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This resurrection, as stated by the apostle Paul, is not at death, but in the last day, when Christ shall come, and all His children that are in their graves shall hear His voice. Jesus says:
"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40.
That is why the coming of Christ has been the "blessed hope" of all the ages.
Man's State in Death
Between death and the resurrection, the dead sleep. Jesus declares that death is a sleep. Lazarus was dead, but Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." John 11:11. It is the language of Inspiration throughout. The patriarch Job said:
"Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more [the heavens will be rolled back as a scroll at Christ's coming], they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:10-12.
This hope of the resurrection at the last day was no indistinct hope to the believer in God's promises. The patriarch continued:
"If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Verses 14, 15.
Job tells us of the place of his waiting for the Life-giver's call: "If I wait, the grave is mine house." Job 17:13. It is thence that Christ will call His own when He comes. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." John 5:28, 29.
Death is an unconscious sleep. It must of necessity be so; for death is the opposite of life. Therefore there is no consciousness of the passing of time to those who sleep in the grave. It is as if the eyes closed in death one instant, and the next instant, to the believer's consciousness, he awakens to hear the animating voice of Jesus calling him to glad immortality, and to see the angels catching up his loved ones to meet Jesus in the air.
These scriptures, out of many, will suffice to show that man is not conscious in death:
"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146:4.
"The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything.... Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9:5, 6.
Death is a sleep, which will continue until the resurrection. Then the Lord will bring forth from the dust the same person who was laid away in death.
Some have said that this Bible doctrine of the sleep of the dead until the resurrection is a gloomy one. Popular tradition thinks of the blessed dead as going at once to heaven, which, say some, is a beautiful thought. But they forget that the same teaching consigns their unbelieving friends to immediate torment—and that, too, while awaiting the judgment of the last day.
No; the Bible teaching is the cheering doctrine, the "blessed hope." All the faithful of all the ages are going into the kingdom together. This blessed truth appeals to the spirit that loves to wait and share joys and good things with loved ones. Of the faithful of past ages the apostle says:
"These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Heb. 11:39, 40.
They are waiting, that all together the saved may enter in. And the time of waiting is but an instant to those who "sleep in Jesus."
David was a man of God, but the apostle Peter, speaking by the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, declared to the people of the city of David: "He is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.... For David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:29-34. They without us have not been made perfect. They are all awaiting that glad day toward which the apostle Paul turned the last look of his mortal vision:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. 4:7, 8.
What joy in that day to march in through the gates into the eternal city, with Adam, and Abel, and Noah, and Abraham, and Paul, and all the faithful, and the loved ones of our own home circles, and dear comrades in service, every one clothed with immortality, the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Redeemer! Horatius Bonar's hymn sings the joyful hope as the loved are laid away to "sleep in Jesus:"
"Softly within that peaceful resting place We lay their wearied limbs, and bid the clay Press lightly on them till the night be past, And the far east give note of coming day.
"The shout is heard, the Archangel's voice goes forth; The trumpet sounds, the dead awake and sing; The living put on glory; one glad band, They hasten up to meet their coming King."
In a word, the Scripture teaches that God alone has immortality, that man is mortal, that death is a sleep, that life after death comes only by the resurrection of the last day, that the righteous are then given immortality. Further, the Scripture teaches that later there will be a resurrection of the unjust, not unto life, but unto death, the second death, from which there is no release.
Every doctrine of Scripture and of the gospel is in accord with this Bible teaching as to man's nature and his state in death. But the traditional view of the natural immortality of the soul and of life in death, nullifies the Bible doctrines of life only in Christ, and the resurrection, and the judgment, and the giving of rewards at Christ's coming, and the final judgment upon the wicked and its execution.
A Few Questions Briefly Considered
1. The "Living Soul"
Says one, "Did not the Lord put into man an immortal soul?"
No; the Scripture says:
"The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen. 2:7.
The soul was not put into the man, but when the life-giving breath was breathed into his nostrils, the man himself became a living soul, a living being. The ordinary version (King James) gives "a living soul" in the margin of Gen. 1:30, showing that the same expression is used of all the animal creation in the Hebrew text. The famous Methodist commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, says on this phrase, "living soul:"
"A general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations."
2. Are "Soul" and "Spirit" Deathless?
"Are not the soul and spirit said to be deathless?" questions another.
No. One writer says of the Scriptural use of the words "soul" and "spirit:"
"The Hebrew and Greek words from which they are translated, occur in the Bible, as we have seen, seventeen hundred times. Surely, once at least in that long list we shall be told that the soul is immortal, if this is its high prerogative. Seventeen hundred times we inquire if the soul is once said to be immortal, or the spirit deathless. And the invariable and overwhelming response we meet is, Not once!"—"Here and Hereafter" by U. Smith, p. 65.
On the contrary, the Lord declares, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Eze. 18:20. It means that the person who sins shall die; for the words "soul," "mind," "heart," and "spirit" are used to express life or the seat of the affections or of the intellect. One may commend his soul to God, or his spirit to God (really his life into the keeping of God), until the great day of the resurrection. The word "soul" is used of all animal life in New Testament usage, as well as in the Old; as, "Every living soul died in the sea." Rev. 16:3.
3. The Thief on the Cross
"Did not Christ promise the thief on the cross that he would be with Him that day in Paradise?"
No; for Paradise is where God's throne is, and the tree of life, and the city of God, the capital of Christ's kingdom; and three days later Christ had not yet ascended to the Father. "Touch Me not," He said to Mary after His resurrection; "for I am not yet ascended to My Father." John 20:17. The dying thief, therefore, was not with Him in Paradise three days before.
Nor did the thief's question suggest such a thought. His faith grasped Christ's resurrection, the resurrection of His children, and the coming kingdom; and that day on the cross, in the moment of the deepest humiliation of the Son of God, the repentant sinner cried, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." And the Saviour replied, "Verily I say unto thee today"—this day, when the world scoffs and the darkness presses upon Me, this day I say it—"shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." Luke 23:42, 43.
The punctuation that makes it read, "Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise," is not a part of the sacred text, and puts the Saviour's promise in contradiction with the facts of the whole narrative and the teaching of Scripture.
4. The Rich Man and Lazarus
"Then there is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus," one says, "where Lazarus and Dives are talking, though dead—Lazarus in Abraham's bosom and the rich man in torment."
But that is a parable; and no one can set the figures of a parable against the facts of positive Scripture. In parables, lessons are often taught by figurative language and imaginary scenes which could never be real, though the lesson is emphasized the more forcefully.
In the parable of Judges 9, the trees are represented as holding a council and talking with one another. No one mistakes the lesson of the parable, or supposes that the trees actually talked. So in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the lesson is taught that uprightness in this life, even though under deepest poverty, will be rewarded in the future life; while uncharitable selfishness will surely bring one to ruin and destruction.
In the face of the Bible teaching, no one can turn this parable into actual narrative, representing that the saved in glory are now looking over the battlements of heaven and talking with the lost writhing before their eyes in agony amid the flames of unending torment. This is not the picture that the Scriptures give us of heaven, nor of the state of the dead, nor of the time and circumstances of the final rewards or punishments.
THE END OF THE WICKED
So soon as ever Lucifer introduced sin into heaven, it was certain, in the righteousness and omnipotence of God, that the day would come when sin would be blotted out of the perfect creation. Inspiration tells us that a time of final reckoning with sin was assured when Satan and a host of the angels with him lifted up the standard of mysterious rebellion against the law and harmony of heaven:
"The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6.
Punishment for sin is assured. By listening to Satan's temptation, man became involved in sin. Then a divine Saviour was provided, through whom every soul might escape from the kingdom of darkness, and find salvation and life. But it is inevitable that those who refuse the way of life and reject the salvation of God, must finally be involved with Satan and sin in the day when sin is visited.
By Adam's sin, all his posterity inherited a sinful, dying nature. "In Adam all die," the Scripture says. But not a soul in the last day can plead Adam's sin and the inheritance of a fallen nature as an excuse for his own transgressions. By Christ's gift of His life for us, the sinner, with all his weaknesses, may become a partaker of the divine nature, and escape the power of the fleshly nature. By virtue of Christ's death for all, all recover from the death they die in Adam—the first death. All have a resurrection, the unjust as well as the just; and then every one gives account of himself to God, according to his own life and the use he has made of the light given him of God.
The Two Resurrections
The Scriptures emphasize the fact that there are to be two resurrections. Paul, before Felix, declared his belief the same as that of all the prophets,—"that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts 24:15.
