BELOVED BROTHER,-
I reply to your questions on the prophet Daniel. The "desolator" is not named in chapter 9, but I do not believe that the desolator is Antichrist, nor he who takes away the daily sacrifice. The wickedness that is at work within is not the desolation which comes from without; it is the cause of it. First, I would have you remark certain points in the translation, which considerably alter the meaning of the sentences. In chapter 8:11 The gender is different. It is no more as in verse 10, "It" (the little horn) "waxed great," but, "And he waxed great." This verse 11 does not refer then any longer directly to the little horn. Then, in this same verse, it is not said that "By him the daily sacrifice was taken away;" but, "From him" (the Prince of the host, Christ Jehovah) "the daily sacrifice was taken away." This alters the character of him who is mentioned in verse 4, or rather, this takes away from him that character.
I believe that what refers to the horn in verse 10, and that which follows, up to verse 12, has been fulfilled in the times of the Seleucidae (Antiochus Epiphanes), and I translate verse 12: "And a time of distress" (a word that one meets in Job with the same meaning) "was ordained for the daily sacrifice." All this refers to the horn, as well as the two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings of verse 14, to the oppression of Antiochus, and not to the last days. At the end of the chapter this period is distinguished from the vision of the evening and the morning. (Ver. 26.) The crafty king, at the end, shall stand up against the Lord of lords, that is to say, that he will be upon the scene when Christ shall be there. He rises up from the east, and not from the west. So, at all events, we find here the description of a desolator.
In chapter 9:27, instead of "By means of the abominable wings which shall cause desolation," I read, "Because of the protection of idols, there shall be a desolator;" it is not said who. The daily sacrifice will be taken away by him who had made the covenant for one week. In the same verse the "consumption determined" means "the determined accomplishment of the judgment;" it is a technical term, signifying the last judgments on Jerusalem and the Jews. I believe that the last word of this verse signifies desolate, and not desolator.
It appears clear to me from Isa. 10:22, 23, and following, that the determined consumption falls upon Judah and Jerusalem by means of the Assyrian, who is the rod of the indignation of God. Now the Assyrian is geographically of the territory of the Seleucidae. This is so much the more clear since the same prophet (Isa. 28:22) shows us this consumption overtaking the land of Israel, when the leaders of the people at Jerusalem have made a covenant with hell, sheol (Isa. 28:14, 15), and have taken refuge in lies. In Dan. 9:27 this same consumption comes upon Jerusalem. The head of the beast makes a covenant with them for one week; idols are there, they put their trust in them, and God sends a desolator. The Assyrian will be the great desolator; others will ally themselves with him. (Psalm) Gog will be the last form of the Assyrian. That explains, it appears to me, what is said in Ezek. 38:17: "Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel?" Jerusalem is taken a first time: the second time the enemy finds the Lord there. Zech. 14 is general: the city shall be taken, and the Lord shall go forth against the nations.
It is "the leader who shall come" that will take away the sacrifice in breaking the covenant; and the people giving themselves up at the same time to idols, there shall be a desolator until the chastisement upon Jerusalem is complete, and that the presence of the Lord puts an end to the power of evil and of the evil one.
The Roman emperor is the head of the beast, and Antichrist is only the head of the second beast in Rev. 13 He causes the first beast to be worshipped, and exercises his power, being the false Christ, or king and prophet, for the Jews in Judea. But it is the "leader" who will take away the sacrifice in the beginning of the last half-week; the royalty of the second beast seems to disappear through the power of this leader in the east.
The king of the north is always he who rules over the territory occupied by Antiochus; but in the end Russia will possess this territory, or will rule over it, so as to be the Assyrian. Russia is Gog, unquestionably.
Montreal,
April 3rd, 1868.