p. 6 | Studies in Daniel

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 30, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 18.

Studies in Daniel

The Vision of Daniel 10, 11

We have studied for several weeks the great prophecy of Daniel 8, and its subsequent explanations by the angels of God to Daniel as recorded in chapters 8 to 11. Empire has succeeded empire, dynasty succeeded dynasty, in the world kingdom, until the prophecy has spanned that space of time which lies between Babylon of old and the reign of the last of the apostate powers, Rome in her various phases.

Around the later developments of apostasy the vision enlarges, and focuses great, tremendous facts. It outlines the nearer powers and phases briefly, and proceeds to the culmination; for it is declared that "the vision belongeth unto the time of the end," "in the latter time of the indignation," "the appointed time of the end," "to the many days to come," that the prophet and those who heed his words might know "what shall befall thy people in the latter days."

The explanatory part of chapter 8 dealt largely, yet briefly, with the character and work of the little horn power, Rome as a whole. The explanation of chapter 9 fixed the beginning and confirmed the year-day period of 2,300 evenings and mornings, B.C. 457 to A.D. 1844. It did this by the shorter division periods, which culminated at the first advent of Christ, in the beginning of His priesthood, and in the cutting off of the Jewish people. It is packed with tremendous and definite particulars.

In chapters 10 and 11 we have further information concerning the career of apostate powers in their relation to God's children after the time of Daniel to the end. At the very feet of the prophet the picture begins, and stretches away over the mountain and valley, until the reign of Him for whom all creation groans. That vision touches lightly upon Persia, leaps two centuries, and notes the mighty Alexander who revolutionized the world in language, culture, and sentiment; finds among Alexander's successors in the kings of the north a high-handed, blasphemous, Heaven-defying king who persecutes God's wandering children, defiles their center of worship, slays thousands upon thousands, and is overthrown. Then, using that king as a type, the prophecy proceeds to bring upon the great unresting sea of the world a new power. In the ships of Chittim comes a new king of the north, Rome, who possesses himself of all that the Seleucidae held and more.

Babylon, in the north country, by the river Euphrates, molded the world and passed away; then came Cyrus in Persia, then Alexander in Macedonia, then the Seleucidae, whose world-molding power closed with Antiochus Magnus and Antiochus Epiphanes, then Rome. Rome at the first advent, finds place in the explanation of chapter 9; Rome as the mighty persecutor and perverter of truth, in chapter 11. Verses 31 to 35 suggest briefly the persecutor of God's children from our Lord's first advent to the close, and the suffering of those who are made white and tried even to the time of the end. Then comes the second description of the character of that power and its career in brief to the end. The scripture for this study is as follows: Daniel 11: 36-45, A.R.V. In the first part of this section it will help us in our study if we —

Question the Text

1. What will THE king do?

"THE KING shall do according to his will."

2. How is this power spoken of elsewhere?

"That man of sin," "that wicked" (2 Thess. 2:3, 8); "he shall think to change the times and the law" (Dan. 7:25); "his power shall be mighty" (Dan. 8:24); "great authority," "power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations" (Rev. 13:2, 7).

3. What will this king exalt?

"He shall exalt HIMSELF, and magnify HIMSELF above every god." Dan. 11: 36.

4. What other scriptures speak of this same characteristic?

"Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped" (2 Thess. 2:4); "it magnified itself;" "he shall magnify himself" (Dan. 8:11, 25).

5. What is he to do as regards God?

"Speak marvelous things against the God of gods." Dan. 11: 36.

6. How is this set forth in other scriptures?

"He shall speak great words against the Most High" (Dan. 7:25); "he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle" (Rev. 13:6).

7. What other thing shall he not do?

"Nor the desire of women."

8. What is the extent of his great assumption?

"Nor regard any god." Dan. 11: 37.

9. Why is it said that he does not regard any god?

"For he shall magnify HIMSELF ABOVE ALL." Id.

10. How does the apostle Paul express it?

"He as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 2 Thess. 2:4. See also Rev. 13:8.

11. Whom will he honor?

"A god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things." Dan. 11: 38.

12. How is this thought elsewhere suggested?

"Through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand" (Dan. 8:25); "the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones" (Rev. 18:12).

