A GATHERING UP.
At this stage it seems well to the writer to gather together in a
brief--but necessarily very fragmentary fashion--some of the chief
events of the second half of Anti-christ's reign, and those immediately
preceding the millenial reign of Christ. The object of this little
volume, as well as its predecessor--"In the Twinkling of an Eye"--being
chiefly to incite in the readers of the two books, a desire to look
into the wonders of the "After Events," we can only touch upon these
things in the most disjointed fashion, many events, from necessity of
space, being untouched altogether.
* * * * * *
The two scenes recorded in previous chapters--the torture and beheading
of Isaac Wolferstein and his beautiful _fiancee_, Miriam Cohen, and the
beheading of three at St. Paul's--were duplicated many thousands of
times, every town and city of the wide world had its own hideous tale
of torturing and of death.
The effect upon the bulk of the people was to deepen "the strong
delusion," as to Anti-christ, under which they laboured, so that they
fed upon "The Lie," and became abject slaves in their wills and worship
of the "Man of Sin."
The effect of the persecution and martyrdoms upon most of the
believers--kingdom believers--was to stiffen their faith, and to
confirm their hope in the near Coming of the Christ, to take vengeance
upon his foes and deliver his people.
The licentiousness and blasphemy of the times was as a veritable
atmosphere abroad, so that, affected by it, the love of the many
towards God waxed colder and colder, until they flung off the last
semblance of allegiance to Him, in thought, word, or deed, and wholly
given up to "The Lie," they ripened rapidly for Judgment.
But amid the almost universal declension, there was ever the
remnant--Jew and Gentile--who "endured, seeing the invisible," and
strengthening their souls in the special tribulation promise "_He that
shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved!_"
And these endurers shall be God's witnesses unto all nations. No
suffering, privation, no spending or being spent will be counted too
much by these tribulation-time witnesses; they will live only to serve
God in witnessing.
The chief source of temptation and danger to the "Kingdom Believers"
will be from the ever multiplying "False Christs." Each new imposter
parading some new notion, but each in turn, either publicly slain by
order of the "False Prophet," or mysteriously disappearing. The only
likeness of imposture in them all, existed in their claim to be the
Saviour who should deliver from the awful days of tribulation which the
would-be godly were passing through.
A similar thing preceded the first advent of our Lord, only _then_, the
sole trust of these imposters was in their own statements; but before
the coming of Christ again _to the earth_, when the cry will often be
"Lo here is Christ," and "Lo there is Christ," these imposters will
buttress their claims with the exhibition of supernatural powers.
The "remnant" of faithful Jews which we saw in our last chapter,
escaping to the "wilderness," will be only a remnant. The main body of
the Jews of the world will have concentrated themselves in Jerusalem,
its neighbourhood, and parts of Palestine left to them after the
partition of the land by Anti-christ. Dan. xi. 9.
It would seem as though the "remnant," meanwhile learn of God so
intimately that they become the Evangelizers of the world, preaching
the Gospel of the _coming kingdom of Christ_. Rev. xiv. 6, 7. Matt.
xxiv. 14.
Among those Jews who were unable to escape with the "remnant," there
are also others who are loyal to God, who would not worship the Beast
or his image, many of whom are betrayed by their bigoted Jewish
relatives. All these, alike, are delivered up to Anti-christ and to
his creatures, to be tortured and to be killed.
"_Then shall be great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning
of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those
days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the
elect's sake, those days shall be shortened_." Matt. xxiv. 21, 22.
Dan. xii. 1. Jer. xxx. 7, 11, 14, 15. Zech. xiii 8, 9.
May it not well be that the imprecatory Psalms, otherwise so difficult
to understand, in the virulence of their desires for vengeance, etc.,
are prophetic of these days of persecution and tribulation? As well,
too, must be many of the _Prayers_ of the Psalms, etc. Ps. xxv. 2.
Ps. lxxiv. Ps. cxl. Ps. lxxix. Isaiah xxxv. 3, 4. Isaiah li. 12-15.
Micah vii. 8, 9. Luke xviii. 7, 8.
