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EPILOGUE
TYRE LATER
and the
THREEFOLD PRONG
POINTING TO
THE END OF THE AGE
Ezekiel 26-28, 37-39, Revelation
In Chapters
12 and 13 above, consideration has been given to the specialised case of Tyre,
dealing with Ezekiel in the Chapters 26 and following. Now this Epilogue, what
was planned as a short, sharp completion with its own emphasis, has become not
only an account of the later development in ancient Tyre, but a call for insight
and recognition of divine oversight, in the progressions of history, using our
special interest in Tyre, and hence in the surrounding imperial list of Daniel
(four in number), for comparison of such things with the ways of the Lord. Thus
the birth of their kingdoms and the worth of His domain, come into view in
contrast. With this as is natural, comes review of His word as it binds history
which follows for all its shoutings, with the conformity to the word of God, of
a lamb. Not lamb-like however are its howlings, but only in this, that what has
been written in the Bible, is what is found with the eye and ear.
Latter Day Tyre
In the last
Chapter, we saw something of the elevation and degradation of Tyre, its heights
so great, that even after the ravaging of Nebuchadnezzar, unknown to him doing
his stint as in an opera program, and singing his oratorio with splendid zeal,
it endured much. This included a 13 year reported siege of the mainland city.
Undaunted, it even showed centuries later, a spirit of undimmed assurance,
daring to slay some of the messengers seeking its surrender, from Alexander,
with the confidence of its offshore, island retreat. The Little Tyre which grew
as mainland fell, was not now so small. This murder of some of the conqueror's
messengers would possibly seal the city's fate at the strategic level, making it
mirror that foretold by Ezekiel 26.
God uses many
means, and that includes making even the wrath, the hot anger of man, to serve
Him, as here (Psalm 76:10). What fulfils that task, may then in its residue
become absorbed by the deity, like clothes, and be aborted as in the case of the
early death of Alexander. That was the conquest of Alexander by mortality,
coming in his still almost youthful years, in his thirties. The world of the day
was won; but Alexander himself was lost.
The situation leading Alexander on, before his grand sweep of
world powers, to overcome them, to invade Tyre at such cost, by one report the
workers on the mole amounting to figures in the ten thousands is of interest;
for it can educate us on the potential folly of power and the power of folly,
when untamed in man: that lofty spirit. Possibly it was out of outrage and
questions of kudos, as well as of imperial aspirations, that the initial
flamboyant refusal of the city to yield, with murder to match, clinched the
desire at such cost, for a full invasion of the city. This was to fulfil
Ezekiel's prophecy, in providing a REASON in the mind of Alexander for putting
the stones of the city into the sea in order to build a causeway (to become an
isthmus) to the city to enable its overthrow amid imperial vengeance from
Alexander for its audacity in treatment of his messengers.
What steps, then,
did the fleet-footed Alexander take when he both reached and breached the island
city, Little Tyre, which now appeared a repository for much transported to it
from the mainland scene ? Just as the story of the building of the causeway
arouses interest, for the report is of canny and determined efforts, when Tyre
at last realised its impregnability was not so, but rather an incitement to the
conqueror, and so sought to destroy this growing maritime path to the city, so
does that leader's response.
It reportedly included tests of purpose and endurance for
Alexander. For example, when the causeway was in danger of failing, instead of
deciding that enough was enough, Alexander redoubled his efforts to complete the
construction. Starting with fresh vision, he caused it to be rebuilt it more
stably, including tower consolidation, and with naval power coming back to his
hand from elsewhere, overcoming Tyre's fleet disastrously, he breached its
massive wall. What then ?
When Alexander the
Great conquered the island off Tyre's coast, Little Tyre, he reportedly had
thousands crucified, more thousands sold as slaves, while that maritime location
suffered rampaging assault. Thus even the Island was smashed, and it continued
to be devastated by many forces in the following years, even by earthquakes,
with ruins now in view coming from Greek and Roman times, with no trace of the
Phoenician city, its culture, its civilisation, all left mounded over its
breaches with the flux of time or pounded by the sea.
The other towns built
around the isthmus and adjoining area, as if at a wake, are recently said to be
depressed, mauled in war, neither the site of mainland Tyre nor the grandeur of
island-retreat Tyre with anything left to show. In sum: the work of Alexander in
using the materials of mainland Tyre to reach and ravage the Little Tyre on the
island, was artfully resisted by the Tyrians; but in the end Alexander receiving
reinforcements for his fleet, had a great victory over that of Tyre, punctured
its walls, slaughtered people, smashed treasures and went on his way at length
to his own death session in India, dying like Tyre.
On his demise, as Daniel 8 predicted, there was a multi-partite
residue of his power and civilisation, leaving four regions! Division led to
excision, and there was no more unity in the Macedonian empire. Indeed, the
empire so slipped, that it did not even provide safety for Alexander's wife. He
himself was gobbled up in his own grandeur, like the food of one of his feasts.
As to Tyre, glory, ancient site, monuments of glory, continuation of culture,
imperial presence and power, its own nature and contribution were all swallowed
up in desolations continuing over the ages, and as to the predicted fishing, yes
even now it continues, as it may well have done in the days of the initial 13
years siege and ravagement of Nebuchadnezzar. That was a feat to yield scope for
the many sunken stones of Alexander and his intensive, sustained fury.
