Foreword
In 1967 the writer of this collection of studies
in Bible prophecy published an earlier series, written in 1964, under the title:
“The Last Days.” They were little more than brief summaries, to
suggest lines of investigation. The present compilation, written in the Fall of
1967, is an attempt to dot a few i’s and cross a few
t’s.
In recent years there are certain distinctive
attitudes discernible regarding the study of Bible prophecy. One school of
thought saves itself from thinking and from hard personal Bible study by nailing
its colours to the mast and refusing to consider any interpretation more recent
than the nineteenth century.
Another trend, also to be deplored, is the
picking up of isolated verses here and there from prophetic passages in order to
weave them together, with a confidence altogether unwarranted, into a detailed
prophetic time-table. Anything, which is attempted in this direction, should
always be done with great diffidence. One foresees the possibility of serious
strains on personal faith when over-confident schemes of interpretation are
turned topsy-turvy by the hard facts of a year or two.
Yet another fashion, understandable but not to be
encouraged, is the rambling political commentary, decorated with an occasional
knowing allusion to some prophecy or other. This tendency to turn Bible prophecy
into a kind of political game — the only kind of politics valid to
Christadelphians — is of little spiritual profit. It is especially
undesirable when it steers the attention of the Lord’s watchers to the Far
East or Africa or Western Europe or the Papacy, and away from Israel. There is
no single lesson to be learned by the student of Bible prophecy of more
importance than the almost self evident: Watch Israel! By comparison all the
rest is negligible.
The present series of studies is a rather
miscellaneous sequence of brief expositions of more or less familiar chapters in
the prophets. They are essentially Biblical studies. Allusions to current
politics are few. Many of the conclusions reached — especially in
considering such chapters as Daniel I1, Amos 1, 2 — are very tentative.
The writer is prepared to see some of his expectations proved to be mistaken by
the events of the next few years. In that case he will be in good
company.
Two themes, both of which have suffered
unwarranted neglect over the years, were given some prominence in “The
Last Days”: the repentance of Israel, and Arab hostility. It will be
observed that in these further excursions into prophetic fields, the same motifs
(deliberately recapitulated in chapter 2) constantly recur — not because
they have been sought, but because they are inescapable.
It is, of course, well recognized that most, if
not all, of the prophecies considered here have already had some kind of
fulfilment in or soon after the prophet’s own time. But this is not to say
that further fulfilment in days yet future must be ruled out. Almost no allusion
is made in these pages to any primary fulfilment, but the reader is assured that
where such application of the prophecy has been known, it has been borne in mind
in order to help towards a harmonious exposition of the later, and now more
important, fulfilment.
Some will be disappointed at the paucity of
references in these pages to the Book of Revelation. Such readers are assured
that there has been no culpable negligence. The present writer has a complete
commentary on that remarkable book in manuscript. Perhaps one day it may be
possible to make this available for perusal, but it is fervently hoped that the
rapid development of events in these Last Days will soon make the further study
of the Apocalypse unnecessary.
