The Signs of Christ’s Coming Fulfilled and Fulfilling
Distress of Nations with Perplexity
Speaking of the signs of his second coming, the Saviour foretold a time when men’s hearts would fail them “for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Luke 21: 26. Notice that just before the coming of Jesus there is to be “distress of nations, with perplexity.” Look out on the world. Which nation is not distressed? What nation is not perplexed? There has never before been such distress of nations as today. The world is on fire, and no nation is fireproof. The present war may stop, from exhaustion if for no other reason, but it will be the spawn of wars. Nations are keeping a record of things for which they will demand a settlement. Of what was to follow this very condition of things, the Saviour said: “Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21: 27.
Unprecedented distress and perplexity of nations, then the coming of Jesus! Behold he cometh!
“The Alarm of War”
An ancient prophet, looking down the ages, said: “My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.” Jer. 4: 19, 20.
Truly the alarm of war is here, and the gathering clouds indicate a still greater and more terrible storm. “Destruction upon destruction” is indeed drawing nigh. The seer of Patmos foretold this same time: “The nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” Rev. 11: 18.
Truly the “nations are angry,” and the next great event is the judgment, the giving of reward to the servants of God, and the destruction of those who destroy the earth. This warlike condition of the world is a fulfilment of God’s word, and is a mighty call to all to prepare for the end of the world and the coming of the Lord. Angry nations, then the Saviour coming with all the armies in heaven!
Preparedness
This word is seen everywhere. The great question for the nations at peace as well as for those at war is that of national preparedness, getting ready for a struggle which is inevitable. This, too, is in striking fulfilment of prophecy. “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.” Joel 3: 9, 10.
“Prepare war,” said the ancient seer, in the time when “the harvest is ripe,” and when “the day of the Lord is near.” With startling accuracy the nations are fulfilling these divine utterances.
Increase of Knowledge
The angel Gabriel, speaking to the prophet Daniel, said, “Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Dan. 12: 4.
This prophecy is meeting a remarkable fulfilment. We are living in an age of knowledge. For centuries the world made little progress in this direction. But with the beginning of the last century, or the “time of the end” here mentioned, there was a general awakening. Scriptural and scientific knowledge has increased with rapid strides. The knowledge of God’s Word has been widely diffused. The past century has witnessed the most marvelous achievements in the field of scientific discovery. Within the lifetime of men now living, most of the marvelous inventions we see have been brought into existence. I quote a few paragraphs from the introduction to a volume called the “Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century”:—
Milestones in a Century of Progress
THE FLOOD — A TYPE OF EARTH'S FINAL DESTRUCTION
“As we make the backward run of one hundred years, we have passed by many milestones of progress. Let us see if we can count some of them as they disappear behind us. We quickly lose the telephone, phonograph, and graphophone. We no longer see the cable cars, or electric railways. The electric lights have gone out. The telegraph disappears. The sewing machine, reaper, and thresher have passed away, and so also have all India-rubber goods. We no longer see any photographs, photo-engravings, photolithographs, or snapshot cameras. The wonderful octuple web-perfecting printing press, which prints, pastes, cuts, folds, and counts newspapers at the rate of 96,000 an hour, or 1,600 a minute, shrinks at the beginning of the nineteenth century into an insignificant prototype. We lose all planing and woodworking machinery, and with it the endless variety of sashes, doors, blinds, and furniture. There are no gas engines, no passenger elevators, no asphalt pavement, no steam fire engine, no triple-expansion steam engine, no Giffard’s injector, no celluloid articles, no barbed-wire fences, no time locks for safes, no self-binding harvesters, no oil or gas wells, no ice machines nor cold storage. We lose air engines, stem-winding watches, cash registers, and cash carriers, the great suspension bridges, the tunnels, the Suez Canal, iron-frame buildings, monitors and heavy ironclads, revolvers, torpedoes, magazine guns and Gatling guns, linotype machines, all practical typewriters, all Pasteurizing, knowledge of microbes or disease germs, and sanitary plumbing, water gas, soda water fountains, air brakes, cold-tar dyes and medicines, nitroglycerin, dynamite and guncotton, dynamo-electric machines, aluminum wire, electric locomotives. Bessemer steel with its wonderful developments, ocean cables, enameled ironware, Welsbach gas burners, electric storage batteries, the cigarette machine, hydraulic dredges, the roller mills, middlings purifiers and patent-process flour, tin can machines, air couplings, compressed-air drills, sleeping cars, the dynamite gun, the McKay shoe machine, the circular knitting machine, the Jacquard loom, wood pulp for paper, fire alarms, the use of anesthetics in surgery, oleomargarine, street sweepers, Artesian wells, friction matches, steam hammers, electroplating, mail machines, false teeth, artificial limbs and eyes, the spectroscope, the kinetoscope or moving pictures, acetylene gas, X-ray apparatus, horseless carriages, and—but, enough! the reader exclaims; and indeed it is not pleasant to contemplate the loss.”
