CHRIST IS COMING | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 28, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 47.

CHRIST IS COMING.

That he will come again, the second time, is generally believed by Christians.

That his coming will be a literal, personal, visible coming, to raise the righteous dead, change the righteous living, and set up his everlasting kingdom by his own power, is believed by many, and abundantly proved by the word of God; that around this coming gather the great events of man's salvation, and upon it, as upon his crucifixion and resurrection, they depend, is also true. Christ's coming is the culmination of “the blessed hope.”

That Christ's second coming is near, the prophecies of the word of God and the signs predicted by inspiration clearly declare. It is the object of this number of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES briefly to set forth a part of the abundant evidence upon this great subject. God is not unreasonable. He has not enjoined the duty to know that he is near, even at the door (Matt. 24:33), and condemned us if we do not, without giving us clear evidence that we may know.

That the reader may at a glance get an idea of the testimony of the word of God concerning the nearness of Christ's coming, we subjoin a diagram outlining eight different lines of prophecy and eight especial signs of the last days.

It is a common saying in England, “All roads lead to London;” for it is the great center of the English life. It is even more true that all paths of prophecy, more or less marked with sign boards, lead to the grand culminating event of the ages, the coming of the Christ. Note some of the important events in these lines of prophecy.

Beginning with the one on the right, we have the prophecy of Daniel 2, the alphabet of symbolic prophecies, revealing in its wonderfully comprehensive record a history in advance of the four great world empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, Rome, its arch spanning the space of time between B.C. 600 to a little beyond our own time, when Christ shall come. The farther end of the arch is obscured by the brightness of the coming glory.

Daniel 7, in the upper left-hand corner, depicts the same four empires under the figures of a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a beast too terrible to describe. Babylon existed till B.C. 538; Medo-Persia, till B.C. 331; Grecia, till B.C. 168; Rome as a united kingdom, till A.D. 351; Rome as a divided empire, until now. The little horn of the apostasy began its persecuting career in A.D. 538 and was checked in 1798, to revive a little just before the Lord comes. The same may be said in substance of Revelation 12 and 13, although in the thirteenth chapter a new symbol is introduced, which applies to this government. These then do not reveal the definite time of Christ's coming, but clearly indicate that the next great event is the setting up of his kingdom.

Daniel 11, at the left of the diagram, is a graphic and literal prophecy of the kingdoms of earth, beginning with Medo-Persia, and closing with “the king of the north,” or the Mohammedan power, Turkey, soon to come to its end. The next event is the standing up of Michael—Christ—to reign, or his coming to reap the harvest of the earth.

Revelation, chapters 6 to 8, is a prophecy of the seven seals, in which is a prediction of the great Lisbon earthquake, Nov. 1, 1755, the darkening of the sun and moon, May 19, 1780, and the falling of the stars, Nov. 13, 1833. The rolling back of the heavens as a scroll, and the revelation of the great Reaper to garner the harvest of the earth follow.

In Daniel 8 and 9 is revealed the great prophecy of earth's empires, in which the kingdom of Grecia is called by name, and its conquest as a world empire foretold 200 years before Grecia came to power. Then follows the long prophetic period of 2,300 days, or years, subdivided into the periods of 49 years, 434 years, 7 years, and 1,810 years, beginning in B.C. 457, and ending respectively in B.C. 408, A.D. 27, 31, 34, and 1844. Here ends the latest definite prophetic period in the word of God, in 1844. No definite time reaches beyond this; and here it is that the oath of the angel proclaims that there should be “time [definite prophetic time] no longer.” Rev. 10:6, 7. In 1844 began the investigative judgment in the courts of heaven (Eccl. 3:17; Rev. 14:7), and what now lies just before is the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven to reward those who are “accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from [out from among] the dead” (Luke 20:35).

In Revelation 8 to 11 we have the prophecy of the seven trumpets, in which, including the two witnesses of Revelation 11, we have the following prophetic dates: A.D. 538 to 1798, the 1,260 years of persecution; July 27, 1299, the beginning of the five months of Ottoman persecution, reaching to 1449, when Constantinople became subject to the Turks. From thence 391 years and 15 days carry us to Aug. 11, 1840, when Turkey lost her independence by its voluntary surrender to the great powers of Europe, and has been known as “the Sick Man of the East” ever since. The next great events in this prophecy are the judgment, the day of God's wrath, the coming of Christ.

In connection with Revelation 12 and 13 is the great threefold message of Rev. 14:6–12, now going to the world. Following this is the coming of Christ on a cloud, “having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle,” to reap the harvest of the earth. See Rev. 14:14–16; Matt. 13:39; Joel 3:13–16. Thus all the prophecies culminate in the one great event of the great day of God, a day of wrath to the wicked, the coming of the Lifegiver to the righteous. Life, Heaven, and Home lie just before us.

Signs of His Coming.

