CARLYLE B. HAYNES
1946
An Account of the Scriptural Teaching Relating to the War Among the Nations Which Will Engulf Civilization, and Will Immediately Precede the Universal and Eternal Kingdom of Peace
Author of
The Other Side of Death,
Our Lord’s Return,
Spiritualism Versus Christianity,
The Christian Sabbath,
What Is Coming?
Satan: His Origin, Work, and Destiny
Review And Herald Publishing Association
Takoma Park, Washington, D.C.
1946
FOREWORD
THE DOOM OF CIVILIZATION
THE AGE OF ATOMIC ENERGY
NO HUMAN STRUCTURE CAN SAVE THE WORLD
APPROACHING ARMAGEDDON
WHAT ARMAGEDDON IS
WHERE ARMAGEDDON WILL BE FOUGHT
THE SIGNAL FOR ARMAGEDDON
THE RETURN OF JESUS
THE MILLENNIUM
THE DEPOPULATION OF THE EARTH
THE SECOND RESURRECTION
THE CONTEST BETWEEN GOD AND MAN RESUMED AND FINISHED
THE ETERNAL KINGDOM OF PEACE
BEYOND THE STORM
This book opens with a startling statement. Its author is not, however, a pessimist, but an optimist, a minister of the grace of God for human salvation, a believer in the “restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began!’
From the standpoint of human confidence, based only upon human ambition and human achievement, the outlook is indeed dark; but to the Christian the future is roseate with hope, because of the sure promise of God and the evidences on every hand that what He has promised He is about to fulfill.
The object of this book is not to terrify, but to save. The long, dark history of sin, with its sorrow, its suffering, and its death, is nearly finished. Man’s efforts to save the human race from sin and its consequences have failed. There is only one source from which deliverance can come, and that source is the God of heaven. He has provided a way of escape-Jesus Christ, the Savior of men, the Hope of the world. It is for the purpose of pointing men to Christ, that they may find deliverance, victory, and eternal salvation in Him, that this book is sent forth by the publishers.
CIVILIZATION is doomed, and that within this generation. Serious-minded, thinking men, scores of whom hold exalted positions among the statesmen of many nations in the Old World and the New, stand appalled at the cosmic forces of destruction they see about them. Clear-eyed, they look out upon a world shaken to its foundations by the death agony of war and its fearful consequences and distress, and they do not hesitate to declare that the world cannot recover from its hurt unless by a miracle.
Something far more devastating than an earthquake has jarred the world out of its course and is breaking it in pieces.
Said Secretary of State Cordell Hull in his address to the American Society of International Law on May 13, 1940:
“The specter of a new descent into the conditions of international anarchy which characterized the Dark Ages looms on the horizon today. 1 am profoundly convinced that it menaces the civilized existence of mankind-of every nation and every individual. Every nation and every individual should be actively on guard.”
Nor do men see much upon which to build hopes for stability and progress in the future.
“Fear; hatred between states, social classes, parties; growing distress in the whole world; the progressive sterilization of capital and labor; the degradation of intelligence, more and more enslaved to might; the confusion of all standards of measure; intellectual and moral anarchy, in which good and evil, truth and falsehood, reason and madness, right and wrong, are distorted to such a point that it is increasingly difficult to discriminate between them ; selfishness, violence, ferocity, which are becoming more and more the rule in relations between men and state.” - Professor Guclielmo Ferrero, University of Geneva, Aug. 10, 1939.
Men thought the first World War was the most devastating conflict that had ever been waged by civilized man. Millions of able-bodied men were killed. Millions more were permanently crippled. All told, more than twenty million of the world’s strongest and best were killed and mutilated in but little more than four years.
This has now been repeated on an even more appalling scale. The enormous accumulations resulting from the industry of generations have been scattered and destroyed. The wealth of nations has been sapped and dissipated. The destruction of property, of wealth, and of the accumulated fruits of industry has been gigantic.
All that men relied on has proved uncertain and insecure. The disintegration of the structure of civilized society has proceeded until there is no soundness anywhere. Nothing is certain, nothing secure. Civilization appears to be falling to pieces before our eyes.
It is a distracted world, a nerve-racked world, a panic-stricken world, at which we cannot look without recalling those amazingly descriptive words of our Lord, nineteen centuries ago, when, pointing to our generation, He said:
“There shall be signs.... men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth!’ Luke 2l:25, 26.
Or, as Fenton, in his translation, puts it:
“Upon the earth, nations in despair, as when in terror of the roaring and raging sea; men expiring from fear, and apprehension of what is coming upon the world!’
THE WORLD SHOCKED OUT OF ITS COURSE
The world, which for so many centuries followed a path of seeming security, has been sent rocking and reeling out of its course.
The entire map of Europe has been changed, its geography altered, its frontiers shifted, its currency depleted, its conditions materially lowered, its people plunged into despair; and many of its governments have been destroyed.
Kingdoms have passed into history. Empires have crashed into oblivion. Great governments have rolled into utter, endless darkness. Whole countries have been shattered to atoms. The earth has quivered and shaken, and no man can tell how far it has been driven out of its course.
Because of the devastations of war, and the intense preparations for continued war, whole populations are facing starvation. Irrespective of the outcome of any particular conflict, the seeds of dissolution have been sown. A terrible harvest is bound to be reaped.
Discontent is seething in the hearts of millions, and unrestrained passions are being let loose on the world. It is not surprising that thinking men everywhere are looking for anarchy, lawlessness, the overthrow of civilization-chaos.
ON AUGUST 6, 1945, a new age was born. We can never go back to that former age. A door has been closed. Another door has been opened. We have entered an age of profound and shattering fear.
On that August day a parachute containing a comparatively small object floated downward over Japan. It marked the instantaneous death of tens of thousands of human beings and the maiming of equally as many more. But it marked as well the violent death of one stage of man’s history and the sinister beginning of another.
The explosion of that bomb over Hiroshima has had a shattering, stunning effect on this new age, permeating every aspect of man’s activities.
We have not been unfamiliar with the meaning and possibilities of energy. We know, for instance, that there is sufficient energy in a gallon of gasoline, when its power is released, to drive an automobile fifteen miles. What, then, are we to think of a source of power no larger than a gallon which would drive that car 600,000,000 miles, or three round trips to the sun? Men have now discovered such a source, though it will be some time before they may be able to harness it and apply it to such a use.
Up to now gravitation has been the greatest single force known to science. That remains true no longer. Men have discovered and employed forces one million times greater than the force of gravitation. The force of gravitation reaches out over vast spaces. The terrific force of atomic energy is almost wholly contained within the nucleus, or heart, of atoms.
Atoms are infinitesimally small particles which make up the ninety-two (if we disregard the newly discovered Neptunium and Plutonium) basic elements which compose the material universe. As an indication of how small atoms are perhaps it will be sufficient to explain that an ounce of hydrogen contains 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (twenty septillion) atoms, and an ounce of uranium, the heaviest element known up to now in the universe, contains 100,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000 (one hundred sextillion) atoms.
Getting at the size of atoms in another way, we are told that if a drop of water should be magnified to the size of the earth, an atom would have the size of a small orange.
Atoms were once supposed to be the smallest particles of matter, so infinitely small they could not be divided or further analyzed. They were named accordingly. A in Greek means ‘not!’ Temno means “to cut!’ Atom consequently means “uncuttable,” “indivisible.”
Modern physical research, however, has discovered that what was thought to be the smallest and wholly indivisible particle of matter in the world is rather a universe. The analysis of its structure and properties has resulted in amazing discoveries.
The atom is not indivisible. It is made up of three particles of different types: protons, neutrons, and electrons. There is a central core, called the nucleus. Surrounding this nucleus is a comparatively vast space. In this space, revolving on its outer perimeter, are one or more electrons, spinning around the nucleus as the earth revolves about the sun.
The nucleus is inconceivably small, yet is the most important factor. It is only one-thousandth of one-billionth the size of the atom itself. We are told by physicists that one-trillion atomic nuclei could be placed on a single line one inch long.
The nucleus is composed of two different kinds of particles. They are called protons and neutrons. As has been stated, around this nucleus, on the rim of the atoms, negative charges known as electrons move with enormous speed. In the nucleus the protons are positively charged electrical particles. The neutrons are not charged at all. In their famous work, Applied Nuclear Physics, page 2, the two well-known physicists, Ernest Pollard and William L. Davidson, wrote: “The building blocks of nature are neutrons, protons, and electrons.”
The neutrons and protons comprising the nucleus of the atom are held together by tremendously powerful cohesive forces. After years of experimentation, most of it fruitless, and all of it enormously costly, scientists have developed a process by which the nuclei of uranium atoms are split by being bombarded with slow-moving neutrons. This splitting of the atom is called nuclear fission.
The explosive energy thus made available from one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of Uranium 235 is equivalent to the explosive energy of 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It was demonstrated, when the splitting of the atom was actually accomplished, that an explosion of approximately 200,000,000 electron volts could be touched off by idling neutrons of less than one electron volt. That is, the energy set free in the splitting of the atom was over 200,000,000 times the amount of energy required to split the atom.
In the words of Pollard and Davidson, in Applied Nuclear Physics, page 22, one kilogram of matter (2.2 pounds) “if converted entirely into energy would give twenty-five billion kilowatt hours of energy, which would be the equivalent to all the energy generated by the total electric power industry in the United States for any two months in the year 1939.”
One kilogram of coal when burned gives 8.5 kilowatt hours of heat energy. One kilogram of matter, when its atomic energy is released, gives 25,000,000,000 kilowatt hours of energy.
It is the discovery and first utilization of this stupendous force for purposes of destruction that have struck fear into the heart of humanity the world around. It is a new, primitive fear, the fear of unknown’ forces which conceivably may get out of control and bring an end to the human race on this planet. It appears that men have now learned how to release cosmic energy, the energy of the material of which the universe is composed. In this discovery they have come into the possession of Godlike power. This power was safe in God’s control. We do well to raise the question of whether it is safe in man’s control.
Such tremendous power would seem to be the special prerogative of God-and God alone. “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongs unto God.” Psalms 62:11.
Power is safe in God’s control. It is safe there because God has a character which makes it safe, a character which rightly controls power, using it only in ways that are right and for purposes which accomplish only that which is right. That cannot he said of man.
God is omnipotent, all-powerful. Greater than the omnipotence of God, however, is the perfect character of God. It is this that controls the exercise of omnipotence.
God’s high moral character makes it impossible for Him to misuse His omnipotence. Character is not so much made up of impulses as restraints. The character of God prevents Him from doing anything that is unjust or unkind or wrong. Consequently, He can be trusted with omnipotence.
Mankind has no such character. When men come into possession of Godlike power, sinister possibilities of untold evil hang over all the earth.
It is this that makes men afraid. Sir Oliver Lodge recognized this. Shortly after World War I, in the Academy of Science in London, he exclaimed: “I pray God that we do not learn the lesson of controlling this terrific force until we first shall have learned the lesson of self-control.”
And man has not learned the lesson of self-control. But he is, meanwhile, endeavoring to use cosmic energy. And we do well to fear what he will do with it.
Everywhere and in every social stratum, thinking men are afraid. Those who were wont to scoff at the idea of “the end of the world” have silenced their scoffing. Soberly and despairingly they are now forecasting the doom of civilization. They do not hesitate to point out that under the shifting sands of the continents other civilizations lie buried, that no civilization is self -perpetuating, that human structures disintegrate, human organizations fall to pieces, human governments perish, social systems die. With searching significance they raise the question as to why our civilization, reeling and stunned by the staggering shock it has been given, should be considered immune from the ruin which has come to the nations and kingdoms of former times.
