There are more real difficulties in the exposition of this familiar prophecy than those who use it with such vigour are usually prepared to recognize. The first, and main problem is this: When Peter wrote these words, did he have his eye on A.D. 70 and “the Last Days of Judah’s Commonwealth,” or was his expectation ranging forward to the twentieth century?

Dr. Thomas gave the first of these two answers. Most Christadelphian expositors of the present day give the second. What are the pros and cons?

The case for a First Century application will be summarized first, with rather less detail than Dr. Thomas was in the habit of allowing himself:

1. The words of the scoffers are: “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” (v. 4). Such expressions, with their allusion to Abraham and David and to Genesis 1-3, would readily be made by Jewish adversaries of the gospel in Peter’s own time, but read strangely as the cynical objection of modern sceptics.
2. The allusion to “scoffers in the last days” is surely taken — and with what appropriateness! — from 2 Chronicles 36:16, which describes how in the last days of the Kingdom of Judah men mocked the messengers of God and scoffed at His prophets (the Septuagint Version has the same word as Peter uses), until at last there came wrath from God, the destruction of the temple, and the scattering of the people in captivity.
3. Jude 17, 18 quotes Peter’s words about the “mockers in the last time” (the reference to 2 Peter 3 is unmistakable), and immediately continues: “These are they…,” as though seeing the fulfilment already taking shape.
4. Verse 5a: “this (the story of Creation and of the Flood) they willingly are ignorant of.” The words imply an authoritative record, which the scoffers know, as well as Peter does, but the implications of which they deliberately fail to face up to.
5. Verse 11: “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved …” Almost all the translations conspire to push this into the future, yet actually Peter used a present continuous tense, requiring the words to be read thus: “all these things (already) dissolving thus…” Certainly it is difficult to associate such a verb form with the distant future (from Peter’s point of view).
6. Verses 11, 12: “What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and hasting the coming of the day of God.” Three points require to be noted here: (a) the AV reading: “hasting unto” is permissible but in this context meaningless. How can a man hasten unto the coming of Christ? To make sense of it this way the word has to be slanted or paraphrased so drastically as to drag it clean away from its proper meaning; (b) “what manner of persons ought ye (first century believers) to be…” — the exhortation has little point if there were yet nearly two milleniums to roll by; (c) since so long a time has elapsed before the return of the Lord, their “holy living and godliness” either were not in evidence or else did not have much effect in “hastening the coming.”
7. Verse 8: “with the Lord …a thousand years is as one day.” The words are taken from Psalm 90: 4, a psalm of Moses about the forty years of hardship endured by God’s Israel in the wilderness. Then can it be that Peter saw that experience as a parallel to his own generation? As the forty years in the establishment of the Kingdom of God under Joshua-Jesus followed the wilderness, so the overturning of the church’s greatest adversary — Judaism, would follow the A.D. 30-70 period enthroned in Jerusalem.
8. Verse 10, which seems to be the sheet-anchor of the “twentieth century” exposition, actually goes along with the A.D. 70 applications just as well. “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise” finds a parallel in Psalm 102: 26, words which are cited in Hebrews 1: 10, 11 with reference to the end of the Mosaic order: “the heavens are the works of thy hands: they shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment…” Isaiah 51: 6 has the same idiom: “the heavens shall vanish away like smoke…but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” There can be little doubt that this is a prophecy of the passing of the Law and the bringing in of the imputed righteousness proclaimed in the gospel.
9. “The elements shall be dissolved (unloosed) with fervent heat.” Justin Martyr and others understood this word “elements” to refer to heavenly bodies. In which case it is not inappropriate to mention that just before the fall of Jerusalem Halley’s Comet was visible for a protracted period, “hanging over the city like a drawn sword.” But the Biblical association of “elements” is with the ordinances of the Law of Moses: Galatians 4: 3, 9; Colossians 2: 8, 20. With the burning of the Temple, the exact keeping of the Law became an utter impossibility.
10. “The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” The Greek word here could equally well refer to the Land of Israel. It is so used in the New Testament in at least twenty places — and many more times in the Septuagint Version. So this passage speaks of judgement on the Land where all emphasis is on works and not on faith.

This catalogue of supporting evidence makes a fairly strong case. But another look, this time at the other side of the picture reveals certain features in this prophecy, which seem to require reference to the personal return of Christ.^[32]

1. “Where is the promise of his coming?” is a phrase difficult to refer to any manifestation of divine judgement except the personal revelation of Christ in glory.
2. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (v. 10). This figure of speech always refers to the return of Christ in the Last Day: Matthew 24: 43; Luke 12: 39; 1 Thessalonians 5: 2; Revelation 16: 15. The fall of Jerusalem did not come “as a thief in the night,” for disciples of Christ in the city were able to read the signs of the times and make good their escape.
3. “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (v. 12) cannot be applied to A.D. 70 at all, for it is not possible to believe that that holocaust was hastened by the faithfulness of Christ’s disciples.
4. “New heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (v. 13) can only mean the bringing in of Christ’s Kingdom, as in Isaiah 65: 17; 66: 22; Revelation 22: 1,27.
5. “Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (v. 14) can likewise mean only one thing: the day when Christ returns with blessing for his faithful.

Thus the situation has come about that a vital chapter of Bible prophecy is expounded by two schools of thought in two radically different ways, neither group giving much attention to the evidence cited by the other — which is hardly a satisfactory attitude to adopt.

O.T. METHODS APPLIED

There is a way out of the impasse — by following the method of interpretation normally applied to many an Old Testament prophecy.

It is commonplace experience with Bible prophecy to find that such Scriptures often have more than one fulfilment. Psalm 72, “a psalm for Solomon,” will have its true fulfilment in the Kingdom of Christ. Psalm 2 doubtless sprang out of some critical experience in David’s own life, but is applied by the New Testament to the first rejection of Christ (Acts 4: 25-27) and also to his coming again in glory (Revelation 19: 15; 2:27). Nearly all of Isaiah’s prophecy had reference to the circumstances of his own time, but in a score of places the New Testament requires an application to Christ and his work. The early chapters of Zechariah are based on the return of the captives from Babylon but are also undoubtedly Messianic. The Olivet Prophecy is in two main sections—the first appropriate to A.D. 70 and the troubles immediately preceding it, and second concerning the coming of the Lord. But it has been shewn in chapter 14 that the first section should also be re-read with reference to the Last Days. There are many many more examples of this kind of thing.

Then why is it that the study of Prophecy in the New Testament makes so little allowance for the same principle? Strange, truly, that so many Old Testament prophecies should readily be expounded on the basis of a dual fulfilment but the same possibility for the greatest prophecy of all — the Apocalypse — not be even contemplated! But that is another subject. Here it is more germane to suggest that the key to the difficulties in 2 Peter 3 lies in its application, first and in a fragmentary way, to the Last Days of Judah’s Commonwealth, and then, fully and completely, to the Day of the Lord’s personal return.

The rest of this chapter will be devoted to a consideration of some of the outstanding details in it, from the second of these points of view.

HEAVENS AND EARTH

A difficulty of some magnitude arises out of the five-fold reference to “heavens and earth” (vv. 5, 7,10,12,13). The first of these is undoubtedly literal—a straight allusion to the Creation (Genesis 1: 6, 9). The last is just as certainly symbolic, as the parallel passages plainly require. The problem is: how to read the other three? It is difficult to be certain about this, but probably they are to be taken literally, in a way that will be suggested by and by.

Peter’s first argument against the mockers is this: They choose to overlook the fact that that which God constituted and equipped in Genesis 1 He later destroyed in Genesis 7 — the implication being that what He has done once He may well do again. All things do not continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Peter was obviously writing with a vivid memory of his Lord’s own words: “Even as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17: 26).

But though the main point of the Deluge allusion is clear enough, the details are obscure. What is the point of describing the earth as “standing out of the water and in the water”? And the word “whereby” (literally: by means of which things) appears to be redundant, unless perhaps it refers back to the heavens and earth being the source of the overwhelming flood. A retranslation is perhaps permissible here: “… that of old the heavens were, and the earth (emerging) out of the water, and by (or, in) the Word of God through water it endured (i.e. the earth itself was saved by being baptized!), through which things the civilization that then was, being overwhelmed by water, perished.

STORED WITH FIRE

There is appropriateness in reading here an allusion to the fact that in Noah’s day destruction came from both earth and heaven (see Genesis 7:11), because Peter’s next argument is that in the time to come once again destruction will come from both earth and heaven: “But the heavens and the earth which are now, by (or, in) the same Word (of God) have been stored with fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men.”^[33] Until August 1945 it was difficult to make any sense at all of these words. To give them a vague figurative meaning was almost the best that could be done with them, yet such an interpretation only created another problem — the contrast with the literal “heavens and earth” of verse 5. But since that epoch-making day of the first atomic bomb, the literal character of this prophecy has become increasingly obvious. Today the earth is literally “stored with fire.” America and Russia between them have a stock of nuclear-fission devices big enough to wipe out civilization two or three times over. And there is reason to believe that the heavens also are “stored with fire,” in view of the immense amount of controlled “hardware” which has been put into orbit round the earth, much of it capable of being brought back on any selected target. The phenomenal development of laser beams opens up another breathtaking possibility in the fulfilment of Peter’s words. Certainly there is far less difficulty today in a literal reading of them than there is in any figurative interpretation which might be suggested.

It is interesting to enquire where these things are foretold “in the same Word of God.” In what part of the Old Testament? So far, the best answer available has been Isaiah 24:21, which speaks of judgement on those who make war in two elements—on the earth and in the sky: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.” But there is probably some other prophecy, which is more pointed than this.

So far Peter’s answer to the mockers’ criticism about “delay” is: Noah’s Flood may have seemed long overdue, but it came; and since the Word of God also foretells judgement by fire, that too is inevitable.

