{This paper was entitled: "The Prophecy of Matthew 24," the title only being changed for one more appropriate to the contents.}
The Prophecy of Matthew 24
Section 1 Not Christian But Jewish
Section 2 Difficult Texts
Section 3 The Analogous Prophecies in Luke and Mark
Section 4 The World Without the Church
Section 5 The Apostasy
Section 6 The Jewish Remnant
Section 7 The Time of the End
Section 8 The Future Religion — Worship of Satan
Section 9 Sundry Points
Section 10 Conclusion. The Time When These Things Shall Be
1. — Not Christian But Jewish.
1908 105 The sanction which Christ has attached to this prophecy possesses unusual solemnity: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away," applicable no doubt to all His words, but specifically spoken of this particular prophecy (ver. 35). Let us therefore approach its consideration with a full regard to the warning sentence with which the Lord has protected this special scripture. The globe on which we walk will pass away; the heavens, as a scroll when it is rolled up; but not a syllable of these utterances of the Lord Jesus shall fall to the ground unfulfilled.
The Christian observes this with devout acceptance. Yet there are parts of the prophecy which, while he cannot refuse them, occasion as he reads considerable perplexity. The conviction that this perplexity may be largely removed by pointing out the true bearing of the prophecy is what prompts these few pages of explanation.
Be it remembered that Matthew's is the Jewish Gospel; that is to say, in Matthew we have with special emphasis the presentation of the Messiah to Israel, and His rejection by that people. Hence that Gospel is the only one in which (chap. 16) the church is mentioned, because the church was to replace Israel as a testimony upon the earth.
In Matthew 23 is the well-known scathing denunciation of religious leaders, with its dread burden, "Woe unto you," seven times repeated, the typical number of perfectness in scripture (Matt. 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29), concluding with that heartfelt lament over the beloved city and her people: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee! How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" adding and this is of significance — "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
Notice that this discourse is not a casual incident in the ministry of Christ, not a mere denunciation of hypocrisy, however vile that may be. It is the Christ's terminal testimony in the midst of Israel. The solemn conclusion of His three years' ministry was the judicial sentence, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." And Jesus went out and was going away. But the disciples, not perceiving the inward meaning of the Lord's words and action, came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. Their hearts were attached to the earthly system of which it was the centre. But a temple, however splendid, is of no value when its God is disowned; and Jehovah was there in the person of Jesus, not known, not recognised by the nation; or if recognised, rejected. He leaves the temple with sorrow, and desolate indeed is that which Jehovah forsakes. The Lord's reply then, when His attention was drawn to the magnificence of the buildings, was, "See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."
Now, in what follows, the Lord is in the character of prophet according to the word of Moses, "A prophet shall the Lord thy God raise up unto thee of thy brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things" (Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22). Due weight should be given to the capacity in which our Lord is here speaking, for the chapter before us is really prophecy, as defined in its nature as that of Isaiah, Ezekiel, or Daniel.
The disciples came to Him and made these definite inquiries: (1) When shall these things be (that is, the destruction of the temple and connected events)? (2) What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world (more exactly translated the "completion of the age")? In the first reply to these questions, there is a finger-post for the interpretation of the whole prophecy. The Lord utters a caution which could only apply to those who were in expectation of the Messiah — to Jews. He says, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying I am the Christ, and shall deceive many." This obviously cannot be a danger to Christians. It can relate only to persons under the influence of Jewish hopes. The Christian knows, indeed, his very existence, religiously, is based upon the facts that the Christ has come, been crucified and buried, that He has risen and ascended to heaven. This being the Christian's creed, a claim to be "the Christ" would be to him simple nonsense. A man must be a Jew to be deceived by such a pretence. But they who are not aware that the Christ has come already, they who have rejected the true one will be especially susceptible to the fictitious claims of a feigned Messiah. Thus in the early part of this prophecy we find Jewish surroundings. The danger indicated is one for Jews; the principal scene is Judea ("let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains"), the temple is in view — abomination standing in the Holy place; the restriction of a Sabbath day's journey is contemplated in the direction to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day (Matt. 24:16-20). Note then, as a first principle in the interpretation of this prophecy, that its bearings are Jewish, not Christian.
If now, this prophecy was future when Christ spoke it, and it does not apply to Christians where, chronologically, does it come in? To answer this, some little explanation is necessary. The Christian reader will easily recollect that scripture is clear as to Israel being again taken into favour when "the fulness of the Gentiles" shall "be come in" (Rom. 11:25). But let us look at a few passages which establish this.
In the very scripture already quoted, the Lord intimates the possibility of a future repentance of Israel, in the words, "Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23:39). But in writing to the saints at the great centre of Gentile power, Rome, Paul deals elaborately with the present position nationally of Israel towards Christianity, and announces their future. Not to follow all the verses through, the gist of his argument is this First, as to the Gentiles, God was found of them that sought Him not, and was made manifest unto them that asked not after Him. As to Israel, Jehovah's testimony against them was, "All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people" (Rom. 10:20-21). The apostle then shows that notwithstanding the national rejection of Messiah, grace still saves some. "There is a remnant according to the election of grace" (Rom. 11:5). And this is true at the present time. Rare as is the conversion of a Jew, the Christian rejoices to know that there is still, here and there, one and another whom grace enlightens and saves from among the Jews. But nationally they are cast away (Rom. 11:15). Paul intimates, however, that the fall of the Jews nationally is not hopeless. "Have they stumbled that they should fall (that is, finally)? God forbid" (Rom. 11:11). Then he states in Rom. 11:25, "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved" (vers. 25, 26). That is, there is a day coming in which Israel will be saved as a whole — as Israel; contrastedly with the present time, when a mere remnant is saved, who, by their very conversion cease to be Jews, and become merged in the church, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision (Col. 3:11).
Before quoting the next scripture let us remember the character of the present time. What is it? Israel nationally laid aside; the gospel accepted mainly by Gentiles with, however, a remnant from Israel; and Jew and Gentile united into one body in Christ (Eph. 2:12-16).
This sheds great light on the very interesting seventh chapter of the Revelation. The church, in the type of the seven churches, is seen on earth in the second and third chapters — but in Laodicea the very profession is spued out of Christ's mouth. The ecclesiastical period is closed, and in the next chapter (4), the translation to heaven has taken place, the church being seen in heaven under the figure of the twenty-four elders, and thenceforth in the Book the church never again appears on earth. But the course of the world rolls on. Now in Revelation 7, divine dealings with Israel are resumed. What we have, however, is not as yet Israel saved as a whole but a numbered company out of that nation. Accordingly, the winds of judgment are held in restraint, that they should not hurt the earth neither the sea nor the trees, until the sealing of a definite, and elect, remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev. 7:1-8). A hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed out of all the tribes of the children of Israel, that is, twelve thousand from each specified tribe. Alongside of this is a companion picture of a great multitude; not now a definite number, but a saved multitude whom no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and tongues (Rev. 7:9-17). Many have thought these two companies represented the church, but they are really in direct contrast with it. In the church "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek" (Rom. 10:12). Here we find two distinct and separate groups Israelites saved as such, and Gentiles as Gentiles. Of this Gentile multitude we shall see something later. At present the passage shows us very clearly the sealing of an elect remnant of Israel after the church has been taken to heaven and is there seen under the figure of twenty-four elders.
As then the Lord's prophecy in Matthew relates to Israel, and Israel as Israel is laid aside while the church is on earth, it follows that the prophecy must apply to the time when the people of Israel come again under the divine dealings towards the end of the age, and after the completed church has been safely housed in heaven. A mountain of misunderstanding is removed by seeing that Matt. 24 does not relate to the church-period or to the saints now upon earth. Chronologically, it follows that period.
We have before us, therefore, in our chapter, what is abundantly prophesied of in other scriptures, namely, a godly remnant in a time yet future, having Jewish aspirations and Jewish surroundings the hope of the Messiah in their hearts, the temple in existence (ver. 15), and other Judaic elements as already pointed out. All this is confirmed when we recall that though the Lord's death "as a sacrifice for sin" was, in grace, made available for all men ("I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," John 12:32), yet His personal mission was to Israel only "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15:24). Rejected by the people, He gathers around Him a remnant whose hearts He has touched; and in the instructions of our chapter, He treats them as identical in principle with the remnant of the last days. Hence He says, "Take heed that no man deceive you." "Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars." That is, He addresses them as representatively the Jewish remnant of the last days. It is impossible to get a clear apprehension of prophecy, unless the church-period is seen to be a hiatus between the breaking off of Jewish connections and their resumption in the last days. The same principle explains Matt. 10:23, a verse which has puzzled many. The Lord was sending out the twelve apostles to preach, and He says, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come." Now the Son of man at that time was there, so that it must be His future coming that is in view. The explanation is, that identity is supposed between the preaching of the kingdom then, and that predicted in Matt. 24:14, and which continues from that time on until the coming of the Son of man. In the interval of the church, Jewish things would be laid aside, and the remnant would become merged in the church — "the Lord added together daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47), and this company is spoken of in Acts 5:11 and onwards as "the church." But this when our Lord was here, was not yet, and meantime, having the remnant around Him, He furnishes them with instruction which would hold good for the last days, instruction which probably the actual remnant of the future will use and profit thereby.
2. — Difficult Texts
1908 121 If the general setting, so to speak, of Matt. 24 as now explained be apprehended, the details which follow will be found harmonious.
But the reader may ask: What about the wars and rumours of wars which the prophecy predicts? Surely that applies to the present time! One may boldly say that it does not. In a general way it may certainly be predicted of the whole period of the world's existence: but this prophecy is of something special. There is not now, nor has there been, any condition that would fulfil the language of the text: "Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars; for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places" (Matt. 24:6-7). So far from its being applicable to the present time, at the moment of writing this paper, except for the rising of an African tribe against the Germans, the whole world is at peace. For the insurrection in Russia is not war in the sense of our text; it is not nation rising against nation,and kingdom against kingdom; it is internal civil strife. Indeed, if we consider the pugnacity of man, it is rather surprising that there have not been more wars. For the last thirty years writers have been predicting a general European outbreak. During a length of time it was annually declared to be certain in the ensuing spring; but it has not yet occurred. The Franco-Prussian war was no sooner ended than a war of retaliation in a few years was declared to be a sure event, yet a generation has passed away without it.
Nor have casus belli been wanting. The Fashoda incident threatened war; yet England and France were never more friendly than today. The attack by the Russian Fleet in the North Sea upon harmless British fishermen might easily have precipitated, not only an Anglo-Russian, but a general European war, yet were the hostile elements composed with little difficulty. Only recently a European Sovereign has had his dominion — Sweden and Norway — rent in twain, and one half placed under another king in whom a new dynasty has been founded; and this without the firing of a gun or the drawing of a sword. Another Sovereign, perhaps the most influential of the world at the present time — King Edward of England — has been visiting various Courts of Europe in the interests of peace, spreading quietness and assurance in every direction. The German Emperor threatening the world with his "mailed fist" is an anachronism, for the genius of the time is pacific. Had it not been so his notorious telegram to President Kruger might have lit the fire of war through Europe; while his attempt to embroil the nations over the Morocco affair has proved a fiasco.
It is possible that the misapplication of this notable text has, within the area of Christendom, unconsciously influenced the public mind, augmenting the fear of wars, causing a bellicose attitude, and been not uninfluential in the excessive increase of armaments amongst the nations. Whatever wars may have been in the past, they have not been as a rule simultaneously numerous: and it is questionable whether any state of international strife has ever existed, commensurate with the terms of the prophecy, much less when we collate it with the vivid vision of the Apocalypse with which it coincides in both time and character, viz: "And when he had opened the second seal, there went out another horse that was red, and to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword" (Rev. 6:4).
The figures here are too graphic and obvious to need elucidation. But preceding that is the first seal, which is a direct contrast. In the second seal the horse is red, indicating bloodshed, and to its rider is given a great sword. In the first seal, however, the rider has a bow, less fateful and less hurtful, yet signifying distant achievements as contrasted with the near conflict of the sword; and consistently with this the rider goes forth "conquering and to conquer." But the controlling feature in each of the four seals is the colour of the horse, and this horse is white. One of the ablest expositors of the Revelation says upon this: "Aggressive power which subjugates is meant by the horse in every colour; but in the first case that power seems to subject men bloodlessly. He had a bow, emblematic of distant warfare, not close or hand to hand. The measures are so successful — the name itself carries such prestige with it — that it becomes one onward career of conquest without necessarily involving slaughter. But in the second seal the great point is that the peace of the earth is taken away, and 'that they should slay one another.'"*
{*"The Revelation Expounded" (p. 97). By William Kelly, 1901. London; T. Weston, Paternoster Row.}
Now the seals are the first series of events in the book of the Revelation. So far, therefore, as prophecy is concerned, the proximate outlook for the world is not any special or extraordinary time of warfare or disasters. There is nothing in scripture to indicate fundamental change in the course of the age until after the church is translated; and even then the outburst will not be immediate, though there will be, and already are, premonitions. But the winds of judgment are held in restraint, as we have seen, until the elect of the twelve tribes of Israel have been sealed; and the first event of the first series of events in the Apocalypse reveals the rider on a white horse, one whose measures will be far reaching and marvellously successful, but whose conquests will be peaceful. There will indeed be wars and rumours of wars, nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places; but that will be very different from the present quietude of the world, and they who think they see the prophecy fulfilled in present occurrences have little idea of what is yet to come. But Christian! be not thou alarmed: thou and all thy fellow-believers will be removed from the world before those times of terror. And when the church has been safely rapt to heaven, according to scripture; when the elect of the twelve tribes of Israel have been sealed, then will the thunders of God's temporal judgments begin to roll over the earth. But that is not now.
The same principle of interpretation applies to the latter clause of verse 7, "There shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places." Such events can be traced in the whole course of the world's history, but they have not been frequent rather extraordinary — while the text obviously implies frequency of occurrence, and that, probably in different places simultaneously. How often has a Christian, on hearing of an event of this class, said, "Surely we must now be in the time of the 24th of Matthew!" while on the contrary the very fact of its exciting remark as a rare event shows that we are not yet in that time. There would be no sense in predicting for a particular time, events of a character which had always been known before. If, for example, one were to say, "During the next three years the sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening," the ready reply would be, "Such has always been the case." It is logical, therefore, to infer that the prophecy signifies famines, pestilences and earthquakes to a degree and over an area beyond previous experience.
The subject of earthquakes may, perhaps, from its recent prominence, seem to need fuller consideration. Just after the California, Valparaiso, and Jamaica earthquakes one would, if guided only by impressions, be inclined to infer that we are in a special era of those phenomena, such as predicted in our text. So perhaps thought Seneca when he wrote, many centuries ago: "How often cities of Asia have fallen in one earthquake! How often those of Achaia! How many towns in Syria, how many in Macedonia have been swallowed up! How often this calamity has laid waste Cyprus! How often has Paphos collapsed within itself! Frequently is the extinction of whole cities reported to us" (Ep. 91, § 9).
But impressions are not reliable. A philosophic consideration of historical records is necessary to the forming of a just conclusion. Dean Alford, who is interested in the scheme of applying the prophecy to the destruction of Jerusalem, is at pains to enumerate all the earthquakes to be found on record at the time, but is only able to cite six in the period — about forty years — between the prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem. Still the fact is remarkable that the number of known earthquakes has increased immensely in the later centuries. Mallett, however, in his important and elaborate work on the subject,* observes that the increased number almost coincides with the increase of human progress in discovery and observation, implying that the increase is not one of fact, but of record. The proportion of the earth's surface known to the ancients was small, and the means of observing and recording natural phenomena still smaller. On his breakfast table the modern man has a broad sheet displaying all the public events of the day flashed by electric power from remote parts of the earth. But with many such events as earthquakes, the historians of ancient times may have been quite unacquainted. Mungo Ponton says: "Even at the present time, many an earthquake might happen in Central Africa, or in Central Asia, of which we might never hear, and recollection of which might die out among the natives in a few generations. In countries, too, which are thinly inhabited, and where there are no large cities to be overthrown, even great earthquakes might happen almost unheeded. The few inhabitants might be awe-struck at the time, but should they sustain no personal harm the violence of the commotion and the intensity of their terror would soon fade from their memories."**
{*"Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science," 1858.}
{**"Earthquakes: their History, Phenomena and Probable Causes," 1888. p. 15.}
Professor Milne, in the preface to his work on the subject, remarks that during an eight years' residence in Japan he had the opportunity of recording an earthquake every week. Nevertheless, he says, with reference to Mallet's work before mentioned: — "If we compare Mallet's records as he invites us to do, with the great outlines of human progress, we see that the two increase simultaneously, and we come to the conclusion that, taken as a whole, during the historical period the seismic activity of the world has been tolerably constant."*
{*"Earthquakes and Other Earth Movements." By Prof. John Milne. Sec. Ed. p. 238.}
Granting, however, all that may legitimately be inferred from the difference in completeness of ancient and modern records; granting that the number of earthquakes has not been greater in anything like the proportion which the records show, it still remains a question whether it has not been greater in some proportion, and if so, how much. The Christian knows for a certainty from scripture that there will be an increase of earthquakes (as well as of wars and rumours of wars) in the coming time, and such an expectation is strictly consistent with natural science, for
"The earth is slowly cooling. The earth's internal heat reaches the surface and passes forth into the utter coldness of space. The loss of heat is imperceptible; but it was estimated by Haughton that the heat annually lost would melt a layer of ice a quarter of an inch thick over the whole surface of the globe.
"As the earth cools, it shrinks in size. The earth's crust is hard and rigid, and, as the central mass contracts, it must leave part of the earth's hard shell insufficiently supported. Such unsupported areas of the earth's crust will sink, as the ground sinks on the falling in of the roof of an abandoned gold mine. Wherever a block of the crust founders owing to the withdrawal of underground support, the sinking areas will be marked off from the adjacent country by lines of fractures and fissures. The sunken area will be separated by folds, where an area sags gently downward in the centre. In either case the subsidence will subject the rocks below it to heavy pressure. If the rocks be plastic through intense heat, and can reach fissures leading to the surface, then the rock material will be forced up and discharged in volcanic eruptions."*
{*Prof. Gregory, F.R.S. "Geography of Victoria." p. 163.}
Since therefore the earth is cooling at the rate stated, there will, even from a philosophic standpoint be nothing surprising in a distinct progression in the number of earthquakes. The man of science takes cognizance of natural law only; the Christian knows that God can make natural law synchronize with His moral purposes; and therefore the appalling events of recent years may quite possibly be an earnest of that condition of the globe which is ordained, at a time perhaps not far away, to produce not merely earthquakes with long years between, but "earthquakes in divers places" impliedly simultaneous.