But even this extract is antiquated. Since it was written, wireless telegraphy, aeroplanes, and many other marvelous inventions have startled the world. What is the meaning of all this? This wonderful increase of knowledge tells us that the time of the end is here, and that the Lord is at the door.
The “time of the end,” the increase of knowledge, then the coming of the Lord!
The Gospel to All the World
In response to the question of the disciples as to what would be the sign of his coming and the end of the world (Matt. 24: 3), Jesus told them there would be wars and rumors of wars, that nation would rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, that there would be famines and pestilence and earthquakes in different parts of the earth. But all these were to be but the beginning of sorrows. Then he said: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24: 14.
Little was done to evangelize the world till the “time of the end” began. But when this time was reached, Bible societies were organized, and they began to print God’s Word and send it everywhere. The attention of men was turned toward the great Gibraltars of heathenism. Today we find the gospel preached in all lands. There is an open door into every nation, and a Macedonian cry for help. Then, too, the gospel of the kingdom, heralding the glorious news of the second coming of Christ, is also preached in all the world. Not all who hear the gospel will believe and be saved, but it will gather out of the nations a people for his name. When this gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world, the end will come. The open door and the proclamation of the gospel everywhere constitutes signs of the end of the world and the time of probation.
The gospel to all the world, and then the end, and the coming of Jesus!
Signs in the Heavens
Replying further to the question of his disciples, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world,” Jesus said: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” Matt. 24: 29. The evangelist Mark in writing concerning these signs, said they were to take place “in those days, after that tribulation.” Chap. 13: 24. The “tribulation” here mentioned, without doubt refers to the 1260 years of papal supremacy, beginning A. D. 538 and ending in A. D. 1798.
Signs in sun, moon, and stars—these are all the places in the heavens where the Lord could hang a sign. A darkened sun, and a moon appearing as blood, and falling stars,—surely such startling and supernatural manifestations as these could not be hung out by the hand of God in the celestial bodies, and no notice be taken of them either by the historian or by those living when the events took place!
The Dark Day
The same faithfulness and accuracy, however, which are ever seen in the fulfilment of the predictions of the Lord in other scriptures, are seen in the signs here foretold. On May 19, 1780, the sun was supernaturally darkened. The time of the papal supremacy ended in 1798, but the persecution, being shortened by the power of the Reformation, ended some years earlier. So “in those days, after that tribulation,” the sign in the sun, as our Lord foretold, was seen. Of this the most authentic history bears solemn witness.
The following night the darkness was well-nigh impenetrable, and the moon, which shines with borrowed light, when seen had the appearance of blood. Of this, too, history bears testimony.
The Star Shower
On Nov. 13, 1833, occurred that magnificent and awe-inspiring meteoric shower which so many writers mention. For hours the whole firmament seemed to be in fiery commotion, and no other celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in the memory of man which caused such dread and occasioned such widespread alarm. There are those living today who witnessed this marvelous exhibition of falling stars. The people who beheld this sign in the heavens were so impressed then that it was a herald of the approaching end of the world.
