[The following is from ‘Part III THE PROSPECTS OF THE GENTILES’ in the
author’s book, pages 109-168.]
CHAPTER
2
[Page 109]
The
Book of Daniel and the Pre-written
History
of the Times of the Gentiles
The God of Israel removed His throne and His glory from
And so in fulfilment of the Word of God, the Lord sent the
king of Babylon in 606 B. C. the first time; He appeared again in 598 B. C. and
took away a larger number of people including the prophet-priest Ezekiel; the
final visit came in 587, which brought the complete conquest.
Among the captives in the early invasion were Daniel and his
three companions in fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah
39: 7. The youth Daniel soon rose,
through the providence of God, to a place of prominence. The Hebrew captive became the Prime Minister
of Babylon. He was mightily used in
making known to the king the prospects of the future, and then received his
great visions. But it must be noted that
prophecy in Daniel is not addressed to
Before taking up the prospects of the Gentiles during the
times of the Gentiles and their predicted end and showing how world conditions
today indicate the end of the age, when the revealed prospects will become
history, we shall give a brief synopsis first of what was made known through
Daniel before we examine these prophecies. e also must say a brief word as to the
authenticity and trustworthiness of this great prophetic book.
1. The Great World Empires which cover the Times f the
Gentiles.
The political history of the Times of the Gentiles were
revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in a great prophetic dream (Chapter
2). According to this dream, four
great monarchies were to arise:
But God, while making all this known, in the supernatural
dream, also gave to His prophet a vision of the same political history of the
age of the Gentiles. This is recorded in
the seventh chapter of Daniel. Out of
the sea four beasts arose. Each
represents one of the world powers, corresponding to the four empires revealed
in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. [Page 111] The fourth beast with its ten horns is
2. The Vision in the Eighth Chapter. This concerns
two of these world monarchies: Medo-Persia and the Graeco-Macedonian. What will happen in connection with the
Alexandrian Empire to
3. The Vision of the Seventy Weeks. This vision contains a most remarkable prophecy. We shall be interested mostly in the last of
the seventieth week, the last seven years with which the age of the Gentiles
closes.
On account of these startling predictions and forecasts, and
the literal, still more startling fulfilment in the past of some of these
prophecies, the book of Daniel has been severely attacked by the rationalistic
enemies of the Word of God. In spite of
the vindication of the date and authenticity of this book through archaeology
and leading philologists, the attacks upon the book continue and the
modernistic mouthpieces ignore, as they generally do, what the other side has
to say. Inasmuch as a large number of
people will read this volume who have probably been
influenced by the arguments of the destructive critical school, we are obliged
to establish confidence in this magnificent book by answering some of the
leading objections.
The critics, such as Canon
Driver, Farrar and a host of German and English rationalists, American
echoes and others, claim that it is one of the
spurious Jewish religious writings, like the book of Enoch, the Apocalypse of
Baruch, the Twelve Patriarchs, and the Ascension of Isaiah. They [Page 112] put the date at the same time in which these apocalyptic writings
appeared, that is, the second century before Christ. Most of them say about 165 B. C. They also claim that the book was written by
an unknown person, some call him a pious Jew, who assumed the name of Daniel,
and made out that he lived in
Here is our first answer to this assumption. If the book of Daniel was written during the
days of the Maccabees, that is, about 165 or 164 B. C., how did it get into the
Canon of the Old Testament, which was fixed a great many years before the
period of the Maccabees? Another
important evidence that the book of Daniel existed in the time of Alexander the
Great around the year 328 is found in the history of Josephus (Antiquities 11: 8, 4), according to which the prophecies
of Daniel had been pointed out to that king on his entrance to Jerusalem. While some of the minor details Josephus
mentions in his account may be embellishments of the event, yet it is
historically true and undeniable that Alexander bestowed great favours on the
Jews, a circumstance which would be unexplainable without granting the fact
recorded by Josephus to be reliable and true.
According to Josephus, Alexander the Great came before the gates of
But the first book of the Maccabees, not only pre-supposes the
existence of the book of Daniel, but actually betrays acquaintance with the
Greek version of the same, which is a proof that the book must have been
written long before that period (1 Mac. 1: 54; compare with Dan. 11: 27; 1 Mac. 2: 59; compare Dan. 12).
Furthermore, we have an important testimony to the existence of Daniel,
which some of the critics deny, and his character in Ezekiel
14: 14, 20; 28: 3. Daniel is
there represented as an unusual character, as a model of justice and wisdom, to
whom had been allotted superior divine insight and revelation. This agrees perfectly with the record of the
book, the biography of this great man of God.
Again, the book contains such a very intimate acquaintance
with Chaldean manners, customs, history and religion, as none but a person who
lived in that period could fairly be supposed to possess. For instance, the description of the
magicians and their regulations perfectly agrees with other historical
sources. The account of Nebuchadnezzar’s
mental collapse is confirmed by the ancient historian Berosus. Archaeology has confirmed all this in a most
remarkable way.
