DANIEL 11

Exposition of Daniel

By Dr. John Thomas, 1868

Paraphrase Of The Eleventh Of Daniel To The Thirty-Fifth Verse Inclusive

"I shall give it in the form of paraphrases, incorporating the prophecy with the <interpretation>, but at the same time giving the angel's words.

I may remark as to the date, that the revelator introduces his discourse with an allusion to "the first year of Darius the Mede". This was also the first year of Cyrus, who reigned conjointly with Darius; so that the third year of Cyrus was the first of his reign by himself. The reigns of Darius and Cyrus will therefore count as one, after which four are to be reckoned."

Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia,

<namely, Ahasuerus, Smerdis, and Darius;>

and the fourth,

<or Xerxes>,

shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And

<Alexander the Macedonian>,

a mighty King, shall stand up, ruling with great dominion and doing according to his will. And when he shall stand up,

his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided

toward the four winds of heaven: and

not to his posterity, nor according to

his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for other

besides those

<of his family>.

And the King of the South shall be strong, and shall be one of his,

princes

and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion,

<extending over Egypt, Libya, Cyrenaica, Arabia, Palestine, Coele-Syria, and most of the maritime provinces of Asia Minor, with the island of Cyprus, and several others in the Aegean Sea, and even some cities of Greece, as Cicyon and Corinth. Such was the dominion of Ptolemy Soter, the first Macedonian King of Egypt

And in the end of

<52>

years

, they,

shall,

themselves together; for

<Berenice,>

the king's daughter of the south, shall come,

to the king of the north, to make

agreement; but she shall not retain the power of the arm

Neither shall

stand;

Nor shall his arm,

<Berenice, stand;>

but she shall be given up

and they,

that brought her and he that begat her

< to Syria; and he, her son, whom she brought forth,>

and he that strengthened her in these times,

<shall die; and thus leave her to the mercy of Laodice, which will be treachery and death>.

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[2]

7. But out of a branch of her

roots,

shall stand up in his estate,

come with an army, and shall enter into

the fortress of the King of the north, and shall deal,

against them,

and shall prevail:

shall also carry captive into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and gold: and he shall continue

more years than the King of the north,

So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land,

<B.C. 244.>

10. But his

sons,

shall be stirred up

and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one

shall certainly come and overflow

and pass through

<into Galilee, and possess himself of all that part of the country which was formerly the inheritance of the tribes Reuben and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasseh. Then, the season being too far advanced to prolong the campaign>,

shall he return

to his fortress.

Thus shall the king of the south be moved with choler, and come forth and fight with

the King of the north shall set forth a great multiude,

but the multitude shall be given into

<the hand of the King of Egypt>.

12 .And when he,

<,the King of the south, had >

taken away the multitude

his heart shall be lifted up,

he shall cast down ten thousands,

shall not be strengthened by

13 <For Antiochus the king of the north>

shall return and shall set forth a multitude

greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain,

years

with a great army and with much riches,

< and shall subjugate all the Holy and Coele-Syria.>

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[3]

14. And in those times

many shall stand up against the

king of the south,

to establish the vision.

they shall fall.

15. So the king of the north,

shall come

and cast up a mount

and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand

< Antiochus. v 16. But Antiochus who cometh against Ptolemy Epiphanes >

shall do according to his own will

and none shall stand before him: and he shall

which by his hand shall be consumed.

17 .He shall also set his face to enter

with the strength of his whole kingdom,

with him. Thus shall he do

the daughter of women,

corrupting her

not stand, neither be for him,

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[4]

18 After this shall

<Antiochus, at the earnest solicitation of the Aetolians, >

turn his face unto the isles

and shall take many: but

shall cause the reproach offered to him to cease: without his own

shall cause it to turn upon

<Antiochus, by defeating him at Mount Sipyllus, and repulsing him from every part of Asia Minor. As the condition of peace, the Romans required him to pay 15,000 talents--500 down, 2,500 on the ratification of the treaty, and the rest in twelve years at 1,000 talents per annum.>

19. <These terms being acceded to>,

he shall turn his face toward the fortress,

of his own land,

But he shall stumble, and fall, and not be found;

<for the provincials, exasperated at the robbery, rebelled against him, and murdered him and all his attendants, B.C. 187.

20. Then shall stand up

the glory of the kingdom;

But within few days,

he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle,

21. And in his,

shall stand up

<Heliodorus, >

a vile person,

shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but

shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries

Suffering the desecrations of Antiochus

22. And with the arms of a flood,

< by which they shall be formidably invaded, shall they, the Egyptians,>

be overflown from before

<Antiochus, whom they excite to war, by demanding the restitution of Coele-Syria and Palestine.>

And they shall be broken,

Prince of the

Covenant,

23. And after the league made with

shall work deceitfully after

for he shall come up

shall become strong with a small people,

<or army.