Indeed, if we consider the circumstances, there seems to be a moral fitness in such a visitation at that time. For the tendency of thought already is distinctly towards Atheism. Comte's manifesto is, "The reorganisation of human society without God or king"; and that of Nihilism, "No law, No religion — nihil" — "Tear out of your hearts the belief in the existence of God."*
{*Grant "On the Revelation." pp. 92, 93.}
Renan says: "The historical sciences are based on the supposition that no supernatural agent comes forth to trouble the progress of humanity; that there is no free existence superior to man, to whom an appreciable share may be assigned in the moral conduct any more than in the material conduct of the universe. For myself, I believe there is not in the universe an intelligence superior to that of man; the absolute of justice and reason manifests itself only in humanity; regarded apart from humanity that absolute is but an abstraction. The infinite exists only when it clothes itself in form."*
{"Revue des Deux Mondes," 1860, p. 383. Quoted by Canon Mervyn Archdall, of Sydney, in his Lecture, Israel in History," p. 14.}
Thus, men seem prepared to philosophize God out of existence, and this will grow instead of lessening, for Paul announces that "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived," and Jude shows the same character of men in existence when the Lord comes in judgment (2 Tim. 3:13; Jude 15, 16). In these circumstances God addresses men's fears with a specimen of His power. The stout and vain heart of man, presuming on God's forbearance, and assuming the continuance of all things as they are, denies the existence of God, worships the creature instead of the Creator, attributing to matter the potentialities and eternity of being, which are attributes of God alone. To such audacity, what fitter reply could there be than to cause the very earth to rock under men's feet. Indeed, we learn from Luke that, besides these alarming phenomena upon earth, there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven (Luke 21:11, Acts 2:19). The heavens, indeed, in their silent splendour, declare the glory of God, but their very permanence and regularity have been taken to imply that they exist of themselves, and the Creator is bowed out of His own universe. This opposition to God is now in its incipience. What will it be when the church has been removed to heaven and, with it, the restraint upon men produced by the present special presence of the Holy Ghost in the church? God will answer the blasphemies of men with earthquakes upon earth and, in the imperturbable silence of the heavens, will cause awful apparitions and great signs, to show that there is still a living, personal God behind the veil of His magnificent creation. Things uncatalogued by silence will be beheld. Fearful sights and great signs will there be from heaven.
1908 136 Another part of our chapter around which immense misunderstanding has gathered is that verse in which the Lord says, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto nations: and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14).
How often in sermons, and at missionary meetings has this been used as an incentive to the preaching of the gospel abroad! How many earnest servants of Christ have gone to remote corners of the earth under the impression that they were promoting the Lord's coming by carrying the gospel where it had never been before! Such devoted labour will no doubt be accepted by the Master and richly rewarded, but nevertheless, so far as it rests on our text, it is based on an entire misconception.
In the first place, "the end" here is not identical with the Lord's coming for His saints, or the end of the church period. It is "the end" about which the disciples had just been enquiring "the end of the age." 1 Thess. 4 shows that the Lord comes and takes suddenly to Himself those of the church who then are alive and remain; and we have already seen that when, thus, the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, divine dealings with Israel are resumed. Jewish matters, now in abeyance, then come into position again. Many things were altered by the cross. The relations of Jehovah with Israel were broken off and suspended. But when the church-period terminates, the course of "the age," disrupted by the rejection of Messiah, commences again to run: the end of that age, precedent to the glorious age of the Messiah, is the end" which the Lord was discoursing about. The church is, as it were, an intercalation between the breaking off and the re-commencement of dealings with Israel.
Secondly, the gospel to be preached prior to "the end of the age" is not the present gospel. The reader may be startled to hear that there are two gospels; but as a fact there are more than two spoken of in scripture. Israel in the wilderness had a gospel declared to them of a land flowing with milk and honey type of heaven to the christian; and Hebrews (Heb. 4:2) says that "to us has a gospel been preached as well as unto them." The twelve apostles had a gospel to preach after the Lord's resurrection. And again, Paul, by the Spirit of God, speaks of what he designates "my gospel" that is, Paul, called later than "the twelve," had revealed to him further and fuller truth than was embodied in the commission of "the twelve" (Rom. 2:16; Rom. 16:2 5; Gal. 1:11; Gal. 2:4; Eph. 3:2-4). The very text with which we are dealing distinctly implies that there are various gospels, for it says particularly, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached," etc. The language of scripture is exact, and many a misconception is formed, many a doubt is thrown on scripture, simply through inattention to its actual words. So here. The Lord specifically declares that "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness unto all the nations, and then shall the end come." Through inattention to the terms men have come to think that the present gospel was meant.
What then is the "gospel of the kingdom"? Certainly not the gospel as we have it now — the gospel of full redemption for redemption through the death and resurrection of our Lord had not been accomplished, and therefore could not be preached. What then was it? It will be necessary to trace it slightly through scripture. So early as the time of David, the kingdom forms the subject of prophecy. "Yet have I set my king upon my holy. hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" (Ps. 2:6-8). Needless to say, this is prophetic, going in its terms far beyond David, Solomon, or any other than the Messiah. Here is a king decreed to be set upon the holy hill of Zion, who is also Son of God, begotten (as to His humanity) in time; One who is to have the nations (Gentiles) for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. To the godly Israelite who pored over the scriptures this and other Messianic prophecies were familiar. Thus Nathanael, the moment that the displayed omniscience of Jesus brings to his mind who the wondrous Person is who stands before him, immediately recognises Jesus as the promised King, and applies to Him the fiery terms of the second Psalm, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel" (John 1:48-49).
In the book of Daniel the kingdom is very distinctly foretold. "The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed," etc. (Dan. 2:44). "I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven … and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 7:13-14).
When we see how this magnificent kingdom was the goal of Israel's hopes, light is thrown upon that which was the burden of John the Baptist's testimony, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." That was the Baptist's gospel. Jesus took up and continued it after that John was delivered up. "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2; Matt. 4:12, 17). In passing, note the character of this gospel. A mighty kingdom had indeed been predicted for Israel, and now it was imminent. But it was not to be the mere advent of power to deliver the people from their Roman oppressors. The condition they were in was chastisement for their sins, and repentance was called for. Jehovah was not going to bring them into blessing as they were: that would have been unholy. It would have been the acceptance and sanction of their sins and their sinful state. This moral character of the kingdom was what made the preaching a stumbling-block to the Jews. They would have been glad indeed to have been delivered from the power of Rome, and set in their due place at the head of the nations. But to enter in through the strait gate of repentance they would not. So is it ever with the natural heart. Men today would hail a millennium of delights brought in simply by power. But repentance! — without which God, being holy, cannot meet them — this is foreign to their hearts and repugnant to their will. The sermon on the mount accordingly gives the character of the subjects of the kingdom. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:2). Both the twelve and the seventy were sent out with the same message: "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 10:7; Luke 10:9).
This slight tracing of the subject of "the kingdom" illustrates the specific force of the Lord's words, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world." The expression is not vague. It is not "the gospel," nor "a gospel," but definitely, "This gospel of the kingdom."
A point important to observe (as there is misconception with regard to it) is that "the kingdom of heaven" is not heaven. It is just the contrary. It is the earth, but the earth under the rule of heaven. "The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom," that is, over the earth. The Son of man comes "with the clouds of heaven, and there was given him a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him." Nations and languages are not in heaven; they belong to the earth. But the kingdom is now in mystery, because the King has been rejected and is concealed in heaven. The establishment of the kingdom in power as prophesied, and as it will yet be, is now in abeyance, and the present form of the kingdom is the word sown, and left as a system of truth on earth. This was all fully explained by the parable of the sower and the other parables of Matt. 13, which are stated to be the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 13:11), consequent upon the rejection of Christ by Israel (Matt. 13:14-15). This teaching was prior to the statement about the keys in Matt. 16. It was of the kingdom in this form that the keys were conferred on Peter, who accordingly opened the door to the Jews by his preaching in Acts 2, and afterwards formally admitted the Gentiles in the person of Cornelius and his house (see Acts 10:44-48). But heaven itself is another thing. And Peter has no more to do with the admission of a soul to heaven than has my reader.
The kingdom of heaven is not spoken of in the Acts or the Epistles. Indeed the term is found in Matthew only. "The kingdom of God" spoken of elsewhere is not quite the same thing. It is a larger expression and finds its fulness only in heaven. Hence in one place in scripture it is spoken of as heaven — "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 15:50); but the phrase "kingdom of heayen" is never so employed. That is the kingdom of heaven over the earth. In the kingdom of heaven there will be flesh and blood, but into the kingdom of God flesh and blood cannot enter.
We have seen that the gospel of the kingdom was preached by John the Baptist, and by our Lord, and before the cross — by the twelve apostles and by the seventy disciples, whom He commissioned and sent throughout the land. But, except for the little band whom He in grace gathered around Himself, the preaching ended in His total rejection. Israel was nationally apostate, when they cried, "We have no king but Caesar," and demanded a felon's death for the Lord of glory (John 19:15). An offer of repentance to Israel was still held out by the preaching of Peter in Acts 3 consequent upon the glorification of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. But the offer was futile as regards the nation. They ratified the crucifixion of Christ by stoning His witness Stephen, whose face shone as an angel's while he bore testimony to the glory of Jesus (Acts 6:15; Acts 7:54-60). They had already cast the Heir out of the vineyard and slain Him according to Matt. 21:39; and now, in the murder of His servant Stephen they fulfilled the other parable, and "sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14).
The consequence of all this was the abrogation of relations between Jehovah and Israel as the chosen nation, the detailed results of which that unhappy people are reaping to the present hour. "His blood be upon us and on our children" was their own awful imprecation against themselves (Matt. 27:25). But Israel being nationally laid aside, God now in wondrous forbearance sends out the gospel to Jew and Gentile alike. The message is intrinsically the same to each, though if there be a preference it is to the Jew "to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16). But this is not the gospel of the kingdom. It is sovereign and free grace to every man (Col. 1:23).
There is yet another misapprehension lying across the face of this scripture, which it were well to remove. The Lord said, "This generation shall not pass till all these things he fulfilled" (Matt. 24:34; Mark 13:32; Luke 21:33). Many have taken this to mean that the prophecy was to be fulfilled in the lifetime of persons then present in the world. And this erroneous supposition has entailed two further errors. Rationalists have based upon it a claim that the prophecy has broken down, and others have put a strained interpretation upon it in order to reconcile the seeming contradiction. It has been said, as an explanation, that the coming of the Son of man in the chapter was no more than death an hypothesis which will not bear examination, yet it was the common teaching in pulpits about fifty years ago. But had it been so that would not remove the difficulty, because not only is the coming of the Son of man to take place before that generation passes, but also "all" the things foretold in the prophecy.
When, however, the proper meaning is seen, the supposed contradiction vanishes and all is clear. It is a positive error to take the word "generation" in the meaning referred to. There is an obvious principle of interpretation which indeed is recognised in law, that when a word has different meanings that one must be adopted which carries out the intention, not one which frustrates the intention. Now any person who turns to a good English dictionary will at once see that the word "generation" has a variety of meanings. Webster giyes seven; and while one is the sense referred to, namely, "the mass of beings living at one period," another is "race, family, kind." This latter is the true sense of "generation" in Matt. 24:34. What the Lord really says is that the Jewish race and more especially that moral character of it then present should not pass away till all those things should be fulfilled.
The existence of that generation — the Jews dispersed amongst all nations and yet separate from them is indeed one of the wonders of the world. Bishop Butler refers to it as "the appearance of a standing miracle, in the Jews remaining a distinct people in their dispersion." He says, "The Jewish nation and government were destroyed in a very remarkable manner, and the people carried away captive and dispersed through the most distant countries, in which state of dispersion they have remained fifteen hundred years; and that they remain a numerous people, united amongst themselves and distinguished from the rest of the world as they were in the days of Moses by the profession of His law, and everywhere looked upon in a manner which one scarce knows how distinctly to express but in the words of the prophetic account of it, given so many ages before it came to pass: 'Thou shalt became an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee'* (Deut. 28:37)." Here we have the fulfilment of the Lord's words, "This generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled."
{*"The Analogy of Revealed Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature." Part 2. chap. 7.}
If we take the word in the original Greek (genea), either in the New Testament or the Septuagint, we shall find it abundantly used in both senses. Let us look at the latter, that is, the sense in which it ought to be taken in our text. But remark that what is meant is not merely the race of the Jews, but that adverse moral character of it which stood around and resisted Jesus in His life and pursued Him to a cruel death. As another has said, "The non-believing race of the Jews is not to pass away till all these things have taken place. Thus the same generation which crucified the Lord of glory is going on still, and will, till He comes again in the clouds of heaven."*
{*"Christ's Coming Again." By William Kelly. Page 31 (London: T. Weston, 53, Paternoster Row).}
Now for the scriptural use. In Deut. 32 Moses is recounting the faithfulness of Jehovah and the unfaithfulness of Israel throughout their whole history from its commencement, and he says: "They have corrupted themselves: they are a perverse and crooked generation" (Deut. 32:5). Then, referring to the present era when Israel is cast out by Jehovah, and which has already lasted for centuries, "I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith" (Deut. 32:20).
Palpably, here "generation" is used for the people or nation of Israel. Of those termed a perverse and froward "generation" in vers. 5, 20, it is said in Deut. 32:28, they are a "nation" void of counsel. Thus the word is used as the synonym of "nation."
Again, "Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith Jehovah" (Jer. 7:29-30). "Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family" (Jer. 8:3). Here the word is properly rendered "family" without any limitation of time. In the very discourse which the Lord concluded in Matt. 23, He uses the word "generation" in an extended sense: — "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias whom ye slew between the temple and the altar" (Matt. 23:35). He addresses them nationally, and then adds, "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this 'generation'" (ver. 36).
Parkhurst, in his Lexicon, gives as a meaning of genea "Men of like quality and disposition,
though of neither one place nor age"; and this is amply borne out — "Thou shalt keep them, O Jehovah, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever" (Ps. 12:7). In this text "generation" is obviously not limited to the set of people at any one time upon the earth. Again,
"God is in the generation of the righteous" (Ps. 14:5). "The generation of them that seek thee" (Ps. 24:6). "If I say, I will speak thus; behold I should offend against the generation of thy children" (Ps. 73:15). "There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth" (Prov. 30:11-14). In these verses a certain moral character or kind of persons is implied. More evidence might be adduced, but is scarcely necessary. When the Lord said, "This generation shall not pass," He referred to the Jews, both ethnically and morally — as in the apt phrase already quoted, "the non-believing race of the Jews."
"This generation," then, will continue until the whole prophecy of Matt. 24. is fulfilled. Indeed the Jews will be far more prominent as we shall see, in the closing scenes of the age, than ever they have been in the centuries of Christianity.
3. — The Analogous Prophecies in Luke and Mark
1908 154 One great loss in the study of Scripture, and in its edifying power upon the soul, is the denial of its inspiration, or even a mere lessening in one's mind of the sense of the integrity and fulness of that inspiration. The apostolic doctrine (2 Tim. 3:16) is that "every scripture is inspired"; further, not merely inspired in a general or vague sense, as might be said of the animated utterances of a man of genius, but "inspired by God" (theopneustos), and in that way marked off from all other writings of men. Still further, that the very "words" used in so communicating spiritual things are "words taught by the Spirit" (logois …didaktois pneumatos), so that not only are the things communicated "spiritual," but the "words" by which they are communicated are "spiritual" also (1 Cor. 2:13). This is the authoritative apostolic doctrine on the subject. But still more. Scripture is, in all cases, the final appeal by the apostles, and — highest of all — by the Lord Jesus Himself. "As it is written" is Paul's appeal (Rom. 3:10), "What saith the scripture" (Rom. 4:3), "He" i.e., God) "saith also in Osee" (Rom. 9:25), "For the scripture saith" (Rom. 10:11). Here are four instances from one epistle, showing what scripture was to an apostle. The Lord Jesus Himself says, "The scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). "It is written in the prophets, "He says again (John 6:45); and He places Moses' writings as a moral test on a level with His own precious words, "If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words" (John 5:47). "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written" (Luke 24:45-46). "And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (ver. 27).
If therefore the Christ Himself is an authority on Christianity, and if His apostles may be supposed to know His doctrines, scripture is, in the fullest sense, in its very words, inspired by God. It follows from this that whether the four Evangelists, or the three, copied from a common document is a worthless speculation. He who holds that cardinal truth of Christianity, the inspiration of scripture, goes back to a higher source, the fountain-head, God Himself, who inspired the scriptures, and who has thus conferred upon us the priceless boon of having His own exact words. The rejecter of inspiration reads Scripture under a great disadvantage. When he comes to a seeming discrepancy, instead of reverently waiting for illumination, his spirit frets at the difficulty, and he proceeds to force things into a uniformity which was never intended. To have given a mere chronological narration of events and discourses would have been mechanically simple, but not so has the inspiring Spirit wrought. He has given us four distinct views in the Gospels, which we simply spoil by forcing them into what is misnamed "a Harmony."
Now if Scripture be inspired, the differences are as much a matter of divine intention as the coincidences, and this line of reflection finds an illustration in the four Gospels. If our gracious God has given us four differing Gospels, it is our wisdom to heed the differences, instead of trying to obliterate them and thus merge all in one dead level of uniformity.
There are two chief differences between the prophecy of Matt. 24, and the similar prophecies in Luke 17 and 21. Matt. 24. gives "the abomination of desolation" but does not give the destruction of Jerusalem. Luke 21 gives the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 21:12-24), but does not mention "the abomination of desolation" or "the great tribulation." The scope and intention of the prophecy in Matthew are, in the main, quite distinct from the scope and intention of that in Luke, though in some points they overlap, as will be shown. Failure to perceive the distinction of subjects in the two scriptures has led to great confusion in expositions of them. It has been supposed that Matt. 24, which really relates to the Lord's future coming, applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, and that Luke's prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem was intended to include Matthew's prediction of the coming of the Son of man in glory. The result is a baffling and confusing amalgam of what divine wisdom had made distinct. Take the two prophecies separately, as given to us by inspiration, and all is plain.
Comparing Luke 21 with Matt. 24, it will be found that verses 8-11 of Luke give the "beginning of sorrows" corresponding with verses 3-14 of Matthew. Then in Luke there is an express turning back at verse 12, introduced by the words: "But before all these things they shall lay their hands on you" (vers. 12-24), forming an interlude in which are announced the persecution of the disciples, the destruction of Jerusalem, and "the times of the Gentiles" — a passage which finds no place in Matthew. After this, the subject of the last days, broken off at ver. 12, is resumed at ver. 25, and what thence follows belongs to "the time of the end," the same as in Matthew.
This simple explanation is the key to the difficulties which have perplexed commentators in reconciling Matt. 24 with Luke 21. These difficulties have arisen from the attempt to amalgamate what Scripture has separated — to force the destruction of Jerusalem, which is proper to Luke, into Matt. 24, where the Spirit, who indited that chapter, never intended it to be. The following table exhibits the division of the subjects in question in Matthew and Luke respectively: —
Matt. 24:3-14. — The beginning of sorrows.
Luke 21:8-11. — The same.
Luke 21:12-19. Persecution of the 1st century (A.D.) antecedent to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Luke 21:20-24. Siege and desolation of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) and its downtreading "until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
The above is a parenthesis not given by Matthew.
