Signs of the Coming End
By Benjamin G. Wilkinson
To Be Recognized and Proclaimed, as Truly as the Outrunners Announced Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
THE signs of history tell their story, and cause to burn bright in the hearts of Christ's followers the hope of His soon return. Likewise the promised signs in heaven begin to appear. The Saviour has said: "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." Mark 13: 24-26. The same is said under the sixth seal: "And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. 6: 12-17. You will note that Mark says, "In those days, after that tribulation." Those days, according to other scriptures, as we have before shown, ended in 1798. While the peace of Westphalia, and the teaching of Roger Williams about 1650, diminished the intensity of the tribulation, yet the persecution continued for some time afterwards. Now did there begin to appear, sometime between 1650 and 1798, such great signs as a mighty earthquake, darkening of the sun, turning of the moon to blood, and the falling of the stars? — Certainly there did. To name the events that would seem to fulfill the prediction of the sixth seal, is to be met frankly with the question: "How do you know that the earthquake, the darkening of the sun and the moon, and the falling of the stars, which you point out under definite dates, are the ones predicted under the seventh seal, and by the writers of the three Gospels? Have there not been other fallings of stars, and other darkenings of the sun?" — Yes; but we might ask the same question concerning the prophecy in Zech. 9: 9: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." One Sunday morning, which we now call Palm Sunday, the Saviour rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. The shouting crowds, the waving branches, the spread garments, were accompanied by the cries which said that this was the event to fulfill Zech. 9: 9. Now had not many a man ridden into Jerusalem on an ass, accompanied by "a colt, the foal of an ass"? — Most surely; but you will notice that this event was definitely located by two supporting reasons: first, it fell exactly in its place as one link in a chain of many events; and secondly, there was a people raised up by God to note it and to proclaim it. Matthew found no difficulty in recognizing Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem as the fulfillment of this prophecy. So today there is a people, one hundred twenty-five thousand strong, who, scattered all over the world, recognize definite signs in the heavens, as well as in history, as proclaiming clearly to them the thrilling news that Christ is soon to return. Ruined from Top to Bottom
THE first of these signs was a great earthquake. Did any remarkable earthquake occur in the period of time set forth above? — Yes; the great earthquake of November, 1755, which, though called the earthquake of Lisbon, extended to the greater part of Europe, Africa, and America. Its unusual importance is thus recognized by Vivienne de St. Martin, in his "Geographical Dictionary": "In 1755, an earthquake, the most famous in history, practically destroyed the city. Lisbon, the admiration of strangers, as much because of her exceptional situation as because of the beauty of her monuments, suffered a terrible shock, when the two earthquakes of 1755 ruined it from top to bottom. November 1, at nine o'clock in the morning, was felt the first upheaval. Subterranean crashings sounded forth; temples and houses3shattered to pieces; and six seconds were enough to destroy the monuments and almost forty thousand individuals. The number of persons who were crushed in the houses and in the streets was not to be compared to the people who were buried in the churches." Of the extent of the earthquake outside of the city of Lisbon, Larousse says: "The earthquake of Lisbon was felt over a surface of area computed as four times the surface of Europe. It was in Portugal, Spain, and in the northern part of Africa, that the first shock was the most violent. The port of Setubal, some distance from Lisbon, was submerged by an enormous wave. At Cadiz, high walls near to the banks were carried away by the sea, which rose to more than sixty-five feet above its ordinary level. In Morocco, many villages were devastated. At Algeria and at Fez, more than ten thousand human victims could be counted. On the western slope of the Atlantic, in the Lesser Antilles, where the tide is not high, the water suddenly became entirely black, and rose higher then twenty-two feet. At the same moment, the lakes of Switzerland and of Sweden, and the ocean which bathes the shores of Norway, became violently agitated. It is reported also that Vesuvius, then in motion, suddenly grew quiet the moment of the earthquake."—Article "Earthquake." One of the great signs of the soon-coming Saviour as outlined in the series under the sixth seal is past. Three more great signals in the heavens were to occur before the people would be raised up to announce the second coming, as were the outrunners on Palm Sunday to welcome the first advent.