Where Are We? by G. W. A.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 6, 1873

Where Are We?

By G. W. A.

WHERE are we, on the highway of time? is a question of deepest interest to every Christian traveler. Says the prophet, with an eye to the events of the end, “Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of the night?” and the answer was returned, “The morning cometh, and also the night.” If we go to the Bible for light on this question, the student of prophecy is gratified with the most exact information in regard to his whereabouts. God’s word is the Christian’s calendar, in which he can learn his place in the closing hours of probation. And take our standpoint wherever we may, the one same conclusion is invariably arrived at, namely, that the coming of Christ is the next great event in the history of the world. If we go to the second chapter of Daniel, our position in the metallic image is startling. The gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron, have passed away, and where are we? In the toe state of the image, next to be succeeded by the fifth everlasting kingdom, which the God of Heaven is about to set up.

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, the Saviour certifies the church of his return by three great signs—the darkening of the sun and moon, and showers of falling stars—all of which have been fulfilled, to the letter, and may be pointed out with historical accuracy. Says Christ, When these things come to pass, then KNOW that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

The proclamation of the Advent doctrine is an unmistakable token of the end. Three messages, based on the gospel of the kingdom, were to be given before Christ should come; and the last one of the three has already been pressed home to the consciences of men, by the Holy Spirit, for more than twenty-five years. The next event is the Son of man on the white cloud.

The predicted part which our own government, the two-horned beast of Rev. 13, should act in the closing struggle between truth and error, is just ready to be fulfilled, which will be followed by the loud cry, the time of trouble, and eternal deliverance.

The waning of the papacy, and the removal of its temporal dominion, was to occur in close proximity with the end. Rome did surrender to Victor Emanuel’s troops, Sept. 20, 1870. The next event in papal history is, the beast will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming. The exact order of the prophecy is, 1. The Judgment shall sit (investigative judgment). 2. They shall take away his dominion. 3. The beast goes into the lake of fire. But the Judgment did sit in 1844. The dominion was taken away three years ago, and therefore the next thing is the end.

Also the “great words” of the beast, Dan. 7: 11, just before his body was given to the burning flame, have all been fulfilled. Dec. 8, 1854, the Virgin Mary, by the Roman Council, was decreed to be a sinless woman; and July 18, 1870, the pope was declared infallible at the fourth session of the great Ecumenical Council.

The message to the Laodicean church is a startling indication of the end. In 1856, it was announced that Christ was knocking at the door of our hearts for admittance. For seventeen years, he has thus stood knocking, till his locks are wet with the dews of night. This divine forbearance, this long-suffering of God, will finally cease to be a virtue, and will be followed by the shaking, the loud cry, the King coming in to see the guests, and—the translation of the faithful.

Our position in the seven seals is portentous of the end. These seals delineate the experience of the church from the apostles’ days to the incoming of the new heavens and new earth. Five of the seals are in the past. We are living under the sixth, which reaches to Christ’s coming. This seal was opened Nov. 1, 1775, by “the great earthquake of Lisbon,” which destroyed sixty thousand persons, in six minutes, and shook three-fourths of the terraqueous globe. History describes it as “the most terrible earthquake that has ever occurred.” The particular events of the sixth seal are, 1. “The great earthquake.” 2. The three great signs in the sun, moon, and stars, which are all in the past. 3. The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, and Christ appears. Where are we?

The gradual, sure, but certain consumption of the great Ottoman dynasty, represented by the drying up of the river Euphrates, is one of the political signs of the times which speaks Christ very near. The “Eastern Question” is one of awful importance to the world. When the Turk is driven out of Europe to his Asiatic possessions, an event which sagacious statesmen of our time are expecting continually, and plants the tabernacle of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain, then shall Michael stand up, the great time of trouble come, the resurrection take place, and the redeemed stand on Mount Zion.

The position of the last church, in reference to the seven trumpets, inevitably brings us down to the end. The seven trumpets are a kind of seven-fold prophecy, spanning the entire period from the first advent to the final restitution, and relate more especially to the nations which have been brought into connection with the people of God. Six of the trumpets are in the past. We are living under the seventh, which began to sound in 1844. For twenty-nine years this trumpet has been sounding. But the prophecy says of the seventh angel, “When he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.” In view of this, how long can it be before the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ?

But it would take a volume to set forth all the evidences which show where we are—that we are very near the end.

Every train of cars that goes thundering by, proclaims in trumpet tones that we are “in the day of God’s preparation.” The vast increase of knowledge, sacred and profane, shows that truly we are in the “time of the end.” Peter’s scoffers and Jude’s mockers, proclaim every day, everywhere, continually, that we are in the last days. Eleven millions of spiritualists, with their corrupt, seductive teachings, are a mighty sign that the end is just upon us. Corrupted Christianity, with its long catalogue of predicted sins, shows that we are in the perils of the last days. While the angry attitude of the nations—the cry of peace and safety in the church—the vast preparations for war, even among the heathen—vice rearing its defiant head, and stalking forth unblushingly—truth crushed to the ground, and struggling for an existence—men’s hearts failing because of the fearful portents in heaven and earth—earthquakes in divers places—the sea and waves roaring in consequence of strange tidal disturbances—singular extremes in the seasons, in regard to heat and cold—new diseases breaking out, baffling the skill of the wisest physicians—scourges and epidemics in the animal kingdom—droughts, fires, floods, famines, and pestilence, desolating the earth by their awful visitations—the moral bonds of society gradually loosening up, and crime greatly on the increase—corruption in high places—surfeiting and drunkenness everywhere—embezzlers of public funds and defaulters increasing—pride and oppression so common as hardly to receive a passing notice—disobedience to parents proverbial—the land polluted by blasphemy—murder and seduction so frequent, so awful, that the particulars are not allowed in print—while an almost universal foreboding of a something awful to take place, tell, as plainly as language can, that we are in the closing hours of probation.

Surely, we need not be at a loss to know where we are.

G. W. A.