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 Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:13 am Post subject: Patrick Fairbairn on Gog |
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Fairbairn wrote,
"THE PROPER SPHERE OF PROPHECY -- THE CHURCH. BY the sphere of prophecy,
we mean the parties for whom it was directly given, and the objects it
more immediately contemplated. ... It is of prophecy in the stricter
sense that we now speak -- prophecy as containing pre-intimations of
things to come -- not only a distinct branch, but the most special and
peculiar branch of God's communications to men. This alone determines it
to have been, in its leading aim and object, for the behoof of the
Church. If, in its other aspects, prophesying was "not for them that
believe not, but for them that believe" (1 Cor. xiv. 22), it must have
been so more especially in this; only in an incidental and remote manner
could it have been intended to bear upon those without. For it was the
revelation of the Lord's secret in regard to the future movements of His
providence, which belongs peculiarly to them that fear Him (Ps. xxv.
14). ... prophecy, as the revelation of things to come, in all its
leading phases, is God's communication to the church; and that for
spiritual ends -- for the especial purpose of preparing and fitting her
for the more trying emergencies of a struggling and perplexed condition."
From:
Prophecy viewed in respect to its distinctive nature, its special
function, and proper interpretation, By Patrick Fairbairn. Published by
T. and T. Clark, 1865. (See CHAPTER III.)
http://vinyl2.sentex.ca/%7Etcc/OP/Fairbairn.html
Fairbairn's approach leads to an enlightened interpretation of Ezekiel's
prophecy of the invasion by Gog and Magog, that is presented below.
EZEKIEL THE BOOK OF HIS PROPHECY
PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D.,
FOURTH EDITION. EDINBURGH: T. & T, CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1876.
ASSAULT OF GOG, AND HIS DESTRUCTION. p. 421 - 431
Now, with this remarkable prophecy fully before us, let us ask how it is
as a whole to be explained and understood. Are we to regard it as simply
an anticipated history of transactions that were to take place precisely
in the form and manner here described; or rather as an ideal delineation
of what, as to the substance, might certainly be expected to happen,
though possibly under aspects and relations widely different from those
to be found in the prophet's description? For a satisfactory answer to
this question we must look especially to the leading features of the
description itself.
1. And the first thing that strikes us there is the name given to the
leader of the hostile party -- Gog. From the very mode of its formation
this discovers itself at once as an ideal name; it is simply the root of
Magog, the only related name known to history. And this Magog is itself
the name of a very indefinite territory and people, as appears not only
from the want of any express landmarks connected with them here or
elsewhere, but also from the parties most closely associated with Gog,
as his natural and proper subjects. Of the land of Magog, he is also the
prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal -- tribes that seem to have been
contiguous in territory, as they were probably also related in their
origin, but which were never, that we know of, actually united into one
kingdom, and have long since disappeared as distinct races. When,
therefore, we find the prophet giving to the head of the great movement
an ideal name, derived from a sort of indefinite, obscurely known
territory, it is scarcely possible to avoid the impression at the
outset, that the description is intended to possess an ideal, not a real
character.
2. Another thing that presently comes into consideration is the singular
combination of the party which this Gog is represented as heading. The
nations mentioned are all selected from the distance remote, in the
first instance, from the land of Israel, in the extremities of the
earth, and also many of them far apart from one another, and
consequently the most unlike naturally to act in concert for any
particular purpose. Beside the Scythian tribes, with whom the head of
the movement was more immediately connected, there are the Persians,
Armenians, the other inhabitants of the far north in Asia and Europe;
and then, passing to the opposite extreme, and overleaping all the
intermediate regions, he names the Ethiopians and Libyans of Africa, the
people, in short, occupying the most distant and remote territories of
the then known world. The principle of assortment and union is evidently
the very reverse of the natural one not nearness, but remoteness of
position, as well to the land of Israel as to the associated parties
themselves. But this entire omission of the near, and conjunction only
of the remote and distant, is so very peculiar a characteristic, and so
contrary to all real combinations, that it is impossible to avoid
thinking that here also we have but the clothing of an idea not a
literal reality, but the pictorial delineation of one.
3. Then the huge numbers of this combined party are to be taken into
account, in connection with the object for which it was avowedly formed.
According to the description, it was to be a marauding host, breaking in
like a mighty inundation upon the land of Israel, and again departing
after it had enriched itself with the spoil and booty there obtained
(chap, xxxviii. 12, 13). That is, myriads of people were to be gathered
from the most distant regions of the earth, combining and acting
together against all the known principles of human nature: and for what?
To spoil and plunder a land which could not, had they got all it
contained, have been a handful to a tithe of their number could not have
served to maintain the invaders for a single day! One would think it is
impossible in such a case for the most aerial fancy to dream of
literality; and when the prophet is spoken of as furnishing here a plain
historical description, one is tempted to ask whether he is supposed to
have written for the amusement of children or for the belief and
instruction of persons of mature understanding?
4. This impression is still further increased when we look to the fruits
of the victory. The wood of the adversaries weapons was to serve for
fuel to all Israel for seven years! and all Israel were to be employed
for seven months in burying the dead! It would be but a very moderate
allowance, on the literal supposition, to say that a million of men
would thus be engaged, and that on an average each would consign two
corpses to the tomb in one day; which, for the 180 working days of the
seven months, would make an aggregate of 360,000,000 of corpses! Then
the putrefaction, the pestilential vapours arising from such masses of
slain victims before they were all buried! Who could live at such a
time? It bids defiance to all the laws of nature, as well as the known
principles of human action; and to insist on such a description being
understood according to the letter, is to make it take rank with the
most extravagant tales of romance, or the most absurd legends of Popery.
5. Further, on the ground of a literal description, there is the
collateral consideration of its becoming utterly impossible to make out
a prophetical harmony; the prophets in that case do not mutually
confirm, but, on the contrary, oppose and contradict each other. Here
the great controversy, which finally adjudges the cause of heathendom,
is represented as taking issue on the mountains of Israel, and covering
the whole land with the slain. In Isaiah xxxiv. we have, to all
appearance, the same controversy the controversy of the Lord s judgment
upon Zion's adversaries, when his indignation was to be "upon all
nations, and his fury upon all their armies" determined upon the
mountains of Edom. In Joel, again, it takes place in the valley of
Jehoshaphat, or the valley of decision (chap. iii. 12, 14); and in
Zechariah (chap, xiv.) in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as
also in the Apocalypse (chap. 20) around the camp of the saints and the
beloved city. Thus we have three or four distinct localities, each
represented as the scene of a last conflict, ending in a final triumph
to the cause of God over the leagued hostility of the world. If held to
be literal descriptions, they of course mutually destroy one another;
for the localities being different (as also many of the accompanying
circumstances), they must either be ideal delineations under various
aspects of what was to happen, or they are literal and contradictory
descriptions.
6. Finally, pointing, as all these prophetical descriptions do, and the
one before us in particular, to the latter ages of the world to the
times of the Messiah the gross carnality of the representation in
respect to God s dealing with the adversaries demands a non-literal
interpretation. Under the old covenant, when the Church was still in its
childhood, it was necessary to employ to a large extent the outward and
material; carnal elements had a prominent place in the immediate service
of God, and they could not fail to be much resorted to in the
administration of the kingdom, so long as it had a political existence
in the world. His people had then often to defend themselves with a
carnal sword, and often in the successful exercise of this did God s
power and goodness appear to his people. But the revelation of God in
the person and work of Christ introduced an entire change in this
respect. The spiritual element in the Divine character came thereby into
fuller manifestation, and, as a necessary consequence, every thing
carnal fell into the background. Not that the Lord's people must
therefore cease to operate upon the outward and material things around
them, but that in doing so they must bring more into exercise the higher
elements of power, and no longer lean upon the more gross and imperfect
instruments of working. The carnal sword, in particular, must henceforth
be sheathed, and weapons of violence for ever put aside. The glorious
Head of the Church showed himself strong only in the truth of God, and
conquered by suffering in its behalf. It was thus that he gained
unspeakably the noblest victory recorded in the annals of time. And
never would he permit his followers to entertain the thought of winning
any triumphs over the ignorance and malice of the world, otherwise than
by their standing like him in the truth of God, and holding it fast,
even unto death. How, then, would such conflicts and victories as those
described here, if literally understood, comport with this new and more
elevated posture of affairs? Precisely as the imperfections of childhood
with the higher developments of mature age. They would exhibit a Church
again in bondage to the elements of the world, wielding the artillery of
brute force instead of the nobler weapons of her spiritual armour, and
so losing infinitely more than she would gain by such a method of
achieving her conquests. The spirit of prophecy never could intend by
such delineations of the far-distant future to indicate so humiliating a
result, or give birth to anticipations so directly opposed to the
teaching of Christ; the less so, as it was Christ's Spirit that guided
the prophets of the Old Testament in their prospective delineations (1
Pet. i. 11). And therefore, in addition to all the other impossibilities
standing in the way of the literal interpretation of this vision, there
is that which arises from the false and degrading position in which it
would put the Church, sending her back, after she has attained to the
spiritual light and privileges of the Gospel, to her old fleshly weapons
and worldly entanglements.
