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CHAPTER ONE [Pages
1-11]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(General introduction – Character of the Book of
Daniel – World-Power – Scope of the Book – Daniel’s
Mission – Character of Daniel – The Thesis.)
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“The prophets of the Old Testament in a marked and special
manner looked forward into the future. They personated and expressed the Hope
of Israel and the
-
Dean
Stanley.
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DANIEL’S GREAT PROPHECY
WARFARE GREAT IMPENDING.
“By the rivers of
Such is the pathetic
lamentation of a sweet but sorrow-smitten minstrel of
For seventy years the Jews were delivered to the
Chaldean power. At such a time the
Lord raised up “Daniel the Prophet”
to foretell the course and doom of all Gentile empires, and the final triumph
of the chosen people and of the
The canonicity and
inspiration of the book of Daniel are established by testimonies more numerous
and varied than can be claimed for any other sacred writing. They come from the pens of inspired
prophets and historians, and from the whole body of Jewish literature
subsequent to the close of Old Testament prediction. Chaldean, Persian, Greek,
and Roman authors have confirmed its statements. Centuries have verified its prophecies. The lips of Christ, Peter, Paul, John
and the evangelists, have borne witness to its truth. The entire New Testament is effulgent
with ‘its eschatology. The
early Church teachers, with rare devotion, applied themselves to search
diligently and understand its contents, and held it aloft as a shining proof of
the Christian faith. Schoolmen and
reformers studied it with deepest interest. Jews, Christians and Mohammedans,
Catholics and Protestants alike, have vied with each other to explore its
mysteries.
From B.C. 534 to A.D. 1898, through 2,400 years, more
than ten thousand volumes have been written as a tribute to the worth and
world-wide significance of the book of Daniel, and, in our generation, the
monuments of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Armenia and Egypt have united to do it
honour. Holy men to-day realise the
fact that in this book was concealed
a sun of surpassing brilliance, whose light should burst forth in the “Time of the End” and irradiate with its
splendour the eyes of all whose blessedness it is to seek it. It claims to be a faithful chronicle of
events transcending the possibilities of all ordinary occurrence, a revelation
also from heaven, and, in large part, a word spoken by angels. In it we read histories the most
marvellous, and prophecies whose far-sightedness outstrips the utmost reach of
human genius, forecast and sagacity.
It provides the most brilliant confirmation of the inspiration of the
prophets. It discloses the only
true philosophy of history, unveils a procession of the ages, publishes an,
almanac of time, and sets before us a moving panorama of marching empires and
of rising and falling kingdoms, covering already nearly 2,500 years. It foretells many events, three-fourths
of which have been fulfilled. It
supports its omniscient predictions by omnipotent deeds placed alongside of
them as pledges of their accomplishment, the supernatural in the one case, the
proof of it in the other. In an
honest mind un-swayed by prejudice and false science it compels belief. Its grasp is the grasp of the Almighty.
Like a blazing head-light cast across the centuries
and illuminating the whole track of time, shines the announcement that human
history is the result neither of chance nor fatality, nor of man’s will
alone; that the events of nations and the actions of men, although the product
of their own free will, are yet pursuant to a pre-determined plan of God, Most
High, who “removes and sets up kings, gives
wisdom, to the wise and knowledge to them that understand; who reveals secrets,
knows what is in the darkness, and in whom light dwells;” that
history has an appointed goal to which it must attain, and that the rise, rule
and revolution of empires, their apogee, decline and fall, have already been
decreed and recorded, and must eventuate according to the will of God. In the most solemn manner it emphasises
the truth that God, Most High, is “Governor among
the nations,” greater than Bel, Nebo, Istar or Merodach, or all the
gods of the heathen, a Power superior to all the “Powers,” a “Power that makes
for righteousness,” and walks through history; that while
rewarding the good He punishes the evil; that for every crime committed by
nations, governments or men, for every wrong abetted or inflicted, for every
unrighteous deed, for every policy of pride and greed, of selfishness, oppression
of the poor and the weak, for every indifference to distress, for every act of
cruelty and ambitious lust of territory, wealth and supremacy, Justice will
exact a righteous retribution; and that the
one consolation left to sufferers amid all the complications that perplex the
diplomacies of nations, retard the relief of un-avenged humanity, and try the
patience of God’s children, is the deep conviction that such will be the
case.
No sublimer moral truth ever passed the lips of any
writer. What the Greek tragedy
attributed to blind “Justice”
standing behind every scene, and to “Necessity”
behind Justice, the prophet describes as the work of a free, intelligent and
overruling Power, “God, Most High,”
omnipotent and irresistible.
Wickedness may seem to triumph for a time, and the prayer of outraged
and enslaved communities meet only disappointment, but, sooner or later,
judgment must strike the guilty.
Nor is it as an abstract proposition this great
truth is asserted, but it is illustrated as a concrete fact in history, by the
rise and fall of empires, states and kingdoms, on whose sepulchres the one
epitaph stands written, “Dead for Want of
Righteousness!” That is the lesson of the book, a
theodicy that justifies the ways of God, vindicates His long-suffering and
discipline, His last destructive stroke, and the setting up of His own kingdom
where the “will” of God shall
“be done on
earth as it is in heaven.” National sin must be punished, the
governments of earth must be destroyed, and the nations judged, in order to
their salvation. Not monarchs, nor
empires, but “The Heavens do reign!” God alone is the ground of the universe,
and His righteousness, truth, mercy and holiness, His will and His judgments, are the establishment of His throne. Might does not make right, but the
nature and will of God. Right is
not the enactment of the State. The
maxims of expediency and selfish interests are not law. The will of princes, cabinets and
councillors is not the measure of obligation. The right of rule rests not on human
conquests, nor is the power to rule the creation of a people. God alone is the ground and source of
all. Such is the doctrine and the
lesson of the Book of Daniel.
Among the things that excite our curiosity and
arrest our attention, as we read the book, are the metallurgy and zoology of
its prefigurations, representing four great empires in succession – two
Oriental, the Babylonian and Medo-Persian; two Occidental, the
Graeco-Macedonian and the Roman.
The representation is made first by means of specific metals, gold,
silver, brass and iron, mixed with clay; next, by four wild beasts, the lion,
bear, leopard and an untamed ten-horned monster, or megatherium. The second two are again represented by
two domestic animals, the ram and rough goat.
A colossal statue of human form, bright and
terrible, its head gold, its feet iron and clay, stands erect as the symbol of the
whole organised political power of the world in unity, including its various governments and
policy, its material strength built upon the products of the mines, its laws of
degeneration, disintegration and division; in short, the entire development of
the world-power, through a succession of empires, the last of which survives in
its fragmentary state until the Lord comes. The whole symbol is a picture lesson and
divine programme of the world-power advancing systematically and organically in
definite periods of time to a goal fixed in the counsel of God, that goal the
absolute destruction of all Gentile governments, politics and power, and the
erection of the
As to the inner,spirit,
essence, nature and life of the world‑power, it is symbolised by that of
the four predacious beasts, whose ethics are those of the jungle, viz. : the,
physically “ fittest to survive,” the Rob Roy ethics of
“The simple plan
That he may take
who has the power,
And he may keep
who can,”
the motto for one the same for all, “Arise, devour much flesh!” This is further illustrated by the
action of the two domestic ornuted animals, butting
and rebutting one another. The
stronger devour the weaker, in every case for selfish interests and increase of
power. Governed by savage,
sensuous, impure, sinful and brutal impulses and passions, it perpetuates its
rights of rule over man by military violence, plunging horns, teeth and iron
heel, into every tribe or people that opposes. In short, the whole world-power, from
first to last, is constitutionally
beastly and metallic, and continues so down to the end of its existence, and
this not withstanding the progress of the nations in culture and civilisation,
and in spite of every influence of Christianity upon it. It cannot be otherwise, for selfishness
and jealousy are its inner principles.
Down to the end of Gentile rule, the motives and the policies that
actuated Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander and Caesar –
heathen motives – are the back-lying springs of action that will govern
the whole world-power, and every form of it, whether “I the king” or “We
the people.” Never can the religion of Jesus Christ
celebrate a universal victory under the whole heaven until the
heaven-descending “Stone” grinds to
powder the proud Colossus, and the Son of Man annihilates in person the last
anti-Christian ruler.
Ultimately the life of all the first three beasts
passes into the fourth, more terrible than all before it, even in its divided
ten-horned state, grim with iron armament, while among these separate horns and
kingdoms an eleventh arises, plucking up a “Dreibund” in its way, “stouter than his fellows,” acquiring the power
of all the rest, anti-Christian to the core, the persecutor of the “saints” of God, and bent on universal
empire. That is the last picture of
our modern culture and so-called Christian civilisation, a picture “Modern Progress”
is determined not to believe, but which God is determined it shall believe,
when its haughtiness is laid low, its loftiness bowed down, and its books of
sorcery, like those of the Diana-worshippers at Ephesus, are given to the
flame. The fate of the persecuting
Horn, the last representative of Gentile progress, science and culture, and
that of his kingdom, and of the whole world-power, is destruction. On
their grave rises, in beauty and glory, the
Wonderful prediction! The prophet traverses the march of
world-empires and kingdoms from his own time to the end of our present age, the
Second Coming of Christ. He foretells
the conduct of the world-power, and illustrates its madness by the mania of
Nebuchadnezzar and the doom of Belshazzar.
Running down the centuries, he introduces us to Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes, to Alexander and his successors, the struggles of
By a law of prophetic retrogression, he returns, in Daniel 9., from the final goal to predict the
birth of Christ, His death, the destruction of
THE SCENES OF
THE LAST SEVEN YEARS OF OUR PRESENT AGE,
the Antichrist’s covenant week. Two Advents of Christ he predicts, the
one in humiliation, the other in glory.
He forecasts the conflict of the Jews with the world-power along the
whole line of their sad dispersion, the final triumph of the former and the total
ruin of the latter at the Second Coming of Christ, and the victory of the
kingdom of Christ over all the earth, when One mightier than Cyrus shall bid
His ancient people return to their lands, and One greater than all the Joshuas, Zerubbabels, Ezras and Nehemiahs of the Old
Testament shall lead them back.
As to the mission of Daniel, it was, in many
respects, like that of Joseph and Moses at the court of Egypt, and again like
that of Paul to the Gentiles. He
was a “chosen vessel” ordained of God to bear “His name before Gentiles and kings, and the children of
Israel” – not only to take part in the great events of the
Babylonian and Persian empires, but to represent in person, to the kings who
ruled them, God’s ancient people and the true religion; to fortify the
captives by miracles and prophecies, confound the heathen wisdom and idolatry,
and maintain the truth concerning the
coming Messiah and His [millennial] kingdom. To disobey the orders of the court with
absolute impunity, and yet maintain his position in spite of the king and the
satraps, to defy the sword, the flame and the lion’s den, and compel
decrees in favour of “God, Most High,”
this was the privilege of the prophet and his three companions.
The wise men of the world-power, the Magi of the
East, believed that they alone had wisdom and had derived it from their gods,
whose images and temples towered high over all heathendom. The powers of the world believed that
they acted independently of Jehovah; the God of Israel, for them, was no more than
Moloch or Astarte, the
tribal deity of nomads, less civilised than themselves – powers who
imagined that they governed the world according to their will, and that the
future was in the hands of them and their gods. It was Daniel’s mission to
dissolve this delusion, and prove to them that they wore but instruments in the
hand of “God, Most High,” who ruled
the whole course of history according to His own will, that the whole future
lay before Him like a map prepared by His own hand, and that He who knows the
future must be the Ordainer and Disposer of all events, a Power personal,
intelligent, all-wise, holy, and the Almighty Whom neither the kings nor the
nations could resist without punishment.
It was in the mission of Daniel to humiliate, shame,
and abase the pride of all world-wisdom and world-power, and exalt the God of
Israel. By such means could he
prepare the vast peoples of the
The wonder is that this book was commenced by a
young man eighteen years of age, a captive at the court of Babylon, and hostage
for the good behaviour of the vassal king of Judah; a youth of royal blood, and
a holy celibate for the kingdom’s sake. Before he reached his majority he
reproduced and interpreted the monarch’s dream, and because of his piety,
learning, genius and fear of God, grew to become the prime-minister and master
of the magi in the realms of
Although, by Daniel’s influence, the edict of
Cyrus was produced for the release of the captives, yet as an exile he chose to
remain at the court in
What angels thought of Daniel we know. Gabriel
could address him as a man full of holy desires, “a man greatly beloved.”
What the prophets of his time thought of him we know. Ezekiel
could speak of him as worthy to stand beside Noah and Job because of his
righteousness. The queen-mother of Belshazzar could call
him “a man of excellent spirit, and knowledge and understanding, “full of the spirit [or
‘Spirit’]
of the holy Gods.” The prince
of
Illustrious man, superior to all the kings of the
earth, inferior to no prophet that ever arose before or after him! The lions in their den stood silent at
his presence and bowed their salutations to him! At last, when a centenarian, he entered
the tomb, dismissed to his rest by an angel from heaven (and all that remained
of the mortal part of a man so great “sleeps”
to-day “in the dust of the earth” at
Shushan, one of the capitals of ancient Persia), he received a promise that one
day his body should rise again, transfigured into glory bright as the
firmament’s glance and gleaming as the stars for ever and ever. In presence of such a history, mission
and life, it seems presumption to speak or even think of our own.
In view of what is yet to follow, and in place of a
refutation of modern false criticism, not possible here to be made, I assume at
the outset (1) the genuineness and authenticity of the Book of Daniel; (2) its
Messianic character; (3) its eschatological scope; (4) that its five great
prophecies are one prophecy, and that the miraculous narratives were intended
to be pledges of their fulfilment; (5) that the Medo-Persian empire –
viz., that of Cyrus – is the second, and the Roman empire is the fourth
of the five prophetic empires in the Colossus, this fourth one now divided into
the separate and independent kingdoms of the modern European state’s
system, and destined to pass away; (6) that by the term “kingdom” is meant both a reign and a realm, and on this present earth; (7) that the [literal] fulfilment
of so much already of what Daniel foretold is a guarantee that the rest will be
[literally]
accomplished. And our thesis is
this, that the fifth kingdom to rise on
the ruins of all the rest is the [millennial] kingdom of Christ in immediate and universal
victor, and which (1) never yet has so risen, (2) never can, and
(3) never will so arise, till the Second Coming of the Son of Man in the
clouds of heaven, to put down all Gentile politics and power, and
introduce His universal reign of righteousness and peace.
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER TWO [Pages
12-20]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel, Chapter 2. Israel’s Place in History –
Babylon’s Place – The Fundamental Prophecy – Law of Prophecy
– The Collossus – Impact of the Stone
– Rationalism – “The Days of those
Kings” – The Rolling Stone – False Interpretation
– The True – Honour to Daniel and Glory to God.)
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“It is undoubted
that in the remarkable human form of the Colossus, seen by Nebuchadnezzar, and
interpreted by Daniel, the history of mankind, especially of the world-power in
its imperial forms, and the kingdoms derived from it, has been unveiled, from Daniel’s time to the Second
Coming of Christ and the establishment of the Millennial reign. The best and most learned investigators
of the Scriptures to-day are unanimous herein, viz., that the first empire, the
head of gold, is the Babylonian, the silver is the Medo-Persian the brass is
the Graeco-Macedonian, the iron is the Roman, and the clay feet and toes the
modern European States-system, including Syria, Egypt, and Greece. We have only to wait till Jesus Christ,
the Corner-stone of His Church, and now the Top-stone in heaven, shall come and
destroy the dynasties of this world, and bring His own kingdom to victory
everywhere.”
- Muhe.
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DANIEL,
CHAPTER 2 - THE COLOSSAL IMAGE.
“Salvation is from
the Jews,” not from Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians,
Persians, Greeks or Romans. The
great design of the creation of the Hebrew race from Abraham’s loins was
For this reason
The Babylonish captivity saw the visible kingdom of
God, the only organised kingdom of God on earth, blotted out from the map, the
independent political existence of the Jewish nation forfeited for ever until
the “Times of the Gentiles” shall
close and Israel’s kingdom
once more be restored in glory greater than at first, as part of
Messiah’s kingdom, established in victory under the whole heaven. This is the goal of all prophecy,
concerning the Jewish people, God’s “choice
for ever,” and the whole burden of Daniel’s book.
When Daniel wrote, the historical situation was
deeply significant. In spite of the
light of nature, the whole world was wrapped in spiritual gloom. The period preceding
At such a time Daniel enters
into history, B.C. 606, a captive at
The same law of advance to the goal or end, of
return and advance again to the same end, that we find in the different series
of sevens in John’s Apocalypse, we also find here. The future is too complex to be
represented in one series of visions, the end too great to be displayed in one
revelation. The something
new requires a return to
begin again, a cyclical movement, to make a new race, to the end, till all that
God intends to reveal is given. It
is the mode of evolution in all prophecy concerning the End. So it is here. The first series is found in chapter 2.
The “End” is the end of the,
“Times of the Gentiles.” The goal is the destruction of all
Gentile sovereignty, all Gentile politics and power, the restoration of the
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the metallic human
image is in Daniel 2: 31-35, the
interpretation in 2: 36-45.
“31. Thou, 0 king,
sawest, and behold a great image.
This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and
the form thereof was terrible.
“32. This
image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his
belly and his thighs of brass,
“33. His legs of
iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
“34. Thou sawest till
that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet
that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
“35. Then was the iron,
the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and
became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors;
and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone
that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
“36. This is the
dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
“37. Thou. 0 king,
art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power,
and strength and glory.
“38. And wheresoever
the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven
hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
“39. And after thee
shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of
brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
“40. And the fourth
kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and
subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in
pieces and bruise.”
The point of chief interest is the Impact
of the Stone on the Toes of
the statue or Image, i.e., the destruction
the Gentile world-power to which Israel is now subject in every nation
under heaven, and has been since the crown passed from the head of Zedekiah and
Gentile sceptres have ruled God’s ancient people. The prophet in reproducing and
interpreting the forgotten dream of the king, coming to the explanation of the
“Toes” of the statue, says (Daniel 2: 42-45):-
“42. And as the toes
of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, the kingdom (the
fourth) shall be partly strong and partly broken. 43. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with clay, they (the toes, i.e., the kings of the ten kingdoms) shall
mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to
another (royal and political alliances will be broken) even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44. And, in the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set up a
kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to
other people, but shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands, and brake in pieces the iron, brass, clay, silver and
gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is
certain, and the interpretation is sure.”
Among the secrets of the future, the prophet,
therefore, reveals (1) the total destruction of the statue, i.e., of the
politically organised Gentile Powers, and the substitution of the kingdom of
God in the stead of all earthly kingdoms, for ever; and (2) that the time of
this world-crisis is “hereafter,”
even “in the days of these kings,”
the “Ten Toes,” that is to say, in
the last ten days of the “Ten Kings,”
who are the heads of the separate and contemporaneous “Ten Kingdoms” into which the fourth, or Roman,
empire will be divided. By the iron he means the hard and strong imperial element, and by the
clay the weaker, more plastic, and popular, element in human governments,
seeking vainly to combine and cohere in political unity; absolutism repelling
popular freedom, and constitutionalism, and reversely the latter repelling
absolutism; mixed monarchies, where the popular will wars against the
imperialism of crowns and defies the will of the crown; a state of political
insecurity and instability. By
“the mingling of the kings with the seed of men,”
royal alliances and intermarriage of royal houses to strengthen dynastic
interests is meant. By the “Stone” cut out from the mountain without hands,
and falling upon the toes of the
statue, is meant the descent of Jesus Christ from heaven in judgment to smite
the kings of the earth and dash the nations in pieces. By the fall of the statue, the
destruction of the whole world-power is signified, and by the Stone becoming a
“Mountain” filling the whole earth,
is meant the world-embracing, universal, indestructible, and everlasting
kingdom of Christ, set up in victory, on this present earth, on the ruins of
all existing governments, in the last days of the last kingdoms into which the
old Roman territory will be divided.
The four parts of the Image, its golden head, silver
breast, brazen loins, and iron legs represent respectively the successive
Chaldean, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires. The “Ten
Toes” will be co-existing kingdoms formed out of the fourth empire
- the Roman. In prophecy the terms
“kings” and “kingdoms” are convertible. The kingdoms are represented in the
persons of their kings, and the kings represent their kingdoms. The Four Beasts are called both “kings” and “kingdoms.”
(Dan. 7: 17.) The Ten Toes are also called both
“kings” and “kingdoms” in the same verse
(2: 44). “Kings”
and “kingdoms,” are identical in 2: 38, 39.
The question as to the time point of the impact of the Stone upon the
Image is vital. The prophet nowhere
teaches that this impact occurs at the junction of the knees with the thighs of
the statue, where the
It is not at the beginning of the fourth empire
under Augustus Caesar that the impact of the Stone occurs, but at its end,
and in the last days of the Ten Toes or separate kingdoms into which it
shall be then divided. Such
division did not exist in the days of Augustus, nor of Tiberius, nor of
Diocletian, nor of
Indisputable is the fact that the “Ten Toes” and the “Ten Horns” of Daniel 7. represent
the same kings and kingdoms, and that the destruction of the one is the
destruction of the other.
Conscience, honesty, truth, cannot otherwise hold. Therefore, again, nothing is clearer
than that the days here mentioned
as the days of the Toes (2: 44) are the
“1,260 days,” or “time, two times and half a time,” of the Horns
in 7:
25 - i.e., the last 1,260 days of the 70th Week of
Daniel, as seen in his chapters 9: 27 and 12: 7.
Daniel’s 70th Week is the
Antichrist week at the end of our age. The “Ten
Toes” being “Ten Kingdoms”
and “Ten Kings,” and their last days
being the days preceding the impact of the Stone, who is Christ in judgment, it
follows that “the days of those kings” are the last “1,260 days” of the 70th Week of
Daniel. They are still future to
us.
But conclusive beyond all is the New Testament light
upon the whole question. On all
hands it is admitted that the “Ten Horns”
of the Beast in Rev. 13. are identical with
the Ten Horns of the Beast in Daniel 7., and
that there, as here, “1,260 days”,
or “42 months” are the days assigned
as the last days of the fourth empire.
And as the Ten Horns are the Ten Toes, and both are the Ten Kings, it
follows that “these kings” in Daniel 2:
44 are precisely the “Ten Kings” in Revelations
17: 12, whose alliance with the Antichrist or Little
Horn of Daniel 7. endures 1,260 days, and whose
destruction with him is the work of the Son of Man, the Stone, Jesus Christ, at
His Second Coming. The
impact of the Stone is, therefore, at the Second Advent of Christ, and
could not have been at His First Advent, and the
All that is said of the First Coming of Christ in
the book of Daniel is found in Daniel 9: 24-7,
where it is predicted to occur at the close of the 69th of the
seventy weeks there foretold, and His crucifixion precedes the destruction of
A few prophetic writers have fancifully introduced
an idea of the Stone Rolling, and they have invented a distinction of “two stadia” in the
kingdom set up. These they call the
“kingdom of the Rolling Stone,” and
the “kingdom of the non-Rolling Mountain,”
the one dating from the First Advent, the other from the Second. By this means two separate functions are
assigned to the “Stone,” (1) that of
“rolling” for 1,900 years or more;
(2) that of impact at the end of these years. All this springs from the fact that the
time of the First Advent is assumed as the “time
of the days of these kings,” which it is not. Even on the supposition that the Stone
rolled on a plain, what
impression could it have on the statue?
None! The moment it strikes
the Toes the statue falls. The
Stone does not “roll” either before
or after its contact with the Toes.
The Toes are the end of the fourth empire.
Neither Nebuchadnezzar nor Daniel saw any “rolling,” or horizontal or circular motion of any kind, but
simply a perpendicular impact upon the Toes, a tottering statue, a fall
tremendous, a cloud as of chaff, a driving wind, and the
And such was the view of the holy prophet who spake
by inspiration of God. He humbled
the monarch’s pride by teaching that Israel’s God was not defeated
because Israel had been delivered, for sin, into captivity to Gentile hands,
but still lived as “God, Most High,”
a Revealer of secrets, Almighty to save, righteous in punishing sin, yet
watching in love His people; that, one day, Gentile power should perish for
ever, and the kingdom of God be set up in victory everlasting from pole to
pole. The rise and fall of
successive empires, of which the fourth is the Roman, was shown to the monarch, the far “end,” the doom of man’s governments, the
establishment of the government of God, and on this present earth, when God’s will shall be
“done on earth as it is in heaven.” Then God’s people, [accounted worthy to be]
heirs of the kingdom, will be free from the despot’s chain, and humanity
cease to groan beneath a burden no power but God’s could remove.
So preached the great pre-millennial prophet of the exile in
the ears of the king of the greatest kingdom on earth, a doctrine whose teaching to-day the Church dishonours. To the monarch it came as a message from
God by the mouth of a seer who declared that “the
vision is certain and the interpretation is sure.” It impressed the soul of the king. It brought glory to God; to Daniel great
honour, abundant gifts, a seat in the gate of the king, as primate of all the
realm and master of all the wise, and to Daniel’s friends, dignities next
to his own.
And such was the view of this prophecy taken by great Church teachers in
early times, of whom two remain unsurpassed, the one, Irenaeus the Great, the other, his greater disciple, Hippolytus, the first saying, “At the end of our age the Stone will
strike the statue,” and “Jesus Christ is the Stone”;
the second saying, “At the end of our age the Stone grinds to powder the kingdoms of
this world.” Nor will the prophecy admit of any other
interpretation. May the vision
soon be fulfilled!
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER
THREE [Pages 21-38]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel,
Chapter 7. – Critical Question – Vision of the Four Beasts
– The Fourth Beast and its Horns – The Little Horn – Vision
of the Judgment of the Horn and the Nations – Ancient of Days – Son
of Man – Overthrow of Kingdoms and Sultanates – Chiliasm –
The Kingdom given to the Saints – Time of the Judgment – Place of
the Judgment – The Ten Horns – The Criminality of the Modern
World-Powers – Their Doom.)
-------
“Imperial powers must sink when virtue fails,
And selfishness
with pride alone prevails;
He argues ill who
from its fortune draws
The goodness or
the badness of a cause;
Success on merit
does not always wait;
Remember, too,
old
Through
prosperous crime the ancient empires fell;
Ambition,
bloodshed, guilt, their funeral knell;
Unerring law,
with its resistless force,
Mapped out for
each its swift and downward course;
A ruling power
defined their years, their pace,
The road that led
to judgment and disgrace;
Unless events
were by the Lord controlled,
How could their
certain order be foretold?
How could the
prophet sing of future doom,
Or in the present
read the age to come?”
- Crell.
-------
DANIEL,
CHAPTER 7. - THE FOUR BEASTS.
“1. In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a
dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told
the sum of the matters. 2. Daniel spake and said,
I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove
upon the great sea. 3. And four great beasts
came up from the sea, diverse one from another. 4.
The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings:
I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the
earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given
to it. 5. And I beheld another
beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side and it had
three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto
it, Arise, devour much flesh.
6. After this
I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four
wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. 7. After this I saw in the night visions, and beheld a fourth
beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron
teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet
of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had
ten horns. 8. I considered the horns,
and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there
were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this
horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. 9. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of
Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like
the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning
fire. 10. A fiery stream issued
and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten
thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set, and the
books were opened. 11. I beheld then because
of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast
was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. 12. As concerning the rest
of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were
prolonged for a season and time.
13. I saw in
the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of
heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. 14. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,
that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed. 15. I Daniel was grieved
in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 16. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the
truth of all this. So he told me,
and made me know the interpretation of the things. 17. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which
shall arise out of the earth.
18. But the
saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for
ever, even for ever and ever.
19. Then I
would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the
others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass;
which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet. 20. And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other
which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and
a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his
fellows. 21. I beheld and the same
horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; 22. until the Ancient of
Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time
came that the saints possessed the kingdom. 23. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom
upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the
whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. 24. On the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall
arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the
first, and he shall subdue three kings. 25. 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 into his hand until a time and times and the dividing
of time. 26. But the judgment shall
sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto
the end. 27. 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 shall serve and obey him. 28. Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my
cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the
matter in my heart.”
The date of Daniel’s vision in chapter 7. and its writing are stated to be in
“the first year of Belshazzar, king of
The testimony of the Babylonian cylinders of Cyrus and Nabonnaid, and the analystic tablets of the time, have successfully
repelled this assault on Daniel’s credibility. The name Belshazzar has been discovered
under the form of “Bel-sar-usur,”
the “Ha-bal-sarru”
of the Chaldean army, the “Vice-king”
and “eldest son” of Nabonnaid, the
last king of Babylon, who reigned seventeen years, B.C. 555-538, this “son” being co-regent during the last three
years of his reign, i.e., three years next preceding Babylon’s fall, B,C.
538. The monuments still further
establish the facts that to “Bel-sar-usur”
was entrusted the defence of
All the statements of Daniel are in perfect harmony
with this. It must be noted that
Daniel nowhere affirms that Belshazzar was the “immediate”
son or successor of Nebuchadnezzar, nor that he was “the last king of
The Inscription on the great Cyrus-Nabonnaid Cylinder closes its account of the capture of
And yet this part of the Inscription, giving the title and death of Belshazzar, is deliberately suppressed by Kamphausen,
the editor of “Daniel” in
the polychrome Bible of the Critics - when quoting the lines immediately
preceding the notice of the death!
(Das Buch Daniel,
p. 25-28.) The Inscription was
published by Rawlinson 1854, Pinches 1882, Schrader
1880, 1890, Rommel 1888, Dusterwald
1893, and by many more. All Assyriologists are aware of it.
And now for the prophecy itself. In Daniel 2.
the monarch of
The vision of the Fourth
Beast marks an unparalleled advance in the mode of prophetic representation, by
introducing a solemn assize, in which “One like
the Son of Man” comes with clouds, to destroy the last Antichrist
and all Gentile politics and power, and to erect a fifth and universal monarchy
“underneath all heavens.” It is the high-point of Old Testament
eschatology. There is nothing like
it anywhere else in all the prophets.
It is paralleled only by the scenes in the Revelation given of God to
Christ, and by Him through His angel to John. As a picture of the Advent it is without
a peer in the Old Testament, transcending all other representations by its
solemnity, sublimity, and majesty, its dramatic power and its terror. It enters more largely than any other
scene into New Testament prophecy, and forms the basis of all the New Testament
representations of the End.
