| Home |
What We Believe |
Our Purpose |
Contact Us |
Pages By Topic |
Pages By Title |
EARNESTLY CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH:
CLARENCE LARKIN:
THE SECOND COMING CHRIST PART 4
(A PDF Copy Of The Complete Book Is Available Here)
(A WordPerfect Copy Of The Complete Book Is Available Here)
CAUTION: The PDF Of This File Is Huge (56 MB); The WordPerfect File is Huge (70 MB)
|
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH. THAT IS WHY HE IS GOD. |
|
Do you know for a fact that if you were
to die today that you would not go to hell? If you do not know, click here. |
The common opinion is, that the Gospel is to be preached in all the world until the whole world is converted, then will follow the Millennium, after which Christ will come back and there will be a “General Resurrection” and a “General judgment,” and the earth will be destroyed by fire, time will cease and eternity begin. Is this the “Program” of the Scriptures? After nearly 1900 years of Gospel preaching are the churches of Christ throughout the world multiplying with great rapidity? Are the congregations in the churches increasing in numbers and taxing the seating capacity of the churches to accommodate them? Are the churches in downtown and congested districts stronger and more crowded and influential than ever? Are the professing followers of Christ more consecrated, spiritual, and benevolent than ever before? Are Christian men and women taking their religion into their business and social affairs as never before? Are our young men and women forsaking the world in large numbers and giving themselves to the ministry and missionary work? Are the treasuries of the missionary societies burdened with an oversupply of funds? Have our churches no difficulty in meeting their financial needs? Have the cities, towns and countries of the world, where the Gospel has been preached for centuries, become thoroughly Christianized, so that today worldliness and sin is largely unknown in them? Is it a fact that the children of Christian parents naturally and willingly accept the Gospel so that Christianity is growing as rapidly as the birthrate in Christian families? Is Christianity so influencing business, commercial and manufacturing enterprises, that business is now being conducted on Christian principles? Are the combinations of capital and labor run on the basis of the “Golden Rule,” and in the “Spirit of Christ”? Are the nations of the earth beating their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks? Are they dismantling their navies and diminishing the size of their armies? Have cities and towns ceased building jails, prisons, penitentiaries and houses of correction? Is there no further use for officers of the law and courts of Justice? Is the government of our towns and cities and nations more free from misrule than ever before? Is the law more honored, and are there fewer divorces and more purity of life in the 20th century than in the 19th? To ask these questions is to answer them. Is the Gospel then a failure, or have we misinterpreted its mission? There are three lines of argument we may follow in seeking our answer. I. The HISTORICAL Argument The history of the world, as outlined in the Scriptures, has consisted up to the present Dispensation, of five Dispensations, all marked as the Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D., so clearly outlined, by seven features essentially the same-“First, an advance in fullness and clearness of revelation; then gradual spiritual declension ; then conformity to the world ending with amalgamation with the world; then a gigantic civilization brilliant but Godless; then parallel development of evil and good; then an Apostasy, and finally a Catastrophe.” These five Dispensations were-(1) The Edenic, that of “Innocence.” It ended in the “FALL OF MAN.” (2) The Ante-Diluvian, that of “Conscience.” It ended in the “FLOOD.” (3) The Post-Diluvian, that of “Human Government.” It ended in the “Confusion of Tongues” at “Babel.” (4) The Patriarchal, that of the “Family.” It ended in slavery for Israel in EGYPT. (5) The Legal, that of “Law.” It ended in the “CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST” and the scattering over the world of the Jewish people. See the Chart, “The Failure of Man,” just below. Now how is this Dispensation of “Grace” in which we are living to end? Is it to end differently from those that preceded it? For our answer we must turn from History to Prophecy.
