Signs and Issues of Our Time by W. W. Prescott

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 2, 1916

Signs and Issues of Our Time

By W. W. Prescott

(Reading for Sunday, December 3)

Signs and Issues of Our Time

W. W. PRESCOTT

For six thousand years this earth has been the battleground in the great controversy between Christ and Satan. During this long period dynasties have come and gone, kingdoms have risen and fallen, and the map of the world has been drawn and redrawn, under the varying fortunes of war, and still the struggle continues. What is the prize at stake? What are the issues involved? Have we any means of judging what the outcome will be? Are there any signs, indicated by divine authority, which enable us to determine with certainty whether the final crisis in the controversy is at hand?

“Watchman, tell me, does the morning Of fair Zion’s glory dawn? Have the signs that mark its coming Yet upon thy pathway shone?”

It is true that all through the centuries the waymarks to the kingdom have indicated the progress of God’s work in the earth, and these signs have no less force now than at any time in the past. But our theme leads us to consider present-day indications. There is in these days a sort of universal consciousness that something unusual is impending. It appears to be true now, as it has been at different times in the past, that God is impressing upon the minds of the people the feeling that he is about to arise and fulfil his word. This is clearly shown by the fact that when the destructive forces of nature seem to break loose, or when any especially appalling event occurs, the inquiry passes from lip to lip, “Is this a sign of the end of the world?” So it was at the time of the first advent. So general was the feeling that the Messiah was about to be manifested that “the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ.” Luke 3:15. This universal expectation prepares the minds of the people to weigh the evidence presented concerning the fulfilment of prophecy, and in itself constitutes a sign.

Several years ago we were instructed that a spirit of intensity was taking hold of Satan’s agencies:— “While a new life is being diffused and is springing up from beneath and taking fast hold of Satan’s agencies,

preparatory to the last great conflict and struggle, a new light and life and power is descending from on high, and taking possession of God’s people who are not dead, as many now are, in trespasses and sins.”—“Appeal to Ministers and Conference Committees,” pp. 38, 39.

The spirit of evil seems to be rampant. The public pulse is feverish. Those who pursue pleasure are going to the extreme. Those who are seeking after wealth are running a mad race. Those who are coveting position and power are often found sacrificing honor and character in order to gain their ends. In the whirl of gayety on the one hand, and the struggle for the necessities of life on the other hand,—made more bitter by present economic conditions,—the minds of the many are so fully occupied as to shut out the things of the kingdom of God, and to deter them from making the needed preparation for the coming of the great day.

The Saviour himself foresaw this condition of the last days, and warned us against it: “Take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare.” Luke 21:34. The whole picture is clearly drawn by the apostle Paul: “But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof: from these also turn away.” 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

Sin in some of its most abhorrent forms has become so common as to blunt the senses; and many of the watchmen upon Zion’s walls, instead of crying aloud and sparing not, have lowered the standard, and are making no adequate effort to check the fearful current of evil. A pure gospel of social betterment is taking the place of the gospel of salvation from sin, and special emphasis is being placed upon the desirability of making this world a good place in which to live, rather than upon the necessity of preparing to live in the new earth. The god of this world will not discourage such preaching as this, for he is perfectly willing that men should enjoy the pleasures of sin, and regard this world as an attractive dwelling place, provided only that God is left out of the account. Such a worldly gospel does not turn men from Satan unto God.

The fearful struggle between capital and labor has been increasing in intensity, and the conflicts have been more frequent, more determined, and more destructive, until as we write there is impending a nation-wide strike of railway employees with the avowed intention of tying up every principal transportation system in the United States. The rich are growing richer. “Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.” The poor are growing poorer, and the gap between the classes is widening.

Disasters by sea and by land are increasing in number, and are claiming more victims than ever. Aside from the terrible destruction for which the war is directly responsible, cloud-bursts, appalling accidents, famines, floods, and fires have occurred with shocking frequency, and the toll of human life exacted has been very large. The terrible explosion in New York City on the morning of July 30 caused a thrill throughout the whole country; and along with the destruction of life and property there was intensified in the public mind the feeling that such occurrences are but the harbingers of worse things yet to come. We are surely living in the time of the last woe trumpet.

With all the rest there is a widespread apostasy from the truth, and the false philosophies of the East, which are at the basis of Spiritualism, Theosophy, etc., are gaining a fresh hold on the West. Those who have refused to listen to the pure gospel of salvation are now “giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.” Along with this there naturally comes a laxity of morals and a looseness of sacred relationships, indicated by an appalling increase in the number of divorces and of separated families.

