Luther and the Advent

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 6, 1865

Luther and the Advent.

THE following extracts from the works of Luther, will show his views of the second coming of Christ.

"In the year 1541, when, during a very beautiful spring, everything flourished and bloomed, Luther said to Justus Jonas: 'If only sin and death were absent, we would be satisfied with such a paradise. But it will be much more beautiful, when the world and the old state of things will be entirely renovated, and an eternal spring begins, which will be and continue forever.' The computation of those who confidently fixed the year and the day of the final judgment being once referred to, he said: 'No, verily, the text is too plain in Matt. xxiv: Concerning the day and the hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels in Heaven, but alone, my Father; therefore, neither I, nor any man, nor angel, can fix the day or the hour. I believe, nevertheless, that all the signs which are to precede the last day have already happened. The gospel is preached throughout the world; the child of perdition is revealed, and destroyed in the hearts of many; the kingdom of Rome is declining to its fall; all the elements and creatures are in commotion, and declining; there is no longer any love or fidelity on the earth, and Christ may come when he may, he will find but a small flock of believers; excess in eating and drinking, the practice of usury, anxious cares, covetousness, extravagance in dress and building, and all manner of irregularity, verily being as prevalent now as they were at the times of Noah; wherefore, I conceive that the signs preceding the last day are fulfilled. Unless it should be that Gog and Magog, together with the Papacy, should yet be crushed and destroyed previously, in a temporal respect too, and that particular and supernatural darkness should perhaps be witnessed in the sun and moon, as was the case at the death of Christ, and that the gospel should, previously to the last day, be banished from all the churches, schools, and pulpits, and be found only with pious heads of families, within their four walls, as it was in the times of Elijah, and as it verily almost seems it will be now. Otherwise, everything is fulfilled which is to precede the last day. Methinks Christ our Lord is already publishing his summons in Heaven, and the angels are preparing for the journey, and because during these six hundred years all the great and marvelous events of which Elijah prophesied, have occurred in the spring and about Easter, I trust Christ will also appear about Easter, and cause his voice to be heard in a morning tempest, and then, with one stroke, confounding the heavens and the earth, in a moment of time, transform the living, raise the dead, create a new heaven and earth, hold his judgment in the clouds, wholly fulfill the Scriptures, together with his last; It is finished; THIS WE AWAIT." (Meurer's Life of Luther, pp. 573, 574.)

"The world has grown very stubborn and headstrong, since the revelation of the word of the gospel. It begins to crack sorely, and I hope will soon break and fall on a heap through the coming of the day of judgment, for which we wait with yearnings and sighs of heart." (Table Talk, chap. 4.)

"Some, in explaining the passage, 'other sheep I have,' say, that before the latter days, the whole world shall become Christians. This is a falsehood forged by Satan, that he might darken sound doctrine, that we might not rightly understand it. Beware, therefore, of this delusion." (Com. on John x, 16.)

"The world is as it ever has been, the world, and desires to know nothing of Christ. Let it go its own way. They continue to rage and grow worse from day to day, which, indeed, is a solace to the weary soul, as it shows that the glorious day of the Lord is at hand. The world is given up to its own ways, that the day of its destruction and our salvation should be hastened. Amen—so be it."

"May the Lord come at once! Let him cut the whole matter short with the day of judgment, for there is no amendment to be expected." (Life, p. 348.)

"I see no other prayer that is fitting, but only this,—thy kingdom come." (Ib. p. 348.)

"Let us not; therefore, be wanting to ourselves, disregarding the most diligent premonition and prophecy of Christ our Savior; but seeing in our age the signs foretold by him do often come to pass, let us not think that the coming of Christ is far off. And now let us look up with heads lifted up, and let us expect our Redeemer's coming with a longing and cheerful mind. For though the signs may seem uncertain, yet no man can despise them without danger; seeing there can be not only no danger, but also great profit; if, reckoning them as true, thou shalt prepare thyself to meet thy Savior; that is, if bidding farewell to present things, thou shalt be wholly taken up with the kingdom of God that is coming. Let us follow certain things, and the signs we have lately seen brought forth; let us not doubt but that they are true signs of the last day, lest we stumble with those profane men of the world, and meet with sudden destruction, when we shall promise nothing but quietness to ourselves." (Quoted from the London Q. J. of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 445.)