Thus whether in small
attacks by some, or in these two massifs of assault by Nebuchadnezzar and
Alexander, Tyre was spoiled, soiled, its splendour departing, its site drowning.
Sought in vain in its loss, it yielded only this negative, overall and sustained
result of its civilisation and glory, site and sufficiency, imperial temper and
spiritual signature. Wrought chiefly by two, but over time by the unconscious
co-operation of many assailants, these many actions led to the eventual
unchartered burial of Tyre. But who did more than Alexander, who having
despatched the glory and will to resist of that magnificence, was himself
despatched in short measure, living not long after this! So was the temper of
intolerant majesty and invincible aspiration left ready for others to seize
in satanic power, as beauty turned to ashes, vision to death, might to murk and
ostentation to rebuff in the world.
Note: The site
https://apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=1790
gives much information on Tyre and
Alexander. For more, use this hyperlink in particular. A major source used is
the ancient "historian Diodorus Siculus, who lived from approximately
80-20 B.C.," who "wrote extensively of the young Greek conqueror’s dealing with
Tyre."
ANOTHER THREE (1)
Rome - its empire,
Rome - its religion,
and its Take-Over
by the Essence and Finale of the Beast,
the Ultimate Tyre and Pyre of Unreason and Untruth
But the flaming
Phoenician empire, the one self-elevated, self-motivated, intoxicatingly
vindictive towards Israel and insurmountable by the world, rich to dizziness,
sick with a surfeit of false religion, treating itself as a god (Ezekiel
28:9-10), it is no more; its ruins buried, it has no replacement ... there. The
imperial baton is there; but it is not for
Tyre.
But what of others ? Daniel's listing of the four empires in view as in Daniel 2, 7
and 8, leading on to the spiritual exposition of Daniel 9, then, began in his
sphere of concentration, with Babylon. It went on to Media-Persia and this
was followed
by the Greek or Macedonian case of Alexander the Great, rushing into a highly
temporary greatness, his feet in his pursuit barely touching the ground, as
foretold in Daniel 7:6, where the image for this third of the four predicted
kingdoms was a leopard, but not only this for lunging speed of conquest, for it
even had wings! A winged leopard, there is speed, and Alexander richly fulfilled
it.
Tyre, then, being hit by this third
empire, the narrative, the listed kingdom sequence of Daniel 2, 7, 8, led to the fourth and final beast in this overall coverage. This
was the European empire of Rome. It was this which took the unholy baton of
imperial power, as the things to come in the world, facing Israel indeed, were
exposed in advance. That Empire, in turn, that of Rome, led on to the end of the
Age.
In Daniel 7's cover
of the case to come, we find that this fourth empire, or beast with its
commercial, military, political and religious (quasi- or direct) character, was
different from the rest earlier in the list. Such is the message of Daniel
7:1-10,19-27.
This last beast was
in fact to be partly strong and partly fragile or broken (Daniel 2:36-45). For ravagement
in its strength, it was incomparable; but there was also a certain weakness,
which qualified that strength in its own way. So has the Roman Empire,
succeeding in imperial impact the Alexandrian one and the four
derivatives of his Empire, four break-up residues of his power, in different
regions. All this went by the Book, and the Book, the Bible, went by the word of
God.
Now unfolded to be
fulfilled, then, was this fourth kingdom, with its own final type,
specifications in many ways.
Thus for long Roman
imperial surges ruled with architecture, roads, civil developments and forms of
organisation marking its progress. When Rome fell in 410 AD, there was still not
only its power to absorb, but the Eastern Empire, a spin-off in some ways, soon to be dishonoured by
the Emperor, Julius the Apostate as he is called. This coming and going Empire was to continue, partly strong and partly
fragile, with its ecclesiastical vying and relevant power, till in 1453
Constantinople fell to the troops regarding favourably the false prophet
Muhammad. Even at that, the Roman power, despite this fragility, was not gone.
Indeed, it remained, rather directively, in the Holy Roman
Empire, its beginning as an Empire in 800 A.D., in due course giving collateral
lines of power for Rome. Proceeding past the times when the Moors in Spain and the Islamic
efforts at world rule (like another Alexander, risen from the dead) sought in
vain their goal, this being set back by the Battle of Tours in 732. This their rebuff
kept Europe from their demeaning desires. Proceeding on, developing
oppressively, as centuries past followed that 800 Empire of Charlemagne,
It developed into that Holy Roman Empire which lasted in some form till 1917, when the powers
in which it was invested were defeated. Yet just as this so strong and so
fragile Empire began in Imperial Rome, so it expanded its borders in a new Roman imperialism,
a religious one, seeking to use the nations for its wishes.
This one
showed strength once more, and is famous for such items as the Inquisition, in
Italy, in Spain, in England, for its orders to kings, and for the
humiliation of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, summoned to seek pardon for his independence, and left
for some days in the snow before the religious head, the pope, would condescend
to see him. Multiplied thousands perished in the Inquisition, a tyranny of body,
soul and mind, specialising in killing, as Christ specialised in being killed,
in control, as Christ in compassion and the procurement of pardon, and this not
for Himself, who needed none, being faithful to the death, and overthrowing
death in the resurrection, available in its time to His people.
He procured it
for His citizens, disciples in the kingdom of heaven, which He declared, is not
of this world. Otherwise, He pointed out to Pilate, His servants would fight.