The almost universal return of the Jew to his own land, with all the
aims of Zionism, and other kindred movements among the Hebrew people
today is, curiously enough, not marked by the _religious_ spirit, but
purely national. The comparatively few pious souls (certainly not more
than a quarter of a million, if that) who built the Temple, and
afterwards flee into the "wilderness," or are beheaded rather than
worship the Beast, or who, unable to get away in time, are beheaded for
their loyalty to God, are now left out of future count in the history
of the final fate of Jerusalem.
The city will probably be enormously enlarged and will come to embrace
miles of suburbs, as London has absorbed towns as far distant, almost,
as Croydon, in Surrey.
In the latter years of the great Tribulation there will appear to be a
general rising of the nations against Jerusalem--against the Jews. It
may well be, that all the powers will have become so indebted,
_financially_, to the Jews, that there shall be an universal outbreak
of Anti-Semitism, the real cause of the outbreak being inability on the
part of the nations to pay their debts, when they shall make common
cause against the Jew, hoping thus to clear off their debts, by the
destruction of their creditors.
Preparatory to this great and final struggle, the great eastern
boundary river, the Euphrates, will be dried up. The _literal_
accomplishment of this great physical wonder, is an absolute necessity,
if the vast hordes of the Eastern armies are to be marched to Jerusalem.
Even as those days of the end draw nearer and nearer God's people of
that time will suffer more and yet more.
"_Happy the dead who in the Lord do die from henceforth. Yea (saith
the Spirit) that they may rest from their toils, for their works do
follow with them. Ceased only that form of service which brings
weariness, and have found perfect happiness in the ability to continue
service without weariness_."--ROTHERHAM.
While this is true of all the saints of all the ages, it is
specifically true of those who, in The Great Tribulation, shall lay
down their lives for God in faithful, enduring obedience.
And now the end draws ever more rapidly near. North, East, South and
West of Palestine the armies of allies against Jerusalem close in upon
her. Had the Jewish race been as loyally devoted to their God and His
Word as they had been to Anti-christ the Deceiver, and his vile,
promulgated laws, they would have, inevitably, recognized Psalms
lxxxiii. 3, 4, as a prophecy of this time and the approach of their
foes: "They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted
against thy hidden ones." They have said, "Come, and let us cut them
off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in
remembrance."
But God has not forgotten His promises to Israel, and the time of her
worst visitation, is to be His opportunity:
"_Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the
prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may
assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my
fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my
jealousy_." Zeph. iii. 8. "_Now also many nations are gathered
against thee (Zion,) but they know not the thoughts of the Lord,
neither understand they His counsel: for He shall gather them as the
sheaves into the floor_." Mich. iv. 11, 12. "_In that time, when I
shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also
gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of
Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My
heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted
My land_." Joel iii. 1, 2, 9-12, 14. Zech. xiv. 1, 2. Zech. xii. 2,
3. Ps. lxviii. 1-3. Joel ii. 32.
Against the gathered multitudes of the armed nations--every devilish
instrument of war then known, being brought to bear against the doomed
city, doomed as the allies consider it--the Jews can bring but a
comparatively feeble resistance. With seeming ease, Jerusalem would
appear to be taken. "_The city shall be taken, and the houses rifled,
and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into
captivity_, AND THE RESIDUE OF THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF FROM THE
CITY." Zech. xiv. 2.
With great spoil, full of unholy rejoicing, their souls steeped in
pride, their hands stained with blood, the victorious armies march to
the great plain of Esdraelon to hold a mighty revel, and to prepare for
any future event.
* * * * * *
"How oft after anxious provisions of man
Flashes in with a silence God's unforseen plan!"
"God is a tower without a stair
And His perfection loves despair."
The residue of the people of Jerusalem, who were left in the city on
the triumphant departure of the allies of Hell, were utterly broken in
spirit. Their discomfited hearts will be being prepared for some word
or sin. Will they then begin to see their national, as well as their
individual folly? Who can say for certain? But the near-to-come
events with them, would almost seem to point to something like this.
Certainly, God's unforseen plan was about to flash in upon their
despairing condition.
The world's peoples were "_fully ripe_" for the Judgment, and the
"_sharp sickle_" of Judgment was now waiting to fall into the earth.
