Views From The Watch Tower

June 1, 1915

C. T. Russell, Editor

A series of articles reprinted from the Bible Students magazine

The Watch Tower

(not to be confused with the contemporary publication of similar name).

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This article is a product of its time, with its information and assumptions, and should be read with this in mind. The following is an extract from ‘The Coming Storm And Its Glorious Outcome’ based on Psa. 107: 29, 30, 43. It is here reproduced with no alterations to the text, except that spelling, punctuation and formatting have been adjusted to conform to our present style.

All Scripture references are to the King James (Authorised) Version

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Present ‘Signs Of The Son Of Man’

The way by which the Lord informs his faithful, watching ones of the import of present conditions in the world and of the nearness of Christ’s glorious Reign, is through outward signs corroborating what we now see Bible chronology to indicate. A sign is an indication. The putting up of a baker’s sign indicates that bread is to be bought there; a butcher’s sign, that meat is for sale at that place, etc. Then we have the sign, or indication of coming storms, or fair weather. We are not to expect to see shining letters across the sky or anything of that kind to indicate the Lord’s presence; but there has been a sign in the church for some time now about forty years the reaping of the ripe wheat. This has been a sign of the Parousia of the Son of Man. It has not been possible for the world to discern this sign. We also have the sign of the barren fig tree, the Jewish nation, putting forth its leaves. We see the foretold worldliness of the church systems. We see the beginning of the smiting of the nations.

When the great time of trouble shall break, the world will begin to see that a new order of things is somehow coming about; that a great change is impending. Conditions have not been so previously. As men see that the Son of Man is about to take His great power and that the Messianic kingdom is coming in, they will be apprehensive, not appreciating the fact that this kingdom is designed for the blessing of all. For a time they will not grasp the full situation. They will see the trouble, the paralysis of business, the distress of nations, socialism, anarchism, and their hearts will fail them for fear of the things approaching.

But all these things are now signs to us that the Lord is making ready to establish his kingdom and is preparing for the fall of the Gentile kingdoms. This, however, will not at first be distinguishable to the world in general under the flaming fire of trouble. They will not know what to make of these things. We think that the majority of people are somewhat perplexed today. Men who are very prominent in social matters, financial matters, religious matters, are in great perplexity. Many of them are beginning to discuss the idea that the kingdom of God is really approaching.

We are told by some of our friends who attended the great Peace Meeting held here in New York City last fall that the prominent speakers participating, among them the Vice President of the United States, made numerous references to the Prince of Peace as being just at the door. The Millennium was referred to in like manner. We do not know what this means, except that they think that the Son of Man is now coming in his kingdom. We think that their perplexity will increase as they see still greater stress financial stress, social stress and as we enter the great time of trouble, ‘a time of tribulation such as was not since the beginning of this world . . .’ (Matt. 24: 21). A Hebrew gentleman was telling the Editor [CTR] that the Jews in Jerusalem are starving to death. To the four millions of Jews living in Galicia and Austria it seems to make no difference whether one army or the other passes through the country; for the Jews always suffer. Wherever the armies have marched, the homes have been devastated and the land laid waste. Recently the Jews have held a Mass Meeting in New York to collect money for their brethren in Galicia and in Palestine. [Note: Then the kingdom of ‘Galicia and Lodomeria’, it is now (2015) a region on the border of Poland and Ukraine — ed.]

If any of you should meet a banker, should you engage in conversation with him, you will see his face grow very sober. In some instances the tears will come into his eyes when speaking of the alarming conditions in finance today. Many wealthy people will say that when this war broke out they were worth a hundred thousand dollars, but that they do not now know what they are worth. Their stocks and bonds are not saleable. So there is today a trouble that reaches increasingly throughout the earth, affecting not only all Christendom, but heathendom as well.

View From Cleft In The Rock [1 Kings 19: 11, 12]

As our own eyes of understanding have opened, we have sought to show to the church, and to the world as far as possible, the great divine plan of the ages wonderful, beautiful, far superior to anything human! Bible students the world over are reading the Bible and the signs of the times in a new light; for God’s own time has come for lifting the veil of ignorance and darkness which for so long He has permitted Satan to put before our eyes. To our understanding the present war is pictured in the Bible, as due to begin in 1914. It is a great ‘wind’.