That however He forbad. This world was the scene of His lovingkindness, not
shoving blindness. That was left to the agencies of evil, imperial, exacting,
often inhuman, certainly inhumane, filled with desire based on nothing but pride
and circumstance, thrust and various forms of lustings.
So this partly strong, partly broken
Empire of Rome continued in various forms, this one the Holy Roman Empire, till
after World War II, it came with renewed strength, to occupy the imperial floor,
like successive dancers arriving, this continuing till near midnight.
Thus after World War II, Europe began with the Common Market,
moving to the European Union. Becoming a large world power, it began to look
for a Constitution with which to define itself. What would it call itself, or
under what name would it go ? What character would it assign to itself ? Would Greece and Rome be a basis
for a character reference ? No. Would Christianity, or the this worldly
distortion of it in Romanism or Roman Catholicism, as it is in
self-contradiction named ? Europe would have neither, so that a "common destiny"
was the portmanteau to carry it where it might go, whatever that might be, and
wherever it might be.
For years there were ten in this new alliance, for more years there
were ten in the Western European Alliance, the defence group set up and relating
to it, that winding down in
2011; and now the forms await new definition.
Meanwhile, as in Revelation 13 and 17-18, there is to be a specialised
religious side as well as political, so that in Rev. 13 there are two beasts,
the one supportive of the other (Rev. 13:11). This is an ultimate formula for
one religion, just as there are signs for the coming effort to culminate the
anti-Christ regions with one coinage, one financial system at last, and one rule overall. But in Rev. 17:1ff.,
we come upon what is called the harlot, indeed
"the great harlot".
This is sexual imagery as in Ezekiel
16, 23, as in Hosea, for unfaithfulness to God on the part of what is ostensibly
committed to Him, like an erratic wife. She, typifying the spirit reaching back
to Babylon and its multiple religions and soaring pretensions, and indeed to
Eden, in its breach with God from the first, is identified in this phase by
seven hills as Rome.
This harlot, or prodigiously erring party, religion leaning,
in fact riding on the imperial beast (Rev. 17:1-6,15-18, with Ch. 18), while
using the name of Christ, is tossed off the back of the beast, we find. Burning
is her lot (Rev. 18), many mourning their lost trade, in some parallel to the
case of Tyre. Then, without her governance or interest, the ten rulers proceed to amplify unhindered
their rampaging presence.
Thus this fluctuating Empire , pursues its
arrogance of imperial power alone. There are ten major participants, but
there is but one image, and this is to be
worshipped (Rev. 13:17), by decree, though none can force the heart in which
Christ savingly abides (Revelation 13:8,15). What in the early days was the
Roman Emperor to be worshipped, now is their IMAGE of the BEAST, dowered with
deceptive powers, to be given what is for God alone. As we find it in II
Thessalonians 2:10, the underlying power, Satan, has all the deceivableness of
unrighteousness, deceit his trade, lies his lore, tyranny his trade.
This now unfettered imperial power then acts with ruthless
fidelity to its type as with Tyre, and though the time is not long, the
ten end kings in the Fourth Empire development will luxuriate in their power,
being given "one hour with the beast" (Revelation
17:12). Insatiable according to the nature of the four successive empires shown
to be coming by Daniel in Chs. 2, 7,8, with addition in 9, these predicted kings
burn the site of the "harlot", that is its Roman lair. This resembles the
fate of Tyre in that for it also,
the merchants were shown giving funereal sorrow at its passing, so ending all
competition, and vast were the engulfments that saw that end.
REVIEW
Religion
now will be just according to THEIR desire, and just as Europe has now
bypassed a Romanist basis, cardinals notwithstanding, the entirety looking for
something better for itself in its constitution, but not knowing where to go, so
their imperious rule continues for its brevity. It falls in its limits, when
"the man of sin", showing himself that he is
god, in the temple, inherits like Alexander, a very sudden end (II
Thessalonians 1 and 2:4-10). The flames of consummation are very active in the
end!
Thus inquisitorial Rome, the great
slayer in the NAME of Christ who Himself forbad the sword, whose kingdom did not involve
itself with this, even for HIS OWN defence before Pilate or the soldiers (John
18:36, Matthew 26:52-56), was one of the components of the 4th beast. Yet,
occupying itself with power over the beast like a woman riding on its back, this
religious ruler
finds herself suddenly dumped, her contributions to its scope ceasing, her loss
irreparable (Revelation 18 cf. SMR pp.
946ff.). Its raw and elemental self-worship then come to its day, the ten
kings rushing alone to their "one hour" with the
ravaging beast.
As earlier seen, this is terminated when the
"man of sin" of II Thessalonians, the antichrist of
I John, comes out of darkness to shed gloom on the vanquished earth, prelude to
his doom. So God, who had all this evil in control, ends its aspirations to make
evil the nature of the earth. Having dashed empires 1 to 3, He now abruptly
terminates the 4th, without intermission of any kind, its glowing power met
head-on as in Daniel 7:21-23, and Revelation 19:1-19. It is only then that
the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord
and of our Christ as in Revelation 20, and 11:15 in the its review of
that Chapter of the whole Age and its conclusion.
HE shall reign, even
the Lord's Christ, for ever and ever (Revelation 11:15) with His Father and the
Spirit (Revelation 5, 7:12), with the wonder of His kindness and grace (cf.
