The idea prominently sustained throughout the book of Daniel is, as we have seen, one dominion under divers administrations, styled the kingdom of men, or of Babylon, as opposed to the kingdom of Judah, which is Yahweh's. Both these -kingdoms have their times, or periods, during which their reigns are unrivalled. The two kingdoms, however, being essentially hostile and destructive of one another, it so happens that when one reigns prosperously, the other must be in adversity, or extinct. This being the case, it is obvious that the prosperity of the two kingdoms must pertain to different and successive ages, and that the practising and prospering of the one is at the expense of the others. Now this is a truth that is self-evident to all acquainted with the history of Judah and the Gentiles, or other nations. From the celebrated Passover in the eighteenth of Josiah's reign to the present time, has been a period of calamity for the Jews; and from the first of Nebuchadnezzar's, which was seventeen years after, to the same epoch, a period of ascendancy and Gentile treading-down for the Babylonian kingdom of men. During this long interval to 1868, of about 2498 years, the stump of the Babylonish Tree, "banded with iron and brass", has continued with its roots in the earth. But when its time shall have passed over it, "the stump of its roots" will be removed; and the times of the reign of the kingdom of God will begin. These continue without change for a thousand years, at the end of which, perfection being attained, the constitution of the kingdom will be altered to meet the improved condition of the world. Thenceforth, all things will be permanent, and generations will cease to come and go. The unrighteous will have been exterminated; and the earth will be inhabited by immortals only, who will have attained to immortality upon the condition of believing heartily what God has promised and taught in His word prophetically and apostolically ministered; and of doing what He there requires to be done. A kingdom having the Invisible One in all for its king; the Anointed One and his brethren for its princes; and the redeemed from among Israel and the nations during the previous thousand years for its nation of immortals, will be our globe's "New Heavens and Earth" that shall never wax old nor vanish away. Its times, therefore, will be interminable, an idea expressed by the phrase, "during the age, and during the age of the ages" (Dan. 7:18).
But the times of the kingdom-of Babylon cannot be calculated without reference to the times of Judah's adversity. The reason of this is, that when these end, Israel's Commander-in-Chief and his associates at the head of the tribes, begin the work of Babylon's destruction, which they accomplish in the time allotted for the restoration of the kingdom again to Israel. Hence there is a parallelism between Babylon and Judah's times that must not be lost sight of; for Babylon is only a subject of prophecy so far as it is in opposition to the things of the kingdom of God.
Now, the whole number of the times of the continuance of the kingdom of Babylon is seven times; and the whole number of the times at the end of which Judah's subjection to it shall cease, is also seven. The truth of this in relation to Babylon appears from the sign recorded in the fourth chapter of Daniel. There Babylon's dominion is represented by a tree so lofty that it was seen from the end of the earth. But it was revealed to Nebuchadnezzar by what happened to the tree and to himself, that the dominion should not always continue in his family and the city he so proudly boasted of. He was, however, instructed by his seven years' expulsion from the throne, and the kingdom, nevertheless, being assured to him, that though Babylon should cease to be the throne of the dominion, the Babylonish kingdom would exist in the earth for the period signified by the seven times; when it would become apparent to all the nations of the dominion, that "the Heavens do rule".
The seven times during which Nebuchadnezzar herded with the beasts, were the sign-period significative of a longer period than itself; yet containing within itself the elements of the calculation. "A day for a year" is a rule to which all prophetic times are reducible. In seven times, which are less than seven years, we have 2,520 days, which are prophetically equal to the same number of solar years. The end of these is the terminus of the times of the Babylonish kingdom of men, or of the stump of the Babylonian Tree banded with iron and brass; that is, under its Latino-Greek constitution.
Judah and his companions have also seven times allotted to them, before they can obtain deliverance from Babylonish oppression and reproach. This appears from the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus and the eighteenth verse, which I render as follows: "If ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will increase to punish you seven times for your sins". This threat is repeated for several times in the same chapter. It cannot mean four distinct punishments of seven years each, or seven punishments. The history of the nation forbids this interpretation: it can therefore only signify that, if they would persist in their transgressions of the law, notwithstanding all the chastisements they experienced while living in Yahweh's sight upon His land, He would bring upon them a punishment of seven prophetic times' duration, or 2,520 years.
