p. 4 | The Approaching Crisis by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 4, 1907

The Approaching Crisis

By C. M. S.

THE Word teaches that every false system will be flourishing in the last days, in the time of the Lord’s preparation. The flourishing of these systems to-day, from Christian Science through the whole category to the resuscitated cause of Islam, is a striking fulfilment of the Word in this respect, and therefore an indication that we are in the last days.

Perhaps the one thing more than any other that has prepared soil and sowed seed for just such a work as the spread of these systems is the criticism of God’s Word that has been going on for the last few years in the pulpits supposed to have been dedicated to the teaching of that Word. This has weakened the faith of many, overthrown the hope of some, and led a great multitude to look to the lifeless systems of paganism to find what they might have found in the Word of God. Such undermining teachings have made the way easy for the exponents of those false systems to multiply the number of their adherents.

Is there not a design in bringing together these two things—the revival of heathen systems, and the attempted undermining of the Word of God, the latter opening the way for the progress of the former? Nothing is more certain than that it is the result of a long-planned and deep-laid scheme of that common enemy of God and man.

They who have maintained faith in God’s Word have looked for just such combinations as this; for that Word teaches us to expect them. They have come, and there are more to follow. Every deceptive device that Satan can invent, or has invented and can use now, will be seen in operation in these days. While “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,” their time will be occupied in deceiving one another and being deceived by one another. Never was there a time when so many false systems were being extolled as now, but we have not seen them all yet by any means. Satan has not yet emptied his quiver.

Islam is only one of the devices set for man’s undoing; but Islam has awakened like a sleeping giant, and a furious zeal is taking possession of its devotees. Shiek Abdul Hagh, of Bagdad, publishes the following, which he calls “the last word of Islam to Europe,” was in which he proclaims the unyielding hatred and contempt of Islam for Christians and all things Christian. This is how he looks upon the present situation:—

Are we blind enough not to see the prodigies of your progress? But know, Christian conquerors, that no calculation, no treasure, no miracle, can ever reconcile us to your impious rule. Know that the mere sight of your flag here is torture to Islam’s soul; your greatest benefits are so many spots sullying our conscience, and our most ardent hope and aspiration is to reach the happy day when we can efface the last vestiges of your accursed empire. Before the Christian peril we have effaced the quarrels of our sects. Islam’s unity is rising from one end of the world to the other.

The uniting of the various sects of Islam to oppose Christianity is only one of the centripetal forces working in these times. Every other deceptive system is likewise arousing, as though it had been resting and recuperating for this last great effort. They who are not firmly rooted and grounded in the truth of God in these last days will be swamped in the great sea that is rolling in upon the doomed world. But we are not without hope even in such times as these upon which we are entering; for “the Lord knoweth them that are his;” and “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” “It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” The many “winds of doctrine” are blowing; the many combinations designed to bind men to this world are increasing; the forces of evil are strengthening their holdings in every possible way; the “dogmas of doubt” are held constantly before the faces of the professed followers of the Lamb by shepherds false to their trust; the “peace and safety” cry is sounding through the world, while the great shops are building bigger battle-ships and stronger cannon and more of them than ever before; and the great religious world is trampling upon the Sabbath of Jehovah, and beginning its work of persecution upon those who honor it; and that at a time when the Lord is issuing his last invitation and his last warning to this generation. Everything indicates the close of the dispensation, and should stir our hearts to deeper piety and stronger zeal in the work to which we are called.

C. M. S.