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The Last Terrible Forty Years

“Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe” (Rev. 14:18).

In this particular subject, even more than in others, we are completely indebted to bro. Thomas. We are truly indebted to him for all our knowledge of the Truth, but especially so as to prophecy and the last days. Though he wrote over one hundred years ago, his writings are still right to the point, and there is nothing produced since to compare with them.

Current speculations emphasize value of

bro. Thomas’ sound teaching

The long intervening time that has passed since he wrote has served to put Eureka to the acid test where most human works fail: in this case the passage of time has infinitely added to and strengthened our confidence in bro. Thomas’ scriptural teaching. The various strange and piecemeal current speculations that keep sprouting up only serve by contrast to give added force and power to bro. Thomas’ balanced and consistent picture.

In the preparation of these notes I have again read much from Eureka, and found it more satisfying than ever. All the following is either from Eureka or Elpis Israel, or thoughts derived from reading them. Bro. Thomas does not dogmatize on details, but he has woven together a picture of the developments of the last terrible forty years of man’s rule that no one has been able to come remotely near to improving on.

Bro. Thomas was successful in understanding and interpreting prophecy because he gave weight to every word of scripture, and always fitted in the literal as well as the symbolic whenever possible. The results he achieved, which time has so marvelously confirmed, are a complete vindication of his method. No other writings outside of scripture have the life and warmth and power and depth of bro. Thomas’ exposition.

Vast changes in ONE HUNDRED years, but bro. Thomas wonderfully vindicated

Vast and unforeseen changes have occurred in the earth since bro. Thomas’ day. Two tremendous worldwide conflicts have torn the world’s political maps to shreds, over and over. Most of the great nations of bro. Thomas’ day are no longer major factors on the world scene, but the lineup of nations is more and more as he foresaw from prophecy that it must be: Britain, US, France, Russia, Israel, Arabs, etc., are all falling into line for the last great scene that will climax and end the play.

Some details are not yet worked out, and this adds deep interest and suspense. Some parts of the puzzle do not yet fit into place, but the great sweep of events in the century since bro. Thomas fell asleep is all in the right direction.

Some of bro. Thomas’ applications of prophecy strike us at first as strained and far-fetched, but if we examine the context we shall find that in most places it greatly strengthens bro. Thomas’ exposition, for often, when he points it out, we find the context is inescapably Millennial. And this must be all through the prophets, for Peter declares in Acts 3:21 that God has spoken of these times by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. This is the great common focus of all their prophecy, and no one has brought this out so beautifully as bro. Thomas.

Eureka an inseparable part of the Truth

 in these last days

Eureka is an inseparable part of the Truth in these last days. Truly some parts are not first principles, but it is impossible to separate its general teachings from the Gospel. It is impossible to reject Eureka and still retain the Gospel in its fulness and depth, as many have tried to do, and made shipwreck. Bro. Roberts used to print over and over on the covers of the magazine: “Read Eureka! Read Eureka! Read Eureka!”

Eureka, by tracing the six thousand year war of the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman right down through the ages to the great culmination in the Battle of the Great Day of God almighty, shows us our true relation to the world and to Christendom: The embodiment of the enmity and the flesh. It is sad to note that the modernists who set bro. Thomas aside because of his clear delineation of the Enemy, become more and more confused in this relationship. They cannot see the issue clearly of the deadly Rome vs. Zion enmity, and therefore they partake in various ways of the intoxicating Roman wine.

Bro. Thomas was the root of the Truth’s

latter-day revival

We must never forget that bro. Thomas was, in the providence of God, the root of the current revival of the Truth in the earth. However we may endeavor to twist or obscure it, this is a basic, immovable fact in the development of God’s purpose in the earth.

There is a great host of separate prophecies on this subject of the events of the last days. We are nowhere given a complete chronological or consecutive outline-this has been divinely concealed for the faithful to endeavor in zeal and interest to work out. From an examination of Eureka, we shall try to present bro. Thomas’ suggested outline of the forty years that transforms the earth from its present manmade hell of war and wickedness to God’s Paradise of righteousness and peace.

Israel’s history is the key to prophecy:

the forty years

Israel’s history is typical in very many respects. It is the key to prophecy. And when we consider the forty years of travail that marked their birth as a nation-the complete destruction of a wicked generation so that a new generation might enter God’s Kingdom, we are more and more impressed with its significance and importance in the prophetic scheme. In dealing with Israel, God was always typically dealing with mankind.

Bro. Thomas, who from much study was saturated with the spirit of prophecy, builds the events of the last days (the setting up of the worldwide Kingdom) on the type of Israel’s forty years (the setting up of the typical Mosaic nucleus of the Kingdom). This foundation he puts together from several converging lines of evidence. First the words of God to Israel through Micah-

Then the “hour”-the thirty years-of the kings of the earth giving their power to the Beast to make war with the Lamb (Rev. 17:12-14), preceded by the necessity of a reasonable and practical period for the proclamation of the Everlasting Gospel to all nations of earth (Rev. 14:6).

Then the fact that so often in Scripture forty marks a period of trial, transition, testing and judgment.

The necessity of a long time to accomplish

the transition

And then the actual fitness and necessity of things. God truly could set up the Kingdom overnight if He chose: consider the vastness of Creation in six days. But He is dealing with men, and adjusts Himself to their limitations, and He has revealed a sequence of events, and purposes to be accomplished, that will require time as far as man is concerned.

