God’s Time for Doing Things by A. T. Robinson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 17, 1914

God’s Time for Doing Things

By A. T. Robinson

A. T. ROBINSON

In the year 1844 the twenty-three hundred years of Daniel’s prophecy ended. That was God’s appointed time for the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, or “the hour of his judgment.”

In 1844 the first angel’s message, based upon the darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars,—signs given by our Saviour of the end of the world,—had been proclaimed. At that time the eyes of the generation then living upon the earth were directed toward those events as signs of the end. Our Saviour said, “Verily, I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matt. 24: 34.

In 1844 the last of the series of the seven-trumpet angels sounded. The solemn announcement comes down to us through the seer of Patmos that “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God [the gospel] should be finished.” The sounding of each one of these seven-trumpet angels was the divine signal for the beginning of a series of events to occur in human history covering successive periods of time. The sounding of the seventh angel, in 1844, was the signal of a series of events beginning with the finishing of the gospel, and embracing the second coming of Christ, the first resurrection; the one thousand years’ reign of the saints in heaven, the descent of the holy city, the second resurrection, the destruction of the wicked, the purifying of the earth, and its becoming the eternal home of the redeemed.

God’s Work Always Done on Time

To Abraham, the promised father of the Israelitish nation, it was revealed that his seed would be sojourners and bondmen in the land of Egypt four hundred and thirty years, after which they were to return with great substance. When God’s clock of time had ticked off four centuries, through the birth and life experiences of Moses we discern clearly the shaping of human events preparatory to the fulfillment of the promised return. Notwithstanding all the

power and might of Pharaoh’s proud empire that battled against the fulfillment of that promised return, we have the inspired record that the exodus of the Israelitish millions from Egypt took place on schedule time. “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” Ex. 12: 40, 41.

Later in the history of that people, through the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord declared that they would serve the king of Babylon seventy years, and that “after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.” Jer. 29: 10. Six hundred and six years before the birth of Christ, Nebuchadnezzar took Israel to Babylon, and God’s clock of time began ticking off the minutes, hours, days, months, years. And when the seventy years had been “accomplished,” like a great impassable mountain between God’s promise and its fulfillment, there had just come to the throne of the world’s empire a mighty heathen king, whose every interest was served by holding the Israelites in continued servitude. He had come to the throne the very year that the seventy years expired, so he must either be used as the instrument for the accomplishment of the promised return from the Babylonian captivity, or be removed out of the way.

But we have another inspired and inspiring record showing that the way was open exactly on time so that every Jew in Cyrus’s empire might hasten his steps toward his home city. “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, we and put it also in writing.” Ezra 1: 1. That wonderful decree, made by a heathen king against his own interests, provided that if a Jew anywhere in all his realm was too poor to return to Jerusalem, the governor of the province in which he lived should put his hand into the king’s treasury, and supply him with a beast to ride upon, money for the journey, and also money with which to make offerings to his God when he reached his home city.

Let us refresh our minds with that beautiful incident in the life of Christ when he sent two of his disciples out into the country to bring a colt, upon which he rode in kingly pomp into Jerusalem, amid shouts and hosannas, and with the way strewn with palm branches and the garments of the people. Christ said in response to the desire of the Pharisees that he rebuke his disciples and the children on account of the noise they were making, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” Luke 19: 40. Why would the stones cry out in such haste? O, centuries before that day, the Lord, by the mouth of his prophet, had uttered these words, which for five hundred years had been awaiting the time of fulfillment: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Zech. 9: 9. If human lips had refused to shout at that time, God would have quickly given voice to inanimate nature.

When the time fixed in the councils of heaven for the accomplishment of God’s work upon the earth arrives, the agencies for its accomplishment are on hand, and all the powers of earth and hell combined cannot hinder that work.

God’s Work Always Begins Small

When the time drew near for the exodus movement, God chose as the human agent in its accomplishment a helpless infant, born under sentence of death, and through eighty years of miraculous deliverance and training, fitted him to be the leader in that great movement. The greatest of all religious movements in the annals of human history, that movement which has shaped the affairs and the destiny of nations and of the world, an event of such importance that we date from it every event in human history, before or since, began with the birth of a helpless infant. That infant, born in a stable and cradled in a manger, was so despised and hated of men that a few years later he was crucified between two thieves.

As surely as God’s appointed time for the exodus movement came at the “end of the four hundred and thirty years,” and the time for the return from the Babylonian captivity came at the close of the seventy years, so surely at the close of the twenty-three hundred years, in 1844, God’s set time had come for the cleansing of the sanctuary, the beginning of the judgment, and the beginning of a movement designated by inspiration as the finishing of the gospel.

True to the prophetic foreview, in 1844 we behold the beginning of a movement, small and insignificant at first, but destined to increase in strength and power until the eternal destiny of the whole world hangs upon its acceptance or rejection.

As the storm-tossed mariner nearing the close of a voyage makes soundings and takes his reckonings, so let us ascertain our whereabouts in this closing movement. Seventy years ago, Oct. 22, 1844, the twenty-three hundred years ended, the hour of God’s judgment came, the seventh trumpet sounded, the time for the finishing of the gospel came, and the message began to sound. That message has encircled the globe, and is rapidly finding its way to the dark corners of the earth.

Is it not about time to look for a mighty movement among this people to prepare to leave this old earth and go to meet our Lord in the air? We believe it is.

Boulder, Colo.