CHAPTER XV. Back
to Top
THE COMING PRINCE
"WHAT is it that all Europe is looking for?" the words are quoted from a
leading article in the Times newspaper, on the recent finding of
Agamemnon's tomb. [1]
"What is it that all Europe is looking for? It is the KING OF MEN, the
great head of the Hellenic race, the man whom a thousand galleys and a hundred
thousand men submitted to on a simple recognition of his personal qualities, and
obeyed for ten long years
The man who can challenge for his own the shield of
Agamemnon, now waiting for the challenge, is the true Emperor of the East, and
the easiest escape from our present difficulties."
The realization of this dream will be the fulfillment of prophecy.
True it is that popular movements characterize the age, rather than the power of
individual minds. It is an age of mobs. Democracy, not despotism, is the goal
towards which civilization is tending. But democracy in its full development is
one of the surest roads to despotism. First, the revolution; then, the
plebiscites; then, the despot. The Caesar often owes his scepter to the mob.
A man of transcendent greatness, moreover, never fails to leave his mark upon
his times. And the true King of Men must have an extraordinary combination of
great qualities. He must be "a scholar, a statesman, a man of unflinching
courage and irrepressible enterprise, full of resources, and ready to look in
the face a rival or a foe." [2]
The opportunity too must synchronize with his advent. But the voice of
prophecy is clear, that the HOUR is coming, and the MAN.
In connection with this dream or legend of the reappearance of Agamemnon, it is
remarkable that the language of Daniel's second vision has led some to fix on
Greece as the very place in which the Man of prophecy shall have his rise;
[3]
and it leaves no doubt whatever that he will appear within the
territorial limits of the old Grecian empire.
Having predicted the formation of the four kingdoms into which Alexander's
conquests became divided at his death, the angel Gabriel the
divinely-appointed interpreter of the vision proceeded thus to speak of events
which must take place in days to come. "In the latter time of their kingdom,
when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and
understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but
not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and
practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his
policy also, he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify
himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. He shall also stand up
against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand."
[4]
In the vision of the seventh chapter, the last great monarch of the
Gentiles was represented only as a blasphemer and a persecutor: "He shall speak
great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most
High;" but here he is described as being also a general and a diplomatist.
Having thus obtained a recognized place in prophecy, he is alluded to in the
vision which follows as "the Prince who is coming," (Daniel 9:26) a well-known
personage, whose advent had already been foretold; and the mention of him in
Daniel's fourth and final vision is so explicit, that having regard to the vital
importance of establishing the personality of this "King," the passage is here
set forth at length.
"And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and
magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the
God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished. for that
that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his
fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify
himself above all. But in his estate he shall honor the God of forces; and a god
whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with
precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds
with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he
shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain. And at
the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the
north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen,
and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow
and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries
shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and
Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand
also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall
have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious
things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But
tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he
shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he
shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy
mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that
time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of
thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there
was a nation even to that same time. and at that time thy people shall be
delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."
[5]
The burden of Daniel's prophecies is Judah and Jerusalem, but the
Apocalyptic visions of the beloved disciple have a wider scope. The same scenes
are sometimes presented, but they are displayed upon a grander scale. The same
actors appear, but in relation to larger interests and events of greater
magnitude. In Daniel, the Messiah is mentioned only in relation to the earthly
people, and it is in the same connection also that the false Messiah comes upon
the stage. In the Apocalypse the Lamb appears as the Savior of an innumerable
multitude "out of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues,"
(Revelation 7:9) and the Beast is seen as the persecutor of all who name the
name of Christ on earth. The visions of St. John, moreover, include an opened
heaven, while the glimpses Daniel was vouchsafed of "things to come" are limited
to earth.
