FIRST of all, let us say to our readers that this series of articles have not been all they were planned to be in the beginning,—in breadth, in fulness, or in strength. We need not recite the hindrances—they are largely personal; and we are sure that our readers, did they know, would believe them sufficient. There is a tremendous field of scripture along these lines. We hope that sometime it will be more fully developed.
In this article, let us note some of God's specifications concerning both the true church and the counterfeit, concerning God's loyal legions in the earth and the great apostasy for these last days, these times, reader, in which we live.
Evidences of the Last Days
Do we need to furnish evidences that we are living in the last days? Not less than twelve lines of prophecy, having clear and definite beginnings, varying from the days of Babylon of old to those of the apostle John on the isle of Patmos, attest that we are in the last days. Each and all of these have met partial fulfilment, nay, almost plenary fulfilment. So far as this earth in its present condition is concerned, we are in the last stages of all these various prophetic lines. According to the prophetic timetable of each, we are nearing the close of the journey. At the end of these prophecies lies the destruction of all earthly kingdoms and the setting up of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Besides these, there are numerous evidences, foretold by prophet and seer, of various special signs, conditions, omens, which shall occur just previous to the second coming of Christ. These precursors are in the heavens and in the earth, in national and social life, in commercial and religious circles; in fact, everywhere. When we see all these things fulfilling before our very eyes, we may know that Christ's coming is near. This is His own declaration. See Matt. 24: 33-35.
Surely at such a time as this He has not left men to themselves with no knowledge of the way. As in ancient days, God has always men who have "understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do;" but emphatically in these times He has given us His word. Of course we know there are those who exalt tradition above the Word, and there are those who make the Word of none effect by their very learned criticisms—of none effect in the minds of men. The Word itself is effectual always, effectual for righteousness in the hearts of all those who receive it, and effectual for destruction in the hearts of those who resist and reject it. That Word has clearly foretold us just where apostasy6should stand in the last days, and where God's true church would be. If we heed the prophecy, we shall see the fulfilment.
I. The Apostasy
The epistles of the apostle Paul to Timothy are designed, in the providence of God, to be of universal application among all God's ministers down to the very last days. It was not to Timothy alone that the instructions were given, but he was to pass them on to others, that others might pass them on still to others, until the work of Christ in the earth should close. The express charge given to Christian ministers is to "preach the Word." They are told that the time should come when men would not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts would heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and that these should turn away men from the truth to fables. See 2 Tim. 4: 1-5. As the result of this teaching, when the last days are reached we would not see a converted world, the heart of which was athrob with love of souls and service for Christ. On the other hand, we would find a world in the deepest peril, because professors of religion, those who should be the salt of the earth, have lost their savor. Read the apostle's picture 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: from such turn away."
The reader will note that the perils are not because of wickedness and violence, altho the world shall see its fill of this, but because these eighteen different sins are found among a class of people who ought to be holding aloft a high religious standard. If we compare this list of sins with that given in the last part of Romans 1, we find it almost identical with what the apostle Paul tells us existed in the heathen world of his day. The power of godliness is the power to save men from sin; yet here is the mass of religionists that have the form of godliness, but deny its power in their lives.
James tells us that the reason of this is that they are united with the world. In their spiritual relationship they are adulteresses; they have made friends with the world in the sense of partaking of its spirit and yielding to its follies, and "friendship with the world is enmity with God." James 4: 3, 4. It is this class mentioned numerous times in connection with last-day prophecies that form the great apostasy—Babylon, against which God warns us in the book of Revelation.
“Babylon” itself means confusion. That name is applied to the church of God during the Christian dispensation because of the confusion which exists over Scripture truth and doctrine. It is to heal all these divisions of Christendom that “the everlasting gospel” message of Rev. 14: 6, 7, declaring that God’s judgment is impending, is given to the world. God desired to save Babylon; and to save Babylon, He must save her out of her confusion, and out of the sins and errors which led to it. But the great church is rejecting the everlasting gospel, and putting in its place a gospel that is denuded of its strength through higher criticism, or buried under the traditions of men; and therefore the cry goes forth to the world that “Babylon is fallen.” She will not partake of the remedy which will heal; she must go on to destruction. Consequently the only thing that God can do is to use His gospel and call His children out of Babylon.
