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Chapters 12 to 17
Chapter 12 to 17 [2] Erroneous in the sense that it is but a shadowy and secondary
fulfillment, rather than the ultimate and primary. [3] See also the chapter on Satan's Origin in the writer's "Satan and
his Gospel" obtainable from the Bible Truth Depot, Swengel, Pa. at 20
cents. [4] It is the Man of Sin who is to be the last great Caesar: this
will be made clear in our study of the Antichrist in the Revelation. [5] Psa. 78:49 speaks of God using "evil angels" (those mentioned in
Rev. 12:7) in His judgments on Egypt. [6] It is remarkable that just three times (the number of
resurrection) the healing of the Antichrist's wound of death is referred
to here in Rev. 13 - see vv. 3,12,14! [7] There is no room for a quibble about the meaning of "Babylon",
for v. 19 expressly terms it "The beauty of the Chaldees' Excellency".
[8] A book of intense interest for the antiquarian, but dull and
wearisome for the average reader. [9] He that hath the Bride (John 3:29), spoken by John the Baptist -
the "friend of the Bridegroom" - demonstrates that "the Bride" was in
view during our Lord's ministry unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. The believing Remnant who "received" Him, form the nucleus and
were representative of redeemed Israel, millennial Israel, the Bride of
the Lamb. [10] It will not have come in the sense of this verse, until it
pervades the Roman world. When all the ten kingdoms have been
constitutionalized, it may be said to have come. [11] Mr. Baron is probably the ablest and most widely known and
esteemed Hebrew Christian alive today. [12] What they suffered in A.D. 70 was, first, for the sins of their
fathers, see Luke 11:50; and second, for the murder of Christ, see Matt.
22:7. [13] That the Hebrew word for "clay" in these passages is a different
one from that employed in Dan. 2 is exactly what a reflecting mind would
naturally expect. Isa. 64 and Jer. 18 treat of the Israel that shall be
restored, whereas Dan. 2 speaks of the apostate portion of Israel,
irrevocablly given up to judgment. In striking accord with this, we may
add, that the word used in Isa. 64 and Jer. 18 refers to clay in its
native and mouldable stage; but the word in Dan. 2 signifies "burnt
clay" which denotes its final condition: here, as always, "burning"
tells of Divine judgment!
In the thirteenth chapter of Revelation two Beasts are there
described. The first is the final Head of the last great Empire before
the establishment of the millennial kingdom of our Lord. The second
Beast is denominated, in other passages, "the False Prophet". There is a
difference of opinion as to which of these Beasts represents the
Antichrist. In the Appendix to our book "The Redeemer's Return", where
this subject is discussed and from which we shall here freely
transcribe, we have stated that opinion is about equally divided. But
during the last five years we have made a much wider investigation, and
as the result we have found that the great majority of those who have
written on the subject regard the first Beast as the Antichrist, and
that only a comparative few - nearly all of whom belong to a particular
school - favour the alternative view. However, the writings of the few
have had a wide circulation and have exerted a considerable influence on
students of prophecy, and therefore these papers on the Antichrist would
lack completeness, and probably some of our readers would be
disappointed, if we said nothing on the subject. It is in no spirit of
controversy that we now present our own reasons for believing it is the
first Beast of Rev. 13 who is the Antichrist.
The book of Revelation makes known the fact that there is a Trinity
of Evil. Each of these three evil persons comes into view in Rev. 13.
First, there is "the Beast" (v. 2). Second, there is "the Dragon" (v.
2). Third, there is "another Beast" (v. 11). The fact that of this third
Beast it is said "He spoke as a dragon" (v. 11) at once intimates his
satanic nature and character, for the speech corresponds to the heart.
The demoniacal nature of each of these evil persons comes out clearly in
Rev. 16:13,14, where we read, "And I saw three unclean spirits like
frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon, and out of the mouth of the
Beast, and out of the mouth of the False Prophet. For they are the
spirits of demons, working miracles". Finally, in Rev. 19:19,20 we are
told, "And the Beast was taken, and with him the False Prophet...these
both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone", and
then in 20:10 we read, "And the Devil that deceived them was cast into
the lake of fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet
are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever".
The above scriptures clearly establish the fact that there is a
Trinity of Evil. Now it surely needs no argument to prove that these
three evil persons are opposed to and are the antithesis of the three
Persons in the Godhead. The Devil stands opposed to God the Father - "Ye
are of your father, the Devil", John 8:40, etc. The Antichrist stands
opposed to God the Son - his very name shows this. The remaining evil
person stands opposed to God the Spirit. If this be the case, then our
present task is greatly simplified: it is merely a matter of noting what
is separately predicted of the two Beasts in Rev. 13 so as to ascertain
which of them stands opposed to Christ and which to the Holy Spirit.
Now there are only two arguments of any plausibility which have
been advanced to support the view that it is the second Beast of Rev. 13
which is the Antichrist, but so far as we are aware no one has
endeavoured to show that the first Beast represents the third Person in
the Trinity of Evil! Yet he must be so if the second is the
Antichrist! This is unmistakably clear from Rev. 16:13,14 and 19:19,20.
The first argument used is drawn from the language of 13:11, where of
the second Beast it is said, "He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke
as a dragon". This, we are told, indicates that it is the Antichrist who
is here in view, aping the Lamb of God. Personally, we are amazed that
such an assertion should have been made in soberness. It is difficult to
imagine anything more wide of the mark, seeing that not only is it not
said this beast with the two horns was "like the lamb" but in this same
book "the Lamb" is pictured with "seven horns" (see. 5:6). But if this
second Beast, the False Prophet, be the opponent of God the Spirit, then
the two horns have a pertinent significance, for two is the number of
witness, and just as Christ declared the Spirit of God should "testify
(lit., bear witness) of Me" (John 15:26), so the third person in the
Trinity of Evil bears witness to the first Beast - see 13:12,14,16. In
the second place, it is said that the first Beast of Rev. 13 is
presented as the political Head, while it is the second who is viewed as
the religious Head. But if this is not a bad mistake, it certainly needs
to be modified. It is the first Beast, not the second, who is
worshipped (v. 12)! Having thus noticed briefly the two leading
objections which have been brought against the position we are about to
define and defend, we shall now present some of the many arguments on
the other side.
In the first place, to regard the Antichrist as limited to the
religious realm and divorced from the political, seems to us, to leave
out entirely an essential and fundamental element of his character and
career. The Antichrist will claim to be the true Christ, the Christ of
God. Hence, it would seem that he will present himself to the Jews as
their long-expected Messiah - the One foretold by the Old Testament
prophets - and that before apostate Christendom, given over by God to
believe the Lie, he will pose as the returned Christ. Therefore, must we
not predict, as an inevitable corollary, that the pseudo Christ, will
usher in a false millennium, and rule over a mock messianic kingdom?
That this conclusion is fully borne out by Scripture we shall show in a
moment.
Why was it (from the human side) that, when out Lord tabernacled
among men, the Jews rejected Him as their Messiah? Was it not because He
failed to fulfil their expectations that he would take the government
upon His shoulder and wield the royal sceptre as soon as He presented
Himself to them? Was it not because they looked for Him to restore the
Kingdom to Israel there and then? Is it not therefore reasonable to
suppose that when the Antichrist presents himself to them, that he will
wield great temporal power, and rule over a vast earthly empire? It
would certainly seem so. Happily we are not left to logical deductions
and conclusions. We have a "thus saith the Lord" to rest upon. In Dan.
11:36 - a scripture upon which all are agreed concerning its application
- the Antichrist is expressly termed "The King" (which) shall do
according to his will". Here then is unequivocal proof that Antichrist
will exercise political or governmental power. He will be a king - "the
king" - and if a king he must be at the head of a kingdom.
In the second place, if the Antichrist is to be a perfect
counterfeit of the true Christ, if he is to ape the millennial Christ as
set forth in Old Testament prophecy - for, of course, he will not mimic
the "suffering" Christ of the first advent - then it necessarily follows
that he will fill the role of king, yea, that he will reign as a King of
kings, as Satan's parody of the Son of man seated upon "the throne of
His glory". That the Antichrist will also be at the head of the
religious world, that he will demand and receive Divine honours, is
equally true. Just as in the Millennium the Lord Jesus will "be a
Priest upon His Throne" (Zech. 6:13), so the Antichrist will combine
in his person the headships of both the political and the religious
realms - see our notes on Ezek. 21:25,26 in Chapter 9. And just as the
Son of Man will be the Head of the fifth world-empire (Dan. 2:44) so,
the Man of Sin will be the head of the revived fourth world-empire (Dan.
2:40).
In the third place, to make the Antichrist and "the False Prophet"
one and the same person is to involve us in a difficulty for which there
seems to be no solution. In Rev. 19:20 we read, "And the Beast was
taken, and with him the False Prophet that wrought miracles before
him....These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with
brimstone". Now, if the False Prophet be the Antichrist, then who is
"the Beast" that is cast with him into the Lake of Fire? The Beast here
cannot be the Roman Empire (the people in it), for no member of the
human race (as such) is cast into the Lake of Fire until after
the Millennium (see Rev. 20). That "the Beast" is a separate entity,
another individual than the False Prophet is also clear from Rev. 20:10
- "And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet are". In this last
quoted scripture, each of the three persons in the Trinity of Evil is
specifically mentioned, and if "the Beast" is not the Antichrist, the
Son of Perdition, the second person in the Trinity of Evil, who is he?
In the fourth place, what is predicted of the first Beast in Rev.
13 comports much better with what is elsewhere revealed concerning the
Antichrist, than what is here said of the second Beast. In proof of our
assertion we submit the following:
Points of resemblance between the first Beast of Rev. 13 and the
Man of Sin of 2 Thess. 2: -
1. The first Beast receives his power, seat, and great authority
from the Dragon, Rev. 13:2. Cf. 2 Thess. 2:9 - "Him, whose coming is
after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders".
2. :All the world" wonders after the first Beast, Rev. 13:2. Cf. 2
Thess. 2:11,12 - "And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe the Lie; that they all might be
damned", etc.
3. The first Beast is "worshipped", Rev. 13:4. Cf. 2 Thess. 2:4 -
"He as God sitteth in the temple of God".
4. The first Beast has a mouth "speaking great things", Rev. 13:5.
Cf. 2 Thess. 2:4 - "Who...exalteth himself above all that is called
God". Note also that in Rev. 13:5 it is said of the first Beast, he "has
a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies". Is not this one of the
chief characteristic marks of the Antichrist?
5. The first Beast makes war on the saints, Rev. 13:7. Cf 2 Thess.
2:4 - "Who opposeth...all that is called God", that is, he will seek to
exterminate and obliterate everything on earth which bears God's name.
From these points of analogy it is evident that the first Beast of
Rev. 13 and the Man of Sin of 2 Thess. 2 are one and the same person.
In the fifth place, that the second Beast is not the Man of Sin
appears from the fact that the second Beast causeth the earth to worship
the first Beast (Rev. 13:12), whereas the Man of Sin exalteth himself (2
Thess. 2:4), and compare Dan. 11:36: "And he exalteth himself". As
already intimated, there are several things which show plainly that the
second Beast is the third person in the Trinity of Evil, that is, the
one who is the satanic parody of the Holy Spirit. The point now before
us supplies further confirmation. There is nothing in Rev. 13, nor
elsewhere, to show that this second Beast is worshipped, rather does he
direct worship away from himself, to the first Beast. Therefore, he
cannot be the pseudo Christ, for the Lord Jesus did, again and again,
receive worship (see particularly Matthew's Gospel), and will be
worshipped on His return. But this second Beast, who directs worship
away from himself, accurately imitates the Holy Spirit in this respect,
for nowhere in the New Testament is the third Person of the Holy Trinity
presented as a distinct Object of worship; instead, He is to "glorify"
Christ (John 16:14) by drawing out our hearts unto that blessed One who
loved us and gave Himself for us.
Again; it has been generally recognized by prophetic students that
our Lord referred to the Antichrist when He said, "I am come in My
Father's name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own
name, him ye will receive" (John 5:43). If the one here mentioned as
coming "in his own name" is the Antichrist, then it is certain that the
second Beast of Rev. 13 cannot be the Antichrist, for he does not come
"in his own name". On the contrary, the second Beast comes in the name
of the first Beast as is clear from Rev. 13:12-15. Just as the Holy
Spirit - the third Person in the Holy Trinity speaks "not of Himself"
(John 16:13), but is here to glorify Christ, so the second Beast - the
third person in the Evil Trinity seeks to glorify the first Beast, the
Antichrist.
If it should be objected that the second Beast is represented as
working miracles (Rev. 13:13,14) and, that as the Man of Sin is also
said to come "after the working of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders" (2 Thess. 2:9), therefore, the second Beast must be the
Antichrist, the answer is, This by no means follows. The power to work
miracles is common to each person in the Trinity of evil. Just as God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each perform miracles,
so does the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet (see Rev. 16:13,14
for proof). Three things are said in connection with the second Beast
which correspond closely with the work of the Holy Spirit. First, "he
maketh fire come down from heaven" (Rev. 13:13), cf Acts 2:1-4. Second,
"he had power to give life unto the image of the Beast" (Rev. 13:15), cf
John 3:6 - "born of the Spirit". Third, "he causeth all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right
hand, or in their foreheads" (Rev. 13:16), cf Eph. 4:30 - "Grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption".
Finally; the second Beast is clearly subordinate to the first
Beast. But would the Jews receive as their Messiah and King one who was
himself the vassal of a Roman? Was not this the very reason why the Jews
of old rejected the Lord Jesus, i.e., because He was subject to Caesar,
and because He refused to deliver the Jews from the Romans!
In the sixth place, as we have seen, in Dan. 11:36 the Antichrist
is termed "the King", and if a king he must posses a kingdom, and can
there be any doubt as to the identity of this kingdom? Will not
Antichrist's kingdom be the very one which Satan offered in vain to
Christ? namely, "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them"
(Matt. 4:8). That the kingdom of the Antichrist will be much wider than
Palestine appears from Dan. 11:40-42 - "And at the time of the end shall
the king of the South push at him (the Antichrist): and the king of the
North (the Antichrist, as King of Babylon) shall come against him (the
King of the South) like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen,
and with many ships: and he (the Antichrist) shall enter into the
countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He (the Antichrist) shall
be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his (the Antichrist's)
hand, even Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He
(the Antichrist) shall stretch forth his hand upon the countries: and
the land of Egypt shall not escape". From this scripture it is also
clear that the Antichrist will be at the head of a great army and
therefore must be a political ruler as well as a religious chief.
In the seventh place, it is generally agreed among those students
of prophecy who belong to the Futurist school, that the rider upon the
four horses in Rev. 6 is the Antichrist. If this be the case, then we
have further proof that the Antichrist and the Head of the revived Roman
Empire is one and the same person. This may be seen by comparing three
scriptures. In Rev. 6:8, of the rider on "the pale horse", we read, "His
name that sat on him was Death and Hell followed with him". In Isa.
28:18, those who will be in Jerusalem during the Tribulation period are
addressed by Jehovah as follows: "And your covenant with Death shall be
disannulled, and your agreement with Hell shall not stand". What
"covenant" can this be, except the one mentioned in Dan. 9:27, where we
read of the Roman Prince (the Head of the revived Roman Empire)
confirming the covenant with the many for seven years? Now reverse the
order of these three passages, and what do we learn? In Dan. 9:27 we
learn that the Head of the Roman Empire makes a covenant with the Jews.
In Isa. 28:18 this covenant is said to have been made with Death and
Hell". While in Rev. 6:8 the rider on the pale horse (whom it is
generally admitted is the Antichrist) is named "Death and Hell". Hence,
from whatever angle we approach the subject it is seen that the
Antichrist is the Head of the fourth world-kingdom.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN. TYPES OF THE
ANTICHRIST.
"In the volume of the book it is written of Me" (Heb. 10:7), said
the Lord Jesus. Christ is the key to the Scriptures - "Search the
Scriptures...they are they which testify of Me", are His words; and the
Scriptures to which He had reference were not the four Gospels, for they
were not then written, but the writings of Moses and the prophets. The
Old Testament Scriptures, then, are something more than a compilation of
historical narratives, something more than the record of a system of
social and religious legislation, or a code of ethics. The Old Testament
Scriptures are, fundamentally, a stage on which is shown forth, in vivid
symbolry, stupendous events then future. The events recorded in the Old
Testament were actual occurrences, yet were they also typical
prefigurations. Throughout the Old Testament dispensations God caused to
be shadowed forth things which must yet come to pass. This is in full
accord with a basic law in the economy of God. Nothing is brought to
maturity at once. As it is in the natural world, so it is in the
spiritual: there is first the blade, then the ear, and then the full
corn in the ear. So there is first the shadow, and then the substance;
the type, and then the antitype.
"Whatsoever things were written a foretime were written for our
learning" (Rom. 15:4). Israel's tabernacle was "a figure for the time
then present" (Heb. 9:8,9), as well as the example and "shadow of
heavenly things" (Heb. 8:5). Concerning the history of Abraham, his
wives and his children, the apostle was inspired to write "which things
are an allegory" (Gal. 4:24). These and other passages which might be
quoted witness plainly to the typical meaning of portions of the Old
Testament. But there are some brethren who will own the typical
significance of these things, who refuse to acknowledge that anything
else in the Old Testament has a typical meaning save those which are
expressly interpreted or mentioned in the New. But surely this is a
mistake. Ought we not to regard those Old Testament types which are
expounded in the New Testament as samples of others which are not
explained? Are there no more prophecies in the Old Testament than those
which in the New Testament are expressly said to be "fulfilled"?
Assuredly there are. Then why not admit the same in connection with the
types? Nothing is said in the New Testament that the history of Joseph
has a profound and wonderful typical significance, yet who with anointed
eyes can fail to see in the experiences of Jacob's favourite son a
remarkable foreshadowing of the person and work of Christ!
There will probably be few who read this chapter that will dispute
what we have said above. No doubt the majority of our readers have
already been instructed in much of the typology of the Old Testament.
