By David L. Cooper

            The prophecy contained in Ezekiel,  chapters 38 and 39, constitute one of the most important predictions relative to the present day that is to be found in either the Old or the New Testament.  Of course, all prophecy is of vital importance. But the special significance of this passage for us today is to be seen in the fact that we are living in the days when this prediction is to find its fulfillment.  This statement being true, it behooves us to study it with an open mind.  Since there has been so very much speculation and guessing with respect to the prophetic word, many students have become disgusted with the study of it and refuse to consider any fulfilled predictions.  The abuse of anything is no justification for the rejection of the proper uses of the same.  In like manner the abuse to which prophecy has been put is no basis for our rejecting a sane, sound, and sensible interpretation of the messages of the Prophets, which by the way, were
given to us to serve as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the day star arises in our hearts (II Peter 1:19-21).

The Old Jewish commentators understood this prediction to refer to the invasion of Palestine in the latter days by Russia and her associates.  Not
being clear in the apprehension of biblical prophecy, these masters in Israel connected the prophecy of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39, with that found in
Zechariah 12:10:  “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as on mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.”  This passage was interpreted in the following way:  They (the Jews in Palestine) at the time of the invasion will look upon Him (the Messiah, son of Joseph, the generalissimo of the Jewish forces defending Jerusalem, who will be killed in the midst of the fighting) whom they (the attacking Russian forces) have pierced.  In such a crisis as this the entire Jewish population of Palestine will realize their impotency and will weep and mourn before Jehovah in such a way as they have never done before.  In answer to their petition God will bring to their attention Messiah the Son of David, a descendant of their illustrious king, who will be one of the greatest military geniuses of all ages, and who will be placed at the head of the defending Jewish armies and
will lead them on to victory.  A scientific exegesis of the two passages will show that there is no connection between them and will demonstrate the fact that this interpretation of the Zechariah passage is foreign to the context of Ezekiel’s prediction.  But an examination of the facts of the Ezekiel passage will show that they were correct in interpreting it as one foretelling the invasion of Palestine by the Russians and their allies in the latter days.

An examination of the entire passage will reveal the fact that each of them constitutes a literary unit within itself, and that the 39^th chapter gives supplemental information to that which is found in chapter 38.  This unity becomes apparent in the over-all picture of the entire prophecy.  We shall look, therefore, at each chapter separately and see the truth unfolded before us as we proceed.

Ezekiel,
Chapter 38

            (The reader would do well if he would at this point read both chapters and get clearly the facts before him in order to appreciate properly the following discussion.)

             Assuming that he has done this, I shall ask three questions and answer them.  In doing so, I shall gather the salient points of the chapter together,
correlate them, and present the entire picture to the reader.  The questions to be asked are as follows:

1. Who constitutes the personnel of this drama of the end-time?
2. What is foretold as coming to pass at this future time?
3. When will the prediction be fulfilled?

For the sake of brevity and aiding the memory let us put these questions as follows:  Who? What? When?

A.  Who constitutes the personnel of this drama of the end-time?

The oracle is directed against Gog of the land of Magog, who is the “prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.”  There are those who are associated with him and who are named.  These are:  Persia, Ethiopia, Put, Gomer, and Togarmah.  When all of the facts of the context are taken into consideration, it is seen that God is a future prince of Russia.  He will also be, as we shall learn, shortly, the last prince of that mighty empire.  Persia, the first one mentioned as an ally of
Russia, is in existence today and is known as Iran.  Cush is Ethiopia.  Put is somewhat difficult to be identified.  On the Egyptian monuments appears the name of a country call Punt that seemed to be located south of Egypt on the Red Sea.  It is altogether possible that it may be Eritrea or Somaliland.  Gomer likewise is mentioned as one of the confederates of Russia.  Gomer was the oldest son of Japheth, the eldest son of Noah.  His oldest son was Ashkenaz.  This last term has been associated with Germany and still is.  The German Jews are known as Ashkenaz-speaking Jews—as contrasted with the Sephardic or Spanish-speaking Jews.  The word Togarmah proves to be the phonetic equivalent of the modern word Armenia.  This kingdom was divided and swallowed up by both Russia and Turkey.  Allied with these are vast hordes of peoples.

In the table of nations which appears in Genesis, chapter 10, one sees these nations north of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, which was the cradle of civilization.  Because of this fact some have denied the accuracy of the interpretation just given. But we must remember that in this most highly authentic table of nations we see the dispersion of the peoples in the primitive ages of the world.  They are north of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and are on the move.  By Ezekiel’s time he could speak of different ones of them as being in the uttermost parts of the north.  This is especially true of the country of Gog, whose chief cities are Meshech and Tubal, the modern Moscow and Tobolsk.

(There is a picture of the Golden Gate in the East Wall of Jerusalem here and then talks about it)

The tradition of Alexander’s Gate* confirms the interpretation that Magog, the land of Gog (Russia), together with 25 or more other nations, was located north of the Black and the Caspian Seas.  This legend has persisted through the centuries and has located these nations as being north of the seas just mentioned.

          *Note: The student who wishes to enter into a thorough investigation of this most interesting legend would do well to procure the scholarly volume   entitled Alexander’s Gate, Gog and Magog, and the Enclosed Nations by Andrew Runni Anderson, published by the Mediaeval Academy of America, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

When all the facts are taken into consideration, the overwhelming preponderance of historical evidence confirms the identification of the nations mentioned in Ezekiel 38:1-6 as those which I have just given.  To this great confederacy of nations I attached the name “The Great Northeastern Confederacy.”  My reason for thus labeling them is found in the fact that the territory occupied by these nations is north of Palestine, Ezekiel’s home, and Babylon, where the prophet was when he issued this prophecy, and also east of these places.  When a person looks at this prediction, then glances at the world map as it is today, and takes into account the spread of Russian totalitarianism (falsely called communism, which implies interest in the common man(, he will see that this system of political economy is spreading over Asia.  In view of these facts he does well to label those associated with Russia as the Great Northeastern Confederacy.

In verse 13 we have the following language:  “Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art
thou come to take the spoil? Hast thou assembled thy company to take the prey?  To take great spoil?”  Sheba and Dedan have been identified as Aden and Muscat on the Persian Gulf.  The question arising at this point is:  Who is Tarshish?  Two answers have been given.  Some have surmised that Tarshish is the
ancient name for Spain; others have come to the conclusion that it is the name of ancient Britain.  When all the facts that have bearing upon the situation are taken into consideration, I personally am led to believe that Tarshish is the name of Great Britain. Confirmation of this position is to be found in Psalm 48, which foretells that the ships of Tarshish are destroyed at the end of the Tribulation. In Isaiah, chapter 60 appears the prediction that certain ones of Israel will return to the land of her fathers at the beginning of the Millennium in the ships of Tarshish.  It is a well-known fact that Spain ceased to be a maritime power of any importance after the destruction of the Spanish Armada.  Great Britain then lunged forward as a seafaring nation, and held that position up to the time of World War II, and has been surpassed only by America.  Moreover, Tarshish is a nation of merchants.  When we look at Great Britain and at Spain,
we see that Pre-eminently this name is applicable to England rather than to Spain.  We therefore conclude that Tarshish is none other than the United Kingdom.

But who are the young lions thereof?  According to the Golden Rule of Interpretation we are to take everything at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the context indicate otherwise.  IT is clear that Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish are nations.  Yet the young lions join their voices with them in issuing a protest against the aggressive action of Russia and her allies in invading Palestine.

But lions cannot speak in human language and approve what men say; we know that they are not literal beasts.  This fact forces us to understand that they are used symbolically.  What then is the significance of these wild beasts?  A glance at Daniel, chapter 7, shows that animals are there used symbolically and are interpreted as signifying kings and the kingdoms over which they rule.  ( See Daniel 7:17, 23)   Whenever God attaches a meaning to any symbol in the Scriptures, and when it is used with a figurative significance in other passages, it indicates the same thing.  When we understand that the lions of our passage are used symbolically, and when we remember that their significance when thus employed is that of a civil government, we see that this is exactly the meaning which accords with the facts of our passage.  The young lions of this prediction that join their voices with that of England, Sheba, and Dedan are the younger nations of the world.  It is a well-known fact that the governments of the Western Hemisphere are indeed the young nations.  We are therefore logically bound to interpret these young lions as signifying the Western Democracies, that are ever drawing closer and closer to Great Britain in their thinking and political
schemes.  It is a well-known fact that the western nations of Europe are working in the closest connection with the United States, Canada, and the powers of the Western Hemisphere.  There are also alliances that are joining the nations of the Western Hemisphere together.  At the present time Russia is recognized as the great leader of the East.  At the same time England and France, together with the countries of the Western Hemisphere, are recognized as the “Western
Powers.”  We constantly hear over the radio and read in current literature of the “iron curtain” which has been lowered over Central Europe.  The gulf
between Russia and her allies on the one hand and the Western Powers on the other is constantly widening.  A close survey of the political situation of our day reveals the fact that there is developing today the exact political pattern that is set forth in Ezekiel’s prophecy.

There may be changes in the picture that might temporarily appear to discredit this position.  But such minor moves will, in my judgment, not affect the over-all picture.  (In this connection I wish to throw out a warning:  It is well for us to profit by the lessons taught by the past.  Many excellent brethren were of the profound conviction that Mussolini was either the forerunner of the Antichrist or the Antichrist himself and taught to this effect.  Events, however, discredited this interpretation.  In view of the possibilities of anyone’s being mistaken in regard to the proper interpretation of a given prophecy and the identification of its fulfillment, it behooves all of us to keep our minds open to truth and to keep seeking for further and additional light.  At the present time, however, I accept the same position as to this prophecy that I have held for years—even though events at times seemed to favor a different interpretation.)

According to verse 8 the Jews have the status of a state in the land of their fathers at the time of the fulfillment of this prediction.  As is well known to everyone, the state of Israel was proclaimed as a reality on May 15, 1948.  She has been recognized by some of the leading powers of the world as a nation and is accorded all the privileges and advantages of a modern state.  So far, therefore, as this phase of Israel’s status is concerned, her situation has developed to the extent that the prophecy may now be fulfilled.  Of course, as we shall presently see, it is impossible for the prediction now to be fulfilled; because, when this invasion occurs, the people of Israel will be dwelling in their land, enjoying peace, prosperity, and plenty.  So long, therefore, as the endless antagonism
and fighting continues in the land, the prediction cannot be fulfilled.

B.  What occurs according to the prediction?

When the East is pitted against the West and Israel is enjoying statehood in her own land, our prediction will find its fulfillment, in the latter days.
The first thing in the unfolding of the drama of our prophecy is set forth in the following words:  “And thou shalt ascend, thou shalt come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy hordes, and many peoples with thee” (38:9).  The language of this verse is modern, up to the last minute.  Let us note the three statements made:  First, Gog with his forces ascends; second, they come like a storm; third, they like a cloud cover the land of Palestine.  We are not concerned at this point regarding what Ezekiel’s contemporaries understood by his language.  Since the prophecy is to be fulfilled in the latter days, and since we are in the latter days—as the facts of present-day events indicate—the question with us is:  What do they mean to us today?  There can be no doubt concerning the proposition that Ezekiel was shown in vision what would occur when the prediction is fulfilled.  In describing the events he says that Gog ascends, that is, he goes up from the earth.  His vast hosts are with him.  After they ascend, they go to the land of Palestine and their going is compared to a storm.  When they arrive at their destination, they cover the land “like a cloud.”  It is clear that Ezekiel was speaking of some vast military operation.  I ask the reader this question:  What does such language mean to us today?  There is but one answer, which is that it is a clear indication of the sending forth from Russia of an aerial armada against Palestine.  On D-Day, 1944, at the zero hour, a great aerial armada went like a storm from England
and covered the Normandy Peninsula like a cloud.  Thus a beachhead was formed in France which developed into a mighty military Juggernaut that rolled over France, across the Rhine, and continued its irresistible onward movement until the American armies met the Russians at a point agreed upon by President Roosevelt with Stalin.  To interpret Ezekiel’s language as referring to an airborne army with all its necessary equipment is to interpret this passage with soberness and sanity.

When the forces of Gog invade Palestine, the Western Democracies will issue a protest in which they ask, “Art thou come to take the spoil?  Hast thou
assembled thy company to take the prey?  To carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take great spoil?” (vs.13)  This protest seems rather weak; nevertheless we are told that it is that which will be sent to the invading forces.  The Western Powers do not go beyond the issuing of this protest.  The reason for this is that they do not have to do anything more, because God steps into the picture in a miraculous manner and intervenes in Israel’s behalf.  The first thing which the Lord does when all the high places of Palestine are seized is to cause an earthquake in the land of Israel.  “For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; 20 so that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall to the ground” (vss. 19-20).  This earthquake is not the result of natural
causes but is the action of the Almighty, for it is said that all the things in the earthquake zone “shall shake at my [Jehovah’s] presence.”  This statement leaves no doubt that the earthquake is the result of direct intervention of God Almighty.  The destruction resulting therefrom is of course to be understood as being within the earthquake zone, which is the land of Israel, Palestine.

By this earthquake doubtless vast hordes of the invaders will be killed, when the high places which they seize, and which they hold, are shaken down and the valleys are filed with the debris.  Such a catastrophic event will throw those who are not killed by that initial stroke into absolute confusion.  Then there will be a mutual slaughtering of their forces.  This reminds one of the self-destruction of the Midianites when they invaded Israel, and when Gideon’s men waved their torches and cried, “To Jehovah and to Gideon” (Judges, chaps. 6 and 7). After this turn of events the Lord will smite those remaining alive “with pestilence and with blood.”  This will be a miraculous judgment which will fall upon those surviving the ordeal up to that moment.  The next stroke of judgment will come in the form of rain, a regular cloudburst that will doubtless destroy multitudes.  The final stroke will come in the form of “great hailstones, fire and brimstone” (vs. 22).  By all of these acts of judgment the entire forces of Gog and his allies invading Palestine will be wiped out.  We have reason to  believe that they will be destroyed to a man.

Is there any battle described here?  Some prophetic students think that they see a conflict.  But when the chapter is read carefully and each thought weighed, it becomes quite evident that there is but one army, the invaders, and that this entire military force is wiped out by miraculous intervention on the part of the Almighty.

(There is a chart that is in the booklet at this point that deals with the invading forces.  Also D. L. Cooper has two principles of interpreting prophecy:

The Law of Recurrence:
After the prophets made a statement relative to something in the future, they often gave a fuller discussion covering the same ground, but laying the emphasis in a different place.  The second presentation is but supplemental to the first.  It therefore clarifies the picture.  This is a most important law, which finds
many applications throughout the Scriptures.   The Bible student should master this principle to the extent that he can recognize an application of it whenever he comes across it.

The Law or Double Reference:
There is what is known among Bible students as the law of double reference or manifold fulfillment of prophecy.  We find many applications of this principle.
The principle might be illustrated by a stereopticon which gives the dissolving effect.  One picture is thrown upon the screen.  It begins to fade and at the same time the dim outline of another begins to appear.  By the time the first has faded, the second is in full view.  One must master this rule if one is to understand the message of the prophets.)

C.  When will the prediction be fulfilled?

The next question to be asked in this connection is, when will this prediction be fulfilled?  Four answers are given by different ones.  One group asserts that it will be fulfilled before the Tribulation.  Others believe that it will be fulfilled in the Tribulation, especially at the very end of it.  There is another group which feels that it will be fulfilled in the Millennium.  There are still others who are confident that it will be fulfilled at the conclusion of the millennial reign of our Lord.  All four answers cannot be correct.  Three are bound to be wrong.  What is the truth in regard to the matter?

Let us take these answers in the reverse order and by the process of elimination determine the truth regarding this subject.  Those who believe that it
will be fulfilled at the end of the Millennium find proof for their position in the fact that there is a great host of people who go up from the four corners of the earth to Jerusalem after the thousand-year reign of our Lord in order to intimidate Him and to embarrass His regime.  These are called “Gog and Magog.”
Because of the presence of Ezekiel’s prophecy and that of John in Revelation, chapter 20, of the words, Gog and Magog, some have thought that both passages are talking of the same thing.  Thus identifying these two predictions as referring to a single event and seeing that the invasion of Palestine mentioned by John is at the end of the Millennium, these interpreters insist the Ezekiel’s prophecy will be fulfilled after Christ’s thousand-year reign upon earth.  The presence, let it be understood, of similar words in two or more passages does not at all prove identity of persons or events.  The facts of each context must be consulted to determine the identification and the locating of the events of a passage.

The situation set forth in Ezekiel’s prophecy is one thing; that which is found in John’s passage in Revelation, chapter 20, is entirely different.  In Ezekiel’s prophecy there are two great confederations of nations, the forces of the Great Northeastern Confederacy that invade Palestine and the Western
Democracies that protest.  In the Revelation passage the forces that go up to Jerusalem with hostile intent are from the four corners of the globe—an international movement.  In no sense can we expand the prophecy of Ezekiel and make of it a global affair.  On the other hand, we cannot change the great international movement mentioned in Revelation and reduce it to become a local affair as Ezekiel’s passage sets forth.  For this and other reasons that cannot be mentioned it is impossible for us to identify Ezekiel’s prophecy with that made by John in Revelation, which latter prediction occurs after the Millennium is over.  For this reason, therefore, we are confident that Ezekiel’s prediction cannot be fulfilled after the Millennium.

Can it be fulfilled during the Millennium, as some seem to teach?  This is impossibility, for the following reason:  When the Lord Jesus comes back to this earth to establish His kingdom; He causes wars to cease (Ps. 46:11).   All the weapons of war will be converted into agricultural implements.  Neither shall men learn war anymore.  In view of this statement we are confident that it will be impossible to equip an army during the Millennium.  Since the forces mentioned by Ezekiel are well-armed, trained, and disciplined, it is impossible for this prediction to be fulfilled during the thousand-year reign of our Lord.

Can it refer to something that will occur in the Tribulation, especially what is usually called “the battle of Armageddon”?  My answer to this question
is in the negative.  The political situation when the invasion of Palestine by Gog and Magog takes place in one thing; that which will exist in the Tribulation, especially the latter half of it, is entirely different.  Moreover, when Ezekiel’s prediction is fulfilled, the Jews will be dwelling in Palestine in peace, plenty, and prosperity.  During the Tribulation they will be robbed, plundered, and hounded from one place to another.  For a picture of Israel in the Tribulation see Isaiah 42:18-22.  The same situation is echoed in Psalm 79.  For these and many other reasons it is impossible for us to believe that Ezekiel’s prediction will be fulfilled during the Tribulation.

Since it cannot be fulfilled after the Millennium, nor during the Millennium, nor during the Tribulation, it must take place before the Tribulation.  From
this conclusion there can be no escape.

EZEKIEL,
CHAPTER 39

            What is the relation that exists  between chapters 38 and 39?  Is the prophecy of chapter 39 dealing with an entirely different situation?  OR does it supplement the one found in chapter 38?  A careful examination of the first six verses shows conclusively that the prophet is talking about the same event which he describes in chapter 38.  The reason for this conclusion is found in the fact that the forces of Gog are completely wiped out by the events foretold in chapter 38.  In the light of this truth there would be no other man and no other nations rallying to his standard that could be described in chapter 39.  In view of these facts it is quite evident that chapter 39 is a part of the prophecy of chapter 38 and supplements it.

             Such a method of delineating the future is frequently resorted to by the various prophets.  This principle is known by Bible students as the Law of Recurrence.  I may illustrate it as follows:  I was with a famous artist when he painted the portrait of a certain lady.  At the first appointment he, after having
lights and shadows exactly as he wanted them and proper expression on her face, did what the artists call “blocking out” the portrait.  He did that in a very few minutes.  Thus he soon transferred to the canvas the likeness of his subject.  He then said that he was through for that time and asked for nother appointment for a “second sitting.”  On this second occasion after getting his lights and shadows as he wanted them and having the proper expression on his subject’s face, he brought out details which he had simply in a primary manner put in at the first sitting.  He also brought out new features, details that were not suggested at first.  In the language, therefore, of portrait painting we would say that Ezekiel “blocked out” his picture in chapter 38.  Some of the details he brought out in very bold relief.  Others he omitted.  However, in chapter 39, at the “second sitting,” he added new features, as well as touching up some of the older ones.

One of the new details which is added in chapter 39 is the flattening out by God Almighty himself of the whole country of Magog, Russia, and the destruction of all their forces who, as fifth columns, are slavishly working in the interest of Gog.  This is found in 39:6:  “And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell securely in the isles; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.”  WE must always bear in mind that this oracle is directed against Gog, a future—in fact the last—ruler of Russia, and his forces.  WE are told that the Lord God Almighty rains down fire upon Magog, the country of Gog, and all Russia.  Russia and her allies will send vast forces down into Palestine to seize the country in a bid for world power.  As we have seen, these forces will be wiped out, exterminated to a man.  In completing the overthrow of these armies, the Lord rains down fire and brimstone, as we have already seen, upon them.  In the verse which is immediately before us, we see that God rains down fire, probably also brimstone, upon Magog.  Since this oracle is directed against Russia as a military power, we have good reason to believe that this judgment of fire and brimstone rained down from heaven will destroy her armies and the war potential that will be in the fatherland.  Of course Gog will not send all of his forces down into Palestine.  Some will be held in reserve to be sent to other portions of the world as Gog makes his bid for world power.  Thus we can see the blotting out of the great Soviet Union as a government from the earth.  Let it be borne in mind that this is a judgment which God Almighty hurls against Gog.  He is able to carry out this threat.

We also learn from this verse that God rains down fire upon the forces of Gog that are secure “in the isles.”  The word rendered isles in the original meant coast-lands. It soon expanded its meaning to embrace nations that had a waterfront.  As time passed, it took on a larger significance and was used to refer to a nation regardless of whether or not it was on a body of water.  This is the significance which it has in the present passage.  From this verse we see that there will be those in the employ of and working for the Russians, and who will be scattered among the nations.  In other words, this passage refers to the Quislings that Gog will have in strategic positions of the governments of the world in order to cripple them when he makes his bid for world power, so that they will be unable to marshal their forces against him and resist his aggressive designs.  But the Lord knows where every one of these spies and traitors throughout the nations is.  When Gog does make his initial stroke, the Lord will destroy all of his Quislings throughout the world and thus blot out from all countries those forming a fifth column for the overthrow of the nations.

Another detail which as this secondo sitting Ezekiel adds to his portrait is that there will be sufficient wood and combustible materials, from the arms and weapons of Gog’s armies that invade Palestine to supply fuel for the country for seven years.  When a person realizes that this is a prediction of a bid on the part of Russia and her allies for world power, and when he sees the great amount of supplies that will be necessary to be sent along with such vast hordes of armies, it becomes very clear that there will be enough wood in these supplies to furnish a country like Palestine with fuel for seven years.

Another detail of this portrait that is placed at this second sitting is that of the burial of the forces of Gog that fall under the strokes of the Almighty in the land of Palestine.  It will take especially assigned groups of men seven months to bury all of the dead that fall in that great catastrophic event.  This latter detail is found in 39:11-16.

THE
OVERTHROW OF THE ANTICHRIST AND HIS VAST ARMIES

            We have just seen that Ezekiel 39:1-16 is a description of the details that are added at the second sitting of the painting of this picture.  But in 39:17-21 we have a prophecy that goes far beyond that of Gog and his forces that invade Palestine.  Everyone should read 39:17-24 very carefully.  He will note in verse 18 that the expression, “the princes of the earth,” occurs.  These princes of the world are the leaders of the forces which invade Palestine, and which are mentioned in verses 17-20.  This army, therefore, cannot be the one that invades Palestine under the leadership of God, for those that accompany him are only the rulers of the Great Northeastern Confederacy.  In contrast, therefore, with the latter is the force led by “the princes of the earth,” an international army.  When his force is thus destroyed, God will, according to verse 21, set His glory “among the nations.”  From the day of the overthrow of these vast armies, and the setting of God’s glory in Palestine among the nations—from that day forward the people of Israel will know that Jehovah is their God, and that He is Supreme Ruler of the universe.  These facts are asserted in verses 21 and 22:  “And I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.  22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am Jehovah their God, from that day and
forward.”  Thus the army that is described in verses 17-20 and that is destroyed immediately before God sets His glory—the coming of Israel’s glorious Messiah to reign upon the earth—can be no army other than that of the Antichrist, which is destroyed at the time that Christ appears upon the earth to set up His reign.  Confirmation of this position may be seen by reading Revelation 19:11—20:4.  In this passage we see the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the rider upon the white horse.  He makes war against an international army under the leadership of the Antichrist and destroys it completely.  Then Satan is bound.  At that time the Lord mounts the throne of David and is crowned KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS of all the earth.  Ezekiel 30:17-24 is seen, in the light of the Revelation passage, to be talking about the same identical thing.

