Are the Prophecies Reliable?
By R. F. Cottrell
THE apostle Peter calls the prophecies a "sure word;" but in these days, some professing great light, by their expositions make them the most uncertain of all things. One of this sort of expositors recently held forth in Buffalo, N. Y. If it were possible, I would like to give a sample of his expositions, and I will try that upon Daniel 7: 25. This prophecy has been clearly fulfilled in every particular by the papacy, as far in the past as A. D. 1798. This he did not deny when his attention was called to it; but he called it a primary fulfillment; and he claimed that the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled by a future Napoleon, who will arise and rule as king in Syria, a personal antichrist. He claimed that this Napoleon would make a "seven years' covenant with the Jews," in fulfillment of Dan. 9: 27.—"He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week," etc.; (another wonderful application of Scripture!) and that during the last half of the week, the final three and a half years, this Napoleon would "have power over all nations (Rev. 13: 7), and then perish at Christ's descent at Armageddon. Rev. 19: 20." But this is not all that he gets out of Dan. 7: 25. He has yet another object to which he applies it,—the Mohammedan antichrist, which he says arose in A. D. 636, and to which he applies the "time and times and the dividing of time" found in the text. This 1260 years added to 636 brings us to 1896, at which date he holds that Christ will come and "destroy antichrist and convert the few Jews and Gentiles remaining on the earth, and personally reign over them and their descendants a thousand years." Now if the prophecies are to be played with in this way, if they are no more reliable than such fanciful interpretations make them, the sooner we abandon them the better. If the description given of the little horn of Dan. 7: 25 is intended to be applied to three different powers coming upon the stage of action hundreds of years apart, who knows that there are not a half-dozen other objects to which it applies as well? Considered thus, what assurance can prophetic fulfillment give us? None at all. But it is not so. The word of God is not yea and nay. Dan. 7: 25 applies to just one object, to the exclusion of every other. One power, and only one, in all the world and in all time, can fill the description. Therefore the prophecy is infallible in its application, and can be relied on as a sure and infallible guide.