Revelation
Things That
shall Be
AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV. - XXII.
PART I
INTRODUCTORY
(1) Prophecies Leading Up to These
OUR title to the
following pages indicates our adherence in some sense to the interpretation of
the book of Revelation which makes the body of it - the nineteen chapters upon
which we are entering - apply to what is still for us future. Those who so
apply it, what ever differences in detail there may be among them, are on this
account called "futurists", in contrast with the large school of "Presentists"
or "Historicalists," who find in it a progressive history of the Church from
the beginning, and interpret it naturally by that history. They are usually and
strongly opposed to one another, as might be expected, although there is no
necessary opposition in the views themselves. Both may be held, and have been
held together, by some who hold that there is an incipient, real, though
incomplete fulfillment of divine prophecy, as well as a final exhaustive one;
the first being often an assurance and help to the meaning of the latter. And
this I accept for myself as at least generally true, and true in the case
before us, and that (to use the words of another) "they are both alike
practically wrong who have slightingly rejected the one or the other
[application], and thus respectively deprived the Church of each."
But
while I thus would keep in mind and seek to profit by this double
interpretation, the latter is what I desire, as God may enable me, to develop
and insist upon, and this for more reasons than one, but especially just
because it is that which is alone complete and final, and still lying in the
future for us; whereas the historical interpretation occupies us largely with
the past, - a past. still fruitful for us assuredly, but less full of personal
appeal. This will indeed be questioned, and it is not yet the time to answer
the question.
Clearly the first point now is to prove, if it can be
proved, the futurity of the fulfillment of the prophecies which we are to
examine, - that such fulfillment is required by the inspired language of the
book itself, and by a comparison with other Scripture. This ascertained, we can
look better at objections which have been made to it, and realize also the
profit of what is to engage us.
The first principle to be got hold of
is that given us by the apostle Peter, that "no prophecy of the Scripture is of
any private interpretation" (2 Pet. i. 20). It is prophecy that is in question
here, not all Scripture, as the Romanists would apply it. But also "private
interpretation" is literally "its own interpretation." No single prophecy must
be read alone, - as if it stood apart from the rest; but in connection with the
whole plan of it in the Word. "For prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man," - is not therefore the expression of the many minds of men; "but holy men
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost : " - there is One perfect
mind throughout it.
Now the violation of this will be found to be
largely the cause of the failure of expositors. They neglect a rule which the
apostle emphasizes as of first importance - "knowing this first." It is
comparatively easy to find some plausible application of a single passage; it
is quite another thing to make this fit with a general prophetic testimony.
Comparison of passage with passage on this subject is what we are invited and
compelled to therefore, if we would have truth instead of theory, realized
certainty rather than conjecture. What we hold must be tested and retested by
the application of similar scripture, so that at least "in the mouth of two or
three witnesses every word" may "be established."
Moreover, it will be
plainly of importance to find some comprehensive prophecy connecting itself
with some fixed point, or points, on Scripture, with which others may be then
securely connected. Such prophecies we may find again and again in the book of
Daniel, a book in the closest relation also to the book of Revelation, as all
expositors of whatever school are agreed absolutely.
Turn we, then, in the
first place, to the second of Daniel. We have here Nebuchadnezzars vision
of the four Gentile empires under the symbol of a great image, which is brought
to an end by the sudden descent of a stone cut without hands out of a mountain;
the stone becoming then a great mountain which fills the whole earth. This
stone is interpreted for us as the kingdom of God, which is seen thus in
victorious opposition to the kingdoms of the world, suddenly and totally
destroying them. It is after this only that it grows and fills the earth. The
world-kingdoms are not pervaded or "leavened" by the kingdom of God, but run
their course first, and are then at once destroyed by it. This fall of the
stone is one of those fixed points for which we are looking, and it is future
without doubt.
In the seventh chapter the prophet has a vision of these
same four empires, now seen very differently as four wild beasts, while the
kingdom of God is introduced by the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of
heaven. And here it is, if possible, still more plain that this kingdom only
commences with the destruction of the former ones. There is no possibility of
any side by side development. Of the "little horn" of the last beast it is
said: "And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out
the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws, and they shall
be given unto his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time; but the
judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and
destroy it to the end. And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of
the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions
should serve and obey Him."