That picture of Babylon is found in Revelation, chapters 17 and 18. It is found in the great apostate Church of Rome, and all the other churches that are following in the wake of Rome.
It is with no feeling of joy that we pen these words. Would to God that all the various churches of the earth were seeking God, coming out from the errors of the world, and yielding themselves to Him! But the sad thing is that they are not, but are drifting farther and farther away; and the only means of salvation, the only power which can heal and restore, is the gospel, and that is set aside.
And yet that apostasy is represented in the seventeenth chapter as a woman riding in triumph, rich, proud, popular, living in luxury, consorting with the kings of the earth, holding out in her hand a cup filled with the doctrines and glories and visions which come by worldly fornication, pleading with the nations to come to her. Apostasy thinks it is converting the nations. God’s testimony is that she is making the nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Such is the picture which God gives of the apostate church in the last days.
II. Regarding the True Church
First of all, many of the true church of God are scattered throughout great Babylon. This is indicated by the call. In the eighteenth chapter of Revelation and the fourth verse, after the statement that Babylon had fallen, because of her rejection of the only thing that would heal her, and was becoming filled with the things that were contrary to God and to His word, the prophet declares, “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18: 4. Therefore to look for God’s people in these days, before that call is completed, is to look for a scattered people, true souls that are loyal to God and the best light they have everywhere. From all parts of the world are they to be gathered. Jer. 16: 14, 15; Matt. 24: 31.
2. Those who are called out from Babylon will be a mere remnant, for it is always the remnant which is saved. “And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved.” Rom. 9: 27, A.R.V. And therefore the argument of the eleventh chapter of Romans, in which God cites the type of His people in this time, Elijah, and the type of apostasy in this time, Israel. Elijah the prophet, standing alone as the center of loyalty to God, laments in his own heart that he only is true to God; yet God tells him that He has a remnant even in Israel: “I have left for Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” Rom. 11: 4, 5.
This remnant is referred to again in Micah. After telling us one of the phases which apostasy shall take in the last days, proclaiming a false peace throughout all the world, God declares of His true church: “In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted; and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and Jehovah will reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth even forever.” Micah 4: 6, 7.
A Little Flock
3. A small people. That people, as compared with the great mass of nominal religionists, will be a small people. This is intimated in the text already given. The strong nation which the remnant will be made, of course, refers to the ultimate salvation of all God’s children, in which there shall be added to the remnant all those who sleep in the Lord Jesus Christ, who will be raised at His coming. But the little company in the last days, when our Lord comes, will not be a large number; and as compared with the rest of the world, God’s children have never been a large number. It is our Lord Himself who declares: “Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.” Matt. 7: 13, 14.
Again, in referring to the time of His second coming, Jesus uses these words to His children: “Fear not, LITTLE flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. . . . Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him. . . . Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” Luke 12: 32-40.
4. It will be a people upon whom reproach shall be visited because of their small numbers, their poverty, their insignificance, their lack of the things which the world calls great. Nay, more, but the very reproof of God will be visited upon His people, not for destruction, but for correction. Read of the last phases of God’s church in Rev. 3: 14-21. Those who heed that fearful reproof will be among those that shall stand in the condition of the Philadelphia church, against which God has nothing, who will hold fast that which they have, knowing that He is coming quickly. The same thing is taught us in the last chapters of Isaiah; for instance, in Isa. 57: 17: “For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him; I hid My face and was wroth; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith Jehovah; and I will heal him.” See Isa. 57: 14-19.
But healing comes through humility of heart, for it is with the humble in heart that Christ dwells. When humbled under the reproof and warnings of God, they will say, in the words of the prophet, “Wo is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage.” Looking out upon the world, they will feel as did the prophet, “The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men.” Looking at their own unworthiness in the light of God’s presence, they will say: “But as for me, I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said unto me, Where is Jehovah thy God?” See Micah, the seventh chapter.
