THE COMING BATTLE OF MIRACLE
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Christian
truth now flashes like forked lightnings in the
blackest thunder-clouds; and no truth is more terrible, a truth urgently needed
to be known, than the battle of coming miracle just below the horizon. For under identical circumstances God acts
identically; every dispensation,
man-ruined, closes in miracle; and the final crisis, which we are rapidly
approaching, will be a death-grapple of rival miraculous powers: a truth which,
it is safe to say, is almost totally unknown to the
SATAN'S DESCENT
The
battle opens with the presence on earth, for this express purpose, of the two
great protagonists of the universe; and they first pass each other in the air. "There is one
that restraineth now" - the sole personal
curb on lawlessness is the Holy Ghost* - "until he be taken out of the way"
** (2 Thess. 2: 7):
simultaneously, Satan is "cast down to the earth,
and his angels with him" (Rev. 12: 9).
Therefore the Spirit’s restraint in
grace being removed, all Hell’s miraculous powers burst upward. "In the
last days grievous times shall come. For like as Jannes
and Jambres withstood Moses [that is, miraculously:
Exod. 7: 11], SO DO THESE
also withstand the truth. But they shall
proceed no further: for their shall be evident unto
all men, as theirs also came to be"
(2 Tim. 3: 1, 8) - that is, by the counter-working
of mightier miracle. If the false Christs work ‘great’
miracles, and yet are conquered by greater, miraculous gifts must return
with a fulness and a power never known before.
[* It is
a contradiction to teach on the one hand, that the Restrainer
of 2 Thess. 2. is
the Holy Spirit, Who will be "taken out of the way";
and then, on the other hand, to teach that the miraculous powers (to counter
the power of Satan and his followers) will be given by the Holy Spirit during
that same time?].
[**
The Greek is, literally, "become out of the midst".
That is, the Spirit’s ascent is the
exact reverse of His descent: He who is ‘in the
midst’ is suddenly absent; not ‘taken’,
but self-removed.]
THE HOLY SPIRIT
So,
correspondingly, a fresh descent of the Holy Ghost to the earth is foretold. "And I saw in the
midst of the throne a Lamb standing having seven eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God, WHICH ARE SENT FORTH INTO ALL THE EARTH" (Rev. 5: 6). This sevenfold unction - an identity even more
than an unction - Isaiah (11: 2) reveals:- "The Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him [the Messiah]; the spirit of (1) wisdom and
(2) understanding, the spirit of (3) counsel and (4) might, the
spirit of (5) knowledge and the (6) fear of the Lord, and shall make him of (7) quick understanding in the fear of the Lord." This second descent of the Holy Ghost not to
the Church, or to
FALSE CHRISTS
Now
the consequence of Satan's descent and unprecedented opportunity, an
opportunity God-allowed, in working real and great miracles of evil we have not
yet seen. "For
there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, AND
SHALL SHOW GREAT SIGNS AND WONDERS; so as to lead astray, if possible, even
the elect"* (Matt. 24: 24). The deceit, our Lord says, will be
overwhelming. And the Satanic power is
supreme in the two leaders of Hell, the Antichrist and the False Prophet: for
the Antichrist displays "all power and signs and
wonders [wrought on behalf] of falsehood"
(2 Thess. 2: 9);
and the False Prophet "doeth great signs,
that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in
the sight of men" (Rev. 13: 13).
These miracles are the foundation of the
worship of Antichrist; for the False Prophet "deceiveth
them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which it was given
him to do".
[* The Authorized Version seems to make our Lord
imply that such seduction was absolutely impossible. The translation ought to run, as in the Revised Version, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect,
signifying the difficulty, not the impossibility, of drawing them away from
the truth. - The
Pulpit Commentary.]
THE TWO WITNESSES
But
the descent of the Holy Spirit to earth produces a corresponding outburst of
divine miracle. "I will pour forth my Spirit upon all flesh" -
all, that is, without distinction, not all without exception: some of every
class and race - "and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy" (Joel
2: 28). So our Lord quotes
the promise - "I will send unto them prophets and
apostles" (Luke
11: 49), and adds, -"some of them ye shall
kill and crucify" (Matt. 23: 34);
and since only Peter, so far as we know, was crucified among the original
twelve, it appears that these are Apostles yet to arise. Crucifixion has occurred both in the Great War
and in the Spanish civil war. But the
divinely miraculous at the end centres mainly in two Prophets,* who "have the power to shut the heaven, that it rain not during
the days of their prophecy; and they have power over the waters to turn them
into blood, AND TO SMITE THE EARTH WITH EVERY PLAGUE, as often as they
shall desire" (Rev. 11: 6). They also preserve their own lives by a
miracle (ver. 5) perfectly unique in the history of mankind,
without which they would not survive a day: lightning, from their own persons,
kills anyone who even plots their assassination.
