Chapter 2 - Time Limited to God's Fore-Ordained Plan
We now come to an unveiling of things which God has 'hidden from the wise and prudent' and yet has 'revealed to babes', (Matthew 11:25) and it is these things on which we must fix our attention if we would begin to understand what has been secretly shaping the course of modern history over the past seventy years; that is, seemingly from behind the scenes.
We have just referred to a plan - a time plan - taken from the fourth chapter of Daniel. This chapter, which seems to be the only one in the Bible written wholly by a Gentile (though recorded by Daniel), is addressed to the whole human race - 'all people, nations and languages ... in all the earth.' And it is not the utterance of some minor prophet, but we find in Daniel 2: 37, that it was made by the actual head of the Gentile empires, and the one Daniel calls, 'King of kings,' to whom 'the God of heaven' had given the 'kingdom, power, and strength and glory.'
It is safe to say that without this chapter there would be no positive evidence given in Scripture as to how long God would allow the Gentile domination of the earth to continue, and the throne of Judah to remain in abeyance. For Nebuchadnezzar, in his personal experience, provides a type of the moral state of Gentile government of the earth over the past 2,520 years - alienated from the knowledge of God, but, nevertheless, 'wet with the dew of heaven,' which so beautifully expresses the way the blessings of true Christianity have descended upon the human race. The 'band of iron and brass', in verse 15 of chapter 4, signifies the impress of Roman civilisation and Grecian culture which would characterise Gentile rule, in the main, until the throne of Judah is restored at the return of Christ, the true 'Son of David,' at the opening of His Millennial Kingdom.
This chapter shows that the essence of Nebuchadnezzar's mental illness (or call it what you will) was that it was a state allowed by God for a fixed period of time, after which illumination would be granted, and the knowledge of Himself restored. None can read the last verses of the chapter, recording Nebuchadnezzar's testimony, without being deeply moved; for his words express the homage this Gentile world, of which he was the fallen head, will pay to Christ when, at length, He opens man's understanding and causes him to retrace and measure the exact course of his history of pride and moral alienation from God, from beginning to end.
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'How Great are His Signs!'
(Daniel 4:3)
What, then, was the purpose of these 'seven times' passing over the king and his kingdom of Babylon? It is expressly stated in verse 17 that the whole matter was 'by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the Holy Ones (that is, the Godhead) to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the lowest (or most abased) of men'. That is, of course, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The essence of the matter was that the time was strictly limited, and therefore must be accurately measured. In the late 1920's a small group interested in these matters found themselves confronted with the fact that, although as a result of the liberation of Palestine there was much talk in Christian circles about the Return of Christ, nothing was really being done to touch the world with any kind of effective warning of the peril awaiting it. The language God uses in Ezekiel 24 was terrible in the extreme, when aimed at the inhabitants of Jerusalem in 588 BC, but what was to come 2,520 years later, when God had to deal with a vast Gentile civilisation that had gone astray from Him? Was no word of warning to be given to Christendom at large?
As many will remember, between October 1929 and June 1933 the world entered into one of the worst financial and commercial depressions ever known, with attendant famine and starvation and large-scale unemployment. It was with this dark background that the little group of unattached believers saw that they were faced with the evident probability that the Lord was about to come - and, if so, it looked as if the world really was going to receive no prior warning of this most tremendous event. Who, indeed, could contemplate in cold blood the closing of the door of mercy - after nineteen centuries of grace to all mankind - without some cry being raised, or some attempt to awaken the unsaved masses for whom the Churches of Christendom held little or no attraction?
For some six years prior to 1933 the Spirit of God had focused our attention on Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and those sections of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, which expose the state of the people of Judah as their kingdom began to collapse, at the opening of the 'seven times' in the sixth century BC. Warning after warning had been given by the prophets of impending disaster - how was it possible, then, that God would allow the whole of the Gentile world, not to mention Israel, to slide unwarned into the maelstrom of trouble, 'judgment and fiery indignation, '(Hebrews.10:27) which the Bible forecast as preceding the Return of Judah's King to set up His Millennial Kingdom?
A Secret Plan
It may be easy for us now - after the Second World War and the removal of 'the third part' of the Jewish people from the earth in the days of Adolf Hitler, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and particularly after we have watched Israel in part re-gathered from over 70 different states to become a Nation again in their homeland - it may be easy now to perceive that 'the Kingdom is nigh, even at the doors,' (Matthew 24:14 & 33)but God had preparations to make, and a 'secret counsel' to be fulfilled, before ever He could commence the work of Israel's restoration which we have seen. And He intended that, in due course, His children should enter into the knowledge of these things. But God knew that, for the moment, He would have to work in secret; for had He not had to say to Israel at the beginning of our age, 'I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you'? (Acts 13: 41)
One great question lay heavy on the hearts of those who realised they were watching the ending stages of the 2,520 years, (see Note 1) and this was how our Lord could come for His Church in its state of utter unpreparedness. Had God some plan of action which He would yet reveal? Jesus called this state 'sleep' in His first parable of Matthew 25.
Oh, praise the Lord, 'and make His praise glorious' (Psalm 66:2) - of course, He had a plan, and this clearly revealed in His Word, for could one single atom fail of the things that He had spoken? In due course this 'plan' began to dawn.