The purpose basically is to offer salvation to all, to call for individual submission, to present opportunity, to gradually thresh out the wicked and rebellious while extracting the potential wheat as the human nucleus of the subjects of the Kingdom. This, in dealing on apparently natural principles with the earth’s enslaved and drugged and benighted billions, will take time.

The more we consider the magnitude of the undertaking , the more we are impressed that forty years-a generation-is a suitable and fitting time to accomplish these things, and God’s ways are always suitable and fitting. We come, in fact, to wonder if forty years is enough, and we conclude that only the almighty power of God could accomplish this purpose in forty years, considering the present state of mankind. If it were just destruction, that would take no time, but it is not: it is transition, education, orderly reorganization, complete renovation.

The present corrupt, debauched, benighted population of the earth cannot be just ushered into the Millennium just because they happen to be alive when Christ comes. We know that character and development must be formed in childhood. We know, as prophesied of the last days and as we see before our eyes, that the present population of the earth is increasingly violent, self-willed, rebellious, animalistic and pleasure-seeking.

The present population is mentally, morally and physically unfit for the blessings and peace of the Millennium-too immoral, too high in their own esteem, in the pride and glory of man. Surely forty years is not too long to prepare a population fit for God’s Kingdom.

The complete destruction of all man’s

rubbishy, ungodly works

Think of what is involved in pulling down all man’s ugly buildings, demolishing to the ground all his crowded and vice-ridden cities, cleaning off the face of God’s earth all man’s rubbishy edifices and constructions, and building an entirely new, permanent, sound social fabric in harmony with nature and with the mind of God.

Even ignorant man himself is suddenly realizing that he is approaching the dead end of environmental disaster in all the destructively blind “progress” and “civilization” that he has been so obsessed in and so proud of. Think of the pollution problem-can this be taken into the Millennium?

All the works of ignorant and foolish man must be swept away-demolished-scraped to the foundation. The Kingdom in its transitional, millennial form is to be built for cleanliness and health and one thousand years’ duration. How could any of man’s flimsy, rickety, tinker-toy productions have a place in that?-for even now man’s proudest works are so quickly obsolete and superseded.

And the earth is full of idols-human memorials, churches, temples, mosques, synagogs-how could all these polluted things stand in God’s glorious Kingdom of purity and wisdom and holiness? There must be a thorough and drastic cleansing and purging of the earth itself and of the whole human race.

The vine of the earth is fully ripe: great

impending judgments

The harvest of the earth is ripe. The angel cried to him that had the sharp sickle (Rev. 14:18)-

“Her grapes are fully ripe!” This is very significant as to worldly conditions at the return of Christ-

There must be a universal destruction (Psa. 46:8)-

The context of the whole psalm make it clear that this is in the last days at the setting up of the Kingdom, especially the next two verses-

The Seventh Vial poured out in the Air is the last forty years of the kingdom of men-a judicial period-the most important and most terrible time of all the earth’s long dark human history. This forty years is foreshadowed in the reign of David-preparing for Solomon, for the era of peace, for the building of the Temple, the “House of Prayer for All Nations.”

We are told that at this time Israel will be God’s threshing instrument, to thresh the nations (Isa. 41:15). Here is a picture of a processing operation that will take time-a separating of the wheat from the chaff. The whole population of the world must be progressively threshed in such a way as to give individual opportunity and choice. Otherwise there is no scope for the proclamation to every nation and kindred and tongue and people-

The conflict and destruction will largely

appear natural

The forty-year process of subduing the earth will largely appear to be natural. Truly there will be adequate evidence for those with eyes to see, as there was when Christ was among men the first time, but it will be all done in an apparently natural way to the extent that those who, like the Pharisees, choose not to see, will be able to deceive themselves. Bro. Thomas refers us to Zechariah 14:6-7, which he translates (Eur. II:319) as follows-

And bro. Thomas’ comments on this are (Eur. II:319-320)-

“From this we learn that when the Lamb and 144,000 enter upon their work of judgment at eventide, they will not ‘shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars’” (Dan. 12:3).

“They will not be manifested as URIM: but, though capable of so doing, they will draw in their brightness, and appear as men.

“But when the judgment is over, and the Kingdom established, and the time is come for them to rest from their labors, then they will no longer draw in their splendor, but ‘shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father’” (Matt. 13:43).

Similarly he says, speaking of the Little Open Scroll (Eur.ÊII:543)-

“The supernatural element is now introduced, which wonderfully quickens and consummates the end. But the infusion of this into the situation does not supersede the free action of the enemy, and the counteraction of him by the symbolic angel upon seemingly ordinary principles.

“The fourth Beast, or Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, which covers the whole area, will contend against them, as if they were a Zinghis or Tamerlane, until defeat and destruction on every side give mankind a practical understanding of the opening of the Seven-Sealed Scroll.”

