1910 134 The insidious mistake of ceasing to watch for the Lord's coming, because of the lapse of time which has occurred since the promise was given, has already been noticed in this paper.* Slight references were then made to various conditions existing among the nations, which, viewed in the light of prophetic scriptures, seem to indicate that a world-crisis is approaching. Those references were little more than hints; and it is possible that some more detailed information on the subject may be acceptable to the godly believer, who occupies the position of a spectator a spectator apart and in spirit removed from the turmoil of the world.
{*January, 1910, p. 9, article, "The Lord's Coming and the Lapse of Centuries."}
First: As to the Jews. The reader of the Bible Treasury will be familiar with the truth that, in the post-church period, the Jews will be in possession of their land, and have a definite national existence as a monarchy. Significant, in view of this, is the stir of a national spirit which has recently occurred amongst the Jews; an awakening that is quite new, and which strives to embody itself in action. International Jewish Conferences are now held a thing before unknown during the centuries of their dispersion. At the conference of Berlin in September, 1908, a resolution was carried that the conference "regards as urgently necessary the union of the great Jewish organisations into one body with a permanent central committee";* and at a meeting of Jews held in Melbourne, Australia, in July, 1906, it was resolved on the motion of Mr. N. Levi, a member of the legislature, "to urge all Jews to record their conviction, that only with the establishment of a legally-secured, publicly-recognised Jewish State in the Holy Land would their wants and aspirations be satisfied."
{*See also Bible Treasury, August, 1909, p. 312.}
A recent proposal (October, 1909) which has attracted some attention is that of Hamada Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Pious Foundations, for a Jewish Settlement near the Baghdad Railway in Mesopotamia. It is stated that the Pasha has resolved to invite Jews of all countries to settle near the railway, and has promised that seventy million acres of land shall he reserved for the purpose. This, however, while philo-Jewish, is probably anti-Zionist. Dr. Riza Tewfik, a member of the Turkish Parliament, speaking in London in the preceding July, said that he regarded "political" Zionism as "a great danger for the Jews," in view of the fear of the separatist peril that prevails in Turkey. He would rather sec the Jews spread over Mesopotamia, or other parts of the Empire, than concentrated in Palestine; and he advised them to dismiss from their minds the idea of autonomy. From this it will be seen that the proposal of Hamada Pasha is rather on the lines suggested by Dr. Riza Tewfik than on those of Zionism.
There is, no doubt, a revival of national aspiration amongst the Jews, though clogged and hindered from several causes. One of these is dissension among themselves; many — having no zeal for their ancient patrimony, nor any exalted national feelings desire only amelioration of their worldly conditions, and are ready to renounce any other nationalism than that of the land in which they dwell. Thus a prominent man among them (Mr. Oswald John Simon, son of the late Sir John Simon, M.P.) says that "it would be difficult to conceive a plan more detrimental to English Jews" than the attempt to promote among the Jews of England a sense of nationalism distinct and separate from that of their fellow-countrymen of other religious beliefs. Two distinct schools of political view, therefore, may be discerned among the Jews: one, that which still pines for the ancient and divinely-given privileges of the nation, and whose feeling is, so far, a godly sentiment; and the other, which regards such aspirations as the dreams of enthusiasm; and, desiring only worldly ease and comfort, seeks nothing higher than to be admitted to full and fair equality with the citizens of the nations amongst which they reside.
Another obstacle is the jealous feeling on the part of Gentile powers of any Jewish political organisation within their territories. Russia, for instance, might promote the settlement of Jews in Palestine, but distinctly objects to any attempt at local organisation amongst Jews in Russia. Turkey in the same way may encourage the emigration of Jews to Mesopotamia, but not their concentration with patriotic fervour in the Turkish province of Palestine. All this, however, might be changed in brief time, under the new influences which cannot but result from so mighty an event as the removal of the church to heaven. But the mere inception of a definite political movement by the Jews to obtain Palestine is certainly remarkable, as is also the offer of one of the great powers to befriend, and assist it. This is not indeed the putting forth of leaves by the fig tree; but it may indicate that "the branch is tender" and ready to bud.*
{*Since the above was written, it is reported in the daily papers that a remarkable movement of Jews towards Palestine has taken place since Turkey, of which Palestine is a province, came under constitutional government last year.
Of the 100,000 inhabitants forming the population of Jerusalem, four-fifths are now Jews, whilst tens of thousands have also taken up their homes in Jaffa, Tiberias, Safed and at Mount Carmel. Large numbers of the newcomers are from Persia and Russia, and thousands more are flocking from those countries.