Jesus declared it in these words:
"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." John 5:28, 29.
The first resurrection is that of the just, at Christ's second coming. It is written of this:
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." Rev. 20:6.
After this, the righteous return with Christ to heaven, and remain there during the thousand years. The wicked living at the time of His coming are slain by the consuming glory of His presence; and they, with all the unjust of all the ages, await in the grave the second resurrection, at the end of the thousand years.
"The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Rev. 20:5.
At the end of the thousand years the city of God, with the saved, comes down out of heaven and settles upon the earth.
Then the wicked are raised—the second resurrection. Under Satan's leadership they march up to attack the city of God. How naturally, we infer, may Satan persuade the lost that, after all, he was right when he declared to Adam, "Ye shall not surely die." Here are all his servants of all the ages—living. Why may they not be immortal, beyond the power of God to destroy? The old battle that began in heaven is on again. Satan, the archrebel, marshals his hosts of fallen angels and the myriads of fallen men, his legions stretching wide over the earth.
"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Rev. 20:9.
"This is the second death," the Scripture says. Verse 14. The great day has come when the sinner receives his wages—death—and sin is destroyed.
The Punishment Everlasting
"The wages of sin is death." And the second death is everlasting. There is no resurrection from this death. The Scriptures describe it in terms that affirm utter destruction, resulting in nonexistence.
"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 2 Thess. 1:9.
"Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. 4:1.
"They shall be ashes," the third verse of this chapter says. Every expression possible to language is employed to denote utter destruction, everlasting death. That means nonexistence. Sin and sinners are blotted out. The prophet Obadiah, speaking of the visitation upon the heathen—the unbelieving—in "the day of the Lord," says:
"They shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been." Verse 16.
This is the utter end of sin and all sinners, and of the author of sin. Root and branch they are gone, "as though they had not been." All this is in the description of the last judgment, so fully set forth in the twentieth chapter of Revelation.
"Death and hell [hades, the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Rev. 20:14. Death and the prison house of death are gone forever. Sin is wiped out of a perfect universe, and not even a trace will remain of the place of the fiery judgment.
"Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Ps. 37:10.
The fires of the last day purify the earth, which comes forth in Eden-like beauty. In the whole creation of God there is no sin, no sinner, but all is harmonious again, as before sin entered the universe. The prophet was given a view of this glorious consummation, and the triumph of the Son of God over sin.
"Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5:13.
Some Opinions Briefly Considered
The doctrine of the immortality, the indestructibility, of the soul is responsible for the traditional view that the wicked are kept alive in unending misery through all eternity. How different this picture from that which Holy Scripture gives of the second death! Terrible and awful it is, but it results in the utter destruction of sin and sinners, leaving a clean universe. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul came in from pagan philosophy. Herodotus, "the father of history," said:
"The Egyptians ... were also the first to broach the opinion, that the soul of man is immortal."—Book 2, par. 123.
Evidently, they passed the doctrine on to the Greeks. Its origin was in the words of Satan in Eden, "Ye shall not surely die." The pagans had their nether world of spirits, or their transmigration of souls with its ceaseless round from body to body, and the Roman Catholics their purgatory with its purifying fires. From these sources and not from the Word of God, the traditional view has come into modern Christendom, representing the Lord as unable or unwilling to end sin, but keeping the sinner alive throughout eternity, to suffer torture that can bring no remedy. The Scripture teaching is far otherwise. However, there are certain Scripture phrases that emphasize the severity of the punishment of sin, which are often taken as supporting the doctrine of never-ending conscious torment.
1. "Forever and Ever."—In Rev. 20:10 it is said that the devil and his chief agencies "shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." The phrase emphasizes the surety of their utter destruction.
"Forever" means age-lasting, or life-lasting—so long as a thing exists by its nature. Thus in Ex. 21:6 the servant who loved his master and did not wish to leave his service was to have his ear pierced, "and he shall serve him forever," that is, without release as long as he lives. So the fiery judgment of that last day holds the wicked until life ends; there is no release until life is consumed.
2. "Everlasting Punishment."—"These shall go away into everlasting punishment." Matt. 25:46. It is everlasting punishment, not everlasting punishing. The punishment is everlasting death—"who shall be punished with everlasting destruction." 2 Thess. 1:9.
The truth of the utter destruction of sinners is awful enough, but it commends itself to every thought of justice and mercy; for sin must be cleansed from a perfect universe. But the unscriptural view of everlasting conscious torment that never reaches the point of full punishment, is unthinkable. Yet it is urged as a doctrine, and contended for as vital to Christianity.
The following description is taken from a book written for children, entitled "The Sight of Hell." It is printed in Dublin—for children.
"Little child, if you go to hell, there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every day, forever and ever, without ever stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as Job's, covered from head to foot with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the body of Job.... How then will your body be after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred million years without stopping?"—Quoted in the London Present Truth, April 30, 1914.
What a relief to turn from this to the Bible doctrine of the "everlasting destruction" of the second death, terrible though it be!
3. "Everlasting Fire," "Eternal Fire," "Unquenchable Fire."—All these expressions are used in describing the fiery judgment upon sin and sinners. The effect of the fire is everlasting and eternal, and by a common usage in language the adjective that describes the effect is applied to the agent by which the effect is wrought.
A specific example of everlasting fire in the punishment of evil is given in Scripture. Sodom and Gomorrah, those wicked "cities of the plain," were destroyed by a rain of fire from heaven. These cities, Inspiration says, "are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7. The fire was everlasting, eternal, in its effects. The cities of the plain were everlastingly consumed. But the fire went out when the destruction was complete. Unquenchable fire is fire that cannot be quenched. It consumes utterly, until nothing is left; then it goes out of its own accord.
4. "Where Their Worm Dieth Not."—Jesus warned of the certain destruction of sin and sinners in the fire of Gehenna; for this is the word translated "hell" in Mark 9:43.
Hades, which is often translated "hell," is the grave, not the place of punishment. Gehenna, here used of the place of punishment, was the name of the valley where the refuse of Jerusalem was cast for burning. The map of Jerusalem, in any ordinary Bible with maps, shows just outside the southern wall a gorge marked "Valley of Hinnom" (Gehenna). It was here that the people, in the olden times, had sacrificed their children to Moloch.
"In order to put an end to these abominations, Josiah polluted it with human bones and other corruptions. 2 Kings 23:10, 13, 14."—Hastings's "Dictionary of the Bible."
Here the fires consumed the refuse, and the fire and worms utterly destroyed the carcasses of beasts flung into the place of destruction. It was regarded as a place accursed, and the smoldering fires became symbolical of the fires of the judgment.
The use of this illustration, instead of arguing that the wicked are never destroyed but always live, conveys the opposite idea. What went into the fires of Gehenna was utterly consumed, nothing being left. This was used by Christ as a figure illustrative of the utter destruction of the unrepentant sinner in the day of visitation.
This must suffice. The positive teaching of Holy Scripture is that sin and sinners will be blotted out of existence. There will be a clean universe again when the great controversy between Christ and Satan is ended.
ANGELS: THEIR MINISTRY
The one verse of Scripture which, perhaps, most comprehensively sums up the ministry of the angels of God, is this:
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1:14.
This scripture shows us how truly all heaven is engaged in working for the salvation of this poor world, which has wandered from the fold of God. It will surely be a time of rejoicing among all the angelic host when Christ, the Good Shepherd, brings back this lost world, cleansed from sin, once more to the fold of God's perfect creation.
The angels rejoiced when this world was created. The Lord said to Job:
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?... when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Job 38:4-7.
Before ever this world was created, or man upon it, the angels had been created by the eternal Son, in whom all things consist. For angels are not redeemed men, neither will the redeemed in the world to come ever become angels. Angels are a different order of beings from men, a higher order in creation. We read:
"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor." Heb. 2:6, 7.
In the life to come, by the wondrous power of Christ's transforming grace, redeemed men are to be made equal to the angels, as Christ stated:
"Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Luke 20:36.
This lifting of sinful man to an equality with the angels, at least in the possession of life and immortality, is an illustration of the gospel principle, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. 5:20. But the declaration of equality with angels is a denial of identity with angels. Angels existed before man, and redeemed man will still be man, distinct from the angelic order, though the associate of angels in the service of God.
Attendants at the Throne of God
When the prophet Isaiah was given a view of the heavenly temple, he saw different orders of angels attending the throne of God:
"I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." Isa. 6:1-3.