Matt. 24:15-28. — The time of the end (including the great tribulation).
Not given by Luke.
Matt. 24:29-41. — The appearing of the Son of man in glory.
Luke 25-33. — The same.
Luke 17:22-37. The same.
Possibly this explanation will suffice for the ordinary reader. If he choose to skip the remainder of the present chapter he can do so without detriment to the understanding of the subsequent ones. What here follows, however, will, it is thought, assist those who may wish to compare more fully Matt. 24 and Luke 21.
In Matt. 24 the disciples ask two very precise and definite questions: (1) "When shall these things be" (the overthrow of the Temple just referred to)?; and (2), "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?" But these Dean Alford blends into one, with the remark, "We must, I think, be careful not to press the clauses of it too much, so as to make them bear separate meanings, according to the arrangements of our Lord's discourse" (Greek Test. in loco). One may well ask, "Why?" For, as a matter of fact, disregard of the clear-cut definition of subjects in the disciples' questions is what has beclouded the expositions of commentators. Starting with this initial error it is not surprising to find the worthy Dean afterwards expounding the following verses of Matt. 24 down to ver. 28, as applying to both "the destruction of Jerusalem and the final judgment." It is true that there are phrases in the prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction which resemble phrases in Matt. 24, and this has too readily led some to suppose that the theme of both prophecies was identical. Thus Luke says that when Jerusalem should be compassed with armies, the disciples were to know that the desolation thereof was nigh. But the "desolation of Jerusalem" is a wholly different matter from the "abomination of desolation" spoken of in Matthew. The desolation of Jerusalem given in Luke took place in A.D. 70. The abomination of desolation will not be until "the time of the end," as will be clearly seen if attention is paid to the due connection of vers. 14, 15, 16, 21, 29 of Matt. 24.
Again, Luke says, referring to the destruction of Jerusalem: "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" (Luke 21:21). And in Matt. the same means of safety is prescribed on the abomination of desolation being set up. But is it surprising that for local peril in Jerusalem — though at different dates — the same way of escape should be enjoined (a way which the mountainous cincture of Jerusalem renders peculiarly fitting)? The directions, however, in the two cases are not the same, though similar. In Luke there is a command that those in Judea were to depart to the mountains, and that those in the country were not to enter in. Yet there is no note of alarming urgency, such as we find in Matthew at the setting up of the abomination of desolation. In the latter case the delay of an instant is prohibited. He that is on the housetop is not to come down to take anything out of his house, and he who is in the field is not to return back to take his clothes. Another incident which is similar in the two events is that a persecution of the disciples precedes both. Accordingly, this is predicted of each, in terms similar, but not the same (see Luke 21:12-19, and Matt. 24:9-10). The pictures of these two persecutions, and what is said about each, are so much alike that without attention to the era within which they respectively fall they might easily be supposed to be identical. Yet there are differences which show that they relate to distinct periods of time. Thus, in the early persecutions of Luke 21:12, synagogues — an institution of that time — are mentioned, but not in the persecution of the last days given in Matt. 24:9. Again, in Luke the disciples are to be brought before kings and rulers for Christ's name's sake. But in Matt. they are, for His name's sake, to be "hated of all nations." Now this is a striking difference, for the hating by all nations is a natural consequence of that detested preaching of the gospel for a witness to all nations, which is predicted for the time of the end. So, while on a superficial reading the two passages may seem identical, a careful scanning reveals minor verbal differences, which are both accurate and designed.
The subject of the destruction of Jerusalem being, in Luke 21, finished at ver. 24, that of the last days (which was interrupted at ver. 12) is now resumed, but with briefness, for in Luke it has already been dealt with in chap. 17. Neither in Luke 17, however, nor in 21 is it treated with anything like the detail of Matt. 24. And this, indeed, is characteristic and appropriate as regards each of these two Gospels.
A word or two respecting Luke 17. The prophetic section vers. 22-37 is obviously the same instruction as we have in Matt. 24. The latter may have been a repetition of what we have here in Luke 17 and which (as already given to us in chap. 17) Luke does not repeat in 21. It is not imperative, however, to suppose this, as there is nothing in Luke 17:22 to indicate that what follows was spoken at the time of the conversation with the Pharisees in vers. 20, 21. The verse simply states, "And he said unto the disciples," without saying when or where. It may, or may not, have been immediately after the conversation with the Pharisees in the verses preceding. If it was, then the motive is apparent for Luke's omitting it from chap. 21. If it was not, then it is easy to see that it is introduced here because of its appositeness, and naturally therefore omitted from 21.
The minor differences between Matt. 24 and Luke 17 and 21 are thoroughly characteristic. Thus Luke, where he gives the last days, coincides — so far as he goes — with Matthew's Gospel. He gives the same note of urgency (Luke 21:31) for flight as Matthew, but, as we have seen, not quite the same as in regard to the destruction of Jerusalem. He does not, however, mention the abomination of desolation," that subject being reserved by the guiding Spirit for Matthew and Mark. Again, Matthew gives the question, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?" Mark and Luke omit this. But agreeably with this distinction, Matthew's Gospel gives the close of the dispensation, with an amount of detail and emphasis not found in the other two, and omits any answer to the first question; while Luke gives what was nineteen centuries before the close of the dispensation, that is, the destruction of Jerusalem.
Not only Alford, however, but Olshausen, Lange, Bloomfield — indeed most who have written on the subject labour under the mistaken idea that in each and all of the three Gospels the prophecy is intended to give as well the destruction of Jerusalem as the Lord's coming; whereas Matthew and Mark give the Lord's coming, but not the destruction of Jerusalem; and Luke, in the verses dealing with the destruction of Jerusalem (12-24), specifically demarks it (ver. 12) from the current of other events. Olshausen speaks of the overthrow of Jerusalem being blended in the prophecy* with the Lord's coming, and quotes Fritzsche, Fleck, Schultze and de Wette as supporting him. But this it just their mistake, for the blending is in their comments, not in the Gospels. Olshausen, erroneously assuming that "this generation" meant the persons then living, argues from ver. 34 that the prophecy must belong to the time then present. "Hence," he says, "we do not hesitate to adopt … the simple interpretation — and the only one consistent with the text that Jesus did intend to represent His coming as contemporaneous with the destruction of Jerusalem" (pp. 233, 234). The interpretation, however, is the opposite of simple, for Jerusalem has been overthrown, but Christ has not come. Then, amongst other means to reconcile the difficulty, Olshausen says (p. 236) that "Christ is constantly coming in His kingdom." But Christ is not constantly coming. Scripture is emphatic in representing Him as, during the present period, waiting in expectancy at the Father's right hand. His position now is that of Psalm 110: "Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." The Lord Jesus in Matt. 22:24 applies this to Himself, and the apostles likewise apply this scripture to Christ (Acts 2:34-35; Heb. 1:13). Acts 3:21 shows that He must be in heaven until the "times of restitution of all things." To say that Christ is constantly coming is, besides being untrue, really an absurdity, into which commentators are forced by their mistaken scheme of interpretation. Christ is in session at the right hand of God, and will remain so until the Father's moment for Him to rise up and claim the kingdoms as His own. Then will be fulfilled that verse in Matt. 24, "'They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (30).
{*"Gospels," vol. 3. pp. 234-6. Clark's 2nd edition.)
The theory indeed is laminated confusion. First, Christ is made to represent His coming as contemporaneous with the destruction of Jerusalem; but this could not be because it is not true. Christ did not come at the destruction of Jerusalem. No one saw Him then. When He comes "they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Secondly, to get over this difficulty it is said, inter alia, that "Christ is constantly coming in His kingdom," but this clashes with two other lines of scripture-teaching, (1) that Christ's coming is to be like lightning in the wide heavens, (2) that Christ's present position is in session, in expectancy, in patience (Heb. 10:12-13; Rev. 1:9; 1 Cor. 4:8). And all these difficulties are incurred through not taking the Gospels simply as they are given to us.
The prophecy in Mark 13 is like Matt. 24, in that it makes no reference to the downfall of Jerusalem. It conforms very much, however, to Matt 10, which, as already explained, is a charge to the remnant in view of their testimony — initiated while Jesus was upon earth, but not to be finished until the Son of man be come (vide ante) the present, or church-period, being a gap between the commencement of this testimony and its resumption after the church is gone. This explains the occurrence of phrases or passages common alike to Matt. 10, Matt. 24 and Mark 13; also found in Luke 12, 17, and 21. Whenever indeed Christ is seen instructing, the remnant in their testimony, there will be found like, if not identical, instructions.
4. — The World Without the Church
1908 172 Resuming now the instruction which the chapter affords us, notice that it deals with a "beginning of sorrows" and the "time of the end." Wars and disasters are "the beginning of sorrows," "but the end is not yet" (vers. 6-8). Lower down, the Lord announces that the time of the end will commence at the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in all the world. "The end" is not the end of the church-period set forth in 1 Thess. 4:15-18 when the Lord comes for the church, but the end of the age when the Lord comes and appears to the world. This it may be well to elucidate, though to some the subject may be familiar. Christ's coming or appearing to the world is as the coming of the lightning out of the east, and its shining unto the west (ver. 27). "Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him" (Rev. 1:7). "They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30).
Now another Scripture says, when He "shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Col. 3:4). If therefore the saints of the present time appear with Christ when He appears, it follows that they must have been taken to be with Him before; and this indeed is what is specifically announced in 1 Thess. 4. Are there then two comings, one for the church, the other afterwards, public to the world? No; there is only one coming. But Scripture shows that the saints of the present period meet the Lord in the air, prior to His manifestation to the world. To take an illustration.* When the Governor holds a levee, His Excellency receives privately in a drawing-room a short time before the public reception, persons of rank and distinction who have the privilege of entree, such as judges, executive councillors, and high officers of state. Then, attended by this distinguished cortege, the Governor proceeds to the public room. It is one levee, but when the Governor appears to the public he does so attended by the persons of high position who have been received in private a little while before. This is in exact analogy with the Lord's coming, and is consistent with the whole of Scripture-testimony on the subject. The saints of the present period meet the Lord privately as it were, at His coming, before He appears in public to the world.
{*This illustration is taken from the practice at State ceremonies in the King's possessions abroad.}
There is no reason to suppose, and there is no Scripture to show, that this resurrection of the dead in Christ, and their being caught away into heaven together with those who are alive on earth at the moment, will be visible to mortal eyes. Indeed, the Lord's ascension is, in the first chapter of the Acts, specifically stated to be a model of His return. It is said (ver. 11), "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." Here is announced, not merely His coming again, but the manner of the coming*; and Christ's ascension, mighty an event as it was, was not public, to the world. He left Jerusalem and led His disciples out as far as Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, and thence from among the privileged disciples, He ascended to the Father. It was a sight enjoyed by His own privately; and so with the descent of Christ into the air, and our rising to meet Him. It will not be viewed by the world, for when Christ appears, we appear with Him in glory. And again, as a cloud received the Lord, so we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air. Further, we have a type of the church's rapture in that of Elijah, which was not viewed by the world any more than was the ascent of the Lord Jesus. It was beheld only by Elisha and a company of the sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2).
{*Is not this in the sense of as He was "seen" going up, so in like manner should they "see" His personal return "in a cloud" to the Mount of Olives where His feet are yet to stand (Zech. 14:4)? If this view be correct, the verses would refer not to Christ's descent into the air where We are called to meet Him, but to His subsequent return with all His saints to the earth. — [Ed. B.T.]}
Perhaps the reader feels that the rapture of the church to heaven while the world goes on as before, is an event very strange, if not difficult of credence. But already in the world's history it has had typical foreshadowings; for Enoch and Elijah were both caught away to heaven without dying. The former, Enoch, is a remarkable type, for while he was translated before the judgment of the flood fell on the world — in this a figure of the church — Noah, type of the Jewish remnant, was left behind to preach righteousness and pass through the judgment.
There are Scriptures too, on this subject, like others previously explained in these pages, around which misunderstandings have clustered. But it is the misunderstandings of the scriptures, not the scriptures themselves, which hinder a clear view of the rapture of the church. One of those difficulties is connected with the expression "at the last trump" in 1 Cor. 15, viz., "Behold, I show you a mystery. 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" (vers. 51, 52). Many have supposed that the expression "the last trump" must refer to the solemn closing up of all human affairs, when the wicked dead will be raised to stand before the "great white throne" (Rev. 20). But this is quite a mistake. The phrase embodies a figure drawn from a usage of the Roman army, and we all know Paul's liking for military figures. The last trump was the signal to march. The first trumpet was for the lowering of the tents in the camp; on the second, the army took marching order; then, on the last trump, they all started. This is the sense in which the summons is "the last trump." The church's testimony below will have been finished, the dead in Christ will have been raised "for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible" then, "we [the living] shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." That it is not the last trump in the popular acceptation is certain, for the wicked dead will not be raised until the second resurrection, more than a thousand years after this. "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished" (Rev. 20:5).
Nor is there any reason to suppose that this trump will be heard by others than those for whom it is intended. In our understanding of such passages we are too much limited by our natural ideas, and think that because there is a loud sound all must hear it; but even with the human voice, only those who have the requisite faculty will hear. If deaf, they do not hear. That trump will be of a nature and have a direction by which it will reach all for whom it is intended, while the self-engrossed world will be going on, building and planting, buying and selling, oblivious to divine and heavenly transactions taking place above their heads. Even now the voice of the Son of God is sounding in the gospel, and they that "hear" it live, but all do not "hear" it (John 5:25). They hear indeed the preached gospel, but the divine voice in it they have no faculty to perceive. Like the soldiers who were with Saul at his conversion, they heard a sound (Acts 9:7), but, as Paul states, "they heard not the voice of him that spake to me" (Acts 22:9).
The analogous passage in 1 Thess. 4. has been similarly misunderstood; but many misapprehensions of scripture arise from lack of close attention to its words. Thus, verse 16 says that "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 'shout.'" But the expression in the original keleusma) means a particular kind of shout. "It is used for a general's call to his soldiers, for an admiral's to his sailors, or sometimes more generally as a cry to incite or encourage." Obviously the last is not the sense, while the former — a general or an admiral calling to his men suits the case exactly. Dr. Weymouth translates it "a loud word of command," which, though periphrastic, gives the sense better than the bare word "shout" in the Authorised or Revised Versions. Mr. Darby's rendering is "an assembling shout"; Mr. Kelly's "a shout of command."
From all this it will be plain that the word in the text does not at all convey the idea of a shout that will be heard through the universe. Just as a general's command is heard by his own forces, but not by the foe, so will be the blissful shout which will be heard by the redeemed. The Lord will descend into mid-air and gather His own, dead and living, to Himself, leaving the world to proceed in its course. Archangel's voice will also be there, probably marshalling angelic hosts who will attend that wondrous pageant.
To create the orbs that roll in space was glorious, but to exhibit in heavenly splendour countless millions of souls who had fallen under the dominion of death through sin, this is surpassing glory! Their sins cannot bar them, for they are without blame in the presence of Him who died for them. "It is God that justifieth! Who is he that condemneth?" Death cannot now retain them! At the "keleusma" of Christ they will burst its bonds; "the gates of hades shall not prevail against" His church. It was to this event that Christ's words pointed forward, not to the earthly success of the Church of Rome. Outwardly the true church may seem to he defeated. Men may point in scorn at Christianity. But the church will yet be seen in glory, and in glorious unity. Then, and in heaven, will be the church's triumph, not now and upon earth. Reader, where are you and I looking for success? Upon earth or in heaven? "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. … When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Col. 3:1-4).
Let us now endeavour to seize what the state of things on earth will be after the church will have gone to heaven. No doubt the unexplained absence of a considerable number of persons must cause remark. In the catalogue of Adam's descendants in the fifth of Genesis, the phrase "and he died" is the melancholy close to the mention of each individual except one. Death was the universal sentence upon the race. But even so early there was proof of divine power over death. Grace exempted Enoch from the common lot. He "was translated that he should not see death, and" (it is significantly added) "he was not found" (Heb. 11:5). He had not died, yet was he not to be found! — in this a type of the church. In the similar type furnished by the translation of Elijah there was, except on the part of Elisha, perplexity as to the event, and search for him was made upon the mountains. There will come a day on earth when there will be the mysterious absence of a number of known persons, and who yet will not have died! This puzzling occurrence, however, may soon be forgotten, and the more so as, from the intense earthliness of the time, there will be every motive to put it out of mind. It may perhaps be a nine days' wonder, leading only to a deeper plunge into ungodliness. In the world too at this time there will probably be a short period of delusive peace, as already stated.
Without asking the reader to go at all deeply into the Revelation, it may be useful to explain just so much of its construction as is almost necessary to elucidate the present subject. The strictly prophetic part of the Apocalypse begins with Rev. 6, the first five chapters being introductory. There are two main ways of interpreting the prophecy, each of them true in principle. That is, the prophecy has an inchoate as well as a complete fulfilment, and may be interpreted with reference to either. This is so with other prophecies as well. For example, Peter in Acts 2 applies Joel's prophecy of the outpouring of the Spirit to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Now Joel's prophecy goes on to events which have not yet happened "wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath," etc. and it will be noticed that Peter does not say that the prophecy was then fulfilled. He says,
"This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." It was of the character and nature of that prophecy. An incipient accomplishment, the fulfilment is even yet future. So with the Revelation. The announcement, for example, in Rev. 11:15, that "the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ," may refer in the first instance to that great event, the public acknowledgment of Christianity under Constantine, and the formal expulsion of idolatry from the imperial nation. But the proper, the full accomplishment, is yet to come, and will not be until Christ reigns over the whole world in the millennium. Thus the Revelation has a legitimate application to past history, while its full accomplishment is yet to be. The former has unfortunately given rise to much speculation, because the allocation of historical events to the prophecies affords scope not only for proper and sober consideration, but also for mere ingenuity and imagination, and it is these latter that have brought a measure of discredit on the study of the book. The past application of the Apocalypse may be, and indeed is, an interesting study, but that which is of living importance to the church today is what lies yet in the future how near a future we do not know.
The division of the book, on its own authority (Rev. 1:19), is into three parts, viz.:
1. — "The things which thou hast seen" — i.e. the vision already given in chap. 1.
2. — "The things which are" — i.e. the existing things of the church period, shown under the figure of the seven churches in chaps. 2, 3.
3. — "The things which shall be after these (meta tauta)" — i.e. the really prophetic part of the book from chap. 4. to the end.
Now in the latter view of the Revelation just referred to, sometimes called the Futurist, the seven churches of Rev. 2, 3, cover the whole period from Pentecost to the rapture of the church. That is, the beginning of the church is the first-love of Ephesus; and subsequently varying phases of church history are represented until in Laodicea the dead profession is spued out by Christ, the living saints having been caught up to heayen. It follows from this that the whole of the third division of the Revelation is yet future, consisting, as it avowedly does, of things which shall be after the "things that are." Revelation 4, 5 are introductory to the last division of the book (as chap. 1. is to chaps. 2, When the Lamb takes the book in Rev. 5 then only does the roll of events upon the earth commence to he unfolded.
