Notes on Important Eras of Prophecy by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 29, 1912

Notes on Important Eras of Prophecy

By W. A. S.

The Hand of God in History— No. 2

Notes on Important Eras of Prophecy

The Witness to the Living God

Two great evidences bear witness to the living and the true God,—his created works, and the fulfilment of his word of prophecy.

His Created Works

Creative power is the great mark of distinction of the living God:—

“But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting King; at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” Jer. 10:10-12.

The earth and all created things in it bear constant witness to the living God:—

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language; their voice is not heard.” Ps. 19:1-3.

The language of the sun and moon and stars is known to all, lettered or unlettered. As Addison sings,—

“What though no real voice nor sound Amid their radiant orbs is found? In reason’s ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice, Forever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is divine.”

The apostle Paul summed up the facts of this witness of God’s created works in these words:—

“That which may be known of God is manifest in [“to,” margin] them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Rom. 1:19, 20.

And the sign of this creative power, the seal or mark by which the true and living God is known, is the Sabbath day: “Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20:20. On this text, Dr. Wm.

Hales, the chronologist, supplied a striking comment, as follows:—

“A sign between God and his people (Eze. 20:20); and a mark of separation from the idolatrous Gentiles, who universally violated it, as we learn from the following exceptions in a curious passage of Julian the apostate [Greek text omitted]: ‘What nation is there, by the gods, who do not think that except the first commandment, Thou shalt worship no other gods, and the fourth, Remember the Sabbath, they ought to observe the other commandments of the decalogue?’”—“Chronology,” Vol. I, page 118.

The first precept commands all men to worship only the true God, and the fourth tells who the true God is, the Creator of heaven and earth. Thus the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the sign of the true God, and the keeping of it the seal or mark of loyalty to him.

The “Sure Word of Prophecy”

The power to foretell the future is a distinguishing characteristic of divinity. The Lord says:—

“Declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.” Isa. 41:22, 23.

Only the living God can do this. The prophetic Scriptures supply evidence by which any one who will face the facts may know of a surety that the Bible is the voice of this true and living God.

Here is the Lord’s open challenge to doubt or unbelief:—

“I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.” Isa. 48:3.

Why has the Lord uttered prophecies? He tells us:—

“Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.” Verses 4, 5.

Only the Christian Scriptures contain accurate historic prophecies, outlining the course of history generations before the events described took place.

The Hindu may say, “The Christian Bible is good for the Christian; but we also have our sacred books, the Vedas, which are good for the Hindus.” But we ask, “Did your sacred books, written in ancient times, describe in clear outline the course of history then future, and can you point to the fulfilment?” And more than once I have heard the reply from Hindu lips, “No; we know nothing of historic prophecies in our sacred books.”

It is because the living God is the author of the Bible; and he only can tell the end from the beginning. The sacred books of all other religions present the picture of man talking to God. The Book of books is God talking to man. In the Christian Scriptures God speaks from heaven, and man answers. In the non-Christian writings man speaks toward heaven, and there is never an answer back from a living God who does things on earth. Sir Alfred Lyall well puts the dreary loneliness of that silence, in his “Meditations of a Hindu Prince:”—

“And the myriad idols around me, and the legion of muttering priests, The revels and rites unholy, the dark, unspeakable feasts! What have they wrung from the Silence? Hath even a whisper come Of the Secret, whence and whither? Alas, for the gods are dumb!”

In the Christian Scriptures of truth we hear the voice of the living God. One evening, in India, I sat with a bright young man, a Hindu student in the Calcutta University. The Christian Bible was an unknown book to him. We studied the words of Daniel before Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, as he interpreted the king’s divinely given dream of the great metallic image, with its head of gold, breast of silver, sides of brass, and legs of iron. Daniel 2. The prophet outlined the general course of the history of universal empire from the golden age of Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, to the end of time:—

“And after thee shall arise another kingdom [Medo-Persia] inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass [Grecia], which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron [Rome; “the iron monarchy of Rome,” as Gibbon calls it]: . . . and . . . the kingdom shall be divided [the kingdoms that arose within the western empire of Rome, represented by the modern kingdoms of western Europe]. . . . And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.”

As we followed the prophetic outline, from Babylon to Rome and its division, I asked the student—a Hindu—if from his own study of history he could say whether this prophecy, written in Babylon two thousand five hundred years ago, had been fulfilled. He replied, “I know that this describes the course of history in the exact order of events.”

And with a face expressing surprise and awe, he looked up and said again, with the force of sudden and deep conviction, “Only the living God could have written that before it came to pass!”

It is the truth. Divine prophecy bears witness, sure and certain, that the voice of the living God speaks in the Bible.

The need of the world is to know the living God. The Sabbath, the memorial of his creative power, is the divinely ordained sign by which men may know him. The prophetic Scriptures that speak with the voice of the living God declare that the last days have come, and that the second advent of Christ is near at hand. Thus the Sabbath and the advent truths of God’s Holy Word constitute the key-note of the gospel message for this generation. W. A. S.