Deceptions About the Lord's Coming
Deceptions.—In a paper read at a Methodist ministers’ meeting in San Francisco on the 5th inst., on the Lord’s coming, the speaker said that three things must take place before Christ came:— “The first of these is the universal proclamation of the Gospel; the second, the ingathering of the heathen and the conversion of the Jews; and the third, the appearance of antichrist and his apostasy. The conversion of the world is the work of the church and the theory advanced that Christ will come before this work has been accomplished is merely a ruse conceived by Satan, by means of which he hopes to block the progress and stay the activity of the church.” (1) The first of these is rapidly fulfilling, as far as the “proclamation” of the Gospel is concerned. It will be preached “for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24: 14. (2) But this does not mean the conversion of the world; for the wheat and tares, the righteous and the wicked, will grow together in this world till the harvest, “the end of the world.” Matt. 13: 30, 38-43. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Tim. 3: 13. That man of sin, that wicked, the persecuting little horn, will abide upon the earth till Christ comes again. 2 Thess. 2: 3-8; Daniel 7. (3) There is no promise to the Jews only through Christ, and he reads the New Testament strangely who ignores this. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Rom. 2: 27, 28. The very name Israel is not a name according to the flesh, but a faith-acquired, God-bestowed name, indicative of character wrought out in God’s school. See Gen. 32: 24-28. The true Israel of God, the true children of Abraham, are the children of faith. See Gal. 3: 29; Eph. 2. 11-20; Rom. 9: 8. The gathering of Israel from among all nations will be the gathering of the children of faith through the Gospel of God and by the coming of Christ. “Be not deceived.”