In this view then of the Revelation, the point of interest for us in connection with the prophecy in Matthew is, that both these prophecies have their commencement after the rapture of the church. The first events to happen upon the earth are contained in a book "sealed with seven seals." The seven are divided into two parts — four and three. On the opening of each of the first four a horse with a rider is seen, and the colour of each horse gives the character of the vision. The horse as a prophetic figure always denotes conquering power, while the throne indicates power in session. The horse in ancient times was used almost exclusively for war, not as a beast of burden, and hence the significance of the figure.* Be it observed that the judgments of the seals are not direct inflictions by God, but occur providentially. The rising of a great leader, such as we shall see under the seals, might occur without any outward indication that it was ordained by prophecy. The Lord's interposition is not visible, though the first seal is introduced by a voice of thunder, which may possibly intimate the voice of the Almighty to him who has "an ear to hear" (Psalm 18:13; John 12:29).
{*In the ancient frescoes of all the great nations of the East, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, the horse is not shown as a beast of burden — only for war and processions, or sometimes hunting (Smith's larger "Dict. of the Bible." See also "KNOWLEDGE" for August. 1904 — paper by Professor Lydekker.)}
The first seal has a specially interesting character, not only because of its being the first in the series of the events, but because of the peaceful time which it foreshadows. A remarkable personage arises — a rider on a white horse who goes forth conquering and to conquer, that is, he has a career of astonishing and continuous success, his victories being distant as well as near, and comparatively peaceful, as has been already explained. He does not appear to he a royal personage at first, but a crown is given to him; this in striking contrast with the next seal, where the horse is red, and to the rider was given not a crown but a great sword, and it was given to him to "take peace from the earth." Thus, succeeding the rapture of the church, there appears to be under the first seal a momentary hush over the world. Men will not know the reason of this. Christianity as a vital force being got rid of, and this great statesman or conqueror having arisen, they may think that a millennium of prosperity without God is dawning on the world. But Scripture shows us that the winds of judgment are restrained until the servants of God have been sealed in their foreheads. That is the reason of the calm. "God is behind the scenes, but He moves the scenes which He is behind." So far, however, there will have been no divine interference with the world's material prosperity: possibly, indeed, that prosperity may be enhanced by the political measures of the rider on the white horse; certainly it may be favoured by the restraint of judgment during the sealing of the remnant of Israel in Rev. 7.
It should be observed that the two visions of Rev. 7 form no part of the sequence of the seals. The sixth seal has been opened, and the seventh seal is not come to until Rev. 8, these visions being introduced as something separate, as it says: "After this I saw," etc. They are a parenthesis or intercalation between the sixth and seventh seals. Indeed they could not form part of the seals, for they are different in nature. The seals are judgments; these visions are visions of remarkable grace to Israel first, and also to the Gentiles. There is a moral beauty in this interruption. The seal judgments are rolling on; the sixth has been reached; but the Lord stops the procession to exhibit this magnificent display of grace — in wrath He remembers mercy. But this obviously leaves quite open the question of where, chronologically, the two visions of Rev. 7 have their place. Their occurrence between the sixth and seventh seals is not decisive. But the command, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads," seems to assign the sealing to the quiet time of the First Seal, or possibly even before. The ingathering of the Gentile multitude, however, would probably be continuous until the coming of the Son of man.
5. — The Apostasy
1908 186 What will be the end of the course of events in Christendom? Some think that it will go on indefinitely, much as at present; others suppose that modern progress in science and civilization tends to a perfection which the world will some day arrive at. The teaching of Scripture is very definite and very different. Although an interval of peace and prosperity may immediately follow the rapture of the church, the end of the age will be the advent of the Son of man in power and great glory (Matt. 24:30). The finished refinement of the world being linked with blasphemy against God will bring down sudden and terrific judgment.
But before that, as we have already seen, true believers will have been taken to heaven. This will be the end of Christianity in any true sense. With the translation of the church, its mission will have been completed. Left behind, however, in the world will be the vast but lifeless body of professing Christians. This religious body, perhaps still nominally Christian, may continue for a time, although rejected by Christ; and it is solemn to reflect that this is a condition which, while at present let us hope exceptional, may in places be already existing. Are there not even now so-called churches presided over by men who are themselves strangers to the new birth? and the people over whom they preside — whole congregations — with quite possibly not a new-born soul amongst them; yet the routine of what is called "public worship" proceeding placidly as a decent but empty form? And should there be a sprinkling of half-a-dozen really saved persons there, what is to prevent the entire ecclesiastical machinery still moving on, even if those few be subtracted? So probably will it be when all who know the Lord have been quietly withdrawn to heaven. Indeed, the absence of all vital godliness will be felt as a relief by the worldly who are left. Blinded by self-complacence, the sentiment of such a company will be, "I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing," not knowing that it is "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." And the ministry amongst such need not be so very different from what one reads about in the newspapers today: a honeyed explanation that the Bible is a bundle of old myths; that hell is a fable, and the eternal punishment of sin, instead of that to saye us from which Christ died, is merely an old woman's fear! However, this dead profession will be no longer acknowledged by Christ. It will be spued out of His mouth (Rev. 3:16-17). All this is, according to Scripture, the destiny of the numerous denominations of Christendom, in which at the present time, infidelity of every form is heaving and swelling like leaven (Matt. 13:33). Alongside, however, will be the Papacy, flourishing in undiminished, perhaps augmented, power; for it is clear from Rev. 17:16 that the Papal harlot is in existence after the appearance of the Roman "beast," though receiving destruction from it as we see.
Scripture informs us that this lifeless religion — equally corrupt in Protestantism and the Papacy — will not last, but will terminate in "the apostasy." Paul says, referring to the "day of the Lord," "that day shall not come unless there shall have come the apostasy first" (2 Thess. 2:3). This quotation is taken from Dean Alford's translation, as the term "falling away" used in the Authorised Version and uncorrected in the Revised, is quite inadequate. Mr. Kelly says on the question of rendering: — "Our authorized translators have utterly weakened the sense by rendering he ap. a falling away. Beyond doubt it is the apostasy, and there is no ground whatever for depriving the phrase of its intentionally definite force."* True it is that in 1 Tim. 4. the apostle states that in latter times some shall apostatise from the faith in the way he there mentions — a movement the features of which find their counterpart in Romanism. But Romanism, evil as it is, is still a profession of Christianity, of which it is a perversion, not a public renouncement. It does not answer the terms of what Scripture here signalises by the term "the apostasy," and which is nothing less than the overt and definitive abandonment of Christianity, finally issuing, as we shall see, in its relentless destruction by the civil power over which it had previously exercised rule.
{*"The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians." p.91.}
"The apostasy," strictly speaking, is negative in character. Apostasy is a turning away from something; in this case, from the revelation which God has given of Himself in Christ. It is not the same thing as the Antichrist, though some Christians speak as if it were. Indeed so little are scriptural distinctions apprehended, that "the harlot," "the [Roman] beast," "the apostasy," and "the antichrist," are sometimes referred to as if they all meant the same thing and some Christians can see nothing but the Papacy in each. But Satan is waiting to introduce the Antichrist, a yet deeper form of iniquity, to make room for which even the name of Christianity must be cleared away. Corrupt Christianity having served his purposes, he discards it. In one view the apostasy is man rising up against ecclesiasticism, which, as he thinks, has so long enthralled him; but in reality, as we shall see later on, it is God using evil powers, "the ten horns … and the beast" (Rev. 17:16), for the punishment of the harlot. The apostasy, culminating in the destruction of the harlot, is the clearing away of corrupt Christianity; the antichrist is the filling of the gap which has been created. The apostasy leaves the house "empty, swept, and garnished"; the antichrist enters and fills it.
A source of edification in the study of prophecy is that, being informed beforehand of an event to come, one is enabled to detect and identify principles already working in that direction. Thus, while prophecy predicts "the apostasy," the Christian recognises an advanced movement towards it in that most solemn feature of the age — the change which has taken place in the minds of men towards Christianity. And there is this lamentable circumstance, that the scribes and doctors of Christianity are foremost in teaching the people that they need no longer believe the Bible. They are the converse of Paul's noble example. For instead of preaching the faith which once they destroyed, by an inverted and miserable repentance, they destroy the faith which once they preached. As an ecclesiastic has indeed owned, "The great, novel, and awful characteristic of the present age is, that … open-mouthed infidelity has issued from officiating ministers in the church itself."* Assaults on divine revelation are no new thing; but formerly it was the pride and pleasure of powerful intellects in the church to defend the book of God. Here is a list of a few such works, which have passed into standard literature, and well they deserve it, as models of irrefutable reasoning, viz.: —
"The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature," by Joseph Butler, D.C.L., Bishop of Durham
"An Apology for Christianity" (a reply to Gibbon), by Richard Watson, D.D., Bishop of Llandaff
"An Apology for the Bible" (a reply to Thos. Paine), by ditto
"Evidences of Christianity," by W. Paley, D.D., Archdeacon of Carlisle
"Florae Paulinae; or the Truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul," by ditto
"The Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion," by Soame Jenyns, Esq.
"The Truth of Christianity Demonstrated. A dialogue between a Christian and a Deist," by the Rev. Charles Leslie, M.A.
"A Short and Easy Method with the Deists," by ditto
"A Short and Easy Method with the Jews," by ditto
"Plain Reasons for being a Christian," by Samuel Chandler, D. D.
"The Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul of itself a demonstration of Christianity as a Divine Revelation," by Lord Lyttleton
"Dissertation on Miracles" (reply to Hume), by George Campbell, D.D., Principal of the Marischal College, Aberdeen
"The Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus," by Thomas Sherlock, D. D., Bishop of London
"A Sequel of the Trial," by ditto
"The History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ," by Gilbert West, Esq.
The Transmission of Ancient Books," by Isaac Taylor
"Logic in Theology and other Essays," by ditto
{*"Genesis: its authenticity and authority discussed," by the Rev. Henry Girdlestone, A.B., Rector of Landford, Wilts.}
This list might be largely extended, but it suffices to show the noble work of Christian men of those times. Now we have a Bishop (Dr. Colenso) disputing the authenticity of the Pentateuch. Almost simultaneously, the notorious "Essays and Reviews" heralded, for England, a new and dire epoch as regards Christianity. It was already initiated in Germany, as indeed Dr. Williams says, in lauding Bunsen's views, that they "tend more and more in proportion as they are developed to justify the presentiment of their creating a new epoch in the science of Biblical criticism" ("Essays and Reviews," 10th Ed. p. 528). The presentiment has been fulfilled. It is a new epoch indeed; the smoke of "the abyss" darkening the atmosphere of Christianity! Following is the outburst of what is now rampant under the title of "Higher Criticism" — a catching name which has great advantages as advertisers know. To gauge its character, however, we may take the naive confession of its own exponents, viz.: — "What is the position of students and teachers of the Bible today? They are face to face with a treatment of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, which half, nay, a quarter of a century ago, would have seemed utterly irreverent, subversive of the foundations of the faith; and which still seems to many (it is not to be wondered at) irreverent and mischievous" ("The Higher Criticism," by the Rev. Professor Driver, D.D., and the Rev. Professor Kirkpatrick, D. D).
Here is an acknowledgment by themselves of the true nature of a movement which Doctors of the church are leading twenty-five years ago it would have been deemed "subversive of the foundations of the faith!" At a meeting in London at which Lord Kinnaird took part, the Rev. James Douglas called the Higher Criticism "the most colossal imposition ever palmed upon a credulous public"; and Dr. A. T. Pierson said, "If it had not been invented in hell, it ought to have been" ("Daily Mail," London, 27th Feb. 1907). These are strong words, but not a whit too strong, though not quite scriptural.* However, with the averment of these two ministers as opponents on the one hand, and with the open avowal of Drs. Driver and Kirkpatrick on the other, we hardly need to go further for evidence of the momentous change as to God and His revelation, now taking place in the mind of Christendom.
{*Hell is a place of punishment, not one in which devices of evil are forged. Satan has not yet been cast there, or his power of mischief would be ended. He is not even shut up in the bottomless pit." as he will be during the millennium, but is now at large (see Rev. 12:7; Rev. 20:1, 10). He is "the god of this world" and "the prince of the power of the air." No doubt the Higher Criticism and like movements are from him, which, of course, is what Dr. Pierson intends to imply.}
But in addition to the Higher Criticism there is now its twin brother — what is called "The New Theology." If "new," it is not Christianity: for Christianity, once delivered, cannot be altered. The instructed Christian knows that we are called upon by the apostle Jude to "earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (see R.V. and Alford). Scripture contains a remarkable text in which progress beyond "the doctrine of Christ" as given at the first, or departure from it, are expressly condemned. The Authorised Version gives the text in question as: "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God" (2 John 9). The word "transgresseth" here (proagon) should really be "goeth forward," or onward, as it is, very properly, so rendered in the Revised Version. There are two things condemned by this Scripture one, "going forward" beyond the doctrine of Christ as revealed; and the other, "not abiding" in that doctrine, that is, giving up what has been revealed. Either one or the other is disloyalty to God in the complete and perfect revelation which He has vouchsafed. Going forward, or going backward, from the once-delivered doctrine of the Christ, are alike departure from Christianity.
However, this new creed is mournful and awful. Denying the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, it removes the foundation of Christianity and destroys the sinner's hope, leaving him without any defence against the righteous wrath of God. Further, it insults the Lord Jesus Christ by rejection of the truth of His Person. Be it observed that while the will to reject divine revelation is manifested, the effort at present is to proceed under cover of the name of Christianity, and to clothe the varied falsities in Christian phraseology. Take the atonement — the name is retained, but the true sin-bearing on the cross is reasoned away. Again, the name of the Lord Jesus is retained, but in what fashion? Hear the Rev. R. J. Campbell: — "Whether Jesus the carpenter had any more right to speak about the mysteries of the universe than I or you have, who can tell? We cannot be sure" (Sermon preached in City Temple, 8th October, 1903). Christianity then is rejected; but rejected covertly. It is apostasy in principle, but as yet dissembled. This measure of restraint is the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the church. There is a power that restrains, "For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work, only there is one that restraineth now until he be taken out of the way" (2 Thess. 2:7). But at the translation of the church, this restraint will be lifted off. Whatever then the outward condition of the world; whatever its material prosperity and luxury, a moral change of immense moment will have taken place. Not only will the church have gone, but the church is the habitation of God by the Spirit who came down at Pentecost (John 14:16-17; Acts 2:33; Eph. 2:23; 1 Cor. 3:16-17). That blessed Spirit is still here, notwithstanding that He is resisted by the world, grieved and quenched in the church, and He will remain here so long as the church is on earth. His power and testimony have at times been solemnly manifested, leading up to the overthrow of paganism in the Roman Empire. The church is "the pillar and stay of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). There only is the truth found; outside, all is spiritual darkness and delusion. The presence of the church inhabited by the Spirit acts as a repressive weight upon the evil of the world; indeed, even the presence of an individual Christian is felt as a curb in a company of the ungodly, for the Holy Spirit dwells in the individual believer as well as in the church collectively. What a change has been wrought on the face of the world by the Holy Spirit's presence! What then will be the inverse change when that gracious, holy presence departs? The dead professing body left by the Holy Ghost will be like the earthly temple abandoned by Jesus; and, as with the earthly temple, will not long be tolerated by the profane world. It may be content enough to go on without Christ, but its destiny is to be cast off by the very world to which now it basely accommodates itself.
The symbol of the gaudy harlot riding the ten-horned beast of the Revelation scarcely needs to be explained (for it is proverbially recognised) as representing corrupt Christianity, which has its darkest development in Romanism though by no means its only one, for the harlot has daughters (Rev. 17:5). "Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth" (ver. 9). Now it is stated in this same chapter of the Apocalypse, "The ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire" (Rev. 17:16).
"The beast" symbolises the civil power of the Roman Empire over which the woman has ruled; and "the ten horns" are ten federated kingdoms which will constitute the revived and reorganised Roman Empire of the future. Thus the solemn ordering of God is that, corrupt Christianity, the false church, will be dealt with in judgment earlier than any other entity upon earth. She is not allowed to go on until the appearing of the Lord. Her judgment is earlier. God puts it into the heart of "the ten horns and the beast" (giving them one mind for the purpose, Vers. 16, 17) to turn upon and destroy the harlot. The very kings and powers of the world, over whom she has had sway, with whom she has committed fornication, and, most especially, the Roman Empire which had been her signal boast all these God uses for her punishment. If there is a name which the Papacy has gloried in, it is Rome. By Rome the Papacy will be destroyed. All ye high church ecclesiastics who are aspiring to and aping the Papacy! take note of what is awaiting the harlot, and learn that the greater your success, and the nearer your approach to Popery, with one and another of you dropping from time to time into the jaws of her fascination — the earlier will be your judgment from God. "Her plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burnt with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judged her" (Rev. 18:8). Read the 18th chapter of the Revelation and see the cataclysm of ruin in which the glory of symbolic Babylon is brought to naught.
This is only in accordance with divine principles of action, for that which is professedly near to God, is always first taken in hand for judgment. The direction for the judgment of Ezekiel 9:6 was "Begin at my sanctuary." So Jehovah said to Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2). Similarly with Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum; their judgment should be more terrible than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their greater privileges (Matt. 11:20-24). Again, if the gospel is to the Jew first and also to the Greek, in the same order comes the judgment "Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile" (Rom. 2:9). "Judgment begins at the house of God" (1 Peter 4:17). Upon this principle the harlot of the seven-hilled city (Rev. 17:9) is judged and destroyed, while the profane world is allowed to go on till the coming of the Son of man. Macaulay, in one of his brilliant essays, describes the marvellous influence of the Roman Church, and in view of its seeming immovable permanence arrives in his climax at those well-known words, "And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." This might indeed be supposed by the most philosophic observer apart from God's word; but in His revealed purposes the doom of that church is already decreed. And so far from truth is the imagined perspective of the Essayist that the Papacy will be the very first of the objects to fall under the judgment of God in the closing scenes of this world's history. Against that mystical Babylon there has gone forth a handwriting of fate, not indeed upon the wall as of old, but in the word of the Lord that endureth for ever.
The destruction of the ecclesiastical harlot by the beast will be the consummation of the apostasy which is now working in mystery. Do not suppose that only the Papacy will be affected; she is the mother of all the corrupt ecclesiastical systems of Christendom. There is, however, to be absolute apostasy, of which the crowning act will be the tremendous ruin of that evil institution. The "Higher Criticism" and the "New Theology" may do for the present, but they are only preparatory. Men will not always be satisfied with a giving up of the essence of truth while retaining its form. They will throw away even the form. They will burst through such hypocrisy and tear it to shreds. The apostasy will be total; every form of Christianity will be thrown off, including its most guilty corruption — the Papacy. There have already been pre-manifestations of the spirit that will do this. It was seen at the French Revolution. On a smaller scale it is now at work in the revolt against church authority in France.