Persons who in the face of all these considerations can still cling to
the literal view of this prophecy, must be left to them selves; they
must have principles of interpretation or grounds of conviction with
which it is impossible to deal in the way of argument. Their views,
also, respecting the position and calling of the Old Testament prophets,
as to the revelation of the future, must be altogether erroneous. They
must suppose that the object of these was to delineate beforehand, with
historical exactness, the coming events of Providence; whereas it often
consisted much more in disclosing how the great truths and principles of
the Divine government should appear in the administration of the affairs
of men. In doing this it was necessary for them to throw their
delineations, even when referring to the last periods of time, into the
form of existing relations and known circumstances for such alone it was
competent to them to use; but they could, and they did, sometimes use
these in such strange assortments and grotesque combinations, as might
in a sense compel thoughtful minds to look beyond the surface, and feel
that in the things written they had but the form and drapery of what
should be; that the reality itself lay deeper, and could meanwhile be
but dimly apprehended. Such, certainly, is the manner in which the
description of the prophet here ought from the first to have been
understood. He was going, through the Spirit, to present a picture of
what might be expected in the last scenes of the world's history; and
according to the native bent and constitution of his mind, the picture
must be lifelike. Not only must it be formed of the materials of
existing relations, but it must also be formed into a perspective with
manifold and intricate details; yet so constructed and arranged, that
while nothing but the most superficial eye could look for a literal
realization, the great truths and prospects embodied in it should be
patent to the view of all. What, then, are these? Let it be remembered
at what point it is in Ezekiel s prospective exhibitions that this
prophecy is brought in. He has already represented the covenant-people
as recovered from all their existing troubles, and made victorious over
all their surrounding enemies. The best in the past has again revived in
their experience, freed even from its former imperfections, and secured
against its ever-recurring evils. For the new David, the all-perfect and
continually-abiding Shepherd, presides over them, and at once prevents
the outbreaking of internal disorders, and shields them from the attacks
of hostile neighbours. All around, therefore, is peace and quietness;
the old enemies vanish from the field; Israel dwells securely in his
habitation. But let it not be supposed that the conflict is over, and
that the victory is finally won; it is a world-wide dominion which this
David is destined to wield, and the kingdom of righteousness and peace
established at the centre must expand and grow till it embrace the
entire circumference of the globe. But will Satan yield his empire
without a struggle? Will he not rather, when he sees the kingdom of God
taking firmer root and rising to a higher elevation, seek to effect its
dismemberment or its downfall, by stirring up in hostile array against
it the multitudinous and gigantic forces that lie scattered in the
extremities of the earth? Assuredly he will do so; and God also will
direct events into this channel, in order to break effectually the power
of the adversary, and secure the diffusion of Jehovah s truth and the
glory of his name to the remotest regions. A conflict, there fore, must
ensue between the embattled forces of heathenism, gathered out of their
far-distant territories, and the nation that holds the truth of God. But
the issue is certain. For God's people being now holiness to him, he
cannot but fight with them and give success to their endeavours. So that
the arm of heathen ism shall be completely broken. Its mightiest efforts
only end in the more signal display of its own weakness, as compared
with the truth and cause of God; and the name of God as the Holy One of
Israel is magnified and feared to the utmost bounds of the earth.
Such is the general course and issue of things as marked out in this
prophecy, under the form and aspect of what belonged to the old
covenant, and its relation to the world as then existing. But, stripping
the vision of this merely temporary and imperfect exterior, since now
the higher objects and relations of the new covenant have come, we find
in the prophecy the following series of important and salutary truths.
1. In the first place, while the appearance of the new David to take the
rule and pre sidency over God s heritage would have the effect of
setting his people free from the old troubles and dangers which had
hitherto assailed them, and laying sure and broad the foundations of
their peace, it should be very far from securing them against all future
conflicts with evil; it would rather tend to call up other adversaries,
and enlarge the field of conflict, so as to make it embrace the most
distant and barbarous regions of the earth. For the whole earth is
Christ's heritage, and sooner or later it must come to an issue between
the adherents of his cause and the children of error and corruption.
Though the latter might have no thought of interfering with the affairs
of Christ's kingdom, and would rather wish to pursue their own courses
undisturbed (see on xxxviii. 4), yet the Lord will not permit them to do
so. He must bring the light of heaven into contact with their darkness;
so as to necessitate a trial of strength between the powers of evil
working in them, and the truth and grace of God as displayed in the
kingdom of Christ.
2. From the very nature of the case, this trial would fall to be made on
a very large scale, and with most gigantic resources; for the
battlefield now is the world to its farthest extremities; and the
question to be practically determined is, whether God's truth or man s
sin is to have possession of the field? So that all preceding contests
should appear small, and vanish out of sight, in comparison of this last
great struggle, in which the world's destiny was to be decided for good
or evil. Hence it seemed in the distance as if not thousands, as
formerly, but myriads upon myriads, numbers without number, were to
stand here in battle array.
3. Though the odds in this conflict could not but appear beforehand very
great against the people and cause of Christ, yet the result should be
entirely on their side; and simply because with them is the truth and
the might of Jehovah. Had it been only carnal. resources that were to be
brought into play on either side, victory must inevitably have been with
those whose numbers were so overwhelmingly great. But these being only
flesh, and not spirit, they must fall before the omnipotent energy of
the living God, who can make his people more than conquerors over all
that is against them. And so in this mighty conflict, in which all that
the powers of darkness could muster from the world was to stand, as it
were, front to front with the people of God, there were to be found
remaining only, on the part of the adversaries, the signs of defeat and
ruin.
4. Lastly, as all originated in the claim of Messiah and his truth to
the entire possession of the world, so the whole is represented as
ending in the complete establishment of the claim. The kingdom through
every region of the earth becomes the Lord's. He is now universally
known and sanctified as the God of truth and holiness. It is understood
at last that it was his zeal for the interests of righteousness which
led him to chastise in former times his own professing people; and that
the same now has induced him to render them triumphant over every form
and agency of evil. And now, all counter rule and authority being put
down, all disturbing elements finally hushed to rest, the prospect
stretches out before the Church of eternal peace and blessedness, in
what have at length become the new heavens and the new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness.
It may still, perhaps, seem strange to some, if this be the real meaning
and import of the vision, that the prophet should have presented it
under the aspect of a single individual, gathering immense forces from
particular regions, and at the head of these fighting in single
conflict, and falling on the land of Israel. They may feel it difficult
to believe that a form so concrete and fully developed should have been
adopted, if nothing more local and specific had been intended. But let
such persons look back to other portions of this Book, especially to
what is written of the king of Tyre in chap, xxviii. (which in form,
perhaps, most nearly resembles the prophecy before us), and judge from
the shape and aspect there given to the past, whether it is not in
perfect accordance with the ascertained characteristics of Ezekiel s
style, to find him giving here such a detailed and fleshly appearance to
the future. There Tyre is not only viewed as personified in her
political head, but that head is represented as passing through all the
experiences of the best and highest of humanity. It is, as we showed, a
historical parable, in which every feature is admirably chosen and
pregnant with meaning, but all of an ideal and not a literal or prosaic
kind. And what is the present vision, as now explained, but &
prophetical parable, in which, again, every trait in the delineation is
full of important meaning, only couched in the language of a symbolical
representation? Surely we must concede to the prophet what we would
never think of withholding from a mere literary author, that he lias a
right to employ his own method; and that the surest way of ascertaining
this is to compare one part of his writings with another, so as to make
the better known reflect light upon the less known the delineations of
the past upon the visions of the future.
At the same time let us not be understood as declaring for certain, that
the delineation in this prophecy must have nothing to do with any
particular crisis, or decisive moment, in the Church s history. It is
perfectly possible that in this case, as in most others, there may be a
culminating point, at which the spiritual controversy is to rise to a
gigantic magnitude, and virtually range on either side all that is good
and all that is evil in the world. It may be so; I see nothing against
such a supposition in the nature of the prophecy, but, I must add, I see
nothing conclusively for it. For when we look back to the other prophecy
just referred to, we find the work of judgment represented as taking
effect upon Tyre, precisely as if it were one individual that was
concerned, and one brief period of his history; while still we know blow
after blow was required, and even age after age, to carry forward and
consummate the process. Perfectly similar, too, was the case of Babylon,
as described in the 13th and 14th chapters of Isaiah; it seems as if
almost one act were to do the whole, yet how many instruments had a hand
in it I and over how many centuries was the work of destruction spread!
