“And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows” —Mark 13:7, 8.
IT is always a mistake to base the expectation of the Second Advent upon troubled conditions among the nations. God has said, “I will overturn, overturn it... until He come whose right it is” (Ezek. 21:27). This refers to the overturning of governmental authority. Wars will continue in this sin-maddened world until Christ returns as Prince of Peace.
Throughout all the waiting period, before the final hour of tribulation comes, there will be upheavals among the nations and great calamities in the earth. But these do not in themselves declare the end is upon us. They are but the precursors of the day of the wrath of the Lamb (Rev. 6:12-17) which ushers in the Great Tribulation in all its intensity. They are the inevitable results of sinful man’s rejection of earth’s rightful Ruler.
“‘Our God shall come,’ according to His promise.
To dry the tears, and bind each bleeding heart:
To bring about the saints eternal meeting.
Where sin and death shall never, never part,
‘Our God shall come,’ the sands are surely dropping,
‘A little while’—He will not tarry long;
Sin’s shadows then from His bright path receding.
The right will then have triumphed over wrong.
‘Our God shall come,’ the Father of the orphaned.
The widow’s Friend—the Saviour of the lost;
The Rock of Ages for the tried and tempted,
The Lifeboat and the Shelter for the tossed?”
—H. Bunn.