Ezekiel beheld them in glory, attending the moving throne of the Almighty. "The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning." Eze. 1:14.
Daniel beheld the angelic host gathered in the most holy place of the temple above, as the time came for the opening of the work of the investigative judgment, the cleansing of the sanctuary. Seeing the throne of God set for this final work of Christ's ministry, the prophet says:
"Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." Dan. 7:10.
God's Messengers
The word "angel" means messenger. To and fro these angelic messengers have gone in the service of their Creator. A view of their ever-watchful service is given in the words of the psalmist:
"Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word." Ps. 103:20.
Bearers of Tidings
They visited Abraham's tent with warning of Sodom's overthrow. Genesis 18.
They visited Lot in the city, and urged him to get his family out. Genesis 19.
As Jacob, in fear but repentance, was about to meet Esau, whom he had deceived, "the angels of God met him." Genesis 32. "This is God's host," he said, and he knew that the God of Abraham and Isaac, and his God, also, had not forsaken him.
At a discouraging time in the history of Israel, an angel appeared to Gideon, bringing the message, "The Lord is with thee," and calling him to the work of delivering his people. Judges 6.
As Daniel's prayer reached heaven, even while he still prayed, the angel Gabriel "being caused to fly swiftly," touched him, and said:
"O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee." Dan. 9:21-23.
So close is the communication between heaven and earth.
The gladdest tidings ever brought from heaven to earth since the promise of the Deliverer to Adam in Eden, were brought by angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem. First, one angel appeared, saying:
"I bring you good tidings of great joy.... For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
Such tidings to earth could never be the mission of one lone angel, when all heaven longed to cry the news to a lost world.
"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:13, 14.
Unseen in Halls of Government
One incident related in the book of Daniel draws aside the curtain, and shows how angels doubtless often have worked unseen in kingly courts or halls of legislation. Daniel had prayed for three weeks for light in certain matters that the angel Gabriel had begun to unfold to him. When at last the angel came, overpowering the prophet with the glory of his presence, it was with a statement, first, of the reason for the delay in responding to his prayer. The angel said:
"From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days." Dan. 10:12-14.
Messengers of Deliverance
The story of deliverance wrought by angels is too long to tell. One need only think of the angels' taking slow-moving Lot by the arms and setting him out of Sodom (Genesis 19); of the angel finding Elijah under a bush in the desert, and first baking a cake for the hungry man before speaking the word to his discouraged heart (1 Kings 19); of Elisha praying that the young man's eyes might be opened to see that there were more angels with them round about than all the Syrians encamped against them:
"The Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." 2 Kings 6:17.
An angel shut the mouths of the lions when Daniel was cast into their den. Daniel 6. An angel smote off Peter's irons in the prison at Jerusalem, opened the doors, and led him forth. Acts 12. Amid the angry waves sweeping over the foundering ship in the Adriatic, Paul the apostle bade the despairing crew be of good courage, "for there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not." Acts 27:23, 24.
All through the ages, the angels of God have been standing by. Daniel, and Peter, and Paul are dead; but the angels still live. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1:14.
Guardian Angels
That means that every child of God is under the guardianship of the angels. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Ps. 34:7.
Thank God, we are never left alone. Every child of God has a guardian angel commissioned by the loving Father to watch over him. Christ said:
"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven." Matt. 18:10.
This does not mean that trials never will come, or troubles. In the midst of the trial, the angel of the Lord will stand by to strengthen and to bring help from the God of all comfort. It was in the midst of the fiery furnace that the "form of the Fourth" appeared, walking with the three Hebrew children—Jesus Himself treading the fiery way with them. And when Jesus, in the days of His flesh, was sinking under the crushing burden in Gethsemane, "there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him." Luke 22:43.
Our Saviour, who knows the comforting power of angel ministry, is the Captain of the heavenly host, and has commissioned them all as ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation.
When He comes in glory for His people, Christ will have "all the holy angels with Him." As the voice of Jesus awakens His sleeping saints and they rise immortal from the opened graves, "He shall send His angels, ... and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31.
The angels who have watched over the heirs of salvation through all the ages, know where they are, and they know how to gather them, with their loved ones, to meet the Lord.
The angels who rejoiced when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth, who mourned when man fell, who have all along been working with Christ, their leader, to rescue the lost, will yet rejoice when the Lord brings home His own. What a day will that be in heaven!
THE TIME OF THE END
"Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4.
Thus the words of the angel, spoken nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, announced the opening of a new era of enlightenment when the latter days should come.
The Time
At the end of the long period of predicted tribulation of the church—the twelve hundred and sixty years of Daniel's prophecy—the world entered upon this era of "the time of the end."
"They shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.... And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed." Dan. 11:33-35.
In practically every outline of prophecy touching this time, the events of the last days are represented as following the end of the prophetic period of tribulation. Christ's prophecy of Matthew 24 so declares. Our Saviour showed that this period of tribulation, would be shortened, "for the elect's sake," and that "immediately after the tribulation of those days" the signs of the end would begin to appear.
Thus, while the full period of the twelve hundred and sixty years ended amid the scenes of the French Revolution, which gave the papal power a deadly wound in the last decade of the eighteenth century, the shortening of the days of tribulation had begun even earlier to spread increasing knowledge and enlightenment over the earth.
The Prophecy Unsealed
The angel's words to Daniel were,
"Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4.
"The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Verse 9.
This means that as the time of the end came, men would be impelled to search diligently for light in the prophetic word. Events taking place in fulfilment of the prophecy would be recognized, and with the coming of the time there would come the opening up, or unsealing, of the prophetic scriptures, with their message for men in the last days.
As the time drew near, Bible students were led more and more to search the word of prophecy. Sir Isaac Newton, called "the greatest of philosophers," wrote of prophetic study:
"The giving ear to the prophets is a fundamental character of the true church. For God has so ordered the prophecies, that in the latter days 'the wise may understand, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand.' Dan. 12:9, 10."—"Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel" (London, 1733), part 1, chap. 1.
Again, this man who had delved so deeply into the laws of nature, but who bowed his heart in childlike faith to listen to the voice of Inspiration, declared his hope that the time of the end was near at hand in his day (he died in 1727). Of this prophecy of the unsealing of the book he wrote:
"'Tis therefore a part of this prophecy, that it should not be understood before the last age of the world; and therefore it makes for the credit of the prophecy that it is not yet understood. But if the last age, the age of opening these things, be now approaching, as by the great successes of late interpreters it seems to be, we have more encouragement than ever to look into these things. If the general preaching of the gospel be approaching, it is to us and to our posterity that those words mainly belong: In the time of the end the wise shall understand, but none of the wicked shall understand.... 'Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.'"—"Observations on the Apocalypse" (London, 1733), chap. 1.
True to the word of the angel, the events of the ending of the twelve hundred and sixty years of papal supremacy, amid the scenes of the French Revolution, drew the attention of Bible students everywhere. It was seen that prophecy was being fulfilled before men's eyes. It gave great impetus to the study of the prophetic scriptures. The great historic prophecies began to be opened up—unsealed—to the understanding. An English historian of that period, John Adolphus, though writing a secular history, remarks upon this awakening interest in prophetic study:
"The downfall of the papal government [in 1798], by whatever means effected, excited perhaps less sympathy than that of any other in Europe: the errors, the oppressions, the tyranny of Rome over the whole Christian world, were remembered with bitterness; many rejoiced, through religious antipathy, in the overthrow of a church which they considered as idolatrous, though attended with the immediate triumph of infidelity; and many saw in these events the accomplishment of prophecies, and the exhibition of signs promised in the most mystical parts of the Holy Scriptures."—"History of France from 1790 to 1802" (London, 1803), Vol. II, p. 379.
From those tunes of fulfilling prophecy, there arose a distinct movement, reviving the teaching of the doctrine of Christ's second coming, and directly preparing the way for the advent movement that was to come with the days of 1844, when yet fuller light was to break forth from the unsealed prophecies of the book of Daniel. Of the angel that symbolizes the special gospel work for these last days, it is written, "He had in his hand a little book open." Rev. 10:2. The "time of the end" came, and with it has come the opening of the sealed book. The "sure word of prophecy" speaks its message full and clear to the ears of all mankind today.