But at what national epoch should this 2,520 years of adversity commence ? If they began with the end of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes of Israel, the 2,520 years of the scattering without any movement towards restoration would end in A.D. 1823. According to my chronology in Chronikon Hebraikon, the kingdom of Israel was abolished B.C. 697, in the year of the world's age, 3392. The years before Christ deducted from 2520, give the A.D. 1823, the epoch of the Sixth Vial, in which the 1290 of Dan. 12:11 terminated; and in which "that determined" began to be "poured out upon the Desolator" of the land (Dan. 9:27). This would be the ending of the 2520. But, if this be not a calculation upon correct dam, then our inquiry is limited to the history of Judah subsequently to the expulsion of the Ten Tribes. After this calamity the remnant of these tribes mingled themselves with Judah; and in their history we find nothing of any note as an epoch but the celebrated Passover in the eighteenth of Josiah's reign. Of this it is written, "There was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet". It was a royal effort to being the nation to repentance, that the threatened chastisement of the Law might be averted, "Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah .... And he said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as l have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the temple of which I said, My name shall be there". In seventeen years after this, that is, in the first of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, the dominion of Babylon overshadowed the kingdom of Judah. The seven times had become current. Still in judgment the God of.israel remembers mercy; for He says, "If they shall confess their iniquity... and their uncircumcised hearts be humbled ... Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenants with Isaac and with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land .... And yet for all that they have done, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh, their Elohim"
But the probability of Josiah's passover being an epoch in Judah's Calendar, seems converted into certainty by Ezekiel. He says, "Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year I was among the captives, by the river of Chebar, which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity" (Ezek. 1:1,2). In another place he says, "It came to pass in the seven and twentieth year the word of Yahweh came unto me" (Ezek. 29:17). After identifying the thirtieth year with the fifth of Jehoiachin's captivity, he dates the communications he receives from Yahweh by the year of the captivity until the seven and twentieth, which was the sixteenth year after Jerusalem was smitten (Ezek. 33: 21). This seems to have been the latest, which was therefore the fifty-second year from the passover. But why did he not continue to date from the passover instead of from the captivity? The reason was evidently because, as the captivity was for 70 years, he preferred to mark its diminution for the encouragement of his brethren, than to note the lapse of time from the Passover, which being the epoch of a long series of ages, was calculated to depress the national mind by reminding it of the remoteness of its deliverance.
The thirtieth year period is thus accounted for. Josiah reigned thirty-one years; and the Passover being in the eighteenth year of his reign, a remainder is left of thirteen years. Jehoahaz, his son, reigned three months. He was succeeded by his brother Jehoiakim, who reigned eleven years. Next was Jehoiachin, who reigned three months and three days; and was then carried off to Babylon, and Zedekiah set up in his place. Here were 29 years, 6 months, and 10 days, inclusive of the fifth of Jehoiachin's captivity, or the thirtieth from the passover, as Ezekiel states; that is, B.C. 598. Seeing, then, that he has made it a point of departure for a calculation of years, upon this basis the 2,520 would end A.D. 1892; for the Great Passover occurred B.C. 628, which, deducted from the period, gives the annus Domini stated for the end.
Another epoch, however, must be sought for the commencement of Babylon's 2,520 years. These are Babylon's seven times in its relation to Judah; and must therefore be calculated from the epoch of Judah's first subjection to its dominion. This happened in the 4th of Jehoiakim's reign, which was also the first of Nebuchadnezzar's, and B.C. 611. In this year Jeremiah prophesied that Judah and the surrounding nations should be subject to the King of Babylon for 70 years; and that at the end of these, in the reign of his grandson, many nations and great kings should serve themselves of him (Jer. 26: 1-11; 27:7); that is, make the Babylonish kingdom their own: all of which has come to pass to the very letter.
There seems to be a remarkable fitness in commencing the seven times of the kingdom of Babylon with the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's reign; inasmuch as he may be regarded as the second, or modern, founder of the state, Nimrod being the first. "Is not this great Babylon", said he, "that I have built for the capital of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee! And seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High hath power over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will".