            Since the overthrow of Gog’s forces as described in chapter 38 and in the first 16 verses of chapter 39 occurs before the Tribulation and since the
overthrow of the armies mentioned in 39:17-20 takes place at the time that God sets His glory among the nations, we see that the destruction of this second
army occurs at the end of the Tribulation.  Since, however, the destruction of Gog’s armies occurs before the Tribulation, we see that there are at least seven years which separate these two overthrows of the armies of the enemies of Israel.  There is, therefore, a blending of the description of the overthrow of Gog’s armies with the prediction of the overthrow of the armies of the Antichrist.  Thus Ezekiel 39:1-16 is related to Ezekiel 39:17-29 by the principle which is known as the Law of Double Reference.  This principle is frequently employed throughout the Scriptures.  I might illustrate it by the stereopticon which gives the dissolving effect.  One picture is thrown upon the screen.  As the audience views it with delight, it begins to fade.  At the same time there appear the faint outlines of another picture.  By the time the first one has faded, the second one is in full view.  The pictures thus presented and blending may be centuries or millenniums apart.  A like situation exists in the prophetic word.  An excellent example of this principle is found in Zechariah 9:9, 10.  In verse 9 the first coming of Christ is clearly set forth.  Then without any indication whatsoever the second coming of Christ is depicted in verse 10.  Approximately two thousand years separate these two events.  Nevertheless, they are blended together into a single prophecy.  In a similar matter the destruction of the forces of Gog before the Tribulation, found in Ezekiel 38:1-39:16, is blended with the destruction of the Antichrist at the end of the Tribulation, which prophecy is found in 39:17-29.

According to the scientific principles of biblical exegesis we see clearly the prediction concerning the two future invasions of Palestine and the complete overthrow of these military forces.

But penitent Israel, acknowledging her national sin and pleading for the return of the Messiah, will be delivered from her greatest enemy, the Antichrist and his forces.  She will be established, having been purged of all wicked and rebellious ones, in the land of her fathers and will become a blessing to the world and fill the earth with fruit (Isa. 27:2).

A
Study of II Thessalonians 2:1-12

By
David L. Cooper

            The two epistles of Paul to the Thessalonian church, the earliest of the New Testament books, are of the utmost importance to the prophetic student.  When the Apostle Pau first went to Thessalonica he remained there something like three weeks, establishing the church and building it up in the most holy faith.  Difficulties cut short his stay there.  Shortly after he arrived in Athens, he sent word back to Silas and Timothy, urging them to come with all speed to him at Athens.  They, in obedience to Paul’s exhortation, came quickly to him at Athens (Acts 17:15, 16).  About this time trouble broke out and involved the newly-established church in Thessalonica.  Upon learning the conditions that had developed after his departure, Paul sent Timothy back to it to comfort and to
assist it in this special trial of faith.  From the account in Acts we see that the unbelieving Jews were the occasion of part of their trouble, but by reading the second Thessalonian letter, chapter 2, we see that there were others, probably professed Christians, who were disquieting and troubling the Thessalonian brethren concerning certain doctrinal questions.  It is quite likely that, upon the arrival of Silas and Timothy from Thessalonica at Athens, Paul immediately wrote the first Thessalonian Epistle, which he sent by Timothy to the church at Thessalonica.  Shortly after that, he wrote his second letter to the church and was joined in sending it by Silas and Timothy, likewise.

During Paul’s visit to Thessalonica he not only preached the gospel, leading certain ones to the Lord, but he gave them thorough instruction, especially in the prophetic word, as is echoed especially in II Thessalonians, chapter 2.  The fact that the Apostle gave these raw converts from heathenism profound messages relative to prophecy shows that he considered prophecy as one of the essential and fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures.  Evangelists, pastors, and teachers today should make the prophetic portions of the Scriptures figure in their messages in the same proportion as it does in the Word of God.  In other words, they should give the same emphasis to prophecy that is given to it in the Word.

The Apostle Peter said that prophecy is to us that a lamp is to one who is in darkness (II Peter 1:17-21).  WE are to give heed to it, “. . . as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise” in our hearts.

May I in this connection exhort my brethren in the ministry that they study the prophetic portions of the Word the same as they do any other sections of the World of God, and that they give the same emphasis to the teaching of prophecy that the Biblical writers did.  In exhorting my brethren to do this, I am simply pleading for that which is admittedly scriptural.  If the Biblical teaching concerning prophecy is omitted from any brother’s ministry, his people
become a ready prey to false teachers, who are giving forth false speculative doctrines with reference to prophecy over the radio throughout the whole country.  I meet people everywhere who come to me with difficulties, stating that they have heard this, or that, or another teaching over the radio, and that they do not know what the truth is.  False teachers are constantly misleading many sincere brethren into error and away from the true, evangelical churches.

Just as this is true today, so it was in the days of the Apostles.  There were those who were setting forth teachings with reference to the rapture of the church and of the day of Jehovah.  They were persuading the brethren that the rapture had already occurred, and that the day of the Lord had already burst forth upon the world.  This teaching, of course, upset those new converts who had little of the truth—only that which they could take in during a short period of something like three weeks.

Paul realized that the false teachers who were giving trouble throughout the missionary field in which he labored were resorting to three different methods of upsetting the brethren and of setting forth their heresies.  He therefore alluded to their methods in the following exhortation:  “No we beseech
you, brethren . . . to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from you mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as
that the day of the Lord is just at hand; . . .” (II Thess. 2:1-2).  These false teachers were claiming that they had revelations made to them by the Spirit, which messages were contrary to those that the Apostle Paul had delivered.  They were also claiming that their information was derived from “the living voice,” the regular apostolic tradition that had been handed down from the day of our Lord.  Thus the new converts would be upset by “word.”  There were still others who were claiming that they had epistles from Paul which taught a different doctrine from that which he had taught them personally when he was with them.  False teachers, speculators, and heretics do not hesitate to worm their way into orthodox groups, presenting their error and claiming the authority of even recognized teachers and ministers of the Word.  It behooves the faithful child of God to prove all things and to hold fast to that which is good.  Especially is this exhortation necessary at the present day, for the Apostles warned us of the prevalence of false teachers in the last days.

There are certain things in II Thessalonians 2:1-13 that must stand out clearly and definitely in our minds if we are to evaluate the message of this paragraph of Holy Writ.  These things, in a nutshell, are the following:  I. The rapture of the church and the day of the Lord; II. The Antichrist and his activities; III. The world-wide revival and its sweep during the Tribulation Period, which culminates in the conversion of the remnant of Israel at the end of the Tribulation.

The Rapture of the Church and the
Day of the Lord

            “Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; 2 to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of Lord is just at hand; 3 let no man beguile you in any wise:  for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. . .”
(II Thess. 2:1-3).  In these verses we see the rapture of the church—“the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; . . . as that the day of the Lord is just at hand; . . . and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. . .”

What is meant by “the rapture of the church”?  The idea of the rapture of a saint is found in its embryonic form in Genesis 5:24:  “And Enoch walked with God:  and he was not; for God took him.”  The writer to the Hebrews refers to the same incident in the following words:  “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him. . .” (Heb. 11:5).  Enoch walked the life of faith with God.  Suddenly, one day, he disappeared from all earthly surroundings.  Where did he go?  What was the occasion of his disappearance?  The Lord performed a miracle, translating his body into a spiritual, glorified one.  Then he was rapidly removed from earth to heaven, where he has been with God ever since.  Elijah had a similar  experience (II Kings chapters 1 and 2).  There seems to be a reference to the rapture of the saints of the present Age of Grace in Isaiah 57:1-2):  “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.  2 He entereth into peace; they rest in their beds, each one that walketh in his uprightness.”  Note the statement that the righteous perish and that merciful men are taken away, “. . . none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come” (the evil of the Tribulation Period).  Micah, in 7:1-6), gives us a very graphic picture of the end of this Age of Grace.  In verse 2 of this passage he speaks of the godly and of their perishing from this earth and of there being none upright among the people upon earth.  This language, read in the light of the New Testament revelation, can be interpreted only as a reference to the decreasing number of faithful, loyal, born-again children of God upon the earth in the end of the age and of the removal of such from earthly scenes by means of the rapture.

In I Thessalonians Paul emphasized the rapture of the saints before the Tribulation.  This is seen in the following passage:  “For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come” (I Thess. 1:9-10).  These brethren turned from idols to God for the purpose of serving “a living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven . . . who delivereth us from the wrath to come.”  The Old Testament prophets constantly spoke of a period of wrath and indignation, when God would send His judgments upon the whole world in order to destroy the wicked from the face of the globe.  Predictions of this character were familiar to the New Testament writers.  John the Baptist referred to this same day of judgment by the stereotyped phrase, “the wrath to come.”  Paul used the same expression in the quotation given above: “. . . even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come.”  Certain good brethren see in Paul’s use of the Greek preposition ek, which literally means, out of, evidence for believing that the church is not raptured before the Tribulation but is allowed to enter that period of judgment, that is, they will be protected from the effects of the judgments of the Tribulation.  To illustrate their meaning, they call our attention to the fact that the Hebrew children were cast into the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar, but that they were preserved from the killing effect of the fire by the miraculous power of God Almighty.  Though the primary meaning of this preposition, ek,
is “out of” in the New Testament period, it was used on many occasions as a synonym of the preposition apo, which primarily means “from,” or “away from.”
While this is true and must be recognized in our interpretation of the Scriptures, we must remember that the original and fundamental idea of ek still was inherent in the word.  Frequently the writer had only that thought in mind, as is shown by many contexts.

But it does not have the forced, strained meaning that is put upon it by the interpretation of the passage under discussion; because Paul, in the same
Epistle, I Thessalonians, said, “God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thess. 5:9).  According to this statement Christians are not “appointed unto wrath,” will not enter that period of judgment.  For, according to the plan of God, they are appointed unto the obtaining of salvation, that is, deliverance, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In I Thessalonians 4:13—5:11 we have a full and clear statement concerning the way the Lord will deliver us from the wrath to come.  From this passage we see that the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God.  Then the dead in Christ will rise first.  The saints living upon the earth at that time will not die, but will be caught up instantly by the power of God and will be brought immediately into the presence of Christ meeting Him in the air.  He then will return to heaven and will take us with Him.  Thus the generation of Christians living at that time when the Lord descends from heaven to the air before the Tribulation will never die, but will pass out of this life in the glorious manner thus described.  This event is known as the rapture of the saints.  That is what Paul refers to in II Thessalonians, chapter 2, where he speaks of the coming of the Lord and our gathering together unto Him.

The day of Jehovah, or the day of the Lord, is mentioned often in the Old Testament Prophets.  For instance, see Joel 1:15 and 2:1.  Isaiah, likewise speaks of it in 2:12ff.  Jeremiah also speaks of this same time of trouble, though he does not call it the day of Jehovah.  He points to it as a time of unparalleled
suffering and distress.  He refers to it as “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:4-11).   John, in the Book of Revelation, gives us the fullest and most detailed account of the Tribulation in chapters 6-19.  It is a period of seven years’ duration, during which the judgments of God will fall upon the earth, growing in intensity as the days pass.

From the verses that we have already quoted from II Thessalonians, chapter 2, it appears clear that the false teachers who had come to Thessalonica had tried to convince the brethren that the day of the Lord, this period of unparalleled suffering, had burst forth upon them, and consequently, that the rapture had already occurred—and they had been left out.  Such a presentation of the case was indeed disturbing to those brethren.  Paul, therefore, lost no time in getting in touch with them to show the error of these false teachers.  Paul’s treatment of error should be an example to us to deal firmly, yet in love, with error wherever it shows it head and, if necessary, to deal drastically with it, as Paul did.

CHAPTER
II

            In the preceding study we have been that the rapture of the church occurs before the Tribulation, and that the day of the Lord is the seven-year period with which the present Age of Grace terminates, and which is to be a period of unparalleled suffering because of the judgments of Almighty God, that come upon the world as a result of the sins of humanity.  We wish now to study particularly what the Scriptures say concerning the Antichrist, who is mentioned, and who is to be the dominant character of the Tribulation Period.

“Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; 2 to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand; 3 let no man beguile you in any wise:  for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, 4 he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God” (II Thess. 2:1-4).

In this passage the Apostle urged the Thessalonians that they not allow anyone to beguile them in any wise “for it (the day of the Lord, the Tribulation) will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. . .”  What will not be, except the falling away and the revealing of the man of sin occur first?  There is but one possible, logical answer, which is, the day of the Lord, the Tribulation.  It is very unfortunate indeed that the King James Version rendered the last clause of II Thessalonians 2:2 as follows: “as that the day of Christ is at hand.”  The Revised Version, following the original Greek, correctly renders the expression under the consideration, “the day of the Lord.”  The “day of Christ” has two connotations in the New Testament:  the day of His coming fort His saints before the Tribulation; and the tine when Christ shall reign upon the earth, which will be His day.  But Paul does not have that thought in mind in II Thessalonians, chapter 2, as we have already seen, but is thinking, instead, of “the day of the Lord,” that is, the Tribulation Period.  Those who were trying to lead the Thessalonians astray literally told them that the day of the Lord had already come.  The verb in the original translated in 2:2 “is just at hand” is in the perfect tense and could be rendered more accurately as “is already here,” or, “has already come.”  All who know the characteristics of the day of Jehovah know that that day has never dawned.  Thus these false teachers were misguiding the Thessalonian brethren.

Paul informed them that this day of the Lord, the Tribulation, would not come until the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed.  In other words, the falling away and the revealing of the man of sin both occur before the Tribulation begins.  What is meant by “the falling away”?  According to Abbot-Smith’s Greek Lexicon of the New Testament the word in the original text translated “the falling away” is used in Late Greek for a cognate noun, which is used in classical Greek, and which, very frequently, was used to refer to a political revolt.  Also this same word occurs in the Septuagint, with the same connotation.  But in the New Testament it always refers to a religious apostasy.  There is an illustration of this usage in Acts 21:21.  There can, therefore, be no doubt  concerning our term’s referring to a religious, spiritual revolt away from God.

But the suggestion has been made by an excellent brother, a Bible teacher whom we all love and honor, that possibly this term in II Thessalonians 2:3 may not have this connotation.  The reason for his suggestion is the fact that the verb from which our word is derived does in one place in non-Biblical Greek of the sixth century A.D. have the same connotation of “departure, disappearance.”  See Liddell & Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, edited by Jones and McKenzie, under the word apostasia.  The brother to whom I refer made the suggestion that possibly in II Thessalonians 2:3 this term, rendered “falling away,” might be translated “departure, disappearance.”  In this event it would, therefore, refer to the taking away of the saints out of the world, the rapture
of the church, before the Tribulation.  There is only a very remote possibility that Paul used it with this connotation, since only one other writer is listed as having used it with that meaning.  But are we to choose a very indefinite meaning of this term in order to support a doctrine, which in this instance is correct, in order to strengthen our position?  Logic says “no.”  On the contrary, we are to take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the context in which it appears indicates a departure from the obvious meaning.  IN such an event as that we are simply to take the meaning, or definition, of a word that accords with all the facts of the context and with related passages.  Are there any facts in the context of our passage that would indicate a departure from the primary, ordinary, usual meaning of this term?  One will look in vain for such.  We must therefore conclude that the usual
understanding of the term, “falling away,” is to be understood as a prediction of the great apostasy from the faith of the end time.  That there will be such a general falling away from the faith is attested to by many Scriptures, both in the Old and the New Testaments.  (See I Tim. 4:1-4; II Tim. 3:1-5; II Tim. 4:1-4.)  A glance at the conditions which now prevail throughout Christendom convinces any unprejudiced, unbiased mind that there is a definite defection from the faith, and that it is growing more and more, bidding fair to become a spiritual landslide from the faith as we approach the very end of the age.

A second thing which Paul asserted would occur before the Tribulation is the revealing of the man of sin.  The meaning of “revealed” is clear to all.  It can only indicate that this one will become known.  The thought here is that his identity will become known before the great Tribulation bursts forth upon the world.  In order to approach this problem, we must learn what is meant, or rather, who is meant, by “the man of sin. . . the son of perdition.”  There are a number of answers given to this question.  Some say that Judas Iscariot will be raised from the dead in the end time and will be the man of sin.  One reason for this statement is found in John 17:12, where Jesus speaks of Judas as “the son of perdition.”  The word rendered “perdition” is derived from the term which means “to utterly destroy; to kill; to lose; to perish.”  The source of this word might be seen by translating literally our Lord’s language”  “. . . and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, except the son of perishing. . . “  Judas  perishing—losing all hope of eternal life—was expressed by the Hebrew idiom, “the son of perishing.”  For us to build a theory—that Judas will arise from the dead and be the son of perdition, the Antichrist of the future—upon the language of our Lord is indeed, to say the least of it, most questionable.  Others say that Nero, the first Roman emperor to launch a general persecution against the Christians, will be the son of perdition.  This is a mere guess, without a scintilla of evidence to support it.  There are those who, following the theologians of the Reformation, say that the Pope is the man of sin, the son of perdition.  There is no valid reason, so far as I have been able to discover, that has been produced, and that would lead us to the positive conviction that Paul was here speaking of the Pope as the man of sin.  This interpretation, in my judgment, arose historically because of the demands of the period of the Reformation.  There had to be some scriptural proof for the Reformed theologians to castigate the Pope and to consign him to perdition.  This passage yielded itself more readily as a weapon against the Papacy of that day and time—as I see things.  Finally, the world dictator of the end time, the Antichrist, is considered by many outstanding scholars of spiritual discernment to be the one of whom Paul is here speaking, which proposition I shall proceed to establish, with incontrovertible evidence.

Having mentioned the man of sin, the son of perdition, in II Thessalonians 2:3, the Apostle, in verse 4, speaks of this man of sin in terms of the language descriptive of the willful king of whom we read in Daniel 11:36ff.  To make this stand out in bold relief, let me present the case this way:  “Paul, of
whom are you speaking in your mentioning the man of sin, the son of perdition?”  “Oh,” replies Paul, “I am talking about the man of whom Daniel spoke in the eleventh chapter of his prophecy.  Do you not know what Daniel said about the willful king?”  Here is his prediction:  “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods; and he shall prosper till  the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done.  37 Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all. 38 But in his place shall be honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things.  39 And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god:  whosoever acknowledgeth him he will increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.  40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.  41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand:  Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon” (Dan. 11:36-41).

Note the fact that the king will do according to his will; but he will exalt himself and magnify himself above every god.  And he will speak great things against the God of gods, the true God.  He will not accept the gods of his fathers (he being a Roman [Dan. 9:26], the gods of his fathers are the old Roman gods
brought back into existence in the end time); nor will he regard the desire of women (the Messiah, who is thus spoken of, since all Jewish women of ancient
times wanted to be the mother of the promised Messiah); nor regard any of the pagan gods that will be worshiped in the end time.  From various passages of scripture we know that, after the church has been removed from the earth by the rapture, idolatry will spread like a prairie fire all over the world.  (On this point see Isaiah 2:20-22; 17:7-8; 57:3-10; Rev. 9:20-21.)  the old pagan gods will be brought back by the benighted people of the earth, that they may worship them.  All of these will be built into one great world church, or organization, which by John in Revelation 17:5 is called “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Harlots and of the Abominations [idols] of the Earth.”  The world government will support this great harlot during the first three and a half years of the Tribulation.  In the middle of this period, however, the Antichrist—becoming insanely jealous of the love of the people and their devotion to this ecclesiasticism (this diabolical octopus) will, like a bucking bronco, throw Mystery, Babylon the Great, off its back and will destroy this system.  He will speak against it and all religion, even blaspheming the God of heaven and opposing all that is called God or that is worshiped.  Then he will present himelf as God  and demand the worship of all mankind.  Since Paul identifies the man of sin as this wicked, evil ruler of the end time, we know who this man of sin is.

But Paul tells us that the Tribulation will not begin until after this man of sin is revealed.  What is the significance of this prediction?  How can the man of sin be revealed before the Tribulation?  This question can be answered only by a careful noting of the facts set forth in Daniel, chapter 7.  In this chapter
Daniel was given a vision of four beasts that emerge from the great sea when the waters are troubled.  They come forth in succession and, according to fundamental scholars interpreting prophecy, are symbolic of the four world empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.  Each succeeds its predecessor in the order given in this vision.  The fourth beast is in existence at the time of the end and speaks great, swelling words against the Almighty (Dan. 7:8).

According to Daniel 7:17, 23 the beast has a twofold symbolic significance:  In certain connections it symbolizes the ruler of the empire, as in verse 17.  But in another connection, as in verse 23, it signifies the kingdom over which the individual ruler reigns.

This fourth beast, according to verse 23, is a fourth kingdom upon the earth which is different from all its predecessors, which devours the whole earth, treads it down, and breaks it in pieces.  In other words, it becomes a world empire.

In verse 24 we have this prediction:  “And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise:  and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings.”  The angel interpreted to Daniel the significance of the ten horns on this beast by the following prophecy:  “And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise. . .”  Out of what kingdom?  There is but one answer:  the fourth kingdom when it has become a world organization.  But out of that world empire there come ten kings.  How can this be?  Most obviously this world kingdom collapses, falling into ten different divisions, over each of which there arises a dictator.  After such a world-shaking event as the collapse of the world empire, each of these ten dictators will have problems with which none of them can cope.  Then there will arise another horn, another dictator.  He will gain power over the ten and will put down three of the original ten.  When he thus gains that much power, he will then speak words against the Most High and wear out the saints of the Almighty.  Moreover, he will change the times and the laws and reign with a high hand for “a time, times, and half a time,” for three and a half years, the latter half of the Tribulation.

CHAPTER
III

            Now let us visualize the situation as set forth in Daniel, chapter 7.  A world organization develops and embraces all languages, tribes, and tongues.  It
then tramples down our civilization and rules with an iron hand.  When that development comes, those who are on the earth at that time, and who know the Scriptures, will recognize the fulfillment of this prophecy in the current political situation.  Then that world empire collapses, falling into ten separate subdivisions, over each of which is a dictator arises, and in which he seizes the supreme power of the realm.  Such procedures have been enacted upon a small scale at different times in various parts of the world.  Thus we see in Daniel 7:24 the ten fragments of the world empire, the ten divisions, signified by the ten toes of Daniel’s image of chapter 2.

While these ten dictators are grappling with their several problems, there arises out of obscurity a diplomat and politician of the highest order, who will be able to advise each of these rulers how to solve his problems.  Of course, he will lay an exorbitant levy upon each king for helping him.  Thus world power, prestige, and influence will gravitate into the hands of this newly arrived diplomat.  He will become associated with these ten kings shortly after their accession to power in their respective realms.  The collapse of the world empire will occur before the Tribulation begins.  In stepping forward upon the international
scene, this great smooth-tongued diplomat and far-sighted statesman (he will acquire his ability and amiability, together with his sagacity, wisdom, and
insight into things from Satan) naturally assumes the leadership of these ten grateful dictators whom he assists so very wonderfully.  Those living upon the earth at the time of this specific development, and who will know what the prophet Daniel says, will be able to point the finger of identification at this smooth diplomat and say with absolute and perfect confidence:  “There is a man of sin, the son of perdition, the Antichrist!”  Thus his identity will become known, as Paul says, before the Tribulation begins.

As things move along, this willful king will make a covenant with the Jews for seven years (Dan. 9:24-247).

The little horn, the Antichrist, reigns along with the ten horns, the ten dictators, during the first half of the Tribulation.  All this time the willful king, being jealous of the others and aspiring to wear the imperial purple of world dominion, builds up his forces and “in his place shall be honor the god of fortresses”—by giving the adoration due to God alone to his great military machine and putting his trust in it.

Finally, in the middle of the Tribulation, World War II of the Tribulation bursts forth, when the king of the South comes against the Antichrist.  Then the king of the North rises up like a whirlwind against him.  The conflagration spreads to the entire world against him.  The conflagration spreads to the entire world, only three countries not being affected by it, namely, Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.  In this war three of the original ten kings are killed, liquidated.  The seven others simply become rubber stamps, figuratively speaking, in the hands of the Antichrist, who reigns with absolute, unquestioned authority for the rest of the Tribulation, which will continue “for a time, times, and half a time…” to the end of the period.

In the middle of the Tribulation, at the end of World War II of the Tribulation, the willful king will arrogate to himself the honor and the worship that belong to God alone.  He will go to Jerusalem and stage the greatest demonstration of superhuman (diabolical) power that the world ever has or ever will see.  Those whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life from the foundation of the world, their eyes being blinded to spiritual things, will give honor and glory and praise to this willful king.

Having learned who the man of sin, the son of perdition, is, namely, that he is the willful king of Daniel, chapter 11, we can now return to our passage in II Thessalonians (chapter 2) and notice the text more particularly.  In verse 3 Paul is talking about the falling away from the faith and the identification, or revealing, of the man of sin, both of which events occur before the day of the Lord begins, before the Tribulation.  Then, in verse 4, in order to let us know of whom he is speaking, Paul describes this man of sin in terms of the attitude and actions of the willful king in the middle of the Tribulation, as we see in Daniel 11:36ff.  Thus, in II Thessalonians 2:4, Paul has moved forward in his thinking to the middle of the Tribulation Period and the great and world-shaking events
that occur at that time.  It is of the utmost importance that we see these facts; for if we do not, we cannot understand the rest of the prophecy.

