which all things are coming is clear, plain, and unmistakable. There
confidence with which many of its advocates have asserted the correctness of their own interpretations and impugned the expositions of others. Too many have written and talked as if they had a special revelation from Heaven, and as if it was impossible for anyone to maintain a character for common sense — if he did not see with their eyes! Let us all watch our hearts and be on our guard against this spirit.
Dogmatism is a great trap which Satan lays in men's way when he cannot prevent them studying the Apocalypse. Let us not fall into it. Let us rather pray for a spirit of modesty and humility in offering our solutions of the deep things of symbolic prediction. Let us allow that we may possibly be wrong — and that others may possibly be right.
Believe me, we all need this caution. We are unhappily prone to be most positive — when we have least warrant for our assertions, simply because our pride whispers that our reputation for discernment is at stake, and that having made statements mainly on the authority of our own judgment, we are specially bound to defend them. Happy is that student of prophecy, who is willing to confess that there are many things of which he is yet ignorant. Happier still, and more uncommon too — is he who is able to use those three hardest words in the English language, "I was mistaken."
3. Finally, let all believers take comfort in the thought that the end to which all things are coming is clear, plain, and unmistakable. There may yet be judgments in store for the world, of which we know nothing. There may be "distress of nations with perplexity" far exceeding anything we have yet heard of, read, or seen. There may be more grievous wars, and famines, and pestilences, and persecutions yet to come. But the end is sure! Yet a little while, and He who shall come, will come, and will not tarry.
The kings of the earth may struggle and contend for their own worldly interests; but sooner or later the kingdoms of their world shall become the kingdoms of our God, and of His Christ. There shall
be an eternal peace. He shall come and take possession, "whose right it is." The dominion and power shall be given to the saints of the Most High, and of the increase of their peace shall be no end. Oh, that we may all remember this! In patience let us possess our souls, and in every trying time do as Luther did, repeat the forty-sixth Psalm:
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."
And So All Israel Shall Be Saved
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Rom. 11:26).
This is one of the great unfulfilled prophecies of Scripture. More than eighteen centuries have rolled round since St. Paul wrote these words. During that period many marvelous and unexpected events have taken place. The world has often been convulsed and turned upside down. Empires and kingdoms have risen and fallen. Nations and peoples have decayed and passed away. Visible Churches have disappeared, and their candlestick been removed. But up to this hour
St. Paul's prediction awaits it accomplishment. "All Israel shall be saved" remains yet unfulfilled.
To a plain man, untrammeled by traditional interpretation, the words of this prophecy appear very simple. It is not like the temple which Ezekiel saw in a vision: a dark and obscure thing, of which we may say as Daniel said of another vision, "I heard, but understood not." It is not presented to us under the veil of emblems, like the seals, trumpets, vials, and beasts in Revelation, about which we will probably never be of one mind till the Lord comes, and the wisest commentator can only conjecture. Nothing of the kind! The sentence before us is a simple categorical proposition, and I firmly believe it means exactly what it appears to mean. Let us analyze it.
"And so," that means, as Parkhurst says, "and then, then at length." It is an expression of time, rather than manner. It is like Acts 7:8, "And so Abraham begat Isaac;" and 1 Thess. 4:17, "And so shall we ever be with the Lord."
"Israel shall be saved," that means the Jewish nation and people. It cannot possibly mean the Gentiles, because they are mentioned in the verse which directly precedes our text, in distinct contrast to the Jews. "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25).
"All Israel," that means the whole people or nation of the Jews. It cannot possibly mean a small elect remnant. In this very chapter the Israelitish nation and the election out of Israel are mentioned in contradistinction to one another. "Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded" (Rom. 11:7).
"Shall be saved [future tense]," that means, shall be redeemed from their present unbelief, and have their eyes opened to see and believe the true Messiah, shall be delivered from their low estate and