Twenty-one out of twenty-eight massive verses in Daniel 7. are here given to the fourth, or
The prophet beholds four empires emerging, one after
another, out of the billowy sea of the heathen world. The surging waters are an emblem of the
heathen nations in tumult. The Four
Beasts correspond to the four metallic parts of the image in Daniel 2., and in the order of their appearing. The strength and swiftness of the
Babylonian empire and its ferocity are represented by a Lion with eagle’s wings.
The loss of its plumage denotes the cessation of its conquests, and its
change of posture from that of a beast to that of a man, and the gift of
“a man’s heart,” the moral
effect produced by the recovery of the Chaldean king from his seven
years’ mania. (Dan. 6: 16, 25-37, 34-37.) The Bear’s elevation, lifting itself with its paw “on one side,” marks the superiority of the
Persian to the Median element in the Medo-Persian empire of Cyrus. The “three
ribs” in its mouth are his conquests of
The “Fourth Beast”
is that which attracts the prophet’s special notice; a Beast, dreadful,
exceeding strong, terrible, with iron teeth, devouring, breaking in pieces,
stamping, diverse from all the rest.
“Ten Horns,” the symbols of
kings and their kingdoms together, surmount the head of the Beast, among which
an “eleventh” rises, having “eyes like a man,” denoting its intellectuality
and human personality, and a magniloquent mouth blaspheming. Uprooting a triple alliance that stands
in its way, it acquires the power of all the horns, because “stouter than its fellows.” Three years and a half it persecutes the
“saints of the Most High,” changing
times and laws, and subjecting them to great tribulations.
At the end of this period a Judgment scene breaks
in, and terminates the mad career of the Horn. Thrones are placed (not cast down) in
the heavens immediately above the earth, for judges to sit upon, in the midst
of which the “Ancient of Days” (Hattiq Yomin), the “bedayed” one, sits,
venerable to behold, arrayed in white vesture, “white
as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool.” Pavilioned in
flame, streams of fire proceeding before Him, ten thousand times ten thousand
angels attending, He presides over the heavenly Sanhddrin
come for judgment. “The Judgment sits and the books are opened.” The effect of the judgment is
stated. The Beast, the personal
Eleventh Horn, who, by acquiring all power, had become the whole Beast in his
own person, is taken and slain, and his body given to Tophet,
the burning flame. The rest of the
Beasts survive a brief season, after their dominion is taken away, and are
destroyed. But this is not all. Though God the Father, the “Ancient of Days,” presides, yet “Another,” to whom “dominion and glory” are given, i.e., the right to judge, rule, and receive the honour, as well as
the kingdom, suddenly appears in the midst of the scene. (Dan. 7: 13, 14.)
“13. I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they
brought him near before Him.
14. And there
was given to him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, and
nations, and languages, should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed.”
It is the “Epiphaneia”
of Christ we have here, the Second Advent of the Son of Man, to whom the Father
has committed all judgment, that all men should honour the Son, even as they
honour the Father. (John 5: 22, 23.) It is
The prophet was impressed and perplexed by the
solemn vision, and “would know the truth of all this” that he had
seen, “the truth of the Fourth Beast”
especially, “and of the Ten Horns,” and
yet more especially of the other that came up, before whom three fell, “the Horn that had eyes, and a mouth speaking very great
things, and whose look was more stout than his fellows.” He is intensely curious and particular
in his specifications. An angel explains.
After briefly describing the all-conquering character of the
“24. And the Ten Horns out of this kingdom (the Roman) are Ten Kings that shall arise, and another shall arise after
them, and he shall be diverse from the first ones, and shall subdue three
kings. And he shall speak words
against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and
think to chancre times and laws. And they (the saints) shall be given into his hand until a time, two times, and the
dividing of a time! (1,260 days).
But the Judgment shall sit, and they (the
Ancient of Days, the Son of Man, the angels) shall take
away his Sultanate to consume and destroy it to the end.” (Dan. 7: 21-26.)
And now comes the grand announcement of the outcome
and goal of the prophecy, the companion-piece precisely of that in Daniel 2. 44 - viz., “And the kingdom, and the Sultanate, and the greatness of the
kingdom underneath all heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of
the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all Sultanates
shall serve and obey Him.” (7: 27.) Here, the “kingdom” is set up on
earth by the “God of Heaven,”
at the Second Coming of the Son of Man in the clouds, to destroy the
last Antichrist, and demolish all Gentile politics and power. Here is found the much-despised “Chiliasm” (Pre-millennialism), indestructible as the truth and the
throne of God! As face
answers to face in water, so Daniel 7: 27
answers to Daniel 2: 44, an invulnerable demonstration
that the kingdom of Christ cannot come to victory, nor “God’s will be done in earth as it is in heaven,”
until the Second Coming of the Son of Man.
He who denies this denies the
text of the prophet, the Word of God, spoken and interpreted by an angel of
God, a vision and interpretation written by inspired hands at the time they
wore given (7: 1), and like all else in
Daniel’s “book,” authenticated
as the “Scripture of Truth,” and
with the closing revelation commanded to be sealed as a perfect word, a light
and a lesson for the “wise” in the
“time of the end.” (Dan. 12: 4, 9, 10.)
Great and solemn as is this vision, it is not,
however, a vision of the last judgment which occurs at the close of the
millennial age, and brings the “new heaven and earth” in Revelations 20.
and 21.
This vision is the Messianic judgment, placed by all the prophets at the
end of our present age, when Gentile Times expire and new-born
It is thus that the “kingdom”
announced at the close of the last 1,260 days of Daniel’s 70th
Week in the ringing notes of the seventh angel (Rev.
11: 15), and cheered by a voice from Heaven, because of Israel’s
conversion, is seen to be one and the same “kingdom”
with that in Daniel 2: 44, and 7: 27, the “kingdom”
in Matthew 25: 34, and to which the holy
apostle John has given the name of “the thousand
years” in the 20th chapter
of Revelation. It
is announced in the distinctest terms, and painted in
the brightest colours, as the millennial kingdom on earth, introduced by the
pre-millennial coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven. (Rev. 14: 14; Matt. 13: 36-41.) What we have here in Daniel 7. is:‑ 1. The Time of the Judgment on the nations, 2. Its Place. 3. The Parties engaged in it, 4. The Duration of the Judament.
1. The Time of the Judgment. It is
at the “End” of the 70th
Week in Daniel 9: 26, 27, the close of the
Times of the Gentiles, the end of the last 1,260 days of the Anti-christ’s persecuting reign as lord of ten monarchies in one, (the Ten-horned Beast), and the holder
of Jerusalem, yet coming quickly to his own “End”
with none to help him. (Dan. 11: 45; Zech. 14: 1-5; Rev. 14: 14-20; 19: 11-2l.) It closes the Horn’s career. (Dan. 7: 21, 22.) The final conflict terminated by
this judgment includes the “Day of the Lord upon
all nations,” preceded by that fatal spell when the powers that be and society at
large, as in Noah’s day, shall be intent on architecture, commerce, trade
and all domestic pleasure, singing the siren song of “Peace and Safety,” as did the false prophets of
old, unconscious that “sudden destruction”
is near. (1 Thess. 5: 3; Jer. 8: 11, 15, 16; 14: 13; 23: 17-30.) That will be the Concert of
The alliances of Christian governments with those that
are anti-Christian, for the sake of gain, the extension of territory, wealth
and power, the oppression of the weak by the strong, the spectacle of massacre
allowed by Christian nations, the hollowness, the treachery to treaties and to
covenants, the concert of Christian powers in a code of international
authority, founded neither on the principles of justice nor of humanity, but on
the will of the strongest, and violated in the interests of the strongest, will
so affect, disgust and exasperate mankind, that, once more, as in the days of
Robespierre and Voltaire, Christianity itself will be scouted in the circles of
the learned, and by the masses, and the very foundations of civil, social and
religious order be broken up. At
such a time the “Little Horn” will
come, and run his career unchecked
by anything “withholding” (2 Thess. 2: 6-12), till
the counter-coming of the Son of Man.
That Second Coming is the glorious, visible and public Advent of Christ
- His appearing in the clouds of heaven, as the vision shows, for both judgment
and salvation, its one time-point, the close of the Great Tribulation. It is the same time-point as in Matthew 24: 2, 9, 31, 40-44; 25: 1; 2 Thess.
1: 6, 7; 2: 1-8; Revelations 11: 15-17; 19: 11-21, and prior to which
heaven receives and retains Him on His Father’s throne. (Acts 3: 19-21 (R.V.). It is the high-point in the “Day of the Lord” which begins before the Advent
and continues after it, the Day “in the which”
the Lord comes. (Matt. 24: 42, 44, 50; Luke 12: 39,
46; 17: 30; Acts 17: 31; Rom. 2: 16; 2 Thess. 1: 10;
2 Tim. 1: 18.) As in all
prophecy, so here, Judgment and Salvation go together, “as it was in the days of Noah,” and “of Lot,” and the “coming
out of
The New Testament fills in the details unmentioned in
Daniel’s vision, viz., those of INTERNATIONAL
WAR AND STRIFE. The kingdoms
will have prepared for themselves the instruments of their own
destruction. The logic of the
situation will have caused already an effort to reintegrate the jarring nations
into ONE VAST EMPIRE, as the best
solution of the problem of government, a
world-empire free from Christianity and bound alone to a religion of humanity,
in which the world’s last leader will be the chief object of worship, the
world’s new Messiah. The
temporary realisation of that scheme with all its wickedness, will provoke the
last heaving of the nations and call into being the “Day of the Lord.” Supernatural terrors will
break in on the new order of things, more void of order than all preceding
times. “Heaven, earth, sea and the dry land will
be shaken.” (Haggai 2: 6, 7.)
It will be a time of tribulation and anguish, of SLAUGHTER and GLOOM and of PERSECUTION of
God’s saints, a time when the sickle, the flail, the fan, and the fire,
will do their work, a time when the
harvest is ripe, and the vintage so full that the vats overflow, “because the wickedness is great.” (Joel. 3: 13.)
The struggle for supremacy will bring the “War of the Great Day of God Almighty” (Rev. 16: 14), when the Horn prevails against the saints and seeks to build his new empire
on the destruction of all Christianity in human governments, and on the
extirpation of the Jews. To that the kingdoms of this world will
come, till the Lord comes to destroy their power. Then, what Daniel saw in vision will
become history, the nations gathered together against
The reintegration and the
rule, the fact that Gentile politics and power, nominally Christian, have come
to anti-
Christianity for the sake of
gain, and the powers that be have conspired to give their strength to the
Beast, not only against
2. The Place of the Judgment. So far as the “thrones” are concerned (7:
9), it is aerial, in stormy and fire-lit clouds, overhanging the earth,
and visible to all. “The heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is
Judge.” (Ps. 1: 6.) The diurnal rotation of the planet on
its axis will make the visibility a universal necessity. “Every eye shall see Him.” (Rev. 1: 7.).
But, so far as the special vision in Daniel
7. has to do with the destruction of the Antichrist and his empire, and
These designations cover Galilee,
“In that day
3. The Parties in the Judgment.
Already mentioned in general, it is necessary still to speak of them in
particular. They are (1) the Fourth
Beast, (2) the Ten Horns or Kingdoms, (3) the Little Horn, (4) the Ancient of
Days, (5) the Angels, (6) the Son of Man, (7) the Saints of the Most High, or
the People of the Saints of the Most High.
As to the “Fourth
Beast,” everything said previously concerning the fourth empire is
here applicable. It is
Caesar’s
As to the “TEN HORNS.” Everything said previously concerning
the “Ten Toes” is applicable here,
since both are identical. They are
ten separate, yet confederated, and contemporaneous kingdoms with their kings
in Europe, Asia, and
Among these reasons are the
facts (1) that the Ten Toes are identical with the Ten Horns in Daniel 2. and 7.,
and both with the Ten Horns in the Revelation of John; (2), that the Toes,
therefore the Horns, lie not in - the Western territory of the Roman
empire alone, but in the Eastern as well; (3), that in Revelations 17. they appear discrowned,
quasi-kings, whose power has gone to the Beast for a time and special purpose,
i.e.,
Concede to the Historical system of interpretation
all it can demonstrate validly from history: that Nero was an Antichrist, the
Pope another, the one a pagan, the other an ecclesiastic, and also, that, while
the Papacy is Western Antichrist, Islam is the Eastern, the one ruling as
“Vicar of Christ,” the other as
“the Shadow of God,” still to
Futurism must be allowed the unconquerable answer that the Scarlet Woman, Rome,
the Horns and Little Horn, exist till Christ comes to destroy them, and the
Jews wage their last conflict with the last Antichrist, in times immediately
preceding the Second Advent.
Therefore, the final distribution of the Roman territories into TEN KINGDOMS IS STILL FUTURE.
Remarkable is the statement of Hippolytus, Bishop of Rome in the second century, that the Ten
Kingdoms will be “discrowned” and
become “democracies” at the end of
our age - a conclusion he reached solely from Daniel
2: 42, 43. So Theodoret:
“In the time of the End Ten Kings shall arise,
and one, who will subdue all, be the demiurge of all wickedness.” Jerome’s
statement is, “We teach, therefore, what all our
ecclesiastical writers have delivered to us, that, in the end of the world (age), when the Roman power shall be destroyed, Ten Kings shall
arise, who will divide the empire among them, and an eleventh shall come, who
will uproot three, which having been done, the other seven will submit their
necks to the victor’s yoke.
This is the common interpretation by all ours.”
It is worthy of note that one of the types of the
last Antichrist (Antiochus) rose out of territory now occupied by the Sultan of
Turkey, while another (Nero) rose out of territory now occupied by the king of
Italy. The dividing line, between
the Eastern and Western halves of the Roman empire ran ideally, north and
south, through
Whatever the final distribution of the Ten Kingdoms,
it is certain they will represent the whole culture and civilisation of Europe,
Asia, and
4. The Duration of the Judgment on the
nations. This is nowhere defined in
the Scriptures, unless we take the close of the Great Tribulation, i.e., the
end of the last 1,260 days of the Horn’s career as its commencing point,
and the close of the 1,335 days as its concluding point (Dan. 7: 25, 26; 12: 12), that is to say, a period
of seventy-five days, or two months and a half. The final judgment on the Horn and his
allies, and the final stroke on all Gentile politics and power begins with the
Advent of Christ in the clouds of heaven, and must close before the “Blessed” time. “Blessed
is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1,335 days.” (Dan. 12: 12.) Swift and severe, the judgment will
be a “short work in righteousness,” shaking together “heaven,
earth, sea, dry land and all nations” (Hagg. 2: 6, 7;
Heb. 12: 26, 29), for the Lord will “finish
the work and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord
make upon the earth” (Rom. 9: 28)
– “sudden destruction.” (1 These. 5: 3.) The supernatural phenomena which
precede, increase, intensify and melt into the “Day
of the Lord,” will reach their culmination with the Advent
itself. And, as Zechariah informs
us, Joshua’s long day – “neither day nor night” - will
be repeated in the final crisis. (Zech. 14: 6, 7.) The kingdom of the Horn will be “consumed and destroyed unto the end.” (Dan. 7: 26.)
The solemn thing is that the “Ten Horns” are all kingdoms which will become
politically, in their governments, apostate from Christianity, and represent a
civilisation of culture and Mammon, and a policy of crime at war with moral
righteousness. They are the “Powers” of a hard-hearted military Christendom,
politically dechristianised, the very “Horns”
in John’s Apocalypse, and, in their last state, allies of the Antichrist in the persecution of God’s saints. And to such an outcome present signs are
not wanting. The championship, by
Christian governments, of anti-Christian Turkey, an empire historically organised
to shed Christian blood; the championship of a power whose chief sits at the
Golden Horn as the “Shadow of God,”
“Lord of two continents,” and
“King of Kings,” to whom “Allah” has committed the rule of the world, an
Antichrist, a hater of Christians, open rejecter of Christ as the Saviour of
the world; an impostor who denies the deity of Christ, and the divine and
eternal relation of the “Father” and
the “Son,” whose ritual is the
stated massacre of God’s saints, whose reward for massacre is a sensual
paradise, whose alternatives to all mankind are the “Koran or the Sword,” - is enough to make the
“fury” of God rise in His face. Since the world began, no greater crime
has been committed - save the crucifixion of Christ - than the introduction of this
organised anti-Christian power, in 1856, into the family of civilised and
Christian nations by the so-called “Christian
Powers” themselves after the Crimean War, which cost 300,000 lives
and 300,000,000 pounds sterling, and in the face of gigantic massacres whose
atrocities made the blood of mankind run cold. And all the more unutterably guilty have
been the “Powers,” since the
subsequent massacres in 1860, 1876 and 1894 to 1897, in south-eastern Europe,
Crete, Greece, Armenia, with the slaughter of 130,000 Christians, and the
destruction of the homes of 1,000,000 sufferers, and the agonies, tortures and
dishonour of mothers, daughters and babes, which have been allowed by the
“Powers” to pass un-avenged.
Immeasurable, save by God Himself, is the unforgotten
crime of Christendom, since shamelessly, as openly, by “Concert of the Powers,” the championship of the
“integrity of the Ottoman Empire”
is justified by the doctrine of the “Balance of
Power,” the “Peace of Europe,”
the “Interests of Bondholders,” and
the “Necessities of Commerce and Trade,”
in short, “Business Interests.” A compact such as this, by the so-called
“Christian governments” of Europe,
which hereby prove themselves to be a federation of stock-jobbing companies of
royal birth, intermarried, wearing crowns on their heads and backed by standing
armies and fleets, ruling the world, is
enough to excite universal anarchy and revolution, and is a challenge to
God to vindicate His Word. These
“Powers” are instruments of
oppression and persecution, leagued to promote injustice, despotism,
inhumanity, and every evil work in the name of Christianity, and bent chiefly
on self-aggrandisement, increase of commerce, trade, wealth, extent of
territory, and supremacy each over the other. To modern rulers thus leagued, under
their common sceptre of Mammon, and to all the world’s financial
strength, God has said, “Your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand.”
(Isaiah 28: 18.)
As a party in the judgment the kingdoms are marching
to their last division and their doom, and calling for their last leader. The “Horns”
need a master, and will find one “in the time
appointed.” “Bondholders” hungering after “dividends,” and the Governments in partnership
with them as their police, must reckon with Him to whom God will “divide” a portion with the great, and He will
“divide” the spoil with the
strong. It will be the last “Concert of Europe,” when the “kings and princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and
the strong,” shall cry to the rocks and the mountains to “fall” on them and hide them “from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the
wrath of the Lamb.” (Rev. 6: 15-17.) Broken shall be the whole “commercial system” of the world, now ruling all
governments and nations. (Ezek. 27: 1-36 ; Rev. 18:
1-24; Isa. 24: 1-12.) Then the Horn will be
judged, and the Colossal Image become “as the
chaff of the summer threshing floor.” A new age will heave into history, and
the “Kingdom” come. Truth will spring out of the earth and
Righteousness look down from heaven, and here
on this present earth, as in heaven, God’s will shall be done. It is the Vision we have been
considering, and the Vision is true, and the interpretation sure.
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER FOUR [Pages 39-48]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel, Chapter 7. continued. – The Little Horn.
– His Names – The Great Tribulation – Witness-bearing –
The Ancient of Days – The Judges in the Judgment – Angels – Books
Opened – Complete Retribution – The Son of Man – Effort to
Evade the Chiliastic Doctrine of the Book – The Monarch of the Fifth
Empire – The Kingdom and the People of the Saints.)
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DANIEL, CHAPTER 7. CONTINUED ‑THE
LITTLE HORN, THE GREAT ASSIZE.
As to the “Little Horn,”
in Daniel’s seventh chapter, it is evident that he is the chief party
among all the criminals arraigned in the judgment. Like the rest, he is a king, the head of
a kingdom, both symbolised in one.
Bad as the rest have been, this one is worse, transcending them all in
his crimes. The hostility of all
the ancient empires to
The different names under
which he is known are many. He is
“the prince that shall come on wing of
abomination, a desolator” (9: 26);
the concluder of a treaty or “covenant”
with the masses of the Jewish people, for “one
week,” and breaker of the same, permitting their ancient worship,
then causing it to cease in the middle of the week (9:
27); one who sets up “the abomination”
that causes desolation, foretold by our Lord (Matt.
24: 15); “that wicked” in Isaiah 11: 4; the “enemy
that invades like a flood” (Isa. 59: 19);
and whose end is in the “overflowing”
(Dan. 9: 26, 27). He is “the
king” who comes to his end at
He is described again as “an eighth” in Revelations
17: 11, one who stands out above all his fellows in bad pre-eminence, as
not only a “Beast” and a “Devil,” but as a “God,”
sitting “in the Temple of God” in
Jerusalem, “showing himself that he is God,”
the self-exalting “opposer”
of God (2 Thess. 2: 4;
Dan. 8: 11; 11: 36), but is a “Man”
whose secular and anti-Sabbatic monogram is “666,” the number of his name. (Rev. 13: 18.)
Such is the “Little Horn”
Daniel saw in vision - a Satanic re-appearing military leader, atheist,
Antichrist and supreme imperial ruler of the last times, in whom, by consent of
the Horns, is vested the whole power of apostate governments in Europe, Asia
and Africa, within the limits of the old Roman territory; himself and his
allies the destroyers of Rome (Rev. 17: 12-18),
and whose last campaign, following Rome’s destruction, is his invasion of
the Holy Land, where he comes to his end. (Daniel
11: 40-45; Revelations 19: 11-2l.)
And complete will be the retribution, unto ages of
ages. There is an eternity in
justice, and the protest of right against wrong, of innocence and weakness
against oppression, and the call for
long-delayed satisfaction, are immortal.
No law or prescription exempts from doom the nominally Christian yet
actually dechristianised nations and governments of the earth. It is not possible that the Horn and his
hosts shall be victorious in the “War of the
Great Day of God Almighty.”
Such victory would be out of harmony with the epoch of Judgment, the law
of righteousness, the destiny of
This Horn is the Hero of the
“Great Tribulation” foretold not
only by Daniel (7: 25; 12: 1), but also by
Moses (Deut. 32: 36-43); Balaam (Numb. 24: 23), Isaiah (26:
13-21), Jeremiah (30: 7), our Lord (Matt. 24: 15-21), (and parallels), by Paul (2 Thess. 1: 6, 7; 2: 8-12),
and fully pictured by John. (Rev. 3: 8, 9; 6: 9-11;
7: 14; 11: 2, 7; 12: 6, 12, 14, 17; 12: 1-18; 14: 12; 20: 4.) It will be a tribulation sorer than any
yet preceding under Manasseh, Antiochus, Nero, the Caliphs and Popes, or
Sultans of modem days, a time of world-wide trial and sore temptation for the
people of God, a time of suffering, death and martyrdom for Jesus’ sake,
a time “such as never was since there was a
nation, even to that same time” (Dan.
12: 1); “such as never was since the
beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt. 24: 21.) By such intense expressions, so
indescribably solemn, and full of faithful warning, we learn the unparalleled
importance of this epoch for the
When the so-called “Christian Powers,”
the “Horns” in their present
distribution, are in concert with anti- Christianity for the sake of gain, and
Mammon sways the septre over moral righteousness, and national churches, the
stalled stipendiaries of the State, have become a
salt that is savourless, powerless to compel their rulers to enforce justice,
or defend the inalienable rights of man grounded in his personality, or protect
the saints of God from massacre; when the kings and rulers of the earth and
Christian governments panoplied for war, are partners
with Mammon in orgies of blood for selfish ends, binding oppression on the
necks of the poor, seeking by force to wrench from the weak their lawful
possessions, the heart steeled to human sympathy, the ear deaf to every appeal
for help, and conscience dead - it is only a step or two till Sin comes to its
height, and Sin’s last leader must appear. International politics will generate
events subversive to all existing international relations, and create new
alliances and new combinations leading up to the final crisis no summer
sunshine nor pleasing landscape in nature can avert. The “Day
of the Lord” will steal in like a thief, and the “Great Tribulation” come. Viewed from a human standpoint, it can
only be the necessary evolution of modern statecraft, a Nemesis the apostate
powers have vainly hoped to avoid.
From the Divine standpoint, it means the Judgment of the world.
God’s
true people
everywhere will be called to their best - bearing and most honoured trial of
their patience and faith in behalf of Christ. Intensity of suffering, however, will
not avail to divert them from their fidelity. As in Manasseh’s day, in Maccabean times, in Nero’s day, in Moslem and Papal
times, and as in Bulgarian, Armenian, and Cretan crises, so, once more, will their steadfast love, their
endurance and martyrdom only prove that He who calls them to such
a trial has “counted them worthy of the kingdom of God.” (2 Thess. 1: 5.) The patriot’s consecration of his
life as an offering on the altar of his country will be more than surpassed by
that ardour of love for Christ which will make His saints “rejoice”
even to be “killed all the day long”
for His sake, and to “glory in tribulation.”
(Rom. 8: 36.) “Here is
the patience of the saints,” “Here are they who keep the commandments of God” in opposition to the orders, and
“hold fast the testimony of Jesus”
in opposition to “the lie,” of the Antichrist. (Rev. 12: 17; 13: 10; 14: 12.) Divine grace supports their souls with
strength according to their day, and confirms
their faith by rich promises of glory and honour made to the overcomer,
by the example of Christ, the memories of the past, the sealing of the Spirit,
the election of God, and the certain
knowledge that the Coming of the Lord is near. The sweetest of all the notes they will
sing is this:-
“Oh, what, if we are Christ’s,
Is earthly shame or loss?
Bright
shall the crown of glory be,
When
we have borne the cross.”
As to the “Ancient of
Days,” literally “One ancient in
respect of days,” older than all the late-made gods of the
heathen, transcending all time, He is “Jehovah”
Himself, the Eternal, in the absolute Unity of His essence, God. It is He, according to Old Testament
representation, who constitutes the Judgment, (1) by descending from heaven to
earth, (2) by placing the thrones, (3) by seating the judges upon them, (4) by
opening the books. The white
garment denotes His majesty, rank, holiness, righteousness; the white hair His
antiquity, even Eternity; the throne of enveloping flame His avenging justice;
the revolving wheels of fire the rapidity of His advancing judgments; and the
stream of radiating flame the persistence of His judicial activity till His
strange work is done. It is said:
He “did sit” but only after He
“came.” (7:
9, 22.) This is of first
importance for the interpretation, as we shall presently see. It was not needful to say that the
“Ancient of Days” came “in clouds,” since that is the Old Testament view
of the descent of Jehovah to judge the nations and His people. He is always
spoken of as “coming down” in glorious epiphany with fire-flame and
“in clouds,” and attended by “angels.” (Exod. 19: 16; Psa. 47: 6; Zech. 9: 14; Isa. 27:
13; Exod. 3: 2; 19: 18.) “He bowed
the heavens also and came down.” (Psa. 18:. 9-15.) He “came down on
As to the Judges who sit on the thrones, the vision
in silent, because the
As to the angels, the whole angelic world is here as
“executors” of the Judgment by the
Son of Man. (Jude 14, 15) Their innumerable number is given as
“10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands”
(Dan. 7: 10); at the very least 204,000,000,
but more, since the extent of the multiplication is impossible, “a multitude that no man can
number” (Rev. 5: 11; 7: 9 Heb. 12: 22),
because of the indefinite terms “thousands of thousands.” All these, seen standing before the
throne, wait on the “Ancient of Days”
to minister judgment on the allied millions of the “Horn,” “angels of
might.” (2 Thess.
1: 7.) Already they have
reaped the righteous, and now stand ready to reap the wicked, and “take out of the kingdom all things that offend and them that
do iniquity.” (Matt. 13: 41.) Gabriel is there, and Michael is there,
erect for
The solemnity of the scene is augmented by the fact
that “the Books were opened.” (Dan. 7: 10.)
These “Books” are the records
of the crimes of the Horn, the Beast and his allies, the sins of the ten confederate
kingdoms of the last times in Europe, Asia and Africa; the sins of which they
are heirs at law; the sins of misgovernment, the sins committed against the
saints of God. Wherever else the
Judgment will strike so far as this particular scene is concerned, it strikes
the nations of Christendom within the limits of the old Roman territory ruled
by the Horn. They are the records
of the living nations, of the kings, judges and rulers of the earth (Psa. 2: 10), who have taken counsel against the Lord
and His anointed (Ps. 2: 2) - the books,
papers, files of their Gentile cabinets, their Concert and their ruptures, their treaties and diplomacies, their
guilty apathy, procrastination and venality when action was demanded in
vindication of the right; their deeds, words, joint-notes, protocols and
scheming policies, the motives of all supporting or opposed to the Horn. They are the archives, angel-kept,
wherein are registered the noonday iniquities and secret midnight work and
devices of the “Powers” whose
conduct paved the way for the “Great Tribulation,”
and made imperative a judgment to punish, in order to save, the nations and
rescue the kingdom of God from extinction.
The history of the Last
Times is here: The encouragement of anti-Christianity for the sake of gain, the
coalition of Christian governments with the guilds of Mammon against justice,
truth, religion, humanity and liberty; their covenants made and broken; their
rivalries and envies, highway robbery and rapacity; their greed of gold and lust
of supremacy; their defiance of Christian sentiment and of every appeal to
virtue; their despotism, pride, misgovernment, duplicity, oppression of the
weak, and guilty trade with the strong - and most of all, their shedding of
innocent blood. All are here
recorded with a pen unerring. No
injustice is forgotten, no massacre or devastated homes, no crimsoned fields
strewn with the upturned faces of the dead. Nor is the name of one who took part in
producing such scenes, or consented to the wrongs that begat them, misspelled,
or the place of his residence misread.
The whole apostasy of Christendom, the Horn’s loud-mouthed
arrogance and the words of the cry, “We will not
have this man to reign over us,” are written in the “Books,” and judgment by the records must pass on
the kingdoms whose boast was their Christianity, culture, civilisation. Such
the solemn scrutiny.
Old Testament prophecy always represents
“Jehovah,” the absolute God, as “coming
down” from His throne far above all heavens to “the cloud region overhanging the earth, to
hold Judgment. It is He who “descends” and makes the fire-lit thunder-heaps
His throne. The peculiarity of the
amazing scene in Daniel 7. is this, that
neither the name “Jehovah,” nor the
name “God” is employed, but that two
parties, the Father, or “Aged One,”
i.e., the “Ancient of Days,” and the
“Son of Man,” who by His relation to
the Father is also the Son of God, appear in the same Judgment at the end of
the 1,260 days of the Horn’s career. (Dan. 7:
25, 27; 12: 7.) The vision
assumes the incarnation or birth of Christ, afterwards foretold in Daniel 9: 25, His crucifixion in 9: 27, and His ascension to the Father’s
throne, from where, long concealed, He now appears revealed in this vision. It
is the Second Advent of Christ that is made known in Daniel
7. since only then is the kingdom
given to
What we have here, therefore, is the glorious King
of the
As to the last party named in the Judgment scene,
they are called the “Saints of the Most High,”
who receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even “for ever and ever” (7:
18, 22), the “People of the Saints of the
Most High,” to whom is given the kingdom and the greatness of the
kingdom, not in a super-earthly or
celestial sphere, but “underneath all heavens” (Dan.
7: 27). The New Testament widens the term “saints”
to embrace all who have Abraham’s faith, whether Jews or Gentiles.
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER FIVE [Pages 49-59]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel, Chapter 8 – “Time
of the End” of the Third Empire – The Kingdom not mentioned
– Date of the Vision – Place of the Vision – The Vision
itself – The Eastern Question – The Ram and Rough Goat –
Cyrus and Alexander – Antiouchus Epiphanes – Vision of Horror at
Jerusalem – Angelic Dialogue – Apparition of a Man – The
2,300 Evening-mornings – Interpretation of the Vision – Time of
Fulfilment – Vain Efforts to Identify the Two Little Horns –
Similarities and Dissimilarities – Grounds of the Same – Purpose of
the Vision.)
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DANIEL, CHAPTER 8 - THE RAM AND GOAT. THE EASTERN QUESTION.
1. In the third year of the reign
of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto
me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.
2. And I saw in a
vision; and it came to pass when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace,
which is in the
The typical fulfilment of this prophecy of Daniel 8. lies to a great extent historically in
pre-Christian times, a century and a half before the birth of Christ. At the same time this typical
fulfilment, as an organic and mediating link in a complex chain of prophecy
having one end in view, points to higher fulfilment in the future “Time of the End,” and is in harmony with the
visions in Daniel 2. and 7. It
reaches to the “Last Indignation”
of God against the Jewish apostasy (8: 19),
an “End” not yet apparent in
history, and which comes alone with the destruction of the last Antichrist, the
Horn in Daniel 7: 8, and “prince that shall come” in 9: 27, and the wilful and atheistic “king” in 11: 36,
40-45. Thus the past typical
fulfilment of Daniel 8. in Antiochus Epipnanes as the Little Horn that afflicts the Holy People,
points to a higher fulfilment in the
last Antichrist in future days.
Then the kingdom comes with the “last end
of the indignation,” viz., the close of the Great Tribulation.
1. As to the date of the vision. It was in , “the third year of the reign of the King Belshazzar”
(7: 1.)
Assuming that Belshazzar is the “Bel-sar-usur” of the monuments, and
according to Oriental usage, a “king,”
the date of the vision is B.C. 538, the year of Babylon’s fall and of his
feast (Dan. 5: 1-30), first year of Darius,
the Mede, to whom Cyrus had given the rule over Babylon, the year when Daniel
was thrown into the lions’ “den,”
the second year before the edict of Cyrus, B.C. 536, releasing the Jews,
sixty-eight of the seventy years of the captivity having passed away.
2. As to the place of the vision. The prophet, though bodily in
3. The vision itself. It is no less than that of the “Eastern Question,” a vision of conflicting civilisations,
the Asiatic and European struggling for the mastery of the
These great world-movements, like those afterwards between the north and south are
mirrors, of like collisions, yet to occur in the last days, marking the
“Time of the End” - the East seeking
to control the West, the West to control the East, Palestine at last the scene
of the hottest conflict; and furthermore, the same international struggles
involving not only the north and the south, but all the semi-civilised nations
and barbarous tribes outside the limits of the old Roman territory. It is the fixed law of history, ancient
mediaeval and modern. There is something very impressive in the thought that
the Holy Spirit, an angel from heaven, and inspired prophecy, should so
splendidly anticipate the inductions of the ablest modern scientific study in
the field of history, and forecast, two thousand years ago, the very laws of
historical movement, whose recent mention has crowned with laurels the supposed
discoveries of them. And the
thought that Daniel wrote his book, not only in the face of his apostate
countrymen, but in the face and front of Babylonian and Persian supremacy,
announcing the doom of both, and of all world-empires and kingdoms, adds
grandeur to the heroism of the prophet, as it adds tenfold interest to his
predictions. But prophecy is a
light and a lesson. The great
world-movement of history is planetary motion. “It
returneth again according to its circuit.” The End-Time will renew the Old-Time, though
under new conditions.
“That
which hath been is that which shall be, and what is done is that which
shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun!” (Ecel. 1: 6, 9.)
Lifting his eyes, entranced, the prophet sees the two horned Ram
standing in front of the Ulai on its opposite side,
the horns of unequal height, the higher nearest the stream, denoting the
superiority of the Persian over the Median element in the Medo-Persian empire
of Cyrus. The duality of the
dynasties is merged in the unity of the empire. The Ram’s motion indicates the
conquest of the whole Medo-Persian sucession for two
hundred years. Invincibly the Ram
butts westward, toward Babylonia, Lydia, Asia Minor and Greece; northward
toward Armenia, the Caspian, Bactria, Scythia;
southward toward Egypt, Lybia and Ethiopia (8: 14).
A bounding goat with projecting horn, interocular,
comes leaping from the West, and with unexampled speed skipping across the face
of the earth, as if spurning the ground, rushes with irresistible and mad onset
into the Ram, breaking his horns, casting him down, stamping upon him; no
allies able to save him out of the goat’s power.
That “Notable Horn”
is young Alexander the Great, first king of the Graeco-Macedonian empire, but
twenty years of age, whose first leap at the Ram was across the Hellespont,
B.C. 334, with 40,000 men, and whose rapidly fought battles from the Granicus, B.C. 334, to Arbela,
B.C. 331, thence to the banks of the Indus and the Nile, thence again to
Shushan, B.C. 325, before dying at Babylon, B.C. 323, broke the horns of the
Ram, cast him down, stamped on him, paid him in full for his invasion of
Greece, and ended for ever the Medo-Persian empire. “Notable
Horn!” In the words of
Napoleon, “Alexander deserved all the glory the world has given him.” By such symbols the Holy Spirit foretold
the fortunes of the Persian and Greek empires.
While the prophet is gazing he sees the Notable Horn
“broken” reads therein the premature death of Alexander and beholds
the “Four Notable Horns,” rising in
its place, toward the four points of the compass. They are the four kingdoms into which
Alexander’s empire was divided, viz.,
[*
Nearly all standard expositors hold that Antiochus from 168 to 164 B.C. acted
very like the future Last Antichrist will act. -EDITOR OF ENGLISH EDITION.]
The vision presents to the eye of the prophet a
scene of sacrilegious horror enacted typically by Antiochus Epiphanes in the
temple-court and city of Jerusalem; an attempt to exterminate the holy people
and the religion of Jehovah, and substitute for both a heathen colony and the
Greek idolatry; the first attempt ever made in history to force a people to
forswear their faith, or suffer death for disobedience. The God-defying insolence of the Horn
was, till then, without a parallel.
Other conquerors of the Jews had, at least, respected their religion.
This one had no respect.
Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus and Alexander, paid homage to “God, Most High,” and bowed before the holy
oracles. This one pays none, and
tramples the “Truth” to the ground.
With self-magnifying egotism he invades the Holy
Land, and raging in hate against the
Holy Covenant, takes the
With those who “forsake
the Holy Covenant” (11: 30), he
enters into a new “Covenant” (1
Mace. 1: 11, 12), putting up the high priesthood for sale to the highest
bidder, farming out the mitre, breast-plate and robes of Aaron’s office
for 440 talents of gold as annual payment for the dignity; the apostate bidder
selling the golden altar of incense, the golden candlestick, the table of shewbread and the sacred vessels, in the market of Tyre,
for 34800 talents, to pay Antiochus the annual sums demanded. To crown the infamy he winks at the
assassination of the lawful High Priest, Onias III.,
because protesting against the sacrilege; defaces, by obscene pictures, and
casts to the ground, the Pentateuch and the Prophets, the authoritative law and
sanction of the Hebrew worship; forbids Jewish rites, orders the erection of
idol altars in every town and city, massacres 80,000 of God’s saints in
his first attack, 20,000 at the second; devastates the city, and with
abominations surpassing those of Manasseh, and lust beyond that of a Sardanapalus, defiles the place, the holiest known on earth
since the beginning of the creation of God. Thus does he “do.”
The full story of his deeds, here recited only in
part, is found in the Books of the Maccabees - a
picture of horror symbolised in outline, in the vision here given to the
prophet. Using the language of the
Levitical law, in Numbers 4: 23, 8: 24, in
which the word “Host” is employed to
denote the Hebrew sacrificial “service,”
the prophet states that “a host was given”
to the tyrant, i.e., allowed to him
by God’s permission, because of Israel’s transgression in forsaking
God’s covenant - a heathen “service”
ministered by heathen priests within the temple-court, in place of the daily
offering, and that the Horn “practised and
prospered” in unhindered activity - the Jewish worship abolished,
the sanctuary and Jewish Host trodden under foot; apostasy installed in the
form of an abomination in the very precincts of the temple. To the soul of the prophet the vision
was appalling. (Dan. 8: 10-12.)
4. The Angelic Dialogue. While the prophet is gazing, at the
horror, suddenly he hears “One Holy One speaking,
and another Holy One saying to that Certain Holy One,” as yet
unknown “Palmoni,”
or “Peloni Almoni,” that,
“Some One or Other,” a “Wonderful Numberer”
– “How long the vision of the Daily, and
the transgression of the desolation, giving both the sanctuary and the Host to
be trodden down?” (8: 13). We have here a glimpse into the angel
world. The Biblical angels are the
“Holy Watchers” (Dan. 4: 13, 17-23; 6: 22), whose vigils remain
unbroken, the sleepless sentinels of heaven who take interest in all the
affairs of the earth, among whom are Gabrial (6: 22, 8: 16, 9: 21, 10: 10, 14, 18, 21, 11: 1),
and Michael (10: 13, 21; 12: 1), and over
whom the Un-slumbering Keeper of Israel presides (Psa. 121: 4). Daniel hears Gabriel asking Palmoni “how long”
the horror shall be, Palmoni answering “Until 2,300 evening-mornings; and the Sanctuary shall be
justified,” i.e.,
restored to its lawful use, since so long as profaned it lay under
condemnation. The dialogue is
evidently meant for the benefit of Daniel, to whom the vision was given. If the “2,300
evening-mornings” are whole days, they ate six years, four months,
twenty days.
5. The Apparition of a
6. The Interpretation of the Vision. Much of this has already been
anticipated. First of all, the
“Ram” and the “Goat” represent the kingdom and kings of the
Medo-Persian and Graeco-Macedonian empires. These are the second and third, and
correspond to the Silver and Brass of the Colossus in Daniel
2., and to the Bear and Leopard (or Panther) in chapter
7., 8: 20, 21. We know that the first empire in the
Colossal Image of Daniel 2. is that of
Five different expressions are used to mark the time
when the vision would be accomplished.
(1) The “Time of the End” (8: 17); (2) the “Last
End of the Indignation” of God against Israel’s apostasy (8: 19); (3) the “Latter
Time of their kingdoms” (8: 23);
(4) “when the transgressors are come to the full,”
i.e., when Israel’s apostates
have filled up the measure of their sins; (5) “for
many days,” i.e., many
years after the date of the vision (8: 26).
The “Indignation”
is a technical term in prophecy, denoting God’s judicial wrath against
Israel for their transgression of His covenant, and the “Last End of the Indignation” that final stroke
of punishment on all apostates from the covenant immediately preceding the
final deliverance of the Jews (Deut. 32: 35-43),
and of which the previous strokes (Isa. 10: 23., 28: 23), and the Roman destruction of
Jerusalem (Rom. 9: 28) are types. It is the period of the “Great Tribulation.” (Dan.
12: 1; Matt. 24: 21; Rev. 7: 14; 13: 5.) It is clear, therefore, that not only
was the period of Antiochus’ tyranny B.C. 168-165 not the “Last End of the Indignation,” since the Jews
“filled up the measure” of their
fathers’ sins by crucifying Christ (Matt. 23:
32), and the “Indignation”
again fell upon their city and upon themselves, but that, once more, in the far
“Time of the End,” it will fall upon
them in the last crisis of their history (7: 26; 9:
27; 10: 14; 11: 40-45; 12: 1, 7, 9.). Therefore the “meaning” of this prophecy is not limited to the
times of Antiochus, but chiefly applies to the last 1,260 days of the Horn in Daniel 7.
In this sense, again, the vision is “for
many days.” Every
child of Abraham knows the “meaning”
of the great phrase “the Time of the End.” It is the time of the cessation of
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER SIX [Pages 60-71]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel,
Chapter 9 – The Seventy Weeks –
General Remarks – Place of the Prophecy – Occasion of it –
The Prophecy itself – Its Correct Translation – Covers the Prayer
– Exposition of the Seventy Weeks – Their Sub-distribution –
The Two Intervals – No Year-Day Theory in Daniel – The Seventh Week
– The Four Great Ideas of World-view – World History – World
Judgment and World Chronology – The Interpretation sure – The
Secret Disclosed – The Reasons of the False Interpretation – The
Jews as Reckoners of Time – Gentile
Conformation – The Jurisdiction of the Seventy Weeks over all New
Testament Prophecy – It fixes absolutely the Time-point of the Second
Advent.)
-------
“Our Lord’s use
of the expression, ‘abomination of desolation,’ (Matt.
24: 15), applying it to future times beyond His
own day, proves that He interpreted Daniel
9: 26, 27, as a double prophecy, pointing first
to the destruction of
- Fraidi.
DANIEL, CHAPTER 9 - THF SEVENTY WEEKS.
“20. And whiles as I
was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people
Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy
mountain of my God; 21. Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel,
whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly,
touched me about the time of the evening oblation. 22. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, 0 Daniel, I
am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. 23. At the beginning of thy suplications the commandment came
forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore
understand the matter, and consider the vision. 24. 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. 25. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of
the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the 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. 26. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off,
but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy
the city and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto
the end of the war desolations are determined. 27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and
in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease, and for the over spreading of abominations he shall make it desolate,
even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the
desolate.”
The great prediction, here, is the answer to a
prayer of the prophet, and is found in the last four verses of Daniel, 9: 24-27. The angel speaks in plain and obvious
language, although sometimes of difficult construction, owing to its brief and
lapidary style, piling clause upon clause, and even of various
interpretation. The first necessity
is that of a good translation, King James’ version being both obscure and
defective, and the Revised Version itself not without fault. Twenty different events are here
foretold, in four verses, extending over the Times of the Gentiles, and
relating mainly to Jewish affairs.
Among these are the Return of the Jews from exile, the Building of the
Still, again, the angel predicts that, so far from
withdrawing the divine mercy from the seed of Abraham, the Lord will crown
their last struggle with a six-fold blessing, the sum to them of all
salvation. Six great events shall
occur - viz. (1), the finishing of Israel’s national apostasy, called
“the transgression,
or breach of God’s covenant”; (2), the cessation or end of
their “sins”; (3), the covering of
their “iniquity”; (4), the
introduction of enduring “righteousness”, ; (5), the sealing or
verification of “prophecy and vision”
concerning them; and (6), the consecration of a new “Holy of Holies,” or Sanctuary, unto God. In short,
1. As to the Date of the Prophecy. It was “in
the first year of Darius, the son of Ahashuerus of
the seed of the Medes” (9: 1),
who was “made king,” by Cyrus, over
the realm of “the Chaldeans”
(9: 1, 2), and from whom he “received (not “took”)
the kingdom” when
2. As to the Place of the Prophecy. That it was
3. As to the Occasion of the Prophecy. It was the fact (1) that Babylon had
fallen, (2) that 68 of the 70 years of the captivity had expired, (3) that
Daniel had betaken himself “by prayer and
supplications with fasting and sackcloth” (9: 3) to plead with God, if so be that he might advance the hour of Israel’s deliverance,
and not delay their release, and (4) that, although he “understood,” from Jeremiah and the sacred books,
“the number of the years the Lord would
accomplish,” even 70, “in the
desolations of Jerusalem” (9: 2),
yet, peradventure, the time might be conditional in God’s purpose, and
the Lord, full of mercy, might shorten it just a little, and now, even now, end
the captivity; all the more since Babylon had already fallen! He knew well the enormity of
He had the prophets before him, the whole extant
canon of the old Testament, “Hassepharim,”
the “Biblia,”
or “Books,” and saw the mighty
promises of mercy and love even to a sinful people not forsaken (9: 2).
He was himself a writer of Holy Scripture (7:
1; 8: 26; 10: 21; 12: 4, 9; Matt. 24: 15); a deep “Searcher” of the Word of God (1 Pet. 1: 10-12; 2 Pet. 1: 19-24); and if any had
a claim on the ear of God, it was he.
Therefore did he plead. In
pressing his suit he confesses the crimes of the whole nation of Israel from
the day of its birth, and pleads with his mouth in the dust - the crimes of
“Judah,” “Jerusalem,” “all
Israel near and far,” their “kings,
princes, judges, and fathers,” the nation God bad delivered
“out of the land of Egypt,” and
implores “forgiveness and mercy” for
the sanctuary, city and people, “Thy City Jerusalem,”
“Thy Sanctuary,” “Thy People,” the whole organised nationality of
Israel, as one body, now broken and scattered, and made a “reproach.”
And the burden of his prayer is this, that God will end Israel’s
apostasy, i.e,, the great “transgression,” pardon their “sins,” and cover their “iniquity,” closing their “rebellion” against Him, and make haste to
restore them, and rebuild Jerusalem,
and “do,” and “defer not” for His own Name’s sake (9: 3, 19).
He pleads with a “covenant keeping God,”
for those who had broken the covenant (9: 4, 11, 13).
4. The Answer to the Prayer is the Prophecy
itself. It is in the last four
verses of the chapter. It came
about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, or “about
the time of the evening oblation” (9:
20, 2l.) At such a time
“Gabriel,” whom he “had seen in the vision” (in chapter 8.), “being
caused to fly swiftly,” sped his way through the constellations,
entered the earth’s atmosphere, and alighted near Daniel, with a message
from the throne of God, and “touched”
him. He accosts him “0
Daniel, greatly beloved!” - a man filled with holy desires after the
“24. Seventy weeks (of
years) are decreed upon thy people (the Jews) and upon thy holy city (Jerusalem) to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and
to cover over iniquity, and to cause everlasting righteousness to come, and to
seal up (verify) the vision and prophecy, and to
anoint a holy of holies. 25. Know, therefore, and
discriminate; from the issuing of a word to restore, and to build Jerusalem,
unto Prince Messiah, shall be Seven Sevens (of years), and Sixty and Two Sevens; she shall be restored and built as
to street and rampart (street and wall), and in
distress shall be the times.
26. And after
those Sixty-two Sevens, Messiah shall be cut off, and there is not to Him
(no guilt and no just judgment); and the city and the
sanctuary shall th destroy, viz., the people of a
prince, the one that is to come, and his end shall be in the overflowing; and
unto that end shall be war, a decreed (measure or limit) of desolations.
27. And he (the
prince to come) shall cause to prevail a covenant for
the many, One Seven; and he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease, Half
of the Seven; and upon wing of abominations (he shall come) a desolator, even until the consummation and (until) that which is decreed (God’s wrath) is poured upon the one desolating.”
This marvellous prophecy and answer to the prayer
covers every point made in the prayer itself, as to the Jew, Jerusalem, the
Sanctuary, unveiling the whole future of Israel down to the destruction of the last Antichrist, The restoration of the Jews
pursuant to “a word” or “command,” the Building of the Second Temple, and
the City, the First Advent of Messiah, His Rejection by the Jewish Nation, and
because of it, the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Titus, and the
Times of the Gentiles following, full of war and desolations; all these with
the conversion of the Jews to Christ, a pardoned and righteous nation, apostate
no more, but serving God in their own land, in a new sanctuary, all are here predicted in the clearest manner. That all this mercy to Israel is
grounded in the atoning work of the Messiah at His First Advent, and that in
Him personally‑that “Holy Thing”
born of the virgin, Himself a “Temple,”
“Altar,” and “Sacrifice” anointed by the Spirit - and that in
each [obedient] believer
“a temple of the Holy Ghost,” and in
the whole Church collectively, “a spiritual house,”
the prophecy has been fulfilled, is beyond all question. As little to be questioned is the fact
that the six fold blessings promised to Israel, in verse
24, as the outcome of the seventy weeks with their intervals, are
applied, in the New Testament, to the literal seed of Abraham according to the
flesh - Israel in the Old Testament sense and eminently so in Paul’s
epistles and in John’s Apocalypse.
There is,
therefore, a glorious future for the ancient people of God. That the Jews will be gathered together
again to their own land, be born of the Spirit, converted to Christ, and
established as a holy nation, at the Second Coming of Christ, and be as “life from the dead” to the nations, is as certain as the Word of God is true. The
wealth of the proof is amazing.
We read it in Isaiah 59: 21, 22; Romans 11:
25; Acts 3: 19-21 (R.V.); Isaiah 66: 5-16;
11: 4; 2 Thessalonians 2: 2, 8; Daniel 7: 21-27; 11: 40-45; 12: 1-3, 7; Micah
4: 8; Ezekiel 36: 24-28; 37: 1-28; Jeremiah 31: 33-40; Zephaniah 3: 8-20;
Zechariah 12: 2-14; 13: 1; 14: 2-11; 16-21; Matthew 23: 39; 24: 25-28, 29-31;
Revelations 7: 4-8; 14: 1-5; 20: 9; and scores of other texts too
numerous to enumerate. And “the strength of
These prophecies were given to be understood;
“Know, therefore, and understand.” (Dan. 9: 25.) The angel declares that in the “Time of the End” they shall be understood (12: 4). From the bosom of the prophecy a
sun-burst of surpassing brilliancy will break forth, as
The “Seventy Sevens,”
or “Weeks,” selected from the whole
course of time, as weeks relating entirely to Jewish affairs, are Weeks of
Years. As seven days constitute a
week, so seven years constitute the prophetic week. All the weeks are of equal chronological
measurement, each week consisting of seven literal years. The sum is, therefore, 490 years. These weeks are distributed into three
divisions of 7, 62, 1, that is, into 49, 434, 7, years respectively.*
[*
That the Jews will build their
The starting-point of the 70 weeks is the “going forth of a word to restore and build
The 70th week is the last “7 years,” or “One
week,” in Daniel 9: 2 7, the
Antichrist’s week, the week of the “Little
Horn” in chapter 7., the week
of “the prince that shall come on wing of
abomination” (9: 27), invading
the Holy Land, and swooping like a vulture on its prey. His last campaign is given in Daniel 11: 40-45, and elaborated in Zechariah 12: 2-8; 14: 1-4, 12-15, and in Joel 3: 9-17.
The week is opened by the advent of the Antichrist and
“covenant” with the Jewish masses (Dan.
9: 27), a treaty whereby the power holding Palestine will concede a
peaceful modus vivendi with the Jews, tolerating their ancient worship, and obtaining
from their magnates financial help. as in the days of Antiochus. The “covenant”
with the Jewish masses is broken in the middle of the week, the revived “oblation and sacrifice” being caused to cease (Daniel 9: 27).
This violation is, doubtless, due to some signal
event in the history of the Jews, at that time, which leads the Antichrist to
vent his rage against all Jews believing or unbelieving, and all [remaining] Christians. The second “Half” of the week is the “Great Tribulation,” when the Desolator, on wing
of abomination, shall devastate everything before him, occupy Jerusalem, sit in
the temple, then in process of completion (Rev. 9:
1, Isa. 66: 1-6), claiming divine honours for
himself (2 Thess. 2: 4),
persecuting “the people of the saints
of the Most High” and all God’s saints everywhere (7: 25; 12: 7; Matthew 24: 15-28; Revelations 9: 2; 12: 6,
14, 17; 13).
It is the final testing for both Jews and Gentiles
who believe in Christ, the “Great Tribulation”
spoken of in Jeremiah 30: 7, as that of
“Jacob’s trouble,” in Matthew 24: 15-28, as that of “Christ’s Elect,” in Revelations 7: 14, as that out of which the
election of Israel (7: 4-8), and the
election of the, Gentiles (7: 9), shall
come; and in Daniel 12: 1, as that which is
followed by Israel’s deliverance and the resurrection of the holy dead. The close of the last 1,260 days of this
week is the close of the “time, times, and
dividing of a time,” i.e.,
three and a half years, in Daniel 7: 25; 12: 7,
which is signalised by the overthrow of the Antichrist at the Second Coming of
the Son of Man. The same scene of
the Lord’s intervention is pictured in Joel.
3: 16, 17; Isaiah 59: 19-21; 63: 1-6; 66: 14-16; Zephaniah 3: 14-20; Zechariah
14: 1-5.
With these mighty events the “70th week” terminates viz., with
New-born
Here in the most solemn manner Gabriel informs the
prophet that the history of God’s people courses its way through different
periods of time, all determined by the immutable measurements of God; that as
the road-surveyor determines his track with culvert, tunnel, curve and grade,
or a landscape painter sketches his plan on the canvas, draws its lines, fixes
its measurements, projects the long perspective, the gloomed defiles and
shining end, so God has constructed here the way for
Still, all is “Nihtak,” decreed, determined, decided of
God, the seventy weeks, the 7, 62, and 1, the 2,300 evening-mornings, the 1,260
days, and, as we shall see, the 1,290 and 1,335 days (12:
11, 12), all measured by Palmoni, the Wonderful
Numberer, that Certain Holy One, whose voice came
from between the banks of the Ulai (7: 13).
To “know” and “understand”
the true interpretation of the seventy weeks is the first necessity of the
student of Old and New Testament prophecy.
The inverted Hebrew text and construction of 9: 26, viz., “and
the people of a prince, the one that is to come, shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary,” is intended to connect as closely as possible the
future “prince” with the subject of
the verb “confirm” in the next verse, and to show that neither Antiochus, Titus, nor Christ can be that prince,
finding “his end” in the military
overflowing. The 70th
week is the last Antichrist’s week,* both by prophecy itself and our
Lord’s own teaching. The use
of the definite article “the”
in the phrase “the one that is to come,” i.e., after the destruction of the city
of Jerusalem by the Roman people,
points back to, the “Little Horn,”
in Daniel 7., as to a character already
well-known to Daniel, and which was the object of his interest in a previous
vision. The translation “his end,” instead of “the end thereof,” and “unto the end, war,” instead of “unto the end of the war,” in Daniel 9: 26, rest upon an absolutely correct
text, and are now conceded by all exegetes.
[*
“After the most thorough investigation, all
modern scholars are agreed that the suffix ‘o’ in the Hebrew ‘qetstso,’
Daniel 9: 26, is
masculine and refers to the ‘prince that
shall come,’ and who is the subject of
the verb ‘confirm,’ and that ‘his end’ is the correct rendering.” “It
refers neither to Antiochus, Christ, or Titus.” Fraidi, Die Exegese der siebzig Woehen, p. 68. “The
suffix and its noun can only be rendered ‘his end,’ viz., that of the hostile prince, and at
The sudden spring from
Nearly all the early Church fathers saw the gap
between the 69th and 70th Weeks. Of this the vast majority were certain,
viz., that the 70th Week is the last Antichrist’s week, at the
“End” of Gentile times, and that the
starting-point of the 70 Weeks is either the “first
Darius the Mede,” or “first Cyrus as
sole king of Babylon.” So Justin,
Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Eusebius in one of his calculations, Origen, Hippolytus, Hilary, later on Polychronius, and
Bruno of Asti;
still later, ‑ Calvin, Ecolampadius, Bullinger, L’Empereur,
Cocceius, Bervaldus, Dathe, Blayney, Uri; later still, Jungman, Koeh, J. D. Michaelis, Pringle, Hauenkamp,
Velthusen;
yet later, Kliefoth,
Keil, Koeh, Christiani, Fraidi, D’Envieu, Tiefenthal, Dornstetter, Dusterwald, Briggs, and many others.
In the fourth century the Artaxerxes date, advocated previously by Africanus, was
generally, held - viz., twentieth year of Artaxerxes, as the beginning`of the 70 Weeks.
Only the knowledge of Daniel’s predictions by
the Magi, at the head of whose order Daniel stood for 70 years, and the
currency of Balaam’s prophecy among the Gentiles, concerning the “Star out of Jacob,” brought the “Wise Men” from Babylon and Persia, with the
question on their lips, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews, for we in the East
have seen His star and are come to worship Him?” (Matt. 2: 2.)
They reckoned well!
When the Antichrist and the Jews are in “covenant,” at the beginning of the 70th
week, and clearer still, when the breach occurs between them at the “middle of the week,” then the determination of
the year of Christ’s Advent in power and great glory, perhaps the month,
will be certain to all believers.
To watch always and wait patiently is the believer’s privilege. Prophetic nearness is one thing, chronological
nearness another, and yet faith and hope overleap all intervening events. The relatively brief remainder of the
interval, and the Antichrist, are what is immediately before us, and with all
sobriety we can say that it is this that lends an interest, so solemn and
absorbing, to the attitude of the nations, the extension of missions, the
Jewish movements, the Eastern Question, the crimes of Christendom, and the
current events in both hemispheres of the world.*
[*
NOTE BY EDITOR OF LONDON EDITION‑
“There is every reason to believe that these
Seventy Weeks will have a literal day fulfilment as Seventy Weeks of days as well as the year-day fulfilment as
Seventy Weeks of years. Tyso, an able Hebrew scholar, and others, mention this
in their books on Daniel. Thus,
from a future ‘going forth of a command to
restore and build Jerusalem,’ there will
he 69 weeks of days, i.e., 483 days
or 16 months all but 3 days, unto the Second Advent of Messiah the Prince, just
as there were 69 weeks of years, i.e.,
483 years from the past ancient ‘going
forth of a command to rebuild Jerusalem’
unto the First Advent of Messiah the Prince. Hebraists have pointed out that the
Hebrew word for weeks in Daniel 10: 2, where
Daniel is stated to have fasted for three weeks, is the same word as is here
used for the Seventy Weeks in Daniel 9., and therefore
signifies primarily weeks of days.
Then again as the 2,300 years (Daniel
8: 14), and 69 weeks of are commenced
simultaneously, so the future 2,300 days and 69 weeks of days shall commence
simultaneously, viz., with a renewal of the sacrifices and command to rebuild
Jerusalem at the distance of 2, 345 days before the final Covenant Week of 7
days which will terminate this Age.”]
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER SEVEN [Pages 72-86]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel, Chapters 10-13 – One Prophecy – The
Theme, the “Warfare Great” –
The Eastern Question – Nature of the Revelation – Date of the
Prophecy – Place and Time of the Vision – Occasion of the Vision
– The Vision Itself – The Christophany – The Persons in the
Scene – The Effect of the Vision – Prostration of the Prophet, and
Flight of his Companions – The Recovery of the Prophet – The
Comfort – Israel under the guardian Care of Angels – Daniel’s
Book, a “Scripture of Truth” –
Warning against the False Criticism of this Book.)
-------
“Here we have a true Apocalypse. The Glorious One who sways over the
Hiddekel is the ‘Alpha and Omega,’ who appeared to John upon tile
island of Patmos in the Aegean not far from Ephesus,
and is the ‘Son of Man’ whom Daniel had already seen in the vision
of Daniel 7 - there, in a night dream; here, in open day - there, in one form;
here, in another. He is the same whose
back part Moses saw from the cleft of Horeb, and Isaiah
saw high and lifted up, and Ezekiel saw above the firmament, and whose fear
fell upon them. Unable to endure
the sight or the voice, Gabriel interposes to strengthen and compose the
shattered frame and mind of the prophet Daniel, and restore him to his strength.”
- Fehrmann.
DANIEL’S
CHAPTERS 10., 11.
AND 12. - VISION OF
THE “TIME OF THE END.”
“1. In the third year of
Cyrus king of
These three chapters form one continuous prophecy,
the longest in the book of Daniel.
The time covered by them is from the date of this vision B.C. 534 to
Christ’s Second Advent, i.e., the whole time of the Silver Breast, Brazen
Loins, and Iron Legs of the Colossus in Daniel 2.,
and of the Bear, the Leopard, the Ten-Horned Beast in Daniel
7., therefore including the time of the Ram and the Rough Goat and its
Four Horns and Little Horn in Daniel 8.;
also the Little Horn of the Ten-Horned Beast. The continuous prophecy of these three
chapters ends with the final deliverance of the Jews, the resurrection of the
holy dead, and the blessed time in
the victorious
Daniel’s chapter 10., which
gives us the Christophany and a wider glimpse than before into the unseen
world, is the Prologue, or introduction to 11.
and 12., which
contain the proper “Revelation” made
to the prophet concerning the “Time of the End,”
including the near and far horizons of the third and fourth empires. The Epilogue is 12:
5-13, the theme of the prophecy is the “WARFARE
GREAT,” the Eastern Question and its solution. Each of the chapters,
10., 11., 12., forms
a general separate section of the whole prediction, the first verse of 11. properly belonging to the close of 10. All the way from Daniel 10: 4 to 12: 13, we
stand on the banks of the Hiddekel, see the vision, watch the actions of the
prophet, hear the Lord, the Angels, and Daniel talk, and listen to the
revelation given.
1. As to the NATURE OF THE REVELATION ITSELF, the
prophet says, a “Thing,” literally a
“Word,” was revealed to him by means
of a “Vision,” and that the word was
true, and related to great and long-continued military
struggles. The translation of the
clause in King James’ Version, “and the
time appointed was long,” is simply a defective paraphrase of the
Hebrew text. The correct rendering
is, “and Truth is the Word, even Warfare Great,”
i.e., the Revelation he records is that of Israel’s long struggle with
the World-Power in its successive empires and kingdoms, from the third year of
Cyrus, B.C. 534, down to the final deliverance of the Jews from Gentile hands,
and the consummation of the kingdom of Christ at His Second Coming. In a somewhat similar manner Virgil and Homer began their great epics with “Arms
and the Man I sing,” and Thiers and Macaulay their histories with “I propose to write” so and so. if, imitating
the title to John’s Apocalypse, we might affix one to this section of
Daniel’s Book, it would be this: “The
Revelation of the Angel of Jehovah which God gave to Him to show unto His
servants the things which must come to pass in the latter days, concerning the
destiny of Israel and the World-Powers; and He told this word by His angel
Gabriel, whom He sent to His servant Daniel, commanding him to shut up and seal
the book unto the Time of the End.
Blessed is he who waits and comes to the end of the days.”
2. THE DATE OF THIS PROPHECY was B.C. 534. According to Babylonian reckoning, the
“first year of Cyrus” was that of
the overthrow of
3. THE PLACE AND TIME OF THE VISION was by the banks of the river
Tigris, whose Accadian name was “Iddiklat,” called
biblically “Hiddekel,” the third of
the four great rivers into which the
[*
As the waters were divided, so will it be again. (Isa., 11: 85; Rev. 16: 12.) As the walls of
4. THE OCCASION OF THE VISION was the sad intelligence received
concerning the state of affairs at
5. THE VISION ITSELF is a
Christophany, or appearing of the Angel of Jehovah in human form. The prophet lifts his eyes and sees in
open day a “Certain Man” of
supernatural presence hovering over the waters of the Hiddekel, a man wearing
not the “Talar,”
but the shining byssus garment of a Jewish
High-Priest, his loins cinctured with “gold of Uphaz,” his body in colour like a “Tarshish,” or
brilliant Chrysolite. such as sparkled in the
pectoral of Aaron, his face “flashing like the
lightning,” his eyes like “torches
blazing,” his arms and feet like “polished
brass,” and his voice as “the voice
of a multitude” (Dan. 10: 5, 6);
or, as the word imports, like surges breaking on the shore, or the noise of
shouting armies in the distance, or as of deep, low, bursting thunder. Omnipotence and sublimity are here. It is a vision of Jesus Christ before
His incarnation, yet symbolised in the dignity of His royal, priestly and
prophetic offices, in the terror of His judicial majesty, the forecast
splendour of His exalted humanity, and the glory of His deity; a “Man,” both Man and God, incomparable in the
mystery of His person and his natures - a face above the brightness of
the sun, a voice vocal as the thunder.
His transparent body means His sanctity and glory. His white robe means that He is a
priest, His golden girdle that He is a King, His uttering voice that He is a
prophet. His eyes like searching
fire mean omniscience. His arms and
feet, like burning brass, mean judgment for His enemies. His face effulgent means that God is
there! Elsewhere in the Book of
Daniel this same glorious person, who is the central figure of it all, is
presented as the “Stone” detached
from the mountain (Dan. 2: 34, 45); “One like a Son of God” (3:
25); a “Watcher and Holy One,”
who cares for Israel (4: 13); “One like a Son of Man,” coming in the
clouds (2:
13); a “Certain Holy One, Palmon Wonderful Numberer,”
whose voice Daniel heard coming from between the banks of the Ulai (8: 15, 16);
“Messiah” born and crucified (9: 26); and now the “Linen-Clothed Man” hovering sublime above the Hiddekel.
In all these forms and relations He appears as the
Crusher of the Colossal Image of earthly politics and power, the companion of
His suffering saints in the furnace and the den, the Judge of all the earth,
the Measurer of the Ages and the Ends, the Seasons and the Times, the Revealer
of the truth and Unveiler of Israel’s pathway
and goal, the atoning Redeemer of His people, the Destroyer of the Antichrist,
the Deliverer of the Jews, the immortal Monarch of the Fifth Empire, and Bringer of the kingdom of God to victory
over all the earth. Here, in
the present vision (Dan. 10: 5, 6), He
appears in His greatest splendour, and is that Glorious One John saw “in
the isle that is called Patmos” (A.D. 96), six
hundred and thirty years later; the Walker in the midst of the golden
candlesticks, the Lamb on the Throne, the many crowned warrior on the white
horse, and, as in Moses and John, so here, the Oath-Swearing Angel with
uplifted hand to heaven. (Dent. 32: 40; Rev. 10: 5,
6; Dan. 12: 7.) He is the
“Angel of the Covenant,”
6. THE PERSONS IN THE SCENE are (1) the
Linen-Clothed Man, (2) Daniel and his companions, (3) Gabriel, (4) Michael, and
(5) “Two Others,” referred to in chapter 12: 5, 6. Whether the companions of Daniel were
Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi, or Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego, or some servants of the prophet, is
indeterminable. Conjectural is
every view as to who the “Two Others”
are. Michael is expressly named. (10: 13, 21.) Gabriel is not named, but the
characteristic mode of addressing the prophet as a “man greatly beloved,” and of “touching” him to strengthen him, and the fact
that he who addresses and touches is the revealing angel, leaves no doubt that
the “hand” in contact with the
prostrate prophet (10: 10, 16, 18) is not
that of the Linen-Clothed Man (10: 5, 6),
but is the “hand” of Gabriel. Compare chapter 10:
21-23, with 8: 15, 16.
There is nothing in the expression, “one
like the similitude of the sons of Adam touched my lips” (10: 16), to indicate otherwise. The expression is not the same as that
in chapter 7: 13, “One like the Son of Man,”
coming in the clouds of heaven. The action and speech of the angel in chapters
7. and 9., and here in chapter 10.,
in connection with all these prophecies, prove that Gabriel is the Toucher, the Speaker, and
the Revealing Angel, all the way from Daniel 10: 10
to 12: 4, and - save chapter 12: 7,
where the Linen-Clothed Man answers a question - is the Speaker and Revealer of
the whole prophecy. The prophet
does not say that the Linen-Clothed Man laid “His hand” upon him, as John says of Christ in Revelations 1: 17, but simply “a hand” touched me (Dan.
10: 10), viz., the hand of Gabriel.
7. THE EFFECT OF THE VISION on the Prophet
and his Companions and the Circumstances of his Recovery. (1) On his companions. Like those of Saul, when the Lord
appeared to him on the way to
He describes his condition. Pathetically he narrates that his
“strength” had departed, his “comeliness” been turned to “corruption,” and that, as soon as he heard the “voice of the words” of the Linen-Clothed Man he
was thrown in a “deep sleep,”
prostrate, his “face toward the ground”
(10: 8, 9). Haggard, withered, disfigured, the
freshness of his countenance gone, stupefied, overpowered by the Divine
presence, he fell comatose and heavy to the earth. The awful splendour and voice of Jehovah
had shattered him. Once before,
under a vision less powerful, he says he was “astounded,”
“fainted,” and was “sick for many days.” (Dan.
8: 27.) Nevertheless, the
power that prostrated him re-invigorated and recovered him. The mysterious Form that hovered over
the Hiddekel withheld Himself now from the eyes and ears of the prophet unable
to endure more, and sent an angel to succour and support him. Thrice the prophet is “touched” and addressed by Gabriel 10: 10-20.
At the first touch, 10: 10, he is
raised from the ground, resting on his “knees”
and the “palms of his hands.” Like a quadruped, he stands on all
fours. His crouching position is
that of one endeavouring to rise but too feeble to succeed. The angel comforts and instructs
him. “O Daniel, man greatly beloved!” tells him he has a message
for him, desires him to understand it and bids him “stand upright.”
Weak, yet obedient, the
prophet rises. “When he had spoken this word to me, I stood, trembling”
(10: 11.). The angel assures him that, from
the first day he had “set his heart to
understand, and chastened himself before God,” his prayer had been
heard, and that now, in answer to prayer for his sake, he, Gabriel, had come to
him (10: 12.). Gabriel explains the delay and gives the
prophet a glimpse into the conflicts of the unseen world, showing what
interests the angels, good and evil, take in the affairs of human governments. He says that for twenty-one days following
the beginning of Daniel’s prayer, he had stood at his post counteracting
the influence of the evil angel - prince of Persia, who was responsible for all
the mischief and machinations at Jerusalem, and for the cunning schemes to
change the Persian policy adversely to the Jews; that Michael, the guardian
prince of Israel and commander of the heavenly hosts, had come to his help;
that both had won a victory over the evil influence at the Persian court and that thus relieved from his watch he,
Gabriel, had hastened as rapidly as possible to cause the prophet to understand
not only this but future things (10: 13, 14.).
Herein the prophet is assured, first of all, that, in spite of all opposition,
the Temple should be built, although in troublous times, and so far, the
prophecy in Daniel 9: 25 be fulfilled; that
the lost edict of Cyrus would yet he discovered and re-enforced by a new decree
of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, and the court‑demon,
whether at Babylon, Shushan, or Achmetha, be foiled.
(Ezra 5: 13, 17; 6: 1-7, 8-12, 15-22.) Here was comfort, indeed. But, as the prophecy in both chapters 8.
and 9. looked into
future times beyond the Persian rule, even into Greek and Roman times, and on
to the end of Israel’s long pathway, even to the 70th week in chapter 9., so had he hurried specially to tell
the prophet what should “befall his people in the
latter days” (10: 14). He uses an expression – “acharith hayyamim,” “the
afterness of the days”- well known to Daniel, a technical
expression including all near and far horizons but eminently the remote. (Dan. 8: 17,
19, 23, 2: 28.) He tells
him, in sum, that the message he brings in no less than a prophecy in detail of
“WARFARE GREAT” (10: 1), covering all Persian, Greek and Roman
times, reaching to the last crisis and the last deliverance.
This solemn word is too much for the trembling
prophet to endure. If indeed he had
been comforted and strengthened somewhat by the angel’s word and touch,
yet deeply affected by what he now heard, he seems to relapse. The thought of further tribulation for
his people overcomes him. He
becomes dejected again and “dumb.” “When he
(the angel) had spoken such words to me, I set my face
to the ground, and I became dumb” (10:
15.). A second time the
angel commiserates his frailty and touches his “lips,”
signifying that he wishes him to speak.
The prophet opens his mouth and pleads in plaintive tones his
incapacity, “Oh, my Lord, by reason of the vision
my pains came upon me, and I retained no strength. For how can the servant
of this my Lord talk with this my Lord, for, as for me, no strength has
remained in me, no breath left in me” (10:
16, 17). Stricken prophet!
Old man, weak from years and from fasting, overpowered by the sight
above the Hiddekel, and now weighted afresh with the burden of
A third time the angel touches him and addresses
him. “0 man, greatly beloved! Courage! Peace be unto
thee! Be strong, yea, be strong!” Behold how angels salute the suffering
saints of God!‑ “Ish hemdoth!
Tiryeh lo! Shalom leka! Hazak ve-hazak!”
- words powerful enough to comfort the saddest,
encourage the faintest and doubly confirm and strengthen the weakest. Almighty energy revived his almost exanimated frame, sent new pulses through his blood and
stiffened into strength his palsied limbs.
The colour returns to his face.
“Be strong, yea, be strong!” Courageously he “talks.”
He is ready now to receive the Revelation of the “Tsaba Gadol.” - the
“Warfare Great.” “Let my
Lord speak, for thou hast strengthened me” (10: 19).
And yet the angel would be certain that the mind of Daniel is clear and
his memory still faithful to its functions. “Knowest
thou wherefore I am come to thee?” (10:
20). Rememberest thou the
words I spake before the second touch? my mission? the object of my coming? the victory won over the evil angel-prince of
(1) That, as in the past, so in the future,
Daniel’s people are under the special guardianship of the angels of
God. In the midst of their trials, angelic power shall defend the faithful. For this reason, Gabriel informs him
that he must “return” to the Persian
court to maintain the advantage already gained (10:
13), and continue to “fight with the
angel-prince of Persia” (10: 20),
during the whole period of the Persian supremacy, and so incline the kings of
Persia to favour Israel - a fact made evident in all the Persian history, and
particularly so in the times of Esther.
He adds, however, that there will be a time when, after he is gone away,
and is at his post of watchfulness, another enemy, the
evil “angel-prince of Grecia shall come”
(10: 20.) The Persian supremacy will pass away, the Jews shall fall under Greek dominion and again
experience tribulation.
Nevertheless, the angel will stay long enough to “show” i.e., explain, to the prophet “what is noted in the Scripture of Truth”
concerning not only the times of Persia and Greece, but the end of Roman times
also, even the end of the “Warfare Great.” He further adds that, although the
sufferings of the Jews will be severe, yet the outcome will be victory for the
people of God. All the more evident
in this since but twenty-one days ago, he, Gabriel, stood up against the evil
angel-prince of Persia, and foiled the intrigues at the Persian court (10: 13); Michael, his only help, and “none but Michael,” the archangel and guardian
prince of Israel, was needed then or would be needed hereafter, to “exert himself against these,” i.e., the powers
of Persia and Greece, or against the “Powers”
in the closing struggle of the “Warfare Great”
(10: 21). No human allies will be needed even in
Still further, the angel reminds the prophet that,
in a great crisis only four years ago, he, Gabriel, Michael assisting (10: 13), “stood up
in the first year of Darius, the Mode, to strengthen and confirm”
that weak-minded vacillating monarch (Dan. 6: 4-27),
against the machinations of the satraps, stopped the mouths of the lions in the
den where Daniel was thrown, delivered Daniel and caused his promotion under
the Persian empire; in fact, that two angels of God, Gabriel and Michael, had
been all-sufficient to sway the minds of both Cyrus and Darius to execute
God’s judgment on Babylon, and defend triumphantly the interests of
Israel. The inference is
irresistible that, in coming days under the “Great
Tribulation” that will close the Gentile times (13: 1; Rev. 12: 7; Zech. 12: 8),
(2) The final comfort given is the solemn sanction
of the angel, soul-assuring and inviolable, to all the revelations Daniel has
received, and to the “Book” in
which, from the first, he had recorded them. He calls Daniel’s book the “Kilab Emeth” or “Writing
of Truth,” i.e., “True Scripture,” and not fiction (10: 21), and in 12: 4,
calls it “Hassepher,”
“The Book.” This “Writing
of Truth” is not any unwritten book of God’s decrees, nor of
His providence, nor is it the “book of life,”
nor of “God's remembrance,” nor any
archives of angels in heaven, but is the visible and manual “Scripture” of the revelations given and recorded
by Daniel in human alphabetic characters, Hebrew and Aramaean. It was something in Daniel’s
possession - a “Sepher,”
or “Book” which, when completed, was
to be placed among the “Sepharim”
or canonical “Books” of the Jewish
people, like the “Sepharim”
or “Books” in 9: 2, of which “Hassepher,” “the Book” of Moses was one. (Exod. 17: 14; Dan. 9: 11, 13.) Already, from B.C. 603 to 533, the
prophet had received various revelations, viz., those in chapters 2., 7., 8. and 9., and with the
histories connected with them (1., 3., 4., 5., 6.), had
faithfully recorded them in “the Book”
(12: 4). He “wrote”
them (7: 1) at the time of their occurrence,
as did other prophets (Isa. 7: 3; Jer. 19: 14; Hos. 1: 2), and “shut
up the vision” (8: 26), and he
tells us, as a prophet, and in view of his account, that what he wrote was
“Truth,” not fiction, and “Truth” given by an angel from heaven, and by the
Spirit of God, in answer to prayer (2: 17, 18; 9: 4);
not a human invention, or production of his own will, or private interpretation
of the mind of God; nothing of a psychological genesis, or even of a logical
conclusion from any premises, nor a pious imagination, but an “Apocalypse,” a “Secret
Revealed” by the “God of Heaven”
(2: 18, 22, 27), and much of which he could
not understand (8: 27). These revelations contain the forecast
outline history of the World-Power and of the Jews, with a chronological clock
of the Ages down to the Second Advent of Christ - an apocalypse in which the
Holy Land, the Holy City, and Israel, the Holy People, endure persistently,
from first to last, in spite of all adverse fortune, reserved for a glorious
destiny in the “Time of the End.”
And now the angel comes to add one more “Revelation” and “Word
of Truth,” showing more particularly certain great events in Persian,
Greek, and final Roman times, to be added to Daniel’s “Book,” so completing it, sealing it officially
and transmitting it to be read and studied in the “Time of the End.” (12:
4.) This final revelation
the prophet solemnly declares is “Truth,”
because the angel so declared. (10: 1-21.) Gabriel also calls Daniel’s whole
“Book” a “Kitab Emeth,” a “Writing”
or “Scripture of Truth.” Thus, from chapter 1. to 12. inclusive, all is
“Truth,” not fiction. By friend and foe alike, the unity of
the book and its authorship is conceded.
Upon the supposition of the author’s piety and honesty, his
repeated statements that the predictions were a “revelation”
from God at the dates and places specified, and that an angel from heaven
pronounced the words he brought to be “Truth,”
and Daniel’s book a book of “Truth,”
its prophecies to be fulfilled only “after many
days” (10: 14; 12: 4); upon
this supposition the modern hypothesis of Higher Criticism, that it originated
near 400 years after Daniel was dead, and was composed by a Maccabaean
novelist, is eternally excluded. Therefore, did the Holy Spirit use, purposely,
the designation “Scripture of Truth,” warning against the false criticism which, in all ages, would
assail the “book,” and especially in ours, when the time for its
last fulfilment approximates. Knowing that the scoffer would come in the
last days, curling his crest against the Pentateuch, the Prophets, the
Sacred Books of History, and eminently against the Book of Daniel, the wisdom
of God fore-issued this divine declaration against the unbelief that would
account it a “fiction,” and so
would fortify God’s people everywhere in opposition to a scientific scepticism that sports with a “Revelation” from heaven, an angel-spoken “word of Truth,” recorded by a holy “prophet,” and sanctioned by Christ and His
apostles. “O, Daniel, greatly beloved, be strong, yea, be strong!”
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER EIGHT [Pages 87-105]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel,
Chapters 10-12, continued – Chapter 11., 1-35,
“Tsaba Gadol,” the “Warefare Great” – The Chapter Assailed as a
Spurious Production – Reply – Geography of the Prophecy – The
Eastern Question – Division of Chapter – The Persian Succession
– The Greek – The Diadochian Kingdoms
– Ptolemies and Seleucids – Campaigns
against Egypt – Campaign against Palestine – The Maccabean Tribulation – The Martyr Roll.)
-------
“The Eastern Question
is not a question of to-day, nor of yesterday. When history first began to be written,
it was already there. When it is re-opened, all
the world is concerned.
It is Occidentalism in its inevitable conflict with Orientalism. Who is to be the champion or leader of
Occidentalism, now - the Anglo-Saxon or the Slav? The world is arraying itself in two
grand camps. It is no longer a
question who shall hold Constantinople, or control the Suez Canal, or command
the pass of Thermopylee, or dictate the oracles of
- Wheeler.
DANIEL,
CHAPTERS 10., 11. AND 12.
- TSABA GADOL. WARFARE
GREAT. MACCABAEAN TRIBULATION.
“1. Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to
confirm and to strengthen him.
2. And now I
will show thee the truth. Behold,
there shall stand up yet three kings in
In Daniel’s eleventh chapter the angel resumes
and unfolds the prophetic history of the Medo-Persian and Graeco‑Macedonian
empires, and, after a transition-section, in which both type and anti-type are
blended, springs from. the “Time of the
End” of the third, or Graeco-Macedonian empire to the “Time of the End” of the fourth, or
What we are now to consider in this long and
difficult chapter, is the events of Persian and Grecian history, which led up
to the Maccabaean persecution; then, in the next article, pass to the Antichrist,
his last campaign, the Great Tribulation, ending in Daniel
12. with the Resurrection of the holy dead,
Modern criticism has specially attacked this chapter
(1) on account of the minuteness, multiplicity and exactitude of its details,
and (2) on account of its perfect historical fulfilment, as far as 11: 35.*
[*
Ecelesiasticus,
B.C. 180, or sixteen years before B.C. 164, when some higher critics pretend
Daniel’s book was composed, recognises Daniel 10: 13, 20, and imitates
the texts. The Septuagint, begun
B.C. 281, or 117 years before B.C. 164, recognises the whole book of
Daniel. Meinhold has critically proved
that the book was in existence from B. C. 250 to 300 before Christ. But, more than all, by friend and foe
alike, the unity of the authorship of the book is confessed]
The reason of this prophecy was the fact that for
want of further details the vision in Daniel 8.
was “not understood”
by him (8: 27), then because of the
suspended work at
The forecast events, as year after year they were
realised in history, and the day of trouble drew near, could only incite those
“who feared the Lord to speak often one to
another” (Mal. 3: 16), and
confirm their own and their children’s faith. And as to the far-off “End” on which the hope of Israel rested, what
other termination could be given to this prediction of the “Warfare Great” than that which crowns the whole
complex prophecy of this “Book” with
Israel’s ultimate and full deliverance, connected with the Resurrection
of the holy dead at Messiah’s Second Coming? In both respects Daniel 11. and 12. are an illustrious proof of the love
and care of God for His people, a monument of His unchanging faithfulness to
all generations. The objection to
minuteness and multiplicity of details may be brought with equal force against
the prophecies in Daniel 2. and 7. concerning
the close of the 4th empire, and in 9.
concerning the chronology and close of the 70
Weeks. It is wholly worthless. It would rule out the apocalypses of
Ezekiel and John, and the minute predictions of all the prophets.
If is no man-made narrative, under the mask of prophecy,
we have here, but true prediction, the tone, gaps, leaps, style and manner of
prediction, its organic and typical relations. It is a prophecy of “Warfare Great” not only between the nations, but
between
A deep philosophy of history is here, a mystery
great, an age-long contention by rival powers for
The geography of the prophecy is easily
determined. It is that of the
empire of Cyrus, eight times greater than the empire of Babylon, stretching
from Thibet and the Indus to the Mediterranean and
Aegean seas, and from the Danube, Black Sea, Caucasus, Caspian and the Jaxartes, to the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and the deserts
of Arabia and Nubia - the empire of Cyrus, who struck
the fetters from the Jews, restored the exiles and enabled them to build their
temple and their city. It is the
empire of Alexander the Great, who carried his conquests still farther
southward to the cataracts of the
Having glanced at the earlier world-movements East
and West, and the fortunes of the Jews under Persian and Greek Supremacy, the
angel specially unveils the movements North and South, his eyes ever resting on
the Holy Land, the middle union-point of the three Old-World continents, the
envy of all kings from the beginning of the world. Nor even here does he narrow the scope
of his vision, as the crisis for
It is the “Eastern
Question” that is
here, a question not limited or local, but ubiquitous, affecting to-day the
deepest interests of Russia, England, France, Austria, Germany, Egypt, Greece,
Turkey and Palestine, in their relations to each other, to India, China and
Japan, and to Africa, affecting the whole world; an age-long contention between
conflicting civilisations, with creeds and forms of government, and prejudices
of race and tradition diverse and opposed as the poles; that “mache athanatos” of Plato, the “immortal conflict”
between truth and error, right and wrong, which endures till a “new cycle” of time shall bring its close. What statesman in any cabinet or chamber
of modern legislation has ever lifted his voice to tell the world that, as in
Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zephaniah and Zechariah, so here Daniel has exhibited,
in chapters 8. and 11.,.the
“Eastern Question” in terms impossible to be
misunderstood, or that the waters of the Hellespont, the Aegean and
Mediterranean seas, with the Isles of Greece and Asia Minor, and the main lands
washed by them - the storm-centre of the Eastern Question in every age form for
the prophet the geographical theatre of his vision of the “Warfare Great?” or that here the fleets of the
nations must meet to sink and sail no more, in that final crisis when “Heaven, Earth, Sea, Dry Land, and all Nations”
are “shaken?” It is the light of prophecy that enables
us to see and understand the immense significance of the recent acts of the
“Powers” in reference to
But to come back. It belongs to the very perfection of the
prophecy, whose compactness and lapidary brevity are
without a parallel, that volumes of detail can be crowded into its
exposition. It is a “Scripture of Truth” covering the fortunes of the
Jews in
contact with the nations, from
the third year of Cyrus, B.C. 534, to the eleventh year of Antiochus Epiphanes,
B.C. 164, a period of three hundred and seventy years, together with the scenes
and events preceding and during the 70 Weeks in chapter
9., the near horizon of the third empire, a type of the far horizon of
the fourth.
GENERAL DIVISION.
The division of Daniel’s eleventh chapter is
not difficult. It falls into the
following section: (1) verses 24; (2) verses 5-9; (3) verses
10-20; (4) verses 21-35; (5) verses 36-39; (6) verses
40-45.
1. Verses
2-4. The
Persian and Greek supremacies.
The angel first of all unrolls the Persian succession after Cyrus, as
far as to the fourth in the line.
Three kings, the false Smerdis omitted, shall
arise after Cyrus, the fourth one the proud invader of
(1) Cyrus to Cambyses, B.C. 538-529.
(2) Cambyses
to Darius Hystaspes, B.C. 529-521.
(3) Darius Hystaspes to Xerxes, B.C. 521-480.
(4) Xerxes’ Invasion in his fifth year, B. C.
480, a period of fifty-eight years.
Overleaping next a period of one hundred and forty-eight years, filled
by a succession of eight Persian kings, he unveils the empire of Alexander the
Great, “the mighty king,” and his
counter invasion of
(1) Alexander’s empire,
B.C. 334-323.
(2) Alexander’s death,
B.C. 323.
Overleaping a period of twenty-one years, he unveils
the quadripartition of Alexander’s empire, B,C. 302, into the
DIADOCHIAN KINGDOMS,
(1)
(2) North Syria ruled by Seleucus.
(3)
(4)
These four generals of Alexander are called “Diadochi” or “Successors,” yet “not
of his posterity” (Dan. 11: 4).
Of these kingdoms the two selected by the angel for special prophecy were
chosen because
PTOLEMIES AND SELEUCIDS.
(1) Ptolemy I. Soter, B.C. 323-285;
(2) Ptolemy II. Philadelphus,
B.C. 285-247; Antiochus II. Theos, B.C.
261-246 (11: 6).
(3) Ptolemy III. Euergetes, B.C.
247-221; Seleueus II. Kallinikos, B.C. 246-226 (11: 7-9).
(4) Ptolemy IV. Philopator, B.C.
221-205; Seleucus III. Keraunos, B.C. 226-222 (11: 10-12).
(5) Ptolemy V. Epiphanes,
B.C. 205‑181; Antiochus III., the Great, B.C. 222-187 (11: 13-19).
(6) Seleucus
IV., B.C. 187-175 (11: 20).
(7) Ptolemy VI. Philometor, B.C.