II. The “BIBLICAL” Argument. For the sake of brevity and to avoid repetition we will limit our argument to the words of Christ Himself. For further proof read the Chapter on “The Signs of the Times,” page 65. In Matt. 13:1-52 we have a “Parabolic” prophetic description of the character of this Dispensation. In the Parable of “The Sower” we find that only ¼ of the seed sown got in, grew up, and brought forth fruit, and of that ¼ only a small part brought forth a 100 fold. In the Parable of the “Wheat and Tares” we find that the Wheat and the Tares are to grow side by side until the Harvest, which is the end of this Dispensation, and that they will ripen into fullness, each after his own kind, until the angel reapers shall gather out the Tares, preparatory to burning them after the Wheat has been safely gathered into the “Heavenly Barn.” In the Parable of the “Mustard Tree” we see how the visible church is sought as a “roosting place” by the “birds of the air,” the emissaries of Satan (Matt. 13:4, 19), who lodge in its branches, not so much for shelter as to befoul the tree. These are the “False Teachers” of II Pet. 2: 1-2, which are so evident in our day. In the Parable of the “Leaven” we see the spread of “Evil Doctrine” in the sphere of the Christian Church. Leaven in the Scriptures is a type of evil. It cannot be a type of the Gospel, for the Gospel does not spread of itself, while Leaven does. And as the Leaven is to permeate and contaminate the whole mass of meal, it is clear that “Evil Doctrine” will prevail in the Church in the closing days of this Dispensation. Passing over the 5th and 6th Parables that refer to Israel, the “Hid Treasure,” and the Church, the “Pearl,” we come to the Parable of the “Dragnet” From this Parable we see that at the close of this Dispensation, instead of the whole “sea of humanity” being in the Gospel net, only a small proportion will be caught, and of them not all are good, for the good fish are gathered into vessels, and the bad are cast away.” From these Parables we see that the world is not to be converted before Christ returns. For a full explanation of these Parables see my book on “Dispensational Truth.” In His “Olivet Discourse” (Matt. 24: 1-31), delivered by Jesus on the Tuesday night before His Crucifixion, in answer to the Disciples’ question-“And what shall be the ‘SIGN’ of Thy Coming, and of the end of the world (Age) “ – Jesus said –
That Jesus did not here refer to the “Tribulation” that befell the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70 is clear, for He adds –
These words reveal the fact that when Jesus comes back, it will be IMMEDIATELY after a period of wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes and a season of “Great Tribulation,” that if it is not shortened will destroy all flesh, and that when He comes back, instead of being received joyfully, the “Tribes of the Earth” shall MOURN, men’s hearts failing for FEAR (Luke 21 :25-27), all Kindreds (nations) of the earth shall WAIL because of Him (Rev. 1: 7), and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and every free man, shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains ; and say to the mountains and rocks-“FALL ON US, AND HIDE US FROM THE FACE OF HIM THAT SITTETH ON THE THRONE, AND FROM THE “WRATH OF THE LAMB:” FOR THE GREAT DAY OF HIS WRATH IS COME; AND WHO SHALL BE ABLE TO STAND? Rev. 6:15-17. What an awful time is here revealed. It is not a picture of a Gospel converted world gladly welcoming the return of its Lord, but of a panic stricken world seeking to escape from His presence, when He shall be revealed in “FLAMING FIRE” taking VENGEANCE on them that know not God (the Heathen), and that obey not the “Gospel of Christ” (the Wicked). II Thess. 1: 7-10. Truly Christ will not find “THE FAITH,” covering the earth, when He returns. Luke 18: 8. III. The “WORLD” Argument. One of the objections to the Pre-Millennial Return of Christ is that it cannot be squared with the belief in the “Continuance of History.” But it will no more interfere with the “Continuance of History” than the First Coming of Christ did. The world moved on then just as it did before, and so it will after His Second Coming. The “Second Coming” will be but an “episode” or “event” in history. Another objection is, that it is not scientific. That it nullifies the “Evolutionary Development” of Christianity, and is a confession that the “Spiritual Forces” of God are unable to save the world, and that God will have to resort to “Miraculous Militarism,” and send the “Armies of Heaven,” under the leadership of Christ, to save Himself from defeat. Rev. 19:11-21. All that is needed to answer these objections is to compare the boasted civilization of today with that of 100 years ago, to see that the civilization of today has degenerated. The nations today are like “wild beasts” preying upon each other, as foretold by Daniel. Dan. 7: 1-28. The boasted genius of today is engaged not so much in constructive work, as in the invention of destructive instruments of war. Men and women and nations have become brutalized, and appear to be but “veneered barbarians.” The “Blood Poison” of SIN, no longer hidden in some internal organ of the “Body Politic,” is now revealed on the surface, and is seen in the lawlessness of the world. As just before the Flood, the earth is filled with “corruption” and “violence” (Gen. 6: 11-12), as Jesus said it would be, when He said –
A comparison of those “Noah Days” with the present will indicate that we are living in the last days of this Dispensation.
