CHRIST’S SECOND COMING I
DR . CH ñS . E R l f g g T SCOTT Tstmgitara, ©Maaa
Q UITE a number of intimate friends in America interviewed me while I was on furlough as to my view as to Christ’s second coming, particularly in view of the developments of the world war; also since my return to China, have written me. In response to these requests I gladly make this statement re the same. It is now with considerable regret that all my life long I never heard any reverent, measured, scholarly presentation of the subject of the premillennial. coming of Christ, such as C. I. Scofield makes. With some chagrin I acknowledge that I had never looked into the matter from the Biblical standpoint previous to the war; but, interestingly enough, through my his torical studies enthusiastically pursued in graduate work at Princeton, Pennsylvania and Munich universities, and ever since, I have been gradually coming to feel that the present dispensation is not the kind of dispensation that God can approve of, because it is not in any real sense carrying out His law. The history of governments and races, both prominent and humble; the rule of might which has everywhere prevailed; and the shameful opportunist, sub-rosa diplomacy in the dealings of nations with each other, as well as unjust conditions generally obtaining in the world, together with the inability to solve even the most burning of social questions—like the white slave and drink traffics—all these along with many other vital considerations, have gradually been strengthening my mind to take hold of the statements of Christ in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. Not the least of considerations contrib uting to the change of my eschatological views has been the well-nigh universal imbiblical teaching of Scripture, perverting
the very fundamentals, by the professed and specially trained teachers of religion in col leges and universities of the most civilized nations. It certainly cannot be pleasing to God or characteristic of the reign of Christ that everywhere this apostasy should be taking place; in which “falling away” as Paul calls it, men are of set purpose, rejecting the deity of Christ and redemp tion through His atoning blood and redeeming sacrifice. Apostasy, as I under stand it, is not error that results from igno rance, nor is it error into which people may fall temporarily when snared of Satan; but it is outward, delibérate per version of Christianity, while in heart departing from the faith as described by Paul in II Tim. 4:3, 4: “For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables. No wonder that Christ at the last supper said in John the 14th and 16th chapters that another than himself was “the prince of this world” or “present dispensation” ; that that prince “had nothing in Him,” and that His “hour had not yet come.” In that twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew Christ answers the question: “What shall be the end of this age and the sign of Thy coming?” And this age, as Christ describes it under the domination of Satan, has certainly- been characterized by í just what he stated would be its earmarks—wars and internal conflicts, famines, pestilences, persecutions, false Christs and leaders without knowledge of the Scriptures or purposeful wresting of prophecy. A care ful student of world history aside from the inspired revelation of the Holy Spirit,
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