RELATION OF DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF THE FOURTH EMPIRE
TO THE OLIVET DISCOURSE AND THE
APOCALYPSE.
[The
following Appendix can be found in Nathaniel West’s book -
Daniel’s Great Prophecy The Eastern Question The
Kingdom, pp. 247-255. One does not need to agree with all the
author’s interpretations to recognize his work as a major contribution to the
understanding of some of the deeper aspects of Biblical prophecy.]
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The
prophet Daniel spreads before us the entire times of the Gentiles, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Graeco-Macededonian
and Roman, with the kingdoms sprung from the third and fourth empires, from
B.C. 606 to the Second Coming of Christ. As to the Fourth Empire, the
Roman, he gives: (1) The birth of Christ, A.D. 1; His Crucifixion, A.D. 33; the
destruction of Jerusalem
by Titus, A.D. 70; (2) the Great Interval of the Roman times of the Gentiles to
the 70th week, and (3) the 70th week itself. He
thus covers the whole time between the First and Second Advents. That
interval lies between the 69th and 70th weeks, and
includes the birth, death and ascension of the son of Man and destruction of Jerusalem. Or, if
starting from the catastrophe, it lies between A.D. 70 and the 70th
week. *
[* See Dan. 9: 24, 27.]
Our
Lord, in Matt. 24., 25.,
and parallels in Mark and Luke, resumes all this, and, building on Daniel,
enlarges the prophecy, assigning the Church to her place, alongside of Israel, the one
carrying the Gospel to the nations, the other remaining in unbelief during the
interval. The period of thirty three and a half years from His birth to
His crucifixion lay behind Him when He uttered His discourse. The whole
period from His death to His Second Coming stood before Him. He
characterizes the Roman "Times of the Gentiles"
as the period of Israel’s
rejection and the cross-bearing of the Church; a period for the development of
the world-power, false Christs, war, missions,
persecution, famines, pestilence, apostacy; all
manner of calamities. To paint in, here, a millennial age of universal
righteousness and peace is an impossibility.
There is no room for it. The Lord has positively excluded it. *
The
Apostle John, in his Apocalypse, building both on the Olivet Discourse and
Daniel’s prophecy, as well as on other prophecies, gives us, again, the same
Interval of the Roman times of the Gentiles and the 70th week, with
the Church, Israel, the world-power or kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom
of God. He separates artistically all the events of the future in
outline, and with the lucidity of exposition and perfect symmetry of
arrangement, displays the whole course of the Church and of the world-power in
four great series or groups of sevens, viz., the 7 Epistles to the Asiatic
churches, the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets, the 7 vials, with an episode, or
pause-vision, between the 6th and 7th places in each
series - each series ending with the Day of the Lord and the Second coming of
the lord; the Theme of his book, announced in Rev. 1: 7, "Behold,
He cometh with clouds!"
The
7 Epistles unfold the great interval of the Roman times of the Gentiles on its ecclesiastical
side, giving in separate letters to the churches the different phases
of Christianity in the first century, all typical of the different phases of
Christendom till the Lord comes. They
represent the Church development and the doom of its last prevailing form, even
to the "spued out" of the Lord’s mouth. The 7 seals
cover the same interval, and give is the civil and political side
of the same period, the development of the world-power, proceeding from the
state of temporary peace near John’s time, going forth externally, "conquering and to conquer" through scenes of
bloodshed and woe, and also the hostility of the world-power toward the Church,
her martyrdom and the doom of the world-power itself at the Second Coming of
Christ. The 7 trumpets, entering later, yet covering a large part of the
same interval, give the judgments of God upon an apostatising Christendom,
while still the work of missions continues, and, after the conversion of
Israel, ending with the overthrow of the kingdoms of this world, their
conversion to Christ, and the victory of the Kingdom of God at the Second
Coming of Christ. The 7 vials, entering last of all, are the judgments
under the 7th trumpet, and run on to the same end; judgments
specially quick and intense on the Antichrist and his kingdom during the Great
Tribulation. The climax, or Summit-Section, here is Rev. 11: 15-19, which contains, proleptically, all that is afterward more minutely
developed from 12. to
20: 6.
