A Look into the Future
Table of Contents
A Look Into the Future: V - The Jews
Not the least important event shall be the return of the Jews to the land of Palestine.
God, in His Word, has said that they shall return, and whatever nation thinks to hinder them shall have to do with God. "I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered against it.'' (Zech. 12:3) He has given them that land. "It shall not be sold forever.”
“'When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people." (Deut. 32:8, 9)
“Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24.) This nation, "scattered and pealed," is the only one without a country. This also is a matter of prophecy. "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king....a prince....a sacrifice.... an ... . an ephod or teraphim." (Hos. 3:4.)
Preparations are going on now among, Jewish societies for the return of the Jews to their land. "For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land." (Isa. 14:1.)
This event is so important in the purposes of God, that He has let us know through the prophet Isaiah that He has in view a nation, or confederation of nations, whom He, at the proper time, will summon and which, with the aid of swift ships, will take His people back to their land. (Isa. 18.)
“Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers to a nation (Israel) scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!" (vs. 1 and 2.)
It is evident that the nation whom God will command to accomplish His designs shall be master of the seven seas.
The following article from the Philadelphia Evening Times, shows what extensive plans are under way for this event. "The Jews are preparing to restore the temple of Solomon. The whole world is being stirred by a startling movement of the Jews toward their home land. Ten years ago there were only one thousand Jews in Jerusalem; there are now a hundred thousand. More than two hundred thousand Jews are found in the colonies recently established in Palestine. More than twenty million dollars are being invested in railroads. Within the next few months Jerusalem shall have become a city of electricity; rails are being laid for electric cars. The Jews have five million dollars in a Jerusalem bank; they have purchased a large amount of land, Until forty years ago the land of Palestine was arid; there were few inhabitants....Rain has come in abundance in the last few years. Palestine again blossoms.”
It is true, that for the present, things have changed greatly for the Jews in Palestine. Owing to the war, they are suffering privations; but this condition can only be temporary and does not alter God's ultimate purpose concerning them or their land.
Thus man is unwittingly carrying out God's plans. The Jews shall restore their own religious rites, sacrifices and temple worship, which however, shall not be accepted of God because of their unbelief. Yet God, from among them, shall have a remnant for Himself.
These God-fearing Jews shall bear witness that Jesus Christ is their promised Messiah; they shall publish the glad tidings of the kingdom for which cause they shall be special objects of persecution. Some shall be martyred for their testimony and for refusing to worship the image of the beast and have his mark upon them. "These shall have part in the first resurrection.”
As to the mass of the Jews, they shall receive the antichrist, worship the image of the Least set up in the temple, take his mark in their hand or on their forehead, without which none may buy or sell. (Rev. 13:17.) The setting up of this idol shall take place in the middle of Daniel's last week, after three and one-half years, superseding the sacrifices arid oblations.
It shall be the sign for the instant flight of the faithful remnant of Jews to the mountains of Judea.
“When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination (idol) of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (temple).. flee into the mountains." (Matt. 24:15-22.) As these persecuted Jews flee, they shall carry the good news of the Messiah's coming to set up His kingdom.
Whosoever will have compassion upon their sufferings and succor them shall receive a reward at the coming of the Son of Man. "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left." (Matt. 25:31-33.) Those on the right hand shall enter into life eternal; they shall be rewarded for their kind treatment of the persecuted Jews, His brethren. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Those on the left hand shall be sent away into eternal punishment. "Inasmuch as ye did it not," etc.
This latter class includes all apostate Jews and Gentiles of that day, alive at that time, who have heard the Gospel of God's grace and rejected it. To them is addressed the words, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matt. 25:41.) Awful words from the lips of the Lord Jesus who today is saying, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28.) Beware, ye despisers.
Thus the earth shall be cleansed of all the enemies of Christ and His people.
(Continued from page 280.)
(To be continued.)
A Look Into the Future: IV - Turkey and Russia
There will be another great man to arise who has a very prominent place in the prophetic word. His destiny is closely linked with that of Russia.
This person is termed the king of the North. Since Palestine was and is again to be the center of God's counsels in the earth, all geographical positions in Scripture are given in relation to it.
This king of the North shall occupy a position north of Palestine, now possessed by Turkey in Asia.
It is a matter of history that on the death of Alexander the Great, his kingdom was divided among four of his generals, and two of these came into conflict with Palestine. They are designated in Scripture as "King of the North" and "King of the South." (Dan. 11.)
The king of the North occupied Syria and Asia Minor, which were then part of Assyria. The king of the South ruled over Egypt.
There is yet to arise a great king who shall represent the third beast, (Greece), as the "prince" will the fourth beast (Roman Empire). He shall play a very important part in the future of the world, especially that of the Jews.
“At the time of the end shall be the vision," "in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up." The king of the North, probably Turkey (?) (Dan. 8:23, 24) But though his power shall be mighty, it shall not be by his own power. There shall be back of this fierce and powerful king another power (Russia), who shall be mightier than he.
The Jews are soon to return to their land. There is to arise among them the man referred to in a previous chapter, as the "lawless one." He is also called the "man of sin," the "false prophet" and the "antichrist." He shall be a Jew (see Dan. 11:37), claiming to be the Messiah, deceiving the mass. He shall sit in the temple which is to be rebuilt "showing himself that he is God." Many of the Jews will worship him.