The attempt to fix the meaning of every detail of these visions is to ignore the
lessons to be derived from the Messianic prophecies fulfilled at the first
advent. [6]
The old Scriptures taught the pious Jew to look for a personal Christ
not a system or a dynasty, but a person. They enabled him, moreover, to
anticipate the leading facts of His appearing. Herod's question, for example,
"Where should Christ be born?" admitted of a definite and unhesitating answer,
"In Bethlehem of Judea." (Matthew 2:4; Cf. Micah 5:2) But to assign its
place and meaning to every part of the mingled vision of suffering and glory was
beyond the power even of the inspired prophets themselves." (1 Peter 1:10-12) So
also is it with the prophecies of Antichrist. The case indeed is stronger still,
for while they "who waited for redemption in Israel" had to glean the Messianic
prophecies from Scriptures which seemed to the careless reader to refer to the
sufferings of the old Hebrew prophets or the glories of their kings, the
predictions of Antichrist are as distinct and definite as though the statements
were historical and not prophetic. [7]
And yet the task of the expositor is beset with real difficulties. If the
book of Daniel might be read by itself no question whatever could arise. "The
Coming Prince" is there presented as the head of the revived Roman empire of the
future, and a persecutor of the saints. There is not a single statement
respecting him that presents the smallest difficulty. But some of the statements
of St. John seem inconsistent with the earlier prophecies. According to Daniel's
visions the sovereignty of Antichrist appears confined to the ten kingdoms, and
his career seems limited to the duration of the seventieth week. How then can
this be reconciled with the statement of St. John that "power was given him over
all kindreds and tongues and nations, and all that dwell upon the earth shall
worship him "? [8]
Is it credible, moreover, that a man endowed with such vast supernatural
powers, and filling so marvelous a place in prophecy, will be restrained within
the narrow limits of the Roman earth?
If these points be urged as objections to the truth of Scripture it is enough to
mark that the prophecies of Christ were beset with kindred difficulties. Such
prophecies are like the disjointed pieces of an elaborate and intricate mosaic.
To fit each into its place would baffle our utmost ingenuity. To discover the
main design is all we can expect; or if more be demanded of us, it is enough to
show that no part is inconsistent with the rest. And these results will reward
the student of the Apocalyptic visions of Daniel and St. John, if only he
approach them untrammeled by the crude views which prevail respecting the career
of Antichrist.
These visions are not a history, but a drama. In the twelfth chapter of
Revelation we see the woman in her travail. In the twenty-first chapter she is
manifested in her final glory. The intervening chapters afford brief glimpses of
events which fill up the interval. It is with the thirteenth and seventeenth
chapters that we have specially to do in connection with the present subject,
and it is clear that the later vision unfolds events which come first in the
order of time.
The false church and the true are typified under kindred emblems. Jerusalem, the
Bride, has its counterpart in Babylon, the Harlot. In the same sense in which
the New Jerusalem is the Jewish church, so likewise Babylon is the apostasy of
Rome. The heavenly city is mother of the redeemed for ages past (Galatians 4:26)
the earthly city is mother of the harlots and abominations of the earth.
(Revelation 17:5) The victims who have perished in the persecutions of
Antichristian Papal Rome are estimated at fifty millions of human beings;
but even this appalling record will not be the measure of her doom. The blood of
"holy apostles and prophets," the martyred dead of ages before the Papacy
arose, and even of pre-Messianic times, will be required of her when the day of
vengeance comes. [9]
As it is only in its Jewish aspect that the Church is expressly
symbolized as the Bride, [10]
so also it is at a time when this, their normal relationship, has been
regained by the covenant people, that the apostate church of Christendom, in the
full development of its iniquity, appears as the Harlot
[11]
The vision clearly indicates moreover a marked revival of her influence.
She is seen enthroned upon the ten-horned Beast, herself arrayed in royal hues
and decked with gold and costliest gems. The infamous greatness of Papal Rome in
times gone by shall yet be surpassed by the splendor of her glories in dark days
to come, when, having drawn within her pale it may be all that usurps the name
of Christ on earth, [12]
she will claim as her willing vassal the last great monarch of the
Gentile world.