The prominent characteristics of the days shortly before the Flood were –
From these seven marked features of the “Days of Noah” we see, by comparison, that we are bordering on the “Days of the Son of Man.” What we witness today is not a world converted by the preaching of the Gospel, but a “Godless Civilization” that has been built up by Satan in his attempt to bring in a “MOCK MILLENNIUM.” As a world converting power, after nearly 1900 years of effort, the Gospel has been a failure. A careful examination of the “History of Missions” reveals the fact that the world today is farther away from being converted than it was at the close of the First Century. Modern missions began with William Carey in A. D. 1792. The population of the world in A. D. 1792 was estimated to be 731,000,000, as follows :
The population of the world, from reliable statistics, see the Chart “Religious Statistics,” page 63, was, in A. D. 1915, 1,700,000,000, as follows :
After 123 years of Foreign Missionary work, from A. D. 1792 to A. D. 1915, there are today in round numbers only about 4,000,000 professing Christians in Heathen lands, which include China, India and Africa. Counting the Roman Catholics, the Greek Church, and the Protestants, only one-third of the world’s population is nominally Christian, and of the Protestants only one-half, or 100,000,000, are church members, and of them possibly 50 per cent have never been born again. If in 123 years, from A. D. 1792 to A. D. 1915, Heathenism has increased from 420,000,000 to 875,000,000, and converts from Heathenism have only increased in the same time from the first convert to 4,000,000, is it not evident that there are more than a 100 times as many persons born into the world each year than are “NEW BORN?” How many centuries at this rate will it take the World not to be converted, but to BECOME HEATHEN? Then ,we must not forget that, alarmed at the spread of Christianity, there is a revival of the Heathen religions, and that the sending out of “Modern Theology” missionaries is hampering our Foreign Missionary Work. What do these facts and figures prove? Do they prove that the Gospel is a failure? No! The Gospel has never failed, and never will fail. It is the “Power of God” unto SALVATION. Rom. 1: 16. The “Gospel” is accomplishing just the mission that God intended it to. What these figures prove is, that it is not God’s purpose to convert the world in this Dispensation, but simply to gather out an “Elect Body”-THE CHURCH.
While we cannot name the exact date of the Lord’s Return its nearness may be known by the character of the Times. As to this the New Testament gives no uncertain sound. In Dan. 12:4, 9-10, we read, “But thou, 0 Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the Book, even to the ‘TIME OF THE END’: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. . . . Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the ‘TIME OF THE END.’ Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND.” These words declare that the prophecies of Daniel were to be “shut up” and “sealed” until the “TIME OF THE END.” This expression does not mean the “end of Time,” but is the angelic messenger’s way of referring to the “Last Days” of the “Times of the Gentiles.” At which time he declares that the Book will be “unsealed,” and “knowledge shall be increased.” What is here meant is “prophetic knowledge” of the things recorded in the Book of Daniel and other prophetic writings of the Scriptures.. This is made clear by the statement that only the “wise” shall understand. That is, those who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and not those who merely have intellectual knowledge, for the wicked SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND. How wonderfully this is true of these days. The Higher Critics have labored hard to discredit the Book of Daniel, but without avail, for the Book is more studied than ever, and is being “unsealed” by Holy Spirit enlightened students of the Word of God, who clearly see that we have reached the “Time of the End,” and are living in the closing days of the “Times of the Gentiles.” The “unsealing” began about 100 years ago, when the “Midnight Cry,” “Behold, the Bridegroom Cometh,” was heard in the “‘Revival of Premillennial Truth.” For centuries while the Bridegroom tarried the Wise and Foolish virgins “ALL slumbered and slept,” and the Church lapsed into a condition of spiritual apathy, and “The Blessed Hope” was eclipsed. But now all over the world the Blessed Hope has emerged from the shadow, and the virgins are “trimming their lamps” preparatory to going out to meet their Lord, but only the “wise” have oil in their vessels and in their lamps. We are now living in the “Fourth Watch of the Night,” soon the “MORNING STAR” (Christ. Rev. 22:16) will appear and we shall be caught out at the Rapture to meet Him and go into the Marriage Feast. Let us take a hasty glance at the “Signs of the Times.” 