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THE KING’S BUSINESS
Pretty much every mail brings us letters irf which mod ern prophets undertake to tell us just what will be the result of the present war, and just when thé times of the Gentiles are going to end, and similar interesting
Misinterpreting Prophecy.
things. We find many articles in religious journals along the same line. Most u ^leSe moctern prophets base their calculations upon their interpretations of the book of Daniel. We have just been reading again an attempt of a similar kind to predict the future from a study of Daniel that was made by an esteemed friend some years ago. We give a few excerpts from this to show how little dependence is to be put upon these conclusions that men think they draw from the book of Daniel : . .To this we may properly add two centuries for the superiority o f the legs (he is referring to the image in Dan. 2 :31-45), making 1895. And. as there has - been nothing in history that can be accepted as a manifestation o f the ten toes, either before or since 1395 A. D., we may be reasonably confirmed in our calcula- VUil **re yet future, but, as we firmly believe, in the very near future. (The italics here are the writer’s). W e do not, however, have to guess at the length o f the legs. This image evidently typifies man’s government o f the world ami especially his domination over the theocratic kingdom o f Israel. It is consonant \yith-the times o f the Gentiles/ which, from Lev. 26, we believe measures *seven times, 2520 years. I f this be the duration o f the image, it will terminate (2520-605) in 1915 A. D.” We do not need, of course, to call any one’s attention to how far wide our brother s assertions were -from the facts as we now know them. Other parts o f the tract are equally interesting in the light of history as it is being made today. The writer says: “Germany and Persia will not be included. They will be the allies of Russia which will constitute the ‘great company* that shall come forth ‘out o f the north parts’ in the latter years. Ezek. 38 and 39.” Further on he says, in the supposed light of events that were then occur- ring: “With this thought before us, how significant is the present internecine strife which is raging in Austria. It is, to the student o f prophecy, like the hand-writing on the wall. It points to exactly such a division o f that empire, as is required for the formation o f the ‘ten toes.’ “ Germany is not slicing into the territory o f defenseless China, without a complete understanding with Russia. Thus we see two great nations o f the north gravitating into the alliance described in Ezek. 38 . France•_will find her super ficial compact with Russia a perfect delusion. Her place is ajnong the ‘ten toes’ and perhaps, as the exponent o f the decimal system, she may be a leader in their formation. This combination of Russia and Germany will force England and Italy to seek an alliance with France, Turkey and Spain, and thus bring about the very combination which some mighty upheaval may develop into the ‘ten toes.’ ” How far wide the actual historic combinations have been of those predicted by the attempts of our uninspired prophet, of course we all know. Many of the present-day prophets are just as confident of the certainty of their predic tions as to what the combinations and issues of the present war will be, as was this brother in 1894, and very likely they will be quite as wide of the mark as he was. The experiences of those who have tried to predict minutely times and events in .the past ought to make these'present-day prophets more cautious. When will we learn that though prophecy will be exactly and literally fulfilled, prophecy, is not history, and one who tries to interpret prophecy as history is bound to get himself into trouble, even if he escapes the greater calamity of bringing reproach upon the Word of God.
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