THE TIME OF TROUBLE by R. W. Rogers

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 19, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 29.

THE TIME OF TROUBLE.

By R. W. Rogers

BY R. W. ROGERS.

DANIEL has told us that when Micheal shall stand up, the great Prince (Christ) who standeth for the children of Thy people, there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. The time of trouble that is to come upon this age is far more terrible than anything that ever came upon any people of this world. They will drink of the dregs of the cup of wo, and it will be an awful mixture.

Each age has its bitter with its sweet. We are shown that each age has a time of trouble to pass through in its closing days. The first age was "eating and drinking" (feasting and given to strong drink). The people were having "a merry time." They scoffed at the idea of a flood coming to destroy them. Noah could not prevail on them to believe his testimony. He had borne his testimony so long, that it became an old story to them. That is what we hear now, the same old story we have heard since 1844.

But when the heavens were covered with blackness and the thunders pealed forth their awful warnings and the rain began to come down upon them, their spell of unbelief was broken and a time of trouble and sorrow came upon that people such as they had never experienced before. God took care of the ark; all that were sealed into it were safe, and all on the outside were vainly fleeing from that awful storm to save themselves.

This is the condition now; men do not believe what God has said concerning what shall come upon the world. The Jewish people had drifted away from God's Word and they did not believe what Moses said would befall them, if they departed from God and refused to keep His commandments.

But we find that in the closing work for the Jewish age there came upon the Jewish people just what Moses had said would come. They had a time of trouble and tribulation to pass through, such as they did not believe could come upon them. They were gathered into the city behind those massive walls, and they thought it was impossible for any army to gain an entrance into the city. But we read of the awful condition of that people before the siege was ended, and how they suffered, and how their city fell. The prophecies of Moses and Jesus were fulfilled, and they passed through the greatest time of affliction that people ever had to endure. God lost none of His people in that overthrow, for they obeyed the Lord's admonition and escaped to the mountains.

God has shown that in the last days the world will pass through a time of trouble more terrible than anything that any age of earth ever experienced.

Now in order to get an understanding of this time of trouble we must refer to the land of Goshen in Egypt where God had a people at one time. The experience of that time is a type of our time. God visited upon Pharaoh and his people plague after plague; but God's people escaped again, because they listened to His voice, and He took care of them. Before that last and awful plague, God commanded that the blood of the slain lamb should be put upon the lintels of all the doors where His people dwelt, as a sign for the angel when he passed over, visiting the plague upon the Egyptians. The blood of that lamb was a shield for God's people, as Christ's blood will shield all of God's chosen people when the time of trouble and the last plagues come upon the people of this world. In this last time of trouble God will make known all that are His, for the blood of Christ will protect them. That is what is meant by our Prince standing up for His people. He keeps or protects again the people of God as God did those that were His in Egypt. The unrepentant have set at naught all God's warnings, and now He says of them: "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as a desolation; and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you."

The 144,000 will be able to sing the song of deliverance, as God's people did after they were delivered from their oppressors in Egypt. They crossed in safety to the other side and their enemies were destroyed. This is a type of our time,—we who are faithful will sing the song on the other shore. Pray that you may have oil in your vessels and your lamps trimmed and brightly burning, ready to go out to meet the Bridegroom at His coming; for He is coming, and His Bride will be ready to receive Him when He comes.

Hennessey, Okla.