The history of the fall and dissolution of Christendom

Chapter I. Pages 11-27

The Events of the Apocalypse Are Grouped Together, and Are to Quickly Come to Pass After They Begin. (Rev. 1: 1.) They Are Divided into Revealed Prophecies and Prophetic Events, Measured and Nonmeasured Time. The Millennium Is Not Revealed in the Word of God. It Is a Mystery, a Pure Prophecy. The Remainder of the Apocalypse Is, as Far as the Author Has Read, Revealed Prophecy.

Chapter II. Pages 28-43

The Prophecy of Daniel Given in an Image Composed of Four Metals Has Never Yet Been Fulfilled. The Word " Kingdom " Defined. What Do the Four Metals Represent?

Chapter III, Pages 44-55

The Difference Shown in the Four Kingdoms or Forms of Government, which Are Said by Daniel to Be as Different One from the Other as the Four Metals. Their Condition After the Collision. Their Universal Reigns Are Yet in the Future.

Chapter VII. . Pages 81-93

The Collision of the Kingdom of God, as Given by Daniel, Presented by the Apostle John. The Woman of Rev. 12 Defined. She is the Church of God. The Words " Sun " and " Moon " Translated from Figurative to Their Literal Meanings.

Chapter VIII Pages 94-105

The Man Child of the Chvurch — The Wilderness of the Apocalypse.

Chapter IX Pages 106-121

The Beast of the Book of Revelation. His Seven Heads and Ten Horns. Christian Union Shown by the Woman Clothed with the Sun. Denominational Union Shown by the Harlot Woman, Mystery, Babylon. Showing the Beast in a Reorganized State After It Falls Beneath the Weight of the Harlot Woman.

Chapter XVIII Pages 234-245

Daniel's History of the Fourth Beast with Ten Horns. The Little Horn with Eyes Like a Man and a Mouth Speaking Great Things. He Has Never Lived, but Will Live at the Time the Ten Horns Exist on the Fourth Beast.

Chapter XIX Pages 246-266

The Kingdom of the Medes and Persians, with a Universal Reign Under the Two Horns. The Fourth Seal. The Image Set Up by This Kingdom. Religious Liberty Abolished and Millions of the People of Earth Who Do Not Worship the Image Are Killed. By an Effort to Enforce the Worship of This Abomination, the Earth Is Made Desolate by One-Fourth of All Its People, Some Three or Four Hundred Millions Being Killed. The Government Mark of This Kingdom.

When May We Look for the Scenes of the Apocalypse to Transpire and the Coming of Christ to Reign on Earth a Thousand Years?

Preface

In presenting this volume, entitled " The History of the Fall and Dissolution of Christendom," it is not the author's wish to promulgate any new theory on the Apocalypse, nor is it his desire to support any of the many old theories. His purpose is rather to present a future history of the world and church by a translation of symbols and a transcription of the wonderful scriptures found in the Apocalypse which were given by God to show these things. He does so believing that this is the first time any similar treatment of these scriptures has been attempted, or that such a history has been undertaken. Therefore the reader will find that there is a great difference between this volume and all other books which are alleged to have been written on these same scriptures. This difference will be found to be largely from its use of Bible definitions in arriving at the meaning of its figurative words, and by this means translating and presenting a natural and comprehensive transcription of its scenes. This appears to us to be the only way to ascertain what its scenes contain. If God has not defined the symbols and figurative words used in describing its scenes, then it is not a revelation as it claims to be, and it is perfectly useless to attempt to read it. No one can guess the meaning of any figurative word ; for if he did guess its meaning, he would have no way of knowing that he had guessed it correctly. We have, therefore, put aside all guesswork as to the meaning of figura-

PREFACE

tive words, which, of course, contain its symbols and hold the description and identification of its scenes. We claim no merit for this volume aside from such as may have been secured to it by the firm faith of its author, which has caused him to trust God to define all his figurative words and thereby show the meaning of every symbol which he translates and transcribes.