We see no necessity in the form of the representation, or in the nature
of things, why it should be otherwise here; none at least why a
different mode of reaching the result should be expected as certain. We
believe that as the judgment of Tyre began when the first breach was
made in the walls by Nebuchadnezzar, and as the judgment of Babylon
began when the Medes and Persians entered her two-leaved gates, so the
controversy with Gog and his heathenish forces has been proceeding since
Christ, the new David, came to lay the everlasting foundations of his
kingdom, and asserted his claim to the dominion of the earth as his
purchased possession. Every stroke that has been dealt since against the
idolatry and corruption of the world, is a part of that great conflict
which the prophet in vision saw collected as into a single locality and
accomplished in a moment of time. He would thus more clearly assure us
of the certainty of the result. And though, from the vast extent of the
field and the many imperfections that still cleave to the Church, there
may be much delay and many partial reverses experienced in the process,
though there may, too, at particular times be more desperate struggles
than usual between the powers of evil in the world and the confessors of
the truth, when the controversy assumes a gigantic aspect, yet the
prophecy is at all times proceeding onwards in its accomplishment. Let
the Church, therefore, do her part, and be faithful to her calling; let
her grasp with a firm hand the banner of truth, and in all lands display
it in the name of her risen Lord. And whichever way he may choose to
finish and consummate the process, whether by giving fresh impulses to
the hearts of his people, and more signally blessing the work of their
hands, or by shining forth in visible manifestations of his power and
glory, such as may at once and for ever shame into confusion the
adversaries of his cause and kingdom, leaving this to himself, to whom
it properly belongs, let the blessed hope of a triumphant issue animate
every Christian bosom and nerve every Christian arm to maintain the
conflict, and do all that zeal and love can accomplish to hasten forward
the final result.
In the preceding remarks we have deemed it unnecessary to take any
special notice of such interpretations as seek the accomplishment of the
prophecy in particular and partial occur rences of the past: for
example, the conflicts of the Maccabees with Antiochus (Grotius, Dathe,
Jahn), the invasion and over throw of the Chaldeans (Ewald), the
temporary successes and destined overthrow of the Turks (Luther). All
such interpretations are obviously unsatisfactory and inadequate. And we
simply add, further, in case of misapprehension, that while we have no
hesitation in regarding the vision respecting Gog and Magog in the
Apocalypse to be in substance a re-announcement of the prophecy before
us, it does not therefore follow that the prophecy in the Apocalypse has
exactly the same compass as in Ezekiel. It plainly, indeed, has not.
Ezekiel contemplates the great conflict in a more general light, as what
was certainly to be connected with the times of Messiah, and should come
then to its last decisive issues. John, on the other hand, writing from
the commencement of the Messiah s times, breaks up these into distinct
portions (how far successive or contemporaneous, we pretend not to say),
and giving the vision respecting Gog and his forces the same relative
place that it had in the visions of Ezekiel, he describes under it the
last strangles and victories of the cause of Christ. In each case alike
the vision is appropriated to describe the final workings of the world s
evil, and its results in connection with the kingdom of God: only, the
starting-point is placed farther in advance in the one case than in the
other. Therefore, as found in Ezekiel, it can throw no light on the
chronological arrangement of the Apocalypse.
Also see:
http://www.theopedia.com/Patrick_Fairbairn
http://www.archive.org/details/ezekielandtheboo00fairuoft
--
Doug
http://vinyl2.sentex.ca/~tcc/OP/ |
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Nicodemus
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| Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:13 am Post subject: Re: If You Believe |
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Doug <tcc@sentex.net> wrote in news:Np-
dnV_K6JUE1ILUnZ2dnUVZ_rXinZ2d@sentex.net:
| Quote: | Fairbairn wrote,
"THE PROPER SPHERE OF PROPHECY -- THE CHURCH. BY the sphere of
prophecy,
we mean the parties for whom it was directly given, and the objects it
more immediately contemplated. ... It is of prophecy in the stricter
sense that we now speak -- prophecy as containing pre-intimations of
things to come -- not only a distinct branch, but the most special and
peculiar branch of God's communications to men. This alone determines
it
to have been, in its leading aim and object, for the behoof of the
Church. If, in its other aspects, prophesying was "not for them that
believe not, but for them that believe" (1 Cor. xiv. 22), it must have
been so more especially in this; only in an incidental and remote
manner
could it have been intended to bear upon those without. For it was the
revelation of the Lord's secret in regard to the future movements of
His
providence, which belongs peculiarly to them that fear Him (Ps. xxv.
14). ... prophecy, as the revelation of things to come, in all its
leading phases, is God's communication to the church; and that for
spiritual ends -- for the especial purpose of preparing and fitting her
for the more trying emergencies of a struggling and perplexed
condition."
From:
Prophecy viewed in respect to its distinctive nature, its special
function, and proper interpretation, By Patrick Fairbairn. Published by
T. and T. Clark, 1865. (See CHAPTER III.)
http://vinyl2.sentex.ca/%7Etcc/OP/Fairbairn.html
Fairbairn's approach leads to an enlightened interpretation of
Ezekiel's
prophecy of the invasion by Gog and Magog, that is presented below.
EZEKIEL THE BOOK OF HIS PROPHECY
PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D.,
FOURTH EDITION. EDINBURGH: T. & T, CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1876.
ASSAULT OF GOG, AND HIS DESTRUCTION. p. 421 - 431
Now, with this remarkable prophecy fully before us, let us ask how it
is
as a whole to be explained and understood. Are we to regard it as
simply
an anticipated history of transactions that were to take place
precisely
in the form and manner here described; or rather as an ideal
delineation
of what, as to the substance, might certainly be expected to happen,
though possibly under aspects and relations widely different from those
to be found in the prophet's description? For a satisfactory answer to
this question we must look especially to the leading features of the
description itself.
1. And the first thing that strikes us there is the name given to the
leader of the hostile party -- Gog. From the very mode of its formation
this discovers itself at once as an ideal name; it is simply the root
of
Magog, the only related name known to history. And this Magog is itself
the name of a very indefinite territory and people, as appears not only
from the want of any express landmarks connected with them here or
elsewhere, but also from the parties most closely associated with Gog,
as his natural and proper subjects. Of the land of Magog, he is also
the
prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal -- tribes that seem to have been
contiguous in territory, as they were probably also related in their
origin, but which were never, that we know of, actually united into one
kingdom, and have long since disappeared as distinct races. When,
therefore, we find the prophet giving to the head of the great movement
an ideal name, derived from a sort of indefinite, obscurely known
territory, it is scarcely possible to avoid the impression at the
outset, that the description is intended to possess an ideal, not a
real
character.
2. Another thing that presently comes into consideration is the
singular
combination of the party which this Gog is represented as heading. The
nations mentioned are all selected from the distance remote, in the
first instance, from the land of Israel, in the extremities of the
earth, and also many of them far apart from one another, and
consequently the most unlike naturally to act in concert for any
particular purpose. Beside the Scythian tribes, with whom the head of
the movement was more immediately connected, there are the Persians,
Armenians, the other inhabitants of the far north in Asia and Europe;
and then, passing to the opposite extreme, and overleaping all the
intermediate regions, he names the Ethiopians and Libyans of Africa,
the
people, in short, occupying the most distant and remote territories of
the then known world. The principle of assortment and union is
evidently
the very reverse of the natural one not nearness, but remoteness of
position, as well to the land of Israel as to the associated parties
themselves. But this entire omission of the near, and conjunction only
of the remote and distant, is so very peculiar a characteristic, and so
contrary to all real combinations, that it is impossible to avoid
thinking that here also we have but the clothing of an idea not a
literal reality, but the pictorial delineation of one.
3. Then the huge numbers of this combined party are to be taken into
account, in connection with the object for which it was avowedly
formed.
According to the description, it was to be a marauding host, breaking
in
like a mighty inundation upon the land of Israel, and again departing
after it had enriched itself with the spoil and booty there obtained
(chap, xxxviii. 12, 13). That is, myriads of people were to be gathered
from the most distant regions of the earth, combining and acting
together against all the known principles of human nature: and for
what?
To spoil and plunder a land which could not, had they got all it
contained, have been a handful to a tithe of their number could not
have
served to maintain the invaders for a single day! One would think it is
impossible in such a case for the most aerial fancy to dream of
literality; and when the prophet is spoken of as furnishing here a
plain
historical description, one is tempted to ask whether he is supposed to
have written for the amusement of children or for the belief and
instruction of persons of mature understanding?
