Signs of the Times, October 31, 1916 (10/31/1916)

Signs of the Times

Oct 31, 1916

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 31, 1916

Satan's Last Charge

By Benjamin G. Wilkinson

JEHOVAH said, "From one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me." Isa. 66: 23.

The devil said, "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me."

God longs for the worship of man; and man needs to worship God, just as truly as God longs for his worship. The devil, however, tried to usurp God's place, and divert that worship to himself. Yet he knows, as some day all the human race will know, that worship of God is the highest joy that can fill the human breast. Any man who would sell for a sensual pleasure or a gratification of the flesh, the joy of worshiping God, is like a man playing with toys when God wants him to play with worlds. He is insane. He is blinded. He does not know that which is for his best good.

From stuff invisible the strongest men cut out their strength. "The things which are seen," says the apostle Paul, "are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." There are invisible realities that are yet to become visible. An absent Redeemer has a definite appointment to return. A new earth has been promised, as also has been the descent of the holy city, the New Jerusalem. When the thousand years in which the righteous live and reign with Christ are over, then will occur their return to this earth.

The wicked dead will be visited again. As Isaiah declares concerning the wicked, "They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." Isa. 24: 22. And concerning the descent of Christ with the redeemed band as He returns to this earth, we read as follows: "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee." "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, . . . and there shall be a very great valley. . . . And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." Zech. 14: 5, 4, 9.

Then will be fulfilled the statement of the Saviour that the wicked shall be raised to "the resurrection of damnation." John 5: 29. How different is their resurrection from that of the just, which takes place a thousand years previous! These come up with the bloom of immortality on their cheek, with clear eyes and a perfect conscience.

But the wicked come up as they fell. The same spirit of rebellion will be in their heart. They will be like weeds that have gone to seed, without possibility of being transformed into flowers, while the righteous are raised to bloom like beautiful plants forever. As the wicked, forever bereft of the Holy Spirit, look upon the camp of the saints, they also note the glorious holy city, the New Jerusalem, which John saw "coming down from God out of heaven." Rev. 21: 2.

The resurrection of the wicked looses Satan out of his prison. He at once begins his furious effort to compass about the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Insane with disappointment, and unable yet, in the face of such infinite glory, to know that he is defeated, he inspires the mighty hosts of the lost with new energy, they knowing that they are in the same condition as he.

As John the revelator looked upon them, their countless legions rolled over the broken and uneven surface of the earth, like an endless procession. Battalion followed upon battalion, and regiment was succeeded by regiment. Their purposes are manifest. "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth. . . . And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Rev. 20: 7.

When the apostle Paul was on the way to Damascus, at noontide, when the sun was in the meridian and at its maximum strength, suddenly a great light shone round about him. It struck him to the ground. There was violent power in it. When he arose, he was blinded by the light. The glory of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was infinitely stronger than the sun at noonday.

The fire that shall stream from God and destroy the wicked will be the greatest manifestation of terrific light ever shot toward this planet. It will envelop not only the wicked, but the entire earth itself. It is that of which Peter speaks when he says, "The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3: 10.

The earth will be enveloped in a molten sea of flame, like the fire clouds of the sun. The New Jerusalem will ride safely upon the place prepared for it. The saints will be safe within it, as Noah was within the ark. And as the angels of God were present to behold the earth when it was created the first time, so likewise the saints, safely housed in the New Jerusalem, will witness the purification and re-creation of this glorious planet.

The earth, when first created, was inhabited by a race that had never seen heaven. This will not be so in the

re-creation. The close of the millennium will deliver to this planet a population whose home for a thousand years had been in the "many mansions" "in My Father's house."

The mysteries of the past will have been unfolded to them. They will have conquered sin when in the flesh; and certainly, in their glorified bodies, they will be strong to continue in the righteousness they have learned.

"In the ages to come," says the apostle Paul. Yea, in the infinite light of ages to come! As knowledge is progressive, so will love and reverence increase. The Hindu doctrine that ultimately all souls will return to and be lost in God, is as false as sin itself; for though we should live ten thousand times ten thousand years — yes, more, though we should live ten trillion times ten trillion years — God would always be an eternity ahead of us. There would always be something in Him after which we would passionately yearn, and which we could never have without having Him.

