Ere seeking to answer this question, which seems to be a perplexity to some, it might be well to state, as briefly as possible what is meant by the period of judgment, as this paper will probably fall into the hands of some, who, as yet have given but little attention to prophetic teaching. In doing this it will be necessary to do little more than refer to a large number of passages of Scripture, many of which lack of space will forbid quoting in full, but it is hoped the reader will refer to any that are unfamiliar to him.

First, then, let it be noted that Old Testament prophecy never refers to the dispensation in which we live (extending from Pentecost to the Lord's coming for His own) save in a most indefinite way as, for instance, in Dan. 9:26, a passage which will come before us a little farther down. From Moses to Malachi, Scripture is mainly occupied with one nation, Israel, (Amos 3:2; Deut. 7:6; Ps. 147:19, 20) and the hope of that nation, namely, the raising up of the Prophet (Deut. 8:15), Priest (Ps. ex. 4; Zech. 6:5), and King (Is. xxxii; Ps. 2:6), who is to bring them into everlasting blessing as a people (Ps. 132:11-18; Is. 35:10; 51:ii; 61:7), though not until they have been born again (Ezek. 36:24-30).

The Gentiles shall share in that blessing (Is. 56:6; 65:i) but not as on the same footing with Israel; rather in subjection to them (Is. 14:1-3; 60:3-5; 62:2, 3).

Ere the ushering in of that day of Jehovah's power and Messiah's glory the prophets, however, predicted the rejection of both the looked-for Redeemer (Is. 53:) and the nation (Is. 1.), the former by Israel to whom He came, the latter themselves set aside by God (Zech. 7:13-14) while the rejected Messiah takes His place in the heavens on Jehovah's throne (Ps. 110:i) which He will occupy until the future repentance of the people (Hosea 5:15). This setting aside of Israel is, however, not final, as the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters of Jeremiah, together with many other portions of the Word, plainly declare. But before their restoration to divine favor and the land of Palestine they must pass through a short period of unequaled persecution and chastisement called the "time of Jacob's trouble" in Jer. 30:7. At the close of this time they will be ready to acknowledge the crucified as their Lord and will '' mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son" (Zech. 12:10-14; 13:6, 7). In the darkest hour of their sorrow when Jerusalem is compassed about with armies and they are in direst distress, He will appear as their Deliverer and to the destruction of their enemies, after which the tabernacle of David will be raised up and the reign of righteousness ushered in (Zech. 14:; Amos 9:8-15).

Thus far, the Old Testament. Turning now to the later revelation we find many new data introduced without which the present working of the Spirit of God in the world would be inexplicable. In Rom. 11:we are told that upon the breaking off of the natural branches (Israel) from the tree of promise, wild branches (Gentiles) are introduced in their place; in other words, Israel's rejection has but made way for unforetold grace to be shown to the nations though Old Testament prophecy of blessing to the heathen can be quoted as proof that such grace is not in collision with the Word. This special work among the Gentiles is not to go on forever though, for if these continue not in divine goodness they too shall be exit off and the natural branches grafted in again, for God is able.

God, then, is doing a work, unmentioned in the Jewish oracles during the time that His earthly people are " Lo-ammi" ("not My people," Hosea 1:9:) and unacknowledged by Him, and "blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in " (Rom. 11:25). This, however, is a "mystery" (of which there are several), one of the secret things (Deut. 29:29) till now unrevealed. The Lord Jesus confirms this (but rather from the political side) in His prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem-the long period of desolation and Gentile supremacy following it, and finally the end in His personal appearing (Luke 21:). In verse 24 we read, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

This connects us again with Dan. 9:where we get the great prophecy of the "seventy weeks." A lengthy exposition of this passage cannot be attempted here, but we briefly notice the main points. From the cycle of time, seventy weeks (or sevens) of years (note the periods before the prophet's mind in ver. 2) making in all 490 years, are "determined" or "cut off " and given to Daniel's people, of course, the Jewish nation.