Admitting, then, these epochs for a 'beginning, Judah's seven times will terminate in the A.D. 1892; and Babylon's, A.D. 1908. Judah's period is thus spoken of by Hosea: "I will be unto Ephraim, saith Yahweh, as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will year and go away; I will take away and none shall rescue. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early". 'This is their seven-times condition. The particular "affliction" called in Jeremiah "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30:7), has not yet come upon them. "Alas!" he exclaims, in the prospect of it, "for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith Yahweh Tzvaoth, that I will break his (the Russo-Gogian Autocrat's) yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds; and strangers shall NO MORE Serve themselves of Jacob; but they shall serve Yahweh their Elohim, and the Beloved their King, whom I will raise up unto them" from the dead (Acts 2:30).
This is the "time of trouble" spoken of by Daniel, and yet future. Now, in view of this, Hosea represents them as saying to one another, "Come, and let us return unto Yahweh; for he hath torn, and he will heal us: he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight" (Hos. 6:1,2). These days are three periods of a thousand years each. The two days are past, and the nation is now in the third day of its smitten condition, 2,497 years of the seven times having passed away. The posterity of Jacob have advanced 497 years into "the third day". Thus it is, that as the Beloved their king was raised up bodily in the third day; so, after the similitude thereof shall his nation be politically (and many of them as literally as he) raised up to live in Yahweh's sight (2 Kings 17:23), that is, in their fatherland, in the current day of the seven times.
Woe be to the kingdom of Babylon when the political resurrection of Israel occurs (Ezek. 37:1-14); for "much torment and sorrow" are decreed against its populations during the last forty years of its existence. This will appear from the testimony of Micah. The prophet in behalf of his countrymen supplicates Yahweh, saying, "Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood (alone and not reckoned of the nations) in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old". To this Yahweh replies, "According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him (Israel) marvellous things. The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their strongholds as creeping things of the earth: they shall be afraid of Yahweh, our Elohim, and shall fear because of thee", O Israel. There can be no mistake here. History proves that since the prophet wrote this it has never come to pass. It is, therefore, in the future. Israel were forty years passing from Egypt to Canaan; they will consequently be forty years in passing from their enemies' lands of the Babylonian dominion into the Holy Land, from Egypt to Canaan; they will consequently be forty years in passing to dwell there as an independent nation. In this their transit through "the wilderness of the people" (Ezek. 20:35) they will have to fight their way; and in so doing make the Babylonian nations "lick the dust like a serpent"; a phrase very appropriate to the prostration of the Serpent power.
Here, then, are forty years to be deducted from the seven times of Babylon for the period during which the Holy Ones and their people are" taking away its dominion to consume and destroy it unto the end" (Dan. 7:11:26). This brings us back from A.D. 1908 to A.D. 1868. But before Israel and the Holy Ones can enter upon this work, Michael, the great commander, must stand up, and the Holy ones must be raised from the dead; and a communication must be established between Israel and the land of their enemies and their future commanders: for the reason given for their fighting against the sons of Greece is "because Yahweh is with them, and shall be seen over them". The Lord, then, will have come as the Ancient of Days at some time soon after 1868: how is that epoch to be approached?
In reply to this inquiry, it may be remarked, that nothing can be done by Israel without the Saints or Holy Ones; therefore it must be ascertained what is testified of them, that it may be seen, if possible, when they appear upon the arena of debate.
