p. 69 | Untitled article by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Aug 1, 1865

The World’s Conversion a Fale. No. 5.

By R. F. Cottrell

ANOTHER positive proof that the world will not be converted before the coming of Christ, is the clearly revealed fact, that the great antichrist of prophecy is to have a continued existence in the world until the advent, and is to be destroyed by the blazing glory, the “flaming fire,” in which the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven.

This antichristian power is foretold in the New Testament as well as in the Old, and consequently acts its part in the Christian dispensation. Therefore, if it has arisen and is to exist to the end of the dispensation, that is, to the second coming of Christ, there is no possibility of the conversion of the world and a temporal millennium this side of that event; for as long as antichrist remains in the world, it is self-evident that the whole world cannot be Christian. If the whole world should unite to the Christian body, none would be left to constitute the antichristian body. Therefore should the conversion of the world take place before the advent, the “man of sin” cannot, as Paul declares, be “destroyed by the brightness of his coming;” unless indeed he has a resurrection before He comes who has the “keys of death and of hell,” that is, the resurrection power.

There can be no doubt with the student of prophecy, that Paul’s “man of sin, the son of perdition” is the same power spoken of by Daniel the prophet in chap. vii, as the “little horn,” and in the book of Revelation as “the beast.” And whoever will compare these several descriptions of this “abomination of desolation” with the history of the world during the gospel age, will find that they point, unmistakably, to that power whose highest official is the pope of Rome. Its mouth speaking blasphemies, its unparalleled persecution of the saints of the Most High, and the long period of its reign, being twelve hundred and sixty years, constitute a description which infallibly applies to the papal power; because that no other power has ever existed that fills the description.

Of this power it is said, “But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” Dan. vii, 26. This text represents that the dominion or civil power of the papacy is taken away a little before the end, and that from that time it consumes away to the end, when, as the following verse shows, the kingdom of God is established, that power being utterly destroyed from under Heaven. See verse 27. Paul’s testimony harmonizes perfectly with this, and also proves that the “end” spoken of by Daniel, is the end of the gospel age, at the second coming of Christ. Says the apostle, “And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. ii, 8. Thus it is proved that the great antichrist shall exist to the “day of Christ,” and shall be destroyed when he descends to take vengeance on his foes and save his people. The present consuming, enfeebled, dying state of the papacy is a sure indication that the end is at hand.

Again, in Rev. xix, the personal coming of Christ is represented in symbolic language, as one coming from Heaven upon a white horse, followed by the armies of Heaven upon white horses—the holy angels that come with him. At this time, the beast so particularly described in chap. xiii, which, as I said before, can represent nothing which ever existed upon earth but the papacy, is still here, and in array against the coming King of kings. “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Verses 19, 20.

Thus it appears that, if we are to have a glorious millennium before the coming of Christ, the “wild beast,” with his mouth of blasphemy, if not his horns of power, will remain upon earth through it all, and also the false prophet that deceives the world with his miracles. Deliver me from such a millennium! Who knows but we are enjoying it now! The professed Christian world are following the traditions of the beast, and being deceived by the false prophet. And I seriously am inclined to believe that one of the leading deceptions of the false prophet, is the doctrine of the world’s conversion and a temporal millennium before the coming of Christ. While men are looking for the “good time coming,” and finally resolve to fight their way through to it, suddenly the parting heavens reveal the coming of the Son of God, and they find themselves fighting, or attempting to fight, against the coming King of kings and Lord of lords.

We have proved that so far from the doctrine of the conversion of the world being taught in the Scriptures, it is pointedly contradicted by the prophecies. It is a most deceptive and dangerous doctrine. What could be better calculated to deceive men, so that the day of the Lord should come upon them as a snare, or as a thief in the night? And thus it will be, notwithstanding all the thrilling warnings and exhortations of the word of God to watch and escape the danger. And can it be possible that almost every denomination of Christendom, and almost every professed minister of the gospel, are lending a hand to help on this fatal delusion? Oh, that candid, truth-loving men and women knew (if they could bear the sight), the extent of prevailing apostasy in the professed church of the present day. If the apostle could say, when viewing the beginning of apostasy, “In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils,” well might he exclaim, when, by the Spirit, he saw the culminating point to which this apostasy is now approaching and has nearly reached, “In the LAST DAYS PERILOUS TIMES SHALL COME.”

Awake, dear readers, to the perils which surround you, threatening to engulf you in irretrievable ruin. Do not sleep over the subject of your salvation, and indulge in delusive dreams of the conversion of the very dregs of humanity; and of a “good time coming,” till the thunders of the day of God that shall shake the heavens and the earth, shall awake you to the lamentable fact, that “the harvest is past, the summer is ended,” and you are “not saved.” Now is the time, while mercy lingers, with our great High Priest before the throne of God in Heaven, to make preparation to stand in that tremendous day, which soon and suddenly will burst upon a world ripened in wickedness, and upon a professed church, wholly departed from her God!

O, hasten! to make your escape.