READING THE FUTURE by L. A. Reed

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 2, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 18.

READING THE FUTURE

By L. A. Reed

“WHO is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?” Rev. 5: 2. John, in apocalyptic vision, saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice this searching question. The book is the book of the future, closed to all created beings. The seals are the bonds that hold secure from creature sight the events of coming days.

Who can open that book, and read there the things that shall be? Whose eye can run down the line of coming years, beholding the events of the future? Who can read to-morrow in the light of to-day? Who can discern the signs of the times? Will the clouds of to-night break in fury on the morrow, or will yonder lowering sun rise in cloudless glory with the breaking day?

Who is worthy to answer these burning questions?

Is the claim of the poet Virgil, after all, but a poet’s boast, “I will declare thy people’s unshaken destinies, and causing them to revolve far in the future, will set in motion the secrets of the fates”? We find his declarations mere conjectures and plausible suggestions, that rise nowhere into clear predictions. And for all the wit of mortal mind, we must say as Cicero said, that he is the wisest prophet who can guess the best.

But it is not left for mortals to answer as to what mortals can do regarding the things that shall come to pass.

The question from the book of God is answered by that book: “And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.”

KEPT SECRET FROM TIMES ETERNAL

How sweeping the denial as to human ability! Not able to open the coming days to the sight! Not able even to look upon them! Truly “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” And these mysteries have been kept secret from times eternal, and would be still hidden even unto times eternal, for all that man might do.

But the question of the angel, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?”—is not that the question which to-day is echoing and reëchoing in the minds of millions? In some form or other, is not that the thought which is to-day uppermost among the hosts of humanity?

Various are the forms the question takes, but at heart the question remains the same: What of the future? Who will win the war? Will the Turk be driven out of Europe? Will Russia and England eventually quarrel? Will any of the nations now at war be destroyed? Will the war debts be repudiated? Will the people rise against their kings, or will the war but further intrench the power of the rulers? Will this war end in the final battle of Armageddon? Will there be no wars after this present war? Will peace come soon?

THE BOOK OF THE FUTURE

And so the questions run. But at the best, they are the questions of the mighty angel—Who is able to open the book of the future and to unloose its seals?

But you protest: It does not say, “the book of the future.” It reads only, “the book.” True; but the contents of that book are given in Revelation 6, 7, and 8, and there we find events of earth’s history symbolically disclosed. Moreover, we are told that the book of Revelation is a prophecy (Rev. 1: 3; 22: 10, 18), recording “things which must shortly come to pass” (Rev. 1: 1), “the things which must shortly be done” (Rev. 22: 6).

And so we reiterate, The question of the angel is a question relating to events of the future. It is the question above all questions that God wants us to ask. “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on”—heedless of what is before—“and are punished.” “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”

To cause us to ask the question in reference to the future, events of weighty portent are occurring daily. As Christ declared of our times, so has it come true,—“Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Luke 21: 26. Does not this statement of Christ refer to the future—to what is “coming on the earth”?

There can be no doubt about it. The question raised by the angel will not fail of its purpose. Though spoken and recorded nearly two thousand years ago, it was the word of a mighty angel, commissioned of God for the task; and the question will come to thousands, and burn upon the brain until, after God’s own order, it has been fully answered.

SATAN KNOWS NOT THE FUTURE

No one in heaven or in earth or under the earth was found able to read the mystic future. That is to say, it is not within the ken of the mightiest angels around the throne, the keenest intellects among men, or the sagacious cunning of the devil himself, to know one day ahead of the present.

We may all gather some meager idea of what will be, in a general way, by a study of the law of cause and effect; but this is not certainty. A powerful cause we did not see, may arise at any time, and put all our speculations in disarray.

No one on earth to-day can of himself tell you or me what our lives may hold for to-morrow. The palmist and the clairvoyant may advertise their boastful claims; but they do not know one thing of what is to be, more than they may shrewdly conjecture.

But above the level of created intelligences we lift our gaze, and behold One who can read for us the events that are to be. Yes, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah . . . hath prevailed to open the book” and its seals. Christ predicts future events. He reads the scroll of coming activities. The book of Revelation is named “the Revelation of Jesus Christ,” “things which must shortly come to pass”; and the testimony of Jesus is solemnly declared to be the very spirit of prophecy itself. Rev. 19: 10.

FULFILLED THE HORRIBLE SPECIFICATIONS

In the book of God are many prophecies,—specific, definite predictions of events future at the time, some of which have

been literally fulfilled, others of which are yet to be fulfilled. From the clear, definite, and unquestionable fulfillment of the first, we may know the surety of the fulfillment of the second. Could clairvoyant or palmist predict with equal accuracy, how high their powers would be proclaimed among the deeds of men!

