The End Near by W.

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

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

The End Near.

By W.

“How do you explain the many passages in the New Testament that speak as if the end was close at hand? If the translators got the hang of those passages, those who first read them must have understood that the day of the Lord was at hand. Can it be that they spoke only of the persecutions shortly to come? or did they think the interval between the persecutions and the advent shorter than it proved to be?

“1 Cor. 7: 29 seems to many to teach that the end was near; yet from verse 26, and from Dean Alford’s translation, I understand him [Paul] to mean that the time of trouble was near, and that he is not speaking of the end; but many texts, such as Rom. 13: 14; 1 Cor. 1: 6–8; 1 Thess. 1: 10; 1 Tim. 6: 14; Heb. 10: 34, 36, 37; 1 Peter 4: 17; Rev. 1: 1, 3, seem to teach those to whom they were written that the end would be in their day.” W. D. C.

1. As to the passages that speak of the coming of the Lord and the end of the world, we don’t explain them; we simply take them just as they read, and believe them. And we do not doubt but that the translators got the “hang” of those passages; in fact, we are glad to know that they got the correct idea of them, because we love the Lord and rejoice in the assurance that he is coming. We should be in a deplorable condition, indeed, if there were no passages in the Bible assuring us that the Lord is coming.

2. We cannot allow that the New Testament writers were deceived as to the coming of the Lord. If we could think that they were to the slightest degree mistaken on this point, we could not be sure that they were not mistaken on every point. We believe that the whole Bible was written by inspiration of God, that it is all equally inspired, and all equally true. If a text seems to us doubtful, or difficult to be understood, we lay it to our own ignorance, and not to the ignorance of the holy men of God who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

3. It is a fact that some of those to whom Paul

wrote got the idea that the coming of the Lord was going to take place in their day. But they did not get it from Paul’s sermons or letters. There were some who were attempting to deceive the brethren by a pretended epistle from Paul (See 2 Thess. 2: 1–3), and this led Paul to repeat what he had told them while he was with them,—that Christ would not come until after the Papacy had arisen, and had run its course of persecution and blasphemy. Certainly, then, we have no chance to be deceived, and to suppose that the immediate coming of the Lord was preached in the first century; for although there are some passages which, taken alone, might seem to indicate that such was the case, we have the whole Bible, and are not obliged to take any one passage by itself. The Bible is one harmonious book. It was written by many men, but they all had the same Spirit, and so in every part it bears uniform testimony.

4. 1 Cor. 7: 29 does not say that the Lord’s coming is at hand, and therefore we do not need to go to any commentary to find out that Paul was writing of the then “present distress.” So that passage, with other similar ones, doubtless refers to impending persecutions, and all were so understood by those to whom they were addressed. The instruction, however, which they contain is directly applicable to those who live when the coming of the Lord is close at hand.

5. When the New Testament writers speak directly of the coming of the Lord, as in 1 Thess. 1: 9, 10; Rev. 1: 1, 3, we have no right to suppose that they had reference to persecutions, or to anything but the coming of the Lord. The two texts to which we have just referred may be taken as a sample of all. The first one reads thus: “For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from Heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” This brings to view the coming of the Lord as the Christian’s hope. Death is nowhere set forth as the object of the Christian’s solicitude. The coming of the Lord is the blessed hope, the consummation of all things, and nothing else could be set before Christians of all ages to stimulate their energies.

As to such texts as Rev. 1: 1, 3: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; . . . blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand;” or Rev. 22: 20: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly;” they were literally true when written. The things which John wrote did begin shortly to come to pass. More than that, it could truly be said that the Lord’s coming was at hand. We must acknowledge this when we remember that the day of pentecost was in “the last days” (See Acts 2: 16–21), and that Paul wrote in the last days. Heb. 1: 1, 2. It was true then that the coming of the Lord was “at hand,” although not immediately at hand; it is a thousand fold more true now.

6. Everything in the New Testament was spoken or written to individuals then living, and was applicable to them; but it is also applicable to us. Comprehensiveness is a characteristic of the words of inspiration. Yet many things have a more direct application to us than to them. Suppose that the Bible had been only partly written centuries ago, and that all reference to the near coming of the Lord had been left to be written at the present time; what evidence would we have that it was a divine revelation? If reference were made to certain signs already fulfilled, everybody would say that it was conjecture. But the Saviour gave us ground for the firmest assurance of faith, when centuries ago he foretold his coming, and the signs which would indicate its nearness. The fact that those signs were then foretold, made it impossible that any one who accepted the words of inspiration just as they are recorded, should be deceived. Let us, then, not spend time in “doubtful disputations,” but let us believe that “yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry;” and “let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised.”