13. What god is he especially said to honor?

"But in his estate he shall honor the god of forces." Dan. 11: 38. See Rev. 18: 23.

14. How long shall he prosper?

"He shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done."

15. How is this elsewhere expressed?

"Made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of Days came" (Dan. 7:21, 22); "shall prosper and do his pleasure; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people;" "the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be" (Dan. 8:24, 19); "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow" (Rev. 18:7).

16. Notwithstanding his prosperity, what is sure to come?

"Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." Dan. 11: 45.

17. How is this end elsewhere expressed?

"The son of perdition;" "the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth" (2 Thess. 2:3, 8); "and the beast . . . into perdition" (Rev. 17:11); "but he shall be broken without hand" (Dan. 8:25); "the beast was slain" (Dan. 7:11); "therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her" (Rev. 18:8).

Note and Comment

Verse 36

"AND THE KING"—not A king, as has been said. Wintle is the only one, so far as we know, that reads "a king," but he offers no justification for his reading. He made the mistake of supposing that the work of Antiochus reached to verse 35, and he knew that verse 36 referred to Rome; hence his transition. If he had not made his first mistake, he would not have needed to pervert the Hebrew of the text, which is "THE king." The Septuagint, with all its aberrations and interpolations in Daniel, reads, "ho basileus," the king. The English and American revisions, the Douay Version, Spurrell, Boothroyd, Despres, Rule, Dr. Wright, Seiss, Bishop Newton, Sir Isaac Newton, Jamieson, Fauset and Brown, "Bible Commentary," Birks, who holds with Mead, Keil, and Boothroyd, who cites Mead with no variant reading, all render, or approve the rendering, as in our Common Version, "THE king." "The Bible Commentary" justly observes, "The definite article, THE king, intimates that the subject of this and the following verses is the same king of the north who has been spoken of in verses 31 to 35." And the learned Keil says, "'Melech' [king] with the definite article undeniably points back to the king whose appearance and conduct are described in verses 31 to 33." Birks says, "To retain the true application of the little horn to the Papacy, and then to explain 'THE king' of an infidel power, noticed here for the first time, deprives the article [the] of all force, and thus destroys the internal harmony of these inspired predictions." THE king of verse 36 is the king of the north still; it is Rome, the legitimate successor in territory and influence of the king of the north from the very beginning. This king "shall do according to his will." So it is said of Persia and Alexander, and of Antiochus Magnus, and of the little horn in Dan. 7:25. There can be no question but that Paul refers to this very power, in the text above quoted from 2 Thessalonians 2. Even thus has Rome been manifest, far above its wilful predecessors. The Papacy has worked according to its will, even to the changing of God's law, of which our Lord Himself says that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail."

Exaltation and Consequent Blasphemy

"He shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods." Nowhere do we find the language of exaltation more extravagant or emphatic than in the bulls and decrees of the popes themselves. The papal authority is lifted above all human authority, the pope subject to no earthly tribunal; all earthly rulers and kings are subject to the pope; his decrees are infallible, the voice of God to the world; it is not permitted to speak or to think contrary to his decrees; in fact, he claims the very power of creating in the wafer his own Creator; and a mass of other assumptions of lesser character.

He is to speak marvelous things against or concerning the God of gods, "for the word bears equally either sense." This power unites himself with God ostensibly and professedly, and at the very same time, in the name of God, does things and speaks things which are contrary to the entire government of God and His great scheme of salvation. In other words, it constitutes all that God has said and given, to the will of this power, who is to exalt itself above God in that it assumes to interpret for God, even to changing the very law of the Most High. There could be no greater blasphemy than to assume that God is subject to man, and that man may change the very utterances of Divinity. But this the Papacy has done, and boasts of doing, in the change that it has sought to make in the law of God concerning the Sabbath. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians with direct reference to this prophecy in Daniel. He uses the very words of the prophecy itself, "who opposeth and exalteth himself

above all that is called God, or that is worshiped;" and yet at the same time, that power that so exalts himself, he declares, sits in the very temple of God. The very essence of sin is pride, and selfishness, and self-will; and this very fact identifies Paul's "man of sin" with the wilful king. In this career he shall prosper, increase, grow, become great, honored, exalted, influence the whole world, until the whole world shall bow before him in worship, kings shall obey his mandates, until that time that God shall execute the sentence of judgment written. And this exaltation and prosperity have been met in the Papacy. That power which has assumed to judge and execute sentence without limit, will receive sentence, at last, from the lips of Him whose position and throne have been usurped. God will pronounce judgment, and execute it, not as man, but as God.

