Why Choose to be Blind?
By R. F. COTTRELL
SINCE the Lord Jesus has given us signs by which we may know when his coming is "near, even at the doors," why should people professing faith in him deliberately choose to be "in darkness, that that day should overtake" them "as a thief in the night?" With the example on record of the fall of the blind Jews, who could not "discern the signs of the times," and as a consequence were rejected of God, because they believed not Moses and the prophets, and therefore "knew not the time of their visitation," what strange infatuation possesses the minds of professing Christians, that they close their eyes to the fulfillment of prophecy and the foretold signs of Christ's second coming and of the end of the world, and really seem to be offended when their attention is called to these things! They will perhaps tell us that no man shall know the day or the hour, and give us to understand that we have no business to enquire into the prophecies, and thus try to pry into the secrets of the Almighty, ignoring the fact that He that said, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man," in the same connected discourse bids his people "know," when the signs he gives are fulfilled, that his coming "is near, even at the doors." It is true that that day will come upon a class, namely, the wicked and unbelieving, as a thief in the night. "The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them." But why should people deliberately choose to be of this class? Why not rather choose to be of a class immediately mentioned by the apostle as follows: "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief?" 1 Thess. 5. "If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." Rev. 3 : 3. Would it not be better to watch, and avoid this calamity, and so be able to say when Christ comes, "Lo, this is our Lord; we have waited for him, and he will save us." Isa. 25 : 9.