These things are filled with deep significance to those who are acquainted with the prophetic Word of God. They are verifications of that Word. And they carry a tremendous meaning. They make certain that sudden and unexpected changes in human affairs are about to take place which will affect every person on earth.
The daily newspaper brings us the news of today. For the news of tomorrow we must look to another and more reliable source-the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is the most up to-the-minute Book in the world.
And in the Bible there are prophecies describing developments to take place in this world in these days in which we live, and in connection with the closing scenes of human history and the return of Jesus to this earth.
In this Sacred Book I read of a time that is coming, and is even now near at hand, when world disaster will sweep the whole race of men off the earth.
“Behold, Jehovah makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof. The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly laid waste; for Jehovah bath spoken this word. The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the lofty people of the earth do languish!’ Isaiah 24:14, A.R.V.
The prophet sets forth the cause of this world devastation in these words:
“The earth also is polluted under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore bath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are found guilty: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted do sigh!’ Isaiah 24:5-7, A.R.V.
In the same prophecy is given an additional view of the wreck of the world.
“Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit: and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is shaken violently. The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall sway to and fro like a hammock; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth!” Isaiah 24:17-21, A. R. V.
The time of the global ruin so vividly described in these prophetic passages is known to Bible students as “the last days,” “the time of the end.” Many other Bible writers were given prophetic glimpses of the culminating scenes of world history. A careful survey of their inspired predictions will help in understanding what may be confidently looked for in the near future.
Explaining his prophetic visions to the prophet Daniel, the angel Gabriel (Daniel 8:16; 9:21), commissioned of God, said to the seer:
“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:1, 2, A.R.V.
In the New Testament the prophet John was given a view of the seven last plagues, the disasters which will close human history. The very last plague is thus described:
“And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air; and there came forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, It is done: and there were lightning, and voices, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.” Revelation 16:1719, A.R.V.
Here is a bowl, a very small container, holding something of terrific force, poured out into the air. When it is poured out, a voice says, “It is done.”
If you followed the account of the men who flew the bomber which carried the parachute and atomic bomb which was dropped out “into the air” over Hiroshima, you will be impressed with some striking parallels. These men dropped the parachute and sent it down. It was done! And there were lightning and blinding flashes, such an appalling sight that the only words that have come back to us were those of the bomber’s pilot, who said, “My God!”
There were thundering and fearful rumblings as a great pillar of particles went up 40,000 feet into the air, and flattened itself off like a giant toadstool at the top. It was done!
And the city was divided and fell. Its very elements were dissolved, and it disappeared from the earth.
Something like that is to take place on a much larger scale, a world-wide scale. “The cities of the nations fell.” The world’s great cities are to go down, to be cities no more. The steel, the stone-all building material-will disintegrate, be dissolved, and the whole creation go down.
A great earthquake, perhaps the result of the release of atomic energy, an earthquake “such as was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty,” will shatter the earth and the race upon it.
With this compare another striking passage of Scripture and give particular attention to the significance of the words employed. It was written nineteen centuries ago. It was written about our time. How up-to-the-minute is its terminology!
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in His sight.” 2 Peter 3:10-14, A.R.V.
Consider the phrase “the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat.” That is exactly what atomic energy does.
This English word “elements,” placed in our Bibles as early as A.D. 1380, in Wycliffe’s translation, is precisely the word used now to describe the basic forms of matter, such as iron, lead, zinc, gold, silver, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, radium, uranium, etc.
The Greek word which Peter used, and which is translated “elements,” is stoicheion. It occurs seven times in the Greek New Testament, and is translated “elements” four times, “rudiments” twice, “principle” once. In the realm of physics this word was used to describe the component parts into which matter is ultimately divisible. (Lidell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon [Oxford, 19401, Volume 2, page 1647). And while men in Peter’s day believed there were but four elements-earth, air, fire, and water-and we know now there are at least ninety two, and it is quite possible that Peter did not wholly understand the full meaning of what he wrote; nevertheless, God guided his writing so that it is as accurate in this day of modern scientific discovery as it was when written.
It has been pointed out that the principle of atomic energy is simply that of a setting loose, the releasing, of the infinitely minute particles comprising the atom, particularly the neutrons and protons, which, so scientists declare, are held together by enormous cohesive forces. Man has learned how to unloose these locked-up, cohesive forces and thus break the atoms into pieces with terrific force. That is the principle of the atomic bomb.
Consider that in connection with the words of Peter’s prophecy. He declares that in the world conflagration soon to come the “elements” will be “dissolved.” He does not say all the elements will be dissolved. He does say that the conflagration will be brought about by a dissolution of elements.
The Greek word here translated “dissolve” is the simple word luo meaning to “loose,” surely a perfect word to describe the setting free, the releasing, of neutrons and protons from the power which for ages has locked them in and bound them so tightly together in the atoms of which our universe is built. Plainly, and without any forced construction whatever, the principle of nuclear fission, of atomic energy, is known to God, and that, or some equivalent and alternative process, may well be the method which God will use in the global conflagration which will result from a dissolution of the elements of our earth. God knows how to split atoms, too.
Peter’s prophecy says more. It declares the elements shall be dissolved “with fervent heat,” or “fierce heat” (Weymouth), or “blaze and melt” (Goodspeed), or “melted by heat” (20th Century), or “burning intensely will be dissolved” (Emphatic Diaglott). The Greek word, used only in the New Testament in this passage, means, literally, “to scorch.”
In all the accounts of the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in the experimental blast in New Mexico, there are repeated references to the scorching of the ground. The magazine Life, September 24, 1945, page 31, declares that a “close-up of crater’s surface shows how the heat of the atomic explosion destroyed a desert plant and melted sand into weird shapes of crude glass.”
Such a world conflagration as Peter describes is spoken of by many former prophets and recorded in the Old Testament. The reader’s attention is directed to some of the most significant of these.
“Our God comes, and does not keep silence: a fire devours before Him, and it is very tempestuous round about Him!” Psalms 50:3, A. R. V.
“A fire goes before Him, and burns up His adversaries round about. His lightning lightened the world: The earth saw, and trembled!” Psalms 97:3, 4, A.R.V.
Even more definite is the description Isaiah gives of Christ’s return:
“For by fire will Jehovah execute judgment, and by His sword, upon all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah shall be many. They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go unto the gardens, behind one in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together, said Jehovah!” Isaiah 66:16, 17, A.R.V.
Ezekiel also makes the same prediction.
“And say to the forest of the South, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus said the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby. And all flesh shall see that I, Jehovah, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.” Ezekiel 20:47, 48, A. R. V.
And Joel repeats it.
“A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns: the land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and none hath escaped them. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.” Joel 2:3, 30, A. R. V.
Zephaniah was given the same view.
“Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy: for He will make an end, yea, a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land.” Zephaniah 1:18, A. R. V.
“Therefore wait ye for Me, said Jehovah, until the day that 1 rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that 1 may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy.” Zephaniah 3:8, A. R. V.
And the last prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi, joins his voice with the rest.
“For, behold, the day cometh, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, said Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Malachi 4:1, A. R. V.
Out of the Laboratory Men Have Brought Forth Wonders, but the Creator of All Things Has a Thousand Surprises in Store for the Inhabitants of the World When He Comes to Set Up His Kingdom.
Long centuries ago two of the cities of the earth suffered a visitation of divine wrath and were consumed with such a blast of brimstone and fearful heat that no blade of grass or tree has grown there in that cursed soil for four thousand years. And this judgment by fire is set forth in Scriptures as a warning and solemn example of the judgment soon to come upon all the earth. The Inspired Record declares:
“Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven.” Genesis 19:24, A.R.V.
Jesus used this ancient judgment on these two wicked cities as a type of the destruction of all the earth at His second coming.
“But in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: after the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17:29, 30. A. R. V.
Peter also refers to this ancient visitation of divine fire as an example to a future age.
“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those that should live ungodly!” 2 Peter 2:6, A.R.V.
The same solemn parallel is emphasized by Jude.
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the http://www.ThreeAngels.com.aupunishment of eternal fire!” Jude 1:7, A.R.V.
And while men still talk of peace-a peace just and durable, a peace lasting and world-wide-and set up world machinery to implement such a peace in a United Nations Organization with its World Security Council, this, too, is big with importance in the light of clear Bible teaching. Paul writes of our time, saying:
“When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape!” 1 Thessalonians 5:3, A.R.V.
That is the whole emphasis everywhere today-Peace; peace plus safety, peace plus security. We are going to have a secure world at last, we are told, a peaceful world, a world under control. But when men talk this way, let God’s people beware. For when they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction!
These significant developments which the ancient prophets foretold are not fancy. The dangers hanging over the earth and the race of men upon it, so vividly described in the passages we have studied, to take place when the Lord Jesus comes back, are not myths. They are literally true. They will be literally carried out. They will literally take place. God’s Word means exactly what it says.
And when men inquire, “What do these world-shaking things mean?” we can answer them with all assurance: “They mean we are living in a world where, instead of a just and durable peace, there is going to be distress of nations, fear, confusion, uncertainty, dread, trouble, world disaster, and calamity. It means that Jesus Christ is coming back to this world to assume universal sovereignty and never-ending control. And above everything else it means that this Jesus who is coming back is the only Savior who can deliver any man from his sins and give him the gift of eternal life.”
Many clear-thinking men in high places today are deeply troubled about the things they see coming upon the earth. They have taken one of the dread words of Scripture and are using it more than ever before as the only adequate word to describe the sinister things they see ahead. That word is Armageddon. They have lost all hope that any human structure can now save the world. In syndicated articles appearing in many American newspapers, the noted author, historian, and philosopher, H. G. Wells, of England, in what he termed his “literary testament,” wrote under the date line of November 5, 1945:
“This world is at the end of its tether. The end of everything we call life is close at hand and cannot be evaded.”
He points out that while there are some optimists still who “seek some way out or around or through the impasse,” nevertheless-
“The writer is convinced that there is no way out or around or through the impasse. It is the end.”
Thus is voiced what is in many minds today. Around all the world men have fixed their eyes on the future and what they fear it holds of human woe and disaster. Only one ray of hope strikes through the gloom. That is the feeble hope of peace in a world organization charged with the responsibility of solving world problems and providing world security. How much of a hope that is we now examine.
The peace which has followed World War II is not a real peace. The seeds of strife still remain. The weeds of trouble are not eradicated. Many questions are still unsettled and undecided. National jealousies and animosities are not blotted out. Personal hatred and bitterness still smolder. And all these have been greatly aggravated and inflamed by war debts, reparations, and the world-wide financial burdens growing out of the exhaustion of war.
No settlement devised by men has been adequate to blot out the memory of the horrors which the war wrought by land and sea, the fields strewn with corpses and the beaches soaked with blood, the scorching heat of desert combat, the pitiless exposure to merciless winter, the terrible suffering of the wounded, and the unspeakable wretchedness of women and children who were prisoners of despair.
There are still memories of screaming bombs, mangled bodies, the rending asunder of great ships, the rain of explosives from the clouds, ruined cities, the tears of women, and the faces of little children pinched from hunger and blanched by fear.
There are the same national ambitions and the same national intrigues. These are not eradicated. There is the same distrust between those who were enemies, and even between those who fought side by side. Millions of men were killed or maimed. Hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth were consumed. Monetary values of entire national currencies have been wiped out. There are ruined lands, unnumbered http://www.ThreeAngels.com.augraves, towering debts, devastated cities.
