Untitled article by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 8, 1913

The Lord’s Return — No. 4

By F. M. W.

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” Heb. 10: 35-39.

In considering the proposed visit of some dear friend, it is not enough that we know the manner of his coming, nor the particular object he may have in view in making the journey, but above these considerations is the precise time when the visit will be made.

This is the great objective point, and these are the feelings of all true disciples as they contemplate the return of the Lord to this earth. We know he will come to take his children home, to destroy sin, to bring this earth back to

its original purity and beauty, and to establish thereon his glorious and everlasting kingdom. The Scriptures of Truth also clearly reveal to us the manner of his coming. The same Jesus who once lived on this earth will come in like manner as he went away, openly and visibly, in all the glory and majesty of celestial royalty, escorted by tens of thousands of the angelic host. But this is not enough. Beyond this the cry of every longing Christian heart is, When will he come? How long before faith shall be swallowed up in sight? How long before the weary uplooking eyes of the children of God shall be refreshed with the sight of the one they have learned to love?

Divine revelation is not silent on this phase of the subject. The exact time we may not know. No man by the prophetic periods can figure out the hour, the day, or the year of the Master’s coming. But we may know when his coming is nigh, even at the doors, and we may know it as assuredly as we know that summer is nigh when the trees begin to put forth their leaves. Certain things must transpire in the world’s history. Certain signs and indications must take place, and when these are seen, it is our privilege to recognize them as harbingers of the coming King. And these heralds of the morning are to be seen and recognized in every department and feature of earth’s history. God would leave the world without excuse, so in the heavens above; in the earth beneath; in wind and wave and ocean’s roar; in the physical, social, industrial, religious, and political worlds; in the false religious movements of the last day; in the great prophetic forecast of the history of nations; in many and varied ways do the Scriptures predict that the time of the Lord’s return is near.

Thirty-three years ago, when the writer embraced this message, it seemed to him that the certainty of the Lord’s soon return was established beyond a doubt. But as he reviews the events of the last three decades, it appears that where one evidence existed thirty years ago there may be found one hundred evidences to-day. The signs are multiplying on every hand.

Consider the evidences as indicated in the two diagrams accompanying this article. The first diagram presents what we have designated for convenience the Time Prophecies of the Lord’s return. Here are ten great prophetic forecasts of a series of events which were to take place among the nations of men and in connection with the church of God. Some of these forecasts were made far back in the days of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian kingdoms. Some were given two thousand years ago through the apostle John. Every prophecy cited points to the same focal point, and that is the return to this earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. History verifies their fulfilment. We can trace every prophecy down step by step, age by age. The events have for the most part been fulfilled. They all indicate that we are living down in the little space just preceding the coming of the Lord, and that the next great event to take place marks the complete fulfilment of the prophetic period,—the return of Christ in the clouds of heaven.

The second outline presents what we have termed the Sign Prophecies of the Lord’s return. These sign prophecies do not embrace long prophetic periods. Rather they are prophecies of conditions which would exist in the world just preceding the second coming of Christ. There would be seen signs in the heaven; the earth would wax old; there would be conditions in the social world which would be comparable to those that existed in the days of Noah and that characterized Sodom and Gomorrah; in the industrial world there would exist a great conflict between capital and labor; the great professed Christian church would lose its first love and become worldly and apostate; the nations of earth would be preparing for the last great battle of Armageddon; in the face of these war preparations there would be raised a peace and safety cry, lulling the people into carnal security; spiritualism would perform its terrible work of delusion; scoffers would arise reviling the logic of evidence and the fulfilment of these conditions as signs of the day of the Lord; and in the midst of these untoward conditions God would send to the world a warning message of the speedy establishment of his kingdom, and a call to repent and escape the wrath so soon to be visited upon a guilty world. These are the conditions which the Scriptures say would be found in the world just before the coming of the Lord, and these would be recognized as the heralds of that coming.

That these conditions exist we do not need to argue. Every reader knows that these signs are in process of fulfilment to-day. They speak with one voice. To the student of the Word they proclaim one message, “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” Truly we may say with the apostle Peter, “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Our faith is not based upon vain assumption or idle speculation. It is not founded upon one or two isolated scriptures. It does not rest alone upon one prophetic prediction or upon one line of prophecy. The prophecies cited in the diagram by no means exhaust the Bible record. Other prophecies and other signs might be mentioned, did space permit. The signs have been multiplied. Evidence upon evidence is furnished. God would leave the nations of men without excuse.

We may indeed lift up our heads and rejoice that our redemption draweth

nigh, that the deliverance from sin is soon to be consummated. And yet, notwithstanding these striking evidences that the Word presents, the Scriptures also indicate that this above all other times is a time of danger to the church of God; that in this period when everything about us indicates the near approach of a divine Lord, the church stands in greater danger than at any time in its history. Of this we shall speak more particularly next week.

F. M. W.