The Last Reformation as Predicted by Prophet, Apostle, and Reformer.
By Francis M. Wilcox
By Elder Francis M. Wilcox.
[Chaplain of Boulder, Colorado, Sanitarium.] A CRISIS has been reached in the professed church of God. It is still in the Babylonian period of its history. Division in creed, dogma, and method is everywhere manifest, and confusion [Babylon] is the result. Coldness, lethargy, and indifference exist where should be found spiritual vigor and Christian enthusiasm. The several branches have fossilized their beliefs and creeds, and hedged about with bars of iron their theological tenets, saying, "Thus far will we go and no farther." Instead of knowing a living, actual experience to-day, the church is trusting in its experience of yesterday. Instead of looking forward with earnest, eager anticipation to the victory of to-morrow, the professed warriors of King Immanuel are looking back upon the gains of the past, and feel now that they can safely rest upon their laurels. But most mercifully does God look upon the condition of His professed children. With yearning and pity is His great heart of love drawn out for them in their weakness and necessity. The demand for a definite message to the church in its present Babylonian (confused) state is painfully evident. Will God meet this demand? Will He, in the ministry of His grace, rise to meet this emergency, this crisis in the history of His work in the earth? Has He new gems of truth to reveal to this generation? If He has not, if all that may be known of God is known to-day, if all that may be found in this Word has been searched out, then there can be no special truth for this time; and God has exhausted His resources, and we can look for no dispensation of divine grace in awakening His children to their divided and fallen condition and saving His truth in the earth from root and utter ruin. But in God there are still inexhaustible resources; there are still new rays of light, yea, glorious streams of light, to break forth from the sacred Word. By prophet, by apostle, by reformer, by the great and good of every age, by the leaders of Christian faith in every church, this hope has been cherished; and if the great religious bodies of Christendom to-day had maintained the principles of their founders, instead of circumscribing their faith within stereotyped creeds, they would be reaching forth with expectancy for new revelations of the light of God. Well worthy of consideration are the remarks of John Robinson, one of the fathers of the Congregational Church, in his farewell address to the Pilgrim Fathers, at Leyden, 1620, as they were about to depart from Holland for America:— "Brethren, we are now quickly to part from one another, and whether I may live to see you face to face on earth any more, the God of heaven only knows; but whether the Lord hath appointed that or not, I charge you before God and His blessed angels, that you follow me no farther than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveals anything to you by any other instrument, be as ready to receive it as you ever were to receive any truth by my ministry; for I am verily persuaded, I am very confident, that the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of His holy Word. For my part I can not sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no farther than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans can not be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw. Whatever part of His will our God revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace; and the9Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is a misery much to be lamented; for, tho they were burning and shining lights in their time, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God, but, were they now living, would be as willing to embrace further light as that which they first received. I beseech you, remember it is an article of your church covenant that you may be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written Word of God." Commenting on the above words, Wendell Phillips, in a lecture delivered in Boston, January, 1881, makes the following quotations:— "The Hon. Robert Boyle (1680) says: 'As the Bible was not written for any one particular time or people, . . . so there are many passages very useful which will not be found so these many ages, being possibly reserved by the prophetic Spirit that inclined them . . . to quell some foreseen heresy, . . . or resolve some yet unformed doubts, or confound some error that hath not yet a name.' "The Interpreter (1862) says: 'A day is coming when Scripture, long darkened by traditional teaching, too frequently treated as an exhausted mine, will at length be recognized in its true character as a field rich in unexplored wealth, and consequently be searched afresh for its hidden treasures.' "Vinet, in his lectures, says: 'Even now, after eighteen centuries of Christianity, we may be involved in some tremendous error, of which the Christianity of the future will make us ashamed.'" In looking forward to the future, Luther himself declared: "I persuade myself verily, that the day of judgment will not be absent full three hundred years. God will not, can not, suffer this wicked world much longer. The great day is drawing near in which the kingdom of abominations shall be overthrown." To the same intent spoke other reformers. "Has not our Lord Jesus carried up our flesh into heaven?" said Knox, the Scotch reformer, "and shall He not return?