The Prince of this World

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 10, 1878

The Prince of this World.

B. H. LEWIS of Oregon inquires, "Will the SIGNS OF THE TIMES please give its readers a true and critical exposition of John 12:31. 'Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out,' especially the terms now, Judgment, Prince. Who is this prince? From whence, or from what shall this prince be cast out?"

If we connect two more verses with the one quoted above it seems to me we have the key to the understanding of this verse 31. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die." John 12:32, 33. It is evident that the language refers to the betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and death of Christ, so the time, "now," was when those things were accomplished. The "prince" "cast out" was Christ. "The judgment," the judgment the wicked passed in their unjust condemnation of Christ to death. This was predicted in Isaiah 53:7, 8, "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away." So it is quoted in Acts 8:32, 33.

This casting out of Christ by his own people is clearly taught in one of his own parables, where the householder who had planted a vineyard after sending his servants, at last sent his son, and 'the husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard." Mark 12:7, 8.