V24. <By his deceit,>

he shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province

<to which he reduces Egypt;> and he,

<Antiochus>,

shall do that which his fathers,

have not done, nor his fathers' fathers;

<namely,>

he shall scatter among his followers the prey, and spoils, and riches: yea, he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds

even for a time.

v25 .And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very <great and>

mighty army, but he shall not stand: for

shall forecast devices against him,

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[5]

v26. Yea, they that feed of the portion of

<Philometer's>

meat,

<even his courtiers, shall separate, or renounce, him;> and his

<Antiochus'>

army shall overflow

<Egypt;>

and many

shall fall down slain.

v27 <And the hearts of both>

these kings shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table, but shall not prosper; for the end

at the time appointed.

28 Then shall

return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the

and he shall do

he return to his own land,

29. At the time appointed,

he shall return and come towards the south,

But it,

shall not be as the former or as the latter.

30. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him,

therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the

< Covenant of the Holy; for in his return-march, through Palestine, he detached 20,000 men under Apollonius with orders to destroy Jerusalem, B.C. 168. >

So shall he do; he shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the

the Holy.

31. And arms shall stand on his part

and they,

and they shall place

the abomination making desolate

<As soon as Antiochus Epiphanes was returned to Antioch, he published a decree by which all his subjects were required to conform to the religion of the State. This was aimed chiefly at the Jews, whose religion and nation he was resolved to extirpate. Atheneus, a man advanced in years, and extremely well versed in all the ceremonies of Grecian idolatry, was commissioned to carry the edict into effect in Judea and Samaria. As soon as he arrived at Jerusalem he began by suppressing the Daily, or evening-morning sacrifice, and all the observances of the Mosaic Law.

He caused the sabbaths and other festivals to be profaned; forbade the circumcision of children; carried off and burned all copies of the Law and the Prophets wherever they could be found; and put to death whoever acted contrary to the decree of the king. To establish it the sooner in every part of the nation, altars and chapels filled with idols were erected in every city, and sacred groves were planted.

Officers were appointed over these, who caused the people generally to offer sacrifice in them every month, on the day of the month on which the king was born, who made them eat swine's flesh and other unclean animals sacrificed there. The temple in Jerusalem was dedicated to Jupiter Olympius, whose statue was placed in it. Thus he did in his great indignation against the Covenant of the Holy Nation and its Land.>

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[7]

We have now arrived at the end of the thirty-fifth verse, the events of which bring us down to the conclusion of 430 years from the destruction of the city and temple in the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar. There is here a change of topic in the prophecy.

No more is said about Judah's warfare with the Greek Powers of the north or south. History, but not the prophecy, informs us that Judah became a kingdom, under princes of the Asmonean family, until it passed under the sceptre of Herod the Idumean, in the 39th year of whose reign Jesus CHRIST was "born KING OF THE JEWS".

Not long after this event the sceptre of Judah was transferred to the Romans, whose emperor became the reigning king (John 19:15). But the sceptre was only temporarily departed; and its return is earnestly desired and expected by all who believe the gospel of the Kingdom of God. When Jesus was 26 years old, the things revealed by Gabriel (Dan. 9:24, 27), in relation to the seventieth heptade, began to be accomplished.

During that seven years Judah's heart was stirred up from its lowest depths. John the Baptist and Jesus, the greatest personages of the time, turned all minds to that great kingdom, which, in the hands of the Prince Royal and the Saints, is to rule over all. But even then, "the end was still for a time appointed".

About 1,835 years have passed since the expiration of the seventieth heptade. Judah has been broken, but their "breakers" have not been "ground to powder" by the Stone. The time, however, fast approaches; and the nearer it arrives, the more important do all questions become bearing upon Judah's land, and Zion, the city of their king.

About 95 years after the end of the 430 years previously indicated, the Asiatic kingdom of the north, which had so terribly afflicted Judah, was annexed by Pompey to the empire of the Romans, which, by the absorption of Greece, had now become Romano- or Latino-Greek; and in about thirty-five years after that, Egypt experienced the same fate. The kingdom of the Jews still survived. Two powers alone existed. The Four Horns of the Goat had disappeared; and nothing of the symbol remained but that which answered to the Romano-Greek Asiatic Power, waxing exceeding great toward the east, and looking with a fierce and threatening countenance upon the little kingdom of Judea.

What shall this power be called ? Gabriel styled it "a Little Horn" budding forth out of one of the four horns of the Goat--"little" in its Asiatic beginning, but "exceeding great" when it had ceased to grow. In relation to the Holy Land it appeared as a power, first in the north. History therefore shows, that the horn of the north was the one of the four upon which Daniel beheld it. But it did not content itself with merely looking fiercely at Judah. It fought against Judea and conquered; and so firmly had it established itself in the Holy, that when Jesus was arraigned before it, Judah clamoured for his death, crying, "We have no king but Caesar".

