Destruction Coming by H. F. Phelps

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 13, 1870

Destruction Coming.

By H. F. Phelps

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5: 3.

I am well aware that in coming to this subject, I am touching an unfavorable one to find a ready response in the popular mind; but the prophet says, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isa. 58: 1. Why? Because, in the language of the prophet, “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priest bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jer. 5: 30, 31. “For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Chap. 6: 13. “And he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.” Chap. 23: 28.

The foregoing are solemn words. And who can deny that they apply to these very days. We are living in solemn times. The seven last plagues, the second coming of Christ, and the end of the world, are just before us. But yet the world is asleep. And even the professed church of Christ are no more willing to believe in the nearness of these events, than were the Jews willing to believe in, and accept of, the humble anointed One, as their Saviour and King.

But what do we hear? The cry of “Peace and safety,” “A good time coming,” “A thousand years yet of peace and plenty, during which the world will be converted,” “A golden age just before us, when the nations will learn war no more.” But notwithstanding high men in higher places sing this song to listening multitudes, who admire the wonderful eloquence of their language, we feel impelled to cry out, in the ears of these wondering, but deceived, multitudes. Never were words more deceptive, never more calculated to lure the world on in sin, and give them a careless thoughtlessness in regard to the future, to make easy, sleepy professors, more easy, and more sleepy. Nay, more; never were words more contrary to the plain declarations of God’s word. It would indeed be a pleasing thought that the whole world would be converted to God, could we find it in God’s word. But we must speak according to the law and to the testimony. We should ever appeal to the word, and by it try our faith, and if it will not stand the test, let it go; for it would be better to find out our mistake now than to find that we have built on a false foundation, a foundation of sand, so that when God visits the earth in judgment, laying the line and the plummet, our structure falls, and we fall with it, because we built upon a wrong foundation. Whatever God has stamped with his seal, will be sure to stand the closest scrutiny both here and hereafter. People should beware what they believe, and ministers what they preach.

Satan first began this peace-and-safety cry, in the garden of Eden, when he said, “Thou shalt not surely die;” and ever since, he has found some means by which to lure millions into his deceptive snares. God has spoken, and shall we not believe? God said, “Ye shall surely die.” Satan said, “Ye shall not die.” God says, “There is no peace;” but men cry, “Peace! peace! A good time coming before the Judgment.” God said he would overthrow the old world with a flood; but men scoffed, and mocked, and cried, Peace. God threatened the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah; they thought he mocked; but suddenly as in a moment when all seemed to be peace, and false teachers were crying, Peace, and men were dreaming of security, all that was left of the adulterous cities of the plain, were a few smoking ruins. And will God any more favor the men of the present corrupt generation? Nay, verily. God is willing to save; but the heart of man is prone to evil, and that continually. They will not come to him that they might have life. God will no more compel people to come to him now, than in generations past. We are not in the dark as to God’s purposes. We are not left to mere guesswork as to the end of this last generation. God has spoken by prophets, and by the apostles; and Christ himself also added his testimony. Listen to Him who spake as never man spake: “But as the days of Noah 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 given in marriage until the day that Noah 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. “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, . . . even thus shall it be when the Son of Man is revealed.” “One shall be taken and the other left.” Luke 17: 28, 30. No time is brought to view in this text when all shall give their hearts to God.

The great apostle to the Gentiles, speaks of the same event. He says the coming of Christ “is after,” not a thousand years of peace and plenty, but, “the working of Satan with all power, . . . and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish.” Paul further says that God will “send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2: 9–12.

Here is a class who take pleasure in unrighteousness, and that, just before the close of time and the second coming of Christ. It would be proper to inquire, What is the fate of this class? Even the same as of the son of perdition, “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” Paul adds his testimony yet again: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,” not all the world come into it, “giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” 1 Tim. 4: 1. Such expressions need no comment. But yet the same apostle speaks with still more earnestness, if possible: “This know [not guess, or say you cannot know anything about it, but know] also, that in the last days [and last days, would certainly embrace the very last day] perilous [not glorious] times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, [disturbers of the peace,] false accusers, incontinent, [unchaste,] fierce, [violent, furious,] despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, [headstrong, willful,] highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” If the apostle had closed the terrible record at this point, we might well turn our minds from the world of the ungodly, to whom it would most certainly apply, thinking to find something far better among the thousands who profess the name of Christ. But, alas for this idea, Paul adds one sentence too much, and that so definite, that it is utterly impossible to make a mistake in the application. “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away.” 2 Tim. 3: 1–5. Professing godliness, but not possessing it; what a picture! Because they profess the name of Christ, shall we hold our tongues, and join hand in hand with them in their ungodly words and works! Verily not. Heed the apostle: “From such turn away.” “Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” Because so sure as the frosts produce the seared leaf, the faded flower, and the withered grass, will “evil communications corrupt good manners.” “The pure in heart shall see God.” No purity in this list of sins. And judging a tree by its fruits, no purity in those who commit such things.

