The Shadow of Coming Events

The Shadow of Coming Events

By Harry Rimmer, Sc.D., LL.D. Copyright, 1946, by The Research Science Bureau, Inc.

CONTENTS Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2 Foreword ....................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1. Palestine, The Coming Storm Center ..................................................... 4 PALESTINE Center of the Coming Storm ..................................................................... 4 Chapter 2. The Coming War and the Rise of Russia .............................................. 21 “... SHALL HEAR OF WARS ...” ................................................................................... 21 ARMAGEDDON. What is it? -- Where is it? ................................................................ 25 CHAPTER 38 .................................................................................................................. 26 War Forecast, and the Allies named. ........................................................................ 26 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, ................................................................... 26 The Invasion planned. ................................................................................................ 27 The Motive stated. ...................................................................................................... 27 The Invasion attempted. ............................................................................................ 27 Divine opposition. ....................................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 39 .................................................................................................................. 28 Divine Opposition Continued. .................................................................................... 28 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:.................................................................................................................. 28 Defeat of the Invaders: 5 out of 6 die. Weapons useless. God triumphant in battle. .......................................................................................................................... 28 The “mopping up” period. 7 years to clear the debris and bury the dead. .............. 28 Final Grace of God on the land and people: the conversion of restored Israel. ...... 29 THE COMING WAR ...................................................................................................... 30 GOG AND MAGOG ........................................................................................................ 33 GOMER ........................................................................................................................... 34 TOGARMAH ................................................................................................................... 35 ~1~

PERSIA (Iran) ................................................................................................................ 35 LIBYA and ETHIOPIA .................................................................................................. 36 EZEKIEL’S FORECAST ................................................................................................ 38 THE CONFLICT AHEAD .............................................................................................. 39 Chapter 3. The Coming League and the Roman Dream ....................................... 42 Chapter 4. The Coming King ....................................................................................... 64  ............................................................................................................ 69  ............................................................................................................ 70  ............................................................................................................ 73  ............................................................................................................ 81  ............................................................................................................ 88 Books by Dr. Harry Rimmer ...................................................................................... 93

Introduction Two striking facts are apparent to every careful student of history; and, properly interpreted, these facts form a very illuminating background for the understanding of certain sections of God’s prophetic utterances. Prophecy is really human history written as it shall be enacted -- and history may in many cases be defined as prophecy fulfilled by human conduct. Man is so lacking in originality and so prone to react to any given set of circumstances in a certain way, that history is itself a form of prophecy. That is to say, if we desire to know what man will do in any emergency or how he will conduct himself in any crisis, we need only find out how he comported himself under similar circumstances in past time. It seems to be established by all past history that the race will always respond in the same manner to the pressure of a given condition. Therefore the shrewd student of human affairs can sometimes prognosticate human conduct in the light of past experience.

It is for this reason that we say that two lessons from history may shed light on prophetic passages. The first of these facts is that there have always been focal points in human conduct. These may be better defined as crises in conduct, or epochs in human relationships. Such climaxes may be reached once in a generation or even oftener -- or they may occur only after centuries have elapsed. One such crisis was the World War of 1914-1918, and the recent conflict in Europe will be accepted as another.

The significance of this fact for our present consideration lies in the fact that God’s Word prophesies that the end of our age will have its climax in such a focal point, in what shall be the next to the last gathering of armed men dedicated to a program of conquest and invasion. Their abortive attempt may be best known as “The Battle of the Valley of Jehoshaphat,” although no battle will be fought, in the strictest sense of that word.

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The second point of our premise is the fact that there are also certain geographical foci in human history. At one time human history centered in Mesopotamia, before it shifted to Egypt. Later the focus of history, geographically speaking, was Greece, then Rome.

After centering around the Mediterranean Sea for the greater part of all human history, the scene shifted to Europe. From thence it leaped the Atlantic Ocean to find its center in the New World. For generations these western continents have been the focus of human interest, and history has been directed from this part of the globe.

But the Word of God warns us in no uncertain terms that the Western Hemisphere is not destined to remain the geographical focus of world events. The historical and the geographical foci will be in the tiny land of Palestine, when our Lord Jesus returns to end human dominion and establish His kingdom for His millennial reign.

Thus Palestine is destined to become the storm center in the drama of human events. A crisis is prophesied for that land, for it shall be invaded by an army hungry for loot. This army is destined to be all but exterminated by supernatural forces, and thus we cannot properly call the debacle a battle.

The result will be the personal return of Jesus Christ and the, beginning of the reign of Heaven over the earth. This Golden Age cannot come until the crisis is past; so we look with interest at the present condition of the nations and lands which will later be involved in the surging tide of these mighty events, to see if in this instance “coming events cast their shadows before.”

Foreword The poet Campbell very truly says, “Coming events cast their shadows before.”

How much truth lies in that statement history can testify, for the man who is wise enough to discern the signs of his own times is never caught napping by the swift tides of human events.

In the dark and tragic days in which we now live, many are wondering with fainting hearts just what the future may hold. Bleak foreboding blackens the immediate horizon, lighted only by the flickering flames of a world that is again on fire. Every safeguard which humanity labored to erect for the defense of civilization has been demolished in the crash of heavy artillery, and the “assured gains” of human brotherhood have all been swept away by the swelling tides of human hatred and lust. The voice of love has been drowned out by the ghastly medley of pain and fear torn from the throats of suffering women and babies. The once bright highways of human progress are impassable today, buried so deeply under the corpses of murdered men that no one generation will suffice to clear them for further advances.

Is there then no light to alleviate the bitter darkness of this frightful age?

Just one.

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” sang the Psalmist of old and his words are eminently true today. ~3~

The prophetic sections of the Bible offer to this bewildered age the only help that is or shall be available. It is well indeed that we give heed to the Lamp of prophecy, until the day dawn, and the Day Star arise.

But we must proceed here with wisdom, exercising caution and restraint. There is great danger at such times and in such stress that men will go beyond what is written and merely cloud the issue with human interpretations of God’s Word. We pray that we may be guarded from that very common mistake.

We are not prophets: we are students of prophecy!

We are not called upon to prophesy: our task is to study the prophecies.

To that end this book is offered. “What saith the Word of God, and how do present events fit into the pattern of His revelations?” is the question we shall seek to answer in a manner that is sane, restrained, and Scriptural. For that reason we shall deal only with events which are foreshadowed by some actuality which may be observed in our own age.

As an instance, the Bible prophesies a League of Ten Nations which shall one day rule the world. This future combination was foreshadowed by the recent puerile and pitiful League of Nations. Even though this recent League was the most colossal failure in human history, it speaks of the possibility of the League which is to be.

The recent and present dictators point to the coming man of sin, even as the second world war authenticates the coming invasion of which prophecy speaks.

In presenting these studies on prophecy, the author hopes only to stir up the mind of his readers to the end that the thoughtful among them will search the Scriptures to see if these things be so. Only as they know the Word of God can the children of light keep themselves from being overwhelmed in amazement at the dark deeds of this sinful, Christ-rejecting age.

Chapter 1.

Palestine, The Coming Storm Center Jeremiah 23:5-8; 30:1-11; 31:7-14 ~ ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his day Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, the Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I have driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land.

PALESTINE Center of the Coming Storm The twenty-third chapter of Jeremiah contains a prophecy which is as yet unfulfilled--one of many such in the Old Testament. It is a noteworthy fact that all prophecy which awaits fulfillment in the march of time deals with some phase of ~4~

the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this paragraph from Jeremiah is no exception. The four verses which are printed at the head of this chapter refer to a return to Palestine which still, awaits the people of Israel, and which they are destined to make in the fullness of time.

This return will mark a new era in the history of the Jew, and from it he will reckon time as from a new starting point. Even as the ancients spoke of God as the One who brought them out of the land of Egypt, so that future generation will refer to Him as the One who regathered the children of Israel from the world-wide dispersion which is their present condition. The sure promise of this God, thus recorded, is that He will some day gather all the great mass of the Jews from the ends of the earth and establish them again in the land of Palestine.

There can be no question that this particular promise refers to a future event, since the prophecy states that when this return occurs, a Jewish prince, known as “the Branch,” shall reign in the land. His reign will not be over Palestine alone, for from there this king shall “execute judgment and justice in the earth”! Peace and security shall be the position of the Jew during that reign, and the king shall bear the name of Deity!

There has never been even a remote approximation to a fulfillment of this prophecy in the past history of Israel. It is true that after Jeremiah wrote, a remnant of the Jews returned to Palestine, but this was only a partial return.

Further, we are forced to note that they did not return from all the countries whither they had been driven, but came back only from Assyria. Also, they returned to be enslaved by a conquering Gentile power; no king of their own lineage reigned over them. The despotism of Herod, a Roman puppet whom they hated fiercely, could hardly be a fulfillment of the promise of a righteous reign of justice and godliness!

There are other prophecies, however, which define and limit the clear statement of this return. If you will read the first eleven verses of the thirtieth chapter of Jeremiah, you will see that this return is to be accomplished only after a time of tribulation and suffering. In this section of the great book of Jeremiah, God again states that He will return Israel to Palestine. But first there shall ascend a trembling voice of fear and pain, and the nation shall cry and groan in travail in a day that shall be known in history as the time of Jacob’s trouble. After this, the Lord will deliver the Jew from the yoke of Gentile dominion, and raise up to him as king a son of David. Before the Jews may experience the blessing of the return, however, they must pass through the purging fires of pain.

The same promise of a glorious return after a time of sadness is recorded by this same prophet in verses seven to fourteen of the thirty-first chapter. There we read the identical promise of a return to freedom, happiness and autonomy after anguish and despair.

But until the time of the redemption of these many promises of God, the land of Palestine is to remain under Gentile dominion, and the Jew shall be as a stranger and a foreigner in the land God gave him to be his special possession! The present mandate over Canaan that is exercised by Britain is rooted in the consent of certain ~5~

Gentile nations which formed the now defunct League of Nations; the owners of the land were never consulted in the arrangement. This situation is itself an evidence of the inspiration of the prophetic writings. Even as our Lord Jesus said in Luke 21:24, “And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

These words, “The Times of the Gentiles,” are familiar to students of the Bible, and they cover the entire span of Jeremiah 39, and will end with the events of the nineteenth chapter of Revelation. Or to say the same thing more precisely, the “times of the Gentiles” began with the year 589 B.C. and will end when Jesus returns. But His return will be immediately preceded by a storm in Palestine which will shake the nations of the earth. The Jews, returning to Palestine, will rebuild that land and make it the treasure spot of the future. Certain nations will invade Palestine to rob Israel, and the invasion will usher in the returning Messiah, Who will smite the armed host and relieve the siege of the ancient city. We shall come back to this thought as our study progresses; right now we must pause to survey the present situation of and in Palestine.

The new era really began during a crisis in Great Britain’s conduct of the war of 1914-1918. Students of history will remember that Britain entered upon that war woefully unprepared, and faced the prospect of disaster because of her confidence in promises of world peace. After desperate months of struggle, when the need of the armed forces was most critical, word leaked out that the munitions were almost exhausted and only a miracle could save the embattled empire. This situation precipitated a crisis in the cabinet of Lloyd George, and deep concern swept over the entire realm. The chief high explosive used by Britain was cordite, and in its manufacture acetone is essential. The supplies of this material had been limited to begin with, and the accelerated rate of manufacture had completely exhausted all reserves. Unless some method of producing acetone synthetically could be discovered, certain disaster faced the armies of the Empire.

A great company of Israel has held to the hope of a return to Palestine in every age of the many exiles, and in these times such Jews call themselves “Zionists,” and their organized movement is known as “Zionism.” The official head of this company was and still is one Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a noted and able chemist. His aid was solicited by Lloyd George, and he accepted an appointment which made him head of the research laboratories of the Admiralty. Urged to speed at any cost, and under the pressure of an anxious cabinet, this brilliant young scholar perfected a method of synthesizing acetone from horse chestnuts and gave Britain a cheap and satisfactory supply of acetone, so that the manufacture of cordite could continue.

Asked to choose any reward that a grateful government could give him, Dr. Weizmann would accept no other honor or emolument for himself than the satisfaction of a duty well and faithfully done, but pleaded for the recognition of Zionism. In return for his work for Great Britain, he asked the official aid of the government in establishing the persecuted people of Israel back in there own land.

Great Britain pledged itself to aid Israel in establishing in Palestine an official

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Jewish state for all Jews who desired to dwell there, and the bargain was sealed, if the Empire weathered the storm of war.

From this point on, events moved with startling rapidity. The first item of interest was a proclamation known as the Balfour Declaration because it was sent to Lord Rothschild by the great Balfour. The exact text of this paper is quoted here in these important and significant words: His Majesty’s government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best efforts to facilitate the attainment of this object: it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

The manner in which the Zionist leaders moved to preserve the rights of nonJewish communities in the Holy Land will be referred to later. Just now we are concerned with establishing a time table of events.

The second episode occurred on December 9, 1917, when General Allenby marched into Jerusalem at the head of his victorious army. The manner in which the sacred city was preserved from bombardment and spared the devastation of artillery fire is a story that has been told before, but which will bear repeating again. The account was first given by a Turkish officer of Artillery, who was a guest at the Adventurers’ Club, shortly after the war ended in 1918. He was asked why the Turkish army retreated from Jerusalem without firing a shot, and allowed General Allenby to march in without opposition. This was his reply: “I am glad to answer that question, as there has been a suggestion for some time that the Turks lost their nerve and quit when Allenby drew near their lines. I assure you that such was not the case. Since Mohammedans believe that a true believer who dies in battle against the infidel has a special and glorious place in Paradise, it is the ambition of every good Turk to die in battle. This makes him a good soldier, and I am sure that our enemies who have faced us in battle would be the first to testify to our valor and ability.

“We were ready for Allenby, and were planning to give him a battle that the world would long remember. I happen to know, for I was in command of all of our artillery in and about Jerusalem. But just before Allenby’s forces came within range of the city, the English general sent over a force of bombing planes that began to circle above the city. This was the one weapon we were not prepared to combat, as we had no guns for anti-craft purposes.

“You must remember that Jerusalem is a sacred city to the Mohammedan as well as it is to the Christian and the Jew. We have one of our greatest mosques there, and our traditions go back into the antiquities of Palestine. So when we envisioned the possibility that Jerusalem would be devastated by bombs, and the sacred relics destroyed, we took counsel together. Knowing there was no way we could oppose those hovering birds of prey, we cursed the bombers, marched out of the city, and allowed the English forces to enter unmolested. Out of this bitter experience we got only the satisfaction of knowing that we had preserved Jerusalem.

“A few months later, I learned that we could not have done any differently! This had been prophesied, and the will of God must always be done. This was pointed out to me by a Jewish Rabbi, when he read to me the words of the Hebrew prophet whose name was Isaiah: In the thirty-first chapter of that book, Isaiah wrote: ‘As birds flying,

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so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem: defending also He will deliver it: and hovering over it He will preserve it.’{Isa. 31:5} So the prophecy, written in the day of another war, was again fulfilled in this one, when English birds deliver and preserved Jerusalem.”

The reader will have to decide for himself how much of Isaiah’s strange prophecy really applied to the war of 1918: it is a fact that is generally accepted that many prophecies have had a dual fulfillment; once in the day of their utterance, and again after a lapse of years. Let it suffice when we note that Isaiah 31 was literally fulfilled here in a remarkable manner. For while the ruins of other shattered villages may still be seen in Palestine as grim reminders of that war, Jerusalem suffered no harm.

We now leap ahead to March, 1918, when the Jewish flag was unfurled from the Tower of David in the ancient part of the city, and General Allenby proclaimed a Jewish state.

The next important event was the Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, bringing victory to the Allied Powers, and giving them the power and privileges customarily accruing to conquerors. Thus Great Britain found herself in a position to fulfill all her promises and pledges.

She moved accordingly, and on May 24, 1920, the League of Nations officially ratified Britain’s mandate over Palestine, giving her sovereignty over the territory.

Great Britain has been criticised bitterly because of her failure to live up to the conditions of her mandate, and to fulfill the terms of the Balfour agreement. It seems apparent to the careful student that much, if not most of this criticism is justified, but we in the United States cannot escape our own share of the blame.

The mandate was given subject to the advice, approval, and supervision of the League of Nations, plus the United States. It was upon this condition we acceded to the suggestion, and accepted our full part in the protection of Palestine. At any time England failed to give the Jews their rights or, did not afford them full protection, it was our duty to step in and demand justice for the Jewish settlers. It is to be counted to our shame that we displayed no interest whatever in the conduct of the colony, and allowed the most bitter disappointments to come to the Jews. At the start, it seemed as though England would redeem her promise.

When one Herbert Samuel became Governor of Palestine, he was the first Jew to reign in fact in that land since the days of the Maccabees, and it seemed as though we were on the verge of the golden age for Israel! Since that day hundreds of thousands of Jews have returned to Palestine, and have poured into its rehabilitation hundreds of millions of dollars.

These colonists have astounded the world by the transformation which they have wrought. They changed deserts into orchards. They metamorphosed wastes into cities. They brought beauty where desolation had reigned, and caused the waste places to yield fruitful harvests.

And all of this has been accomplished in the midst of “troublous times,” even as the prophets foretold!

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The land has been troubled in many ways and by many factions. First and foremost among the disturbing elements is the Arab population whose ancestors have lived there for some six hundred years. They claim the land by right of priority and because of these six centuries of tenure. Ask them how their fathers got the land, and they will proudly answer, By the, sword!” And it is useless to remind them that before they took the land for the six-century tenure, it had belonged to the Jews for three thousand years! God gave the title of the land to the descendants of Abraham, confirmed it by the Palestinian covenant, and promised them possession for the price of obedience. When they forfeited the land because of their sin and apostasy, He healed their backslidings and restored them. Once again thrust out of their homeland, because of their crucifixion of their Messiah, they were promised reestablishment therein, in preparation for the Second Advent of David's Son. Thus the Arabs are usurpers and have no claim in fact.

Furthermore, the Arabs have not possessed Palestine for six centuries, by right of conquest or by any other right whatsoever. Prior rights are vested in Israel, if conquest is to be the basis of title. The conquest of the land by the Jews, in the day of Joshua, goes back twenty centuries before the Arabs overran the land with the sword. The Arabs did hold the country from 637 A.D. until the Turks took it away from them in 1516 A.D., and the Turks held the country until Great Britain wrested it from them as part of the spoils of the war of 1914-1918. If “right of conquest” is to the basis of the final disposition of the land, then Great Britain has the final word.

But the case for Israel is even stronger than this. It will be remembered that the Balfour declaration expressly stated that the establishing of a Jewish state should not violate the rights of non-Jewish residents or communities. For this reason the leaders of Zionism met with the Arab rulers and asked them to set a price on their lands. This was done, and Israel bought this land from the Arab owners in spite of the fact that the price asked was about six times its value in the poor condition in which it then was.

At once the new owners began to plant, cultivate, build and develop. After more than two decades of heart-breaking labor, and after spending several hundred million dollars, the laboring Israel turned Palestine into a paradise. Thereupon the disgruntled Arabs began to stir up strife. No doubt a difference of ideology entered into the issue. The Arab desires a land that is wild, unfenced and unplowed, that he may use it to graze flocks and herds. The Jew desires to fence his land and cultivate it, and thus wrest a living from the soil. And when Jewish sweat and treasure began to show results and the land produced in payment, the Arabs cried out that they had been cheated, and demanded that the land be returned to them.

The Jews asked, “What price do you offer to buy it back?”

The Arabs replied, “Unfortunately we can’t pay, as we have no money. But it is our land, and has been for six hundred years! The bewildered Zionists retorted, But you sold it!”

The Arabs closed the argument by saying, “The sale was a mistake and we regret it. Now we intend to take the land back.” ~9~

Thus “troublous times” began. I could write by the hour of the scenes of outrage and bloodshed that followed, and tell of personal experiences and tragedies that I witnessed in Palestine during the terror which followed. I feel that no impartial observer can fail to sympathize with the Jews in their courageous and heroic effort to keep their land and make their home secure. And, like most such observers, I cannot help feeling that God will yet judge Great Britain for her shameless failure to confirm the promises made to Zionists and to stand by Israel in this struggle. His Majesty's government has most certainly not kept its word in this respect.

It is argued that the question is one concerning the rights of native Arabs against Jewish immigrants, but this is not so. If you consult the records you will see that for every Jew who has returned to Palestine, six Arabs have immigrated into the land, and it is these immigrant Moslems from Syria, Iraq, Trans-Jordania and Arabia who are causing the disturbance. It is the age-old Arab system of loot and pillage, the strong seeking to rob the weak. And while Britain stood by and permitted this to happen, courageous Israel goes right on planting, building, reclaiming and using her own blood to fertilize the soil!

The second contributing factor in these “troublous times” is to be found among a certain class of Jews. Among the refugees who fled to Palestine, especially from Russia and Germany, were many who were Jews in name and lineage only. That is to say, they were impregnated with higher criticism and in some cases were literally atheistic, and they despised Moses and the Law. This situation was bound to produce trouble, as the orthodox Jews demanded reverence for the Sabbath and recognition of the day as a time of religious activity alone. The modernistic Jews refused to conform, and opened their cafes, business houses and places of amusement in Tel Aviv. They even went so far as to promote sports activities on that day, holding cricket matches and football games.

When the orthodox sought to enforce the local laws concerning the Sabbath, riots actually occurred, making it necessary for the British police to interfere and restore order! In one case it was necessary to send armed troops to put down the disturbance. The British took a hand and decreed that since Palestine was to be a Jewish state, the orthodox opinion should prevail and the Sabbath must be respected. But the issue is not settled; the sullen and resentful obedience of Jewish infidels is only temporary, and trouble may yet boil over in this cauldron of Palestine.

A third disturbing factor could have been discerned in the activities and ambitions of the late Benito Mussolini, whom Italy hailed under the proud title of “Il Duce.” That deluded Italian had a fond dream of re-building the Roman Empire, with himself at the head of it. He was alert and vigilant to every opportunity of advancing this cause. Being shrewd and able, and undeterred by questions of ethics or points of honor where the apparent welfare of Italy was at stake, Mussolini dreamed of a Palestinian “grab.” For this reason he was ceaselessly active on stirring up strife in the Holy Land, and his tactics were typical of his shrewd dishonesty. He erected a powerful radio station in Libya, which broadcast several hours a day in Arabic. The programs were magnificently planned to rouse the ~ 10 ~

rabble Moslem hordes. For thirty minutes the radio would carry the type of entertainment the Arabs dearly love -- traditional song and story. Then for ten minutes there would be clever propaganda, the general theme of which was that Italy was the friend of the Moslems and that Britain was their enemy. The promise was made that if the Arabs would join the Italians, Palestine and Egypt would be given back to them, and Mussolini would be the Protector of Islam.

The shrewd Duce then presented lovely radio sets to the Arab coffee shops and other places of congregation, and these sets were soldered so that they could receive only the Italian Libyan station. Thus the customers of such shops were a certain audience for the propaganda.

And so poor, down-trodden Palestine was once more the political football in an international game, and the “troublesome times” were intensified. As a chief issue of the recent war, the fate of the Lovely Land trembled in the balance. For if the Axis powers had won that war, Italy was to have been given Palestine as part of her share in the spoils. In that case the Jews would have been driven forth from their own land again, and the returned remnant of that persecuted people would have been homeless once more. But this was not destined to occur, for at the end of the Age of Grace, Israel must be in possession of Palestine, because that land is to be the cause and the scene of a great conflict. The armies of certain allied powers will invade the country, to be destroyed by supernatural power. Immediately thereafter the Lord will return to set up His Kingdom which shall endure for a thousand years.

This “battle” must not be confused with the “Battle of Armageddon” which we believe will take place after the thousand year reign. The twentieth chapter of Revelation states that Satan is bound in the abyss for the thousand years of the kingdom, but is loosed for a short while after the thousand years are finished. He again deceives certain of the nations, and “Gog and Magog” again take the field against the people of God. Besieging the sacred city, they press their campaign until fire from heaven destroys their armies. Now, if “Armageddon” is to be the last battle, it is obvious that it cannot come at the end of the Tribulation, but comes at the end of the thousand year reign.

It is more accurate, perhaps, to call the coming battle “the battle of Hamon-Gog” (Ezekiel 39:11). Or, since the “valley of passengers may be identified as the Valley of Jehoshaphat, we might properly name this battle after that site, and call it “the Battle of the Valley of Jehoshaphat.”

For full Scriptural understanding from this point on, it would be extremely wise for the reader to lay this book aside now, and read chapters 37, 38 and 39 of the prophecy of Ezekiel. Please do so, and then return to note these significant facts: Chapter 37 states that the people of Israel will return to Palestine, and become a united nation. They will there re-establish the worship of God, and dwell in peace.

2.

Chapter 38 prophesies that soon after this return, Palestine will be invaded by an allied army, headed by “Gog, the chief prince of the land of Magog.”

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It is generally understood by scholars that the land of Magog is Russia, hence Gog will be the man who is ruler of Russia when this invasion begins. We will deal with this suggestion in detail in the next chapter.

The allies of Russia are named in verses 5 and 6, being Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer and his associates, and Togarmah and his allies as well. “Gomer” refers to the Balkan states, as we shall show in the second chapter of this book, which deals with this coming war. “Togarmah” signifies Armenia. Verse 9 speaks of the actual invasion, while verse 11 tells of the defenseless condition of the invaded land. It looks as though the expedition will be as simple as taking candy from a baby -- and the 12th verse gives the motive of the invasion. In a word, the armies are there for loot. We shall return to that thought, but first let us press on to the conclusion of the outline.

3.

