SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service
Theologian
UNFULFILLED PROPHECY
CHAPTER III.
No Christian doubts the Messianic fulfilment of the 69
weeks of this prophecy. And if we distinguish between what is doubted and what
is doubtful, no less certain is it that the 70th week awaits fulfilment in a
future age.
The suggestion that such an era should be thus interrupted in
its course may seem strange and untenable, but the intelligent student of
Scripture will recognise the principle which this involves. That principle is
strikingly exemplified in the era of four hundred and eighty years, reckoned
from the Exodus to the Temple (1 Kings vi.). According to the historical books,
that period was in fact five hundred and seventy-three years; and this is
confirmed by the Apostle's words at Pisidian Antioch (Acts xiii. 18-31). How
then can this difference of ninety-three years be explained?
Though this
problem has perplexed chronologers the solution of it is plain and simple.
These ninety-three years are the sum of the servitudes recorded in the book of
Judge. During five several periods Israel's national existence as Jehovah's
people was in abeyance when, in punishment for their idolotry, He "sold them
into the hands of their enemies." They thus became enslaved to the King of
Mesopotamia for eight years, to the King of Moab for eighteen years, to the
King of Canaan for twenty years, to the Midianites for seven years, and finally
to the Philistines for forty years. (The sum of 8+18+20+7+40 is 93. The
servitude of Judges x. 7, 9 affected only the tribes beyond Jordan, and did not
suspend Israel's national position.) When God forgives our sins He blots
out the record of them. And if this principle obtains even in reckoning an
historical era, how legitimate it seems in the case of a prophetical era like
that of the Seventy Weeks. By their rejection of Messiah, Israel forfeited
their normal position of privilege and special blessing. And seeing that
Messianic prophecy runs in the channel of Israel's national history as the
covenant people, its fulfilment is tided back until the Lo-ammi sentence which
now rests upon them is withdrawn.
The 24th chapter of Matthew, moreover, is
an end of controversy on the question here at issue. The first book of the New
Testament, like the last, is prophetic. And the 24th chapter is well described
by Dean Alford as "the anchor of Apocalyptic interpretations." To understand it
aright we must shake free from traditional exegesis, and read it with
intelligent appreciation of the position and attitude of those to whom it was
addressed. They were men whose thoughts were moulded and whose hopes were based
upon the Hebrew Scriptures. And when they put the question, "What shall be the
sign of Thy Coming and of the winding-up of the age?" they had in view the age
of Israel's subjection to Gentile supremacy and the Coming again of Christ "to
restore the Kingdom to Israel."
It is extraordinary that any intelligent
reader should confound that event with the Coming revealed in the Epistles. The
one is the Coming foretold in Hebrew prophecy, which will bring deliverance to
the favoured nation in days to come. The Lord here terms it "the coming of the
Son of Man. "-a Messianic title which never occurs in the Epistles, and is
never used in Scripture save in relation to His earthly people. But the Coming
revealed in the Epistles is one of the "mystery " truths of Christianity - a
"Coming" to call up to their heavenly home the redeemed of this Christian
dispensation. These "Comings" have nothing in common save that both refer to
the same Christ. With still greater force does this remark apply to "the Second
Advent" of theology, an event which will be not less than a thousand years
later than "the Coming of the Son of Man." For the Coming foretold in Matthew
xxiv., xxv. will inaugurate the kingdom of heaven upon earth-"the millennial
reign of Christ" (to use a theological phrase), whereas "the Second Advent" of
theology is His coming to judgment at the end of that thousand years. There can
be no intelligent study of unfulfilled prophecy if we fail to distinguish
between these several "Comings" of Christ.
Certain it is that if the Coming
of Christ of which the Epistles speak be the same as "the Coming of the Son of
Man" of Matthew xxiv., the Apostle's words are in flat and flagrant opposition
to the Lord's explicit teaching. For His warning is clear and emphatic that His
Coming as Son of Man must not be looked for until after the coming of
Antichrist, the horrors of the great Tribulation," and the awful signs and
portents foretold in Messianic prophecy. Whereas the Epistles will be searched
in vain for even a suggestion that any event of prophecy bars the fulfilment of
what Bengel calls " the hope of the Church." If then these several Scriptures
relate to the same event, we must jettison either the First Gospel or the
Pauline Epistles, for the attempt to reconcile them is hopeless.