Many of God's servants have written at length upon the Passover, the
brazen serpent, the Tabernacle, etc., as well as upon the many ways in
which such men as Abel, Noah, Isaac, Moses, David, etc. prefigured the
Saviour. But strange to say, very little seems to have been written upon
those who adumbrated the Antichrist. So far as we are aware practically
nothing has been given out concerning the many Bible characters of ill
fame, who foreshadowed that coming one, that occupies such a prominent
place in the prophetic scriptures. A wide field is here opened for
study, and we take pleasure in now submitting to the careful perusal of
the reader the results of our own imperfect researches, hoping that it
may lead others to make a more complete examination of the subject for
themselves.
It was well said by one of the Continental Puritans that "When we
read the Scriptures, we are to judge beforehand, that then only do we
understand them, when we discover in them a wisdom unsearchable and
worthy of God" (Witsius). Such is the inexhaustible fullness of the
written Word of God that not only are its words significant of things,
but even the things, which are first signified by the words, also
represent other things, which they were appointed to prefigure long
before they happened. Besides the plain and literal sense of Scripture,
there is also a mystical sense, hidden beneath the surface and which can
only be discovered as we, in dependence on the Holy Spirit, diligently
compare scripture with scripture. In pursuing the latter we need not
only to proceed with due caution, but in "fear and trembling", lest we
devise mysteries of of our own imagination, and thus pervert to one use
what belongs to another. The principle which will safeguard us is to
thoroughly acquaint ourselves with the antitypes. Let nothing be
regarded as a type unless we are sure there is an exact correspondence
with the antitype. This will preserve us from erroneously supposing that
any person who is clearly a type of either Christ or the Antichrist is
so in every detail of his life. Thus Moses was plainly a type of Christ
as our Mediator, and in many other respects too, but in his failures and
in other details of his personal history he was not a type of Christ.
So, too, with those who foreshadowed the Antichrist: not everything
recorded of them prefigured the character or deeds of the Man of Sin.
Should it still be inquired, How are we to ascertain in which respects
the actions of Old Testament characters were, and were not, typical? the
answer, as given above, is, By comparing the antitype. This will save us
from the wild allegorizing of Origen and others of the "Fathers". We
shall now look at ten Bible characters, each of which strikingly
typified the Antichrist.
1. Cain. It is indeed solemn to discover that the very first man
born into this world prefigured the Man of Sin. He did so in a least
seven respects. First, we may observe that in 1 John 3:12 we are told
"Cain was of that Wicked One, i.e. the Devil. Of none other is this
particular expression used. The Antichrist will also, in a special
sense, be "of that Wicked one", for the Devil is said to be his father
(John 8:44). Second, Cain was a religious hypocrite. This is seen in the
fact that at first he posed as a worshipper of God, but the emptiness of
his pretensions were quickly evidenced; for, when the Lord refused his
offering, Cain was "very wroth" (Gen. 4:5). As such he clearly
prefigured that one who will first claim to be the Christ, only to stand
forth later as His denier (1 John 2:22). Third, by his primogeniture
Cain occupied the position of ruler. Said the Lord to him, "Unto to thee
shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him", that is, over Abel
(Gen. 4:7). Such, too, will be the position filled by the Antichrist -
he shall be a Ruler over men. Fourth, in murdering his brother Abel,
Cain foreshadowed the wicked martyrdom of the Tribulation saints by the
Son of Perdition. Fifth, Cain was a liar. After the murder of Abel, when
the Lord asked Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?", he answered, "I know
not" (Gen. 4:9). In like manner deceit and falsehood will characterize
him who is appropriately named "the Lie" (2 Thess. 2:11). Sixth, God's
judgment descended upon Cain. So far as we know from the Scripture
record, no human eye witnessed the dastardly murder of Abel, and
doubtless Cain deemed himself secure from any penal consequences. But if
so, he reckoned without God. The Lord announced to him, "Thy brother's
blood crieth unto Me from the ground", and then He declared, "And now
art thou cursed from the earth" (Gen. 4:10). So, too, in his reckless
conceit , the Antichrist will imagine that he can defy God and slay His
people with impugnity. But his blasphemous delusions will be quickly
dispelled. Seventh, Cain was made to exclaim, "My punishment is greater
than I can bear" (Gen. 4:13). Such indeed will be the awful portion
meted out to the Antichrist - he shall be "cast alive into the lake of
fire burning with brimstone" (Rev. 19:20).
2. Lamech. And Lamech said unto his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my
voice; "Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: For I have slain a
man for wounding me, and a young man for bruising me. If Cain shall be
avenged sevenfold, Truly Lamech seventy and seven fold" (Gen. 4:23,24,
R. V.). The record of this man's life is exceedingly brief, but from the
little that is recorded about him we may discover at least seven
parallelisms between him and the Antichrist. First, the meaning of his
name. Lamech signifies "powerful". This was an appropriate name for one
who foreshadowed the Man of Sin who, as the Head of the United States of
the World, will be powerful governmentally. He will also be mighty in
his person, for we are told that the Dragon shall give power unto him
(Rev. 13:4). Second, in the fact that Lamech was a descendant of Cain
(Gen. 4:17-19), not Seth, we see that he sprang from the evil line.
Third, he was the seventh from fallen Adam, as though to intimate that
the cycle of depravity was completed in him. So the Antichrist will be
not only the culmination of satanic craft and power, but as well, the
climax of human wickedness - the Man of Sin. Fourth, the first thing
predicted of Lamech is his "lawlessness". "Lamech took unto him two
wives" (Gen. 4:19). As such he violated the marriage law and disobeyed
the command of God (Gen. 2:24). Clearly, then, he foreshadowed the
"Lawless One" (2 Thess. 2:8, R.V.). Fifth, like Cain before him, Lamech
was a murderer. His confession is, "I have slain a man for wounding me,
and a young man for bruising me" (Gen. 4:23). In this, too, he
foreshadowed the Man of blood and of violence. Sixth, he was filled with
pride. This comes out in two details. First, he says to his wives, "Hear
my voice; Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech" (Gen. 4:23).
Second, in his arrogant self-importance - "If Cain shall be avenged
sevenfold, truly LAMECH seventy and seven fold" (Gen. 4:24). This
appears to mean that Lamech had slain a man for wounding him, and mad
with passion, he jeered ironically at God's dealings with Cain. Seventh,
in the fact that the very next thing recorded after the brief notice of
Lamech is the birth of Seth (the one from whom, according to the flesh,
Christ descended) who set aside the line of Cain - for on his birth Eve
exclaimed, "God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain
slew" (Gen. 4:25) - thus we have a beautiful foreshadowing of the
millennial reign of the Lord Jesus following the overthrow of the
Antichrist.
3. Nimrod. This personal type of the Antichrist is deeply
interesting and remarkable full in its details. His exploits are
recorded in Gen. 10 and 11, and it is most significant that his person
and history are there introduced at the point immediately preceding
God's call of Abraham from among the Gentiles and His bringing him into
the promised land. Thus will history repeat itself. Just before God
again gathers Abraham's descendants from out of the lands of the
Gentiles (many, perhaps the majority of whom, will be found dwelling in
Chalden, in Assyria, the "north country" see Isa. 11:11; Jer. 3:18,
etc.) there will arise one who will fill out the picture here typically
outlined by Nimrod.
Let us examine the details of this type. First, the meaning of his
name is most suggestive. Nimrod signifies "The Rebel". A fit designation
was this for a man that foreshadowed the Lawless One, who shall oppose
and exalt himself above all that is called God (2 Thess. 2:4), and who
shall "stand up against the Prince of princes" (Dan. 8:25). Second, we
are told that he was a son of Cush - "And Cush begat Nimrod" (Gen.
10:8), and Cush was a son of Ham, who was curst by Noah. Nimrod, then,
was not a descendant of Shem, from whom Christ sprang, nor of Japheth;
but he came from Ham. It is remarkable that these men who typified the
Antichrist came from the evil line. Third, we are told that Nimrod
"began to be a mighty one in the earth" (Gen. 10:8). Four times over is
this term "mighty" connected with this one who prefigured him "whose
coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying
wonders" (2 Thess. 2:9). But observe that it is first said, "He began to
be mighty", which seems to suggest the idea that he struggled for the
pre-eminence and obtained it by mere force of will. How this corresponds
with the fact that the Man of Sin first appears as "the little horn" and
by force of conquest attains to the position of King of kings needs only
to be pointed out. It is also significant that the Hebrew word for
"mighty" in Gen. 10:9 is "gibbor" which is translated several times
"Chief" and "Chieftain". Fourth, it is also added, "Nimrod the mighty
hunter before the Lord" which means that he pushed his designs in brazen
defiance of his Maker. The words "mighty hunter before the Lord" are
found twice in Gen. 10:9. This repetition in so short a narrative is
highly significant. If we compare the expression with a similar one in
Gen. 6:11, - "The earth also (in the days of Noah) was corrupt before
God" - the impression conveyed is that this "Rebel" pursued his impious
designs in open defiance of the Almighty. The contents of Gen. 11
abundantly confirm this interpretation. In like manner, of the
Antichrist it is written, "And the King shall do according to his will,
and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god (ruler),
and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods" (Dan. 11:36).
Fifth, Nimrod was a "Man of Blood". In 1 Chron. 1:10 - "And Cush begat
Nimrod; he began to be mighty upon the earth". The Chaldea paraphrase of
this verse says, "Cush begat Nimrod who began to prevail in wickedness
for he slew innocent blood and rebelled against Jehovah". This, coupled
with the expression "a mighty Hunter before the Lord", suggests that he
relentlessly sought out and slew God's people. As such, he accurately
portrayed the bloody and deceitful Man (Psa. 5:6), the violent Man (Psa.
140:1). Sixth, Nimrod was a King - "the beginning of his kingdom was
Babel" (Gen. 10:10. Thus he was King of Babylon, which is also one of
the many titles of the Antichrist (Isa. 14:4). In the verses which
follow in Gen. 10 we read, "He went out into Assyria and builded Ninevah,
and the city Rehoboth, and Calah", etc. (Gen. 10:11). From these
statements it is evident that Nimrod's ambition was to establish a world
empire. Seventh, mark his inordinate desire for fame. His consuming
desire was to make for himself a name. Here again the antitype
marvellously corresponds with the type, for the Man of Sin is expressly
denominated "King over all the children of pride" (John 41:34).
What is recorded in Gen. 10 about Nimrod supplies the key to the
first half of Gen. 11 which tells of the building of the Tower of Babel.
Gen. 10:10 informs us that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel.
In the language of that day Babel meant "the gate of God", but
afterwards, because of the judgment which the Lord there inflicted, it
came to mean "Confusion". That at the time Nimrod founded Babel this
word signified "the gate (the figure of official position) of God",
intimates that he not only organized an imperial government over which
he presided as king, but that he also instituted a new and idolatrous
system of worship. If the type be perfect, and we are fully assured it
is so, then, as the Lawless One will yet do, Nimrod demanded and
received Divine honours. In all probability, it was at this point that
idolatry was introduced.
Nimrod is not directly mentioned in Gen. 11, but from the
statements made about him in chap. 10 there cannot be any doubt that he
was the "Chief" and "King" who organized and headed the movement and
rebellion there described: "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city
and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name,
lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (11:4).
Here we behold a most blatant defiance of God, a deliberate refusal to
obey His commands given through Noah - "Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth" (9:1). But they said, "Let us make us a name lest
we be scattered upon the face of the whole earth". As we have seen,
Nimrod's ambition was to establish a world-empire. To accomplish this
two things, at least, were necessary. First, a centre, a great
headquarters; and second, a motive for the inspiration and encouragement
of his followers. The former was furnished in the city of Babylon: the
latter was to be supplied in the "let us make us a name". It was
inordinate desire for fame. The idea of the Tower (considered in the
light of its setting) seems that of strength, a stronghold, rather than
eminence.
To sum up. In Nimrod and his schemes we behold Satan's initial
attempt to raise up an universal ruler of men. In his inordinate desire
for fame, in the mighty power that he wielded, in his ruthless and
brutal methods, in his blatant defiance of the Creator, in his founding
of the kingdom of Babel, in his assuming to himself Divine honours, in
the fact that the Holy Spirit has placed the record of these things just
before the inspired account of God's bringing Abraham into Canaan -
pointing forward to the re-gathering of Israel in Palestine, immediately
after the overthrows of the Lawless One - and finally, in the Divine
destruction of his kingdom - described in the words, "Let Us go down and
there confound their language" (Gen. 11:7), which so marvellously
pictures the descent of Christ from heaven to vanquish His impious rival
- we cannot fail to see that we have a wonderfully complete typical
picture of the person, the work, and the destruction of the Antichrist.
4. Chedorlaomer. The history of this man is recorded in Gen. 14
which is a chapter of deep interest to the student of typology. The
chapter opens with the words "And it came to pass in the days" of." This
is an expression which occurs six times (in the Hebrew) and always marks
a time of trouble ending in blessing - cf Ruth 1:11; Isa. 7:1; Jer. 1:3;
Ester 1:1; 2 Sam. 21:1" (Companion Bible). Such is plainly the case
here. The first half of Gen. 14 depicts Tribulation conditions, and this
is followed by a scene foreshadowing millennial glory. The time when
Chedorlaomer lived is the first point in the type. His history is
recorded just before the first mention of Melchizedek, the priest-king,
who came forth and blessed Abraham - an unmistakable foreshadowment of
Christ in millennial glory, blessing Israel. Second, the name of this
man is highly significant. Gesenius, in his lexicon, says of the word `a
handful of sheaves'...perhaps its true etymology should be sought in the
ancient Persian". The latter is doubtless correct, for "Elam", of which
Chedorbaomer was king (Gen. 14:1), is the ancient name for Persia. Col.
Rawlinson searched for his name on the tablets of ancient Assyria, and
there he found that his official title was, "Ravager of the west"! Thus
was he a true type of the coming one who shall wade through a sea of
blood to his coveted position as Emperor of the world. Third, it is
indeed remarkable to find that just as Rev. 13:1 shows us that the
empire of which the Antichrist will be the Head (see our notes on this
verse in Chapter 11) includes within it the territory and perpetuates
the characteristics of the earlier empires (Babylon, Persia, Greece, and
Rome), so dominions: "And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel
king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and
Tidal king of nations". Now "Shinar" is one of the names of Babylon (see
Dan. 1:2); "Elam" is the ancient name of Persia' "Ellasar" is translated
"Hellas" in the Sept., which is the ancient name of Greece; while "Tidal
king of the nations" evidently stands for Rome, the last of the world
empires. Fourth, but what is even more striking, is the fact that in
Gen. 14:5 Chedorlamoer is seen at the head of the kings mentioned in v.
1. They act as his vassals, and thus bow to the superiority of this one
who was evidently a King of kings. Fifth, Chedorlaomer was a warrior of
renown. He was the Attila, the Napoleon of his day. He defeated in
battle the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and brought them into subjection
and servitude (see 14:2-4). Later, they rebelled, and gathering his
forces together he went forth, vanquished, and slew them (14:9,10). Thus
did he foreshadow the Destroyer of the Gentiles (Jer. 4:7). Sixth, in
Gen. 14:12 we read, "And they took Lot, Abraham's brother's son, who
dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed". This prefigured the
persecution of Israel by Antichrist and his subordinates in a coming
day. Finally, we learn how that Abraham and his servants pursued
Chedorlaomer and his forces, and that "Chedorlaomer and the kings that
were with him" were slain "in the kings dale" (14:17), which strikingly
adumbrated the future overthrow of Antichrist and the kings who shall be
with him, in the dale of Megiddo (see Rev. 19:19).
5. Pharaoh. We have in mind the Pharaoh of the book of Exodus. His
history and character are described at much greater length than the
other personal types of the Antichrist which have been before us, and
therefore more parallelisms are to be found here. We shall aim to be
suggestive rather than exhaustive. First, Pharaoh was king of Egypt
which, in Scripture, is the lasting symbol of the world. In like manner,
the one whom he so strikingly prefigured will be Head of the
world-kingdom. Second, the Pharaoh of Exodus came from Assyria (Isa.
52:4); so also will the Antichrist first rise in that land. Third, Ex. 1
presents him to our view as the merciless persecutor of the Hebrews,
embittering their lives by hard bondage. Fourth, he is next seen as the
one who sought to cut off Israel from being a nation, giving orders that
all the male children should be slain in infancy. Fifth, he was the
blatant defier of God. When Moses and Aaron appeared before him and
said, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go, that they
may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness", his arrogant reply was,
"Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?" (Ex.
5:1,2). Sixth, God's two witnesses performed miracles before Pharaoh
(Ex. 7:10); so, too, will God's two witnesses in the Tribulation period
work miracles before the Beast (Rev. 11:6,7). Seventh, Pharaoh had
magical resources at his disposal (Ex. 7:11), as the Antichrist will
have at his (2 Thess. 2:9). Eighth, Pharaoh made fair promises to the
Hebrews, only to break them (Ex. 8:8,15). In this, too, he foreshadowed
the Antichrist in his perfidy and treachery toward Israel. Ninth, he met
with a drastic end at the hands of God (Psa. 136:15). Tenth, he was
overthrown at the time that Israel started out for the promised land: so
Antichrist will be cast into the Lake of Fire just before Israel enters
into everlasting possession of their promised inheritance. In all of
these ten respects (and in others which the student may search out for
himself) Pharaoh was a striking and accurate type of the Antichrist.
6. Abimelech. First, Abimelech signifies "father of the king".
Gideon, deliverer of Israel, was his father. But his mother was a
concubine, and this name was given to him, no doubt, for the purpose of
hiding the shame of his birth. Looking from the type to the antitype -
"Father of the King" - all attention to the satanic origin of the
Antichrist. Second, Abimelech slew seventy of his own brethren (Judges
9:5), and was therefore a bloody persecutor of Israel. Third, Judges
9:6,22 tell us that he was "king over Israel". Fourth, it is significant
to note that he occupied the throne at the time of Israel's apostasy
(see Judges 8:33,34). Fifth, it is also most suggestive that we are told
he commenced his career at the stone (Judges 9:6), or pillar, which
Joshua erected in Ebal (facing Gerizim), the mount where all the curses
of a broken law were announced - Deut. 11:29; 27:4,12,13; Josh. 8:30.