These things have not been, and cannot be, blotted out by the shaking of hands or the signing of documents of surrender. Peace has come, but it is peace in pretense and outward show. In the hearts of men, in the souls of nations, there are bitterness, hatred, hostility, jealousy, malice, fear, and all the potentialities of unending conflict and strife. Wars and rumors of wars continue and increase. There is, and will continue to be, “distress of nations, with perplexity; . . . men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Luke 21:25, 26.
In the hearts of hundreds of millions of men today there is blazing hatred. The world is a seething caldron of international, interracial, interreligious suspicion and animosity. And there are those in high places who, for purposes of their own, do not hesitate to feed these flames and stoke these fires of malice and dislike.
Yes, there is war in the heart of the human race-war and strife and jealousy and envy and dissension and bitterness and all hatred and malice.
Today there is a spirit of unrelenting, unalterable, unforgiving hate between the various nations and races of men. The spirit of war and strife burns fiercely in myriads of hearts.
THE PHANTOM HOPES OF THE WORLD
Men fondly hoped to compose the troubles of the world by treaties of peace, by conferences, by a United Nations Organization, by understanding and agreement, and most of all, through the influence of religion.
But it is becoming more and more plain to all men that the evils of the world which turn the hearts of men from peace to war cannot be permanently overcome by a World Security Organization or by cabinets or conferences or courts or leagues or commissions or councils or conventions or treaties or tribunals, but only by a complete change of the individual heart and the individual life by Jesus Christ.
For wars issue, not only out of conditions and things and circumstances and the breakdown of international diplomacy, but primarily out of the natural human heart.
Imperfection in human governments can be remedied by proper changes in certain statutes, but imperfection in the human heart can be cured only by the Lord Jesus Christ, operating through the power of the Holy Spirit. “Whence come wars? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” James 4:1.
And men do not, and will not, come to Jesus that they may obtain peace. This the Bible has plainly declared.
Reasoning not alone from the prophecies and teachings of the Word of God, but also from the analogies of the history of mortal affairs, we see but little hope of human improvement religiously. The spiritual tendency of the race as a whole has from the beginning been downward. As a whole, man’s penitence has been temporary, his apostasy permanent.
His acknowledgment of God’s authority has been feigned, or at best halfhearted, his loyalty to Satan practically unqualified. His reformations have been superficial and brief, his revolts deep and protracted.
As widely as the race is scattered, so widely have the works of the flesh been manifested. Throughout all generations they have been the same everywhere. The fountain is corrupt, and the stream cannot be better than its source. The heart is deceitful, the life hypocritical. The source of wickedness is within, the manifestation of it without. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and it inherits all the lusts and depravity of carnality.
And these sins and lusts are not occasional mistakes but the natural acts of a perverted and fallen character. These are the lusts of the flesh which constantly war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11); the out workings of that law of sin which wars against the law of the mind (Romans 7:23); the fruitage of the carnal, or fleshly, nature which is enmity against God, not subject to His law, knowing no rule but lust (Romans 8:7) these are the things which, with tireless vigilance, must be kept under or they would make even an apostle an outcast (1 Corinthians 9:27).
And they can be subdued only by the power of God, controlled only by His Holy Spirit, and crucified and slain only by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Galatians 2:20; 5:24.)
NO HOPE IN MAN
This persistent, perverse, unholy disposition in “the natural man” does not change itself. Refinement will not change it. Education will not change it. “Evolution” will not change it. Civilization will not change it. The repressive laws of human government will not change it. Changes in the structure of human government will not change it. It is ever the same. The fruit is like the tree, and the tree is vile. Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles.
The perfidious hearts and lives of a rebellious race can no more be changed by human means than an Ethiopian can change his skin or a leopard his spots. The only way a change can be brought about is by their being “created [anew] in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Ephesians 2:10.
WE LONG FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
It would he easier for the child of God who understands by the prophetic Word the outcome of all human efforts toward bringing in lasting peace, to refrain from speaking just now. One who loves his fellow men can but sympathize with their ardent hopes for a permanent cessation of the turmoil of the world. We long for peace and justice to he permanently established in this world as ardently as those who look for this to he accomplished by human means. Our minds leap eagerly and gladly forward to that time when the earth shall be forever purged of war and hatred.
We sympathize with the men of large hearts and broad minds who stand as sponsors for every agency that makes for peace, and who are laboring unselfishly in the interests of their fellow men. We join them in their earnest longings for stability and quietness in the earth. We hope their efforts may result in complete cessation of war-provoking strife, during which the work of God among men may be carried forward to its conclusion. We sincerely hope they may be able to bring about some lull in the storm of conflicting interests and ambitions so that His church may be afforded opportunity to finish His work.
We therefore pray that God will use their efforts to restrain the wrath of men until His work shall be accomplished; and we pray for the men themselves, that their yearnings for peace may be realized by the Spirit of God opening their hearts to receive as their Lord and King the Prince of Peace Himself.
It may be that a great “peace and safety” announcement will be made, mankind boasting that he has at last found a way to universal and enduring peace. It is the disappointment sure to follow this false hope that we would guard against by directing attention to the true hope of the world, the only hope of abiding peace on this planet-the coming of the Son of God in the clouds of glory to end the reign of sin.
THE TRUE HOPE OF THE WORLD
It is for the purpose of directing attention to the true and only hope of mankind, the second coming of Christ, that we point out the certain failure of every human effort to save the world. Indeed, our attention is directed by the Lord Himself to the inability of leagues and courts and federations to cope successfully with the situation. He says:
“Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Isaiah 8:12.
And again we read:
“Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us!” Isaiah 8:9, 10.
In this very time, when the hopes of men are centered in human associations and federations, the Lord not only calls them away from these great combinations of human strength, but He invites them to Himself, saying:
“Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.” Isaiah 8:13.
We would be remiss in the duty laid upon us by the Lord, if, in this time when human society is more broken up and turbulent than ever before, we did not speak frankly.
With the analogies of the past before us, and with the plain, clear teachings of the Word of God revealed to us, and with the warnings of the divine prophecies unfolding to our understanding, we look for continued war, war which will end the history of the race on this planet.http://www.ThreeAngels.com.au
CONTINUED war, continued devastation, is inevitable. The world has not learned its lesson.
The genius of man has been turned as never before to inventing and discovering means of destruction. In the laboratories of the world today men are studying new ways of killing other human beings, killing them wholesale, killing them by whole nations.
And new developments are startlingly rapid. Old implements of warfare have been improved. Airplanes were used in the first World War, but the progress of aviation since then has entirely changed the picture of combat and defense. Dive bombers, pursuit planes capable of almost incredible speeds, multiple machine guns and armament for planes, tanks of unheard-of proportions and numbers, new explosives of tremendous power, and now the atomic bomb, together with manufacturing ability and machinery to turn out engines of destruction in almost unlimited quantities-all have changed the aspects of modern warfare and greatly increased man’s powers of destruction.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY AFTER WAR
War has cost hundreds of billions of dollars. If to this is added the indirect cost, such as property destruction, loss of production, and the money value of human lives, we have a total that staggers the imagination. We have not yet begun to pay the price. The future has been mortgaged beyond the possibility of payment. Civilization is bankrupting itself. Economic ‘recovery is impossible.
THE RAGING OF THE FIERCER PASSIONS
The spirit of restlessness, lawlessness, and anarchy is not limited to one country, but is spreading throughout the world. The impulse to cast off the restraints that law and order have placed on the lower passions of man, has taken possession of myriads everywhere. The terrible calamities, destructions, and desolations which wait upon the footsteps of the demon of lawlessness, seem powerless to deter men in their maddened course. The fiercer passions which rage in the natural human heart are being given free rein and are driving men everywhere into a terrible abyss. The Spirit of God is apparently being withdrawn from the earth, and man is being left alone with all the evil passions of his nature, with no power to restrain them, and these are breaking out in the most barbarous excesses.
We see in this the ominous forecast of that fearful period just before us, when God’s Spirit will no longer strive with men and the door of mercy will be closed. We stand amid the shadows of the events which will close human history. We stand amid preparations for the final conflict. We stand upon the verge of that time of trouble such as never was.
There is a headlong rashness that is becoming more and more a characteristic of our times. Everything moves forward in startling haste. Prudence, wisdom, and caution are brushed aside as of little account, and this characteristic which is so rapidly developing the spirit of headlong, disorderly haste, of constant restlessness, of feverish rashness, is marked in the Bible as one of the signs of the last days. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be . . . heady.” 2 Timothy 3:14
UNBELIEF NEVER MORE IMPUDENT AND DEFIANT
In the past the people of the earth have, to a greater or lesser extent, feared the Lord. They have not been altogether atheistic. The denunciations of His messengers have caused them to tremble. When the streets of Nineveh rang with the cry, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” none was so hardened as to treat that message with contempt. There have been other times when faith in God was weak, but unbelief was never more impudent and defiant than it is now.
Today there is a widespread absence of faith in the existence, the providence, and the government of God. Whole nations deny His existence, Large numbers in other countries profess no allegiance to Him. Men’s ears have become dull of hearing; their hearts have waxed gross. Their stolid hearts have passed beyond the feeling of alarm, so entrenched and fortified are they in unbelief and carelessness. There are multitudes who are practically atheists. God is not in all their thoughts. The exploded superstitions of a past age have been replaced, not by faith, but by a false science, which has become the gospel of the faithless; http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auand by nature, which has become the god of the ungodly.
DRIVING TOWARD AN ENSNARING DELUSION
Certainly it seems as if the world is driving toward some dark, dire, devilish deception, a deception that naturally awaits those who receive not the love of the truth, that they may be saved. Throwing away their only safeguard when they reject the truth, they are given up to embracing strong delusions as a punishment for their unbelief.
Such a manifestation of atheistic apostasy is foreshadowed in the Bible prophecies.
“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 receive 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 a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness!” 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12.
And the eager acceptance of the “signs and lying wonders” of the present time by those who have rejected the truth (their unbelief of the truth being paralleled only by their credulous acceptance of the falsehoods of seducing spirits) indicates that the ensnaring delusion predicted in the Bible is even now entrapping its earlier victims. It may don new disguises and take on new shapes from day to day, but it is certain before long to combine its various manifestations in one mighty denial of the truth, of the Word, and of the authority of God-hissing out its defiance in God’s very face and belching forth its blasphemies before His very throne. It will yet meet its answer in that devastating storm of fire which will destroy the ungodly and cleanse the world.
SCOFFERS LUSTFUL, CONTEMPTUOUS, CARELESS
Peter gives us another sign of the last days when he writes:
“There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:3-7.
There are scoffers today who are polite, learned, wise, and contemptuous; scoffers who sneer and deride and mock; scoffers who are careless and presumptuous, as well as “scoffers walking after their own lusts,” giving free rein to all their passions; scoffers with the blear of lust in their eyes and the smell of alcohol on their breath, walking in rioting, debauchery, and sin; and in this fact, made so prominent in the atheism of today, we see the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
It seems plain, with all these elements of conflict mixing themselves into a flame, that we cannot be far from the Armageddon of the Apocalypse.
ARMAGEDDON spells doom to a world in revolt against God. It is the destruction of every system of human government, the collapse of every human structure and institution. It is the inevitable outcome of man’s rebellion against his Maker.
The restless tumult which today is shaking the world is only the logical fruitage of the ceaseless horror of war, commotion, and strife, out of which, for centuries past, nations have arisen, survived during a more or less brief existence, and passed away, only to give place to others.
