March 1930
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K i n g ’ s
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racy on these points. Then why should we doubt them when they tell us that this same Jesus is coming back to earth again? G race — N ot V engeance We may sum up all that has been said by reminding ourselves that we are living in the age of grace, which began with the birth of Jesus. He came then not to judge men but “ to seek and to save that which was lost.” In one of His first utterances He said: The Spirit o f the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recov ering o f sight to t'he blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. It is remarkable that when Christ quoted that passage from Isaiah He stopped in the middle of a sentence, omit ting the clause, “and the day of vengeance o f our God.”
We are still living in “ the acceptable year of the Lord,” when Jesus waits at the door of the sinner’s heart plead ing for admittance, that He may give pardon and peace. That is the invitation of Jesus Christ today. He still waits to be gracious, to receive you, and to be a Saviour to you. One of the glorious things about the Christian faith is that no matter what may happen in a future day of disaster or judgment, all is well with the believer who is in Christ Jesus. It is a wonderful thing to know that we are ready for His coming, with all that means. It is no less wonder ful that by His grace we are able to meet all the trials and tribulations of life which are sure to come to us in this age. In all these trials of faith we are buoyed up with the hope of His return, which will mean healing for all the ills of life, the righting of all the wrongs of earth, the bring ing in of a kingdom wherein “ righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” “ Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” •iS'-C- hand. Since this event has to take place first, as the prep aration for the glorious revelation of our Lord as King of kings, who can tell how soon we may hear the voice, the shout, the trump that shall summon us to meet Him in the air? I can not go into detail as I would wish, but I ask you to notice three lines of prophetic fulfillment, having to do particularly with the Jews, the Gentiles, and the People of God, the three classes into which the human race is divided, looking at it dispensationally. F ulfillment of P rophecies C oncerning the J ews Thirty-three years ago we saw from Scripture that when the Lord returns to set up His kingdom He will find the people of Israel a nation again, settled once more in their own land, apparently with a rebuilt temple, car rying on the ancient ritual. A remnant of the nation will be converted and ready to receive the King when He appears ; the rest will be given over to apostasy and to the worship of the Beast and the Antichrist. Now observe, until 1896 there was no evidence whatsoever of anything like this taking place. Then, like the sounding o f a silver trumpet, came the first Zionist proclamation. Theodore Herzl, like a modern Moses, lifted up his voice to summon the outcasts of Israel to return to Zion. But for years, in fact until 1914, to the rich Jews of Britain, France, and America, his was as the voice of one crying in the wilder- ness._ Judging him as a fanatic, they looked with disdain on his attempt to revive the national spirit in Jewry and to turn the thoughts of Israel toward their ancient patri mony. But to the poor Jew of northern and central Europe suffering under the curse o f anti-Semitism, the Zionist call came as the harbinger of a new day. Throughout the years congress after congress was held; but so far as getting possession of the land was concerned, their hope proved abortive. Then, in 1914, came the Great War, the most awful catastrophe of the centuries. Month after month the dreadful conflict dragged on. Nation after nation was drawn into the fearful vortex and the end seemed farther and farther away.
life Jfe jfe Looking Backward Over a Third of a Century of Prophetic Fulfillment B y H. A. I ronside ^ (Notes o f an Address Delivered at the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles, Sunday, January 12, 1930.)
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"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise o f his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning —2 Pet. 3 :3-4.
E are undoubtedly living in the days of which Peter speaks. The voice of the scoffer, par ticularly in regard to the second coming of our Lord Jesus, is heard in the land. He insists that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation. He is
blind to the great changes taking place all about us, and he knows not that this is in exact accordance with the prophetic Word heralding the coming of the King. It is now just a little over a third of a century since the blessed hope of the Lord’s return became a very real thing in my own life and testimony. For over thirty-three years it has been my privilege to go up and down through the land helping to sound out the midnight cry, “ Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” But lately, while looking backward over this period of testi mony, I have been amazed at the many evidences that the end-times are actually upon us. There are so many things predicted in the Scriptures as necessarily antedat ing the coming of the Lord to reign, that were all in the future a third of a century ago, dnd are now either alto gether in the past as actually fulfilled or else in process of fulfillment at this very time. In connection with these events I want to make it very clear that I do not know of anything which must neces sarily take place before the rapture of the Church. This aspect of our Lord’s return may take place at any moment. But many of us who are acquainted with the prophetic plan know that before the appearing of the Lord in glory with all His saints, which, takes..place some years subse quent to the Rapture, there are many stirring events to take place, many remarkable prophecies to be fulfilled. Now if it can be shown that many of these predictions are already fulfilled or being fulfilled, it will, I think, make it very evident that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him must be very close at
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