Reader, if such is to be the end of Christendom, where are we now on the road? This is not the place to state or refute the doctrines of the "Higher Criticism" and the "New Theology"; what is important is to point out their significance prophetically. Are they not way-marks that intimate the near end of the journey? See we not infidelity and atheism ready to burst forth? But they cannot do so while the restraint exists which has been already explained. The apostasy will not come until that restraint is removed. But the Lord Jesus will descend into the air and catch up the church to be for ever with Him. And with the church the hindrance to new evil will have gone. Who shall say that that moment may not be close at hand? Looks it not as if things below were ripe for the event? And should not these reflections stir up Christians to a more vigilant watching for the return of the Lord? To wait for Him in loyalty without any sign was always the duty of the church. But when we see before our eyes alarming developments which are to come to a head immediately after the church's rapture, the inference unavoidably strikes the mind that the Lord's coming may be nearer than we had ever supposed it.
6. — The Jewish Remnant
1909 195 But a beautiful antithesis to the apostasy will be the testimony of the remnant in that day. "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end come" — (Matt. 24:14). Prior to the cross, the gospel of the kingdom was strictly confined to Israel. "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not" (Matt. 10:5). But now, behold a devoted band going forth to the nations, announcing that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and that the Son of man will come in power and great glory to judge the world. It will be a marvellous thing, when Christ has been given up by Christendom, that the savour of His name will be borne through the world by despised Jews!
The circumstances of this evangelistic remnant are very interesting. First, it appears that, though Jews, they have come to see that the Jesus whom they had crucified was really the Messiah, and so their persecution by the nations is not merely as Jews, but, the Lord says, "for my name's sake (Matt. 24:9). And this coincides with the language prophetically provided for them in Isaiah 53. Its touching expressions are familiar to Christians and applicable no doubt to them, but the passage belongs chiefly and properly to repentant Israel. A new light is shed on this exquisite chapter when we see that this is its primary intention. With what peculiar appropriateness will they be able to say, "He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (vers. 3, 4). The first verse too is especially for Israel. It is the remnant bewailing the rejection of their testimony as well by the mass of Israel as by the nations at large, "Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of Jehovah revealed?" "Arm of Jehovah" is not the character in which Christ is now preached. It is, however, that in which He intervenes in power on behalf of His people (Isa. 51:9), and which will be actually fulfilled when He appears "in power and great glory," delivering both the remnant and the Gentile host out of the "great tribulation" (Matt. 24:30-31; Rev. 7:14). The preaching of the remnant will announce this intervention, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." The "report," however, will not be heeded by the mass of the Jews or the Gentiles, any more than was the preaching of Noah in his day; for, "as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt. 24:37).
No doubt this powerful testimony will be grievous in the eyes of the proud sceptics of Christendom then Christendom no longer. They had thought to have finally got rid of Christ, but have to witness the power of His name again demonstrated by a new and strange evangelism. Doubly obnoxious also to the mass of Israel will be the conversion of a great number of their own race, repenting and owning their sin in having crucified the Lord Jesus. Accordingly, it is not surprising that this devoted and godly remnant will be subject to persecution and martyrdom.
A feature, too, which will probably make the testimony odious to the pleasure-loving dwellers upon earth is that it will be capable of a definiteness as to time which does not pertain to our gospel. The present gospel warns men of the coming of the Lord in judgment. But no one is authorised to say when that will be. The church was put into a waiting attitude when the Lord went away, and should have maintained it. Instead, she adopted the sentiment of the unfaithful servant, "My lord delayeth his coming." As belonging to heaven, the church has nothing to do with times and seasons on the earth. Her duty is simply to wait for the Lord from heaven. Before His ascension, He told the disciples, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons"; and Paul, to the Thessalonians, likewise says, "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you" (Acts 1:7; 1 Thess. 5:1). We, therefore, have no sign given to us, no event but the coming of the Lord to look for, and no event before it. It has been a mistake to suppose that any further preaching under Matt. 24:14 has first to be completed. So far from that it will not have been commenced.
But the Jew has signs, many and various. For instance, there are signs that "the end is not yet"; and later, that "then shall the end come." The preaching of that day, therefore, will, probably from the very first, indicate the near approach of judgment; for even the events as to which it is said, "the end is not yet," are, nevertheless, the beginning of sorrows, which precede "the end" as its penultimate. Thus, the remnant will be able to announce that the coming of Christ in judgment, of which through centuries the world has been warned, is now at last drawing near. If, however, this is an element even in the early stage of the remnant's testimony, in the later stage where "the time of the end" is entered upon, it becomes urgent and imperative. "Fear God and give glory to him" is then the cry, "FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS COME (Rev. 14:7). How unwelcome, like a knell of doom, this will be, to those who have settled down to the enjoyment of the earth. No wonder if they try to silence it by affliction, imprisonment and death (Matt. 24:9; Rev. 20:4). But blessed will be those who in that time receive the testimony, and who come out of "the great tribulation," having "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 7:14).
Another interesting point relating to the remnant's testimony is that it appears to take on a distinctive character at the time of the end. At first it is the gospel of the kingdom. But when that has been preached in the whole world (Matt 24:14), "then shall the end come." The abomination of desolation is set up, and Satan worshipped instead of God, as will be shown in subsequent chapters. This is the time to which applies the vision of Rev. 14:6-7, viz.: "And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having the everlasting glad tidings to announce to those settled on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and do homage to him who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and fountains of waters." This is a testimony which, very clearly, is correlated to the evil of the time, for the preceding chapter tells us, "They did homage to the dragon, because he gave the authority to the beast: and they did homage to the beast" (Rev. 13:4). Thus Satan and the Roman beast are worshipped. In these circumstances God is identified in the gospel as the One who created all things. What a comment upon the state of the world, that men are so carried away by Satan's influence that when God claims the worship that is His due He has to define and specify Himself as the One who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and fountains of waters! Now, at that time, what will be the position? Christendom will have apostatised; all fear of God is cast off; the very being of the blessed Creator is ignored or denied; and Jews and Gentiles worship the dragon, the Roman beast, and the antichrist, in lieu of God. Moreover, seven angels are in readiness to pour out the bowls of divine fury upon this wickedness (Rev. 15, 16 ). But God is "rich in mercy," and it is just then that we have that beautiful intimation of His grace an angel flying in mid-heaven having "EVERLASTING GLAD TIDINGS to announce to those settled on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people." This will be no feeble voice among men; the call will be as from mid-heaven, and the voice is loud (Rev. 14:7).
The glad tidings are everlasting. They were coeval with the fall of man, when God declared that the Seed of woman should bruise the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15). In richer, fuller form, they are still sounding salvation to the believer, though foolishness to them that perish. In the time to come the gospel is apparently reduced to its lowest terms to fear God and give Him glory, and to do homage to the Creator in repudiation of the dragon and his trinity. Whoever accepts that message of grace will be saved. The result is magnificent, for we have already seen from Rev. 7, that besides the elect of Israel, a host so vast that no one could number them, accept this gospel, and emerge triumphant from the great tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. By all this will be manifested the character of God who "will by no means clear the guilty"; yet is "abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin" (Ex. 34:6-7). It is a relief, amidst the judgments of the Apocalypse, to see thus the brightness of divine grace, bursting through the dark clouds.
Besides the external sufferings of the remnant, their trials from within will be poignant. Under the strenuous temptation of the time, there will be treacherous defections from their ranks, with all the mortification and disappointment which such lapses must cause. There will be, too, the rending of ties and severing of friendships, as we read, "Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And because lawlessness (dvopcia) shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold" (Matt. 24:12). The "many" here must mean of the remnant. It could not mean of Israel at large; for they will, as now, be hardened in estrangement from God. Those, therefore, whose loye cools must be those in whom there was love that could be cooled. So while some will desert and betray, many will become half-hearted, to the grief, no doubt, of the zealous and true. Then follows a text which has troubled the peace of many a Christian, but which really belongs to the Jewish remnant of a future day — "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." It refers to salvation when the Lord appears in judgment. Many will fall away under the influence of the delusions of the time, but there will be a discriminating judgment when the Son of man appears. Then, there may be two in the field, and one may be taken and the other left. That is, one taken in judgment, and the other spared or "saved" to pass into eternal life on the earth under the Son of man in the millennium. Besides these things there will be to the godly remnant as to Christians now, all the dangers arising from personal unwatchfulness. "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:34-36). Here, what is in view is clearly not the catching up of saints out of the world, but an escaping through judgments, and passing, saved, into the millennium.
What now will be the light and intelligence which will be possessed by the remnant? This is a question not quite easy to answer. But God's hook, the Bible, will still be in the world, and there is instruction in Matt. 24 provided for the Jewish remnant, which fact would imply that they will have recourse to the New Testament as well as to the Old. But the Epistolary part at least, of the New Testament, will be to the remnant in the same relation as the Old Testament scriptures to us. The remnant will perhaps look back to those writings as we to the Prophets or the Psalms; but the church being gone, they may well be in doubt whether they can appropriate privileges which be longed to a calling which will be past and over. Possibly, they may regard with a kind of pious envy the heavenly privileges of the church, which Christians now so little value or even know. How far they will have spiritual understanding of the scriptures is doubtful, for they will not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the Christian now has; and every mature believer knows what a difference there is between the scriptures as he now grasps them, and as they were but dimly understood before he was sealed by the Spirit. Indeed, the condition of soul of the remnant would seem to be analogous to that of a person at the present time who has been converted, but has not yet found peace. Such an one is quickened with eternal life, but does not know it; clings to God earnestly, but as yet has not the Spirit of adoption; has not salvation. That, indeed, is intensely longed for; there are times of joy and hope and anon of depression approaching despair. All this is aptly expressed in the Psalms, which give Jewish experience, not Christian. No child of God now should be in this state, because the gospel announces eternal life and peace simply on believing. The remnant, however, will probably have but dim light. The reader will doubtless remember, even of the disciples who were with Jesus upon earth, how poor was their comprehension of what He said to them. See Mark 9:32; Luke 2:50; Luke 9:45; John 10:6; John 12:16. The last-mentioned text intimates the reason of this mental dulness, "These things understood not the disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified then remembered they that these things were written of him." The explanation is that, when Jesus was glorified, the Holy Spirit was given, and their minds were illuminated. And the remnant, when the church is gone, will be in a somewhat similar condition.
If, however, the remnant have not the presence of the Holy Spirit as we now, yet the Spirit will work in them; and besides, a most interesting feature is that there is made repeated mention of those "that understand among the people," who appear to be a class raised up for the help of Israel in that dark day. This has always been a resource provided by God for His people especially in difficult times. Of old, there were men of Issachar, who "had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do" (1 Chron. 12:32). So the remnant in the days of Ezra had assistance from "men of understanding" (see Ezra 8:16-18), and so will it be with the future remnant. "They that understand among the people shall instruct many" (Dan. 11:33). "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" (ver. 35). "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. 12:3). It is to this class of understanding ones that reference is made in connection with "the number of the beast." "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six" (Rev. 13:18). Thus, what now is an enigma, will doubtless in the day when required for practical use, be expounded by "them of understanding" for the instruction of God's people.
We have already seen from the Revelation the sealing of a remnant of Israel, while in Matthew the existence of that remnant is assumed, for the prophecy gives instruction and cautions for such a remnant in the last times, firstly in the beginning of sorrows, and afterwards at the time of the end. This fits with the doctrine of Romans that when the church-period closes, divine dealings with Israel are renewed. God leaves not Himself without witness. A remnant of Israel stands out boldly for Him in the world. The sealing, obviously, is the setting apart of the individuals for God, and the seal being in the forehead probably intimates that their character will be manifest visible to all. Notice that they are not merely sealed for God, but as "the servants of our God." It is in this character that they carry the gospel of the kingdom to the nations. The number 144,000 is of course symbolical, implying that the remnant is a definite number proportionate to the twelve tribes, not a countless host, as in the case of the Gentile multitude.
The development of a new national sentiment by a large number out of Israel must necessarily create considerable stir. One of the first results will probably be the revival of what is now dead in the heart of Israel, expectation of the Messiah; and there will be the fraudulent pretence of many ambitious men who will present themselves in that character for the acceptance of the Jews, which has before been a danger to that people, as Josephus tells us. There will also be "false prophets," and many will he entrapped by these imposters, but the godly are elaborately cautioned against them. And at the time of the end (vers. 23, 24) when Satanic power is rampant, they will exhibit great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, the very elect. The elect here are the elect of Israel, not, of course, of the church. But while the mass of the Jews are in darkness and at the mercy of these delusions, the remnant are instructed that the coming of Messiah will be like lightning shining from the east unto the west. It will be (1) from heaven, (2) public and unmistakable, (3) glorious and terrible. They will know, therefore, that any report as to the Messiah being here or there, in any earthly locality, must necessarily be false.
7. — The Time of the End
1909 213 Making our way slowly, but we trust surely, through the 24th of Matthew, we have passed in our progress these events:
1. The rapture of the church to heaven,
2. A temporary calm in the world, and the rising of a great leader of remarkable and comparatively peaceful success, who is rewarded with a crown ("a crown was given to him"),
3. The sealing of a remnant of Israel as servants of God, and their going forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom,
4. Persecution and martyrdom of the remnant for the name of Jesus,
5. Cessation of the world's delusive peace, and the outbreak of wars and rumours of wars peace is taken from the earth; but the end not yet.
Previous pages have afforded some explanation of the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom; but in verse 14 of our chapter we reach a signal mark for the division of the prophecy. Verses 4-14 give "the beginning of sorrows," not "the time of the end." Now, however, it is stated, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole habitable earth for a witness unto all the nations: and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). The prophecy now therefore enters upon "the time of the end." "The end" or "The time of the end" is a technical term of prophecy. Thus in Dan. 11:35 we are told that some of the understanding ones should be tried (persecuted) and fall (that is, martyred) "to the time of the end." in verse 40 is predicted war by the king of the south, and by the king of the north, "at the time of the end." In Dan. 12:1 (connect with Dan. 11:40) the same period is referred to as that in which "the great tribulation" should take place. And our Lord in Matt. 24, after stating in Matt. 24:14 that "then shall the end come," goes on to say, "Then let them which be in Juda flee into the mountains … for then shall be great tribulation," etc. (Matt. 24:16, 21); adding, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened … and then they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matt. 24:29-30). "The end," therefore, is a period within which events happen; not the exact moment of the coming of the Son of man, but the last brief epoch of the age, commencing with "the abomination of desolation" (Matt. 24:15), and culminating in the appearing of "the sign of the Son of man, in heaven" (Matt. 24:30). It is the latter half-week of Dan. 9:27 when the Roman prince abrogates the Jewish ritual, causes the oblation and offering to cease, substitutes for Jehovah's worship the worship of "the man of sin" in the holy place. These then are distinct sections of our chapter, viz., Matt. 24:4-14, the beginning of sorrows; Matt. 24:15-44, the time of the end.
Before leaving verse 14, let us notice that the common acceptation that the gospel of the kingdom here spoken of must be preached to every individual nation or tribe before the end can come, is scarcely borne out by the text. The verse does not say that the gospel must be preached to every nation, but that its being preached in the whole habitable earth (no longer confined to Israel) was to be a witness to all the nations. Just as the reading of the Riot Act puts a city under responsibility, though every individual person might not hear the words; so the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in the wide world (holei tei oicoumene) will be as a trumpet blast to the nations, requiring them to bow to the universal authority of Christ. It will be one more, one final, appeal, just prior to the coming of Christ in judgment. The kingdom of heaven will then indeed be at hand, and that, in awful significance.
However, on the gospel of the kingdom being preached in the whole habitable earth, "then shall the end come," and the initial event of that period is given in the succeeding verse: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains" (Matt. 24:15-16). What now is meant by this mysterious expression, "the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place"? Of all iniquities, that which is pre-eminently abominable to God is idolatry, for it is the formal, overt denial of His Godhead, and the substitution of the creature for Himself, the Creator. Hence we find in the Old Testament that the word "abomination" has a special use as signifying an object of false worship. Thus, "Ashtoreth the abomination of the Lidonians; Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites; and Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon."* The "holy place," of course, means the temple. The Lord had announced with reference to the temple then standing, "There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down" (ver. 3). Hence it follows that in the interval the temple will have been rebuilt. Take in connection with this, 2 Thess. where the apostle Paul speaks of one who is to be revealed before "the day of the Lord," namely, "That man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (vers. 3, 4). Here we have in the apostle's teaching, the two points of Matt. 24:15 — the temple recognised as again in existence; and an exorbitant phase of idolatry, a man setting himself up as God, sitting in the temple of God, and showing himself that he is God. This somewhat illuminates the expression, "abomination of desolation," but it will be more fully explained later on.
{* 2 Kings 23:13. See also 2 Kings 21:2; lsa. 44:19; Ezek. 7:20, etc.}
In the verses just quoted from Matt. 24 it will be observed that our Lord makes pointed reference to the prophecy of Daniel. The parts of that prophecy which principally relate to the subject are in the 9th and 12th chapters. Daniel 9:24-27 gives the celebrated prophecy of the "seventy weeks," viz., "Seventy weeks are determined 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. 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 the 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. And 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, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
The weeks here, it is almost unnecessary to explain, are hebdomads of years, not of days. This prophecy is introduced by the exhortation, "Understand the matter, and consider the vision" (Daniel 9:23). Then it says, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city." These seventy weeks, then, relate to Daniel's people, and to Jerusalem. The church-period, therefore, in which we now are, is no part of those weeks. As a matter of fact it is a gap between Daniel 9:26 and Daniel 9:27, and this harmonises with what has already been shown, namely, that the church-period is a hiatus between God's past dealings with Israel, and those yet to come. A careful reading indicates that the "seventy weeks" are divided into three parcels, viz., seven, sixty-two, and one. The seven, plus the sixty-two, i.e. sixty-nine, bring us (see Daniel 9:25) to Messiah the Prince — leaving one week of the seventy unaccomplished, and this, the last week, is in ver. 27. But several events, the cutting off of Messiah, and the destruction of Jerusalem, are subsequent to the sixty-nine weeks, and yet before the seventieth, of ver. 27, clearly showing the broken currency of the weeks, broken between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth, so that the whole of the present period, from the cutting off of Messiah, to the appearance of the Roman prince who will confirm covenant with the many, is a gap or interval forming no part of the seventy weeks. For our purposes in considering these weeks we need not go further back than ver. 26, for there we get a clear point of time in the cutting off of Messiah. That event is stated to be "after the three score and two weeks" (virtually, after the sixty-ninth, i.e. seven plus sixty-two).
