WHEN THE LAST WORLD-MONARCHY SHALL APPEAR.

Genesis 12 and 13; Isaiah 13 and 14; Revelation 18.

Were there time I would ask you to read with me the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Genesis, but I shall refer to them in the course of the lecture.

We recall that after the flood God gave man another chance. He gave him a fresh opportunity to serve Him and to return to Him through faith in a personal Redeemer, the seed of the woman, on the ground of the atonement of blood.

But we also recall that man repudiated the opportunity. He once more turned his back upon God, and in connection with the tower of Babel rebelled against and defied Him, until another judgment fell in the confounding of the tongues of the race. And thus the one family is divided into three, and scattered to the different parts of the earth.

It now seems as though the name of God would be forgotten in the earth, and His purpose to redeem the race through the seed of the woman would come to naught. But God's purposes never fail, and consequently we find Him in these chapters revealing another method speaking after the manner of men for the execution of the original plan.

GOD'S PURPOSE IN ISRAEL.

His method now is to select one family from among the many, that of Abraham, and from it to build up a nation, Israel, which should be

(1) A repository for His truth in the earth.

(2) A witness to Himself before the other nations, and

(3) A channel for the bringing into the world of the personal Redeemer.

For these three great purposes He chose Israel, so that in all the apparent partiality He has shown towards that nation, in all the protecting care He has given them, and the gracious promises He has made to them He has been thinking, not of them alone, but through them of the blessing of the whole world.

The history of that nation may be likened to a river. It begins in a mountain spring, and trickles over the face of the rock and in and out among the boulders until it becomes a rill, and then a rushing brook in which the trout play, and the angler throws his fly. Now it carries on its bosom the Indian canoe or the pleasure yacht. By and by it loses itself in some subterranean passage, flows under the surface of the earth, or spreads out among the reedy marshes almost beyond identification. But finally, it comes together again, a strong, deep, and energetic stream, bearing the commerce of a great city out upon the ocean.

ISRAEL'S HISTORY.

The stream of Israel began in Abraham and trickled through Isaac and Jacob. Jacob has twelve sons. Their families grow into seventy souls, and with their retainers go down into Egypt when Joseph is in power there. They are hidden away in the fruitful land of Goshen, where God keeps them under His care for four hundred years until they become a great multitude. Then He delivers them supernaturally from their Egyptian bondage. He leads them across the Red Sea, He protects and guides them in the wilderness, and by and by brings them into the promised land.

The law has been given them and they are now amalgamated into a nation.. The golden eras of David and Solomon follow. But sin comes in, rebellion, disobedience, and then disruption. The one kingdom becomes two the kingdom of Israel, the ten tribes; and that of Judah, the two tribes.

Now, because of her disobedience, the kingdom of Israel is deported, carried by the Assyrians into captivity, and lost to human vision until the day when God shall be pleased to bring her to the light again. Judah remains in her own land a century and a half longer, but at length, through disobedience, is also carried into captivity by the Babylonians. She returns after seventy years, according to prophecy, and once more reinstated in her own land, remains there long enough to give birth to the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, Whom she crucifies.

Then, because of that crowning sin, the Roman people are permitted to overcome her and she is scattered among all the nations of the earth, where she is today, " sifted as corn is sifted in a sieve/' and yet not one grain of wheat to fall to the ground until God shall be pleased to restore her to Himself and to her land in perpetuity. That shall be the day when, in repentance and faith, Israel and Judah shall accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah, and Jerusalem shall be created a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

ISRAEL'S FAILURE AND ITS RESULTS.

We thus see that Israel has fulfilled two of the three purposes God had in mind for her. She has been a repository for His truth, keeping the sacred oracles intact through all the centuries; and she has been a channel for the incoming of the Redeemer to the world giving us our Saviour. She has failed, however, to be a faithful witness to Jehovah before the other nations of the earth, and in consequence, is suffering the dispersion and the persecution which, alas! we know about today.

Moreover, in consequence of her disobedience, the other nations of the earth, Christian and pagan, are living in rebellion against 'God. And this rebellion the prophets teach, shall increase and gather strength, until at last it shall express itself in the last worldmonarchy, of which we shall now speak.

THE LAST WORLD-MONARCHY.