Celibacy — Verse 37

"NEITHER SHALL HE REGARD THE GODS OF HIS FATHERS."—The old heathen gods of Rome will be set aside. "NOR THE DESIRE OF WOMEN."—This prophecy is clearly met in the celibacy of the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. In the one case that system sets aside regard for Deity by assuming the very place which Deity should occupy in the church of God; and on the other side the holiest relation of life in the utter subversion of the family, in the confessional and celibate priesthood. Upon this very much could be written. We take it for granted that our readers who are at all acquainted with the Papacy and its career know of the evils that have developed in the system through these teachings. In the confessional, the very soul and secret thoughts of women are laid open to a man who knows nothing of the sacredness of family ties; and the celibate priest himself is thrown into temptations which would not and could not come to a holy man who was held by the sacred yet natural ties of marriage and family. The grand feature of this whole description, as Birks has well remarked, "is arrogant pride, revealing itself in two main aspects, impiety toward all celestial power, and contempt of all earthly and human affections. The direct outline will then be complete, and both tables of the law alike will be shattered and broken. The king shows his impiety by exalting himself above every subordinate divine power, and utters marvelous speeches of arrogance against the supreme God Himself. His impiety is aggravated by a contempt of the strongest ties of nature. The religious usages of his own fathers are not, on this account, the more sacred in his eyes. The bonds of marriage, and the tender emotions of female love, are equally despised. He will magnify himself above all,—all divinities in heaven, and all the claims of kindred upon earth, above all celestial powers and all human sympathies, however sacred and venerable, and however closely interwoven with the deepest passions of the heart."

Some have thought from the expression "nor regard any god," that the power was an infidel power; but the reason of this is shown in the next sentence. It is not that he does not acknowledge any God, but his regard is shown in this, that he magnifies himself above all. The highest expression that any god can utter is that of his law, the law of moral conduct in his government. God has given us that utterance of His from Mount Sinai. But this power will assume even to set that aside; and so while he claims to be the servant of God and the vicar of God, yet at the same time he shows his disregard of God by the substitution of his own moral code in the place of that of the God whom he professes to serve.

The God of Fortresses — Verse 38

This is a new worship set up by this wilful king, the god of forces, or fortresses. The marginal reading is "munitions," or "protectors." Birks renders, "But with God [Eloah] he will honor Mahuzzim in his seat; even with an Eloah whom his fathers knew not, he will honor them; and he will offer to the stronghold of Mahuzzim, with a foreign god whom he will acknowledge; and he will cause them to rule over many." This worship took the place of the abandoned worship of his heathen forebears. He makes Christ a tutelary deity, and connects with His worship the Mahuzzim, of which Mahoz is the singular. In the first verse of the 11th chapter the angel says, "In the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him," literally, "to be a Mahoz to him." The same word occurs in the 7th verse, "fortress," or Mahoz, in the last of verse 10, and also in verse 31. God is said to be the true fortress, strength, stronghold, protector, of His people. See 2 Sam. 22: 33; Ps. 27:1; 28:7; and six other places. The word "Mahuzzim" must therefore denote guardian powers, or protectors, as in the margin of the Common Version, tutelary saints, or angels, whom this king will install with God, or Christ, and whom he will honor, and under whom the land will be divided, and by which great gain will come to this king. Professor Birks remarks that "this god may be our Lord Himself, not worshiped in the true sense, but after the flesh, degraded into an 'Eloah,' or chief patron divinity, who shares his worship with many Mahuzzim; dishonored by a gross and sensual adoration, in the image, the crucifix, or wafers of bread, while really disowned and rejected in His spiritual and eternal glory."—"The Two Later Visions of Daniel," page 280. Spurrell renders verse 38: "Also instead of God, to angels and saints shall he do honor; and unto gods whom his fathers knew not shall he do homage with gold, and with silver, and with precious stones, and with desirable things."