Verse 5, 6, and 7 constitute a reminiscence.  This fact is evident from the word remember, with which verse 5 begins.  Let us now look at these three verses:  “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?  6 And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.  7 For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work:  only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way.”  It is evident from verse 5 that Paul had taught the Thessalonian Christians about the rise of the willful king, the man of sin, the Antichrist.  He had told them
of his rise and his coming into prominence before the Tribulation.  He likewise had told them about the Tribulation and about World War II of the Tribulation and its results—the Antichrist being lifted to the pinnacle of absolute world domination.  According to verse 6 Paul said that, since he had taught them these things, they therefore knew the thing of which he was speaking in this chapter.  “For,” said the Apostle, “the mystery of lawlessness doth already work. . .”  The conjunction “for” introducing verse 7 shows that this verse is explanatory of the things referred to in verse 6.  Since verse 6 is tied indissolubly with verse
5 by the particle “now,” and since verse 7 is linked with verse 6 by the conjunction “for,”, verses 5, 6, and 7 constitute one literary unit.  And since verse 5 is obviously a reminiscence of what he had taught them while he was with them personally, verses 5-7 are discussing the things mentioned in verse 4: the events that will occur, as set forth by Daniel 11:36ff., in the middle of the Tribulation.  From this conclusion there can be no logical escape.  Recognizing the parenthetical nature of verses 5-7, we can logically read verse 8 immediately after verse 4, for it takes up the thought of verse 4, which precedes the parenthesis.

But before explaining this connection, let us note a very significant fact which is buried in the context of the original.  All nouns in the Greek are in one of the three genders:  masculine, feminine, and neuter.  Gender in Greek, as in German, does not have a sex connotation.  In verse 6 Paul speaks of “that which restraineth,” using the relative pronoun in the neuter gender.  In verse 7, speaking of the one restraining, he declared that “there is one that restraineth now,” or, “he who restrains.”  Here he uses the masculine gender.

The restraining power, influence, or person referred to here is often interpreted as the Holy Spirit in the church.  Those taking this position say that the restraining power is removed when the church is raptured, for with the church the Holy Spirit will depart from the world.  There can be no doubt in the mind of any thinking, serious person that the Holy Spirit in the church does hinder, to a certain extent at least, the spread of evil and its activity.  All must admit that there is truth in such an interpretation.

But the question here is, Was Paul talking about the Holy Spirit in the church?  I see great difficulties in accepting this position.  One of these is as follows:  The word church, in the Greek language, is in the feminine gender.  The word for Spirit is in the neuter gender.  If Paul were talking about the Holy Spirit in the church, certainly he would have used his pronouns in those two genders that are involved in the words, church and Spirit, namely, the feminine and the neuter genders.  Did he do that?  The answer is, No.  What did he do?  He used the neuter and the masculine gender.  Paul certainly knew how to use the Greek language.  The fact that he did not use the feminine gender, but rather employed the masculine, causes me to question very seriously the correctness of said interpretation.

Another fact in this context prevents my accepting the interpretation now under consideration.  We have already seen that in verse 3 Paul was talking about the period before the Tribulation.  In order to identify the man of sin, who is revealed to the world before the Tribulation, the Apostle spoke of him in terms of that which he does in the middle of the Tribulation.  Since in verse 4 we are in the middle of the Tribulation Period, since verses 5-7 are parenthetical
and deal with the events mentioned in verse 4, the cause hindering the development of lawlessness is removed in the middle of the tribulation.  Is the church raptured in the middle of the Tribulation?  There are some excellent brethren who answer this question in the affirmative.  But, according to my studies, I have never been able to accept that position.  I am absolutely convinced that the church will be removed, as I have already said before in these articles, before the
Tribulation begins.  Christ, as we have already seen, will deliver us from the wrath to come, for we are not appointed unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation from the wrath through the Lord Jesus Christ (I Thess. 4:13—5:11).

If the Holy Spirit in the church is not the restraining force or power, what then is that power?  Who is the one restraining until he be taken out of the way?  The answer to this question is to be found, as I am convinced, in the record of Daniel 11:36ff, when studied in the light of the facts set forth in Daniel, chapter 7.  This willful king reigns along with the ten other dictators during the first half of the Tribulation.  Even though he, the Antichrist, has the pre-eminence, nevertheless the does not have the liberty and the freedom which he wishes, but is held in check by the others.  When, however, World War II of the Tribulation Period bursts forth upon the world in the middle of the seven years of judgment and three of the ten kings are liquidated and the rest of them become simply rubber stamps—yes men—then, and not until then, does this willful king have freedom of action to pursue his favorite phantom.  When,
however, those three kings who are liquidated are removed from the scene of action, all human restraints are removed.  Then the Antichrist moves forward in his self-willed, determined manner without any limitations whatsoever. Of course, he will, as we learn from various scriptures, be energized and assisted by Satan himself.  (See Rev. Chapter 13)

Remembering what we have learned above, namely, that verses 5-7 constitute a parenthesis in the argument which explains in detail why and how it is that the Antichrist will, in the middle of the Tribulation, oppose all that is called God or that is worshiped as God and will take his seat in the temple of God, saying that he is God, let us now read II Thessalonians 2:8 as if it followed verse 4 immediately.  Viewed in this light, the passage reads thus:  “. . .he  Antichrist] that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. . . 8 And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the God Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the  manifestation of his coming. . .”  The adverb then of verse 8 manifestly refers to the time when the willful king sets himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped as God and sets himself forth to the people as God.  But a study of Daniel, chapter 11, shows that he does this thing in the middle of the Tribulation Period.  Hence, in the middle of the Tribulation the lawless one is revealed for the second time.  In what sense is he revealed this time?  Not as to his identity, because that is made known before the Tribulation.  But he is revealed as to his character—his being the lawless one, an individual who has no regard for law, or respect for God or man.  He manifests this type of character in the middle of the Tribulation, when he assumes dictatorial powers.

Paul speaks of the Antichrist’s coming and of its being according “to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceit of unrighteousness. . .” (II Thess. 2:9-10).  Of what coming is the Apostle speaking?  The answer to this question is probably found in Revelation 13:3 and
17:8.  In World War II of the Tribulation it seems that the Antichrist receives the stroke of death, that he actually dies, but that his spirit is brought back from Sheol by Satan.  His spirit re-enters his body; hence he comes back to life again.  At that time, according to Revelation, chapter 13, Satan gives him his throne and power.  Then he puts on a mighty demonstration of supernatural power, performing miracles at Jerusalem as is seen in Revelation, chapter 13.

So far as human authority is concerned, this willful king will have absolute, unquestioned power and will act according to the dictates of his own will and his human and satanically inspired desires.  Woe be unto the world and those living in it at that time!

CHAPTER
IV

            And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming; 9 even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 and with all deceit of  nrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  11 And for this cause God sendeth them a
working of error, that they should believe a lie:  12 that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thess. 2:8-12).

In the preceding study we have seen that the revealing of the man of sin in the middle of the Tribulation is making known the type of character he is, the
lawless one, the willful king.  When he thus stages his great demonstration of super-natural, satanic powers at the time of his going to the city of Jerusalem, “he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.”  The purpose of such superhuman, diabolical powers is to convince the people of the world
that he is God, and that men must worship him alone; for there will be actual manifestations of satanic power and signs and lying wonders (to support the lie
that the Antichrist is God).  Every kind of trick of deception and of unrighteousness will be practiced in order to cover up any possibility of detection concerning the nature of the power and the falsity of the claims that will be put forth by this willful king.

Though this demonstration of power will be staged for the purpose of convincing all men that the Antichrist is God and must be worshiped, all will not be convinced.  There will be only a certain class of people who will be deceived.  The Apostle Paul speaks of them as “them that perish.”  God will allow him to display this power, might, and authority in order that those that perish may be deceived and, consequently, that they may be lost.

Who constitutes this group of those that perish?  The answer is to be found in the clause following this expression:  “. . . because they [those perishing]
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  11 And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie:  12 that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (vss. 10-12).  Now we know who comprises this company:  those who receive not the love of the truth, but who have pleasure in unrighteousness.  We see from this statement that they will have had an opportunity of receiving the truth, but spurn it and have pleasure in unrighteousness.  This statement shows that the truth, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, will have been given to all men, but a certain portion of the human family refuses to receive a love of the truth and prefers to engage in the pleasures of unrighteousness.  Who at this future time in the Tribulation Period will give the truth to the world and let even those who do not want the truth have an opportunity of hearing it?

The question just asked is to be answered by an investigation of the passages of scripture which look forward to this special time of the Tribulation.  To Abraham, God said that He would bless all nations in him and in his seed (Gen. 12:3; 22:15-18).  These scriptures promise that the blessing of God will flow out to the entire world through Abraham’s literal descendants, Christ himself being the Seed par excellence.  The sacred hymn writer, in Psalm 67:1-2 for sees Israel’s pleading for mercy and for God’s’ blessings, “that thy way may be known upon earth, thy salvation among all nations.”  Since the Jewish people have never prayed in this manner, and since the Word of God cannot be broken, we may be certain that they will yet pray as here foretold and will give forth the truth to all nations.  This prayer and prophecy are in perfect alignment with the original passages in Genesis to which reference has already been made.

But when will the truth be given and the people of the earth turn to the Lord?  Isaiah 17:7-8 answers this question:  “7 In that day shall men look unto their Maker, and their eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.  8 And they shall not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they have respect to that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images.”  Isaiah uses the phrase “in that day” to refer to the Tribulation Period.  Thus in vision he sees the bulk of humanity turning to God, giving up their idols which they will have accepted, and turning to God.  In Isaiah 24:1-20, we have a vivid, graphic description of the Tribulation Period.  In the midst of the horror, persecution, and suffering of that time of judgment, there will be a mighty turning to God as is seen in verses 14-16a:  “These shall lift up their voice, they shall shout; for the majesty of Jehovah they cry aloud from the sea.  15 Wherefore glorify ye Jehovah in the east, even the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, in the isles of the sea.  16 From the uttermost part of the earth have
we heard songs:  Glory to the righteous.”  Confirmation of this position is found in Isaiah 26:9.  But if men, in general, will not turn to the Lord now when the gospel is preached, how can we hope that they will turn to Him in vast hosts during the Tribulation?  That question is answered in the verse just mentioned:  “. . . when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”  WE are told that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.  God does not have an opportunity to speak to the hearts of men today, because they are engrossed in the cares, responsibilities, and pleasures of life.  But when they are brought to the end of self by the judgments of the Tribulation, then, and then alone, will they listen to the gospel message, which will at that time be proclaimed.  Then the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.  Because the phrase, “the inhabitants of the world,” is used, we can interpret the prediction only as indicating that the greater portion of the human family will turn to the Lord when His judgments are in the earth, that is, during the Tribulation Period.

Finally, let us now turn to the seventh chapter of the Book of Revelation for the classical passage which deals with the world-wide revival in the  Tribulation Period.  In order that we may see the setting of this revival, it becomes necessary for me to call attention to the general outline of the Book of Revelation.  This last book of the Bible falls into three general divisions:  “the things which thou sawest” (chap. 1); “and the things which are” (chap. 2 and 3)—the seven churches, which reflect the course of history of the church through the centuries; “and the things which shall come to pass hereafter [after the Church Age]” (chaps. 4-22)—the Tribulation and that which follows.

Chapters 4 and 5 give us a vision of the throne of God in heaven as it will be set for judgment (Ps. 9:7).  The chronological order of events as they will occur during the Tribulation is set forth in chapters 6, 8, 9, 15 and 16.  These judgments consist of the seal judgments, which cover probably the first quarter
of the seven years of the Tribulation.  Chapters 8 and 9, which give the trumpet judgments, set forth the terrific plagues of God that will fall upon the earth during the second quarter of the Tribulation.  Chapter 16, which describes the bowl judgments, portrays graphically the series of judgments that fall upon the earth during the latter half of the Tribulation.  Chapter 15, however, prepares one for the understanding of these bowl calamities found in chapter 16.  The  other chapters (7 and 10-14) give the stage setting, as it were, in order that we might understand the situation when these judgments fall.  Chapters 17, 18
and 19, inserted in the record (according to the Law of Recurrence), give in detail the destruction of Babylon the harlot in the middle of the Tribulation
(chapter 17), the great ecclesiastical octopus which will have the world in its clutches during the first half of the Tribulation; the destruction of Babylon
the city—which will be rebuilt—at the end of the Tribulation (chap. 18); and the marriage supper of the Lamb and the second coming of the Lord to fight in
the war of the great day of God the Almighty, also at the end of the Tribulation (chap. 19).

Upon His return to this earth, our Lord lifts the curse and sets up His reign of righteousness upon the earth and reigns for a thousand years—as we see from Revelation, chapter 20.  The reign of Christ is followed by the unloosing of Satan for a little season, during which short period he deceives the nations upon the earth.  At this time there is a demonstration against Christ’s reign, in the form of a mighty youth movement and a march against Jerusalem.  The fire comes down out of heaven and consumes these participants in this anti-Christian exhibition.  Immediately after that the material heavens and earth flee away—vanish:  “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them” (Rev. 20:11).  Then the judgment of the great white throne is set, before which the lost are raised and to which they are brought to hear their fate and their doom pronounced.

After the judgment of the great white throne, there will be the creation of the eternal order consisting of the eternal heavens and the eternal earth.  Then the eternal Jerusalem will come down out of the new heaven upon the eternal earth.  This will be the home of the blessed forever and ever.

Chapter 7 of Revelation is sandwiched between chapter 6, which gives us the seal judgments, and chapters 8 and 9, which present judgments.  What do we see in chapter 7?  In the first place, there is the sealing of 144,000 Jews, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.  These are literal Jews, who are sealed so that none of the judgments of the Tribulation can affect them in any way.  This group has never yet been formed.  It never will be called forth until the Tribulation has begun.  There cannot be a single Gentile among them.  I am thoroughly aware that there are those who claim that the group to which they belong are the ones of whom John is here speaking; but such claims are fallacious, because they are not Jews, and because the time has not come for
bringing the 144,000 into existence.  Those making claims to being members of the 144,000 are simply deluded and misguided.

Immediately after we read of the sealing of these 144,000 Jewish servants of God, we are told that John saw a vision of an innumerable host of people from every nation, tribe, tongue, and language standing before the throne of God, which indicates that they are saved people.  Hear the Apostle:  “9 After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; 10 and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9, 10).  This host, undoubtedly, are groups of people from every nation, tribe, tongue, and language, who are redeemed and who are ascribing their salvation “unto our God, who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

John was interested in this mighty throng of saved people.  One of the elders, an angelic being, spoke to John and asked him if he knew who these people were.  To his question John replied, “My lord, thou knowest.”  Then this angelic being explained the situation entirely to John in the following words:  “These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  15 Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve him day and night in his temple:  and he that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them” (Rev. 7:14-15).

Who are they?  The inspired Apostle John said that the angelic creature told him that those constituting this great assembly are the ones who “come out of the great tribulation,” and who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  This host is innumerable.  There is no method by which they can be counted.  They come out of “the tribulation, the great one.”  In this last sentence I have rendered the Greek literally.  The idiom, thus translated, lays the emphasis both upon the idea of the Tribulation and also upon the fact that it is the great one, the greatest tribulation of all time.  Can anyone who is saved now during this age be in that group?  The answer is a most emphatic denial.  These people whom John saw hear the Word during the Tribulation, accept Christ, wash their robes, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.  They are saved during the Tribulation and come out of it.

When we view this chapter in the light of the information which we have already gleaned, namely, that God intends to bless all nations in and through Abraham’s literal seed who are sealed for service in the first part of the Tribulation; and when we see the results of the preaching of the Word—an innumerable host of converts from every nation, tribe, tongue, and language—then we can come to but one conclusion:  namely, that thee 144,000 Jewish evangelists are the ones who conduct the mightiest of all soul-saving campaigns in the first part of the Tribulation and lead the greater part of humanity to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ:    “. . . for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9).

But one wishes to know more about these 144,000 Jewish servants who conduct this mighty soul-saving campaign.  They are certainly not in the church; for, if they were, they would be taken up at the time of the rapture, which occurs before the Tribulation, as we have already seen.  But these Jewish servants are here on the earth in the first part of the Tribulation.  They evidently learn the truth after the church is gone, and in the first part of the Tribulation.  How can they?  God never gives anyone a hypodermic injection of Biblical knowledge.  Paul had to study to show himself approved unto God, and so did Timothy.  Paul urged Timothy to bring the parchments and the books to him, when he was in Rome.  He was a student of the Word.  All people who have a knowledge of the Bible today are students of it.  When we visualize the situation that is presupposed in Revelation, chapter 7, we come to this conclusion; namely, that we who have the truth now must give it to Israel at the present time, before the rapture.  Our giving the Word of God to the nation of Israel is like the sowing of seed in a dry, barren field which has, however, a few moist spots here and there.  The seed that is sowed broadcast will remain in the dry soil of indifference; but that which lights in the moist spots—in the hearts of those seeking the truth—will germinate and produce fruit immediately.  Thus it is that we must now scatter the seed, the Word of God, all over the dry soil of uninterested Israel, not counting the cost, and look to God for the increase.

There are here and there moist spots, honest truth seekers into whose hearts the seed falls today, and who accept the Lord.  Of course, they are added to the body of Christ and will be taken up at the time of the rapture.  But this seed that we are now sowing in Israel is falling on the dry ground of particularly
uninterested hearts.  When, however, the judgments of the great Tribulation begin to fall upon them, this seed will germinate in the hearts of 144,000 Jewish men, “Apostle Pauls” of that future time.  They will arise in the strength of their God.  They will take up, figuratively speaking, the banner of Prince Immanuel, that is dropped by the ascending church, and they will go forward as a mighty phalanx for God, proclaiming the truth to all nations.  They will do it in the power of the Spirit and will win untold hundreds of millions of people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in the first part of the Tribulation.

What a wonderful opportunity of investing in the Lord’s cause by helping in the seed-sowing in all Israel!  By doing this, a person will be helping to prepare these future evangelists, who will bring hundreds of millions of souls, those that have never even once heard the truth, to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  No greater investment in God’s cause can be made than that of giving the truth to these future evangelists and of preparing them for that major role,
which they are yet to play in the history of the world.

Practically all the honest hearts who are seeking the truth during the first part of the Tribulation will accept the Lord Jesus Christ.  Many of them, however, will go home to glory by way of the chopping block, as we see in Revelation, chapter 6.  But there will be great hosts of people who will not receive a love of the truth as it is presented by these Jewish evangelists.  On the contrary, they will have pleasure in unrighteousness.  When people have had an
opportunity of receiving the truth and spurn it, preferring the sordid things of this life in preference to the blessings of God for time and eternity, then God sends them strong delusions in order that they might believe a lie and be condemned.

That is exactly why God permits the Antichrist, in the very middle of the Tribulation, to stage the greatest display of superhuman, diabolical power that
the world ever witnesses.  When, therefore, the Antichrist goes to Jerusalem, sits in the Jewish temple (rebuilt), and performs miracles which probably will be broadcast to the world by radio and by television, then those who will have gone through the revivals that sweep the world in the first half of the Tribulation, and who spurn the truth and have pleasure in unrighteousness, will be blinded and hardened and will be caused to believe the lie of Satan and of the Antichrist.

The Antichrist at that time—in the middle of the Tribulation—will demand that all people worship him as God.  Moreover, he will require that they take his name, or the number of his name, on their right hands and on their foreheads.  The unsaved, who will have rejected the truth and had pleasure in  unrighteousness, will readily take the mark of the beast.  By so doing, they seal their doom for time and for eternity.  The Antichrist, by his actions at that time,
brings the work of God throughout the world to a standstill.  The prophet Habakkuk saw this, the stopping of the work of God in the midst of the years of  wrath. He therefore prayed for God to revive His work in the midst of those years of wrath.  “O Jehovah, revive thy work in the midst of the years; In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2).  In answer to that petition, and doubtless to the petitions of many myriads of others, the work of God will be revived in the middle of the Tribulation Period; but because of the times and the character of the latter half of the Tribulation, it will be impossible for the work of God to go on in the open, mighty, and manifest way in which it does during the first half of the Tribulation.  In my judgment, the preaching of the gospel will, to a certain extent, go underground.  There will be a silent testimony which will be preached, nevertheless, at that time.  This fact is set forth by the announcement of the angel “flying in mid heaven, having eternal good tidings to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth and unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people” (Rev. 14:6).

Many of those who turn to the Lord during the latter half of the Tribulation will, like their fellow-martyrs during the first part of the Tribulation, go home to glory by way of the chopping block.

“Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing;

Were not the right man on our side,

The man of God’s own choosing.

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth is His name,

From age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

“And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us;

We will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us.

Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also;

The body they may kill:

God’s truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.”*

 ____________

*Martin Luther

By
David L. Cooper

            In times past the Lord often spoke by means of dreams, especially to heathen kings.  He revealed to the Pharaoh of Egypt that there would be seven years of drought in his country (Genesis 40 and 41).  This message was portrayed in a dram.  The significance of it, however, was withheld from the monarch.  He demanded the magicians of the land to make known its meaning.  They failed.  Finally in the providence of God, Joseph was brought from prison to
stand before the king.  Wit exactness, he interpreted the significance of each portion of the dream.  To Pharaoh, it immediately became evident that the interpretation was totally accurate.  The king, therefore, gave Joseph power over the land and placed him next to himself in authority.

To Nebuchadnezzar, the proud, boastful king of Babylon, the Lord likewise conveyed a message by means of a dram.  This revealing dream constitutes the subject of this message.  A second revelation was made to him later, in another dream, but we are not interested in that one presently.

In the last days, we are told by Joel, God will speak to the old men in Israel by means of dreams and to the young men in visions.  This promise is not to the Gentiles but to the Jews only; as yet, this has never been fulfilled.  In God’s own time, it will be.

The question frequently arises as to whether or not dreams have any significance at the present time.  Good people are lined up on both sides of this question, but a scientific investigation showed that very few dreams ever come true.  Most frequently, one has to distort the dream, or the facts which it is supposed to reveal, in order to approximate a fulfillment of the dream.  When all the evidence has been presented, one is forced to conclude that one cannot, in this day, afford to put any credence in dreams.

When the Lord spoke to Pharaoh and to Nebuchadnezzar He used dreams, but provided literal interpretations through His prophets.  The circumstances in each case were such that the monarch was convinced by logic, and evidence, that the dream was of divine origin and that the prophet was the Almighty’s spokesman.

DANIEL
THE INTERPRETER

            Nebuchadnezzar demanded of the magicians that they describe and interpret his dram.  They were unable to do so.  Then Daniel, one among the wise men of Babylon, volunteered to make known the dream and its interpretation, but asked that he be given some time.  The request being granted, he called his immediate friends and engaged in supplication to God for the desired revelation.  Their prayers were answered.  With boldness, Daniel went into the presence of the king and minutely recounted what Nebuchadnezzar had seen in the dream.  The monarch instantly recognized the preciseness of the prophet’s
description.

As related by Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image, the head being of gold, the chest and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet and toes of iron and miry clay.  This image was standing at the foot of a mountain, out of which a small stone was cut without hands.  Rolling
down the side, it gained velocity and smote the image with terrific impact.  This resulted in the image being broken into fragments which, in turn, were—like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor—blown away by the wind.  The little stone then became a mountain which filled the entire earth.

Such a vivid description and interpretation were conclusive evidence to the king that Daniel was a servant of the true and living God.

THE
INTERPRETATION OF THE DREAM

            Addressing the monarch, Daniel said: “Thou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom the God of heaven hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory; and wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens hath he given into thy hand, and hath made thee to rule over them all:  thou art the head of gold,” (Daniel 2:37, 38).

This statement is essential to the proper understanding of all predictions; in it lies the broad outline of prophecy into which all subsequent revelations
fit.  It is expedient that we examine this passage with utmost care.

According to Daniel, the God of Heaven gave to Nebuchadnezzar—whom he addressed as “king of kings,”—“the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory.”  This statement is all-inclusive.  It declares that all governmental authority and power were conferred upon Nebuchadnezzar.  “In what realm?” one may ask.  This statement is all-inclusive.  It declares that all governmental authority and power were conferred upon Nebuchadnezzar.  “In what realm?” one may ask.  This question is answered in the following words:  “Wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven hath
he given into thy hand, and hath made thee to rule over them all:  thou art the head of gold.”  Reread and note the force of these words.  According to this statement, all lands—where there were men, birds, and beasts—were delivered to Nebuchadnezzar.  Were there any men, birds and beasts in America, this continent was included in this declaration.  From such a position there can be no escape, if language has any meaning at all.

Were there birds, beasts and men on these various continents when Nebuchadnezzar was reigning in Babylon?  Archeology answers in the affirmative.  Originally, there was one continent and one sea.  This great body of land was broken up in the days of Peleg (Genesis 10:25).  Before that cataclysm, man and  beast wandered at liberty over that one vast land; but when it was broken up, those in certain sections, who survived that catastrophe, were cut off from all connections with other segments of the world.  In view of these facts, we may be absolutely certain that man and beast were here in America and on the various continents in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.  If these statements are true, then the promise made to Nebuchadnezzar extended to include all those  territories where there was life.

