But the end is not yet.
The end is not yet
I. So far as we have any means of judging, the end is not yet. The negative argument is that there are no conclusive indications of a speedy end, afforded either by the Word of God or the condition of the world. Such are alleged, but rest upon gratuitous assumptions. It is assumed that a certain form or pitch of moral depravation is incompatible with the continued existence of society; but we do not know how much evil is necessary to the end in question. The same is true as to the predictions of the Word of God; they may not be sure signs. Experience renders this clear; all these signs have been misapplied before. Let us look at the positive arguments in favour of the same position; that the fulfilment of Scripture is still incomplete, and will require a long time for its completion. Refer to the grand and comprehensive scale on which the Divine purposes are projected in the Scripture. The language of the Bible indicates a long continued process of change and dissolution. The spread of the gospel; the general vindication of Scriptures from doubt; to exhibit society in its normal state, and the effects of holiness as compared with sin; all will take ages.
II. It is better to assume that the end is not yet, than to assume the contrary.
1. The doubt in which Scripture leaves the day creates a presumption that it was not meant to influence our conduct by the expectation of this great event as just at hand. The expectation of a speedy end would paralyze effort, while the opposite belief invigorates it.
2. No less dissimilar is the effect of these two causes in relation to the credit and authority of Scripture. The constant failure of the predicted signs discredits Scripture.
3. The preparation for death is not secured by a belief in the approach of the great final catastrophe. If men are unprepared to die, they will be as much surprised by death as by the coming of the end. Let us prepare to die and thus prepare to live. “The end is not yet.” Let us not imagine our work done. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.)
The magnitude of the Divine purpose indicates the end of the world as far distant
The natural impression made, perhaps, on all unbiassed readers is, that in the Bible there are vast beginnings, which require proportionate conclusions, even in the present life. There are germs which were never meant to be developed in the stunted shrub, but in the spreading oak. There are springs, in tracing which we cannot stop short at the brook or even at the river, but are hurried on, as if against our will, to the lake, the estuary, and the ocean. Every such reader of the Bible feels that it conducts him to the threshold of a mighty pile, and opens many doors, through which he gets a distant glimpse of long-drawn aisles, vast halls, and endless passages; and how can he believe that this glimpse is the last that he shall see, and that the edifice itself is to be razed before he steps across the threshold? (J. A. Alexander, D. D.)