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were the natural sequel of teachings distasteful to the
Jews. The disciples no doubt bore every conceivable
hardship and trial with patience and courage, but they
were sure of the return of the Master in accordance with
his promise: “Verily I say unto you, that this generation
shall not pass, till all these things be done.” Belief in these
words created a wonderful patience in the generation
referred to. However, his words passed away though the
time did not come for the “heaven and the earth to pass
away.” Moreover, the days of the disciples’ persecution
did not witness any unusual phenomena in the form of
earthquake, fighting, or pestilence. Even in the period
immediately following, the prophesied four events did
not synchronize. In the last two scores of years of the
last two centuries, we heard “of wars and commotions.”
“Nation” did “rise against nation and kingdom against
kingdom.” “Great earthquakes” were experienced in
diver›s places, famines, and pestilence, but neither did
the sun become darkened nor the moon failed to give its
light, which things had to occur before “the coming of the
Son of Man.” These words may be taken in a metaphorical
sense, but in that case, why should the Adventists look for
the second coming in its literal sense? Moreover, most
of the abovementioned phenomena have taken place at
times when those who preached and taught in the name
of Jesus (pbuh) were not likely, for political reasons, to be
brought before kings and rulers for punishment. On the
contrary, they had obtained free access into lands that
had long been closed against them. All of which goes to
prove that either the prediction is folklore or a legendary
account of the things of which Jesus (pbuh) spoke on
different occasions. Either he himself had had but a hazy
notion of coming events, or the recorders of his life, who
wrote two centuries after, mixed up hopelessly different
things dealing with different matters.