Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, I bought a little old book in an Op Shop (Red Cross, if my ancient memory serves me correctly).
The book was in poor condition, with a badly damaged corner. When I found it the other day while “looking through things”, I had another look at it.
Clearly, it had been burnt in that corner, and those parts of the pages are flaking away. I wonder if someone had thrown it in the fire in anger, or if someone had rescued it from accidental destruction. That is something I shall never know.
It’s in a bad shape, I thought. The best way of rescue, is to scan it. Easier said than done, with the pages in bad condition and a couple of large staples making it difficult to scan. But I did not want to remove the staples, as this would ruin the book completely. So I did my best with the scanning.
It’s an “Exposition of Matthew Twenty-four”, a 300,000 edition published in 1902 by Echo Publishing Company of North Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia. Echo Publishing later became Signs Publishing of Australia, which still prints SDA material. It has ads in the back for books by EGW and by the Kelloggs. Yes, the SDAs were here in Melbourne long before CTR sent Henninges on that fateful missionary journey.
So, if this is an SDA book, why am I telling you about it? Well, I think it provides several lessons from history, apart from showing that CTR was not a lone voice, and showing the environment of prophetic speculation running before 1914. Of course, CTR was running about telling everyone that the Parousia had already taken place in 1874, some 30 years earlier.
The maxim holds true that if we do not heed the lessons taught through history, we are bound to repeat their mistakes.
You well know my position that there are to be no visible signs warning of the Coming of Christ. So it is interesting to see that signs are used in the book, apart from wars, pestilences and earthquakes.
Signs that the book points to include: the sun and moon darkened in 1780 at the end of papal supremacy, stars falling in 1833, “violent commotions upon the earth, which cause anxiety, perplexity, and distress among nations and in the hearts of men, are now upon us. ... Unusually frequent and terrific storms and commotions at sea of recent years. ... Tidal waves and volcanic upheavals ... have been marked with extraordinary violence. ... The times we live in are anomalous to any that have preceded us. ... [and so on]” (page 67).
Illustrations are given of the “Assassination of Carnot”, “Chicago Riot, 1894”, “Bush Fires”, and “A Modern Cyclone”.
Maybe those people who today point to the troubles in the world might have preferred to live in 1902. Or maybe these people living today should realise they are repeating the same mistakes people have made down the centuries.
The Christian must be ready at all times, whether the Father decides Christ is soon to return or not. That demands pure faith.
The scan of my damaged book is available at: http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=77c26d0ed3bbd66aab32cf97ff8bbc1e
Doug
"An Exposition of Matthew Twenty-four"
by Doug Mason 3 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Doug Mason
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snowbird
Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord bless thee and keep thee,
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee
And be gracious unto thee.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee
And give thee peace. KJVSylvia
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The Almighty Homer
Interesting find Doug,
Something that some people can not get their heads around is that people like CTR were book peddlers and they
exploited the already belief in the bible to market their own literature, they were nothing more than low life commercial artists.
Yes people can and do use religious faith to help cultivate money toward themselves, they did it back in CTR's time and they are doing it today.
More than a century ago the WTS. was built and constructed on nothing more than a intensional commercial scam, call it crass prophetic commercialism.
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Atlantis
Doug Mason:
Got it! Thank you Doug!
N.