The King is Coming

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, pp. 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, p. 22).

>From Lift Him Up - Page 349

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