181-146; Antiochus IV. Epiphanes, B.C. 175-164 (11:
21-35),
that is, six Ptolemies
and six Seleucids prior to Antiochus Epiphanes; twelve in all, or thirteen in
all, the reign of Antiochus I, B.C. 280-261, being overleaped and unnoticed.
THE INTERVALS.
Remarkable are the Intervals or Gaps in this
prophecy of the future from the third year of Cyrus to the eleventh year of
Antiochus Epiphanes, B.C. 534 to B.C. 175=359 years. The angel chooses the events he
foretells as stepping-stones to the crisis. Prophetic history is one thing, ordinary
secular history another. No
uninspired writer would write history as here forecast. (1) An interval of one hundred and
forty-six years lies between verses 2 and 3, from fifth Xerxes B.C. 480 to Alexander B.C.
334, including eight Persian kings.
(2) Another interval of twenty-one years, between the clauses in verse 4, from Alexander’s death to the quadripartition of his empire, B.C. 323 to 302. (3) Another interval of thirty years,
between verses 5 and 6, covering the omitted reign of
WARS OF
The warfare is waged from
2. Daniel
11: 5-9 describes B.C. 306-247, a period of fifty-nine years, from
Ptolemy I. and Seleueus I, “one of the princes” of Ptolemy, and founder of
the Syrian kingdom, 11: 5, to the first
invasion of Syria by Ptolemy III., 11: 7. Overleaping the reign of
3. Daniel
11: 10-20 describes B.C. 227-175, a period of fifty-two years. (1) Overleaping twenty years, B.C.
247-227, down to the “sons” of Seleueus II., viz.: Seleucus III., B.C. 227, and Antiochus III. the Great, B.C.
224, the angel foretells the invasion of Egypt by the latter and his
overwhelming defeat at Raphia by Ptolemy IV., a
victory, however, thrown away (11: 10-12, B.C. 217). (2) Overleaping thirteen years, called
“certain years,” B.C. 217-204, the angel unveils the second
invasion of
(3) After an imposing military demonstration there
should be a second alliance between Syria and Egypt, a scheme again for the
union of the two kingdoms, based on what Eastern monarchs would call “equitable negotiations” (not “upright ones”), all the more so since Egypt
should be in her conqueror’s power; the scheme this - viz., the marriage
of Cleopatra, the daughter of Antiochus, to Ptolemy V., in order to betray
Egypt into her father’s hands, a scheme foiled by her wifely fidelity to her husband; Cleopatra or ruin,
the “equitable negotiations!” (11: 17, B.C. 195.) (4) Finally, Antiochus III. should
undertake an expedition against the coast islands of Asia Minor, B.C. 190, but
suffer a fair and honourable yet lasting defeat by Scipio Asiaticus
at the battle of Magnesia, losing also his fleet at Ephesus, and thus, punished
for his insults, be driven in retreat towards his own stronghold, compelled to
surrender all his European possessions, his Eastern ones also west of the
Taurus, forced out of Europe by the Romans, loaded with indemnity, killed while
plundering the temple of Jupiter at Elymais, and so
disappearing for ever from human history. (11: 18,
19, B.C. 187.) His
successor, Seleucus IV., a “Revenue Raiser,” causing Heliodorus
to go through
ANTIOCHUS IV.,
EPIPHANES.
4. Daniel
11: 21-35, was fulfilled typically in the career of Antiochus Epiphanes
from B.C. 175 to 164. Of this wild beast
in human form the angel foretells that a “Vile”
or “Contemptible Person” should, in
the place of (“the state of”) Seleucus IV., stand up in his pride, a younger son of
Antiochus the Great (born B.C. 221, dying ex. 164), the typical “Little Horn” in
Daniel 8: 9, twenty years a hostage at Rome,
and without title to the throne, and should, at the age of fifty-eight years,
effect a successful coup d’etat, usurping by craft
the Syrian crown (11: 21, B.C. 175); that,
under him, the same playing fast and loose with truth and treaties, which
distinguished his house, and now prevails in modern times, should continue, the
same diplomacy in foreign affairs, the utter absence of good faith and presence
of dissimulation, the pretence of peace while preparing war, the promise of
reforms for Israel while effecting none, the practice of menace, intrigue, and
force, to secure dynastic interests, a policy in which financial and political
would be the first and justice, truth, humanity, and righteousness the last
considerations; that, true to the traditions of this house, he would establish
his kingdom (1) by leaguing with apostate Jews, when Palestine came into his
possession, breaking a pre-existing covenant to give the Holy Land to
Egypt’s queen as her dowry, and in which Ptolemy Philometor
was “prince of the covenant” (11: 22), repelling by superior force “the arms of a flood,” viz., Ptolemy’s
invasion of Syria to enforce a treaty right, and entering into a new treaty;
and that, “after the league made with him,”
he, Antiochus, would “work deceitfully,”
(11: 23); (2) by taking advantage of the
wars in Macedonia, Greece, and Southern Europe, he would endeavour to conquer
Egypt, uniting both kingdoms in one, then Macedonia, Thrace, Greece, and Asia
Minor, so forming one mighty empire out of all, controlling the Mediterranean
and acquiring supremacy over the three continents.*
[*
The best expositors hold that the Last Antichrist, of whom Antiochus was such
an exact type, will himself re-enact all the predicted career described from verse 21 to the end of Daniel
11., when he shall emerge from being only a Little Horn, to become king
of the North (Syria), like Antiochus did.
Antiochus only enacted typically the history detailed in verses 21 to 35‑EDITOR.]
THE ANGEL PREDICTS THAT HIS CAMPAIGNS AGAINST
would be three, and in the
following order‑viz.:
(1) The First Campaign would be a crafty
entrance into Egypt with a small force, “in time
of security,” marching along the rich provinces of Lower Egypt -
the Nile Valley - coming up as far as Memphis, simulating friendship, yet
plundering the country, and, in order to become “strong”
with the Egyptians, distributing wealth and spoil to the people, contrary to
the custom of his house, and plotting against the fortresses. (Dan. 11: 23, 24, B.C. 173)
(2) The Second Campaign would be in force,
courageously defeating the great army of Ptolemy, betrayed by his own courtiers
into the hands of Antiochus; that, then forming a new treaty, one king in the
power of the other, “both these kings’
hearts would be to do mischief,” both “speaking lies at one table,” yet unsuccessfully,
because God had set a time-limit to their intrigues. The angel here draws a picture of modern
diplomacy also, true to the life. He paints Gentile politics and power in
living costume, the code and cunning of the great Colossus, the inner life of
the Beasts. (Dan. 11: 25-27, B.C. 170)
(3) The Third Campaign should be in force again, but disastrous to Antiochus, since Popilius Loenas and the Roman
fleet from the naval stations at
Still more the angel predicts that his
CAMPAIGNS AGAINST
would be two, and in the
following order‑viz.
(1) The First Campaign would be upon his return northward from his Second Expedition
against
(2) The Second Campaign would be upon his expulsion from Egypt by the Roman fleet under Popilius (Dan. 11: 30),
when, humiliated and raging like a madman, he would return northward with
indignation against the “Holy Covenant,”
and in league with the apostates, devote 20,000 more to massacre, pollute the
bulwarked sanctuary of God, abolish the Daily Sacrifice, set up “the Abomination causing desolation” - a pagan
altar on the altar of Jehovah - violating mothers and daughters, and hanging
infants, increasing by corruption the number of apostates, and giving orders to
his generals if failing to Hellenize the Holy People, then to “root out the seed of Abraham,” “root out their religion,” “root out the whole race of Jews,” and “make Jerusalem a common burying-ground” (11: 31, 32). All which he would
“do,” or attempt to “do.” (B.C. 168-165; 1
Mace. 1: 29-64; 3: 32-37.)
The climax of horror was reached 15th and 25th
December, B.C. 168. The vision of
it is given typically in Daniel 8: 9-14, 23-25.
But, though ground between contending empires, God
would not forsake His people. His
covenant stands fast. Evermore there shall be “a
remnant according to the election of grace,” a company of
overcoming souls, faithful to death, ordained
to wear a crown brighter than David wore, and jewelled with gems
more lustrous than the stones on Aaron’s breast. If Antiochus can do, God’s people
also shall do. The angel foretells
THE MACCABAEAN TRIBULATION.
He depicts the unsurpassed courage of a holy Matthias and his five sons, among whom Judas Maccabaeus, the “Hammer” of God - a Charles Martel before his time - and all his Asmodean heroes, should stand forth strong in the strength of God,
resisting the commandments of the Greek Antichrist – God’s own,
who, through faith, should “obtain a good report,”
when persecution would be the greatest, the tyrant’s rage the
hottest. “The people who know their God shall be strong and do!”
(Dan. 11: 32.) Soul-thrilling is the record of their
deeds, in 1 Maccabeus. 2: 1-70. He predicts, that the holy Teachers, the
“Maskilim,” or men of understanding, should
instruct the people to stand for the true God and the religion of their fathers
in the midst of captivity and martyrdom by flame and sword, spoiled of all
things, their only raiment sheepskins and goatskins, their home the
battle-field, their shelter the dens and caves of the earth; that a little band
of pious souls, the faithful “Chasidim,” would rally to their help, when all
seemed lost; that a crowd of cowards, deserters in time of danger, hypocrites
and flatterers in time of victory, would cleave to them that among the slain should be some of the
brave hero-leaders who would win the
martyr’s crown; that God’s design was to “try, purify and make white” His loved ones, show
to the world the indestructibility of grace, the power of faith and patience of
hope, and that neither tribulation nor distress, nor persecution, famine,
nakedness, peril or sword, could separate them from His love; and, finally,
that though severe, the tribulation
would be short, even, “for an appointed time,”
so does the angel unveil the “Warfare Great”
at the close of Old Testament times.
That the illustrious heroes of the Maccabaean age
were sustained by the Hope of the [better] Resurrection, which their holy prophets, from Moses
to Daniel, had set before them - yea, from Abraham’s day - their history
most touchingly attests. Thrilling
beyond description is the story of the martyrdom of the Maccabaean mother and
her seven sons - a story without a parallel for pathos and effect upon the
heart, save in the case of Him who was the Author and Finisher of their
faith. The “Seven,” tortured and slaughtered one by one,
before the eyes of her who bore them and nursed them in their infancy, died
with her under God’s covenant of everlasting life, their noble mother cheering and
sustaining them amid their agonies, then crowning the aceldama
with her own triumphant death. With
what calmness, holy resolution and courage of faith, they met their fate! “Thou, 0
persecutor, takest us out of this present life, but
the King of the Ages will raise us up to
life everlasting” - an allusion to Daniel
12: 1. “These bodies,
this corruptible, we lay down for the sake of His laws, hoping to receive them again.” This they knew, that “God will restore to
His saints their bodies when He
shall raise to life the dead men of this nation, even the slain of His people”
- an allusion to Isaiah 26: 19. Sublime in moral heroism are the words
of the seventh son, the other six already weltering in their blood: “And thou, 0 godless wretch, of all
men most abominable, be not lifted up.
Our brethren, having now suffered a short pain, have died under the
covenant of everlasting life; but
thou shalt receive, through the judgment
of God, the just punishment of thy presumption.” Already the fourth son had as calmly and
solemnly spoken, “It is good being
put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised again; but, for thee, there shall be no resurrection to eternal
life” - an allusion to Isaiah 26: 14. Then, lastly, the immortal mother who,
in the ecstasy of immolation, poured forth the full tide of her un-bosomed love
and faith, and slaughtered, fell on sleep to wake with her sons in the resurrection of the just. “Blessed
are the dead who die, in the Lord.” (Rev.
14: 13; 2 Mace. 7: 1-12; 5 Mace. 1: 13.) Thus
did the Old Testament saints look to the second coming of Christ with an
intensity of faith and ardour of expectation, that puts to shame the attitude
of the Christian Church to-day, with reference to that sublime and glorious
event.
The holy Apostle Paul has embalmed the memory of the
martyrs of the Law, and extolled their exploits with the unction of his
inspiration. His heart heaves and
his pen burns as he presents them to us for our imitation, crowned by the
example of the blessed Jesus.
“They waxed valiant in fight and turned to
flight the armies of the aliens,” as did Judas Maccabaeus, scattering at one time 9,000 of the foe with only
1,500 men, at another 110,000 with only 8,000, the battle-cry on their lips,
“God our Help!” “Victory from Jehovah!” “The Kingdom Forever!” ‑ proof that
the modern maxim, “God is on the side of the
strongest battalion,” is a lie! “Out of weakness they were made strong.” “They were tortured, not accepting deliverance (as was the fact with
the mother and her seven sons) that they might
obtain a better resurrection!” Others had trial of cruel mockings, yea,
moreover, of bonds and imprisonments.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they
were slain with the sword. They
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted,
tormented, of whom the world was not worthy! They
wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the
earth! “And all these” - the Old Testament heroes of the
faith – “having obtained a good report
through faith, received not the promise (of life everlasting, [at the ‘First
Resurrection’] never to die), God having provided some better thing for us (even
Christ at both His comings) that they, without
us, should not be made perfect.” (Heb. 11: 34-40.)
These glorious martyrs of the Law at the close of
the third or Greco-Macedonian prophetic empire - twice immortalised in the
Scriptures - the prophet Daniel teaches us are
the forerunners of martyrs yet to be, at the close of the fourth or
By such examples and the love of Christ, that
“cloud” has been expanded to
20,000,000 martyrs more in New Testament times, the latest the brave Armenians
who were “slain with the sword”
rather than abjure their faith and accept the creed of Islam. The holy John assures us that the early
Christian martyrs, also, were the forerunners of martyrs yet to be in the Time of the End who will cheerfully drink - as did they
- the Cup the Saviour drank, and be baptized with the baptism He was baptized
with. And foremost shall be their glory, as foremost was their suffering. In that galaxy of saints shine a Stephen, Peter, Paul, and James; a Polycarp, Ignatius, Irenaeus,
and Justin; a Wickliffe, Huss,
and Jerome of Prague; a Wishart and Hamilton; a Rogers, Cranmer,
Latimer, Ridley, and holy Bradford;
with millions more - the victims of Antiochus,
of Nero, of Torquemada, the Duke of Alva, Claverhouse, and “Abdul the Damned” - a happy fellowship, whose effulgence
in the resurrection shall correspond to the suffering by which they testified
their loyalty and love. To comfort
such, in view of the tribulation to come upon them, every apocalypse in both
Testaments was given, without exception.
To be among that blessed company, Paul desired that literally he might
“be made
conformable to the death of Christ, if by
any means he might attain to the resurrection [out] of the dead” (Phil.
3: 10, 11), and nobly won his
desire. (2 Tim. 4: 6.) Of such, with special emphasis - sharers
with the Maccabaean heroes - the Holy Spirit has said “the world was not worthy” - peerless souls whom
God Himself has “counted worthy of the kingdom of
God” (Heb. 11: 38; 2 Thess. 1: 5); while the “timid and unbelieving,” who “love their lives” and seek to “save” them, shall “lose” them and have their portion among “them that are without” (Rev.
21: 8; 12: 11).
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER NINE [Pages 106-120]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel, Chapters 10-12., continued – Chapter 11: 36-45 – The Transition-Section
– Various Views – True View of the Type and Antitype – Place
of the Great Interval Between the Ends of the Third and Fourth Empires –
Photograph of the Antichrist – The Antichrist’s Last Campaign and
World’s Last Battle – “Time of the
End” – The Three Greater Powers in the Field –
Occupation of Egypt – Invasion of Palestine – The Great Tribulation
– Michael Standing over the Jews – Angelic War in Heaven –
Universal War on Earth – Joel’s Picture of the Scene –
Zechariah’s – Isaiah’s – John’s – The Blood
Bath – The Preparation of the Nations for the Struggle – The
Military Budgets of Russia, Germany, Austria, France, Italy – The Causes –
The “Ever-recurring Law” – The
Eastern Question and its Solution.)
-------
“I saw, far down the
coming time,
The fiery chastisement of crime,
With noise of mingling hosts, and jar
Of falling towers and shouts of war;
I saw the nations rise and fall
Like fire-gleams on the whitened wall;
I saw them draw the stormy hem
Of battle ’round
Who trembled at my warning word?
Who owned the prophet, of the Lord?
0 prophet of the beating heart,
For God’s great purpose set apart,
Before whose far-discerning eyes
The future as the present lies,
Beyond a narrow-minded age
Stretches thy prophet’s heritage
Through heaven’s dim spaces,
angel-trod,
Through arches ’round the throne of
God!
Thy audience, worlds! - all
time to be
The witness of the Truth
in thee!”
- Whitter.
DANIEL, CHAPTERS 10 – 12.
- TSABA GADOL. WARFARE
GREAT.
TYPE AND ANTITYPE. EASTERN QUESTION.
The
previous article dealt with the angel’s words, concerning the “Warfare Great,” as far as to the Maccabaean
period, viz., to Daniel 11: 35. The present deals with the remainder of 11. in connection with 12.
The first thing here is
THE TRANSITION-SECTION.
5.
Daniel 11. verses 36-39. The death of Antiochus Epiphanes is not
recited at the close of 11: 30-35, B.C. 164;
but it was given already in Daniel 8. 2, 5,
in the description of the Little Horn or Fierce King in Daniel 8.,
which he typically fulfilled, “he shall be broken
without hand.” The
silence is doubtless due to the fact that type and antitype are blended in
“the King” (11:
36), continuing together through the section, until the one is displaced
by the other. The exit of “the King,” the Antichrist, is expressed in the
words “he shall come to his end and none shall
help him,” (11: 45). “His end”
here, is “his end” in Daniel, 9: 26, i.e.,
the end of the “prince that shall come.”
The
vital question that decides the division of the chapter from Daniel 10:
21, onward to the end, is how much refers to Antiochus, and how much to
the Antichrist? We encounter it at verses 21, 36,
and 40.
It is (1) whether from 21 to the end
of the chapter all relates to Antiochus or (2) all to the last Antichrist; or
(3) all to both; or (4) whether 21-35
relates to Antiochus alone, and 36-45 to the
Antichrist alone. These views exhaust the history of
the interpretation. The first was
held by Porphyry in ancient times -
and is held by the higher critics.
The second was held by Jerome
and some of the church fathers, the Interval between Selcucus IV. (11: 20) and the Antichrist being placed between verses 20 and 21. The third view was next held by Jemome also, Theodoret and others, two senses, the literal and typical,
allowed in order to include both Antiochus Epiphanes
and the Antichrist. Only in this
sense was it that Jerome asked: “Suppose these things
are said of Antiochus, what harm comes to
our religion?” The
fourth view, viz., partly to Antiochus 21-35,
and partly to the Antichrist, 36-45, was
that of the learned Jews of
Jerome’s time, and which he himself was inclined to adopt.*
[*
Antiochus Ephiphanes fulfilled Daniel 11.
from verse 21 to 35,
and so far was an exact type of the Last Antichrist, who will also fulfil verses 21 to 35,
but will then go much further than Antiochus, and will fulfil verses 36 to 45,
which Antiochus did not fulfil, - EDITOR OF LONDON EDITION.]
As
to the first view - that all the verses 21-45
apply to Antiochus - it is excluded by the fact that nothing in the career of
Antiochus corresponds to this campaign of verses 40
to 45.
Never at any time did Antiochus march through
TYPE AND ANTITYPE.
1. The Double Personality, the King. (Dan. 11: 36.)
2. The Transition-Section. (Dan.
9: 36-39.)
3. The Great Interval Between. (Dan. 11: 39, 40.)
4. The Time of the End. (Dan.
11: 40-45.)
Jerome’s words are conclusive of the mature judgment of the
PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ANTICHRIST.
It
surpasses that of Antiochus, bad as that is, and transcends all historical
accounts of the Syrian tyrant. The
angel paints in bold relief the three predominating characteristics of “the
King.” (1) His
atheistic self-deifying egotism and blaspheming mouth. Epiphanes, indeed, stood up against the
“Prince of princes,”
ANTICHRIST’S
LAST CAMPAIGN.
6. Daniel 11: 40-45. It is only in his military character the
Antichrist is here presented, and it is only a section of the wide-world
“Warfare Great” that is here given;
that which pertains to the final struggle of the Jews for the re-possession of
their land, and their final deliverance from Gentile power. The time is called the “Time of the End.”
In
whatever sense the words “at that time”
in Dan. 12: 1, are taken, - a sense
determined by the events described in 1-3, in the same sense the “Time of the End” in (11:
40-45) must be taken, because the “Time of
the End” here, is “that time”
there. The two are chronologically
one, and the events of 11: 40-45
contemporate with those in 12: 1-3, the
Deliverance of Israel and the resurrection from the dead directly connected
with the destruction of “the King” (11: 45).
No interval exists between 11: 45 and
12: 1.
The expression “the Time
of the End” the same as the “End of
Time.” It does not denote the end of history, nor
of the planet, nor of nations, but the End of our present Age, the 70th
week itself in 9: 27, the last half of which
is seen in 7: 25 and 12: 7.
It
is the time when the Antichrist will make a “covenant,”
or “treaty,” with the Jews for one
week of seven years, granting them a modus vivendi, in their own land, with civil rights,
and permission to revive their ancient worship; then suddenly soon after, because of some important event
in their history which threatens his own empire, perhaps their effort to gain
their independence, will violate his “covenant”
(9: 27), and “on
the wing of abomination” become their bitterest enemy, seeking
their extirpation. By such means he
accelerates his own destruction.
Coincident with his last campaign is the campaign of “Gog and Magog” led by the
“Prince of Rosh, Meshech,
and Tubal,” and connected with the
defeat of both Gog and the Antichrist, and with the
restoration of
The
“Time of the End” is of the
intensest interest, as it brings the end of the “Warfare
Great,” with the momentous events that follow. The angel predicts that at the “Time of the End” the King of the South shall
“push” and open the great campaign;
that then “the King” (Antichrist)
will mobilise his forces, “enter into the
countries” round about, “overflow”
them with his troops, and “pass over”
into Palestine, “the glorious land,”
and that “myriads shall be overthrown”
(Dan. 11: 12) - in short, that entering
Palestine from the north, his line of march will be southward through
Palestine, subjecting the insurrectionary Jews, many here as elsewhere being
“overthrown”; that, nevertheless,
the transjordanic regions occupied by Israel when
they first entered the Holy Land, viz., Edom, Moab, and the chief city of Ammon, “shall be
delivered out of his hands.” - lands called by Isaiah “the shoulders
(i.e., mountains) of the Philistines,”
that, notwithstanding this, “the King”
shall enter Egypt, and the tribes of North and South Africa shall flock to his
standard, and “Egypt shall not be
able to deliver itself,” and that the treasures of Egypt
shall be at the King’s command.
The angel further predicts that later on “tidings
out of the East and out of the North” will be the Nemesis that
will precipitate the doom of the King - rumours of insurrections - a strategic
movement also in the East and North by some power advancing on Palestine
compelling him to go forth, and occupying Jerusalem by assault (Zech. 14: 2), he will plant his military
headquarters on Mount Moriah, “the mountain of the beauty of holiness,” between
the Mediterranean and Dead Seas, and there - at Jerusalem – “come to his end, with none to help him” (11: 45). Thus, he will perish in the military
overflowing – “in the flood” (9: 26; Isa. 59: 19) -
struck by the Second Coming of Christ (7: 13, 25,
26; Isa. 11: 4; 2 Thesa. 2:
8; Rev. 19: 11).
Still
further, the angel predicts that, “at that time,”*
a spectacle unparalleled in
magnificence, and followed by events incomparable in importance for the kingdom
of God, shall take place ; that the “Warfare
Great” shall extend itself to the unseen world; that “Michael, the great prince that standeth for the children of
thy people” (Daniel’s people, the Jews), shall “stand over” them, and there shall be “War in Heaven,” Rev. 12: 7, a battle of
battles in aerial regions between the powers of light and darkness, a conflict
of principalities and powers leagued for Israel’s destruction, with
angelic hosts leagued for Israel’s defence; an onset by “Michael and his angels,” against the “Dragon
and his angels,” a
warfare against “the hosts of the high ones on
high,” as well as against “the kings
of the earth on the earth” (Isa. 24: 21);
heaven, earth, sea, dry land, all nations, shaken; commotion above, commotion
below, commotion everywhere, and specially in Palestine.
[*
The phrase “At that time” comprehends
a period of somewhat more than the final three and a half years. The King of
the South (
Elsewhere, we learn that Michael’s standing
“over” the children of
As
to the fulfilment of verses 40 to 45 in Daniel 11., enough has
been said already to show its impossibility in the time of Antiochus. Up to the present year (1898) all the
prophecies of Daniel (save the remainder of the interval from 1898 to the 70th
week, and the 70th week itself) have met their literal
accomplishment in the exactest and minutest
manner. But these verses await the
future. That it was not fulfilled
in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus is evident from this, that our Lord places
the great tribulation here spoken of (Dan. 12: 1-12)
in the future, commencing with the middle of the 70th week, when the
“abomination of desolation stands in a holy place,”
and ending with His coming in the clouds of heaven. (Matt. 24: 15-31; Dan. 7: 13.) The whole tenor of Old and New Testament
prophecy seems to fix the time when the “Man of
Sin” will “sit in the temple of God”
(2 Thess. 2: 4) as
the time when Satan is dejected from his aerial sphere by Michael. It is then that Satan enters into
Antichrist, and he invades
That
the last crisis is impending is undeniable. The whole world is preparing for the
last act in the tragedy of the “Warfare Great.” Christendom is already one vast military
camp and naval depot. The son of Pethuel is again on his watch-tower, blowing the trumpet in
THE LORD.
“Proclaim ye this among the
nations. Prepare war. Wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and assemble
yourselves together.” This the summons.
THE PROPHET.
“Thither cause thy
mighty ones to come down, 0 Lord!” This the
prayer.
THE LORD TO HIS HOSTS.
“Let the nations
bestir themselves, and come up to the
“Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread ye, for the wine-press is
full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.” This the order.
THE PROPHET A SPECTATOR.
“Multitudes! Multitudes
in the
Such
the solemn scene, where the Antichrist is judged and Gentile politics and power
go down in blackness and blood. The
same scene is given in Isaiah 59: 19-21 and 66: 5-16; in Daniel 7:
9-14; in Zephaniah 3: 8-20; in Zechariah 12: 2-14, 13: 1, in 14: 1-11.
It is given in Matthew 25: 31-46. It is the scene of the sickle-judgment,
and the wine-press with “blood up to the
horses’ bridles” in Revelations
14: 12-20, and of “Heaven Opened”
for the Antichrist’s destruction in Revelations
19: 11-21. It follows the
Armageddon rendezvous in Revelations 16: 12-16,
and is the end of the “Warfare Great”
when the Son of Man comes to “take away the
Sultanate” of the Horn, and “consume
and destroy it to the end” (Dan. 7: 26). All the prophets, Christ and His
Apostles, have looked to this “End”
of our age.
AND
THE NATIONS ARE “PREPARING.”
History
is the after-clap of which prophecy is the fore-stroke; the echo of which
prophecy is the voice. The growth
of modern armies and the man-killing power of their weapons, the destructive
enginery of modern warfare by land and sea, during the last twenty-five years
is appalling. The augmented war-material, and armies swollen beyond all precedent, in
times of peace, are the omen of disaster to the
world. They are the presage of the
judgment day on all nations, no arbitration can arbitrate away. The guilt of Christendom must meet its
punishment. The condemnation of the
“Christian Nations” is their
military strength. The army of
drilled soldiers of Italy, to-day, is 1,473,000 men of all arms; of Austria,
2,076,000; of Germany, 4,300,000; of France, 4,300,000; of Russia, 4,800,000;
not to mention Great Britain, Turkey in Europe, Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and the millions in Asia and Africa, nor to think of
the enormous naval strength of the world.
Omit the whole, save the military force of the “Five Powers” on the continent of Europe,
including
Yet these Five
Powers are powerless to compel the Turk or each other to justice or
humanity. The causes of this vast
“military Christendom of the Nineteenth Century”
are familiar to all; the advance of science in destructive agencies, mutual
distrust of the nations, their rivalries and jealousies, treachery and breach
of treaties, balance of power, the peace of Europe, enormous increase of
wealth, expansion of commerce, the fact that resistless power knows no moral
law, the ambition of Europe to divide the non-Christian nations, partition Asia
and Africa, and control the mines and markets of the world, lust for supremacy,
want of righteousness, the discontent of the masses, the increase of unbelief
and crime, and the corruption of Gentile politics and power. Add to those the
apprehension of a collision between the East and West, and the coming struggle
with Islam, Judaism, and each other. The prelude to that will be the
APPARENT HARMONY OF THE “POWERS”
of
the world for a period of time - the “silence for
the space of half an hour, in heaven,” the “four angels holding back the winds,” the solemn
hush when the air is breathless and the leaves are motionless; then the
thunder-burst of Judgment! At such
a time,
Prepare
war! Come up to the
The
Middle Ages saw all Europe precipitate itself on
That
gifted historian, J. von Mueller,
has not said in vain. “No thoughtful man can
read history, or look upon the face of Christendom, and not be impressed with
the conviction that the same law of righteousness that brought the ancient
empires to their end, must prevail at last against the empires and kingdoms now
existing.” Nemesis must come.
And say what men may, the battle opens in the same old centre, the
Aegean Sea, and the relation of the Holy Land and Israel, geographically and
politically, as well as religiously, must assert itself, as before, the more
the “Warfare Great” approaches its
end. Nor is there anything in
international politics anywhere that does not lead to this centre, even as the
Roman roads all led to the Golden Milestone of the Forum.
It
is not for nothing that the histories of the “Seven
Great Monarchies” and the hundred histories of the “People Israel," and of the “Religion of Israel,” and the “Explorations in
It is with some
providential intent the labours of a Curtius and Grote, a Stanley
and Rawlinson,
a Mueller and Weltzhofer, a Meyer and Brandis, have drawn attention to
the “laws of historical development,”
and shown how the destiny of the Jews affects the destiny of all nations, and
that “in the near future, the world may expect
to see the operation of the law, more powerfully than ever.” The
“Powers” will not be allowed of God
to continue their concert of crime perpetually, for their own benefit, and the
hindrance of the
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER TEN [Pages 120-138]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Daniel, Chapter 12.
