The Signs of the Times, vol. 26

October 3, 1900

“Lessons from Matthew 24. ‘The End of the World’” The Signs of the Times 26, 40, p. 3.

“THE end of the world!” How often it is spoken of in the Bible! How often it is spoken of by the people,—so often that the expression is almost a proverb! And how few people really believe in any such thing! SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.1

Indeed, if it were left for the people of the world to say whether there should be any end of the world, it is certain that there never would be any, because no generation of people would ever have the world end in their own day. Besides, if it were left for the people to say whether there should be any end of the world, there never would be any; because of themselves the people of the world never can certainly know of the beginning of the world; and how could they know of any end? SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.2

Knowledge of either the beginning or the end of the world is altogether a matter of revelation. Therefore it is that only “through faith we understand that the worlds were formed.” The worlds were formed, made, created. It was done by the word of God. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” “For He spake, and it was.” Psalm 55:6, 9. And so entirely were the worlds formed by the word of God “that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:3. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.3

The world having been created, it is only from the Creator that the purpose and course of its existence can be known, and whether there shall be any end. The world having been produced by the word of God, it is only by the word of God that it can ever be known that there shall be any end of the world. And when the word of God is spoken on that subject, as well as on any other, whatsoever in that word is said, that is final, and must be accepted, because that is the sole source of knowledge, and He is the sole authority qualified to speak on the subject. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.4

What, then, says the Word as to the end of the world? Twice in the parable of the tares, Jesus used definitely the expression “the end of the world.” “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Matthew 13:38-43. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.5

Again, in the parable of the net which was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind, Jesus says: “Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world; the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Verses 48-50. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.6

Again, when Jesus commissioned His disciples to preach the Gospel, He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.7

Therefore, so certainly as Jesus has spoken, there is to be the end of the world. This is so certain because “the world was made by Him” (John 1:10), and because it is at His coming that the end of the world is to be. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.8

From the words already quoted it is evident that the end of the world comes in fire—in the judgment and destruction of wicked men. This is further shown in another place: “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water; whereby [by the word of God] the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:5-7. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.9

Thus by the word of God, which made the world, it is certain that the world will end; for “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” “The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” Verses 10, 12. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.10

The heavens shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island shall be moved out of their places. 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 freeman will hide themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains, and will cry 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?” Revelation 6:14-17. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.11

“In the day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefs of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake the terrible the earth.” “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” Isaiah 2:20, 21:11. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.12

When Jesus spoke repeatedly of “the end of the world,” He uttered no new saying; for all the prophets had spoken of it, and He was only speaking of a thing the mention of which was familiar to all who were acquainted with the Scriptures. Besides this, it is His own coming that brings the end of the world; and all the prophets from “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these” two simultaneous things. Enoch had said, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all;” and all the other prophets had followed with the same announcement and warning, so that time and space would fail to recall the words of all. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.13

That the second coming of the Lord and the end of the world are simultaneous events was so well understood by the disciples from the Scriptures, that when they asked Jesus concerning the end of the world, their question was, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” The sign of either is the sign of the other; the same sign betokens both. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.14

From the day that sin entered the world, it has been settled by God, and has been spoken to men in the Word of God, that there shall be an end to this world. For God “hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” Acts 17:31. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.15

The resurrection of Christ itself is assurance to all men that there shall be an end of the world. For the resurrection of Christ is assurance to all men that they shall all be judged; and it is assurance of this, in that His resurrection if the assurance of the resurrection of every man, from “the first man Adam” unto the last man that shall ever live on the earth. And the resurrection of the dead is at the second coming of the Lord; and the second coming of the Lord brings the end of the world. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming. Then cometh the end.” 1 Corinthians 15:22-24. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.16

Seeing, then, that there is certainly to be “the end of the world,” and such an end, seeing “that all these things shall be dissolved; what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God?” 2 Peter 3:11, 12. SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.17

What, then, of the time? When shall these things be? What says the Creator and Preserver of the world as to the time when properly the end of the world shall be really looked for and expected? Next week we shall begin a series of six studies of the Lord’s answer to the direct question as to the sign of His “coming and the end of the world.” SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.18

Who can there be who should not study the Lord’s answer to that question? SITI October 3, 1900, page 3.19

ALONZO T. JONES.