Page 204 - Demo

200were 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.