“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his
servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7.
No truth of inspiration can be more clearly demonstrated than that God
reveals his designs to his prophets, that men and nations may be prepared
for their accomplishment. Before visiting with judgments, God has
uniformly sent forth warnings sufficient to enable the believing to escape
his wrath, and to condemn those who have not heeded the warning. This was
the case before the flood. The wickedness of the world had become very
great. Every imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only
evil. It would seem that they had forfeited all claims for consideration.
Violence and corruption filled the earth, and the only way to eradicate
evil was to destroy it with its workers. But before doing so, the world
must be warned of the impending doom; and there was found one man who
would engage in the work. Noah had faith in God, and preached for one
hundred and twenty years the message of warning and salvation. His work
also testified with his words.
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by
the which he condemned the world.” Heb. 11:7.
At a later period, when the nations had again become sunken in idolatry
and crime, and the destruction of wicked Sodom and Gomorrah was
determined, the Lord said,—
“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that
Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” Gen. 18:17, 18.
And due notice was given to righteous Lot, who, with his daughters, was
preserved; and none, even in that guilty city, perished without due
warning. Lot evidently warned the people; and in thus communing with them,
was “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.” 2 Peter 2:7, 8.
His righteous life had been a rebuke to them; and we have every reason to
believe that the holy example of Abraham in his worship of the true God
was known to them. He had at one time been their saviour, and rescued
their captives and spoil from the victorious enemy who was carrying them
away. But when Lot warned his friends of the approaching doom, “he seemed
as one that mocked.” Gen. 19:14. They, like the antediluvians, persisted
in sin, and drank of the wrath of God.
At a subsequent time the sins of Nineveh rose to heaven, and Jonah was
sent to bear to that proud capital the startling message, “Yet forty days
and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” The consciences of those sinners told
them the message was true; and from the least of them to the greatest they
humbled themselves, and the overhanging judgment was averted.
Before Christ commenced his earthly mission, John the Baptist was sent as
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the
Lord.” By this means the expectation of the people was raised, and
doubtless many were through it led to accept of salvation, while the
generation at large was condemned for rejecting the light.
Our Saviour in his time saw the destruction of Jerusalem just in the
future of that generation, and faithfully warned the people, foretelling
signs by which it might be known when the desolation thereof was nigh.
Luke 21:21. Such is the testimony of inspiration respecting the dealings
of God with his people in past ages.
All who accept the Bible as the inspired word of God acknowledge that he
has been very faithful in warning people in past ages of impending
judgments and other events which affected their eternal welfare. Such
having been the divine plan in relation to past events, we would certainly
be justified in anticipating such warnings of Christ’s second coming as
would comport with the importance of the event. But when we come to regard
the future, and especially our own immediate future, the incredulity of
very many is at once aroused.
But what are the facts in the case? Can anything be learned from the Bible
relative to the time of the second advent? This is a grave inquiry; and,
from the very nature of the subject, is worthy of close investigation, and
a candid answer. It is a matter of painful regret that many, under the
influence of popular prejudice, have decided that the period of the second
advent is a secret, hidden with the Lord. While these can scarcely be
reached with this subject, as long as they remain under the influence of
those who denounce all investigation of it as prying into the secrets of
the Almighty, there is still, we believe, a larger class who wait for
evidence before deciding.
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