The linguistic character of the book of Daniel is most
decisive for its authenticity. As it is
well known, the book is written in two languages, in Hebrew and in Aramaic, the
language of
Another great defeat came to the destructive critics in
connection with King Belshazzar,
mentioned for the first time in the fifth chapter of Daniel. His existence was denied by the critics. No ancient historian mentions this King
Belshazzar, hence the rationalists declared him to be a myth, and used this
mythical person as an evidence against Daniel. The historian Berosus,
who lived about 250 years after the Persian conquest of
But he did not mention Belshazzar. Now if Daniel wrote the book and lived in
that period, he must be correct. But the critics are ever ready not to doubt
history, no matter how unreliable it is, but to doubt the infallible Book and
its historical statements. So for many
years they declared that Berosus gives the truth and
that Daniel was mistaken and did not know history, that the book contains a
mythical person. But in 1854, Sir Henry Rawlinson
deciphered a number of clay tablets which the spade of the archaeologist had
unearthed from the debris in
We do not enter into another objection to the authenticity of
Daniel, especially the foreign words which are found in this book, both Persian
and Greek. They are a powerful proof of
the genuineness of this book, a voucher in fact that its author occupied a
position such as was held by Daniel at the
[Page 115]
We must not overlook the very highest authority for the
genuineness of this great book with its majestic forecasts of history, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He who came as the
minister of the circumcision to His people
And now we turn to the various parts of Daniel in which the
prospects of the Gentile nations are unfolded as well as the end of the Times
of the Gentiles.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S
PROPHETIC
DREAM
Nebuchadnezzar’s great prophetic dream is recorded in the
second chapter of Daniel, one of the great pivotal chapters of the Bible. Without giving every detail of the chapter we
mention what occasioned the dream. The
king had a strong desire to know the future.
He probably knew of his divine calling and appointment, for Daniel
reminded him of it when he said: “For the God of heaven hath given thee
a kingdom, power, and strength and glory” (Verse
37). So Daniel also said: “Thy thoughts
came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass afterward” (Verse 29). And He who knows the
innermost thoughts and desires of His creatures responded to this secret wish of
the monarch and gave him a forecast of the future in a dream. The dream spans the entire Times of the Gentiles down to their end.
The dream showed to Nebuchadnezzar the figure of a man. It was composed of four metals: gold, silver,
brass and iron. The two feet of the man
were part of iron and part of clay.
According to the divine interpretation each part of the
man-image represents a great world power. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian
Monarchy is typified by the head of the image,
as Daniel told the king. The chest represents a Monarchy inferior to the Babylonian, that is the Medo-Persian Power. In
the fifth chapter it is named in the [Page 116] handwriting on the wall “Peres, thy kingdom (the Babylonian) is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” The third great monarchy which conquered the
Persian is seen in the belly and thighs, it is the Graeco-Macedonian Monarchy, mentioned several centuries before its
existence in the eighth chapter of Daniel.
The final great world power which is to rule during the Times of the
Gentiles is seen in the two legs of the man-image. It is the iron world power, the Roman
Monarchy.
Here, then, we find revealed five centuries before Christ the
political prospects of the Times of the Gentiles, that they should bring forth
in history four great world powers - Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Graeco-Macedonia
and the Roman, consisting of two parts, the West and East Roman. This is as clear as it can be. Even Gibbon
in his history, though he cannot be classed as a believer, says: “The four empires are clearly delineated; and the invincible
armies of the Romans described with as much clearness in the prophecies of
Daniel, as in the histories of Justin and
Diodorus.” However, the destructive critic makes the
attempt to rule out the Roman World power and then invents an order as follows:
Babylonia (gold),
Gold, the golden head, in the image symbolizes the Empire [Page 117] of Nebuchadnezzar. Why gold? Gold is typical of Divinity. Nebuchadnezzar had received authority and
dominion from the God of heaven, and this is why gold is the emblem of
The next World Empire, the Medo-Persian, has silver for its symbol. It is far below the value of gold, to teach
us the lesson, which we point out later, that as far as the political dominion
of the Times of the Gentiles is concerned there is no world improvement, no
betterment, but deterioration. The
father of history, Herodotus, informs us also that silver was prominent in that
empire and all transactions were made in that metal.
Brass is the symbol of the Graeco-Macedonian world
power. Josephus makes on this third world power the brief comment – “Another king shall come from the west armed with brass.” It is well known to historians that the Greek
warriors wore brazen armours and shields.
And finally the iron, the common, inferior metal comes into view. While the Greeks wore breastplates of bronze,
as used in the bronze age, the Romans began to use
iron swords and iron shields. The
strongest proof that the iron world power is the Roman is twofold, the length
of its duration, and its great power.
The Babylonian Empire lasted about 70 years; the Medo-Persian 200 years;
the Grecian 130 years; whilst the Roman in its undivided state lasted for some
500 years. Its conquests by its great
strength are too well known to need further iteration. And the history of the
To this we turn next.
It is seen in the prophetic dream in the feet of clay and the ten toes
of iron.
The part of the dream which brings before us the final phase
of the Times of the Gentiles is revealed in Daniel
2: 41-43. “And whereas thou sawest the feet and the toes, part of potters’
clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it
of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
clay. And as the toes of the feet were
part iron, and part clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly
broken. And whereas thou sawest iron
mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but
they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is mixed with clay.”
In a historical way this was the fate of the
These political conditions which existed when the
The predominant feature will be the clay. The word used in the Hebrew (hasaph) means
the potters’ clay. It is that which is
of the earth and which can be easily moulded in all kinds of shapes and
forms. It has no strength in it
whatever. If shaped into pottery it is
easily broken. Iron denotes strength and
is the symbol of imperial power, the monarchical form of government. Monarchy is God’s form of government. The little ten toes of iron show that a small
vestige of kingly rule is left. The clay
is the symbol of weakness, and in its characteristics point to the rule by the
people and for the people, the democratic form of government. The clay is foreign to the rest of the
man-image. It was not in the head of
gold, nor in the chest of silver. Nor is
it seen in the thighs of brass and the legs of iron, but down at the feet it
appears and finally the whole image rests upon this brittle foundation with ten
toes of iron.
