03. PROLEGOMENA
I.
THE Son of God has already visited our earth once since it became the abode of sin and death. For many centuries prophets had announced His coming, and foretold the things which should befall Him; nevertheless, when He actually appeared at the predicted time, and began to fulfil before the eyes of men all that had been spoken of Him, they failed to recognize the great Deliverer. Even the chosen people, to whom the Divine revelations had been specially entrusted, misunderstood and rejected Him. But they were shortly overtaken by the gravest consequences. Not many years had elapsed before the flames of Jerusalem were casting their glare upon the agonized faces of her leading citizens as they hung upon crosses ranged around the walls. And the remainder of the unhappy people either fell by the edge of the sword, or were led into captivity among all nations. Such were the fearful results of neglecting or perverting the prophecies given by God for the guidance of those who loved Him, and to serve as lamps in the dark places through which they had to pass.
The unspeakable importance of understanding what has been revealed concerning our own age and its close is thus sufficiently evident; and it is hoped that this volume may prove helpful to some who are desirous of acquiring the necessary information. With such an object in view, we have examined only those prophecies which would enable us to construct the scheme of God's dealings with our race, so far as it has pleased Him to disclose them. For if we can but discern the grand outline, all details will easily fall into place.
These pages are, however, put forth without any feeling of dogmatic certainty: the writer is well aware of the feebleness of the human mind in its attempts to cope with so vast a subject, and of the proneness of the human will to see only that side of a matter which is favourable to its own foregone conclusions. Nevertheless, he judges that the Scriptures, being a revelation to men, can, therefore, be comprehended by them, if they ask the Spirit's aid. And, so far as he is conscious, the system here propounded was not first constructed and then justified, but has been gradually evolved by a close study of the Divine oracles.
With the different modes of interpretation the reader is, probably, more or less acquainted, and they have been so often discussed that but little need be said about them.
Some years ago the great conflict was between Millenarians and Post-Millenarians—those who were expecting the return of the Lord to introduce the Millennium, and those who thought that the thousand years of peace and blessing would be brought in by the efforts of the Church, and would, therefore, precede the coming of the King.
But among serious students of prophecy this distinction is no longer recognised. It is now generally admitted that the consistent testimony of Scripture represents the world as growing worse and worse, until the Lord appears to destroy the corrupters and take the Kingdom. Attempts have indeed been made to refer the predictions of human failure and depravity to the revolt which follows the Millennium: but these predictions are often found to contain direct evidence connecting them with the close of the present age. And, even if nothing more could be adduced, the parable of the Tares alone would be sufficient to refute such a theory, since it admits of no interval of universal blessing between the sowing and the harvest, but represents the tares as continually growing flourishing and ripening, until the angel-reapers gather them for the fire.
Again; many passages, which for centuries were quoted without challenge in support of the Post-Millenarian theory, have, after more careful investigation, been appropriated by those who maintain the opposite view. We may instance the parables of the Mustard Tree and the Leaven, both of which may be demonstrated, in the light of their context and of other Scriptures, to indicate the spread, not of truth, but of corruption.
Lastly; several isolated texts, which those who were hoping to convert the world had been wont to regard as conclusive, have been found, upon examination of their settings, to refer to times subsequent to the second advent. Such is the well-known prediction of Isaiah, that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea":¹ for a glance at its context reveals the significant fact that it is preceded by a description of the fall of Antichrist² and the reign of the Lord Jesus,³ and is also closely connected with the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel.⁴
So much, then, for the Millenarian controversy. But there are also three well-defined and fundamentally antagonistic schemes of interpretation which claim a brief notice, and which are known as the Practerist, the Historical,⁵ and the Futurist.
The Practerist view was first put forth as a complete scheme by the Jesuit Alcasar in his work entitled "Vestigatio Arcani Sensus in Apocalypsi," which was published in 1614. It was thus unknown in the early times of the Church, and has found but little favour save with Roman Catholics and with expositors of a rationalising tendency.⁶ It limits the scope of the Apocalypse to the events of the seer's life and some other things which he might well have guessed, and affirms that the whole prophecy was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the subsequent
¹ Isa. xi. 9.
² Isa. x. 20-34.
³ Isa. xi. 1-10.
⁴ Isa. xi. 11-10.
⁵ Sometimes called the Continuist, and, still more frequently, the Protestant interpretation.
⁶ With Rationalists, because it helps them to eliminate the supernatural from prophecy. Roman Catholics formerly used it as a shield by which to turn off the darts of their Protestant assailants from Papal to Pagan Rome. But the Protestants urged that, if the fall of Babylon be interpreted of Pagan Rome, then Rev. xviii. 2 must be a description of the same city under Papal rule. The logic of the retort was inexorable, and the Practerist system ceased to be popular with Romanists.
fall of the persecuting Roman Empire, that is, in the successive overthrows of Judaism and Paganism.
The Historical view, also unknown to the early Church, seems to have first appeared, about the middle of the twelfth century, in the teachings of the heretical Cathari. By the beginning of the thirteenth century it was systematised by the Abbot Joachim, whose mantle descended upon our own countryman Walter Brute. Subsequently it was adopted and applied to the Pope by the precursors and leaders of the Reformation and by the Protestant Churches, and may be said to have reached its zenith in Mr. Elliott's "Horæ Apocalypticæ." It is frequently called the Protestant interpretation, because it regards Popery as exhausting all that has been predicted of Antichristian powers, and can find nothing but it either in the Harlot or the two Beasts. And herein the system betrays its weakness: it is the exposition of men who gazed at a contemporaneous power of evil until they could conceive no other, and who have, consequently, forced the Scriptures into accord with their own contracted minds.
