THIS GENERATION by Wm. Penniman

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 21, 1881

THIS GENERATION.

By Wm. Penniman

BY WM. PENNIMAN.

(Continued.)

THERE never was an age when boasting and blasphemy were so much manifested as the present. Only a few weeks ago the Christian Herald recorded the case of a man in Dakota who said he would build a stone barn so strong that the Almighty could not throw it down. It was a very massive, strong building; yet the next cyclone that came along threw it down so that there was "not one stone left upon another." A few years ago the Land Owner, a Chicago paper, said: "There has been but one parallel to the mighty creation recorded in Genesis, and that is the rebuilding of Chicago in twelve months. That God made the world in six days by the exercise of divine power, is a no greater marvel than that man has erected three thousand stone and brick structures, a majority of them as costly and massive buildings as the world can boast, in three hundred working days." Should mortal man try to make his works appear as wonderful as God's? It is blasphemy. If the writer did not mean it, he should not have said it. These are only a couple of the many cases which might be given.

It is generally true in these times that parents obey their children instead of the children their parents, hence "disobedience to parents" is another marked sin of this day, and it has been, or can be, shown that not only the sixteen sins which Paul mentions, but even sixteen times sixteen in their different phases and classifications, are prevalent.

Those who know anything of the great Advent movement in the past, or at the present, even if their eyes are only half open, have seen a striking fulfillment of 2 Pet. 3: 3, 4, which reads: "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

It has been our object to condense as much as possible and yet try to do justice to the subject by not leaving many stones of proof unturned. But here it may be well to remove objections which may arise, to show what is meant by "last days," etc. Adam Clarke in commenting upon the words "last days" in 2 Tim. 3: 1, says: "This often means the days of the Messiah; but the phrase may mean any future time near or distant." It is the opinion of Macknight that the phrase "last days" in 2 Pet. 3: 3, differs in meaning from what it is elsewhere, and that here it means "the last part of the days of the world's destruction." Says the objector, It was declared in the days of the apostles, that the "end of all things is at hand," that "the Judge standeth before the door," and that "surely I come quickly." Such language as the preceding generally comes in after the prediction of some event which has its fulfillment on or near the end of time; and yet, to take the objector on his own ground, if the end of all things was then at hand, where are we now in the stream of time after the lapse of eighteen hundred years?

Sir Isaac Newton, who was learned in the Scriptures, thought that the phrases, "the last days," "the last times," "the latter times," refer almost exclusively to the winding up of the Christian dispensation. He asserts: "It will signify but little in one sense whether the prophecy of 2 Tim. 3: 1 were especially intended for these days; it will be manifest that perilous times are impending; that the nations of Christendom are given to hardness of heart, and that wrath is about to fall upon them." Neander, a learned German theologian, thought that the signs and events connected with these phases would multiply and become more and more prominent till the close of time. Dr. Robinson, in his Greek Lexicon, makes the phrases "last days" found in Acts 2: 17, and in Heb. 1: 1; "last times," in 1 Pet. 1: 20; and "last time," found in Jude 18, and 1 John 2: 18, refer more particularly to the period in which the sacred writers lived, or to the period adjacent to the first coming. But such expressions as "last days," in 2 Tim. 3: 1; James 5: 3; 2 Pet. 3: 3; and also "last time," in 1 Pet. 1: 5, he makes refer to later times before the second coming of Christ. The phrase "latter times" is found but once in the New Testament, and that in 1 Tim. 4: 1: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith." Macknight renders this expression, husterois kairois "future times," a different phrase from that in 2 Tim. 3: 1: eschatais hemerais "latter days." Paul does not give us any evidence that any of the characteristics of the "latter times" had appeared in his day; therefore, as the expression here does not mark a time near, we come to the unavoidable conclusion, from the etymology of the words, that these signs of the latter times were yet to come, and are even now being wonderfully manifested.

We have hitherto only alluded to the political and warlike aspects of the world. The political condition of the globe is just as ominous now as it was in 1851, when Hon. Rufus Choate, looking out upon it, used the following striking language: "It has seemed to me as if the prerogatives of crowns, and the rights of men, and the hoarded up resentments and revenges of a thousand years, were about to unsheath the sword for a conflict, in which blood shall flow, as in the Apocalyptic vision, to the bridles of the horses, and in which a whole age of men shall pass away, in which the great bell of time shall sound out another hour, in which society itself shall be tried by fire and steel, whether it is of nature and nature's God or not." Since these prophetic words were uttered, it will be seen by reference to Lyman's Historical Chart, that all of the leading nations of Europe have been, more or less of the time, engaged in war and in warlike preparations. The war of the Crimea, the Franco-Prussian, and the great American conflict have all happened since 1851. Lord Brougham, in a speech in the British House of Parliament, in 1857, used the following significant language: "The existing aspect of the political world is surrounded by an impenetrable fog. There is not a throne on earth secure from the trammels and rivalry of others, single or in combination. Shadows portend a mighty and general revolution in monarchies and republics. And whether these are to be overturned to a permanent reconstruction, or to give place to a universal dynasty, God only knows."

What wonderful changes have been made on the map of Europe since the preceding words were spoken. If political seers on both sides of the Atlantic can predict with such certainty the gathering clouds of war and commotion, should not the student of prophecy or the watchmen on the walls of Zion, by the aid of the "sure word," and the Spirit of God, know something of the events coming upon the doomed world, and sound the alarm? By "a universal dynasty" or government, which Lord Brougham thought would succeed the governments of this world, he probably meant an earthly government. But instead of this it will be the universal kingdom which the "God of heaven" will set up. We read (Dan. 2: 44) "And in the days of these kings* (or kingdoms, the remnants or ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire, — the fourth universal kingdom, — was divided, and which have not yet passed away) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Such is the kingdom for which the faithful and enlightened children of God in "this generation" are looking.

