Thoughts on Prophecy by D. T. Bourdeau

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 18, 1874

Thoughts on Prophecy

By D. T. Bourdeau

And the Immediate Coming of Christ, and the Inconsistencies of the Opposition Exposed.

BY ELD. D. T. BOURDEAU.

Taken mainly from the summing-up Speech by Eld. Bourdeau in a French Discussion between himself and Eld. Auger, held at St. Anne, Ill., on the evenings of July 5-9, 1874.

I. Possibility and importance of understanding the prophecies.

1. The prophecies are a part of the revelation of God to man, and Moses affirms that “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Deut. 29:29.

2. They form an important part of those Scriptures which St. Paul declares to be “profitable” (2 Tim. 3:16), and which can therefore be understood.

3. As history given in advance, they (especially those fulfilling in our day) furnish a stronger evidence in favor of the divine origin of the Scriptures than miracles performed in Bible times; for, to substantiate miracles performed in past ages, we simply have the written testimony, whereas in favor of prophecy fulfilling in our times, we have besides the written testimony our own senses to seize the events meeting the prophecy; and thus prophecy is made a living miracle, whereby God is made especially near to us, and speaks to us as it were face to face.

4. They are not dark sayings, but are compared to a candle which shines in a dark place. 2 Pet. 1:19. As such, they show us our whereabouts and our dangers; and certainly we would not refuse a light in a dark night; neither should we refuse the light of prophecy.

5. Christ and Peter command and exhort us to pay attention to and be mindful of the prophecies. Matt. 24:15; 2 Pet. 3:2.

6. According to the English translation, the Holy One of Israel, our Maker, commands us to ask and command him concerning things to come, Isa. 45:11, as though it was our privilege to understand them.

7. Accordingly, ancient prophets, as examples of the church, prayed, wept, and fasted, to get an insight into future events. Dan. 9:3; Rev. 5:4, etc.

8. A blessing is pronounced on those who read and on those who hear what is said to be the most difficult portions of prophecy; Rev. 1:3; but none can be blessed in reading the prophecies or in hearing them read, unless they can be understood.

9. Without the prophecies it would be difficult to prove that Christ is the Messiah, and Christ and the apostles frequently appealed to the prophecies to establish this doctrine.

10. Prophecy is the burden of at least twenty books of the Bible, besides being interspersed in nearly every other book of Holy Writ; so that were the prophecies excluded from the Scriptures, we would be left with a sieve-like Bible much smaller than our present Bible. This would be taking away from the words of this blessed book. Rev. 22:19. Yet this is virtually done by saying that the prophecies are forbidden ground, and cannot be understood.

11. They are very firm, 2 Pet. 1:19, and therefore we can depend upon them.

12. They are practical, showing the duties of men in different ages of the world. Rev. 1:3; 22:10, 14, and consequently it is highly necessary to comprehend them.

13. We see the importance that God attaches to them in the scriptural fact that “surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7.

14. At the time of the end, or at the time determined, knowledge was to increase on the prophecies, Dan. 12, and the seal which had been placed on some of the prophecies was to be removed by the transpiring of events fulfilling them. Rev. 10.

II. On precision or positiveness.

Although we are forbidden to be positive as to the day and hour of Christ’s second coming, yet,

1. We may be positive as to the meaning of prophecies relating to Christ’s coming when those prophecies are either fulfilled or fulfilling; otherwise such prophecies were written in vain, unless for the purpose of puzzling men’s brains.

2. It is necessary to be positive in regard to God’s prophetic word at the close of each dispensation and when solemn and important events, involving the ruin or salvation of men, according as they relate themselves to them, are about to transpire; as, for example, before the flood, before the destruction of the cities of the plain, before the first and second destructions of Jerusalem, before Christ’s first and second advents. If God now deals with men as he has in past ages, he certainly will give them through his word means of determining when the coming of Christ is impending.

