The Eastern Question by William A. Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 18, 1916

The Eastern Question

By William A. Spicer

Modern History in the Light of Ancient Prophecy

(Concluded)

Of the later history of the king of the north and his end and the events following it, the prophecy says:—

“Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” Dan. 11: 44, 45; 12: 1.

The opening verse of this scripture describes exactly the history of Turkey in modern times. Turkey’s disquietude has come from tidings out of the east and out of the north. In both these directions there has been a pushing back of the Turkish frontier, particularly in the north. Again and again during this time of the end, Turkey has gone forth with fury to resist these encroachments and prevent the loss of territory.

The prophecy indicates that in some of these struggles the king of the north will yet transfer his capital:—

“He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain.”

Removal to Jerusalem

Jerusalem is “the holy mountain” (Zech. 8: 3) of the Scriptures. This prophecy can mean nothing else than that the king of the north will eventually set up his headquarters in Jerusalem.

It is a wise counsel that says, “Tread lightly in the details of unfulfilled prophecy.” Just how events are to turn, by what route or processes the steps are to be taken, it is useless to speculate. But there the prophecy stands. Every word of the early portion of the prophetic outline was fulfilled to the letter in the history of the ancient empires battling over this region. Every word spoken of the final scenes will as certainly be fulfilled.

In view of this prophecy that Jerusalem is yet to be made the headquarters of the king of the north, it is highly significant that the Mohammedans regard Jerusalem as a sacred city. According to Mohammedan tradition, Jerusalem is to play a part in the closing history of that people. Hughes’s “Dictionary of Islam,” article “Jerusalem,” summarizes the teaching:—

“In the last days there will be a general flight to Jerusalem.”

Speaking of Jerusalem, an old Arab commentator on the Koran, Mukaddasi (A. D. 985), said:—

“As to the excellence of the city. Why, is not this to be the place of marshaling on the day of judgment, where the gathering together and the appointment will take place? Verily Makkah [Mecca] and Al Madina have their superiority by reason of the Ka’abah and the prophet,—the blessing of Allah be upon him and his family!—but, in truth, on the day of judgment both cities will come to Jerusalem, and the excellencies of them all will then be united.”— Le Strange, “Palestine under the Moslems,” p. 85.

Thus Moslem doctrinal teaching and tradition mark Jerusalem as the rallying place of Moslems before the end. Again and again in recent years, as the pressure has threatened the Turkish hold on Constantinople, the thoughts of Moslems have turned toward Jerusalem as a possible capital. A few years ago a Seventh-day Adventist missionary in Constantinople wrote to his home board:—

“Within the past few months quite a company of people from the Transcaucasus district have come to Ismid,—old Nicomedia,—bringing all they possess with them. Some of them possess considerable wealth. When asked if they were going to settle in Ismid, they replied that they would settle nowhere permanently at present. They stated that they had come to be prepared to go with their leader when he left Constantinople to go to Jerusalem.”

Wherever the capital may be first set up following the forsaking of Constantinople,—and Turkish authorities, we are told, have discussed a number of possible locations in Asia Minor,—there stands the ancient prophecy as to the eventual seat of the king of the north,—

“He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain.”

Following that, what comes? The prophecy declares,—

“Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”

What Comes When Turkey Falls

The fury of his goings forth “utterly to make away many,” the moving of his capital from one place to another, avail nothing in the end. “He shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”

The suggestion of the prophecy is that this power had hitherto been helped to stand. Here again every suggestion of the prophetic language finds its response in history. Through these later years of the time of the end the Ottoman Empire has been helped to stand, either by one power or another or by some combination of powers. The late Lord Salisbury, while premier of Britain, stated the reasons for this policy of helping Turkey, in these words:—

“Turkey is in that remarkable condition in which it has now stood for half a century, mainly because the great powers of the world have resolved that for the peace of Christendom it is necessary that the Ottoman Empire should stand. They came to that conclusion nearly half a century ago. I do not think they have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman Empire should fall, would not merely be the danger that would threaten the territories of which that empire consists; it would be the danger that the fire there lit should spread to other nations, and should involve all that is most powerful and civilized in Europe in a dangerous and calamitous contest. That was the danger that was present to the minds of our fathers when they resolved to make the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire a matter of European treaty, and that is a danger which has not passed away.”— Mansion House speech, Nov. 9, 1895.

The veteran premier stated the fear of modern statesmen that Turkey’s fall would involve all civilization in a calamitous conflict. The prophecy pictures just such a catastrophe. The scripture says:—

“Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.”

