THE HOLY INDIGNATION OF THE LORD. 299 39th chapters. Revelation xvi. 13. to the end of the chapter. And Revelations xix. 11-21.] The following Scriptures are selected from the above quotations: "For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies ; he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood; and their land shall be soaked with blood; for it is a day of the Lord's vengeance. And it shall come to pass at the same time, when GOG shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. There shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel. I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God. I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, and fire and brimstone. Behold, I am against thee, O Gog. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands; and the people that is with thee. I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field, to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. This is the day whereof I have spoken. "And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the coast of the sea; and it shall stop the noses of the passengers, and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude; and they shall call it the valley of Hamon-gog. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. So the house of Israel shall 300 PREDICTIONS OF THE BATTLE-DAY. know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward." In his vision of the first "little horn," Daniel "beheld, till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." In his vision of the second little horn, Daniel saw, that when he (the Mahometan power) should "stand up against the Prince of princes, he should be broken without hands:" i. e. no hand should deliver him from ruin. In his vision of the last great power of Antichrist, he saw that “he shall come to his end and none shall help him." The above were the three great powers of opposition to the Bible, and the orthodox Christian religion, all of which at the expiration of a “time, times, and an half,” were foreseen to fall into perdition together, at the battle of the great day of the Lord. Daniel was made to understand that at the time when Michael the Great Prince should stand up for the children of his people, (Israel,)" That there should be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation, even to that same time; and that at that time, Israel shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." John the Revelator predicted the battle of the great day of the Lord, under the awful emblems of the sounding of the seventh, or last woe trumpet, and the pouring out the last vial of the seven last plagues. He was made to understand that these were signs that "The nations were angry; that God's wrath was come to destroy them that destroy the earth." Then a voice from heaven would proclaim, "It is done !" accompanied by voices, thunders, lightnings, a great earthquake, and the most destructive hail-stones of a talent weight, equal to 114 pounds each. Such were the predictions and description of the THE POWERS OF ANTICHRIST OVERTHROWN. 301 The onset of such a great battle-day of the Lord. battle must be full of terror. But the attack was to be made by the Prince of heaven, and the powers of Antichrist by Him would be crushed beneath his power. “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."-[Psa. ii. 8, 9.] "And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father." -[Rev. ii. 27.] The following is the prediction of the result of the battle :-" And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war with Him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the False Prophet, that wrought miracles before him. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."-[Rev. xix. 19, 20.] Such was the victory foretold of Christ over his enemies at the battle of the great day of the Lord. And as the beast and false prophet only are mentioned in the conquest, let it be understood that they include all the three great combined powers of Antichrist with all their alliances, viz., the whole army of Gog and his bands, comprising Popery, Mahometanism, and Infidelity, with all the allied systems of wickedness on earth. For the beast of the last days from the bottomless pit is evidently the great Atheistical Infidel power of Antichrist, with Popery on its back in leagued Infidel alliance; and the false prophet is evidently the Mahometan anti-Christian power. These three great powers of Antichrist, with their allies, auxiliaries, instrumentalities, and adherents of every description, 302 THE FEAST OF TRIUMPH. including all impenitent sinners then existing, all of whom are comprised in the army of Antichrist, under the appellation of Gog and his bands, were all and singular, evidently to be understood as included in the “beast and false prophet who were overcome, taken, and cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone at the battle of the great day of the Lord." Such are the predictions of the battle-day, the contending armies, the onset, and the victory which will be achieved over all the anti-Christian powers of darkness on the battlefield at Armageddon, all which will be fulfilled according to the predictions of God's word on or about a.d. 2000, after the generation of impenitent sinners now living shall long have been swept into destruction for their Infidelity, by the same Almighty power that will dash the nations of Antichrist in pieces on the battlefield of the great day an hundred and fifty years or more to come. VI. Predictions relating to the triumphs of Holiness over the fallen powers of darkness, celebrated in a festival of a peculiar nature, will now be considered. The Prophet Ezekiel foreshows it thus, as he was commanded : "And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come, gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth. Thus shall ye be filled at my table, with horses, and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war saith the Lord God." [Ezekiel xxxix. 17-21.] The Apostle John describes the feast of triumph thus:--"And I saw an angel standing in the sun. And THE SONG OF VICTORY IN ANTICIPATION. 303 he cried with a loud voice, saying to the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come, and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the Great God. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men both free and bond, both small and great. And all the fowls were filled with their flesh." The following song of victory in anticipation may now be sung by all who love Jesus, and the cause for which he died, and rose again to vindicate by the power of the sword which goeth forth from his mouth. VICTORY OF THE GREAT BATTLE-DAY OF THE LORD IN ANTICIPATION. JESUS, the long insulted Saviour God, Now mounts the horse of war, with sword of truth, Emitting thund'ring terrors from his mouth. Shining like flaming fire, his piercing eyes PAUSE. That day will come, the Lord's great battle-day. Magog shall fall in Armageddon dead. |