In Deut. 28: 56, 57 is foretold, hundreds of years before it happened, an event that took place in A. D. 70, when Mary, the daughter of Eleazar of Bethlezob, within the sight of the besieging Roman general, fulfilled all the horrible details of the prediction. And this one chronicled event gives us large ideas of similar instances that must have occurred at this awful time, in fulfillment of that one prophecy.

Another example is given in two very definite specifications concerning one incident in connection with the taking by Nebuchadnezzar of the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah foretold of King Zedekiah, “Thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.” Jer. 34: 2, 3. But Ezekiel says of this same occurrence, “I will bring him to Babylon; . . . yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.” Ezek. 12: 13. Here are very explicit prophecies, seemingly contradicting each other. But the record of the times of Zedekiah make it all clear, and show how fully God’s prophecy is fulfilled in the reality. The king of Judah saw his captor Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah; but there his eyes were put out, so that when carried to Babylon, he never beheld it. 2 Kings 25: 6, 7.

NAMED 150 YEARS BEFORE HIS BIRTH

Cyrus is mentioned by name in Isaiah, a hundred and fifty years before the monarch’s birth. And of him it was foretold, “He shall build My city, and he shall let go My captives, not for price nor reward.” Isa. 44: 28; 45: 13. Yes, God even stated beforehand the very year in which these captives would return from Babylon. What worldly sagacity could even have dreamed of such service as this of Cyrus’ being performed by a heathen monarch for the troublesome Jews?

As definite as these is the prophecy regarding Mohammedanism, declaring the number of its soldiers who took part in the siege of Constantinople to be twice ten times ten thousand. And Myers, ignorant of the specifications of the prophecy, records in his history the fact that the soldiers of Mohammed II numbered two hundred thousand. And we may say, in passing, that among the other numerous predictions regarding these Mohammedan activities, the use of gunpowder is very plainly included. Rev. 9: 16, 18.

Christ “hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals.” In the book of Revelation alone, we have uncounted prophecies of future human or divine events. God makes these known to His servants. Rev. 1: 1-3. If it were merely knowledge held by Him alone, it would avail us nothing. We might know that He is able to discern all coming events, but be none the wiser concerning the days ahead.

But Christ is with His children. He has promised to be with them to the end of the world. In Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Col. 2: 3. Yes, in Him dwells all the fullness of Deity (verse 9), and by this fullness His children are made complete (verse 10), for “of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” John 1: 16.

HAS CHRIST A CRIPPLED BODY?

There are therefore the world to-day those who share with Christ in His knowledge of what is to be in days to come. It is against such a people that Satan’s wrath is vented; for they know and make known all his devices to his ultimate destiny, as revealed in the Word. Against those having Christ’s prophetic insight he particularly makes war. Rev. 12: 17, with Rev. 19: 10.

Inspiration declares that those gifted with spiritual powers are set in the church, Christ’s body, as the different members of the human body are placed in their proper positions. And it is averred that “God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets,” etc. 1 Cor. 12: 28. But men declare to-day that the prophetic gift is no longer within the church. By this charge they really say that from the body of Christ these parts are now lacking. Has there been a surgical operation? Has there been an amputation? Or has some terrible accident robbed the body of its perfection? We ask, in all seriousness and solemnity, Is the body of Christ but a crippled body? The very thought seems blasphemous, if we would give it even a second’s condoning. No, indeed; His body, the church, is full and complete, notably in these last days. “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him.” 1 Cor. 12: 18. All the gifts, including the prophetic gift, are to be in the church until all have “come in the unity of the faith . . . unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Eph. 4: 13. And of those living in the end of time it is also declared, “The testimony of Christ [that is, ‘the spirit of prophecy,’ Rev. 19: 10] was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 1: 6, 7.

SHARE HIS KNOWLEDGE OF THE FUTURE

Again we say that Christ has opened the book of the times that are to be; and those who are Christ’s share His knowledge of future events. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” Ps. 25: 14. “None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” Dan. 12: 10.

“Weep not.” We may know what is coming. “The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” Rev. 5: 5.

That Lion is the Lamb slaughtered (“slain” is too feeble a word for the original Greek here), who has the sevenfold Spirit of God. And this Spirit has gone forth into all the earth (Rev. 5: 6), to show to all God’s children, through His word, the “things to come.” John 16: 13.