This prophecy is well met in the human exaltation and semi-deification of martyrs and devoted dead men as protectors of classes, or cities, or countries, by which, in the language of Gibbon, "those obscure victims of the laws of Rome [are raised] to the rank of celestial and invisible protectors of the Roman Empire. The grateful respect of the Christians for the martyrs of the faith, was exalted, by time and victory, into religious adoration, and the most illustrious of the saints and prophets were associated to the honors of the martyrs.

. . . The sublime and simple theology of the primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the monarchy of heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to restore the reign of polytheism." These canonized martyrs and saints have been made protectors over various lands and cities and churches and classes and families, until the whole earth has been divided among them, and the altars and shrines of these saints have been made the depositories of countless and costly gifts of gold and silver and precious things. Every Catholic nation of earth has its protecting saint. Cities and churches are placed under their care, children are dedicated to them, and altars innumerable are erected in their honor. We are told by eloquent Roman Catholic orators that America is under the protection of St. Augustine, St. Lawrence, St. Paul, St. Louis, and St. Francis.

The foreign or strange god is clearly met in the consecrated wafer, a worship distinct and peculiar. Those who have yielded to Rome, and whom she has favored, she has increased with glory, or, as the margin implies, the king shall increase with glory this foreign god, and the appointed protectors of Mahuzzim. In this connection, notice the great and elaborate processions and assemblies for the honor of that deity which every priest, we are told, has power to create. From the various lands divided among the saints, come the countless gifts dedicated to "Deo et sanctis"—God and the saints,—being great gain to that system of worship whose seat is in Rome.

In the Time of the End—Verses 40-45, A.R.V.

(40) And at the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through. (41) He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand; Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. (42) He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape. (43) But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. (44) But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many. (45) And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

Note and Comment

AT THE TIME OF THE END.—Verse 40. Literally "IN the time of the end." The preposition is from the prefix "beth," translated "in" in the first verse of the Bible, "IN the beginning," and so elsewhere. "IN the time of the end" there is renewed conflict; not necessarily at the beginning of, or even early in, that exceedingly important tho not definitely limited period. So Spurrell renders, "And IN the time of the end the king of the south shall repel him." Rotherham renders, "IN the time of the end." The Septuagint Greek has the preposition "en." The events following verse 39 occur "IN the time of the end;" and the time of the end, as before pointed out, would logically be at the end of that period of time mentioned in chapter 8, and which gave name to the vision under explanation, the two thousand three hundred days. Those days ended in 1844. "The king of the north" is still the great dominating power of the north, Rome, as in previous prophecy. Sometimes the center has been some overmastering genius, like Gregory or Napoleon or Bismarck; sometimes a coalition of powers, like Germany, Austria, and Italy; but it is ever the world-molding Roman Empire, divided tho it be, with its great religious center in Rome. The king of the south is the opposer of the king of the north, the power occupying Egypt, a chief representative of those powers which are willing that the earth shall be divided, and of that principle which does not demand all. The king of the north does demand all; he ever has, and he finds his opposition in that power which controls the south.

The little island of Great Britain might be considered a part of Rome; but the great maritime empire of Britain is pre-eminently a southern power, having vast possessions in India and Africa, the controller of Egypt and of the great Australasian continent. As long ago as 1846, Professor Birks held that England would one day control Egypt and oppose the northern ambition of world control. England is to-day in control of Egypt, and she is to-day also the envied and hated of all the great nations of the north, pre-eminently of the former center and core of the ancient "Holy Roman Empire," Germany. England is to-day the power which the Papacy has set itself confessedly to humble. The king of the south will contend with the king of the north; and the king of the north, with his mighty confederacy, as referred to in Ezekiel 38 and 39 perhaps, the head of which is outlined in Revelation 17, will reinstate the Papacy, and come against the king of the south like a whirlwind with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships,—combined armies and navies which shall sweep over opposing countries like a desolating storm.