There shall be a treaty between the beast and the Jews for seven years (Daniel's seventieth week) to insure protection to Israel from the king of the North, their aggressor. This alliance, (another scrap of paper) is to be broken by the beast at the end of three and one-half years. The "overflowing scourge" (the king of the North, Isa. 28:18) shall pass through, the Jews shall be trodden down and Jerusalem taken, at least one-half of it. Thence, he will carry his conquest down into Egypt. While there, tidings out of the East and North shall trouble him (Dan. 11:44), and cause him to return with great fury.
At this time shall take place a great battle around Jerusalem. "When the Lord hath performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will punish... the king of Assyria.'" (Isa. 10:12.) "Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man," for it will be directly from the hand of God. (See also Micah, 5.)
As early as 587 B. C. the prophet Ezekiel not only prophesied of Russia, which is destined to become a mighty nation, but even mentioned it by name. (Read Ezek. 38 and 39 N. T.) "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying 'Son of man, set thy face against Gog and the land of Rosh (Russia), Mesheck (Moscow), and Tubal (Tobolsk) and prophesy against him.'
This nation, with its Eastern allies, China and Japan, will form the Northeastern confederacy. The alliance of Russia with France, England and Italy cannot last; for these last three will be included in the coming Roman Empire, while Russia will be the dominating power in the North.
Russia today occupies half of Europe and the whole of northern Asia. Europe is alarmed at her progress and fears the rising again, through her, of what they are now trying to put down-militarism. Russia and many peoples with her, shall come up against the Jews as a cloud to cover the land, but they shall fall upon the mountains of Israel. So great shall the slaughter be that it shall require seven months to bury the dead and seven years to burn the weapons of war. (Ezek. 39:9-12.)
God is about to deal with the earth-with men in the midst of their plans.
(Continued from page 251.)
(To be continued.)
A Look Into the Future: VI - The Millennium
The millennium is the period in the future of this world's history, when the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall take into His own hands the rule and government of the world.
The despised and rejected Jesus of Nazareth has been cast out, but "God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow....and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:9-11.)
The Lord Jesus shall reign with His heavenly saints over the earth. At the present time the whole creation groans (Rom. 8:22), but in that day it shall be "delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Satan shall be bound by an angel, in the bottomless pit for the thousand years and shall no longer be able to make this world the sphere of his wiles and delusions, leading men captive in their sins. At the beginning of the reign of Christ there shall be the erection of a magnificent temple. "Behold the man whose name is The Branch....He shall build the temple of the Lord." (Zech. 6:12.) Connected with this shall be the restoration of the Jewish sacrifices and worship according to the ordinance of God. "In those days.... David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; neither shall the priests, the Levites, want a man before Me to offer burnt offerings and to kindle meat offerings and to do sacrifice continually." (Jer. 33:161.8.) These shall point back to the Lamb of God, once offered as those of old had pointed forward. There shall be no ark in the temple (see Jer. 3:16-17.) "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord." "In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, 'We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" (Zech. 8:23.)
As to the brute creation, "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf, the young lion and the falling together, a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. 11:6-9.)
Instead of the present short span of life-three score and ten-the days of the Lord's people shall be compared to the days of a tree. "Neither shall there be any more a child that dies untimely or an old man that shall not complete his time, for the youth shall be a hundred years old, and the sinner who dies at a hundred years also is accursed." (Septuagint version of Isa. 65:20.)
After the thousand years Satan shall be loosed for a little season. This time he diligently employs in seducing the nations in a last attempt against Christ and His saints. He shall know well that his time is short, God shall come upon the scene, in quick, unsparing judgment when all the living wicked shall be destroyed by fire. (Rev. 20:7-9.)
Vii—the Everlasting State the Judgment of Satan and of the Living Nations at the End of the Little Season Brings Us to the End of Time and the Dissolution of the Present Conditions of the Heavens and Earth. "the Heavens Shall Pass Away With a Rushing Noise and the Elements Burning With Heat Shall Be Dissolved and the Earth and the Works in It Burnt up." (2 Peter 3:10. N. T.)
There shall be a great white throne and one shall sit on it, before whose face the earth and the heavens shall flee away. This person shall be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, once the despised "Nazarene," the "man of sorrows," "the Savior;" then a righteous judge.
The wicked dead shall be raised to stand before the throne. (Rev. 20:12.) They have not eternal life-nothing but dead works. Books will be opened, probably the record of their works. Another book, the book of life, shall be opened to show that their names are not there. The Bible shall be there (John 12:48.) The sea, death and hades shall give up their dead. Though the ashes of the infidel may be scattered to the four winds, "There shall be a resurrection." (Acts 24:15.) Death and hades, no longer needed, shall be cast into the lake of fire, and "Whosoever was not found written in the book of like was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:15.) "The fearful, and unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (Rev. 21:8.)
In Rev. 21:1-8 is given a description of the everlasting state. It does not so much describe what it shall be, as it does what it shall not be. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”
The Church, the bride of Christ, symbolized by the holy city, "New Jerusalem," is seen by the apostle John in his vision, coming out of heaven "prep red as a bride, adorned for her husband," having reigned with Christ through the thousand years. How blessed to see her still maintaining her bridal affection and youthful beauty, her attire unspotted, entering the everlasting state in the full strength and fervor of bridal days, in the most intimate relationship.
There shall be no more sea. Israel and the nations shall have no more place as such; everything that shall recall to mind the present world shall pass away forever.
God's purposes shall be fully realized though opposed by Satan and man from the beginning. "God shall dwell with men." "They shall be His people and God Himself shall be with them and be their God." All that hinders the full outflow of the heart of God to His creatures shall be removed.
(Continued from page 305.)
(Concluded)