The Next Event
Of what are these signs a mighty portent? What is the next event to take place, following these signs?—“Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 30, 31. Signs in the heavens, then the coming of Jesus!
The Last Generation
That all might clearly understand, the Saviour illustrated the meaning of his words by a parable: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matt. 24: 32-34.
The onward march of time has carried us far past the fulfilment of these ominous signs of the coming day of God. The last generation is here, and although no man knows the day nor the hour when the opening heavens will reveal the King coming with all the angels of heaven, the words of Jesus, the greatest of all prophets, stand sure, and the Son of man is truly at the door.
“The coming King is at the door,
Who once the cross for sinners bore;
But now the righteous ones alone
He comes to gather home.
“The signs that show his coming near
Are fast fulfilling year by year,
But soon we’ll hail the glorious dawn
Of heaven’s eternal morn.”
Like the Days of Noah
While some are lulling the people to sleep with the unscriptural doctrine of the world’s conversion, the Saviour has given us a very different picture. It is this: “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” Luke 17: 26, 27. What folly to advocate the fable of the world’s conversion in the presence of such a statement!
In the inspired record given us of the days of Noah we read: “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” Gen. 6: 5-12.
Man’s mind was evil continually, and the earth corrupt; and as it was then it will be again! This is indeed a dark picture. But a careful and impartial survey of the present condition of things in the world leads us to conclude that we are in the time when these words are being literally fulfilled. Violence and corruption filled the earth in Noah’s time. How is it today? Think of the murders, lynchings, suicides, bold outrages, and the inhuman and shocking details of unmentionable crimes and violence which are brought to our attention daily.
In the present dreadful war waged by the nations that have stood for culture and the highest type of civilization, the few details which are allowed to filter through from the front, show that with fire, poisonous gases, and every contrivance that can be devised for killing, maiming, and mutilating, the most violent and inhuman deeds are committed, rivalling, it would seem, anything that history records among barbarians. Men are indeed violent and cruel.
A Chicago daily some time ago, speaking of increasing crime, said: “Not only are robberies increasing in number in Chicago, but the highwaymen are more bold and more desperate than formerly. There has been a marked and significant change in the character of these crimes during recent years. Formerly the footpad rarely resorted to violence save as a means of avoiding arrest. Today the robber’s weapon is used to injure, maim, and kill.” And what is true of Chicago is true of scores of other places. The earth is indeed filled with violence, and beyond question the condition which the Son of man said would immediately precede his second coming is here, telling us that the end of the world is near. When the earth becomes as wicked as it was in Noah’s time, the Lord will cleanse it with fire, as he did then with water.3
Like the Days of Lot
Continuing, the Saviour said: “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17: 28-30.
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR
The world to be like Sodom and Gomorrah! What a picture!
It is sad to be forced to look upon such a condition in the world. But it is the harvest of sin. Wickedness and moral corruption abound. Paul warned us that evil men and seducers would “wax worse and worse.” These words are fulfilling before our eyes. The outbursts of sin are seen in all the walks of life, among the rich as well as the poor. A Methodist clergyman has said: “Old Rome in her worst days never harbored such conditions of vice as are prevalent in our highest social orders. Never at any period of the world’s history has the moral stratum been so thin.”
A recent exposure of blackmail showed that among the rich many have been paying over large sums of money to keep their immorality from being exposed. Think of the shocking exposures that would be made if the curtain should be lifted, and all be seen as God beholds it! White slavery and prostitution are doing a terrible work. The wrecks of moral depravity are strewn on every hand. The divorce courts are choked with the cases of those who hold the marriage vow as a thing of little worth.