Increase of Knowledge
"Many shall run to and fro," the prophecy said, "and knowledge shall be increased." It is knowledge of the prophecy and of the things of God that is primarily the topic; but the era that we are discussing has been one of general enlightenment and extension of knowledge.[J] "The entrance of Thy words giveth light," says the psalmist: and when the Reformation of the sixteenth century broke the bands of age-long superstition and error, and set free the Word of God, the way was preparing for the coming of this wonderful era of the diffusion of general knowledge.
The era of reform movement was an era of world exploration and discovery. Diaz had founded the south African cape, and Columbus had given to future generations the New World. The result was voyage after voyage of discovery, and then awakening, colonization, and expansion.
The famous and learned Francis Bacon, who died in 1626, felt in his day that the time spoken of by Daniel's prophecy was drawing near. He wrote:
"Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last ages of the world: 'Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased;' clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by divine Providence, to meet in the same age."—"Novum Organum," book 1, xciii. (Bacon's Works, Spedding and Ellis, Vol. IV, p. 92.)
When the time indicated in the prophecy fully came, with the last decade of the eighteenth century, there was witnessed the upspringing of movements that have wrought mightily for the enlightenment and evangelization of the world. As the events of the French Revolution announced the closing of the long era of papal supremacy, so also another series of events at the same time announced the opening of the era of increasing knowledge. Speaking of these developments, Lorimer, a Scottish writer, said:
"At the very time when Satan is hoping for, and the timid are fearing, an utter overturn of true religion, there is a revival, and the gospel expands its wings and prepares for a new flight. It is worthy of remembrance that the year 1792, the very year of the French Revolution, was also the year when the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, a society which was followed during the succeeding, and they the worst, years of the Revolution, with new societies of unwonted energy and union, all aiming, and aiming successfully, at the propagation of the gospel of Christ, both at home and abroad. What withering contempt did the great Head of the church thus pour upon the schemes of infidels! And how did He arouse the careless and instruct His own people, by alarming providences, at a season when they greatly needed such a stimulus."—"Historical Sketches of the Protestant Church in France," p. 522.
Another writer, Dr. D.L. Leonard, historian of the century of missions, says:
"The closing years of the eighteenth century constitute in the history of Protestant missions an epoch indeed, since they witnessed nothing less than a revolution, a renaissance, an effectual and manifold ending of the old, a substantial inauguration of the new. It was then that for the first time since the apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general missionary zeal and activity. Beginning in Great Britain, it soon spread to the Continent and across the Atlantic. It was no mere push of fervor, but a mighty tide set in, which from that day to this has been steadily rising and spreading."—"A Hundred Years of Missions," p. 69.
The time of the prophecy had come, and the hand of providence was bringing into being agencies that have spread light and knowledge over all lands.
"Look where the missionary's feet have trod— Flowers in the desert bloom; and fields, for God, Are white to harvest. Skeptics may ignore; Yet on the conquering Word, from shore to shore, Like flaming chariot, rolls. Ask ocean isles, And plains of Ind, where ceaseless summer smiles; Speak to far frozen wastes, where winter's blight Remains;—they tell the love, attest the might Of Him whose messengers across the wave To them salvation bore, hope, freedom gave."
—Horace D. Woolley.
The organization of foreign missionary enterprise was quickly accompanied by the establishment of Bible societies for a systematic work of translating and world-wide distribution of the Scriptures. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized. Students of the prophetic word felt at the time that these agencies were coming in fulfilment of the prophecy. One writer of those times said:
"The stupendous endeavors of one gigantic community to convey the Scriptures in every language to every part of the globe may well deserve to be considered as an eminent sign even of these eventful times. Unless I be much mistaken, such endeavors are preparatory to the final grand diffusion of Christianity, which is the theme of so many inspired prophets, and which cannot be very far distant in the present day."—G.S. Faber, D.D., "Dissertation on the Prophecies," Vol. II, p. 406 (1844).
Now the Word of God, in whole or in part, is speaking in more than five hundred languages, and it is estimated that these tongues, at least in their spoken form, can make the divine message comprehensible to ninety-five per cent of the inhabitants of the earth.
The work of modern missions, that had its birth as the time of the end came, is one of the great world factors today. Nearly thirty million dollars a year are given for Protestant missions, and a force of more than twenty thousand foreign missionaries is in the field, not counting the many thousands of native missionaries and helpers. Truly the time of the end is proving to be an era of increasing light and knowledge.
The Opening of All Lands
As the time came for knowledge to be increased, it was necessary that all lands should be open to receive the enlightening agencies. Thus, as the time of the end came, we see distinctly the hand of Providence swinging open the doors into all countries. It has been an era of world survey and development. Particularly is this true of the last sixty or seventy years. It was in 1844 that the time referred to in the prophecy came for the special advent movement, bearing the judgment-hour message to the world. The range of the movement is thus described in the prophecy:
"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." Rev. 14:6.
This was a declaration that as the time came for the closing gospel work to be done, the doors of access to every nation and tongue and people would be thrown open. In 1844, or but a few years before, much of the world was closed to missionary endeavor; but as the prophecy indicates, the years following have witnessed the swift and systematic opening of all lands to the gospel message.
It was in 1842 that five treaty ports in China were opened to commerce and to missions,—advance steps in the opening of all China to the gospel. In 1844 Turkey was prevailed upon to recognize the right of Moslems to become Christians, reversing all Moslem tradition. In 1844 Allen Gardiner established the South American Mission. In 1845 Livingstone's determination was formed to open up the African interior.
Dr. A.T. Pierson, speaking of the wonderful way in which Providence opened the doors of access in those times, wrote as follows:
"Most countries shut out Christian missions by organized opposition, so that to attempt to bear the good tidings was simply to dare death for Christ's sake; the only welcome awaiting God's messengers was that of cannibal ovens, merciless prisons, or martyr graves. But, as the little band advanced, on every hand the walls of Jericho fell, and the iron gates opened of their own accord. India, Siam, Burma, China, Japan, Turkey, Africa, Mexico, South America, the Papal States, and Korea were successively and successfully entered. Within five years, from 1853 to 1858, new facilities were given to the entrance and occupation of seven different countries, together embracing half the world's population."—"Modern Mission Century," p. 25.
God's providence has laid under tribute every force and every resource for the opening of all lands—missionary endeavor, love of adventure, commercial enterprise, and scientific interest. Railways have been built through regions that were undiscovered seventy years ago, and among the passengers traveling now over the iron trail are men and women of tribes unknown fifty years ago. But the gospel message was to go to every tribe and tongue before the end; and wonderfully Providence has been opening the doors throughout all this "time of the end," and particularly in our generation.
Material Agencies for the Work
The prophecy represents not only a world-wide work, but a quick work in proclaiming the gospel message in the last days. The movement is symbolized in the Revelation by an angel flying in the midst of heaven, from land to land. And as to the closing work, when the end is near at hand, the Scripture says:
"He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth." Rom. 9:28.
"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." This is the hope for a quickly finished work in all the earth in our time. Yet the Lord lays hold of material things for service; and wonderfully the hand of Providence has wrought in bringing into existence material agencies for a quick work in carrying the gospel to the world—such agencies as no generation before ours ever had.
Consider the marvelous facilities for world-travel. They are the product of this time of the end. "Many shall run to and fro," said the prophecy. Some interpreters have restricted the Hebrew phrase to a "searching" to and fro for knowledge. Even this would include a literal running to and fro; for the light of increasing knowledge was to be diffused over all the earth. But the best authority on the Hebrew declares for the plain meaning of our English translation: "Many shall run to and fro." In two recent works, Dr. C.H.H. Wright, the English scholar, says of this text:
"The natural meaning must be upheld, i.e., wandering to and fro."—"Critical Commentary on Daniel," p. 209.
"Why should not that expression be used in the sense in which it is employed in Jeremiah 5:1, namely, of rapid movement hither and thither?"—"Daniel and His Prophecies," p. 321.
At the time when the first foreign missionary movement was being launched in America, Robert Fulton's steamship, the "Clermont," was making its first trip on the Hudson.
In 1838 the first ships to cross the Atlantic under steam power alone—the "Sirius" and the "Great Western"—came into New York from Liverpool, a few hours apart, forerunners of the fleets that furrow all the seas today, making quick pathways for the gospel messengers to all lands. Verily, they are a gift of God's providence to this generation, when all the world is to hear the gospel message.
"He hath made the deep as dry, He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the earth."
