The Coming Crisis by J.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 18, 1866

The Coming Crisis.

By J.

WHAT, still another crisis? many will say. Yes, dear reader, nothing can be more sure than still another crisis, and such an one as will throw all that has gone before in our world's history quite in the shade. Verily this is the very thing of which “God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” Looking directly to this, the inspired apostle Peter writes to his brethren in the church as follows: “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken of the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour.” This is the great theme of divine revelation; but strong as it is, it is mainly overlooked by the shepherds and watchmen of the fold and flock of Christ, even in our day of unparalleled light. They feel wholly absorbed with other matter, which they are constantly urging upon the people as more worthy of their all-absorbing interest. Hence, we may, if we will, already see the snare in which the world, but more especially the church, are about to be taken. Yes, more especially the church, for with them is supposed to be the repository and key of religious knowledge, and with them, especially their teacher, is the fearful responsibility of keeping the people advised as it regards the time as truly indicated just now on the dial-plate of time. The Jewish church were blind, led by their blind guides, who had the key of religious knowledge. They were mainly responsible, and most guilty, as Christ charged home upon them, and sure enough as history attests, judgment with them “commenced at the house of God.” Precisely so will it be with the present Gentile church, which are, in their worldly wisdom and human planning, turning away from “God, the fountain of living water,” and are actually hewing out “cisterns broken” after all their pains, “and can hold no water.” Thus are the people being deceived with “castles in air,” hopes never, never to be realized. Who are responsible, we ask, in the name of the Lord! Verily, those watchmen, shepherds, and pastors of the flock, to whom the people are wont to look for religious knowledge, and the watchmen who should “give the trumpet a certain sound,” those shepherds who should “give to each a portion in due season.” God will hold these mainly responsible for the fatal delusion of peace, safety, and prosperity, when in reality, there is no peace on account of the wicked worldliness of a nominal church. There is no true prosperity for the professed disciples of Christ, who turn away from following the teachings, spirit, and example of Christ, and “are turned to idols.” Our resources as a nation, and as a church, are held up as objects of future hope; yes, bishops and doctors of divinity, teach the people to look to our agricultural, commercial, mineral, and literary wealth and resources, in order to form some opinion of the future prosperity and unparalleled greatness of the nation, and with it, the final stability and glory of the church, but more especially “our church.” Alas for poor deluded humanity, and can it be that men occupying such high and responsible positions, have not yet learned, even in this day of facilities for learning, the simple and yet important fact so fully spread out on the pages of history, that worldly prosperity has ever been the bane of the church, and in the very nature of things it must continue so to be! Again we ask, Who is responsible for such teachings and false hopes thus engendered, and the ruin inevitable when judgment shall once more begin at the house of God in the world's coming crisis?

We turn away from the false, deceptive objects of hope, which have insidiously stolen into the professed body of Christ, to the true hope shining out from the sacred page so bright and clear. A very brief reference must suffice. “The grace of God” revealed in the gospel, says an apostle, teaches three things, Titus ii, 11-13. First, the denial of all ungodliness and worldly lusts. Second, a sober, righteous, and godly walk and conversation in the present world. These may be regarded as the believer's “negative” and “positive” life. The third thing taught by this revealed grace, is to look for, to anticipate “the blessed hope”—those glorious things that are to be revealed at the “appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

This may be regarded as the Christian's prospective life, his life of hope and faith, and patient waiting. Concerning this same hope, the apostle Peter says to Christians, “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation (appearing) of Jesus Christ.” It is to the appearing of Jesus Christ, to this glorious return of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, the ever faithful under-shepherd should teach his flock to look as the only reliable hope of the church, and our sin-cursed and groaning creation. Those in high places as teachers of religion, mock at this, put it far away, and seek, by a deceptive spiritualizing mode of Scripture exposition, to evade an unwelcome truth, so that the church now abounds with an unmistakable type of latter-day scoffers, who tauntingly ask, “Where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the creation.” The scoffer's latter-day heresy is virtually incorporated into almost all our present church literature, from the large octavo volume down to a church almanac. In brief, it is this as worded by our Lord himself, “my Lord delayeth his coming.” Wherefore, we are not yet ready for the event. We are largely planning the world's conversion. The gold and silver is yet to be dug and coined, and the men educated to do this great work so honorable to the humanity composing the church. This thing may take many centuries, yet the thing is to be done so that when the blessed Lord shall come, he will have but little or nothing to do but enjoy the fruit of our labor. True it is, though God made man upright, he has sought out many inventions, and among them all, probably none is more deceptive and fraught with ruin than this very master-piece of the evil one. Can the humble inquirer after “the truth as it is in Jesus” fail to see how this plausible and popular latter-day fable embraces the fatal teaching, “my Lord delayeth his coming,” and in its necessary practical bearing is producing that very state of faith in the church, indicated by that most significant question proposed by our Lord, thus, “when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” This will be the state of things rather than the world's conversion at the time of the coming crisis, the time of the evening. Who believes that this sublime event is now imminent, may transpire any moment, and who is now looking, watching, waiting, and “loving his appearing?”

That great reformer, John Wesley, in his notes on the Apocalypse, runs out all the prophetic periods in 1836. Wm. Miller, after whom Adventists are in derision now called Millerites, runs out the prophetic periods in 1843.

Large capital has been made of these mistakes, especially the latter, by those who were not quite ready to see the Lord. There is at the present time, a host of the wise and good, scattered over the whole world, who are earnest students of prophecy, learned, humble, and honest persons, who claim that we are now living in the “time of the end,” when according to the word of God, by the mouth of the prophet Daniel, there shall be such light on what was before “closed up and sealed,” that the wise should understand when these things should come to pass, even the completion when the blessed shall come to the thousand three hundred five and thirty days, when Daniel will stand in his lot with them. Yes, a host of watching, praying ones, believe that we are very nearly there, and that the next great event in our world's history will be the coming and kingdom of our Lord, when the righteous dead shall be quickened, and the living changed in a moment and “caught up to meet the Lord in the air.” Surely none who are prepared can object, and those who are not prepared, as in the days of Noah and Lot, have grave objections, for they are not ready. But what if he does not come? Still watch and wait, as when some dear and most valuable earthly friend did not come just when expected; let the desire become more intense, as with the bride expecting her lord, surely in his return is our only hope. Long and weary ages have proved this true. What a world ours still is—how abortive are human efforts when put forth to regulate and cure its evils. We

need no revelation to teach us that the curse rests upon it. The power of evil is everywhere in the ascendant. The pestilence walks abroad at noon and night. Earth's history is still written in blood and tears—its constant dirge, wails, sighs, and groans. Mildew blights, and the insect makes the avails of the tiller's toil precarious. Perishing in want, and neglected, many lie down and die. The dominion of man has long since departed, and the beast rises up in rebellion against his former ruler. Everywhere we see where lie the dead, and death sways his sceptre over the universal empire. Indeed it would seem that all with one accord should ever pray, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”—J.,—in Northern Independent.