From the beginning there has been no stability in the world. Human projects have failed, human hopes have proved phantoms, human promises have turned out falsehoods. All that wisdom, genius, education, civilization, and philanthropy have accomplished still leaves the whole head sick and the whole heart faint. And the ten thousand human panaceas have brought no relief.
CIVILIZATION APPROACHES ITS END
And now civilization approaches its end, and we do well to inquire into the real causes of its dissolution. The men who think, those who are serious-minded, have long pondered this question in their hearts. What is the trouble with the earth, and with the race upon it? Why this age-long conflict, this long-continued struggle? Why this never-ending tumult and confusion, which, after six thousand years of storm and tempest, still gives no promise of calm, but merely presages an even more terrible hurricane of destruction?
Reason can give us no satisfactory answer to this old, old question. Philosophy, too, is helpless here. History gives no proper solution to the problem. The real causes they miss, and their glance at the difficulties of the case are but superficial. The web which surrounds the events of human history can be unraveled only by an Omniscient Mind. The secret cause of the world’s difficulties can be set forth only by “the Oracles of God.”
And God has told us the cause. His Word affords an answer to these perplexing questions. And that answer is as true as it is brief: “The Lord hath a controversy with the nations.” Jeremiah 25:31.
This fact alone will explain the history of the past, the events of the present, and will cast great light upon those events which are yet hidden in the womb of the future. To comprehend the mystery of the past political condition and the future destiny of the world without an acceptance of this statement as fact, is impossible.
And we are not left to vague conjecture and speculation regarding the reason for this controversy. It is a controversy between right and wrong.
“The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood!” Hosea 4:1, 2.
THE CAUSE OF ALL WOE
Sin, then, is the cause of the controversy between God and man. The transgression which first interrupted the harmony existing between Creator and creature, brought a curse upon this rebellious province of the divine dominions. Nevertheless, God has permitted sin to continue, that all might see its fruit. It has been the cause of all the woe, strife, unrest. war, and death, both of nations and of men; and it will finally overwhelm the world.
Man rebelled against God and broke His law. God held men amenable to the rule of right, and they would not yield obedience. They forsook their allegiance to the King of heaven. His high authority they set at naught. Hence He has a controversy with man. Sin is the cause of it. Sin made this breach, and ever since has been widening it. Sin, which is the transgression of God’s holy law, separated man from God, and caused man to lift up his puny hand against his Maker.
And from the beginning until now, as a result of sin, the nations have sat in darkness, not because it was necessary, but because they willed it so. Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light. Not only individuals but nations have been rebellious. Beneath the “glory of nations” there is shame and crime. Throughout all history iniquity has been established by law. The blood of murdered innocence has cried out; blood has been in all their palaces of pride and power; there have been the gain of wrongdoing, the wages of oppression, the hire of sin, and the price of blood. The cry of oppression has ascended to God through the centuries. There is not a nation in all history that can stand justified before God.
As a result of sin, commotions rock the world today; turmoil reigns everywhere; black clouds hang with evil presage on all earth’s political horizons. Mutual hatred embitters the relations of nations with each other. Self -destructive infatuation pervades the councils of the mighty; feverish restlessness permeates the world. Men’s fairest schemes result in failure.
There is “distress of nations, with perplexity”; “men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” The nations are heaving in restless fury, like the roaring of the sea in a great storm.
A WORLD AT WAR WITH GOD
And the reason for it all is that the world is at war with God. It is at war with His truth, His holiness, His justice, His people, His purposes, and His law. It is this that poisons all earth’s banquets, that http://www.ThreeAngels.com.audislocates its machinery, that stains its pride. And it is this that will eventually, and before very long, utterly wreck the world. Yes, wreck the world. Utter ruin lies in the near future. Let no mistake be made here. God Himself has spoken concerning the destiny of the earth, and what He has said bears on this question of Armageddon.
God used the prophet Jeremiah, who in his youth had been set “over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, to build, and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10), to inform us of the outcome of the Lord’s controversy with the nations. Anciently it was the custom of the king to inflict the death penalty on criminal characters by a cup of poison; and in speaking of God’s dealing with the nations, the prophet uses the same figure.
“Thus said the Lord God of Israel unto me: Take the wine cup of this fury at My hand, and cause all nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took 1 the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me!’ Jeremiah 25:15-17.
The prophet then enumerates by name the nations of that time who are treated as guilty criminals, deserving of God’s wrath. Then his vision widens and covers unknown nations and empires of the future until it involves the whole earth. He says:
“All the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: Therefore shall thou say unto them, Thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which 1 will send among you. You shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, said the Lord of hosts. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall mightily roar upon His habitation; He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword, said the Lord. Thus said the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.” Jeremiah 25:26-33.
FEARFUL MALEDICTION HURLED AT THE NATIONS
Thi4 prophecy covers the record of the controversy between God and man, fore written by Jeremiah. The judgments of God which began upon Jerusalem and Israel and the surrounding nations because of their rejection of His authority and truth, were to overspread all the earth. The nations named, upon which the wrath of God was pronounced, have disappeared, but the prophet did not stop with them. He takes God’s fearful malediction and hurls it down to the very end of time, fastening it upon “all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth.” The noise of this conflict is to “come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations.”
The “great whirlwind,” the great tempest of the wrath of God, will bring ruin to all the earth. As a result of it, the earth, from end to end, will he strewn with the slain of the Lord, ungathered, unlamented, unburied. God’s wrath will “fall grievously upon the head of the wicked,” and this work of desolation will take place “in the latter days.” Jeremiah 23: 19, 20.
In this manner the Lord will close His controversy with the nations. In this manner He will confound His adversaries. In this manner He will condemn the world with an overthrow. This will be Armageddon. When the nations of the earth unite against God, against His people, against His truth, against His law, and “make war with the Lamb,” then “the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings.” Revelation 17:14.
ARMAGEDDON is not merely the war which will close the history of the human race; it is also the place where this war will be fought.
“Armageddon” means literally the mountain, or hill, of Megiddo. It is on the border of a vast, triangular plain in the northern part of Palestine, about sixty miles north of Jerusalem. Megiddo has given http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auits name to the adjacent territory. The plain is bounded on the west by the range of mountains terminating in Mount Carmel; on the northeast by Mount Tabor; and on the southeast by Mount Gilboa. The area enclosed by these mountain ranges has probably seen more fighting than any other similar area on the surface of the earth. It is doubtful that any other equal area is so blood-drenched as this.
This triangular plain is sometimes spoken of in the Bible as “the valley of Jezreel.” Hosea 1:5. It is the plain shown on Bible maps as “the plain of Esdraelon.” It became, indeed, a “valley of slaughter,” and because of battles which settled the destinies of nations, it came to be known as “the valley of decision.” Joel 3:14.
So much slaughter took place in this valley that it became the synonym for mourning.
“In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.” Zechariah 12:11.
A PREDESTINED PLACE OF BLOOD AND STRIFE
The valley is the center of many events closely connected with the history of Israel. The Encyclopedia Americana speaks of it as “the great battlefield where occurred the chief conflicts between the Israelites and their enemies.” It was the military key of Syria, commanding the highway which ran northward into Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, as well as the road which ran across Galilee to Damascus and the rich valley of the Euphrates. George Cormack, in his Egypt in Asia, page 83, says:
“The vale of the Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevitable battlefields. Through all history they retained that qualification; there many of the great contests of southwestern Asia have been decided. It was regarded as a predestined place of blood and strife.”
This spot witnessed one of the greatest triumphs of Israel when Joshua drove the heathen nations out of Canaan, when “fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo.” Judges 5:19.
It was in this valley that the slaughter of the Canaanites under Sisera took place, when they were overthrown by Barak and Deborah. (Judges 4.) It was here that Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, slew Sisera, the enemy of God’s people (Judges 4:21), and became one of the great heroines of Israel, noted in song and story as “blessed above women.” judges 5:24.
It was just on the eastern edge of this valley, at Endor, that King Saul sought counsel of a witch, which act resulted in his death in the great battle with the Philistines, which also took place in the valley, at Mount Gilboa, Jonathan perishing with his father, together with hosts of other Israelites. (1 Samuel 31:1-7.
It was also here that Josiah, the king of Israel, was slain, and his army overthrown, in the warfare with Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt. (2 Kings 23:29, 30.)
Here, too, it was that Elijah slaughtered the prophets of 13aal in that great test between the true God and the false gods. (1 Kings 18.)
It was on the edge of this valley, overlooking this place so rich in historical associations, that Jesus grew to manhood, at Nazareth. Close by He performed His first miracle, at Cana. Not far away He delivered the sermon on the mount, announcing the principles on which His kingdom is founded.
And here the armies of earth are, before long, to fight the battle which will close the history of this warring world of man against man, of race against race, of nation against nation, of class against class, of religion against religion, of man against God.
THE downfall of the Turkish power will be the signal for the beginning of Armageddon. This is plainly foreseen, and definitely stated, in the prophecies of Revelation.
But before dealing with this and the factors in the present situation in the Near East, 1 desire to sketch with rapid strokes some of the history of Turkey. The present situation as it fulfills prophecy cannot be appreciated without a brief and broad survey of the historical background.
In the territory controlled and occupied by Turkey we have a contact between the East and the West, between the Orient and the Occident. This contact dates back, at this particular point, four or five centuries before Christ, and has always been prolific of trouble.
The first world empires, Babylon and Medo-Persia, were Eastern empires. Western ideas were introduced in the East for the first time by Greece, the third world empire. Rome also extended her rule into Asia. With the Roman Empire the authority of the West was extended over the East clear to the valley of http://www.ThreeAngels.com.authe upper Euphrates. To that authority the peoples of what we now call the Near East submitted.
In the West, Latin Christianity was organizing its forces and strengthening itself by alliances with civil rulers. In the East the Greek Church was developing similarly, though in a more quiet and less aggressive manner. But the natural conservatism of the Orient was to be broken by the advent of a new religion. In the seventh century Mohammed, uniting spiritual and political power, and claiming enlightenment and authority from heaven, not only launched a new faith, but put a sword into the hands of the East for its dissemination, with the result that there was a terrible upheaval, affecting both East and West.
TRIUMPH OF THE CRESCENT OVER THE CROSS
By the power of that sword Mohammedanism made a drive into India. It overwhelmed the churches of Northern Africa in the persons of the Saracens, or Arabs, and obtained a foothold even in Europe, as a result of its drive into Spain. Then the tide ebbed. But later, the Turks, superseding the Arabs, drove again toward Europe, overrunning Asia Minor, and then brought terror to all Christendom by subjugating the Balkan Peninsula, capturing Constantinople in 1453, and in 1529 besieging Vienna. That was the astonishing phase of the contest between the crescent and the cross, of which this generation is destined to witness the final conflict.
Mohammedanism, as an engine of good government, has failed everywhere. Its civil rule has been neither good nor stable. All history testifies to this. Its Mogul empire in India collapsed. The Moors were driven out of Spain. The entire group of Moslem states in North Africa-Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt-have been forced to accept Western supervision in order to save themselves from anarchic decay. The Ottoman authority broke down, slowly but surely, in the Balkans and the Near East. One by one Turkey lost control of Moldavia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Rumelia, Bosnia, Walachia, Rumania, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Albania, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Palestine, and Syria. For more than a century the world has witnessed the second ebbing of the Islamic tide.
The Turk can conquer, but he cannot educate or govern according to Western standards. Along the lines suggested he has little to offer that would inspire confidence. The fact that the religion of the Turks has always been propagated by the sword forbids any hope of peace between the cross and the crescent. In short, the Near East is the point of contact between antagonistic civilizations, and in this contact there is no assurance of peace.
