Today, we begin to mount on our site a series of extracts from a wonderful book on prophecy by Benjamin Wills Newton (1807 – 1899).
The book in question is entitled: “PROSPECTS OF THE TEN KINGDOMS”.
Click here to see the other articles about this book.
I wish to reprint chapter 14 of that book. The chapter is entitled:
“ORDER OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE APPEARING OF CHRIST AND HIS MILLENNIAL REIGN.”
The chapter covers some 52 pages of the most informative and interestingly instructive teaching on this vital of topics.
Mr Newton was converted at the age of 20. He was one of the leaders of the Plymouth Brethren. He adhered strongly to the cardinal doctrines of the Bible. In 1847 he left the Brethren movement and the city of Plymouth. He had differed with J N Darby and his system of prophetic interpretation and his ‘Dispensationalism’.
He continued his labours of preaching, lecturing and above all writing for nearly 50 years.
Many of his works are available on the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony website.
It is to be noted that though he dealt with every aspect of prophecy and that in a most detailed and scholarly fashion, he was never challenged openly nor were any of his Bible-based predictions proved wrong by the passage of time!
I cannot commend his writings too highly, especially to those anxious to discover just what the Bible teaches on the end times.
We see signs all around of the fulfilling of prophecy. The terrible moral decline, sanctioned and legalised by church and state; the fracturing and approaching break-up of the United Kingdom; the moves to establish a European army and, here in Ulster, the drive for a uniting of Ireland and the removal of Northern Ireland from the UK.
All these things are in keeping with Holy Scripture and are harbingers of the development of the 10 kingdoms of Antichrist.
I trust that everyone will benefit from reading the extracts which we will mount on a weekly basis.
Sincerely in the cause of Christ,
Ivan Foster.
1st July 2021.
“PROSPECTS OF THE TEN KINGDOMS”
Chapter 14 — “ORDER OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE APPEARING OF CHRIST AND HIS MILLENNIAL REIGN.”
EACH of the visions we have been considering attests that which, indeed, all Scripture teaches – the gradual but steady progress of iniquity, until the day of visitation from the Lord revealed in His glory. Whether we consider the Jews, or the Ten Nations of the Roman Earth, or the Heathen, or the Professing Church as a body, we find them all unprepared evil having abounded in all. But the Ten Nations, and a large portion of the Jews, will be not only unprepared: they will also be involved in the blasphemies of Antichrist, having said both of Jehovah and of Christ,” Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” (Psalm ii. 8.)
All the descriptions of the antichristian period that we have read in Daniel show that the blasphemies of Antichrist will be allowed to ripen into full maturity before the Lord interferes in judgment. God will be denied, both as to His creative and providential power, and the truths, both of Jewish and Christian revelation, will be alike blasphemed. Antichrist “will exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.” He will change times and laws, and they are to be given into his hand for an appointed period. All the arrangements of human life, throughout the whole sphere of his dominion, are to be remodelled by his Satanic skill. The saints (as many as are within the scope of his power) will be persecuted; and not a few will seal their testimony by their blood.
“He shall wear out,” it is said, “the Saints of the High Places.”
But they will be strengthened to endure, and “will not love their life even unto death.” Such will be the character of the evil, which God’s own mercy will confront with the Almighty power of Christ, that it may be swept away for ever. For this, even the saints will pray, saying, “Lord, how long ?” The matured blasphemies of Antichrist and of the Roman Nations are the immediate cause of the Session of “the Ancient of Days.” In the vision in the seventh of Daniel, thrones were seen to be set, and the Ancient of Days came, and inquisition was made into the condition of the nations who had given themselves over to the blasphemies of Antichrist.
The thrones were judicial not regal. It was not the court of God’s government, but of His solemn assize, appointed especially for inquisition on the governing nations of the earth.
Nations, not individuals, are to be the subjects of that inquiry. Neither the dead nor the living were placed before the Throne to be individually judged. The whole chapter belongs to the Ten Nations governmentally.
The effect produced upon the earth, by means of the power which had been so long entrusted to those Nations, is the subject of the enquiry. They will be weighed in the balances, and found more than wanting : they will be united in blasphemous rebellion against God. The Session of the Ancient of Days, will be a scene manifest only to heaven. No eye beneath will discern it, no heart be conscious of it. They who watch the signs of the times will know, from the condition of the nations and from the duration of Antichrist’s blasphemies, that the hour is nigh. But the Ancient of Days will sit in heaven, and inquisition into the condition of the blaspheming antichristian nations be made, and sentence he passed upon them, and the Son of Man will be brought before the throne of the Ancient of Days and solemnly invested with the governmental power of earth, without any of these things being made manifest to any earthly eye.
The withdrawal of governmental power from those to whom it had been delegated in the earth, and its transfer to the Son of Man, is the event which terminates the Day of man, and commences “the Day of the Lord.” It is in heaven that “the Day of the Lord,” will commence, unseen and unknown by any on the earth. It is in heaven, not on earth, that it will be first said, “The sovereignty of the world hath become the sovereignty of our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign· for ever and ever.”
Pages 314-316.