The Signs of the Times

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 1, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 47.

The Signs of the Times

“Can ye not discern the signs of the times?”—Jesus.

“When ye shall see all these things, know that He is near, even at the doors.”

Multiplied Evidences

Not only is the Word of God very explicit regarding the great fact of the literal second coming of Christ, but it also very clearly shows that we may know when that coming is near. One of the striking words in connection with the evidences of the last days is the little word “know.” “This know also,” says Paul in 2 Tim. 3:1. “Knowing this first,” says Peter in his second epistle, 3:3. “Know that He is near,” says our Lord Himself regarding His second coming.

In our diagram on this page some of these signs are strikingly portrayed. The great spokes in the wheel represent various lines of prophecy, including four in Daniel, seven in Revelation, and one in the Gospels. Each of these lines of prophecy begins at a different period or date in the world's history, but all culminate in the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Noted in several of these lines of prophecy is a point which marks the beginning of “the time of the end.” That point is 1798, when closed the first great prophetic period of the “time, times, and a half time” of Daniel; the twelve hundred and sixty days and the forty and two months of the Revelation. “The time of the end” is a period in which all of these various prophecies meet their fulfilment, and which reaches to the second coming of Christ, or the close of probation, which immediately precedes His second coming. Within that time of the end God gives certain great signs, which we can but little more than mention here, with the scripture which predicts the omen, and appeal to our readers as to its fulfilment in this our day. We begin with

1. THE INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE.—

Looking forward to the time of the end, the prophet declares:

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” “Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” Dan. 12:4, 9, 10.

Our readers know how literally this prophecy has been fulfilled. In science, in discovery, in invention, the period of the time of the end is marvelous in fruitfulness. This has also been true in the knowledge of the Word of God. Within that period of time the great Bible societies have been formed, and millions upon millions of copies of the Word have been translated into more than 400 of earth's languages and dialects. Knowledge too on the prophecies of Daniel has been increased, and many have been stirred and cheered by the developments which show that the kingdom of God is near.

2. INCREASE OF RICHES.—

One striking prediction upon this is found in the New Testament. James 5:1-5:

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days [“in the last days,” A.R.V.]. . . . Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.”

And the next admonition is, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the COMING OF THE LORD.” Verse 7.

Never were such mighty fortunes piled up in so short a time as in these last days. Take for instance the case of Mr. Harriman, who began practically a poor man, and within a short lifetime piled up a fortune of $300,000,000; and he is one among many. Graphically, clearly, and forcibly has the prophet drawn a picture of these times.

3. INCREASE OF CALAMITIES.—

This comes through the aging earth, as we are told in the 104th Psalm and in the first chapter of Hebrews that the earth shall wax old as does a garment. With its waxing old there will come weaknesses, and these weaknesses will be manifest in the various functions of the laws of nature. Our Lord also predicts as the beginning of earth's travail, “earthquakes in divers places.” We see these evidences of the earth's waxing old, in the storms and cyclones increasing as the years have gone by; in the uncertainty of the seasons; in the remarkable increase of earthquakes—not simply the mere perturbations noted by sensitive seismographs, but destructive earthquakes. The records are that these have been much more numerous during the last fifty years. Take simply from the year 1906, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Italy, Formosa, San Francisco, Valparaiso, the West Indies; and later on Mexico again repeatedly, and Southern Italy, Greece, Japan, and elsewhere. Men are startled when these things occur at home; they forget in a day those which occur in distant lands. Yet are they voices of God telling us that the earth's last pangs will soon be over.

4. INCREASE OF CRIME.—

Nowhere in God's Word are we told that this world is to be converted. Among the good seed of the Son of Man the enemy has sown tares, and the tare-sowing has gone on to the present time, not only in the great world itself, but in the church as well. Those who ought to be the conservators of righteousness, the salt of the earth, have themselves been weakened by the seed-sowing of the enemy; and the result is a very carnival of crime, as the secular press has named it again and again.