4. This impression is still further increased when we look to the
fruits
of the victory. The wood of the adversaries weapons was to serve for
fuel to all Israel for seven years! and all Israel were to be employed
for seven months in burying the dead! It would be but a very moderate
allowance, on the literal supposition, to say that a million of men
would thus be engaged, and that on an average each would consign two
corpses to the tomb in one day; which, for the 180 working days of the
seven months, would make an aggregate of 360,000,000 of corpses! Then
the putrefaction, the pestilential vapours arising from such masses of
slain victims before they were all buried! Who could live at such a
time? It bids defiance to all the laws of nature, as well as the known
principles of human action; and to insist on such a description being
understood according to the letter, is to make it take rank with the
most extravagant tales of romance, or the most absurd legends of
Popery.
5. Further, on the ground of a literal description, there is the
collateral consideration of its becoming utterly impossible to make out
a prophetical harmony; the prophets in that case do not mutually
confirm, but, on the contrary, oppose and contradict each other. Here
the great controversy, which finally adjudges the cause of heathendom,
is represented as taking issue on the mountains of Israel, and covering
the whole land with the slain. In Isaiah xxxiv. we have, to all
appearance, the same controversy the controversy of the Lord s judgment
upon Zion's adversaries, when his indignation was to be "upon all
nations, and his fury upon all their armies" determined upon the
mountains of Edom. In Joel, again, it takes place in the valley of
Jehoshaphat, or the valley of decision (chap. iii. 12, 14); and in
Zechariah (chap, xiv.) in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as
also in the Apocalypse (chap. 20) around the camp of the saints and the
beloved city. Thus we have three or four distinct localities, each
represented as the scene of a last conflict, ending in a final triumph
to the cause of God over the leagued hostility of the world. If held to
be literal descriptions, they of course mutually destroy one another;
for the localities being different (as also many of the accompanying
circumstances), they must either be ideal delineations under various
aspects of what was to happen, or they are literal and contradictory
descriptions.
6. Finally, pointing, as all these prophetical descriptions do, and the
one before us in particular, to the latter ages of the world to the
times of the Messiah the gross carnality of the representation in
respect to God s dealing with the adversaries demands a non-literal
interpretation. Under the old covenant, when the Church was still in
its
childhood, it was necessary to employ to a large extent the outward and
material; carnal elements had a prominent place in the immediate
service
of God, and they could not fail to be much resorted to in the
administration of the kingdom, so long as it had a political existence
in the world. His people had then often to defend themselves with a
carnal sword, and often in the successful exercise of this did God s
power and goodness appear to his people. But the revelation of God in
the person and work of Christ introduced an entire change in this
respect. The spiritual element in the Divine character came thereby
into
fuller manifestation, and, as a necessary consequence, every thing
carnal fell into the background. Not that the Lord's people must
therefore cease to operate upon the outward and material things around
them, but that in doing so they must bring more into exercise the
higher
elements of power, and no longer lean upon the more gross and imperfect
instruments of working. The carnal sword, in particular, must
henceforth
be sheathed, and weapons of violence for ever put aside. The glorious
Head of the Church showed himself strong only in the truth of God, and
conquered by suffering in its behalf. It was thus that he gained
unspeakably the noblest victory recorded in the annals of time. And
never would he permit his followers to entertain the thought of winning
any triumphs over the ignorance and malice of the world, otherwise than
by their standing like him in the truth of God, and holding it fast,
even unto death. How, then, would such conflicts and victories as those
described here, if literally understood, comport with this new and more
elevated posture of affairs? Precisely as the imperfections of
childhood
with the higher developments of mature age. They would exhibit a Church
again in bondage to the elements of the world, wielding the artillery
of
brute force instead of the nobler weapons of her spiritual armour, and
so losing infinitely more than she would gain by such a method of
achieving her conquests. The spirit of prophecy never could intend by
such delineations of the far-distant future to indicate so humiliating
a
result, or give birth to anticipations so directly opposed to the
teaching of Christ; the less so, as it was Christ's Spirit that guided
the prophets of the Old Testament in their prospective delineations (1
Pet. i. 11). And therefore, in addition to all the other
impossibilities
standing in the way of the literal interpretation of this vision, there
is that which arises from the false and degrading position in which it
would put the Church, sending her back, after she has attained to the
spiritual light and privileges of the Gospel, to her old fleshly
weapons
and worldly entanglements.
Persons who in the face of all these considerations can still cling to
the literal view of this prophecy, must be left to them selves; they
must have principles of interpretation or grounds of conviction with
which it is impossible to deal in the way of argument. Their views,
also, respecting the position and calling of the Old Testament
prophets,
as to the revelation of the future, must be altogether erroneous. They
must suppose that the object of these was to delineate beforehand, with
historical exactness, the coming events of Providence; whereas it often
consisted much more in disclosing how the great truths and principles
of
the Divine government should appear in the administration of the
affairs
of men. In doing this it was necessary for them to throw their
delineations, even when referring to the last periods of time, into the
form of existing relations and known circumstances for such alone it
was
competent to them to use; but they could, and they did, sometimes use
these in such strange assortments and grotesque combinations, as might
in a sense compel thoughtful minds to look beyond the surface, and feel
that in the things written they had but the form and drapery of what
should be; that the reality itself lay deeper, and could meanwhile be
but dimly apprehended. Such, certainly, is the manner in which the
description of the prophet here ought from the first to have been
understood. He was going, through the Spirit, to present a picture of
what might be expected in the last scenes of the world's history; and
according to the native bent and constitution of his mind, the picture
must be lifelike. Not only must it be formed of the materials of
existing relations, but it must also be formed into a perspective with
manifold and intricate details; yet so constructed and arranged, that
while nothing but the most superficial eye could look for a literal
realization, the great truths and prospects embodied in it should be
patent to the view of all. What, then, are these? Let it be remembered
at what point it is in Ezekiel s prospective exhibitions that this
prophecy is brought in. He has already represented the covenant-people
as recovered from all their existing troubles, and made victorious over
all their surrounding enemies. The best in the past has again revived
in
their experience, freed even from its former imperfections, and secured
against its ever-recurring evils. For the new David, the all-perfect
and
continually-abiding Shepherd, presides over them, and at once prevents
the outbreaking of internal disorders, and shields them from the
attacks
of hostile neighbours. All around, therefore, is peace and quietness;
the old enemies vanish from the field; Israel dwells securely in his
habitation. But let it not be supposed that the conflict is over, and
that the victory is finally won; it is a world-wide dominion which this
David is destined to wield, and the kingdom of righteousness and peace
established at the centre must expand and grow till it embrace the
entire circumference of the globe. But will Satan yield his empire
without a struggle? Will he not rather, when he sees the kingdom of God
taking firmer root and rising to a higher elevation, seek to effect its
dismemberment or its downfall, by stirring up in hostile array against
it the multitudinous and gigantic forces that lie scattered in the
extremities of the earth? Assuredly he will do so; and God also will
direct events into this channel, in order to break effectually the
power
of the adversary, and secure the diffusion of Jehovah s truth and the
glory of his name to the remotest regions. A conflict, there fore, must
ensue between the embattled forces of heathenism, gathered out of their
far-distant territories, and the nation that holds the truth of God.
But
the issue is certain. For God's people being now holiness to him, he
cannot but fight with them and give success to their endeavours. So
that
the arm of heathen ism shall be completely broken. Its mightiest
efforts
only end in the more signal display of its own weakness, as compared
with the truth and cause of God; and the name of God as the Holy One of
Israel is magnified and feared to the utmost bounds of the earth.
Such is the general course and issue of things as marked out in this
prophecy, under the form and aspect of what belonged to the old
covenant, and its relation to the world as then existing. But,
stripping
the vision of this merely temporary and imperfect exterior, since now
the higher objects and relations of the new covenant have come, we find
in the prophecy the following series of important and salutary truths.
1. In the first place, while the appearance of the new David to take
the
rule and pre sidency over God s heritage would have the effect of
setting his people free from the old troubles and dangers which had
hitherto assailed them, and laying sure and broad the foundations of
their peace, it should be very far from securing them against all
future
conflicts with evil; it would rather tend to call up other adversaries,
and enlarge the field of conflict, so as to make it embrace the most
distant and barbarous regions of the earth. For the whole earth is
Christ's heritage, and sooner or later it must come to an issue between
the adherents of his cause and the children of error and corruption.
Though the latter might have no thought of interfering with the affairs
of Christ's kingdom, and would rather wish to pursue their own courses
undisturbed (see on xxxviii. 4), yet the Lord will not permit them to
do
so. He must bring the light of heaven into contact with their darkness;
so as to necessitate a trial of strength between the powers of evil
working in them, and the truth and grace of God as displayed in the
kingdom of Christ.