The
characters of this great "Drama of the End" are (1) the true election
out of Israel, the sealed 144,000; the sun-clothed woman, or Jewish Church,
whose history at both Advents are given; (2) the Dragon dressed in the uniform
of the Roman empire; (3) the Roman Beast and the false prophet, his whole
history, pagan, papal, infidel, given in the symbols; (4) the false Church, the
harlot and her daughters, everywhere; (5) the true Church, or suffering saints
of God, whose "patience and faith are tried;" (6) the personal
Antichrist, or "8th head"; (7) the worshippers of the
Antichrist; (8) the ten horns or kingdoms springing
from the Roman empire; (9) Israel’s
martyr’s in Heaven by the glassy sea; (10) God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit,
angels and demons.
As to the progress or development of the Apocalypse, Chapter 1. is the general introduction with the fundamental
vision of the whole book, the Christophany, the
commission to write and explanations of the vision. Chapters 2. and 3. are the 7 Epistles to
the churches. Chapters 4.
and 5. are scenes
in Heaven at the Ascension of Christ to His Father’s throne, the delegation to
Him, formally, of all power by the gift of the 7 sealed Book of the future
amidst a universal jubilee. Here is the source of "Old
Coronation." It is Ephesians 1:
19-23, in symbols. It is not the Second Advent, but the Ascension,
and Coronation, six weeks after Gethsemane and Calvary.
Chapters 4. and 5. are General
Introduction to all the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials, just as 1. was General Introduction to the Whole
Book. On this follows the opening of 6 seals in Chapter
6. Between the 6th and 7th seal is the
episode, or pause-vision, given for comfort to the Church and in contrast with
the awful scenes in the seals preceding. Here the dramatic progress is
suspended. In great typical symbols, or ideal frames, the different
phases of the future are represented, all the events corresponding to each
symbol entering into that symbol, from John’s time to the Second Coming of the
Lord. Chapters 8. and 9. resume
the progress and give 6 trumpet-visions, which are the 7th
seal developed. Again, between the 6th and 7th
trumpet comes the next episode, in Chapters 10.
and 11., where the
Rainbow-Angel (Christ) gives the open "Little Book,"
containing Israel’s
fortunes in the time of the end, into the hands of John, whose commission to
"prophesy again" is executed by the
Two Witnesses. Here enters the 70th week, as given in
Daniel, only more largely filled out with the Antichrist and scenes in Jerusalem under the Antichrist during the building of the Temple. In 12. we
have converted Israel,
the Jewish Christian Church of the "Time of the
End," Michael standing up as in Daniel. Chapter 13. is the Great Tribulation, their
Redeemer come to them on the earthly Mount Zion, and (2) the call of the Gospel
to the nations, the last warning to all apostates, the climax of the
Tribulation, the harvest and the Vintage at the Second Coming of Christ. The
time is under the 7th trumpet, or 7 vials. In 15, we have a special introduction to the vials, Israel’s martyrs in Heaven preluding
the victory of the Kingdom
of God and the universal
conversion of the nations. In
16. the
7 vials pour the 7 last plagues upon the Antichrist and his kingdom, finishing
the mystery of God, and bring in the Kingdom
of God in victory, amid
cosmic convulsions and judgments unknown before. The Episode
between the 6th and 7th vials so rapidly affused, is the brief word in Rev.
xvi., 15, 16, announcing the near, imminent and impending Advent of the
Lord for his saints at the "thief-time," and repeating the
admonition, given by Himself previously to the Church, in Matt. 24: 42-44, "Behold I come as a thief! Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they (the
Antichristian worshippers) see his shame."
It is the time of the gathering at Armageddon, Antichrist gathering his hosts,
Christ gathering His own.
