Part 24 (1/2)

It turns out that this thing of our Lord's return cuts a wider swath than we are apt to think, if we don't stop to think. That is because of _Who it is_ that is coming. An event takes on the size of the chief person concerned. This Lord Jesus is the One through whom our world was made in the early time, when there were no calendars. So His coming naturally concerns the whole world. It concerns the system of evil in which the world is entangled, and the evil spirit world so closely interlocked with our own.

Then our Lord Jesus came amongst us as a man. He came as a Jewish man, and to the Jewish nation. So His coming concerns the Jew and the Jewish capital, Jerusalem. When He sent down His executive, the Holy Spirit, a new organization was formed, the Church. So His coming concerns the Church, and concerns it very intimately, for it is spoken of as a body of which He is the head. When Jesus came it was to die for a world and to redeem a world. And so His coming concerns the future plans of the earth and the race.

Yet though His coming has such a broad sweep, it is quite possible to get a grasp of the few essential items in the programme. And this will make our footing steadier, our vision clearer, our praying more confident, and our soul-winning and witnessing warmer and truer. We turn now to try to get this simple, helpful understanding.

The present is the time of the candlesticks. The Man of Fire is in our midst unperceived. The unseen Eyes of Flame see. Our Lord Jesus still waits, and depends on the faithfulness of His Church. The light is still s.h.i.+ning out. The dark places are getting some light. The light has not yet wholly failed to get out through the human lantern to the crowd in the dark.

The characteristics of this waiting time, so long prolonged, are plainly put. In the outer world there will be an increasing lawlessness and disregard of every sort of restraint, and an increasing power of organization and centralization. There will be an increasing getting together for more effective action.

In the Church world there will be an increasing formalism, a compromise with evil and with the world spirit. There will be a decrease of warm personal devotion to the Lord Jesus as the controlling motive power. And there will be a growing inclination to make light of, or ignore, or jeer at, the idea of the Lord Jesus' return.

As this period wears on toward its close, and so on toward the events to follow, there will be a coming together of the Jews scattered throughout the world in an attempt to regain Palestine and reconst.i.tute the Hebrew nation there with its temple and old sacrificial ritual. These are the three chief tendencies that will characterize the present waiting time preceding the group of coming events.

The decisive index-finger, that this present period is actually coming to its close, will be this movement among the Jews. The movement to regain control of Palestine may rise and fall back, gain and lose again.

But some day it will come to its head. By some arrangement with the nations concerned the Jewish nation will actually be set up again in Palestine, and the building of the temple in Jerusalem begun. This will be the decisive indication. This is an unfailing index-finger. The hands of the clock are moving then toward the striking of the hour. Soon the sands will be run out and the hour-gla.s.s turned.

The Beginning of the End.

At some time soon after that point is reached _two unseen events will occur_, that is, unseen on earth. Roughly, it will be three and a half years after, though the whole tendency of the Scripture is to discourage the figuring of _exact_ time. Yet information is given that the outlook may be intelligent. These events are unseen on the earth. They take place in heaven.

The Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from the Church. He will not be withdrawn from individuals. He abode in men before the Church was formed, and will after the Church has cast Him out. He is withdrawn only because He has been practically and wholly cast out.

The Lord Jesus, who sent Him down to form the Church and witness through it, will withdraw Him from the Church. The candlestick has moved out of all touch with the light. And now the light is withdrawn, and so the candlestick moved out of its place as the light-bearer. This is probably the advance step taken by our Lord Jesus that marks the beginning of the end.

At the same time there occurs a conflict of spirit forces up in the heavens. While the earth seems to be Satan's chief place of activity, yet his headquarters are up in the heavens, that is, somewhere below the throne of G.o.d and above the earth. This conflict is against him and his spirit forces. It is led by Michael, the archangel. It results in Satan and his host being cast out of the heavens and down to the earth.

It is significant that as the Holy Spirit goes up, this conflict follows, and Satan is cast out and down. Is it the Holy Spirit's return there that precipitates this conflict, and defeat for Satan? It would seem not improbable. So the moral situation on the earth is intensified doubly. The blessed Holy Spirit, with all His power of restraint over evil, is withdrawn. The evil spirit, with all his power of intensifying evil, is cast down in person to the earth. These are the two unseen events marking the advance move of the end time.

There will be nothing on earth _at the moment_ to indicate that these tremendous events have happened. There is no suggestion of how much time is involved. Time is a matter of earth's calculation. Quite possibly _we_ would speak of these events as occurring in a very brief time, perhaps an instant of our reckoning. These are the two events unseen on the earth.

At the same time there will begin _two events seen taking place on earth_. The first is the coming to the front of a man, a terrible leader of the forces of unrighteousness. Paul speaks of him as ”the Lawless One.” John's name for him is ”the Antichrist.” He becomes the human representative or incarnation of Satan. As Satan is cast down out of the heavens this leader comes to the front on earth.

He seems to have official position at the head of some great coalition of nations, with a wide area of authority. He seems to be some former notable leader known in history, who died, but is now brought back to life again by Satan's supernatural power.

As he forges to the front there follows on earth a horrible time of war, famine, pestilence, death, and persecution. He arbitrarily breaks the agreement with the Jews under which they have re-established their nation, and begins a terrible persecution of them. He sets up in the temple a blasphemous image, and requires that all people shall wors.h.i.+p it. This strikes not only at the Jew, but at the Christian as well.

At one stroke of genius he compels absolutely universal attention to his command by forbidding the doing of any business except by those willing to wors.h.i.+p the image. Those refusing the wors.h.i.+p are killed. He will have an a.s.sistant doing wonderful miracles by Satanic power to deceive and persuade the people. During this time there is a loosing out on the earth of countless hordes of unseen demons to torment men.

All this continues for three and a half years. The time is stated in three different ways to make quite clear just how long is meant. This is the first of the two seen events. It centres at Jerusalem and seems to reach out practically to all the earth.

The second event is significant. During all this terrible time of persecution and blasphemy and the riot of evil, there will be two men in Jerusalem preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and calling on men to repent. As an emphasis of their witness against the awful wickedness current they will be clothed in mourning. They will have miraculous power to attest their witness, and to protect themselves against attacks upon their lives. The great crowds of many nationalities in Jerusalem will make their witness practically world-wide in its direct as well as its indirect influence.

This also continues for three and a half years. As the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the Church as the witness of the Lord Jesus, these two special witnesses appear. In His great faithfulness and patience G.o.d never leaves Himself without a witness. This is the second event seen on earth. These two, evil at its worst, and G.o.d's special witnesses, run along side by side, both centring in Jerusalem.

The Climax--He Comes.

Then there comes _a group of four events_. And these four are very closely a.s.sociated together in point of time. They occur at the close of the period of persecution and wickedness. Indeed, it is their occurrence that brings the close. Yet the exact time when they happen is left quite uncertain.

And this clearly is another bit of the tendency in the record to keep our thought on the main events, and not on figuring out time. We are to keep to the essentials and be wary of mere speculation. For the sake of clearness I am putting these four events separately, but this does not mean that some of them may not be occurring at the same moment, or that all may not come within a very brief time. We simply do not know. It looks as though we are not meant to know.