CHURCHLY INIQUITY

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 20, 1887

CHURCHLY INIQUITY.

"AND because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Matt. 24:12. These words were spoken by our Lord concerning a time just before, and reaching to, his second coming. It should serve as a complete refutation of the idea that the world will be converted, and that there will be a millennium of Christian joy and peace before the coming of the Lord. This verse not only teaches that iniquity will abound, but, with the next verse, shows that the iniquity will continue even until the end. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Whoever is saved when the end comes, will have "endured" something; his path will not have been one of ease, but he will have "come out of great tribulation."

The same thing is taught by the apostle in 2 Tim. 3:1-5: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof."

This shows that the reason why those who shall be saved when the Lord comes, will have been called upon to "endure," is because they will have passed through perilous times; and the reason why the times will be "perilous," is "because iniquity shall abound." It also shows that this abounding iniquity will be in the professed church, for it is committed by those who have "a form of godliness."

Now, if we read carefully Matt. 24:12, we shall see that the iniquity there referred to is iniquity practiced under the garb of religion. "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." The iniquity is committed by those who have love, and causes that love to decline. Surely, then, we shall have just the opposite of Christian joy and love in the world before the Lord comes; for not only is iniquity to abound, and perilous times to exist as a consequence, but this state of things is to be right in the church.

But how can it be that such crimes as those mentioned in 2 Tim. 3:1-5 can exist in the church, when

they are the very ones that now characterize men of the world? Easily enough, for the church and the world will be one. All the world will belong to the church. This will not be brought about in the good old way known to Paul and Luther and the Wesleys, namely, by conversion, but by Constitutional Amendment, a plan very similar to that adopted by Constantine and Charlemagne, who brought people into "the church" by thousands. Citizenship and church membership will be one and the same thing; and this will result in bringing into "the church" all the political hacks, ward politicians, "boodle ringers," and whoever has an itching palm for Government coin and influence, and his name is legion. The "love of many" will necessarily "wax cold" before they can lower the standard sufficiently to receive such ones into church fellowship; and contact with the same class will by no means tend to restore that which they have lost.

But before this state of things can be fully brought about, men must reject the truth of God, especially that which relates to the Sabbath. And because of their rejection of the truth, strong delusion will be sent upon them that they should believe a lie. 2 Thess. 2:10-12. This blindness will cause them to call evil good and darkness light, so that although iniquity will be abounding, they will say that all is well, the world is converted, and the temporal millennium has come. Then, as prophesied by Isaiah, they will say, "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." And then, "when they shall say, Peace and safety," then sudden destruction shall come upon them, "and they shall not escape." 1 Thess. 5:3. Then the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth, and those who have exalted themselves shall be humbled, "and they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty." May the Lord grant us grace to humble ourselves now, that in that day we may be exalted to a place at his right hand. W.