Having taken a view of the Old Testament Prophets, concerning prophecy and its fulfilment, and having shown clearly that nothing but a literal fulfilment was intended, the objector may inquire whether the same mode will apply to the predictions contained in the New Testament. We will therefore bring a few important instances of prophecy, and its fulfilment, from the New Testament; after which we shall be prepared to enter the vast field which is still future. One of the most remarkable prophecies in sacred writ is recorded by Luke, chap, xxi, 20-24: "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto; for these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days; for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people; and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." This prophecy involves the fate of Jerusalem and the temple, and the whole Jewish nation, for at least eighteen hundred years. About the year seventy, the Roman army compassed Jerusalem. The disciples remembered the warning which had been given them by their Lord and Master forty years before, and fled to the mountains. The city of Jerusalem was taken, after a long and tedious siege, in which the Jews suffered the extreme of famine, pestilence and the sword; filling houses with the dead, for want of a place to bury them, while women ate their own children, for want of all things. In this struggle there perished, in Judea, near one million and a half of Jews, besides those taken captive. Their country was laid waste, their city burned, their temple destroyed, and the miserable remnant dispersed abroad into all the nations of the earth; in which situation they have continued ever since, being driven from one nation to another, often falsely accused of the worst of crimes, for which they have been banished and their goods confiscated. Indeed, they have been mostly accounted as outlaws among the various nations; the soles of their feet have found no rest, and they have been a hiss and a byword; and people have said, "These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land."
During all this time the Gentiles have possessed the land of Canaan, and trodden under foot the holy city where their forefathers worshipped the Lord. Now, in this long captivity, the Jews have never lost sight of the promises respecting their return. Their eyes have watched and failed with longing for the day, when they might possess again that blessed inheritance bequeathed to their forefathers; when they might again rear their city and temple, and re-establish their priesthood, and worship as in days of old. Indeed they have made several attempts to return, but were always frustrated in all their attempts; for it was an unalterable decree, that Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. On the subject of this long dispersion, Moses and the Prophets have written very plainly; indeed, Moses even mentioned the particulars of their eating their children secretly in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith their enemies should besiege them in all their gates. Whoever will read the twenty-eighth of Deuteronomy, will read the history of what has befallen the Jews, foretold by Moses with all the clearness that characterizes the history of past events, and all this thousands of years before its accomplishment.
Our next is found in Acts xxi, 10, 11, where a Prophet named Agabus took Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet, and said: "Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." The fulfilment of this prediction is too well known to need any description. We therefore proceed to notice a prophecy of Paul, recorded in 2 Tim. iv, 3, 4: "For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine, but, after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." This prophecy has been fulfilled to the very letter; for it applies to every religious teacher who has arisen from that day unto the present, except those commissioned by direct revelation and inspired by the Holy Ghost. But, to convince the reader of its full accomplishment, we need only point to the numberless priests of the day who preach for hire, and divine for money, and who receive their authority from their fellow man; and as to the fables to which they are turned, we need only to mention the spiritualizings and private interpretations which salute our ears from almost every religious press and pulpit.
But there is another prophecy of Paul well worth our attention, as illustrative of the times in which we live; it is found in the first five verses of the third chapter of 2 Timothy: "This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." From the last verse of this quotation we learn to our astonishment that this sum of awful wickedness applies to professors of religion ONLY; that is, this would be the character of the (so called) Christian part of the community in the last days. Do not startle, kind reader; we do not make the application without proof positive to the point, for, remember, non-professors have no form of godliness, but those ungodly characters spoken of were to have a form of godliness, denying the power thereof. But, if you doubt Paul's testimony on the subject, look around you, examine for yourselves. "By their fruits ye shall know them." My heart is pained while I write. Alas, has it come to this; has the Spirit of Truth removed the veil of obscurity from the last days, only to present us with the vision of a fallen people; an apostate church, full of all manner of abominations, and even despising those who are good; while they themselves have nothing left but the form of godliness, denying the power of God; that is, setting aside the direct inspiration and supernatural gifts of the Spirit, which ever characterize the Church of Christ? Was it for this only that the Holy Spirit opened to the view of holy men the events of unborn time, enabling them to gaze upon the opening glories of the latter days? O ye Prophets and Apostles, ye holy men of old, what have you done if you stop here; if your prophetic vision only extended down the stream of time to the present year? Alas! you have filled our minds with sorrow and despair: the Jews you have left wandering in sorrow and darkness, far from all their hearts hold most dear on earth; their land a desolation, their city and temple in ruins, and they, without the knowledge of the true Messiah. The Gentiles, after partaking of the root and fatness of the tame olive tree, having fallen, after the same example of unbelief, are left without fruit, dead, plucked up by the roots, with naught but a form of godliness; while the powers that characterized the ancient church have fled from among men. Is this the consummation of all your labors? Was it for this you searched, toiled, bled, and died? I pause for a reply; if you have a word of comfort yet in store, concerning the future, let it quickly speak, lest our souls should linger in the dark valley of sorrow and despair!