Following the great war, the Bible teaches, a great earthquake — social revolution will take place. In connection with that earthquake will come an exaltation of religious sects, Catholic and Protestant, on the side of the kings and princes political, social, financial, religious. Next will come the downfall of all present religious systems. Speedily the symbolic ‘fire’ of the Bible will consume the earth anarchy. Following the anarchy quickly will come the long-promised kingdom of God, for which Christians have prayed, saying, ‘Thy kingdom come’, most of them with but little conception of the true meaning of their words. During the Reign of that kingdom, ‘a still small voice’, the message of truth and grace, will come to all mankind. The world’s uplift will progress; and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall gradually fill the whole earth. The longed-for haven of rest will then be attained, ‘the desire of all nations’ (Hag. 2: 7).

‘My Sheep Hear’ And Follow

All the true disciples of Jesus will see and hear in this present ‘due time’. ‘My sheep hear my voice’, said the Master. If any, therefore, are in Babylon and do not hear the voice of the Lord now calling them out of this great apostate system, our plain inference is that they are not his true sheep. This does not mean that all will hear at the same moment. Some are dull of hearing; they may not be living very near to the Lord. But so surely as they are his sheep they will hear; and so surely as they are following in His steps they will hear clearly, and obey promptly. They will be eager to come out of Babylon before her plagues come like a deluge, as they will soon come. We who now have the light should hold up the Lord’s message and point other Christians to the present condition of things, and let them hear the Lord and then make their decision.

‘Plagues Upon Babylon’

The ‘seven last plagues’ to be visited especially upon Christendom do not mean a particular disease, as the black plague or cholera; but the word stands for trouble. The Scriptures indicate what these are death, famine, revolution, distress, overthrow. These distresses will be both physical and mental. It will be a great trouble and distress to Babylon when she realizes that her walls are fallen. She has realized for some time that there was danger of a collapse, and has been seeking to repel anything that might come near to injure her walls. Many good people have been fighting for these denominations, thinking that they represent the Lord’s people being themselves bound more or less by the institutions of the present time.

We do not think that the Gospel age fully ended in September 1914, but merely the Times of the Gentiles. The Gospel Age will not fully end, we believe, until the Gospel message ends; and that will be when the door is shut, when the last member of the very elect shall have passed beyond the veil. It is our understanding that the elect church of Christ, the bride, will not remain in the flesh to do much of the teaching of the world, but will be glorified in the kingdom either before or during the great Time of Trouble, and be ready to supervise the world’s instruction from the spirit plane. The great conflict is before us. The Prophet Isaiah (63: 1-6) depicts in very strong language the work of our Lord Jesus among the nations at this time and in the days just ahead. He has ‘trodden the winepress alone’ and all his garments are stained with blood, the wrath of God. . . . We believe that this work has already begun in the present European war, which is growing in severity and awfulness day by day.

After the church shall have been glorified beyond the veil, the Ancient Worthies are to be her representatives in the world, taking oversight of the instruction of the peoples and ruling in human affairs; after the Messiah has commanded ‘Peace’ to the angry nations and bidden the raging billows be calm. But there may be yet for a little while just how long we cannot surely know some work for the Church to do for the world this side the veil, before the Time of Trouble fully sets in, or at the time of its beginning. If so, we believe that this instruction to the world is now in progress. [See endnote]

‘Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord’, even though for a brief space his righteous sword shall be unsheathed for the punishment of iniquity and the overthrow of Satan’s great empire (Psa. 107: 43).

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Endnote: A ‘little while’ has turned out to be very much longer than Russell could have expected or would have wished. Even his candid qualifier ‘just how long we cannot surely know’ and his allusion to a ‘brief space’ cannot after the fact be sensibly be made to infer one hundred years. There can be little, if any, doubt that he expected Christ’s kingdom on earth to arrive within a relatively short period of time from when this article was published in 1915.

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