—We know that He shall return, and that with expedition." Ridley and Latimer, who laid down their lives for the truth, looked in faith for the Lord's coming. Ridley wrote: "The world without doubt—this I do believe, and therefore I say it—draws to an end. Let us, with John, the servant of God, cry in our hearts unto our Saviour, Christ, 'Come, Lord Jesus, come.'" "The thoughts of the coming of the Lord," said Baxter, "are most sweet and joyful to me. It is the work of faith and character of His saints to love His appearing, and to look for that blessed hope." Robert Hall, a Baptist preacher and author, says, "Everything in the condition of mankind announces the approach of some great crisis." In harmony with the exhortation and expectation of these reformers are the words of divine revelation. Says Joel, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Joel 2:1. Then there will be a message proclaimed just before the end of all things, and the burden of that message will be that the day of the Lord is at hand. The trumpet will be blown, and the alarm will be sounded; and as a result of this blowing of the trumpet and this sounding of the alarm, Zion will hear and the people of the land will tremble. Says the Lord, through His apostle, "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. 14:6, 7. Here also is brought to view the same proclamation, and its extent and power are plainly stated; it is proclaimed with power, and is preached to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. Says the prophet Isaiah: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." Isa. 58:1. Here, again, is brought to view the message of God to backsliding Israel; and the time of the application of this message, as shown by the context, is in the age of the church just preceding the coming of our Lord to judgment. The inquiry naturally arises, Of what does this last-day message consist? What are its component parts? Some of its features have already been specifically stated. It is to turn the people of God away from their transgressions, and bring them back to their allegiance to God and His eternal truths. This work of reform naturally calls for a change of belief, a change of practice, a substitution of truth for error; in short, it must embrace a reform upon every point, bringing the people of God into such a condition before Him that they will be able to stand in the day of trial which shall come upon the earth, and pass the grand review of the Great Judge at the last day. In the scriptures already quoted, specific sins are condemned, and principles of truth are enjoined upon God's children. Isaiah 58 condemns the sin of oppressing the poor, and calls upon the church of God to engage in a true fast by ministering to the sick, by relieving the widowed and the fatherless. It condemns, further, in verse 13, the violation of the Sabbath of the Lord, and demands of the people of God that they take their feet from off this holy ordinance of Jehovah, exalting the Sabbath to the place God designed it to occupy, giving the gracious assurance that if they will do this, God will feed them with the heritage of Jacob their father. The same idea of allegiance to the law of God is enunciated in the prophecy of John. Special attention is called to the impending judgment hour, in view of which the people of the earth are called upon to fear God and glorify Him in their lives. The standard of judgment (Eccl. 12:13, 14; James 2:12) is the law of God. As the cases of the judgment-bound world are to be tried by this great gauge of character, the Lord in gracious mercy points out, during probation's hour, the particular features wherein the world is not in harmony with its requirements. When we turn to other portions of the Revelation, we find this same thought suggested. In chapter 7 is brought to view a work of sealing, which just precedes the coming of the Lord. The company who receive the seal are those who, when Jesus comes, will be translated without seeing death (Rev. 14:1-4); consequently this sealing is likewise a last-day work, and must be connected with, and a part of, the last-day message. The seal of God, spoken of in the first verse of the fourteenth chapter, is called the Father's name. The Father's name is an expression of His character. Ex. 34:6, 7. The Father's character is expressed in His law. Of necessity the law of every lawmaker is an expression of his character; hence the seal of God is connected with the law of God. This is further proved by Isa. 8:16: "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples." Further, the character of God is that of rest. This is shown in the words of our Saviour: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Matt. 11:28-30. Therefore, as the seal of God is connected with His law, and as the law of God indicates the character of God, and that character is a character of rest, the seal of God, in a specific sense, must have to do with that part of the law which relates to rest, which is none other than the fourth commandment of the Decalogue. We must therefore conclude that the keeping of the Sabbath of the Lord in its true sense constitutes the outward seal of God, indicating that the one observing this