Christ’s program
The blessed hope of our Tord ,s second coming constitutes un
impelling chullenge. The task is large and the dags are few.
B y JO H N F . WALVOORD
T he whole world is in a state of fearful expectation. The advent of the atomic bomb with kindred dev astating weapons has brought the world face to face with the possibil ity of the doom of present civilization. It is a matter of common discussion and much literature whether the world’s population faces annihilation and, if not, whether the destructive forces let loose by war will not in any event destroy civilization to the extent that it will lose its present character. To a Christian who ac cepts the Bible as the Word of God
such questions are not merely aca demic, but rather point to the Bibli cal question of whether we are ap proaching the end of the present age. The Biblical Picture of the Future Students of the Bible have long studied the Biblical pattern of future events. For those who interpret the Bible literally, this has yielded a definite program for the future. Ac cording to the Scriptures the Lord Jesus Christ will return to meet His church in the air. Following this event, while the church is in heaven, a world government will come into being. In its early stages the political leader of this government will enter into a covenant with Israel providing for Israel’s protection and liberty in their native land of Palestine (Dan. 9:27). As the world government be comes stronger and comes to the peak of its power, absolute control is exer cised over the press, business and re ligion as well as the political sov ereignty of the states in the world government (Rev.. 13:7, 8, 16, 17). The political head will be a dictator of tremendous power who will deify himself (Rev. 13:8). All will be re quired to worship him and Jews and Christians who resist this order will be put to death in great numbers (Rev. 7:9-17; 13:7, 8, 15). Simultaneous with these events will be a series of great catastrophic judgments which God will pour out on the earth which will destroy most of the earth’s population (Rev. 6-19). The political movement of the time will culminate in a tremendous world war with Palestine as its .vor
tex. As the world’s armies converge on Israel’s ancient land the Lord will return from heaven with the church and the holy angels, judge the world in righteousness, and destroy all the wicked. Such a sequence of events has nev er occurred in the history of the world and will be easily recognizable when it takes place. As the coming of the Lord for His church precedes the fulfillment of these prophecies, we need not look for their fulfillment now. The significance of world events in the light of these prophecies is that we can see in our day prepara tion on a colossal scale for just such a period. The trends of our day to ward the fulfillment of prophecy sound a clarion call to attention. The march of these stirring events is about to begin. Three Lines of Evidence The Apostle Paul writing by inspir ation furnishes a divinely authorized division of the peoples of the earth when he refers to the Jews, Gentiles, and the church of God (1 Cor. 10:32). Here is distinguished the purpose of God in these three categories, con cerning each of which the Scriptures speak much in detail. During this age the Jews are in dispersion, perse cuted, blinded, wandering. This is in fulfillment of many prophecies of the Old and New Testament (cf. Deut. 28:58-68; Rom. 11). For the Geritiles this is the time of power and bless ing. To Gentiles the gospel is freely offered. To Gentiles is given political power and wealth. It is still the, times of the Gentiles begun in 600 THE K IN G 'S BU SINESS
THE AUTHOR Dr. John F. Walvoord is president of Dal las Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas. 8
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