THE QUARRELS AND DIVISIONS OF CHRISTENDOM
From the beginning of its history one of the chief sources of the strength of Islam has been found in the quarrels and divisions of Christendom. Constantinople was captured by the Turks in 1453 mainly because the Moslems were banded together in theological unity, while their enemies were wrangling over a theological trinity. Outside the city the army of the infidel was one; inside, the armies of the orthodox were several. It has been on such differences, sometimes religious, sometimes political, that the Turk has relied for centuries.
Three centuries ago, after a disastrous war, when the terms of peace were being discussed at the Sublime Porte, the reigning sultan, with the co-operation and approval of the sheikh ul Islam, ordered the following prayer to be recited at every sunset in every mosque in all parts of the Ottoman Empire:
“May the Angel of Discord, who has always been our ally, come again to our aid, and confound our enemies.”
France and Britain rule over Mohammedan populations -Great Britain over one hundred million Moslems. The number of Moslems in the world is at least two hundred million. They are a solid unit in religion, holding a common faith, and their Christian rulers deal with them very gently and warily.
Until the time when Turkey established a republic, there had not been a day for the last three quarters of a century when Turkey as a political entity could not easily have been destroyed. During that time the Ottoman Empire had not existed by its own strength, but wholly by the sufferance and deliberate choice of the great powers of Europe.
The condition of Turkey before the rise of the republic under Kernal Pasha was accurately stated in a pamphlet issued by the Armenian Society of London.
“It is impossible to talk of the Ottoman Empire as if it were a nation like the United States or like Holland. It is an artificial creation of treaties that is kept in existence by the powers for their own http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auconvenience.”
A SCRAMBLE FOR OTTOMAN TERRITORY
While it would have been an easy matter to eliminate Turkey altogether as a civil state, the powers kept it in existence in order to avoid war among themselves. Because of the desire of every great nation for the acquisition of Turkish territory, and the danger that the disruption of Turkish power would result in an appalling scramble for its assets, the nations have dealt most carefully with the Turkish, or Eastern, Question. This continued for three quarters of a century, and is frankly admitted by statesmen.
Lord Salisbury, when prime minister of England, in his Mansion House speech, November 9, 1895, said:
“Turkey is in the remarkable Position that it has now stood for half a century, mainly because the great powers have resolved that for the peace of Christendom it is necessary that the Ottoman Empire should stand. They came to that conclusion nearly half a century ago. I do not think they have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman Empire fell, would not merely be the danger that would threaten the territories of which that empire consists; it would be the danger that the fire there lit should spread to other nations, and should involve all that is most powerful and civilized in Europe in a dangerous and calamitous contest. That was a danger that was present to the minds of our fathers when they resolved to make the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire a matter of European treaty, and that is a danger which has not passed away.”
THE COMPLICATED EASTERN QUESTION
Mohammedanism still numbers its adherents by millions. India and other lands of the East still have a large Moslem population. But Mohammedanism’s political head has been crushed. Not only has Turkey’s territory gradually been dried up, but she has renounced the caliphate, lost her sultan, and become a republic. Of late years she has made Angora her capital, in place d the historic Constantinople. Today she occupies but a tithe of the territory she held in the heyday of her power.
What would happen if Turkey should lose her national existence altogether? Would such a change bring an uprising of the Mohammedan world? Would it be the signal for a clash of the East against the West? Would this be the tinderbox which would start the world conflagration? Would it be the “Sarajevo” which would precipitate the avalanche? We turn to Bible prophecy for an answer, sensing meanwhile that the alarming complications in Europe and Asia bode no good for the world.
The world stands trembling for fear that any attempted solution of the Eastern Question and of other vexing problems may result in a war which will sweep civilization into the discard. And the Scriptures reveal that when Armageddon comes it will be at the very end of the world, under the sounding of the seventh angel (Revelation 11:15), when Jesus Christ is about to return in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
When the time comes for the sounding of the seventh trumpet and the end of the world, God’s mercy is past, and His wrath is poured out upon the last generation of human beings, who have rejected all the accumulated light of His revealed Word. Concerning what happens then, we read:
“I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And 1 saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest.”
“And after that 1 looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled!” Revelation 15. http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auThis striking scripture is but an introduction to the most terrible judgments of God that ever have been, or ever will be, visited upon this earth, the seven last plagues. It should be noted that during the pouring out of these plagues no one can enter the temple of God. This means that when the plagues begin to fall, probation is past.
THE SIXTH PLAGUE
The most severe trouble, woe, and distress which ever have been, or ever will be, on the earth, will come under these plagues. They are the seven last plagues. The sixth plague is the last event to take place before the second coming of our Lord. Of this we read:
“The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the cast might be prepared. 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 devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Revelation 16:12-16.
Rotherham translates this passage as follows:
“The sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river the Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be prepared of the kings who were from the rising of the sun. For they are spirits of demons doing signs, which are to go forth unto the kings of the whole habitable earth to gather them together unto the battle of the great day of God the Almighty. And he gathered them together unto the place that is called in Hebrew Har Magedon.”
Sawyer renders the passage thus:
“The sixth poured out his bowl on the river, the great Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way of the kings from the East might be prepared. For [these] are spirits of demons that perform miracles, that go to the kings of all the world, to assemble them for the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And they assembled them in the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.”
The “Emphatic Diaglott has this translation:
“The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way of those kings who are from the sun rising might be prepared. For they are spirits of demons, working signs, which go forth to the kings of the whole habitable, to gather them together for the war of that great day of the omnipotent God.... And he gathered them together into that place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon.”
Fenton translates the passage thus:
“Then the sixth emptied his vial upon the mighty river Euphrates: and its water was dried up, so that a road might be prepared for the kings from the rising sun. For they are spirits of demons-producing signs which they cause to be sent out to the kings of the whole habitable world, to muster them for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty! They accordingly muster them to the place which in Hebrew is named Har-Megeddon.”
Moffatt renders the passage:
“The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its waters were dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east. Demon spirits performing miracles, who come out to muster the kings of the whole world for battle on the great day of almighty God. And they were mustered at the spot called (in Hebrew) Harmagedon.”
Weymouth translates the passage:
“The sixth angel poured his bowl into that great river, the Euphrates; and its stream was dried up in order to clear the way for the kings who are to come from the East. For they are the spirits of demons working marvels-spirits that go out to control the kings of the whole earth, to assemble them for the battle which is to take place on the great day of God, the Ruler of all. And assemble them they did at the place called in Hebrew ‘Har-Magedon.”‘
Ballantine, in his “Riverside New Testament,” renders the passage:
“The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to make a road ready for the kings from the sun rising. They are the spirits of demons who work miracles, and they go forth to the kings of the whole habitable world to gather them for the battle of the great day of God http://www.ThreeAngels.com.authe Almighty. The spirits gathered them to the place called in Hebrew Har-Magedon.”
Goodspeed translates the passage:
“The sixth emptied his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its waters dried up to make the way ready for the kings from the East. They are demon spirits that perform wonders, and they go out to the kings all over the world to muster them for battle on the great day of God Almighty. So they mustered the kings at the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.”
Under the sixth plague the river Euphrates is to be dried up. And this is to be done “so that a road might be prepared for the kings of the rising sun.”
THE DRYING UP OF THE EUPHRATES
This certainly cannot refer to the literal drying up of the waters of the literal river. This river flows down from the mountains of Armenia into the Persian Gulf. It has been flowing at least ever since the Flood. And during all this time it has been crossed and recrossed by mighty armies, even when it was at the flood, and no army ever found it necessary to have it dried up in order to cross it. So this language cannot refer to the literal river.
What is meant by the waters of the river, we learn from the following passage, which interprets the symbol.
“He said unto me, The waters which thou saw are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Revelation 17:15.
The water of the river is a symbol of that power which occupies the territory in that part of the earth drained by the river Euphrates. The drying up of the waters of the river would mean the setting aside or the destruction of the power. And that power is Turkey. Turkey, then, according to the Word of God, is to be overthrown and destroyed.
But it may be objected that Turkey now controls only a part of the territory drained by the upper Euphrates. Very true; but a stream can be dried up only by drying up its source. When it was decided to change the direction of the flow of the Chicago River so that instead of emptying into Lake Michigan, its polluted waters should be discharged through the south fork into the Des Plaines River, finally reaching the Mississippi by way of the Illinois River, this was not done by raising the mouth of the Chicago River, but by lowering its source, so that its waters would naturally flow south instead of north. Even so, if the course of the Euphrates is to be changed or its waters are to be dried up, the change must be wrought, not at its mouth, but at its source, still controlled by the Turk.
When the Euphrates is dried up, or, dropping the figure, when Turkey is destroyed, there will he a scramble f or this territory, which will result in general war. This will he the certain result, both in the opinion of world statesmen and also in the teaching of the Bible.
As a result of the downfall of Turkey, “the kings of the earth, and of the whole world,” will he gathered to Armageddon.
Resulting from the downfall of Turkey there will be a repercussion throughout all the East, and a “road” will be “prepared for the kings from the rising sun” to attack the war weakened powers of the West.
They will come up with “the kings of the whole habitable world,” mustered for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
AN INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT
Who are these kings from the rising sun, the “kings of the east”? They are the Asiatic nations lying east of Palestine, the heathen nations, the colored races, constituting more than half
the population of the earth.
Here, then, is outlined the real “yellow peril,” long foreseen and feared by the West. Here, indeed, is “the rising tide of color!”
Armageddon will not be merely an international conflict; it will be interracial and interreligious as well.
In connection with Armageddon there will be the pouring out of the seventh, and final, plague.
“The seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightning; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon http://www.ThreeAngels.com.aucame in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the Plague thereof was exceeding great.” Revelation 16:17-21.
As a result of Armageddon, human governments, as now constituted, will pass out of existence forever. Man, with his works his cities, his kingdoms, his glory, and all his pomp, pageantry, and pride, will be overthrown.
At Armageddon international, interracial, and interreligious strife will give place to that phase of man’s effort to retain the dominion of this earth described in Revelation 19:19 as a contest between the armies of earth and the armies of heaven. The war between nations will be interrupted by the personal, visible return of Jesus Christ in power and great glory, for it is then that He comes to “break” the nations “with a rod of iron,” and “dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Psalms 2:9.
THAT Jesus will come again the second time is one of the plainest teachings of the Bible. No other stands out so clearly as this.
If we take only the testimony of Jesus Himself, who repeated again and again to His disciples the teaching that He would come the second time, we shall have sufficient evidence of the truth of this doctrine.
JESUS PROMISED TO RETURN
Just before His death, for the comfort and encouragement of His disciples, Christ said to them:
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where 1 am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3.
Certainly this is a clear-cut, unequivocal promise, the meaning of which there is no possibility of mistaking. The Master Himself said, “I will come again.”
To the unbelieving Pharisees and scribes, just before His betrayal, He said:
“You shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!’ Matthew 23:39.
When instructing His disciples, in answer to their question, “What shall he the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3) Jesus said:
“Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory!” Matthew 24:30.
And to His disciples again He said:
“The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels!” Matthew 16:27.
When adjured by the high priest at His trial, Jesus answered:
“Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven!” Matthew 26:64.
Finally, in the last chapter of the Bible, this same Jesus repeats three times to His servant John this truth of His second coming. “Behold, I come quickly”; “And, behold, I come quickly”; “Surely I come quickly.” Revelation 22:7, 12, 20.