– Conclusion of the Prophecy – Definition of the Time –
Intervention of Michael – The Great Tribulation – The Deliverance
of the Jews – The Resurrection of the Holy Dead – Splendour of the
Risen Saints – Life Everlasting – Completion and Authentication of
Daniel’s Book – Study of the Book in the “Time of the End” – The Epilogue –
The Higher Criticism – Perplexity of Daniel – Its Solution –
First Dismissal of the Prophet from the Scene – Extension of the “Time of the End” – The 1,290 and 1,335
Days – The Blessed Time – Second Dismissal of the Prophet –
The Promise of the Prophet’s Resurrection – Christ, Glory, the
Kingdom, the End – Our Hope.)
-------
“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 should be
shortened, no flesh should be saved; but, for the elect s sake, those days
shall be shortened.” (Matt. 24: 21, 22.)
“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father; who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matt 13: 43.)
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers
of Christ’s sufferings, that when
His glory is revealed, ye may be glad with exceeding joy.” (1 Pet. 4: 12, 13; 1: 7.)
“When the Lord shall
build up
“THY WORD IS TRUTH” (John
17: 17.)
DANIEL, CHAPTERS
10-12. - END OF THE WARFARE GREAT.
THE GREAT TRIBULATION, RESURRECTION, DELIVERANCE.
1. And at that time shall
Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy
people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was
a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be
delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3. And they that be wise shall shine as
the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as
the stars forever and ever. 4. But thou, 0 Daniel, shut
up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to
and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 5. Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood another two,
the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of
the bank of the river. 6. And one said to the man
clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How
long shall it be to the end of these wonders? 7. 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 sware by him that liveth for ever 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, 8. And I heard, but I
understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? 9. And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up
and sealed till the time of the end. 10. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the
wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise
shall understand. 11. 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. 12. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three
hundred and five and thirty days.
13. But go
thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and
stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”
Daniel’s
twelfth chapter falls into three divisions: (1) the conclusion of the prophecy
(12: 1-3); (2) the completion of the Book of
Daniel (12: 4); (3) the Epilogue or closing
Vision (12: 5-13).
1. THE
CONCLUSION OF THE PROPHECY (12: 1-3)
– These verses disclose in what way the constancy and faith of
God’s people will be tried in the final crisis, by what means the Lord
will separate converted Israel from their apostate brethren (Isa. 66: 5), and how he will break in pieces the
oppressor and redeem from deceit and violence the souls of the poor and needy (Psa. 72: 4, 13, 14). The fate of
(1) THE DEFINITION OF THE
“TIME”
of these events. –
It
is “at that time” (Dan. 11: 40), when the Antichrist camps on Mount Moriah (11: 45), hence
neither in the times of Antiochus, nor of Titus, since it is immediately
followed by the “Great Tribulation”
that next precedes the Second Coming of Christ. (Dan.
7: 13, 25; 12: 1-3, 7; Matt. 24: 15-29; 2 Thess. 1:
6, 7; 2: 1-12; Rev. 13: 5; 19: 11-21; 20: 1-6.) It will be “such a tribulation as never was, no, nor ever shall be,”
prior to the days immediately before His
Second Coming. The character of
the time is faithfully delineated by our Lord as corresponding to Antediluvian
and Sodomite times. “As it was in the days of Noah,”
and of “
(2) THE INTERVFNTION OF MICHAEL
in behalf of
“At that time, Michael, the great prince standing over the
children of thy people (the Jews), shall stand
firm.” (Daniel 12: 1.) By Michael is not meant the “Angel of Jehovah,” nor “Jesus Christ,” but the guardian angel-prince of
But
if the conflict is aerial it is also terrestrial. The “War of
the Great Day of God Almighty”
includes “the kings of the earth on the earth,”
as well as “the hosts of the high ones on high.”
(Isa. 24: 21.)
Angels execute the “Harvest”
and the “Vintage” orders. (Rev. 14: 12-20; Zech. 13: 8, 14: 5;
Jude 15.) Great,
however, as is the help of Michael, the destruction of the Antichrist is
reserved for Christ alone (Isa. 11: 4; 2. Thess. 2: 8; Isa. 59: 19, 20; Dan. 7: 13; Rev. 19: 11-21.) There is right and propriety in
this. It is when the Lord himself
appears in person to raise His saints, and smite the Antichrist, that the
“Warfare Great” is terminated and
(3) THE GREAT TRIBULATION
–
“There shall be a time of trouble such as never was since
there was a nation, even to that same time.” (Dan. 12: 1.)
It is that period of affliction described so graphically and so
frequently in both Testaments, by Moses
(Dent. 32: 39-43); by Balaam (Num. 24: 23, 24); by Isaiah (26:
8-21; 59: 16-21; 66: 5-16); by Jeremiah
(30: 7); by Ezekiel (38: 1-23; 39: 1-29); by
Joel (3:
9-16); by Zephaniah (3: 8); by Zechariah
(12: 1-14; 13: 1; 14: 1-5); by our Lord (Matt.
25: 15, 28); by Paul (2 Thess. 1: 6, 7); and
by John (Rev.
3: 10; 7: 14; 11: 7; 12: 12; 13: 1-18); covering the second half of the
Apocalypse from chapter 12. to 20. Here
is found the formal condemnation of all the modern optimistic schemes, social
theories, and wide-spread false teaching, that looks
for the reform of the whole world and conversion of the nations before the
Second Coming of Christ. If
we ask the Prophets, Christ and His Apostles, what they expected in the future, after the Gospel seed has been
scattered over all the earth, their reply will be found to be one and
harmonious. By the side of the
Wheat, Satan’s seed, the Tares, will occupy the field of the world
“together”
till the Lord comes. During the Times of the Gentiles Israel
will remain in unbelief. Along with
the progress of Christianity, externally waxing to a power in the world, and
allying itself with governments and states, shall go prosperity, internal
corruption and decay, a deepening
departure from the faith, as the last times draw near – Anti-christianity at last ascendant, the world controlling the
Church, false teaching, false Messiahs, false culture and civilisation, crime
universal, the faithful a “little flock”
to whom it is “the Father’s good pleasure
to give the kingdom.”
The great apostasy in Christendom shall culminate in the Antichrist, and
bring the crisis of the “Warfare Great,”
viz., the “Great Tribulation,” the
world still “lying in the Wicked One.” They looked for all this, and for the
return of the Jews to their own land, their conversion in the midst of the
crisis, and the Second Coming of Christ to put an end to the whole disorder and
bring His kingdom of righteousness and truth to victory. No
other future than this is found in the Sacred Scriptures, save the Millennial
Age and the final New Heaven and Earth, both of which follow the Advent of the
Son of Man in clouds. The
triumph of the kingdom comes only to those who, faithful to Christ, pass
through this Tribulation, and, sealed by His Spirit, are “overcomers”
who have “gotten the victory over the Beast and
his Image, his Mark and the Number of his Name,” even as before in
early times. (Rev. 15: 2; 20: 4.) The
unwritten in the Book of Life “worship the Beast”
and perish in his punishment. (Rev. 13: 8.) The
conversion and reform of the whole world before the Second Advent is a human
fiction, contradicted by both Testaments.
Territorially, these visions of
the Great Tribulation which will be universal,
especially cover Europe, Asia, and Africa, within the limits of the old Roman
empire, yet
(4) THE DELIVERANCE. –
“Thy people shall be delivered,” i.e., at the
close of the Great Tribulation (Dan. 12.; 7: 25-27; 9: 27) at the close of the 70th
Week. (2 Thess. 2: 1-3.) This promise of Deliverance of the
“Remnant” is ancient as Moses,
and runs through both Testaments.
Not exempted from trial, or even martyrdom, yet the “Remnant” shall not be destroyed. Sealed of God, kept safe from the power
of temptation, delivered out of all their troubles, as were their fathers
before them, they shall be overcomers through the blood of the Lamb. “Alas, for
that day is great, so great that none is like it; it is the time of
Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” (Jer. 30: 7.)
The
deliverance will be miraculous, (1) by the personal appearing of the Son of
Man, first of all, in the clouds of heaven. (Dan.
7: 13.) (2) In the next
place, “His feet shall stand on the
(5) THE RESURRECTION OF THE HOLY DEAD.* -
Not
Only shall living
[*The
Rev. Nathaniel West is here speaking in general terms of all the events that will happen at the general epoch of the
Great Tribulation. He does not
enter into the particular details of the two stages of the Resurrection and Translation of saints which many other
Expositors have explained more fully namely, that there will be a Resurrection
and Translation of saints both before [Luke 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10] and after [1
Thess.4: 15] the Great Tribulation of three and a half years - EDITOR OF THE LONDON EDITION.]
To this time-point of the revelation of Christ in His
glory, to raise the dead, deliver Israel, and destroy the antichrist, the hope
of both Old and New Testament saints was directed. (Matt.
24: 29-31, 40-44; 2 Thess. 1: 6-10; 2: 1-8; 1 Thess. 4: 14-17; Rev. 11: 17; 14: 13-20; 19: 11-21; 20:
1-6; 16: 15; Dan. 12: 1-3; Matt. 13: 40.) In view of that hope, Old
Testament martyrs, accounting themselves dead even before the tyrant had Struck
them, refused to “accept deliverance”
at the cost of forswearing their faith.
The New Testament martyrs did the same. The “better
thing” they grasped by faith was the “better resurrection,” when both, washed in the blood of Christ (Heb. 9: 15), should together he perfected, body and soul, in the likeness of
Christ, at His Second Coming, and
satisfied (Ps. 17: 15; 1: 3-6; Dan. 12: 1-3; Matt.
23: 40; 24: 29-31). One in
Christ, and one with each other, both saved in the same way. God foresaw and provided the plan
concerning us, “that they apart from us, should not be made perfect.”
(Heb. 11: 35, 40.) Moses and Paul, Isaiah
and John, are one in Christ.
(6) THE SPLENDOUR OF THE RISEN SAINTS.
–
“They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament, and they that have turned the many to righteousness, as the stars
for ever and ever” (Dan. 12: 3).
The angel employs two words nowhere else found in the Old Testament (1) Hayi 0lam, life everlasting, i.e., to die no more, and (2) Hizhir, shall shine, from Zohar, splendour. This last one is beautifully rendered by
the German word Himmelglanz, the gleam of Heaven. Moses describes the firmament as a
“sapphire pavement” beneath the feet of the God of Israel, “the body of heaven in its clearness” (Ex. 34: 10), and Elihu compares it to a “molten mirror” shining with undimmed resplendency. (Job 37: 18.) Ezekiel describes it as “an appearance of brightness as the look of the brightness of
burnished gold.” (Ezek. 8: 2.) To the golden sheen the angel adds the
incandescent glory of the “stars,”
literally of the “glitterers.” Our Lord and Paul allude to these
expressions in their brilliant language when speaking of the resurrection and
its different degrees of glory. (Matt.
13: 43; 1 Cor. 15: 41.) An instance of the reality, we have in
the Transfiguration of the Lord in the “holy mount,” when “His face did shine as the Sun, and His raiment was white as
the light” (Matt. 17: 21),
“white as snow and glistering” (Mark 9: 3; Luke 9: 29). What the angel teaches is that the wise
shall shine like the crystal sheen of a sunlit firmament, and the converters of
the many to righteousness shall glow with the glitter of the stars in a
cloudless canopy. Still more, their
effulgence shall be eternal - a glory un-obscured for ever (Dan. 12: 3).
This their Zohar. Degrees of glory there will be, even as
the three stars in Orion’s belt excel in magnitude and glory the lesser
stars of the constellation. The
transfiguration of the living will equal that of the dead. The Lord extends the splendour to all
the “righteous.” (Matt. 13: 40.) The prophecy includes the whole sacramental host of God’s
elect, who share the glory ready to be revealed.
All
who are instrumental in the salvation of the many will be clothed with a
surpassing brightness. Eminent, the
martyrs of Jesus will shine, saints who have not deemed as dear to them their
lives, for Jesus’ sake. (Rev. 20: 4; 14: 13;
2 Thess. 1: 5; Heb. 11: 35-39; Rev. 12: 11; 2 Tim. 4:
6-8.) Such
the “out-resurrection.” (Phil. 3: 11.)
If a splendour so great and enduring, for the body alone - even to be
glorified like Christ, whose brightness Paul tells us eclipsed the noon-day sun
- is the reward of a Tribulation so
brief, then indeed the sorest afflictions are but as the puncture of a pin, and
the longest but as a moment - not worthy to be compared with the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
(Rom. 8: 18.) Earth never wore a diadem so royal as that composed of risen saints. The eloquence of all antiquity, or
modern times, has furnished no description equal to this conclusion of the
prophecy; a scene so imposing, majestic and impressive; so sanctifying and
sublime; so solemn and subduing! We
have seen the rainbow braided on the brow of the dying storm, but here a
glory-crown of saints, the jewelled diadem of God, is placed upon the head of
the dark Tribulation itself - a vision that can never vanish from the soul of
the believer. How quick the transit from the cross to the crown, from shame to
honour, from suffering to glory! The end of the “Warfare Great” is the outburst of an
illumination which celebrates a victory for the
2. THE COMPLETION OF DANIEL’S
BOOK. –
The
great prophecy of Daniel is now ended.
The whole future has been disclosed to the Second Coming of Christ, and
now the angel issues his order to the prophet. “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even
to the time of the end” (Dan. 12: 4),
i.e., (1) to the end of the third empire, and (2) to the end of the fourth. By the “words”
is meant the words of the last revelation just given - viz., chapters 10.,
11., 12: 1-3. By the “book,”
the whole Book of Daniel, from first to last. By “shut
up the words” is meant, bind them with the rest of the parchments,
as part of the book. By “seal the book” is meant, attach to the roll the
official seals of its authentication, and deposit the same in the archives of
the Jewish nation, as part of Holy Scripture. Preserve it for the warning and comfort
of God’s people. This does
not mean that its contents shall remain inaccessible to the High Priest or to
teachers of the people. The order
relates alone to the preservation of the original text. It was the custom of
the prophets, before binding the separate parchments, to transcribe copies for
the public use, from which still others were transcribed by official hands,
under penalties for error. Thus the
Book of Daniel descended to the Jews, in a standard text, with which all copies
could be compared as the near “Time of the End”
approached. The order of the angel
implies no less than this, that Daniel was the author of the whole book, most
of which was written during the exile, and its finisher in post-exilic times,
during the Persian reign.
3. THE PREDICTION OF THE STUDY OF THE,
BOOK IN THE “TIME OF THE END.”
–
“Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased”
(Dan. 12: 4). This explains the reason of the order. A long period will intervene between
now and then, and only then will the contents of the book be completely
understood, therefore “seal the book,”
that a sure and standard text may be preserved. That it is studied to-day yet more than
ever, is a sign of the nearing “Time of the End.” By the words “run to and fro” is meant, not “modern locomotion,” nor “missionary enterprise,” nor “rushing here and there,” but the diligent
perusal of the book with intensity and earnestness, by the method of turning
forward and backward its pages, comparing prophecy with prophecy, in order to
understand its contents. The angel
means that, as the “Time of the End”
approaches, whether the near or far horizon, “multitudes”
will devote themselves to a study of the book, and come to the “inner perception” (the knowledge) of its
meaning. Light will burst forth as
4. THE EPILOGUE OR CLOSING VISION (Dan. 12: 5-13).
With
the termination of the order, what we have is –
(l)
The sudden change of the scene; and not without some deep significance. The Linen-clothed Man reappears,
hovering over the Hiddekel, to which the name of the Nile – “Yeor” - is given, as
if to remind
(2)
The dialogue between the Linen-clothed Man and one of the “two” - a conversation introduced for
Daniel’s benefit. “One of the two” asks the Linen-clothed Man
“How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” (Dan. 12: 6), i.e., how long from the invasion of
And
not without the same deep significance does he further admonish the prophet,
yea, command him, to “close the words,”
and “seal the books” (12: 4), and declares them “closed and sealed till the time of the end” (12: 9).
Yea, more, he crowns the whole with an oath, “by the living God,” - both hands held up - that
“all these things shall be accomplished,”
i.e., that none of them is fiction! In
the name of all that is sacred and solemn, why does the angel thus repeat
himself, exhausting all sanctions, angelic, human and divine? If the writer of the book is not a pious
impostor, the whole book is true as God is true, and not a Maccabaean novel, as
our modern higher critics would have it.
No other book in all the Bible, save
John’s apocalypse, has such a weight of attestation. (Rev. 22: 18, 19.) The “Vision”
is “Truth,” the “Revelation,” the “Writing”
of it, the very “words,” the “book” itself - all is “Truth,” God-sent, angel-given, Spirit-breathed,
everlasting “Truth,” closed, scaled,
authenticated and attested by angels, sworn to by the Lord Himself, and
transmitted to our times to be studied
with the intensest interest.
Had criticism any conscience or fear of God before its eyes, it would
quail in the presence of such transcendent confirmation. God the Almighty, thundering from
heaven, could give no stronger demonstration of its verity. It has the sanction of Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, angels, prophets, Christ and His apostles, to its Chiliastic
doctrine, and is established by no less than 2,500 years of human history.
(3) THE
PERPLEXITY OF THE PROPHET.
“I heard, but I
understood not. Then said I, O my Lord, and what shall the Afterness of these things be?” (Dan. 12: 8.)
What was it he did not understand?
Expressly, he declares, he “understands
the vision” (10: 1). What perplexed him was the definition of
the time, given by the Linen-clothed Man in 12: 7. His soul has been riveted upon the
predicted persecution (11: 30-35); the
tyrant’s character (11: 36-39), and
the invasion of the
(4) FIRST DISMISSAL OF THE PROPHET.
“Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed to
the
time of the end.” (12: 9.) Tenderly the angel declines to protract
the Revelation. He recurs to the
thought in Daniel 12: 4, expanding it. “Many
shall be purified and made white, and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand,
but the wise shall understand.” (12:
10.) Two classes of persons
there shall be in the Time of the End, the “wicked”
and the “wise.” The
world will not all be converted to Christ. Moreover, the wicked, in spite of the
Day of the Lord, will continue to practise wickedness. The
tribulation that refines the saints will only incrustate the ungodly. The fire that purifies the gold will
only harden the clay. For that
reason the wicked will neither study nor understand the Book of Daniel, but the
wise will do both. Clear to their “inner
perception” will be the
necessity of the tribulation to sift God’s saints from the world-loving
and unbelieving professors of religion, and to test their fidelity.
(5) THE EXTENSION OF THE TIME.
“And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken
away and an abomination that maketh desolate be set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to
the 1,335 days.” (12: 11, 12.)
This much the angel concedes to Daniel’s further curiosity. The italicised words here, and in the
section above, are found also in Daniel 8: 12, 13,
and 11: 31, 35. Gabriel’s answer, in Daniel 12: 9-13, to Daniel’s question in 12: 8, is a word explaining something of the
“afterness” of the 1,260 days.
Moreover, the angel has already told Daniel, in 9:
27, that “a prince to come,”
at the seventieth week would come “on wing of
abomination,” after allowing to the Jews, by treaty, the practice
of their “daily sacrifice,” and
would break their covenant in the middle of the week. The deeds typically performed by
Antiochus would be repeated substantially yet in variant form by the last
Antichrist. An abomination would be
set up, perhaps the image of the Antichrist himself. (Rev.
13: 14.) The “Time of the End” would be extended first thirty,
then to forty-five days more beyond the 1, 260. Then the “blessed”
time would come.*
[*
That no “blessed” time, such as is
here predicted for Israel, followed the “cleansing
of the temple,” either 1,290 or 1,335 days after the act of
Judas Maccabaeus, is evident from the
Maccabaeans’ history. The citadel remained in the hands of the
foe. Two whole years foreign
armies, 100,000 strong, assaulted
Ever
more increasingly, the ablest interpreters regard the thirty days, following
the 1,260, as the period of Judah’s national repentance (Zech. 12: 10-14; 13: 1), their baptism by the Holy
Spirit, the turning of their mourning into joy, and the destruction of the last
remainder of Gentile power. The
forty-five days, yet further, are regarded as the period of the return of the
residue of the “dispersed” and the
“outcasts,” brought back by Gentile
hands after the Judgment-scenes at
How
“blessed” the time will be, and
“blessed” the man who lives or wakes to see it, when the Lord will
“appear in His glory and build up Zion,”
“gathering the outcasts, healing the broken in
heart, and binding their wounds,” only a pen dipped in prophetic
fire can describe. The angel
pronounces a benediction and beatitude on the heirs of the kingdom, whom he
calls “waiters” for it. And myriads such there are to-day,
notwithstanding “blindness in part has happened
unto
“The time will come,” said David Kimchi, “when Jacob shall prosper and be redeemed and exalted, though
now he is scattered and very low, and a wonder to the nations. When the nations are gathered against
(6) SECOND DISMISSAL OF THE PROPHET.
“Go thou thy way till the end shall be, for thou shalt rest.”
(Dan. 12: 13.) The lingering prophet, loth to leave, is
again admonished to retire. It is
hard to part. But “Go thou!”
The Glorious One who hovered over the Hiddekel has gone! The “two
others” are gone! The
vision fades. “Go thou thy way,” the way of the righteous. “Go till
the end shall be” - the end of life, with all its cares –
“for thou shalt rest” - a holy
repose, entering into peace, thy body in its bed, the spirit [returned to God, the soul in “
(7) THE
PROMISE OF THE PROPHET’S RESURRECTION.
“Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the
days.” (Dan. 12: 13). The
transition from a reclining posture to one of standing,
implies a resurrection. By the
term “lot” is meant the [inheritance] portion
of the righteous. The allusion here
is to the redistribution of the
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER ELEVEN
[Pages 139-151.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Summation,
Objections, Conclusion – General Teaching of Daniel’s Book –
The Passing Away of all Kingdoms and Empires – Resume of the Main
Features of Daniel’s Book – The Design of the Judgments of the
Nations – God’s Name Sanctified, His Will done on Earth as in
Heaven – Connection between Eschatology and the Messiah Doctrine –
Objections to Daniel’s Doctrine – Reply – The Sequence of the
Kingdom in Victory upon the Second Advent – Curiosities of Opposite View
Character of the Millennial Kingdom – Reign of the Saints on the Earth – Jerusalem the Centre of
the New Age – Christ Present in His Glory – The Kingdom of “The 1,000 Years” – The Vastness of the
Idea of the Kingdom – False that the Kingdom of Christ is not Here Now
– False that it comes to Victory before He comes – Science Demands
a Millennial Age – Use and Abuse of Prophecy – Chiliasm
Indestructible – Testimony of the Writer – Parting with the
Prophet.)
-------
“The age of Gold, which a blind tradition has placed in the
past, lies before us. But first a
- Carlyle.
SUMMATION - OBJECTIONS - CONCLUSION.
What
the book of Daniel teaches is that, because of Israel’s apostasy, the
Jewish state was overthrown and the sovereignty of the Hebrew people, whose great ancestor became
“heir of the world through the righteousness of
faith,” was passed by God’s decree to the four successive
empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Graeco-Macedonia, and Rome, and to the several
kingdoms into which the third and fourth of these should be divided; and
signally so to the “Little Horn” of
the fourth, yet to appear.
Thenceforward, during these “Times of the
Gentiles,” the Jews should ever remain under the Gentile yoke,
scattered among all nations, expatriated from their home, without an organised
nationality, and only saved from their subjection at the Second Coming of
Christ, upon their repentance and faith, and after sore tribulation. Then, and only then, their lost
sovereignty should revert, their kingdom be restored in glory greater than that
of Solomon, and made the local and sustaining centre of the kingdom of Christ
in victory “underneath all heavens.” Thus, the ancient people of God,
converted to a “holy people” in the
highest spiritual sense, should be re-established in their old historical
relations to the nations of the earth, and be as life from the dead to the
world.
Many
are the important lessons here taught; among them (1) the indestructibility of the
Jewish race, as a separate un-amalgamated people, a “generation that shall not pass away;” (2) the destructibility and transient
character of all the empires and kingdoms of the world; (3) that during the Times of the Gentiles the
triumph of the kingdom of God in righteousness and peace, underneath all
heavens, is not to be expected; (4) that the restoration of the Jews and
the re-establishment of the Jewish state [in
lasting peace and safety] are not to be
expected, until the Jewish people have been turned to faith in Jesus as the
true Messiah, and resumed the central doctrines of their ancient creed, as
taught in the prophets, and professed by the first disciples in the holy city;
(5) that the time-point, or epoch of the final Jewish elevation is the time-point
of the final destruction of all Gentile power, viz., the Second Coming of
Christ.
One by one the prophet
sees the ancient empires pass away, beginning with the empire of
The
prophet beholds the conflict ever permanent until it culminates in the closing
scenes of the “Warfare Great.” He takes account of the kingdoms of this
world masquerading in the costume of a nominal Christianity. He sees no hope of the world’s
deliverance from its evils, under such condition, during the “Times of the Gentiles.” He has anticipated the fact that when
Christianity should enter history and come to be the religion of princes and
the state, in place of Paganism and the old idolatry, it would be adopted,
politically, by the Fourth Empire, and its Powers,
only to be made subservient to their temporal interests. He foresaw that it would become a
military Christianity, a force employed by rulers and legislators, as a means
of subjugating nations to their sway, and that, under the pretence of giving
the Religion of Christ and a better civilisation to the world, it would veil
the rapacity and lust of nominally Christian Powers, seeking temporal dominion
over the property and lives of men less powerful than themselves, and so
“Christianise” the nations.
History
has verified his foresight, and at no time more openly than now, in the
standing armies, and the fleets, of the Christian world. The “Horns”
fight each other. That militarism
will prevail till Christ comes is the teaching of the prophet. The
’Tis but the same
rehearsal of the Past
First Freedom, and then Glory; when that fails,
Wealth, Vice, Corruption, Barbarism at last,
And history hath but one page.
The
old empires have perished from the earth, and over their dull, dark sepulchres,
Dead for want of righteousness, is read through the fog that dampens
the grave of their glory. Their
monuments wake only the reflection that
Hardly the place of their antiquity,
Or note of those great monarchies we find,
Save in their dust, a verbal memory,
An empty name is left behind.
So
shall it be with modern empires and kingdoms. “Passing
away,” are the words the winds moan over
their dying greatness. Thoughtful men, and of
schools the most opposite ‑ a Brandis, Hegel, Rawlinson, Maculay, von Mueller, Goldwin Smith and Sybel - how many more? - have recognised the
law. They vindicate the
prophet’s view. One kingdom
alone is everlasting.
As
to the nature of the
communication made to Daniel, it was a Divine message, mediated by an angel, as
was the later case with John, who, however, includes the “Church” in his apocalypse. As to the form, it is an apocalypse, or
“secret revealed” (Dan, 2: 18-19), an open unveiling of the future,
by means of plastic images or symbols presented to the eye, with their Divine
interpretation to the ear; a series of realities to be fulfilled in history, in
order and succession. As to its contents, they are
It
must be borne in mind that the Vision of Judgment, in Daniel 7., is not that
of all mankind, quick and dead, i.e., not
the Last Judgment, but the Messianic Judgment of the nations, connected with
All
the miracles recorded in the historical portions of the Book of Daniel, and the
resulting “decrees” of
Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and Darius, were designed to be pledges of this. All the predictions fore-announce the
same result. The Lord intends to
smite the pride of all Gentile politics and power, and overturn all Gentile
kingdoms, as in the days of old. He
means “to bring down the mean man, and humble the
mighty and the eyes of the lofty,” so that “the Lord of Hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God, the
Holy One, be sanctified in righteousness.” (Isa. 5: 16.) No Concert of the “Powers” can countervail this oracle, or stay His
hand. “Thus,” says God, “I
will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will be known in the eyes of
many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezek. 38: 23; 39: 25-29.) On such texts did the mind of the Saviour
rest, as on Daniel’s book, when teaching His disciples to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6: 9, 10) - petitions that will never be fulfilled underneath all heavens till the
Lord comes.
It
is through judgment this great consummation is achieved. It comes with the solution of the
world’s greatest problem - that concerning the political condition of the
ancient people of God. Like all
other prophets, Daniel, under the imagery of the ten Horns, foretells the final
conflict through which
If
it is true that, in science, indestructibility of matter, persistence of force,
and continuity of motion are essential axioms of development, and that the last
impetus is from the heterogeneous back to the homogeneous, from diversity to
unity, conflict to rest, through age-long transformations, these are no less
true of history and the kingdom of God.
Long before science announced these, God’s Word revealed them, and
built all prophecy upon them. (Heb. 11: 3; Acts 17:
26-28.) It is to the crisis
of the Second Advent the prophet looks
when the world will change front and a new age heave into history. The kingdom is indestructible, the force
is persistent, the motion is continuous. The result of the crisis will be the
union of Jew and Gentile in the one
If,
therefore, we ask what the prophet Daniel has done, the answer is easy. He has unveiled the plan of God,
foretold the course of empire, and
Let it be remembered,
then, that Christ’s millennial kingdom is an outward “realm” and “royalty,”
as well as an inward rule of grace in the heart, and that in it are found
“the kings of the earth,” and all
“nations,” constructed under the
sceptre of Christ, “the only Potentate,”
“Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
The proud titles of the ancient monarchs, blazing on the monuments that tell
their pride, He takes to Himself,
and places their diadems upon His head.
The advent of Christ does not mean denationalisation. The restoration of
When
the Roman empire came to
Christ’s kingdom has many phases, forms, and
spheres. It is inner and spiritual;
outer and material; moral and political.
It is individual and national.
It is earthly and heavenly.
It is temporal and eternal.
It is mixed and separate. It
is past, present, and, to come.
Circumstantially it is many.
Essentially it is one. It is
the administration of the rule of God in Christ over heaven, earth, and
hell. Its realisation, here, is the
doing of the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. Incomplete now, it is destined to
perfection hereafter. “The thousand years” are but its future
evolution, mediated by the Second Coming of Christ. Its conflict now is the postulate of its
triumph then.
The
orderly succession of the ages and sequences of dispensations, in a grand march
to ultimate perfection, is a law as absolute as in the cosmos and the kingdoms
of nature and of history. Evolution indeed, yet not without Divine intervention. (Acts 17: 26-28.) The procession from the rude beginnings
of inorganic being to the elementary forms of organised existence, thence more
complex in vast unfoldings and transformations,
mediated by catastrophe, and the introduction of new forces, is not more true
in geology, astronomy, and biology, than in revelation, prophecy, and
history. The same law operates in all,
that of “development.” A score of instances present themselves
as illustrations of this law - the growth of the child, the growth of a plant,
the growth of a civil constitution, the growth of a doctrine, the growth of a nation
to its maturity and highest bloom.
