saints that refuse to receive the mark of the beast
shall have no place in that kingdom. In the meantime influences shall issue
forth from that central realization of the antichristian kingdom upon the
nations that live on the four corners of the earth. These shall be civilized.
They shall become conscious of their power. And they shall, for a time join
forces with the beast and the false prophet to form one great world-empire. But
under the influence of the "mission-work" of the antichristian unclean
spirits, they were, indeed, awakened out of their prolonged slumber, became
conscious of their power and quickly adopted the antichristian civilization,
but they remained pagan, nevertheless. Though they give their power to the
beast for one hour, for a little season, this cannot last. The deception of the
devil must work out till the bitter end. And they will ultimately gather as
separate forces for the last war, which will be a world-war in the strictest
sense of the word. Looking upon the nominally Christian world, (which will in
fact be antichristian, though the Church will still exist in her midst) as the
really Christian nations, as the Church of Christ indeed, they shall do as the
nations of the old dispensation did with respect to Jerusalem and shall say:
"Let us go up to Jerusalem; let Zion be defiled: let our eye look upon
Zion!" This shall be their guilt, for their purpose shall be to fight
against the camp of the saints and the beloved city, against God and His
Christ. But it will also be their deception. For, as in the old dispensation
God used the nations in their hatred against the Holy City to chastise and
destroy a Jerusalem that had actually become Sodom; so He will use the hostile
spirit of the heathen nations to destroy the antichristian powers and eat the
flesh of the great whore. The camp of the saints they will never touch. The
people of God shall look for the coming redemption which shall then be nigh.
For, it will be upon this final scene of confusion and iniquity that the Lord
will appear to judgment, destroy His enemies and deliver His saints to give
them the victory forever!
If we thus conceive of the
end of Gog and Magog, it is needless to conclude that we are living in
significant times. A humanistic modernism claims the right and title to the
name of Christianity; a religion without the Christ of the Scriptures, without
the Incarnation, without the Cross, without the resurrection; a religion of
this world, based on human imaginations rather than on Scriptures. In the
meantime, the power of man develops with tremendous strides in every sphere of
life. And the influence of this modem spirit is felt far outside of the
Christian world. For, modernism has its missionaries. The nations on the four
corners of the world are waking up. The millions upon millions in China and
Japan and India are beginning to realize their power and to clamor for their
own place in the midst of the nations of the world. No, we do not mean to speak
of the day and the hour. But we do emphasize that God's people must not be
deceived. They must know the times, and know what Israel ought to do at all
times and seasons. They must above all watch and keep the testmony of Jesus and
the Word of God and steadfastly refuse to worship the beast and the image of
the beast. For blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments. And let us
be of good cheer! For, our King is given us of Israel's God! He has all power
in heaven and on earth, a Name above all names! The victory is ours! "In
the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the
world!"
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