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Title: Our Day - In the Light of Prophecy
Author: Spicer, William Ambrose, 1865-1952
Language: English
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OUR DAY
In the Light of Prophecy
[Illustration: JESUS WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM
"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things
which belong unto thy peace!" Luke 19:42.]
OUR DAY
In the Light of Prophecy
By W.A. SPICER
"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures might have hope." Rom. 15:4.
SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
FORT WORTH, TEXAS ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Copyrighted, 1917, by
REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
Copyrighted in London, England
All Rights Reserved
CONTENTS
THE BOOK THAT SPEAKS TO OUR DAY 13
THE WITNESS OF THE CENTURIES 25
PROPHETIC OUTLINE OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY 39
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 51
SIGNS OF THE APPROACHING END 65
THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE OF 1755 79
THE DARK DAY OF 1780 85
THE FALLING STARS OF 1833 93
THE MEANING OF PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS 105
THE HISTORIC PROPHECY OF DANIEL 7 117
THE 1260 YEARS OF DANIEL'S PROPHECY 131
DAWN OF A NEW ERA 139
THE WORK OF THE "LITTLE HORN" POWER 145
THE BIBLE SABBATH 159
GLIMPSES OF SABBATH KEEPING AFTER NEW TESTAMENT TIMES 173
THE LAW OF GOD 183
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH 191
BAPTISM 199
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL 8 205
THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY IN TYPE AND ANTITYPE 213
A GREAT PROPHETIC PERIOD 219
THE PROPHECY FULFILLED 229
A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT 239
THE JUDGMENT-HOUR MESSAGE 247
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL 257
SPIRITUALISM: ANCIENT AND MODERN 265
LIFE ONLY IN CHRIST 275
THE END OF THE WICKED 287
ANGELS: THEIR MINISTRY 295
THE TIME OF THE END 303
THE EASTERN QUESTION 321
ARMAGEDDON 337
THE MILLENNIUM 351
THE HOME OF THE SAVED 361
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
JESUS WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM _Frontispiece_
THE GOOD SHEPHERD 12
HEALING THE CENTURION'S SERVANT 16
CHRIST'S WEAPON OF DEFENSE--THE WORD OF GOD 19
ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS 24
THE GREAT IMAGE 38
BABYLON IN HER GLORY 40
THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL 42
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST 50
CHRIST COMING IN GLORY 58
CHRIST ANSWERING HIS DISCIPLES' QUESTIONS 64
THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS UNDER TITUS, A.D. 70 68
THE CATACOMBS NEAR ROME 72
LISBON FROM ACROSS THE BAY 78
MIDDAY AT SEA, MAY 19, 1780 84
THE GREAT METEORIC SHOWER, NOV. 13, 1833 92
THE SIGN OF FIRE 98
SATAN OFFERS GOLD, AND THE WORLD STAMPEDES TO ITS
DESTRUCTION 104
A FAITHFUL AND WISE SERVANT 108
THE SUNSET HOUR 114
PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH 116
ROME ON THE TIBER 124
THE INVASION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY THE HUNS 128
RAISING THE SIEGE OF ROME, A.D. 538 130
STORMING OF THE BASTILLE PRISON IN PARIS 138
THE TRIPLE CROWN 144
THE LOVE OF POWER--THE POWER OF LOVE 146
CHRISTIANS IN PRISON BENEATH THE COLOSSEUM AWAITING
MARTYRDOM 148
THE SHAME OF RELIGIOUS WARS 152
CHRIST AND THE SCRIBES 158
THE SABBATH FROM EDEN TO EDEN 168
CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES IN THE CORN-FIELDS 172
WALDENSES HUNTED BY THE ARMIES OF ROME 176
THE GIFT OF GOD 190
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST 198
SYMBOLS OF MEDO-PERSIA AND GRECIA 204
THE CAMP OF ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS 210
OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST 212
ARTAXERXES SENDING THE JEWS TO REBUILD
JERUSALEM, B.C. 457 218
REBUILDING JERUSALEM 224
THE ANOINTING OF JESUS AT HIS BAPTISM 228
THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST 232
THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE 238
A CHRISTIAN MOTHER EXHORTING HER DAUGHTER TO
MARTYRDOM 246
LUCIFER PLOTTING AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD 256
THE REDEMPTION PRICE 260
SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR 264
THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT 270
"HE IS RISEN" 274
LOT FLEEING FROM SODOM 286
PETER DELIVERED FROM PRISON 294
JACOB'S DREAM IN BETHEL 298
MODERN INVENTIONS FULFILLING PROPHECY 302
THE HOE DOUBLE OCTUPLE PRESS 316
FORTIFICATIONS ON THE BOSPORUS 320
MODERN JERUSALEM 329
THE GREAT BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON 336
UNITED STATES BATTLESHIP "NEVADA" 340
MOSES VIEWING THE PROMISED LAND 360
THE SAINTS' ETERNAL HOME 366
THE MASTER AT THE DOOR 369
[Illustration: "FOUNDED UPON A ROCK"
"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps.
119:105.]
FOREWORD
These are eventful times. With history-making changes passing rapidly
before men's eyes, the questions press upon thoughtful minds in all
lands, What do these things mean? What next in the program of
world-shaping events?
Like a great searchlight shining across the centuries, the sure Word of
Prophecy focuses its bright beams upon Our Day. In this light we see
clearly the trend of events, and may understand what comes next in the
program of history fulfilling prophecy.
In the Volume of the Book the living God speaks to Our Day of events of
the past that have a lesson for the present, and of things to come.
Divine prophecy fulfilled before men's eyes is God's challenge to
unbelief. The Word of Holy Writ has been the guiding light through all
the ages. It is the lamp to our feet today.
"Steadfast, serene, unmovable, the same,
Year after year,...
Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame;
Shines on that inextinguishable light."
[Illustration: THE GOOD SHEPHERD
"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John 1:14.]
[Illustration: "PEACE BE TO THIS HOUSE"
"If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3:20.]
THE BOOK THAT SPEAKS TO OUR DAY
Man may write a true book, but only God, the source of life, can write a
living book. "The word of God ... liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter
1:23. The Bible is the living word of God. We look at the volume; we
hold it in our hands. It is like other books in form and printer's art.
But the voice of God speaks from these pages, and the word spoken is
alive. It is able to do in the heart that receives it what can be done
only by divine power.
The Book That Talks
Far in the heart of Africa a missionary read to the people in their own
language from the translated Word of God. "See!" they cried; "see! the
book talks! The white man has a book that talks!" With that simplicity
of speech so common to children of nature, they had exactly described
it. This is a book that talks. What the wise man says of its counsels
through parents to children, is true of all the book: "When thou goest,
it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when
thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." Prov. 6:22.
Here is companionship, faithful and true, a blessed guide and guardian
and friend.
"Holy Bible! book divine!
Precious treasure, thou art mine!"
God Its Author
The sixty-six books of Holy Scripture were written by many penmen, over
a space of fifteen centuries; yet it is one book, and one voice speaks
through all its pages. Spurgeon once said of his experience with this
book:
"When I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it,
saying, 'I am the book of God; man, read me. I am God's
writing; open my leaf, for I was penned by God; read it, for He
is my author.'"
This book declares of itself: "All scripture is given by inspiration of
God." 2 Tim. 3:16. "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2
Peter 1:21. As the rugged verse of the old hymn puts it:
"Let all the heathen writers join
To form one perfect book:
Great God, if once compared with Thine,
How mean their writings look!
"Not the most perfect rules they gave
Could show one sin forgiven,
Nor lead a step beyond the grave;
But Thine conducts to heaven."
It is the voice of the Almighty. Very different it is from the sacred
books of the non-Christian religions. In those writings it is man
speaking about God; in the Holy Scriptures it is God speaking to man.
The difference is as great as heaven is higher than earth. Here it is
not man groping in the darkness after God. In this book of God's
revelation we see the divine arm reaching down to save the lost, and
hear the voice of the loving Father calling to His children, every one
and everywhere. "Incline your ear," He calls; "hear, and your soul shall
live." Isa. 55:3.
The Word That Creates
We must have something more than instruction; we must have a word of
power that is able to tell of sins forgiven, and to conduct us beyond
the grave to heaven. One of the greatest of China's sages, Mencius,
said, "Instruction can impart information, but not the power to
execute." That touches the crucial point. We must have instruction that
can come with power divine to execute. We have it only in God's words.
Christ said: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are
life." John 6:63.
The words of God are living words. When God spoke in the beginning, "Let
there be light," lo, the light sprang out of the darkness. There was
power in the word spoken to bring forth. "Let the earth bring forth
grass," was the word of the Lord: and the earth was carpeted with its
first rich greensward. So through all the work of creation, the creative
power was in the word spoken.
"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them
by the breath of His mouth." "He spake, and it was done; He commanded,
and it stood fast." Ps. 33:6, 9.
Even so, when this word speaks instruction to man, there is creative
power in the word, if received, to work mightily in the soul that is
dead in trespasses and sins. Man must be born again, be re-created. That
we know; for Christ says, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again ["from above," margin], he cannot see the kingdom of God."
John 3:3.
And the word of God--the Bible from heaven--received by faith, is the
agency by which this new birth "from above" is wrought. This is the
declaration of our text: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
1 Peter 1:23.
[Illustration: HEALING THE CENTURION'S SERVANT
"Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." Matt. 8:8.]
The Word That Works Within
Not only does the word of God give the new birth, making the believer a
new man,--the past forgiven and a new heart within,--but the word that
re-creates abides in the believing heart that studies it and clings to
it, to work in the life with actual power that is not of the man
himself. To the Thessalonians, who had "turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God," the apostle wrote:
"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye
received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually
worketh also in you that believe." 1 Thess. 2:13.
The word itself works within, and works effectually. There is nothing
mechanical about it. The mere letter profits nothing. The Bible on the
center table, unstudied and unloved, has no magic power. But God
promises to abide by His Spirit of power in the heart that listens to
His voice and trembles at His word. Jesus Himself tells us the secret of
this power of the word to work in the believing heart:
"If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John 14:23.
No wonder, then, that believing and receiving the word brings divine
power into the life, making it possible for transformations of character
to be wrought, for victories to be won and obedience rendered to every
command of God.
Simply believing God's word touches the current of everlasting power,
even as the trolley arm of the electric car reaches up and touches the
current of power flowing through the wire overhead. The faith that
takes the living word brings the power divine into the heart to move all
the spiritual mechanism of life's service.
The Word Our Safety and Defense
When Christ came to live as our example in the flesh, and to give His
life a sacrifice for sin, He, the divine Son of God, made Himself like
unto His brethren. "I can of Mine own self do nothing," He said. John
5:30. Tempted and tried, He found His defense in the Holy Scriptures.
When Satan came to tempt Him to sin, the Saviour said, "It is written."
He clung to the sure defense. Again the tempter came. He was met with
the word, "It is written again." The third time it was the same weapon
of defense, "It is written." Matt. 4:1-11.
Christ found safety only in the Scriptures of truth. So the Bible is the
Christian's shield against the enemy's attacks. As Jesus studied the
Scriptures and kept the words ever in His heart for a defense against
temptation, so must every Christian study and meditate upon God's Holy
Word if its counsels and precepts are to be his defense in the moment of
sudden temptation to sin. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart," said the
psalmist, "that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. 119:11. It was the
only way for Christ, our Pattern; it is the only way for us.
The Bread of Life
The word of God is the daily food for the soul. "It is written, Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God." Matt. 4:4.
Who has not, in hurried times, missed a meal, working on through the
day, never thinking of the prolonged fast? But after a time there came a
sense of weakening force, a lack of physical power. What was the
trouble? At once the reason was evident--one had not taken food, and
the system was calling for a renewal of its forces. Just so the
spiritual life must needs be fed by the word of God.
[Illustration: CHRIST'S WEAPON OF DEFENSE--THE WORD OF GOD
"Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Matt. 4:10.]
Do we at times feel a sense of weakening of the spiritual power, a
letting down of the vital forces of the soul? Ah, in the hurry of life
we have neglected to feed upon the living bread. We can no more sustain
spiritual vigor and health without feeding daily upon God's Holy Word
than we can maintain physical power without eating our daily bread. Eat
of the life-giving word. The taste for it grows with the partaking.
There is life in "every word." The psalmist found the Lord's testimonies
"sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb," or, as the marginal reading
has it, than "the dropping of honeycombs." Ps. 19:10. We get the picture
of the honeycomb inverted, the cell caps broken open, the sweetness
dripping down. Just so every word of the Lord is a cell full of
sweetness and life for the soul that feasts upon the Holy Scriptures.
The Source of All Doctrine
The Bible is the complete and perfect rule of faith and doctrine. Here
every doctrine of salvation is found. Inspiration has declared it in the
words of the apostle Paul to Timothy:
"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good
works." 2 Tim. 3:15-17.
The divine command is, "Study." For every generation there has been a
message borne by this living word, making call to reformation of life,
or giving warning and comfort. "The Bible is not a collection of truths
formulated in propositions," said Dr. Samuel Harris, of Yale, "but
God's majestic march through history, redeeming men from sin."
In every age God has been ruling and overruling, witnessing by His
Spirit through the living word. The experiences recorded of past ages
have their special lesson for the present time:
"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."
Rom. 15:4.
"Let vs therfore all with feruent desyre," as the Old English of 1549
spelled the exhortation of Erasmus, "thyrste after these spirituall
sprynges.... Let vs kisse these swete wordes of Christ with a pure
affeccion. Let vs be newe transformed into them, for soche are oure
maners as oure studies be."
The Book for All Mankind
It speaks in every tongue to the human heart. Its power to transform has
been shown through all the centuries in every clime and among every
race. One of the Gospels was put into the Chiluba tongue of Central
Africa. After a time a Garenganze chief came to Dan Crawford, the
missionary, changed from the spirit of a fierce, wicked barbarian to
that of a teachable child. Explaining his conversion, the chief said: "I
was startled to find that Christ could speak Chiluba. I heard him speak
to me out of the printed page, and what he said was, 'Follow me!'"
Of the Bible's universal speech to all mankind, Dr. Henry van Dyke has
said:
"Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form and imagery,
the Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet,
and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It has
learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of man.
It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that he is the
servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the
peasant that he is the son of God. Children listen to its
stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as
parables of life. It has a word of peace for the time of
peril, a word of comfort for the day of calamity, a word of
light for the hour of darkness. Its oracles are repeated in the
assembly of the people, and its counsels whispered in the ear
of the lonely. The wise and the proud tremble at its warnings,
but to the wounded and penitent it has a mother's voice....
"Its great words grow richer, as pearls do when they are worn
near the heart. No man is poor or desolate who has this
treasure for his own. When the landscape darkens and the
trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named the Shadow, he is
not afraid to enter; he takes the rod and staff of Scripture in
his hand; he says to friend and comrade, 'Good-by, we shall
meet again,' and comforted by that support, he goes toward the
lonely pass as one who climbs through darkness into
light."--_The Century Magazine._
[Illustration: RAISING JARIUS'S DAUGHTER
"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." John 1:4.]
In the days of His life on earth, Jesus was a welcome guest in humble
homes in Judea and Galilee. "The common people heard Him gladly." His
presence brought peace and comfort to the home. He is no longer with us
in bodily presence; but He is the same Saviour still--"Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, and today, and forever." Heb. 13:8. By His Spirit,
through the living word of Holy Scripture, He enters the home where
faith receives Him, and speaks again the gracious salutation, "Peace be
to this house."
Christ the Central Theme
All the Bible bears witness of Christ as the Saviour of the world. He
Himself said of the Scriptures, "They are they which testify of Me."
John 5:39. "To Him give all the prophets witness." Acts 10:43. We see
Him as the coming Messiah in promise and prophecy, in type and shadow.
His is the divine, living personality standing out in every book that
makes up the Sacred Volume. As we read with loving heart, the Author
seems near in every page.
"Reading, methinks I bend
Before the cross
Where died my King, my Friend.
The whole world's loss
For love of Him is gain."
And having beheld Him giving His life as the divine sacrifice, and
rising in triumph over death to be our great High Priest in the heavenly
temple, as we read these Sacred Scriptures yet again, in every book,
from Genesis to Revelation, we see Him as the coming King of kings,
coming to take His children to the eternal home of the saved. The whole
book is a bright window through which we gaze on coming glory.
"And yet again I stand
Where the seer stood,
Gazing across the strand,
Beyond the flood:
The gates of pearl afar,
The streets of gold,
The bright and morning Star
Mine eyes behold."
"The Word of God ... liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1:23. "Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Matt.
24:35.
[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS
"Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all
the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:27.]
[Illustration: THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
"I am God,... declaring ... from ancient times the things that are not
yet done." Isa. 46:9, 10.]
THE WITNESS OF THE CENTURIES
The Sure Word of Prophecy
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed." 2 Peter 1:19.
The prophetic scriptures afford infallible evidence that the voice of
the living God speaks in Holy Writ. One of the distinguishing marks of
divinity is the power that foretells and records the course of history
long ages before the events come to pass.
God's Challenge
God's challenge to false religious systems in olden time was this:
"Declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come
hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." Isa. 41:22, 23.
And all the gods of the nations were silent; for they are no gods. The
Lord alone, the one who speaks by the Holy Scriptures, is able to tell
the end from the beginning.
"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand." Isa. 46:9, 10.
By this means God has borne witness of Himself through the ages, that it
might be known that the Most High rules above all the kingdoms of men,
and that men might recognize His purpose to put an end to sin and bring
eternal salvation to His people. "I have spoken it," He declares, "I
will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it."
The fulfilment of the word of prophecy in history is a fascinating
story. To the Lord, the future is an open book, even as the present. The
word is spoken, telling of the event to come; it is written on the
parchment scroll by the prophet's pen. Time passes; centuries come and
go. Then, when the hour of the prophecy arrives, lo, there appears the
fulfilment. And it is seen in matters pertaining to individuals, as well
as in the affairs of cities and empires.
The Word Fulfilled after Long Waiting
In the dream divinely given to the lad Joseph, it was plainly foretold
that his brothers would one day come as suppliants before him. His
father rebuked him for telling the dream, saying, "Shall I and thy
mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the
earth?" Gen. 37:10. The brothers sold the lad into slavery, to be well
rid of him. Yet twenty years later, all unconscious of his identity,
these same brethren presented themselves before the prime minister of
Egypt, and "fell before him on the ground." Gen. 44:14.
Again: the wicked stronghold of Jericho had been utterly destroyed.
Joshua declared:
"Cursed be the man ... that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he
shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest
son shall he set up the gates of it." Joshua 6:26.
The hands of angels had thrown down its walls, and its ruin was to stand
as a memorial. More than five hundred years later, when the apostate
Ahab was ruling, and Israel and Judah had departed from the Lord, Hiel
the Bethelite set out to rebuild Jericho. "He laid the foundation
thereof in Abiram his first-born."
But accident and death may come at any time. The work on the walls went
on, no one thinking of the neglected Scriptures with their warning of
long ago. So the full account runs:
"He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the
gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the
Lord, which He spake by Joshua the son of Nun." 1 Kings 16:34.
The fate of some of the mightiest cities the world ever saw has borne
testimony through the centuries to the fulfilment of the prophetic word.
The Witness of Nineveh
Nineveh was founded by Nimrod. He built not only his capital here by the
Tigris, but other towns round about, conceiving first of all the idea of
grouping the capital and its suburbs into one great city, the "Greater
Nineveh," as we would say in these days of Greater London and Greater
New York. At the dawn of history Nineveh was "a great city." Gen. 10:11,
12. In Jonah's day it was an "exceeding great city."[A] Sennacherib, of
the Bible story, was its beautifier. Rawlinson says:
"The great palace which he raised at Nineveh surpassed in size
and splendor all earlier edifices."--_"Second Monarchy," chap.
9._
A description is preserved on the clay cylinder in the king's own words:
"For the wonderment of multitudes of men
I raised its head--'the palace which has no rival'
I called its name."--_Taylor Cylinder, "Records of the Past."
Vol. XII, part 1_.
At the preaching of Jonah the city had repented; but in later years
pride of conquest and luxury and wealth were filling it with blood. The
prophet Nahum warned it of certain doom, appealing to those who had any
fear of God to turn to Him. The message was:
[Illustration: THE SITE OF NINEVEH
"How is she become a desolation!" Zeph. 2:15.]
"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth
them that trust in Him." Nahum 1:7.
Some, no doubt, heeded the warning and turned to God for refuge. But the
city's life of sin ran on. Then the prophet Zephaniah spoke the word,
just as the stroke was to fall:
"Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She
obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in
the Lord; she drew not near to her God." Zeph. 3:1, 2.
Prophecies uttered against the mighty city had declared:
"He will make an utter end of the place thereof." "The palace shall be
dissolved ["molten," margin]." "She is empty, and void, and waste."
Nahum 1:8; 2:6, 10. "How is she become a desolation, a place for beasts
to lie down in!" Zeph. 2:15.
The Medes and the Babylonians overthrew Nineveh. The king immolated
himself in his burning ("molten") palace. Nineveh became a desolation.
Describing a battle that took place there in the seventh century of our
era, between the Romans and the Persians, the historian Gibbon bears
testimony to the fact that it has indeed become "empty, and void, and
waste:"
"Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the
great Nineveh had formerly been erected: the city, and even the
ruins of the city, had long since disappeared; the vacant place
afforded a spacious field for the operations of the two
armies."--_"The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire," chap. 46, par. 24._
And to this day, the site of Nineveh is pointed out across the river
from Mosul, only mounds of ruins, these almost obliterated by the
drifting sands of centuries. The word spoken is fulfilled, though at the
time it was spoken it little seemed to proud and prosperous Nineveh that
such a fate could ever be hers.
"Before me rise the walls
Of the Titanic city,--brazen gates,
Towers, temples, palaces enormous piled,--
Imperial Nineveh, the earthly queen!
In all her golden pomp I see her now,
Her swarming streets, her splendid festivals.
* * * * *
"Again I look,--and lo!...
Her walls are gone, her palaces are dust,--
The desert is around her, and within
Like shadows have the mighty passed away."
From Nineveh's mounds we seem to hear a voice that says: "All flesh is
as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord
endureth forever." 1 Peter 1:24, 25.
The Burden of Tyre
[Illustration: TYRE BY THE SEA
"They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers." Eze.
26:4.]
Tyre was the greatest maritime city of antiquity. Its inhabitants, the
Phoenicians, traded in the ports of all the known world. Ezekiel
describes the heart of the seas as its borders. "Thy builders have
perfected thy beauty," he says. He tells how all countries traded in its
marts and contributed to its wealth. And then, obeying the word of the
Lord, the prophet bears a message of rebuke and warning,--"the burden of
Tyre,"--and pronounces the coming judgment:
"Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will
cause many nations to come up against thee.... And they shall destroy
the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her
dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place
for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it,
saith the Lord God." Eze. 26:3-5.
The accounts of travelers bear witness that the prophecy has been
fulfilled. As to the site of the island city of Ezekiel's day, Bruce,
nearly a century ago, said that he found it a "rock whereon fishers dry
their nets." (See "Keith on the Prophecies," p. 329.)
In more recent times, Dr. W.M. Thomson found the whole region of Tyre
suggestive only of departed glory:
"There is nothing here, certainly, of that which led Joshua to
call it 'the strong city' more than three thousand years ago
(Joshua 19:29),--nothing of that mighty metropolis which
baffled the proud Nebuchadnezzar and all his power for thirteen
years, until 'every head' in his army 'was made bald, and every
shoulder was peeled,' in the hard service against Tyrus (Eze.
29:18),--nothing in this wretched roadstead and empty harbor to
remind one of the times when merry mariners did sing in her
markets--no visible trace of those towering ramparts which so
long resisted the utmost efforts of the great Alexander. All
have vanished utterly like a troubled dream, and Tyre has sunk
under the burden of prophecy.... As she is now, and has long
been, Tyre is God's witness; but great, powerful, and populous,
she would be the infidel's boast. This, however, she cannot be.
Tyre will never rise from her dust to falsify the voice of
prophecy.
"Dim is her glory, gone her fame,
Her boasted wealth has fled;
On her proud rock, alas! her shame,
The fisher's net is spread.
The Tyrian harp has slumbered long,
And Tyria's mirth is low;
The timbrel, dulcimer, and song
Are hushed, or wake to woe."
--_"The Land and the Book," Vol. II, pp. 626, 627._
The Desolation of Babylon
Yet another city of ancient times there was, the mightiest of them all,
whose fate was a subject of prophecy, and whose history bears special
testimony for us today; for, more than any other, the Lord used that
city as a symbol of the pride of life and the exaltation of the selfish
heart against God.
Let us study briefly the desolations pronounced upon Babylon of old.
[Illustration: BABYLON IN THE DUST
"Babylon shall become heaps,... without an inhabitant." Jer. 51:37.]
While Babylon was still the mightiest city of the world, with the period
of greatest glory yet before it, the Lord revealed its ignoble end. By
the prophet Isaiah He declared:
"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency,
shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be
inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation:
neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds
make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there;
and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall
dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the
islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their
pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not
be prolonged." Isa. 13:19-22.
Never could a more doleful future have been pictured for a city full of
splendor, the metropolis of the world. About one hundred and
seventy-five years after this word was written on the parchment scroll,
the Medes and Persians were at the gates of Babylon. Her time had come,
and Chaldea's rule was ended.
"Fallen is the golden city! in the dust,
Spoiled of her crown, dismantled of her state.
She that hath made the Strength of Towers her trust,
Weeps by her dead, supremely desolate!
"She that beheld the nations at her gate
Thronging in homage, shall be called no more
'Lady of Kingdoms!'--Who shall mourn her fate?
Her guilt is full, her march of triumph o'er."
But still, under Medo-Persia, and later under the Greeks, the city
itself was populous and prosperous and beautiful. The skeptic of the
time may have pointed to it as evidence that here, at least, the Hebrew
prophet had missed the mark.
Apollonius, the sage of Tyana, who lived in the days of Nero and the
apostles, has left an account of Babylon as he saw it, as late as the
first century of our era. Still the Euphrates swept beneath its walls,
dividing the city into halves, with great palaces on either side. He
says:
"The palaces are roofed with bronze, and a glitter goes off
from them; but the chambers of the women and of the men and the
porticoes are adorned partly with silver, and partly with
golden tapestries or curtains, and partly with solid gold in
the form of pictures."
And of the king's judgment hall he reported:
"The roof had been carried up in the form of a dome, to
resemble in a manner the heavens, and that it was roofed with
sapphire, a stone that is very blue and like heaven to the eye;
and there were images of the gods, which they worship, fixed
aloft, and looking like golden figures shining out of the
ether."--_Philostratus, "Life of Apollonius," book 1, chap.
25._
Evidently Babylon was still "the land of graven images," and the
desolation foretold by the prophet had not yet befallen its palaces. But
that prophetic word, written eight hundred years before, was still upon
the scroll of the Book, the sure Word of God, who sees the end from the
beginning.
[Illustration: EGYPT'S GLORY DEPARTED
"The idols of Egypt shall be moved." Isa. 19:1.]
The view given us by Apollonius is perhaps the last glimpse we have of
Babylon's passing glory. Even then for centuries the walls had been a
quarry from which stones were drawn for Babylon's rival, Seleucia, on
the Tigris. And Strabo, the Greek geographer, who also wrote in the
first century, had described Babylon as "in great part deserted,"
adding,
"No one would hesitate to apply to it what one of the comic
writers said of Megalopolitæ, in Arcadia, 'The great city is a
great desert.'"--_"Geography," book 16, chap. 1._
Already pagan writers had begun to describe its condition in the terms
of the prophecy uttered so long before. And now what is its state? The
doom foretold has fallen heavy upon the city, upon its palaces, and
"upon the graven images of Babylon." For a century and more, travelers'
accounts have frequently borne witness to the exact fulfilment of the
prophecy in the remarkable desolations of that city, once mistress of
the world.
"Babylon shall become heaps," said the prophecy, "and owls shall dwell
there." This is what Mr. Layard, the English archeologist, found on his
visit in 1845:
"Shapeless heaps of rubbish cover for many an acre the face of
the land.... On all sides, fragments of glass, marble, pottery,
and inscribed brick are mingled with that peculiar nitrous and
blanched soil, which, bred from the remains of ancient
habitations, checks or destroys vegetation, and renders the
site of Babylon a naked and a hideous waste. Owls [which are of
a large gray kind, and often found in flocks of nearly a
hundred] start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal
skulks through the furrows."--_"Discoveries Among the Ruins of
Nineveh and Babylon," chap. 21, p. 413._
The prophecy said, "Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there." The
words might be construed to mean that the famous site would never become
the place of a Bedouin village. But it is literally true, say travelers,
that the Arabs avoid the place even for the temporary pitching of their
tents. They consider the spot under a curse. They call the ruins
_Mudjelibe_, "the Overturned." (See "Encyclopedia of Islam," art.
"Babil.")
As late as 1913, Missionary W.C. Ising visited the site where Professor
Koldeway was excavating the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace. He wrote:
"Involuntarily one is reminded of the prophecy in the
thirteenth of Isaiah and many other places, which, in course of
time, have been fulfilled to the letter. No one is living on
the site of ancient Babylon, and whatever Arabs are employed by
the excavators have built their mud huts in the bed of the
ancient river, which at the present time is shifted half a mile
farther west."--_European Division Quarterly, Fourth Quarter,
1913._
Egypt and Edom
The massive ruins by the Nile bear witness to prophecy fulfilled. When
Egypt rivaled Babylon, the word was spoken: "It shall be the basest of
the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations."
Eze. 29:15. It was not utterly to pass, as Babylon, but to continue in
inferior state. Thus it came to pass. Once populous Edom, famed for
wisdom and counsel, now lies desolate, according to the word: "Edom
shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished."
Jer. 49:17.
The Testimony of History
[Illustration: RUINS OF EDOM
"Edom shall be a desolate wilderness." Joel 3:19.]
Thus the centuries bear testimony to the fulfilment of the prophetic
word. The panorama of all human history moves before us in these
writings of the prophets. Flinging their "colossal shadows" across the
pages of Holy Writ, as Farrar says, we see--
"The giant forms of empires on their way
To ruin."
It is no human book that thus from primitive times forecasts the march
of history through the ages.
The Lord not only spoke the word in warning and entreaty for those to
whom it first came, but it is written in the Scriptures of truth as a
testimony to all time, that the Bible is the word of God, and that all
His purposes revealed therein and all the promises of the blessed Book
are certain and sure. The prophets who bore messages from God to
Nineveh, and Babylon, and Tyre, spoke messages also for our day.
Fulfilled prophecy is the testimony of the centuries to the living God.
The evidence of prophecy and its fulfilment is God's challenge and
appeal to men to acknowledge Him as the true God and the Holy Scriptures
as His word from heaven.
"I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went
forth out of My mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they
came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an
iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared
it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee.... Thou hast heard,
see all this; and will not ye declare it?" Isa. 48:3-6.
Surely no one can look at the evidence in history of the fulfilment of
prophecy without seeing that of a truth the One who spoke these words
knew the end from the beginning; and finding the living God in the sure
word of prophecy, one must be prepared to listen to His voice in all the
Scriptures, when it speaks of sin and the way of salvation through Jesus
Christ.
Further, the prophetic word also has much to say of events yet future,
of the course of history in modern times. It behooves us to give heed to
what that word speaks concerning our own times and the events that are
to take place upon the earth before the end. The apostle Peter exhorts
us to the study in these words:
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 2 Peter 1:19.
[Illustration: THE GREAT IMAGE
"He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to
pass." Dan. 2:29.]
[Illustration: DANIEL INTERPRETING NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM
"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great Image." Dan. 2:31.]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] "In the book of Jonah," says _Records of the Past_, "Nineveh is
stated to have been an exceeding great city of three days' journey; and
that being the case, the explanation that Calah on the south and
Khorsabad on the north were included seems very probable. The distance
between these two extreme points is about thirty miles, which, at ten
miles a day, would take the time required."--_Vol. XII, part 1, January
and February, 1913_.
PROPHETIC OUTLINE OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL 2
"There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to
the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days."
In a dream by night the Lord gave to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a
clear historical outline of the course of world empire to the end of
time and the coming of the eternal kingdom.
The king was a thoughtful monarch; and having reached the height of his
power, he was one night meditating upon "what should come to pass
hereafter." Not for his sake alone, but for the enlightenment and
instruction of men in all time, the Lord answered the wondering question
of the king's meditation by giving him the dream. "He that revealeth
secrets," said Daniel the prophet, "maketh known to thee what shall come
to pass."
[Illustration: BABYLON IN HER GLORY
"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency." Isa. 13:19.]
And that we may know at the beginning that there is nothing fanciful and
uncertain about this great historic outline reaching to the end of the
world, we note first the assurance with which the prophet closed his
interpretation: "The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof
sure."
The details of the dream had been taken from the king's mind, while
conviction as to the wondrous import of it remained. This was in God's
providence, to show the folly of the worldly-wise men of Babylon, and to
bring before the king the prophet of the Lord with a divine message. The
prophet Daniel, under the inspiration of God, brought his dream again to
the king's mind:
"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose
brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was
terrible.
"This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver,
his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of
iron and part of clay.
"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote
the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to
pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the
gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer
threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was
found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great
mountain, and filled the whole earth."
The prophet next declared the interpretation. And now follows the
history of the world in miniature.
Babylon
"Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given
thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the
children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the
heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them
all. Thou art this head of gold."
[Illustration: THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL
"Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." Dan.
5:28.]
The parts of the image, then, of various metals, from head to feet,
represented successive empires, beginning with Babylon; and the kingdom
of Babylon, represented by Nebuchadnezzar, was the head of gold.
History shows how fitly the golden head symbolizes the Babylonian
kingdom. Long before, the prophet Isaiah had described it as "the glory
of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency." Isa. 13:19. And
now, in Nebuchadnezzar's day, it was the golden age of the Babylonian
kingdom. No such gorgeous city as its capital ever before stood on
earth. And Nebuchadnezzar was the great leader of its conquests, and the
beautifier and builder of its walls and palaces. "For the astonishment
of men I have built this house," one tablet reads; and hundreds repeat
the story.
"Those portals
for the astonishment of multitudes of people
with beauty I adorned.
In order that the battle storm
to Imgur-Bel
the wall of Babylon might
not reach;
what no king before me
had done."--_East India House Inscription._
Thus Nebuchadnezzar's records of stone today repeat the proud boast
faithfully reported in the Scripture, "Is not this great Babylon, that I
have built?" Dan. 4:30. To the king it seemed that such a city could
never fall. One inscription reads:
"Thus I completely made strong the defenses of Babylon. May it
last forever."--_Rawlinson, "Fourth Monarchy," Appendix A._
Medo-Persia
But the prophet Daniel, proceeding with the divine interpretation,
interrupted all such proud thoughts with the declaration, "After thee
shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee."
Now the look was forward into the future. And the word came to pass.
Babylon's decline was swift after Nebuchadnezzar's death. Daniel the
prophet himself lived to interpret the handwriting on the wall at
Belshazzar's feast:
"God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.... Thou art weighed in
the balances and art found wanting.... Thy kingdom is divided, and given
to the Medes and Persians." Dan. 5:26-28.
The breast and arms of silver, in the great image, represented the
Medo-Persian kingdom, which followed the Babylonian, "inferior" to it in
brilliancy and grandeur, as silver is inferior to gold. Medo-Persia,
however, enlarged the borders of the world empire; and the names of
Cyrus and Darius are written among the mightiest conquerors of history.
But the prophet does not stop to dwell upon the grandeur of fleeting
earthly kingdoms. The interpretation hastens on to reach the setting up
of a kingdom that shall not pass away. Following Medo-Persia, a third
power was to rise,
Grecia
"And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the
earth."
The "third kingdom" after Babylon was Grecia, which overthrew the empire
of the Medes and Persians. And Grecia's dominion fulfilled the
specifications of the prophecy, which indicated a yet wider expansion of
empire. Its sway was to be over "all the earth," said Daniel the
prophet, foretelling its history. Arrian, the Greek historian, writing
afterward, said that Alexander of Greece seemed truly "lord of all the
earth;" and he adds:
"I am persuaded there was no nation, city, nor people then in
being whither his name did not reach; for which reason,
whatever origin he might boast of, or claim to himself, there
seems to me to have been some divine hand presiding both over
his birth and actions."--_"History of the Expedition of
Alexander the Great," book 7, chap. 30._
The sides of brass in the great image represented Grecia, the brazen
metal itself being a fitting symbol of those "brazen-mailed" Greeks,
celebrated in ancient poetry and song,
"Among the foremost, armed in glittering brass."
A Power Rising in the West
While Grecia's supremacy under Alexander was disputed by none, there was
a power rising in the West that was soon to enter the lists for the
prize of world dominion.
Some of the ancient writers say that at the time of his death Alexander
had in mind to push westward to strike down the growing power of the
city of Rome, of which he had heard. Plutarch says that this man
Alexander,
"who shot like a star, with incredible swiftness, from the
rising to the setting sun, was meditating to bring the luster
of his arms into Italy.... He had heard of the Roman power in
Italy."--_"Morals," chap. on "Fortune of the Romans," par. 13._
Lucan, the ancient Roman poet, repeats the thought:
"Driven headlong on by Fate's resistless force,
Through Asia's realms he took his dreadful course:
His ruthless sword laid human nature waste,
And desolation followed where he passed....
"Ev'n to the utmost west he would have gone,
Where Tethys' lap receives the setting sun."
--"_Pharsalia._"
But in the prime of his years, Alexander was cut down, and Rome had yet
more time in which to develop its strength preparatory to the deciding
contest for the mastery of all the world. Sure it is that after Grecia,
there followed the Roman Empire, the strongest and mightiest and most
crushing of them all. This fourth universal empire the prophet proceeded
to describe, as represented by the legs of iron in Nebuchadnezzar's
dream of the great image.
Rome
"The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh
in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these,
shall it break in pieces and bruise."
How appropriately the iron of the image fits the character of the fourth
great empire! Gibbon, the historian, calls it "the iron monarchy of
Rome." It broke in pieces the kingdoms, subduing all, just as prophecy
had declared so long before. As iron is strongest of the common metals,
so according to the prophecy--"as iron that breaketh all these"--this
fourth kingdom was to be more powerful than any before it. Strabo, the
geographer, who lived in the days of Tiberius Cæsar, said,
"The Romans have surpassed (in power) all former rulers of whom
we have any record."--_"Geography," book 17, chap. 3._
Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, who lived in Rome in the third
century,--under the "iron monarchy,"--wrote thus of this prophecy:
"Already the iron rules; already it subdues and breaks all in
pieces; already it brings all the unwilling into subjection;
already we see these things ourselves."--_"Treatise on Christ
and Antichrist," sec. 33._
Hippolytus also saw clearly from the prophecy that the empire of his day
would be divided, and he wrote of the kingdoms that were "yet to rise"
out of it. For Daniel's interpretation explained clearly the meaning of
the mingling of clay with the iron in the feet and toes of the great
image.
The Kingdoms of Modern Europe
"Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part
of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the
strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
clay.
"And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the
kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
"And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle
themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to
another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."
"The kingdom shall be divided." So declared the prophet of God. In the
height of its power, Rome scouted the thought that so mighty a fabric
could ever be broken up. Horace sang in his "Odes,"
"How, added to a conquered world,
Euphrates 'bates his tide,
And Huns, beyond our frontiers hurled,
O'er straitened deserts ride.
* * * * *
"The Goths beyond the sea may plot,
The warlike Basques may plan;
Friend, never heed them! vex thee not;
For this our mortal span
Of little wants."
--_Book 2, Marris's Translation._
But the words were written on the ancient parchment in the days of
Babylon, "The kingdom shall be divided;" and true to the word of the
prophet, the Roman Empire fell apart with the mixture of nations and
peoples that swept into it. The elements did not hold together, even as
the mixture of iron and clay in the image did not cleave together.
Broken up by the invasions of fresh nations from the north, the Western
Empire was divided into lesser kingdoms, out of which have grown the
modern nations of western Europe.
Not one word in the outline of the prophecy thus far has failed of
fulfilment. These modern kingdoms growing out of divided Rome have never
been reunited. "They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men," said
the prophecy. Nearly all the reigning houses of Europe today are related
by intermarriage; the prophecy said it would be so; but "they shall not
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." So we see
it. No statesman, no master of legions, has been able to join these
nations together again in one great empire. Charles V had the thought in
mind, some think. Napoleon dreamed of doing it. But it was not to be.
Nevermore was there to be one universal monarchy.
We may know that as surely as the course of world empire has followed
the exact outline of the prophecy put on the inspired record in the days
of Babylon of old, just so surely the specifications of the closing
portion of the outline will be fulfilled.
The fourth great kingdom was to be divided. Rome was the fourth empire:
it was divided. The kingdoms of the divided empire are acting their part
before our eyes today.
The Next Great Event
And what next? That is the question for us. Now the prophetic outline
that began with ancient Babylon touches the things of our own day. The
word spoken before Nebuchadnezzar so long ago is now spoken especially
to us:
"In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to
other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
"Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain
without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the
clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the
king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and
the interpretation thereof sure."
"In the days of these kings,"--these kingdoms of our own time,--the next
great world-changing event is to be the coming of Christ to begin the
setting up of his everlasting kingdom. That is the grand climax toward
which all the course of history has been tending. At last the end is to
come.
"Down in the feet of iron and of clay,
Weak and divided, soon to pass away;
What will the next great, glorious drama be?--
Christ and His coming, and eternity."
As the stone, cut out of the mountain "without hands," smote the image,
so that all its parts, representative of earthly dominion, were ground
to dust and blown away, so Christ's coming kingdom, set up "without
hands," by no human power, but by the power of the eternal God, will end
all earthly dominion and bring the utter destruction of sin and sinners
out of the earth.
"The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."
Then may all eyes well be turned toward the next great step foretold in
the prophetic outline--the coming of Christ's glorious everlasting
kingdom, which shall not pass away.
"Look for the waymarks as you journey on,
Look for the waymarks, passing one by one,
Down through the ages, past the kingdoms four,--
Where are we standing? Look the waymarks o'er."
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH BY MISSIONARY W.C. ISING
Ruins of the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, in which was the hall of
Belshazzar's Feast.]
[Illustration: THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST
"This same Jesus ... shall so come in like manner." Acts 1:11.
COPYRIGHT STANDARD PUB. CO.]
[Illustration: THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM
"Behold, thy King cometh,... lowly, and riding upon an ass." Zech.
9:9.]
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
"Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin
unto salvation." Heb. 9:28.
Too often the second coming of Christ is looked upon simply as a
doctrine. It is, however, more than a doctrine merely to be believed; it
is an impending event, something that is to take place on earth, and the
most stupendous, all-transcendent event for the world since Christ came
the first time to die on Calvary for the sins of men.
This second coming of Christ, like His first coming, has been the theme
of divine prophecy from the beginning. This was emphasized by the
apostle Peter in his second recorded sermon. He pressed upon the people
of Jerusalem the fact that the things "which God before had showed by
the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer" (Acts 3:18),
had been fulfilled to the letter before their eyes. Not a word had
failed. Just so, he said, all that the prophets had spoken of His second
coming would be fulfilled:
"He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom
the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things,
which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the
world began." Acts 3:20, 21.
The Promise of His Coming
As iniquity began to abound, God sent a message to the antediluvian
world, declaring that Christ's coming in glory would end the reign of
sin:
"Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold,
the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment
upon all." Jude 14, 15.
The promise of Christ's coming was the "blessed hope" in the patriarchal
age. In Job's dark hour of trial his heart clung to the promise, and he
was kept from despair:
"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth: ... whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not another." Job 19:25-27.
The psalmist sang of it:
"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour
before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." Ps. 50:3.
And the prophets of later times were unceasingly moved upon to talk of
the glory of that coming, of events preceding it, and of the preparation
for it.
"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold
their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not
silence." "Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world,
Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold,
His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." Isa. 62:6, 11.
The message of His coming is to be heralded to the ends of the earth;
for it is "good tidings of great joy" to every one who will receive it.
On that last night with His disciples before the crucifixion, when His
heart was sorrowful even unto death, as the burden of all our
iniquities was about to be laid upon Him, Christ's love for His own made
precious to Him the thought of His second coming to gather them home at
last, safe from all sin and trouble; and He said:
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:1-3.
In that assurance the heart finds rest. O the preciousness of the
promise, "I will come again"! "I am coming for you," is the cheering
message. "Yes, Lord," we reply, "we will wait, and watch, and be ready,
by Thy grace."
The Manner of His Coming
Christ's second coming is to be visible to all the world. There is to be
nothing secret or mystical about it. The revelator says:
"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him." Rev. 1:7.
Christ Himself described the scene to His disciples as it will appear to
the eyes of all:
"As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the
west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:27. "Then
shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and
glory." Mark 13:26.
The day of the Lord--the close of probation, the initial outpouring of
the judgments of God--will come "as a thief in the night," but Christ's
personal appearing will be visible to all. The heavens will open, the
earth quake, the trump of God resound, and such glory as mortal eye has
never seen will burst upon the world when He comes as King of kings and
Lord of lords.
"He comes not an infant in Bethlehem born,
He comes not to lie in a manger;
He comes not again to be treated with scorn,
He comes not a shelterless stranger;
He comes not to Gethsemane,
To weep and sweat blood in the garden;
He comes not to die on the tree,
To purchase for rebels a pardon.
Oh, no; glory, bright glory,
Environs Him now."
[Illustration: THE TRANSFIGURATION A TYPE OF HIS COMING
"Behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him."
Matt. 17:3.]
"This Same Jesus"
The Lord would have His children understand that this One who comes in
power and glory is the same Saviour of men who once walked by blue
Galilee. As the disciples were watching their Saviour, and ours,
ascending bodily into heaven from Olivet, until "a cloud received Him
out of their sight," suddenly two angels stood by them, who said:
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as
ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1:9, 11.
[Illustration: CHRIST SET AT NAUGHT BY THE ROMANS
"Behold your King!" John 19:14.]
"This same Jesus"! It was the loving Friend and Elder Brother, Son of
man as well as Son of God, who was passing from their sight. He will
come back the "same Jesus," though in glory indescribable, having "all
the holy angels with Him."
The prophet Habakkuk thus described Christ's glorious appearing, as it
was represented to him in vision:
"His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
And His brightness was as the light;
He had rays coming forth from His hand;
And there was the hiding of His power."
Hab. 3:3, 4, A.R.V.
Surely it is the "same Jesus," and the mark of the cruel nails is the
shining badge of His power to save.
"I shall know Him
By the print of the nails in His hands."
As the redeemed see Him who was crucified for them coming in glory, they
will cry, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save
us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and
rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25:9.
But that day will be a day of darkness as well as of light. The unready,
the unrepentant, will realize too late that in rejecting Christ's pardon
and love and sacrifice, they have rejected the only means by which they
might have been prepared to meet the coming King, before whose face no
sin can endure. "Every eye shall see Him," the apostle says, and he
describes the terror of that day to the unprepared:
"The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face
of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for
the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
Rev. 6:15-17.
The scenes of that great day are so beyond human comprehension that it
is difficult to realize that such a time is actually before us.
"Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that great day."
The Purpose of His Coming
The Scriptures make very clear the purpose of Christ's second coming and
the events of that great day. It has been the hope of the children of
God through all the ages. The apostle Paul calls it the "blessed hope."
"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus 2:11-13.
The saints of God have fallen asleep in death with their faith reaching
forward to Christ's glorious appearing. So the veteran apostle fell,
with eyes upon "that day."
"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not
to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 2 Tim.
4:6-8.
Christ's second coming is the grand climax of the plan of salvation. Not
till then are the children of God ushered into the eternal kingdom. Then
the crowns of life are bestowed, and the saved all go together through
the gates into the city--patriarch and prophet, apostle and reformer,
and the child of God of this last generation. Of the ancient worthies it
is written:
"These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not
the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect." Heb. 11:39, 40.
What a glorious day it will be when the ransomed of all the ages, march
in together through the gates into the city!
It is to take His children to their eternal home that Christ comes the
second time. This was His promise to the disciples:
"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also." John 14:2, 3.
Not in detail, but in their general order, let us follow the events of
that great day.
[Illustration: CHRIST COMING IN GLORY
"The Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him." Matt. 25:31.]
The Prelude to His Coming
as the revelator saw it and heard it in a vision of the last day:
"There came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne,
saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings;
and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon
the earth,... and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon
came in remembrance before God." Rev. 16:17-19.
"The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every
mountain and island were moved out of their places." Rev. 6:14.
His Glorious Appearing
Then bursts upon the world the glory of our Saviour's coming:
"Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall
send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet." Matt. 24:30, 31.
"I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like
unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand
a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a
loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap:
for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is
ripe." Rev. 14:14, 15.
The Resurrection of the Just, and the Translation of the Living
Righteous
The time to reap has come, and the wheat is gathered at last into the
garner of the Lord:
"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed." 1 Cor. 15:51, 52.
"He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31.
"This we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are
asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead
in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words." 1 Thess. 4:15-18.
[Illustration: THE EMPTY TOMB
"Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His
coming." 1 Cor. 15:23.]
The righteous dead are raised to life as the trump of God sounds and the
voice of the Archangel calls to His sleeping saints, and the living
righteous are transformed from mortality to immortality. Then all
together, with the escort of the angels, they follow the Saviour to the
heavenly mansions that He has prepared in the city of God.
The Destruction of the Wicked
Before the glorious majesty of the coming King no sin can endure; for
true it is that "our God is a consuming fire"--now, in the day of His
mercy, consuming sin out of the heart that by faith approaches the
throne of grace, but in that day consuming the unrepentant sinner with
his sin.
"Where will the sinner hide in that day, in that day?
Where will the sinner hide in that day?
It will be in vain to call,
'Ye mountains on us fall!'
For His hand will find out all in that day."
It is the great day long foretold by seer and prophet.
Again let us read the description of what it will mean to the unsaved to
see Christ coming in glory; for the terror of that day must warn us now
to keep within the refuge of the Saviour's loving grace:
"The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face
of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for
the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
Rev. 6:15-17.
The same glory that transforms the righteous is a consuming fire to
those who have rejected Christ's salvation:
"Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His
coming." 2 Thess. 2:8.
"When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty
angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the
glory of His power." 2 Thess. 1:7-9.
The Climax of Human History
Thus the second coming of Christ brings the resurrection and translation
of the righteous, the death of the wicked, and the end of the world. The
resurrection of the wicked does not then take place, but only that of
the just; save for some of the wicked dead who had a special part in
warring against Christ,--"they also which pierced Him" (Rev. 1:7). These
are raised to see His coming, necessarily to fall again before the
consuming glory of His presence.
