The
Unveiling of Jesus Christ
Chapter Five
THE prophecies of Daniel are a necessary prelude to the apprehension
of the Unveiling of Jesus Christ, which presents the crisis of all of
Daniel's predictions. The kingdoms of the great metallic image have all
passed into history except the last one. Babylon's golden despotism came
to its end during Daniel's lifetime. The Medo-Persian monarchy continued
until Alexander swept it off the scene in his swift career. His empire,
like its two predecessors, was world wide, so that, we are told, he wept
because there were no more worlds to conquer. Since then there has been
no world-embracing empire. Many may have wept because they could not
conquer the world, but no one, like Alexander, has been able to conquer
all opposition. No nation has been able to subdue all the earth. Rome
never conquered Ireland, nor the upper reaches of Scotland, nor the
greater part of Germany. Her imperial eagles never flew over the city
which was the seat of all previous world empires. To conquer France you
must take Paris, to conquer Germany you must seize Berlin, to subdue
England, London must be captured. If the world is to be won the
conqueror must seize its capital, Babylon. This world-capital must be in
possession of him who desires to hold sway over all mankind. Rome never
took Babylon. Turned back by the ferocious tribes of the north, held at
bay by the fierce Arabs of the desert, Rome, in fact, never was the
mistress of the world.
But are we not told that Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken
of the whole inhabited earth (Luke 2:1)? He did. We implicitly believe
the record. But we have no faith in Caesar! His grandiloquent decree
sounds very fine, but he knew and everyone else knew that it was not
strictly in accord with facts. The fourth kingdom of Daniel's image is
not Rome. It is a still future empire which will actually include all
nations and peoples and languages in its embrace, just as Babylon, Medo-Persia
and Macedonia have done in the past. It will not be limited to the
comparatively narrow confines of the ancient Roman empire. It will
include empires much larger in area than Rome ever was.
The ten toes of the image appear in this Unveiling, corresponding to
the ten horns of the wild beast. But it is an earlier aspect than the
horns. The toes, composed of iron and clay, present the same truth, from
a different angle, which we see in the scarlet woman seated on the
scarlet ten-horned monster. Israel, the clay people, will enter into a
league of alien nations and have a voice in the government of mankind.
The kingdom of the end time is a hybrid dominion composed of an amalgam
of apostate Jews and ungodly Gentiles.
The wild beasts of Daniel's later vision will come before us again,
so we will not enlarge upon them here. Suffice it to say that here, too,
Daniel presents an earlier glimpse than is accorded in the Unveiling.
They are seen as four separate wild beasts when they first appear,
though later the three eastern beasts are devoured by the western
nondescript. In the visions of John all the characteristics of the four
beasts appear in one monster. We do not see the beasts until they have
been assimilated into one great confederation, or, as Daniel puts it,
have been devoured by the fourth beast.
The fact that the wild beast of the Apocalypse is a composite made up
of the four beasts of Daniel ought to be sufficient to guard us from the
common error of identifying them with the empires of the image. If we
couple this with the fact that the vision was not given to Daniel until
Babylon's days were nearly numbered, the conclusion is final. And,
besides, the beasts are contemporaneous. The fourth beast devours the
other three, not, as we would expect if the beasts succeeded each other,
and each devoured its predecessor. Our point at present is merely this:
The seer of Patmos gives us the elaborated crisis of the seventh of
Daniel.
So it is with the vision of the seventy heptads, or
"weeks." Sixty-nine heptads have been fulfilled. The
seventieth heptad still remains. It is elaborated in this Unveiling.
Before considering this notable era, we stop to deplore the rendering
"weeks." The translators had an excellent opportunity to use
this word in the tenth chapter where the Hebrew reads "three sevens
of days." This should read simply "three-weeks,"
for it is further defined in the thirteenth verse as "twenty-one
days." But the aged prophet was not thinking of days when
this vision was given, but of the seventy years of the captivity
which had almost run their course. He hoped that the period of Gentile
rule was about to end and that Israel was to be restored, and the
blessings of Messiah's presence would bring in eonian righteousness. The
answer is that a period seven times as long as the captivity has been
cut out of the period of Gentile supremacy, at the end of which all that
he prayed for would be fulfilled.
There is no excuse for thinking that these sevens or heptads run on
unbrokenly to their end. There is the plainest intimation to the
contrary, for Messiah must be "cut off" after
sixty-nine heptads. Then the city and sanctuary are destroyed. Then a
league or covenant is entered into by the majority of Daniel's people
which is to run seven years. This is the seventieth "week" or
heptad. This is the period brought before us in the judgment era of this
Unveiling.
What is the characteristic feature of the "seventieth
week?" It is the existence of a covenant, the operation of a treaty
between "many" in Israel and the great Desolator of the time
of the end. This should throw a lurid light upon the pages of the
Unveiling. It should confirm us in the position that the ten toes are a
confederacy between Israel and the nations.