3. The Scriptures teach plainly that a message relative to the proximity of the judgment and the coming of Christ shall be proclaimed by the church living at the close of this dispensation; Rev. 14:6, 10; Matt. 25; but such a message can never be heralded, and consequently the scriptures foretelling its proclamation are spurious if it be true that the church may never be positive in regard to the near coming of Christ. Then men are at full liberty to reject the closing portions of all those long chains of prophecy that bring us to the end of the gospel age. They may also repudiate all those isolated and short prophecies that are thrown in to indicate the approach of the day of God. Then the unfaithful servant who smites or opposes those who proclaim the coming of Christ near, Matt. 24, needs no censure from his Lord; and the mockers who were to arise in the last days, 2 Pet. 3:3, 4, saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning,” should mock on; for no one can know anything about the nearness of Christ’s coming, as there are no changes to indicate it. But,

4. When the great signs of the coming of Christ in the sun, moon, and stars, have appeared, we are commanded to “know that the Son of man [French translation] is near, even at the doors.” Matt. 24. And we may also then know that we have reached the last generation, with the same certainty that we know that summer is nigh when the trees put forth their leaves in the spring.

5. It was the precision and positiveness of Noah and his family that proved their salvation, because it was connected with faith in God’s prophetic word which led to a reform and to good works; while a lack of precision on the part of those who rejected Noah’s preaching, based on God’s word, led to unbelief and ruin. It was so at Christ’s first coming; and will be the same at the time of his second coming. Luke 18:8. Indefiniteness as to the nearness of Christ’s coming, when that coming is impending, excludes the use that is made in the prophecies of the swift approaching day of God as a strong incentive to repentance and holy living, and as a means of testing the genuineness of the love of the church for her returning Lord; for if we love the Lord, we shall long to see him. It is therefore as necessary to preach the immediate coming of Christ in our day, if the special signs of his coming have appeared, as it was to preach the approach of the deluge in the days of Noah, or to proclaim the coming of the Messiah in the time of John the Baptist.

III. Evidences of Christ’s soon coming.

1. The gospel has been preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and the end may be expected. Matt. 24:14. Historical authorities: J. O. Choules, author of the greatest work ever published on missions, and Mr. James, agent of the American Bible Society.

2. The special signs of Christ’s coming in the sun, moon, and stars, have appeared. They occurred immediately after the tribulation of the church by her persecutors, and we may know that Christ is near, even at the doors; and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for the words of Christ on this point to fail. Matt. 24:35. The sun was supernaturally darkened May 19, 1780, and the night following, the moon refused to give her light; and the night of November 13, 1833, witnessed by far the greatest display of falling stars or meteors that has ever visited our earth. My authorities are President Dwight, in Ct. Hist. Collections, Tract No. 379 of Am. Tract Society, Noah Webster, Prof. Olmstead, the famous meteorologist, and Mr. Smith, astronomer of New York city, etc.

3. In following the prophecy of the seven seals, we arrive at the same signs under the sixth seal, and reach the same inevitable conclusions. Rev. 6; 7:1.

4. In pursuing the interesting prophecy of the seven trumpets, we see that the sixth trumpet closed by the fall of the Ottoman Empire in passing into the hands of the allied powers of Europe in 1840, and that just at that time a message on time, connected with the finishing up of the work of the gospel, was going by sea and by land agreeably to the prophecy of Rev. 10, thrown in between the sixth and seventh trumpets. Rev. 7–11.

5. We have reached the end of all prophetic periods, the longest of which, the 2300 days, or years, ended in 1844, when Christ entered upon the closing work of his priesthood in the sanctuary in Heaven, preparatory to his coming to earth. Dan. 8:14.

6. The man of sin, papacy, has arisen, has had his prosperous, but cruel and audacious, reign of 1260 years over the nations; he has lost his civil dominion; the end is right upon us; and the caution of Paul to not look for Christ is removed. 2 Thess. 2; Dan. 7:25, 26.

