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Why Christ Delays His Coming, February 22
But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short.
1 Corinthians 7:29
, Goodspeed.
The angels of God in their messages to men represent time as very short.
Thus it has always been presented to me. It is true that time has continued
longer than we expected in the early days of this message. Our Saviour
did not appear as soon as we hoped. But has the word of the Lord failed?
Never! It should be remembered that the promises and threatenings of God
are alike conditional.
God had committed to His people a work to be accomplished on earth.
The third angel’s message was to be given, the minds of believers were to
be directed to the heavenly sanctuary, where Christ had entered to make
atonement for His people. The Sabbath reform was to be carried forward.
The breach in the law of God must be made up. The message must be
proclaimed with a loud voice, that all the inhabitants of earth might receive
the warning. The people of God must purify their souls through obedience to
the truth, and be prepared to stand without fault before Him at His coming.
Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their
faith, and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving
the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit pro-
claiming it to the world, ...the Lord would have wrought mightily with their
efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come
ere this to receive His people to their reward.
But in the period of doubt and uncertainty that followed the disappoint-
ment, many of the advent believers yielded their faith.... Thus the work was
hindered, and the world was left in darkness....
For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient
Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of
modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises
of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife
among the Lord’s professed people that have kept us in this world of sin
and sorrow so many years.
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