PETER’S NEXT ARGUMENT

This point is immediately supplemented with the appropriate reminder that “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” that is, when He chooses God can act with such breath-taking swiftness as to bring about in one day developments for which men would estimate a thousand years. It is a point which needs to be well taken by those who are in the habit of assuring themselves, and others, that the coming of the Lord is still an appreciable length of time away because such and such events have to happen first. Peter’s words mean that, even if these confident interpretations of prophecy are correct, God may bring about their fulfilment with such startling suddenness that the call concerning “the Bridegroom” will come to virgins who are asleep.

Also, this powerful statement is another nail in the coffin of the theorists who believe that the year of the Lord’s return can be calculated in advance. The logic of Peter’s words means a possible error of as much as a thousand years in one’s calculations, so the exercise is one of somewhat limited value.

“And a thousand years as one day.” This rather bewildering paradox must surely mean that it is idle to talk of “delay” where God is concerned. To Him delay means nothing, so great is His time-scale. A “delay” of a thousand years would be comparable to being one day off reckoning in the life of a human being.

CLIMAX

Next comes the great positive statement of this chapter: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” In other words, any apparent delay is due to the loving kindness of a God reluctant to snatch away from His creatures their unused opportunity of salvation. It is a principle much neglected by the present generation, yet taught over and over again in Scripture. Twice more Peter comes back to it in this chapter: “be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is (your opportunity for) salvation” (vv. 14, 15). More positively: “What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (vv. 11, 12). That is to say, lack of true repentance in God’s people may have the effect of holding back the fulfilment of His purpose, and conversely, repentance and godliness will bring the great Day so much more speedily.

The same idea is implicit (some would think explicit) in the words of Peter in Acts 3: 19, 20 RV: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted,” that three blessed consequences may ensue: (a) “that your sins may be blotted out;” (b) “that there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord;” (c) “and that he may send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.” When the structure of this statement is properly appreciated, the third item in it makes the coming of the Lord dependent on the repentance and conversion of the Israel of God (both national and spiritual).

This is an awe-inspiring doctrine, for it puts on the believer of the present day a terrible responsibility. By his holy life and godliness he has it in his power to bring the day of Christ’s kingdom nearer. It is also true that a life of selfish indifference and faithlessness may put the brake on God’s purpose for the re-habilitation of a sick world.

NUCLEAR DESTRUCTION?

Peter’s argument in answer to the unreasonable is now done. There remains only for him to renew his exhortation to those who are willing to take his words seriously. A solemn and powerful reminder of the inevitable judgement does this. It will come “as a thief in the night” to those who are not “looking for the coming of the day of God.” It will involve terrible happenings in which “the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” The most obvious application of these words is to nuclear fission, especially since the next words are “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” In the detonation of any nuclear device, the elements do literally melt with fervent heat. Even in this connection, Justin Martyr’s reference to heavenly bodies may not be altogether out of place, when it is considered what a wide variety of contraptions have been flung into orbit round the earth in the past few years. Yet another suggestion, decidedly ad hoc, is that Peter’s words may be fulfilled through the earth’s gravitational acquisition of an uncomfortably large lump of anti-matter from outer space — something like the so-called Siberian meteorite of 1908. But speculations of this sort, whilst within the bounds of possibility, are clean outside the scope of Biblical study and therefore of this investigation.

It has to be said in all honesty that as yet the present writer has been unable to assign any sort of clear-cut idea to the words: “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.” The word “noise” may encourage a nuclear interpretation (compare Isaiah 24: 18), but what is meant by “the heavens shall pass away”? There is confidence only in a rejection of the idea that this is a symbolic way of saying: “all human government will be abolished.”

Whatever horrors are yet to be experienced, there is little to be feared by the Lord’s faithful. They “look for the coming of the day of God.” They “look for new heavens and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” And since they “look for such things,” they “give diligence to be found of him in peace.” The two characteristics go hand in hand. According to the intensity of a man’s expectation and confidence, so is his diligence.

[32] The point needs to be made that not in any sense was A.D. 70 a second coming of Christ. All the prophecies of the fall of Jerusalem represent it as the wrath of God because of the rejection of His Son, e.g. Luke 20:15, 16. Let the parable in Luke 13: 6-9 be studied carefully and the characters identified. Then let the pronoun “thou” be given its due force. Similarly, the “he” in Mark 12: 9 needs to be carefully identified.

[33] Mark the lovely contrast in 1 Peter 1:4.

Traditionally few prophecies of the Last Days have been interpreted with more complete confidence than this one. When the Gog-Magog forces sweep into the Holy Land, they will simultaneously drive through to Egypt and also pursue the retreating defenders (the British army!) into Edom. At the crucial moment the Messiah and a mighty phalanx of warriors — the immortalized saints, now marching to the Land of Promise by the route followed by Moses and Israel — will come to the rescue and utterly destroy the invading army in a terrible carnage. This done, the march on Jerusalem is resumed, and the King of Glory enters his capital.

In the light of the current political situation and especially when the developments of modern warfare are considered, all this sounds rather odd. But quite apart from assessing this speculation in its relevance (sic!) to the twentieth century, it is surely time to take a fresh look at it and ask a few pointed questions about its Biblical basis.

Elsewhere (“The Last Days,” ch. 10) it has been shewn that the evidence for believing that the Judgement will take place at Sinai is hardly satisfactory and certainly not such as warrants confidence. The idea of a wilderness march by immortalized saints, who in any case would be able to transport themselves with the speed of angels has a further element of incongruity, and appears to be based almost entirely on a misreading of Micah 7: 15: “According to the days of thy coming out of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.” This passage does not necessarily mean that precisely what happened at the time of the Exodus will happen again with Messiah in place of Moses. A11 that can be safely got out of it is that the marvels of Israel’s experience then will be matched by the manifestations of divine power through the Messiah. The entire scheme of prophetic interpretation often referred to as “the march of the Rainbowed Angel” has been built on one or two assumptions of this kind. A judicious re-appraisal of the solidity of its foundations has long been overdue.

A NEW DELIVERANCE

In many parts of Isaiah (e.g. chs. 29-33) there are copious allusions to Israel in Egypt and the wilderness, yet in interpreting these chapters with reference to the contemporary crisis — Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah — no one is misled into thinking that the prophet was foretelling a march of rescued Israel through the wilderness of Sinai. His message was, very simply and forcefully, that there was to be a divine intervention in his day on behalf of Israel such as would parallel in its breath-taking majesty and power the magnificent demonstration of divine glory experienced by Israel under Moses.^[29] And this duly took place, not in the wilderness of Sinai, but underneath the walls of Jerusalem. It is true that after the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, many captives were released from bondage and returned with joy and thanksgiving to their homeland, but these came from Assyria, not from Egypt. If Isaiah’s language about Sinai and the Exodus is not to be taken literally, but rather as a parallel to events in his day, is not the same likely to be true of his contemporary Micah? Of course the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah can be expected to have further fulfilment in the Last Days, but since the first fulfilment was not literal, how can one be confident that the second will be?

RE-INTERPRETATION

Returning to Isaiah 63, it has to be noted that the prophecy is couched in the most general terms, with the exception of the mention of Edom and its capital, Bozrah, and also the idea (v. 5) of redemption and vengeance when all hope seems to have been abandoned. Yet even the references to Edom and Bozrah are far from certain, for with only the slightest change in the pointing of the Hebrew text, the opening challenge may be read thus: “Who is this that comes, more than man, raiment more crimsoned than the grape-gatherer?” If this reading be accepted, and it is just as possible as the more familiar translation,^[30] then no geographical reference remains, and the prophecy is seen as a picture of divine intervention, truly, but not in any specific place.

Another approach to this problem accepts the AV reading but interprets it as an allusion to the Song of Deborah after the rout of enemies in northern Canaan: “Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel” (Judges 5: 4, 5). This language is echoed in Isaiah 64:1: “O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence…”

Again it has to be emphasized that in the days of Deborah there was no recapitulation of Exodus deliverance or wilderness journey, but there was a deliverance comparable to those mighty happenings, and this is the point of the allusion.

Even if the traditional interpretation of Isaiah 63 were accepted, it should not be overlooked that the Lord coming first to Jerusalem, later seeking out certain enemies for special judgement in the territory of Edom and then returning to Jerusalem could fulfill it. There is nothing in the prophecy which rules out such an idea, and in Isaiah 25: 9, 10 there is an exact parallel regarding Moab. It is this view, which is favoured by the present writer, but only in a tentative fashion, because no arguments are known which definitely rule out the alternative modes of interpretation just mentioned.

HELP FROM JEREMIAH

It is not difficult to demonstrate that this “punitive expedition” in the direction of Edom is not against the forces of the great northern confederacy. Jeremiah 49: 7-22 is a prophecy with marked similarities to Isaiah 63, and a careful reading of its details makes very clear that this is a judgement on the Arab enemy of Israel. Verse 12 repeats the language of Jeremiah 25: 29, a prophecy which is concerned first of all with Israel’s hostile neighbours. Verse 19 also is important: “Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly drive them away (RVm): and who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? (or possibly: who will cause men to know me?), and who is that Shepherd that will stand before me?”

Who can this be but the Messiah? And he comes “from the swelling of Jordan,” not from mount Sinai, against the proud enemy “that dwells in the clefts of Sela” (v. 16).

DETAILS EXAMINED

Other details of Isaiah 63 can now be considered more specifically.

“Who is this that comes from Edom?… I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” This is the leader with blood-stained raiment, described in Revelation 19: 11-16 as “King of kings and Lord of lords” and also as “the Word of God.” In that prophecy he has a sharp sword going out of his mouth — “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The idea is the same. He speaks in righteousness, and judgement ensues.

It is a mistake, commonly made, to picture this divine Man as being alone in the judgement described. The Hebrew word translated “trample them in my fury” necessarily describes the action of a multitude. And in the parallel in Revelation 19, the crowned warrior is followed by an army “clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” Since this is the description of the glorified saints (Revelation 19: 8), and since the leader is already crowned, the saints have already been made immortal in Jerusalem (“The Last Days” ch. 10) by one whose kingdom is already in existence.^[31]

Then in what sense is he “alone”? The next phrase explains: “of the peoples there was none with me.” This word is commonly used with reference to the tribes of Israel. It is a redemption brought to Israel when at last they realize that their own efforts cannot save them. The rest of the chapter, so often neglected, emphasizes this theme. “The day of vengeance (vengeance for the oppression of Israel, not of the saints) is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” The word “redeemed” implies a near kinsman. This is a greater Joseph saving his brethren, but only when they acknowledge the despite done to him long before (Genesis 42: 21).