This is exactly the history of our own times. As we stated in “The
Conflict of the Ages,” the beginning of the end of the age in which we
are living had its start with the French Revolution. The people began to rise up and dictated to
kings and monarchs. In the subsequent
history of the nineteenth century the clay became more and more prominent,
democracies and republics rising, weakening the monarchies, emptying throne
after throne by deposing kings. Our
exposition on Daniel was written in 1911.
In it we made the statement, “There is a strong
current towards the democratic rule, the rule by the people, the exaltation of the people.” [Page 120] What have we seen since 1911, in the
history of the age? A great world war
passed into history. The world war
proved a way-preparer for the real
end of the age. One of the great slogans
was “to make the world safe for democracy.”
What has become of it? As one of the
results of the war new republics were started.
The whole map of
Nor is this all.
The people arise everywhere, demanding their rights. Capitalism is attacked and branded as a form
of imperialism. The Satanic abolition program
of the Illuminati advocating the out-and-out
destruction of the state, capitalism, the family and religion gains the upper
hand through the frightful revolution of all revolutions, the Russian
revolution. It has become a world
menace. The clay is being shaped into
all kinds of forms - Socialism, Fascism, Communism, Anarchism. A well-ordered democracy like the
In
It has not yet fully come, but is on the way in the form of an
overwhelming avalanche. Yet the avalanche
in its final destructive sweep is held back still, till the final hindering
power, the last restraint is removed. We
hear its distant thundering advance.
What about the kings represented by the ten iron toes? We cannot locate them geographically at this
time. Perhaps they will not come into
existence till the great dictator, Satan’s man, arises. He will claim divine authority, when it is in
reality the devil’s power. He will
imitate God’s governmental power by setting up new kings and dethroning others. He will select his ten kings and use them for
his own purpose. In our next chapter we
shall get the full prospects of the days to come through Daniel’s vision.
Next the dream reveals that when these kings are here, when
the clay-iron aspect is reached in the revival of the
The stone in dealing this destructive blow ends the Times of
the Gentiles. The Gentile government
passes away, monarchies and democracies, socialism, fascism, communism,
anarchism and every other governmental “ism”
ends, [Page 122] with not the remotest possibility of recovery. In place of it all a new government will be
set up, a government which fills the whole earth and which will have no
fluctuating history, but which will remain and never change. That all this cannot happen till the feet of clay with the
ten toes are in existence is obvious.
But who is this smiting stone?
We have disposed of that strange, to say the very least, theory that
British Israel is that stone. Nor do we
mention other inventions and explanations as to this stone. The stone in Scripture is
symbolical of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the teaching of the Bible.
He is the stone of
The People Israel fell against that stone, rejected Him, and were broken as a nation.
When He speaks of the falling stone and the grinding to powder, He
confirms the dream vision and interprets it as meaning Himself.
But when is Christ going to do this smiting work? Did it begin when He was here on earth? Did He attack the
The striking stone with its demolishing, catastrophic blow
cannot mean, as one expositor puts it, “the peaceful
extension of the spiritual kingdom by the preaching of the Gospel.” No! The kingdom cannot fill the earth till
the one blow has done its work, not a gradual act, but one sudden event. The smiting stone is Christ in
His second Coming, in great power and glory. And in this way the Times of the Gentiles
will end. When the ten kings have
received their place, when the clay is predominant, when over it all a mighty
dictator rules and God is defied, then God will speak in the Return of His
adorable Son. He will judge the world in
righteousness and the beginning of His reign will be the demolition of the
Gentile rule, which failed as Adam failed, as the sons of Noah failed, as
* *
*
[Page 124]
CHAPTER
3
Daniel’s
Great Vision of the Times of the
Gentiles
and their End
The first prospects of the Times of the Gentiles were revealed
to Nebuchadnezzar in the beginning of His reign. It was many years later, about
67 or 68 years, that the prophet had the great vision which gave him a deeper
insight into the Times of the Gentiles, their end and what is to follow. This vision is recorded in the seventh
chapter.
He beheld the sea in turbulent agitation. The sea in Scripture is used as a picture of
the nations. When John in the Apocalypse
saw the waters, he was told, “The waters which thou
sawest ... are peoples, and multitudes, and
nations and tongues” (Rev. 17: 15). Out of the sea of nations Daniel saw four
beasts rising. “The
first was like a lion, and had eagles’ wings; I beheld till the wings thereof
were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon the
feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given him.” This first beast denotes the Babylonian
Empire and corresponds to the gold in the image revelation. As gold is a precious metal, so the lion is
the king of all the beasts. In Jeremiah 4: 7 the prophet had announced him as the
lion coming from the thicket, and elsewhere Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned as an
eagle. Both the lion and the eagle were
typical of his majestic greatness and the rapidity of his conquest. But his wings were plucked, which means that
the proud king had been humbled in his eagle character and that the eagle was
to stand upon the feet as man, which robbed the animal of its strength, for an
eagle without wings would be helpless. A
man’s heart was also given him. For a
time the boasting king had been humbled to the place of a beast (Chapter 4), but a man’s heart was given him, for
he was restored from his degradation.
