WHAT DOES IT MEAN? by S. B. Whitney

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 26, 1877

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

By S. B. Whitney

To-day the Baptist evangelist in this place read the 13th chapter of Mark for his morning lesson, and when he came to the 30th verse he stopped and commented as follows: “The generation in which we are living, will not pass away till all these things are accomplished. The end of all things is nearer than most of us suppose. I believe there are those in this house that will see the opening heavens, and hear the last trump, when the angels will be sent to gather the saints of God.”

Now what does this mean? What can it mean but that the evidences are so strong that men are constrained to admit the fact that the signs of the second advent are fulfilled, and the day of the Lord hasteth greatly? This seems plain and comprehensible; but there is another point that is not so clear. The Bible plainly teaches that there is to be a warning given of the approach of the day of the Lord. In Joel 2:1, God says, “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;” and in Rev. 14:6-12, we have the express terms in which he wants this warning given. These messages we are trying to give in this community, with the results that usually follow this work; but the evangelist above referred to is not only not giving them, but is doing all he can to oppose our doing it, and to hinder the people from receiving them; denouncing us as false prophets, and accusing us of trying to deceive the very elect. Now what does this mean?

Admitting that the day of the Lord is nigh upon us, he yet opposes the very work that God in his word authorizes and commands to be done in this time, while he professes as the servant of God to follow that word. This is indeed strange.

S. B. WHITNEY.

Parma, N. Y., April 8, 1877.