The mention of “the day of vengeance” recalls Isaiah 34: 8, which prophesy also is directed against Edom (34: 6), in “the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.” “Red in thine apparel” is a play on the name Edom; and “I will stain all my raiment” plays with the (untranslatable) double meaning of a Hebrew word, which also signifies “redeemed.” Thus this dramatic divine act — the Arm of the Lord bringing salvation (v. 5) — looks both ways. It is on behalf of a people reconciled to Christ and recognized as His kinsfolk. And it is against callous unspiritual enemies who refuse to see Israel as the Chosen Seed of Abraham with full right to the Land by divine covenant.

[29] Compare also Isaiah 63:015, a passage, which makes the same point very clearly.

[30] See W. A. Wordsworth’s En Roeh, in loc.

[31] Another possible interpretation here identifies these who are with Christ as his angels of judgement (note Revelation 15: 6). This view would not seriously interfere with the main point being made in this paragraph.

At first sight there is little in Isaiah 26 to justify its inclusion in any apocalypse, yet it begins with the familiar phrase: “in that day,” which is such a favourite of both Isaiah and Zechariah when their inspiration ranges forward to the Day of the Lord. Here it recurs five times (25: 9; 26: 1; 27: 1, 2, 12, 13), as though to emphasize that these chapters are not to be separated from chapter 24, the most ominous of them all. Chapter 26: 13-21 is the section especially relevant to the present study.

“Lord, thy hand is lifted up (as when Moses lifted up the rod of God over Egypt and over the Red Sea), yet they see not: but they shall see thy zeal for the people (Israel), and be ashamed; yea, fire shall devour thine adversaries. Lord, thou wilt ordain (literally: judge) peace for us” (26: 11, 12) — it is a peace which can come only through judgement on ungodly nations — “for thou hast also wrought all our works for us.” There can be salvation for Israel from their enemies only when they come to this admission before God that they are unable to save themselves. All through their history and in every aspect of life they have believed in salvation through their own works. What a change of heart is pictured here!” “Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they have poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.” This is the repentance of Israel as they turn to the God of their fathers in a time when no other door of hope is open to them. “Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight” (LXX: for the Beloved — ‘David my servant who is to be their prince for ever’).

THE RESURRECTION

Because of this spiritual re-birth there comes a flood of blessing: “Thou hast increased the nation (the Hebrew text strongly tempts one to see here another Messianic allusion: Thou hast provided Joseph for the nation); thou art glorified: thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land” (v. 15).

The nation is increased yet further by another accession of strength — the resurrection to glorious immortality of all the finest and most saintly characters it has produced throughout its history: “Thy dead shall live; dead bodies shall arise.^[27] Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of lights (does this intensive plural refer to the dawn of the Great Day of God?), and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”

As Paul insists in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 that “we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep,” so it is in Isaiah (perhaps this is the Scripture from which he learned it!): “Come, my people (it is an exhortation addressed to a community), “enter thou into thy chambers (the pronouns indicate individual response to this call), and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth (or, perhaps, the dwellers in the Land?) for their iniquity.”

The historical background to this prophecy is impressive. Devout king Hezekiah had called the people of Israel from north and south to come and keep Passover in Jerusalem. As it turned out, by this act of faith those who responded provided for their own protection and safety, for then the land was ravaged from end to end by the merciless armies of Sennacherib, and only Jerusalem remained undevastated. There, as at the first Passover, twelve legions of angels hovered in protection over the faithful (Isaiah 31:5), as they had done over the homes of the twelve tribes in Egypt at the first of all Passovers. And, as the destroying angel had gone through the homes of all families not protected by the blood of the lamb, so also in Hezekiah’s day “the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians.” Thus in Isaiah’s own time, the faithful had their Passover refuge when divine judgement wrought deliverance.

SAFETY

This prophecy assures the true Israel of God in the twentieth century of a similar protection in the day of wrath. As it was in the days of Noah, when the Lord said: “Come thou and all thy house into the ark … and the Lord shut him in.”

How will protection be provided for the Lord’s people in that day, and where? The idea that the saints will be taken away to Sinai or some other remote deserted place has little support in Scripture. Noah found safety in the ark, which he had prepared “by faith.” And it was “by faith” that the people of Israel kept the Passover in their own homes, made safe there by the blood of the lamb. Here Isaiah’s pointed instruction is: “Enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee.” This echoes the action of Elisha, when “he went in, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord” (2 Kings 4:33); and in turn Jesus quotes Isaiah in the familiar words: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father” (Matthew 6: 6).

From these words it would seem that the saints’ place of safety in the last great crisis is the place of faith and prayer—which might be anywhere! Can any more specific conclusion, as to locality, be drawn from this Scripture? By reasoning from the parallel deliverance in Hezekiah’s day (to which this passage originally referred), it may be argued with fair confidence that the place of safety will be Jerusalem, to which those who respond immediately (Luke 12: 36) to the angelic summons (Matthew 24: 31 and 25: 6) will be taken; for, at the time of the resurrection and gathering of the saints, the Lord will already be established as king in Jerusalem (Matthew 25: 31)^[28] when the days of its warfare are accomplished and it is become truly a city of peace.

THE ADVERSARIES

“In that day,” Isaiah 27 continues, “the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword (note the triple emphasis) shall punish

leviathan the swift serpent, and

leviathan the (crooked) winding serpent, and

he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”

Here, easily identifiable, are the great political adversaries of God’s people. In Isaiah’s day the identification of them would be simplicity itself. Nineveh of Assyria is pictured as a great beast in the waters of the swift-flowing Tigris. Babylon is a similar monster in the waters of the slow meandering Euphrates, whilst Egypt is a crocodile in the vast expanse of the Nile (the word “Sea” is used in this sense in Isaiah 19: 5 and Nahum 3: 8). Any Jew of Isaiah’s own day would readily recognize the allusions.

In the Last Days their counterparts may be sought in the implacable enemies of Israel who desolate the Holy Land for the last time. Or is it possible that these should be equated with the three great beasts of Revelation?

Yet another picture of this momentous time is the final gathering of Israel: “In that day the Lord shall beat off his fruit from the channel of the River (Euphrates) unto the stream of Egypt (now referred to as ‘brook,’ RV, because its power is dwindled away), and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel” (27: 12). If this reading correctly interprets the figure of speech, then the picture is that of the few isolated olives being knocked off their remote branches by blows from long sticks. If, however, the RV margin be accepted: “shall beat out his corn,” then the figure is that of threshing and winnowing, and should be equated with the vision in Revelation 14: 15 of the crowned Son of man reaping the harvest of the earth with his sharp sickle.

Either way, the emphasis is on the selectivity of this final re-gathering: “Ye shall be gathered one by one.” The word “channel” in this passage emphasizes the same truth, for it is the familiar word “shibboleth” (which also means “corn”) of Judges 12: 6. Just as, in that famous incident of Jephthah’s campaign, “shibboleth” divided infallibly between friend and foe, so now in prophecy it becomes a token of a separation between those who are Israel indeed and those who are only nominal members of the nation: “And I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion” (Jeremiah 3: 14. Compare also Amos 9: 8, 9).

“In that day a great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt (compare here the exposition of Isaiah 19: 18-20 suggested in chapter 7), and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount of Jerusalem.” It is the trumpet of Jubilee, which is sounded, carrying the news of final release from bondage. It is the great trumpet because with the seventh and last (Revelation 11: 15), the Messiah takes to him his Great power and reigns; it is “the time of the dead that they should be judged, the time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great.”

[27] “together with my dead body shall they arise” springs from an attempt to make sense of the solecism in the Hebrew text. The reading given here calls for only the slightest emendation.

[28] “The Last Days” chapter 11.

For many years this familiar passage has been expounded as a prophecy that there will come a time when the nations of the world will either be seized by an overmastering anxiety to get together and rid themselves of the threat of war, or will feel at some political juncture that at last they have actually devised a scheme by which war has been finally abolished. At such a time “sudden destruction cometh upon them”; it will overtake them “as a thief in the night.” This will be the final cataclysm at the coming of the Lord.

Interpreted in this fashion, the Peace and Safety cry has been regarded as one of the outstanding signs of our times. U.N.O. and, before it, the League of Nations and also nearly every other twentieth century effort to patch up the quarrels and bickerings of the nations have in turn been hailed as the fulfilment of Paul’s prophecy, with the logical (sic!) conclusion that the coming of the Lord is just round the corner.

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the value of this long-standing interpretation is only in direct proportion to its degree of Biblical support. For too long interpretation of these Bible signs has been by means of politics instead of by means of Bible. Thus the elucidation of Bible prophecy has been brought down to the level of a semi-political game, valid for those who are forbidden to take part in politics in any other way.

A FRESH APPROACH

The present approach will be on somewhat different lines.

A not unimportant feature of Paul’s two letters to Thessalonica is the number of allusions, which it contains to the Lord’s Olivet prophecy. This is specially true in the section 1 Thessalonians 4: 15-5:10 (the chapter division here is unfortunate):

It is doubtless true that several of these correspondences occurring by themselves could hardly be recognizable as allusions to the Lord’s discourse, but the fact that they come together in the space of a few verses makes the probability of close connection a near-certainty. Those accustomed to tracing this kind of allusiveness in the inspired writers of Scripture will more readily perceive the character of this paragraph in 1 Thessalonians.

SLUMBERING VIRGINS

Once the fore-going parallel is recognized the conclusion becomes inevitable that those assuring themselves of peace and safety are not the nations of the world but the Lord’s own unprepared servants. It is to them that the Lord comes as a thief in the night.

A further argument, readily educible from this passage, leads to the same conclusion. Paul continues: “sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child.” This figure of speech needs to be pondered. A pregnant woman knows that her travail is inevitable. Also, she knows roughly when it will come. But she never knows the precise time. Almost always she is at length taken by surprise.