From the annexation of the Holy Land to the Roman empire by Pompey until the present time, it has been mainly subject to Rome and Constantinople--to Rome until the throne of the empire was transferred by Constantine the Great to the city called by his name. Because, therefore, the Holy Land and city have been in the main possessed by the Romano-Constantinopolitan power, and because that power crucified the King of the Jews, and destroyed the holy soon after the seventieth heptade; and because it is the same (though administered by a different race and generation, that is, the Moslem) that will stand up against heaven's Commander in Chief in the approaching consummation--the power is represented by one and the same symbol, which is styled "the Little Horn" of the Grecian Goat, or nation.

34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

àAntiochus Epiphanes decreed that the whole kingdom should be one people, and abandon the laws peculiar to smaller communities. To this the various nations subject to his rule agreed. Many Israelites also consented to his religion, and sacrificed to idols, and profaned the Sabbath.

In those days the king's officers came to Modin to make the people sacrifice to idols. Among these was a priest named Mattathias, who resided at Modin, and who was deeply moved at the tyranny of Antiochus, and the apostacy of his people, who crowded to the altar erected by his decree.

Mattathias being present, the king's officers endeavoured to make him conform by fair speeches and promises of high honours and rewards. Upon which Mattathias cried out with a loud voice,

"Though all the nations under the king's dominion obey him, and fall away every one from the religion of their fathers, and give consent to his commandments, yet will I and my sons and my brethren walk in the covenant of our fathers. God forbid that we should forsake the law and the ordinances. We will not hearken to the king's words to go from our religion, either on the right hand or the left."

Now, when he had ceased, one of the bystanding Jews came forward in the sight of all to sacrifice on the altar according to the king's decree.

When Mattathias observed this, his zeal was inflamed, and he could no longer forbear "to show his anger according to judgment," wherefore he ran, and slew him upon the altar. Also the king's commissioner, who compelled men to sacrifice, he killed at the same time, and demolished the altar.

"Thus," saith the writer of Maccabees,

"dealt he zealously for the law of God, like as Phineas did unto Zambri, the son of Salon" (see Numb. 25).

This event illustrates the era of the Asmoneans, when Israel were "holpen with a little help," about the conclusion of Ezekiel's 430 years, during which they were to "eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles."—Dan. 11:34; Ezek. 4:4; 6:13.

The Christadelphian, June 1886

35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.

OUR paraphrase was discontinued at the end of the thirty-fifth verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel. It left Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of the north, at war with the Jews under Judas Maccabeus, who were fighting against fearful odds for their very existence as a nation.

The Man of Sin

36 And the king (the Dragon-Power of the Apocalypse) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

According to his will

Justinian the first King to give primacy of the Roman See over Constantinople

The imperial Constantinopolitan catholic power

THE KING AND THE "STRANGE GOD"

àThis Little Horn power, or "king of fierce countenance," is, in the thirty-sixth verse of the eleventh chapter [Daniel], styled, "the king who doth according to his will." This federal potentate must be studied in his secular and ecclesiastical characters. His secular, with a hint or so of his spiritual, character, is given in the eighth chapter; while his ecclesiastical is exhibited more fully in the eleventh, from the thirty-sixth, to the thirty-ninth, verses inclusive. His policy was to be of a remarkable description; for

"through his policy he shall cause craft to, prosper by his power."

Hence, his doings with regard to another, and that person's words and deeds, are all affirmed of this wilful king; for, it is by his power, as well as through his policy, that this person is enabled to do. Thus, putting them both together, for they are one in policy and action, the power is thus outlined by the prophet, who says,

"And the King shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god," or ruler, "and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. He shall disregard all the gods of his fathers (Septuagint) and the desire of wives, nor shall he regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all."

This is evidently not descriptive of the pagan Roman power, but of that power invested with a new ecclesiastical character. In other words, it is descriptive of the imperial Constantinopolitan catholic power. Of all who swayed this sceptre from Constantine, the founder of the city, to Palaeologus, who lost it to the Turks, the emperor Justinian is the best illustration of the wilful king in his secular aspect.

"Never prince," says Dupin,

"did meddle so much with what concerns the affairs of the church, nor make so many constitutions and laws upon this subject. He was persuaded that it was the duty of an emperor, and for the good of the State, to have a particular care of the church, to defend its faith, to regulate external discipline, and to employ the civil laws and the temporal power to preserve it in order and peace."

"Justinian," says Gibbon,

"sympathised with his subjects in their superstitious reverence for living and departed saints; his code, more especially his novels, confirm and enlarge the privileges of the clergy; and in every dispute between the monk and the layman, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce, that truth and innocence are always on the side of the church.

In his public and private devotions, he was assiduous and exemplary; his prayers, vigils, and fasts, displayed the austere penance of a monk; his fancy was amused by the hope, or belief, of personal inspiration; he had secured the patronage of the virgin, and St. Michael, the archangel; and his recovery from a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous succour of the holy martyrs, Cosmas and Damian.

Among the titles of imperial greatness, the name of Pious, was most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual interest of the (Greco-Roman) church was the serious business of his life; and the duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that of defender of the faith.

While the Barbarians invaded the provinces, while the victorious legions marched under the banners of Belisarius and Narses, the successor of Trajan, unknown to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a synod."

