There will be Jewish disciples and believers who will preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, who will take up the testimony which the disciples were preaching in His day, and will proclaim this to all nations when Satan is prompting the beast and the false prophet to bring in the infernal kingdom-when there is that base usurpation on the earth which Satan cannot longer continue in the heavens. For a little while he will attempt to secure the sovereignty of the earth, and have a kingdom of his own, arrogating to his instrument, no doubt, the name of the Lord God. Then will be found the voices of faithful men, holding fast the old testimony, and proclaiming it unto all the nations when Christendom shall have gone into apostasy. These kingdoms may have their science and civilization; but they will fall into the deepest abysses of deceit and strong delusion. The mass of the Jews, too, will fall into the dreadful snare that the kingdom of God is come, when it is only the kingdom of the beast and the antichrist. Then will be heard those faithful Jews, going forth with power to proclaim that the true kingdom—the kingdom of heaven, not of the beast that rises up out of the pit, but the kingdom of the heavens—is at hand, the kingdom that comes down from above, and of which the Lord Jesus is King
When that kingdom is at hand, when the Lord is going to accomplish His word which was broken off by His death and resurrection—for He is now, manifestly, out of the world—what He will then establish will be the kingdom of heaven on the earth. This is the true hope that God has given as far as the world is concerned. But the only one who can accomplish the work, and the only one, too, who deserves the glory, is Jesus: all other men require to be saved and purified. He is the only one who has both a divine and a human claim. All others need to be washed, sanctified and justified. He is the Savior of all; He alone will have the dominion as of right. Thus, then, these faithful Jews—these disciples—when the mass of their nation are apostate, and when Christendom too is apostate, will renew the testimony in the latter day. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world to all nations, a final testimony of the true kingdom, while the false kingdom is set up by Satan's power.
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached everywhere, and then shall the end come. This is not the character of the teaching that is given to us as Christians. If we look at the Epistles of Paul, where does he ever give us anything of this kind of warning? How could an idol in the Temple be a sign to you or me, if we were Christians in England, France, Germany, or in any part of America? How could it be a sign to us if anything new were set up in Jerusalem? It is astonishing how—I will not say believers, but—sensible men can be deceived by such a notion. But we can perfectly understand that if an idol should be set up to be worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem, it must be a most solemn sign of Satan's power over the people. And so the righteous will take warning and flee. It applies only to such as shall at that time be living in Jerusalem; but how could it be a sign to those scattered over all lands thousands of miles away?
It is no use to tell me that the thing may be communicated rapidly now-a-days, for the whole thing is represented by our Lord as a signal for flight to those who saw it.
It is not that others may hear, but “when ye shall see” the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. The same are to flee.
It is not then an announcement by the telegraph that there are these dismal doings in Jerusalem, but persons on the spot, who see evident tokens of the power that Satan is wielding, and that their nation is damnably guilty; and who at once retire.
The Lord, it is plain by his call to the reader to understand, supposes that some would not understand; He supposes that there would be a very great tendency to mistake about it, and calls their special heed to the word. It is what concerned the Jew, as put down for a season by the Gentile; for Daniel speaks about these facts and not about the church. “When ye shall see” this, “then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” Clearly this is no sign to the Christian, as such, unless one believes that all the Christians of the world are then to be alive in Judaea. What more absurd?
Take it as the Lord gives it, for there is no need to put in any words of our own. I am expounding what no believer can deny; and who can affirm that what I am deducing is not the plain meaning of the Lord's words, or that they will bear any other construction?
“Then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains"; it is to be an instantaneous flight. There is no time to communicate with others. It is as much as can be done to save themselves. “Let him which is on the house-top not come down to take anything out of his house"; it is too late to think about doing this. “Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.” Immediate flight is the only hope of safety. What sort of safety? It is the saving of flesh—of natural life. Is this what the Christian is expecting? Not so. The Christian is looking for the coming of Christ, not to save his life, but to change and take him up to heaven. The point here is escape, for it is not safe to remain. There is unprecedented trouble coming; those who refuse to worship the idol will be put to death, and those who worship will be besieged and led into captivity largely. Therefore the Lord warns His disciples to flee in order that they may not be so troubled. It has nothing at all to do with the Christian's expectation of going up to heaven to meet the Lord “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” For, where would be the propriety of telling the Christian not to come down from the house-top at that time? Would it matter whether at the top or the bottom of the house? Thus it is perfectly plain that the Lord is here speaking simply of the Jew who sees this most startling sign of Satan's power and is ordered at the peril of his life to make his escape. It is much more like Lot and his family going out of Sodom, than Abraham from a distance with the Lord.
There is one thing to which I would call your attention regarding the word of God: there is not a book in the world that has fared so hardly as the Bible. When other books are read men strive to understand them, but when they read the Bible they shut their eyes and give up its interpretation as hopeless. This is due to the blinding power of Satan: he does not wish it to be understood, only read as a task. This is not the way to treat the word of God. I grant you we need a power above our own. To this end we cannot understand the Bible by forcing the lock; what we want is the key. But if you have Christ, you have already the key. In faith apply Christ to the Bible, and you can understand it. It is not a question of a superior mind or of great learning—for the most learned have been the most foolish in their mistakes. The simple man who understands but his mother-tongue understands the Bible, if he with true simplicity submits himself to the Lord and has confidence in His love. This is produced by the Spirit of God: 'tis only this that makes men humble, that gives confidence in God and in His word by taking away objects which overpower his own mind.
Suppose I am a red-hot Calvinist: I cannot understand the word which calls one to preach the gospel to every creature. Suppose I am a rather violent Arminian: I cannot understand the Scriptures which speak of “being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” Assuredly then the wisdom of the Christian is to be neither the one nor the other. He should take all the Scriptures simply as they stand.
Take my advice, my friends; read the Scriptures carefully but believingly, and you will understand what is infinitely better than anything found in the various schemes of man. It is just the same as regards the interpretation of prophecy as in doctrine. No man should convince you that one part of the word of God is sealed up and the other open. There was a time when it was so. When Daniel was called to have those very communications which we have been reading, he was told to seal up the book; when John was called to have the same communications and yet greater ones, he was told not to seal up the book. Do, you not see the difference and the reason of it? The principle was this—the Jews were incapable of entering into the true and full meaning of the future till Christ came, at least until the end comes. It will only be then, when the last days of this age are come, that the godly remnant will understand. The wicked shall not understand. You cannot separate moral condition from real intelligence of the word of God. But the Christian already has, not Christ only, but the Spirit in virtue of redemption; and hence he is called and qualified to search all things, yea the deep things of God.
When the grace of God gives people the desire to do the will of God, then they become able to understand both doctrine and prophecy. They learn that all the revealed mind of God centers in Christ, not in the first man. When you are not wanting to find in prophecy England or America, the cholera or the potato disease, or yourself; when you are delivered from all these notions, fears, or wishes, then it is that you are in a fit moral condition; because you have not absorbing objects which govern and blind you. The only way to understand any part of the Bible is just by grace to give up our own will and desires for Christ; then we can face anything. We are not afraid of what God has to reveal; nor need we try to force anything of our own upon the Bible, being thus content to gather God's meaning from it. This is what I shall endeavor to do now.
(Continued front page 255)
(To be continued)
[W.K.]