God will not be the great uniformity in whom all distinctions vanish. He is infinite, and we are not. Our knowledge shall increase, greatly increase, and with the unfolding years, each new delight will add its contribution to the joy of living.

Original Dominion Restored

As our relation to God is changed, so is our relation to the universe and to the creatures that inherit this planet. Now enmity exists between man and the lower animals — at least with a larger part of them. Then the old dominion will be restored, and "a little child shall lead them." The saints can say to the lion, "Come," and he will come; to the mighty leviathan, "Go," and he will go. Oh, the blessed joys that await the redeemed at the close of the millennium! Then shall it be fully known that it does make a great deal of difference whether or not we serve God in this life.

Our decision to-day has eternal influence upon the actions of the future. Let us make our decision aright; for "how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"

With the publication of this, the concluding article of Dr. Wilkinson's illuminating series on the millennium, it is a pleasure to announce the coming of five strong articles on spiritism, by the same writer, scheduled to begin in our issue of November 14. EDITOR.

Are Governments a Failure?

By A. R. Bell

America's Place in the Line of Governmental Experiment

WHEN sin entered this world, the rights of men began to be denied, and civil government — a thing that never would have existed had not sin entered — was in the providence of God ordained.

Man, who was made in the image of his Creator, sinned. Like the one who caused him to sin, he became a rebel against divine government, and placed himself under the dominion of Satan, turning the liberty he had into license.

Made Imperative by Sin

Had man not sinned, the mind of Christ would have operated through the lives of all, and none would have been disturbed in the enjoyment of their rights. But man sinned. He was overcome of Satan. The mind of another than Christ ruled him, and the opposite of the fruits of the Spirit was seen in his life.

That opposite spirit ruling in man brought enmity between men. They began to deny to their fellows the rights and privileges they themselves enjoyed. Here God, in His all-wise providence, came to man's help, and ordained that, though in rebellion against God, he should be protected in his rights; and civil government — government among men, and by men, and for men — was instituted.

It must not be understood, however, that civil government is God's ideal. All the history of the world proves the opposite. So far as man is concerned, and so far as the nations of all time are concerned, government among men has failed to meet God's standard.

An Uninterrupted Series of Failures

Centuries before Christ, Assyria became the queen of ancient history. That "golden kingdom of a golden age," Babylon, was "weighed in the balances," and "found wanting."

Medo-Persia, like the empire she had vanquished, filled her cup of iniquity to the full, and was thrown down, never to rise again.

Wonderful Grecia, under Alexander the Great, entered the arena; but in a little while, she too went down into the cesspool of a world's iniquity, and was not.

Then the mighty iron monarchy of Rome seized the scepter of world empire, and set herself to the task of government. But so far short did Rome come in the matter of government that the great hordes of half civilized inhabitants of Europe, smarting under the greatest neglect of the centuries, trampled her under their feet. Then followed the ten kingdoms, with their various forms of government; and their record, so far as it concerns man's being free to enjoy the inestimable blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is a miserable failure. All bear indisputable testimony that the ideal has not been reached; and the frightful and unparalleled conditions in Europe to-day hold out no hope whatever that it ever will be.

America's Noble Task

In the rise of America, a light shone out of the darkness, bidding men hope. Blessed of God, signally marked by His favor, separated from the failures of the centuries, she arose free from every entangling alliance, and men saw a new thing in the earth. The flickering spark of hope that had almost been extinguished, was fanned into a flame, and men took courage.

"A government of the people, by the people, and for the people" elbowed its way into the world. An astonished populace beheld it grow, its superstructure in government rooted in the fundamental principle of individual rights. For the first time in the history of the human race, a government set itself to the task of protecting the individual in the enjoyment of his individual rights.

The new government recognized the mistakes of the centuries in the matter of a man's individual relation to his fellows and to his God, and the new order of things became an inspiration to men everywhere.

