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Saturday, November 22, 2014

 

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Contents Exposition of Daniel

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34. - The Times Of The Kingdom Of Babylon And Of Judah

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Page 3 of 3

The sounding of this proclamation will cause a general movement among the Jews, who will be allured by it, and prepare to leave the lands of their captivity. "I will allure her, saith Yahweh, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak friendly to her heart" (Hos. 2:14; Ezek. 20:35). As to the Latino-Babylonian powers of Europe, they will be stirred up to war by the proclamation. In the Apocalypse they are styled the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Kings of the earth; of whom it is said "they and their armies gathered together to make war against the Lamb, and against his army" (Rev. 19:19 17:14). When this war actually breaks out, the contest will be between the Jews as the Lord's army, and the armies of the Babylonian kings; and is styled, "the war of the Great-day of God Almighty". The period of its continuance is the day during which the judgment sits upon Daniel's fourth beast; and the result of which is, the "thrones are cast down", and their kingdoms become Yahweh's and his Christ's. When this is consummated the seven times of the Kingdom of Men will be fully exhausted. The time allotted to the blowing of the great trumpet will be, I doubt not, several years. There will be much to accomplish among the nations which do not belong to the Latino-Greek Babylonian dominion. Yahweh did not send Israel against the Canaanites till forty years after the fall of Pharaoh; and although it will not be so long as this, I have reason to believe that the war between the Jews and the Papal Powers will not begin until some time after the smiting of the Russo-Gogian Image; how long after is conjectural.

The great trumpet to be blown announces that "the hour of the Deity's judgment is come"; and in the apostrophe upon the fate of Babylon it is said, "in one hour is thy judgment come". Now, in that judgment, not only Rome, but the Papacy, or false Prophet-power, the imperial Beast that sustains it, and the Papal Governments and. nations are judged. The time, therefore, in judging or executing vengeance upon the one, is the period of judgment for them all. At that crisis they will all be confederates in arms against Christ and his armies; for it is written concerning the papal powers, represented by the Ten Horns, or Ten Toes of the Russo-Gogian Image, "they shall receive power as kings one hour with the Beast", or Little Horn with the Eyes and Mouth. "These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the beast. For the Deity hath put in their hearts to fulfil His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of Deity shall be fulfilled . . . These shall make war with the Lamb". Therefore John says, "I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him and against his army". "But the Lamb shall overcome them": for "the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, and cast alive into the lake of fire; and the remnant were slain with the sword of the King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. 17 and 19), that is by Israel, as shown elsewhere.

Now the use of the words hour and one hour, in these places, is not without precise signification. They are not used vaguely or indefinitely. They are figurative of an exact number of solar years, which number is the twelfth of a time. Bible days are twelve hours long; so that an hour is the twelfth part of a daytime. If the time be an eniautos, that which returns upon itself, with another twelfth termed a month, then an hour signifies only thirty days, being diminished by the greater term, as in Rev. 9:15; but if it stand absolutely, that is, with no other sign to qualify it, it signifies thirty years, or the twelfth of a time of 360 years. While touching upon this point, I may remark that half an hour is used Apocalyptically as significative of years in the saying, "there was silence in the heaven about the space of half an hour"; that is, between the opening of the Seventh Seal and the casting fire upon the earth--a period of fourteen years, being "about the space", but not quite "half an hour", which is fifteen years. The meaning of the saying is, "There was peace among the rulers for fourteen years", or, from A.D. 323 to 337, as may be seen by reference to Gibbon's "Decline and Fail of the Roman Empire".

Thirty years, then, being the duration of an hour in these places, the confederacy of the papal powers will continue thirty years, during which judgment is being executed upon them by the people of the holy ones, who torment them with all the calamities of war. These thirty years' war are the last years of Micah's forty for the grinding of the shattered elements of the Image to powder by the Stone, and ending with the annihilation of Babylon at the expiration of its 2520 years; and beginning therefore about A.D. 1878.

But besides the 2400 years, the seventy heptades of 490 years, and the two periods of 1260 years each, there are other two periods that yet remain to be explained. These are one of 1290 years, and another of 1335 years. The former period relates to the desolation of the Holy Land and its desolator; the latter to the resurrection of the Holy Ones, of whom the prophet had the assurance of being one.

The 1290 years are noted in the eleventh verse of the twelfth chapter; which, however, as it stands in the English version, cannot possibly be understood. From this the reader will suppose that the 1290 years should be calculated from the taking away of the daily: that is, from the suppression of sacrifice when the Roman power destroyed Jerusalem, A.D. 72; but in that case "that determined" should have begun to be poured out upon the desolator in A.D. 1362, which every one knows was not the fact.

The proper rendering of this text is, "And after the time the daily shall be removed, even for to set up an abomination making desolate a thousand two hundred and ninety days". The time referred to in this place, is the Seventy Heptades of 490 years; "after" the lapse of this time, "the evening-morning sacrifice" should be removed. But how long would it be after the end of this time ere the daily should be removed ? The answer to this question was one of the times and seasons which the Father had put in His own power (Acts 1:7); therefore Jesus said, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is" (Mark 13:32). This he said to his apostles; but since then "the day and hour" have passed away; and we know that Judah's tribulation, characterized by the removal of the daily, the casting down of the foundation of its sanctuary and the law, and the destruction of their commonwealth, occurred about A.D. 72.

