" 'Tis not far off—the hour
When Christ will claim His own!
We soon shall hear that voice of power -
The Lord Himself shall come!
"The days are passing by,
The years flow on apace,
Lord Jesus, Thy return draws nigh,
We long to see Thy face!"
Another year has run its course, and its events have become history. 1958 dawns; what will it bring? Will the Lord Jesus come into the clouds of heaven and shout the shout that will raise those who have died in faith, and change the living saints? Will 1958 be the year of the great event? It is not only possible, but probable.
On that memorable night, the night before His death, the Lord Jesus told His disciples, "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." John 14:33And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3). That was a definite promise without equivocation. It is as good and as sure as it was at the moment in which it was spoken. He has said that He will come for us, and He will surely do it. Then the epistles tell us more about His coming and the order of it, but nothing has been set before the Christians as something that must take place first. It is not with us as it will be with the faithful Jewish remnant in the days after we are gone; they will have certain signs to watch for before they are to flee from Jerusalem (see Matt. 24:14-2114And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. 15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:14‑21)). The Christian is always to watch for his Lord.
God has, however, given to us the lamp of prophecy to enlighten us in this dark place, and we do well to take heed to it (2 Pet. 1:1919We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (2 Peter 1:19)). It has been His good pleasure to tell us what He is about to do, and surely He who gave the word can give us the proper understanding of it, if we seek it in dependence on Him. The Lord Jesus reproved the Jews in His day for not being able to discern the signs of the times. They had the Old Testament scriptures which foretold His first coming, and He was there in fulfillment of them, but they did not discern the time (see Matt. 16:1-31The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. 2He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. 3And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? (Matthew 16:1‑3); Luke 12:54-5654And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. 55And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. 56Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? (Luke 12:54‑56)). Can we, therefore, who have the promise of His coming and the light of the prophetic word, be indifferent to the general character of the days in which we live? Are any Christians so blind that they cannot discern that we are now in the "last days"? The moral character of those days is here (2 Tim. 3:1-51This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1‑5)). And while there is no sign set before us as something to precede His coming for us, yet there are ominous signs of the events that the Word of God says will take place on earth after we are gone. God has written prophecy with more certainty than man can write history.
In the days of the great Nebuchadnezzar, God foretold the time in which the Babylonian Empire would flourish (Jer. 27:6, 76And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. 7And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. (Jeremiah 27:6‑7)); and so it came to pass. He gave His servants, the prophets, information regarding the succession of great world powers—Medo-Persian, Alexander the Great and his successors, and the mighty Roman Empire. All without exception was fulfilled to the letter, saving that which is still future. And what part of those prophecies is still future? Just this: there will be a revival of the Roman Empire of the West in a form different from any previous one. It will be composed of ten separate kingdoms subject to a federal head. The Roman Empire did not exist as such in any past condition.
The ten kingdoms are foretold in the "ten toes" of the image, in Dan. 2; in the "ten horns" of that dreadful beast, in Dan. 7 and Rev. 13 and 17. The head of this revived Empire of the West is prefigured in the little horn that came up last on the beast, in Dan. 7 (who completely dominates the beast and disposes of three of the first ten kings), and in the beast of Rev. 13 and 17; he is also spoken of as "the prince that shall come," in 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). These kings and this head are referred to prophetically in other places, but we shall not look at them now. In him and his wicked supporter in Palestine, wickedness will rise to its consummate arrogance.
We are aware that there is a line of teaching that makes of these future events nothing but now fulfilled history. They see in these ten kings only ten parts of a broken empire of the past, and in the federal head nothing else than the Pope of Rome. All such reasonings are wrong and are based upon false premises. A few questions will show the falsity of such interpretations:
When did the Roman Empire achieve such unity after its breakup as these prophecies depict?
When did the Lord Jesus set up a visible earthly kingdom that will supersede these kingdoms, and stand forever? (See v. 44.)
When did all the world `'wonder after the" Pope?
The solution is easily obvious: no fulfillment of the prophetic scriptures regarding the last state of the Roman Empire has been accomplished; this is yet future. To properly understand many prophecies, one must see that there is a gap in the prophetic outline; the account runs on regularly to a certain point and then it jumps on down to the time of the end. We may call the interval a parenthesis in the prophecy—this present period of the call of the Church fits into the prophetic gap. After the Church has been translated to heaven, the parenthesis will be closed; then the remaining prophecies will be fulfilled.
