unwelcome to the churches? While to the wicked the advent of the Lord
brings woe and desolation, to the righteous it is fraught with joy and
hope. This great truth had been the consolation of God’s faithful ones
through all the ages; why had it become, like its Author, “a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offense” to His professed people? It was our Lord
Himself who promised His disciples, “If I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.”(565) It was the
compassionate Saviour, who, anticipating the loneliness and sorrow of His
followers, commissioned angels to comfort them with the assurance that He
would come again in person, even as He went into heaven. As the disciples
stood gazing intently upward to catch the last glimpse of Him whom they
loved, their attention was arrested by the words, “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.”(566) Hope was kindled afresh by the angel’s message. The
disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in
the temple, praising and blessing God.”(567) They were not rejoicing
because Jesus had been separated from them, and they were left to struggle
with the trials and temptations of the world, but because of the angel’s
assurance that He would come again.
The proclamation of Christ’s coming should now be, as when made by the
angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem, good tidings of great joy. Those who
really love the Saviour cannot but hail with gladness the announcement
founded upon the word of God, that He in whom their hopes of eternal life
are centered, is coming again, not to be insulted, despised, and rejected,
as at His first advent, but in power and glory, to redeem His people. It
is those who do not love the Saviour, that desire Him to remain away; and
there can be no more conclusive evidence that the churches have departed
from God than the irritation and animosity excited by this Heaven-sent
message.
Those who accepted the advent doctrine were roused to the necessity of
repentance and humiliation before God. Many had long been halting between
Christ and the world; now they felt that it was time to take a stand. “The
things of eternity assumed to them an unwonted reality. Heaven was brought
near, and they felt themselves guilty before God.”(568) Christians were
quickened to new spiritual life. They were made to feel that time was
short, that what they had to do for their fellow-men must be done quickly.
Earth receded, eternity seemed to open before them, and the soul, with all
that pertains to its immortal weal or woe, was felt to eclipse every
temporal object. The Spirit of God rested upon them, and gave power to
their earnest appeals to their brethren, as well as to sinners, to prepare
for the day of God. The silent testimony of their daily life was a
constant rebuke to formal and unconsecrated church-members. These did not
wish to be disturbed in their pursuit of pleasure, their devotion to
money-making, and their ambition for worldly honor. Hence the enmity and
opposition excited against the advent faith and those who proclaimed it.
As the arguments from the prophetic periods were found to be impregnable,
opposers endeavored to discourage investigation of the subject, by
teaching that the prophecies were sealed. Thus Protestants followed in the
steps of Romanists. While the papal church withholds the Bible(569) from
the people, Protestant churches claimed that an important part of the
sacred word—and that the part which brings to view truths specially
applicable to our time—could not be understood.
Ministers and people declared that the prophecies of Daniel and the
Revelation were incomprehensible mysteries. But Christ directed His
disciples to the words of the prophet Daniel concerning events to take
place in their time, and said, “Whoso readeth, let him _understand_.”(570)
And the assertion that the Revelation is a mystery, not to be understood,
is contradicted by the very title of the book: “The Revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which
must shortly come to pass.... _Blessed_ is he that _readeth_, and they
that _hear_ the words of this prophecy, and _keep_ those things which are
written therein: for the time is at hand.”(571)
Says the prophet: “Blessed is he that readeth”—there are those who will
not read; the blessing is not for them. “And they that hear”—there are
some, also, who refuse to hear anything concerning the prophecies; the
blessing is not for this class. “And keep those things which are written
therein”—many refuse to heed the warnings and instructions contained in
the Revelation; none of these can claim the blessing promised. All who
ridicule the subjects of the prophecy, and mock at the symbols here
solemnly given, all who refuse to reform their lives, and prepare for the
coming of the Son of man, will be unblessed.
In view of the testimony of Inspiration, how dare men teach that the
Revelation is a mystery, beyond the reach of human understanding? It is a
mystery revealed, a book opened. The study of the Revelation directs the
mind to the prophecies of Daniel, and both present most important
instruction, given of God to men, concerning events to take place at the
close of this world’s history.
To John were opened scenes of deep and thrilling interest in the
experience of the church. He saw the position, dangers, conflicts, and
final deliverance of the people of God. He records the closing messages
which are to ripen the harvest of the earth, either as sheaves for the
heavenly garner or as fagots for the fires of destruction. Subjects of
vast importance were revealed to him, especially for the last church, that
those who should turn from error to truth might be instructed concerning
the perils and conflicts before them. None need be in darkness in regard
to what is coming upon the earth.
