THIS GENERATION by G. V. KILGORE

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 18, 1876

FromThe Review and Herald, Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 20.

THIS GENERATION.

By G. V. KILGORE

The present generation has seen the fulfillment of Christ’s predictions concerning the signs of the end of the world. Within the last ninety-six years the signs in the sun, moon, and stars have appeared, and to-day the hearts of men are fearing that something awfully strange will soon happen. It is very evident that the present is the generation to which Christ referred when he was predicting signs of the end, and said, “This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.” Luke 21:32. For, first, those who should see all the signs might know “that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” This kingdom is the future kingdom in which the will of God is to be done in earth as it is in Heaven, and for which he told the disciples to pray. Were it the kingdom then at hand, because of which they were called to repent, they would not have had to wait for these signs to know that it was near.

The people living when Christ spoke did not see the signs. They were positively told that Christ’s coming would not take place till the man of sin should be revealed, which was not done until long after all that generation had passed away. Our generation is the first one that has ever been on earth that could testify that all those signs have occurred. This is certain from the fact that the things of which Christ spoke—famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, in many different places, signs in sun, moon, and stars—have occurred so far apart that it would be impossible for any one generation to be eye witness to all of them, and hence it would have to be those who witnessed the last sign who could see that all had been given. And since the present generation was eye witness to the last sign, and can prove that all the preceding ones have had a fulfillment; and since this is the first generation that ever could do so, it is evident Christ referred to it. The phrase, “this generation,” no more implies the generation living when Christ was speaking these words than the phrase “this time” (Matt. 24:21) implies the time in which he spoke. By the latter he referred to a future time when the church should have great trouble; and by the former, to a future generation that would see the fulfillment of all his predictions.

But some contend that the darkening of the sun in 1780 and the following signs were not the true ones, because all the world did not see them. This no more proves that than the fact that all the world did not see Jesus proves he was not the Messiah.

G. V. KILGORE.

Winterset, Iowa, May 1, 1876.