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Preface

I 1 FTER much prayerful research and study fof the subject herein treated, we bestow ! %%i>\^the result of our investigations upon the public without apology, as every truth recorded is substantiated by proof. With a conviction, born of fervent desire for the salvation of souls, that many may be awakened to see their danger and their duty, and by yielding to the divine claims, escape the wrath to come, these pages are written. The author has held rigidly to what he deemed to be the divine meaning of every text discussed, regardless of popular theories and fearless of ecclesiastical criticism. He regards the book as providential and timely, and well calculated to awaken and instruct the careless and unenlightened masses.

THE AUTHOR.

Introduction

I have read with great care, and much satisfaction, a volume of about a hundred and seventy pages, by the Rev. Thomas H. Nelson, Superintendent of Pentecost Bands.

This publication seems opportune, in the light of current events in the political and religious world. Indeed, to the thoughtful observer of the times, and the careful reader of the Bible, and of history, it seems impossible that the strained condition of affairs in the kingdoms of the old world, can hold out much longer without a crisis, or cataclysm, that shall shake the very earth to her foundations.

"Let God be true and every man a liar." Unless the Scriptures are a tissue of misrepresentations, and unless the philosophy of history is a "delusion and a snare," our mundane affairs are inevitably nearing a point where a novus ordo sector um must ensue. And of the nature of the new order, no one need be in doubt who will use the faculties with which God has endowed him, and the sources of information that are now within the reach of every honest and earnest investigator of the truth.

A prominent minister of this city said to me lately, that all the theological students at a leading* seminary of learning, who candidly and without prejudice, investigated the subject of the second advent of our Lord to the earth, reached the same conclusion — namely, that He will, and must come, before the millennium, and not at its close.

Now, if this be really so, the conclusion is irresistible, that the whole trend of the religious teaching and preaching of our times is radically wrong, and misdirected. Before the union of church and state, under Constantine, religion consisted in subjective, personal experiences, and the "answer of a good conscience toward God." But after the iniquitous marriage between them was arranged and carried out, mankind lost sight of the close affiliation with their risen and ascended Lord, and prided themselves upon the triumphs of Christianity over all opposing, visible forces, and fondly trusted that the church had captured the world, when the result clearly proved that the world had conquered the church. So, the intimate personal relation of the soul to its Saviour, was quite lost sight of in the pomp and glamour of a gorgeous, visible organization, which arrogantly claimed, with all the worldly reinforcements of the old Roman empire, that she was in very deed, the ' 'Bride of Christ. "

It at once became the fashion of the new regime to assert that the whole world must be converted to Christ; that the great mass of humanity must be lifted up to the highest moral and spiritual levels, and held thus, through human agencies and power; and, that then, after a millennium of fruition, at such sublimated heights, the Lord should come and judge all men, both the "just and the unjust," and handing the kingdoms of the world over to the Father, that God should "be all in all." This is a sad, if not a wicked, perversion of the truths of Revelation.

At the first council, held in Jerusalem, the Apostle James announced, "Brethren, Simon hath declared how that God, at the beginning, did take out of the Gentiles, a people for His name.' 9 So, this is what He is doing; or, having done, during the present dispensation, in which we are living, and not attempting, nor designing, to convert the whole world. This He will arrange for, after our Christian dispensation, and one other, the millennial, shall have elapsed. The evangelist, Matthew, says explicity, that the "gospel is to be preached unto all nations, for a witness of Him" and not for the conversion of the world. And Paul says to Titus that Christ "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." This word "peculiar" means, a people of His own, or for Himself. Then He is now, in the time between His first and His second advent, choosing out from among the children of men, a band of faithful, true and absolutely tried followers, who shall comprise His "Bride," or "Church," and who shall become His associates

IV.

and co-rulers in the Millennial Kingdom, which He is about to establish upon this earth of ours, which shall be much fairer than now, after its rehabilitation, for such a sacred use and purpose.

Now, all of this, is the teaching of the book which we are reviewing, as it was, without controvers3 r , the teaching of the early church of the first two centuries of the Christian era. I would hesitate to say the first three centuries, for corruptions of doctrine, and errors in practice, had insinuated themselves into the very warp and woof of the Christian church very soon after the Apostles' days, and had dimmed the spiritual vision of the early Christians touching this cardinal doctrine of Christ's personal, visible, material, pre-millinnial coming to our earth, for a glorious reign, in righteousness, of one thousand years; and this, before the final consummation of all things, when He shall deliver His kingdom to the Father, and "God shall be all in all."