Since worldwide dominion was granted to Nebuchadnezzar, the question arises:  “Did he take possession of the grant and exercise such universal dominion?”  Everyone familiar with ancient history, knows that he conquered all Babylonia, then extended his boundaries as far as Asia Minor in the northwest and Egypt in the southwest.  He likewise extended his boundaries eastward but by no stretch of the imagination can we conceive of his having conquered even the known world of his day.  Nevertheless, God granted to him universal dominion.

The fact that God granted worldwide power to him, but that he did not avail himself of it, should not cause any difficulty to the believer.  A parallel situation may be seen in the promise God made to Abraham, and to his descendants, concerning the Land of Promise.  If one will read the description of the territory granted Abraham and his seed, as found in certain portions of Genesis and other books of the Pentateuch, one will see that the land vouchsafed to them extended from the River of Egypt to the River Euphrates, embracing also the land of the Hittites, who occupied a major portion of Asia Minor.  The Hebrews, in no period of their history, ever took possession of all the land God granted to them.  As a matter of fact, they possessed only a small portion of it.
Only in the days of David and Solomon did their territory extend to include even as much as a narrow strip along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea and eastward to the Euphrates River.  Subsequent to Solomon’s reign, much of this territory was lost and the frontiers of Israel changed and shrunk. At no time since its existence has the Hebrew race taken over all the lands deeded to them.  Their failure does not make null and void the promise of God.  Of this we may be certain:  God will yet literally fulfill the promise to Israel, but only when she is able to receive it.

As another illustration of this same point, let us consider that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).  I do not suppose there is a single Christian living today who would, being in full possession of his mental faculties, declare that he has taken possession of all the provisions which God has  granted him in Christ.  Though we fail, we must not whittle down the promises of God to make them correspond to our meager experiences.  Contrariwise, we should accept God’s statements at their face value and, with humility, confess our failure. Doing so, and understanding such a situation, we cannot comprehend the promise of world dominion God made to Nebuchadnezzar—one which he never appropriated.  His failure, or inability, did not alter—neither did it make null and void—the promise of God.

The image which Nebuchadnezzar saw, and which Daniel described, was—as is indicated by the description—that of a man.  It had a head of gold, supported by a chest of silver.  This part of the anatomy, in turn, was connected to a belly of brass; the belly, in turn, was connected to legs of iron; the feet, of iron and clay, were attached to the legs.  The impression one receives from reading this passage is that the image stood erect at the foot of a mountain.  I have
traveled quite extensively in Egypt.  All images of the Pharaohs which I saw (and there were many, especially of Rameses II), quite accurately resemble the anatomy of a man.  Of course, I have never discovered any image made of metals such as this image, but I have seen statues made of marble and other materials—images of various monarchs of Egypt and—in different countries—of other men.  The heads of all these are connected to the chests by means of the neck.  The chest blends into the belly, and the belly into the thighs—which, in turn, develop into the legs.  In other words, these statues and images constitute single units.  Such is the impression one normally gains from reading Daniel 2 with reference to the image-vision of Nebuchadnezzar.

Unless positive evidence can be produced—that there has been some interruption in time between any of the kingdoms symbolized by the various metals—one must conclude that each, uninterruptedly and immediately, follows its predecessor.  This consideration is most important—especially since there is presently a peculiar interpretation being forced upon the prophetic word, causing no little confusion in certain quarters.  There were no breaks in the image according to the description.  There are, therefore, no breaks of intervening time between those kingdoms symbolized by the various metals.  This position we
must accept without hesitation, unless there is absolute proof showing, unmistakably, that there were any breaks in the image.  One will see in vain for such positive evidence.

To bolster a theory, one might resort to “The Law of Double Reference.”  All students of the Word realize that one of the four types of messianic prophecy—omitting the Christian Dispensation—bends the first and second comings of Christ into a single picture; this class of prediction is an illustration of this law.  One who fails to recognize this principle can never understand, accurately, the utterances of the prophets.  But the fact that the principle of double reference often obtains in plan predictions, does not give license to read into the description of this image vision an interval separating any two of the kingdoms signified.  If, on the other hand, there is positive evidence—either in Daniel 2 or in other passages dealing with the same subject—showing that
there is an omission in the image-vision, we shall do well to recognize the truth on this point and accept it accordingly. In the absence of such testimony, one should not assume that there is a break in the continuity of the prophetic times indicated by the image.  We have neither right, nor logical reason, to assume that this image was anything other than that of a normal man.  The circumstances of the case—studied in the light of related passages—demand that we recognize the image as representing an unbroken period of time, which began with Nebuchadnezzar and ends with the second coming of Christ (Daniel 2:44).

SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE METALS

            The head of this image was of fine gold, the chest of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron, whereas the feet and toes were of iron and miry clay.  One instantly recognizes design in such an arrangement.  An examination of the use of gold and fine gold in the Scriptures reveals the fact that this
metal was used to symbolize that which is purest or of the first quality.  When governments are under consideration, it would naturally signify that which God considers to be the highest or most ideal form of government.  Since the head of god signified Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian form of rule, we may
conclude that an absolute monarchy (for such was Babylon) is God’s ideal type of government.  Of course, an unrighteous king, even though he ruled as an absolute monarch, could not meet divine approval; but such a type of government, administered by an absolute monarch, could not meet divine approval; but such a type of government, administered by an absolutely righteous and impartial monarch—one who knows the very thoughts and intents of the heart—would fulfill that which is symbolized by this finest of metals.  Nebuchadnezzar and his successors fell far below God’s ideal; nevertheless, that type of government was what God had in mind in this depiction of gold.

The next metal in this image, viewed from the head downward, is the chest and arms of silver.  This portion of the image signified a second type of government; it succeeded the Babylonian kingdom and was inferior to it, even as silver is inferior to gold.  The kingdom which followed Babylon was that
of the Medes and Persians.  Their type of government was a limited monarchy; one that was inferior to an absolute monarchy, as is recognized by all students of politics.

To this second empire were granted the same powers and authority over the entire world that had been given to the Babylonians.  Like their predecessors, they never did “go in and possess their possessions.”  It is true that they swallowed up the Babylonian Empire and pushed their frontiers beyond the boundaries of the former.  Nevertheless, they never did exercise world dominion as outlined in this prediction.  The historical facts show conclusively that
they did not.

The third kingdom was symbolized by the belly of brass.  From the standpoint of real worth, brass is less valuable than silver.  Since this metal was chosen, it is quite evident that the government here symbolically presented would be of a lower type than that of the Medes and Persians.  From history we know that the Greek Empire succeeded the Medo-Persian Kingdom.  The authority and power that had been first in the hands of the Babylonians,
transferred to the Medes and Persians, was passed on to the Greeks.  They took over all the territory that had formerly been under the control of their predecessors and pushed their boundaries quite a distance beyond that of Medo-Persia in its widest extent.  When, however, they were no longer plastic in the hands of God, and could not be used of Him to forward His plan of the ages, He withdrew this delegated power and authority and transferred it to their successors, the Romans.

This fourth empire was symbolized by the legs of iron and the feet and toes of iron mixed with miry clay.  Here again we see a depreciation in the value of the metal used.  It is true that iron is much stronger than the other metals appearing in the upper part of the image; but, from the standpoint of real value, it  was of far less worth than the former ones.  As we learn from history, the Roman Empire succeeded the Grecian Empire and without question, is the one symbolized by the iron.  The authority and power, granted to the Babylonians, transferred to the Medo-Persians, then to the Greeks, were finally delivered into the hands of the Romans.   They in turn extended their boundaries beyond any held by the Greeks—even at the zenith of their power—and incorporated more territory under their rule than any of their predecessors.]

As suggested above, there is nothing in Scriptural language that implies any time gap existed between the third and fourth empires.  Only a demand to bolster an espoused position could lead one to invent a break in the succession of rule between the third and the fourth empires.

SPECIAL
FEATURES OF THE FOURTH KINGDOM

            The legs, feet and toes—symbols of the fourth kingdom—were of iron and iron mixed with miry clay.  The arms attached to the chest of silver signified the dual monarchy of the Medes and Persians.  The legs representing the fourth kingdom signified a division into two sections—the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire.

A glance at history shows us that Rome was a singularly strong unit from the days of Julius Caesar until the empire was divided by Diocletian in 285  A.D.  In view of this fact, we may be certain that the hips of the image were likewise of iron.  This is the logical meaning of the language, which limits the portion exclusively brass to the belly of the image.

When our Lord was upon earth, Rome was in the hip-stage and never reached the leg-stage until Diocletian came to the throne and divided the empire into what later became known as the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire.  At first there were coordination and cooperation between the two sections; the emperor of each considered the other his equal and co-partner.  Eventually, differences arose and what began as a breach developed into a chasm separating the two governments, although they were of the same imperial type.

Those reading this prophecy before the time of Diocletian would naturally conclude that the first kingdom, symbolized by the head of gold, would be a united empire; that the second would be a dual monarchy as indicated by the arms; that the third would be a united kingdom, which fact was indicated by the belly of brass; that the fourth one would be a solid political unity for a while but would develop into two sections as indicated by the legs.  Furthermore, he would naturally believe that just as the legs extended from the torso downward to the feet, so the two empires, into which this one divides, would likewise continue in this dual form—unlike the Medo-Persian Empire with an organic connection, as indicated by the chest and arms—only that each pursues its individual existence, as indicated by the legs.  From the time that Rome supplanted Greece, to the division of the empire, everyone who understood the prophecy had a logical right to expect that the Roman Empire would divide into the two sections indicated by the legs.  After that prophecy was fulfilled, all Bible students had a right to believe that those two divisions would continue through the centuries to the very end of the age.  Since the legs of the image extended from the body to the feet, no one studying this passage could arrive at any other conclusion.  No one today, who is willing to let the prediction deliver its own message to his heart, can logically interpret it differently.  Thus, from the time the prophecy was spoken until the present, everyone believing and accepting the Scriptures as the infallibly inspired Word of God has had a right to believe that Rome continues through the centuries in this two-fold division, as indicated by the legs.

Furthermore, they are forced, logically, to believe that this dual empire will eventually develop into ten divisions, as signified by the toes; if language is definite and can be relied upon, our prediction means just this.  It can mean nothing else.  To force upon it any other interpretation is to do violence to the Word.  Daniel 2 gives no hint as to how this final development will be brought about.  However, Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17 tell us more.

In this connection, let us bear in mind that each of these metals symbolized a definite, specific type of government.  About this position, there can be no question.  This fact may point to the solution of the problem involved, especially as related to the fourth empire.  Since iron symbolized an imperial type of
government, we have a right to believe that the old Caesarean imperialism was destined to continue through the centuries—to the very end—as signified by the
legs that continue from the body to the feet.

We have seen the picture presented in this prophecy.  An examination of the historical facts, as they have unfolded through the centuries, will make this picture more vivid.  Rome was a solid political unity when the Lord Jesus was upon earth.  At that time she was in the hip-stage, as previously suggested.  She reached the leg-stage when Diocletian came to the throne and divided the empire into the Eastern and Western sections, making Constantinople the capital of the East and Rome the capital of the West.  Let us think of this image as facing northward.  The left leg then would represent the Western Roman Empire; the right leg, the Eastern Roman Empire.  The Western section was overrun by the Germanic tribes in 476 A.D.  Speaking in terms of the anatomy of man, I would say that the left leg was broken in that year.  The injury was serious and was never healed until 800 A.D. when Charles the Great, restoring law and order, united all the fragments, into another political unity.  This became known as “The Holy Roman Empire of the Frankish Nation.”  Thus, Western Rome’s center of political gravity shifted from Italian soil to French territory.  This political entity remained intact until 963 A.D.  Then Otto I, the German, crossed the Rhine and conquered the Western section of the Empire.  Seeing an advantage in the civilization which he had vanquished, he incorporated the conquered country into his empire and Romanized his Germanic tribes.  He and his successors then claimed to be the heirs of the old Roman Caesars.  Since they Romanized their civilization and added the conquered territory to their dominions, it is only logical for us to understand that the Empire in the West was continued—the broken leg having been healed.  The center of political gravity had once again been shifted—this time from French territory to Germanic soil.  It continued through medieval times, and subsequently, to be centered in Germany.  It is true that the boundaries of Rome have contracted and expanded intermittently, yet there has been a persistency of a particular type of government—Caesarean imperialism—down through the centuries.  To illustrate this, let me imagine a situation which I know will never develop.  Suppose Germany should conquer Britain and Russia and then invade our Atlantic seaboard.  We would, of course, rally our forces against the aggressors.  In this hypothetical war, let us imagine the enemy driving our forces westward.  The capital, which is now at Washington, D.C., would, of course, be moved westward before the advancing hordes.  In this conceived calamity, let us assume that the invaders pushed our forces as far as the Mississippi River.  In such an event, the capital would probably be established either at Omaha or Kansas City.  At this stage of the struggle, both sides come to the conclusion that neither can win.  Finally, an armistice is requested—fighting ceases.  A peace conference is called.  The aggressors then demand, as an indemnity of the war, that the American government cede to them all the territory east of the Mississippi.  To these unreasonable demands, the American delegates consent and affix their names to the peace treaty.  The conquerors then take possession of the newly acquired territory.  Under such
conditions what would the government, centered in Kansas City, be called?  Everyone would say that it would still be the United States of America.  This is correct.  It would still be the same government, having the same traditions, civilization, organization, institutions and ideals as the one which started with the thirteen original colonies, on the Atlantic seaboard; yet, it would not be on one foot of the original soil.  There would be continuity, not of territorial boundaries, but of the type of government.  We can, therefore, see that in the persistency of the type of government—which is the thing emphasized in Daniel’s vision—lays the continuity implied in the legs of the metallic image of Daniel 2.  The Roman type of government has persisted throughout the centuries in Western Europe.  The same old Caesarian imperialism has prevailed through the centuries.

In 1453 A.D., the eastern half of the Roman Empire went down under the Ottoman Turks.  At that time many of the leaders fled to the West, carrying with them the civilization of the East.  This turn of events laid the foundation for the great Renaissance.  Several political leaders fled from Constantinople into Russia, taking with them their ideas of government.  They infiltrated into positions of power and finally transmuted the government at Kiev into the same types that which had existed at Constantinople, in the old Byzantine Empire.  Thus was transferred to Russian soil the old Caesarian imperialism, which has continued through the centuries, notwithstanding the ebb and flow of national events, up to the present time.  There has, therefore, been a continuity of the type of government, both in the East and in the West, to the present.  It will continue on until the ten-toe-stage is reached.

THE
SMITTING STONE

            In the vision, Nebuchadnezzar saw a small stone cut out of the mountain without hands which rolled down and smote the feet of the image.  The impact broke the image into fragments.  These being removed, the little stone became a mountain which filled the earth.

What is the significance of this stone?  Since the image symbolized four governments, the stone likewise is a symbol.  But of what?  God does not mix His teachings.  We must find the significance of a stone when thus used symbolically.  The first appearance of such a metaphorical meaning appears in Genesis 49:24, where the Messiah of Israel is called “the stone.”  In other places “stone,” as we learn from each context, signifies “Messiah.”  “Rock” as a rule, when  thus used, refers to God the Father, although, in Isaiah 8:14, both a “rock” and a “stone” signify the Messiah.  Since this is its metaphorical meaning, we may assume that this smiting stone is a symbol of the Messiah and—at His coming—clashing with the fourth power of the image.

With tremendous force, this stone strikes the image upon its feet and breaks all the metals into fragments.  Under no condition could such imagery signify the first advent of Messiah; no such stroke at civil governments was made by Him.  Furthermore, Rome was in the thigh-stage when the Lord Jesus  ame the first time.  It has not reached the toe-stage yet.  He does not return until that point is reached.  These facts point to the conclusion that this stone signifies the coming of the Lord in glory and power.  His demolishing all human rule and establishing His reign of righteousness upon the earth.  This is exactly what is said in Daniel 2:44.  “And in the days of those kings (the ones signified by the toes of the image) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”

A mountain, when used symbolically—as seen in Jeremiah 51:25—always signifies a human government.  Since this little stone becomes a great mountain, filling the earth, and since the mountain signifies a kingdom, we understand that this mountain is the symbol of the Messiah’s worldwide kingdom, which He will establish when He returns in glory and abolishes all human government and authority.

Thus, under the symbolism of the metallic image—consisting of the four metals—we view the four world empires, from the human standpoint, as did Nebuchadnezzar. No one comparison, in any field, can provide all the facts.  The information appearing in this chapter is supplemented by what is presented in Daniel 7, and completed in the final disclosures of the Book of Revelation.

In
the days of Joshua, Zerubbabel & Weizmann

By
David L. Cooper

            Jacob with seventy souls went down into the land of Egypt.  There, under the protection of the strong Egyptian Empire, this handful of people grew into a nation of approximately three million.  At the time appointed in the plan of God, the Lord sent Moses to deliver His people.  With a high hand and a strong arm He brought them forth from the house of bondage.  He led them to Sinai and there gave them His law and entered into a special covenant with them.  This great event is called the birth of the nation of Israel.

In concluding the book of the covenant—Exodus, chapter 21-23—the Lord made some wonderful promises to Israel concerning establishing her in the land which He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, if she only would be faithful and true to Him in all things.  A person should read especially Exodus 23:20-33.  In this passage he will see that God promised to exempt Israel from diseases and to give her all necessary things for the enjoyment of life.  In connection with this passage he should also read Leviticus chapter 26, which was spoken by the Lord from the door of the tabernacle when it was set up on the first day of the second year of the Exodus.  In the first 13 verses of this chapter the Lord made marvelous, wonderful promises to Israel if she would but
be faithful and true to Him in her covenant relationship.  Had she been faithful, she would have been established in the land of the fathers from the very beginning.  She would never have been afflicted with any of the diseases of Egypt, or any diseases so far as that is concerned.  Never would there have been partial harvests, but there would always have been bumper crops every year.  Neither would there have been any soldiers who would cross their borders and invade the land.  In other words, had Israel been faithful and true to God in every respect, her land would have been a modern Utopia, Paradise regained.  On the other hand, the Lord warned Israel that, if she did not remain true in her covenant relationship, He would be forced to punish her; and that eventually, if after having corrected her time and again, she persisted in rebellion.  He would be forced to spew her out of the land and scatter her among the nations.
Since the people of Israel did not remain faithful and true, He was forced to carry out the threat, and finally, in A.D. 70, He had to scatter her throughout the world.  Thus she has been in exile for nineteen centuries.

Disobedience to the will of God on the part of the nation of Israel is the real secret of all the suffering through which that unfortunate people have been caused to pass.  Somehow or other the nation has not learned the great lesson of life, living in harmony with the will of God.  It seems that she can learn it only
the hard way.  There are promises, however, that she will yet in the future learn her lesson.  When she does, her sufferings will be over.

Under Joshua

The generation of those who were warriors when they left Egypt died in the wilderness during the forty years of wandering.  The new generation that was born during their desert trek entered the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua.  They marched into it in triumph.  The Lord worked a miracle in their behalf, causing the waters of the Jordan to stop and allow Israel to pass over dry shod.  According to the instructions of the Lord, the priests with their trumpets and the armed men were to encompass the city of Jericho, the first formidable fortress against which they came upon entering the land, once a day for six days and on the seventh day they were to make seven circuits of the city.  At the conclusion of the last of these, they were to blow the ram’s horn and shout for joy.  Joshua did exactly as the Lord said.  He believed that God would cause the overthrow of the city and would deliver it into the hands of Israel.  At
the blowing of the trumpets the wall fell and the city was taken.  God delivered this fortress over to Israel without any effort or fighting on her part.

This triumph was to serve as a token and a pledge to Israel of future conquests, if she would but be faithful and true to the Lord.  But to our great disappointment, such a signal victory by faith was the first and the last of its kind which Israel enjoyed.

Flushed with the joy of triumph and victory, the Israelites sent a small force up from Gilgal to Ai, which was on the tableland northeast of Jerusalem about fifteen miles.  These joined battle with the natives and were thrown back in utter defeat.  They retreated back to the camp at Gilgal.  Distress and gloom settled down over the people.  An investigation was instituted and, to the amazement of all the people, the discovery was made that Achan had seized a
wedge of gold, a Baylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver.  The strict orders were that nothing of the captured city should be seized.  Those
orders were given in compliance with the demands of God.  Sin was the cause of the defeat.  God could not and would not go forward with Israel when sin was in the camp.  This was removed by the execution of Achan, the leader in the transgression.  Thus normal relationships were restored between God and His people.  But there was always something that prevented the flow of the power of God constantly and unceasingly to Israel.

The only basis for the true explanation of Israel’s triumphs and defeats as she took possession of the land is to be found in the fact that there are the spiritual hosts of wickedness that are in the air, and that are opposed to God and His people.  When Israel was thus faithful to God and was in close fellowship and touch with Him, she went forward from victory to victory.  On the other hand, when she was out of fellowship with Him and sin had come in between Him and her, defeat and disaster became inevitable.  What was true of the nation of Israel in relation   to God is also true with reference to the believer in Christ today.  When one is walking in close fellowship with God and sin is not allowed to disturb that relationship, the believer can go from victory to victory.  But when sin is allowed to enter the life and is cherished by men, though they be born again people, the fellowship is broken and the power ceases to a great extent to flow into the life of such a one.  Of course defeat on all sides is inevitable.

Though God was with Israel, He could not give her any more signal victories, like the one which she was granted at Jericho, as she moved forward in the conquest of the land.

Joshua was a military genius.  He laid well his plans of operation.  Thus he drove a wedge into the central part of the country and conquered the strongholds of the enemy in the mountainous plateau north of Jerusalem.  Following these triumphs, he turned to the left and conquered all the southern part of the country.  Of course there were strongholds that were not subdued at this time.  After this Joshua led his forces victoriously on into the northern part of the land, conquered a coalition of nations, and took possession of that section of the fatherland.  Here too were strongholds of the enemy which were bypassed, and which were not conquered at that time.  For instance, Beth-shean in the eastern part of the Plain of Jezreel was never conquered until late in the history of Israel.  The same thing was true of Taanach and Megiddo, which stubbornly held out against the mighty blows of Israel, who had to fight every step of the way.

Certain strongholds remained in the land which proved to be thorns in the side of Israel.  They were the occasion of trouble constantly.  The Books of Joshua and Judges give us the terrible warlike experiences through which the nation passed—and all because of a lack of surrender and trust in God.

Under Zerubbabel

            Although the Lord blessed Israel by giving her rest, in a measure, from her enemies and permitting her to establish the monarchy, yet she was periodically lapsing into idolatry and forsaking God.  At all these crises in the life of the nation God raised up His faithful prophets who pled with the people to return to Him and to trust Him.  The chronicler, speaking by inspiration, summed up the days of the monarchy in the following quotation:  “11 Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: 12 and he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God; he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of Jehovah.  13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God:  but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning unto Jehovah, the God of Israel.  14 Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.  15 And Jehovah, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:  16 but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of Jehovah arose against his people, till there was no remedy” (II Chronicles 36:11-16).

From this quotation we see that God did His best in trying to get Israel to be faithful to Him.  But the people mocked the messengers of God, despised His Word, “until the wrath of Jehovah arose against his people, till there was no remedy” (vs. 16).  The Lord brought Nebuchadnezzar against the nation who overthrew the kingdom, devastated the land, and took many into captivity, where they remained for seventy years.  It is impossible for us, who have never
passed through such an experience, to realize the sufferings of that time through which the Chosen People went.

Jeremiah, who foretold the seventy years of Babylonian captivity, promised the nation that, at the expiration of that period, they should return to their own land.  It was necessary that the Lord thus bring them back at the time appointed.  The reason for this statement is that God has far-reaching plans and
purposes for Israel, which will eventually affect the entire world.  Everything is related to things about it and affects them more or less.  Thus life is an endless chain of causes and effects.  The Lord therefore said that He would have to bring the people back from Babylon in order that He might perform His plans regarding them and His thoughts toward the nation to give them hope in their latter end.  We may not be able to see the full force of this statement, but it is true nevertheless.  Thus at the appointed time the Lord brought His people back from Babylon, that is, those who loved Him and His service, and who wanted to do His will.

The Lord raised up Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David, to lead back all those who longed to live in the land of their fathers.  Joshua, the high priest, likewise accompanied them and led in spiritual matters.  When this call came for the nation to return home, most of the people had settled down into a quiet life of east and prosperity.  They were not willing to pull up stakes and to return.  There were, however, devout souls who wished to go back.  Under the leadership of Zerubbabel, later under that of Ezra, and still later under that of Nehemiah, there were approximately 50,000 Jews who returned to their own land.

The exiles, upon their arrival at home, found the land in a state of desolation and waste.  They had to begin from scratch in their building program and to begin life anew.  Of course, this experience was a struggle for everyone.  The odds were against them.  Nevertheless, valiantly they prosecuted their work of rebuilding their homeland.

