A Fulfilling Prophecy by A. O. Tait

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 36.

A Fulfilling Prophecy.

By A. O. Tait

THERE is nothing surer than the predictions of God's word. What God has spoken will come to pass without fail. This fact has been verified over and over again, yet how loath men are to believe it! They rush ahead contrary to the evidence God has given us, even though they must know, if they stop to consider, that they are going headlong into sure destruction.

We as a people have long held the position that the two-horned beast of Rev. 13:11–17 was a symbol of these United States. From this prophecy we have taught that our Government would become an instrument in the hands of religious zealots with which to wage religious persecutions. Furthermore, we have maintained that these persecutions will be caused mainly by trying to enforce by civil law the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath, upon those who conscientiously believe the Bible teaching, that the “seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.”

The idea that such persecutions would ever be brought about has been ridiculed and mocked at on every hand by many who have heard us express our faith. But ridicule does not answer argument. There are none of the doctrines of the Bible but that have been severely ridiculed. So regardless of all ridicule, we inquire, What are the indications that this prophecy will be fulfilled? When we first began to teach that our country would finally persecute some of its citizens on account of their conscientiously observing the seventh-day Sabbath there was but little evidence, aside from the prophecy, that it would ever take place. But it is vastly different to-day.

In 1863, in Xenia, Ohio, an association was formed with the avowed object in view of so amending the Constitution of the United States as to acknowledge the “Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of nations, and the revealed will of God of supreme authority in civil affairs.” If we were under theocratic rule as were the Israelites in the early part of their history, and the Lord would speak directly to us and tell us just how his law should be interpreted, there would be no danger in having it stand as the “fundamental law of the land.” Although the prime instigators of this movement may not have contemplated a union of Church and State, yet should they succeed in getting such an amendment into the Constitution, it would be just the track upon which the car of Church and State could run with but little trouble. And those who know from history the horrible results of such a union may well dread to see it come.

The movement did not stop when they had formed an association for the purpose above described. The ones who first entered upon this work of “National Reform,” as they choose to call it, pushed the matter assiduously in every direction, gathering into their ranks hundreds of the most influential men, of both civil and ecclesiastical fame, in the land.

Quite recently they have inaugurated a method of increasing their forces that bids fair to give the movement a big boom. This is by forming alliances with various other organizations and working together for the cherished notion of “God in the Constitution, and the law of God of supreme authority in civil affairs.” The most prominent point, too, that they make, in trying to get all this brought about, is to have a stringent law for Sunday. This is just what the prophet saw would be done, and now we see it being accomplished right before our eyes.

This association has formed an alliance with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The Young Men's Christian Association has wheeled into line and is becoming a channel through which the stream of “National Reform” literature is flowing to a considerable extent. The Prohibitionists are declaring in their conventions to support the Sunday cause. The Christian Statesman of June 3 speaks in a confident manner of a recent effort to get the Knights of Labor to join the ranks of the “National Reformers.” In the Statesman of June 17, an account is given of the action of the Reformed Presbyterians in a recent synod in New York, who sent a statement to Congress, signed by all the adult members of the church, declaring that they will have nothing to do with the Government till it will grant an acknowledgment of God in the Constitution of the United States and his law to be the rule of the land. In a convention at Mattoon, Ill., May 26, for the purpose of adopting plans to bring about the strict observance of Sunday, all the denominations were requested to participate, and the necessity of using the civil power to compel men to keep Sunday was strongly advocated. One minister said he believed in putting men in office that would give them the kind of laws they wanted upon this question. He said he could control 700 votes, and that two other ministers in the stand with him could control 300 each, making 1,300 in all that these three men could cast in favor of a strict Sunday law.

Such are the forces that are organizing to bring about a matter that was so long ago predicted by the prophet. God has said he “will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness.” And when we come to consider that this prophecy in regard to the United States is the last link in the chain, and then see how the forces are organizing to fulfill it, we are led to believe that the great day is near.

Should the combined power of the National Reform Association, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Young Men's Christian Association, the growing organization of Knights of Labor, and all the churches arise in solid phalanx to push the Sunday movement and the so-called crowning of “Christ as king of nations,” it would bring in the fulfillment of Rev. 13:11–17 in an incredibly short time.

That religious persecutions will follow the success of this movement, there is no longer any room for doubt. We have only to refer to the recent arrests in Arkansas and Tennessee to show what is just before us. Of course many who are now assisting this work do not realize what they are doing; and our prayer to God is that the eyes of all may be opened to see where they are standing, and that those who really desire to do a good work for the Master will not bring his wrath upon them by thus engaging in that which his word forbids.

A. O. Tait.