September, 1938
THE K I N G ' S B U S I NE S S
287
The Authorized Version’s rendering of Ezekiel 38:5 causes a good deal of confu sion by naming “Ethiopia” and “Libya” as being in this federation. It is confusion of names, not of facts. The "Ethiopia” and "Libya” known to the world today as Afri can territory will be opposed to this north eastern alliance. Their battle-flags will fly over the ranks of the Antichrist. But the “Ethiopia” and “Libya” of Ezekiel’s proph ecy will belong to the northeastern federa tion. The Revised Version gives us light: “Persia, Cush, and Put with them” (Ezek. 38:5, R. V .). “Cush” was within the con fines of southern Persia: and “Put” is upper Silicia. These peoples shall march with the allied hordes of the King of the North. "Togarmah” (v. 6 )— the Turkoman tribes of Central Asia—will march under the standard of this King of the North. “Gomer, and all his hordes” (v. 6) like wise will flaunt banners with the banners of the King of the North. The best authori ties on the subject inform us that, beyond almost every peradventure of a doubt, Gomer” is none other than Germany. If this conclusion is correct, the present alli ance between Hitler and Mussolini is to be short-lived. As a matter of fact, the recent billing and cooing between Mussolini and Hitler is -exceedingly unpopular with the masses of the Italian people. The recent fifty-million-dollar banquet that Mussolini is reported as staging in Italy for Hitler, so far as the Italians were concerned, was only a matter of eating crow. W e predict that those two bedfellows—Mussolini and Hitler—will never get through the night in the same bed— the Fascist bed. A light is going to start in that bed, and it will not be Mussolini who will hit the floor! A very much aggrieved nation will find herself hungry enough to eat humble pie, and Russia will furnish the pie. A very striking article, of intense interest to the prophetic student, appeared in the Liberty magazine for July 30, 1938. Its subject is “W ill Stalin and Hitler Join Hands to Rule the World?” The author is Princess Catherine Radziwill. She recently has had two meetings with Stalin, and she writes from close personal knowledge. She says: “The Joseph Stalin of today is no Bolshevik . . . . Nor do I think I shall be much astonished when, one day not far hence, ‘enemies’ Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler decide, publicly, to shake hands.” The Princess’ article gives some very good reasons for her statement. Those who know the “sure word of prophecy” expect nothing less than that some day in the not far distant future, the seeming enemy na tions, Russia and Germany, will shake hands, whether Stalin and Hitler do or not. Ancient Rome Restored The Scriptures cannot be broken. Neither Germany nor Japan was ever a part of the old Roman Empire. Any alliance between Germany on the one hand and Italy on the other is an alliance that cannot stand. The bombs of Japan have awakened countless millions. And China is being driven, even against her will, far into the waiting arms of the great Russian Bear. The vast hordes of western Asia are pass ing into the same arms. The Communistic
forces are creeping close together in the dusk of our age. And they are growing more and more war-minded each passing hour. Tremendous events are at hand. England, France, Spain, and Greece, as well as other modern nations whose terri tories were once within the confines of the old Roman Empire, must be brought by war or by diplomacy to march under the standards of the new Roman Empire. Bloody indeed will be that day when these allied multitudes of the Roman "prince that shall come” (Dan. 9:26) shall meet the al lied forces of "the prince of Rosh” (Ezek. 38:2, R. V .). On that battlefield it will be determined whether the final form of man’s misgovernment upon the earth is to be Fas cist or Communist. Those two political ideals never can dwell together in peace upon an earth all of whose affairs have be come so closely interwoven as in these last days. When the smoke of that battle roils away, all that will be left of the Communist armies will be one vast entombed bone pile “in the valley of Hamon-gog” (Ezek. 39: 15). Spectre on the Horizon Possibility of future alignment of Ger many with Russia is seen by M. W. Fodor, the experienced Vienna Corre spondent of the “Manchester Guardian,” in his recent book, “Plot and Counter plot in Central Europe” : The most important people in the Ger man General Staff still follow Bismarck- ian precepts and believe in the possibility of a military co-operation between Rus sia and Germany. Naturally, as long as Adolf Hitler is the master of Germany, or at least until he has reversed his policy, this idea of the army is hardly realizable. But it would be a mistake to dismiss it as impossible. Everybody realizes, however, that even if the Rome-Berlin axis does work for some time, it cannot be a sufficient support for the German army. Italy is a poor c o u n tr y , la c k in g all the raw materials that Germany needs . . . What if the two major dictatorial Powers, Germany and Russia, make up their feud? Many augurs, with the safe instinct of illogical people, see the spectre of this German-Russian friendship looming on the horizon. Whether the spectre which looms on the horizon will become a reality depends on many factors. Can Hitler change so suddenly as to permit such a policy? Or can Stalin overcome his distrust of the Third Reich? O r is anybody else whose figure looms behind the scenes going to force the change? One never can tell in advance . . . {[From Plot and Counterplot in Central Europe, by M. W. Fodor. H oughton M if flin Co., Boston. Copyright, 1937, by Mar cel IV. Fodor. Used by special permission.'} Russia and her mortal enemy Austria made up a bitter feud in 1903 . . .
Then the world’s last Caesar, the might iest monarch Satan ever placed in command of his legions on earth, “shall plant the tab ernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain” (Dan. 11:45). There, at the geographical “navel of the earth’ (Ezek. 38:12, R. V . margin), shall he set himself to reign over the whole earth, and doubtless will blasphemously assume the title, “K ing of K ings , and L ord of L ords .” J he Final Overthrow of Antichrist Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Dan. 11:45). And his end shall come when, in a fit of the most com plete madness of which any monarch was ever guilty, he shall march all the legions at his command against the last human beings on the face of the earth who shall then be left to lift up a standard against him. He shall march his armies out for the final destruction of the Jew and the city of the Jew. That will be “the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem” (Zech. 12:2). Already, over the whole earth, the tides of anti-Semitism are rising higher and higher. Blind are they who un derstand not the meaning of it all. Deaf, indeed, are the ears that hear not and heed not the warning of the Almighty speaking from the heavens: In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zech. 12:3). The Seer of Patmos beheld it all, as the God who sees the end from the beginning placed the vision before him: “And I saw the beast, 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. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought mira cles before him, with which he de ceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of lire burning with brim stone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh” (Rev. 19:19-21). Thus shall pass away, as chaff from the threshing floor, all the vaunted glory of man—glory that shall come to its crown ing point in the superman who in himself will combine all the glory of Nebuchadnez zar, and Cyrus, and Alexander, and Caesar. And with the passing of the glory of man there will pass also the glory of Satan, for in that day the supreme head of all the foes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shall be garlanded with chains, and left to wallow at the bottom of the abyss. And then shall He reign “whose right it is” (Ezek. 21:27). And He “shall break in pieces the oppressor . . . In his days shall the righteous flourish: and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth . . . And men shall be blessed in him: all na tions shall call him blessed” (Psa. 72-4 7, 17).
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