Wicked mankind, self-deceived, will resist Christ and the Saints

So mankind will resist and contend against Christ and the Saints under the impression that they are a natural human power arisen in the Mideast to seek control of the world (though the supernatural “Antichrist” concept will be part of the delusion). Two factors will help the enemy to deceive themselves-

1. Christendom’s false theory that the prophesied Antichrist is a latter-day Jew who rises up against the Pope (instead of as it really is-the Pope himself). The essence of Christendom’s age-old traditions of “Antichrist” are that: he is a Jew, he arises at the last day, he appears in Jerusalem, he demands worship and submission, and that the Roman Church is the great defender of the world against him.

2. Man’s scientific developments. For their own destruction, God has so allowed them to increase knowledge and develop such awesome weapons of mass murder that they will easily believe that Christ is merely a human impostor who has developed some new “secret weapons.” We read with increasing frequency today of many fantastic weapons at present in vision or development-deadly laser beams like controlled bolts of lightning, and increasingly dehumanized electronic, computerized, push-button warfare.

The Jews are the natural means used: the “battle-ax” and “war-horse”

The Jews will provide the natural means. This is prophesied in many places (Mic. 5:8; Jer. 51:20-23; Isa. 41:15; Zech. 9:13; 12:6; Num. 23:24; Deut. 33:17, etc.). All will look very natural. During Gentile times, the Jews have always been a strange, feared, separate people, hated by mankind. And they have been disproportionately prominent in scientific and nuclear development in these last days: we have only to consider such names as Einstein, Oppenheimer, Teller, etc. It will look like the Jews are trying to take over the world.

Both horns of the Beast-Gog and the Papacy-are viciously anti-Jewish. The Pope has fawned on the Arabs and has never recognized Israel. He demands, with Russia and the Arabs, that they get out of Jerusalem.

The latter-day development of nuclear warfare fits perfectly into the world’s fatal self-deception about Christ when he comes. We are told that he will cause them to use their own weapons against each other, as Zechariah 14:12-13. Consider these verses (and the whole context of the chapter) in the light of nuclear war and the real and terrible example of Hiroshima (the present sufferers still ten’s of thousand’s).

When the judgments on the earth are exhausted and have done their work, when the earth is fully purged and the wicked and rebellious destroyed, when the smoke of divine wrath and retribution has at last cleared from the Temple (Rev. 15:8), then the Saints no longer “draw in,” or withhold their glory (Matt. 13:40-43)-

And Daniel gives the same picture-

“Yahweh came from Sinai”: Moses and

Habakkuk parallel

We now begin the detailed consideration of the subjugation of the world by Christ and the immortalized Saints, as they set out from Sinai as “Yahweh, the Man of War.” Bro. Thomas has written on this in Eureka II:545-554 and III:581 forward. Our attention is called to two parallel passages by Moses and Habakkuk-

Two things are to be noted: (1) This has never yet happened, and (2) the context, especially in Habakkuk, is clearly millennial. These Mosaic and Habakkuk visions are obviously identical with the Rainbowed Angel of Revelation 10, and the bloodstained One who comes from Edom of Isaiah 63. Habakkuk continues-

Midian and Cushan subdued and blessed first

Bro. Thomas reasons from this that Midian and Cushan (the Arabian Desert north and east of Sinai) are among the first to feel the sword of the King who is now setting out for world conquest, after the type of David who executed judgments in the southern desert before obtaining the sovereignty of Judah. The wild people of the Arabian Desert between Sinai and Israel are subdued; the desert is made to blossom like the rose, and the people glorify their conqueror for the blessing he brings upon their land. This is the first beginning of the establishment of the Kingdom.

Bro. Thomas believed that the blessing of the land and the removal of the curse would immediately follow Christ’s conquest wherever he went. If we think upon it, we realize that this is how it would have to be-both from the point of view of reasonableness and fittingness, and also to fit the prophecies. We know that the curse must be removed, the earth blessed, and the people taught righteousness-that all must be changed from present worldwide human ugliness and corruption and misuse to worldwide divine wisdom and beauty and goodness.

Worldwide blessing: instantaneous,

or gradual?

But have we thought how it will be done? Do we expect it to happen suddenly all over the earth? Or will it be gradual, orderly and progressive, like the opening up of a flower to the fulness of its beauty? Surely the latter.

The kingdom will begin from a small central nucleus, and then grow and grow until it fills the whole world. This is the picture that prophecy gives us, as in the case of the leavening of the bread, or the Little Stone that struck the Image.

We see too that, in fittingness, wherever Christ advances he must transform. To pass through he must conquer, for he recognizes no human authority. He must be supreme wherever he goes. He cannot pass through and leave a land as it was, under the old human dominion. Nor can he devastate without transforming and restoring. This would be wholly out of harmony with his mission of filling the earth with the glory of God.

So we realize, as soon as we think about it, that the picture bro. Thomas gives us of a gradually expanding Kingdom, bringing transformation and blessing as it extends, is the only fitting one. To reach the Holy Land from Sinai, Christ must pass through the Southern Desert. He must therefore make it his own dominion, begin his work in it, subdue its inhabitants, abolish all human institutions in it, beautify its land, lift the curse, and fill it with God’s glory.

The Kingdom of God has begun. A door has been opened in the political heavens. Christ and the Saints have a headquarters and a base of operations.

Once he has entered an area, he has taken rulership over it as its rightful owner, the heir of the earth. And once he has taken the rulership and responsibility for it, he must abolish human evil and begin his reign of righteousness and justice and blessing. The Old and the New cannot coexist in the same place.