Sixth, he was a mighty warrior, a violent man (see Judges 9:40-50, and
cf Psa. 140:1 for the Antichrist as such). Seventh, he was slain by the
sword (Judges 9:54 and see Zech. 11:7; Rev. 13:3 for the antitype).
7. Saul. In at least ten respects Saul foreshadowed the Antichrist.
Almost the first thing told us about Saul is that he was "from his
shoulders and upward higher than any of the people" (1 Sam. 9:2, which
is repeated in 10:23). As such he fitly prefigured the coming Super-man,
who in intelligence, governmental power, and satanic might, will so
tower above all his contemporaries that men shall exclaim, "Who is like
unto the Beast?" (Rev. 13:4). Second, Saul was king of Israel (1 Sam.
10:24), so also will the Antichrist be. Third, Saul was a priest-king,
blatantly performing the office of the Levite (see 1 Sam. 13:9, and cf
Ezek. 21:25,26 R. V.). Fourth, the time of his reign was immediately
before that of David, as that of the Antichrist will immediately precede
that of David's Son and Lord. Fifth, he was a mighty warrior (see 1 Sam.
11:11; 13:1-4; 15:4; 7:8). Sixth, he was a rebel against God (1 Sam.
15:11). Seventh, he hated David (1 Sam. 18:7,8,11; 26:2, etc.). Eighth,
he slew the servants of God (1 Sam. 22:17,18). Ninth, he had intercourse
with the powers of evil (1 Sam. 29). Tenth, he died by the sword (1 Sam.
31:4).
8. Goliath. First, his name means "Soothsayer" which at once
connects him with the powers of evil. Second, he was a giant, and thus,
like Saul, prefigured the Super-man. Third, he was the enemy of Israel.
Fourth, his consuming egotism was displayed in his blatant challenge, "I
defy the armies of Israel" (1 Sam. 17:10). Fifth, the mysterious number
666 (the number of the Antichrist) is connected with Goliath. Note the
three sixes. (a) He was six cubits high (1 Sam. 17:4). (b) Six pieces of
armour are enumerated - helmet, coat of mail, greaves, target, staff,
and shield (1 Sam. 17:5-7). (c) His spear's head weighed six hundred
shekels of iron (1 Sam. 17:7). Sixth, he was slain by the sword (see 1
Sam. 17:51). Seventh, he was slain by David - type of Christ. In each of
these respects he foreshadowed the Antichrist.
9. Absalom. First, the meaning of his name is very significant.
"Absalom" means "father of peace". A careful reading of his history
reveals the fact that, again and again, he posed as a man of peace,
while war was in his heart. So the Antichrist will pose as the promised
Prince of peace, and for a time it will appear that he has actually
ushered in the Millennium. But ere long his violent and bloody character
will be revealed. Second, Absalom was the son of David, and therefore a
Jew. Third, but Absalom was a son of David by Maacah, the daughter of
the Gentile king of Jeshur (2 Sam. 3:3). So, too, will the Antichrist be
a veritable king among men. Fifth, Absalom was a man of blood (2 Sam.
13,etc.). Sixth, Absalom sought to obtain the kingdom by flatteries (2
Sam. 15:2-6); cf Dan. 11:21,23. Seventh, he cloaked his rebellion by a
pretense of religion (read 2 Sam. 15:7,8). Eighth, he was the immediate
cause of the faithful followers of David being driven from Jerusalem
into the wilderness (2 Sam. 15:14-16). Ninth, he reared up a pillar unto
himself (2 Sam. 18:18), which clearly foreshadowed the image which the
Antichrist will cause to be set up unto himself. Tenth, he met with a
violent end (2 Sam. 18:14).
There are quite a number of others who foreshadowed the Antichrist
in one or more of the outstanding features of his character and career.
For instance, there is Balak who, accompanied by Baalam the prophet
sought to curse and destroy Israel - a striking foreshadowing of the
Beast with his ally the False Prophet. There is Adoni-zedek, mentioned
in Joshua 10, and who headed a federation of ten kings; it is remarkable
that his name signifies "lord of righteousness" which is what the
Antichrist will claim to be as he comes forth on the white horse (Rev.
6). Then there is Adoni-kam, with whom is associated the mystical number
666 - see Ezra 2:13; and how profoundly significant that his name
signifies "the Lord hath risen". We believe that this mystic number in
connection with the Antichrist will apply to him only after his
resurrection - and six the number of man! Sennacherib (2 Kings 18)
prefigured the Antichrist in a number of ways: as the king of Assyria,
the blatant defier of God, smitten by the sword, etc. Haman, four times
denominated "the Jews' enemy" (Esther 3:10, etc.), and termed "the
adversary" (Esther 7:6), was another typical character. Nebuchadnezzar,
king of kings, who demanded universal worship, who set up an image to
himself, and decreed that all should worship it under pain of death,
etc., manifestly pointed forward to the Man of Sin, and so we might
continue. Almost every prominent feature of the Antichrist's person and
career was foreshadowed by some Old Testament character. The subject is
intensely interesting, and we trust that many of our readers will be
encouraged to pursue it further for themselves. In closing this chapter
we shall look at one New Testament type of the Antichrist.
10. Herod. At the beginning of the New Testament there meets us a
typical foreshadowing of the Antichrist. We refer to what is recorded in
Matt. 2. The description there furnished of Herod obviously contains a
prophetic adumbration of his great prototype. Notice, first, that three
times over he is denominated "the king" (vv. 1,3,9), as such he
prefigured the last great king, before the appearing of the King of
kings. Second, observe his hypocrisy. When the "wise men", who had
followed the star which heralded the Saviour's birth, were summoned into
Herod's presence, we are told that he said unto them, "Go and search
diligently for the young child; and when ye have found Him, bring me
word again, that I may come and worship Him also" (v. 8). That nothing
could have been further from his mind is plain from his subsequent acts.
But, nevertheless, he first posed as a devout worshipper. Such is the
role that the Antichrist will first fill in Palestine. Third, next he
threw off his religious mask and displayed his wicked heart: "Then
Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding
wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in
Bethlehem", etc. (v. 16). Similarly will the Antichrist act in
Jerusalem. Three and one half years before his end comes he will discard
his religious pretensions and stand forth in his true character. Fourth,
in this edict of slaying the young children in Bethlehem and the coasts
thereof, he was aiming, of course, at Christ Himself. Thus did he
accurately foreshadow that one who will yet fulfil the terms of Gen.
3:15, where we read of a double "enmity" - between Satan and the woman
(Israel), and between her Seed (Christ) and the Serpent's "seed" (the
Antichrist". In the fifth place, we may also discover in Herod's
destruction of the children, a forecast of the fiendish assaults which
the Antichrist will make upon the Jews, when he seeks to cut them off
from being a nation. In the sixth place, we may note how the consequence
of Herod's cruelty will reappear in the future - "In Ramah was there a
voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel
weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are
not" (Matt. 2:18). This is a quotation from Jer. 31:15. But like most,
if not all, prophecies, this will receive another and final fulfilment
at the close of the Tribulation period. Our authority for this is found
in the words which immediately follow in Jer. 31: "Thus saith the Lord,
Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work
shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the
land of the Enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that
thy children shall come again to their own border". Thus it is clear
that "bitter weeping and lamentation" will again be heard in Ramah just
before Christ returns and restores Israel. Seventh, the accuracy of the
typical picture supplied by Matt. 2 may be discovered in the failure of
Herod to destroy the Christ-child. Just as God foiled Herod, so will He
yet bring to nought the wicked designs of the Antichrist; and just as we
read of Christ coming and dwelling at Nazareth after the death of Herod,
so Christ shall again dwell in that land after the death of the false
King. Surely, this remarkable typical picture of the Antichrist should
cause us to search more diligently for other esoteric allusions to him
in the New Testament.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN. BABYLON AND THE
ANTICHRIST.
We arrive now at a branch of our subject upon which the Lord's
people are in evident need of instruction: they have less light here
than on most prophetic themes. And perhaps we should not be surprised at
this. The very name Babylon means confusion, and widely prevails the
confusion concerning it. Yet here and there God has raised up
individuals who have borne faithful testimony to the teaching of His
Word concerning the past and future of Babylon, and to their witness the
writer acknowledges his indebtedness. In view of the ignorance which
generally obtains we shall proceed the more cautiously. We here propose
to examine carefully the principal scriptures in the Old Testament
bearing upon our present theme.
"Babylon was a mighty city of old; its beginnings were in Shinar in
the days shortly after the flood; it played an important part in the
history of Israel and of Judea; it was the head of the kingdoms of the
earth in the days of Nebuchadnezzar; after its capture by the Medes and
Persians it fell from its high estate, but for some centuries after
Christ it was still a city of importance, and the head of a district. In
the New Testament it is first mentioned by Peter (1 Pet. 5:13), and here
in the book that tells of the events that occur in the Day of the Lord
we read of it as a city again dominating the world, and that at a time
when Israelites are again prominent in the story of the earth. Here,
too, Babylon reappears in its ancient dual aspect, political and social,
the first city of earth and also the leader of the worship and religion
of the world powers. The site of old Babylon is known at the present
day; it covers a wide extent of ground, and parts of it are inhabited,
as for instance Hillah, where there are some five or six thousand
people. When the long-talked-of Euphrates Valley Railway becomes a
reality, Babylon will be one of the most important places on the line"
(Col. VanSomeron - "The Great Unfolding"). This quotation supplies a
brief but fairly comprehensive outline of our subject.
The earliest mention of Babel in scripture is in connection with
the name of him who first after the deluge attained to greatness in the
earth - greatness apart from God. Nimrod was the grandson of Ham, who
called down upon him the curse of his father, Hoah. "The sons of Ham
were Cush...and Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the
earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of his
kingdom was Babel, in the land of Shinar" (Gen. 10:7-10). Let the reader
turn back to the previous chapter for our comments on Nimrod as a type
of the Antichrist. "Thus mightiness in the earth and commencement of
kingly rule are first mentioned in connection with one, the seat of
whose power was Babylon and the land of Shinar. Nimrod - Nebuchadnezzar
- Antichrist, are, as we shall see, the three great names connected with
that region and with that city" (B.W. Newton: "Babylon; Its Revival and
Final Destruction" - 1859).
The first mention of anything in scripture always calls for the
most particular attention, inasmuch as the initial occurrence of any
term or expression in the Word of God invariably defines its meaning and
forecasts its subsequent significance and scope. The passage just quoted
from Gen. 10 is inseparably connected with and is in fact the key to
what is found in Gen. 11. There we learn that the land of Shinar is
mentioned as the place where men first united in confederate action
against God. God had commanded that men should spread abroad - Gen. 9:1.
But they, in blatant defiance, preferred to centralize. They determined
to make for themselves a name, saying, "Go to, Let us build us a city
and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name,
lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Gen.
11:4). And this, we are told, was "In the land of Shinar" (11:2). But
the Lord interfered, came down, confounded their speech, and scattered
them - "And they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it
called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all
the earth", etc. (Gen. 11:8,9). Thus we see that at the beginning, the
land of Shinar and the city of Babylon were the scene of confederate
evil, and of judgment from the hand of God.
Shinar, then, was the land around Babel. Now, though the building
of the city of Babylon was checked during the days of Nimrod, yet his
kingdom was not overthrown. In Gen. 14:1 we read of "Amraphal king of
Shinar". It would appear from several scriptures that "the land of
Chaldea" - the capital of which was the city of Babylon - is but another
name for "the land of Shinar". In Dan. 5:30 Belshazzar is termed "the
king of the Chaldeans", while in 7:1 he is called "the king of Babylon"
- cf Isa. 47:1; Jer. 50:8; 51:54; Ezek. 12:13. In addition to these
passages, Dan. 1:2,3 seems to positively establish this conclusion, for
there we are expressly told that the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar's day was
situated in "the land of Shinar"! This serves to confirm the fact that
Chaldea or Babylonia was the most ancient of the early empires. It was
from "Ur' of Chaldea (Gen. 11;28) that Abram was called; and it was "the
Chaldeans' who plundered Job (Job 1:17); and in Josh. 7:21 we read of
the "goodly Babylonish garment" which tempted Achan, among the spoils of
Jericho. In striking accord with this is the statement found in Jer.
5:16, where the Holy Spirit terms the Babylonians as "ancient" as well
as a "mighty" nation. After the days of Joshua, Babylon was not directly
referred to again till the days of Esar-Haddan, of whom it is said, "And
the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cutthah, and from
Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities
of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed
Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof" (2 Kings 17:24, and cf Ezra
4:2). Closely connected with the land of Shinar is Assyria. For a time
the supremacy alternated between Assyria and Babylonia, until in the
days of Nabapolasser, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, Ninevah was
conquered and Assyria became subject to Babylon.
But though Shinar and its capital are referred to in Gen. 10 and
11, and though there are occasional allusions to them in the centuries
that followed, it was not until Israel's apostasy had been fully
manifested that we find Babylon coming into the place of prominence and
dominion. "Until Jerusalem had been sufficiently tried, to see whether
she would prove herself worthy of being God's city, Babylon was kept in
abeyance. The founder of Babylon's greatness was that great king who was
raised up to scourge Jerusalem, and who commenced the "Times of the
Gentiles", by receiving from God that endowment of power which was taken
from Israel, and remains vested in the Gentiles, till Jerusalem shall be
forgiven and cease to be trodden down. It was Nebuchadnezzar who `walked
in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spoke and said, Is not
this great Babylon which I have built for the house of the kingdom by
the might of my power and for the honour of my majesty?' (Dan. 4). The
greatness of Babylon dates only from Nebuchadnezzar" (B.W.N.).
The fifth chapter of Daniel tells how Belshazzar, the successor of
Nebuchadnezzar, was slain by Darius, who took over the kingdom. Neither
the city nor the kingdom was then destroyed, and so far from it being
made desolate and without inhabitant, it remained for long centuries a
city without inhabitant, it remained for long centuries a city of note.
Two hundred years after its capture by Darius, Alexander the Great,
after his conquest over the Persians, selected Babylon as the intended
capital of his vast dominion, and, in fact, died there. In the first
century of the Christian era Babylon still stood, for Peter refers to a
church there! (See 1 Pet. 5:13). Several of the church "Fathers" refer
to Babylon, and at the beginning of the sixth century A.D. the famous
Babylonian Talmud was issued by the Academies of Babylonia. Mr. Newton
tells us that "Ivan Hankel in A.D. 917 speaks of Babylon as a small
village. Even in the tenth century, therefore, it had not wholly
disappeared". Slow and almost indiscernible was its decline and decay.
Even in this day there is still a small town, Hillah, standing on the
original site of ancient Babylon. What, then, of the future?
That there will yet be another Babylon, a Babylon eclipsing the
power and glory of that of Nebuchadnezzar's day, has long been the firm
conviction of the writer. Nor are we by any means alone in this
conviction. A long list of honoured names might be given of those who
have arrived, independently, at the conclusion that the Scriptures
plainly teach that Babylon is going to be rebuilt. But there is no need
to buttress our conviction by an appeal to human authority. Better than
the faith of the reader rest on the Word of God, than in the wisdom of
the best of men. Before we set forth some of the many scripture proofs
on which our conviction rests, let us ask, Would it not be passing
strange if Babylon had no place in the End-time? Scripture tells us that
Jerusalem, which has been so long trodden down by the Gentiles, is to be
restored by human agency, and have a re-built temple (Matt. 24:15).
Egypt and Assyria have yet an honoured future before them, as is clear
from Isa. 19:23,24. Moab, Edom, and Seir are to figure in the coming
day, as is intimated in Num. 24:17,18. Greece awaits her final judgment
from God (Zech. 9:13). And so we might go on. Why, then, should Babylon
be exempted from the general renovation of the East?
But we are not left to logical deductions, the Word of God
expressly affirms that Babylon will play a prominent part at the Time of
the End. The empire over which the Antichrist will reign is described in
the identical symbols which were applied to the four world-kingdoms of
Dan. 7. In Dan. 7:3 Daniel beheld "four great beasts" come up from the
sea, and in Dan. 7:17 we are told "these great beasts, which are four,
are four kings (or kingdoms) which shall arise out of the earth". These
four beasts or kingdoms were the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the
Grecian, and the Roman. Dan. 7:4 says "The first was like a lion". 7:5
says "The second was like a bear". 7:6 says the third was "like a
leopard". 7:7 says the fourth was "dreadful and terrible". Now, in Rev.
13:1,2, where we have a symbolical description of the empire which the
Antichrist shall head, we are told that John saw "a Beast rise up out of
the sea", and then it is added, "the Beast...was like unto a leopard,
and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a
lion". Of the fourth beast of Dan. 7 we read, "It had ten horns" (7:7);
so in Rev. 13:1 the Beast there has "ten horns". Who, then, can doubt
that Rev. 13:1,2 is given for the express purpose of teaching us that
the four great world-kingdoms of the past - not merely the fourth but
all of the four - are to be revived and restored at the Time of the End?
But as this point is disputed by some, we tarry to advance further
proof.
It is to be noted that the Beast (kingdom) of Rev. 13:1 is said to
have "seven heads". This has puzzled many of the commentators, but once
it is seen that the Beast of Rev. 13:1,2 is a symbolic description,
first of a composite kingdom, made up of and perpetuating the features
of the four world-empires of old; and second, a symbolic description of
the one who shall head it, all difficulty disappears. That we have here
in Rev. 13:1,2 a composite kingdom is clear from the "seven heads". Now
note that in Dan. 7 the first, second and fourth kingdoms are not said
to have more than one head, but the third has four heads" (Dan. 7:6).
Thus the beasts of Dan. 7 have, three of them one head each, and the
third four heads, or seven in all; which tallies perfectly with Rev.
13:1. But even this does not exhaust the proofs that the four kingdoms
of Dan. 7 are to be restored, and play their final parts immediately
before the Millennium.
