101
Marek 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Israel’s sun shall rise again. The rising of that sun will see great David’s mighty Son seated on His throne, and He shall reign, “whose right it is.” Is it without significance that, whereas there were but 55,000 Jews, in Palestine at the time of the armistice, twelve years ago, there are more than 150,000 in the land of Abraham today? More than twice as many have re turned to their ancient home from which they have been exiles for centuries, as returned in that significant home ward trek from Babylon, five Centuries before. Christ. Is it without significance that the hills of Palestine are being leveled, marshes are being drained, colonies and towns are being planted, and that gardens and orchards are beginning to thrust forth their fruit as in the olden days of the land’s glory? True it is that the Jews are re turning in unbelief. True it is that God, not they, will bring back to the land all its ancient glory. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that there was a “shaking, and the bones (house of Israel) came together” and even “the sinews and the flesh came upon them” before there was life, before there was “breath in them” (Ezek. 37:7-9). . “ S igns in S u n , M oon , and S tars ” . The real manifestations in the heavens have probably not yet been seen, but they surely will be (Rev. 6:12-17). However, nature, like mankind, seems to be exceedingly restless today, waiting for her redemption (Rom. 8:19- 23),. Now in China, now in Japan, now in South Amer ica, now in Italy, now ,in Mexico, now in America—con stantly come the stories of great catastrophies in nature. Earthquakes, droughts, hurricanes, floods, pestilences— the sun, moon, and stars, lords of nature, seem to be con tinually restless! Nature, as well as man, approaches re demption. “U pon t h e E arth D istress of N ations ” Was there ever an hour of such Universal distress as now? A half-dozen famines in the last twelve years— any one of them more far-reaching than any ever known before! Bread lines lengthening in all the nations of the earth—lines such as have never before been known in most of these nations! Unemployment, with all its disastrous consequences, world-wide, and seemingly defying solu tion! Desperate measures being taken to solve it in the world’s richest nation—with the cure being admittedly only temporary! “W ith P erplex ity ” ; . • The strange thing about the situation is that a world that boasts its tremendous advance over the days of our fathers seems unable to solve its present problems. The Spirit of God rightly used the word “aporia" for per plexity ; that is, hemmed in “without a passage out." With the vast increase in machinery, the employment problem has taxed to the limit the best wits of men. Now they are throwing up their hands in despair, wondering if
I t is with great satisfaction to us that we are able to promise our readers a page each month, the general head ing of which will be: “There Shall Be Signs." The writ er, Louis S. Bauman, D.D., pastor of the First Brethren Church, Long Beach, Calif., is one of the sanest and best informed ministers of the present day. -^-Editor. A Timely Prophecy ROBABLY none of the great prophetic pass ages in the entire Word of God sets forth more strikingly the fact that the bells are tolling the end of the present dispensation of time, than does the great prophecy of the Master, recorded in the twenty-first chapter of Luke. Sometimes we are told by even the devout that we cannot know the time of our Lord’s return. It is quite true that “of that day and hour knoweth no man” (Mk, 13:32). Nevertheless, in almost the same breath the Master said: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near : So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors” (Mk. 13:28, 29). In this timely prophecy, which we are about to con sider very briefly, Jesus plainly said: “Then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds, with great pow er and glory” (Mk. 13:26). When? “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh . . . When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Lk. 21:28, 31). Surely, then, the meaning of the Master is simply this : While no one can set the exact day or hour of His return, the real chil dren of God, with true spiritual discernment, will under stand by certain indications, which the Master Himself gave, that the hour for the establishment of the kingdom of God is close at hand. By “close” we do not mean a thousand years, or a Century, or possibly so much as a score of years. His coming is imminent. It is our privilege to “look up,” with “the blessed hope” throbbing in our hearts, believing that.: “Perhaps today shall sound the mystic summons — The shout! the voice! the trump! not by all heard; And from their scattered, silent resting places, The dead in Christ’will rise to meet the Lord; While we, the ransomed living, in a moment Shall be caught up—according to His Word." “J erusalem : S hall be T rodden D own U n t il —” Clearly, our Lord here aims to teach that when the Gentile heel is lifted from Jerusalem, then shall “the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” When the Gentile sun sets,
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