All these aspects of Paul’s simile are marvellously appropriate to the waiting church. She knows that the Lord will come. From the signs of the times she has a fair idea that the present epoch will see his coming. But “of that day and hour knoweth no man.”

On the other hand, to attempt to apply Paul’s figure to the nations of the world is to make nonsense of it. They do not know that the day of crisis is inevitable. All their planning is based on the assumption that it can be staved off by their own scheming. In any case the entire context of Paul’s exhortation disallows the possibility of reference to godless nations. In this epistle the apostle is concerned first and last with the well-being of this newly-founded ecclesia in Thessalonica.

A SECRET ADVENT?

A further conclusion to be drawn from this re-examination of 1 Thessalonians is that the idea of a preliminary secret thief-like advent of Christ before his open manifestation in glory to the nations of the world loses all its Biblical support.

Not only here but also in every other place where the same figure is used; it has reference to the condition of the Lord’s servants. It is to certain of the7n that the manifestation of the Lord will be like the stealthy depredations of a thief: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments … “ (Revelation 16: 15). “If therefore thou (Sardis) shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief …” (Revelation 3: 3). “The Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But (to some who are unrepentant) the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3: 9, 10).

On the other hand Christ himself warned pointedly against being misled by those who teach that the second coming will be stealthy and secret. In effect the churches teach this when they try to persuade that the Lord’s coming is to the heart of the believer, or mystically in the “Real Presence” in the sacramental bread. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach the same thing when they affirm an invisible “spiritual” presence of the Lord since 1914.

“BELIEVE IT NOT”

To all these the answer of Scripture is: “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24: 23-27). This passage is so clear and emphatic, it should make those pause and consider who have been in the habit of thinking (and teaching) in terms of a secret coming of Christ to his people assembled to meet him in some remote uninhabited part of the world.

It is not in this sense that the Lord comes as a thief. The point of this simile is different. When a burglar has broken into a home and slipped away with all the money and the choicest items of wealth it contains, the householder suddenly awakes to the fact that what he deemed to be his most treasured possessions are gone, they are his no longer.

The Lord’s coming will be like that. For all, and especially for the unprepared, there will suddenly dawn a day of stark self-awareness when with a flash of honest insight such as is rare even with the most mature and spiritual, it is realized that those things which have counted for so much in life — cars, clothes, homes, gardens, holidays, social standing, professional or business status —are seen to be of very little value in the presence of the Lord. It will be as though they have all been suddenly snatched away by a thief.

For over a century this unique prophecy in Ezekiel 38, 39 have been the sheet-anchor of all the political expectations built round the prophecies of the time of the end. The main ideas educed from it seem to be unshakable. At the same time the fact has to be faced that the enthusiasm of expositors has often run away with them. Now and then the handling of this prophecy has been quite unworthy of the stark grandeur of its theme. And it has to be admitted that even the most balanced and cautious attempts at elucidation of its details look in need of overhaul in the light of the altogether unexpected turn of events since 1948.

The biggest of the many mistakes that have been made is in the interpretation of the details of this Scripture by the help of ancient maps, political geography, and newspaper articles, rather than by Scripture itself. This kind of emphasis should always be accepted with considerable caution.

The identification of Gog with Russia appears to be fairly secure. That this is an allusion to Gugu, a Scythian king mentioned in a Babylonian inscription, seems reasonable; and the Scythians most likely inhabited all the area round the Black Sea. But a safer means of identification is the expression in 38: 15: “thou shalt come forth from thy place out of the uttermost parts of the north” (RV). From the standpoint of one in Palestine this expression most obviously refers to Turkey or Russia, yet even this conclusion loses some of its inevitability when one encounters the same expression in Isaiah 14: 13 (RV) regarding the king of Babylon!

PRECARIOUS IDENTIFICATIONS

The suggestion, once very popular, that Magog is Germany, is a pure guess, completely devoid of all Biblical support. The obvious meaning in Ezekiel would seem to be that Magog is the land the great leader, Gog, comes from.

Meschech and Tubal quite demonstrably are not Moscow and Tobolsk. In Ezekiel 27: 13 they are listed among the many nations and peoples trading with Tyre. But that city of commerce traded only with the peoples of its own hinterland, like Damascus, Sheba, and Dedan, which had caravan routes reaching to the sea, and with those regions overseas which could be reached by their intrepid sailors — Javan, Carthage, Tarshish, and the isles of Elishah. But Moscow and Tobolsk fall into neither category. It is difficult to envisage in what way those remote places could maintain a trade with Tyre in slaves and vessels of brass.^[20] This identification rests solely on similarity of sound — a precarious foundation! By such a method it would be as reasonable to equate Gomer with Wales (Cymri). How much confident dogmatism has gone into the equation of Rosh with Russia for exactly the same reason and no other’ Yet rosh is one of the commonest of Hebrew words. In all its hundreds of occurrences it is correctly translated “head” or “chief.” Then how can anyone be sure that in this single place it should be treated as a proper name?

The Ethiopia mentioned in the Gogian confederacy is not necessarily modern Abyssinia. The Hebrew name is “Cush,” which is the ordinary word for “black.” As a geographical name it has more than one application. It may refer to an eastern Cush, the land of the black mountains (Genesis 10: 6-8); or to Midian, the land of black tents (Habakkuk 3: 7); or to the Sudan, the land of black people. From the context in Ezekiel 38 it is difficult to say with confidence which of the three is intended.

Attempts have often been made to include France in the list of invaders, as Gomer or Togarmah, but this seems to be the result of wishful thinking or guesswork more than the fruits of Bible evidence.

It would be, no doubt, both interesting and highly desirable to identify with certainty all the members of this military alliance, but the present state of knowledge counsels caution in this matter. The main point is clear and incontrovertible — a mighty invasion of the land of Israel from the north is indicated here.

BRITAIN?

Both the identification and the character of “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish” have about them the same elements of uncertainty. The equation of all three with Britain, for many years asserted with supreme confidence, now (1969) begins to look slightly sick in the light of modern politics and the events of the past twenty years. “Perfidious Albion,” which has systematically and cravenly broken all its promises to the Jews in a spineless attempt to keep friends with oil-rich Arabs, has, as its reward, achieved only promotion from a first-rate to a third-rate power in record time. The “toothless bulldog” is feared by none and respected by few. Its economic, political and social decay has become the best possible modern exemplification of one of the greatest truths in history: “Him that curseth thee, I will curse.”^[21]

Yet it has to be conceded that these facts in themselves do not rule out as hopeless the old familiar interpretation. Over the centuries God has brought about many strange and sudden transformations in the political scene, and the same thing could happen again, even though at the time of writing there is not on the horizon a cloud even as big as a man’s hand.

The real criterion is still the evidence from Scripture — and a re-examination of this does not go far to allay misgivings.

It seems pretty certain that there was both an eastern (2 Chronicles 9: 21 and 20: 37) and a western (Jonah 1: 3; Ezekiel 27: 12) Tarshish. If the former is India, as seems most likely, there is little help towards identification with Britain, for the ties of both India and Pakistan with the old imperial power are now about as tenuous as they could be. Also, both are militarily innocuous, and the latter is strongly, almost violently, antagonistic to Israel. Nor does the fact that Phoenicians traded with England prove that country to be the western Tarshish, for the Phoenicians certainly traded also with Spain, a country far more rich than Britain in “silver, iron, tin, and lead.”

In any case the phrase “merchants of Tarshish” is not bound to mean “merchants who live in Tarshish.” It may simply mean “merchants who trade with Tarshish,” and thus may indicate the much more local commercial power of Tyre. From this point of view it might be simpler to say that the merchants of Tarshish represent U.S.A. rather than Britain, though in that case all the usual supporting evidences educed from the familiar passages about both eastern and western Tarshish becomes not only valueless but a real hindrance. The passages listed above positively refuse to fit in with such a view.

“All the young lions” of Tarshish is another detail long overdue for re-examination. Even when the British Empire was at the height of its grandeur the application of these words to dominions and colonies, whilst apparently obvious enough, had precious little Biblical foundation to rest on. Why, one wonders, was the evidence of Ezekiel 19:2-6 on this point so consistently overlooked through several generations? There the young lions are the princes of the house of Judah (compare the way in which the greatest scion of that house is called “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” and see also Genesis 49:9). Is it likely that Ezekiel would use the identical symbol with two widely differing meanings? More probably, surely, the expression describes either certain outstanding national leaders associated with Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish or, possibly, the great Jewish merchant princes who carry such influence in the world of commerce.

At one time and another much has been made of the phrase: “Art thou come to take a spoil and to take a prey?” If indeed the word “come” requires that the speaker be actually present in the invaded land or in close proximity to it, then modern developments and present prospects both make reference to a defensive challenge by Britain decidedly difficult.

SHEBA AND DEDAN

Again, Sheba and Dedan have been glibly replaced by modern Muscat and Aden. Even if this assumption were warranted (which it certainly is not), one would be left wondering why these somewhat obscure corners of British influence (if they can be so described today!) should be picked out as the foremost way of identifying the protector of Israel in the Last Days.

In any case, the Bible evidence concerning Sheba and Dedan altogether disallows the conclusion, which has been so often uncritically reached.

Ezekiel 25: 13 and Jeremiah 49: 8 and 25: 23 pointedly associate Dedan with Edom and Teman, which were certainly located to the immediate south and south-east of Israel, and not in the remote corners of the Arabian peninsula.

Concerning Sheba, there is at least one clear-cut line of evidence, which makes identification with the southern corner of Arabia highly unlikely. Lamentations 4: 21 identifies the land of Uz, where Job lived, with Edom. Mention of Eliphaz the Temanite supports this. The Sabeans who raided Job’s oxen and asses were actually, according to the original Hebrew text, men of Sheba^[22] (see Job 1: 15 RVm). If Sheba is in the extreme south of Arabia, then these raiders had travelled across nearly a thousand miles of desert to capture beasts with which they had almost no hope of getting home —another thousand miles! Such considerations require that Sheba be placed along with Dedan in the northern part of the Arabian Desert. And now where is the ground for identification with either Britain or America? The modernising of “Sheba, Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish” with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria is at least as likely as the more familiar alternatives, especially in the light of the Septuagint reading “Arabs” for Sheba.