As we might expect in such a case, its interpretations are vague and unsatisfactory: they are altogether lacking in that exact and literal precision which characterised the fulfilment of prophecies connected with the first advent—a fulfilment which is our only reliable guide if we would know how to deal with predictions relating to subsequent times.
Very conspicuous among the failures of this School are its wholly inadequate attempts to explain the Sixth Seal and the Two Witnesses. These have, however, been noticed so often that we may pass from
FROLEGOMENA.
them to some other points which more nearly affect our present purpose.
As we remarked above, those who support the Protestant interpretation believe Romanism to be the great evil power in which all the prophecies respecting Antichrist will find their fulfilment; and, consequently, they hold that it will continue until it is destroyed by the Lord at His appearing.
If, however, we turn to the latest prediction on this subject, the seventeenth chapter of the Apocalypse, a difficulty seems to lie in the way. The vision set before us is that of a wild Beast, which may be readily identified with the Fourth of Daniel's vision, and, therefore, represents the secular power of Rome. But the Beast wears no crowns, as he does in the thirteenth chapter, for a very obvious reason: he is ridden and directed by a Woman who is universally admitted to be the Church of Rome. We are thus able to recognize a picture of the times during which the Roman Empire has been in abeyance, and an ecclesiastical sovereignty has more or less taken its place.
But what is the end of the vision? The Woman is hurled from her seat, and destroyed with hatred and violence, not by the Lord, but by the Ten Kings, who can be identified with the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image. And after her destruction, these kings transfer the sovereignty, which she had claimed, to the Beast, or secular power.
If, then, the usual, and undoubtedly correct,¹ Pro-
¹ Correct, that is, so far as it goes: for the symbol of the Woman comprehends much more than the Church of Rome, nothing less, indeed, than the entire Babylonian system, which has overspread the world, and of which Romanism is but a local and comparatively recent development. See Part I., chap. ix.
testant interpretation of the Harlot is to stand, we have a clear intimation that Popery will be exterminated by human agents, and will be succeeded by a secular and altogether antagonistic power. And the latter is that which Christ will consume at His appearing; for then the Beast—and not the Woman—will be slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.¹
Thus the fact that the Woman and the Beast are distinct and finally antagonistic powers seems to break up the frame-work of the so-called Protestant interpretation. And we have but to look around us if we would see the marshalling of the forces to which Ecclesiasticism must shortly succumb.²
Again; according to the Historical view, the Ten Kings appeared some thirteen centuries ago. But surely such a conclusion overlooks the fact that Nebuchadnezzar's vision exhibits the whole course of Gentile secular dominion until the Lord's appearing; that, according to inspired interpretation, the image is gradually and regularly formed from the head to the feet, as each new empire arises or changes its shape; and that the toes are the parts last added, after which there is nothing more to come but the instantaneous descent of the stone.
Moreover, the kings represented by the toes could not have appeared until the Eastern and Western Empires, prefigured by the legs, had finished their course. Yet Elliott reckons up the Ten Kingdoms "at the epoch of A.D. 532";³ whereas the Eastern empire cannot, at least, be said to have fallen until the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, in A.D. 1453! And even
¹ Daniel vii. 11. ² See Part I., chap xi.
³ Hor. Apoc., vol. iii., p. 140.
then, Russia claimed to be continuing its dominion, and, on that ground, styled her emperor the Czar, or Cæsar, and adopted as her standard the two-headed eagle, which was the symbol of the divided Empire. As to the Western division, if the reader will consult our chapter on the Napoleonic theory he will see that it continued to represent the very Empire founded by Augustus until it succumbed to the forces excited by the French Revolution of 1789. The latter epoch probably marked the transference of power to the feet;¹ while the toes are still undeveloped.
And yet again; Historicists forget that, since five of the toes are on the right foot and the same number on the left, consistency requires that we seek five of the Ten Kings in the Western and five in the Eastern division of the Roman Empire.
But want of space forbids us to continue these remarks: we will mention only one other error of the Historical School, that which regards the Euphrates as representing the Turkish Empire. There appears to be no foundation whatever for this idea, as, indeed, many who accept it seem to feel: for it is frequently introduced with the vague remark that such is the generally admitted interpretation. Some, however, cite the fact that the river is in the Turkish Empire, which is not conclusive; others affirm that the Turks began their migrations from the Euphrates, which is scarcely true, since we can trace them back some hundreds of miles into the interior of Asia.²
Such, then, is the Historical system, to which, per-
And also, as we hope presently to show, the fall of the Sixth Head of the Beast and the rise of the Seventh.
² See Part I., chaps. ii. and xi. Scripture appears to intimate that the Turkish Empire, as it was before the revolt of the Greeks, haps, the most serious general objection is that it eliminates the supernatural from the judgments of God, and so contradicts the word of the Almighty Himself.¹ And we cannot better conclude our observations upon it than by quoting the subjoined graphic sketch of its rise and future disappearance.