An important error exists in ver. 26 as given in the Authorised Version. It reads, "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself." The correct translation is, "Messiah shall be cut off and have nothing." That is, the Messiah did not take the kingdom, though it was His by right. Being rejected and crucified, He could only have taken it by judgment in power; and His then mission was not one of judgment but of salvation (John 3:17). So He was "cut off," and went back to heaven with "nothing." There are also some minor errors in the Authorised Version, but the following is a correct rendering of vers. 26, 27, with which we have now to do, viz., "And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war — the desolations determined. And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations [there shall be] a desolator, even until that the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate [one]." The first item in this prophecy — the cutting off of Messiah, has been already explained. Next, there is the destruction of the city and the sanctuary — not, mark, by the prince that shall come, but by the people of that prince. We know that the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was by the Romans; and though a Roman prince, Titus Vespasianus, was with the Roman hosts at the time, the destruction of the temple was emphatically by them, not by their prince. It was contrary to his express commands, and he exerted himself to his utmost power to prevent the destruction of the temple. (See Milman's History of the Jews, pp. 408, 409, 2nd Ed.; and Josephus, Wars, 6. ch. 4, pp. 5, 7). But here we have an intimation that that important personage, "the prince that shall come," and who is referred to in the next verse as "confirming a covenant with the many," will be of the same nationality as the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary — the Romans.
1909 228 Now we come to that verse of deep significance, the 27th. "He shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week." The pronoun, of course, refers to the last person mentioned, "the prince that shall come"; that is, of the Roman people. It is needless to say that this covenanting of a Roman prince with the Jewish people is an event yet future. No Roman prince has yet made such a covenant; nor has that people been in a position to reciprocate, since the destruction of Jerusalem and their scattering over the face of the earth. Here, however, we have the last week of the seventy. The expression "the many" means the majority of the nation, in contrast with the godly remnant already placed before the reader. At the time of the end, therefore, there are to be dealings between the Roman Empire and the mass of the people of Israel, and we have already seen the prominence of Israel in the latter day.
Events of current history help us to understand this. Who has not noticed the great stir of late amongst the Jews? What means the "Zionist movement" but the incipience of a corporate and national activity? Is it not a budding of something that will yet bear fruit? In Dan. 9:27 we see a covenant with the mass of Israel which a Roman prince is to confirm for a hebdomad. This has generally been taken to mean that he shall make a firm covenant; but there seems no reason why the phrase should not be understood in its simple sense of confirming a covenant already made. Indeed, the latter sense would coincide with the general tenor of prophecy as regards Israel, for, near the close of the age, we find Israel having a national and religio-political existence; their land restored to them, and the temple rebuilt. When one considers their present position as foretold by Hosea, viz., that "the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim" (Hosea 3:4); when we see them persecuted, barely tolerated, exiled through centuries from their own land; and their highest ambition to gain equality with Gentiles; when we find all this reversed, and that they are in a position to make a treaty with the head of the Roman Empire, it is obvious that a vast political change must have occurred as regards that people.
If, however, scripture shows that some great power will take up the case of Israel, sending ambassadors to them, it becomes easy to understand that when the Roman prince of Dan. 9. comes upon the scene, he might find a treaty or covenant with Israel in existence which it would be to his interest not to set aside, but to confirm. Strikingly apposite to this is the 18th chapter of Isaiah. The Authorised Version of this chapter is preferable to the Revised, which latter appears to have got further away from the sense of the original.* The following is the corrected rendering of the late Mr. J. N. Darby: — "Ha! land shadowing with wings, which art beyond the rivers of Cush, that sendest ambassadors over the sea, and in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, [saying, ] Go, swift messengers to a nation scattered and ravaged, to a people terrible (or, marvellous) from their existence and thenceforth; to a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, see ye, and when a trumpet is blown, hear ye! For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will observe from my dwelling-place like clear heat upon herbs, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning knives, and take away [and] cut down the branches. They shall be left together unto the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the earth; and the birds of prey shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts of a people scattered and ravaged and from a people terrible from their existence and thenceforth, a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled, … to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion" (Isa. 18:1-7).
{*See Kelly's Exposition of Isaiah. Ed. 1897, pp. 214-220. Weston 53, Paternoster Row, London.}
This remarkable prophecy points to some nation very distant from the land of Israel — "beyond the rivers of Cush," described as "shadowing with wings," which sends "ambassadors over the sea to a nation scattered and ravaged, to a people terrible (or, marvellous) from their existence and thenceforth, to a nation of continued waiting and treading down" — which latter terms graphically outline the nation of Israel. Here is indicated the befriending of Israel by some maritime nation of widely extended protective power — "shadowing with wings." Isa. 18:3-6 intimate that Jehovah stands utterly aloof from all this, for the movement is purely worldly and political, without a trace of repentance on the part of the guilty people. Probably the befriending nation makes a treaty with Israel to restore their land to them and protect them in building their temple and re-establishing their worship. At all events the Roman prince will "confirm a covenant" with the mass of the nation.
Should the reader be curious as to this most interesting chapter of Isaiah, it may be well to explain, without staying now to prove it, that Isa. 18:4 expresses the aloofness of Jehovah from Israel when returned unrepentant to the land; Isa. 18:5 and 6 the awful carnage which comes in judgment upon the apostate mass who will have received and worshipped "the man of sin" ("the antichrist") in the temple; while Isa. 18:7 represents the godly remnant, brought as an offering or present to Jehovah of hosts, when the wicked of Israel will have been destroyed. With fullest desire not to travel beyond the record, yet the description of the tutelary power in Isaiah can scarcely be read without the mind receiving, from the terms of the prophecy, a suggestion of England. No country could be better described as "shadowing with wings," nor more distinguished for friendship to oppressed peoples especially the Jews.* It would be wrong, however, to assume that England is necessarily indicated, for we do not know what nation may, or may not, at the date in question, answer as well or better, to the terms of the prophecy. The phrase, "Woe to the land shadowing," etc., is preferably translated, "Ha! land shadowing," etc., and "beyond the rivers of Cush" may be simply expressive of extreme and unknown distance from the land of the prophet, beyond the remote parts of Africa.
{*At a great meeting of the Hampstead Patriotic Society, under the presidence of Earl Roberts, on 20th May, 1906, it is stated that the address of a Jewish Rabbi was the most striking of all. "If," he said, "you, my Christian fellow-countrymen, love England, and, are so proud of it because it is so great and strong, to your affection, loyalty, and reverence there is added, in the heart of the Jew, a feeling of the deepest and most unspeakable gratitude. When we think of the fate of our brethren in other countries with traditions less noble than yours, we thank God for this great land of the free." — Daily Telegraph, London, 28th May, 1906.}
Reverting now to the last week of the seventy, we find that in the midst of that week the Roman prince causes the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. This shows that the Jewish ritual is at this time established; not that the Roman prince caused it to be installed, as that probably was a subject of the covenant which he "confirmed for a week. But now in the middle of the week, he breaks the covenant, obviously, in order to substitute for the Jewish sacrifice the worship of himself and of the antichrist in the temple. This seems a legitimate inference from the general tenor of the prophecies. That is, "abomination" is a name for an object of idolatrous worship, and we find that the antichrist is to set himself up for worship in the temple. It seems unavoidable that this must be the "abomination of desolation which scripture predicts to stand in the holy place — a view which is somewhat confirmed by another verse of Daniel which makes the two events to be simultaneous, inasmuch as that they together, are given as a point of time, from which a certain number of days is to be reckoned, viz., "From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days" (Dan. 12:11).
Now the instruction for those of the remnant who are in Judaea at this time is immediate flight into the mountains: there is not to be a moment's delay for any consideration whatever. Notice, in passing, the tender solicitude of Christ for His persecuted people. They are told to pray that their flight might not be in the winter, neither on the sabbath day, for then ensues a tribulation such as the world has never yet seen, nor ever will again. "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matt. 24:21). We of the present day who may freely hold and profess whatever faith we choose, enjoying the beneficent protection of government, can have but a faint apprehension of the cruel and relentless oppression of that time. An image is to be made of "the beast," and all who will not worship the image will be killed (Rev. 13:15). As beheading (20:4) is stated to be the mode of this death, probably the guillotine will be again at work. "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" (Rev. 13:16-17). Thus, even short of death, there will be harassments and persecutions from which there will be no escape. Acknowledgment of the dragon's representative, the beast, will be insisted upon. The mark must be in the right hand, or on the forehead; no occupation can be followed, no one can sell and no one buy, except in the name of the beast; no exception will be allowed; the noble and the peasant, the poor man and the millionaire, the slave and the freeman must bow to and acknowledge Satan in his representative the beast. The prophetic words are only the graphic touches of a sketch, but reading, as it were, between the lines, one can understand that the tribulation will be, as the Lord said, "such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be."
This great tribulation will probably have its vortex where the image of the beast is set up in Jerusalem but it will be worldwide; for the great multitude of Rev. 7. (see Rev. 7:9-14), and who are of every nation and tribe and people and tongue are stated to have come out of "the great tribulation" not merely (as in the Authorised Version) great tribulation, such as might happen to any godly person at any time. This is "the great tribulation" (he thlipsis he megale).
And what will be the end of all this? The Lord 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 pow ers of the heavens shall be shaken" (Matt. 24:29). This is the symbolical language of prophecy; but how is it to he interpreted? Peter tells us that no prophecy of the scripture is of its own or isolated interpretation(idias epiluseos); that is, the whole of the scripture hangs together, and there is a consistency, if not uniformity, in the use of prophetic figures. Now in Genesis the greater light, the lesser light, and the stars are described as ruling the day and the night respectively; and it will be found throughout the Revelation and prophecy generally, that the heavenly bodies are symbols of rule — the sun supreme authority, the moon reflected, while the stars represent the minor and subordinate vessels of rule. In the 29th verse then is symbolically portrayed the complete upsettal of all government immediately upon the conclusion of Daniel's seventieth week. What follows the great political convulsion? "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the land lament, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). To all, except the godly, how appalling will be this sight; but to the Jews who will have accepted, and glorified in, the "lawless" king, the antichrist, how terrible will it be to see the Jesus whom they had crucified and despised, suddenly appear on the clouds of heaven in supernal glory!
8. — The Future Religion — Worship of Satan
1909 243 Genesis, presenting man in innocence, shows that he is confronted by a being who seeks to supplant God in the mind and heart of His creature, man. Satan insinuates that, in the nominal act of fealty imposed, God was keeping back something good; he seeks to appear more generous than God — always his policy and through that, tempts man to his ruin. Satan really cares naught for man, but he gains his object of displacing the good Creator from man's loyal affection. Now Genesis is a book of beginnings. It exhibits either in fact or in type all the principles of the relationships of men with God; and the Apocalypse which closes the canon of Scripture, shows the ultimate issue of all that Genesis gives in embryo. Thus, if Genesis shows the initial effort of Satan to gain an entrance into man's mind, the Apocalypse exhibits, in full development, Satan obtaining at last, publicly and openly, worship by the world as God.
Such is the appalling maturity of influences and movements which even now are working like a ferment in men's minds. Through the ages Satan has been aiming at this, but heretofore has only placed other objects before man for his worship, gaining thus, however, the primary step of supplanting God, but not, so far, offering himself as the direct substitute. He is indeed "the god of this age" (2 Cor. 4:4), but is worshipped through other objects which are pleasing to mankind. The time is coming, however, when the veil will be removed, and Satan be worshipped without ambiguity. So saith the scripture: "All the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast" (Rev. 13:3-4). The ultimate doom of this malignant being is to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 20:10), and tormented for ever and ever. But this will not be until his furthermost efforts against God have been put forth and frustrated. At the present time his activity is ceaseless — though, in an age of rest which is coming for this world, he will be bound and imprisoned for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3).
With our ideas it may seem incredible that sober people of modern civilisation should become idolaters, and, strangest of all, that the Jews should revert once more to their ancient and special form of wickedness of which they had seemed to be so thoroughly cured ever since the Babylonish captivity. But in a parable in Matt. 12 the Lord prophesied that it would be so. That chapter gives the rejection of Christ by the Jews, a council being held as to how they might destroy Him (Matt.12:14). The rest of the chapter is mainly occupied with His judgment upon that "evil and adulterous generation"; and at Matt.12:43 He puts forth the following parable: — "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return unto my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."
The concluding words clearly define the parable as prophetic of the future history of that wicked race, the Christ-rejecting Jews. It has other applications, but this is the direct and principal. The demon of idolatry has been cast out, but has not been replaced by the true worship of Jehovah, for they have rejected Him in the person of the Christ. In the language of Hosea already quoted they are "without a sacrifice" (i.e. the worship of Jehovah), and they have not filled the void with a false god, for they are also "without an image." The house, then, is empty, swept, and garnished. The result will be the return of the unclean spirit — idolatry — in more than seven-fold force. The seven spirits which are added to the first are more wicked than the original one, even as the worship of the antichrist will be more blasphemously evil than the ancient worship of Milcom, Ashtoreth, or other abominations. The rejection of their own Messiah leaves the Jews peculiarly liable to the delusion of the false Messiah when Satan's time shall have come to present him for their acceptance. This is what the Lord referred to when He said, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John 5:43); and again He said, referring to His own rejection, "If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry" (Luke 23:31)? If such were the budding iniquity of that day, what dreadful fruit might there not be in the maturity of the plant.
But the parable of Matt. 12 is direfully appropriate to Christendom as well as to the Jews. That the course of Christendom will terminate in the abandonment and repudiation of the Christian faith has been shown in chapter 5 of this paper. The house then will be empty and swept; but more, it will be garnished. Mentally intoxicated by scientific discoveries and the refinements of high civilisation, and no longer restrained by the true knowledge of God, the minds of men will be prepared to accept the Satanic delusions of the end of the age, and will fall into idolatrous worship of the antichrist and the Roman beast, and even of Satan as we shall see. Accordingly, we find in the Revelation, that "All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Roman beast), whose names are not written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb slain"* (Rev. 13:8).
{*Carefully bear in mind that 'from the foundation of the world' belongs not to 'slain,' but to the writing of the name. The Lamb was not slain from the foundation of the world, though there was the eternal purpose; but the name was written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain. Compare Revelation 17:8, where the omission of the slain Lamb makes the true connection plain and certain." — (W. Kelly, Expositon of the Revelation, p. 156 Weston, 53, Paternoster Row).}
It is impossible to get far in dealing with prophetic subjects without having recourse to that invaluable part of scripture named pre-eminently "The Revelation," and which, although hasty and unbelieving men may say that it is impossible to be understood, is yet the only book of the Bible to the reading of which there is an exceptional blessing attached, "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein" (Rev. 1:3). From Daniel 9 it has been shown that a Roman prince fills an important place in the doings of the last days. But only in the Revelation do we get the full portrait of this remarkable character. In Rev. 17 is exhibited the judgment of Babylon the great, symbolized as a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast. This woman, "the great harlot," is demonstrably the Papacy — but at present our purpose is not with her but with the beast that carries her. The angel-guide who exhibits and explains this vision to John, says, "I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, that it was, and is not, and shall be present. Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. And they are seven kings; the five are fallen, the one is, the other is yet to come, and when he cometh he must continue a little while. And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven, and he goeth into perdition" (Rev. 17:7-11).
In the interpretation of these symbols there is one very clear mark. Rome has ever been famous as the "seven hilled city," and the seven heads are here stated to mean seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. This symbol, therefore, identifies with Rome the beast which carries the woman. But the seven heads, besides furnishing clear topographical indication of Rome, also signify seven kings, i.e. seven different forms of government:* five had been, one was, and the seventh was yet to come. Now in the apostle's time, Rome had had five forms of government, viz. kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, tribunes. The empire was that which existed in the time of John. That is the sixth; and the beast — the revived Roman empire — will be the seventh, yet counted as an eighth.
{*That this is the significance of "king" as a prophetic symbol, may be seen from its use in Daniel (see Dan. 7:17, 23).} beast — the revived Roman empire — will be the seventh, yet counted as an eighth.
The greatness of ancient Rome is famous, and her decline and fall proverbial, but men are little aware that there is yet to be a revival of that empire on a scale of magnificence which will evoke the amazement of the world. "They that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, when they behold the beast that it was, and is not, and shall be present." In that mystic phrase is prophetically condensed the history of the Roman Empire. Its resurrection will be contrary to any previous experience. Empires hitherto have gradually risen, attained their zenith and then fallen; but though the Roman Empire seems to have received a deadly wound, that wound is to be healed — and the new empire will be the seventh head — but so marvellous and distinct in character that it is counted an eighth. "I saw one of his heads wounded as it were to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast … and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him (Rev. 13:3-4)? Considering the far from leading position of Rome at present, surprise may be felt at the idea of her being once more the leader of the world. The explanation is found in the significant statement that the beast is "to come up out of the abyss" (Rev. 17:8, already quoted). This is an index to a condition of the world of which men have hitherto had no experience. At the risk of digression, it may be well to trace this matter a little through scripture.
1909 260 All government in the world has heretofore been of God. In the remarkable clash of opinions today, and wild projects for the improvement of the world, there has arisen a company of men more dangerous from their audacity than their number, who call themselves Nihilists in Russia, and in other places, Anarchists. The etymology of both names indicates the principles held — no government of any kind, no law, no worship, no God — nothing — nihil! Or, anarchy — without a chief, but with all that this chiefless lawlessness involves — mankind to be left to their own ungoverned impulses. And from this low-level swamp into which all evil will drain, the anarchists are deluded enough to expect that good will arise to humanity. Alas! for the neglected light of the Bible! Had they known the Scriptures they might have seen that in the varied demonstration of principles which God has wrought out on the platform of this world, man has already been tried on the very ground of no government; for that was the condition of the world before the deluge. There is no record, no trace of any government until then. Man, now that he had listened to Satan and rejected God, was allowed to display what he would come to without law and without interference. And what was the result? "The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them from the earth" (Gen. 6:5, 11, 12, 13). That was the development of fallen human nature left to itself.
How little do men reflect or even know, that for 1,600 years man has been tried on the very principles which anarchists now advocate; and that the awful product was a chaos of iniquity — corruption on the one hand, and violence on the other, such as brought down the vengeance of the Almighty upon the whole race, Noah (the "just man and perfect," Gen. 6:9) and his family being alone saved. Is it not strange that the Flood, the greatest event which the world has witnessed (except the visit and murder of the Son of God), is totally ignored, and its moral significance unknown or despised? But there is a will in this ignorance. Men do not wish to be reminded of the judgment Of God, either past or future. Hence they ignore that the earth has already once been swept by judgment, and is now reserved to a more awful visitation. Meanwhile the fact of the deluge remains a testimony: (1) That the world has not continued from its creation as it now is. (2) That the race has already been visited with appalling judgment for wickedness. (3) That man left to himself, so far from developing in the direction of goodness and happiness, sinks lower and lower into filthy corruption and frightful violence. THAT IS THE LESSON OF THE DELUGE. "There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:3-7).
