Israel and the nations will pa.s.s through those judgments executed from above. Christendom apostate, G.o.d defying and Christ rejecting Christendom, will like Pharaoh, be hardened by them. They do not repent, but rather believe the strong delusion and accept the man of sin with his lying wonders. The Jewish people will in part be restored to their land. The great tribulation centers in their land and will be felt there in its severest form. The apostate portion of the Jews will worship the false Christ and will therefore be visited by these righteous judgments.
But there is also a remnant of G.o.d-fearing Jews, who believe the Word of G.o.d, who expect the Kingdom and the King. While these believing Jews suffer, they also serve. They are the last messengers of the King. They herald once more the Gospel of the Kingdom and will bear witness of it to all the nations of the earth, before the end comes (Matt. xxiv:14).*
* We refer the reader to our larger works, which deal more fully with these coming events. Daniel, Joel, Commentary on Matthew, Harmony of the Prophetic Word, Things to Come, etc., deal more fully with these truths.
For catalogue, address "Our Hope," 456 Fourth Ave., New York City.
Nations Learning Righteousness.
"When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Isaiah xxvi:9). A work of salvation will go on during those seven years of judgment, tribulation and wrath. A great mult.i.tude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, come out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev.
vii:9-17). They heard and believed the final testimony as preached by the Jewish remnant. Heathen nations will accept the Gospel of the Kingdom, while apostate Christendom is excluded, for they received not the love of the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess.
ii).
His Glorious Appearing.
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew xxiv:29-30). "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen" (Rev. i:7). "And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed in a vesture dipped with blood; and His name is called the Word of G.o.d.
And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty G.o.d. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (Rev. xix:11-16).
The King in His Glory.
Every eye shall see Him, when He appears in glorious majesty as the King of Kings. His glory will cover the heavens (Hab. iii:3). Every tongue which denied Him will be forever hushed. His second, personal, visible and glorious coming will be the crowning and unanswerable proof of His Deity. His incarnation and all the work He accomplished on earth and in glory, can then no longer be denied. His glorious appearing will silence all His enemies. His rejection ends and His glory as G.o.d"s appointed King and ruler over this earth, He purchased with His blood, begins.
Every knee must then bow before Him and every tongue confess that He is Lord.
And when He appears in all His glory, He does not come alone. His Saints come with Him. When He appears, then shall we also appear with Him in glory (Col. iii:4). In that day of triumph and glory, He will be glorified in His Saints and admired in all them that believed (2 Thess.
i:10). Wonderful spectacle it will be, when He brings His many sons with Him unto glory! All will be conformed into the same image.
His Judgment-Work.
His feet will stand once more upon the Mount of Olives (Zech. xiv:4).
Before Him is Jerusalem and all nations are gathered against it to battle (Zech. xiv:2). The Beast will be their leader, while the Man of Sin, the Anti-christ, will do his dreadful work in the city itself. The remnant of Israel in great distress will then pray and look for deliverance. The coming of the King will bring that deliverance. They will shout then for joy and say in that day, "Lo, this is our G.o.d, we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation" (Isaiah xxv:9). They will welcome the once rejected One. "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. xxiii:39). And He will fight against those nations. The great battle of Armageddon will then take place. "The beasts and the Kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against his army" (Rev. xix:19). But their opposition will suddenly be broken to pieces. "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet (the Anti-christ) that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped the image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Rev. xix:20).
On His Throne.
When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory" (Matt.
xxv:31). The judgment which will then be executed by Him is not a universal judgment (the dead are not mentioned), but it will be a judgment of the living nations in the day when He appears the second time. Some nations are put on His right side and He calls them "the blessed of my Father;" they inherit the Kingdom which will then be established on the earth. That these righteous nations are not church saints is obvious, for the church, as we have seen, was caught up in the beginning of His future work to meet Him in the air and is a.s.sociated with Him when He comes in power and glory. Then there are other nations which are put on His left hand and they shall go away from that judgment throne into everlasting punishment (Matt. xxv:46). But what is the standard of this judgment? What they did to the Lord"s brethren or what they did not unto them. The Lord"s brethren, according to the flesh are the Jews. During the tribulation period believing Jews will preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations (Matt. xxiv:14). The nations who believed this last offer of mercy treated the messengers in kindness; those who did not believe the message did not treat them in that way.