"A thousand years passed away, and still the Master came not. To fill up the interval, some sought present accomplishments of prophecies till then understood to belong only to the end. In this way was produced the Historical School of interpreters, which has since flourished uninterruptedly, and bids fair to flourish, till the first sound of Apocalyptic judgment shall dispel the dream, and Prophecy, too long degraded and trifled with, shall appeal from the visionaries of the closet to the consent of a terror-stricken world."²
The third or Futurist system, which is adopted in the present volume, dates in modern times only from the beginning of this century. It is, however, a revival of the earliest of all interpretations which, together with much other long-lost truth, is in these last times restored to the Church, that she may be cleansed from her corruptions, and in purity of doctrine and holiness of life go out to meet her Lord.
But since the distinctive characteristic of the Futurist School has been often misrepresented, a few words of explanation will be necessary. And in the first place, its very name is a misnomer: for it by no means relegates all prophecies to the future, and ignores must ultimately be divided into four kingdoms, with one of which Antichrist will be connected. See Part I., chap. v.
¹ Exod xxxiv. 10. See Prol., chap. vii.
² Maitland's "Apostolic School of Prophetic Interpretation," P. 4.
neither Romanism nor the trials and troubles of the true Church during the present age. But it is so termed because it groups most of the prophecies around the two advents, and so refers the greater part of the Apocalypse¹ to the last of Daniel's Seventy Weeks, which is yet in the future. The reasons for this method of interpretation will appear in the following pages, and the reader will perceive that the charges usually brought against the Futurist School do not apply to the scheme here laid before him.
For it does not omit the Papacy, but finds it strongly marked in prophecy, and described in such a manner as to expose its real nature. It sets forth Romanism as having been hitherto the master-piece of Satan, and the great enemy of the true Church; but it further teaches, in accordance with Scripture, that mystery Babylon will fall by the hands of men, and be succeeded, for a brief space, by a secular power even more wicked and terrible.
It cannot be said to ignore the Church, for it discovers two charts—drawn by the Lord Himself—of all that should befall her, from the beginning to the end of her career.
It is not a mere human speculation, but a scheme believed to be unfolded by God in the cardinal revelation which gave skill and understanding to Daniel, and enabled him to comprehend his visions. And, consequently, it will be found to agree with and explain every Scripture upon which it bears, and especially the Sermon on the Mount of Olives and the Apocalypse. Indeed this is the strongest point of Futurism: it is the only system which is based solely upon the great
¹ Rev. iv.-xix.
interpreting message vouchsafed to Daniel, and the Lord's own division of the Apocalypse into "the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass after these." And, accordingly, it is found to be a return to the interpretation preached by the apostles among the earliest converts, and a return in clearer light: for the Christians of old could only contemplate the mighty events of the end from an unknown distance; while we, owing to the subsequent fulfilment of prophecy, and its gradually unfolded interpretation, are enabled to discover that the age is almost exhausted, and its closing scenes on the point of commencing.
But objectors also urge that the Futurist system crowds too many great events into the short space of three years and a half, whereas the doings ascribed to the personal Antichrist would be more likely to be performed in the course of twelve hundred and sixty years by a series of Antichrists; and, further, that it is in the highest degree improbable that God would have given prophecies so important merely to warn Christians of the nineteenth century against a single foe.
To this we reply, generally, that it is dangerous to argue respecting the probability or improbability of God's dealings with men. His ways frequently differ altogether from our expectations, nor can we know anything concerning them except it be revealed. And, in regard to particulars, there is no warrant for the supposition that, when days are mentioned in prophecy, years are intended: nor is there any hint in the New Testament of a continuous line of Antichrists, the great rebel being always treated as a single individual.
As to the shortness of the time, the space of three years and a half has already been rendered memorable as the time of Christ's ministry: it shall be so once again as that of the Antichrist's tyranny. Logical consistency requires this: for in Scripture "the Christ"—ὁ Χριστός—is opposed to "the Antichrist"—ὁ Ἀντίχριστος. Lawlessness, also, shall finally culminate, as righteousness has done, in a single person, and be exhibited unveiled to the world for the same period.
Nor is the description of what shall happen within so contracted a time useless to the Christians of eighteen centuries: for since our first father did taste of the fatal tree, it has now become necessary for us also to acquire so much knowledge of the consequences of the fall as will give us a humbling sense of the sin in which we have become involved. We must, therefore, study the predicted doings of Antichrist and his worshippers, that we may understand something of the depths of Satan, may be warned to resist the beginnings of evil, and may be filled with gratitude as, with startled gaze, we behold the horrible and loathsome disease from which we have been saved only by the sacrifice of the beloved Son.
Plainly does Paul intimate the lesson set before us, when he says;—"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 the Lawless One be unveiled, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of His presence."¹
Men are ever ready to break out into the appalling wickedness of the end: we live over a mine which
¹ 2 Thess. ii. 7, 8.
might be sprung at any moment; but hitherto there has been a restraining power. The Spirit, Who descended at Pentecost, is still with the Church, and so mightily convinces even the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, that men dare not do their worst. Nevertheless, defiant rebellion is in their hearts; and, as soon as the Spirit leaves the earth with those believers who are to be gathered to their Lord, then the Powers of Darkness and their earthly subjects will manifest their real character.