The Incarnation of a Sublime Idea

The historian says of the United States: "It was long withheld, but it came at last, and about it center the best hopes of mankind. These United States — this America of ours, as we love to call it — is unlike any nation that has preceded or is contemporary with it. It is the conscious incarnation of a sublime idea — the conception of civil and religious liberty."—"History of the United States," Hawthorne, volume 1, page 2.

But the same historian, reviewing the years of her history, and her fall from her high estate, says:

"The exalted maxim of human equality was interpreted to mean that all Americans could be rich; and the spectacle was presented of a mighty and generous nation fighting one another for mere material wealth. Inevitably, the lower and baser element of the population came to the surface and seemed to rule; the ordinary citizen, on whom the welfare of the nation depends, allowed his private business interest to wean him from the conduct of public affairs, which thereby fell into the hands of professional politicians, who handled them for their personal gain instead of for the common weal. We forgot that pregnant saying, 'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' and suffered ourselves to be persuaded that because our written constitution was a wise and patriotic document, we were forever safe even from the effects of our own selfishness and infidelity."—Id., page 10.

Humanity's Last Hope

Let us look the situation over. What do we see? — Our nation in her political life passing the boundary of decency. We see her, in spite of all her advantages, and notwithstanding all the blessings and privileges enjoyed far beyond any other time or people, not only equaling but surpassing the Old World, and every other nation or empire that preceded it, in social corruption; and in degeneracy, so far as time is concerned, America has set the pace for the world.

In his speech "The Great Destroyer," the Hon. Richmond P. Hobson says: "In America, we are making the last stand of the great white race, and substantially of the human race. . . . If America fails, the world will be undone, and the human race will be doomed to go down from degeneracy to degeneracy till the Almighty in wrath wipes the accursed thing out."

The present speaker of the national House of Representatives, the Hon. Champ Clark, called America "the last hope of constitutional government on the whole face of the earth;" and as he saw the trend of thought broadcast throughout the country, "so puzzling, and so contradictory to our history and traditions," he said, "The evil one himself must have laid a spell upon the American mind, for the purpose of luring to its destruction this great republic."

Will America Prove Untrue?

This great nation, with all its possibilities and opportunities, the brightest and best that earth ever produced, born in due time in the providence of God and in the fulfillment of prophecy, has turned from the secret of her greatness, and is started down the path that leads to death. Diplomacy has indeed become "the art of lying." The word "politician," which once stood for a patriot, now is a synonym for "grafter." Civil and religious liberty is fast becoming a byword, and the individual rights of men are trampled in the dust.

America is indeed "the last hope of constitutional government on the whole face of the earth." So far as governments of earth are concerned, in America "we have reached the shores of the last ocean." Besides the outlook from the viewpoint of men, we have the outlook from the sure word of prophecy. Revelation 13 shows that this nation will forget the purpose of civil government; she will prove untrue to the principles that have been her life, and which she has held aloft as the ideal in government; she will violate her own constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" she will deny "that all men are created equal;" and she will turn her back on the counsel of Gen. U. S. Grant, "Keep the state and the church forever separate."

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Are Governments a Failure?

(Continued from page 2)

The dragon voice that down through the centuries has been heard denying to men their God-given, inalienable rights, both civil and religious, will be heard within our borders; and freedom of speech, and a free press, and the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, will be denied men.

In the face of a century and a quarter of liberty and blessing, will our government take its place in the line, and demonstrate itself a failure? This has ever been, from the beginning of history. Will it be until its close? Sin has overridden in the matter of human government to the extent that instead of protecting the individual in his rights, governments have denied them. Soon God will wind up the affairs of the kingdoms of men, setting up the everlasting kingdom of His own blessed Son. Then only will we reach the ideal in government. A race saved by the gospel will enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, in a kingdom that will stand forever.

Citizenship in that blessed kingdom is through the blood of Christ, and every blood-bought citizen will be a prince of royal blood — a child of the King. Citizenship in that glorious kingdom is offered to men who will forsake sin; and it is written, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." Rev. 21: 7. God help us to seek that kingdom!

