Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 28, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 22.

1243.—When Shall All Nations Worship God?

A correspondent (J. B.) cites Ps. 76: 9 (probably 86: 9), Rev. 15: 4; Isa. 66: 23; Zech. 9: 10, in which texts are declared that “all flesh shall come and worship before” God, “all nations shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord,” etc., and asks: “Is this what the nations say? Unless you can assert that all the above are what the nations say, I can not understand how you can say it is the nations, and not the Lord, which speak as follows:—

“And He shall . . . rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares; . . . neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: . . . For the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.” Micah 4: 3, 4.

1. In the texts above cited in the Psalms etc., it is clearly shown that the speaker is either the Lord through His prophet, or His prophet. We need be in no doubt at all concerning this.

2. In the passage in Micah 4: 2-5 as also in Isa. 2: 3-5 we are expressly told that “many people shall go and say,” and that “many nations shall come and say,” that all these peaceful times are coming among the nations; and that the “many people” and the “many nations” say, “The mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.” The prophet does not say that the Lord hath spoken it, but the prophet declares that the many nations say that the Lord hath spoken it. Surely the Lord does not predict a time of peace when “all people will walk every one in the name of his god.” The simple fact is that it is a false message. The nations are to-day saying, “The Lord saith; and the Lord hath not sent them; and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.” And He asks them: “Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken?” And what is it that these false prophets cry? It is “Peace; and there was no peace.” See Eze. 13: 4-14. And this is in perfect accord with the context of Isa. 2: 2-9. The prophet there declares concerning His professed people who prophesy “peace;” “For Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they be filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of strangers.” See Isa. 2: 6-9. And so also, according to Micah, at the very time the many nations are thus crying that the Lord hath spoken peace, the Lord’s true people are but a halting, afflicted remnant. Micah 4: 6.

3. At this very time, when this false cry of peace is going to the world, the Lord gives us a prophecy which shows that the very opposite of what the nations declare will be the actual condition; that it will be a time of unparalleled activity in preparing for war; that instruments of agriculture will yield to the dominance of implements of warfare and bloodshed. And these are the actual facts of to-day. See Joel 3: 9-14.

4. But what about the class of passages cited at the beginning? Simply this: (a) At the judgment-seat of Christ every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to God (Rom. 14: 11; Phil. 2: 10), many in glad praise, many, alas, too late. (b) But beyond all sin and strife, beyond the grave and the judgment, beyond all wickedness and the wicked, Christ Jesus will reign eternally upon the earth made new, unmarred by the curse of evil. Then “the nations of them which are saved” shall walk in the light of God (Rev. 21: 24, 26), from Sabbath to Sabbath and from month to month shall all flesh come to worship before the Lord (Isa. 66: 23), whose dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth (Ps. 72: 8).

Can we not see the place of the false message of peace of the nations, as well as the application of God’s precious promises for the future?