So first the Southern Desert-Midian and Cushan-is possessed and glorified: BEFORE Armageddon. Then all the Covenant-Land (from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates), after Armageddon.

This will cause worldwide interest

and concern

But, says bro. Thomas, can such a Power begin to be developed in the area, and the rejected from the judgment seat be sent back into the world, and the wilderness and desert be transformed, and the wild Arabians be tamed and enlightened-without being a topic of burning and primary interest throughout the whole world?

It was bro. Thomas’ conviction, from various prophecies, that the Tarshish Power, the friend and defender of Israel, would be the first to be aware of the divine nature of the New Power in the Southern Desert, and would submit to it and enter into secret alliance with it.

He wrote long before Britain had entered and occupied much of the Mideast, as he saw it would have to do to fulfill its appointed work of establishing the restored remnant “in the midst of the land.” Since his day we have seen Britain come in and fulfill in marvelous detail what he saw laid out for her by the finger of prophecy.

However, with the passage of time, both Britain’s world power and her presence in the Mideast has of late greatly diminished, as the principal part of her work was completed.

But as Britain has receded from the area, the activity of one of the “young lions” (Eze. 38:13) has grown there, and today both Britain and United States have close ties with the basic areas involved-Jordan and Saudi Arabia: sufficiently so that bro. Thomas’ expectation of a secret alliance with the New Mideast Kingdom of Christ in the transformed deserts of Arabia are quite reasonable.

But the reaction of the enemies of Israel-the Europe-Papal-Russian alliance-is very different. They will not know of the true nature of the New Power in the earth, nor of the relation of Tarshish to it. All they will know is that it is an expansive, dictatorial, aggressive Power with a new religion that is subversive and intolerant of all other religions. They will know that its power is gradually being extended.

There must be a Tarshish power

protecting the land

Bro. Thomas, writing over fifty years before Britain liberated and occupied Palestine, expected Britain to still be in control of that land when these things were happening. He did not foresee the further development of Britain’s removal and Jewish independence. He knew from Ezekiel 38:13 that there must be a Tarshish power affording protection, and that Israel herself must be (v. 11)-

He expected that Britain, under the instigation and protection of Christ, would cleanse Jerusalem of all the Greek, Roman and Moslem idols and shrines, and that this would arouse the Beast, False Prophet and Dragon to great fury.

Though Britain is no longer the governing power there, it is quite possible the same course of events may develop. “All nations must be gathered against Jerusalem to battle” (Zech. 14 :2). This is before Christ reveals himself to the Jews as their rejected Messiah and takes possession of Jerusalem. Why then do the nations come against Jerusalem, if it is the New Arabian “Antichrist” they are enraged at?

It is possible that the Jews themselves, increasingly antagonized by the Papacy and Russia, will do what bro. Thomas expected Britain to do-clear the idols and idolators out of Jerusalem. They, too, will surely know of the New Arabian Power allied with their Tarshish friends and protectors, and while they will not know or believe it is the Christ they crucified two thousand years ago, they will be aware it is both friendly and powerful.

Papacy will cry “Antichrist!”: Russia

will head alliance

To the Papacy, the New Arabian Power will have all the expected characteristics of the long-anticipated Antichrist of their perverted theology, and this will be their rallying cry against him.

It is clear from both prophecy and the present world picture before our eyes that Russia will be the leader and master of this latter day crusade against Jerusalem. It is clear today that Russia’s path to its long-coveted control of the world and remolding it to a manmade millennium, lies through the Mideast. And it is clear that Israel is the great stumbling block there, like Mordecai sitting in the gate of the King. Tarshish opposes the invaders-

-but is overwhelmed and driven back across the Jordan into Edom, Moab and Ammon, while Russia and her allies sweep on into Egypt (Dan. 11:41-43).

Christ brings a remnant of Israel from Egypt

It is at this point that bro. Thomas believes the requirements of various prophecies necessitate the fitting in of a descent into Egypt by Christ, to deliver and bring out the Jews that are there-to bring them, as an earnest of the whole nation, again through the Red Sea and into the Covenant.

In the meantime, Jerusalem is captured by the invader, and its people are in the process of deportation into captivity (Zech.Ê14:2). In World War II, both Germany and Russia shifted around great masses of captive people like cattle-to death camps, to slave labor projects, or simply relocated them-to suit their own political ends.

Jacob’s last and worst “Time of Trouble”

Today Russia and the Arabs and the Papacy denounce the nation of Israel as usurpers of Arab lands, and it is clear their first step as soon as they were able would be to destroy or deport them, so Zechariah 14: 2 and 13: 8 are right in line with the present picture and probabilities.

This last “time of Jacob’s trouble” is clearly the worst and most terrible of all its bloodstained history-worse than the Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans and Hitler. For years the Arabs, egged on by Russia and the Papacy, have sworn to completely destroy Israel from the face of the earth. We are told that in the last invasion two thirds of the people in the land shall be cut off and die. It is clear therefore, both from prophecy and from present utterances, that the Papal-Gogian confederacy proposes to “solve” the Jewish Question once and for-ever. It is at this point God’s words in Ezekiel 38:18 are fulfilled-

This is the “eyes as a flame of fire” and “countenance as lightning” of the Multitudinous Man, the Rainbowed Angel (Zech.14:3)-

Bozrah: the first confrontation of Yahweh

and the image

From Isaiah 63:1-6, it is obvious that Bozrah is a very important, key battle-the first encounter with the Gogian forces. It is at Bozrah that the garments of the Rainbowed Angel, of Yahweh the Man of War, are stained with the blood of Gog.

