The Witness of the StarsBullinger, E. W. (Ethelbert William)
Religion
The Witness of the Stars
Bullinger, E. W. (Ethelbert William)
Astronomy; Astronomy in the Bible; Bible and science; Constellations
Therefore we are not dealing here with the coming of the Lord; either for
His saints, or with them. We are not referring to what is commonly and
erroneously called “the end of the world.” We are merely pointing out that
the end of Gentile dominion _over Jerusalem_ is drawing near! And we
cannot close our eyes to the marvellous manner in which the veil is being
removed from Jewish hearts: to the change which has come over the Jewish
nation in its attitude towards Christ and Christianity, chiefly, under
God, through the unparalleled circulation of more than a quarter of a
million copies of a new translation of the New Testament into Hebrew, by
the late Isaac Salkinson, published by the Trinitarian Bible Society, and
freely distributed by the Mildmay Mission to the Jews: to the Palestine
literature which has sprung up amongst the Jews in recent years: to the
persecutions in various countries which are stirring their nest, and
setting the nation in motion: to the organized emigration to Argentina,
which its promoters avowedly speak of as “a nursery ground for Palestine”
(_Daily Graphic_, March 10th, 1892): to the railways completed and in
course of construction in the Holy Land: to the numerous Societies and
their branches which have permeated the whole nation, which, while having
various names, have only one object—“the colonisation of Palestine.”
When we put these events side by side with the teaching of the heavens as
to the “cycles” or appointed times, we are merely showing how wonderfully
they agree with what is written in the Book, and witnessed to by great and
uncontested historic dates.
Nor are we absolutely naming a definite year or day even for these
Palestine events. After all, they can be only approximate, for man has so
misused every gift that God has ever given him, that even with such
wondrous heavenly time‐keepers he cannot really tell you what year it is!
And, besides this loss of reckoning, there is confusion as to the
commencement of the A.D. era, which makes absolute accuracy between the
A.M., B.C., and A.D. dates impossible.
Added to this, there is another point to be borne in mind, _viz._, that
when the “times of the Gentiles” shall end, Jewish independence need _not
be either immediate or complete_!
For when Nebuchadnezzar began his kingdom of Babylon in A.M. 3376 (B.C.
625), the Jews, though in their land and city, were not independent.
Nebuchadnezzar went to and fro to Jerusalem, and put down and set up whom
he would; and it was not till some thirty years afterwards that he
destroyed the City and Temple and made the people captives.
So, likewise, in the time of the end, there may be an _epanodos_. There
may be a similar period of possession without independence, a quasi‐
independence guaranteed by the Great Powers; and, for ought we know, it
may be that, in order to gain _complete_ independence, they may ultimately
make that fatal league with the coming Prince.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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