Chapter 39 describes the defeat of the invaders and their complete rout. Of the invaders, five-sixths will die -- a casualty list such as no previous war has ever known. For seven months the victors will be busy burying the bones of the dead, after vultures and beasts of prey have picked them clean. This will be the last war before the coming of Christ, and a graphic description of it is later given, we believe, in the 19th chapter of Revelation.

To return to a former thought, the campaign will be undertaken for the sake of spoils. The nations will have bankrupted themselves in bootless wars, famine will grip much of the earth, and the godless powers will be desperate for money, materials, and food. Their eyes turn to peaceful Palestine as the only available source of all three. If one should ask how so small a country could be worth robbing, we would not have to seek far for the answer. Remember that when Palestine is invaded, all the Jews in the world will be there. You can have three guesses as to where the wealth of the world will then be. The bankrupt nations will look upon the treasures possessed by Israel and reach out with rapacious hands to seize them.

Indeed, the “shadow” of that richness is to be seen even now, in “Potash, Ltd.” The source of much of Palestine's future wealth is the Dead Sea. Out of it, industry is recovering the stimulants to agriculture which have made possible the transformation of bleak and barren hillsides into fruitful groves, and which has caused desolate deserts to spring into life and beauty.

It will not be amiss to remind the reader that the Dead Sea occupies a sink the altitude of which is 1292 feet below sea level. Into, it for countless centuries all the hills and upper plains have drained. Since the sea has no outlet, and since the rate of evaporation is very rapid, the mineral content of the water is astonishingly high.

It is the heaviest concentration of certain soluble salts known to occur anywhere in the world. At the greatest length the sea is forty -seven miles long, and it reaches a width of nine and a half miles at its widest expanse. It covers an area of 340 square miles, and its depth varies from twelve feet at the south end to 1300 feet at the deepest part of the northern end.

The name “Dead Sea” was given to this large inland lake in the second century of our era. Before that it had many names. It was commonly called “The Salt Sea” in

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the days of our Lord, and was also known as “The Sea .of the Plains”. Josephus calls it “The Asphalt Lake”. The modern Arabs still refer to it as “Lot's Sea”. They believe that at the time Lot's wife was turned into salt, her body melted in this lake, and made it what it has become!

'They also believe that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was partly due to a hail of chemicals which helped to impregnate this vast sink with its present bitter contents.

Many and weird are the tales which ancient travelers have told about this dismal place. They reported that nothing could live therein, that to swim in its waters would bring death, and that birds attempting to fly across its baleful surface dropped dead half way over. The lake was believed to be accursed, and useless for man.

How different the truth of the matter is, every modern student knows. In 1930 a British corporation was formed, called “Potash, Ltd.” Its purpose was to explore, develop and reap the rich harvest of chemicals that awaited men in the Dead Sea. Chemical engineers discovered that the waters of this strange lake contain vast quantities of many of the substances most valuable to industry, agriculture and warfare as these pursuits are conducted in our generation. They found that from the depth of 200 feet down, the waters were practically a saturated solution of various salts. Consequently a pipeline thirty inches in diameter and 2800 feet long was laid, terminating at a depth of 200 feet below the surface of the sea. By the use of enormous pumps this water is lifted for the harvest.

In recovering the valuable salts from the water, the cheapest technique known to man is used. Since the soil on one shore is a heavy clay, which does not permit the water to escape by filtration, it was not necessary to build evaporating pans.

Instead, a tractor and a scraper were employed to dig out a series of vast and shallow pans, located one above the other. Gravity and solar heat then do the rest, assisted by the incessant winds. The summer sends the temperature to more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The wind blows all day from the south, and from the north all night. Under these conditions the water in the shallow pans is quickly evaporated, leaving behind a residue of chemicals. At certain stages of evaporation

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the water is drained off into lower pans and the process continued. Thus the treasure is reaped with the minimum of labor.

If you will now look at the simple diagram which faces this page, you will note how this process progresses from stage to stage. The water in the top pan condenses to a certain state, and is then allowed to flow down into pan number two.

This is possible because of the steep slope of the sides of the sea, which is deep in the hills. And when this water is drawn off in this fashion, it leaves behind the first form of salt, which is sodium chloride. This, as you know, is our common table salt.

When the water in the second pan has evaporated sufficiently, it is again drained off into pan number three, leaving behind the double salt known as carnallite. This is composed of magnesium and potassium, which are easily separated. Thus we have recovered three chemicals in two evaporations.

In the third pan the process continues. When the water is again drained down into pan number four, it leaves behind magnesium bromide, from which pure bromine is obtained cheaply.

In the fourth and last pan the rest of the water is completely evaporated, and the process is finished. This final stage yields another salt, which if washed with pure water will yield potassium chloride which is 98% pure. But where are we to get fresh water, on the shores of the Dead Sea? Faced with this problem, the engineers experimented by sinking a test well, and right where they needed it, they brought in artesian wells whose flow and capacity seem unlimited.

What hath God wrought in this strange little land of Palestine! For centuries He has been storing up these priceless ingredients for the use of our day! To show something of the value of this deposit, we have printed the assay of the present content of the Dead Sea. Note that the figures are thousands of millions of tons in each case, so that the first item should be read, “magnesium chloride, twenty-two thousand million tons.� And the rest likewise.

NAME OF CHEMICAL

AMOUNT PRESENT MILLION TON UNITS

Magnesium chloride

22,000

Sodium chloride

11,000

Calcium chloride

5,000

Potassium chloride

2,000

Magnesium bromide

1,000

This gives us a total of forty-one thousand million tons of chemicals in sight and immediately available. In addition to that, the streams of that region are pouring into the Dead Sea every year forty thousand additional tons of potassium chloride.

So as fast as it is taken out, the content is replenished, and this will go on as long as the cycle of precipitation and evaporation continues. The value of this deposit cannot be expressed in dollars and cents--there just isn't that much money! All the ~ 14 ~

money ever minted since the days of Julius Caesar would not equal the cost price of this chemical treasure, if it had to be purchased in the mass.

So God has provided wealth for Israel. To make it available, He established the mechanism of recovery. He arranged the slope and nature of the soil to save the engineers time and money, and put artesian water where they would need it to finish their task.

It is largely because of this vast wealth that Russia and her godless allies will invade that devoted land, just at the dawn of That Day when Jesus shall come again. This will be the reason for the storm of battle that shall yet break over Palestine, the last conflict before the setting up of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the restoration of Israel to her ancient place as the chosen of God. It is wrong to speak of the Jews of the present age as the “Chosen People” for they have forfeited that title and distinction because of disobedience and unbelief.

They were the Chosen People in the dispensation which preceded the age of Grace, and they will be again in the age of the Kingdom of Heaven, but the Chosen People of this interlude are those who compose the Church of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are very clear upon this subject, and the Word of God cannot be set aside by the unbelief and ignorance of men. To get this idea firmly in our minds, and to correct a popular fallacy concerning Israel in this age of her disobedience, let us take a quick survey of the Bible on this subject.

The first covenant that God made concerning Israel is recorded in the 12th chapter of Genesis, and is known to students as “The Abrahamic Covenant.” The first three verses of this chapter read: “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

This may be called the primary covenant, and for the sake of emphasis we have put certain salient sections of the covenant in italics. It will be noted that in the promise thus made, God guaranteed to Abram certain things, to wit: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)

A certain land, to be his and his seed’s possession.

A great nation to come from him.

The blessing of God to rest upon him personally.

A great name to be conferred upon him.

He to become a blessing.

God’s blessing was to rest upon those who blessed Abram, and God’s curse to be upon those who cursed His friend Abram.

Through Abram all families in the earth are to be blessed.

This, then, is the primary, or basic covenant, and it was later modified and enlarged by certain other conditions and promises that were added from time to time. Will you please note, however, that in this first, or Abrahamic covenant,

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nothing is said about his progeny becoming the “Chosen People”, or of being under a peculiar relationship to God? We now turn to Genesis 15:18, and there we read of the secondary covenant, in these words: “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:”

and verses 19, 20, and 21 name the peoples who are to be later dispossessed. But please note again that there is still no mention of the choosing of the progeny of Abram as a peculiar people, who shall be called the Chosen of God. The next addition is in the 17th chapter of Genesis, where we find the tertiary covenant. This is the third time that God has spoken to Abram about his future, and the future of his descendants, although Sarai had as yet borne no child, and his only issue was Ishmael, who had been born thirteen years before the events in the seventeenth chapter which we now note. This new utterance of God contains certain promises, which are presented in this order: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Abram is to be multiplied exceedingly His name was to be changed from Abram (“father”) to Abraham, “Father of a Great Multitude.”)

Nations and kings are to issue from him.

The covenant God made with him was to be extended to his children for an everlasting covenant The Lord was to be a God to him, and his children.

The land of Canaan is to become their everlasting possession.

It is again to be noted that no statement or promise is here made that the seed of Abraham are to become the Chosen People, only that God is to be their God, and they shall worship Him. All of this was again confirmed, as in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, but nowhere in the covenants that God made with Abraham was a promise stated or implied that his progeny should become the Chosen People.

The first mention of such a special distinction for Israel is found in the covenant that God made with the people, on the eve of their flight from Egypt. This new chapter and the dawn of this new covenant are set forth in the 6th chapter of Exodus, in the promise that God made to Moses personally. This, also, we shall call the primary covenant with the People, which was modified later with additions and conditions. After revealing Himself to Moses by a Name Which Abraham had not known, JEHOVAH GOD promised to take Israel out of bondage, and fulfill part of the covenant made with Abraham by settling the delivered people in their own land. In the 7th verse He says: “And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”

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Those words are clear and explicit, and admit of no misunderstanding. After the escape from Egypt, the children of Abraham are to be taken to God as His own people. To see the basis upon which the promise rests, we turn to Exodus 19:5-6, where we read: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.”

The covenant which God made with Abraham was eternal, and unconditional.

But the covenant which He made with the people was conditional, and was to be limited by their obedience. Only if they would obey God's voice, and keep their part of the covenant did He promise to keep His part. It was a mutual contract, and violation by either party would release the other party from any further obligation under such contract. Keep this thought in mind when we get to the strange words of the prophet Zechariah.

Our present object is to see how this new covenant, made at the time of the exodus, was modified. The 19th chapter of Exodus which we have cited we shall call the secondary covenant and we now turn to the 26th chapter of Leviticus for the tertiary phase which begins with verse three.

“IF ye walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, and do them:”

and then follows a list of twenty-six promises of what God will do. But all of them are predicated upon the important and indispensable “if.” The 12th verse contains one of these conditional promises, thus: “And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”

These mighty words of a great promise can be limited by only one condition, and that condition has been stated at the beginning of this series of promises, “If... ye ... keep my commandments!” Which they certainly did not do! From this time on we read of the many backslidings of the people, for all of which God did not cut them off, but in mercy healed and forgave them time after time. Thus for more than eight hundred years God dealt with a backsliding people in mercy and love. He pleaded with them in famine and pestilence; He wrought for their redemption with sword and oppression; He scourged them for their sins with the lash of mighty enemies, but for all this they would not heed nor remain faithful to Him. Finally His mercy could no longer hold back the stroke of His justice, and the sinful and disobedient people were sent forth into captivity. And on the eve of their departure into slavery and bondage, Jeremiah still sang of His love and forgiving grace in these words from the 31st chapter of the prophecy which bears his name: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that! took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they brake; although I was an husband to them, sayeth the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.” ~ 17 ~

In the deep grief that God knew because of the willfulness and sin of Israel, He did not utterly forsake them. Although they cast Him off and broke His special covenant that had made them His Chosen People, He plans to restore them to this high honor at a later time, when they are back again in their own land for the millennial reign.

In the meantime, to see their position before God, we turn to the prophecy of Zechariah, and find this strange statement in the 11th chapter, verses 10 and 11: “And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day ...”

The phrase. “that day” is a familiar one to readers of the Bible. It is identified by Zechariah himself in the verses which immediately follow those cited. He calls it the day when for thirty pieces of silver the traitor should bargain to betray Beauty, the coming “Shepherd” of Whom Zechariah sings. So then: in the day that He was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, God broke a covenant which He had made with all the people, because they had first broken it with Him! What was that covenant?

Not the Abrahamic covenant; that was unconditional.

It was the “special covenant” which God had made with all the people at the time of the exodus from Egypt. It was a conditional covenant, and if Israel did not keep her share of it, God was freed from His obligations under the same contract!

If we turn now to the New Testament, we see that this is all confirmed. In Luke 1:17 the angel announced that one of the purposes of the coming of John, the forerunner of Jesus, would be “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Passing over in silence much that we long to dwell upon, we now come to Acts 15:14, where before the council of the apostles in Jerusalem James declared: “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His Name!” From this it is a logical step to Romans 9:23, where it is written: “And that He might make known the riches of His glory, on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles. As He sayeth also in Hosea, I will call them MY PEOPLE which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God.”

Gracious and mighty words are these, indeed. And we have lived to see the fulfillment of them in the erection of the Church of the New Testament. Out of Jew and Gentile alike hath He called all who will hear and answer, and of them He has made “one body,” a new creation, which we today call the Church. And it is this company who in the dispensation of grace are known as the Chosen People.

We read, for instance, in Titus 2:14: “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to Himself a purchased people, zealous of good works...” And again we note the magnificent triumph of 1 Peter 2:9: “But ye (the Church) are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you

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out of darkness into His marvelous light; Which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God...”

So for the time being, the Church occupies the position that God offered to Israel, and which they cast away by sin, and by their rejection of the Messiah Jesus. But this displacement of Israel as the Chosen People is only temporary, for God assures them in Hebrews 8:10: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”

In the light of this, what is the proper attitude toward Israel for the Church to adopt? The answer is simple: we are under the deepest obligation to evangelize them.

WE MUST CARRY TO THEM THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION BY FAITH IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. In the days when they were the Chosen People, God had provided a means for the forgiveness of their sins through the shedding of the blood of certain animals ordained to the sacrifice. But now the Hebrew Epistle warns us that “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” for those who reject the Son of God, but instead a fiery judgment that will destroy those who have trodden under foot the Son of God and despised His shed blood. And this modern Israel has certainly done.

Therefore it is the obligation and duty, and should be the pleasure as well, of every Christian to carry the message of regeneration to the Jew, as we do to all lost men everywhere. Those who die outside of the saving grace of Jesus Christ in this dispensation are undoubtedly lost; those who survive until His coming will be converted by the brightness of His appearing. Then they shall enter into that special relation to God that He has promised, and shall once more be “His People.”

To do so, however, they must be back again in the land that He gave to them in the Abrahamic covenant, and which they lost because of disobedience. To see them returning in large numbers is the most delightful sight that the intelligent Christian can view, as it definitely indicates that the time of His Return draws nigh.

Men are slow to learn the lessons of history. Six great Powers have tried to exterminate Israel, and one more outstanding attempt will yet be made. The Pharaohs tried it in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries B.C. The Assyrians attempted it in 775 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar made a notable attempt in 588 B.C., and Haman followed with the plan of 510 B.C. The next hopeful persecutor was Antiochus, Epiphanes, who sought to blot out the Jews in 170 B.C. The last great attempt to accomplish this hateful plan of extermination of a great people was that of Titus the Great, who in 70 A.D. came closer to succeeding than any of his predecessors had! But the people of Israel are far more numerous today than they were when Titus began his efforts against them, and history should teach conquerors to keep their hands off the Jew. God has sworn that they shall never be blotted out as a people until His purposes have been accomplished through them, and this oath He will respect. ~ 19 ~

And in this 20th century, we have seen the conquering Hitler engaged in the same ancient folly, fondly dreaming that he can blot out this people. He set himself to wipe them out, root and branch, and if he could have had his way not one human being of Jewish lineage would be left alive on the face of this earth. Certainly, he was ardent and tireless in his merciless campaign. He brought more misery and suffering on Israel than any man, since Titus, has been able to inflict. He filled their days with terror and their nights with fear. By his vicious and inhuman conduct he turned the decent elements of humanity against him, and, died knowing that he had failed of his purpose.

All that Hitler accomplished by his European-wide persecution may be summed up in a sentence: he accelerated the return of Israel to Palestine, thus apparently hastening his own doom! By driving the “preserved people” back into the preserved land, Hitler, who did not believe the Bible and who scoffed at the Word of God, helped to fulfill its most outstanding prophecy! Thus does the wrath of men sometimes serve the purposes of God. In all of this strange sequence of mighty events, the student of prophecy may discern three remarkable things. First, we see prophecy in the process of fulfillment. as the return of Israel gathers momentum.

Secondly, we thus have an unanswerable proof of the inspiration of God’s Word.

Well did God say to Isaiah, “I am He that knoweth the end of a matter from the beginning thereof!” Only Deity could foresee the present world situation and describe it twenty-five hundred years in advance. Thus when we see the words of Jeremiah and his predecessors coming to pass, we know in truth that “Holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of God.” The third and last fact that emerges from the crucible of these world events is that God moves in human history, as well as in human hearts.

All of this adds up to a brightening of the blessed hope, and we may indeed trust in the nearness of our Lord’s return. The prophecies state that when Jesus comes to reign, Israel will be dwelling in her own land. The present status is clear. A Jewish state is in process of development in Palestine.{proclaimed on 14 May 1948} The prophecies state that at the time of His return, Israel will have reclaimed the land and turned it into a storehouse of all that is needful for the sustenance of life. Since 1935 the ships that sail from Haifa carry the surplus of Palestine to the world market, and we have often purchased the fruits of the Holy Land in London and Rome.

The prophets further inform us that the Jews who bring all this to pass will be possessed of a vast treasure, making the prospect of loot irresistible to godless and pragmatic nations. We have already pointed out the unlimited wealth made available by “Potash, Ltd.” in the easy garnering of the Dead Sea. Shedding more light on the future, the ancient writings reveal the helpless condition of the Jewish state, describing it as a country of unfenced cities, and a people that are dwelling in confidence, having neither bars nor gates. Is not this an exact description of the condition of Palestine today?

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Rich, and rapidly growing richer, possessed of plenty in a world of famine and want, Palestine even now is a plum that makes the eyes of international robbers gleam with avarice.

So the storm which Ezekiel foretold is even now gathering, and no man can say when it will break. The only certainty is that it will come, and it may be very soon.

But this will be the last world attempt to blot out the Jew. For the invading armies shall be almost annihilated, and the attempt to conquer Palestine shall terminate in the return of Jesus Christ. He will lead the armies of Heaven to overthrow Russia and her allies, and will remain to establish His kingdom, and to reign for a thousand years. Then indeed will Israel dwell safely, and will become again the Chosen People. Then indeed will the earth be filled with the knowledge of the love of God as the waters cover the sea, and men will cease from war and conflict, dwelling together in amity and peace with each other, with nature, and with God! As the dark clouds of the final storm gather before our very eyes, may God grant that we shall not be taken unaware by the swift flight of events. When the hearts of natural men are literally fainting with the fear of what the future may unfold, we can lift up our heads, knowing that Jesus is coming again, and our redemption is nearly complete.

“Even so, Lord. Jesus, come quickly!”

Chapter 2.

The Coming War and the Rise of Russia [Editor Note: In this project, the first two books (as chapters) I’m using a digital version of the 1944 edition and correcting with the 1946 hardback book, of which I scanned the next (or last) two chapters . Some errors (esp. tense conversion) may be missed. Also lesser headings not in book version I’ve kept in as is. -esn]

“... SHALL HEAR OF WARS ...”

In the first chapter of this book, we announced our purpose, which is the sane, careful and accurate consideration of the program of prophecy in the light of current events. Our first study dealt with the promised return of Israel to Palestine, and the invasion of that land by an invincible army, frankly seeking loot.

To show the credibility of this strange forecast, we called attention to the fact that over half a million Jews have already returned to Palestine, where they have developed the land, built unfortified cities, and produced a prosperity such as the ancient country has not known for ages. We further pointed out the unlimited source of treasure discovered in the Dead Sea, and now being developed by “Potash, Ltd.,” and marketed by that firm. Thus we saw that the prophesied return and invasion for spoils are reasonable, in the light of present conditions.

In this, our second study, we turn our attention to what the Word of God portrays of a coming war, the next-to-last war that shall ever trouble this planet.

We referred to this conflict briefly in the foregoing chapter. We deal with it now in particular detail, for the further edification of those who desire to know what God has said concerning future events. Thus we may read history before it is enacted, ~ 21 ~

and be warned so completely that we shall not be amazed when these things come to pass.

For there is a coming war, and such a battle seems imminent in the light of present day conditions. Divine Revelation warns of this outrage against decency and civilization, and a full and complete demonstration of the baseness of human character and conduct will be seen in the fullness of time. The brutal and heartless career of mass murder that has drenched Europe with blood in our time presages an attempt to subdue and rob a helpless and innocuous nation, in a coming day.

And that later effort shall dwarf the sadistic nature of this present war, as bestial license shall be utterly unrestrained.

Together with other students of prophecy and teachers of the Bible, I have been stating in public meetings for the last ten years that the recent world war was imminent. This insistence upon a prophesied fact brought me persecution and scornful derogation, all of which affected me and my ministry no whit. The jeers and laughter of those sad leaders who are ignorant of God’s Word can have no hindering effect upon those of us who have unshakable faith in the Revelation God has made to men. Rather are we moved to compassion for those who shut their eyes to fact and prophecy, and are thus overwhelmed by the waves of disaster which those who are wise in God’s wisdom have foreseen and expected.

Prophecy was given for our learning, and if we seek an honest understanding of its mysteries and its symbols, the march of events cannot sweep us off our foundations of comprehension. So the current war should have been expected, and preparations to meet its horrible demands should have been made far in advance. If there were no other grounds for this statement than the words of Jesus, in Matthew 26:6-8, these verses should have been more than enough. The reader will remember that in that portion of His Olivet discourse, our Lord said: “And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

Nowhere in Holy Writ is there any premise for the modern belief that universal peace will be achieved by the works of man or the plans of human leaders. Jesus warned His followers of the folly of such false hopes, and told us in plain words that wars would continue intermittently until the end of the Gospel age.

In a certain northern city some three years ago, a group of ardent young men from the local Junior College were working out a project in their class in Journalism. They set themselves the task of interviewing a group of men whom they themselves had designated as “advanced thinkers” and “the leaders of community thought.” Their interviews were planned to get the consensus of such opinion on the certainty of peace, and the impossibility of war among civilized nations.

I do not know by what error I came to be included in this group of “intellectuals” -- as it is a well-known fact that I am somewhat reactionary in my backward ~ 22 ~

attitude toward “modern” problems. This is evidenced by the fact that I still persist in believing that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, and is thus the last word on human conduct and history. But I was interviewed by these starry-eyed lads, who possessed a Pollyanna psychology which was beautiful to observe, but utterly unworldly and impractical.

When the interview began, the spokes-man asked, “Dr. Rimmer, we have come to get your opinion on the subject of world peace. We feel, of course, that the world will never again stoop to the horror of war, and that if world leaders ever did attempt to start a conflict, youth would refuse to engage in mass murder. We would like to quote your views on this subject.”

I replied, “Your question seems to imply too much. You say the world will never again engage in war. Just what is Japan doing in China now?”

The lad scowled impatiently and said, “Oh, we mean the civilized nations. They will never be so foolish, the League of Nations has made it impossible for mass hate to ever flare again into armed conflict.”

I tried to keep my face straight as I answered, “But Japan and China were both members of the League of Nations, they are at war now! So when you say the civilized nations will never engage in territorial conquest, I suppose you mean such cultural nations as Italy? In that case, what is Italy doing in Ethiopia at the present time?”

In the most disapproving voice you ever heard, the young man said, “Why, you sound like you do not believe in world peace! Are you totally unaware of such covenants as the Kellogg Pact, and other similar documents?”

To this I could only reply, “I do know of these treaties, and also realize how utterly worthless they are! Japan signed the Kellogg Pact--Italy was a signatory of the League covenant against war, and the Locarno pact as well. The guiding spirit of nations in this age is the same pragmatic thirst for power and lust for territory which has always characterized the spirit of empire and conquest. So until Jesus comes again, and Himself assumes governmental authority, there is no hope for peace and permanent international relationships, such as you young men dream of!”

At once a storm of protest swept over me. The committee united in expressing their united approbation of my reactionary ignorance. I was finally told that every great thinker of the age disagreed with me, and I was hopelessly pessimistic. I objected to the statement that “every great thinker” was against me, and quoted the words of Jesus, warning of war until His return.

But these were college men, and they knew better! They had read books, and had talked with teachers who had assured them that human evolution had reached a stage where mass murder was a thing of the past. When I showed them the clear statements of the Bible, which prophesied war and conflict, they left in impatience and disgust. My last word to them was that they would live to see my warnings fulfilled by the swelling tide of events.

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I learned later that they asked permission of their Dean to leave my interview out of their printed report, but he ruled against it. He said, “It may be barely possible that Dr. Rimmer is right, and we may :find that he is the only realist among us. Maybe we are all just wishful-thinkers, and entirely wrong. So even though we do not agree with his pessimistic outlook, we will print his ideas and statements.”

The aftermath you know. Even I did not expect the flood to come so soon, although there had been considerable “rain” that should have warned the world! I heard later that two of these rosy optimists were in the army, one was in the navy - and the rest of them were all registered by the draft act! At least they are awake now, even if the arousing was somewhat rude! I rather fancy that they are not so sure now that Jesus was ignorant of coming events, or that the Bible is outmoded by human progress and advancement!

In what a sad plight do our modernists and humanists find themselves in these black hours! The blind leaders of blind congregations are not happy in the ditch, wherein both find themselves in undesirable fellowship. That portion of the Church of Christ which forsook the redemptive Gospel for a false hope is now reaping the reward of that folly and apostasy. The renegade section of the ministry, who turned from the message of Calvary to a strange error, has preached the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and the enjoyment of world peace for too long. They cannot now return to the truth and the Book which they so blithely forsook, and which they have been denying for almost a quarter of a century.