In connection with the movement, the interesting fact is stated that Jewish capitalists are buying up the Valley of the Jordan, which until recently was the property of the ex-Sultan, Abdul Hamid.}
Secondly: The Roman Empire. The resuscitation of the Empire by a federation of European nations after the rapture of the church is a certain event of the future. The proofs of this were given in a series of articles published in last year's Bible Treasury*, and some tendency in that direction is already observable. Never before in the history of the world has such an appalling enlargement of warlike forces taken place; and yet they are not employed. Along with the multiplication of the means of war, peace prevails. How is this? Since 1871 there has been no European war? Armies are augmented as never before, and navies without precedent; they seem ready to clash together, but yet they do not. No doubt an invisible hand restrains them; God's purposes are working out; but instrumentally, is not this produced by the tendency among the nations to combine together? Has not the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy) exercised a potent influence in restraining belligerency? And have not the "Ententes" established by the late King of England between various powers operated in the same direction? Here perhaps may be discerned an advance towards that policy of federation amongst nations which is to develop under Roman leadership after the church is gone.
{*"The Time of the End, but the End not Yet," Bible Treasury, 1909, pp, 261 et seq.}
More plainly discernible, however, is the tendency of the peoples of Europe towards that condition of turbulence, confusion, or anarchy, out of which the Roman Beast is to emerge. This also has been explained in chapter 8 ante. The development during the last fifty years has been rapid and alarming. Socialism, Communism, Anarchism, have come boldly on the scene. Previously they hid their heads, so to say; men scarcely breathed the words. Now these mutterings of the dragon's voice may be heard rumbling round the world. As another has well said: "The world is conscious at this moment that things cannot go on long as they are; that we are in a crisis of the world's history which must result in some great disruption. Some will tell us that democracy is the evil, and it must be put down; others, that it alone can save the world. But all feel that things cannot go on as they are. … These fears, even if they magnify the apprehensions of men on one side or the other, are the fruit of the restless working of some principle which man cannot control, and hence his fears; they are the confession of the instability of the order on which he relies; and they presage, and in the world's history have ever presaged some violent disruption, because they were the expression of the consciousness of the force of what was breaking all up that passions are stronger than what controlled them. The bonds of society are too tight or too weak. Power is not in them, but in the force which is working underneath them. Some would slacken them to give vent to the power at work; some would tighten them, hoping to break or repress it; some hope, and many more fear; none know what is to come."*
{*"What is the World, and what is its End?" by J. N. Darby. (T. Weston, 53, Paternoster Row, E.C., 1d.).}
Now Luke tells us of this time: "There shall be … upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth" (Luke 21:25-26). And the symbolic language of Rev. 13:1 shows that the emergence of the Roman beast will be from out of a troubled and possibly anarchic condition of the nations — a condition of fear and insecurity, in which the rising of a man of power would be hailed as a deliverance. The preparations for this are developing before our eyes today.
Thirdly. The effort to obtain Egyptian independence has also significance in connection with what Scripture has declared both as to the past and future of that nation. The Lord God declared by the prophet Ezekiel that Egypt was to be "a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms" (Ezek. 29:14-15). When one contrasts her former splendour and prestige as shown by the monuments with her degraded condition since, the fulfilment of the prophecy is remarkable. For more than two thousand years Egypt has had no independent sovereign; is at the present time a tributary state of a second-class Power, and her finances are controlled by England this last indeed for her good, but she has for ages been humiliated by forced labour, grinding taxation, and every kind of oppression. In 1866 the Vali, or Viceroy, was granted the title of Khidewi-Misr (King of Egypt), or, as commonly called, Khedive, but this was obtained at the price of increasing the amount of the tribute to the Sultan of Turkey.
Were the prophecies about this country only of the character of that just quoted, we might expect no change; but Daniel shows Egypt in a different state at the time of the end. Speaking of the false king, the antichrist, then to be reigning in Jerusalem, he declares that "at the time of the end, the king of the south (i.e. Egypt) shall push at him." This argues that the king of the south holds at the time an independent position, and one of considerable power, though subsequently the king of the north overcomes him, and gains "power over all the precious things of Egypt" (Dan. 11:40-43). Now if this is to come to pass in the time of the end (post-church), is it not noteworthy that late years have given birth to a strong movement for nationalism in Egypt? After ages of oppression Egypt begins to lift up her head. In 1896 the papers reported that the young Khedive Abbas was visiting Europe incognito, with the draft of a scheme for establishing Egyptian independence, and that he had had a secret interview on the subject with M. Hanotaux, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. The years which have since elapsed have produced events which indicate a strong undercurrent of national feeling. Sometimes those events have been indefensible deeds of violence; but clearly the spirit of nationalism in Egypt has been born. It will probably live and grow. In 1907 Mustapha Kamel Pasha contributed several articles to the French press in which, while expressing with great ability the aims of the Egyptian Nationalists, he said that though English imperialists regarded the movement as purely artificial, "repressive measures had led to an extraordinary development of nationalism, which is not Pan-Islamist, but essentially patriotic." Since then, in September, 1909, an Egyptian Nationalist Congress, in furtherance of the movement, has been held at Geneva. At all events there will be a king of the south of considerable power in the time of the end, sufficiently strong to make an attack upon the potent but false king of Israel.