In 1825 Stephenson built his first railway passenger locomotive, which may still be seen in the Darlington railway station, in England. It was the beginning of the great revolution in land travel. The late Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, scientist, wrote:
"From the earliest historic and even prehistoric times till the construction of our great railways in the second quarter of the present century [the nineteenth], there had been absolutely no change in the methods of human locomotion."—"The Wonderful Century," p. 7.
For nearly six thousand years men had traveled in the old way. Why should these revolutionary changes in travel by sea and land come abruptly just at this time?—Because the time foretold in the prophecy was at hand, when the last gospel message was to be carried quickly to all the world—"to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." We see the hand of the living God opening the doors into all lands, and His wonderful providence laying at the feet of this generation agencies for quickly covering the whole earth.
Later came the electric telegraph, for the quick transmission of news. It was in 1837 that Cooke and Wheatstone in England, and Morse in the United States, made their application for patents on the electric telegraph. It was in 1844 that the first long-distance system was successfully demonstrated—when the historic message was sent from Baltimore to Washington, "What hath God wrought!" Now news of events fulfilling prophecy, and news of progress and conditions in all lands, are daily spread before the world by this agency of our wonderful time.
As the closing events take place, the Lord has in His providence so ordered it that no one need be ignorant of the signs of the times fulfilling before the eyes of men.
"Speak the word and think the thought, Quick 'tis as with lightning caught— Over, under, lands or seas To the far antipodes."
Here is an incident illustrating the way in which the electric telegraph may multiply and spread abroad the witness borne to the truth of God in some obscure corner of the earth:
The Mighty Press
"When old Gutenberg, inventor Of the printing press, and mentor Of the clumsy-fingered typos In a sleepy German town, Used to spread the sheets of vellum On the form, and plainly tell them That the art was then perfected, As he pressed the platen down, He had not the faintest notion Of the rhythmical commotion, Of the brabble and the clamor And the unremitting roar Of the mighty triple decker, While the steel rods flicker, And the papers, ready folded, Fall in thousands to the floor."
Some years ago a young man in Europe—a Seventh-day Adventist—was giving answer for his faith. His conscience would not allow him to do ordinary labor on God's holy Sabbath. He had declared to the court that the oath of loyalty which had been required of him forbade his breaking the Sabbath. "How is that?" asked the judge. The young man replied:
"I was sworn in with a Christian oath, and therefore cannot be under an obligation to violate the commandments of God and work on the Sabbath. One must regard God as the highest authority, and obey Him in the first place."
This witness was borne in a little courtroom, before a small group of men; but the press dispatches took it up, and the description of the scene and report of the words spoken were carried by electric telegraph to the press of at least four continents, and millions read the testimony of the young man to the faith that was in him.
In the days to come, with great events taking place and solemn issues calling upon men to make decision for God and His truth, how quickly, in some great crisis, all the world may be warned, and the last individual decisions be made for eternity!
Modern Printing
The invention of the printer's art had come just in time to give wings to Reformation truth. Luther said of it:
"Printing is the latest and greatest gift by which God enables us to advance the things of the gospel. It is the last bright flame, manifesting itself just previous to the extinction of the world. Thanks be to God, it came before the last day came."—Michelet's "Life of Luther," p. 291.
While improvements in the art were made through the centuries, it was a slow process, even up to the opening of our generation. During our day, however, inventions have revolutionized the printing process.
In this, as in other things, the methods have been speeded up to meet the necessities of this time of rapid accomplishment. The printing press is one of the chief of the marvelous enlightening agencies of this time of the end. By it the printed pages of truth are set falling over the earth "like the leaves of autumn."
Time fails us to speak of all the wonderful material developments of our day, when knowledge has been increased, and when men are not only searching to and fro, but literally running to and fro. The whole earth is brought within the range of human knowledge, and the light of saving truth is streaming out toward every dark place where the children of men dwell.
Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago it was written upon the prophetic page,
"Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
There the word stood on the scroll of prophecy through more than two millenniums. Then, as the time of the end came, lo, the book of prophecy was unsealed, and the new era of increasing knowledge began to spread in wondrous blessing over the earth.
So surely, also, the prophecies of the last events will be accomplished. In the occurrences taking place before our eyes, we see that God is indeed finishing His work in the earth, and cutting it short in righteousness.
FOOTNOTES:
[J] It is not designed to give the reader the idea that this running "to and fro" refers wholly to turning to and fro through the pages of a book. The times in which we live have been characterized by a great increase in Bible study, and consequently in knowledge of the Scriptures; but it is equally true that this has been due in large measure to the fact that there are no longer any "hermit" kingdoms. Travel, a real physical running "to and fro" through the earth, has contributed mightily to the modern increase of knowledge, and in no other field of investigation has this been more true than in the study of the Bible. By increased facilities for travel, all nations have been brought close together physically. Different races and nationalities have become acquainted, missionary zeal has been quickened, and peoples formerly beyond the reach of missionary operations have become easily accessible. In this sense, as well as by private searching of the Scriptures, knowledge has increased.
THE EASTERN QUESTION
MODERN HISTORY IN THE LIGHT OF ANCIENT PROPHECY
Not alone of the history of ancient nations does the "sure word of prophecy" bear witness. Political events of our own and coming days are described.
The nations of the latter day are pictured as preparing war, gathering their forces for the great Armageddon, the battle of the day of God.
As a signal of the last great struggle, the fall, or "drying up," of the power ruling the territory watered by the river Euphrates is foretold. Rev. 16:12. The Euphrates in all modern history has been suggestive of the dominions of the Turkish or Ottoman Empire. And Armageddon, designated as the meeting place of armies in the last clash of nations, is in Palestine, which, through all modern times, has been in possession of the Turkish power.
The index finger of prophecy points, therefore, to this region of the eastern Mediterranean as the pivotal point in the closing history of nations; and with Turkey's fate is wrapped up the fate of all the nations of the world.
All this adds deepest and most solemn import to the study of what is known as the Eastern Question, a question that has been to the fore in international politics much of the time throughout this generation. Wars have been fought over it, cabinets have wrestled with it, and still it holds its place in the first rank of living issues of today.
As every one knows, the Eastern Question involves the dominion or supremacy in the Near East. This region was a pivotal point in the struggles of the nations in ancient times—the meeting place of East and West. Maspero, historian of ancient empires, says of it:
"Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the battle fields of the contending nations.... The nations around are eager for the possession of a country thus situated.... From remote antiquity Syria was in the condition just described. By its position it formed a kind of meeting place, where most of the military nations of the ancient world were bound sooner or later to come violently into collision."—"Struggle of the Nations," chap. 1.
It is not strange, therefore, that one of the great outlines of historic prophecy should deal with events centering around this pivotal region. The prophecy of Daniel 11 does so, outlining the course of history from ancient times to the final solution of the Eastern Question amid the scenes of the end.
Rise and Fall of Ancient Empires
The prophetic outline of Daniel 11 begins with Persia, in the third year of Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon. (See Dan. 10:1.) The angel of God appeared to Daniel, and in the longest and most detailed single prophecy in all the Bible, told the story of events connected with this region of the Near East for the centuries to come, until the end. Putting the word of prophecy and the record of history side by side, we see how exactly history has fulfilled prophecy; and we may know certainly that the brief portion of the prophecy yet unfulfilled will surely come to pass.
Persia
Prophecy.—"Now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia." Dan. 11:2
History.—The three kings following Cyrus were (1) Cambyses, (2) Smerdis, (3) Darius; the fourth, Xerxes, was "far richer than they all." He had the treasures of his father, Darius, who was called the "merchant" or "hoarder" by his own people, and Xerxes gathered stores of wealth in addition. When Xerxes was on his way to invade Grecia, a Lydian named Pythius entertained the whole Persian army with feasts, and offered to aid in bearing the expense of the campaign. Xerxes asked who this man of such wealth was. He was answered:
"This is the man, O king! who gave thy father Darius the golden plane tree, and likewise the golden vine; and he is still the wealthiest man we know of in all the world, excepting thee."—Herodotus, book 7, par. 27.
"Richer than they all," Xerxes, "through his riches," was able, as the prophecy had foretold, to "stir up all against the realm of Grecia." Forty-nine nations marched under his banners to the attack. The Greek poet, AEschylus, who himself fought against the Persians, wrote of Xerxes' mighty host,
"And myriad-peopled Asia's king, a battle-eager lord, From utmost east to utmost west sped on his countless horde, In unnumbered squadrons marching, in fleets of keels untold, Knowing none dared disobey, For stern overseers were they Of the godlike king begotten of the ancient race of Gold."
—"Persae," Way's translation.