If the reader will turn to Dan. 2, which is parallel with Dan. 7 -
the "image in its four parts (the head, the breast and arms, the belly
and thighs, the legs and feet) corresponding with the four beasts - it
will be found that when we come to v. 45, which speaks of Christ (under
the figure of "the Stone cut out of the mount without hands") returning
to earth to destroy the forces of evil, and then set up His kingdom, we
discover that the Stone "brake in pieces the iron (Rome), the brass
(Greece), the clay (apostate Israel), the silver (Medo-Persia), and the
gold (Babylon). What we desire the reader to note particularly is that
the Stone strikes not only the iron, but the brass, clay, silver, and
gold; in fact, v. 35 tells us, expressly, they shall be "broken to
pieces together"! If, then, they are destroyed together, they must all
be on the scene at the time of Christ's return to earth to inaugurate
His millennial reign, and if so, each of them must have been revived and
restored!! As our present inquiry concerns not the renovation of Persia,
Greece and Rome, but only that of Babylon, we shall confine ourselves to
the scriptures which speak of the last mentioned.
1. Isa. 13 and 14 contain a remarkable bearing directly on the
theme before us. It is termed in the opening verse. "The burden of
Babylon". It tells of the terrible judgment which God shall send on this
city. It speaks of the total and final destruction of it. It declares
that "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah". It shall
never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to
generation (vv. 19, 20). Now the one point pertinent to our present
inquiry is, Whether Isa. 13 describes the doom which befell the Babylon
of Belshazzar's day, or the judgment which shall overtake the Babylon of
the coming day. Upon this point there is, for those who desire to be
subject to God's Word, no room for uncertainty. The sixth verse
expressly declares that this "burden of Babylon" is to receive its
fulfilment in "the Day of the Lord". This, we need hardly add, is the
name for that day which follows the present Day of Salvation (2 Cor.
6:2). If the reader will consult a concordance he will find that "the
Day of the Lord" never refers to a period now past, but always has
reference to one which is yet future! If any doubt remains as to whether
or not Isa. 13 is speaking of a future day, the contents of v. 10 should
forever remove it. There we are told that "the stars of heaven and the
constellation thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be
darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to
shine". All students of prophecy will see at a glance that these cosmic
phenomena are w hat are to be witnessed during the Tribulation period -
cf. Matt. 24:29. There is not a hint anywhere either in Scripture or (so
far as we are aware) in secular history, that such disturbances among
the heavenly bodies occurred at the captivity of Babylon by Darius. And
it is at that time, in "the Day of the Lord" when the sun is darkened
and the moon shines not, that Babylon is overthrown (v. 19). This one
scripture is quite sufficient to establish the futurity of Babylon and
its coming overthrow. [7]
2. The 14th of Isaiah reads right on from 13, completing the
"burden of Babylon" there begun. It supplies further proof that there is
to be another Babylon. The chapter opens with a declaration of Israel's
coming restoration. It declares "the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and
will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land" (v. 1). It goes
on to say, "It shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give
thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage
wherein thou wast made to serve, That thou shalt take up this taunting
speech against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor
ceased! the golden city ceased!" (vv. 3,4). Should the quibble be raised
that these verses are speaking of the restoration of Israel to Palestine
following the captivity of Nebuchadnezzar's time, it is easily silenced.
The verses that follow those just quoted make it unmistakably clear that
this prophecy yet awaits its fulfilment. Thus we read in vv. 7,8, "The
whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us". The whole
earth never has been "at rest" since the days of Cain (except it were
during the brief period when the Word tabernacled among men). But it
will be during the Millennium! Notice, too, that following the overthrow
of "the golden city", Israel exclaims, "Since thou art laid down, (laid
low) no feller (no cutter off) is come up against us"! This establishes,
unequivocally, the time of which this prophecy treats. Long after the
days of Belshazzar, the Romans came up against Israel and cut them off.
But none shall do this again when the last king of Babylon is destroyed!
Above, we have quoted to the end of the 8th verse of Isa. 14. In
the 9th verse the prophet suddenly turns from Babylon to its last king.
Verses 9 to 20 contain a striking portrait of the lofty arrogance and
fearful doom of the Man of Sin. Then, in verse 21, the "burden returns
again to the subjects of the Antichrist: "Prepare slaughter for his
children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor
possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will
rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon
the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also
make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will
sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts" (vv.
21-23). Finally, the prophet concludes with a parting word concerning
the Antichrist: "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have
thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it
stand: That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains
tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them,and his
burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is
purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched
upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall
disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
(vv. 24-27). Well has it been said, "These are remarkable and
significant words, and certainly we cannot say they have been fulfilled.
Will any one affirm that God's purpose which He hath purposed upon the
whole earth was accomplished when Babylon was overthrown by the Medes
and Persians? Did the hand that was stretched out over all the nations,
then fulfil its ultimate designs? Was the Assyrian then trodden under
foot in THE LAND, AND ON THE MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL, and, that at a time
when the yoke of bondage is finally broken from off the neck of Israel?
If this were so we should no longer see Jerusalem trodden down now. "The
times of the Gentiles' would have ended. Israel would be gathered, and
Jerusalem be "a praise in the earth". The concluding words of this
prophecy, therefore, might alone convince us that it yet remains to be
fulfilled" (B.W.N.).
3. We appeal next to the 60th chapter of Jeremiah. The opening
verses contain a prophecy which certainly has not received its complete
fulfilment in the past. It declares, "The words that the Lord spoke
against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the
prophet. Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a
standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is
confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her
images are broken in pieces. For out of the north there cometh up a
nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall
dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel
shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping:
they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to
Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join
ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant which shall not be
forgotten" (vv. 1-5). Mark carefully three things in these verses.
First, it is announced that the land of Babylon shall be made so
desolate that neither man nor beast shall dwell therein. Second, the
time for this is defined as being when Israel and Judah together (and
since the days of Rehoboam they have never been united) shall "seek the
Lord". Third, it is when Israel and Judah shall join themselves to the
Lord in "a perpetual covenant"! Still more explicit is the time-mark in
v. 20: "In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of
Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found".
4. The whole of Jer. 51 should be carefully studied in this
connection. Much in it we reserve for consideration in the two chapters
which will follow this. Here we simply call attention to vv. 47-49:
"Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the
graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and
all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. Then the heaven and the
earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the Spoiler
shall come upon her from the north, saith the Lord. As Babylon hath
caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain
of all the earth". Surely little comment is needed here. When did the
slain "of all the earth" (i.e. of all nations) fall in the midst of
Babylon? And when did heaven and earth and all that is therein rejoice
at her overthrow? "When Babylon passed into the hands of the Medes there
was little occasion for such joy. It made little difference to the earth
whether Babylon was reigned over by Chaldeans, or by Persians, or
Greeks, or Romans. There was little cause for thanksgiving in such
transfer of authority from one proud hand to another. But if there be a
fall of Babylon that is to be immediately succeeded by the kingdom of
Him, of whom it is said, "All nations shall call Him blessed"...then
there is indeed sufficient reason why heaven and earth, and all that is
therein should sing" (B.W.N.).
5. "Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like
a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and
thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there
shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand
of thine enemies" (Micah 4:10). In the light of such scriptures as Micah
5:3, Matt. 24:8 ("sorrows" literally means "birth-pangs"), etc., there
can be no room for doubt as to the time to which this prophecy refers.
It is at the close of the Great Tribulation. And at that time a remnant
of Israel will be found in Babylon and they shalt be delivered by the
Lord.
6. Both the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah as will as the
Apocalypse speak of the immediateness of the blow which is to
destroy Babylon. "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of
Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the
Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and
delicate...therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures,
that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart I am, and none else
besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of
children: But these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one
day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee
in thy perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great
abundance of thine enchantments" (Isa. 47:1,8,9). "Babylon is suddenly
fallen and destroyed:; howl for her" (Jer. 51:8). "Alas, alas, that
great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy
judgment come" (Rev. 18:10). There has been nothing in the past history
of Babylon which in any wise corresponds with these prophecies.
7. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Revelation each declare that Babylon
shall be burned with fire. "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the
beauty of the Chaldees' excellency shall be as when God overthrew Sodom
and Gomorah" (Isa. 13:19). "The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to
fight, they have remained in their holes: their might hath failed; they
become as women: they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are
broken...Thus saith the Lord or hosts; the broad walls of Babylon shall
be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire" (Jer.
51:30,58). "And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying,
What city is like unto this great city!" (Rev. 18:18). We know of
nothing in either Scripture or secular history which shows that Babylon
was burned in the past.
"But it will be said, perhaps, How can this be? Has not Babylon
already been smitten? Has it not already been swept with the besom of
destruction? Our answer is - Not at the time and with the concomitant
circumstances specified in the passage just quoted. It is true indeed
that the Euphratean countries have been smitten - sorely smitten under
the hand of God. God is wont in His goodness to give premonitory blows.
He is accustomed to warn before He finally destroys. Egypt, Jerusalem,
and many other places, have all experienced premonitory desolations, and
so has Babylon. Its present ruin (which came on it slowly, and if I may
so speak, gently), is a memorial of what God's righteous vengeance can
do, and a warning of what it will more terribly do, if human pride in
contempt of all His admonitions, shall again attempt to rear its goodly
palaces when He has written desolation. But if it be the habit of God
thus graciously to warn, it is equally the habit of man to say, "The
bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stone; the sycamores
are cut down, but we will change them into cedars'. Unbidden, the hand
of man revived what God had smitten (that is what happened in Chicago
and San Francisco! A.W.P.). Without therefore undervaluing the lesson
given by past visitations of God's judgments - without hiding, but
rather seeking to proclaim the reality and extent of the ruin, His holy
hand has wrought, we have also to testify, that the hand of man
uncommissioned from above will, sooner or later, reconstruct the fabric
of its greatness - its last evil greatness, on the very plains which
teem with the memorials of a ruin entailed by former and yet unrepented
of transgressions. Egypt, Damascus, Palestine, and in a measure,
Jerusalem, are already being revived. And if these and neighbouring
countries which have been visited by inflictions similar to those which
have fallen on Babylon, are yet to revive and flourish with an evil
prosperity at the time of the end, why should Babylon be made an
exception?" (B.W.N.).
That the Antichrist will be intimately connected with the land of
Chaldae is clear from a number of scriptures, notably, those which speak
of him as "the Assyrian" and "the king of Babylon". But as this is a
disputed point we are obliged to pause and make proof of it. Let us
turn, then, first to Isa. 10 and 11 which form one continuous prophecy.
We can not now attempt even an outline of this long and interesting
prediction, but must merely single out one or two statements from it
which bear on the point now before us.
In the fifth verse of Isa. 10, the Lord addresses the Antichrist as
follows: "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand
is mine indignation". This intimates, as pointed out in a previous
chapter, that the Son of Perdition is but a tool in the hands of the
Almighty, His instrument for threshing Israel. His consuming egotism and
haughtiness come out plainly in the verses that follow (7-11). But when
God has accomplished His purpose by him, He "will punish the fruit of
the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks"
(v. 12). How this serves to identify him with the "little horn" of Dan.
7:20, the Man of Sin of 2 Thess. 2:4! - cf further his proud boastings
recorded in Isa. 10:13,14. In v. 23 is another statement which helps us
to fix with certainty the period of which the prophet is speaking, and
the central actors there in view: "For a consummation, and that
determined, shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, make in the midst of all
the earth" (R.V.). The words "consummation" and "that determined" occur
again in Dan. 9:27 - "He (Antichrist) shall make it (the temple)
desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be
poured upon the Desolator". The "King of Assyria" and "the Desolator"
are thus shown to be the same. In Isa. 10, vv. 24 and 25 we read,
"Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O My people that dwellest
in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod,
and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. For
et a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and Mine anger
in their destruction". Clearly this is parallel with Dan. 11:36: "And
the King shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and
magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things
against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be
accomplished". In the 11th chapter of Isaiah there is a statement even
clearer, a proof conclusive and decisive: "And He shall smite the earth
with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips shall He slay
the wicked" (11:4). These very words are applied to the Man of Sin in 2
Thess. 2:8.
In Isa. 14 we have a scripture which very clearly connects the
Antichrist with Babylon. The opening verses (which really form a
parenthesis) tell of the coming restoration of Israel to Jehovah's
favour, and then in v.4 they are bidden to take up "a taunting speech
(marginal rendering) against the King of Babylon". The taunting speech
begins thus: "How hath the Oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! the
Lord hath broken the staff of the Wicked" (vv. 4,5). As to who is in
view here there is surely no room for doubt. He is Israel's Oppressor in
the End-time; he is the Wicked One. In the verses which follow there are
many marks by which he may be positively identified. In v. 6 this "King
of Babylon" is said to be "He who smote the people (i.e. Israel) in
wrath with a continual stroke". In v. 12 he is called "Lucifer
(Day-star), Son of the morning", a title which marks him out as none
other than the Son of Perdition. Whatever backward reference to the fall
of Satan there may be in this verse and the ones that follow, it is
clear that they describe the blasphemous arrogance of the Antichrist. In
v. 13 we read, "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north". Then, in
vv.15 and 16 we are told, "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to
the sides of the Pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee,
and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to
tremble, that did shake kingdoms? Clearly it is the Man of Sin that is
here in view.
In Isa. 30 we have another scripture which links Antichrist with
Babylonia. Beginning at v.27 we read: "Behold, the name of the Lord
cometh from afar, burning with His anger, and the burning thereof is
heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring
fire: And his breath, as an over-flowing stream, shall reach to the
midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and
there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and
gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the
mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel". Clearly it is the
very end of the Tribulation period which is here in view. The reference
is to the return of the Lord to earth in great power and glory, when He
shall overthrow those who are gathered together against Him, and put an
end to the awful career of the Antichrist. Continuing, we find this
passage in Isa. 30 closes as follows: "For through the voice of the Lord
shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which, smote with a rod. And in every
place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon
him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will
he fight with it. For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the King it is
prepared; He hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and
much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth
kindle it" - cf "the breath of the Lord" here with Isa. 11:4. For
further references to Antichrist and Assyria see Isa. 7:17-20; 8:7, etc.
The next two chapters will be devoted to a consideration of Babylon
in the New Testament, when Rev. 17 and 18 will come before us. May the
Lord in His grace give us the wisdom we so sorely need, and preserve the
writer and reader from all error.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN. ANTICHRIST AND
BABYLON.
In the last chapter we confined ourselves to the Old Testament, in
this and the one that follows we shall treat mainly of Babylon in Rev.
17 and 18, though, of necessity, we shall examine these in the light of
Old Testament passages. In the previous chapter, we briefly reviewed the
Old Testament evidence which proves there is to be a re-built Babylon,
over which the Antichrist shall reign during the Time of the End. Now as
both the Old and New Testaments have one and the same Divine Author, it
cannot be that the latter should conflict with the former. "If the Old
and New Testaments treat of the circumstances which are immediately to
precede the Advent of the Lord in glory, the substantive facts of that
period must be alike referred to in both. If the Old Testament declares
that Babylon and `the land of Shinar' is to be the focus of influential
wickedness at the time of the end, it it impossible that the Revelation,
when professedly treating of the same period, should be silent
respecting such wickedness, or respecting the place of its
concentration. If the Old Testament speaks of an individual of
surpassing power who will connect himself with this wickedness, and be
the king of Babylon, and glorify himself as God, it is not to be
supposed that the Revelation should treat of the same period and be
silent respecting such an event. If, therefore, in the Old Testament,
the sphere be fixed - the locality named - the individual defined - it
is impossible that the Revelation, when detailing the events of the same
period, should alter the localities, or change the individuals. There
cannot be two sovereign individuals, nor two sovereign cities in the
same sphere at the same time. If the mention of the "Land of Shinar',
and of Assyria", and of "the king of Babylon", be intended in the Old
Testament to render our thoughts fixed and definite, why should similar
terms, applied in the Revelation to a period avowedly the same, be less
definite?" (B.W.Newton).
Of Rev. 17 and 18 it has been well said, "There is, perhaps, no
section of the Apocalypse more fraught with difficulty than the
predictions concerning Babylon. Enigmatical and inconsistent with each
other as, at first sight, they seem to be, we need to give careful
attention to every particular, and much patient investigation of other
scriptures, if we would penetrate their meaning and possess ourselves of
their secret" (Mr. G.H. Pember, M.A.). In prosecuting our present study
we cannot do better than borrow again from the language of Mr. Pember,
"Nor is the present necessarily brief and imperfect essay written in any
spirit of dogmatic certainty that it solves the mystery; but only as the
conclusion, so far as light has been already vouchsafed, to one who,
having received mercy of the Lord, has been led to much consideration of
this and kindred subjects".
An exposition of the Revelation or any part thereof should be the
last place for dogmatism. Both at the beginning and close of the book
the Holy Spirit expressly states that the Apocalypse is a "prophecy"
(1:3; 22:19), and prophecy is, admittedly, the most difficult branch of
Scripture study. It is true that during the last century God has been
pleased to give His people not a little light upon the predictive
portions of His Word, nor is the Apocalypse to be excepted. Yet, the
more any one reads the literature on the subject, the more should he
become convinced that dogmatism here is altogether unseemly. During the
last fifteen years the writer has made it a point to read the Revelation
through carefully at least three times a year, and during this period he
has also gone through over thirty commentaries on the last book of the
Bible. A perusal of the varied and conflicting interpretations advanced
have taught him two things. First, the wisdom of being cautious in
adopting any of the prevailing views; second, the need of patient and
direct waiting on God for further light. To these may be added a third,
namely, the possibility, yea, the probability, that many of the
prophecies of the Revelation are to receive a double, and in some cases,
a treble, fulfilment.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable".
This applies equally to the Prophets as to the Epistles, and it was just
as true five hundred years ago as it is today. That being so, the right
understanding of the final fulfilment of the prophecies in the
Revelation cannot be the only value that book possesses. There must also
be that in it which had a pertinent and timely message for the people of
God of this dispensation in each generation. There must be that in which
strengthened the faith of those saints who read it during the "Dark
Ages", and that which enabled them to detect and keep clear from the
which opposed to God and His Christ. In other words, its prophecies must
have received a gradual and partial fulfilment all through the centuries
of the Christian era, though their final fulfilment be yet future. Such
is the case with Rev. 17 and 18. Ever since John received the Revelation
there has always existed a system which, in its moral features, has
corresponded to the Babylon of the 17th chapter. There exists such a
system today; there will exist such a system after the Church is
raptured to heaven. And there will also come into existence another and
final system which will exhaust the scope of this prophecy.
