How suddenly world-shaking events take place in these days! It took only two hours on the morning of July 14th for rebels in the Iraqi army to overthrow the established government of Iraq, and set up another government. From then on, events moved swiftly and threatened to embroil the whole Middle East, if not the major powers of the world. Quickly the United States moved men and equipment into tiny Lebanon in an attempt to protect the government of that country, while Great Britain moved forces into Jordan, hoping to save King Hussein and his government.
There was a time when the Balkan nations of Southeastern Europe were called the "tinderbox" of Europe, and it was there that the first world war broke out. Today, however, it is growingly apparent that of all the troubled spots on earth, the Middle East is the world tinderbox. Anything can happen there, and what happens there affects the whole world immediately.
There are many natural reasons for this, as men speak; for instance, the great oil resources of the area which both East and West wish to control (and Western Europe is definitely in need of that oil). It is there where East meets West, and North and South cross each other's paths. It is the great crossroads of the land mass of Europe and Asia, and the road into the continent of Africa. It is also on the East and West trade route through the Suez Canal.
This area was under real Western control until about six years ago; then things began to happen. Britain and France withdrew from the area, and King Farouk of Egypt was overthrown. From then on, the turbulence of the Middle East has caused great misgivings among statesmen who seem powerless to stem the tide which began to flow in the opposite direction. Arab nationalism began to flourish, and finally Gamal Abdel Nasser came into power in Egypt; he is bent on establishing an Arab empire throughout the region.
Besides Russia's voracious appetite which desires to swallow everything possible, she is also known to foment trouble wherever there is an opportunity. She always hopes to win (and most frequently has won) something by fishing in such troubled waters. Even in the days of the Czars, Russia enviously eyed the Middle East and its warm water ports into the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. The Czars never got to see any realization of their dreams, as this 20th century behemoth has. She is now poised, awaiting the opportune moment to seize that vital region.
There is another reason for the very delicate balance in the Middle East, and that is the new nation of Israel. While her homeland was originally in the area, her years of exile in the far corners of the earth have given her people a Western orientation. It is in the West where the Jews have flourished generally (not counting the cruel oppression and genocide practiced against them by Hitler). But today her leanings are toward the West.
It is Israel's very presence in the Middle East that has helped to promote the cause of Arab nationalism, for it has furnished every demagogue a platform on which to rally the masses behind him in opposition to Israel. Many of the leaders of the Arabs are not. nearly as bitter against Israel as their speeches seem to indicate, but Israel's presence furnishes an ever-ready lament by the leaders to the masses to stir them to a frenzied zeal ready to extirpate the sons of Jacob from the land. Some leaders, however, with large segments of the Arab populace are so thoroughly bitter against Israel that their animosities are easily inflamed.
Not long ago, President Nasser executed a clever maneuver by which he annexed Syria on the north of Israel, thus forming what is called the United Arab Republic. In all these moves he has had both secret and public support from Russia. At that time, Jordan and Iraq made a close alliance which was to offset the new United Arab Republic. Now, evidently through Nasser's intrigue, the Jordan-Iraq alliance has been broken; and it looks like Iraq will probably fall into Nasser's empire. After that, the insecure state of Jordan is all that the dictator Nasser would require to encircle Israel on north, east, and south; and presumably he could control the waters on her west coast, by using Russian ships. There may be many direct and indirect aspirations in Egypt's spreading herself, but let us never forget that perhaps the foremost motive is to get into position for the day when she can crush Israel. When Nasser was an Egyptian army officer during the war against Israel in 1948, he with his country sustained a humiliating defeat at Israel's hands, which he is determined to avenge at some time.
But it is certain that God is working out His own designs, and in the end they will be accomplished-all man's wit and cunning notwithstanding. At the time of the end, God is going to stir the nations as it pleases Him. He will bring them down to Israel to meet their doom, not from Israel but at His own hand of power. Zech. 14 is much to the point:
"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For / will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.... Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle." Chap. 14:1-4. This is the testimony of the Old Testament, and the testimony of the New Testament is similar:
"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty... and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." Rev. 16:13-16.