Xerxes boasted that he was leading "the whole race of mankind to the destruction of Greece." But his invasion ended in the total rout of his forces by land and by sea. It was an advertisement to the world that Persia's might was broken. The prophecy treats it so, and deals no further with Persian history.
AEschylus at the time celebrated the passing of Persia's prestige in the lines,—
"With sacred awe The Persian law No more shall Asia's realms revere; To their lord's hand At his command, No more the exacted tribute bear.
* * * * *
Before the Ionian squadrons Persia flies, Or sinks engulfed beneath the main; Fallen! fallen! is her imperial power, And conquest on her banners waits no more."
—"Persae," Potter's translation.
The next great world change was to be the rise of Grecia to dominion. So, although a number of kings followed Xerxes in Persia, the prophecy passes from his disastrous invasion directly to the coming of Grecia under its "mighty king," Alexander the Great.
Grecia
Prophecy.—"A mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity." Dan. 11:3, 4.
History.—Alexander the Great stood up and ruled with great dominion, over a kingdom stretching from India to Grecia, with kings yet farther west sending embassies to Babylon to make submission. But in the height of his power, as the prophecy suggests, he was suddenly cut down by death. All his posterity perished, and out of the struggles of his generals for supremacy came (301 B.C.) the division of the empire toward "the four winds," as the prophecy had declared so long before. Rawlinson, the historian, says:
"A quadripartite division of Alexander's dominion was recognized: Macedonia [west], Egypt [south], Asia Minor [north], and Syria [stretching eastward beyond the Euphrates]."—"Sixth Monarchy," chap. 3.
The Kings of the North and South
Next, a rearrangement of these powers is noted; and it is this that gives us the key to the study of the closing portion of the long prophetic outline dealing with events of our own day. The narrative continues:
Prophecy.—"The king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes ... shall be strong above him;... his dominion shall be a great dominion." Verse 5.
History.—The history testifies that the king of the south (Egypt, under Ptolemy) was strong; but one of the four princes was "strong above him." Seleucus, of Syria and the east, pushed his dominion northward, subduing most of Asia Minor, and extending his boundary into Thrace, on the European side, beyond the Dardanelles. Henceforward, as Mahaffy says,
"there were three great kingdoms—Macedonia, Egypt, Syria—which lasted, each under its own dynasty, till Rome swallowed them up."—"Alexander's Empire," p. 89.
Thus Seleucus took the territory of the north, and the Syrian power became king of the north, its empire extending from Thrace, in Europe, through Asia Minor to Syria and the Euphrates. The seat of empire was removed from the east, and Antioch, in northern Syria, "once the third city of the world," became the famous capital.
The prophecy next foretold in remarkable detail the contests between these two strong powers, the king of the north (Syria and Asia Minor) and the king of the south (Egypt). The conflict raged back and forth till the coming of the Romans. The Holy Land was the frequent meeting place of the contending armies. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes it:
"Palestine was as of old the battle field for the king of the north and the king of the south.... The history of these times is lost in its details."—Ninth edition, Vol. XV, art. "Macedonian Empire," p. 144.
We shall not follow the details of this contest as foretold in the prophecy, nor yet the outline of events after the coming of the Roman power ended the rivalry between Syria and Egypt. It is necessary only that we fix the events and geographic terms of this early portion of the prophecy. Then we shall have the key to the closing portion, dealing with events of the last days, when the king of the north again appears.
The Modern King of the North
In the last verses of the chapter we find the king of the north a chief actor in this same region, "at the time of the end." Verse 40. And we are told that when this power comes to its end, it is the signal that the great day of God is at hand. (See Dan. 12:1.)
It becomes a vital question, therefore, what power in these last days is the king of the north, whose end is the signal of the swift ending of the world. Inspiration gives the basis for the answer. The king of the north in the early portion of the prophecy was the power that ruled in Syria and Asia Minor, from the Euphrates to the shores of the Dardanelles. The king of the north, then, of the later portion of the prophecy, must be the power that has been ruling in this same region during the time of the end.
What power has held dominion over this territory in modern times?—The Turkish or Ottoman Empire. At this time Turkey holds almost the identical dominion of the ancient king of the north—from the Euphrates to the sea, and northward over Asia Minor and the shores of the Dardanelles.
Then today Turkey is certainly the king of the north, according to the prophecy of Daniel 11.
Of the later history of the king of the north and his end and the events following it, the prophecy says:
"Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
"And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Dan. 11:44, 45; 12:1.
The opening verse of this scripture describes exactly the history of Turkey in modern times. Turkey's disquietude has come because of tidings out of the east and out of the north. In both these directions there has been a pushing back of the Turkish frontier, particularly in the north. Again and again, during this time of the end, Turkey has gone forth with fury to resist these encroachments and prevent the loss of territory.
The prophecy indicates that in some of these struggles the king of the north will yet transfer his capital:
"He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain."
Removal to Jerusalem
This prophecy can mean nothing else than that the king of the north will eventually set up his headquarters in Jerusalem; for Jerusalem is "the holy mountain" of the Scriptures. Zech. 8:3.
It is a wise counsel that says, "Tread lightly in the details of unfulfilled prophecy." Just how events are to turn, by what route or processes the steps are to be taken, it is useless to conjecture. But there the prophecy stands. Every word of the early portion of the prophetic outline has been fulfilled to the letter in the history of the ancient empires battling century after century over this region. Every word spoken of the final scenes will as certainly be fulfilled.
In view of this prophecy,—that Jerusalem is yet to be made the headquarters of the king of the north,—it becomes highly significant that the Mohammedans regard Jerusalem as a sacred city. According to Mohammedan tradition, Jerusalem is to play a leading part in the closing history of that people. Hughes, in his "Dictionary of Islam," article "Jerusalem," summarizes the teaching:
"In the last days there will be a general flight to Jerusalem."
Speaking of Jerusalem, an old Arab commentator on the Koran, Mukaddasi (A.D. 985), said:
"As to the excellence of the city. Why, is not this to be the place of marshaling on the day of judgment, where the gathering together and the appointment will take place? Verily Makkah [Mecca] and Al Madina have their superiority by reason of the Ka'abah and the prophet,—the blessing of Allah be upon him and his family!—but, in truth, on the day of judgment both cities will come to Jerusalem, and the excellencies of them all will then be united."—Le Strange, "Palestine under the Moslems," p. 85.
Thus Moslem doctrinal teaching and tradition both point out Jerusalem as the rallying place of Moslems before the end. Again and again in recent years, as the pressure has threatened the Turkish hold on Constantinople, the thoughts of Moslems have turned toward Jerusalem as a possible capital. A few years ago a Seventh-day Adventist missionary in Constantinople wrote to his home board:
"Within the past few months quite a company of people from the Transcaucasus district have come to Ismid,—old Nicodemia,—bringing all they possess with them. Some of them possess considerable wealth. When asked if they were going to settle in Ismid, they replied that they would settle nowhere permanently at present. They stated that they had come to be prepared to go with their leader when he left Constantinople to go to Jerusalem."
Wherever the capital may first be set up following the forsaking of Constantinople,—and Turkish authorities, we are told, have discussed a number of possible locations in Asia Minor,—there stands the ancient prophecy as to the eventual seat of the king of the north,
"He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain."
Following that, what comes? The prophecy declares,
"Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him."
What Comes When Turkey Falls
The fury of his goings forth "utterly to make away many," the moving of his capital from one place to another, avail nothing in the end. "He shall come to his end, and none shall help him."
The suggestion of the prophecy is that this power has hitherto been helped to stand. Here again every suggestion of the prophetic language finds its response in history. Through these later years of the time of the end the Ottoman Empire has been helped to stand, by either one power or another, or by some combination of powers. The late Lord Salisbury, while premier of Britain, thus stated the reasons for this policy of helping Turkey:
"Turkey is in that remarkable condition in which it has now stood for half a century, mainly because the great powers of the world have resolved that for the peace of Christendom it is necessary that the Ottoman Empire should stand. They came to that conclusion nearly half a century ago. I do not think they have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman Empire should fall, would not merely be the danger that would threaten the territories of which that empire consists; it would be the danger that the fire there lit should spread to other nations, and should involve all that is most powerful and civilized in Europe in a dangerous and calamitous contest. That was the danger that was present to the minds of our fathers when they resolved to make the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire a matter of European treaty, and that is a danger which has not passed away."—Mansion House speech, Nov. 9, 1895.