But, it
may be asked, did not the Lord on that same occasion use the words, "Watch. for
ye know not what time your Lord doth come"? Yes, truly; but those words have
reference to the waiting time when the Tribulation is past. and all the events
foretold to precede His Coming have been fulfilled. For at that juncture the
attitude of the earthly people toward the Coming which is their special hope,
will be the same as that which is enjoined upon us in this present age
-constant expectation of the Lord's return." (Alford.)
For, as the Epistle
to Titus tells us, the grace-taught Christian learns '' to live looking for
that blessed Hope." And "looking for" is but a poor equivalent for the Greek
word it represents. A still stronger word the Apostle used when, in writing to
the Philippians from his Roman prison, he said, " We are looking for the
Saviour." It is a word that. expresses earnest expectation of something
believed to be iminincnt. According to Bloomfield, '' it. signifies properly to
thrust forward the bead and neck, as in anxious expectation of hearing or
seeing something." Such was the attitude of the mother of Sisera as she watched
for her son's return: Through the window she looked forth, and cried through
the lattice, "Why is his chariot so long in coming? And yet there are religious
teachers who assert, and sometimes with dogmatic vehemence, that the Lord
cannot come until after the Tribulation, thus relegating the "blessed hope" to
the sphere of other Christian hopes which, like that of the resurrection, for
example, though divinely "sure and certain," are indefinitely remote. Indeed.
this teaching absolutely kills the hope. For we recall the Saviour's words that
"except those days should be shortened" none of His people would survive them.
And this being so, it would surely be our longing wish and prayer that He would
let us pass to heaven by death before the advent of such evil times.
Nor is
this all. For this question may be viewed from another standpoint. We are
Divinely exhorted to live in constant expecta tion of the Coming of the Lord;
to stand with our hand upon the latch, as it were, in readiness to obey His
call. And yet, we are assured of a long-drawn-out warning of His coming, not
only by the fiercest persecution earth has ever known, but also by a series of
appalling signs and portents in the sphere of nature!
Suppose that some
chapter of a novel should contain the story of a man who announces to his
retinue of servants that he is going abroad, and may be absent for a
considerable time. The date of his return he cannot fix, but he assures them
that they shall have a very clear and ample warning notice of it. And yet, at
the same time, he goes on to impress upon them to live in constant expectation
of his coming back, for any day and any hour he may walk in upon them. Should
we not throw down the book with feelings either of amusement or contempt for
such utter nonsense? What, then, shall be our estimate of the teaching above
impugned, remembering that on a theme so sacred as that of our Lord's return
all folly is profane?"
( If the master told his servants that between the
warning notice of his coming and his actual arrival there would be an interval,
and that during that interval they might expect him any day and any hour, the
story would exemplify the difference between the words of verses 4-0 and of
verses 33-44 of Matt. xxiv.)
CHAPTER IV.
The fulfilment of the Seventieth week of Daniel clearly
pertains to a time that is within the scope of other visions granted to the
prophet, and also of other Apocalyptic visions to which these are inseparably
allied. At this stage of our inquiry, therefore, we enter a field of heated
controversy; and it may be well, before proceeding, to consider the principles
which should guide our further progress. And this inquiry will be facilitated
by a brief survey of the scheme of Divine prophecy as a whole.
Until
comparatively recent years the majority of prophetic students were ranged in
one or other of the rival camps of futurist or historicist interpretation. But
in these more enlightened days most of us have come to recognise the truth of
Bacon's words, that "Divine prophecies, being of the nature of their Author,
with whom a thousand years are but as one day, and, therefore, are not
fulfilled punctually at once, but have springing and germinant accomplishment
throughout many ages though the height or fulness of them may refer to some one
age." We refuse to believe, therefore as the futurist system would imply, that
Messianic prophecy has no voice for this age of Israel's rejection. And no one
who understands aright what may be termed the ground plan of the Bible will
enlist in the camp of the historicists. For that system, as formulated by its
accredited exponents, displays utter ignorance respecting the place which
Israel holds in the Divinely-revealed purposes for earth, and also as to the
peculiar character of this Christian dispensation and the distinctive truths
pertaining to it.
