IT is the positive testimony of Scripture that the present order of things here will end in judgment. This, we repeat, is the testimony of Scripture, though, strange as it may appear, men, to whom the Scripture has come, believe and teach otherwise. Hence few anticipate such a catastrophe, indeed in no previous age have men felt more secure than now.
The nineteenth century has excelled all others, the world has advanced by leaps and bounds. Science and art have made unparalleled progress. Nature in response to man’s persistent inquiries has disclosed some of her most marvelous secrets, and laid them at his feet for his service. Civilization is rescuing nations from the fetters of ignorance that have bound them for ages. Exploration is daily opening up fresh markets for the wares of the world’s great commercial centers. The Church was never so active, and she and the world have united for one common object; viz., to improve man’s circumstances, and to make him happy here below.
But from the word of God comes a cry of strange and awful meaning, almost drowned, though it may be, in the din and rush of the world’s advance. They who catch that cry are startled at its terrible import, for from God’s book a warning is perpetually pealed into the sinner’s ears, and its burden is “coming judgment.” Yet who, today, in this busy world, believes that the present established condition of things on earth is to be destroyed by the wrath of God? Permanence and stability seem stamped upon all things. Everywhere men are confederating to rid the world of the abuses that mar the scene, and who would be so vain as to suggest that they will not succeed? Philanthropic movements abound, and the whole end and aim of philanthropy is to alleviate human woe and render earthly existence pleasant. It has a promise of the life that now is, but is silent as to the one to come. Nation holds out hand to nation in fraternal greeting. National exhibitions, held for the purpose of stimulating friendly rivalry in trade, help to bind together the tribes and kindreds of the earth, and soon, we are told, war with its attendant horrors will be a thing of the barbaric past.
Is it any wonder, then, that men are saying, Where is the promise of His coming? Search creation and you will find no sign of it. On the contrary, everything seems to portend coming peace and prosperity. Coming judgment? Bah! ‘tis but the fretful croak of the dyspeptic religionist!
But the Spirit, in the last chapter of Peter’s second epistle, calls these questioners “scoffers,” and announces that the present heavens and earth are by the word of God kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men; that is to say, by the decree of God the earth and the atmospheric heavens surrounding it are to be burnt up, while men, who by their ungodliness have polluted it, will be judged and consigned to perdition. Prophet and apostle unite in announcing the certainty of this approaching judgment. Throughout both Testaments, old and new, the tale is told. From end to end of a book that comes to us from God is predicted a work of destructive judgment upon this present earth without a parallel in the history of time—a work which will sweep away, as with a besom, every grace-neglecting sinner, to make way for the kingdom of the Son of man.
There is nothing held out for man in this world during the present epoch. When the earth is spoken of in relation to this dispensation, and those who live in it, God declares its end—it will be burnt up; i.e., He gives us no promise or prospect of blessing here, it is found elsewhere—in heaven. Yet it is equally true that an age is at hand when God will bless a people upon this very earth, but that age succeeds the present, and all the prophecies that announce a good time to come upon this earth relate not to this, but to the coming dispensation, and to a people yet to be. Between now and then lies the outpouring of the wrath of God—wrath inflicted upon sinners who refused heaven and preferred earth, notwithstanding God’s declaration that the time had not come for man to get blessing here.
In Rev. 20 is found Christ’s reign of 1000 years over this earth, but what precedes it? Read from the 6th to the 19th chapters of this awful book, and see for yourself. Judgments, hitherto unknown to men or angels, sweep through the world, purging it of the iniquity that has defiled it for 6000 years.
Yes, a time of blessing awaits this present earth, but the people who will enjoy it are not the sinners of Christendom. These have had their opportunity. God for centuries has been offering them heaven instead of earth, but they who have refused heaven, preferring a sin-cursed earth, will inherit, not the blessed earth, but a terrible hell.
Peter tells us repeatedly that this earth is to be burnt up. Wherefore? Because sin has ruined it. For 4000 years man went his way rebelling and sinning against God; then Jesus came as the Revealer of God’s love, and man consummated his guilt by hanging Him on a tree. God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, and then the descended Spirit confirmed, by the writers of the New Testament, the predictions of the Old as to the certainty of corning judgment. In language awful in its distinctness and intensity God has made known to man the end of this world. But in long-suffering mercy He has delayed the judgment, and opening heaven in the interval, offers it as the refuge and eternal home of man.
