The United States Of America Foretold In The Holy Scriptures by Rev. F. E. Pitts Feb. 22 and 23, 1857 A DEFENSE OF ARMAGEDDON or Our Great Country Foretold In The Holy Scriptures By F. E. PITTS of Nashville, Tennessee One of two discourses delivered in the capitol of the United States, at the request of several members of Congress, on the anniversary of Washingtons birthday in 1857 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Foretold in the Holy Scriptures By F. E. Pitts 1857 In entering the sublime arcana of inspired prophecy, we are deeply impressed with a scene that is laid in the land of Midian, where, from the burning bush, the voice of Almighty God arrested the attention of the wondering prophet: Put off thy shoes from off thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. No subject presented to the human mind imposes profounder reverence, greater caution, and deeper research, than an elucidation of prophetic truth; and yet no theme has been more prolific of fanaticism among the incautious and adven¬turous in almost every age. We must look to the Scriptures themselves for direction to a true and legitimate interpretation of their own meaning. It is important also to discriminate between secret things that belong to God, and things that are revealed, which belong to us and our children. For want of this discernment, Millerism, and all that class of fanatical fancies, have deluded misguided thousands. Whenever, therefore, an interpreter of prophecy attempts to tell when the day of judgment will come, just rest assured he is wise above what is written; for we are taught by the Great Prophet himself, Of that day, and hour, knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. This Divine announcement should always quiet such unauthorized pretensions. It must be universally conceded that the Almighty has interdicted a knowledge of some sublime subjects, which he alone will fully reveal and explain by their own accomplish¬ment. Notwithstanding, it is equally evident that there are cer¬tain portions of prophetic truth that he himself designed should be understood by the sons of men, for it is written, Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy. Here, then, is a Divine encouragement to study inspired prophecy. But how can we be beneficiaries of this promise, though we may both read and hear, if, at the same time, we cannot understand them? A few self-evident propositions we will now submit, as indispensable principles for the investigation of prophecy --principles that must form the only true and infallible criteria to determine their intended meaning. First. All prophecy is either plain and literal, or obscure and symbolical. Second. A plain and literal prophecy may be understood prior to fulfillment, just as well as subsequent to the event predicted. For example, Jesus Christ said, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. His meaning was too obvious to be misunderstood. Third. But an obscure or symbolic prophecy cannot possibly be fully known, however impressive the general outline of the subject; yet the special application of the prediction to time, event, and circumstances cannot be understood until fulfillment settles the true meaning. There may be several interpretations of an obscure prophecy offered a priori, provided they are legitimate; that is, if such defini¬tions are not unreasonable or incompatible with the nature of the subject. Nevertheless, we must bide our time till fulfillment determines the meaning intended. As an example, it is written, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Now, it is evident that one legitimate interpretation of this prophecy was the same entertained by the Jews, that God would send the old prophet in person, for it expressly states, Elijah the prophet. But it so happened that another man altogether, John the Baptist, coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, is said by Christ to be the Elijah which was for to come. Fourth. A perfect coincidence of character, circumstances, and events with any given prophecy, is perfect fulfillment. This is so plain and patent that we cannot deny it without denying the very proof of the Messiahship of the Son of God. When John sent his disciples to Christ to inquire, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. As much as if he had said, John will have sense enough to know that in whomsoever these coincidences are found, he is the Messiah. With these principles to guide us, we proceed to the investigation of our subject. The United Stales of America, our great country, is foretold in the Holy Scriptures. We are fully apprised that the novelty and sublimity of our subject, upon its bare announcement, will awaken the in¬credulity of some, and enlist the opposition of others. To all such we politely bespeak the courtesy of a candid hearing. We are not concerned that you receive or reject the truth of this theory, but we are concerned that you carefully examine the testimony upon which it rests. Do you believe the Holy Scriptures? Then hear me for my cause. But that you may understand that we do not attempt to prove what is unreasonable and absurd, we propose the following question: Is it at all probable that our great country, with its teeming magnificence, now the fear and glory of all lands, would have been overlooked by prophecy? How comes it to pass that smaller countries, and lesser kingdoms, retired hamlets, solitary island, and seaport towns; that Edom, Moab, Egypt, and Syria; that Tarshish, Tyre, and Sidon, with the rest, are particularly programmed upon the inspired page, and our land the only portion of Gods terrafirma that is proscribed a place in the book -- that prophetic book that professes to map the world till the end of time? Has the inspired penman no account, no place for a nation