Thus it is evident that the kingdom of God
here is that which will be set up only when the Lord returns in the clouds of
heaven; that till then the kingdoms of the Gentiles continue, and then they are
once for all broken and set aside. In connection with the last beast, moreover,
we have just before the end the rise of a power which shows itself a
blasphemous and persecuting one, and which by this brings judgment down upon
itself and the beast, or empire, with which it is connected. This horn lasts,
moreover, (in this character) just three and a half prophetic times, and then
the judgment sits, and his dominion is taken away.
Carrying, then,
these things with us, let us now go on to the ninth chapter, a prophecy which,
for intelligence in the general plan of divine wisdom, is central in
importance, and, interpreting as little as we can help, let us put this in
connection with what we have already seen.
It is the well-known
prophecy of the seventy weeks. In it we have an answer to Daniels
confession of his sin, and the sin of his people Israel, and his supplication
for the holy mountain of his God; and he is told - "Seventy weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression,
and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to
bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and
to anoint the Most Holy."
The meaning should be plain, that at the end
of seventy determined weeks, Jerusalems trausgression would be finished,
and her sins would be at an end, her iniquity being purged, and everlasting
righteousness brought in for her; and her holy place, now desecrated, be once
more anointed. At the same time vision and prophecy would be sealed up by a
fulfillment in which it would reach its end and disappear. This last statement
alone is enough to show that we have to do with what is future still.
The angel goes on to give Daniel more in detail the events of these seventy
weeks.
"Know, therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince, shall be
seven weeks and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and
the wall even in troublous times." There is no need for our purpose to inquire
for the exact beginning of this time. We are not tracing exactly its
fulfillment. It is enough for us that the prophecy itself assures us that at
the end of sixty-nine weeks, Messiah shall come. The weeks must be weeks of
years, therefore, as almost all orthodox commentators agree, - all, in fact,
who recognize in them any real specification of time at all. And with
year-weeks the Jews were, as we know, perfectly familiar. The whole period is
thus ten jubilees.
Four hundred and eighty-three years, then, from the
commencement of this period Messiah comes, and but seven years remain in which
the full blessing should come in. It is this which has doubtless stumbled many
as to the fulfillment to Israel and Jerusalem which the first words of the
angel yet so clearly promise. Startling it is to have to recognize a break of
over eighteen centuries in a period of time which seems so strictly defined.
The next verse, however, prepares us for this, and accounts for it. Messiah
comes to His own, and His own receive Him not. Thus the blessing is delayed,
although, of course, the purposes of God are unrepenting.
"And after
the threescore and two weeks " - as the Hebrew reads, - " shall Messiah be cut
off, and shall have nothing:" so rightly the margin and the R. V. give. Instead
of reception by a willing people, He finds rejection and a cross, does not
therefore yet receive the promises. The city is not restored, but desolated:
"And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary." All agree here that there is the destruction of the city by the
Romans; most, therefore, assume that Titus is the "prince that shall come," but
against this there are many reasons. For why in this case should the people be
mentioned at all? Would it not be enough to say that the prince shall destroy -
it being a matter of course that it would be through his people? Is it not
plain that while the people and the prince are both emphasized for us, it is
the people alone that are said to do this, only they are the people of the
prince that shall come?
What importance attaches to Titus that he
should be given this prominence, and in so concise a prophecy, in which every
word seems measured out with greatest economy? Certainly no where else does he
appear at all. Why, too, the "prince that shall come" against the city? but
this would be strange tautology for the word of God! Of course if he were a
leader of the host he would come against the city. But the expression is the
very one which would be used to point out some great person predicted to arise,
of whom Daniel had heard before. But there is another mark attached to this
person: "And his end shall be in the flood." Here our common version has indeed
"the end thereof." But the end of what then? Not of the destruction of the
city? Not of the city, for this is feminine in Hebrew, and would not agree with
the pronoun. Not of the sanctuary, which could not be detached from the city in
this way. Moreover, the article with flood - "the flood," as it should be -
speaks again of some definite and known catastrophe. The whole passage is to be
regarded as sorne relative clause, and connected with "shall come:" "the people
of the prince that shall come and find his destruction in the flood."
(Keil.)
This, of course, it is impossible to apply to Titus. Let us see
how it does, in fact, apply. The "people of the prince that shall come" we know
historically as the Romans; the fourth beast or empire of the seventh chapter,
it is conceded by the mass of interpreters, and susceptible of the most
abundant proof, was also Roman. And now, looking at the prophetic history of
the empire, surely it is not difficult to recognize in the little horn, whose
actions bring judgment upon the beast, the prince that shall come whose end is
in the flood. The closing statements in the chapter seem as if they should make
doubt as to this really impossible. We return for a moment, however, to what
characterizes the rest of the period. The R.V. renders it well: "And even unto
the end shall be war; desolations shall be determined." The last verse of the
prophecy now gives us, in connection with the doings of this little horn, the
last of the seventy weeks: "And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for
one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and
oblation to cease; and on account of the wing of abominations there shall be a
desolator; even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured
upon the desolate."
