p. 179 | SIGNS OF HIS COMING by C. P. Bollman

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 31, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 12.

SIGNS OF HIS COMING

By C. P. Bollman

The Gospel to All the World in This Generation—As in the Days of Noah—Formal Profession, but Lack of Power

By C. P. BOLLMAN

OUR Lord Jesus Christ, shortly before leaving this earth, gave to His disciples, and to us through them, a number of signs, or tokens, of His second advent. These signs are recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, and parallel scriptures. One of these signs is: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24:14.

It is certainly not without deep significance that we have now reached that time in the world's history when all Protestant denominations are enthused with the thought and the purpose,—

"THE GOSPEL TO ALL THE WORLD IN THIS GENERATION"

Everywhere this cry is echoed and re-echoed, until the Christian world rings with it. What does it mean? — It means that we have now reached the generation spoken of by our Saviour when He said, "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Matt. 24:34.

He could not have meant the generation then living. That generation did pass away without seeing fulfilled the things He foretold. But looking down the stream of time to the generation now living, He uttered those solemn words.

AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH

Another of the signs given by our Saviour was, "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:37.

There is no conflict between this sign and the sign of the preaching of the gospel to all nations "as a witness." The Lord did not say that all nations would accept the gospel. We know that there will be, in the throng of the redeemed, representatives of all nations. There will be saved some "out of every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people," but not all of any nation nor of any generation will be saved; and as with the generation destroyed by the Flood, comparatively few will be saved out of the last generation. The doctrine of a temporal millennium wherein all the world will be converted is a delusion of the devil, designed to lull men into carnal security, to cause them to put off repentance until it shall be everlastingly too late.

All men were not converted in Noah's day. The masses did not believe Noah's preaching. They scouted the idea that the world was to be destroyed by a flood. They rejected the warning, and perished under the divine judgments. "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

CONDITIONS AT THE LAST

Writing to his son in the gospel, the apostle Paul said: "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." 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

The "last days" must include the very last day. This must therefore be a description of the condition of the great mass of the world in the last generation, the generation of which the Saviour said, "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

It will be observed that the apostle does not speak of the great wicked world, making no profession of religion, but of those "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Is not this true in large measure of the professed church to-day? May it not be possible that many who join in the cry, "The gospel to the world in this generation," and who even join in the work of sending the gospel to others, belong to the class described by the apostle?

CARPENTERS AND LABORERS ON THE ARK

Doubtless some who worked upon the ark were drowned in the waters of the Flood. Noah must have had many carpenters and laborers who helped him to build the ark; but only those who had real, living faith in the message which Noah preached were saved in the ark. And "as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

On every hand are seen the sins of which the apostle writes. An unbelieving and impenitent world confronts a cold and formal church. Pleasure-seeking has invaded even the precincts of the church itself to that extent that much of the money raised for missions and other church purposes comes as a result of entertainments under the auspices of the church. Instead of the members bringing to the Lord's treasury the product of self-denial, the offerings that come to altars of the modern church are the price of the worldly pleasures served up by the church at so much a head.

And why is this? Is it not because the leaders in the church, the ministry, the teachers, fail to see the significance of the rallying cry, "The gospel to the world in this generation"? Reader, know that when this work shall be accomplished, "then shall the end come." And in view of this soon-coming end the divine admonition is: "Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." Zeph. 2:1-3.