first coming of Christ (and it does not, and cannot) then the falling of the stone is the divine symbol of our Lord’s Second Coming to set up the fifth and final world power, the fifth and final and eternal kingdom. And ma/rk how He is coming. Not silently as when the dawn steals over the night; not as when the kiss of love is pressed upon the lips; not as when the fragrance of a flower is borne on the air, but, as when a stone is flung from the hand and comes crashingly down, smiting and breaking, crushing and destroying that on which it falls. He is coming to smite the image on its feet. He is coming to smite the ten confederate kings. He is coming to overthrow the colossal, the Devil-inspired combination and lay the golden head in the dust. He is coming where these kings and their armies shall be gathered, and where this golden head shall exalt him self in wanton bravado against the God of heaven and against His Christ. They will be gathered at Jerusalem. Hear what God has said, and what He will do: “ I will gather all na tions ( that is the ten nations) against Jerusalem to battle. I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat.” Our Lord will come to Jerusalem to meet this gathering of the nations. He will destroy the armies of the king. He will cast him and his prime minister, the false prophet, into the lake of fire. Then He will set up that kingdom which shall never be destroyed, that fifth and final kingdom which shall never be destroyed. From all this I learn: God’s forecast of world poli tics is now being fulfilled, and every fulfilling event is the daily demonstration that this book, the Bible, is the fully inspired, inerrant Word of God. Deeper and darker grows the shadow of the great world Head, the shadow of that Devil-begotten man who is the forerunner of the Christ, the imitation king of kings and lord of lords — the Anti-christ — the world’s last Kaiser or Caesar. Every day the events of the day are fulfilling the forecast and the warning of God. Every thunder of cannon, every shriek of shell, every groan of the wounded, and moan of the dying, all the unrest, the fear and the quivering uncertainty paralyzing men and nations are crying aloud in our ears if we will but hear it. “ Fulfilled! Fulfilled!” Because all the downsweep of history, all the com bination and move of circumstances are proclaiming this prophetic word to be the Word of God; and because every day the words of Daniel to the Babylonian king are being echoed and re-echoed in the march of events, “ the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure;” because all the signs of the times indicate that the way is being rapidly prepared for the rise of the ten kings, the revival of the Roman Empire, the appearance and exaltation of the man of sin; because all such signs indicate that the great day when the Son of God shall appear in glory and like the stone flung down the image will come to smite all that is opposed to Him, to execute wrath and judgment upon all who are not in union and fellowship with Him; and because that before our Lord appears as King He will descend into the air and call His Church up to meet Him; because He is coming as the Bridegroom for His Bride, for the real, the true, the genuine and regenerated part of the professing Church; and because He might come for her at any moment; because between us and that solemn event there is not the thickness of the vapor that floats above the morning hills. I appeal to you who are professing Christians that you make your calling and election sure. There is something more required of you than to say: “ I believe,” be baptized, join church, have your
name on the church book and pay your pew rent or contribution. There are “ things which accompany sal vation.” You are called to turn your back on the old way, to live the life that is new and sweet and clean; to walk in the highway of holiness, of righteousness and truth; to ascend to the plane of spiritual experi ence and translate the life of Christ in daily character to the sons of men. And now to you, the unsaved. Unsaved! What a word is that. And what does it mean to be unsaved? It means to miss union and fellowship with Christ. It means to miss communion with the sweetest and tenderest man who ever lived. It means to miss the touch of the power that healed the sick and quickened the dead. It means to miss all that makes life worth living in this world; all that can give strength in weak ness, joy in sorrow, hope in despair; all that can make life to be more than mere existence, brute-being and limited self-consciousness. It means to be blind, so blind you cannot see the wonder and the beauty of the land scape and Him who painted it. It means to be deaf, so deaf you cannot hear the symphony nor the song the spirit sings in trusting souls. It means to be dumb, as dumb as the man who has great overwhelming, surging thoughts within his soul and cannot speak them. So dumb you cannot speak the word of faith. It means to be half-paralyzed, and only that alive in you which is not worth the living by itself — the animal, the brute innate in you and in all men. It means to be dead, dead as the man wrapped in the shroud, dead, spiritually dead, without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world. 0 man! if the race for wealth, your desire for the things of earth have kept you away from God and Christ; if your social relations and ambitions have made you put Christ aside you will go into eternity an empty soul, a beggar of beggars. All you have accomplished, all you may have achieved in the world will but serve to make your soul and suffering the greater. 0 man, man, unsaved! You have no right to face such a failure. You have no right to imperil your soul. The memory of happiness fled. The certainty of sorrow forever. Where are you going to spend your eternity — and how? In all the universe of God there is no question so important as that. The mothers of some of you men are in yonder Heaven. You have no right to go back upon the prayers their faith breathed out to God for you. You have no right to fling back the love of God, deny His Son, trample on His grace and destroy your soul. You can be saved now. The work has been done. There is nothing to do but receive and believe in a crucified and risen Lord, as it is written: “ If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall be lieve in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” He is coming. When, we know not. The time is short, the days o f grace are passing. If you die as an un believer before Christ comes, you are lost forever. If Christ comes before you die while you are an unbeliever, you are lost forever. On the edge of the grave on the threshold of our Lord’s imminent coming, you are lost now. 1 call upon you. I call upon every man and woman to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, get under the blood of the cross. The blood He shed for such as you; get on the side of eternal salvation, se curity, and peace. Get there now lest He come, and it be too late! Reprinted from chapter 9 of Ten Sermons on the Second Coming by I. M. Haldeman, published by Baker House,. Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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SEPTEMBER, 1964
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