p. 3 | The Time of the End by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 27, 1916

The Time of the End

By W. A. S.

“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.

Thus the words of the angel, spoken nearly two thousand five hundred years ago, announced the opening of a new era of enlightenment when the latter days should come.

1. The Time

With the ending of the long period of the predicted tribulation of the church—the twelve hundred and sixty years of Daniel’s prophecy—the world entered upon this era of the time of the end:—

“They shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. . . . And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.” Dan. 11: 33-35.

In practically every outline of prophecy touching this time, the events of the last days are represented as following on after the ending of the prophetic period of the church’s tribulation. Christ’s prophecy of Matthew 24 so declares. Our Saviour showed that this period of tribulation would be shortened, “for the elect’s sake,” and that “immediately after the tribulation of those days” the signs of the end would begin to appear.

Thus, while the full period of the twelve hundred and sixty years ended amid the scenes of the French Revolution, which gave the papal power a deadly wound in the last decade of the eighteenth century, the shortening of the days of tribulation had begun even earlier to spread increasing knowledge and enlightenment over the earth.

2. The Prophecy Unsealed

The angel’s words to Daniel were,—“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.

“The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” Verse 9.

We are told that the Hebrew phrase indicates a “searching” to and fro, in the sealed book. The angel’s word therefore means that as the time of the end came, men would be impelled to search diligently for light in the prophetic word. Events taking place in fulfilment of the prophecy would be recognized, and with the coming of the time there would come the opening up, or unsealing, of the prophetic scriptures with their message for men in the last days.

As time drew near, Bible students were led more and more to search the word of prophecy. Sir Isaac Newton, called “the greatest of philosophers,” wrote of prophetic study:—

“The giving ear to the prophets is a fundamental character of the true church. For God has so ordered the prophecies that in the latter days the wise may understand, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand. Dan. 12: 9, 10.”—Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel, part 1, chap. 1 (London, 1733).

Again, this man who had delved so deeply into the laws of nature, but who bowed his heart in childlike faith to listen to the voice of Inspiration, declared his hope that the time of the end was near at hand in his day (he died in 1727). Of this prophecy of the unsealing of the book he wrote:—

“’Tis therefore a part of this prophecy, that it should not be understood before the last age of the world; and therefore it makes for the credit of the prophecy that it is not yet understood. But if the last age, the age of opening these things, be now approaching, as by the great successes of late interpreters it seems to be, we have more encouragement than ever to look into these things. If the general preaching of the gospel be approaching, it is to us and to our posterity that those words mainly belong: In the time of the end the wise shall understand, but none of the wicked shall understand. . . . ‘Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.’”—Observations on the Apocalypse, chap. 1 (London, 1733).

True to the word of the angel, the events of the ending of the twelve hundred and sixty years of papal supremacy, amid the scenes of the French Revolution, drew the attention of Bible students everywhere. It was seen that prophecy was being fulfilled before men’s eyes. It gave great impetus to the study of the prophetic scriptures. The great historic prophecies began to be opened up—unsealed—to the understanding. An English historian of that period, John Adolphus, though writing a secular history, remarks upon this awakening interest in prophetic study:—

“The downfall of the papal government [in 1798], by whatever means effected, excited perhaps less sympathy than that of any other in Europe: the errors, the oppressions, the tyranny of Rome over the whole Christian world, were remembered with bitterness; many rejoiced, through religious antipathy, in the overthrow of a church which they considered as idolatrous, though attended with the immediate triumph of infidelity; and many saw in these events the accomplishment of prophecies, and the exhibition of signs promised in the most mystical parts of the Holy Scriptures.”—History of France from 1790 to 1802, Vol. II, p. 379 (London, 1803).

From those times of fulfilling prophecy, there arose a distinct movement, reviving the teaching of the doctrine of Christ’s second coming, and directly preparing the way for the advent movement that was to come with the days of 1844, when yet fuller light was to break forth from the unsealed prophecies of the book of Daniel. Of the angel that symbolizes the special gospel work for these last days it is written, “He had in his hand a little book open.” Rev. 10: 2. The “time of the end” came, and with it has come the opening of the sealed book. The “sure word of prophecy” speaks its message full and clear to the ears of all mankind today.

