THE WARNINGS JUSTIFIED by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 3, 1901

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

THE WARNINGS JUSTIFIED.

By S.

God has never given warnings to His people in any age of the world without good and sufficient reasons therefor; and the true Christian will find in His Word warnings which, if heeded, will enable him to escape all the snares of the enemy. “Behold,” says the Lord, “the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Isa. 42:9. Now the Word of God contains the record of the fulfillment of earlier prophecies, prophecies which are now fulfilling, and prophecies which have not yet been fulfilled. So the Lord says, “The former things are come to pass.” That men may have no excuse for disbelieving the predictions of that Word, the Lord Himself calls our attention to the faithful fulfillment of former predictions. Then He gives us His promise that He will warn us of those things which are yet to occur: “Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

The Lord warned the antediluvian world of the destruction which He was to bring upon it in consequence of its wickedness. Those who heeded the warning were saved; those who did not were lost. The warning came to Sodom before the Lord laid the hand of punishment upon it, and they who heeded it went out in safety. He told Abraham the condition of his descendants in Egypt and their ultimate deliverance from bondage. He told Israel of calamities which should come because of their forsaking Him, and Israel has experienced the fulfillments of that Word. He told Israel when they might expect their Lord, and He came on time. He gave warning of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the fire and sword of the Romans swept it to the ground; but they who heeded the warning came out unscathed.

Now the Lord has told us

what we might expect in this generation, and we see these things fulfilling before our eyes. He has told us that the rich would oppress the poor, and take from the hireling his wages. We have seen it done, and are seeing it done with more and more frequency, with greater and greater harshness, with less and less care for the miseries of the people oppressed. He has told us that the rich in the last days would be, not simply growing rich, but actually heaping treasure together, and we have seen it done and doing. But these things were given as waymarks to tell us when we are in the “last days.” They have come. We are in the “last days.”

In these last days, then, the Lord tells us that “perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Tim. 3:1–5. No one writing at the present time could better describe the condition of things as they exist in these very days than the prophet of the Lord has pictured them beforehand in the above scripture.

But this is not all. The Lord, speaking to the people of this age, says that “there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them;” and “thru covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” 2 Peter 2:1–3. How fully this is being fulfilled at the present time! First, on the part of religious teachers who deny the divinity of Christ and the efficacy of His atonement for man’s salvation; and secondly, on the part of schemers who defraud the people in the name of religion; who virtually “make merchandise” of deluded followers! Witness the mind cures, the psychic healing, the absent treatments at so much each, the “divine healing” for the money there is in it; witness the wonderful power exercised by one man over a vast audience recently, near Chicago, when 3,000 persons rose to testify to their belief that that man was the prophet Elijah, and then see them pour their money into his hands. Verily, that scripture is fulfilled before our eyes.

The Lord has told us, as one of the signs of His soon coming, that “there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matt. 24:24. False christs have come, and there will be more of them. We have met them in different parts of the country, and have heard of them in different parts of the world; and there may, and probably will, arise others who will make greater pretensions and show greater power than any that have thus far arisen. There are false prophets in every part of the world, and their prophecies are a babel of confusion. The Lord has designated one class that will be crying “peace and safety.” The number of these is legion; they are in the church and out of the church. Some are prophesying wonderful progress; others a temporal millennium of righteousness under the personal reign of Christ. And all this in spite of the scripture which says that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived;” and “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24:37–39.

In Chicago, on June 2, John Alexander Dowie rose before an immense congregation and declared: “I am Elijah the prophet, who appeared first as Elijah himself, second as John the Baptist, and who now comes in me, restorer of all things. Elijah was a prophet, John was a preacher, but I combine in myself the attributes of prophet, priest, and ruler over men. Gaze on me, then. I say it fearlessly. I am the living, physical, and spiritual embodiment of Elijah, and my coming to earth a third time has been prophesied by Malachi, by God Himself, and by His Son Jesus, by Peter, and 3,000 years ago, by Moses. All who believe in me in very truth all of this, will stand up.” 3,000 people rose to their feet and greeted these with cheers and hand-clappings.

Now the Lord Himself has told us that in the last days we are to expect just such things as this, and more. We repeat His words: “There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Such false prophets as above mentioned will increase, and their deceptions will increase, as we draw nearer the end. We have seen how the giving of former warnings has been justified—how they have been fulfilled, and those who have heeded them have escaped. There is just as much reason, just as much justification, for the giving of those which are yet to be fulfilled—aye, more; for the destruction that is now hastening on is more terrible and more complete than anything that has gone before.

Some are being carried away by every delusion that Satan has invented. Some have been deceived by every false prophet that has arisen; and as we draw nearer to the closing act in this world’s history, we must expect to see deceptions multiply on every hand. The Lord, looking upon the great deceptions which would be working in these days, says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath; because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Rev. 12:12.

In view of all this, the candidate for eternal life has reason to thank the great Revealer. He has pointed out the delusions and stumbling-blocks, and we may expect them to increase in number and power, trying the souls of men, from now on until the trump of God peals out thru the clouds of heaven. In His great love He has warned us, so that we need not be deceived. We have seen His Word fulfilled in the past; and we see it fulfilling now; and we know that all that has been written will be fulfilled to the very letter. Let us, then, take the Word of God as the man of our counsel, study it carefully and prayerfully, that we may escape the corruption and deception that is pouring in like a flood upon the last generation of men. S.