p. 354 | Untitled article by R. F. Cottrell

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1875

The Closing Message of the Gospel.—No. 3.

By R. F. Cottrell

As THE first advent of Christ was proclaimed beforehand, it would be reasonable to expect that his second and “glorious appearing” would be preached to the world before the awfully important event should actually transpire. But we are not left to conjecture, or merely analogical reasoning, on this point. It is a matter of clearly expressed revelation. Our Saviour said, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. Campbell gives the following version of the text: “And this gospel of the Reign shall be published through all the world for the information of all nations. And then shall come the end.”

Gospel signifies good news, or good tidings. During his personal ministry, Jesus and his disciples had been proclaiming the good news of the approach of the kingdom, or reign, which had been promised in ancient prophecy. Hence he says this gospel. But at that time this message of the gospel, namely, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” reached its acme, or crowning point, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem amid the joyful acclamations of “hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord!” This was but a little before the crucifixion. Afterwards this message of the gospel was no more proclaimed by the apostles. But as the end of the age draws near, and the kingdom of God, in its glorious and immortal fulness is at hand, this gospel will again be preached as the immediate harbinger and sign of that transcendently glorious event. This grand and awful event will not come unheralded. If it should, the coming of the Son of man would not be like the coming of the flood in the days of Noah; for the people were warned of that event before it came.

This gospel is to be preached as a witness, a testimony, or a sign; or, as Campbell gives it, for the information of the people, and the end is to follow immediately. The disciples had asked the Teacher what should be the sign of his coming and of the end of the world. In reply he gave them these words, with the obvious intention of pointing out the time. Then, not a thousand years afterwards, shall the end come. Now I submit that a message of the gospel that has been constantly proclaimed for eighteen hundred years cannot constitute a witness, testimony, or sign, that the great event is near, even at the doors. I am not unaware of the popular theory of the conversion of the whole world by the preaching of the gospel and of reigning without Christ a thousand years; but this doctrine has no foundation in the teachings of Christ or his apostles respecting the last days. They teach the very reverse of this,—“iniquity shall abound,” and “perilous times shall come” in the last days, and it will be as in the days before the flood, when “the earth was filled with violence,” and ripened for destruction; when Noah had faithfully warned them of the coming calamity. So shall it be when, at the end, the Son of man shall come.

But this gospel and the manner in which probation shall close before the coming of Christ, is described more in detail in the prophecy of the book of Revelation. In chap. 14, beginning with verse 6, a chain of events is described, immediately preceding, and reaching to, the appearing of Christ, the reaping of the harvest of the earth, and the treading of the wine-press of the wrath of God: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

In this scripture we have a description, in symbol, of the preaching that shall immediately precede the day of wrath, and the coming of the Son of man to reap the harvest of the earth, and cast the vine of the earth into the wine-press of wrath, or, without a figure, to save his people and cut off his enemies from the earth. This three-fold warning is to close up probationary time. The common reader can see this, he needs no learned doctor of divinity to make it apparent, or to explain it away. It is the word of God; and was designed to be understood by all who humbly give themselves to God. The symbol of an angel is to represent a message of truth from God. The “everlasting gospel” here announced is doubtless the gospel of the kingdom promised by the Saviour as the harbinger of the end. Men have been chosen as the preachers of the gospel, and will be to the end. Said Jesus, “And lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.” Hence these messages of the gospel will be proclaimed by men.

In a former number it was claimed that the first of this series of messages has been announced. Our earth has heard just such an announcement at the ending of the 2300 days in 1844. This was immediately followed by the second annunciation, namely, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” Let those who will, dispute the view that was taken of the term Babylon, it is a fact of history that her fall was announced, so that the promise of God, that this cry should be made, has been fulfilled. Now, is it not best to let God be his own interpretor? He interpreted by John the Baptist what he meant by “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” as foretold by Isaiah. That interpretation has stood; and so it will prove in the fulfillment of every prophetic message. The first edition will always be genuine. Counterfeits may follow; even as false christs followed the manifestation of the true Messiah, and as false time messages have succeeded to the true since 1844. Or they may even come before the true, as “rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody,” or as “Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing,” but the counterfeit will be easily detected, because it will lack the divine credentials of harmonious fulfillment. Those false christs which appeared in advance did not come in by the door of prophecy into the sheep-fold. They were not of the seed of David, born in Bethlehem, &c., and “the porter,” John the harbinger, did not open to them; and the sheep did not hear their voice nor follow them. So Mormons and others may have cried, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, is fallen, Babylon is fallen to rise no more.”

And their definition of Babylon may have been more than half true; but their pretense to the fulfillment of this prophecy must be easily seen to be spurious, not entering by the door—not being preceded by the mighty cry throughout the earth, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.”

But that which we claim as the fulfillment of this prophecy has the divine impress, being in every particular in harmony with the programme, as given before by the inspiration of God. To deny that such a work is genuine, is as much as to say that the promises of God, as given in prophecy, are not reliable. That there is nothing in the promise and providence of God to give assurance to the believer. Such a view is absurd.

The guiding hand is clearly seen in the fulfillment of this chain of prophetic messages. The work, though done through human agency, has not been the work of men. Those who proclaimed the first and second messages in 1844, had not the light upon the third at that time, but expected the coming of the Lord at that time. If their expectation had been realized, the Son of man would have come to reap the harvest of the earth and bring the day of wrath, before the last and most important warning, as solemnly promised before of God, had been given. The disappointment of 1844 is pointed to by opponents with an air of triumph to prove that God is not in this work, but that it is merely guess work which has proved itself to be false. We point to the same disappointment to prove that God is in the work; for when believers had gone as far as they could see, and thought that they had no more to do, God began to bring the light to his chosen that the greatest and most important part of their appointed work still remained to be done. The third message came, not because men expected it, but because God had promised it.

R. F. COTTRELL.