02.18. Why Germany Cannot Rule the World
XVIII WHY GERMANY CANNOT RULE THE WORLD
(Note: This chapter and those that follow, with exception of the last perhaps, are not intrinsically related to the foregoing, although they were published as articles in the Christian Herald at about the same time, having been called forth bf special circumstances. As their contents have more than a passing interest, however, it has been thought desirable to add them to this volume.)
I FOR nearly one hundred years there lived in England a Bible teacher, seer and student of prophecy, named Benjamin Wills Newton.
He died just prior to the present war at the ripe age of ninety. In 1855, during the progress of the Crimean War, he published a tractate to show, from the Scriptures, that the struggle between the Western Powers and Russia must result in the triumph of the former-a prophecy he saw fulfilled. The German Empire was not then in evidence, and indeed, the name of Germany is mentioned only once in the tractate; but if it were now rewritten, and “Germany" substituted for "Russia" throughout its pages, few other changes would be needed to make it fit as perfectly into present conditions as it did into those of sixty odd years ago. In other words, the reason, fundamentally, whyRussia could not control the world then, is the reason why Germany cannot control it now. The present chapter, though original in that its author is alone responsible for it, is nevertheless, in essence, the rewriting, though in much abridgment, of Mr. Newton’s work.
II
Europe for a long while has been minus a controlling center, a balance of power. Prior to the present period, the will of Great Britain and France, unitedly expressed, was determinative of most European questions. But when the strength of France was impaired-as at the time of the Franco-Prussian war-no such controlling force remained.
Gradually, however, France has been regaining her former position with England, and at the bottom of the present war is Germany’s purpose to offset the results certain to follow inthat case. But she cannot finally and permanently achieve her aim, not because she lacks the force, nor the organization, nor the advantage of temporary success, but because a higher Power than she or any other nation has decreed otherwise.
III
It is the Divine prophecy recorded in Daniel 2:1-49 that enables one to speak thus confidently. It was given him of God at a time when controlling power was being withdrawn from his nation of Israel and committed by God to certain nations of the Gentiles. This power had been given to Israel away back in the days of Solomon, the son of David, but because of her transgressions it was now being transferred for the time being. This transfer, be it noted, was not to the other nations of the world indiscriminately, not to others who through their own strength might be able to grasp and retain it, but to certain and particular nations which God Himself indicated and to which He gave, and would continue to give, the power to execute His will.
These nations were symbolized in the colossal metal image seen in a dream by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and which Daniel the prophet enlightened and empowered to interpret.
Scripture meant--or itself identifies the nations that are rather empires, as we now call them as being in succession, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. For the supreme power of the first, compare Daniel 2:37, the second, Ezra 1:2, the third, Daniel 11:3, and the fourth, Luke 2:1.
Quoting Newton: "The sovereign controlling power of earth which was first vested in Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, next in Cyrus of Persia, afterwards in Alexander of Greece, descended at last to the emperors of Rome; and within the territory once ruled by them, that sovereign power resides, and there its home will be until the Gentile Image comes to an end and forgiven Jerusalem becomes the ’City of the Great King.’ " By the "Gentile Image," he means that image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, and the interpretation of which afforded the occasion of Daniel’s prophecy. By "forgiven Jerusalem," he means the ancient city of Palestine, restored to Israel and occupied by her when she shall at length have become reconciled to God through the acceptance of the crucified Jesus as her Messiah.
"Accordingly," he goes on to say, "during all the rude shocks which the Roman Empire has received, the supreme determinating power of earth has never left its boundary. Invading tribes have never succeeded in removing the seat of power outside its limits. Such tribes have either lost the authority they temporarily possessed, or else, in order to retain it, they have abandoned their primeval seats and sought a new home within the divinely prescribed area.’ This the Turks did when they left their primeval seats for Constantinople."
We may be pardoned a digression here to say that, while some Biblical scholars question the application of the fourth empire to Rome, nevertheless such has been the orthodox application from the beginning. It was early expressed by Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities, by a majority of the church fathers, by all the expositors of the Middle Ages, and by a majority of the moderns. Among these last some of the best known are Lange, Hengstenberg, Havernick, Hofmann, Keil, Gaussen, Auberlen, Kliefoth, Pusey, Barnes, Faussett and Tregelles. The great Joseph Mede, an English theologian of the seventeenth century, first of his countrymen to attempt an explanation of the book of Revelation, places the application of the fourth empire to Rome88among the axioms of prophetic interpretation. "Having so good ground in Scripture," he says, "it is with me little less than an article of faith."
