|
Volume
Two - The Time Is At Hand
(Click on chapter number to go to
text.)
“The
Path of the Just is as the Shining Light,
Which
Shineth More and More
Unto the
Perfect Day.”
“Times
of Refreshing Shall Come From the Presence of the Lord; and He Shall
Send Jesus Christ,...Whom the Heavens Must Retain until THE TIMES OF
RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS Which God Hath Spoken by the Mouth of All His
Holy Prophets Since the World Began.”
“Ye Brethren, Are Not in Darkness, That That Day Should
Overtake You as a Thief.”
Acts 3:19-21;
I Thess. 5:4
To the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords
In
the interest of
His
consecrated Saints,
Waiting
for the adoption,
—
And of —
“All
that in every place call upon the Lord,”
“The
Household of Faith,”
—
And of —
The
groaning creation, travailing and waiting for the
manifestation
of the Sons of God,
This
Work Is Dedicated.
“To
make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the
beginning
of
the world hath been hid in God.” “Wherein He hath abounded toward
us
in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery
of His will, according to His good pleasure which
He
hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation
of
the fulness of the times He might gather
together
in one all things, under
Christ.”
Eph. 3:4,5,9; 1:8-10
Written
by Pastor Russell
THE
AUTHOR’S FOREWORD
THE FIRST EDITION of this Volume was given to the public in A.D.
1889. Since then, one edition
after another has gone forth in various languages, until now more than one
million and a half copies are in the hands of the people. These figures
are astonishing when we consider how few people today have any faith in
the Bible as a Divine Revelation, and how few of those who do have faith
in the Bible have an appreciation of prophecy and of
chronology—especially of Bible chronology and the Bible’s history of
the world.
The author and the publishers have great cause for rejoicing in the
evidence continually coming to hand that this Volume has proven very
helpful to the people of God in every land in the study of the Bible—in
collating the message of the Lord’s Word under various headings and
classifications assistful to the student.
Especially have we heard of many being blessed in their study of
the manner of the Second Advent—in the Scriptural proof set forth in
this Volume that our Lord will never again come to this earth as a man,
having fulfilled completely His mission as a human being when He by the
grace of God tasted death for every man at Calvary.
The texts brought to the attention of the reader, proving that now
our Lord is the glorified One at the Father’s right hand, and is soon to
become King of the world, have been assistful to many, as their letters
testify.
This Volume makes no claim to infallibility, and no claim of any
direct inspiration from God in the interpretation of His Word.
On the contrary, it does claim that the Divine Revelation is the
Bible. Its endeavor has been
to collate the Bible evidences and to offer suggestions in respect to
their significance. [foreword ii]
Dealing with subjects so difficult that they are rarely touched by
others, it is not to be considered strange if some of the suggestions made
in this Volume have not been fulfilled with absolute accuracy to the very
letter. But the author, the
publishers, and the thousands of readers of this Volume are not ashamed of
its presentations, and are still handing it forth to all who have an
interest in Bible study—as most interesting and most helpful in an
understanding of the Lord’s Word.
The Bible chronology herein presented shows that the six great
thousand-year Days beginning with Adam are ended, and that the great
Seventh Day, the thousand years of Christ’s Reign, began in 1873.
The events of these 43 years, which this Volume claims as the
beginning of the Millennium, we still find fully corroborating Bible
prophecies, as herein set forth. During
these 43 years, nearly all the inventions of our day have been
accomplished. The sewing machine, one of the first, began to reach its
perfection 43 years ago. Since
then, we have all kinds of farming machinery and tools, and workshop,
store, factory and home conveniences, in abundance and cheap—through
human invention. These are
shortening the hours of labor, and doing away with the “sweat of
face,” which the Bible declares to be identified with the curse.
It is entirely safe to say that in these 43 years the world has
increased its riches one thousandfold.