Ere this length of time expires six important events will have taken place:1st, transgression will
be finished; 2nd, an end will be made of sins; 3rd, atonement (rather than "reconciliation") will be made for iniquity; 4th, everlasting righteousness will be brought in; 5th, vision and prophecy will be sealed up, or finished, 1:e., all fulfilled; and 6th, the most holy, or holy of holies of the millennial temple at Jerusalem will be anointed (see Ezek 40:-xlviii).

The seventy weeks are divided into three unequal periods; 1st, seven weeks or forty-nine years; 2nd, sixty-two weeks, or 434 years; 3rd, one week or seven years. During the first seven weeks "the strait times " (see margin) the city and wall of Jerusalem were to be rebuilt. The date from which to count is found in Neh. 2:, when a "commandment went forth to restore and build Jerusalem." The sixty-two weeks seem to have immediately followed and ended in the coming of Messiah. After the conclusion of this period He was cut off and had nothing, but by this, atonement was made. Then comes in the present long interval of Jerusalem's treading down. The city is destroyed as our Lord foretold also, and "even unto the end shall be war "until one arises who confirms a covenant with the mass of the Jews for the last final week. Clearly, then, this week is still future. The prophetic clock stopped at Calvary. It will not start again till "the fulness of the Gentiles become in." The present is a timeless epoch, parenthetically introduced between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks, in which God is taking out from among the Gentiles a people to His Name (Acts 15:14). Not that He has utterly given up the Jew now, but both Jew and Gentile stand on one footing, "there is no difference for all have sinned" (Rom. 3:). Both alike are saved through faith in Christ, and all such are made members of the One Body, the Church, by the Holy Ghost, and united to the Lord Jesus Christ as Head in heaven, another mystery, hitherto unrevealed. (See Rom. 16:25-28; i Cor. 12:; Eph. 4:; Col. 1:24-29). This began with the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:; i Cor. 12:13). It will be completed at the coming of the Lord to call His Church to be forever with Himself, an event which may take place at any moment (i Thess. 4:15-18-; i Cor. 15:51-54; 2 Thess. 2:i). Then the long delayed seventieth week will begin to run its course. At its conclusion Daniel's prophecy (as all other millennial prophecy) will be entirely fulfilled. Atonement was made for iniquity after the expiration of the sixty-ninth week. Everlasting righteousness will be brought in at the end of the seventieth.

This brief period, though, will be one of judgment throughout, and that threefold. It will include judgment on apostate Christendom, on Israel, and on the nations at large. It is to be the awful result of the rejection of the Prince of Peace.

The book of Revelation from chap. 4:-19:is occupied entirely with its solemn events. The saints-of all prior dispensations, as well as the Church – are seen enthroned in heaven, as the twenty-four elders who have been redeemed with the blood of the Lamb (chap. 5:) at the beginning of the week. They ride forth as the "armies of heaven " with "The Word of God " at His glorious appearing at the close. The last three years and a half will be especially the time when Israel shall receive "of the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Is. 40:2), the "time of Jacob's trouble " of Jer. 30:7 and Dan. 12:i, and the "great tribulation" of Matt. 24:and Rev. 7:14. The covenant-breaking prince of Dan. 9:is doubtless the beast, the head of the Roman empire who makes a league with the wilful king of chap. 11:36-39-the Antichrist of prophecy (i Jno. 2:18), the idol shepherd of Zech. 11:15-17, who will "come in his own name" as foretold by the Lord Jesus in Jno. 5:43, and be received by the mass of the Jews as Messiah, but who will become the cruel persecutor of a faithful company designated as " the remnant" (Is. 11:ii; Ezek. 6:8; Rev. 12:17, etc).

Trusting that the above will be clear to any who "search the Scriptures" to see "whether these things are so," we will now devote our attention to the subject proper of the paper. To many the preliminary remarks were doubtless quite unnecessary, but others may find them helpful.