And, with the same certainty that we have manifested in saying that this present war would come, we are equally dogmatic in our statement that this is not the last war that the earth shall see. There are to be at least two more which shall follow this one which has just ended.

As far as I can read the clear meaning of the Bible, the recent European war is not specifically foretold in prophecy. But it should have been expected, if for no other reason than for the statement of Jesus in the above cited passage from the Gospel of Matthew. And beyond all else, it must be emphasized that the conflict which has just been fought is not the Battle of Armageddon.

How often do we see enthusiasm taking the place of sane consideration, and common sense displaced by a reckless leaping at unwarranted conclusions. In Los Angeles recently we saw a large and gaudy sign decorating the front of a church, announcing that “Armageddon is now being fought!” We were not surprised to see that this was the sermon topic of a noted shallow thinker, one of the chief exponents of British-Israelism, and a man who has been consistently wrong in all his Bible interpretations for a full ten years. One of the tragedies of the modern movement of Bible teaching is the fact that so many men are woefully unprepared to teach God’s Word. They lack background, they have no grasp of the proper divisions of the Book, and they wrest the dispensational settings all out of proper application. This condition is utterly needless, as we have excellent Bible Institutes and colleges which can impart a splendid foundation of Scriptural learning to all who desire to so equip themselves. With Institutes such as the Northwestern Bible ~ 24 ~

Institute at Minneapolis, The Moody Bible Institute at Chicago, the two Institutes in Philadelphia and the Bible Institute of Los Angeles all offering magnificent training, ignorance on the part of public teachers is not only needless: but inexcusable. Trained men who know the Word, do not often fall into these childish extremes of Biblical misapplication.

ARMAGEDDON. What is it? -- Where is it?

The latest war which exhausted the resources of the world is not the subject of our present study -- but it is a “shadow” of that coming event. We stated in a previous paragraph that there would be two more wars, at least. They are “The Battle of the Valley of Jehoshaphat,” which begins the millennial reign of Christ, and the “Battle of Armageddon” which is fought at the end of the thousand-year span of the Kingdom. That is to say, Armageddon occurs at the close of Christ’s reign, if the commentators and teachers are right in saying that this famed battle is to be the last war that earth shall experience. This final conflict is described in the twentieth chapter of Revelation, and the direct statement is made that it is staged “when the thousand years are expired” (Rev. 20:7). The first battle which holds our interest now is to be fought as Jesus returns to inaugurate this thousand years.

Armageddon is the wrong site for the first battle. Perhaps that word, in spite of the familiar use made of it for years, would be better grasped if we dealt with it at length. Bible students know that it occurs only once in the New Testament, in Revelation 16:16. Armageddon is the Greek form: in Hebrew it would be HarMagedon. The one reference to it in Revelation shows it to be the rallying place of the armies that oppose God and His people. They are called together for this battle by the unclean spirit of Satan, and join in the last great struggle between right and wrong, between good and evil.

While there have been various theories advanced to identify the site with accuracy, the most plausible and most generally accepted idea is that the name refers to’ the Hill of Megiddo, made famous by many battles in antiquity. On this battleground Josiah undertook his fatal foray against the Pharoah Necoh, and here also Israel fought magnificently against the armies of the tyrant Sisera. The low hills of Megiddo overlook the plains of Esdraelon, where more bloody engagements have occurred between armed hosts than can be found connected with any other field of warfare in this entire earth. Every acre of the region has been repeatedly stained with blood, until the very soil reeks with the memory of slaughter.

If you were to leave Jerusalem to journey to Tiberias, going by way of Nablus and Nazareth, you would skirt along one border of this fateful plain. And, since the battle of Ezekiel’s prophecy transpires in the “valley of the passengers”, which is the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Ezek. 39:11) this first conflict is joined east of Jerusalem. Megiddo is in the north -- a long way from Ezekiel’s prophesied site.

If further evidence were needed, to conclusively settle the point that the modern world war was neither of the two battles prophesied in Scripture, we would note that the wrong leaders were at the forefront of the current conflict. The late aggressor was Germany, abetted actively by Italy, and passively by Russia. The

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aggressor in Ezekiel’s war, as well as in the battle of Armageddon, will be Russia, as we will presently show.

Further, we note that the wrong enemies participate in the European set-up.

England, France and Greece were the victims of invasion in this conflict, to say nothing of Poland, the Netherlands and other countries. But in the battle described in this prophecy, Israel is to be the victim, and no Gentile nation shall stand as her friend or ally.

Finally, the modern war was won by the ultimate victor, by manpower and the use of carnal weapons. But the battle that Ezekiel forecasts will be won by Israel when God moves to defeat the invader with supernatural weapons. Although the sword shall begin his defeat, the enemy will be completely overturned by earthquake, pestilence, a rain of brimstone such as blotted out Sodom, and hailstones similar to the rain of missiles which turned the tide of battle in Joshua’s favor when he fought on the plains of Beth-horon.

We must not fail to notice that the sword which begins the defeat is not wielded

by Israel. They are completely defenseless, and their rescue depends upon divine intervention exclusively. To accomplish this, God sends a confusion upon the host of Gog, and the armed men in the army of pillage tum upon each other and begin to smite in blind panic. This is clearly stated in verse 21 of chapter 38, where the prophet writes, “And I will call for a sword against him through, out all my mountains, saith the Lord God, everyman’s sword shall be against his brother.”

The Jews have no brethren in the attacking force, so this must mean that menat-arms shall turn against their brothers-in-arms, and in sudden civil strife smite and slay. The work thus begun will be finished by the horrible and destructive rain from the sky. This will continue until the great army is almost exterminated.

So then, we say that no matter how bad our losses were in the modern war, there will be another after it, more terrible in its consequences than any conflict in history has ever been or ever will be until that day. This coming war is the subject of the prophecy of Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39 of the book which bears his name.

Since it is absolutely imperative to an understanding of this subject that the reader of this study shall be familiar with the exact words of this prophecy, we here print them in full, and if you skip that portion of this present book, you may as well lay the subject aside, as you will have no basis of comparison of that which shall follow. Attend, then, to these words of Ezekiel.

CHAPTER 38 War Forecast, and the Allies named.

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed ~ 26 ~

with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers a nd shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

The Invasion planned.

Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou , and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, a nd is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to co ver the land, thou , and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:

The Motive stated.

And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dw el l i n the m idst o f t he la nd. Sheb a , a nd D eda n, a nd the mercha nts of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

The Invasion attempted.

Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD ; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou , and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me , when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art

thou he

of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets

of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring them?

thee

against

Divine opposition.

And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my ~ 27 ~

presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

CHAPTER 39 Divine Opposition Continued.

Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: Defeat of the Invaders: 5 out of 6 die. Weapons useless. God triumphant in battle.

And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and w ill cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou , and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD. So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy O ne in I srael.

Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

The “mopping up” period. 7 years to clear the debris and bury the dead.

And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamon-gog. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD. And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with

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the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

Final Grace of God on the land and people: the conversion of restored Israel.

And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of t he earth, of rams, of lambs, and of go ats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD. And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.

And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them , and hid my face from them.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, an d will be jealous for my holy name; After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered

them

out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many

nations; Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

The section may be outlined in this simple manner: Chapter 38 1-6 -- War Forecast, and the Allies named.

7-10 -- The Invasion planned.

11-13 -- The Motive stated.

14-17 -- The Invasion attempted.

18-23 -- Divine opposition.

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Chapter 39 1 -- Divine Opposition Continued.

2-8 -- Defeat of the Invaders: 5 out of 6 die. Weapons useless. God triumphant in battle.

9-16 -- The “mopping up” period. 7 years to clear the debris and bury the dead.

17-29 -- Final Grace of God on the land and people: the conversion of restored Israel.

This, then, is the simple outline of the coming war, which we shall now examine in specific detail, as far as space will permit.

THE COMING WAR There can be no question but that this battle is yet in the future. Nothing like it has ever occurred in human history so far, and the very details of the prophecy make this event to be one of the coming things still hidden in the womb of time.

These details are many, varied and explicit. While it is the custom for certain schools of interpretation to seek to ascribe all prophecies to some past historical fulfillment, such a technique of over-simplification will not serve here.

For instance, the record demands that when this great tragedy begins, Israel must be hack in her own land. It is true, of course, that in certain portions of his writings, Ezekiel envisaged the return of the Jews to Palestine at the end of their Babylonian exile, but by no stretch of the imagination can the events of this present prophecy be assigned to that return. This prophecy states that after the return dealt with in this particular paragraph, Russia will lead an allied horde against Israel, and will go down into disastrous defeat.

After the return under Zerubbabel, when Cyrus issued his famed decree, there were troublous times for the returned remnant. They built their walls and plowed their fields with sword and spear never far from their lands, and there was no semblance of safety in all those ages. And when the invader did come, it was Rome, not Russia, who put them back under the yoke of bondage, from which they never escaped. Rome continued her oppression until Israel was again expelled, in A.D. 70, after the fierce and unlicensed rape of Palestine by Titus the Great. It is from this Roman dispersion that Israel is again to be gathered, not a remnant this time, and not from Assyria alone. But they are to return, according to Ezekiel, from “out of the nations” and “out of their enemies’ lands.” He finishes the record of complete return with the statement “and have left none of them there any more.”

So before this battle takes place, all Israel must be returned to her own land; a process which is even now under way. For several generations there has been a slow infiltration of Jews into the land of Palestine, but the real impetus to the movement was imparted by the Balfour declaration. Evidently the leaders of Zionism believed the British government, and accepted their promises at their face value. Many millions of dollars were raised to purchase land, equipment and supplies were secured in huge quantities, and the work of establishing a Jewish State was soon well under way. This movement was halted soon by the Colonial

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office, which seems to have a strange affection for the Arabs and a deep aversion to Israel.

It is seriously charged that it was the British Colonial Office which stirred up the Arab opposition to the return of any more Jews, and the British government halted immigration. Then the great war began, Britain found herself fighting for her very existence, and Palestine was temporarily relegated to a minor place. And now that the war is ended, the Holy Land is closed to Israel, and in spite of the strongest protests from the United States, the problem is still far from settled. As I write, Jews and Arabs are again battling over the question, the Mahammedan world threatens to rise in arms, and Britain is reluctant to act with force and decision.

But in God’s good time all of this indecision will end, and Israel will turn again home to her ancient heritage. The recent movement is a shadow of the coming event, and a pledge of the flood of immigration.

Then notice also that after the return is complete, and before this prophecy is fulfilled, a vast concentration of wealth must be made in Palestine. The frank and brutal reason for the invasion is the desire for spoils. Gog shall say, “I will go up ... to take a spoil and to take a prey,” and this is the excuse he offers for the violation of the peace and security of a helpless people. The development of the resources of that land has only commenced. Ten years of uninterrupted industry there will make Palestine the richest concentration of treasure this world has so far witnessed. Even five years of unbroken application to the cultivation of her natural resources would make Palestine the envy of the world, and a land very well worth robbing, indeed.

An even stronger evidence of the future nature of this amazing prediction is the statement that when the outrage is perpetrated, the people shall be living in unfortified and defenseless villages and habitations. Gog makes a frank admission that the very helplessness of the inhabitants is an inducement to invasion! He is looking for a quick and easy victory, one that will enrich him and his allies with very little expenditure on their part.

Certainly this has no application to any past event, for the children of Israel have never dwelt in even fancied security in that troubled and war-torn land. The history of Palestine has been one of unbroken strife, alarm, battle and disaster. But when the great return is accomplished, the nation of Israel shall give no thought to defense, as they will fancy themselves secure in their possession, most probably because of the covenants that the nations make with them. It seems as though humanity will never learn the grim lesson that all men who are godless are also liars and willful deceivers. Consider the sadness the world is in today because honest men trusted the word of wicked and sinful wretches like Hitler, and many other misguided, wicked men. So Israel shall make a covenant with the nations, in spite of the fact that one of the signs of the last days will be “men shall be covenant breakers.” The disillusionment will be bitter, bleak and grim for the Jew, when an army, headed by his ancient enemy crosses his borders to slay and pillage again.

The weirdest and most conclusive evidence that we are faced with in a foretelling of events yet to occur is the startling statement that this raiding army is armed ~ 31 ~

only with wooden weapons! This conclusion is inescapable when we ponder the strange circumstances which are given as a result of the debacle of the assailing horde. The Children of Israel gather their weapons of war, and burn them for fuel.

The supply is sufficient to last for seven years, in and during which time the Jews cut no timber nor split any wood for their stoves and fireplaces. Verses nine and ten of the 39th chapter will admit of no other interpretation than this, which is clearly demanded by all the connotations of the words used by the writer.

This has never happened yet, and at first thought it is sometimes advanced as an argument against the possibility of any future realization of the prophecy. The question frequently and naturally arises, “Why should nations in the future give up guns, tanks, airplanes, cannon and weapons of steel for a reversion to implements of wood?�

At first sight this looks like a real difficulty, indeed, and ten years ago we could supply no answer. But some light on the question has been given recently, in the birth of a new, but promising scientific endeavor.

Just as sound is broadcast by radio, so also it is now possible to broadcast power by means of a vacuum tube. It is true that these first attempts are crude and limited, but radio was not much to brag about when it was an infant, just making its voice heard in the ears of a startled world! Give this new discovery a few years development, and weird things may eventuate!

The successful attempts show what may come to pass. At the present time the power sent out from the broadcasting plant is projected on the beam principle, is limited in range, and can be picked up only by a restricted number of metals and alloys. But in one experiment a plate of proper alloy was set out in a field fifty miles from the projecting point, and a tea kettle of water was set on this metal disk. The power was broadcast on a beam directed toward the receiving plate, and in 15 minutes the teakettle, out in the field, was bubbling and steaming away as merrily as though it was safely and orthodoxly resting on a sedate kitchen range!

Without doubt, when this technique is perfected, it will be possible to broadcast power which will affect any metal at a reasonable distance. Then warring nations will have to turn to weapons of wood -or rubber! Of what use would it be to give a man a gun, when a power plant 50 miles away can tum it red hot in his hands?

Men in metal tanks would be baked to a cinder before they could get close enough to. use their powerful guns. Cannon would be red hot, and powder would explode the second it touched the chamber or breech, making loading impossible. The imagination of man literally staggers at the thought of all the consequences which may eventually result from this discovery, but one thing is certain. It spells the ultimate doom of metal weapons of warfare.

I do not for a moment suppose that Ezekiel knew that this discovery would be made, but it is a matter of deep interest to note that the prophet, speaking by the Spirit of God, describes a battle yet in the future, and which awaits the development of this technique of defense.

The final argument, however, for the statement that the world still awaits occurrence of this unwarranted onslaught, is the list of the allied peoples who make ~ 32 ~

the ill-fated attempt. The army shall be headed by Russia, accompanied by certain African states, Iran, once called Persia, some of the Balkan states, Armenia, and others not named in the text, but put together in the phrase “many peoples.”

GOG AND MAGOG We are often asked, “How do you know who these nations are?” and this is a splendid place to answer that question. It is not a matter for speculation and theorizing, but a background of ethnology and ancient history forms the foundation for a positive reply. The identification of the assailants is really simple, if we consult our sources rather than our imaginations.

The first important clue is the statement that the head of the league of assault is one “Gog” who is identified as coming from the land of “Magog” and as being the chief prince of “Meshech” and “Tubal.” Note this first link in the chain which we shall forge, Gog is a ruler, a man; and Magog is his domain or territory.

Let us now trace out the etymology of the word Gog. It is, of course, a proper name, and we :find it used for the first time in history about the year 1600 B.C. In I Chron. 5:4 the name is given to a Reubenite, who was a grandson of Joel. The second occurrence is in Ezekiel 38, and there the name is applied to a prince of the lands of Rosh, Meshech, Tubal, and Tiras, in a geographical region anciently called Scythia, or Tartary.

Suspending that section of our inquiry for a moment, we next look at the word Magog. We find its first use was also as a proper name, appearing in Gen. 10:2 as the second son of Japheth. Later it came to be used of his descendants, and still later was applied to their land. The first territorial possession of this people was called Scythia. Herodotus, the famed Greek historian, states that in his day the Scythians were savages, and that Scythia was a region of vast boundaries, lying north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and also north of the Caucasus mountains. This historian states that they did not cultivate the land, but lived by pillage and warfare. They are described as nomads of filthy habits, who never washed in water, bloodthirsty and implacable in battle. Their chief god was a naked sword, and they sacrificed one in every hundred prisoners of war to this deity. They drank the blood of their enemies, made doilies of their scalps and vases of their skulls, and were a very nasty proposition to meet in conflict.

If you will now take time to refer to your globe, you will confirm your general idea that the land “north of the Black and Caspian seas, and of the Caucasus mountains” is, and always has been, Russia. Thus identification begins to appear.

Let us now turn to our third word, “Meshech.” He also was a son of Japheth, according to Gen. 10:2, and his descendants came to be called “Mosche,’ from which is derived the old term “Muscovites.” While this latter word is and has been applied to all Russians in general, it originally defined those Russians who come from Moscow and its vicinity. This refers, of course, to the ancient site. The modern city of Moscow was founded in 1156 A.D., and the name “Muscovites” is still applied to greater Russians, because of the older custom.

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The region was first called “Meshech,” then “Muscovi” and finally Moscow. But the identity has always been simply Russia.

The next link in our growing chain of identification is the word “Tubal” which is also used by Ezekiel. He also was a son of Japheth, and his descendants are never mentioned in antiquity apart from the people of Meshech. Josephus, the JewishRoman historian, calls the children of Tubal “the Moschoi,” and they made a name for themselves in Old Testament times.

The annals of Assyria speak of them with considerable heat, as they were constantly raiding the outskirts of the Assyrian Empire. These ancient chronicles from the land of Mesopotamia call these people “Tobali” and “Muski,” so “that “Tubal and Meshech” are again joined in historical records. These scribes of Assyria state that the “Tobali and Muski” lived in a vast land of mountains, north of the Black Sea. The Crimea seems to be indicated, but at any rate we are back in Russia again. Finally, Tubal was also the name of a city in primitive Russia, which may or may not be important to our final conclusion.

Thus, in a brief summary, we present our reasons for stating that ‘“Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of the land of Mesheck and Tubal” can refer to none other than Russia. She heads the aggressors when they attack Palestine, and it is a self-apparent fact that such conduct is only in accord with her long and bloody history, and in perfect harmony with her godless lack of ethics in her present form.

GOMER The identity of the other allies is equally certain. I expect that I shall tread on some commentators’ and teachers’ toes when I say that “Gomer” refers to a Balkan people, closely allied to Russia in blood, manners and customs. I know that it is the general custom of many teachers of prophecy to identify Germany under the name of Gomer, but a careful consideration will show that idea is a manifest error. Ask such teachers for proof of this identity, and none is ever forth-coming. So lest I also fall into the same error of dogmatic assertion, for which I can advance no conclusive and convincing proof, let me hasten to establish my premise. Once again we refer to ethnology and to history.

At the very outset of our investigation we meet Japheth, the son of Noah again.

The table of nations in Gen. 10 gives us the information that Gomer also was Japheth’s son. Thus we find the same close ties of blood linking Gomer to Magog, that linked Magog and Tubal as well. In the records of Assyria and Egypt we find much help in this study, for these nations fought the war-like people of Gomer to their sorrow and loss. The Greeks also struggled with them and retreated before their fierce forays, and their fighting abilities were held in deep respect.

The Assyrians have left the best records for our studies of these people. These sources tell us that Gomer was a tribe of fierce and barbaric Aryans which poured out of southern Russia, through the Caucasian mountains, and battled for new territory. They struggled across Western Asia and fought the Assyrians, and finally headed north by another route. They subdued and captured Cappadocia, and for centuries made it their stronghold. They finally settled in the region we now call ~ 34 ~

the Balkans, and their Russian traits and characteristics have never been completely lost. Russia claims them as kindred even today, and justly feels that her sphere of influence should include these semi-Russian tribes. The Balkan people still love war and its glories, and make magnificent fighting men. The Armenian name for Cappadocia is “Gamir,” and it is derived from the name Gomer. Every record of antiquity demands this positive identification: Gomer is a Balkan region and people. They will most naturally ally themselves with Russia, their ancient mother-country, when the proper time comes.

TOGARMAH The only remaining ally with whom the average reader has difficulty is “Togarmah.” This people we know to be Armenia. Referring again to the 10th chapter of Genesis, the third verse states that Togarmah was the son of Gomer, the grandson of Japheth. The same ties of consanguinity govern here. These are people also of the same ancient strain.

Geographically, Togarmah has always been the land which we now call Armenia.

It is so named in the records of Assyria. I feel sure that no informed person would be inclined to dispute this particular identification, as the Assyrian chronicles are amply aided by such ancient writers as Tacitus. In deed, all Armenian literature refers to the land and its people as “The House of Togarmah,” and they hold an unbroken tradition which antedates their literature by centuries, linking them to the grandson of Japheth.

So here we have in Ezekiel’s warning a league of races, anciently related by blood and interest, headed by Russia and assisted by certain Balkan races. The set-up is most logical to say the least, and highly probable in the light of past history.

PERSIA (Iran) But the real interest in this strange alliance is found in certain other races, clearly named in the text and well known to all students and scholars. The first of them is Persia. Her inclusion in any conquering horde has long been a source of considerable amusement to the learned skeptics, and at first thought these critics would seem to be justified. The days of Persia’s glory and power had seemed to be long past, indeed. But what a marvelous history hers has been! Few existing nations go farther back into antiquity than does the country which has recently resumed its old name of “Iran.” It was one of the earliest seats of culture and civilization, and for centuries her arms were invincible. When Cyrus took over the land of Babylonia, Persia became a world empire, and she pushed her conquests westward to Greece, eastward to the Indus, southward to Ethiopia and north as far as the shores of the Caspian sea.

But Alexander the Macedonian turned the stream of empire into new channels, and Persia has been practically a vassal state since. The Romans held the country for a time, the Moslems conquered it, and only under the Abbaside Caliphs did Iran regain a semblance of her ancient glory.

In recent times she has been the football of Russian and British politics, and it was not until 1918 that she felt strong enough to denounce the treaties forced upon ~ 35 ~

her by these two countries in 1907. The year 1920 saw her acceptance into the League of Nations, and she has grown and prospered amazingly since. Her army is rapidly being modernized, and she is strongly influenced at present by her one-time enemy, Russia. If she continues her present rate of development, she could become a valued aid to any army campaigning in the East.

LIBYA and ETHIOPIA While it is sometimes difficult for the modern reader to identify some of the nations and peoples named in the Old Testament, we need have no difficulty in this regard with “Libya.” Quite apparently the same African region that bears this name today is intended in the prophecy of Ezekiel. The prophet, of course, does not call the land by its modern name, but uses the Hebrew form of “Phut,” which the Septuagint renders by the Greek equivalent of “Put.’ Either form of the word makes the task of identification fairly simple.

In the Table of Nations of Genesis, the sixth verse gives “Put” as the son of Ham, therefore the people of “Put” are of the same racial strain as are all Africans. They appear in Old Testament records as allies of Egypt. Jeremiah, Nahum and Ezekiel all speak of their skill with shield and bow. The Egyptians called that country “Punt” or “Pwent,” and assigned the people to that section of Africa which was directly west of Egypt, and which paralleled the coast. This is, of course, the Libya of the present day. It was the homeland of the warriors who made fame for themselves first as hired allies of Egypt, and later as mercenaries in the army of Tyre. In this latter instance, they appear as fellow allies with Persia and Lud (Lydia).

Only one other “Put” is met with in the records of antiquity, and this one is also an African section. In the 37th year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar’s scribe made a record on a tablet recently recovered, which tells of his king’s campaign against Egypt. He lists as the strongest ally of Egypt, “Put,” which seems to lie, according to his description, east of Ethiopia.

In the Persian record of Naqsh-i-Rustem, three African countries are listed together, “the land Put, the land Kush, the land Massu.” The scribe definitely assigns the name “Kush” to Ethiopia, so that once again the African union is suggested. If the reader desires to make a comprehensive study of this subject, he is referred to the work of the master ethnologist, W. Max Muller, whose book entitled “Asien und Europa” gives most of the data suggested here.

Equally authoritative is the King James version in its translation of the Hebrew name of “‘Cush “ into the English name “Ethiopia.” Going back to the tenth chapter of Genesis, we refer again to that priceless Table of Nations, and we see that “‘Cush “ was the son of Ham. At the very outset we are in African anthropology. The children of Cush populated the country to the south of Egypt, and their first and smaller holding consisted of . the region that extended from the junction of The White Nile with the Blue Nile, all the way to the ancient border of Egypt. Most of this region is now called the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

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Later, however, the sons of Cush spread their domain, and controlled all the territory of modern Nubia, Sennar, Kordofan, and Abyssinia. When the English Bible translates “‘Cush” by the name of “Ethiopia” it is accurate in the extreme.

The Egyptians in earliest times called this land “‘Kos, “ the Assyrians and Babylonians named it “Kusu,” and as we have seen, the Hebrews called it “Cush.”

Although they were descendants of Ham, and therefore non-Semitic, they spoke a Semitic language which was closely related to Himyaritic, combined with some forms of Assyor-Babylonian. Muller argues that they were brown, not black, and that they were akin to the Canaanites. Again the reader is referred to his work “Asien und Europa” for a comprehensive survey of the anthropology involved.

