The dating of the return of our Lord is absolutely
forbidden. He Himself says:- Of that day and that hour knoweth no
man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father
(Mark 13: 32). Even so, sane and sound a teacher as Dr. C. I. Scofield
said before the first World War:- If you were told to-day what I think hinders, strangely and
mysteriously, the breaking out of the awful war which Europe has been expecting
for the past seven years, I believe God is restraining the war until He takes
His own out of the world.
Nevertheless two World Wars have come since: he spoke, with no Advent.
READINESS
A profound principle underlies
the, prohibition. Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is
left. Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh (Matt. 24: 40, 42). Total ignorance of the date makes perpetual
watchfulness the only safety; and we can no more deny a date than we can name
one. Robert Murray once said to some friends, Do
you think Christ will come to-night? One after another they said, I think not.
When all had given this answer, he solemnly repeated this text:- The Son of Man cometh at an hour when
ye think not. It may be at midnight, at
cockcrowing, or in the morning - but at all times we are to be ready. BE YE THEREFORE READY (Matt. 24: 44).
UNMISTAKABLE SIGNS
But a remarkable modification of
a dateless Advent is given, more than once, by our Lord Himself, and is now
pressing on the Church as never before. When ye see these things coming to pass, KNOW ye: - not guess, or conjecture, but know that the
TWO THOUSAND YEARS
One enormous fact confronts us. Something like 2,000 years have already
passed since the First Advent; and the history of the earth, before its final
destruction - its existence for 7,000 years - makes it inescapable that the
last 1,000 years - the Millennium - is
on the doorstep. The Authorized Version
dates the Creation as 4,004 years before Christ; so the dispensations cover the
worlds history:- Conscience, 2,000
years; Law, 2,000 years; Grace, 2,000 years; and Righteousness, 1,000 years,
when judgments will establish the
Golden Age. Forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years
as one day (2 Pet. 3: 8) - the
world has its one week of life. And one
extraordinarily significant fact - though a fact most dangerous, for it tempts
us to fix a date has revealed
afresh our possible proximity to our Lords return. The ablest estimate yet made of the exact
date of the world - Martin Ansteys - sets the Creation as not 4,004 years before
Christ, but 4,042: therefore we are now, not in 1948 but in 1990, or only ten years off the close of our 2,000
years. It is extraordinary what is being
planned all over the world for the next decade.
THE ATOMIC BOMB
Of all
the signals of the Advent we will take one only - perhaps the most drastic of
all. The atomic bomb, with
its rapidly approaching developments, is something without a parallel in the
history of the world. Scientific discovery has suddenly put the life of all
humanity in danger. The atomic bomb
wiped out 136,000 lives in a moment; but already there are explosives far more
powerful, which can be flown across continents and oceans, and wipe out whole
nations. If
war breaks out, says the Emergency Council of Atomic Scientists, atomic bombs will be used, and they will surely destroy our
civilization. Addressing an international conference in
A FORCED ADVENT
The crisis is thus
unprecedented. The President of Chicago
University, R. M. Hutchins, predicts
that the world will destroy itself in five years. Our Saviours words are
most significant:- Except
the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved
(Mark 13: 20). As never before in the worlds history the
Most High will be compelled to save the world from self-destruction by the
intervention of the Advent: for the elects sake, whom he chose, he shortened the days - by the return of Christ.
MOCKERS
One spiritual symptom of the end
is outstanding. Sir Isaac Newton made a
remarkable prediction a hundred and fifty years ago. About the time of
the end, in all probability, a body of men will be raised up who will turn
their attention to prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation in
the midst of much clamour and opposition. Scripture has made it still
clearer. In
the last days mockers shall come with mockery saying, Where is the promise of
his, coming? (2 Pet. 3: 4). The delaying of Divine judgments, solely
owing to the love of God postponing judgment to the last possible moment, will
only turn the sceptics - who will often have heard of the Second Advent - simply
to mockery. Solomon expressed it thus:- Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of
men is emboldened [margin] in them to do evil (Eccles. 8: 11). The delay in the heart of God is beautifully
expressed:- The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise - of our Lords return but is
long suffering to youward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance
(2 Pet. 3: 9). And yet the
Church as a whole shares the mockery at the Second Advent. In the words of Dr. D. R. Davies:- The fact of the matter
is that the vast majority of Christian people in all the churches do not
believe in the New Testament affirmation of the return of the Lord.
URGENCY
One overwhelming fact,
therefore, faces us in the imminence of the Advent. OUR
TIME IS SHORT. For older folk life
is now, in any case, very brief; but for even the youngest believer an imminent
Advent spells what may be only a few hours left. Words of the Archbishop of York, spoken to the
conference of 326 Anglican Bishops in Westminster Abbey, are very solemn. He says (Times,
Aug. 9, 1948):- With the discovery and use of the
atom bomb, we live, more nearly in the mental atmosphere of the first
Christians who expected at any time the end of the world. Within a few years our civilization may
utterly pass away. Now is the time of
crisis; before it is too late we must preach the Gospel, bear our witness,
repent and call upon others, to repentance, before the door of opportunity is
shut. We are watching the death of an old age, and the new is still in its
birth pangs. The civilization
of which we were so, proud, and thought so permanent, is now threatened with
the fate that has overwhelmed 18 civilizations which once were strong and
flourishing. No wonder the hearts of
millions are fainting for fear from expectation of the dread things which may
come upon the earth. We feel we are near
some great change - perhaps, in some undreamed-of way, a coming of the Lord.
It is now or never.
THE THRONE
And what an incredible
possibility is ours, which now hangs on this our last lap. He that overcometh, I WILL GIVE TO HIM TO SIT DOWN WITH ME IN
MY THRONE, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne
(Rev. 3: 21). Our Lord is to be Monarch over the whole
earth, and He will share, that royalty - its power, its glory, its wonder - with the humblest believer who has overcome
the world, the flesh, and the devil, and who has won the prize of the race.
One day of such an honour will be worth
infinitely more than a lifetime, on any throne in the world to-day. May our cry be Pauls:- Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching
forward unto the things which are before, I press on toward the goal UNTO
THE PRIZE of the calling upward of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13).
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