"The reign of Justinian was an uniform yet various scene of persecution; and he appears to have surpassed his indolent predecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws, and rigour of their execution. The insufficient term of three months was assigned for the conversion or exile of all heretics; and if he still connived at their precarious stay, they were deprived under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birthright of men and christians."

Antiochus Epiphanes and Justinian represent "the king" as he will be manifested, when, as the king of the north, he appears upon the arena, standing up to contend with the Prince of princes, on the field of Armageddon, for he is to "prosper till the indignation be accomplished" against Israel. Impious and cruel as Antiochus, and superstitious and fanatical as Justinian, with the arrogance, ambition, and profanity of the Roman Bishop in his halcyon days, this incarnation of the sin-power in the crisis of its fate, will fully answer to all that has been predicated of this king who does according to his will, and "for whom Tophet is ordained of old" (Isaiah 30:27-33; 31:8, 9).

... But when the Little Horn's sceptre is wrested from his feeble grasp by the Autocrat, we shall see in him a potentate, unrivalled in presumption and impiety by any of his fathers, not excepting Pharoah of the olden time.

Elpis Israel 3.4.

37 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.

à...a Latin Pontifical Kingdom, whose Pontiff-King claims to be Christ's Substitute on earth, and Successor to the Apostle of the Circumcision; the Name of Blasphemy whose pontifical throne has been for ages established on the Seven Hills; and though reigning in a country whose vernacular is the Italian, ignoring this language, and "speaking" only in that of his pagan fathers to whom he was unknown (Dan. 11:38): could any name be more appropriate to such a power than Latin, in the sense of the Latin Power, or the Antichrist? No other, I believe.

Eureka 13.35.

The king would not be bound nor restrained by the religion of his fathers. Constantine's fathers were pagan, but he embraced Christianity to further his political ambitions. The

doctrines espoused by Constantine, and subsequently developed within the Catholic Church, renounced paganism (though its system was incorporated in a modified form into the Catholic teachings).

The popes of the Church established themselves as infallible, and as the "vicars of God" — thus in honouring them, these emperors of Constantinople respected a new god.

— The doctrine of the papacy includes the celibacy of a priesthood, and the institution of a celibate order of nuns. This attitude has its basis in paganism, for Hislop records:

"Strange as it may seem, yet the voice of antiquity assigns to the abandoned queen (Semiramus) the invention of clerical celibacy, and that in its most stringent forms" (The

Two BabyIons, p. 219). Concerning the church-approved separation of women in nunneries and convents, a personal report is contained in Forgotten Women in Convents, p. 109:

"I shrink at the memory of the awful struggle back to normalcy which I, in common with every other ex-nun went through. With no business training, no knowledge of homemaking, no sense of values without which any life is a failure; with no decision, a prey to a thousand terrors, afraid of myself and everyone else; timid, cringing, physically emancipated but mentally chained, the unfortunate ex-nun, returns to her cell voluntarily, because there are no decisions to be made there.

Rome clips the wings of her victims so that they cannot fly, then tells the believing world that they stay because they like it."

Daniel's prophecy is defined by Paul, who declares that this unnatural attitude would develop out of the ecclesial sphere, and become a great movement:

"The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry..." (1 Tim. 3: 1-3).

When the Truth was converted by Constantine into a pagan-orientated Christianity, church practice fulfilled both prophecies.

The Christadelphian Expositor - Acts

38 But in his estate (or empire) shall he honour the god of <guardians> (the Bishop of Rome): and a god (pagan) whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and <things desired>.

A God of Guardians

'In his estate shall the King honour a god of forces, even a god whom his predecessors knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and ."—Dan. 11:38.

àThe Old Testament name for the Eyes and Mouth of the Little Horn, which are commonly called the Pope, is in Hebrew Eloah Mahuzzim, rendered in the common version, 'a god of forces.' He is also termed Eloah Naikar, a Strange or Foreign God. The King or Little Horn was to honor him in his estate or kingdom, to acknowledge him, and to increase him with glory. All this has been literally accomplished as we have abundantly shown in Elpis Israel.

Eloah Mahuzzim is a very appropriate title for the Italian Overseer. Eloah is a passive participial noun, and used as a title to Christ as cursed by the law for his hanging upon a tree—Meshiach eloah limmennoo—Messiah cursed for us.

Hence Eloah signifies an accursed one, or a god, accursed because he would speak marvellous things against the God of gods—Ail ailim. Christ and Antichrist therefore are denominated 'cursed,' but on different grounds—Christ, because he became a curse for us by hanging upon a tree; and Antichrist, because of his blasphemy against God.

The papal Eloah is styled the Accursed One of Mahuzzim. This word signifies protectors, defenders, guardians. The Pope is the Head of these—the Chief on earth of the clan of Guardian Saints, therefore a god of guardians.

