Referring to the forty -first Psalm, Peter says:

'This Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by

the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas' (Acts 1:16).

After Pentecost with its spiritual endowment and illumination, Peter

still employs the same figure:

'But those things, which God before had shewed ... by the mouth of all

His holy prophets since the world began' (3:18,21).

And yet once again just before a second miniature Pentecost, Peter said:

'Lord, Thou art God, Which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea,

and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of Thy servant David hast

said, Why did the heathen rage?' (4:24,25).

We have seen that a prophet was one who received his message either by

a vision or a dream, and had the matter ended there we might have reasonably

supposed that, having seen the vision or dreamed the dream, he was left to

explain and expound the revelation in his own way.  This we see is not so and

once again we thank God for the wondrous care and provision He has made to

preserve intact and uncorrupted the Word which He sent to the children of

World events, coupled with the recent acknowledgment of Israel as a

nation, have turned the thoughts of many believers to Prophecy, the Second

Coming and the many strange and startling statements of Holy Writ concerning

'the end'.

In other pages we have given expositions of the books of Daniel, Isaiah

and the Millennium, in this section we are limiting our inquiry to the

question, 'what is the extent of the prophetic earth?'  When we read of men's

hearts failing them for fear in looking after those things which are coming

on the earth (Luke 21:26), are we to understand the trouble in the Far East,

China and other distant lands, or is this passage concerned with a much more

limited area?  When we read of wars and rumours of wars, when nation shall

rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom (Matt. 24:7), are we to look

at the threat of a 'world', or, as the word is, a 'global' war, or are we to

remember that the quotation from Isaiah 19:2 rather focuses our attention

upon Egypt?

Does the king of the North spoken of in Daniel refer to Russia?  If so

does this mean that the Soviet Union will be dissolved and Russia once again

be ruled by a 'king'?  This seems well nigh impossible.  Shall we therefore

set aside the term 'king' as negligible, and if we do, what value can we

place on any term used by the prophets?  Is there any warrant for associating

the name Meshech with Moscow?  Does Rosh mean Russia?  Is Tubal, Tobolsk

(Ezek. 38:2)?  Scripture speaks of ten kings that are to rule under the

antichristian Beast at the time of the end.  Will these kings sit on thrones

as far removed as China or Brazil?  Or will their dominion be limited to the

lands ruled over by the Gentile powers envisaged in the image of Daniel 2?