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If We Had Lived in Their Day

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 16, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 16.

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If We Had Lived in Their Day

By C. M. S.

THE Jews in the time of Christ were condemning their own ancestors for refusing the messages of the Lord and slaying his messengers.
Our generation is condemning the Jews for refusing the Saviour when he came and for slaying him for claiming to be the Saviour.
The Jews said if they had lived in the time of their ancestors, they would not have done as their ancestors did.
Our generation says that if we had lived in the time of Christ, we would not have rejected and crucified him.
And yet this generation, with more light than the patriarchs had and more light than the Jews of Christ's time had, is refusing the message of God, trampling upon the law of God, and to a large extent, by denying the deity of Christ, is crucifying afresh the Lord of glory. If we had lived in their time, would we have been wiser than they? truer to principle than they? more obedient to God's requirements than they?
There is nothing in the attitude of our generation toward God's message and his messengers to indicate it.
We are standing on the threshold of the grandest and most sublime event this world will ever see. The tragedy of sin is soon to be finished; the ushering in of the everlasting kingdom of righteousness is soon to take place; and yet the world — even the "Christian world" — is more deeply absorbed in the interplay of human events, in the daily doings of mortals, than in the actual coming of that kingdom and in the assurance of an inheritance therein.
Well might the patriarchs say: If our lot had been cast with the last generation upon the earth, when the time was near for Zion's King to establish his kingdom and crown his faithful with their eternal reward, we would have been more faithful than they, more zealous than they, less careful of temporal affairs and more deeply engrossed in the affairs of eternal consequence.
The great men of this world are laying plans that involve generations yet unborn; the popular pastor preaches pleasing things, lauds the divinity of man and robs Christ of his glory and his majesty and his mission, and leads men to expect the indeterminate continuation of this present state of existence.
At the same time God's Word is telling us in words that we can give no excuse for not knowing or not understanding: "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is. . . . He who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus." Rev. 20: 12-20.
It is the Saviour's corroboration of the declaration of the angels on Mt. Olivet: "This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye behold him going into heaven." Acts 1: 11.
It is the corroboration of Peter's declaration: "The day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God." 2 Peter 3: 10-12.
It is the corroboration of the words of Jesus to his disciples: "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 the corroboration of the testimony of Malachi, who declares: "Behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace: andall the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts." Mal. 4: 1-3.
It is the corroboration of the testimony of the prophet Daniel that "at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." Dan. 12: 1-3.
It is the corroboration of the testimony of Isaiah: "The ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Isa. 51: 11.
That declaration of our Saviour announces the fruition of the psalmist's hope that he should "dwell in the house of the Lord forever." It tells of the approach of that day when the gates and the "everlasting doors" of the city of God shall be lifted up that "the King of glory" may come in.
It is the fruition of the hope of Job, who declared: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." Job 19: 25-27.
It is the hope of Adam and the fulfillment of the declaration of Jehovah to him in the promise of the Seed who was to bruise the serpent's head, and in that bruising, eliminate sin and Satan from the world, restore to the human race the forfeited inheritance, and establish righteousness under the whole canopy of heaven.
We are not in darkness concerning the approach of that day of doom and delight, of destruction and salvation, of terror and trust, of separation and glad reunion. God has given us in sky and on earth, in the winds and the seas, the unmistakable signs of the nearness of that event. Let us not be of those who see what was the duty of the Jews and condemn them for not knowing the day of their visitation, while we turn deaf ears to God's warnings and messages to us and turn unseeing eyes toward the signs God has hung in the heavens and planted in the earth. This is our day, our generation, our message, and God looks to us, who condemn them, for conduct he will not need to condemn in us.
C. M. S.