These guardians are thus spoken of by Chrysostom in his Homily on the Martyrs of Egypt;

'The bodies of those saints fortify the city more effectually for us than impregnable walls of adamant, and like towering rocks placed around on every side, repel not only the assaults of enemies that are visible, but the insidious stratagems also of invisible demons, and counteract and defeat every artifice of the devil as easily as a strong man overturns the toys of children.'

The Greeks and Latins made the most of these wonderful martyrs. They sent their ghosts to heaven to act as mediators and intercessors, and kept their bones and dust on earth to guard them from the ills that flesh is heir to!

They were a cheap fortification for a city, church, or country, requiring no rations, and more effective, if Chrysostom be believed, than a whole host of living warriors armed to the very teeth!

St. Patrick of Erin, St. George of England, St. Andrew of Scotland, St. Denis of France, &c., with the reigning Pope, is the definition in fact of Daniel's Eloah and his Mahuzzim.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Oct 1852

Bazaars of Mahuzzim

39 Thus shall he do in the <Bazaars of the Guardians >(temples dedicated to fictitious saints and angels) , whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

àThe buildings pertaining to this God of Guardian Saints and Angels are styled by Daniel, "the Bazaars of the Guardians." The noun mivtzahr, is derived from the root bahtzar, which among other meanings signifies to enclose with a wall.

As a noun betzer signifies ore of gold and silver, precious metals, store, or treasure so secured.

...Holy Father" of Christendom so-called... a foreign god, and all the ecclesiastical edifices of his bishoprick dedicated to the dis embodied ghosts of reputed saints, into Bazaars, or places of traffic in spiritual merchandise, and in "the bodies and souls of men!" (Apoc. 18:13).

The churches, chapels, and cathedrals, then, are "the most strongholds" of the King's superstition, which has spread itself over Europe and America. They are the houses of business dedicated by the prospering craft to "Guardian Spirits". There are laid up in store the images and pictures of reputed saints.

They are Saints' Houses in which are deposited their shrines; silver, gold and ivory crucifixes; "religious articles" of all sorts; together with old bones, and various kinds of votive trumpery.

They are literally, "Dens of Thieves," without ever having been houses of the Father - dens, where people are hoodwinked, and by "sharp practice" robbed of their money under divers false pretences. They are places where pews are sold by auction, the proudest sittings being knocked down to Mammon's greatest favorites; places where fairs of vanity and deceit are held for "pious objects;" and whose spiritual empirics pretend to "cure souls" in consideration of so much per annum.

In view of these facts, the Scriptural epithet bestowed upon the ecclesiastical edifices of the Apostasy , is most appropriate. They are truly bazaars of spiritual merchandise; and the prospering craft, "the great men of the earth," papal, catholic, and protestant, made rich by trading in their wares, are the Bazaar-Men, who extort all kinds of goods from their deluded customers by putting them in sulphurous and mortal fear; and comforting them with counterfeits upon some transpatial bank when time shall be no more!

They "buy and sell" under license from the Ecclesiastical Power, having received its "mark upon their foreheads, or on their right hands. " The reader may find their inventory of merchandise in Apoc. 18:12,13. Among the articles received in exchange for their "spiritual things," are tithes, bodies (somata) and souls of men. But the trade of these soul-and-body merchants is in anything but a satisfactory state at present.

Great numbers of their customers have discovered that the profit is all upon one side; nor are they backward in proclaiming that when a favorable opportunity presents they will break up the iniquitous concern, and make the cheats disgorge their unhallowed gains.

This will be to them a sad day - a day of universal bankruptcy for the weeping and wailing merchants of "Babylon the Great;" for "no man buyeth their merchandize any more." When a man's trade is thus extinguished, nothing but ruin stares the shattered tradesman in the face.

This is the fate that awaits the preachers of all the "other gospels" of the bazaars - gospels other than Paul preached, and which leave men in ignorance and disobedience; gospels which make them partisans of human crotchets and traditions; and the apologists of anything sincerely professed as a substitute for the truth.

Eureka 12.17.

Divide the land for gain

àThis treatment of the holy land is particularly characteristic of the Ottoman power which has possessed the country since 1509, when it was incorporated with the Turkish empire by Selim IX. It has been divided by his successors to their pashas literally "for gain;" by which the ruin of the country was made sure and expeditious.

Having purchased principalities in it at enormous prices, they make a conscience of reimbursing themselves in the shortest possible time by every kind of extortion; well-knowing, in past times at least, that if a higher price were offered than they had given, their heads would soon appear at Constantinople, in attestation of their dangerous posts being occupied by equally unscrupulous exactors.

But, is the holy land to continue for ever as it is at this day? Is the Little Horn of the Goat always to divide it for a price among his pashas? These are questions of great interest to all who believe the gospel of the kingdom of God and his Christ. If the reader have accompanied me through this volume, he will, I doubt not, be ready to answer in full assurance of faith and hope, with an emphatic " "No," it is impossible."

Yea, verily, it is impossible that it can always be desolate and subject to the horns of the Gentiles. If it were, the kingdom of God could never be established; for the Holy Land is the territory of the kingdom. To all, then, who believe "the things of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ," how intensely interesting must the future destiny of this country be! Well may it be said by the prophet,

"Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth" (Isaiah 62:6,7).