In its spiritual aspect the Bible is the story of
redemption; and we know from the Lord's own teaching that it speaks of Him in
every part of it. In the record of His post-resurrection ministry we read that
"the Lord expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."
(This threefold division of the sacred Canon was familiar to every Hebrew.
The Psalms being the first book of the third division, gave its name to
it.)And more definite still are His words to the disciples on the day of
the Ascension, "that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me."
But the
Bible has also an exoteric aspect. And when thus read, what do we find? A brief
preface tells of the Creation and the Fall; of the judgment of the Flood; of
the apostasy of the Noachian age; and of the building of Babel, and its
consequences. The events of more than twenty centuries are thus dismissed in
the eleven chapters that lead up to the call of Abraham. And the rest of the
Old Testament relates to the Abrahamic race; the great Gentile nations of
antiquity coming under notice only in connection with Israel. For Israel was
chosen of God to be His witnesses and agents upon earth. As the Apostle to the
Gentiles wrote to a Gentile church, "to them (Israel) were committed the
oracles of God;" and of them, "as concerning the flesh, Christ came." And with
emphasis he wrote also, "God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew";
and the receiving of them again to favour will be as life from the dead '' in
blessing to the world.
But ever since the days of the Latin Fathers
Christendom religion has been obsessed by the error of supposing that "the
Church" has supplanted Israel in the Divine scheme of prophecy; that God has
jettisoned His revealed purposes for earth in relation to the Covenant people;
and that when "the number of His elect" of this dispensation is complete, earth
and its inhabitants will be engulfed in a cataclysm of judgment fire. But human
sin cannot thwart the purposes of God, albeit the realisation of them may thus
be delayed. And no Divine word of prophecy or promise can ever fail. The
prophecy of Israel's sacred calendar, for example, shall be fulfilled in every
part of it. For even the festivals which marked the successive stages of the
annual harvest of the land are a veiled prophecy of the harvest of
redemption.
The sheaf of the first fruits at Passover speaks of Christ and
His resurrection from the dead. The "two wave loaves" of Pentecost point
forward to the two houses of Israel in full acceptance with God in days to
come. And when, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the Israelites assembled in
Jerusalem with palm branches in their hands, the celebration typified the
harvest-home of redemption - earth's great "Feast of Ingathering," when the
palm-bearing host of the redeemed of an age still future, an innumerable
multitude "out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues," shall
raise their loud-voiced cry of praise to God.
The popular conception of the
Divine "plan of the ages" may be epigrammatically described as a pandemonium
ending with a conflagration. How vastly different is it from the scheme
revealed in Scripture? For all Hebrew prophecy, from Moses to Malachi, speaks
of "times of restitution of all things, or, in other words, of a coming age
when everything shall be put right on earth by a reign of righteousness and
peace.
And this was the burden of the Baptist's preaching, and of the early
ministry of the Lord and His Apostles. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" was
not "the gospel" as we understand the word; it heralded the advent of the
promised " times of restitution," when the heavens shall rule upon the earth.
But though Israel's Messiah-King was in their midst "His own received Him not,"
and His death on Calvary was the response the nation made to that "gospel of
the kingdom."
His intercessory prayer upon the cross obtained for them a
respite from the consequences of that awful sin; and at Pentecost the Apostle
of the Circumcision was inspired to proclaim that a national repentance would
bring back "the Christ who before was preached unto them," and usher in the
promised age of blessing. But Israel was obdurate, and the murder of Stephen
was the answer made to the Pentecostal amnesty. He was the messenger sent after
the King to say they would not have Him to reign over them. So "there was no
remedy," and instead of sending back the Christ, God sent them the awful
judgment under which the nation still lies prostrate. After the death of
Stephen, the Apostle Paul received his call. It is generally over-looked that,
though his commission was specially to the Gentiles, it included a definite
mission to Israel And in fulfilment of that mission he traversed all Jewry,
from Jerusalem round to Rome. And in every place his first appeal was to the
Synagogue.