In the second year of their return, as we learn from the third chapter of Ezra, the heroic exiles began to lay the foundation for their Temple.  They had already built up the walls of the city of Jerusalem.  No sooner did they begin to build the national shrine than the people who had settled in the land during their absence started a campaign to stop the work.  Opposition in every form was encountered.  These opponents even wrote letters to the Persian kings in efforts to thwart the purpose of the “Zionists” of that day and time.  The situation seemed hopeless and desperate.  Zerubbabel became discouraged and downhearted.  Then God raised up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, who proclaimed the Word of the Lord and gave visions of the future, when Israel will yet be reinstated into favor with God and be established as the head of the nations—when she accepts her Messiah.  It was by the visions of Zechariah largely
that the struggling band of heroic exiles took on new life and hope and pushed their work forward with enthusiasm and vigor.

Ezra came, at an opportune time, with others of the priestly order. Their arrival and their work was a great boon to the discouraged exiles.  Nevertheless opposition took on formidable proportions.  Whenever God works among His people who turn to Him, Satan always launches determined opposition.  The city wall that had at the first been rebuilt by Zerubbabel was thrown down.  Great abuses had risen in Israel.  Irregularities in the worship had sprung up.  The people had begun to marry foreigners, who were then residing in the land.

God always has His man in the right place at the proper time.  On this occasion the man of the hour was Nehemiah, who was cupbearer to the Persian king.  Being overwhelmed by sad news from his brethren in Palestine, Nehemiah appeared once before the king with his countenance downcast.  The king read the message of sadness in his heart and insisted that his favorite official reveal to him the cause.  He did so.  The king relieved him of his duties and granted him permission to return to the city of his fathers, which thing he did.  Upon his arrival in Jerusalem after an inspection tour of three days around the city, he gathered the people together and encouraged them to build up the walls, which recently had been torn down.  This thing they did in 52 days.  Opposition sprang up from every quarter.  Guile and deceit were used; attacks were launched.  But Nehemiah with a firm had continued the work of restoration and finally won out.

It took courage and faith to go against the evils that had developed among the people of God and to fight off attacks of the enemies around about.  There were enemies within the camp as well as those without, but Nehemiah in a most heroic and self-sacrificing spirit led the nation to higher things.

Such a struggle for the returned captives was to be expected.  The angel Gabriel in his revelation to Daniel as recorded in Daniel 9:24-25 foretold that there would be seven weeks of years (49 years) during which the city would be rebuilt and re-established in troublous times.  Thus the Word of God was fulfilled literally on this point, as well as on all others.

Under Dr. Weizmann

            The Lord through Ezekiel gave us a vivid picture of Israel’s final restoration.  This particular prediction is found in the vision of the valley of dry bones recorded in Ezekiel 37:1-14.  The prophet was shown a valley over which dry bones were scattered.  He was instructed to prophesy to them and to tell them to live.  When he obeyed this injunction, there was in his vision a tremendous explosion and a mighty earthquake.  Then each of these bones began to move as if
it had life and to take its position in relation to other bones so as to form skeletons.  Then sinews began to appear and to join the bones.  Thereupon flesh
appeared and finally skin covered it.  At last, at the command of the Lord, the prophet called upon the Spirit of God to breathe life into these bodies.  Then
they all arose, a mighty army of Jehovah.   We are told that these bones represent the whole house of Israel, at the time when they say that their hope is lost, and that they are clearly cut off, that is, that their messianic hope is not to be relied upon, and that they are cut off from the touch and the power of God (Ezek. 37:11).

In the vision there was a mighty explosion and a terrific earthquake when the prophet, in obedience to the command of God, first spoke to the dry bones.  These mighty upheavals obviously had some connection with the moving of the bones together in order to form skeletons.  In the fulfillment of this vision there must be that which could properly be represented by a terrific explosion and a mighty earthquake and at the same time that which affects the nation of Israel and causes it to come together in order to form itself into a body politic, a movement toward nationhood.  An examination of the history of Israel and of her condition at the time that her hope—expectation that a personal Messiah will come and deliver her—is clean cut off, leads one to the conclusion that World War I with its aftermath affected Israel in such a way that it caused the disjointed members of the nation to come together in order to be welded and bound together by later bonds—as the bones were by the sinews.  Israel had never before realized as at that time that she would have to
become a political unit and would have to be settled in her own land.

Though there were efforts at colonization on the part of the Jews in Palestine from the days of the early adventure put forth by Sir Claude Montefiore and other independent attempts by individual Jews and groups, never was there a concerted united endeavor launched by the people of Israel until the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was written into the Versailles Treaty which concluded the great war.  Zionism began to go forward with leaps and bounds, and most marvelous progress was made from the time of the signing of the Versailles Treaty until the strikes and disturbances that broke out throughout the land in 1935, and that continued up to the outbreak of World War II.  Notwithstanding these troubles momentous strides were made by the Jews in building up colonies throughout the land.

I am of the conviction that most of these troubles were caused by foreign propaganda and influence.  The facts in the case show that the Nazis under the leadership of Hitler and his cohorts, together with Mussolini and his stooges, were the prime cause of the troubles between the Arabic peoples and the Jews.
Of course there were other factors that entered into the situation, but, according to the information which I have, the foreign influence was the principal disturbing element.

Since World War II the differences between Arabs and Jews have been aggravated, and the situation in the Land has deteriorated and grown from bad to worse.  That which has precipitated the present crisis is the issuing by the United Nations of the order to partition Palestine into Arabic and Jewish states.  Great Britain officially gave up the mandate over Palestine at midnight, May 14, 1948.  Her withdrawal was the signal for the mighty explosion in the form of the devastating war which has broken out, and which is wrecking the country.

At 12:01 A.M., May 15, the new Israel was born and a new Jewish government was set up at Tel Aviv.  Dr. Chaim Weizmann, was elected the first president of Israel.  These developments have aggravated the case.  Both sides refuse to make any concessions.  Fighting is advancing with an increasing tempo at the present time (June 1).  God only knows to what lengths it may go and what may develop out of this raging tempest.

At this stage of the conflict it would be indeed foolish for anyone to make any prognostications or predictions concerning the course that events will take, and what we may expect in the very near future.  There doubtless will be an ebb and flow of events.  Hard days for Israel are ahead.  History is repeating itself.  Joshua was the man who was selected by the Lord to be the leader in bringing Israel out of the wilderness and taking her into the Land of Promise.  Zerubbabel was the one who led at the command of God the discouraged exiles back to the land of their fathers.  It seems that, by the providence of God, Dr. Chaim Weizmann has been brought to the fore to occupy the position which he is filling at the present day.  He seems to have the sterling qualities of a
true statesman, who has the interest of his brethren at heart.  He demonstrated the nobility of his soul by offering his chemical formula, used to manufacturing T.N.T., which he had discovered, to Great Britain as the price for her sponsoring a movement for the Jews to return and to rebuild a home in the land of their fathers.  He could have asked a great price in cold cash from Britain for his secret formula which was sorely needed at the time, and could have gotten it; but no, he was not looking at personal gain:  he had his heart set on the welfare of his people.  Thus in a self-sacrificing manner, he has labored for his brethren and has done what he could in trying to re-establish the home of his people in the land which God gave to them.

Since  we are in the very end of the age, as all evidence proves, we may be certain that there are in the immediate future grave and difficult days, not only for Israel, but for the entire world.  But Israel will yet have her gravest problems.  God will use this opposition and make it contribute to the advancement
of His plans and purposes concerning the Chosen People.  He will punish them double for all their sins (Isa. 40:1-2).  We may be sure that, in the end, God will bring them forth, tried and purged, to the position which they are to occupy as the head of all nations:  “And Jehovah will make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou shalt hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them. . .” (Deut. 28:13).  The holiness and the omnipotence of God are the guarantee of this fact.

For one to attempt to map out or delineate the course of events as they will in the immediate future develop would be foolish.  The Scriptures have not revealed the course of events of the present crisis.  The wise and discreet one will therefore refrain from making any pronouncement and from claiming that the Scripture is definitely being fulfilled in the present Palestine situation.  But He has not given us details and specific information concerning this present crisis—except in a general way.

One should read carefully Joel 3:1-8 and study it in its context.  For lack of space I will quote only the first three verses of this passage:  “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivityof Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations:  and they have parted my land, 3 and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink” (Joel 3:1-3).  From the context which precedes and follows, we see that the prophet was speaking of the events of the end time—end of the present age.  In verse 1 of this quotation the Lord speaks about His bringing back “the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem.”  When He does that, He declares that He “will gather all the nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and . . . will execute judgment upon them there” for His people and for His heritage Israel, whom they (the nations which are to be punished) have scattered among the nations:  and have parted His land.  This prediction reminds one of the following statement by Zephaniah:  “Therefore wait ye for me, saith Jehovah, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy” (Zeph. 3:8).

Micah spoke on the same subject in the following passage:  “And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let he be defiled, and let our eye see our desire upon Zion.  12 But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, neither understand they his counsel; for he hath gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing floor.  13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples:  and I will devote their gain unto Jehovah, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth” (Micah 4:11-13).  An examination of this context  shows that verses 9-13 are an example of the law of double reference.  In verses 9 and 10 the prophet was speaking of the collapse of the Hebrew nation at the  time of the Babylonian conquest of the country and the subsequent exile from which the prophet assured his readers that Israel would be rescued.   Blending
with this picture he presented the final siege of Jerusalem in the day of Jehovah when the Lord gathers all nations against Jerusalem as sheaves are gathered into the threshing floor.  At that time Israel will be the beast, according to verse 13, which will tread out the grain.  She will be supernaturally assisted in this mighty struggle.  Thus Joel, Zephaniah, and Micah are foretell the time when God will gather the nations against Jerusalem in order to punish them because they have scattered Israel out of her land and have parted the land and cast lots for His people.  Since God punishes the nations in the end time for their driving Israel out of her own country and for dividing the land, and since God will not punish one person or a nation for what another has done, it is quite evident that the nations in the end time will scatter Israel out of her land and will part it according to their plans and purposes.  We may therefore be certain that the nations in the end time will drive Israel from her native soil, will divide the land, and will cast lots for His people.  Will these things be the outcome of the present struggle in Palestine?  It is the part of wisdom for us who are watching closely the development of the situation, and who are studying the prophecies, to hold our opinions by a firm reserve and to wait until the situation becomes obviously and clearly that which is foretold in these passages.

Ezekiel, chapter 20, is a passage which has bearing upon the present Palestinian Arabic-Jewish situation.  In the beginning of this chapter the prophet spoke of God’s bringing Israel out of Egypt by the leadership of Moses and of His entering into judgment with the people in the wilderness.  After all the
disobedient and the rebels had died off or been slain by one stroke or another of God’s judgment, the generation that arose during the forty years’ trek in
the wilderness entered the land under the leadership of Joshua.  With these historical facts in mind, Ezekiel foretold that God would, with a strong hand, bring the scattered people of Israel out from among the countries wherein they have been:  “. . . and I (Jehovah) will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face” (Eze. 20:35).  In the light of the entire discourse of Ezekiel, it is clear that the expression “the
wilderness of the peoples,” is a play on words.  There is no country that is called by that name.  The prophet saw in vision all Israel scattered among the nations and declared that God would bring her out from her world-wide dispersion and bring her into what he called “the wilderness of the peoples.”  From this passage we do not know what is meant by that expression; but, when we examine closely Isaiah 19:16-25 and Isaiah 27:12, 13, we see that God will gather His people from among the nations and plant them in what is termed “the fertile crescent,” which consists of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Assyria, and old Babylonia.  When He brings them into this fertile crescent, He will purge out all the wicked, will then bring them into the land of the fathers, re-establish them as the Chosen People, and make them the head of the nations.  When will the fathering of Israel into the wilderness of the peoples take place?  Will it result from the present situation?  Wisdom says for us to withhold judgment on this theme until the picture becomes clear and unmistakable.

The following Scripture is another important one which has bearing upon the present Palestinian situation:

“And thou, son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of Jehovah.  2 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah:  Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha! And, The ancient high places are ours in possession; 3 therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah:  Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the nations, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people; 4 therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah:  Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the water-courses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are round about; 5 therefore thus said the Lord Jehovah: Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land unto themselves for a possession with the joy of all their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey.  6 Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah:  Behold I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because ye have borne the shame of the nations:  7 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah:  I have sworn, saying, Surely the nations that are round about you, they shall bear their shame” (Ezekiel 36:1-7).

This passage was spoken by the prophet to the mountains of Israel, the land of Palestine.  According to it the enemy of Israel gloats over the fact that the ancient high places are in his possession (vs. 2).  According to verse 3 God’s answer to this situation is, “Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the nations, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people; 4therefore ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah:  Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the water-courses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are round about. . .Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land unto themselves for a possession with the joy of all their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey” (vss. 3-5).  Here the enemies of the Jews devastate the land, get it in possession, are jubilant over the disaster that he befallen Israel, and also over the fact that the country has been reduced to rubble.  From verse 4 it seems that the nations round about Palestine are the ones who wreck the country.  God, according to verse 5 has “spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land unto themselves for a possession. . .”  In the latter part of verse 7 God speaks in His wrath saying, “Surely the nations that are round about you, they shall bear their shame.”

It  seems by careful study of this passage that the nations round about Palestine are the ones who go into the land, wreck it, and reduce it to a state of desolation and waste.  Then they hold the high places in possession.  But the nations round about Palestine are not the only ones who are interested in, and who participate in this wrecking of the country.  For in verse 3 we are told that this campaign against the mountains of Israel is directed “that ye (the mountains of Israel) might be a possession unto the residue of the nations.”  Here the international aspect of the situation is brought into clear focus.  The “residue of the nations” – those not counted in the nations round about Israel—are not disinterested spectators. On the contrary, they manipulate affairs and help bring about this wrecking of the country and the dispossession of Israel.

Has this prophesy been fulfilled?  Or does it await materialization?  History knows of no such attack on the land and wrecking of the same such as is set forth in this passage.  There has never been, so far as the biblical account is concerned or any archeological evidence, the aligning of the surrounding nations against Israel, while the rest of the nations participate, in an indirect manner, in the wrecking of the country.

But positive evidence seems to be afforded in verse 8 that this prediction is future:  “But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come.”  The prophet sees the country wrecked and the Arabic nations in possession of the
land (vs. 2); and declares that, notwithstanding this desolate condition, the people of Israel are at hand, are ready to come in and possess the land.  Then by a study of the rest of the chapter, one sees that this return to their native soil is a time when Israel will turn to the Lord nationally, and He will give her a clean heart and renew a right spirit within her.  Then Israel will become the head of the nations.  That which is mentioned as being at hand when the country has been wrecked and its high places are in the hands of surrounding nations is yet in the future.  It therefore awaits fulfillment.

When will this prophecy be fulfilled?  Is it on the eve of realization at the present time?  Wisdom dictates to us that we should be very wise and careful and refrain from making out any schedule for the Lord to follow.  God has never followed man-made timetables.

Let us therefore study these passages and all others that have any bearing upon the situation, let us hold our judgment in reserve, and let us pray for more light.  At the same time, let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem—that the Lord may hasten the day when Christ returns from heaven and establishes His reign of righteousness upon the earth.  Let us pray that the Arabic nations that have become engulfed in this struggle may have the wisdom to see the mistake that they are making and cease the fighting.  Let us also pray that Israel may see her mistake and her wrongs and turn from them—especially that she may be given the truth concerning her national sin of rejecting the Messiah, which trespass she must confess and must plead for Him to return and deliver her.  Not
until she makes this confession and pleads for His return will her problems be solved.  Neither will the problems of the world be solved until she takes this step.

All free, thinking people of the world are very much interested in the present tense international situation.  The peoples—apart from their rulers—I am persuaded, want peace.  The rulers and the leaders of the free nations of the world who like our democratic way of life also want peace.  They dread the horrors of war.  But there will be no peace for the world until the Jewish problem is settled.  The peace of the world will be solved only when Israel’s problem is solved.  Anyone reaches this conclusion, when he takes into consideration the following scriptural prepositions:

• There can be no permanent peace until the Prince of Peace returns.
• The Prince of Peace will not return until Israel acknowledges her national sin of rejecting Him and seeks His face.
• Israel can never repent of her offense against Him, her national sin, until she is given the facts regarding Him and her relation to Him.
• Those who know Christ and the prophetic word must give her the truth that she may repent, seek Him, and plead for His return.
• Those who know the truth regarding Messiah and His relation to Israel hold the key to world peace.

Therefore:  To give Israel the truth is a tremendous responsibility and the imperative need of the hour!

What are you doing about this momentous issue?  The most important thing to be done today is that of giving the facts as they are outlined in the Hebrew Scriptures and as they have been fulfilled in the New Testament to the people of Israel, especially to the leaders, so that they can ponder these things, can pray over them, and be brought to the light to see that all of this trouble is due to the rejection, on the part of Israel, of her Messiah.  May God give us grace to enable us to do that which is our part in proclaiming the truth to all Israel.  May He burden us with a spirit of prayer and supplication for the poor suffering Hebrews.

“Awake, Jerusalem, awake!
No longer in thy sins lie down:
The garment of salvation take;
Thy beauty and thy strength put on.

“Shake off the dust that blinds thy sight,
And hides the promise from thine eyes;
Arise, and struggle into light;
The great Deliverer calls, ‘Arise!”

“Shake off the bands of sad despair;
Zion, assert thy liberty;
Look up, they broken heart prepare,
And God shall set the captive free.

“Vessels of mercy, sons of grace,
Be purged from every sinful stain;
Be like your Lord, His word embrace
Nor bear His hallowed name in vain.”

By Charles Wesley

By
David L. Cooper

            The Olivet Discourse, recorded in Matthew 24 and 25, Mark 13, and Luke 21, is one of the most important prophetic utterances in the Scriptures.  If one has a clear understanding of this prediction, one will have an outline into which almost all other subjects of prophecy will fit perfectly.

The student is requested to note on the chart below the two questions which were asked by the apostles.  He is to follow the arrows and note the phrases on each one and the positions to which they point.  Then he is to notice the answers that are given below the basic line running through the center of the chart.

In order that the reader may understand this chart and the passage which it diagrams, I wish to call attention to certain points indicated on this central
line.  The first to be noted is the time when Jesus spoke the sermon.  This was given from the Mount of Olives at the conclusion of the last day of his public
ministry.

The basic line running through the center of the chart represents the time beginning with the birth of Christ, continuing through the centuries, and
culminating in the Millennial Age.  The reader is to bear in mind the fact that this chart is not made upon a definite scale of proportions.  This is seen by
the fact that the first 30 years of our Lord’s life is a disproportionately long line in comparison with the entire Christian Dispensation.  Just before the cross appears an arc indicating His public ministry.  This is followed by the cross.  The second arrow above the line points to the time when the prediction  concerning the destruction of Jerusalem made by our Lord was fulfilled—70 A.D.  Luke alone recorded the answer relative to this prediction (Luke 21:: 20-24).

The third arrow above the line divides into two sections, the lower of which carries an adjective clause explaining the time when the sign concerning which they asked would occur.  But this sign is indicative of the close of the age and the second concerning our Lord which takes place at the end of the Tribulation.  Thus this double-pronged arrow points to the time when the sign occurs which is indicative of the two other events about which the question was asked and to the time of the fulfillment of the same.

A little to the right of this arrow is one that comes from the top with one meeting it from the position of the central line.  This represents the rapture of the church which occurs, according to the Scriptures, prior to the Tribulation.  As to whether or not this period of judgment follows immediately after the church is translated, no one can say definitely.  Some passages seem to indicate this position whereas others leave it indefinite.  We must therefore be very careful and not just inject into the Scriptures something that is not there.

To the right of the arrow indicating the rapture is the arc that represents the Tribulation.  From a careful study of Daniel 9, examined in the light of other related passages, we learn that the Tribulation is the seventieth week of Daniel, which is a period of seven years.  It is in various passages called the day of Jehovah.

The second coming of Christ, which is accurately designated as “the revelation,” occurs immediately upon the conclusion of the Tribulation.  This is our Lord’s return to the earth in response to Israel’s plea for Him to appear in her behalf in order to redeem her and to establish a reign of righteousness upon earth.  One must differentiate most clearly between the rapture just mentioned, which occurs before the Tribulation and pertains especially to the church, and the second coming, which follows the Tribulation and which relates particularly to Israel.

Inasmuch as we are studying the Olivet Discourse as recorded by Matthew, we are to devote attention to our Lord’s answer to the second question put to Him by His disciples:  “What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?”  The marginal reading, which follows the Greek accurately, renders the last of this phrase “the consummation of the age.”  The word employed by the apostles indicates most clearly the age—Christian Dispensation—and not the material earth.  This question is a double one.  The apostles asked to know what one event or sign would indicate the approach of the time for Him to return and for the age to be brought to a close.  When we note carefully the development of the thought and see how the apostles, in response to our Lord’s prediction concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, asked for the sign indicative of the two events, we can see that three ideas were associated in their minds:  the destruction of the temple, the second coming of Christ, and the end of the age.  Why was it that these three ideas were associated in their thinking so that the mention of the destruction of Jerusalem brought into the field of consciousness the idea of His second coming and the consummation of the age?  The
apostles were familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures and largely thought in terms found there.  A glance at such a passage as Zechariah 14 shows that these three events are mentioned as occurring one in connection with the others.  The prophet saw the armies of the nations of the world gathered against
Jerusalem and the city half-captured.  At that time Jehovah appears upon the Mount of Olives, delivers Israel, and becomes King over all the earth, introducing a new era.  Naturally, therefore, when our Lord spoke of the destruction of the Temple and the siege of Jerusalem, the apostles asked for the sign which would be indicative of His return in fulfillment of Zechariah 14 and His establishing His kingdom upon the earth.

Since the apostles were interested in His second coming, our Lord warned, according to Matthew 24:4-5, that false messiahs would come in His name and would lead many astray.  They, therefore, were to be very careful not to be deceived by such.  Since the passage which was uppermost in their minds  foretold the siege of Jerusalem, our Lord warned the disciples against drawing a hasty conclusion when they should hear of wars and rumors of wars.  These
have no prophetic significance.  Wars and rumors of wars characterize the entire period of His absence.  When, therefore, a war should break out, His
disciples were not to be alarmed and jump to the hasty conclusion that such a conflict would develop into the final siege of Jerusalem foretold by the prophets.  The conditions which produce wars are here, have been, and will continue until Jesus returns.  When one breaks out, the end is not yet.

The disciples were to wait for—although they were to be busy about their Father’s business all the time—the outbreak of a world war before concluding that His coming and the time for the introduction of the new age were at hand.  The expression, “nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom” is an Old Testament idiom found in such passages as II Chronicles 15:1-7 and Isaiah 19:1-4.  An examination of the context of these passages shows clearly that the conflict expressed by this idiom indicated a war that would affect all the territory before the speakers’ visions.  Since Jesus was a Hebrew and used the idiomatic expressions of His mother tongue, this term could mean nothing but a World War in view of the fact that His outlook in the Olivet Discourse was that of an international situation.  This idiom, therefore, “national shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,” can mean only
a World War.  It must be distinguished most definitely from the term, “wars and rumors of wars.”  Let the reader now note the third arrow on the chart below the central line.  Here he will see the words “a world war, 1914-18, which is the sign of the end of the age, vs. 7.”  Here one must be very cautious and avoid dogmatism.  The conflict of 1914-18 seems to have filled out the picture of a World War breaking out suddenly and taking on such international proportions as that indicated by our Lord’s prophecy.  If this is the correct understanding (and I personally do not have any doubts about this interpretation), that titanic struggle was the sign given by our Lord to indicate that the time is very close at hand for His return and for the introduction of the Millennial Age.  In verse 8 or Matthew 24 our Lord said that a World War attended by famines and great earthquakes in divers places (and Luke adds:  pestilences) together constitute “the beginning of travail,” the first birth pain.  We call this conflict the first birth pain because the apostles were familiar with this figure in Isaiah 66:7-9.

In Matthew 24:9-31 is a detailed description of this period of travail.  This is indicated on an arrow pointing to the Tribulation arc on the chart.

According to verse 14 the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all the nations for a testimony unto them and then shall the end come.  This passage, read in the light of Revelation 7, is clearly a reference to the mighty revival that will be conducted during the Tribulation by the 144,000 Jewish evangelists to whom we who are preaching the gospel to Israel are giving the message.  This mighty proclamation of the truth by these Jewish evangelists will
bring about the greatest soul-awakening that has ever come to the earth.  Multitudes which no man can number will then be won to a saving knowledge of the Lord.  (Let us pray and work to the end of giving the truth to Israel now.)

In Matthew 24:32-25:30 is found a prediction concerning the rapture of the church.  This forecast is introduced by the parable of the fig tree.  Because it
is sometimes used symbolically to refer to the Jewish nation, certain commentators see in this parable a prediction concerning the restoration of the Jews to their own land.  We are never to understand that the fig tree is used symbolically unless the facts of the given context indicate such a significance.  Are there any facts which show that Jesus used this language other than literally?  One will seek in vain for such negative evidence.  The fig tree in this passage therefore must be understood literally.  This conviction is strengthened by the parallel passage in Luke 21:29.  “And he spake to them a parable:  Behold the fig tree, and all the trees.”  If the fig tree is used symbolically to indicate Israel and its budding indicates the beginnings of national life, then the budding of the other trees assumes on the part of these nations a deadness but a coming to life at the same time.  This proves too much.  What proves too much proves nothing at
all.  In view of these facts we know that the fig tree is not in this passage used symbolically.