Chapters 17. and 18. are explanatory of Babylon and the Beast, i.
e., apostate Christendom, and its relations in the last time, and paint in
drastic colours the fall of Rome.
Chapter 19. brings the loud "Hallelujahs"
and the announcement that the time for the marriage of the Lamb and His
long-divorced but now repentant "wife,"
the Jewish Church, has come. The same chapter gives us again the Second
Advent and the destruction of the Antichrist at Jerusalem, as at the close of 14.
Chapter 20: 1-6, gives us the binding of Satan, and resumes
the Resurrection, given in 11. and implied in 14., in
order to associate the same with the kingdom of the 1,000 years. All that
Joel, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah have spoken concerning the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Mount of Olives, Zion, Jerusalem and Israel, the
Antichrist and the nations in the last crisis are here involved. John
expressly adds Rome, Armageddon and Jerusalem. As in
Daniel, so in John’s Apocalypse, the two cities around which the
whole Revelation revolves are Jerusalem, and Rome the capital of the
Fourth Empire. John especially emphasizes Rome,
Jerusalem, Armageddon and the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which he calls
the "winepress outside the city."
As in the beginning of the Christian age, Jerusalem
fell and Rome arose to be the central city of
the Christian age for 1,000 years, so at the end of our age Rome
shall fall and Jerusalem "arise" and "shine," the central city of the millennial age.
How completely the roles are reversed in the providence of God!
Thus
the great peculiarity of the Apocalypse is precisely that of, Daniel and the
Olivet Discourse, only drawn out more at length, viz., that when we think we
have reached the "End," still "the End is not yet," since the
"End" has its own development.
When we come to the End in Dan. 2., still it was not yet,
but a new series of visions developed as in 7. and so again in the succeeding prophecies. So was it
in the Olivet Discourse. When we came to the period of universal war, and
supposed the "End" had come, still the
End was not yet, but only the "beginning
of sorrows." And when, again, we reached the extension of the
Gospel to all nations, still the End was further developed by a retrogression to the middle of the 70th week,
hence advancing to the Parousia
itself. So it is with the series of the 7 epistles, 7 seals, 7 trumpets,
and 7 vials. By an ingeniously divine arrangement the whole drama
of the future is disposed into different series of seven visions each, the 7th
in each case blooming into a new series, until the 7th vial, the
"Vial of the Consummation," is
reached. Two of these series are parallel, the remaining two
entering en echelon, each later than the other. Nothing is clearer
to him who understands the structure of the Apocalypse than its organic
relation to the Book of Daniel and the Olivet Discourse. That Discourse
is the link between them. Daniel’s prophecy of the Fourth Empire
furnishes the ground lines for both, the frame into which both are set.
Daniel’s 4th Beast is John’s Roman Beast. The 10 Horns in
Daniel are the 10 Horns in John. The "Little Horn" in Daniel
7. is the personal Beast who ascends
from the abyss in John. Paul’s "Man of Sin,"
"the Antichrist," "the prince to come" in 9:
27, "the king" in 11: 36, 40-45, the Beast in Rev. 13: 5; xi: 7, and 17:
8; the "8th head" in
17: 11, the personal Antichrist being the
whole Beast itself, the one in whom the whole Antichristian empire in Europe
Asia and Africa is centered in the last times. Israel, in Daniel, is both apostate Israel, and the 144,000 of the elect Israel
in John "the People of the Saints of the Most High."
The 70th week in Dan. 9: 27, is
the 70th week in Rev. 11: 2, 3, 7.
The 1,260 days of Great Tribulation are the "shortened
days" in Matt. 24: 21, 22, and
"short time" in Rev. 12: 12. Michael standing up in Dan. 12: 1,
is Michael standing up in Rev. 12: 6.
The "these my brethren" in Matt.