There is an added significance to this in the fact that Teman and Bozrah are in Edom. Edom (“red”-standing for the flesh of sin) is the typical enemy of God’s people. This comes out clearly in Ezekiel 35, just preceding the group of chapters (36-39) describing Israel’s regathering and blessing in the last days. Edom is to be a perpetual desolation “when the whole world rejoiceth” (Eze. 35:14). Edom is apparently to be a perpetual, desolate, burning memorial to the subjugation and destruction of the flesh during the Millennium.

Yahweh, the Man of War, confronts Gog at Bozrah, in the northern part of Edom, about twenty miles south of the Dead Sea. (Teman is about thirty miles further south). Here He turns “every man’s sword against his brother” and “pleads against them with pestilence and with blood.” Thus begins the War of Armageddon, the “War of the Great Day of God Almighty” (Rev.Ê16:14-16).

Though Israel is God’s “battle-ax and weapons of war” against the nations of the world, it is emphasized (Isa. 63:3) that in this initial encounter the nation of natural Israel has no part. It is the work of the Man of One-Christ and the Saints-alone. It occurs before Jesus reveals himself to Israel as their rejected and crucified Messiah.

After Bozrah victory: Christ advances

toward Jerusalem

From the slaughter of Gog at Bozrah, the Multitudinous Christ advances toward Israel, “traveling in the greatness of his strength.” The natural route, and the one in harmony with both type and prophecy, would be up the east side of the Dead Sea through Moab to the Jordan opposite Jericho. Here is where the Valley of Achor (by Jericho) becomes a “door of hope” (Hos. 2:15) for the typical remnant of Israel that Christ has brought with him out of Egypt, as firstfruits and earnest of the whole nation’s deliverance.

The Gogian enemy in the land meanwhile is destroyed and reduced to one sixth of his forces by his own mutual self-slaughter and by the pestilence and judgment of the elements brought on him by God. The sixth retreats into Assyria, and God’s land is at last completely freed of its enemies.

In the judgment on Gog there is a-

-and leave a great east-west valley, as the halves of the mount move to the north and the south (Zech. 14:4). And through this newly formed valley Christ and the Saints come, fulfilling Ezekiel 43:2-

Jesus had said to them as he closed his first ministry among them-

“lift up your heads, o ye gates, for the

king of glory!”

Approaching the gates of Jerusalem, now suddenly relieved from the occupying and desolating forces of Gog, they cry (Psa. 24:7-10)-

And the enquiry comes from within-

They know that their destroyer has been destroyed, and that they have been saved at the very last moment of imminent extinction, but they do not know who the Savior is. The strange answer comes-

So they realize that here at last is their long-promised and long-awaited Messiah, delivering them when all hope seemed gone, and they cry-

-and there is great rejoicing throughout Jerusalem and the land.

But when their glorious King comes into the city, and they present themselves before him, the question is soon asked, doubtless with great fear and foreboding (Zech. 13:6)-

And the terrible answer-

joy turned into deep national remorse

and mourning

And so, like Joseph, he is made known to his brethren, and they are filled with fear, and joy is turned to national mourning-

And so, first by great oppression and tribulation, and then by great national humiliation and repentance, is the remnant of Israel cleansed and purified-

This is very beautiful and very fitting. It is Israel’s most terrible and yet most glorious experience. With a sudden, shocking flood of realization they learn they have been utterly wrong and blindly fighting the divine light for twenty centuries, and that all their sorrow has been because they rejected and killed the Son of God who had been sent to them in gentleness and love to call them to glory.

The beauty of God’s way: Israel broken

and purged

Surely no imaginable experience could be more traumatic and transforming. Nothing could so thoroughly and deeply shake and purge and humble and enlighten them-break the hardness of their blind self-sufficiency and prepare them for the ministration of redemption and love. Human nature must be crushed and broken and shaken to its foundations before it can begin to learn divine holiness and wisdom.

In the marvelous contrivance of His love and wisdom, God shall-

And the New Covenant will be made with the House of Judah-

For seven months thereafter (Eze. 39:11-16) they are cleaning up the land from the wreckage of the invader, and burying the multitude of dead he has left behind in his flight.

As elsewhere in the extension of Christ’s power, the curse is lifted and the land beautified, and the people blessed in wisdom and love and firm, righteous rule. The Little Stone Power now encompasses all the territory from Sinai to the north limits of Israel. The-

But she still has the joyful and glorious task before her, under Christ, of establishing herself as the “first dominion” of the world (Mic. 4:8).

Following the destruction of Gog’s host, and the deliverance of Jerusalem, and the revelation of Jesus to Israel as the Messiah, and the setting up of his throne in Jerusalem-comes the seven months it takes to bury Gog’s dead and cleanse the land (Eze. 39:9-16).

In the meantime the remnant of the enemy that remains is pursued back into Assyria (modern Iraq), which is judicially laid waste by the sword (Mic. 5:6). Iraq is among the most vicious of Israel’s present enemies, and closely allied with Russia. As the original Assyria, it must be allied with Russia at the end, and with Russia’s expulsion from Egypt (where she does not at present belong), Iraq is more and more likely to become Russia’s Mideast foothold.