1. POST-MILLENNIAL SCOFFERS. In II Pet. 3:3, 4 we read: “That there shall come in the ‘Last Days’ SCOFFERS, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of HIS COMING? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” How true this is of the present day. The Doctrine of the Second Coming is “scoffed” at, and those who hold it are looked upon as deluded fanatics, and sad to say, this opposition comes from prominent religious leaders of the Day. 2. APOSTASY. ‘In II Thess. 2:3, we are told that “THAT DAY (the Day of the Lord) shall not come, except there come a`FALLING AWAY’ first.” This “Falling Away” is evidenced on every hand. 3. FALSE TEACHERS. In II Peter 2:1, 2 we are warned against “False Teachers” who shall privately bring in “damnable heresies,” even denying the Lord that bought them, such as Christian Scientists and Russelites, and that many shall follow their “pernicious ways,” and sad to relate these “followers” are recruited from the orthodox church members, of whom the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (II Tim. 4:3, 4), saying: “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto FABLES.” This “turning away” is evidenced on every hand. There is a “turning away” in doctrinal standards, in the demand for a regenerated church membership, in church and Sunday school attendance, and in Sabbath observance. Many church goers will not endure “sound doctrine.” They will not go to hear those who preach the “total depravity” of man, the necessity of the “New Birth,” and the conscious and endless torment of those who reject Christ as a personal Saviour. They demand teachers who will “itch” (tickle) their ears with pleasing, novel and sensational doctrines. 4. SPIRITUALISM. In I Tim. 4:1 we are warned of a departure from the faith. That in the “Latter Times” (the Last Days of this Dispensation), some shall “depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” This is being fulfilled in the increasing number of those who are forsaking their Christian belief to become followers of Spiritualistic. Mediums and to dabble in Psychical Research. 5. PERILOUS TIMES. Of these times Paul told Timothy. “This know also, that in the `LAST DAYS’ Perilous Times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection (for their own offspring), truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God : having a FORM of godliness, but denying the POWER thereof.” II Tim. 3:1-5. We have neither time or space to enlarge upon the above, but what a catalogue we have here of the “perilous conditions” of the times in which we live. 6. HEAPED UP TREASURE. In James 5:1-6, we are told that in the “LAST DAYS” there shall be a class of “rich men,” who shall have “HEAPED treasure together,” and that by “FRAUD,” and who shall use their ill-gotten gain in the pursuit of “pleasure” and “wantonness,” and that God will hear the cry of those who have been cheated of their just share of the profits, and will send a sore judgment upon the guilty. What a description we have here of the unprincipled speculative and profiteering spirit of the days in which we live, when men become millionaires, and multi-millionaires, in a few years. Truly we are living in the “Last Days” of this Dispensation. 7. A LAODICEAN CHURCH. In the Message to the Church of Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-22) we have a description of the last stage of the professing Church on earth. It is described as neither “hot” nor “cold,” but nauseatingly lukewarm, so that Christ says He will “spue it out of His mouth.” It boastingly will claim to be “rich” and “increased with goods,” and to have “need of nothing,” not even of Christ, for He will be excluded and will have to knock for admittance, and it will be ignorant of its true condition, that it is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Unspeakably sad it is that this is the condition to a large extent of the professing Church of today. 