(1) Note that golden bowls (gold is the symbol of divine righteousness the bowl contains) precede the judgments and terminate them. But here they are full of incense—the prayers of saints—what ascends to God. At the end we find golden bowls full of the fury of God. These are poured upon the earth. See Revelation 16:11And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. (Revelation 16:1).
(2) The 1967 Arab-Israeli war gave the Jews the site on which the temple can be rebuilt, but on it rests the Mosque of Omar. Some think the temple may be rebuilt before the church is raptured, but our business is not to be looking for this but rather for the coming of the Lord.
(3) The destruction and misery of the first world war turned mens’ minds on the problem of preventing another such catastrophe. Some European statesmen thought a United States of Europe was the answer. Their efforts to create such a state, although frustrated at the time, found their counterpart in the Balfour Declaration, an instrument created by England to provide a national home for the Jews. Neither of these early starts made significant progress until the second world war ended.
Today the six signatory nations of the Treaty of Rome, meeting as a Commission in Brussels, are known as the European Economic Community. In its long range forecasting this Commission plans on the admission of four other states. Although we can attach no weight to man’s plans, it is significant that these additions would make up the ten kingdomed state of the revived Roman Empire prophesied in Scripture.
The Roman Beast will head this confederacy. By that time the Jews will have resumed sacrifices on the altar—which he will prohibit (Dan. 9:2727And 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 overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27); Rev. 13:77And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. (Revelation 13:7))—in exchange for his protection of the nation. This is the covenant with death and the agreement with hell mentioned in Isaiah 28:15,1815Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: (Isaiah 28:15)
18And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. (Isaiah 28:18).
The Jew and the Roman are guilty of crucifying Christ and must therefore be brought forth for judgment. As just pointed out, the beginnings of the revived Roman Empire can already be seen. No less remarkable has been the return of the Jew to his land after an exile of nearly two thousand years—since Titus took Jerusalem in A.D. 70, in fact.
The eighteenth chapter of Isaiah gives us a graphic picture of what has already taken place under the Balfour Declaration, namely a partial return of Jews to the land of Israel in unbelief of their rejected but true Messiah. While they do so the Lord says—“I will take My rest.” The result is that “they shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth, and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.” The “land shadowing with wings,” the protecting power that put them back into the land is unable to support them further, and at this writing has virtually abandoned the Middle East. At the same time the Israeli-Arab eruptions of 1967 tell all too plainly how the fowls and beasts of the earth both summer and winter on that nation—“a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.” “The rivers” here are the nations. But the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying—”Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen. 15:1818In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: (Genesis 15:18)) and He will assuredly make good His word, as we learn from Isaiah 11:11-12 That he will set His hand a second time to assemble the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of the earth. At this time too the prophecy of Daniel 12:22And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2) will be fulfilled—“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.”
(4) The final blessing of Israel may be summarized this way:
The Ten Tribes Return to the Land—Read Ezekiel 20:33-4433As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: 34And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. 35And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 36Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. 37And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 38And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 39As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. 40For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 41I will accept you with your sweet savor, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. 42And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. 43And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. 44And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 20:33‑44).
One Nation of Israel—Ezekiel 37:2222And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: (Ezekiel 37:22) shows God’s purpose to make Israel “one nation in the land.” For them the feast of trumpets, their national awakening, and “the day of atonement,” repentance and sorrow for the rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah, will have taken place, and they will enter on the rest and blessing of “the feast of tabernacles,” as long ago set forth in their own Scriptures (see. Lev. 23).
The New Covenant—One nation, gathered out from among the heathen, and out of all countries and in their own land, they will be brought into the good and blessing of the New Covenant, founded on the death of their once rejected Messiah. They will look on Him whom they pierced (read Ezek. 36:25-2825Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:25‑28); Heb. 8:6-136But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:6‑13)).
(5) William Kelly, a nineteenth century commentator and classical scholar has this to say about “the third part.” “‘The third’ is an expression often occurring in the first four trumpets. It refers, as I conceive, to the Western part of the Roman Empire. In Chapter 9 we find it again in a different connection where it must be modified in meaning; for there can be no doubt, I think, that the first two woe trumpets (whatever may be the thought of the last) find their local application in the East . . . in itself ‘the third’ defines nothing . . . to ascertain which particularly is meant we must take the context into account.” (Lectures on the Book of the Revelation, Morrish Edition, p. 177.)
(6) The reader will note that a similar collapse took place under the sixth seal. It was, however, limited in extent confined, that is, to Europe. This indicates the increasing severity of the judgments. Upon the casting out of Satan from heaven to earth and the formation of the false trinity, there is a revival of government, no longer as ordained of God, but in a satanic form. This is destroyed in the final irrevocable judgment of the seventh bowl.
(7) A temple, suited to full blessing on the earth, and the center of that blessing, will be erected. The priesthood and animal sacrifices will be resumed. But the veil, rent at the cross, will be set up again, for Israel will not have the place of nearness we enjoy today, having access to the Father through a rent veil. The reader is referred to the fortieth to forty-eighth chapters of Ezekiel.