The next step is the completion of the conquering of all the lands promised to Abraham, from the Nile to the Euphrates, and from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. This completes the disciplining and regeneration of Egypt, Israel and Assyria-

The whole original Eden, the Paradise (Garden) of God, has now been restored to its former condition of peace and fruitfulness and beauty (Eze. 36:35; Isa. 51:3).

This, in the main, completes the subjugation of the first three Beasts-Lion, Bear and Leopard-the Babylonian, Persian and Greek dominions, bringing them under the rule of Christ. These are not destroyed as nations, but completely subjugated (Dan. 7:12)

But there still remains the worst and greatest-the Roman Beast-which not only is to be conquered, but utterly destroyed from the earth, his body given to the burning flame (Dan 7:11). Every vestige of Roman Catholic influence is to be completely annihilated from the earth. Today that influence is universal-

Not only in all the Harlot Daughter Churches of the world, which are today flowing back to Mother Rome, but everywhere we turn, in every department of life, Romanism is stamped on every facet of society and civilization, and unless we are eternally alert and vigilant, we are inevitably and unconsciously contaminated by it in the simplest, commonest and most unsuspected ways.

This is the great climax and crisis of the whole book of Revelation-the final settlement of the age-old enmity between Rome and Zion-the slaying of the Latin Catholic Beast and the complete destruction of its body-politic. Catholic Europe is the heart of this system-that territory that existed for one thousand years from Charlemagne to Napoleon as the “Holy Roman Empire.”

But before the Rainbowed Angel (Christ and the Saints) advances against the demon-worshipers of Europe, he-

This is the proclamation of the Everlasting Gospel-

Isaiah 66:19 refers to the same event. Verse 18 tells us God will:

This is accomplished in the attack by Gog and his European hosts, and their destruction (Eze. 39:21). Verse 19 continues-

-the setting up of the throne at Jerusalem, the “ensign upon the mountains.” Then follows the proclamation to the world-

A certain period is involved in carrying this proclamation to all the earth and allowing time for its effect throughout all the benighted millions of the world. This period is referred to in Isaiah 18:4. There, in verse 3, is the call to all inhabitants of the world to see when God lifts up an ensign on the mountain, and to listen when He blows the warning trumpet. Then verse 4, which bro.Thomas renders-

And then verse 5 goes on with the breaking of a storm-the terrible divine “harvest” of the “sour grapes of the earth.” Compare this with Revelation 14:19-the harvest of the “Vine of the Earth” that follows the preaching of the Everlasting Gospel in verses 6-7.

How long is this period of proclamation, and waiting for it to take effect? We know in the very nature of things it cannot be instantaneous: the proclamation one day, the destruction the next. That is not how God gives fresh invitations and opportunities. There must be some period of time for the message to reach all mankind, for them to hear, and learn what it is all about, and perceive the evidence, and decide. How long a time? We are dealing with the whole world: a world to which divine things are universally foreign.

In the present utterly corrupt, animalized and benighted condition of the earth’s population, how long would it take to get the message through in any kind of an understanding way to all the earth’s teeming and ignorant millions-most of them either steeped in idolatry and witchcraft, as in Catholicism and pagan Africa, or completely brain-washed and robotized, as in China and Russia, or immersed in lust, greed, immorality and pleasure-seeking, as in the “gentle and enlightened” Anglo-Saxon lands?

The length of time required will be measured by God’s mercy in giving opportunity, and by man’s present depravity and ignorance in relation to divine things. Both the mercy of God and the ignorance of man are very great.

Bro. Thomas suggested it would be a ten-year period, on the combined evidence and indications of several scriptures. It was ten days from the great blowing of trumpets that inaugurated the Feast of Tabernacles, to the Day of Atonement itself, which was a great climactic day of affliction and purging and cleansing and beginning again of the whole Jewish year or cycle. And certainly the judgments of God upon the earth are to be a Day of Atonement and purging in every sense.

Ten years for the trumpet-proclamation of the Everlasting Gospel would leave (of the overall forty years) an “hour”-a month of years-one twelfth of three hundred and sixty-thirty years-the “Hour of Judgment” for the actual war between the Lamb and the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:12-14), for we are told (and we know from history and experience) that the arrogant rulership of the earth will not submit peacefully.

Man will not without a terrible struggle give up his power and privilege and fleshly wickedness and wilfulness, to submit to the galling divine demand of humility and purity and holiness.

Christ will demand the total and abject surrender of all wealth and power and privilege, that all positions of rulership and authority may be bestowed on those who are worthy-Christ’s friends-for the just and divine administration of the earth. Clearly the greater the power and the more entrenched the privilege, the fiercer and more tenacious will be the resistance.

Doubtless, as in the days of his first appearance on earth, the “common people” will “hear him gladly,” though they too will resent the divine restrictions on their fleshly lusts, and the abolition from the earth of their godless, corrupt, infantile worldly sports and pleasures. They will resent the summons to grow up and put away childish things, and act like mature adults-divinely mature.