This uniform testimony of the Savior is enough to create conviction in every heart that accepts Him as its guide and teacher. There is no doubt here. Jesus is coming again.
THE PURPOSE OF HIS COMING
The purpose of the coming of Christ the second time is set forth in the Bible just as clearly as the fact of His coming. He is coming to receive His people unto Himself.
“I go to prepare a place for you. And if 1 go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:2, 3. http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auHis people will be gathered together by His angels when He comes.
“He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:31.
At the time when Jesus comes, most of His people will be sleeping in death. And therefore one of the primary purposes of the coming of Christ is to awake the sleeping saints and give them an immortal existence.
“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
Some of the people of God, however, will be alive at this time, not having tasted death. These will be united with those who have been raised from the dead, and both classes will be caught up together to be with Jesus.
“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
When this takes place, both classes will be changed from their mortal, corruptible state and given a glorious immortality.
“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-53.
TO JUDGE THE WORLD
Another purpose for which Christ will come the second time will be to judge the world.
“For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.*’ Psalms 96:13.
Paul makes it very clear that the judgment of the living and the dead will take place at the second coming of Christ.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word.” 2 Timothy 4:1, 2.
It was at this time also that Paul expected to get his reward for faithfulness. He says again:
“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing!” 2 Timothy 4:8.
It is at the time of the second advent of Christ that the great and final separation of the righteous and the wicked takes place.
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” Matthew 25:31, 32.
At this judgment every man will be rewarded in exact accordance with his works. Rewards and punishments will be apportioned to the righteous and the wicked.
“The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” Matthew 16:27.
THE SALVATION OF HIS PEOPLE
The second coming of Christ is also for the purpose of bringing complete salvation to His people-salvation from death and the grave forever.
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28.
Of this glorious time we read:
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the Lord bath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation!” Isaiah 25:8, 9.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WICKED
Another purpose for which the Lord will come the second time will be to destroy from the earth the wicked, those who have rejected His mercy and His truth.
“The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8.
Concerning this same punishment, we read:
“With righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked!” Isaiah 11:4.
John writes of this destruction of the wicked at the coming of Christ as follows:
“The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou should give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.” Revelation 11:18.
THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS
Another great purpose of God in the second coming of Christ is the restoration of all things which have been lost through the introduction of sin into this world.
“He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:20, 21.
Jesus will come as King of kings and Lord of lords, to reign forever and ever.
“I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.” “He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11, 16.
TO ESTABLISH AN ETERNAL KINGDOM
The kingdom over which He will rule will be an everlasting kingdom.
“In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and it shall stand forever.” Daniel 2:44.
“There was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Daniel 7:14.
“The Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever.” Micah 4:7. “Of His kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:33.
And to this kingdom the people of God shall be joint heirs with Christ, and the coming of Christ will assure to His people the kingdom which has been promised the faithful.
“The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the People of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him!” Daniel 7:27.
“Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 25:34.
“And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation
5:10.
THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING
In order to prepare the people on the earth for His coming, that this great and glorious event may not come upon them unawares, the Lord has set forth in His Word many signs which show the nearness of this event.
The unparalleled running to and fro, the remarkable increase in knowledge, the striking activity in invention-all were foretold in the prophecies.
“Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12:4.
The world-wide distress of nations and the fears that strike into the hearts of the human race when they look into the future were also given as signs of the coming of Christ.
“There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Luke 21: 25, 26.
The trouble which is brewing and constantly breaking out between capital and labor is also foretold as a sign of the times.
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.” James 5:1-3.
The condition of the religious world, its love of self, its boasting, its pride, its blasphemy, its disobedience, its ingratitude, its lack of holiness, its lack of natural affection,, its truce breaking, its false accusing, its hatred of goodness, its treason, its headstrong recklessness, its haughtiness, its love of pleasure, its formalism and hypocrisy, and the corruption that permeates our entire social fabric-all are pointed out in the Bible.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
THE MANNER OF HIS COMING
The manner of Christ’s coming is also set forth with great plainness in the Scriptures. His coming is to be literal. He is actually to appear in the sight of men. This is made very plain.
“Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation!” Hebrews 9:28.
“Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13.
“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear.” Colossians 3:4.
“When the Chief Shepherd shall appear.” 1 Peter 5:4.
“And now, little children, abide in Him, that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence.” 1 John 2:28.
“We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him.” 1 John 32.
“Might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:7.
“Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Timothy 6:14.
“Who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.” 2 Timothy 4:1.
“They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 24:30.
That the coming of Christ will be witnessed by the entire world is also made plain.
“Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him.” Revelation 1:7.
The second coming of Christ will be accompanied by such a demonstration of power and glory that nothing in all the annals of history will compare with it.
“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
“As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:27.
“They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Matthew 24:30.
“He shall come in His own glory, and His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” Luke 9:26.
A PERSONAL COMING
The second coming of Christ will be a personal coming. He Himself will actually return. “While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auwhite apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10, 11.
“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
“He’s coming once again,
To set His people free;
There where He is, in glory bright,
His saints may also be.
Then lift the drooping head,
Look up, rejoice, and sing;
He comes, in majesty sublime,
Salvation’s glorious King.”
THE second coming of Christ is the event which ushers in the millennium. The millennium is not, as so many suppose, a thousand years of glory and peace on earth. It is not an age of progress. It does not result from the conversion of the whole world; nor will the world be converted during that period. Neither Christ nor His people will be on earth during the thousand years. That period does not offer a second probation to any.
On the contrary, it will be an age of darkness and gloom. It will be a period when death reigns over all the earth. The day of salvation will then have ended; the day of the Lord will have begun. And of this day of the Lord, or the millennium, we read:
“Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?” Amos 5:18-20.
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My Holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.” Joel 2:1, 2.
THE BINDING OF SATAN
During the thousand-year period, the millennium, Satan will be bound in some place called “the bottomless pit.” Here it is impossible for him to carry on his work of deception. Here he receives a partial punishment for his career of evil.
“I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and 1 saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands: and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection!’ Revelation 20:1-5.
The fact that Satan is bound during the millennium has led many to conclude that this period will be a very happy, glorious time of peace among the nations, that all the nations will he converted to the gospel, and as a result will disband their armies, dismantle their navies, and learn war no more. This theory has been taught so long that it has come to be widely believed, but it has absolutely no foundation in the Scriptures.
THE WORLD WILL NOT BE CONVERTED
The Bible nowhere teaches that the whole world will he converted. In the parable of the wheat and tares, recorded in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, it is made very plain that both the righteous and the wicked are to “grow together” until the “harvest,” which is explained to be “the end of the world.” At the end of the world, instead of the wicked all being converted, they are to be cast into a furnace of fire, where there will be “wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Instead of the world’s growing better and better, as the exponents of the world-conversion theory teach, we are plainly told in the Bible that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:13.
In describing the days immediately preceding His second coming, Jesus declared:
“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17:26-30.
A picture of the days just before the second coming of Christ, then, may be had by a study of the character of the times just before the Flood, and before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Concerning these conditions, we read:
“God saw that the wickedness of man was great in all the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5.
THE ORDER OF MILLENNIAL EVENTS
The order of the events that open and close the millennium is plainly set forth in the teachings of the Bible. It is to begin, as we have seen, with the second coming of Christ. At this time there will be four classes of people on the earth; namely, the righteous dead, the righteous living, the wicked dead, and the wicked living. The Bible makes it plain what will become of each class,
At the coming of Christ all the righteous dead will be raised from their graves and will he taken to heaven with the righteous living, who are to be translated.
“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
The righteous dead, then, together with the righteous living, will be caught up to meet the Lord on the cloud. They will not remain in the air, as some teach, but will go with the Lord to heaven.
“In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, 1 would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 142, 3,
In heaven they remain during the thousand years of the millennium.
“They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4.
It is plain from this that the righteous are not on earth but in heaven during the thousand years of the millennium.
The wicked dead are not raised at the second coming of Christ. They are left unmolested in their tombs. Their sleep is not broken at this time; for-
“The rest of the dead [the wicked] lived not again until the thousand years were finished!’ Revelation 20:5.
THE TWO RESURRECTIONS
There are two resurrections-a resurrection of the righteous at the second coming of Christ, and a resurrection of the wicked one thousand years later, at the close of the millennium. Thus the millennium opens with a resurrection and closes with a resurrection.
The living wicked will perish at the second coming of Christ, and will remain dead until the second resurrection, at the close of the millennium. It is to the wicked living at the coming of Christ that the apostle refers in 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8.
http://www.ThreeAngels.com.au“You who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!”
From this plain teaching of the Bible we see clearly what becomes of the four classes on the earth at the second coming of Christ. The righteous dead will be raised, the righteous living will be translated, and together these two classes will be taken to heaven to live and reign with Christ for a thousand years; the wicked dead will be left in their tombs, the wicked living will all be brought to death, and together these two classes will remain in the prison house of death until the close of the millennium.
DURING the millennium the world will be in a completely ruined, wrecked, and depopulated condition. It is Armageddon which will begin the slaughter that is to be as wide as the world. Armageddon is not only the self-destruction of a world in rebellion against God, but it is the forerunner of the final overthrow that shall befall all the wicked forces of earth, a ruin from which there shall be no recovery, no return.
There could not, in the very nature of things, be any other issue than this to the great controversy between God and a world in revolt. True, the human race might lay down its arms, and cease to fight against God, and thus bring an end to the rebellion; but so long as the race persists in its warfare, it can look forward to no other end than complete destruction.
For the controversy is one between right and wrong, between good and evil, and there can be no other issue to it, as far as men are concerned, except voluntarily giving up the wrong or perishing with it. In a warfare between a just and almighty Creator and His frail and rebellious creatures, between a righteous and omnipotent Ruler and His puny and revolted subjects, there can be but one end. Rebellious men must go down in death, while God triumphs. Wrong must be defeated by right.
SIN MUST BE ANNIHILATED
On the part of Jehovah the controversy is a just and righteous one. And being such, it admits of no compromise of the eternal principles of righteousness to the willfulness of fallen and misguided man. Nor can God be indifferent to man’s sin, or neglect it, or overlook it. This would be but to perpetuate wrong. No, the cause of the controversy must be rooted up, the thing which caused the separation between man and God must be destroyed. Sin must be annihilated. Before the controversy can ever end, its cause must be eliminated. There can be no other adjustment.
And therefore, so far as man is concerned, there can he but two ways for the controversy between himself and God to end. Sin is to be destroyed. Man can give it up and return to God, or he can be destroyed with it. Either he must yield to his Creator and return meekly, penitently, and obediently to his allegiance to God; or, refusing to do this and continuing persistently to set aside the divine authority, and rejecting the mercy which has been offered, and despising the grace which has been extended to draw him back, he must finally fall beneath the stroke of that justice which he has outraged, and be destroyed by the execution of those laws which he has transgressed. He must either bow or be broken, yield or he overthrown, for God cannot deny Himself.
It is, as we have seen, at the time of Armageddon that-
“Evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground!’ Jeremiah 25:32, 31
“THERE WAS NO MAN”
It is just after this great visitation of the wrath of God at Armageddon and the second coming of Christ, that the prophet has a view of the earth. He says:
“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. 1 beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. 1 beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auall the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger.” Jeremiah 4:23-26.
A description of the earth during the millennium will be found also in Isaiah:
“Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof!” “The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord bath spoken this word.” Isaiah 24:1, 3.
