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T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s 1
November 1929
ji Christ and An tichr ist B y R ev . I. R . W all
S S the days come and go the issues of the hour crystallize themselves in clearer and more definite outlines. The issues first taken into account by the premillenarians have not grown threadbare £ or antiquated, but on the contrary they have been intensified, and every day defines them in a more sure «way and in a clearer light. It is true that a good many emotional enthusiasts in the study of prophecy have dropped out of the ranks they once seemed to glorify. It was their proper course. There are abroad some devout but uninformed folk who harp a great deal on the pro phetic meaning of little things, such as dress, public dis play, the trend of certain sects and so forth, none of which are the dominant issues in the interpretations of the Word of God in the sense that they indicate our present relationships to history and coming events. We need not comment on them any more than to state that the issues before the world, political and relig ious are not trivial, or so incidental as to build their structure upon such principles. It is doubtless true that such incidents as just referred to have grown out of the main issues, but never have the main issues grown out of these incidents. These last days are freighted with meaning. Not since the days of Nero has history come into the light of prophecy as it has since the outbreak of the World War. Israel and Palestine occupy the center of the stage in new and startling ways. In the background of all issues in this world are God and Satan. Fundamentally they differ, and their dif ferences and wars have become the differences and wars of the human race. Many minor issues spring out of this great conflict which are sometimes given exaggerated importance; but the main issue is not between theism and atheism, between special creation and evolution, between fundamentalism and modernism, between premillennialism and, postmillennialism or similar questions—important as such problems may be. The real question now i s : Shall the age-long conflict issue in the reign of Christ or of Antichrist ? The reign of Antichrist has a threefold revelation. It is revealed in the spirit of Antichrist, “which already is in the world,” and it shall be revealed in the person and the government of Antichrist: “and the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received nQ king doms as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall 'give their power unto the beast.” The full initiation of the Antichrist spirit, person and government is the program of the world of our present time. In no other way can the prophecies be interpreted without contradiction. Beginning from this premise we may profitably examine and interpret the trend of history. It is not strange that the world is developing as it * does. The spirit of Antichrist has long been in the world. It was,in evidence in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. It was known in the days of the apostles and has been in the ■
world during the'entire period of Church history. There also has been a restraining Spirit, which has held the course of history in check, ensuring a measure of world peace through established national governments and secur ing that religious freedom which will enable the Church to accomplish its appointed task. When the Church has been completed to the satisfaction of its Head, the re straining Spirit will remove Himself, and the spirit of Antichrist will begin fully to dominate. The tribulation period, if we understand it aright, will last for but seven years. That is a short time. Many things must take place within that period. It suggests to us the necessity of world preparation. God prepared the world for Christ, and Satan will need to have the world prepared for Antichrist. This fact, then, must ac count for the development of the great speed of our time. Speed, speed, speed—Palestine, the Jews, Armageddon —they all will need it, they must have it, and they are getting it. In order to make his program a success, though a temporary one, Antichrist must prepare this world to be lieve a lie, and therefore, science has incorporated into its system the hypothesis of evolution as a fact of history, and IT, therefore, has become the god of modernism. Again, self-expression, which is the popular substitute for the moral code of the Scriptures, is based on the doc trine that man does not have a sinful nature, but bears the image of God, which merely needs a natural development. Self-expression, then, as practiced in our day, is nothing but the setting at liberty of the passions of the race, as a part of the program of Antichrist. The establishihent of a great world system is another plan of Antichrist. With interests so scattered, this coun try and every other country must be interested in world1 relationships. Improved transportation, large capital, world commerce and the spirit of democracy, all demand a world government. God has promised to establish a uni versal kingdom, but before that time comes Antichrist will put up his world empire, a counterfeit, and its dura tion will be seven years. This program of Antichrist may be foreshadowed’by the League of Nations and the pro jected United States of Europe, but there will be no definite and well-rounded out program for world union until the super-man arrives and the spirit of Antichrist can move without restraint when the governments of this world have accepted his tenets' of religion. We need to emphasize the fact that Antichrist will not leave this - world without religion. There will be much religion, false and wicked, with a wounded hero (beast) as its object of worship. Another number, on the program of events is the revival of the Roman Empire. In order that political and religious Rome may stand as the anti-archangel of gov ernment and religion, to be the counterfeit city of Zion, and to fulfill the prophecy concerning its relationship to Palestine and the Jews, it is today emerging from the sea of nations with an uncanny certainty. The borders of
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