As regards the duration of this period of Rome's final triumphs, Scripture is
silent; but the crisis which brings it to a close is definitely marked.
"The ten horns and the Beast shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate
and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire." (Revelation 17:16)
One point in the angel's description of the Beast in relation to the
harlot claims special notice. The seven heads have a twofold symbolism. When
viewed in connection with the harlot, they are "seven mountains on which the
woman sits;" but in their special relation to the Beast they have a different
significance. The angel adds, "and they are seven kings;" that is
"kingdoms," the word being used "according to its strict prophetic import, and
to the analogy of that portion of the prophecy which is here especially in
view." [13]
In the seventh chapter of Daniel the Beast is identified with the Roman
Empire. In the thirteenth of Revelation he is identified also with the lion, the
bear, and the panther, the three first "kingdoms'" of Daniel's vision. But here
he is seen as the heir' and representative, not of these alone, but of all the
great world-powers which have set themselves; in opposition to God and to His
people. The seven heads typify these powers. "Five are fallen, and one is."
Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, Persia, Greece, had fallen; and Rome then held the
scepter of earthly sovereignty, the sixth in succession to the empires already
named. [14]
"And the other is not yet come, and when he cometh he must continue a
short space," Here the prophecy is marked by the same strange "foreshortening"
already noticed in each of Daniel's visions. While Rome was the sixth kingdom,
the seventh is the confederacy of the latter days, heading up in "the Coming
Prince." The Coming Prince himself, in the full and final development of his
power, is called the eighth, though belonging to the seven,
[15]
The importance of these conclusions will appear in the sequel.
The subject of the twelfth chapter is the dragon, the woman in her travail, the
birth of the man-child and his rapture to heaven; the conflict in heaven between
the archangel and the dragon; (Verse 7; Compare Daniel 12:1.) the dragon's
banishment to earth; his persecution of the woman, and her flight to the
wilderness, where she is sustained for "a time, and times, and half a time," or
1, 260 days (Verses 6, 14.) (the second half of Daniel's seventieth week). The
chapter ends by the statement that, baffled in attempting to destroy the woman,
the dragon "went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the
commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." The thirteenth
chapter, crossing the lines of Daniel's visions, represents the fulfillment of
the dragon's purpose through the agency of the man of prophecy, whom he
energizes to this end. Whatever meaning be attached to the birth and rapture of
the woman's child, there can be no reasonable doubt that the obedient, faithful
"remnant of her seed" is the Jewish Church of the latter days, the persecuted
"saints of the Most High" of Daniel's prophecy.
The serpent, the woman, and the man, appear together on the earliest page of
Scripture, and they reappear upon the latest. But how significant and terrible
the change! No longer the subtle tempter, Satan is now displayed in all his
awfulness as the great fiery dragon, [16]
who seeks to destroy the woman's promised seed. And instead of the
humbled penitent of Eden, the man appears as a wild beast,
[17]
a monster, both in power and wickedness. The serpent's victim has become
his willing slave and ally.
God has found a man to fulfill all His will, and to Him He has given up His
throne, with all power in heaven and "on earth." This will hereafter be
travestied by Satan, and the coming man shall have the dragon's "power, and his
throne, and great authority." (Revelation 8:2) Both the Dragon and the Beast are
seen crowned with royal diadems. (Revelation 12:3; 13:1.) Once, and only once,
again in Scripture the diadem is mentioned, and then it is as worn by Him whose
name is "King of kings and Lord of lords." (Revelation 19:12-16) It must be as
pretenders to His power that the Beast and the Dragon claim it.
The personality of Satan and his interest in and close connection with our race
throughout its history, are among the most certain though most mysterious facts
of revelation. The popular classification of angels, men, and devils, as
including intelligent creation, is misleading. The angels
[18]
that fell are "reserved in everlasting chains,
under darkness, unto the judgment of the Great Day." (Jude 6) Demons
are frequently mentioned in the narrative of the Gospels, and they have also
a place in the doctrine of the Epistles. But THE DEVIL is a being who, like the
Archangel, seems, in his own domain, to have no peer [19]
.
