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The Times and Seasons, May 8
He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons,
which the Father hath put in his own power.
Acts 1:7
.
The times and seasons God has put in His own power. And why has not
God given us this knowledge?—Because we would not make a right use of
it if He did. A condition of things would result from this knowledge among
our people that would greatly retard the work of God in preparing a people
to stand in the great day that is to come.... Jesus has told His disciples to
“watch,” but not for definite time. His followers are to be in the position of
those who are listening for the orders of their Captain; they are to watch,
wait, pray, and work, as they approach the time for the coming of the Lord;
but no one will be able to predict just when that time will come; for “of that
day and hour knoweth no man.” You will not be able to say that He will
come in one, two, or five years, neither are you to put off His coming by
stating that it may not be for ten or twenty years.... We are not to know the
definite time either for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit or for the coming
of Christ.
I was pointed to some who are in the great error of believing that it is
their duty to go to Old Jerusalem, [
Written in the early 1850’s when “the
age-to-come” advocates taught that Old Jerusalem would be built up as a
center of Christian witness fulfilling certain prophecies of the O.T.
] and
think they have a work to do there before the Lord comes. Such a view
is calculated to take the mind and interest from the present work of the
Lord, under the message of the third angel; for those who think that they are
yet to go to Jerusalem will have their minds there, and their means will be
withheld from the cause of present truth to get themselves and others there.
I saw that such a mission would accomplish no real good, that it would take
a long while to make a very few of the Jews believe even in the first advent
of Christ, much more to believe in His second advent.
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