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"The converging crises." To attain to some fairly comprehensive understanding of the
converging lines of prophecy, will enable us to see with some measure of clarity the
place, that less pronounced and problematic portions occupy.
Ecclesiastes says:
"Better is the END of a thing than the beginning thereof" (Eccles. 7: 8).
Asaph attained to peace and a solution of his problems when he went within the
sanctuary of God, for then he "understood their END", and understanding the end of the
wicked, he no longer envied them their transient exemption from "trouble". Daniel was
intensely interested to discover "the end" of the things revealed to him:
"O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" (Dan. 12: 8),
and speaks too of "the time of the end". Let us pause therefore in our pursuit of the great
goal of prophecy to consider more carefully the import of this phrase THE TIME OF
THE END. Take for example, this terrible statement of Ezekiel:
"Remove the mitre, and take off the crown: this shall be no more the same: exalt
that which is low, and abase that which is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it:
this also shall be no more, until He come Whose right it is; and I will give it Him"
(Ezek. 21: 26, 27 R.V.).
"Until He come." This can refer to none but Christ Himself and His Second Coming.
Until that takes place chaos abides, neither priest (mitre) nor king (crown) remains, and
we are in the atmosphere of Hosea 3:, Israel's lo-ammi condition. If there is to be a
kingdom in the absence of Christ before the millennium, Ezekiel evidently had no
knowledge of it. A person can be excused if he fails to see the possibility of about
500 years of enlightenment anywhere in these two verses. There is no ambiguity about
the word "until", Hebrew ad. No interval can be permitted in such a sentence "Thou
shalt eat bread till thou return unto the dust", neither can one be interpolated here.
We find that Daniel was very concerned to know more about the fourth beast of
chapter 7: We learn from the vision in that chapter the sequence of events up to the
Coming of the Son of Man with the clouds of heaven. They can be epitomized as
follows:
(1)
Four diverse beasts are to arise up from the sea.
(2)
The description is that the: 1st is like a lion,
2nd is like a bear,
3rd is like a leopard,
4th is indescribable.
Now it is obvious that the beast from the sea in Rev. 13:, is none other than this
fourth beast of Dan. 7:, and combines in itself the preceding symbols.