25: 40, are the "our brethren"
in Rev. 12: 10, 11, the "People of the Saints of the Most High" in Dan. 7: 27. The Son of Man coming in the
clouds, Dan. 7: 13, is the Son of Man coming
in the clouds, Rev. 1: 7, and 14: 14, and in Matt.
25: 29-31. The resurrection of the holy dead, Dan. 12: 2, 3, is the resurrection in Matt. 24: 30, 31, followed by the rapture, 24: 40-44; i. e., the
resurrection in Rev. 11: 18; implied also in
Rev. 14: 13, the reaping of the
living saints, Rev. 14: 14-16, and their
enthronement in Rev. 20: 3-6. The
destruction of the Antichrist and his allies, Dan.
7: 25, 26; xii: 7, is the destruction in Rev.
6: 15-17; 11: 18; 19: 11-21; 14: 20, at Jerusalem. The kingdom in victory
underneath all heavens, Dan. 7: 27; 2: 44,
is the kingdom in Matt 25: 34, and in Rev. 11: 15, and 20: 6,
and 12: 10. The conversion of Israel,
Dan. 9: 24, is the conversion in Matt. 23: 39, and in Rev.
12: 10, 11. Such is the organic unity of these three great
predictions in Daniel, Matthew and John. If the Vision of Judgment, Dan. 7., is not a prophecy of the literal Second
Advent of Christ in person, to set up His millennial kingdom in triumph over
all the earth, but is mere "judical poetry,"
the authority of Christ and His Apostles and the whole New Testament
eschatology are wrecked. The literal Second Coming is annihilated
by every figurative and spiritualizing process of interpretation. In
the Apocalypse the Advent is represented in various ways, under various
symbols, in order to express its relations to the various characters and events
of the closing scene at the end of the age. It enters the drama no
less that 7 times: (1) After the 6th Epistle, in its
relation to the out-spued Church of the End-Time; (2)
under the 6th seal, in its relation to the doom of the world-power;
(3) under the 7th trumpet, in its relation to the resurrection of
the holy dead; (4) in the programme-chapter, in its relation to the reaping of
the living saints and their separation from the wicked thrown into the
winepress; (5) in the vial-visions, after the 6th vial, in its
relation to the gathering at Armageddon; (6) again under the vials, in its
relation to the destruction of the Antichrist at Jerusalem, a special picture
connected with the binding of Satan, the resumption of the resurrection, to
which is added the enthronement of the saints and the 1,000 years; (7) in the
epilogue, in its relation to the theme of the whole book. In all
these representations the end-point of the Advent for the Church is the close
of the Great Tribulation. Such the law and the
structure of the Apocalypse, in perfect harmony with the Olivet Discourse,
Daniel and all the prophets - from Rev. 3. to 20. There
is no Advent of any kind, anywhere, for any purpose, in all the Bible, save the
First Advent, prior to the close of the Great Tribulation, i.e., prior to the "thief-time" in Matt. 24: 44.
And now as to John’s development of Daniel’s 70th week. That week enters in Rev. 11. Chapter 12. shows
the conversion of the Jews, as 13. shows the empire of the Beast and the Great Tribulation,
which extends to 20. Chapter 14, after an anticipating scene of
new-born Israel, with their Redeemer come to them on the exalted earthly Mount
Zion, gives us a view of the state of the world during the last generation of
men who survive to see the Advent, and to the last events before the Advent
itself. It is the "Time of the End,"
when it will be as in Noah’s day, the time also of the ascendancy of Anti-christianity in Europe, Asia and Africa, its world-wide
power felt in every nation under heaven, the time of politically de-christianized Christendom, the time when the Jewish
problem, the fate of the Antichrist and his allied kings, the fate of the Holy
Land, of the nations and of the kingdom of God on earth must be decided. Apostate Judaism in league with Mohammedanism,
both against Christ, will have hastened the end, and the rupture between the
Antichrist and Israel
will have hastened the final crisis. In the general
programme of the end (14.) John sees,
in a special group of 7 visions, 6 officiating angels and the "Son of Man" in the clouds of
heaven. The first three are announcers of the Divine will. The last
three are the bearers of Divine orders from God the Father to the Son of Man,
who has now descended from heaven and is now cloud-seated in the air.