But perhaps the culmination of present-day signs is found in the great war, now in its third year,—a war unparalleled in history for the number of men engaged in the conflict, the destructiveness of the weapons used, the shocking loss of human life, and the creation of war debts expressed in figures so large as to be beyond human comprehension, and which seem likely to bankrupt the world. This is the climax of the outworking of the principles sown broadcast in the earth by the god of this world, the outcome of the substitution of hatred for love, of physical force for the power of love, and of the effort to establish the law of selfishness in the place of the law of self-sacrificing love. The great outstanding facts of this fearful conflict have been so constantly impressed upon the world during the last two years that they need not be repeated here. It must be plain to all that we are in the time of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when “the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the earth.” In the expressive words of President Wilson, “the world is on fire.” The Biblical description is absolutely correct: “Upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world.” Luke 21:25, 26.

A GROUP OF CHINESE EVANGELISTS WHO GIVE THE SAME STIRRING RING TO THE MESSAGE AS IS CHARACTERISTIC OF IT IN THE HOMELANDS

Another impressive sign of the times is the progress made in the effort to reestablish the power of the Papacy in fulfilment of prophecy. Those who have followed the fresh pretensions and the activities of the head of the papal organization since the opening of this war, must have been impressed with the feeling that among the most notable results of this world-embracing conflict will be the reëstablishment for a short period of the world supremacy of the Papacy. In just what way this will be brought about, whether by recognizing the Pope as the mediator among the nations, or by direct reëstablishment of the temporal power of the Papacy, we are unable to forecast; but it is evident that the self-styled sovereign on the Tiber expects to profit by the miseries of the nations, and to rebuild for himself that power which in recent decades has been shattered by some of the very nations which formerly sustained it. It is certain that the death stroke inflicted upon one of the heads of the beast from the sea will be healed, and that again the whole world will wonder after the beast.

While making a hasty review of some of the leading signs of the present hour, we must not overlook the fulfilment of the prophecy relating to the final proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom

in immediate preparation for the second advent. In the last generation “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. John foresaw it in vision, and definitely described the fulfilment of our Lord’s prediction in the threefold message of Rev. 14:6-12.

This movement which has called us out from the world, this movement which in a single generation has extended to the ends of the earth, this movement which is the final call out of Babylon and the summons to obedience to the commandments of God, is in itself convincing proof that we are in the last days. The unusual experiences which have been reported from various fields since the opening of the great war show clearly that while an intensity is taking hold of the power from beneath, power also is coming down from above to make efficient the agencies for the proclamation of gospel truth. The recent organization of the Asiatic Division Conference and of the South American Division Conference has brought all the world into a consistent and well-developed organization for giving the last message to the world and finishing the work of God in the earth. From China, from India, from the Philippines, from Africa, from South America, from almost every quarter of the globe, there have come stirring reports showing the rapidity with which the message is extending. The power of God has been revealed in a special manner in winning thousands directly from the darkness and the bondage of heathenism into the light and liberty of this threefold message.

Thus in the developments of the last two or three years we see wrought out before us the destructive results of the working out of the principles of Satan’s government in this world, results which clearly show the real nature of sin and the consequences to the human family of that rebellion which would, if possible, dethrone God and establish Lucifer in his place. This ambitious design has been exposed by the prophet Isaiah: “Thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Isa. 14:13, 14.

At the same time we see revealed in their fulness the principles of mercy, love, and justice, and the outworking to its final consummation of the plan of God to save a fallen world, to redeem the human family, and to restore righteousness and peace in this part of his domain. This twofold climax marks the nearness of the end. It shows that we have come to the crisis of the ages.

The great controversy is over the possession of this world. Even now voices are heard in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ,” but the god of this world is putting forth the most strenuous efforts to retain his dominion, to hinder the purposes of God, and to carry down with him to final destruction as large a proportion as possible of the human family. Humanity is being intoxicated with the love of pleasure, with the love of power, and indulgence is being carried to the extreme limit. Only one step farther can be taken in this desperate struggle, and that will be the personal appearance of Satan upon the earth, to deceive, if possible, the very elect, and to bind to himself every one whose allegiance to God is not sealed under the everlasting covenant of peace. But soon the glorious consummation so long hoped for and waited for,—the personal revelation of Christ to gather from the earth those whom he has redeemed by his own blood,—will be realized, and the triumph of the gospel, and the full establishment of the sovereignty of God in the earth, so long a subject of prophecy, will become an actual fact. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him.”

We are living in the hour of God’s judgment. Daniel described the scene, and John completed the outline with the details of a most solemn character. The destiny of souls is in the balance. This final message of preparation calls for that personal experience in walking with God as did Enoch of old, which will prepare a perfect people to pass from earth to heaven without seeing death. This means the perfection of Christian character. This means the full realization of all the blessings promised through the gospel. A special reward awaits those who now realize this experience of fellowship with God, and who are thus prepared for the final issue.

“Watch therefore: for ye know not when the Lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” Mark 13:35-37. Happy is he who heeds this exhortation, and is prepared to meet his Lord with joy.