Characteristics of the Last Generation by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 3, 1914

Characteristics of the Last Generation

By C. M. S.

It is indeed wonderful how the declarations of God’s Word corroborate each other, and how the prophecies therein contained are woven into each other like the warp and woof of some marvelous fabric. The correlation and interrelation of the books of Daniel and the Revelation furnish the most striking example of this, and on the grandest scale; but it is a characteristic of the entire Book of God.

The present Titanic struggle in Europe and Asia must be looked upon by the observant student of prophecy as a prelude of, or a preparation for, the last great battle of the armed forces of this world—Armageddon. That closes the history of the world so far as man can make it, and therefore comes in the last generation of men. But the last generation of men is to be the generation that will give the “peace and safety” cry, when “sudden destruction” is hanging over the world. The world is preparing for Armageddon, and it is also preparing as never before for those conditions which will make the peace and safety cry seem the most reasonable thing in the world. Those two conditions were to be characteristic of the last generation, and they are coming forward now, both at the same time. Thus they must do to fulfill God’s Word, and thus they are doing.

It seems an incongruous thing to talk of peace and safety now when all the great nations of the world but two are striving with every power at their command to crush out each other’s lives; yet leaders of men and leaders of thought are today

declaring that this will be the last great war, because modern civilization will revolt against the blood-madness of militarism, and that the nations as a result of this war, will perfect an arrangement which will make war impossible. Thus do they with the same breath fulfill prophecy and contradict God’s Word.

But these two conditions are not the only characteristics of the last generation. In speaking of the approach of the great day of God, Paul says, “That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first;” and the Saviour himself asks, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Both are speaking of last-day conditions; they are speaking of the last generation of men. But the facts show that they were speaking of conditions that obtain in our own day. The falling away has come, a precursor of the coming of the Lord.

The Christian world is driving straight into a sea of doubt in our day. Faith such as our fathers had is conspicuous, when it is found, because of its very scarcity. The doubt and uncertainty in the religious world are manifest in the decrease of candidates for the ministry in certain of the largest and most influential sects. Various reasons are given for this condition, such as the increasing spirit of worldliness in the churches, commercialism, a low state of vital piety, materialism, lust for luxury, and the worship of Mammon. Some, however, openly declare that the true cause is the tyranny of creed; that young men shun the pulpit because it is not a place of intellectual freedom; that the higher education brings with it a horror of credal bonds, and leads them to see a contradiction between the belief of the church and the more advanced “modern knowledge.”

To such as hold this view the remedy lies in permitting the younger ministers more freedom of teaching in the pulpit, bringing their religious teachings “into God’s harmony with the facts known,” which have been learned “in library and laboratory,” and discarding “useless tradition.”

Certainly “useless tradition” has never been an essential of salvation, and such dogmas as are founded upon it are founded upon sand. But those who are advocating this change in pulpit methods are putting a very large portion of the Word of God itself in the category of “useless tradition,” and are exalting above the Bible this “modern knowledge” and the “facts known,” which have been found out “in library and laboratory.” The young preacher must harmonize his religious teachings with the teachings of the higher critic and the evolutionist, and the churches must allow their ministers to teach this clerical infidelity, or see the pursuits of the world swallowing up the young men who started out to study for the ministry.

Higher criticism—an attempt to vivisect the living Word—and evolution—an attempt to dethrone the Creator of the heavens and the earth—have combined their forces to overthrow faith in God and his Word. These studies have been fostered in theological schools, and many who have started out to be ministers have been stranded on these rocks.

Now comes the proposition that this “modern thought” shall have more free course in the pulpit, to finish off in the congregation the damage which it began in the young minister. This is being done under the plea that it will unhamper the minister, give him a more inviting field, and thus increase the number of candidates for that kind of ministry; but it will result in giving infidelity a freer sweep in the sacred desk. The result will be that these twin deceptions will perform the same undermining and faith-destroying work in the congregation that they have accomplished among the clergy.

This faith-destroying work was to be a characteristic of the last generation—when the Son of man was to appear. We see it today, and this is another evidence that we are living in the last generation.

But there is another evidence, an evidence specified by our Saviour himself: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” The bearers of that gospel message are today in nearly every country in the world, giving that witness to the peoples of earth. How soon that work will be finished we cannot tell; but its zealous promulgation today among these many nationalities furnishes its part of the evidence that this generation is the last.

These great facts are not mere coincidences; and the fact that they are all seen in this generation is not a mere coincidence; but the fact that we see them all in this generation is indubitable proof that God’s Word is true, that its prophecies are fulfilling before our eyes, and that the coming of our Redeemer is nigh at hand.

C. M. S.