Accordingly, that character is revealed to us beforehand, that we may know the true nature of the lawlessness around us, disguised though it be by plausible excuses and specious philosophies; and that we may avoid the guilt which Christians too often incur through such manifestations of it as disobedience to parents, disrespect to elders, indifference to the relations of life, proneness to speak evil of dignities and to despise lordship, and all similar strivings to be first where God has called us to be last, to take the higher room when He has bidden us to the lower. "Thou shalt do no murder," was the commandment of old; and the Lord tells us that it meant, "Thou shalt not be angry without a cause." And, just in the same way, the lawlessness of Antichrist is set before us that we may beware of everything which could possibly lead in the direction of his bad eminence.
We cannot, therefore, admit that a Futurist interpretation is useless to all except those who live in the actual times of fulfilment; for God undoubtedly instructs and disciplines the minds of believers by visions and revelations of the things which must shortly come to pass as the natural consequence of sin.
In regard to our scheme of interpretation, it has been, so far as we are aware, entirely deduced from the Scriptures; and its conclusions are as follows.
We gather that there are three peoples upon earth in connection with whom God has revealed His purposes —the Gentiles, the Jews, and the Church.
The predictions respecting the first of these three are very simple. Beginning with the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, four successive empires were to run their course, the last of them continuing until the appearing of Christ. But the third should fall apart into four dominions, after existing for a short time as one. And the course of the fourth should be even more varied, including three phases of sovereignty: it should rule over the earth first as one undivided power, then as two more or less connected empires, lastly as ten kingdoms confederated under a great and blasphemous president who should be destroyed by the Lord Himself. But, between its second and third phases, this fourth empire should be for a while deprived of its sovereignty, and be dominated by an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Thus the times of the Gentiles should flow on without interruption until the return of Christ.
The Jewish prophecies are a little more intricate, and Daniel was unable to comprehend the purposes of God concerning Judah and Jerusalem until he had received a special revelation to give him skill and understanding. This revelation disclosed that God was about to take four hundred and ninety years out of the times of the Gentiles for the special discipline, under covenant, of the Jews; that these years would commence from the issuing of an edict to rebuild the destroyed city and walls of Jerusalem; that after four
INTRODUCTION. SCHEME OF INTERPRETATION. 17 hundred and eighty-three of them had passed by, Messiah would be cut off, and, in consequence of His rejection, the covenant would be broken, and a long and unknown interval elapse, during which the Jews would be scattered and disowned of God ; that at the close of the interval they would again be found in their own land, and that the last prince of the Fourth Empire would make a covenant with the majority of them for seven years ; that God would at the same time resume His dealings with them, and so complete, in the time of Antichrist's covenant, that which still remained of the four hundred and ninety years ; and that, after they had experienced a fearful discipline during the final three years and a half, the Deliverer should come to Zion, and give to the remnant of Israel "the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven."
In regard to the third people, the Church of God, we find that they began to be gathered out of all nations shortly after the Jewish covenant had been suspended, and that their age was to occupy the interval which followed. They were to undergo a variety of trials and struggles, concerning which they were instructed and warned in two prophecies uttered by the Lord Himself. They would feel their love growing cold as time went on ; they would have to pass through the fires of persecution ; they would be allured from the path of humility by a vision of earthly greatness ; their faith would be stealthily corrupted and changed, until they would become mingled with idolaters unawares, and be fast caught in the net of the Mother of Abominations. After a weary season they would break through her meshes, only to find another temptation spread before them ; they would be surrounded by a drowsy and indifferent orthodoxy, which would ultimately develop into Deism, Pantheism, and Atheism, or into a self-satisfied religionism. Yet among the faithful there would, in the latter days of the dispensation, be a revival of love which would urge some to wash their stained robes, to keep the word of Christ, and to confess His name. And so the interval would come to its close. The Lord Jesus would descend into the air: those of the Church who had died would hear His voice and come forth from their graves, while the living who had been able to endure, in spite of temptation, would be at the same moment changed, and caught up together with them into His Presence. There they would remain during the last seven years of the Jewish covenant, before the close of which they would be joined by some of their fellows whose unready condition caused them to be left behind for a season. And then the whole multitude, arrayed in white, would appear with their King in glory, and, after the destruction of His enemies, rule as His subordinates over the redeemed earth.
Such is an outline of the prophetic scheme which the writer believes to be God's revelation: whether he is able to substantiate his opinion, or not, the reader must judge.
II.
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
WHEN the blue-grey clouds begin to gather in the sky and move towards each other, though we may as yet have perceived neither flash nor sound, we know that a storm is impending, and that the quiet hills and
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
valleys will soon be startled by the forked lightnings and heavily pealing thunder.
"Ye hypocrites," said our Lord to the Pharisees, "ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?"
He spoke thus of His first coming, the signs of which are not nearly so fully depicted in Scripture as those of His second.
What, then, will He say to us if we fail to discover the secret of God in the things which are taking place around us, when we have so wonderful a commentary whereby to explain them? Even the statesmen philosophers and thinkers of this world are expecting great changes in its social and political condition. Surely, then, it becomes us to search and see whether the ceaseless preparations which are everywhere apparent, the tendency of opinions in matters civil and religious, and the generally unsettled and frequently lawless state of Christendom, do not show that the last times of our age have come; that the world will shortly be confronted by her despised but rightful and all-powerful King; and, therefore, that His Church—the living and the dead alike—no longer may but must speedily be summoned to meet Him in the air.
