Your ShelfYour Projects

One or the Other

10%

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 29, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 27, No. 26.

Read the full edition

One or the Other.

By R. F. Cottrell

We are in the last days of the gospel age, or we are not. If we are not, then the sun and the moon have been darkened, and the stars have fallen in vain; for these signs must be given when the day of the Lord is near, even at the doors. Then also the anger of the nations, and the perils and deceptions of the last days, have come before the time, and the unparalleled wickedness of the present time is still to be surpassed, not having reached its full measure. And if there is to be a long period in which it will increase in the ratio it has for the last quarter of a century, what will be the character of the people when the last days do arrive? But if we are in the last days, then those that proclaim it are preaching the truth and those only who heed the warning will do well.
The world is now being converted to God, by the popular revivals of the day, or it is not. If it is, then the declaration of our Saviour that, at his second coming it would be with the world as it was in the days of Noah, will fail; for at that time the earth was filled with violence, and suddenly and unexpectedly the flood took away the mass of mankind, leaving only a small number that had believed the warning concerning the impending danger, and had taken refuge in the ark while it rested upon dry ground and no signs of rain appeared. But if the world is not being converted to God, and the solemn prediction of our Saviour is to prove true, then those who flatter themselves that it is, and are, in consequence, saying "peace and safety," are sadly deluded—are believing a lie, and "sudden destruction" is about to come upon them and "they shall not escape." 1 Thess. v.
The time has come for the proclamation of the judgment messages which are to precede the coming of Christ, Rev. xiv, 6–14, or it has not. If the time has not come, then a false fulfillment is preceding the real one, and God's providence has failed to guard the prophecy; for the messages are being proclaimed. But if the time for these messages has come, then the Lord is doing a solemn, a fearful, a decisive work in the earth, and no one, whether saint or sinner, can slight this work and reject those warnings with impunity.
True religion will be popular in the last days of the dispensation or it will not. If it is, then those prophecies of the perils and persecution of the last days (2 Tim. iii, 1–5; Rev. xii, 17; xiii, 11–18) are false; for there must be popularity and power on the side of the persecutors. But if true religion will be unpopular in the last days, then let all test religion by the word of the Lord, and not by the standard of popularity.
The mass of worshipers in the last days will be true Christians, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, or they will not. If they are, then the prophetic message of Rev. xiv, 9–12 has been predicted in vain and is a false prophecy; for it represents the worshipers of those days as in great danger of worshiping the beast and his image, and, as the consequence, of drinking of the unmingled wrath of God. But if the professed Christians of those days are not found keeping all the commandments of God and all the faith of Jesus, then this message will be applicable to the condition of the worshipers living at the time, and must be obeyed by them to whom it comes, in order to salvation.
The churches of our day are keeping all the commandments of God or they are not. If they are, they are remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy, instead of making it the busiest laboring day of the week, in order to get ready to keep another day, a day which God has never commanded to be kept. But if they are not keeping all the commandments of God, then they are in danger of being condemned by that law by which they will surely be judged when God shall judge the secrets of men according to the gospel. Rom. ii, 12, 16; Isa. xxiv, 5, 6.
The doctrine of the conversion of the world and a universal reign of righteousness for a thousand years before the coming of the Son of man, is true, or it is not. If it is, then all the warnings to the people of this age to watch and be ready for the day, "lest coming suddenly" he find them sleeping, and they be cut asunder and have their portion with the hypocrites, have no application to the times and are without any practical meaning. But if the said doctrine is not true, then the professed churches of the present day are alarmingly deluded, and are in danger of being found with the false prophets and unbelievers, crying peace and safety when sudden destruction comes as a thief in the night.
Our Protestant churches need reforming or they do not. If they do not, then the Bible wants reforming to suit and approve the character of a divided, worldly, pleasure-loving church, and those threatenings against such sins should be excluded. But if these churches do need a radical reform, unless they are reformed, they cannot be the chosen instruments for the work of the Lord; and though they may make proselytes, they may prove like those of corrupted religionists of old described by our Saviour thus: "Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when ye have made him, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves." It is not natural for a stream to rise higher than its fountain. It is not to be expected that teachers of religion will raise the degenerate nature of those they teach above their own level. Then where is our hope, but in the faithful proclamation of the third angel's message? Is it not time to cry aloud and spare not?
R. F. COTTRELL.