God had in view the ordered fulfilment of His Word. Before He could terminate His official relationship with the Gentiles - as 'grafted into the olive tree' in the place of Israel (a subject Paul writes on very fully in Romans 11) - He must warn them of His intention, in case they showed a willingness to repent. He had to do this before He could openly have dealings with the people of Israel, and 'graft them in again' into their own olive tree.
Then there was the position of 'the Church which', as Paul tells us in his Ephesian letter, ' is the body of Christ.' The Lord could not act apart from His Church, so it was necessary that it also should be given notice of His intentions.
All this was because, quite apart from the completion of the 'seven times' from 588 BC (see Note 1), there were other heavily-marked eras of the Bible's chronology due to end on one particular day, in the summer of 1933. In view of this fact, those watching were, in the autumn of 1932, led into an understanding of our Lord's great resurrection miracle of John 21.
'Jesus Stood on the Shore'
(John 21: 4)
Every one of the eight 'signs' (as the miracles of Jesus are called in John's Gospel) throws light on His purposes at this end of our age. 'Eight' is that number in the Bible which has to do with resurrection, and it will be found that eight resurrections are recorded in Scripture. (See 1 Kings 17:17-22, 2 Kings 4:32-36, 2 Kings 13:21, Luke 7:12-15, Luke 8:49-56, John 11:44, Acts 9:36-41 and Acts 20:9-10).
The Gospel of John presents Jesus as The Son of God, and it will be seen that it was at the time of His resurrection that He received that word from His Father: 'Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee,' (Psalms 2:7) for He was the 'Firstborn,' or 'first begotten of the dead' (Colossians 1:18 & Revelation 1:5 ).
As, therefore, we were now at the resurrection end of the age, it was not surprising that the one great resurrection 'sign' miracle of Jesus was used to open the eyes of those waiting on Him for instruction, and a simple revelation was made as to the real meaning of the 'two hundred cubits' distance from the land, in John 21:8. As the 'cubit' had been used in Egypt to symbolise a 'day', and this was known to Israel, it was shown that this distance had a time signification - that is, '200 cubits' represented the space of '200 days.'
Clear direction was then given by the Spirit of God that, 200 days prior to the end of the age, a 'net' must be 'cast into the sea' of the Gentiles - this 'net' signifying a testimony, as the Gospels prove. Light was also given as to the meaning of the '153 great fishes' and it was seen that this wonderful number signified the Church of God being brought to completion, as it will be on the resurrection shore.
Not one of us at that time had any glimpse of the enormity of the purpose that lay ahead, or of how different God's ways were from our ways - of how long the project He had before Him would really take, or of the almightiness of His arm which we should see stretched out over all the nations of the earth to bring it to fulfilment. And how little did we dream at that time that the 200 days before us would presently prove to have been the last 200 days of the '2,000 years' of 'the times of the Gentiles,' as they are measured in the Chronology of Redemption - a divine method of reckoning of which we then had no knowledge. All that we were allowed to see was that around the season of Pentecost in 1933 there would be a movement of God to bring our dispensation to an end, as we thought, by the Second Appearing of Christ, when He would fulfil His threat, through the Apostle Paul in Romans 11: 22, and 'cut off' the Gentile nations. We had to act, indeed, like those who were 'blind,' and brought 'by away' we 'knew not' (Isaiah 42: 16).
The essence of the matter was that God wanted a few people to state certain things in His Name about a coming day and date which, if they had known about it beforehand, they would never have been able to say.
The Positive Prediction
In the simplicity of faith, therefore, a meeting was called for Christian people for the evening of 25th November 1932, at the Friend's Meeting House, Euston Road, London. The object of this was to reveal all that had come to light concerning the ending stages of the 'seven times' prophecy and to unfold the meaning of the '200 cubits' of John 21, showing how God had used it to indicate the actual time when the nations of Christendom would be 'cut off.' These 200 days would end on June 12th in the following year, 1933, and in making these facts known we desired the fellowship of other members of the Body of Christ.
It must be mentioned that in taking this step of faith in the veracity of God's Word, seven brethren acted together in obedience to the command of Jesus, as it is found in John 21: 6, 'Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.' There were also seven brethren acting in unison away back there on the Sea of Tiberias in AD 33, and their net was immediately filled with '153' great fishes, when they were '200 cubits' from the land.
The Meeting was held as advertised and, while many showed considerable interest, some were also very conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit in this gathering. Independent witnesses were moved to count the number of those present, and the full total was found to be exactly '153'. This, understandably, was quite a sign to us as several hundreds attended further meetings on the following day.
The address of November 25th was published in certain Christian papers, but as most believers in those days were members of one or other of the Christian groupings or denominations, the usual uncertainty prevailed which is generally accorded to anything not really in line with the teaching currently held.
How little did we realise how great a God was directing this simple operation, or what it was He really had in mind to do. It was not long before warnings were issued in the Christian press against any form of 'date-fixing,' and this had the effect of quenching interest in the matter, except on the part of some individuals whose independence of mind carried them over this hurdle.
We moved on into the Spring of 1933, still unaware of the action which God had already taken to effect this part of His end time purpose. Prayerful research into the Scriptures continued, but it was not until April 25th that further movement was called for. Then, suddenly, in the early morning, God gave explicit instruction for a large Public Meeting to be arranged in London, so that a final warning of 'forty days' could be given - this time not alone to Christians, but in still more positive terms, and directed to the nations as a whole.
Chapter 3 Events Leading up to'The World's Second Tower of Babel'