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The King is Coming, December 1
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your
heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Luke 21:28
.
Christ had bidden His people watch for the signs of His advent and rejoice as
they should behold the tokens of their coming King. “When these things begin to
come to pass,” He said, “then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption
draweth nigh.” He pointed His followers to the budding trees of spring, and said:
“When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is
now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye
that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (
Luke 21:28, 30, 31
).
But as the spirit of humility and devotion in the church had given place to pride
and formalism, love for Christ and faith in His coming had grown cold. Absorbed in
worldliness and pleasure seeking, the professed people of God were blinded to the
Saviour’s instructions concerning the signs of His appearing. The doctrine of the
Second Advent had been neglected; the scriptures relating to it were obscured by
misinterpretation, until it was, to a great extent, ignored and forgotten. Especially
was this the case in the churches of America. The freedom and comfort enjoyed
by all classes of society, the ambitious desire for wealth and luxury, begetting an
absorbing devotion to money-making, the eager rush for popularity and power,
which seemed to be within the reach of all, led men to center their interests and
hopes on the things of this life, and to put far in the future that solemn day when the
present order of things should pass away.
When the Saviour pointed out to His followers the signs of His return, He
foretold the state of backsliding that would exist just prior to His second advent.
There would be, as in the days of Noah, the activity and stir of worldly business
and pleasure seeking—buying, selling, planting, building, marrying, and giving in
marriage—with forgetfulness of God and the future life. For those living at this
time, Christ’s admonition is: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts
be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that
day come upon you unawares.” “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may
be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand
before the Son of man” (
Luke 21:34, 36
) (
The Great Controversy, 308, 309
).
We are to contend most earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.... We
are now to unify, and ... prepare the way for our coming King. Let us increase in
a knowledge of the truth, and render all excellence and glory due to Him who is
one with the Father. Let us seek most earnestly for the heavenly anointing, the Holy
Spirit (
Medical Ministry, 22
).
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