WE ARE NEAR A CHANGE by B. F. Merritt

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 30, 1868

WE ARE NEAR A CHANGE.

By B. F. Merritt

CAMPBELL, in his debate with Owen, to prove the certainty of the fulfillment of the prophecies relating to the final termination of man's present existence, says: “What, now, if we should attempt to prove arithmetically the certainty of the prophecies concerning the final consummation of all things? The expectation of christendom is notorious. It is this: that sometime soon, perhaps in the present century, a new order of things, in the political and religious relations of society, will commence. That it will pervade the whole human family; that after its full introduction it will continue a thousand years; and that soon after its completion the present state of things will terminate, and the multiplication of human beings cease forever. “Without going minutely into the details, such is the general expectation of christendom, built upon those writings called prophecies. Well, now, should we prove, by arithmetical calculation, the certainty of such conclusions relative to the final consummation, what will the skeptics say? I do not know whether they have ever been tested on this point. We shall hear Mr. Owen when I submit the problem. The premises or data are these: The present population of the earth is estimated, say, one thousand millions. Now I will leave it to them to furnish a data, or to state what the population was two, three, or four thousand years ago. They may even furnish me data from the census of any nation of Europe for two, three, four, or five hundred years back. It will give the same result. We shall take the Bible data until they furnish another. But I again repeat, the population of any country, or of the earth, two, three, or five hundred years ago, will give the same result. According to the Bible data, the whole human family, about four thousand years ago, was composed of eight individuals, four males and four females. And to keep our calculation in whole numbers we shall evacuate Europe and America of all their population, and place them in Asia and Africa, with the population there, which will fill that half of the earth as full of human beings as can subsist upon its surface. We have now got, say, the half of our globe empty, and the other half full. Now the question is, If eight persons, in four thousand years, fill the one half of the earth as full as it can subsist, how long will one thousand millions be in filling the other half? If in despite of wars, famines, pestilences, and all the waste of human life, under the corruptions of the last four thousand years, such has been the increase of human beings, what would be the ratio of increase were all these to cease, and peace, health, and competence to be the order of the day for one thousand years? Why, my friends, there would not be one half acre of land and water upon the face of the globe, for every human being which would live at the completion of the millennium, or seven-thousandth year from the creation; what I contemplate from these oracles to be about the end of the present state of human existence. Either, then, some desolation must empty the earth of its inhabitants, or the human race must be extinguished. Logic and arithmetic compel us to the former conclusion; but when we add to logic and arithmetic the prophecies, we are compelled to embrace the latter. I think no prophecy ever admitted of so certain a calculation, or so exact and definite a computation; in fact, no other oracle in the annals of the world is proved by arithmetic so inevitably and unanswerably as I conceive this to be.”—Debate with Owen, pp. 105, 106.

The great change, he thought, would be wrought “sometime soon, perhaps in the present century.” About forty years have passed since these words were uttered, and the evidences of a mighty change have been increasing. True, we are on the verge of a revolution, such as the world has never seen. But it is not to usher in a reign of peace and prosperity, as some fondly claim. We may know something of the future by the history of the past; and what is revealed by prophecy concerning it we may rely upon. The history of the past teaches the degeneracy of the race, and from the present aspect of the nations who can think it possible that the clay and iron kingdoms of the earth will soon unite in carrying out the principles advocated by the lowly Nazarene?

Prophecy is explicit in showing how far the world will be, at the coming of the “Just One,” from the path of holiness. The great change we may soon expect is the destruction of the nations, and the resurrection of the righteous dead. Soon the millions who have died in the Lord will hear the voice of the Son of Man, and come forth to wear conquerors' crowns, and be with those who abide his coming, received into those everlasting mansions in Heaven. This is the change soon to take place. That it is near is not only proved by the mathematical demonstration used by Mr. Campbell, but by numerous mathematical calculations, and chains of prophecy which are sure.

Attached to the idea that at the end of the seven-thousandth year there would not be half an acre of land and water to each individual, is this: As there is but one-fourth of the surface of the earth land, there would only be about four rods square of land for each person, and a vast amount of this made up of barren deserts, swamps, mountain ranges, and desolate frigid regions.

We look for a reign of peace soon to begin, and we have a vast amount of evidence to confirm us in the present truth. Let us examine these evidences and grow stronger in faith, and by our works show that we are expecting the coming of our Lord. B. F. MERRITT.