It would thus appear that it is not necessary to make a mystery out of the references that Ezekiel’s prophecy makes to the future allies of Russia in this forthcoming invasion of Palestine. They are the peoples who were recently subject to Italy in the colonies that she held in Africa until she lost them in the defeat of the Axis powers. The future of those colonies is in doubt as these words are written, and they are one of the bones of contention between the victors. Russia is very eager to bring them within her sphere of influence, and Great Britain desires to retain them in her possession. Italy, of course, wants them back, and Egypt is making a strong bid for sovereignty over these territories.

However the issue may be settled at the moment, all agreements will be but temporary that leave these colonies in the keeping of some other power. When the alignment of the forces of the great battle begin, all of these African territories will be independent states, capable of making treaties and putting their own armies in the field, or they will be vassals of Russia, gladly participating in the ill-starred adventure of the grand invasion of Palestine.

Of these matters we cannot claim any special knowledge, but we can read the words of Ezekiel and understand their meaning, as far as they apply to nations and peoples. By “Put” he means the modern region of Libya, and by “Cush” Ethiopia is intended.

I was led to write upon this subject in the year 1939, when the German hoard was tramping across the borders of peaceful neighbors and crushing all opposition under its iron tread. To the eye of the natural man it looked as though Hitler’s hosts were invincible, and they conquered more territory in a shorter period of time than any army in history had ever done before. While the rest of the world lay stunned at her earlier successes, and all men wondered if Germany could be stopped, the Italian jackal thought it was safe to publicly join the German lion and claim some scraps of the spoils for himself.

Pondering the future, I applied the prophecies of Ezekiel to the situation and wrote some very definite conclusions that brought down on my head the united censure of some very prominent Bible teachers. I took the position that Italy would suffer defeat and lose her African Empire, and that Russia would emerge from this war the dominant world power. You should understand that I was not prophesying: I was merely attempting to make a common sense application of the suggestions of prophecy to current events. So I wrote these probabilities: ~ 37 ~

“The suggestive and intriguing ideas that come from the inclusion of the two African states, Ethiopia and Libya, are among the most startling aspects of this prophecy.

Both of these states are now vassals of Italy: Ezekiel lists them among the independent allies of Russia! Does this denote a weakening of the Roman Empire, and a loss of the African colonies which have cost her so much in blood and treasure?

It quite evidently does!

“The African holdings of Italy are now staked on the board of Eastern warfare, as wagers in what must eventually be a losing game. Italy has long dreamed of extending her empire at the cost and expense of Great Britain, and the ill-starred Duce entered the present war on Germany’s side only when he was convinced that the war was over, and Great Britain was crushed and doomed. He avidly desired certain spoils for Italy, territory he long had been scheming to get in his grasp. So he pounced upon what he thought was a dead lion -- to his present dismay. The lion was not even mortally wounded -and may yet rend the jackal nation which thought to fatten itself on Britain’s losses. Great events are to be expected soon, and the world holds its breath with suspense.

“To defeat Great Britain, Germany must either invade the Islands and crush England, or cut off her dominions and colonies from all opportunity to support the mother country. Egypt and the vital Suez Canal region are the logical places to strike the most strategic blow, and Italy was given the important task of wresting those regions out of Great Britain’s possession.

“One might as well send a mouse to chase a cat away from its bowl of cream! The pitiful and inadequate efforts of Italy have not embarrassed England in any way, and the only result has been that Italy’s African holdings are seriously endangered. If Italy fails in her Eastern campaign, as fail she must, she will lose Ethiopia certainly, and probably Libya as well.

“This will leave these two African states more or less free to make their own alliances, and ultimately they will come under Russia’s influence and sphere. Then the league which Ezekiel has prophesied will be an accomplished fact, and the stage will be set for the tragic drama of this coming war, and the utter defeat of the attacking powers.

EZEKIEL’S FORECAST “So perhaps the present war is very much concerned in the fulfillment of prophecy, even if it is not specifically prophesied itself.

“May I venture a few suggestions here? Remember, I am not a prophet, and I am not attempting to prophesy. Since human conclusions, even if based upon an infallible revelation, are still not infallible by any means, any interpreter of future probabilities may be very wrong. Where the Word of God speaks with clarity of description and finality, we can be bold to stand thereon, but when we come to apply sections of the Book which do not specify a dogmatic application to one certain event, to other and possible applications, the factor of probable error must be reckoned with. For example, in the coming war of Ezekiel’s forecast, we can identify certain peoples with assurance and proclaim the result without qualification. Russia, Persia, certain Balkan and African states, together with smaller allies, shall pounce upon a peaceful Palestine, and shall meet with the most disastrous defeat history has ever recorded.

The very positive language of the prognostication states that only one out of six of the invading army escapes alive! This percentage of casualties is appalling, and has never been recorded in military annals. How many this shall be in gross numbers we cannot say -- but God has warned the assailants that the carrion-loving birds and all the beasts of prey shall feast to repletion upon the slain flesh of the armed host, ~ 38 ~

and that the residents of Palestine shall be engaged a full seven months in the task of discovering and burying the bones of those who have died. The intruders shall fall in the mountains, in the open fields, and in the valley. Everywhere the ravening birds and the flesh-eating animals shall fulfill their grim mission as mortuaries, and all the loothungry throng can expect as a profit for their incursion, is a grave in Palestine. The stench of the charnel odor will offend the nostrils of all who pass that way, and the entire Valley of Jehoshaphat will be set aside as a graveyard for the multitude of the slain in Gog’s host. Poor, unhappy Russia! By her own folly and godlessness she is doomed to perish as all of God’s enemies must ultimately pass into shameful oblivion.

If only she would repent and tum to God, how different her future would be. But she will not: definitely dedicated to atheism, Russia is today the official center of an organized hatred of all that represents God and His will, and she is determined to go on that way to the inevitable end. The best we can hope for is that individual Russians may hear the Word of God, tum to Jesus Christ as Saviour, and escape the mass destruction that faces so many of this melancholy race at the end of this age. The survivors of the nation shall share in the millennial blessings, of course, but we still see them at the end of the Kingdom age, ready to rebel against God when Satan is freed to lead them once more.

“These things are certain and sure; God has spoken, and His word cannot fail. But as we turn to the application of probable events in our day, we confess to an unwillingness to commit ourselves too far beyond that which is written. If we knew for certain that we were in the last days, and the coming of our Lord was definitely scheduled for our generation, the situation would be different. But no man knoweth the day nor the hour, the times nor the seasons, nay, not even the century when our King shall appear. However, if the appearing of Jesus is imminent, then out of the present war we can expect these certain results.

THE CONFLICT AHEAD “First, Great Britain will win the present conflict. For reasons which will appear in the companion volume which will follow this present study, “The Coming League,” this fact has seemed clear from the beginning. I simply reiterate what I have said from the start of the awful hostilities which now rage, when I state with assurance that I personally expect victory for Great Britain.

“The result of that triumph will be the complete and unrestricted fulfillment of the Balfour Declaration. England will wholeheartedly proceed to honor her commitments to Zion, and the Jews will return in vast numbers to their own land. The rate of their repatriation will be accelerated enormously, and a Jewish state will appear to take its place in the councils of the nations. This youthful addition to accepted governments will thrive in a manner that will astound the world, and Palestine shall once more harbor a reborn Israel.

“The third result will be the enormously enhanced prestige of Russia. No matter who wins the war, Russia will emerge from the international melee tremendously strengthened, with her hands filled with the spoils of war and her teeth gripped like a bulldog on new territories. If Germany wins, she will be so exhausted she cannot face a new foe, and Russia can demand what she wills. Right now Stalin is being wooed by Hitler, who is almost sick with disappointment over the ineffectual partnership he formed with Mussolini. If Britain wins, she will be glad to purchase Russia’s good will and cooperation with a few concessions to the Russian age-old dream of a southward advance toward warmer seas. We know that Britain is desperately trying even now to bind bloody Russia to her present cause, and what promises may have been made no man can say. ~ 39 ~

“But this much seems certain: Russia will come to the end of this present war with her manpower undepleted, her munitions and machines unexpended, and her resources for battle unimpaired. Beyond doubt she will have a fresh hold on the Balkans, and it is highly probable that she will have Balkan territory as well. Indeed, she has some of it now, if she can just hold on to it. At any rate the final peace in the present conflict will see Russia as the head of a Balkan Alliance, in which case the beginning of the league Ezekiel forecasts will be visible.

“The next item to remember is the certainty that Italy will come out of the war desperately weakened. It may well be the end of any Italian dream of empire. Her aspirations in that direction are well known, but the small foundation which she laid, at such terrible cost, is crumbling before her eyes even now as we watch the swift march of events. Italy will probably lose Ethiopia and Libya, and may also be stripped of her other African possessions, as was Germany at the close of the war in 1918. This must certainly be her condition when the coming war begins, for Ezekiel specifically lists two of her present colonies, Ethiopia and Libya, as allies of Russia in a future conflict.

“If Britain wins the present trial at arms, we may expect a rupture between Germany and Russia. The penalties that will be visited upon Germany for starting this outrage of blood and suffering will reduce her from a first-class Power to a condition of literal servitude. The world will certainly not make the mistake of leniency with a race which has forfeited every consideration to kindness and mercy. Russia and Germany do not trust each other now any more than any other pair of burglars show confidence in the good intentions of each toward the other, and when Russia has gotten from Germany all she can hope to obtain, the rupture will come suddenly. Stalin, the complete pragmatist, is not bound by any ties of honor. He is wholly lacking in that quality. He also remembers the bitter words Hitler addressed to Russia in the famous book, “Mein Kampf” -- in which the German dictator pledged himself to the crushing of Russia. The two magnificent liars, Stalin and Hitler, will soothe each other with kind words and soft promises until one gets a chance to stab and rob the other, when of course the idyll will end.

“This will lead to a new set-up of world powers, a new League of Nations, and a universal dictator in whose hands all dominion and governmental power shall be invested. This also is prophesied, and the study of that prophecy shall be the theme of our third volume.

“So we close now by warning the dreamers, the humanists, the modernists and the impractical idealists that they would do far better to turn their resources and efforts to some other field than the achievement of world peace. ‘There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked!’ Ezekiel tells in clear and simple words that the world can expect another war when this one is ended.”

Six years have gone by since I wrote those words, and man has almost been submerged in the flood of historical changes. But of all my conclusions, only one has failed to come to pass. I was sadly wrong in stating that as a result of gratitude over victory, England would whole-heartedly fulfill her pledges to Israel, and unrestricted immigration into Palestine would probably follow. I counted too much on the honor of the British government, and it seems as though Israel must still pass through more sorrow before her dream of a homeland is realized.

But in the other particulars history has followed the pattern that seemed so inevitable when I first wrote. Italy did lose her African Empire. Russia is the dominant world power now, and her voice is at present the decisive one at conferences and international discussions. Her sphere of influence is startling in its ~ 40 ~

scope and extent, and it is closed to allied observers and statesmen. She actually possesses the Baltic and rules the Balkans, and Western Europe is in her clutch.

And the end is not yet! The new League of Nations is being established as the United Nations in the developing organization, and history has indeed vindicated the shadows that were so clearly discernable in 1939.

And the “universal peace” that men dreamed of, and which they said was to follow this war? The armistice is hardly in force, and already fresh conflicts are bursting forth with violence and bloodshed. France has turned her guns on Syria, the Indianese and Javanese are in armed rebellion, shedding the blood of Europeans who delivered the natives from the living death of Japanese slavery, the fires of civil war are flickering all up and down North China, America is planning to maintain a huge army and an invincible navy and to train all her youth for a future war: and the whole world shivers in dread at the thought of atomic bombs and weapons of such horror no flesh could survive their use.

The blinded modernistic theologian who talks about peace and good will in the present set-up is either dedicated to folly or is totally incapable of sane mental processes. The defeated are licking their wounds and dreaming of another chance, and the victors are eyeing each other in mutual distrust and grumbling about the division of the spoils. Can permanent peace be erected upon such a foundation?

All of which fits into the pattern of Ezekiel’s solemn words, and into the trend of all prophecy.

The Lord Jesus said war should follow war until the end of the age.

The book of Revelation portrays a warring world at the very minute Christ returns, and definitely states that there can be no peace until He who is the Prince of Peace, returns to establish His Kingdom.

Let us who name His name rather spend the days that are left in the real business of the Christian.

Our task is not to make a warless world, and bring universal peace.

Our great commission empowers us only to strive to save out of the wreck of this age such individuals as may be persuaded to turn to Christ and be saved from the judgment that shall yet come upon sin. The earth and all therein shall be consumed by fire: the heavens and their hosts shall pass away: but the soul that is anchored on Jesus Christ shall never be moved!

We are the watchmen of Zion in this dark age. Let us be alert, awake and eager to warn men of the coming night, serving our Gospel while it is yet day.

The sure challenge is given us by our own apostle, whom God sent to the gentile nations. These are his words, let us hear and heed them when he cries out: “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

There is a warfare to which we are called, if we are to receive that crown of righteousness when Jesus returns. This battle is not fought with carnal weapons against adversaries of flesh and blood, but it is fought with the Sword of the Spirit against the hosts of wickedness. We are not adequately armed for that conflict ~ 41 ~

unless we know the Word of God and are versed in its prophecies. These studies are offered the saints in the hope that they may intelligently appraise the movement of world events, and thus may not be shaken or moved from their faith and trust when dark days appear. These things were written for our learning, so let us inquire diligently into God’s word, thus stabilizing our own understanding, and being also able to give to those who ask us, a reason for the faith we would share with them.

Chapter 3.

The Coming League and the Roman Dream Since the purpose of study in the prophetic Word is the enlightenment of the student, it is highly important that we carefully note the exact words of the Book, and do not confuse God’s statements with the theories, ideas, opinions and interpretations of men. Once more it is necessary to remind our readers that the text is inspired and hence infallible, but that the conclusions of the student thereof may be subject to error. Where God has spoken men may well dogmatize, but conclusions predicated upon an infallible revelation do not necessarily partake of that same infallibility. If the Church of Christ would only be content with that which the Holy Spirit has given her, much confusion would be avoided and our testimony strengthened. We live in a day of itching ears. To assemble a vast crowd in any American city, at any time in the last decade, it has only been necessary to announce a lecture on the subject, “How I Know Hitler is the Anti-Christ” and the hall would be full! Or change the name of Hitler to Mussolini, Stalin, or even Roosevelt, and the result was the same. The idly curious and the wildly excitable masses who love the lurid and the bizarre would flock in great numbers, bringing their itching ears to be tickled with sensational interpretations of prophecy which would have astounded the prophets themselves beyond measure.

One of the most certain crowd-catching themes of our day has been a setting forth of the nearness of the Rapture, as shown by the fact that the Roman Empire is in process of being revived, thus proving conclusively that we are in the time of the end, and that the Lord is just about to return and erect His Kingdom. Perhaps I should say that this has been the popular theme, since the Roman Empire fell to pieces with the death of “Busted Benny,” leaving the advocates of a revived Rome with no theology! In fact, at the present time of writing, the return of our Lord is definitely postponed to a distant future, if the ancient Roman Empire has to be reconstituted before He can come again!

Has the Word of God then failed? Was Daniel mistaken in his interpretation of the image which the king of Babylon saw in his dream? Or worse still, did the angel make a bad error when he told Daniel the meaning of the prophet’s own vision of the four beasts? Or, is it barely possible that some of us have been mistaken in our application of Daniel’s words to the peoples and events of the age in which we live?

Please note that this present writer has not changed any of his previous views concerning the inspiration of the Bible, the Second Coming of Christ, or the infallibility of the Sacred Text. I still hold to the Blessed Hope, and am a Pre~ 42 ~

millenialist of the deepest conviction. But I have departed from the conventional and I believe, baseless, interpretations of certain of the prophetic passages, especially in the book of Daniel. I have been somewhat driven to this attitude by the sad failure of events to follow the pattern set by interpreters of prophecy, and more so by the unbridled and impossible identifications of prophetic figures with certain living races and current history. It is my present purpose to set before the reader in this present chapter the facts of which we can be certain. In doing so I may offend certain prejudices and outrage certain hallowed theories, but I shall have to be true to my convictions and honest with the Word of God. The grounds of my certainty are two-fold. God has spoken in positive terms concerning some future events, and these prophesied occurrences are even now casting their shadows across the screen of our daily living.

We have seen how the Bible foretells the coming return of Israel to Palestine, the success financially, and the tragedy which will follow. The shadow of that great chapter of Israel’s history is seen in the present return of the first great horde.

We also saw how prophecy foretold a great war, in which certain races will unite for an armed invasion of the Holy Land, and the war to be is foreshadowed in the recent dress-rehearsal in Europe. Even while we read these pages, events are justifying the words of the Holy Bible, and a shadow of a final fulfillment darkens the day in which we live.

We now come in this third study to a prophecy concerning the final form of human government which is to be a League of Ten Nations, controlled by a Dictator of astounding power and implacable ferocity. This League that is to be, was previewed in the late lamented League of Nations, upon which the scripturally ignorant pinned such bright hopes of a better world.

Alas, in all human history no scheme of man ever collapsed in such pitiable failure as did this abortive and impotent attempt to construct an international system of peaceful agreement, whereby war would cease and reason reign in the affairs of men. It was a rosy and lovely dream, which came to nought because it ignored the Word of God and had within itself the seeds of its own destruction.

We would not deny that the League of Nations did a great deal of good in many ways in its active lifetime, but it utterly failed in its major purpose, which was to guarantee world peace and a warless age. The net result of that ideal you can read in the headlines of the daily papers.

It is quite common now to hear the pacifists and the preachers of the social gospel deny that world peace was the primary purpose of the League, but to answer such men it is only necessary to turn to a good encyclopedia and read the Covenant which constituted the basis of union and plan of procedure. This Covenant is a constitution of twenty-six articles, and it literally bound the League together. The chief interest of the organization is expressed in Article Eleven, which states that any war or threat of armed conflict is the concern of the entire League. All members made a solemn agreement to submit to the League any matter or dispute which might lead to war, and to abide by the arbitration of the Council as the final and ultimate recourse in settling differences. Only if the Council disagrees may the ~ 43 ~

members settle their differences by an appeal to arms, and that only after ninety days have elapsed between the failure of the Council to agree and the declaration of war.

The League had fifty-six member nations in its final form, and the United States and Soviet Russia were the only two great powers not in the organization.

However, both of these states co-operated to some extent, and both contributed to the annual budget of about five million dollars. It is highly illuminating to remember that every one of the great nations so recently engaged in destroying each other in the madness of war were members of this League!

Through the good offices of the League, some twenty-five hundred treaties were made between member nations in a dozen years, all or most of which are available today at a cheap price for wallpaper! It is grimly humorous to recall that the Permanent Council of the League of Nations was composed of Germany, Japan, Italy, France and the British Empire! They were set to secure world peace, and to teach the lion and the lamb to lie down together in the pavilions of tranquility.

The dissolution of the League really began in 1931. Japan had some designs on Chinese territory, and China brought the matter to the League for adjudication.

Pragmatic japan agreed to listen to the decision of the Council, meanwhile going right ahead with her grabbing of Manchuria! When the Council finally got around to condemning Japan for this theft of territory, japan simply withdrew from the organization, and that was the end of that particular matter! The basic weakness of this decrepit League was the fact that it had no power to enforce its mandates. Its only weapon was moral suasion, and that never worked very well with wolves---or with loot-hungry nations! The motto of this age is, “He takes who may, and he keeps who can!”

So when Hitler moved into the Ruhr, thus violating the Treaty of Versailles, the League could do nothing. France, indeed, did mobilize, but Great Britain under the mistaken idea of appeasement, persuaded France to disband the army, and Germany began her preparations for her latest attempt at world conquest.

This sad record of failure has been ‘unbroken. Italy calmly grabbed the Island of Corfu from Greece, and the latter promptly took her complaint to the League. The net result of the appeal was nil. Italy kept Corfu, and armed and fortified it for the next step.

Again Italy, a member of the League, invaded Abyssinia, also a member, and the League could not halt or impede the conquest. It is true that sanctions were applied to Italy, but not until too late to accomplish any result. Great Britain, for instance, could have closed the Suez Canal to Italian ships and supplies, thus handicapping Italian action to a fatal extent. But the Suez Canal had been “in the red” for some time, and Great Britain did not close the channel until after the Italian supplies had gone through! The canal paid dividends that year — but Haile Selassie lost his domain!

No student of the Bible who believes its words ever expected any other result from the very hour the League was first proposed. Wars are determined in

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continued succession just as long as sin is sovereign in the human heart, and Jesus is absent from the throne which is properly His. But there is a coming League which shall be vastly different. All that Daniel can tell us about this last form of human government we will do our best to make plain, but only the broad outline and major features of the set-up are given in his prophecy. We are told that the member nations shall be ten in number and that the chief nation shall be godless, hence ruthless and utterly without mercy. To attempt to identify these nations now with dogmatic certainty is sheer folly. We can presume that Russia will be one of the ten, perhaps the chief of the company. We can assume that the head will be a Russian, as Gog is the Prince of Magog, and leads the hosts of evil against the people of God in prophecy’s two future battles.

There has been too much wild speculation in this weird sort of teaching in our day, and it is time we got back to the Word itself. An instance of such is the preposterous attempts to identify Great Britain with the people called “Tarshish” in the Bible.

I must confess to a frank and annoyed wonder at the dogmatism which prompts some modern teachers to insist that the “Tarshish” of the prophecies is Great Britain. The only possible explanation I can find for this phenomenon is that the wish is father to the thought, and Anglo-Saxon pride is at the basis of the identification. It is difficult to believe that any honest scholar could make an unprejudiced, comprehensive and exhaustive study of the question and find Great Britain concealed behind the name Tarshish!

In the first place, the word refers to a nation or a people who were alive, active, influential and well known in far antiquity. Its original appearance is met with in our reliable and most valuable “Table of Nations” in Genesis 10, where Tarshish is named as the son of Javan, thus becoming a great grandson of Noah. This information is confirmed, as is all the rest of the Table, in the genealogical resume found in the first chapter of First Chronicles, where “Tarshish” is once again given as son of Javan, who was the grandson of Noah.

Another and different man is mentioned in I Chronicles 7:10, as bearing this same name. This man is the son of Bilhan, who was the grandson of Benjamin, and comes into the record about 1600 B.C., and is of no importance to our present study.

The descendants of the first Tarshish have been traced presumably in the Tyrseni of Western Italy, but that is as far west as this racial strain has been known.

The geographical region known as Tarshish, however, is the point at issue, and here we have to go slowly and feel our way. He who jumps at a conclusion may land on the wrong one! Our first guide is seen in the fact that the Hebrews considered Tarshish to be the extreme limits of the Western world, and always mentioned the place in connection with water-borne commerce and ships of awe-inspiring size.

The only exception to this rule I have found is in Ezek. 38:13, where they are called “merchants of Tarshish,” but their ships are not mentioned. We shall return to this section later. Our present point is a question of territorial application of this place name. ~ 45 ~

Wherever “Tarshish” is, it must be on the sear noted for sea-power, bearing the commerce of the ancient world, fighting as a naval ally on behalf of Tyre and Sidon in the very hey-day of the latter’s power. The people of that land gave birth to a new and astounding design in naval architecture and changed the trend of ancient seamanship and shipbuilding. So much so that their type of vessel became known as “a Tarshish ship” no matter where it was built or by whom. By no stretch of the imagination can this picture describe the British Islands a thousand and more years before Christ!

As late as the Roman era, the tribesmen of the English Isles were wild, savage, barbarous and unlettered. Above all else, they were certainly not building navies that were the envy and wonder of the entire world. Tarshish at that time was a center of commerce and trade. That is to say, a full millennium before Christ came to this earth, this land and her people were cultured, rich, merchants, and masters of the sea. What folly to ascribe this height of racial development to the land of England at the time of Solomon!

The trade which this great king had developed with his Western neighbor is spoken of in II Chron. 9:21, where we read: “For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram, once every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.”

This same record is given in I Kings 10:22, and the same cargo is mentioned.

Note the items of trade which were imported from Tarshish. When did the British Islands ever export gold and silver? To say nothing of ivory, apes and peacocks! Even the most ardent Anglophile must smile at the weird idea of the primitive Britons engaged in an export trade consisting of such commodities.

A hundred years later Jehoshaphat attempted to revive this commerce, and joined himself with the wicked and godless Ahaziah. The two allies built a fleet of great vessels, patterned after the traditional design of the Tarshish navy, and prepared to reap a great reward from their venture. They built their ships in EzionGeber, but the entire fleet was wrecked and never reached its destination.

One further fact must be fitted into our final identification, and that is the certainty that Tarshish was one of the lands to which Israel went in her great dispersion. The prophecies which speak of the final gathering mention Tarshish as one of the countries from which the remnant will return. Certainly, no very large number of the victims of Titus fled to the English Islands, in their then wild and barbaric state. Not even Rome had yet been able to subdue the savages who so desperately fought for their bleak land, and fleeing Israel had no way to make such a hazardous journey.

What country, then, fits all of the demands of our problem? Just one, and that is Spain. Every possible factor of the study we have before us suggests this conclusion.

In the days of Solomon, Spain was the western edge of the world. There is no evidence that ships of the Mediterranean world in Solomon’s day ever ventured out of that so-called “Great Sea” and the wild Atlantic was an unknown waste to the

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people of the century of 1,000 B.C. As far as they then knew, the world ended at the western limit of the Mediterranean, and just at that point stood and still stands Spain.

Spain was a sea power ages before the British learned how to sail a boat! Indeed, the power of Spain was not challenged on the sea by the British until the days of Sir Francis Drake, and no chapter of human daring is more enthralling than the record of how tiny England wrested the mastery of the waves from the Colossus who had ruled the watery wastes for so many years. The Spanish Armada was the greatest collection of vessels the world had ever seen up to that time. The galleons of Spain carried her commerce and sovereignty to the known globe, until the astounding audacity of the English challenged their supremacy. Spain can well be Tarshish, as she was a Mediterranean country, a sea power, a nation of merchants, and was indeed called Tarshish in antiquity. At least, all the ancient maps we can consult so define the land.

