In 2 Peter 1:16–19, where the apostle is recalling the fact that they saw the kingdom and glory of God in the transfiguration of Jesus on the mount, of which they were eye-witnesses, you remember these words: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts,” as well as everywhere else. The object of prophecy, then, is to give light in the dark.
You know, likewise, that it is written that “darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people;” and that is the time of the world in which we are now living. You know also of that expression in Ephesians 6, touching “the rulers of the darkness of this world.” Darkness does cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but God has caused his light to shine in this darkness. And the light that particularly shines in the darkness of this world, to give light to those who are in the darkness, is “prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.”
You know also: you have found in your lessons, over and over, that the prophecies of the book of Daniel are written especially for the last days. He who revealeth secrets maketh known “what shall be in the latter days.” “It shall be for many days.” “At the time of the end shall be the vision.” “Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end.” Then, the book of Daniel, being prophecy written especially for the time of the end, and the prophecy being as a light shining in a dark place; in that, it is the prophecy that is particularly to give light in the time of the end. But the book of Daniel, I repeat, discusses principally only two great powers—Babylon and Rome.
The history of Babylon of old—that of Rome of old—has instruction in it—through the book of Daniel—that must be, and will be, light to the people who are living in the time of the end, and who are in, and surrounded with, the darkness of this world. We know that in one phase of Rome, it is particularly a prophecy of these times, and that is in the characteristic of the little horn—the union of Church and State, the changing of God’s law, the persecuting of God’s people, etc. All this is spoken of in the last times, and we have studied that particularly all these years.
Eight years ago, only a little later than this, I spoke from this pulpit one Sabbath, on the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the likeness of Rome in our day in the uniting of religion and the State in the United States government. We ourselves have seen this done, in spite of the Constitution, in spite of all principle, in the declaring this to be “a Christian nation;” and in the changing of the Sabbath of the Lord to Sunday. This was done when in Congress the fourth commandment was read as expressing the reasons for the pending legislation, and then was so interpreted that “the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday,” must be the Sabbath that is meant in the fourth commandment, and shall be meant in the United States, so far as legislation goes, and the power of the United States shall go, to cause respect for it. In the study of that procedure we saw the very likeness of what had been before, when the Church, in the fourth century, united itself with the Roman State, and exalted Sunday in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord, and put under a curse all who presumed to work on Sunday, and who did not work on the Sabbath. I need not further review that.
But there is more to Rome than just that,—a good deal more. And all of it is to show us that, in this time in which we live, that which was Rome in its day is instruction to us in our day. What Rome did in the course of her going away from God, and leading the world away from God, is instruction to us in our day, when we see the like thing carried on, in the same way precisely, and for the same purpose precisely. As I have often said on this subject: Two things that are so much alike in the making, must be alike when they are made.
It will be impossible for any power on the earth more certainly to change the Sabbath, so far as any power can change it, than the United States government has done, in exact likeness of the papacy before it. It is a principle in governmental procedure, recognized as such in law, and so regarded in history, that for a subordinate government to re-enact, especially with changes, a law made by the supreme authority, for the government of the subordinate state, is “tantamount to a declaration of independence” on the part of the subordinate government. And any power, whatever it might be, however it might be organized, and wherever it might be on the earth, that would presume to take the law of God and incorporate it, in legislation, with changes, would in that, declare itself independent of God. The papacy did that when, by its working, the Sabbath was incorporated in legislation; and yet all that pertained to it was transferred to another day, thus incorporating the law of God in the legislation, with changes. That was the assertion of independence of the power of God. And when the United States government incorporated the fourth commandment of the law of God in its legislation, and then in its legislation deliberately changed the Sabbath of that commandment to Sunday, after the very example of the papacy, in that thing, this government asserted its independence of God, in the very likeness of the papacy.
In that respect we have things in this day exactly in the likeness of Rome. In that course the United States has followed and is following in the steps of Rome in her day.
But that later phase of Rome, which is symbolized by the “little horn” of Daniel 7, was produced by the union of Church and State—the union of the apostate Christian Church with the Roman State. And that is in the prophecy which was sealed up till the time of the end, then to shine forth, to be light to the people in the darkness of the time of the end.