The seventh of Daniel reveals that the Holy Ones sojourning under the dominion of the Latino-Babylonian power, or Papacy, are to be given over to its power to the end of a time, times, and the dividing of time, or 1260 years. This period is in the current year complete. Their oppressor and destroyer still exists indeed, but sick unto death; and will Continue so till their corporeal resurrection. Now the element of the power that has moved heaven and earth for their destruction, is that represented by the Eyes and Mouth of the Little Horn that subdues the Three Horns. The Eyes and Mouth power is evidently the chief actor against the holy ones, the horn in which they are placed being subordinate to its will. The 1260 years of its prevalence against them must therefore be calculated from the institution of the Eyes and Mouth as a power of the Babylonian dominion; which institution would be equivalent to "The king honouring a god of guardians in his estate or realm; and acknowledging and increasing him with glory" (Dan. 11:38, 39); and not from the first appearance of the Ten Horns, or of the Little One that came up after them and subdued three of them. Now, the acknowledgment of the Eyes and Mouth as the god of the Kingdom of Babylon, or "god upon earth", as the Pope is styled, was in the reign of Phocas, who wrote to the Latin Bishop in the A.D. 604 and acknowledged his supremacy over all other ecclesiastics of the realm. This private recognition was followed by an imperial decree in A.D. 607, and in the year after, as before mentioned, a pillar was erected commemorative of the event, with the date of A.D. 608, inscribed upon it. This may have been only the date of the erection of the pillar. Is it not safe, then, to select for the beginning of the period which is to end at the coming of the Ancient of Days, the A.D. 607 ? The analogy of the signs of the times favours it; the date of the Phocian decree confirms it. My conviction is that the judgment upon Babylon will be announced as about to sit; and that the Ancient of Days and the saints will meet "in the air" and in clouds (1 Thess. 4: 17), in the ending of the 1260 years from the epoch A.D. 606-'8.
At the end of this period, then, the saints are delivered. The papacy, with all the power it can stir up, cannot make successful war upon them any more; we must not, however, conclude from this that the Latino-Babylonian confederacy will immediately be dissolved, and become powerless. It has power to make war after the resurrection, though not successfully; for it is written of it, "power was given to him to practise forty and two months", or 1260 years. These must therefore end at the termination of the Mouth's practising prosperously; yet the powers wiII contend for empire till the end of the period indicated in Dan. 12:7, which is marked by the finished concentration of the power of the Twelve Tribes, at the end of the seven times of the kingdom of men.
Taking the resurrection then, soon after A.D. 1868, the beginning of Micah's forty years will have arrived in which "the mystery of the Deity" will be finished. Is the Russo-Gogian Autocracy broken by the Stone-power before or after the end of this forty-year period ? I should answer, In the course of it. Again: Is it broken to pieces before or after the resurrection of the saints? After it, without doubt; for speaking of the destruction of the Clay power: that is, of a power that "ladeth itself with thick clay", by gathering unto it all nations, and heaping unto it all people, and thus accumulating what does not belong to it: Habbakuk says to its chief, "Shall they not rise up that shall bite thee unexpectedly,. and awake that shall vex thee?... For the Stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it .... For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea . . . Yahweh is in his holy place; be silent, all the earth before him". This is evidently a prediction of the resurrection of the power that is to destroy the Clay-dominion. The Clay-power stands unconsciously waiting for this in the Holy Land and City. The saints gathered unto Christ in the political air or heaven, will be witnesses of its prostration as Israel were of Pharaoh's. All the glory of this will be due to the Ancient of Days, with whom none who are not spirit, but "the chosen" only, co-operate in the infliction of the first disaster upon the enemy, which is by pestilence, mutual slaughter, hail and thunderbolts from heaven. This cripples and disintegrates, but does not finally destroy, the Image. It is as a Moscow to Napoleon, which subsequently required repeated blows for the destruction of his power. Christ and the holy ones as clouds and hail grind the shattered fragments of the Russo-Gogian Image to powder. The Lion-man, the Bear, and the Leopard, or the gold, the silver, and the brass, must have their dominion taken away. These are borderers upon the Holy Land, and will demand the immediate attention of the Stone and Beam out of the timber; "who shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimroud in the entrances thereof: thus shall Israel be delivered from the Assyrian, when he cometh into the land, and when he treadeth within their borders" (Mic. 5:6). The taking of the saints up into the aerial will be to gather them there for the execution of judgment upon those who are to be the objects of divine indignation; and to make them as the falling artillery of the clouds. For these reasons and others that might be adduced, it may be conduded that the resurrection will precede the overthrow of the Russian hosts upon the mountains of Israel.