So in the map of the Old World in the famed “Scofield Bible,” the editor, Dr. C. I. Scofield, bluntly labels Spain “Tarshish.”

In the same world map printed in the Nelson editions of the American Revised Version, Spain is again labelled “Tarshish.”

In Dickson’s New Analytical Bible, the map of the old world again calls Spain “Tarshish.” And this is true of the atlas section of every Bible I have in my possession. All the cartographers are united in the evident fact that Spain is Tarshish.

Many of the refugees of the great dispersion found sanctuary there. The Jews have had a great, long, and prominent part in early Spanish history, and present records do not clearly show when the first large numbers of them settled there. But it was long before any of them went to Great Britain!

Spain has a history of culture and development that goes so far back into the beginnings of human records that it is hard to tell just when and where its march did begin. But this we know: the earliest inhabitants, called “Iberians, were a brave, resolute, independent and ingenious people, whose character fits in with the Old Testament picture of a great naval nation. The first “foreigners” to enter Spain were the Phoenicians, who gained a foothold on the Iberian peninsula early in the 11th century, B.C. Thus a Phoenician influence was exerted over this great people a full century before Solomon had contact with them, and may indeed have helped direct Iberian attention to the strategic value of naval strength and activity.

Against all this weight of evidence, the only argument I have ever seen advanced is the extremely tenuous claim that Ezekiel’s poetic utterance, “the merchants of Tar-shish with all the young lions thereof,” must refer to England and her colonies. She, the “lion,” and the colonies, “the cubs.” This is a quaint and attractive conceit, but it depends entirely upon the fact that the lion is the symbol of Great Britain.

To evaluate that argument, we need only consult the records of heraldry. In the pageantry of display adopted partly for easy identification and partly through pride, almost every known beast, actual or legendary, has been used on a coat of ~ 47 ~

arms. But none has appeared as often as the lion, which is so common on coats-ofarms. Only the eagle can vie with the lion for frequency of appearance on armorial devices. It is quite probable that this prevalence is due to man’s admiration for the lion, whose noble appearance and legendary courage have made him the logical “King of Beasts” by human acclamation.

The lion does appear on the royal arms of Great Britain, but so also does the unicorn! The shield is supported by a lion, rampant, gardant, and a unicorn rampant. So either animal could be Britain’s heraldic symbol. Also on the quarterings of Britain’s arms there are lionels, passant, or as gules, so this may be the reason we speak of the British Lion, ‘along with the Russian Bear and the American Eagle. But England is just as often pictured as a bulldog, and even more frequently under the figure of John Bull.

It is difficult to make a case for Great Britain as the “lion nation” of Ezekiel’s prophecy simply because the lion occurs on her coat-of-arms. It also appears as the symbol of a great many other nations, both ancient and modern. There is a lion rampant on the coat of-arms of both Belgium and Bulgaria, while the arms of Denmark display two lions ram, chant. On the arms of Italy two lions ram pant, regardant, support the shield proper. The arms of Luxembourg display two lions rampant supporting the shield, while a third lion, rampant, gales, occupies the field.

The Persian lion is displayed gardant. Norway’s coat-of-arms has two, as does the arms of The Netherlands. The Swedish arms also has two lions, rampant, regardant; and so the record continues almost without limit. Long before the lion was associated with England, the galleons of Venetia carried the Lion of St. Mark to the limits of the known world. So it is very difficult to say with positive assurance that the mention of a “lion” in connection with Tarshish proves that it was England.

Especially as the arms of Spain also display two lions! The Spanish lions are quartered and rampant, gules on an argent field, and have stood for the glory of this ancient country for a, long, long time. The mighty armada of Spain flew the lion flag, and this argument would appear to bolster the claim that Spain was Tarshish, at least as strongly as it can be made to apply to England. Certainly, if “cubs” are colonies, Spain forges to the front here. Her colonies were earlier, more numerous, and more widespread by far than the colonies of England. And the Spanish-speaking countries of the earth today are destined to play a great part in the future history of our race. Our State Department in our own Government so believes, and is shaping its policy so as to include all of Central and South America in its sphere of influence.

We must not overlook the fact also that Egypt is called the lion in Old Testament books. Such a reference will be seen in Ezekiel 32:2, where the prophet cries: “Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast likened unto a young lion of the nations....”

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Egypt would nominally be a better candidate for the honor of this recognition than England would be, as Egypt is a Mediterranean country, and England is not.

Yet most prophecy centers around the Mediterranean sea, as is well known.

It may have dawned upon you also, as it has upon me, however, that there is one of the twelve tribes of Israel, Judah, whose emblem is also a lion! Long before Great Britain was formed in the womb of time, men had sung of the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah”! Perhaps you, too, have seen the lion of Judah carved in the stone of the wall of Jerusalem. The symbol was often used to denote the princes of Israel. One such paragraph is Ezekiel 19:2.6. Here we read: “Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, and say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her whelps. And she brought up one of her whelps: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey: he devoured men. The nations also heard of him, he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with hooks unto the land of Egypt.

“Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion. And he went up and down among the lions: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men. And he knew their palaces and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, because of his roarings.”

Of course this language is highly symbolic, and history has interpreted to us its meaning.; But there may be a clue in the use Ezekiel here makes of this symbol, which will help us understand his next use of the phrase. This disputed text in Ezekiel 38:13 should not cause us to see mystery where none is intended, nor find references to nations which shall either assail or defend Palestine in that great and coming war. Verse 12 supplies the background. The prophet states that the invader comes into a land where waste places had become inhabited by a people who have been gathered out of the nations, and have grown rich in their new land. Among this returned company from all nations, some are mentioned as being from Sheba, Dedan, and as being “the merchants of Tarshish with all the young lions thereof.”

This group shall say to the attacking army, “Art thou come to take the spoil?” So no matter where Tarshish may be or who it may have been, these people are Jews who have returned from Tar-shish, as well as from Sheba, Dedan and all other nations of the dispersion. Since this seems to be the clear meaning of the text, why distort and wrest it out of all semblance to honest exegesis, and make a whole League of Defense out of this one obscure reference? It is not thus that we can truly prepare our minds and understandings for comprehension of the great drama of the last days.

So for these and numerous other reasons, I do not believe that Great Britain is specifically mentioned in prophecy, although she may well be one of the ten kingdoms which constitute the final League which will rule the earth at the time our Lord returns. The probability of this exists in exact ration to Britain’s success in the East and in proportion to her growing position of power in the Mediterranean regions, where prophecy centers.

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The same fallacious methods of identifying certain nations which lie concealed be hind the figures of prophecy are applied frequently to the visions of Daniel. Thus Italy is positively identified as the head of the League of Ten Nations, and a vast literature is built up proving that the Roman Empire must be rebuilt. Some of the ablest exponents of that theory even insist that the entire League must consist of the nations now within the territorial limits of ancient Rome, and the earth will again be ruled from Rome.

Such teachings have no more basis in fact than does the theoretical idea that Tarshish and her cubs are the British Empire! The tinsel and trimmings which have been hung upon the tree of prophecy are so thick that they obstruct the view of him who would see the tree! We have had a generation of teaching which has given us only the words of men and which propagates theories of human origin for fact.

So getting back to just the bare words of the text of Daniel’s writings, we will not indulge in idle speculation and vain theorizing, but will confine ourselves to the things that are apparent and which cannot be refuted. Namely, we are assured that the ten kingdoms or governments will combine and rule the world, under the direction of one amazing person. It is possible, yea, even probable, that even though the global war is not specifically named in prophecy, out of its results the new League may emerge. In fact, this coalition of nations may be in the process of formation even now. For even granting that the conflict of this decade is not specified in prophecy, it may set up conditions which are.

In 1939 I wrote: “Again assuring the reader that I am not a prophet, I will still dare to venture again my private and personal opinion that Great Britain will win this present war If so, Germany will be exhausted, Italy crushed and her dream of empire ended, and new forces, combinations of nations and distributions of power will be inevitable. At once the question arises, ‘If Britain gains the victory and the Axis powers are crushed and broken, how can the Roman Empire be revived?’

“The simple answer is that it cannot be, and that the Word of God does not state, demand nor imply that it will be. The rapture of the Church and the coming of our Lord are in no wise bound up in a revived Roman Empire, modern teaching to the contrary notwithstanding!”

For twenty years I also believed and taught that the Roman Empire would be restored in the last days of the age in which we live, and would re-appear in the ten-kingdom League of which Daniel speaks in various prophecies. I must confess that in so doing I depended largely upon ideas and interpretations which I had imbibed from great and godly teachers in whom I had unlimited confidence. I did not realize that I was teaching interpretations of the text in place of the Word itself, and never made an exhaustive study of the Scriptures involved in this idea.

Recently I began a new method of Bible study. I had typewritten copies made of the various books I wanted to study, and had these manuscript copies typed in the form of the ancient manuscripts of the Bible. These are called “cursive” texts, and are not divided by punctuation marks, or separated into sentences and paragraphs. ~ 50 ~

Indeed, there is even no division between the words in these cursive texts, but the entire book consists of one long sentence. My copies, of course, were in the English version, and not in the original languages. Just the form of the old method was followed. Thus I had the bare text, with no editorial divisions, cross-references, comments or notes to distract my thought from the text itself.

Thus prepared, I read the book through until I had the contents well summarized mentally. Then I read it analytically, dividing the book into its natural divisions and epochs. After this, I read each division and analyzed that portion into paragraphs and verses, breaking it down finally into sentences.

While studying Daniel in this fashion, I noticed for the first time that Daniel is never mentioned the Roman Empire! He did mention Babylonia, Media-Persia and Greece by name, and devoted chapters to their history and future. But never once did he name the Roman rule. Therefore I came to the reluctant conclusion that the common custom of identifying the legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image vision with Rome was pure supposition and an arbitrary deduction, or interpretation. The same applies to the fourth beast of Daniel’s own vision, if the two visions do in fact refer to the same events and the same time in history.

I went over these prophecies again and again, and was finally led to see that my only authority for maintaining that the Roman Empire would be rebuilt was a footnote in my favorite edition of a study Bible! So for twenty years I had taught as a prophecy of God’s Word a human conclusion based upon an ambiguous paragraph. May I remind you again of the primary law of Scriptural study, namely: The text itself is infallible, but human deductions predicated upon the text are not necessarily inerrant!

I then began an independent study of the prophecies of Daniel, and almost two years passed before I felt sure of my position. During that time I kept still, and said nothing publicly about the question either way. But I said plenty in private! I discussed the matter with many great and eminent Fundamentalist leaders, men whom I have known intimately for years. To my surprise, not one of them could give me any conclusive proof that the Roman Empire would be revived, although all of them believed it must be Rome which Daniel intended. At last I had all of the factors of the problem assembled and considered, and came to the definite conclusion that I had been wrong, and that the Word of God does not teach the revival of the Roman Empire!

I will pass over the storm which I aroused by that public announcement, and the hard names I was called by the ultra-super-fundamentalists among my friends.

“Modernist” was the least of these! But I learned a long time ago that on any problem we want light, and heat doesn’t help much! So I stuck Co such light as our discussions engendered, and ignored the heat.

I have been criticized for not keeping still, when I came to my new conclusions.

But this is the crime of dishonesty which we long have charged to Modernism! We accuse the Modernists of moral cowardice or deliberate deceit because they continue to teach error after they find out they have been mistaken. Shall we Fundamentalists then be guilty of the same reprehensible conduct? God grant that ~ 51 ~

we may ever have the courage to say, “I was mistaken,” when we find that we have been wrong on any issue.

Do not mistake me, I am still a Fundamentalist.

I still believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God. But I no longer believe in the interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy which holds that the “legs and toes” of Daniel’s second chapter and the “beast” with ten horns in his seventh chapter are a figure of Rome, reinstated, once again ruling the world.

In this I may be mistaken. I can be wrong about any interpretation of an obscure text, but I am honest in my present opinion.

I am also amazed at the wild lengths to which the Roman theory leads its devotees in their writings and utterances. One of the most popular lecturers on the subject of prophecy in our generation recently wrote a very popular book upon this theme. This man is my personal friend and brother, and I would not do or say anything to offend him personally. But I was astonished at much which he wrote.

He said at the start of his work that he would prove the revival of the Roman Empire was pictured by Daniel. In the first two chapters of his book he said some thirteen times, “The Roman Empire must be revived,” and several times said, “The Roman Empire must be revived, because the Word of God cannot fail!”

Then in the third chapter he stated, “Having now proved that the Roman Empire will be revived ... and from that he went on to another, but related, theme. I laid the book down in astonishment, and then came back and read the first chapters over again. Not one clear, acceptable proof did he offer for his thesis. I cannot see that thirteen repetitions of an allegation constitute proof of the truth of the fact alleged! I also hold and believe that the Word of God cannot fail, but where does the Word of God say that the Roman Empire is the subject of this most remarkable prophecy?

This same ardent brother showed that the Word of God was being proved and established in the amazing career of Benito Mussolini. He triumphantly paraded the acquisition of Libya, Ethiopia, and Albania as proof that God’s Word would not fail. All this, he said, was a fulfillment of prophecy. Many teachers of prophecy agreed Britain would lose the Suez Canal and Egypt, because Rome had to rule the earth in the End Time.

What is the present world situation, and the outlook for this revived Roman Empire? The mighty Mussolini, so powerful in recent days that deluded men stoutly maintained that he was the Beast of Revelation, is dead at the hands of the rabble he deceived and his body defiled and mocked in the public streets. His vaunted conquests have been exposed as a travesty on military might, and a tiny army of valiant Greeks chased his proud legions from hill and valley like a dog would drive sheep.

His “empire” is disintegrated, and all of the African colonies are wrested from Italy, while the homeland shivers in dread of the just retribution about to be visited upon her. She eats the bread of charity provided by her conquerors, who have revealed themselves to be more merciful to the Romans than they were to the

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tribesmen over whom they won a brief and hazardous sway. The Roman Empire is no more!

This brings us face to face with a prophetic dilemma; or, I should say, a problem in the interpretation of prophecy. If the teachers were right, and the acquisition of these territories by Italy showed that “the Word of God cannot fail!” what does the loss of these lands reveal? The Roman Empire is in reverse, and there are no brakes to stop it! If we accept the premise that “The revival of the Roman Empire under Mussolini proves that the time of the Lord’s return is near and at hand”; must we then conclude that because this mythical empire has fallen to pieces the Lord’s return is not at hand?

Personally, I would not agree to that premise for a minute! I believe that Jesus is coming, and that no man knows the day nor the hour. When God’s time strikes, our Lord will come again, and He will not care if or whether the Roman Empire is here to greet Him or not! Therefore the proper conclusion seems to be that our teachers made a mistake, and we would do better to stick to Daniel than to follow his interpreters!

All of this shows the folly of being “wise above that which is written,” and of trying to dogmatize and force current events of history into a frame-work of prophecy where they do not belong. Do not misunderstand me, if Daniel had said that Rome would be revived, I would accept his prophecy literally, and wait for the event to come to pass. But Daniel said no such thing!

The fact of the matter is, that Daniel did not know. When he asked for light on some of these dark mysteries, the angel gave him the interpretation of certain parts of the vision. He was told clearly of those portions which applied to Media-Persia, and to Grecia. The angel used these very names in identification. But when he asked about the “fourth beast” he was given a general answer in vaguer terms. He was told that a final form of Gentile dominion would be erected in a league of ten kingdoms, and the explanation left him with a troubled countenance and a heavy heart. And every time the visions of Daniel are explained by the angel, the prophet’s enquiries as to the last days are evaded, and he is told plainly that it is none of his business! The angel says again and again that understanding was reserved for the people of whom the prophecy was speaking.

Herein lies one of the great weaknesses of much of our present day teaching. All of our attempts to comprehend these prophecies and set a program of fulfillment are predicated upon the premise that we are in the last days!

Personally, I believe that we are. But I can be woefully mistaken. I believe that if I live out a normal span of life, I shall see the Lord Jesus Christ come in physical Person to set up His Kingdom. I do indeed hold to that “blessed hope.” But so did the Apostle Paul! And how badly he was mistaken, in point of time. Since Paul died, almost 1900 years have passed, and the end is not yet and Jesus has not come. It should be noted here that Paul never said that Jesus would return in the apostle’s lifetime. Paul stated a private hope and opinion, and frequently expressed that hope. But since he wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, his teachings and words are careful not to state as a fact that the hope would be realized. He ~ 53 ~

waited and watched, knowing that “no man knoweth the day nor the hour,” and passed on that same word of caution to us who share that hope. It may be another thousand years before He returns, as no man knows or can know the times and the seasons, the hour, the day, the year or the century!

So even while I personally believe that we are approaching the last days, I am aware that if we are wrong and our Lord is not yet ready to come, people and races whom we do not now know or dream of may be destined to fulfill these figures in prophecy.

So let us lay aside human speculation and all commentaries, and let us look at Daniel’s actual words, and see just what he did say. And in so doing we desire to remind our readers once again that we are not prophets, we are only students of prophecy.

Concerning some of these obscure matters Daniel himself had no light nor understanding, and frankly says he puzzled over them until he went to bed with a sick headache! The only comfort he got from the angel who gave him the interpretation of some other mysteries was the assurance that nobody could know these things until fulfillment made them plain in the days for which they were intended. So unless we are wiser than Daniel and more learned than the angel who instructed him, we will not be too brash in our interpretations of these bewildering passages. The less we have to say now, the less we may have to take back later!

We repeat for the sake of emphasis that all our present attempts to understand and explain Daniel’s vision are made on the assumption that we are actually in the last days. Who has the wisdom and authority to be positive on that score, until events and actions have shown that they are indeed the climax of an age? We point to certain “signs,” all of which other generations have appealed to in attempts to show that they also were in the end time, and the age still runs its course.

Of course, we may very well be at the crisis of history. It is hard to see how the cup of iniquity can become much fuller, or how the judgment of God can be much longer delayed. But if God in His grace and mercy shall delay the stroke of doom for years, or even centuries, it will be for the purposes of grace and salvation. In that case, so great is His compassion and love, our Lord may not return for a long, long time. If He decides to delay His return, that is in His control. Therefore, to state dogmatically that we are in the last days is an unwarranted assumption. We may be, and we may not be!

If we are not, then the nations which shall fulfill the prophecy concerning the ten toes of the image may not yet be formed. Or else they may be so insignificant as to be ignored by prophetic teachers. Keeping sight of the basic principle that Palestine is the geographic focus of prophecy, and remembering the subsequent importance of the Mediterranean countries, together with the forecast Ezekiel has made of the place of Russia and the Balkan powers, we may postulate certain probabilities. But to make definite assertions that certain things have to be thus and so because we are in the last days is entirely unwarranted. Maybe we are — but maybe isn’t good enough!

Daniel’s words are frankly confusing, and mystify us by their many and varied possibilities. In the image vision, the average student finds six divisions. They are: ~ 54 ~

The head of gold; The breast and arms; The belly and sides; The legs of iron; The feet of iron and clay; The smiting stone.

I personally believe that this is one division too many. I believe that just as the arms and hands belonged in with the breast of silver, so the feet and the legs belong together as one continuous figure of one significance. It seems very clear that the last earth domination will start with a union of two powers, and develop into a league of ten peoples. I can find no reason in the text of Daniel for demanding millenniums of time between the legs and the feet. Legs and feet belong together in any normal image or figure.

But whether there are five or six divisions in the vision, we can still be certain of but two of those divisions, as far as historical definition is concerned. Of the head of gold, Daniel said, “Thou, O king, art this head of gold!” Of the smiting stone, Daniel said, “And in the days of those kings (i.e., the ten kings of the toes) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. So on these two points we can take our stand with absolute confidence. The Word of God says it, therefore we know it is so. For the identification of the “head” and the “stone” we owe nothing to human interpretation or scholarly research, as we have the exact text to guide us.

Of the other sections (whether three or four does not now matter), we have no such assurance. Daniel said that they refer to three other kingdoms which should follow Babylonia, and that each should rule over the known earth. Also, they are to stretch from the day of Nebuchadnezzar to the time of the Kingdom of Heaven. For this reason we are almost forced to conclude that they represent also the entire course of Gentile world dominion. One of the puzzling factors of the vision is the fact that no matter how we seek to interpret this figure and apply it, there has been no universal empire for many centuries. It is impossible to pick out of the history of the last 1500 years any nation, race or government which has ruled the known earth. There have been three world empires, and there will be one more, according to Daniel’s clear statement. Or, if we accept the highly colorful and improbable idea that the legs are Rome and the toes are a revival of that ancient dominion, then there have been three and a half kingdoms, with a break of many centuries between. In which long period Gentile rule has swung from one section of the globe to another, but has never been universal.

It must be remembered that Daniel did not say that there would be only four kingdoms between Nebuchadnezzar and Christ’s return; he merely said that there would be four which would be world-wide in extent. The many restricted domains which have come and gone are ignored in the vision of the image. Also, our Lord limited His prophecy of the treading down of Jerusalem by Gentile powers to that one city only, and said nothing about the course of world dominion.

The present traditional interpretation is that the sections of the image refer in sequence to Babylonia, Media-Persia, Greece and Rome. The head, of course, is Babylonia. The chest and arms of silver refer to the empire founded by Cyrus, and the (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

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brazen belly and sides are figurative of the Macedonian dominion founded by Alexander. It is quite possible that this is a true explanation of God’s intention in the image revelation. I see no reason to question the customary explanation thus far. But when we try to make the legs to be Rome and the toes to be Rome rebuilt and again ruling the earth, we get into difficulties which seem to imply that we are on the wrong track. The argument that we must have Rome in the picture because it follows in consecutive order is of no force, as there are many gaps in time and we cannot fit all history into this image. Either we have to jump from the fifth century A.D. to the Rapture of the Church, or we have to jump from the collapse of the Macedonian Empire to the time of the end.

There are many good reasons in Daniel as well as in history, directing us to accept the latter as the best choice. We cannot insist upon fitting the Roman Empire into Daniel’s picture, and leave out the Byzantine Empire or the equally extensive Dominion of the Sassanids. The latter reigned over an expanse as great as the largest realm of Imperial Rome. We will have gaps in the record no matter which choice we make. And if we conclude that the “two legs” are Rome, we have to make the “toes” to be a revival of that great realm, as the “legs” and “toes” are inseparable. Yet in the beast vision, it is said that the fourth beast, with the ten horns, is diverse from all its predecessors. Also, the fourth world kingdom is a divided kingdom, divided into ten sections geographically and racially, and divided into classes of citizens. Class distinction is expressly implied in chapter 2:43, in that classes of rulers and subjects are mingled but do not cleave.

It is customary to assert that the two legs are the historical Roman Empire because Rome was divided into the Eastern and the Western Empires, but Daniel does not mention any division in his fourth kingdom until he comes to the toes. One commentator recently said that the legs stand for division, exactly as the arms are for unity. Arms, he said, are to bind together, but legs separate! We may note in passing that arms are farther apart by a great deal than are legs! In fact, legs are not much good unless they remain relatively close together, and maintain unity of direction! Men tear apart with hands and arms more often than they use these members to bind together. So we can dismiss all such fanciful interpretations, and note with care that the division of this last kingdom originates with verse 41, and closes with verse 43, and deals with the toes, not the legs.

Let us now consider a few reasons for rejecting the traditional idea of the recent school of interpretation, and seek to show that Daniel does not portray a restoration of the Roman Empire. First, if the general and accepted idea of certain dominions being foreshadowed in the head, breast, and belly is correct, we have a certain trend, or movement, which must be considered and carefully weighed. The “head” was Babylonia, a comparatively small sphere of influence. Nebuchadnezzar ruled over Assyria and Babylon, which were combined into one country, called Babylonia. This great monarch conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, and that constituted his realm.

Now, if the second kingdom is Media-Persia (and I see no reason to question this), the picture is greatly enlarged. Cyrus took Babylonia, and added to it all of his previous territory of Media-Persia. In a word, Cyrus did not rebuild the first kingdom, ~ 56 ~

he just absorbed it into a new, different and completely unrelated dominion, doubling the first in size.

Then this was followed in turn by the Macedonian Empire, if the general teaching is true. But Alexander did not rebuild the Median or Persian Empire. He took by force of arms all that Cyrus had possessed, which included the lands of Nebuchadnezzar also, and added to them his own extensive conquests. Note carefully that in each successive kingdom the size is enhanced, the populations over which rule was established greatly increased, and an enlargement accomplished.

So if the fourth kingdom reconstructs or rebuilds a predecessor, it does violence to the sweep or movement of the figure. All that we need argue for is that a new and larger domain will be established by this final form of world dominion, and the figure is honestly dealt with. We can conclude, then, that this last system of world government shall consist of a League of ten kingdoms, which will incorporate in its sphere all the territory of the first three, plus. This we cannot see accomplished by the reestablishment of the ancient Roman world.

The second argument against a Roman revival is based upon a brief historical survey. How in the name of common sense can we postulate modern Italy conquering and ruling the world? The very idea is preposterous. And think of the powerful countries outside of the territorial limits of the old Roman Empire. In fact, there is not a single great world power today which is completely inside that territorial district.

In a very definite sense, Rome did not rule the planet. The geographical limits of the empire are clearly defined. The greatest extent of her rule was in the period of the Principate, from B.C. 27 to A.D. 284. The map of Rome in that period shows that the limit in Europe was a line formed by the Rhine and the Danube, and much of that was in an unconquered condition. Later, the southern part of the island of England was temporarily held, but only a narrow foothold was actually possessed.

In Asia the limit was the upper Euphrates and the Arabian Desert.