I have made in the translation some small and yet
important alterations, which will be justified as we proceed. The first point
to notice is that the last week is here divided in half, and that a half week
of years - three and a half years - gives us another link which seems decisive
with the history of the little horn. For "a time, times, and the dividing of a
time" are times and laws given into the hands of this blasphemous and
persecuting power, and here he causes sacrifice and oblation to cease for what
is evidently this very period. This surely is a striking example of how times
and laws have been given into his hands. And as the whole seventy weeks are
determined upon Israel and Jerusalem, we see that the sacrifices must have been
restored there. This naturally carries us back to the previous clause: "He
shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week." It is not the covenant
but a covenant: the definite article, misplaced here, has made people think of
Gods Covenant with His people, and thus given aid to a false conception
of its being Messiah that confirms it. But the antecedent to the pronoun "he"
is certainly "the prince that shall come" as every other mark points in the
same direction. On the other hand the article does stand before "many," making
it "the many," - i.e., the mass of the Jewish people. The covenant becomes thus
a political agreement with the mass of the Jewish nation for seven years; but
in the week he breaks it, changes times and laws, and his tyranny
begins.
Why he makes sacrifices and oblation to cease is easily seen
from the seventh chapter. Every detail fits in the most exact way possible. The
little horn speaks great words against the Most High, and wears out the saints
of the Most High. It is as sacrifice to God that he stops the Jewish service.
And in perfect agreement we read here: "And on account of the wing of
abominations there shall be a desolator." This is quite literal, as our common
version is not. The .R. V. differs from it by translating "upon the wing,"
which is the more usual rendering of the pronoun, my own being simply the
equivalent of "for" in that with which we are familiar, "For the protection of
idols" is, I do not doubt, the sense sufficiently. A desolator comes in
consequence of idolatry introduced, and this lasts until the decreed time
expires - until the full end of the seventy weeks.
Notice another point
where the seventh chapter not only confirms but explains the ninth. We have
seen that the latter declares that at the end of the determined time the
blessing comes for Israel. But the details of the seventy weeks show nothing
but disaster and evil, right down to their expiration. How the blessing comes
it does not show; but this the seventh chapter already supplies. The horn
prevails against the saints for the three and a half times or years of either
prophecy; but this is "till the Ancient of Days" comes (v. 22), which in a
moment changes all. Let the reader only turn to Zech. xiv., and see how, in the
very midst of Israels distress, the Lord appears: "For I will gather all
nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the
houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into
captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city."
And why? "Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when
He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the
Mount of Olives and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with
Thee."
We see, then, how, as in a moment, the desolation ends.
There
is entire harmony thus far, and this in itself is one of the most convincing
arguments for the truth of that which unites and harmonizes these different
statements. But we have not yet completed the review of Daniels
testimony, for in the final prophecy (chap. x. - xii.) we have what again in
the clearest way supplements and confirms what has been gathered from the
previous ones. We take it indeed from the long prophetic history with which it
is connected, as yet not able even to glance at this, but trusting to the
clearness of its own evidence for the relation it bears to what we have just
been looking at "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the
sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall
place the abomination that mak.eth desolate" (chap. xi. 31).
"And I
heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he
held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by Him that
liveth forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he
shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these
things shall be finished.
"And from the time that the daily sacrifice
shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there
shall be a thousand, two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth
and cometh to the thousand, three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou
thy way until the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end
of the days" (chap. xii. 7, 11 - 13).
Here it is clear that we have an
equal period to the time, times, and a half, if taken as three and a half
years, as we have already taken them; that first thirty and then forty- five
days more are added successively to this period; the twelve hundred and ninety
days date from the setting up of the abomination, and therefore we may conclude
that the twelve hundred and sixty also do this; and that at the end of the
longest period Daniel stands in his lot, implying surely that the resurrection
of the saints has taken place. Thus all of these dates are connected with the
end as were the former ones - with the coming of the Lord, and the setting up
of His kingdom.