Why, then, this wide-spread ignorance concerning an important part of Holy
Writ? Why this general reluctance to investigate its teachings? It is the
result of a studied effort of the prince of darkness to conceal from men
that which reveals his deceptions. For this reason, Christ the Revelator,
foreseeing the warfare that would be waged against the study of the
Revelation, pronounced a blessing upon all who should read, hear, and
observe the words of the prophecy.
19. LIGHT THROUGH DARKNESS.
[Illustration: Chapter header.]
The work of God in the earth presents, from age to age, a striking
similarity in every great reformation or religious movement. The
principles of God’s dealing with men are ever the same. The important
movements of the present have their parallel in those of the past, and the
experience of the church in former ages has lessons of great value for our
own time.
No truth is more clearly taught in the Bible than that God by His Holy
Spirit especially directs His servants on earth in the great movements for
the carrying forward of the work of salvation. Men are instruments in the
hand of God, employed by Him to accomplish His purposes of grace and
mercy. Each has his part to act; to each is granted a measure of light,
adapted to the necessities of his time, and sufficient to enable him to
perform the work which God has given him to do. But no man, however
honored of Heaven, has ever attained to a full understanding of the great
plan of redemption, or even to a perfect appreciation of the divine
purpose in the work for his own time. Men do not fully understand what God
would accomplish by the work which He gives them to do; they do not
comprehend, in all its bearings, the message which they utter in His name.
“Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection?” “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your
thoughts.” “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from
the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet
done.”(572)
Even the prophets who were favored with the special illumination of the
Spirit, did not fully comprehend the import of the revelations committed
to them. The meaning was to be unfolded from age to age, as the people of
God should need the instruction therein contained.
Peter, writing of the salvation brought to light through the gospel, says:
Of this salvation “the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching _what_, or
_what manner of time_ the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that
should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto _themselves_, but
unto _us_ they did minister.”(573)
Yet while it was not given to the prophets to understand fully the things
revealed to them, they earnestly sought to obtain all the light which God
had been pleased to make manifest. They “inquired and searched
diligently,” “searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify.” What a lesson to the people of God in the
Christian age, for whose benefit these prophecies were given to His
servants! “Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us
they did minister.” Witness those holy men of God as they “inquired and
searched diligently” concerning revelations given them for generations
that were yet unborn. Contrast their holy zeal with the listless unconcern
with which the favored ones of later ages treat this gift of heaven. What
a rebuke to the ease-loving, world-loving indifference which is content to
declare that the prophecies cannot be understood.
Though the finite minds of men are inadequate to enter into the counsels
of the Infinite One, or to understand fully the working out of His
purposes, yet often it is because of some error or neglect on their own
part, that they so dimly comprehend the messages of Heaven. Not
infrequently the minds of the people, and even of God’s servants, are so
blinded by human opinions, the traditions and false teaching of men, that
they are able only partially to grasp the great things which He has
revealed in His word. Thus it was with the disciples of Christ, even when
the Saviour was with them in person. Their minds had become imbued with
the popular conception of the Messiah as a temporal prince, who was to
exalt Israel to the throne of universal empire, and they could not
understand the meaning of His words foretelling His sufferings and death.
Christ Himself had sent them forth with the message, “The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the
gospel.”(574) That message was based on the prophecy of Daniel 9. The
sixty-nine weeks were declared by the angel to extend to “the Messiah the
Prince,” and with high hopes and joyful anticipations the disciples looked
forward to the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom at Jerusalem, to rule
over the whole earth.
They preached the message which Christ had committed to them, though they
themselves misapprehended its meaning. While their announcement was
founded on Dan. 9:25, they did not see, in the next verse of the same
chapter, that Messiah was to be cut off. From their very birth their
hearts had been set upon the anticipated glory of an earthly empire, and
this blinded their understanding alike to the specifications of the
prophecy and to the words of Christ.
They performed their duty in presenting to the Jewish nation the
invitation of mercy, and then, at the very time when they expected to see
their Lord ascend the throne of David, they beheld Him seized as a
malefactor, scourged, derided, and condemned, and lifted up on the cross
of Calvary. What despair and anguish wrung the hearts of those disciples
during the days while their Lord was sleeping in the tomb!
Christ had come at the exact time and in the manner foretold by prophecy.