There is no history in the past for these mighty

martial movements. It is yet to be written. And when it is written, it will involve the world; and only the remnants of tribes which occupy the Syrian or Arabian deserts, where the kingdoms of Edom, Moab, and Ammon existed, shall escape. Egypt shall fall, tho all Britain be back of her. The treasures of Africa will be laid open to the great northern confederacy. Tidings of combinations among heathen kings of the east and the north shall trouble this king of the north. Or will these tidings be of the march of God's mighty message of salvation and protest against this confederacy, which shall trouble this great apostasy, even as the voice of God's prophet Elijah troubled the apostate Ahab; moving the latter-day confederacy, controlled by the apostate church, to destroy God's people, even as Ahab, controlled by the ambitious, unholy Jezebel, was moved to destroy utterly the condemning voice of Elijah? This the prophecy declares the king of the north will do,—go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many. The original is very strong,—to DEVOTE MANY, to solemnly put them to death as accursed, TO DEVOTE THEM TO DESTRUCTION as necessary, even as Christ was devoted by the sentence of the apostate high priest.

And then the last stand of that apostate confederacy, the last hope of a continued existence, the last assumption of self-exaltation, will be to set up its throne in Jerusalem, the city of the great King, where is the holy sepulcher for which the Crusaders fought for four centuries, where Christ lived and taught and died. Surely, when the world is turning back to a traditional religion, having lost the religion of the living present which finds Christ not in empty tomb but in to-day's experiences, in the living truth of God for the time, what would be more amazing, more appealing to the world, than for the head of the apostate church, then the head of nominal Christendom, to set his throne in Jerusalem, and thence to give the law to the world? The great prophecies for the last days are in full agreement with this. Let us briefly refer to some of them.

Prophecies of the Last Days

First, John teaches that there shall be a ten-power confederacy which will restore the beast power: "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast." Rev. 17: 12, 13. The beast represents the great dynasties of Church and State; and the beast of Revelation 17 pre-eminently is that form which existed during the Dark Ages, or the Papacy, and which will again be restored by a ten-division power. The original ten kingdoms of Western Rome were the Alemanni, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Vandals, the Suevi, the Visigoths, the Saxons, the Ostrogoths, the Lombards, the Heruli. There were just ten and no more, between the years A.D. 476 and 493. Three were plucked up before the oncoming Papacy,—the Heruli in 493, the Vandals in 533, the Ostrogoths in 538. Since that time there has persisted the division, sometimes more than ten, sometimes less, but never has there been a time from 476 to the present when all had one mind to give their power and strength to the beast. Some of them have been so minded; others have been coerced; therefore, the prophecy of Rev. 17: 12, 13, above quoted, refers to a later time, a last manifestation of supported apostate power, when out of present and worse conditions in Europe, typified by the period of the French Revolution, there will come the last lines of national dominion, ten in number, confederated together for mutual safety and support. We may designate them the "United States of Europe," ambitious, democratic, Socialistic in tendency, the clay of the feet and toes of the image of Daniel 2.

This confederacy constitutes the seventh, or Socialistic head of the Babylonian beast of the ages. But as France, infidel tho she was, felt it necessary at the close of the French Revolution to establish the Papacy, so the United States of the north of Europe, listening to the siren song of her who claims as her right the title of "mistress of the kingdoms," and who declares that when that right is recognized and acknowledged she will quiet the restless sea of strife, pour oil upon its troubled waters, hold in check her turbulent children of the nations, stay the direful calamities of outraged nature and the wrath of an offended God, and bring peace and prosperity upon the world,—this federation will once more place in power the Roman Catholic Church, and again form, or give life to, "the beast" under that head "which had the wound by a sword, and did live," Rev. 13: 14. This is "the beast that was, and is not, and shall come" out of the chaotic condition of human failure, the restoring again to papal Rome an eighth head, yet one of the seven, and with the ten United States of Europe really forms the seventh head (see Revelation 17). These ten States have one mind, one purpose, one will to do it, and God declares they will accomplish it for a little space. Then Babylon will not be "a widow." She will boast that she will never again see sorrow.

2. Then the apostate church symbolized by the confederacy of Babylon, shall proclaim peace. "For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning." Rev. 18: 7.

3. This last confederacy shall take its seat in Jerusalem. This is clearly set forth in Isaiah 2 and in Micah 4. Read Isa. 2: 2-6.

(a) It is a prophecy of the last days. In those last days the superexcellency of the Christian religion will have been so demonstrated by the history of the past that unconverted men will seek to exalt it above all others in a civil way. It shall be established on the top of the mountains of religion, and exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it in a nominal way. They shall yield "feigned obedience."