Between the groups the Advent takes place. The programme stands thus:
(1).
The first angel announcing the Gospel. 14: 6, 7.
(2).
The second angel announcing the fall of Babylon. 14: 8.
(3).
The third angel announcing the doom of apostates. 14: 9-11.
(4).
THE VISION OF THE PAROUSIA OF THE SON OF MAN. 14:
14.
(5).
The fourth angel bearing the order for the harvest. 14: 15.
(6)
The fifth angel, coming and waiting, 14: 17,
till
(7)
the sixth angel comes and orders the vintage. 14: 18.
In
other words, John sees the Zenith-Angel flying in the path of the sun, uttering
the last call of the Everlasting Gospel to the nations, the Judgment, and the
urging men to repentance. He sees another angel in the air proclaiming
the doom of Rome,
the corruptness of all the nations of the earth. He sees another still,
and hears him threatening divine wrath on all apostates of the Antichristian
time. It is the climax of the Tribulation. It is God’s last merciful
and last appeal even to an antichristian world, the angels symbolizing those
whom God will raise up as messengers to make the last call of His mercy to
mankind in this present age, and the last faithful warning of the Lord’s Coming
and impending Judgment. The martyrs are falling, the last blood-witnesses
of Jesus. Interposed is a benediction from heaven, upon their graves: "Blessed are the dead, the slaughtered ones in the Lord, from
now on; Yea saith the Spirit; that they may rest from
their labours; for their works follow with them." 14: 13, 13. The time-point is immediately
before the Advent. "From now on"
they are blest, because their works meet now their full reward. It means
their resurrection. Any moment, then, the Lord may
come. And He comes! John sees what Daniel saw, and the Lord Himself
foretold, "One like the Son of Man on the
clouds," but "having on His
head a golden crown (the crown of life, symbol of the resurrection) and a sharp sickle in His hand." It is Matt. 13: 39-43. And now that Christ is
cloud-seated in the air, the order-bearing angels bring to Him the word from
God the Father to commence and execute the judgment. With loud voice the
Harvest-Angel delivers the command to Him who sits on the cloud. "Thrust in the sickle and reap, for the harvest of the earth
is over-ripe." Man’s wickedness is great, and the
time to separate the holy living ones has come. The earth is reaped, the
wheat separated from the chaff, and, with the holy risen ones, both are
raptured to meet the Lord in the air. It is after the 6th
vial. It is Armaggeddon-time. It is Matt. 24: 40, 41. Next, John sees the Vintage-Angel descending
from the Temple in Heaven, yet waiting till the Altar-Angel follows and cries
with loud voice again to the cloud-seated Son of Man, "Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the
vine of the earth: for her grapes are fully ripe."
The earth’s corrupted vine is reaped, its clusters piled into the winepress of
the wrath of God outside the city of Jerusalem.
The blood flows up to the horses’ bridles, discolouring the streams and rivers,
bridle-deep, 1,600 furlongs off. It is the land of Palestine
that is the theatre of war. The scene is the Valley of Jehoshaphat, that Joel saw, as did Isaiah and Zechariah. It is
the settlement of what we call the "Eastern Question" in the "Great Day of God Almighty:" the same Judgment
pictured further on under the Rider on the White Horse from an opened
heaven. Such the programme-chapter developing the events of the 70th
week, first mentioned in the prophet Daniel.
After a special introduction to the vials, Chapter 15. comes the final group of
7 visions, the vial-visions of Chapter 16.,
showing the mode in which what was programmed in 15.
is fulfilled. The first 4 vials, poured upon the
earth, sea, river sources and the sun in Europe, Asia and Africa,
poison the waters so needful for man, and infect the atmosphere and land with
plagues made terrible by the scorching heat of the sun. It means great
naval and military warfare, East and West alike: the hot, bleak mountains and
the arid sands burning the feet of antichristian hosts, and scorching their
heads; where water is, yet "not a drop to drink,"
the carnage is so great; the world still impenitent and still blaspheming.