that is at this very moment telling more upon the intellectual and moral destiny of the world than any other under heaven? Do you believe it? And yet you must believe it if our theory is a fable. The possibility of the truthfulness of our subject is cer¬tainly deeply interesting; the probability of the fact is startl¬ing; but the clear and unanswerable demonstration of that truth is actually sublime. The predictions of the Bible touching the nations, down to the destruction of the Jewish capitol, are indeed but a literal history of Egypt, Moab, Syria, Edom, and Judea. Here all is plain and self-evident, as time has witnessed the fulfill¬ment. But from that memorable event, the downfall of Jerusalem, on to a certain chronological period, called by Daniel the time of the end, all is obscurity. No interpreta¬tion breaks the seal of its wonders. Clouds curtain the heavens; and the symbols that glow in the vision of Gods ho¬ly prophets are alike mysterious to them and to the wondering seraphim. To Daniel, the prince of the prophets, this great truth seemed first to have been announced. When the prophet had the stupendous visions covering that symbolic period, he ex¬claimed: I heard, but I understood not: then said I, 0 my Lord, What shall be the end of these wonders? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. This positive declaration of Jehovah was thrice repeated to the prophet. But Gabriel gives him to understand personally thus much: These wonders will not oc¬cur in your day, Daniel; you will rest with your fathers long before the seal shall be broken; nevertheless, you will arise in the resurrection of the just; therefore, go thy way, and be comforted with the blessed hope. Such we suppose to be the meaning of the angel, when, closing his sublime mission to the prophet, he said, But go thou thy way till the end before thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot in the end of the days. That the time of the end was a certain chronological length, and not the end of the world, is very certain, for things are said of the time of the end not at all consistent with the scriptural account of the day of judgment. In the time of the end many should run to and fro, and knowledge be in-creased then the wise should understand, but none of the wicked should understand. Whereas, in the final day, we suppose the wise and the wicked will both understand. These expressions evidently characterize that period called the time of the end, as an age of great locomotion, intelligence, and enterprise. And the words wise and wicked, being generic terms, and nouns of multitude, doubtless refer to na¬tions. The friends of civil and religious liberty shall under¬stand, but subjects of absolutism, and the dupes of despotism, shall not understand. As the visions of Daniel, that covered the lapse of ages to the time of the end, were sealed and closed up, it is conclusive that the visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel, Jeremiah and John, embracing the same subjects and measuring the same period, are interdicted also. This is a legitimate and necessary deduction. Now, is it not very surprising that eminent men, deeply pious and profoundly learned, have never discovered the seal of the Divine interdiction placed upon these visions? The impenetrable mystery, by Divine authority, hangs before their eyes, while the vague and unsatisfactory explanations of the most gifted commentators confirm the truth of the Divine prohibition. The truth is, there is not one writer in the long learned catalog of commentators on the prophecies, down to our present theory, but has attempted to explain the meaning of these symbols by principles and rules that were known and applied during the interdicted ages, and are consequently necessarily erroneous; for God had again and again declared, the vision is sealed, and the words are closed up till the time of the end. Two obvious truths are here revealed: 1. The closing up of the vision down to a certain period. 2. As the sealing of the vision was only till that time, of course when that time should come the seal would be broken and the vision be understood. If, therefore, the period when these sublime disclosures should be made was to be characterized as an age of vast enterprise, intellectual energy, and moral adventure; and if we live in such an age -- an age marked with unparalleled progress and discovery -- we ask, with the profoundest reverence, may we not venture to inquire, and to inquire hopefully, for the meaning of these wonders? Should it be demanded, why have not the erudite and the learned in ages past apprehended this interpretation of prophecy, we have already anticipated the inquiry: that God had sealed a knowledge of these wonders during those ages. But should the unassuming pretensions of the learned author of Armageddon be looked upon as a barrier to a candid in¬vestigation of this most deeply interesting theory, we have only to suggest that great and ingenious minds are too magnanimous for such uncandid evasion. As the gifted author himself has asked, May not a child find a gem? Was it not a poor peon of the mountains that first discovered the riches of Peru? But perhaps one material reason why our great country has hitherto never been dreamed of as the burden of prophetic truth, has been owing to the fact that most of the principal writers on prophecy have been Englishmen, who putting one foot of the compasses down on Great Britain as the center of creation, and describing a circle, have invariably left out the United States of America; somewhat after the fashion of a Chinese map of the world, which, after giving to the Celestial Empire almost the entire map, puts down Europe and America on a space no larger than a penny, calling them the Barbarian Islands. We will certainly be excused