In Africa the Sudan and Sahara formed her farthest borders.

What is there in that region today to impress us with the prospect of world rule?

Outside that section is the vastness of the British Empire. Are we to write future history and leave her out of the picture of influence? Rome never possessed even her islands -- to say nothing of her vast dominions!

Also on the outside of Roman limits we find Russia. Men today ponder over the future influence of Germany in world affairs, but the prophetic sections of God’s Word warn us that Russia is the one to which we should pay the greatest attention. In any case, how can you write a chapter of future world dominion and leave out Russia, or make her a satellite of Italy? The idea is humorous.

The same questions apply to Germany. Even though she lost the recent war and is now dismembered and feeble, Germany will always remain a mighty force to be reckoned with. She never was in the Roman Empire, and her closest connection with it was fatal to the interests of Rome, even as it is today!

China will demand an increasingly large share in the world dominion, and she was never a part of the Roman world. Do you honestly believe that world dominion can be ~ 57 ~

erected in our century, and leave out Canada, Mexico, the United States, and South America? Certainly not, yet none of this great territory or population was ever in the sphere of Roman rule. Remember that the final kingdom is to be a League of Ten Nations, and then ask yourself, in the light of current events; who will form this League, and who will control it? Certainly not poor, bewildered Italy!

The third argument against a revived Rome ruling the world, is the genius of the Italian people. As world-conquerors, they are not doing so well! After giving Italy months to entrench herself in positions which should have been impregnable, the war machine of Great Britain rolled against Mussolini’s vaunted “Invincibles” -- and “Benito” became “Finito!”

The sad fact is that the Italians are not soldiers. Their genius is cultural and artistic rather than military. This is no criticism, because a man is not to be condemned be- cause he would rather carve marble than neighbors! The Italian would rather sing than fight, and he prizes the paint brush and palette above the bomb and bayonet. The whole world is laughing over the pitiful figure the Legions of Rome made in Albania. If any empire looks as if it might be revived, it is the Macedonian, not the Roman! The tiny Greek army could not be classed as more than a fourth rate Power at the very most complimentary extreme, yet it covered itself with glory and Italy with shame in those heroic days. I venture to assert that there is not a living race on this earth, which, given the numbers, equipment, munitions, training and forts the Italians had in Albania, would have failed so horribly in battle as the Roman forces failed.

This was to be expected. In the World War of 1914-1918, every time the Allies counted on Italy they were dangerously embarrassed by Italian failures. The Italians are brave enough; they are just not the fighting sort. In the Spanish War Franco learned after two very disastrous defeats, to place no trust in his Italian allies, and used them as auxiliaries from the time of the battle of Guadalajara on to the end of the war.

Let me illustrate just what I mean. About two years before the war we were in Italy, and spent a good portion of the time in Rome. One of the greatest things Il Duce did in that land was to build a matchless training center and school called “The Mussolini Forum.” It had a gigantic natatorium, a really marvelous stadium and a perfect set of dormitories. There the flower of Italy’s youth were gathered, and trained to be physical culture teachers, school coaches in athletics, and army officers. In no country on this globe did we ever see a finer school, or a more attractive and manly group of young men.

One day as we were crossing the campus, we noted that it was the period of the day devoted to military drill. We heard the sound of many voices in chorus, and stopped to listen. Recognizing a score from a famous opera, we started out to see the source of this lovely mass singing. We came to a set of bleachers, and saw long lines of stacked rifles.

The entire corps was spending its time for military drill sitting in the bleachers singing operas -- and the drill-master was leading them! How can you make soldiers out of men like that?

World conquest can never be hoped for by Italy, as her resources are too limited.

She has no minerals in all her country, no coal. Every ton of fuel has to be purchased ~ 58 ~

abroad and transported to Italy. The land and the people are poverty-stricken in the extreme, and the materials to build a war-machine are dearly bought at the cost of food and other necessities.

I believe it was in 1929 that Il Duce said, “The only weakness in my program is the fact that I have to build Italy and the Empire using Italians!” He well knew that they were poor material out of which to construct a conquering, world-ruling Empire! They are perfectly willing to fight courageously and to the death, but their fighting is ineffective. No matter how willing and brave a child may be, he would stand very little chance in the ring with Joe Louis! The very national psychology of Italy is an insurmountable obstacle to the conquest of any able foe by Italian arms.

A perfect illustration was offered of this fact. After the fall of Bardia, in which action the arms of Britain triumphed in one of the most complete victories recent history has recorded, the British staff was disappointed to learn that a high-ranking General of the Italian army had slipped out of the beleaguered fortress and had escaped. Days later, a patrol captured the General wandering in the desert, hiding with a small guard.

Placed under arrest and brought in to headquarters for questioning, the Roman general rather blew up. He fairly spouted his indignation over war and all that goes with it. He said — “I don’t care who owns Libya! It’s a filthy desert, not worth fighting for! You English are welcome to it! I am not a soldier, I am an artist: and that is all I care about. Fighting is stupid, brutal and dirty, and I’m glad I am out of it!”

We do not condemn this point of view, we point it out. We .could wish that the whole world felt the same way, and some day it will. But the matter at issue is the possibility of such a gentle, culture-loving people ruling the world! The very idea is beyond the bounds of credibility.

Much has been made in recent writings of Mussolini’s “eight million bayonets,” his “poised airplanes,” and his “matchless fleet” of armed and eager battleships. He was pictured by one ardent exponent of revived Rome as the one who shall turn back Russia, and frustrate her great horde. What price Italian bayonets, planes and vessels now? You can buy Italian bayonets from Greek soldiers who peddle them as souvenirs at the price of a few leptas! There are one hundred leptas in a drachma, the drachma is now worth about two cents in our coinage. Or, the Greeks will trade you an Italian bayonet for one cigarette! They can afford to sell such curios cheaply, they got them for the taking, and have a vaunted eight million to draw from.

The Italian navy spent most of its time hiding from the British, and Benito’s planes were destroyed on the ground more often than they were shot down out of the air. Can any sensible student of current events honestly face these facts, and still argue for the revival of the Roman Empire?

Of course, much that passes for “Bible Prophecy” in these strange days is sheer fantasy and wishful thinking. Following a recent lecture on this subject in New York, a very ardent exponent of the theory came to me and said, “I recognize the difficulty in trying to fit modern Italy into a picture of world conquest. The Italians are fitted neither to conquer nor to reign. But I have figured out how the Roman Empire can be reconstituted without the Italians. One of the two English princesses will marry an ~ 59 ~

Italian Prince, and through her England will rule the world by means of a revived Roman Empire! I shall pass this sort of “Bible teaching” with an audible silence, leaving you to make your own comments!

One more reason stands against the theory of a new Roman Empire, and that is also predicated upon the peculiar psychology of the Italians. They are no better as administrators than they are as warriors. Their colonies are always in a state of administrative turmoil, and the times that we have been in touch with their system of government left us in a sad dither, to say the least.

The English have a knack of getting along with the native peoples of their colonies, and the Germans are a model of efficiency. But the Italians seem to impart to subject races the same highly emotional reactions which characterize the Italian people themselves, and at governing they are singularly inept. How then can we expect the Romans of our generation to rule the earth? The cold, implacable efficiency of the government of the coming League is portrayed by Daniel and illuminated by John in Revelation 13.

Both of these prophecies portray a psychology and an efficiency which are decidedly not Latin. The Italians are a warm, kindly, impulsive and loveable people. The ruler of the Ten-Kingdom League is utterly the opposite of all these gentle qualities.

The Italian is devout by nature, and deeply religious in all of his thinking and reactions. But the Ten-Kingdom League will be ruled by a man who is so godless as to be called “The man of sin,” and who shall lead a people as atheistic as himself.

Why have our teachers of prophecy ignored all these facts, simply to maintain a human conception and a baseless interpretation, utterly unwarranted in the text of the Bible? It is indeed time that we did some clear and independent thinking along these lines. I say independent, because practically all of our teaching concerning Daniel is a repetition of what we have heard some other teacher say on the subject. In the two years that I have been publicly teaching against the revival of the Roman Empire, many scores of Bible students and Sunday School teachers have discussed the issue with me. Not one of them ever said, “I find this in the text of God’s Word,” but all of them say “Dr. Blank says it is so, and Dr. Blink agrees with him!”

Then I say, “Where does Daniel say that the Fourth Empire is to cover two spans of time -- one represented by the legs and the other by the toes?” Whereupon they generally confess that some commentator or teacher is their sole authority.

Allow me to forestall an objection before it is fully framed in the reader’s mind. In this study I have implied that I believe that the second and third kingdoms, portrayed by the chest and belly of the image, are Persia and Greece.

Is not this also human interpretation? And why accept these two empires as being identified, and still reject the idea that the fourth Kingdom is Rome?

I have already suggested the answer in a previous paragraph. Daniel specifically names certain races and peoples, in unqualified identification. We now note that the text of God’s Word names the Persians nine times in the book of Daniel, and the Medes seven times. Some of the references are historical and of immediate application to a local situation, while other references have a prophetic significance, and apply to a ~ 60 ~

time after the days of Daniel. As for instance, in the vision of Chapter 8, the angel says of the ram with two horns, that the horns “are the kings of Media and Persia.” Nothing can be more definite than that. Also in the eleventh chapter, the angel tells Daniel, “Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than they all.” Such words are clearly prophetic, refer to an empire which follows the day of Nebuchadnezzar, whom we know to be the head of the image.

In like manner Daniel also directly names Greece. In Chapter 8:21 the rough hegoat who replaced the ram with the two horns is specifically stated to be Greece, and the first horn is the first king of Greece. In Chapter 11 we read the same identification, when the angel says that the fourth king of Persia shall contend against the rising king of Greece.

It is to be noted that while Persia and Greece are thus definitely named and portrayed in their prophetic rise, Rome is never once named in all of the prophecies of the entire Old Testament! Therefore, any attempt to identify her as fulfilling any prophecy which is yet unfilled must be purely the result of human deduction and therefore subject to error. Please check on this statement, and you will see that Daniel does name Media, Persia and Greece, but never Rome.

The importance of this matter to a sane and careful student cannot be overemphasized.

When the Russian minister Molotov conferred with Hitler, a certain wag reported that he knew the subject of their secret conference. Pressed for information, he said that Germany and Russia were trying to fix the blame on whoever it was that let Italy in on their side! Which is almost too true to be funny. In the great game of war and politics, on any team the Italian plays drawback!

It is literally amazing how Daniel’s words are twisted out of all proper meaning, forced to bolster theories that God never intended His Word to suggest! Daniel portrays the condition of world dominion in the last days, and this picture is further expanded

by John the Apostle, in Revelation, Chapter 13, but the wildly enthusiastic and highly theoretical commentators still depart from the text and build their own conceptions and conjectures into a substitute for true prophecy.

Some of these teachers draw a graphic picture of two Leagues in the last days, one of them controlled by the “King of the North” and the other by the “King of the South.”

The Northern League they believe to be composed of Germany and Russia, with certain allies, and the Southern League they hold to be the Roman Empire, reborn. They then tell us of great battles between these great powers, forgetting that Daniel has stated that there will be one League, invincible in its progress and dominating the earth completely. The nations of that day join in the cry: “Who is able to make war against him!” We believe that if all of the factors in the prophetic problem are properly considered and fitted into the structure of world events, each in its proper place, God’s Word will indeed become a “light unto our feet and a lamp upon our path.” The magnificent unfolding of the future which can be clearly traced in prophecy is sufficient proof of inspiration and is complete enough without any additions from human ingenuity.

So let us go back to Daniel. ~ 61 ~

I honor every great teacher and preacher who has helped to open God’s Book to our generation, but I honor the Book itself far more. In seeking for an understanding of Daniel’s meanings, let us consider his words and his prophecies, instead of getting involved in the tottering superstructure of conjecture which has been erected upon the foundation of his book.

In a word, I am preaching for the people of God to return to the Word of God for their ideas and their conceptions of truth.

There are three great prophetic sections in Daniel, intermingled with the historical records and minor prophecies which make up the balance of that great book. The first is the vision of the second chapter, the second is the vision of the seventh chapter, and the third consists of the angelic revelation found in chapters ten to twelve, inclusive.

The first two are the subject of our present concern.

For part of these words we can be certain of their meaning, as the text gives the explicit interpretation. As for the balance, we should exercise care and restraint.

As for the balance, we should exercise care and restraint. No man can be sure of the meaning of an ambiguous prophecy until it is made manifest by fulfillment. The prophecies which are accompanied by their own interpretation, of course, are not included in the category of the ambiguous. Thus, when Holy Scripture says to a certain king — “Thou art the head of gold,” we know what is intended. But for those prophecies which God has left unexplained there is no technique of interpretation that gives any school of thought finality of application.

The greatest danger in the present trend of prophetic teaching is seen in the tendency to emphasize the revival of the Roman Empire, thus distracting our attention from the major issue. The point to be emphasized is not the “toes” of the image or the “ten horns” of the fourth beast, as these are but incidental. The grand revelation of Daniel is the Kingdom of the Smiting Stone, and the eternal reign which shall follow the Coming of the Glorified Lord! But in the wild uproar of prophetic interpretation, with its manifold voices clamoring for recognition of each man’s favorite theory, the temporal and the ambiguous are stressed, to the loss of the eternal and the positive revelation.

The two visions, — that of the image and that of the four beasts — may well cover the same periods of human history, and probably do. But they are more than just four consecutive empires, or world kingdoms. It is a mystery never explained by any teacher, how, if the four divisions of the image are Babylonia, Media-Persia, Greece and Rome, they are all in existence at the last. days! You will note in Daniel 2:34-35, that while the stone smote the image upon its toes, the prophet nevertheless says, “Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken in pieces together: and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them.” And again in verse 45 the same statement is made, that at the time of the erection of God’s Kingdom the iron, brass, clay, silver and gold were smitten and destroyed together.

It is manifest that more is intended than just the successive empires, or else all four of them would have to be revived, and each of them reigning at the time of the return of Christ. This is utterly impossible, yet the same idea is conveyed in the beast ~ 62 ~

vision of Chapter seven. There we read in verses 11 and 12 that the fourth beast was slain and completely destroyed, being “consumed” by fire. But the other three beasts, which most teachers tell us are Babylonia, Media-Persia and Greece, lost their dominion, but their “lives” were prolonged for “a season and a time.” It is tremendously difficult to reconcile these odd facts with the customary teaching of four world empires. Certainly Babylonia is not to be rebuilt as a world empire. nor is MediaPersia nor the Macedonian regime. Yet the first “three beasts” outlive the “fourth beast,” generally identified as a revived Rome.

The confusion of human understanding is not lightened to any extent by the parallel vision of John in Revelation 13:1-10. Here the vision shows one beast only, but even as Daniel described the first three beasts of his vision as a lion, a bear, and a leopard, so in john’s vision the one beast possesses the main characteristics of leopard, bear and lion blended into the one figure.

It is quite probable that the various sections of Daniel’s two prophetic figures do indeed portray certain limited empires. In fact no student can miss the significance of Daniel’s words to Nebuchadnezzar—”Thou, oh, king, art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” He continues to describe the legs and toes as a fourth kingdom, and we cannot accept less than Daniel’s interpretation of his own words. But they are all together for the end, when the Stone usurps dominion!

It seems clear then that more than just four successive kingdoms are portrayed. We have in both of these visions the entire course of Gentile world dominion. Beginning with the final conquest of the last Jewish state by Nebuchadnezzar, the vision extends to the place in future history when, as Jesus stated, “The times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

So the last form of purely human world government is relatively unimportant, as it merely fills up the bitter cup of man’s failure to govern in peace and rule in righteousness, and thus sets the stage for the Coming of Christ, and the erection of the Kingdom of Heaven. Democracies are doomed to failure, republics and parliamentary forms of government will pass away. Fascism and Communism alike will have their brief day, and a dictator of powerful and implacable force will strive to perfect the method of rule which shall be most pleasing to man and best advance his progress.

When all such efforts shall have demonstrated their own futility, the Most High shall set up a reign, and the Golden Age of which weary humanity has long dreamed will be found in the Theocracy.

To summarize the matter, Daniel gives us the preview of those last days. His prophecies, stripped of all dogmatism and human fancy, simply state certain basic things. These may be listed as follows: From the reign of Nebuchadnezzar until the reign of Christ, Gentile nations shall dominate the earth.

There shall be successive attempts at universal rule, at least four in number.

The fourth form of world government shall be diverse from the first three. Those three were monarchies, while the fourth is to be a League, or Coalition of Nations.

~ 63 ~

Ten governments, races, kingdoms or nations shall form that coming League, the ten rulers of which shall share the authority and power.

Out of one of the ten countries an eleventh man shall arise, who will crush and overthrow three of the original ten, and take their power away from them.

The remaining seven rulers shall acknowledge the supremacy of this eleventh man, and he shall assume the powers of a dictator over all the earth. Not only political and commercial power shall be his, but he will also usurp religious supremacy, and dominate with ruthless despotism all phases of human life.

At the height of his power, when humanity is sick to the death of man’s misrule, the Lord Jesus Christ shall return.

It is quite apparent that God is going to allow the mystery of iniquity to run its full course, so that men can never say that they might have saved the earth and redeemed the race if they had been allowed more time. Every possible form of human government will be given a fair trial. So great will be the failure of all, that when the Kingdom of Heaven is finally established, men will crawl gratefully into its shelter and bask contentedly in its peace. Although men oppose it until it is established by the exertion of God's power, when the reign of Christ commences, the very animals shall join in the sigh of satisfaction which springs from redeemed humanity.

Therefore, the final study in this present series will deal with this “Coming King” and the eternal reign of peace and righteousness.

Chapter 4.

The Coming King Proverbs and ancient sayings are numerous and varied, and their value may not be considered great by some of the learned in our day. But many of them consist of the distilled experience of the human race for generations past, and there is some truth in most of them. None of these adages, however, can be more practical and pointed than the simple sentence: “We live and learn!” Indeed, if we do not learn, living has missed its purpose.

In the present series of short studies on prophecy, the writer has reversed his former position on several points of Biblical interpretation. He has not changed his basic premise: to him the Bible is still the infallible Word of the Living God. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God” is still his only theory of the origin of the Sacred Text. But he has changed his mind radically upon the matter of human deductions that are drawn from that Text. Only God’s Word is infallible — human understanding is subject to error and human interpretations may be far from the divine meaning.

But there is one point where all these years of study and research have not altered the writer’s view, and that is concerning the Scriptural doctrine of the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. From a child many of us have sung, “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun, Doth his successive journeys run,” but too few of us have ever searched the prophecies of the Bible to get an adequate and clear conception of just what that reign is to be and how it shall be erected. Quite clearly ~ 64 ~

the text of the Bible unfolds a dominion for King Jesus which must be set up by God’s power, and over which Christ will rule supreme.

To this basic fact most schools of interpretation agree, but as to the nature of that reign and the manner in which it will be inaugurated, there is sad disagreement and confusion. A veritable Babel of tongues and theories bewilders the man of the world as conflicting schools of teaching strive to get their ideas accepted.

Why not wipe out all human interpretations concerning the prophecies, and just read what the Bible says on this matter? This short study is an honest attempt to do just that. After 25 years of Bible study and teaching, I sought honestly to empty my mind of all that I had been taught and had learned from godly and gifted men, and went through the Bible afresh. It could not be possible, of course, for any man, no matter how honest his intention or how definite his effort, to completely cast out all of his understanding on any theme. But I went on one premise, namely, God is honest! Therefore His words must mean just what they imply. In giving a revelation to men, the primary purpose of the Heavenly Father was that we should understand Him. For that reason the words He sent must have carried the common connotations, and were intended to be explicit and clear. So we read the Bible as we would read history, a scientific treatise, or a financial report. That is to say, black means black and white means white.

Read thus, there is no ground for confusion. For instance, if the Bible says “Jesus is coming again,” we cannot claim that the sentence means that we are going to Him! Of course I believe that when the Christian dies he goes immediately to Christ in the glory —but how can I get that meaning out of the statement that Jesus is coming back to this earth? In other words, in the present study we shall deal honestly with the words of the prophecy.

Words are wonderful things. They open vistas to the mind of man that are utterly limitless. They break hearts, or cause the despondent to sing with joy. An announcement of a birth or the sad news of a death alike are conveyed by words.

They are among our most wonderful possessions. But through the centuries they have stood for certain meanings, and a simple regard for truth demands that we treat words as they were intended to be dealt with. Even as God cannot say one thing and mean another, we also should be prevented by honor and integrity from “interpreting” His statements into the opposite of their reasonable and conceded meaning.

So away with commentaries, “Bible Helps” and editorial comments. What saith the Lord on this subject?

Plenty!

His Word contains an amazing amount of references to the Coming King. We shall just turn to the Holy Bible and read those words, and see what God has revealed to men.

It is far from flattering to the human ego, but the fact that we have made a sad failure of every attempt to perfect human government can no longer be ignored.

~ 65 ~

Many and rosy have been the inspired dreams of altruistic men, but in every case the awakening has been rough and rude. Some of the finest plans that wisdom could devise have developed from the co-operation of gifted and brainy men, but all have ended in dismal failure.

The reason is not hard to find: sin has blanketed the conduct of men with foreordained disaster. Any government or form of rule would be perfect, if its administrators were perfect! A king who was sinless and utterly unselfish would be a fine and acceptable sovereign, if he were surrounded and supported by ministers and officers whose sole ambition was to advance the peace, welfare and prosperity of the subjects of their realm. But with such sanctified personnel, an autocracy, a dictatorship, a republic or a pure democracy would be equally successful.

But we face the bleak record of human history convinced by human conduct that such will never be seen in the natural order of humanity. The earth has seen all possible forms of government except one, and all have proved vain in the end.

Thrones have tottered and kings have fallen — the council of the common people has frequently replaced the rule of the aristocrat, to prove equally despotic in the final form. Such is human nature!

Some weeks ago an excited Communist street orator was sounding forth in Columbus Circle, in my home city, and waxed eloquent in his detailed description of the Utopia America would become when “The Revolution” finally came. In his exuberant enthusiasm he finally said, “Why, brothers, after ‘The Revolution’ you’ll all eat strawberries and cream three times a day!”

A young fellow in the forepart of the crowd grinned and said, “But I don’t like strawberries.”

The orator flushed a deep red, and anger made his tones strident. Shaking his fist in the face of the critic, he shouted, “When we are running the country, you’ll eat strawberries, or else!”

The people who are down resent their oppression, and dream of the day when they will be on top, and can in turn oppress! To change the current of human conduct it is necessary to change human nature, and there is no way to do that apart from the Christian experience of regeneration. And the Christian is not interested in the vain attempt to erect a perfect human government, as he knows that God has said that such shall never be. So the Christian rests content in the blessed hope of the Coming King and the kingdom which He shall establish, knowing that earth’s golden age will dawn when Jesus comes back again.

I do not mean that we should not strive for betterment, or that we should not attempt to improve matters as far as we are able. The earth will be happier and conditions will be vastly better to the extent that Christian principles can be introduced into any form of government, but we are far outnumbered. As fast as we make some seeming progress we find ourselves up against the innate selfishness of man, and all our hard-won gains go by the board.

We have seen in this very day the collapse of France, the once-proud democracy.

Made soft by self-indulgence, corroded by Communism, her government

~ 66 ~

undermined by traitors. France made one of the most pitiful and most complete failures ever recorded in history. Her natural greatness leached away by a growing infidelity, betrayed by her leaders, she lay beaten and crushed beneath the heel of a conqueror as pitiless and cruel as the ravaging Assyrians of old!

We have sat in horror and watched the murder of Czecho-Slovakia, the “baby republic” in the family of nations. Peaceful, industrious, prospering and happy, the land was overrun by a band of human wolves, and the people ruthlessly slaughtered and dispersed.

Almost within hours we saw this outrage followed by the rape of Poland. The thunder of the guns which blasted that government out of existence has hardly ceased to echo in our ears. The only reason that the shock of this dastardly outrage has somewhat dimmed, is the greater horror over the spread of savagery to all of Europe, the Balkan States, the Mediterranean world, and the vast continent of Africa!

So we watched every bulwark that humanity had erected for the safeguard of civilization blasted away, and conceded that it was only a matter of time until we found our own fair land embroiled in the world conflict. We armed ourselves for a battle we believed to be inevitable, and drafted our man-power to defend a diminishing Democracy with every resource at our disposal. And even as we thus prepared, we were conscious of the fact that Democracy is doomed!

In the third chapter in this series, we showed that God’s warning has fore-told that the last form of human government would be a League of Ten Nations, dominated by a dictator of such fierce character that he is called “The Man of Sin!” It is true that this League and the Dictator will be overthrown and followed by a super-human government, but purely human rule shall culminate in bleak tragedy and despotism.

The trend to totalitarianism is apparent, even in our own United States. In the face of one emergency after another our Congress surrendered its powers and resigned its authority, until our government in practice became but a shadow of what it is presumed to be in theory. And this condition will increase as the days pass, until to all intents and purposes the bureaucracies which govern us now with a form of democracy, lay aside the mask and appear in their proper guise as masters. In any crisis, power tends to centralize in a strong man or in super-men.

In war or in depression, in revolution or in disaster, the cumbersome machinery of democratic self-government must give way to the speedy efficiency of a centralized power.

Add to this black political picture the further fact that our other defences for civilization are equally useless, and the future looks tragic indeed. We have apparently relapsed into the sad state which God condemned when He said: “And even as, they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting: being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding (i.e. steeped in moral obliquity) covenant ~ 67 ~

breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful: Who, knowing the ordinance of God that they that practice such things are worthy of death not only do the same, but also consent with them that practice them.”