It is said in the sixth chapter of Genesis, in speaking of the antediluvian world, that “the earth is filled with violence;” and our Lord tells us in the twenty-fourth of Matthew and elsewhere that as were the days of Noah, so shall be the days of the Son of Man. The apostle Paul declares in his third chapter of Second Timothy, that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” The prophet Isaiah, looking forward to that period just previous to the time when the Redeemer shall come to Zion, declares that “judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter.” And another prophet, contemporary with Isaiah, takes his own time as typical of the last days, and declares what so many of our municipal, state, and national investigations show, that “Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of his soul: thus they weave it together. The best of them is as a brier; the most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity.” Micah 7:3, 4, A.R.V.

In the last prediction rests the hope of the prophet.

5. SIGNS IN THE SUN AND MOON AND STARS.—

So our Lord in Luke 21:25-27 declares there will be:

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

More specific are Matthew, Mark, Joel, and the Revelation concerning these signs in the sun and the moon and the stars, predicting the darkening of the sun, the darkening of the moon, and the falling of the stars, giving the very time in which the first of these events

were to occur, the others to follow after as confirming signs of the first. The darkening of the sun occurred May 19, 1780; the night following came the darkening of the moon; the falling of the stars, Nov. 13, 1833; and the other signs in the elements are rapidly following.

6. A WARNING MESSAGE.—

Of every great judgment which has come upon the world God has given warning.

“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7.

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” Joel 2:1.

“And 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.

These scriptures clearly teach that God will through His prophets give warning of the judgments; that this warning will first of all go to His own professed children, and through those who will receive it, it will go to the great world. In larger, fuller detail God has described this message in a great threefold movement, prophesied in Rev. 14:6-14. Under three mighty angels—for God's spiritual messengers always cooperate with His earthly ones—are these messages represented as going to the world, pleading with them to return to His Word and His Gospel, telling them that all the great Babylon of this world must necessarily fall, and warning them against all the confederated wickedness which shall join together against Christ and His Gospel in the last days.

We appeal to our readers as to whether this message is not going to the world; whether amid all the voices of all the false isms, there are not yet voices heard here and there and everywhere pleading with men to return to God's Word, to the creative power of the Gospel of life, to Jesus the only Saviour, to the commandments of God as the only rule of living.

7. PEACE AND SAFETY.—

Yet we are told that notwithstanding all the warnings that God will give of coming judgment, there will be cries of “peace and safety” by false prophets. That has ever been true. Isaiah met them in his day; Jeremiah met them; Ezekiel met them. When the prophets prophesied calamity following wickedness, the false prophets predicted peace; and so we read that in the last days this peace cry will become so persistent that even the very nations will confederate and come together and declare that swords shall be beaten to plowshares, and spears into pruning-hooks. This false cry is predicted in Isaiah 2 and Micah 4. Read the context of these prophecies, and read that God calls them soothsayers. The apostle Paul, referring to this very thing, declares, “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3.

8. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.—

It is a strange thing, and yet so emphatically true that all the world sees it, that right in connection with the peace congresses, and the cry of a converted world, and the prediction of peace soon to come, never were such preparations for war made in all the history of mankind as are making now. Never in all the centuries have such preparations been made as in the last few years of the century just closed and the years of the present one. And we may go farther than this, and say that all the preparations of the century previous have been dwarfed by the preparations made in the first few years of the present century. Money is taken from the treasuries of governments until in many countries the people's backs are bowed to the very earth in order to support the tremendous war burdens. Great battle-ships are built, costing ten to thirty million dollars, to be relegated to the junk heap in a few years because some greater ones have been built by some other nation. All this is predicted by the Word. Again and again and again is the warning sounded forth. Take for instance the fourth chapter of Jeremiah, and the twenty-fifth of Jeremiah, in which the prophet looked forward to the period just before the day of the Lord, when all the nations are preparing for the great “battle of Armageddon.” It has become a newspaper term now. Listen to the prophet Joel:

“Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:9-14.

“The harvest,” Jesus tells us, is the end of the world. Matt. 13:39. So He is represented as coming with a sickle in His hand to reap the harvest of the earth. Rev. 14:14.