The righteous are taken to reign with Christ in the heavenly city for a
thousand years, and during the same period the earth lies in desolation
and chaos, uninhabited by man, a dark abyss, the dreary prison house of
Satan. Of the two resurrections, first of the just and then of the
unjust, we are told:
"They [the righteous] lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were
finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no
power." Rev. 20:4-6.
It is at the end of the thousand years that the resurrection of the
wicked takes place. Then the city of God descends, "the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven," and the wicked come
forth to condemnation and the second death, from which there is no
waking.
"Now is the Accepted Time"
Now is the day of salvation, when by Christ's grace we may prepare for
that great day. To be found among His redeemed ones in that day will be
of infinitely greater worth than anything this world can give, of
pleasure, or possessions, or honor. Nothing will count then but the
blessed hope.
Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, found the personal Saviour in the days
of the Methodist revival in England. All her wealth and all her social
influence were devoted to Christ, even though titled friends took
umbrage at her close association with the poor and the humble who gave
heed to the message of the hour, and pressed into the kingdom. She wrote
of her joy in being numbered with the children of God:
"I love to meet among them now,
Before Thy gracious throne to bow,
Though weakest of them all;
Nor can I bear the piercing thought,
To have my worthless name left out,
When Thou for them shalt call.
"Prevent, prevent it by Thy grace.
Be Thou, dear Lord, my hiding place
In that expected day.
Thy pardoning voice, O let me hear,
To still each unbelieving fear,
Nor let me fall, I pray."
One night, at a royal ball, the Prince of Wales asked a titled lady
where the Countess of Huntingdon was. "Oh, I suppose she is praying with
some of her beggars somewhere!" was the flippant answer. "Ah," said the
crown prince, "in the last day I think I should be glad to hold the hem
of Lady Huntingdon's mantle." True it is that the greatest gift of grace
now, as it will be then, is to be numbered among the obedient children
of God.
"Let me among Thy saints be found,
Whene'er the Archangel's trump shall sound,
To see Thy smiling face;
Then joyfully Thy praise I'll sing,
While heaven's resounding mansions ring
With shouts of endless grace."
[Illustration: CHRIST ANSWERING HIS DISCIPLES' QUESTIONS
"When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming,
and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24:3.]
[Illustration: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE FORETOLD
"There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down." Matt. 24:2.]
SIGNS OF THE APPROACHING END
OUR SAVIOUR'S GREAT PROPHECY
Part I
Christ had spoken of the coming desolation of the sacred temple at
Jerusalem. The disciples were astonished. "Master, see," said one, "what
manner of stones and what buildings are here!" The Saviour replied:
"Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone
upon another, that shall not be thrown down" Mark 13:2.
"What Shall be the Sign?"
As soon as they were alone on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city,
the disciples came to Jesus, saying:
"Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy
coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24:3.
Replying to this question, the Saviour spoke first of the fall of
Jerusalem; He foretold in a sentence the experiences of His church
through dark ages to follow; then He described the events of the latter
days, the signs showing His second advent near at hand; and, finally, He
pictured the scenes of His own glorious appearing in the clouds of
heaven. The fullest record of the discourse is found in the
twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew.
A Striking Parallel
The first portion of the prophetic discourse (verses 4-14) deals with
general conditions that were to prevail both in the last days of the
Jewish state, and on a yet larger scale in the course of history leading
to the last days of the world. There was so close a parallel between
these times that Christ, in one description, answered both questions
asked, When shall these things come upon Jerusalem? and, What shall be
the signs of the end of the world?
The prophetic word foretold the rise of false Christs, the coming of
wars, famines, and earthquakes in "divers places." The believers saw
these things fulfilled in that generation before Jerusalem fell; but as
we read the prophecy, we see the wider application and yet larger
fulfilment through the course of history since that day, these
calamities increasing in the earth as the end draws near. Before the end
of the Jewish state, the believers carried the gospel to all the known
world of their day. (See Col. 1:23.) In these latter days we are seeing
the yet wider proclamation of the gospel, as foretold in the fourteenth
verse, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
The Last Days of Jerusalem
We may note briefly some of the events of Jerusalem's last days. Christ
had forewarned the believers:
"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name,
saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."
Having rejected the true Christ, the nation was open to deception by the
false. We catch just a glimpse of the fulfilment in the book of Acts; in
secular history the full story is told. Ridpath says:
"Never was a people so turbulent, so excited with expectation
of a deliverer who should restore the ancient kingdom, so fired
with bigotry and fanaticism, as were the wretched Jews of this
period. One Christ came after another. Revolt was succeeded by
revolt, instigated by some pseudo-prophet or pretended
king."--_"History of the World," Vol. I, p. 849 (Part III,
chap. 19)._
During the Saviour's life and ministry a divine hand had to a great
extent held the elements of violence in check, but as the light was
rejected more and more, the spirit of evil came to hold sway
unrestrained. Dr. Mears well describes the changed conditions in these
words:
"The narrative of the evangelists presents a tranquil scene, a
succession of attractive pictures, in striking contrast to the
bloody and tumultuous events which crowd each other in the
pages of Josephus."--_"From Exile to Overthrow," pp. 256, 257._
Thus the events led rapidly on toward the day of Jerusalem's fall, so
long foretold by the prophets.
The Sign to the Believers
The disciples had asked for a sign, and Christ gave them a token by
which they might know when the time to flee from Jerusalem had come.
Here Luke's Gospel gives the fullest record:
"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the
mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let
not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the
days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled."
Luke 21:20-22.
[Illustration: THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS UNDER TITUS,
A.D. 70
"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh." Luke 21:20.]
The unbelieving in Jerusalem and Judea could not conceive that their
city, so long protected and favored of God, could be destroyed. Not even
the appearance of the Roman armies could shake their blind
self-confidence. But at the first sight of the encircling armies, the
Christians knew that the time for flight was at hand. But how to flee
was the question, with the compassing lines drawn close about the city.
Moreover, the Zealots, the furious war party in power, would be little
likely to allow any number to pass out to the Roman forces.
Just here God's providence made a way of escape. Cestius, the Roman
commander, after having partially undermined one of the temple walls,
suddenly decided to defer pushing the attack. "He retired from the
city," says Josephus, "without any reason in the world." (See "Wars,"
book 2, chap. 19.) And the Zealots flew out after the retiring Romans,
furiously attacking the rear guards.
Then those watching Christians knew that the time for quick flight had
come, according to Christ's prophecy uttered many years before. They
fled out of the city and out of the country round about.
Through all the years, Christ's prophecy had exhorted them, "Pray ye
that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day."
Matt. 24:20. The prayer was answered, for it was in the autumn and on a
week day that the flight was made.[B] Watching for the sign, and
instantly obeying, they were delivered.
Thus it was that when the Romans returned later to the siege, never to
give up till the city fell, none of the Christians were overwhelmed in
its destruction. Even so are we to watch the signs of our own times,
that we may escape those things that are coming upon the earth, and be
ready to "stand before the Son of man."
The Prophetic Word Fulfilled
Christ had declared that the temple, the pride of the nation, would be
utterly destroyed. In the last siege, the Roman commander tried to spare
the magnificent pile. When the Jews made it their chief fortress,
because of its massive strength, Titus remonstrated with them, saying:
"If you will but change the place whereon you fight, no Roman
shall either come near your sanctuary, or offer any affront to
it; nay, I will endeavor to preserve you your holy house,
whether you will or not."--_Josephus, "Wars of the Jews," book
6, chap. 2._
But the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. The people seemed
possessed with fury. The hardened Roman pagans were astonished at their
suicidal rashness. Titus's efforts to save the temple failed, and it
went down in ruin, as Christ had foretold.
[Illustration: A PANEL FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS
Showing the golden candlestick and other sacred vessels of the temple
being carried in triumph through the streets of Rome.]
The disciples of Christ had called His attention to the immense blocks
of stone that composed the temple walls. "See, what manner of stones,"
one said. When Titus examined these same stones, after the fall of the
city, he is said to have declared:
"We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and
it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these
fortifications."[C]--_Id., book 6, chap. 9._
Rather, we would say, in the light of Scripture teaching, the
destruction that came upon the city was but the fruit of its own way.
God's guardian care had long protected the city of David. When His
protection was finally thrust aside and the people put themselves in the
power of the great destroyer, divine justice could no longer save the
city from the judgments that were bound to fall upon persistent
transgression against light.
The lesson is one of those written "for our admonition upon whom the
ends of the world are come." Jerusalem, in that generation of great
light and high privilege, fell because it knew not the time of its
visitation. Still Christ's sad lament bears its warning to the ears of
men: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things which belong unto thy peace!" Luke 19:42.
Part II
Having foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and given to the believers
signs by which they might find deliverance in the day of its overthrow,
Christ yet more fully answered the second part of the disciples'
question, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the
world?" Matt. 24:3.
[Illustration: THE CATACOMBS NEAR ROME
In these underground passages persecuted Christians found a hiding
place, held their services, and buried their dead.]
The Period of Tribulation
Quickly He passed to the events of the latter days. But first He
sketched, in a few words, the tribulations through which His church was
to pass during the intervening centuries. Daniel the prophet had written
of this experience, foretelling the long period during which the papal
power was to "wear out the saints of the Most High." Dan. 7:25. Of these
times, Christ said in His prophetic discourse:
"Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of
the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days
should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's
sake those days shall be shortened." Matt. 24:21, 22.
It is evident that Christ referred to the time of tribulation foretold
by Daniel, not to the trials attending the flight of the Christians from
Jerusalem, for their flight was a deliverance of the elect from trial.
However much the weak may have suffered temporarily in fleeing from
their homes, the great suffering of that time came upon the unbelieving,
who had no shelter.
This prophecy given by our Saviour presents the picture of a
long-continued persecution of His own elect, and foretells the
shortening of the allotted time. God was to intervene in some special
way to save His people. And it was even so. The elect did suffer all
through the centuries of intolerance, until the rise of the Reformation
and the spreading abroad of God's Word broke the power of
ecclesiasticism, thus shortening the days of bitter tribulation.
The End Drawing Near
According to Daniel's further prophecy, the period of trial and
persecution was to reach "even to the time of the end." Dan. 11:35.
Naturally, then, we should look for the signs of the latter days to
begin to appear following these days of tribulation. And so we find the
next words of Christ's discourse introducing the topic of His second
coming. From now on the prophetic outline deals with events leading
down to the end of the age.
First the Saviour utters a warning against false ideas concerning His
second coming. That no theories of a secret coming or of a mystic coming
might deceive the unwary, He says in plain words:
"If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it
not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall
show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they
shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore
if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth:
behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:23-27.
Today we see the need of this warning. Some of the most subtle
deceptions are found in the teaching that Christ has already come,
secretly, or that He comes in the chamber of death, or in the
spiritualistic séance. Against all these errors we are forewarned, as
well as against any agencies that may come showing marvelous signs and
wonders. The close of human probation, the coming of the day of God,
will be as a thief in the night; and Christ's coming itself will
overtake the unwatchful all unprepared. Nevertheless, when He comes,
"every eye shall see Him," and all the glory of heaven will burst upon a
quaking world.
Signs in the Heavens and the Earth
Now the Saviour's outline of prophecy presents the signs which were to
show when the coming of the Lord was near. Referring again to the days
of tribulation foretold by the prophet Daniel, Christ says:
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven." Matt. 24:29,
30.
In Luke's record of the same prophetic discourse, additional signs are
given, describing conditions in the earth as Christ's coming draws near.
His account reads:
"There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and
upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the
waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven
shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to
pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth
nigh." Luke 21:25-28.
Yet again, the prophet John, in the Revelation, foretells these signs in
the sun and moon and stars, as they were presented to him in a vision of
the last days. But his record shows that this series of signs was to be
preceded by a great earthquake. He describes the order of events as
follows:
"I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon
became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a
fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty
wind." Rev. 6:12, 13.
In these scriptures four great signs of Christ's approaching advent are
listed for our study, as follows:
1. The great earthquake.
2. The darkening of the sun and moon.
3. The falling of the stars.
4. Distress of nations, and other signs.
The Time When the Signs Begin
Christ's prophecy points out approximately the time when the first of
the signs that He gave, the darkening of the sun, should
appear,--"immediately after the tribulation of those days." And the
"great earthquake" of John's vision was to precede this sign in the
heavens.
The Reformation of the sixteenth century began to cut short the days of
tribulation; but some countries shut out the liberalizing influences of
the Word of God, and there the persecution continued.
Even as late as near the end of the seventeenth century, in 1685, France
revoked the Edict of Nantes, that had granted toleration, and
persecution raged as of old. The church was driven again to the desert.
Speaking of the early decades of the eighteenth century, Kurtz says:
"In France the persecution of the Huguenots continued.... The
'pastors of the desert' performed their duties at the risk of
their lives."--_"Church History," Vol. III, p. 88._
There was severe persecution of the Moravians in Austria, in these
times, many of the persecuted finding refuge in Saxony. It was in 1722
that Christian David led the first band of Moravian refugees to settle
on the estates of Count Zinzendorf, who organized through them the great
pioneer movement of modern missions.
But by the middle of the century, the era of enlightenment and the force
of world opinion, in the good providence of God, had so permeated the
Catholic states of Europe that general violent persecution had ceased.
One incident will suffice as evidence of this.
The scene was in France, where alone, of all the Catholic states, there
were any great numbers of Protestants. In 1762 a Huguenot of Toulouse,
unjustly charged with crime, was put to torture and to death, under the
pressure of the old persecuting spirit. Many Huguenots thought the
persecutions of former times were reviving, and prepared to flee to
Switzerland. But Voltaire took up the matter, and so wrought upon public
opinion that the Paris parliament reviewed the case, and the king paid
the man's family a large indemnity.
This shows that by the middle of that century the days of any general
persecution had ceased. In the nature of the case, we may not point to
the exact year and say, Here the days of tribulation ended.
From these times, then, we are to scan the record of history to learn if
the appointed signs began to appear. As we look, we find the events
recorded, following on in the order predicted:
1. The Lisbon earthquake, cf 1755.
2. The dark day, cf 1780.
3. The falling stars, cf 1833.
4. General conditions and movements betokening the end.
"There shall be signs," the Saviour said. We are to study the record of
events, watching to catch the signs of the approaching end as earnestly
as the mariner watches the beacon lights when he nears the longed-for
haven on a dark and stormy night.
[Illustration: AN ANCIENT FLOUR MILL
"Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and
the other left." Matt. 24:41.]
FOOTNOTES:
[B] It was in the autumn that the army of Cestius closed in upon
Jerusalem. According to the careful record of Graetz, the Jewish
historian, it was evidently on a Wednesday that the Roman army retired,
pursued by all the forces of the city. This was the instant for the
flight of the Christians. Next day "the Zealots, shouting exultant war
songs, returned to Jerusalem (8th October)."--_"History of the Jews,"
Vol. II, p. 268._ The day before was the time for unhindered flight.
[C] Apollonius, the friend and counselor of Titus, left a similar
testimony to the latter's conviction that there was something
supernatural about the forces of destruction let loose upon Jerusalem:
"After Titus had taken Jerusalem, and when the country all round was
filled with corpses, the neighboring races offered him a crown: but he
disclaimed any such honor to himself, saying that it was not he himself
that had accomplished this exploit, but that he had merely lent his arms
to God, who had so manifested His wrath."--_Philostratus, "Life of
Apollonius," book 6, chap. 29._
[Illustration: LISBON FROM ACROSS THE BAY
The scene of the great earthquake and tidal wave, Nov. 1, 1755, when in
six minutes sixty thousand people perished.]
THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE OF 1755
"Lo, There Was a Great Earthquake"
The first of a series of signs of the approaching end is thus described
by the revelator:
"I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
earthquake." Rev. 6:12.
[Illustration: THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE
"There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers
places." Matt. 24:7.]
The verses immediately preceding this scripture plainly describe the
days of persecution of the saints of God, and the era of protest and
reform that cut short that time of tribulation. Then this first sign
appears. This is in harmony with Christ's statement that the signs of
His second coming should begin to appear following the tribulation of
those days.
Just about the close of the days of tribulation occurred the Lisbon
earthquake, as it is called, though its effects reached far beyond
Portugal. Prof. W.H. Hobbs, geologist, says of it:
"Among the earth movements which in historic times have
affected the kingdom of Portugal, that of Nov. 1, 1755, takes
first rank, as it does, also, in some respects, among all
recorded earthquakes.... In six minutes sixty thousand people
perished."--_"Earthquakes," pp. 142, 143._
"Lo, there was a great earthquake," the revelator said. It was indeed "a
great earthquake," and great was its influence. In all the world, men's
hearts were mightily stirred. James Parton, an English author, says of
it:
"The Lisbon earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, appears to have put
both the theologians and philosophers on the defensive.... At
twenty minutes to ten that morning, Lisbon was firm and
magnificent, on one of the most picturesque and commanding
sites in the world,--a city of superb approach, placed
precisely where every circumstance had concurred to say to the
founders, Build here! In six minutes the city was in ruins....
Half the world felt the convulsion.... For many weeks, as we
see in the letters and memoirs of that time, people in distant
parts of Europe went to bed in alarm, relieved in the morning
to find that they had escaped the fate of Lisbon one night
more."--_"Life of Voltaire," Vol. II, pp. 208, 209._
The World Set to Thinking
This earthquake set men to thinking of the great day of God. Voltaire,
the French philosopher, was "profoundly moved" by it, we are told. "It
was the last judgment for that region," he wrote; "nothing was wanting
to it except the trumpet." More than a month afterward, while still the
perturbations of the earth were continuing, this skeptic wrote a poem
upon the problem presented, voicing the sentiment:
"My heart oppress'd demands
Aid of the God who formed me with his hands.
Sons of the God supreme to suffer all
Fated alike, we on our Father call....
Sad is the present if no future state,
No blissful retribution mortals wait,
If fate's decrees the thinking being doom
To lose existence in the silent tomb.
_All may be well_; that hope can man sustain.
_All now is well_; 'tis an illusion vain.
The sages held me forth delusive light,
Divine instructions only can be right.
Humbly I sigh, submissive suffer pain,
Nor more the ways of Providence arraign."
--"_Poem on the Destruction of Lisbon,_"
_Smollet's translation; Works, Vol. XXXIII, ed. 1761._
Just at the time, plans were under way for the opening of a theater at
Lausanne for the special performance of some of Voltaire's rationalistic
dramas. But the enterprise was deferred. One writer says:
"The earthquake had made all men thoughtful. They mistrusted
their love of the drama, and filled the churches
instead."--_Tallentyre, "Life of Voltaire," p. 319._
So, in an age of rationalism and unbelief, men's thoughts were turned
toward God, and human helplessness and earth's instability were
recognized.
Extent of the Lisbon Earthquake
As to the extent of the earthquake, a writer of the period shows that it
was felt in Sweden and in Africa and in the West Indies, adding:
"The effects were distributed over very nearly four millions of
square English miles of the earth's surface, and greatly
surpassed anything of the kind ever recorded in
history."--_"History and Philosophy of Earthquakes" (London,
1757), p. 333._
The commander of an English ship, lying off Lisbon at the time, thus
described the scene in a letter to the ship's owners:
"Almost all the palaces and large churches were rent down, or
part fallen, and scarce one house of this vast city is left
habitable. Everybody that was not crushed to death ran out into
the large places, and those near the river ran down to save
themselves by boats, or any other floating convenience,
running, crying, and calling to the ships for assistance; but
whilst the multitude were gathered near the riverside, the
water rose to such a height that it overflowed the lower part
of the city, which so terrified the miserable and already
dismayed inhabitants, who ran to and fro with dreadful cries,
which we heard plainly on board, that it made them believe the
dissolution of the world was at hand; every one falling on his
knees and entreating the Almighty for His assistance.... By two
o'clock the ships' boats began to ply, and took multitudes on
board.... The fear, the sorrow, the cries and lamentations of
the poor inhabitants are unexpressible; every one begging
pardon, and embracing each other, crying, Forgive me, friend,
brother, sister! Oh! what will become of us! neither water nor
land will protect us, and the third element, fire, seems now
to threaten our total destruction! as in effect it happened.
The conflagration lasted a whole week."--_Thomas Hunter,
"Historical Account of Earthquakes" (Liverpool, 1756), pp.
72-74._
Recognized as a Sign
Looking down through the ages, the prophet of the Revelation saw the
coming of the latter days, when signs of the approaching end were to
begin to appear. Just there he beheld "a great earthquake." The terrible
event was noted by inspiration as a sign of the coming of the final
judgment. Earthquakes there had been before, and increasing earthquakes
were to follow after,--"earthquakes in divers places,"--as Christ
foretold, speaking of the signs of His second coming. But as befitted
this first of the series of signs of the approaching end, a conviction
from God seemed to come into the hearts of men in that generation, that
this was indeed a token to remind the world of a coming day of doom.
In the year of the disaster, an English poet, John Biddolf, published a
book of verse, pointing some of the lessons of the hour, from which we
quote a few descriptive stanzas:
"Calm was the sky; the sun serenely bright
Shot o'er the sea long dazzling streams of light.
Through orange groves soft breathing breezes play'd
And gathered sweets like bees where'er they stray'd.
In fair relievo stood the lofty town,
Set off by radiant lights and shadows brown.
"Ill-fated city! there were revels kept;
Devoid of fear, they ate, they drank, they slept.
No friendly voice like that of ancient Rome
Was sent to give them warning of their doom:
No airy warriors to each other clung,
Such as 'tis said o'er destin'd Sion hung,
But like a nightly thief their dreadful fate
Unlooked for came and undermined their state....
"Lo, what a sudden change! On ruin's brink
The proud turn humble, and the thoughtless think.
Dark, gloomy sadness overclouds the gay,
And hypocrites for once sincerely pray....
But let it not be thought their horrid deeds
Had pulled this dreadful judgment on their heads,
Or that for crimes too horrible to tell,
Like guilty Sodom, thunderstruck they fell....
"Who can with curious eyes this globe survey,
And not behold it tottering with decay?
All things created, God's designs fulfil,
And natural causes work His destined will.
And that eternal Word, which cannot lie,
To mortals hath revealed in prophecy
That in these latter days such signs should come,
Preludes and prologues to the general doom.
But not the Son of man can tell that day;
Then, lest it find you sleeping, watch and pray."
Thus this first of the predicted latter-day signs bore its message to
men. Its immediate scene was set in the Old World, but its warning was
world-wide. The next sign foretold was to appear in the New World, but
like the Lisbon earthquake, its message of warning was for all men.
[Illustration: THE FLOOD
"So shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:39.]
[Illustration: MIDDAY AT SEA MAY 19, 1780
"Between one and two he was obliged to light a large candle to steer
by." See p. 89.]
[Illustration: SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS
"Can ye not discern the signs of the times?" Matt. 16:3.]
THE DARK DAY OF 1780
"The Sun Shall be Darkened"
We recall that in the vision of latter-day signs given to the prophet
John, he saw the "great earthquake" followed by a sign in the heavens:
"The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as
blood." Rev. 6:12.
Of this event our Saviour spoke, in giving the signs of His second
coming which were to begin to appear following the cutting short of the
days of persecution. We repeat His words:
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." Matt. 24:29.
The Prophecy Fulfilled
True to the order of the prophecy, following the great earthquake of
1755 in Europe, there came, in America, the second sign of the
approaching end, the wonderful darkening of the sun, known in history as
"The Dark Day."
This sign appeared at the time indicated in the prophecy, "immediately
after the tribulation of those days;" or as Mark has it, "in those days,
after that tribulation." On May 19, 1780, the sun was darkened, and the
following night the moon did not give her light. Whatever explanation
men may have to offer as to the cause of the phenomenon, the fact
remains that when the time of the prophecy came, the sign appeared.
The first volume of the "Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences," published in Boston in 1785, contains a paper entitled, "An
Account of a Very Uncommon Darkness in the States of New England, May
19, 1780. By Samuel Williams, A.M., Hollis Professor of Mathematics and
Philosophy in the University at Cambridge [Massachusetts]."
Of the extent, duration, and degree of darkness on that occasion, this
scientific observer said:
"The extent of this darkness was very remarkable.... From the
accounts that have been received, it seems to have extended all
over the New England States. It was observed as far east as
Falmouth [Portland, Maine]. To the westward, we hear of its
reaching to the furthest parts of Connecticut, and Albany. To
the southward, it was observed all along the seacoasts. And to
the north as far as our settlements extend....
"With regard to its duration, it continued in this place at
least fourteen hours: but it is probable this was not exactly
the same in different parts of the country. The appearance and
effects were such as tended to make the prospect extremely dull
and gloomy. Candles were lighted up in the houses; the birds
having sung their evening songs, disappeared, and became
silent; the fowls retired to roost; the cocks were crowing all
around as at break of day; objects could not be distinguished
but at a very little distance; and everything bore the
appearance and gloom of night." (See pages 234-246.)
Whittier has commemorated it in the poem, "Abraham Davenport:"
"'Twas on a May day of the far old year
Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell
Over the bloom and sweet life of the spring,
Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon,
A horror of great darkness....
"Birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls
Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars
Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings
Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died;
Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp
To hear the doom blast of the trumpet shatter
The black sky."
The words of the poet are substantiated by the plain prose of the
dictionary maker. In the department explanatory of "Noted Names,"
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (edition 1883) says:
"_The Dark Day_, May 19, 1780--so called on account of a
remarkable darkness on that day extending over all New
England.... The obscuration began about ten o'clock in the
morning, and continued till the middle of the next night, but
with difference of degree and duration in different places....
The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known."
Cause Unknown
At the time, some explained the darkness as being due to smoke from
forest fires, others to the exceptional rise of vapors and atmospheric
dust in the warm spring following the melting of unusually heavy winter
snows. But forest fires were not of extraordinary occurrence in these
regions, and many a springtime since has seen the melting of heavy
winter snows and the rise of vapors; yet May 19, 1780, still stands
unique in the annals of modern times as "the dark day." However
observers and writers disagreed as to the nature of the mantle of
darkness that was drawn over New England that day, they were _one_ in
recognizing the extraordinary character of the event.
The facts are fully covered by the statement in the dictionary, "The
true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known."
What we do know is that the Saviour's prophecy declared, "Immediately
after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light." And when the time for it came, the sign
appeared.
Contemporary Records
Though the comparatively small-sized newspapers of the day were crowded
with news of the progress of the Revolutionary War, then raging, no
little space was given to reports and discussions of this remarkable
darkening of the sun.
A correspondent of the Boston _Gazette and Country Journal_ (of May 29,
1780) reported observations made at Ipswich Hamlet, Mass., "by several
gentlemen of liberal education:"
"About eleven o'clock the darkness was such as to demand our
attention, and put us upon making observations. At half past
eleven, in a room with three windows, twenty-four panes each,
all open toward the southeast and south, large print could not
be read by persons of good eyes.
"About twelve o'clock, the windows being still open, a candle
cast a shade so well defined on the wall, as that profiles were
taken with as much ease as they could have been in the night.
"About one o'clock a glint of light which had continued to this
time in the east, shut in, and the darkness was greater than it
had been for any time before.... We dined about two, the
windows all open, and two candles burning on the table.
"In the time of the greatest darkness some of the ... fowls
went to their roost. Cocks crowed in answer to one another as
they commonly do in the night. Woodcocks, which are night
birds, whistled as they do _only_ in the dark. Frogs peeped. In
short, there was the appearance of midnight at noonday.
"About three o'clock the light in the west increased, the
motion of the clouds [became] more quick, their color higher
and more brassy than at any time before. There appeared to be
quick flashes or coruscations, not unlike the aurora
borealis.... About half past four our company, which had passed
an unexpected night very cheerfully together, broke up."
Of the night following, this gentleman (then at Salem) wrote:
"Perhaps it never was darker since the children of Israel left
the house of bondage. This gross darkness held till about one
o'clock, although the moon had fulled but the day before."
The Boston _Independent Chronicle_ of June 8 quoted from Thomas's
_Massachusetts Spy_:
"During the whole time a sickly, melancholy gloom overcast the
face of nature. Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon
and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was
almost a full moon, no object was discernible, but by the help
of some artificial light, which when seen from the neighboring
houses and other places at a distance, appeared through a kind
of Egyptian darkness, which seemed almost impervious to the
rays.
"This unusual phenomenon excited the fears and apprehensions of
many people. Some considered it as a portentous omen of the
wrath of Heaven in vengeance denounced against the land, others
as the immediate harbinger of the last day, when 'the sun shall
be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.'"
Not only over the land, but out at sea also, the unnatural darkness of
the day and night of May 19, 1780, was observed. In the _Independent
Chronicle_ of June 15, 1780, a correspondent, telling of interviews with
various observers, said:
"I have also seen a very sensible captain of a vessel, who was
that morning about forty leagues southeast of Boston. He says
the cloud which appeared at the west was the blackest he ever
saw. About eleven o'clock there was a little rain, and it grew
dark. Between one and two he was obliged to light a large
candle to steer by.... Between nine and ten at night, he
ordered his men to take in some of the sails, but it was so
dark that they could not find the way from one mast to the
other."
Thoughts Turned to the Judgment
This writer commented as follows concerning the feelings awakened by the
event:
"Various have been the sentiments of people concerning the
designs of Providence in spreading the unusual darkness over
us. Some suppose it portentous of the last scene. I wish it may
have some good effect on the minds of the wicked, and that they
may be excited to prepare for that solemn day."
The _Independent Chronicle_ of June 22, 1780, printed a letter from Dr.
Samuel Stearns, who had been appealed to because of his knowledge "in
philosophy and astronomy." First, he disposed of one suggestion that had
been made:
"That the darkness was not caused by an eclipse is manifest by
the various positions of the planets of our system at that
time; for the moon was more than one hundred and fifty degrees
from the sun all that day."
Then, in the rather heavy language of the science of that period, this
writer told how the action of the sun's heat was continually projecting
into the atmosphere particles of earthy matter; and in his opinion it
was some "vast collection of such particles that caused the late
uncommon darkness." But as to the real accounting for the phenomenon he
wrote:
"The primary cause must be imputed to Him that walketh through
the circuit of heaven, who stretcheth out the heaven like a
curtain, who maketh the clouds His chariot, who walketh upon
the wings of the wind. It was He, at whose voice the stormy
winds are obedient, that commanded these exhalations to be
collected and condensed together, that with them He might
darken both the day and the night; which darkness was, perhaps,
not only a token of His indignation against the crying
iniquities and abominations of the people, but an omen of some
future destruction."
Thus men's minds were exercised by this sign "in the sun, and in the
moon."
The early records of New York City tell of the interest excited there,
though evidently the darkness was not so marked as it was farther north.
In the Connecticut Legislature
President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, a contemporary, left the
following account of one of the historic incidents of the day:
"The legislature of Connecticut was then in session at
Hartford. A very general opinion prevailed that the day of
judgment was at hand. The house of representatives, being
unable to transact their business, adjourned. A proposal to
adjourn the council [a second legislative body called the
Governor's Council] was under consideration. When the opinion
of Colonel Davenport was asked, he answered, 'I am against an
adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching or it is
not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it
is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that
candles may be brought.'"--_Barber, "Connecticut Historical
Collections," p. 403._
It was this striking incident that Whittier described with the poet's
pen:
"Meanwhile in the old Statehouse, dim as ghosts,
Sat the lawgivers of Connecticut,
Trembling beneath their legislative robes.
'It is the Lord's great day! Let us adjourn,'
Some said; and then, as with one accord,
All eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport.
He rose, slow cleaving with his steady voice
The intolerable hush. 'This well may be
The day of judgment which the world awaits;
But be it so or not, I only know
My present duty, and my Lord's command
To occupy till He come. So at the post
Where He hath set me in His providence
I choose, for one, to meet Him face to face,--
No faithless servant, frightened from my task,
But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls;
And therefore, with all reverence, I would say,
Let God do His work, we will see to ours.
Bring in the candles.'"
Thus, in a manner that arrested the attention of men and put awe and
solemnity into their hearts, with thoughts of the coming of the great
day of God, the first of the predicted signs in the heavens was
revealed.
At a later time, when students of the Bible seemed moved upon
simultaneously, in both Europe and America, to give attention to the
doctrine of Christ's second coming, it was more generally understood
that these signs had come in fulfilment of prophecy.
As we look to the past, we see how truly the tokens of the coming King
began to appear as the church of Christ emerged fully from the long,
dark period of tribulation. A new era was dawning, in which the Lord was
to fill the earth with light before His second appearing, according to
His word to Daniel the prophet:
"Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time
of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased." Dan. 12:4.
At last the time of the end was at hand, and the signs of the latter
days had begun to appear in the earth and in the heavens. The Lord was
preparing to send to all the world the closing gospel message of
Christ's soon coming in glory.
[Illustration: THE GREAT METEORIC SHOWER NOVEMBER 13, 1833
"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her
untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Rev. 6:13.]
[Illustration: A STAR HERALDS HIS FIRST ADVENT
"We have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him." Matt.
2:2.]
THE FALLING STARS OF 1833
"The Stars Shall Fall from Heaven"
A great impetus was given to the study of divine prophecy by the events
of the closing years of the eighteenth century. Observers had seen the
papal power receive a "deadly wound" in the events and effects of the
French Revolution; and it was understood that the world was entering a
new era of enlightenment and liberty.
Bible students began to see more clearly the lesson of the great
outlines of historic prophecy, and hearts were stirred with the
evidences that the coming of the Lord was drawing near. In Europe and
America, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, there was the
beginning of a revival of the study and preaching of the advent idea.
Another Sign in the Heavens
Just here appeared another great sign in the heavens, foretold by the
word of prophecy. Of the sign that was to follow the darkening of the
sun and moon, Christ's prophecy says:
"The stars shall fall from heaven." Matt. 24:29.
The prophet John beheld the spectacle in a vision of the last days, and
described it in these words:
"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her
untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Rev. 6:13.
On Nov. 13, 1833, came the wondrous celestial exhibition of falling
stars, which is listed as one of the most remarkable phenomena of the
astronomical story.
Meteoric displays, swarms of shooting stars, have been observed at
various times all through the ages; but this phenomenon, coming in the
order given by the prophecy, that is, following the darkening of the
sun, constituted the sublime display answering to the pen-picture of the
Apocalypse,--as if all the stars of heaven were falling to the earth.
The essential thing about a sign is that it shall be seen, that the
circumstances of its appearance shall fasten attention. Not in America
alone, but equally in all the civilized world, as a topic of study, this
sign in the heavens commanded the attention of men.
An English scientist, Rev. Thomas Milner, F.R.G.S., wrote:
"The attention of astronomers in Europe, and all over the
world, was, as may be imagined, strongly roused by intelligence
of this celestial display on the Western continent."--_"The
Gallery of Nature" (London, 1852), p. 141._
This writer called it "by far the most splendid display on
record."--_Id., p. 139._
Another English astronomical writer of more recent date says:
"Once for all, then, as the result of the star fall of 1833,
the study of luminous meteors became an integral part of
astronomy."--_Clerke, "History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth
Century," p. 329._
This same work describes the extent of the display as follows:
"On the night of Nov. 12-13, 1833, a tempest of falling stars
broke over the earth. North America bore the brunt of its
pelting. From the Gulf of Mexico to Halifax, until daylight
with some difficulty put an end to the display, the sky was
scored in every direction with shining tracks and illuminated
with majestic fireballs."--_Page 328._
The Spectacle Described
The closest scientific observations were made by Prof. Denison Olmsted,
professor of astronomy at Yale, who wrote in the _American Journal of
Science_:
"The morning of Nov. 13, 1833, was rendered memorable by an
exhibition of the phenomenon called shooting stars, which was
probably more extensive and magnificent than any similar one
hitherto recorded.... Probably no celestial phenomenon has ever
occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was
viewed with so much admiration and delight by one class of
spectators, or with so much astonishment and fear by another
class. For some time after the occurrence, the 'meteoric
phenomenon' was the principal topic of conversation in every
circle."--_Volume XXV (1834), pp. 363, 364._
Prof. Simon Newcomb, the astronomer, declares this phenomenal exhibition
of falling stars "the most remarkable one ever observed." (See
"Astronomy for Everybody," p. 280.)
This was not merely a display of an unusual number of falling stars,
such as Humboldt observed in South America in 1799, or such as we find
recorded of other times before and since. It was a "shower" of falling
stars, just such a spectacle as one must picture from the words of the
prophecy, "And the stars of heaven fell."
The French astronomer Flammarion says of the density of the shower:
"The Boston observer, Olmsted, compared them, at the moment of
maximum, to half the number of flakes which we perceive in the
air during an ordinary shower of snow."--_"Popular Astronomy,"
p. 536._
This affords us a better idea of the scene than the estimate of 34,640
stars an hour, which was made by Professor Olmsted after the rain of the
stars had greatly abated, so that he was able to make an attempt at
counting.
Dr. Humphreys, president of St. John's College, Annapolis, said of the
appearance at the Maryland capital:
"In the words of most, they fell _like flakes of
snow_."--_American Journal of Science, Vol. XXV (1834), p.
372._
Nothing less than this could have presented the counterpart of the
prophetic picture.
Thoughtful hearts were solemnized by the unwonted spectacle. Prof.
Alexander Twining, civil engineer, "late tutor in Yale College," giving
his views as to the nature of the flaming visitants from space, wrote:
"Had they held on their course unabated for three seconds
longer, half a continent must, to all appearance, have been
involved in unheard-of calamity. But that almighty Being who
made the world, and knew its dangers, gave it also its
armature--endowing the atmospheric medium around it with
protecting, no less than with life-sustaining, properties....
"Considered as one of the rare and wonderful displays of the
Creator's preserving care, as well as the terrible magnitude
and power of His agencies, it is not meet that such occurrences
as those of November 13 should leave no more solid and
permanent effect upon the human mind than the impression of a
splendid scene."--_American Journal of Science, Vol. XXVI
(1834), p. 351._
Multitudes felt that the great Creator had spoken to men in this notable
wonder of His heavens. Again and again in the records and reminiscences
of that time, testimony is borne to the fact that observers were
impressed with the likeness of the scene to that described in the divine
prophecy as one of the signs of the end of the world.
The Prophetic Picture Reproduced
The New York _Journal of Commerce_ emphasized the exactness of detail
with which the prophecy described the scene as it appeared in 1833. This
is the apocalyptic picture, as the ancient prophet saw it in vision:
"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her
untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Rev. 6:13.
A correspondent of the _Journal of Commerce_ draws the picture as it was
seen nearly eighteen centuries later, the likeness to the prophetic
description being emphasized in every line:
"No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event like
that of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago
foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of
understanding stars falling to mean falling stars."--_New York
Journal of Commerce, Nov. 14, 1833._
In this connection was noted by the same writer the special
appropriateness of the prophet's figure of the fig tree casting the
green figs in a mighty wind:
"Here is the exactness of the prophet. The falling stars did
not come as if from _several_ trees shaken, but from _one_.
Those which appeared in the east fell toward the east: those
which appeared in the north fell toward the north; those which
appeared in the west fell toward the west; and those which
appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence into the
park) fell toward the south; and they fell not as ripe fruit
falls; far from it; but they _flew_, they were _cast_, like the
unripe fig, which at first refuses to leave the branch; and
when it does break its hold, flies swiftly, straight off,
descending; and in the multitude falling, some cross the track
of others, as they are thrown with more or less force."
Professor Olmsted's long and carefully elaborated account in the
_American Journal of Science_, gave a report from a correspondent in
Bowling Green, Mo., as follows:
"Though there was no moon, when we first observed them; their
brilliancy was so great that we could, at times, read
common-sized print without much difficulty, and the light which
they afforded was much whiter than that of the moon, in the
clearest and coldest night, when the ground is covered with
snow. The air itself, the face of the earth as far as we could
behold it, all the surrounding objects, and the very
countenances of men, wore the aspect and hue of death,
occasioned by the continued, pallid glare of these countless
meteors, which in all their grandeur flamed 'lawless through
the sky.'
"There was a grand and indescribable gloom on all around, an
awe-inspiring sublimity on all above; while--
"'The sanguine flood
Rolled a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven,
And nature's self did seem to totter on the brink of time!'
"... There was scarcely a space in the firmament which was not
filled at every instant with these falling stars, nor on it
could you in general perceive any particular difference in
appearance; still at times they seemed to shower down in
groups--calling to mind the fig tree, casting her untimely figs
when shaken by a mighty wind."--_Volume XXV (1834), p. 382._
[Illustration: THE SIGN OF FIRE
"As this sign of fire in the watchtower was a signal to God's people
anciently to flee from the coming danger (see Jer. 6:1), so the signs
appearing now in the heavens and in the earth are God's signals of
warning to the people of our day."]
A Sign to All the World
It was not in North America alone, but in all the civilized world, that
the attention of men was called to the prophetic word by the discussions
of this event. Thus the English scientific writer, Thomas Milner,
writing for the British public, spoke as follows of the profound
impression made:
"In many districts, the mass of the population were
terror-struck, and the more enlightened were awed at
contemplating so vivid a picture of the apocalyptic image--that
of the stars of heaven falling to the earth, even as a fig tree
casting her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty
wind."--_"The Gallery of Nature" (London, 1852), p. 140._
So the sign in the heavens made its solemn appeal to all the world. It
brought to the multitudes who saw it, thoughts of God and the last great
day. An observer living at the time in Georgia, wrote, "Everybody felt
that it was the judgment, and that the end of the world had come."
Another, in Kentucky, wrote, "In every direction I could hear men,
women, and children screaming, 'The judgment day is come!'"
Rather, it was a signal that the hour of God's judgment was drawing
near. The signs so long foretold were appearing, one by one, to register
their enduring mark on the record of fulfilling prophecy.
Immediately following these times, there began an awakening concerning
the vital Bible doctrine of the second coming of Christ, which has grown
into the definite advent movement that is carrying the gospel message of
preparation for the coming of the Lord to every nation and tongue and
people.
The Sign of 1833 Emphasized by Other Displays
We have mentioned the fact that Humboldt had observed an extraordinary
fall of meteorites in South America, thirty-three years, before, in
1799. And he reported at the time that the oldest inhabitants there had
a recollection of a similar display in 1766.
From these reports, scientists deduced the theory that these showers
were to be expected every thirty-three years. Hence in 1866 they were
watching for a repetition of the 1833 display.
That there was a measure of truth in the deduction was made evident by
an unusual fall of meteorites Nov. 14, 1866. This time Europe was the
scene of the display. But the event was not to be compared with that of
1833. This appears plain from the account of observations made by Sir
Robert Ball and Lord Rosse, the British astronomers.
Sir Robert Ball says that when the meteorites began to fall, he and Lord
Rosse went out upon the wall of the observatory housing Lord Rosse's
great reflecting telescope:
"There, for the next two or three hours, we witnessed a
spectacle which can never fade from my memory. The shooting
stars gradually increased in number until sometimes several
were seen at once."--_"Story of the Heavens," p. 380._
Grand as the spectacle was, it was but a reminder, apparently, of the
star shower of 1833, when not "several" meteorites fell at a time, nor
many, merely, but, as it appeared, "the stars of heaven fell unto the
earth."
However, the spectacle of 1866, which was observed over a great part of
the Old World,[D] served to direct renewed attention to the incomparable
event of 1833, as well as to the prophetic descriptions of the "wonders
in the heavens" (Joel 2:30) which were to appear as the end drew near.
[Illustration: CHRIST'S PROMISE TO RETURN
"I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." John 14:3.]
Textbooks and astronomical works thereupon began to count it as fully
established that every thirty-three years the displays would be
repeated. It was confidently predicted that 1899 would witness a
repetition, possibly on the scale of 1833.
Professor Langley's "New Astronomy" (published in 1888) said:
"The great November shower, which is coming once more in this
century, and which every reader may hope to see toward 1899, is
of particular interest to us as the first whose movements were
subject to analysis."
Chambers's Astronomy, published in 1889, said:
"The meteors of November 13 may be expected to reappear with
great brilliancy in 1899."---_Volume I, p. 635._
But the November date passed in 1899, and the years have passed; and the
wondrous scene of 1833 has not been repeated. Clerke's "History of
Astronomy in the Nineteenth Century" says:
"We can no longer count upon the Leonids [as the meteorites of
1833 were called, because they seemed to fall from a point in
the constellation of Leo]. Their glory, for scenic purposes, is
departed."--_Page 338._
The Lord's Signal to Watch
Thus the wisest astronomical predictions made shortly before 1899, based
upon the apparently recurrent regularity of the phenomenon, failed; but
the predictions of the sure word of prophecy, set down on the sacred
record eighteen centuries before, were fulfilled to the letter.
At the close of the days of the predicted tribulation of the church, the
signs began to appear--the sun was darkened, the moon withheld its
light, and the stars of heaven fell.
The series began at the time specified, the signs came in the order
given in Christ's prophecy. The record of history bears witness that the
prophecy was fulfilled.
It may be that on a yet more awful and universal scale these phenomena
will be seen again in that last shaking of the powers of heaven which is
to attend the rolling back of the heavens as a scroll, the immediate
prelude to Christ's glorious appearing. But Christ's prophecy, at this
point, was not giving a description of events at the very end of the
world, but signs by which it might be known when the end was drawing
near.
As the signs should be recognized, the Saviour intended that those who
loved His appearing should be quickened with hope, and inspired to
hasten to the world with the gospel message preparing the way of the
Lord. The Lord's word for His children was,
"When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your
heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28.
Long ago these signs began to come to pass. Now may the Lord's believing
children well look up and rejoice, knowing that the day of eternal
redemption is indeed nigh at hand.
He Will Come for His Own
In the glad time of the harvest,
In the grand millennial year,
When the King shall take His scepter,
And to judge the world appear,
Earth and sea shall yield their treasure,
All shall stand before the throne;
Just awards will then be given,
When the King shall claim His own.
O the rapture of His people!
Long they've dwelt on earth's low sod,
With their hearts e'er turning homeward,
Rich in faith and love to God.
They will share the life immortal,
They will know as they are known,
They will pass the pearly portal,
When the King shall claim His own.
Long they've toiled within the harvest,
Sown the precious seed with tears;
Soon they'll drop their heavy burdens
In the glad millennial years;
They will share the bliss of heaven,
Nevermore to sigh or moan;
Starry crowns will then be given,
When the King shall claim His own.
We shall greet the loved and loving,
Who have left us lonely here;
Every heartache will be banished
When the Saviour shall appear;
Never grieved with sin or sorrow,
Never weary or alone;
O, we long for that glad morrow
When the King shall claim His own!
--_L.D. Santee._
[Illustration: SATAN OFFERS GOLD, AND THE WORLD STAMPEDES TO ITS
DESTRUCTION
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come
upon you." James 5:1.]
FOOTNOTES:
[D] The display was most brilliant, apparently, in Western Asia. The
veteran missionary, Dr. H.H. Jessup, of the Presbyterian Missionary
College, of Beirut, describes the scene in his "Fifty-Three Years in
Syria:" "On the morning of the fourteenth [November], at three o'clock,
I was roused from a deep sleep by the voice of one of the young men
calling, 'The stars are all coming down.' ... The meteors poured down
like a rain of fire. Many of them were large and varicolored, and left
behind them a long train of fire. One immense green meteor came down
over Lebanon, seeming as large as the moon, and exploded with a large
noise, leaving a green pillar of light in its train. It was vain to
attempt to count them, and the display continued until dawn, when their
light was obscured by the king of day.... The Mohammedans gave the call
to prayer from the minarets, and the common people were in
terror."--_Volume I, pp. 316, 317._
[Illustration: THE MISER
"Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." James 5:3.]
THE MEANING OF PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
"THERE SHALL BE SIGNS ... UPON THE EARTH"
From the specific signs in the heavens, which were to herald the coming
of the latter days and awaken the church to look for its coming Lord,
our Saviour's prophecy passed on to designate certain general conditions
in the world which were to continue until the great day of God comes:
"There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and
upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the
waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven
shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory." Luke 21:25-27.
Among the developments here foretold, and which contribute to the
"distress of nations, with perplexity," we may list the following:
[Illustration: THE ARMING OF THE NATIONS
"Prepare war,... beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning
hooks into spears." Joel 3: 9, 10.]
1. Political Unrest--the Arming of the Nations
Following on closely with the signs in the heavens, there appears also
the awakening to national aspirations and rivalries in Europe, out of
which has grown the arming of the nations. The beginning of the modern
race of armaments may be dated from those stirring and eventful years of
1830 to 1848. We have seen the resources of the soil and the inventive
genius of man devoted to preparations for war on a scale never before
thought of. The prophet Joel foretold these conditions in the last days:
"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles ["the nations," R.V.]: Prepare war,
wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come
up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into
spears: let the weak say, I am strong.... Let the heathen be
wakened.... Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision [or
"cutting off"]: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of
decision." Joel 3: 9-14.
[Illustration: READY FOR THE CONFLICT
"For the day of the Lord is near." Joel 3: 14.
PHOTO FROM UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N.Y.]
Another prophecy forewarns of the "peace and safety" cry that is to be
heard as the end draws near. We are told that many people in the last
days will be saying that swords are to be beaten into plowshares, and
that the nations will cease from war (Isa. 2:3, 4); but the actual
conditions are repeatedly described in prophecy as warlike and perilous.
Thus the revelator saw the closing days:
"The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the
dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldst give reward
unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear
Thy name, small and great; and shouldst destroy them which destroy the
earth." Rev. 11: 18.
[Illustration: A FAITHFUL AND WISE SERVANT
"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." Matt.
24: 42.]
What we see then among the nations proclaims the approaching end.
2. Signs in the Social World
A New Testament prophecy of the latter days says:
"In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of
their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God." 2 Tim. 3: 1-4.
The "perilous times" have come, when, as never before, the world is
pleasure mad.
"Unrestrained passion for pleasure," said M. Comte, editor of the French
_Relèvement Social_, writing just before the European war, is bringing a
terrible train of evils into modern society. Along with it he put "the
hunt for money without regard for means," adding:
"This is the theme which manufacturers, business men, men in
the public administration, continually harp on with ever the
same conviction and ever the same wealth of proof.
"The note is ever the same, and the conclusion identical: _Nous
sommes perdus!_ [We are lost!]"--_Quoted in Record of Christian
Work, July, 1914._
Many agencies for social and temperance reform are rendering the
greatest human service; but for lost humanity the only hope is Christ,
the divine Saviour. With an urgency born of the last call, His gospel is
sounding to a world on the verge of eternity. Yet with divine love
longing to save, the world sweeps on, less and less mindful of eternal
interests. Christ's prophecy foretold it as it is:
"As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe
entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them
all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:
37-39.