In recent years a completely different interpretation of the passage under examination has been canvassed. Instead of the words: “Art thou come to take a spoil …?” being read as a challenge and a rebuff to the northern invader, they can be taken to mean: “You are going to invade Israel and profit from its prosperity? then we will join you in this and share in the plunder.” Such an interpretation is not impossible, and would certainly accord well with the historic character of the Arab races in their dealings with Israel.

So far the net outcome of the present investigation is to leave the main idea of the traditional interpretation of Ezekiel 38 where it was, but to throw some doubt on the soundness of many of the details associated with that exposition.

WHEN FULFILLED?

There remains another important aspect of the prophecy, which has hardly had the serious consideration that it deserves, even though it is suggested more than once in the writings of Dr. Thomas. The assumption is often made, indeed it is usually taken as almost axiomatic, that this Gog-Magog invasion will take place before the coming of the Lord and will actually be the most clear-cut sign available to the saints that his return will happen almost immediately. Is there any single argument which points clearly to this conclusion? Certainly there are several difficulties in the way of such a view and these are considerations, which cease to be difficulties if the prophecy is read, as having application to the time after Jesus has become King of the Jews in Jerusalem. These arguments, which have been discussed at greater length elsewhere,^[23] are listed here briefly for convenience:

1. Israel dwelling securely. Can this ever be true of Israel whilst ringed round by hostile Arab states?
2. “Dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” The words have never shewn any sign of being true since 1948, nor — by ordinary judgement — can they be until Arab enemies become friends or subjects.
3. “To take a spoil and to take a prey.” In itself the small state of Israel is a prize not worth grabbing by any greater power. It is true that the geographic situation of Israel would make it a prize worth having, but the prophecy does not hint at geographical advantage. Instead: “cattle and goods,” i.e. material wealth. But once their Messiah rules over Israel, their material prosperity will be evident to all the world. And if meantime the world has been ravaged by nuclear war, famine and pestilence (Matthew 24: 7), the contrast with the rest of the world will be all the greater.
4. The language used to describe the destruction of Gog and his army (39: 17) is quoted in Revelation 19: 17, 18 concerning the judgement meted out by him whose name is King of kings and Lord of lords. For those who believe in letting Scripture interpret Scripture, this and point 4 will be decisive.
5. The phrase “dwelling securely” is applied in Ezekiel 34: 28, 24, 25 and in Zechariah 14: 11 to the time when the kingdom is established.
6. With the alternative concept—an invasion of the Land before the Lord’s coming, the sequence of ideas in Ezekiel 37, 38 has to be completely disregarded:
7. Valley of dry bones—Israel’s final time of trouble.
8. The nation united in the Land.
9. Their Messiah ruling over them; God’s sanctuary in the midst of them.
10. The invasion from the north when Israel are in peace and prosperity.

Admittedly, chronological sequence cannot be insisted on in prophecies of the Last Days; e.g. Zechariah 12-14: “in that day,” Isaiah’s “Little Apocalypse,” chapters 24-26; the book of Revelation itself. But in Ezekiel 37, 38 the detailed parallel with Ezekiel 34 requires strict sequence.

1. “I will set up one Shepherd over them.”
2. “My servant David a prince among them.”
3. “And I will make with them a covenant of peace.”
4. “I the Lord will be their God …”
5. “and they, the house of Israel, my people.”
6. “I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land.”
7. “And they shall dwell safely in the wilderness (i.e. the open country; compare without walls, having neither bars nor gates).”

The first six of these seven quotations from Ezekiel 34 are found almost word for word in Ezekiel 37: 22-27. But the last is repeated in 38: 8, 11. The conclusion seems to be inescapable that since in chapter 34: 23-31 the prophet is picturing the blessedness of Israel when Messiah’s kingdom is fully established, the same is true in chapter 37, 38 — including the expression “dwell safely.” And since another common meaning of the Hebrew phrase is: “dwell in trust (in God),” this is probably how it should read here, emphasizing the conversion of Israel.

One difficulty in the way of this conclusion (that the Gog-Magog invasion happens after the return of Christ) is more apparent than real: “After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.”

This seems to indicate that Israel must suffer for their sins at the hands of Gog. Yet it need not. “They shall bear their shame” (RV) may mean repentance and acknowledgement of unworthiness rather than the suffering of punishment. In other words, this passage is equivalent to the familiar words of Zechariah 12: 10, which tells of a repentance of Israel not only before Messiah’s coming but even more poignantly afterwards.

It should be noted that there is no hint in Ezekiel 38, 39 that Israel suffers in any way from the northern invasion. “As a cloud to cover the land … to take a spoil and to take a prey” describes intention. There is no lasting achievement. No sooner is the land over-run than it is delivered by divine power.

The language of 39: 3 seems to require this conclusion: “I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.” This is a picture of an invader still in action with his weapons of offence when he is annihilated. Thus any interpretation, which requires Gog’s occupation of the Land to last for several years, or even months, must be disallowed.

[20] A similar argument based on Ezekiel 32:26 goes further to eliminate this interpretation.

[21] And in the Hebrew text, the second word here is much stronger than the first.

[22] The word for Sabeans is written quite differently.

[23] “The Last Days” chapter 1.

The Lord’s Olivet prophecy of the Last Things includes the most detailed picture of the Judgement, which Scripture presents. Yet one detail has served to confuse students of this chapter more than any other. Because Jesus said: “Before him shall be gathered all nations,” the conclusion has often been reached that Matthew 25: 31-46 is not the judgement of the Lord’s own servants to which, for example, Paul alluded when he wrote: “we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ.” Instead, it is assumed, this is a national judgement in which the nations are held accountable for their attitude to the Jews — “my brethren.” This Judgement is taken as a final outworking of the divine principle which Abraham learned: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.”

DIFFICULTIES

There are serious difficulties in the way of this interpretation. For instance:

1. If this view is correct, then the doctrine of a judgement on a national basis rests on this Bible passage only, and it a highly debatable one, as it is hoped to demonstrate by and by. The precarious nature of conclusions that have only one (sic!) Scripture to support them has been demonstrated over and over again. Every sect in Christendom sins against this canon of Bible interpretation. It is a habit, which Christadelphians must ever be vigilant against. Nowhere else in the Bible is such a “national” judgement described or even hinted at. So enthusiasts for this particular interpretation of Matthew 25 should hesitate before they achieve dogmatism regarding it. “A doctrine which is based on one text of Scripture will generally be found to rest on no text at all. It is our duty to expound the dark places of Scripture by the clear ones, and to interpret the single texts of Scripture by the whole proportion of Faith” (C. Wordsworth).
2. The mind boggles at the idea of a national judgement. How can it be applied? And if it can, then will it not inevitably involve a tremendous element of unfairness—by God Himself who says: “Come, let us reason together?” If the basis of judgement is to be that mentioned earlier—a nation’s attitude to the Jews—then what of nations, which have had no contact worth mentioning with the Jews? — Fiji Islanders, Eskimos, Hottentots. And what of nations which have changed again and again in their treatment of God’s ancient people? In the reign of king John, England was outstanding in its persecution of the seed of Abraham; in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries she set the world a shining example of humanitarian treatment of them; in the period 1920-1950, the shameful thirty years, this country broke its promises to the Jews and indulged its administrators’ prejudices against them to an extent that made imperial downfall inevitable. Then if the coming of the Lord takes place, say, in 1980, what kind of assessment will be made of this country’s worth? Or must such judgement depend on what a particular nation does to the Jews in the last few years before the Lord returns?
3. More than this, is it not obvious that nations are not morally all of one piece? Again, England in its year of grace 1969 is a striking illustration of the difficulty. In recent years no nation has thrown itself into moral decline and decay with the same dramatic thoroughness that this nation now exemplifies. Yet unquestionably it still has an unvocal core of wholesome good-living people (and the world’s biggest colony of Christadelphians) with a decent humane attitude to the Jews, and with reverence for the Bible. Then if the English are to receive judgement as a nation in the Last Day, either the godless are going to be wonderfully blessed for the sake of the Bible-loving minority or the wholesome section of the nation is going to be dragged down to undeserved degradation and punishment because of the rest. It is all very difficult.
4. In the details cited in this Matthew 25 picture of judgement, the actions commented on are only too obviously those of individuals to individuals, not of nations: giving food and drink to the needy, helping the sick, giving hospitality, visiting the miserable in prison. Some of these beneficent acts may be possible on a national scale, but certainly not all are.
5. A further difficulty is this. The ground for rejection is not hatred or persecution (of the Jews) but just lack of positive good-will towards those designated “my brethren.” As a basis for national reprobation this is somewhat difficult to understand.

ARGUMENTS THE OTHER WAY

Over against these unresolved problems there can be set a number of positive arguments which seem to favour or even require that the entire passage be read as describing the judgement of the saints in Christ, those who are “his brethren” and whose final destiny is declared when they “come forth … unto the resurrection of life or … to the resurrection of condemnation.”

1. The passage itself seems to be decisive: “Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” These words can describe only one set of people—those who are the spiritual seed of Abraham, who have been chosen according to the gracious divine purpose in Christ before the world began (Ephesians 1: 4). To apply this passage to any but these is to debase the meaning of Bible words. The “national judgement” theory comes to grief here immediately.
2. “When saw we thee hungry, thirsty, sick, in prison, and did not minister unto thee” are the words of people very conscious of having lived lives of “Christian service.” Ignorant nations of the world could not express themselves in such terms. These are the words of men intent on justifying themselves by amassing good works to their own credit!
3. The phrase “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren…” only makes sense if “these my brethren” are present at the judgement. Indeed, by far the most natural interpretation is to take them as meaning the approved already set on his right hand.
4. The accompanying parables — the faithful and unfaithful stewards, the wise and foolish virgins, the servants with the talents — all emphasize the theme of personal responsibility to “the Bridegroom,” “the lord of the servants.” Is it likely then that the last sixteen verses of this discourse switch suddenly to dealing with an altogether different principle — that of national responsibility?
5. The Greek text of verse 32 strongly suggests the idea of individual responsibility. The grammatical point is somewhat technical and therefore not easy to explain without a lot of jargon. In Greek, as in nearly all languages, a plural noun takes a plural verb. But Greek has one marked exception to this rule. When the plural noun is neuter gender, the verb is singular. A good example of this is Revelation 1: 4: “the seven Spirits which is before his throne.” Here “Spirits,” being neuter plural in Greek, is correctly followed by the word “is” (singular). The translators have rightly turned it into the plural “are.”

