IN addition to the fact, is it of any importance that we understand the manner of Christ's return?
Men may answer, No; but celestial beings, both the good and the bad, are aware that great results hang upon this issue.
There Will Be Deceptions.
"Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert, go not forth; behold, He is in the secret chamber; believe it not.* "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Matt. 24: 23-27.
Evidently, then, the Master would not have warned us against these deceptions, nor would the arch deceiver take the pains to bring them about, unless by these deceits some might be endangered. In fact, in this connection it appears that Satan will enact his delusive masterpiece, "insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." And further, the teaching that Christ will come in some other way than the one He has specified, will be followed by the actual appearing of false christs: "Behold, He is in the desert!" "Behold, He is in the secret chambers!" Present tense.
So a false teaching in reference to the manner of His return will be followed by attempted demonstration of that event. Logically it must terminate in the appearing of Satan himself, counterfeiting so far as lieth in his hellish power the glorious appearing of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works." 2 Cor. 11:14, 15. Here is a foundation for all the false prophets and false christs, both human and Satanic.
And mark the fact that such deceivers will not be tame and powerless. They "shall show great signs and wonders."
But the counterfeit will be on earth and local, while the genuine will flood the heavens and be simultaneously world-wide. "As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."
A Personal Appearing.
Standing for the last time in the midst of His little flock on the crest of the Mount of Olives, He gave them a final commission. "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1:9-11.
Visible to All.
In His ascent, a cloud received Him out of their sight. And "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen." Rev. 1:7.
It is a fallacy, and a fatal one too, to suppose that this glorious event will take place in a corner. It is vain to suppose He will be seen only by "the saints;" that it will be over with as quickly as the lightning's flash; that the saints will be secretly caught up to meet Him, leaving the wicked of earth, with a blink and a stare, to wonder what has become of them. "Every eye shall see him." "All kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." They that pierced Him will awake from their tombs to behold His glory. Awful day for the ungodly! Glorious day for the redeemed!
Overwhelming Glory.
"He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels." Luke 9:26. "All the holy angels" will attend Him. Matt. 25: 31. "A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." Ps. 50:3.
"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire." 2 Thess. 1:7, 8.
At the touch of His glory, the atmospheric heavens depart "as a scroll when it is rolled together." Rev. 6:14-17.
Appalling are the scenes which accompany our returning Lord. When expiring on Calvary, He cried, "It is finished." John 19:30. "And the earth did quake and the rocks rent." Matt. 27:51.
But what shall occur when "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God"? Joel says both "the heavens and the earth shall shake." At Mount Sinai His voice shook the earth. "But now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which can not be shaken may remain." Heb. 12:26, 27.
In that shaking "the cities of the nations" fell. Rev. 16:19. Even "all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." Jer. 4:26. "And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." Rev. 16:20.
All who have been deceived by false christs, and have been lured after them into the deserts and the secret chambers, even they will recognize the genuine when it comes. But it will then be too late. "Behold," said Jesus, "I have told you before."
In sharp contrast with such, will be those who believe Him now, before it comes to pass. Knowing the manner of His coming, they will have rejected all pretenders, tho the world has gone after them. But when the Genuine shall appear, they will say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." When the "heavens and the earth shall shake," "the Lord will be the hope of His people." Joel 3:16. When everything is "shaken which can be shaken," they will remain unmoved. Heb. 12:28. "Therefore will not we fear, tho the earth be removed, and tho the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Ps. 46:2.
(Continued on page 14.)7
Christ's Coming. (Continued from page 4.)
Once fixed in mind, the picture of His glorious appearing with its attendant features will fortify well the child of God against the most stupendous counterfeits the universe has ever witnessed. When the Genuine shall come, the earth will be emptied of its inhabitants; the ungodly perishing amid the cataclysm of nature and the penetrating glory of God. See 2 Thess. 1:7, 8; 2:8; Rev. 19:19-21. And in that time the dead in Christ shall rise (all of them); while the living saints, immortal made, shall be caught up together with them to meet their Lord in the air. 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; 1 Cor. 15:51-55. These things are not done at conversion; they are not done at death; nor are they done at the coming of false christs; but they are accomplished at the coming of the Lord.
"Take heed that no man deceive you." Matt. 24:4. "Behold, I have told you before." Matt. 24:25.
'And All the Holy Angels with Him.'
WITNESSES IN THE HEAVENS.
By Roderick S. Owen
BY RODERICK S. OWEN.