9. CONFEDERACIES.—

In the coming of calamities, in threatening clouds of war, in perplexity and strife among the nations, it is natural for men to confederate together. Professing belief in God, yet failing to live for Him, they combine with each other to press back the tide of calamities, to hold in check if possible the mighty tide of evil which threatens to engulf them. So it was in Israel anciently. When Judah was menaced by Syria and apostate Israel, the prophet pleaded with the king to make God his hope. But in spite of that, God's children sought to combine with Babylon on the one side, or Egypt on the other; and God uses those circumstances as a prediction of the last days, when men are waiting for the Lord. When Christ is about to come the second time, men will combine even against His truth; and so He addresses those who go on in their own evil way regardless of duty to Him:

“Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Isa. 8:9-12.

One links up with wicked men, feeling that the bread for himself and family is dependent upon it; even religious bodies are thinking that the only way by which wickedness can be stayed is by federating with other religious bodies, compromising truth in the doing of it. The prophet points out a better way:

“Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary.” Verses 13, 14.

And a little later he tells us how we may discern the false from the true:

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Verse 20.

The end of Babylon and all its confederacies is shown us in Revelation 18.

10. FALSE ISMS.—

Among other signs of the last days are the false isms which have arisen. Very clearly the Lord predicts this in Matthew 24. Jesus, speaking of His coming, declares:

“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Matt. 24:23-27.

Mormonism went away into the desert. They even named their church organ, which exists to-day, “The Deseret News,” or the news of the desert. They predict that Christ is coming there, and through them will conquer the world; and thousands upon thousands have been deceived by their insidious doctrines and gross materialism.

Spiritualism declares that He comes in the secret chambers; that His coming is not a literal coming. Christian Science repudiates a literal coming; He comes in Christian Science. But our Lord declares that when He comes, His glory will fill the heavens, even as the vivid flash of lightning does to the human eye that beholds it.

Spiritualism is also predicted elsewhere, but notably in Rev. 16:13, 14, where it is represented as the agency which will stir up all the world to the great battle of Armageddon. Satan is a real being; and Satan has his army of false messengers, endeavoring, by all the malicious power that he has, to counterwork the Gospel of Christ; and just as God is sending His angels, working with His people throughout all the earth, to induce men to accept the only thing which will save—His Gospel, so Satan has his agencies throughout all the earth, working with wicked men to turn the world to war and strife.

11. GREAT SPIRITUAL DECLENSION.—

One of the saddest of all signs which God has given of the last days is the backsliding, the spiritual declension, among His children. Of this Jesus speaks:

“And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold.” Matt. 24:12.

Listen again to the apostle Paul:

“This know also, that in the last days 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.” 2 Tim. 3:1-4.

This is a fearful arraignment, isn't it? and yet you could say the world has been always such. These are the simple fruits of the carnal heart. They are just what Paul declares, in the last part of the first chapter of Romans, existed in the heathen world in his day. Compare the two, and note the striking likeness of the condition of the heathen world, and his picture as presented in the passage above quoted. But the great, sad thing is that this picture which we have just transferred to this page, all these eighteen different sins, are among those “HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, but denying the power thereof.” Verse 5. We know that we can appeal to every true Christian heart, to every one who truly observes, and thinks, and compares with the life of Christ and the Word of God, as witnesses that these various sins are among those who profess the name of Jesus Christ.

Note also that this is “in the last days.” The peril of the last days, to the individual soul, is not because of earthquakes or calamities or war; it is because those who profess to be children of God are turning from their allegiance to Him; it is the hauling down, so to speak, of the great Christian standard, to which the world ought to look for guidance; it is the salt of the earth losing its savor. Out of this naturally grows the last sign which we will mention, although there are others.

12. LAST-DAY SCOFFERS.—

They scoff, too, at the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; at the last great act in the wonderful drama of redemption. Here is the prophecy:

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” 2 Peter 3:3, 4.

The apostle further says that they deny the record of the Word of God concerning creation, and concerning the Deluge.

Now note this. The wonderful thing is not that any one of these signs has been fulfilled and is fulfilling in these our days; it is not one sign or two which show that the coming of Christ is near. Periods in earth's history may be pointed to in which some one or more of them have been tremendously in evidence; but never in all the history of the world and of God's people have they been all so in evidence as they are now, and to this our Lord refers when He declares concerning this last generation:

“Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [He, margin] is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

We are setting no time for our Lord to come; that is forbidden in His Word. But we may know that He is near; for “ye, brethren,” says the apostle, “are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thess. 5:4.