chapter 11:31 Daniel reveals that this Beast “ shall pollute [profane] the sanctuary [the holy place] and shall take away the daily sacrifice.” The prophet speaks of the abomination, or appalling sacrilege, three times in his prophecy. The appearance of Anti-Christ is connected with the “ day of the Lord.” Whenever the Bible mentions “ the day of the Lord” it is speaking about the return of the Lord to judge the world (Rev. 19:19-20). Peter says, “ The day of the Lord will'come as a thief in the night.” Paul agrees with him, saying, “The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” In II Thessalonians 2:3-4 Paul warns: “ Let no man deceive you, for that day [that is, the day of the Lord—judgment] shall not come unless there come a falling away first.” The passage tells of a coming great apostasy; and that the falling away from the faith of Christ is already begun. Then the man of sin (lawless ness) is revealed, who is the son of perdition. “ The day of Jehovah” seems to be a long period beginning with Christ’s return in glory and probably ending with the fiery purifying of the heavens and the earth. The first item on this long judgment agenda is the destruction of Anti-Christ. God’s revelation shows the Beast to be a religionist but neither Judaistic nor Christian. Anti-Christ opposes and exalts himself proudly and insolently against and over all that is called God, or that is worshipped, actually tak- ing his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming that he himself is God. Paul plainly states (II Thess. 2:7) that the spirit of wickedness which creates Anti-Christ is at work now, but not until the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way [that is, not until the Spirit is taken out of the way at the translation of the Church], can he come into power. The restraining power obviously is the Holy Spirit work ing in and through believers. “ Then shall that lawless
one [the Anti-Christ] be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and bring him to an end by his appearing at his coming.” The devil’s representative man will be destroyed by God’s representative Man. Paul says this Anti-Christ comes through the working of Satan. The Beast is the devil’s trump card. The lawless one will be able to perform all sorts of pretended miracles and signs and delusive mar vels, which the Bible calls “ lying wonders.” Whole sections of the church have taught that Christ will come when the world is made good enough to receive Him; but Bible teaching is that Christ returns when the world is so bad, that God must intervene to save people from its brutal blasphemies. Evil is rapidly ripening today. Man is being exalted; God is ignored. An unbe lieving scientist said recently that science has done more for man in two generations than Christianity has done in 2,000 years. Satan’s universal sway is becoming more apparent every day. He only waits now for the man that will perfectly do his bidding; the devil will take him over and through him rule the world. God has had His man upon earth—the Lord Jesus Christ; Satan will one day have his man upon earth, and the conflict of these two personalities will consummate our era. Actually, the real battle today is between Satan and Christ. Mankind is caught in the cross-fire. Satan lost the first battle when he confronted Christ in the wilderness temptation, but the devil thought he had won at Calvary. The demons must have had a jubilee, shouting, “He’s dead! He’s dead! The Messiah is dead, and we’ve imprisoned Him in the grave!”
Then Jesus broke the bands of death and rose trium phant o’er the tomb, and said, “ I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and hades.” Satan who has the (concluded on next page) the second coming: a MOTIVE for personal holiness / by R. A. Torrey
GOLDEN JUBILEE FEATURE:
H e r e are two very simple rules for living the Christian life: The first one is this: Do not do anything that you would not be glad to have your Lord find you doing if He should come. I have found that one of the simplest rules to satisfy my heart about questions that have perplexed a great many people . . . I ask myself this question: “ If the Lord should come this moment, would you like to have Him find you doing that?” It is simply wonderful how that clears things up. One day a friend of mine was walking up Washington Avenue in Minneapolis, t h i n k i n g about the coming of the Lord but at the time he was puffing away on a cigar. The thought suddenly came to him, “ See here! . . . How would you like to have the Lord come and meet you here with this cigar in your mouth!” That was enough. He took the cigar out of his mouth and threw it into the gutter; and never lighted another. . . . Never do anything you would not be glad to have the Lord find you doing if He should come! The other very simple rule is this: Never go anywhere that you would
not like to have the Lord find you if He should come. When I lived in Chicago, I used to get letters from some of the more respectable theatri cal managers, telling me that they were putting on some so-called classi cal play of very high order and sug gesting that they would be very much complimented if I would occupy a box at the play. . . . Did I go? Well, if that particular thing had not been so clear to me that I did not have to set tle it, I would have simply asked my self, “Would you like to have the Lord come and find you sitting in a private box at the theater, which the management gave you so that could put in the papers the next day that you were there, and thus encourage somebody else to go?” When the Iro quois Theater burned, among the charred corpses taken out were five ministers of my denomination. . . . For my part I would rather die some where else. But it is not death that is held out here; it is the coming of our Lord. I would rather my Lord should find me somewhere else if He should come. The motive that is held out here
for this readiness is not that of death. It is an infinitely higher motive. The Lord is coming! Would not the bride, if she knew that her lover was com ing, be careful not to be doing any thing that would displease him when he came home? There are some wiyes not anxious for their husbands to come back because they are having such a fine time flirting with other men. So there are many professing Christians who are not at all anxious for the speedy return of the Lord. They are flirting with the world. Never go anywhere you would not like to have the Lord find you should He come. It may be at mom ; it may be at midnight; it may be tonight. I do not know. I do not know of any thing revealed in the Word of God that has to come to pass before the Lord comes for His bride. There are a great many things that have to come to pass before He comes to the earth to destroy the antichrist and to judge the world, but there is nothing re vealed that must come to pass before He comes in the air when we shall be caught up to meet Him in the air and be forever with the Lord.
APRIL, I960
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