The Second Coming of Christ THE REAL TRUTH CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AS REVEALED IN GOD’S WORD, AS COMPARED WITH THE BASELESS SPECULATIONS OF SHAILER MATTHEWS, AND OTHERS « Dr. R. A. TORREY Dean of The Bible Institute of Los Angeles
E LIVE in a day in which there is a more wide-spread and deeper interest in the subject of the Second Com ing of Christ than we have ever known before. Min isters of the Gospel every
the Bible, but the writers were extrem ists.” (2) “Paul taught the imminent return of Christ but he was in error.” (3) “Christ taught it also, but He was mis taken too”’ All we know about the Second Coming of Christ is what God has been pleased to tell us in His Word. There is no pur suit that is by any possibility more un profitable than that of uninspired proph esying. When this amazing twentieth century in which we are now living began, prophets arose on every hand, in pulpits, on lecture platforms,. in univer sity lecture rooms, popular magazines and elsewhere. These prophets told us what the first twenty years of this cen tury were going to produce. There was to be an end of all war, there was to be a universal brotherhood of nations. The German lion and the Belgian lamb were to lie down together. All heathendom was to become essentially Christian. There was to be a millennium, and riches and knowledge, scientific and philosophic progress, and universal liberty, freedom and equality were to have universal sway. All society was to be reorganized on lines of universal brotherhood. All this was certain of accomplishment, we were assured, within twenty years. Well, eighteen and a half of the twenty years have passed and things have not turned out at all as predicted, except that the Ger man lion and the Belgian lamb have lain down together, but alas, the lamb is inside the lion that has devoured it. It will tkrn
where are preaching upon this subject. But many in their preaching are follow ing their own speculations rather than going to the Word of God to find out what it teaches. While it is a time of great interest it is also a time when men are putting forth the wildest vagaries and utterly baseless speculations upon the question. On the one hand we have the vagaries of such persons as “Pastor” Rus sell who has apparently made a careful study and collation and conglomeration of pretty much all the heresies the church has considered and spewed out in the nineteen centuries of her history; and of Mrs. Eddy, the champion camouflagist, fake and grafter of the world’s religious history; and on the other hand we have the baseless speculations of Shailer Matthews, who betrays His Lord with a kiss, and his host of satellites. Three courses of addresses on this subject have recently been made in our city, in which, as far as I can learn, the only references the lecturers have made to the Bible have been in a futile attempt to discredit the plain teaching of that book. One of these three preachers is reported to have said: (1) “We will have to admit that the imminent return of Christ is taught in
Made with FlippingBook Online document