“The Kingdom of God Is at Hand”
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through all the prophets. “The Spirit of Christ which was in them”
“testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow.”
1 Peter 1:11
.
It was Gabriel, the angel next in rank to the Son of God, who came
with the divine message to Daniel. It was Gabriel, “His angel,” whom
Christ sent to open the future to the beloved John; and a blessing is
pronounced on those who read and hear the words of the prophecy,
and keep the things written therein.
Revelation 1:3
.
“The Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto
His servants and prophets.” While “the secret things belong unto the
Lord our God,” “those things which are revealed belong unto us and to
our children forever.”
Amos 3:7
;
Deuteronomy 29:29
. God has given
these things to us, and His blessing will attend the reverent, prayerful
study of the prophetic scriptures.
As the message of Christ’s first advent announced the kingdom
of His grace, so the message of His second advent announces the
kingdom of His glory. And the second message, like the first, is based
on the prophecies. The words of the angel to Daniel relating to the
last days were to be understood in the time of the end. At that time,
“many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” “The
wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand;
but the wise shall understand.”
Daniel 12:4, 10
. The Saviour Himself
has given signs of His coming, and He says, “When ye see these things
come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” “And
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 21:31, 34, 36
.
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We have reached the period foretold in these scriptures. The time
of the end is come, the visions of the prophets are unsealed, and their
solemn warnings point us to our Lord’s coming in glory as near at
hand.
The Jews misinterpreted and misapplied the word of God, and
they knew not the time of their visitation. The years of the ministry
of Christ and His apostles,—the precious last years of grace to the
chosen people,—they spent in plotting the destruction of the Lord’s
messengers. Earthly ambitions absorbed them, and the offer of the