The rapidity with which events have taken place in the last decade is astonishing. Think of a few of the more important happenings: Israel, a nation after almost two millennia of wanderings; Egypt out from under the power of England; also Egypt a rising power, with great aspirations; Russia is definitely a power in the Middle East, through her backing of Egypt arid Syria; Russia near her goal of warm water ports on her south, and with access to the Persian Gulf almost within her grasp. All she needs now to attain the last mentioned is an access road through Iran into Iraq and the Persian Gulf. If things are moving at that pace now, how easily they could be accelerated when once the Lord has taken home His beloved Church. Fellow-Christian, let us take heart and rejoice, for He Himself will SOON come for us.
If some of our readers are puzzled by the fact that Egypt seems to be the dominating factor both to the north and south of Israel, instead of there being an independent power north of Palestine, let us remember how quickly changes take place. See how soon the alliance of Iraq and Jordan vanished, and even today some statesmen talk of the possibility that a strong man may emerge in Iraq and unite the country with Syria, thus breaking the bond between Syria and Egypt—between North and South. Scripture does definitely speak of the king of the north and the king of the south during the days of the tribulation (Dan. 1:1: 4 0 4 5), and a few days of convulsions in the region could force a complete realignment. We, with an understanding of dispensational truth and with the Word of God open before us, can know what is coming, while the statesmen of the world try their best to bring peace, only to meet with disappointments and frustrations. That One is coming whose right it all is. To Him be the glory and the dominion, forever and ever.
It may be of interest to some to recall that Iraq contains the old cradle of the human race. It was in that general region where the Garden of Eden was, and from that area mankind spread abroad after the confounding of the languages at the tower of Babel. The fertile region between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers often found a place in the Biblical accounts. The city of Nineveh spoken of in Gen. 10 was located on the Tigris, and the great city of Babylon was situated on both sides of the Euphrates.
(Continued from last month)
For Christians today to reject dispensationalism is to go (as it were) to sea without chart or compass, trusting only to their own feelings and intuitions. Such will not know whither they sail, nor have directions day by day how to live. During the past economies in God's ways on earth, His saints have
needed directions for their path, and have required faith to discern His mind in each particular period. When Saul first reigned, for instance, obedience to the king was obedience to God; when David was rejected, faith identified itself with a king in hiding; when the time came to make David king, the ones who discerned what to do came to make him king in Hebron. Some, of whom we read, "had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." 1 Chron: 12:32. 0 for Christians with true understanding of these times! Such will not belittle dispensational truth.
God's people have always needed a directed path for their feet since the expulsion from Eden. Multitudes of examples might be adduced, but let us mention a few: there was a time when Isaac was told, "Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of." Gen. 26:2. Later, Jacob was told, "Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will make of thee a great nation." Gen. 46:3. And in the days of Jeremiah, when the people thought to go down into Egypt to escape trouble, God said, "O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt." Jer. 42:19. At that time God had given Jerusalem into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar to destroy it; but, in the days of Ezra, to be in the current of His thoughts one would help to build the temple; and in the days of Nehemiah, discerning Jews would help rebuild the walls of the city. Then in the days when the epistle to the Hebrews was written, Christian discernment made them leave the temple and all its ritual, even as they were exhorted to go forth unto Christ outside of the camp of Judaism.
From these few examples it should be evident that a Christian cannot pick up his Bible and read just anywhere and find directions for his feet. If he does not read discerningly, he may think it is his duty to help rebuild a temple in Jerusalem today, or do any of thousands of things that would be totally inconsistent with his position as a Christian, whose life, commonwealth, and hopes are in heaven (Col. 3:1-3).
A lack of understanding of dispensational truth led the men who wrote the page headings in our King James Version Bibles to make huge mistakes. Take up the average Bible and run through the headings of the Old Testament and you will find the blessings promised to Israel ascribed to the Church, while the threats of judgment are generally applied to Israel. Is that consistent? Is it in any sense the truth?