CHAPTER II.
ON THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY YET FUTURE.
What is Prophecy but History reversed?
Having made the discovery and produced sufficient proof that the prophecies, thus far, have been LITERALLY fulfilled—to the very letter—we hope the reader will never lose sight of the same rule with regard to those yet future. And, while we stand upon the threshold of futurity, with the wonders of unborn time about to open upon our view, presenting before our astonished vision the most mighty and majestic scenes, the most astonishing revolutions, the most extraordinary destructions, as well as the most miraculous displays of the power and majesty of Jehovah, in His great restoration of His long dispersed covenant people from the four quarters of the earth: I say, as these scenes are about to open to our view, let us bow before the great I AM, in the name of Jesus, and pray in faith for His Spirit to enlarge our hearts and enlighten our minds, that we may understand and believe all that is written, however miraculous it may be. But, O! kind reader, whoever you are, if you are not prepared for persecution, if you are unprepared to have your name cast out as evil, if you cannot bear to be called a knave, an impostor, or madman, or one that hath a devil; or if you are bound by the creeds of men to believe just so much and no more, you had better stop here; for if you were to believe the things written in the Bible that are yet to come, you will be under the necessity of believing miracles, signs and wonders, revelations, and manifestations of the power of God, even beyond anything that any former generation has witnessed; yes, you will believe that the waters will be divided and Israel go through dryshod, as they journey to their own land, as they did in the days of Moses; for no man ever yet believed the Bible without believing and expecting such glorious events in the latter days. And I will now venture to say that a believer in the Bible would be something that very few men have ever seen in this generation, with all its boasted religion: for there is a great difference between believing the book to be true when shut, and believing the things therein written. It is now considered in Christendom a great disgrace not to believe the Bible when shut: but whosoever tries the experiment will find it a greater disgrace to believe that the things therein written will surely come to pass. Indeed, it is our firm belief in the things written in the Bible, and careful teaching of them, that is one great cause of the persecution we suffer. For let the prophecies be understood by the people, and let them roll on in their fulfilment, and this will blow to the four winds every religious craft in Christendom, and cause the kingdom of Christ to rise upon their ruins, while the actual knowledge of the truth will cover the earth as the waters do the sea.
Having said so much by way of caution, if there are any of my readers so bold, and regardless of consequences, as to dare with me to gaze upon the future, we will commence with Isaiah xi, 11, 12, 15, 16: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."
Here you behold an ensign to be reared for the nations; not only for the dispersed of Judah, but the outcasts of Israel. The Jews are called dispersed, because they are scattered among the nations; but the ten tribes are called outcasts, because they are cast out from the knowledge of the nations, into a land by themselves. Now, the reader will bear in mind that the ten tribes have not dwelt in the land of Canaan since they were led captive by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. We have also presented before us, in the fifteenth verse, the marvelous power of God, which will be displayed in the destruction of a small branch of the Red Sea, called the tongue of the Egyptian Sea; and also the dividing of the seven streams of some river, and causing men to go over dryshod; and, lest any should not understand it literally, the fifteenth verse says: "There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel when he came up out of the land of Egypt." Now, we have only to ask whether, in the days of Moses, the Red Sea was literally divided, or whether it was only a figure? For as it was then so shall it be again. And yet we are told by modern divines that the days of miracles have gone forever; and those who believe in miracles, in our day, are counted as impostors, or, at least, poor ignorant fanatics, and the public are warned against them, as false teachers who would, if possible, deceive the very elect. On the subject of this restoration the Prophets have spoken so fully and repeatedly, that we can only notice a few of the most striking instances, which will go to show the particular circumstances and incidents attending it, and the manner and means of its accomplishment. The sixteenth chapter of Jeremiah, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth verses, says: "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." Now it has ever been the case with Israel, when they wished to express the greatness of their God, to say, The Lord liveth, which brought up our fathers out of the land of Egypt. This saying at once called to mind the power and miracles of that memorable event, and associated with it all that was great and grand, and was calculated to strike the mind with awe, under a lively sense of the power of Israel's God. But, to our astonishment, something is yet to transpire which will cast into momentary forgetfulness all the great events of that day, and the children of Israel shall know that their God liveth, by casting their minds upon events of recent date, which shall have transpired, still more glorious and wonderful than their coming out of Egypt. They will exclaim, The Lord liveth, which recently brought the children of Israel from the north, and from all lands whither He had driven them, and hath planted them in the land of Canaan, which He gave our fathers. With this idea will be associated every display of grandeur and sublimity, of wonder and amazement; while they call to mind the revelations, manifestations, miracles and mercies displayed in bringing about this great event, in the eyes of all the nations. In view of this, Jeremiah exclaims, in the last verse of this chapter: "Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is the Lord."