The Events That Precede It—Movements in the Dardanelles Significant—But Jerusalem in Palestine the Objective—The War of Armageddon
By Hampton W. Cottrell
“SEVEN TOWERS”
MEN should not misjudge God, for He did not ordain that the war now raging so furiously in Europe should come to the human family. However, He foreknew that earthly rulers would become possessed with an inhuman mania for greater governmental area, power, and honor, and that their course would bring the world crisis in which the great nations are now involved; and thus He recorded Himself in Holy Writ thousands of years before the bursting of the war cloud upon an unsuspecting world, that men might know that He is God.
WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN?
In reply to the query of the disciples, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” our divine Lord said, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences.” Matt. 24: 3-7.
Nation has risen “against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” to-day as never before, in accurate fulfillment of this prophecy. Famine is also threatening the people in certain sections of the war zone. And may we not expect pestilence to follow in the trail of this tragic war? The sultan—the sick man of the East—who stands for the Ottoman empire, is about to be removed from Europe, and the dissolution of his empire will be in fulfillment of the prophetic word of God, and thus it will be an additional sign of the soon coming of Christ.
TURKISH POWER BROKEN IN EUROPE
I quote from the Portland Oregonian of January 9, 1915: “The obliteration of the Ottoman empire is deemed assured. Nothing can save it, it is felt, but a clean-cut German victory. A draw will not be enough. The sultan will not be driven out of Europe merely. His Asiatic possessions will be cut up, too. Germany, even if it gets as good as a draw, will not be able to prevent it.”
The New Testament prophet symbolizes the Turkish dominion, which is now trembling in the balance, from both the human and the divine viewpoint, by the symbol of the river Euphrates, and determines its end by the language, “The water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” Rev. 16: 12. The Euphrates is in Turkish territory. The water represents the nation. Rev. 17: 15. The drying up of the water means the final dissolution of the empire.
The opening up of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea will be one vast forward move toward the preparation of the way of the kings of the east, for them to reach the Holy Land to answer the final summons to “the battle [war] of that great day of God Almighty”—Armageddon—which is not the war now in progress.
KING OF THE NORTH
The prophet Daniel refers to the Turkish dominion by the symbol of the king of the north. He beheld it rise to great prominence. He then saw it wane in power. He saw it establish its capital in temporary quarters, as will be noted by the language, “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.” Dan. 11: 45.
The glorious holy mountain—Jerusalem—lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea. The Turk will eventually leave European soil, and in fulfillment of the word of the Lord, tabernacle for a time, evidently at Jerusalem. He will not be a permanent fixture; for says the194prophet, “He shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”
He has been helped at various times by other nations, and thus has been enabled to remain in Europe until the present time.
The prophet Jeremiah refers to this power—the sultan’s dominion—under the figure of “the north country” and “the river Euphrates.” Jer. 46: 6, 10.
IT IS NOT THE CLOSE OF PROBATION
The removal of the Turk from Constantinople across the Bosporus is not an evidence of the immediate close of probation. Probation for sinners will not close at that time.
He must tabernacle for a time at Jerusalem. Daniel saw the sultan temporarily located “in the glorious holy mountain,” and then proceeds to span a period of time during which he gives no way signals until he touches the high peaks of culminating earthly events, namely, “He shall come to his end.” “And at that time shall Michael [Christ] stand ‘up’—probation ends. “And [then] there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.” This will be international trouble of the personnel of the sin-bound nations; but it will not seriously affect the children of God, for “at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” Dan. 12: 1. “See that ye [Christians] be not troubled.” Matt. 24: 6.
MAKING AN IMAGE TO THE BEAST
But John, the New Testament prophet, unfurls a banner with other detailed signals that may be discerned by those who will; for he beheld the making of an image to the beast—the papacy—and the cruel work to be wrought by it prior to the coming of the Lord, as indicated in the language found in Rev. 13: 1-8 and 14-18.
Paul saw the mystery of iniquity at work in the church in his day. And the Roman Church so far departed from the simplicity of the gospel of Christ that she declared herself head over all the churches. She then formed a union with the state, and coerced the state into making religious-civil laws for the furtherance of her perverted ideas of religion.
This system of coercing men to comply outwardly with her dogmas, being known of the Lord to be diametrically opposed to the spirit of the Author of Christianity, God saw fit to symbolize by a beast; for the character of a beast is to enforce its will by physical force against those who differ, rather than by the Master’s method—the influence of love.
WILL SEEK TO ENFORCE RELIGION
The Biblical new-dispensation prophet foresaw and fore-recorded that in our day, just prior to the coming of the Lord, professed Christianity would be in such a strained relation to God, and to men who might from personal choice of conscience differ with her, that the professed church would again form a union with the state, coercing civil powers to comply with her wish, and united church and state would photograph the Roman papal beast, thus forming an “image.”
THE CHURCH SEEKS TO COERCE
The image to the beast will be made by the professed church of Christ coercing the state to join with her in passing religious bills, and enforce religion—supposedly Christian religion—upon all who choose to differ from them in opinion or in understanding of duty to God. The spirit to do this is now at hand; but the work is largely yet to be accomplished, and every man tested thereby as to whether he will give all for God and receive His seal in the forehead, or choose eternal loss. Rev. 13: 14-17; 14: 6-14.
When this is accomplished, Christ will lay aside His mediatorial garments, and don His kingly attire. There will then be no further work in the temple of God. Rev. 15: 8.
WHEN GOD’S JUDGMENTS ARE DUE
The judgments of God will then be due, and will be made manifest by the outpouring of the seven vials of the wrath of God, unmixed with mercy, upon the incorrigible. Under the sixth plague, the Turkish dominion meets dissolution—comes to its end. Rev. 16: 12; Dan. 11: 45, last part. Then will come the battle or war of Armageddon, in which all nations will be involved. All earthly dominions then crumble, and are dissolved during the period of the outpouring of the seventh vial. Surely the text will thus be fulfilled, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.” Rev. 11: 15.
“AND, BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY”
Said He: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.” Rev. 16: 15-17. “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: and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22: 11, 12.