What is changing and ephemeral in form passes away, while what is substantial, essential and enduring, moves onward and
upward, through sunshine and storm ever in conflict, ever opposed, yet finally
victorious, “So is the
Of
the eternal ages before our present cosmic order, as of the eternal ages after
the regenesis of the planet, we can only speak as
“ages of ages,” infinitely backward
and forward. Between these lie the
Biblical ages or dispensations, known to history, the antediluvian, the post-diluvian, the Mosaic, the Messianic age in conflict, the
Messianic or Millennial age in victory, each of these characterised at its
beginning by some self-revelation of Christ, pre-incarnate or incarnate. “The
Ultimate Age” we call the “Endless
Age,” only because the curtain of the future here drops, and the
line of succession is concealed from view.
And yet it is “unto ages of ages, world
without end, Amen!”
What cycles lie beyond! How
vast the contemplation! - the one great aim of all being the sanctification of
God’s great name, the immortalisation of man, body and soul together, the
glory of Christ, the perfection of the planet, “God
all in all!”
Therefore, to blend in one historically what is seen oftentimes
in one prophetically, is to misuse prophecy, annihilate both time and
space, confound the ages and the ends, and disregard
the clear distinction between them which later prophecy has made so plain. It is to abuse, by our littleness and
short-sightedness, what was meant, on the one hand, to enable us to grasp the
total future as a unit, and on the other, to comprehend the ordered and
majestic march of the kingdom through different stadia
of development, from conflict to victory.
It is to lose that sublime conception of the apostle who says that
“By faith we understand that the ages were
articulated (to each other in succession), by
the Word of God, so that the things which are seen did not become from the things that do appear.” (Heb. 11: 3.)
The forces and varying forms of all startled backward from the infinite
past, and reach forward into the infinite future. Herein lies the
whole Biblical and scientific strength of the Chiliastic doctrine.
Therefore,
at the close of a long life devoted to the study of God’s Word, and
having prayed that He, who alone can open the eyes of the blind, would
vouchsafe that mercy to me, as He did to Bartimaeus,
and the two wanderers to Emmaus, do I desire to leave on record my unalterable
conviction of the truth of the pre-millennial doctrine, a doctrine no other
than this, that the Second Coming of Christ precedes the millennial kingdom
“underneath all heavens” - a
doctrine for which the prophet Daniel stood at the Babylonian and Persian
courts, winning glory for God and honour for himself and his friends. It is not that a man’s convictions
are either the measure or the test of “Truth,”
or his emotions a proof, that his creed is right. The Holy Spirit often dwells in
sanctifying power where he does not dwell as an illuminating power in the deep
things of God, and time embalms the errors it does not destroy, and creeds are
propagated from father to son. But
it is that the long, prayerful, and independent study of the truth - with a
sincere desire to know it, and a heart honest enough to receive it - does bring
with it a self-evidencing and self-interpreting light, by which the truth is
sealed to the conscience in the sight of God, with a certitude transcending all
conjectures, and superior to all the changes of human feeling - an “assurance of understanding” in the mystery of
God. It is that the truth, like its
Author, is invincible.
The question is not what “views” do I hold, but what “views” hold me, and what their ground, and
whence their origin? In the words
of Augustine, “it matters not what I say, what you say, what he says,
but what saith the Scripture.”
Like
the encircling concave mirrors of Archimedes, so placed as to flash their
converging lights in front of them, so stand the books of the Bible - that
effulgent focus, the glorious Second Coming of Christ. He who fails to
see it, only fails because his vision is perverted. The insight of such truth is supplied
alone by the “Spirit of Truth” who
gave the sacred volume to be the light in all our seeing, and the comfort in
all our searching. And to the
writings of no prophet have the Holy Spirit, the Lord and His apostles, borne
greater witness than to the writings of “the
prophet Daniel.” If we
fail here, it is because we do not use the Old Testament as they used it, cite
it as they cited it, or believe it as they believed it.
Therefore
do I deem it loyal to the Truth to testify that in Daniel
2: 44: 7: 27: and in Revelations 20: 1-6,
lies the bottom, bedrock, basis, and formal statement of the pre-millennial
doctrine, more deep, massive, and enduring than the granite foundations of the
earth - not to speak of many other texts.
I deem it “Truth” to affirm
that such is the organic connection of both Testaments, and the dependence of
the New upon the Old, that the sequence of the kingdom upon the Second Advent,
in Daniel 7., for the Beast’s
destruction, determines for ever that the scene of the cloud-seated Son of Man
in Revelations 14., and of the Warrior on
the White Horse in 19., are no other than
the same as that of the Cloud-Comer in Daniel 7.;
and therefore the Second Coming of Christ is pre-millennial. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but
this connection, dependence, sequence and identity, shall not pass away. God’s throne is not more firmly established. The almightiness and everlastingness of
God’s Word are here.
Monumental brass, marble, and adamant will wear away, corroded by the
tooth of time. The solid masonry of
men, the rocks on which man’s mightiest architecture has reposed, will become
as the shifting sands, and his proudest structure crumble into dust. But this “Truth”
shall stand for ever.
“Time writes no wrinkle
on its brow.”
The
“Hope” it whispers has been tested
on the plains of Dura, in the fiery furnace and the lion’s den, in
Maccabaean caves, the amphitheatre at Rome, the dungeons of Patmos,
the recesses of the Cottian Alps, the Armenian
mountains, and wherever the blood of the martyrs of Jesus has been shed. Wreathed with the memories of Olivet it
looks to Olivet in days to come.
Twice ten centuries and a half it has been the one bright star that has
shone through the gloom of Israel’s long night of suffering and
expatriation; and now that the brows of the morning are purpling with the
tokens of coming day, it beats in Israel’s breast with a redoubled
pulse. The present age hates it.
The self-deluded admirers of human progress turn their back upon it.
Sociologists deride it.
World-reformers make light of it.
The Church treats it with indifference, and oftentimes with opposition. Many
good men, from motives of policy, avoid it, unable to refute it. It is not popular with the optimism of a
false theology and a blooming Anti-Christianity. But in multitudes of hearts it finds a
home, and is welcomed as nothing less than the imperishable truth of God.
And
this I can truthfully and intelligently say, with eyes resting on the history
of the Church for eighteen centuries, giving full credit to all that
Christianity has done for the world, in the gift of civil and religious
liberty, the abolition of gigantic evils, the propagation of the blessed
Gospel, in the institution of her immortal charities, and in the education of
what the Early Church believed, and how the doctrine came to be corrupted, and
by what devices she was persuaded to revolutionise the faith of that “cloud of witnesses” who were the spectators of
her early warfare, and versed in the vain attempts to set aside her testimony;
and with perfect understanding of all that creeds, councils and polemists have
formulated, and how ancient and modern sects have nobly but imperfectly
expressed their judgment, and how false teachers have made use of it, and true
teachers have been misled, and what dogmatics have objected, and what criticism
has to offer, and, better still, what a thorough exegesis has so triumphantly
established in the study of both Testaments - in view of all, and of my
account, I desire to utter this confession, that the doctrine that the kingdom
of Christ cannot come to victory “underneath all heavens,” till the
Lord Himself comes, is the very “Truth”
of God. That great and “Blessed Hope,” is our hope, that “Faith” is our faith, as it was the faith and
hope of all the prophets, of Jesus Christ, and his apostles. It is the only “Hope” of victory for the church,
* * * * * * *
APPENDIX.
1.
THE PROPHETIC NUMBERS.
THE LAST WEEK OF THE 70 WEEKS.
DANIEL 9:
24-27, is the seat and
source - the fons et origo - of all the prophetic numbers in both
Testaments concerning the “End.” Each week is seven years, prophetic
time. The “One Week” (Dan. 9:
27) is the last of the 70 weeks, and is therefore seven years. The
middle of the week, when the “abomination” is set up, reappears in our
Lord’s Olivet Discourse (Matt. 4: 15),
and is furthermore prominent as the time-point when Israel’s conversion
is announced and the Dragon is dejected (Rev. 12:
10-12), and is the beginning of the Great Tribulation (Rev. 13: 5; Dan. 7: 25; 12: 7; Matt 24: 15). The second “Half”
of this “One Week,” or three - and-a-half years, is
expressed in various ways, yet all commensurate: (1) As “a time, two times (dual number) and the dividing of a time” (Dan. 7: 25; 12: 7; Rev. 12: 14), a “time” being a prophetic or soli-lunar
year of 360 days everywhere in Daniel’s book, as when it is said of
Nebuchadnezzar that “seven times shall pass over
him” (4: 3), i.e., three-and-a-half “times” are a half-week, as “seven times” are one week. (2) At the “shortened days” in Matthew
24: 21, 22. (3) As a “short time,” in Revelations
12: 12. (4) As forty-two
months (Rev. 11: 2; 12: 5). (5) As the l,260days of the sheltered woman (Rev.
12: 6) identical with her “time, times and
a half” (Rev. 12: 14).
* * *
2.
TESTIMONIES TO DANIEL, AND TO THE KNOWLEDGE
AND INFLUENCE OF HIS BOOK.
B.C. 603. Nebuchadnezzar’s first testimony. Daniel 18 years old.
(Dan. 2: 46-49.)
B.C. 598. Ezekiel’s
first testimony. Daniel 23 years old. (Ezek. 28:
3.)
B.C. 555. Nebuchadnezzar’s second testimony. Daniel 63 years old.
(Dan. 4: 8, 9, 18)
B.C. 538. Gabriel’s
first testimony. (Dan. 9: 21-23; 5: 13, 14, 16, 29.)
B.C. 538. Darius the
Mode’s testimony. Daniel 83 years old.
(Dan. 6: 2, 3, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24-28)
B.C. 538. Testimony of the Satraps. Daniel 83 years old.
(Dan. 6: 5)
B.C. 536. Nitoeris, the Queen Mother’s
testimony. Daniel 85 years old.
B.C. 536. Belshazzar’s testimony. Daniel 85 years old.
(Dan. 5: 13-16.)
B.C. 534. Gabriel’s second testimony. Daniel 87 years old.
(Dan. 10: 10, 11, 19)
B.C.
538-534.
Self-testimony of
Daniel. Daniel 83 to 87 years old. (Dan. 7: 1,
28; 8: 1, 27; 9: 2; 12: 4, 8.)
B.C. 518. Zechariah’s testimony to the knowledge and influence of
Daniel’s book: (1) In the “Stone”
as Messiah (Zech. 3: 9; Dan. 2: 45). (2) In the “four horns” as symbols of world-power (Zech. 1: 18-21; Dan. 7: 7, 13). (4) In the Deliverance
of the Jews at the Advent and the setting up of the kingdom (Zech. 12: 11; Dan. 12: 1; Zech. 24: 9; Dan. 2: 44; 7: 27). This more than
300 years before the Maccabwan times.
B.C. 468. Ezra’s testimony to its influence. Daniel’s prayer
a model. (Ezra 9: 5-7; Dan. 9: 4-8.) 300 years before the Maccabees.
B.C. 455. Nehemiah’s testimony. The Prayer. (Neh. 1: 5; 9: 32; Dan. 9: 8; Neh.
9: 12.) 287 years before the
Maccabees.
B.C. 333. Baruch’s testimony in the Persian
period. The Prayer. (Baruch 1: 15-22; 2: 1-15; Dan. 11: 7-10, 12, 13.) 160 years before the Maccabees.
B.C. 332. The testimony of Josephus
to the exhibition, 332, by Jaddua, the High Priest, of Daniel’s prophecy of the
Rough Goat to Alexander the Great. (Josephus, Antiq.
11: 8, 7.) On the
other hand, Zockler’s Daniel in Lange, Introd. 25.
This 160 years before the Maccabees.
B.C. 250. Testimony of the Septuagint - begun B.C. 281, finished
247 - to Daniel’s whole book. 86 years before
the Maccabees.
B.C. 170. Testimony of the Sibylline Oracles (Book 3. 396, 613),
and passim,
to expression borrowed from the Greek version of Daniel. Two years before Maccabaean persecution.
B.C. 168. Testimony of Mattathias, father of Judas Maccabaeus, to Daniel
and his companions. (1 Macc. 2: 60.) This three
years before B.C. 164, when the
critics say Daniel’s book was composed. (See Zoekler
in Lange, Daniel, Introd., 24, 25)
B.C. 168. Testimony
of the expression “Abomination of Desolation”
applied, from Daniel’s book, to the idolator of
Antiochus, three years before the critics’ date of the book, and other
expressions. (1 Mace. 1: 54; Dan. 8: 11)
B.C. 132. Testimony of Ecclesiasticus 35: 18-20; 36: 1-16; Dan. 2: 35, 45; 7: 25; 12: 7.
A.D. 33. Testimony
of Jesus Christ, passim,
the title “Son of Man,” “Coming in Clouds,” the “Shortened Days,” the “Great Tribulation,” the “Abomination of Desolation,” the “Resurrection,” tho
“Splendour” of the righteous, the
“Times of the Gentiles” –
“unto the End.” (Luke 21: 24; Dan. 9: 26.) “Daniel
the Prophet” (Matt. 24: 15; 26: 64;
24: 4-31); the Deliverance of
A.D. 53. First
testimony of Paul. (2 Thess.
2: 4-8; Dan. 8: 12; 11: 36; 2 Thess. 1: 6-10; 1 Thess. 4: 17; Dan. 7: 13; 12: 1-3) (See Matthew
24: 29-31.)
A.D. 66. Second testimony of Paul. (Heb. 11: 33-38; Dan. 3: 25; 6: 22; 11: 33-35)
A.D. 67. Peter’s testimony.
(1 Pet. 1: 10-12; Dan. 9: 2; 12: 6-12).
AD. 75. Testimony of Josephus. (Antiq. 10: 11,
14; 11: 8; 12: 7)
A.D. 95. Testimony
of John, in the Apocalypse - passim, “Behold,
He comes in clouds,” the “Beast,”
the “Horns,” the Antichrist, the
“Great Tribulation,” the “Conversion of the Jews,” the “Resurrection,” the “Deliverance of the Jews,” the “Judgment of the Nations,” the “Kingdom.”
* * *
3.
DANIEL THE FATHER OF UNIVERSAL
HISTORY.
To Daniel we are indebted for the formula, “Times and Seasons,” which occurs so frequently in the Old and New Testaments, since
his interpretation of the drearn of the Chaldean
king. In the Chaldee dialect he
calls them “Iddanayya”
and “Zimnayya,” translated in the Septuagint, Theodotion and the New Testament, as the “Chronoi” and “Kairoi” appointed of God. Thus, of God,
Most High, the prophet says He changeth “Iddanayya ve‑Zimnayya,” and “removes
and sets up kings; He giveth wisdom to the wise and knowledge to, them that
know understanding.”
In Daniel 4: 25, “Seven Iddanin” pass over Nebuchadnezzar, each “Iddan” a year. In 7: 25,
the period of the Great Tribulation is divided into three periods of “a
Time, two Times and the division of a Time” – “Iddan, Iddanin, Uphlag Iddan,” i.e., three-and-a-half years, or the “Half-Week” in Dan. 9: 2, 7, and 12:
7. In 7: 7,
the lives of the Beasts are prolonged a “Season”
and a “Time,” a “Zeman” and an “Iddan.”
In the Hebrew dialect the formula is “Mo’adh, Mo’adh, ve‑Khetsi”
(12: 7),
“a Time, Times and a Half.” With direct reference to these
expressions, our Lord, in the New Testament, speaks of the whole period of the
subjection of the Jews to Gentile power as the “Times
of the Gentiles” - the period from the Babylonish Exile to the
Second Coming of Christ, and particularly from the Destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus. (Luke 21: 21.)
It is from
Daniel the whole terminology and periodology of
prophecy in the New Testament come.
He is the father of it all. Solemn
“Times and Seasons” there have been
in the past, are now, and will be again, and to these our study is divinely
directed. Therefore, in view of
all, has “Daniel the Prophet”
acquired for himself the enviable title “Father
of Universal History.” By
means of his predictions we are not left in ignorance of the end of our
present age, nor of the way to it.
How far we have come, what lies behind us, what is before us, and, in
general, how approximately near we are to the end, is here revealed. The “Times
and Seasons” represent the political and religious periods, ages,
centuries, epochs and crises of world-history and of the development of the
kingdom of God on earth. Of such
“Times” or “Iddanayya,”
appointed of God, were the Patriarchal
times, the four hundred and thirty years’ sojourn in Egypt, the forty
years’ wandering, the period of the Judges, the four hundred and ninety
years’ monarchy, the seventy years’ captivity and the seventy
weeks’ prophecy. Of such “Seasons” were Abraham’s call, the
descent into Egypt, the Exodus, the building of the first Temple, the
disruption of the Kingdom, the going in and return from exile, the building of
the second Temple, the First Advent of Christ, the Day of the Crucifixion, Pentecost,
the second destruction of Jerusalem. “Times and
Seasons” represent the vicissitudes of kingdoms and nations and of
the people of God in all their history, and look to the final “Times and Seasons” when the sure word of
Prophecy shall he fulfilled. They
signify the fact that the whole course of history has been mapped out according
to a Divine plan, and that the ages and ends, the periods and epochs, were
determined, whether definite or indefinite, long or short, as the will of God
dictated, and that, thus arranged, the whole was revealed to Daniel.
The profoundest writers have not been slow to
recognise this great truth. The
“Scheme of the Four Empires” and
the kingdoms sprung from them, with the entire pathway of Israel to the end -
the whole theological conception of history - was regarded as a divinely
revealed outlook for the future and ruled the Christian Church, from the
beginning to the rise of Rationalism in the seventeenth century. The great historians Gatterer, von Mueller, Schlosser,
all adhered to the four empired view of the
world’s development, in its relation to the Jewish people. Against all Rationalism the view held
its ground, that
The four-empired view has
a charmed life. In John’s
Apocalypse his RomanEmpire, described as a ten-hornedwildbeast,
is the legs and feet of the Colossus.
Augustine, Orosius, Vice, Bossuet, all recognised it as
the only true guide for the historian.
It was the accepted frame of universal history all through the Middle Ages. It
was the soul of the “Chronicon”
of John Carion,
worked over and edited by Melanchthon, 1532, and again issued, enlarged and improved
by Melancthon,
in 1556. No work ever exercised a
greater influence during the Reformation of the sixteenth century than the
great work of Sleidan,
“De Quatuor Monarchiis,” no less than seventy
editions of which were called for and sold. Bodin’s “Method
for the Comprehension of Universal History,” 1566, followed in the
steps of Sleidan,
and in 1672 Kober,
in his “Dissertation,”
could still ask, “Who that writes history and chronology to-day stops short of
the Four Empires as the goal of his endeavour?” The view of Daniel holds its ground
among all believing writers on the world’s progress and destiny. The supreme importance of the “Scheme of the Four
Empires” lies in this, that it is a Divine Apocalypse of the
future, a telescope that penetrates through the entire vista of world-history,
and brings to view the end of our age in the most vivid colours,
and in symbols the most gorgeous and terrific. It is a light for the “Times of the
Gentiles,” for
* * *
4.
RELATION OF DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF THE FOURTH EMPIRE TO THE OLIVET
DISCOURSE AND THE APOCALYPSE.
The prophet Daniel spreads before us the entire times
of the Gentiles, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Graeco-Macedonian and Roman, with
the kingdoms sprung from the third and fourth empires, from B.C. 606 to the
Second Coming of Christ. As the Fourth
Empire, the Roman, he
predicts the Crucifixion of Christ;
the destruction of
Our Lord, in Matthew 24., 25., and in Mark 13.
and Luke 21.,
resumes all this, and, building on Daniel, enlarges the prophecy, assigning
the Church to her place alongside of
The Apostle John, in his Apocalypse, building both
on the Olivet discourse and Daniel’s prophecy, as well as on other
prophecies, gives us, again, the same Interval of the Roman Times of the
Gentiles and the 70th week, with the Church, Israel, the World-Power
or kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God. He separates artistically all the events
of the future in outline, and, with lucidity of exposition and perfect symmetry
of arrangement, foreshows the whole course of the Church and of the World-Power
in four great series or groups of sevens, viz., the seven Epistles to the
Asiatic churches, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven vials, with an
episode, or pause-vision, between the sixth and seventh places in each series -
each series ending with the Day of the Lord and the Second Coming of the Lord;
the Theme of his book, announced in Revelations 1: 7, “Behold,
He cometh with clouds!”
The seven Epistles unfold the great interval of the
Roman times of the Gentiles on its ecclesiastical side, giving in separate letters to the
Churches the different phases of Christianity in the first century, all typical
of the different phases of Christendom till the Lord comes. They represent the Church development
and the doom of its last prevailing form, even to be “spued out” of the Lord’s mouth. The seven seals cover the same interval,
and give us the civil and political side of
the same period, the development of the World-Power, proceeding from a state of
temporary peace near John’s time, going forth externally, “conquering and to conquer” through scenes of
bloodshed and woe, and also the hostility of the World-Power towards the
Church, her martyrdom and the doom of the World-Power itself at the Second
Coming of Christ. The seven
trumpets, again, yet covering a large part of the same interval, give the
judgments of God upon an apostatising Christendom, while still the work of
missions continues, and, after the conversion of Israel, ending with the
overthrow of the kingdoms of this world, their conversion to Christ, and the
victory of the kingdom of God at the Second Coming of Christ. The seven vials, entering last of all,
are the judgments under the seventh trumpet, and run on to the same end;
judgments especially quick and intense on the Antichrist and his kingdom during
the Great Tribulation.
The characters in this great “Drama of the End” are (1) the scaled 144,000 ;
the sun-clothed woman, whose history at both Advents is given; (2) the Dragon
dressed in the uniform of the Roman empire; (3) the Roman Beast and the false
prophet, his whole history, pagan, papal, infidel, given in the symbols; (4)
the false Church, the harlot and her daughters, everywhere; (5) the true
Church, or suffering saints of God, whose patience and faith are tried; (6) the
personal Antichrist, or “eighth head”;
(7) the worshipperss of the Antichrist; (8) the ten
horns or kingdoms springing from the Roman empire; (9) Isracl’s
martyrs in Heaven by the glassy sea; (10) God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit,
angels and demons.
As to the progress or
development of the Apocalypse, chapter 1. is
the general introduction with the fundamental vision of the whole book, the
Christophany, the commission to write an explanation of the vision. Chapters 2. and 3. are
the seven Epistles to the Churches.
Chapters 4. and 5. are
the scenes in Heaven at the Ascension of
Christ to His Father’s throne, the delegation to Him, formally,
of all power by the gift of the seven-sealed Book of the future amidst a universal jubilee. On this follows the opening of six seals
in chapter 6. Between the sixth and seventh seal is
the episode, or pause-vision, given for comfort to the Church, and in contrast
with the awful scenes in the seals preceding. Chapters 8. and 9. resume the progress
and give six trumpet-visions.
Again, between the sixth and seventh trumpet comes the next episode, in Chapters 10. and 11., where the Rainbow-Angel (Christ) gives the
open “Little Book,” containing
Chapters 17. and
18. are explanatory
of
Daniel’s prophecy of the Fourth Empire
furnishes the ground lines for both, the frame into which both are set.
Daniel’s fourth Roman Ten-horned Beast is John’s Ten-horned
Beast. The Ten Horns in Daniel are
the Ten Horns in John. The “Little Horn” in
Daniel 7. is the personal Beast who ascends
from the abyss of John. Paul’s “Man of Sin,”
“the Antichrist,” “the prince to come” in Daniel
9: 27, “the king” in 11: 36, 40-45,
the Beast in Revelations 13: 5; 11: 7, and 18: 8; the
“eighth head” in 17: 11, the personal Antichrist being the whole
Beast itself, in whom the whole Anti-christian empire
in Europe, Asia and Africa is centred in the last times.
The 70th week in Daniel
9: 27 is the 70th week in Revelations
11: 2, 3, 7. The 1,260 days of Great
Tribulation are the “shortened days”
in Matthew 24: 21, 22, and “short time” in Revelations
12: 12. Michael standing up
in Daniel 12: 1, is Michael standing up in Revelations 12: 6.
The Son of Man coming in the
clouds, Daniel 7: 13, is the Son of Man in the clouds, Revelations
1: 7, and 14: 14, and in Matthew 24: 29-31. The resurrection of the holy dead, Daniel 12: 2, 3, is the resurrection in Matthew 24: 30-31. The reaping of the living saints,
Revelations 14: 14-16, and their enthronement in Revelations 20: 3-6. The destruction of the Antichrist and
his allies, Daniel 7: 25, 26; 12: 7, is the destruction in Revelations 6: 15-17; 11: 18; 19: 11-21; 14: 20,
at
In Revelations 14. John sees the Zenith-Angel
flying in the path of the sun, uttering the last call of the Everlasting Gospel
to the nations on the earth, and urging men to repentance. - He sees another
Angel in the air proclaiming the doom of
After a special introduction to the vials, in Revelation 15.,
comes the final group of seven visions, the vial-visions in chapter 16., showing the mode in which what was
programmed in 15. is
fulfilled. The first four vials,
poured upon the earth, sea, river sources, and the sun in Europe, Asia, and
* * *
5.
GOG AND THE ANTICHRIST.
Ezekiel’s great
prophecy, chapters 38. and 39., exhibits the war march of the Northern power, in the last
days, against Palestine, for the purpose of acquiring wealth and territory, the
Jews having returned in large numbers to their land, dwelling peacefully, and
engaged in agricultural and commercial pursuits. It is a state of things impossible
except by consent of the Ottoman power.
The line of Gog’s march is from north to
south, then, turning westward, crossing the Euphrates, moving through Syria towards
the Holy Land; yet southwardly also, gathering the nations around him as he
goes, and subsidising to his standards the Ethiopians and the Lybians, i.e., the
tribes of North and South Africa.
On the western side of
The question of critical interest is this: Is
Ezekiel’s “Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal,” the same as the “Little Horn” in Daniel
7., the
“prince to come” in 9., and “the king”
in 11: 36-45? An eminent writer on the Book of
Revelations, Prof. Fehrmann,
of the University of St. Petersburg, Russia, asserts
the identity, saying “Gog is the Antichrist” (Offenbarung, p. 143), like Kliefoth, of
From all it seems evident that Gog
is not the Antichrist, and that the invasion of
* * *
6.
A HIGHER CRITIC’S OBJECTION TO THE BOOK
OF DANIEL ANSWERED.*
*
NOTE BY EDITOR OF BRITISH EDITION. – One of the strongest proofs of the
inspiration of Daniel’s prophecies will be the formation of ‘the
Allied Ten-kingdomed Confederacy and the subsequent rise of an Eleventh Little
Monarch, who will make a seven years’ covenant with the Jews, in
fulfilment of Daniel 7: 24 and 9: 27.
“If our Lord and His
Apostles regarded the Book of Daniel as containing the most explicit prophecies
of Himself and His kingdom, why did they never appeal or even allude to it, to
prove that he was the promised Messiah?
How came it that neither Christ nor His Apostles ever once alluded, or
even pointed, to the Book of Daniel and the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, as
containing the least germ of evidence in favour of Christ’s Mission or
the Gospel preaching?”
- Such is the objection urged against
Daniel in a book by a Higher Critic.
This is simply the reproduction of Kuenen in his
“Prophets of Israel,” a
work he ordered to be suppressed as death drew near. The assumption is that no such appeal
was made, and the conclusion is that the Book of Daniel has nothing to do with
Jesus Christ, or with any events under the
1.
The debate of Jesus with the Jews, recorded
in John. As Messiah, asserting His
judicial supremacy and authority to hold the Messianic judgment and bring to
pass the resurrection and the life, which Daniel predicted (Dan. 12: 2, 3; 7: 13), He said: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” (John 11: 25.)
Still more: “The Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment to the Son, and hath given Him authority to
execute judgment because He is the Son of Man” – i.e., because He is the One described in
the Vision of Judgment in the Book of Daniel. Again, “The
hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live” (John
5: , 25, 27) - act fulfilled in the resurrection of Lazarus and at the crucifixion,
and yet to be fulfilled in the last day.
The “appeal” is direct to Daniel 7.,
with which Daniel 12. is
inseparably connected. All the
reader has to do is to attach Daniel 12. to the close of Daniel 7.
and see the connection. So well was the allusion known, that to
have named the Book of Daniel would have been no
less superfluous than to tell us to-day that the recital of the resurrection of
Lazarus may be found in the Gospel of John. From the vision in Daniel 7. the
title “Son of Man” –
“Bar Enash” - given to the Messiah, was taken and
used by Jesus, the Jews and the Apostles, eighty-four times in the New
Testament. The appeal to the Book
of Daniel to prove that Jesus was the “Son of Man”
and “Son of God,” i.e., Son of the “Father,” the “Ancient
of Days,” and therefore “Messiah,”
and that to Him the judgment, the resurrection, and the life were committed,
could not have been more direct.
The Jews so understood it, and “marvelled”
that the Nazarene assumed to Himself prerogatives pertaining only to God. It asserted no less than the
supernatural constitution of the person of Messiah as both God and Man, and,
therefore, of Jesus Himself. Jesus
did “appeal,” “allude,” and “point”
to the Book of Daniel in proof of His Messianic claims. It is a Messianic book, and does predict
events under the Roman or Fourth Prophetic Empire, in spite of the critics, and
of Farrar, their second and third
hand imitator and repeater.
2. The Answer to the High Priest. In
a paroxysm of rage the High Priest, contesting the claims of Jesus,
vociferated, “I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Messiah, the son of God!” Caiaphas himself is alluding and pointing to Daniel 7. as well as to
other prophecies. Could the answer
be misunderstood? “Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven.” (Matt. 26: 63, 64.) Vain the effort of the critics, saying
that the name of the book is
not mentioned! The whole Sanhedrim, understood it and condemned Him to death for
blasphemy. It is needless to say
that Jesus identified Himself
with the “Son of Man,” in that
judgment scene. That he did so in
His Mount Olivet discourse, two days previously, is self-evident. (Matt. 24: 29-31.)
3.