But though individual Jews responded to the Gospel, not a single
synagogue accepted the proffered mercy. That part of his commission, therefore,
was fulfilled, when "the chief of the Jews" in Rome rejected his testimony; and
the Book of the Acts closes by proclaiming that "the salvation of God was sent
unto the Gentiles." And surely the fact is significant that it is in "the
Captivity Epistles," written after that crisis in his ministry, that we find
the full revelation of the distinctive truths of Christianity.
Then as to
principles of interpretation; if at a meeting of the Great Sanhedrin in
Jerusalem, two thousand years ago, some learned Rabbi had ventured to offer a
strictly Scriptural forecast of the coming and career of Christ, he would
doubtless have been silenced by the indignant rebuke that such literalness of
exegesis was fitted to bring discredit upon Holy Scripture. And yet we now read
those very prophecies with knowledge of their fulfilment even in minute
details.
Here are a few of them:
"A virgin shall conceive and bear a
son ";
"thy King cometh unto thee . . . riding upon an ass ";
"they
weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver ";
"and I took the thirty
pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord ";
"they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture ";
"they
pierced my hands and my feet ";
"they gave me vinegar to drink."
To the
prophets themselves such words were full of mystery; and no doubt they were
generally "explained away" as mere poetry. And yet in every jot and tittle of
them they found their counterpart in fact. Seeing then that the Scriptural
records of such fulfilments are our best, if not our only, guide in dealing
with prophecies that were still unfulfilled at the close of the sacred Canon,
we may unreservedly accept the principle of literal fulfilment in our study of
them.
We shall therefore take careful note of the prefatory words of
Gabriel's prophecy, echoing the concluding words of Daniel's prayer:
"Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and thy holy city." And we shall
reject any scheme of interpretation that finds the fulfilment of this prophecy
in the present dispensation when Jerusalem is a Gentile city, and Israel is
Lo-ammi.
But while insisting on the principle of literal fulfilment, we
must not reject the other principle of "germinant accomplishment." For
Scripture itself affords some striking illustrations of it; as, for example,
the Lord's reference to the Baptist as being the Elijah of Malachi's prophecy.
"If ye are willing to receive him (He said) this is Elijah." And yet at a later
date he said, "Elijah truly shall first come and restore all things. And
specially apt is the Apostle Peter's reference to the outpouring of the Spirit
at Pentecost as being within the scope of Joel's prophecy -the fulfilment of
which pertains to an age after Israel has been restored to national prosperity
and spiritual blessing. For this is the burden of Joel's prophecy. In the
present age of Israel's rejection, Jew and Gentile stand by nature upon the
same level of guilt and doom. "There is no difference, for all have sinned."
But neither is there any difference as regards salvation. Grace is reigning,
and therefore "there is no difference, for the same Lord is rich unto all that
call upon Him. The Jew call have blessing as freely as his neighbour, if only
he will give up his boasted vantage ground of covenant and promise. Blessing on
that ground is as inconsistent with grace, as is blessing on the ground of
works, or of personal merit of any kind. For iii the same sense in which we say
that "God cannot lie," we recognise that He cannot act upon incompatible
principles at the same time.
It is clear, therefore, that before this
prophecy of the Seventy Weeks can be fulfilled for Daniel's people, there must
be a change of dispensation as definite and vital as that which took place when
Israel was rejected and set aside. Israel's outcast condition is one of the
"mystery" truths of this Christian dispensation.(It was in grace that God
gave the covenant; but the covenant established a relationship; and, for those
who were within it, blessing was on that ground. But when the Cross put an end
to every claim upon God, the only alternatives were grace or judgment.) But
this dispensation will be brought to an end when the Lord rises up from the
throne of grace and, in fulfilment of that other "mystery," comes for His
heavenly people, including both Jews and Gentiles, who are one with himself as
members of "the Church which is his body." And then the earthly people will
come to their own again; and " the receiving of them will be fraught with
widespread blessing.
The prophecy of Zechariah points forward to "that day"
when there will be a great national and spiritual revival among them in their
own city and land. And the blessings promised to them in Daniel ix. 24 await
"that day " of Zechariah xiii. 1. In no part of them have these blessings yet
been realised for Israel.
CHAPTER V
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