GIRD THYSELF

By Mrs. S. J. Roller

By Mrs. S. J. Roller

AWAKE, awake, O sleeping world! The time is drawing near When Jesus, with His heavenly host, In mid-air will appear.

Arise, and gird your armor on. Time's race is almost run. The signs God gave to trace it by, Are passing, one by one.

That we might know His will, He spoke Through holy men of old. The prophecies His truth reveal, His sovereign plan unfold.

Shall we be counted worthy, then, To stand among the blest Whom Christ will own, and welcome give Into His glorious rest?

Earth's Most Mysterious Brotherhood

By Carlyle B. Haynes

Almost Unbelievable Sacrifice and Devotion, and All for an Unseen Leader

By Carlyle B. Haynes

NINETEEN centuries ago, the Son of God was on earth. He came as the Saviour of men and of the world. By His sacrifice on Calvary, He made a way of escape from death for every human being.

At His first advent, He remained on earth for thirty-three and a half years. The last three and a half years of His life were spent in public ministry. During this time, He not only taught the principles of the gospel Himself, but He made provision, by calling and ordaining the disciples, for the gospel to be preached to the very end of the world.

He told His disciples repeatedly, while with them, that He was soon to depart, and return to the place whence He had come into the world. They heard Him say to the Pharisees, "Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent Me." John 7: 33. But like the Pharisees, they were dull of hearing, and did not understand. He said plainly to them, "Now I go My way to Him that sent Me." John 16: 5. He assured them that "it is expedient for you that I go away." John 16: 7. He said again, "A little while, and ye shall not see Me, . . . because I go to the Father." John 16: 16. Yet when He went away, they were not ready for His departure.

But before He returned to heaven, He accomplished the great work which He had come to do. He laid down His life for the salvation of men. Alone in Gethsemane, with none to help or comfort, He drained the last scalding drop of the fiery cup,— the cup that none other could drink. From Gethsemane, He was taken by the mob. Priests and rulers insulted and jeered Him. The whole nation taunted and gibed Him. But not one cry was forced from His pale lips by pain, or thirst, or glaring noonday sun, or thorns, or nails, or smitings of dirty, sin-stained hands. As a sheep before its shearers, so was He dumb.

Watched His Dying Agonies

They hurried Him before Annas and Caiaphas, and then before Pilate, and on to Herod, and back again to Pilate, always in the midst of the vociferating crowd, who buffeted Him, and smote Him with the palms of their hands, and spit in His face, speaking sneeringly of the shame of His birth, and demanding that He perform for them a miracle. Coming the last time from Pilate's judgment hall, after the sentence of crucifixion had been pronounced, they crushed down upon the weary head the cruel crown of thorns, and bowed the knee in mockery, crying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"

With no rest through the long night, hurried from one proud ruler to another, travel-stained, weary, footsore, and bruised and lacerated with the cruel scourging He had received, now, in addition to it all, He is laden with the weight of the heavy cross, and, with no covering on His head from the broiling midday sun, but the crown of thorns which had torn His brow in heavy gashes, He staggers on, the world's Redeemer, through taunts and mocking words.

Reaching the place of Calvary, they stretched Him upon the cross, and drove the nails through His quivering flesh. Then, raising the cross with the Saviour upon it, they let it drop with a heavy thud into the hole they had prepared for it, tearing wider the wounds of the hands and feet where the nails had pierced. With jeers and mockery they watched His dying agonies. And thus the Son of God gave up His life for you.

A Marvelous Brotherhood

But He was brought up again from death, and for forty days He walked and talked with His disciples concerning the great work they were commissioned to do. They were to preach the gospel to all the world, and Jesus promised that His Spirit would be with them to the end.

And then one bright day, on the slopes of Olivet, as many were listening to His instruction regarding their work, He was taken away from them into heaven. Even while they were looking at Him, "He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight." Acts 1: 9.

