Last Battle

1900

Muscatine Man Thinks End of the World is at Hand

The following communication speaks for itself:

To the Editor:

After the sixth angel poured out his vial John saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. * * * to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.

"Is China the Armageddon where the armies of all the nations of the earth are to he gathered to fight the last great battle of the world? I wonder the ministers do not preach more on the prophecies, which seem so plain. These are certainly the last days spoken of by Christ and the Apostles, according to the signs of the times.

Peter says: Knowing this, first, that these shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. It is evident then that these are the last days, as that is the cry from pulpit to pulpit. They are not ready yet for the coming of our Lord, or the end of the world. They are walking after their own lusts — they like their salaries, and to be left alone to indulge in the comforts of life. This world is to them good enough to live in, therefore the cry of peace and safety has gone forth, and according to Paul — when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them * * *, and they shall not escape.

"The Book of Revelation is so little understood. When they preach from any passages therein they speak as if what is written existed previously or at the time the Revelation was given to John when he was upon the Isle of Patmos. There never was a greater mistake. Not a single prophecy given by the angel to John had been fulfilled nor was fulfilled until many years after John's death. Look at the first chapter of Revelation, first verse. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass — and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. John saw in vision the things that were to come to pass from that time all the way down to the end of the world. John was commanded to write the prophecies concerning the future of the church and its connection with the rise and fall of nations — the changes and counter-changes among the nations of the world, and how the church would be affected thereby.

Seven Stages.

John to the seven churches which are in Asia, is not addressed to the local church at each of those places named in Asia Minor, as much as it is addressed to the different states or stages of the church throughout the Christian dispensation all the way down to the time that Christ makes his second appearance at the end of time. I will leave this matter as a subject for an article on the churches for another time. Returning to secular and civil government, so often dominated by military power, we read in Rev. 11:18, and the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great — and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth.

Coming back to the inquiry, and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, is not that prophecy now being fulfilled as the nations of the world are being gathered into the ports of China? The kings of the earth and of the whole world (will be gathered) to the battle of the great day of God Almighty — Rev. 16:14, and the wine press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. — Rev. 14:20. Verily, is not China the place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon?

W. L. DEXTER. Muscatine, Iowa.

—Davenport Daily Leader, Davenport, IA, Aug. 5, 1900, p. 2.