Who can look out upon mankind today without the conviction that this
scripture is being fulfilled? The drift is strong toward the world and
away from God; but we are bidden to watch and pray, lest the coming day
find us unprepared.
3. Signs in the Industrial World
Industrial conditions today add their contribution to the "distress of
nations, with perplexity." Through the word of prophecy the Lord long
ago foretold these conditions, with a warning to the careless rich, and
a warning to the laborer and the poor, not to be drawn into contention
over the things of this world, for the Judge is at the door. The
prophecy, it will be seen, refers specifically to latter-day conditions.
[Illustration: "AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?"
A night scene on the Thames embankment, London.]
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come
upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a
witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have
heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the
laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by
fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into
the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth,
and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of
slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist
you.
[Illustration: THE RICH YOUNG MAN
"Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven." Matt. 19: 21.]
"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold,
the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath
long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye
also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned:
behold, the Judge standeth before the door." James 5: 1-9.
There is no need to argue that the issues with which the prophecy deals
are pressing upon the world with ever-increasing perplexity. We quote
but two statements, by men not engaged in agitation, but calmly and
thoughtfully setting down the signs of the times.
The late Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock) wrote a few years ago in the
_Review of Internationalism_:
"The religion of Europe is not Christianity, but the worship of
the god of war.... Unless something is done, the condition of
the poor in Europe will grow worse and worse. It is no use
shutting our eyes. Revolution may not come soon, not probably
in our time, but come it will, and as sure as fate there will
be an explosion such as the world has never seen."
Of the rapid growth of discontent and its propaganda, Mr. Frederick
Townsend Martin, of New York, wrote:
"Fifty years ago there was scarcely a voice of protest; indeed,
there was hardly anything to protest against. Twenty-five years
ago the protest was clear and distinct, and we understood it.
Ten years ago the protest found expression in a dozen weekly
publications, but today the protest is circulated not by
hundreds or thousands of printed copies of books, pamphlets,
magazines, and newspapers, but actually by the million.
"This propaganda of protest has its daily papers that are
distinctive and published for that purpose, and that purpose
only. It has its magazines and tens of thousands of weekly
papers. Only a fool sneers at such a volume of publicity as
that....
"The warnings that hundreds of us are uttering may be ignored.
The squandering may go on, the vulgar bacchanalia may be
prolonged, the poor may have to writhe under the iron heel of
the iron lord--the dance of death may go on until society's E
string snaps, and then the Vesuvius of the underworld will
belch forth its lava of death and destruction."--_Hearst's
Magazine, September, 1913._
Thus hearts grow faint "for looking after those things which are coming
on the earth." But while the increasing "distress of nations, with
perplexity," abounds, the Lord sends the steadying, assuring message
that soon Christ will come to end the reign of sin and strife. He would
have His children keep the gospel light glowing, and wait patiently for
Him.
4. The Great Missionary Movement
The Saviour's prophecy of the signs of His second coming places the work
of world evangelization as the culminating sign. This in itself is a
joyful token of the approaching end, a bright signal of hope in a
suffering world. He said:
"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24: 14.
Before the end, the light of the gospel was to shine into every dark
corner of the earth. True to the sure word of prophecy, when the latter
days began,--"the time of the end,"--there sprang up the great movement
of modern missions which has been one of the leading characteristics of
the last century. Here are a few facts showing the missionary
developments of a single century:
"In 1800 the foreign missionary societies numbered seven. In
1900 they numbered over 500.
"In 1800 the income of seven societies amounted to about
$50,000. In 1900 the income was over $15,000,000.
"In 1800 the number of native communicants enrolled in
Protestant mission churches was 7,000. In 1900 there were
1,500,000 native communicants.
"In 1800 the adherents of Protestant churches in heathen lands
were estimated at 15,000. In 1900 they numbered 3,500,000.
"In 1800 only one fifth of the human family had the Bible in
languages they could read. In 1900 nine tenths of the people of
the world had the Word of God in languages and dialects known
to them."
Since 1900 the missionary movement has remarkably increased in extent
and activity. It is estimated that now there are about 22,000 foreign
missionaries in the fields, with many thousands of trained native
evangelists and helpers.
The prophecy is fulfilling before our eyes. It is not the conversion of
the world that Christ's words foretold, but the evangelization of the
world; and when all the world has heard the gospel of the kingdom, "then
shall the end come."
Another prophecy--that of Rev. 14: 6-14--shows that the closing phase of
this world-wide missionary movement is to be the proclamation of the
special gospel message of preparation for the coming of the Lord,
calling all men to worship God and keep His commandments, and warning
them against following the traditions of men that make void the Word of
God.
[Illustration: THE SUNSET HOUR
"The work that centuries might have done Must crowd the hour of setting
sun."]
With the coming of this generation there has come just such a message,
in the rise and progress of the advent movement, the burden of the
message being expressed in the very language of the prophecy--"Fear God,
and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." Rev. 14:
7. And the movement is spreading rapidly "to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people." Thus in vision the prophet on Patmes heard the
message given; and when its warning cry had reached all nations, he saw
Christ coming in the clouds of heaven to reap the harvest of the earth.
"Even at the Doors"
Of the beginning of the special signs of the last days, Christ said:
"When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your
heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21: 28.
But of the time when these signs should all be seen fulfilled or in
process of fulfilment, the Saviour said:
"Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender, and
putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when
ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these
things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words
shall not pass away." Matt. 24: 32-35.
In this generation we see these things. All about us the signs have
appeared. We know, then, by the word that shall not pass away, that the
generation has at last appeared that is to see the Saviour coming in
power and great glory. "Of that day and hour knoweth no man," but we may
know "that it is near, even at the doors"--the day for which the saints
of God have hoped through all the ages.
[Illustration: PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH
"Understandest thou what thou readest?" Acts 8:30.]
[Illustration: THE ROYAL PALACE OF BABYLON
"The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and
glory." Dan. 2:37]
THE HISTORIC PROPHECY OF DANIEL 7
FOUR GREAT UNIVERSAL EMPIRES
Part I
So important is it that we understand the events leading on to the end,
that repeatedly the "sure word of prophecy" outlines the course of this
world's history, and sets up waymarks along the highway to the
everlasting kingdom.
In the light of prophecy we see the hand of God guiding and overruling
through all history, shaping events for the carrying out of His purpose
to end the reign of sin and to bring in the reign of eternal
righteousness. His prophetic word foretells events of history, that we
may know that He is the living God over all, and that we may understand
that the divine purpose will surely be fulfilled. Above a wicked world
there is a God in heaven, waiting only the appointed time for the
accomplishment of His purposes.
"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.... I have
spoken it, I also will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also
do it.... My salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in
Zion." Isa. 46:9-13.
In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, recorded in the second chapter of
Daniel, the Lord revealed in brief but graphic outline the course of
history from the days of Babylon to the end of the world. The four great
universal monarchies,--Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome--were
represented by the various parts of the metallic image. That prophecy
described particularly the division of the Roman Empire into the
kingdoms of western Europe. "In the days of these kings," declared the
word of the Lord, the God of heaven was to set up His kingdom, bringing
an end to all earthly powers.
In the seventh chapter we are taken over the same course of history, in
Daniel's vision of the four beasts. Here also chief attention is devoted
to the fourth great kingdom; and especially to its divided state; for
the events taking place at this time are of the deepest eternal interest
to all men.
In this vision Daniel saw four universal empires represented by great
beasts. One after another the symbolic beasts arose, did their work, and
gave place to the next scenes in the history. The angel clearly
explained to Daniel the meaning of the vision:
"These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise
out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the
kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever."
Of necessity, then, it is a repetition of the story of the four
universal monarchies dealt with in the second chapter, and ending with
the setting up of the everlasting kingdom.
Let us place the view given the prophet in vision alongside the record
of history.
First, however, a word as to the manner in which the great beasts
appeared to the prophet:
"I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven
strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea,
diverse one from another."
Again and again, in the figurative language of Scripture, winds are used
as the symbol for wars; and the sea, or waters, for nations or peoples.
(See Jer. 25:31-33; Rev. 17:15.) The prophet saw the clashing of the
nations in war, and out of these conflicts arose the kingdoms described
in the prophecy.
[Illustration: THE FIRST BEAST
"The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings." Dan. 7:4.]
Babylon
Note the prophetic picture of the prophecy and the corresponding
representation in history.
_Prophecy._--"The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld
till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the
earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was
given to it."
_History._--As the lion is king of beasts, it was a fitting symbol of
Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms." Isa. 13:19. The eagle's wings suggest
rapidity of movement and far-reaching conquest. The prophet Habakkuk
said of it, "Their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the
eagle." This was the characteristic of Babylon under the earlier kings,
but especially under Nebuchadnezzar. Berosus, the ancient Chaldean
historian, wrote of him:
"This Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and Phenicia,
and Arabia; and exceeded in his exploits all that had reigned
before him in Babylon." (See Flavius Josephus "Against Apion,"
book 1, par. 19.)
[Illustration: THE SECOND BEAST
"And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear." Dan. 7:5.]
But now, at the time of Daniel's vision, degeneracy had come; the empire
was tottering. The lion heart was gone, the eagle's wings were plucked,
and within three years from the time the vision was given, Babylon was
overthrown.
Medo-Persia
As the dominion passed from Babylon to the next great power, the prophet
says:
_Prophecy._--"Behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it
raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it
between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much
flesh."
_History._--The Medes and Persians overthrew Babylon. Medo-Persia was a
dual kingdom, lifting itself up on one side, first the Median branch the
stronger, then the Persian, under Cyrus and his successors, rising
higher. This two-sided characteristic, noted as a distinguishing mark in
the prophecy, was emphasized by the ancient writers also. Æschylus, the
Greek poet, who lived in the time of Persia, wrote:
"Asia's brave host,
A Mede first led. The virtues of his son
Fixed firm the empire....
... Cyrus third, by fortune graced,
Adorned the throne."
--"_Persoe._"
The word spoken in the vision, "Arise, devour much flesh," describes the
history from the time when the Persian side rose uppermost. Rawlinson
says, "Cyrus proceeded with scarcely a pause on a long career of
conquest."
An alliance against Persia was formed by Lydia, Egypt, and Babylon
(Herodotus 1:77); and as these three great provinces were subdued, they
may well be represented by the three ribs in the mouth of the
Medo-Persian bear.
Grecia
Yet another kingdom was to follow, and strikingly the symbol pictures
the characteristics of the Greek conquest.
_Prophecy._--"After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which
had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; and the beast had also
four heads; and dominion was given to it."
_History._--The third kingdom was Grecia. Under Alexander the Great, the
Greeks swept into Asia with the quickness of the leopard's spring. And
the four wings on the leopard must represent astonishing fleetness.
Plutarch speaks of the "incredible swiftness" of Alexander's conquests.
Appian wrote:
"The empire of Alexander was splendid in its magnitude, in its
armies, in the success and rapidity of its conquests, and it
wanted little of being boundless and unexampled, yet in its
shortness of duration it was like a brilliant flash of
lightning. Although broken into several satrapies, even the
parts were splendid."--_"History of Rome," preface, par. 10._
[Illustration: THE THIRD BEAST
"After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard." Dan. 7:6.]
Thus the ancient Roman writer pictured the career of Grecia just as
represented by the prophetic symbol--the fleetness, the great dominion
given it, the division of the empire into satrapies, as suggested by the
four heads of the leopard. Out of the conflicts following Alexander's
death, there came the fourfold headship of the empire. Rawlinson says,
"A quadripartite division of Alexander's domain was recognized." (See
"Sixth Monarchy," chap. 3.) The real situation is best represented, as
Dr. Albert Barnes says, by "one animal with four heads," just as the
prophetic symbol described it centuries before.
Thus the course of empire followed the outline of the "sure word of
prophecy" from age to age.
"Armies were ranged in battle's dread array:
They fought--their glory withered in its bud;
They perished--with them ceased their tyrants' sway;
New wars, new heroes came--their story passed away."
There was to be no abiding kingdom till the time came for God's glorious
kingdom to be set up.
[Illustration: THE FOURTH BEAST
"After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast,
dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly." Dan. 7:7.]
Rome
As the prophet watched the moving panorama of history, foretold in
symbols, he said:
_Prophecy._--"After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth
beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great
iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue
with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were
before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold,
there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were
three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this
horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great
things."
[Illustration: ROME ON THE TIBER
The palace of the Cæsars appears high on the hill at the left.]
_History._--As the iron of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream fitly
represented the "iron monarchy of Rome," so here the dreadful beast,
with its iron teeth, can be none other than Rome, which followed Grecia
in world dominion. It was the most powerful, the most dominating, of all
the beasts in the prophetic series. A Roman Catholic writer, Cardinal
Manning, compresses into a paragraph the correspondence of history to
the likeness of the prophecy:
[Illustration: BATTLE OF ZAMA, B.C. 202
By which Rome broke the power of Carthage, its rival, and "began the
conquest of the world."]
"The legions of Rome occupied the circumference of the world.
The military roads which sprang from Rome traversed all the
earth; the whole world was, as it were, held in peace and in
tranquillity by the universal presence of this mighty heathen
empire. It was 'exceedingly terrible,' according to the
prophecies of Daniel; it was as it were of iron, beating down
and subduing the nations."--_"The Temporal Power of the Pope"
(London, 1862), p. 122._
Thus far every symbol of the prophet's vision finds its exact and clear
counterpart in history. A writer living in the third century, in the
days of imperial Rome, rejoiced to see how exactly the prophecy was
being fulfilled. Hippolytus (counted a saint by the Catholic Church)
wrote:
"Rejoice, blessed Daniel! thou hast not been in error! All
these things have come to pass. After this again thou hast told
us of the beast, dreadful and terrible. It has iron teeth and
claws of brass; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped
the residue with the feet of it. Already the iron rules;
already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already it brings
all the unwilling into subjection; already we see these things
ourselves. Now we glorify God, being instructed by
thee."--_"Treatise on Christ and Antichrist," sec. 33._
Now the prophetic outline comes to the time of the division of the Roman
Empire, introducing events of deepest personal interest to us today.
Part II
The Fourth Kingdom and the "Little Horn"
It was the fourth great monarchy, Imperial Rome, and the events to
follow it, that engaged the anxious inquiry of the prophet. He says:
"Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from
all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his
nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue
with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the
other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that
had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more
stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the
saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and
judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came
that the saints possessed the kingdom."
The prophet wanted to know the truth about it; and the angel told him
the truth. First, the angel said:
"The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be
diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall
tread it down, and break it in pieces."
The fourth kingdom, as we have seen, was Rome. As Cardinal Manning said
of the empire, "It was 'exceeding terrible,' according to the prophecies
of Daniel; it was as it were of iron, breaking down and subduing the
nations."
Of the ten horns that arose out of this fourth great empire, the angel
said:
"The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and
another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first,
and he shall subdue three kings."
We look to the history of the Roman Empire, and what do we see?--Just
the picture of the prophecy. We see the original Roman Empire of the
West divided into lesser kingdoms. We see the barbarian peoples of the
North sweeping down upon the empire, breaking it up, and establishing
within its boundaries the various kingdoms that are to this day
represented by the kingdoms of western Europe.
And as we watch the history at this point, we surely see "another little
horn," another land of power, rising among the horns representing the
kingdoms of divided Rome--a kingdom, yet a kingdom "diverse" from the
others. The work of this power riveted the attention of the prophet; and
it is of the greatest importance that we also should watch closely to
catch the lesson of the divine prophecy.
Prophetic and Historic Pictures of the "Little Horn"
This is plainly the picture presented by the prophet, as we look again,
observing details more closely.
The prophet beheld the division of the Roman Empire into lesser
kingdoms. Then, springing up among these kingdoms, he saw the
little-horn power subduing three of the ten kingdoms, speaking great
words, and making war with the saints of God. It was to be a religious
power, then, ruling among the kings of the earth, and asserting
religious dominion over the faith and consciences of men. "The same horn
made war with the saints, and prevailed against them."
[Illustration: THE INVASION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY THE HUNS
"We see the barbarian peoples of the North sweeping down upon the
empire, breaking it up, and establishing within its boundaries the
various kingdoms that are to this day represented by the kingdoms of
Western Europe."--_Page 127._]
We look to history, and this is what plainly appears:
We see, as described in the prophecy, a time when ten contemporaneous
kingdoms filled the territory of the original Western Empire. Just there
we see an ecclesiastical kingly power rise to religious supremacy--the
Roman Papacy. We see, through its influence, three of the ten kingdoms
overthrown, "plucked up by the roots"--three Arian or heretical
kingdoms. And as we watch the history, we find this power making "war
with the saints" and prevailing against them through long ages.
A Roman Catholic writer describes it in a paragraph:
"Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western
emperors was left to the mercy of the barbarous hordes, the
Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked
him to rule them; and thus, in this simple manner, the best
title of all to kingly right, commenced the temporal
sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of
Cæsar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the
emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through
so many ages."--_Rev. James P. Conroy, in American Catholic
Quarterly Review, April, 1911._
Yet again we look at the picture presented in prophecy. Then we turn to
history; and precisely where and when the prophet saw the "little horn"
coming up, we see the Roman Papacy rising to supremacy. We see this
ecclesiastical power wielding a kingly scepter among the kingdoms of
divided Rome, exalting itself above them, with a look "more stout than
his fellows." We hear it speaking great words, and we see it carrying on
warfare against the saints.
Clearly, there was no other power in history, rising at that time and in
that place, which suggests the slightest correspondence to the prophecy.
In every detail the Roman Papacy does correspond to it.
The prophetic outline has brought us to the rise of the great apostasy,
so fully dealt with in the New Testament prophecy; but there are further
specifications in this prophecy of the seventh of Daniel which demand
brief study.
[Illustration: RAISING THE SIEGE OF ROME, A.D. 538
The crushing defeat of the Goths by the armies of Justinian, who placed
Vigilius in the papal chair under the military protection of his famous
general, Belisarius.]
[Illustration: ST. PETER'S AND THE VATICAN
The magnificent headquarters of the papal system.]
THE 1260 YEARS OF DANIEL'S PROPHECY
Compressed into forty-four words, the age-long story of the workings of
the Roman Papacy is thus told by the angel who interpreted Daniel's
vision of the little horn:
"He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out
the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and
they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the
dividing of time." Dan. 7:25.
The spirit of this apostasy was abroad in apostolic days. "The mystery
of iniquity doth already work," said the apostle Paul. 2 Thess. 2:7. And
this power is to continue to work until the end, when it will be
destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. Verse 8.
A Prophetic Period
But according to the word of the angel to Daniel, there was to be a
period during which, in a special sense, the Papacy was to hold
supremacy over the saints and the times and the laws of the Most High.
"They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the
dividing of time." In the Scriptures the word "time," used in this
manner, means a year: "at the end of times, even years." Dan. 11:13,
margin. Therefore a time (one year) and times (two years) and the
dividing of time (half a year) means three years and a half. The same
period is mentioned twice in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, once
(verse 14) as "a time, and times, and half a time," and again (verse 6)
as "a thousand two hundred and threescore days."
[Illustration]
But in the symbolic representations of time in prophecy, a day stands
for a year (see Eze. 4:5, 6, and other scriptures). Thus the prophecy
foretold a long period of 1260 years during which papal supremacy would
continue.
Now we may ask, When was this supremacy to begin? what would mark the
rise of the Papacy to acknowledged supremacy? and what events mark the
ending of the 1260 years?
A Pivotal Point in History
The answer of history to the voice of prophecy is clear.
The sixth century was a pivotal period in the history of the world. The
bishops of Rome had been asserting the claims of that seat (or "see")
above all others. Justinian was emperor of the East. Of Justinian and
his time Bury says:
"He may be likened to a colossal Janus bestriding the way of
passage between the ancient and medieval worlds.... His
military achievements decided the course of the history of
Italy, and affected the development of Western Europe;... and
his ecclesiastical authority influenced the distant future of
Christendom."--_"History of the Later Roman Empire," Vol. I,
pp. 351-353._
Of this turning point in the world's history, Finlay says:
"The changes of centuries passed in rapid succession before the
eyes of one generation."--_"Greece under the Romans," p. 231._
Just here we find the Papacy lifted definitely into acknowledged
supremacy. Imperial Rome had already left its ancient seat to the
Papacy, the imperial throne being no longer maintained at Rome. The
Bishop of Rome was left the chief figure in the ancient seat of the
Cæsars. The prophecy of Rev. 13:2 had said of the relation of the old
imperial power to the Papacy, "The dragon gave him his power, and his
seat, and great authority." The seat was given, and now imperial Rome
was to give to papal Rome the definite recognition of its supreme power
and "great authority."
Papal Supremacy Officially Recognized
In A.D. 533 the emperor Justinian promulgated a letter, having
the force of an imperial decree, recognizing the absolute headship of
the Bishop of Rome over the churches. It declared:
"We have been sedulous to subject and unite all the priests of
the Orient throughout its whole extent to the see of Your
Holiness.... For we do not suffer that anything which is
mooted, however clear and unquestionable, pertaining to the
state of the churches, should fail to be made known to Your
Holiness, as being the head of all the churches. For, as we
have said before, we are zealous for the increase of the honor
and authority of your see in all respects."--_Cod. Justin.,
lib. 1, title 1, Baronii "Annales Ecclesiastici," Tom. VII, an.
533, sec. 12 (Translation as given in "The Petrine Claims," by
R.F. Littledale, p. 293)._
From this decree (for such it really was) the Roman authorities date the
official recognition of the supremacy of the Papacy. Some have taken a
later decree by Emperor Phocas (A.D. 606) as a starting point.
But Dr. Croly says:
"The highest authorities among the civilians and annalists of
Rome spurn the idea that Phocas was the founder of the
supremacy of Rome; they ascend to Justinian as the only
legitimate source, and rightly date the title from the
memorable year 533."--_"The Apocalypse of St. John," pp. 172,
173._
The Sword of Empire Cleaves the Way
The "great authority" had been recognized. But at this time heretical
Arian powers compassed the papal seat about. The Arian Vandals were
persecuting Catholics in Africa, Corsica, and Sardinia, and an Arian
Gothic king ruled Italy from Ravenna, his capital. The imperial arms,
however, were at the service of orthodoxy. In 533-534 Justinian's
famous general, Belisarius, uprooted the Vandals. The war for the faith
and the empire was carried into Italy also, against the Arian Goths. In
536 Belisarius, unopposed, entered Rome at the invitation of the Pope.
But the next year the Goths rallied all their forces to retake the city.
It was a crisis in the struggle for Italy. "If a single post had given
way," says Gibbon, "the Romans, and Rome itself, were irrecoverably
lost." The Goths withdrew, defeated, in 538; and this defeat, says
Hodgkin, dug "the grave of the Gothic monarchy in Italy."
[Illustration: THE POPE ENTERING ST. PETER'S FROM THE VATICAN
The famous statue of St. Peter may be seen on the right.]
Though the conflict went on for years before the Goths were rooted up,
this defeat of 538 was a crucial hour in their history. Finlay says:
"With the conquest of Rome by Belisarius, the history of the
ancient city may be considered as terminating; and with his
defense against Witiges [538] commences the history of the
Middle Ages."--_"Greece under the Romans," p 295._
Roughly speaking, the Middle Ages and the age of papal supremacy and
power were the same.
A New Order of Popes
[Illustration: THE VATICAN
A bird's-eye view from the dome of St. Peter's. COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD &
UNDERWOOD, N.Y.]
Not only was there this telling stroke by the imperial sword in 538,
helping to clear the way before the Papacy, but at this same time the
first of a new order of popes was placed upon the papal throne by the
imperial arms. Pope Silverius, accused of sympathy with the Goths, was
deposed by Belisarius in 537. The emperor intervened, and the question
of the validity of his deposition was held up by the emperor until 538.
In that year, as Schaff says:
"Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the papal
chair under the military protection of Belisarius
(538-554)."--_"History of the Christian Church," Vol. III, p.
327._
[Illustration: THE FAMOUS SACRED STAIRWAY IN ROME
Here Luther, climbing the stairway on his knees, heard the message, "The
just shall live by faith."]
With him begins a new order. Though personally he was humiliated by the
emperor's demands, and the Papacy itself was brought into a state of
subjection that it had not known even under heretical Gothic kings, yet
this very arbitrary use of the papal prerogative by Justinian,
strengthened the idea that the Pope of Rome was the supreme authority
in religion, to speak for the universal church. In Bemont and Monod's
textbook on "Medieval Europe," page 120, we read:
"Down to the sixth century all popes are declared saints in the
martyrologies. Vigilius (537[E]-555) is the first of a series
of popes who no longer bear this title, which is henceforth
sparingly conferred. From this time on the popes, more and more
involved in worldly events, no longer belong solely to the
church; they are men of the state, and then rulers of the
state."
A Persecuting Power
Following Vigilius came Pelagius I (556-560), who ascended the throne by
"the military aid of Narses," then the imperial general in Italy. And
Pelagius, who had been set in the papal see by imperial power, began to
demand that the sword of the empire should be used against bishops or
members in the church who did not give way to the authority of the Pope.
His letters on this subject "are an unqualified defense of the
principles of persecution." (See "Dictionary of Christian Biography," by
Smith and Wace, art. "Pope Pelagius.")
The prophecy declared that the Papacy would be given special supremacy
during a period of 1260 years.
In A.D. 533 came the memorable imperial declaration recognizing
that supremacy, and in A.D. 538 came the stroke with the sword
of Rome, cleaving the way; and there began the new order of popes--"men
of the state, and then rulers of the state."
Thus decisive events clearly mark the beginning of the prophetic period
of the 1260 years. And just 1260 years from the decree of 533, in
recognition of the papal supremacy, came a decree, in 1793, aimed
against that supremacy; and just 1260 years from that stroke with the
sword at Rome in behalf of the Papacy, came a stroke with the sword at
Rome against the Papacy.
[Illustration: STORMING OF THE BASTILLE PRISON IN PARIS
An event in the French Revolution which marked the ending of the old
autocratic order.]
FOOTNOTES:
[E] The exact date should be 538, as given in the quotation from
Schaff's history. "From the death of Silverius [June, 538] the Roman
Catholic writers date the episcopacy of Vigilius."--_Bower, "History of
the Popes," under year 538._
[Illustration: TAKING THE POPE PRISONER
This was accomplished by Berthier, the French general, in 1798.]
THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA
THE END OF THE 1260 YEARS
As the generation in which the papal power rose to supremacy was a
turning-point in the history of the world, so, too, was the generation
in which the 1260 years of its supremacy came to an end.
This measuring line of prophecy does more than run from date to date. It
connects two great crises in human history, the events of the first
tending to establish the papal rule over men, the events of the second
signalizing a breaking of those bands.
A Crisis in History
Papal supremacy came at that time of which Finlay says, "The changes of
centuries passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one generation."
The measuring line of 1260 years runs on through the centuries till, lo,
its end touches another time of crisis,--Europe in the convulsions of
the French Revolution, when again changes, ordinarily requiring
centuries, were wrought out before the eyes of men within the space of a
few years. Lamartine wrote of that time:
"These five years are five centuries for France."--_"History of
the Girondists," book 61, sec. 16 (Vol. III), p. 544._
And the events of these times proclaimed the prophetic period of papal
supremacy ended at last.
Thus, in A.D. 533 came the notable decree of the Papacy's
powerful supporter, recognizing its supremacy; and then the decisive
stroke by the sword at Rome in A.D. 538, cleaving the way for
the new order of popes--the rulers of state.
Exactly 1260 years later, in 1793, came the notable decree of the
Papacy's once powerful supporter, France,--"the eldest son of the
church,"--aiming to abolish church and religion, followed by a decisive
stroke with the sword at Rome against the Papacy, in 1798.
Significant Events of the French Revolution
Of the decree of 1793, W.H. Hutton says:--
"On Nov. 26, 1793, the Convention, of which seventeen bishops
and some clergy were members, decreed the abolition of all
religion."--_"Age of Revolution," p. 156._
The frenzy of the days of the Terror presented the spectacle of outraged
humanity, goaded to desperation by centuries of oppression in the name
of religion and divine right, rising up and madly breaking every
restraint. Because in the minds of the people the Papacy stood for
religion, they blindly struck at religion itself, and at God, in whose
name the papal church had done its cruel work through the centuries.
In the prophecy of Rev. 11:3-13 these events of the wild days of the
French Revolution are specifically referred to as coming at the close of
the prophetic period of the 1260 years. The prophetic picture was so
clear that over a hundred years before the time, Jurieu, an eminent
French student of prophecy, wrote that he could "not doubt that 'tis
France," the chief supporter of the Papacy, that would give the shock
as of an earthquake to the great spiritual Babylonian city. He wrote of
France, one of the ten parts of divided Rome:
"This tenth part of the city shall fall, with respect to the
Papacy; it shall break with Rome, and the Roman
religion."--_"The Accomplishment of the Prophecies" (London,
1687), part 2, p. 265._
And so it came to pass. Far beyond France the movement reached. Canon
Trevor says of the wave of revolt against absolutism that passed over
Europe:
"It is worthy of observation that only those nations which
eschewed popery were able to resist the tide. Every throne and
every church, without exception, that owned the supremacy of
Rome, was prostrated in the dust."--_"Rome and Its Papal
Rulers," p. 436._
The decree of the French Convention in 1793 was followed by the stroke
with the sword at Rome in 1798. The full history is told in fewest words
by a Roman Catholic writer, Rev. Joseph Rickaby, of the Jesuit Society:
"When, in 1797, Pope Pius VI fell grievously ill, Napoleon gave
orders that in the event of his death no successor should be
elected to his office, and that the Papacy should be
discontinued.
"But the Pope recovered. The peace was soon broken; Berthier
entered Rome on the tenth of February, 1798, and proclaimed a
republic. The aged pontiff refused to violate his oath by
recognizing it, and was hurried from prison to prison in
France. Broken with fatigue and sorrows, he died on the
nineteenth of August, 1799, in the French fortress of Valence,
aged eighty-two years. No wonder that half Europe thought
Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the
Papacy was dead."--_"The Modern Papacy," p. 1 (Catholic Truth
Society, London)._
These events of the French Revolution marked the ending of the prophetic
period of papal supremacy. A "deadly wound" had been given the Papacy.
And the blow with the sword at Rome was struck in 1798, just 1260 years
from the year 538, when the sword of empire struck that decisive blow
against the Goths at Rome, and prepared the way for the new order of
popes, the kingly rulers of church and state.
Of the condition of the Papacy at this time Canon Trevor says:
"The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of its existence
remained; and among all the Roman Catholic powers not a finger
was stirred in its defense. The Eternal City had no longer
prince or pontiff; its bishop was a dying captive in foreign
lands; and the decree was already announced that no successor
would be allowed in his place."--_"Rome and Its Papal Rulers,"
p. 440._
"No wonder that half Europe," the Jesuit writer says, "thought
Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the Papacy was
dead." But he adds that "since then the Papacy has been lifted to a
pinnacle of spiritual power" unreached before.
The stroke dealt the Papacy by the French Revolution was not to be the
ending of it, by any means, according to the prophecy. These events
proclaimed the ending of the prophetic period of special supremacy.
Another prophecy distinctly indicates that following the deadly blow
there would come a revival of the Papacy's influence, just as the
Catholic writer describes it. The prophet John, speaking of this same
power, says:
"I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly
wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.... And
they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is
able to make war with him?" Rev. 13:3, 4.
We see the healing process still going on, with evidences multiplying
that the world is more and more wondering after the papal power.
A New Era of Liberty and Enlightenment
With the ending of the 1260 years of papal supremacy, a new order was
ushered in. The Papacy had stood for absolutism in state as well as
church. Now the power of absolutism was broken. "Absolute monarchy,"
Edmund Burke said at the time, "breathed its last without a struggle."
There came the dawn of an era of greater religious liberty and
enlightenment, that has spread blessings over all lands.
The prophecy had said of the Papacy, that the saints and the times and
laws of the Most High were to be "given into his hand" for 1260 years.
As foretold in Christ's prophecy (Matt. 24:22), these days of the
tribulation of God's saints were "shortened." The power of the
Reformation weakened the oppressing hand, even before the prophetic
period ran out. And when the full 1260 years closed, the world saw the
grip of that papal hand yet further loosened, and God's providence at
work preparing the way for a world-wide proclamation of His gospel,
bearing witness against the perversions of the papal apostasy, and
restoring to men the Word and laws of the Most High.
The record of history witnesses that this time prophecy of the 1260
years of papal supremacy was exactly fulfilled. The Lord speaks in
prophecy that men may know that He is the living God. In these time
prophecies of His Word, He gives assurance not only that this troubled
world has not escaped from the hand of its Maker, but that its times are
in His hand also; and that when the time of His divine purpose fully
comes, He will surely cut His work short in righteousness, and end the
reign of sin on earth.
As the prophetic period of Dan. 7:25 meets its fulfilment in the history
of the Papacy, even so, we shall see, the work of the Roman Church
answers to the further specifications regarding the doings of this
"little horn" of Daniel's prophecy.
[Illustration: THE TRIPLE CROWN
The Pope's Tiara, from a photograph taken in the Vatican at Rome.]
[Illustration: HUGUENOTS IN PRISON FOR THEIR FAITH
"Others had trial ... of bonds and imprisonment." Heb. 11:36.]
THE WORK OF THE "LITTLE HORN" POWER
The prophetic picture of the rise and work of the "little horn" finds
its exact counterpart in the history of the Roman Papacy:
_The Place._--The little horn was seen by the prophet rising in the
field of the Roman Empire. That was the very place where the great
kingdom of the Papacy appeared, taking the name of Roman.
_The Time._--The rise of the ecclesiastical kingdom of the little-horn
power in the prophecy followed the breaking up of the Roman Empire into
the ten kingdoms. Just so the ecclesiastical kingdom of the Roman Papacy
rises to view in history immediately following the division of the
empire.
_The Period of Supremacy._--The prophecy allotted 1260 years to the full
supremacy of this power. History responds that from the beginning of the
papal supremacy, in the days of Justinian, a period of 1260 years brings
us into the stirring events of the last decade of the eighteenth
century, that gave to the Papacy a deadly wound.
[Illustration: THE LOVE OF POWER
"He shall speak great words against the Most High." Dan. 7:25.
THE POWER OF LOVE]
One further set of specifications remains for study:
_The Work._--Of the nature and work of the power represented by the
little horn, the prophecy declares:
"He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out
the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and
they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the
dividing of time." Dan. 7:25.
Do we find in the record that the Church of Rome has fulfilled these
specifications also? The Scripture prophecy is absolutely a
word-photograph of the workings of the papal church. Look at the main
features:
1. Speaking great words against the Most High.
2. Wearing out the saints of the Most High.
3. Thinking to change the times and the laws of the Most High.
Every count in the indictment may be clearly proved, and that by
testimony from Roman Catholic sources
"He Shall Speak Great Words Against the Most High"
As Daniel observed the little-horn power, he heard it speaking "very
great things." The angel declared that these great swelling words were
really against the Most High. And what could be more against the honor
of the Most High than that to mortal man should be ascribed the titles
and attributes of divinity? Here are some of the "great words:"
"All the names which are attributed to Christ in Scripture,
implying His supremacy over the church, are also attributed to
the Pope."--_Bellarmine, "On the Authority of Councils," book
2, chap. 17._
This ruling has been actually applied through the ages. Says Elliott:
"Look at the Sicilian ambassadors prostrated before him [Pope
Martin IV] with the cry, 'Lamb of God! that takest away the
sins of the world!'"--_"Horæ Apocalypticæ," part 4, chap. 5,
sec. 2._
[Illustration: CHRISTIANS IN PRISON BENEATH THE COLOSSEUM AWAITING
MARTYRDOM
"And shall wear out the saints of the Most High." Dan. 7:25.]
"The Pope is of so great dignity and excellence, that he is not
merely man, but as if God, and the vicar of God (_non sit
simplex homo, sed quasi Deus, et Dei vicarius_). The Pope alone
is called most holy,... divine monarch, and supreme emperor,
and king of kings.... The Pope is of so great dignity and power
that he constitutes one and the same tribunal with Christ
(_faciat unum et idem tribunal cum Christo_), so that
whatsoever the Pope does seems to proceed from the mouth of God
(_abore Dei_)."--_"Prompta Bibliotheca" (Ferraris), art.
"Papa;" Ferraris's Ecclesiastical Dictionary (Roman Catholic),
art. "The Pope." Quoted in Guinness's "Romanism and the
Reformation," p. 16._
These are no merely extravagant adulations of the Dark Ages, to be
repudiated by the moderns; these terms express the unchanging doctrinal
claims of the Roman Church, that put man in the place of God. The modern
Pope Leo XIII, in an encyclical letter dated June 20, 1894, repeated the
claim:
"We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty."--_"The
Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII" (New York, Benziger
Brothers), p. 304._
Thus does the Papacy "speak great words against the Most High."
"And Shall Wear Out the Saints of the Most High"
All through the Dark Ages we catch glimpses of the ruthless hand of Rome
laid upon simple believers in God's Holy Word; but plans for wholesale
wearing out of the saints of God were devised as the Waldenses and
others rose to a widespread work of witnessing, heralds of the dawn of
the coming Reformation,--
"These who gave earliest notice,
As the lark
Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate;
Who, rather, rose the day to antedate,
By striking out a solitary spark,
When all the world with midnight gloom was dark--
The harbingers of good whom bitter hate
In vain endeavored to exterminate."
--_Wordsworth._
Pope Innocent III gave orders concerning them as follows:
"Therefore by this present apostolical writing, we give you a
strict command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all
these heresies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted
with them. You shall exercise the rigor of ecclesiastical power
against them and all those who have made themselves suspected
by associating with them. They may not appeal from your
judgments, and, if necessary, you may cause the princes and
people to suppress them with the sword."--_Quoted from Migne,
214, col. 71, in Thatcher and McNeal's "Source Book for
Medieval History," p. 210._
As the truth spread, so also the papal church redoubled its efforts by
sword and flame. The historian Lecky says:
"That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any
other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be
questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of
history. The memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are
now so scanty that it is impossible to form a complete
conception of the multitude of her victims, and it is quite
certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize
their sufferings."--_"History of the Rise and Influence of the
Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," Vol. II, p. 32._
Motley, in his "Rise of the Dutch Republic" (part 3, chap. 2), tells how
Philip II of Spain--who declared that he would "never consent to be the
sovereign of heretics"--sent the Duke of Alva to take over the
Netherlands:
"Early in the year the most sublime sentence of death was
promulgated which has ever been pronounced since the creation
of the world. The Roman tyrant [Nero] wished that his enemies'
heads were all upon a single neck, that he might strike them
off at a blow; the Inquisition assisted Philip to place the
heads of all his Netherlands subjects upon a single neck for
the same fell purpose. Upon February 16, 1568, a sentence of
the Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the
Netherlands to death as heretics. From this universal doom only
a few persons, especially named, were excepted. A proclamation
of the king, dated ten days later, confirmed this decree of the
Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant
execution, without regard to age, sex, or condition. This is
probably the most concise death warrant that was ever framed.
Three millions of people, men, women, and children, were
sentenced to the scaffold in three lines."
Roman Catholic writers admit that the papal church has sought to
exterminate what it calls heresy, by the power of the sword.
The _Western Watchman_ (St. Louis), Dec. 24, 1908, says:
"The church has persecuted.... Protestants were persecuted in
France and Spain with the full approval of the church
authorities. We have always defended the persecution of the
Huguenots, and the Spanish Inquisition. Wherever and whenever
there is honest Catholicity, there will be a clear distinction
drawn between truth and error, and Catholicity and all forms of
error. When she thinks it good to use physical force, she will
use it."
Prof. Alfred Baudrillart, rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris,
says:
"The Catholic Church is a respecter of conscience and of
liberty.... She has, and she loudly proclaims that she has, a
'horror of blood.' Nevertheless, when confronted by heresy, she
does not content herself with persuasion; arguments of an
intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and
she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture.
She creates tribunals like those of the Inquisition, she calls
the laws of the state to her aid, if necessary she encourages a
crusade, or a religious war, and all her 'horror of blood'
practically culminates into urging the secular power to shed
it, which proceeding is almost more odious--for it is less
frank--than shedding it herself. Especially did she act thus in
the sixteenth century with regard to Protestants. Not content
to reform morally, to preach by example, to convert people by
eloquent and holy missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low
Countries, and above all in Spain, the funeral piles of the
Inquisition. In France under Francis I and Henry II, in England
under Mary Tudor, she tortured the heretics, whilst both in
France and Germany during the second half of the sixteenth and
the first half of the seventeenth century if she did not
actually begin, at any rate she encouraged and actively aided,
the religious wars."--_"The Catholic Church, the Renaissance
and Protestantism" (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,
Ltd., 1908), pp. 182, 183._
She has done it--the Church of Rome has worn out the saints of the Most
High. The prophet in vision saw an ecclesiastical kingly power rise
among the kingdoms of the divided Roman Empire. Its look was more stout
than its fellows, and the prophet heard it speaking "very great things,"
and saw it wearing out the saints of the Most High through the long
centuries.
[Illustration: THE SHAME OF RELIGIOUS WARS
Christ viewing the battle fields of history, where millions of His
followers have been slain in His name.]
"Guilty!" is the clear verdict of history, against the Church of Rome on
these two counts of the prophetic indictment.
"And Think to Change Times and Laws"
The power that was to speak great words against the Most High, and to
wear out the saints of the Most High, was further--in its self-exalting
opposition to God--to assume to lay hands upon times and laws, evidently
the times and the laws of the Most High; for to say that such a power
would lay hands on the laws of men, changing or setting aside human
legislation, would signify less than the preceding counts. This third
specification states a climax in the indictment--the self-exalting,
persecuting power was to lay hands upon the very law of the Most High.
It is clearly the same power that the apostle Paul said would rise to
dominion after his time: "Then shall be revealed the lawless one." 2
Thess. 2:8, A.R.V.
God's Law Unchangeable
Just as the laws of a government express its character, so the law of
God is a reflection of the divine character. "The law of the Lord is
perfect." Ps. 19:7. "Wherefore the law is holy," said the apostle, "and
the commandment holy, and just, and good." Rom. 7:12.
Jesus declared, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is
within My heart." Ps. 40:8. And He maintained the unchangeable, enduring
integrity of that law: "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled." Matt. 5:18.
But in Daniel's prophecy is foretold the rise of this power that was to
_think_ to change the times and the laws of the Most High.
Here, again, the evidence points straight to the Church of Rome; for it
is a fact that the Papacy has laid violent hands on the law of God--upon
the precept, too, that deals with sacred time--and has _thought_ to
change it.
In a volume to be seen in the British Museum, dated 1545, the following
comment on Dan. 7:25 is attributed to Philipp Melanchthon, the Reformer,
associate of Luther (reproduced with the old English spelling):
"He changeth the tymes and lawes that any of the sixe worke
dayes commanded of God will make them unholy and idle dayes
when he lyste, or of their owne holy dayes abolished make worke
dayes agen, or when they changed ye Saterday into Sondaye....
They have changed God's lawes and turned them into their owne
tradicions to be kept above God's precepts."--_"Exposition of
Daniel the Prophete," Gathered out of Philipp Melanchthon,
Johan Ecolampadius, etc., by George Joye, 1545, p. 119._
This is exactly what the power represented by the little horn was to
assume to do. The commandment of God is plain:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor,
and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God: in it thou shalt not do any work.... For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed
it." Ex. 20:8-11.
A Change in Practice
But in general practice there has been a change--the first day is
commonly observed instead of the seventh day, which the Lord declares he
blessed and made holy. The Roman Catholic Church points exultingly to
the fact that this change, so universally allowed today, has come about
solely through church tradition without Scriptural authority. For
instance, one Catholic writer says:
"You will tell me that Saturday was the _Jewish_ Sabbath, but
that the _Christian_ Sabbath has been changed to Sunday.
Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express
commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said,
Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say,
Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on
the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its
stead? This is a most important question, which I know not how
you can answer.
"You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and
the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the
observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against
the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place
of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep
holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you
believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you
authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with
your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the
Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the
New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly
altered."--_"Library of Christian Doctrine: Why Don't You Keep
the Holy Sabbath Day?" (Burns and Oates London), p. 3._
Every one who studies the question must recognize the fact that there is
no change authorized in Scripture. As Canon Eyton, of the Church of
England, says:
"There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about
abstaining from work on Sunday.... Into the rest of Sunday no
divine law enters."--_"The Ten Commandments" (Trübner & Co.),
London._
Dr. Heylyn, of the Church of England, wrote:
"Take which you will, either the Fathers or the moderns, and we
shall find no Lord's day instituted by any apostolical mandate;
no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the
week."--_"History of the Sabbath," part 2, chap. 1._
Authorities, both Protestant and Catholic, freely acknowledge that there
is no divine authority for Sunday keeping. There has been a change in
practice and teaching, but with no Scriptural authority.
What the Papacy Claims
The prophecy of Daniel 7 forewarned all that the ecclesiastical power
that was to rise upon the division of the Roman Empire would _think_ to
change the times and the laws of the Most High. The Papacy steps forward
and claims boldly that the church has power to set aside Scripture, to
institute holy times, and even to change the day made holy and
commanded by the Almighty as the day of rest for His people.
In a Catholic work, "An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine," by Dr.
Henry Turberville, page 61, we read:
"_Question._--By whom was the change [of the Sabbath] made?
"_Answer._--By the rulers of the church, the apostles who kept
the Lord's day....
"_Ques._--How do you prove that the church hath power to
establish feasts and holy days?
"_Ans._--By the very fact of changing the Sabbath to Sunday;
this change Protestants allow; and therefore they contradict
themselves by keeping Sunday strictly and breaking most other
feasts commanded by the same church.
"_Ques._--How prove you that?
"_Ans._--Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the
church's power to ordain feasts and to command them under sin;
and by not keeping the rest commanded by her, they deny that
she has power."
It is the doctrine taught in the standard catechisms of the Roman
Church:
"_Question._--Have you any other way of proving that the church
has power to institute festivals of precept?
"_Answer._--Had she not such power, she could not have done
that in which all modern religionists agree with her,--she
could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first
day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh
day, a change for which there is no Scriptural
authority."--_Keenan's "Doctrinal Catechism," p. 174._
Thus the Papacy proclaims itself the power that has _thought_ to change
the precepts of the Most High.
On every count, the Roman Church is the counterpart of the little horn
of Daniel 7. Before our eyes--in the common practice of Christendom--the
commandment of God regarding sacred time is made void by the traditions
of men.
The prophecy indicated that there would come a call for a reformation in
this matter. Speaking of the warfare against the saints and the times
and laws of the Most High, to be waged by the little-horn power, the
angel said:
"They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the
dividing of time." Dan. 7:25.
In other words, when the 1260 years should expire, we should expect,
according to the prophecy, to see a breaking of the Papacy's persecuting
power over believers, a spreading abroad of the Holy Scriptures, and a
work of reformation that would lift up the truths of God's Word, and
call believers to keep once again the holy time and the holy law of the
Most High.
The prophecy of Daniel 7 is one of God's special messages for all men in
these last days, picturing the rise and history of the Papacy, and
warning all against accepting its perversions of God's truth or
recognizing its attempted change in the law of the Most High. Thank God
for the "sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." We are to follow the Lord
and obey him, not this power that has risen up in opposition to him.
The angel's interpretation in this chapter does not leave the apostasy
triumphant:
"The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to
consume and to destroy it unto the end."
Then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of the Most
High, "and all dominions shall serve and obey Him."
"O, how shall we stand that moment of searching,
When all our sins those books reveal?
When from that court, each case decided,
Shall be granted no appeal?"
[Illustration: CHRIST AND THE SCRIBES
"In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men." Matt. 15:9.]
[Illustration: CREATION
"In six days the Lord made heaven and earth,... and rested the seventh
day." Ex. 20:11.]
THE BIBLE SABBATH
"He answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not
planted, shall be rooted up." Matt. 15:13.
The scribes had come to Jesus with the complaint, "Why do Thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders?" Jesus answered them with
another question, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by
your tradition?"
They had thought that Christ was introducing novelties, preaching new
things, contrary to established church custom and practice. He showed
them that He really stood for the old and established things of God's
Word, and that their own religious customs, however old, were really the
novelties, without divine authority. He said,
"In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men." And finally He added the words quoted above, "Every plant, which
My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up."
Let the principles be applied to the question of Sabbath observance.
Sometimes in our day those who preach the word of God regarding the
abiding holiness of the seventh-day Sabbath are accused of preaching new
doctrines, contrary to the traditions and customs of the church. But
really, the observance of Sunday, the first day, is the innovation; the
seventh-day Sabbath is of ancient foundation.
Is the Seventh-day Sabbath a Plant of Our Heavenly Father's Planting?
Which of these two institutions has our heavenly Father planted? It is
possible to ascertain to a surety; for every plant of His planting,
every doctrine of His truth, will be found rooted in the Holy
Scriptures. 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
The Old Testament Record
_From the Beginning._--When the Creator made the earth and man upon it,
He made the seventh day of the weekly cycle His holy Sabbath.
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them.... And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because
that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made."
Gen. 2:1-3.
To sanctify is "to set apart," and so the day made holy and blessed by
God was set apart for man. Then it was, as Jesus said, that "the Sabbath
was made for man." Mark 2:27. Here the Sabbath institution was planted
at the beginning of the world.
_At the Exodus._--The people of Israel, in their bondage in Egypt, had
fallen away from the knowledge of God and become corrupted by the
idolatrous worship of Egypt, Hence, as the Lord called them out to be
His people, He tested their loyalty to His law by observing how they
regarded His holy Sabbath:
"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven
for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every
day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no."
Ex. 16:4.
So through the forty years the Lord sent the manna for them to gather on
the six working days, withholding it on the Sabbath. (This scripture
shows also that the Sabbath was a part of God's law before He spoke it
from Sinai.)
[Illustration: HOREB, THE SACRED MOUNT
A modern view of the summit of Mt. Sinai.]
_At Sinai._--When the time came that the Lord would speak His holy law
from heaven, the eternal foundation of His moral government, the Sabbath
precept was enshrined in the heart of it:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor,
and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex.
20:8-11.