The position which the Apocalypse occupies in the Sacred Canon is
surely indicative of the character of its contents. The fact that it is
placed at the close, at once suggests that it treats of that which
concerns the end of things. Moreover, it is taken for granted that the
student of this sixty-sixth book of the Bible is already acquainted with
the previous sixty-five books. Scripture is self-interpreting, and we
may rest assured that whatever appears vague or difficult in the last
book of Scripture is due to our ignorance of the meaning of the books
preceding, and particularly of the Prophets. In the Apocalypse the
various streams of prediction, which may be traced through the Old
Testament Scriptures, are seen emptying themselves in the sea of
historical accomplishment. Or, to change the figure, here we are given
to behold the last act of the great Dispensational Drama, the earlier
acts of which were depleted in the writings of the seers of Israel. And
yet, as previously intimated, these final scenes have already had a
preliminary rehearsal during the course of the Christian centuries.
It will thus be seen that we are far from sharing the views of
those who limit the prophecies of the Revelation to a single fulfilment.
We believe there is much of truth in both the Historical and Futurist
interpretations. We are in entire accord with the following words from
the pen of our esteemed brother, Mr. F.C. Jennings: "How many of the
controversies that have ruled, alas, amongst the Lord's people, have
been due to a narrow way of limiting the thoughts of God, and seeking to
confine or bend them by our own apprehension of them. How often two, or
more, apparently opposing systems of interpretation may really both be
correct; the breadth, the length, and height, and depth, of the mind of
God, including and going beyond both of them". Let us now come more
directly to our present theme.
The first time that Babylon is mentioned in the Apocalypse is in
14:8: "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is
fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication". Now what is there here to
discountenance the natural conclusion that "Babylon" means Babylon?
Two or three generations ago, students of prophecy received incalculable
help from the simple discovery that when the Holy Spirit spoke of Judea
and Jerusalem in the Old Testament Scriptures He meant Judea and
Jerusalem, and not England and London; and that when He mentioned Zion
He did not refer to the Church. But strange to say, few, if any of these
brethren, have applied the same rule to the Apocalypse. Here they are
guilty of doing the very thing for which they condemned their forebears
in connection with the Old Testament - they have "spiritualised". They
have concluded, or rather, they have accepted the conclusions of the
Reformers, that Babylon meant Papal Rome, ultimately being refined to
signify apostate Christendom. But what is there in Rev. 14:8 which gives
any hint that "Babylon" there refers to the Papal system? No; we believe
that this scripture means what it says, and that we need not the annals
of secular history to help us to understand it. What then? If to regard
"Jerusalem" as meaning Jerusalem be a test of intelligence in Old
Testament prophecy, shall we be counted a heretic if we understand
"Babylon" to mean Babylon, and not Rome or apostate Christendom?
The next reference to Babylon is in Rev. 16:18,19: "And there were
voices, and thunders, and lightening; and there was a great earthquake,
such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty and earthquake,
and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the
cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before
God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His
wrath". The remarks just made above apply with equal force to this
passage too. Surely it is a literal city which is in view, and which is
divided into three parts by a literal earthquake. If it does not mean
this then the simple reader might as well turn from the Apocalypse in
dismay. More than a hint of the literalness of this great city Babylon
is found in the context, were we read of the river Euphrates (v. 12).
This is sufficient for the writer: whether or not it is for the reader,
we must leave with him.
We come now to Rev. 17, and as soon as we read its contents we are
at once struck with the noticeable difference there is between it and
the other passages which have just been before us. Here the language is
no longer to be understood literally, but symbolically; here the terms
are not plain and simple, but occult and mysterious. But God, in His
grace, has provided help right to hand. He tells us that here is
"mystery" (v. 5). And what is more, He explains most (if not all) of the
symbols for us - see vv. 9,12,15,18. With these helps furnished it ought
not to be difficult to grasp the general outline.
The central figures in Rev. 17 are "the great whore", the "scarlet-coloured
Beast", and the "ten horns". The Beast is evidently the first Beast of
Rev. 13. The "ten horns" are stated to be "ten kings" (v. 12). Who,
then, is figured by "the great Whore"? There are a number of statements
made concerning "the great Whore" - "the woman" - "the mother of
harlots" - which are of great help toward supplying an answer to this
question. First, it is said that she "sitteth upon many waters" (v. 1),
and in v. 15 these are said to signify "peoples, and multitudes, and
nations, and tongues". Second, it is said, "The kings of the earth have
committed fornication" with her (v. 2). Third, she is supported by "a
scarlet-coloured Beast" (v. 3), and from what is said of this Beast in
v. 8 it is clear that he is the Antichrist, here viewed at the head of
the last world-empire. Fourth, the woman "was arrayed in purple and
scarlet colour and decked with gold and precious stones" (v. 4). Fifth,
"Upon her forehead was a name written - Mystery: Babylon the great",
etc. (v. 5). Sixth, the woman was "drunken with the blood of the saints
and with the blood of the martyrs" (v. 6). Seventh, in the last verse it
is said, "And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which
reigneth over the kings of the earth". These seven points give an
analysed summary of what is here told us about this "woman".
Now the interpretation which has been most widely accepted is, that
the "Whore" of Rev. 17 pictures the Roman Catholic system. Appeal is
made to the fact that though she poses as a virgin, yet has she been
guilty of the most awful spiritual fornication. Unlike the blessed One
who, in His condescension and humiliation, had "not where to lay His
head", Romanism has coveted silver and gold, and has displayed herself
in meretricious luxury. She has had illicit intercourse with the blood
of saints. Other parallelisms between the woman of Rev. 17 and the Roman
Catholic system may be pointed out. What, then, shall we say to these
things?
The points of correspondence between Rev. 17 and the history of
Romanism are too many and too marked to be set down as mere
co-incidences. Undoubtedly the Papacy has supplied a fulfilment of the
symbolic prophecy found in Rev. 17. And therein has lain its practical
value for God's people all through the dark ages. It presented to them a
warning too plain to be disregarded. It was the means of keeping the
garments of the Waldenses (and many others) unspotted by her filth. It
confirmed the faith of Luther and his contemporaries, that they were
acting according to the revealed will of God, when they separated
themselves from that which was so manifestly opposed to His truth. But,
nevertheless, there are other features in this prophecy which do not
apply to Romanism, and which compel us to look elsewhere for the
complete and final fulfilment. We single out but two of these.
In Rev. 17:5 Babylon is termed "the Mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth". Is this an accurate description of Romanism?
Were there no "harlot" systems before her? Is the Papacy the mother
of the "abominations of the earth"? Let scripture be allowed to
interpret scripture. In 1 Kings 11:50-7 we read of "Ashtoreth the
goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the
Ammonites...then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the
abomination of Moab, in the hill that was before Jerusalem, and for
Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon"! The Papacy had not
come into existence when John wrote the Revelation, so that she cannot
be held responsible for all the "abominations" which preceded her.
Again; in Rev. 17:2 we read of "the great Whore" that "the kings of the
earth have committed fornication" with her. Is that applicable in its
fullness to Rome? Have the kings of Asia and the kings of Africa
committed fornication with the Papacy? It is true that the Italian
pontiffs have ruled over a wide territory, yet it is also true that
there are many lands which have remained untouched by their religious
influence.
It is evident from these two points alone that we have to go back
to something which long antedates the rise of the Papacy, and to
something which has exerted a far wider influence than has any of the
popes. What, then, is this something? and where shall we look for it?
The answer is not hard to find: the word "Babylon" supplies us with the
needed key. Babylon takes us back not merely to the days of
Nebuchadnezzar, but to the time of Nimrod. It was in the days of the son
of Cush that "Babylon" began. And from the Plain of Shinar has flown
that dark stream whose tributaries have reached to every part of the
earth. It was then, and there, that idolatry began. In his work on "The
Two Babylon"[8] Dr. Hislop has proven conclusively that all the
idolatrous systems of the nations had their origin in what was founded
by that mighty Rebel, the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel (Gen.
10:10). But into this we cannot now enter at length. We refer the reader
back to our comments on Nimrod in chapter 13. Babylon was founded in
rebellion against God. The very name Nimrod gave to his city, proves him
to have been an idolator - the first mentioned in Scripture - for Bab-El
signified "the gate of God"; thus he, like his anti-type, determined to
exalt himself above all that is called God (2 Thess. 2:4). This, then,
was the source and origin of all idolatry. Pagan Rome, afterwards Papal
Rome, was only one of the polluted streams from this corrupt source -
one of the filthy "daughters" of this unclean Mother of Harlots. But to
return to Rev. 17.
In v. 5 we read, "And upon her forehead was a name written -
mystery: Babylon the great, the Mother of harlots and abominations of
the earth". We believe that the English translators have misled many by
printing (on their own authority) the word "mystery" in large capital
letters, thus making it appear that this was a part of "the woman's
name. This we are assured is a mistake. That the "mystery" is connected
with the "Woman" herself and not with her "name" is clear from v. 7,
where the angel says unto John, "I will tell thee the mystery of the
Woman, and of the Beast which carrieth her".
The word "mystery" is used in the New Testament in two ways. First,
as a secret, unfathomable by man but explained by God: see Matt. 13:11;
Rom. 16:25, 26; Eph. 3:3,6 etc. Second, the word "mystery" signifies a
sign or symbol. Such is its meaning in Eph. 5:32, where we are told that
a man who is joined to his wife so that the two become "one flesh" is a
"great mystery, (that is, a great sign or symbol) of Christ and the
Church". So, again, in Rev. 1:20 we read of "the mystery (sign or
symbol) of the seven stars", etc.
As we have seen, the term "mystery" has two significations in its
New Testament usage, and we believe it has a double meaning in Rev.
17:5, where it is connected with the "Woman". It signifies both a symbol
and a secret, that is, something not previously revealed. It should also
be noted that, in keeping with this, the name given to the Woman is a
dual one - "Babylon the great", and "the Mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth". Who, then, is symbolized by the Woman with
this dual name? V. 18 tells us, "And the Woman which thou sawest is that
great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth". Now to get the
force of this it is essential that we should bear in mind that, in the
Apocalypse, the words "is" and "are" almost always (in the symbolical
sections) signify "represent". Thus, in 1:20 "the seven stars are the
seven churches" means "the seven stars represent the seven churches";
and "the seven candlesticks are the seven churches", signifies, "the
seven candlesticks represent the seven churches". So in 17:9 "the seven
heads are (represent) seven mountains"; 17:12 "the ten horns are
(represent) ten kings"; 17:15 "the waters...are (represent) peoples",
etc. So in 17:18 "the woman which thou sawest is that great city" must
mean, "the woman represents that great city". What, then, is signified
by the "great city"?
In keeping with what we have just said above, namely, that the term
"mystery" in Rev. 17:5 has a two-fold significance, and that the woman
has a dual name, so we believe "that Great City" has a double force and
application. First, it signifies a literal city, which shall yet
be built in the Land of Shinar, on the banks of the Euphrates. Proof of
this was furnished in our last chapter so that we need not pause here to
submit the evidence. Six times (significant number!) is "Babylon"
referred to in the Apocalypse, and nowhere is there a hint that the name
is not to be understood literally. In the second place, the "great city"
(unnamed) signifies an idolatrous system - "mother of harlots" a
system of idolatry which originated in the Babylon of Nimrod's day, and
a system which is to culminate and terminate in another Babylon in a day
soon to come. This we think is clear and on the surface. What, then, is
the secret here disclosed, which had hitherto been so closely guarded?
In seeking the answer to our last question it is important to note
that there is another "Woman" in the Revelation, between whom and this
one in chapter 17 there are some striking comparisons and some vivid
contrasts. Let us note a few of them. First, in Rev. 12:1 we read of "a
Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her
head a crown of twelve stars", which symbolically signifies that she
occupies a position of authority and rule (cf Gen. 37:9); so also the
Woman of chapter 17 is pictured as "ruling over the kings of the earth"
(v. 18). Second, this Woman of Rev. 12 is a mother, for she gives birth
to the Man-child who shall rule all nations (v. 5); so the Woman of
chapter 17 is "the Mother of harlots". Third, in 12:3 we read of a great
red Dragon "having seven heads and ten horns", and he persecutes the
Woman (v. 14); but in striking contrast, the Woman of chapter 17 is seen
supported by a scarlet-coloured Beast "having seven heads and ten horns"
(v. 3). Fourth, in Rev. 19:7 the Woman of chapter 12 is termed the
Lamb's Wife (v. 7); whereas the Woman of chapter 17 is the Devil's
Whore. Fifth, the Wife of Rev. 19 is "arrayed in fine linen, clean and
white" (v. 8); but the Whore of chapter 19 is arrayed in purple and
scarlet, and has in her hand a golden cup "full of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication" (v. 4). Sixth, the Lamb's Wife is also
inseparably connected with a great city, even the holy Jerusalem
(21:10); so the Whore of Rev. 17 is connected with a great city, even
Babylon. Seventh, the chaste Woman shall dwell with the Lamb forever;
the Whore shall suffer endless torment in the Lake of Fire.
Once we learn who is symbolized by the chaste Woman, we are in the
position to identify the corrupt Woman, who is compared and contrasted
with her. As to whom is signified by the former, there is surely little
room for doubt - it is the faithful portion of Israel. She is the one
who gave birth to the Man-child - i.e. Judah, in contrast from the
unfaithful ten tribes, who because of idolatry were, at the time of the
Incarnation, is captivity. So in Rev. 19 and 21 there are a number of
things which show clearly (to any unprejudiced mind) that the Bride, the
Lamb's Wife, is redeemed Israel, and not the Church. For example, in
Rev. 19:6,7, when praise bursts forth because the marriage of the Lamb
is come, a great multitude cry, "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him for the
marriage of the Lamb is come". "Alleluia (which occurs nowhere in the
New Testament but in this chapter) is a peculiarly Hebrew expression,
meaning "Praise the Lord". In the second place, the word for "marriage"
(gamos) or "wedding-feast" is the same as is used in Matt.
22:2,3,8,11,12, where, surely, it is Israel that is in view. In the
third place, note that we are told "His wife hath made herself ready"
(v. 7). Contrast this with Eph. 5:26, where we learn that Christ will
make the Church ready - see Matt. 23:39 for Israel making herself ready.
In the fourth place, in 19:8 we read, "And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is
the righteousness of saints". The Church will have been arrayed years
before the time contemplated here. In the fifth place, note it is said
that "the marriage of the Lamb is come" (v. 7), just as He is on the
point of leaving heaven for earth (v. 11; but the Church will have been
with Him in the Father's house for at least seven years (probably forty
years, or more) when that hour strikes. In the sixth place, in Rev.
21;9,10 the Lamb's Wife is inseparably connected with that great city,
the holy Jerusalem, and in the description which follows we are told
that on the twelve gates of the city were written "the names of the
twelve tribes of the children of Israel" (v. 12)! Surely that is
conclusive evidence that it is not the Church which is in view. In the
seventh place, in Rev. 21:14 we are told that in the twelve foundations
of the City's wall were "the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (cf
Matt. 19:28!). Is it thinkable that the name of the apostle Paul would
have been omitted if the Church were there symbolically portrayed?[9]
If, then, the Chaste Woman of Rev. 12,19,21, symbolizes faithful
Israel, must not the Corrupt Woman (who is compared and contrasted with
the former) represent faithless Israel? But if so, why connect her so
intimately with Babylon, the great city? It will help us here to
remember that the Chaste Woman of the Apocalypse is also indissolubly
united to a city. In Rev. 21;9 we read that one of the seven angels said
to John, "Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's Wife". And
immediately following we read, "And he carried me away in the spirit to
a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God". Thus, though separate,
the two are intimately connected. The Bride will dwell in the holy
Jerusalem. So here in Rev. 17, though distinct, the Whore is intimately
related to the City, Babylon. One of the many proofs related to the
Harlot of Rev. 17 is apostate Israel is found in Isa. 1, where we read,
"How is the faithful city become an harlot"! (v. 21). In the verses
which follow it will be seen that the Lord of hosts is addressing
Israel, and describing conditions which will prevail in the End-time.
After indicting Israel for her sins, the Lord declares, "I will ease Me
of Mine adversaries, and avenge Me of Mine enemies". Clearly, this has
reference to the Tribulation period. Then the Lord continues, "And I
will turn, Mine hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross", etc.,
and then He adds, "Afterwards thou shalt be called, The city of
righteousness, the faithful city". How clear it is then that God calls
Israel "an harlot" for her unfaithfulness. For further proofs see Jer.
2:20; 3:6,8; Ezek. 16:15; 20:30; 43:8, 9; Hosea 2:5, etc.
We would next call attention to some of the scriptures which prove
that there will be Israelites dwelling in Babylon and the land of
Assyria at the End-time. In Jer. 50:4-7 we read, "In those days, and in
that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and
the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and
seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces
thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a
perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten", etc. Clearly these
verses treat of the closing days of the time of "Jacob's trouble".
Immediately following we read, "Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and
go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans" (v. 8). Then, in the next
verse, a reason is given, showing the urgency of this call for the
faithful Jews in Babylon to come out: "For lo, I will raise and cause to
come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north
country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence
she shall be taken" (v. 9). Again, in Jer. 51:44, the Lord says, "And I
will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that
which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any
more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall". And then follows
the Call for the faithful Jews to separate themselves from the mass of
their apostate brethren in Babylon - "My people, go ye out of the midst
of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the
Lord". Isa. 11:11; 27:13; Micah 4:10, all show that Israel will be
intimately connected with Babylon in the End-time.
It was of incalculable help to students of the past when they
discovered that Israel is the key which unlocks prophecy, and that the
Nations are referred to only as they affect the fortunes of Jacob's
descendants. There were other mighty peoples of old besides the
Egyptians and the Chaldeans, but the holy Spirit has passed them by,
because their history had no bearing on that of the chosen Nation. The
same reason explains why the empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece,
and Rome, do occupy such a prominent notice in the book of Daniel - they
were the enemies into whose hands God delivered His wayward people.