That is what the great apostasy shall say to those who are endeavoring to walk in God’s ways in the last days, when it will seem that every earthly support has been taken away, and the church, like her divine Lord, stands forsaken of all; and yet that very day is “a day for building thy walls.” God has promised that His flock shall be fed. He tells them: “As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt will I show unto them marvelous things;” and then, to cheer and comfort them, comes that wonderful, blessed passage to all souls who hope in God’s mercy: “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in loving-kindness. He will again have compassion upon us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” God will restore the years during which reproach has been visited upon His children, and those who humble themselves under His mighty hand will receive fulness of glory when He shall come.
A People of Reform
5. That remnant body will be a called-out church, a church bearing a great message of reform, one that, in the language of Isaiah, will “go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up an ensign for the peoples. Behold, Jehovah hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. And they shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of Jehovah: and thou shalt be called Sought out.” See Isa. 62: 10-12.
These people yield themselves to God’s call as the result of the message outlined in Isaiah 58, beginning with the words, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a7trumpet, and declare unto My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins." This reform takes hold upon the inner life and motive, as we may learn by the reading of the entire chapter. And to those who heed that message it is said: "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." That is what God's people will aim to do in the last days. That is what His small remnant church will be doing for Him, as He closes His work in the sanctuary above. They will bear to the world His last great threefold message, found outlined in Rev. 14: 6-14, the heart of which is "the everlasting gospel."
A Commandment-Keeping Church
6. That reform work will make of them a commandment-keeping Christian church. Refer again to Isaiah 58. Those that are called "The repairer of the breach," and "The restorer of paths to dwell in," turn away their foot from God's Sabbath, which has been trampled underfoot for generations and centuries. They see in that Sabbath the sign of the great power of God to create and to re-create, and therefore they call it "a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable." And they honor it, not doing their own ways, nor finding their own pleasure, nor speaking their own words. They find a wonderful delight in the observation of that token of God's goodness in giving man this earth, and of God's goodness and love in re-creating man, redeeming him from the power of sin, and sanctifying him to His own service. Eze. 20: 12, 20.
These commandment keepers, like Elijah of old, form the nucleus, or center, from which all the called-out from Babylon shall gather in the last days. In them shall the truth of God find restoration. Not only in their message shall the holy word of God be preached, but in their lives shall the holy word of God be lived. Therefore there shall arise against them wrath from those who are reproved by the message and life. Of that remnant church it is said, "And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, that keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus." All the downtrodden truth of Christ's teaching regarding the outpouring of His Spirit, and this Spirit manifest in various spiritual gifts, will be held by this church. They are imperfect humans, it is true, but they are imperfect humans that are yielding themselves to the mighty, masterly, perfect workmanship of God; and He is working out in them, gathered as they are from all phases of belief and non-belief, from all races of mankind, from paganism and infidelity, but gathered by the one gospel, holding aloft the one standard, God's holy law, presenting as the only means of reaching that standard the righteousness of Christ by faith, and the power of His Spirit in the inner life. So believing and so working, they come at last to the coming of the Master, when He shall say of them, "Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
It could not be said of any body that they kept the commandments of God who were breaking that precept which declares, "Thou shalt not kill," or "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image;" but the same law which said, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," and "Thou shalt not kill," said also, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Those, therefore, who form that remnant church, keep all God's commandments through the faith of Jesus Christ, the fourth commandment among the rest. In other words, they have taken God's Book for their standard. They are not afraid to walk in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. This means endurance—not mere patience in the limited, small sense of meekness and tolerance and sweetness under every-day perplexities, but patience in the larger sense of enduring for God amid all the trials and temptations of the last days.
These are some of the characteristics, reader, which God has portrayed in His word, of His church in the last days. When she is found, she will be found bearing all these characteristics. Her witness will witness with the Word. She will not be found lording it over the kings of the world; she will not be found united with the state; she will not be found clamoring for power in legislative halls. She will be found humbly doing her Master's will, and proclaiming to all the world that there is salvation from sin in Him. Do you know of such a church? Then with all your heart yield yourself to that which will make you a member of it, and walk on in glorious triumph till the Master shall come.