And these are the very things we are to look for in the last days. Reader, look about you. Are you not constrained by your own observation to say, These

are the last days! And by the same rule do you not see that the world is growing worse and worse, instead of better?

But hear Paul again. Truly, if there is hope, it will be revealed by the great apostle to the Gentiles: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Verse 13. We see in this no chance for hope. No hope of a reformation. The current is still downward and downward. Were it not the fact, and were it not revealed in God’s word, we would fain turn from the scene. But men should be brave, and look at danger as it is, and be prepared for the worst.

But Paul is not yet done with this subject. In a most solemn charge to Timothy, to preach the word, to reprove, to rebuke, with all longsuffering and doctrine, he says: “For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.” 2 Tim. 4: 1–3.

Peter was also favored with a view of the last days, and his testimony agrees with that of the apostle Paul: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? 2 Pet. 3: 3, 4. How many now boisterously deny the second advent! Over seven millions of men (Spiritualists) deny the Lord that bought them, and purchased their salvation by his own precious blood.

Listen again to the words of Christ: “When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18: 8. This language very strongly implies a negative, or if not purely negative, certainly great doubt. It is quite the opposite, at least, of the whole world’s being converted. Surely it does not harmonize with what is taught from almost every pulpit in the land. Christ speaks in language before referred to, comparing the days of Noah and Lot to the days just before the coming of the Son of Man. Truly we only need look for trials and troubles, wars and commotions, strife and bloodshed, here. No golden age this side of the second coming of Christ. Not until he shall have set up his kingdom, and cut off his enemies.

Upon another occasion Christ gave a parable concerning the wheat and the tares. Did he say the tares would all turn to wheat? No; but he said, Let them both grow together. Matt. 13: 30. How long? “Until the harvest;” and then, and not till then, will he gather the tares to be burned.

St. John, on the isle of Patmos, was favored with a view of certain events in the history of this world, under symbols of seven angels and seven trumpets. I believe it is generally conceded that these mean civil and warlike movements among the nations, commencing about 395 A. D., and reaching down to the establishment of the everlasting kingdom of God. This being the case, the last of these trumpets should be peace trumpets. But it is, we find, quite the contrary. For John says, “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound.” Rev. 8: 13. John must have been mistaken; for certain ones, down here during the last century or two, have told us that there shall be a thousand years of peace; that nations shall learn war no more; that they shall not teach every man his brother saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know him from the least of them to the greatest. But John was right, and these are false prophets. They speak contrary to the word of God.

The inspired penman says again: “One woe is past, and behold there come two woes more hereafter.” Rev. 9: 12. Under this woe, men torment and kill; and such, indeed, is the state of things that men desire to die, but death flees from them. “The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly.” Rev. 11: 14. The second woe brings to our view an army of horses and horsemen, breastplates, fire, smoke and brimstone; men killed, and those who were not killed, “repented not of the work of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk; neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” Rev. 9: 17–21. The events under this trumpet brought no reformation. Men were no better, would not, and did not, repent. But what of the last, the seventh, trumpet, under which we are living? Is it any better? May we not expect a change? Would God it were so. But the inclinations of men are still to evil. This is also a woe trumpet. There is no peace this side of the reign of Him whose right it is to reign; nothing to indicate a time of peace. “The nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, . . . and that thou should destroy them which destroy the earth. . . . And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” Rev. 11: 18, 19.

Under the sounding of this trumpet, we are brought down through the closing scenes of probation, down to the time when the “Kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ.” No good time this side of that event. Then why look for it? Why expect what God has not promised? Is it not enough to depend upon God’s word alone, and leave the traditions of men to fall, as they surely would, if there were no one to sustain them? Why close our eyes against facts? Why cry, Peace, peace, when God has said, Woe! woe! Is it not a fact, but one greatly to be deplored, that the church and the world are joined hand in hand, in publishing this deceitful cry? Woe to the false shepherds of Israel! How are the mighty fallen! “Oh! that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” Jer. 9: 1. “Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” Joel 1: 15. “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.” Isa. 13: 9. “Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant; therefore hath the curse devoured the earth.” Chap. 24: 5.

The curse is not to be removed until it devours the earth. Men have not all repented yet. “Because the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it.” Again we read, “Many,” not all, shall be purified, made white, and tried. But the wicked shall [cease from all his wickedness? No. This, however, should be the case, to harmonize with the opinions of men of these last days; but, the wicked shall] do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” Dan. 12: 10.

In the light of all this evidence, how can any one say that ruin is not before us? There is trouble ahead, and who can deny it? We see in the future, dark ominous clouds. But the sun shines on the other side. Beyond all this, there is a glorious golden age. But we must not forget our work here. Work now, but rest bye-and-bye. God has said that men shall grow worse and worse; and shall we say they will grow better? God says, Destruction is near; shall we put far off the evil day? God points to wars, earthquakes, and famines, in divers places; shall we cry, Peace and plenty? True, the good time will come; but not till after a time of trial, of trouble, of anguish, and of distress, such as will not compare with anything in the annals of the past.