Were we floating on a broad river which at no great distance was hurling itself in mighty cataract to a lower level, what should we infer when we found that we were being borne along more swiftly by the quickening stream, when we perceived an ever increasing agitation in the waters around us, and began to hear mingling with their tumult the sound of a deeper roaring? Should we not at once understand that we were already within the rapids caused by the terrific fall?
And have we not exactly described the present condition of the stream of time? For both the prophets and the Lord Himself foretold a mighty catastrophe which will usher in a new age; a season of perplexity and trouble immediately preceding the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; a general disruption and disintegration of society, amid wars tumults and the most appalling calamities, to be followed by the glorious reign of the Prince of Peace. And are not signs of our approach to these predicted days of terror continually multiplying around us? Do not events, which were wont to float by in slow procession, now chase each other before our bewildered eyes with such rapidity that they pass away in months, or it may be even in weeks, instead of years? Have not the currents of public opinion ceased to originate merely in the schemes of a few princes and statesmen, and is not every country torn by antagonistic factions which drag the State, now in this direction, now in that?¹ Nay, are there not also multitudes of private individuals, who have each his own nostrum for divers ills, ever agitating the surface of society by thrusting themselves into notice?
Doubtless one chief cause of all this confusion has been that very thing which the world regards as a
¹ In a speech delivered at Aylesbury, September 20th, 1876, the late Lord Beaconsfield thus alluded to another formidable element of distraction: "In the attempt to conduct the government of this world, there are new elements to be considered with which our predecessors had not to deal. We have not to deal only with emperors, princes, and ministers, but there are the secret societies — an element which we must take into consideration—which at the last moment may battle all our arrangements, which have their agents everywhere, which have reckless agents, which countenance assassination, and which, if necessary, could produce a massacre."
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
cure for every evil—the spread of knowledge. For many of those who acquire a little learning—and the majority of mankind can do no more—are not slow to give proof that in very deed “shallow draughts intoxicate the brain”; and are wont, by a confident and persistent setting forth of their opinions, to lead astray those whose ignorance exceeds their own, and in this manner to confound the counsels of wiser and more experienced guides.
Education of a certain kind has indeed become general; but, alas! not with the expected result, since morals seem at the same time to be degenerating in inverse ratio. For how common is the lack of truthfulness, and that not merely in commercial life, but in all ranks of society! And this evil does not only exist, but is recognized as at least a venial fault, if not an absolute necessity. The law, “Swear to thine own hurt and change not,” has no popularity in the present age, and he who breaks it will find many advocates and defenders.
Meanwhile, the growing impatience and irritability of men, arising from the indulgence of generations, the abuse of stimulants and narcotics, and the painful pressure and excitement of modern life, are beginning to manifest themselves in deeds of recklessness and violence, such as may be found in the records of any newspaper; while lawlessness and crime of every description are increasing, and—which is still worse—often assume shapes difficult to detect or punish.
And over all this sin and misery the giant forms of still more terrible woes are projecting their advancing shadows. Europe is armed to an extent hitherto unknown, and has been converted into a vast camp through the jealousy of the great Powers, which are simply waiting for an opportunity of carrying out their aggressive schemes. The most cruel and bloody war of our days has lately terminated in a peace which can be no more than a lull in the storm; for the dreaded Eastern problem is still unsolved. Few are those who expect more than a brief respite before the air is again tormented with the rush of shot and shell, and polluted with the smoke of burning villages and homesteads. And even during the short armed truce in Europe, wars have been raging in parts of Asia, Africa, and America.
Yet again, the rapid spread of Socialistic principles among all the nations of Christendom, and the numerous secret leagues organized for their propagation, are giving statesmen grave cause to apprehend a revolutionary outburst which may shatter the whole framework of society.
And lastly; breaches have been made in the barriers set by God to separate the dwellers upon earth from the spirit-world, so that an avowed intercourse is now established between men and demons.
Nor are physical commotions wanting to heighten the excitement. The last few years have been unusually prolific in violent storms and inundations destructive to life and property. Earthquakes have become alarmingly frequent, and seem by their ubiquity to betoken a widespread disturbance in the bowels of the earth which may culminate in some appalling catastrophe. And although the greater number of shocks are at present comparatively slight, yet there have been not a few grave disasters—such as those at Casamicciola, Chio, Ischia, and Java, the
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
last of which has been characterised by competent authorities as the most stupendous convulsion on record. Famines, too, have occurred in divers places—in different parts of India, in Persia, in China, in Morocco, and in several other countries; while various kinds of sickness and disease seem to be more than usually prevalent.
Now all these things, and many others which might be mentioned, do indeed forebode disasters and widespread distress, but not necessarily the last tribulation, the final throes of the world. For earth has had her times of convulsion, suffering, and change, in former days. God's sore plagues, war, famine, pestilence, and the beasts of the earth, have often desolated her lands in past years, and yet the end has not followed. Nay, were we to feel the solid ground trembling beneath us, and behold the mountains lifted up and cast into the sea, even such a sight would not in itself prove that the great Day of the Lord had come.
Men have often forgotten this, and, when appealing to Scripture, have too frequently drawn their inferences from an exaggeration of one or more detached texts, instead of carefully considering all that the prophets have spoken. Hence there have been many false alarms and panics.
