Christianity and Anti-Christianity in Their Final Conflict. Samuel J. Andrews

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      AND ANTI-CHRISTIANITY

       P A R T I.

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      THE TEACHINGS OF THE SCRIPTURES RE-

      SPECTING THE ANTICHRIST.

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      THE TEACHINGS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

      THE TEACHINGS OF THE LORD.

      THE TEACHINGS OP THE APOSTLES COLLECTIVELY.

      ST. PAUL AND HIS TEACHINGS.

      THE TEACHINGS OF ST. JOHN, OF ST. PETER, AND

      OF ST. JUDE.

      THE TEACHINGS OF THE REVELATION.

      THE TEACHINGS OF THE SCRIPTURE.

      OLD TESTAMENT.

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      We now come to the inquiry, What do the Script- ures teach us respecting the Antichrist? We begin by asking whether the Old Testament speaks of him as the Antimessiah? and this leads us to enquire as to the Messianic expectations of the Jews in our Lord's day. These, as based upon the cove- nants and the prophets, had their culmination in the Kingdom to be set up by the Messiah. Into the con- ception of the Kingdom there entered three chief elements: (a) the authority of Jehovah, their cove- nant God, would be established over all the earth; (b) to the Jews as the covenant people would be given the highest place among the nations; (c) the government under Jehovah would be administered by a Son of David, under whose rule all peoples would dwell in unity and peace. Jehovah would every- where be honoured as the supreme God, but in Jeru- salem would be His temple, and the centre of all worship.

      In regard to the time and manner of the setting up of the Messianic Kingdom, it was believed that it

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      Note—Passages speaking of the Kingdom of the Messiah:

      (a) Its King, a Son of David, Jer. xxiii, 5, xxxiii, 15; Isa. ix, 7; Isa. xi, 1.

      (b) Under it the Jews will be saved, Jer. xxiii, 6, xxxiii, 7; Isa. xxvii, 6, lx, 21.

      (c) Under it all nations will dwell in peace, Ps. lxxii; Is. Lx, 8; Isa. ii, 4.

      (d) Under it all people will worship Jehovah, Isa. ii, 8, xi, 9, lxvi, 28; Zech. xiv, 16.

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      4 THE TEACHINGS OF THE SCRIPTURE.

      would be when the Jews were in great trouble and distress (Dan. xii, 1). They would be scattered abroad in all lands, and subject to cruel oppres- sion, and encounter the hostility of all nations. But the Messiah would appear, and through Him Jehovah would deliver them from their oppressors, gather them together into their own land, and fulfill to them all the promises made through the prophets of the prosperity and glory of the Messianic King- dom. The period of trial and judgment immediately introductory to the Kingdom would be one of brief duration. At its beginning, the enemies of the Messiah would be active and triumphant, but at the end would be overthrown, and the authority of the Messiah everywhere be recognized. This period of trial, preceding the coming of the Messiah, and fol- lowed by the Kingdom, was known by various names, "the day of wrath," "the day of judgment," "the great and terrible day," "the time of the birth- throes"; as the end of the age or dispensation, it was "the last day," or "last days;" and as forming the transition to the Messianic age, it was the con- clusion or "end of this world" and "the beginning of the world to come."

      It was in "the last days" that both good and evil would come to the full, and the distinction between them be most manifest, and, therefore, the hostility the greatest. Among all peoples there would be division and strife and hatred; and in the physical world, great disturbances and cosmical changes (Joel ii, 30; Zech. xiv); the end of all being "new heavens and a new earth" in which the righteous would dwell (Isa. lxv, 17).

      But whilst the Jews believed that the nations would

      OLD TESTAMENT. 5

      assemble together, and fight against the Messiah at His appearing (Ps. ii, Joel ii, Zech. xiv, 2), did they believe that their enemies would then be united under one head—the Antimessiah? It is not wholly clear what the Jews believed on this point.* The prophecies of Daniel were much read, and largely moulded the popular expectations as to the future. This prophet uses the symbol of a beast to represent the kingdoms which wasted and oppressed his people. He saw four different beasts coming up from the sea —four successive kingdoms—each with its special characteristics, but all hostile to the Jews (Dan. vii). In the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. ii, 81), four kingdoms were symbolized by its differing parts of gold, silver, brass, and iron. That the fourth and last is the Roman has been generally held. This beast (vii, 24) has ten horns (the horn being every- where a symbol of some form of power), which here represent the fullness of its kingly power: "The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise." Among these came up "a little horn," having eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows, and who thinks to change times and laws. That this eleventh horn symbol-

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      *What is said by Bertholdt (Christologia, 16) of the Anti- christus is taken from later, and for the most part Christian, sources. Eisenmenger, "Entdecktes Judenthum," quotes only from the later Rabbis. It is said by Jowett, "Essay on Man of Sin": "It was a current belief of the time in which St. Paul lived that the coming of Messiah would be preceded by the com- ing of Antichrist;" referring to Gfrörer as his authority.

      Dr. Todd "Discourses" affirms that the fourth kingdom is that of the Antichrist. Against this interpretation there are very strong objections.

      6 THE TEACHINGS OF THE SCRIPTURE.

      ized some great persecutor is plain from the words spoken of him; and it is not likely that the Jews of the Lord's day believed that they had had their ful- fillment in Antiochus Epiphanes, or in any persecutor of the past. It is more probable that they saw in Antiochus a type of a greater enemy to come, and the last, for after his destruction the kingdom would be given to the saints of the Most High. Understand- ing the one "like unto a Son of Man" (vii, 18) to be the Messiah, who now takes the Kingdom, this would certainly lead to the conception of this last enemy as an antimessiah; but that the Jews so under- stood it, is more than we can positively affirm.

      The same may be said of "the little horn" (Dan. viii, 9), and interpreted as a symbol of "a king of fierce countenance," who "shall destroy the mighty and the holy people." And also of "the willful king" (xi, 36), though not a few now understand the fulfill- ment of this prophecy to be wholly in the future. Of the prediction of the "one that maketh desolate" (ix, 24—) we shall speak in considering the Lord's teachings.

      If we turn to the other prophets, the words of Isaiah xi, 4: "With the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked," are translated in the Targum, "With the breath of his lips shall he slay Armilus." This shows that at the time of this translation there was a belief that the Messiah would be confronted by a СКАЧАТЬ