_Through Israel's History._--Sabbath keeping was the great mark of
loyalty to God. When Israel fell into idolatry, they "observed times"
(see 2 Kings 21:6),--doubtless such heathen festivals to the sun god and
other deities as were common among the idolatrous nations. These
observances of other days meant Sabbath breaking. "Neither shall ye ...
observe times.... Ye shall keep My Sabbaths." Lev. 19:26-30. The Lord
had promised concerning Jerusalem:
"If ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden
through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the
Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the
gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David,...
and this city shall remain forever." Jer. 17:24, 25.
The divine pleading was slighted, and Jerusalem's fall and the
Babylonian captivity came as the result of the Israelites' disregard of
God's holy day.
Thus throughout the inspired record of the Old Testament the seventh-day
Sabbath appears as a plant of the heavenly Father's own planting.
The New Testament Record
_The Example and Teaching of Jesus._--It was Christ's "custom" to
worship on the seventh day. Luke 4:16.
Jesus, who Himself made the Sabbath at creation (John 1:3), taught that
it was "made for man,"--for the human race,--and declared, "The Son of
man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2:27, 28. It is, therefore, "the
Lord's day." Rev. 1:10.
He did on the Sabbath only that which was "lawful," or according to the
law of God's holy day. Matt. 12:12.
He kept His Father's commandments throughout His earthly life. John
15:10.
And giving instruction regarding events to take place many years after
His ascension, He showed that He recognized the continued existence of
the Sabbath in the command, "Pray ye that your flight be not in the
winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24:20.
[Illustration: CHRIST HEALING THE MAN WITH A WITHERED HAND
"It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." Matt. 12:12.]
_Among New Testament Disciples._--The women, after the crucifixion,
"rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:56.
Inspiration says that the apostle Paul's custom was to preach the gospel
publicly Sabbath after Sabbath. Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:1, 2; 18:4. When
the Gentiles of Antioch heard the gospel preached by the apostle one
Sabbath, they "besought that these words might be preached to them the
next Sabbath." Acts 13:42.
Throughout the New Testament, written years after Christ's ascension,
the Holy Spirit, speaking of the seventh day, calls it "the Sabbath"
upwards of fifty times. "Sabbath" means rest; therefore when the Holy
Spirit, in the Christian age, calls the seventh day the rest day, it
must infallibly be the day of rest for Christians, the Christian
Sabbath.
In the Levitical or sacrificial ordinances of the sanctuary services
there were annual sabbaths and feasts, associated with meats and drinks
and ceremonial observances. But in appointing these the Lord
specifically distinguished between them and the one and only weekly
Sabbath, which was from the beginning. "These are the feasts of the
Lord," He said, "beside the Sabbaths of the Lord." Lev. 23:37, 38.
The annual festivals and sabbaths, like all the ordinances of the
Levitical service, were shadows of things to come, and found their
fulfilment in the great sacrifice of Calvary. Col. 2:16, 17.
But the Sabbath of the Lord was made blessed and holy by God at the
creation, before sin had entered the world, before any sacrificial or
shadowy service was instituted to point to a coming Redeemer. It is a
fundamental and primary institution, a part of the moral order of God's
government for man, the same as the obligations set forth in each of the
other commandments.
And Inspiration declares the eternal perpetuity of the blessed Sabbath
day in the future home of the saved, when the prophet describes the
felicity of the redeemed, as from month to month, and "from one Sabbath
to another," all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord. Isa.
66:23.
Thus we find the seventh-day Sabbath a plant of the heavenly Father's
planting, rooted deep in all Holy Scripture, and abiding eternally in
the world to come.
Is the First-day Rest an Institution of God's Planting?
In the beginning, the first day was employed by God in the work of
creation. Gen. 1:1-5.
Throughout all the Old Testament history it was one of "the six working
days." Eze. 46:1.
It was the day of Christ's resurrection; but Inspiration says
specifically that "the Sabbath was past" when that "first day of the
week" came. Mark 16:1, 2. Inspiration called this first day merely by
the ordinary secular name in common business use, with never a
suggestion of attaching any sacredness to the day. For some of the
disciples it was a day of journeying, in which the risen Christ joined
them. Luke 24:13-29. Later He appeared to the other disciples in
Jerusalem, gathered not in meeting, but at supper in their common
dwelling house. Mark 16:14.
The only religious meeting recorded as occurring on the first day of the
week was that held at Troas. (See Acts 20:6-13.) The context shows that
it was an evening meeting, after the Sabbath,--Saturday night, as we
would call it, for the Bible reckoning is from evening to evening. It
was the last time the believers were ever to see the apostle's face, and
as they lingered after the close of the Sabbath, he held an all-night
farewell meeting, breaking bread with the believers, and leaving at
daybreak Sunday morning for the eighteen- or twenty-mile journey afoot,
across country to Assos. And while he spent the first day traveling
afoot, his companions were journeying by boat.
Conybeare and Howson (of the Church of England), in that standard work,
"Life and Epistles of St. Paul," tell the plain fact of the inspired
record, save that manifestly they should not have applied the title
"Jewish" to God's Sabbath; for it was not the Sabbath of the Jews, but
"the Sabbath of the Lord thy God:"
"It was the evening which succeeded the Jewish Sabbath. On the
Sunday morning the vessel was about to sail."--_Chapter 20, p.
520._
Describing the road between Troas and Assos, they add:
"Strength and peace were surely sought and obtained by the
apostle from the Redeemer as he pursued his lonely road that
Sunday afternoon in spring among the oak woods and the streams
of Ida."--_Id., p. 522._
Once again the "first day of the week" is mentioned, in 1 Cor. 16:2. But
that scripture says no word of any sacredness of the day or of any
religious observance of it. The apostle was gathering a fund for the
poor at Jerusalem, and asked every believer to "lay by" something every
first day of the week, so that the money would be ready when he came. As
Dean Stanley (Church of England) comments:
"There is nothing to prove public assemblies, inasmuch as the
phrase [Greek: par heautô] ('by himself, at his own house')
implies that the collection was to be made individually and in
private."
And Neander's Church History says:
"All mentioned here is easily explained, if one simply thinks
of the ordinary beginning of the week in secular life."--_Vol.
I, p. 339 (German ed.)._
To meet the emergency of need in Judea, these believers were asked to
look over their business affairs at the beginning of each week, until
Paul should come, laying aside a gift as God had prospered them.
No Sunday Sacredness in the New Testament
This is the record--not one suggestion in all the New Testament of
Sunday sacredness, to say nothing of precept or commandment of the Lord.
The late R.W. Dale, D.D., a leading Congregationalist of England, wrote:
"It is quite clear that, however rigidly or devotedly we may
spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath.... The Sabbath
was founded on a specific, divine command. We can plead no such
command for the observance of Sunday.... There is not a single
line in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty
by violating the supposed sanctity of Sunday."--_"The Ten
Commandments," pp. 106, 107._
That religious classic, Smith and Cheetham's "Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities," says that the "notion of a formal substitution" of the
first day for the seventh,
"and the transference to it, perhaps in a spiritualized form,
of the Sabbatical obligation established by the promulgation of
the fourth commandment, has no basis whatever, either in Holy
Scripture or in Christian antiquity."--_Article "Sabbath."_
Dr. E.F. Hiscox, author of "The Baptist Manual," says:
"There was and is a commandment to 'keep holy the Sabbath day,'
but that Sabbath was not Sunday. It will, however, be readily
said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was
transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week....
Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the
New Testament--absolutely not."--_The New York Examiner, Nov.
16, 1893._
Such declarations by well-known scholars might be multiplied, but it is
not necessary. The record is open--any one may see it. There is not a
word in the Holy Scripture of any first-day sacredness. The Sunday
institution is not a plant of our heavenly Father's planting.
How the Change Came About
There has been no change of the Sabbath by divine authority. Men may
choose to rest on any other day, but that cannot make such a day God's
rest day, His holy Sabbath. One cannot change one's birthday by
celebrating another day as such. It is a fact of history that on a
certain day of the month one was born. That fact cannot be changed by
choosing to celebrate another day as the birthday. Just so it is a fact
of divine history that God rested on a given day of the week, and on no
other. That made the seventh day His rest day.
It is different from other days in character also, for He blessed it and
made it holy. To deny the difference between common days and the holy
day is to say that when the great Creator blesses and makes holy, it is
a vain performance. That cannot be. It would take away all hope of
holiness or salvation for men. The blessing is upon the day, as every
soul finds who keeps it by faith.
When men choose to set apart another day than that blessed and
sanctified of God, it is plainly a setting up of the humanly appointed
time against the divinely appointed time. It is exalting man's sabbath
against God's Sabbath. It is man exalting himself "above all that is
called God." 2 Thess. 2:4.
This was what made the Roman Papacy. The apostle Paul wrote that in his
day the spirit of lawlessness was already working. He said it would lead
to a "falling away" from the truth of God, and the full exaltation of
the man of sin. 2 Thessalonians 2. The falling away came. As Dr. Killen
(Presbyterian), of Ireland, says in the preface to his "Ancient
Church:"
[Illustration: THE SABBATH FROM EDEN TO EDEN
Blessed and sanctified in Eden. Gen. 2:3. Christ the Lord of the
Sabbath. Mark 2:28.
Written by God in His law. Ex. 20:8-11. To be observed in the new earth.
Isa. 66:23.]
"In the interval between the days of the apostles and the
conversion of Constantine, the Christian commonwealth changed
its aspect.... Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor
Peter ever heard, crept into use, and then claimed the rank of
divine institutions."
In his "Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine," Cardinal Newman
(Roman Catholic) tells how rites and ceremonies were borrowed from
paganism:
"Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the
infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and
appendages of demon worship to an evangelical use,... the
rulers of the church from early times were prepared, should the
occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing
rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of
the educated class."--_Pages 371, 372._
Thus along with other adaptations came "the venerable day of the sun"
(Sunday). It was by gradual process that it supplanted the Sabbath. Sir
William Domville wrote:
"Centuries of the Christian era passed away before Sunday was
observed by the Christian church as a Sabbath. History does not
furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any
time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of
Constantine in A.D. 321."--_"Examination of Six
Texts," p. 291._
This law of Constantine's was as follows:
"On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people
residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In
the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely
and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens
that another day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for
vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such
operations, the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th
day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of
them for the second time.)"--_Schaff, "History of the Christian
Church," Vol. III, chap. 5, sec. 75._
Commenting on this law, Prof. Hutton Webster, of the University of
Nebraska, says:
"This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to
Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in
his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of
the sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in
the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred
calendar."
"What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as a
Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees,
during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, enjoined with
increasing stringency abstinence from labor on Sunday."--_"Rest
Days," pp. 122, 270._
Dean Stanley (Church of England) writes:
"The retention of the old pagan name _Dies Solis_, or Sunday,
for the weekly Christian festival, is, in a great measure,
owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which
the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his
subjects, pagan and Christian alike, as the 'venerable day of
the sun.'"--_"History of the Eastern Church," lecture 6, par.
15._
Thus the Sunday institution comes in, marked by its pagan origin, and
adapted to ecclesiastical purposes by the church of the "falling away"
that grew into the Roman Papacy. To quote again from the Baptist author,
Dr. Hiscox:
"Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in
early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from
the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that
it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with
the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the
papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to
Protestantism."--_New York Examiner, Nov. 16, 1893._
No wonder that with the coming of the latter days, and the proclamation
of the message of preparation for Christ's second coming, there should
come a call to Christians to follow Christ and Holy Scripture in keeping
God's holy Sabbath.
Again the voice of Jesus is heard in protest against traditions that
make void the commandment of God.
"Every plant," He says, "which My heavenly Father hath not planted,
shall be rooted up." Matt. 15:13.
Made for Man
The God that made the earth,
And all the worlds on high,
Who gave all creatures birth,
In earth, and sea, and sky,
After six days in work employed,
Upon the seventh a rest enjoyed.
The Sabbath day was blessed,
Hallowed, and sanctified;
It was Jehovah's rest,
And so it must abide;
'Twas set apart before the fall,
'Twas made for man, 'twas made for all.
And when from Sinai's mount,
Amidst the fire and smoke,
Jehovah did recount,
And all His precepts spoke,
He claimed the rest day as His own,
And wrote it with His law on stone.
The Son of God appeared
With tidings of great joy;
God's precepts He revered,
He came not to destroy;
None of the law was set aside,
But every tittle ratified.
Our Saviour did not die
To render null and void
The law of the Most High,
Which cannot be destroyed;
But, bruised for us, our stripes He bore,--
We'll go in peace and sin no more.
--_R.F. Cottrell._
[Illustration: CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES IN THE CORN-FIELDS
"The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." Matt. 12:8.]
[Illustration: RETURNING FROM THE SAVIOUR'S TOMB
"They returned,... and rested the Sabbath day according to the
commandment." Luke 23:56.]
GLIMPSES OF SABBATH KEEPING AFTER NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
Not at once did the innovation of Sunday observance set aside the
Sabbath of the Lord in the practice of even the general church. And
through history, when the general church had fallen away, we catch
glimpses here and there of faithful witnesses to God's holy Sabbath
truth.
First Centuries
An old English writer, Professor Brerewood, of Gresham College, London,
put in shortest phrase what many writers say:
"They know little who do not know that the ancient Sabbath did
remain and was observed by the Eastern churches three hundred
years after our Saviour's passion."--_"Treatise on the
Sabbath," p. 77._
Fourth Century
Canon 29, of the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364), shows that the
ecclesiastical system was laboring to put an end to Sabbath keeping:
"Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [the
Sabbath], but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day [as
they called Sunday] they shall especially honor, and, as being
Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If,
however, they be found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from
Christ."--_Hefele, "History of the Councils of the Church,"
Vol. II, book 6, sec. 93, canon 29._
Fifth Century
Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History shows Rome evidently leading in the
effort to abolish any recognition whatever of the Sabbath:
"The people of Constantinople, and of several other cities,
assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the next day;
which custom is never observed at Rome, or at
Alexandria."--_Book 7, chap. 19._
Seventh Century
There were true Sabbath keepers in Rome itself, teaching the truth of
God among the people, and bringing upon themselves the denunciation of
Pope Gregory the Great, who wrote "to his most beloved sons the Roman
citizens:"
"It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit
have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to
the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the
Sabbath day. What else can I call these but preachers of
Antichrist?"--_"History of the Councils" (Labbe and Cossart),
Vol. V, col. 1511; see also "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,"
Vol. XIII, book 13, epistle 1._
Eleventh Century
The Pope's legates at Constantinople (A.D. 1054) were called to
discuss with Nicetas, "one of the most learned men at that time in the
East," says Bower, whose position was "that the Sabbath ought to be kept
holy, and that priests should be allowed to marry."--_"History of the
Popes," Vol. II, p. 358._
The people of north Scotland, the ancient Culdee church founded by
Columba and his followers, far removed from direct papal influence, was
still keeping the seventh-day Sabbath in the eleventh century. Of this
church Andrew Lang says in his "History of Scotland:"
"They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a Sabbatical
manner."--_Volume I, p. 96._
Skene, in his classic work, "Celtic Scotland," says of these Sabbath
keepers:
"They seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces
in the early monastic church of Ireland, by which they held
Saturday to be the Sabbath, on which they rested from all their
labors."--_Book 2, chap. 8._
Margaret, of England, married Malcolm the Great, the Scottish king, in
1069. An ardent Catholic, Queen Margaret at once set about Romanizing
the Celtic church. She called in the church leaders, and held long
discussions with them. At last, with the help and authority of her royal
husband, and quoting the instructions of "the blessed Pope Gregory," she
succeeded in turning the ancient Culdee church in Scotland away from the
Sabbath. (See "Life of St. Margaret," by Turgot, her confessor.)
Twelfth to Fourteenth Century
Among the numerous sects of southern Europe and the Alpine valleys, that
were pursued and persecuted by Rome, were at least some who saw and
obeyed the Sabbath truth. Thus, of one of these bodies, the historian
Goldastus says:
"They were called Insabbatati, not because they were
circumcised, but because they kept the Sabbath according to the
Jewish law."--_"Deutsche Biographie," Vol. IX, art. "Goldast.,"
p. 327._
Fifteenth Century
Sabbath keepers in Norway drew the condemnation of a church council held
in 1435:
"The archbishop and the clergy assembled in this provincial
council at Bergen do decide that the keeping of Saturday must
never be permitted to exist, except as granted in the church
law."--_Keyser's "Norske Kirkes Historie," Vol. II, p. 488._
Sixteenth Century
With the setting free of the Word of God by the Reformation, and the
protest against the doctrine of papal tradition, multitudes saw that the
Sunday institution was not of divine origin; while not a few went
farther, recognizing the claims of God's Sabbath. Moravia was a refuge,
in those early Reformation days, for many believers in the Reformed
doctrines, and among these were Sabbath-keeping Christians:
[Illustration: WALDENSES HUNTED BY THE ARMIES OF ROME
"Destitute, afflicted, tormented;... they wandered in deserts, and in
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Heb. 11:37, 38.]
"Even most prominent men, as the princes of Lichtenstein, held
to the observance of the true Sabbath. When persecution finally
scattered them, the seeds of truth must have been sown by them
in the different portions of the Continent which they
visited.... We have found them [Sabbath keepers] in Bohemia.
They were also known in Silesia and Poland. Likewise they were
in Holland and northern Germany.... There were at this time
Sabbath keepers in France,... 'among whom were M. de la Roque,
who wrote in defense of the Sabbath against Bossuet, Catholic
bishop of Meaux.' That Sabbatarians again appeared in England
by the time of the Reformation, during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth (A.D. 1533-1603), Dr. Chambers testifies in
his Cyclopedia [art. 'Sabbath']."--_Andrews and Conradi,
"History of the Sabbath," pp. 649, 650._
In this century also, Sabbath keepers appeared in Norway, Sweden, and
Finland. In 1554 King Gustavus Vasa, of Sweden, addressed a letter of
remonstrance "to the common people in Finland," because so many were
turning to keep the seventh day.
Seventeenth Century
There was much discussion in England over the authority for Sunday
observance. When other church festivals were ignored, as Easter, King
Charles I wanted to know why Sunday should be kept. He wrote:
"It will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged
to be kept, or turned into the Sunday; wherefore it must be the
church's authority that changed the one and instituted the
other; therefore my opinion is that those who will not keep
this feast [Easter] may as well return to the observation of
Saturday, and refuse the weekly Sunday."--_Cox, "Sabbath Laws,"
p. 333._
It was during this time that the idea first obtained of enforcing Sunday
obligation by the fourth commandment and calling it the Sabbath. It was
argued that any "one day in seven" was what the commandment meant. Of
this argument, John Milton, the statesman-poet, wrote:
"It is impossible to extort such a sense from the words of the
commandment; seeing that the reason for which the command
itself was originally given, namely, as a memorial of God's
having rested from the creation of the world, cannot be
transferred from the seventh day to the first; nor can any new
motive be substituted in its place, whether the resurrection of
our Lord or any other, without the sanction of a divine
commandment."--_"Prose Works" (Bohn), pp. 70, 71._
Again Milton wrote, in a manuscript which his publishers at the time
feared to print:
"If we under the gospel are to regulate the time of our public
worship by the prescriptions of the decalogue, it will surely
be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to the
express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human
conjecture to adopt the first."--_Cox, "Sabbath Literature,"
Vol. II, p. 54._
While kings and poets and ecclesiastics discussed, here and there
believers began to follow the plain Word of God and Christ's example in
Sabbath keeping.
"Loved Not Their Lives unto the Death"
In 1618 John Traske and his wife, of London, were condemned for keeping
the Sabbath of the Lord, the man being whipped from Westminster to the
old Fleet Prison, near Ludgate Circus. Both were imprisoned. Mr. Traske
recanted under the pressure, after a year, but Mrs. Traske, a gifted
school-teacher, was given grace to hold out for sixteen years,--for a
time in Maiden Lane prison, and then in the Gate House, by
Westminster,--dying in prison for the word of the Lord. An estimable
woman she was, says one old chronicler, save for this "whimsy" of hers,
that she would keep the seventh day. All that she asked of men, on her
prison deathbed, was that she might be buried "in the fields."
By 1661 Sabbath keepers in London had further increased. In that year
John James was minister to a considerable congregation, meeting in East
London, off the Whitechapel Road. As part of the stern proceedings
against dissenting sects after the restoration of the monarchy, he was
arrested and condemned to death on "Tyburn Tree." His wife knelt at the
feet of King Charles II as he came out of St. James's Palace one day,
and pleaded for her husband's life; but the king scornfully rejected her
plea, and said that the man should hang. Bogue says:
"For once the king remembered his promise, and Mr. James was
sent to join the noble army of martyrs."--_"History of
Dissenters," Vol. I, p. 155._
Nothing daunted, the number of Sabbath keepers increased. In a letter by
Edward Stennet (between 1668 and 1670), it is stated.
"Here in England are about nine or ten churches that keep the
Sabbath, besides many scattered disciples, who have been
eminently preserved in this tottering day, when many once
eminent churches have been shattered in pieces."--_Cox,
"Sabbath Literature," Vol. I, p. 268._
Francis Bampfield was formerly an influential minister of the Church of
England, and prebendary of Exeter Cathedral, but later pastor of a
Sabbath-keeping congregation meeting in the Pinners Hall, off Broad
Street, near the Bank of England. Calamy said of him:
"He was one of the most celebrated preachers in the west of
England, and extremely admired by his hearers, till he fell
into the Sabbatarian notion, of which he was a zealous
asserter."--_"Non-Conformist Memorial," Vol. II, p. 152._
He was arrested while in the pulpit preaching, and in 1683 died of
hardships in Newgate prison, for the Sabbath of the Lord. An old writer
says that his body was followed to burial by "a very great company of
factious and schismatical people;" in other words, dissenters from the
state church.
Thomas Bampfield, his brother, Speaker of the House of Parliament at one
time, under Cromwell, published a book in defense of the Sabbath of the
Lord. In fact, many published the truth in this manner, and doctors of
divinity and even bishops wrote replies.
"Sabbatarian Baptists," these English witnesses to God's Sabbath were
first called in those times, and then "Seventh Day Baptists." In 1664
Stephen Mumford, from one of these London congregations, was sent over
to New England. He settled in Rhode Island, where the Baptist pioneer of
religious liberty, Roger Williams, had founded his colony. In 1671 the
first Sabbatarian church in America was formed in Rhode Island.
Evidently this movement created a stir; for the report went over to
England that the Rhode Island colony did not keep the "Sabbath"--meaning
Sunday. Roger Williams wrote to his friends in England denying the
report, but calling attention to the fact that there was no Scripture
for "abolishing the seventh day," and adding:
"You know yourselves do not keep the Sabbath, that is the
seventh day."--_"Letters of Roger Williams," Vol. VI, p. 346
(Narragansett Club Publications)._
Through the following century numbers of Seventh Day Baptist churches
were founded in America.[F]
Sabbath keepers were springing up also on the continent of Europe, in
Bohemia, Moravia, Transylvania, and Russia, where here and there Bible
believers saw that tradition had made void one of the commandments of
God. Then, as the events at the end of the long period of papal
supremacy had moved Bible students to the earnest study of the
prophecies, and as the predicted signs of the near approach of Christ's
coming began to appear, there arose the great advent awakening in the
earlier decades of the nineteenth century.
The prophecies regarding the work of the Papacy in seeking to change the
law of God began to be understood, and it was seen that the last message
of the everlasting gospel was a call to turn from human traditions to
the New Testament standard--"the commandments of God, and the faith of
Jesus." Rev. 14:12. Then began the great movement for Sabbath reform and
the proclamation of Christ's second coming, which has given rise to the
Seventh-day Adventist people, with a work spreading through all lands,
leading thousands every year to keep the Lord's blessed Sabbath day.
Soon Christ is to be revealed in righteousness and judgment. One burden
of God's message for the last days is:
"Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation
is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man
that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth
the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any
evil." Isa. 56:1, 2.
Through all the dark centuries, the Lord had somewhere a little remnant
keeping the light of the Sabbath truth glowing. They, too, overcame by
the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, loving not their
lives unto the death. Now, with the clear light shining from the open
Book, it is for Christians everywhere to turn from tradition to the way
of God's commandments and the example of Jesus Christ.
[Illustration:
"Closing Sabbath! Ah, how soon
Have thy sacred moments passed!"]
FOOTNOTES:
[F] In connection with this topic of Sabbath observance in colonial
America, it is of interest to note that Count Zinzendorf, the leader of
the Moravian missionary movement, was a believer in the sanctity of the
Sabbath of God's appointment. In his life, by Bishop Spangenberg, it is
stated that the Sabbath question was discussed by Zinzendorf with the
Moravians, on his visit to Pennsylvania in 1741. The record states:--
"As a special circumstance it is to be remarked that he determined, with
the church in Bethlehem, to celebrate the seventh day as a rest day. The
matter was previously fully gone over in the church council, with
consideration of all the reasons for and against it, when the unanimous
agreement was reached to observe the day Sabbatically.... The Count had
already long held the seventh day of the week in special
honor."--_Zinzendorfs "Leben," band 5, pp. 1421, 1422._
The Bethlehem congregation evidently did not follow the practice long.
"But as for himself," says Spangenberg, "with his house, he adhered
firmly to this aforementioned practice until his end."--_Id., p. 1437._
THE LAW OF GOD
I
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
II
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of
anything: that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to
them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of
them that love me, and keep my commandments.
III
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
IV
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor,
and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
V
Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
VI
Thou shalt not kill.
VII
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
VIII
Thou shalt not steal.
IX
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
X
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox,
nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
[Illustration: CHRIST'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT
"Whosoever shall do and teach them ... shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:19.]
THE LAW OF GOD
It is a common saying, "The majesty of the law." It means that the
character and genius of a government are embodied and expressed in its
laws. The words of Inspiration declare to us the majesty of the law of
the Most High.
The Character of God's Law
The infinite perfection of the divine character is reflected in it.
"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Ps. 19:7.
As God is holiness and justice and goodness, so also is His law.
"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and
good." Rom. 7:12.
Its Office
The law of God gives knowledge of the righteousness of its great
Author.
"Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart
is My law." Isa. 51:7.
It marks every departure from righteousness as sin.
"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the
transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4.
It is not a code merely for the regulation of outward conduct. It is the
moral law--the primal standard of righteousness established by the
Creator for His creatures. There is not an impulse of the inmost soul
that is not reached by it. It is the word which, living and powerful, is
"sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 4:12.
Face to face with this holy law, we hear in it the voice of God saying,
"Be ye holy; for I am holy." Every soul must confess its guilt before
the searching power of God's law. All things are naked and open to the
eyes of Him with whom we have to do. "Guilty!" we confess. Left alone
with our guilt, there could be no ray of hope.
"The threatenings of the broken law
Impress the soul with dread;
If God His sword of vengeance draw,
It strikes the spirit dead."
Thank God, we are not left alone; help is laid upon One mighty to save.
"But Thine illustrious sacrifice
Hath answered these demands,
And peace and pardon from the skies
Are offered by Thy hands."
God's Law from the Beginning
The law of God existed from the beginning. When Adam sinned, he
transgressed this holy law; for "sin is the transgression of the law."
God's law was not committed to writing until the days of Moses, when the
Lord began to make His written revelations to the children of men. But
from Adam to Moses the precepts of the law of God were teaching
righteousness and convicting of sin.
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (for until
the law [the giving of it at Sinai] sin was in the world: but sin is not
imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to
Moses.)" Rom. 5:12-14.
The declaration of this scripture is: Without the law there can be no
sin. But sin and death were from Adam to Moses, in whose day the law was
spoken on Sinai; therefore the law of God was in force from the
beginning. Its precepts were witnessed to by every preacher of
righteousness raised up by God in the days before the deluge and in the
patriarchal age following. Of Abraham the Lord says,
"Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My
statutes, and My laws." Gen. 26:5.
The Lord called His people out of Egypt, that they might keep his law.
His message to Pharaoh was, "Let my people go, that they may serve Me."
Ex. 9:1. He delivered them from bondage by His mighty arm, and cleft the
Red Sea to lead them forth to obedience, as the psalmist said,
"He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen with gladness:...
that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws." Ps. 105:43-45.
In Egyptian bondage the children of Abraham must have lost much of the
purity of God's truth; yet the Lord held them under obligation to know
His law--the Sabbath precept particularly--before they came to Sinai, or
ever He had proclaimed the law in their hearing. He tested them in the
matter by the giving of the manna, as He said,
"That I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no." Ex.
16:4.
From the beginning, God's holy law demanded the loyal obedience of every
human being.
Proclaimed Anew at Sinai
The Lord had delivered the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage that
they might serve Him and make His ways known to the nations. This was
according to the promise made to Abraham. To them was committed the
written revelation of God, and through them was to come in the fulness
of time the promised Messiah.
[Illustration: MOSES BREAKING THE TABLES OF THE LAW
"He wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut. 4:13.]
While the Lord at this time "made known His ways unto Moses," and there
was begun the written revelation which grew into "the volume of the
book," the Holy Scriptures, one portion of revelation was not left for
the prophet of God to speak or for the inspired pen to write. The Lord
proclaimed His holy law with His own voice, and gave to men a copy
"written with the finger of God." Moses said of this:
"The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the
voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And He
declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even
ten commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut.
4:12, 13.
This display of majesty and glory indescribable was designed to teach
how sacred and holy is the law, and to cause men to fear to transgress
its precepts. Ex. 20:20.
It was not for themselves alone that the law was committed to Israel.
They were to teach the truth to others. As the New Testament says, it
was greatly to their advantage that "unto them were committed the
oracles of God." Rom. 3:2. But they "received the lively oracles to give
unto us." Through obedience to the divine law, they were to be a light
to the nations.
"Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these
statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto
them?" Deut. 4:6, 7.
An interesting comment upon these words is supplied by a speech of
Phalerius, librarian to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt. Urging the
king by all means to secure copies of the sacred books of the Jews for
his great library in Alexandria, Phalerius said:
"Now it is necessary that thou shouldst have accurate copies of
them. And indeed this legislation is full of hidden wisdom, and
entirely blameless, as being the legislation of God; for which
cause it is, as Hecateus of Abdera says, that the poets and
historians make no mention of it, nor of those men who lead
their lives according to it, since it is a holy law, and ought
not to be published by profane mouths."--_Josephus,
"Antiquities," book 12, chap. 2, sec. 4._
Unfaithful as the Jewish people oftentimes were, yet through their
testimony and the dealings of God with them, the fame of the living
oracles was spread abroad among the ancient nations.
One God--One Moral Standard
"There is one Lawgiver." James 4:12. He is ever the same, and His law is
the standard of righteousness for all mankind. There was not one moral
standard before Christ and another after. Christ's death upon the cross
because man had broken the law, is the divine testimony to all the
universe that God's law can never be set aside nor its force suspended.
Jesus opened His public teaching with the declaration:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these
least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least
in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the
same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:17-19.
The moral law of ten commandments is one code, every precept equally
sacred and equally binding:
"Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do
not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art
become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that
shall be judged by the law of liberty." James 2:10-12.
The law of God still speaks with all the force of that voice from Sinai,
and it speaks to every soul on earth:
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God." Rom. 3:19.
Thus the law of God convicts all men of sin, and would drive every one
to Christ for pardon and for the divine gift of the grace and power of
obedience.
The ceremonial law--the precepts and ordinances commanded for the
sacrificial system--ceased with the sacrifice of Calvary, as all these
ceremonial observances pointed forward to the cross. There can be no
confounding of the moral law and the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law
of types and shadows showed in itself that a primary or higher law--the
moral law--had been violated, making necessary a divine sacrifice if
transgressors were to be saved from death and restored to obedience.
The Standard in the Judgment
The law of God's moral government, which is the rule of life for every
creature, must necessarily be the standard in the great judgment day.
The Scripture states the sum of all human obligation and responsibility
in the words:
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His
commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring
every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good,
or whether it be evil." Eccl. 12:13, 14.
Every son and daughter of Adam's lost race is judgment bound, to answer
before the bar of God the demands of the perfect law. Divine justice
cannot abate one jot or tittle of the requirements of the holy law, nor
by any means clear the guilty. But divine mercy has provided the way by
which God can "be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in
Jesus."
[Illustration: THE GIFT OF GOD
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." John
3:16.]
[Illustration: CHILDLIKE FAITH
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 18:3.]
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
"How should man be just [righteous] with God?" asked the patriarch Job.
It has been the vital question ever since Adam sinned, and lost his
righteousness and forfeited his life. The answer of Scripture is:--
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ." Rom 5:1 "By grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any
man should boast." Eph. 2:8, 9.
In the beginning, life and righteousness were the gift of God to man.
Only the Creator could bestow the gift at the first; when lost, only
creative power can restore it.
Man Cannot Justify Himself
The law of God declares all men sinners. Not only did Adam's posterity
inherit of necessity a sinful nature, but every soul of man has wrought
sin as the fruit of that nature.
"As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:12.
"There is no difference," Jew or Gentile, bond or free, they are in the
same lost condition; "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory
of God." Rom. 10:12; 3:23.
The sinner finds himself a transgressor, condemned to death by a holy
law. He turns to it with the thought, "I will do what it says, and
become righteous and win life." But he cannot undo the fact that he has
sinned. A holy law can only cry, "Guilty! guilty!" to one who has
transgressed it. The law declares righteousness; it cannot give it. As
the Scripture says:
"We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall
no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of
sin." Rom. 3:19, 20.
The guilt exists. No deeds that man can do can undo it or cover it from
a righteous law. Not only that, but as soon as the law declares what
righteousness is, the sinner finds that its demands are altogether
beyond the power of his flesh to meet. It calls for a kind of work that
fallen human nature cannot so much as approach. Paul cried out, when
struggling under conviction, "We know that the law is spiritual: but I
am carnal, sold under sin." Rom. 7:14.
The carnal cannot bring forth the spiritual. But the law demands a
spiritual work of righteousness. It is impossible for the carnal mind to
undertake it. The Scripture says:
"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot
please God." Rom. 8:7, 8.
But the awakened sinner is yet in the flesh. He finds the law thundering
his guilt and condemning him to death. He cannot wash away the past, nor
hide it; he cannot obey God's law with a carnal mind, and that is all
the mind he has. He is lost, and helpless of himself, but longs for a
way of escape. Paul's cry in the same position is the cry of the
despairing heart that has not found the Saviour, "O wretched man that I
am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. 7:24. Thank
God, there is an answer to that cry, for every sinner.
"Plunged in a gulf of dark despair,
We wretched sinners lay,
Without one cheering beam of hope,
Or spark of glimmering day.
"With pitying eyes the Prince of grace
Beheld our helpless grief:
He saw, and, O amazing love!
He came to our relief."
The Free Gift of Christ
Following that despairing cry of human helplessness, "Who shall deliver
me?" there came the believer's shout of praise, "I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord." He is the deliverer; for He "gave Himself for
our sins, that He might deliver us." Rom. 7:25; Gal. 1:4.
The way of escape and salvation is the gift of God's love. "God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
No sinner has need to plead that God may be willing to forgive him; the
Lord's infinite love that gave His Son to die, is pleading with the
sinner to believe and accept salvation.
In order to be the sinner's Saviour, the divine Son of God must take
man's place before the broken law. He came in human flesh, with all its
weakness. "I can of Mine own self," He said, "do nothing." He trusted
the Father, and lived a life of perfect righteousness in human flesh. He
who knew no sin, bore man's sin in His body on the cross. "The Lord hath
laid on Him the iniquity of us all." For man's sin He died, "that He by
the grace of God should taste death for every man." In Him was met the
penalty of the law. But it was a sinless sacrifice. He "through the
eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God." Heb. 9:14.
Therefore death could not hold Him. He rose in the power of an endless
life to be man's advocate and priest and savior, ministering His grace
and righteousness and life to every one who will receive them.
The righteousness that He wrought out for man in human flesh He longs to
put into every human heart. As in His own flesh in Judea He walked and
lived the life of righteousness, so now, by the Holy Spirit, He walks in
human lives today. That means forgiveness, and deliverance from the
power of the flesh, and a new life of power, and righteousness and
justification wrought within by the divine indwelling Saviour. How may
we receive Him with all this great salvation?--By faith; by believing
His promises; "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." Eph.
3:17.
Christ in all His fulness abiding within,--this is the wonder and
mystery of the gospel, "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." It
means an ever-present, ever-living Saviour, able to save to the
uttermost.
What abundance of grace is received with His indwelling presence!
_Forgiveness._--"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John
1:9.
_Deliverance from the Flesh._--The cleansing by Christ's indwelling
power means that the old life of self is subdued. "Our old man is
crucified with Him." Rom. 6:6. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.... And if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness." Rom. 8:9, 10.
_A New Heart._--"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will
I put within you." Eze. 36:26.
_A New Life._--"Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness." Eph. 4:23, 24. It is in blessed fact Christ Jesus living the
life in the believer by faith, as the apostle Paul says:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Gal.
2:20.
_Righteousness and Justification._--"This is His name whereby He shall
be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Jer. 23:6. Well does the King
James Version print the blessed name in capital letters. It is the great
name of salvation to every believer. By faith we receive Him, and by
faith His righteousness is imputed unto us. His life of obedience covers
all the believer's surrendered life, past and continuous, and in God's
sight the life of the believer in Jesus is justified from all sin. It is
the triumph of Him who was not only "delivered for our offenses," but
was also "raised again for our justification:"
"Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came
upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous." Rom. 5:18, 19.
Christ died and rose again to bring this experience to sinners who have
struggled helplessly under condemnation. As Christ Jesus with all His
righteousness is received by faith, "there is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:1.
Praise the Lord! It is all of Christ, and not of any works that we have
done. Therefore it is as sure as the oath and promise of God. We can
lose the experience only as we let Christ go out of the life by
unbelief. God forbid that we should do this; and help us to be quick to
repent and again lay hold of Him by faith if ever we find we have let
Him go and have lost the covering of His righteousness.
"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
'Mid hosts of sin, in these arrayed,
My soul shall never be afraid."
[Illustration: THE LAST PRAYER
"That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." John 3:16.]
Christ's righteousness is, of necessity, the righteousness demanded by
the law of God. He lives that law in the believer. This is what
justification is. "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but
the doers of the law shall be justified." Rom. 2:13. Justification by
faith makes the man a doer of the law by faith, Christ living every one
of its sacred precepts in the believer's life. This is what He died to
accomplish, to bring the righteousness of the law to the sinner who
could never attain to it himself.
"What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Rom. 8:3, 4.
Christ writes God's law in the new heart: "I will put My laws into their
mind, and write them in their hearts." Heb. 8:10. It is the rule of His
own righteousness. For before He came into the world to work out perfect
righteousness for us in human flesh, He said, through the psalmist, "I
delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps.
40:8.
It is a perfect righteousness and a full salvation that Christ brings
into every believer's heart. In Him all fulness dwells, "and ye are
complete in Him."
The wondrous plan of salvation is so deep that only "in the ages to
come" will God be able to "show the exceeding riches of His grace in His
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:7. But thank God, even
here below sinners saved by grace may "know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge."
"The wonders of redeeming love
Our highest thoughts exceed;
The Son of God comes from above,
For sinful man to bleed.
"He knows the frailties of our frame,
For He has borne our grief;
Our great High Priest once felt the same,
And He can send relief.
"His love will not be satisfied
Till He in glory see
The faithful ones for whom He died
From sin forever free."
--_R.F. Cottrell._
[Illustration: THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST
"Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Matt. 3:15.]
[Illustration: THE FORD OF JORDAN
"John also was baptizing in Ænon near to Salim, because there was much
water there." John 3:23.]
BAPTISM
THE MEMORIAL OF THE RESURRECTION
Baptism is the divinely appointed memorial of the resurrection of
Christ. The great fact of the gospel is that "Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3, 4), to be
our great High Priest and Saviour.
Baptism is a profession of faith in the Saviour, who went into the grave
for us, and rose again to life. It is the great object-lesson to teach
the truth that the sinner must die to sin and the world, and have a
resurrection by the power of divine grace to a new life of obedience.
The ordinance is the sign of an actual experience, the means by which
the believer confesses the work of grace in the soul.
The Scriptures teach the essential conditions necessary to baptism:
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Mark 16:15, 16.
"What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest." Acts 8:36, 37.
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Acts 2:38.
Thus it is seen that instruction in the gospel, belief in Christ, and
repentance are conditions to precede baptism.
Baptism for Believers
The experience of which baptism is the sign is thus stated:
"We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life." Rom. 6:4.
"As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."
Gal. 3:27.
"Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."
Col. 2:12.
In this ordinance, commanded of God, the believer is following the
example of Christ, who, when baptized by John in Jordan, said, "Thus it
becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."
"Thus through the emblematic grave
The glorious suffering Saviour trod;
Thou art our Pattern, through the wave
We follow Thee, blest Son of God."
The Form of Baptism
The Scriptural form of baptism is shown in these texts:
"Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water."
Matt. 3:16.
"They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he
baptized him." Acts 8:38.
"Buried with Him by baptism.... For if we have been planted together in
the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His
resurrection." Rom. 6:4, 5.
While the outward form of a religious service, without the spirit and
the experience which the form professes, must ever be unacceptable to
God, yet when the Lord prescribes a form, it is imperative that His
instruction should be followed. The form of the ordinance as commanded
by God emphasizes the divine meaning of the service.
Scriptural baptism is a burial "in the likeness" of Christ's burial, as
the lifting up of the believer from the watery grave is a likeness of
the resurrection of Christ. Of the meaning of the word "baptism," Luther
wrote:
"Baptism is a Greek word; in Latin it can be translated
immersion, as when we plunge something into water that it may
be completely covered with water."--_Opera Lutheri, De Sac.
Bap. 1, p. 319 (Baptist Encyclopedia, art. "Baptism")._
Calvin, after arguing that the form is an indifferent matter, says:
"The very word 'baptize,' however, signifies to immerse; and it
is certain that immersion was observed by the ancient
church."--_"Institutes," lib. 4, cap. 15 (Baptist Encyclopedia,
art. "Baptism")._
Of the practice in primitive times, Neander, the church historian, says:
"In respect to the manner of baptizing, in conformity with the
original institution and the original import of the symbol, it
was generally administered by immersion."--_"History of the
Christian Church," Torrey's translation (London edition), Vol.
I, p. 429._
The perversion of the ordinance into sprinkling, and that in infancy,
takes away the divinely ordained object-lesson; and in the case of the
infant must of necessity substitute mere ceremonialism for experience,
for the child of unaccountable years can have had no experience of
believing and repenting, which are the necessary conditions to fulfil
the meaning of baptism. The change in the ordinance, like most of the
changes that came about in the days of the "falling away" from the
primitive faith and practice, was by gradual process.
Dean Stanley, in his "Christian Institutions," page 24, says that it is
not till the third century that "we find one case of the baptism of
infants." Of the change from immersion to sprinkling, he says:
"What is the justification of this almost universal departure
from the primitive usage? There may have been many reasons,
some bad, some good. One, no doubt, was the superstitious
feeling already mentioned which regarded baptism as a charm,
indispensable to salvation, and which insisted on imparting it
to every human being who could be touched with water, however
unconscious."
The common practice as late as the twelfth century is thus described by
a Roman Catholic cardinal of that time, named Pullus:
"Whilst the candidate for baptism in water is immersed, the
death of Christ is suggested; whilst immersed and covered with
water, the burial of Christ is shown forth; whilst he is raised
from the waters, the resurrection of Christ is
proclaimed."--_Patrol. Lat., Vol. CXXX, p. 315 (Baptist
Encyclopedia, art. "Baptism")._
Dean Stanley, of Westminster, one of the first scholars of the Church of
England, wrote:
"For the first thirteen centuries the almost universal practice
of baptism was that of which we read in the New Testament, and
which is the very meaning of the word 'baptize,'--that those
who were baptized were plunged, submerged, immersed into the
water. That practice is still, as we have seen, continued in
Eastern churches. In the Western church it still lingers among
Roman Catholics in the solitary instance of the Cathedral of
Milan; among Protestants in the numerous sects of the Baptists.
It lasted long into the Middle Ages.... But since the beginning
of the seventeenth century, the practice has become exceedingly
rare. With the few exceptions just mentioned, the whole of the
Western churches have now substituted for the ancient bath the
ceremony of letting fall a few drops of water on the face. The
reason of the change is obvious. The practice of immersion,
though peculiarly suitable to the Southern and Eastern
countries for which it was designed, was not found seasonable
in the countries of the North and West. Not by any decree of
council or parliament, but by the general sentiment of
Christian liberty, this remarkable change was effected.
Beginning in the thirteenth century, it has gradually driven
the ancient catholic usage out of the whole of
Europe."--_"Christian Institutions," pp. 21, 22._
The facts are undeniable, and emphasize the importance of reformation
and return in practice to the plain instructions of the Word of God. As
the record shows, it was not the spirit of the New Testament church that
made this change in the divine ordinance; rather it is the spirit of the
church of the "falling away," against which the Lord warns all
believers, "because they have transgressed the laws, changed the
ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant."
The Path He Trod
Our Saviour bowed beneath the wave,
And meekly sought a watery grave;
Come, see the sacred path He trod--
A path well pleasing to our God.
His voice we hear, His footsteps trace.
And hither come to seek His face,
To do His will, to feel His love,
And join our songs with those above.
--_Adoniram Judson._
[Illustration: SYMBOLS OF MEDO-PERSIA AND GRECIA
"The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and
Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia." Dan. 8:20, 21.]
[Illustration: COINS OF THE MEDO-PERSIAN AND GRECIAN EMPIRES
The ram, symbol of Persia; and the goat, symbol of Grecia.]
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL 8
A HISTORIC OUTLINE AND A VITAL QUESTION
Another view of the history of empires and kingdoms was brought before
the prophet Daniel in the vision of the eighth chapter. In this vision a
great prophetic period is given, the end of which reaches to the latter
days, touching events of our own times that are of direct interest and
importance to every one today.
The vision was given in the third year of Belshazzar, the last king of
Babylon. Again, as in moving panorama, there passed before the prophet's
vision the scenes of history. Earthly kingdoms were represented under
the symbols of beasts.
We shall find the prophecy and the history corresponding in every
detail, revealing the overruling hand of God, who knows the end from the
beginning, and whose living Word of truth bears its witness through all
the ages.
"Truth never dies. The ages come and go;
The mountains wear away; the seas retire;
Destruction lays earth's mighty cities low,
And empires, states, and dynasties expire;
But caught and handed onward by the wise,
Truth never dies."
The opening scene of this vision, given by the river Ulai, in Persia, is
thus described:
_Prophecy._--"Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there
stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were
high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I
saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no
beast might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver
out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great."
Verses 3, 4.
In the angel's interpretation of the vision Daniel was told: "The ram
which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia."
Verse 20. "The higher came up last."
The two horns represented the dual character of the empire: first the
Medes in ascendancy, then the Persians rising to yet greater power. "So
that no beast might stand before him," says the prophecy.
_History._--Xenophon says of Cyrus the Persian:
"He was able to extend the fear of himself over so great a part
of the world that he astonished all, and no one attempted
anything against him."--_"The Cyropædia," book 1, chap. 1._
The line of Medo-Persian conquest was "westward, and northward, and
southward," just as the prophet saw the ram pushing its way. As one pen
wrote in the days of Persia's supremacy:
"He [Darius] showed the world arms glory-crowned."
"Towns untold before him fell."
"Burgs over sea ... heard from his lips their fate."
--_"The Persians," by Æschylus._
But the ram pushing westward stirred up an antagonist that was
eventually to overcome him. The prophet continues:
_Prophecy._--"As I was considering, behold, a he goat came from the west
on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat
had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two
horns,... and ran unto him in the fury of his power.... And there was
no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the
ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the
ram out of his hand." Verses 5-7.
The angel's interpretation continued: "The rough goat is the king of
Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king."
Verse 21.
_History._--This "first king" of united Grecia was Alexander the Great.
"With Alexander the New Greece begins."--_Harrison, "Story of
Greece," p. 499._
"And it happened, after that Alexander ... had smitten Darius
king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead,
the first over Greece." 1 Maccabees 1:1.
Under Alexander, the Grecian goat ran upon the Persian ram "in the fury
of his power." At Arbela, wrote Arrian, the Macedonians charged "with
great fury." None was able to deliver the Persian ram. "Wherever you
fly," wrote Alexander to the retreating Darius, "thither I will surely
pursue you." (See "Anabasis of Alexander the Great," by Arrian, book 2,
chap. 14.) Medo-Persia fell before Grecia, as this sure word of prophecy
had foretold two hundred years before Alexander's day.
Grecia's expansion and its later history were next unfolded before the
prophet's vision:
_Prophecy._--"Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was
strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones
toward the four winds of heaven." Verse 8.
Of the ram (Persia) it was said it became "great;" of the goat (Grecia);
that it became "very great."
_History._--Justin, the Roman, wrote of Alexander:
"So much was the whole world awed by the terror of his name,
that all nations came to pay their obedience to
him."--_"History of the World," book 12, chap. 13._
"Vain in his hopes, the youth had grasped at all,
And his vast thought took in the vanquished ball."
--_Lucan's "Pharsalia" (Nicholas Rowe's translation), book 3._
But the unerring prophecy had said that "when he was strong, the great
horn was broken." Suddenly the youthful conqueror was cut down by death,
just as he was preparing to celebrate at Babylon a "convention of the
whole universe,"
"being thus taken off in the flower of his age, and in the
height of his victories."--_Justin, "History of the World,"
book 13, chap. 1._
The ancient pagan writers, in telling the story, make use of language
very similar to that used by divine prophecy in foretelling it.
Following Alexander's death the empire was divided "toward the four
winds of heaven." Myers says:
"Four well-defined and important monarchies arose out of the
ruins.... The great horn was broken; and instead of it came up
four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven."--_"History
of Greece" (edition 1902), p. 457._
As the prophet watched these four kingdoms of divided Greece, he beheld
another power coming into the field of his vision through one of the
four kingdoms, and extending its authority more than any before it:
_Prophecy._--"Out of one of them [one of the four kingdoms] came forth a
little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward
the east, and toward the pleasant land." Verse 9.
_History._--Medo-Persia was "great," Grecia was "very great," but this
power was to be "exceeding great." Rome followed Grecia. Polybius, the
Roman, says:
"Almost the whole inhabited world was conquered, and brought
under the dominion of the single city of Rome."--_"Histories of
Polybius" (Evelyn Shuckburgh's translation), book 1, chap. 1._
One of the odes of Horace tells how the name of Rome grew to might:
"Till her superb dominion spread
East, where the sun comes forth in light,
And west to where he lays his head."
--_Ode 15, "To Augustus," book 4._
Lucan's lines measured its exceeding greatness from the other points of
the compass:
"Though from the frozen pole our empire run,
Far as the journeys of the southern sun."
