The Folly of Setting Dates

The tenth lesson that the year 1917 teaches is closely connected with the ninth, that the coming of our Lord draweth nigh, and should always be kept in mind in connection with that. This tenth lesson is the folly of setting dates for the return of our Lord, or for specific events connected with His return. Our Lord Himself has warned us in the most solemn way that we must not presume to do this. He says, “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority” (Acts 1:7). The year 1917 has abounded to a hitherto unexampled degree in men who in defiance of God’s Word have presumed to more than hint that Jesus would come for His Church at Pentecost this year, and when Pentecost had passed they taught that He would come at the “Feast of the Trumpets” in September. I implored one brother that he would not print what he had written on this subject, which was plainly unscriptural. Printed, however, it was, and circulated by the tens of thousands, resulting in the delaying of God’s work, the wasting of God’s money, the dishonoring of God’s Word, and the bringing of the Blessed Hope into reproach, and now in thirty-six hours 1917 will have passed into history, the Lord is not here and Jesus Christ is saying again in a voice like the voice of many waters, “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority.”