The predictions respecting the first of these three are very simple. Beginning with the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, four successive empires were to run their course, the last of them continuing until the appearing of Christ. But the third should fall apart into four dominions, after existing for a short time as one. And the course of the fourth should be even more varied, including three phases of sovereignty it should rule over the earth first as one undivided power, then as two more or less connected empires, lastly as ten kingdoms confederated under a great and blasphemous president who should be destroyed by the Lord Himself. But, between its second and third phases, this fourth empire should be for a while deprived of its sovereignty, and be dominated by an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Thus the times of the Gentiles should flow on without interruption until the return of Christ. The Jewish prophecies are a little more intricate, and Daniel was unable to comprehend the purposes of God concerning Judah and Jerusalem until he had received a special revelation to give him skill and understanding. This revelation disclosed that God was about to take four hundred and ninety years out of the times of the Gentiles for the special discipline, under covenant, of the Jews: that these years would commence from the issuing of an edict to rebuild the destroyed city and walls of Jerusalem; that after four hundred and eighty-three of them had passed by, Messiah would be cut off, and, in consequence of His rejection, the covenant would be broken, and a long and unknown interval elapse, during which the Jews would be scattered and disowned of God; that at the close of the interval they would again be found in their own land, and that the last prince of the fourth empire would make a covenant with the majority of them for seven years; that God would at the same time resume His dealings with them, and so complete, in the time of Antichrist's covenant, that which still remained of the four hundred and ninety years; and that, after many sufferings, and a fearful discipline during the final three years and a half, the Deliverer should come to Zion, and give to the remnant of Israel "the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven." In regard to the third people, the Church of God, we find that they began to be gathered out of all nations shortly after the Jewish covenant had been suspended, and that their age was to occupy the interval which followed. They were to undergo a variety of trials and struggles concerning which they were instructed and warned in two prophecies uttered by the Lord Himself. They would feel their love growing cold as time went on; they would have to pass through the fires of persecution; they would be allured from the path of humility by a vision of earthly greatness; their faith would be stealthily corrupted and changed, until they would become. mingled with idolaters unawares, and be fast caught in the net of the Mother of Abominations. After a weary season they would break through her meshes, only to find another temptation spread before them; they would be surrounded by a drowsy and indifferent orthodoxy, which would ultimately develop into Deism, Pantheism, and Atheism, or into a selfsatisfied religionism. Yet among the faithful there would, in the latter days of the dispensation, be a revival of love which would urge some to wash their stained robes, to keep the word of Christ, and to confess His name. And so the interval would come to its close. The Lord Jesus would descend into the air; those of the Church who had died would hear His voice and come forth from their graves, while the living who had been able to endure, in spite of temptation, would be at the same moment changed, and caught up together with them into His presence. There they would remain during the last seven years of the Jewish covenant, before the close of which they would be joined by some of their fellows whose unready condition caused them to be left behind for a season. And then the whole multitude, arrayed in white, would appear with their King in glory, and, after the destruction of His enemies, rule as His subordinates over the redeemed earth. Such is an outline of the prophetic scheme which the writer believes to be God's revelation: whether he is able to substantiate his opinion, or not, the reader must judge. |