The testimony of Scripture had been fulfilled in every detail of His
ministry. He had preached the message of salvation, and “His word was with
power.” The hearts of His hearers had witnessed that it was of Heaven. The
word and the Spirit of God attested the divine commission of His Son.
The disciples still clung with undying affection to their beloved Master.
And yet their minds were shrouded in uncertainty and doubt. In their
anguish they did not then recall the words of Christ pointing forward to
His suffering and death. If Jesus of Nazareth had been the true Messiah,
would they have been thus plunged in grief and disappointment? This was
the question that tortured their souls while the Saviour lay in His
sepulcher during the hopeless hours of that Sabbath which intervened
between His death and His resurrection.
Though the night of sorrow gathered dark about these followers of Jesus,
yet were they not forsaken. Saith the prophet: “When I sit in darkness,
the Lord shall be a light unto me.... He will bring me forth to the light,
and I shall behold His righteousness.” “Yea, the darkness hideth not from
Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are
both alike to Thee.” God hath spoken: “Unto the upright there ariseth
light in the darkness.” “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew
not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make
darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will
I do unto them, and not forsake them.”(575)
The announcement which had been made by the disciples in the name of the
Lord was in every particular correct, and the events to which it pointed
were even then taking place. “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is
at hand,” had been their message. At the expiration of “the time”—the
sixty-nine weeks of Daniel 9, which were to extend to the Messiah, “the
Anointed One”—Christ had received the anointing of the Spirit, after His
baptism by John in Jordan. And the “kingdom of God” which they had
declared to be at hand, was established by the death of Christ. This
kingdom was not, as they had been taught to believe, an earthly empire.
Nor was it that future, immortal kingdom which shall be set up when “the
kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole
heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;” that
everlasting kingdom, in which “all dominions shall serve and obey
Him.”(576) As used in the Bible, the expression “kingdom of God” is
employed to designate both the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory.
The kingdom of grace is brought to view by Paul in the Epistle to the
Hebrews. After pointing to Christ, the compassionate intercessor who is
“touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” the apostle says, “Let us
therefore come boldly unto _the throne of grace_, that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace.”(577) The throne of grace represents the kingdom of
grace; for the existence of a throne implies the existence of a kingdom.
In many of His parables, Christ uses the expression, “the kingdom of
heaven,” to designate the work of divine grace upon the hearts of men.
So the throne of glory represents the kingdom of glory; and this kingdom
is referred to in the Saviour’s words, “When the Son of man shall come in
His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the
throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations.”(578)
This kingdom is yet future. It is not to be set up until the second advent
of Christ.
The kingdom of grace was instituted immediately after the fall of man,
when a plan was devised for the redemption of the guilty race. It then
existed in the purpose and by the promise of God; and through faith, men
could become its subjects. Yet it was not actually established until the
death of Christ. Even after entering upon His earthly mission, the
Saviour, wearied with the stubbornness and ingratitude of men, might have
drawn back from the sacrifice of Calvary. In Gethsemane the cup of woe
trembled in His hand. He might even then have wiped the blood-sweat from
His brow, and have left the guilty race to perish in their iniquity. Had
He done this, there could have been no redemption for fallen men. But when
the Saviour yielded up His life, and with His expiring breath cried out,
“It is finished,” then the fulfilment of the plan of redemption was
assured. The promise of salvation made to the sinful pair in Eden was
ratified. The kingdom of grace, which had before existed by the promise of
God, was then established.
Thus the death of Christ—the very event which the disciples had looked
upon as the final destruction of their hope—was that which made it forever
sure. While it had brought them a cruel disappointment, it was the climax
of proof that their belief had been correct. The event that had filled
them with mourning and despair, was that which opened the door of hope to
every child of Adam, and in which centered the future life and eternal
happiness of all God’s faithful ones in all the ages.
Purposes of infinite mercy were reaching their fulfilment, even through
the disappointment of the disciples. While their hearts had been won by
the divine grace and power of His teaching, who “spake as never man
spake,” yet intermingled with the pure gold of their love for Jesus, was
the base alloy of worldly pride and selfish ambitions. Even in the
Passover chamber, at that solemn hour when their Master was already
entering the shadow of Gethsemane, there was “a strife among them, which
of them should be accounted the greatest.”(579) Their vision was filled
with the throne, the crown, and the glory, while just before them lay the
shame and agony of the garden, the judgment-hall, the cross of Calvary. It
was their pride of heart, their thirst for worldly glory, that had led
them to cling so tenaciously to the false teaching of their time, and to
pass unheeded the Saviour’s words showing the true nature of His kingdom,
and pointing forward to His agony and death. And these errors resulted in
the trial—sharp but needful—which was permitted for their correction.