2. From the very nature of the case, this trial would fall to be made
on
a very large scale, and with most gigantic resources; for the
battlefield now is the world to its farthest extremities; and the
question to be practically determined is, whether God's truth or man s
sin is to have possession of the field? So that all preceding contests
should appear small, and vanish out of sight, in comparison of this
last
great struggle, in which the world's destiny was to be decided for good
or evil. Hence it seemed in the distance as if not thousands, as
formerly, but myriads upon myriads, numbers without number, were to
stand here in battle array.
3. Though the odds in this conflict could not but appear beforehand
very
great against the people and cause of Christ, yet the result should be
entirely on their side; and simply because with them is the truth and
the might of Jehovah. Had it been only carnal. resources that were to
be
brought into play on either side, victory must inevitably have been
with
those whose numbers were so overwhelmingly great. But these being only
flesh, and not spirit, they must fall before the omnipotent energy of
the living God, who can make his people more than conquerors over all
that is against them. And so in this mighty conflict, in which all that
the powers of darkness could muster from the world was to stand, as it
were, front to front with the people of God, there were to be found
remaining only, on the part of the adversaries, the signs of defeat and
ruin.
4. Lastly, as all originated in the claim of Messiah and his truth to
the entire possession of the world, so the whole is represented as
ending in the complete establishment of the claim. The kingdom through
every region of the earth becomes the Lord's. He is now universally
known and sanctified as the God of truth and holiness. It is understood
at last that it was his zeal for the interests of righteousness which
led him to chastise in former times his own professing people; and that
the same now has induced him to render them triumphant over every form
and agency of evil. And now, all counter rule and authority being put
down, all disturbing elements finally hushed to rest, the prospect
stretches out before the Church of eternal peace and blessedness, in
what have at length become the new heavens and the new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness.
It may still, perhaps, seem strange to some, if this be the real
meaning
and import of the vision, that the prophet should have presented it
under the aspect of a single individual, gathering immense forces from
particular regions, and at the head of these fighting in single
conflict, and falling on the land of Israel. They may feel it difficult
to believe that a form so concrete and fully developed should have been
adopted, if nothing more local and specific had been intended. But let
such persons look back to other portions of this Book, especially to
what is written of the king of Tyre in chap, xxviii. (which in form,
perhaps, most nearly resembles the prophecy before us), and judge from
the shape and aspect there given to the past, whether it is not in
perfect accordance with the ascertained characteristics of Ezekiel s
style, to find him giving here such a detailed and fleshly appearance
to
the future. There Tyre is not only viewed as personified in her
political head, but that head is represented as passing through all the
experiences of the best and highest of humanity. It is, as we showed, a
historical parable, in which every feature is admirably chosen and
pregnant with meaning, but all of an ideal and not a literal or prosaic
kind. And what is the present vision, as now explained, but &
prophetical parable, in which, again, every trait in the delineation is
full of important meaning, only couched in the language of a symbolical
representation? Surely we must concede to the prophet what we would
never think of withholding from a mere literary author, that he lias a
right to employ his own method; and that the surest way of ascertaining
this is to compare one part of his writings with another, so as to make
the better known reflect light upon the less known the delineations of
the past upon the visions of the future.
At the same time let us not be understood as declaring for certain,
that
the delineation in this prophecy must have nothing to do with any
particular crisis, or decisive moment, in the Church s history. It is
perfectly possible that in this case, as in most others, there may be a
culminating point, at which the spiritual controversy is to rise to a
gigantic magnitude, and virtually range on either side all that is good
and all that is evil in the world. It may be so; I see nothing against
such a supposition in the nature of the prophecy, but, I must add, I
see
nothing conclusively for it. For when we look back to the other
prophecy
just referred to, we find the work of judgment represented as taking
effect upon Tyre, precisely as if it were one individual that was
concerned, and one brief period of his history; while still we know
blow
after blow was required, and even age after age, to carry forward and
consummate the process. Perfectly similar, too, was the case of
Babylon,
as described in the 13th and 14th chapters of Isaiah; it seems as if
almost one act were to do the whole, yet how many instruments had a
hand
in it I and over how many centuries was the work of destruction spread!
We see no necessity in the form of the representation, or in the nature
of things, why it should be otherwise here; none at least why a
different mode of reaching the result should be expected as certain. We
believe that as the judgment of Tyre began when the first breach was
made in the walls by Nebuchadnezzar, and as the judgment of Babylon
began when the Medes and Persians entered her two-leaved gates, so the
controversy with Gog and his heathenish forces has been proceeding
since
Christ, the new David, came to lay the everlasting foundations of his
kingdom, and asserted his claim to the dominion of the earth as his
purchased possession. Every stroke that has been dealt since against
the
idolatry and corruption of the world, is a part of that great conflict
which the prophet in vision saw collected as into a single locality and
accomplished in a moment of time. He would thus more clearly assure us
of the certainty of the result. And though, from the vast extent of the
field and the many imperfections that still cleave to the Church, there
may be much delay and many partial reverses experienced in the process,
though there may, too, at particular times be more desperate struggles
than usual between the powers of evil in the world and the confessors
of
the truth, when the controversy assumes a gigantic aspect, yet the
prophecy is at all times proceeding onwards in its accomplishment. Let
the Church, therefore, do her part, and be faithful to her calling; let
her grasp with a firm hand the banner of truth, and in all lands
display
it in the name of her risen Lord. And whichever way he may choose to
finish and consummate the process, whether by giving fresh impulses to
the hearts of his people, and more signally blessing the work of their
hands, or by shining forth in visible manifestations of his power and
glory, such as may at once and for ever shame into confusion the
adversaries of his cause and kingdom, leaving this to himself, to whom
it properly belongs, let the blessed hope of a triumphant issue animate
every Christian bosom and nerve every Christian arm to maintain the
conflict, and do all that zeal and love can accomplish to hasten
forward
the final result.
In the preceding remarks we have deemed it unnecessary to take any
special notice of such interpretations as seek the accomplishment of
the
prophecy in particular and partial occur rences of the past: for
example, the conflicts of the Maccabees with Antiochus (Grotius, Dathe,
Jahn), the invasion and over throw of the Chaldeans (Ewald), the
temporary successes and destined overthrow of the Turks (Luther). All
such interpretations are obviously unsatisfactory and inadequate. And
we
simply add, further, in case of misapprehension, that while we have no
hesitation in regarding the vision respecting Gog and Magog in the
Apocalypse to be in substance a re-announcement of the prophecy before
us, it does not therefore follow that the prophecy in the Apocalypse
has
exactly the same compass as in Ezekiel. It plainly, indeed, has not.
Ezekiel contemplates the great conflict in a more general light, as
what
was certainly to be connected with the times of Messiah, and should
come
then to its last decisive issues. John, on the other hand, writing from
the commencement of the Messiah s times, breaks up these into distinct
portions (how far successive or contemporaneous, we pretend not to
say),
and giving the vision respecting Gog and his forces the same relative
place that it had in the visions of Ezekiel, he describes under it the
last strangles and victories of the cause of Christ. In each case alike
the vision is appropriated to describe the final workings of the world
s
evil, and its results in connection with the kingdom of God: only, the
starting-point is placed farther in advance in the one case than in the
other. Therefore, as found in Ezekiel, it can throw no light on the
chronological arrangement of the Apocalypse.
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Doug
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| Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 6:10 am Post subject: Re: If You Believe |
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The invasion by Gog and Magog, described in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38,
is not a future invasion of the territory of Israel by Iran, as some
Dispensationalists claim. The horses mentioned in Ezekiel's prophecy
discredit that notion. It is curious that horses are also mentioned in
the prophecy of Joel 2, where an invasion by locusts pictures the day of
the Lord. The horse is said to lack understanding, so perhaps the armies
of Gog include many people who "lack understanding."
Psalm 32:9
Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding:
whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near
unto thee.
The locusts are described as climbing walls and "entering in at the
windows like a thief." Jesus said he is the door, so these invaders,
phony Christians, need to enter in through him.
John 10:1
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber.
