August 1931
346
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ALL SIGNS POINT-TO WHAT? By H . A. IRONSIDE m e are liv ing in very remark
shout of the Lord, and the trump of God, and we who are redeemed by the blood of Christ shall rise to meet the Saviour. B roker L in es of S eparation Let us look particularly at one line of prediction, one prediction uttered by our blessed Lord Himself in regard to the end times. He says solemnly in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, where He is telling of the signs that will prevail before His coming: “As the days of Noe
able times. Even statesmen of the world recognize this. We seem to be at the converging of the ages; one era appears to be closing and another already beginning. Apart from divine revelation, no man can tell what the next age holds in store for the human race. But any man or woman who has learned to accept the holy Scriptures as divinely inspired finds here, in God’s blessed Book, the key that solves the mystery, finds here a complete revelation concerning the times in which we live and the
were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” What kind of days were they, those days of Noah? Were they days of great re vival? Were they days of great awakening, and of wonderful conviction? Nothing of the kind! They were days of fear
period that is to follow, which will be ushered in by the com ing of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together un to Him. Everything shows that we are rapidly nearing the end of the present dispensation. A T hreefold C ord The Scripture s a y s : “A threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Eccl. 4:12). There is a threefold cord that we will do well to consider. It is what Scripture predicts will t a k e place immediately before the coming of the Lord; first, in connection with the church of
M oody M emorial C hurch , C hicago , III., of which D r . I ronside is the P astor .
ful apostasy, days when men had turned away from the revelation divinely given after the fall of man in Eden’s garden. They were days, too, of brilliant achievement; I think this is implied in the words used elsewhere, “They planted, they budded.” They were days when men built great works and prided themselves on their remarkable intelligence. They were also days of breaking down of moral barriers. I do not know what is involved in that passage in Genesis 6, where it says: “It came to ‘pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” I do not know whether that implies a strange mystic union of spirit-beings from the heavens with mortals here on the earth, as many eminent Bible teachers are sure that it does. I am not certain whether it means that the line of Seth forgot its separation and mingled with the line of Cain, that ungodly race—it may be that. But I do know that there was a complete breaking down of divinely set barriers. All through Scripture, God has been calling His people to walk in holy separation from the world that refuses His testimony. Whatever else this passage means, it cer tainly means this: that in the days of Noah definite divid ing lines between the people of God and the enemies of God were no longer recognized. And what does Jesus say? “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
God, then, with the Gentile nations, and lastly, with the people of Israel. If we saw conditions prevailing in the church such as Scripture predicts will prevail before the coming of our Lord, but saw no such conditions in Israel or among the Gentile nations, we might well think there was considerable time to elapse before the closing of this age; or if we were to see fulfilled certain conditions pre dicted concerning the church and concerning Israel, and yet others in regard to the Gentile nations still unfulfilled, we might well say, “My Lord delayeth His coming.” But when we see everything moving on in exact accord with Scripture in these three spheres, we may be sure that the end is near. We see the church drifting into deeper and deeper apostasy. We see Israel already gathering back to the land of Palestine, not by two and threes, but by tens of thousands. And we see prevailing over there condi tions such as the Word declares will prevail immediately before the coming of our Lord. Then we look out upon the Gentile nations and see the various combinations pre dicted in Scripture already forming before our eyes. We see the great hordes of Slavic people banding together, as predicted in Ezekiel 38 and 39; we see the Roman na tions entering into an alliance for the restoration of the Roman power; and we see movements of the kingdoms of the eastern countries ready for the battle of Armaged don. All is moving on in exact accord with the sure word of prophecy, so we may be very certain that it will not be long before we shall hear the voice of the archangel, the
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