It will be the time of which Hannah sang (1 Sam. 2)-

Note the expressions “His King” and “His Anointed.” This is the first time the term “King” is applied to Christ, except in Balaam’s remarkable prophecy (Num. 24:7), and the first time “Anointed” (Messiah) is applied to him at all. In fact, the word Messiah does not occur before, except four times (Leviticus) applied to the High Priest.

Mary spoke on a similar occasion with remarkable similarity:

When we consider all the circumstances, and what is to be accomplished, and put it into the perspective of the long sweep of all human history which has deeply ingrained a way of thinking into all mankind, we shall realize that ten short years is in no way too long a period for this great final preaching of the Truth to the world before the final war of worldwide destruction and purification.

It could well be divided, by its nature, into sub-periods of three and seven years each-both of which are deeply significant numbers: of resurrection and perfection.

Ten was the number of commandments proclaimed by the voice of God to Israel under Moses from the burning and thundering mount of Sinai. So ten may fittingly mark the proclamation of God to the world from the glorious mount of Zion, when Christ and the 144,000 shall stand upon it and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

Mainly, the time is required for gradual, worldwide education, so that the world’s people can be in a position to decide intelligently. The world is deeply sunk in ignorance of any true spiritual things, and rapidly sinking deeper and deeper. Education must have some basic foundation of understanding to begin with, or it is a terribly slow process.

There will inevitably be a tremendous propaganda campaign by all the entrenched political and ecclesiastical and editorial forces of the world against the claims of Christ and the Saints. These forces control all the facilities of communication and opinion-forming, which God will doubtless permit them to continue to use so all the world will be faced with a choice.

This is a time when all the inhabitants of the earth will be forced to turn their animal minds away from fleshly excitements and amusements and awake to face eternal reality, and (Josh. 24:15)-

Mankind have always largely “thought” and moved in blind, stumbling masses, like sheep. What the mass does, the individual does unthinkingly, in most things. Most people are frightened to death to be different from their group. Even present protest movements, pretending to be thoughtful and individual, are mostly blind, mass, group movements, following the fads.

Then, too, time must be given for the confidence of the hierarchy of the wicked to be restored after Armageddon, that they have a chance to fight Christ successfully, and for them to marshall their forces against him-to perhaps develop some new “secret” weapon that they feel will counter the “secret” weapons he appears to have. Man’s scientific arrogance will contribute to his destruction.

It took several years for the United Sates after Pearl Harbor to marshall its forces and convert its industrial capacity to full wartime production. God will give them the time needed to fulfil His purposes.

And many will remember, in the same connection, the so-called “phony” war of propaganda and eerie, misleading, lulling, disarming quiet and inactivity that preceded Hitler’s terrible blitz-krieg, the “lightning-war” by which he came perilously close to accomplishing his avowed purpose of “set-tling the course of Europe for one thousand years.” Christ’s enemies must be given a period to develop their confidence and plans, so that the final issue may be the utter destruction of the entrenched and incorrigible forces of wickedness.

And there must be ample time for the picture to develop in the eyes of the world’s peoples, so the right people may be called out on right basis, for right reasons.

This proclamation period comes after the smiting of the Gog Image on its feet, and before grinding it to powder (Dan. 2:34-35). It is between the Armageddon overthrow of the sixth Vial and the commencement of the pouring out of the seventh Vial into the Air.

The “Air” is the ruling elements of the earth. It is upon them primarily that the wrath is poured, and it is these that will blindly and stubbornly resist unto the end-like evil, arrogant, power-mad, judicially-hardened Pharaoh, though his servants cried to him-

The messengers sent throughout the earth have a three-fold message-

Before Babylon’s destruction there is a people to deliver (Rev.Ê18:4)-

These “My people” are not the Saints. The Saints (the faithful of the present dispensation) have already been assembled and judged and glorified. These “people” are those being called to become God’s people by believing the Everlasting Gospel then being preached, and by obeying its call to come out. We remember Christ said to Paul regarding Corinth, as Paul first started to work there-

They were still at that time in heathen darkness, but they were his people in prospect, for they would come out and take their places as his people by the instrumentality of the preaching of Paul. This is the period of which the Spirit said in Zechariah 2 :10-11-

In Revelation 18, where the judgment and destruction of Babylon is announced, we are told (v. 4) that it is “another voice” that calls for God’s prospective people to come out of Babylon and escape her pending plagues. This is the voice of the messengers of the Everlasting Gospel of Revelation 14:6-7.

The proclamation of the Everlasting Gospel is in “Midheaven” (Rev. 14:6). This is the political aerial of the world upon which the impending judgments of the seventh Vial-the final, culminating, completing Vial-are to be poured out (Rev. 16:17). Long have the Sin-Powers of the earth-the present “heavens”- ruled the world in wickedness according to the mind of the flesh. Now a door has been “opened in heaven” (Rev. 4:1), and a new heavenly power has burst in on their dominions, and is about to sweep them all out into oblivion-to “cast them out of heaven.”

It is “Midheaven” because it has now ceased to be the supreme political heavens, now that Christ has begun to set up his Kingdom and has been established in Jerusalem as the true and rightful and sole King of the whole earth.

Bro. Thomas interestingly and instructively draws a parallel between the “Angel in Midheaven” and the incident in 1ÊChroniclesÊ21:16 where David sees an angel “standing between the earth and heaven” with a drawn sword of impending judgment over Jerusalem. David is being punished for having disobeyed God and taken pride in the arm of the flesh in numbering the manpower of Israel. And as the angel stands with his sword poised, David is instructed what to do to avoid the threatened destruction of the city.