ordinance has had named upon him the Father's name and possesses the Father's character. The question naturally arises, What has brought about this departure from the Sabbath of the Lord in the practice of the Christian church? It must be that the glory which should have been rendered to another, and that the honor which should have been bestowed upon the true Sabbath, have been given to a rival. This, indeed, has been the case. A man-made ordinance, the first-day sabbath, for which there is no divine foundation, has been exalted to take the place of the one enjoined by the Scriptures of truth. This counterfeit has been foisted upon the church of God and has come into general observance. It therefore could not be otherwise than that the same proclamation which exalts the true rest-day of Jehovah should utter a warning note against the false and counterfeit, and this also the last great message of reform does. In the following terse, denunciatory warning does the Spirit of God draw the covering of falsehood from the usurper, pointing out its character, and the destiny awaiting its emissaries: "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation." See Rev. 14:9-12. The beast brought to view in the above scripture is none other than old world earthly governments enforcing the dogmas of apostate Christianity. The image of the beast is the union of Church and State, which will be formed in this country to enforce religious dogmas and doctrines upon mankind; and the mark of the beast is the special sign of apostasy, for which the Papacy stands, and which it holds out to the Protestant world as a mark of its power and authority to change law and rule the conscience. This claim professed Protestants, in practice if not in theory, admit, in the change of Sabbath observance from the seventh to the first day of the week. To whom does the last great message of reform go, to the godless world alone, or to the professed church? The words of the Lord through Joel, already quoted, indicate its field. The trumpet is first to be blown in Zion. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain." Joel 2:1. From Zion and the holy mountain the alarm is, then, to go forth to all the inhabitants of the land. That the message is to go to the professed church is further indicated by reference to Revelation 14, from which we have already so largely quoted. In connection with the judgment proclamation, and with the warning against the worship of the beast and his image, there sounds forth the cry: "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Rev. 14:8. Babylon means "confusion." Confusion comes from departing from the truth of God's Gospel, and erecting a false standard. Babylon falls when she turns from her lawful Spouse, Christ Jesus, rejects God's message of reproof, and, looking to earthly sources of help, unites with civil government, and thus commits fornication with the kings of earth. Preeminently and primarily, the mystical Babylon is the Roman Church, which all through the Dark Ages dominated the kings of earth, as set forth in Rev. 17:1-8. But Babylon is said to be a mother,—"the mother of harlots and abominations of earth." If she is a mother, she must have daughters, and her daughters can be none other than those who are following in her footsteps, who, like herself, have committed fornication. Hence the daughters must be the great churches of Christendom who have imbibed the doctrines of Romanism, and who, having left their lawful husband, Christ Jesus, are linking with the nations of the earth, seeking to gain by legal enactment what, through lack of the Spirit and power of God, they are otherwise unable to accomplish. In conclusion, therefore, we have found that the last great message of reform, as it goes to this world just preceding the coming of the Lord, has for its purpose the calling out from every nation, kindred, and people, and from every church connection and fellowship, a people who will be signalized by the observance of the requirements of the Lord and by the purity of their faith in Christ Jesus. Rev. 14:12. Such a message is already going to the world. It is going by tongue and pen, by the living preacher and by the printed page. Such is the message being borne in the fear of God by this journal and its co-laborers in every part of the great harvest-field. Based upon the Word of God, answering to the prophecy of the Word in the time and manner of its rise, it is now going forth, not by the power or agency of man, but in the strength and by the power of the living God, to accomplish in the earth the work appointed it,—the preparation of a people for the reception of the soon-coming Saviour. Kind reader, this is the message of God for to-day, the present living truth for this day and generation. How solemn, indeed, is this thought! To you and to me the message is sounding. We who are alive to-day are to witness that transcendent event before which all the glories of the universe shall pale,—the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. May God grant that the message of truth may so change our hearts and reform our lives, and its principles become so engrafted in our religious life and experience, that we shall welcome with joyful hearts and glad acclaim the coming of the Just One, to receive whom a people is being called from all the nations of the earth.