God never promised that the Church should conquer the world, nor that all men should be brought into it; but on the other hand, Paul tells us that the glorious coming of the King will not occur, until there is a great falling away first of the Church, and the man of sin is revealed. Jesus told His disciples of the awful days of the tribulation that would precede the ushering in of His glorious reign. Hence, it is a vain hope that the nations will be brought to Christ, and into the Church before the Lord comes. The evangelization of the world before the Lord comes is an ideal fancy without a Scriptural promise. On the other hand, we are told that the fifth world Kingdom of Dan. 2:44 will subdue all other Kingdoms and that it shall endure forever. Many, many times we are told of the final triumph of Christ's Kingdom over all; but not so of the Church. Think. vii CHAPTER I. A KEY TO THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. Before we take up the subject proper on which this book is written, we think it needful to say a few things on the method of interpretation of prophecy. It is a well known fact that nearly all prophecy relative to the Kingdom of heaven, or in other words, the millennial Kingdom of Christ, has been spiritualized and applied to the Church. Israel has been made synonymous with Christian, and Zion with Church, although the Bible never uses them in that sense. All kinds of symbolic meanings and interpretations have been given to unfulfilled prophecy, until it is a sealed book to most Christians. The following Scripture is surely applicable to present conditions: Isa. 29:10-12. "The Lord hath poured out over you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; over the prophets, and your chiefs, the seers, hath he cast a veil. And the vision of everything has become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that can read, saying, "Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed; and the book is then delivered to one that cannot read, saying, Read this, I pray thee, and he saith, I cannot read." It will help us to examine a few examples of prophecy that are admittedly fulfilled, to see whether the prophecy was literal or symbolic; and this will give us a key to the interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy. ISRAEL'S BONDAGE IN EGYPT. Gen. 15:13, 14. "The Lord saith unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land which is not theirs, and they will make them serve, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterwards they shall go out with great substance." Reader, was this literal, or not? THEIR DELIVERANCE. Ex. 3:7-10, 19-22. "And the Lord said, I have truly seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to deliver them out of that land into a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof; and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians." Now, we ask the reader to go over these two prophecies again, item by item, to see if each statement was not fulfilled in an absolutely literal manner. Could any single item be spiritualized without destroying the sense? THEIR APOSTASY IN CANAAN. Deut. 31:20, 21. "For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed, for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware." Can we spiritualize this and get the sense? BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. Jer. 25:8-12. "Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of glad |