Notice in passing that when the king of the north conquers the king of the south he is stated to acquire "power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt" (Dan. 11:43). This seems to intimate a condition of material prosperity in Egypt, very different from that of past centuries. Has not this tide of prosperity already commenced to flow — markedly since the British occupation of Egypt?
Fourthly. A few words as to the "king of the north" first mentioned. This power is not Russia, as would naturally be the first thought of a European. But we must remember that the standpoint of prophecy is always that land which in the divine purposes is the centre of the earth. North and south in prophecy are north and south of Palestine, not of Europe. Hence the king of the south obviously means the king of Egypt, and king of the north in Daniel is that potentate, whoever he may be, who at the time of the end will be the ruler of what is now called Asia Minor, the land to the north of Palestine.
1910 150 Asia Minor at present is held by Turkey. Will the Turkish power be the king of the north? In the past there has been a consensus of opinion that Turkey as a power must decay and pass away. The "sick man of Europe" is the derisive name by which the nation has been called. But its final collapse may have been too hastily assumed. However this may prove to be, the world has quite lately been surprised by an outburst of national energy in Turkey in the direction of constitutional reform. Accompanying this is a startling progress in material development.* Twenty years ago Constantinople and the Turkish Army were eating bread made from Russian flour; they are now eating of their own country's growth, while the peasantry are obtaining for their harvest twice to four times the prices formerly paid. Where, near the Sea of Marmora in Asia Minor, the neighbourhood was infested with Tscherkess robbers, the chief of these robbers is now a respected stationmaster in the Anatolian Railway. Such is the effect of railways in Asia Minor. The Turkish Administration has engaged the highest engineering talent to advise as to preventing the overflow of the Tigris and the Euphrates. These works, together with that great undertaking, the Baghdad Railway, are fraught probably with great consequences for the Turkish Empire, augmenting its wealth and material prosperity and restoring to order and civilisation Mesopotamia, once one of the most fertile countries of the earth. But important as this may be politically to Turkey, it may be equally important in its prophetic bearings. Mesopotamia is part of the Turkish dominions; it was part of ancient Assyria, and "the Assyrian" is another name by which in prophecy the king of the north is designated. The reformation of political institutions in Turkey, and the growth of national energy and prosperity may have great significance when we consider that Turkey represents today what in the future time will be "the Assyrian" of Isaiah (Isa. 8, 10, 14), and "the king of the north" of Daniel (Dan. 11:40-45).
{*See article by Herr von Gwinner (Governor of the Deutsche Bank) in the Review, "Nineteenth Century and After," June, 1909, p. 1083.}
While, however, this shows the possibility that Turkey may prove to be the king of the north, writers of great insight have thought otherwise. Mr. Kelly says, "The king of Assyria will he then the holder of what is now the Sultan's dominion or the Ottoman Porte. This potentate to the north of the Holy Land will acquire considerable strength, and be found in a state totally different from the excessive decreptitude which we see now. It used to be a common saying with politicians that Turkey was dying for wants of Turks; but this will not be the case then. I suspect that Greece and Turkey in Europe, with perhaps Asia Minor, will form a sufficiently strong kingdom where the Byzantine kingdom was once known, the Turks proper being probably driven back into their own deserts. If this be so, those we now know as Turks will be expelled from Pera, and then the renewed Syro-Greek kingdom will really have its headquarters in Constantinople, will there play its part once more in the great drama of the future, and be, I have no doubt, as thoroughly unprincipled a kingdom under its final shape as ever it has been under its Mohammedan form."*
{*"Lectures Introductory to the Minor Prophets," by W. Kelly, 4th Ed., pp. 251, 2.}
The question, however, is one for the future rather than the present. What is certain is that Scripture marks out a distinct line of activity for the king of the north in the time of the end, and that geographically Turkey at present holds the position. What is not certain is, whether Turkey will be removed and replaced by another power. There has been a foregone conclusion that Turkey must fade and decay. Predictions were at one time made that the empire must come to an end in the decade 1840-50, but facts have not been friendly to that view. The unexpected often happens. Turkey has survived so far, and there are indications as already stated that she may quite possibly become stronger rather than weaker.