(b) "And MANY PEOPLE," not God—it is not His message—but "MANY PEOPLE shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord." Micah declares, "And MANY NATIONS shall come, and say, Come, and let us go." It is a world-wide confederacy, based on compromise, for they say, "All people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever."

(c) This same confederacy will declare a false peace. The "MANY PEOPLE" and the "MANY NATIONS" say, "And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

(d) The center of this cry, the head of this confederacy, will be at Jerusalem. "For OUT OF ZION shall go forth the law, and the WORD OF THE LORD FROM JERUSALEM." And so Micah declares, "For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Micah 4: 2. This is not God's word, but the message of the "many people."

(e) That it is a false cry is shown by the words of the prophet which immediately follow: "For Thou [God] hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners." Isa. 2: 6.

Briefly, then, to review this prophecy of Isaiah, it is a last-day prophecy. The "mountain of the Lord," the Christian religion, is and will be regarded among all nations generally as pre-eminent, superior to all the great historic religions, because the professedly Christian nations are stronger and wealthier than other nations. While the nations recognize it in a general way as a system of ethics, they do not know the divine nature of Christianity, and their elevation of it politically is its perversion and debasement. This recognition of it will be used to push on the great last-day peace movement, and in that movement professed Christianity will be the dominant power. The name and the system of the religion will be regarded as sacred. Why should not the law in this peace movement go forth from that place regarded by all Christendom as the most sacred place in the earth, Jerusalem, where the Prince of Peace suffered and died? And who would be chosen to lead out in such a movement but that one who is even now by all the great denominations regarded as the head of historic Christianity, the pope of Rome? And what would be a better solution of the ever-recurring question of temporal power than to grant to the Papacy Palestine? Even Italy would favor this, as recent events have demonstrated, and the Crusades indicate that the Papacy would. Even this was suggested as a favorable by-product for both Italy and the Papacy at the beginning of Italy's recent war with Turkey, and we saw no denial of it on the part of either the Italian government or the Vatican.

4. Ezekiel 38 and 39 predict a last great northern apostasy which shall sweep down over the Holy Land with great power and destruction.

5. The prophecy of Obadiah also places the last great struggle in that great world center, "For the day of Jehovah is near upon all the nations: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee; thy dealing shall return upon thine own head. For as ye have drunk upon MY HOLY MOUNTAIN, so shall all the nations drink continually; yea, they shall drink, and swallow down, and shall be as tho they had not been." Obad. 15, 16.

6. The prophecy of Joel also places the last great struggle in the Holy Land. Read verses 9-13 of chapter 3, and compare them with the false cry of the nations as recorded in Isaiah and Micah. Joel sets forth the actual conditions of the last days with this message:

Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.

Note that this great struggle culminates in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, near Jerusalem.

7. These gathering elements of war will not be in consequence of waging battles for the Christian religion. The apocalyptic seer plainly declares that out of the mouths of the dragon and beast and false prophet, representing various powers, came "three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew HAR-MAGEDON,"—another part of Palestine, where some of the mightiest battles of the world have been fought, north of Jerusalem, in the Plain of Esdraelon, where, as Clark remarks, "warriors of every nation that is under heaven, have pitched their tents, . . . and have beheld the banners of their nation wet with the dews of Tabor and of Hermon." And here will be fought some of the closing battles of the world.

8. Zechariah also speaks of this last great conflict: "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make JERUSALEM a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, tho all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." Zech. 12: 2, 3.

We may not outline, with any precision whatever, these mighty struggles of the last days. We may not tell just how "the kings of the east" will come up to fight with the forces which are gathered at Jerusalem. We can not see the mighty plagues which will be brought upon the earth through man's disregard of all law, both the natural and divine. But the Word of God has assured us of this: that apostasy will take possession of the world; that men's mad ambition will fight for the world's mastery; that the power which controls the land where the Euphrates River flows, will no longer be a buffer between the kings of the east and of the west, but will be swept out of existence, so that the kings of the east will come up and join the kings of the west in the great conflict in the Holy Land; that the ten-horned power of Revelation 17 will restore the Papacy again, and its seat will be in Jerusalem. Yet notwithstanding the action of the powers in this way, the plagues of God will fall upon the world. The peace that was promised will not come. The turbulent spirits of men are not calmed by the apostate power, and the ten horns which were of one mind to give their power and strength to the beast will turn against the apostate harlot, and eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Rev. 17: 16, 17. Therefore we are not attempting to set before our readers the chronological events of this great struggle.