THE DEATH WARRANT OF A GODLESS RACE
The utter depopulation and ruin of the earth-such is the terrible destiny which hangs over this world. Not since the waters of the Flood overwhelmed the human race has such a terrible and widespread destruction been known to man. In history there has been no fulfillment of this prediction. The war which humanity has been waging against Jehovah has not yet reached its final issue. But the end is hurrying on apace. The wrath of God, like a pall of blackness, hangs over the impenitent world. It is the death warrant of a godless and impious race. Nothing but slaughter as wide as the world can fill in the terrible picture. And when the time has come for God to pronounce judgment-
“Behold the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many!” Isaiah 66:15, 16.
THE FURIOUS TORNADO OF GOD’S WRATH
This great tempest of the wrath of God will break suddenly upon a surprised and unready world. Those who have rejected God’s final offer of mercy, His closing message of the gospel, will be solacing their hearts with the belief that universal and lasting peace has at last been brought about between the nations of the world. Claims will be put forth that man has at last solved the long problems of the ages and created a perfect form of international government. And then-
“When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1
Like a furious tornado will the storm of the wrath of an offended God burst upon those who have despised His mercy. “In the latter days” it shall do its work, falling grievously upon the head of the wicked. (Jeremiah 23:19, 20.) The earth will be strewn from end to end with the bodies of the slain of the Lord, as “dung upon the ground.” (Jeremiah 25:31-33.) The great and mighty, the nobles and princes, are called upon to howl and mourn over their impending ruin.
“Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape!” Jeremiah 25:34, 35.
This is the final doom of the rebellious race.
“Your hand shall find out all Your enemies: Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee. Thou shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shall Thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men!” Psalms 21:8-10.
DASHED IN PIECES LIKE A POTTER’S VESSEL
While the heathen are raging and the people imagining a vain thing, while rulers plot and kings devise impotent devices, then-
“He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: and the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.” “Thou shall break them with a rod of iron; Thou shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Psalms 2:4, 5, 9.
In this manner the long controversy between God and man will close. There is no other prospect than this for a sin-cursed and impenitent race which persists in sin.
The race which obstinately continues its rebellion, and thus makes itself the enemy of God, cannot hope for life. For when Christ shall come to decide the controversy, then “a fire goes before Him, and burned up His enemies round about.” Psalms 97:1
“The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auamong the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries.” Psalms 110:5, 6.
STRUCK WITH DIVINE JUSTICE
Similar to this is the instruction given to Ezekiel. After he beholds the terrible wrath of God poured out upon the nations which then existed, his eye pierces the future to the events of “the latter years.” And there, in connection with the consummation of the great controversy between a rebellious race and its Creator, he sees the countless foes of God marshaling themselves to battle against Jehovah, like the gathering of a great tempest. But he also sees them met with the fearful fury and vengeance of a despised God, who rains upon them “hailstones, fire, and brimstone,” while at the same time He summons all the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth to come and gorge themselves upon the flesh of His enemies, the great and mighty of the earth, who have been struck with divine justice. (Ezekiel 38:3-9, 17-22.)
In the vision of Daniel the kingdoms of the earth are represented by a great image, grand and imposing, the materials of which degenerate in character until from the head of gold we descend, through silver, brass, and iron, to the feet made of a mixture of iron and clay. And then, with a suddenness which takes the world unawares, a great stone, thrown by unseen hands with terrible velocity, strikes the colossal image on its feet, and crushes it all to powder, a powder which is driven and scattered by the whirlwinds and tempests of God’s wrath until not a vestige of it remains, while the stone which overthrows the kingdoms of the world becomes a great mountain which fills all the earth.
THE RESISTLESS MIGHT OF AN OFFENDED GOD
Here is foreshadowed the fact that earth’s kingdoms would degenerate, and the character of the race become so sinful that the resistless might of an offended God would at last smite them, and thus bring about their utter extermination, while their destruction would be followed by a better order of things in the kingdom of God, represented by the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. This stone is to crush every opposing power, and fill the entire earth with its eternal and beneficent influence.
Passing on to the prophecy of Joel, we find him predicting the same events, and the utter overthrow of the enemies of God. All nations are summoned to the conflict. The men of war are bidden to come up. Their plowshares are to be beaten into swords, and their pruning hooks into spears. Both weak and strong are summoned to the valley of Jehoshaphat, to which place Jehovah Himself is to bring down His mighty ones, and sit to judge the nations round about. Then goes forth the command:
“Put you in the sickle, for tile harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.” Joel 3:13.
Multitudes are there in that valley of decision. The skies overhead are clouded with a pall of blackness. The voice of God thunders out of Zion, the heavens and the earth are shaken as by an earthquake’s power, and God’s judgments fall with a fury which exterminates all His puny foes.
Similar allusions will be found in Amos, Obadiah,, and Micah. Zephaniah foretells the time when God shall “rise up to the prey” (Zephaniah 3:8), when the nations are gathered and the kingdoms assembled. And at that time he declares that God will pour out upon them His indignation, even all His fierce anger, and the fire of His jealousy will devour the whole earth.
And the prophet Haggai delivers this message from God:
“I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and 1 will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.” Haggai 2:21, 22.
According to Paul, who comments on this passage, this shaking will he more severe than that on Mount Sinai when the law was given, for that voice then shook only the earth, whereas it will now shake both earth and heaven, removing everything that can be removed, while the things which cannot be shaken and the kingdom that cannot be moved, will abide, and become the eternal heritage of God’s people.
Thus the testimony of inspired men on the point of the destiny of the human race is characterized by unity and harmony. It leads to but one conclusion. The controversy between a revolted race and the Creator will be closed by judgments unparalleled and indescribable in severity.
THE BOTTOMLESS PIT OF SATAN’S CAPTIVITY
From the description which the prophets have given of the condition of the earth during the millennium, we see that it will be a waste, desolate wilderness. There will be no man here. The righteous will be in heaven. The wicked will all be dead. The cities of the earth will be broken down at the presence of the Lord. All the works of man will be destroyed. Darkness will cover the earth. The bodies of the dead will be from one end of the earth to the other end. There will be no one to lament them or bury them.
It is the earth in this condition which is called the “bottomless pit,” into which Satan is cast and bound. The term “bottomless pit” is used in Revelation 9:1, 2, and is there applied to the Arabian Desert, from which issued the hordes of Saracens and Turks which are described in that chapter. The term means any place of darkness, desolation, and death. And when the earth, during the millennium, returns to its original condition of chaos, “without form and void,” it becomes the “bottomless pit” of Satan’s captivity.
THE BINDING OF SATAN
Here, in this desolate earth, with its cities broken down and its whole expanse become a great wilderness, without any of the human race left, Satan will be compelled to stay for one thousand years. He is bound with a great chain. This chain is not a chain of iron or steel or tungsten or brass but a chain of circumstances. He is unable to do anything. He cannot deceive the righteous, for they are in heaven, out of his reach. He cannot deceive the wicked, for they are all dead. There is nothing he can do. By the very circumstances of his position he is bound, and he must of necessity remain bound until some change is brought about either in the condition of the righteous or in that of the wicked.
While this is not Satan’s final punishment, it is a just preliminary to it. It is sin which causes the wreck of the world. It is sin which causes the cities of the earth to be broken down. It is sin that slays the wicked. It is sin that makes the earth a desolate wilderness. All this is the work of Satan. This is the result of the rebellion that he started in heaven and continued upon earth.
And now, during the millennium, he is made to understand what it all means, what its results have been. This ruined world is his handiwork. And for a thousand years he is compelled to view the results of his work. He is compelled to live in the conditions which he himself has brought about. His work of deception has been made impossible. The righteous have at last escaped his grasp and are enjoying the delights of heaven at the court of the King of the universe. The wicked are before him, but they are cold in death.
As 1T was the destruction of the wicked and the translation of the righteous at the second coming of Christ which bound Satan, so the great chain with which he is bound will be broken by the resurrection of the wicked at the close of the thousand years.
The millennium begins with a resurrection and ends with a resurrection. The righteous dead are raised at its beginning, and accompany Christ to heaven. The wicked dead are raised at its close.
“The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection!” Revelation 20:5.
It is plain from this passage that the wicked dead are not raised until the close of the millennium; for if the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished, then when the thousand years are finished, the rest of the dead (the wicked) will live again.
BREAKING SATAN’S BONDAGE
This, then, the resurrection of the wicked, breaks the chain of circumstances with which Satan has been bound during the thousand years, and makes it possible for him again to enter upon the work of deception. The emptying of the earth of all human inhabitants constituted his binding, and now the resurrection of the wicked brings about his release.
The vast hosts of evil angels have been gathered about Satan, and now this great company is joined by the innumerable throng of the wicked.
“The earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” “The earth shall cast out the dead.” Isaiah 26:21, 19.
http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auBishop Lowth renders these words, “The earth shall cast forth as an abortion, the deceased tyrants.”
These are the ones spoken of in Isaiah.
“It stirred up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth.” Isaiah 14:9.
And this is rendered by Bishop Lowth, “He rouses for thee the mighty dead, all the great chiefs of the earth.”
THE WICKED DEAD COME FORTH
Here are included the giants who lived on the earth before the Flood, and who perished with the Flood. During the ages that are past the earth hid her dead. Blood defiled the land, and the pollution of the dead carcasses made it unclean from end to end. But now an end has come to all this. The earth discloses its blood, and no longer covers its slain.
The earth casts out the mighty dead. Every sinner comes forth. Death and the grave deliver up the dead which are in them. The sea delivers up the dead which are in it. The accumulated generations which were in the world “which then was,” and was overthrown with water at the time of the Flood, generations which are now submerged in the bed of the oceans, and all the generations which have gone into their graves since the world was overflowed with water, come forth together to receive their final and eternal punishment.
Many of these who come forth in the second resurrection are skilled in warfare, and they are just as eager as ever to destroy their opponents.
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY CITY
It is at this time that the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, comes down from heaven and rests upon the earth.
1 John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Revelation 212, 3.
That beautiful city, lightened with the glory of God, destined to be the capital of the new earth, settles down upon the place prepared for it, in the sight of the wicked. And in the city are the redeemed of the Lord who have been living and reigning with Him during the millennium.
“In that pure home of tearless joy
Earth’s parted friends shall meet,
With smiles of love that never fade,
And blessedness complete.
There, there adieus are sounds unknown
Death frowns not on that scene;
But life and glorious beauty shine,
Untroubled and serene!”
THE warfare of man against God, which was broken off at the second coming of Christ, when all His enemies perished, will be resumed when the wicked are raised from the dead at the end of the millennium. Their thousand-year sleep in death has not changed their natures in the slightest degree. They went down to their graves in rebellion against God. Their first impulse on awakening from the sleep of death is to continue in the same evil course.
The warfare of the rebellious race begins again just where it was broken off. But now it may be seen in its true light. It is not now confused by a medley of motives, international, interracial, interreligious. It is not a war of race or religion. It is not the colored race against the white, Protestant against Catholic, http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auChristian against heathen.
It appears now in its true colors. It is a rebellion against God. It is sinners against their Maker. It is a revolt of the puny creatures of the earth against the Majesty of heaven. It is Satan against Christ, sin against righteousness, evil against goodness.
SATAN PLANS TO CAPTURE THE NEW JERUSALEM
As Satan sees himself joined by the great host of the wicked, and beholds before him the New Jerusalem containing the righteous and the holy angels with their loved Commander, the Son of God, he determines that he will not yet abandon his struggle for the supremacy of the world. He points out to his angels and the mighty men of the earth that the city appears to be unprotected and would doubtless be unable to resist attack. He leads them to believe that, after all, they may be able, with the assistance of the mighty hosts of the wicked, to surround the city and overthrow the government of God and take possession of the New Jerusalem.
