December 1932
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cDreseni -CDay S u lß lL c n i o /p R O P H E C Y . . . B y L ouis S. B auman
“ Lack of Trade” I . T is sim ply marvelous how many clear-cut, unmistak able signs God has given us of the return of His Son, and of.the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth. But among them all, none impresses itself upon us so con stantly and so forcefully, creating within us a surer ex pectancy, than the great prophecy of Christ in Luke 21: 25 to 28. Our readers will pardon us for referring to it again in these columns. “ And there shall be signs . . . upon the earth, distress of nations, with perplexity; . . . Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Previously we have called attention to the fact that Young, in his concordance, translates the Greek word aporia ( “ perplexity” )— without a passage out. And in these days, the wisest of men confess that all seems hope lessly dark ahead: nations bankrupt, racial and class hatreds growing more bitter, unemployed millions mut tering, war-clouds threatening—all this, and trembling, fear-filled statesmen confessing that they see no passage out. Our attention, however, has just now been called to another exceedingly striking interpretation of this word “ perplexity.” We quote from C. C. Ogilvy Van Lennep, in his work entitled, The Measured. Times o f the Book of Revelation (London) : “ Upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity” ' (Lk. 21 :25). N.B. aporia, “perplexity.” Emporia—trade, as in emporium, a place o f trade. Therefore, aporia — tradeless-, sunoche — compression, anxiety. Hence: “ Up on the earth anxiety o f nations through [or “in” ] lack o f trade." “Lack o f trade” ! And exactly that is back of the world-wide economic distress of nations that President Hoover says has never been equalled in the history of .the world. Our own nation is suffering acutely from just that— “ lack of trade.” For political effect, President Hoover and his political party have been constantly blamed for the economic ills of our nation. But every thinking, unbiased American today knows that our economic ills come from “ lack of trade.” Lavish in her production, the fruit of her inventive genius, America stands paralyzed in a world that cannot buy. Mills, factories, ships, stores, all are in distress because of “ lack of trade,” and “ no passage out.” The Cancer of Lawlessness and its Only Cure The cancer that is gnawing at the vitals of all human governments today is lawlessness. Our own great Presi dent, perhaps the greatest idealist that ever stepped a foot in the White House, has been compelled to acknowledge the impracticability of one of his greatest ideals—“ the noble experiment” of the prohibition of the godless, soul- destroying rum traffic. Why ? Simply because lawlessness is running riot in our great centers of population. Rather than have the children of a great community grow up in the spirit of lawlessness, he is willing that they shall have their beer. This he believes to be the lesser of two evils, and whether he is right or wrong in this, it does not mean that our President is not as dry as the Sahara Desert. It
does not mean that he is opposed to the ideal of the Eighteenth Amendment. He is willing for its repeal for the same reason that God was willing to let Israel have a king, and He even sent Samuel to kiss Saul and anoint him king (cf. 1 Sam. 8:5-22; 10:1, 18, 19; 12:13, 15). It was all contrary to the divine ideal and wisdom, but be cause of the hardness of their hearts, God let them have what they craved, and then did the best He could for them under the circumstances. When the Pharisees reminded the Christ that Moses suffered a man to give his wife “ a writing of divorcement, and to put her away,” the Master replied to them, say ing, “ Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so” (Matt. 19:7, 8 ). Once again, we see that even God will act on the principle that, for fallen men, it is some times more expedient to yield to their hardness o f heart than to attempt to force an ideal which can only spell utter lawlessness, for lawlessness is death. “ Wherefore the law [and will it seem irreverent for us to say here the law of prohibition ?] is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7:12). What, then, is the trouble ? A h ! our great President has learned, after nearly four years of sad experience, the truth of what Paul wrote over nineteen centuries ago: “ Law . . . was weak through the flesh.” He has learned that righteousness is a thing that cannot be legislated upon a people— “ what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh” (Rom. 8 :3 ). Law cannot cure lawlessness. Salvation must come from above. The failure of men to keep the law of Moses ended in “ God sending his own Son” (Rom. 8 :3 ). Even thus, lawlessness cul minating at last in the dictatorship of “ the lawless one” (2 Thess. 2:8, R .V .), will end in “ God sending his own Son” once again. Come, Lord Jesus, come! “Miry Clay” What a marvelous dream that was in the brain of old Nebuchadnezzar! A great image, the head of which was gold—Babylon. The breast and arms of silver-J|Medo- Persia. The belly and thighs of brass—Greece. The legs of iron— Rome. The feet and toes part of iron and part of clay—the Gentile powers at the hour of the Gentile sunset. The whole, a vision of Gentile dominion over Jerusalem, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar and closing with “ the stone” falling out of the heavens to grind to powder the anti-God political powers, and to establish the kingdom of the heavens upon the face of the whole earth. But note this: “ Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay” (Dan. 2:43 ). Iron— the emblem o f the preceding kingdom, remark able for its strength— Caesarism. Clay —the exact oppo site— “ the seed o f men” or Democracy. And what a strange mixture of it there is in the confines of that which was once the Roman Empire— imperialism and proletarian- ism ! There they are, joined side by side—the Caesarism (iron) of Italy, and the proletarianism (clay) of France,
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