The knowledge of the mind of God is the Christian’s only security both for determining his true position in the world, and his being preserved in it steadfast and immoveable. Where this is not ascertained, all must be doubt and perplexity, and his path must be uncertain. This consideration has an especial application to the present state and prospects of the people of God. Many may say, indeed, as to any inquiry beyond present things, what is truth? But the Scripture sets before us the clear and definite counsels of Him who changeth not; marks out the distinct character of every principle, whether good or evil, in His— view; traces their respective advances, and exhibits the great general results, to which they are severally progressing. And these things the Church is directed to observe. — “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn.” And the same Apostle, after portraying the characters of evil in the last days, specifies this as the safeguard of the saints, “That they know these things before” (2 Peter 1:19; 3: 1719We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (2 Peter 1:19)).
All our light then is darkness, unless our apprehension of the circumstances in which we are standing accord with the revealed truth of God concerning them. To take a practical example. —One principal anxiety of the believer (I mean of one who is accepted in the Beloved), with regard to himself, is that his service be wisely given to the Lord. But it seems evident, that unless the purposes of God for this dispensation be gathered by him from the written word, his labors must often be misdirected, and possibly, as to their results, given more to the house of the stranger (Proverbs 5:1010Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labors be in the house of a stranger; (Proverbs 5:10)) than to God’s: for instead of ministering according to his ability in God’s husbandry, his powers may be diverted into channels whence no enduring fruit is returned to the Lord’s glory, and where His Spirit would never have led him; and to all that is not done in that Spirit the word of Jesus applies, “ He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” Unless the unchanging distinction between the Church and the world, up to “the time of the end” be seen, the expectation of a gradual diffusion of Christianity must constantly operate to the consuming of our services upon that which will absorb in itself all the energy and power of the laborer, and still remain the WORLD.
But the subject assumes an import even still more weighty, when considered with regard to the consummation declared in that portion of the revelation of God’s will which embraces the present age. For it must inevitably make a wide practical difference in the Christian’s position in the world, whether he considers it as going on to blessedness, or on the contrary to judgment; since on this must, to a great extent, depend the actual character in which it appears to his eyes, and consequently, his own conduct and views with regard to it. The views of surrounding things, taken by two believers, one of whom considers them to be thus far in their progress to perfection, while the other sees that sentence upon them is delayed, only because “the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation” (2 Peter 3), must be as different as light from darkness. Nor is it too much to say that the character of their testimony will equally vary; and if the mind is resting upon the hope of a progressive enlightening of the world, while it may be that fearful darkness is fast closing in, all our wisdom will be folly. Most of the Lord’s people indeed, in common with others, feel that the aspect of the times is sufficiently awful; yet, perhaps, the greater number are inclined to consider it as temporary, with the hope that it will subside. Let us then briefly try present things by the test of Scripture, for to this will be our safest appeal. If we judge by sight of anything, we shall assuredly err; and therefore it is only by taking the word as our criterion, though appearances may seem ever so contradictory, that our judgment can be true.
First, then, how does Scripture uniformly describe the character of the Church throughout the dispensation? And here we at once meet with the incontrovertible fact, that the whole tenor of the commands and exhortations throughout the Gospels and Epistles to the people of God, are from their very nature applicable only to a comparatively small number, in the midst of a world lying in wickedness. The irreversible principle of the dispensation is, that “MANY are called, Few are chosen:” and with this correspond all the practical addresses of the Lord and His Apostles. It is therefore in, absolute contrast to a dispensation in which it is said, “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.” The two can never become identical, for, on the supposition that this dispensation should grow into one of universal truth, the whole character of the Apostolic Epistles would gradually become inappropriate to the circumstances of the Church. —The characters to whom they are addressed are thus described: “ The sons of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2: 15). “Behold what manner of love the Father bath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3). “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one, ὲν τῶ πονηρῷ” (1 John 5: 19). “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 3: 9). But more especially is the nature of this dispensation as regards His followers described by the Lord: they are said to be “the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the persecuted for righteousness’ sake; they are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. The present is a dispensation of witness, and of witness only (Matthew 24:1414And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14)): and as such, essentially incongruous with one of universality. The insignia of God’s people throughout, are the cross and the reproach of Christ. In truth, the position of the Church in the world, if it were faithful, never could be any other; and in the present earthly glory of the professing Church, the light of Scripture exhibits only the deceit of Satan and apostasy.
