12:13.
Has the Earth Passed Away?
By J. H. HARTOG
IF the earth has passed away, if the world has already come to an end, if we only imagine that we are alive, then, and only then, can it be possible that God's law has been done away. But if we are correct in our belief that the world still exists, then we need not worry about God's law; for God's Son, through whom all things were created, emphatically stated that not one iota of the law would pass away till heaven and earth would pass away.
A person could not state the matter much stronger. If not one iota nor title could pass from the law, it seems strange that the fourth commandment could pass away in spite of the Saviour's specific statement and warning to the contrary.
J. H. HARTOG.
An Up-to-Date Ancient Letter
By Martha N. Canfield, M. D.
Written 2,000 Years Ago — It Visibly Describes the Doings of To-Day
By Martha N. Canfield, M. D.
We frequently hear the expression, “It is the last word,” applied to something newly perfected in the light of these wonderful days.
Two thousand years ago, St. Paul, a Bible author, while in prison awaiting execution, wrote a “last word” in warning for our time. It was written to his spiritual son, and is found in the third chapter of 2 Timothy, a few paragraphs of which we read:
“In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
Did He Read Our Headlines?
So accurately does he describe our social fabric, one almost feels that the great apostle must have been reading through the headlines of the twentieth century newspaper. The printing press is busy day and night confirming the truth of this letter.
“Men shall be lovers of their own selves” is everywhere manifest. It is the sentiment that keeps the smoking car on the finest train. In all but fifteen states, it maintains the saloon—the great factor in crime. It builds the “red light” district, and debauches both men and women. It is scuttling the home. The black shadows of easy divorce are gathering about the home. Because of some slight incompatibility of disposition, a divorce is procured, and each goes in search of the “soulmate” or “affinity,” forgetting, it would seem, that the Bible has never amended the one cause for divorce.
More to Be Pitied than Orphans
The children of such unfortunate unions are more to be pitied than are those orphaned by death. Their perspective of life is askew at the outset. Home! What does it mean? To them you cannot appeal from the standard of an honored father or a devoted mother.
Hasty marriage heads the list of causes of divorce. The couple were not sufficiently acquainted. They met at a gay ball, and began a wild, maniacal type of love-making, ending in a hasty marriage, and paving the way for a speedy divorce.
How different from the old-fashioned love match, that began with reading poetry together of an evening in the shelter of the girl’s home, or in a carriage ride through the beautiful country, thus quietly becoming acquainted under normal conditions. Discovering finally that life would not be long enough, they must have eternity together, and founded their home on this rock.
The pleasure-loving spirit has various phases. The dance craze at present has seized the public; and from “Castle-house,” with its mazes, to the folk dance of the remotest hamlet, we are filled with this mad craze.
Work of the Spirit of Greed
The covetous man of whom St. Paul wrote, finds a parallel in the swindle practiced by one who is in a position to know the bank account of his neighbors, and inveigles them, in behalf of a company out of sight, into a speculation by means of which scores of them lose the hard-earned savings of years. As soon as the promoters of the concern become prosperous, the business comes to a standstill. Upon investigation, the victims are informed that the agent required too large a salary to warrant further operations.
The same spirit of greed is seen in the fraud that is practiced in impoverished foods, by which “to the poor, chalk is sold for bread.”
Food robbed of its nutritive elements, colored with ribbon dyestuffs, flavored by chemical means, denatured, degerminated, demineralized, is sold under false labels.
Small wonder that in a recent survey of the teeth of New York City school children, ninety per cent were defective. Nature had not had the building material.
Guinea pigs and white mice fed on the same food as the school children, died in three days, as is proved by an experiment carried on at Bronx Station, New York.
The “high cost of living” slogan too often is a mask for extravagant and wasteful pleasure. A foolish little mother who finds it difficult to meet her grocery bills, half boasted that thirty cents a day would hardly pay for her children’s ice cream cones and nickel theaters. How were these children being educated?—Not in self-denial and economy, nor in purity; for in the obscene behavior of the “cabaret dance” and “whatnot,” with all the impressiveness of which the moving picture is capable, these children become acquainted with the city’s vice.
Debaucheries of Extravagance
The pretty young working girl wishing a good photograph, patronizes the photographer quoting prices for millionaires, and pays forty dollars a dozen for her pictures. A young man on a thousand-a-year salary invites the lady of his acquaintance to attend the opera, and expends twenty dollars, in the course of the evening, for supper, tickets, and taxicab.
Many young people begin housekeeping in too expensive apartments, and live up to the salary limit each month. Condemnation and dismay is theirs upon the advent of a child in their midst. Does this savor of race betterment? These parents could well enough afford to bring up children had they lived simply from the first, making provision in this way for the little lives that prove such blessing in the home of love.
The mother of Frances Willard, it is said, told her daughter to thank Heaven that she was a welcome child. May we not believe that the splendid life of this “uncrowned queen,” honored, as no other woman has been, with a place in statuary hall at the nation’s capitol, could attribute much of that nobility of character to the simple fact of having been loved and desired before birth by good and wise parents? Many children are unthankful and unholy by birthright.
The Doctor’s Inside View
From shattered homes and wrecked lives the doctor’s office is filled, men and women in middle life nearing its close, so fierce has been the struggle for wealth, pleasure, and position. Fortunate are these if the physician himself has learned that more than massage and electricity for these despairing souls, is needed the touch of faith upon “the robe that has no seam.” To this source he directs the man depressed because of the scarlet sins of his life. This hope brings cheer. The deserted wife hears of the betrothal of Hosea 2:19, and this “loving-kindness” stimulates a cold heart to beat warmly.
The physician goes home from his office wearied, but happy that through him some one has beheld the tender, compassionate Man of Galilee; and his own life becomes more abundant.
Paul Foretold It
We are living in the midst of the perilous, pleasure-loving age of which St. Paul wrote. The glamour that cast its spell over the world while Noah preached his message of warning, and that lured Sodom and Gomorrah to their destruction, is shedding its fateful light throughout the world to-day. It is the work of the prince of darkness. We need to recognize his work, else we become confused at the trend of events.
“Yet in the maddening maze of things,
Though tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings,
I know that God is good.”
Is it not comforting that the God of mercy and love who taught Noah to preach a message of warning, who sent the angel to save Lot’s family, still holds a father love over us, “not willing that any one should perish,” arresting our attention, if possible, by this letter from St. Paul, to see in the pleasure and sin and perils about our everyday life a call to watch and be ready, for “in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh”?
Growing Strong Through God’s Word
“God’s word is the spiritual food by which the Christian must grow strong in spirit and in intellect, that he may do battle for truth and righteousness.”
The Hammer of Love
“THE stony heart will never break without the hammer of love.”
The Age to Come
By John O. Corliss
This term is used to identify the doctrines of one “Pastor” Russell, who is sending broadcast reiterated statements that the Lord’s second advent to earth is simply to introduce a sinless age among mortals, wherein the unsaved may, unassailed by wicked influences, come to Christ and receive eternal life. More than this, the theory is advanced that all heathen of past ages, because of not having heard the gospel invitation, will, at the coming of Christ, be raised from the dead, to enter this sinless age, when they too will be enabled to make their election to eternal bliss a certainty.
The Vile and the Good on a Par
Were all this true, no one need have anxiety about his eternal future, or that of any dear friends; for this theory presents such pleasing prospects to the sinner, that even the vilest wretch of the present world may cherish as strong a hope for future blessedness as the meekest saint, considering the added probation of a sinless period to be given all such recalcitrants. This even outstrips the old doctrine of universal salvation so ardently proclaimed at one time; for that theory did and yet does provide an adequate punishment for sins committed, after which self-atonement the scourged one is pronounced clean from sin, and is elevated to heavenly heights as a saint of the Most High.
This “age to come” doctrine, however, does not even accord such justice, but raises all to a second probation, where no stumbling blocks prevent their enjoyment of Christ’s glory smiles forevermore. The “catching” part of this assumption is that the Scriptural truth of Christ’s near advent, so dear to many sincere hearts, is made the basis of speculations far removed from all Scripture teaching. Harmonizing the theory of the Lord’s speedy return to earth with the views of so many souls who earnestly long for that coming, they are entrapped as a bird in the “snare of the fowler.”
Christ Warned Us
Before leaving His disciples, to enter upon a heavenly ministration in behalf of those for whom He died, the Lord Jesus gave them a warning regarding the speculations that would be announced about the manner of His second coming. He said that false teachers would arise, showing great things, so apparently wonderful that if possible they would “deceive the very elect.” Among these deceptive things to guard against, was the proclamation that Christ’s coming would be in the “secret chambers.” Matt. 24: 24-27.