On the Mount of Olives the disciples of Jesus asked him this question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Matt. 24:3. In reply to this Jesus declared (Luke 21:25–27):—

“And THERE SHALL BE SIGNS in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

Not one sign, but many, not in one place but many places, does God give to the people of earth as heralds of his coming. He hangs them out in the heavens; they are heard in the waves of the sea, in the mighty storms that sweep the earth, in the mutterings of social discontent, in the siren voice of the cry of peace, in the bellowing of the cannon, in the hilarious mirth of the dance of death, in the warning voices of time and prophecy, God's gracious Gospel to men. They are seen in the departure of the church from the simplicity of Christ, in the red hand of increasing crime,—in every direction that we may look are tokens heralding the dissolution of the present world and the coming of the King of the world to come.

A few of these evidences we have indicated on our diagram. The line marked “The Time of the End” is clearly fixed to 1798—the close of the 1,260 days of the persecution of the Dark Ages—by several lines of prophecy, notably Daniel 7 and 11, Revelation 11, 12, 13, and referred to in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. Here began the fulfilling of the

definite-time prophecies of the word of God, the last of which met its termination in 1844. Later than that date no definite time is revealed, but within the time of the end, this side of 1798, within the present generation of men now living, we have the following signs:—

1. Increase of knowledge. Dan. 12:4, 9, 10.

2. Heaping up riches. James 5:1–7.

3. Increase of crime and general wickedness. Isa. 59:13–20; 24:1–6; 2 Tim. 3:1–5.

4. Scoffers at Christ's coming. 2 Peter 3:3–5; Heb. 10:33–37.

5. Signs in the sun, moon, and stars. Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24, 25; Joel 2:31; Rev. 6:12, 13.

6. Great spiritual declension, or backsliding on the part of the church. Matt. 24:11, 12; 2 Tim. 3:1–5.

7. The cry of “peace and safety,” “a converted world,” always the cry of false prophets. See 1 Thess. 5:3; Matt. 24:24; Jer. 6:14; 23:16–20, 28, 29. These scriptures will bear study.

8. Yet, right in the face of those who raise the false peace and safety cry, are going on the most tremendous war preparations the world has ever known, predicted to occur when the harvest of the earth (Matt. 13:39) is ripe and the day of the Lord at hand. See Joel 3:9–14. This is the precursor and preparation of the great battle of the day of God foretold in Jer. 25:31–33; Rev. 16:14; 19:19–21. It is not God who predicts peace in a world of sin; it is the many people and many nations of the apostasy of earth. See Isa. 2:3–5; Micah 4:2–5. But because of this false cry God calls those who give it soothsayers, and declares that he has forsaken them. Isa. 2:6–9. Their work is all mockery, the form of godliness without the power. 2 Tim. 3:1–5.

Other signs might be given, such as the predictions of the rise of Mormonism and Spiritualism, the distress of nations, the gluttony, drunkenness, and licentiousness, and God's last warning message. All these are predicted for the last days with positive certainty. God's language is: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times” (1 Tim. 4:1); “This know also that in the last days” (2 Tim. 3:1); “Knowing this first, that there should come in the last days scoffers” (2 Peter 3:3); “And that, knowing the time” (Rom. 13:11), etc. The word of God is not merely suggestive or uncertain, but express and definite; and just as surely as Israel were destroyed because they did not heed and know the time of their visitation, so surely will the last generation suffer the same fate who do not now heed God's word. See Luke 19:41–44; 1 Thess. 5:3, 4; 1 Cor. 10:11, 12.

“This Generation.”

According to all these lines of prophecy, according to all these special signs, we are dwelling in the last generation, just before Christ shall come. It is to this generation that our Lord refers in Matt. 24:34. He had declared that the signs given above should occur; that the Roman Kingdom would be dismembered, so that nation would be against nation; that the long period of persecution would take place, till his hearers were brought down to the last generation—“this generation,” the generation of which he was last speaking, the generation which should witness the signs of his coming, the generation that should hear its warning. Of that generation, which is this generation, he says:—

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, KNOW THAT IT [margin, ‘He’] is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that THIS GENERATION SHALL NOT PASS, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away.” Matt. 24:32–35.

What could be stronger, clearer, more positive? Thrice in God's providence are they repeated, as though he could not suffer his people to forget. (See Mark 13; Luke 21.) Thrice does he tell us that heaven and earth may pass, but that his words will not pass. Thrice are we told that as we see these things it is duty to know that he is near.

It may be said that many of these signs have taken place in past centuries, and this is doubtless true; but in no other generation were they all seen. “When ye shall see all these things, KNOW that He is near, even at the doors.” They are all in evidence. They may all be seen. Tumultuous they throng into this generation, with banners high and lifted up, each clamoring for recognition as a herald of the coming King. The dawn of eternal day begins to light the east; the first rays of light already rest upon the hilltops of spiritual knowledge; only the low, dark valleys are in gloom. Yet, cleaving the power of sin, the shafts of God's truth penetrate the darkness and enlighten clouded minds. Through the miasmatic air of iniquity, the fogs of error, and the storms of strife, rings God's note of warning to every dweller of earth. “Christ is coming; prepare to meet thy God.”