May the divine blessing accompany this little book, with its precious freight of genuine Christian teaching, into many, many burdened hearts, and inspire with new hope many weary lives, with its able and conscientious showing forth of the true wisdom, that "cometh down from above, even from the Father of lights, with whom there is is no variableness neither shadow of turning." Amen!

Joseph S. Jenckes, D.D., L.L.D.

Indianapolis, Indiana, March 10, 1896.

Chapter I

It is a fact that few men, principles or tenets merit the honor they receive, and fewer still receive the honor which they merit, and the study of the prophetic portions of the divine word is no exceptional case. The more we examine the word of God and compare its prophetic predictions with the facts of history the more we are impressed with the nearness of the end of this dispensation and the return of our Lord. This is a much neglected subject, but one on which it is blessed to reflect. ' 'Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy." It is a subject which has been greatly abused, and one from which has sprung the most ridiculous speculations and the wildest fanaticism. But shall we utterly ignore it? No, not while God holds it up as a subject of comfort to His people, and while Jesus and His disciples and Moses and the prophets saw fit to devote whole chapters to a description of it and the signs of its approach. We venture to assert that fully one -half of the b THE MIDNIGHT CRY.

prophecies have a direct or indirect bearing upon this subject, also the key to many of the more ambiguous passages is found here. Hence the Bible is as a new book to those who begin to read it with this idea in view. In the elucidation of this subject we shall endeavor to confine ourselves largely to the word of God and the history of the world ; these we are convinced will never be found to contradict each other. We take up this subject with a feeling akin to that which must have agitated the Israelitish exile from Egypt when behind the Midianitish mountain the voice of God from the burning bush called him to put off his shoes, and declared that the place whereon he stood was holy ground.

Prophecy is a narration of future events; history is a narration of past events. The historian, infidel though he may be, nevertheless proves the supernatural character of the prophetic records by their fulfillment in his narrative of past occurrences.

For, as no human wisdom or science could by mathematical calculations ever have figured out these prophetic descriptions which the facts of history authenticate, their divine origin as mircles of knowledge is proven beyond a doubt, and the very fact that God saw fit to write should form sufficient reason for us to endeavor to understand. The exact fulfillment of these prophecies and the precise harmony of their chronological dates are as great evidence of the divinity of revelation and the scheme of gospel redemption in these last days as the noted miracles of Christ and the apostles were to the church in her infancy. It is but reasonable to suppose that God would give His honest followers in the perilous times of the last days some such evidence as a confirmation of their faith, since miracles were given for a similar purpose to the infant church. We wish to keep the balance between the two extremes on this subject and avoid on the one hand the error of many who have specified a day or hour, or even a year, wherein they asserted that God would judge the world, thereby making uninspired mortals wiser than our blessed Lord, who acknowledged in Mark xiii: 32, that He Himself did not know the day nor the hour; and, on the other hand, the equally erroneous though less disastrous error of totally ignoring or criminally ridiculing a great portion of that revealed word that the All-wise and All-benevolent God gave for our edification and comfort. Though Christ declared that no man knew the day nor the hour, yet He does not assert that we could not know anything of the decade or year, but rather describes occurrences which immediately precede the end, and adds: "When ye see these things come to pass, know that the end is nigh, even at your doors."

It is our purpose in this manual to call attention to these prophecies, and then examine the page of history and see whether or not any or all of them have been or are being fulfilled; being assured that if the prophecy in this verse has been fulfilled the promise shall not fail. I wish my reader to remember that there is a vast difference between an exposition of prophecy and the declaration of essential truth. As I am a weak, fallible man not claiming to fill the office of a prophet, my expositions of prophecy may in some particulars be erroneous.

But in declaring' the vital and essential truths of the gospel God has not left me to infer and speculate, but to declare with the boldness of an apostle what He has laid down in His written word. The best of men differ widely and agree to disagree in their views of prophecy. But a! must agree on the essentials of evangelical re ligion, or the dissenter must perish forever. In discussing prophecy I may through ignorance draw unwarrantable conclusions from fact or fancy. If my reader sees that I have done this let him discard my conclusions and thank God for greater light on that point. But if He sees my conclusions to be reasonable and possibly right, I pray that he may give due heed to them. I desire to move cautiously and prayerfully along this line, since God has left us no emphatic and unmistakable statements of the exact time of the end. Dogmaticism in these things is as far from my intention as I deem it to be from good sense.

