Signs of His Coming—Increase of Riches.
1. “In the last days,” what will be the character of many? “Know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money.” 2 Tim. 3:1, 2. 2. To what will this love of money lead? “Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.” James 5:1-3. 3. Do conditions fulfil these predictions? The following statements, gleaned from various reliable sources, show present-day conditions: In 1889 Mr. Thomas G. Shearman published an article in the “Forum” entitled, “Owners of the United States,” in which he made the statement upon evidence that seventy of the wealthiest men of the country had a combined capital of about $2,700,000,000. In 1898 many trusts were formed, combining $1,000,000,000 of the capital of the country into great organizations. But 1898 was only the beginning. Soon the steel trust was formed with a capitalization of $1,389,339,956. Other trusts soon brought the figures for the combines up to $4,318,005,646. In three years 142 of these industrial combinations were formed, and less than one hundred men were the active controllers of all this vast concentration. Fully one fourth of the wealth of the nation has passed under the sceptre of the trusts, with absolute control of it. And of the hundred owners and controllers of so many billions of wealth, the figures can be narrowed down to less than a dozen men who are the real dictators of all our nation’s industrial and business enterprises. 4. What does Habakkuk say of the greed of men of this time? “The wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he; and makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them. He taketh up all of them with the angle, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them in his drag: therefore he rejoiceth and is glad.” (See Hab. 1:13-17.) 5. What is said of his ambition? “Who enlargeth his desire as Sheol, and he is as death, and can not be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all peoples.” Hab. 2:5. 6. How is much of this wealth accumulated? “Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” James 5:4. “Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you.” James 5:5. 8. What does Habakkuk say of the judgment which will be visited upon the oppressor by the oppressed? “Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his: how long? and that ladeth himself with pledges! Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booty unto them? Because thou hast plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder thee, because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all that dwell therein.” Hab. 2:6-8. (Read the entire chapter and compare verses 2 and 3 with Hebrews 10:37, 38 showing that it has special application to the last days.) 9. What will be the reward of those who oppress the poor? “Who can abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap. . . . And I will come near to you in judgment; and I will be a swift witness against . . . those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless.” Mal. 3:2-5. 10. Of what value will their wealth be in that day? “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s wrath.” Zeph. 1:18.