"Whoso readeth, let him understand"

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Matthew xxiv.

"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
"And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

This saying of Jesus not only refers to the temple, but to "all these things," and therefore is typical of a general destruction or demolition; and when it is taken in connection with the previous saying of the Lord, "You shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," the disciples are led to ask, "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

It is stated in these verses that false Christs shall arise, and that there shall be wars and rumors of wars, and famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places, but that the end is not yet. All these things may come to pass without any especial regard to the end, and such probably will be the case. The text also states that great iniquity shall abound, and that the gospel shall be preached in the world unto all nations for a witness; and then shall the end be.

The wickedness exhibited in the latter part of this generation or age will therefore, be very great, and when the abomination which maketh desolate shall be set up, the tribulation will be such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, and, the text states, "no, nor ever shall be."

After this tribulation, the evil of this generation will be brought to judgment, the text stating, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

The prophet Daniel also witnessed the destruction of this evil beast: for he states, "I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake, I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time." The season referred to by Daniel undoubtedly is the thousand years era which is ushered in with the coming of the Son of man, as described in the text of St. Matthew above given.

The text states, "But of that day and hour," in which heaven and earth shall pass away, "knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

The exact time of the end, therefore, is not known, but it may be reached by approximation: for signs shall be given whereby the approach of the end may be known.

That the end will come with the present generation or race seems unmistakably expressed in the text where it is said, "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled," which fully accords with the figures of all the prophets.

The abomination which maketh desolate spoken of by Daniel was set up in the generation preceding this, or about three thousand four hundred and fifty-eight years before Adam (7355 B.C.), even as the text intimates, "Behold, I have told you before." Now although it was set up at that time, it does not follow that it should not be set up again: for it is an adjunct of the kingdom of evil, and therefore will not be destroyed until the overthrow of the kingdom of evil. When it shall be set up again, the end is close at hand, and the setting up of it shall be one of the signs of the approaching consummation of the end.

In the text particular attention is called to this abomination by an interpolation in parenthesis, as follows: ("Whoso readeth, let him understand"), which carries with it, or implies, the necessity of searching out the history connected with it, from the records of Daniel and others.

From the fall of man in the garden of Eden until the coming of the Messiah, the Prince there are sixty-nine weeks, and from the coming of the Messiah until the cutting off of the Messiah there are sixty-two weeks, and from the cutting off of the Messiah until the transgressions have come to the full shall be seventy weeks; therefore, by the unit of value of Daniel's week, the time from the cutting off of the Messiah until the iniquity of the Amorites be full there will be two thousand one hundred years: consequently, at any time after the lapse of this period, the Ancient of days may sit and judgment be rendered, but the thousand years reign commences about six hundred and seventy years later. This intervening period is the Judgmental Era, in which the nations will be judged and some given to the burning flame, and during which Elias shall come and restore all things. After the judgment and the restoration, the Saviour comes in his glory and might, and will reign on the earth with his saints. This reign is set within the limits of time; after which comes the short era of Destructions, and then eternity will commence to unroll its never-ending scenes of glory and perfection.