Continued from yesterday's study….
This study is on an
article written 147 years ago. So much
has happened in our world since then. Some of the things in here will sound
strange to us, and some may not seem relevant now. Time and place truly are
necessary in all things. May God forever and always guide us ONLY to HIS truth
in all we read, in all we study, all through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!
*******
The Second Coming of
Christ BY ELD. JAMES WHITE.
"What shall be
the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?" - DISCIPLES.
"When ye shall
see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." - JESUS.
*******
In comparing Noah's days and ours, the Lord continues:
NOAH'S TIME AND OURS
Verses 38,39: "For as in the days that were before the flood,
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day
that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them
all away; so shall lso the coming of the Son of Man be."
A picture of the present
condition of the mass of mankind is here drawn. How dark the features! The
people of the last generation will be like those before the flood, while the
ark was preparing. Noah preached, and warned them of the coming flood, and they
mocked. He built the ark, and they scoffed and jeered. He was a preacher of
righteousness. His works were calculated to give edge to, and set home to the
heart, what he preached. Every righteous sermon, and every blow struck in
building the ark, condemned a careless, scoffing world. As the time drew
nearer, the people were more careless, more hardened, more bold and impudent,
and their condemnation surer. Noah and his family were alone. And could one
family know more than all the world? The ark is a matter of ridicule, and Noah
is regarded as a willful bigot.
But the Lord calls Noah into the ark. And by the hand of
Providence the beasts are led into the ark; and the Lord shuts Noah in. This is
regarded at first by the scoffing multitude as something wonderful; but it is
soon explained away by the wiser ones, so as to calm their fears, and they
breathe easier.
The day of expectation finally arrives. The sun rises as usual,
and the heavens are clear. "Now where is old Noah's flood?" is heard
from a thousand impious lips. The farmer is caring for his herds and lands, and
the mechanic is pursuing his work of building. On this very day, some are being
joined in marriage. With many, it is a day of unusual feasting and sports. And
while all are looking to long years of future prosperity and happiness,
suddenly the heavens gather blackness. Fear fills every heart. The windows of
heaven open, and the rain in torrents descends. "The fountains of the
great deep are broken up," and here and there come gushing up rivers of
waters. The valleys are fast filling up, and thousands are swept away in death.
Some flee to the highest points of land; but the water fast follows them up.
Men bear their wives and children to the mountains, but are obliged to part
with them there to drown, while they climb the highest trees. But soon they,
too, are covered with water, so that there is not a resting-place for Noah's
dove. All are still in death. Horrid death! made still more horrible by being
in consequence of slighted mercy! But where is Noah? Ah! safe in the ark, borne
upon the billows. Safe from the flood; for God "shut him in."
By most people, the evidences of the soon coming of Christ are
considered insufficient to base faith upon. But mark: the testimony and acts of
one man condemned the people destroyed by the flood. The evidences then were
sufficient, otherwise the world would not have been condemned. But a hundred
times more convincing evidences come pouring in upon us, that the day of the
Lord is near, and hasteth greatly. We follow down the numerous prophetic chains
of Daniel, and of the Revelation, and we find ourselves in every instance
standing just before the day of wrath. We see the signs spoken of by prophets,
by Christ, and in the epistles, fulfilling, or fulfilled. And at the right
time, and in the right manner, to fulfill certain prophecies, a solemn message
arises in different parts of the world: "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
2:1.
Wherever we look, we see prophecy fulfilling. While the knowledge
of God and the spirit of holiness are departing, spiritual wickedness, like a
flood, covers the land.
But these evidences are considered insufficient to rest faith
upon. Well, what kind of evidence would the unbelieving have? "When the
signs of the end," says the skeptic, "are fulfilled, they will be so
plain that no one can doubt." But if the signs are of such a nature, and
are fulfilled in such a manner, as to compel all to believe in the coming of
Christ, how can it be as it was in the days of Noah?
Men were not then compelled to believe. But eight believing souls
were saved, while all the world besides sank in their unbelief beneath the
waters of the flood. God has never revealed his truth to man in a manner to
compel him to believe. Those who have wished to doubt his word, have found a
wide field in which to doubt, and a broad road to perdition; while those who
have wished to believe, have ever found everlasting rock upon which to rest
their faith.
Just before the end, the world will be hardened in sin, and
indifferent to the claims of God.
Men will be careless about hearing warnings of danger, and blinded
by cares, pleasures, and riches. An unbelieving and infidel race will be
eating, drinking, marrying, building, planting, and sowing. It is right to eat
and drink to sustain nature; but the sin is in excess and gluttony. The
marriage covenant is holy; but God's glory is seldom thought of. Building,
planting, and sowing, necessary for convenient shelter, food, and clothing, are
right; but the world has gone wholly after these things, so that men have no
time for disposition to think of God, Heaven, Christ's coming, and the
Judgment. This world is their god, and all their energies of body and mind bow
down to serve it. And the evil day is put far away.
The faithful watchman who sounds the alarm as he sees destruction
coming, is held up before the people from the pulpits of our land, and by the
religious press, as a "fanatic," a "teacher of dangerous
heresies;" while in contrast is set forth a long period of peace and
prosperity to the church. So the churches are quieted to sleep. The scoffer
continues to scoff, and the mocker mocks on. But their day is coming. Thus
saith the prophet of God: "Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it
shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be
faint, and every man's heart shall melt. And they shall be afraid; pangs and
sorrows shall take hold of them. . . . Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,
cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall
destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Isa.13:6-9.
Most dreadful day! And is it near? Yes; it hasteth! It hasteth
greatly! What a description given by the prophet! Read it; and as you read, try
to feel how dreadful will be that day: "The great day of the Lord is near,
it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the
mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of
trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and
gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm
against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring
distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have
sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their
flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver
them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by
the fire of his jealousy; for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them
that dwell in the land." Zeph.1:14-18.
Now we hear the "peace-and-safety" cry from the pulpit,
and all the way along down to the grogshop. "Where is the promise of His
coming?" is murmured from the impious lips of a thousand lastday scoffers.
But the scene will speedily change. "For when they shall say, Peace and
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them . . . and they shall not
escape." The scoffing of the haughty scoffer will soon be turned to
wailing and howling. "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." Isa.2:11,12. "And the slain of the Lord 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; they shall be dung upon the
ground." Jer.25:33.
The last plagues, in which is filled up the wrath of God, now
bottled up in Heaven, waiting for mercy to finish her last pleadings, will be
poured out. Unmingled wrath of Jehovah! And not one drop of mercy? Not one!
Jesus will lay off his priestly attire, leave the mercy-seat, and put on the
garments of vengeance, never more to offer his blood to wash the sinner from
his sins. The angels will wipe the last tear shed over sinners, while the
mandate resounds through all Heaven, Let them alone. The groaning, weeping,
praying church on earth, who in the last message employs every power to sound
everywhere the last note of warning, lest the blood of souls be found in her
garments, is now hushed in solemn silence. The Holy Spirit has written within
them these prophetic words of their soon-expected Lord: "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.
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