But the holy ones raised from the dead, and Jerusalem and the Holy Land delivered after the ending of the 1335 years, "Yahweh is in His holy palace", and for a time "all the earth is silent before Him", and trembling in expectation of what shall come next. At this crisis, He is as "an ensign upon the mountains"; and the tranquillity of the epoch is "dry heat impending lightning, as a cloud of dew in the sultriness of harvest". It will then be said of Jerusalem, "Yahweh is there". The remnant of Judah in the land for the seven months ensuing the fail of Gog on the mountains of Israel will be occupied in burying the dead, and cleansing its surface from the slain (Ezek. 39:11-16). The destruction of Pharaoh and his host, which, with the plagues of Egypt, were well known to all that generation, did not cause the nations to confederate and to rush upon Moses and his people to swallow them up; nor did it forty years after deter the seven nations of Canaan from combining to preserve their country from conquest by Israel. It is true that when, in addition to this, they heard that Yahweh dried up the waters of Jordan, and that the two Amorite powers east of that river had been exterminated, "their hearts melted, neither was their spirit in them any more"; nevertheless, the kings assembled their armies and contended for five years in numerous battles against Israel. Though melted with fear, they found no chance of escape but in resistance. Extermination was decreed against them. Death without resistance or with it was their only alternative; they accepted the latter, and perished sword in hand by the armies of Israel.
After the same type will it be with the Ten Toes of the Image, the Latin Kingdoms of the Babylonian dominion after the fail of the Czar and his hosts, the Pharaoh of modern times. Micah says, "Their ears shall be deaf". Whatever news may greet them from the Holy Land, will have no more effect upon the powers than Yahweh's message to Pharaoh. They are to be dashed in pieces as a potter's vessel; diplomacy or resistance, the result will be the same. They are to become as the chaff of the summer threshing-floors. Fair warning, however, will be given, that Israel and their friends who, believing in the bursting forth of impending vengeance, may desire to escape it, may separate themselves from those who determine to resist. "I will be still, saith Yahweh; yet in my dwelling-place I will be without fear". This is subsequently to their overthrow at Bozrah-an awful pause between the treading of the Edom and Jehosaphat winepress, and Yahweh's roaring out of Zion, and uttering His voice from Jerusalem (Joel 5:16).
In the silence of this "truce of God", what is the great movement of the time? The question may be answered in the words of Isaiah that Yahweh having beaten off the enemy from the channel of the river (Euphrates) to the stream of Egypt (the Nile), it shall come to pass that the great trumpet shall then be blown, and the Israelites shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship Yahweh in the holy mount of Jerusalem (Isa. 27:12-13). Another prophet says, "Adonai Yahweh shall blow the trumpet", when he shall be seen over Israel (Zech. 9:14). This is the period referred to in the "memorial of blowing of trumpets" on the first day of the seventh month under the Law (Lev. 23:24). Two trumpets will be blown. By the blowing of the first the princes, heads of the thousands of Israel, called the holy ones, are gathered unto the Lord; and when the second is also blown, all Israel's hosts will begin to assemble towards the dwelling-place of their King (Num. 10:1-7).
The trumpet to be blown by the Anointed One of Yahweh, styled Adonai Yahweh, is a proclamation to the world: as it is written "will send, maihem, of those that escape to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, moshkai kesheth, sounders of truth ;* to Jubal and Javan, the coasts far off that have not heard my name, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations" (Isa. 66: 19). "Yahweh gives the word; great is the company of those that publish it" (Psa. 68:11)
This company is Apocalyptically represented as an "angel flying in the midst of the (Babylonian) heaven"; and the truth they sound out about the fame and glory of the Lord is styled "the good news of the aion", pertaining to the age. It commands the nations to transfer their allegiance to the Deity, under penalty of the judgment in case of refusal. Its words are, "Fear the Deity, and give glory to him: for the hour of his judgment is come"; and to Israel scattered in all the Kingdom of Babylon, and in its capital especially, the proclamation saith, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 14: 6, 7; 18:4).
*Translators of Isaiah have been considerably at a loss what to do with moshkai kesheth. The first word some have thought should be rendered Meshec, called Moschi by the Greeks as a proper name; seeing it is associated with Tubal as in other places. Boothroyd has so rendered it, and Lowth is inclined to it, as appears from his notes but in the text he renders the phrase "who draw the bow", in common with the English version. But though it cannot be denied that the words may be literally rendered thus, this rendering certainly does not apply in this place. "Who draw the bow" is not at all more characteristic of Tarshish, Pul, and Lad, than of Tubal and Javan, of whom it is not affirmed. They all drew the bow in battle when the prophet wrote; and Tarshish at the present time is more famous for gunpowder and cannon-balls than for bows and arrows.