The veteran premier stated the fear of modern statesmen that Turkey's fall would involve all civilization in a calamitous conflict. The prophecy pictures just such a catastrophe, in these words:
"He shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time."
What modern statesmen have seen impending and have sought to ward off, the ancient prophecy says will surely come to pass when the king of the north comes to his end,—a time of trouble for the nations such as never was.
In the New Testament
In the prophecy of Revelation 16, the last great clash of the nations is represented as following the fall of the power that rules the territory drained by the Euphrates. Describing the last events in human history, under the pouring out of the vials of judgment upon the world, the prophet says:
"The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared." Rev. 16:12.
The water of the Euphrates represents the people or power ruling by it. When anciently the Assyrians dwelt by that river and were about to invade Israel, the prophet said, "The Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria." Isa. 8:7. The waters of the Euphrates meant the Assyrian power.
Just so in this prophecy, the river stands for the people. As the Nile stood for Egypt, and the Tiber for Rome, so in all modern times the Euphrates has stood for Turkey. The "drying up" of the Euphrates must mean the ending of the Turkish power. And in the verses immediately following, Revelation pictures the gathering of the nations of the whole world to Armageddon—"the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Following Turkey's end comes the final clash of nations. The earth quakes, the cities of the nations fall, and the last judgments of God come upon a warring world.
Here, as in Daniel 12, is pictured a time of trouble for the nations such as never was, and the end of the world, when the power ruling in Syria, by the Euphrates, comes to its end.
The Approaching End
For years statesmen and observers have discussed the approaching dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Travelers in Turkey have reported that thoughtful Turkish people held the conviction that the crisis of their nation was near at hand. Years ago Mr. Charles MacFarlane wrote:
"The Turks themselves seem generally to be convinced that their final hour is approaching. 'We are no longer Mussulmans,—the Mussulman saber is broken,—the Osmanlis will be driven out of Europe by the gaiours, and driven through Asia to the regions from which they first sprang. It is Kismet! We cannot resist destiny!' I heard words to this effect from many Turks, as well in Asia as in Europe."—"Kismet; or the Doom of Turkey" (London, 1853), p. 409.
A later Turkish traveler, Mr. Wilfred Scawen Blunt, says:
"Ancient prophecy and modern superstition alike point to the return of the Crescent into Asia as an event at hand, and to the doom of the Turks.... A well-known prediction to this effect, which has for ages exercised its influence on the vulgar and even on the learned Mohammedan mind,... places the scene of the last struggle in northern Syria, at Homs, on the Orontes. Islam is then finally to retire from the north, and the Turkish rule to cease. Such prophecies often work their own fulfilment."—"Future of Islam," p. 95.
Thus native tradition and human forebodings have contemplated the break-up of the Turkish power, as the course of the years has witnessed the shrinkage of its territory and the ever-increasing difficulty of its position.
Now and then there has been a renewal of Turkey's vigor and prestige; then again its situation has been rendered yet more precarious. It has been a buffer between the clashing interests of the great powers. Speaking of Turkey's difficult position in this respect, the London Fortnightly Review, May, 1915, expressed a common view thus:
"When once the nations of Europe set foot in Asia Minor, the pace of Turkey's further downfall will be set not so much by Turkey's strength or weakness as by the mutual jealousies of the occupying powers."
The storm clouds hang ever low over the Near East; while above all the din of wars and rumors of wars, the voice of divine prophecy declares that when this power comes to its end, the closing events in human history will quickly follow.
The solemn truth rings in our ears like a trumpet peal; the age-long Eastern Question is hastening on to its final solution, and its solution brings the end of the world.
In the light of the "sure word of prophecy" the developments of our day in the East become more than matters of grave political concern to statesmen and observers of affairs generally; they are matters of deepest personal, eternal interest to every soul. In watching the trend of international affairs, we are watching the doing of the last things among the nations.
As these things are seen coming to pass exactly as the prophecy foretold, we recognize them as God's call to men in the last generation to turn to Him and prepare their hearts to meet the coming Lord. Let no one think to wait until he sees Turkey come to its end before making his peace with God. The end of this power, as described in Revelation 16, comes during the falling of the seven last plagues. And the last verse of the preceding chapter shows that Christ's ministry for sinners in the heavenly temple has ended before the plagues begin to fall. Human probation will already have closed. The solemn decree will then have been issued in heaven:
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly." Rev. 22:11, 12.
"Now is the accepted time," calls the Spirit; "now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2. We have not to make ourselves ready. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. Our part is to believe and confess; His part is to forgive and cleanse and make us ready for the coming kingdom.
The Sinner's Plea
With broken heart and contrite sigh, A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry; Thy pardoning grace is rich and free: O God, be merciful to me!
Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done, Can for a single sin atone; To Calvary alone I flee: O God, be merciful to me!
And when, redeemed from sin and hell, With all the ransomed throng I dwell, My raptured song shall ever be, "God has been merciful to me!"
—Cornelius Elven.
ARMAGEDDON
THE FINAL CLASH OF EARTHLY EMPIRES
"We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time, In an age on ages telling, To be living is sublime. Hark! the waking up of nations, Gog and Magog to the fray; Hark! what soundeth? Is creation Groaning for her latter day?"
The sure word of prophecy that foretold the rise and fall of ancient empires, and outlined the general course of world history through the ages, describes also the last great struggle of the nations.
The proverb says, "Peace is the dream of the wise, but war is the history of man." And divine prophecy assures us that the history of this present world will end amid scenes of conflict.
Many in our time have come to think that civilization must reach a better way of composing the rivalries of the nations. The prophecy forewarns us otherwise. In fact, the prophetic word points to the talk of peace and safety amid preparations for war, as a distinct sign of the latter days.
"In the last days," Isaiah says, "many people shall go and say:"
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isa. 2:2-4.
This is what "many people" were to be saying. But the real conditions in the last days are described as exactly the opposite. The prophet Joel describes the real spirit of the world in these times:
"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles [the nations]: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong." Joel 3:9, 10.
The context shows that the prophet is speaking of the last times, when "the day of the Lord is near." Verse 14.
The Prophecy Fulfilling
This is what we have seen in our time, as never before in the history of man,—the product of the plowshare and the pruning hook being turned into instruments of war.
About twenty-five years ago the late Marquis of Salisbury, speaking as a man grown gray in the service of the state, asked a London audience the question, "What is the great change that marks this time as different from the times when most of us were young men?" The aged statesman answered his own question, saying that it was the arming of the nations, the swift race upon which the powers had then recently entered, to increase their naval and military armaments. It is a sign of our times, answering to the prophetic forecast.
Throughout the present generation the thoughtful have watched with grave forebodings the preparations of the nations for war. Queen Alexandra, of Britain, once said of it:
"I was educated in the school of a king who was, before all things, just; and I have tried, like him, always to preach love and charity, I have always mistrusted warlike preparations, of which nations seem never to tire. Some day this accumulated material of soldiers and guns will burst into flames in a frightful war that will throw humanity into mourning on earth and grieve our universal Father in heaven."
As the race of armaments went forward on a scale never before thought of, statesmen and writers began to make use of the word "Armageddon" to describe the conflict that they saw was inevitable. Years ago the London Contemporary Review said:
"Odd things are happening everywhere.... Russia, Germany, England—these are great names; they palpitate with great ideas; they have vast destinies before them, and millions of armed men in their pay, all awaiting Armageddon."
In June, 1909, Lord Rosebery, in a speech before a press convention in London, commented gravely upon the significance of the feverish haste with which the nations were arming themselves, "as if for some great Armageddon, and that in a time of the profoundest peace."
To quote from a popular American magazine, of the same year:
"Today all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting breathlessly for the morrow with its Armageddon."—Everybody's Magazine, November, 1909.
Thus, everywhere, observers saw that the rivalry of interests among the nations was leading to a conflict so overwhelmingly vast that only the Scriptural word "Armageddon," with its appeal to the imagination, seemed adequately suggestive of its proportions.
Every passing year added to the intensity of feeling and the antagonism of interests. In 1911 the London Nineteenth Century and After said:
"Never was national and racial feeling stronger upon earth than it is now. Never was preparation for war so tremendous and so sustained. Never was striking power so swift and so terribly formidable.... The shadow of conflict and of displacement greater than any which mankind has known since Attila and his Huns were stayed at Chalons, is visibly impending over the world. Almost can the ear of imagination hear the gathering of the legions for the fiery trial of peoples, a sound vast as the trumpet of the Lord of hosts."—Quoted in the Literary Digest, May 6, 1911.
