AS MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED.
By G.
A CLASS of people who claim to be looking for the Lord to come have set several definite times for His advent during the last fifty years, but their predictions have so often failed that they have become utterly confused. Now some of them have changed their base, and are looking for new landmarks. The Lord has given us signs by which we may know when His coming is “near, even at the doors.” After the “tribulation” of the church during the time now known as the Dark Ages, which virtually ended about 1776, when an edict granting religious toleration was issued in Austria, there were to be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, which the Lord said would indicate the nearness of His second advent. See Matthew 24. According to this word there did occur, in 1780, that remarkable phenomenon known as the Dark Day, followed by an equally phenomenal darkening of the moon. These “signs” never have been accounted for by scientists, and can be understood only by accepting the Word of the Lord. Again, in 1833, there was the remarkable meteoric shower that exceeded in brilliancy and extent anything of the kind on record either before or since. Now some of the definite-time setters have embraced another theory, and, as a matter of course, it is based on an idea that is altogether visionary. This theory is that Christ referred to the tribulation of the Jews, and that, when they shall have been restored to their old land, and Jerusalem shall have been established as of old, then these signs will be given in token of the Lord’s coming. We are told that a good many have adopted this theory, and others are hesitating, tho somewhat inclined to accept it. But not to appear as yielding their former belief, the undecided ones suggest the possibility of a double application of the Saviour’s prophecy; that the signs were given to the church, as already recorded, and will be repeated when the Jewish tribulation comes to an end in their restoration to favor. The trouble with this new theory is, that it is predicated on a false premise. There are no more promises for the natural seed. They, as a nation, have had their day; whatever advantage a Jew may now have under the Gospel, he can obtain just like any other individual,—by faith in Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour. There are prophecies that have double application, for the reason that literal Israel failed to appreciate their privileges, failed to believe the prophets, failed to take God at His Word, and therefore failed to fulfil the conditions. But the promises of God do not fail; what the natural seed failed to receive because of their lack of faith, will be made good to the spiritual seed through Christ. “All the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God.” When the messengers of heaven made known through Daniel the great prophetic period of two thousand and three hundred days, it was said that seventy weeks were determined upon the people of Israel. This time, a year for a day, ended in A. D. 34, for in the midst of the seventieth week Messiah was to be cut off. The official rejection of Christ by the Jews ended their special prerogative as a people; but for about three and a half years the apostles gave special attention to preaching the Gospel to the Jews, and this ended their seventy weeks. Zedekiah was their last king. Through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord said: “Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” Eze. 21:26, 27. Christ is the One who was exalted because He humbled Himself. Phil. 2:5-9. He will take the kingdom at His coming. “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.” Matt. 25:31. In the meantime there is no special prerogative to any people but to those who obey the Gospel; there are no racial preferences; the grace of God is to all people on equal terms. Col. 3:11. The Jews as a people have had their day. As a people they were types of the spiritual seed, over whom Christ will reign on “the throne of His father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” See Luke 1:30-33. Now for men to be putting off the Lord’s coming until after the “tribulation” of the natural Jews has passed, which logically must mean their restoration as a favored people, is simply postponing the glorious event to a time that never will come. The enemy of souls is prolific of schemes for deluding people with regard to the second advent of Christ, and he is especially active just now, as that event is now near at hand; and he could hardly conceive of a worse delusion than to have people basing the time on an imaginary event which, in the light of God’s Word, never can occur. When men have insisted, after repeated failures, on setting definite time for the Messiah’s coming, they are naturally confused, and are easily led to a “leap in the dark” that will carry their expectations away beyond the time when they ought to be looking for their Lord’s return. Thus in an hour when they think not, the Lord will come. Confusion of doctrine is one of Satan’s many deceptive devices. But when people professing to look for the Lord reject the very light (“the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”) that would guide them in a stable course, what should be expected but to find them floundering in the mire of speculation?