The literal sense of the words cannot, therefore, be the proper one in this place. I have rendered it, "sounders of truth", which is in agreement with what is affirmed of those sent, saving, "And they shall declare my glory (or sound the truth) among the nations".
Moshkai comes from mashakas, to draw, mashalah haz-zera signifies literally to draw the seed, or figuratively to sow; because the seed is drawn out from the bag to be scattered. Also the phrase rnashakh Isyyovail, literally to draw the trumpet, This expresses the reai action in sounding a trumpet before the bhst is given; hence the figurative word for mashaleh here is to sound,' that is, it signifies "to sound" by implication.
The word kesheth literally signifies a bow: but the bending of the tongue in speech is likened to a bow in Scripture, as, "they bend their tongue like a bow for lies". It may also be bent like a bow for truth. In process of time the last letter of the word called Thav was regarded as a radical, and changed into another called Teth, being written without the points k-sh-t instead of k-sh-th: hence the Chaldee kushta for the Hebrew kashtha pronounced kashta, "to shoot with a bow".
The word kesheth and koshet, then, may be taken as the same. By turning to Gesenius under the last word it will be found to signify both a bow and truth. Hence, mosbkai kesheth are drawers of truth. They are sent to draw the great trunspet of Adonai Yahweh, the sound of which is the declaration of His ~1ory among the nations that had not previously heard of His fame nor seen His ~forv. Drawers of truth, then, are sounders or proclaimers of truth Apolocalypticallystyled euaggelion aionion, "the good message pertaining to the age".
The sounding of this proclamation will cause a general movement among the Jews, who will be allured by it, and prepare to leave the lands of their captivity. "I will allure her, saith Yahweh, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak friendly to her heart" (Hos. 2:14; Ezek. 20:35). As to the Latino-Babylonian powers of Europe, they will be stirred up to war by the proclamation. In the Apocalypse they are styled the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Kings of the earth; of whom it is said "they and their armies gathered together to make war against the Lamb, and against his army" (Rev. 19:19 17:14). When this war actually breaks out, the contest will be between the Jews as the Lord's army, and the armies of the Babylonian kings; and is styled, "the war of the Great-day of God Almighty". The period of its continuance is the day during which the judgment sits upon Daniel's fourth beast; and the result of which is, the "thrones are cast down", and their kingdoms become Yahweh's and his Christ's. When this is consummated the seven times of the Kingdom of Men will be fully exhausted. The time allotted to the blowing of the great trumpet will be, I doubt not, several years. There will be much to accomplish among the nations which do not belong to the Latino-Greek Babylonian dominion. Yahweh did not send Israel against the Canaanites till forty years after the fall of Pharaoh; and although it will not be so long as this, I have reason to believe that the war between the Jews and the Papal Powers will not begin until some time after the smiting of the Russo-Gogian Image; how long after is conjectural.
The great trumpet to be blown announces that "the hour of the Deity's judgment is come"; and in the apostrophe upon the fate of Babylon it is said, "in one hour is thy judgment come". Now, in that judgment, not only Rome, but the Papacy, or false Prophet-power, the imperial Beast that sustains it, and the Papal Governments and. nations are judged. The time, therefore, in judging or executing vengeance upon the one, is the period of judgment for them all. At that crisis they will all be confederates in arms against Christ and his armies; for it is written concerning the papal powers, represented by the Ten Horns, or Ten Toes of the Russo-Gogian Image, "they shall receive power as kings one hour with the Beast", or Little Horn with the Eyes and Mouth. "These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the beast. For the Deity hath put in their hearts to fulfil His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of Deity shall be fulfilled . . . These shall make war with the Lamb". Therefore John says, "I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him and against his army". "But the Lamb shall overcome them": for "the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, and cast alive into the lake of fire; and the remnant were slain with the sword of the King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. 17 and 19), that is by Israel, as shown elsewhere.
