'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'
(A Weekly Instruction specially written for the N.Z S Tahiti by 'Ghimkl'.) THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE DAY AND HOUR OF THE SECOND COMING (St. Matthew xxiv., 36 xxv., 30 St. Mark xiii., 32-37; St, Luke xxi., 34-36; xvii., 26-35.) Some knowledge of the end of the present system on earth has been vouchsafed to us. Science and Revelation both tell us for certain that there will be an end. Revelation speaks of some of the signs that will herald the approach of the end; but these are given not for the purpose of enlightening us as to its exact date, but to encourage the faithful of those days under bitter trials. When the day itself will be we axe not told. ‘lt is dependent on certain contingencies, the free action of men, the filling up of the cup of iniquity, and the making up of the numbers of the elect.’ ‘ But of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the .Son, but the Father. For as in the days before the Flood ... they knew not till the Flood came and took them all away: So also shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two shall be in the field ; one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Two women shall'be grinding at the mill; one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Watch ye, therefore, because you know not what hour your Lord will come.’ But here a difficulty occurs. The intimate union of Christ’s human nature with the Divine Personality must have brought to his intellect supernatural knowledge. True, this knowledge was necessarily finite, for our Lord’s human mind was a created thing, but still it transcended that possessed by any creature, and excluded all error and possibility of error. How, then, could He say that not even the Son knew the day of the world’s end ? Various explanations have been offered. Some hold that Christ meant something like tin’s: Ido indeed, even as man, know the time, but this knowledge has come to Me not through natural channels, but by special illumination, and in this way I may be said to be ignorant of it in the ordinary way. Others, much more convincingly,' say that ‘ we can, without temerity, relying upon the word of our Saviour, think that He has withheld from Himself the human knowledge of the day and hour of the Judgment, at the same time that He refused the revelation of it to His Apostles. And, if that does not show want of respect, may we not hazard the conjecture, and say that at this time of feverish exaltation when so many passionately computed the end of the world, Jesus, in order to restrain, the more effectively, the impatient curiosity of His disciples, gave up, in His own case, this so much desired information?’ (Lebreton.) It may be, too, as is generally maintained, that our Lord wanted to make it clear that God alone could determine the time of such an event, and that He Himself did not wish to divulge the secret. It was neither necessary nor even expedient that men should have this knowledge, and they are now warned that it will not be given to them, ‘lt is not for you to know the times "or moments, which the Father hath put into His own power,’ so He spoke to the Apostles on the day of the Ascension, implying that He Himself did know. As the end draws near the continual struggle between good and evil will grow more defined and more ruthless. ‘ And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom : and there shall be pestilences, and famines*and earthquakes in places ’ (St. Matthew xxiv., 6-7). There will be no final perfection of the whole race on earth (writes Bishop Bellord), no extinction of evil ; but the forces^of each element will be concentrated. Good, let us hope', will gravitate towards good; and those who wish to serve God will be: forced into union by the need of making head against the combination of evil. The spirit of wickedness is personified under the name of Anti-Christ; it exists, indeed, under many
forms at all times ; but, according to historical’ analogy x it will probably express itself fully in some society, or even in some one dominant personality. . , . Again at the end of all things, the general features of the conflict will be as always since Cain slew Abel. The two lines of good and evil will advance logically from principles to conclusions. There will be no mundane triumph of good over evil, but Christ will be again and again rejected and crucified in His followers. They “shall put you to death, and you shall be hated by all nations. . . , False prophets shall rise and seduce many. .-. . Many shall be scandalised, and shall betray one another. There shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world. The abomination of desolation shall stand in the holy place. • There' will be danger that no flesh should be saved’’ ’ (St. Matthew xxiv.). After the end there will be a Day of Reckoning, a Harvest, when the reapers of God, His angels, shall assemble the nations to Christ’s judgment. ‘For the Son of Man shall come in His majesty, and all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another.’
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New Zealand Tablet, 4 June 1914, Page 3
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921'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH' New Zealand Tablet, 4 June 1914, Page 3
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