But when and how shall the land of Israel be wrested from the Little Horn of the Goat? As to the when, the prophecy contained in the last six verses of the eleventh chapter plainly informs us, that it shall be in the Time of the End;

"for to the time of the end shall be the vision" (Dan. 8:17).

Elpis Israel 3.5.

40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south [Territory of Egypt (Tarshish and the young lions)] push at him [the Turkish desolator 1914?] : and the king of the north [Russia having exanded into Seleucid territory Syria/ Turkey] 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.

The third sign is the existence of the Egyptian power.

It is written in Dan. 11:40, that

"at the time of the end the king of the south shall push at" the power exercising sovereignty over the Holy Land. When Daniel wrote this, he was residing in Babylon which was situated one degree and twenty-three minutes, or 83 miles north of Jerusalem. The kingdom south of these cities was that of Egypt.

For several hundreds of years previous to 1820, when "that determined" began to be "poured out upon the Desolator" of the Holy Land, Egypt had ceased to be a kingdom. But not long after the termination of the Russian war in 1829, Mehemet Ali rebelled against the Sultan of Turkey, and succeeded in establishing himself as King of Egypt, or of the South, including Palestine and Arabia.

He conquered Syria, and was, for a time, lord paramount of the East. This exaltation from a Turkish Pasha to the sovereignty of Egypt, opened new prospects to his ambition, and he aspired to the throne of Constantinople.

The "time of the End" was just at hand, there being only five years of the 2300 years of Dan. 8:14*, to expire. In 1838, Mehemet Ali, King of the South, "pushed at" the Sultan. Hitherto he had confined his operations to Egypt and Syria, but now at the closing of the war he pushed for Constantinople, and advanced as far as Smyrna; and but for the interference of the "Great Powers" unconsciously "to establish the vision," he would doubtless, have dethroned him.

*2 400 years - Elpis Israel 3.5 See note Dan 8: 14

Wearied of this state of affairs which endangered the balance of power," England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, undertook to establish peace, and to place things on a permanent footing. They ordered the king of the South to surrender Syria, including Palestine; and to restore the Turkish fleet, which had revolted from the Sultan during the war.

Mehemet Ali refused to do either; contending that Syria was his as a part of his kingdom for ever by right of conquest; and the fleet, as the spoils of war. These great powers, however, were not to be trifled with. They were willing that the throne of Egypt should be hereditary in his family; but determined that he should only be Pasha of Syria for life.

But Mehemet would not yield, and the result was, that the allied fleet bombarded the cities of the Syrian seaboard, and took possession of St. Jean d'Acre. They again offered him "all that part of Syria, extending from the Gulph of Suez to the Lake of Tiberias, together with the province of Acre for life," if he would restore the Turkish fleet.

But he still refused, and in the autumn of 1840, they compelled the Egyptian forces to evacuate the country, and determined that he should not have it at all; and threatened that if he did not restore the fleet in ten days, they would bombard him in Alexandria.

Prudence, which is said to be the better part of valor, at length overcame the obstinacy of Mehemet; he therefore yielded, and surrendered the ships within the time. Thus, the Land of Israel was restored to the Sultan of Constantinople, and Mehemet was restricted to the kingdom of Egypt.

..."The land is mine, saith Yahweh;"

so that no gentile power can by any possibility retain more than a temporary dominion over it. The hand of God may be clearly discerned in the events of this epoch.

He hardened the king of Egypt's heart, not to accept the land upon any other terms than his own, which were certain not to be granted.

If they had yielded to his demand, "the Eastern Question" would have been diplomatically settled, and the course of events regarding Israel turned into a different, and perhaps opposite channel; but as the belligerent diplomacy of 1840 has left the country, the policy or fate of the Sultan will affect the current and future fortunes of the land.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Dec 1860

Nebuchadnezzar's Image, Chrono-Logical and Political.

It is without doubt that the image of Nebuchadnezzar not only represents a course of historical events since the days of Nebuchadnezzar, but also the form of the political system that receives its death-blow at the hands of Jesus when he returns.

That system must therefore territorially comprehend the countries of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and the northern countries which supplied the clay of the feet, at the "decline and fall of the Roman empire."

This grouping of nations is the very form of the Gogian confederacy which is described in Ezekiel 38. and 39. The list of countries subject to "the Prince of Rhosh, Meshech and Tubal," at the crisis of his destruction by the Stone on the mountains of Israel includes the lands that have successfully given to the world, the four great empires of history, and the clay and iron kingdoms of modern Europe.

Babylon is not mentioned, but Persia is, and he could not (from Persia) overrun Palestine without being master of the country of Babylon which lies between.

... A vast linking together of nations under northern headship, is a development going forward and to be completed in the near future. The boundaries of the Babylonian empire, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, cannot be exactly defined in a topographical sense. Suffice it that they were extensive enough to comprehend all the then known habitable. As evident from Daniel's words:

"Wheresoever the children of men dwell ... he hath made thee ruler over them all." .. (Dan 2:38.)