It may be that another one of the causes of the great difference between this volume and its predecessors, as well as all its contemporary books on these scriptures, is the fact that the author is not a preacher. He has treated these scriptures just as any ordinary " layman " with a little common sense would naturally do, and, to use a layman's expression, if he " comes out at the little end of the horn," there will be no preacher reputation for profound thinking to suffer. It is a new field on which no prior writer on the Apocalypse has yet entered.

Another characteristic which makes prominent the striking difference between this volume and all other books purporting to have been written on these scriptures is that the author has never taken kindly to, or looked favorably upon, the universal practice among writers on these scriptures of applying the future scenes of the book of Revelation to past historic events. The reason he feels justified in not doing so is from the fact that he has sought to find what each symbol represents before applying it. He has been unable to find a single scene or event in the Apocalypse, when properly translated, that he could prove had taken place in the past. He has not seen the proof of this

PREFACE

either in the Bible or in any book claiming that this is true.

The author has not written the things he would have preferred to find and transcribe from the Apocalypse; but he has written many scenes of sorrow and wretchedness, not from choice, but because he could not escape writing them and at the same time claim to be making an honest and true history of the things written in this wonderful revelation of God.

We thank the God of the Bible, who revealed these things, that he, in his mercy to man, did not reveal the time for these fearful scenes to come upon the world. We thank him that he has left the time for these great events to come upon the world veiled from men and has made their advent depend upon the good or the evil life of the nations. Man may, or at least it is possible for him to, postpone these fearful scenes for centuries by accepting the counsel of God and breaking off his great sins in wars, cruelties, oppression, and destruction of his fellow men. When the nations of earth accept and utilize the means which God has revealed by his prophets, and by doing so have thus put them beyond any experimental stage, then wars will cease, and they will not return to the world so long as the nations of the earth shall remember and honor the God who created man.

The author is pleased to send forth this brief history showing the crimson scenes which have been predestined by God to yet come upon the world as a punishment for the future wickedness and violence of men and nations. At the same time he rejoices to be able to show the hand of God in these scriptures pointing

PREFACE

to the means by which these scenes may be postponed for centuries. To postpone these great tribulations, the nations must learn justice, mercy, and peace, and they must exercise them. We speak confidently when we say that God has shown the means by which man can bring about a world-wide peace; and if he will only apply these means and diligently avoid the dangers God has pointed out, the world will know wars no more for centuries. We hope every one who reads this book will join in and help this great work for humanity.

iO

Chapter I

The Events of the Apocalypse Are Grouped Together, and Are to Quickly Come to Pass After They Begin. (Rev. 1:1.) They Are Divided into Revealed Prophecies and Prophetic Events, Measured and Nonmeasured Time. The Millennium Is Not Revealed in the Word of God. It Is a Mystery, a Pure Prophecy. The Remainder of the Apocalypse Is, as Far as the Author Has Read, Revealed Prophecy.

Who among the hundreds of writers on the Apocalypse have ever read and really believed the things stated even in the first verse of that wonderful book? It has been ignored or annulled by many who have written books and commentaries on the things of the Apocalypse. Yet it is, of course, impossible to hold any position which is out of harmony with the words in this verse and not be out of harmony with every statement along the same line in the Revelation, or in the Bible for that matter. Why should we care what any scripture teaches, so we are in harmony with it? And to be in harmony with any scripture is to be in harmony with everything in both the Old and New Testaments.

" The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass: and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." (Rev. 1:1.)

The economy of God in the use of words in giving this scripture is remarkable. We doubt whether there is another expression in the English language with so few words which reveals or even states so many facts. Every word is literal. None of us can prove a word in this verse to be figurative by substituting a Bible definition for such word which wnll make better sense than the words do as they now stand. This is the only way the writer has ever been able to prove to himself or any one else when there is a figurative word in any Bible sentence.

This verse makes known the following facts :

1. The book is a revelation.

2. It belongs to Jesus Christ.

3. It was given him by God.

4. It was written to show things unto his servants.

5. The things to be shown are the " things which must shortly come to pass."

6. They are, therefore, the things which had not come to pass when the book was written.

7. They are " the things " of prophecy — unfulfilled prophecy — for these, like all prophecy, are things which must " come to pass." These things are predestinated to come to pass when God says they must come to pass. Nothing but prophecy is predestinated to come to pass by the God of the Bible. It always is predestinated to come to pass, and it consists of things which must come to pass, and nothing else.