Similarly in Matthew 25: 32, the phrase “before him shall be gathered all nations” should normally have the verb in the singular form because “nations” is neuter plural (in Greek). Yet the verb is actually plural. It would seem that the words include a grammatical solecism for the sake of emphasizing (by the plural verb) that this judgement is to be on an individual basis.

A further detail serves to corroborate this conclusion. “And he shall separate them one from another…” should normally have the word “them” in neuter form to agree with the neuter word “nations”; yet in fact the pronoun is masculine, as though yet again to bring out emphasis on individual people.

6. The similarity between the Lord’s parabolic language about sheep and goats and the powerful prophecy of judgement in Ezekiel 34 is not to be missed (see especially verses 17, 20). This resemblance is not accidental. But Ezekiel 34 is about God’s judgement of unworthiness in Israel, not among the surrounding nations. It would seem evident from Matthew 25 that Jesus was declaring the extension of the same principle of judgement to his spiritual Israel also. This is reasonable. But to pick up a prophecy about Israel and apply it to Gentile nations in their friendship or hatred of Israel is surely a dislocation not so easy to accept.
7. There are several examples in the Old Testament of the word “nations” being used in the sense of “people out of all nations”; e.g. Psalm 9: 17: “The wicked shall return (Hebrew) into Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.” The word “return” implies that there has been a resurrection. And the word “forget” strongly suggests that this verse pictures the fate of those responsible to the God of heaven and yet neglectful of His law.

A much more appropriate example is Isaiah 25: 7: “And he will destroy in this mountain (Zion, where Christ sits on the throne of his glory) the face of the covering that is cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.” The next verse dearly shews that saints out of all nations are meant, for it is for them that the Lord “will swallow up death in victory.” There is Paul’s authority for this interpretation in 1 Corinthians 15: 54.

With such a case, both positive and negative, regarding this judgement passage in Matthew 25 should there not be considerable reluctance to promulgate the idea of a judgement of the nations? Or has some evidence the other way been overlooked? Are there other places in Scripture, which teach such a doctrine? It would be interesting to know.

The last chapter of Zechariah has many powerful details of the consummation of the Lord’s work among His people, some of which are by no means easy to understand. Nor is it altogether clear how this prophecy is to be pieced together chronologically.

It begins with a successful attack on Jerusalem by “all nations.” Clearly this phrase is not to be taken literally. It puts too big a strain on the imagination to picture the Fiji Islanders and the Eskimos, the pygmies of Africa and the Communist Chinese, all combining together in a savage onslaught on the city

Some have sought a way out of the difficulty by calling in the United Nations. But even then a solution to the problem is still far away, for the aim of any such activity by that effete hypocritical organization is to separate combatants by means of a peace-keeping task force. But these attackers in Zechariah ravage and spoil without mercy.

As soon as the Bible idiom of “all nations round about Israel” (compare 1 Chronicles 14: 17, 2 Chronicles 32: 23; Ezekiel 32: 12) is recognized, the difficulty ceases to exist. These, as in so many other prophecies already considered, are the Arab enemies of Israel who will never rest content until they have ground their Jewish neighbours into the dust. These Arab invaders may be confidently depended on to rifle houses and ravish women. In the third Arab-Israeli war a Jewish citizen stated in a newspaper article that if the Arabs had won he would have shot his own wife and family and then

himself. “There would have been another Masada.” This, at least, shews what the Jews expect when they lose the struggle against these inveterate foes.

That they will lose is plainly intimated in one Scripture after another. “The city shall be taken … half the city shall go forth into captivity.” This must mean slavery for a big proportion of the population, as Joel 3 and Isaiah 19 have already been seen to require.

THE MESSIAH

“Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.” In the time of crisis and despair, and because Israel turn in their helplessness to the God of their fathers, deliverance will come in a way to amaze the world. How the Lord will fight is explicitly stated: “And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour” (v. 13).

The great plague with which these enemies will be smitten is described in language which makes the blood run cold: “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth” (v. 12). All kinds of suggestions have been made as to how this might come about. Bubonic plague, the deadly incurable aftermath of nuclear radiation such as is caused by hydrogen bombs, some hitherto unused secret weapon of germ or chemical warfare perfected by the back-room scientists — many guesses of this sort have been ventilated. One thing seems to be clear: the words indicate an escalation of the attack on Jerusalem into war on a massive scale involving much more than the tiny Holy Land.

At such a time the Messiah himself will appear. It was promised by the angels “he shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Since he went away in a cloud of divine glory (Acts 1: 9), it may be confidently expected that he will be manifested accompanied by that same Shekinah majesty. This is implied in Zechariah: “and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee.” Here the “saints” or “holy ones” coming with (and not to) the Messiah are the angels (see Matthew 24: 31, 1 Thessalonians 4: 16; Jude 14)^[16] Also, the Messiah will return to the same place from which he ascended: “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.”

EARTH QUAKE

At that time this Mount of Olives will be split in two by a mighty earthquake (v. 4), which will create a great valley running east and west. It is only in recent times that geologists have discovered the existence of a great geological east-west fault in the structure of the Mount of Olives. It is as though ages ago the Almighty prepared the ground for the vast changes soon to take place.

The result will be a formation similar to that, which already exists at Shechem (Nablus), where mount Ebal and mount Gerizim flank a deep east west valley. It was here where Joshua assembled the people of Israel with the ark, the symbol of God’s presence, in the midst, to hear recited the blessings and the cursings which would come upon them (Joshua 8: 33, 34). Apparently, then, the mount of Olives will be prepared that it might be the scene of a similar declaration of the divine will concerning the saints in Christ. They will be assembled in the divine presence of a more glorious Jesus-Joshua, and set either on his right hand to hear the wondrous invitation: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom,” or to be thrust away to the left: “Depart from me ye cursed.”^[17]

At the time of the earthquake men will flee “as from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah” — fleeing “from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2: 19—a passage based initially on the experience of Uzziah’s earthquake, but appropriated in the New Testament to describe the terror of the coming of Christ: 2 Thessalonians 1: 19; Revelation 6: 16).

This “valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel,” a place no one can identify. Perhaps once again the allusion is not geographical but spiritual intended to recall Azazel, the scapegoat, which, with sin laid upon it, was for utter dismissal (see RVm in Leviticus 16: 8) from the presence of the Lord.

Thus, with both the unworthy in the ecclesia of Christ and the wicked among the nations purged out, the kingdom of Messiah will come in with glory and righteousness: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one,” that is, “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”

MESSIAH’S KINGDOM

The prophecy is rounded off with two vivid pictures of the transformations brought by Messiah’s reign. “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left, of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.”

That which in ancient days was a unique combination of national holiday, Bible School, and re-dedication for the people of Israel, will be extended to take in all the nations of the world. The feast will be held all the year round, members of all the diverse peoples going up to the Holy City in rotation, for instruction and guidance in the ways of God (Isaiah 19: 23-25).

The phrase: “every one that is left of all the nations” is ominous. The implication is unmistakable that a big proportion of the world’s teeming millions, now presenting such a problem to scientists and world planners, will not survive to see the wonders of the coming age.^[18] But for those whom the grace of God preserves there will be opportunities of blessing past imagining.

Yet, such is human nature, even under the benign conditions which Christ’s reign will bring, some stubbornness and recalcitrance is bound to happen. Those unwilling to be integrated in the divine family of nations will find themselves without rain: and in particular Egypt, if rebellious, will be visited once again with the plague which broke the spirit of that nation in the days of Moses. Jeremiah indicates that where there is persistent stubbornness, the plague will not stop at the firstborn: “And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The Lord liveth … then shall they be built in the midst of my people (here is a true UNO, built round and in Israel, the people of God’s choice; see also Isaiah 2: 3). But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 12: 16, 17).

In contrast to this picture of intransigence, so characteristic of human nature, is another of Jerusalem and its people utterly transformed in character: “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holy to the Lord.” The very bridles which have been bathed in blood (Revelation 14: 10) will now be as holy in the work of the city of peace as the garments of the High Priest (Exodus 28: 33, 36). “And the (earthenware) pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the (golden) bowls before the altar.” Here is further symbolism too instructive to be neglected. Those who are earthen vessels filled with the treasure of the Lord’s message (2 Corinthians 4: 7) will themselves become as valuable and permanent in God’s service as the treasure itself.

“And there shall no more be the Canaanite in the house of the Lord.” Not only is this an assurance that the centuries-long Moslem sway over the holy city shall be swept away for ever, but also it is an indirect but yet emphatic way of insisting that the promises God made to Abraham will be finally and completely fulfilled. For, when ‘‘Abram passed through the land … the Canaanite was then in the land;” but when “the Lord made covenant with Abram,” he promised: “Unto thy seed have I given this land … Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaims, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites” (Genesis 12: 6 and 15: 18-21). Abraham himself will see it fulfilled.

[16] It has to be remembered that in Scripture the word “saints” may describe three separate groups of people:

1. the angels, God’s holy messengers;
2. Israel, God’s holy nation
3. those sanctified in Christ, God’s holy remnant.

[17] Each occurrence of the word has to be judged on its merits, in the light of the context. ~ Compare the way in which the travail of Jesus in the garden on the mount of Olives led to men being set on his right hand and his left, blessing and cursing, blessed and cursed.

[18] On this question see also Jeremiah 25: 33, 44: 14, 27; Isaiah 24: 5, 6; 66: 16, 19; Matthew 24: 22.

