Questions and Answers By R. A. TORREY
will return before we die. Any teacher, no matter how used of God in the past, is at once discredited when he undertakes to set a time for the Lord’s return (Matt. 24:44). There are other things in the article which have a bad sound. The article seems to imply that-it was his praying through and having out the conflict with the evil spirits that has prepared the way for the Lord’s return very soon. There are quite a number of people who of recent years have seemed disposed to regard Mr. Roberts as a prophet and as an inspired teacher. This is very unfortunate. God did raise Evan Roberts, up for a certain purpose, and did use him wonderfully, but like many another who has been greatly used of God, people began to look at him instead of God who was back of him, and to exalt him in a way that it is perilous to exalt any man, Mr. Roberts was carried off his feet when over worked and apparently in a more or less strained condition, nervously and mentally. There have been many instances of the same kind in the history of the Church. In this same number of the Overcomer, there is an article on the “Translation Mes sage of Evan Roberts,” in which one of his admirers says, “To Evan Roberts, working as a man of God, not to be believed means the absolute isolation of his spirit from those who do not believe his testimony. He says, too*, ‘It is waste time to combat stubborn unbelief, when other immediate and urgent things of the kingdom of God call for attention.’” This has a bad sound; unbelief in Evan Roberts is not unbelief in God. Evan Roberts is not infallible,, and our Lord Himself has warned us against calling any man “Master.” Here is one of the perils of our times and of all times. When any man is used of God, a great many people are willing to swallow anything and everything he says. This is contrary to the Word of God. The fact that a man is mightily used of God, 'does not prove that he is infallible or inerrant, and to take the attitude toward Evan Roberts or any other
"How should premillenialists regard the revelation of translation of Evan Roberts, published in England (in the December is sue of ‘O VERCOM ER ’) and the message, 'Be ye ready’?" All well-balanced students of the Word who understand the clear teaching of the Bible regarding the time of our Lord’s re turn, namely, that “It is not for [us] to know the times nor the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power” (Acts 1:7), and “Of that day and that hour know- eth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven,” will regard this message with apprehension and pain. It is true that Mr. Roberts does not state the time, but his words seem to clearly, imply that our Lord’s return for «those who are ready will be within ten years. In another article in the same number he says plainly, “It appears that the special message of the Spirit to the prepared believer today is, ‘Thou shalt . not die, but thou shalt be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.’” This certainly is an explicit statement that the Lord will come for the prepared believer today before .his death. This certainly is unscriptural. We believe in the imminence of the Lord’s coming; we believe' that He may come be fore we die, we believe that He may come very soon, and hope that He may. We know that we ought to “be ready” at all times, but when any one undertakes to prophesy that He surely will come before we die, he gets on dangerous ground. Good people have done this time and time again in the past, claiming they had a revelation, “ and their.predictions have failed, and the whole precious doctrine of our Lord’s re turn has been brought into disfavor by this sort of thing (against which the Word of God so plainly and forcibly warns us). We are very sorry that Mr. Roberts has been led to make this utterance. He may be right; we hope that he is ‘right, but he certainly is unscriptural when he under takes to declare positively that the Lord
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