Are we to consider that Israel and the Church are one and the same thing? This is exactly what the rejection of dispensational understanding leads to. This has been the bane of the Church from its formation at the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Judaising teachers have ever sought to corrupt the Church and bring Judaistic principles into Christianity, and the Apostle Paul contended energetically against this all through his ministry. Today a new term is in common vogue—Judeo-Christianity." Let it be once and forever clear that the Church is not an adjunct of Judaism. Did not the Lord Himself say that one cannot put new wine into old bottles (or skins) lest the bottles burst and the wine be lost? But the lack of the clear-cut distinction between the two has caused Christendom to put many patches on the old bottles in an effort to contain the new within the old.
Dr. George E. Ladd, of the Fuller Seminary of Pasadena, California, has recently written a book entitled, "The Blessed Hope." Dr. Ladd takes a premillennial outlook, but his book is an attack on the doctrine of the Lord's coming for His Church before the tribulation. Hence the title of his book is misleading, for we have not a present hope of expecting our Lord if we have to wait and go through the great apostasy and the tribulation period, perhaps to suffer martyrdom. The immediacy of the hope being lost, it ceases to be the blessed hope. Certainly the apostasy and martyrdom are poor substitutes for the hope of seeing Him momentarily. The one who embraces these has lost the blessed expectancy which many Christians have rightly enjoyed.
It would take a lengthy tome to answer Dr. Ladd's book, but it is certainly answerable. It displays much of the confusion that goes with the denial of dispensationalism; at times it misrepresents the true position of those who zealously hold the pretribulation rapture of the saints of this age; for instance, it says that dispensationalists define His pretribulation coming "in terms of escape from suffering [in the tribulation] rather than union with Christ." This is not true for the great body of those who watch for their Lord.
Dr. Ladd's remarks on page 130 exhibit a sad lack of understanding of that notable prophecy of our Lord's on Olivet. In His discourse with His own after His public ministry was closed, He opens up the future and explains His coming back, in three parts: first (Matt. 24:1-44), He tells of His coming as regards the Jewish people; second (chap. 24:45 to chap. 25:30), as it will relate to the Christian profession; third (chap. 25:31 to end), with reference to the Gentile nations. Dr. Ladd, however, will have the Church treated of throughout. He sees no distinction between "the gospel of the kingdom" and "the gospel of the grace of God." Neither will he allow that it is the Jews who are to flee from Jerusalem when an idol (spoken of in Dan. 12, which Dr. Ladd confuses with the antichrist pp. 72, 73) is set up in the holy place of their new temple; for he makes this fleeing to apply to Christians. Dr. Ladd says: "The people of God are seen in the Tribulation. They are to be put to flight by the Abomination of Desolation (Matt. 24:20). The Tribulation will bring martyrdom to the elect.... Who are the elect? Are they the Church, or Israel? Dispensationalism solves this problem by the application of its major premise," meaning Israel, of course. But will Dr. Ladd please explain, if his thesis is correct and it means the Church, why it is that Christians are to pray that their flight be not on the Sabbath day? His stand would please the Seventh-day Adventists, who would make Jews out of us. Did he never discover that in Luke 21, when the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70 was prophesied, the believers were not inhibited by Jewish rules of a Sabbath day? But when the Church has been translated to heaven, and the Jews become once more the center of God's ways, they will be bound by the Sabbath; therefore the Lord said (anticipating the Jewish remnant who will be in Jerusalem at that time), "Pray ye that your flight be not... on the sabbath day." v. 20.
Dr. Ladd's confusion over the "abomination of desolation" is an example of his inexactitude in dealing with subjects which have been ably set forth by spiritual men of profound learning. He speaks of, "The coming of antichrist who is called the Abomination of Desolation" (pp. 72, 73), and "the persecutions of the Great Tribulation which shall be inflicted upon the people of God by the Abomination of Desolation" (p. 86), and "In both Matthew and the Revelation where the Great Tribulation is prophesied, the people of God are seen in the Tribulation. They are put to flight by the Abomination of Desolation" (p. 130). He thus plainly identifies the "abomination of desolation" with what he terms the antichrist; by this he means "the beast" of the Roman Empire (the "antichrist" is more generally considered as the second beast of Rev. 13—the false Messiah in Jerusalem).