Then the prophet saw a second beast rising out of the sea.
“And behold 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 unto it, [Page 125] Arise, devour much flesh.”
The bear represents the second great
monarchy, the chest of silver in the image, the Medo-Persian power. The Persian conqueror Cyrus was stronger than
the Medean king. This empire was
characterized by great rapaciousness.
The three ribs denote
“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.” Here is a very minute prophecy. It is the Graeco-Macedonian Empire which was
seen in the image as brass. The leopard
is a swift animal, dashing cat-like at its prey. It foreshadows the amazing rapidity of the
career of Alexander the Great. To
emphasize its swiftness the leopard had four wings. Alexander the Great was very crafty and
vigilant. And the four heads are
prophetic of the partition of his Empire into the kingdoms of
“After this I saw in the night
visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong
exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke 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.
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.” This is the fourth World Power and as in the
image, iron is prominent here also. It
was so terrible to look upon that Daniel had no name for it, a nondescript, a beast that could not be classified. Here is the same lesson as in the image of
the king, the lesson of deterioration.
It goes downward – gold – silver – brass - iron and clay; it is a deterioration in value of the four metals but an increase
in force. And here the same downward character – lion – bear – leopard - and the great ten-horned
nondescript. God bears [Page 126] witness as to the Gentile nations.
They are beastly in their character.
And the nations have borne witness to it that they are ferocious and
destructive.
There is no nation in Christendom which has as an insignia a
lamb resting in a green meadow, or a nice, peaceful, harmless dove. They have as emblems, the lion, the bear, the
unicorn, the eagle, the double-headed eagle and the dragon. We wrote in 1911, “Their
standing armies, their ever increasing navies, both on the sea and now also in
the air, tell us beforehand that some coming day, in the near future, the dogs
of war will be let loose and the beasts will do their most dreadful work”
(Exposition of Daniel, page 74).
And this was written at a time when the hopes of universal
peace ran high, when peace pacts were written and a peace foundation of ten
paltry million dollars was made by Andrew
Carnegie, and a peace palace in
Mr. Philip Noel Baker
in an excellent article in the Yale Review (Summer 1934) on “The Drift Toward War” says:
“In short, in the last three years
every policy has been threatened, and every safeguard weakened, by which
Still more alarming is the report which comes from
While Europe is on the verge of another tragedy, the far
Eastern situation is threatening and many believe that
[Page 128]
The most loud-mouthed advocate to end war and have all nations
disarm is the
But we must return to this fourth beast, the
Who is this domineering little horn? He is the coming great dictator who will
swing into the political saddle and becomes the imperial head, the great autocrat,
who controls [Page 129] the Restored Roman Empire. No man knows who he is; God knows him and
will permit him to do this work under Satanic
inspiration and Satanic control. It
would be a mistake to call him the Antichrist.
That the spirit of Antichrist is in him is very true, but the final
Antichrist is not assuming political control and power; he does not head the
The question has been asked – “Will
the
The question is also asked: “What
about the
In order to get the complete picture of the prospects of the
end of the Times of the Gentiles we must consider the revelation which was
given to the great seer of the New Testament.
John, the beloved disciple, was banished by the Roman power to the
In the thirteenth chapter of the last book of the Bible we
read the great vision which throws a wonderful light on the horned fourth beast
and the little horn Daniel saw. No words
of ours are needed to prove that it is the same beast John saw rising out of
the sea. “And I
stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea,
having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns crowns, and upon his heads
the name of blasphemy. And the beast
which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were the feet of a bear, and
his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power, and his
seat, and great authority” (Rev. 13: 1-2). These horns which wear diadems (the correct translation) are the ten
kings of Daniel’s vision. Later we read,
“These (the ten kings) have
one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast,” while
they received their power from the beast (Rev. 17:
12, 13). [Page 131] The names of blasphemy denote the apostasy of God-defiance and opposition
which will prevail during the end of this age.
And the former world monarchies are mentioned, only in a reverse order -
leopard, bear and lion. The Roman
Empire, even extending to
But what does it mean - “And I saw one
of his heads as slain to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and whole
earth wondered after the beast.”
It denotes the political death and resurrection of the
Before we leave this interesting chapter in the Revelation and
follow the predicted events in the book of Daniel, we mention the second beast
which John beheld rising not from the sea, but out of the land that is
“The two beasts of our chapter
present a series of strikingly marked contrasts. The first came out of an unsettled state of
things - the sea; the second
arises out of a settled and established condition of civil and political
government - the
earth. The
former is a secular power; the latter a religious one. The first Beast had ten horns; the second has
two. In subtle soul-destroying influence
the second is the more dangerous of the two executive ministers of Satan, but
the first is paramount in civil and military authority. The second Beast is clearly subordinate to
the first, and in fact, uses the military and other forces of the empire to
accomplish his purpose - the deification of the first Beast. [Page 133] The second is the lieutenant of the first. The first is a Gentile; the second a
Jew. Chronologically, too, the second
Beast succeeds the rise of the first.
There is considerable confusion in the minds of many as to the
respective spheres of action of these two beasts. The first is a vast political and military
system, and as such perishes at the Coming of the Lord. Its authority and influence extend throughout
the civilized and christianized parts of the earth,
embracing numerous nations and peoples.