The seventh of Revelation, with its sealed 144,000 of Israelites and white-robed multitude of saved Gentiles, is proof positive that many will be brought to know the Lord after the taking away of the church and before the establishment of the millennial kingdom. These are not saved for heaven, though we have an additional martyr company who are (Rev. 14:13; 15:2-4); but the companies of chap. 7:are saved for the earth. They will be "left" to enter into the kingdom as set up in power at the appearing of Jesus Christ, when others are "taken" away in judgment (Matt. 24:40; Luke 17:34-36), and are probably identical, as to the Gentiles, with the "righteous" of Matt. 25:31-46 who "inherit the kingdom."

Where then will they be found ? Will any who have rejected the gospel as now presented be among them ?

In 2 Thess. 2:we read of the hindrance to the full manifestation of the evil of the period of judgment referred to, which is evidently the presence of the Holy Ghost in the Church on earth. He "lets" or hinders until " He be taken out of the way." When He goes up with the Church at the Lord's descent into the air, "then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall annul by the appearing of His coming; whose coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God sends to them a working of error, that they should believe what is false, that all might be judged who have not believed the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:8-13, J. N. D's Trans.)."

This is certainly a most solemn passage deserving to be carefully weighed. It refers to something which may take place very, very soon; a state of affairs many living now may enter upon shortly. The more minutely it is examined the more clearly it will be seen that it cuts off all hope of any being saved in that coming "hour of temptation "'(Rev. 2:10) who have heard the gospel of the grace of God in this "day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2), but heard only to reject it. It puts a terrible responsibility on those who listen again and again to the proclamation of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet have never rested in Him for themselves. To believers' children and unsaved members of their families it speaks loudly and warningly, for soon those who know the Lord will be "caught up"; then dire judgment will rest upon those who trusted Him not for themselves.

All who "believed not the truth" and who "received not the love of the truth" when it was presented to them are given up to a "working of error" or "strong delusion" that they might be judged. In the day when the truth was preached they turned carelessly from it because they had pleasure in unrighteousness. They were "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God " (2 Tim. 3:4). Now they are given up to error, and that by God Himself. Like Elymas the sorcerer, who rejected the light of the gospel and was smitten with blindness, so upon these, having turned from the truth, God sends the delusion that causes them to believe the lie of the Antichrist.

For former instances of God's sending men delusions and visiting them with judicial blindness, see the cases of Pharaoh (Ex. 11:10), of Ahab (2 Chron. 18:), and of the nation of Israel (Is. 6:9-10; Matt. 13:13-15), all who hear the gospel and believe it not are "condemned already " (Jno. 3:18). If the Lord comes while they are still in that state, the condemnation is final, and we note their dreadful doom in 2 Thess. 1:7-10, together with the contrast of the blessed place that might have been theirs, had they but believed the testimony so graciously given. "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." There could be no stronger declaration that all who reject the testimony now, will be unable to avail themselves of the testimony then, while the result of the outpouring of divine wrath upon the scene will only harden in place of bringing to repentance (Rev. 16:9, 10, 11, 21).

The teaching has become current among many that the taking away of the saved will result in an awakening in nominal Christendom, so that many who now have a name to live, but are dead, will in that day turn to the Lord. As to this, Scripture, as we have seen, states exactly the opposite, which is confirmed by the Lord Jesus in the Gospels. At the end of the age the tares are gathered in bundles and burned (Matt. 13:30, 40-42); the man without the wedding garment on, is cast into outer darkness (Matt. 22:13); the unfaithful servant is appointed his portion with the hypocrites (Matt. xxiv 48-51); the foolish virgins, though they go for oil, are shut outside the door (Matt. 25:ii); the unprofitable servant has even his profession taken away (vers. 28-30); those who neglected to enter in at the strait gate seek in vain to enter then (Luke 13:24); even as those who refused to be warned by Enoch and Noah perished in the flood, and those who listened not to Lot were destroyed in Sodom (Luke 17:26-30).