That the entire period is a literal era totaling four hundred and
ninety years of three hundred and sixty days to the year has been fully
established by the fact that the number of days from the decree of
Artaxerxes to restore and build Jerusalem until our Lord's
"triumphal" entry into the capital, near the end of His
ministry (Luke 19:35-40), was exactly 173,880 days, which equals seven
times sixty-nine years of 360 days each. From this we come to the
conclusion that the period of the apocalyptic judgments will cover seven
years of three hundred and sixty days, or two thousand five hundred and
twenty days.
Referring again to Daniel's prediction we find that the covenant will
be broken in the middle of the heptad. The daily offering will no longer
be allowed. The Desolator changes from a friend to a foe. We may well
suppose that this change of front on his part is connected with the
ministry of the two witnesses. They testify twelve hundred and sixty
days (exactly half of the entire period), they lie dead for three days
and ascend before Christ descends. Hence it is evident that they
commence their ministry before the covenant is broken. The
ministry of the two witnesses, then, covers just half of the seventieth
heptad.
Daniel, by halving the last heptad, gives us a period of three and a
half years' duration. The same interval of time measures the career of
the wild beast, the provisioning of the sun-clothed woman and the
treading of Jerusalem. It is measured by the moon (a symbol of the
powers of darkness) when connected with the beast and the
nations—forty-two months. It is measured by the sun and the seasons
when associated with the sun-clothed woman who has the moon under her
feet.
The two witnesses are killed under the sixth trumpet, which is the
second woe. This is some time before the coming of Christ. Hence the two
witnesses begin their testimony before the middle of the week, before
the covenant is broken and the daily offering ceases. This is probably
before the fifth seal, when the persecution against the saints
commences.
Jerusalem is the city which is trodden forty-two months and there it
is that the two witnesses seal their testimony with their blood. It may
help us to understand the condition of affairs in the holy city if we
turn over to the religious division of this Unveiling and find that the
very same time period is brought before us in connection with the
sun-clothed woman, who can be no other than the holy city. Dating
doubtless from the middle of the heptad, when Satan is cast down to the
earth, the faithful saints in Jerusalem fly for their lives into the
wilderness where they will be nurtured for twelve hundred and sixty days
(Rev.12:6). The same period is again mentioned, but is called "a
season and seasons and half a season," doubtless in view of the
fact that sustenance depends upon the seasons. The time from one harvest
to another is a "season." Hid away in some inaccessible corner
in the wilderness, with no commerce with the outside world, her chief
need is food. This is supplied miraculously as when she came out of
Egypt.
It is evident that, if we wish to get a proper perspective of this
Unveiling, we must focus our eyes on the middle of the heptad. This is
the pivot of prophecy. This is the greatest crisis in the history of the
chosen nation and of the whole race. At this point Satan takes active
control of human affairs and demands the worship of humanity. Up to this
point the Jews have the right to worship their God in the temple at
Jerusalem. This is guaranteed to them by international treaty. But after
forty-two months the treaty proves "a scrap of paper." The God
of Israel is defied! His worship must be stamped out! All who serve Him
must be exterminated! God takes up the challenge. Judgment is no longer
"providential," such as war and famine and pestilence. He
marshals the whole creation against the rebels. The very elements turn
against them.
Meanwhile the most fearful program ever organized breaks out against
the few faithful Jews who remain loyal to Yahweh. Many seal their faith
with their blood. Those in the holy city—the true trysting place of
those who were waiting for their Messiah to appear on Olivet—those in
Jerusalem are miraculously saved and preserved through the terrible
affliction until the trial is past.
The chronology of the Unveiling can best be constructed in the light
of this crisis in the middle of the week. Let us ask, for instance,
where does the fifth seal belong? Before the breaking of the covenant
the Jews were protected in their religion. It is only after this that
they suffer. Hence the fifth seal is at the beginning of the second half
of the heptad.
For the first three and a half years everything looks favorable to
Israel. There are great wars. The Occident subdues the orient. But they
are on the winning side. Doubtless they suffer as all mankind will
suffer, from the fighting and the famine and the pestilence that
follows. These are but the beginning of travail (Matt.24:8). Then, after
these visitations, "they shall deliver you up to affliction, and
shall kill you: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name's
sake" (Matt.24: 9).
Alas, they have been hated by many nations for their own sake. They
have been driven back to their own land in large measure by the hatred
of the nations. Now they think themselves secure at last. They are under
the protection of the great federation which guarantees to all the
smaller nationalities the right to control their domestic affairs to
suit themselves.
The Chart of Time Periods given
herewith is intended to be merely suggestive and help to a true
perspective. Like all charts it has its shortcomings but these are not
to be compared with its advantages. One of the gravest difficulties in
reading the Unveiling is the tendency on our part to take its unfoldings
in chronological order and to imagine there are vast periods of time
between events separated by many pages and the record of many
occurrences. Again we suppose that the breaking of a seal or the
sounding of a trumpet is a momentary event, when it may be designated to
cover a considerable period. The seventh trumpet, for instance, must be
a prolonged blast, for we read of "the days of the seventh
messenger's voice" (Rev.10:7). This seems, however, to be
especially true of the earlier judgments which are prolonged and
limited, while the later ones are severe and swift.
