Weatker Signs for Believers Do You Want to Know W hat the Nev? Testament Has to Say About Our Day ? REV. E. R. BLACK
(3) Christendom is a m ixture of good and evil, wheat and tares, fruitful and unfruitful. It is Satan’s field of special activity; he opposes the Word of God, stealing, offending, corrupting, counter feiting and making religion a parade, a thing of forms and organizations. A t the end of this age (1) Israel will become active in the political, financial and religious world, (the “fig tree” will begin to bud). (2) Gentile nations will be in “dis tress” and “perplexity” ; there will be "great tribulation” because of anarchy under “the lawless one.” (3) In Christendom the “falling away” from the tru th and th e opposition to “sound teaching” will reveal th e “wheat” and “the tares” ; the la tte r will be segre gated into “bundles” (probably organiza tions) and the “wheat” will stand out like ripe grain in the “harvest” time. “The Bride” will be “caught up” to meet the Bridegroom, and the masses of Christendom will be “left” in “th e outer darkness” to pass through “ the g reat trib u latio n .” Matt. 24. Iniquity shall abound and the fires of love burn low, 12. False teachers will deceive many, 11. The fig tree will begin to bud, 32. The world will be as godless as in the days of Noah and Lot, Luke 21:25-26. Nations in distress and men’s hearts failing them for fear. 37-3.9. 1 Thess. 5:1-7. Indifference and intoxi cation will characterize the world. .2 Thess. 2:12; 1 Tim. 4:1-4. A great falling away from the tru th among be lievers. Lawlessness will precipitate the great tribulation. Spiritism will be ram pant.
there ever a man who had opinion about the weather ;r lo could not “discern the face the sky” ?
Is th ere a Christian who does not know the condition of affairs a t the “ end of th e age” ; who “ cannot discern th e signs of th e tim es” ? “The face Of the sky” is a map for the observing tiller of the soil. The Word of God is a map for the workers in H is vineyard; three-fourths of the Bible is prophecy . . . “history w ritten in advance.” It is easier to “discern the signs of the tim es” than to “discern the face of the sky” ; God’s w ritten “signs of the tim es” are absolutely reliable, while the weather signs of nature are only “probabilities”. The ignorant farmer is more excusable than the ignorant Christian; th e former studies “the face of th e sky” more than the latter does “the sure word of proph ecy.” A t the time Jesus uttered these words the “signs of the times” were very legi ble; one who has followed Jesus thus far may safely forecast (1) Death for Je- eus, (2) Rejection of Israel by God and (3) “the damnation of hell” for the Phar isee crowd. At the end of the age “signs” are more num erous and striking, e.g., The Antedi luvian age, The P atriarchal age, The Jewish age and The P resent age. During the present age (1) Israel is “scattered,” “blinded” and persecuted, the “ fig tre e ” .is feursed , . . “no fru it for the age.” (2) Gentile nations are warring and dominated by “the god of th is age.”
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