I make no claim to infallibility. We hope the world will never be bored with more than the one infallible man it has. He who burned men for asserting that the world was not flat and for contradicting his assertion that the sun moved round a motionless earth; he who located purgatory at the center of the earth, 25,000 miles from the surface, has proven the imbecility of infallibility. But if I should so far forget myself as to positively assert what I should only give as an opinion, or put more significance on certain facts than discretion would allow, I hope that my reader will exercise the more charity on account of what he considers my weakness, and again thank God for his greater clearness of perception. If he consider me a fool, I say with the apostle: "Yet as a tool receive me." If he refuse to do this and deride and censure me he will in the words ot the proverb, be making two fools where there need be but one.

We are told by modern theologians that none but weak minds or peculiar persons ever bother themselves with the zoological apparitions of Daniel, or the hidden revelations of John, etc., but we remember that God chose the weak things to confound the mighty, and said He would purify unto Himself a peculiar people, and therefore we take courage. The study of prophecy as relating to the second advent has too long been left to those who have perhaps unintentionally, yet nevertheless truly used it as a prop to support their own peculiar and unscriptural views. No subject was given more studious attention by the prophets, apostles and early church fathers than that of prophecy. That none is given less attention by modern theologians generally is itself a sign of the degenerate times in which we live.

Peter, the apostle, tells us that the former "Inquired and searched diligently, searching what, or what manner of times the Spirit which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." And if they studied so diligently the unfulfilled prophecies that related to the Savior who was coming to suffer, ought we not the more earnestly to study those that refer to the King who is coming to reign in glory forever? Well was it for the Christians of Jerusalem that they were not taught by a modern theologian, else they had all perished in the fearful seige of that city under Titus, the Roman. But being students of prophecy, and recognizing the fact that the prophetic statements of Jesus were passing into history before their eyes they read the interpretation, heeded the timely warning and escaped to Pella and the surrounding country. This historic fact none can deny.

The Prophet Micah gave the name of the very place of Christ's birth; Zechariah told of the exact manner of His entry into Jerusalem; Malachi exactly describes his forerunner, John; and we have the most positive proof that these prophecies were not neglected by pious Jews. Noah was told the exact time when the flood would come; Moses, by consulting prophecy, understood the very time when the Egyptian captivity was to end, and consequently was prepared to do his part in delivering his enslaved brethren. These, as Peter saj^s, recognized prophecy as a

"day star" or "morning' star," heralding" the approach of a better day "whereunto," he says, "ye do well that ye take heed till the day dawn." This day dawn is spoken of by Malachi as the coming" of the Savior to reign in glory as "the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings." But the apostle would have us "take heed" to these "day stars" of prophecy till they are lost in the glare of the "Sun of Righteousness," and the stars of prophecy shine out no more on the night of sin, but the Sun of Righteousness ushers in the light and glory of the Millennial day.

The idea that human history is a haphazard time-and-chance affair, is true only from the human side. From God's side it is an orderly fulfillment of a great drama that — we do not say He foreordered, but He fore-knew and fore-announced. This divine fore-knowledge in no sense affects the free will or responsibility of the actors. The spirit-inspired, or wise expositors of other ages recognized this principle and acted upon it. Daniel in reference to the deliverance of his people from the seventy years' Babylonish captivity said he "understood by books" that the time was about expired. Jesus Himself, when urged by His friends to show himself openly, declared "My time is not yet come," which showed that he was waiting for Daniel's seventy weeks of predicted time to elapse before His "Showing unto Israel." Paul in reference to Christ's birth wrote, "When the fulness of times had come God sent forth His Son," etc., meaning that when the predicted time had arrived, and not till then, Jesus was born. These statements proved their authors to be believers in, and students of, chronological prophecy, which therefore none can ridicule or even ignore without offense.

Prophecy primarily was not intended so much to prove by its fulfillment the divinity of revelation as it was to warn God's people of approaching catastrophies, that they might prepare for the mighty events it described. But this primary end of prophecy is defeated by the theologians who ignore these sacred writings, and great will be their loss and sufferings and those of their hearers when the final catastrophe comes and finds them unprepared for it. We have no wish to dogmatically assert anything for which we have not the plainest proof, and hence in these pages we are anxious only to compare current facts and incidents with "The sure word of prophecy," and leave the enlightened and unprejudiced reader to decide whether or not we have sufficient grounds for our views.