--_"Pharsalia," book 10._
"The empire of the Romans filled the world," says Gibbon. It was
"exceeding great," according to the prophecy. In the vision the little
horn that grew so great came into the prophet's view as proceeding out
of one of the four horns that he had been watching. Rome rose to
unquestioned supremacy out of its conquest of Macedonia, one of the four
notable kingdoms into which Grecia was divided. It spread forth toward
the south, and toward the east, and "toward the pleasant land,"
Palestine becoming a province of the empire in the century before
Christ. And it was a Roman force that destroyed Jerusalem and devastated
the pleasant land.
Thus the "sure word of prophecy," with exactness in detail, carries the
history through the centuries to the last great universal monarchy,
Rome.
But this prophecy does not deal so much with the earlier history of Rome
as with the developments of later times. It was the same in the
prophetic outline of Daniel 7. After briefly identifying Rome as the
last universal monarchy, the vision of the seventh chapter dealt with
the rise of papal Rome, described its exaltation of itself against God,
and its warfare against the truth and the saints of God. And here again,
in the eighth chapter, the same persecuting power is seen developing,
exalting itself, and persecuting the saints of God. The prophecy says
that "it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and
prospered." Dan. 8:12. The papal history, as given in the study on
Daniel 7, need not be repeated here.
[Illustration: THE CAMP OF ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS
"Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed." Dan. 8:14.]
As the prophet watched the work of this lawless power, his heart must
have cried out to know how long it was to be allowed to prosper in its
evil way; for next he heard the voice of a holy one asking the question
for him,
"How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the
transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to
be trodden underfoot?" Dan. 8:13.
The answer was,
"Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed." Verse 14.
In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year. Eze. 4:6. This is a long
period, therefore, of 2300 years. It reaches to the latter days; for the
angel said of it, "At the time of the end shall be the vision." Dan.
8:17.
The question was, "How long?" or literally, "Until when?" and the answer
was, "Until two thousand and three hundred days." Then what was to come
to deal with the great apostasy?--"Then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed." The cleansing of the sanctuary, therefore, must have
something to do with meeting the great apostasy, lifting up God's truth
that has been trampled underfoot, and cutting short the reign of evil.
The cleansing of the sanctuary, with all that is involved in it, must be
God's answer to this lawless power.
Error may prosper for a time; but the just balances of the sanctuary
will at last pronounce righteous judgment, and the prosperity of evil
will be cut short. "I was envious ... when I saw the prosperity of the
wicked," said the psalmist, "until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then understood I their end." Ps. 73:3, 17.
What, then, is involved in the cleansing of the sanctuary, the time of
which is marked by the long prophetic period? It is for us to
understand; for it is a work pertaining to the latter days.
[Illustration: OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST
"We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in the heavens." Heb. 8:1.]
[Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF THE SANCTUARY
"A figure for time then present, in which were offered both gifts and
sacrifices." Heb. 9:9.]
THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY IN TYPE AND ANTITYPE
The Bible teaching concerning the sanctuary of the Levitical service
shows clearly that the cleansing of the sanctuary is God's answer to
error and apostasy.
The priestly service of the earthly sanctuary, or temple, in the days of
Israel, was typical of the work of Christ, our High Priest, in the
heavenly temple. The earthly priests served after "the example and
shadow of heavenly things." Heb. 8:5. And of Christ's ministry in the
heavenly temple we are told:
"Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such a
high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty
in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, and not man." Heb. 8:1, 2.
In the earthly service, the cleansing of the sanctuary was the closing
work of the high priest, marking the end of the yearly round of
mediatory ministry. The cleansing of the sanctuary in the time of the
end must, therefore, according to the sure teaching of the type, be the
closing ministry of our great High Priest in the heavenly temple, before
He lays aside His priestly work to come in glory.
The Service of the Earthly Tabernacle
There were two distinct phases in the priestly ministry of the
tabernacle in Israel. The sanctuary was built with two apartments, the
holy place and the most holy.
In the holy place were the candlestick with its seven lights, the table
with its ever-renewed "bread of the presence," and the altar of incense,
on which sweet incense, symbol of Christ's continual intercession, was
burned morning and night.
Within the inner veil was the most holy place, where was the ark
containing the tables of the law, written with the finger of God. The
cover of the ark was the golden mercy-seat, above which, at either end,
stood two cherubim of gold, their wings meeting on high, their faces
looking ever toward the mercy-seat. It was a type of the throne of
God--the angels about the throne, the law the foundation of His
government, the mercy-seat typifying the interposition of mercy and
pardon for the sinner; and above it the visible glory of the Lord, the
Shekinah.
"There I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above
the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of
the testimony." Ex. 25:22.
Of the service in the first apartment it is stated:
"When these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God." Heb. 9:6.
"Day by day the sacrificial victims were slain at the altar before the
outer veil, and the blood was 'brought into the sanctuary' by the
priest." This was an acknowledgment of transgression of God's law,
meriting death, and a confession of faith in the Lamb of God who was to
suffer death in the sinner's stead, and whose atoning blood would plead
for him before the righteous law.
Thus day by day, either by the sprinkling of the blood "before the Lord"
or by eating a portion of the flesh of the burnt offering in the holy
place, the ministry of the priests transferred the sin in type to the
sanctuary, and the sinner was pardoned.
For a full year, lacking one day, the ministry was in the first
apartment, or holy place only. But on that last day of the yearly round
of service--"the tenth day of the seventh month"--the high priest
entered the second apartment, or most holy place.
"Into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people."
Heb. 9:7.
In this service the high priest sprinkled the blood upon the mercy-seat
and in the holy place, "because of the uncleanness of the children of
Israel." The sanctuary was to be reconciled or cleansed from all the
sins registered there in type through the blood of the offerings brought
day by day during the year.
As the high priest came out, bearing the sins, he transferred them all
to the head of the scapegoat, which was sent away into the wilderness;
and thus "all their iniquities" were borne away from the camp into the
wilderness, and the sanctuary was cleansed. See Leviticus 16.
This was a solemn time of judgment in Israel. Every man's life came in
review that day. Was every sin confessed? Whosoever was not found right
with God, when that service was performed, was cut off from having a
part with God's people.
"It is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord
your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that
same day, he shall be cut off from among his people." Lev. 23:28, 29.
It was indeed an annual day of judgment in Israel. And all this was an
"example and shadow of heavenly things." Heb. 8:5.
Christ's Closing Work in Heaven
Therefore the last phase of Christ's ministry as our high priest in the
sanctuary of God above, must be a work of judgment, a review of the
heavenly record, corresponding to the final ministry in the second
apartment of the earthly tabernacle, when that sanctuary was cleansed.
[Illustration: THE MEMORIAL OF HIS SACRIFICE
"As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the
Lord's death till He come." 1 Cor. 11:26.]
Daniel the prophet was shown in vision this change in the ministry of
our High Priest, namely, from the first to the second apartment of the
heavenly temple. He describes the wondrous scene, as God's living
throne, with its wheels flaming with glory, moved into the most holy
place of the heavenly sanctuary, for the closing work of Christ's
ministry:
"I beheld till the thrones were cast down ["placed," R.V.], and the
Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair
of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and
His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from
before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books
were opened." Dan. 7:9, 10.
This scene, as the next verse shows, opens while still on earth the
apostasy is exalting itself. But during this same time a solemn judgment
work is going forward in heaven above, the finishing of which will give
God's answer to the apostasy, and bring the second coming of Christ in
glory to end the reign of sin. It is the cleansing of the
sanctuary,--the time when in reality and not in type every case
registered in the sanctuary comes in final review before God. When that
work closes, according to the type, whosoever is not found right with
God will be cut off from having any part with His redeemed people.
Then the priestly ministry of Christ will close, and the destiny of
every soul will be fixed for all eternity. To that time must apply the
words spoken by Jesus:
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: ... and he that is
righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be
holy still. And, behold, I come quickly." Rev. 22:11, 12.
But now the Saviour, from His place of ministry on high, speaks to all
the encouraging exhortation and assurance:
"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I
will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess
his name before My Father, and before His angels." Rev. 3:5.
To let men on earth know when this judgment work, the cleansing of the
sanctuary, began in heaven, the prophetic period of 2300 years was
given. It is of most solemn importance that we know when that period
begins and ends.
[Illustration: ARTAXERXES SENDING THE JEWS TO REBUILD JERUSALEM,
B.C. 457
"From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build
Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and
threescore and two weeks." Dan. 9:25.]
[Illustration: NEHEMIAH, THE KING'S CUPBEARER
"Send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchers, that I may
build it." Neh. 2:5.]
A GREAT PROPHETIC PERIOD
THE 2300 YEARS OF DANIEL 8:14
The commission to the angel Gabriel was, "Make this man to understand
the vision" (Dan. 8:16); therefore in the angel's explanation of the
vision of Daniel 8, we must assuredly find the interpretation of the
prophetic period of 2300 years, the close of which marks the opening of
the judgment work in heaven, or the cleansing of the sanctuary.
The eighth chapter closes, however, with no reference to the beginning
of this period of time, a most important measuring line of prophecy. The
angel had explained the symbols representing Medo-Persia, Grecia, and
Rome, and had dwelt upon the antichristian work of the apostasy that was
to develop; but he left the time of the prophetic period unexplained,
save to say that it was "true," and that it would be "for many
days"--far in the future. Here the angel stopped, for Daniel fainted. In
spirit the prophet had been gazing upon the warfare of the great
apostasy against God's truth through the ages, and evidently it took all
strength from him. Daniel closes the account of this vision with the
words, "I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." Verse
27.
[Illustration: THE 2300 DAYS
The heavy line represents the full 2300 year-day period, the longest
prophetic period in the Bible. Beginning in B.C. 457 when the
decree was given to restore and build Jerusalem (Ezra 7:11-26; Dan.
9:25), seven weeks (49 years) are measured off to indicate the time
occupied in this work of restoration. These, however, are a part of the
sixty-nine weeks (483 years) that were to reach to Messiah, the Anointed
One. Christ was anointed in 27 A.D., at His baptism. Matt.
3:13-17; Acts 10:38. In the midst of the seventieth week (31
A.D.), Christ was crucified or "cut off," which marked the time
when the sacrifices and oblations of the earthly sanctuary were to
cease. Dan. 9:25, 27. The remaining three and one-half years of this
week reach to 34 A.D., or to the stoning of Stephen, and the
great persecution of the church at Jerusalem which followed. Acts 7:59;
8:1. This marked the close of the seventy weeks, or 490 years, allotted
to the Jewish people.
But the seventy weeks are a part of the 2300 days; and as they (the
seventy weeks) reach to 34 A.D., the remaining 1810 years of
the 2300-day period must reach to 1844, when the work of judgment, or
cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, was to begin. Rev. 14:6, 7. Then
special light began to shine upon the whole sanctuary subject, and
Christ's mediatorial or priestly work in it.
Four great events, therefore, are located by this great prophetic
period,--the first advent, the crucifixion, the rejection of the Jewish
people as a nation, and the beginning of the work of final judgment.]
But the angel had been commanded, "Make this man to understand the
vision;" and soon after, as recorded in the next chapter,--possibly
within a year,[G]--Gabriel appeared to the prophet with the words:
"O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding....
Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision." Dan. 9:22,
23.
Thereupon the angel began to deal with the matter of time in the
prophecy, the very feature of the vision of the eighth chapter that he
had not yet made Daniel understand. Therefore the vision of the 2300
years must be the topic.
The Starting-Point
First of all, the angel said that a short period was to be cut off from
the long period, and allotted to the Jewish people; this short period
was to reach to the coming of the promised Messiah and the filling up of
the measure of Jerusalem's transgressions. The angel's own words are:
"Seventy weeks [490 days, prophetic time, or 490 literal years] are
determined [cut off, as the word means] upon thy people and upon thy
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and
to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the Most Holy." Verse 24.
This 490-year period "cut off" was to cover the history of the people of
Jerusalem until that city had filled out the measure of its
transgression. The only prophetic period from which this 490 years can
properly be said to be "cut off" is, assuredly, the longer period of
2300 years, which stretches far onward to "the time of the end." The 490
years and the 2300 years, then, must begin at the same time.
It was the time period that the angel Gabriel was yet to explain; and he
begins the explanation by showing that the first 490 years of it would
reach to the days of the Messiah. Then he gives the event that marks the
beginning of the 490 years, which event must necessarily mark the
beginning of the 2300 years as well.
This is what he was commissioned to make Daniel "understand" when first
the vision of the 2300 years was given. Now he tells him to "understand"
it:
"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the
Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street
shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself:
and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and
the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the
end of the war desolations are determined." Dan. 9:25, 26.
The date of the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem is the date, therefore, from which the great prophetic
measuring line runs; the first 490 years of it to reach to the time and
work of the Messiah, at the first advent, the full 2300 years running on
to mark the time when the judgment hour in heaven opens. Once the
starting-point is fixed, all the events of the long period must follow
exactly as scheduled in the time-table of divine prophecy.
Date of the Commencement to Restore Jerusalem
There were several commands issued concerning the restoration of
Jerusalem after the Babylonish captivity. Cyrus, and Darius, and
Artaxerxes Longimanus each issued such a decree. Which one answers to
the language of the prophecy as "the commandment to restore and to build
Jerusalem"?
[Illustration: THE JEWS MOURNING OVER THE RUINS OF JERUSALEM
"I went out by night,... and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were
broken down." Neh. 2:13.]
The decree of Artaxerxes was most comprehensive (Ezra 7), authorizing
the full restoration of the civil and religious administration of
Jerusalem and Judea. And Inspiration specifically sums up all the
decrees as completed only in that of Artaxerxes, which thus constituted
"the commandment:"
"They builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God
of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and
Artaxerxes king of Persia." Ezra 6:14.
[Illustration: REBUILDING JERUSALEM
"They builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God
of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and
Artaxerxes king of Persia." Ezra 6:14.]
According to this scripture, the full "going forth of the commandment to
restore and to build," dates from this decree of Artaxerxes. And this
decree went forth "in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king." Ezra
7:7.
What year was this seventh year of Artaxerxes--a date so important to
fix to a certainty?
The great chronological standard for the kings of the ancient empires is
the canon, or historical rule, of Ptolemy. Ptolemy was a Greek
historian, geographer, and astronomer, who lived in the temple of
Serapis, near Alexandria, Egypt. From ancient records he prepared a
chronological table of the kings of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome
(carrying the Roman list to his own time, which was the second century
after Christ). Along with his list of kings and the years of their
succession, Ptolemy compiled a record of ancient observations of
eclipses. In such and such a year of a king, for instance, on a given
day of the month, an eclipse of the sun or moon would be recorded.
Astronomers have worked out these observations, and verified them. The
learned Dr. William Hales said:
"To the authenticity of these copies of Ptolemy's canon, the
strongest testimony is given by their exact agreement
throughout, with above twenty dates and computations of
eclipses in Ptolemy's Almagest."--_"Chronology," Vol. I, p.
166._
Thus, says James B. Lindsay, an English chronologist, "a foundation is
laid for chronology sure as the stars." So the sun and the stars, the
divinely appointed timekeepers, bear their witness to the accuracy of
the historical record.
We thank God for this, as we desire to know if we may depend upon
Ptolemy's canon to help us fix to a certainty the seventh year of
Artaxerxes.
According to Ptolemy, Artaxerxes succeeded to the throne in the two
hundred and eighty-fourth year of the canon. In modern reckoning, this
two hundred and eighty-fourth year runs from Dec. 17, 465 B.C., to Dec.
17, 464 B.C. The canon does not tell at what part of the year a king
succeeded to the throne; it only deals with whole years. The question
is, to be exact, Did Artaxerxes come to the throne in December, 465
B.C., or at some time in the year 464 B.C.? At what season of the year
did the king take the throne? Some historians, dealing with the matter
roughly, date the succession from the year 465. But in dealing with
divine prophecy, we require certainty upon which to base the reckoning
of the seventh year of Artaxerxes, from which date the prophetic period
runs.
And in God's providence we do have certainty. Of all the kings of
Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia, in Ptolemy's long list, there is but
one concerning whose succession the Scriptures give us the very time of
the year--and that one is Artaxerxes. The one case in which we need to
know to a certainty the season of the year, in order to fix an important
date in prophecy, is the one case in which Inspiration gives exactly the
particulars. Who cannot see the hand of God in this?
The combined record of Neh. 1:1; 2:1 and Ezra 7:7-9,[H] shows that
Artaxerxes came to the throne between the fifth month of the Jewish year
and the ninth month,--roughly, between August and December,--or in the
autumn. The Bible gives one part of the record, and Ptolemy's canon
gives another part; and by the combined record we know that Artaxerxes
came to the throne late in the year 464 B.C., and thus the seventh year
of his reign would be 457 B.C. This is the date fixed by other sources
of reliable chronology also, Sir Isaac Newton having worked out several
lines of evidence from ancient authorities, in each case reaching the
year 464 B.C. as the first of Artaxerxes, which makes the seventh to be
457 B.C.
In the seventh year of Artaxerxes the commandment went forth to restore
and to build Jerusalem, and this event fixes the beginning of the 2300
years, as also of the 490 years cut off from it upon the Jewish people.
That year, 457 B.C., therefore, is a date of profound
importance. It stands like the golden milestone in the ancient Forum at
Rome, from which ran out all the measurements of distance to the ends of
the empire. From this date, 457 B.C., run out the golden
threads of time prophecy that touch events in the earthly life and the
heavenly ministry of Jesus that are of deepest eternal interest to all
mankind today.
The Ransom Paid
Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy-seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
Can cleanse my guilty soul indeed.
Lord, I believe were sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full provision made.
--_Nikolaus Zinzendorf._
[Illustration: THE ANOINTING OF JESUS AT HIS BAPTISM
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power."
Acts 10:38. (See Matt. 3:16.)]
FOOTNOTES:
[G] The dates placed in the margin of the King James Version indicate a
period of fifteen years between the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel.
This was because in former days it was thought that Belshazzar was the
Bible name of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, who reigned seventeen
years. In that case, from "the third year" of his reign, when the
prophecy of Daniel 8 was given, to the "first year of Darius," who
succeeded him, when the angel appeared again to Daniel, would be fifteen
years. But the unearthing of the buried records of Babylonia during the
last half century, reveals the fact that Belshazzar was the son of
Nabonidus, associated with him on the throne as king for a few years
before the fall of Babylon. The third year of his reign may very likely
have been the last year; and Darius immediately followed Belshazzar. The
explanation of the ninth chapter might have been within a few weeks or
months following the vision of chapter 8, and probably was.
[H] These texts show that the king came to the throne in the autumn, so
that the actual years of his reign would run from autumn to autumn. Neh.
1:1 begins the record: "In the month Chisleu, in the _twentieth year_."
Neh. 2:1 continues: "It came to pass in the month Nisan, in the
_twentieth year_ of Artaxerxes." Thus it is plain that in the monthly
calendar of the king's actual reign the month Chisleu came first in
order, and then Nisan. Chisleu was the ninth month of the Jewish sacred
year, roughly, December. Nisan is the first month, April. And these
months, December, April,--in that order,--came in the first year of the
king, of course, the same as in his twentieth year. And in the same year
also came the fifth month, August; for Ezra 7:7-9 shows that the first
and fifth months--in that order--also fell in the same year of his
reign. Then we know of a certainty that his reign began somewhere
between August and December, that is, in the autumn. The first year of
Artaxerxes was from the latter part of 464 B.C. to the latter part of
463, and the seventh year, as readily counted off, would be from near
the end of 458 to near the end of 457. Under the commission to Ezra, the
people began to go up to Jerusalem in the spring of that year, 457 B.C.
(in the first month, or April), and they "came to Jerusalem in the fifth
month" (August). Ezra 7:8, 9. Ezra and his associates soon thereafter
"delivered the kings commissions unto the king's lieutenants, and to the
governors on this side the river: and they furthered the people, and the
house of God." Ezra 8:36. With this delivery of the commissions to the
king's officers, the commandment to restore and to build had, most
certainly, fully gone forth. And from this date, 457 B.C., extends the
great prophetic period.
[Illustration: DANIEL'S PRAYER ANSWERED
"I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding." Dan. 9:22.]
THE PROPHECY FULFILLED
EVENTS OF THE "SEVENTY WEEKS" AND END OF THE 2300 YEARS
The angel explained to Daniel the events of the seventy weeks allotted
to Jerusalem and its people "to finish the transgression." Seven weeks
and threescore and two weeks (69 weeks) of the seventy were to reach to
the Messiah. The angel's words were:
"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to
finish the transgression.... Know therefore and understand, that from
the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem
unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two
weeks [69 weeks, or 483 days]." Dan. 9:24, 25.
The sixty-nine weeks, symbolic time, are 483 years, which were to reach
from the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to Messiah the
Prince.
The Time of the Messiah's Coming
The commandment of Artaxerxes to restore and build Jerusalem, as we have
seen, went forth in 457 B.C. Reckoning from that date, 483 full
years bring us to A.D. 27, when, according to the prophecy, the
Messiah should appear.
Messiah means "anointed." The anointing of Jesus, and His manifestation
as the Anointed One, was at His baptism:
"Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and,
lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from
heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Matt. 3:16, 17.
Thus Jesus was anointed as the Messiah (see Acts 10:38), and John
proclaimed: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world." John 1:29.
When did this baptism and anointing take place? The Gospel of Luke
supplies the historical facts for fixing the year:
"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate
being governor of Judea," etc. Luke 3:1-3.
Tiberius followed Augustus, who died in A.D. 14. But before the
latter's death, Tiberius was associated with him on the throne. Some
modern historians date this appointment of Tiberius as Cæsar from
A.D. 13; but the "History of Rome," by Dion Cassius, a Roman
senator, born in the second century, shows, under events of
A.D. 12, that Augustus recognized Tiberius as holding the
imperial dignity at that time. (Book 56, chap. 26.) Again, Dr. Philip
Schaff says:
"There are coins from Antioch in Syria of the date A.U. 765
[A.D. 12], with the head of Tiberius and the
inscription, _Kaisar, Sebastos (Augustus)."_--_"History of the
Christian Church," Vol. I, p. 120, footnote._
These coins from Syria bear certain witness that the first year of
Tiberius should be counted from A.D. 12. Therefore "the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar" would be A.D.
27, just 483 years from the going forth of the commandment to restore
Jerusalem. The prophecy of the sixty-nine weeks was fulfilled--the
Messiah had come.
Confirming the Covenant
But "one week" of the seventy remained--seven years. Of the Messiah's
work during this time the angel said:
"He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst
of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."
Dan. 9:27.
Christ's death upon the cross made "the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease," so far as their appointed force was concerned. After three years
and a half of ministry, "in the midst" of this seven-year period, the
prophetic week, the Messiah was lifted up on Calvary. For centuries the
sure word of prophecy had pointed to this supreme hour in the working
out of the plan of salvation. When the time was fulfilled, the promise
of God was fulfilled also, and the divine Sacrifice was offered.
"Paschal Lamb, by God appointed,
All our sins on Thee were laid;
By Almighty Love anointed,
Thou redemption's price hast paid.
All Thy people are forgiven
Through the virtue of Thy blood;
Opened is the gate of heaven,
Peace is made 'twixt man and God."
With the offering of the great Sacrifice, all the typical offerings
ceased to have significance. The veil of the temple was rent when the
Lamb of God expired upon the cross,--sign to all that He had caused "the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease."
[Illustration: THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST
"In the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation
to cease." Dan. 9:27.]
[Illustration: THE RENT VEIL
"The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom."
Mark 15:38.]
The Messiah was to "confirm the covenant with many for one week,"
filling out the seventy weeks allotted in God's merciful patience
especially to the people of the Jews. Three and a half years of Christ's
personal ministry on earth had been devoted to the chosen people. Now,
after His ascension, He was still, in the persons of His disciples, to
press the gospel of the new covenant especially upon the Jewish
people--"to the Jew first," and "beginning at Jerusalem."
[Illustration: PETER PREACHING IN THE HOUSE OF CORNELIUS
"They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word."
Acts 8:4.]
This last seven-year period, beginning in A.D. 27, ended in
A.D. 34. By that time the opposition of the Jews was becoming
exceedingly bitter. As a people they were rejecting again the divine
invitation extended by the risen Christ through His witnesses. About
A.D. 34 Stephen was martyred. The same council that, against
all evidence, had rejected the Messiah, again rejected the appeal of the
Holy Ghost shining visibly on Stephen's countenance.
The believers in Jerusalem were driven out by persecution; and "they
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." Acts
8:4. The Gentiles gave heed in Samaria, and the Ethiopian received the
gospel on the road to Gaza. The gospel message had fairly passed the
boundaries of Jerusalem and was on its way to the "uttermost parts of
the earth."
Though the seventy weeks cut off upon the Jewish people and upon the
holy city had ended, to the world's end the gospel of Christ's salvation
is for that people as well as for all other nations.
The Ending of the 2300 Years
It must not be forgotten that the angel was explaining to Daniel the
vision and prophecy of the long prophetic period that was to reach to
the cleansing of the sanctuary at the time of the end.
These events of the first seventy weeks of that period were "to seal up
the vision and prophecy." Dan. 9:24. The shedding of the blood of the
divine Sacrifice "to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness," set Heaven's seal to the vision. As surely
as the great Offering had been made, so surely the cleansing of the
sanctuary would be accomplished by the ministry of our High Priest in
heaven.
And the exact fulfilment of the time schedule for this first portion of
the prophetic period, set seal to the declaration that when the full
2300 years should run out, the closing ministry of Christ would surely
begin in the heavenly sanctuary.
From 457 B.C., when the commandment of Artaxerxes to restore
Jerusalem went forth, the measuring line of the 2300 years reaches to
the year A.D. 1844. In that year the time of the prophecy came.
Then the cleansing of the sanctuary was to begin.
The prophet John, in the Revelation, beheld the opening of this last
phase of the ministry of Christ in the most holy place of the temple of
God. "The temple of God was opened in heaven," he says, "and there was
seen in His temple the ark of His testament." Rev. 11:19. The prophet
heard voices saying, "The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and
the time of the dead, that they should be judged." Verse 18.
Again we must quote Daniel's description of the opening of this ministry
in the most holy place of the heavenly temple. He saw thrones of
judgment set up. He saw the moving throne of the Almighty, with its
wheels of naming glory, take its position for the final work of our High
Priest in the holy of holies above:
"I beheld till the thrones were cast down [placed], and the Ancient of
days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head
like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels
as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him:
thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten
thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were
opened." Dan. 7:9, 10.
This was the scene enacted in the heavenly temple when the year 1844
brought the judgment hour. Then began in heaven the work of the
investigative judgment, or the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary,
during which the case of every individual will come in review before
God.
When that work of investigation is finished, the ministry of Christ for
sin will end, human probation will close, and our Lord will quickly come
as King of kings and Lord of lords, to gather His redeemed, while all
sinners will be destroyed by "the brightness of His coming." 2 Thess.
2:8.
In the vision of Daniel 8, as the great apostasy was seen warring
against God's truth, the question was asked, "How long shall be the
vision,... to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden
underfoot?" The answer was, in effect, In 1844 the cleansing of the
sanctuary will begin in heaven,--the hour of God's judgment, that will
give God's answer to sin and apostasy.
We are living in the great antitypical day of atonement, for which all
heaven has been waiting. The end is at hand. And while that work is
proceeding in heaven above, the Lord proclaims a special message on
earth, lifting up again truths long trodden underfoot, and calling men
to prepare for the coming of the Lord.
_How Shall We Stand?
"For the hour of His judgment is come."_
"The judgment is set, the books have been opened;
How shall we stand in that great day
When every thought, and word, and action,
God, the righteous Judge, shall weigh?
"The work is begun with those who are sleeping,
Soon will the living here be tried,
Out of the books of God's remembrance,
His decision to abide.
"O, how shall we stand that moment of searching,
When all our sins those books reveal?
When from that court, each case decided,
Shall be granted no appeal?"
[Illustration: THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE
"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.]
[Illustration: THE GOSPEL COMMISSION
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
Mark 16:15.]
A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT
FORETOLD IN THE PROPHECY OF REVELATION 14
While the work of the judgment hour, or period,--the cleansing of the
sanctuary,--is proceeding in the heavenly temple above, the Lord sends
to the world a special message of preparation for the coming of the
Lord.
It would not be the divine way to let this solemn judgment in heaven
come unheralded to men. Daniel's prophecy had fixed the time of its
beginning; and the question asked in the prophet's hearing, "How long
shall be the vision ... to give both the sanctuary and the host to be
trodden underfoot?" suggested that when the time came, the truths of God
that had been trodden underfoot through the ages would be lifted up and
proclaimed anew to all the world.
With the coming of the judgment hour, in the year 1844, there arose just
such a work, a definite gospel movement, that has ever since been
carrying the message for the hour to the ends of the earth.
The Way Prepared for the Rise of the Movement
But there was a preliminary work to be done, to prepare the way for the
definite advent movement and message.
In the days of Israel of old, as the time for the cleansing of the
sanctuary drew near, the people were forewarned of the approach of the
solemn hour. The day of atonement--"the tenth day of the seventh
month"--was a typical hour of judgment. All the people were to prepare
their hearts for that great day.
To this end, the Lord appointed the first day of the seventh month a day
of sounding of the trumpets. Lev. 23:24. The silver trumpets, pealing
forth on that day, proclaimed to all that the day of atonement was near
at hand, when every case would be brought in review before the
mercy-seat by the ministry of the high priest in the most holy place of
the earthly sanctuary.
True to the type, as the year 1844 drew near, when the great antitypical
day of atonement was to open and the closing work of Christ to begin in
the most holy place of the heavenly temple, the trumpet call of the
approaching judgment hour was set pealing through all Christendom.
Events of the closing years of the eighteenth century and the early
decades of the nineteenth, had stirred up Bible students to give greater
attention to the study of the prophetic scriptures. It was seen that
signs of the latter days were appearing, and that every line of historic
prophecy pointed to the near approach of Christ's second coming.
Here and there students of the Word saw that the 2300-year period of
Dan. 8:14, as explained in the ninth chapter, would end soon; and some
arrived at the correct date, and looked to the year 1844 as the time
when the judgment hour would come.
Witnesses were raised up in Europe--in Holland, Germany, Russia, and the
Scandinavian countries. Joseph Wolff, the missionary to the Levant,
preached in Greece, Palestine, Turkey, Afghanistan, and other regions
the coming of the judgment hour. William Miller and many associates
preached the message throughout America.
Writing in the days just before 1844, Mourant Brock, a clergyman of the
Church of England, said:
"It is not merely in Great Britain that the expectation of the
near return of the Redeemer is entertained, and the voice of
warning raised, but also in America, India, and on the
continent of Europe. In America, about three hundred ministers
of the word are thus preaching 'this gospel of the kingdom;'
whilst in this country, about seven hundred of the Church of
England are raising the same cry."--_"Advent Tracts_," _Vol.
II, p. 135 (1844)._
Not all who joined in the awakening cry at this time explained the
prophecies alike, or emphasized the definite year 1844 as the beginning
of the hour of God's judgment; though in America, Europe, and Asia the
clear message of the ending of the prophetic time in 1844 was proclaimed
with power by many voices. And as the time came, the world was ringing
with the call to prepare to meet the judgment hour, even as the hosts of
Israel were called by trumpet peals to prepare for the typical day of
atonement.
The nature of the event to come at the end of the 2300 years was not
understood by these early heralds of the advent hope. The general
expectation was that the judgment hour meant the end of the world and
the coming of the Lord. Though the word of prophecy indicated clearly
that there was a special work to be done on earth while the judgment
hour was proceeding in heaven, this was not clear to Bible students at
the time. So when the prophetic period ended and the Lord did not come,
believers in the prophetic truths were disappointed and unbelievers
scoffed. But the call to prepare for the judgment hour was the message
due to the world at that time, and the awakening cry was raised on every
continent.
In the days of the Saviour's first advent, the disciples and the
populace had proclaimed the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem.
They were at once disappointed; instead of enthroning Him as king, they
witnessed His crucifixion. But in proclaiming the coming of Zion's King
to Jerusalem, they were fulfilling the prophecy that had been uttered,
and were giving the message for that day, notwithstanding their mistaken
view as to the events that would follow.
Just so the trumpet call of the coming judgment hour was the message for
the days of 1844; and the message was given, attended by the power of
God. When the hour was at hand, the providence of God raised up faithful
witnesses to proclaim it.
All this was preparatory to the rise of the definite advent movement of
the prophecy, when the hour of God's judgment should begin.
The Closing Work
In vision, on the Isle of Patmos, the prophet John was given a view of
the closing work of the gospel on earth, while the closing ministry of
Christ was proceeding in heaven above. The prophet wrote:
"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation,
and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God,
and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship
Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters." Rev. 14:6, 7.
The message further warned against following the ways of the great
apostasy; and in the vision the prophet was shown people in all lands
taking their stand at the call of the message. The angel described them
in these words:
"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Verse 12.
Much as pictures appear to us when thrown in succession upon a screen,
these scenes must have passed before the vision of the prophet. He saw
the coming of the hour, the rise of the movement, and its extension into
all lands; he heard the message sounding, and saw the kind of people
doing the work--a people keeping "the commandments of God, and the faith
of Jesus."
[Illustration: PAUL WRITING TO TIMOTHY FROM ROME
"There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord ...
shall give me at that day: and ... unto all them also that love His
appearing." 2 Tim. 4:8.]
Centuries had passed, after this word was written in the Book, when the
flight of time at last brought the hour of the prophecy--the year 1844.
That very year witnessed the rise of the definite advent movement which
is still proclaiming the very message of the prophecy to the world.
It was in the year 1844, in New England, that a little group of
believers in the blessed hope of Christ's soon coming, saw clearly, from
their study of the Bible, that the New Testament platform of "the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," emphasized in this
prophecy of the judgment hour, meant the keeping of the fourth
commandment as well as the other nine. Thereupon they began to keep and
to teach the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day of the week, made holy
and blessed and commanded by God.
One member of this group of commandment-keeping Adventists was Frederick
Wheeler, from whose dictation the following statement was prepared,
fixing exactly the facts as to the time:
"As a Methodist minister he was convinced of the advent truth
by reading William Miller's works in 1842, and joined in
preaching the first message [that of the judgment hour]. In
March, 1844, he began to keep the true Sabbath, in Washington,
N.H."--_Review and Herald (Washington, D.C.), Oct. 4, 1906._
They were but a little band, those believers in New Hampshire, but the
time of the prophecy had come, and with the coming of the hour there was
the nucleus of the movement forming, believers in the near coming of the
Lord, preaching the message of the prophecy, "The hour of His judgment
is come," and keeping "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
From that small beginning has grown the movement that Seventh-day
Adventists stand for, spreading through all the world today.
It was in the year following 1844 that Joseph Bates, of Massachusetts, a
retired sea captain, and a preacher of the advent hope, began to keep
the Sabbath. Captain Bates wrote and published, and soon others,
following his example, embraced the Bible Sabbath.
As the Scripture teaching concerning the sanctuary was studied, light
came flooding in. It was seen that the great prophetic period of Daniel
8, which ended in 1844, marked the opening of Christ's ministry in the
most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, the work of the judgment hour
in heaven; and there, plainly revealed in Revelation 14, was a special
gospel message to be carried to all the world while the judgment hour
still continued.
The little company that began to keep the commandments of God as
Adventist believers in 1844, did not understand that they were beginning
the definite movement foretold by the prophecy. They only determined to
turn from traditions that had made void God's law, and to obey the law
of the Most High, whose servants they were.
But in the light of the Scripture prophecy and of events, we can see
clearly the hand of God leading that little baud into the right pathway
when the year of 1844 came; and the work there begun has grown into the
world-wide movement of today.
Nearly two thousand years before, it had been written in the "sure word
of prophecy" that when the hour of God's judgment came, a people keeping
God's commandments would arise and spread forth into all the world with
the last gospel message. The long prophetic period of Daniel 8 had fixed
the year 1844 as the time when the judgment hour would begin and when
the people of the prophecy must appear.
When the year came, that people appeared, keeping "the commandments of
God, and the faith of Jesus." When the hour struck, the work began. This
advent movement was born of God in fulfilment of prophecy. And the
mission of the movement is to lift up again the standard of truths
obscured by tradition and trodden underfoot, and to call all men to the
New Testament platform of the "commandments of God, and the faith of
Jesus," where every believing soul may find safe refuge in these closing
moments of the judgment hour in the courts above.
[Illustration: A CHRISTIAN MOTHER EXHORTING HER DAUGHTER TO MARTYRDOM
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve;... as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15.]
THE JUDGMENT-HOUR MESSAGE
THE GOSPEL FOR OUR DAY
The gospel message for this time of the judgment hour is set forth in
the vision of Revelation 14:
[Illustration: THE TWO BEASTS OF REVELATION 13
"Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come."
Rev. 14:7.]
"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation,
and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God,
and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship
Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters.
"And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the
wrath of her fornication.
"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man
worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead,
or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation;
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the
holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their
torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor
night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the
mark of his name.
"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:6-12.
When this message has been heralded to all nations, according to
prophecy the end will come, for the next scene brought before the
prophet's vision was the coming of Christ to reap the harvest of the
earth:
"I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like
unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand
a sharp sickle." Verse 14.
The outline of the message given here reveals certain main features:
1. A Gospel Message
It is not a new or another gospel. There is but one gospel. This message
is "the everlasting gospel" in terms that meet the situation in the time
of the judgment hour. The advent movement carries the blessed message of
full salvation from sin by faith in Jesus Christ.
2. A Solemn Warning
The message is God's final answer to the age-long perversions of His
truth. Even the warnings uttered vibrate with the saving grace and
winning power of God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the vision of Daniel 8, the prophet was shown the working of apostasy
in the latter times, as it "cast down the truth to the ground" and
"practiced and prospered." But in answer to the question, "How long?"
the great prophetic period of the 2300 years was given, at the end of
which (in 1844) the judgment work in heaven was to begin. When that
work is finished, Christ's glorious appearing will end the reign of sin
and error.
And while the closing judgment work is proceeding in heaven, this
message of the judgment hour lifts up on earth the standard of truths
trodden underfoot, and the Lord utters His last warning against sin and
apostasy. It is a terrible word that He speaks. Bengelius described it
as--
"that threatening pronounced which is the greatest in all the
Scriptures, and which shall resound powerfully from the mouth
of the third angel."--_"Introduction to Apocalypse," Preface
xxix (London, 1757)._
The Lord is in earnest with men in this hour when the judgment, now
passing on the dead, must also soon seal the eternal destiny of all the
living. Hence the message challenges every soul to a decision.
Looking forward to the time when this message should be due, John Wesley
wrote:--
"Happy are they who make the right use of these divine
messages."--_"Notes on New Testament," on Revelation 14._
These warnings are part of the "everlasting gospel." Whosoever,
therefore, preaches the full gospel of Christ in these last days must
sound this solemn call.
3. A Call to Loyalty to God
"Fear God," is the call, "Worship Him." In the preceding vision of the
thirteenth chapter, the Lord had shown the prophet the work of an
ecclesiastical power, symbolized by a leopardlike beast, that was to
speak great things, and that was to persecute believers through long
centuries, warring against God's truth and His sanctuary. "All the world
wondered after the beast." The prophet said,
"All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not
written in the book of life of the Lamb." Rev. 13:8.
While worldly influence and the voice of popular religion exalt this
ecclesiastical power and give glory to it, the gospel message calls all
men to worship God.
"Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come:
and worship Him.... If any man worship the beast and his image, and
receive his mark,[I] ... the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath
of God."
The issue, it is clear, involves the question of authority. Shall God be
recognized as supreme? or shall this ecclesiastical power, whose rise
and work were foretold in the prophecy, be recognized as the great
authority?
The Work of the Papal Power
Any comparison between this leopard beast of Revelation 13 and the
"little horn" of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, shows plainly that the
same power is represented in each. The same voice is heard "speaking
great things," the same persecuting spirit is shown, the same warfare
against God's truth. It is the Roman Papacy, in its exaltation of human
authority above the divine, that "lawless one" of Paul's prophecy,
setting itself forth as God in the temple of God, treading underfoot the
word and the law of the Most High, as foretold by Daniel:
"He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out
the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws." Dan.
7:25.
Against the recognition of the assumed authority of this power, the
gospel message of Revelation 14 sounds its solemn warning: "If any man
worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark."
The Image to the Papacy
What is this image? Plainly an image to the Papacy must be some
religious authority or federation not organically of the Papacy itself,
but adopting papal principles and seeking to enforce these principles by
civil power, just as the Papacy has ever done, where possible. This
development in likeness of the Papacy was shown the prophet in the
latter part of the vision of Revelation 13. He saw the image formed, and
in vision witnessed its determined efforts to enforce upon men the mark,
or sign, of the Papacy:
"He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth
the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose
deadly wound was healed.... And he causeth all, both small and great,
rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or
in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had
the mark, or the name of the beast." Rev. 13:12-17.
The Mark, or Sign, of Papal Authority
The Roman Papacy sets forth the Sunday institution as the mark of the
authority of the church to substitute ecclesiastical tradition and
custom for the Word of God. Thus, Monsignor Ségur, in "Plain Talks about
the Protestantism of Today," says:
"The observance of Sunday by Protestants is an homage they pay,
in spite of themselves, to the authority of the church."--_Page
213._
It was to this change in the Sabbath by tradition, contrary to the plain
command of God to keep holy the seventh day, that the famous Council of
Trent appealed when it gave Rome's answer to the Reformation cry of "The
Bible and the Bible only." The council had long debated the ground of
its answer. The historian says:
"Finally, at the last opening on the eighteenth of January,
1562, their last scruple was set aside; the archbishop of
Rheggio made a speech in which he openly declared that
tradition stood above Scripture. The authority of the church
could therefore not be bound to the authority of the
Scriptures, because the church had changed Sabbath into Sunday,
not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority. With
this, to be sure, the last illusion was destroyed, and it was
declared that tradition does not signify antiquity, but
continual inspiration."--_Dr. J.H. Holtzman, "Canon and
Tradition," p. 263._
Ever since this memorable council, the Sunday institution has been held
forth as the mark of the power of the church to command religious
observances. Thus, again, Keenan's "Doctrinal Catechism" says:
"_Question._--Have you any other way of proving that the church
has power to institute festivals of precept?"
"_Answer._--Had she not such power, she could not have done
that in which all modern religionists agree with her,--she
could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first
day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh
day, a change for which there is no Scriptural
authority."--_Page 174._
The prophecy of Daniel declared that this power would "think" to change
the times and laws of the Most High; and the change of the Sabbath
commandment is set forth as the mark of the church's authority above the
written law of the Most High.
Most remarkable of all, Protestant organizations are defending the
unscriptural observance of the humanly established first-day sabbath in
contradiction to the law of God, which declares that "the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." And these organizations, in denial of
the Protestant principle of religious liberty, are seeking power to
enforce Sunday observance by civil law. But this is to make a very image
to the Roman Papacy--a church using the power of the state to enforce
religious observance.
It was all foretold in the prophetic word. The prophet was shown (Rev.
13:11-17) this likeness or image to the Papacy--ecclesiastical
organizations not of the Papacy itself, but following papal principles
in this matter--seeking to compel men to receive the mark of the papal
apostasy.
Against the workings of both the Papacy and this image to the Papacy,
the last message of the "everlasting gospel" lifts its warning cry:
"If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his
forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath
of God."
It is the time of the judgment hour, when God was to lift up the
standard of truths long trodden underfoot. In the heavenly sanctuary
Christ's closing judgment work is going forward, preparatory to His
coming in consuming glory to end the reign of sin. On earth the Lord is
sending the last gospel message to men, warning against sin and error,
and calling all men to worship God, and to keep "the commandments of
God, and the faith of Jesus."
The Sign of Jehovah's Authority
God also has His sign, or mark, of authority. He bases His claims to
supreme authority upon the fact of His creative power. As Creator, His
is the authority and the power.
"The Lord is the true God.... He hath made the earth by His power." Jer.
10:10-12.
And the divinely established memorial of this creative power is the holy
Sabbath. The Sabbath is the mark, or sign, of the true God:
"Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that
ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Eze. 20:20.
On one side is the mark, or sign, of apostasy from God; on the other the
mark, or sign, of loyalty to God. Which mark will men receive, as the
issue is pressed upon every soul for decision? On which side shall we
stand? Under whose banner shall we be found when the judgment hour
closes?
[Illustration: PILATE'S FATAL DECISION IN THE HOUR OF TRIAL
"Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called
Christ?" Matt. 27:22.]
The test that came to Pilate comes anew to men as Christ's message
presses for acceptance. "What shall I do then with Jesus?" asked the
Roman governor--and yielded to popular clamor. His fatal decision in the
time of testing warns us to decide for Christ and for the word of his
salvation now, in this hour of God's judgment.
The message of Rev. 14:6-14 is going to all the world now. Every year
thousands of new voices join in telling it. Printing presses are
printing it in many languages. Schools and colleges in every continent
are educating thousands of Seventh-day Adventist youth, keeping before
them, as the highest aim of life, the hastening of the advent message to
the world. Sanitariums in many lands, while training medical missionary
evangelists, are at the same time ministering to the sick, and teaching
the principles of Bible health and temperance. The movement necessarily
emphasizes every principle of "the everlasting gospel," while pressing
upon all the solemn issue that loyalty to Christ now means to turn from
unscriptural tradition and custom to the commandments of God and the
faith of Jesus. However ancient the custom of observing Sunday, it is
but an innovation, setting aside the Word of God and the example of
Jesus Christ. As St. Cyprian said: "Usage without truth is only an
antiquated error." The clear light of Holy Scripture now calls the
believer away from the path of error to the way of light.
"The older error is, it is the worse,
Continuation may provoke a curse;
If the Dark Age obscured our fathers' sight,
Must their sons shut their eyes against the light?"
--_Bishop Ken._
In times past Christian believers have been unwittingly following the
lead of the Papacy in this matter. The Lord holds no man accountable for
light that he did not have. Reformation is a progressive work. Of the
past we may say with Paul:
"The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent: because He hath appointed a day, in the which He
will judge the world in righteousness." Acts 17:30, 31.
Now, with this "hour of God's judgment" already come, the entire
covering of papal tradition is to be torn aside, and when Jesus comes in
glory, in every land will be found believers having the faith and
keeping the commandments of God.
All this was shown to John on the Isle of Patmos,--the coming of the
judgment hour, the rise of the advent movement, and the heralding of the
last message to the nations.
What John saw in vision nearly two thousand years ago, we see fulfilling
before our eyes today. But it is not enough to see it; we must have a
part in it, be a part of it.
[Illustration: LUCIFER PLOTTING AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD
"I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;... I will be like the
Most High." Isa. 14:13, 14]
FOOTNOTES:
[I] The use of a mark, or sign, to designate the divinity worshiped, is
common in non-Christian religions. One may see the Hindu returning from
the temple with the mark of Vishnu or other deity freshly painted upon
the forehead. Of the ancient usage, from which this Bible symbol of the
"mark" is taken, Dr. John Potter says, in his "Antiquities of Greece:"
"Slaves were not only branded with stigmata for a punishment of their
offenses, but (which was the common end of these marks) to distinguish
them, in case they should desert their masters; for which purpose it was
common to brand their soldiers; only with this difference, that whereas
slaves were commonly stigmatized in their forehead, and with the name or
some peculiar character belonging to their masters, soldiers were
branded in the hand, and with the name or character of their general.
After the same manner, it was likewise customary to stigmatize the
worshipers and votaries of some of the gods: whence Lucian, speaking of
the votaries of the Syrian goddess, affirms, 'They were all branded with
certain marks, some in the palms of their hands, and others in their
necks: whence it became customary for all the Assyrians thus to
stigmatize themselves.' And Theodoret is of opinion that the Jews were
forbidden to brand themselves with stigmata [Lev. 19:28], because the
idolaters by that ceremony used to consecrate themselves to their false
deities.
"The marks used on these occasions were various. Sometimes they
contained the name of the god, sometimes his particular ensign; such
were the thunderbolt of Jupiter, the trident of Neptune, the ivy of
Bacchus: whence Ptolemy Philopater was by some nicknamed Gallus, because
his body was marked with the figures of ivy leaves. Or, lastly, they
marked themselves with some mystical number, whereby the god's name was
described. Thus the sun, which was signified by the number DCVIII, is
said to have been represented by these two numeral letters XH (Conf.
Martianus Capello). These three ways of stigmatizing are all expressed
by St. John in the book of Revelation: 'And he causeth all, both small
and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their
right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell,
save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of
his name.'"--_Vol. I, pp. 65, 66 (London, 1728)._
[Illustration: SATAN ENTERS THE GARDEN OF EDEN
"The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23.]
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
The Beginning of the Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan
The great controversy between good and evil, that has been waged on
earth ever since man's fall, had its origin in heaven. Certain angels
rebelled against God and His government.
"There was war in heaven: Michael and His angels fought against the
dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither
was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast
out with him." Rev. 12:7-9.
Thus came the forces of evil into this world, which have been working
through all the ages to draw men from allegiance to God, and to infuse
into human hearts the same spirit of disobedience which wrought the ruin
of Satan and his angels.
The Cause of the Downfall
Christ stated the principle: "If therefore the light that is in thee be
darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matt. 6:23.
The principle finds its utmost application in the great reversal, by
which Lucifer, the light bearer in heaven, became Satan, the adversary,
the prince of darkness.
[Illustration: CHRIST AND NICODEMUS
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John
3:3.]
In the pride and self-exaltation of Tyre, of old, the Lord saw
manifested the spirit of the god of this world; so, in declaring His
message of rebuke to the prince of Tyre, the Lord describes the cause
and history of Satan's fall:
"Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God.... Thou art the anointed
cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones
of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast
created, till iniquity was found in thee.... Thine heart was lifted up
because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy
brightness." Eze. 28:13-17.
Likewise, in the swelling pride of Babylon the Lord recognized the
spirit of the leader of the rebellious angels. In one of the messages to
Babylon is this reference to the vaulting ambition of Lucifer in heaven:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer ["day-star," margin], son of
the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the
nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." Isa.
14:12-14.
Lucifer, his powers now perverted to evil, deceived many of the angels,
persuading them to join him in rebellion against the government of God;
with the result that Satan and all his host were cast out. Christ said,
"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Luke 10:18.
"Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky."