And when this great judgment is pa.s.sed, His Kingdom of righteousness and peace will be established on this earth. Righteousness will begin to reign as grace reigns now through righteousness.
III.
The Glories of His Kingdom.
"And in the days of those Kings shall the G.o.d 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 forever" (Dan. ii:44). "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancients of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pa.s.s away, and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. vii:13-14). A closer study of these two fundamental pa.s.sages from Daniel"s great prophecies will establish the fact that this promised Kingdom comes with the second coming of Christ. It will be preceded by a judgment blow at the earth Kingdoms; Nebuchadnezzar beheld this in his prophetic dream.
This Kingdom is an earthly Kingdom and all the nations will be gathered into that Kingdom. Jerusalem and a converted Israel will be the center of it. The Lord Jesus Christ and His Saints will reign with Him over the earth and over this Kingdom. And what will be His work then? But a few of the many things can be mentioned. "He shall speak peace to the nations" (Zech. ix:10). "With righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity the meek of the earth." (Isaiah xi:4). "He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles" (Is. xlii:1). "And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah ii:4). He shall also "set up an ensign for the nations, and shall a.s.semble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Isaiah xi:12). "And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people" (Zech. ii:11). "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth" (Zech. xiv:9). "Behold a King shall reign in righteousness"
(Isaiah x.x.xii:1). "A King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth" (Jere. xxiii:5).
Many more pa.s.sages predicting and describing the Kingdom and its glories might be added. All these blessed words mean exactly what they say.
Righteousness and peace will characterize that world-wide Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. His glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the deep. Nations will worship Him. "Yea, all Kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him." "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth" (Ps.
lxxii:8, 11). Every wrong will be righted on earth and present-day evils and oppression, crime and vice, poverty and sickness will be abolished.
Only He has the power to do this. Oh! the glories of the Kingdom! May we pray, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Thy Kingdom come.
Creation Delivered.
"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of G.o.d. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of G.o.d.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. viii:19-22). Sin has brought a curse upon creation. The thorns and thistles are the result of the fall of man as well as the blight and misery which rests upon a creation, which was p.r.o.nounced good by the Creator. But this condition into which creation has been plunged will not continue forever. A better day is coming.
Groaning creation is to be delivered. The curse will be removed. This cannot be the work of man. Scientists attempt to set things in order in this ruined creation; but they fail. The things which destroy, the heat and the drought, the storms and earthquakes, cannot be arrested by the arm of man.
The Son of G.o.d wore the crown of thorns. The curse was put upon Him. And He who created all things and paid for redemption by His precious blood will, with omnipotent power, deliver groaning creation. It will take place when the sons of G.o.d are manifested. The sons of G.o.d (the redeemed) will be manifested with Him, as we have seen, in the day of His visible appearing. Then the great vision of Isaiah will find its fulfillment. "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 fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the c.o.c.katrice den" (Isaiah xi:6-8).
All Under His Feet.
The dispensation of the fulness of times has come (Eph. i:10). All things are put under Him. All His enemies are made His footstool. He is Lord of all. The glorious reign of Christ, in kingly glory, in fulfillment of the Prophet"s visions, will be followed by another judgment.
The Great White Throne.
The second resurrection, that of the wicked dead, takes place at the end of the Kingdom reign of Christ. This great judgment and the final destiny of the wicked is revealed in Rev. xx:11-15. The Lord Jesus Christ will be the judge in that awful scene, for it is written that all judgment is committed unto the Son" (John v:22). Then Cometh the End.
"Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to G.o.d, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. . . .
And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him, who put all things under Him, that G.o.d may be all in all" (1 Cor. xv:24-28).
Then He will create a new heaven and a new earth, the eternal dwelling place of redeemed and glorified mankind. "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. xxi:1). "And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful" (Rev. xxi:5). "And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of G.o.d and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see His face; and His Name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord G.o.d giveth them light; and they shall reign forever and ever" (Rev. xxii:3-5).
This will be the ultimate result of the blessed Work of Christ. His past work is finished. Soon His present Work may end and then His future, kingly work begins, when He comes the second time.
"Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."