7. In fulfillment of prophecy, the foul and degrading delusion of modern spiritualism is performing its wonders and doing its work of destruction, while the church are looking for Christ, who is about to come as a thief. Isa. 8:17–20; Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:8–12; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:6–9; Rev. 16:13–15.

8. And finally, the three advent messages of Rev. 14 are going forth. The last of these is developing a people keeping all God’s commandments, and its proclamation is to be immediately followed by the unmingled wrath of God, and the appearing of the Son of man on the white cloud. This synopsis might be greatly extended.

IV. Literality of the signs in the sun, moon, and stars.

It has been claimed that these signs are figurative, representing the corrupting and darkening influence of error, the fall of the church, or the fall of large and small powers of earth. As the work of corrupting the truth commenced in the apostolic age and continued for ages, and as the church apostatized in departing from the truth, and earthly powers fell in the first century and onward, this application would give the world the signs of the immediate coming of Christ more than seventeen hundred years ago! thus deceiving the world for ages!!

Our reasons for believing these signs to be literal are briefly as follows:—

1. They are given in a literal prophecy in connection with the literal coming of Christ and the literal scenes associated with that event.

2. They have been given literally in the past, and why may they not be given again literally? When the judgments of God were falling on the hardened Egyptians, the sun, moon, and stars, did not shine for three days; and when Christ hung upon the cross, the sun was darkened and the earth was robed in gloom, fitly prefiguring the sorrow and misery awaiting those who receive not Christ as their Saviour. A star led the wise men to the infant Saviour at his first advent. How proper then to have these signs appear literally before the second coming of Christ and the ushering in of the day of wrath!

3. John, in the subject of the seals, which was presented to him in A.D. 96, 26 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, represents the signs as to take place in close connection with the coming of Christ and the day of wrath; and the manner in which he describes the stars as falling “as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind”—answers completely to the manner in which the stars fell in 1833, proving conclusively the literality of the signs. Read also Joel 2:30; Luke 21:25.

The signs have been fulfilled literally at the very time specified by the Saviour, immediately after the tribulation of the elect.

5. They made the very impression that such signs should make; caused those who feared God to seriously consider, and were

regarded as forcible evidence of the proximity of the Judgment.

6. They are explained in a manner to lead the reader to believe them to be figurative.

7. As it would be absurd to make a literal application, when a figurative application is intended (as in the case of Joseph’s dream, concerning the sun, moon, and eleven stars, that of the fourth trumpet, and that of the symbolic woman of Rev. 12), so it would be absurd to make a figurative application when a literal one is intended.

8. And finally, in the case under consideration, reason unites with Scripture in requiring that the leading signs of so important an event be described literally, that they relate to things which all can appreciate, that they may serve as a key which can be used in opening to other evidences, and a firm basis on which to build a glorious and harmonious system of truth, which the most skeptical minds cannot fail to comprehend, if they will take pains to examine it with that candor that its importance demands.

V. Objections against precision, etc.

OBJ. 1. The apostles wrote as though Christ might come in the apostles’ days.

ANS. This objection not only represents the inspired apostles as making wrong impressions in their writings, but it is directly opposed to the teachings of the apostles. Paul strongly cautioned the church of his time not to be deceived by spirit, by word, or by letter, as that the day of Christ was at hand. 2 Thess. 2.

OBJ. 2. No man can tell the day and hour of Christ’s coming.

ANS. This does not prove that we may not know when Christ is near, even at the doors, or when we have reached the last generation.

OBJ. 3. Christ will come to all as a thief.

ANS. If this objection is genuine, then all will be lost; for a thief comes to destroy. But it is to those who cry peace and safety that Christ comes as a thief. The watching, believing church are not in darkness, that the day of the Lord should overtake them as a thief. 1 Thess. 5:2; Rev. 3:3.

OBJ. 4. Christ says, “Ye know not when the time is.” Mark 13:33.

