PULPIT MESSAGES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 217, 11 June 1935, Page 2

PULPIT MESSAGES

Wellington Churches JERUSALEM AND ROME Signs of Christ’s Second Coming Speaking recently in Tory Street Hall, from Rev. 12. Mr. C. J. Drake pointed out the relationship, from a prophetic and historic point of view, of Jerusalem and Rome. Referring to the empires outlined in Daniel 7, the speaker claimed that the fourth kingdom was undoubtedly the monster depicted in 12, 3-4, and could therefore be identified with the old Roman Empire. “The scene presented by Scripture was that of Satan using this great world power in devouring opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is spoken of as the Man Child ‘who is to rule all nations,’ ” continued the speaker. “The facts of history confirmed this view. Palestine was in captivity to Rome when Christ was born; it was Rome’s representative in the person of Herod who sought ‘the young Child’s life to destroy it’; it was the Roman authority who authorised the crucifixion of Jesus, and later it was the Roman armies who destroyed Jerusalem in A.D.70. Behind the external facts of history there was a battle going on between God and Satan.” The speaker went on to point out that incommon with many other students of prophecy he believed we were now nearing the second comin,, of Christ. After removing His church from the earth altogether our Lord would make Jerusalem the world’s governmental and religious centre. Developments in Palestine to-day were of exceptional interest on that account. But along with the revival of Jewish national life in Palestine the world was witnessing another very wonderful revival, and that was the restoration of the Roman Empire. When it was remembered that the Scriptures portrayed the Evil One as being behind this, the study became' of absorbing interest. Mussolini’s ambition to turn the Mediterranean into an Italian lake and his attempts to change the existing order of society were all of the deepest significance. The Scriptures indicated that the whole of these developments would head up in anther clash between Rome and Jerusalem, at which time Christ would again be revealed from the opened heavens to the discomfiture of tho enemy and! the deliverance of His own nation. Thus would be inaugurated the wonderful millenlal kingdom of our Lord. These prophecies were calculated to produce solemnity regarding the serious times upon which the world has entered.”

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCHES

“God the only Cause and Creator” was the subject of the lesson-sermon in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, on Sunday. '

The Golden Text was Acts 15:18, “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” Among the citations comprising the lesson-sermon were the following from the Bible, “Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, what makest thou? or thy work,’He hath'no hands. But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay and thou our potter; and we all a‘re the work of thy hand.’” (Isa. 45:9, 64:8). There were also the following passages from t'he Christian Science text book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, “Everything in God’s universe expresses Him. He is divine Principle, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and there is no other self-existence. He-fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind.” (p. 331)• F