Could there be a more accurate or more honest summary of the age in which we now live? The black indictment applies with equal force to individuals or to governments. Apply that horrible list of adjectives to some of the greatest powers on earth today and see how guilty the present generation appears.

“Murder, strife, deceit, covetousness, covenant breakers,” are among the milder specifications, yet they are such crimes as turn God against men. Who regards treaties as sacred in this “enlightened” age? Who does not covet his neighbors’ fields, factories and possessions? Who gives his word and keeps it at any cost to himself? You will seek far to find an individual or a system of political rule which is absolutely innocent of the sins charged in that list!

Men fondly dreamed that the tide of barbarism could be held back by bulwarks of righteousness and ramparts of covenants, but civilization is all but buried beneath the flood of animalism that has swept aside these pitiful barriers.

Education, philosophy, the “brotherhood of man” and all the roseate schemes for peace and understanding have been blasted away in the thunder of guns and the weird shriek of dive bombers. The sweet song of the new day has been drowned out in the wail of suffering women and the cry of orphaned and blasted babies. Never has the earth known a more pitiless deluge of blood and suffering than our generation has experienced. No longer do armed men in the field or in the fleet bear the first shock of battle — it is the aged and the new-born who pay with life and limb in the modern warfare of the “enlightened” and “scientific” age of atomic destruction.

All of this should have been expected. The prophecies of God’s Word consistently warned us of this very condition. But men who knew better, and who were utterly intolerant of any viewpoint but their own optimistic, Pollyanna plans, taught the world to laugh at the Bible and scoff at its prophecies, because such gloomy forecasts did not agree with the “new order” that men were bringing to pass. We who clung to the Bible and stoutly maintained its infallibility, were sneered at in public, persecuted by the apostate leaders of the great Protestant denominations, and called such names as “obscurantists” and “Fundamentalists”! Alas, we have lived to see our melancholy forebodings enacted into realities, and all of our warnings justified.

How I wish we had been wrong! By that I mean that I, also, would be ineffably delighted if peace and good-will could flood the earth, and the brotherhood of man be made a working reality. But since the Bible solemnly warns that such can never be, my natural realism forces me to acknowledge the vanity of the hope. I know that instead of improvement in the relations of men and nations, the situation will wax worse and worse.

A few weeks ago I was on the program of one of America’s largest educational gatherings, and spoke several times to the thousands of teachers gathered in the convention. In one of my lectures to these educators, I called attention to this ~ 68 ~

prophesied failure of human government. When the session was over, a professor sought me out and said, “Doctor, a few years ago I would have laughed at you and your views as expressed on the platform today, but now, alas, I am forced to concede the wisdom and truth of what you have said. Events have certainly justified you. But in the face of all this, what are we to expect? Is there no hope for a better age?”

“Indeed,” I replied. “There is more than just a hope. There is a positive promise, an assurance by God — that the end of the matter will be glorious. The same prophets who so accurately described the sad debacle of human hope and efforts, also have stated in clear and unmistakable words that our Lord Jesus Christ is coming again to reign over the earth. What sinful men cannot accomplish by their own efforts, Jesus will establish by His power.” Then I told him in some detail the promises of God’s Word, and sketched for him the broad outlines of the blessed hope. But as I unfolded to him the teachings of the Bible, his skepticism gave way to impatience, and he dismissed the entire subject with the brusque remark — “I never heard of such nonsense!”

Thus ever human wisdom! The Word of God is vindicated again and again by the march of events, but still they scorn its light. Not willing to have God in their knowledge” is as true of world-leaders today as it was in the days of the Apostle Paul, or in the generation of Noah. 

In the preceding chapter of this series, we showed that in the puzzling imagery of Daniel’s words, two points emerge upon which we may rest with justified and dogmatic assurance. The first is Daniel’s statement that Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom constitute the golden head of the image the king saw in his dream. The second point of unquestionable certainty is found in Daniel’s words: “And in their days of those kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to some other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou didst see that a stone was cut out of the mountain without the aid of hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold; the Great God hath made known unto the king what things shall come to pass hereafter.”

These words are clear and explicit and need no interpretation. Even as God revealed to Daniel and through him to the Babylonian king the fact that other monarchs and peoples should one day dispossess the Chaldeans of their dominion, so he also foretold that the last kingdom that our race would know was to be the “Kingdom of the Smiting Stone.” Human government is to give way to a Theocracy: “the God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom . . .” Can words be any clearer than that? Scholarly dishonesty, so often applied with consummate ingenuity to the confusion of Christian understanding, cannot change the fact that the prophecy has to do with forms of government. The same exact, specific meaning that attaches to the word “kingdom” when a man named Nebuchadnezzar (or Cyrus, or Darius) is governing his fellow men applies to that identical word when it is used of the political dominion which God shall one day establish. “Kingdom” means the same ~ 69 ~

whether it is attached to the qualifying term Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Roman, or Heavenly! Even as Rome once established political sovereignty over the races of antiquity, so God will establish a physical reign over the races of the future. To make this matter clear and plain, let us examine the Scripture simply, briefly, and honestly. 

The Old Testament prophets did foretell an earthly reign for Jesus, when He should come to bring this planet under the sway of obedience to God. And when we say “reign” we mean just what that word has always meant in connection with government. We concede, of course, that Jesus is now enshrined in the hearts of those who love Him and believe in Him as Lord and Savior, but this is not what the Bible means when it speaks of this reign of Christ. For instance, read again the exact language used in the ninth chapter of Isaiah: “For unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.”

Let us take a close, analytical look at those familiar words and see just what they teach. Isaiah described an event which was historically fulfilled in part, through the miracle of the incarnation of Jesus. “Unto us a child is born” carries us back from our present era to that time of which Luke wrote, when the virgin mother brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. The Child was born indeed, and all history was born anew in that event.

But more than a birth is implied in the following words, “a Son is given.” Here we have the manner in which the very love of God was demonstrated to men, when He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We know the Child of whom the prophet spoke: we recognize the Son in the person of the Savior.

He is clearly identified when the prophecy states that this coming One shall wear the names of deity and possess the attributes of God. He is called by the holiest names men can use when addressing God; names by which God revealed Himself to the ancients of Israel. For instance, we read in the tenth chapter of Deuteronomy: “For Jehovah your God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the Great God, the Mighty, and the terrible . . .”

Or remember also that when God made Himself known to Abraham, it was in these words: “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abraham and said unto him; I am God Almighty; walk before me and be thou perfect . . .”

The significance of this cannot be missed. When the Child appears, and when the Son has come, He will be known by the name which God revealed to Abraham. ~ 70 ~

More than this, He is to possess that attribute of deity which makes Him selfexistent! A human who can rightly be called “The Everlasting Father” is a strange son of Adam indeed! The mystery of this amazing paradox is easily understood after Jesus had come, and the God-Man had demonstrated His divine origin, nature and purpose. This He did in the miracles He wrought, the death He died, and in His triumph over the tomb.

Thus identified, note that the Coming One is to establish a literal reign. Isaiah uses the exact words, “Of the increase of His government . . .” “and the government shall be upon His shoulder.” The prophecy speaks of a throne, inherited from David. All men know that David had a human company over whom he reigned in a political and actual sense. David never was a priest; being of the family of Judah, he could not officiate in the worship of God. He had no “spiritual” kingdom, he governed the realm, made and enforced laws, levied taxes and commanded armies to defend his subjects and his possessions. Thus, if Jesus is to reign upon or from the throne of David, we must expect an earthly and physical reign.

It is almost comical to note the lengths to which denominational leaders, seminary teachers, and writers of commentaries will go to twist these words out of their natural meaning and “interpret” them to show that Christ only reigns in the hearts of men in a spiritual kingdom. They tell us that the gospel is going to conquer gradually until all the races of the earth yield in love to Him, and universal peace and brotherhood result. Then He will be reigning over the earth and all its inhabitants.

There are just three things wrong with this “interpretation.” The first is, we are not doing so well! The missionary program has been feeble, inadequate and limited at its best, but now it is all but suspended by many Christian nations! The vast fields allotted to German churches are fallen into neglect: the Scandinavian countries lie helpless and prostrate before a foe who leaves them no time or means for world missions. Great Britain, engaged in a desperate battle for her very existence could spare neither men, funds nor equipment to extend her part in the gospel conquest. And America spends more every thirty days for cigarettes than she puts into missionary offerings in an entire year! After Russia deported God as an undesirable alien, and Germany turned to neopaganism, Christianity actually lost in the statistical columns. If Jesus has to wait for His kingdom until we mortal Christians convert the world to Him, that kingdom is so far in the future it staggers the imagination to contemplate that distant day.

The second error in this modern idea of a spiritual reign, brought about by the conversion of the heathen (who seem to prefer Mohammed to Christ!) is that Isaiah says it will not be established by human efforts! The prophet says—”The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this!” When Jesus reigns in this world of men, His throne will be erected in spite of opposition and by conquest. More of that we shall see later, we now point out the fallacy of this modernistic interpretation. God is going to erect this kingdom, not men.

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The third objection to this weird and un-Scriptural teaching is the fact that the New Testament warns us that in the days just before the kingdom of Christ begins, a dark period of apostacy is to sweep over Christendom. Hear the words of the Holy Spirit, as He solemnly warns through the pen of the Apostle Paul: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies through hypocrisy, having their consciences seared as with a hot iron: “This know also, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, slanderers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”

These grim words are further emphasized by the blunt statement of Jude, the brother of our Lord, who wrote in warning terms: “But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”

How then can we expect a gradual conversion of the whole world by the Gospel, when the very text of that Gospel describes the last days of our age in terms of apostacy and failure? Contemplating the termination of the age of Grace, Jesus Himself raised the question, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find the faith in the earth?” Add to this the clear implications of His parables of judgment, and the folly of the modern idea of the Gospel being a leaven which gradually but finally transforms the whole race of man, appears as self-evident. Jesus said that at His coming, tares and wheat would be growing together. In the dragnet were to be seen good fish and bad, and so on through all of His grave warnings.

Lest you think I have taken one or two isolated texts to prove a point, let me hasten to remind the reader that we could fill pages of this short volume with such quotations. For instance, we have the solemn warning from 2 Thessalonians, chapter two: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day will not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God; so that he asp God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God!”

This record is further illumined by the statement made by Peter, in the second chapter of his Second Epistle, where the apostle be gins with the words: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”

From this premise Peter then develops a gloomy theme, using the balance of this Epistle to warn of apostacy and the judgment thereupon. And his only hope is that ~ 72 ~

after that judgment, there shall come a new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness. Nevertheless he insists that failure and punishment shall mark the end of the Gospel era, not triumph and a spiritual kingdom. This obviates the common teaching which shows the Lord Jesus reigning as the result of a long missionary campaign.

And what shall we say of the entire book of Revelation? God closes this message to men with that fearsome warning of plagues and disasters, judgments and dooms, all of which shall come upon a sinful and Christ-rejecting earth. The only way to hold to the idea of a spiritual kingdom, dominating the hearts of the entire human race, is to deny any prophetic significance to the book of Revelation, and say that all of these “figurative” judgments have been fulfilled in past ages. This quaint but popular position is hard to sustain in the light of chapters 20, 21, and 22! As far as we know, there has been no event in past time comparable to the binding of Satan in the abyss! He seems quite active and free just now. The resurrection of the just has not yet occurred, nor has the great white throne been established for the last scene of judgment. The new heavens and the new earth of chapter 21 are certainly still future, as is the new Jerusalem. We are not yet in that restored Eden of chapter 22, and no intelligent and honest commentator can deny that some of this book is prophetic, and refers to future events. And if that is true, who is to say that the promised plagues and punishments, meted out to a generation who are enemies of God, are not also future?

At any rate, the idea that the gospel is to win the earth to Christ, thus fulfilling the promises of a kingdom and a reign for Him, are utterly un-Scriptural. We return to our premise, namely, the prophecies promise a literal, physical, earthly kingdom for the Lord Jesus.

What other kind did David have?

Jesus is to sit “upon the throne of His father, David.”

What other form of government is there?

“The government is to be on His shoulder.” 

The Messianic prophecies are definite in the extreme, and it is sheer ignorance of the Bible or a willful desire to distort the Scriptures which makes men reject the teaching concerning His return. One of the clearest and most explicit of these Messianic promises is the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. To show the clarity of this revealed program, and something of the nature of Christ’s reign, let us make a simple analysis of that chapter. Such an analysis would develop in this fashion: ISAIAH, CHAPTER ELEVEN Theme: The Coming King and His Reign.

Writer: The Prophet Isaiah.

Date: About B.C. 713.

Occasion: To Encourage the People, in the Face of a Threatened Invasion.

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1. The Coming Redeemer (Isaiah 11:1).

“And there shall come forth a living shoot out of the stump of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”

2. The Character of the Redeemer (Isaiah 11:2-5).

“And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of His ears: but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and contend with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.”

3. The Nature of His Reign (Isaiah 11:6-9).

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fading together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

4. The Universal Extent of that Reign (Isaiah 11:10).

“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious.”

5. Victorious Israel Shall Be Regathered (Isaiah 11:11-14).

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria and from Egypt, and from Pathros and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west, and they shall spoil the children of the east together, they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.”

6. Certain Geographical Changes to be Made (Isaiah 11:15-16).

“And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.”

Of course, a complete analysis of this prophecy is beyond the scope of so short a study as this one must be, but certain facts demand emphasis. It is frequently argued that all of these prophecies are figurative and cast in poetic expression and therefore must be interpreted into their actual meaning. Even if that were so, a “figure” is a method of expressing abstract ideas by words which suggest pictures or ~ 74 ~

images from the physical world. But an accurate and honest use of figurative language demands that the concrete figure used shall convey a true and correct conception of the abstract idea. Hence, it would be fundamentally dishonest for the prophet to use the terms “throne,” “government,” “reign,” and kindred forms, if the actuality of which he speaks is only a spiritual or mental sway.

Note first the accuracy of Isaiah’s statement concerning the genealogy of the Coming One. He states that out of the stump of Jesse, a living shoot shall emerge.

The figure is taken from the culture of the fig tree, so common in the land where the prophet lived. If a barren fig tree is cut back, the wound covered with grafting paste and protected, out of the roots will spring up a new shoot which will be alive and fruitful.

We know that Jesse was the son of Obed, the grand-son of Boaz, and the father of King David. Since the physical throne of Israel descends through the family of David, the House of Jesse then stands for the kingly line. “Jesse” flourished as long as a descendant of his line sat upon a throne. The last such king was the ill-starred Zedekiah, who violated his sacred oath, and, against the stern warning of the prophet Jeremiah, made a fatal alliance with Egypt. As a result the tragic two years of war followed, Zedekiah was compelled to watch the execution of his entire family by the sword, and he himself was carried captive to Babylon. Since then Jesse has been a “stump” and there has been no life apparent in the ancient tree.

But the roots remained alive, and God has promised that a new “shoot” shall spring forth from that slumbering stump. This can only mean that a king shall yet reign, of the lineage of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah and the family of David. Now consult the genealogy of Jesus, and confirm once again your knowledge of the fact that our Lord is of the family of Jesse, through His mother, Mary. So our first premise in the prophecy is established—the figure of speech does mean that another Hebrew king is yet to reign. All of this is both implied and stated in the first verse of Isaiah, in chapter eleven. Incidentally, the identification of the promised king is aided by the fact that the name “Branch” is used elsewhere in Old Testament prophecies to portray Jesus the Messiah. Jeremiah uses this name, as does also Zechariah. In the book of Jeremiah we read: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

We shall refer later to the Messianic application of this verse, we merely introduce it here to establish the fact that the Person known as “the Branch” is to bear names that are peculiar to deity. The holiest name of God is conferred upon Him by Jeremiah, and divine attributes, such as “RIGHTEOUSNESS” are ascribed to Him. So Isaiah and Jeremiah are in agreement and harmony on this point at least.

Many years later, when the remnant of Israel had returned from captivity and was engaged in rebuilding in Palestine under the government of alien powers, the prophet Zechariah also promised them that they would some day have their own ~ 75 ~

king. He also called the Coming One by the name “The Branch”, and referred to Him as One who would be manifested as God. But even without this further light, we do not need to question the identity of this Coming King of Isaiah’s song; He is adequately described in verses two to five in this chapter of Isaiah.

Verse two tells of the source of His power, in these words: “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him.” That is sufficient to establish His nature and accredit His Person, as we have had no human monarch since the age of the prophets who reigned in and by the power of the Holy Ghost!

Verses three to five tell of the application of this power which the Coming King shall make to the lives of His subjects, and this gives us a good idea of the quaintness of that reign. How odd a conception for human historians to contemplate; that a King shall use his vast powers for the poor and the meek, rather than for the rich and the powerful! Certainly we have not yet known of such a monarch!

Yet with all this, He is to smite where punishment is due, and His enemies shall perish by the very words of His condemnation. What a strange, yet awe-inspiring figure begins to emerge from the Scripture which tells of His character and His rule!

The picture grows more complicated and even more wonderful as we read of the nature of that reign. Verses six to nine tell us that even the wild animals of the earth shall be converted at His ascension, and shall revert to the conditions of life which prevailed in Eden. Imagine a King of such power that He shall change the very nature of ravening beasts! These wild enemies of man shall become his friends and pets, and the spilling of blood will cease during Christ’s rule.

Shall we try to evade the many difficulties which this idea raises in the modern mind, by the cowardly subterfuge of calling it all “figurative,” and therefore subject to any interpretation which shall fit the individual mind: or shall we face those problems honestly and seek to find further light upon them? If we decide on the former, as the easier way, we must be prepared to state what it is that the figure portrays. The most extreme contrasts are here pictured, as the lion and the fatling, the calf and the bear all sharing one bed! The lamb is the natural prey of the wolf: if they two “lie down” together now, the lamb is inside the wolf! The African hunter knows what splendid leopard bait the kid is, and here they are portrayed as being chums. To effect such an amazing reversal of what we call the natural order, the very nature of these animals will have to be transformed. Indeed, the prophet goes so far as to say that babies shall play with serpents whose very names are now synonymous with suffering and death. If all of this is figurative, what does it picture? What is the fact behind the imagery?

But if the prophecy refers to an express condition, we may seek more light upon it. For instance, there is the forecast given by the New Testament, in Romans 8:1923, where we read: “For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who ~ 76 ~

subjected the same in hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

Add to these strange words the statement of Genesis 1:29-30, and we begin to see some sense in the prophecy of Isaiah, and have an inkling of the nature of the coming kingdom. At the end of the week of creation, Moses records that God said: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”

Put these two together, and we have a basis of understanding. In the days of Eden, when man and all creation were strangers to sin, no creature slew another living thing for daily food. Because of sin, the rule was changed, and the creation has “groaned” under this bondage of death and blood ever since. But when Jesus returns, and the will of God is done on earth even as it is in heaven, the animal realm will revert to the dietary practices of Eden. So says Isaiah, and he speaks with the authority of the Spirit of God. What an age that will be!

Years ago, when all of my children were small, I asked my five-year-old daughter what she wanted for Christmas. Without a second’s hesitation, she said, “A baby lion!”

I wasn’t surprised, as all of her life she has loved all living things. Our home has been a sort of menagerie ever since I can remember. Snakes and lizards, tame skunks, dogs, cats, horses, alligators and horned toads—we have had open house for and to them all. But a baby lion was going too far, so I said, “Well, darling, I’d like to get you one. But you know lions come from Africa, and we live in California. I can hardly go to Africa and get you one for Christmas!”

“You don’t have to,” my daughter replied. “There is a lion farm out near El Monte. We went there last week, and saw them all getting fed. They had lots of baby ones, and I want one.”

I tried to reason. I said, “Dear, I’d like a baby lion myself. They are awfully cute, but the trouble is they don’t stay babies! In a few months it will grow so big it would scratch the furniture and tear up the rugs, and in a year or so it’ll want to eat us! Then we’d have to give it to the circus or shoot it, and we would be sad to lose it after we had raised it. I can’t give you a baby lion for Christmas, but I’ll give you anything else you want.”

Quick as a flash she answered: “Then I’ll take a baby tiger!”

I knew that I was stuck—so I sat down and told her of an age that is to be, and of a Coming King. I read her Isaiah’s great prophecy, and told her that the King, when He came, would change animal nature and restore the conditions that prevailed in the garden of Eden. When that had been accomplished, I assured her, ~ 77 ~

she could have both a lion and a tiger, and a bear and a leopard as well. “A little child shall lead them” is a very definite promise, but before that can be so, a tremendous change must be wrought in the very wild beasts of the earth.

Can this transfiguration be brought about by the preaching of the gospel? Can it be effected by the practice of the “Golden Rule” or by adherence to the precepts of the “Sermon on the Mount”? The very idea is silly. The “Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God” could conceivably reconstruct society — but by no stretch of the imagination can we claim that it would also metamorphose the ravening beasts of the earth into friendly, grass-eating pets for the children! So we must either admit that Isaiah is prophesying a physical reign in a changed earth, or confess that we simply repudiate any belief in the authority of his words. In that case, we stand convicted of dogmatism and willful unbelief.

It is to be noted also that the further analysis pictures a universal domain. The words of verse 10 draw a sharp line of distinction between two groups of people.

The phrase “the people” in Hebrew writings always refer to the children of Abraham: the rest of us are “the nations.” In the Hebrew text the original word is “goi” and in our English translation this word is rendered Gentiles, 30 times; heathen, 142 times; and nations, 373 times. The Hebrew word “am” is translated also by the English word nation, but it appears only 17 times in the Old Testament text. But “am” is translated “people” 1,835 times. Occasionally it is qualified, as by the phrase “every people,” but when it is rendered “the people” it means Israel.

Thus the words of Isaiah convey a startling reversal of present governmental trends. World dominion rests in Gentile hands, and in most, if not in all great countries, the Jew is tolerated at best. He resides by sufferance and by grace of Gentile permission even in his own land of Palestine, and that only in limited numbers sharply restricted by stern laws. But when Christ triumphs, and His kingdom is erected, it will be centered in Jewish. or Hebrew interests, and the Gentiles shall seek shelter therein, and come by sufferance into the citizenship thereof!

How is this to be brought about by the ministry of the Gospel? Missionaries could labor another ten thousand years, preaching grace and redemption to all nations, but that would in no wise offset the trend of world rule. Something drastic and dramatic has to happen to fulfill these very exact words of God’s promise, and unless Isaiah really has revealed a future event, there is no conceivable way in which world dominion will be centered in a Hebrew line, city, or regime.

This cannot be brought about by the recognized abilities of the Jewish people in financial wizardry. Germany proved that. When enough wealth is concentrated in Jewish hands to make the effort worth while, some pragmatic and powerful robber will always rise to despoil them.

It cannot be done by a spread of Jewish culture. Hitler proved that also. As soon as enough Jews are in the teaching centers of a Gentile nation to effect the current of culture, it becomes unlawful for a Jew to hold a seat of learning any longer! The recent black tragedy of Europe demonstrated that.

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And make no mistake about this point; there will always be Hitlers, Mussolinis and Stalins as long as man is in control and force is supreme. Our only hope is the blessed hope, that Christ shall return and transform the world by the power and authority which He shall wield.

The significance of the prophecy of Isaiah becomes even clearer as we ponder verses eleven to fourteen. When the reign begins, of which the Scripture speaks, the Jew will no longer be homeless and a wanderer. He shall not be scattered among all nations, tolerated in limited numbers in his own homeland. No, in that day the dispersed of Abraham’s seed shall be gathered together from all nations, and from every point of the compass. They are pictured as being victorious over their ancient enemies, and abundantly capable of self-defense if need be. A victorious, united, re-gathered people, they will be a nation once again, and will dwell by right in their own land. Words could not be plainer, nor could meaning be clearer. God has promised certain things in this prophecy, and all the “spiritualizing,” “interpreting,” or “allegorizing” of which crooked and deceitful teachers are capable cannot twist those concrete promises into any other meanings!

Especially is this so when we note that the eleventh chapter of Isaiah does not stand alone, but is supported by other Old Testament prophecies equally specific.

We have reference to one such, in Jeremiah 33:15, which we have cited before. We repeat it here to refresh your memory with these words: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

An honest exegesis of that verse will show certain plain facts to be the intended teaching of this promise. First, a King is certainly coming! Not in some mystical or spiritual sense, but He is to reign and prosper, and to “execute judgment and justice” in the earth. It is conceded that Jesus, of whom this prophecy admittedly speaks, does reign, in a limited sense, in the hearts of His people. But has that resulted in the establishment of righteousness and justice in the earth? You know it hasn’t. Never have wrong and injustice been more strongly intrenched than at the beginning of this year of 1946. We have high hopes, of course, that they will be repressed and chained again. But even if they are, we are sadly aware from bitter experience that they will soon break forth again. Vicious power and lust for conquest cannot be educated out of human nature — only by regeneration can men be changed. The 20th century has witnessed the worst relapses into brutality that history has yet recorded, and after all these centuries of culture, teaching, philosophy and evangelism, we are farther from world peace and human brotherhood than we have ever been before. The reign of righteousness and justice will not be established by the slow leaven of the gospel. It waits for the revelation of the Mighty One who is to come!

The second inescapable fact in this text is that the Coming One is to be of Jesse’s House. “I will raise unto David a righteous Branch” cannot be misunderstood.

Remember that Zechariah also wrote of Him at least two generations after the sad

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fate of Zedekiah, the last descendant of David who ever occupied a throne. None such has been crowned in any land since these words were written, therefore any fulfillment of them must still be a future event.

The third point to note is that this Son of David is to have a physical dominion.

His execution of the administrative power is to be “In the earth.” So thus it is to be a throne in a literal and real sense, and its power is to be world-wide. Not in part of the earth, or in the land of Israel alone shall His authority extend; the entire planet is to be the sphere of His dominion. So the Lord who rules heaven now, will some day conquer and add the rebellious earth to His realm, and finish the mystery of sin by the conquest thereof on the scene of its long and evil record.