"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Matt. 24:34.
THUS spake Jesus to His disciples, sitting upon the Mount of Olives with Jerusalem at His feet.
What generation shall not pass until what things are fulfilled?
This was in reply to a question by His disciples as to when Jerusalem would be destroyed, but they also asked, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?"
In His reply, He gave them a series of events which covered the time from the destruction of Jerusalem to His second coming.
A Time of Tribulation.
The first event which would seriously affect the people of God after the destruction of Jerusalem was to be a time of tribulation such as never was since the beginning of the world, no, nor never should be, but for the elect's sake those days were to be shortened. Daniel also foretold this tribulation (chapter 7:23-25), where, under the symbol of a little horn, a blasphemous, persecuting power is represented as making war with the saints, and prevailing against them; and they are delivered into his hands for a time, times, and the dividing of times, or three and one-half years, or 1,260 prophetic days, or 1,260 years of literal time.
In speaking of this time of tribulation again (Dan. 11:33-35), the prophet says that in the midst of it the people of God would receive a little help, or, as the Saviour said, the tribulation should be shortened; in other words, the help which was to come to God's people would check and finally stop the persecution before the 1,260 years should end.
In Matt. 24:29, Jesus says: "Immediately after the tribulation [or, as Mark expresses it, "But in those days, after that tribulation"], shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Where do we stand in this series of events, and what may we next expect?
The Testimony of Sun and Moon.
Let us see. In A.D. 70 Jerusalem was destroyed. This was followed by intermittent persecution of God's people until the establishment of the Papacy in the year 538, when the days of tribulation really began, and the little horn of Daniel 7 began its 1,260 years of war against the saints; and it prevailed against them until the sixteenth century, when the Reformation brought help to them. This help stayed the power of the Papacy so that by A.D. 1776-79 open persecution entirely ceased, thus leaving a period of more than twenty years of the 1,260 as the shortening of the tribulation. Immediately after the tribulation ceased, or in the year 1780, the first great sign of His coming mentioned by the Saviour was given, and in that land to which His people had fled to free themselves from the persecutions of the Old World, the sun and moon were darkened.
About nine o'clock in the morning, in New England, it began to grow dark. All nature was clothed as with a mantle of deepest twilight. Birds and beasts sought shelter as for the night, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair. In the night following, the full moon appeared like a ball of blood, and did not give her light, so that May 19, 1780, has been set down in history as "The Dark Day."
We know this to be a great sign of the coming of the Lord because it meets the description given, and came exactly at the time foretold, to wit, "in the days," and immediately after the tribulation.
In A.D. 1798 we reach the end of the 1,260 years, and we find the power and influence of the Papacy so weakened that Berthier, a French general, enters Rome, and takes the pope captive, thus inflicting a deadly wound upon that power.
The Witness of the Stars.
Passing on to the night of Nov. 13, 1833, and the people are startled by a light streaming in at the windows, almost as the day. Rushing to the doors to see the cause, the exclamation bursts from many lips, "The stars are falling! The stars are falling!" Starting from one point in the heavens, the meteors fell violently in all directions toward the earth in an appalling shower.
Those who witnessed it not only felt impressed that it was a sign of the day of God, but said that it could not be better described than by using the words of Rev. 6:13, "And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind."
The next event in the series is the shaking of the powers of the heavens. This is described in Rev. 6:14 as the departing of the heavens as a scroll when it is rolled together. Isa. 34:4 reads: "And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as a leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree."
This, all can see, is not a sign of His coming, but an attendant circumstance. There is seen the sign of the Son of Man in heaven—not a sign of His coming, but the sign of His presence. When this sign is seen all recognize that He is there, and all the tribes of the earth mourn as they see Him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
While the tribes of the earth mourn, the saints will hail Him with joy, as they exclaim, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us." And Jesus sends the angels, and the saints are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so to be ever with the Lord. O, glorious consummation to the people of God!
Learn the Parable.
But where do we stand in this series of events of to-day?—The sun has been darkened, the moon has refused to give her light; the stars have fallen from heaven. The last sign spoken of by the Saviour has been given, the next to follow is the departing of the heavens and the coming of the Lord.
Can we tell anything about how near the great event is?—The Saviour continued His instruction by saying, "Now learn the parable of the fig tree."
When, and by whom is this parable to be learned?—Certainly when these signs are seen, and by those who see them.
What is the parable?—"When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."
(Continued on page 14.)8
Witnesses in the Heavens.