1. Let me define the term. By a world-monarchy I mean a federation of certain nations, especially those of Christendom, under one head, as in the case of Nimrod, of whom we studied last week. Or like Nebuchadnezzar at the head of the Babylonian federation, or Darius, or Alexander, or the Caesars, only a greater, stronger and wickeder federation than any of these, and under a stronger, and greater and wickeder head than any that has been named.

By the last world-monarchy I mean the last which the earth shall see in this age and before the millennium begins.

WHO IS THE ANTICHRIST?

2. Having defined the term, let me speak of the head of this last world-monarchy. The Scriptures refer to him as " the man of sin," " the son of perdition," " the Antichrist," but he will be a secular, and not an ecclesiastical, despot.

I mention this as my judgment, because there are many who believe that the pope will be he. The papacy, indeed, has many crimes to answer for in all the centuries, and not the least in this, nor am I here to apologize for it by any means. But the man of sin when he arises, will be as much greater and wickeder than any pope as can be imagined, because into his hands for the time being, Satan will transfer his power and authority in the earth.

WHENCE WILL HE ARISE?

The papacy is one of the elements making for the development of the man of sin. There is no question about that. But the papacy itself, I feel sure is not identical with him. The Scriptures teach that he will come up from the Roman Empire. By the Roman Empire is meant the territory over which the Caesars ruled, and which, speaking loosely, extends from Persia on the east to Great Britain on the west, and includes chiefly the nations bordering on the Mediterranean Sea.

If I were asked from what part of the Roman Empire he would arise, I should say though I am not dogmatizing on the subject, from that part of it which was formerly the Grecian Empire. In other words I am looking for him somewhere in the neighborhood of the Bosphorus, somewhere in the locality where Greece and European Turkey join.

WHAT HIS CHARACTER WILL BE.

The Scriptures say that when he arises he will at first be weak and insignificant; the head of an obscure principality not considered seriously by the greater nations, but that his development will be rapid. By fraud and flattery, superadded to a Satanic intellect and astuteness, he will swiftly gain control of three kingdoms; and at last, the kings of the other kingdoms of the Roman Empire then existing will find it to their advantage to yield their power and their dominion into his hands, when for the time being he will have become supreme.

SHALL BABYLON BE RESTORED?

3. Passing from the consideration of the head of the monarchy, let me speak of its location, or seat of government.

I believe the prophets teach that it will be identical with that of the first world-monarchy, viz: the old city of Babylon, in the land of Shinar.

This is denied by some earnest Bible students, whom I greatly respect, but I believe their objections are not sound. They object to it among other reasons on the ground of Isaiah's prophecy (See 13:19-22) part of which reads thus:

"And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged."

This prophecy, they say, was fulfilled in the overthrow of Babylon by the Persian power six hundred years more or less before Christ. But I cannot agree with this, further than to say that what befell Babylon in that day may bear about the same relation to what will befall it in the day to come as a shadow bears to the substance it precedes.

As Benjamin Wills Newton in his " Babylon and Egypt," says: " God is wont in His goodness to give premonitory blows. He is accustomed to-warn before He finally destroys. Egypt, Jerusalem, and many other places, have all experienced premonitory desolations; and so has Babylon. Its present ruin is a memorial of what God's righteous vengeance can do, and a warning of what it will more terribly do, if human pride in contempt of all His admonitions, shall again attempt to rear its goodly palaces where He has written desolation.

"Without therefore undervaluing the lesson given by past visitations of God's judgments, without hiding, but rather seeking to proclaim the reality and extent of the ruin His holy hand has wrought, we have also to testify that the hand of man uncommissioned from above, will sooner or later, reconstruct the fabric of its greatness, its last evil greatness, on the very plains which teem with the memorials of a ruin entailed by former and yet unrepented of transgressions.

"Egypt, Damascus, Palestine, and in a measure, Jerusalem, are already being revived. And if these and neighboring countries, which have been visited by inflictions similar to those which have fallen on Babylon, are yet to revive and flourish with an evil prosperity at the time of the end, why should Babylon be made an exception? "

Indeed, to quote our author further " That the blow which has already fallen upon Babylon should be regarded as premonitory only, so far from being inconsistent with the method of the divine acting in other cases, is on the contrary in strict harmony with it. And so strongly do present facts, as well as events known from Scripture as about to occur in the land of Israel, indicate the likelihood of Babylon's restoration, that, even if Scripture were silent respecting its final history, we should nevertheless conclude that its revival was not only antecedentary probable, but well nigh certain."

