p. 7 | THE DANGER NOT PAST by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 18, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 51.

THE DANGER NOT PAST.

By S.

A WRITER in a recent issue of a religious journal declares that—

The world has nothing to fear from Romanism; its day of power is past; it is doomed by prophecy to decadence until that hour when it will feel the destructive power of our Lord’s advent.

It is true that at our Lord’s advent that power will be destroyed; but it can not be truly said that the world has nothing to fear from Romanism, or that the day of its power is past. The Bible does not so teach. That power is rather represented as accelerating than as diminishing, and that almost up to the very time of the advent. Rev. 17:12–17. This scripture indicates that the power of Romanism reaches its climax just before the Lord visits the earth to cut off the wicked and reward the righteous. So great will be the increase of that power’s influence, that the kings of the earth will give to it “their power and strength.” For a short space of time they reign with that power over the people of earth. It is even declared that they will “give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” Verse 17. God declares of that power that “his deadly wound [the destruction of its temporal power] was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? . . . And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life.” Rev. 13:3–8. This certainly does not show a decadence of the power and influence of that institution. With “all the world” wondering “after the beast,” and all worshiping the beast except only those whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life, it is very clear that the danger from that institution is very far from past; neither can the day of its power be truly said to be past. That danger is not past as long as that power is able to turn a single soul from the path that God approves, and can cause men to worship a power that is not of God. To claim that the danger from that institution is past is to blind the eyes of men to the danger that lurks in the last great deception. Such a claim is one of the most dangerous peace-and-safety cries that has yet been given. The battle is on, and until the victory is complete and the enemy bound, there can be no peace, no safety, no moment when we can rest on our arms, and declare the danger past. God’s forces will triumph; but we will not share in the triumph, if we throw ourselves open to the deceptions of the enemy by declaring the danger past at a time when that enemy is working as he never worked before. S.