Now the use of the words hour and one hour, in these places, is not without precise signification. They are not used vaguely or indefinitely. They are figurative of an exact number of solar years, which number is the twelfth of a time. Bible days are twelve hours long; so that an hour is the twelfth part of a daytime. If the time be an eniautos, that which returns upon itself, with another twelfth termed a month, then an hour signifies only thirty days, being diminished by the greater term, as in Rev. 9:15; but if it stand absolutely, that is, with no other sign to qualify it, it signifies thirty years, or the twelfth of a time of 360 years. While touching upon this point, I may remark that half an hour is used Apocalyptically as significative of years in the saying, "there was silence in the heaven about the space of half an hour"; that is, between the opening of the Seventh Seal and the casting fire upon the earth--a period of fourteen years, being "about the space", but not quite "half an hour", which is fifteen years. The meaning of the saying is, "There was peace among the rulers for fourteen years", or, from A.D. 323 to 337, as may be seen by reference to Gibbon's "Decline and Fail of the Roman Empire".
Thirty years, then, being the duration of an hour in these places, the confederacy of the papal powers will continue thirty years, during which judgment is being executed upon them by the people of the holy ones, who torment them with all the calamities of war. These thirty years' war are the last years of Micah's forty for the grinding of the shattered elements of the Image to powder by the Stone, and ending with the annihilation of Babylon at the expiration of its 2520 years; and beginning therefore about A.D. 1878.
But besides the 2400 years, the seventy heptades of 490 years, and the two periods of 1260 years each, there are other two periods that yet remain to be explained. These are one of 1290 years, and another of 1335 years. The former period relates to the desolation of the Holy Land and its desolator; the latter to the resurrection of the Holy Ones, of whom the prophet had the assurance of being one.
The 1290 years are noted in the eleventh verse of the twelfth chapter; which, however, as it stands in the English version, cannot possibly be understood. From this the reader will suppose that the
1290 years should be calculated from the taking away of the daily: that is, from the suppression of sacrifice when the Roman power destroyed Jerusalem, A.D. 72; but in that case "that determined" should have begun to be poured out upon the desolator in A.D. 1362, which every one knows was not the fact.
The proper rendering of this text is, "And after the time the daily shall be removed, even for to set up an abomination making desolate a thousand two hundred and ninety days". The time referred to in this place, is the Seventy Heptades of 490 years; "after" the lapse of this time, "the evening-morning sacrifice" should be removed. But how long would it be after the end of this time ere the daily should be removed ? The answer to this question was one of the times and seasons which the Father had put in His own power (Acts 1:7); therefore Jesus said, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is" (Mark 13:32). This he said to his apostles; but since then "the day and hour" have passed away; and we know that Judah's tribulation, characterized by the removal of the daily, the casting down of the foundation of its sanctuary and the law, and the destruction of their commonwealth, occurred about A.D. 72.
Now the daily was removed for "the overspreading of abominations even to destruction, and that determined should be poured upon the desolator" (Dan. 9: 27). One of these abominations was to prevail for upwards of twelve hundred years, and to be found in desolating possession of the land at the end of 1290. As every one knows, this desolator of the Holy Land thus far is the Ottoman Power, a "timeof-the-end" representative of the long-prevailing "abomination". The 1290 were to reach to the end when the time came to pour out upon the desolator; it is evident therefore, they could not begin A.D. 72. The text does not require that they should; and the passage last quoted shows that they were to end at the period of pouring out upon the desolator; that is, when the 1290 years should end, the pouring out of" that determined" upon the Ottoman should begin.
It is well-known that there has been a notable pouring out of calamities upon this power from A.D. 1820-3 to the present time. But the end is not immediately; for the pouring out period is to continue to the drying-up of the power which is marked by the initiation of the restitution of Israel's power. If the Ottoman were demolished in a month, there would still be an outpouring in reserve for the desolator in actual occupation of Jerusalem at the Advent of the Ancient of Days. This will be the power constituted of the Greeks and Latins under the Autocrat of all the Russias, as before explained. His will be the last regime of the desolating abomination; and when the judgments of the Sixth Vial, which dry up the Euphratean Power (Rev. 16:12), are exhausted, the desolation of Jerusalem and the Holy Land will terminate in the helpless annihilation of their Gentile destroyers, both Muscovite and Turk.
