PRESENT WORLD MOVEMENTS IN PROPHECY
By A. O. Tait
The "Holy Roman Empire" in Embryo
IN the last issue of this paper we considered some of the evidences which show that the "Holy Roman Empire" was a matter of prophecy. The "Holy Empire" existed in the minds of men all through the Middle Ages, and was essentially an empire of this world. Consequently it could not have been an empire of God's own choosing. But nevertheless, as was shown last week, it was predicted in the prophecy of the "falling away," and of the rise of that power that would attempt to exercise the prerogatives of God upon earth. The Bible has taught all through the ages, both in the old dispensation and in the new, that the kingdom of God during this earth's reign of sin would be a spiritual kingdom, in which all who would accept the principles of the divine Master, and through His power become like Him in character, would be subjects. But notwithstanding the clear statements of the Word of God, there have always been those who would persist in believing and teaching that the kingdom of God was a temporal kingdom, founded upon force and pertaining to this world. The establishing of the kingdom of ancient Israel was not according to God's plan. The Israelites demanded a king, so that they might be like the nations around them; but the Lord told Samuel that in making this demand, they had not rejected the prophet, but had rejected God Himself. 1 Sam. 8: 5-7. Thus the establishing of the kingdom of ancient Israel, to which so many have pointed as being a part of the plan of God, is shown to be without question an act of apostasy on the part of that great nation. But then, as now, the Lord was kind to the erring, and sought to gather out of the great chaos of apostasy individuals, here and there, who would accept His spiritual and divine teaching, and follow Him. When Christ was here upon earth He taught, as was shown in our last article, that His kingdom was not of this world. Yet despite His personal teaching, we read, "Jesus therefore perceiving that they were about to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again into the mountain Himself alone." John 6:15. And just before His ascension, the disciples "asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Thus it was not until Christ Himself had ascended in person, and the minds of the early disciples were fully illuminated by the mighty descent of the promised Spirit, that they saw the spirituality of the kingdom of Christ, and that it would be established, as is being shown in the studies in Daniel in another department of this paper, upon the utter destruction of all earthly kingdoms at the second coming of Christ. And while the early disciples stood true and loyal to God, the true doctrine of the spiritual kingdom of Christ upon this earth was held in its purity. But when the "falling away" came, and the church began to lose her correct doctrine and power, then she began to seek for earthly help; she began to rely upon the carnal sword instead of the Spirit and power of God. The Word of God was lost sight of, and the decrees of councils and the teachings of men were made to take the place of the pure utterances of Jehovah. And but a little more than three centuries had elapsed when we had what history has styled "the first Christian emperor." The old doctrine that the emperor of Rome was the pontifex maximus, or the high priest of the religion of the empire, as well as the head of the civil State, began to find its way into the theories of the nominal Christian church. All through the dissensions, apostasies, and wars of the early centuries of the Christian era, the church and the State were courting each other, and the teaching was gaining ground more and more strongly that the church must have the protection of the civil power in order to overthrow heresy and to do its appointed work. Finally there was established what was known for a thousand years as the "Holy Roman Empire." "Strictly speaking, it is from the year 800 A.D., when a king of the Franks was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III, that the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire must be dated."—Bryce's "Holy Roman Empire," edition of 1907, pages 2, 3. In the foregoing quotation, the "king of the Franks" referred to, was Charles the Great, or Charlemagne. Speaking of Charlemagne, Archbishop Trench calls him the "mightiest man whom the Middle Ages produced," and he further adds: King of the Franks, by which we do not mean king of the French, for Germany had very much the largest part in him, while Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) and not Paris was the capital of his dominions, he had carried his victorious arms as far as to the Eider on the north of Europe, to Pomerania on the east, far into Hungary, to the river Theiss, on the south. All which the Lombards owned he had not very long before added to his dominions; while in Spain, despite of one severe but isolated check, which romance has made more of than history would warrant, he had driven back the Arabs beyond the Ebro.—Trench's "Mediæval Church History," page 83.
When Charlemagne was crowned the emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day in the year 800, he was recognized not merely as the head of the State, he was the civil arm of the "Holy Empire" that had long been a dream in the minds of men, but was now enacted into fact. For nearly two hundred years the followers of Mohammed had been the scourge of Christendom. The apostasy that had come in had filled the churches of the time with images of Mary, the apostles, and other "saints" that had died. The Mohammedans turned all the furies of their fanatical zeal to the work of crushing the "idolaters," as they termed those who had assumed the name of Christian, and who had filled their places of worship with images of dead "saints" through whom they sought to approach the heavenly Father. Through appealing to the basest passions, and by permitting the most wholesale plundering, these Saracenic hordes were encouraged to sweep up from Arabia and Egypt, as expressed in the symbolic language of the Apocalypse, like swarms of "locusts." Invasion followed invasion, and thousands upon thousands of the professing Christians were slaughtered, the images in their churches were broken to pieces and cast out, and the buildings themselves were transformed into mosques. Said Mohammed: The sword is the key of heaven and of hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is more avail than two months of fasting or prayer. Whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven. At the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim.
Commenting on the foregoing promises of Mohammed, Gibbon says: The intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm. The picture of the invisible world was strongly painted on their imagination; and the death which they had always despised became an object of hope and desire. . . . The first companions of Mohammed advanced to battle with a fearless confidence. There is no danger where there is no chance. They were ordained to perish in their beds, or they were safe and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy.
The teaching of Mohammed had filled his followers with an inflamed zeal and fanaticism, and the object was placed before them of ridding the earth of the image-worshipers, or idolaters, as the professed Christians were called. And it looked for a time as if they would be successful in doing it. But when it would seem that Mohammedanism would sweep away all of what passed for Christianity, then it was that the mighty Charlemagne arose to do his mighty deeds. His grandfather, Charles Martel, had done much to open the way for his work; his father, Pepin, had done still more; but Charlemagne himself did the master-stroke that formed the embryo of the "Holy Roman Empire," sentiments in favor of which had been growing in the minds of men for the past several centuries. To note the influence and results of this "Holy Empire" that was thus formed will have to be reserved for next week.