First come "signs," every sign a warning, yet the peoples, the enemies
of Christ, will not hear nor see. "_Immediately after the Tribulation
of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give
her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken_." Matt. xxiv. 29. Isaiah xiii. 9-10-13.
Joel ii. 30, 31. Joel iii. 15. Rev. vi. 12-14.
"_And then_" (_after_ the Tribulation, and _after_ these
physical signs and disturbances) "_shall appear the sign
of the Son of Man in Heaven_." Matt. xxiv. 30.
What will this sign be? We cannot actually say. The only Scriptural
hint we know of is our Lord's own word that "the Manifestation of His
Presence will be as the lightning which flashes from the one end of
heaven to the other."
It may be that this will occur while men are horrified with the
unnatural darkness, and that the "sign" will be a sudden and momentary
cleaving of the black heavens, so that the glory of the Lord will break
through, and He will, for an instant, be revealed in close proximity to
earth. Will it be thus that the Jew will receive his sign from heaven?
That which follows, and which should be rendered: "_Then shall all the
tribes of the land mourn_," points to the connection of this verse with
Zechariah's prophecy: "_And I will pour upon the house of David, and
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and
supplications: and they shall look upon ME Whom they have pierced, and
they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall
be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn_." Zech. xii. 10.
"And again, the manner in which Zechariah's prophecy is quoted in the
Apocalypse may, perhaps, afford some slight argument in favour of the
explanation of the sign suggested above, namely, that it is Christ
Himself seen for a moment through a rift in the clouds, for John says,
'_Behold He cometh with the clouds: and every eye shall see Him, and
they also which pierced Him: and all the TRIBES OF THE LAND shall mourn
because of Him_.'
"Thus the Jews, although they may not as yet understand all, will at
least know that it was the Messenger of Jehovah whom they slew, and
that in so doing they pierced Himself. And they will mourn with no
feigned lamentation, but as one mourns for his first-born, nay, his
only son. All their pride will have broken down; for the word will
then have been fulfilled, '_I will take away out of the midst of thee
them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty
because of My holy mountain. I will also leave in the midst of thee an
afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the
Lord_.' Zeph. ii. 11, 12.
"Then will God look down upon the stiff-necked and rebellious people,
whom long centuries of chastisement could not subdue, and lo! a
remnant, broken-hearted and contrite, humbly confessing that '_all
their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that they are all fading as a
leaf, and that their iniquities, like the wind, have carried them
away_.' They long for the personal interposition of God their Father,
and cry, '_Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst
come down!_' They are ready at last, for their Messiah. Christ has
become precious to them: there is no need that He, the true Joseph,
should longer refrain Himself. He had indeed said, 'Ye shall not see
Me henceforth till ye shall say, "_Blessed is He that cometh in the
name of the Lord_."'"
"But that word withholds Him no longer; for now their eyes are waiting
for the Lord their God, until that He have mercy upon them: their souls
are watching for Him more than they that watch for the morning."
(PEMBER'S "GREAT PROPHECIES.")
_Then shall He suddenly come, "His feet shall stand in that day upon
the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the
Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and
toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of
the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the
south. And ye shall flee to MY valley, when He shall touch the valley
of the mountain to the place He separated_." Zech. xiv. 4, 5.
In this great valley of His special making it is possible, probable,
that our Lord will shelter His people, while He is destroying the
hordes of Anti-christ. It is of this that Isaiah speaks: "_Come My
people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee:
hide thyself as it were for a little moment_, UNTIL THE INDIGNATION BE
OVER PAST. _For behold the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity_." And when that awful
judgment shall be over--"_which shall burn as an oven_," they shall
come out of their shelter "_skipping as calves of the stall_." A
wondrous figure of the frolicsome calves coming out of the darkness of
their stalls into the glorious light, and into the full freshness of
the luscious meadows.
All this time Anti-christ and his warrior hosts are camped in the plain
of Esdraelon, preparing for a fresh attack that is to utterly demolish
the Jews as a nation.
To Apleon, The Anti-christ, word comes of the appearance of Christ, and
that He is espousing the cause of Israel.