IV
Now the point is that Germany, if we except the southwestern corner of her land, was not represented in Nebuchadnezzar’s image; in other words, -she never became a part of the Roman Empire. Hence the impossibility that she should be finally and permanently victorious over those nations which aresorepresented. That is not to say that she may not for a time be permitted, as a scourge, to successfully assail them, or even temporarily to occupy or control a portion of their territory as at the present moment; but this is something different from becoming the mistress of those nations, and holding through them the determinative power of the earth.
There may be a long and difficult conflict still ahead, for the progress of events in the Divine calendar is sometimes hindered by things beyond our ken; but so far as the end is concerned, we can say with the inspired prophet, "The dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure" (Daniel 2:45).
Speaking of the "things beyond our ken" recalls the mysterious tenth chapter of Daniel, where it is revealed that centuries ago, when, in the providence of God, the time had come for the Persian Empire to succeed the Babylonian in the place of power, the angel of God was sent to confirm and strengthen Persia, but was resisted and hindered by the powers of darkness for the space of twenty-one days. The representative of the powers of darkness in this case was called "the prince of the kingdom of Persia."
It is true, in other words, that not only in an individual sense, but nationally as well, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood (merely), but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). These" heavenly places" are not those of which we conceive as the dwelling-place of the unveiled presence of God, of His holy angels, and the "spirits of just men made perfect," but those which for the time being are possessed by the evil angels and Satan who is at their head. In the crisis of the Persian succession, Michael the chief prince, or the archangel, as we are told, came to help the angel of God against the spiritual "prince of the kingdom of Persia," and success followed; or, as the angel of God Himself said to Daniel, "I remained there with the kings of Persia" (Daniel 10:13).
There is an intimation in the same chapter that a similar spiritual conflict ensued in the region of the heavens when, later, the succession was about to pass from the Persian to the Grecian Empire; for Satan does not purpose that God shall have His way if he can prevent it. Little do we know, therefore, the seriousness of the warfare now raging in the "heavenly places" as well as on the battle-fields of France.
Mr. Newton reminds us that just before the Roman Empire was established as the mistress of the world, it had to pass through one of its most severe and dangerous struggles with an earthly prince to whom the Kaiser may well be compared. Mithridates was his name, and his influence extended along the coast of the Black Sea to the Caspian. The prize contended for was Asia Minor and the East, the same as it is to-day. A terrible warfare was conducted, but he was overcome. And now, if the moment has arrived, as symbolized in the Gentile Image, when the limits of the Roman Empire are again to appear, may we not expect another struggle not unlike the first’ The effectual revival of the East, and the recognized reappearance of the Roman nations there aswell as in the West, would be a supreme step onward in the development of the Divine counsels, and we might well expect a tremendous political convulsion to precede it.
V
Another interesting point is this: that the Roman Empire and its predecessors in the Image have their historic existence in Scripture as long as they are employed in that which concerns Israel in Jerusalem. One of the objects for which they were called into power was that they might punish and "tread down" the Holy City. Therefore, as soon as Israel was dispersed after the siege of Jerusalem by Titus,A. D.70, a long night began to fall on the Roman Empire, although the "iron" strength which was its heritage always remained somewhere within its boundaries. For this reason we may believe that when the Jews again return to Jerusalem in unbelief to reestablish their Holy City--and are not events pointing that way just now?--we shall once more behold the Roman nations in the divided form of the ten tribes of the Image, assuming a definite relation to it and to its people. Is it then unlikely, in view of all this, that the Roman nations now engaged against Germany shall successfully resist her?
It is recorded of John Bright that, when he was once tempted to turn back in his great reform movements, he said: "If we can’t win as fast as we wish, we know that our opponents can’t, in the long run, win at all." Then he gathered new courage and went on to victory. "Let us in our conflict," says another, "look up, cheer up, and go forward. Doing this, as surely as Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, we shall finally and gloriously triumph."
QUESTIONS ON THE LESSON 1.Who was Benjamin Wills Newton?
2. What work of his is referred to?
3. What parallel is drawn between the European political situation of that day and this?
4. What is given as the explanation of Germany’s present purpose?
5. Why can she not succeed?
S. What Scripture indicates this?
7. Give the gist of that prophecy.
8. Have you examined the references which identify the controlling empires?
9. How has history fulfilled this prophecy?
10. Name some modem authorities who corroborate the application of the fourth empire to Rome.
11. Why cannot Germany become finally and permanently victorious over the nations thus represented?
12. Give an Old Testament application of Ephesians 6:12.
13. What is the meaning of "heavenly places" in this case?
14. Relate in your own words the story of Mithridates, and apply it to the present war.
15. State the relation of the Roman Empire to Israel in Jerusalem.
16. What inference of present importance may be drawn from this?