The insidious mistake of ceasing to watch for the Lord’s coming, because of the lapse of time which has occurred since the promise was given, has already been noticed in this paper. Slight references were then made to various conditions existing among the nations, which, viewed in the light of prophetic scriptures, seem to indicate that a world-crisis is approaching. Those references were little more than hints; and it is possible that some more detailed information on the subject may be acceptable to the godly believer, who occupies the position of a spectator—a spectator apart and in spirit removed from the. turmoil of the world.
First: As to the Jews. The reader of the Bible Treasury will be familiar with the truth that, in the post-church period, the Jews will be in possession of their land, and have a definite national existence as a monarchy. Significant, in view of this, is the stir of a national spirit which has recently occurred amongst the Jews; an awakening that is quite new, and which strives to embody itself in action. International Jewish Conferences are now held—a thing before unknown during the centuries of their dispersion. At the conference of Berlin in September, 1908, a resolution was carried that the conference “regards as urgently necessary the union of the great Jewish organizations into one body with a permanent central committee”; and at a meeting of Jews held in Melbourne, Australia, in July, 1906, it was resolved on the motion of Mr. N. Levi, a member of the legislature, “to urge all Jews to record their conviction, that only with the establishment of a legally-secured, publicly-recognized Jewish State in the Holy Land would their wants and aspirations be satisfied.”
A recent proposal (October, 1909) which has attracted some attention is that of Hamada Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Pious Foundations, for a Jewish Settlement near the Baghdad Railway in Mesopotamia. It is stated that the Pasha has resolved to invite Jews of all countries to settle near the railway, and has promised that seventy million acres of land shall be reserved for the purpose. This, however, while philo-Jewish, is probably anti-Zionist. Dr. Riza Tewfik, a member of the Turkish Parliament, speaking in London in the preceding July, said that he regarded “political” Zionism as “a great danger for the Jews,” in view of the fear of the separatist peril that prevails in Turkey: He would rather see the Jews spread over Mesopotamia, or other parts of the Empire, than concentrated in Palestine; and he advised them to dismiss from their minds the idea of autonomy. From this it will be seen that the proposal of Hamada Pasha is rather on the lines suggested by Dr. Riza Tewfik than on those of Zionism.
There is, no doubt, a revival of national aspiration amongst the Jews, though clogged and hindered from several causes. One of these is dissension among themselves; many—having no zeal for their ancient patrimony, nor any exalted national feelings—desire only amelioration of their worldly conditions, and are ready to renounce any other nationalism than that of the land in which they dwell. Thus a prominent man among them (Mr. Oswald John Simon, son of the late Sir John Simon, M.P.) says that “it would be difficult to conceive a plan more detrimental to English Jews” than the attempt to promote among the Jews of England a sense of nationalism distinct and separate from that of their fellow-countrymen of other religious beliefs. Two distinct schools of political view, therefore, may be discerned among the Jews: one, that which still pines for the ancient and divinely-given privileges of the nation, and whose feeling is, so far, a godly sentiment; and the other, which regards such aspirations as the dreams of enthusiasm; and, desiring only worldly ease and comfort, seeks nothing higher than to be admitted to full and fair equality with the citizens of the nations amongst which they reside.
Another obstacle is the jealous feeling on the part of Gentile powers of any Jewish political organization within their territories. Russia, for instance, might promote the settlement of Jews in Palestine, but distinctly objects to any attempt at local organization amongst Jews in Russia. Turkey in the same way may encourage the emigration of Jews to Mesopotamia, but not their concentration with patriotic fervor in the Turkish province of Palestine. All this, however, might be changed in brief time, under the new influences which cannot but result from so mighty an event as the removal of the church to heaven. But the mere inception of a definite political movement by the Jews to obtain Palestine is certainly remarkable, as is also the offer of one of the great powers to befriend and assist it. This is not indeed the putting forth of leaves by the fig tree; but it may indicate that “the branch is tender” and ready to bud.
Secondly; The Roman Empire. The resuscitation of the Empire by a federation of European nations after the rapture of the church is a certain event of the future. The proofs of this were given in a series of articles published in last year’s Bible Treasury, and some tendency in that direction is already observable. Never before in the history of the world has such an appalling enlargement of warlike forces taken place; and yet they are not employed. Along with the multiplication of the means of war, peace prevails. How is this? Since 1871 There has been no European war? Armies are augmented as never before, and navies without precedent; they seem ready to clash together, but yet they do not. No doubt an invisible hand restrains them; God’s purposes are working out; but instrumentally, is not this produced by the tendency among the nations to combine together? Has not the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy) exercised a potent influence in restraining belligerency? And have not the “Ententes” established by the late King of England between various powers operated in the same direction? Here perhaps may be discerned an advance towards that policy of federation amongst nations which is to develop under Roman leadership after the church is gone.
