p. 4 | God's Warnings Justified by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 21, 1907

God's Warnings Justified

By C. M. S.

WHENEVER God has given a warning to his people in any age of the world, there has been reason for it, and business in it; and they who have heeded it have escaped calamity, and found shelter in the refuge provided.

The Word of God contains the record of prophecies that have been fulfilled, prophecies that are fulfilling, and prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. That men may not lightly regard these things, the Lord says: “Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Isa. 42:9. Inspiration makes reference to this fulfilment of past prophecy that men may think more seriously of the prophecies yet unfulfilled. If the prophecies of the past have been fulfilled, those of the future will also come to pass. Past fulfilments of prophecy leave men without excuse for disbelieving what God has foretold concerning the future. Then to assure us that he will not leave us in the dark concerning occurrences of the future, he says: “Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Those who heeded the warning given to the antediluvian world were safe when the flood came. Those who did not were lost. The warning came to Sodom before the Lord laid the hand of punishment upon it, and those who heeded it went out in safety. He told Abraham the condition of his descendants in Egypt, and their ultimate deliverance from bondage. He told Israel of calamities which would come because of their forsaking him, and Israel knows that those words came true. He told Israel when they might expect their Lord, and he came on time. He gave warning of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the fire and sword of the Romans swept it to the ground; but they who heeded the warning came out unscathed.

Now the Lord has told us who are living to-day what we might expect in this generation, and we see these things fulfilling before our eyes. He has told us that the rich would oppress the poor, and take from the hireling his wages. We have seen it done, and are seeing it done with greater frequency as the days go by, with greater and greater harshness, with less and less care for the miseries of the people oppressed. He has told us that the rich would not simply be growing richer, but would be actually heaping treasure together, and we have seen it done and doing.

These things were given as way-marks to tell us when we are in “the last days.” They have come; we are in “the last days.” In these last days, then, the Lord tells us that “perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Tim. 3:1-5. No one writing at the present time could better describe the condition of things to-day than the prophet of the Lord has pictured them beforehand in the Scriptures.

But this is not all. The Lord, speaking to the people of this age, says that “there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them;” and “through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” 2 Peter 2:1-3. How exactly this is being fulfilled at the present time! first, on the part of religious teachers who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ and the efficacy of his atonement for man’s salvation; and second, on the part of schemers who defraud the people in the name of religion, who literally “make merchandise” of deluded followers! Witness the mind-cures, the psychic healing, the “absent treatments” at so much each, the “divine healing” for the money there is in it. Witness the wonderful power exercised not long ago when three thousand persons arose to their feet, declaring that John Alexander Dowie was the prophet Elijah, and then see them pour their money into his hands. Verily, that scripture was fulfilled before our eyes. Then witness the subsequent revelations, the scandals, the disruption—all designed by the father of deception to cast reproach upon religion.

False Christs were to come: they have come, and there will be more of them; and those to follow will make greater pretensions and show greater power than those that have gone before.

False prophets were to arise: they are in every part of the world. One class was to cry “peace and safety.” They are hard at work doing it now, and their name is legion. They are in the church and out of the church. Some are prophesying wonderful progress, others a temporal millennium of righteousness under the personal reign of Christ. And all this in spite of the scripture which says that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”

False Christs and false prophets will multiply, and their deceptions will increase as we near the end. We see how the former warnings were justified, how they have been fulfilled, and those who have heeded them have escaped. As the destruction that is now hastening on is more terrible and complete than anything that has gone before, there is certainly no less reason for the giving of the warnings that are fulfilling and to be fulfilled.

Some are carried away by every delusion that Satan has ever invented. Some have been deceived by every false prophet that has ever arisen; and so the Lord, looking down upon the last days, and seeing the workings of the greatest deceptions the world has ever known, says: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Rev. 12:12.

Let us thank the great Revealer that he has faithfully pointed out the great delusions and stumbling-blocks that are to increase till the trump of God peals out through the clouds of heaven. We have seen his word fulfilled in the past; we see it fulfilling now; and we know that all that has been written will be fulfilled to the very letter. Let us, then, take the Word of God as the man of our counsel, that we may escape the corruption and deception that are pouring in like a flood upon the last generation of men. When we see teachings disseminated whose tendency is to disrupt and disorganize that upon which God has set the stamp of his approval, we may know that it is the work of the destroyer, and not of the Deliverer. C. M. S.