July, 1936
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
257
The Reappearance o f the Empire on the Fateful H ills o f Rome, B y LOUIS S. BAUMAN* Long Beach, California
W e have ju s t dug out of our “barrel,” notes of a sermon delivered July 10, 1927. From them, we quote a few sentences: Among the shadows that are falling across the pathway of our generation, none is more menacing, more foreboding of ill, than that which falls from the person of the great Italian dictator, Mussolini. So far as we know, we were the first to suggest publicly that this man might prove to be thé Antichrist. Many1,.,' laughed the idea to scorn then, Fewer are laughing now. T h e R evelation of t J iè A n t ich r ist g o j T ake P lage F ollowing t h é T ranslation of t h e S a in ts And now, nine years later, as we write,, fewer, still are laughing that possibility to scorn. But before we write one sentence more, let us make one statement so clear that none can misunderstand. B efore t h e sa ints of god are “ caught u p . . . to m eet t h e lord in t h e a ir ”. ( 1 Thess. 4 :17), no . one w ill be able to po in t h e | fin g er at any M AN AND SAY W IT H ABSOLUTE C ER TA IN TY , “ T H E R E STANDS Tim man w ho is to be t h e a n t ic h r ist ” ! The inspired apostle wrote: “Brethren, touching the cHming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him . . . it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the mqm of '.in be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against.all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in :the temple of God, setting himself forth as God . . . For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work : only there is one that re- straineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall . . . bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming” (2 Thess. 2 :l-8, R.V.). “The lawless one,” that is, the Anti christ, will not be revealed to men in his real character until after “that which restraineth”—that is, the “salt of the earth”-=the true saints of God—the church—the ‘‘temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19, R.V.Jf^Tbe taken out of the way.” Only after the translation of the church to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:13-18) will the Antichrist, in his activities fulfilling the Scriptures, be revealed to men. T h e P ossibility T h a t A n t ich r ist Now W alks t h e E arth However, if the Antichrist is to have his revelation immediately after the translation of the church, then he must dwell somewhere on the earth before that translation. If, as so many of the true saints believe, and multitudinous signs now indicate, the coming of Christ is imminent, then surely it is not fanaticism that leads the student of the pro phetic Word to weigh the words and actions, and to study the earmarks of men of power as to a tremendous possi bility. So far as the writer is concerned, he candidly admits that ever since the Fascist chief marched upon Rome in October, 1922, he has regarded Benito Mussolini as the world’s foremost candidate for the job of the Antichrist, should the church suddenly be wafted upward to the side of her Lord. And the fact that Mussolini has made some friendly gestures to Protestant Christianity does not blind
us to the true character of this pronounced atheist, as many of his other statements prove him to be. Back in 1904, Mussolini debated the. existence of God with Dji Edward Taglialatea, Professor of Theology at the Methodist Theo logical Seminary in Rome. We quote Mussolini verbatim from undisputable records: Later, over his own signature, he wrote: “The day is long past when thinking man conceived God as a person, having the form of' a human being'” If Mussolini has been converted since he uttered those words, no one has heard about it. And it will take more than a Bible and a cross on a postage stamp to deceive us. His gestures toward any Christian faith only qualify him the more for the task of becoming the most cunning de ceiver that Satan ever has or ever will pawn off on the world of men. T h e R esurrection of . thk R oman E m pire P redicted There will be a resurrection of the Roman Empire just as surely as Daniel spoke as he was “moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21). The image in Nebuchadnezzar’s God-given dream was a prediction of the course of Gentile dominion from the time of the dream until the last sunset of Gentile power and glory. The “legs of iron” and the “feet part of iron and part of day”1formed the “fourth kingdom.” No one has ever contended that the “stone . . . cut out without hands, ■which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces,” was any other than “the stone of Israel” (Gen. 49:24) descending to grind Satan’s dominion to powder—all of which means that the Roman Empire must be in existence when the Stone falls. In the seventh chapter of Daniel, God again reveals the course of Gentile dominion. In the “fourth beast” of that chapter, we have a clear portrayal of the Roman Empire. The legs, feet, and toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image and the “fourth beast” of Daniel’s vision, are one and the same. This “fourth beast” possesses “ten horns,” as well as a “little horn” that comes up among them. All belong to the Roman Empire. The “little horn” unquestionably is the Antichrist (Dan. 7:23-27). “The ten horns . . . are ten kings” who shall be reigning within the territorial limits of the empire of the Caesars at the time of its revival. These “ten kings” will federate, making “the beast*r$Antichrist —their head. See Revelation 17:12,13. When this federa tion is consummated, you will have the Roman Empire in its final form. And if you wish a glorious vision of the Stone falling and grinding to powder this devil-inspired federation, meditate on the picture in Revelation 19:11-21. There can be no question about the matter—the Roman Empire must reappear! “ E mperor of S outheastern E urope !” In the March and April numbers of the Review of Reviews, the famous correspondent, Hiram Motherwell, writes on the subject: “What Does Mussolini Want?” Mr. God does not exist. Religion injtsjjience is an absurdity; in practice it is immorality; in men it is a disease.
■*Pastor, First Brethren Church, Long Beach, Calif.
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