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Prepare for His Coming ( 24 ) Prepare for His appearing

Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .

Prepare for His coming

Related phrase: prepare for His appearing ( below )

The watchmen upon the walls of Zion should have been the first to catch the tidings of the Saviour's advent, the first to lift their voices to proclaim Him near, the first to warn the people to prepare for His coming. But they were at ease, dreaming of peace and safety, while the people were asleep in their sins. Jesus saw His church, like the barren fig tree, covered with pretentious leaves, yet destitute of precious fruit. There was a boastful observance of the forms of religion, while the spirit of true humility, penitence, and faith -- which alone could render the service acceptable to God -- was lacking. Instead of the graces of the Spirit there were manifested pride, formalism, vainglory, selfishness, oppression. A backsliding church closed their eyes to the signs of the times. God did not forsake them, or suffer His faithfulness to fail; but they departed from Him, and separated themselves from His love. As they refused to comply with the conditions, His promises were not fulfilled to them. Great Controversy, page 315.4

Our churches are in the condition described in the message to the Laodicean church. They are neither cold nor hot. They need a fresh, new experience. God calls upon them to prepare for his coming; for it is near at hand. { SpM 307.7 }

We should not be like the people of the Noachic world—to have our minds all engrossed in eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage. Christ is soon to come, and who is ready to meet Him? Have you felt for the young around you? Have you given your means to send the truth to the far-off heathen, and overlooked the very ones right by your door? Here are souls right around us that we might save if we would give them our help. We want to watch our opportunities to give help to souls. How many of us while gossiping might take the Bible and give a knowledge to precious souls. We must meet the record of our lives in the judgment. Christ says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Do we manifest that love for souls in darkness that Christ manifested for us? Well we take the bread of life and eat it in silence when souls are perishing around us? Christ is coming. Prepare for His coming if you would be without spot or blemish. Then take up the work, and Jesus will help you. He is the propitiation for our sins. { 19MR 138.2 }

Wolff believed the coming of the Lord to be at hand, his interpretation of the prophetic periods placing the great consummation within a very few years of the time pointed out by Miller. To those who urged from the scripture, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man,” that men are to know nothing concerning the nearness of the advent, Wolff replied: “Did our Lord say that that day and hour should never be known? Did He not give us signs of the times, in order that we may know at least the approach of His coming, as one knows the approach of the summer by the fig tree putting forth its leaves? Matthew 24:32. Are we never to know that period, whilst He Himself exhorteth us not only to read Daniel the prophet, but to understand it? and in that very Daniel, where it is said that the words were shut up to the time of the end (which was the case in his time), and that ‘many shall run to and fro’ (a Hebrew expression for observing and thinking upon the time), ‘and knowledge’ (regarding that time) ‘shall be increased.’ Daniel 12:4. Besides this, our Lord does not intend to say by this, that the approach of the time shall not be known, but that the exact ‘day and hour knoweth no man.’ Enough, He does say, shall be known by the signs of the times, to induce us to prepare for His coming, as Noah prepared the ark.”—Wolff, Researches and Missionary Labors, pages 404, 405. Great Controversy, page 359.2 Read entire Chapter 20

It makes me very sad to think of how many will fall short of the Bible standard. If we knew that in just one year from now, the Lord would come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, what a feeling of solemnity would rest upon us! How earnestly we should strive to prepare for His coming, that, clothed in the wedding garment, we might go in unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.—Manuscript 12, 1904. { CW 109.4}

He sent messengers before him, to prepare for his coming. But the people refused to receive him, because he was on his way to Jerusalem. This they interpreted as meaning that Christ showed a preference for the Jews, whom they hated with an intense bitterness. They had hoped that Christ would acknowledge their temple and worship; and when they saw him going to Jerusalem, they broke forth into bitter accusations against him. Their insulting words showed open contempt for the Son of God. { RH February 7, 1899, par. 4 }

Bro. Morse was in a similar condition to that of the disappointed prophet. He had proclaimed that the Lord would come in 1844. The time had past. The check of fear that had partially held the people was removed, and they indulged in derision of those who had looked in vain for Jesus. Bro. Morse felt that he was a bye-word among his neighbors, an object of jest. He could not be reconciled to his position. He did not consider the mercy of God in granting the world a longer time to prepare for his coming; that the warning of his judgment might be heard more widely, and the people tested with greater light. He only thought of the humiliation of God’s servants. { ST May 4, 1876, par. 12 }