As seen before and as indicated on the chart above, the entire Christian Dispensation is covered by Matthew 24:4-6.  The World War, attended by famines and pestilences and great earthquakes, is the sign of the end or the first birth pain.  Verses 9 to 31 bring the discussion to the very end of the Tribulation and the coming of the Son of man.  Thus the entire Christian Dispensation, the Tribulation period, and the beginning of the Millennial Age are covered in verses 4-31.

Since the apostles asked for the sign of the end of the age, and since Jesus said in verse 8, “. . . all these things are the beginning of travail,” and since He
used the budding of the fig tree as an illustration of His point, the statement, “. . . when ye see all these things, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors,” refers to “all these things” of verse 8, which constitute the sign of the end of the age.  In other words, in verses 32 and 33 Jesus said to His disciples:  When you see a World War accompanied by famines, pestilences, and great earthquakes in divers places occurring, you can understand that this is the sign of the nearness of the time of my return and of the introduction of the Millennial Age.  The section of Scripture, 24:32-25:30, deals with the rapture prior to the Tribulation, together with events connected therewith.  This fact is indicated by an arrow pointing toward the rapture on the chart.  In Matthew 25:31-46 is a prediction of the judgment of the living nations by the Lord Jesus Christ at His second coming in glory to set up His millennial kingdom.

According
to Daniel 7 & Revelation 13 & 17

By
David L. Cooper

            In the preceding study we have examined the revelation made by the Lord to Nebuchadnezzar but interpreted by Daniel.  In this symbolic vision we saw certain phases of truth regarding the four world kingdoms.  The imagery employed to represent these empires during “the times of the Gentiles”—from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to the second coming of Jesus the Messiah—could set forth only certain phases of the truth connected with them.  An examination of all the facts leads one to believe that in the image vision, God was presenting civil governments viewed from the human standpoint.

To Daniel directly the Lord made a revelation which is supplemental to the one given to Nebuchadnezzar.  This time He selected those symbols which would present human governments seen from the divine angle.  This imagery yielded itself to the Almighty in presenting certain other truths that are not found in the revelation just studied.

THE
FOUR VISIONS

            In Daniel 7:1-14 we have the record of four visions which were given to Daniel in “a dream and visions of his head upon his bed.”  In verses 15-28 an angel interpreted to him the prophecy relative to the fourth beast in a full and detailed manner.

THE
FIRST VISION

            7 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed:  then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters.  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of heaven brake forth upon the great sea.  And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.  The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings:  I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon two feet as a man; and a man’s heart was given to it.  And, behold, another beast, a second, like to
a bear; and it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth:  and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.  After this I beheld, and, lo, another, like a leopard, which had upon its back four wings of a bird; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.

In this vision the prophet saw the great sea as its waters were being agitated.  Out of the surging billows there emerged a lion-like beast.  It came upon the shore and was master of what it surveyed.  Following it was another beast, a second one, like a bear.  It also emerged from the water, taking the place of the first one.  Following it was a third one, like a leopard.  It had four wings of a bird and four heads.  Dominion was given to it.

THE
SECOND VISION

            After this I saw in the night visions, and, behold, a fourth beast, terrible and powerful, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet:  and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.  I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots:  and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

In these verses we have a description of the coming of the fourth beast, which was so very terrible and hideous that Daniel found no animal with which to compare it, since it was different from all the other beasts. According to him, “it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet.”  It had ten horns.  In the midst of these there came up another horn, a small one, before which three of the ten were plucked up by the roots.  This horn had eyes and a mouth that spoke words of blasphemy.

When one reads this passage, he instantly receives the impression that these are not literal beasts but are symbols.  The data leading to this conclusion are the facts that the first one was like a lion and had eagle’s wings.  When these were plucked, it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.  The third one, like a leopard, had upon its back four wings of a bird, and it had four heads.  Instantly one realizes that these are not literal beasts.  If they are not, then they are symbols of something; for it is quite evident that they have some significance.  The fact that such animals come out of the waters of the troubled sea and live upon the land likewise intimates that they are not literal animals.  The impressions received from reading the passage are confirmed by the angel’s interpretation, which is as follows:  “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings that shall arise out of the earth” (Dan. 7:17).

From this statement it is clear that these animals are symbols of four kings.  Concerning this position there can be absolutely no doubt; but these beasts also have another signification as is indicated by verse 23.  “Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces (Dan. 7:23).  I invite the reader to note carefully that the fourth beast, according to this verse, is “a fourth kingdom upon earth.”  In verse 17, as we have seen, these beasts are four kings; but, according to verse 23, the fourth beast is a fourth kingdom.  This language, therefore, shows that the words, king and kingdom, are used interchangeably as they apply to these four animals.  We must always remember that they have this twofold signification, and that we must examine minutely the immediate context of any statement to ascertain which of these definitions was in the writer’s mind when he used one of the symbols in any given case.  This is one of the fundamental principles in
interpreting symbolic language.  If it is ignored, hopeless confusion results; but if this principle is recognized as all the facts are carefully weighted, a given passage will yield its rich and sacred meaning to the earnest student.

But there must be some fundamental reason underlying this double usage.  I can call attention to it by relating the following circumstance.  Some years ago Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican Party at the National Convention held in Chicago.  His followers formed what became known as the Progressive Party.  Shortly after that event a European came to America and asked how many parties we had in this country.  The immediate reply was:  “Three-Republican, Democrat, and Roosevelt.”  This answer was correct, for Theodore Roosevelt was the father of the Progressive Party.  He was its life.  When he died, it died and passed out of existence.  Thus the witty reply that Roosevelt was the third party was in keeping with good usage.  This story might be used as an illustration of the two-fold symbolic meaning of a beast.  In a certain statement reference is made to the monarch; the beast therefore symbolizes the king.  The facts of the immediate context however must make this meaning clear.  Speaking figuratively, in such a connection the facts focus the spotlight upon the sovereign.  The same symbol appearing in another context with different data refers to the realm over which the sovereign reigns.  In this instance, the facts flash the floodlight over the entire realm.  In view, therefore, of this double usage, one must be very careful to examine all the facts to determine whether he sovereign alone is in view or the kingdom is meant.

Having therefore learned that beasts when used symbolically have this twofold meaning, it is for us next to ascertain what four governments are symbolized by the beasts of this vision.  When we lay Daniel 7 beside Daniel 2, immediately a parallel is suggested to our minds.  There are four metals n the image of
Nebuchadnezzar and four beasts of Daniel’s vision.  Following the fourth kingdom represented by the iron legs and the iron and clay toes is another one which is set up by the God of heaven, and which shall never pass to another people nor be destroyed.  After the judgment, which is pronounced upon this fourth beast, one like unto a son of man comes before the Ancient of Days, receives a world-wide, everlasting kingdom, and establishes His reign of righteousness upon the earth.  Without question the fifth kingdom of Daniel 2 is the kingdom of this “one like unto a son of man” of Daniel 7.  The facts are plain, and the interpretation is sure.  The image vision was given to Nebuchadnezzar in his second year.  The beast visions were shown to Daniel in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon.  Let it be remembered that Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, whereas he was the recipient of the revelation concerning the four beasts.  An angel however interpreted this vision to him.  Daniel informed Nebuchadnezzar that he and his kingdom were symbolized by the head of gold, as we have already seen in the preceding study.  The chest of silver signified a second kingdom, which succeeded Babylon, namely, Medo-Persia.  The belly of brass represented the third world empire, Greece.  The legs of iron and the toes of iron and miry clay set forth Rome. Since both visions were given during the ministry of Daniel and have his day as their initial date, since both have the same terminus, since there are four kingdoms presented in
each vision, and since they follow each other in succession (I shall below give the absolute proof on this point regarding the fourth beast), the irresistible
conclusion is that these visions are parallel and refer to the same kingdoms but are viewed from different angles.

As an argument against this position, our attention is by some called to the facts that, in the Book of Daniel, we read of Babylon (chapter 2), and of the Medo-Persian Empire and the Greek kingdom (chapter 8), but that in no portion of Daniel do we see the name of Rome.  It is concluded, therefore, by these
expositors that the fourth empire symbolized by the legs of the image and the fourth beast of Daniel 7 cannot be the Roman Empire, but that it is some
kingdom that arises in the end of the age.  Everyone who knows the contents of the Book of Daniel admits that Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece are mentioned by name in it, and that the name of Rome does not appear.  This fact, however, does not militate against our identifying the fourth kingdom,
mentioned in these two chapters, as Rome.  We have already seen in the previous study that in the image there were no breaks, which fact signified the immediate appearance of one kingdom after its predecessor went down.  Continuity appears in Daniel 7.  One beast emerges from the troubled waters as its predecessor disappears.  That this is true is evident from the phrase introducing verses 6 and 7:  “After this I beheld.”  The expression in the original Aramaic (for this is the language in which chapters 2:4—7:28 are written) literally rendered is “in the place of this one.”  This phrase in its connection means that the
third kingdom comes up and takes the literal place of the second one.  In other words, the third beast, which is Greece, comes up out of the agitated, political waters and takes the place of the second empire, Medo-Persia. When we look at the historical facts and study the marvelous career of Alexander the Great, we know what actually happened.  Alexander marched against the Medo-Persian Empire, conquered its armies, incorporated the entire kingdom into his realm,
and took it over.  No one can for a moment question this fact.

This identical phrase—word for word—is used with reference to the appearance of the fourth beast.  The latter comes up and literally takes the place of the third one.  Now since we know literally what is meant with reference to the third beast’s coming up after the second and its taking the place of its predecessor, we are forced logically by the facts to understand that the fourth beast takes the place of the third one in a manner similar to the third’s taking the place of the
second.  Since the third literally followed the second and immediately took its place, we know that the fourth beast takes the place of third in the same way.
These facts drive us to the irresistible conclusion that the kingdom symbolized by the fourth beast actually, literally, and historically overcame and succeeded the Medo-Persian Kingdom.  What empire overran Greece, conquered all of its territory, swallowed it up, and took its place?  There is but one answer—Rome.

All of the facts set forth in the image vision and in that of the four wild beasts viewed in the light of history acclaim with no uncertain sound that these four beasts, as well as the four metals of the image, symbolize Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, and Rome.

This position is the one taken by conservative scholars and is correct.  Let us not discard a view that is supported by all the facts, and that has been held by godly, consecrated Bible scholars unanimously, for some theory that has been propounded in order to relieve the passage of a seeming difficulty.  The Lord does not need our assistance.  He said what He meant and meant what He said.

THE
THIRD VISION

            “I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit:  his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire.  A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him:  thousands of thousands
ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him:  the judgment was set, and the books were opened.  I beheld at that time because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed, and it was given to be burned with fire” (Dan. 7:9-11).

What scene is this?  Is this the judgment mentioned in Matthew 25:31-46—the judgment of the living nations which survive the Tribulation and which are gathered before Christ at His second coming?  By no means could it be this judgment, for, when Christ sits upon the throne of His glory, the Antichrist and all of his aides will have already been slain.  Paul tells us that the Lord Jesus at His second coming will slay the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:8).  The judgment of the living nations mentioned in Matthew 25 occurs after Christ has come to earth.  But when this scene mentioned by Daniel takes place, the Antichrist will be in the plenitude of his power, hurling defiance against the Almighty.  In view of these considerations and others that might be mentioned, one cannot identify this judgment as the one described by Jesus in Matthew 25.

But some take the position that the Ancient of Days mentioned in verse 9 of this passage is the same as the Ancient of Days described in verses 21 and 22 and that the latter passage undoubtedly refers to Christ and His judging the nations after His return.  The Ancient of Days mentioned in verse 9 cannot possibly be the Lord Jesus Christ; but He is undoubtedly the Father, for, in the fourth vision of this series (verses 13 and 14), Christ is the one “like unto a son of man,” who comes before the Ancient of Days and receives from Him the kingdom.  Verses 21 and 22, in which the Ancient of Days again appears were spoken by the interpreting angel to Daniel as he explained the judgment to be pronounced by the Almighty upon the Antichrist.  The Ancient of Days in both cases is therefore God the Father.

Since this angel came to Daniel’s side and was explaining to him the significance of the visions which he had just seen, let us visualize the situation.  We can then see more clearly the import of the language.  Frequently I give stereopticon lectures.  I throw a certain scene upon the screen and with my pointer explain the different objects that are pictured.  For instance, if I show a picture of Jerusalem taken from the Mount of Olives, in the lower left-hand corner I point out the Dome of the Rock on the Temple area.  In the lower right-hand corner I call attention to a building, most beautiful and modern, and explain that it is the million-dollar Rockefeller Museum.  Moreover, I speak of the east wall of the city, giving special attention to the golden gate.  Thus I explain the
various objects of interest in the picture.  In the same way the four visions were shown to Daniel.  Figuratively speaking they were thrown upon the screen.  As Daniel gazed at them, an angel came to interpret to him their significance.  As has been indicated above, Daniel wrote by inspiration the description of the four visions, which account is found in the first 14 verses.  By the same infallible guidance of the Spirit, he has recorded in the last 14 verses the explanation
which the angel made to him as he looked at these four scenes.  There was before the prophet in the third vision the Ancient of Days, God the Father, sitting upon a throne of judgment, while the beast, the Antichrist, on earth hurled defiance and blasphemies at Him.  The angel informed Daniel that the
persecution of the saints (Jewish people) by the Antichrist continues up to the time when the Ancient of Days comes into the courtroom of heaven, takes His
seat upon the throne, and pronounces judgment against the beast.  All these facts show conclusively that the Ancient of Days mentioned by the angel could be none other than the One who sits upon the throne described in verse 9.  These and other facts likewise prove absolutely that this judgment scene could not be the judgment of the living nations after Christ returned to this earth.

After having disposed of the misunderstanding relative to this scene, let us look more closely at the revelation that is given in the verses just quoted.  In order to do this, I wish to present an imaginary case.  Let us assume that we are looking at a moving picture.  This place is to have two screens, an upper and lower.  The first two visions are thrown upon the lower screen.  As we have seen, these two present the four beasts which appear in succession.  We sit there with rapt gaze observing the coming forth of each of the beasts in succession; but our interest is immediately heightened when we see the fourth one take the place of the third and observe him in all of his maneuvers and developments until finally he in arrogant pride and haughtiness defies the God of heaven.  As we contemplate this picture and all of its implications, suddenly there is thrown upon the upper screen another picture giving a view of the supreme courtroom of the universe.  Presently a throne is set.  Then other thrones are placed around this one.  When all things are ready, the Ancient of Days enters, attended by an innumerable host of angels.  He takes his seat upon the throne.  Then He pronounces judgment against the beast, the Antichrist, which, when carried
out, causes his execution.  He is then “given to be burned with fire.”  Thus is brought to a conclusion the proud and defiant career of this last world emperor.

THE
FOURTH VISION

            “I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds if heaven one like unto a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.  And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him:  his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13-14).

After the Almighty pronounces His judgment upon the Antichrist, one “like unto the son of man” comes, even before the Judge of the universe, the Ancient of Days.  He is at this time invested with authority and power to reign over all peoples, nations, and languages upon the face of the globe.  His dominion will be an everlasting one which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

Who is this one “like unto a son of man,” appearing before the Ancient of Days and receiving universal sway?  Our passage does not give any hint as to His identity; but, when we study such a prediction as Isaiah 7:14, which foretells the virgin birth of the Messiah, we see that this King is God in human form.  Many are the passages throughout the Old Testament which show that the Messiah is the God-man, which present His entire career, and which foretell His incarnation, life’s work, sufferings, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God while He awaits the time when God will put His enemies under His feet.  The counterpart of this teaching is found in the New Testament.  When one studies both the Old Testament predictions and the New
Testament account of Jesus of Nazareth, together with the prophecies found therein, one is immediately convinced that this one, “like unto a son of man,” can be none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man who has fulfilled the Old Testament program to date, and who is awaiting the development of events of the end-time when He will, in fulfillment of the fourth vision of Daniel 7, go into the presence of the Almighty and be invested with world dominion and power.  When He does that, He will return and establish His reign of righteousness upon the earth.

All these facts are in perfect accord with the parable of our Lord, recorded in Luke 19:11f.  Because He was drawing near to Jerusalem and because the people thought that the kingdom of God in its glorified form was to be established immediately, Jesus spoke the parable of the pounds, saying that the kingdom of God is like unto a man who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return, but before making his departure he delivered to his servants his goods, to each one a pound.  To them he gave instructions that they should use this money in a profitable way.  Then the nobleman went into the far country.  When he received his kingdom, he returned and rewarded his servants according to their works.  Jesus is the nobleman of the parable.  Heaven is the far country.  Believers are the servants who should now be using their pounds for the glory of God and the blessing of humanity.  Jesus is still in heaven awaiting the development of the events of the end-time when the Father will take His seat upon the throne in fulfillment of Daniel 7:9-12, and ronounce judgment upon the Antichrist.  By the time He does this, He will have put Messiah’s enemies under His feet (Ps. 110:1-2).  As soon as this is done, the Son will appear before the Father and receive authority to establish His reign of righteousness upon earth (Dan. 7:13-14).  When this program is compared with the many passages bearing upon this subject, it is seen that all relevant matter harmonizes with it.

SPECIAL
POINTS REGARDING THE FOUR BEASTS

            I have already called attention to the fact that this one is acting arbitrarily if he assumes an interval of time between the kingdoms symbolized by the various metals of the image vision or by the beasts of Daniel 7.  It is unthinkable to assume that the gold of the head did not reach to the silver of the chest.  The same thing is true with reference to the silver of the chest and the brass of the belly.  In the same manner we are forced to believe that the brass of the belly made contact with the iron of the legs.  There was no break in the continuity as indicated by the metals of the image.  This same unbroken continuity is likewise indicated by the beasts, each coming up immediately after its predecessor.  Moreover, each beast remained upon the stage after its appearance until it was replaced by the next one.  The lion-like beast set forth the Babylonian Empire throughout the period of its existence—until it went down under the
Medo-Persia power.  The same thing is true of the bear-like beast symbolizing Medo-Persia.  This animal represented that empire throughout its entire career—from the time it succeeded the Babylonian Kingdom until it went down under the Greeks.  The same principle is maintained with reference to this empire, which was succeeded, as all historians avow, by the Roman Empire.  If we accept this sane, sound course of reasoning with reference to the fourth beast, we are to understand that it represents the Roman Empire from the time that it succeeded the Greeks until the Ancient of Days takes His seat upon the throne at the end of this age and passes judgment upon its last emperor, the Antichrist.

Absolute confirmation of this interpretation is found in the actual text.  In Daniel 7:9 we gave these words:  “I beheld till thrones were placed, and one
that was ancient of days did sit:  his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire.”  Daniel beheld “till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit.”  What did Daniel behold?  When one reads verses 7 and 8, he sees that Daniel was looking at the nondescript beast, the fourth one.  Hence his statement, “I beheld till thrones were placed,” means that he saw the beast when it arose and kept looking at it until the judgment was placed in heaven, which, as has been stated and as all know, will be at the end of this age.  Thus, Daniel tells us that he saw the rise of this beast and that he observed its developments and movements throughout its entire existence—from its rise until the ancient of Days takes his seat upon the throne.  This language is absolute and positive proof that the fourth empire, Rome, which succeeded Greece,
appeared on the historical scene and has remained in full view through the centuries and will continue thus until the Ancient of Days takes his seat upon
the throne.

To bring this thought out more graphically, let us again imagine that we looking at a moving picture.  We see the waters of the great sea troubled.  Presently there emerges from the surging billows a terrible beast which cannot be compared with any known animal.  It comes upon the shore, and it takes possession of countries and extends its borders far and wide.  It is master of all it surveys.  Daniel sees the picture before him.  He notices every motion and all
developments.  This picture remains before the prophet’s gaze from the time it is first thrown upon the screen until the Ancient of Days pronounces judgment upon it.  It may seem needless to emphasize the negative part of this proposition; yet it might be beneficial to some.  This fourth beast never disappears from sight from the time that it comes upon the screen until the judgment scene is thrown upon the upper screen, which represents the courtroom in heaven.  These facts show that the government, which is thus symbolized, makes its appearance upon the historical arena and never disappears until the end of this age when the Almighty pronounces judgment upon it.  Then its last emperor is cast into a place to be burned with fire.  From all the facts we have ample Scripture proof to warrant the belief that Rome was the kingdom which succeeded Greece historically and that it has continued through the centuries to the present time and will remain here until the Almighty pronounces judgment upon it at the very end of the Tribulation.

This evidence is in perfect harmony with that which is set forth by the legs of the image.  As we have seen in our investigation, the legs are attached to the body of the image and continue all the way downward to the feet.  This fact indicates that, after Rome was divided in 285 A.D. by Diocletian, as we know,
it would continue in its outward form through the centuries until it reaches the toe-stage in the very end of the age.

We know that Rome succeeded Greece as a world empire, that it reached the point when it was divided as indicated by the legs and that according to the
prediction it continues through the centuries to the end-time.  In this connection let me again remind the reader that it is the perpetuity of the type of government that is affirmed here.  We have already noticed in the study of the image vision that the continuity is in the type of government (the legs or iron and feet of iron and miry clay) and it not to be thought of in terms of local boundaries.  A failure to recognize these important truths has led many excellent Bible teachers into serious misconceptions concerning the Roman Empire.

ROME
WILL YET BECOME A UNIVERSAL EMPIRE (DANIEL 7:15-28)

            As for me, Daniel, my spirit was grieved in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.  I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth concerning all this.  So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.  These great beasts, which are four, are four kings that shall arise out of the earth.

            But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even for ever and ever.  Then I desired to know the truth
concerning the fourth beast, which was diverse from all of them, exceeding terrible, whose teeth were of iron, and its nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet; and concerning the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, and before which three fell, even that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake great things, whose look was more stout than its fellows.  I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

            Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.  And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise:  and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings.  And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.  But the judgment shall be set, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.  And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High:  his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.  Here is the end of the matter.  As for me, Daniel, my thoughts much troubled me, and my countenance was changed in me:  but I kept the matter in my heart.

The angel, as we see in verse 17, explained the significance of the four beasts; namely, that they symbolize either the sovereign or his empire.  Though Daniel was interested in all the beasts, the fourth one especially attracted his attention.  Hence he asked concerning it.  From verse 21 it seems that the vision of the fourth beast was again presented to the prophet.  This is very easy for us to understand when we remember that a moving picture film, after it has been shown, might be run a second time in order to bring out or emphasize some point that was passed over at first.  We might think of the portion of the vision that pertained to the fourth beast as being again, figuratively speaking, presented on the screen for a second study.  When this was done, the interpreting angel explained the significance of the fourth beast’s devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping the residue with its feet.  Hence he declared, “The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces” (verse 23).  I wish the reader to note the fact that, according to the angel, this beast is to devour the whole earth.  When the Lord said the whole earth, He meant exactly what He said and said what He meant.  Let us recall that, when the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, we are to seek no other sense.  The plain sense of this statement makes good sense.  We are, therefore, to seek no other sense unless there is positive evidence in this context indicating differently, or unless it contradicts the teaching found in other passages.  In verse 27 the angel informed Daniel that “the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.”  Note the language:  “the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven.”  This shows that there is to be a world kingdom and an international dominion, but this kingdom consists of sub-kingdoms.  In other words, it will be the union of all the kingdoms of the world under one centralized government—all kingdoms under the whole heaven.  This is a fundamental teaching of the Scriptures and must be so recognized by all prophetic students; otherwise construed, there can result nothing but confusion and discord.

But one might, in rebuttal, call attention to the decree issued by Caesar Augustus, “that all the world should be enrolled” (Luke 2:1).  Does this expression, “all the world,” mean the entire world or the Roman world?  God expects people to use common intelligence as they read His Word.  When the King of England issues a proclamation, do those outside of his realm have to obey?  The answer is NO.  Orders by kings and emperors are to their subjects and not to those without their realms and jurisdiction.  The facts of history and of common sense and experience show us that the expression “all the world” in this passage refers to the Roman world only.  This same word, however, occurs in Romans 10:18 with a different connotation.  The apostle in speaking of the gospel declared that “Their sound went out into all the earth,” and, as a complementary statement in this “Hebrew parallelism,” said, “And their words unto the ends of the world.”  When we recognize that the second statement is a comment upon the first, we see that the very word used by Luke, when employed by Paul, indicates the entire earth.  This same usage one sees in Hebrews 2:5-7.  An examination of the context shows that the writer is talking about the entire earth in the Millennial Age.  I could examine every occurrence of this expression in the Greek New Testament.  In each instance the facts of the context indicate its meaning.  As another counter-argument to the position which I am advocating, our attention is called to such a passage as Acts 2:5 where we are told that there were Jews dwelling in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven.  Is this statement, “from every nation under heaven,” to be taken literally or in a limited sense?  The facts of the context alone can decide.  If one will only read Acts 2:5-13, he will see that Luke was not using this language in the absolute sense of the term, for he limits its meaning by calling attention to the various nations represented in the multitude.  Thus arguments based on Luke 2:1,2 and Acts 2:5,6 and similar ones to show that “the whole world” in Daniel 7:23 does not mean literally what it says are seen to have no bearing on the issue whatsoever.  Let us always remember that words have various shades of meaning and there is a relative as well as an absolute use of language.  The facts of each context must determine the significance of a term in any given case.

