And so we have examined these 19 signs of the end times — there are many more in Scripture, but these are the moral signs of the last days. “What is the Christian’s view?” What an ex citing time in which to live! for every prophecy of the first coming of Chnst, eight are given for His second coming. In John 14:3 Christ said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, to receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” When the famed explorer Ernest Shackelton was driven back from his quest of the South Pole, he had to leave some of his men on Elephant Island. He solemnly promised them, “I will be back men, I will be back.” There was not enough room in the one boat, and by the time he had got ten the first group to safety, the ice and fog closed in and it was too late to rescue the others who remained. His efforts to effect rescue met re peated failure. Weather and ice would not let him advance. But his promise kept ringing in has heart. Friends at tempted to comfort him by saying that the world would not blame him. But Shackelton was governed by the prom ise he had given. Finally, he personal ly ran the risk of being lost. When he saw the fog lift and a small crack in the huge ice flow appear, this was his signal and he shot his craft through as rapidly as he could. Upon reaching the camp he found every man ready to leave. Hurriedly they rushed back across the flow to safety. The entire rescue took less than half an hour. Enroute home, Shackelton said to one of his men, “The thing I cannot get over is that all you men were ready to go.” The man answered, “Well, you see Wilde, the second in command, over there, he would tell us every day, ‘roll up your sleeping bags boys, the Boss may come back today.’ We never lost hope in your promise.” It is important that we keep our hope bright in these dark and perilous days, for across the stormy skies of the world’s spiritual life is arched a rain bow of promise — “If I go away, I will come again”—MARANATHA! 35
Lovers of Pleasure (continued) God. Paul wrote an interesting state ment—“. . . if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my broth er to offend” (I Cor. 8:13). Susanna Wesley who reared 19 chil dren, 12 of whom lived to a goodly age, spake to her son John, on the sub ject of pleasure as he went into the ministry. She declared, “Whatever weakens your reason or impairs the tenderness of your conscience —■ob scures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things — what ever, increases the authority of your body over your mind, that thing to you, my son, is sin.” How beautifully this truth is gathered into words! We find that the last declaration of II Timothy 3:5 spells out the proph ecy concerning the “apostasy” of the hour in which we are living. Here we read the prediction, “Having a form of godliness (a ritual), but denying (by empty profession) the power there of . . .” This is the shell of religious practice without Christ’s possession of the heart. We began with the apostolic church and now in the end times we have the apostate church. Christianity is not a religion — please mark that down—it is a Person! In the last days denying the power of Jesus Christ is to deny His virgin birth, His Resurrection, the infallibility of the Scriptures, the finished and atoning work of the Saviour, His sinless life and, of course, His sure return. Some of the oldest and greatest de nominations we have known, with fine backgrounds and creeds, no longer stand by the truth once for all de livered unto the saints. One of the leaders of a large Protestant denomina tion recently stated, “We have to re move the mythological aspect of Jesus’ life to comply with world religion.” Now where in Scripture are we told that we must “comply” with world re ligions? The mythological aspects of Jesus’ life would include, of course, His virgin birth, His resurrection, His atonement and His sinless life. Apos tasy is certainly a sign of the times.
Made with FlippingBook HTML5