Then note the next item, that His reign will be characterized by the safety and security of the Jew. “In His days Israel shall be saved, and Judah shall dwell safely.” Surely that phase of world history is in the future!

This is a condition every Christian prays for, but when has it ever been? Review in your mind the sad history of the earth’s most persecuted race, and seek for a time when they have known security and peace!

For a brief day in Solomon’s rule prosperity was theirs, but the children of those who knew Solomon groaned in slavery, and knew the shock of battle and the dark grief which comes to the despoiled. For a decade or two at most the Jew has had an occasional rest from spite and suffering, but these periods have been few and short.

But a brighter day is ahead! When the Coming King establishes His government, it will be distinguished by this historically unique fact — Israel shall have peace and security for His entire reign.

Again authenticating Isaiah, Jeremiah clearly identifies this great monarch who is yet to be, when he says, “And this is His name whereby He shall be called, ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ “ You will notice that your English version of the Bible prints this entire Name in capital letters. This is done to draw the attention of the reader to the sacred nature of the holy Name used in the Text. We translate the Hebrew word by the English form “Jehovah” in the American Revised Version; but the familiar form of the Authorized, or King James version, uses the term “LORD GOD.” The designation implying holiness, which is the chief attribute of God, is added to the Name in Jeremiah’s text, thus emphasizing the thought that a divine King is in view in the prophecy.

This section of Jeremiah is really a repetition of chapter 23, verses 5 to 8, and the message is thus repeated for additional confirmation. The form is similar in each enunciation of the prophecy, but the nature of the reign is stressed in the earlier utterance, and the deity of the King in the latter statement. So in the former sentence the emphasis is on “and He shall reign as king and deal wisely.” This positive declaration obviates the possibility that the kingdom may be merely mystical or spiritual, it attests an actual physical domain.

Of course there have been many rulers who have manifested restraint, wisdom and benevolence in their practice of power. There have been kings who were godly

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and lived righteously, but the earth has yet to see such a King as this promise portrays. One who is righteousness rather than one who possesses or exercises it!

Vain and proud men have called themselves by high-sounding names, vaunting their own greatness. There have been many “Mighty and Universal Potentates,” “Kings of Kings” and “Lords of Lords” — but never has the earth seen a ruler who can be justly called “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”!

It is manifestly impossible to exhaust the list of Old Testament prophecies concerning the Coming King in so short and simple a study, these are picked almost at random from many. The Messianic Psalms themselves alone provide material for volumes of study. The words of Ezekiel by themselves make a complete case. The thrilling shout of Zechariah is quite sufficient to stir the heart and inform the mind, even if it stood alone. Added together, the voices of prophecy constitute an amazing body of divine promises, all of which justify us in looking for the redemption of God’s pledges and assurances, in the person of the Coming King. 

No revelation, doctrine or system of teaching in the Old Testament can be fully comprehended until it has been correlated and integrated with the comparable records of the New Testament. Together, the two books form the inter-locking halves of one perfect whole, and it is poor scholarship to decide any problem on the basis of half the evidence. It may be said that the seed of all New Testament truth is found in the Old Testament text. But if that is true, it is equally accurate to say that all truth revealed in the New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament. In a word, the flower of revelation which blossomed from Moses to Malachi has come to its fruit in the records from Matthew to Revelation. Therefore there can be no contradiction between the teachings of these two sections of God’s Word, as one must merely complement the other.

The theme of the Old Testament is “Someone is coming.” Every prophet of the ancient times looked forward through time to the Coming One. Moses began the theme when he wrote, “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head,” and Malachi closed the continued reiteration joined in by all the prophets, when he told of the Sun of Righteousness which should arise, with healing in His rays.

But the New Testament has two themes, both of them centering in one Person.

The first theme may be “Someone has come!” This, indeed, is borne out by Philip, who sought out Nathanael with the startling greeting, “Come and see! We have found Him, of whom Moses in the Law, and the prophets did write!” He did indeed come, but the tragedy of His rejection remains as the vilest blot upon the page of human activities. Rejected, cast out, and crucified, He ascended back into heaven, from whence He had come.

Then follows the second theme of the New Testament, which may be tersely stated as “Someone is coming again!” Thus the entire Scripture centers in the Person of One who was to come, who did come, and who is coming again. He is the Coming King of Old Testament promise, and is the object of our present study.

For simplicity of study and ease of presentation, we divide the New Testament evidences into three classes. They are: (1) The purpose of His first coming; (2) the ~ 81 ~

promise of His return, and (3) the nature of the Kingdom as set forth in New Testament statements.

Concerning the first body of evidence, there seems to be considerable confusion among preachers, teachers and casual readers of the Word. We often hear it stated, for instance, that “Jesus came to offer the Kingdom to the Jews. When they rejected it, He went to Calvary, and died for the sins of men. Had Israel accepted her King, He would never have died on the cross, but would have established the kingdom at that time.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth! Suppose we let the Lord Jesus tell us Himself, just why He did come. He has made that matter very plain and clear. Out of many references, we submit the following few as examples and guide to our decision. Let us start with Matthew 20:25-28. “But Jesus called them unto Him and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever shall be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as

the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Those words, even if they stood alone, are sufficient to establish the purpose of the incarnation. They are simple and plain, and there is no ambiguity about them.

Our Lord Jesus came with one purpose in mind, to die for the sins of a lost race, and to provide a means by which it might be reconciled to God. This fact becomes clear as we read also such words as the following: Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

With a bluntness that intensifies their clarity, these words convey the primary purpose of Jesus in His coming to the earth in such simple and direct fashion as to allow of no misunderstanding. Especially is this so when they are read in the light of His general utterances, as in such citations as these: John 3:14-17. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

For this reason Jesus exclaimed, “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me’’; and the Apostle John explains this in his simple phrase, “And this He spake concerning the death He was to die.” Indeed, that death and its eternal purpose was never out of the thoughts of the Lord until it was fulfilled and His purpose thus consummated. Again and again He referred to “Mine hour”: and subsequent events illustrated in an overwhelming demonstration just what He meant by that phrase.

It could not have been otherwise, for so the prophets had foretold ages before He came. In such familiar verses as Isaiah 53:5, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was pierced for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed”:

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we have a classical instance of such prophecies. From their abundant contents Jesus was able to say to His followers after His resurrection, “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe, after all that the prophets have spoken!

Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His. glory? And beginning from Moses, and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:25-27).

Certainly, it cannot be denied that all the writing apostles understood the purpose of Christ’s coming to have been accomplished at Calvary, for their testimony is unanimous on this point. John the Baptist utters this thought first when he says of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” Those words came with especial significance to Jewish ears. Being familiar with the sacrifices of the old dispensation, they knew that a lamb was of no avail until it was slain. From the lamb of the Passover to the offering of the Evening Sacrifice, efficacy and effect derived from the lamb, were resident in the fact that its blood was shed. There is a tremendous teaching behind the divine dictum, “When I, the Lord, see the blood, I will pass over you.” It is a recognized principle of biology that blood is, and must be, invisible if all is well with the organism. When blood is visible, it speaks of tragedy in the most certain terms. So when John the fore-runner called Jesus “The Lamb of God,” he was intimating that He came to be sacrificed on an altar.

With this view the Apostle Paul is in fullest accord, for in I Timothy 1:15 he makes a statement that may be called a summary of his entire teaching, when he says, “This is a true and faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation; that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”

Not to establish a kingdom, but to save the lost was the primary purpose of His first appearing.

Peter also joins his voice to Paul’s, and says in Acts 2:23, as he reproves the Jews who had rejected Jesus: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”

Thus, in the mind of Peter, the entire course of Christ’s life had been fixed in the ages past, and He came to die as the plan of redemption demanded.

The Apostle John sums it all up at the end of his life, in the simple but compelling words: “And we know that He was manifested to take away our sins.”

There is no need to multiply instances, the New Testament cannot be better epitomized than in the words of the angel Gabriel, who said to Joseph, the husband of Mary: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”

It must be remembered that the apostles and the disciples did not recognize this fact at first, for we read in John 12:16:

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“These things understood not His disciples at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things unto Him.”

Undoubtedly the disciples believed that Jesus came to establish the promised kingdom, for after His resurrection their burning question was, “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” [Acts 1:4-8 For the 1st of 3 phases or stages of the Kingdom set up by the Lord during His personal ministry see The ORIGIN AND PERPETUITY of the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST –Ed.-esn] In reply He told them that the time of the beginning of that kingdom was not to be known to men, as God had kept that time in His own counsel.

If Jesus had “come to establish the kingdom” as is sometimes stated, make no mistake about it, He would have done so! When he does come for that purpose, He comes in power and glory, accompanied by legions of angels, and with authority to establish His will over the earth. He is portrayed in the appearing as slaying the wicked with the breath of His lips, and crushing all opposition with supernatural power. He did not fail in the purpose of His incarnation. He came to die for the sins of men. To that end He pressed on, and by that means He made a way by which we can all be saved.

It is true, of course, that He did proclaim the kingdom; but He did so with the definite foreknowledge that it and He would be rejected. He also taught that there is a sense in which God may rule even now in the hearts of those who accept Christ as their Savior and Lord, but at the same time He constantly reminded His followers that He was to come again to erect a physical domain.

Such promises are almost too numerous to even list in so brief a discussion as this present one must be. But there are three types of Scripture that we must consider, even though very briefly, all of which taken together give us a clear and accurate picture of the teachings of Jesus on this matter. The first should be the direct statements of the Saviour, the second, His parables, and the third is the effect His revelations had upon the understanding of the apostles who heard Him, and who afterward wrote on these matters.

In the first series, we can take as an illustration certain sections of that portion that is called the Olivet discourse. This record begins in the 24th chapter of Matthew, and runs through to the end of chapter 25. The occasion was the prophecy that Jesus had made concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the woes that should accompany that tragedy. Some of the disciples asked Him privately (verse 3), “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming; and of the end of the age?”

This is a complicated question, and the answer is necessarily somewhat involved.

The query is really three questions, namely: (a) When shall the destruction of Jerusalem be? (b) What shall be the sign of Thy coming? (c) What shall be the sign of the end, or completion, of the age?

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In the discourse that followed this question, —or rather, series of questions,— Jesus foretold events and referred to many portents. So it is essential, if we are to understand His meaning, that all through the following Scriptures, we keep in mind which of the three questions He is dealing with in each verse or series of verses. These two chapters of Matthew demand close and analytical reading. For instance, in verses four and five, it is manifestly certain that Jesus is speaking of His return, when He says: “. . Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying: I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”

Equally certain is the significance of verses 26, 27: “Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert, go not forth: behold He is in the secret chamber, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”

(Since the coming of Jesus and the end of this age are bound up together in their time of fulfillment, the following verses now turn to the third part of the question, the end of the age, and the signs thereof. Thus verses 28 and 29 tell of the coming tribulation, the supernatural signs of the heavens, the darkened sun and the falling stars and the frightening phenomena of that time. He then returns to the question of His return in verses 30 and 31.)

So the record continues thus: “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

It takes some weird mental gymnastics indeed to “spiritualize” such a plain statement as this! Any reader, possessed of normal understanding, and actuated by principles of common honesty, must conclude that Jesus believed that He was to return to this earth in physical person. The language is such that simple integrity compels us to assume that Jesus meant these words to be understood in their usual connotations, and we have no right to read into them meanings that the speaker never intended.

His meaning appears plain enough in such further statements as verse 37: “But as the days of Noah 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 Noah 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.”

This statement is direct and plain, and leads to the equally clear statement of verse 44: “Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

These are a few of the many such utterances of the Saviour, all of them together making an unanswerable argument for His return. Of course, the multiplicity of promises is not the important point, as we would and should believe the Lord Jesus if He had made but one isolated promise on any matter whatever. But the case is much strengthened by the apparent fact that Jesus considered this matter so ~ 85 ~

important that he repeatedly impressed it upon His followers’ minds, that they themselves might never forget its significance.

The second group consists of the parables which teach His return. After the direct utterances we have already noted, He began to illustrate His meaning by certain parables, for which He was justly famed. They formed part of His teaching method, and are the clearest, most illuminating illustrations any teacher ever used in any age. Two of them are given in Matthew 25, the Parable of the Ten Virgins and that of the Talents. The first pictures an oriental bridal party, waiting for the absent bridegroom. The whole point of the story turns upon the fact that the bridegroom was NOT there; the bridal party was expecting him at any moment. So long did he delay his appearance, however, that certain of the bride’s attendants were caught napping when he did come! As a result of their unpreparedness, they were excluded from the wedding supper that followed the appearance of the groom.

And the parable closes with the solemn adjuration, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”

The first requisite of an illustration is that the picture used shall convey an accurate sense of the meaning of the problem to be thus illuminated. A parable that was false in every detail to the fact at issue would be a sorry method of teaching, indeed. One of the most vital characteristics of Jesus’ parables is the complete and perfect sense of understanding they convey. So when He pictures His return in such a parable as this, it is inconceivable that He means something else than His return! When He said, “The coming of the Son of man” He must have been using the meaning which the listener would derive from those words, or else He was deliberately deceptive. Jesus had no need of the sad subterfuge of apostate preachers of our day, who say one thing and mean another on the basis of “mental reservations.” Even His enemies credit Him with extreme probity! So His acknowledged rectitude and veracity would obviate any such subterfuge as mental reservations; when He spoke it was “yea and amen!”( 2 Cor 1:20) So in all of the parables, when they are added to His direct statements, we have the confirmation of clear and unreserved illustrations, which further enhance the certainty of the promise that Jesus is coming again.

There is also the inescapable testimony of New Testament symbolism, which we should not ignore. One such instance is reported by Matthew following the Olivet discourse, and is repeated by all the synoptic writers. This is the establishment of the sacred ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. The record is preserved in Matthew 26:26-30: And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

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The climax of this paragraph, for the immediate study, is in verse 29. Here Jesus stated that He would no more drink of the juice of the grape, until He drank it with them in the kingdom! This certainly has a most concrete and material sound, and cannot be interpreted into a “spiritual” meaning by an impartial teacher. A man of average mental ability, reading this for the first time, would get from it the very idea that Jesus intended to convey; namely, that He still looked for a time after His death, when He would share physical pleasures with His disciples in a real and material kingdom. Mark also impresses this conclusion upon the reader when he writes of the establishment of the communion service, and Luke states that He said the same thing about the Passover feast.

This weighty evidence is made even more impressive by the solemn words of Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26: For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s, death till he come.

Note the very careful and forceful manner in which Paul introduces this subject, claiming a special revelation as his authority for this teaching. It must be remembered that Paul was not in the company which ate the Passover with Jesus, and any knowledge which he possessed of the events of that night would have to come from one who had been present. So he identifies his informant when he says, “For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you.” The climax of Paul’s utterance here is found in verse 26, that the observance of this Eucharist is to commemorate the death of Jesus until He comes back again.

This is a clear example of the New Testament symbolism, which reaches its complete development in the book of Revelation, although it is not wanting in Paul’s writings, and is prominent in Peter’s epistles and in the graphic words of Jude.

To summarize and trace the development of the current of New Testament symbolism, we may put it in this simple and highly condensed form: 1) The forces of evil are to increase in the world: 2) Until the state of the righteous will become almost too hard to bear: 3) Judgment and distress will then be poured out upon the rebellious earth: 4) Bring great suffering, and climax in supernatural portents in the realm of nature: 5) At the height of which the Lord Jesus Christ will appear suddenly, riding on clouds of glory. He shall bring with Him saints and angels, and shall establish the kingdom of heaven: ~ 87 ~

6) Into which He shall gather the elect, dismissing the wicked into the

outer darkness. 

This was most certainly the general belief of the apostles, who wrote the New Testament and left us our only record of Christ, and our only source of knowledge concerning this coming kingdom. Therefore, since all of our evidence that such a kingdom is promised is derived from their statements, we have no moral, literary, or historical right to any conception of the nature of that kingdom which differs from theirs! This fact is frequently ignored by unscrupulous commentators and teachers. They derive their basic fact (that a king is coming and a kingdom is promised) from the historical documents of the New Testament, and then proceed to tell us that the writers were too ignorant to understand the nature of that kingdom! Or that they were mistaken in the meaning of the words of Jesus, when He promised to return.

Certainly, the apostles expected a physical and literal return of the Master whose risen body they watched enter the heavens. If there were no other texts than Acts 1:9-11, that would by itself establish the apostolic belief. These words seem clear enough: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

How can we misunderstand words as unequivocal as these?

“This same Jesus” “Which was taken up” “Shall so come” “In like manner” “As ye saw Him go!”

The guileless apostles believed this promise just as they heard it. This fact is very clear, when we read again Peter’s words at the close of his great sermon to the people, Acts 3:19-21; Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

“God shall send Jesus Christ . . . whom the heavens must receive until...” It is not honorable to attempt to twist such plain statements into any other meaning than the writer intended to convey.

Even the most unscrupulous critic cannot deny that Paul held the view that Jesus was coming again in a literal and physical sense. Such statements as the following are clear: ~ 88 ~

“So that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:” “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come:” “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:” “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory:” “And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead:” “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?”

“And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels:” “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints:” These passages speak eloquently of the exact and express belief that Paul sought to make clear. To him, the return of Jesus was a specific, literal, physical actuality.

No better evidence of this can be offered than to submit his own words in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

James also believed this, as did Peter, Jude, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the writer of the Hebrew Epistle, whom we believe to have been Paul. The language in which they state this fact is clear, express, unreserved and outspoken, and scholarly rectitude demands that we read their utterances in the exact connotations which they intended these words to convey.

It is of no avail for the unprincipled false teacher to plead that the phrase “coming again” is vague and ambiguous, and we cannot be shut up to one meaning for these words. The apostles spoke and wrote a language called “he Koine dialectos,” and while a few generations ago this vernacular form of Greek was not fully known, the researches of archeologists have given us a complete and comprehensive understanding of the New Testament vocabulary.

To apply this new learning to the problem of the manner of the return of Jesus, let us note one or two of the commoner Greek words used by the apostles to convey their thoughts on this theme.

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The first word is the Greek verb, “coming”. This is “parousia,” and occurs 13 times in the New Testament text to describe the return of the Coming King. If you care to look them up, they are: I Cor. 15:23; I Thes. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; II Thes. 2:1, 8; James 5:7-8; II Peter 1:16; 3:4, 12; I John 2:28.

This is a very common word in the Koine writings, being found often in papyrus records, on ostraka, and in all sorts of legal, official and personal communications.

It always means to be present in physical person and bodily form. It is sometimes used specifically to denote presence after absence. Occasionally it means arrival, but can be translated “return” only if such meaning is implied or stated in the context. Such instances occur, as in 1 Cor. 16:17; 2 Cor. 7:6-7; and Phil. 1:26.

In the first instance Paul expresses pleasure over the “parousia” of Stephen, and other companions, from whom he has been separated. In this case the word refers to an arrival, or return.

The second reference is Paul’s telling how he was comforted by the “parousia” of Titus, and again he means “return.”

The third citation informs the church at Philippi that Paul is returning to them, and he hopes there may be joy in this promised “parousia.”

The common meaning of the word is “personal presence.” It is so used in 2 Cor. 10:10, where the critics of Paul say, “For his letters are powerful and weighty, but his bodily presence is weak —.” The phrase “bodily presence’ is an English translation of “parousia.” The same is true in Phil 2:12, where Paul commends the believers for obeying the gospel in his absence, as much as they did when he was present.

Note this statement: I do not know of a single instance in either Scripture or the records of archeology, where “parousia” can be translated in a spiritual or figurative sense!

It always means bodily presence.

It would be both profitable and interesting if we had space and time to trace the development and growth of this word through the early centuries, but in so short and simple a study as this such a technical treatise would not be practical. So we will just note a few important points. Were the writing apostles justified in their use of this word, applying it to the personal, bodily return of Jesus?

According to the Patristic authorities, they certainly were. The early Fathers used “parousia” to define the second coming of Christ, and they used the word in its accepted, common sense. Justin went so far as to call the incarnation of Christ at the time of His birth in Bethlehem, “the first ‘parousia’.” After this, it is hard to mistake his meaning when he refers to the coming again of the same Lord by the same technical phrase.

Our Lord’s own use of the word is limited in the Gospels to just four instances, all of which occur in the Olivet discourse in Matt. 24. Once the apostles use it there, when they say, “What . . . shall be the sign of thy coming (parousia)?” This in verse

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3. Jesus then used the word to describe His return three times, in verses 27, 37 and 39.

From secular records, especially among early century Koine papyri, we could introduce almost innumerable instances of this word. Among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, we note Number 486, 15: from the second century A.D. A certain woman, named Dionysia, was fighting a lawsuit before the Prefect of the nome in which she made her home. As the trial dragged on, she petitioned the Court for permission to return home, on the grounds that the care of her property demanded her “personal presence” (parousia) and she could not administer her estate while absent. This seems clear enough to settle the issue, even if it stood alone. But it is one of many scores.

One such is the record found in P. Petr. ii, 18: from the third century B.C. giving the account of a royal visit by Ptolemy to a certain district which had been taxed outrageously to raise funds for his entertainment during his “parousia” or presence in the region.

Or again, P. Gren. ii, 14-2; announces the preparations in the third century B.C., for the fete to be offered the governor upon his “arrival”— (parousia).

Such usage of “parousia” became so common and customary, that in time the word became a “terminus technicus” with reference to the visits of a king or ranking official. This being the case, we can understand why the New Testament writers came to use the Koine term to refer to the “parousia” of “King Jesus,” for whom the people were warned to make ready. This word could not be misunderstood by the people to whom the apostles wrote.

For a complete study of this evidence, we would refer the reader to such works as: “Light From The Ancient East,” by Adolph Deissmann; “St. Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians,” by George Milligan; “The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament,” by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan.

The summary of their researches into archeological evidences makes it very plain that the apostles of Jesus understood that His return was to be actual, physical, and real.

In a study of the vocabulary, a word of almost equal importance is the Koine “epiphany.” This word is used of the coming of Christ in human flesh at His incarnation, in 2 Tim. 1:10 where Paul speaks of God’s plan of redemption: “Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing (epiphany) of our Saviour Jesus Christ —”

Then the same writer uses this identical word to refer to Christ’s return, in 2 Thes. 2:8 — “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming (epiphany) .”

1 Tim. 6:14, “That thou keep this commandment, without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing (epiphany) of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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2 Tim. 4:1, 8, “who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing (epiphany).”

“Unto all them also that love His appearing (epiphany).”

Titus 2:13, “Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing (epiphany) of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Since this term was also used by the ancients who spoke the Koine to describe the arrival of royalty at a certain destination, Paul used it most naturally to denote both the incarnation, as being the first coming of Jesus, and the return of the same Saviour in His second advent.

Thus the prophets of the Old Testament and the writers of the New Testament combine their voices into one unified and harmonious prediction that a King is coming, who shall reign over the earth in righteousness and peace. What folly to seek to cloud this simple issue by attempting to obscure the picture with fruitless arguments as to the nature of that kingdom! And yet this is commonly done by teachers who exercise craft and guile to annul and bring to naught the Word of God. Such blind leaders of the blind stress a few passages of Scripture and completely ignore all of the balance. They tell us, for instance, that Jesus said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It is quite true that Christ did so state, but the deception of such emphasis lies in the teacher’s neglect to point out that the preposition denotes origin, not nature! The proper form is, “My kingdom is not from this world!” Indeed, it is not! It is heavenly in origin, eternal in existence, and spiritual in essence! So said Isaiah, when he said, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.”

Instead of ignoring all of the Scripture which we have here cited, together with much more, why not honestly admit that the kingdom appears in New Testament descriptions in a two-fold character?

In Holy Writ Christ’s kingdom is both spiritual and apocalyptic!

The returning King will establish a very real domain, — which shall rule the earth actually and governmentally; but it will be characterized by its spiritual character. Men shall call it “The Kingdom of Heaven” because under this Sovereign the will of God shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, and the knowledge of the love of God shall fill the earth as the waters flood the seas!

“Even so, Lord Jesus: Come quickly!”

A King is coming.

To Him, hidden in the bosom of past ages, all the scattered rays of prophecy pointed.

In Him, manifested in the fullness of time, man received a revelation of the program of God, and saw converging rays of prophecy meet and find fulfillment.

Through Him, man has been reconciled to God, and saved from the consequences of sin and rebellion.

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With Him, when He comes again, will come a light that shall never grow dim and that cannot fade away. This light will be from the glory of the kingdom that is to come, and which is the theme and substance of all prophecy which is not yet fulfilled.

In the days of this Coming King, wars shall cease, peace and righteousness will be the rule of daily living, and then, but only then, will the brotherhood of man be an accomplished fact. And since there is no other hope of universal peace and lasting human betterment, we can only echo again the apostle’s prayer — “Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

THE END

Books by Dr. Harry Rimmer THE HARMONY OF SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE MODERN SCIENCE AND THE GENESIS RECORD INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF INSPIRATION DEAD MEN TELL TALES CRYING STONES VOICES FROM CALVARY THE CRUCIBLE OF CALVARY THE PURPOSES OF CALVARY FROM CANA TO CALVARY THIS THEORY OF EVOLUTION AND THE FACTS OF SCIENCE THE EVIDENCES FOR IMMORTALITY VOICES FROM THE SILENT CENTURIES THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE LAWS OF EVIDENCE PALESTINE, THE COMING STORM CENTER THE COMING WAR AND THE RISE OF RUSSIA THE COMING LEAGUE AND THE ROMAN DREAM THE COMING KING THAT LAWSUIT AGAINST THE BIBLE THE PRAYER PERFECT

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