p. 8 | Combining for the End

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 14, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 33.

Combining for the End.

Pere Hyacinth is touring Mohammedan countries on a mission which has for its object the unification of all religionists who believe in and worship the one God. He writes recently from Constantinople, telling of progress in his mission, and of the cordial reception which was given him by Turkish officials. While it is not at all likely that there will ever be a tangible union between Islam, Judaism, and formal Christianity, yet this movement is another illustration of the tendency of the times toward that spirit of confederacy against which God warns His people, Isa. 8:12, 13. There is confederacy and combination on every hand. There is now a drawing together of formal Christian organizations for the purpose of putting in legal form the principles or tenets of religious societies; and this movement will continue and accelerate until formal Protestantism is encircled in the arms of Rome, practically, if not really. Such an ending is but the logical result of actions that are being taken, and movements that are going forward to-day. The vision given to the seer of Patmos (Revelation 13) shows that one master mind will be ruling the formal religious bodies of the world just prior to the return of Christ. That will be the acme of confederacy; for the whole world will be yielded to it, with the exception only of those who are keeping the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

That power which thus absorbs all other powers within itself is a religious power; for it compels the whole world to worship something. The confederating work which is now going on in the earth is hastening the condition and the proclamation there brought to view. The oppressive laws being made or resurrected are also working to that end. There must be a change from present conditions before that power is able to “speak, and cause that as many as ‘would not worship the image of the beast should be ‘killed.” Rev. 13:15. That change is coming—it is even going on now. That spirit of jealous protection of liberty of conscience is dying out of the masses and going the way of the other principles of liberty, so that oppression for religious belief and practise is not only carried on in this country, but is coming to be looked upon with less concern by the general public, and with some is a matter of practical indifference.

As the spirit of confederacy grows, and as confederacy takes more and more definite shape, we may expect to see a proportionate increase in religious persecution, until it is made a capital offense to believe and practise otherwise than as that power shall direct. This is the logical outcome of that spirit of confederacy which the Lord has told us would dominate the world in the last days. More than that, it is the outcome which the Lord has declared will be.