To it Satan gives his throne and authority, that
which Christ refused from Satan (Luke 4: 6,
7). He
receives it from His Father (Psa. 2: 8). No power can withstand the Beast. It is the dominant power on earth.
The second Beast rules in
The final vision as to the beast and the ten kings, the great
Western Confederacy, the restored Roman Empire, we find in Revelation 19: 19, “And I
saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together
to make war against Him that sat upon the horse, and against His army.” Then falls the stone from above and the
opposing forces are forever crushed. The
two beasts - the first, the Roman head, and the second, the false prophet - are
cast into the lake of fire. But we must
see what happens next in Daniel’s great vision.
It is the same which happened in the dream vision of
Nebuchadnezzar. God deals with these
horrible conditions. What Asaph said comes to pass, “Our God
shall come and not keep silence” (Psa. 50). Daniel sees the thrones of judgment set
down. All changes [Page 134] now. The fourth beast is dethroned;
the work of the little horn is ended. Then follows the
enthronement of another.
“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.
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” (Dan. 7:
13, 14).
That this scene of glory and the great change of rule and
dominion of the world corresponds to the smiting stone
and its sudden growth into a world-filling mountain is so apparent that we need
not to enlarge upon it. Yet the question arises in our mind, inasmuch as Anglo-Israelism claims that the smiting stone is the
Who then is the Son of Man whom Daniel saw coming in the
clouds of heaven to receive the dominion over all the [present] earth? For
the destructive critic to acknowledge that it means Christ, our Lord, would be
a perfect suicide of their miserable school of doubt. We listen to Canon Driver in the “Cambridge Bible”:-
“In the Book of Daniel itself there is nothing which lends support to the Messianic
interpretation. In the explanation of
the vision which follows the place occupied by ‘one
like unto the son of man’ is taken not to be
the Messiah, but by the ideal people of God; in verse
14 the ‘one like
unto a son of man’ appears when the dominion of
the four beasts, and the persecution of the ‘little
horn’ are both over, and receives a universal
kingdom which shall never pass away; in verses
18, 22 and 27, when the dominion of the four beasts is at an end, and the
persecution of the king corresponding to the little horn has ceased, the saints
of the Most High, or (Verse 9, 7) the people of the Saints of the Most High, receive
similarly a universal kingdom and possess it for ever and ever.”
Here we see the blindness of the
destructive critic who [Page 135] denies that this sublime vision has anything whatever
to do with Christ. And so the “Century Bible,” another destructive work, makes the
same comment, that the Son of Man is “the symbolic
representative of a race of super-natural beings viz., the saintly
We heard of another critic, a popular speaker, who said that
the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven,
is a forward step in evolution. That in our twentieth century the beastly character of the
nations gradually disappears (?) and culture art, science and literature are
represented by the son of man!
Now the Book of Enoch,
an outstanding apocalyptic book, has a passage which is much like the one in
Daniel. We do not enter here into the date and authorship of this book. We believe, however, that it was compiled
later than the critics assume. Yet there
is evidence that the Sanhedrin, the learned scholars of Judaism, in the time of
our Lord, believed that the passage in Daniel, mentioned partially in the Book
of Enoch means the Messiah.
Let us see then how the highest authority confirms and
interprets Daniel’s fourth night vision.
We mean the Lord Jesus Christ. We
see Him standing before the high priest as the willing victim, bound with
cords. Then the head of the Sanhedrin
speaks. “I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell
us whether thou he the Christ, the Son of God”? What silence must have followed this
question! All eyes are riveted on
Him. There was no hesitation on His
part. “Jesus
saith unto Him, Thou hast said: (i. e. thou
hast said the truth) nevertheless I say unto you,
Henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God power and
coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26: 63, 64). Only an imbecile, or a wilful intellectual
rationalist can deny that when our Lord spoke these words He had reference to Daniel 7: 13-14. He claims to be the Son of
Man. He speaks of Himself as “coming on the clouds of heaven,” the One whom Daniel
beheld in his vision. Now the Sanhedrin
knew and believed that Daniel’s Son of Man is a divine person, not “the ideal people of God” as the rationalist [Page 136] states in the “Cambridge Bible.” They believed, as the Book of Enoch states,
that the Son of Man is the Eternal One.
And this Nazarene claimed to be that One! And so the High priest tore his garment
asunder and charged the Son of God with being a blasphemer.
This is
the great prospect! Here the future is revealed when
He who was crowned with thorns will he
revealed in unspeakable majesty crowned with many diadems. He
comes to receive in answer to the request of His lips “the
nations for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His
possession” (Psa. 2).
He will receive the [millennial] kingdom from the Father’s hands, but His [chosen] people will
become sharers of it. The Saints of the Most High who receive the
kingdom are all His [‘accounted
worthy’ (Luke 20: 35; 22: 28-30)] Saints, all those who became His by faith in
Him. It includes the Saints in the
heavenly places, the Church [of the firstborn], and the Saints of former ages as well as the
remnant of
Now Christendom speaks of a kingdom, yet none thinks or speaks
of “bringing back the King.” More and more the vague “Kingdom idea” prevalent in Christendom is reduced to
the level of material improvements. And inasmuch as the Gospel of Jesus Christ
is abandoned, material improvements and better social conditions are attempted
by a socialistic program, and some even laud an atheistic communism as the
means of establishing the kingdom.