A remarkable instance occurred at the close of the sixth century. At that time men had become so accustomed to the domination of Rome that they believed her power could only perish with the world itself. And so, when they saw her apparently in the pangs of dissolution, with her lands wasted by war, famine, and disease, to such a degree that many once populous places had become pestilential through neglect;¹ when they beheld her supplies cut off, and not a few of her buildings destroyed by storms and inundations, they imagined that the world also had run its course, and that the last dread judgment was near at hand.
Gregory the Great was strongly imbued with this idea, and, in a letter to King Ethelbert, he thus expresses it;—“We know from the word of Almighty God that the end of the present world is now at hand, and that the reign of the saints, which can never be terminated, is about to commence. And now that the end of the world is approaching, many things will take place which have not happened before. For there will be atmospheric changes, terrors from heaven, deranged seasons, wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places.”²
And since there was an Antichrist required for the last days, Gregory was sure he had detected him in the Patriarch of Constantinople, John the Faster, who had just irritated the See of Rome by proclaiming himself Universal Bishop.
Again, in the tenth century, there was a still more general panic. It was imagined that Satan had been bound from the time of our Lord’s first appearing, and that, since the thousand years were almost accomplished, he was about to be loosed as a preparation for the last judgment. As the supposed time of this
¹ See Gregory’s sermon on the plague, and Gibbon, chaps. xliii. and xlv. From a passage of Procopius (Anecdot. cap. xviii.), quoted by the latter, it appears to have been calculated, in regard to the times of Justinian, that no fewer than 100,000,000 of human beings “had been exterminated under the reign of the imperial demon.”
² Bede. “Eccles. Hist.” i. 32.
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
event drew nearer the terror of men became piteous. Some handed over their property to the monkish foundations, and set out on a pilgrimage to Palestine, whither they expected Christ to descend. Many actually bound themselves by solemn oaths to be serfs to churches or monasteries, in the hope that, if they were found acting as servants to the servants of Christ, they would be more gently dealt with at the judgment. Buildings were allowed to fall into decay, since it was supposed that there would be but little further use for them. And if there happened to be an eclipse of the sun or moon, affrighted crowds would fly to the caverns of the rocks, or to any other places which they thought might shelter them from the glory of the dreaded appearing.¹
But the year One Thousand passed by; nothing happened, and presently the excitement subsided.
Now these alarms, and many others, sprang from crude and baseless arguments which do not for a moment endure the test of intelligent investigation. And their result was something worse than the mere delusion of those who were affected by them: for they caused a general discredit of, and distaste for, the prophetic scriptures; since men are ever ready to cast upon the word of God the blame of that failure which is solely due to their foolish and short-sighted interpretation.
Certainly, then, our duty is to take heed that we be not carried away by such vain excitements, of which there are too many in our days; but we must
¹ See Mosheim, "Eccles. Hist." Cent. X., part ii. chap. iii.; and Robertson's "History of the Christian Church," book iv. chap. v.
be still more careful to avoid the opposite extreme. It is better to be troubled by many false alarms than to be once taken by surprise. The inhabitants of earth must awake some morning to find that the Day of the Lord is present; and as a snare will it come upon all those who have not understood the warnings of revelation. We should, therefore, pray for wisdom that we may understand, and for the power of the Spirit that we may watch. Nor could words be stronger than our Lord's injunction upon this point. "Take ye heed," He said, "watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the Master of the House cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest, coming suddenly, He find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch!"
To stimulate obedience to our Lord's command, by tracing out the main streams of prophecy, and endeavouring to ascertain our own position in regard to them, is the object of this book. And if we discover that the revealed counsels of God place before us the translation of the Church as the next event to be expected; and, still further, that the present bent of human opinion, and the general condition and tendency of the world, are already in the direction of those apostasies, convulsions, revolutions, and judgments, which will affect men after the withdrawal of the Church; then we shall indeed have reason to believe that our age has entered upon its last days,
THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS.
and that those who would be Christ's at His coming have urgent need to keep their garments, lest He be suddenly revealed, and they be found naked, so that all men see their shame.
III.
THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS.
WHY man, immediately after his introduction into the world, should have been exposed to temptation and sin with all its attendant miseries, we cannot explain. We are altogether unable to decide whether he is now passing through a fiery trial which is intended to humble him and eradicate the rebellious feelings conceived in former ages,¹ while the blood of the Lord Jesus atones for them; or whether some other and, perhaps, widely different cause has shaped the wise and merciful counsels of the Most High in regard to our race. Nor can anything be more foolish than the attempt to penetrate a mystery so utterly beyond our ken—a mystery which, in spite of all our efforts, must remain hidden until, in some
¹We do not mention this to express belief in a previous existence of man, but only in the possibility of it. Should it prove to be an actual fact, the foundation of nearly all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against God would be swept away in a moment. Should it not, God has some far better solution of difficulties, which He may hereafter show to those who love Him. It has been supposed that the description of man's creation precludes the question of his pre-existence, because God is said to have breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. But this expression is not materially different from that which is found in the prophecy to the dry bones, "Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live." And again, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live" (Ezek. xxxvii. 5, 9). Since, then, the words of this passage are confessedly used of resurrection, it future age, it shall please the Almighty to draw back the curtain with His own hand, and so to reveal, to those who could trust Him amid the darkness of this life, the depths and faultless wisdom of His unwearying love.