This word "abomination" in both Dan. 12:11 and Matt. 24:15, in both the Hebrew and the Greek, means "an idol" or "idolatry" and does not refer to a man. It is the same original word that is used in Dan. 9:27, "for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate"; or better translated, because of idolatry "shall come one that maketh desolate" (A.R.V.). It is plainly evident that the "abomination of desolation" is the image which the second beast of Rev. 13 makes of the first beast of that chapter, whereupon worship of the image becomes mandatory. And the Lord Jesus in giving instructions for the Jewish remnant of the future day tells them to flee Jerusalem when this image is set up, or stands "in the holy place" of the temple. A man will not stand in the holy place, but an idol will.
Furthermore, the Lord's directions concerning the placement of this abomination of desolation in the temple instructed "them which be in Judea" to "flee to the mountains.'; To make this passage instruction for all the Church during the tribulation would of necessity place all the Church in Judea. Such an idea
would be nonsense. Only confusion results from mixing instructions for the Church with those for a future Jewish remnant. On page 131 of his book, he challenges the believers who enjoy the blessed hope by referring them to Rev. 17, where the corrupt woman—"BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" is said to be "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Here he again asks, "Who are the saints
who suffer martyrdom? Are they the Church or Israel?" He seems to feel he has executed a coup here, and says that dispensationalists apply their major premise to this; that is, they make the martyrs to be of Israel. The evidence of Scripture is that this woman is the last stage of the false church which has had the seven-hilled city of Rome for its headquarters. Would not Dr. Ladd admit that according to this scripture God is going to judge her for the blood she shed in her inquisitions, and her systematic destruction of those whom she called heretics? It is a review of her whole course, and not merely tribulation martyrdom committed by her.
In an article of Dr. Ladd's published in Eternity magazine of May, 1957, wherein he attempts to answer Dr. John F. Walvoord's new book, The Rapture Question, he says: "In the Old Testament, Israel was the people of God; now, it is the church; and there is continuity rather than discontinuity between the two. There is one people of God, not two. This truth is clearly set forth in Rom. 11 There is one olive tree—the people of God. Natural branches have been broken off—unbelieving Israel. Wild branches have been grafted on—believing Gentiles." And this he makes out to be the ekklesia, or Church of God. This is a ready-made example of the confusion Christians get into by rejecting dispensational truth. How readily he mixes Israel and the Church. They never were one, or intended to be one. Israel will be God's earthly people of the future, but the Church will be the heavenly bride of Christ.
Let us notice Dr. Ladd's confusion regarding Rom. 11 He says the olive tree there represents the one people of God. This it does not. The olive tree there is the tree of privilege and blessing on the earth. Surely Israel had many advantages—"much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." Rom. 3:2. They were cut off, but not until after they rejected the gospel sent down from a glorified Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Gentiles have been brought into the privileged place. They have the advantage today, for there is no veil over their hearts. But the branches which are grafted in are not believing Gentiles, but Gentiles as Gentiles. If this is not so, will Dr. Ladd say that believing Gentiles who have been brought into this "one people of God" are to be cut off? Will he allow believers to be utterly lost? Yet his statements make that a necessity. His arguments are bankrupt.
When the Apostle began to speak about the olive tree, he said, "For I speak to you Gentiles" (v. 13). Thus there is no excuse for the confusion of supposing he was speaking to believers among them. How could he say to a believer, "Thou shalt be cut off." Down in the 25th verse he began to explain truth to believers, and his form of address changed to, "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery." But rejecters of dispensational truth have not learned what Paul sought to explain to his brethren in the remainder of the 11th chapter of Romans. It is a marvelous unfolding of God's wisdom in His dispensational dealings with Jew and Gentile which leads the Apostle into a grand doxology: "0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" etc.