At the same time the Gentile nations, walking in the light of the heavenly metropolis above, and their kings bringing their glory and honor into it, will be blessed in conjunction with Israel on earth. (See Mic. 4:1-21But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. 2And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1‑2); Rev. 21:2424And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. (Revelation 21:24)). Egypt and Assyria, oppressors and persecutors of God’s ancient people in times past, will, during the millennium, be remembered in God’s great mercy. They will be accorded a special place of blessing with Israel (read Isa. 19:23-2523In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. 24In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: 25Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. (Isaiah 19:23‑25)).
(8) The event just described is “the appearing.” It commences with the nineteenth verse of Revelation 19 —“and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse.” It is to be distinguished from Christ coming for His saints, although connected with it, for He will bring them with Him on white horses. However it is not restricted to this occasion but ties in with the prophecy of Enoch, the gathering of all nations to Jerusalem, the Lord’s feet touching the Mount of Olives and the effect—deliverance of the godly Jewish remnant and geological changes in the Holy land in preparation for the erection of the new temple, prophesied by Ezekiel.
Very little of this is to be found in the Revelation. Because of this gap, and other subjects of interest to the prophetic student, a general write-up follows to round out the happenings of the time of the end.
(b) The Gathering of all Nations to Jerusalem—It is God’s determination to gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem and “then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of battle” (read Zech. 13:8-98And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9); Zech. 14). The plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem is given in Zechariah 14:12-1312And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. 13And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor. (Zechariah 14:12‑13). It is suggestive of atomic warfare—the details correspond to what followed the atomic blast at Hiroshima.
(c) The Two Effects of the Lord’s Feet Touching the Mount of Olives—At His appearing the Lord’s feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:44And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. (Zechariah 14:4)). Although at this time the Lord will dispose of the Beast and False Prophet (Antichrist) at Armageddon and subsequently the King of the North (the latter day Assyrian)—two special additional features are also brought to light in the prophecy of Zechariah.
Geological Changes in the Holy Land—“His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the East, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the East and toward the West, and there shall be a very great valley, and the half of the mountain shall remove toward the North, and half of it toward the south” (Zech. 14:44And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. (Zechariah 14:4)). This will effect physical changes in the land of Israel and provide space for the new arrangements outlined in the book of Ezekiel—read chapters forty to forty-eight.
(d) The Attacks on the Land and the Disposal of all Israel’s Enemies
The Kings of the North and the South—The King of the North—the latter day Assyrian—possibly Turkey or Syria shall be “mighty but not by his own power” (Dan. 8:2424And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. (Daniel 8:24)). He is doubtless armed by Russia after a pattern we have already witnessed in recent times. He attacks Jerusalem (Dan. 11:40-4540And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 41He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 42He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. 44But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. 45And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Daniel 11:40‑45)) together with the King of the South (Egypt) and pillages it. Then he turns on his erstwhile ally the King of the South and goes on to Egypt to plunder.
The Kings of the East and the Western Powers—In the meantime the Roman Beast comes to Israel to help her with his Western armies against the King of the North but is too late. He is opposed by “the Kings of the East”—the far Eastern nations at Armageddon. When both powers see Christ they unite against Him and He destroys them both.
Destruction of the King of the North—Then the King of the North, hearing ‘tidings’—news of Armageddon, no doubt—leaves off plundering Egypt for a final depredation of the Holy Land. But it is written—“he shall come to his end and none shall help him” (Dan. 11:40-4540And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 41He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 42He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. 44But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. 45And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Daniel 11:40‑45)). The True David will subdue His enemies.
Edom, Moab, and Ammon—These nations, related to Israel, yet ancient hereditary enemies, escape the King of the North, yet are reserved for the execution of the Lord’s vengeance by the hand of His people Israel, as foretold in Isaiah 11:1414But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. (Isaiah 11:14). Edom is finally ‘cut off forever’ as we find in Obadiah verse ten.
Doom of Russia and Satellite Nations—Russia does not come down to Armageddon, but invades the land after that event. Her doom is decreed by God, and will be executed as recorded in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 38:1-21And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, (Ezekiel 38:1‑2) should be rendered thus—“and the word of Jehovah came unto me saying, son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh [Russia] Mesech [Moscow] and Tubal [Tobolsk].”
At present there is no answer to the question why in this age of nuclear weapons, the Northern Army will consist of “horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company, with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.” It is doubtful if a mutual disarmament agreement among nations will ever be achieved—more conceivably a devastating nuclear war will reduce Russia to the use of primitive armaments.
(e) The Final Arrangements in the Holy Land—These will flow from the geological changes in the land occasioned by the Lord’s feet touching the Mount of Olives, which was previously covered. These arrangements contemplate:
The new temple of the Lord, surrounded by a holy portion of land for the priests.
A holy portion of the land for the Levites.
The common place, wherein will be established “the City”—whose name in the millennial age will be “Jehovah Shammah”—the Lord is there.
A portion of land alongside each side of the whole for the “the Prince.” He will be a direct descendant of King David of old and will sit upon the earthly throne of Christ’s Kingdom.