For 1800 years the Holy Ghost has been leading men’s hearts away from earth to heaven. From a doomed earth He points to an opened heaven and cries, “Yonder is your hope.” ’Tis wondrous strange and but little understood—earth, man’s original home, set aside for the fire; heaven, God’s home, opened as a refuge for him. How marvelous the exchange, God’s glorious abode in place of a world marked out for destruction. But this is what God has been doing since the Cross. And His offer is to all men through the one perfect atoning sacrifice for sins made by His Son. For eighteen centuries He has been taking men into heaven out of a devil-ruled world. The dispensation ends when Jesus comes and catches away His people to glory; then, after visiting the world by an awful series of judgments, He will vindicate His rights over the earth by reigning as King for 1000 years. It is then burnt up, and a new earth takes its place wherein will dwell righteousness.
The infidel rages against Christianity, charging it with impeding the world’s progress by proclaiming its ruin and impending judgment, and testifying of another world where perfection dwells. The professing Church of today is laboring hard to remove the stigma. Her cry is for “social and political reform.” She seeks to improve the state of man here, to make life worth living; but she thereby hides the future from the sinner; she occupies him with time rather than with eternity. She forgets that man has been cast out of the earthly paradise, and is reaping outside the bitter fruits of sin; that perfect blessedness dwells in the paradise of God, a paradise not to be found on earth, but in heaven; and that the attempt to create a third paradise is vain, and a delusion of the devil. Man is a lost sinner, sojourning for a season in a doomed world at a distance from God, and his end, unless saved through the blood of Jesus, is the lake of fire.
The judgment of God broods over this scene; its execution is but a question of time. The command has gone forth, and will never be withdrawn. When you have done with a thing, and wish to rid yourself of it you throw it in the fire. This is just what God is going to do with this earth when it has served His purpose, He will burn it up, and then from His hands will issue a new and beautiful earth that will last forever, for it will be safeguarded by divine power from the intrusion of sin.
“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” What fools are they who seek to support what God has rejected and reserved for fire. By His Word He created it, by His Word He has decreed its destruction. Its Creator will be its Destroyer. Oh, the deadly delusion that is stealing over the souls of men! We speak not of Heathendom, but of Christendom. It is here, where the light of revelation is, where the Spirit has wrought for ages, that the madness and infatuation of man is most apparent. In countries boasting an open Bible men are dreaming of a golden age to be brought in by human enterprise and effort.
From pulpit and platform silver-tongued orators propose solutions of social problems, and announce to the applauding multitude the approach of a millennium—a millennium without a Christ. But upon faith’s ear strikes one solemn word, sounding from the book of God, rising above the din of human voices, and laying bare the solemn future —Judgment! Judgment! Judgment!
Come with me into yonder temple, where God is said to be worshipped and His pure Word professedly taught. The service commences, proceeds, ends, and the great congregation disperses. Have you heard one word of warning addressed to the listening sinners to flee from the wrath to come? one word of appeal to accept the Saviour Jesus? Nay, such preaching is not in fashion; the service is warranted not to alarm the most impressionable, composed as it is of ritual and vain repetition.
Now enter the building opposite, whose outward appearance is less ancient, and the style of architecture less ornate. The intelligent audience sit spellbound while the preacher gives them “an intellectual treat,” but not from beginning to end of the service will you hear addressed to those souls so near eternity one word as to a world in flames, and the wrath of God overtaking a Christ-less people.
Yet let God be true and every man a liar. “Hath He said and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken and shall He not make it good?” Sinner, be not deceived; you are in a world destined to destruction, and God is warning you to leave it by fleeing to Him who died to deliver you from it. Every word of God not yet accomplished shall be accomplished. God cannot deceive man, and if He says He has reserved this present earth for fire He means what He says, and the burning up of creation is sure.
Let the world mock if it will; men mocked 4000 years ago when Noah, the preaching builder, announced the coming deluge; but their mocking hindered not the judgment, for when the 120 years of grace had passed the flood came and destroyed them all; and Jesus said, “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
Oh, men and women yet unsaved, whose eyes are still unopened, have pity on your souls! If you but knew your danger how quickly you would hasten out of this doomed world to Jesus, the true Ark. The thunder clouds of coming wrath are rising gradually but surely; already they cast their shadows athwart the scene. The swift-winged ministers of God’s vengeance stand ready girded for their fatal work, and wait but the word of command. The last trump is about to sound, the end is almost here, and YOU, oh! where are you? Unsaved? Unready? Outside the ark? Are you trifling with the golden moments of grace, wasting them in the pursuit of perishing gold or empty pleasures? Sinners against your own souls, be warned! The clock of time points to the last moment. The death knell of a lost world is ready to sound. A doomed world is about to be awakened by the awful tidings that God’s day of grace is over, and the day of His wrath is come.
W. H. S.