8. THE FIG-TREE SIGN. When Jesus’ Disciples asked Him, after He had foretold the destruction of the Temple: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the SIGN of THY COMING, and of the end of the world (Age) ?” (Matt. 24:1-3), Jesus gave as a “Sign” of His Coming the “Fig-Tree Sign.” The “Fig-Tree” symbolizes the nation of Israel, and its “budding” the revival of Israel as a nation. Here again we have evidence of the nearness of the Lord’s Return for the revival of Zionism, and the passing of the Land of Palestine into the hands of a Christian nation, opens the way for the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and the fulfillment of the Fig-Tree Sign. The fact that the City of Jerusalem surrendered without the firing of a shot is significant. Jesus said that Jerusalem was to be trodden down of the Gentiles until “The Times of the Gentiles” should be fulfilled (Luke 21:24), and the taking of Jerusalem at this time may signify that “The Times of the Gentiles” is drawing to a close. 9. THE DISTRESS OF NATIONS. In Luke 21:24-27 Jesus tells us that as the “Times of the Gentiles” come to a close, “there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth DISTRESS OF NATIONS, with perplexity; the sea and the waves (the peoples of the earth) roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the ‘Powers of Heaven’ (the Principalities and Powers of Evil, Eph. 6:11, 12), shall be shaken. And THEN shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” In the prophecy of Haggai 2:6, 7, we read: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will SHAKE ALL NATIONS, and the DESIRE (Christ) OF ALL NATIONS WILL COME.” This has never been fulfilled as yet, and the present “Distress of Nations,” the uprising of the masses in “National Revolutions,” the “Tottering Thrones” and other indications that the nations are Being Shaken, is still further proof that we are living in the times just preceding the appearing of the Son of Man, the “DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS” who will bring peace to this troubled earth. 10. NOAH DAYS. The last “sign” that we would mention is the “sign” of the “Noah Days.” Luke 17:26-30. As it was in the days of Noah, they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. Where you say is the sin in doing these things? They are not only commanded, they are necessary. That is true. The sin was not in “doing” them, but in doing them “UNTIL the Flood came.” That is, they did nothing else. They forgot to worship their Maker. So today men and women are so busily engaged in doing the good things of life that they have no time to worship !God. They are so busy building homes for themselves on earth that they are neglecting to secure a home in heaven. They are more anxious that their children should make a good match on earth, than that they should be united to the Lord. They are so much concerned ‘,about their case in Court, that they have forgotten that they must stand at the Judgment Bar of God. For a fuller description of these “Noah Days” see my larger work on Dispensational Truth. 11. LOT DAYS. In the same connection with the “Noah Days” is classed the “LOT DAYS.” Lot was Abraham’s nephew. Gen. 12: 5. The herdsmen of Abraham and Lot could not agree, and to prevent a quarrel between them, which would have been a scandal in the eyes of the heathen in whose land they dwelt, Abraham suggested a separation. Gen. 13: 5-13. Lot, with the thought of worldly advantage for him;elf and family, first “looked” toward Sodom, then “pitched his tent” hear it, then became a “dweller in Sodom,” and though he was a ‘righteous man (not a holy man) and daily vexed his soul with the filthy conversation of the wicked (IT Pet. 2: 6-10), he entered into the )political life of the city and became a judge. The result was that Lot lost his “TESTIMONY.” And when he made a plea to the Sodomites to save his “Angel Visitors,” and to his “Sons-in-Law” to flee, with their wives, with him, they “MOCKED” him. Gen. 19:1-38. Nevertheless, because he was a child of God, though a backslidden one, he was saved “out of Sodom.” So today there are many true Children of God who have become entangled in the world, of which Sodom is a type, and have “lost their TESTIMONY,” and as a result will lose the salvation of their loved ones even though they th®mselves, like Lot, shall be “saved by FIRE.” 1 Cor. 3: 11-15. But while Lot was saved from being consumed in Sodom, Sodom could not be destroyed until Lot was taken out. So the Wrath of God cannot fall upon a wicked world until the Church is “caught out.” 11 Thess. 1:7-10. There are many Lots in these days.
There are some who would distinguish between the words “Wait” and “Watch” as applied to the “Second Coming,” referring the word “Wait” to the “Rapture” and the word “Watch” to the “Revelation.” While the word “Wait” is used only in connection with the “Rapture,” I Cor. 1:7; 1 Thess. 1: 10; II Thess. 3: 5, the word “Watch” applies to both. The word “Waiting” is a blessed word freighted with HOPE.
|
 |
 |
 |
| Back To Previous Topic | Back To Contents Page | Forward To Next Topic |
| Back To Top | Back To Bible Prophecy Main Page | Back To Home Page |