His Presence a Secret
How fittingly this specification applies to the teachings of “Pastor” Russell and his abettors, may be appreciated when one reads, in his published writings, that “His presence will be a secret for a time, known only to those watching.”—“Studies in the Scriptures,” volume 2, page 153.
Again on page 154, Acts 1: 11 is cited as having been misinterpreted by all Christians. It is there contended that no one is to see the Lord descend, but that as He went away quietly, in the presence of only His few followers, He will come in like manner. The full expression is this: “In like manner as He went away (quietly, secretly, so far as the world was concerned, and unknown except to His followers), so, in this manner, He comes again.”
But this is not all. On page 170 the author gives promise of what he will prove further along in his dissertation, using these words: “The next chapter will present Bible evidence that 1874 A. D. was the exact date of the beginning of the ‘times of restitution,’ and hence of our Lord’s return. Since that time, He has been verifying His promise to those in the proper attitude of watchfulness.”
Must Not Expect Bible Evidence
But lest some deep searcher for truth might be disappointed in not finding the “Bible evidence” said to be in the chapter mentioned, the following proviso is appended on page 171: “But while the reader is thus informed of what will be proved in succeeding chapters, he must not expect to have passages of Scripture pointed out in which these matters and these dates are plainly written. On the contrary, he must bear in mind that all these things have been hidden by the Lord, in such manner that they could not be understood or appreciated until the due time had come, and then only by His earnest, faithful children, who esteem truth as more precious than rubies, and who are willing to seek it as men search for silver.”
It is just after this fashion that the theories of the “age to come” are put forth. Here is a promise of “Bible evidence” for a positive theory; and yet no Bible evidence is given, because the advocate of the speculation confesses that no Scripture passages affirm it, but declares that God has purposely hidden the matter of the time for the Lord’s coming, and that hence it will be known only to a few, and that few confined to “faithful children” who are willing to sacrifice earthly riches rather than cast off an affirmative statement.
Charged with Ignorance if We Doubt
How accommodating is such a proviso to the vender of this theory! Should one not fall in with the declaration that the Lord’s second advent was secretly accomplished in 1874, and that He is now an earthly dweller in fulfilment of the promise to “come again,” how easy to meet the doubt by charging the ignorance of the doubter to a lack of earnestness and devotion!
How such a view of Christ’s coming can be entertained in the face of many positive statements of Scripture setting forth the power and majesty of that event, is a marvel to the faithful Bible student, when in clear lines he reads: “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” Rev. 1: 7. “Pastor” Russell says in substance: Yes, in “due time” He will make Himself known to all, after having, through His “spiritual control,” given all men an opportunity to submit to Him, as they eventually must, “whether willing or unwilling.” (Page 153.) But he does not explain how, in a “sinless age,” men will wail because of the Master’s presence among them, as asserted by the text cited above.
Must Surely Hear the Trumpet
But further: When Christ returns to earth, the apostle declares that “the trump of God” will be heard. 1 Thess. 4: 16. Then all those asleep in Christ are to be raised from the dead, and the living saints “caught up” together with them to “meet the Lord in the air.” Did anything of this sort take place in 1874, or at any later period in the history of the gospel work of Christ? One would be safe in demanding the proof for any such assertion.
The Bible plainly teaches that Christ ascended to His Father, to sit on the heavenly throne until all His foes are made His footstool. Acts 2: 34, 35. This will be the end of the controversy, when the dead in Christ are made alive, and the kingdom is delivered up to God, the Father (1 Cor. 15: 22-24), whose it has ever been (Matt. 6: 13), and ever will be throughout endless ages.
Passes with a Great Noise
At Christ’s coming, the conflict is over, and His coming marks the end of the world. Acts 3: 19, 20. This thought is fully confirmed282by the apostle when he says: “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3: 10.
However much “Pastor” Russell may seek to destroy the force of this text by making it simply the symbol of changing society manners, something called the heavens and the earth is to explode with a great noise. To the candid, thinking person, this must preclude any subsequent earthly gospel dispensation. Otherwise, why the earnest command to preach the gospel to every nation before Christ’s coming? Matt. 24: 14.
Let us be reasonable, and take the Scriptures as they were given to the human family for their recall to a better life, and so be ready for the Master’s coming.
“I am waiting for the morning
Of the blessed day to dawn,
When the sorrow and the sadness
Of this changeful life are gone.”