Sin is capable of taking on a high polish, and in theaters and gilded halls of amusement and vice it is set forth in its most alluring form. A refined and cultivated member of society was interviewed some time ago concerning what is called fashionable dances. She spoke of the new, bestial dances which are coming into society. She was asked if she had noticed that they had changed. “Have I?” she replied. “I should say I have—those wretched, vulgar dances! This ‘turkey trot’ business which I have seen during the last winter is too disgusting for words. It only shows that our whole country is becoming materialistic and vulgarized.” She said further that she remembered—and “I am not a very old woman”—when to be invited to certain great houses in New York was a social privilege and an honor. “Today,” she said, “there isn’t a house in New York which means anything in a great social way. The same laxity and vulgarity have been brought about through the popularizing of divorce. Young girls marry and trip lightly into the ‘tie that binds,’ with a sense of liberty which can be theirs if they choose, and change their minds after marriage.”
The trend of things in this direction is woefully downward. We wish it were otherwise. Sin is indeed ripening for the harvest, and the mighty Reaper with the sickle is soon to come, and gather the wheat into his garner and cast the tares into the great wine press of God’s wrath.
The earth like Sodom and Gomorrah, then the cleansing, and the coming of Jesus!
Piling Up Fortunes
An ancient prophet speaks of a time when the land would be full of silver and gold, and there would be no end of their treasures. Isa. 2: 7. James speaks of a time when men will pile up vast fortunes. “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.” James 5: 1-3.
The increase of wealth in recent years is phenomenal. At no other period in the history of the world has there been such an accumulation of wealth in the period spanning the life of one man, or one generation. Tremendous fortunes are created in a very brief period.
One writer says: “Such colossal fortunes, such hoarding of treasures, such combinations of wealth, with such rapid increase of poverty, was never witnessed before. Our age alone fits the prophetic mold.”
Bishop Potter is reported as saying: “The growth of wealth and of luxury, wicked, wasteful, and wanton, as before God I declare that luxury to be, has been matched step by step by a deepening and deadening poverty which has left whole neighborhoods of people practically without hope and without aspiration.”
Near the close of the Civil War the wise and sagacious Lincoln is reported to have said: “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, and this republic is destroyed.”
What is the meaning of this enormous aggregation of capital? It has a deep significance. The heaping together of treasure was to be “in the last days.” James 5: 3, A. R. V. The Book of God declares that there will come a time when there will be such fabulous increase of wealth, such hitherto unheard-of fortunes gathered in such a comparatively brief time, as to attract attention, and constitute one of the signs of the approaching end. This sign of the day of God stands out clearly before us.
The heaping up of riches, the last days, then the end! With a mighty warning voice these things speak to the world, bidding all prepare for the appearing of the Son of man.
The Millionaire and Pauper
The vast gulf between the enormously rich and the very poor, between millionaire and pauper, with the greed of the natural heart, breeds an unrest among the laboring class which is world wide, and threatens to lead to such an upheaval as will overtake the world and bring the miseries foretold upon the rich. The corruption of concentrated wealth and the vice and crime of poverty do not tend to the stability of government. Much of this great concentration of capital, these colossal and hitherto unheard-of fortunes, is the result of fraudulent manipulation. After speaking of the miseries and sorrows coming upon the rich, James says, “Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” James 5: 4.
The extravagant luxury of the rich leads to unrest, and in some instances breeds contempt. Many fashionable hotels, apartment houses, and tenements, while admitting dogs, exclude children. Luxurious suppers are given where priceless jewels are worn, and tens of thousands of dollars are wantonly and lavishly squandered. A metropolitan daily speaks of the surpassing magnificence of one of these princely gatherings, as follows:
“The most sumptuous, brilliant, and costly social function that New York has ever known was the fancy-dress ball given by Mrs. — at the Waldorf last night.
“About eight hundred people were there, of whom more than four hundred and fifty were women. The ball placed about $500,000 in circulation.