The introduction into this picture of Ornan, a Gentile, and his four sons (who hid themselves at this time of judgment) adds to the significance of the parallel. The Gentiles at this epoch of judgment submit and give their wealth to the Lord. (The ones who do not submit-though they appear to be the majority-cease to exist and cease therefore to be of any account in the picture.)

The Gentiles at Christ’s coming, like Ornan (“as a king”-
2 Sam. 24:23-a strange expression), offer their riches freely, though their gift is not accepted without recompense, for the temporal and spiritual blessings they receive infinitely outweigh the wealth they relinquish to the new and greater David, who in turn dedicates it to God and His Temple.

The four sons of Ornan who hide themselves at this time of judgment are clearly the four-fold Sin-Powers of the world, the four Beasts-

The nations of the Gentiles are separated into two classes on the basis of their reaction to the proclamation-the Goat-nations and the Sheep-nations. The Goat-nations are all of Europe-all the Catholic nations-all the nations of the ten Horns, Beast, False Prophet and Dragon-including Russia which is historically Orthodox Catholic (like Greece) and which will have been reunited under the papal banner in that day. All these we know are Goats, for they are represented in actual warfare with the Lamb, and are destroyed by him.

The Sheep-nations are those who are allies of the Shepherd of Israel. They are primarily the Tarshish nations-Sin-Powers, truly, like all the rest-but rewarded at this time with lesser punishment and quicker reconciliation because of their historic better treatment of God’s people, both natural and spiritual. This will be the Tarshish nations and those few if any who have the wisdom to stand with them.

Bro. Thomas in his day, viewing the boastful arrogance and wickedness of the United States, did not expect it to submit to Christ without terrible judgments and desolations. Today the arrogance and wickedness are even greater, but for the present United States has largely assumed the historic Tarshish role of Israel’s friend and protector. Apart from the protecting arm of United States, Israel long since would have been wiped off the map, to the mutual joy of Russian, Catholic and Arab.

United States and Russia are equally fleshly and worldly and animalish, but while United States gives freedom and protection to God’s Word and to His people, Russia suppresses and persecutes both, after the fashion of the Roman Beast in all its blood-stained history.

Zechariah 6 gives us a similar picture of distinction of treatment between the Goat and Sheep nations, in the vision of the two Mountains of Brass. These two mountains are the two great fleshly powers of the last day-King of the North and King of the South-Gog and Tarshish.

From between them issue forth four chariots. Here is the Bozrah picture of Christ stepping in between them. These are the Chariot of the Cherubim-the Elect of God in judicial war-chariot manifestation for the subduing of the earth, and the leveling of the two great Flesh-Brass Sin-Mountains.

The four Chariots are drawn by horses of four different colors-red, black, white, and grisled (grey or spotted). The horses are the “goodly” Israel battle-horses (Zech. 10:3), made “goodly” and thus useful to God by the purifying judgments of the last days, and their deeply repentant conversion to their true Messiah.

It is the different colors of the horses which gives indication of different treatment-different degrees of punishment and destruction-visited upon the different areas to which each goes. To the north (Gog) first go the black horses, and then the white follow them. Here appears to be indicated a double operation, or an operation of double intensity, which is at first all black-complete woe and destruction; then all white-complete victory and purging.

To the South (Tarshish) go the “grisled” horses, an indication of mixed and milder treatment. The red do not go anywhere specifically. They, listed first, appear to be a general type of the warlikeness of the whole operation, in contrast to Christ’s first mission on earth. The bay (or “strong,” or “swift”) horses go through all the earth, after the operations of the black, white and grisled in the North and South.

Again, the same Sheep-Goat distinction appears in Zechariah 10, in the very context in which the “goodly horse” symbol appears-

The False Prophet-the Papacy-is the “Idol Shepherd” (Zech. 11:17), the Shepherd of the Goat-nations, blasphemously claiming to be God on earth, and stirring up the nations against the true Shepherd of the Sheep.

The Sheep and Goat concept has many degrees of application: the Saints, Israel, the nations, and the individual inhabitants of the earth. In each case there must be a day of separation: some on the right hand, and some on the left. Brother Thomas (Eur. III:408) makes a double application of Matthew 25:31-33-individual and national.

Another indication of the separation of the nations into Sheep and Goat powers in relation to Christ appears in the various references to the actions of some nations as voluntarily bringing gifts. One group of nations-the Beast nations-we know unite to fight Christ, and their defeat and destruction is given in terms that appear to eliminate any possibility of rulers bringing gifts of peace-

This is one picture. Then we have such prophecies as-

With all the foregoing, the warning and promise of Psalm 2 would also seem to give a strong indication that there is expected, and will be, different degrees of wisdom and submission manifested by the world’s rulers-

Similarly Isaiah 60 seems to carry the same implication that nations as such will react differently, and will consequently be treated differently. Addressing Israel in the day of her blessing and glory, it is promised-

This would surely imply that some will submit and some will fight. Just previously, in verse 9, we are told-

“First” here again points to different degrees of order and alacrity in recognizing and submitting to the power of Christ.

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