The Greatest Religious Movement of the Ages; Another Pentecost Due
By G. W. Reaser
For fully threescore years and ten a series of great prophetic messages has been proclaimed to the world. This series of messages is fittingly called the Great Advent Movement. This movement is foretold in Revelation 10 and 14. If any class of events ought to be pre-announced in prophecy, we should naturally expect such announcement to be made of the world's greatest religious movements, as these are events in which all heaven is directly interested. The Great Advent Movement is the very last proclamation of “the everlasting gospel,” and reaches its focal point in the glorious event of the second coming of Christ. Rev. 14:14. While we feel encouraged with the progress of our message, yet doubtless no believer in present truth is satisfied with the present rate of advancement, and but few persons can understand how our work can be accomplished in “this generation.” If the message is to be completed and our Lord is to return in this generation, what agencies will accomplish the awakening and the energizing of our people to a supreme effort in finishing our work,—the evangelization of the world,—and what agencies will attract the honest in heart to the truth, that they with us may find places in the ark of safety when mercy ceases to linger? The purpose of the following lines is to supply from the Scriptures and from the spirit of prophecy, the answers to these vital questions. A Patience-Testing Time of Waiting
We need not be disappointed that the giving of the message has required more time than we at first expected, for the very first specification of character development in those who become obedient to the truth in the last generation of men is expressed by the word patience (Rev. 14:12); and again, these words are addressed to God's children in the same generation: “Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Heb. 10:36. What is the promise? It is, “He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Verse 37. Thus we are forewarned that those who have embraced the promise—the hope of our Lord's return—must develop the grace of patience while waiting for the fulfilment of the promise. But will there come a time in the very near future when the message will speed on under “a new order of things,” hastening the coming of our King faster than any of us can appreciate? Are we warranted in expecting that our message will soon reach the zenith of power in— The Mightiest Revival in All Earth's History?
In seeking to gain correct conceptions of the rapidity of progress to which it is possible for our message to attain, we may draw true conclusions by considering, in the light of Revelation and history, the following questions: First, What have been the agencies which have entered into all the great religious awakenings since the ascension of Christ to heaven? And, second, What elements, what energizing agencies must therefore enter into our message and our people to supply all the impetus, all the power, necessary to the completion of this message? It must be evident to all thorough Bible students that every Heaven-appointed religious movement that has stirred the world possessed the following characteristics: First, every such movement was clearly a matter of prophecy, and when the time came for its accomplishment, heaven must cooperate for the fulfilment of the prophecy. Second, when the fulfilment of the prophecy was due, God had human instrumentalities ready, waiting, to give the message. Third, these human agents, being emptied of self and in accord with God and righteous men, were baptized with the Holy Spirit for the proclamation of their message, the fulfilment of the prophecy. A review of the Heaven-appointed, world-wide religious movements from Pentecost to our own time will demonstrate whether our premises are true, and also enable us to discover what elements, what energizing influences, must enter into this message, this people, if the message is to attain a rate of progress that will finish the mystery of God in the earth in this generation. What Agencies Produced the Results of the Day of Pentecost?
It is clear that this mighty movement was a definite and literal fulfilment of prophecy, for Peter's answer to those who heard the apostles “speak with other tongues” and made the accusation, “These men are full of new wine,” was, “These are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, . . . and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” Acts 2:13-18. Christ had also foretold this event, charging his apostles, before he was parted from them, to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they were endowed with power from on high. Luke 24:49-51. Thus the premier requisition for a mighty, world-wide, Spirit-filled religious movement is that it shall be appointed of Heaven, through the spirit of prophecy. The second essential to a mighty, world-wide religious movement, was met in the fact that, walking by faith in God's word and waiting for the fulfilment of the promise, “they [the disciples] were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1); and the third essential was abundantly supplied when “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Verse 4. As a partial result of this Pentecostal movement three thousand souls were converted in a single day (verse 41); and the gospel of a crucified and risen Saviour was soon spread abroad to all the civilized world, for “there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven” (verse 5), who acted as messengers to spread the glorious news everywhere. Praise our God, he can organize and carry forward a mighty world movement with a handful of consecrated men from the humbler walks of life, when in his great plan the time is ripe for such a movement. And, renewed praise to him, the time is almost ripe in this generation for the mightiest Spirit-filled movement of all the ages.