Satan, and his colleagues, self-blinded, suppose that they can war with
and overcome even Christ and His hosts of saints; and, determined to do
this: "_the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together, against His Anointed_." Psa. ii. 2.
Armageddon--the Valley of Megidda; "The Valley of Jehosaphat;"
"Bozrah," all these names are mentioned as the scene of the great final
conflict between Anti-christ and Christ, between the armies of the
earth, and the translated Saints of God who return with Christ.
It is probable that the line of the encamped hosts of Anti-christ will
extend from Bozrah, on the southeast, to Megidda, on the North-west.
Is it we wonder, merely a coincidence that this should measure exactly
1,600 _Stadia_, the actual distance named in Rev. xiv. 16, as that over
which the blood of the judgment wine-press flowed.
Surely Habakkuk's wonderful prophetic vision covered this great
battle-field. "God came _from Teman_, and the Holy One _from Mount
Paran_." The march of God's indignation would seem to be from Sinai,
through Idumea, past Jerusalem, and on to the mighty field of
Esdraelon's plain.
Oh, what a scene it will be! The glory, the judgment! our Christ on
His White Horse; His eyes a flame of fire; on his head many crowns
(diamens,) vestured and girded with his title "KING OF KINGS AND LORD
OF LORDS!" his bride is with Him--for the "_Marriage of the Lamb_" has
taken place; the bride is every believer who has been gathered out of
the world by the Spirit. You, who read this, he who writes this, if so
be we are in Christ, "_looking for, and hasting the coming of our
Lord_," yes, we shall be there, we shall be His army.
"_On white horses_," whether literal horses or not does not matter, the
term implies force, power, swift movement, even triumph. Christ's army
will be a cavalry force. Like our Lord we shall wear no
armour,--"clothed in fine linen, white, pure,"--we shall be immortal,
"_no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper_."
Every enemy, every foe of Christ will be there. The earth-armies, the
dwellers of the earth, Demon-possessed, will be blinded, deluded by the
lie of the Anti-christ, and "The False Prophet." There is no madness
or delusion into which the most rational of men will not run when they
are demon-possessed.
"_Outside the city_, the battle takes place, for the city has become
Holy by the recent presence of Christ. Not even a private soldier of
Anti-christ's hosts is _inside_ the city, for, it may well be, that
Christ has already appropriated it.
"_Outside the city, the wine-press is trodden_!" wonderful figure!
"Fully ripe," is said to be the condition of the "_grapes of the vine
of the earth_." What grape, more so a _ripe_ grape, can stand the
weight of a man as his foot crushes down upon it? And the iron heel of
"The Lion of Judah," crushes out the life of these gathered hell-led,
hell-inspired hosts, "_and blood came forth out of the wine-press of
God's wrath, up to the bits of the horses for distance of 1,600
stadia_." A river of blood 160 miles in length, and reaching to the
horses' bits in depth! Even if it be taken as a figure only, the
figure is never so great as the fact it prefigures! "_The land shall
be drunk with blood, and its dust made fat with fatness, for it is the
day of Jehovah's vengeance, the year of recompenses for the controversy
against Zion_." Isaiah xxxiv. 7, 8.
As a picture of the absolute triumph of God, on this occasion, the
Psalmist uses the most awful figure of any in the Bible--THE LAUGHTER
OF GOD! "_He that sitteth in the Heavens SHALL LAUGH; the Lord shall
have them in derision_." Ps. ii. 4. "_God is not mocked_!"
"_And the Beast (Anti-christ) was taken_." The ring-leader is first
taken, not slain with the others. Taken alive, he is cast into the
Lake of Fire. The confidence of the mighty host of Hell-inspired
warrior hosts, had been "_Who is like unto the Beast? Who can war with
him?_" But they see him taken, taken alive, taken without being able
to lift a finger against his captors. Tophet had been prepared for
him, and into that awful abyss he sinks to rise no more.
"_And with him the False Prophet who wrought the miracles in his
presence_." Colleagues in evil on earth, the two are hurled into the
same Lake of Fire.
"_And the rest were slain with the Sword of the Sitter on the horse_,
(The Conquering Christ,) _which sword proceeded out of His mouth_."
"_He speaks and it is done_."
