p. 494 | THE PRESENT TRUTH by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 11, 1880

THE PRESENT TRUTH.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

V. The warning message will last through one generation—then the Lord will come.

God does not give his warnings to those who do not need them; hence, when a warning is given, it is always given to that generation which will live to see the event of which they are warned. It was so in the days of Noah, and in other cases.

God does not give his warning to one generation and let them pass off the stage of action, and then bring his judgments on another generation.

But the very generation who hear the warning will live to see the consummation of it. The signs will be given, then will come the proclamation based upon those signs. In Matt. 24, after giving the signs which should mark his second coming, Christ says, “Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.” Verse 32. Yes; when we see the leaves putting forth, we all know that summer is at hand. “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” Verse 33. When are we to learn this parable of the fig-tree? Answer. When we shall see all these things. This locates the time of which he is speaking, viz., when these signs have appeared. Luke gives it thus: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Chap. 21:28. When are they to look up and know their redemption is nigh? When these things begin to come to pass. Nothing could be plainer than that. See verse 31. “So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Now of what time is he speaking? It seems as though the blindest might see that it is the time when these signs shall appear. He says that when these signs do appear, then we may know that his coming is near, even at the door. The next verse tells how near. “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matt. 24:34.

What generation? Not the generation he was talking to, as some have foolishly argued; but the generation he was speaking of, viz., that generation which shall see these signs come to pass. Because he says “this” generation, it does not necessarily follow that he meant the generation then living. Ps. 95:10, furnishes a similar use of the phrase, this generation. “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” The psalmist says, “This generation,” and yet he was speaking of the generation which came out of Egypt five hundred years before. See Ps. 2:7: “I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” “This day have I begotten thee,” says the psalmist. Was Christ begotten upon the day that the psalmist penned that? Certainly not. This language was quoted by Paul, and applied to Christ’s resurrection a thousand years afterward. Yet the psalmist says, “This day.” How could he properly say, “This day”? Because his mind was carried forward to the time when that event should occur, and, speaking of that time, he says, “This day,” that is, the time under consideration. So Christ, when he says, “This generation,” means the generation of which he was speaking, the one that should see the signs. In all the prophecies it is the general style of speaking to use the present tense for the future.

Now we inquire for a moment, What has come to pass in our days? This thing has not been done in a corner. Everybody knows that for the last thirty-five years or more, there has been a class of people preaching that the Lord is coming in this generation. They have met with bitter opposition, with scoffing and ridicule, with persecution and slander, yet they have steadily gone forward and faithfully warned the world of the coming events. During the last thirty-five years, books and tracts upon this subject have been scattered by the million, like the leaves of the forest, in every part of the world, till there is scarcely a school-district where they have not reached, or a school-boy who has not heard the proclamation; and there are to-day, scattered all through the land, not less than one hundred thousand souls who are expecting the immediate advent of Christ.

I appeal to the reader, whether this proclamation has not been extensive enough and long enough to fulfill the prophecies and condemn the world? Paul says that Noah, by his preaching, condemned the world, Heb. 11:7. But compare that a moment with this. He had no one to aid him in that work; but here are thousands engaged in this. He had no printing presses to publish his message; now, we have a score of them constantly aiding in this. He had not a tract; now, we have them by the thousands. He had not even a Bible; now, there is one in every house. He had no railroads or steamboats to facilitate his traveling; now, we can go to the ends of the world in a few days’ time. If, then, one man, without a single colporter, without a paper, without a tract, without a Bible, by his single voice alone, condemned the millions of that generation, even the whole world, how much more will the proclamation here given condemn this generation. Suppose, for a moment, that the Lord should come in this generation; would they not be without excuse? Could they say that they had not been warned? They might say that they did not believe that the warning which they heard was from God, and that would be all that they could say. The antediluvians might have said the same, and all others who have been warned and rejected the warning.

Dear reader, we pray you to lay these things to heart, and do not pass them by lightly. It may be that God is in this work after all. If you have not seen signs and evidences of the near coming of the Lord, is it because none such have appeared? or is it because you have not been watching for them? If not, give your attention to them. Do you know what are the signs of the last days? The Bible has given scores of them. Could you name a dozen? Might not many of them take place right before your eyes and you not know that they were signs of the last days, simply because you have not studied the Bible sufficiently on this point? May the Lord help you to wake up before it is too late to embrace present truth.