Another fact which claims notice here is the hold which serpent worship has had
upon mankind. Among the nations of the ancient world there was scarcely one in
whose religious system it had not a place. In heathen mythology there is
scarcely a hero or a god whose history is not connected in some way with the
sacred serpent. "Wherever the devil reigned the serpent was held in some
peculiar veneration." [20]
The true significance of this depends on a just appreciation of the
nature of idol worship. It may be questioned whether idolatry as popularly
understood has ever prevailed except among the most debased and ignorant of
races. It is not the emblem that is worshipped, but a power or being which the
emblem represents. When the Apostle warned the Corinthian Church against
participating in anything devoted to an idol, he was careful to explain that the
idol in itself was nothing. "But" (he declared) "the
things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, not to
God, and I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons." (1 Corinthians
10:20.)
This will afford an insight into the character of the predicted serpent
worship of the last days. [21]
Satan's master lie will be a travesty of the incarnation: he will
energize a man who will claim universal worship as being the manifestation of
the Deity in human form. And not only will there be a false Messiah, but another
being, his equal in miraculous power, yet having for his only mission to obtain
for him the homage of mankind. The mystery of the Godhead will thus be parodied
by the mystery of iniquity, and the Father, the Son, and the Spirit will have
their counterpart in the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet.
[22]
A silent heaven marks this age of grace. Whirlwind and earthquake and
fire may awe, yet, as in the days of the old Hebrew prophet,
[23]
God is not in these, but in the "still small voice" which tells of mercy
and seeks to win lost men from the power of darkness to Himself. But the very
silence which betokens that the throne of God is now a throne of grace is
appealed to as the crowning proof that God is but a myth; and the coarse
blasphemer's favorite trick is to challenge the Almighty to declare Himself by
some signal act of judgment. In days to come, the impious challenge will be
taken up by Satan, and death shall seize on men who refuse to bow before the
image of the Beast. [24]
The Antichrist will be more than a profane and brutal persecutor like
Antiochus Epiphanes and some of the Emperors of Pagan Rome; more than a vulgar
impostor like Barcochab. [25]
Miracles alone can silence the
skepticism of apostates, and in the exercise of all the Dragon's delegated
power, the Beast will command the homage of a world that has rejected grace.
"All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in
the book of life." (Revelation 8:8) If it were possible, the very elect
would be deceived by his mighty "signs and wonders"; (Matthew 24:24) but faith,
divinely given, is a sure, as it is the only, safeguard against credulity and
superstition.
But this is what he will become in the zenith of his career. In his origin he is
described as a "little horn," (Daniel 7:8) like Alexander of Macedon, the king
of a petty kingdom. Possibly he will be the head of some new Principality to
arise in the final dismemberment of Turkey; it may be on the banks of the
Euphrates, or perhaps upon the Asian shore of the Aegean Sea. The name of
Babylon is strangely connected with events to come, and Pergamus, so long the
home of serpent worship in its vilest forms, is the only place on earth which
Scripture has identified with Satan's throne (Revelation 2:13).
Of the great political changes which must precede his advent, the most
conspicuous are the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and the predicted
division of the Roman earth. The former of these events has already been
considered in a previous chapter, and as regards the latter there is but little
to be said. The attempt to enumerate the ten kingdoms of the future would
involve a profitless inquiry. [26]
History repeats itself; and if there be any element of periodicity in the
political diseases by which nations are afflicted, Europe will inevitably pass
through another crisis such as that which darkened the last decade of the
eighteenth century. And should another revolution produce another Napoleon, it
is impossible to foretell how far kingdoms may become consolidated, and
boundaries may be changed. Moreover in forecasting the fulfillment of these
prophecies, we are dealing with events which, while they may occur within the
lifetime of living men, may yet be delayed for centuries. Our part is not to
prophecy, but only to interpret; and we may well rest content with the certainty
that when the Apocalyptic visions are in fact fulfilled, their fulfillment will
be clear, not merely to minds educated in mysticism, but to all who are capable
of observing public facts.
