Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1914-08-20

majority of mankind fear the Almighty,
dread Him as their Almighty Foe. in
stead of realizing Him to be the God OF
all grace and the Father of all iAprcies.
''from whom cometh every good and
perfect gift"
The eyes of the world have been
blinded to the goodness of God Ter
rible dread in the hearts of humanity
will lead to the wall of fear as they
perceive Christ's righteous judgments
encircling all the earth
The signs and groanings promised
To precede second BIRTH
Not knowing of "second birth and
all the glorious blessings which Mes
siah's Kingdom is designed to bring to
mankind. human hearts will be filled
with dread and apprehension. Only
those who are truly the Lords and are
rightly informed respecting the Divine
Plan of the Ages will be able to lift up
their heads and rejoice, knowing that
their "deliverance draweth Nigh
"The Heavens Being on Fire"
st. Peter apparently described this
sign of the Son of Man in the heavens.
revealed in flaming fire. His words are.
'The heavens being on fire shall he dis
soved.' and 1.-The earth also [shall take
flrel and the works that are therein
shall be burned up" e Peter 3:1O-120
Let us not make the mistake of our
forefathers in supposing that these de-
scriptions mean literal burning of the
literal earth. Let us. on the contrary,
realize that the symbolical earth and
the symbolical heavens are to catch
fire and pass away with great COM
motion. while the physical earth will
remain practically as it is, and will be
gin to undergo the transforming infiu-
ences of Restitution under the new
King. the Restorer of all things-Jesus
and His glorified Church.
1t will be noticed that st. Peter men,
tons the fire as coming to the heavens
before it reaches the earth, in just the
same order that Jesus stated the mat
ter. The sign. manifestation, of the
flaming fire Of judgments will appear
in the heavens: and subsequently the
sign of the Son of Man in Judgment
will be seen coming nearer and nearer
to earth's affairs, with view to purg-
ing them absolutely from everything
sinful, selfish. unjust.
We are told that the elements will
melt with fervent heat. We see the
Capitalistic element and the Labor ele-
ment separating. the one from the
other. We see the preparations for the
great conf1agration, the great Time Of
Trouble. We sometimes speak of it in
this language, saying, Things are get
ting very hot" They will presently be
SO hot that spontaneous combustion
will set in. And the fire Of that Day
will be so extreme and it's results so
drastic as to fulfil the Masters words
should be shortened no flesh would
survive.
But because of the Election, because
of the Kingdom which will then be set
up. those days will be shortened
brought to an end. Nothing will be
destroyed except that which is in
furious. The worldwide results of that
flaming fire of Divine judgments will
be corrective, preparing mems hearts
for the blessings which the Lord is
prepared then to give. Thus it is writ
ten, when the judgments of the Lord
are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants
of the world will learn righteousness.
1t will be noted that st. Peter. in
speaking of that Time of Trouble. men
tons that enc ns-ecclesiasticism
will be on fire first; and that later,
the earth-society and its political.
financial and social organizations will
be involved also. In harmony with
this, our text tells that this sign. or
Indication. for the revealing of Messiah
in flaming fire. will first be in the
Church. Furthermore, according to St
Peters statement, we are to expect
that the ecclesiastical heavens will pass
away with Il great noise-a great com
reached by the consuming fire.
The same thought is brought to our
attention in Revelation. where wide
distinction is made between the
nominal church systems, called Baby
Ion, and the true Church, which is
admonished in advance to come out Of
Babylon and to stand in personal reia-
tionship to God through Christ. This
general call. which belongs to the end
of the Age, before the judgments come
upon Babylon, reads, Come out of
her. My people, that We be not par
takers Of her SINS and that We receive
not of her plaques" The intimation is
that as soon as the Loyalty obedient
have been gathered out of Babylon
some drastic trouble will come upon
her.
We should not apply this term Bah
ylon' to individuals, but to great sys-
tens, outwardly having form of
goodness, but really misrepresenting
the Divine character, the Divine Plan.
the true teachings of the Bible. OF
course, the individuals identified with
the systems have more or less respon-