(Continued from page 5.)
Luke says, "Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; . . . ye see and know . . . that summer is nigh at hand."
The lesson taught is, that when we see these signs, we are to be just as certain that the coming of the Lord is near as we are sure that summer is near when the leaves appear. All the world could not persuade us to doubt these signs in nature. So all the world ought not to be able to lead us to doubt these signs in the heavens. And if we believe and obey the words of our Master, we will "know that He is near."
How near?—The Saviour answers again, "Even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
This Generation.
What generation shall not pass?—Certainly the generation which He addresses, the generation to which He says, "When ye see all these things, know that it is near." "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
Are we near the close of that generation? Has it nearly passed away?
I go out among the children of men to find those who saw the stars fall. The mass of men tell me that they did not see it. The most of those who saw it have passed away. There are but few left. Yet the word of the Lord stands; and I hear my Master say, "Lift up your heads and rejoice, for this generation shall not pass till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass away."
Christian, do you believe, and are you ready? Sinner, will you believe it, and get ready? "Be ye also ready."
As He Ascended in Heaven.
WHAT THE WATCHMAN SAW.
By B. Franklin Richards
BY B. FRANKLIN RICHARDS.
"Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth." Isa. 21:6.
S TRANGE things are happening in these days, and so vastly different from anything that ever occurred, that more than a passing notice must be taken of them.
A Diseased Earth.
There will come a time in the history of this world, before it reaches the end when mourning will be widespread and the people shall pine away, as saith the prophet: "Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away." Have we reached that time? Does the land mourn? Ask the farmer, orchardist, vine-dresser, or florist, if they can depend on the ground with the same degree of certainty of harvesting a bountiful crop as they did ten or twenty years ago. Farmers tell us they give closer attention to the soil than ever, but it is incapable of producing as formerly. It is losing its strength, becoming old and worn out. The orchardist sprays his trees several times each year, whitewashes the trunks as a preventive, then ties a collar of cloth around each, trying in this way to prevent the enemies of the fruit from reaching it; yet with all these precautionary measures the codlin moth, or the horned caterpillar, or the canker-worm are encroaching upon him with alarming rapidity. He is frightened over the situation, for he is not blind to the fact that his orchard is sick, without any prospect of recovery.
A Sickly Humanity.
"Every one that dwelleth therein shall languish," reads the above text. This refers to the human family. To languish, "to become weak, feeble, weary; to droop." Is the human race in this condition? If they were not, what would two-thirds of the physicians, druggists, and dentists do? If the people were not more sickly now than fifty years ago it would not be necessary to graduate about six thousand doctors each year in America, or to carry tons in weight of patent medicines in our drug stores in order to meet the growing demand for "cure-alls" by those who are sick? If we were not languishing, what would be the object of manufacturing "aids to digestion" of varieties reaching into hundreds? Why have so many tonics for liver and stomach? Why so many stimulants,—whiskies, wines, beers, etc.? Why so many narcotics,—opium, morphine, cocaine? Why so many germicides?
Do the germs prey on the human family now more than formerly? In the beginning the Creator gave man "dominion" (power) over everything, (Gen. 1:28), but now trainloads of germicides, both in powder and liquid form, are made to destroy the germs that would kill the people. If we are not coming to the end of the race, why do we see so many specialists in every city who give attention only to diseases of women, or of children, or of the eye, or of the nose and throat, or chest, or some other part of the human anatomy?
Dental Difficulties.
Look for a moment into the mouths of the people. Do you see that shining gold? Well, it requires from five to eight tons yearly of this costly metal to fill the cavities in the teeth of the people in America. Twenty-five thousand registered dentists in the United States are kept busy preserving sound teeth, filling those worth saving, and extracting millions that are already beyond repair, and replacing them with sound artificial ones. A hundred years ago doctors and barbers attended to this work, but the rapid decline in this portion of the human organism became so apparent that a more perfect preparation for its treatment was demanded, so the profession of Dentistry came in. Now we have buildings in the cities five to seven stories high, containing hundreds of offices, and each office is occupied by a dentist. Other buildings, equally large, are filled with doctors only, notwithstanding the signs of the doctor or dentist are displayed throughout the city in close proximity to each other. Was it so as late as fifty years ago?
The Health Question.
Another question: Is it more difficult to keep in good health now than formerly? Notwithstanding the plentifulness of "pure foods," "health foods," and other helps, and the multiplicity of books ably instructing "how to live," still we are going down, with the end almost in sight.