The point, however, does not affect the territorial constitution of the political image of the latter days. It is not the countries subject to the four imperial dynasties that answer to the metallic components of the image, so much as the imperial dynasties themselves.

The same countries, in many instances, were ruled by the four dynasties successively. All that the vision requires is that the whole geographical area within which the four empires have successively risen and fallen, shall be under the dominion of one Head, at the crisis of the destruction of the image in the latter day; which head Ezekiel reveals to be

"Gog of the land of Magog, and the Prince of Rhosh, Meshech, and Tubal,"

or the Emperor of All the Russias.

The Christadelphian, Jan 1873

...the Russo-Assyrian autocrat shall attack Constantinople by sea and land, and with such whirlwind impetuosity that the Sultan's dominion shall be swept away.

... The whirlwind-nature of the attack implies, I think, not only its overwhelming character, but that when it is made, the allies of the Sultan will be off their guard; that is, by the Autocrat's assurances of peace and moderation for which they will give him credit, Constantinople will be left unprotected, and it will fall into his hands before they can come to the rescue.

To "push at him,'' and to "come against him," are phrases which imply more than simple invasion; they indicate likewise the direction that invasion is to take. In the case of the king of the south, when he "pushed at him" he directed his course towards Constantinople, but he did not "come against him," because he was stopped by "the powers." The king of the north, however, is to do more than push, he is actually to "come against" the, Sultan, which can only be done by sitting down before Constantinople.

Elpis Israel 3.5.

Rush like a Tempest with Chariots

No writer on prophecy, whose opinion is worthy of any respect from the biblical student, denies that "the King of the North," contemporary with "the Time of the End," testified of in Dan. 11:40, is "the Prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tobl" of Ezekiel, or the "Autocrat of all the Russias."

This may be regarded as a settled interpretation; and any speculation that disputes it, is not worth the time of its reading.

This truth ascertained beyond doubt, it is easy to discern the destiny of the Russian power. It matters not what present obstacles encounter her, nor what disasters befal her, she will override them all, and rise to the ascendant ultimately; and in so doing, bind Europe to her chariot-wheels for a little season preceding her destruction by the hand of God.

... "Russia triumphant and Europe chained" is no fancy-sketch, or fiction of the brain.

The king of the North is to "come against him," or that Power that "divides," or apportions, "the Land (of Palestine) for a price."—Dan. 11:39; Joel 3:2. This power is, and can be, no other than the Ottoman, or Euphratean, which is "drying up." But, mark how the king of the north is to go against him,—

"He shall rush like a tempest upon him with chariots" yistahair ahlahv berekev.‭

If this simply meant artillery,‭ ‬there would be nothing peculiar in this attack of the king of the North compared with that of the king of the South who‭ "‬pushed at‭" ‬the same power before him.‭ ‬The king of the South,‭ ‬or Egypt,‭ ‬drove his artillery-wheels against the Sultan with disastrous effect in‭ ‬1840‭; ‬but he did not rush with locomotive-speed in trains of chariots.‭ ‬But this the king of the North is to do‭; ‬for we believe that the‭ "‬chariots‭" ‬in the text are‭ ‬iron-horsed cars.‭

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Feb 1857

41 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.

Ezekiel's prophecy of Gogue is an amplification of Daniel's concerning the king of the north. That these two powers are the same will be manifest from the following considerations:

1. Gogue, or the prince of Ros, is king of Meschech and Tubal, therefore he is king of the north geographically; those countries being north of the Holy Land, which, according to the covenant, extends to Amanus and the Euphrates;

2. Gogue is to invade the land of Israel "from the north parts" [Ezek. 38:15 (see vs. 6)] and "in the latter days;" [Ezek. 38:16] and the king of the north is to enter into the same country at the same time; therefore, as they come against the same enemy and at the same time, they must be one and the same power;

3. The Libyans and Ethiopians belong to Gogue's army; and Daniel testifies, that "the Libyans and Ethiopians are at the steps of the king of the north," [Dan. 11:43] that is, they march among his troops;

4. Hostile tidings come to Gogue from Sheba and Dedan eastward; and from "the Merchants of Tarshish and the young lions thereof" [Ezek. 38:13] northward; so also, "tidings out of the east and out of the north," says Daniel, "shall trouble the king of the north;" [Dan. 11:44]

5. Gogue is to "fall upon the mountains of Israel," [Ezek.39:4] where he and his multitudes are to be buried; so the king of the north having encamped "between the seas in the glorious holy mountain," the hill-country, "comes to his end" there, with "none to help him:" [Dan. 11:45] and,

6. Gogue unexpectedly encounters the Lord God in battle on the mountains of Israel, and the king of the north contends with Michael the great prince, who standeth up for Israel, and delivers them: they are both defeated and deprived of dominion by the same supernatural power.