Yet, although we may not search into the deep things of God, we cannot but be struck with one feature of His dealings with mankind. For while the government of this world has undergone several changes, which we, following the example of Paul, term dispensations; still, these dispensations, vary as they may in laws and conditions, are ever constant to one main object. They all combine to prove that in no conceivable circumstances are men able to preserve their integrity and save themselves from corruption; that their sole hope lies in a direct interposition of the Eternal, and so miraculous an infusion of His Holy Spirit that an entire change is wrought in their nature. And this fact certainly points to some deep-seated alienation from and tendency to rebellion against God, which must be eradicated before peace and harmony can be restored to the human race.
would seem that the verse in Genesis does not decide against the possibility of pre-existence, but must be regarded as neutral. Yet let us not dwell upon this impenetrable mystery; for, while a passing glance may, perhaps, help a weak faith, any attempt to speculate upon it must be fraught with the gravest danger, since there is no revelation. "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but these things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever." Oh that there were a deeper reverence among us for the hidden things of the Almighty, which are withheld for our discipline, and that we might be taught to say with David: "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me." And let us ever remember the words of a greater than David: "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of the heavens."
THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS.
Whatever he be, or whatever the mystery which enwraps him, it is at least clear that man has failed to comprehend the lesson of absolute dependence which creation should have been sufficient to teach, and can now learn it only through a redemption more wonderful than creation itself.
In the first dispensation, Adam and Eve were created in a state of innocence and entire freedom from pain toil or anxiety, and were placed in a garden of delight. As a test of that spirit of obedience to the Creator which is both reasonable and necessary, but one small thing was required of them— they were merely commanded to abstain from the fruit of a single tree in the garden. Easy, nay, imperceptible, as this yoke must have been—for surely nothing but the distempered fancies of pride and self-will could have made them feel it at all— they, nevertheless, broke it from off their necks. And so they were expelled from the Paradise of joy, after having shown that man cannot retain his innocency when he has it: no, not even if he be aided by the most favouring circumstances.
A different age succeeded. Adam and his descendants were now tested to see whether, after the painful experience of the fall, they could recover themselves by their own innate goodness and without law or government. But, instead of improvement, they grew worse and worse, until earth was so filled with corruption and violence that God was compelled to sweep every living creature out of it. And thus it appeared that man, if freed from restraint and left to himself, will not merely fail to effect his salvation, but also rush headlong to destruction.
When the flood had passed away, Noah came forth from the ark, and a third dispensation commenced. God now invested man with the sword of the magistrate, directing that violence should thenceforth be checked by the execution of the murderer, and thus placed His fallen creatures under the discipline of visible and earthly government. But political union so intoxicated them with its new power that they deliberately rebelled against Him, and were only hindered from a daring act of defiance by the confusion of tongues. And while their government served to unite them against their Creator, it at the same time utterly failed to restrain their moral corruption. This we may learn from the miserable history of the cities of the plain, whose catastrophe seems to have closed the third or Noachian period.
From the beginning of the fourth dispensation, which may be termed the Pilgrim Age, God gave up the world as a whole, and chose out for Himself a single family, purposing first to regenerate the people who should spring from it, and ultimately, through them, to restore and bless all nations. Abraham and his descendants by Jacob were, consequently, separated from the remainder of mankind, that they might be brought into communion with Jehovah. They were caused to wander about as strangers and pilgrims, having no dwelling-place of their own; and when at last they seemed to have settled in Egypt, they were suddenly made to feel the hostility of the land in which they lived by finding themselves reduced to a cruel and hopeless bondage. Yet even this severe discipline of separation and affliction, though it was closed by a wondrous display of God's faithfulness and power, failed
THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS.
to subdue their rebellious self-will, as we may see by their conduct after deliverance. Nor did the treatment which they had received from the world change their inclination towards it. For when, on their journey to Canaan, they began to be dissatisfied with God, they longed for the flesh-pots, the fish, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic, of Egypt, and turned back in their hearts to the land which had so ruthlessly oppressed them.
The time at last arrived for the establishment of the chosen nation as a Kingdom upon earth, and the introduction of the fifth age. Accordingly, the Israelites, awe-struck by the marvels of their deliverance from Egypt, were led through the Wilderness of Sin—being meanwhile sustained by bread which fell from heaven, and water which streamed from the smitten rock—until they halted in full view of the steep and rugged heights of Sinai. There, amid the most awful manifestations of the presence of Jehovah, the laws of the Kingdom were delivered to them, and were afterwards written, in order that they and their children might thenceforth know those things by which, if they did them, they should live. But from the very first they grievously failed to obey; and, in consequence, delayed their entrance into the promised land for forty years. And when God did at last establish them in Palestine, they quickly showed themselves to be the same stiff-necked and wayward people. Neither their marvellous training, nor the possession of the written law of God, availed to effect a radical change in them, they grew weary of Jehovah as their sole Ruler, and demanded an earthly monarch. This request was granted; but, after three successive reigns, dissensions arose which caused the separation of the people into two distinct and, for the most part, hostile states. These kingdoms, in spite of the warnings of the prophets and the oft-repeated chastisements of God, proved so incorrigibly prone to sorcery and idolatry that at length the Almighty permitted the destruction of Israel, and some time afterwards suffered Judah also to be carried away captive.
After seventy years the exiles of the latter kingdom were allowed to return to Jerusalem, and to rebuild the Temple and the ruined walls. Their affliction had cured them of open idolatry, and they practised it no more. They did not, however, on that account, draw nearer to God, but merely substituted for their former sin a hypocritical formality or a sceptical indifference.
