Question:
You speak of general increasing wickedness as a sign of the times. Has not the world always been wicked? Have there not been many earthquakes before, and destructive ones? And so with other so-called signs of His coming?
Answer:
Yes, most of the experiences that we are passing through have been duplicated at one time or another in the world. In and of itself, the prevailing wickedness is not a sign that the coming of the Lord is near. The Bible declares that “the whole world lieth in wickedness;” “lieth in the wicked one,” some versions give it. (1 John 5:19). It is like a child lulled to sleep in its nurse’s arms. Satan is lulling to sleep the whole world in that way. The unregenerate heart has always been in rebellion against God and not subject to the will of God. Sometimes this wickedness has been unrestrained, the same as in the closing days of the Roman Empire, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, as in other ages of the world. Sometimes when God’s children were living as near Him as they ought, and His Spirit was resting upon them, their presence has been a restraining influence in the world.
The sad fact is that all the sins mentioned by the apostle Paul in Romans 1 as being in the heathen world are in the last days to be found in the Christian church, among those who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. (See 2 Timothy 3:1-5). So the perils of the last days are not because there is wickedness in the world, nor because wickedness in the world is increasing, but because wickedness has come into the church of Christ. All the evil principles of the unregenerate heart are manifest among those who ought to be a restraining influence by their very presence. If the salt has lost its savor, how can it help to save that in which it is cast? (See Matthew 5:13). When the professed church of Christ sets aside God’s standard and has none other save the wishes of the natural heart, times are indeed perilous. And this is what the apostle points out.
There have been earthquakes before, great and terrible ones, in fact, destructive of life. These earthquakes have nearly always been confined to a few localities. And, of course, we hear more of them now, that instruments have been perfected than before. Yet, the very best records show that there has been a tremendous increase in the number of destructive earthquakes during the last years of the preceding century and of this. Our Lord tells us that when these earthquakes occur in diverse places, they are the beginning of sorrows or literally the start of the birth pangs which shall issue in the destruction of things earthly and the coming of the Master. (Matthew 24:6-8).
The great evidence at present is not that there is simply one sign or two signs of Christ’s coming, but a great aggregation of signs, a concentration of a score or more of signs all focusing right down in this time of the end, in which we are living; and it is the Master’s words which declare, “When ye shall see all these things, know that He is near, even at the doors.” (Matthew 24:33).