[* The
two are believed to be Elijah and Enoch or Elijah and Moses.]
ANTICHRIST'S RESURRECTION
But
one over-mastering Satanic miracle blackens the whole
horizon. "And
I saw one of his heads as though it had been smitten unto death; AND HIS
DEATH-STROKE WAS HEALED: and the whole earth wondered" - in
consequence - "after the beast" (Rev. 13: 3); "and all
that dwell on the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been
written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev.
13: 3, 8). It is impossible to
conceive of a miracle more overwhelming, more convincing to the whole world,
than the Antichrist’s assassination, followed by complete and public
restoration: the passionate faith that follows is the foretold ‘energy of delusion’ a judicial nemesis from God, which
involves the whole world in worship of the Roman Emperor.
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION
But
a divine miracle, surpassing even Antichrist’s resurrection together with his
mastery - for since he is immortal, as risen from the dead, their
lightnings fall upon him harmless - of the two
greatest Prophets God has ever sent, whom he murders with his own hands, now
bursts upon the world. While "they that dwell on the earth rejoice over" the
two dead witness - a wonderful forecast of telegraphy and television: the whole
world rejoices in what has occurred in Palestine only one to three days before
- the two corpses on the streets of Jerusalem "stood
upon their feet; and they went up into heaven in the cloud, AND THEIR
ENEMIES BEHELD THEM". The
drama is so incomparably divine, and so portentous for
the murderers, that "great fear" -
panic - "fell upon" the watchers; and
when the ascension is followed instantly by an earthquake that rocks
THE ADVENT
A
dread pause - the forty-two months - now follows, so critical that it is named
four times, a pause in which the world, having had proof on the grand scale
that God is God, has a last opportunity to repent. On the contrary, so far from repenting, the
damning mark of the Beast’s worship is made universal. So deliberate a challenge to the Deity, backed
even by lightnings from Heaven, forces the hand of
Omnipotence and compels the final vindication of the Godhead. An Angel, "with a
great chain in his hand" (Rev. 20: 1),
binds and casts Satan into the Abyss; "and it
shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cause the
prophets and the unclean spirit" - all hell - "to pass out of the land [earth]"
(Zech. 13: 2). So the personal challenger of Christ is
reserved for the personal handling of the Omnipotent Lord. "The Lawless One,
whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to
nought [paralyse] by the manifestation
[the lightnings] of his
presence" (2 Thess.
2: 8), is cast, with the False Prophet, into the
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Notes
"The
most menacing fact in the international situation is the complete lack of
confidence that prevails all over the world. Neither between governments nor in the realms
of business and finance do people trust each other. This really means the complete breakdown of
morals. People do not seem to think it
their duty or interest to keep their word. Violators of treaties, pacts, conventions, are
defended on the ground that they are done in the interests of the State, and
are therefore acts of Sovereignty. But
no State sovereignty can justify the violation of moral law, for morals alone
are sovereign. This breakdown of the
moral law in international affairs I regard as the fundamental weakness, the
cause of our disasters and of our failures to restore peace on earth and amity
among men."
- Dr. Nicholas
Murray
It
is impossible for a lamp to be lit - to hold or to transmit light - without
contact with fire, or with that which contains fire; we must catch fire,
ignite; and to do so we must contain oil. The contact is asking; the oil is the Holy
Spirit. "If
ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit TO THEM THAT ASK HIM"
(Luke 11: 13).
To-day
the world - and, we dread to say it, apparently the Church also - is growing
callous to desperate iniquity. "THE MODERN
SAVAGERY CAN ONLY BE EXPLAINED BY THE VIEW THAT MEN HAVE BEEN SEIZED BY A
SPIRIT OF EVIL OF SUPERHUMAN NATURE."
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