Revelation 22:5), God the irreplaceable, now continually present, and it is His
face, not a mock-up which they see (Revelation 22:3-4). Indeed,
"His name shall be on their foreheads."
OVERVIEW
The three components then of the
last beast in this overall survey ?
 |
First there is the imperial Rome of
standard case
with insane efforts of some emperors to be recognised as god,
in
the normal inflated follies of intemperate and inordinate power;
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|
|
then there is
the Rome-centred pseudo-Church,
rising to new and forbidden heights*1,
step by step,
increasingly imperial in State connection and usage. This continues
till the pope becomes God Almighty on earth, as in the New York
catechism.
Taking power as master and leader, as forbidden in Matthew 23:8-10,
he consorts over centuries with massive swathes of killings
ostensibly in some
way relating to Christ who died.
Yet He did not murder, for sins, enforcing but
rather could be heard crying,
"Father, forgive them, for
they do not know what they are doing."
Here was the victor who made no
victims, to be contrasted
with the religion and sway of Rome the imperial power
which made a multitude of them,
some slowly
suffering in atrocious conditions,
tortured, burnt, possessions removed as the Age moved towards
our present day from its "triple tiara" self-elevating claim.
|
|
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Thirdly, there has been the Holy
Roman Empire, first starting in 800 A.D.
proceeding at the heels of the Eastern section of the Roman Empire,
a
sort of extension and combining of the swelling.
|
In general terms, thus
there has come
the secular, imperial in religion in the Roman Empire
(1),
followed by
the religious
imperium, using the secular for slaughter, author of the fires and tortures
of the squalid Inquisition; amid this came the soaring synthesis in the the Holy Roman Empire
and its
latter day re-organisation (2),
leading through a reconstituted European unity to
a delusive
secularity toward the end of the Age, its unhallowed humanism allied to
meaningless mysticism, by force (3).
In this, Rome's religion is dumped, in terms of a more explicitly and enforced
one world religion, extending and universalising the type, not only in
intention, as with Roman Catholicism, but in fact,
till escape is not in this world, strength given only by divine counsel,
direction and succour for the saints and their testimony (Revelation 12:10-12,
13:1-18).
Note
in Revelation 13:16, that the second or religious expression of this fourth
beast DIRECTS all to receive the mark of the beast. This is the case in terms of
the text; and indeed as there seen, not all obey it. This is indeed a time to
be a light for Christ, reflecting His grace, truth, beauty of holiness and
intractable truth.
Thus these three components, the imperial forces and their
imperia have proceeded, do
proceed, one chasing the other, as in a game of hide-and-seek. Yet after the
duping is complete, there is little seeking, for force has become the now
universal ruler, propaganda a mover and perversion of man's inbuilt trend to
worship, at work since God made him, but here re-directed to a furious folly.
Many have been in it, are and will
be, this imperial power-loving, God-discarding or misusing series of unsublime
empires. Yet the end of this game is inglorious, as with Babylon, Media-Persia,
Tyre tied to both Babylon and Alexander the Great in its destruction. Before
that you had Sennacherib of Assyria, eruptions of yore, and in the last
cited coverage, those of Rome following and developing in their phases, at last
discarded as the swift desolations come to their conclusion. Long is the series;
short is its end.
CULMINATION, CONSUMMATION,
KINGDOMS IN CONTRAST
Let us compare the multiple firings of the Tyre
type, as found throughout history, like an atomic missile with multiple independently targettable
heads. This type has thrust (it forces), it has self-confidence (it boasts,
surveys supremely), often has personalised panache, is heartless except perhaps
episodically, has delusive, superficial vision of which it is proud and has a
true or pseudo- or even quasi-religious base, engendering a sense of power or
mystery or hubris.
It gobbles up lives, thinks strategically, is wise in its own
eyes, and in general exhibits an indifference to mere humans, though run by
them, truly startling and utterly horrific. Here power is normally surpassed by
devilry. That is why many can scarcely believe what is being done by some
following this bestial model. Devilry, not mere victory, often seems
horrifically to drive it.
Such are the beasts of Daniel and Revelation, and such appears
the spirit of those involved in these episodes and sub-episodes such as Tyre,
which is instructive because its depths and heights are given such attention.
Such is often the trend in those who, exploding with the Darwinian myth in
recent times, imagine they are serving 'nature' or 'advancement' by becoming
unfit for any last relic of morals, self-control or rationality. It is par from
that construction-through- destruction folly, which
creates nothing but havoc, both literally and metaphorically.
The kingdom of heaven, of Christ as the Word of God in person, is
not merely the opposite of all this. Where might is right is the monstrous
fallacy, as if power made morals, and push were principle, hands made overview
or the meaningless, in the consistent naturalistic model, could become moral!
Right is not possible without having truth to tell it (and relativistic
reactionism has no truth, even to state itself, being concerned with internal
reactions, not contradictory overviews), principle to know it and reality to
show it. The humble know it, read it, discover it in their Maker.
Not power but purity
inherits the earth, because in humility it finds the God whose it is, whose love
gives to those who are His. The peacemakers pursue it, for the Lord is good and
reliable, just and compassionate. The poor in spirit do not spoil for a fight,
but fight for self-control and the beauty of holiness. The kingdoms of this
world, of the beasts, of the antichrist, are pitch compared with daphne, fungus
compared to wheat.