In short, we search Scripture in vain for one hint that any gospel rejecter will be saved in that clay. Nor does the expression in Rev. 7:9 militate against this:"Of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," for manifestly none of Israel will be among them, as we see the 144,000 of the twelve tribes quite distinct from the great multitude. The expression really declares the universality of the response to the everlasting gospel among the heathen nations, but Christendom, as Israel, is not counted, unless indeed, there be found even there some who never heard the gospel before. We leave then this solemn part of the subject, to look at the other side of the question, Who then can be saved?

And, first of all, we are reminded that this will be the period of Israel's awakening, as we have already seen in several passages. In Dan. 12:3, we read, "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever," and this, as the first verse assures us, during the time of trouble, but "at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."

The hour of their darkest trouble and deepest sorrow will result in the elect among them returning to the Lord. The 144,000 of Rev. 7:picture to us those who will say, "Come, and let us return unto the Lord:for He hath torn and He will heal us; He hath smitten and He will bind us up " (Hosea 6:i). Zion's sore travail shall result in a great bringing forth of children as predicted in Micah 5:3, and Is. 66:8. We quote the latter passage, "Who hath heard such a thing ? who hath seen such things ? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day ? or shall a nation be born at once ? For as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children." The verses following are deserving also of special notice in this connection. See too Zech. 12:and 13:

And so the "blindness in part" is to be done away, the "fulness of the Gentiles" having come in, as shown also in Hosea 3:4, 5. "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim; afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness, in the latter days." This is true not of the nation as a whole. (See Zech. 13:8, 9; Is. 24:13, also Ezek. 20:31-44), but of the remnant. The mass will be destroyed for their apostasy. The remnant will be acknowledged as the nation, "and so all Israel shall be saved" (Rom. 11:26). To be of the sons of Jacob even, does not insure an opportunity of grace. None who refuse the truth now, whether Jew or Gentile, can be saved then.

Through the Jew, the gospel of the Kingdom will, during this time, be preached in all the earth for a witness, ere the end shall come. Sent forth by the Spirit from on high they will proclaim far and wide the approach of the Kingdom and call upon men to repent as John the Baptist did of old. See Matt. 24:14.

The everlasting gospel of Rev. 14:6, 7 is probably identical with this. There it is the calling on the creature to acknowledge the Creator God in a day when all the world will be wondering after the beast (Rev. 13:). Is. 66:18-21 is instructive in this connection:"It shall come, that I will gather all nations, and tongues; and they shall come and see My glory. And I will send a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Jovan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles, and they shall bring your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses and in chariots and in litters, and upon mules and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord." Here we doubtless have the ingathering of the ten tribes, for the Lord will "save the tents of Judah first" (Zech. 12:7). Connected with it however we see grace going out to the Gentiles who have not heard the truth previously. The great result of this is seen also in Zech. 8:20, 23.

A word on the judgment of Matt. 25:and we have done. This takes place at the Lord's coming to the earth. The living nations are gathered before Him. The separation is made according to the treatment accorded the Jewish missionaries mentioned above whom He owns as "My brethren." Intelligence in divine things is not marked in any, but at least they did not reject or neglect the messengers. They are saved and enter into the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. They are the " blessed of [His] Father."

And so even though the sword of judgment is unsheathed, grace is still exercised according to the word, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy "(Rom. 9:15). From Israel and the Gentiles a countless number will go into the millennial kingdom and acknowledge the sway of the blessed One, once made a curse for them, as for us. But not one who has spurned the Lamb of God in the present period will be among them.

There will, as briefly noticed above, be some who will be numbered with the heavenly saints after the Church is gone. They will be exclusively Jewish as evidenced by the fact that they sing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb" (Rev. 15:3). Their part will be, not with the Church, the body of Christ and Eve of the Last Adam, but doubtless with those of old who "desired a better country, that is an heavenly" (Heb. 11:16). In Rev. 20:we see them enthroned with the rest who live and reign a thousand years. With the Lamb they will be forever, but not theirs will be the special place enjoyed by those who now believe in Him and who are identified with Him in the present hour of His rejection. H. A. I.