“The ball began at midnight, and ended at five o’clock this morning. Therefore its pleasures cost at the rate of $100,000 an hour. The cost to the hostess was about $125,000. It was a superb spectacle. People came thousands of miles to attend it.”
Costly garments purchased to be worn on such an occasion, then laid away for the moths to eat, while orphans shiver with cold! Expensive funerals arranged for the burial of poodles, while thousands of children within a few blocks are suffering for the comforts of life!
This condition leads a prominent daily to say:—
“Is it any wonder that there is an ominous condition of unrest against the accumulation of vast wealth, and that Socialism is menacingly on the increase?”
For protection against the grinding power of the combination of capital, labor has sought to unite, forming unions and various combinations, having originally in view the betterment of the working classes. Their requests for shorter hours and increased pay are denied, and their demands must be enforced in some way; so disastrous strikes and lockouts are resorted to. The history of these things is so well known that we need only to refer to it. But while the working classes stand up against what they believe to be injustice, trade unions in many instances exhibit a tyrannical power and a destructive spirit which spreads dismay and terror throughout the land. The United States Congress was forced recently, in order to avert a threatened strike which would tie up all the main lines of railroad and entail untold suffering, especially in cities, to take quick action, incorporating into law some of the demands of the unions. The President in a recent speech is reported as saying that “the chief cloud that hangs upon the domestic horizon is the unsatisfactory relation of capital and labor.” The menacing attitude of these labor combines may well make us afraid.
It is clear to every impartial observer that there is a time of great trouble before us, trouble between the power of capital, organized into trusts and various commercial enterprises and combines, and the organized forces of labor. Enough of the cloud can already be seen above the horizon to indicate a storm which may lead to social revolution and bring a veritable reign of terror. To those living at this time the Lord says: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” James 5: 8. Our only hope is in God. This ominous unrest in the industrial world is another of the many conditions which indicate the near return of the Lord Jesus, who alone can bring peace to all.
Worldliness in the Church
Speaking concerning the prevailing iniquity of the last days, the apostle Paul says: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 2 Tim. 3: 1-5.
This is a startling list of sins mentioned by the inspired apostle. All these are the outgrowth of the depravity of the natural heart. And the church, instead of triumphing like an army with banners, has lost her power. While a form of godliness is maintained, the power which should be manifested with the form is lacking.
A temple left desolate! A body without the living breath of life!
This is a sad picture. But sad as it is, it is exhibited all about us. Spiritual dearth is found everywhere. The Word of God is set aside. Infidelity in the form of higher criticism is preached from many pulpits. Prayer is neglected. Theaters are more frequently visited by church members than is the prayer meeting. Card parties are held regularly in the homes of many professed Christians—“lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” Church entertainments, such as suppers, festivals, and lotteries, crowd the church, the place dedicated to the most high God.
Serious discussion was recently given by one of the largest and most powerful denominations, to the question as to whether it would not be wise to strike from its Discipline the prohibition against dancing. Such prohibitions, however, are usually allowed to be but a dead letter, for many church members are found, in attire none too modest, in the sensual whirl of the dance. Theaters and dance halls filled with those whose names are enrolled as believers in Christ as their Saviour, yet the pews empty at the prayer meeting! Surely we have reached the time when a form of godliness without the power is seen. Worldly pleasure has drowned the voice of conscience, and eaten from the heart the love of that which is holy and upright.
What is the meaning of this marked decline in spirituality which has become so apparent? “This know that in the last days perilous times shall come.” It means that the end is near. The world is fast reaching the place where Sodom and Gomorrah stood, and when it becomes like the cities of the plains it will meet a similar fate. “Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Rev. 20: 9. Because of the abounding iniquity the love of many is waxing cold. Matt. 24: 12. Once the church loses its power, and the Holy Spirit, resisted and grieved, withdraws, there will be nothing to stop the downward trend of the world. It remains then only for the Lord to come, translate his people, and destroy all sin and sinners, and give the earth, all new and clean, to the saints of the Most High.