The Lord Himself
cannot be evacuated in heart, mind or spirit from this world without its
collapse into malice, rampageous bulls thrusting home any advantageous,
irresponsible dreamers whether in theology or politics or both, woven like an
evil tartan. How vast is the difference between the ENFORCED worship of the
beast in Revelation where neither heart nor head nor spirit nor soul can be
willing, except in a temporary intoxication before pay-day, and the loving
worship of the Lord because it is fitting, due, a marvel for the spirit, as is
the DNA for the body. Hence in Revelation 5:9-10 and 7:16-17, we hear worshipful
because fact-based and realistic praise for the triumphant lamb and His sender.
In 5:9 there is a hiatus in heaven, as One is sought to open the
scrolls of incoming history, that the world may complete its tour, and life its
testings. None can do it but the Lamb of whom it is said,
"You were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of
every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings,"
and so is to
hear this,
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing."
WORTH! FITNESS ? it is ultimately what has what it takes, gives
what is needed for the overall wisdom that creation needs, and for which it was
created. Only God even KNOWS the truth, and dispensing it, gives not the mere
anodyne to spiritual disease, but the vision of truth, the paths of peace and
the entry to life eternal, which includes His shepherding, NOT His herding
skills. As Revelation 7 puts it:
"He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
They shall neither hunger any more nor thirst anymore:
the sun shall not strike them, nor any heart;
for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them
and lead them to living fountains of waters.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. "
Lacking God, people readily fill the place for His grace, as their
God, with trash which seeps in like poison to the water table. It seems so
natural, as does sin; but it is foul, demanding not only on this earth the
festering fealty of the oppressed, even policed in thought, but the soul's
shameless ending in divorce from God. But God, following repentance of heart and
the regeneration of the soul as in John 3, Titus 2-3, in love has provided what
is WORTHY for worship, because it is true. Truly nothing like this, the living
Son of the everlasting God, sent from heaven, His tour foretold, to redeem
sinners, has ever been seen or heard or found.
Without it, however, man is but a foundling, crying that it is
meaningless, or fostering festering dreams of pretended power which comes and
goes like grass, in this case, in the end, by burning. In the kingdom of heaven,
self-worth and self-evaluation are like grass, tedious thrusts of presumption
into the arena of truth, where grace gives, love finds and kindness funds, while
devotion flowers amid the undying trees planted by rivers of water. Such is the
tested word of the Bible and of Jesus Christ.
A SWIFT TIME
REVIEW
Thus, we have covered in grand sweep some of the last elements in the maturing
of the Gentile era, contrasting the glory of the utterly human because utterly
divine in concept and condition, character and basis, kingdom of Christ. As to
the end of the earthly kingdoms in their vainglory and vice, It is that noted by Christ, as in Luke 21:24,
that there is a key indicator - among many as in
Matthew 24 and the epistles of Peter and Paul.
You may recall
that the very title, "times of the Gentiles", arose in terms of
Christ's saying that when the times of the Gentiles
had been FULFILLED, THEN Jerusalem would have a vast regeneration of rule. NO
MORE would (various) Gentile rulers occupy the site. Now,
partly in summary, partly in detail, partly in overview, we ponder further the
word of God on these topics. Take first the Jerusalem ingredient, and something
of its background.
In Matthew 24:1ff., and Luke 19:42ff., we learn of the complete
destruction predicted by Christ to come because Jerusalem did not take her great
opportunity, when the very Son of God, deity incarnate, was not only on their
doorstep, but had been born into their land, growing and going to the death and
resurrection markers of His mission.
Here was God in Person, God with Us, Immanuel, the climax and
culmination, the source of salvation (as in Isaiah 7, 9, 11, 49-53), the Lord of
loveliness (Isaiah 61), the restorer of the breach, the glorious Lord (Isaiah
49:15ff.). He came healing thousands, saving souls in the unique fulness of grace
and greatness that was never stopped by any power, and controlled all powers,
yet without grandeur or self-seeking.
Here was the Lamb of God whom John the Baptist had
named from the first (John 1:29); and instead of receiving His healing and
sealing, His reconstruction of heart and His entry into the kingdom of heaven,
they
When was that latter action? It was the work of a transformed, inquisitorial
Romanism, over some centuries That was a crucial Gentile great slayer in the
NAME of Christ (cf. John 16:2), who Himself forbad the sword, whose kingdom did not involve
itself with this, even for HIS OWN defence before Pilate or the soldiers (John
18:36, Matthew 26:52-56). That was one of the components of the 4th beast.
Yet,
occupying itself with power over the beast like a woman riding on its back,
towards the end of the Age (as shown in Revelation 17-19), the religious
renegade for which Rome is famous, finds herself
suddenly dumped, her contributions to its scope ceasing, her loss irreparable.
Its raw and elemental self-worship then come to its day, the foretold end-time ten kings rushing
alone to their
"one hour" with the ravaging
beast, without their 'rider'. Her burning as in Revelation 18 and Christ's
return as in Revelation 19 flow on without interruption of sequence.
These are orienting
ingredients.
ISRAEL ONCE MORE
TO THE FORE
Meanwhile we look to the predicted
national history of Israel, a beacon set by God (Isaiah 43:21), one which met a
national failure in the day of its Messiah who came precisely as predicted*2 ,
which has resulted in a dire history (Micah 5:1-3), but which leads to a
delightful end in pardon, mercy, Gospel fulfilment and restoration first in land
and then in spirit, for Israel. As in Romans 11, Israel was removed from the
tree of established faith in the eternal God, but will in due course be restored
to it, its blindness as Paul characterises it, removed at last, and its
collaborative work in the Gospel glory of Jesus Christ yet to come.