Here, then, are six particulars which clearly establish the identity of Gogue with the king of the north. The multitudes they are destined to lead into the Holy Land are the "all nations" which Zechariah has predicted the Lord will gather together against Jerusalem, to destroy them in battle with a small exception (Zech. 14:2); and whose slain are

"the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against the Lord, whose worm shall not die, nor their fire be quenched; and who shall be an abhorring to all flesh " (Isaiah 66:24),

who pass through

"the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea" (Ezek. 39:11):

for the consumption of their bodies by the worm will commence while they are yet standing alive upon their feet (Zech. 14:12); so that like Antiochus Epiphanes, the stench of their consuming bodies will

"stop the noses of the passers by." [Ezek.39:11]

Elpis Israel 3.5.

42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

In the approaching scramble for the effects of the expiring Sick Man of Ottomania, she [Britain] will most likely secure for herself, or at least take possession of, Egypt and Syria. But Daniel shows that whatever power may primarily become seized of these countries, will not be able to prevent their being stamped by the Feet of the Bear. *

43 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.

From this conquest he will proceed into the Holy Land. The war between the belligerents will then be transferred to this country, upon which the Oriental Power must necessarily retire. The conflict waged will be furious; for the Northern Power, symbolized by John's Scarlet-colored Beast, will "go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many".

44 But tidings out of the east [Tarshish and the young lions] and out of the north [Israel] shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

This brings him to Jerusalem, which he besieges and captures (Zech. 14:2). Upon this the Oriental Leopard falls back upon Edom, Moab and Ammon, beyond the Jordan and the Dead Sea.

Tarshish North (North West of Babylon [Britain] from where Daniel uttered the prophecy) and Tarshish East (India)

...in the latter days Israelites to some extent are dwelling in the Holy Land prosperously and securely; and that this prosperity tempts the ambition and covetousness of a great potentate, who desires to make a spoil of them, and to possess their land.

On making his purpose known, which the prophet terms "an evil thought," a power is represented as interfering in behalf of the inhabitants of the land. It puts a question to the power about to invade, which may be termed a question of defiance, as much as to say,

"Thou shalt not invade Palestine, and spoil the inhabitants, if we can prevent."

This intimation is styled,

"tidings out of the east and out of the north" by Daniel; which "trouble him."

They do not, however, prevent the invasion of the land, but tend to make him more desperate; for the prophet adds,

"therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many."

When Daniel and Ezekiel wrote these things they were captives in Babylon; which is about the same parallel of north latitude with Jerusalem. "The east" from these stand points directs our attention to India or Tarshish, which Isaiah indicates as "from beyond to the rivers of Cush;" while "the north," from whence the tidings come to trouble "the king of the north," or Gog, must be taken as being west as well as north, or the threatening would come from himself against himself, which cannot be supposed.

About 35° 15° west & north from Jerusalem, are the British coasts of Tarshish. Hence Daniel in indicating the points of the compass whence the tidings issue, leads us to conjecture that a power occupying the coasts originally peopled by the sons of Tarshish may be the friend of Israel in the latter days. But conjecture is reduced to certainty by Ezekiel, who tells us plainly the name or designation of the power in the east and north which lifts up its voice against the invader. He styles it

"Sheba and Dedan, and the Merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof."

This points out the countries in the east where the power is to be sought for; it also indicates the character of the power; and where in the north it is to be found. It is a merchant power like that of Tyre,

"whose merchants were princes, and her traders the honorable of the earth." "The young lions of Tarshish, Dedan, and Sheba," or "thereof,"

is a phrase which informs us that the power established in those lands is represented by a Lion. This is the symbol of the Tarshish power in the latter days, as the Frog is of the French, or the Eagle of Austria. We look then to Sheba or Aden, and to Tarshish or India, and inquire "What is the symbol of the power in the ascendant there?" The answer is "a Lion"—the Lion-power of England, or the Lion of the north.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, March 1858

45 And he shall < pitch> the <tents of his entrenched camp> between the seas [the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean]<unto the mountain of the glory of the holy>; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

At this crisis the face of Yahweh is flushed with fury, and he goes forth against the invader (Ezek. 38:18; Zech. 14:3). As the Stone-Power, he smites the Image upon the feet, and shatters it into fragments.

The Bear, the Lion and Leopard, inclusive of the British section of the last, lose their dominion; but as Assyria and Egypt are annexed to Israel (Isa. 19:23-25) and the tide of war is rolled back from Syria, north and west, upon the countries of the Ten Horns, and of the Two-Horned beasts, over which the Name of Blasphemy presides as their prophet, priest and king.

This solution of the Eastern Question ushers in the solution of the Roman Question, neither of which can be finally disposed of until the Ancient of day's, that is, Jesus Christ, come; and he give authority and power to his brethren, the Saints, to execute the judgment written in ch. 13:10; which is, as David expressed it, to slay the beast (the Fourth Beast in Apocalyptic manifestation) , destroy his body in the burning flame, and take away the dominion of the Lion, the Bear and the Leopard (ch. 7:11,12).

Eureka 13.11