In the former part of the second century Cazibee set himself at the head
of the Jewish nation and proclaimed himself their long‐expected Messiah.
To facilitate the success of his bold enterprise he changed his name to
that of Barchocheba, alluding to the Star foretold by Balaam. Adrian
raised an army, and sent it against him. He retired into a town called
Bither, where he was besieged. Barchocheba was killed in the siege, the
city was taken, and a dreadful havoc succeeded. The Jews themselves allow
that, during this short war against the Romans in defense of this false
Messiah, they lost five or six hundred thousand souls.—_Buck’s
Dictionary._
Dr. A. Clarke says, on the authority of Josephus, that “a few years
afterward, under the reign of Nero, while Felix was procurator of Judea,
impostors of this stamp were so frequent that some were taken and killed
almost every day.” And at intervals since then the Jews who are all the
time expecting the appearance of the Messiah have been repeatedly the
victims of cruel deception.
VERSE 6: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that
ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but
the end is not yet.”
It is proper that we should consider what is meant by the term “the end,”
used in this verse; in verse 14, “then shall the end come;” and in verse
3, “the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world.” In the first place,
it may be unhesitatingly claimed that the term does not refer to the end
of the Jewish dispensation, which terminated at the crucifixion, nor to
the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred about forty years later.
Because, first, Jesus treated the question concerning the destruction of
the temple and that referring to his coming and the end of the world as
relating to two distinct events, widely separated in time. Second, the
signs which were to be premonitory of the end did not transpire before the
destruction of the temple. Third, the second coming of Christ, the close
of probation, the judgment, the resurrection, and the end of sin, death,
and mortality, are frequently and prominently associated together in the
Bible as constituting the most important epoch in human history. To limit
this thrilling discourse to the local and long past destruction of
Jerusalem would be to rob it of its force and grandeur. Not only would the
twenty‐fourth of Matthew which we are now studying be stultified, but very
much of the life and power of the Scriptures would be sacrificed by such a
course.
As to the meaning of the phrase, “the end of the world,” it may
consistently be translated “the end of the age,” and in the margin of the
Revised Bible it is rendered “the consummation of the age.” For an
inspired definition of the term, let the reader turn to Matt. 13:38‐40 and
its context, where the same words are used and repeated in the original:—
“The tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that
sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and
the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered
and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do
iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
From Rev. 14:14‐16 we learn that the harvest of the earth and the second
coming of Christ are identical. So that by no possible means could it be
established that the “end of the world” means the destruction of
Jerusalem. Further evidence is found in Matt. 28:20 where the same
expression, both in the original and in the translation, is used: “Lo I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” But no one would have the
audacity to claim that this promise expired in A. D. 70, as it must have
done if those questions of the disciples and the subsequent discourse of
Christ related only to the impending doom of the temple and city.
VERSES 7, 8: “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of
sorrows.”
Wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes have occurred all along since
these words were spoken. Therefore, these, as they have ever existed,
cannot be regarded as the especial signs of the end. It may be claimed,
however, with a good degree of consistency, that the Scriptures teach that
these calamities would abound in the last days to such an extent as to
constitute a sign of the approaching Judgment. We wish to keep the
important fact distinctly before the mind, that the sacred Scriptures do
teach when men may not, and when they may, look for the second appearing
of Christ.
The sacred writers have so uniformly associated such judgments as war,
famine, pestilence, and earthquake, with the last Judgment, that the
disciples would be in danger of concluding that the end would immediately
follow the first appearance of these calamities; hence the caution given:
“These things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” Here the
disciples were clearly taught that they should not expect the end in their
day. This fact is worthy of the candid attention of those who object to
the proclamation of the second advent of Christ in the form of an especial
message. These sometimes assert that it was right for the disciples to
look for Christ in their day, and that it has been scriptural and right
for all Christians to look for the second appearing of Christ in their
time, from the days of the chosen twelve to the present time. And they
decide that no more can be learned and believed upon this subject in our
time than by the Christians of past generations, and that the public mind
should not now be moved upon this great question, any more than in all
past time since the first advent of Christ.
We have seen that this position is incorrect so far as the early disciples
were concerned. They are directed to the distant future as the time when
their Lord should come. They are assured that they need not be troubled at
hearing of wars and rumors of wars; “for all these things must come to
pass, but the end is not yet.” Our Lord then guides the minds of his
disciples, as we shall see in the examination of this chapter, down over
the time of the great apostasy, and the long period of the rule of papal
Rome, before mentioning a sign of his second advent. He does not intimate
that his people during these long periods may expect the end. No, not
once. But when he comes to a later time, the Lord names signs in the sun,
in the moon, and in the stars, and adds: “When ye shall see all these
things, know that it is near, even at the doors.”
Mark this: Our Lord does not mention wars, famines, pestilences, and
earthquakes as signs of his second advent; but rather as events of common
occurrence all the way through the Christian age, which must exist before
the end. And history attests the fact that these calamities have covered
at least seventeen centuries. The following is from a work of Noah
Webster, LL. D., published in 1799:—
“By famine and sword, 580,000 Jews were destroyed between A. D. 96
and A. D. 180.
“In Antioch, from A. D. 96 to A. D. 180, earthquakes destroyed 13
cities and over 100,000 lives.
“In Rome, A. D. 169, pestilence destroyed 10,000 daily.
“In Rome, A. D. 187, pestilence appeared and continued three
years.
“In London, A. D. 310, by famine, 40,000 died.
“In A. D. 446, September 17, an earthquake shook down the walls of
Constantinople, and 57 towers fell.
“In Rome, A. D. 539, in one district 50,000 died.
“In Antioch, A. D. 588, an earthquake killed 60,000.
“In A. D. 542, the plague killed 10,000 in one day in Turkey.
“In A. D. 679, a severe famine in England, three years.
“In A. D. 717, in Constantinople, 300,000 died of plague.
“In A. D. 1005, earthquakes three months, followed by pestilence,
by which it is said one third of the human race died.
“In A. D. 1077, in Constantinople, so many died by plague and
famine the living could not bury them.
“In A. D. 1124, in Italy, there was such famine that the dead lay
in the streets not buried; and in England one third of the people
died of plague.
“In A. D. 1294, in England thousands died of famine.
“In A. D. 1346, in London, 50,000 died of plague and famine, and
were buried in one grave‐yard; in Norwich, 50,000; in Venice,
100,000; in Florence, 100,000; in Eastern nations, 20,000,000. It
was called the black death.
“In A. D. 1352, in China, 900,000 died of famine.
“In A. D. 1427 in Dantzic, 80,000 died of plague.
“In A. D. 1570, in Moscow, 200,000 died of plague.
“In A. D. 1572, in Lyons, 50,000 died of plague.
“In A. D. 1625, in London, 35,000 died of plague.
“In A. D. 1656, in Naples, 300,000 died of plague.
“In A. D. 1665, in London, 68,000 died of plague.
“In A. D. 1755, an earthquake destroyed the city of Lisbon,
killing 50,000. In Mitylene, and the Archipelago, it shook down
2000 houses. It shook all the Spanish coast. The plague followed,
which destroyed 150,000 persons in Constantinople.”
Doubtless the figures in the above list should in some instances be
corrected to correspond with facts. But, taken as a whole, they do not
nearly represent the ravages of death in their enormity. For instance, the
Encyclopedia Britannica states that Hecker estimates the celebrated “black
death” of the fourteenth century in the different epidemics, to have swept
away one fourth of the inhabitants of Europe, or 25,000,000 people!
Persecution And False Prophets.
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