GRADUAL DIVINE REVELATION TO GENTILE EMPIRES.

IN considering "the times of the Gentiles," with reference to God's revelation of Himself to the Gentile world, it is very interesting to trace the various steps of that revelation.

To do so in detail, and in any degree of fulness, would require a large treatise. Here I do not propose anything beyond a general outline.

We have already seen how God revealed Himself to the Babylonian Empire, and how that revelation was rejected by Belshazzar. He then caused Cyrus to acknowledge "the God of heaven," by permitting a voluntary return of Jewish exiles, and the rebuilding of the temple. That temple was, more or less, associated with the Persian Empire. There was a great struggle in the empire with magianism, which ended in the rejection of the God of revelation.

To this succeeded the Grecian period, during which a great change took place. In Greece proper, the Scriptures do not appear to have taken any deep hold until Christian times. But taking Alexandria as a centre, written revelation and the Jewish synagogues had a remarkable influence. The whole Jewish Scriptures were translated into the sole language of literature: "Moses had in every city them that preached him.”

The nations persisted in their idolatry. Greece passed away, and Rome came in its stead. Then took

place the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the diffusion of Christianity. The temple, as well as the throne of David were in ruins; the empire became nominally Christian; a new revelation in the language of Gentile literature, but adapted to divine revelation, was God's gift to Gentile Christendom.

In all this the result was the utter extinction of the synagogue as of divine approval, and nothing remained of divine authority but the Gentile Christian Church and the Sacred Scriptures.

REVELATION BY SYMBOLIC VISION, AND CALCULATION BY SYMBOLIC TIME.

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In giving a written revelation to Gentiles, a new method was adopted. Symbolic visions were given representing the future of the times of the Gentiles." The style of symbolism was unique. It has nothing in it of the heathen myth, nor of the Egyptian nature-worship. It had some, but not an extensive, relation to the ritualism of the temple. In truth, it stood per se. A symbol is a pictorial representation of an idea, as a picture is a formal representation of a thing. The symbols of Scripture are invariably explained in some part of Scripture so as to exclude any heathen idealism. As it was introduced when God revealed Himself to Gentiles through Nebuchadnezzar, so the Gentile Scriptures close with symbolic visions.

This truth gives an aspect to the Apocalypse that ought

to remove erroneous principles of interpretation which have obtained extensive adhesion. It is often asserted that the Jews are the principal subjects of prophecy, and that the Apocalypse should be interpreted as having chief reference to them. On the contrary, from the days of Nebuchadnezzar down to the second advent, the Gentiles are the principal subject of prophecy, and it was chiefly for them that the New Testament Scriptures were written.

Connected with symbolic visions are symbolic measurements of time. The key to these is given in Ezekiel iv. There the prophet is addressed as son of man, and is commanded to perform publicly some symbolic actions. He was to take a tile and portray Jerusalem upon it. Against it he was to build a fort and cast a mount, and encamp against it, and to set battering rams against it round about. He was also to take an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between him and the city. All this was to be a sign to the house of Israel. To denote time, he was to lie on his side as many days as the houses of Israel and Judah had sinned years: 390 for Israel and 40 for Judah. These were probably from the first of Rehoboam, B.C. 976, to the destruction of the temple, B.C. 587-390 years; and from our Lord's crucifixion, A.D. 31, to the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70.

In computing these times, the Lord says, "I have appointed thee each day for a year." That sort of measurement was not unknown to the Jews. The forty years in the wilderness were for the forty days of the spies. But this place is expressly declared to be in symbolic

computation. The various occasions on which symbolic times are given all belong to the times of the Gentiles, either throughout their continuance or at their incipiency, as in the case of the 390 days. The 1200 days are given in various forms seven times. All the symbolic dates are:

i. Three hundred and ninety days, ending with the Babylonian captivity.

ii. Forty days, ending with the Roman captivity. iii. Seven times, or 2520 days, ending with the destruction of the Gentile image (Dan. iv. 25).

iv. The time, times, and dividing of time, during which

the saints of the Most High were to be delivered into the hands of the Little Horn (Dan. vii. 25). v. Two thousand three hundred evening-morning, from the conquest of Persia by Alexander, B.C. 329, to the cleansing of the sanctuary, A.D. 1971. (I omit the seventy weeks, because the manner in which they are expressed suits either days or years).

vi. The time, times, and a half when the power of the [Gentile] holy people shall be scattered (see Zech. xiv. 2-4), and Daniel's people are to be delivered (Dan. xii. 7).

vii. The 1290 days when the Jews are to be purified. They commence A.D. 637, and end A.D. 1896 (Dan. xii. 12, and Ezek. xx. 28).

viii. The 1335 days-the commencement of the blessedfrom the same date to A.D. 1971.

ness

(Throughout the other Hebrew prophets there are no

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symbolical dates, nor do we find them again until the Apocalypse).

ix. The Saracenic five months, or 150 days, from the first preaching of Mohammed, A.D. 613, to the foundation of Bagdad, A.D. 762.

x. The Turkish day, month, and year, or 391 days, from the taking of Nicomedia, A.D. 1299, to the re-conquest of Belgrade, A.D. 1690.

xi. The Holy City trodden down for forty-two months, from A.D. 637 to A.D. 1896.

xii. The 1260 days of the prophesying of the witnesses during the same period.

xiii. The three and a half days between their death and their resurrection-probably about the time of

the destruction of Gog and the others at Jerusalem.

xiv. The woman in the wilderness for 1260 days, from the time of the secular power of the Romish hierarchy-probably A.D. 510 to A.D. 1770; if we may not descend later, and make the period synchronous with the treading down of Jerusalem.

xv. The time, times, and a half, another designation of

the same period.

xvi. The thousand years, or the millennium.

If these

were symbolic years they would signify 360,000 years; but this is so contrary to the analogy of the 6000 years, corresponding to the six days' work, and the 1000 years corresponding to the seventh day, as well as apparently to the nature