8. The expression, " the things," means all the things under consideration, which are " the things " which must come to pass, and which are, therefore, all the unfulfilled prophecy of the Bible.

9. The Revelation does not include a single event which had come to pass when the book was written, for it was written to show " the things which must shortly come to pass." A faith in this statement will keep the student of this Revelation from spending time in the vain effort of endeavoring to find a single event in the book which had transpired when the book was written. Such an event cannot be found.

10. " Shortly come to pass " covers a short or brief period of time. To " come to pass " is to begin and end. When qualified by the adverb " shortly," it means that when the things spoken of begin they will shortly end. This is the use and meaning of the word " shortly " in all its proper applications in the English language. Every authentic English lexicon so defines it. The Bible, the best of all authorities, never uses it to cover the full lifetime of a man. The longest time embraced by the word " shortly," when the time is definitely shown in the Bible, covers just fourteen years. Joseph, speaking to Pharaoh of the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine, says : "And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh, it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass." (Gen. 41 : 32.)

According to God's use of this word, then, we can safely say that when the first event in the Apocalypse begins it will not be more than fourteen years before all its things will have " come to pass."

11. This expression groups the things of the Revelation together and anchors their beginning not exceeding fourteen years from their end, which events embrace the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven and the beginning of his reign on earth for a thousand years.

12. We emphasize the fact that " the things " of the Revelation are grouped together, for they are declared to be " the things which must shortly come to pass," which the Bible shows by its use of the word " shortly " not to embrace more than fourteen years from their beginning until their end, which will include the coming of Christ and the beginning of the millennium. This groups them all near the coming of Christ and puts all of them in the future without a doubt.

It is jusf as certain that not an event in the Apocalypse has come to pass and that they are all yet future events as it is certain that the language of the Bible, and God's use of it, is correct.

We are making no interpretation of our own, but this is the use and meaning God has given the language by the way he has used these words throughout the Bible. He who reads the following chapters of this volume can see the harmony between this verse and all the book ; and, if he desires, he can know assuredly that it is correct by a further investigation of the scriptures along this line.

13. As the Apocalypse is a revelation of the unfulfilled prophecy when the book was written, and with full faith in the God of the Bible, being able to express himself correctly, and as his words do not show a scene in the Revelation to have yet transpired, as the reader will see, we know assuredly that not a prophecy has been fulfilled or was intended to be fulfilled or come to pass since the Revelation was given. In harmony with this, no man who has made a claim that certain prophecies and scenes of the Apocalypse have been fulfilled has ever been able to define the scene by the Bible use of words which he claims has come to pass. If we do not know the Bible meaning and use of the words describing the scenes of the Apocalypse which we attempt to locate, it is certain we know nothing about them and cannot locate them until we learn. If we have not learned the God-given meaning of the words describing the beast of Revelation, for instance, how are we to know what we are talking about? We, of course, do not know. We can afford to believe God, without knowing much about the Apocalypse, when he tells us that its things, all its things, will end in a brief period of time after they begin. He tells us this when he encompasses their scenes in the meaning of the word " shortly." It does not take much knowledge here ; it takes faith in God's word.

If the student of these wonderful, enlightening, and important scriptures will first learn something of the scenes of the Apocalypse themselves — what they really are — by learning the meaning of the words God has used in describing them, he will then be better prepared to decide whether they are past or future events. From our investigation we can assuredly say not one of its events has come to pass.

14. The things of the Revelation being predestinated by God and fixed to come to pass shortly before and with the coming of Christ, then not a word in the Apocalypse except John's salutation to the seven churches of Asia is addressed directly to any one living or who has ever lived since the book was written. And yet it is addressed to all Christians in all ages as an audience. They were not to engage in or live amid its scenes, and yet they have the power and privilege to read and learn the things of the prophecy and be blessed by treasuring this knowledge in the heart. Such knowledge of the future gives light and comfort and faith to the servants of Christ, as they by this means can look upon the mighty works of the nations through the ages of the past. Those ages have been ages of seed sowing, planting, budding, blooming, and growing into full-grown prophetic trees, with their ripening fruit, for the prophetic harvest, when God, because of the wickedness of man, will send the crimson scenes of wretchedness and horrid tribulations to purify and purge the earth for the coming and abode of Christ, at which time wickedness and wars will cease for a thousand years.