What the ancient prophecy foretold—the preparing of war in the last days, the waking up and arming of the nations—we have seen fulfilling before our eyes in this generation.
Satanic Agencies at Work
In prophecies of the gathering of the nations for the last great struggle, Inspiration draws aside the veil, and allows us to see the agencies that have been stirring up the world for the war. As the prophet John was shown in vision the scenes of the last days, he saw the invisible powers of Satan, "the spirits of devils," going forth "unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16:14.
Earnest-minded statesmen have lamented their helplessness to combat the forces and influences pressing the world on toward conflict. In one of his last speeches as premier of Great Britain, the late Marquis of Salisbury was defending yet further calls for army and navy appropriations. He said:
"For years public opinion was in favor of a pacific policy, but now that state of opinion has passed away. The tide has turned, and who am I, and who are we, that we should attempt to stem the tide? If the tide has turned, we shall have to go with it. We are in the presence of forces far larger than we can wield."
What those forces were, the aged statesman did not recognize, but the prophecy tells us. The prophet was shown the evil spirits from Satan going forth everywhere as the end nears, to stir up the whole world to the last great conflict.
Sir Edward Grey, British foreign secretary, described these agencies very accurately. Speaking in the House of Commons, Nov. 27, 1911, he said:
"It is really as if in the atmosphere of the world there were some mischievous influence at work, which troubles and excites every part of it."
It is all coming to pass exactly as the sure word of prophecy foretold.
The conviction that great and decisive events are at hand has taken possession of many hearts in all the world. When the European war broke out in 1914, on a scale unprecedented in human history, it was no wonder that the question sprang to many lips, "Is it Armageddon?"
The question was not lightly asked. The committee of the Church Missionary Society (Church of England), one of the greatest missionary organizations in the world, sent a message to its missionaries in all lands at the outbreak of the war. In this message was a call to prepare for the coming of the Lord:
"It may be that these events will quickly usher in the return of Christ to gather His saints together from the four quarters of the earth.... Many see in the events preceding and accompanying this terrible cataclysm of war the signs of our Lord's near return. If so, blessed will that servant be whom his Lord when He cometh shall find giving 'their food in due season' to those fellow servants who have been put in his charge."—Church Missionary Review, November, 1914.
Timely as this call was, it was evident, from the prophetic scriptures, that the conflict then opening could not be the Armageddon of the Apocalypse, for the prelude to that final clash of nations is an event yet in the future—the downfall of a nation whose part in the closing scenes is clearly described in the prophecy of the coming Armageddon.
The end of the power which rules over the territory through which the river Euphrates flows, is the prelude to Armageddon. The prophecy says:
"The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared." Rev. 16:12.
Next follows the gathering of "the whole world" to "the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Verse 14.
Through all modern times Turkey has been identified with the Euphrates. The region of Syria and Asia Minor, long held by Turkey, has been the historic meeting place of the East and the West. In the London Fortnightly Review, May, 1915, Mr. J.B. Firth wrote:
"When, with the fall of Ottoman sovereignty at Constantinople, the Turk is driven out of Europe, there will arise once more the eternal question of the possession of Asia Minor. That land is the corridor between Europe and Asia, along which have passed most of the European conquerors—the Russians alone excepted—who have invaded Asia, and most of the Asiatic conquerors who have invaded Europe."
The fall of the Turkish power in this Euphrates region will, in some manner, prepare the way for "the kings of the East" to come up to the final conflict.
The Awakening of the East
The same spirit that has been stirring up the West in preparation for the contest has been working in the East also. Year after year observers have pointed out the great changes taking place in Asia. September, 1909, the London Contemporary Review said:
"The whole of Asia is in the throes of rebirth. At last we may see these three—the yellow race, the Indian race, and the Arab-Persian Mohammedan race. And all that is making for the Armageddon."
A writer in the May, 1913, issue of the London Nineteenth Century and After, reviewing the situation at the close of the Balkan War, said:
"A new spirit is abroad in the East. It arose on the shores of the Pacific when Japan proved that the great powers of Europe are not invulnerable. North and south and west it has spread, rousing China out of centuries of slumber, stirring India into ominous questioning, reviving memories of past glory in Persia, breeding discontent in Egypt, and luring Turkey onto the rocks."
With all the nations stirred up by the spirit agencies of the god of this world, the prophet next saw the armies of earth gathering to the last great battle. The prophecy continues:
"And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." Rev. 16:16.
Armageddon means the hill, or mount, of Megiddo, which overlooks the plain of Esdraelon, the historic battle ground of northern Palestine. Carmack says of it:
"Megiddo was the military key of Syria; it commanded at once the highway northward to Phoenicia and Coele-Syria and the road across Galilee to Damascus and the valley of the Euphrates. It was moreover the chief town in a district of great fertility, the contested possession of many races. The vale of Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevitable battle fields. Through all history they retained that qualification; there many of the great contests of southwestern Asia have been decided. In the history of Israel it was the scene of frequent battles. From such association the district achieved a dark nobility; it was regarded as a pre-destined place of blood and strife; the poet of the Apocalypse has clothed it with awe as the ground of the final conflict between the powers of light and darkness."—"Pre-Biblical Syria and Palestine," p. 82.
Thus Armageddon, as the "military key of Syria," marks Palestine and the Near East as the great international storm center in the final conflict.
The Political Storm Center
In vision, nearly two thousand years ago, the prophet saw the forces of the last days gathering around this pivotal region. Today observers recognize the eastern Mediterranean as indeed the pivotal point around which international interests involving East and West naturally revolve.
Some years ago, in discussing railway development in Asia and Africa, and the great highways of sea transportation, the London Fortnightly Review said:
"Palestine is the great center, the meeting of the roads. Whoever holds Palestine, commands the great lines of communication, not only by land, but also by sea."
Again, the Manchester Guardian, emphasizing the importance attaching to this strategic center, said during the great war:
"Egypt, as things are,—and the fact cannot be too often emphasized,—is the weak spot in our system of imperial defense by sea power. Not until Palestine is in our possession can Egypt be regarded as safe."—Quoted in Literary Digest, Feb. 12, 1916, p. 369.
Other nations have recognized the strategic value of a territory so situated. Thus political considerations make this region pointed out by the prophecy a center of conflicting interests. Hogarth, in his book, "The Near East," calls it "the time-honored storm center of the eastern Mediterranean."
The Religious Storm Center
To the conflict of political interests is added the rivalry of religious sentiment. Commenting on the religious associations of Palestine in relation to the international political situation, the London Spectator some years ago stated the matter thus:
"People often ask how it is that the future of Palestine presents such difficulties. The reason is simply that Jerusalem—you cannot separate Jerusalem from Palestine—is the sacred city of so many creeds and warring faiths. Not only is it the holy place of all the Christian churches,—and two of them quarrel bitterly over it, the Greeks and the Latins,—but it is also one of the most sacred places in the Mohammedan world. Mecca and Medina are hardly more sacred than the Mosque of Omar. That is a fact which is often ignored by Europeans, who forget that to turn the Mohammedans out of the temple inclosure would disturb the whole Moslem world, from the Straits Settlements to Albania. We must never forget that Mohammedan pilgrims from India visit Jerusalem, just as Christian pilgrims visit it from Europe. Lastly, Jerusalem is profoundly sacred to the Jews, and the Jews are beginning to be locally numerous and important. Most certainly there are no elements of difficulty wanting in the problem of the future of Palestine."
History records the fact that rivalry over the care of the traditional holy places helped to precipitate one European war—that of the Crimea.
In the study of the Eastern Question, we have seen that the prophecy of Daniel 11 marks Jerusalem as still a storm center in the closing scenes. A British consul in Jerusalem, in the days following the Crimean War, set forth suggestively his view of one of the factors in the Eastern Question. He wrote:
"The very heart and kernel of the Eastern Question can only be reached in the Holy City, Jerusalem, where the Eastern and Western churches are still wrestling as of old for the mastery.... Now as heretofore, disguise the object as they may, they are striving for a prize which has not been destined by divine Providence for either; and this prize is no less than a virtual dominion over the Christian world, from a throne of government within the sanctuaries of the Holy City; and the possession of that throne would involve possession of the key to universal dominion."—"Stirring Times: Records from Jerusalem Consulate Chronicles," by James Finn, introductory note by editor, p. xxiii. |
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