ANS. The time Christ here speaks of is the “day and hour.” See previous verse.

OBJ. 5. The coming of the Lord will be like the lightning. Matt. 24:27.

ANS. As the lightning that cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so Christ is speaking of the publicity and extent of his coming by way of opposing those views which represent that coming to take place in a secret manner. Read previous verse.

OBJ. 6. Peter declares, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 2 Pet. 3:8.

ANS. Peter is writing to counteract the influence of the latter-day scoffers who would say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” and to inspire confidence in the certainty of the Lord’s promise concerning his coming. It is in regard to God’s promises that a thousand years are with the Lord as one day. That is, what God has promised one thousand years ago will be as surely fulfilled as though he had promised it to-day.

OBJ. 7. You were disappointed in 1844, and may fail again.

ANS. The Jews who came out of Egypt were disappointed when, instead of entering into the land of Canaan three weeks after the exode, they remained forty years in the wilderness to be tempted. Was not the Lord leading them? The disciples were also greatly disappointed when their Lord was crucified. Was the message which they had faithfully borne for over three years a false message? There was to be a tarrying time, and progressive advancement in the truth by the church, and many prophecies were to be fulfilled in the disappointment, to give still greater force to the advent doctrine. Matt. 25:5; Heb. 10:35–39; Rev. 10.

OBJ. 8. Why did not the apostles dwell more upon these prophecies and upon the prophetic periods?

ANS. The apostles wrote quite largely upon these prophecies as to be fulfilled in the future from their day. They laid stress on prophecies and times fulfilling in their day. Christ commenced his preaching by saying, “The time is fulfilled.” Mark 1:15. He evidently referred to the sixty-nine weeks reaching to Messiah the Prince. Dan. 9. We should also lay special stress upon the prophecies and periods fulfilling in our times. Why was not a Noah raised up to preach the flood in the days of Adam? And why did not a special message go forth on the immediate first advent of the Messiah in the days of David?

OBJ. 9. The important thing is to be ready.

ANS. Yes; but to be ready we must love Christ, and if we love Christ we shall long to see him, and shall respect and cheerfully welcome evidences of his speedy return.

VI. Inconsistencies of the opposition.

Truth is a unit, and those who defend it can present a connected, consistent and harmonious theory, while error is noted for its zigzag course, and those who maintain it will naturally run into various inconsistencies and contradictions.

For instance, those who oppose us on the speedy return of Christ, will commence their opposition by saying, “Christ may come to-day, and he may not come for one or two thousand years;” but before they get through you will perhaps hear them plead that the world must be converted before the coming of Christ. If Christ may come to-day, how can they be positive that the world will be converted? How can they tell that Christ will not come in this generation? and why oppose us?

Again, sometimes our opponents will claim that our points of difference consist in non-essentials, yet they will make these points essential in fiercely opposing our views. But the worst feature of this claim is that it bears directly against the sacred Scriptures, and when made deliberately and in the blazing light of truth, we cannot regard it as being less than sacrilege. One of our points of difference is, that we believe the prophecies may be understood, while many say that some prophecies cannot be understood. Thus they leave the impression that God undertook to give a revelation to man, but failed by putting into the Bible things that are not and can never be a revelation to fallen man. We claim it to be an important duty to proclaim the immediate coming of Christ in response to the many prophecies which show that he is near, and that he should be preached as such. But those who oppose us say we should not engage in such a work, and thereby they lower and oppose the numerous scriptures which enjoin this work on the church.

But in no one thing are the inconsistencies of our opponents more apparent than in their efforts to evade the force of the signs in the sun, moon, and stars. Some will take the position that these signs given by the Saviour were fulfilled, as recorded by Josephus, just before the destruction of Jerusalem, and that the destruction of Jerusalem is the tribulation spoken of in connection with the signs. But the fallacy of such views is clearly exposed by the following facts:—

1. This makes the signs appear before the tribulation, while Christ says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven.” Matt. 24:29.