And thus they became so entirely carnal that, when God, in the fulness of time, sent His only begotten Son into the world, instead of hailing Him as the long-desired Messiah, they rejected and crucified Him. In anger God suspended His covenant, refused at that time to restore the Kingdom to Israel, again gave up the city and sanctuary to destruction, and scattered the Jews among all nations for a second and far longer and more severe captivity.
Then followed the parenthetical dispensation of grace, during which the Israelite is cast aside for a season, but not forgotten in the counsels of God. For one object of the present age appears to be the removal of the obstacle to Israelitish obedience. It was the rebellious Prince of this World, assisted by his angels and the spirits of the air, who continually enticed the children of Abraham either to idolatry or hypocrisy. Accordingly, preparations are now being made for the
THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS.
expulsion of these hostile powers—"the High Ones that are on high"—and the substitution of a new spiritual government, that of the Lord Jesus and His Church. To this end the apostles were commanded to declare the significance of the death of Christ upon the cross. He had offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and from that time all who loved and were willing to follow Him should be considered to have died in Him, and so to have paid in full the penalty of their sins. Nay, further, God would regard them as clothed with the perfect righteousness of their Saviour; and, after a short season of trial for their sanctification, they should, at the close of the age, be caught up, whether dead or alive, to meet their Lord in the air, and with Him become the spiritual rulers of the world in place of Satan and his angels. And, in the ages to come, the Creator would show forth the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward them through Christ Jesus.¹
Surely such an exhibition of love on the part of the Most High God, coupled with such glorious offers to His fallen and undeserving creatures, should have constrained every inhabitant of earth to join in one mighty ascription of praise to Him That sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb! But no; men have received the announcement with stolid apathy, or have even been roused by it to feelings of bitter hatred and opposition. Only a few, whose hearts the Lord has opened, have heard, believed, and rejoiced. These are, for the most part, found among the poor and despised of men; but they are known to the great King, and He will shortly confess their names before His Father and the angels.
¹ Eph. ii. 7.
The rest of the world will grow worse and worse, until this sixth age also ends in complete failure, proving that not even the revelation of the love of God in Christ Jesus can soften the rebellious heart of man.
Then will follow the last seven years of the fifth dispensation.¹ The majority of the Jewish people, which would not receive Christ, will accept a covenant with Antichrist, and the Lord will close the dread times of tribulation by appearing, with His redeemed Church, in glory to take the Kingdom.
During the Millennial Age, the seventh and last trial of the human race, Christ will reign in the heavenly places, the region now in the possession of the fallen angels, and will make His people Israel the Kings of the Earth upon the earth. Then will the promises to Abraham and the glorious predictions of the Old Testament prophets be at length fulfilled. The Tempter and his hosts of wickedness will be cast into the abyss, and their evil influences will no longer impregnate the air with incitements to sin; the curse will be removed from the earth, and the visible glory of the Lord will be present at the Temple in Jerusalem; while the carcasses of the rebels slain in the valley of Jehoshaphat will be ever exposed to view.²
But not even this age of marvels, blessings, and warnings, with its total immunity from spiritual temptation, will bring about the recovery of fallen man. The Israelitish people will indeed be perfect, yet only through the power of the Spirit of God, Who, in accordance with the promised new covenant, will then have written His law upon their hearts.³ But other nations,
The reader will find a proof of this assertion in Part II.
¹ Isa. lxvi. 24. ² Jer. xxxii. 40.
THE SEVEN DISPENSATIONS.
though awed into acquiescence, will yield but a feigned submission;¹ and when at last the Tempter is let loose, as a final test of obedience, they will gladly listen to his suggestions, and gather themselves together in open rebellion against God. The forbearance of the Almighty will then, however, have become exhausted. Fire will be hurled from heaven to destroy the rebel host; and, after the general judgment, the eternal state will follow, that age of unsullied glory when righteousness will not merely reign, as in the Millennium, but will dwell in the renewed heavens and earth.
Thus, by seven distinct and altogether diverse tests, it will have been proved that no possible circumstances can give man the power of recovering himself from sin;² that he must either cry out for the help of the Lord, or perish from His presence for ever.
¹ Twice in the Psalms—lxvi. 3, and lxxxi. 15—the Hebrew קְחוֹר is used to describe the attitude of the Gentiles towards Christ during the Millennium: and yet again it appears in Psalm xviii. 44, where the ultimate application, at least, seems to be the same. Now, when followed by a dative case, as in each of these passages, the word signifies "to lie to" a person, and then "to cringe," "fawn upon" through fear, or, as the margin of the Authorised Version has it, "to yield feigned obedience to."
If, then, such a word can be used of the general condition of the world at a time when men will not merely be freed from temptation by evil spirits, but will also be awed by the visible presence of the Lord, it is evident that their outward submission, however complete, will be rather the result of fear than of love. Consequently, at the close of the age, as soon as Satan is loosed from his prison, and is again able to stir up and direct human wickedness, the last great rebellion ensues.
² Not, of course, that God needs any proof, for He knows all that is in the heart of man: but it appears to be necessary to His purposes that man himself should be convinced. And this is no easy matter, as every experienced Christian is too well aware. It is one thing to subscribe to an historical belief in the depravity of the human race, and quite another to be humbly conscious of the appalling fact in our own person. All the trials of believers
IV.