Though the disciples had mistaken the meaning of their message, and had
failed to realize their expectations, yet they had preached the warning
given them of God, and the Lord would reward their faith and honor their
obedience. To them was to be intrusted the work of heralding to all
nations the glorious gospel of their risen Lord. It was to prepare them
for this work, that the experience which seemed to them so bitter had been
permitted.
After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples on the way to
Emmaus, and “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”(580) The hearts
of the disciples were stirred. Faith was kindled. They were “begotten
again unto a lively hope,” even before Jesus revealed Himself to them. It
was His purpose to enlighten their understanding, and to fasten their
faith upon the “sure word of prophecy.” He wished the truth to take firm
root in their minds, not merely because it was supported by His personal
testimony, but because of the unquestionable evidence presented by the
symbols and shadows of the typical law, and by the prophecies of the Old
Testament. It was needful for the followers of Christ to have an
intelligent faith, not only in their own behalf, but that they might carry
the knowledge of Christ to the world. And as the very first step in
imparting this knowledge, Jesus directed the disciples to “Moses and the
prophets.” Such was the testimony given by the risen Saviour to the value
and importance of the Old Testament Scriptures.
What a change was wrought in the hearts of the disciples, as they looked
once more on the loved countenance of their Master!(581) In a more
complete and perfect sense than ever before, they had “found Him, of whom
Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write.” The uncertainty, the
anguish, the despair, gave place to perfect assurance, to unclouded faith.
What marvel that after His ascension they “were continually in the temple,
praising and blessing God.” The people, knowing only of the Saviour’s
ignominious death, looked to see in their faces the expression of sorrow,
confusion, and defeat; but they saw there gladness and triumph. What a
preparation these disciples had received for the work before them! They
had passed through the deepest trial which it was possible for them to
experience, and had seen how, when to human vision all was lost, the word
of God had been triumphantly accomplished. Henceforward what could daunt
their faith, or chill the ardor of their love? In the keenest sorrow they
had “strong consolation,” a hope which was as “an anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast.”(582) They had been witness to the wisdom and power of
God, and they were “persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,” would be able to separate
them from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” “In all
these things,” they said, “we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us.”(583) “The word of the Lord endureth forever.”(584) And “who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is _risen
again_, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us.”(585)
Saith the Lord: “My people shall never be ashamed.”(586) “Weeping may
endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”(587) When on His
resurrection day these disciples met the Saviour, and their hearts burned
within them as they listened to His words; when they looked upon the head
and hands and feet that had been bruised for them; when, before His
ascension, Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands
in blessing, bade them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,”
adding, “Lo, I am with you alway;”(588) when on the day of Pentecost the
promised Comforter descended, and the power from on high was given, and
the souls of the believers thrilled with the conscious presence of their
ascended Lord,—then, even though, like His, their pathway led through
sacrifice and martyrdom, would they have exchanged the ministry of the
gospel of His grace, with the “crown of righteousness” to be received at
His coming, for the glory of an earthly throne, which had been the hope of
their earlier discipleship? He who is “able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think,” had granted them, with the fellowship of
His sufferings, the communion of His joy,—the joy of “bringing many sons
unto glory,” joy unspeakable, “an eternal weight of glory,” to which, says
Paul, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment,” is “not worthy to
be compared.”
The experience of the disciples who preached the “gospel of the kingdom”
at the first advent of Christ, had its counterpart in the experience of
those who proclaimed the message of His second advent. As the disciples
went out preaching, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at
hand,” so Miller and his associates proclaimed that the longest and last
prophetic period brought to view in the Bible was about to expire, that
the judgment was at hand, and the everlasting kingdom was to be ushered
in. The preaching of the disciples in regard to time was based on the
seventy weeks of Daniel 9. The message given by Miller and his associates
announced the termination of the 2300 days of Dan. 8:14, of which the
seventy weeks form a part. The preaching of each was based upon the
fulfilment of a different portion of the same great prophetic period.
Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not,
themselves, fully comprehend the import of the message which they bore.
Errors that had been long established in the church prevented them from
arriving at a correct interpretation of an important point in the
prophecy. Therefore, though they proclaimed the message which God had
committed to them to be given to the world, yet through a misapprehension
of its meaning, they suffered disappointment.