And the taking away the daily sacrifice and setting up
the abomination of desolation which is connected with these dates, interprets
clearly the causing sacrifice and oblation to cease, and the desolation on
account of the wing of abomination, of the ninth chapter. It is a confirmation
of what has already been our conclusion from the previous prophecy alone, which
one may well believe irresistible to any unprejudiced mind. And yet it is far
from all that Scripture has to give us with regard to a period to which
evidently it attaches the very greatest importance.
(2) Prophecies of
the New Testament.
WHAT we have gathered, then, from these different
prophecies is this : -
i. That the times of the Gentiles - of the Gentile
empires - are closed in sudden overthrow by the kingdom of God established in
the hands of One who, as Son of Man, comes in the clouds of heaven.
2. That
the last form of Gentile power, - the Roman, - ends in blasphemous opposition
to God and to His saints - opposition which brings the judgment down.
3.
That this opposition displays itself in a special way in connection with the
Jews, who, in the security of a covenant with the last head, have
re-established their temple-worship at Jerusalem. Three and a half years from
the end - a half-week of years - he breaks this covenant, causes the worship of
Jehovah to cease, and replaces it by an idolatry which brings in desolation, a
scourge from God, lasting until this period expires.
Deliverance for the
saints, and the end of Gentile dominion, come together with the sudden
appearance of the Lord from heaven.
In all this the simple comparison
of scripture with scripture has set aside the need of any laboured
interpretation. The time, times, and dividing of a time of the little
horns prevalence (Dan. vii.) correspond so in every feature with the last
half week of the seventy in chap. ix., and the time, times, and a half of the
twelfth chapter, that to force them asunder would seem almost manifest
perversion. The successive prophecies agree with the preceding ones in the most
perfect way, while adding each something of its own. The one mind of the Spirit
runs evidently through them all.
We are now going to add in the same
manner some New- Testament prophecies to the Old, and see if still Scripture
will not speak for itself, and become its own interpreter, - if as definite
certainty cannot be reached as to the main features of unfulfilled prophecy as
with regard to any other part of inspired testimony.
And the first
passage we naturally take up proclaims its own connection with what we have
been looking at in Daniel. I refer, of course, to the great prophecy of Matt.
xxiv. Read in the light of the prophecies to which it refers, it becomes as
clear and intelligible as can be.
The Lord has announced to His
disciples the impending overthrow of the temple. They thereupon put two
questions to Him, which in their minds were no doubt more closely connected
than they would be in ours: "Tell us when shall these things be? and what shall
be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the age?"
As to the first
question, which of course refers to the destruction of the temple, we have
little to do with it just now. The answer will be found more fully given in
Luke xxi., in which the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place more than
thirty-five years afterward, is explicitly announced. In Matthew it will be
found 1314 - INTRODUCTORY 13 that the Lord deals rather with the second, double
question, where they seem evidently to identify the coming of the Lord with
"the end of the age" - for "world" it is not, either here or in the thirteenth
chapter, where the same expression is to be found. Literally, it is the
"consummation of the age."
Now, remembering Daniel, and that these were
Jewish questioners, with at present none but Jewish hopes, but owning Jesus as
their Messiah, - with no thought of the long interval which was in fact to
elapse before His still future coming, it is plain that the age of which they
spoke was the age of law - of Judaism as it then was. Of a Christian
dispensation they could have no thought. The "coming" of which they spoke was
doubtless connected with, if not derived from, the coming of the Son of Man of
which Daniel had spoken. The "end of the age" we have found portrayed there in
fact, in terms to which the Lord refers; but while they would necessarily think
of it as the end of a Jewish age, most Christians would as naturally from their
stand-point think of it as Christian.
For us, Judaism is gone forever,
and it is a strange thing to speak of its revival; yet we have seen that Daniel
shows us a week of special divine dealings with Judah and Jerusalem, cut off
from the sixty-nine preceding by an unknown interval in which plainly
Christianity has prevailed. And in this last week we find the temple- services
again going on until their interruption by the head of Gentile power.
It is to this interruption the Lord refers, directly citing Daniel: "When ye
therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand;) then let
them which be in Jud~a flee into the mountains; let him which is on the
housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house; neither let him
which is in the field return back to take his clothes." In Luke, where the
taking of Jerusalem by the Romans eighteen centuries ago, is prophesied, while
the same injunction to flee to the mountains is given, the sign is different -
" Jerusalem compassed with armies;" and these latter directions are omitted, -
they would be plainly out of place. No such rapid and instant flight as is here
spoken of was needed to escape the desolating hosts. It is merely therefore
said, "Let them which are in Jud~a flee to the mountains, and let them which
are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries
enter thereinto." But here, the enemy is in the midst, the saints are the
objects of special enmity, and there must be no delay: "And woe unto them that
are with child, and to them that give suck in those days; but pray ye that your
flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Here it is plain that
Jews under the full rigor of Jewish law are contemplated.
