p. 140 | The Eastern Question by Uriah Smith

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 3, 1877

The Eastern Question.

By Uriah Smith

The traveler who finds a prominent and well-worded guide-board, though it be but one, pointing out in plain terms the way to his desired destination, has no misgivings but that he is upon the right road and will in due time reach the end of his journey.

The student of prophecy finds himself to-day amid a whole forest of guide-boards all pointing in the same direction, and showing the child of God that the last stage of his earthly pilgrimage is reached, and that the eternal kingdom of God is not far in the distance.

The voice of fulfilling prophecy to-day is many-tongued. Beacon lights are flaming up all over the earth. To be in doubt is to be guilty of inexcusable carelessness and slumber. The third angel's message, the last message to go forth before the Son of man appears upon the great white cloud, Rev. 14: 9-14, is already far advanced in its process of fulfillment. If this is not so, let any one account for this S. D. Adventist movement, a movement which has reached no small degree of magnitude, and which professes to be a fulfillment, and certainly bears every feature, of that message. If this is the message, and this the fulfillment, it shows us where we are beyond all mistaking.

Again, the old infallible that sits in St. Peter's chair at Rome, at the head of the crazy papal system, is near his end. His temporal dominion is gone. The great words which he was to speak, have been heard. He has secured a decree from the whole Catholic world that he is infallible. That decree, which, if it could be carried out, would put every political throne beneath the pope's feet, knocked out his last earthly prop. In close connection with this the prophet saw that beast (the papacy) destroyed and its body given to the burning flame. Dan. 7: 11. The papacy is to be destroyed by the coming of Christ. 2 Thess. 2: 8. If the papacy is the subject of prophecy in the little horn of Dan. 7, the first part of 2 Thess. 2, and the first part of Rev. 13, of which there can be no doubt, then where are we? What look we for next, in its history? Consummation in the fires of the last day, and that speedily.

So also our own nation is a great way-mark on the prophetic highway. It is to be followed by no other earthly government, but after accomplishing certain acts, is to meet, as a living power, the destruction of the great day of the Lord. It has about done its work. What remains it is now preparing to do.

We might also mention the manifold signs now appearing in the political and domestic economy of the nations, the increase of wealth, the decline of religion, the growing laxity of morals, the alarming outburst of crime, the achievements of science, the unaccountable phenomena of nature, etc.

And now a cloud is overshadowing Europe, beneath which the roar of cannon and the shock of armies are to respond, in the ears of all the world, to the words of prophecy, testifying that its final utterances are fast fulfilling. In the fate of Turkey, the overthrow of which, as is now generally conceded, is inevitably drawing near, we have one of the most striking indications of our nearness to the end. Let us note a few points in the prophecy.

In Dan. 11: 33-35, the 1260 years of papal persecution are undoubtedly brought to view, bringing us to the termination of that period in 1798, a year thus marked as the time of the end. In verses 36-39 another power is introduced to appear about that time in an atheistical character. France took this character, at that very time, in the terrible French revolution. No other nation, as a nation, has ever openly professed itself atheistical. All the specifications of these verses find an easy application to France during that period. “He shall divide the land for gain.” Verse 39. In the revolution the large landed estates of the nobility were seized, divided into small portions, and sold out to the citizens. The result was an addition of over 700,000,000 pounds sterling to the national treasury.

In verse 40 two other powers are introduced, the king of the south, and the king of the north. These terms are explained by a reference to the first part of the chapter. When the old Macedonian kingdom of Alexander the Great was broken up at his death, four kingdoms arose out of it, which from the prophet's stand-point in Palestine, were called the kings of the south, west, north and east. The king of the south was Egypt, and the king of the north, Thrace, including Asia Minor, and adjacent territory. Egypt is still Egypt, and the power that now occupies Asia Minor, is Turkey. Therefore at the time introduced in verse 40, Egypt was the king of the south, and Turkey the king of the north. By the pronoun “him” of that verse, is meant the atheistical French power just described.