Fairbairn applied Ezekiel's prophecy and the judgment of the armies of
Gog and Magog to the entire age of the Church:
"We believe that ... the controversy with Gog and his heathenish forces
has been proceeding since Christ, the new David, came to lay the
everlasting foundations of his kingdom, and asserted his claim to the
dominion of the earth as his purchased possession. Every stroke that has
been dealt since against the idolatry and corruption of the world, is a
part of that great conflict which the prophet in vision saw collected as
into a single locality and accomplished in a moment of time. He would
thus more clearly assure us of the certainty of the result. And though,
from the vast extent of the field and the many imperfections that still
cleave to the Church, there may be much delay and many partial reverses
experienced in the process, though there may, too, at particular times
be more desperate struggles than usual between the powers of evil in the
world and the confessors of the truth, when the controversy assumes a
gigantic aspect, yet the prophecy is at all times proceeding onwards in
its accomplishment. Let the Church, therefore, do her part, and be
faithful to her calling; let her grasp with a firm hand the banner of
truth, and in all lands display it in the name of her risen Lord."
Nicodemus wrote:
| Quote: | Doug <tcc@sentex.net> wrote in news:Np-
dnV_K6JUE1ILUnZ2dnUVZ_rXinZ2d@sentex.net:
Fairbairn wrote,
"THE PROPER SPHERE OF PROPHECY -- THE CHURCH. BY the sphere of
prophecy,
we mean the parties for whom it was directly given, and the objects it
more immediately contemplated. ... It is of prophecy in the stricter
sense that we now speak -- prophecy as containing pre-intimations of
things to come -- not only a distinct branch, but the most special and
peculiar branch of God's communications to men. This alone determines
it
to have been, in its leading aim and object, for the behoof of the
Church. If, in its other aspects, prophesying was "not for them that
believe not, but for them that believe" (1 Cor. xiv. 22), it must have
been so more especially in this; only in an incidental and remote
manner
could it have been intended to bear upon those without. For it was the
revelation of the Lord's secret in regard to the future movements of
His
providence, which belongs peculiarly to them that fear Him (Ps. xxv.
14). ... prophecy, as the revelation of things to come, in all its
leading phases, is God's communication to the church; and that for
spiritual ends -- for the especial purpose of preparing and fitting her
for the more trying emergencies of a struggling and perplexed
condition."
From:
Prophecy viewed in respect to its distinctive nature, its special
function, and proper interpretation, By Patrick Fairbairn. Published by
T. and T. Clark, 1865. (See CHAPTER III.)
http://vinyl2.sentex.ca/%7Etcc/OP/Fairbairn.html
Fairbairn's approach leads to an enlightened interpretation of
Ezekiel's
prophecy of the invasion by Gog and Magog, that is presented below.
EZEKIEL THE BOOK OF HIS PROPHECY
PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D.,
FOURTH EDITION. EDINBURGH: T. & T, CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1876.
ASSAULT OF GOG, AND HIS DESTRUCTION. p. 421 - 431
Now, with this remarkable prophecy fully before us, let us ask how it
is
as a whole to be explained and understood. Are we to regard it as
simply
an anticipated history of transactions that were to take place
precisely
in the form and manner here described; or rather as an ideal
delineation
of what, as to the substance, might certainly be expected to happen,
though possibly under aspects and relations widely different from those
to be found in the prophet's description? For a satisfactory answer to
this question we must look especially to the leading features of the
description itself.
1. And the first thing that strikes us there is the name given to the
leader of the hostile party -- Gog. From the very mode of its formation
this discovers itself at once as an ideal name; it is simply the root
of
Magog, the only related name known to history. And this Magog is itself
the name of a very indefinite territory and people, as appears not only
from the want of any express landmarks connected with them here or
elsewhere, but also from the parties most closely associated with Gog,
as his natural and proper subjects. Of the land of Magog, he is also
the
prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal -- tribes that seem to have been
contiguous in territory, as they were probably also related in their
origin, but which were never, that we know of, actually united into one
kingdom, and have long since disappeared as distinct races. When,
therefore, we find the prophet giving to the head of the great movement
an ideal name, derived from a sort of indefinite, obscurely known
territory, it is scarcely possible to avoid the impression at the
outset, that the description is intended to possess an ideal, not a
real
character.
2. Another thing that presently comes into consideration is the
singular
combination of the party which this Gog is represented as heading. The
nations mentioned are all selected from the distance remote, in the
first instance, from the land of Israel, in the extremities of the
earth, and also many of them far apart from one another, and
consequently the most unlike naturally to act in concert for any
particular purpose. Beside the Scythian tribes, with whom the head of
the movement was more immediately connected, there are the Persians,
Armenians, the other inhabitants of the far north in Asia and Europe;
and then, passing to the opposite extreme, and overleaping all the
intermediate regions, he names the Ethiopians and Libyans of Africa,
the
people, in short, occupying the most distant and remote territories of
the then known world. The principle of assortment and union is
evidently
the very reverse of the natural one not nearness, but remoteness of
position, as well to the land of Israel as to the associated parties
themselves. But this entire omission of the near, and conjunction only
of the remote and distant, is so very peculiar a characteristic, and so
contrary to all real combinations, that it is impossible to avoid
thinking that here also we have but the clothing of an idea not a
literal reality, but the pictorial delineation of one.
3. Then the huge numbers of this combined party are to be taken into
account, in connection with the object for which it was avowedly
formed.
According to the description, it was to be a marauding host, breaking
in
like a mighty inundation upon the land of Israel, and again departing
after it had enriched itself with the spoil and booty there obtained
(chap, xxxviii. 12, 13). That is, myriads of people were to be gathered
from the most distant regions of the earth, combining and acting
together against all the known principles of human nature: and for
what?
To spoil and plunder a land which could not, had they got all it
contained, have been a handful to a tithe of their number could not
have
served to maintain the invaders for a single day! One would think it is
impossible in such a case for the most aerial fancy to dream of
literality; and when the prophet is spoken of as furnishing here a
plain
historical description, one is tempted to ask whether he is supposed to
have written for the amusement of children or for the belief and
instruction of persons of mature understanding?
4. This impression is still further increased when we look to the
fruits
of the victory. The wood of the adversaries weapons was to serve for
fuel to all Israel for seven years! and all Israel were to be employed
for seven months in burying the dead! It would be but a very moderate
allowance, on the literal supposition, to say that a million of men
would thus be engaged, and that on an average each would consign two
corpses to the tomb in one day; which, for the 180 working days of the
seven months, would make an aggregate of 360,000,000 of corpses! Then
the putrefaction, the pestilential vapours arising from such masses of
slain victims before they were all buried! Who could live at such a
time? It bids defiance to all the laws of nature, as well as the known
principles of human action; and to insist on such a description being
understood according to the letter, is to make it take rank with the
most extravagant tales of romance, or the most absurd legends of
Popery.
5. Further, on the ground of a literal description, there is the
collateral consideration of its becoming utterly impossible to make out
a prophetical harmony; the prophets in that case do not mutually
confirm, but, on the contrary, oppose and contradict each other. Here
the great controversy, which finally adjudges the cause of heathendom,
is represented as taking issue on the mountains of Israel, and covering
the whole land with the slain. In Isaiah xxxiv. we have, to all
appearance, the same controversy the controversy of the Lord s judgment
upon Zion's adversaries, when his indignation was to be "upon all
nations, and his fury upon all their armies" determined upon the
mountains of Edom. In Joel, again, it takes place in the valley of
Jehoshaphat, or the valley of decision (chap. iii. 12, 14); and in
Zechariah (chap, xiv.) in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as
also in the Apocalypse (chap. 20) around the camp of the saints and the
beloved city. Thus we have three or four distinct localities, each
represented as the scene of a last conflict, ending in a final triumph
to the cause of God over the leagued hostility of the world. If held to
be literal descriptions, they of course mutually destroy one another;
for the localities being different (as also many of the accompanying
circumstances), they must either be ideal delineations under various
aspects of what was to happen, or they are literal and contradictory
descriptions.
