p. 9 | Present Truth by George I. Butler

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 14, 1904

Present Truth

By George I. Butler

“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.” 2 Peter 1:12. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, was a leading man among the twelve apostles left to guide the infant church after the Saviour ascended to heaven.

In the words above quoted he uses this term “present truth,” which is nowhere else found in the Bible, to designate the system of doctrine which Christ communicated to the apostles to be preached in all the world, to every creature. It was designed to save from their sins in this world, and eternally in the kingdom of glory, all who would accept and obey it.

There is something striking about this term “present truth.” It contains a beautiful, forceful thought. Why did not Peter merely use the term “truth”? Would that not have been sufficiently explicit?—It seems not, or he would not have added the word “present.” That addition must have involved an additional thought. It must have made his meaning more explicit. Every word of God has its importance. There is a great depth of meaning in the divine words of inspiration.

The True Significance of “Present Truth”

All truth is valuable. There is an unmeasurable difference of value between truth and error. There are many truths that are eternal. God is the Creator of all things; Christ is his only begotten Son. His word is ever true. These and other doctrines like them always have been true, and always will be true.

There are other truths that apply only to special periods. Before the proper time when they have their application, they could not have been truly proclaimed. Noah was told by God to proclaim that a flood of waters was to come and drown all that generation. The result demonstrated the truthfulness of that prediction. Could Adam, Seth, or Enoch have preached such a message to the generation in which they lived?—Certainly not. Could it have been preached by any generation since the flood, and have been true?—O, no. But it was “present truth” to the antediluvians.

During his whole ministry Jeremiah proclaimed the destruction of Jerusalem to the generation then living. It was a true prediction; it was present truth to that generation; but it could not have been true before or since.

For four thousand years predictions were made that the Messiah would come and open a way for the sinner to be saved from the wrath to come. God’s people looked for him all through those ages; but there was no time during that long period when any one could truly say he had come till the Babe of Bethlehem was cradled in the manger.

He came, he lived, he died on Calvary, and with his expiring breath he cried with a loud voice, “It is finished.” From that time on, Peter and all the believers could truly say, He has brought salvation to fallen man. The great truths of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ have been fully proclaimed to the world.

Peter, speaking to the believers who had been made fully acquainted with these grand truths, could truly say, “Ye know them, and are fully established in the present truth.” The loving disciples went forth in the power of God, and in thirty years Paul could say they were “grounded and settled” in “the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.” Col. 1:23. It was indeed a grand and glorious “present truth.”

Has God a “Present Truth” for Our Age?

Most assuredly he has. What is it?—The Lord is coming the second time, without sin unto salvation. His coming is near, even at the doors.

In all parts of the world evidences of the near approach of the “King of kings, and Lord of lords” are to be seen. Floods of evidences God’s Word gives us to show that it is near, and hasteth greatly.

Surely, reasoning from analogy, if God warned the world of a flood, of the destruction of Sodom and the cities of the plain, of Christ’s first coming, of the two destructions of Jerusalem, and even warned the Gentile, heathen Ninevites through Jonah, he will warn the world and his own people of the final destruction of the world by fire. This grand announcement is the present truth for this age. That will be the greatest event that ever occurred, or

ever will occur in all the universe of God.

If a little war in Eastern Asia stirs the hearts of men, how should the announcement of a “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation,” affect us? Dan. 12:1

If convulsions, tornadoes, great fires, awaken interest and alarm to-day, how will it be when a voice from the throne says, “It is done,” and the great earthquake occurs, when every island flees away, and the mountains are not found, and the great hailstones of God’s wrath fall upon men?

If the great fires of Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, and other cities, and the sweeping of Galveston to wreck and ruin in a day, stirred this whole nation and excited the sympathy of the civilized world, how will every person feel at the last great day, which is thus described by John: “The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6:14-17.

Dear reader, to call attention to such things as these, and to induce people to make preparation for them, so that they may be found of God in peace, is the present truth for this time. In your Bibles is a vast amount of evidence that we live just before the coming of that “great day for which all other days were made,”—the coming of Jesus Christ in glory. To prepare for that day is the highest possible evidence a human being can show of his faith in that event.—Geo. I. Butler, in Southern Watchman.