The Europeans have already made great preparations for battle. Every
one of them preaches peace and prepares for war; and none of them have
finished their preparations yet,--if they had, they would be in the
thick of it by this time. Each of them declares that its preparations
will be finished about the end of 1897. Russia is building war-ships,
England is building war-ships, France is building war-ships, and all
will be finished about the end of 1897. All preparations converge on
the end of 1897. When all are ready, they will begin. When newspapers
write about an immediate European war, I do not believe it. There
will be no European war for two years; but after that there is no
escape from it,--they have to fight, and will fight. The war-ships
will be ready, the cannon will be ready, the guns will be ready,
the ammunition will be ready, the soldiers will be ready.
The cunning Sultan knows all this, and is in a hurry to exterminate
the Armenians, so that when they start in earnest with guns to reform
Armenia, he can say there is no Armenia or Armenians to reform. But
that makes no difference for the European powers: Turkey is doomed,
and the Turkish Empire will come to an end forever within this
century. There will never be any more Turkish Empire or Mohammedan
government; all the Mohammedan powers will be under Christian rule.
The second reason is my belief in the Bible prophecies. The close
resemblance of the Jews and Armenians will be observed by the reader:
both the chosen people of God. The children of Israel were the chosen
people before Christ, and as the Armenians became the first Christian
nation after Christ, they became the chosen people after Christ. And
these chosen people have suffered more than any other nations on the
globe; they have had more martyrs than any other nation, and have
been carried into captivity, and finally scattered throughout the
world. The Bible lands are Palestine and Armenia, where the first
man, Adam, was created, and where Christ was born and was crucified;
and so these lands after Christ, becoming the first Christian lands,
became the Temple of God.
We have a prophecy in the eleventh chapter of Revelation that the
court of the Temple will be given unto the Gentiles, and the Holy City
shall they tread under foot forty and two months; "and I will give
power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two
hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth." (Rev. xi, 2-3.)
Forty and two months and a thousand two hundred and three score
days are just the same thing. Each day in the Bible prophecy is one
year. According to this interpretation, which I consider correct, the
Holy City will be trampled by the Gentiles one thousand, two hundred
and sixty years. Now the question is this, Where is the Holy City,
and who are the Gentiles who will trample the Holy City? First,
the Holy City is both literally the Holy City before Christ, and
spiritually the Holy City after Christ.
Literally, the Holy City is Jerusalem, where the Temple of God was;
this is very clear. Spiritually, the Holy City is Christianity;
wherever there are Christians, there is the Holy City. But this is
very general, and takes the whole world after it is Christian. But
before we come to that general Holy City, we find in the third verse of
the same chapter the following words: "I will give power unto my two
witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred and three
score days, clothed in sackcloth." So from these statements we find
that two especial witnesses in that Holy City, clothed in sackcloth,
will testify. Who are these two witnesses? My interpretation is that
they are the two chosen peoples of God and Christ. And the two chosen
peoples are the Jews and the Armenians. The Jews were the chosen
people before Christ, and the Armenians became the chosen people
after Christ, as King Abgarus, the Armenian king, believed in Christ
before Christ was crucified, and afterwards, in the time of Gregory
the Illuminator, the whole Armenian nation became a Christian nation,
in 310 A.D. Before Palestine was considered a holy country, Armenia
was considered a holy land, because the first man was created there,
and Noah's ark rested on Mount Ararat. And as the Armenians became
the first Christian nation on the globe, Palestine and Armenia were
the holy countries or the Holy City. Although this is so, after all
the literal Holy City, Jerusalem, remains a holy city; and she will
be after Christ, under the rule of Gentiles one thousand two hundred
and sixty years, while the two witnesses will testify there under
sackcloth for one thousand two hundred and sixty years.
Now the question is this, How long is it since the city of Jerusalem
was captured by the Gentiles, or more correctly by the "beast
that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit" (Rev. ii. 7), which is
the Mohammedan power? The Mohammedan power in different places in
Revelation is called the Beast, the Dragon, the Whore or Harlot, and
the False Prophet, and it is the Gentile kingdom after Christ. And
the time which is given to the Mohammedan power to rule, to destroy,
and to kill the Jews and the Christians in Jerusalem or in the Bible
lands, is only one thousand two hundred and sixty years. Since the
city of Jerusalem was captured by the Mohammedans is 1258 years,
and when this present year and the next come to an end in 1897, the
Mohammedan power will also come to an end, and the city of Jerusalem
will be restored to the Jews, and Armenia to the Armenians.
Towards the end of the Mohammedan power, Mohammedans will begin
to kill both the Jews and the Armenians for three and a half years
(see Rev. xi, 7, 8, 9). Now, for a year and a half the Mohammedans
have been killing the Christians,--which the author predicted two or
three years ago; and they will kill two years more. "And the sixth
Angel poured out his vial upon the Great River Euphrates and the water
thereof was dried up." (See Rev. xvi, 12.) That means that the people
on the shores of the Euphrates were killed, namely the Armenians.
I am not writing a commentary on Revelation, but simply bringing in
a few passages to enlighten the mind of the reader about the future
of Armenia and the battle of Armageddon.