Look at it from our stand-point a moment. The Lord is coming; signs are everywhere appearing; the warning is sounding through the world; a people is being gathered out, waiting for his coming; the awful events of the Judgment and the plagues of the last days are about to burst upon us; the mass of the world are asleep; a worldly church and ministry are telling them of the golden age soon to come. If these things are so, what is your duty? Is it not to regard the signs, heed the warnings, and join the little band who are trying to arouse the world concerning their impending doom?

Do you say that if we believe in Christ, we shall be saved whether we believe these things or not, granting that they are true? Do not deceive yourself so. Faith that God accepts is that which accepts the special work which God causes to be done in our day. Look at the past and learn from that. God sent Noah with a warning to that generation. Then that was their present truth. No one before that had ever been required to hear or believe that truth. Hence they thought it was of no consequence, and so rejected it. Noah was left alone to struggle on and bear the whole burden and reproach of the work. But they all perished and the event proved that Noah’s message was of God. Now all are ready to praise Noah and have great faith in his work.

But by and by God sends another special message and additional truths through Moses. He, too, meets most determined unbelief and bitter opposition even from the chosen people of God. They murmured at him, threatened to kill him, rebelled against his authority, etc. See Num. 16. Now ask those very men if they believed Noah’s message, and they would profess the strongest faith in Noah and his work. The reason is this: After a work is all done, the sacrifices all made, the opposers put down, the victory won, and the event demonstrated that it was God’s work, then it is an easy matter to shout for the victorious party. It requires no sacrifice, no risk, no faith, to accept that.

So when the Lord sent Elijah, Jeremiah, or any of the prophets, the people held them in doubt, or opposed and persecuted them. Yet those same people had unbounded faith in, and devotion to, Noah, Moses, and all the prophets who lived before their own day. And so again after these holy prophets had delivered their message and sealed it with their blood, the following generations would awake to the fact that they were God’s servants. Then they could not do enough to praise and honor them. Says Jesus: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.” Matt. 23:29, 30. These prophets had been put to death by their fathers; but now when the event had proved beyond doubt that they were sent of God, these hypocritical time-servers were loud in their praises and eager to honor them. But notice, there was now no risk, no sacrifice, in doing this. They flatter themselves that if they had lived in the days of these martyrs they would have believed them and suffered with them. But see! these very men turned right around and killed God’s own Son! They had strong faith in all God’s servants and their works in the past; but when it came to their own time, they did just as all had done before them; they took the popular side, the easy side, where there was no sacrifice, no persecution. Their faith was wholly in things of the past for which others had suffered and died.

But they were blind to the all-important work of God in their own time. This they did not and would not see. They thought that their faith in the work of God in the past would save them.

As to this Jesus, they did not know whence he was; and the baptism of John, they could not tell whether it was from Heaven or of men. But they believed Moses, the prophets, etc., and that was enough. It had saved their fathers, and it was good enough for them. Here is where men deceive themselves. A man may believe all the works of God in the past, but if he rejects the special work for his own time, he will be rejected by God. Faith in present truth, a faith which will lead a man to obey it, to give his life for it and to aid it with his means and influence; that is a live faith, a faith that will save a man and gain him a great reward in the kingdom.

What is the use of faith? It is to lead a man to work. James 2. Faith that does not lead a man to work is dead. When does God call upon men to have faith? When he has a work to be done among men. In what does he require them to have faith? In the work he has to be done in their day, for in this they can assist; not in some work in the past which others have done, and which does not need their help or sympathy now. The present truth, the present work, and faith in the present work, which leads men to engage in and support the present work—this is what has always been pleasing to God—this is Bible faith.

A dead church and formal professors always have great faith in God’s workers of the past, but only contempt and persecution for his work in the present. Reader, be careful. All your talk about faith in Christ and what he did and suffered in the past will avail you nothing if you reject his work for the present time. As we have shown, the coming of the Lord and a special preparation for it is now the present truth. Will you take a part in it?