Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader - Plough

I rejoice that, in his earnestness, God is now speaking withmankind. This is itself a grace which remains firm in ourhearts. Trouble and the works of men will pass away. God’sgrace and the victory over sin, death, and hell will becomefact even in our time.The last times very likely will be troubled in that, as thepast perishes, a great mass of people will arise wanting todefend the behavior of their false persons and to gather theworshippers of that past...It is written, “Then if anyone saysto you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’—do notbelieve it” (Mt. 24:23).We see, then, how certain cultivated religious causes willarise, claiming that Christ has become lost, when, in actuality,it is only the causes themselves that have become lost,i.e., very simply, they must disappear. For here lies a secret,namely, that until these false Christs are silenced, the trueChrist will not let himself be heard aloud. You may believethat for certain. Yet we must also live through times whenChrist is lost—and we must not cry for him to reveal himselfclearly to the world. One must be sensible when oneprays; today I would not at all want the Savior to join thecryings in the wilderness. Against the last shrieks of irrationalreligiosity, as they now echo through Christendom, wemust plug our ears and look on serenely while these causesdie. One day they must die; and until they have died, Christcannot make his voice audible.153