3. Increase of Knowledge

“Many shall run to and fro,” the prophecy said, “and knowledge shall be increased.” It is knowledge of the prophecy and of the things of God that is primarily the topic; but the era that we are discussing has been one of general enlightenment and extension of knowledge. “The entrance of thy words giveth light,” says the psalmist: and when the Reformation of the sixteenth century broke the bands of age-long superstition and error, and set free the Word of God, the way was preparing for the coming of this wonderful era of the diffusion of knowledge. The famous and learned Francis Bacon, who died in 1626, felt in his day that the time

spoken of by Daniel’s prophecy was drawing near. He wrote:—

“Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last ages of the world: ‘Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased;’ clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by divine Providence, to meet in the same age.”—Novum Organum, book I, xciii. (Bacon’s Works, Spedding and Ellis, Vol. IV, p. 92.)

When the time of the prophecy fully came, with the last decade of the eighteenth century, there was witnessed the upspringing of movements that have wrought mightily for the enlightenment and evangelization of the world. As the events of the French Revolution announced the closing of the long era of papal supremacy, so also another series of events at the same time announced the opening of the era of increasing knowledge. Speaking of these developments, Lorimer, a Scottish writer, said:—

“At the very time when Satan is hoping for, and the timid are fearing, an utter overturn of true religion, there is a revival, and the gospel expands its wings and prepares for a new flight. It is worthy of remembrance that the year 1792, the very year of the French Revolution, was also the year when the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, a society which was followed during the succeeding, and they the worst, years of the Revolution, with new societies of unwonted energy and union, all aiming, and aiming successfully, at the propagation of the gospel of Christ, both at home and abroad. What withering contempt did the great Head of the church thus pour upon the schemes of infidels! And how did he arouse the careless and instruct his own people, by alarming providences, at a season when they greatly needed such a stimulus.”—Historical Sketches of the Protestant Church in France, p. 522.

Another writer, Dr. D. L. Leonard, historian of the century of missions, says:—

“The closing years of the eighteenth century constitute in the history of Protestant missions an epoch indeed, since they witnessed nothing less than a revolution, a renaissance, an effectual and manifold ending of the old, a substantial inauguration of the new. It was then that for the first time since the apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general missionary zeal and activity. Beginning in Great Britain, it soon spread to the Continent and across the Atlantic. It was no mere push of fervor, but a mighty tide set in, which from that day to this has been steadily rising and spreading.”—Hundred Years of Missions, p. 69.

The time of the prophecy had come, and the hand of providence was bringing into being agencies for spreading light and knowledge over all lands.

The organization of foreign missionary enterprise was quickly accompanied by the establishment of Bible societies for a systematic work of translating and world-wide distribution of the Scriptures. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized. Students of the prophetic word felt at the time that these agencies were coming in fulfilment of the prophecy. One writer of those times said:—

“The stupendous endeavors of one gigantic community to convey the Scriptures in every language to every part of the globe may well deserve to be considered as an eminent sign even of these eventful times. Unless I be much mistaken, such endeavors are preparatory to the final grand diffusion of Christianity, which is the theme of so many inspired prophets, and which cannot be very far distant in the present day.”—G. S. Faber, D. D., Dissertation on the Prophecies, Vol. II, p. 406 (1844).

Now the Word of God, in whole or in part, is speaking in more than five hundred languages, and it is estimated that these tongues, at least in their spoken form, can make the divine message comprehensible to ninety-five per cent of the inhabitants of the earth.

The work of modern missions, that had its birth as the time of the end came, is one of the great world-factors today. Nearly thirty million dollars a year are given for Protestant missions, and a force of over twenty-five thousand foreign missionaries are in the fields, not counting the many thousands of native missionaries and helpers. Truly the time of the end is proving to be an era of increasing light and knowledge.

W. A. S.

(To be concluded)