These principles have received wide recognition by prophetic students,
and therefore it is the more strange that so few have applied them in
their study of the final prophetic book. Israel is the key to the
Revelation, and the Nations are only mentioned therein as they
immediately affect Israel's fortunes. The ultimate design of the
Apocalypse is not to take notice of such men as Nero and Charlemagne and
Napoleon, nor such systems as Mohammedanism and the Papacy. Nor would so
much be said about Babylon unless this "great city" was yet to be the
home of apostate Israel. After these preliminary considerations, which
though length were necessary, we are now prepared to examine a few of
the details supplied by Rev. 17 and 18. Nor can we now do more than
offer a bare outline, and even that will require a further chapter on
Rev. 18.
"And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials,
and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show thee the
judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of
the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication" (Rev.
17:1,2). The "great whore", in the final accomplishment of this
prophecy, describes apostate Israel in the End-time - i.e. Daniel's
seventieth week. The figure of an unfaithful woman to represent apostate
Israel is a common one in the Scriptures: see Jer. 2:20; 3:6; Ezek.
16:15; 20:30; 43:8,9; Hosea 2:5, etc. She is here termed "the great
whore" for two reasons: first, because (as we shall show later) she
will, at the end, worship Mammon as she never has in the past; second,
because of her idolatrous alliance with the Beast. The apostle is here
shown her "judgment". This is in contrast from what we have in Rev. 12,
where we learn that the chaste "Woman" will be preserved. That apostate
Israel will yet sit "upon many waters" ("peoples", etc., v. 15), and
that the kings of the earth will commit fornication with her, we reserve
for consideration in the next chapter.
"So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw
a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured Beast, full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple
and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones, and
pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication" (vv. 3 and 4 ). The Woman seated on the
Beast does not signify that she will rule over him, but intimates that
he will support her. The ultimate reference here is to the Devil's
imitation of the Millennium, when the Jews (even now rapidly coming into
prominence) shall no longer be the tail of the Nations, but the head.
How the Devil will bring this about will appear when we examine Rev. 18.
As the result of the Beast's support (v. 3), apostate Israel will be
lifted to heights of worldly power and glory (v. 4).
"And upon her forehead was a name written, mystery: BABYLON THE
GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (v. 5). In a
re-built Babylon will culminate the various systems of idolatry which
had their source in the first Babylon of Nimrod's day. It is in this
city that the most influential Jews will congregate at the Time of the
End. From there, Jewish financiers will control the governments of
earth. That apostate Israel, in Babylon, should be clothed in "purple
and scarlet" (emblems of royalty and earthly glory) before the Kingdom
of Messiah is set up, was indeed a "mystery" (secret) disclosed by none
of the Prophets, but now made known in the Revelation.
"And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with
the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with a
great wonder" (v. 6, R.V.) The final reference is, again, to apostate
Israel in the End-time. The most relentless enemies of the godly Jews
will be their own apostate brethren - cf our notes on Luke 18 in chapter
9. The second half of v. 6, correctly rendered in the R.V., "And when I
saw her I wondered with a great wonder", ought to show us that it is not
Romanism which is here in view. Why should John, who was himself then
suffering from the hatred of Rom (Pagan) wonder at Rome (Papal) being
clothed with governmental power and glory, and drunken with the blood of
saints? But that the kings of the earth (her worst enemies for three
thousand years) should commit fornication with Israel, and that the
apostate portion of the Nation should be drunken with the blood of their
own brethren according to the flesh, was well calculated to fill him
with amazement.
"And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will
tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the Beast that carrieth her,
which hath the seven heads and ten horns" (v. 7). It should be noted
that in the interpretation which follows, far more is said about "the
Beast" than about "the Woman". We believe the chief reason for this is
because the 18th verse tells us the Woman represents "that great city,
which reigneth over the kings of the earth", and the City receives
fuller notice in the chapter that follows - Rev. 18.
"And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven
mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five
are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he
cometh, he must continue a short space. And the Beast that was, and is
not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into
perdition" (vv. 9-11). Here is the mind which hath wisdom (v. 9): "This
repetition of 13:18 identifies and connects these two chapters. The word
rendered "mind" in 17:9 and `understanding' in 13:18 is the same. This
`wisdom' is, to understand that, though a "Beast" is seen in the vision,
it is not a wild beast that is meant, but one great final super-human
personality; namely, a man energized by satanic power" (Dr. E.W.
Bullinger).
The 9th verse should end with the word "wisdom": what follows
belongs to v. 10. The R.V., which in this verse follows a number of
reliable translations, renders thus: "The seven heads are seven
mountains, on which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings". This
at once disposes of the popular interpretation which regards these seven
mountains s referring to the seven hills on which the city of Rome was
built. The Holy Spirit expressly tells us that the seven mountains are
(represent) seven kings. Of these seven kings it is said, "five are
fallen, and one is (i.e. the sixth existed when John wrote the
Apocalypse), and the other (the seventh) is yet to come: he must
continue a short space". And then in v. 11 we read, "And the Beast that
was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven, and he
goeth into perdition". Upon those verses we cannot do better than give
extracts from Mr. Newton's "Thoughts on the Apocalypse".
"This passage is evidently intended to direct our thoughts to the
various forms of executive government or kingship which have existed, or
shall exist in the prophetic earth, until the hour when the sovereignty
of the world shall become the sovereignty of the Lord and of His Christ.
We might expect to find such a reference in a chapter which professedly
treats of him who is to close the history of human government by the
introduction of a new and marvellous form of power - a form new as to
its mode of administration and development, yet not unconnected with the
past, for it will be constructed upon principles drawn from the
experience of preceding ages, and will have the foundations of its
greatness laid by the primeval efforts of mankind. He will be the
eighth; but he is of (ek) the seven.
"The native energy and intrepidity of him who is said to have been
a mighty hunter before the Lord - an energy essential to men who were
setting in a forlorn and unsubdued earth, surrounded by beasts of the
forest and countless other difficulties and dangers, very naturally gave
the first form to kingship, and hence its parentage may be said to
spring. "The beginning of his kingdom was Babel". The supremacy of
Nimrod was not derived from any previously existing system. He neither
inherited his power from others, nor did he, like Nebuchadnezzar
afterwards, receive it as a gift from God. He earned it for himself, by
the force of his own individual character - but it was without God.
Great progress was made in the kingdom which he founded in the land of
Shinar, in civilization and refinement; for we early read of the godly
Babylonish garment, and of the s kill and learning of the Chaldees; but
their domination was repressed and kept, as it were, in abeyance by the
hand of God, until the trial of Israel, His people, had been fully made,
that it might be seen whether they would prove themselves worthy of
supremacy in the earth.
"The form of government in Israel was a theocracy; as was seen in
the reigns of David and Solomon, who were types (imperfect types indeed)
of Him that is to come. The monarch was independent of and uncontrolled
by those whom he governed, but he was dependent upon God, who dwelt in
the temple, ever near to be consulted, and whose law was given as the
final standard of appeal. He stood between God and the people, not to be
their functionary and slave - not to be the expression of their
judgments, and the reflection of their will; but as set over them by
principles which he himself had received from above. But the possession
of power like this, held in companionship with God, required a holiness
that was not found in man in the flesh, and therefore it was soon
forfeited. Divine sanction, however, has many times since been coveted,
and the name of `the Lord's anointed' assumed. The last great king of
the Gentiles, indeed, will do more than this, for he will take the place
of Divinity itself, and sit upon the mount of the congregation on the
sides of the north, saying he is like the Most High. But all this is
unauthorized assumption.
"The third form is developed when the Gentile dynasty was formally
constituted by God in the person of Nebuchadnezzar. He, like the
monarchs of Israel, had absolute sovereignty granted to him - but God
was not with him in it. He and his successors received it as delegated
power to be exercised according to their own pleasure, though in final
responsibility to God. It is not necessary here to pursue the painful
history of the Gentiles. It is sufficient to say, as regards the history
of power, that the Gentile monarchs from the beginning, not knowing God
so as to lean upon Him, and too weak to stand alone; exposed to the
jealousy and hatred of those whom they governed - a jealousy not
infrequently earned by their own evil, found it necessary to lean upon
something inferior to themselves: and thus the character of power has
been deteriorated from age to age, until at last the monarchy of these
latter days has consented not only to own the people as the basis and
source of its power, but has also submitted to be directed in the
exercise of that power by given rules prescribed by its subjects.
"The native monarchy of Nimrod, the theocracy of Israel, the
despotic authority of Nebuchadnezzar, the aristocratic monarchy of
Persia, and the military monarchy of Alexander and his successors, had
all passed away when John beheld this vision. All these methods had been
tried - none had been found to answer even the purposes of man; and now
another had arisen, the half military, half popular monarchy of the
Caesars, - the iron empire of Rome. `Five have fallen, and one is, and
the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a little
space".
"That other (though it cannot yet be said to have come so as to
fulfil this verse)[10] (we are rather inclined to believe that the
"seventh" is commercialism, that is, the moneyed-interests in control -
A.W.P.) and, with one brief exception, the last form that is to be
exhibited before the end shall come, and it is under this form that the
system of Babylon is matured. It is obvious that a monarchy, guided not
by the people numerically, but by certain classes of the people, and
those classes determined by the possession of property, must be the form
adapted for the accumulation of wealth, and the growth of commercial
power; for it gives (which pure democracy has ever failed to do), the
best security fro property without unduly fettering the liberty of
individual enterprise".
For lack of space we are obliged to pass over the intervening
verses now, and in closing this chapter we offer a brief word on v. 18.
"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over
the kings of the earth". This verse tells us that the Whore represents a
City. This city is named in 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2; 10, 21; and it is
surely significant that it is thus named in the Apocalypse six times -
the number of man; whereas the new Jerusalem is referred to three times
(3:12; 21:2; 10) the Divine number. Babylon, must therefore be
understood literally, otherwise we should have the anomaly of a figure
representing a figure. But from the very fact that we are here told the
Woman represents the City, we learn that she is not literal, but
figurative. In the next chapter we shall further review Rev. 17 and
offer some comments on Rev. 18.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN. ANTICHRIST AND
BABYLON. (REV. 18).
In our last chapter we sought to show that in Rev. 17 "the great
Whore", and "Babylon the great", though intimately connected, are yet
distinct; the former being the representative of the latter. While
allowing, yea insisting upon it, that many features of the symbolic
prophecy contained in Rev. 17 have had a striking fulfilment already,
still that in which all its varied terms are to find their complete
realization is yet future. We also reminded our readers that Israel
supplies the solution to most of the problems of prophecy, and this is
becoming more and more evident as the last prophetic book in the Bible
is receiving wider and closer study. Fifty years ago the majority of the
commentators "spiritualised" the first half of Rev. 7 and made the
twelve tribes of Israel, there mentioned, to refer to the Church. But
this has long since been discredited. So, the popular interpretation of
Rev. 12 which had the "woman" there a figure of the Church has also been
abandoned by many. An increasing number of Bible students are
recognizing the fact that "the Lamb's Wife," "the Bride" of Rev. 19 and
21 also contemplates Israel rather than the Church. That the Church is
the Bride (a statement nowhere affirmed in Scripture) has been
sedulously proclaimed by the Papacy for over a thousand years, and the
tradition has been echoed throughout Protestantism. But, as we have
said, there is a steadily increasing number who seriously question this,
yea, who are bold to repudiate it, and declare in its stead that the new
Israel, saved Israel, will be "the Bride". As this truth becomes more
clearly discerned, we believe it will also be apparent that the great
Whore is not the apostate church but apostate Israel.
The future of Israel is a wide subject, for numerous are the
scriptures which treat of it. It is, moreover, a subject of profound
interest, the more so because what is now prophetic is so soon to become
historic. The Zionist movement of the last twenty-five years is
something more than the impracticable ideal of a few visionaries; it is
steadily preparing the way for the re-establishment of the Jews in
Palestine. It is true that the Zionists have been frowned upon by many
in Jewry, and that, for a very good reason. God's time is not yet fully
ripe, and He has permitted the mercenary spirit of many of Jacob's
descendants to hold it, temporarily, in check. The millions of Jews now
comfortably settled and prospering in this land, and in the capitals of
the leading European countries, are satisfied with their present lot.
The love of money outweighs sentimental considerations. Zionism has made
no appeal to their avarice. To leave the markets and marts of New York,
London, Paris, and Berlin in order to become farmers in Palestine is not
sufficiently alluring. Mammon is now the god of the vast majority of the
descendants of those who, of old, worshipped the golden calf.
At present, it is (with few exceptions) only those who are
oppressed in greater Russia, Hungary, etc. who are really anxious to be
settled in Palestine. But soon there will be a change of attitude. Even
now there are faint indications of it. As Palestine becomes more thickly
populated, as the prospects of security from Turkish and Arabian
depredations grow brighter, as the country is developed and the
possibilities of commercial aggrandizement loom on the horizon, the
better class of Jews will be quick to see and seize the golden
opportunity. Few American Jews are anxious to emigrate to Palestine when
there is nothing more than a spade and a hoe at the end of the journey.
But as hospitals, colleges, universities, banking houses are opened, and
all the commercial adjuncts of civilization find a place in the land of
David, then rapidly increasing numbers of David's descendants will turn
their faces thither ward. High finance is the magnet which will draw the
covetous Hebrews.
Once Palestine becomes a thorough Jewish State it is not difficult
to forecast the logical corollary. We quote from the excellent
exposition on Zechariah by Mr. David Baron - his comments on the fifth
chapter.[11] Without any spirit of dogmatism, and without entering at
this place into the question of the identity and significance of the
Babylon in the Revelation - whether mystical or actual - we would
express our conviction that there are scriptures which cannot, according
to our judgment, be satisfactorily explained except on the supposition
of a revival and yet future judgment of literal Babylon, which for a
time will be the centre and embodiment of all the elements of our
godless civilization, and which especially will become the chief
entrepot of commerce in the world.
"To this conviction we are led chiefly by the fact that there are
prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the literal Babylon which
have never in the past been exhaustively fulfilled, and that Scripture
usually connects the final overthrow of Babylon with the yet future
restoration and blessing of Israel.
"And it is very striking to the close observer of the signs of the
times how things at the present day are rapidly developing on the very
lines which are forecast in the prophetic scriptures. "The fears and
hopes of the world - political, commercial, and religious, writes one in
a monthly journal which lies before me, are at the present day being
increasingly centred upon the home of the human race - Mesopotamia...As
the country from which the father of the Jewish nation emigrated to the
land of promise, it is also occupying the thoughts and aspirations of
the Jews'.
"Whatever may be the outcome of the negotiations which have been
carried on recently with the Turkish Government by the Jewish
Territorialists for the establishment of a Jewish autonomous State in
this very region, in which many Zionists and other Jews were ready to
join, there is so much truth in the words of another writer that when
once a considerable number of such a commercial people as the Jews are
re-established in Palestine, ` the Euphrates would be to them as
necessary as the Thames to London or the Rhine to Germany. It would be
Israel's great channel of communication with the Indian seas, not to
speak of the commerce which would flow towards the Tigris and the
Euphrates from the central and northern districts of Asia! It would be
strange, therefore, if no city should arise on its banks of which it
might be said that her merchants were the great men of the earth'"
Zech. 5 is most intimately connected with Rev. 18, and a grasp of
the former is of such importance in studying the latter that we must
here give it a brief consideration. But first let us outline in the
fewest possible words the contents of the first four chapters of
Zechariah. After a brief introduction we learn, first, that God's eye is
ever upon Israel (1:7-17). Second, that His eye is also upon her enemies
and desolators (1:18-21). Third, assurance is given of her future
blessing (2) and of her cleansing (3). Fourth, we learn of the blessings
which shall follow her restoration (4). Fifth, we are taken back to
behold the punishment of apostate Israel: the "flying roll" symbolizes
the destruction of wicked Jews (5:1-4). Then follows the vision of "the
Ephah" in 5:5-11 - let the reader please turn to it.
We cannot do more than now call attention to the prominent features
in this vision. First, the prophet sees as "ephah" (or bath) which was
the largest measure for dry goods among the Jews. It would, therefore,
be the natural symbol for Commerce. Next, we note that twice over it is
said that the ephah "goeth forth" (vv. 5,6). As the whole of the
preceding visions concern Jerusalem and her people, this can only mean
that the center of Jewish commerce is to be transferred from Palestine
elsewhere. Next, we are told that there was a "woman" concealed in the
midst of the ephah (v. 7). We say "concealed", for in vv. 5 and 6 the
"woman" is not seen - the leaden cover (cf v.8) had to be lifted before
she could be beholden. The writer is satisfied that this hidden woman in
the ephah is "the Woman" which is fully revealed in Revelation 17 and
18. Next, we are told that "wickedness" (lawlessness) was cast into the
ephah, before its cover was closed again. Then, in what follows, we are
shown this ephah, with the "woman' and "wickedness" shut up therein,
being rapidly conveyed from Palestine to "the land of Shinar" (v. 11).
The purpose for this is stated to be, "to build a house", i.e. a settled
habitation. Finally, we are assured, "it shall be established, and set
there (in the land of Shinar) upon her own base". This vision or
prophecy contains the germ which is afterwards expanded and developed in
such detail in Rev. 17 and 18, where it is shown that "the house" which
is established for this system of commerce is "Babylon the great". Let
it be remembered that this vision is found in the midst of a series of
prophecies which have to do with, first the faithful, and then the
faithless in Israel, and we have another clear and independent proof
that the Corrupt Woman of the Apocalypse is none other than apostate
Israel!
In his helpful and illuminative work on the Babylon of the future,
the late Mr. Newton devoted a separate chapter to Zech. 5. His remarks
are so excellent that we cannot forbear from making an extract: "If
human energy is to be permitted again to make the Euphrtean regions the
scene of its operation - if prosperity is to be allowed for a brief
moment to re-visit the Land of Babylon, it might be expected that the
Scriptures would somewhere allude, and that definitely, to such an
event. And we find it to be so. The Scripture does speak of an event yet
unaccomplished, of which the scene is to be the Land of Babylon. The
passage to which I refer is at the close of the fifth chapter of
Zechariah.