If the apparently insignificant quiver of a frog's leg led to the opening of the science of electricity; the dropping of an apple to the discovery of the law of gravitation, or the moving of a kettle lid to the discovery of the power of steam, it is proof that God encourages the deliberative student by rewarding his deliberations and researches. This is as true in spiritual affairs and in the prayerful study of God's word as in the natural world. In looking over the facts of history and comparing them with the prophetic statements we are struck with their similarity, and are as much encouraged by these signs to believe that we are nearing a terminus in human affairs and the appearing of a new heaven and a new earth, as Columbus was by the appearance of strange birds and seaweeds to believe that he was nearing the long-looked for new world. We thank God that much more study is now given to the prophetic portions of His word by a few of the most spiritual in all denominations than in any former age.

This is encouraging, though there is need of a greater improvement in this direction. A very encouraging feature of this late awakening is found in the fact that nearly all the spiritual ones agree on the main points, and all are looking for some important developments in the near future. Though there is as much difference of opinion in the interpretation of prophecy as there is in the realm of Christianity generally, yet we are thankful that much of this difference is on nonessential points.

As a motive to holy living there was no point more often urged by the disciples than the coming of Christ, as the following passages show: James v: 8, "Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." I.Thess. v: 2-6, "The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night; therefore let us watch and be sober." I Peter iv: 7, "The end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer." James v: 7, "Be patient therefore, brethren, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Rom. xiii: 12, "The day is at hand; let ns therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light."

A very essential, though very neglected branch of Christian theology or sacred science, is that of chronological prophecy. This study is by the very nature of things to be developed in the last days, and could not be otherwise, for it has been stated in the prophecies that their contents were to be sealed until the time of the end: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even till the time of the end." And even at that time they were to be understood only by a limited number or a particular class, as the angel continues in the same breath: "And none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise (pure in heart) shall understand." This fact that God sealed the book of Daniel and its counterpart, the Apocalypse, till "the time of the end," and that even then, none but the wise could understand it, accounts for the confused and meaningless expositions of this portion of God's word by the pious and good men of other ages, and the equally selfcontradictory effusions of many to-day, who are yet unacquainted with Christ as a personal, conscious Savior. The qualification for understanding this part of God's word especially is moral purity rather than mental polish. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," but as the time of the end is now at hand, God has with the sword of history cut the "seal" that has been for ages upon these prophecies, and the wise students of this portion of His word find it a pleasant and profitable field to explore. He has declared: "At evening* time it shall be light." And surely in this evening of time we can look for light on the prophetic portions of His word, nor look in vain, for floods of light are shining from the page of history on the page of prophecy. The breaking of the "seal" from the writings of Daniel and John, and the general understanding of these writings form a blessed proof in themselves that we live in the "time of the end," as well as being an inspiration to study and a confirmation of our faith in prophecy.

We are forced to admit that we are greatly indebted to the common newspapers for some of the following facts, but they are historic facts that none will deny, even though variously colored by the different papers. We are well aware of the corruption of the press, and that its independency is a thing of the past; that it is largely controlled by money rather than men, and that its editorial staff of intellectual prostitutes dare not tell the truth on many points, but must constantly vilify righteous men and sound principles, and extol malicious tenets and robbery schemes in order to keep the good will of the conscienceless Barabbases and f eelingless Shylocks, whose hired tools they are. These subsidizers of the press are aware that it creates public opinion, and sooner or later public opinion becomes the law of the land; hence the determined effort to play the

Pope on this point and keep the people in ignorance, that law-breaking- law-makers may profit thereby. Thus the printing press which heaven bestowed especially upon the English speaking, or Protestant people, that its numberless sheets might go forth like "leaves from the tree of life for the healing of the nations," is, through its prostitution to money and crime, scattering broadcast the death warrants of the millions. But with all this in view we pick up a daily newspaper and scan its pages with awe as we see there a record of facts that verifies the truth of God's word, and gives us data from which to calculate our whereabouts on the stream of time.

We have little disposition and less time to spend antagonizing what we consider to be unsound teaching on this subject. But we fail to find an3 r scripture for the dogma that is becoming so popular these days that the "world is rapidly growing better," and that the prevailing principles and influences will be successful in converting it and bringing about the millennium.