The concluding section of Joel’s prophecy is mainly concerned with a more detailed expansion of the threat of divine judgement against the inveterate enemies of Israel, a judgement that has already been pronounced in chapter 2: 20, 30, 31. The reason for this anger is given with detail and indignant emphasis. Israel has been ravished by a host of enemies—Tyre and Zidon, Philistia, Egypt, Edom (vv. 4, 19). Neither the mighty Assyrian nor the barbarian northern tribes are hinted at, but only those names, which represent the Arab nations, round the state of Israel in the twentieth century.

The picture is one of savage inhuman treatment meted out to Land and people alike. The Land is divided up amongst the invaders (v. 2) and ruthlessly plundered (v. 5), the people are exported to far-off lands as slave labour1^[9] (vv. 6, 8) and are even used as currency to purchase self-indulgence (“they have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine”)—and all this to work off a grudge and a spite against the Jews. Yet this sanctification of a Holy War (v. 9) is really an attempt at reprisal against God: “will ye repay a deed of mine?”(v. 4) It was God who brought Israel back to their land. Then how can Arabs hope to set themselves against the plan of the Almighty?

AN ANCIENT DFLIVERANCE

God in His indignation will bring these adversaries into “the valley of Jehoshaphat,” the valley where Jehovah is One who metes out judgement. It is a mistake to seek a geographical identification of this valley, even though there are plenty of maps, which confidently, though for no good reason, place it to the east or south of Jerusalem. The allusion is to God’s marvellous deliverance of His people in the days of king Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20). On that occasion a great confederacy from Ammon, Moab and Edom (v. 22) came against a king and people who abandoned all trust in themselves and who instead leaned for help on the God of their fathers. So the “Lord sent liers in wait” against the enemy, and there was a great overthrow. These “liers in wait” were evidently angels who, unseen, set the invaders against one another (v. 23), as in the day of Midian (Judges 7: 22; Isaiah 9: 4).

This will happen again. In response to the prayer: “Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord,” God will send not only His Gabriel (the Mighty One of God) but also His Messiah—El Gibbor (Isaiah 9: 6).

The ensuing judgement of the nations is pictured in graphic language. There are “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.” This Hebrew word translated “decision” is the same as “consumption” in Isaiah 28: 21, 22 which foretells a time of divine intervention when God will “do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act … for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.”

GRIM HARVEST

The Isaiah and Joel passages have another link, for the word “act” is used in the same context to signify “labour in agriculture.” Accordingly the Joel prophecy proceeds: “Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down (or, perhaps, tread ye the grapes), for the winepress is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.” The Septuagint version here suggests that two separate harvests of judgement are foretold, for the word “sickle” is plural. This is the interpretation given in Revelation 14 where “one like unto the Son of man” (that is, according to a familiar Bible idiom, one who is the Son of man), wearing a golden crown and carrying a sharp sickle, is seen coming on a white cloud—the radiant Cloud of the Shekinah Glory. This divine Being—the Messiah—is urged by an eager angel of glory to begin his work of judgement: “Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Immediately after this an angel similarly equipped with a sickle, is bidden: “Thrust in thy sharp sickle (as the Son of man has done), and gather the clusters of the vine of the land.” When this is done, and the winepress is trodden “without the city (of Jerusalem),” the blood flows forth “even unto the horse bridles” which are “holy to the Lord” (Zechariah 14: 20, 21), “as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” Here is a ghastly River of Death, to contrast with the loveliness of the River of Water of Life, which is to proceed from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1 and Joel 3:18). Its dire effects carry through a distance of two hundred miles, almost exactly the length of the land from Lebanon to Kadesh, as it is described in a powerful Psalm of Judgement (29: 6, 8; compare also Ezekiel 47: 15, 19).

It is a time not only of wrath but also of deliverance. “The Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem”—the judgements of Revelation 14 are the seven thunders, each introduced by “an angel with a great voice” whose shout is “as a lion roareth”; “and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people (the saints), and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.”

PUNISHMENT AND BLESSING

This double element of retribution and redemption is well suggested also by the promise: “a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.” Here, once again, it would be a mistake to seek a merely geographical meaning. The valley of Shittim was where Israel committed fornication with the women of Moab to the honour of Baal-peor (Numbers 25). That iniquity — and all such sins of apostasy in Israel — is to be washed away, as it was by the water that came from the smitten rock after the idolatry of the golden calf (Deuteronomy 9:21). Shittim was also the scene of vengeance against these Moabite (Arab) enemies of Israel. The Land will be washed clean of all the defilement, which they have brought in.

And not only Moab: “Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.” It is impossible to believe that in the last days Egypt and Edom will be punished for their spiteful treatment of Israel thousands of years earlier. This “violence against the children of Judah” must be something recent and specially vile. It is not clear whether the words: “because they have shed innocent blood in their land” refers to what these Arab enemies have done or to what the Jews have done. If the latter—and all Biblical associations of the phrase “innocent blood” point to this interpretation—then the sin referred to is the crucifixion of Jesus. “His blood be upon us and upon our children” is a prophecy, which must continue to be fulfilled until Jewry acknowledges its guilt. But as soon as that repentance is shewn (compare the parable of the prodigal son), “I will cleanse (hold as innocent: RVm) their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.”

The prophecy could have no finer climax.

[9] Compare here the comment made on page 24, on Isaiah 19:18, 20.

Matthew 24

On the face of it the Lord’s Olivet prophecy is in three easily separable sections: (a) concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 — this in response to the question: “When shall these things be,” when not one stone of the temple is to be left upon another? (b) the Last Days, the time of the Lord’s return—in answer to the question: What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (c) exhortation to preparedness, and warning regarding the day of judgement.

Such an analysis of Christ’s discourse actually over-simplifies it. There is fair reason for believing that the A.D. 70 section of the prophecy will also find another fulfilment in the Last Days. In other words, the brethren of the first century saw the fulfilment of the first part of this prophecy in their day, and were able to profit from the knowledge of it; the brethren of the twentieth century will see the entire prophecy fulfilled from start to finish.

Even apart from the Bible evidence, which is available, pointing to such a conclusion, this may be deemed reasonably possible or even probable, because this is the character of such a big proportion of Bible prophecy. The idea is familiar, to the point of obviousness, that the prophets were inspired to utter words which mostly had some kind of fulfilment in their own time or soon after, but which were also prophecies of the consummation of the age. Psalms written by David about his own experiences were also Psalms about the Messiah (Acts 2:30, 31). Isaiah based many of his prophecies on the suffering and glory of good king Hezekiah, but these were also prophecies of Messiah (John 12: 41). So it would be strange indeed if the greatest prophecy of the greatest prophet of all time did not have a similar double application.

A SECOND FULFILMENT

Here, then, are six more reasons educed from the text itself why the first section of the Lord’s Olivet prophecy should be re-studied with reference to the Last Days:

1. “Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes” (Matthew 24: 17, 18). In Luke 17: 31 Jesus had already used almost identical words concerning “the days of the Son of man.” If this fact stood by itself there might be some (though not much) justification for the assumption that the Lord used the same language because there was the same urgency about the occasions. Those who have really absorbed the spirit of Bible prophecy will know how inadequate such a view is. But in any case there are corroborative reasons.
2. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew. 24: 21). Yet the Old Testament prophets had already made the same portentous declaration over and over again regarding the Last Days! One recalls Daniel’s “time of trouble such as never was” (Daniel 12: 1) and the extreme emphasis of the words of Joel: “there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations” (2: 2). Either the words do not mean what they say, or they are to be reconciled by being applied to the same occasion.
3. It is in this section of the prophecy also that the words come: “But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved” (24: 13). There is more innate difficulty in this saying than has generally been conceded. If “the end” is A.D. 70, was Jesus saying: He who keeps the faith till the temple is destroyed shall be saved? Or did he mean: He who keeps the faith to the end of his life shall be saved? But this is a truism valid for every disciple in every age. Had Jesus said: “He that shall endure in the time of the end (of the Mosaic dispensation), the same shall be saved,” there would have been little difficulty. But he did not say that. On the other hand, reference to the Last Days allows the words to be taken literally, at their face value.^[19]
4. Verse 29 begins: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days …” This word “immediately,” the meaning of which has been evaded by a variety of tortuous or inaccurate devices (e.g. by suggesting that it does not mean “immediately” but “suddenly”) requires a very close connection between the tribulation Jesus has already foretold and the time of his second coming.
5. “Then let them which be in Judæa flee to the mountains” (v. 16). This is the experience of Lot over again: “Escape for thy life … escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed” (Genesis 19: 17). In Luke 17: 28, 29, 32 Jesus pointed to an emphatic parallel between the Last Days and the deliverance of Lot. So it is hard to believe that here also in his Olivet prophecy he used similar language without intending a similar idea.
6. “And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24: 14). In the first century these words had their fulfilment in the matchless work of Paul who in humble truth was able to write about “the hope of the gospel … which was preached to every creature under heaven” (Colossians 1: 23). “And then shall the end come”—about a year after Paul was beheaded, the three and a half year’s Jewish War began in Judæa. Yet as the words of Jesus are read and pondered, there is a finality about them that suggests a grander fulfilment. In this twentieth century, in spite of the blameworthy lethargy of God’s elect, the message of the imminent return of Christ goes out from scores of radio stations. Today in a much more universal fashion than was true in Paul’s day the gospel is being preached in all the world, even though it be mixed with error.

MEANING FOR THE LAST DAYS

The foregoing assembly of Bible arguments will surely predispose any earnest student of prophecy towards re-examining this part of the Lord’s discourse with a view to learning more concerning the time of his coming. The following are some of the details specially worthy of re-consideration.