Government, prior to the deluge, had not, So to speak, been invented. For example, Cain slew Abel, but there was no judiciary to deal with the crime. God personally intervened in this particular case; but there was no general administration of justice. Lamech openly avows that he had slain a man because of injury (Gen. 4), but there is no allusion to the existence of any law to appeal to, or any government to protect. The primitive private war, the shootings and stabbings, which we read of in America, the unauthorised killing of negroes for alleged crimes, but without process of law these are, in their measure, a reversion to the state of unregulated society before the flood. But what in that respect is now exceptional, was then general — "the earth was filled with violence."*
{*Mr. G. K. Chesterton (Illustrated London News, 1907). remarks that in America "one can still find primitive private war, shootings and stabbings, not under the rules of military service, and not even under the dignity and etiquette of the duel; mere private killing." A daily paper gives the following under date of London, Dec. 9th, 1907: — "A tobacco war between planters and dealers is raging at Hopkinsville, in Kentucky. Four hundred armed and masked men attacked the city, and, having secured and locked up all the police and firemen in the town, set fire to several tobacco factories. They then marched through the streets in a body, and fired a fusillade of shots at the houses of several tobacco dealers. Before they left the town they had damaged property to the extent of £40,000. Shortly after their departure, a number of citizens armed themselves, and started in pursuit. They got close enough to the retreating force to exchange shots with them, but the marauders, who are believed to be tobacco growers, escaped. A terrible story of revenge was received in the town shortly afterwards. It was that the manager of the Imperial Tobacco Factory had been captured by a party of growers, who tied him up, and whipped him to death."}
In the commencement of the new world, however, a change was made in various matters, and amongst them the principle of government is for the first time found "whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (Gen. 9:6). Here is the germ of government divinely instituted for the restraint of human evil. The punishment of crime in man is solemnly and expressly placed in the hands of his fellow men, and henceforth the magistrate "beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God." The abolition of capital punishment therefore is the rejection of a divine institution designed for the repression of evil. The full doctrine on the subject is given in the Epistle to the Romans, where the apostle Paul states "that there is no authority* except from God: and those that exist are set up by God" (Rom. 13:1).
{*Mistranslated "power" in A.V. and uncorrected in the R.V., but rendered "authority" by Darby, Alford, T. S. Green, C. J. Vaughan. and others.}
The "divine right of kings" is a faulty expression. The authority of kings is indeed divine, but so also is every authority in the world, whether it be that of a king, or the president of a republic; whether it be that of a governor, a judge, or a magistrate down even to a policeman or a taxgatherer; and, in other spheres, an officer of an army or a ship, or a foreman of labourers, a husband, a father, or a schoolmaster. All existent authority in the world is divine; and government in the present fallen state of man is a divine blessing. Man may abuse the authority entrusted to him, and for that will give account in the judgment. But the authority which he either uses or abuses is placed in his hand from above; and as long as it exists, cannot be disobeyed with impunity. The dogma that "power proceeds from the people," is a fallacy. Historically, it has not been the fact. Under a democratic government it may appear to be so, simply because God may permit that form of administering. His power; but in the history of mankind, democracy has been exceptional, and the prevailing governments of Christendom, excepting America and France, are even now, either of a mixed nature, or, as in Russia, autocratic. The case of Russia itself refutes the axiom. The population is over 125 millions; power is not with the people there, much less does it proceed from them; indeed, they are engaged in a frantic struggle to clutch it. British India contains one-seventh of the population of the globe. Does power inhere in its people? On the contrary, its millions have been controlled to the present time by a handful of Englishmen.
It is well to understand thus, the true nature of present government, in order to appreciate the change which there will be in the closing period of the present age. There will not then be government of divine origin as now; neither will there be the negation of government as desired by anarchists, except perhaps briefly during the tumult out of which arises the Roman beast (Rev. 13:1). Government there will be, but its dreadful character is that it will be energised by Satan. The Roman Empire has been; then there is a period of non-existence; but in its final form it comes up out of "the abyss" is of Satanic origin. The prophet in this enlightens us as to the true origin of the beast, although instrumentally and proximately it arises from amongst the mass of the nations in a state of confusion; for the beast is seen "rising up out of the sea" (Rev. 13. 1). Now, "waters," as a prophetic symbol, is interpreted in Rev. 17:15 to mean "peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues." By analogy, then, "the sea" would mean the same in a state of agitation and commotion — possibly anarchy.
How strong already is the tendency to this state of politics is plainly to be seen. Anarchy is now openly professed. A few years back, to say that any given course tended to anarchy or even socialism was to condemn it; but anarchism is now a force to be reckoned with, and so indeed are milder forms of dangerous opinion, whose inevitable goal is the upsetting of authorised government. Out of the midst of such a state of the world, Satanic influence will raise up a mighty head of the Roman Empire, who will receive universal acceptance and homage. Thus is "the beast" to come up out of the abyss. The source of power or government in that day will not be as now, divine, but it will be "the dragon" that will give to the beast "his power, and his throne, and great authority." This is necessary to be explained in order to understand the nature of "the great tribulation."
Considering that the revival of the Roman Empire was prophesied of nineteen centuries ago, it is not a little remarkable that, quite apart from prophecy, the idea of that restoration is now beginning to occupy men's thoughts as a measure of practical politics. Two principal movements of our day occasion many anxieties to statesmen and to all who look below the surface of daily events. One is the enormous increase of armaments, so great and still multiplying — that the wisest wonder where it all leads to. The other is, accretion of power in the hands of the people, along with the fostering of such wild schemes of socialism and anarchy, as threaten the very existence of society. "A future Roman Empire: a possible result and solution of some modern political and economic problems," is the title of a most thoughtful and interesting book by Mr. G. E. Tarner (London: Elliot Stock). The title itself indicates the aim of the work. The author says, "In a former treatise on some conspicuous developments of the times — 'State-provided Education,' 'Combinations in Restraint of Trade,' find 'The Gradual Transfer of Political Power to the Largest Class' — I attempted to show that their mutual action, proceeding unchecked on present lines, would result in producing a state of things in the form of a universal anarchy that humanly speaking could only be effectually dealt with by a Roman Emperor" (p. 2). Referring to the loss to the world through the dissolution of the ancient Roman Empire, Mr. Tamer remarks, "The Roman policy, which, while welding together for imperial purposes the diversified components of the empire … produced such a general confidence, and consequent material prosperity, throughout its various provinces, as to result in long periods of profound internal peace and general tranquility — the Pax Romana" (p. 11).
Mr. Tarner quotes Merivale to the effect that, "The wars of the kites and crows were succeeded by a period of internal tranquility, more extensive, more durable, and more profound than any other in human annals. The Pax Romana stands out a unique phenomenon in history" (p. 16). Mr. Tarner graphically depicts the advantages which might be expected from a re-constitution of the mighty Roman Empire: "And so once more the Pax Romana might be brought within the possibility of realisation. The practical immunity from war, otherwise than from without the empire (the knowledge of its enormous resources reducing such probability to a minimum) would naturally permit, and, in fact, necessitate, a large individual disarmament by the states comprising it; but still providing for the protection of their several colonies against external aggression and internal disorder: thus to a great extent meeting the aspirations of the peace party without falling into a peace-at-any-price policy, and practically solving the disarmament question." His book affords the remarkable coincidence that that which the word of God has through centuries declared will ultimately come (though then through evil agency) is now actually proposed as a definite political measure. The re-establishment of the Roman Empire as prophesied in holy writ is certain to take place; but equally certain is it, that that event will occur in the manner and time which scripture indicates, and not as a philosophical proposal for improvement, as so lucidly and thoughtfully projected by Mr. Tarner.
But let us turn again to scripture for light on this important subject. In the 13th chapter of Revelation there are three distinct personages who act as one. They are indeed a Satanic anti-trinity. A distinguished writer* has remarked that from what the Bible tells us of Satan, he appears to have no originating power: he can only imitate. God sets up a church; Satan has his false church. God has His Christ, Satan his antichrist. And here in this chapter of the Revelation, there is a Satanic anti-trinity, consisting of Satan himself, the Roman prince (eighth head of the beast), and another beast, which has "two horns like a lamb" (imitation of Christ), but "he spake as a dragon" (ver. 11). Satan's grand aim is to get himself acknowledged in the place of God. He is the rival as well as antagonist of God, and seeks to use man as the instrument of his exaltation.
{*Kelly, The Revelation. Ed. 1871, p. 291.}
With these remarks as a clue, the reader will probably be assisted to grasp the significance of this solemn and important thirteenth chapter of the Revelation, which for convenience of reference follows here (Darby's translation): —
"And I stood upon the sand of the sea; and I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, and upon its heads names of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like to a leopardess, and its feet as of a hear, and its mouth as a lion's mouth; and the dragon gave to it his power, and his throne, and great authority. And one of his heads [was] as slain to death; and his wound of death had been healed: and the whole earth wondered after the beast. And they did homage to the dragon, because he gave the authority to the beast: and they did homage to the beast, saying, Who [is] like to the beast? and who can make war with it? And there was given to it a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies; and there was given to it authority to pursue its career forty-two months. And it opened its mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and those who have their tabernacle in the heaven. And there was given to it to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to it authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell on the earth shall do it homage, [every one] whose name had not been written from [the] founding of [the] world in the book of life of the slain Lamb. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone [leads] into captivity, he goes into captivity: if anyone shall kill with [the] sword, he must with [the] sword be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.
"And I saw another beast rising out of the earth; and it had two horns like to a lamb, and spake as a dragon. And it exercises all the authority of the first beast before it, and causes the earth and those that dwell in it to do homage to the first beast, whose wound of death was healed. And it works great signs, that it should cause even fire to come down from heaven to the earth before men. And it deceives those that dwell upon the earth by reason of the signs which it was given to it to work before the beast, saying to those that dwell upon the earth to make an image to the beast, which has the wound of the sword, and lived. And it was given to it to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should also speak, and should cause that as many as should not do homage to the image of the beast should be killed. And it causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bondmen, that they should give them a mark upon their right hand or upon their forehead: and that no one should be able to buy or sell, save he that had the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of its name. Here is wisdom. He that has understanding let him count the number of the beast: for it is a man's number; and its number [is] Six hundred [and] sixty-six." (Rev. 13.)
1909 276 It will be seen that the first beast rises up out of the sea, the symbolic meaning of which has already been explained; but if waters means peoples and nations, and if sea means the same in a state of commotion, then earth would mean the peoples and nations under settled and ordered government. The resurrection of the Roman Empire out of the tumult soon produces stability, and then out of the peoples and nations in this organised form arises the second beast he comes up out of the earth (Rev. 13:11). The first beast is a political power; the second is more religious — "he had two horns like a lamb." But for all his lamb-like semblance, his voice betrays him. It is not the voice of "the good shepherd" "he spake as a dragon" (ver. 11). Yet, though the dominant feature of the first beast is imperial power, and of the second religious, nevertheless they both have, in some measure, the same attributes. Thus the first has, in addition to political eminence, a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and the second, though characteristically religious, is nevertheless represented as a "beast," which in prophetic symbolism, denotes an imperial power, and later on we shall see that he is indeed a king.
Here then is exhibited the awful display of Satanic action and influence at the close of the age. An empire is erected by Satan, coming up out of the abyss (Rev. 17:8). It is to have universal dominion — "authority was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations" (13:7). "And the whole earth wondered after the beast" (Rev. 13:3). It is formally and openly blasphemous — "upon his heads are names of blasphemy" (Rev. 13:1). "And there was given unto him a Mouth speaking great things and blasphemies … and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven" (Rev. 13:5-6).
But there is the second beast (Rev. 13:11). This really is the antichrist, the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians. There is perfect concurrence between the dragon and the first beast and the second beast — they mutually co-operate and support each other. The dragon confers power and authority upon the first beast, obtaining through this the homage of men — "they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast" (Rev. 13:4). Then the second beast exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast (Rev. 13:12). "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed" (Rev. 13:13-15).
Here there is Satan's imitation of Christ. As Christ testified of the Father, so this beast bears testimony to the first beast, while Satan himself is the moving spirit behind all. It is of importance to apprehend the distinctness which Scripture thus exhibits not only between the three members of this Satanic trinity, but more particularly between the beast that is the head of the Roman Empire and the second beast that comes up out of the earth, since it has been a frequent error of prophetic writers to confuse these two. What is affirmed of the antichrist has been erroneously applied to the eighth head of the Roman Empire. Indeed, all the predictions as to the wilful king of Daniel, the Roman prince, the second beast of Rev. 13, the little horn of Daniel, the antichrist and the man of sin, as well as expired prophecies relating to Antiochus Epiphanes, have been indiscriminately applied to one person.
The time will be one of abounding delusion. A judicial principle traceable in God's dispensational dealings with men is, that when light from God has been despised and resisted, blindness is sent. So was the heart of Pharaoh hardened. The Jews are another instance. Jesus admonished them: "Walk while we have the light, lest darkness come upon you … While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light" (John 12:35-36). Now, as the consequence of their rejection, not only of the Saviour, but of the testimony of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost and onwards, Paul tells us, "Their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart" (2 Cor. 3:14-15). Then he tells us, in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians, that "wrath is come upon them to the uttermost" (1 Thess. 2:15-16). So also in Romans 11, "For I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery … that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25). And Scripture announces the solemn doom as the end of the unbelief of Christendom — "Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved," God will "send them a working of error that they should believe what is false, that all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:10-11).
Anyone who reads attentively the 11th chapter of Romans will perceive that Paul there treats of God's dispensational dealings with Israel and the Gentiles. Israel is cut off because of unbelief (ver. 20), and light and blessing have flowed to the Gentile. But this is accompanied by ominous warning, "Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell severity, but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: OTHERWISE THOU ALSO SHALL BE CUT OFF (Rom. 11:20-22).
The present attitude of men towards Christianity has already been referred to under sect. 5 But if Christendom's status with God depends on the word, "Thou standest by faith," what is that status today? The emptiness of pews and desertion of ecclesiastical edifices is the wail of every denomination. Not only, however, are the mass of people outside the buildings, but, their being so is, sad to say, expressive of their sentiments towards revealed truth. At the same time the leaders of the Christian religion are modifying their tenets and debasing their standards to suit the unregenerate mind of man a levelling down instead of levelling up and pro tanto giving up "the faith." A leading European journal has teemed with letters under the heading, "Do we believe?" collected now into a ponderous book. Is the Gentile then really standing by faith? The Jew has been cut off and is judicially blinded, and to the Gentile the Spirit of God says, "Take heed lest he also spare not thee." The preceding quotation from Romans 11 shows that if the Gentile does not continue in God's goodness in the gospel, the sentence upon him is, "Thou also shalt be cut off." This synchronizes with what has before been shown — that Christendom, when become void of faith, will be spued out of Christ's mouth. Following that, however, will be the blinding power of Satan, to which men will be judicially subjected in righteous retribution for not receiving the love of the truth that they might be saved. The apostasy comes first, and the flood of delusion follows, culminating at the revelation of the man of sin (see Rev. 13 already quoted).
Who that has had much discourse with men respecting Christianity is not cognisant of a desire on their part, deep and strong though perhaps denied, to find out at last that Christianity is not true, not obligatory as a message from God? Immense labour and perverse ingenuity are expended in the effort to prove it false. With crass illwill men set themselves to the task of picking holes in the gracious revelation which God has given, to find flaws in the beauteous message of His grace. The desire is plain, though so far, it is desire only — perhaps will; but with the advent of the antichrist there will be sent a working of error (energeia planes) that they should believe what is false. Now they wish to believe it; then they will have no doubt. The mental atmosphere of the time will be different, and, what is Satanic falsehood will appear as marvellous light. This is one fundamental change which will occur at the end of the age. In Christendom at present, most people believe, in a general way, in the trueness of Christianity (however rapidly it is being given up); and those who do not, feel. that they are in opposition to what is generally accepted as truth; a militant minority bravely battling as they suppose against an effete superstition. But this position will be reversed. With the apostasy Christianity will be relinquished; with the coming of antichrist delusion will prevail and Satanic falsehold be accepted as truth. Reader, such is the prospect of modern civilisation! However bright it may appear, this dark cloud lowers on its horizon. With all its promise, and with all its intellectualism, this will be the outcome: Christianity abolished, the worship of Satan supervening, and then, very soon will follow, the coming of the Son of man in power and great glory, to judge living men upon the earth.
The coming of the antichrist is stated to be "according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish; because they have not received the love of the truth that they might he saved. And for this reason God sends to them a working of error, that they should believe what is false, that all might be judged who have not believed the truth, but have found pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:9-12, New Translation). By this, as well as by the previous quotation from Rev. 13, it will be apparent that the man of sin works miracles. Here, in Thessalonians, his coming is said to be "in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood"; and in Rev. 13: "he does great wonders so that he makes fire to come down from heaven on the earth before men," and deceives, by his miracles, those who dwell on the earth; also he has power to give breath unto the image of the beast, etc. Thus the second beast is the great delusory agent, and uses his powers to attest and to aggrandise the first beast.
The first beast does not work miracles or signs; he impresses by his political and military greatness "they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" The resuscitation of the great Roman empire, not only with undiminished but with augmented glory, is such a marvel, that the minds of men are carried away by it "the whole earth wondered after the beast." Three times in this chapter (Rev. 13) is the surprising fact referred to, and from the way in which it is spoken of, the event will probably be of a magnitude, compared with which the rapid rise and ascendancy of Bonaparte will have been but feeble. The first mention is in Rev. 13:3, where the wondering of the whole earth after him is in connection with the healing of his deadly wound; then in Rev. 13:12 where the second beast causes the earth to worship the first beast, he is described as "the first beast whose deadly wound was healed." And this is not for the purpose of designation, because for that the term "first beast" would have sufficed, but obviously it is for emphasis. Again, in Rev. 13:14, the miraculous powers of the second beast are exerted that the dwellers on the earth should make an image — to what? To "the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live."
The "first beast" having its seat in Rome will be the western power; and we have seen from 2 Thess. that the man of sin (the second beast) is present in the temple, that is, in Jerusalem; so that there will be two great imperial powers, one in the west and one in the east, at Rome and Jerusalem respectively.
There can be no doubt from Scripture that the eastern potentate is identical with a character who is abruptly brought in in Daniel 11:36 as "the king." Indeed the second beast of Rev. 13, the man of sin of 2 Thess. 2, the king of Daniel 11:36-39, and the antichrist of 1 John 2:18, 22, are clearly identical. Some in reading Dan. 11 have thought that the expression "the king" in a chapter dealing with the king of the north and the king of the south, must refer to one of these two. But for an Israelite to mention his own king in this indefinite way is perfectly natural both here and in Isa. 30:31. When an English newspaper announces that "the King" is going to Scotland, it would be quite superfluous to say "the King of England"; while, if speaking of another king it would be necessary to specify — the King of Spain, or whatever other king might be meant. So Daniel and Isaiah, when referring to kings, specify king of the north or king of the south, etc., but "the king" without further definition, means of course king of Israel. The chronological place of this king is determined by Daniel 11:40, which says that "at the time of the end" the king of the south shall push at him. This occurrence we do not now discuss, merely adducing the proof which it affords that "the king" previously referred to is found "at the time of the end." Two interesting features may be remarked in Daniel's sketch of the antichrist. One, that he will not regard the desire of women. This, in a Jewish prophecy, refers to the proper aspiration of Jewish women to be the mother of the promised Messiah. That this is its significance is confirmed by the collocation in which the expression occurs, both that which precedes and that which follows it, viz., "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all" (Dan. 11:37). Secondly, the God of his fathers is twice referred to, which is a probable indication that this person will be of the Jewish race — a high qualification in one presenting himself to Israel as Messiah and Messianic king.
