GOD'S MESSAGE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 13.

GOD'S MESSAGE.

By Editor

THE message of God is always a present message, a message for the time. It is the everlasting Gospel making prominent and emphatic the very truth, or phase of the truth, needed.

The faithful watchman on the city walls would not call in the first watch of the night, nor at midnight, that the morning had approached. He would tell the hour, its peril, and the duty of the people. The faithful trainman on the New York Central Railway running East, does not call out Syracuse when he is nearing Rochester, nor Utica when he is only nearing Rome. His message is in nature ever the same, but it emphasizes the particular time and its duty.

Even so God's true watchman is like a prudent steward which gives his household food in due season—according to the season.

Noah preached the everlasting Gospel, but it emphasized the facts of a wicked world, an impending destruction by a flood, the need of repentance, and God's means of salvation for that generation—the ark.

John the Baptist preached the everlasting Gospel, but that Gospel then recognized the facts of the fearful apostasy of Israel, the impending judgment on the nation, the need of true repentance, the presence of the Deliverer in their very midst, and God's means of salvation to that generation—faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the Saviour of the world, as the personal Saviour of each. That was the everlasting Gospel for that time.

The apostles preached the same everlasting Gospel, and they especially emphasized the truth of the resurrection of Christ Jesus, that He who was crucified and buried was a risen, living Saviour at God's right hand to save to the uttermost all who would come unto Him by faith.

In the days of the Reformation the same “everlasting Gospel” was preached by Martin Luther and others, emphasizing the facts of the awful apostasy of Christendom, the destruction that surely awaited both Church and State, and the absolute necessity of leaving human merit and trusting to faith in Christ alone for righteousness.

And so, reader, in these last days God's message is the same “everlasting Gospel,” fitted in its life-giving mission to this age and time. It emphasizes the fact of the world-wide apostasy, the Babylon of every creed and doctrine that has ever cursed the world. It points out clearly by the “sure word of prophecy” the impending judgments of God; and it points out as the only refuge, faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour from sin and His second coming as the only hope of a future life to the living and the dead. This is God's message for this time. It is outlined in Rev. 14:6-14. It meets every error in the world for it includes every truth. In it and in it alone is salvation for the church and the world, and it is this message which this paper is set to give and is giving. “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.”