The Earth as the Battle Ground
Then the great controversy which began in heaven was transferred to this
earth, and now centers around man. For "that old serpent," the leader of
the fallen angels, deceived man, and persuaded him to distrust God and
to choose his own way in preference to God's way. Thus came sin and
death into the world. And Satan, who had overcome man at the forbidden
tree, became by his own usurpation and by man's perfidy, "the prince of
this world."
But Christ gave himself to save man, to deliver him from the bondage of
sin, and to restore him to the glorious liberty of the sons of God. The
same mighty power that overcame Satan and his angels in heaven is able
to overcome his power in human hearts and lives. The controversy is
still between Christ and Satan, and man's salvation or destruction is
the aim of the contending forces.
[Illustration: THE REDEMPTION PRICE
"That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil." Heb. 2:14.]
There is no neutral ground. Every soul must choose as to which side he
will yield allegiance. In this choice lies his eternal destiny.
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his
servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. 6:16.
Therefore the Lord pleads with men, "Choose life." Every soul that
chooses life has the promise of it, for Christ "is able ... to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." Heb. 7:25.
The Judgment upon Satan
From the time of Satan's rebellion it was assured, by the very
omnipotence of God, that there would come a last judgment when evil
would be destroyed from the universe. This execution of judgment upon
the fallen angels is thus referred to by Jude:
"The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto
the judgment of the great day." Verse 6.
The evil spirits themselves know that this day is coming. When Christ
was about to cast certain of them out of one who was possessed, they
cried out, "Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" Matt.
8:29.
Though the judgment of that last day was originally set for Satan and
his angels, unrepentant men will have a part in it, because they have
joined Satan in his lawless rebellion. To the wicked it will be said:
"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels." Matt. 25:41.
Satan sees that the day is hastening; and the shorter the time in which
to work, the greater his fury in seeking to draw souls to perdition.
The warning comes to us in these last days:
"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is
come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath
but a short time." Rev. 12:12.
Christ's second coming ends the reign of Satan in this world. The wicked
are slain by the consuming glory of Christ's coming (2 Thess. 2:8); and
the righteous are taken to heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's arts (1
Thess. 4:16, 17). The archenemy and his angels are thus left upon an
earth devoid of human beings. Here he is chained for a thousand years,
in this pit of desolation (Rev. 20:2, 5), his only companions the angels
who fell with him, his only occupation the contemplation of the ruin he
has wrought and the destruction that still awaits him.
By the second resurrection--that of the wicked dead, after the thousand
years--Satan is again set free to ply his arts upon his subjects. As the
holy city comes down out of heaven from God, with all the saints, Satan
gathers his angels and all the forces of the lost of all the ages, to
make an assault upon the city. The result was shown to the prophet in
vision:
"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the
saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of
heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceiveth them was cast
into the lake of fire." Rev. 20:9, 10.
That is the fate awaiting the author of sin. In the account of Satan's
pride and self-exaltation, uttered by the prophet in the message to
Tyre, there occurs also this prophecy of the utter destruction that
awaits him, when he shall bring his forces against the city of God in
that last conflict:
"I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that
behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be
astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any
more." Eze. 28:18, 19.
This is the final victory of Christ over evil, in the great controversy
that began in heaven. Satan exalted himself--and lost. Christ humbled
Himself, even unto the death--and won the eternal triumph.
"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He
also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Heb. 2:14.
[Illustration: JESUS BY THE SEA
"O Galilee, sweet Galilee,
What mem'ries rise at thought of thee!"]
[Illustration: SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR
"When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar
spirits,... should not a people seek unto their God?" Isa. 8:19.]
[Illustration: SATAN'S FIRST LIE
"Ye shall not surely die." Gen. 3:4.]
SPIRITUALISM: ANCIENT AND MODERN
The essential claim of Spiritualism is its assertion of power to hold
communication with the spirits of the dead; or rather, it claims to have
demonstrated that really there is no death.
"There is no death;
What seems so is transition."
The late Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, the English scientist, said of
Spiritualism:--
"It demonstrates, as completely as the fact can be
demonstrated, that the so-called dead are still alive."--_"On
Miracles and Modern Spiritualism" (London, 1875), p. 212._
First Declaration of the Doctrine
In the very first book of the Bible is a similar claim: "Ye shall not
surely die." Gen. 3:4.
But this declaration, while recorded in the Scriptures, is not the word
of God. The Lord had declared to man that disobedience would bring
death. But Satan, as the tempter in Eden, caused the woman to doubt the
word of God: "The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die." And the woman believed the tempter rather than God, and so sinned
against the Creator.
Having tempted man to disobedience, so bringing death into the world,
what more natural, in the course of deception, than to endeavor to
persuade the human family that, after all, there is no death; that what
appears so is only an introduction to fuller life and activity? "Ye
shall not surely die."
[Illustration: PHARAOH'S SORCERERS COUNTERFEITING THE WORK OF GOD
"Now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their
enchantments." Ex. 7:11.]
As mankind departed from right and lost the knowledge of God, dead
heroes were deified as gods, and much of the pagan worship consisted in
sacrifices to the spirits of the dead, supposed to be living still and
concerned with affairs in the land of the living. When Israel fell away
from God and joined the Moabites in the worship of Baal-peor, the record
says of the nature of the service:
"They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of
the dead." "Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto
devils." Ps. 106:28, 37.
Instead of dealing with the spirits of the dead, the idolatrous
worshipers were really putting themselves in direct touch with the
agencies of Satan, the fallen angels.
Divine Warnings
This explains the severity of the divine warnings against the ancient
practice of necromancy, or mediumship. The Lord said:
"Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards,
to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." Lev. 19:31.
[Illustration: DEMONISM IN THE DAYS OF CHRIST
"He said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit." Mark 5:8.]
"When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a
consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all
that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord." Deut. 18:9-12.
The ancient séance, where the living sought unto the dead for knowledge,
was denounced by the prophet Isaiah:
"When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits
and unto the wizards, that chirp and that mutter: should not a people
seek unto their God? on behalf of the living should they seek unto the
dead?" Isa. 8:19, A.R.V.
"To the law and to the testimony!" the prophet cries. To seek unto the
dead for knowledge is to turn from the law and the testimony, and to
take the counsel of the direct agencies of Satan, the great deceiver.
Modern Spiritualism
What Spiritualism is may best be understood by the prophetic warnings
concerning the revival of this great deception in the last days. The
apostle spoke of these days as a time when seducing spirits would lead
many away from the faith:
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
devils." 1 Tim. 4:1.
This deceptive working is an indication of the nearness of Christ's
second coming:
"Whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and
signs and lying wonders." 2 Thess. 2:9, A.R.V.
True to the sure word, now that the last days have come, there has
arisen the movement of modern Spiritualism, with its signs and wonders,
purporting to be wrought by the spirits of the dead. Professor Wallace
says:
"Modern Spiritualism dates from March, 1848; it being then
that, for the first time, intelligent communications were held
with the unknown cause of the mysterious knockings and other
sounds similar to those which had disturbed the Mompesson and
Wesley families in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries."--_"On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism" (London,
1875), p. 146._
It was in Hydeville, N.Y., in the family of Mr. Fox, that the modern
cult originated, it being found that by mysterious but clear sounds of
knocking, unseen intelligences were able to communicate answers to
questions asked. The rapidity of the spread of the great deception was
remarkable. One of the Fox sisters, Mrs. A. Leah Underhill, wrote:
"Since that day, starting from a small country village of
western New York, Spiritualism has made its way--against
tremendous obstacles and resistance, but under an impulse and a
guidance from higher spheres--round the civilized globe.
Starting from three sisters, two of them children, and the
eldest a little beyond that age,... its ranks of believers,
privately or publicly avowed, have grown within thirty-six
years to millions."--_"The Missing Link in Modern
Spiritualism," Introduction._
Many at the time thought, as have many since, that the "rappings" with
which the manifestations began were caused by some trickery on the part
of the Fox sisters, but men of unimpeachable standing and intelligence
certified to the contrary. Horace Greeley, famous editor of the New York
_Tribune_, wrote in his paper that the sisters had visited him in his
home and courted the fullest investigation as to "the alleged
manifestations from the spirit world." As the result of his
observations, he wrote:
"Whatever may be the origin or the cause of the 'rappings,' the
ladies in whose presence they occur do not make them. We tested
this thoroughly and to our entire satisfaction."--_Id., pp.
160, 161._
It was no mere sleight of hand that launched this cult upon the world as
the last days came. Beyond all the physical manifestations, the
religious idea in Spiritualism has leavened the religious thought of
millions. No one can deny that the basic idea is the one that the
serpent promulgated in Eden, "Ye shall not surely die."
Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, another of the Fox sisters, says of the
discovery of 1848:
"On the night of the thirty-first of March, 1848, we found
beyond a shadow of a doubt or peradventure, that death had no
power over the spirit.... In a word, we found our so-called
dead were all living."--_"Nineteenth Century Miracles"
(Manchester, England), p. 554._
[Illustration: THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT
One of the historical settings of Spiritualism. A poor woman accused by
her neighbors of practicing witchcraft.]
Now the Scriptures teach plainly what these agencies in Spiritualism are
not, and what they are.
What They Are Not
They are not the spirits of the dead communicating messages to the
living.
In one of the earliest written portions of Holy Scripture, the Lord
declared plainly that the dead have no knowledge of the living:
"He passeth: Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His
sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but
he perceiveth it not of them." Job 14:20, 21.
The dead have no part in any communications with the living on earth:
"Neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done
under the sun." Eccl. 9:6
What They Are
Already we have told what they are in quoting the warnings of prophecy
concerning the special deceptions of Satan in the last days.
"The working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." 2
Thess. 2:9.
"Seducing spirits." 1 Tim. 4:1.
And as they were shown to the prophet John in a vision of the very end,
he declared:
"They are the spirits of devils, working miracles." Rev. 16:14.
These are the agencies through which come the supernatural
manifestations of Spiritualism. It is a terrible deception that leads
men and women to seek to satanic agencies, supposing that they are
communicating with the spirits of their dead friends. Satan and his
angels can readily simulate the personality of the dead, and so deceive
those who disobey God in seeking to the dead for knowledge.
The Climax of Deception
That the marvels of Spiritualism would increase as the end nears, was
plainly taught by our Saviour in describing the workings of Satan just
before the second advent. He left us the warning:
"Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there;
believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets,
and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were
possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Matt. 24:23, 24.
Evidently, then, by the miracle-working power that he possesses, Satan
will work mighty deceptions through both human and supernatural
agencies. And the crowning deception will be his own manifestation as
the Promised One, simulating Christ's second coming. But the power and
glory that will fill all earth and the heavens at Christ's coming,
cannot be copied by Satan, with all his miracle-working skill. That is
why it is so important that we understand the Bible teaching as to the
nature and manner of Christ's second advent. The doctrine of the silent,
secret, mystical coming is all abroad in the world, the teaching exactly
calculated to prepare the way for Satan's purposes of deception.
Therefore Christ forewarns us:
"Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you,
Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret
chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east,
and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of
man be." Matt. 24:25-27.
The teachings of ancient theosophy and spiritualism--the mysticism of
the East--have been permeating Christendom in recent years. Mme. Jean
Delaire, writing in a London review, said some years ago:
"India has apparently still a mission to fulfil, for her
thought is slowly beginning to mold the thought of Europe and
of America; our keenest minds are today studying her
philosophy; our New Theology is founded upon the old, old
Vedanta."--_National Review, September, 1908, p. 131._
This flood of ancient spiritualism from the East has come about
according to Isaiah's prophecy of things that were to "come to pass in
the latter days:"
"Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they are
filled with customs from the East, and are soothsayers like the
Philistines." Isa. 2:6, A.R.V.
In 1909 one of the leading representatives of theosophical thought, Mrs.
Annie Besant, of India, toured America with the message of a coming
messiah. She announced:
"My message is very simple: 'Prepare for the coming Christ.' We
stand at the cradle of a new subrace, and each race or subrace
has its own messiah. Hermes is followed by Zoroaster; Zoroaster
by Orpheus; Orpheus by Buddha; Buddha by Christ. We now await
with confidence a manifestation of the Supreme Teacher of the
world, who was last manifested in Palestine. Everywhere in the
West, not less than in the East, the heart of man is throbbing
with the glad expectation of the new avatar."
The leaven of the spiritualistic philosophy has been working its way
through Christendom during this generation. We see clearly that the evil
one is preparing the way for his final work of deception.
[Illustration: HOME OF THE FOX FAMILY, HYDESVILLE, N.Y.
Spiritualism originated in this house March 31, 1848.]
[Illustration: "HE IS RISEN"
"Because I live, ye shall live also." John 14:19.
COPYRIGHT, STANDARD PUB. CO.]
[Illustration: MARY MEETS HER RISEN LORD
"He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." John
11:25.]
LIFE ONLY IN CHRIST
MAN'S NATURE AND STATE IN DEATH
A wide-open door for Spiritualism is afforded by the teaching that man
has life in himself--immortality by nature; and that death is not really
death, but another form of life.
The Scriptures close this door of false hope, teaching us that man is
mortal, that death is really death, and that immortality is the gift of
God through Christ by the resurrection from the dead.
Clearly and definitely the Bible teaches that God only has immortality,
styling Him "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord
of lords; who only hath immortality." 1 Tim. 6:15, 16.
This scripture disposes of every idea that man is immortal by nature,
and opens the way for a consideration of the Scripture teaching
concerning man's nature, his state in death, and the promise of life and
immortality in Christ.
Man by Nature Mortal
The word "mortal," as used in that ancient question by Eliphaz,
describes man's nature:
"Shall mortal man be more just than God?" Job 4:17.
In the creation, life was conditional upon the creature's relation to
Christ the Creator, in whom all things consist:
"All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that
was made. In Him was life." John 1:3,4.
He was, and is, as the psalmist says, "the fountain of life." Cut off
from vital connection with Him, there could be no continuance of life.
The Lord warned Adam that his life was conditional upon obedience. "In
the day that thou eatest thereof," He said of the forbidden tree, "thou
shalt surely die." Gen. 2:17. It was a declaration that man was not
immortal, but was dependent upon God for life.
When by unbelief and sin man rejected God, the sentence--death
eternal--must have been executed had not the plan of salvation
intervened. But as the stroke of divine justice was falling upon the
sinner, the Son of God interposed Himself and received the blow. "He was
bruised for our iniquities." In the divine plan, the great sacrifice for
man was as sure then as when, later, it was actually made on Calvary.
Christ was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
And there Adam, the sinner, now with a fallen human nature, which would
be perpetuated in his descendants in all subsequent time, was granted an
extension of life, every moment of which, whether for him or for his
posterity, was the purchase of Christ by His own death, in order that in
this time of probation man might find forgiveness of sin and assurance
of life to come. Adam was not created immortal, but was placed on
probation, and had he continued faithful, the gift of immortality must
have been given him at some later time, after he had passed the test. As
the original plan is carried out through Christ, "the second Adam," the
gift of immortality is bestowed finally upon all who pass the test of
the judgment and are found in Christ, in whom alone is life.
Having fallen, Adam, now possessed of a sinful nature, must die. "The
wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. It was impossible that sin or sinners
should be immortalized in God's universe. So, inasmuch as the tree of
life in Eden had been made the channel of continuance of life to man,
the Lord said:
"Now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and
eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the
garden of Eden." Gen. 3:22, 23.
This negatives the idea that there could ever be an immortal sinner, who
should mar God's creation forever. Sin works out nothing but death.
"Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15. Fallen
himself, Adam could bequeath to his posterity only a fallen, mortal
nature. So began the sad history summed up in the text:
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:12.
Mortality Universal
Mortality is written upon all creation. Ages ago the wise man wrote,
"There is one event unto all: ... they go to the dead." Eccl. 9:3. Human
hearts everywhere and in all time have cried out against the
remorselessness of the great enemy. "Do people die with you?" was the
question met by Livingstone in the untraveled wilds of Africa. "Have you
no charm against death?" The Greek as well as the barbarian confessed to
the helplessness of man before the great enemy. Centuries before Christ,
Sophocles the Athenian wrote:
"Wonders are many! and none is there greater than man, who
Steers his ship over the sea, driven on by the south wind,
Cleaving the threatening swell of the waters around him.
"He captures the gay-hearted birds; he entangles adroitly
Creatures that live on the land and the brood of the ocean,
Spreading his well-woven nets. Man full of devices!
"Speech and swift thought free as wind, the building of cities;
Shelters to ward off the arrows of rain, and to temper
Sharp-biting frost--all these hath he taught himself. Surely
Stratagem hath he for all that comes! Never the future
Finds him resourceless! Deftly he combats grievous diseases,
Oft from their grip doth he free himself. Death alone vainly--
Vainly he seeks to escape; 'gainst death he is helpless."
--_Chorus from Antigone._
What unspeakable pathos in the cry of humanity's helplessness before
death, the great enemy! But when Adam went out of Eden, it was with the
assurance of life from the dead through the promised Seed, if faithful.
It is the message of the one gospel for all time--everlasting life in
Christ.
[Illustration: JESUS RAISING THE SON OF THE WIDOW OF NAIN
"The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom.
6:23.]
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." John 3:16.
As there is none other name under heaven by which men can be saved, so
there is no other way of everlasting life or immortality, save in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
When Immortality is Bestowed
Christ said, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." John 11:25.
He has turned death, that would have been eternal, into a little time of
sleep, from which he will awaken the believer. In the resurrection of
the last day immortality is bestowed, "in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to
pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1
Cor. 15:52-54.
"There is a blessed hope,
More precious and more bright
Than all the joyless mockery
The world esteems delight.
"There is a lovely star
That lights the darkest gloom,
And sheds a peaceful radiance o'er
The prospects of the tomb."
Not until the resurrection, "at the last trump," is immortality
conferred upon the redeemed. Note that it is not something immortal
putting on immortality; but this "mortal" puts on immortality. Mark
this: there is no life after death, save by the resurrection. "If there
be no resurrection of the dead,... then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15:13-18.
This resurrection, as stated by the apostle Paul, is not at death, but
in the last day, when Christ shall come, and all His children that are
in their graves shall hear His voice. Jesus says:
"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the
Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise
him up at the last day." John 6:40.
That is why the coming of Christ has been the "blessed hope" of all the
ages.
Man's State in Death
Between death and the resurrection, the dead sleep. Jesus declares that
death is a sleep. Lazarus was dead, but Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth." John 11:11. It is the language of Inspiration throughout. The
patriarch Job said:
"Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is
he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth
up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more [the
heavens will be rolled back as a scroll at Christ's coming], they shall
not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:10-12.
This hope of the resurrection at the last day was no indistinct hope to
the believer in God's promises. The patriarch continued:
"If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time
will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer
thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Verses 14,
15.
Job tells us of the place of his waiting for the Life-giver's call: "If
I wait, the grave is mine house." Job 17:13. It is thence that Christ
will call His own when He comes. "The hour is coming, in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." John
5:28, 29.
Death is an unconscious sleep. It must of necessity be so; for death is
the opposite of life. Therefore there is no consciousness of the passing
of time to those who sleep in the grave. It is as if the eyes closed in
death one instant, and the next instant, to the believer's
consciousness, he awakens to hear the animating voice of Jesus calling
him to glad immortality, and to see the angels catching up his loved
ones to meet Jesus in the air.
These scriptures, out of many, will suffice to show that man is not
conscious in death:
"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish." Ps. 146:4.
"The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything....
Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished;
neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done
under the sun." Eccl. 9:5, 6.
Death is a sleep, which will continue until the resurrection. Then the
Lord will bring forth from the dust the same person who was laid away in
death.
Some have said that this Bible doctrine of the sleep of the dead until
the resurrection is a gloomy one. Popular tradition thinks of the
blessed dead as going at once to heaven, which, say some, is a beautiful
thought. But they forget that the same teaching consigns their
unbelieving friends to immediate torment--and that, too, while awaiting
the judgment of the last day.
No; the Bible teaching is the cheering doctrine, the "blessed hope." All
the faithful of all the ages are going into the kingdom together. This
blessed truth appeals to the spirit that loves to wait and share joys
and good things with loved ones. Of the faithful of past ages the
apostle says:
"These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not
the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect." Heb. 11:39, 40.
They are waiting, that all together the saved may enter in. And the time
of waiting is but an instant to those who "sleep in Jesus."
David was a man of God, but the apostle Peter, speaking by the Spirit on
the day of Pentecost, declared to the people of the city of David: "He
is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day....
For David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:29-34. They without
us have not been made perfect. They are all awaiting that glad day
toward which the apostle Paul turned the last look of his mortal vision:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not
to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. 4:7,
8.
What joy in that day to march in through the gates into the eternal
city, with Adam, and Abel, and Noah, and Abraham, and Paul, and all the
faithful, and the loved ones of our own home circles, and dear comrades
in service, every one clothed with immortality, the gift of God in
Christ Jesus our Redeemer! Horatius Bonar's hymn sings the joyful hope
as the loved are laid away to "sleep in Jesus:"
"Softly within that peaceful resting place
We lay their wearied limbs, and bid the clay
Press lightly on them till the night be past,
And the far east give note of coming day.
"The shout is heard, the Archangel's voice goes forth;
The trumpet sounds, the dead awake and sing;
The living put on glory; one glad band,
They hasten up to meet their coming King."
In a word, the Scripture teaches that God alone has immortality, that
man is mortal, that death is a sleep, that life after death comes only
by the resurrection of the last day, that the righteous are then given
immortality. Further, the Scripture teaches that later there will be a
resurrection of the unjust, not unto life, but unto death, the second
death, from which there is no release.
Every doctrine of Scripture and of the gospel is in accord with this
Bible teaching as to man's nature and his state in death. But the
traditional view of the natural immortality of the soul and of life in
death, nullifies the Bible doctrines of life only in Christ, and the
resurrection, and the judgment, and the giving of rewards at Christ's
coming, and the final judgment upon the wicked and its execution.
A Few Questions Briefly Considered
_1. The "Living Soul"_
Says one, "Did not the Lord put into man an immortal soul?"
No; the Scripture says:
"The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen.
2:7.
The soul was not put into the man, but when the life-giving breath was
breathed into his nostrils, the man himself became a living soul, a
living being. The ordinary version (King James) gives "a living soul" in
the margin of Gen. 1:30, showing that the same expression is used of all
the animal creation in the Hebrew text. The famous Methodist
commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, says on this phrase, "living soul:"
"A general term to express all creatures endued with animal
life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations."
_2. Are "Soul" and "Spirit" Deathless?_
"Are not the soul and spirit said to be deathless?" questions another.
No. One writer says of the Scriptural use of the words "soul" and
"spirit:"
"The Hebrew and Greek words from which they are translated,
occur in the Bible, as we have seen, seventeen hundred times.
Surely, once at least in that long list we shall be told that
the soul is immortal, if this is its high prerogative.
Seventeen hundred times we inquire if the soul is once said to
be immortal, or the spirit deathless. And the invariable and
overwhelming response we meet is, _Not once!"_--_"Here and
Hereafter" by U. Smith, p. 65._
On the contrary, the Lord declares, "The soul that sinneth, it shall
die." Eze. 18:20. It means that the person who sins shall die; for the
words "soul," "mind," "heart," and "spirit" are used to express life or
the seat of the affections or of the intellect. One may commend his soul
to God, or his spirit to God (really his life into the keeping of God),
until the great day of the resurrection. The word "soul" is used of all
animal life in New Testament usage, as well as in the Old; as, "Every
living soul died in the sea." Rev. 16:3.
_3. The Thief on the Cross_
"Did not Christ promise the thief on the cross that he would be with Him
that day in Paradise?"
No; for Paradise is where God's throne is, and the tree of life, and the
city of God, the capital of Christ's kingdom; and three days later
Christ had not yet ascended to the Father. "Touch Me not," He said to
Mary after His resurrection; "for I am not yet ascended to My Father."
John 20:17. The dying thief, therefore, was not with Him in Paradise
three days before.
Nor did the thief's question suggest such a thought. His faith grasped
Christ's resurrection, the resurrection of His children, and the coming
kingdom; and that day on the cross, in the moment of the deepest
humiliation of the Son of God, the repentant sinner cried, "Lord,
remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." And the Saviour replied,
"Verily I say unto thee today"--this day, when the world scoffs and the
darkness presses upon Me, this day I say it--"shalt thou be with Me in
Paradise." Luke 23:42, 43.
The punctuation that makes it read, "Today shalt thou be with Me in
Paradise," is not a part of the sacred text, and puts the Saviour's
promise in contradiction with the facts of the whole narrative and the
teaching of Scripture.
_4. The Rich Man and Lazarus_
"Then there is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus," one says,
"where Lazarus and Dives are talking, though dead--Lazarus in Abraham's
bosom and the rich man in torment."
But that is a parable; and no one can set the figures of a parable
against the facts of positive Scripture. In parables, lessons are often
taught by figurative language and imaginary scenes which could never be
real, though the lesson is emphasized the more forcefully.
In the parable of Judges 9, the trees are represented as holding a
council and talking with one another. No one mistakes the lesson of the
parable, or supposes that the trees actually talked. So in the parable
of the rich man and Lazarus, the lesson is taught that uprightness in
this life, even though under deepest poverty, will be rewarded in the
future life; while uncharitable selfishness will surely bring one to
ruin and destruction.
In the face of the Bible teaching, no one can turn this parable into
actual narrative, representing that the saved in glory are now looking
over the battlements of heaven and talking with the lost writhing before
their eyes in agony amid the flames of unending torment. This is not the
picture that the Scriptures give us of heaven, nor of the state of the
dead, nor of the time and circumstances of the final rewards or
punishments.
[Illustration: From an inscription on an Egyptian monument, representing
the weighing of a soul after death.]
[Illustration: LOT FLEEING FROM SODOM
"Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them ... are set forth
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7.]
[Illustration: SATAN'S FINAL ASSAULT UPON THE KINGDOM OF GOD
"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the
saints about." Rev. 20:9]
THE END OF THE WICKED
So soon as ever Lucifer introduced sin into heaven, it was certain, in
the righteousness and omnipotence of God, that the day would come when
sin would be blotted out of the perfect creation. Inspiration tells us
that a time of final reckoning with sin was assured when Satan and a
host of the angels with him lifted up the standard of mysterious
rebellion against the law and harmony of heaven:
"The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto
the judgment of the great day." Jude 6.
Punishment for sin is assured. By listening to Satan's temptation, man
became involved in sin. Then a divine Saviour was provided, through whom
every soul might escape from the kingdom of darkness, and find salvation
and life. But it is inevitable that those who refuse the way of life
and reject the salvation of God, must finally be involved with Satan and
sin in the day when sin is visited.
By Adam's sin, all his posterity inherited a sinful, dying nature. "In
Adam all die," the Scripture says. But not a soul in the last day can
plead Adam's sin and the inheritance of a fallen nature as an excuse for
his own transgressions. By Christ's gift of His life for us, the sinner,
with all his weaknesses, may become a partaker of the divine nature, and
escape the power of the fleshly nature. By virtue of Christ's death for
all, all recover from the death they die in Adam--the first death. All
have a resurrection, the unjust as well as the just; and then every one
gives account of himself to God, according to his own life and the use
he has made of the light given him of God.
The Two Resurrections
The Scriptures emphasize the fact that there are to be two
resurrections. Paul, before Felix, declared his belief the same as that
of all the prophets,--"that there shall be a resurrection of the dead,
both of the just and unjust." Acts 24:15.
Jesus declared it in these words:
"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation." John 5:28, 29.
The first resurrection is that of the just, at Christ's second coming.
It is written of this:
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on
such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God
and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." Rev. 20:6.
After this, the righteous return with Christ to heaven, and remain there
during the thousand years. The wicked living at the time of His coming
are slain by the consuming glory of His presence; and they, with all the
unjust of all the ages, await in the grave the second resurrection, at
the end of the thousand years.
"The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were
finished." Rev. 20:5.
At the end of the thousand years the city of God, with the saved, comes
down out of heaven and settles upon the earth.
Then the wicked are raised--the second resurrection. Under Satan's
leadership they march up to attack the city of God. How naturally, we
infer, may Satan persuade the lost that, after all, he was right when he
declared to Adam, "Ye shall not surely die." Here are all his servants
of all the ages--living. Why may they not be immortal, beyond the power
of God to destroy? The old battle that began in heaven is on again.
Satan, the archrebel, marshals his hosts of fallen angels and the
myriads of fallen men, his legions stretching wide over the earth.
"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the
saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of
heaven, and devoured them." Rev. 20:9.
"This is the second death," the Scripture says. Verse 14. The great day
has come when the sinner receives his wages--death--and sin is
destroyed.
The Punishment Everlasting
"The wages of sin is death." And the second death is everlasting. There
is no resurrection from this death. The Scriptures describe it in terms
that affirm utter destruction, resulting in nonexistence.
"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 2 Thess. 1:9.
"Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud,
yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh
shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them
neither root nor branch." Mal. 4:1.
"They shall be ashes," the third verse of this chapter says. Every
expression possible to language is employed to denote utter destruction,
everlasting death. That means nonexistence. Sin and sinners are blotted
out. The prophet Obadiah, speaking of the visitation upon the
heathen--the unbelieving--in "the day of the Lord," says:
"They shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as
though they had not been." Verse 16.
This is the utter end of sin and all sinners, and of the author of sin.
Root and branch they are gone, "as though they had not been." All this
is in the description of the last judgment, so fully set forth in the
twentieth chapter of Revelation.
"Death and hell [_hades_, the grave] were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death." Rev. 20:14. Death and the prison house of
death are gone forever. Sin is wiped out of a perfect universe, and not
even a trace will remain of the place of the fiery judgment.
"Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt
diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Ps. 37:10.
The fires of the last day purify the earth, which comes forth in
Eden-like beauty. In the whole creation of God there is no sin, no
sinner, but all is harmonious again, as before sin entered the universe.
The prophet was given a view of this glorious consummation, and the
triumph of the Son of God over sin.
"Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I
saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev.
5:13.
Some Opinions Briefly Considered
The doctrine of the immortality, the indestructibility, of the soul is
responsible for the traditional view that the wicked are kept alive in
unending misery through all eternity. How different this picture from
that which Holy Scripture gives of the second death! Terrible and awful
it is, but it results in the utter destruction of sin and sinners,
leaving a clean universe. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul
came in from pagan philosophy. Herodotus, "the father of history," said:
"The Egyptians ... were also the first to broach the opinion,
that the soul of man is immortal."--_Book 2, par. 123._
Evidently, they passed the doctrine on to the Greeks. Its origin was in
the words of Satan in Eden, "Ye shall not surely die." The pagans had
their nether world of spirits, or their transmigration of souls with its
ceaseless round from body to body, and the Roman Catholics their
purgatory with its purifying fires. From these sources and not from the
Word of God, the traditional view has come into modern Christendom,
representing the Lord as unable or unwilling to end sin, but keeping the
sinner alive throughout eternity, to suffer torture that can bring no
remedy. The Scripture teaching is far otherwise. However, there are
certain Scripture phrases that emphasize the severity of the punishment
of sin, which are often taken as supporting the doctrine of never-ending
conscious torment.
_1. "Forever and Ever."_--In Rev. 20:10 it is said that the devil and
his chief agencies "shall be tormented day and night forever and ever."
The phrase emphasizes the surety of their utter destruction.
"Forever" means age-lasting, or life-lasting--so long as a thing exists
by its nature. Thus in Ex. 21:6 the servant who loved his master and did
not wish to leave his service was to have his ear pierced, "and he shall
serve him forever," that is, without release as long as he lives. So the
fiery judgment of that last day holds the wicked until life ends; there
is no release until life is consumed.
_2. "Everlasting Punishment."_--"These shall go away into everlasting
punishment." Matt. 25:46. It is everlasting punishment, not everlasting
punishing. The punishment is everlasting death--"who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction." 2 Thess. 1:9.
The truth of the utter destruction of sinners is awful enough, but it
commends itself to every thought of justice and mercy; for sin must be
cleansed from a perfect universe. But the unscriptural view of
everlasting conscious torment that never reaches the point of full
punishment, is unthinkable. Yet it is urged as a doctrine, and contended
for as vital to Christianity.
The following description is taken from a book written for children,
entitled "The Sight of Hell." It is printed in Dublin--for children.
"Little child, if you go to hell, there will be a devil at your
side to strike you. He will go on striking you every day,
forever and ever, without ever stopping. The first stroke will
make your body as bad as Job's, covered from head to foot with
sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice
as bad as the body of Job.... How then will your body be after
the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred
million years without stopping?"--_Quoted in the London Present
Truth, April 30, 1914._
What a relief to turn from this to the Bible doctrine of the
"everlasting destruction" of the second death, terrible though it be!
_3. "Everlasting Fire," "Eternal Fire," "Unquenchable Fire."_--All these
expressions are used in describing the fiery judgment upon sin and
sinners. The effect of the fire is everlasting and eternal, and by a
common usage in language the adjective that describes the effect is
applied to the agent by which the effect is wrought.
A specific example of everlasting fire in the punishment of evil is
given in Scripture. Sodom and Gomorrah, those wicked "cities of the
plain," were destroyed by a rain of fire from heaven. These cities,
Inspiration says, "are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire." Jude 7. The fire was everlasting, eternal, in its
effects. The cities of the plain were everlastingly consumed. But the
fire went out when the destruction was complete. Unquenchable fire is
fire that cannot be quenched. It consumes utterly, until nothing is
left; then it goes out of its own accord.
_4. "Where Their Worm Dieth Not."_--Jesus warned of the certain
destruction of sin and sinners in the fire of Gehenna; for this is the
word translated "hell" in Mark 9:43.
Hades, which is often translated "hell," is the grave, not the place of
punishment. Gehenna, here used of the place of punishment, was the name
of the valley where the refuse of Jerusalem was cast for burning. The
map of Jerusalem, in any ordinary Bible with maps, shows just outside
the southern wall a gorge marked "Valley of Hinnom" (Gehenna). It was
here that the people, in the olden times, had sacrificed their children
to Moloch.
"In order to put an end to these abominations, Josiah polluted
it with human bones and other corruptions. 2 Kings 23:10, 13,
14."--_Hastings's "Dictionary of the Bible."_
Here the fires consumed the refuse, and the fire and worms utterly
destroyed the carcasses of beasts flung into the place of destruction.
It was regarded as a place accursed, and the smoldering fires became
symbolical of the fires of the judgment.
The use of this illustration, instead of arguing that the wicked are
never destroyed but always live, conveys the opposite idea. What went
into the fires of Gehenna was utterly consumed, nothing being left. This
was used by Christ as a figure illustrative of the utter destruction of
the unrepentant sinner in the day of visitation.
This must suffice. The positive teaching of Holy Scripture is that sin
and sinners will be blotted out of existence. There will be a clean
universe again when the great controversy between Christ and Satan is
ended.
[Illustration: PETER DELIVERED FROM PRISON
"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and
delivereth them." Ps. 34:7.]
[Illustration: DANIEL IN THE DEN OF LIONS
"My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they
have not hurt me." Dan. 6:22.]
ANGELS: THEIR MINISTRY
The one verse of Scripture which, perhaps, most comprehensively sums up
the ministry of the angels of God, is this:
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1:14.
This scripture shows us how truly all heaven is engaged in working for
the salvation of this poor world, which has wandered from the fold of
God. It will surely be a time of rejoicing among all the angelic host
when Christ, the Good Shepherd, brings back this lost world, cleansed
from sin, once more to the fold of God's perfect creation.
The angels rejoiced when this world was created. The Lord said to Job:
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?... when the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
Job 38:4-7.
Before ever this world was created, or man upon it, the angels had been
created by the eternal Son, in whom all things consist. For angels are
not redeemed men, neither will the redeemed in the world to come ever
become angels. Angels are a different order of beings from men, a higher
order in creation. We read:
"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou
visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou
crownedst him with glory and honor." Heb. 2:6, 7.
In the life to come, by the wondrous power of Christ's transforming
grace, redeemed men are to be made equal to the angels, as Christ
stated:
"Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and
are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Luke
20:36.
This lifting of sinful man to an equality with the angels, at least in
the possession of life and immortality, is an illustration of the gospel
principle, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. 5:20.
But the declaration of equality with angels is a denial of identity with
angels. Angels existed before man, and redeemed man will still be man,
distinct from the angelic order, though the associate of angels in the
service of God.
Attendants at the Throne of God
When the prophet Isaiah was given a view of the heavenly temple, he saw
different orders of angels attending the throne of God:
"I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His
train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six
wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his
feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." Isa. 6:1-3.
Ezekiel beheld them in glory, attending the moving throne of the
Almighty. "The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a
flash of lightning." Eze. 1:14.
Daniel beheld the angelic host gathered in the most holy place of the
temple above, as the time came for the opening of the work of the
investigative judgment, the cleansing of the sanctuary. Seeing the
throne of God set for this final work of Christ's ministry, the prophet
says:
"Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten
thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were
opened." Dan. 7:10.
God's Messengers
The word "angel" means messenger. To and fro these angelic messengers
have gone in the service of their Creator. A view of their ever-watchful
service is given in the words of the psalmist:
"Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His
commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word." Ps. 103:20.
Bearers of Tidings
They visited Abraham's tent with warning of Sodom's overthrow. Genesis
18.
They visited Lot in the city, and urged him to get his family out.
Genesis 19.
As Jacob, in fear but repentance, was about to meet Esau, whom he had
deceived, "the angels of God met him." Genesis 32. "This is God's host,"
he said, and he knew that the God of Abraham and Isaac, and his God,
also, had not forsaken him.
At a discouraging time in the history of Israel, an angel appeared to
Gideon, bringing the message, "The Lord is with thee," and calling him
to the work of delivering his people. Judges 6.
[Illustration: JACOB'S DREAM IN BETHEL
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1:14.]
As Daniel's prayer reached heaven, even while he still prayed, the angel
Gabriel "being caused to fly swiftly," touched him, and said:
"O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At
the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am
come to show thee." Dan. 9:21-23.
So close is the communication between heaven and earth.
The gladdest tidings ever brought from heaven to earth since the promise
of the Deliverer to Adam in Eden, were brought by angels to the
shepherds of Bethlehem. First, one angel appeared, saying:
"I bring you good tidings of great joy.... For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
Such tidings to earth could never be the mission of one lone angel, when
all heaven longed to cry the news to a lost world.
"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:13, 14.
Unseen in Halls of Government
One incident related in the book of Daniel draws aside the curtain, and
shows how angels doubtless often have worked unseen in kingly courts or
halls of legislation. Daniel had prayed for three weeks for light in
certain matters that the angel Gabriel had begun to unfold to him. When
at last the angel came, overpowering the prophet with the glory of his
presence, it was with a statement, first, of the reason for the delay in
responding to his prayer. The angel said:
"From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and
to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come
for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one
and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to
help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to
make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days."
Dan. 10:12-14.
Messengers of Deliverance
The story of deliverance wrought by angels is too long to tell. One need
only think of the angels' taking slow-moving Lot by the arms and setting
him out of Sodom (Genesis 19); of the angel finding Elijah under a bush
in the desert, and first baking a cake for the hungry man before
speaking the word to his discouraged heart (1 Kings 19); of Elisha
praying that the young man's eyes might be opened to see that there were
more angels with them round about than all the Syrians encamped against
them:
"The Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." 2
Kings 6:17.
An angel shut the mouths of the lions when Daniel was cast into their
den. Daniel 6. An angel smote off Peter's irons in the prison at
Jerusalem, opened the doors, and led him forth. Acts 12. Amid the angry
waves sweeping over the foundering ship in the Adriatic, Paul the
apostle bade the despairing crew be of good courage, "for there stood by
me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying,
Fear not." Acts 27:23, 24.
All through the ages, the angels of God have been standing by. Daniel,
and Peter, and Paul are dead; but the angels still live. "Are they not
all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be
heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1:14.
Guardian Angels
That means that every child of God is under the guardianship of the
angels. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him,
and delivereth them." Ps. 34:7.
Thank God, we are never left alone. Every child of God has a guardian
angel commissioned by the loving Father to watch over him. Christ said:
"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto
you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father
which is in heaven." Matt. 18:10.
This does not mean that trials never will come, or troubles. In the
midst of the trial, the angel of the Lord will stand by to strengthen
and to bring help from the God of all comfort. It was in the midst of
the fiery furnace that the "form of the Fourth" appeared, walking with
the three Hebrew children--Jesus Himself treading the fiery way with
them. And when Jesus, in the days of His flesh, was sinking under the
crushing burden in Gethsemane, "there appeared an angel unto Him from
heaven, strengthening Him." Luke 22:43.
Our Saviour, who knows the comforting power of angel ministry, is the
Captain of the heavenly host, and has commissioned them all as
ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation.
When He comes in glory for His people, Christ will have "all the holy
angels with Him." As the voice of Jesus awakens His sleeping saints and
they rise immortal from the opened graves, "He shall send His angels,
... and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31.
The angels who have watched over the heirs of salvation through all the
ages, know where they are, and they know how to gather them, with their
loved ones, to meet the Lord.
The angels who rejoiced when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth,
who mourned when man fell, who have all along been working with Christ,
their leader, to rescue the lost, will yet rejoice when the Lord brings
home His own. What a day will that be in heaven!
[Illustration: MODERN INVENTIONS FULFILLING PROPHECY
"Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan.
12:4.]
[Illustration: CAREY IN INDIA TRANSLATING THE BIBLE
"So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." Acts 19:20.]
THE TIME OF THE END
"Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time
of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased." Dan. 12:4.
Thus the words of the angel, spoken nearly twenty-five hundred years
ago, announced the opening of a new era of enlightenment when the latter
days should come.
The Time
At the end of the long period of predicted tribulation of the
church--the twelve hundred and sixty years of Daniel's prophecy--the
world entered upon this era of "the time of the end."
"They shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil,
many days.... And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them,
and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end:
because it is yet for a time appointed." Dan. 11:33-35.
In practically every outline of prophecy touching this time, the events
of the last days are represented as following the end of the prophetic
period of tribulation. Christ's prophecy of Matthew 24 so declares. Our
Saviour showed that this period of tribulation, would be shortened, "for
the elect's sake," and that "immediately after the tribulation of those
days" the signs of the end would begin to appear.
Thus, while the full period of the twelve hundred and sixty years ended
amid the scenes of the French Revolution, which gave the papal power a
deadly wound in the last decade of the eighteenth century, the
shortening of the days of tribulation had begun even earlier to spread
increasing knowledge and enlightenment over the earth.
The Prophecy Unsealed
The angel's words to Daniel were,
"Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many
shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4.
"The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Verse 9.
This means that as the time of the end came, men would be impelled to
search diligently for light in the prophetic word. Events taking place
in fulfilment of the prophecy would be recognized, and with the coming
of the time there would come the opening up, or unsealing, of the
prophetic scriptures, with their message for men in the last days.
As the time drew near, Bible students were led more and more to search
the word of prophecy. Sir Isaac Newton, called "the greatest of
philosophers," wrote of prophetic study:
"The giving ear to the prophets is a fundamental character of
the true church. For God has so ordered the prophecies, that in
the latter days 'the wise may understand, but the wicked shall
do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand.' Dan.
12:9, 10."--_"Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel"
(London, 1733), part 1, chap. 1._
Again, this man who had delved so deeply into the laws of nature, but
who bowed his heart in childlike faith to listen to the voice of
Inspiration, declared his hope that the time of the end was near at hand
in his day (he died in 1727). Of this prophecy of the unsealing of the
book he wrote:
"'Tis therefore a part of this prophecy, that it should not be
understood before the last age of the world; and therefore it
makes for the credit of the prophecy that it is not yet
understood. But if the last age, the age of opening these
things, be now approaching, as by the great successes of late
interpreters it seems to be, we have more encouragement than
ever to look into these things. If the general preaching of the
gospel be approaching, it is to us and to our posterity that
those words mainly belong: In the time of the end the wise
shall understand, but none of the wicked shall understand....
'Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of
this prophecy, and keep those things which are written
therein.'"--_"Observations on the Apocalypse" (London, 1733),
chap. 1._
True to the word of the angel, the events of the ending of the twelve
hundred and sixty years of papal supremacy, amid the scenes of the
French Revolution, drew the attention of Bible students everywhere. It
was seen that prophecy was being fulfilled before men's eyes. It gave
great impetus to the study of the prophetic scriptures. The great
historic prophecies began to be opened up--unsealed--to the
understanding. An English historian of that period, John Adolphus,
though writing a secular history, remarks upon this awakening interest
in prophetic study:
"The downfall of the papal government [in 1798], by whatever
means effected, excited perhaps less sympathy than that of any
other in Europe: the errors, the oppressions, the tyranny of
Rome over the whole Christian world, were remembered with
bitterness; many rejoiced, through religious antipathy, in the
overthrow of a church which they considered as idolatrous,
though attended with the immediate triumph of infidelity; and
many saw in these events the accomplishment of prophecies, and
the exhibition of signs promised in the most mystical parts of
the Holy Scriptures."--_"History of France from 1790 to 1802"
(London, 1803), Vol. II, p. 379._
From those tunes of fulfilling prophecy, there arose a distinct
movement, reviving the teaching of the doctrine of Christ's second
coming, and directly preparing the way for the advent movement that was
to come with the days of 1844, when yet fuller light was to break forth
from the unsealed prophecies of the book of Daniel. Of the angel that
symbolizes the special gospel work for these last days, it is written,
"He had in his hand a little book open." Rev. 10:2. The "time of the
end" came, and with it has come the opening of the sealed book. The
"sure word of prophecy" speaks its message full and clear to the ears of
all mankind today.
Increase of Knowledge
"Many shall run to and fro," the prophecy said, "and knowledge shall be
increased." It is knowledge of the prophecy and of the things of God
that is primarily the topic; but the era that we are discussing has been
one of general enlightenment and extension of knowledge.[J] "The
entrance of Thy words giveth light," says the psalmist: and when the
Reformation of the sixteenth century broke the bands of age-long
superstition and error, and set free the Word of God, the way was
preparing for the coming of this wonderful era of the diffusion of
general knowledge.
The era of reform movement was an era of world exploration and
discovery. Diaz had founded the south African cape, and Columbus had
given to future generations the New World. The result was voyage after
voyage of discovery, and then awakening, colonization, and expansion.
The famous and learned Francis Bacon, who died in 1626, felt in his day
that the time spoken of by Daniel's prophecy was drawing near. He
wrote:
"Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the
last ages of the world: 'Many shall go to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased;' clearly intimating that the
thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant
voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of
accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are
destined by fate, that is, by divine Providence, to meet in the
same age."--_"Novum Organum," book 1, xciii. (Bacon's Works,
Spedding and Ellis, Vol. IV, p. 92.)_
When the time indicated in the prophecy fully came, with the last decade
of the eighteenth century, there was witnessed the upspringing of
movements that have wrought mightily for the enlightenment and
evangelization of the world. As the events of the French Revolution
announced the closing of the long era of papal supremacy, so also
another series of events at the same time announced the opening of the
era of increasing knowledge. Speaking of these developments, Lorimer, a
Scottish writer, said:
"At the very time when Satan is hoping for, and the timid are
fearing, an utter overturn of true religion, there is a
revival, and the gospel expands its wings and prepares for a
new flight. It is worthy of remembrance that the year 1792, the
very year of the French Revolution, was also the year when the
Baptist Missionary Society was formed, a society which was
followed during the succeeding, and they the worst, years of
the Revolution, with new societies of unwonted energy and
union, all aiming, and aiming successfully, at the propagation
of the gospel of Christ, both at home and abroad. What
withering contempt did the great Head of the church thus pour
upon the schemes of infidels! And how did He arouse the
careless and instruct His own people, by alarming providences,
at a season when they greatly needed such a
stimulus."--_"Historical Sketches of the Protestant Church in
France," p. 522._
Another writer, Dr. D.L. Leonard, historian of the century of missions,
says:
"The closing years of the eighteenth century constitute in the
history of Protestant missions an epoch indeed, since they
witnessed nothing less than a revolution, a renaissance, an
effectual and manifold ending of the old, a substantial
inauguration of the new. It was then that for the first time
since the apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general
missionary zeal and activity. Beginning in Great Britain, it
soon spread to the Continent and across the Atlantic. It was no
mere push of fervor, but a mighty tide set in, which from that
day to this has been steadily rising and spreading."--_"A
Hundred Years of Missions," p. 69._
The time of the prophecy had come, and the hand of providence was
bringing into being agencies that have spread light and knowledge over
all lands.
"Look where the missionary's feet have trod--
Flowers in the desert bloom; and fields, for God,
Are white to harvest. Skeptics may ignore;
Yet on the conquering Word, from shore to shore,
Like flaming chariot, rolls. Ask ocean isles,
And plains of Ind, where ceaseless summer smiles;
Speak to far frozen wastes, where winter's blight
Remains;--they tell the love, attest the might
Of Him whose messengers across the wave
To them salvation bore, hope, freedom gave."
--_Horace D. Woolley._
The organization of foreign missionary enterprise was quickly
accompanied by the establishment of Bible societies for a systematic
work of translating and world-wide distribution of the Scriptures. In
1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized. Students of
the prophetic word felt at the time that these agencies were coming in
fulfilment of the prophecy. One writer of those times said:
"The stupendous endeavors of one gigantic community to convey
the Scriptures in every language to every part of the globe may
well deserve to be considered as an eminent sign even of these
eventful times. Unless I be much mistaken, such endeavors are
preparatory to the final grand diffusion of Christianity, which
is the theme of so many inspired prophets, and which cannot be
very far distant in the present day."--_G.S. Faber, D.D.,
"Dissertation on the Prophecies," Vol. II, p. 406 (1844)._
Now the Word of God, in whole or in part, is speaking in more than five
hundred languages, and it is estimated that these tongues, at least in
their spoken form, can make the divine message comprehensible to
ninety-five per cent of the inhabitants of the earth.
The work of modern missions, that had its birth as the time of the end
came, is one of the great world factors today. Nearly thirty million
dollars a year are given for Protestant missions, and a force of more
than twenty thousand foreign missionaries is in the field, not counting
the many thousands of native missionaries and helpers. Truly the time of
the end is proving to be an era of increasing light and knowledge.
The Opening of All Lands
As the time came for knowledge to be increased, it was necessary that
all lands should be open to receive the enlightening agencies. Thus, as
the time of the end came, we see distinctly the hand of Providence
swinging open the doors into all countries. It has been an era of world
survey and development. Particularly is this true of the last sixty or
seventy years. It was in 1844 that the time referred to in the prophecy
came for the special advent movement, bearing the judgment-hour message
to the world. The range of the movement is thus described in the
prophecy:
"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation,
and kindred, and tongue, and people." Rev. 14:6.
