"The Scripture Cannot Be Broken."
By Roswell F. Cottrell
THE Scripture cannot be broken, because it is the word of God. Holy men gave the Scriptures as the truths were given them by the Holy Spirit. Hence the declaration of Jesus, "The Scripture cannot be broken." The Saviour referred to this fact when he said, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" The Scriptures must be fulfilled, though the Son of God should suffer; for "thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day." Said Jesus, "All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me." The fulfillment of prophecies from of old down to the present day, bear testimony to the truth that the Scriptures cannot be broken. Not one word has failed. The particular delineations of the great kingdoms of this world, as given in prophecy in Dan. 2, 7, and 8, have not failed of a fulfillment in every specification except what relates to the closing events of the world's history. And we argue that as these prophecies have been fulfilled so far, the closing event promised will surely come. The four great beasts of Dan. 7, have had their description fulfilled in the empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia and Rome. The division of Rome into the ten kingdoms, represented by the ten horns of the fourth beast, has taken place; the papacy rising to power among the ten kingdoms, has fulfilled the given description of the blasphemous horn that was to speak great words against the Most High, wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and the full time allotted to the operations of this power has expired; and nothing remains to be fulfilled concerning this power, but its destruction by the decision of the judgment. In all this the Scriptures have not been broken. The prophecy of Rev. 13, connects itself with that of Dan. 7. The beast of Rev. 13:1-10, is the same as the little horn of Dan. 7. And it is with reference to this blasphemous power that the warning message of Rev. 14:9-12 is to be given. Now what I wish to say is briefly this: There is just such a message as here described going to the nations of the world. If this work is a false alarm, then, for the first time, the Scriptures are broken. The fulfillment of prophecies and the signs of the times show that the time has come when this message should be expected. Consequently if it does not appear, the Scriptures are broken; and if a false warning is being given in the place of the true, it makes it all the worse. Who can believe that God's providence will suffer his revealed plan to be so deranged in the fulfillment? The truth is, the time has come, and the message itself is being proclaimed to the world. The Scriptures are not broken and they cannot be; therefore the present proclamation of the message of the "third angel" is the work of God in fulfillment of his promise given 1800 years ago in prophecy. Men may disbelieve, but God is fulfilling his word. Professed believers may say that our position is false; but this is not enough. If our position on prophecy is false, it is their duty, as believers in the Scriptures, to give the world the true position on these prophecies. But they cannot even try to give the true explanation. This shows that they are in the dark. Nevertheless God is fulfilling his word; it cannot be broken.