The 5th vial spreads darkness over the seat and the kingdom of the
Antichrist, darkness thick as that of Egypt;
Jerusalem is
darkened, as at the Crucifixion. Sun, moon and stars refuse to shine. In
the East the Euphrates is dried up under the 6th
vial, to speed the march of the allies of the Antichrist to Armageddon.
The kings of the whole earth, now quarreling among
themselves, meet, with their armies, in the Holy Land
for the last struggle. Rev. 16:
12-16. "Behold, I come as a thief! Blessed is he that watcheth." It is the Advent, the
Resurrection-Time. Then the 7th
vial, "the Vial of Consummation."
"Done!"
The last act of the tragedy of the Warfare Great is completed, amid atmospheric
phenomena of rapidly alternate heat and cold, earthquake, cosmic phenomena,
Olivet sundered, Holy Land upheaving and subsiding,
cities falling, mountains disappearing, islands fleeing away, Rome’s place subgulfed, hailstones a talent’s weight smiting the foe,
the wicked calling on the rocks to hide them from the face and the wrath of the
Lamb. Specially, and after the explanations given in Chapters 17. and 18., John hears the thundering "Hallelujas"
in Heaven over the fall of apostate Christendom, and the announcement that the
time of the marriage of the Lamb and His long-divorced but now repentant "wife," New-Born Israel, has come. The
vision closes with the picture of the Antichrist’s destruction (Rev. 19: 11-21), the binding of Satan and the
resumption of the resurrection scene in order to connect it with the kingdom of
the 1,000 years. Rev. 20: 1-6.
So ends our present age. So comes the Kingdom of God to victory under all heavens.
The Colossus has become as "the chaff of the
summer threshing floor." The nations, purged by judgment, and
destruction of the wicked who have failed to see the hand of God and refused to
listen to the last call of the Gospel, are saved. It is God’s "strange work." "I will sing of judgment and of mercy; unto thee, O God, I
will sing!" Ps. 101: 1.
Thus has John unfolded and filled, in detail, the Vision of Judgment seen by
Daniel in Chapter 7., and expanded in our Lord’s
Olivet Discourse. The unity of prophecy is indestructible. A
millennial age before the Lord comes is impossible. Only through the
Messianic Judgment can the world ever attain to an age of universal
righteousness and peace. This, the concert of all the
prophets, Christ and His Apostles.
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[* "It does seem strange that any student of God’s word should
doubt, for one moment, the truth that blazes everywhere so clearly on the Old
as well as the New Testaments, viz., that the Second Coming of Christ precedes
the Millennium. And it does seem criminal that such an unreasoning
prejudice should exist in the minds of any against the use of the term
[Millennium or Millennial Age] as Scriptural as are the terms
"Baptism," "Baptist," "Episcopalian,"
"Presbyterian;" words which the objectors themselves have chosen to
consecrate as the means of their several denominations, and in which they
glory. How unreasonable is man’s opposition, when to God’s own word!
"Man
would,"
as Bengel says, "take the very words of
God out of His open mouth!" We coin the word "Millennialist," in
Latin, from the words "mille" and "annos," which are simply the Roman
equivalents for the Greek "Chilia
Ete" of John in Rev. 20: 1-7, the English
translation of which is a "Thousand Years." It is
Scriptural. We coin the word "Chiliast" from
these same inspired words. It is as Scriptural a term, as is "Baptist,"
"Presbyterian," or "Episcopalian," or
"Christian," and as "orthodox" as any of these! It
means that he who wears it believes that the "Day of the Lord" in which Christ
comes, precedes the Millennium. The Advent is before the
Millennium. That is, he is a "Pre-Millennialist."
