The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 357

judgment. The message of salvation has been preached in all ages; but
this message is a part of the gospel which could be proclaimed only in
the last days, for only then would it be true that the hour of judgment had
come. The prophecies present a succession of events leading down to the
opening of the judgment. This is especially true of the book of Daniel.
But that part of his prophecy which related to the last days, Daniel was
bidden to close up and seal “to the time of the end.” Not till we reach this
time could a message concerning the judgment be proclaimed, based on
the fulfillment of these prophecies. But at the time of the end, says the
prophet, “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
Daniel 12:4.
The apostle Paul warned the church not to look for the coming of
Christ in his day. “That day shall not come,” he says, “except there come
a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” 2 Thessalonians
2:3. Not till after the great apostasy, and the long period of the reign of
the “man of sin,” can we look for the advent of our Lord. The “man of
sin,” which is also styled “the mystery of iniquity,” “the son of perdition,”
and “that wicked,” represents the papacy, which, as foretold in prophecy,
was to maintain its supremacy for 1260 years. This period ended in
1798. The coming of Christ could not take place before that time. Paul
covers with his caution the whole of the Christian dispensation down to
the year 1798. It is this side of that time that the message of Christ’s
second coming is to be proclaimed.
No such message has ever been given in past ages. Paul, as we have
seen, did not preach it; he pointed his brethren into the then far-distant
future for the coming of the Lord. The Reformers did not proclaim
it. Martin Luther placed the judgment about three hundred years in
the future from his day. But since 1798 the book of Daniel has been
unsealed, knowledge of the prophecies has increased, and many have
proclaimed the solemn message of the judgment near.

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