The Sign of the End of the Age

When Christ was born, the event caused no disturbance in the Roman world; when he lived and died there was a ripple in the political fabric in Jerusalem—a mere spark in Judaea.

The notice taken by Jewish and Roman historians of the followers of Jesus is significant only as suggesting a dim figure behind their movement. The Gospel records present a vivid contrast to this darkness of ignorance of the secular world as to those things which marked the end of an age. So stark is this contrast that the Gospels have the appearance of being “out of this world”, and, of course, they are. They are understood only by those who are “given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”.

The inner circle who were “given to know” at the time of the birth of Christ included the mother of Jesus, the Magi, Zacharias and Elisabeth and their son John, the aged Simeon and Anna the prophetess. This knowledge came either by the careful study of the existing scriptures or Word of God, by angelic visitation or vision, or by direct inspiration. Such knowledge is the breath of God, however it came and whether it touched the highly favoured Mary or the humblest unnamed disciple. Without it, the light which first shone into the world from the same Holy Spirit source must have gone out. But that which from the beginning was not by the will of man but of God, was kept in being by God.

The Gospels have, therefore, a quality well defined by the word “sacred” or “holy”, and a like quality has to be brought to them by the reader if they are to become alive to him.

It was six centuries or more before the change to the Christian calendar in Europe adjusted to the fact that an age had ended. By then the Gentile Age was in full session and christianised power had toppled the old Gods of Europe, but Christendom was a world away from that “perfect understanding” of Luke and such as shared his insight.

The centuries of the Mosaic Dispensation had revealed the capacity of the human mind to manipulate the truth of God to suit lower interests—to avoid at all costs the responsibilities of full belief by the adoption of such expediences as circumstances required. In the face of the constant appeal by God through the prophets, the people to whom the word of salvation was then sent maintained a near-total attitude of unbelief. The reply of God through Habakkuk was as follows:

“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you” (Hab. 1. 5).

Habakkuk revealed the approaching end of the kingdom of Judah by the assault of the Babylonians.

Aware of the same attitude of unbelief in his day, the Apostle Paul takes up the words of the prophet:

“Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts 13. 40-41).

It is made clear by the Apostle that he refers to the appearance of the Saviour, who was identified in full by the Old Testament scriptures a nd by those select witnesses mentioned earlier—only to be rejected by the majority of his countrymen.

If God made his servants aware of the approaching end of the Jewish age, and if he prepared for the new age in the person of his Son–duly heralded and witnessed as he was—would he do less at the end of the Gentile age when the Son is to come and begin his reign?

Are there signs that the Gentile age is ending?

The last 50 years has seen the change in the Holy Land from desolation to the stage of the Declaration of the State of Israel. The manner of this rebuilding suggests the beginning of the fulfillment of the vision of Ezekiel 37: a gradual building up of a people; the change that these would make to a land that was desolate and bereft of men so that it would again support men is paralleled in prophecy and history so as to suggest at least a measure of fulfillment. These changes in the land surely mark the stage where a once dead people now stand upon their feet in their mortal flesh. A new heart and a new spirit now awaits them, for a spiritual awakening has yet to come to Israel.

The change from the stony heart to a heart of flesh will be expressly by the hand of God, and it will mark the greatest change to come to the people of Israel in the latter-day period. This change may well be the outcome of Ezekiel 38, when all the hopes of a people trusting in themselves to create a new home in their land face the prospect of the overwhelming invasion and loss of all their hopes—a moment of terrible crisis.

When deliverance comes by the Divine hand, as of old, it is the human politics of both Jew and Gentile that will have to reckon with the arm of God made bare in these last days.

We would direct the reader to the article in the August “Testimony” by Bro. Hubert W. Craddock, and to his suggestion that Jesus gave to the world the sign of his coming under the sign of the Fig Tree:

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree: when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all things, know that it is near, even at the doors” (Matt. 24. 32-33).

There is a link between Jesus and the Jewish nation that makes the last days of the Gentiles (and the Fig Tree showing forth leaves), strongly reminiscent of that generation that asked Jesus for a sign:

“An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12. 39-40).

Jonah as a type of Christ suffered a judgment and a deliverance. In his own death Jesus suffered, the righteous for the unrighteous, and received an even greater deliverance in a better resurrection than Jonah.

Israel, in the figure of the firstborn Son of God, is the rejected and suffering servant among the nations, cut off from their hope and for long dead and buried as a nation. Now the change has come and some graves at least, have been opened in fulfillment of Ezekiel 37. 12. Surely the signs are that the long and severe judgment upon this people is turning to resurrection, and blindness will yet most surely turn to sight.

What of the Gentiles of recent and present Christendom who have in part been the executioners and in part have given their voices in execration against Israel, and in part have stood aside from helping, and only in small part have not stood aside in the time of Israel’s extremity?

In the main there has been toward the Gospel the same attitude of unbelief that characterized the generation of Jesus, and of Paul and Habakkuk. It is not necessary to assume the authority of Habakkuk or of Paul in freely applying the prophet’s words to a generation who now look upon Israel’s rise in unbelief:

“Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.”

We may ponder over the parallel case of this generation who may be given one sign only, the visible sign of history and prophecy in the death and resurrection of God’s firstborn nation. And we may further ponder our own responsibility if we profess to be among those who are “given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven”. Our responsibility is to shoulder the task of declaring to our fellow Gentiles the implications of the sign of the approaching end of the age.

Concerning Israel, God has said (Isa. 43. 10-12): “Ye are my witnesses . . . that I am God”. If God has made Israel the witness to his existence and power throughout their history, then there is good reason for the present stage in the witness to be used in support of the Gospel. There is a double command in Jeremiah 31. 10 to hear and to declare:

“Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.”

The scattering of the people of Israel has for long been a matter of prophecy fulfilled by the event in history. Now, the re-gathering has begun by the same hand that ordained the scattering. It may be noted also that there is the divine intention not only to regather, but to keep. Further in this ch. 31, at the passage v. 35-37, there is an assurance given by God of his determination to preserve Israel—and the terms are such that it would be difficult to imagine how it could be put more strongly:

“Thus saith the Lord, which giveth a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar, The Lord of Hosts is his name; If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the Lord, If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord.”

It may be observed that the restoration has reached a stage where we may well reverse the emphasis and point to the fact of the end of the scattering of Israel as an assurance of the existence and power of God as Creator.

We have said that it is difficult to imagine a more strongly worded assurance than Jer. 31. 35-37. There is in Jer. 16. 14-15, and repeated in ch. 23. 7-8, a declaration from another point of view, again carrying great force:

“Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the land whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.”

When we consider the importance given to the great deriverance from Egypt, in that it was laid upon Israel to teach this to their children throughout their generations, and when we realize that this has become one of their ancestral memories, that this should be equated with a latter-day deliverance is the measure of the significance of present events in Israel.

So, in preaching the Gospel to the Gen­tiles at the approaching end of an age, we believe that there is a sign to empower our preaching. It is a sign that may take its place with the Ark prepared by Noah at God’s command, prepared at length, in the sight of an unbelieving world who, while Noah preached, had their opportunity to believe.

A question for the modern preacher is, will he take his place with Noah?