22. The Time of the End
THE book of prophecy was to be closed up and sealed till “the time of the end!’ “But thou, O 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.” Daniel 12:4. The question was then asked: “How long shall it be?” And the answer was given: “It shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished!’ V. 6, 7.
We have seen (pp. 52-60) that the “time, times, and an half,” during which the papacy should scatter God’s true followers, began in 538 A. D., and ended in 1798 A. D. And as “the time of the end” begins when this period “shall be finished!’ It is plain that “the time of the end “began in 1798 A. D. And at that time “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4. And it is remarkable how knowledge has been increased since 1798, not only in the prophecies, but also in general, as we shall presently see. But we must answer one question first. Some ask why God wanted to give important prophecies, and then keep them sealed up for so many centuries. There is a reason.
The prophecies give solemn warnings against the papal power. If these prophecies had been fully understood during the Dark Ages, when the Roman Catholic Church burned all books she thought were damaging to her, those prophecies would have suffered the same fate. Therefore God spoke in symbolic language, and placed the keys to those symbols where they would not be found till the Papacy lost its power, when God would impress the minds of His people where to find the keys. No one who locks his house will leave the key in the door, but he puts it where only members of his family know where to find it. Just so the Lord did with His prophecies. (The keys to prophetic symbols are given on page 34).
When these prophecies were to be opened at “the time of the end,” their message would have to go quickly to earth’s remotest bounds. (Revelation 14:6, 7; Romans 9:28) And as this could never have been accomplished without the modern printing press, and the more speedy means of travel and communication, the Lord set in motion those spurs in the human breast that led to new discoveries. During the 1260 years of papal supremacy, people did not dare to think freely, or independently of the lines of education established by the Church. (See p. 127) Galileo’s trial by the Inquisition in 1623 will serve as an example of how advancement in science and invention was opposed by the church of Rome. But when in 1798 the Papacy lost its power, its downfall broke the shackles, and unloosed the world’s genius, so that invention followed invention in quick succession.
Table of Inventions
|
1. Gas for lighting purposes |
1798 |
|
2. Cast-iron plows |
1800 |
|
3. Steel pens for writing |
1803 |
|
4. First locomotive |
1804 |
|
5. First steamboat |
1808 |
|
6. Steam printing press |
1811 |
|
7. Passenger cars for trains |
1825 |
|
8. Kerosene for lighting purposes |
1825 |
|
9. Matches |
1829 |
|
10. Mowing machine, reaper |
1833 |
|
11. First electric motor |
1834 |
|
12. Telegraph |
1837 |
|
First message: “What hath God wrought!” |
1844 |
|
13. Photography |
1839 |
|
14. Submarine telegraph cable |
1851 |
|
15. Typewriter |
1868 |
|
16. Telephone |
1876 |
|
17. Phonograph |
1877 |
|
18. Electric railway |
1879 |
|
19. Linotype |
1885 |
|
20. Automobile |
1893 |
|
21. Wireless telegraphy |
1895 |
|
22. Aeroplane, first successful flight |
1903 |
|
23. Radio broadcasting |
1921 |
|
24. Television |
1926 |
|
25. Pushbutton elevator |
1934 |
|
26. Airplane bombsight |
1940 |
Prophecy had decreed that in the day of God’s preparation for finishing His work on earth, “knowledge shall be increased”; and when His hour struck for the giving of His last warning message, nothing could stop it. We read: “The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of His preparation. . . . The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.” Nahum 2:3, 4.
How could any one give a better description of modern railroads and automobiles? Even the coming of the Zeppelin and the aeroplane is foretold in the Bible: “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” Isaiah 60:8. The simile is striking, for doves and aeroplanes both need landing places. This prophecy speaks of a time when “darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people,” while God’s glorious light is shining upon His faithful servants. (Verses 1, 2) This was never more true than now. The book of prophecy, that had been closed for centuries, is now opened to God’s people. (Daniel 12:4, 10; Revelation 5:1-9, 10:1, 2, 8-11, 22:6, 7, 16) Light is now shining from the throne of God upon them, while evolution, infidelity, spiritism, and Roman Catholic superstitions are enveloping the world in the grossest of spiritual darkness, and crime is at its high tide. Thinking people are everywhere scanning the horizon to detect some prophetic message from heaven that will cast light on the present chaos.
William T. Ellis, in an article
entitled, “Why Don’t the Churches Settle Things?” which appeared in the Saturday
Evening Post, of
“There never before was a greater
interest in religion in
“Ever since the war began, the country has been listening for a clear trumpet note from some prophet of the living God. In vain.” He then speaks of “the church’s reproach of having failed in her prophetic function.” After relating the concern of two business men on this point he says:
“That incident brings me squarely up against one of the most uncomfortable, perplexing and tragic situations in connection with this entire theme of the strange spiritual stirrings of the race today. Manyclergymen seem scarcely aware of what is going forward beneath the surface of life. Many experts upon religion, who are the ministers of the gospel, have seemingly failed to hear ‘the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.’ Otherwise we should find them gathering with agony of soul in protracted sessions of prayer. . . .
“Morbid minds could easily persuade themselves that there is a present visitation of blindness upon the teachers of religion!’
D. L. Moody says;
“If God did not mean to have us study the prophecies, He would not have put them into the Bible. . . . About one third of the Bible is prophetic. . . .
“The return of the Lord to this earth is taught in the New Testament as clearly as any other doctrine in it. . . . Whoever neglects this has only a mutilated gospel. . . . Yet I was in the church fifteen or sixteen years before I ever heard a sermon on it. . . . I can see a reason for this; the Devil does not want us to see this truth, for nothing would wake up the church so much. The moment a man realises that Jesus Christ is coming back again to receive His followers to Himself, this world loses its hold upon him.” - “The Second Coming of Christ,” pp. 17, 18.