And now comes
another reference to Daniel. In his last prophecy we find that "at that time
shall Michael stand up, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy
people; and there shall be time of trouble such as never was since there was a
nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered,
every one that shall be found written in the book." (Chap. xii. i.)
Thus it is the great day of Jewish deliverance which is at hand, and they are
delivered out of a time of unequaled trouble. The Lords words echo and
emphasize the words of Daniel: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as
was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, - nor ever shall be.
And except those days shall be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but
for the elects sake those days shall be shortened."
The precise
time of the tribulation is given by the OldTestament prophet - three years and
a half; and we see by the Lords words that it is impossible to apply here
the year-day theory, which would extend it to twelve 1516 INTRODUCTORY 15
hundred and sixty years. This certainly would not be shortening the days in any
sense. He follows with the announcement of false Christs and false prophets as
characterizing this period, - an addition to the Old Testament of the greatest
significance, and which we shall find developed in succeeding prophecies:
"Then, if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe him
not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show
great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive
the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say
unto you, Behold, He is in the desert! go not forth; Behold, He is in the
secret chambers! believe it not. For, as the lightning cometh out of the east,
and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered
together."
As in Daniel also, it is by this coming that the time of
trouble is closed: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the
sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall
appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of
the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory."
For our purpose, it is not
necessary to go further. The agreement with former prophecies is clear and
conclusive. A latter-day remnant is seen in Jerusalem, distinctly Jewish in
character, yet listening to Christs words, and owned of God; and the end
of the age of which the disciples inquire is identified with the broken-off
last week of Daniels seventy. The temple is again owned as "the holy
place," though in the meanwhile defiled with idolatry, and this before the
Lords coming in the clouds of heaven. We necessarily ask ourselves,
Where, then, is Christianity? and what does this presence once more of 1617 i6
"THINGS THAT SHALL BE" a Jewish "age" imply as to the present Christian
dispensation?
To this, Scripture gives no undecided answer. It shows us
that the Christian dispensation (properly so called,) is over then; that the
Church, Christs body, is complete; that all true Christians have been
caught up to Christ, and are with Him; that the rest of the professing church
has been spewed out of His mouth, according to His threatening to Laodicea;
that the Lord is now taking up again for blessing His people Israel and the
earth, and we are again in the line of Old-Testament prophecy, and going on to
the fulfillment of Old-Testament promises. That these promises belong to
Israel, literally, - His kinsmen according to the flesh, - we have the
unexceptionable witness of the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. ix. 4), who also
warns the Gentile professing body, that they stand only by faith, and if they
abide not in the goodness of God which He has shown them, shall be cut off; and
Israel, abiding not in unbelief, should be graffed back again into her own
olive-tree. He tells us also that this receiving of them back shall be "life
from the dead" to the nations of the world; that blindness in part is happened
unto Israel, only till the fullness of the Gentiles is come in; and then all
Israel - the nation asa whole - shall be saved. And he adds that while, as
regards the gospel, they are [treated by God asj enemies for our sakes, as
touching the election they are yet beloved for the fathers sakes; because
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Rom. xi. 13 -
29.)
Thus the wonderful change which Matt. xxiv. exhibits is fully
accounted for. The Jews and Judaism once more owned, shows that the Christian
"gospel," having completed its full gathering of Gentiles as designed by God,
is going out no longer. Heaven (though we must make a certain exception which
we shall by and by consider,) - heaven is full. The gathering for earth and
blessing there is now commencing.
1718 INTRODUCTORY 17 The Lord has
spoken of false Christs and false prophets in connection with that time. Let us
turn now to the apostle Johns description of Antichrist. He warns us
indeed that already in his time there were many; already there was the
character of the "last time." He speaks of them as apostates, issuing from the
professing church itself, never really Christians, though among them. (1 Jno.
ii. r8, 19.) But he goes on to describe one special form, "the liar," "the
antichrist," as his words really are. "Who is the liar," he asks, "but he that
denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" And then he adds, "H
e is the
antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." (v. 22.) It will be found that
there are here two forms of unbelief, which in this wicked one unite in one.