LUCIFER AND ISRAEL IN THE TIME TO COME.

In affirmative proof of this, let me say that the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Isaiah should be read continuously, at least until the end of verse 27 of the last-named chapter. The thirteenth chapter dwells on the glory and fall of Babylon the city, but the fourteenth dwells principally upon the glory and downfall of Babylon's king.

"Will any one read the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah as a whole and say it has been fulfilled? Has he yet appeared among the nations who is there styled Lucifer, the day-star? Has there been as yet anyone who, after arrogating to himself the place of Christ and professing to be to the nations as the bright and morning star, has been because of this blasphemy, smitten and brought down to Hades, to the sides of the pit? No such king of Babylon has as yet existed, and no such has been destroyed."

Moreover, it is very clear from these chapters that the destruction of this king shall be coincident with the forgiveness of Israel, for at the beginning of the fourteenth chapter we read:

"For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel-shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors."

There is more in these chapters to the same purport, and which goes to prove that the hour of this judgment on Babylon is still future. These things have not yet come to pass in the history of Jacob and Israel. God has not yet set them in their own land. The people have not yet taken them and brought them to their place, and Israel does not possess the peoples of the earth for servants and for handmaids. She has not yet taken them captives whose captive she was, nor does she yet rule over her oppressors. But these things shall come to pass as truly as the Bible is the word of God, and when they come to pass the hour for the fall of Babylon has arrived.

Other arguments might be presented, but to me these are quite sufficient to show that the prophecy of Babylon's destruction is yet to be fulfilled. And this involves, of course, the restoration of that city to her former place as the center of the federation of the God-defying nations of the earth.

THE COMMERCIAL CRISIS TO COME.

4. From the consideration of the locality of this world-monarchy, let me further refer to the cause of it. What is the motive, or the governing principle that shall bring about this federation of the nations of which the prophets speak? As a matter of fact, that motive or principle is expressed in a single word, and one very familiar in this day, " COMMERCE.''

The Old Testament prophets say that wickedness in commerce shall yet have its center in Babylon on the plain of Shinar, and all around us are tokens that corroborate and strengthen this conviction.

Take the United States only as an illustration. For the last twenty years our presidential elections have turned upon the question of either the tariff or the money standard, a question of commerce. Our Chief Magistrate recently made a journey in which he visited thirty-one states, and the burden of his speeches was commerce. He met the President of Mexico in a semi-social way, and they spake of commerce.

We support a mighty and a growing navy in order to defend our commerce. We insist upon the " open door " in China for commercial reasons. We desire to keep on friendly terms with Japan for commercial reasons. We must retain the Philippines for commercial reasons.

But what is true of the United States is true of almost every nation of the world. Great Britain rules India with an iron hand, and yet permits every pagan religion to flourish there side by side with Christianity, because of commerce. Spain is permitting her soldiery to be stricken down in Morocco for the sake of commerce. Belgium holds the Congo in a bloody grip for the sake of commerce. Name any of the great nations of the earth, and say if the governing principle of their existence be not the same.

"TRUSTS" AND "UNIONS/"

Look at another phase of the subject. This is the day of the syndicate, the corporation, the trust. It is also the day of the federation and the " union." Not only men of wealth, but those we designate as " working men " are coming together. Organization is in the air and not merely national, but international; while commerce, in some aspect of it, is the secret of it all.

But the day is coming, so the prophets teach, when this world shall see its greatest syndicate, its greatest corporation, its greatest trust, its greatest federation, its greatest union. And that shall be when the nations of the old Roman Empire will come together again, and for the sake of their material well-being put into the hands of one man the combination of their power.

In further corroboration of this observe that in the book of Revelation (chapter 18), when the seer speaks of the destruction of Babylon, he sets before us the merchants and the shipmasters of the earth as the chief mourners at her funeral. His words are these:

"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. . . .  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more."

Then he describes in detail the character of their merchandise, which is that of luxury rather than necessity, and returning to the destruction of the city, says:

"The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! "1

HOW THE LAST WORLD-MONARCHY SHALL END.

5. Finally, let us consider the occasion of her downfall. Why is this great city brought to nought? Why does this last world-monarchy come to an end?