We are also expressly told, in the same prophecy, that all this warfare is not for the Christian religion, but is "against the Lamb." Carnal minds are not fighting for God, but against God. Christ is the rightful King of the world; but they are not fighting to place Him upon His throne. That does not come by the use of carnal weapons; it comes by surrender to His righteous rule. Men are fighting to place men in dominant positions of control. The whole great world will be swept into the war of the last days, and THE GREAT CENTER OF THAT WAR WILL BE THE HOLY LAND AND JERUSALEM. ALL THE GREAT PROPHECIES OF GOD'S WORD CENTER AROUND THIS GREAT FACT, and the prophecy of the 11th chapter of Daniel is in harmony with them all.

How insignificant it is to say that after Rome has been brought into this great prophecy for the last days, this prophecy for the time of the end, then the prophecy should turn from Rome, with no further mention of that mighty power in world dominion, and should then introduce into the prophecy a power, Turkey, which was not mentioned in the prophecy during the period of its strength! To set aside a world dominating power, and to terminate the prophecy by a declining State that lost its power sixty years ago! There is not one single item in the prophecy, in beginning or end, by which it could be made to apply to that power now rapidly waning, and which has had little if any molding influence upon the destinies of the world. God used the Mohammedan Turk at one time to scourge His apostate people; but Turkey has never been a world molding power. But on the other hand, how mightily looms up in that prophecy, when it is studied with all the other prophecies of God's Word, that usurping king of the north that has thought to rule the whole world, before whom kings have bowed, and before whom again they are to bow, for all the world shall worship him! How extremely fitting it is, too, viewing it from that point, that when the turbulent scenes of the last days shall take place, and the great conflict with Socialism is being fought out, there should be such a compromise as set forth in Revelation 17; that by that compromise the Papacy is given what is considered the holiest place on earth as her seat, taking from Europe the problem and trouble of the temporal power in their midst, and locating it in an independent State in Jerusalem! Surely, in the face of that, one could see the reason of great Babylon's saying in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow."

But all that assumption, all that confederacy, is against God, and against the Lamb, and against His truth; and fighting against God is never a winning battle, howsoever it may seem to mortal eyes. Promised peace does not come, promised conversion of the world does not take place. Swords are not beaten into plowshares, nor spears into pruning-hooks. The great pagan nations which have nominally adopted Christianity, may easily swing back again to their former delusions, and the great war of Armageddon takes place; and the very confederacy that placed the Papacy in power, becomes of one mind to destroy her. God's message, given by His faithful remnant people, will then be vindicated.

The call to the everlasting Gospel, the sad lament of the fall of Babylon, the warning against the world-wide worship of the beast, will have been given, and the commandment keeping people will have been gathered out of all nations. God's protecting care is over them, even tho all the decrees of the ten kingdomed confederacy, dictated by apostasy, are against them, or have been against them. The cry has been to the world, "Peace, peace," but "when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape." She who said, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow," finds in the sequel, coming upon her in one day, death and mourning and famine, and "she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." The mighty prophecy of Revelation 18 will be fulfilled. What strength, what point it gives to the closing clause of our lesson to-day,—"yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him!" Notwithstanding that all the great powers of earth have been confederated to support the apostasy, have set themselves with one mind to make the king of the north all that he has ambition to be; notwithstanding the fact that his throne has been placed in Jerusalem, the center of the religious world, where reigned the mighty Solomon, where died and slept his holy Son, and where He rose again from the dead;—notwithstanding all these, "he shall come to his end, and none shall help him,"—be "broken without hand," visited with the judgment of God.

We appeal to our readers to study anew the great question, take in all of the various prophecies of the last time, and take home to heart anew the great warning messages pertaining to the great apostates of earth, and pointing us to the mighty refuge in Christ our Lord, as it is given in the 14th chapter of Revelation.