"_And a certain angel standing in the sun_," has been placed there
ready to call forth the final actors on this hideous battle-field,
"_cried with a great voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in
mid-heaven, 'Hither be gathered together to the great supper of God,
that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and flesh of captains of thousands,
and flesh of mighty men, and flesh of horses, and of those that sit on
them, and flesh of all (classes of people,) both free and bond, and
small and great . . . and the fowls were filled from their flesh_."
Rev. xix.
At the great and terrible conflict there are lightnings and thunders of
unheard of force and might. "_The Lord of Hosts_," says Isaiah xxix.
6, "_shall visit with thunder, with earthquake, and great noise, with
storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire_." All through
God's judgments, during the seven years of Anti-christ, aerial
convulsions will be continual. One reason for this, during the later
events will doubtless be to overwhelm and destroy the myriad _aerial_
engines of war used by the senselessly deluded attacking hosts arrayed
against Jerusalem and against Christ and His Saints.
"_And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon
the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great_." Rev. xvi. 18.
Jerusalem will be split into three parts, as a result of this
earthquake. But the effect upon the nations is _utter_ ruin,--"_the
cities of the nations fell_." London, New York, Paris, Berlin,
Chicago, every other city, collapses like a rent balloon, and the
opened earth swallows up palaces and cots, men and women, and what the
overwhelming and the falling shall not slay, shall perish in the awful
conflagrations produced.
"_And Babylon the great was remembered in the presence of God to give
her the cup of wine of the fierceness of His anger_." Babylon, the
great, the colossal city of mighty splendor, re-built, as we saw
earlier in this book, will have become exclusively a _commercial_ city.
All the vice and sin and voluptuousness of all the vilest cities of the
whole world, through all the ages, gathered up into one whole foulness,
would be as virtue compared with the foulness and vice and
voluptuousness of the Great Babylon.
"_Fallen, Fallen, Babylon the Great_." May we gather from the
twice-repeated word "Fallen," that the collapse comprises the two
things "_Babylon, mystery!_"--the foul religious system, the false
worship,--and also Babylon _the city_?
God does not settle His accounts every Saturday night as petty
tradesmen do. Babylon had been garnering judgment for herself, from
the beginning. And the cry of doom goes out against her, from Heaven.
"_Render to her even as she rewarded, and double the double according
to her works; in the cup which she mixed, mix for her double; insomuch
as she glorified herself and was wanton, TO THAT PROPORTION give to her
torment and grief. Because she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and
am not a widow, and shall see no mourning, therefore, IN ONE DAY, shall
come her plagues, death, and mourning and famine, and with fire shall
she be burnt, because strong is the Lord who hath judged her_."
And never more after this shall the foul city arise.
Awful convulsions of the earth will take place all over the world. The
whole configuration of the earth shall be changed. Mountains and
islands, well known before, will disappear.
With all the other aerial and other convulsions of nature, a hailstorm,
covering an enormous area, will be one of the horrors, when, putting
the weight of the stones at the lowest average, they will probably be
quite a hundred-weight each.
And so event will follow event in such rapid succession as to puzzle
the writer how to place them wholly in consecutive order. Satan will
be taken and bound for a thousand years. The _living_ nations will
have been judged as regards their treatment of the Jews, and as to
their acceptance of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
On, on, on, event upon event, until the glorious millennial reign of
Christ shall be ushered in.
But before anything of which we have written in these pages can come to
pass, our precious, loving Lord must come into the air to take up His
own people to Himself. For this every true Christian should be
looking, waiting, watching,--and _working_ while they wait, for He has
said "_Occupy_ till I come."
"So I am watching quietly
Every day,
Whenever the sun shines brightly
I rise and say,--
"Surely it is the shining of His face,"
And look unto the gates of His high place
Beyond the sea,
For I know He is coming shortly
To summon me.
And when a shadow falls across the window
Of my room,
Where I am working my appointed task,
I lift my head to watch the door, and ask
If He is come?
And the Angel answers sweetly
In my home,----
"Only a few more shadows,
And He will come."
"Even so, Lord Jesus! Come! Come quickly!"
"FINIS?" No! WAITING!