Such climactic events as the revival of the Roman Empire do not come about instantaneously; they take time to develop. God allows man in his sin to go on in his own way, but He has predetermined what the end will be. He rules providentially, while man forgets Him. His Word speaks of His allowing certain winds to act on the great sea of human confusion to bring about His purposes (see Dan. 7:22Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. (Daniel 7:2); Revelation
7:1; 13:1).
Who would have thought that out of the cold ashes of the old Roman Empire a new all-powerful empire would arise? Or who would have supposed that the small nations of Western Europe with their intense individual nationalism would ever come close together? or would ever submit to a superimposed-government? Charlemagne,. Napoleon, Hitler, and lesser lights dreamed of a united Europe, but that was reserved by God for the very last days before His Son would come back to make His enemies His footstool, and "dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
It has taken the last fifty years with two world wars and constantly recurring crises to bring Europe to where it stands today—1958. The threat of hydrogen warfare, and economic strangulation (in view of Russia's sudden rise to power) have forced the nations of Western Europe closer and closer together. They have finally realized that they must unite to survive, or die separately. These are the horns of the dilemma, and the bare facts behind them make only one decision practicable—unite.
Many attempts were made to hold Europe together after both world wars, but when tensions lessened, the bonds tended to break. But the ever recurring fear of Russia in recent years has kept the statesmen of Europe and North America striving for some workable solution to the grave problem. Today there is some very real joint military cooperation between the nations of Western Europe and the United States (whose people are descendants of the peoples of the old Roman Empire). They have recently held joint maneuvers in the Eastern Mediterranean and in Northern European waters. The basic outline is all in readiness, and the filling in of the details only requires a circumstance; this, Russia is apt to furnish without notice at any time. The way is now ready for the formation of the revived Roman Empire militarily, and there is an ever-present threat to keep it from being given up.
It does not matter that present plans call for more or less than ten nations to participate, for the final roster will be as God has said.
Economically, several important steps have already
been taken. In 1952 a joint project was launched which linked the coal and iron mines and the steel mills of France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg into a common pool known as the European Coal and Steel Community. This has now been in successful operation for five years, and it has been a great spur to European development. Such a scheme was unthinkable just a few short years back, but common necessity has brought it about.
Now on January 1, 1958, a very bold step is being taken. It is being heralded as the introduction of a "Golden Age" for Europe. These same six countries are now effecting "an economic constitution for the United States of Europe." It will put nuclear resources and skills together into a common pool in an attempt to develop nuclear power to replace much coal and oil as sources of energy. They are also discarding artificial trade barriers, such as tariffs, and planning for a free movement of labor between these six nations. In short, these nations have taken the lead in forming a practical, working supranational economic union. Thus the necessary adjunct to a military federation is already functioning. Removal of trade barriers and the free flow of men and products from one to another of the nations of the new United States of Europe, would be a prerequisite to a revived Roman Empire. These are now out of the talking and planning stages and are operating realities. The inclusion or exclusion of certain nations to bring the final operating unit into the form of a "ten kingdom" power with a bold uniting head is only a matter of addition or subtraction.
One more point that might be considered is the preliminary work to prepare the people for the acceptance of a despotic Caesar to head up these Western nations. It might have been thought that peoples used to democratic rule would refuse to bow and do obeisance to such a man, but here again, the strain of hot wars and cold wars has made the people, even of the United States, ready to entrust their lives and their destinies to a man who promises to bring peace to the troubled world. They will welcome with loud acclaim a strong leader who seems to know where he is leading them.
They will not hesitate to render hero-worship t o "t h e beast." From then on, the downward steps will be taken with accelerated speed. They will not only worship the beast, but they will also worship the devil, who will give this man his full support.
O Christendom of Christ rejecters, you are heading for the great destruction as those swine did when they, impelled by the devil, ran violently down the steep place into the sea.
But, fellow-Christian, we who have the lamp of prophecy should discern the time, "that now it is high time to awake out of sleep" (Rom. 13:1111And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11)). The coming of the Lord is near, even at the door. "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.... But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation." 1 Thess. 5:6, 86Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. (1 Thessalonians 5:6)
8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. (1 Thessalonians 5:8).