T HE K I NG ' S B U S I N E S S parts of the Epistles, and in the Book of Revelation, how these conditions must be expected before those great events take place which have been sq ably enumerated by Dr. Panton. All these conditions are leading up to the events when God is going to manifest His power in judgment upon the earth. Look at Rev. 13 for a moment. There are two “beasts” that arise up out of the sea. They arise at a time of uni versal unrest, and that gives us a clue to the symbol that we have here in this chapter. I want to make one or two suggestions upon this; there is no time to deal fully with it. If you turn your minds back to Dan. 2, you will find there the picture that is given of man’s day—the image of man, the period during which God is go ing to allow him to rule, and how, at every stage, one stage after another, man proved himself to he an utter fail ure in ruling the world in righteousness and equity. In Dan. 7 you have the same picture-—the kingdoms which shall rise and fall. Only, in the first you have those powers and kingdoms as seen by man; but in the seventh chap ter you have the empires and kingdoms as seen by God. What are they? Wild beasts. Daniel’s vision opens, as you will notice, with the four winds of heaven breaking upon the sea, and the four “beasts” emerge. In Rev. 13 you have the “beasts” rising out of the sea, in a time of restlessness and clamour and tumult. Three of Daniel’s “beasts” have particular characteristics: one is like a lion, another is like a bear, and another like a leopard. The fourth “beast” is diverse from the others, but combines the characteristics of them all. In the image of the second chapter, you have the last stage of the political world, covering the times of the Gen tiles, when there shall be a particular number of kingdoms in alliance—a league of nations. When you see that league of nations, God says through
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Daniel, there shall come a “Stone cut out of the mountain without hands,” and it shall fall upon those political powers and nations—that combination, that league of nations—and grind them to powder, and God shall establish His eternal kingdom. That is what we have to expect in the days of this federation of nations. In the “beast” of Revela tion, you have surely the same symbol as in the seventh chapter of Daniel, the beast there being exactly the same as the “diverse” beast of Dan. 7. And in each vision, both in Dan. 2 and 7, and in Revelation, you will find that when these powers have come on the. scene, they are immediately followed by the announcement in some form or other that God’s kingdom is about to be es tablished on the earth. Here we surely see the meaning, the principal meaning, of the present League of Nations. It is a league to control peace, and that is an excellent project. It appeals to the human mind. If it is possible for men to meet together and combine together to command peace, universal peace upon the earth, it is an excellent idea. But, unfortunately, there is in it no recog nition of God, so far as one has been able to see. Thefe has never been any request made collectively, at any rate, that God should guide them in making their plans for this League of Nations. The suggestion I want to make to you is this—from this chapter and other passages— that when this League of Na tions is formed, the next thing we have to expect is surely that some personality will come upon the scene and gradually climb to power and control the League of Nations. Not only will he control the political powers of Europe, but he will control commerce. “He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor,1 free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” '
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