"That the event predicted in this remarkable passage remains still
unaccomplished, is sufficiently evident from the fact of Zechariah's
having prophesied after Babylon had received that blow under which it
has gradually waned. Zechariah lived after Babylon had passed into the
hands of the Persians, and since that time, it is admitted by all, that
declination - not establishment - has marked its history. From that hour
to the present moment there has been no preparation of an house, no
establishment of anything - much less of an Ephah in the Land of Shinar.
But an Ephah is to be established there, and a house to be built for it
there, and there it is to be set firmly upon its base.
"An Ephah is the emblem of commerce. It is the symbol of the
merchants. In the passage before us the Ephah is described as "going
forth", that is, its sovereign influence is to pervade the nations, and
to imprint on them a character derived from itself, as the formative
power of their institutions. In other words, commerce is for a season to
reign. It will determine the arrangements, and fix the manners of
Israel, and of the prophetic earth. The appearance of every nation that
falls under its control is to be mercantile. He said, moreover, this is
their appearance (or aspect) throughout all the earth."
The theme is of deep interest, and we are tempted to enter at
length into details. But that is scarcely necessary. Every one who has a
general knowledge of the past, and who is at all in touch with political
conditions in the world today, knows full well the radical change which
the last two or three centuries have witnessed. For a thousand years the
Church (the professing church) controlled the governments of Europe.
Following the Reformation, the aristocracy (the nobility) held the
reins. During the first half of last century democratic principles
obtained more widely. But in the last two or three generations the
governmental machines of this country and of the leading European lands
have been run by the Capitalists. Of late, Labor has sought to check
this, but thus far with little success. In the light of Zech. 5 and Rev.
18 present-day conditions are profoundly significant. It is commerce
which is more and more dominating the policies and destinies of what is
known as the civilized world. "If we turn our eyes abroad upon the
world, we shall find that the one great object before the nations of the
earth today is this image of commerce, drawing them with all the
seductive influence a siren woman might exercise upon the heart of men.
The one great aim on the part of each is to win the favour of this
mighty mistress. The world powers are engaged in a Titanic struggle for
commercial supremacy. To this end mills are build, factories founded,
forests felled, lands sown, harvests reaped, and ships launched. Because
of this struggle for mastery of the world's market the nations reach out
and extend their borders" (Dr. Haldeman). The recent war was caused by
commercial jealousies. The root trouble behind the "reparation"
question, the "Strait's" problem the cancellation or demanding repayment
of United States loans to Europe, each go back to commercial
considerations.
Sixty years ago it was asked, Is not commerce the sovereign
influence of the day? If we were asked to inscribe on the banners of the
leading nations of the earth, an emblem characteristically expressive of
their condition, could we fix on any device more appropriate than an
ephah?" With how much greater pertinency may this be said today! And how
this is preparing the way for and will shortly head up in what is
portrayed in Rev. 18, it is not difficult to see. There we read, " Thy
merchants were the great men of the earth" (v. 23). This was not true
four hundred years ago: for then the ecclesiastics were "the great men
of the earth". Now was it true one hundred years ago, for then the
nobility were "the great men of the earth". But today. Ah! Ask the man
on the street to name half a dozen of the great men now alive, and whom
would he select? And who are behind and yet one with the "merchants"? Is
it not the financiers? And who are the leading ones among them? Who are
the ones that are more and more controlling the great banking systems of
the world? And, as every well-informed person knows, the answer is,
Jews. How profoundly significant, then, that the head on the image in
Nebuchadnezzar's dream (which symbolized the Babylon Empire) should be
of gold, and that the final Babylon should be denominated "the golden
city" (Isa. 14:4). And how all of this serves, again, to confirm our
interpretation of Rev. 17, namely, that "the great Whore" with "the
golden cup in her hand" (17:4) is apostate Israel, whose final home
shall be that "great city", soon to be built on the banks of the
Euphrates. Not yet is it fully evident that the wealth of the world is
rapidly filling Hebrew coffers - only a glimpse of the "woman" in "the
midst of the Ephah" was obtained before it became established in the
Land of Shinar. But it cannot be long before this will become apparent.
At the End-time it will fully appear that "the woman...is (represents)
that great city" (17:18). This explains the words of Rev. 17:5, where we
learn that the words "Babylon the great" are written upon "her forehead"
- it will be obvious then to all! Apostate Israel, then controlling the
wealth of the world, will personify Babylon.
And what part will the Antichrist play in connection with this?
What will be his relation to Babylon and apostate Israel? The Word of
God is not silent on these questions, and to it we now turn for the
Divine answer. As to Antichrist's relation to Babylon, Scripture is very
explicit. He will be "the King of Babylon" (Isa. 14:4); the "King of
Assyria" (Isa. 10:12). As to his relation to apostate Israel, that is a
more intricate matter and will require more detailed consideration. We
shall therefore devote a separate chapter (the next one) to this
interesting branch of our subject. Here we shall deal briefly with what
Rev. 17 and 18 say thereon.
Rev. 17 presents the relation of apostate Israel to the Antichrist
in three aspects. First, she is supported by him. This is brought before
us in 17:3, where we are shown the corrupt Woman seated upon the
scarlet-coloured Beast. This, we believe, is parallel with Dan. 9:27,
which tells us that "the Prince that shall come" will make a Covenant
with Israel. This covenant, league, or treaty, will insure her
protection. It is significant that Dan. 9:27 tells us the covenant is
made by the one who is then at the head of the revived Roman Empire,
which corresponds with the fact that Rev. 17:3 depicts him as a "scarlet
coloured Beast...having seven heads and ten horns". It is the Antichrist
no longer in his "little horn" character, but as one that has now
attained earthly glory and dominion. As such, he will, for a time,
uphold the Jews and protect their interests.
Second, Rev. 17 depicts apostate Israel as intriguing with "the
kings of the earth". In v. 2 we read that the kings of the earth shall
commit fornication with her. Note how this, as an item of importance, is
repeated in 18:3. This, we believe, is what serves to explain 17:16
which, in the corrected rendering of the R.V. reads, "And the ten horns
which thou sawest and the Beast, these shall hate the Harlot, and shall
make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her
utterly with fire". What it is which causes the Beast to turn against
the Harlot and hate and destroy her is her unfaithfulness to Him. Not
content with enjoying the protection the Beast gives to her, apostate
Israel will aspire to a position of rivalry with the one over the ten
horns. That she succeeds in this we learn from the last verse of the
chapter - "And the woman which thou sawest is (represents) that great
city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth". As to how apostate
Israel will yet reign over the kings of the earth we hope to show in the
next chapter.
Third, Rev. 17 makes it known that apostate Israel will ultimately
be hated by the Beast and his ten horns "(v. 16). The 12th verse tells
us that the ten horns are "ten kings". This has presented a real
difficulty to many. In 17:16 it says that the ten horns (kings) and the
Beast hate the Whore, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her
flesh (that is, appropriate to themselves her substance, her riches),
and burn her with fire; whereas in 18:9 we read, "The kings of the earth
who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall
bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her
burning". Yet the solution of this difficulty is very simple. The
difficulty is created by confusing "the kings of the earth" with the
"ten horns", whose kingdoms are within the limits of the old Roman
Empire (see Dan. 7:7). The "kings of the earth" is a much wider
expression, and includes such kingdoms as North and South America, China
and Japan, Germany and Russia, etc., all in fact, outside the bounds of
the old Roman Empire. It is the intriguing of apostate Israel with "the
kings of the earth" which brings down upon her the hatred of the Beast
and his "ten kings".
In closing this chapter we wish to call attention to some of the
many and striking verbal correspondences between Rev. 17 and 18 and the
Old Testament Prophets: -
1. In Rev. 17:1 we are told the great Whore "sitteth upon many
waters".
In Jer. 51:13 Babylon (see previous verse) is addressed as follows:
"O thou that dwellest upon many waters".
2. In Rev. 17:2 it is said that, "The inhabitants of the earth have
been made drunk with the wine of her fornication".
In Jer. 51:7 we read, "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's
hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her
wine".
3. In Rev. 17:4 the great Whore has "a golden cup in her hand".
In Jer. 51:7 Babylon is termed "a golden cup in the Lord's hand".
4. In Rev. 17:15 we are told, "The waters which thou sawest, where
the Whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and
tongues".
In Jer. 51:13 we read, "O thou that dwellest upon many waters,
abundant in treasures".
5. Rev. 17:16 tells us that Babylon shall be burned with fire - cf
18:8.
So in Jer. 51:58 we read, "The broad walls of Babylon shall be
utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire".
6. In Rev. 17:18 we are told that the woman who represents the
great city "reigneth over the kings of the earth".
In Isa. 47:5 Babylon is denominated "the lady of kingdoms".
7. Rev. 18:2 tells us that after her fall, Babylon becomes "the
habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of
every unclean and hateful bird".
Isa. 13:21 says, "But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there;
and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall
dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there".
8. Rev. 18:4 records God's call to the faithful Jews - "Come out of
her My people".
In Jer. 51:45 God also says, "My people, go ye out of the midst of
her".
9. In Rev. 18:5 it is said, "Her sins have reached unto heaven".
In Jer. 51:9 it reads, "For her judgment reacheth unto heaven".
10. In Rev. 18:6 we read, "Reward her as she rewarded you".
In Jer. 50:15 it says, "Take vengeance upon her; as she hath done,
do unto her".
11. In Rev. 18:7 we find Babylon saying in her heart, "I sit a
queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow".
In Isa. 47:8 we also read that Babylon says in her heart, "I am,
and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I
know the loss of children".
12. In Rev. 18:8 we read, "Therefore shall her plagues come in one
day".
Isa. 47:9 declares, "But these two things shall come to thee in a
moment, in one day".
13. In Rev. 18:21 we read, "And a mighty angel took up a stone like
a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence
shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and be found no more at
all".
So in Jer. 51:63, 64 we are told, "And it shall be, when thou hast
made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it,
and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus
shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I bring upon
her".
14. In Rev. 18:23 we read, "And the light of the candle shall shine
no more at all in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride
shall be heard no more at all in thee".
In Isa. 24:8,10 it is said of Babylon, "The mirth of tabrets
ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the heart
ceaseth...the City of Confusion is broken down: every house is shut up,
that no man may come in...all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is
gone".
15. In Rev. 18:24 we read, "And in her was found the blood of
prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth".
In Jer. 51:49 we read, "As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel
to fall, so Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth".
These parallelisms are so plain they need no comments from us. If
the reader still insists that the Babylon of Rev. 17 and 18 is the
ultimate development of the Papacy as it envelopes apostate Christendom,
it is useless to discuss the subject any farther. But we believe that
the great majority of our readers - who have no traditions to uphold -
will be satisfied that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is the Babylon of
Old Testament prophecy, namely, a literal, re-built city in "the land of
Nimrod" (Micah 5:6), a city which shall be the production of
covetousness ("which is idolatry" - Col. 3:5), and a city which
shall yet be the home of apostate Israel.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. ISRAEL AND THE
ANTICHRIST.
It is a ground for thanksgiving that during the last three or four
generations the people of God have given considerable attention to the
prophecies of Scripture which treat of the future of Israel. The old
method of "spiritualizing" these predictions, and making them apply to
the Church of the present dispensation, has been discarded by the great
majority of pre-millenarians. With a steadily increasing number of Bible
students it is now a settled question that Israel, as a nation, shall be
saved (Rom. 11:26), and that the promises of God to the fathers will be
literally fulfilled under the Messianic reign of the Lord Jesus (Rom.
9:4). Jerusalem, which for so many centuries has been a by-word in the
earth, will then be known as "the city of the great King" (Matt. 5:35).
His throne shall be established there, and it shall be the gathering
point for all nations (Zech. 8:23; 14:16-21). Then shall the despised
descendants of Jacob be "the head" of the nations, and no longer the
tail (Deut. 28:13); then shall the people of Jehovah's ancient choice be
the centre of His earthly government; then shall the Fig Tree, so long
barren, "blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Isa.
27:6). All of this is common knowledge among those who are in any-wise
acquainted with dispensational truth.
But the same Word of Prophecy which announces the glorious future
awaiting the children of Israel, also contains another chapter in the
history of this peculiar people; a chapter yet unfulfilled, setting
forth a period in their history darker and sadder than any of their past
experiences. Both the Old and New Testaments plainly tell of a season of
suffering for the Jews which will be far more acute than even their
afflictions of old. Dan. 12:1 says, "And there shall be a time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same
time". And in Matt. 24:21,22 we read, "For there shall be a great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this
time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened,
there should no flesh be saved".
The reasons or causes of this future suffering of Israel are as
follows. First, God has not fully visited upon Israel's children the
sins of their fathers. "When Solomon and her kings had by transgression
lost their blessings, and the glory of the reign of Solomon had faded
away, the supremacy, which was taken from them, was given to certain
Gentile nations, who were successively to arise and bear rule in the
earth, during the whole period of Israel's rejection. The first of these
was the Chaldean Empire under Nebuchadnezzar. The period termed by our
Lord the "Times of the Gentiles", commences with the capture of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. It is a period coincident from its
beginning to its close, with the treading down of Jerusalem. `Jerusalem
shall be trodden down of the Gentiles till the Times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled'. Nebuchadnezzar therefore, and the Gentile empires which have
succeeded him, have only received their pre-eminence in consequence of
Jerusalem's sin; and the reason why they were endowed with that
pre-eminence was, that they might chasten Jerusalem; and when they shall
have fulfilled that purpose, they shall themselves be set aside and be
made, because of their own evil, "like the chaff of the summer
threshing-floors'. In this we have another evidence that the earthly
dispensations of God revolve around the Jews as their centre" (B.W.Newton).
A further reason or cause of the future sufferings of Israel lies
in the rejection of their Messiah. First and foremost Christ was "a
Minister of the Circumcision, for the truth of God, to confirm the
promises made unto the fathers" (Rom. 15:8). He was sent "but unto the
lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15:24). And in marvellous
grace He tabernacled among them. But He was not wanted. "He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not" (John 1:11). Not only did they
receive Him not, they "despised and rejected Him"; they "hated Him
without a cause". So intense was their enmity against Him that with one
voice they cried, "Away with Him, crucify Him". And not until His holy
blood had been shed, and He had died the death of the accursed, was
their awful malice against Him appeased. And for this they have yet to
answer to God. Vengeance is His, and He will repay. Not yet has the
murder of God's Son been fully avenged.[12] It could not be during this
"Day of Salvation". But the Day of Salvation will soon be over, and it
shall be followed by "the great Day of His Wrath" (Rev. 6:17; Joel
2:11). Then will God visit the earth with His sore judgments, and though
the Nations shall by no means escape the righteous retribution due them
for their part in the crucifixion of Christ, yet, the ones who will be
punished the most severely will be they who took the lead in that crime
of crimes.
The form which God's judgment will take upon the Jews is to be in
full accord with the unchanging law of recompense - what they have sown,
that shall they also reap. This was expressly affirmed by our Lord
Jesus: "I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not: if another
shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John 5:43). Because
they rejected God's Christ, Israel shall receive the Antichrist. The
same thing is stated in 2 Thess. 2:7 - "For this cause (i.e. because
they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be saved) God
shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the Lie". The
immediate reference here, we believe, is to the Jews, though the
principle enumerated will also have its wider application to apostate
Christendom. The chief reason why God suffers the Man of Sin to come on
the scene and run his awful course, is in order to inflict punishment
upon guilty Israel. This is clearly taught in Isa. 10:5, where of the
Antichrist God says, "O Assyrian, the rod (the instrument of
chastisement) of Mine anger, and the staff in their hand is Mine
indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, against the
people of My wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to
take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the street", and
cf our brief comments on Jer. 6:26,27 and 15:8 in chapter 9.
It must be borne in mind that the Jews are to return to Palestine
and there re-assume a national standing whilst yet unconverted. There
are a number of passages which establish this beyond question. For
example, in Ezek. 22:19-22 we are told, "Therefore thus saith the Lord
God; because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather
you into the midst of Jerusalem, as they gather silver, and brass, and
iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire
upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in Mine anger and in My fury,
and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and
blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and ye shall be melted in the
midst thereof". The first six verses of Isa. 18 describe how the Lord
will gather the Jews to Jerusalem, there to be the prey of "fowls and
beasts". The closing chapters of Zechariah lead to the inevitable
conclusion that the Jews return to their land in unbelief, for if their
national conversion takes place in Jerusalem (Zech. 12:10), they must
have returned to it unconverted.
When the Antichrist is manifested, great companies of the Jews will
already be in Palestine, and in a flourishing condition. What, then,
will be his relations with them? It is by no means easy to furnish a
detailed answer to this question, and at best we can reply but
tentatively. Doubtless, there are many particulars respecting this and
all other related subjects, which will not be cleared up until the
prophecies concerning them have been fulfilled. We, today, occupy much
the same position with regard to the predictions concerning the
Antichrist, as the old Testament saints did to the many passages which
foretold the coming of the Christ. Their difficulty was to arrange those
passages in the order they were to be fulfilled, and to distinguish
between those which spoke of Him in humiliation and those which foretold
His coming glory. A similar perplexity confronts us. To ascertain the
sequence of the prophecies relating to the Antichrist is a real problem.
Even when we confine ourselves to those passages which speak of him in
his connections with Israel, we have to distinguish between those which
concern only the godly remnant, and those which relate to the great
apostate mass of the Nation; and, too, we have to separate between those
prophecies which concern the time when Antichrist is posing as the true
Christ, and those which portray him in the final stage of his career,
after he has thrown off his mask of religious pretension.
It would appear that the first thing revealed in prophecy
concerning the Antichrist's dealings with Israel is the entering into a
"covenant" with them. This is mentioned in Dan. 9:27: "And he shall
confirm the covenant (make a firm covenant, R.V.) with many for one
week" i.e. seven years. The many here can be none other than the mass of
the Jewish people, for they are the principal subjects of the prophecy.
The one who makes this covenant is the "Prince that shall come" of the
previous verse, the Head of the restored Roman Empire. Thus the
relations between this Prince, the Antichrist, and the mass of the Jews
shall, at the first, be relations of apparent friendship and public
alliance. That this covenant is not forced upon Israel, but rather is
entered into voluntarily by them, as seeking Antichrist's patronage, is
clear from Isa. 28:18, where we find God, in indignation, addressing
them as follows - "And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
and your agreement with Hell shall not stand; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it". And
this, we believe, supplies the key to Dan. 2:43.
Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the great image and the interpretation
given to Daniel, outlines the governmental history of the earth as it
relates to Palestine, further details being supplied in the other
visions found in the book of Daniel. "The earthly dispensations of God
revolve around Jerusalem as their centre. The method which it hath
pleased God to adopt in giving the prophetic history of these nations,
is in strict accord with this principle. As soon as they arose into
supremacy and supplanted Jerusalem, prophets were commissioned,
especially Daniel, to delineate their course. We might perhaps, have
expected that their history would have been given minutely and
consecutively from its beginning to its close. But instead of this, it
is only given in its connection with Jerusalem; and as soon as Jerusalem
was finally crushed by the Romans and ceased to retain a national
position, all detailed history of the Gentile Empires is suspended. many
a personage most important in the world's history has since arisen.
Charlemagne has lived, and Napoleon - many a monarch, and many a
conqueror - battles have been fought, kingdoms raised and kingdoms
subverted - yet Scripture passes silently over these things, however
great in the annals of the Gentiles. Because Jerusalem has nationally
ceased to be, 1800 years ago, the detail of Gentile history was
suspended- it is suspended still, nor will it be resumed until Jerusalem
re-assumes a national position. Then the history of the Gentiles is
again minutely given, and the glory and dominion of their last great
King described. He is found to be especially connected with Jerusalem
and the Land...The subject of the book of Daniel as a whole, is the
indignation of God directed through the instrumentality of the Gentile
Empires upon Jerusalem" (B.W. Newton "Aids to Prophetic Enquiry", first
Series).
The method which the Holy Spirit has followed in the book of Daniel
is to give us, a general outline of Gentile dominion over Jerusalem, and
this is found in the vision of the Image in chapter 2; and second, to
fill in this outline, which is given in the last six chapters of that
book. It is with the former we are now more particularly concerned. Much
of the prophetic vision of Dan. 2 has already become history. The golden
head (Babylon), the silver breast and arms (Medo-Persia), the brazen
belly and thighs (Greece), the iron legs (Rome), have already appeared
before men. But the feet of the Image, "part of iron and part of clay",
have to do with a time yet future. The break between the legs and feet
corresponds with the break between the sixty-ninth and seventieth
"weeks" of Dan. 9:24-27. The present dispensation comes in as a
parenthesis during the time that Israel is outside the Land, dispersed
among the Gentiles.
What, then, is represented by the "iron and the clay" toes of the
feet of the Image? If we bear in mind that this portion of the Image
exactly corresponds to the seventieth week, we have an important key to
the interpretation. Dan. 9:26,27 treats of the seventieth week - the
"one week" yet remaining. These verses speak of the Prince (of the
restored Roman Empire) making a seven years' Covenant with the Jews.
Thus the prophecy concerning the seventieth week presents to us two
prominent subjects - the Romans, at whose head is the Antichrist, and
apostate Israel, with whom the Covenant is made. Returning now to Dan. 2
we find that when interpreting the king's dream about the Image, the
prophet declares that the "iron" is the symbol for the "fourth kingdom"
(v. 40), which was Rome, who succeeded Babylon, Persia, and Greece; the
"feet" with their ten toes forecasting this Empire in its final form.
Thus, we have Divine authority for saying that the "iron" in the feet of
the Image represent the peoples who shall yet occupy the territory
controlled by the old Roman Empire. In a word, the "iron" symbolizes the
Gentiles - specifically those found in the lands which shall be ruled
over by the "ten kings".
Who, then, is symbolized by "the clay"? Here we are obliged to part
company with the commentators, who unanimously take the clay to be the
figure of democracy. So far as we are aware none of them has offered a
single proof text in support of their interpretation, and as the Word is
the only authority, to it we must look. Assured that Scripture is its
own interpretor, we turn to the concordance to find out what the "clay"
signifies elsewhere, when used symbolically. In Isa. 64, which records
the Cry of the Remnant at the End-time, we find them saying, "But now, O
Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we
are all the work of Thy hand". Again, in Jer. 18 the same figure is
employed. There the prophet is commanded to go down to the potter's
house, where he beheld him manufacturing a vessel. The vessel was marred
in the hands of the potter, so he "made it again another vessel".
Clearly, this is a picture of Israel in the past and in the future. The
interpretation is expressly fixed in v. 6: "O house of Israel, cannot I
do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in
the potter's hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel". How clear
it is then that "clay" is God's symbol for Israel.[13]
In its final form, then, the revived Roman Empire - the kingdom of
Antichrist - will be partly Gentilish and partly Jewish. And is not this
what we must expect? Will not that be the character of the kingdom of
that One which the Antichrist will counterfeit? Such scriptures as Psa.
2:6-8; Isa. 11:10; 42:6; Rev. 11:15, etc., make plain the dual character
of the kingdom over which our Lord will reign during the Millennium.
That the Antichrist will be intimately related to both Jews and the
Gentiles we have proven again and again in the previous chapters - Rev.
9:11 is quite sufficient to establish the point. Therefore, we should
not be surprised to find that that part of the Image which specifically
depicts the kingdom over which the Man of Sin shall reign, should be
composed of both "iron" and "clay". It would be passing strange were it
otherwise. It is indeed striking to note that the "clay" is mentioned in
Dan. 2 just nine times - the number of judgment!
In Dan. 2:43 we read, "And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry
clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall
not cleave one to another even as iron is not mixed with clay" - a verse
that has sorely puzzled the expositors. We believe that the reference is
to the coming intimacy between Jews and Gentiles. The apostate Jews
(members of the Corrupt Woman) shall "mingle themselves with the seed of
men" - the Gentiles. This is amplified in Rev. 17, where we read of the
great Whore, "with whom the kings of the earth have committed
fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with
the wine of her fornication". "But they shall not cleave one to another"
(Dan. 2:43) is explained in Rev. 17:16 - "And the ten horns which thou
sawest upon the Beast, these shall hate the Whore, and shall make her
desolate and naked", etc.! There is a remarkable verse in Hab. 2 which
confirms our remarks above, and connects the Antichrist himself with the
"clay". The passage begins with the third verse, which, from its
quotation in Heb. 10:37,38 we know, treats of the period immediately
preceding our Lord's return. In vv. 4 and 5 we have a description of the
Antichrist, and then in v. 6 we read, "Shall not all these take up a
parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to
him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that
ladeth himself with thick clay". The reference is clearly to this "proud
Man's" fellowship with apostate Israel. We are satisfied that Hab. 2;6-8
is parallel with Isa. 14:9-12. Isa. 14 gives us a glimpse of the
Antichrist being scoffed at in Hell, by the "chief ones of the earth"
because he, too, was unable to escape their awful fate. So in Hab. 2,
after stating that he "gathereth unto him all nations" (v. 5) the
prophet goes on to say "Shall not all these take up a taunting proverb
against him". The taunt is, that though he had leagued himself with the
mass of Israel (laden himself with thick clay), yet it will be "the
remnant" of this same people that shall "spoil" him (v. 8).
Another scripture which shows that in the End-time apostate Israel
will no longer be divided from and hated by the Gentiles is found in Isa.
2, where we are told, "They strike hands with the children of strangers"
(v. 6 R.V.). As the context here is of such deep interest, and as the
whole chapter supplies us with a most vivid picture of the Jews in
Palestine just before the Millennium, we shall stop to give it a brief
consideration. The first five verses present to us a millennial scene,
and then, as is so frequently the case in the prophecies of Isaiah, we
are taken back to be shown something of the conditions which shall
precede the establishing of the Lord's house in the top of the
mountains. This is clear from the twelfth verse, which defines this
period, preceding the Millennium as "the Day of the Lord". The section,
then, which describes the conditions which are to obtain in Palestine
immediately before the Day of the Lord dawns, begins with v. 6. We there
quote from v. 5 to the end of v. 10: -
"For thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they
be filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the
Palestines, and they strike hands with the children of strangers. Their
land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end to their
treasures; their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end
of their chariots. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the
work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. And the
mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low: therefore
forgive them not. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from
before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of His majesty". This
most interesting passage shows us that apostate Israel will be on terms
of intimacy with the Gentiles; that she will be the mistress of vast
wealth; that she will be given up to idolatry. Their moral condition is
described in vv. 11 to 17 - note the repeated references to "lofty
looks", "haughtiness of men", "high and lifted up", etc.
If Zech. 5 be read after Isa. 2:6-9 we have the connecting link
between it and Rev. 17. Isa. 2 shows us the Jews as the owners of
fabulous wealth, as being in guilty fellowship with "strangers", and as
universally given to idolatry. Zech. 5 reveals the emigration of
apostate Israel )the woman in the midst of the Ephah) and the
transference of her wealth to the land of Shinar. Rev. 17 and 18 give
the ultimate outcome of this. Here we see apostate Israel in all her
corrupt glory. She is pictured, first, as sitting upon many waters (v.
1), which signified "peoples, and multitudes, and nations and tongues"
(v. 15). These will support her by contributing to her revenues. The
huge bond issues made by the nations to obtain loans, are rapidly
finding their way into Jewish hands; and doubtless it is the steadily
accumulating interest from these which will soon make them the
wealthiest nation of the world. That which has half bankrupted Europe
will soon be used to array the Woman in purple and scarlet color and
gold and precious stones and pearls (v. 4).
Second, the Woman is seen sitting upon the Beast (v. 3), which
means that the Antichrist will use his great governmental power to
insure her protection. How this harmonizes with Dan. 9:27, where we read
of him making a seven-year Covenant with them, needs not to be pointed
out. Then will poor blinded Israel believe that the Millennium has come.
No longer the people of the weary foot and homeless stranger, but
mistress of the greatest city in the world. No longer poor and needy,
but possessor of the wealth of the earth. No longer the "tail" of the
nations, but reigning over them as their financial Creditor and
Dictator. No longer despised by the great and mighty, but sought after
by the kings of the earth. Nothing withheld that the flesh can desire.
The false Prince of Peace their benefactor. Yes, blinded Israel will
verily conclude that at long last the millennial era has arrived, and
such will be the Devil's imitation of that blessed time which shall be
ushered in by the return of God's Son to this earth.
But not for long shall this satanic spell be enjoyed. Rudely shall
it be broken. For, third, Rev. 17 shows us the ten horns and the Beast
turning against the Whore, stripping her of her wealth, and despoiling
her of her glory (v. 6). This, too, corresponds with Old testament
prophecy, for there we read of the Antichrist breaking his Covenant with
Israel! As we are told in Psa. 55:20, "He hath put forth his hands
against such as be at peace with him: he has broken his covenant", cf
Isa. 33:8. And this very breaking of the Covenant is but the fulfilment
of the Divine counsels. Thousands of years ago, Jehovah addressed
Himself through Isaiah to apostate Israel, saying, "And your Covenant
with Death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Hell shall not
stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be
trodden down by it".
Concerning Antichrist's relations with the godly Jewish Remnant,
that has already been discussed in previous chapters, as also his final
attack upon Jerusalem and his defeat and overthrow in the Valley of
Armageddon. Apostate Israel, the Beast, and all his Gentile followers
shall be destroyed. The faithful remnant of Israel, and those Gentiles
who befriend them in the hour of their need, shall have their part in
the millennial kingdom of David's Son and Lord (Matt. 25). Thus has God
been pleased to unveil the future and make known to us the things which
"must shortly come to pass". May it be ours to reverently search the
more sure Word of Prophecy with increasing interest, and may an
ever-deepening gratitude fill our hearts and be expressed by our lips,
because all who are now saved by grace through faith shall be with our
blessed Lord in the Father's House, when the Great Tribulation with all
its attendant horrors shall come upon the world.
THE ANTICHRIST.
Conclusion
In bringing to a close this book on the Antichrist, we are
conscious that "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed"
(John 13:1). We have sought to present as comprehensive an outline of
the subject as our present light and somewhat limited space would
permit. But little more than an outline has been given. Abundant scope
is still left for the interested reader and student to work out and fill
in the details for himself. This, we trust, is what many will do. The
subject, though solemn, is one full of interest.
No doubt the subject is new, and hence, mysterious to some of our
readers. These we would ask to turn back to the first chapter, and
re-read the whole book. That God will yet permit the Devil to bring
forth his satanic Masterpiece, who shall defy God and persecute His
people, should scarcely be surprising. In each succeeding age there has
been a Cain for every Abel; a Jannes and Jambres for every Moses and
every John the Baptist. It has been so during this dispension: the
sowing of the Wheat, was followed by the sowing of the Tares. It will be
so in the Tribulation period: not only will there be a faithful remnant
of Israel, but there shall be an unfaithful company of that people, too.
And just before the Christ of God returns to this earth to set up His
kingdom, God will suffer His arch-enemy to bring forth the false Christ,
who will establish his kingdom.
And God's hour for this is not far distant. It was when "the
iniquity of the Amorites" was come to the "full" (Gen. 15:16) that God
gave orders for their extermination (Deut. 7:1,2). And Israel's
transgressions (Dan. 8:23) and the transgressions of Christendom (2
Thess. 2:11,12), will only have come to "the full" when those who
rejected the Christ of God, shall have received the christ of Satan.
Then, shall God say to His avenging angel, "Thrust in thy sickle, and
reap: for the time has come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the
earth is ripe" (Rev. 14:15). It is this which makes the subject so
solemn.
What God has been pleased to make known concerning the Antichrist
is not revealed in order to gratify carnal curiosity, but is of great
moment for our daily lives. In the first place, a proper apprehension of
these things should cause us to seriously search our hearts, and to
examine carefully the foundation upon which our hopes are built, to
discover whether or not they rest on the solid Rock Christ Jesus, or
whether they stand upon nothing more stable than the shifting sands of
human feelings, human resolutions, human efforts after self-improvement.
Incalculably serious is the issue at stake, and we cannot afford to be
uncertain about it. A mere "hope I am saved" is not sufficient. Nothing
short of the full assurance of faith ought to suffice.
Unspeakable solemn is what we read of in 2 Thess. 2:8-12: "And then
shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the
spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His
coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love
of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion, that they should believe the Lie: That they
all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness".
There are three points in the above verses by which the writer and
the reader may test himself. First, have I "believed the Truth"?
"Thy Word is the Truth". Have I set to my seal that God is true?
Have I applied the Word of God to myself, and taken it to my
own heart? Have I personally received the Saviour that it
reveals?
Second, do I have "pleasure in unrighteousness"? There is a
vast difference between doing an act of unrighteousness, and having
"pleasure" therein. Scripture speaks of Moses "choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin
for a season" (Heb. 11:25). And again, it speaks of some who "knowing
the judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of
death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them"
(Rom. 1:32). So it is here in the passage before us. They who "believe
not the Truth", have "pleasure in unrighteousness". And here is one of
the vital differences between an unbeliever and a genuine believer. The
latter may be overtaken by a fault, his communion with Christ may be
broken, he may sin grievously, but if he does, he will have no
"pleasure" therein! Instead, he will hate the very unrighteousness into
which he has fallen, and mourn bitterly for having done that which was
so dishonouring to his Saviour.
Third, have I "received the love of the Truth"? Do I read God's
Word daily, not simply as a duty, but as a delight; not merely to
satisfy conscience, but because it rejoices my heart; not simply to
gratify an idle curiosity, that I may acquire some knowledge of its
contents, but because I desire above everything else to become better
acquainted with its Author. Can I say with the Psalmist, "I will delight
myself in Thy statutes...Thy commandments are my delights" (Psa.
119:16,143). The wicked love the darkness; but God's people love the
light!
Here, then, are three tests by which we earnestly entreat every
reader to honestly examine himself, and see whether he be in the faith.
Awful beyond words is the only alternative, for Scripture declares of
those who have "believed not the Truth", who have "pleasure in
unrighteousness", and who have "received not the love of the Truth",
that "for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe the Lie: that they all might be damned".
Again; if we diligently search the Scriptures to discover what they
teach concerning the Antichrist - his personality, his career, his ways,
etc. - the more we are informed about him the better shall we be
prepared to detect the many antichrists who are in the world today, now
preparing the way for the appearing and career of the Man of Sin. There
is no reason why we should be ignorant of Satan's devices. There is no
valid excuse if we are deceived by his "false apostles", who transform
themselves into the apostles of Christ (2 Cor. 11:13). Christians ought
not to be misled by the many false prophets who are gone out into the
world (1 John 4:1). Nor will they be, if they study diligently those
things which God has recorded for our enlightenment and to safeguard us
against the subtle deceptions of the great Enemy.
Again; as we give diligent heed to the prophetic Word, as we take
its solemn warnings to heart, the effect must be that we shall
separate ourselves from everything which is anti-Christian. "Be not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with
darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he
that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of
God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be
ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will
receive you" (2 Cor. 6:14-17).
This call is not directed toward Christians separating themselves
from their fellow-Christians. How could it be? Scripture does not
contradict itself. God's Word explicitly says, "Not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but
exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day
approaching" (Heb. 10:25). But the same Word which tells us not to
forsake the assembling of ourselves together, commands us to have "no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Eph. 5:11). God
forbid that His people should be found helping forward the plans of the
Prince of Darkness.
Finally, as we read prayerfully the teaching of Scripture
concerning this Coming One, who shall embark upon the most awful course
that has ever been run on their earth; as we learn of how he will ascend
the Throne of the World, and be the director and dictator of human
affairs; as we discover how he will employ the mighty power, with which
Satan invests him, to openly defy God and everything which bears His
name; and, as we are made aware of the unspeakably dreadful judgments
which God will pour upon the world at that time, and the fearful doom
which shall overtake the Antichrist and all his followers; our heart
will be stirred within us, and we shall not hesitate to lift up our
voices in warning. The world is in complete ignorance of what awaits it.
The nations know not what is in store for them. Even Israel discern not
the dark night which lies before them. But as God instructs us
concerning what He is about to do, it is positively criminal to remain
silent. The voices of all whom God has been pleased to enlighten ought
to be raised in solemn and united testimony to the things which God has
declared "must shortly come to pass".
THE END [1] A monthly magazine, true to its
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