With equal justice, we might coin the word Ravyamist
from the Hebrew term "Rov Yamim" and "Rabbim
Yamim," in Hosea, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, there used to denote
the same truth. Every prophet was a Ravyamist.
He believed in a period of time, "after" Messiah’s
Coming to judge the Nations, in which Israel, regathered,
redeemed, restored, renewed, resurrected, and renationalized, should enjoy
the Messianic glory in the kingdom on earth - a period of time called
"Many Days," or as John has it, a "thousand years," and prior to
the Last Judgment and the final New Heaven and Earth. And Christ Himself
was a "Ravyamist," or, as Auberlen
somewhere truly says, "Jesus was a Chiliast." All the
Apostles were the same. All the early Apologists for Christianity were
the same. Can we imagine when we hear such a man as Delitzsch say,
"I am a Chiliast," and "Chiliasm was the faith
of the early Church," and when we also hear the greatest
modern patristic scholar, Harnack, say, "Chiliasm is inseparably associated with the
gospel, and this is its defence," that these men are either heretics or
foolish? On the contrary, that great martyr and scholar, "Irenaeus the Great," like "Justin the most learned man of
his time,"
catalogued and helped as "promoters of heresy,"
and even of "blasphemy," all who
denied the Chiliastic faith which, in their day, was the "test of an orthodox
church."
It is a proposition no honest critic dare deny that, if the early church,
having such teachers as Irenaeus, Justin, and others
of the same apolostic faith and influence, and
knowing what Hosea,
Isaiah, Micah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, John, our
Lord, and His Apostles, had taught, had not been Chiliastic in her creed, she
ought to have been so, and her failure to have been so would have convicted
her as recreant to what Moses and the Prophets, and Christ and His Apostles,
had revealed in the course of history, and the outcome of God’s kingdom on
earth. It was impossible, however, that, standing next to Christ and
His Apostles, and with the Psalms and Prophets in her hand, the Jew nationally
cast away yet only for a time, and the Gentile erect on Israel’s grave, and
even persecuting the church itself, she could have anything else than she was
in her creed, and the proof is perfect, and increases more and more, with every
fresh investigation of the early history of the church, that, only by means
of apostasy from the Word of God, did she surrender for the sake of
opulence and power, money and prosperity, extension in the empire, and freedom
from fagot and flame, that blessed truth whose defense
from Moses to John, God has made the mark of a faithful, a suffering, and a
witnessing church. And, surely, if the pious Hebrew held the Hope of
Christ’s Coming to judge the nations, restore Israel, and set up His Kingdom on
earth, as the only Hope for the world’s redemption, the only way by which
Gentile politics and power could be overthrown, the Antichrist destroyed, and
the faithful dead awakened to share the promise of the kingdom, much more ought
it to be our Hope, bound up as it is with our own deliverance, as well as the
deliverance of Israel, and the final glory of the world. What a
stupendous absurdity, in flat contradiction to every prophet, that the
Millennial Age will come prior to the "Yom Yehovah," or "Day
of the Lord," in which Messiah appears
for Israel’s final recovery! Such an idea simply inverts, perverts and
distorts, Moses and the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles. The whole testimony
of prophecy, pre-exile, exile, and post-exile, is against it. The entire New
Testament is against it. Never, till the Colossus comes down by means of
judgment, and the Bones of Israel awake in the Valley, and the Antichrist is
destroyed, and Satan is bound, and God’s sleeping saints [that is, those
amongst them "considered
worthy" (Luke 14: 14; 20: 35; Phil. 3: 11; Heb. 11: 35; Rev. 20:
4-6; cf. Luke 22: 28).] are
raised, and heaven, earth, sea, dry land, and the nations are shaken, can the
kingdom come, as predicted. And that none of these marvels can occur
apart from the Second Coming of Christ, that merest tyro in Biblical
knowledge must recognize as a first principle and truth in the interpretation
of prophecy."]
- Nathaniel West - (The Thousand Years,
pp 79-82.)
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