And when we remember that behind the 43 years lies a total of six
thousand years of human endeavor, it seems almost a miracle that the world
should accomplish one thousand times more in the past 43 years than in the
six thousand years preceding. Surely this well attests the claim of this
Volume that we have entered the great Seventh Day, and that what we are
already experiencing as a race are only the foregleams of the much greater
blessings still to come—when the Sun of [foreword iii] Righteousness shall arise with healing in His beams,
and scatter all the darkness, ignorance, and superstition of the
world!
This Volume sets forth, what its author has been preaching for over
forty years, that the “Times of the Gentiles” chronologically ended in
the fall of A.D. 1914. The
expression, “Times of the Gentiles,” in Bible usage signifies the
years, or period of time, in which the Gentile nations of the world were
to be permitted to have control, following the taking away of the typical
kingdom from natural Israel, and filling the hiatus between that event and
the establishment of God’s Kingdom in the hands of Messiah—“whose
right it is.” Ezekiel 21:27
We could not, of course, know in 1889, whether the date 1914, so
clearly marked in the Bible as the end of the Gentile lease of power or
permission to rule the world, would mean that they would be fully out of
power at that time, or whether, their lease expiring, their eviction would
begin. The latter we perceive to be the Lord’s program; and promptly in
August, 1914, the Gentile kingdoms referred to in the prophecy began the
present great struggle, which, according to the Bible, will culminate in
the complete overthrow of all human government, opening the way for the
full establishment of the Kingdom of God’s dear Son.
We are not able to see behind the veil; we are not able to know the
things progressing under the direction of our glorious Lord and the
members of His Church already glorified. Our thought is that somehow the
Lord is taking a hand in the affairs of the world now as He did not do in
times past. We do know that
the great Time of Trouble, which has begun, very closely corresponds to
the Divine declaration respecting the time and conditions of the
establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom.
The Lord Himself informs us that, at the time He shall take to
Himself His great [foreword iv] power and reign, the nations will be mad and the
Divine wrath will come. A
little later on the time will come for the judging of the dead, and the
giving of the reward to God’s servants, small and great, leading on
finally to the destruction of the incorrigible, who would exercise a
corrupt influence upon the earth. Revelation 21:8
All over the world people knew of the expectations of Bible
Students in respect to the year A.D. 1914; and when so stupendous a war as
the present one broke loose, when the winds of strife began to blow with
such fury and destruction, thousands remembered what they had heard and
read respecting the end of the Gentile Times.
Thousands today have come to fully appreciate the times in which we
are living. The influence is
very helpful and inspiring. A
realization that we are in the Day of the Lord, and that very soon all of
His saints will be gathered to Him by the resurrection change, has a
stimulating and encouraging influence upon Bible students, separating them
from the world and its fears and ambitions and fixing their eyes upon the
Crown of Life, which the Lord has in reservation for them that love Him
most.
The author acknowledges that in this book he presents the thought
that the Lord’s saints might expect to be with Him in glory at the
ending of the Gentile Times. This
was a natural mistake to fall into, but the Lord overruled it for the
blessing of His people. The
thought that the Church would all be gathered to glory before October,
1914, certainly did have a very stimulating and sanctifying effect upon
thousands, all of whom accordingly can praise the Lord—even for the
mistake. Many, indeed, can
express themselves as being thankful to the Lord that the culmination of
the Church’s hopes was not reached at the time we expected; and that we,
as the Lord’s people, have further [foreword v] opportunities of perfecting holiness and of being
participators with our Master in the further presentation of His Message
to His people.
Our mistake was evidently not in respect to the ending of the Times
of the Gentiles; we drew a false conclusion, however, not authorized by
the Word of the Lord. We saw
in the Bible certain parallels between the Jewish Age and the Gospel Age. We should have noted that these parallels follow the nominal
systems to destruction in both cases, and do not indicate the time of the
glorification of the New Creation. This explanation will help the reader
as he studies “THE TIME IS AT HAND.”
We have no doubt that the great blessings which have come to many
of us in the past will continue to go through the Volume to thousands of
others. So with it go the
prayers of the author,
Charles T. Russell
Brooklyn, N.Y.
October 1, 1916 |