In considering the occasion we are brought back to the point whence we started at the twelfth chapter of Genesis and God's call to Abraham, and His promise to give to Abraham and posterity the land of Palestine forever.

In fulfillment of that promise the Jew is going back to Palestine; at first in an unconverted state, however, so far as his acceptance of Jesus as his Messiah is concerned. And when Israel thus goes back, she will rebuild her Temple, and essay to worship the God of her fathers somewhat after the former manner.

But when this federation of the nations takes place, Palestine is absolutely necessary to it, for she is the key to the riches of the Orient. Israel thus will be approached by " the man of sin" who will make a covenant with her to last for seven years, in which he will grant her liberty of conscience to worship God.

There are some faithful Jews in Jerusalem at this time who will not thus be ensnared, nor enter into this "covenant with death and this agreement with hell." But the majority of the people, as when in that earlier time they crucified our Lord, will carry the day and the covenant shall be sealed.

In the midst of the seven years, however, " the man of sin," in accordance with his character of. deceit and fraud, shall break the covenant, and setting up his own image in the Temple to be worshipped, shall give out that he himself is God. And practically the whole of Christendom in that day, including faithless Israel, will bow down and do obeisance to him. This is the teaching both of Daniel and of Paul.

His hour of triumph, however, is not long, for now is fulfilled the words of Zechariah (chapter 14.)

"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; * * * Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, * * * and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee."

Then is the hour of the triumph of the Son of God, for we read again:

"And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.* * * Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited."

Then it is that Israel takes up the broken threads of privilege and duty where she laid them down so long ago, the threads of testimony and witness to Jehovah, her Messiah, and her Saviour as well as ours. And then it is that through her testimony the nations of the earth, in the millennial age, shall be brought at last to obedience to the Son of God.

WHERE IS THE CHURCH IN THAT DAY?

A question possibly arises. What about the Church in that day? You say:

"We thought the hope of the Christian was the coming of the Lord. But if He is not to come until then, if all these things must intervene before His coming, the federation of the nations, the development of the man of sin, the restoration of the Jew to his own land how long must it be before He comes? And hence, where is the value or effectiveness of such a hope? "

I am glad to be able to repeat that the second coming of Christ, as I understand the Word of God, is an event of more than one aspect. There is a coming of Christ for His saints, and a coming of Christ with His saints. It is the coming of Christ for His saints that is the hope of the Church, an event for which the faithful are always looking.

I know of nothing to intervene before He comes. He may come today, or certainly within our generation, when the Church will be caught up to meet Him in the air. Then there will be an interval, how long I do not know. And during that interval, while the Church is with her Lord in the air, most of these events apparently, of which the prophets speak are to transpire on the earth. It is then that the nations are federating, the man of sin developing, the Jew returning, and the crisis approaching.

And when that crisis comes, then Christ comes, not for His Church as we have seen, but with His Church and with His holy angels, " in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

BRINGING BACK THE KING.

Sometime since I wrote a few verses, a simple Gospel hymn, in which I speak of that coming, which perhaps you will indulge me if I read.2

The verses were suggested by that incident in the life of David to which I have referred on another occasion. Absalom, his ungrateful son, has rebelled against him and driven him from his throne and from his land. He is an exile beyond Jordan.

But Absalom is now dead, the rebellion is at an end, and still David is an exile.

At length the men of Judah, those of his own tribe, come together, and shamefacedly inquire of one another: "Why say ye not a word of bringing back the king?" And when they begin to talk about it, they begin to act about it. Soon they cross the Jordan and David is back again.

And so I ask, especially of my brethren of the ministry

     Why say ye not a word of bringing back the king?

Why speak ye not of Jesus and His reign? Why tell ye of His kingdom, and of His glories sing,

      But nothing of His coming back again?

 

Dost thou not want to look upon His loving face?

      Dost thou not want to see Him glorified? Wouldst thou not hear His welcome, and in that very place,

      Where, years ago, we saw him crucified?

 

O, hark! creation's groans, how can they be assuaged?

      How can our bodies know redemptive joy?

How can the war be ended in which we are engaged,

      Until He comes, the lawless to destroy?

 

Come quickly, blessed Lord, our hearts a welcome hold!

     We long to see creation's second birth.

The promise of Thy coming, to some is growing cold:

     O, hasten Thy returning back to earth."

 

How many can say: " Amen " to this?

"Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come."

2 Copyrighted by James McGranalian.