The character of the world also is no less clearly and decisively given, as being ever in invariable opposition and enmity to God and to His Christ; and so characterized, not in a vague and generalizing way, but as a definite mass, in which the “Prince of the power of the air rules, even the god of this world, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Any supposed amelioration of the world, as such, is only Satan’s lie to bring the children of God into contact with it in some way or other, by inducing the supposition that the principles of God are working in it, to unite by degrees all in the truth. Yet is the Church’s state spoken of as being ever a suffering one till her Lord return; and HE has spoken of no time of blessedness to her, or to the groaning creation, until then. “She that is a widow indeed and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.” But the sure word of prophecy does not fail us here. The last days are shown to terminate in the deepest shades of moral evil; and they have been written for the Church’s warning, if her eyes were but open to read them. “ This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3). “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3). “Little children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists” (1 John 2: 18). The whole of Jude is also an awakening testimony to the same effect. But above all, in the last book of prophecy, is the dispensation presented in its true aspect, both in progress and consummation. And here, whatever difference there may be as to details of interpretation, the principles exhibited in it are at least distinctly stated. Not a word is contained in it of progressive advance in the world, not one of the gradual spread of Christianity, but darkness, fearful darkness, is brought out in direct, unvarying opposition to the Light of Life; for the conclusion is, that the earth and the whole world are gathered together in collective array against the Lamb (16). We see presented in it (and this excluding all theories of interpretation) the principles upon which the world is acting, and how they end: and God’s principles, their full and marked separation from the world, and their result; the separation of the powers of holiness and sin. The obvious practical application to all, even to the poor and unlearned, for “blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein,” is in the observing the characters of evil which are described in this book, in order to avoid being in any way mingled with them, and the final judgment in which they are indiscriminately involved. The principles on which the world proceeds must clearly end, not in peace, but in judgment. And whatever may be predicted from present appearances of the moral elevation of the world, all things that the children of this generation esteem-the riches, the luxury, the magnificence, the pride of man, come only to this— “Alas! alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come!” Let our hearts weigh this well, if we are looking for anything better from the strength and power of man, or are connected with that which gives place and distinction in the world.” The Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
But is there nothing now corresponding to these dark features? I say nothing as to the time when the full consummation of these things shall take place, though we may believe them not to be afar off: but is not the mystery of iniquity now working, and are not all the principles already in operation, which, as soon as the restraining hand of God upon evil is removed, will burst forth into the full manifestation of the power of darkness? Let us watch the present movement over the whole of Europe, and we shall see that it is not a superficial modification of things which is now in progress, but an impulse arising from the very central springs of this world’s action: the mind of the age is working definitely and steadily to one object, which, to the infidel and philosophizing Christian, may seem the commencement of the renovation of society, but it cannot but be seen, by one who looks below the surface, that the very foundations of the established constitution of things are breaking up under an irresistible influence, which may produce the explosion at any hour; and that the apparent approximation to unity is but the selfish principle of man’s nature, gathering together all which ministers to his senses or his intellect, for himself and against God, -in a word, the unity of Antichrist. For a season, indeed, there may be an appearance of calmness on the face of things; but this we are prepared to expect, for deceivableness is the special character of the last days; and therefore the Spirit of God is more than ever needed to detect the falsehood which surrounding circumstances ever convey to the eye of sense, and to enable the Christian to judge of them as they are in the estimate of God. The natural man, judging according to sense, must necessarily err in all his conclusions, for they are drawn from external appearances. Reason may be correct enough in its deductions from natural facts; but reason does not recognize the one great fact, that SIN IS IN THE WORLD; and therefore all its conclusions are astray, because they are not based Upon that which alone enables the spiritual man to account for all the apparent strangeness and contrariety of existing things. Man has not a thought in communion with God, except through His Spirit, which dwells in those who believe and know the truth: and it is marvelous, seeing that the Fall brought utter disunion from God, and that fallen nature, under every coloring that may be superinduced by the pride of civilized man, is still nature separated from God and acting for itself, that the supposition should be entertained by any of our Christian brethren, of a state of universal peace and righteousness being established through the causes which are at present in operation. There is, and can be, no foundation for the reign of holiness (setting aside all that prophecy teaches as to the introduction of this period) in a state of things built up by man, arising out of the necessity of his case; for the whole result of the energy and power of the world is based upon a system of necessity, and that necessity springs from its alienation from God. Nay, such a reign as is looked for would be nothing but the dominion of Satan, using for his own purposes the folly and self-will of men, and bringing them into confederated union with every outward display of human glory, against the glory and truth of the King of kings and Lord of lords; and if this day be expected, it may not be far distant. The evident tendency of all the principles now at work in the world, is to bring men into organized association, upon the ground of their common wants and pleasures; and the result, hastened as it will be by the resources afforded by modern invention and facility of intercommunication, will be the acting upon a grander and more daring scale the scene of gathering together against God, which has been prefigured at Babel; for now “ nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do;”—to be succeeded, indeed, by an out-pouring of judgment, to which the scattering of the nations, the destruction of the whole world, and the fires of Sodom, have been merely faint shadowings. “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man; they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also, as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 28: 26).
It may be well imagined, if these things are so, and the present dispensation ends in apostasy and consequent excision, that the whole policy of Satan will be used to divert the minds of believers from the consideration of them; and thus in truth it is: and we may observe his power exercised, both in leading some into unholy and unscriptural speculations, and also in using these as instruments for bringing the study of the simple truth itself into discredit in the estimation of others. Either way his end is gained (2 Pet 3: 17, 18).
In the present crisis, as ever, there is but one position for the Church to occupy, and this in separation from “all that is in the world,” and in keeping the “testimony of Jesus;” a position of which the strength is in knowing that in it God is on our side, and against all sin. It is a day in which it well behooves believers to look to themselves, that, on the one hand, they may be found walking in the Spirit, and, on the other, that they may not be connected with any form of evil, however accredited. “Judgment must begin at the house of God;” and since nothing of human might or device will stand in that day, it is of the deepest importance, if we look for it, to stand clear of all that will be swept away at His appearing. May the Lord enable us to abide in Him, and to walk in that simplicity which alone is wisdom, and which will remove every difficulty from our path.
“Ye therefore, beloved, seeing that ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3: 17, 18).