6. Finally, pointing, as all these prophetical descriptions do, and the
one before us in particular, to the latter ages of the world to the
times of the Messiah the gross carnality of the representation in
respect to God s dealing with the adversaries demands a non-literal
interpretation. Under the old covenant, when the Church was still in
its
childhood, it was necessary to employ to a large extent the outward and
material; carnal elements had a prominent place in the immediate
service
of God, and they could not fail to be much resorted to in the
administration of the kingdom, so long as it had a political existence
in the world. His people had then often to defend themselves with a
carnal sword, and often in the successful exercise of this did God s
power and goodness appear to his people. But the revelation of God in
the person and work of Christ introduced an entire change in this
respect. The spiritual element in the Divine character came thereby
into
fuller manifestation, and, as a necessary consequence, every thing
carnal fell into the background. Not that the Lord's people must
therefore cease to operate upon the outward and material things around
them, but that in doing so they must bring more into exercise the
higher
elements of power, and no longer lean upon the more gross and imperfect
instruments of working. The carnal sword, in particular, must
henceforth
be sheathed, and weapons of violence for ever put aside. The glorious
Head of the Church showed himself strong only in the truth of God, and
conquered by suffering in its behalf. It was thus that he gained
unspeakably the noblest victory recorded in the annals of time. And
never would he permit his followers to entertain the thought of winning
any triumphs over the ignorance and malice of the world, otherwise than
by their standing like him in the truth of God, and holding it fast,
even unto death. How, then, would such conflicts and victories as those
described here, if literally understood, comport with this new and more
elevated posture of affairs? Precisely as the imperfections of
childhood
with the higher developments of mature age. They would exhibit a Church
again in bondage to the elements of the world, wielding the artillery
of
brute force instead of the nobler weapons of her spiritual armour, and
so losing infinitely more than she would gain by such a method of
achieving her conquests. The spirit of prophecy never could intend by
such delineations of the far-distant future to indicate so humiliating
a
result, or give birth to anticipations so directly opposed to the
teaching of Christ; the less so, as it was Christ's Spirit that guided
the prophets of the Old Testament in their prospective delineations (1
Pet. i. 11). And therefore, in addition to all the other
impossibilities
standing in the way of the literal interpretation of this vision, there
is that which arises from the false and degrading position in which it
would put the Church, sending her back, after she has attained to the
spiritual light and privileges of the Gospel, to her old fleshly
weapons
and worldly entanglements.
Persons who in the face of all these considerations can still cling to
the literal view of this prophecy, must be left to them selves; they
must have principles of interpretation or grounds of conviction with
which it is impossible to deal in the way of argument. Their views,
also, respecting the position and calling of the Old Testament
prophets,
as to the revelation of the future, must be altogether erroneous. They
must suppose that the object of these was to delineate beforehand, with
historical exactness, the coming events of Providence; whereas it often
consisted much more in disclosing how the great truths and principles
of
the Divine government should appear in the administration of the
affairs
of men. In doing this it was necessary for them to throw their
delineations, even when referring to the last periods of time, into the
form of existing relations and known circumstances for such alone it
was
competent to them to use; but they could, and they did, sometimes use
these in such strange assortments and grotesque combinations, as might
in a sense compel thoughtful minds to look beyond the surface, and feel
that in the things written they had but the form and drapery of what
should be; that the reality itself lay deeper, and could meanwhile be
but dimly apprehended. Such, certainly, is the manner in which the
description of the prophet here ought from the first to have been
understood. He was going, through the Spirit, to present a picture of
what might be expected in the last scenes of the world's history; and
according to the native bent and constitution of his mind, the picture
must be lifelike. Not only must it be formed of the materials of
existing relations, but it must also be formed into a perspective with
manifold and intricate details; yet so constructed and arranged, that
while nothing but the most superficial eye could look for a literal
realization, the great truths and prospects embodied in it should be
patent to the view of all. What, then, are these? Let it be remembered
at what point it is in Ezekiel s prospective exhibitions that this
prophecy is brought in. He has already represented the covenant-people
as recovered from all their existing troubles, and made victorious over
all their surrounding enemies. The best in the past has again revived
in
their experience, freed even from its former imperfections, and secured
against its ever-recurring evils. For the new David, the all-perfect
and
continually-abiding Shepherd, presides over them, and at once prevents
the outbreaking of internal disorders, and shields them from the
attacks
of hostile neighbours. All around, therefore, is peace and quietness;
the old enemies vanish from the field; Israel dwells securely in his
habitation. But let it not be supposed that the conflict is over, and
that the victory is finally won; it is a world-wide dominion which this
David is destined to wield, and the kingdom of righteousness and peace
established at the centre must expand and grow till it embrace the
entire circumference of the globe. But will Satan yield his empire
without a struggle? Will he not rather, when he sees the kingdom of God
taking firmer root and rising to a higher elevation, seek to effect its
dismemberment or its downfall, by stirring up in hostile array against
it the multitudinous and gigantic forces that lie scattered in the
extremities of the earth? Assuredly he will do so; and God also will
direct events into this channel, in order to break effectually the
power
of the adversary, and secure the diffusion of Jehovah s truth and the
glory of his name to the remotest regions. A conflict, there fore, must
ensue between the embattled forces of heathenism, gathered out of their
far-distant territories, and the nation that holds the truth of God.
But
the issue is certain. For God's people being now holiness to him, he
cannot but fight with them and give success to their endeavours. So
that
the arm of heathen ism shall be completely broken. Its mightiest
efforts
only end in the more signal display of its own weakness, as compared
with the truth and cause of God; and the name of God as the Holy One of
Israel is magnified and feared to the utmost bounds of the earth.
Such is the general course and issue of things as marked out in this
prophecy, under the form and aspect of what belonged to the old
covenant, and its relation to the world as then existing. But,
stripping
the vision of this merely temporary and imperfect exterior, since now
the higher objects and relations of the new covenant have come, we find
in the prophecy the following series of important and salutary truths.
1. In the first place, while the appearance of the new David to take
the
rule and pre sidency over God s heritage would have the effect of
setting his people free from the old troubles and dangers which had
hitherto assailed them, and laying sure and broad the foundations of
their peace, it should be very far from securing them against all
future
conflicts with evil; it would rather tend to call up other adversaries,
and enlarge the field of conflict, so as to make it embrace the most
distant and barbarous regions of the earth. For the whole earth is
Christ's heritage, and sooner or later it must come to an issue between
the adherents of his cause and the children of error and corruption.
Though the latter might have no thought of interfering with the affairs
of Christ's kingdom, and would rather wish to pursue their own courses
undisturbed (see on xxxviii. 4), yet the Lord will not permit them to
do
so. He must bring the light of heaven into contact with their darkness;
so as to necessitate a trial of strength between the powers of evil
working in them, and the truth and grace of God as displayed in the
kingdom of Christ.
2. From the very nature of the case, this trial would fall to be made
on
a very large scale, and with most gigantic resources; for the
battlefield now is the world to its farthest extremities; and the
question to be practically determined is, whether God's truth or man s
sin is to have possession of the field? So that all preceding contests
should appear small, and vanish out of sight, in comparison of this
last
great struggle, in which the world's destiny was to be decided for good
or evil. Hence it seemed in the distance as if not thousands, as
formerly, but myriads upon myriads, numbers without number, were to
stand here in battle array.
3. Though the odds in this conflict could not but appear beforehand
very
great against the people and cause of Christ, yet the result should be
entirely on their side; and simply because with them is the truth and
the might of Jehovah. Had it been only carnal. resources that were to
be
brought into play on either side, victory must inevitably have been
with
those whose numbers were so overwhelmingly great. But these being only
flesh, and not spirit, they must fall before the omnipotent energy of
the living God, who can make his people more than conquerors over all
that is against them. And so in this mighty conflict, in which all that
the powers of darkness could muster from the world was to stand, as it
were, front to front with the people of God, there were to be found
remaining only, on the part of the adversaries, the signs of defeat and
ruin.
4. Lastly, as all originated in the claim of Messiah and his truth to
the entire possession of the world, so the whole is represented as
ending in the complete establishment of the claim. The kingdom through
every region of the earth becomes the Lord's. He is now universally
known and sanctified as the God of truth and holiness. It is understood
at last that it was his zeal for the interests of righteousness which
led him to chastise in former times his own professing people; and that
the same now has induced him to render them triumphant over every form
and agency of evil. And now, all counter rule and authority being put
down, all disturbing elements finally hushed to rest, the prospect
stretches out before the Church of eternal peace and blessedness, in
what have at length become the new heavens and the new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness.
It may still, perhaps, seem strange to some, if this be the real
meaning
and import of the vision, that the prophet should have presented it
under the aspect of a single individual, gathering immense forces from
particular regions, and at the head of these fighting in single
conflict, and falling on the land of Israel. They may feel it difficult
to believe that a form so concrete and fully developed should have been
adopted, if nothing more local and specific had been intended. But let
such persons look back to other portions of this Book, especially to
what is written of the king of Tyre in chap, xxviii. (which in form,
perhaps, most nearly resembles the prophecy before us), and judge from
the shape and aspect there given to the past, whether it is not in
perfect accordance with the ascertained characteristics of Ezekiel s
style, to find him giving here such a detailed and fleshly appearance
to
the future. There Tyre is not only viewed as personified in her
political head, but that head is represented as passing through all the
experiences of the best and highest of humanity. It is, as we showed, a
historical parable, in which every feature is admirably chosen and
pregnant with meaning, but all of an ideal and not a literal or prosaic
kind. And what is the present vision, as now explained, but &
prophetical parable, in which, again, every trait in the delineation is
full of important meaning, only couched in the language of a symbolical
representation? Surely we must concede to the prophet what we would
never think of withholding from a mere literary author, that he lias a
right to employ his own method; and that the surest way of ascertaining
this is to compare one part of his writings with another, so as to make
the better known reflect light upon the less known the delineations of
the past upon the visions of the future.