The more we study the word of God the more we are convinced that it directly antagonizes this view. Because sin in our day is not assuming the barbarous forms which characterized the dark ages, or heathen nations, many think the Bible is incorrect where it plainly declares that ' 'evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." But though we polish our perfidy and baptize our infidelity and refine our wickedness till sin becomes a science, it is sin still, and as much greater and more heinous in God's sight than the sin of other ages, as the light and knowledge of right and wrong in our day is greater than that which was enjoyed in other ages. God says: "In the last days perilous times shall come" for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy." Paul declares that Christ will not come ' 'Except there be a falling ay/ay first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God." This falling away in the last days is to be so great that Christ himself asked the question: "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" It is written that He comes "In flaming fire, taking vengence on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Peter says, not "in the last times" all shall be converted, but ' 'there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying: 'Where is the promise of His coming?'" Again Jesus said: "But as the days of Noe were, so so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, for as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be."

The following passage in I Timothy should be conclusive, as it seems to be aimed directly at this post-millennial heresy: "The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times (not that all shall be converted, but) some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." This post-millennial doctrine that the world is to be entirely converted to Christ by the present acting powers and influences, and the millennium to be inaugurated without the direct and immediate presence of Christ, was brought into prominence, if not into existence, less than two hundred years ago by a Mr. Whitby, who claimed that it was entirely "a new hypothesis." We grant that it deserves the name, as there is not a single passage in the New Testament which the champions of this doctrine can adduce which plainly teaches their theory. The entire fabric rests upon a misapprehension of some of the parables.

Moshiem writes in his Church history: "The prevailing opinion that Christ was to come and reign a thousand years among men before the final dissolution of the world, had met with no opposition previous to the time of Origen." Chillingworth says, speaking of the first four centuries: "It was the catholic doctrine of the age." The infidel historian, Gibbon, says of the same period: "It appears to have been the reigning sentiment of orthodox believers," and he continues: "As long as this error," as he denominates it, "was permitted to subsist in the church, it was productive of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice of Christians." In the light then of the teaching of the universal church for four hundred years after the apostles' time, and in the light of many plain scripture texts on this point, how our modern preachers can advocate the post-millennial ideas that are becoming" so prevalent can be accounted for only by believing that many of them are of the number that Jesus called "blind leaders of the blind," or of the number of those "teachers" that Paul declared in the "last days" would be "heaped together."

If Christ and some of His apostles had believed this post-millennial doctrine, why this utter silence on their part in reference to it? Or what is more noteworthy, why speak to the very opposite as in the passages quoted above? If a belief of this theory to-day be of such vast importance as an incentive to evangelistic and missionary effort as its champions assert it to be, then was it not more so in the infancy of the church, when her entire force was a missionary force? And is it not strange that Paul, her mightiest missionary and inspired teacher, entirely overlooked it, and even affirmed the contrary. Read II Thess, ii: If, as our post-millennial friends assert, there is to be a universal reign of peace for a thousand years before the return of Christ, then the fol lowing words of Jesus, which are recorded in live different places in the gospels, are entirely inconsistent: "Watch, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." For why should we watch now for His coming if there must elapse between now and that event a thousand years of universal righteousness and peace? Watching for an imminent occurrence and believing that an event will transpire after a thousand years, are entirely different states of mind. Our opponents practically assert that Jesus made the mistake of intending the latter when he commanded the former. Again, in Math, xxviii: 19, 20, Christ's great commission to His disciples is: "Go ye and teach all nations * * * and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "Now, how can this passage be reconciled with a millennium before Christ's coming, when it is stated that during the millennium, "They shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know Him from the least to the greatest." This post-millennial theory would make Christ's command obsolete a thousand years before the end ot the world (age), to which He declared that He would be with them in preaching. Away with such man-made doctrines of devils, that are opposed to the word of God. These popular heresies are the products of seducing spirits, and should be tried by the touch-stone of God's word. From these texts and arguments and many others that might be given, as well as from the deepening corruption and widespread wickedness of the times, we are convinced that there will be no millennium until ushered in by the presence of Christ himself. Though we are convinced that in the near future there will be a reign of universal righteousness when "the wolf shall also dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young" lion and the f atling together, and a little child shall lead them. * *