Through the gradual unfolding, it may be, of influences even now in operation;
or far more probably as the outcome of some great European crisis in the future,
this confederation of nations [27]
shall be developed, and thus the stage will be prepared on which shall
appear that awful Being, the great leader of men in the eventful days which are
to close the era of Gentile supremacy.
If we are to understand aright the predicted course of the Antichrist's career,
certain points connected with it must be clearly kept in view. The first is that
up to a certain epoch he will be, notwithstanding his pre-eminence, no more than
human. And here we must judge of the future by the past. At two-and-twenty years
of age, Alexander crossed the Hellespont, the prince of a petty Grecian state.
Four years later he had founded an Empire and given a new direction to the
history of the world.
In the career of Napoleon Bonaparte, modern history affords a parallel still
more striking and complete. When, now just a hundred years ago, he entered the
French military school at Brienne, he was an unknown lad, without even the
advantages which rank and wealth afford. So utterly obscure was his position
that, not only did he owe his admission to the school to the influence of the
Governor of Corsica, but calumny has found it possible to use that trifling act
of friendly patronage to the disparagement of his mother's name. If then such a
man, by the gigantic force of his personal qualities, combined with the accident
of favoring circumstances, could attain the place which history has assigned to
him, the fact affords the fullest answer to every objection which can be urged
against the credibility of the predicted career of the man of prophecy.
Nor will it avail to urge that the last fifty years have so developed the mental
activity of civilized races, and have produced such a spirit of independence,
that the suggestion of a career like Napoleon's being repeated in days to come
involves an anachronism. "In proportion as the general standard of mental
cultivation is raised, and man made equal with man, the ordinary power of genius
is diminished, but its extraordinary power is increased, its reach deepened, its
hold rendered more firm. As men become familiar with the achievements and the
exercise of talent, they learn to despise and disregard its daily examples, and
to be more independent of mere men of ability; but they only become more
completely in the power of gigantic intellect, and the slaves of pre-eminent and
unapproachable talent." [28]
By the sheer force of transcendent genius the man of prophecy will gain a
place of undisputed pre-eminence in the world; but if the facts of his after
career are to be understood, considerations of a wholly different kind must be
taken into account. A strange crisis marks his course. At first the patron of
religion, a true "eldest son of the church," he becomes a relentless and profane
persecutor. At first no more than a king of men, commanding the allegiance of
the Roman earth, he afterwards claims to be divine, and demands the worship of
Christendom.
And we have seen how this extraordinary change in his career takes place at that
epoch of tremendous import in the history of the future, the beginning of the 1,
260 days of the latter half of Daniel's seventieth week. Then it is that that
mysterious event takes place, described as "war in heaven" between the Archangel
and the Dragon. As the result of that amazing struggle, Satan and his angels are
"cast out into the earth," and the Seer bewails mankind because the devil is
come down into their midst, "having great wrath because he
knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12:7, 12).