Again, did our Lord never once “appeal,” or so much as “allude” or “point”
to the seventy weeks’ prophecy? “These are the words I spake unto
you while yet I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were
written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in Psalms, concerning
Me. Then opened He their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written and thus it behoved Messiah to suffer and to rise again from the
dead the third day. And, beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them, in all the
Scriptures, the things
concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:
27, 44, 45.) Here is a
dispute between us and the Jews. They refuse to admit a suffering
Messiah. Only five days before this exposition He had dignified Daniel as
“Daniel the Prophet,” and, in keen
foresight of the Higher criticism of our times, as well as in reproof of the
critics of His own time, uttered these words - a crushing testimony which the
Higher Critics try to deny on the authority of two corrupted codices where the
expression is omitted! That
Daniel’s book was a part of the Old Testament “Scriptures”
cannot be denied. Nor can it be denied that the Book of
Daniel, as we have it, was the standard Palestinian and Temple text of the
prophet turned into Greek two hundred and fifty years before Christ was born,
and accepted by the Jews, Christ and His Apostles, as part of the God-breathed
and closed canon of the Scriptures, authoritative in the mouth of Christ. Nor can the critics deny that the
seventy weeks’ prophecy is the only prophecy in that book which foretells that Messiah should be
“cut off.” Nor will it be denied that the rubric,
“the Psalms,” because of their place
at the head of this whole “Third Division”
of the Jewish Scriptures, was a title given to the whole of that division, in
which the “Book of Daniel” stood
prominent. The conclusion is
irresistible that, since our Lord expounded “in
all the $criptures the things
concerning Himself.” He did not omit to refer to Daniel 9: 26, containing a signal prediction of
His own death, and so did “appeal,”
“allude” and “point” to the seventy weeks’ prophecy
where that prediction occurs, and only there in Daniel’s book. It is the companion-piece of Isaiah 53: 4-13; Zechariah 11: 10-13; 13: 1, 7; Psalms
22: 1-21. Had the Lord only
“opened the understanding” of the
critics, their eyes would have seen things now for ever hid from them.
4.
But, more. Our Lord’s answer
as to the destruction of Jerusalem, His Advent, and the End of the Age is
built, step by step, on the Book of Daniel, and appropriates even the terms used by the
prophet in his prediction of the seventy weeks. He combines in His Olivet Discourse the
events found in the closing parts, or Ends of Daniel,
chapters 2.,
7., 9., 11., and the whole of 12.
- i.e., the events under the Roman
Empire - in one connected prophecy, uses again the title “Son of Man,” again confirming His claims by the
Book of Daniel. It is His
guide. In Matthew
23: 32, introducing that discourse, and taking
leave of the
Finally, here. It is from Daniel
12: 3 our Lord takes His illustration of the righteous “shining as the sun in the kingdom of their father,”
when the “Son of Man” comes to reap
the harvest. (Matt. 13: 44.) His illustration of the “Stone” grinding to powder is from Dan. 2: 34.
His “Times and Seasons” are
Daniel’s “Iddanayya” and “Zimnayya” (Dan.
2: 21; 7: 25; 12: 7); whose chronology it was not for His disciples then
to know. Acts 1: 7, 3:19-21. Was it from an uninspired novelist, a
Maccabaean romancer, a dreaming Haggardist or
story-framer, our Lord quoted such expressions?
5. And did the “Apostles” never even “allude” to
the Book of Daniel, or the seventy weeks’ prophecy in confirmation of the
Master’s claims? Peter, in his second
Pentecostal word, not only appeals to “all the
prophets” (Acts 3: 18)
and so to Daniel, concerning the sufferings of Christ, but expressly to the
“Iddanayya” and “Zimnayya” of refreshing and restitution for Israel, in connection with the
finishing of Israel’s apostacy (Acts 3: 19-21; Dan, 9: 24). He boldly says that “all the prophets, from
Samuel and those that follow after” - therefore Daniel –
“have foretold these days,” (Acts 3: 24.)
In his first Epistle (1 Pet. 1: 10, 11)
he speaks of the prophets as “searching what and what manner of
time” the Holy Ghost signified when He “foretestified the
sufferings of Messiah and the glories after these,” using the very
verb (binthi) in Daniel 9: 2, and so “alludes” and “points”
to the seventy weeks’ prophecy. (Dan. 9: 1-28.) Paul’s description of the “Man of Sin,” in 2
Thessalonians 2: 3-8, is drawn from Daniel
8: 11, 12; 11: 36, 37; 9: 27; 12: 7. The special “Iddanayya” and “Zimnayya,” or
“Times and Seasons,” in 1
Thessalonians 5: 1, are those named by Daniel, and the scene at the
close of the Tribulation (2 Thess.
1: 7, 8) - the coming of the Lord with His mighty angels - is taken from
Daniel 7: 13, and from its repetition in Matthew 24: 29-31; 25: 31-46. Still more he vouches for the truth of
the historical parts of Daniel’s book by “appeal,”
“allusion” and “pointing” to Daniel and his companions, who
“stopped the mouths of lions,”
“quenched the violence of fire” and
“escaped the edge of the sword” on
the plains of Dura, to the brave Maccabees whose
heroism Daniel foretold (Heb. 11: 33-35; Dan. 6:
22; 3: 25; 2: 13; 11: 32), and to the resurrection in Daniel 12: 23. In 1
Corinthians 15: 41 he takes his star-illustration of the Resurrection -
Glory from Daniel 12: 3. When in Galatians
4: 4, he speaks of the “fulness of the time” when Messiah was
born, he alludes directly to the close of the sixty-ninth week, and so “appeals” and “points”
to the seventy weeks’ prophecy in confirmation of the Messialiship
of Jesus.
And as to John’s testimony to the “Book of Daniel” and the “seventy weeks’ prophecy,” in connection
with the Cloud-Comer and Destroyer of the Antichrist, it is simply
overwhelming. His Apocalypse rests
on “Daniel’s book,” on the
“seventy weeks’ prophecy,”
the interval between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth weeks and the sevpntieth week especially, and on the Olivet Discourse, as
already has been shown in previous discussions. Especially in Revelations
14: 14-20 does he use the title, the “Son
of Man,” and develops in seven acts the scene in Daniel 7: 13.
Thus both Jesus and His Apostles, notwithstanding
the Higher Critics, false assumptions, did “appeal,”
and “allude” and “point,” many times and argumentatively, to the
“Book of Daniel” and the “seventy weeks’ prophecy” in direct
confirmation of the Messianic claims of Jesus as the Great Sufferer, the Raiser
of the dead, the Giver of Life and the Judge of all mankind. “I am the
Resurrection and the Life.”
To deny this is to deny the New Testament.
6.
We have dwelt at some length on this matter here, because the “Book of Daniel” is one of the great battlefields
of the Higher Criticism, so called. The critics assail its Messianic character with rare ferocity-unguibus et rostris. They bury talons and beak into its
flesh, clawing its vitals, i.e., its
genuineness and authenticity, its historic credibility, its miracles, its
supernatural prophecies, its integrity, its Messianity,
its eschatology, its reliability its inspiration. The whole question, whether these
peerless pages were written by an exilic Daniel, or are forged documents,
compiled and redacted by a Maccabaean novelist - a story book like Rasselas, or novel like Ivanhoe, Daniel Deronda
or the Arabian Nights - lies here.
The denial of their genuineness and authenticity is the denial of the
“Book” and the conviction of New Testament eschatology as a dream
suggested by fables.
The motive of the crusade against the
book is the same as .that of their assault on every other book of the Bible. It
is wholly in the interest of what they call their “scientific
method,” whose
first “working-rule” is the denial and exclusion of the
supernatural. Once admit the
genuineness and authenticity of the book, that it was
written in exilic times by “the Prophet Daniel,”
and it is no longer, possible to deny the reality of miracles and far-sighted
prophecy which history has verified.
The “scientific method” and
the “working-rule” go to the
“tomb of the Capulets.”
“0thello’s occupation’s gone!” Half-and-half expedients are alike
exegetically and critically inadmissible.
If genuine, it is authentic.
If not authentic, it is not genuine. It is both. The proofs of its Messianity
and of its fulfilment so largely already are legion, and never can be sterilised
by critical devices. Its language
is a coin that can never be demonetised so long as the whole New Testament
eschatology is of par value with its image and its superscription. The objective point of the whole
criticism is the compromise of the character of Christ and his conviction,
either as a politician knowing Daniel’s book to be a fable, yet yielding
to the popular belief that it was genuine, thus supporting his Messianic claims
by fraud, or as a dupe, innocent and victimised by the Jewish Scribes and false
traditions, and ignorant of its character.
The outcome of the criticism is to undermine the authority of Christ in
His person and prophetic office, extinguish His glory as the “Light of the World,” and reduce the Gospel to a
system of “Ethics,” “Humanitarianism” and “Sociology.” The evidence of this is manifold. The argument of the critics, that the
Jewish belief in the divine authority of Daniel’s book “proves only that it was in the Jewish canon, and is of no
more value than the story of the sojourn of Jonah in the belly of the whale,”
is not only a bad logic and an empty sneer, but spins upon the pivot of the
“working-rule,” and hums and drones
its old objections against the character of Jesus, whose belief was that of the
Jews. It is a public disgrace to
Christendom that any man (like a certain canon) should be accepted as a
Christian teacher who instructs the Church that the Vision of the Son of Man in
Clouds (Dan. 7.), and the prophecy of
“Messiah” (Dan.
9.), have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. It gives the lie to Christ Himself.
“Should a wise man
utter vain knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind?” (Job 15: 2.)
The flukes of the truth and divine authority of Daniel’s book are
too firmly anchored in the Rock of Ages to suffer the book to be endangered by
the assumptions, conjectures, exclusions, illicit processes of the critics, and
their scientific method. The inerrant “Teacher sent from God”
stands before us as the Interpreter of the Old Testament. Beginning with Moses, He expounded
the Law in His Sermon on the Mount, and its ceremonial teaching in His
sacrifice upon the cross. Beginning
with Isaiah, in the Synagogue, He expounded the prophets, showing that they
spake of Him. Beginning with David,
He expounded the Psalms down to His dying day. A Critic He was against the higher
critics of His time who would deny to Daniel the rank of a “prophet,” and against the critics of our time
who do deny to Daniel and to Moses the authorship of “Scriptures” dictated by Himself. A critic He was against the lower
critics who sought to break the Scripture and make vain the Word of God by
their traditions; a critic He was against Satan himself, who first redacted the
ninetieth Psalm, then falsely quoted
it. In all things, moral, religious,
textual and critical, He asserted His superiority, and confounded the Scribes
and the priests. From Him, and by
His Spirit, the Apostles learned to read and understand the Old Testament; and
for us, to-day, He is our Teacher, if we will but hear His voice. It is enough to know that the whole
question of the supernatural - of miracles and prophecy - comes at last to be
no less than one concerning the person and authority of Jesus Himself, a
question whose solution depends upon the recognition of a personal God on the
one hand, able to produce such a Person, and, on the other hand, upon the
credibility of human testimony, which cannot be discredited by lack of this or
that man’s experience, or lack in this or that age, nor by any
preconceived conclusions or assumptions built on sceptical grounds. To this it comes at last, “Christ or the critics‑which?” and to a true believer the answer can
neither be difficult nor doubtful.
Each man must choose for himself, and with the full consciousness that “whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken, but on
whomsoever it sha1l fall it will grind him to powder!”
* * *
7
CHILIASM
The word “Chiliasm” mcang
“Millennialism,” or the doctrine of “the 1,000 years” in Rev. 20: 1-6, the Greek
words for which are, in English
letters, “Chilia Ete” – “a
thousand years.” It stands for “Pre-Millennialism,”
by which is meant that the Second Advent of Christ in Daniel and the
Revelation, as in all the Scriptures, is “Pre,” or before the “thousand
years” ; i.e., the Advent comes before the kingdom in victory, and is
therefore a Pre-Millennial Advent.
This is an explanatory word.
Professor Atzberger, an eminent Roman Catholic writer and
post-millennialist, has recently asked the question, “How do the Old Testament prophets relate themselves to C hiliasm?”
With great frankness he says, “Many times
their prophecies are so delivered that it would seem that an earthly kingdom
restored to
On the other hand, Dr. Paul Dornstetter, less regardful of the “Index,” condemns the post-Nicene rejection of
Chiliasm by the Roman Church, and its “spiritualising
methods.” He says,
“Not all Chiliasm was condemned by the early
Church, but only that gross and sensuous conception of it which prophecy itself
condemns. The conversion of
Once more, another recent Roman Catholic author of
great ability, Dr. Franz Dusterwald, of Bonn, writes, “Antiochus Epiphanes
was a type of the last personal Antichrist, who will be the soul of the Great
Tribulation of the Time of the End, the head of the anti-Christian empire of
the last times, and chief of a religious war and persecution of the people of
God, and after whose annihilation the kingdom comes in triumph. Of this kingdom the Prophet Daniel
speaks his chapters in 2: 44, and 7: 14, 27. This fifth kingdom clearly will be set
up in opposition to the kingdoms of this world. Already set up, spiritually, the
kingdoms of this world stand beside it in conflict, but it comes to victory
only with their overthrow.
According to Daniel, this fifth kingdom follows the Messianic Judgment, which is not the final or general
judgment of the world. Among
the first Christian expositors of the Book of Daniel stands the holy Hippolytus, whose book is Chiliastic. To
him agreed many in the first four centuries of the Church, and, indeed, not a
few. A gross Chiliasm, which was the product of heretical sects, and awaited
a kingdom of sensuous enjoyments, was rejected by the Church. Otherwise was it with the better Chiliasin. This
a multitude of the fathers of the
Apart wholly from our personal interest in the
coming of Christ, and viewed as a civil and political question in its relation
to the nations and the term of Gentile sovereignty over Israel, just as Daniel
viewed it, the vital question is, “How long
shall the Colossus stand on nationally dead Israel in Israel’s valley of
Dry Bones?” It is the
Eastern Question. By it all other
questions are decided in world-historical development. It is whether the vision of the
Cloud-Comer in Daniel 7. means the literal
Second Advent of Christ to bring His kingdom to victory, or whether a Golden
Age of universal righteousness and peace, when war shall be no more, can run
parallel with the “Warfare Great”
which that Advent terminates.
Nothing can break the consentient judgment of great
scholars, historians and exegetes, as to the witness of the
The latest method of vindicating the evaporation of
the prophecies concerning the Jews is the effort of Professor D. E. Haupt, of
No book of our times surpasses Professor Schnedermann’s of
* * *
8.
CHRONOLOGY.
B.C. 621. Daniel
born under the reign of Josiah.
B.C. 606. First capturg of
B.C. Dream of the Colossus.
B.C. 598. Second
capture of
B. C. 586. Third capture of
B.C. 585. State-concert
on the plains of Dura; anniversary of
B.C. 570. The
girdled tree; King’s mania.
B. C. 562. Nebuchadnezzar’s
death.
B.C. 561. Accession
of Evil-Merodach.
B.C. 555. Accession
of Nabonnaid, the father of Belshazzar.
B.C. 558. Accession
of Neriglissar.
B.C. 549. Overthrow
of the Median Empire of Cyrus.
B.C. 541. Co-regency of Belshazzar, son of Nabormaid,
and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar.
B.C. 541. Daniel’s vision of the Great Tribulation and
the Second Coming of Christ.
B.C. 538. Vision of the Maccabwan
persecution and profanation of the second
B.C. 538. Defeat of Nabonnaid in
B. C. 538. Fall of
B.C. 538. Accession of Darius the Mede, by authority of Cyrus.
B.C. 538. Prophecy
of the seventy weeks.
B.C. 538. Daniel in
the lions’den.
B.C. 536. Cyrus
sole ruler of
B.C. 536. Edict of
Cyrus for Jewish liberation; end of captivity; beginning of the restoration;
second
B.C.. 534.
Christophany, and vision of the Warfare Great.
B.C. 529. Death of
Cyrus.
B.C.? Death of Daniel.
B.C. 521. Accession
of Darius Hystaspes.
B.C. 515. Completion
of the second
B.C. 490.
B.C. 485. Accession of Xerxes the Great.
B.C. 480. Invasion of
B.C. 465. Accession
of Artaxerxes I.
B.C. 458. Ezra’s
commission to restore the
B.C. 444 Nehemiah’s
commission to rebuild
B.C. 430. Close of
Nehemiah’s activity; end of the restoration.
B.C. 334. Alexander the Great invades
B.C. 334,
B.C. 333.
B.C. 331.
B.C. 325. Alexander
at Shushan.
B.C. 323. Death of
Alexander at
B.C. 302. Partition
of Alexander’s empire.
B.C. 323. Ptolemy E, Soter.
B.C. 312. Seleueus
I, Nicator.
B.C. 280. Antiochus
I.
B.C. 285. Ptolemy II, Philadelphus.
B.C. 485. Accession
of Xerxes the Great.
B.C. 285. Septuagint
version of the Old Testament.
B.C. 261.
B. C. 247. Ptolemy III., Euergetes.
B.C. 246. Seleueus
II, Kallinikos.
B.C. 226. Seleueus
III., Keraunos
B.C. 222. Antiochus III., the Great.
B.C. 221. Ptolemy IV., Philopator.
B.C. 205. Ptolemy
V., Epiphanes.
B.C. 187. Seleueus
IV.
B.C. 181. Ptolemy VI., Philometor.
B.C. 175. Antiochus IV., Epiphanes.
B.C. 173. First
campaign of, against
B.C. 170. Second
campaign of, against
B.C. 170. First
campaign of, against
B.C. 168. Third
campaign of, against
B.C. 168. Second
campaign of, against
B.C. 168. The Maccabaean
tribulation; profanation of the second
B.C. 165. End of
the tribulation; cleansing of the second
B.C. 164. Death of
Antiochus‑Epiphanes at Tabae, in
B.C. 161. Death of
Judas Maccabaeus.
B.C. 64. Capture
of
B.C. 48.
B.C. 45. Debate on
prophecy in the Senate House at
B.C. 44. Assassination
of Caesar.
B.C. 42
B.C. 28. Augustus
Caesar, first Emperor of Rome.
A.D. 1. BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST, 538 years after the fall of Babylon by Cyrus, i.e., 538 years
after Gabriel’s prediction of his “cutting off” to occur at
the close of the 69th week of the 70 weeks; and 536 years after the
edict of Cyrus for the Jewish liberation.
A.D. 34. Crucifixion of Jesus - common reckoning.
A.D. 70. Second destruction of
From B.C. 28. Duration
of the Fourth Prophetic Empire and its kingdoms, i.e., the legs, feet, and toes of the Colossus. The Fourth Beast, out of whose horns the
Little Horn, or last Antichrist, is yet to come, still exists. The Colossus
still stands.
* * *
9.
HOW NEAR TO THE END.
Among the events which will indicate the approaching
End of the Age, are
I. Those given in the Old Testament, viz.:
1. The return of the Jews to their own land in
numbers sufficient to satisfy the prophecy of Isaiah
11: 11-16.
2. The covenant between the Antichrist and the
Jewish masses, whereby they acquire a modus vivendi with the building of their temple, and
revival of their ancient worship, the Lord reproving their unbelieving labour.
(Isa. 66: 1-4; Dan. 9: 27)
3. The conversion of the Remnant and their
persecution by their apostate brethren. (Isa. 56: 5-9)
4. The breach of the covenant between the Antichrist
and the Jews, followed by the Great Tribulation (Dan.
9: 27), beginning with the attack of certain Powers upon the Antichrist,
and the Antichrist’s Invasion of Palestine. (Dan.
11: 40-45; 12: 1)
5. The gathering of the nations against
6. The sanguinary action in the
7. The Cosmic Signs - earthquake, the sundering of
the
II. Those given in the New Testament. In the Olivet Discourse the Lord gives
the Signs and Events for both the destruction of
1. The appearing of False Christs, coming in His name, (Matt.
24: 5.)
2. Wars, civil and
international, disrupting the bonds of amity and peace among nations. (Matt. 24: 6-7.)
3. Cosmic Signs - earthquakes contemporaneous
with sporadic famines and pestilence, in different places (24: 7), these the signs
and events nearest to us, as they were to the Jews before
Among the Middle Signs:-
4. As to the External History
of the Church, a universal hatred and
bloody persecution of the saints by the nations. The extension of missions has for its
pre-supposition not only, the reception of the Gospel on the one hand, but its
rejection on the other; the conflict of Christianity with the world-powers and
the false systems of religion by which they are supported. (24: 9.)
5. As
to, the Internal History of the Church.
A Great Apostasy from the truth
by unbelieving Christians, a departure from the true faith and life of the
Gospel, and a practical return to a worldly and heathen walk aud conversation, by means of false teachers themselves
apostate from the truth - unbelief, lawlessness, pleasure, crime and
declension of Christian love and vital godliness abounding in professing
Christendom. (24: 10-12.)
6. The Progress of Missions at
the same time; a universal witness to the Gospel among all nations, during a condition of society such as was in
the days of Noah and of
Among the signs remotest from us and nearest to the
Advent, are:
7. The Antichrist, the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by “Daniel the prophet,” the Great Tribulation, and
false alarms as to the coming of Christ. The
political dechristianisation of the Christian powers,
their subserviency to Mammon and Antichristianity,
will have advanced with the progress of Christendom in wealth, and its departure
from the Gospel and the law of righteousness. What exists, save “Christ’s
elect,” is a moral “carcass”
fit only for the eagle’s beak. (Matt. 24: 15,
21-26, 28; Jas. 1: 5-7.) Christendom
will be as morally corrupt as it will be architecturally splendid, and,
save a faithful few, as dead to Christ and His Spirit as it is alive to
Mammon and the work of Satan, under the pretence of “Peace” and
“Reform.”
“Money and Peace” will be
its curse, all the time preparing for war - Hypocrisy its policy, Unbelief its
creed.
8. The culmination of the Apostacy, under the teachings of false Christs
and false prophets, the frog-croaking ministers of the Antichrist and the False
Prophet, deceiving the world by means of great signs and wonders, assailing the
truth and proclaiming “the lie” that
Christ and Christianity are a fraud.
(Matt. 24: 24; Rev. 13: 5-18; 16: 14.)
9. The Conversion of the Jews
and the Gathering of the Nations against
10. The Cosmic Signs next to the
Advent, viz., Obscuration of the Heavenly Lights, Meteoric Showers, the
Concussion of the Heavens, Earthquakes, Distress, Perplexity, Terror and
Apprehension, the Sea roaring. (Matt.
24: 29; Luke 21: 25, 26.)
Then the Son of Man Himself, His own Sign, in the
clouds of heaven. (Matt. 24: 30.)
Such are the signs and events that “must needs come to pass” before the Second Coming of Christ. How many of these are in the field now
is for the judgment of enlightened men to determine. As to the Nearer Signs, there can be no
question. As to the Middle Signs,
the only question is how long they will continue until the latest ones
enter. That they are present in their measure is undeniable. That both the signs nearest to us and
the middle signs contemporate and cumulate, in our day, cannot be
disputed. The conversion of the world is nowhere a sign of the End in any book
of Scripture, and any judgment based upon a presupposition so gratuitous is
worthless. Nowhere has the
Saviour said, “When the world is universally
converted, then the End shall
come,” but this, “When the Gospel
[of the kingdom] has been testified to all nations, then the End shall come.” Nowhere is the Divine commission to witness to the Gospel in all lands,
instructing all nations in the truth, and so discipling
them, any pledge that the measure of true conversions will equal the
universality of the command. It
never has done so in any nation, city, town or village of the world, and never will in this present [evil] age. That vision is
reserved for the future [millennial age] after the Antichrist is destroyed and Satan is
bound. Only then “all nations shall
come and worship before the Lord; because His judgments shall be manifested,”
and that is when the Antichrist and his
kingdom are destroyed, and the Colossus of Gentile politics and power has
become aa the “chaff of the summer threshing-floor.” It is after
The dream that
the “Arbitration” of international
disputes will introduce the universal reign of righteousness and peace before
the Lord comes, is superficial. It is
the honest but misguided view of many Christians. It
is the scheme that Mammon will approve - the Stockholders’ and the
Bondholders’ piety for the sake of money. The scheme was tried in ancient
times.
“The war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are
furled
In the Parliament
of man, the federation of the world.”
Lord Russell, Chief Justice of England,
calls it a “poetic dream” for this age, remarking that “
And far away from
the heart of the Church, as a practical power, does the idea of the “universal conversion of the world” remove the hope of the Coming of the
Lord. Christendom [mistakenly and blindly]
expects the conversion of the world
before the Lord comes. T he facts satisfy us that this also is a “poetic dream.” If we consult the most reliable
statistics as to the progress of Christian missons -
furnished by, Mullhall, Stunhall,
Lavoisier, Fournier de Flaix,
Pinkerton, Fabri, Vahl, the
Royal Geographical Society, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Behm’s
Bureau of Statistics, in Berlin, and the A. B. C. F. M. Almanac for 1897 - we
shall get as correct a view as is possible in this branch of
investigation. In 1800 the
population of the globe was 700,000,000, the Christian population, including
all the unconverted in Christendom, being 196,204,000, or 28 per cent. of the whole. In
1897, a century later, the population of the globe is 1,500,000,000, the
Christian population, qualified as above, being 491,000,000, or 33 per cent. of the whole, the rate of increase of Christendom being
relatively 5 per cent. in excess of the rate of
increase for the total population of the globe. That is, nominal Christendom, including
all infidels, criminals, unbelievers and rejectors of
the Gospel, all corrupt forms of religion, and all its unbelief, is two and a
half times greater to-day than in 1800, while yet the increase of Christendom
relatively to that of the whole world’s population is only 5 per cent. If, liberally, we estimate nominal
Christianity, including all real converts, at 500,000,000, instead of
490,000,000, there remain still 1,000,000,000 - a thousand millions - in
heathendom not yet converted, even as there are millions in Christendom in the
same condition.
And what have Continental Europe,
Such the showing, the Turk
still holding the fairest portions of the world which once were Christian. If we compare the 2,121,065 of
Christians with the 1,000,000,000, what is the ratio of this Christian
population, in heathen lands, to the unconverted 1,000,000,000 yet remaining
there? This.
10,000,000 is 1 per cent. of 1,000,000,000, and
2,121,065 is but slightly more than one-fifth of this 1 per cent.; that is, the
ratio of the Christian population to the non‑Chrislian
in heathendom is a trifle over one‑fifth of 1 per cent. after nearly nineteen centuries. Concede to the Charch, liberally, all she claims, viz., the Bible
translated, in whole or part, into four hundred languages and dialects spoken
by nine-tenths of the human race, religious books and tracts scattered by the
million and increasingly, 280 missionary organisations, 25,000 auxiliary
societies, 12,000 missionaries, 70,000 native helpers of every description, the
occupation of vast regions in Asia and Africa, an ever-widening evangelisation,
and the number of actual additions in the foreign field, for 1897, as 780,858, still
the progress of Christendom, relatively to that of the population of the globe,
during 100 years save three is only 5 per cent., and the ratio of Christians in
heathendom to the unconverted there is only a little over one-fifth of 1 per
cent - the heathen population outrunning that of the civilised nations,
Islam outrunning Christianity in many parts of Asia and Africa, Hinduism
resisting it, all the heathen religions still in force. If, after nearly 19 centuries, the most
advanced stage of Christian civilisation can only show one-fifth of 1 per cent.
as the ratio between converted and unconverted
heathendom, how long will it take to convert the heathen world so rapidly
increasing, not to speak of the unconverted millions in Christendom? How long will it take, in face of the clear statements of the
Lord that when He comes it will be as it was in the days of Noah and Lot, and
of Paul that Apostasy and Antichristianity will
prevail, and of all the Prophets, Christ and His Apostles, that Christendom
must be judged for its crimes?
Political and
international events, whose weight, multitude, rapid emergence and importance
have never been surpassed, continue to crowd upon us. The outward push of a military
Christendom, bent on the partition of two continents, is already a fact of
daily observation, and threatens a collision, the greatest ever known in
history. The Eastern Question, a
dozen Western ones, the world’s horrid armament, the antagonism between
capital and labour, the greed of empires, and the struggle to survive, the
restlessness and expectation everywhere, touch the deepest life of humanity,
already strained with over-tension.
The old question recurs, “How long shall
it be to the end?”
It is both sober and justified to say that, viewing
the state of Christendom and the world, as it is, in the clear light of
prophecy, the remainder of the “Interval”
must be relatively short, and the “End”
not far away. In this judgment the
best interpreters of prophecy agree.
Many Swiss, German, Russian and Swedish universities now lecture statedly upon the Jewish problem, and the interest taken in
the Eastern Question is phenomenal, as Daniel foretold. Some one is calling out of Seir, “Watchman! what of the night?”
As to the time required for the final formation and
arrangement of the ten kingdoms sprung from the old Roman territory, from the
nature of modern warfare, though immense fighting must be done, it cannot be
greatly protracted. If we take Van Kampen’s
and Kiepert’s
maps of the ancient world as it was in time following the prophecies of Daniel
and Ezekiel, and compare them with a good modern atlas, we shall realise the
situation. The line between the
eastern and western foot of the Colossus runs from
“Till He
come” so runs
thy line,
Marking off the term of ill;
Darkest hours of power
malign
Never more an hour to fill.
“Till He
come” the might of hell
Still against the saints
shall rage,
And, beneath the
Tempter’s spell,
Men in strifes
and sins engage.
“Till He
come,” wrong
will prevail,
And the right be done in vain;
Truth’s confession still entail
Toil, and obloquy, and pain;
But Our Hope can brook delay,
Waiting such a glorious day!
The word from the watch-tower of the prophet is
“The
vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and not
lie. Though it tarry, wait for it,
because it will surely come; it will not tarry.” (Heb. 2: 3.) This attitude of patient expectation
is of divine commandment. Amid all
vicissitudes the one abiding comfort is this, “Jesus
Christ, the Same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” (Heb. 13: 8.) The Church’s duty is clear: (1) To
give the Gospel, at once, to the neglected parts of heathendom; (2) to work and pray for Israel’s
conversion; (3) to save all the souls
she can and do all the good she can.
(4) to bear a faithful witness to the truth;
(5) to keep herself unspotted from the world; (6) to study earnestly the signs
of the times, and (7) to wait, watch,
and pray, uttering back the promise of the Lord, “Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”
MILITARY CHRISTENDOM.
… The military aspect of Nineteenth Century
Christendom is not without its significance for those who raise the quession. “Is the world
growing better?” If
disorder, bloodshed, murder, massacre, swords, bayonets, guns, torpedoes,
dynamite, armies and navies are evidence of moral improvement, and the fruit of
Christian civilisation, [is] the world … on the rapid road to perfection?
…
-------