reasons sustain this statement. 1. There is no part of the Bible on which
such a message, centuries in the past, could have been based. Hence, had such
a proclamation been made, it would have been without scriptural foundation, and
consequently not from heaven. 2. It would have been in direct opposition to those
scriptures which locate the judgment, and the warning respecting its approach, in
the period of the last generation. The scriptures which sustain these two reasons
we shall presently cite. 3. The history of the world amply evinces that the hour of
God's judgment had not come ages in the past. 4. Nor would it be true of past
ages, if limited to Babylon. For Rev. xviii, 8-10 clearly shows that the hour of
Babylon's judgment is yet in the future. It is certain, therefore, that the angel with
the proclamation respecting the hour of God's judgment, has not given it at a time
when it would not only be destitute of scriptural support, but would absolutely
contradict their plain testimony.
3. The prophecies which give us the time of the judgment, and which present
the succession of events leading down to that great crisis, were closed up and
sealed till the time of the end. We refer particularly to the prophecies of Daniel.
See chap. viii, 17, 26; xii, 4, 9. Hence it is evident that God reserved the warning
to that generation who alone need it. Noah's warning respecting the flood, was
applicable to those only who should witness it; thus also the warning respecting
the judgment is applicable to that generation only which lives in the last days.
4. The Bible locates these messages in the period
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which immediately precedes the Second Advent, and plainly warns us against
the proclamation of the judgment at hand, prior to that time. Here we join issue
with our opponents. Instead of finding that the apostles gave this proclamation,
as some teach, we shall find indubitable evidence that they located this warning
far in the future, and that they admonished the church to heed none that should
precede a given time. If we recur to the book of Acts, we shall find Paul
preaching before Felix, of the judgment to come; and before the Athenians, that
God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by Jesus Christ. Acts xxiv, 25; xvii, 31. But that book nowhere intimates that
Christ was immediately coming to judgment. Peter points his hearers to the
future, saying, that the heavens which had now received Christ, must retain him
till the times of restitution. Acts iii, 21.
The first epistle to the Thessalonians may seem to teach that the apostles
expected the coming of Christ to judgment in their day. Indeed, it is evident that
such an idea was received from it by the Thessalonian church. Hence it was, that
in his second epistle to them, Paul found it necessary to speak explicitly on the
point. He tells them that the coming of Christ to the judgment could not take
place until the great apostasy. And as the result of that apostasy, that the man of
sin should be revealed, showing himself that he is God, and exalting himself
above all that is called God or that is worshiped. That this mystery of iniquity, is
the great Romish apostasy, none but a Papist will deny.
Paul reminds them that he had told the church of