Now notice the concurrent testimony of prophecy as to this personage.
1 — Lawlessness — "The king shall do according to his will" (Dan. 11:36). "Then shall be revealed The Lawless One" (2 Thess. 2:8, ho anomos inaccurately rendered in A.V. "that wicked").
2 — Self-exaltation and antagonism to God — "He shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and speak monstrous things against the God of gods" "And he will not regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he will magnify himself above all" (Dan. 11:36-37). "The man of sin, … the son of perdition, who opposeth and exaleth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth down in the temple of God showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2:3-4). "Ye have heard that antichrist shall come. … He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son" (1 John 2:18, 22).
3 — Gives his support and influence to the first beast "And in his place (or office) will he honour the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers knew not will he honour with gold and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things" (Dan. 11:38). And he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. … And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed" (Rev. 13:12, 14, 15).
On the page of Scripture and of eternal history, two men stand out as exact opposites. One is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Man of righteousness; and the other the man of sin, in whom culminates the wickedness of the race. Jesus being God, emptied Himself to become a servant; the other, only a man, shows himself in the temple that he is God. Jesus, having already condescended to become man, humbled Himself to death, even the death of the cross; the man of sin exalts himself. Jesus, when they would have made Him a king, declined, for He had come to suffer not to reign; the other takes the place of king and will exalt and magnify himself. Jesus came down from heaven not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him; as to the other, "The king will do according to his will." Jesus was the good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep; the idol shepherd slays all who will not worship him. Jesus was rejected and crucified; the man of sin will be accepted and worshipped.
And what will be the end of all the opposition to God which has been slightly placed before the reader? At the coming of the Lord Jesus, the man of sin, and the beast before whom he wrought miracles, being found in open and audacious rebellion, will be taken and cast alive into the lake of Care (Rev. 19:19). There have been two who have been translated to heaven without seeing death — Enoch and Elijah. As these two were eminent in faithfulness and devotion to God, and were eminently rewarded, so the two who will have been pre-eminent among mankind in evil and sin will pass alive to their horrible and summary doom.
9. — Sundry Points
1909 294 1. That "the elect" of Matthew 24 are not "the elect" of the church, will be recognised by those readers who have grasped the truth that the whole of Matt. 24:3-44 applies to the post-church period. It is, however, not only in that chapter that the remnant are referred to as "elect"; scattered intimations of this characteristic may be found as early as Isaiah: "It shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem" (Isa. 4:3). "I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect (plural) shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there" (Isa. 65:9). So Daniel, speaking of the time of "the great tribulation": "At that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book" (Dan. 12:1). The Revelation as previously quoted shows the remnant to be definitely numbered, and individually sealed for God (Rev. 7:1-8); and it will be remembered that Paul, when dealing with the casting away of Israel, and the subject of a remnant, says, "God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew" (Rom. 11:2).
2. The carcase and the eagles. — "As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man he. Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matt. 24:28). For the understanding of this it is necessary to observe, that though included in one verse, there are here two distinct figures of two distinct events, which are not identical even in point of time. In prophecy there is nothing more usual than the announcement in close conjunction of events quite distinct, and sometimes far separated as to time. An eminent case is that of Isa. 61:2, where two clauses of the same sentence link events which are near two thousand years apart: "To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God." The Lord Jesus stated that the first part of this the proclamation of the acceptable year of the Lord was fulfilled in His first advent; and in the reading of the scripture He stopped at that point, closed the book and returned it to the minister (Luke 4:19-20). The second part of the sentence "the day of vengeance" He had not then come to proclaim; that awaits His second advent.
In our text the lightning as a vivid figure of the coming of the Son of man needs no explanation; but absurd and very objectionable interpretations have been proffered of the parable of the carcase and the eagles. There need, however, be no great difficulty, for the meaning is comparatively plain. A carcase, with vultures crowding to prey upon it, is manifestly nothing very pure or lovely. The carcase is a figure of the dead and putrifying nation of Israel; and scripture shows that the nations will gather to prey upon Israel, and these are aptly figured in the eagles or vultures. Old Testament prophecies are abundant and graphic in their portrayal of this feature of the last days. In Zechariah this future attack of the nations is given, "Behold the day of Jehovah cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken," etc. (Zech. 14:1-3). Again in Isaiah: "Woe to the multitude of many peoples, which make a noise like a noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters" (Isa. 17:12). Then as to the effect upon Israel: "They shall be left together unto the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the earth: and the birds of prey shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them" (Isa. 18:6). Details cannot here be set out, but this attack of the ungodly nations is in scripture a large event of the last days, which, while permitted as a judgment on the apostate mass of Israel, will yet be checked by the Lord in the interests of the pious remnant. The reader who may consult the scriptures quoted, will recognise these two elements of the great event in question.
3. The sign of the Son of man in heaven. — "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the nations of the earth (or, land) mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). The disciples had asked, "What shall be the sign of thy corning, and of the end of the age?" The Lord had already instructed them about the end of the age; now He tells them that the sign of His coming will be the coming itself, for they should see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The expression, "sign of thy coming," is the genitive of definition, for Mark and Luke give the substantial coming of the Son of man without referring to it as a sign.
4. The angels and the trumpet. — "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, and from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. 24:31). Whatever in that day may have been done by man, as a political measure, in placing Jews in the Holy Land, and though that people may have autonomy under their own false king, the antichrist, yet the scattered condition of Israel under the sentence of Jehovah remains. But when the Lord comes, He will, by the instrumentality of angels, gather His elect from the most distant parts of the earth. How beautiful will it be to the despised, persecuted, and oppressed remnant, to suddenly find that they are the objects of enquiry and succour by the angels of the Lord! Romance cannot show such a brilliant reversal of position — yesterday, thought not fit to live; now, the quest of Jehovah's angels! How good has it ever been and ever will be, to be faithful to God in the face of a corrupt and unbelieving world.
5. Angelic activity is prominent at the appearing of Christ. All the angels will then attend upon the Son of man (Matt. 25:31), and will act both in blessing, as we have just seen, and also in judgment. The Son of man will send His angels to gather together His elect; but likewise, the Son of man will "send his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 13:41). Isaiah alludes to this gathering of the remnant, and to the great trumpet whose sound will reach them in the distant places of the earth "And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship Jehovah in the holy mount at Jerusalem" (Isa. 27:12-13). Many may have sent ambassadors by the sea to this nation (Isa. 18:2), ignoring the divine displeasure which rests upon it. With this movement Jehovah has no sympathy, as shown in an earlier chapter. Man places unrepentant Jews in the land, where they become the persecutors of the godly, and they themselves ultimately the prey of vultures — the other nations. Jehovah then stands quite aloof; but now has come His time. The Son of man comes in His glory and sends His angels, not to the case-hardened Jews, but to the faithful and godly remnant amongst them, who shall be saved and delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book (Dan. 12:1). The blowing of the trumpet is mentioned in Isa. 18:3 in connection with the same subject. The result of the assemblages of Jews in ungodliness is shown in ver. 6; but an ensign is lifted up and a trumpet blown, and in ver. 7 the remnant is brought as an offering to Jehovah of hosts. The blowing of a trumpet may of course be symbolical of the loud joyful message which will summon the remnant to mount Zion.
6. One shall be taken and the other left. — In describing the judgment at the coming of the Son of man, the Lord says, "Then two shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left" (Matt. 24:40-41). At a first glance some have thought that this was like the rapture of the church, but it is exactly the converse. At the rapture the saints are caught away, and the world is left to proceed in its course. But when the Lord comes to the judgment of the living upon the earth, the taking away is in judgment, and the righteous are left to pass into blessing upon the earth at the millennium. This is plain from the parallel passage in Luke 21. There, speaking of the same judgment, the Lord states that "as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth"; and the disciples are exhorted to watch and pray that they "may be accounted worthy" — not to be caught away into heaven, but — "to stand before the Son of man"; that is, when He comes to the earth and the wicked are taken away in judgment. The judgment, however, is strictly discriminatory, wholly different from what takes place in the slaughter and sack of cities after conquest. Whether men in the field, or women at domestic operations, one is' taken and another left. Sudden it may be, but it is judicial.
10. — Conclusion. The Time When These Things Shall Be.
1909 310 The interesting enquiry: When these things are to happen, was addressed by the disciples to the Lord, and the curiosity is natural to all. It has indeed given rise to the wildest speculations, which often have only proved the folly of those who would force from scripture more than it was intended to convey. The question naturally falls under two heads, viz., as to the Jews, and as to the church.
First — As to the Jews. After announcing His coming in Matt. 24:30-31, the Lord goes on to say (vers. 32, 33, 36-44): "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." "But of that day and hour knoweth no one, no, not the angels in heaven, but my Father only. But 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. Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
There are three points very noticeable here: First, that the disciples are given distinct signs by which they will know that the Lord's advent is near very near. Enlightened by scripture and instructed by the understanding ones, they will be able to comprehend, at least to some extent, the significance of the astounding political developments of the time. The marvellous resuscitation of the Roman Empire, at which the whole earth wonders, will have an inner meaning for them. But the first prominent sign is that given in the "parable of the fig-tree." This tree is an emblem of Israel, and the putting forth of leaves may well indicate a national revival of that people. When the second beast (Rev. 13:11), Israel's false king, arises, this will be patent. But before that, while the branch is yet tender, there is a putting forth of leaves, and this is a sign to the remnant. The movement called "Zionism" now already commenced amongst the Jews, feeble, undefined, and tentative as it is, may be the commencement of what, after the church is gone, will become the putting forth of leaves of the fig-tree. The national revival of Israel, be it remembered, does not wait for the resurrection of the Roman Empire; the beast finds a covenant with Israel in existence, which he confirms. But when the gospel of the kingdom is preached in the whole world, the remnant will know that they are in "the time of the end," with all its awful accompaniments, but that Christ is coming for their deliverance and in judgment upon their enemies.
Secondly, the Lord intimates that though His coming will then be very soon, vet that the actual time of His appearing will be a close secret even in heaven itself; the angels will not know it. In Mark's Gospel it is added, "neither the Son" — "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (Mark 13:32). This is a remarkable text, which has puzzled many believers, and been used by adversaries against the deity of Christ. Of this truth the believer does not need proofs; his armory is well furnished with texts, such as, amongst numerous others, John 1:1-4; Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:6; Col. 1:16-17, 19; Col. 2:9; what he requires is to see the relation which an isolated text, such as that in question, bears to the larger truth of the deity of the Lord Jesus.
That text then is really only an evidence along with many similar, of the perfection with which the Son took the place of man, and, as man, of servant. He "emptied himself," so we are taught in Phil. 2:7 (Greek), and took the place of a servant. In this His self-subordination was perfect. The works which He did were the works of Him who sent Him (John 9:4). He sought not His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him (John 5:30). His words were the words given to Him of the Father (John 17:8). "I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things" (John 8:28). "The Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak" (John 12:49). It is remarkable that that Gospel whose speciality is the deity of the Son, should also exhibit so signally the perfectness of His self-subordination as man. Now this beautiful and wondrous position of condescension which the Son has taken in love to us, still continues notwithstanding that He has entered into glory at the Father's right hand. He is indeed no longer in humiliation as when He was here. Jehovah, however, has said to Him, "Sit at my right hand until I put thine enemies as footstool of thy feet" (Psalm 110:1). It is in accordance with this that when, in Patmos, John was given to see Jesus, though His glory was overwhelming and John fell at His feet as dead, yet the Apocalypse is described as "the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him"; and the Revelation itself, the Lamb receives out of the hand of Him who sits upon the throne (Rev. 1:1; Rev. 5:7). And the Lord, after His resurrection, tells the disciples that "the times and seasons" are placed by the Father "in his own authority" (Acts 1:7). In exquisite harmony with all this is the text which we have been considering — Mark 13:32. Even amongst men there is a personal knowledge, distinct from official knowledge. Personally a judge may have learnt from newspapers the facts of a crime, but when he takes his seat upon the bench to try the case, that knowledge is laid aside. He officially knows nothing, and his mind is a tabula rasa for the reception of what may be brought before him in court. And so with the Lord Jesus. The omniscience pertaining to Him as God, is, in the instance quoted, held in abeyance, consistently with the proprieties of the position which He has condescended to take as the divine and perfect Servant.
Thirdly, notwithstanding the preaching of the remnant, the world will be in utter unbelief, wholly immersed in affairs of the present life, alike heedless of divine warnings, and oblivious of anything beyond the material world, just as men were at the previous awful judgment of the flood. So also states the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, "But of the times and of the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape" (1 Thess 5:1-3).
Secondly — As to the church. Be it remembered that signs are not for the church, but for the Jew of the coming day. The calling of the church is to wait for the Son from heaven, without any sign; so that the first prophetic event upon the list is the removal of the church to heaven. Now if the events of prophecy do not commence until the church is taken to heaven, the question arises, When will this occur? Near two thousand years have passed since the church was placed in a waiting attitude. Has the Lord Jesus Christ then forgotten or relinquished His intention to come for the church? Impossible. His last message to His church is in the Revelation, and thrice in the last chapter of that book He impresses the verity of His coming. "Behold I come quickly; blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book" (Rev. 22:7). "Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be" (Rev. 22:12). "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).
It is not for nothing — this threefold warning of the Lord's return. It is not for nothing that the last of the three is an asseveration, "Surely I come quickly." This betokens not slackness, but the Lord's eagerness for His return. Is it not the identical sentiment which we have in the fourteenth of John — "that where I am there ye may be also"? Plainly, it is His desire to have us with Himself. Yet some will say, How can be reconciled the Lord's coming quickly with the time that has elapsed since the promise was made? Well, when a mighty ship sets out from England to Australia, her throbbing engines force her huge bulk through the water at almost railway speed. She comes quickly, yet it will be long before she reach her port. Take another illustration. The swiftest thing within human knowledge is light — 186,000 miles per second is its rate of travel. Yet at that inconceivable speed it takes a ray of light three years to reach us from the fixed star which is nearest to our own system (a Centauri). That ray of light indeed comes quickly, though three years must elapse before it reach our earth. And so with the Lord's coming. There is no delay; it is approaching with all the speed that can be, though nineteen centuries have passed. Not that there is any prophetic requirement to be fulfilled. The clue to the lapse of time is found in the explanation of Peter, that the object is the salvation of others yet to be called (2 Peter 3:9, 15). The gathering of souls is going on — the gospel is still the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. But there will be a moment when the last elect member of Christ's body will have been brought in; and then the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ will be raised, and, joined by the living, pass into heaven. It is literally true, therefore, that we do not know the moment when the Lord will come.
But although we have no sign to look for, the growth may be unmistakably discerned of tendencies which will blossom in the changed moral atmosphere of the post-church period. Scripture reveals stupendous events which are to follow the church's rapture, and two of these have really begun to appear in our own day — at least so far as they can while the restraining presence of the Holy Ghost in the church remains below. They are: the apostasy of Christendom, and national activity amongst the Jews. The former has been sketched in previous pages; and the second, "Zionism," which has been but a few years in existence, is a national political agitation amongst the Jews such as has been unknown before, since their dispersion. At a meeting of the English Zionist Federation held in London in September, 1903, Mr. I. Zangwill stated with reference to the sixth Zionist Congress held at Basle that "the conclusion which he had carried away from it was that never for the last eighteen hundred years had Palestine stood so near to Zionists as it did that day; and, so definite and tangible is the Zionist movement, that a letter was read "from M. de Plehve, Russian Minister of the Interior, in which he announced the willingness of Russia to assist Zionists in obtaining Palestine for them."*
{*Daily Telegraph (London), 7th September, 1903.}
There is, however, dissension amongst the Jews on the subject, a large number having no zeal for their ancient patrimony, and no exalted national aspirations; all they desire being an amelioration of their worldly condition. Accordingly, M. de Plehve has since opposed the Russian Zionist Societies, on the ground that they have changed their policy of furthering the emigration of Jews to Palestine, into an endeavour to form an inner organisation of Jews in their present place of domicile.
Still, the inception of a definite political movement to obtain Palestine for the Jews is certainly remarkable, as is also the offer of one of the great Powers to befriend and assist it. Let it he attempted now to realise the immense truth, that there is nothing revealed as necessary to occur before our Lord may descend into the air and translate the living saints to heaven; and not only so, but that the anointed eye can discern premonitory movements towards events which are to burst on the world after the rapture of the church. This surely is a solemn reflection. The reader may believe in a second advent of the Lord, and that there will be some who will he alive and caught up into glory; but does he recognise that according to the whole tenor of scripture, it is his duty and privilege, if a Christian, to expect to be one of those? Inspired scripture never says they "which are alive and remain"; always we. "Behold I show you a mystery; 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). "We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of humiliation," etc. (Phil. 3:20-21). "The Lord himself will descend from heaven … then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
Summing up, then, the subjects we have been considering, we have revealed to us the following: (1) The rapture of the church to heaven. (2) A temporary calm in the world, and the rising of a great leader of remarkable and comparatively peaceful success, who is rewarded with a crown ("a crown was given to him"). (3) The sealing of a remnant of Israel as servants of God, and their going forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom. (4) A parallel movement in the hardened Jews. Under the wing of the protecting power of Isa. 18, they enter into possession of their land, the temple is rebuilt, and ritual established. (5) Persecution and martyrdom of the remnant for the name of Jesus. (6) Cessation of the world's delusive peace, and the outbreak of wars and rumours of wars; but the end not yet. (7) The nations (western) come into a state of tumult and revolution with awful threatenings; society is alarmed, men's hearts failing them for fear. (8) Reconstitution of the Roman Empire in ten kingdoms, with Rome at the head. (9) The new power (the beast) confirms a covenant with the
Jews for seven years. (10) The ten horns and the beast destroy the harlot (corrupt Christianity), utterly abandoning and ending Christianity, thus consummating the apostasy in the west. (11) The beast breaks his covenant with the Jews, abrogating the Jewish ritual, causing the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. This in the east is really the full consummation of the apostasy. The destruction of Christianity in the west, and Judaism in the east (10 and 11) prepare the way for "the man of sin." (12) Revelation of the man of sin — the antichrist and second beast of Rev. 13:11-18. (13) The gospel of the kingdom being preached in the whole world, the time of the end comes on. The accomplishment of the preaching being a matter of degree, the criterion which determines and characterises that time is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. (14) The great tribulation. (15) Complete subversion of all government and the Son of man is seen coming in the clouds with power and great glory (Matt. 24:30).
If the result of these papers be to clear the views of anyone as to when and where prophetic events are to be expected; if they assist to show that many things which had been thought to precede the Lord's coming, are really to follow it, and that the first prophetic event is the rapture, or catching up of the church, to meet the Lord at His coming, these pages will not have been written in vain.
E. J. T.