THEY WHO SAY PEACE by G. V. Kilgore

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 1, 1878

THEY WHO SAY PEACE.

By G. V. Kilgore

All the prophecies of the Bible, and all the signs of our times tell us plainly that this is no time of peace. Everything betokens trouble just before us. And almost all the newspapers speak as though men's hearts are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. But just as soon as a tent is pitched in any place for meetings in which these things are spoken of, the cry of “peace and safety” is sounded from the pulpits of the place and echoed back from all quarters. Those whose ears tingle with the peaceful tidings love to tell the story. “Having itching ears” to hear the truth opposed, they heap to themselves teachers of those things in which they delight.

Who are these who thus say peace and safety, while all things indicate distress of nations, with perplexity? Are they God’s chosen servants? No; they are men who resist the truth of God, men who will not preach the truth themselves, and who hinder those who do preach it. This will seem like a hard saying, yet the word of God declares that just such men will stand up to lead the people in the last days. It also declares that such men are not sent by the Lord. “They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith; and the Lord hath not sent them. . . . They shall not be in the assembly of my people; . . . because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace.” Eze. 13:6–10. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3. These scriptures are speaking of our own times,—the latter days.

Hear the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Harken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; . . . no evil shall come upon you.” Now hear how the Lord speaks: “Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.” In place of peace as the false teachers say, sudden destruction is coming. “In the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets [teachers], yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way.” Jer. 23:16–22. Oh, what a fearful account such men will have to render in the soon-coming day of God! How it pains the heart of the servant of God to see the multitudes being led by such men. “O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.” Isa. 3:12.

Nothing is more plainly stated in the Bible than that in the last days the multitudes of professors will be looking for great peace and prosperity, supposing for a certainty that the Lord is with them, when in fact he is against them, and is about to bring the storms of his wrath upon them. “Well, why would the Lord let people be deceived in that way?”—“Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2:10–12. They reject God’s truth, and the Lord rejects them; that is the reason God lets them be deceived. Those who preach the doctrine of the temporal millennium are most strikingly fulfilling Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, which chapters plainly declare that they who preach such a doctrine are rejected of the Lord, and that such people, who are exalted on the mountains and above the hills, shall be brought low, when the Lord arises to shake terribly the earth.

Those who teach the doctrine of the world’s conversion are always sure to read or quote the words of Isaiah and Micah to prove that doctrine. But these prophets do not say, that nations shall learn war no more; that Christ shall cause all to beat their swords into plowshares; and that every man shall sit under his vine and fig-tree, and nothing shall make them afraid: but Isaiah says “many people shall go and say” so in the last days, and Micah says “many nations shall come and say” the same. Micah 4:5 shows that it is the people, and not God, who declare such peaceful stories for the last days: “For all people will walk every one in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.”

Does the Lord allow men to walk every one in the name of his god,—one going one way and another going another way? No; God says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me;” but the people (just as

the prophet predicted) in these last days say, “All people can walk every one in his own way. It makes no difference what we believe or where we belong, only so we are sincere. You may belong to this church and another to that, we will all get to Heaven at last.” Indeed, a minister of this place says it is a good thing to have different churches, so all can be suited. How this prophecy is fulfilled in the people of these last days! God does not say a time of peace and safety is coming, but the people do. And Isaiah says, “Therefore [because they say such things, and are exalted] thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines.” Chap. 2:6.

Here now we have a positive statement that God has rejected those people who teach the doctrine of the world’s conversion in the last days. He has forsaken those who use these words of peace to make people rest easy when fear is on every side. Isaiah says these people are soothsayers like the Philistines; that is, they divine out of their own hearts.

Again, the prophet says, “They please themselves in the children of strangers.” Men who have never been converted are taken into full fellowship with them, and when the truth is to be opposed they are pleased even to have infidels fight their battles for them. This was the case last summer at Humboldt, Nebraska. None of the ministers would preach on the questions presented in our tents there, but they all went out to hear an infidel defend their doctrines. They boasted of his effort. Who are those who thus have fellowship with unbelievers, or please themselves in the children of strangers? They are the same people that say, “Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord,” who say nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, and not learn war any more. Isaiah says so. And we see his words fulfilled before our eyes in these last days.

In the last verse of this second chapter the prophet says, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” God’s people are not to hearken to the smooth stories of peace and safety. They must prepare for trials and conflicts; for Christ says they shall have tribulation in this world (John 16:33); and he never promises peace and safety until all the wicked are no more (Ps. 37; Matt. 13); until the devil is destroyed (Heb. 2:14); and until the kingdom of God is given to them. Then, and not till then, will they delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

G. V. KILGORE.

Ogden, Iowa, July 19.