We are stewards, entrusted by our absent Lord with the care of His household and His interests, which He came to this world to serve. He has returned to heaven, leaving us in charge, and He expects us to watch and wait and prepare for His coming. Let us be faithful to our trust, lest coming suddenly He find us sleeping. { TMK 351.6} { RH July 7, 1910, par. 4 }

We take the words of Brother [O. A.] Olsen in regard to the coming of the Lord, and we think how it has been presented to us in a striking manner that the end of all things is at hand; the Lord is at the door. What influence has it had to solemnize our minds and arouse in us an earnestness to separate from us everything that is offensive to God? Then to think that, after all, He is nearer now than when we first believed. The day of the Lord is right at hand, and it is not safe for us to delay [to prepare for] His coming. { 1SAT 102.1 }

The watchmen upon the walls of Zion should be the first to catch the tidings of the Saviour’s advent, the first to lift their voices to proclaim him near, the first to warn the people to prepare for his coming. But they were at ease, dreaming of peace and safety, while the people were asleep in their sins. Jesus saw his church, like the barren fig-tree, covered with pretentious leaves, yet destitute of precious fruit. There was a boastful observance of the forms of religion, while the spirit of true humility, penitence and faith—which alone could render the service acceptable to God—was lacking. Instead of the graces of the Spirit, there were manifested pride, formalism, vainglory, selfishness, oppression. A backsliding church closed their eyes to the signs of the times. God did not forsake them, or suffer his faithfulness to fail; but they departed from him, and separated themselves from his love. As they refused to comply with the conditions, his promises were not fulfilled to them. { 4SP 200.1 }

call upon the people to prepare for His coming

The witness borne of him after his death, by those who had heard his testimony to Jesus, was “John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true” ( John 10:41). It was not given to John to call down fire from heaven, or to raise the dead, as Elijah did, nor to wield Moses’ rod of power in the name of God. He was sent to herald the Saviour’s advent, and to call upon the people to prepare for His coming. So faithfully did he fulfill his mission, that as the people recalled what he had taught them of Jesus, they could say, “All things that John spake of this man were true.” Such witness to Christ every disciple of the Master is called upon to bear.—The Desire of Ages, 219, 220. { YRP 274.4}

It was not given to John to call down fire from heaven, or to raise the dead, as Elijah did, nor to wield Moses’ rod of power in the name of God. He was sent to herald the Saviour’s advent, and to call upon the people to prepare for His coming. So faithfully did he fulfill his mission that as the people recalled what he had taught them of Jesus, they could say, “All things that John spake of this Man were true.” Such witness to Christ every disciple of the Master is called upon to bear. { CC 279.4}

The witness borne of him after his death, by those who had heard his testimony to Jesus, was, “John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this Man were true.” John 10:41. It was not given to John to call down fire from heaven, or to raise the dead, as Elijah did, nor to wield Moses’ rod of power in the name of God. He was sent to herald the Saviour’s advent, and to call upon the people to prepare for His coming. So faithfully did he fulfill his mission, that as the people recalled what he had taught them of Jesus, they could say, “All things that John spake of this Man were true.” Such witness to Christ every disciple of the Master is called upon to bear. { DA 219.4}

prepare for His second appearing

I was shown the interest which all heaven had taken in the work going on upon the earth. Jesus commissioned a mighty angel to descend and warn the inhabitants of the earth to prepare for His second appearing. As the angel left the presence of Jesus in heaven, an exceedingly bright and glorious light went before him. I was told that his mission was to lighten the earth with his glory and warn man of the coming wrath of God. Multitudes received the light. Some of these seemed to be very solemn, while others were joyful and enraptured. All who received the light turned their faces toward heaven and glorified God. Though it was shed upon all, some merely came under its influence, but did not heartily receive it. Many were filled with great wrath. Ministers and people united with the vile and stoutly resisted the light shed by the mighty angel. But all who received it withdrew from the world and were closely united with one another. { EW 245.2}

Yet he did not prosecute his work without bitter opposition. As with earlier Reformers, the truths which he presented were not received with favor by popular religious teachers. As these could not maintain their position by the Scriptures, they were driven to resort to the sayings and doctrines of men, to the traditions of the Fathers. But the word of God was the only testimony accepted by the preachers of the advent truth. "The Bible, and the Bible only," was their watchword. The lack of Scripture argument on the part of their opponents was supplied by ridicule and scoffing. Time, means, and talents were employed in maligning those whose only offense was that they looked with joy for the return of their Lord and were striving to live holy lives and to exhort others to prepare for His appearing. Great Controversy, page 335.3 Read entire chapter 18

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