Let us emphasize the fact that an intelligent faith in the words of this first verse relieves the student of the Apocalypse of the vain effort to find any of its events in the past, for, as we have seen, God groups all its scenes near the coming of Christ ; and the purpose of God was to show the things which must come to pass, and not to show things which had come to pass. To do this, his servants, under his providence, must and will learn to understand the written revelation by the time or before its things to be shown exist and can be seen. Nothing is more certain than that when the events of this revelation begin it will only be a few months or years before they end, for these expressions do not cover ages and centuries or many years, as commentators on this book have made it do.

Which shall we accept, reader — God's own use of this expression or the strained and unnatural use and meaning given it by man? If one man has a theory on these scriptures which requires an unnatural enlargement of the word " shortly " so it will embrace five centuries, and another has a theory about the beginning and end of the things of this revelation which requires the meaning of the word " shortly " to cover fifteen or twenty or even more centuries, who must we believe is correct ? God's use of the word " shortly " in the Apocalypse does not cover much over half of fourteen years, according to our reading. From the best chronology of its events, we can but regard its time as covering but little more than the twenty-three hundred days of Daniel. (Dan. 8: 14.) This is less than seven years.

There are some similar expressions in the Scriptures which, without proper comprehension, appear to differ somewhat from the expression under consideration and to cover a long period of time. Take, for instance. Rev. 22: 10: "And he saith unto me, Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand." The time for what is at hand? The time for revealing the prophecy of God is at hand ; the time to leave the words of the prophecy unsealed, open, revealed, is at hand. This is what this scripture says.

"And he said. Go thy way, Daniel ; for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end." (Dan. 12: 9.) The time for the full revelation of God was not at hand in the days of Daniel. The time to reveal all the great events which Daniel sought to know and which he and other prophets foretold was not then at hand. Many prophetic scenes were left sealed, in a mystery, until the time for the Apocalypse to be written had fully come. When that time had come, the words of the prophets were turned into a revelation. To John it was said, " Seal not up the words of the prophecy," for God's time is at hand to finish the revelation to man. With the revelation complete, with the law of Christ complete, with all God's prophecy revealed, John next says : " He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still." (Rev. 22: 11.) No other revelation will be needed by the righteous. No other can help the unrighteous.

" Behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Rev. 22: 12, 13.) We must stand by these words just as given. They show us that the people to whom he here says he will " come quickly " will be living at his coming. "Alpha " and " Omega " are figurative, and he translates them. All other words in this scripture are literal, and no man can translate them or substitute words making better sense from the Bible use of the words. Because we do not understand the meaning of a word or sentence is no reason why we should call it " figurative," but there is no better reason why we should not call it " figurative " than not to understand it. When we call a word " figurative," it devolves upon us to prove it to be such by substituting its Bible definition.

" Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord." (James 5:7.) James was mfallible and was not looking for the Lord during the lifetime of the brethren he addresses ; but he knew that patience ceases with human life, as well as time itself.

We must and can learn whether or not some of the expressions in the Bible are literal or figurative from experience; and to do this, we must not forget that all the writers of both the Old and the New Testament were infallible under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When we read a statement by the apostle James, saying, " The coming of the Lord is at hand," or his coming will shortly take place, we may legitimately see if it is in harmony with the facts. If James aimed to tell those he addressed that the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven to begin his thousand years' reign was at hand in his day, then there is nothing more certain than that he was mistaken, and, therefore, anything but infallible. But he does not say Christ's coming in the clouds of heaven is at hand. If he had said this and used these words literally, we know absolutely it is not true. Experience has taught us this. God made man, and he made him infallible in some respects. Man knows the things he has experienced in an infallible way, and we say, with all veneration and reverence, that we believe man is as infallible in some of his knowledge as God himself is. Man knows he ate his breakfast or dinner to-day with the same certainty that God knows the same thing. To say this is only to magnify and honor God in his infinite greatness and power when he made man. It was a much greater work of God to make man and endow him with powers to know, and to know infalHbly Hke he does, than it would have been to have made man without these great attributes. He made man to know, and he does know, that the end of twenty centuries, when it first begins, is not an event that is at hand or imminent. He knows that human language, when charged with a meaning, is infallible and immutable, and that the words which express a short time do not express a long time.

