Our Faith and Hope, No. 1

THEY

Shall say, Peace and safety. Verse 3. OFH1 51.8

The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Verse 2. OFH1 51.9

For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night. Verse 7. OFH1 51.10

Sudden DESTRUCTION cometh upon them. Verse 8. OFH1 51.11

No truth of Inspiration can be more clearly declared than that “surely the Lord God doeth nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7. Before visiting men and nations with judgments, God has sent forth warnings sufficient to enable the believing to escape his wrath, and to condemn those who have not heeded the warnings. This was the case before the flood. “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.” Hebrews 11:7. OFH1 51.12

At a later period, when the nations had become sunken in idolatry and crime, and the destruction of wicked Sodom 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?” Genesis 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. When he warned his sons-in-law, “he seemed as one that mocked.” Genesis 19:14. And when “the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, “Lot warned them, and entreated them to desist from their wickedness. And they at once did that which all sinners since the days of righteous Lot have been disposed to do to those who faithfully warn them of their ruin, namely, they charged him with being a judge. OFH1 52.1

Before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a forerunner was sent to prepare the way before the Lord. Those who did not receive Christ, were rejected, “Because” - as he said to Jerusalem when warning the people of the destruction of their city and temple - “thou knowest not the time of thy visitation.” Luke 19:44. We have on record the Lord’s prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem during the time of the generation that rejected him, which was fulfilled in less than forty years from the time of his crucifixion. And that the Christians in Judea might escape its impending doom, they were told that when they should “see Jerusalem compassed with armies,” or, as recorded by Matthew, “the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place,” they were to “flee to the mountains.” Luke 21:20; Matthew 24:15. They heeded the admonition, and escaped in safety to Pella. OFH1 52.2

Such is the testimony of Inspiration respecting the dealings of God with his people in past ages. And it cannot be supposed that God will change his course relative to the future, when that future is to realize the crowning consummation of all prophetic declarations. No, no, indeed! Before the vials of Jehovah’s unmingled wrath shall be unstopped in heaven, and poured out into the earth, upon the shelterless heads of the unbelieving, the world will be fully warned. Before the Son of Man thrusts in his sickle to gather the precious harvest of the earth, that harvest must be fully ripened for the heavenly garner. And before the vine of the earth shall be gathered for the winepress of the wrath of God, her clusters must also be fully ripened. Revelation 14:14-19. And the last message of fearful warning to the people will ripen and prepare the believing for salvation, and also the unbelieving for destruction. OFH1 53.1