What modern statesmen have seen impending, and have sought to ward off, the ancient prophecy says will surely come when the king of the north comes to his end,—a time of trouble for the nations such as never was.

In the New Testament Also

In the prophecy of Revelation 16, the last great clash of the nations is represented as following the fall of the power ruling by the Euphrates. Describing the

last events in human history, under the pouring out of the vials of judgment upon the world, the prophet says:—

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” Rev. 16:12.

The water of the Euphrates represents the people or power ruling by it.

When anciently the Assyrians dwelt by that river and were about to invade Israel, the prophet said, “The Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria.” Isa. 8:7. The waters of the Euphrates meant the Assyrian power.

Just so, in this prophecy, the river stands for the people. As the Nile stood for Egypt and the Tiber for Rome, so in all modern times the Euphrates has stood for Turkey. The “drying up” of the Euphrates must mean the ending of the Turkish power. And in verses immediately following, the Revelation pictures the gathering of the nations of the whole world to Armageddon—“the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Following Turkey’s end comes the final clash of nations. The earth quakes, the cities of the nations fall, and the last judgments of God come upon a warring world.

Here, as in Daniel 12, is pictured a time of trouble for the nations such as never was, and the end of the world,—when the power ruling in Syria, by the Euphrates, comes to its end.

The Approaching End

For years statesmen and observers have discussed the approaching dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Travelers in Turkey have reported that thoughtful Turkish people held the conviction that the crisis of their nation was near at hand. Mr. Charles MacFarlane, in his book, “Kismet: or the Doom of Turkey,” page 409 (London, 1853), wrote years ago:—

“The Turks themselves seem generally to be convinced that their final hour is approaching. ‘We are no longer Mussulmans,—the Mussulman saber is broken,—the Osmanlis will be driven out of Europe by the gidavurs, and driven through Asia to the regions from which they first sprang. It is Kismet! We cannot resist destiny!’ I heard words to this effect from many Turks, as well in Asia as in Europe.”

A later Turkish traveler, Mr. Wilfred Scawan Blunt, says in his “Future of Islam,” page 95:—

“Ancient prophecy and modern superstition alike point to the return of the crescent into Asia as an event at hand, and to the doom of the Turks. . . . A well-known prediction to this effect, which has for ages exercised its influence on the vulgar and even on the learned Mohammedan mind, . . . places the scene of the last struggle in northern Syria, at Homs, on the Orontes. Islam is then finally to retire from the north, and the Turkish rule to cease. Such prophecies often work their own fulfilment.”

Thus native tradition and human forebodings have contemplated the break-up of the Turkish power, as the course of the years have witnessed the shrinkage of its territory and the ever-increasing difficulty of its position.

Now and then there has been a renewal of Turkey’s vigor and prestige; then again its situation has been rendered yet more precarious. It has been a buffer between the clashing interests of the great powers. Speaking of Turkey’s difficult position in this respect, the London Fortnightly Review, May, 1915, expressed a common view thus:—

“When once the nations of Europe set foot in Asia Minor, the pace of Turkey’s further downfall will be set not so much by Turkey’s strength or weakness as by the mutual jealousies of the occupying powers.”

The storm clouds hang ever low over the Near East; while above all the din of wars and rumors of wars, the voice of divine prophecy declares that when this power by the Euphrates comes to its end, the closing events in human history will quickly follow.

The solemn truth rings in our ears like a trumpet peal; the age-long Eastern Question is hastening on to its final solution, and its solution brings the end of the world.

In the light of the “sure word of prophecy” the developments of our day in the Eastern Question become more than matters of the grave political concern that they are to the minds of statesmen and observers of affairs; they are matters of deepest eternal interest to every soul. In watching the trend of international affairs in these times, we are watching the doing of the last things among the nations.

As these things are seen coming to pass exactly as the prophecy foretold, it is God’s call to men in the last generation to turn to him and prepare their hearts to meet the coming Lord. Let no one think to wait until he sees Turkey come to its end before making his peace with God. The end of this power, as described in Revelation 16, comes during the falling of the seven last plagues. And the last verse of the preceding chapter shows that Christ’s ministry for sinners in the heavenly temple has ended before the plagues begin to fall. Human probation will already have closed. The solemn decree has then been issued in heaven:—

“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly.” Rev. 22:11, 12.

“Now is the accepted time,” calls the Spirit; “now is the day of salvation.” We have not to make ourselves ready. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive, and to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Our part is to believe and confess; his part is to forgive and cleanse and make ready for the coming kingdom.

W. A. S.