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But think what would happen if we figured that conditions
would allow us only a little less than two more years, and then
conditions fail to develop that fast, and the second coming of
Christ is not to occur until five or ten years later than we had
expected. It would be TOO LATE, then, to plan for the expansion,
and the Work would be prevented from developing normally just
because we had not planned ahead far enough.
Now on the other hand, think what a great blunder we might
make IF we begin to say, "My Lord delayeth His coming," and have
not made ourselves ready. Look what evil would then come on us!
Jesus said: "Therefore BE ye also READY: for in such an
hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. WHO, then, is a
faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord has made ruler over His
household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that
servant, whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find SO DOING.
Verily I say unto you, that He shall make him ruler over all His
goods.
"BUT, " continued Jesus, "and if that evil servant shall
say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming, ... the Lord of that
servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an
hour that he is not aware of, and shall CUT HIM ASUNDER, ..."
Co-Workers, the living Jesus Christ is the HEAD of this
Work of God. HE leads and guides and directs it. And He leads me
to see that we must plan this way: 1) to plan so that IF we now
have only about two more years to go, this Work will in those two
years pick up such tremendous accelerating momentum that we shall
have FINISHED His Work by then -- in other words, so that WE SHALL
BE READY! But, 2), IF events do not move that fast, and Christ's
coming is a little farther off than we have thought, then we shall
have planned ahead so that HIS WORK will keep right on going, and
not be hindered.
WE DO NOT KNOW THE YEAR, THE MONTH, OR THE DAY of Christ's
coming. In all probability there will be at least a 3 1/2 year
period of world trouble and upheaval prior to His coming, so great
that this Work will not be allowed to continue through that 3 1/2
years. IF, for example, this WORK is not allowed to go on more
than about another two years (as MAY happen) even then the coming
of Christ would Probably not be until perhaps sometime in 1975.
But WE CANNOT KNOW that!
Christ's coming could be as late as 1978 or 1979, or 1982
-- and very possibly NONE of these dates is correct. WE CANNOT SET
DATES AND BE SURE. At least, not as yet.
But I do say to you now -- which I DID NOT say ten years
ago -- that IT IS NOW A POSSIBILITY -- and there are ways of
figuring it that seem logical -- that Christ's coming COULD occur
during THIS VERY DECADE WE ARE NOW IN! Never have I said anything
like that before! And I will go further and say that if it does
NOT occur in this decade, it will be, ten years from now, MORE
LIKELY to happen in that decade than it is now that it will occur