More plainly discernible, however, is the tendency of the peoples of Europe towards that condition of turbulence, confusion, or anarchy, out of which the Roman Beast is to emerge. This also has been explained in chapter 8 ante. The development during the last fifty years has been rapid and alarming. Socialism, Communism, Anarchism, have come boldly on the scene. Previously they hid their heads, so to say; men scarcely breathed the words. Now these mutterings of the dragon’s voice may be heard rumbling round the world. As another has well said: “The world is conscious at this moment that things cannot go on long as they are; that we are in a crisis of the world’s history which must result in some great disruption. Some will tell us that democracy is the evil, and it must be put down; others, that it alone can save the world. But all feel that things cannot go on as they are....
These fears, even if they magnify the apprehensions of men on one side or the other, are the fruit of the restless working of some principle which man cannot control, and hence his fears; they are the confession of the instability of the order on which he relies; and they presage, and in the world’s history have ever presaged some violent disruption, because they were the expression of the consciousness of the force of what was breaking all up—that passions are stronger than what controlled them. The bonds of society are too tight or too weak. Power is not in them, but in the force which is working underneath them. Some would slacken them to give vent to the power at work; some would tighten them, hoping to break or repress it; some hope, and many more fear; none know what is to come.”
Now Luke tells us of this time: “There shall be... upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth” (Luke 21:25, 2625And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. (Luke 21:25‑26)). And the symbolic language of Rev. 13:11And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. (Revelation 13:1) shows that the emergence of the Roman beast will be from out of a troubled and possibly anarchic condition of the nations—a condition of fear and insecurity, in which the rising of a firm of power would be hailed as a deliverance. The preparations for this are developing before our eyes to-day.
Thirdly. The effort to obtain Egyptian independence has also significance in connection with what Scripture has declared both as to the past and future of that nation. The Lord God declared by the prophet Ezekiel that Egypt was to be “a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms” (Ezek. 29:14, 1514And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom. 15It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. (Ezekiel 29:14‑15)). When one contrasts her former splendor and prestige as shown by the monuments with her degraded condition since, the fulfillment of the prophecy is remarkable. For more than two thousand years Egypt has had no independent sovereign; is at the present time a tributary state of a second-class Power, and her finances are controlled by England—this last indeed for her good, but she has for ages been humiliated by forced labor, grinding taxation, and every kind of oppression. In 1866 the Vali, or Viceroy, was granted the title of Khidewi-Misr (King of Egypt), or, as commonly called, Khedive, but this was obtained at the price of increasing the amount of the tribute to the Sultan of Turkey.
Were the prophecies about this country only of the character of that just quoted, we might expect no change; but Daniel shows Egypt in a different state at the time of the end. Speaking of the false king, the antichrist, then to be reigning in Jerusalem, he declares that “at the time of the end, the king of the south (i.e. Egypt) shall push at him.” This argues that the king of the south holds at the time an independent position, and one of considerable power, though subsequently the king of the north overcomes him, and gains “power over all the precious things of Egypt” (Dan. 11:40-4340And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at 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 over. 41He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 42He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43But 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. (Daniel 11:40‑43)). Now if this is to come to pass in the time of the end (post-church), is it not noteworthy that late years have given birth to a strong movement for nationalism in Egypt? After ages of oppression Egypt begins to lift up her head. In 1896 the papers reported that the young Khedive Abbas was visiting Europe incognito, with the draft of a scheme for establishing Egyptian independence, and that he had had a secret interview on the subject with M. Hanotaux, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. The years which have since elapsed have produced events which indicate a strong undercurrent of national feeling. Sometimes those events have been indefensible deeds of violence; but clearly the spirit of nationalism in Egypt has been born. It will probably live and grow. In 1907 Mustapha Kamel Pasha contributed several articles to the French press in which, while expressing with great ability the aims of the Egyptian Nationalists, he said that though English imperialists regarded the movement as purely artificial, “repressive measures had led to an extraordinary development of nationalism, which is not Pan-Islamist, but essentially patriotic.” Since then, in September, 1909, an Egyptian Nationalist Congress, in furtherance of the movement, has been held at Geneva. At all events there will be a king of the south of considerable power in the time of the end, sufficiently strong to make an attack upon the potent but false king of Israel.
Notice in passing that when the king of the north conquers the king of the south he is stated to acquire “power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt” (Dan. 11:4343But 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. (Daniel 11:43)). This seems to intimate a condition of material prosperity in Egypt, very different from that of past centuries. Has not this tide of prosperity already commenced to flow markedly since the British occupation of Egypt?
Fourthly. A few words as to the “king of the north” first mentioned. This power is not Russia, as would naturally be the first thought of a European. But we must remember that the standpoint of prophecy is always that land which in the divine purposes is the center of the earth. North and south in prophecy are north and south of Palestine, not of Europe. Hence the king of the south obviously means the king of Egypt, and king of the north in Daniel is that potentate, whoever he may be, who at the time of the end will be the ruler of what is now called Asia Minor, the land to the north of Palestine.
[E. J. T.]
(To be continued)