As Satan lays before them this great project, they agree to it, and plans are made to carry it out. The wicked are marshaled in companies and organized for labor and warfare. Armies are formed and drilled. Weapons of warfare are prepared for the great struggle which is to decide the long controversy between Christ and Satan for the control of the universe. Companies, battalions, regiments, and corps are formed and drilled by great leaders in war.
The hosts of evil are all marshaled at last under one banner, that of the prince of demons. This is to be the battle that closes the warfare which began in heaven before the days of Adam and Eve, and which has been the cause of all warfare since. The long controversy between Christ and Satan is about to have an issue.
Satan leads the hosts of the wicked against the city, and they surround it on every side. They are led to hope for success, but instead they meet their eternal destiny in oblivion. What happens then we read:
“When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Revelation 20:7-9.
THE TEMPEST OF GOD’S WRATH
As the great host of the wicked surround the Holy City, God goes forth from His place to punish His adversaries. Their wickedness has been great, and the tempest of God’s wrath spends its fury upon the godless and the vile. The scepter of oppression is broken, and the throne of iniquity is cast down. The empires of the earth have their power broken and are given to the devouring flames. The fire of God falls from heaven, and the vast multitude of evil men and fallen angels are overwhelmed in its flames. Death is swallowed up in full and endless victory. The last enemy of God is destroyed forever.
The fire which falls upon the wicked does not perpetuate them but devours them. This is the second death, from which there shall never be any resurrection.
THE FATE OF THE GREAT ADVERSARY OF GOD
The fire will have the same effect upon Satan and his angels that it has upon wicked men. They also will be brought to nothing and be as though they had never been. This is very plain from the words which God spoke to Satan:
“I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and 1 will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shall he a terror, and never shall thou be any more.” Ezekiel 28:16-19.
The destiny of the wicked is also referred to in the book of Malachi.
“Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, said the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Malachi 4:1.
Thus the great conflict of the ages between Christ and Satan, between good and evil, will find its http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auissue in the utter destruction of Satan and his angels and all who ally themselves with him. The fires of the last day will consume them and leave them neither root nor branch. Satan is the root, and the wicked are the branches. The universe is to be cleansed from every stain of sin.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SIN
Sin itself will be blotted out of the universe when the wicked are destroyed. None of the wicked will ever be raised from the second death. Their punishment will be eternal. They will never live again.
There will be no eternally burning hell into which the wicked will be cast, and in which they will continue to sin and suffer. God will have a clean universe.
Special attention is directed to the words used in the Bible to describe the fate of sinners:
They shall “die” (Ezekiel 18:4);
they shall suffer “death” (Romans 6:23)
they shall suffer the “second death” (Revelation 20:14, 15)
they shall be destroyed (Psalms 145:20);
they shall suffer “destruction” (Job 21:30);
they shall “perish” (Psalms 37:20);
they shall be burned up (Matthew 3:12; Malachi 4:1);
they “shall not be” (Psalms 37:10) ;
they shall come to an “end” (Psalms 37:38);
they shall he consumed (Psalms 37:20;
they shall be devoured (Psalms 21:9);
they shall be “slain” (Psalms 62:3);
they shall be “cut off” (Psalms 37:9);
“they shall be as though they had not been” (Obadiah 16);
they shall be “silent in darkness” (1 Samuel 2:9);
they shall be “no more” (Psalms 104:35) ;
they shall be “blotted out” (Psalms 69:28);
they shall suffer “perdition” (2 Peter 3:7);
they shall be ground to powder (Matthew 21:44);
they shall he “hewn down” (Matthew 3:10);
they shall see “corruption” (Galatians 6:8);
they shall be torn in pieces (Psalms 50:22);
they shall be “rooted out” (Proverbs 2:22);
they shall be as “nothing” (Jeremiah 10:24);
and they shall be as “nothing” (Isaiah 41:12).
THE FATE OF THE WICKED
These clear, striking expressions are surely sufficient to establish the truth that the Bible does not teach the God-dishonoring doctrine of eternal conscious torment. This doctrine was invented by Satan himself in the Garden of Eden, when he told Eve that if she obeyed God she would “not surely die,” although God had plainly told her that she would “surely die.” Genesis 2:17.
The doctrine of eternal torment for the wicked has no place in the Bible, and will have no place in reality when the wicked are punished. Their punishment will be eternal, but their punishment is death. The fire that falls upon them from heaven at the close of the millennium will consume them altogether. Each person will be punished “according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6), but ultimately the fire will bring them all to utter death and destruction. “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23.
The father of sin, together with sin and sinners and all their evil results-sickness, disease, pain, sorrow, grief, and death -is to be destroyed forever. Thank God, His mercy is seen even in the destruction of those who refuse salvation.
PEACE is coming-peace, lasting and world wide. Through the ages of the ages it will endure.
We have already seen that peace will never come through man or through any of his works. Man has failed to produce a government which can give permanent peace. All that man can do is to produce, in the end, an Armageddon.
When man has demonstrated his failure, God will take charge. He will destroy sin and sinners, and then He will establish His own kingdom of eternal peace on the earth.
GOD’S COVENANT OF PEACE
It was a covenant of peace which God first made with man. It is to a fulfillment of this covenant of peace that the prophets confidently point. The messenger who brings good tidings of great joy is one who publishes peace. Jesus Himself is the Prince of Peace. There is to be no end of the increase of His government and of peace.
“In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endures.” Psalms 72:7.
http://www.ThreeAngels.com.auPsalmist and prophet together look forward with eager eyes, and sing of the time when Jehovah shall bless His people with endless peace (Psalms 29:11); when “the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (Psalms 37:11); when peace shall be within the walls of Jerusalem (Psalms 122:7); when men “shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace” (Isaiah 55:12); when the very officers shall be peace and the exactors righteousness (Isaiah 60:17); when peace shall extend to Jerusalem like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream (Isaiah 66:12) ; when “the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever” (Isaiah 32:17); when God’s “people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32:18).
THE EARTH PURIFIED
The earth will be purified by the same fire which consumes the wicked. The ruined works of men will be burned by great billows of flame that sweep over the earth. The last remnants of sin will be thus consumed.
“The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10.
The long rebellion against God is ended. Man’s last foe, death, has been destroyed. The sinful, restless, warring world has at last been overthrown, and all creation is now at peace with God. The first heaven and the first earth, the great amphitheater of sin, the scene of strife and rebellion, have passed away, and when they have been dissolved by the fires of the last day, then by the word of the Lord are brought into existence “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13.
Upon the billows of flame which have purified the earth, the Holy City, with the righteous nations of the saved within it, has ridden safely, even as the ark rode the angry waters of the Deluge. When the purifying flames subside, having fully accomplished the work of cleansing the earth, the city settles into its place in fulfillment of the scripture: “The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Revelation 21:1
THE FULFILLMENT OF THE ANCIENT PROMISES
Then the earth will blossom again and become the home of the redeemed people of the Lord. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5.
Then shall be fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them [the redeemed]; and the desert shall
rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellence of our God. For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!” Isaiah 35.
Then will be seen the fulfillment of many of the ancient promises.
“Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isaiah 65:17.
“Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness!” 2 Peter 3:13.
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” Revelation 21:1.
“The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalms 37:11.
At that time also the promise found in Micah 4:8 will be fulfilled.
“Thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion [the church], unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion [the earth when first created;] the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.”
THE ETERNAL HOME OF THE RIGHTEOUS
When the earth has been fully cleansed, and sin and sinners are no more, the righteous will go forth from the Holy City, and “they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” (Isaiah 65:21.) The whole earth is to be filled with the redeemed of the Lord. They will build homes which will never be destroyed. They will have no fear of fire or earthquake. Sin has passed out of existence forever. There will be none to make afraid. Peace and contentment and unspeakable happiness will fill every heart.
Sabbath by Sabbath and month by month the people of the new earth will gather at Jerusalem to engage in the worship of the King of kings. (Isaiah 66:22, 23.) Here in the city of God the redeemed will partake of the fruit of the tree of life. Here also they will wander through the groves which border the “river of water of life,” which proceeds “out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Revelation 22:1, 2.
“There shall be no more curse.” Revelation 22:1 Sin will have been eternally destroyed, and will never return. Every one of the created intelligences on the other worlds, all the angels, and every soul that has been redeemed at such an infinite cost, will have fully decided that God is righteous altogether. They have had enough of sin. We do well to rejoice in the certain promise of God that when He destroys sin, “He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.” Nahum 1:9.
NO MORE VIOLENCE, WASTING, OR DESTRUCTION
There in the glorious land of the new earth “My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” Isaiah 32:18. “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shall call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise.” Isaiah 60:18. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree.” Isaiah 55:13. “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4. “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” Isaiah 33:24.
The beautiful city of God, the New Jerusalem, shall “be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” Isaiah 62:1 “Her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” Revelation 21:11. “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.” Revelation 21:24. “There shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign forever and ever.” Revelation 22:5.
And in the new’ earth I shall “know even as also 1 am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12. Companions and loved ones, long separated by death, will then be reunited. Their love and their sympathy for each other will be greatly deepened, and will continue throughout the ages of eternity, never again to be broken by death.
There all the faculties of the human mind will be developed, and the mind’s capacity for knowledge will be constantly enlarged. No enterprise which is entered upon will be too great to be carried forward to completion. No aspiration will be formed which cannot be reached. No ambition will be too high to be realized. There will be no end to the acquirement of knowledge. It will be possible to travel from planet to planet, and from system to system, in the study of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of the universe of God. Our associates and companions will be the angels of God and the sinless intelligences of the other worlds.
THE UNFOLDING OF THE AGE OF ETERNITY
And to all this there will be no end. As the ages of eternity unfold, there never need be any fear that the years to come will bring a termination to the happiness of the redeemed. When myriads of ages have rolled by, still beyond will stretch eternity.
And you, dear friend, to whom this book has come, may I not press upon you the urgent need of being prepared for these things which are coming upon man? There is a way of escape from the appalling destruction of the last days. The close of human probation, followed by Armageddon, will fall swiftly upon a world all unprepared. It need not come thus to you.
Jesus is the way. In Him is safety. And in Him is eternal life, and an abundant entrance into His eternal kingdom of peace. Now, while you have opportunity, become acquainted with Him, make your http://www.ThreeAngels.com.aupeace with Him. Mercy’s gates are still open, though they are soon to close. God’s ear will yet hear the penitent’s cry. The blood of Jesus will yet atone for sin, and cleanse whiter than snow. Make no longer delay. Now, now, go to God with all your sin, accept His sacrifice, believe His word. He will graciously receive you, and pardon all your guilt.
And may “the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13.
THERE is a place of sacred rest,
Far’ far beyond the skies,
Where beauty smiles eternally,
And pleasure never dies;
My Father’s house, my heavenly home,
Where many mansions stand
Prepared by hands divine, for all
Who seek the better land.
When tossed upon the waves of life,
With fear on every side,
When fiercely howls the gathering storm,
And foams the angry tide
Beyond the storm, beyond the gloom,
Breaks forth the light of morn,’
Bright beaming from my Father’s house,
To cheer the soul forlorn.
In that pure home of tearless joy
Earth’s parted friends shall meet,
With smiles of love that never fade,
And blessedness complete.
There, there adieus are sounds unknown,
Death frowns not on that scene;
But life and glorious beauty shine,
Untroubled and serene.
Anonymous.