(Rev. 16:12-16.)

Substance of an Address by J. B. Jackson. (Continued from page 280.)

3:Why? When the longsuffering of God has reached its limit – man having been tested under all conditions-in innocence in the Garden; simply under conscience up to the flood; under government after the flood; then the separated people under the law; under grace since the Cross – utterly failing under all conditions and corrupting everything put under his responsibility-God then comes in, in power, to " destroy them that destroy the earth" (Rev. 11:18).

It has been a period of man's misrule from beginning to end, but now He whose right it is to rule is coming to reign. He came once in grace, and men said, "This is the Heir; come, let us kill Him and the inheritance shall be ours." They refused Him as a Saviour, now they must know Him as a Ruler, wielding the iron rod, for into His hand all judgment has been committed (comp. John 5:22, 27; Ps. 149:6-9; Rev. 19:15).

"Wherefore hear ye the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us:for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves" (Isa. 28 :14). It would seem that this " covenant with death and agreement with hell" refer to the covenant made by the Jews with the "prince " of Dan. 9:27, on account of whose abominable idolatry the "desolator" is raised up-1:e., the Assyrian. But " the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place; and your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, thence shall be trodden down by it" (Isa. 28 :17, 18).

No doubt, universal empire is in the leaders' minds; and it is to be fought to a finish on this plain of Megiddo. The revival of the Roman empire will astonish the world, and the vast western coalition, intoxicated with the power of its armies and navies, pours into Palestine to meet the Eastern hordes passing over the Euphrates, westward.

But One too long excluded from man's reckoning comes now upon the scene. "Thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors:and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them:and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth" (Dan. 2:34, 35).

It has been taught that the destruction of this fourth beast (the Roman empire) which involves the destruction of all Gentile powers, is something to be effected by the spread of the gospel. Not so; it is by the sudden appearance of the Son of Man. "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed:and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (Dan. 2:44; see also Rev. 19:19-21).

The suddenness of the Son of Man's appearance accounts for only half the city being taken and going into captivity (Zech. 14 :2); the dreadful excesses of the captors endure but for a brief moment:"Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle " (Zech. 14:3).

"And he (the head of the revived Roman empire) shall speak great words against the Most High . . .and think to change [the Jewish] times and laws:and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time" (1:e., 3^2 prophetic times, or years; comp. Rev. 13:5-7). "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (Dan. 7 :25-27. See also Rev. 19 :15-21; Matt. 25:31, 32).

4:WHEN? "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world " (age)? (Matt. 24:3.) Read attentively the whole chapter; see also Isa. 2:2, 4, 19; Hag. 2:6; Zech. 14 :4, 9; Matt. 24 :31-46; Rev. 19:11-21.

Do not expect me to fix a date for this stupendous event; an angel in heaven could not do that. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Matt. 24:36-42). Those who have fixed dates (in the very face of this Scripture) have invariably demonstrated their folly in so doing.

But if we cannot fix the date, we may gather, with considerable certainty, that the time cannot be far off. "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors " (Matt. 24:32, 33).

The course of events is rapidly tending toward the formation of this ten-kingdom form of the Roman Empire. Indeed this idea may appeal to the belligerents in the present European war as the only honorable way to peace (see Rev. 17:11-13).

It must be plain, from the foregoing, that the present war is not the battle of Armageddon, nor is it immediately connected with it. The Church- all true 'Christians – will be in heaven when that dreadful conflict rages, and indeed during the whole of that eventful 70th week of Daniel. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee out of the hour of temptation (trial) which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3:10). Under the symbol of crowned and throned elders, the Church is in heaven, as seen in Rev. 4:4, surrounding Him who sits upon the throne, and is not seen again on earth, until in chap. 19:14 she is seen, clad in fine linen, accompanying the mighty Conqueror.

At Armageddon the Beast and false prophet are taken and cast alive into the lake of fire "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 19:20). Two men have been taken to heaven without seeing death, and these two blasphemous arch-deceivers are cast into hell without seeing death. Satan is cast into the abyss, chained for a thousand years, and the millennial reign of our Lord begins, a reign of righteousness. "And they shall bring all 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 . . . And it shall come to pass from one new moon to another . . .shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord" (Isa. 66:20, 23).

"And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying . . . And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands" (Isa. 65:19-22). "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the falling together, and a little child shall lead them . . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain " (Isa. ii:6-9).

"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless " (2 Pet. 3:14). The Christian's attitude is well set forth in Luke 12:31-40:"Like unto men that wait for their Lord." J. B. J.