Here is a testing point in the prophecy. According to the application thus far made, the following movements are called for: 1. That at the time of the end, in 1798, the king of the south, Egypt, should engage in hostilities with France; and, 2. That the king of the north, Turkey, should come against the same power, in the same year, in great fury. If all this did transpire, it must be either a fulfillment of this prediction, or one of the most unaccountable coincidences ever met with in the world's history. But it did all take place to the letter. See American Encyclopedia. And the application of the prophecy is thus most strikingly confirmed.

From this point the prophecy takes up that power which came off victorious in that conflict; and that was Turkey. The French gave way and Turkey recovered all the temporary conquests of the French in Egypt. Verses 41, 42 and 43 find as easy an application to Turkey, as the previous parts of the prophecy to the papacy and to France. Verse 44 was strikingly fulfilled in the Crimean war. The threatening aspect of Persia on the east, and Russia on the north, was the occasion of Turkey's declaration of war against Russia at that time.

Verse 45 describes movements which have not yet taken place; but the way is fast preparing for them. Russia, ever since the days of Peter the Great, has been actuated by a strong desire to drive the Turk out of Europe and gain possession of Constantinople. The treaty that concluded the Crimean war, restrained Russia from the use of the Black Sea, and so postponed the carrying out of her project. But when France was humbled by Prussia in 1870, and England was thereby financially crippled, and Austria had not recovered from her punishment by Prussia a few years before, and there was no European power that could or would come to the aid of Turkey in case of conflict, Russia announced to the world that she did not propose to be longer bound by the stipulations of the treaty of 1856. Since that time she has been acting accordingly and preparing to carry out her designs upon Turkey. The result is now seen in the war declared last Tuesday, April 24, by Russia against Turkey.

How will it issue? No one supposes that Turkey, unaided, can long stand before that colossal power. All political writers announce it as Turkey's inevitable doom to be driven from Europe. Where will it go? Back upon its Asiatic dominions. The prophecy says he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace, or seat of government, between the seas in the glorious holy mountain, which Bishop Newton says must

denote Mt. Zion, the site of Jerusalem. This will probably be the point where the government will be located when the Turks are forced from Constantinople. Then adds the prophecy, “He shall come to his end and none shall help him.” In 1798, 1840 and 1853-6, Turkey received the help of other powers. But now they must stand aloof. England and France have proclaimed themselves strictly neutral in this contest. The Sultan appeals to the provisions of the treaties of 1840 and 1846, guaranteeing the integrity and independence of the Turkish government by the other powers. But he is told that he has forfeited all claims upon them. The Turkish treasury is exhausted. Russia is armed to the teeth prepared for one year's uninterrupted fighting, and has thrown into the field already a force more than double the number of men that Turkey is able to muster.

When the Turks leave Europe, the end of that power is not far distant. And when its end comes, then, says Dan. 12: 1, Michael, the great Prince of God's people, that is Christ, stands up or begins his reign; the scenes of this world's history close in a time of trouble unparalleled, the dead are raised, and probation ends.

The politician looks upon this movement with a curiosity to see how the map of Europe will be reconstructed when it is over. But the child of God looks upon it with greater interest, because it is to him one of the great way-marks to show that the kingdom of God is at our doors. Were we asked to reconstruct the map of Europe and the East, we would begin by striking out Turkey in Europe. Then we would strike out Turkey in Asia; but when we do that, we might as well strike out all maps; for then the kingdoms of this world are broken with a rod of iron and dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel by the setting up of the kingdom of God.

So few are the events intervening between us and the scenes of the great decisive day, and so apparently are the last movements of the nations beginning. What may intervene to restrain the winds, if anything, and postpone for awhile the issue, we know not. We do not know that anything will. Events move rapidly in these days, and the nations are circling swifter and swifter round the great vortex that is soon to engulf them all. It is time to prepare. Let us not be guilty of the folly of unbelief or the crime of delay. U. S.