for disposing of another class of captious cavilers. It has been asked with much emphasis, What good, or what purpose, could the truth of such a theory accomplish? This inquiry, we will apprise you, is never made by the learned or the considerate; certainly not by one who reveres the truth of the Holy Scriptures. What is the design of prophecy? Surely, wise and glorious accomplishments were intended by the Almighty in communicating to his servants the words and visions of pro¬phecy. Doubtless, to inspire the hope of man for their realization, and to confirm the faith of mortals in the divinity of those truths by their fulfillment. But where will you find a broader field for such accomplishments, or a more glorious theatre for the fulfillment of prophetic truth, than in the pro¬vidential rise and prosperity of a great nation that should be the exponent and example of popular freedom -- a nation whose principles and progress should excite the admiration and arouse the emulation of the whole earth? Let men but behold, on this magnificent scale, a fulfillment of those sublime symbols and announcements that have staggered the philosophy of men, and baffled their profoundest learning from age to age; then indeed infidelity would seek annihila¬tion for shelter, and its last refuge of lies be swept from the face of the earth. We shall first consider the symbolic predictions of the United States. The Time of Its Rise *** The rise of a great nationality is evidently predicted by Daniel, when the power of the holy people, or friends of civil and religious liberty, shall cease to be scattered; when the wise nations should understand, and many should run to and fro, and knowledge be increased. This glorious era was to be the period called the time of the end. The rise of the United States of America synchronizes with that time, and no other nation under heaven. The fifth government in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, or the stone kingdom, symbolizes our great nationality. The king of Babylon saw in his vision a vast image, whose brightness was excellent, and the form thereof was terrible. This images head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. In this terrific image, as interpreted by the prophet, God showed to the Assyrian monarch the whole of monarchy to the end of time, in four great dynasties that should consequently arise, his being the first of the series: Thou art this head of gold. After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, etc. It is universally admitted by the learned, that the Assyrian, the Medo-Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman empires, are clearly and unequivocally represented here, and that, too, in the order in which they arose. In the fourth or iron portion of this image, another substance enters into the formation of its feet and toes, of which a more minute and extended description and the interpretation are given than of any other part of the dream: And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, and there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with the miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. That the two materials constituting the feet and toes should always have been understood to represent a division of the kingdom into a stronger and weaker part of the civil government, is the only opinion perhaps ever offered by commentators in every age. The theory of Armageddon alone maintains that The division of the fourth empire, as represented by the feet and toes, symbolizes the ten kingdoms, which according to Bishop Newton, was the exact number that actually did arise from the old Roman empire; but that the iron and clay in the feet and toes symbolized the union of Church and State, and nothing else. With this interpretation of the words of the angel perfectly agree, and are impressively intelligible: Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. That is, as a perfect chemical amalgam with the two cannot be formed, because the ingredients will not adhere, so the union of Church and State will never be happy in its combination -- never a harmonious and peaceful union -- but a illegitimate commerce, unsanctioned by the will of God, and runiounous, to the best interests of the human family. They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men. That is, a superior order of men will join an inferior order: or the Church shall be joined to the State, and, consequently such a government must always be partly strong and partly broken -- a politico-ecclesiastical concubinage that would curse the nations of the earth. This interpretation is greatly strengthened by the chronological character of the image, the iron and clay enter into the composition of the feet and toes, after that the Roman empire for a thousand years had stood upon iron legs, a nation of soldiers. The date of the feet synchronizes most wonderfully with the event represented; for Church and State union in the Roman empire began under Constantine, A.D. 325, and was perpetuated with each of the ten-toe kingdoms that swarmed out of the old Roman hive. Such was the image and its legitimate interpretation, a knowledge of which is essential to a correct understanding of the fifth or stone kingdom. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. Of this sublime symbol the angel gives the following interpretation: In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter; and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Let it be observed, the word kingdom, in the prophecies, is a convertible term with government, and must be so understood in this passage. The absurdity of applying the stone kingdom to Christianity is so very
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 01:08:08 +0000
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