We
have considered the imperial aspects, but these are overthrown in the end by the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords, whose Gospel is the only method of approach,
and specified as the one to come to Israel (Revelation 19, Galatians 1, 3,
Zechariah 12-13).
It is time to consider further this highly distinct
phase of action in the ongoing history which Daniel set in the four empires,
beasts, which had their place, just as they are at last displaced. Just as first
Rome left the truth for various idolatries as indicated in her name in
Revelation 17, so too its former supporters, now rampaging powers of the day,
come to align themselves in their hour of power with the essential beast itself,
that emissary of Satan, glorying in their own false religion till too late, this
too ends abruptly (Rev. 17:12-18 & 19:11ff.).
Nor does this cover all, for using coherence with Rome as a
facile fellowship, in at least parallel paths of pseudo-Christian unbelief, many
are the other components of "mystery
Babylon" (Rev. 17:5),
an embracive term
(cf. SMR pp. 729ff.,
1031Cff.), covering many a cult,
or degraded church remnant.
The Israel element then comes into
the midst of these things (Romans 11:25). Its transformation is indeed in Romans
11:25 specified. It is to occur
"when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in." In Luke 21:24, we found
Christ's wisdom showing that when Jerusalem was back in Jewish hands, no more a
victim of empires and the other nations, then the
"times of the Gentiles"
would be "fufilled". Now
it is their fulness that is in view. In other words, this is in the very essence
of the end, the finis for the preludes.
For a swift review of this in the
present context, we turn to Ezekiel 36. There you see the
Lord's divine grace in covering His promises in returning Israel, because of
honour to His name, despite their failures (cf. 36:22). In Ezekiel 37, there
comes, in a powerful parable, the two stage restoration of the people, not only in land, but in spirit
to Christ (37:24ff. with 4-14), the latter with massive repentance.
Soon, not long after this return and
establishment of the restored people, from the
far North come several peoples together, with the aim that recently
restored Israel be
raped, stripped, ravaged, parallel to the concept employed by Iran and Hamas
now, in their inveterate enmity. This lunging attack fails, since God meets
it Himself. Without success is this flamboyant thrust, as in Zechariah
12-14, as in Ezekiel 38-39; for this world is not only for test and exhibition
of truth and securing of the people of the Lord but also, after due test and
exposure for all, for defeat of the
domineering, ignominy of the aspirants for divinity, and what backs it. Wishing, to act as if a
god or even God, they are confounded utterly in this lunging attack on Israel.
In this, we learn, there are
heavenly powers to be instructed, and this earth's people will also learn (as in
Ezekiel 39:22ff.). The Lord is in fact God, and mercifully, there is no other.
Israel receives its deliverance, now that it is back, and then its spiritual
restoration as we have seen. The entire program comes, towards its resting
place, as judgment prepares and finis is found.
Faith works in the truth; folly
despises it; but this neither lowers nor exterminates either the truth or those
ordained of God for their part in His plans. These, then, include such as Israel in its long and
educative history, the love of God at length prevailing in the Gospel, as in
Romans 11.
To the end of the Age the Tyrian
type, the Babylonian motif, the fourth Empire of Roman power, in its partly
strong and partly broken state, all continue each in its phase, till folly sated, frauds exposed,
the Lord's rule is experienced as a consummation. Both heaven and earth are
replaced, no place being found for them as the Lord acts in judgment (Revelation
19:20-21:4).
But the word of God
is not annulled (as done by Pharisees and such, Christ denouncing the same in
Mark 7:7ff.), neither in part nor in whole (Matthew 5:17-20), nor is the Gospel
altered (Paul preserving this at the level of his diction, as in Galatians
1:6-9).
Not merely is this
so, moreover, but those who do this are in advance designated frauds, pleasing
men rather than God (Galatians 1:10, cf. Proverbs 30:6, Deuteronomy 4 and 12).
If this were not enough, Paul declares them also cursed. So great is that curse
that the apostle Paul intimates that if he himself were to make such an error,
he too would be cursed.
So it is the foul
work of the four 'beasts', specialised in every type of abortion of truth,
contortion of power, distortion of doctrine, as if emptying the fulness of God
to allow the futility of their aspirations. False religion with human authority
applied like incinerative flames, waxes until it becomes vested first in a
spiritual pope, claiming to be God Almighty on earth, and then in a
spiritual pest, the very evocation of the antichrist, the devil's messiah,
showing himself that he personally IS God. Mixing the wonder of God with the
derivative creature, man, is worse by far than confusing our star, the sun, with
a comet. It is disproportion to the ultimate, the finite with the infinite. But
it ends.
THE
REPERSONALISATION OF DEPERSONALISATION:
THE COMING OF CHRIST
An infinite mistake
has no small come-uppance, and an imperious, impervious one is the worse by far.
So do some centuries of mischief become fixed in a miscreant, on whom the direct
power of God Almighty is brought (II Thessalonians 1:6-10, 2:4-10), as light on
darkness, or truth on confusion, devastation on drought, judgment on the flimsy
films of pretension, exposing such to interminable destruction, who would not be
instructed, so that more even than Tyre, there would be nothing to show, but at
last, the wonder of the absence of such torment from the earth (Revelation
20:3).