This was a declaration that as the time came for the closing gospel work
to be done, the doors of access to every nation and tongue and people
would be thrown open. In 1844, or but a few years before, much of the
world was closed to missionary endeavor; but as the prophecy indicates,
the years following have witnessed the swift and systematic opening of
all lands to the gospel message.
It was in 1842 that five treaty ports in China were opened to commerce
and to missions,--advance steps in the opening of all China to the
gospel. In 1844 Turkey was prevailed upon to recognize the right of
Moslems to become Christians, reversing all Moslem tradition. In 1844
Allen Gardiner established the South American Mission. In 1845
Livingstone's determination was formed to open up the African interior.
Dr. A.T. Pierson, speaking of the wonderful way in which Providence
opened the doors of access in those times, wrote as follows:
"Most countries shut out Christian missions by organized
opposition, so that to attempt to bear the good tidings was
simply to dare death for Christ's sake; the only welcome
awaiting God's messengers was that of cannibal ovens, merciless
prisons, or martyr graves. But, as the little band advanced, on
every hand the walls of Jericho fell, and the iron gates opened
of their own accord. India, Siam, Burma, China, Japan, Turkey,
Africa, Mexico, South America, the Papal States, and Korea were
successively and successfully entered. Within five years, from
1853 to 1858, new facilities were given to the entrance and
occupation of seven different countries, together embracing
half the world's population."--_"Modern Mission Century," p.
25._
[Illustration: INTO THE HEART OF AFRICA
The Victoria Falls railroad bridge over the Zambezi.]
God's providence has laid under tribute every force and every resource
for the opening of all lands--missionary endeavor, love of adventure,
commercial enterprise, and scientific interest. Railways have been built
through regions that were undiscovered seventy years ago, and among the
passengers traveling now over the iron trail are men and women of tribes
unknown fifty years ago. But the gospel message was to go to every
tribe and tongue before the end; and wonderfully Providence has been
opening the doors throughout all this "time of the end," and
particularly in our generation.
Material Agencies for the Work
The prophecy represents not only a world-wide work, but a quick work in
proclaiming the gospel message in the last days. The movement is
symbolized in the Revelation by an angel flying in the midst of heaven,
from land to land. And as to the closing work, when the end is near at
hand, the Scripture says:
"He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a
short work will the Lord make upon the earth." Rom. 9:28.
"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
This is the hope for a quickly finished work in all the earth in our
time. Yet the Lord lays hold of material things for service; and
wonderfully the hand of Providence has wrought in bringing into
existence material agencies for a quick work in carrying the gospel to
the world--such agencies as no generation before ours ever had.
Consider the marvelous facilities for world-travel. They are the product
of this time of the end. "Many shall run to and fro," said the prophecy.
Some interpreters have restricted the Hebrew phrase to a "searching" to
and fro for knowledge. Even this would include a literal running to and
fro; for the light of increasing knowledge was to be diffused over all
the earth. But the best authority on the Hebrew declares for the plain
meaning of our English translation: "Many shall run to and fro." In two
recent works, Dr. C.H.H. Wright, the English scholar, says of this text:
"The natural meaning must be upheld, i.e., wandering to and
fro."--_"Critical Commentary on Daniel," p. 209._
"Why should not that expression be used in the sense in which
it is employed in Jeremiah 5:1, namely, of rapid movement
hither and thither?"--_"Daniel and His Prophecies," p. 321._
At the time when the first foreign missionary movement was being
launched in America, Robert Fulton's steamship, the "Clermont," was
making its first trip on the Hudson.
[Illustration: HIEROGLYPHICS
The "Ox Song" of the Egyptian threshing-floor.]
In 1838 the first ships to cross the Atlantic under steam power
alone--the "Sirius" and the "Great Western"--came into New York from
Liverpool, a few hours apart, forerunners of the fleets that furrow all
the seas today, making quick pathways for the gospel messengers to all
lands. Verily, they are a gift of God's providence to this generation,
when all the world is to hear the gospel message.
[Illustration: CUNEIFORM WRITING
An account of the capture of Babylon, B.C. 538. From the
cylinder of Cyrus.]
"He hath made the deep as dry,
He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the earth."
In 1825 Stephenson built his first railway passenger locomotive, which
may still be seen in the Darlington railway station, in England. It was
the beginning of the great revolution in land travel. The late Prof.
Alfred Russel Wallace, scientist, wrote:
"From the earliest historic and even prehistoric times till the
construction of our great railways in the second quarter of the
present century [the nineteenth], there had been absolutely no
change in the methods of human locomotion."--_"The Wonderful
Century," p. 7._
[Illustration: MANUSCRIPT WRITING
The process by which the books of the great library of Alexandria,
Egypt, were made.]
For nearly six thousand years men had traveled in the old way. Why
should these revolutionary changes in travel by sea and land come
abruptly just at this time?--Because the time foretold in the prophecy
was at hand, when the last gospel message was to be carried quickly to
all the world--"to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."
We see the hand of the living God opening the doors into all lands, and
His wonderful providence laying at the feet of this generation agencies
for quickly covering the whole earth.
[Illustration: GUTENBERG'S FIRST TYPES
Reproduced from the first edition of the famous forty-two-line Latin
Bible, printed by Gutenberg.]
Later came the electric telegraph, for the quick transmission of news.
It was in 1837 that Cooke and Wheatstone in England, and Morse in the
United States, made their application for patents on the electric
telegraph. It was in 1844 that the first long-distance system was
successfully demonstrated--when the historic message was sent from
Baltimore to Washington, "What hath God wrought!" Now news of events
fulfilling prophecy, and news of progress and conditions in all lands,
are daily spread before the world by this agency of our wonderful time.
[Illustration: THE GUTENBERG PRINTING PRESS
On which was produced the first printed Bible, in 1456 A.D.]
[Illustration: THE FRANKLIN PRESS
Operated by two men, it has a maximum speed of 250 impressions per
hour.]
As the closing events take place, the Lord has in His providence so
ordered it that no one need be ignorant of the signs of the times
fulfilling before the eyes of men.
"Speak the word and think the thought,
Quick 'tis as with lightning caught--
Over, under, lands or seas
To the far antipodes."
Here is an incident illustrating the way in which the electric telegraph
may multiply and spread abroad the witness borne to the truth of God in
some obscure corner of the earth:
[Illustration: THE HOE DOUBLE OCTUPLE PRESS
The largest printing press in the world. Length, 48 feet; height, 19-1/2
feet; weight, 175 tons; number of parts, 65,000; revolutions, 300 per
minute; paper used per hour, 18 tons, or 216 miles of paper three feet
wide; production per hour, 300,000 eight-page folded newspapers.]
The Mighty Press
"When old Gutenberg, inventor
Of the printing press, and mentor
Of the clumsy-fingered typos
In a sleepy German town,
Used to spread the sheets of vellum
On the form, and plainly tell them
That the art was then perfected,
As he pressed the platen down,
He had not the faintest notion
Of the rhythmical commotion,
Of the brabble and the clamor
And the unremitting roar
Of the mighty triple decker,
While the steel rods flicker,
And the papers, ready folded,
Fall in thousands to the floor."
Some years ago a young man in Europe--a Seventh-day Adventist--was
giving answer for his faith. His conscience would not allow him to do
ordinary labor on God's holy Sabbath. He had declared to the court that
the oath of loyalty which had been required of him forbade his breaking
the Sabbath. "How is that?" asked the judge. The young man replied:
"I was sworn in with a Christian oath, and therefore cannot be
under an obligation to violate the commandments of God and work
on the Sabbath. One must regard God as the highest authority,
and obey Him in the first place."
This witness was borne in a little courtroom, before a small group of
men; but the press dispatches took it up, and the description of the
scene and report of the words spoken were carried by electric telegraph
to the press of at least four continents, and millions read the
testimony of the young man to the faith that was in him.
In the days to come, with great events taking place and solemn issues
calling upon men to make decision for God and His truth, how quickly, in
some great crisis, all the world may be warned, and the last individual
decisions be made for eternity!
Modern Printing
The invention of the printer's art had come just in time to give wings
to Reformation truth. Luther said of it:
"Printing is the latest and greatest gift by which God enables
us to advance the things of the gospel. It is the last bright
flame, manifesting itself just previous to the extinction of
the world. Thanks be to God, it came before the last day
came."--_Michelet's "Life of Luther," p. 291._
While improvements in the art were made through the centuries, it was a
slow process, even up to the opening of our generation. During our day,
however, inventions have revolutionized the printing process.
In this, as in other things, the methods have been speeded up to meet
the necessities of this time of rapid accomplishment. The printing press
is one of the chief of the marvelous enlightening agencies of this time
of the end. By it the printed pages of truth are set falling over the
earth "like the leaves of autumn."
Time fails us to speak of all the wonderful material developments of our
day, when knowledge has been increased, and when men are not only
searching to and fro, but literally running to and fro. The whole earth
is brought within the range of human knowledge, and the light of saving
truth is streaming out toward every dark place where the children of men
dwell.
Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago it was written upon the prophetic
page,
"Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many
shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
There the word stood on the scroll of prophecy through more than two
millenniums. Then, as the time of the end came, lo, the book of prophecy
was unsealed, and the new era of increasing knowledge began to spread in
wondrous blessing over the earth.
So surely, also, the prophecies of the last events will be accomplished.
In the occurrences taking place before our eyes, we see that God is
indeed finishing His work in the earth, and cutting it short in
righteousness.
[Illustration: FORTIFICATIONS ON THE BOSPORUS
The strategic waterway involved in the Eastern Question.]
FOOTNOTES:
[J] It is not designed to give the reader the idea that this running "to
and fro" refers wholly to turning to and fro through the pages of a
book. The times in which we live have been characterized by a great
increase in Bible study, and consequently in knowledge of the
Scriptures; but it is equally true that this has been due in large
measure to the fact that there are no longer any "hermit" kingdoms.
Travel, a real physical running "to and fro" through the earth, has
contributed mightily to the modern increase of knowledge, and in no
other field of investigation has this been more true than in the study
of the Bible. By increased facilities for travel, all nations have been
brought close together physically. Different races and nationalities
have become acquainted, missionary zeal has been quickened, and peoples
formerly beyond the reach of missionary operations have become easily
accessible. In this sense, as well as by private searching of the
Scriptures, knowledge has increased.
[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA IN CONSTANTINOPLE
The most famous of all Mohammedan temples.
COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N.Y.]
THE EASTERN QUESTION
MODERN HISTORY IN THE LIGHT OF ANCIENT PROPHECY
Not alone of the history of ancient nations does the "sure word of
prophecy" bear witness. Political events of our own and coming days are
described.
The nations of the latter day are pictured as preparing war, gathering
their forces for the great Armageddon, the battle of the day of God.
As a signal of the last great struggle, the fall, or "drying up," of the
power ruling the territory watered by the river Euphrates is foretold.
Rev. 16:12. The Euphrates in all modern history has been suggestive of
the dominions of the Turkish or Ottoman Empire. And Armageddon,
designated as the meeting place of armies in the last clash of nations,
is in Palestine, which, through all modern times, has been in possession
of the Turkish power.
The index finger of prophecy points, therefore, to this region of the
eastern Mediterranean as the pivotal point in the closing history of
nations; and with Turkey's fate is wrapped up the fate of all the
nations of the world.
All this adds deepest and most solemn import to the study of what is
known as the Eastern Question, a question that has been to the fore in
international politics much of the time throughout this generation. Wars
have been fought over it, cabinets have wrestled with it, and still it
holds its place in the first rank of living issues of today.
As every one knows, the Eastern Question involves the dominion or
supremacy in the Near East. This region was a pivotal point in the
struggles of the nations in ancient times--the meeting place of East and
West. Maspero, historian of ancient empires, says of it:
"Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the
battle fields of the contending nations.... The nations around
are eager for the possession of a country thus situated....
From remote antiquity Syria was in the condition just
described. By its position it formed a kind of meeting place,
where most of the military nations of the ancient world were
bound sooner or later to come violently into
collision."--_"Struggle of the Nations," chap. 1._
It is not strange, therefore, that one of the great outlines of historic
prophecy should deal with events centering around this pivotal region.
The prophecy of Daniel 11 does so, outlining the course of history from
ancient times to the final solution of the Eastern Question amid the
scenes of the end.
Rise and Fall of Ancient Empires
The prophetic outline of Daniel 11 begins with Persia, in the third year
of Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon. (See Dan. 10:1.) The angel of God
appeared to Daniel, and in the longest and most detailed single prophecy
in all the Bible, told the story of events connected with this region of
the Near East for the centuries to come, until the end. Putting the word
of prophecy and the record of history side by side, we see how exactly
history has fulfilled prophecy; and we may know certainly that the brief
portion of the prophecy yet unfulfilled will surely come to pass.
Persia
_Prophecy._--"Now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand
up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than
they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all
against the realm of Grecia." Dan. 11:2
_History._--The three kings following Cyrus were (1) Cambyses, (2)
Smerdis, (3) Darius; the fourth, Xerxes, was "far richer than they all."
He had the treasures of his father, Darius, who was called the
"merchant" or "hoarder" by his own people, and Xerxes gathered stores of
wealth in addition. When Xerxes was on his way to invade Grecia, a
Lydian named Pythius entertained the whole Persian army with feasts, and
offered to aid in bearing the expense of the campaign. Xerxes asked who
this man of such wealth was. He was answered:
"This is the man, O king! who gave thy father Darius the golden
plane tree, and likewise the golden vine; and he is still the
wealthiest man we know of in all the world, excepting
thee."--_Herodotus, book 7, par. 27._
"Richer than they all," Xerxes, "through his riches," was able, as the
prophecy had foretold, to "stir up all against the realm of Grecia."
Forty-nine nations marched under his banners to the attack. The Greek
poet, Æschylus, who himself fought against the Persians, wrote of
Xerxes' mighty host,
"And myriad-peopled Asia's king, a battle-eager lord,
From utmost east to utmost west sped on his countless horde,
In unnumbered squadrons marching, in fleets of keels untold,
Knowing none dared disobey,
For stern overseers were they
Of the godlike king begotten of the ancient race of Gold."
--_"Persæ," Way's translation._
Xerxes boasted that he was leading "the whole race of mankind to the
destruction of Greece." But his invasion ended in the total rout of his
forces by land and by sea. It was an advertisement to the world that
Persia's might was broken. The prophecy treats it so, and deals no
further with Persian history.
Æschylus at the time celebrated the passing of Persia's prestige in the
lines,--
"With sacred awe
The Persian law
No more shall Asia's realms revere;
To their lord's hand
At his command,
No more the exacted tribute bear.
* * * * *
Before the Ionian squadrons Persia flies,
Or sinks engulfed beneath the main;
Fallen! fallen! is her imperial power,
And conquest on her banners waits no more."
--_"Persæ," Potter's translation._
The next great world change was to be the rise of Grecia to dominion.
So, although a number of kings followed Xerxes in Persia, the prophecy
passes from his disastrous invasion directly to the coming of Grecia
under its "mighty king," Alexander the Great.
Grecia
_Prophecy._--"A mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great
dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his
kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of
heaven; and not to his posterity." Dan. 11:3, 4.
_History._--Alexander the Great stood up and ruled with great dominion,
over a kingdom stretching from India to Grecia, with kings yet farther
west sending embassies to Babylon to make submission. But in the height
of his power, as the prophecy suggests, he was suddenly cut down by
death. All his posterity perished, and out of the struggles of his
generals for supremacy came (301 B.C.) the division of the
empire toward "the four winds," as the prophecy had declared so long
before. Rawlinson, the historian, says:
"A quadripartite division of Alexander's dominion was
recognized: Macedonia [west], Egypt [south], Asia Minor
[north], and Syria [stretching eastward beyond the
Euphrates]."--_"Sixth Monarchy," chap. 3._
The Kings of the North and South
Next, a rearrangement of these powers is noted; and it is this that
gives us the key to the study of the closing portion of the long
prophetic outline dealing with events of our own day. The narrative
continues:
_Prophecy._--"The king of the south shall be strong, and one of his
princes ... shall be strong above him;... his dominion shall be a great
dominion." Verse 5.
_History._--The history testifies that the king of the south (Egypt,
under Ptolemy) was strong; but one of the four princes was "strong above
him." Seleucus, of Syria and the east, pushed his dominion northward,
subduing most of Asia Minor, and extending his boundary into Thrace, on
the European side, beyond the Dardanelles. Henceforward, as Mahaffy
says,
"there were three great kingdoms--Macedonia, Egypt,
Syria--which lasted, each under its own dynasty, till Rome
swallowed them up."--_"Alexander's Empire," p. 89._
Thus Seleucus took the territory of the north, and the Syrian power
became king of the north, its empire extending from Thrace, in Europe,
through Asia Minor to Syria and the Euphrates. The seat of empire was
removed from the east, and Antioch, in northern Syria, "once the third
city of the world," became the famous capital.
The prophecy next foretold in remarkable detail the contests between
these two strong powers, the king of the north (Syria and Asia Minor)
and the king of the south (Egypt). The conflict raged back and forth
till the coming of the Romans. The Holy Land was the frequent meeting
place of the contending armies. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes
it:
"Palestine was as of old the battle field for the king of the
north and the king of the south.... The history of these times
is lost in its details."--_Ninth edition, Vol. XV, art.
"Macedonian Empire," p. 144._
We shall not follow the details of this contest as foretold in the
prophecy, nor yet the outline of events after the coming of the Roman
power ended the rivalry between Syria and Egypt. It is necessary only
that we fix the events and geographic terms of this early portion of the
prophecy. Then we shall have the key to the closing portion, dealing
with events of the last days, when the king of the north again appears.
The Modern King of the North
In the last verses of the chapter we find the king of the north a chief
actor in this same region, "at the time of the end." Verse 40. And we
are told that when this power comes to its end, it is the signal that
the great day of God is at hand. (See Dan. 12:1.)
It becomes a vital question, therefore, what power in these last days is
the king of the north, whose end is the signal of the swift ending of
the world. Inspiration gives the basis for the answer. The king of the
north in the early portion of the prophecy was the power that ruled in
Syria and Asia Minor, from the Euphrates to the shores of the
Dardanelles. The king of the north, then, of the later portion of the
prophecy, must be the power that has been ruling in this same region
during the time of the end.
What power has held dominion over this territory in modern times?--The
Turkish or Ottoman Empire. At this time Turkey holds almost the
identical dominion of the ancient king of the north--from the Euphrates
to the sea, and northward over Asia Minor and the shores of the
Dardanelles.
Then today Turkey is certainly the king of the north, according to the
prophecy of Daniel 11.
Of the later history of the king of the north and his end and the events
following it, the prophecy says:
"Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him:
therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to
make away many.
"And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in
the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall
help him.
"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which
standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same
time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that
shall be found written in the book." Dan. 11:44, 45; 12:1.
[Illustration: CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE
The capital of the Turkish government.
COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N, Y.]
The opening verse of this scripture describes exactly the history of
Turkey in modern times. Turkey's disquietude has come because of tidings
out of the east and out of the north. In both these directions there has
been a pushing back of the Turkish frontier, particularly in the north.
Again and again, during this time of the end, Turkey has gone forth
with fury to resist these encroachments and prevent the loss of
territory.
The prophecy indicates that in some of these struggles the king of the
north will yet transfer his capital:
"He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the
glorious holy mountain."
Removal to Jerusalem
This prophecy can mean nothing else than that the king of the north will
eventually set up his headquarters in Jerusalem; for Jerusalem is "the
holy mountain" of the Scriptures. Zech. 8:3.
It is a wise counsel that says, "Tread lightly in the details of
unfulfilled prophecy." Just how events are to turn, by what route or
processes the steps are to be taken, it is useless to conjecture. But
there the prophecy stands. Every word of the early portion of the
prophetic outline has been fulfilled to the letter in the history of the
ancient empires battling century after century over this region. Every
word spoken of the final scenes will as certainly be fulfilled.
In view of this prophecy,--that Jerusalem is yet to be made the
headquarters of the king of the north,--it becomes highly significant
that the Mohammedans regard Jerusalem as a sacred city. According to
Mohammedan tradition, Jerusalem is to play a leading part in the closing
history of that people. Hughes, in his "Dictionary of Islam," article
"Jerusalem," summarizes the teaching:
"In the last days there will be a general flight to Jerusalem."
Speaking of Jerusalem, an old Arab commentator on the Koran, Mukaddasi
(A.D. 985), said:
"As to the excellence of the city. Why, is not this to be the
place of marshaling on the day of judgment, where the gathering
together and the appointment will take place? Verily Makkah
[Mecca] and Al Madina have their superiority by reason of the
Ka'abah and the prophet,--the blessing of Allah be upon him and
his family!--but, in truth, on the day of judgment both cities
will come to Jerusalem, and the excellencies of them all will
then be united."--_Le Strange, "Palestine under the Moslems,"
p. 85._
[Illustration: MODERN JERUSALEM
"He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the
glorious holy mountain." Dan. 11:45.]
Thus Moslem doctrinal teaching and tradition both point out Jerusalem as
the rallying place of Moslems before the end. Again and again in recent
years, as the pressure has threatened the Turkish hold on
Constantinople, the thoughts of Moslems have turned toward Jerusalem as
a possible capital. A few years ago a Seventh-day Adventist missionary
in Constantinople wrote to his home board:
[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF OMAR
Situated in Jerusalem, on Mt. Moriah, the site of Solomon's Temple.]
"Within the past few months quite a company of people from the
Transcaucasus district have come to Ismid,--old
Nicodemia,--bringing all they possess with them. Some of them
possess considerable wealth. When asked if they were going to
settle in Ismid, they replied that they would settle nowhere
permanently at present. They stated that they had come to be
prepared to go with their leader when he left Constantinople to
go to Jerusalem."
Wherever the capital may first be set up following the forsaking of
Constantinople,--and Turkish authorities, we are told, have discussed a
number of possible locations in Asia Minor,--there stands the ancient
prophecy as to the eventual seat of the king of the north,
"He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the
glorious holy mountain."
Following that, what comes? The prophecy declares,
"Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him."
What Comes When Turkey Falls
The fury of his goings forth "utterly to make away many," the moving of
his capital from one place to another, avail nothing in the end. "He
shall come to his end, and none shall help him."
The suggestion of the prophecy is that this power has hitherto been
helped to stand. Here again every suggestion of the prophetic language
finds its response in history. Through these later years of the time of
the end the Ottoman Empire has been helped to stand, by either one power
or another, or by some combination of powers. The late Lord Salisbury,
while premier of Britain, thus stated the reasons for this policy of
helping Turkey:
"Turkey is in that remarkable condition in which it has now
stood for half a century, mainly because the great powers of
the world have resolved that for the peace of Christendom it is
necessary that the Ottoman Empire should stand. They came to
that conclusion nearly half a century ago. I do not think they
have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman Empire should
fall, would not merely be the danger that would threaten the
territories of which that empire consists; it would be the
danger that the fire there lit should spread to other nations,
and should involve all that is most powerful and civilized in
Europe in a dangerous and calamitous contest. That was the
danger that was present to the minds of our fathers when they
resolved to make the integrity and independence of the Ottoman
Empire a matter of European treaty, and that is a danger which
has not passed away."--_Mansion House speech, Nov. 9, 1895._
The veteran premier stated the fear of modern statesmen that Turkey's
fall would involve all civilization in a calamitous conflict. The
prophecy pictures just such a catastrophe, in these words:
"He shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time
shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children
of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was
since there was a nation even to that same time."
What modern statesmen have seen impending and have sought to ward off,
the ancient prophecy says will surely come to pass when the king of the
north comes to his end,--a time of trouble for the nations such as never
was.
In the New Testament
In the prophecy of Revelation 16, the last great clash of the nations is
represented as following the fall of the power that rules the territory
drained by the Euphrates. Describing the last events in human history,
under the pouring out of the vials of judgment upon the world, the
prophet says:
"The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and
the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east
might be prepared." Rev. 16:12.
The water of the Euphrates represents the people or power ruling by it.
When anciently the Assyrians dwelt by that river and were about to
invade Israel, the prophet said, "The Lord bringeth up upon them the
waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria." Isa.
8:7. The waters of the Euphrates meant the Assyrian power.
Just so in this prophecy, the river stands for the people. As the Nile
stood for Egypt, and the Tiber for Rome, so in all modern times the
Euphrates has stood for Turkey. The "drying up" of the Euphrates must
mean the ending of the Turkish power. And in the verses immediately
following, Revelation pictures the gathering of the nations of the whole
world to Armageddon--"the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
Following Turkey's end comes the final clash of nations. The earth
quakes, the cities of the nations fall, and the last judgments of God
come upon a warring world.
Here, as in Daniel 12, is pictured a time of trouble for the nations
such as never was, and the end of the world, when the power ruling in
Syria, by the Euphrates, comes to its end.
The Approaching End
For years statesmen and observers have discussed the approaching
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Travelers in Turkey have reported
that thoughtful Turkish people held the conviction that the crisis of
their nation was near at hand. Years ago Mr. Charles MacFarlane wrote:
"The Turks themselves seem generally to be convinced that their
final hour is approaching. 'We are no longer Mussulmans,--the
Mussulman saber is broken,--the Osmanlis will be driven out of
Europe by the _gaiours_, and driven through Asia to the regions
from which they first sprang. It is Kismet! We cannot resist
destiny!' I heard words to this effect from many Turks, as well
in Asia as in Europe."--_"Kismet; or the Doom of Turkey"
(London, 1853), p. 409._
A later Turkish traveler, Mr. Wilfred Scawen Blunt, says:
"Ancient prophecy and modern superstition alike point to the
return of the Crescent into Asia as an event at hand, and to
the doom of the Turks.... A well-known prediction to this
effect, which has for ages exercised its influence on the
vulgar and even on the learned Mohammedan mind,... places the
scene of the last struggle in northern Syria, at Homs, on the
Orontes. Islam is then finally to retire from the north, and
the Turkish rule to cease. Such prophecies often work their own
fulfilment."--_"Future of Islam," p. 95._
Thus native tradition and human forebodings have contemplated the
break-up of the Turkish power, as the course of the years has witnessed
the shrinkage of its territory and the ever-increasing difficulty of its
position.
Now and then there has been a renewal of Turkey's vigor and prestige;
then again its situation has been rendered yet more precarious. It has
been a buffer between the clashing interests of the great powers.
Speaking of Turkey's difficult position in this respect, the London
_Fortnightly Review_, May, 1915, expressed a common view thus:
"When once the nations of Europe set foot in Asia Minor, the
pace of Turkey's further downfall will be set not so much by
Turkey's strength or weakness as by the mutual jealousies of
the occupying powers."
The storm clouds hang ever low over the Near East; while above all the
din of wars and rumors of wars, the voice of divine prophecy declares
that when this power comes to its end, the closing events in human
history will quickly follow.
[Illustration: CONSTANTINOPLE THE KEY CITY OF THE WORLD
The cross on which the peace of the world has been crucified.]
The solemn truth rings in our ears like a trumpet peal; the age-long
Eastern Question is hastening on to its final solution, and its solution
brings the end of the world.
In the light of the "sure word of prophecy" the developments of our day
in the East become more than matters of grave political concern to
statesmen and observers of affairs generally; they are matters of
deepest personal, eternal interest to every soul. In watching the trend
of international affairs, we are watching the doing of the last things
among the nations.
As these things are seen coming to pass exactly as the prophecy
foretold, we recognize them as God's call to men in the last generation
to turn to Him and prepare their hearts to meet the coming Lord. Let no
one think to wait until he sees Turkey come to its end before making his
peace with God. The end of this power, as described in Revelation 16,
comes during the falling of the seven last plagues. And the last verse
of the preceding chapter shows that Christ's ministry for sinners in the
heavenly temple has ended before the plagues begin to fall. Human
probation will already have closed. The solemn decree will then have
been issued in heaven:
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let
him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous
still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come
quickly." Rev. 22:11, 12.
"Now is the accepted time," calls the Spirit; "now is the day of
salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2. We have not to make ourselves ready. "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. Our part is to believe
and confess; His part is to forgive and cleanse and make us ready for
the coming kingdom.
The Sinner's Plea
With broken heart and contrite sigh,
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry;
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free:
O God, be merciful to me!
Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done,
Can for a single sin atone;
To Calvary alone I flee:
O God, be merciful to me!
And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be,
"God has been merciful to me!"
--_Cornelius Elven._
[Illustration: THE GREAT BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON
The whole world involved in the last great clash of nations. "The
nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come." Rev. 11:18.]
[Illustration: THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND MT. MEGIDDO
"He gathered them together into a place called ... Armageddon." Rev.
16:16.]
ARMAGEDDON
THE FINAL CLASH OF EARTHLY EMPIRES
"We are living, we are dwelling,
In a grand and awful time,
In an age on ages telling,
To be living is sublime.
Hark! the waking up of nations,
Gog and Magog to the fray;
Hark! what soundeth? Is creation
Groaning for her latter day?"
The sure word of prophecy that foretold the rise and fall of ancient
empires, and outlined the general course of world history through the
ages, describes also the last great struggle of the nations.
The proverb says, "Peace is the dream of the wise, but war is the
history of man." And divine prophecy assures us that the history of this
present world will end amid scenes of conflict.
Many in our time have come to think that civilization must reach a
better way of composing the rivalries of the nations. The prophecy
forewarns us otherwise. In fact, the prophetic word points to the talk
of peace and safety amid preparations for war, as a distinct sign of the
latter days.
"In the last days," Isaiah says, "many people shall go and say:"
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more." Isa. 2:2-4.
This is what "many people" were to be saying. But the real conditions in
the last days are described as exactly the opposite. The prophet Joel
describes the real spirit of the world in these times:
"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles [the nations]: Prepare war, wake up
the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat
your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the
weak say, I am strong." Joel 3:9, 10.
The context shows that the prophet is speaking of the last times, when
"the day of the Lord is near." Verse 14.
The Prophecy Fulfilling
This is what we have seen in our time, as never before in the history of
man,--the product of the plowshare and the pruning hook being turned
into instruments of war.
About twenty-five years ago the late Marquis of Salisbury, speaking as a
man grown gray in the service of the state, asked a London audience the
question, "What is the great change that marks this time as different
from the times when most of us were young men?" The aged statesman
answered his own question, saying that it was the arming of the nations,
the swift race upon which the powers had then recently entered, to
increase their naval and military armaments. It is a sign of our times,
answering to the prophetic forecast.
Throughout the present generation the thoughtful have watched with grave
forebodings the preparations of the nations for war. Queen Alexandra, of
Britain, once said of it:
"I was educated in the school of a king who was, before all
things, just; and I have tried, like him, always to preach love
and charity, I have always mistrusted warlike preparations, of
which nations seem never to tire. Some day this accumulated
material of soldiers and guns will burst into flames in a
frightful war that will throw humanity into mourning on earth
and grieve our universal Father in heaven."
As the race of armaments went forward on a scale never before thought
of, statesmen and writers began to make use of the word "Armageddon" to
describe the conflict that they saw was inevitable. Years ago the London
_Contemporary Review_ said:
"Odd things are happening everywhere.... Russia, Germany,
England--these are great names; they palpitate with great
ideas; they have vast destinies before them, and millions of
armed men in their pay, all awaiting Armageddon."
In June, 1909, Lord Rosebery, in a speech before a press convention in
London, commented gravely upon the significance of the feverish haste
with which the nations were arming themselves, "as if for some great
Armageddon, and that in a time of the profoundest peace."
To quote from a popular American magazine, of the same year:
"Today all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting
breathlessly for the morrow with its Armageddon."--_Everybody's
Magazine, November, 1909._
Thus, everywhere, observers saw that the rivalry of interests among the
nations was leading to a conflict so overwhelmingly vast that only the
Scriptural word "Armageddon," with its appeal to the imagination, seemed
adequately suggestive of its proportions.
Every passing year added to the intensity of feeling and the antagonism
of interests. In 1911 the London _Nineteenth Century and After_ said:
[Illustration: UNITED STATES BATTLESHIP "NEVADA"
Photograph taken from the Manhattan Bridge. New York.
COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD. N.Y.]
"Never was national and racial feeling stronger upon earth than
it is now. Never was preparation for war so tremendous and so
sustained. Never was striking power so swift and so terribly
formidable.... The shadow of conflict and of displacement
greater than any which mankind has known since Attila and his
Huns were stayed at Châlons, is visibly impending over the
world. Almost can the ear of imagination hear the gathering of
the legions for the fiery trial of peoples, a sound vast as the
trumpet of the Lord of hosts."--_Quoted in the Literary Digest,
May 6, 1911._
[Illustration: COMRADES AFTER THE BATTLE
Soldiers bringing in two wounded captives.
PHOTO BY CENTRAL PHOTO SERVICE. N.Y.]
What the ancient prophecy foretold--the preparing of war in the last
days, the waking up and arming of the nations--we have seen fulfilling
before our eyes in this generation.
Satanic Agencies at Work
In prophecies of the gathering of the nations for the last great
struggle, Inspiration draws aside the veil, and allows us to see the
agencies that have been stirring up the world for the war. As the
prophet John was shown in vision the scenes of the last days, he saw the
invisible powers of Satan, "the spirits of devils," going forth "unto
the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the
battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16:14.
Earnest-minded statesmen have lamented their helplessness to combat the
forces and influences pressing the world on toward conflict. In one of
his last speeches as premier of Great Britain, the late Marquis of
Salisbury was defending yet further calls for army and navy
appropriations. He said:
"For years public opinion was in favor of a pacific policy, but
now that state of opinion has passed away. The tide has turned,
and who am I, and who are we, that we should attempt to stem
the tide? If the tide has turned, we shall have to go with it.
We are in the presence of forces far larger than we can wield."
What those forces were, the aged statesman did not recognize, but the
prophecy tells us. The prophet was shown the evil spirits from Satan
going forth everywhere as the end nears, to stir up the whole world to
the last great conflict.
Sir Edward Grey, British foreign secretary, described these agencies
very accurately. Speaking in the House of Commons, Nov. 27, 1911, he
said:
"It is really as if in the atmosphere of the world there were
some mischievous influence at work, which troubles and excites
every part of it."
It is all coming to pass exactly as the sure word of prophecy foretold.
The conviction that great and decisive events are at hand has taken
possession of many hearts in all the world. When the European war broke
out in 1914, on a scale unprecedented in human history, it was no wonder
that the question sprang to many lips, "Is it Armageddon?"
The question was not lightly asked. The committee of the Church
Missionary Society (Church of England), one of the greatest missionary
organizations in the world, sent a message to its missionaries in all
lands at the outbreak of the war. In this message was a call to prepare
for the coming of the Lord:
"It may be that these events will quickly usher in the return
of Christ to gather His saints together from the four quarters
of the earth.... Many see in the events preceding and
accompanying this terrible cataclysm of war the signs of our
Lord's near return. If so, blessed will that servant be whom
his Lord when He cometh shall find giving 'their food in due
season' to those fellow servants who have been put in his
charge."--_Church Missionary Review, November, 1914._
Timely as this call was, it was evident, from the prophetic scriptures,
that the conflict then opening could not be the Armageddon of the
Apocalypse, for the prelude to that final clash of nations is an event
yet in the future--the downfall of a nation whose part in the closing
scenes is clearly described in the prophecy of the coming Armageddon.
The end of the power which rules over the territory through which the
river Euphrates flows, is the prelude to Armageddon. The prophecy says:
"The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and
the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East
might be prepared." Rev. 16:12.
Next follows the gathering of "the whole world" to "the battle of that
great day of God Almighty." Verse 14.
Through all modern times Turkey has been identified with the Euphrates.
The region of Syria and Asia Minor, long held by Turkey, has been the
historic meeting place of the East and the West. In the London
_Fortnightly Review_, May, 1915, Mr. J.B. Firth wrote:
"When, with the fall of Ottoman sovereignty at Constantinople,
the Turk is driven out of Europe, there will arise once more
the eternal question of the possession of Asia Minor. That land
is the corridor between Europe and Asia, along which have
passed most of the European conquerors--the Russians alone
excepted--who have invaded Asia, and most of the Asiatic
conquerors who have invaded Europe."
The fall of the Turkish power in this Euphrates region will, in some
manner, prepare the way for "the kings of the East" to come up to the
final conflict.
The Awakening of the East
The same spirit that has been stirring up the West in preparation for
the contest has been working in the East also. Year after year observers
have pointed out the great changes taking place in Asia. September,
1909, the London _Contemporary Review_ said:
"The whole of Asia is in the throes of rebirth. At last we may
see these three--the yellow race, the Indian race, and the
Arab-Persian Mohammedan race. And all that is making for the
Armageddon."
A writer in the May, 1913, issue of the London _Nineteenth Century and
After_, reviewing the situation at the close of the Balkan War, said:
"A new spirit is abroad in the East. It arose on the shores of
the Pacific when Japan proved that the great powers of Europe
are not invulnerable. North and south and west it has spread,
rousing China out of centuries of slumber, stirring India into
ominous questioning, reviving memories of past glory in Persia,
breeding discontent in Egypt, and luring Turkey onto the
rocks."
With all the nations stirred up by the spirit agencies of the god of
this world, the prophet next saw the armies of earth gathering to the
last great battle. The prophecy continues:
"And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue
Armageddon." Rev. 16:16.
Armageddon means the hill, or mount, of Megiddo, which overlooks the
plain of Esdraelon, the historic battle ground of northern Palestine.
Carmack says of it:
"Megiddo was the military key of Syria; it commanded at once
the highway northward to Phoenicia and Coele-Syria and the
road across Galilee to Damascus and the valley of the
Euphrates. It was moreover the chief town in a district of
great fertility, the contested possession of many races. The
vale of Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevitable battle
fields. Through all history they retained that qualification;
there many of the great contests of southwestern Asia have been
decided. In the history of Israel it was the scene of frequent
battles. From such association the district achieved a dark
nobility; it was regarded as a pre-destined place of blood and
strife; the poet of the Apocalypse has clothed it with awe as
the ground of the final conflict between the powers of light
and darkness."--_"Pre-Biblical Syria and Palestine," p. 82._
Thus Armageddon, as the "military key of Syria," marks Palestine and the
Near East as the great international storm center in the final conflict.
The Political Storm Center
In vision, nearly two thousand years ago, the prophet saw the forces of
the last days gathering around this pivotal region. Today observers
recognize the eastern Mediterranean as indeed the pivotal point around
which international interests involving East and West naturally revolve.
Some years ago, in discussing railway development in Asia and Africa,
and the great highways of sea transportation, the London _Fortnightly
Review_ said:
"Palestine is the great center, the meeting of the roads.
Whoever holds Palestine, commands the great lines of
communication, not only by land, but also by sea."
Again, the Manchester _Guardian_, emphasizing the importance attaching
to this strategic center, said during the great war:
"Egypt, as things are,--and the fact cannot be too often
emphasized,--is the weak spot in our system of imperial defense
by sea power. Not until Palestine is in our possession can
Egypt be regarded as safe."--_Quoted in Literary Digest, Feb.
12, 1916, p. 369._
Other nations have recognized the strategic value of a territory so
situated. Thus political considerations make this region pointed out by
the prophecy a center of conflicting interests. Hogarth, in his book,
"The Near East," calls it "the time-honored storm center of the eastern
Mediterranean."
The Religious Storm Center
To the conflict of political interests is added the rivalry of religious
sentiment. Commenting on the religious associations of Palestine in
relation to the international political situation, the London
_Spectator_ some years ago stated the matter thus:
"People often ask how it is that the future of Palestine
presents such difficulties. The reason is simply that
Jerusalem--you cannot separate Jerusalem from Palestine--is
the sacred city of so many creeds and warring faiths. Not only
is it the holy place of all the Christian churches,--and two of
them quarrel bitterly over it, the Greeks and the Latins,--but
it is also one of the most sacred places in the Mohammedan
world. Mecca and Medina are hardly more sacred than the Mosque
of Omar. That is a fact which is often ignored by Europeans,
who forget that to turn the Mohammedans out of the temple
inclosure would disturb the whole Moslem world, from the
Straits Settlements to Albania. We must never forget that
Mohammedan pilgrims from India visit Jerusalem, just as
Christian pilgrims visit it from Europe. Lastly, Jerusalem is
profoundly sacred to the Jews, and the Jews are beginning to be
locally numerous and important. Most certainly there are no
elements of difficulty wanting in the problem of the future of
Palestine."
History records the fact that rivalry over the care of the traditional
holy places helped to precipitate one European war--that of the Crimea.
In the study of the Eastern Question, we have seen that the prophecy of
Daniel 11 marks Jerusalem as still a storm center in the closing scenes.
A British consul in Jerusalem, in the days following the Crimean War,
set forth suggestively his view of one of the factors in the Eastern
Question. He wrote:
"The very heart and kernel of the Eastern Question can only be
reached in the Holy City, Jerusalem, where the Eastern and
Western churches are still wrestling as of old for the
mastery.... Now as heretofore, disguise the object as they may,
they are striving for a prize which has not been destined by
divine Providence for either; and this prize is no less than a
virtual dominion over the Christian world, from a throne of
government within the sanctuaries of the Holy City; and the
possession of that throne would involve possession of the key
to universal dominion."--_"Stirring Times: Records from
Jerusalem Consulate Chronicles," by James Finn, introductory
note by editor, p. xxiii._
Foretold in Prophecy
By every consideration--political, racial, and religious--the Near East
supplies all the elements for involving the whole world when once the
sweeping displacements begin which the prophecy foretold, and for which
statesmen in our day have sought to prepare.
Long ages ago the prophet of God, in vision on the Isle of Patmos, was
shown the clash of interests and the gathering of the nations around
this historic center. Before our eyes today we see events tending to
give to this region the very character assigned to it by the prophecy.
It was written in the sure word of prophecy in order that, as the events
foretold are seen approaching, men may believe and turn to God, and find
salvation from the things coming upon the earth.
Into the prophecy of this sixteenth chapter of Revelation, describing
the gathering of forces to Armageddon, our Saviour interjects the
warning and the appeal:
"Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his
garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." Verse 15.
The last earthly events that the prophecy is dealing with--the pouring
out of the seven last plagues, and the clash of Armageddon--come after
probation closes. The close of probation, the passing of the ministry of
Christ in the heavenly temple, will come as a thief, unannounced. Our
only safety is in yielding heart and life to him now for cleansing, and
accepting from his hand the garments of his own righteousness, freely
offered to every one.
What Comes with Armageddon
Whatever ambitions or aims may be the impelling motives when the
gathering to the great conflict comes, one thing is certain: Armageddon
is to bring triumph and world dominion to no earthly power. As the
nations gather, the Lord intervenes from heaven, and the history of the
kingdoms of this world is closed at last. The prophet tells the sequel
to Armageddon:
"He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue
Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and
there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne,
saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings;
and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon
the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was
divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great
Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the
wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And every island fled away, and the
mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of
heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God
because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding
great." Rev. 16:16-21.
The fall of the Turkish power is the prelude to the gathering of the
nations to the battle of Armageddon. And Armageddon is the prelude to
the end of the world and Christ's glorious coming as King of kings and
Lord of lords. The armies gathered to battle for supremacy find
themselves suddenly arrayed against the armies of heaven. Another
prophecy describes the scene when Christ is revealed:
"The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face
of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for
the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
Rev. 6:15-17.
Again, as the great searchlight of divine prophecy lights up the way
before us, we see by the course of present-day events that the end is
drawing very near. By what sudden turn of affairs the last things to be
done in history may be set in motion, none can foresee. The Saviour
admonishes every soul, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour
as ye think not the Son of man cometh." Matt. 24:44.
It is for this time of waiting, especially, that Christ spoke the
parable of the ten virgins who waited for the bridegroom. All sincerely
wanted to meet him; all expected to be ready. But when the cry was
raised, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!" only
five were ready. The others lacked the oil that was to give them light.
We know what the oil represents--the genuine heart experience of the
grace and love of Christ.
[Illustration: THE TEN VIRGINS
"They that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was
shut." Matt. 25:10.]
Those overtaken unready, hastened away to get oil. "And while they went
to buy, the bridegroom came; and _they that were ready_ went in with him
to the marriage: and the door was shut." Matt. 25:10. Those that were
ready went in; those that were getting ready were too late. How came
some to be ready?--They were ready all the time; they kept ready. This
lesson is for us now. Our only safety is in being ready every day,
keeping sins forgiven, the life surrendered to God.
[Illustration: THE MILLENNIUM
The millennium is the closing period of God's great week of time--a
great sabbath of rest to the earth and to the people of God.
It follows the close of the gospel age, and precedes the setting up of
the everlasting kingdom of God on earth.
It comprehends what in the Scriptures is frequently spoken of as "the
day of the Lord."
It is bounded at each end by a resurrection.
Its beginning is marked by the pouring out of the seven last plagues,
the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the righteous dead, the
binding of Satan, and the translation of the saints to heaven; and its
close, by the descent of the New Jerusalem, with Christ and the saints,
from heaven, the resurrection of the wicked dead, the loosing of Satan,
and the final destruction of the wicked.
During the one thousand years the earth lies desolate; Satan and his
angels are confined here; and the saints, with Christ, sit in judgment
on the wicked, preparatory to their final punishment.
The wicked dead are then raised; Satan is loosed for a little season,
and he and the host of the wicked encompass the camp of the saints and
the holy city, when fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours
them. The earth is cleansed by the same fire that destroys the wicked,
and, renewed, becomes the eternal abode of the saints.
The millennium is one of "the ages to come." Its close will mark the
beginning of the new earth state.]
[Illustration: CHRIST COMING FOR HIS OWN
"They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years," Rev. 20:4.]
THE MILLENNIUM
The word "millennium" means "a thousand years." This definite period is
referred to specifically in but one chapter of the Bible, the twentieth
of Revelation; and in that chapter it is spoken of repeatedly. We find
it to be:
The period during which the saints reign with Christ in judgment.
The period during which Satan is bound.
The measure of time between the two resurrections, that of the just and
that of the unjust.
An examination of the scriptures bearing upon the millennium will show:
1. The events that mark its beginning.
2. The events that occur during the thousand years.
3. The events that come at the end of the period.
We shall find it clearly taught in these scriptures:
That the millennium begins at the second coming of Christ.
That the reign of the saints with Him in judgment is not on this earth,
but in heaven.
That this earth, void of human inhabitants, is Satan's prison house
during the thousand years.
That at the end of the thousand years the judgment determined is
executed upon Satan and all the wicked.
That this earth, purified by the fires of the last judgment, and
renewed, becomes the eternal home of the saved.
1. Events at the Beginning of the Thousand Years
The key to the time is furnished by the declaration that the millennium
begins with--
The Resurrection of the Just
Speaking of the risen saints, the Scripture says:
"They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of
the dead [the wicked] lived not again until the thousand years were
finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection." Rev. 20:4-6.
There are to be two resurrections. The apostle Paul said that this was
the teaching of all Scripture: "There shall be a resurrection of the
dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts 24:15. The first resurrection,
that of the just, marks the beginning of the thousand years.
Christ's Second Coming
When is this first resurrection, in the order of events in this "day of
the Lord"? It is at the second advent of Christ. One scripture, out of
many, will suffice to state it:
"The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ
shall rise first." 1 Thess. 4:16.
As the Saviour comes in glory, with all the holy angels, the graves are
opened, and His voice awakens His children who sleep in the dust.
"He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31.
The time of Christ's second coming, therefore, is the beginning of the
millennium.
The Righteous Taken to Heaven
The living righteous are translated, and, together with the risen
saints, are taken to heaven, as the apostle says:
"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be
with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17.
This was the Saviour's promise:
"In My Father's house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and
receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John
14:2, 3.
The Destruction of the Wicked
At Christ's second coming the wicked are slain. The unbelieving left
without shelter in that day, cannot endure the presence of such glory as
will burst upon the world:
"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in
flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1:7, 8.
The Binding of Satan
With the saints in heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's wiles, and with
the wicked dead, not to live again till the thousand years are finished,
Satan is "bound"--confined by divine power to this earth, which becomes
his prison house, there being neither saint nor sinner upon whom to ply
his arts of deception. No prisoner was ever more effectually chained.
The symbolical language of the prophet pictures the scene:
"I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless
pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that
old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand
years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a
seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the
thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a
little season." Rev. 20:1-3.
These are the events that mark the beginning of the thousand years:
Christ's second coming, the resurrection of the just, the ascent of all
the redeemed to the city of God, the death of the wicked, and, in
consequence, the binding of Satan.
2. Events During the Thousand Years
In Heaven
Scene after scene of glory is spread before us in the visions the
prophets were given of the redeemed in the city of God. The prophet John
says:
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and
palms in their hands.... Therefore are they before the throne of God,
and serve Him day and night in His temple." Rev. 7:9-15.
They "serve" in the temple of the Lord, the prophet says; while the poet
sings:
"Whence came the armies of the sky,
John saw in vision bright?
Whence came their crowns, their robes, their palms,
Too pure for mortal sight?
"From desert waste, and cities full,
From dungeons dark, they've come,
And now they claim their mansion fair,
They've found their long-sought home."
One service in which the saved have part during the thousand years is
the work of judgment that still remains, preparatory to the final
visitation of sin and the destruction of Satan and all his works. The
prophet saw this work going forward in the heavenly courts, the
redeemed associated with Christ in the service:
"I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto
them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of
Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast,
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads,
or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand
years." Rev. 20:4.
It was to this work of judging the wicked and the evil angels, that the
apostle Paul referred in the counsel to the Corinthians: "Do ye not know
that the saints shall judge the world?... Know ye not that we shall
judge angels?" 1 Cor. 6:2, 3.
On Earth
While in heaven above the saved are with Christ and the holy angels
before the throne, and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, it is to
be remembered that on earth all is desolation and emptiness. The wicked
have been slain by the glory of Christ's coming. By the quaking of the
earth the cities of the nations have fallen in ruin, islands have been
removed, and mountains cast into the depths of the sea. The condition of
the earth during this time of desolation is thus described by the
prophet:
"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the
heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they
trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was
no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo,
the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were
broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." Jer.
4:23-26.
"Without form, and void," said the prophet. This is the same phrase that
is used in the opening verses of Genesis to describe the chaotic state
of the earth in the beginning. At the beginning of creation week the
earth was in a state of emptiness and chaos--an "abyss," as it is
called in the Greek translation of Genesis. Again, during this
thousand-year period, the earth is an "abyss," or a desolate waste.
"Abyss" is the meaning of the word translated "bottomless pit" in the
text telling of the binding of Satan by the mighty angel of God:
"He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and
Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless
pit." Rev. 20:2, 3. The Revised Version says, "And cast him into the
abyss."