Language is and must be standard to be intelligible ; therefore a long time cannot be expressed by words embracing only a short time. The fulfillment of any event twenty centuries away cannot be truthfully said " to be at hand." Man, in his knowledge of the correct meaning of words in his language, if properly acquired and if correctly supported and confirmed by his experience, is as infallible in the knowledge of the meaning of statements when he comprehends them as he can be as to whether or not he ate or drank at a given time. Then, how are we to harmonize this statement with the facts? Any view will and must dethrone the infallibility of any one which has him teaching that an event eighteen or twenty centuries away is at hand or will shortly come to pass. It is untrue and never was taught by inspiration.

The word " hand " is undoubtedly a figurative word as used here. It means " law " throughout the Bible where used in a figurative sense. " That a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands." (Dan. 2: 45.) The context shows the church was taken out of the mountain — the Jewish nation — without law. It was done by God himself by a miraculous process and not by any known law. " To do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to come to pass." (Acts 4: 28.) Substitute the word "law" for "hand" here, and it is in harmony with every other scripture in the Bible. The foreordinations of God are always fixed by God's laws, which are immutable.

" While thou stretchest forth thy hand to heal ; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of thy holy Servant Jesus." (^Acts 4: 30.) Peter prays God to heal by extending his hand or his law for healing, and, in addition thereto, that signs and wonders may be done ; but it is not in conjunction with the hand or the law. Miracles are without law; healing is by law, but may be hastened or executed through the use of law by miracle.

Then this expression of James, when translated by God's figurative use of the word " hand," reads thus : " The coming of the Lord is with law," or with the time fixed or to be fixed by God's decree in law. The preposition " at " denotes nearness or present or with. This puts James in harmony with all scriptures as well as the facts ; and, like Paul, James shows himself to be without any knowledge of when Christ will come. No inspired man ever knew when Christ will come.

When James wrote this sentence, God knew that Christ would not come to earth for many centuries, as experience shows. Christ says : " But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." ( Matt. 24 : 36.)

Then if God, as the above scripture shows, did know that Christ would not come to earth for many centuries, why did he have James to use the expression, " for the coming of the Lord is at hand? " This is not true in a Hteral sense, as v^^e have seen ; but it is true with the figurative use of the word " hand," as we have also seen. Thus, this being a correct expression and making known a fact, if man did not understand its real meaning, it was not God's fault, for Christ had made the above statement before James wrote this expression and the truth of the figurative use of the word " hand " was fully revealed. We can rest assured that God has never deceived man that good might result thereby to man ; but he can, and probably in this instance has overruled any ignorance of man from not seeking and finding the real truth here, and caused good to come to m.an.

It shows us the infinite wisdom and greatness of God, that he can speak to his creatures when in ignorance as well as in acquired knowledge of a fact, and his word keep in touch with them in both these as well as in all conditions, without its being possible for man to truthfully accuse him of deception. God holds man responsible only for his opportunities and the talents given him and the use he makes of them in the different conditions and walks of life. Thus God could bless man in allowing man to cling to a statement in misapprehension and helplessness which would appear to him as an immediate flaming sword to restrain him in the temptations of Hfe. But he blesses man with a stronger faith, a purer life, and a clearer vision of the goodness and greatness of his Creator as he acquires the true meaning of each and every word and revelation given him. God knew that the more difficult the attainment to knowledge of his word, the higher man would in his heart exalt him ; and thus the more reverence, veneration, and honor it would cause man to bestow upon his Creator, and the more eternal and immovable would be the blessings to man. Besides this, God never elaborates in his use of words or repeats by inspiring two or more men with the same knowledge. (See Acts 15 : 7-21.)