Given to Pleasure.
As the watchman looks he beholds new play-houses just completed, others being built, even store buildings converted into places of amusement, and he sees the people flocking to them, often with even standing-room at a premium. But the large and costly churches have many empty seats. So the increase of pleasure-seeking and the decrease of reverence for God are two noticeable features among the people to-day. Now the Lord says that this condition will be characteristic of the time of the end. "This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." 2 Tim. 3:2-5. Now bear in mind the people referred to are church-members, "having a form of godliness," and should have greater love for God than for pleasure. We would expect them to be reverent and ready to acknowledge God's power as manifested in His universe and in the salvation of sinful men, but we are told that in the last days they will be "denying the power." Consequently, if these be the last days, we may look for a teaching to be spreading among church-members, as well as in the world, which shall question whether after all the worlds and man are really God's handiwork, and whether there is any need of the saving power of His Gospel. How does Evolution fulfil the specifications of the prophecy, having for its fundamental principle the theory that both the world and man developed by the agency of natural laws, unaided by God? And was there ever a greater denial of the necessity for the Gospel's power to save than is being made all over the "Christian" world by the "New Thought" doctrine, which declares man has only to will strongly enough in order to accomplish anything he chooses?
God's messages always correct errors prevalent at the time they are to be given. Then we would expect the message for the last days to be one emphasizing the creatorship of the Lord. In the first part of the final message to the world we read (Rev. 14:7): "and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." And this message has been before the people for nearly threescore years.
"Prepare War."
In the "time of the end" great preparations for war will be made. "Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong." Joel 3:9, 10. Have the nations made any preparations for war? Let the millions upon millions of dollars which have been spent in making ships of war and destructive weapons answer? And have all the nations gone into this sort of thing? Have the kings of the earth and the whole world prepared for war?—Indeed they have. Please read Rev. 16:13, 14. May the God of heaven help you, dear reader, to see that the gathering of the nations and the great expenditure of fortunes in navies and armies are signs of the awful approaching storm that will culminate in the "battle of that great day of God Almighty."
Heaping Up Riches.
Before the second coming of Christ men will accumulate vast fortunes. They will not get them honestly; and, as a result, the relations between capital and labor will be greatly strained. The laborer will continue to be robbed, and will, in consequence, grow poorer and more dissatisfied as he beholds the inequality. The rich will continue to plunder till patience ceases to be a virtue and the storm of wrath breaks upon them. Read the message to the rich: "Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." James 5:1-3. Have we rich men now? The watchman surveys the field, and he discovers men with fortunes ranging from $1,000,000 to almost $1,000,000,000. These men combine with each other and form trusts that control and fix the price of nearly every commodity on the earth. So completely have the few rich men everything in their power that prices rise or fall apparently at their will. The Lord saw this state of affairs and knew it would cause hardship and untold trouble, with suffering and perplexity; so He said, using for illustration the farmer who patiently waits for his crops to mature: "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James 5:7, 8. This will put an end to all selfishness, greed, and inequality.
For lack of space we can not speak of the many boycotts that have and are taking place, simply educating the people to participate in the cruel and heartless boycott that will be inaugurated just before the coming of Christ. See Rev. 13:17. Neither have we space to tell of the alarming increase of cancer, insanity, and tuberculosis in the human family, all of which show with unmistakable evidence that this present human life is about to close.
"The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night."
Christ’s Coming and Cleansing Blood
"'T is but a little while and He shall come again
Who died that we might live, who lives that we may with
Him reign;
Then, O my Lord, prepare my soul for that glad day;
O, wash me in Thy precious blood, and take my sins away!
—Horatius Bonar.
CHRIST IS COMING AGAIN.
THOSE who know Him now by His character, His Word, His Spirit, will long to see “the Lord Himself.” To them He will “not be a stranger.” We desire the personal presence of those whom we truly love. We may be comforted by their words, encouraged by their example, and rejoice, as with Jesus, in the power of the endless life given us, but all these things will intensify the desire, deepen the longing, quicken the hope, of beholding Him as He is, the Son of God, the Son of Man—our Lord, yet our Brother.
The child of God can not separate our love for Him from our love for His personal presence. To know Him there is gladness of heart which mortal tongue can not express; to see Him, then, will be joy unutterable, even to tongue of immortals. It is home, glad, joyous home, forever. All trials are past, all tears forever wiped away, all sin forever banished, all strife ceased; death is no more. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
