Approaching the Culmination by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 9, 1915

Approaching the Culmination

By C. M. S.

THE Word teaches that every false system will be flourishing in the last days, in the time of the Lord's preparation. The flourishing of these false systems today, from Christian Science through the whole category to the resuscitated

cause of Islam, is a striking fulfillment of the Word in this respect, and therefore an indication that we are in the last days.

Perhaps the one thing more than any other that has prepared soil and sowed seed for just such a work as the spread of these systems is the criticism of the Bible that has been going on for the last few years in the pulpits supposed to have been dedicated to the teaching of that Word. This has weakened the faith of many, overthrown the hope of some, and has led a multitude to look to the lifeless systems of paganism to find what they might have found in the Word of God. Such undermining teachings have made the way easy for the exponents of those false systems to multiply the number of their adherents.

Is there not a design in bringing together these two things — the revival of heathen systems and the attempted undermining of the Word of God, the latter opening the way for the progress of the former? Nothing is more certain than that it is the result of a long-planned and deep-laid scheme of that common enemy of God and man.

They who have maintained faith in the Word of God have looked for just such combinations as this; for that Word teaches us to expect them. They have come, and there are more to follow. Every deceptive device that Satan can invent, or has invented and can use now, will be seen in operation in these days in which this generation lives, and Satan has not yet emptied his quiver.

The calls for a holy war now on the part of Islam against Christianity are but other manifestations of the centripetal forces at work in our day to bring under control and into mobilization the forces that will oppose the gospel of the kingdom till the end. Every other system and device is likewise arousing and mobilizing its adherents and seeking recruits for the culminating struggles of the conflict. They who are not firmly rooted and grounded in the truth of God in these last days will be swamped in the great sea of doubt and deception that is rolling in upon a doomed world.

But we are not without hope even in such times as these upon which we are entering; for “the Lord knoweth them that are his;” and “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” “It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” The many “winds of doctrine” are blowing; the many combinations designed to bind men to this world are increasing; the forces of evil are strengthening their holdings in every possible way; the “dogmas of doubt” are being held constantly before the faces of the professed followers of the Lamb by shepherds false to their trust; the “peace and safety” cry is sounding through the world while the bloodiest battles of earth’s history are being fought, and while enlarged factories are building bigger battleships and stronger cannon and more of them than ever before, and great industrial plants are being turned into forgers of weapons of war; and at the same time the great religious world is trampling upon the Sabbath of Jehovah, and beginning its work of persecution upon those who honor it. All this is taking place at a time when the Lord is issuing his last solemn warning and his last invitation to the people of this generation. Everything indicates the close of the dispensation, and should stir our hearts to deeper piety and stronger zeal in the work to which we are called.

C. M. S.