Lastly, 45 years after the end of the 1290 years, the period of the Little Horn of the West's prevalence over the Holy Ones is brought to a close. This period, it will be remembered, is 1260 years long. The end of it is designated by that of the 1335 years, which have an epochal beginning in common with the 1290. They commence 75 years before the 1260, being times pertaining to the Heirs of the Holy Land, or Kings of a Sun's risings; and therefore part of Judah's times; while the 1260 are a part of the times of the kingdom of Babylon--the period of its prevalence against the Holy Ones and their people; and consequently to be calculated from a different beginning, though ending at the same epochal lapse of A.D. 1868. "Blessed he that is waiting and shall LABOUR for the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days." This is the text in which the 1335 year are noted; and the only place in the Bible where they are to be found. To look and labour for them is to watch for the end of them, and to strive to attain what is to be manifested at their expiration. When they terminate, the resurrection of the dead predicted in Dan. 12:2, will come to pass; for the revelator said to the prophet, "Go thou away till the end: for thou shalt lie down and arise (thiamod) to thine inheritance at the end of the days". The days last mentioned in the context are the 1335, and must therefore be the days referred to. Daniel was to lie down till the end of these days, till which time he was to be at rest, "sleeping in the dust of the earth". This is his present condition, mere dust and ashes of the tomb recently discovered in Persia. But in perhaps only a few months, when the 1335 years terminate, he will "arise to his inheritance" in the kingdom of God, in which he and all the prophets, with many others, will rejoice together (Luke 13:28).
In conclusion, let the reader observe that it is not merely he that desires or looks for the end of the 1335 days who is pronounced "blessed". There are many, who desire the resurrection of the wise, and, as Balaam, would like to be of the number; but who either give themselves no trouble to attend to it, or are ignorant of the means of attainment, or will only labour for it according to their own suppositions of possibilities. These suppose everything but prove nothing. The blessedness of the resurrection is a laborious acquisition--a contention for the mastery over ourselves, and the world around us. This can only be attained by the "taught of God", who understand His doctrine and yield it the faithful and self-sacrificing obedience He requires. Then "labour to enter into his rest; for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able". They will be excluded from the Kingdom of God because they 'have not sought entrance into it in the appointed way. "Seek first the Kingdom of God", saith the Great Teacher, "and His righteousness". How highly important is this exhortation now, seeing that in a very short time the resurrection will have transpired, and no further invitation to inherit it be presented to the world. Ought we not, then, to awake to earnestness, and by a rigid scrutiny of our faith and practice, obtain a scriptural satisfaction, if we shall be able to stand unabashed before the Judge of the living and the dead? The glory that shall follow is great for the approved. The world is theirs (1 Cor. 3:21, 22), when all nations come and do homage before the Prince of Israel, because his judgments are made manifest (Rev. 15:4). But before they can have "power over the nations" (Rev. 2:26) they must bind the strong that rule them. This is their mission at the end of the 1335 years: "to execute vengeance upon the nations, and punishment upon the peoples; to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints". For a period of forty years, they will be engaged in this work, and in the organizing the world upon new and better principles. When this work is finished we shall have what is styled "the world to come". The kingdoms, empires, and republics now existing, will be but shadows of the past eclipsing righteousness and truth--blots upon the page of human story. The Kingdom of Babylon, among the rest, will have passed through all its phases of iniquity and crime, and at length have disappeared like chaff before the wind, being ground to powder by the kingdom of God, which as a great mountain fills the whole earth (Dan. 2:35). The nations and their rulers will then heartily respond to the exhortation, saying, "Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice and sing praise. Sing unto Yahweh with the harp; with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornets make a joyful noise before Yahweh, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before Yahweh; for he cometh to rule the earth; with righteousness shall he rule the world, and with equity the peoples" (Psa. 98:4-9).
Such is the solution of the Great Eastern Question which has been providentially formed for the development of the terrible situation of "the Time of the End".
