A Call To The Remnant

We may expect, therefore, that in these end times, when the events of the ages are to be focused into one, that we shall discover the pattern of this great hour prefigured and typified everywhere in the sacred Scriptures. This is the day of the “fulness of the times.” The ends of the ages have come upon us. Not the end of the age; not the end of the ages; not the ends of the age; but even “the ends of the ages” (1 Cor. 10:11, Literal). And therefore, just as the river which begins as a trickle in the top of some mountain, flows down the steeps and through the plains, and gathers into its flow the waters from all the springs and rivulets and streams along the way–and finally empties all its accumulated waters into the ocean, so it is with the stream of God’s purposes.

There was judgment and there was glory with every age and every dispensation that God ever gave; but now we have come to the ends of the ages when all the judgments as well as all the glory of bygone ages are to find their focus in this great hour. Why did Jesus say of the Jews of His day: “That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation?” (Lk. 11:50). Simply because the sum and substance of all the promises of the Scriptures were heaped together and offered to that generation in the Person of Messiah; and therefore in their rejection of Messiah all the judgments which were due to all preceding generations were heaped together and laid upon that generation. And so it actually came to pass, and was fulfilled in the desolation of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans in A.D. 70.

Now we have come to the ends of the ages. Once again there is an apostate religious system, upon which the wrath of God shall descend in great fury; and then shall be fulfilled the Great Tribulation, of which the desolation of Jerusalem in the days of Emperor Titus was but a type and shadow. That was a local event, concerning only the natural Jerusalem; this shall be a world-wide event, and all the earth–especially apostate Christendom–shall feel the mighty impact of the Day of the Lord. But as we have already discovered, the Day of the Lord is the unveiled might and power of the God of Heaven, descending in wrath upon the ungodly, but in great power and blessing upon the overcomer.

The dispensation of the Law could only end in tribulation and the curse: for it is a ministration of death. But the dispensation of Grace must end in glory and victory: for it is a ministration of life. The universal Church, however, has refused to accept the dispensation of Grace, and has continued from the earliest times to live under the dispensation of the Law. Religion continues to patch that which Christ has declared useless. The veil that He rent in twain has been sewn together, and the flesh continues to rule in the place of the Spirit. Instead of the blood of Christ, there is the work of man. Instead of new birth, there is moral rearmament. Instead of the Holy Spirit, there is fleshly entertainment. The Day of the Lord is at hand, even the ends of the ages, and great shall be the display of God’s glory. It shall be light, glorious light, or it shall be darkness, gross darkness; and that will all depend upon our position before God.

Just as all the wrath and judgments which were due to all preceding generations were heaped together and laid upon the generation of Christ’s day; so now, not only all the wrath but all the glory ever administered or ever offered to all preceding generations, shall be heaped together and laid upon our generation when the Day of the Lord is revealed. It shall therefore be Great Tribulation, such as was never known from the foundation of the world; but it shall also be Great Glory, such as was never known from the foundation of the world. To the one class of people it shall be a day of “darkness” and of “gloominess.” But to the other, “as the morning spread upon the mountains.” (Joel 2:2).

This is the focal hour of history. The glory of Moses’ day is for us; the glory of David’s kingdom is for us; the glory of Solomon’s kingdom is for us; the glory of the restored temple of Ezra’s day is for us; the glory of Enoch’s day, and the glory of Elijah’s day, and the glory of Paul’s day,–all this glory and much more is available to us, if we can hear His voice. (George Warnock)