1. What signs are given, of a social nature, indicating the soon coming of Christ?
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affections, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away,” II Timothy 3:1-5.
NOTE: The above statements are true at the present time. There has never been any age of the world that would suit this prophecy as well as does the one in which we live. For instance, “Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,” In this age of the world’s history, the picture shows, and theatres are filled to their capacity, while the church is almost empty, and the people of today care nothing at all for the Bible, as all know who are watching the conditions of the world, and weighing them in the light of God’s word in order that they may locate the age of the world in which we are living. Truly the above prophecies are a light to the feet of the Christian.
2. What prophecy connected with the second coming of Christ has had a remarkable fulfillment during the past fifty years?
“Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth,” James 5:4.
3. What will wealth gained in this way prove to be in the day of final judgment?
“Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days,” James 5:2, 3.
NOTE: We could fill page after page showing the fulfillment of this prophecy, but this is a matter of general knowledge to all; labor trouble, strikes and the concentration of wealth are all matters which have developed largely during the last fifty years, and as the apostle has said, these things will stand against those engaged in them, and there will then be no way of escape.
4. What prophecy of the Old Testament is being fulfilled at the present time, which is a sign of the near coming of Christ?
“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: may shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,” Daniel 12:4.
NOTE: The present generation is eyewitness to the wonderful increase of knowledge the certainty of which the intelligent mind will not doubt. It seems only as yesterday in our history when the scythe, cradle and old fashioned treadmill were used to harvest our hay and grain. The ox team still lingers in our memory while now in its stead we have the steam tractors, and the automobile. This advancement commenced immediately following the dethroning of the power of darkness, at the expiration of the 1260 prophetic years, which was to mark the commencement of the time of the end. In 1807 the steam boat was invented, in 1811 the steam printing press, in 1819 the locomotive, matches 1829, the reaper and mower in 1832, the photographic camera 1840, the telegraph in 1859, modern typewriter 1868, electric light, first exhibited 1876, telephone patented 1876, talking machine 1877, trolley car 1879, typesetting machine 1884, and wireless telegraphy 1896. Besides these named there are countless other inventions equally as important and wonderful. Go back with me to a period, one hundred years ago, and we find almost the same conditions existing there as were three thousand years before. It seems that this long river upon whose drowsy surface not a ripple of advancement had passed for three thousand years, suddenly burst into the white foam of violent agitation. Men’s minds began to blossom forth into myriads of inventions until within the past sixty years, six hundred thousand patents have been issued by the patent office at Washington, D.C.
5. To what age of the world did Christ compare His coming?
“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be,” Matthew 24:37.
6. What condition existed in the days of Noe?
“For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,” Matthew 24:38.
7. Were they aware of what was going to happen to them?
“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away,” verse 39.
8. Will the same condition exist when Christ comes the second time?
“So shall also the coming of the Son of man be,” verse 39.
9. What will the tribes of the earth do when they behold the Son of God coming in the clouds?
“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” verse 30.