What kind of State was it, with which this union of the church was made that caused that same power of Rome in Daniel 7, to take on a different form in the prophecy, and in the world?—The record says that it was “diverse from all kingdoms,”—“diverse from all that were before it;” and not only that, but “diverse from all.” Wherein was Rome diverse from all?—In that Rome was a republic, while all the others were kingdoms. When the Church, then, united with that State, it was a union of the Church with a republic,—or rather with that which had been a republic, but which had become an imperial power.
I need not follow that particular phase of this subject further just now. I did that a little later than this two years ago, when from this pulpit I called your attention to the course of Rome from the point at which she entered upon the stage of action in the prophecy. At that time you saw Rome, being a republic, reaching out beyond her own proper home territory, sending her navies and her armies across the seas, to fight the battles of struggling peoples who longed for liberty, to set them free—all, only for the love of humanity.
This I say was reviewed nearly two years ago; I do not need to follow that further just now. And this especially because there is now another phase of that history to which I must call your attention in this review. And, as in that study nearly two years ago, all I shall need to do will be to read to you the authentic, the indisputable, history of Rome. Indeed that is all that I shall do; because, if I did more, some might think that I was going out of the right way as a minister of the gospel, preaching in the pulpit. But it can not be out of the way for me, a minister of the gospel, a minister of the Word of God, in the pulpit, studying the prophecy of Daniel concerning Rome, to read the history of Rome, in the fulfillment of the prophecy. That never can be out of place in the pulpit.
Here is a book that I bought twenty-one years ago. So nobody can say that it was made up for the occasion. It is a sketch of Cæsar and his times, and the Roman State in the time of Cæsar. I shall read only a few sentences, that you may see what Rome was in her day. A few sentences, plainly read and understood, will be enough to demand of all that we seriously ask ourselves whether there is not something in it that is suggestive in connection with what is occurring now, before the eyes of all people.
Thus I read—
To the student of political history and to the English student above all others, the conversion of the Roman republic into a military empire commands a peculiar interest. Notwithstanding many differences, the English and the Romans essentially resemble one another. The early Romans possessed the faculty of self-government beyond any people of whom we have historical knowledge, with the one exception of ourselves. In virtue of their temporal freedom, they became the most powerful nation in the known world; and their liberties perished only when Rome became the mistress of conquered races, to whom she was unable or unwilling to extend her privileges.
Rome’s liberty perished, the Roman republic failed, only when she became the mistress of conquered races, to whom she was unwilling to extend the privileges of the Roman republic and of Roman law. Because she was not “unable.” She was able to do it: she COULD have done it, but she was UNWILLING to do it. And when a thing is refused because of unwillingness only, then that is INTENDED so to be. But why was it that Rome was unwilling to extend the privileges of the Roman government, the Roman Constitution, the Roman law, the Roman Republic, to these conquered peoples?—Only because in Rome’s estimation they were incapable of governing themselves. That is all. And, being “unfit for self-government,” it was not meet that they should be placed upon an equality with Romans, and to come up to the capital and legislate for US.
The next sentence:—356
If there be one lesson which history clearly teaches, it is this: that free nations can not govern subject provinces.
That is where Rome failed; and Rome is in the prophecy. And the course of the Roman republic is portrayed in the prophecy as a light to shine in the darkness, in “the time of the end,” to give us light by which we may walk. The Roman Republic—a government of the people—failed, and became a one-man power, the greatest civil despotism ever known. And when the religious power—the apostate church—seized that one-man civil power, and turned it to a one-man religious power, it became the greatest despotism of any kind that ever existed. It was then the “man of sin,” “the mystery of iniquity,” “the Beast.” And the repetition of that history will be a reproduction of the greatest despotism that the world has ever seen.
And, if there is to be no repetition of that history, then why is that history put into the prophecy and closed up and sealed till “the time of the end,” and then opened, to shine there as a light to the people in the time of the end? By that very fact it is settled beyond all reasonable question that, in “the time of the end,” that history will be so nearly repeated that the people living at that time will need this prophecy, and what is in it, as a light, to save them from ruin like that which came upon Rome, in the way that she went.