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the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." The aionos or age must therefore extend to the end of the world, and is rightly rendered world.

It is therefore evident, that in connecting the coming of Christ and end of the world with the destruction of Jerusalem, the disciples were deceived, and which is confirmed by the answer of our Savior.

Verses 4-14: "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be

preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

The events here alluded to, seem to carry us down to the end of the world. The rising of nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, wars and rumors of wars, could not have been all fulfilled before Jerusalem was destroyed; for that city was destroyed in one of the very first wars of any note, which occurred after the prediction was uttered. But these predictions seem to be the same as Jeremiah predicted, Jer. 25th chap., when evil should go forth from nation to nation, among all the nations after the desolation of Jerusalem; and to the end of which, according to Dan. ix. 26, desolations are determined.

That the gospel has thus been preached in all the world, and we have reason to believe that it has been a witness to all nations, so as nearly to fulfil this prediction, the present state of the church and condition of missionary operations fully indicate. The gospel was preached in Asia in the first century, and in Africa in the fourth; since then, it has been preached in Europe, America, and in the isles of the Pacific; and at the present time it would be difficult to find a nation on the earth, where the gospel is not now being preached.

This prediction must therefore be about fulfilled, having begun on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem, where the disciples were

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commanded to tarry till they received power from on high; and having extended to all known lands in the order our Savior predicted. Luke xxiv. 47: "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." And when it is sufficiently preached so as to fulfil this prediction, "then shall the end come."

After our Savior has glanced down to the end of time, he begins with the destruction of Jerusalem, and gives a more minute prediction of the same events. He says:

Verse 15: "When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand.)"

We find by Dan. ix. 27, that after the seventy weeks, when the city and sanctuary were destroyed, that for the overspreading of ABOMINATIONS, he shall make it desolate even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. The word rendered consummation denotes destruction, completion; and is evidently the fulfilment of the prediction in Jer. xxv., which Daniel says he was considering, when the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth, even to the other end of it, and they should not be lamented, nor gathered, nor buried. Till that time, Jerusalem was to be desolated by the overspreading of abominations, or more literally, the armies of deso

lation, which the Jews were to know were near, according to Luke xxi. 20, when they should see "Jerusalem encompassed with armies."

Daniel speaks of the abominations in the plural, but our Savior says, when ye see the abomination spoken of by Daniel; so that but one of Daniel's abominations is alluded to. We learn, by Dan. xi. 31, that his abominations were the one to succeed the other; and that when the daily abomination was taken away, the abomination that maketh desolate should be set up, and from which time the 1290 and 1335 days in Dan. xii. 11, were to be dated. The daily was what hindered the revealing of the abomination that maketh desolate, as in 2 Thess. ii. 2-8: "That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity: doth already work: only he who now letteth will

let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." From the above texts, we learn that Jerusalem was to be desolated by those abominations, till the consummation, or end of the world. And by the record of Luke, of the same conversation of our Savior, that it was to be for a definite period of time. Luke xxi. 24: "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the TIMES of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

What are the TIMES of the Gentiles, which were to be fulfilled? Answer. The times that the enemies of Israel were to reign over them. God had made a covenant with Abraham, that HE and his seed should possess the land forever. Gen. xiii. 14-17: “ "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee" Gen. xvii.

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