The prospects of the
infallible Word of God tell us of a
world-wide kingdom of righteousness and peace [upon
this Groaning Creation, (Rom. 8: 19-21)], in which the nations will form a great
brotherhood, when they shall learn war no more, when poverty will no longer be
known, and crime and viciousness will be forever banished. It will surely come when “the Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven” and
claims His crown-rights over the earth, purchased by His own blood.
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[Page 137]
CHAPTER 4
The
Final Prospects of the Gentile Nations
in Connection with
Invasion and the Predicted Victory
The next two outstanding prophecies in Daniel are narrowed
down to
As we do not write a commentary on Daniel we pass over the
greater part of it and do not give a complete exposition. The Medo-Persian and the Graeco-Macedonian
Empires come into prominence in the vision Daniel had in the third year of
Belshazzar’s reign (Chapter 8). The Medo-Persian power is seen as a ram, the
Graeco-Macedonian as a he-goat with a notable horn, its king, Alexander the
Great. The he-goat conquers the ram. But soon the notable horn is broken, which
means the death of Alexander in his early manhood. Then his kingdom is divided amongst his four
Generals, as history verifies. It is
pre-written in this chapter.
Out of one of these divisions came forth a little
horn. Some expositors have erred when they
identified this little horn with the one in the preceding chapter. They cannot be identical, for the one in the
seventh chapter comes out of the
[Page 138]
This little horn seen by Daniel waxed exceeding great, toward
the south, toward the east, and toward the pleasant land (
But from the end of this chapter we learn that a similar one will appear at the close of the Times of the Gentiles. This was communicated to Daniel by
Gabriel. The Lord told this great angel
prince, “Make this man to understand the vision.” Then Daniel received the information that the
invasion of Antiochus from the North will be repeated before the great
deliverance comes. Four expressions are
used to denote the time of the future fulfilment of the vision. (1) The time of the end (Verse 17).
(2) The last end of the indignation (Verse
19). (3) The latter time of their
kingdom (Verse 23). (4) When the transgressors are come to the
full (Verse 23). From these terms we learn definitely that
when the period of time comes, as we have seen before, called “the day of their calamity,” the time of “Jacob's trouble”, “the great
tribulation,” a king of fierce countenance will stand up once more as a
great enemy of the Jews and do the wicked works mentioned here, and that he
shall be broken without hand. His policy
is written in verse 25. He shall cause graft to prosper; he shall
magnify himself in his heart; by peace he will destroy many and he shall stand
up against the Prince of princes. Now
this will happen at the time of God’s indignation against His earthly people on
account of their disobedience and apostasy.
But who is this future king with the fierce countenance? He is not the Antichrist, the one who sits in
the temple and is worshipped. He is an
external foe. While Antiochus [Page 139] Epiphanes defiled the temple, nothing of this kind is said of the king of
the future. The one who is mentioned
here is elsewhere spoken of as “the King of the North.” Isaiah mentions him under the name, “the Assyrian.”
We find him prominent in the prophecies of Micah, Joel, the Psalms and in Zechariah (See Isa. 8: 7-8;
10: 12-34; 30: 31-33; Micah 5: 1-7).
In Joel this invasion by the King of the North is revealed; the invader
has with him the Northern Army (Joel 2: 20). The siege of
And who will he be?
From where does he come? He will
be a Gentile and will arise from the territory in
The invasion by the Northern Army is not the final one. There is another one recorded in
Scripture. It will be the invasion by Gog.
EZEKIEL’S VISION OF THE FINAL
GENTILE INVASION
It is recorded in chapters 38
and 39.
When does it take place? “In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is
brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the
mountains of Israel, which have been always waste, but it is brought back out
of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them” (38: 8). It will be greed which prompts this
attack. The leader says, “I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of
them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a
spoil, and to take the prey, to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that
are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations,
which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land”
(Verse 12).
The invasion evidently takes place at the time when the Lord has brought
back His people and saved the remnant of
The leader is the Prince of Rosh (not chief prince) of Meshech and Tubal. This prince is the head of the alliance and
with him are
The Russian Empire has undergone a tremendous change. It is now in the hands of a vicious clique of
atheists, who obtained control by the slaughter of millions. It has enslaved one hundred and sixty million
people and seems to continue in its terrible character, reaching out after
power in Central Asia and sowing its seed of world revolution, class hatred [Page 142] and anti-religious propaganda everywhere, including the
Will it last for ever?
It would if there were no God in heaven.
The day is nearing when He will speak and deal with Soviet Russia which
opposes Him and His purposes, as He has done in the past with other
nations. We can rest assured that this
will surely come.
Out of the collapse, according to Ezekiel’s Prophecy, another
will come. He will gather around himself
the nations mentioned by Ezekiel.
The defeat of that North-eastern confederacy is recorded in
these two chapters and needs no further comment. (Ez. 38-39).
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*
[Page 143]
CHAPTER
5
The
Last Seven Years (Daniel 9)
The proud monarch of the Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar, on
account of His pride had to pass through a time of great humiliation. His experience is recorded in the fourth
chapter of Daniel. Seven
times passed over him. He was
driven from men, ate grass as an ox, his hair grew like eagle’s feathers and
his nails like bird’s claws. The seven
times probably mean seven years. After
they were ended the king was restored and acknowledged the King of heaven. The Times of the Gentiles will likewise end
in seven years of humiliation, degradation and disaster.