Fifthly. The unrest in India is another circumstance which has the colour of the closing days. That in the national re-arrangement of the last times England will ultimately relinquish India is possible and probable. East and west will be more clearly demarked than ever. Prophecy plainly shows that Russia is to be the great leader of the Eastern nations, and her persistent tenacious policy in that direction is well known. Even China and Central India will accept her dominancy. England's destiny is in the west, as part of the great Roman empire; she has long had the controlling influence in the east, but in the coming time Russia, and not England, is to be the over shadowing power of the east. The upheaval of late in India, possibly more deep and serious than is supposed, tends obviously in this direction. Alienation from England of feeling in India must facilitate the ambition of Russia. The position of Russia as now stated is demonstrable from prophecy, but the proof is too long to set out here.
Whether we look at the state of Christianity or the condition of the nations, the world seems ripe for the coming of the Lord, and an intelligent survey of the situation is perhaps the best answer as to expecting another nineteen centuries before the end of the present period. The statement now given does not claim to be a complete synopsis of signs of the times, but some of the most weighty have been selected, which are here placed in the inverse order of their importance (the last two have already been treated in detail in the January number of this magazine [p. 9]), viz.:
1. Incipient alienation of India from British rule.
2. Developments in the sphere of the future king of the north.
3. Revival of Nationalism in Egypt (king of the south).
4. Tendencies in the sphere of the coming Roman Empire.
(a) Towards federation of nations.
(b) Socialism, Communism, Anarchism, et hoc genus, preparing for the popular state out of which will arise the great Roman potentate of Rev. 13.
5. A revival of Nationalism among the Jews.
6. The revival of the hope of the Lord's coming; the midnight cry of Matt. 25:6 having long since gone forth.
7. The unblushing movement towards the apostasy which is to follow the rapture of the church.
Attention is drawn to these circumstances, not as being remarkable, though they are remarkable, but as having one feature in common, which to the Christian is more to be noticed than anything else: that is, they are, all of them, pre-monitory movements towards events which are to burst on the world after the church is gone. When men come with picks and shovels, boring rods, and carts and horses, and begin work at one side of a hill; and when surveyor's pegs and lines are visible marking out a road on the other side, one concludes that these two are intended to meet, and that the work which we see commenced on the one side will end in the road designed and projected on the other. Just so with the facts which we have been considering. The initial work is begun before our eyes, the completion of which after the church's removal is marked out by prophecy. India mutters disaffection towards her western ruler. Turkey, presumptive king of the north, shows unwonted and altogether unanticipated energy. Egypt, the future dominion of the south, is in the throes of nationhood, and is allowed the formal title of "king." The grouping of European governments points towards a re-institution of the Roman Empire — the nations feeling their need of a leader — and that need intensified by the gathering power and threatening voices of the great masses of the peoples of Europe. The Jew is awaking to national aspirations. While sounds are abroad in the world which tell of the coming end of the age, the Spirit of God has roused, and is still arousing, the attention of the church to the hope of the Lord's return. And the inchoate apostasy, no longer nebulous, assumes such definite shape that the anointed eve can make no mistake as to what it is the beginning of. Such considerations have a cumulative effect upon the godly and thoughtful mind, but the last is by far the most telling and important. The change in the ecclesiastical sphere is distinct and dire, unmistakable and Satanic.
The instructed Christian fully concedes that signs are for the godly Jew, and not for him. No doubt this is so, and were the indications which have been mentioned adverse to the nearness of the coming, instead of for it, the Christian's fidelity to Christ's word would still require him to look with daily expectation for that blessed hope. Moreover, it is important to remember that in expecting the Lord's coming we are looking for a Person, not merely an event. It is a spiritual exercise, not only a mental conviction, and the more spiritual the believer is, the more will his heart he towards Christ, and desirous of His return. What the Lord values is affection for Himself, but the mind may be full of prophetic notions, while the heart has little occupation with Jesus. Still the Christian is not called upon to shut his eyes to the scriptural significance of great world-movements. The Lord rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees for being able to discern the face of the sky, and for not discerning the signs of the times (Matt. 16:3). We live at a trying epoch. Nineteen centuries have run, and yet the Lord's coming has not taken place. Not only are unbelieving men saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?" but many believers are wavering, at least so far as to think that it is a mistake to be now looking for the Lord's return. John the Baptist, it will be remembered, after himself accrediting Christ to Israel, was stumbled at appearances on finding that with the great Messiah's presence he was left in prison; and so does the faith of weak believers sometimes waver. The Lord, in reply to John's messengers, gave the gentle rebuke, "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." At the same time He pointed John to signs (Matt. 11:1-6). Similarly now, He providentially allows to the wavering disciple a pre-manifestation of movements which are to mature after the Rapture. This might not have been so, and faith would still have been governed by Christ's word simply. But, equally, faith will not refuse the comfort and aid of such confirmations as may be providentially placed before us. Possibly they may be intended to stir afresh the expectation and hope of Christ's coming. What if they should be an intimation to us that that coming is now near at hand?
The reader may believe in a second advent of the Lord, and that there will be some who will be 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). "Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20). E.J.T.