2. Josephus speaks of no such signs, but speaks of “signs very unlike these; as the sword hanging over Jerusalem, the gates of Jerusalem being opened without hand, and the man walking around the doomed city for days, crying, ‘Woe to this city,’ and finally saying, ‘Woe to me,’ when a stone fell upon him, and he died. But,”

3. The tribulation itself cannot refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, for, first, it was to be the greatest that had been “since the beginning of the world.” But the destruction of the world by a flood was a far greater tribulation than the destruction of Jerusalem. Secondly, The days of the tribulation were to be shortened for the elect’s sake, and except those days should be shortened there should no flesh (of the elect understood) be saved. But hundreds of churches of the elect outside of the land of Judea, in other parts of Asia, in Europe, and Africa, would have been saved if every soul in Judea had perished. How natural and easy the application of the tribulation to the sufferings of the church under heathen and papal persecutions, and to have the literal signs appear immediately after that tribulation, according to facts in history. This tribulation was indeed the greatest that the church had experienced, or that they ever would pass through.

And no less futile are the appeals of so-called learned men to science to counteract the force of the signs. To illustrate: Some with quite a show of learning will affirm that the dark day of May 19, 1780, and the unusual darkness of the night following, were the result of an eclipse. But in tracing eclipses back by astronomy, you have to halt this side of the dark day or beyond that day to find an eclipse. It could not be an eclipse caused by the moon, for an eclipse of the sun as caused by the moon can take place only at new moon; but that darkness occurred at about the time of full moon; so that men of science affirm that “the causes of these phenomena are unknown. They certainly were not the result of eclipses.” “For which no satisfactory cause has been assigned.”—Robert Sears’ Guide to Knowledge. Noah Webster, in New Haven Daily Herald.

Astronomy is also too much for our opponents on the falling stars; for it meets them by saying of the meteoric display of November 13, 1833, “The greatest meteoric display ever known.” “We now come to by far the most splendid display on record. . . . In many districts the mass of the population were horror-struck, and the more enlightened were awed at contemplating so vivid a picture of the apocalyptic image—that of the stars of heaven falling to the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”—Asa Smith’s Astronomy, p. 23.

The fact that these displays are periodical does not lessen the force of this wonderful exhibition. It is not to be expected that Jehovah shall lay aside the laws he has established, and discard all natural means in accomplishing his wonders to fulfill the prophetic word. Not long since, a preacher in opposing us on this point said: “Our earth in its circuit around the sun passes through two belts of gases at different points, and it passes through these gases with such velocity that it ignites them, and the result is falling stars.” But the question still recurs, “Why was there such a wonderful display in 1833? Did the earth go faster through one of the belts that year? or did God add more gas for the occasion? The hand of God was in that sign.”

Our views on this subject being reasonable and scriptural, what is the nature of the opposition? I do not now speak of man’s motives and of the amount of light our opponents have. I leave these points between them and the Judge of all, who tries the reins and the hearts, and will bring every work into Judgment, with every secret thing. Our message being a Bible message, we are shut up to the following conclusions:—

1. The opposition is a war against God and his word.

2. It tends to calm the people in unbelief, so that they will not discern the signs of the times, and that the great day of God shall overtake them as a thief.

3. It encourages those who mock at the idea of Christ’s immediate coming to mock on.

4. It encourages men to act as the masses acted in the days of Noah.

5. It destroys in the minds of those who maintain it the strong motive to repentance, that is based on the fact that “the great day of the Lord is near and hasteth greatly.” Zeph. 1:14; 2:1–3; Joel 2:1.

6. It grieves those who long to see Christ and faithfully proclaim his coming, and adds to their already arduous task of preaching unpopular truth.

7. And, finally, it unqualifies the masses to be in a state of readiness to exclaim at the revelation of Jesus from Heaven, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.” Isa. 25:9.

Dear reader, I beseech you in the name of Christ to be on the safe side.