At the same time let us not be understood as declaring for certain,
that
the delineation in this prophecy must have nothing to do with any
particular crisis, or decisive moment, in the Church s history. It is
perfectly possible that in this case, as in most others, there may be a
culminating point, at which the spiritual controversy is to rise to a
gigantic magnitude, and virtually range on either side all that is good
and all that is evil in the world. It may be so; I see nothing against
such a supposition in the nature of the prophecy, but, I must add, I
see
nothing conclusively for it. For when we look back to the other
prophecy
just referred to, we find the work of judgment represented as taking
effect upon Tyre, precisely as if it were one individual that was
concerned, and one brief period of his history; while still we know
blow
after blow was required, and even age after age, to carry forward and
consummate the process. Perfectly similar, too, was the case of
Babylon,
as described in the 13th and 14th chapters of Isaiah; it seems as if
almost one act were to do the whole, yet how many instruments had a
hand
in it I and over how many centuries was the work of destruction spread!
We see no necessity in the form of the representation, or in the nature
of things, why it should be otherwise here; none at least why a
different mode of reaching the result should be expected as certain. We
believe that as the judgment of Tyre began when the first breach was
made in the walls by Nebuchadnezzar, and as the judgment of Babylon
began when the Medes and Persians entered her two-leaved gates, so the
controversy with Gog and his heathenish forces has been proceeding
since
Christ, the new David, came to lay the everlasting foundations of his
kingdom, and asserted his claim to the dominion of the earth as his
purchased possession. Every stroke that has been dealt since against
the
idolatry and corruption of the world, is a part of that great conflict
which the prophet in vision saw collected as into a single locality and
accomplished in a moment of time. He would thus more clearly assure us
of the certainty of the result. And though, from the vast extent of the
field and the many imperfections that still cleave to the Church, there
may be much delay and many partial reverses experienced in the process,
though there may, too, at particular times be more desperate struggles
than usual between the powers of evil in the world and the confessors
of
the truth, when the controversy assumes a gigantic aspect, yet the
prophecy is at all times proceeding onwards in its accomplishment. Let
the Church, therefore, do her part, and be faithful to her calling; let
her grasp with a firm hand the banner of truth, and in all lands
display
it in the name of her risen Lord. And whichever way he may choose to
finish and consummate the process, whether by giving fresh impulses to
the hearts of his people, and more signally blessing the work of their
hands, or by shining forth in visible manifestations of his power and
glory, such as may at once and for ever shame into confusion the
adversaries of his cause and kingdom, leaving this to himself, to whom
it properly belongs, let the blessed hope of a triumphant issue animate
every Christian bosom and nerve every Christian arm to maintain the
conflict, and do all that zeal and love can accomplish to hasten
forward
the final result.
In the preceding remarks we have deemed it unnecessary to take any
special notice of such interpretations as seek the accomplishment of
the
prophecy in particular and partial occur rences of the past: for
example, the conflicts of the Maccabees with Antiochus (Grotius, Dathe,
Jahn), the invasion and over throw of the Chaldeans (Ewald), the
temporary successes and destined overthrow of the Turks (Luther). All
such interpretations are obviously unsatisfactory and inadequate. And
we
simply add, further, in case of misapprehension, that while we have no
hesitation in regarding the vision respecting Gog and Magog in the
Apocalypse to be in substance a re-announcement of the prophecy before
us, it does not therefore follow that the prophecy in the Apocalypse
has
exactly the same compass as in Ezekiel. It plainly, indeed, has not.
Ezekiel contemplates the great conflict in a more general light, as
what
was certainly to be connected with the times of Messiah, and should
come
then to its last decisive issues. John, on the other hand, writing from
the commencement of the Messiah s times, breaks up these into distinct
portions (how far successive or contemporaneous, we pretend not to
say),
and giving the vision respecting Gog and his forces the same relative
place that it had in the visions of Ezekiel, he describes under it the
last strangles and victories of the cause of Christ. In each case alike
the vision is appropriated to describe the final workings of the world
s
evil, and its results in connection with the kingdom of God: only, the
starting-point is placed farther in advance in the one case than in the
other. Therefore, as found in Ezekiel, it can throw no light on the
chronological arrangement of the Apocalypse.
All the best Science has yet to explain the crucifixion of The Christ.
Look with your 'best secular eye, somewhere in the lost aspects of
Existence it is you and your special eye, who Becomes The Witness.
Welcome Brother And Sister, The Journey Has Started, You Have Recieved
The Latest News, It Is Time, through your dreams, gospels, and highest
aspirations to Become A Complete Human Being, A Complete Witness,
May The Full Night Sky Light Your Path Into The Most Wonderful Journey
|
--
Doug
http://vinyl2.sentex.ca/~tcc/OP/ |
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Zadok
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 6:30 am Post subject: Re: If You Believe |
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"Doug" <religionist nutcase> wrote in message ...
| Quote: | The invasion by Gog and Magog,
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In the Roman world, many of the Romans wore Togas.
In the bible, when the name Gog is used, it is only a tansliteration
of the word toga.
If you spell the word Gog backwords, you can easily see this,
Then if you take the word Magog, and spell that backwords
you get Gogam. That is the female form of Toga.
Thus it becomes obvious to all that Gog is simply the Emperor that wears a
toga,
which was Vespasian in 70AD. and the female Gogam is his mistress Caenis.
Proof once again, that all those prophecies were fulfilled in 70AD.
And that folks makes as much sense as the drivel that Dougie posts!!
Smile. |
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Doug
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:49 am Post subject: Re: If You Believe |
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Zadok wrote:
| Quote: | Then if you take the word Magog, and spell that backwords
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Is that a euphemism for words that smell bad like yours?
--
Doug
http://vinyl2.sentex.ca/~tcc/OP/ |
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Carl
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:50 am Post subject: Re: If You Believe |
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Zadok makes it quite clear he rejects most of the Bible. As a result he is
merely another heretic in a long line of heretics. He will suffer the
consequences if he does not repent so says Scripture.
He admits to rejecting John 1:1.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of
grace and truth.
He admits to rejecting John the Baptist & John 1:16,17.
From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after
another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ.
He admits to rejecting Acts 4:33.
With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
He admits to rejecting Romans 5:15.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass
of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the
grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
He admits to rejecting Philemon 1:25.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
He admits to rejecting Revelation 1:4,5.
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and
from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the
faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of
the earth.
He admits to rejecting Revelation 22:21.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people.
Zadok stated clearly, "I reject any books not written by an apostle" He
tried to explain it away by claiming we were discussing only the New
Testament however the fact remains we were discussing the Bible in totality
(e.g. -- Old Testament AND New Testament) therefore when he made his
statement "I reject any books not written by an apostle" and since he KNEW
at the time we were discussing the OT & the NT the only logical and rational
conclusion is that zadok rejects the entire Old Testament, the book of Mark
(since it's attributed to Mark, a cousin of Barnabas), the book of Luke,
Acts, the Epistle to the Romans, the First & Second Epistles to the
Corinthians, the Epistle to the Galatians, the Epistle to the Ephesians,
Epistle to the Philippians, the Epistle to the Colossians, the First &
Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, the First & Second Epistles to
Timothy, the Epistle to Titus, the Epistle to Philemon, the Epistle to the
Hebrews, 2 Peter, and even though John wrote it, apparently Zadok reject
Revelation as well.
All that's left in Zadok's personally edited, cafeteria-style chosen verse
inclusion (e.g. -- a couple here, some from there, a few more from there,
etc.) is Matthew, John (although since he rejects Revelation he probably
rejects John as well in order to be consistent), the Epistle of James, the
First Epistle of Peter, the First, Second, & Third Epistles of John and the
Epistle of Jude. However since the Epistle of James is traditionally
attributed as being written by James, brother of Jesus and Jude Thomas and
the Epistle of Jude is traditionally ascribed to Jude Thomas, brother of
Jesus and James, Zadok may reject those as well depending upon if he
considers James & Jude Thomas apostles or not.
So the 66 books in the Bible that have been accepted as canon by Christians
for centuries has mostly been rejected by Zadok whose personal "bible" is 8
books or less. And even those 8 books are viscerated by Zadok's personal
choice to reject portions of even those books that oppose his worldly and
unholy views of such Godly things as Grace, Love, Joy, Peace, etc.
In short, Zadok rejects God's Word. This explains why he lacks any grace,
joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. and exhibits anger, bitterness, hatred, a
short temper and other attributes which God does not want Christians to
display.
Zadok's heart is quite h | |