These seven years are seen in Daniel and also in the book of
Revelation. We cannot give here a full
exposition of the great ninth chapter of Daniel and its most remarkable
prophecy. We refer the reader of our
exposition of the Prophet Daniel.
The Seventy Weeks with which the prophecy begins (verse 24) are not weeks of days but of years. They cover therefore a period of 490 years
after which the six things named will come upon Daniel’s people and
These seventy year-weeks are divided. The fact is revealed that after sixty-two
weeks are ended, that is, 483 years are gone, reckoned from the rebuilding of
the walls of
The consequences which followed the rejection of the Messiah
are given next.
The City and the Sanctuary shall be destroyed. Who is going to do this work? “The
people of the Prince that shall come.” This prince will be a Roman. In fact he is no other that than coming head
of the future
But there are seven years left. They have not yet come and the evidence is
that the six things of blessing, including the anointing of the Holy of Holies,
as seen by Ezekiel, beginning with his fortieth chapter, are not yet
This necessitates the partial restoration of the people to
their own land. It is also demanded by
the prophecy of the invasion of the King of the North. As we have seen before, such a resettlement
of
Here, then, begin the events of these coming seven years. That coming Roman prince, the little horn,
the great European dictator, is going to make a covenant with many of the Jews,
not all, for there are those amongst them who have their eyes opened. That covenant may run in the lines of a
political understanding that all hindrances of a full and complete restoration are removed,
and that in turn [Page 146] the Jews pledge loyalty to that
dictator. He will permit them to build a
temple, perhaps on the very site where the Mosque of Omar stands, or he may
even grant them the building itself.
They resume their sacrifices, which, as we have seen, are an abomination
in God’s sight. But in the middle of the
seven years, after three and a half years (the forty-two months), are passed,
something happens. He breaks the
covenant; he stops the sacrifices and in their place the one appears who claims
to be God and takes his place in the temple demanding worship, the abomination
of desolation, to which our Lord calls attention (Matt.
24: 15) has come. The false
Messiah is there, the second beast of Revelation 13
working in harmony with the little horn sets up his image, bringing in the
strong delusions and lying miracles, and all the horrors of those days have
come.
The worst idolatry is practised in the worship of Satan’s
man. This final Antichrist is described
in Daniel 11: 36-39, and the New Testament
description of him, his work and all that goes with it, is given in 2 Thessalonians 2.
An awful desolation follows. Inside Antichrist; outside the hordes of the King of the North.
This will be the time of great tribulation such as never was before, no, nor
ever shall be. The fate of apostate Christendom
is bound up with these days of horror.
This we shall unfold in the next part of this volume.
The seven years will end with the glorious manifestation of
the King of kings and Lord of lords. He
will destroy the beasts with the breath of His mouth and the brightness of His
coming (Isa. 11: 4 and 2 Thess. 2: 8).
* * *
[Page 147]
CHAPTER
6
The
Salvation of God Offered to the Gentile World
The Final Great Message to all Nations
and its Great Success
After considering the political prospects of the Gentiles, the
Times of the Gentiles and their predicted end, we show briefly in this chapter
how God’s Message of Salvation has gone forth to all nations during this age
and that there is yet to be given a great Message with an offer of mercy and
blessing. As we learn from Romans 15: 8, Christ came as the Minister to the
circumcision to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. His earthly ministry was to the lost sheep of
the House of Israel. The context reveals
something else. Six times the “Gentiles” are mentioned in a few verses. Christ came, rejected by His own, and then as
the true Lamb of God He died the sacrificial death on the Cross, making peace
in the Blood of His Cross. And now the
righteous and holy God through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His
sin-bearing work, can offer a free and a full salvation to all
the world, to Jew and Gentile.
The Gentile nations had drifted further and further away and sunk deeper
and deeper into idolatry of every description.
When all was dark and hopeless God sent forth His Son; and in Him He
offers righteousness, eternal life and glory.
Christ Himself before He left the earth to return as the risen Man, the
Head of the new creation, to the throne of God, gave command that the witness
as to Himself should be given unto the “utmost part of
the earth.” In the beginning of
our Christian age the Gospel Message was preached to “the
Jew first” and in Judea and
The forces of evil soon became active opposing through the fires
of persecution, and later in a more subtle way, through perversions, deceptions
and superstitions, the one great message of salvation. Yet as Christ had [Page 148] commanded and as He taught in the
parable of the sower, the seed was sown in the field,
the world. In every century this program
has been carried out and it is still being done in every continent. The explorer has always been followed by the
missionary to bring to newly discovered tribes the message of the Gospel. And wherever it has gone it has worked
miracles. Besides the salvation which
man needs and which is so graciously supplied in the Gospel of Christ there are
certain by-products, beneficial results, which have followed wherever the
influence of the Gospel message has gone.
The nineteenth and the twentieth centuries are characterized by great
missionary efforts to reach those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of
death. It is still going on and will go
on till the end of the age comes with the predicted harvest. Now what God’s purpose is in having the
message sent to the Nations of the World, not for world-conversion, but
something entirely different, we shall see later.
The Prophetic Parable of Paul demands our attention. It is found in Romans
11: 16-24. Two olive trees are
used. The good olive tree in
[Page 149]
But there is a warning given to these ingrafted
branches. They are not to boast; they
are not to be high-minded, they are not to be unbelieving, as the natural
branches (
But when will this take place? The next verse following this parable gives
the answer. “Blindness
in part has happened to
It is then when that fulness has been
reached that blindness will be removed from
In previous chapters we have seen how
the Lord will call and use this remnant.
