Gospel Assurances Lie on the Surface
By H. W. Cottrell
The doctrine of the second coming of Christ and of a final day of judgment was preached by Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and, being a heaven-born message, it was echoed and re-echoed by patriarchs and prophets until the days of Christ's first advent. Jude 14, 15; Isa. 25:9; Dan. 2:44. Christ, the only begotten Son of God, the greatest Teacher the world or the church ever knew, when on earth taught the certainty of these events, and prefaced them by definite way-marks, strewn all along the way from then until now. This is clearly shown in Matthew 24. On that memorable Thursday of Christ's ascension, two celestial evangelists renewed that thrilling gospel message in the soul-inspiring language: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” This assurance was a great comfort to the sadly bewildered disciples, and it is no less comforting to the trusting Christian to-day. The apostles took up the strain, and preached to sinners repentance and cleansing through Christ, the divine Son of God, “the way, the truth, and the life.” They said, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, . . . and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.” The ripened fruit of that day's labor was the addition of three thousand new believers. “My word . . . shall not return unto me void.” The word of the Lord to the sinner then, as now, was, Repent, forsake, receive, and then consecrate the newly received Christ life, with all its faculties, to God for eternal service. Neither Christ, the author of Christianity, nor the apostles knew of the scientific method—“science falsely so-called”—of becoming righteous by the development of a supposed germ of the God life, assumed to be inherent in every man. Then Christ, the author of all true science, said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Receiving the Christ life, cleanses the “spots,” smoothes out the “wrinkles,” and “every such thing.” The soul that has this experience alone with God through Christ, will welcome, joyfully welcome, the Master's royal return. Paul did not expect either the coming of Christ or the judgment to occur in his day. He gave counsel, “Let no man deceive you . . . for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” But he gave assurance that the mystery of iniquity had begun to work, and would develop into “the man of sin.” He further reasoned of a “judgment to come.” It must necessarily be in close proximity to the coming of the Lord. John, when an exile, gave assurance that the Saviour's return would not be under cover, but would be open as the day. He said, “Every eye shall see him.” Jesus compared the grandeur of his return and its prominence, to lightning in the heavens. “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” There may be those who are ignorant of the gospel facts concerning the event of Christ's return, yet the plain gospel assurances lie on the surface, so that any one may know his whereabouts in this earthly drama. But whether people will learn the lesson now or not, when the event occurs, all will bow in humble submission to the situation, and to him who is and has ever been above all, and who is lovingly anxious to abide with all. “If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,”—a relation that can exist only where self is surrendered. Between the years 1831 and 1844, William Miller, a man of the Baptist persuasion, who both lived and died a Baptist, was the leader, under God, who, with his associates, presented to the world anew the message of the coming of Christ and the day of judgment, fulfilling literally the message recorded in Rev. 14:6, 7, known as the first angel's message, the first of the series of three,—“The hour of his judgment is come.” The time had at last come when the judgment was no longer a thing of the future. In the summer of 1844 they preached a message in fulfilment of verse 8, setting forth the experimental decline of the professed church,—“Babylon is fallen.” In the autumn of 1844 the message of the third angel was due. Rev. 14:9-14. This brought in the Sabbath reform (verse 12; Rev. 11:19), which gives the everlasting gospel its threefold and last setting. Rev. 14:6-14. The preaching of the doctrine of the second coming of Christ and the Sabbath reform, should have developed a people of just such a character as the Seventh-day Adventists, which it did, at the exact date specified by prophecy. The first church of Seventh-day Adventists was brought out in Washington, N. H., in the last three months of 1844. At this date the three angels' messages, formerly distinct each from the others, were blended into one message. It was the everlasting gospel. We then became a people. Our responsibilities as Seventh-day Adventists began. The message is due to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” When it is delivered to the people, the gospel work will be finished, and the King will take control, “having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” Early in 1845 God called forth men and women of strength of character, as leaders of men under him, to take charge of his work, prominent among whom were Elder Joseph Bates, Elder James White, Ellen G. Harmon, now Mrs. E. G. White, and later Elders J. N. Andrews and Uriah Smith, and others. The year 1844 was an eventful one, and it was no less prophetic. The longest and last symbolic prophecy of the Bible terminated in that year. It was the set time for the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary—the judgment period. The door into the holy apartment was shut, and no man could open it. The door into the most holy place was opened, and no man could close it. The seventh trumpet began to sound in 1844. The signs of the second coming of Christ,—the darkening of the sun and the moon, and the falling of the stars, as given by Christ and recorded in Matthew 24,—having been fulfilled, were recognized by the Christian world as signs, and were seen historically by tens of thousands of Christians who had accepted the message of reformation under the great Baptist reformer, William Miller, and his associates. Jesus said of such a generation that it should not pass away until the hope of his people should be realized. We are, therefore, in the last generation. This work with which we are entrusted must be pushed forward mightily. Every cord that binds the heart to this world must be broken before the best results of labor can be seen, and the work closed up. The realization of the highest ideal of the Christian's hope will be to see and forever be with his Redeemer, Christ the Lord. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” “Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty.” Then those redeemed from among men will “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”