No more are
dehumanised, anti-spiritual, ungodly forces working to make man work in some
subordinated, disorientated dynamic of polluted power and defaced control. No
more is man to be turned into fodder for tyrants, material for control,
depersonalised by persons always excepting themselves from the reductionist
fantasies they preach, using, assessing, evaluating all things, proclaiming
truth from models which lack that very entity, as the very caput of captivation
and capitulation to caprice. Before this, on Christ's glorious return to rule as
in Revelation 19, there is flame for the inflammatory, and rest for the reviled,
restoration for the rejected and the majesty of God shines patently on the
rescued earth (cf. Psalm 72, Isaiah 65, Revelation 20).
Now man in the
presence of Christ, despite every hazard, is repersonalised, his soul valued
more than the world, his spirit free as that of any, to roam, realise and
determine, resolve and believe. The devastating unsophisticated, heartlessly
superficial tirades of tyrants, their nullities their base, have their
come-uppance, at first in some, Christ disciples, and then in the millenial
vindication, when indeed, the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the
glory of God as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). No wonder Christ wept
over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37, Luke 19:41ff.), a city then rejecting their
Shepherd and His peace, and all that He had prepared for those who come to Him
in faith with repentance, a sundering with dire results.
Look at the wonder of
it, which many Jew and Gentile, even now forsake.
It is not just that
God is, in some purely inward way, dying to confer this eternal blessing; but in
the format of man, incarnate, the Lord actually DID DIE to secure it freely,
ransom in excruciating death the cost (Matthew 20:28), resurrection in
overwhelming life the triumph, faith the way to it and repentance its prelude.
And for man, what
does this regenerative wonder - in which God changes as for the tropics in
clothes on a trip, for heaven in heart in a destiny unfolded - have to present ?
It is a work which like a type, has its place and charter, has its challenges,
but these are on a basis with access to all that is needed. In this, the power
of peace in truth courses through the smitten for His sake, the testimony
faithfully made, and His love continues to be shown as well as spoken, His
people shining with a reflected light; just as the light of prophecy, covering
to the end, shines in the darkness to reassure and replenish the perspective of
the saints (II Peter 1:21ff.). If now the test is glorious because of His power,
peace and presence, what will be the case when His regal power again is found on
the earth, now manifest before all!
But consider the present!
To be a willing
servant in the wonder of freedom in the Lord of glory, the Almighty who can reasonably
resist ? This is
past all romance, adventure, excitement, awe and staggering impact from the
things of this present world; it is the acme of truth, the excellence for which
the soul yearns, the final target of its love, being moved towards its Creator,
despite sin, to find His company, His cleansing and His magnificence of life.
The imperia of the imperious and the shabby shame of spiritual impostors,
whether so self-styled or not, compared with this, are like tar compared with
tartan, rot compared with reality, light compared with darkness, devilry
compared with healing, obscurity put next to the transforming incandescence of
suffusing light.
The WAY of the Lord
as in John 14:6, Christ Himself, being sent as meant and securing salvation as
directed, is not some programmatic option or choice between sign-posts merely.
It is what works, not in endless and increasingly meaningless clashes of
intoxicated powers linked to pride and false glory, impudently self-vaunting,
but in peace and saviour, meaning and method, in heart and in spirit. It is
fitting, as tyres to a sports car, as water to a stream, as cows to the pasture.
Here is the ultimate and intimate naturalness, found only from the supernatural
who made us, with the power NEVER seen now in physical creation, because it is
finished as He said; but found in the Lord's personal dealings both with His
people and the nations, in His healing as He works on His own discretion, in His
comfort for every one of His pastorate, and His discomfort where
sin
enters, its rules for fools (Proverbs 8:36). Be glad then for this discomfort, for it always has a
point, however deep, and waiting steadfastly on the Lord brings light at last,
and strength, grace, patience and understanding.
How blessed it is to be with HIM! how much more blessed when the shadows pass
away and all is made manifest... (Revelation 22:1-5).
In Christ, is the
victory of liberty, the lure of love, the frankness of mercy, the peace of
pardon; all are available and then will become the manifest norm in the millenium before
the dismissal of the heavens and the earth, for better things in a new heaven
and earth. On Christ's return, as in I Thessalonians 4, Matthew 24, His people
go, one bride as in Revelation 19:8, and with Him is their place for ever, His
return with them as in Revelation 19 an overflowing joy. At last the scene is
finished, the universe departs in "fervent heat" and a new heavens and earth are
produced as in Revelation 22, II Peter 3. But with all this, Christ is the
centre, the significance, the Saviour for ever and ever, His victory,
vindication in the millenium, evacuation of heaven and earth and creation of the
new heavens and earth, all these things are episodes in glory, works in wonder.
Ever with the Lord as
I Thessalonians 4 declares, the soul is sated with the spiritually lovely in the
presence of the God of all glory, who is worthy, Creator, Saviour and Judge.
Then not only will
the Christian disciple find that "God will wipe away every tear," as in 21:4,
but there
"will be no more death"
and the divine motif returns, the
underlying offer and the constant alternative to the bestialities and devilries
of so many types,
"I will give of the fountain of the water of life
freely to him who is athirst,"
Revelation 21:6. This is a thirst
which neither this world nor its beasts can begin to satisfy. It involves both
reality and mutuality. Again in Revelation 22:17, as if a last call to supper,
the third verse from the end of the Bible, we read:
"Come! and let him who hears say, 'Come!' and let him
who thirsts come.
Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely."
AN
EXHORTATION
On the rising flames
of confused churches, unleavened fellowships, misled entities using the name of
Christ, see for example News 121,
122, and the daily press! This constantly reports
horrors contrary to biblical morals and even ANTITHETICAL to the care for the
comfort and design of mankind, as is the fact that without God you turn to sod,
with spiritual responsibility added, for judgment. The Bible stresses that
fellowship in Christ's name with such as leave His principles, word, commands,
morals, has the folly of light communing with darkness, entirely repugnant as
these ways are to each other.
That in fact is what
Paul declares in II Corinthians 6:14-18. If you do not believe Christ is God in
human form (John 8:58, Philippians 2), then as I John is swift to declare, you
are following a lie. DO NOT ASSOCIATE with such says II Corinthians 6:14ff., or
even eat with the securely immoral in sexuality, or many other moral lapses: not
as judge for the seeking, but as comrade for those who drink of such drafts,
contrary as Paul teaches in I Timothy 1, to sound doctrine (as in I Corinthians
5:9 through to the end of Ch. 6). Scoff or manipulate as some may, the word of
God is clear: if so-called Christians are like that, have no fellowship and
avoid them, as also in Romans 16:17 (cf.
Separation).
Indeed, even and
especially if you have another Christ, either one without authority, or lacking
unchangeable truth, or in any way subject to the administrative changes of
workers, who work Him over, as in II Corinthians 10-11, people called
"false apostles" for their changes to what is more
unchangeable than the universe, which will go for its own replacement
(Revelation 20, Matthew 24:35): then what ? Do you share the light of Christ in
communion with what dabbles in devious darkness, even with His identity! Not
only are these unbelievers, but positively false; not only are they false
teachers, but false apostles. Well might the godly mix and share with such
wolves in sheep's clothing, the young exposed to their twisted teeth (cf.
Matthew 7:13-20).
The biblical reproach is
"deceitful workers", who "
measure themselves by themselves", being not wise. Do you engage with
deceit! Indeed, take this case further, to consider this kind.
If you ARE the
measure, then with what do you calibrate your measure, or in what measure are
you the appointer of the world, do you become its criterion and how do you
measure ? Being the measure, you are immeasurable, yourself the metre stick, and
you have then no way of measurement, only self-affirmation. Yet how are you
immeasurable if your limits shout at every corner! Such a profusion of confusion
is one of the aspects of the end of the fourth empire (II Peter 2, II Timothy
3-4), and indeed was present enough in the imperial desire in Rome in stage
one of it, to have its emperor worshipped, as though fraud were a faith! To avoid
participation in such worship, saints died, people were stripped, slaves were
made.
These articulations,
stuff of that second, religious propagandist for the beast at the culmination
(Revelation 13,17), following on from the false prophet (Revelation 16), were a
devious infiltration from the first in Eden, setting up an imaginative authority
contrary to God. It was the devil who did it (cf. Revelation 20:2), using one
format, and planning to use others later, as for the devil's messiah (in one way
presented jointly - as in Revelation 19:20, bur having a singular face (II
Thessalonians 2:4-10).
Here facing its end,
comes the confused companionship in which many involve themselves, finding this
or that excuse to be spiritually lodged with these darts of evil and preludes of
ruin, as they reel in confused panache, earthly abuse of spiritual principles
and fellowship, wandering among fallen churches like spiritual terrorists, for
all who will receive them, pursuing propaganda for power and misleading, if it
were possible the very elect. In the mystery of Babylon of Revelation 17:5,
there is room not only for the actuality of the Roman Catholic take-over of the
role, for so long a main motif, yet one as noted, to fall, but for more. Thus
this 'mystery', type of religious ruin and violence, encompasses as its
spiritual pandemic rages, all those fallen churches which IN that mystery,
coalesce and do duty with the same abuse of liberty. Their spirit of addiction
is in the TYPE from Babylon, and there are parallel changes by addition to,
subtraction from, or confrontation, with word of God. The SPIRIT of Babylon
works ruin.
As to God, then,
FOLLOW Him, KNOW Him (John 17:1-3), for this IS eternal life, which never ends,
that you should KNOW God and Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. Know Him
and WAIT upon Him, who has already visited this earth to wait upon you, unless
you refuse to be served, in spiritual rampancy rebelling as did Israel, though
to her, repentance is to be granted (Zechariah 12). For there is an end,
creation to salvation to consummation; blessed are those who do not pollute the
waters of life, but rather drink of them, who do not attempt another source,
spirit or foundation, but remain on the only foundation which stays, as in I
Corinthians 3:11, Jesus Christ, the self-definition of God in human form: ready,
but not militantly, to receive (John 6:37), impossible to deceive! (John 1:12-14, 5:24,
Hebrews 4:13).
NOTES
*1
See on this religion,
SMR pp. 1032-1088H for example,
with SMR pp. 911ff.
*2
See on the correctly predicted
death date for the Messiah, around A.D. 30 in our method of recording dates, in
Christ the Citadel... Ch.
2,
The Christian Prescription
Ch.
2
and
Highway of Holiness Ch.
4,