Now the daily was removed for "the overspreading of abominations even to destruction, and that determined should be poured upon the desolator" (Dan. 9:27). One of these abominations was to prevail for upwards of twelve hundred years, and to be found in desolating possession of the land at the end of 1290. As every one knows, this desolator of the Holy Land thus far is the Ottoman Power, a "time-of-the-end" representative of the long-prevailing "abomination". The 1290 were to reach to the end when the time came to pour out upon the desolator; it is evident therefore, they could not begin A.D. 72. The text does not require that they should; and the passage last quoted shows that they were to end at the period of pouring out upon the desolator; that is, when the 1290 years should end, the pouring out of" that determined" upon the Ottoman should begin.

It is well-known that there has been a notable pouring out of calamities upon this power from A.D. 1820-3 to the present time. But the end is not immediately; for the pouring out period is to continue to the drying-up of the power which is marked by the initiation of the restitution of Israel's power. If the Ottoman were demolished in a month, there would still be an outpouring in reserve for the desolator in actual occupation of Jerusalem at the Advent of the Ancient of Days. This will be the power constituted of the Greeks and Latins under the Autocrat of all the Russias, as before explained. His will be the last regime of the desolating abomination; and when the judgments of the Sixth Vial, which dry up the Euphratean Power (Rev. 16:12), are exhausted, the desolation of Jerusalem and the Holy Land will terminate in the helpless annihilation of their Gentile destroyers, both Muscovite and Turk.

Lastly, 45 years after the end of the 1290 years, the period of the Little Horn of the West's prevalence over the Holy Ones is brought to a close. This period, it will be remembered, is 1260 years long. The end of it is designated by that of the 1335 years, which have an epochal beginning in common with the 1290. They commence 75 years before the 1260, being times pertaining to the Heirs of the Holy Land, or Kings of a Sun's risings; and therefore part of Judah's times; while the 1260 are a part of the times of the kingdom of Babylon--the period of its prevalence against the Holy Ones and their people; and consequently to be calculated from a different beginning, though ending at the same epochal lapse of A.D. 1868. "Blessed he that is waiting and shall LABOUR for the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days." This is the text in which the 1335 year are noted; and the only place in the Bible where they are to be found. To look and labour for them is to watch for the end of them, and to strive to attain what is to be manifested at their expiration. When they terminate, the resurrection of the dead predicted in Dan. 12:2, will come to pass; for the revelator said to the prophet, "Go thou away till the end: for thou shalt lie down and arise (thiamod) to thine inheritance at the end of the days". The days last mentioned in the context are the 1335, and must therefore be the days referred to. Daniel was to lie down till the end of these days, till which time he was to be at rest, "sleeping in the dust of the earth". This is his present condition, mere dust and ashes of the tomb recently discovered in Persia. But in perhaps only a few months, when the 1335 years terminate, he will "arise to his inheritance" in the kingdom of God, in which he and all the prophets, with many others, will rejoice together (Luke 13:28).

In conclusion, let the reader observe that it is not merely he that desires or looks for the end of the 1335 days who is pronounced "blessed". There axe many, who desire the resurrection of the wise, and, as Balaam, would like to be of the number; but who either give themselves no trouble to attend to it, or are ignorant of the means of attainment, or will only labour for it according to their own suppositions of possibilities. These suppose everything but prove nothing. The blessedness of the resurrection is a laborious acquisition--a contention for the mastery over ourselves, and the world around us. This can only be attained by the "taught of God", who understand His doctrine and yield it the faithful and self-sacrificing obedience He requires. Then "labour to enter into his rest; for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able". They will be excluded from the Kingdom of God because they have not sought entrance into it in the appointed way. "Seek first the Kingdom of God", saith the Great Teacher, "and His righteousness". How highly important is this exhortation now, seeing that in a very short time the resurrection will have transpired, and no further invitation to inherit it be presented to the world. Ought we not, then, to awake to earnestness, and by a rigid scrutiny of our faith and practice, obtain a scriptural satisfaction, if we shall be able to stand unabashed before the Judge of the living and the dead? The glory that shall follow is great for the approved. The world is theirs (1 Cor. 3:21, 22), when all nations come and do homage before the Prince of Israel, because his judgments are made manifest (Rev. 15:4). But before they can have "power over the nations" (Rev. 2:26) they must bind the strong that rule them. This is their mission at the end of the 1335 years: "to execute vengeance upon the nations, and punishment upon the peoples; to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints". For a period of forty years, they will be engaged in this work, and in the organizing the world upon new and better principles. When this work is finished we shall have what is styled "the world to come". The kingdoms, empires, and republics now existing, will be but shadows of the past eclipsing righteousness and truth--blots upon the page of human story. The Kingdom of Babylon, among the rest, will have passed through all its phases of iniquity and crime, and at length have disappeared like chaff before the wind, being ground to powder by the kingdom of God, which as a great mountain fills the whole earth (Dan. 2:35). The nations and their rulers will then heartily respond to the exhortation, saying, "Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice and sing praise. Sing unto Yahweh with the harp; with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornets make a joyful noise before Yahweh, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before Yahweh; for he cometh to rule the earth; with righteousness shall he rule the world, and with equity the peoples" (Psa. 98:4-9).

Such is the solution of the Great Eastern Question which has been providentially formed for the development of the terrible situation of "the Time of the End".

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