1. Verses 9, 10 speak of persecution and bitter hatred of the faithful. At the time of writing there is no sign of this. Would God there were, for the Household of God needs the bracing influence of external adversity to save it from the eroding effects of a soft materialistic civilization and to provide it with new and better opportunities of evangelism. This could well come.
2. “And then shall many be offended … and many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24: 10a, 11, 12). The words plainly mean that many will openly renounce the Faith, many others will pervert it, but many (most) will just drift. To the modern mind these seem to be incompatible with what has just been mentioned. Yet Jesus saw no incompatibility.
3. An “abomination of desolation” is to stand in the holy place (v. 15). This means: an abomination which desolates the holy city, Jerusalem. Such a conclusion is indicated by the parallel in Luke 21: 20: “And when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies …” Since Jesus adds: “whoso readeth, let him understand,” it is a reasonable inference that the great sign of the imminence of the Lord’s return will be the desolation of Jerusalem, lately freed from nineteen centuries of Gentile domination. In Daniel 12 the prophecy already quoted continues: “And from the time that … the abomination that maketh desolate is set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days;” whilst in Luke 21 the prophecy already quoted continues: “and Jerusalem shall be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This suggests that “the times of the Gentiles” which Jesus had in mind were not the long centuries of Gentile mastery of the city but the “time, times and a half,” a period of literally three and a half years when the city is laid desolate just before the coming of the Lord.
4. “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24: 22). There are several impressive examples to be found in Scripture of a divine fore-shortening of evil days. The three days’ pestilence in which David preferred to fall into the hand of God was shortened, by grace, to less than a day—again, for the sake of the elect. David prayed for the people and took the guilt upon himself (2 Samuel 24: 13, 15, 16, 17). The siege of A.D. 70 was shortened, in the mercy of God, to five months precisely (Nebuchadnezzar’s siege lasted the whole of a terrible year). This also was for the elect’s sake: Revelation 9: 5 and 8: 3, 4. Similarly it may well be that the times of the Gentiles which are still future will be shortened through the faith and prayers of the saints who discern the pattern of God’s working and influence it by their intercession as Abraham did in the days of Lot.

Tentative conclusions such as these may be momentous. The possibility of such sensational developments has perhaps not been ventilated and discussed as fully as it might be.

[19] Readers may like to probe further and seek an answer to the question why Jesus chose to include these words here and not in a later section of his discourse where they seem to be so much more appropriate.

Traditionally the four beasts of Daniel 7 have been expounded with reference to the four “world empires” of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. This is, of course, perfectly correct. And yet, at the same time, it can be — and has been — misleading. The tendency has been to put emphasis on them as world powers, whereas they were hardly that. They did not even dominate the known civilization of their time. Babylon never expanded as far as Lydia and Greece; it gained only a temporary foothold in Egypt, which was as much the centre of civilization as Babylon itself was. Persia failed to conquer Greece and never touched other centres of Mediterranean culture. Alexander’s empire only lasted as long as Alexander. And even though the might of Rome went as far as the north of Scotland, in the east it stopped at the Euphrates, and only for short periods was it effective so far.

But in a Biblical sense these four great powers were all-important, for all of them in turn controlled the fortunes of God’s Land and People. It is from this point of view, and from this view only, that Rome “devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it.” Normally this was not the character of Roman conquest. The legions did not conquer in order to destroy but in order to civilize. Wherever Rome went, law and order followed —the pax Romana. In this respect the Land of Israel was an outstanding exception. The Jews did not want any Roman peace. So at last, against all normal Roman policy, that troublesome country was “broken in pieces, and stamped with the feet of it.”

ISRAEL AND THE EMPIRES

This view of Daniel’s four beasts has good, but much neglected, Biblical support: “Their (Israel’s) heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them: I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself” (Hosea 13: 6-9).

There is good evidence in Daniel chapter 9 alone that the prophet was in the habit of poring over the Scriptures already written, and that his Bible included at least the Books of Moses, Psalms, Isaiah and Jeremiah. So it is not unreasonable to believe that he had also pondered this passage in Hosea and that the revelation of God’s continuing retribution against his wayward people was made in terms of what he was already familiar with. This Hosea passage describes the great powers as raised up for the punishment of Israel. The extent of their dominion over the centuries is a matter of little importance—so little, in fact, that it is not mentioned once throughout Daniel 7 (verse 23 is not the exception to this which it appears to be). No wonder then, that the vision of an everlasting kingdom “given to the people of the saints of the most High” left Daniel not reassured or elated but “much troubled” and with “changed countenance” (v. 28); for he saw clearly that this long sequence of ravagers boded much ill for Israel before peace should come to Jerusalem.

In this view of chapter 7 — and of the prophecy as a whole — there becomes evident the reason for the long gap which exists in all of Daniel’s prophecies (see “The Last Days”, chapter 3). These revelations take no account of the long period during which Israel have been scattered from their land. They all resume in the Last Days when Israel are back in the land preparatory to the setting up of Messiah’s kingdom.

TEN KINGDOMS

This concept helps considerably to impart unification and coherence to the various prophecies in Daniel. The ten toes (ch. 2) and the ten horns (ch. 7) belong to the Last Days, and not to the long period from the decay of Rome to the twentieth century. They are to be equated with the ten kings of Revelation 17 who make war with the Lamb and are overcome by him. For the stone smashes the feet of the image. The horns also are ten powers in the Last Days and not before, for they are there when “the Ancient of Days came.” The strange leaps in the visions at 8: 23 and 11: 40 (or is it 11: 36?) from prophecies long fulfilled to the Last Days are also now readily accounted for.

But one further conclusion follows. The revelation regarding the little horn of the fourth beast will have its true and detailed fulfilment in the days to come. In “The Last Days,” chapters 4, 5, a variety of additional reasons were given for this view. The incompleteness and partial character of the “Papal” interpretation may be summarized in the following brief statements:

1. The usual application assigned to the three uprooted horns is so woefully insignificant as to condemn itself. Why should the transfer to Papal authority of three obscure little provinces (little more than counties) in Italy, be the subject of one of the most powerful Old Testament prophecies of the Kingdom of God?
2. “Made war with the saints.” What saints? Anyone who has read the systematized creeds of Waldenses, Abigenses and Huguenots will hesitate to apply the prophecy to such. The Book of Daniel applies this Hebrew word to Israel (8: 24 and 12: 7; same word—and see Psalm 79: 2), and also to angels (8:13). Obviously, in chapter 7, the former is the proper reference.
3. “prevailed against them; until the Ancient of Days came …”. The persecuting power of the Papacy stopped long before the manifestation of Messiah.
4. “they (the saints) shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Even granting, for the sake of argument, the “year for a day” principle (although there is no hint of it in Daniel^[13]), the fact still has to be faced that long before 1868-70 (the standard termination date) the Pope had lost all persecuting power, and has been without it now for nearly two centuries. Yet the prophecy strongly implies a sudden change from the persecuting horn of the everlasting kingdom of the most High.
5. Does the Pope “speak great words against the most High?” At least, he honours Christ, after a fashion—a thing that is hardly to be said about the Jews at any time in their history or about modern scientific rationalism (a much greater enemy to the Truth than the Pope can ever be).

A GAP

It is suggested, instead, that the Last Day interpretation calls for a gap in the prophecy (as in chs. 2, 8, 9, 11), and read the details of the little horn as having reference to the Last Days when Israel are back in their land. It is known from such Scriptures as Zechariah 14: 2, 3 that before the coming of the Messiah, the state of Israel is to be smashed to pieces by assembled enemies. Daniel 7 gives a vivid picture of the final and most terrible oppression in the land, lasting for three and a half years. This tyrant “shall be diverse from the former,” that is, from Rome, Greece, Persia and Babylon, who were all Gentiles and blatantly imperialist. By contrast this persecutor will be himself an Arab son of Abraham seeking revenge rather than power, or he will be a Gentile co-ordinator of Arab hostility. He will speak great words against the most High by taunting the Jews regarding their vaunted national destiny.

It is useful to note that every period of three and a half years traceable in Scripture describes a period of increasing tribulation for men of God, culminating in vindication and triumph.^[14] Elijah’s exile in Zidon during three and a half years of drought ended on mount Carmel. Antiochus Epiphanes’ desecration of the temple had Maccabees rebellion and triumph as its climax. The ministry of Jesus was followed by his resurrection and ascension. The forty-two stages of Israel’s pilgrimage in the wilderness (Numbers 33) led to the Land of Promise. The forty-two generations from Abraham (Matthew 1: 17) brought the birth of Messiah. Here in Daniel 7 is perhaps the most striking example of all.

DANIEL AND REVELATION

In Revelation 13 the very phrases used in Daniel 7 to describe the persecuting horn are applied to the Beast of the sea (vv. 5, 6, 7) which heads up the ten kings who make war with the Lamb (17: 14) and are overcome by him. The oppression of the “saints” — God’s holy people, Israel — described in Revelation 13 is evidently an apocalyptic expansion of the corresponding details in Daniel 7. The language is highly appropriate to Israel: “He that leadeth (Israel) into captivity shall (himself) go into captivity” — where does the Bible ever speak of saints in Christ going into captivity? — “Here is the patience and faith of the saints,” i.e. this especially is when God’s people will need patience, as three and a half bitter years drag their weary course.

This last-day Antichrist has as his “high-priest” one who is described as a lamb-like “beast of the earth,” called also in 19: 20 “the false prophet.” Again the Old Testament helps towards identification. One of Ezekiel’s prophecies of the restoration of Israel has these details: “And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely (Ezekiel 38: 11!) in the wilderness and sleep in the woods (i.e. in open country — without walls, having neither bars nor gates) … And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the earth (Revelation 13: 11) devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid” (Ezekiel 34: 24, 25, 28).

There is much that is difficult about the details of Revelation 13,^[15] but in conjunction with Daniel 7 it appears to teach fairly plainly that its grim picture of oppression and blasphemy will find ultimate fulfilment in the terrible sufferings of Israel through three and a half years of ghastly horror when their state is overrun by Arab enemies headed up in a Power or a Man (Revelation 13: 18).

The ready harmonization of these prophecies with others of a similar tenor, already expounded, will not be lost on the reader.

[13] Not even in the Seventy weeks prophecy, when attention is given to the proper meaning of the Hebrew for “week.”

[14] If this view is justified, what about the “papal” application concluding in 1868?

[15] Inevitably so, once it is agreed that the detailed fulfilment of this part of the vision lies in the future.