p. 11 | A REFUGE OF LIES by Wm. Covert

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 13, 1876

A REFUGE OF LIES.

By Wm. Covert

“They have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.” Eze. 13:6. Man, poor deluded creature, has suffered himself to be deceived, and has become the easy prey of Satan. He has been so badly bewildered that he has mistaken light for darkness and darkness for light. The race have gone so far in this direction that even those who profess to love Jesus, fondly cherish any thought that would make them hope that his coming is far in the future. They are very sensitive indeed for the honor of the Son, when the subject of the Sabbath is being considered; but just tell them he is coming back in a little while, and they will shudder at the thought. Oh, no! it cannot be possible that this beautiful world, with its teeming millions, shall never realize its fond hope of a temporal millennium. They really do not want to see Jesus. They would much rather he would not come. They hope that their ministers can satisfy their minds by convincing them that he is not coming soon.

I lately heard a novelty of an explanation, which is satisfying some who never investigate for themselves, and who desire to put off the return of the Lord. A Baptist minister living in Bluffton, Ind., has written a Commentary on Daniel and the Revelation, in which he has originated some things very peculiar, and has succeeded in quelling the fears of many concerning the threatenings contained in Rev. 11:15–18. These verses describe the third and last woe. But in his work he gives the order of the trumpets and seals, and declares that the seventh in each series preceded the first in the same series!

I had often wondered if those who cry, “Peace and safety,” ever looked at these chains of prophecy. But I have ceased to wonder. I have learned the solution of the mystery. They will do anything, no matter how absurd or false, in order to fortify their “refuge of lies.” Eze. 13:10–16. No matter if an angel (Rev. 8:13) does announce that there are three angels yet to sound after four of the seven have sounded, and that these three trumpets are woe trumpets. It is of no consequence that Christ has told us that when the seventh angel sounds God’s unmingled wrath is poured out, and the destruction of the wicked powers of earth takes place. It proves nothing that the testimony does say that the saints all receive their reward at this time. There is one fact standing boldly to the front, and every other consideration must give place. The chronology of this trumpet is fixed at the first advent, because the kingdom of Christ is set up when it sounds; and as it was set up at the first advent, the seventh angel sounded before the first! Again, it cannot be future; for if it is, there is no place for the temporal millennium!

Thus their whole faith is mounted like a grindstone. It has for its axle the cry, “Peace and safety,” one end resting on the assumption that the kingdom of Christ was set up eighteen hundred years ago, the other, on the false idea that the world is to be converted. Thus it can turn either backward or forward, and the face is always up to brighten their hopes and quell their fears.

And so vain man sets at naught all the warnings sent in mercy. But this only confirms our faith in the truth; for we find plainly recorded on the pages of inspiration a prophecy of the course that theologians are taking. Wm. COVERT.