The next feature in the vision is the rise of the ten-horned Beast. (Revelation
13:1) This is not the event described in the seventh of Daniel. The Beast,
doubtless, is the same both in Daniel and the Apocalypse, representing the last
great empire upon earth; but in the Apocalypse it appears at a later stage of
its development. Three periods of its history are marked in Daniel. In the first
it has ten horns. In the second it has eleven, for the little horn
comes up among the ten. In the third, it has but eight, for the
eleventh has grown in power, and three of the ten have been torn away by it. Up
to this point Daniel's vision represents the Beast merely as "the fourth kingdom
upon earth," the Roman empire as revived in future times, and here the vision
turns away from the history of the Beast to describe the action of the
little horn as a blasphemer and persecutor. [29]
It is at this epoch that the thirteenth chapter of Revelation opens. The
three first stages of the history of the empire are past, and a fourth has been
developed. It is no longer a confederacy of nations bound together by treaty,
with a Napoleon rising up in the midst of them and struggling for supremacy; but
a confederacy of kings who are the lieutenants of one great Kaiser, a man whose
transcendent greatness has secured to him an undisputed pre-eminence. And this
is the man whom the Dragon will single out to administer his awful power on
earth in days to come. And from the hour in which he sells himself to Satan he
will be so energized by Satan, that "ALL power and signs and lying wonders"
shall characterize his after course. [30]
There is a danger lest in dwelling on these visions as though they were
enigmas to be solved, we should forget how appalling are the events of which
they speak, and how tremendous the forces which will be in exercise at the time
of their accomplishment. During this age of grace Satan's power on earth is so
restrained that men forget his very existence. This, indeed, will be the secret
of his future triumphs. And yet how unspeakably terrible must be the dragon's
power, witness the temptation of our Lord! It is written, "The devil, taking Him
up into an high mountain, showed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time; and the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee,
and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I
give it. If Thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be Thine." (Luke 4:5-7)
It is this same awful being who shall give to the Beast his throne, his power,
and great authority, (Revelation 8:2) all that Christ refused in the days of
His humiliation. The mind that has realized this stupendous fact will not be
slow to accept what follows:
Of the events which afterwards must follow upon earth, it behooves us to
speak with deep solemnity and studied reserve. The phenomenon of sudden and
absolute darkness is inconceivably terrible, even when eagerly looked for with
full intelligence of the causes which produce it. [31]
How unspeakable then would be its awfulness, if unexpected, unaccounted
for, and prolonged, it may be for days together. And such shall be the sign
which Holy Writ declares shall mark the advent of earth's last great woe.
[32]
The signs and wonders of Satanic power shall still command the homage of
mankind, while the thunders of a heaven no longer silent will break forth upon
the apostate race. Then will be the time of "the seven last plagues," wherein
"is filled up the wrath of God," the time when "the vials of the wrath
of God" shall be poured out upon the earth. (Revelation 15:1; 16:1.) And if in
this day of grace the heights and depths of God's longsuffering mercy transcend
all human thoughts, His WRATH will be no less Divine. "The day of vengeance of
our God," "the great and the terrible day of the Lord," such are the names
divinely given to describe that time of unexampled horror.
And yet when in the midnight darkness of the last apostasy, Divine longsuffering
will only serve to blind and harden, mercy itself shall welcome the awful
breaking of the day of vengeance, for blessing lies beyond it. Another day is
still to follow. Earth's history, as unfolded in the Scriptures, reaches; on to
a Sabbatic age of blessedness and peace; an age when heaven shall rule upon the
earth, when, "the Lord shall rejoice in all His works," (Psalm 104:31) and prove
Himself to be the God of every creature He has made (Psalm 145:9-16).
Further still, the veil is raised, and a brief glimpse afforded us of a glorious
eternity beyond, when every trace of sin shall have been wiped out for ever,
when heaven will join with earth, and "the tabernacle of God" the dwelling
place of the Almighty shall be with men, "and He will dwell with them,
and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be
their God" [33]
It was a calamity for the Church of God when the light of prophecy became dimmed
in fruitless controversy, and the study of these visions, vouchsafed by God to
warn, and guide, and cheer His saints in evil days, was dismissed as utterly
unprofitable. They abound in promises which God designed to feed His people's
faith and fire their zeal, and a special blessing rests on those who read, and
hear, and cherish them. (Revelation 1:3) One of the most hopeful features of the
present hour is the increasing interest they everywhere excite; and if these
pages should avail to deepen or direct the enthusiasm even of a few in the study
of a theme which is inexhaustible, the labor they have cost will be abundantly
rewarded.
.