The word presence, prosopon, is generally translated "face" and CANNOT possibly

mean "absence". In verse 13 we read of the "presence of Pilate", and in 5: 41 identical

language is used for departing "from the presence" of the council, and in the reference to

the Second Coming in II Thess. 1: 9.  The promised "refreshing" and the threatened

"destruction" flow alike from the immediate personal presence of the same Lord. This

"Scattered People" will at last become the Lord's "Gathered People", and that gathering

will take place on the eve of the Second Coming. At that gathering a great sifting and

refining will take place, which shows that before that time Israel will be in no position to

become a blessing in the earth; they stand in need evidently of a personal blessing

Let us rejoice that:

"He that scattered Israel will gather him."

As an appendix to this study, we draw the reader's attention to a series of articles in

Volumes XXXVI and XXXVII of the Berean Expositor under the title "The prophetic

earth", which suggests that the prophetic earth does not extend further than that ruled

over by Nebuchadnezzar and his successors; in other words from the Indus to the straits

of Gibraltar. We quote:

"It seems a sound argument to affirm that by reason of Israel's lo-ammi condition at

Acts 28:,

the time element in the history of the successive rulers from

Nebuchadnezzar should cease to have a place, and it seems reasonable to believe that,

when the prophetic clock again begins to tick, the parenthesis will be closed and the

powers indicated by the two feet and the ten toes (which toes are symbols of the ten kings

yet to reign with the Beast, at the time of the end) will reign, in the first place, over the

same territory as was governed by their predecessors."

"The reference to `the kings of the East' in Rev. 16: 12, does not refer to the

Far East as we speak of it to-day. The Greek word anatole is used of the home country

of the wise men (Matt. 2: 1). The corresponding terms in the Hebrew are mizrach which

means `from the rising (of the sun)' (Josh. 4: 19) or qedem, a land, comprehending

Arabian Desert, Ammon, Armenia, Assyria and Mesopotamia. This is the anatole of the

Hebrews. To this region belong the kings of the East, for the Hebrew words melchi

qedem are found in Isa. 19: 11 and are there translated "ancient kings", but Pharaoh

may be boasting here that he is descended from the kings of the East."

Psa. 83: 4 refers to "crafty counsel" taken by those who are "confederate against"

Israel, and have said: