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WHAT IF THEY ARE?

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 12, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 49, No. 15.

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“WHAT IF THEY ARE?”

By R. F. Cottrell

Such was the language of a venerable preacher, in reply to the acknowledgment of another, that the 2300 days of Dan 8:14 are ended. It is astonishing with what indifference professed believers can look upon the word of God. Although the great God would reveal to men a set time, far in the future, for a certain work to take place, in the great plan of human salvation, and it be of no importance to us to know when the appointed time is come, or what the work is that is then to be done. The Lord does not trifle with men, nor speak words that are of no importance and non-essential. These words were not thus revealed to man by the ministration of angels, for us to treat with indifference; they were not put into the Bible to make it a large book; but for men to be interested in, and understand; and we may be sure, not only that it will be known when the days are ended, but that a momentous work will succeed their termination, a work in which we are all deeply interested. When a time is appointed for the session of a county court, all who have causes to be tried are interested; and shall the appointed time come for eternal decisions, and the “hour of God’s Judgment is come” be proclaimed to the inhabitants of the earth, and we feel no interest in it?
“Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” These are the words of the great God, given for our instruction and salvation. “Shall a trumpet be blown in a city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?”
I beseech the reader who is not informed on the subject of this text, to procure our advertised works, and search out the truth; for it is a matter in which all should feel that they have an interest. R. F. COTTRELL.