Since there is nothing in Daniel 7 to indicate that “the whole earth” is not to be taken literally, we shall do well to accept it at its face value.  Moreover, we are forced to acknowledge the correctness of this position since positive evidence in the form of verse 27 shows that this fourth kingdom is to devour the whole earth—it is to be “the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven.”  Furthermore, we must remember that there are other predictions in the Word which show that the Roman Empire is to be a universal one in every sense of the term.  For instance, John in Revelation 13, speaking of the beast, said, “And there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.”  What does this language
mean?  There is but one interpretation possible, which is that every nation upon the face of the globe will be incorporated in this kingdom in the end-time.
Additional proof of this position is seen in Revelation 11:15 which asserts that there were great voices in heaven saying, “The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ:  and he shall reign for ever and ever.”  The Authorized Version speaks of “the kingdoms of the world” in this passage, but the American Revised Edition, following the Greek accurately, speaks of “the kingdom of the world.”  The existence of one universal kingdom in the end-time is in perfect alignment with the teaching of Haggai 2:20-22.  The Lord in speaking to Zerubbabel, the Governor of Judah, after the return of the exiles from Babylon, foretold the shaking of the heavens and the earth, which prediction we know refers to the time of the Tribulation, saying,   “…and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them” etc.  Here we see “the throne of kingdoms”—different kingdoms but one throne controlling them.  In view of this plain teaching, we therefore are forced to believe that the fourth beast, the symbol of Rome, will, as Daniel asserts, devour the whole earth, will tread it down, and will break it in pieces.

According to verse 23, this fourth beast, which succeeded the third one, devours the whole earth.  As has been shown, Rome has never swallowed up the earth in fulfillment of this passage.  Has the Word of God failed?  Positively not.  Since it was foretold that she will devour the whole earth, and since she has not done so, we may be absolutely certain that she will yet play the role here foretold.

But did not Rome follow Greece and did she not disappear from the historical scene?  These are pertinent questions that must have a candid and full answer.  As was suggested above, Daniel beheld the fourth beast when it came forth out of the troubled waters of the sea.  He saw it come upon the land; he continued to look upon it until the Ancient of Days took His seat upon the throne and passed judgment upon it.  These facts show that, according to the
prophetic vision, Rome was not to disappear after its historic rise but is to continue through the centuries until it devours the entire earth at the end-time.  When I speak of Rome, I refer to political Rome. I mean the type of government that first found expression in the reign of the ancient Caesars.  That type came up in fulfillment of the prediction, become dominant, and swallow up the entire earth.  From this conclusion there can be no possible escape, the Word of God being true.

THE
WORLD KINGDOM BREAKING UP INTO TEN DIVISIONS

            “And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise:  and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings” (verse 24).

The angel informed Daniel that “out of this kingdom”—this fourth kingdom after it has devoured the entire earth—there shall arise ten kings.  According to this prediction, Rome is to devour the whole earth.  After it has reached this stage—and only after it has thus developed into a world power—do the ten kings arise.  Since Rome has never devoured the whole earth, we may be certain that these kings have never appeared, and never will until that event—if language means anything at all.  Since no world ruler would likely relinquish his grip upon any portion of the earth voluntarily and render his authority to ten other men, we are safe in concluding that Rome, after she becomes a world kingdom, will collapse and fall into ten different parts, over each of which there will arise a king or a dictator.  That the ten kings do not arise until after Rome has become a world empire is evident from the fact that the angel began to
interpret to Daniel the meaning of the four beasts, starting from the first and concluding with the last.  He is therefore giving the chronological order of the sequence of events.  Since this is true, and since he mentioned the rise of the ten kings after the beasts has devoured the whole earth—out of this kingdom, the world empire, the ten horns arise (the ten kings)—we know positively that the ten have not appeared yet.

After the world empire has fallen of its own weight into ten divisions and the ten dictators have arisen, seizing the authority in each of these sections, there arises the Antichrist, who is symbolized by the little horn arising after the ten.  All fundamental premillenarians, with whose teachings I am acquainted, are agreed that this little horn is none other than the Antichrist of whom we read in I John 2:18.  He arises out of obscurity and becomes associated with these ten kings.  By his diplomatic maneuvers, as we learn from other Scriptures, he gradually seizes the power, adroitly taking it from the ten.  Finally, in the midst of the seventieth week of Daniel—in the middle of the Tribulation—there is a political upheaval in which three of the ten kings are destroyed.  For further information about this upheaval, see Daniel 11:40-45.  The Antichrist then becomes absolute, ruling ruthlessly during the latter half of the Tribulation.

Could any person in the public life of today be the Antichrist?  Since he does not appear until Rome has become a world empire and has split into ten divisions, we may be certain that no man today who is occupying any place of prominence could possibly be that “wicked one”.  Without hesitation, I say
with boldness upon the authority of this passage that no dictator at the present time could possibly be the Antichrist.  Furthermore, he is to be a Roman, as we see from Daniel 9:26.  The angel Gabriel speaking to Daniel said that people “of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary,” the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.  The Romans destroyed them.  Since the prince, the Antichrist is of this people, he must be of Roman extraction.  Let us beware of a system of interpretation, therefore, that tries to identify anyone now in the public gaze as the Antichrist.  WE must always bear in mind that “the wicked one” is to be of Roman origin.  Furthermore, the numerical value of his name must equal 666 (Rev. 13:17, 18).

THE
WORLD KINGDOM TURNED OVER TO THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH

            At the end of the seventieth week of Daniel the kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.  At that time He turns it over to the saints of the Most High.  The word saints in the Old Testament, always refers to the Jewish people.  An examination of the various occurrences of this word will reveal no other meaning.  It fundamentally means one who has entered into covenant relationship with God by means of sacrifice (Ps. 50:5).  The saints, therefore, are those who have obtained favor by means of accepting the sacrifice which God has provided.  The Jews offered the sacrifices which God commanded and thus obtained His favor; but all of their offerings were typical of the real, all-sufficient Sacrifice—the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  Because of the typical meaning, therefore, of their sacrifices, the Jews entered into covenant relationship with God.  They (and possibly believers of the New Testament) are the saints of this prediction.  Thus converted Israel together with the saints of the present age—the church of the Lord Jesus Christ—obtains the kingdom, and the church reigns with Christ for a thousand years (Rev. 20:6).

THE
BEAST OF REVELATION 13 AND 17

            And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of  blasphemy.  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet we as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion:  and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority.

            And I saw one of his heads as though it has been smitten unto death; and his death stroke was healed:  and the whole earth wondered after the beast;
and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast?  And who is able to war with him?  And there was given to him a mouth speaking great
things and blasphemies; and there was given to him authority to continue forty and two months.  And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, even them that dwell in the heaven.  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:  and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation (Rev. 13:2-7).

According to the first verse of the quotation above, the beast which John saw emerged from the waters of the sea.  This seems to be an echo of Daniel 7, where as we have seen, the four beasts of that vision emerged from the troubled waters of the great sea.  This beast was more like a composite one, because its body was that of a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion.  These features immediately suggest the three first beasts of Daniel’s vision—lion-like, bear-like, and leopard-like ones.  It seems that, since this beast possesses these distinctive features of the first three beasts of Daniel 7, the Lord intended to convey the idea that there would be incorporated in the four kingdom the dominant characteristics of its three predecessors.  This seems to be the
inescapable inference.

The fourth beast of Daniel 7 continues to the very time of the judgment of the Almighty and the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon the earth.  As already seen, it is a world-wide kingdom.  The first beast of Revelation 13—the symbol of a world-wide kingdom (Rev. 17:7)—continues to the very time of
the Lord’s establishing His kingdom upon the earth.  We conclude, therefore, that this first beast of Revelation 13 is none other than the fourth beast of Daniel 7.

We are told by Daniel that the fourth beast had ten horns upon its head.  John adds that the beast of his vision had seven heads in addition to the ten horns.  This fact does not contradict Daniel’s revelation but simply is supplemental to it.  All the facts connected with verses 1 and 2 of Revelation 13 point to the conclusion that in them the floodlight of prophecy was flashed over the entire realm of the empire; but in verses 3-7 the light is focused upon the sovereign of this kingdom in the end-time.  Every earmark of an individual is seen in this description.  This shifting of the point of view from the empire as such to that of the sovereign is, as we have already seen, characteristic of such symbolic representations as this one.

In Revelation 13 John generally describes the fourth empire symbolized by the nondescript beast after it has become a world empire.  In verses 1 and 2 of this chapter he takes a backward glance and with one stroke of the pen, as it were, gives us a delineation of this first beast from its rise to its culmination in the end-time.  Then in verses 3-7 he focuses attention upon its seventh head, on which are the ten horns.  It receives the death stroke, is slain, but by the power of Satan is brought back to life again.  From that time onward to the end of the Tribulation—the last forth-two months before the Lord’s return—this dictator, brought back from death by the power of Satan and energized by him, will stage the greatest demonstration of super-human, satanic power that the world has ever seen.  But as we learn from Revelation 19, he is brought to a sudden end by the personal coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

The second beast of Revelation 13:11-18, the one coming up out of the earth, seems to be subordinate to the Antichrist and to have one sole object in life which is to magnify and glorify the Antichrist.  When all the facts are studied, it appears that he is the one who is called the “false prophet” in Revelation 19:20.  All that he does it to forward the glory, the power, and the might of his master.

THE
SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNSOF THE BEAST

            And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou wonder?  I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns.  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition.  And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, how that he was, and is not and shall come.  Here is the mind that hath wisdom.  The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth; and they are seven kings; the five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a little while.   And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goeth into perdition.  And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour.  These have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto the beast (Rev. 17:7-13)

A comparison of this quotation with the thirteenth chapter shows that the beast here described is the same as the one set forth there.  Scholars are agreed that Babylon, the harlot is none other than the false ecclesiasticism that will develop in the end-time, and that will be supported by the government as a state religion.  John wishes to explain the history of this beast.  He states that “the beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition.”  What is the significance of the word beast in this quotation?  Does it refer to the empire or to its head?  Some excellent  brethren are convinced that the empire is in view.  Does this verse indicate that it existed for a time; that it disappeared from the historic scene; and that it will be revived at the end-time and become a dominant factor in the history of the world?  On the other hand, there are those who are convinced that the beast in
these verses signifies the personal Antichrist, the last ruler of Rome.  They see in this passage a prediction that he  will come to power and exercise great authority; then he will be slain having received the death stroke; next his spirit descends to the pit of the abyss; finally, he comes forth from thence, and will be raised to life by the power of Satan.  Many excellent interpreters take this view of the question.

What shall we do about this matter since there is a division of opinion?  There is, it seems to me, but one intelligent thing that we can do:  Look at all the
facts and see in what direction they point.  In this connection, let us remember that sometimes a beast signifies a kingdom and in another connection it refers to its ruler.  Let the reader refresh his mind by referring to Daniel 7:17, in which passage the beasts are said to be four kings.  As we have learned, this passage focuses the light upon the sovereign of the realm, but in verse 23 of the same chapter the fourth beast is called a fourth kingdom.  In this verse the floodlight of prophecy is flashed all over the realm of this last empire.  We see that even in this one chapter our symbol has two different significations.  In Revelation 13:1-7 these two usages appear.  Now what is its meaning in Revelation 17:7?  Let us, for the sake of investigation, assume that it refers to the Roman Empire, signifying that there was a time when it was in existence, that it disappeared from the historic scene, and that it will come back to life in the end-time.  If this is the meaning, this experience is not a new one for certain empires.  For instance, Babylon was a mighty kingdom and ruled the Tigris-Euphrates Valley in the days of Hammurabi and his successors.  Finally, it disappeared from the historic scene.  Then it was revived by Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar.  Thus, there was a time when Babylon was; then it disappeared, and entered what we might call the period “when it was not”; finally it was brought back to life and entered what we might call the third period of its history.  As all scholars know, Greece was a mighty power succeeding the Medo-Persian Empire.  It continued through several centuries and finally disappeared from the stage of action, being absorbed by another kingdom.  Finally, at the end of the Greco-Turkish War, it returned to life and became a political entity and maintained its independence until it was overrun by the Germans in 1941.  Once again, there was the ancient kingdom of Poland which was a political entity in Central Europe.  Finally, it was overrun, carved up, and partitioned between Russia, Germany, and the old Austria-Hungary Empire.  At the conclusion of the first World War, Poland came back as a nation and continued until it was overrun by Germany in 1939.  Were the people of the world ever electrified or astonished at the revival of any of these empires?  This question must be answered in the
negative.  Granting that John was speaking about the Roman Empire and its reviving in the end-time, will men be electrified and astonished at its revival and be swept off their feet to the extent that they will worship the emperor because of the fact that it comes back to life again politically?  Such a resurrection
of a political power never has and never will produce such a radical change in the thinking of men as to cause them to worship the ruler of a kingdom.  The facts seem to preclude our thinking of this verse as a reference to the political organization and system of Rome.

Let us suppose that the beast here refers to the Antichrist and his personal experiences.  This head of the world empire receives the death stroke but is healed from it.  The result is that “the whole earth wondered after the beast” (Rev. 13:3).  According to this passage and its context, it is the coming back to life of the beast after receiving the death stroke that makes the people of the world wonder after him and worship him.  Chapter 17:8 declares that, when the beast comes out of the abyss (the place of departed spirits and demons), those who dwell upon the face of the earth, and whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, will wonder at him as they behold “how that he was, and is not, and shall come.”  If we assume that this beast is the world ruler and accept at face value the prediction in the seventeenth chapter; namely, that he dies, that his spirit goes down into the abyss, that he is brought back to life by the power of Satan, and that he is energized by him to the extent that he performs miracles, the like of which have never been wrought before; then we can see how that all the people of the world whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will see the supernatural element connected with his resurrection and will acclaim him as God.  (Compare II Thess. 2:4)  From this standpoint, it seems that all the facts point most positively to the conclusion that the beast in Revelation 17:7b, who is also mentioned in chapter 13:3-7, is none other than the personal Antichrist, who is slain by an opponent, who dies, but who is raised by the power of Satan.

There is another fact which confirms this conclusion.  In Revelation 13:11-18 we see that the second beast, the false prophet, makes an image to the first one.  At that time a great celebration is held in honor of this man who is brought back to life.  Power is given to the second beast to give life to the image.  This first beast, according to verses 17 and 18, has the number 666.  We are expressly told that this is “the number of a man.”  This number does not refer to a political system or government, but to a man, the Antichrist.

In view of these facts, I am of the conviction that “the beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into
perdition” is the personal Antichrist and refers to his being slain and his coming back to life.  In view of all these consideration, I cannot accept the interpretation that this passage refers to the revival of the old Roman Empire.

THE
SEVEN HEADS OF THE BEAST

            “Here is the mind that hath wisdom.  The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth:  and they are seven kings; the five are
fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a little while” (Rev. 17: 9-10).

This beast, according to this scripture, has seven heads, which are called seven mountains, but John is quick to let us know that he is not using “mountain” in the literal sense, for he declares that “they are seven kings; the five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a little while.”  When a mountain is used symbolically, it always refers to a government (Jer. 51:25).  Obviously in this case it is used symbolically, for John gives the interpretation by saying that these mountains “are seven kings.”  Since John interprets these mountains as symbols, it is certain that he is not talking about the hills of the city of Rome as has been understood by some excellent Bible commentators.

Some men are of the opinion that the seven kings mentioned are seven individual Caesars.  According to this view, five had already been before the time of John’s writing Revelation; one was on the throne; and another was to come.  Facts point to the conclusion that John wrote the Revelation in the days of Domitian, the Roman emperor, about 96 A.D.  A glance at the list of Caesars who had already sat upon the throne shows that there had been more than five.  Their names are:  Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Gallo, Otho, Vittellius, Vespasian, and Titus.  Domitian was on the throne when
John wrote the Revelation.  He therefore could not have been speaking of the Caesars.  Furthermore, there were many Caesars after Domitian.  These facts forever disprove the theory under consideration.

What then can it mean?  We may possibly find  the answer to this question by referring to Daniel 7:6:  “After this I beheld, and, lo, another like a leopard, which had upon its back four wings of a bird; the beast  had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.”  We have already learned that this leopard, the third beast of this vision, symbolized the Greek Empire.  According to this passage, it had four heads at one time.  When we look at the historical facts, we see that, upon the death of Alexander the Great, who established Greece as a world empire, the kingdom fell into four separate sections, in each of which there was established a separate government.  Heads used in this vision of Daniel, therefore, signify the four different and independent governments—of this third empire. Without question the general conceptions concerning beasts in the Book of Revelation are borrowed from Daniel.  This fact we have already seen.  The fourth beast of this series, according to John, had seven heads, whereas the third one had four.  The four heads of the third empire were  contemporaneous, but John is quick to tell us that the seven heads of the fourth empire are not contemporaneous but are in succession.  The proof of this
proposition is found in these words:  “the five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a little while (Rev.
17:10).  This language makes it very clear that these heads—governments—interpreted in the light of the language used in connection with the third empire, are symbolic of the classes of governments which control the fourth empire during its entire history.  This fact is shown on the drawing at the beginning of this study.  Above the solid line in the left-hand corner of the drawing are three animals representing Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece.  These are taken from the Daniel version.  Below this line is another animal that has five different heads.  This one animal represents Rome from her rise in 753 B.C. to the time that she became a world empire.  Before it took on such proportions it was a local affair, though growing all the time.  Thus we see it at the beginning with its first head.  Following this, we see it with its second head, etc.  This is the Revelation version.  When the sixth head appeared, it had grown to the point that it rose to the level of a world empire.  It maintained this sixth head from that time forward and will continue to do so until the seventh one comes up at the end of
the age as is indicated on the chart.  This latter part of the prediction is the combined prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.

Imperialism was the sixth head of Rome, for that was the type of government which was in existence in John’s day and which has persisted through the centuries.  When the Antichrist comes forward at the close of this age, he and his government will constitute the seventh head.  In the midst of the Tribulation he will be slain—that head will be given its death blow—but by the power of Satan he will be raised from the dead and will reappear as the eighth head, and yet it will be of the seven—only a break of a very short period intervening.

At the conclusion of the Tribulation the Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory, will destroy all human government, and will set up one of righteousness, peace and justice.  O Lord, hasten that day!

 The essence of this message is “Prepare to meet thy God, O man.”  Every Bible student will recognize that this language found in Amos 4 was addressed to Israel.  In order for us to see the full force of this exhortation, we must read the entire context. When the import of the chapter is seen, we immediately recognize the fact that these words have a different meaning from what I am putting into them.  According to the prophet, God has sent one judgment after another upon the national of Israel in order to win her back from her apostasy and sin.  Instead of profiting by her mistakes and returning to God, the nation went farther and farther into sin and idolatry after each successive judgment.  To this fact the prophet called the people’s attention and then in a dramatic manner declared, “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”  This exhortation in the light of the context can simply mean that, since the people had defied God and had gone farther into sin, they should make ready to receive another judgment more severe and thoroughgoing than any of the former ones.

 Every time the Lord brings trouble or disaster into the life of an individual or nation, it is designed in love for good of all concerned.  The Lord God Almighty loves all people, both nationally and individually, and is doing all that He can without hampering the power of choice, to win and woo every one to a life of love designed to draw people closer to God in order that they might be prepared to meet Him in peace.  If, however, they refuse His chastisement, they will have to meet Him with His wrath resting upon them.

 The exhortation, “Prepare to meet thy God,” assumes that man is in an unprepared condition and is and ready to go into the presence of his Creator and Maker.  Is this assumption correct?  Instantly the one who knows his Bible answers in the affirmative. The Scriptures clearly teach in Genesis 2 and 3 that man was created in a state of purity and innocency.  While he was in this condition, God came and had blessed fellowship and communion with him. According to the Genesis account, Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden which the Lord has graciously prepared for them.  Everything that was calculated to be a benediction and a blessing to man had been placed there for his use and happiness.  The Garden of Eden was indeed an ideal home.  Nothing that could contribute to man’s well-being and joy was omitted.

 When God created man and woman, He made them in His image.  They were the crowning work of His creative activity.  In this connection let me say that man did not evolve from some of the lower forms of life.  In the light of modern scientific research it is improper, as some do, to speak of the “missing link.”  According to comparative anatomy, as reports show, all animal life is classified on the basis of skull capacity in its relation to the spinal column.  In the animal register there are found creatures whose brain capacity ranges from practically zero up to 600 cc.  On the other hand, in the human register we find men with brain capacities ranging from approximately 1000 cc. up to 1960.  There is a wide gap of 400 cc.—from 600 to 1000—which separates the human register from that of the animal creation.  In view of these facts it is absolutely unscientific and positively erroneous to speak of the missing link.  According to the doctrine of the evolution of man as popularly held today, there would have to be literally tens of thousands of missing links bridging this chasm of 400 cc.  Therefore I am driven by cold facts to reject the so-called evolutionary hypothesis and to accept the biblical account of man’s having been created in the likeness of God.  Being in the image of his Maker, man of necessity was in a pure and holy state when he was created.  At that time man knew nothing of sin and rebellion against God.  His thoughts were always on the highest plane, his emotions holy, and his actions pleasing to God.

 Being the offspring of God, as the Apostle Paul declared, man was the special object of divine love and compassion.  As every true parent has his heart centered upon his child, so God constantly has his heart centered upon his child, so God constantly has been engrossed with the interests of His offspring.  The Lord through Moses told us that it was His custom to appear in the Garden and to hold communion with man.  In order to do this, evidently the Lord assumed the form of man and conversed with him in his own language.  From the account in Genesis we may conclude that these visits were regular and most delightful both to man and to his God.  So to speak, heaven and earth were connected.

 Finally, all of this bliss was marred by the subtle diabolical machinations of Satan, who suddenly, according to the third chapter of Genesis, appeared upon the scene, playing the role of a friend.  In order to deceive our first parents, Satan—a malevolent, wicked, spirit being—veiled himself and became incarnate in the serpent and approached the unsuspecting woman.  From that day until the present Satan has always adopted the method of camouflage.  He and his servile spirits under him constantly approach every man and woman in an effort to drag them down to perdition.

 Having disguised himself and having the confidence of the woman, Satan did not question directly the love and honor of God.  He did it in an indirect manner by expressing surprise that God would withhold anything that was calculated make man wise.  Not realizing the situation, Eve accepted without question what Satan said and partook of the forbidden fruit.

 This fatal act brought sin with its train of myriad evils into the world.  Adam, realizing what had been done, and loving his wife with a holy affection, deliberately transgressed the one and only prohibition God place before man and in an instant was reduced to the condition of his wife.

 That which came upon both Adam and Eve is, among Christians, called the Fall. Figuratively speaking, the image of God in man’s soul was dashed to the ground and shattered by that one sinful, rebellious act of disregarding God’s command.  Sin, an invisible, corrupting, satanic power, immediately entered into every atom of man’s being and defiled his nature—his thoughts, his imaginations, his feelings, his emotions, his plans, and his conduct.  Again, speaking in a figure, I might say that when our fore parents sinned, an electrical current which changed their entire nature was sent coursing through their being.  This new experience doubtless startled them, for they could not realize fully what had occurred.  Like a hurricane this foreign power swept over their souls and wrecked their innermost being.  The result of this great change, which at that time took place, is accurately mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah who said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly c o r r u p t:  who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).  All the prophets and the writers of the New Testament are unanimous in declaring the fallen, ruined nature of man.

 In his fallen and corrupt condition man cannot go into the presence of his Maker in peace.  This fact becomes immediately apparent when we remember that as soon as man fell, God withdrew His presence from him and ceased to have association in a personal manner with him.  The Lord Almighty still loves everyone and is yearning after his soul.  It is the will of God that none should perish but that all should come to repentance and prepare to meet Him in peace.

 In order to be ready, one must have that experience to which the Lord Jesus Christ referred when He said to Nicodemus, “Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).  This statement of our Lord startled this learned rabbi ofIsrael.  Jesus in illustrating what He meant said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6).  Thus one must yield himself to God and the Lord Jesus Christ and have this experience, usually termed the new birth, in order to come into the kingdom of God and enjoy His blessings forever.

 The new birth is likewise called regeneration.  This word means literally “to be generated again.”  Man was created originally, as we have already seen, in the image of God.  His spiritual nature became corrupt.  Now in order for him to be acceptable to his Maker, this image must be reconstructed by the supernatural operation of the Spirit of God in the heart.  This fact is seen in Ephesians 4:20-24.  Here Paul exhorted the brethren to “put on the new man that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

 This new nature of man is after God created in righteousness and holiness of truth. The Lord saves men by the washing and renewing of the Holy Spirit:

 “But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and his love toward man, appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved u, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:4-6).