The first is the Jewish one that denies that Jesus is the Christ. They do not
detly that there is a Christ, but they deny Jesus to be this. The full
Christian belief is not only that Jesus is the Christ, but that He is also the
Son of the Father. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father," -
there are many of these now, as the Unitarians so called; but they deny the Son
to make much of the Father: the full climax of unbelief in this great head of
it is here, that he denieth both the Father and the Son.
Thus the
antichrist denies Christianity altogether; but he owns Judaism, for the very
denial that Jesus is the Christ implies, however, that there is Christ. And
this is the complete antichrist, who is not only against Christ, but takes His
place. And so the Lord speaks of "false Christs." These are, by profession,
then, Jews, and the antichrist is a Jew.
How naturally the antichrist
belongs, then, to a time when Christianity is gone from the earth, and a
revived Judaism is in its old seat, and they are in expectation (as almost
necessarily they would be,) of the speedy fulfillment now of the promise of
Messiah. When the Lord came in the flesh, there was just such an expectation,
and just such fruit of it in the appearance of false Christs. And the 1819
"THINGS THAT SHALL BZ~ words in Matthew show that such a time there will
be again; only now with a peculiar power of deception which only tl1e elect
escape. Among these blasphemous pretenders is the full prophetic
antichrist.
Let us turn to another picture, which the apostle puts
before the Thessalonians. (2 Thess. 1~. 1 - 12.) Here we shall find what unites
John and Matthew, connecting the developed evil of apostate Christendom with
the revival of Judaism which the Lords own words foreshow. And I quote
from the Revised Version, which is in many respects an improvement upon the
common one: - "Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him, 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 now present: 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, he 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. . . . For
the mystery of lawlessness doth already work, only there is one that
restraineth now until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed
the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth,
and bring to naught by the manifestation of His coming: even he whose coming is
according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders,
and all deceit of unrightousness for them that are perishing; because they
received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause
God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they
all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness."
Thus the solemn end of Christendom is revealed. And
already in the apostles days the leaven of evil was at 1920 INTRODUCTORY
19 work, which but for a divine restraint upon it would before this have
permeated the whole mass of profession. But the apostasy will come, if even now
rather it is not begun, of which the issue and final head will be this lawless
one, who will sweep away with him to common ruin all that receive not the love
of the truth. They will believe a lie - literally, it is "the lie," - and "who
is the liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" He opposeth and
exalteth himself against all that is called God or worshiped: certainly
therefore "denieth the Father and the Son." But not only so: he sitteth in the
temple of God, setting himself forth as God." How can we forbear to think of
that abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, which the Lord has
called our attention to from Daniel?
But here is a notable instance of
the need we have of the apostles warning that "no prophecy of the
Scripture is to be interpreted by itself." To those rooted in the idea that
Judaism is gone forever, and that the Christian Church is now the only "temple
of God," what more natural and necessary than to interpret thIs of the pope?
Nor do I for a moment say that he is not in the direct line of development;
prophecy has oftentimes these incomplete anticipative fulfillments, which
answer for the full and exhaustive one which is to come. But in the light of
all that has preceded, we may be quite sure that any application to the head of
Catholicism is only partial and anticipative. Popery has existed for too many
centuries to be a sign of the coming day of the Lord; and one sitting as God in
the temple of God is too simply explicative of the abomination of desolation in
the holy place to make the application difficult or doubtful.
This
wicked one, like the little horn of the fourth beast, finds his end also at the
coming of the Lord. I do not mean by this that they are the same person, for
they are not; but they belong to the same time, and are closely connected. 2021
20 "THINGS THAT SHALL BE" Thus, then, the New lestament agrees
perfectly with the Old in its representation of the end of the age. But we have
not examined yet its fullest and most decisive testimony, which we find, just
where we would expect to find it, in the book of Revelation. But of this we
propose a more extended examination; and we have been gathering together the
Scripture-testimony elsewhere only as introductory to this which lies before
us. May the Lord Himself direct our inquiries and govern our hearts by the
truth of His Word. It is not a mere intellectual study that we propose. We seek
to have for our souls the spiritual power of what is unseen, - the future as
light for the present, - the judgment of the Lord in the day of the Lord, in
order to self-judgment now, - the joy of heaven for present communion. May He
who alone can purge from our sight the dullness and drowsiness that so cling to
us, our eyes anointed with His eye-salve, that we may see!
Chapter two 21
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