Hear Them by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 29, 1874

Hear Them.

By Uriah Smith

WE are told that the views we promulgate respecting the second coming of Christ lack the element of certainty; that we cannot know anything about it.

HEAR CHRIST.

“So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [he, Christ, margin] is near, even at the door.” Matt. 24:33. See also Mark 13:29; and Luke 21:31.

HEAR PAUL.

To the Romans: “And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” Rom. 13:11, 12.

To the Thessalonians: “But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thess. 5:1, 2, 4.

To Timothy: “This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,” &c. “From such turn away.” 1 Tim. 3:1–5. How are we to turn away if we cannot know when the last days have come?

To the Hebrews: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Heb. 10:25.

HEAR PETER.

“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” 2 Pet. 1:19.

HEAR JOHN.

“If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Rev. 3:3. If they would watch, it follows that they would know. Those therefore who fail to watch are the ones and the only ones who fail to know.

What do these writers mean by all these things? U. S.