 One may ask, “How may I be born again or regenerated?”  A person may be born again by placing his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as his all sufficient Saviour and Redeemer.  The Lord came to earth and gave His life a ransom.  He became the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  He poured out His precious blood for the redemption of the human family—for all who will accept Him.  In order for a person to appropriate the benefits of His death, he must believe on Jesus Christ as God’s Son and his Saviour.  To believe on Him is to accept Him as his Lord and Saviour and to trust Him for life and salvation.

  Everyone must do this—Jew and Gentile alike.  There is no distinction; there is but one way, which is the way of the cross.  Will you not, my friend, accept Jesus as your personal Saviour?  May you do this now.

 In the previous tract we saw the scriptural outline of Messiah’s redemptive career.  According to it, He comes in humiliation, entering the world by virgin birth, and allows Himself to be slain for the redemption of all who will accept His atonement. After His resurrection He ascends to the throne of God and awaits the time when Israel will repudiate the national sin of rejecting Him and will accept Him wholeheartedly.

 We have also seen that Messiah in the person of Jesus of Nazareth made His first appearance on scheduled time.  In fulfillment of the Old Testament prediction He was cut off and had nothing.  After His resurrection He ascended to the right hand of the throne of God where He has been throughout the entire Christian Dispensation, awaiting the time for the Jewish people to accept Him as their Lord and Messiah.

 It is now proper for us to investigate the Scriptures to ascertain the events that will transpire immediately before and at His second coming.  In the first place, let us examine Messiah’s second advent according to the Old Testament:  Throughout the Scriptures there is constantly sounded the note of triumph in regard to His coming and deliveringIsrael from her position of servitude and bondage.  Since these predictions were not fulfilled at His first coming, we may be absolutely certain that they will be accomplished when He makes His second advent. For instance, Moses, in impersonating King Messiah, declared in the “national anthem”:

  “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make

alive; I wound, and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, as I live for ever, If I whet my glittering

sword, and my hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine a

adversaries, and will recompense them that hate me.  I will make mine arrows

drunk with blood.  And my sword shall devour flesh: With the blood of the slain

and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.  Rejoice, O ye

nations, with his people:  for He will avenge the blood of his servants, and will

render vengeance to his adversaries, and will make expiation for his land,

for his people” (Deut. 32:39-43).

 When we study this passage in its context, we see that the time will come which is termed “the day of their calamity”—namely, Israel’s.  When their strength is gone, God says that He will intervene for vengeance belongs to Him.  If this entire passage is studied in the light of other statements from Moses and the Prophets, it is seen that Israel will be oppressed by the nations of earth and will be reduced to the direst circumstances imaginable.  In the critical moment before she is completely defeated in the final conflict, God appears on the scene in the person of King Messiah and routs her enemies, delivering His Chosen People.

 Another presentation of our Lord after He has conquered a hostile world appears in the last four verses of Psalm 24.  In this glorious passage the author saw King Messiah as He will majestically step forward, marching to the city of Jerusalem after He has conquered His foes with a smashing blow.  The sacred writer, realizing the entire situation, shouts to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to welcome their King and speaks of their receiving Him in terms of the doors and the gates through which the people anciently entered the city:

 “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors:

And the King of glory will come in” (vs. 7).

 Very dramatically he asks, “Who is the King of glory?”  Without waiting for a reply he declares:

 “Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle” (vs. 8).

 Again in this wonderful poem he shouts to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to accept their approaching Monarch.  Once more he inquires, “Who is this King of glory?”  Again he answers his own question by saying:

  “Jehovah of hosts, He is the King of glory” (vs. 10).

  In this poem the psalmist as a herald on the mountain top shouts to the people of the city for them to welcome their victorious, conquering King.

 We see another portrait of King Messiah in action as He goes against His enemies.  This scene is found in Psalm 45:3-5:

  “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, thy glory and thy majesty, and in

thy majesty ride on prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness:

and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.  Thine arrows are sharp; the

peoples fall under thee; they are in the heart of the king’s enemies.”

  Here the psalmist sees a situation arising in which the people of Israel will be downtrodden and oppressed notwithstanding the fact that their lives exemplify the virtues of truth, meekness, and righteousness.  Responding to the prophet’s call, Messiah goes into action, slays all His enemies, and marches forth to victory.  After this conquest, as we see in verses 6-8, King Messiah mounts the throne of David and reigns from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

 In vision Isaiah saw King Messiah appearing on the eastern Horizon, and marching from His conquest at Bozrah in Edom on His way to Jerusalem.  In order to convey to his auditors a vivid picture of the revelation, the prophet gave us the message in the form of a dialogue between the victorious Messiah and himself.

  “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?  This that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength?  I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.  Wherefore are thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat?  I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me:  yea, I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment.  For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.  And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold:  therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my wrath, it upheld me. And I trod down the peoples in mine anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth” (Isa. 63:1-6)

 This conqueror marching in the greatness of His strength is, according to Him, the one who speaks in righteousness and who is mighty to save.  The reason for His garments being besprinkled with blood is that He has been in mortal combat with His enemies in the region of Bozrah.  From this vivid description it is evident that He has slain His enemies and conquered others who submit to Him.  His explanation for this conquest is that the day of vengeance is in His heart, and the year of His redeemed has come.  There will come a time for God to take vengeance on the enemies of Israel and to redeem them from all their sorrows.  This picture in Isaiah 63 vividly sets forth Messiah’s conquests.

 Another graphic picture of His coming is given in the third chapter of Habakkuk’s prophecy.  In this wonderful revelation we see King Messiah coming in the strength of His glory and power and slaying all His enemies.  His sudden appearance upon earth confounds His enemies and, as it were, throws the whole physical universe out of gear. The prophet’s poetic language concerning the disorders in the physical realm is but a graphic description of the great changes that will take place when Messiah appears in behalf of His people.

 In the second place let us now investigate Messiah’s second coming as set forth in the New Testament.

 John the Baptist heralded the advent of Jesus by speaking of the sudden appearance of Messiah and of His being like a man who winnows his wheat, gathering the train into the garner but burning the chaff with unquenchable fire.  Thus John spoke of a day of wrath and vengeance.

 The Lord Jesus Christ when He was here upon earth sounded the same note.  On different occasions, He spoke of this time of unparalleled wrath when God will pour out His judgments upon the world.

 That there is a moral necessity for this period known as the Tribulation is clear from the fact that a righteous God must punish the evildoers.  To every informed person today it is abundantly evident that the world is on a toboggan, sliding down to lower depths of immorality and sin.  When Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities of the Plains made such a plunge into the depths of degradation, God’s righteousness was stirred.  By a miraculous judgment He overthrew those cities and their civilization.  Whenever the modern world has reached the point that God can no longer tolerate its wickedness, there is but one thing that He, a righteous Supreme Being, can do—namely, to send His purging judgments upon the world.  Such is the prophetic picture which is presented in the Scriptures.

 Will true believers pass through this Tribulation?  Whether or not the church ofJesus Christ will go into the Tribulation is a question of debate in certain circles.  Some very earnest brethren believe that they see absolute proof in the Scriptures that the church will enter it; on the other hand, there are brethren who are just as honest and who are positive that the Lord will take His people out of the world before that time.  Of course, both positions, being so diametrically opposed, cannot be correct.

 Will the church pass through the Tribulation?  According to my understanding of the Scriptures, she will not.  Prior to the Tribulation the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God.  The dead in Christ will rise first.  The saints living at that time will be caught up together with those who have been raised to meet the Lord in the air.  This teaching is found in I Thessalonians 4:14-18.

 After having discussed this point, the Apostle Paul continued his theme in the fifth chapter of this Epistle by saying, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you.  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”  From the connection we can see that Paul associated the doctrine of the Lord’s coming and the rapture of the church with that of the day of the rapture of the church with that of the day of the Lord.  But does he imply that the church will go into any part of or through the Tribulation?  This question is answered, to my satisfaction at least, in I Thessalonians 5:9 which reads as follows:

 “For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through

our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 Here Paul presented the case both negatively and positively.  The Lord did not appoint His people unto wrath, i.e., to experience the wrath of which He was speaking. On the contrary, He promised exemption for them by delivering them from it, not allowing them to enter that period.  When these words are taken at their face value, it is immediately apparent that here is definite promises that the Lord will not allow His church to enter the Tribulation but rather will take her out of the world before His judgments begin to fall upon the earth.

 But what of the revelation of the Lord?  When God’s purging judgments shall have exterminated the wicked from the earth, the Lord will burst through the heavens with a radiance of glory and will appear upon the earth.  At that time every eye shall see Him—even those who pierced Him, and they shall mourn because of Him.

 As intimated in the Old Testament, when He comes thus in power and glory, He will appear to the remnant of Israel and will deliver it from the oppressors.

 When one reads the signs of the times and studies the present chaotic world conditions in every realm—political, economic, social, religious—he is forced to the conclusion that we are living in ominous times and that a righteous God cannot long withhold His judgments from the earth.

 To you, my friend, let me appeal that you accept the Lord Jesus of Nazareth as your own personal Saviour and Messiah.

]]> http://promisestoisrael.org/messiah-glorious-appearance-imminent/feed/ 0 http://promisestoisrael.org/messiah-historical-appearance/ http://promisestoisrael.org/messiah-historical-appearance/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:34:48 +0000 admin http://promisestoisrael.org/?p=1106 By David L. Cooper

 In Tract One of this series we saw that the Eternal God is a holy Trinity; in the second message that according to prophecy one of these divine personalities was scheduled to come to earth for man’s redemption; in the third, the outline of Messiah’s redemptive career was set forth as presented from Psalm 110; in the fourth, we learned that King Messiah was to be executed before the overthrow of the Jewish nation which occurred in the year 70 A.D.  In all of these messages we have been looking at the truth largely from the standpoint of the Hebrew Scriptures.  In the present discussion we want to see the historical Messiah—the Lord Jesus Christ.

 According to the law which was delivered by Moses, every matter tried by the courts of Israel was to be substantiated by two or more witnesses.  This legislation was indeed a wise provision made by the Almighty in order to forestall error and injustice.  A careful study of the revelation of God shows that it was made according to the pattern of “the law of the witnesses.”

 The Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Old Testament predictions, entered the world by virgin birth, grew up as a man, performed His earthly ministry, and finally laid down His life for the redemption of humanity.  Specially chosen men who had associated with Him during His personal ministry were appointed by Him to be His representatives after His departure.

 According to the best obtainable data, the Lord Jesus Christ was executed in the year 30 A.D.  The Holy Spirit cam upon the Apostles to guide them into all truth, bringing to their remembrance all things which Jesus had taught and making new revelations to them.  Thus the oral testimony was given out during the first three decades of the present era.  Christianity sprang up in the very city, Jerusalem, where it Founder had been crucified.  Notwithstanding severe opposition and persecution, the number of the disciples grew daily.  Finally, however, there arose a persecution against the church in Jerusalemafter the stoning of Stephen.  On account of this new opposition the church was scattered abroad everywhere; but its members went into every nook and corner of the land, preaching the gospel.  The believers, being instructed by the Apostles, carried out the order to procedure as laid down by the Lord:  they were to preach the gospel first inJerusalem, next in Judea, then in Samaria, and finally they were to carry it to the ends of the earth.  Thus, “the living voice,” as the testimony of the witnesses of our Lord’s ministry was called, continued to give forth accurately what they had both seen and heard.

 The farther His life and times receded into the past, the more insistent was the demand for a written record.  “The living voice” gradually became more indistinct the farther the nascent church journeyed from the scenes of the crucifixion.  Hence by 60 A.D. the demand for the gospel in permanent form was so very insistent that the Holy Spirit led, as occasion demanded, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to compose records of our Lord’s life.

 By giving us the four records, the Almighty was following the principle of the “law of the witnesses.”  Each of the gospel writers, guided by the Holy Spirit, collected the material from the life of our Lord which would assist him in presenting the Master and His work according to the ideals set before him.  With this general understanding of the case we are now ready to examine more minutely the four portraits of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 According to the results of conservative scholarship, Mark in all probability was led by the Spirit to write his record first.  A careful study of his account makes it very plain that he was presenting Christ as “the servant of Jehovah.”  In order to paint such a portrait, he was led by the Spirit to select those materials which would enable him to accomplish this purpose.  A servant is diligently engaged about his master’s business. Thus our Lord Jesus Christ was always found doing the things that were pleasing to God.

 There are certain catchwords or expressions that are characteristic of Mark.  He constantly relates, in a brief yet graphic manner, the various things which Jesus did.  His record is filled with narratives rather than speeches.  After relating one thing that the Lord Jesus did, immediately he tells us that He hastened to perform another; hence, such words as straightway and immediately are characteristic of this gospel record.

 In the Old Testament the Messiah is represented as the “obedient servant of Jehovah.”  This presentation of Him is especially set forth in Isaiah’s prophecy.  A comparison of these predictions with the material which Mark used leads one to believe that he presented Jesus as the obedient servant of Jehovah.  He clothed his thoughts in such language as was easily understandable by the Roman people for whom he, according to tradition, wrote.

Recent conservative scholarship has reached the conclusion that in all probability Matthew was the next to compose a life of our Lord.  An examination of his Gospel shows that he was writing for Hebrews acquainted with the Old Testament and that he was speaking in thought forms easily intelligible to the Jew.  The Hebrew people, according to certain authorities, were in the first half of the first century expectantly looking for the appearance of King Messiah.  Matthew was led by the Spirit to present the life of Jesus in such a way as to convince the honest-hearted truth seekers that Jesus of Nazareth was the one who literally filled out the picture of the expected Messiah.  He constantly speaks of the kingdom of heaven, a typical Jewish expression, popular in the first century. All his material aided him in presenting Jesus as King of the Jews.  For instance, in the first chapter he gives the regal genealogy; in the second, he tells us of the wise-men who came to visit Him who was born King of the Jews; in the third appears the record of John’s preaching concerning the approach of the kingdom of heaven; in chapters five, six and seven is found the King’s “manifesto.”  The parables of the kingdom of heaven are set forth in chapter 13.  Thus throughout the book the material which serves in presenting Christ as King of the Jews is drawn from the vast store of information.  Doubtless there was before Matthew’s mind the Old Testament portrait of Messiah as King of the Jews. Hence he attempted to convince his brethren that Jesus of Nazareth was the one for whom they were looking.

 Luke, the most trustworthy historian of ancient times according to present-day scholarship, wrote what the rationalist Renan called “the most beautiful booking the world,” The Gospel of Luke. From the standpoint of literature, it is indeed a classic, as is recognized by all Greek scholars.  Luke’s writings are those of a polished and highly educated man.  Let us not in this connection forget that the Holy Spirit took the man as he was and used him to write his message, giving him both the thought and the words by which the ideas were expressed.  According to tradition, which is supported by the internal evidence of the Gospel of Luke, this writer presented Jesus as the ideal man, our Kinsman-Redeemer, a perfect Man who came to redeem the human family from its misery and woe.

 A casual reading of the third Gospel shows very clearly that Luke’s ideal in writing this record was that of a perfect man who assumes the responsibility of caring for and delivering others.  It is also evident that he viewed Jesus as a man, although he recognized the fact that He was God in human form.  It was his consuming Spirit-inspired passion to present Jesus as the ideal man; hence he laid continual stress upon those human characteristics which sine forth so beautifully in our Lord’s life.  He presented Him as a holy man who had a burning desire for blessing humanity.  In doing this, he laid great stress upon the prayer life of the Lord Jesus.  Many human touches characterize this special record of the Gospel.

 The consensus of believing scholarship is that John wrote his record of the Gospel last.  From beginning to end his purpose is in evidence.  He recognized the fact that Jesus was “the King of the Jews,” “the obedient servant of Jehovah,” and “the Ideal Man, our Kinsman-Redeemer.”  Nevertheless he presented Him in none of these aspects.  The ideal for which he was laboring was to picture Jesus of Nazareth as one of the divine personalities who entered the world by virgin birth.  In his record there is very little narration of incidences in the life of Jesus.  John was led by the Spirit to select those messages delivered by Jesus and those controversies in which the divine nature of his Lord was discussed in order that he might present most clearly the doctrine concerning the deity of Jesus of Nazareth.  Hence, in nearly every chapter of this most wonderful boo there shines forth with noonday radiance the deity of our Lord.

Some have objected to John because of this feature.  Of course, such a criticism is due to unbelief in the heart.  The historicity of Jesus has been thoroughly established and recorded in the first four decades of this era.  There was in the latter half of the first century a tendency to question the deity of Jesus and an effort to overemphasize His human nature.  Hence the Spirit led John to write his record to counteract this evil trend of thinking and to emphasize the fact that Jesus, though a man, was divine.  Hence his record supplements that of the other three Evangelists.

 These four pen-pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ reveal the identity of their hero. Though in each book Jesus is presented as occupying a different position, it is quite evident to the reader that the same person is described in each instance.

 When the Four Gospels are studied carefully and prayerfully, it is seen that they give a harmonious story that bears the earmarks of truth from beginning to end.  All seeming contradictions can be thoroughly and satisfactorily explained in the light of all the facts.

 Simon Greenleaf, whose name is a household word throughout the legal profession, arranged a harmony of the Gospels and subjected it to the laws of evidence and has demonstrated to us that the testimony of the four Evangelists meets every criterion of true and accurate evidence.

  In view of the fact that we have four harmonious and consistent records of our Lord’s life, and of the further fact that his entire career corresponds exactly to the first coming of Messiah as presented in my book, Messiah:  His Redemptive Career, we logically conclude that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.

 In view of all these facts, dear friend, will you not accept with your whole heart this Lord and Saviour as the only hope of salvation?  May He enable you to make the decision now.  You have no promise of tomorrow; today is yours.  Hence wisdom dictates that you should accept the Lord Jesus now and give your heart and life to Him. May the Lord lead you to such a decision is my prayer.

 In the first message of this series I called your attention to the fact that the Eternal God is a triune being consisting of three personalities known as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  In the second I endeavored to show from the Scriptures that one of these divine personalities was scheduled to come into the world, entering it by virgin birth.  And in the last one we learned, especially from Psalm 110, the outline of Messiah’s redemptive career which consists of His coming to earth, of His rejection by His people (the Hebrew nation), of His return to heaven, of His session at the right hand of the throne of God, and of His future coming to earth to establish His kingdom when Israel accepts Him.  In the present message it is proper for us to study the scriptural predictions which foretell the time when the Messiah was scheduled to make His first appearance according to His great redemptive scheme.

 Jacob told us in Genesis 49:10 that the scepter should not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh would come; and unto Him would be the obedience of the peoples.  By all conservative scholars this prediction is recognized as being messianic.  In the light of the full context of this prediction, it is evident to every one that this prophecy foretold that Judah would be exercising the sovereignty among the tribes of Israel at the time when Messiah would make His first appearance.  Since the preeminence of that tribe and the entire national government of the throne of David passed out of existence in the3 year 70 A.D. when the Roman authorities captured the city of Jerusalem, and since this passage of Scripture cannot be broken, we are irresistibly driven by stubborn facts to believe the King Messiah made His appearance, according to His redemptive career, prior to that catastrophic event in 70 A.D.  From this conclusion there can be no escape for the one who believes the Book of Genesis to be the infallibly inspired Word of God.  Hence the year 70 A.D. is the date beyond which Messiah would not, according to this promise, make His first advent into the world.

 The next question which demands consideration is, “Have we any specific promise that would indicate the very date3 when He would come, or any other information concerning His life and ministry?  The answer to this question is found in the ninth chapter of Daniel, to which I will now give some special attention.

 According to the first two verses, Daniel was studying the Book of Jeremiah the prophet concerning his prediction relative to the return of the Babylonian captives.  It was in the 68^th of the 70 years of exile that Daniel was reading the prophecy and praying in regard to the matter.

 In verses 3-19 we find recorded the wonderful petition which Daniel uttered as his heart’s response to the marvelous prediction which he had just read.  The study of prophecy always has a salutary effect upon the one who reads it in order to learn the will of God.  Invariably such study will bring one closer to God, and cause him to conform his life to that of the Master’s will.

 In response to Daniel’s petition the Lord dispatched Gabriel to give him further light concerning the prophecy.  The angel admonished Daniel to listen attentively to his message.

            In order to understand this new revelation brought by Gabriel, we must remember that Daniel was reading Jeremiah 25 and 29 which foretold that Israel would be in Babylonian captivity for 70 years.  Since he had been reading this prediction, it is clear that he was thinking in terms of years.

 The angel said to Daniel, “Seventy weeks are decreed upon they people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.  Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks:  it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times.  And after the threescore and two weeks shall the anointed one be cut off, and shall have nothing:  and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined” (Dan. 9:24-26).

 What is the meaning of the expression, “Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city?”  Daniel’s people and the holy city are the Hebrew people and the city of Jerusalem.  Since the prophet was thinking in terms of years, as we have already seen, and especially since he had been thinking of the period of the seventy years of Babylonian captivity, the angel Gabriel said that there would be seventy sevens decreed upon Daniel’s people and the holy city.  The Hebrew of this verse is translated “seventy weeks,” but the English word week signifies seven days.  He Hebrew word rendered “weeks” does not have any such connotation but simply means seven without any indication as to the objects that are enumerated.  It is used similarly to our words dozenand score; hence, when Gabriel said that there were seventy sevens decreed upon Daniel’s people and the holy city, he naturally understood that the angel was speaking of years.  Hence Gabriel foretold that seventy sevens of years, 490, were decreed upon the Hebrew people and upon the city of Jerusalem, “to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.”  God promised to bring about these six highly desirable blessings at the expiration of these 490 years.  A careful study of these items reveals the fact that the period here promised is none other than that of the great Kingdom Age for which Israel has been looking and which is called by the Christians the Millennial Era.

  In this connection the question is most appropriate, “When did this period begin?” This query is answered in verse 25:

 “Know therefore and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times.”

 From this verse we see that this era of 490 years begins with the proclamation of the decree to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem.  Can we find when that order was issued? According to Isaiah’s prophecy Cyrus the Persian, whom the Lord called His shepherd, would give this command and perform all His pleasure “even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid” (Isa. 44:28).  I believe that God through Isaiah spoke accurately when He said that Cyrus would issue the edict for the restoration of the temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.  Some good brethren, however, have overlooked this prediction and have hastily, in my judgment, drawn an unwarranted conclusion from the decree issued by Cyrus as recorded in the first chapter of Ezra.  There only the temple is mentioned without a word concerning the city. Nevertheless I have faith to believe God knew what He was talking about when He said that Cyrus would issue the proclamation for the restoration of the temple and the city,even though the mention of the rebuilding of the city is not to be found in the recorded decree of Cyrus.  If we will study the book of Ezra carefully, we shall see that the Jews, armed with such imperial authority, began to lay the foundation of the Temple and to build the city.  This is clearly evident from the letter that was written by the enemies of the Jews to the Persian king. “Be it known unto the king, that the Jews that came up from thee are come to us unto Jerusalem; they are building the rebellious and the bad city, and have finished the walls, and repaired the foundations” (Ezra 4:12).  If the decree had included only the Temple, the returned exiles never would have been presumptuous enough to go beyond the authority granted them and attempt to build the city.  From this and several other statements in the Word of God, we may be certain that Cyrus actually did issue the command for the Jews to rebuild both Temple and city.  In view of these facts, therefore, I am confident that the initial date of the 490 years mentioned by the angel Gabriel was the year 536 B.C. in the Ussher chronology, which corresponds to the year 3589 A.H. in the biblical system of computing time—which dates all events from the creation of Adam onward.

 Accepting the date of 536 B.C., in the Ussher chronology, one cannot harmonize this position with the statement of the angel Gabriel.  But are we called upon to harmonize the infallible statements of Scripture with man made systems of chronology?  Everyone will answer in the negative.  All students of chronology know that the B.C. dates, which are usually designated as the Ussher chronology, are incorrect, and realize that many mistakes were made in the computation of this system.  I feel absolutely certain that the 490-year period began with the issuing of the decree of Cyrus for the Jews to return from Babylonto their native land.

 With this thought settled in our minds we can advance another step by noting the fact that at the end of sixty-nine weeks or sixty-nine sevens of years, 483, the Messiah would be cut off and have nothing.  Since the beginning of this period was the year 3589 A.H., which was the first year of the 483, we must add 482 to this date in order to arrive at the year when Messiah would be cut off.  By the process of simple addition we find that, according to this prediction, His execution occurred in the year 4071 A.H.

 Since He entered the world by virgin birth prior to this time, we may be certain that His birth occurred some years before that date.

 From a reading of the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke we see that there were certain ones who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.  There is only one way upon which we can account for this general expectation—namely, that those who were looking for the year of redemption were students of the prophetic Word and believed its message.

 From the standpoint of the New Testament, we know that the Hebrew Messiah foretold in the Old Testament was none other than the Lord Jesus, who came as we foretold, and who grew up performing the works likewise foreshadowed by the Prophets. According to current chronological schemes, He was executed in the year 30 A.D.

 When He poured out His life’s blood upon the cross, He did it for the redemption of the human family—for all who will believe Him and accept His atoning mercy.

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