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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
August, 1940
The Distress and God's
of Nations- Answer
A Radio Address Given In Los Angeles
By LOUIS T. TALBOT*
I BELIEVE with all my heart that we are standing at the threshold of vast and far-reaching events that will make an impression on this old world such as has never been made before. Newspaper men and radio commen tators are expressing grave doubt con cerning the ability of statesmen and governments to bring the world back from its danger of ruin. Of course, we who are students of the Bible have long possessed that knowledge, because we have had our eyes on "the prophecies of the Word of God. Everywhere in the world, the hour in which we are speak ing these words is indeed a solemn one. But for us who belieye the Bible, it is also an hour of hope, for we know that the Lord Jesus Christ has, in the Word, associated these very events with the circumstances of His personal return to the earth. Christ’s Sure Return With your open Bible before you, and with the Spirit o f God to guide you, you can see in the Word, from begin ning to end, the transcendent truth that Christ will surely return to this old earth in a personal, visible, bodily man ner to set things right. Who else can do it? Not only was this the personal tes timony of Christ, but all the writers in the New Testament also spoke of- this blessed hope and seemingly bound it up with every doctrine they taught. In regard to conditions that are to prevail at the time of His coming, Christ said: • “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:37). •President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and Pastor of the Church o f the Open Door.
To the sorrowing disciples in the up per room, He gave this comfort: .“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). On the day of His ascension, as the disciples watched His going with up turned heads and straining, tearful eyes, the message of the men in white was this: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1: 11 ). As Paul wrote to the then recently bereaved Thessalonian Christians, he comforted their hearts with the great est comfort that can be spoken, when he said: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we . which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Why, my dear friends, I could show you three hundred and eighty-two pas sages, all within the pages of the New Testament, in which the Holy Spirit speaks specifically and definitely about the return of Christ. This doctrine is taught more emphatically in the New Testament than any other doctrine. In fact, one verse in every twenty-five refers to it. Rules for Interpretation The proper f way to interpret unful filled prophecy is in the light of ful filled ptophecy. That is, in regard to
the prophetic utterances concerning the return of Christ to this earth, we should take as our norm of interpretation the manner in which the prophecies con cerning His first coming have been ful filled. Were the curses upon the Jews literal? Then the blessings will be lit eral. Was the prophecy concerning the scattering of the Jews among all lands actual ? Then the regathering will be just as actual. If the pulling down of Zion was true to fact, then the rebuild ing of Zion will be just as tru'e. In any study of world conditions in the light of the Word of God, there are some outstanding facts that must be kept in mind. The first of these, and one of the most important, is that the time in which we are living is called govemmentally “ the times of the Gentiles.” By this expression is meant that period of time during which the Gentile nations are exercising lordship over the earth, and over the land of Palestine. A significant statement of our Lord is this: “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Lk. 21:24). The times of the Gentiles had a definite beginning, and they will have a definite ending. They began with Ne buchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and they wiU close with the return of Christ to the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. In Luke 21:24-27 and in Matthew' 24 and 25, Christ gives a general de scription of the Gentile nations at the time of the end. Also in the book of Revelation, in Daniel, and in parts of Ezekiel we have presented facts con cerning the times of the Gentiles, show ing the three great Gentile. confedera cies into which the nations shall form themselves at the end time, and which \Cot\finued on Page 291]
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