There will be a wide awakening among the scattered Israelites throughout
the world. Great events which have
happened, manifestations of the supernatural and their own approaching great
trouble will lead [Page 150] them back to the words of their prophets. The Holy Spirit will show them
the near coming of their own promised Messiah. Then begins their great
witness, the final offer of mercy to the Gentile nations. Energized by the Holy Spirit they will arise
everywhere and herald the Gospel of the Kingdom.
We must turn to the last book of God’s Word, the Revelation, to
hear more about this remnant and the great witness they give and the results
which follow. In the seventh chapter of
this majestic capstone of all the revelation of God we see two great companies
of people. The first one is a company of
those taken from
The second company, the great multitude which no man can
number, gathered out of all nations, that is, Gentiles, represent the
marvellous result of the witness given by the sealed remnant of
But who will compose the great saved multitude which comes out
of the great tribulation as victors and overcomers, seen by the symbolical
palms in their hands? What nations learn
righteousness and receive a part in the earthly kingdom which the returning
King establishes on the earth?
We have heard frequently Christians speak of loved ones who
continue to live in sin and who, loving darkness more than light, reject God’s
offer of salvation, that they will ultimately yield and when during the days of
trouble the message of the Kingdom is heard, they will at least believe. They think the great coming event, as we show
in our next chapter, when the true church is no longer here, will awaken
them. Others teach that all Christendom
will then have a great revival and the different so-called “Christian nations” will constitute the great
multitude which comes out of the great tribulation to inherit the kingdom.
But this is not taught in Scripture. There is a solemn word written in Paul’s Second
Epistle to the Thessalonians which contradicts this theory. The apostasy mentioned there in the second chapter is the apostasy
current in Christendom.
It precedes the day of the Lord, His visible
manifestation from heaven. Here too is a
description of the man of sin, the Antichrist.
It is written, “whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and
signs and lying wonders.” Then we
read of those who did not receive the love of the truth, who rejected God’s
Word and God’s Son. Will there be
another chance for them? “Because they received not the love of the truth, that they
might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie, that they all might be judged who believed not the
truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (Verses
9-12). This dispels the hope that
Christendom will accept this last offer of mercy. The door will be shut some day and outside
are those who neglected so great Salvation.
The nations who had the privileges of the Gospel and turned away from it
will not listen to this Jewish witness.
Let us suppose it would happen now and a band of Jewish
evangelists appeared in
But there are other nations; though missionaries went and
brought them the message of salvation, as nations they were hardly touched by
the Gospel. Millions upon millions never
heard it. Humanly speaking, as
conditions are today they would never hear that Gospel of Grace. There is not the remotest chance of the
conversion of these great nations of Asia,
Now these nations, such as China, Japan and the millions of
India and the millions living in Africa, will heed this Gospel of the Kingdom,
they believe, and then turning away [Page 154] from their idols and their false
system will learn righteousness. The
great revival comes to the un-evangelized masses of the heathen world. Out of them comes the great multitude; though
they suffer in the great tribulation, they will come out of it victoriously and
enter as saved nations the earthly Kingdom of our Lord.
This explains the much misunderstood judgment of which our
Lord speaks in the Gospel of Matthew (25: 31).
He shows Himself sitting upon the Throne of His Glory, a
different thing from the position which He occupies now upon His Father’s
throne in heaven. It is His
earthly [Messianic]
throne. The judgment which He executes
is not a universal judgment in which all human beings who ever lived are
involved. Scripture does not teach such
a universal judgment. Not the risen
dead, just and unjust are involved here, but He gathers before Himself all
nations. Then a great deportation of the
living nations will take place. Some are
put at His right hand and they will enter the kingdom and inherit it. Other nations are put at His left and upon
them the Judge pronounces that terrible sentence which will stand for ever and
ever; they will go into everlasting punishment.
This likewise shows us who the brethren are of whom the judging King
speaks. They are the godly, believing
remnant, saved
Then follows the earthly Kingdom,
when He inherits the uttermost parts of the earth.
Converted and Spirit-filled
Once more the nations are mentioned at the close of the
millennial reign of Christ. Satan, who
is made helpless in the beginning of the Kingdom to seduce the nations no more
(Rev. 20: 3), is loosed for a little
season. And so at the close of the
thousand year reign of Christ he deceives once more “the
nations which are in the four quarters of the earth.” Not a few find a difficulty here. If the nations [Page 155] entering the Kingdom are saved nations how can it be explained
that so many side with Satan once more?
During the Kingdom reign the human race will continue in natural
relationship as during other ages, only under the highest possible earthly
blessings, with the curse removed. They
will marry and be given in marriage.
Children will be born and the earth will be populated as never
before. The ravages of war and famines
and pestilences will be no more. But the
children born will need salvation and must be born again. Obedience to the laws of the Kingdom will be
demanded and enforced and probably all acts of disobedience will be dealt with
at once. While outwardly the offspring
of these nations, and their offspring, conform to the laws of the Kingdom,
there is in them a spirit of rebellion which will break out when Satan is
permitted to be free for a little while, a proof that man fails in every age,
whether it is under the law, as in the Old Testament, under Grace in our age,
or under glory in the reign of Christ.
* *
*