It will help us greatly if we fix the terminal points of the three
great series of judgments. If we know when they end it will aid us in
placing them where they belong. The sixth seal takes us up to the
advent. Its portents are foretold by our Lord (Matt.24:29). He adds
"And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven;
and then all the tribes of the land will be grieving, and they
shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and
much glory" (Matt.24:30). It is evident that the seventh seal
brings us to, if, indeed, it does not include, His coming. Now when the
seventh seal is opened there is nothing but a hush in heaven, unless we
take the seven trumpets as an elaboration of the seventh seal. If this
is so, then the seventh trumpet must also include the actual coming of
Christ. And is not this exactly what it is? For the voices in heaven are
loud in their proclamation. "The kingdom of this world
became our Lord's and His Christ's, and He shall be reigning for the
eons of the eons!" Both seals and trumpets take us to His
advent.
As the bowls are the last of these calamities, we are led to
the conviction that the seals, the trumpets and the bowls all
continue until His coming. Having fixed their terminus, we are ready
to inquire as to their beginning. The seals, of course, cover the entire
period, as the first seal is the chronological commencement of the
vision. Nothing is said of any trumpets until after the seventh seal is
opened. The trumpets were given to the messengers after this seal was
opened, hence we cannot well come to any other conclusion than that the
seven trumpets are the seventh seal (Rev.8:1,2). None of the
trumpets or woes has anything in common with the first six seals. They
evidently are later judgments. This is true however, only of the
trumpets themselves, not of the explanatory visions of the little
scroll, the temple measurement and the two witnesses. These refer back
to the middle of the heptad, under the fifth seal. These are not
trumpet judgments but parenthetic preparatory visions, hence should
not cloud our consideration of the time when the actual trumpet
judgments occur. If we count all the periods introduced in this manner
we shall never confine this judgment period to seven years. Unlike the
seventh seal, which is nothing but a hush unless it comprises the seven
trumpets, the seventh trumpet gives us a definite and glorious
conclusion.
The temple section, which follows, commences an entirely new line of
thought. Perhaps we emphasize this too strongly, but it seems to need
even more emphasis. Not that this section is not concerned with the same
people and the same places, but they are viewed from distinct and
diverse standpoints. Nor, indeed, are we to suppose that worship is
excluded from the preceding throne section or government from the temple
section. When we speak of Luke's account of our Lord's life as a
portrayal of Him as a Man, we do not imply that He was not a Man in the
other accounts. Matthew gives us the King, Mark the Servant and John the
Son of God. This does not hinder Matthew from recording Peter's
confession that He is the Son of God. Now such a characterization of the
"Gospels" is not more helpful than a recognition that the
section of the Unveiling which commences at the end of the eleventh
chapter with the opening of the temple introduces us to the
distinctly religious part of the Unveiling. When the throne
appeared we were engaged with rule. Now we are particularly
occupied with worship. Hence the added severity of these
judgments and their special connection with the priest nation.
But when do the bowl judgments begin? When we are introduced
to them, special stress is laid on the fact that they are the last
of the calamities—"seeing that in them God's fury is
consummated" (Rev.15:1). Are we not fully warranted in concluding
that these are grouped at the very close of the judgment period? If they
are the last, how can others come after them? They seem to
synchronize with the seventh trumpet. Otherwise they could not be the
consummating calamities.
The remarkable resemblance between the trumpets and bowls (especially
the first four) led us to consider the possibility that the bowls might
be the trumpet judgments intensified and localized. The trumpets were
viewed as the world wide aspect in which only a third was affected,
while the bowls were taken as the limited aspect, confined to regions
about the land, in which the whole was affected. But the closer this was
considered the more untenable it became. The seven bowls are the last
calamities (Rev.15:1). None of them can take place before the trumpets
sound.
Though not mentioned in this Unveiling, the periods spoken of at the
end of Daniel's prophecy are most helpful in fixing some of its events,
especially the resurrection and the beginning of the thousand years.
Daniel dates his days from the middle of the seventieth heptad, when the
daily offering ceases (Dan.12:11-13). Thence he counts one thousand two
hundred and ninety days, when, we infer, it is resumed. This will be
thirty days after Christ's epiphany on the Mount of Olives.
Furthermore, the resurrection seems to take place forty-five days
later—a thousand three hundred and thirty-five days from the momentous
middle of the heptad. On this day the thousand years begin their blessed
course, for the saints who are raised live and reign with Christ a
thousand years. No wonder Daniel is told "Blessed is he that
waiteth" (Dan.12:12) and John exclaims "blessed and holy is he
who has part in the former resurrection" (Rev.20:6).
In a previous vision the cessation of the daily offering is the
subject of anxious inquiry. How long till the justification of a
sanctuary? This may include the erection of that wonderful edifice
portrayed by Ezekiel. It will be built in the holy oblation, north of
Jerusalem. From this we infer that it will be dedicated nearly two years
after the resurrection—accurately, six hundred and ninety-five days.
This will be two thousand three hundred days after the middle of the
heptad (Dan 8:14). |