A writer in the Christian Herald, of Jan. 6, 1881, speaking of the "Prophetic Prospect for 1881," says: "What is known in Europe as the 'Eastern Question' has not advanced one step toward a solution since the beginning of 1880. The succession of the Liberal Government in England, to which many people looked for a speedy settlement of Turkish difficulties, has been followed by no measure of consequence in that direction. Matters seem to be standing still until the development of God's further purposes. There is no prospect whatever of an improvement in the financial condition of Turkey, and without such an improvement there can be no change for the better in its administration. Meanwhile, the insurrectionary spirit excited in the subject populations by the late war gives safe promise of another outbreak at no distant day; and that will call for, or lead to, the armed intervention of some of the great powers of Europe, with the usual danger of a war between those powers themselves. The imagination palls at the thought of the next European war, for which twelve millions of armed men are kept waiting in silent mockery of the hope that the reign of peace is in a fair way to begin upon the earth."

A few days ago one of the daily papers, not overwell versed in the Bible, but with a shrewd practical view of the condition of public affairs, wrote as follows: "The world has never yet seen a war on a natural scale. There have been, as in 1812–14, many armies, and those numerically as well as otherwise formidable, engaged simultaneously on one theater. In 1820 the Germans employed several large armies, and the French, too, made considerable levies. But all the conditions of war are different from what they were in the Napoleonic era, and since 1870 several nations have turned, or are turning, almost their entire population into soldiers. When war occurs again among the great continental powers there will be such a sight presented as never was seen before. There will be in the first line a chain of armies furnished with superb material; in the rear will be the reserves of trained troops exceeding in number the biggest armies of former times; and these reserves will rest on a succession of strong fortresses and intrenched camps held by enormous garrisons." After noticing difficulties and perplexities in other parts of the earth, the writer concludes as follows with the United States: "Before concluding these observations on the civil and political indications of the new year, we will remind our readers that the past year has been signalized on our own continent by an official protest of the United States Secretary of War against the defenseless condition of our sea-coast, and against the short-sightedness of letting our fortifications and munitions of war fall far behind the standard required to meet the armaments of European nations who may one day be our enemies." Is not this the beginning of an apprehension that America may not be able to keep out of the national convulsions that are to precede the coming of the Lord?

Prof. George P. Fisher, D. D., LL.D., in an article in the Independent, of September 9, 1880, entitled "Something for The Presbyterian Council to Consider," declares: "It is bad enough for savages to know no other resort, in case of discord, but the crude arbitrament of force. It is shameful enough that civilized nations, which had never learned from Christ the sacredness of man and the law of love, should have sought for dominion and glory in war and conquest. But that the foremost nations of Christendom should still equip great armies, and hold them in readiness for the work of death, in an age of enlightenment like the present, is passing strange. There are ecclesiastical bodies from time to time, and delivering their judgments on more or less weighty matters of doctrine and duty. Why have they nothing to say, and no measures to recommend, for the purpose of removing and preventing crimes, the enormity of which no language can adequately depict? Why, a tithe of the cost of the military institutions in Christendom for a single year would support Christian preachers in every portion of the globe, and carry the Bible to every town, and hamlet, and habitation on earth. What Christian people are doing for the evangelizing of the world is as nothing, it is the dust in the balance, compared with what they are doing every month and every day in providing the means of destroying one another. Verily the reign of righteousness and love seems to be far distant."

When will the people wake up to the fact that we are living in the last days? When will they look through the telescope of God's word that they may see the wondrous things which he is doing in these times? Alas! the great mass of professors and non-professors, like the disciples of Gallileo, refuse to look through the telescope for fear they will see the stars. They will even sound the peace and safety cry when the drums of war are beating, and the trumpet sounding that is to seal the doom of the world. The most astonishing facts in regard to war preparations, increase of crime, increasing worldliness of professors, etc., will not cause the mass to give up the pet dogma of the world's conversion, but hopeful to the last, they cling to the delusive phantom, seeming to think something will turn up which will bring about the good time. What is the lesson that we are to learn from these events? Can we not learn that there is a "sure word of prophecy"? Can we not take warning from the history of the past, and prepare for the future? When we see the dealings of God with the Jews for rejecting and crucifying Christ, fulfilling upon them their own words, "his blood be upon us and our children," and when we see the hand of God through the long 1260 years of suffering, we may learn that God is sure to punish the guilty unless they repent, and that the affliction which is brought upon his people is not in vain. We have now comparatively but little time in which to make our escape, and if we heed the warning we shall be saved just as surely as the disciples or Christians were at the time of Jerusalem's overthrow. Luke says (21: 18): "There shall not an hair of your head perish." This denotes that their salvation would be perfect. Luke further adds, "In your patience possess ye your souls." This language teaches that as the people of God were called upon to endure and exercise great patience in the time of these troubles, if they endured to the end they would be saved. Doddridge says, "By the special providence of God, after the Romans under Cestius Gallius made their first advance toward Jerusalem, they suddenly withdrew again in a most unexpected and indeed impolitic manner, at which Josephus testifies his surprise, since the city might then have easily been taken. Here was a providential signal for the Christians to flee. Christ had told them when to flee, and then they had the opportunity; improving this, they fled to Pella in Perea, and to other places beyond Jordan, and there is no evidence that a single Christian perished in Jerusalem." (See Eusebius' Hist. Eccl. Lit., 3, ch. 6.) We are now living in perilous times, in times in which the people are required to exercise patience. "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14: 12. The great time of trouble is before us, and as we draw nearer to it, still more endurance and patience will be needed; but the word of the Lord says (Dan. 12: 1), "And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."

(To be Continued.)