A *Warning Message by George I. Butler

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 9, 1904

A Warning Message

By George I. Butler

WILL there be a warning message to prepare the world for Christ’s coming? This question admits of but one answer: Of course there will be such a message. The character of God, his mercy and love, his great interest in our welfare and salvation, his justice and compassion for his creatures, demonstrate beyond all question that when their eternal well-being is in jeopardy, he will surely give them warning of their danger.

In all the great crises of the past, he has ever done this. When he was about to destroy the antediluvians by a flood of waters, he sent forth his servant Noah, “a preacher of righteousness.” God’s Spirit strove with them one hundred and twenty years. He warned them by preaching; he warned them still more effectually by the preparation he was making to save his own family and the animals and birds that were to be preserved to repopulate the earth. 2 Peter 2:5; Genesis 6.

The flood came, and swept away every inhabitant. So it will be when Christ comes. “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.”

Wicked Sodom and the cities of the plain were visited, even by angels of God, and righteous Lot and his daughters that believed were cared for and rescued.

Even proud, wicked, Gentile Nineveh was warned by Jonah the prophet, and the city was spared just because the people believed the message God sent them. So much for faith in God’s word.

Have you ever read the book of Jeremiah? If not, read it carefully. It is largely filled with that great prophet’s efforts to warn the Jews of the destruction of their wonderful temple and the city of Jerusalem. The most solemn appeals were made to cease living in sin and rebellion against God. They were plainly told that if they did not, their city should cease from being a city, and lie utterly waste and desolate. Such proved to be the result, and that awful captivity of seventy years followed.

Even the Egyptians were fully warned of the results of their sins in oppressing the Israelites. Moses and Aaron plead with Pharaoh, and mighty signs and wonders were performed. These were unheeded, and their whole army was engulfed in the waters of the Red Sea.

Christ’s remarkable discourse recorded, in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, was a clear prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem. The Jews heeded not the warning. The siege under Titus was one of the most terrible the world ever saw. Women ate their own children. Hundreds of thousands were carried off as slaves; the nation was scattered, and has never been gathered, and their city was utterly obliterated.

But not a disciple of Christ was in the city; all had heeded Christ’s warning, “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” They fled away to the mountains, and were saved. So much for believing God.

We see from these references to the past that it is ever according to God’s plan to warn the people of danger. Then those who believe him will be in safety.

What, then, shall we say of the greatest event that will ever occur—the second coming of Christ? Will all that have an interest at stake in that solemn event be left in unconscious ignorance of its approach, never know of it or have any chance to know of it till like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky it is everlastingly too late to prepare for it?—O, no, not by any means. God has not so changed in character as this would imply. There will be a warning message proclaimed to the ends of the earth. All who will believe God’s word and make preparation, will have a chance to be ready for it. They will say, when they see him come in his glory with all the holy angels, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isa. 25:9.

Did you ever know anybody to wait for a thing that he did not expect? It is impossible. This scripture is positive evidence that God’s people, when the Lord comes, will be looking for him and prepared to receive him. Why?—Because they have believed the warning message that preceded his coming.

What says the apostle Paul concerning this matter? “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should

overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” 1 Thess. 5:4, 5.

The apostle had just been speaking about the world’s being overtaken as by a thief in the night. Why?—Because they believed not the “sure word of prophecy,” which Peter says is a “light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:19-21.

The dawn of the day is the glorious event of which we speak in this paper—the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to gather his people home. We are now living in the long night of moral and spiritual darkness, where the curse reigns, sin and rebellion against God run riot, and sickness, sorrow, woe, oppression, bloody war, and universal death triumph over mankind.

It is not always to be so. The time is soon to come when the Almighty God will say, “There shall be no more death,” no more tears, “neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Rev. 21:4.

Thank God, we live now just before the dawning of that day. O weary, sorrowing, sin-sick, perishing souls, look up! The morning breaketh. We see from the “sure word of prophecy” that we are nearing that happy day when life and immortality will take the place of woe and corruption, sickness, sorrow, and death. It comes, O it comes! yea, it is near at hand. Are you ready for the glad transition? Can you say with the beloved apostle, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly”? If not, why not? Ah, do you love this poor sin-cursed world too well—its fashions, its pleasures, its lusts, its wealth? If so, you are without hope and without God in the world. When the world perishes, you will perish with it. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world; and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” 1 John 2:15-17.

The world passes away when the morn of eternity breaks at Christ’s second coming. It is near and hasteth greatly. Ah, yes; there is a message of warning going forth to the world even now. Its notes are sounding even as you read this paper. It is the keynote of the whole system of our faith.—Geo. I. Butler, in Southern Watchman.