Confined to this pit or abyss of desolation, as a prisoner in a prison
house, with none to tempt, the author of sin has a thousand years in
which to view the ruin that sin has wrought in the earth that once left
its Maker's hand beautiful and perfect, unmarred by any curse.
3. Events at the End of the Thousand Years
At the end of the millennium, this earth becomes the scene of events
that close the great controversy between Christ and Satan.
The Descent of the Holy City
The judgment work in heaven having been accomplished, the hour has come
for the execution of the judgment upon sin and sinners. The holy city
comes down out of heaven. The prophet saw its descent in vision:
"I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven." Rev. 21:2.
The Loosing of Satan
"When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his
prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations." Rev. 20:7, 8.
With all the wicked destroyed by the glory of Christ's second coming,
Satan had been effectually bound; but now, as the city descends, the
voice of Christ calls forth the wicked dead, and Satan is thus loosed,
and assumes control again of those who have chosen him as their master.
It is the time of which the Scripture speaks: "The rest of the dead
lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Verse 5. The
prophet saw the hosts of the lost called forth. "The sea gave up the
dead which were in it; and death and hell [the "grave," margin]
delivered up the dead which were in them." Verse 13.
Thus Satan's subjects come forth to the last judgment. The resurrection
of the wicked of all the ages is the loosing of Satan. Here again is his
kingdom, and again he plies his deceptions and takes up anew his fight
against God. How very natural that Satan should persuade the wicked that
he has raised them to life, that his word in the beginning was true, "Ye
shall not surely die"! If they are immortal, why may they not yet
prevail against God? Satan rallies his angels and the hosts of the
wicked, in numbers "as the sand of the sea," to make an attack upon the
city of God.
"How vast the concourse! not in number more
The waves that break on the resounding shore,
The leaves that tremble in the shady grove,
The lamps that gild the spangled vaults above;
Those overwhelming armies, whose command
Said to one empire, Fall; another, Stand;
Whose rear lay wrap't in night, while breaking dawn
Rous'd the broad front, and called the battle on;
Great Xerxes' world in arms, proud Cannæ's field,
Where Carthage taught victorious Rome to yield,
Immortal Blenheim, fam'd Ramillia's host;--
They all are here, and here they all are lost;
Their millions swell, to be discerned in vain,
Lost as a billow in th' unbounded main."
--_Edward Young's "Last Day."_
"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the
saints about, and the beloved city." Verse 9.
The Wicked Before the Bar of God
But as the hosts of evil compass the city, they are halted by the glory
and majesty of the Redeemer's presence, enthroned as eternal victor over
sin. Just here must apply the prophet's words:
"I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the
earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books
were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the
books, according to their works." Rev. 20:11, 12.
[Illustration: THE HOLY CITY DESCENDS
"Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men." Rev 21:3.]
During the thousand years the records in heaven have been reviewed, and
the degrees of guilt established. Now the judgment is to be pronounced
and executed. But first the record of the books and the eternal
righteousness of God's holy law are flashed by divine power upon the
consciences of all the lost--"their conscience also bearing witness"
(Rom. 2:15) that they are without excuse.
The Destruction of Sin
Sin is now to be blotted from the universe of God; and those who have
chosen to be identified with sin perish with it. All that Infinite Love
can do has been done in the gift of Christ to save men from the
transgression of the holy law of God. That salvation rejected, there is
nothing remaining that heaven can offer. There is no further sacrifice
that can be made. "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." Heb.
10:26.
Then follows the last scene in the conflict with evil:
"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the
saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of
heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast
into the lake of fire.... And death and hell [the grave] were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death." Rev. 20:9-14.
The second death ends sin and the author of sin, and death itself. The
controversy is ended. Christ's death has purged sin from the universe of
God.
The Earth Purified and Made New
The fires that consume the wicked melt the earth and purify it from all
trace of the curse. It is the day of which Peter wrote:
"Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat." But after this cleansing of every element
of this sin-cursed earth, the promise of God will be fulfilled in the
earth made new, as the eternal home of the saved. As Peter says, after
telling of the day of burning, "Nevertheless we, according to His
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness." 2 Peter 3:12, 13.
"O sweet and blessed country,
The home of God's elect!
O sweet and blessed country,
That eager hearts expect!
Jesus, in mercy bring us
To that dear land of rest;
Who art, with God the Father,
And Spirit, ever blest."
[Illustration: MOSES VIEWING THE PROMISED LAND
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Matt. 5:5.]
[Illustration: THE SPIES' RETURN
"The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good
land." Num. 14:7.]
THE HOME OF THE SAVED
The Land of Peace
The Bible opens with a new heaven and a new earth, perfect from the
Creator's hand; with man sinless and having access to the tree of life
in the midst of the Eden paradise, out of which flowed a river that
spread its life-giving waters through the earth.
The Bible closes with a new heaven and a new earth; with man upright and
sinless, having right to the tree of life growing in the midst of Eden;
with the river of life flowing out from the garden of God, clear as
crystal.
Between the two scenes spreads out the panorama of six thousand years of
conflict with sin. It is a story of the fall of man, of the loss of his
Eden home, of the curse that marred the earth, of sin and sorrow and
death overspreading all.
The Restorer
But from the hour when the shadow of sin fell upon the earth, there has
been a light shining in the darkness. Amid the ruin that sin had
wrought, there appeared the great Restorer.
The inspired record gives a word-picture of Jesus taking man's place to
win back the lost dominion:
"Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come,
whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is
man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest
him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him
with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands:
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He
put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under
Him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus."
Heb. 2:5-9.
Just where Adam fell and lost his dominion over the earth, we see Jesus,
the second Adam, taking man's place and winning back the lost
inheritance. That is why the picture of the new earth and man's sinless
state depicted in the first two chapters of the Bible is repeated in the
last two chapters with even greater fulness of glory. God's original
plan and purpose will be carried out, and this earth, renewed, will be
the eternal home of sinless men and women, redeemed by grace.
Sin will be found not to have frustrated, but only to have delayed, the
purpose of God. And what is six thousand years in working out the divine
plan? In our brief span we may divide human history into ancient,
medieval, and modern; but in heaven's life a thousand years are but as
"a watch in the night;" and these six watches are to heaven but as one
night of grief and of loving ministry in rescuing the lost.
It has cost all that heaven had to give. But the infinite Gift was made,
and all heaven has wrought at the work. Of the angels it is written,
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1:14.
Bringing Back the Lost Dominion
Of all the worlds that shine in the heavens, declaring the glory of God,
this earth is the one that was lost. Its light went out in darkness. It
wandered from the fold of God's perfect creation.
Then the divine Shepherd came to find it and bring it back. And the
angels that rejoiced when they saw this earth created,--"when the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy,"--will again rejoice as the Lord brings back His own,--this earth,
redeemed from the curse, shining in the bright universe again with the
perfection of the glory of God.
Christ not only redeems lost men, but He is to redeem this lost earth.
"The Son of man," He said, "is come to seek and to save that which was
lost." Luke 19:10.
By sinning, man lost not only his righteousness and his life, but his
dominion as well. Originally man had dominion "over all the earth." Gen.
1:26. As the psalmist says, "Thou madest him to have dominion over the
works of Thy hands." Ps. 8:6. He was prince and ruler of the earth. But
when he yielded to Satan's temptation, he yielded up that dominion to
the enemy, thus placing himself in the power of his foe. Satan thus
became the "prince of this world," exercising the dominion wrested from
man.
But through Christ, this dominion is to be restored. The prophet of old
said:
"Thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion,
unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come
to the daughter of Jerusalem." Micah 4:8.
The Hope of the Promise
The promise of the gospel of salvation is the promise not only of life
eternal through faith, but of an eternal inheritance in the earth made
new, the fulfilment of the Creator's plan when He made this world to be
the home of man. This was the star of hope that shone before Adam and
Eve as they stepped forth from Eden into a dying world. It was the
promise to Abraham, "the promise, that he should be the heir of the
world." Rom. 4:13.
It was not the promise of the world in its present state. For the Lord
gave Abraham "none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot
on." Acts 7:5. Abraham himself did not look for the promise to be
fulfilled in this sinful earth, but in the earth made new, redeemed from
sin. The Scripture says of his hope:
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country:
... for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God." Heb. 11:9, 10.
It was in the new earth and the New Jerusalem that Abraham, the father
of the faithful, expected to receive the eternal inheritance promised to
him and to his seed. And there all the faithful will find their
inheritance.
"If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise." Gal. 3:29.
The psalmist said, "The meek shall inherit the earth." Ps. 37:11. Christ
repeated it: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."
Matt. 5:5.
The New Earth and the New Jerusalem
Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord described the re-creation of this
earth to be the home of the saved:
"Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall
not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice
forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and
joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in
her, nor the voice of crying." Isa. 65:17-19.
It is not of old Jerusalem that the prophet is speaking, but of the New
Jerusalem, which John saw coming down, with the saints, from God out of
heaven. He saw it descending upon the earth at the end of the thousand
years, and saw the wicked come forth from their graves to judgment. Then
he saw the fires of the last day falling upon the lost, consuming sin
and sinners, and purifying the earth itself from every trace of the
curse. It is the day of which Peter wrote, "Wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat."
But he adds, "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter 3:12,
13.
Out from the dissolved elements of the earth and the atmospheric heavens
the Creator's power again calls forth new heavens and a new earth, the
old creation cleansed and renewed in the perfection of the original Eden
paradise. It is coming; for John saw it in vision. "I saw," he says, "a
new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away." Rev. 21:1.
He saw the city which had come down from heaven--those mansions that
Christ is now gone to prepare--the New Jerusalem, the holy capital of
the eternal kingdom of the saints, where Christ's own throne is set.
"I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His
people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for
these words are true and faithful." Rev. 21:3-5.
It passes comprehension; but it is true. And the life of the saved in
their eternal inheritance will be just as real as is life upon this
present earth.
[Illustration: THE SAINTS' ETERNAL HOME
"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away." Rev. 21:1.]
"They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant
vineyards, and eat the fruit of them." "The wolf and the lamb shall feed
together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall
be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain, saith the Lord." Isa. 65:21, 25.
The whole earth will be as the Eden paradise planted by God in the
beginning. And from week to week and from month to month the saved will
gather to worship before the glorious throne in the holy city.
"As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain
before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And
it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one
Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the
Lord." Isa. 66:22, 23.
The Glories of the Saints' Eternal Home
As the first two chapters of the Bible tell of earth's original
perfection, so the last two chapters constitute one psalm of ecstasy
over the indescribable glories of the earth made new, with its city of
light, the walls of jasper, the gates of pearl, the river of life
flowing from the throne of the Lamb, clear as crystal, with the
widespreading tree of life on either side of the river. And supreme
above all, Jesus Himself, "the King in His beauty," without whom there
would be no glory even in that city foursquare; "for the glory of God
did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."
"Oh, heaven without my Saviour
Would be no heaven to me;
Dim were the walls of jasper,
Rayless the crystal sea!
"He gilds earth's darkest valleys
With light and joy and peace;
Then what must be the radiance
Where sin and death shall cease?"
Next to the loveliness and grace of Christ our Saviour, the glories of
this world to come have inspired the sweetest hymns of hope for longing
hearts. How often has the spirit been lifted above earth's trials as we
have sung,
"O that home of the soul! in my visions and dreams
Its bright, jasper walls I can see
Till I fancy but thinly the veil intervenes
Between the fair city and me.
"That unchangeable home is for you and for me,
Where Jesus of Nazareth stands;
The King of all kingdoms forever is He,
And He holdeth our crowns in His hands.
"O how sweet it will be in that beautiful land,
So free from all sorrow and pain,
With songs on our lips and with harps in our hands,
To meet one another again!"
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for
them that love Him."
Through the ages, the children of the promise have been journeying
toward the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker
is God, and they have confessed themselves pilgrims and
strangers in this present world. As they have followed the way of
righteousness,--oftentimes a thorny path,--it has been with the shining
city ever before their vision. As they have fallen in death, it has been
with closing eyes fixed upon "that day" when Christ shall come to take
His people to the New Jerusalem preparing above
"The Lamb there in His beauty
Without a veil is seen.
It were a well-spent journey
Though seven deaths lay between."
Now earth's course is nearly run. It is but a little way to the holy
city, where the water of life flows clear as crystal from the midst of
the throne. The water of life is really there; for the Lord showed it to
the prophet John in vision, that he might tell us that he saw it. "I
John saw the holy city," he says, "and he showed me a pure river of
water of life, clear as crystal." Rev. 21:2; 22:1.
[Illustration: THE MASTER AT THE DOOR
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and
open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with
Me." Rev 3:20.]
Christ invites every one to share the eternal inheritance, giving
assurance of His power to save to the uttermost all that come unto God
by Him. He is knocking at the door of every heart, asking admittance, in
order that He may take away all sin, and prepare the soul for the
heavenly home.
And the glories of the holy city invite us to come:
"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come.
And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the
water of life freely." Rev. 22:17.
"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
[Illustration: EVENTIDE
Home to the fold.]
INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES
Abraham, parable of rich man and Lazarus, 284
"Abridgment of Christian Doctrine," on change of Sabbath, 156
Adolphus, on study of prophecy, 305
Advent message, Bates as advocate of, 244
Advent movement, extent of, Brock on, 241
Advent movement of 1844, 240
Æschylus, on Medo-Persia, 121
Æschylus, on Xerxes' host, 323
Alexander, conquests of, Plutarch on, 121, 122
Alexander, dominion of, Rawlinson on, 324, 325
Alexander, empire of, Appian on, 122
Alexander, first king of Greece, 207
Alexander, greatness of, Arrian on, 44
Alexander, Justin on, 207
Alexander, Lucan on, 45
Alexandra, Queen, on preparations for war, 339
Alexandria, library at, sacred books of Jews in, 187
Angels attending throne of God, 296
Angels, God's messengers, 297
Angels, guardian, 300
Angels in kingly courts, 299
Angels, messengers of deliverance, 300
Angels, their ministry, 295-301
Antitypical day of atonement, 237, 240, 241
Apollonius, description of Babylon by, 33
Apostasy in last days, Daniel 8, 248
Appearing of Christ, 59
Appian, on Alexander's empire, 122
Arian kingdoms plucked up, 129
Arian powers uprooted by Belisarius, 134
Armageddon, "Contemporary Review" on, 339
Armageddon, "Everybody's Magazine" on, 339
Armageddon, final clash of empires, 337-349
Armageddon, foretold in prophecy, 346, 347
Armageddon, Lord Rosebery on, 339
Armageddon, or Mt. Megiddo, Carmack, on 344
Armageddon, prelude to, 343
Armageddon, sequel of, 347, 348
Arming of the nations, 106, 107
Arrian, on Alexander's greatness, 44
Artaxerxes, date of decree to rebuild Jerusalem, 223
Artaxerxes, date of reign of, 225-227
"Astronomy," Chambers, on falling stars, 101
Atonement, antitypical day of, 237, 240, 241
Avebury, Lord, on war, 112
Babylon, description of, by Apollonius, 33, 34
Babylon, desolation of, 31-35
Babylon, desolation of, Layard on, 35
Babylon, "Encyclopedia of Islam" on, 35
Babylon in prophecy and history, 119, 120
Babylon, prophecy concerning, 39-41
Babylon, prophecy of, confirmed by history, 41-43
Babylon, Strabo on, 34
Bacon, Francis, on increase of knowledge, 306, 307
Ball, Sir Robert, on falling stars, 100
Bampfield, died in prison for Sabbath keeping, 179
Baptism, conditions necessary to, 199, 200
Baptism for believers, 200
Baptism, form of, 200-203
Baptism, manner of, Dean Stanley on, 202
Baptism, manner of, Neander on, 201
Baptism, manner of, Pullus on, 202
"Baptism," meaning of word, Calvin on, 201
"Baptism," meaning of word, Luther on, 201
Baptism, memorial of resurrection, 199-203
Baptism of infants, Dean Stanley on, 202
Baptism of Jesus, time of, 230, 231
Baptists, Sabbatarian, 179
Baptists, Seventh Day, in America, 179, 180
Barnes, Dr. Albert, on division of Grecia, 122
Bates, as a Sabbath keeper, 244
Baudrillart, on papal persecution, 151
Beast, the fourth, of Daniel 7, 126-129
Beasts, empires represented by, 118
Belisarius, Arian powers uprooted by, 134
Bellarmine, on great words of little horn, 147
Bemont and Monod, "Medieval Europe", 137
Bengelius, on judgment-hour warning, 249
Berosus, on exploits of Nebuchadnezzar, 120
Berthier enters Rome, Rickaby on, 141
Besant, Mrs. Annie, on spiritualism of the East, 273
Bible, agency in the new birth, 15, 17
Bible and tradition, 251, 252
Bible, Christ the central theme of, 23
Bible, Dr. Harris on, 20, 21
Bible, Erasmus on, 21
Bible for all mankind, 21
Bible, given to the world, Faber on, 308
Bible, God its author, 14
Bible, language of, Van Dyke on, 21, 22
Bible, our safety and defense, 18
Bible societies, organization of, 308
Bible, source of all doctrine, 20
Bible, speaks to our day, 13
Bible, Spurgeon on authorship of, 14
Bible, Spurgeon's experience with, 14
Bible, the book that talks, 13
Bible, the bread of life, 18
Bible, the Christian's shield, 18
Bible, the living word, 15
Bible, the word that creates, 15
Bible, the word that works within, 17
Biddolf, on lessons from Lisbon earthquake, 82
Bishop of Rome as head of church, Justinian on, 133
Blunt, on doom of Turks, 333
Bogue, on persecution for Sabbath keeping, 178, 179
Bonar's hymn, on state of dead, 282
Bower, on Sabbath observance, 174
Bread of life, Bible as the, 18
Brerewood, on Sabbath in first centuries, 173
Britten, Mrs. Emma, on Spiritualism, 269
Brock, on extent of the advent movement, 241
Bruce, on desolation of Tyre, 31
Bury, on achievements of Justinian, 132
Calamy, on Bampfield as a Sabbatarian, 179
Calvin, on meaning of word "baptism", 201
Canon, Ptolemy's, Lindsay on, 225
Carmack, on Armageddon, or Mt. Megiddo, 344
Chambers, Dr., on Sabbath in England, 177
Chambers, on falling stars, 101
Change of Sabbath, 153-167
Charles I, on Sabbath observance, 177
China open to the gospel, 309
Christ and Satan, controversy between, 257-263
Christ, central theme of Bible, 23
Christ, closing work of, in heaven, 216
Christ, death of, 231
Christ, glorious appearing of, 59
Christ, lost dominion redeemed by, 363
Christ, second coming of, 51-63, 352
Christ, the restorer, 362
Christian work of Countess of Huntingdon, 63
Christs, false, 74
"Church Missionary Review," on war a sign of end, 343
Clarke, Dr. Adam, on "living soul", 283
Cleansing of the sanctuary, 211, 213-217
Clerke, on glory of falling stars, 101, 102
Clerke, on star shower of 1833, 94, 95
Coming of Christ at the door, 115
Coming of Christ, beginning of signs of, 75-77
Coming of Christ, love of pleasure a sign of, 109
Coming of Christ, manner of, 53-55
Coming of Christ, political unrest a sign of, 106
Coming of Christ, prelude to, 59
Coming of Christ, promise of, 52
Coming of Christ, purpose of, 56, 57
Coming of Christ, signs of, 74, 75
Coming of Christ, signs of, in industrial world, 110
Coming of Christ, signs of, in Matthew 24, 65, 66, 112, 113
Coming of Christ, signs of, in the social world, 109
Coming of Christ, signs of, upon the earth, 105
Coming of Christ, the Saviour's prophecy of, 65-77
Coming of Christ, to be as in days of Noah, 109
Coming of Christ, world evangelization a sign of, 112
Commandments, the ten, 182
Comte, M., on passion for pleasure, 10
Connecticut Legislature, Dark Day in, 90
Conroy, on temporal sovereignty of popes, 129
Constantine, Sunday law of, 16
"Contemporary Review," on Armageddon, 339
"Contemporary Review," on awakening of East, 344
Controversy between Christ and Satan, 257
Controversy, earth the battle-ground of, 259
Conybeare and Howson, on the Sabbath, 165
Cottrell, R.F., poem by, 171
Countess of Huntingdon, Christian work of, 63
Covenant, confirming of the, 231
Creative power of the Word, 15
Croly, on Justinian as founder of papal supremacy, 133
Cuneiform writing, 312
Cyrus, conquests of, Rawlinson on, 121
Cyrus, Xenophon on, 206
Dale, on non-sacredness of Sunday, 166
Daniel, book of, unsealed, 304
Daniel 2, prophecy of, 39-49
Daniel 7, prophecy of, 117-129
Daniel 8, prophecy of, 205-211
Daniel, prophecy of 1260 years, 131, 132
Daniel, vision of great beasts, 118
Dark Day, Boston "Gazette" on, 88
Dark Day, cause of unknown, 87
Dark Day, contemporary records of, 88, 89
Dark Day, Dr. Samuel Stearns on, 89, 90
Dark Day, effect on Connecticut Legislature, 90
Dark Day, "Independent Chronicle" on, 88, 89
Dark Day in New England, Williams on, 86
Dark Day, prophecy of, fulfilled, 85
Dark Day, Timothy Dwight on, 90
Dark Day, Webster on, 87
Dark Day, Whittier on, 86, 87, 90, 91
Darkening of the sun, 85
Dead, not agencies of Spiritualism, 271
Dead, sleep of, 280-282
Dead, righteous, raised to life, 60
Death, man's state in, 275, 280-282
Delaire, Mme. Jean, on Theosophy and Spiritualism, 272, 273
Desolation of Babylon, 31
Destruction of the wicked, 61, 353
"Dictionary of Christian Antiquities," on Change of Sabbath, 166
Discontent, F.T. Martin on growth of, 112
Doctrinal Catechism, on change of Sabbath, 156
Doctrinal Catechism, on power of church, 252
Doctrine, Bible the source of, 20
Dominion, bring back the lost, 363
Dream of Nebuchadnezzar, 39, 40
Dwight, on Dark Day, 90
Earth, cleansed and renewed, 364-367
Earth, purified, 359
East, awakening of, 344
East, "Nineteenth Century and After," on new spirit in, 344
Eastern Question, Jerusalem heart of, Finn on, 346
Eastern Question, Maspero on, 322
Eastern Question, relation to end of world, 334
Eastern Question, the, 321-335
Eighteen forty-four, Advent movement in, 240-244
Elliott, on great words of little horn, 147
Elven, Cornelius, poem by, 335
Empires, four great universal, 117-129
Encyclopedia Britannica, on Palestine as battle field, 325, 326
Encyclopedia of Islam, on Babylon, 35
End of the wicked, 287-293
End, time of the, 303-317
Erasmus, on the Bible, 21
Eternal fire, 292, 293
Euphrates dried up, 332
Europe, kingdoms of modern, 46-48
Everlasting fire, 292
Everlasting punishment, 289-293
"Everybody's Magazine," on Armageddon, 339
Evil, origin of, 257-263
Executive judgment, 261-263
Faber, G.S., on Bible given to the world, 308
Faith, justification by, 191-197
Falling stars, 93
Falling stars, sign to world, 99
False Christs, 74
Farrar, on prophecy fulfilled, 35, 36
Ferraris, on titles assumed by Pope, 149
Fig tree, parable of, 115
Finlay, on beginning of history of Middle Ages, 134, 135
Finlay, on rapid changes in sixth century, 132
Fire, everlasting, 292, 293
Fire, lake of, 290
Fire, unquenchable, 292, 293
First angel's message, 239
First day rest, 164-166
Firth, on fall of Ottoman power, 343
Flammarion, on density of star shower, 95
"Forever and ever," meaning of, 291, 292
"Fortnightly Review," on Turkey's position, 333, 334
Fox family, origin of modern Spiritualism, 269
France, decree of, to abolish religion, 140
French Revolution, Lamartine on, 140
French Revolution, significant events of, 140
"Gazette and Country Journal" on dark day, 88
Gehenna, a valley near Jerusalem, 293
Gentiles, gospel carried to, 234, 235
Gibbon, on power of Rome, 46
Gibbon, on Roman Empire, 209
Gibbon, on site of Nineveh, 29
Gibbon, on struggle for Italy, 134
God's challenge to false religious systems, 25
Goldastus, on Sabbath keepers in Alpine valleys, 175
Gospel, agencies for work of, 311
Gospel, China, opened to the, 309
Gospel, doors open to, in all world, 309
Gospel for our day, the, 247, 248
Gospel message, solemn warning in, 248, 249
Gospel, open doors for, Dr. Pierson on, 310
Gospel, printing press an agency of, 318
Gospel, telegraph used in carrying, 318
Gospel, the everlasting, 248
Gospel to the Gentiles, 234, 235
Goths, defeat of, 134
Great controversy, earth the battle ground of, 259
Grecia, Alexander first king of, 207
Grecia, conquests of, under Alexander, 121, 122
Grecia, division of, Dr. Albert Barnes on, 122
Grecia, prophecy and history of, 206, 207, 121, 324
Grecia, prophecy concerning, in Daniel, 244
Greece, division of, 208
Greeley, Spiritualism tested by, 269
Grey, Sir Edward, on Satanic agencies, 342
Guardian angels, 300
Gutenberg's first types, 314
Hales, on authenticity of Ptolemy's canon, 225
Harris, on the Bible, 20-21
Hastings, on Valley of Hinnom, 293
"Hearst's Magazine," on growth of discontent, 112
Heresies, papal order against, 150
Herodotus, on doctrine of immortality, 291
Herodotus, on Pythius, the Lydian, 323
Hieroglyphics, the "Ox Song", 312
Hinnom, Valley of, 293
Hippolytus, on power of Rome, 46
Hippolytus, on prophecy of Rome fulfilled, 126
Hiscox, on change of Sabbath, 166, 167
Hiscox, on Sunday mark of paganism, 170
History, prophecy confirmed by, 35-37
Hobbs, Professor, on Lisbon earthquake, 79
Holtzman, on Bible and tradition, 252
Home of the saved, 361-370
Horace, ode on Rome, 47
Horace, on might of Rome, 208
Hughes, on Jerusalem's part in closing history, 328
Huguenots, persecution of, Kurtz on, 76
Humboldt, on other displays of falling stars, 99
Humphreys, on appearance of falling stars, 96
Hutton, on abolition of religion in France, 140
Hymn on state of dead, by Horatius Bonar, 282
Image of Daniel 2, 118
Image to the Papacy, 251
Immortality, doctrine of, 291
Immortality, doctrine of, Herodotus on, 291
Immortality, God only has, 282
Immortality of the soul, 275-285
Immortality, the gift of God, 275, 282
Immortality, when bestowed, 279
Increase of knowledge, 306-317
"Independent Chronicle," on Dark Day, 88, 89
Infant baptism, Dean Stanley on, 202
Ising, visit of, to site of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, 35
Italy, struggle for, Gibbon on, 134
Jerusalem, Artaxerxes' decree to rebuild, 223-225
Jerusalem, date of decree to restore, 223
Jerusalem, destruction of temple at, 70
Jerusalem, headquarters of king of the North, 328
Jerusalem, heart of Eastern Question, Finn on, 346
Jerusalem, last days of, 66
Jerusalem, last gathering place, Mukaddasi on, 328
Jerusalem, Moslems turn toward, 330
Jerusalem, part of, in closing history, Hughes on, 328
Jerusalem, signs of approaching doom of, 67-69
Jessup on falling stars, 100
Jesus, the restorer, 362
Jesus, time of baptism of, 230
Jews, fanaticism of, Ridpath on, 67
Joseph, prophecy fulfilled to, 26
Josephus, on destruction of temple, 70
Judgment, Christ's work in sanctuary, 216, 217
Judgment hour, many witnesses proclaim, 240, 241
Judgment-hour message, 247-255
Judgment-hour message, a call to loyalty, 249
Judgment-hour message, John Wesley on, 249
Judgment-hour warning, Bengelius on, 249
Judgment, law of God the standard in, 189
Judgment, message of, in 1844, 239
Judgment, the hour of God's, 237
Judgment, time of the investigative, 235-237
Judgment upon Satan, 261-263
Jurieu, on fall of the Papacy, 140, 141
Justification and righteousness, 195
Justification by faith, 191
Justification not by works, 192
Justification, what it is, 196, 197
Justinian, achievements of, Bury on, 132
Justinian as source of papal power, Croly on, 133
Justinian, decree of, in A.D. 533, 133
Justin, on Alexander, 207
Keyser, on Sabbath keeping in Norway, 175
Killen, on change of Sabbath, 169
Kingdom of God, when to be set up, 48
Kingdoms of modern Europe, 46
King of the North, the modern, 326
King of the North, removal of, to Jerusalem, 328
Kings of the North and South, 325
Knowledge, increase of, 306
Knowledge, increase of, Francis Bacon on, 306, 307
Knowledge, increase of, Lorimer on, 307
Kurtz, on persecution of Huguenots, 76
Lake of fire, the, 290
Lamartine, on French Revolution, 140
Langley, on falling stars, 101
Lang, on Sabbath in Scotland, 174
Laodicea, Council of, on Sabbath keeping, 173, 174
Lawgiver, only one, 188
Law of God changed by Papacy, Melanchthon on, 154
Law of God, character of, 183
Law of God, existed from the beginning, 184, 185
Law of God, given anew at Sinai, 186
Law of God, given with his own voice, 187
Law of God, office of, 183, 184
Law of God, relation of, to justification, 191, 193
Law of God, standard in the judgment, 189
Law of God, standard of righteousness, 188
Law of God, the, 182-189
Law of God unchangeable, 153
Layard, on the desolation of Babylon, 35
Lazarus, parable of rich man and, 284, 285
Lecky, on papal persecution, 150
Leo XIII, encyclical letter of, 149
Leonard, Dr., on missionary activity, 307
"Library of Christian Doctrine," on change of Sabbath, 154, 155
Life only in Christ, 275-285
Lindsay, on Ptolemy's Canon, 225
Lisbon earthquake, extent of, 81
Lisbon earthquake, James Parton on, 80
Lisbon earthquake, lessons from, John Biddolf on, 82
Lisbon earthquake, Professor Hobbs on, 79
Lisbon earthquake recognized as a sign, 82
Lisbon earthquake, Voltaire on, 80
Lisbon earthquake, world set to thinking by, 80
Little horn, 208
Little horn and fourth kingdom, 126, 127
Little horn, great words of, Bellarmine on, 147
Little horn, great words of, Elliott on, 147
Little horn in prophecy and history, 127
Little horn, period of supremacy of, 145
Little horn, time of rise of, 145
Little horn, work of, 145-147
Lorimer, on increase of knowledge, 307
Lucan, on Alexander, 45
Lucan, on greatness of Rome, 209
Lucifer, the light-bearer, 258
Luther, on meaning of word "baptism", 201
Luther, on use of printing art, 318
MacFarlane, on approaching end of Turks, 333
Mahaffy, on kingdoms of north and south, 325
Man, nature of, and state in death, 275-285
Manner of Christ's coming, 53
Manning, Cardinal, on power of Rome, 125
Mark, or sign, of papal authority, 251-253
Mark, or sign, use of, Potter on, 250
Martin, on growth of discontent, 112
Maspero, on Eastern Question, 322
Matthew 24, prophecy of, 65-77
Mears, Dr., on conditions after Christ, 67
"Medieval Europe," Bemont and Monod, 137
Medo-Persia, Æschylus on, 121
Medo-Persia in prophecy and history, 120, 121, 206
Medo-Persia, prophecy of, Daniel 2, 43, 44
Megiddo, or Armageddon, Carmack on, 344
Melanchthon, on change of law by Papacy, 154
Message of the judgment hour, 247-255
Messengers of deliverance, angels as, 300
Messiah, covenant confirmed by, 231-235
Messiah, time of baptism of, 230
Michael, standing up of, 327
Middle Ages, beginning of history of, Finlay on, 134, 135
Millennium, beginning of, 351, 352
Millennium, diagram of, 350
Millennium, events at beginning of, 352
Millennium, events at end of, 356
Millennium, events in heaven during, 354
Millennium, events on earth during, 355
Millennium, the, 351-359
Milner, on falling stars, 94
Milton, on Sabbath observance, 177, 178
Missionary activity, Dr. Leonard on, 307
Missionary developments of century, 113
Missionary movement, a sign of Christ's coming, 112
Missionary movement, increased activity of, 113
Missions, open doors for, 309
Missions, Pierson on open doors for, 310
Monarchies, the four universal, 118
Monod, Bemont and, "Medieval Europe", 137
Mortal, the natural state of man, 276
Mortality, universal, 277
Moslems, Jerusalem as capital for, 330
Motley, on persecution in Netherlands, 150
Mukaddasi, on Jerusalem as last gathering place of nations, 328
Myers, on history of Greece, 208
Nations, anger of, 107
Neander, on first-day collections, 166
Neander, on manner of baptism, 201
Nebuchadnezzar, dream of, 39-41
Nebuchadnezzar, exploits of, Berosus on, 120
Nebuchadnezzar, palace of, Ising on, 35
Nebuchadnezzar, stone records of, 43
Necromancy, divine warnings against, 267
Netherlands, persecution in, Motley on, 150
New birth, Bible an agency of, 15
Newcomb, on falling stars, 95
New earth, the, 364-370
New Jerusalem, descent of, 356
New Jerusalem, the, 364-367
Newman, Cardinal, on rites borrowed from paganism, 169
Newton, Sir Isaac, on prophetic study, 304, 305
"Nineteenth Century and After," on new spirit in East, 344
"Nineteenth Century and After," on preparation for war, 339, 341
Nineveh, Rawlinson on, 27
Nineveh, site of, Gibbon on, 29
Nineveh, the witness of, 27
Olmsted, on brilliancy of falling stars, 97
Olmsted, on shooting stars, 95
Origin of evil, 257-263
Ottoman empire, 326
Ottoman power, fall of, Firth on, 343
Our day, gospel for, 247
Paganism, rites borrowed from, Cardinal Newman on 169
Palestine as battle field, Encyclopedia Britannica on, 325, 326
Palestine as great center, "Fortnightly Review" on, 345
Palestine, as political storm center, 345
Palestine, as religious storm center, "Spectator" on, 345
Papacy, a persecuting power, 137
Papacy, change of times and laws by, 153
Papacy, claims of, 155, 156
Papacy, counterpart of little horn, 145, 147
Papacy, end of supremacy of, 139
Papacy, extinction of, Canon Trevor on, 141, 142
Papacy, fall of, Jurieu on, 140, 141
Papacy, France strikes against, 140
Papacy, great words of, Elliott on, 147
Papacy, image to the, 251
Papacy, law changed by, Melanchthon on, 154
Papacy, orders of, to destroy heresy, 150
Papacy, persecution by, Lecky on, 150
Papacy plucked up Arian kingdoms, 129
Papacy, power of, Leo XIII on, 149
Papacy shall wear out saints, 149
Papacy, sign of authority of, 156
Papacy, supremacy of, 129
Papacy, supremacy of acknowledged, 132, 133
Papacy, time of its supremacy, 131, 132
Papal authority, mark of, 251
Papal claims in encyclical letter of Leo XIII, 149
Papal persecution, Baudrillart on, 151
Papal persecution, Lecky on, 150
Papal persecutions, "Western Watchman" on, 151
Papal power, Sunday the mark of, 252
Papal power, work of the, 250
Papal supremacy, beginning of, 132
Papal supremacy, end of, 139
Papal supremacy officially recognized, 133
Parable of the fig tree, 115
Parable of the rich man and Lazarus, 284, 285
Parable of the ten virgins, 348, 349
Parton, on Lisbon earthquake, 80
Peace and safety, 107
Peace prophecies, 338
Persecution after Christ's death, 235
Persecution for Sabbath observance, 178
Persecution in Netherlands, Motley on, 150
Persecution in time of the end 73
Persecution, papal, Baudrillart, on 151
Persecution, papal, Lecky on 150
Persecution, signs of end follow, 73-75
Persecution under Papacy, 149-153
Persecutions, papal, "Western Watchman" on, 151
Persia, rise and fall of, 322-324
Phalerius, king urged by, to secure Jewish sacred books, 187, 188
Pierson, Dr., on open doors for gospel, 310
"Plain Talks," on Sunday observance, 251
Pleasure, passion for, M. Comte on, 109
Pleasure, passion for, sign of Christ's coming, 109
Plutarch, on Alexander, 45
Plutarch, on Alexander's conquests, 121, 122
Political unrest, 106, 107
Polybius, on dominion of Rome, 208
Pope Gregory, on Sabbath observance, 174
Pope Innocent II, orders of, to destroy heresies, 150
Pope Leo XIII, encyclical letter of, 149
Pope Leo XIII, on power of Papacy, 149
Pope taken prisoner, Joseph Rickaby on, 141
Pope, titles assumed by, Ferraris on, 149
Pope Vigilius, date of reign of, Schaff on, 137
Popes, a new order of, 135
Popes declared saints, 137
Popes no longer declared saints, 137
Popes, temporal power of, Conroy on, 129
Potter, on use of a mark, or sign, 250
Present-day conditions, meaning of, 105-115
Press, the Mighty (poem), 317
Pride, cause of Satan's fall, 258
Prince of Tyre, 258
Printing, Gutenberg's first types, 314
Printing, Luther on art of, 318
Printing press, a gospel agency, 318
Printing press, illustrations of, 315, 316
Printing press, the mighty, 317
Prophecies of Christ's coming, 52
Prophecy, Armageddon foretold in, 346, 347
Prophecy concerning Babylon, 31-33, 40
Prophecy fulfilled, Farrar on, 36
Prophecy fulfilled to Joseph, 26
Prophecy fulfilling, Marquis of Salisbury on, 338
Prophecy of Daniel 7, 117-129
Prophecy of Daniel 8, 205-211
Prophecy of Daniel unsealed, 304
Prophecy, of increase of knowledge, 306
Prophecy of Matthew 24, 65-77
Prophecy of the judgment, Revelation 14, 239
Prophecy of Tyre, 30, 31
Prophecy of 2300 years fulfilled, 229-237
Prophecy, study of, John Adolphus on, 305
Prophecy, the sure word of, 25
Prophecy, witness of the centuries to, 25-37
Prophetic outline of world's history, 39-49
Prophetic period, a great, 219-227
Prophetic study, Sir Isaac Newton on, 304, 305
Prophetic word, testimony of history to, 35-37
Protestants, persecution of, the "Western Watchman" on, 151
Ptolemy's canon, authenticity of, Hales on, 225
Ptolemy's canon, Lindsay on, 225
Pullus, on manner of baptism, 202
Punishment, everlasting, 289, 292
Purification of the earth, 359
Pythius, the Lydian, Herodotus on, 323
Railroads, construction of, Wallace on, 313
Rawlinson, on Alexander's dominion, 324, 325
Rawlinson, on Cyrus's conquests, 121
Rawlinson, on division of Alexander's kingdom, 122
Rawlinson, on Nineveh, 27
Reformation a progressive work, 255
Religion, abolition of, by French, Hutton on, 140
Resurrection, baptism the memorial of, 199
Resurrection of the just, 59, 61, 352
Resurrection of the wicked, 62
Resurrection, the second, Satan freed at, 262
Resurrections, the two, 288, 289
Rich man and Lazarus, parable of, 284, 285
Rickaby, on Berthier entering Rome, 141
Ridpath, on fanaticism of Jews, 67
Righteousness and justification, 195-197
Righteousness, God's law the standard of, 188
Righteousness, the gift of Christ, 193, 194
Righteous taken to heaven, 353
Righteous, translation of living, 59-61
Righteous, with Christ a thousand years, 62
Roman Empire divided, 47, 127
Roman Empire, Gibbon on, 209
Roman Papacy, rise of, to supremacy, 129
Romans, power of, Strabo on, 46
Rome, Alexander's plans for conquest of, Plutarch on, 44
Rome, Bishop of, head of church, 133
Rome divided, 48
Rome, dominion of, Polybius on, 208
Rome, greatness of, Lucan on, 209
Rome, in prophecy and history, 123-125, 208
Rome, might of, Horace on, 208
Rome, ode of Horace on, 47
Rome, power of, Cardinal Manning on, 125
Rome, power of, Gibbon on, 46
Rome, power of, Hippolytus on, 46
Rome, prophecy of, in Daniel 2, 45, 46
Rome, prophecy of, fulfilled, 125
Rome, prophecy of, fulfilled, Hippolytus on, 126
Rome, rise of, in West, 44
Rosebery, Lord, on Armageddon, 339
Rosse, astronomical observations by, 100
"Run to and fro," Wright on meaning of, 311
Sabbatarian Baptists, 179
Sabbath, and the first day, 164-166
Sabbath, at time of exodus, 160
Sabbath, change of, "Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine" on, 156
Sabbath, change of, "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities" on, 166
Sabbath, change of, Hiscox on, 166, 167
Sabbath, change of, "Library of Christian Doctrine" on, 154, 155
Sabbath, Conybeare and Howson on, 165
Sabbath, example and teaching of Jesus regarding, 162
Sabbath, given at Sinai, 161
Sabbath, how changed, 167
Sabbath in Alpine valleys, Goldastus on, 175
Sabbath in England, Stennet on, 179
Sabbath in Europe, Dr. Chambers on, 177
Sabbath, in time of disciples, 163
Sabbath keepers in Norway, Keyser on, 175
Sabbath keepers in Scotland, Lang on, 174
Sabbath keepers in Scotland, Skene on, 175
Sabbath keeping, action of Council of Laodicea on, 173, 174
Sabbath keeping after New Testament times, 173-181
Sabbath keeping among Moravians, 180
Sabbath keeping, Bampfield died for, 179
Sabbath keeping, persecution for, Bogue on, 178, 179
Sabbath keeping, Roger Williams on, 180
Sabbath, Killen on change of, 169
Sabbath observance, Bower on, 174
Sabbath observance, Brerewood on, 173
Sabbath observance, Charles I on, 177
Sabbath observance, John Milton on, 177, 178
Sabbath observance, Pope Gregory on, 174
Sabbath observance, Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History on, 174
Sabbath, persecution for keeping, 178
Sabbath, seventh-day, record of, 160-164
Sabbath, the sign of God's authority,253
Sabbath, the Bible,159-170
Sabbath, through Israel's history, 162
Saints, eternal home of, 361, 367
Saints, Papacy to wear out, 149
Saints, time of resurrection of, 352
Salisbury, Lord, on policy of helping Turkey, 331
Salisbury, Marquis of, on preparation for war, 342
Salisbury, Marquis of, on prophecy fulfilling, 338
Sanctuary, Christ's ministry in, 216
Sanctuary, cleansing of, 211, 213-217
Santee, L.D., poem by, 103
Satan, binding of, 353
Satan, cause of fall of, 258
Satan, end of reign of, 262
Satan, judgment upon, 261-263
Satan, the loosing of, 356
Satanic agencies at work, 341-343
Satanic agencies, Sir Edward Grey on, 342
Saved, home of the, 361-370
Schaff, on date of Tiberius's reign, 230
Schaff, on Vigilius made Pope, 135
Second coming of Christ, 51-63
Second coming of Christ, see Coming of Christ.
Ségur, on observance of Sunday by Protestants, 251
Seventh-day Adventists, origin of, 243, 244
Seventh-day Baptists in America, 179, 180
Seventh-day Sabbath, Bible record of, 160-164
Seventy weeks, events of, 229
Seventy weeks, starting point of, 221, 222
Signs in the heavens, 74
Signs of Christ's coming, 74-77
Signs of Christ's coming, given in Matthew 24, 65, 66
Signs of Christ's coming, in industrial world, 110
Signs of Christ's coming, in social world, 109
Signs of the end, 65
Signs of the end, signal to watch, 102
Signs of the last days, 73, 74
Signs upon the earth, 74, 105
Sinai, law of God given anew at, 186
Sinai, Sabbath given at, 161
Sin, the end of, 358
Sin, the origin of, 257
Sin, the wages of, 289
Skene, on Sabbath in Scotland, 175
Sleep of the dead, 280-282
Sophocles, on universal mortality, 277, 278
"Soul" and "spirit," Scriptural use of, 283
Soul, immortality of, 275
Soul, living, Dr. Clarke on, 283
Soul, the "living," comments on, 283
Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, on Sabbath observance, 174
Spangenberg, on Sabbath-keeping Moravians, 180
"Spirit" and "soul," Scriptural use of, 283
Spirit, death declared to have no power over, 269
Spirits, angels as ministering, 295
Spiritualism, ancient and modern, 265-273
Spiritualism and theosophy, Mme. Jean Delaire on, 272, 273
Spiritualism, first declaration of, 265-267
Spiritualism, modern, originated in Fox family, 269
Spiritualism, modern, Prof. Wallace on, 265, 268
Spiritualism of East, taught by Mrs. Besant, 273
Spiritualism, progress of, Mrs. Underhill on, 269
Spiritualism, satanic agencies of, 271
Spiritualism tested by Greeley, 269
Spiritualism, the climax of deception, 272
Spiritualism, the dead not agencies of, 271
Spiritualism, warnings against, 267
Spurgeon, on authorship of Bible, 14
Spurgeon's experience with Bible, 14
Stanley, Dean, on baptism of infants, 202
Stanley, Dean, on collection on first day, 166
Stanley, Dean, on manner of baptism, 202
Stanley, Dean, on Sunday, day of the sun, 170
Star shower, density of, Flammarion on, 95
Stars, falling, a sign to the world, 99
Stars, falling, brilliancy of, Olmsted on, 97
Stars, falling, Chambers's Astronomy on, 101
Stars, falling, described by Jessup, 100
Stars, falling, glory of, Clerke on, 101, 102
Stars, falling, Humphreys on, 96
Stars, falling, impression made by, Milner on, 99
Stars, falling, "Journal of Commerce" on, 97
Stars, falling, nature of, Twining on, 96
Stars, falling, other displays of, Humboldt on, 99, 100
Stars, falling, Professor Langley on, 101
Stars, falling, Sir Robert Ball on, 100
Stars, falling, Thomas Milner on, 94
Stars, shooting, Olmsted on, 95
Stars, the falling, 93-102
Stearns, Dr. Samuel, on dark day, 89, 90
Stennet, on Sabbath in England, 179
Stephen, stoning of, 234
Stoning of Stephen, 234
Strabo, on desolation of Babylon, 34
Strabo, on power of Romans, 46
Sun, darkening of, 85
Sunday, day of the sun, Dean Stanley on, 170
Sunday, Dean Stanley on collection on, 166
Sunday law, Constantine's, 169
Sunday law, Constantine's, Webster on, 169, 170
Sunday, mark of paganism, Hiscox on, 170
Sunday, mark of papal power, 252
Sunday, Neander on collection on, 166
Sunday, not sacred, Dale on, 166
Sunday observance by Protestants, Ségur on, 251
Sunday observance, "Doctrinal Catechism" on, 252
Sunday previous to Constantine, 169
Sunday rest, not of God, 165
Sunday, sign of papal authority, 156
Tabernacle, service of earthly, 214
Telegraph, first demonstrated, 314
Telegraph, used in carrying gospel, 318
Temple at Jerusalem, destruction of, as predicted, 70
Ten horns of beast, Daniel 7, 127
Ten kingdoms, Daniel 2, 46-48
Ten virgins, parable of, 348, 349
Testimony of history to fulfilment of prophecy, 36
Theosophy and Spiritualism, Mme. Delaire on, 272
Thief on the cross, the, 284
This Same Jesus, 54-56
Thomson, on Tyre's departed glory, 31
Thousand years, diagram of, 350
Thousand years, end of, 289
Thousand years, righteous with Christ, 62
Thwaites, Clara, "The Last Hour," poem, 114
Tiberius Cæsar, time of reign of, 230, 231
Time of the end, 303-317
Times and laws, Papacy to think to change, 153
Tradition and the Bible, Council of Trent on, 252
Translation of the righteous, 59-61
Travel, revolution in, 313
Trent, Council of, on tradition and the Bible, 252
Trevor, Canon, on revolt against absolutism, 141
Tribulation, the period of, 73
Turkey, Lord Salisbury on helping of, 331
Turkey, position of, "Fortnightly Review" on, 333, 334
Turkish power, fall of, prelude to Armageddon, 348
Turks, doom of, Blunt on, 333
Turks, end of, near, MacFarlane on, 333
Twelve hundred and sixty years, 131-137
Twelve hundred and sixty years, end of, 139
Twenty-three hundred days, diagram of, 220
Twenty-three hundred years, ending of, 235
Twenty-three hundred years of Daniel 8, 219
Twenty-three hundred years, prophecy fulfilled, 229-237
Twining, on nature of falling stars, 96
Two resurrections, the, 288, 289
Tyre, desolation of, Bruce on, 31
Tyre, glory departed, Thomson on, 31
Tyre, prophecy concerning, 30, 31
Underhill, Mrs. A.L., on progress of Spiritualism, 269
Universal empires, four great, 117
Unquenchable fire, 292, 293
Valley of Hinnom, Hastings on, 293
Van Dyke, Dr. Henry, on language of Bible, 21, 22
Veil, rending of, 231
Vigilius, Pope, date of reign, Schaff on, 135, 137
Voltaire, on Lisbon earthquake, 80
Wages of sin, 289
Wallace, Alfred Russel, on revolution in travel, 313
Wallace, Alfred Russel, on Spiritualism, 265, 268
War, god of, Lord Avebury on, 112
War, preparation for, Marquis of Salisbury on, 342
War, preparation for, "Nineteenth Century and After", 339-341
War, preparation for, Queen Alexandra on, 339
War, sign of end, "Church Missionary Review" on, 343
Webster, Noah, on dark day, 87
Webster, Prof. Hutton, on Constantine's Sunday law, 169, 170
Weeks, the seventy, starting point of, 221, 222
Wesley, John, on judgment-hour message, 249
"Western Watchman," on persecution of Protestants, 151
Whittier, on dark day, 86, 90
Wicked, before bar of God, 357
Wicked, destruction of, 61, 353
Wicked, end of, 287-293
Wicked, final destruction of, 356-359
Wicked, resurrection of, 62
Williams, on dark day in New England, 86
Williams, Roger, on Sabbath keeping, 180
Word, see Bible.
Word that creates, the, 15
Wordsworth, on dawn of Reformation, 149
World-wide movement, a, 239-245
Wright, on meaning of "run to and fro", 311
Xenophon, on Cyrus, 206
Xerxes' host, Æschylus on, 323
Years, the 1260, of Daniel's prophecy, 131-137
Zinzendorf, a Sabbath keeper, 180
Zinzendorf, Nikolaus, poem by, 227
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