And from that day to this, there has been a brotherhood of men upon earth who have held themselves subject to a control more mysterious than any other of which the world has seen or heard — the control of this One who has gone into the heavens. The members of this brotherhood, for nearly nineteen centuries, have felt themselves bound by ties which they have placed far above all the ties of earth. The obligations of kinship, the call of pleasure, the authority of kings, and all other motives which sway men, have given way, and been made subordinate, to a more powerful control. Ambition, appetite, desire, passion, and all earthly hopes have been submitted to this authority which sways their souls.

Their Unparalleled Devotion

Men who have been strangers and enemies have been linked together by it; in an hour it has made friends of those who had never before known each other; it has knit together, in the closest sympathy, people of far different tastes, manners, customs, habits, and training; and it has led men forth to far distant places, separating them from fellowships and ties in which they have found the keenest delight, influencing them to sacrifice cheerfully their dearest hopes and highest ambitions, and become dwellers in lands strange to them.

Among barbarians, cannibals, and savages.

At the call of an unseen Leader, these men have crossed seas and traversed deserts; the sands of every shore have felt the pressure of their hurrying feet; their homes have been made in distant islands of the sea; they have climbed the highest mountain peaks; they have not hesitated to leave abodes of luxury and ease, to live lives of toil and pain among barbarians, cannibals, and savages; they have braved the cold of the arctic circle as well as the heat of the tropics; they have left plenty, and chosen to endure hardship, and hunger, and thirst, and poverty, and reproach, and toil; and for the purpose of helping the suffering, they have accepted scourging, and chains, and bondage, and death itself. And they have done this not for riches, or honor, or fame.

All their hardships, they have endured without complaint. Their sufferings have been accepted without repining. They have looked calmly into the face of death, without a word of disappointment or a murmur of regret. For nearly nineteen centuries, this has been going on; and it is going on to-day. There are still thousands of men in this great brotherhood who are willing to sacrifice all they have; and when they fall, there are other thousands ready to press forward and take their place and fill the broken ranks.

Honor has not yet come to them, or wealth, or fame, because of their sacrifices; but they have had a heritage of hatred, of obloquy, of conflict, of affliction. In life, they have been hated and hunted; in death, they have been defamed and slandered. Yet through it all they have triumphed.

All for an Unseen Commander

They have spurned human authority in matters of the highest moment, and calmly taken the consequences. They cannot be awed by emperors, they cannot be controlled by kings, they cannot be frightened by warriors. They are bound together in unity. Through the roll of passing centuries, they have not faltered in their allegiance. Yet they have been following a Commander whom they have never seen. They have been obedient to a Leader whose voice they have never heard.

At His word, they have not faltered to brave

the fury of the ocean, the terrors of the storm, the terrors of the desolate north, the burning deserts of the south, the dangers of tropic jungles, the perils of snow-clad heights, the grinding of great glaciers, and the thunder of avalanches. They have cheerfully faced death in a hundred horrid forms, and have not wavered.

No mortal eyes have looked upon their Leader for nineteen hundred years, still His word of command has not lost one particle of its power. Without either wealth or earthly prestige Himself, standing on Mount Olivet nineteen centuries ago, He said to a group of lowly toilers and a few poor fishermen, as He parted from them: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28: 18-20.

Greater than Caesar’s Word

And that word has had power. There is not a man upon earth to-day who heeds one word spoken by Alexander, the conqueror of the world. There is not a man who would move at any command of Caesar, ruler of the world’s mightiest empire. No one cares to-day for Charlemagne or Napoleon. They are in their tombs, and from their places of silence and darkness there issues no voice of authority. They are dead.

But Jesus is alive, and at the right hand of God in the heavens. And through all the centuries since He ascended to His Father, His followers, in their trials, their afflictions, their hardships, their hunger, their persecutions, their martyrdom, and their death, have been cheered and sustained by that word which He spoke before He departed from this world, "Let not your heart be troubled: . . . I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." John 14: 1-3.

Through the ages of the past, God’s people have looked with eager longing for the fulfillment of that glorious promise. They have been able to endure their hardships and wrongs, because they have believed with profound and implicit confidence that Jesus is coming to make all things right. On that event, their hearts have been fixed. All their hopes have been centered in that time when Jesus will come again. The second coming of Christ is the consummation of the hope of the Christian church.

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