A fearful day to the wicked! Oh! shall we escape it. Oh! professed church of Christ, why not awake? Why sleep on till you are engulfed in the awful vortex of ruin? Awake, and escape for thy life. Look at these things as they are, for yourselves. Do not trust your souls to the preachers. Oh! professed shepherds of the fold of Christ, why preach such vain things? There can be no mistake, God’s word is plain. Why lure on the flock to certain death?

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble.” Are these hard sayings? It is God who has spoken them. Then let us fear and look at things as they are, and so be prepared for the worst. Do not suffer yourselves to be deceived, and be overcome, and finally taken in a snare. If these things seem to be hard, they are nevertheless true. Everywhere men’s hearts are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth; and yet they are rushing with madness to certain ruin.

Crime is fearfully on the increase. No one of good information is disposed to deny this. But should any one be inclined to deny it, he has only carefully to compare the present with his own boyhood days, and he will be convinced of the fact, that, though man was made upright, he has sought out many inventions; and instead of his loving and acknowledging his Maker, pride and every evil way fill his heart, so that he is fully set to do evil, and that continually.

Notwithstanding this siren song of peace, men in high places are looking with fearful forebodings into the future. Already has France declared war with Prussia, and what will be the end of these things no one can tell. The most gigantic preparations for war are going on in all the land. And this council of Romish priests, bishops, and cardinals—is it for naught? As the Pope has been declared infallible, who can tell the future? And what means this movement, all over this our own country, for the changing of the Constitution, to recognize God as our supreme and rightful ruler? Is it not the establishment of a national religion? This foretells anything but peace. How can people sleep on, so careless of the future? Indeed they would not, were it not for the flattery of false shepherds. Truly God has a controversy with the nations. He says, “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.” “Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.” Joel 3: 13, 14.

There is a direct prophecy of this peace-and-safety cry, which we may do well to notice in this connection. It is this: “And it shall come to pass in the last days that . . . many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” “They shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.” Isa. 2: 2–4; Micah 4: 4. They say that God says it; but they speak it after their own heart. It is not God who says it. Read it again, and you will see that it is “many nations” that say it in the name of the Lord. But God says, “They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.” Hos. 5: 6. This is spoken concerning God’s professed people. “They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God.” Is not this so? Bring before them the moral law with its down-trodden Sabbath, and other kindred Bible truths, and they will not hear them. Instead of framing their doings to turn unto God, they frame some kind of an excuse by which to get around the claims of God’s law. It is only here and there one that will consent to obey God from the heart. It shall be as the “gleaning of grapes,” as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the utmost fruitful branches, saith the Lord God of Israel. “But they that escape of them, shall escape, and shall be on the mountains, like doves in valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.”

Now, dear reader, destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.” The time will soon come when “the sword” shall be “without, and the pestilence and the famine within. He that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.”

But the Lord will be the hope of his people in that day. Where is your stay? Have you made the God of the whole earth your refuge? If not, begin now. “Seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Trouble is before us. God’s wrath will soon be poured upon the guilty nations of the earth. Mercy, sweet mercy, will soon take her flight forever from the earth. Now she lingers but for a moment. Will you not be entreated to cut loose from the vain traditions and fables of men? For “in vain” says Jesus, “they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” The rubbish of earth will soon pass away. Time is closing. The last sands of time are fast running out, and the hour-glass will soon be empty. Eternity is before us; and are we prepared? Solemn times indeed! Do we realize it? God has spoken, and it will surely come to pass. Yea, “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” This world is soon to pass away, and in place of it are to come “a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” The earth is to be changed to its Eden beauty. The New Jerusalem is to be its capital. Says Jesus, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; . . . I go to prepare a place for you.” In this city we will find the mansions Jesus is preparing for his people. The glory of God is the light of that city. The names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are inscribed on its foundations. The city has twelve gates of pearl; on these gates, the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. The city is of pure gold, like to clear glass. The foundations are garnished with all manner of precious stones. And the street of the city is of pure gold, like to transparent glass. Rev. 21. Oh! what a city.

“Beautiful Zion, built above, Beautiful city that I love.”

Transparent glass! It reflects! walk its streets! Beautiful mansions above, and reflected below. Saints and angels walking its streets, and reflected below. God’s throne above! everything in the city to feast the eyes upon, and the golden streets mirror back their beauty like the waters of a beautiful lake. O ye who love beauty, here it is! and this is waiting for you! God is in that city. It has no need of the sun or of the moon. The river of life is in the midst of that city; and the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruit, and yielding her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree, for the healing of the nations. Chap. 22.

Here, dear reader, is the golden age. Here is where the nations will learn war no more. Here every knee will bow to the King of kings. None but the purified can enter that place. “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Come, professor or backslider, saint or sinner, young or old; to you the invitation is extended. “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.” May the Lord help you to come, now while mercy lingers. Throw away the traditions of men; take the sure word of God; and finally may we meet in the coming kingdom.

H. F. PHELPS.

Pine Island, Minn.