The Mohammedan System of Theology/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX.
THE PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MOHAMMEDAN APOSTACY, URGED AS AN ENCOURAGEMENT FOR ATTEMPTING THEIR CONVERSION ON AN ENLARGED SCALE; AND THE PROBABLE MEANS BY WHICH IT WILL BE EFFECTED.
While the the Christian reflects with exultation on the superiority of his faith, as regards its evidence, doctrines, precepts, and tendency to promote the present and future happiness of mankind, he feels painful sensations of regret, that such extensive and populous countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, including some of the finest provinces in the terraqueous globe, should now, by an awful reverse, be subjected to such a degrading and pernicious superstition, as Mohammedanism may be emphatically termed, when contrasted with Christianity: from the impulse of humanity, as well as conscience, he ardently wishes the recovery of these strong holds of Satan to their rightful master, by their conversion from darkness to light, and from a religion of mere carnal expedients and policy, to a knowledge of the true God and Saviour Jesus Christ. The period in which we live affords much to animate zeal, and encourage renewed exertions in the cause. The partial instances of conversion sufficiently indicate that our labours, on an enlarged scale, and under suitable openings of Providence, will not be ineffectual; but the great ground of hope is derived from general and particular prophecy. "Blessed is he that believeth, for there shall be an accomplishment of the things which are spoken."
If any weight may be attached to the opinions of the ablest expositors of Scripture, the period of deliverance may not be far removed. Daniel says[1], "I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and an half[2]; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." Thus we see the Anti-Christian power here described, was to last a time, times, and half a time; and, according to the usual method of interpretation, a time is equal to a year, times and half a time to two years and a half, altogether three years and an half, or forty-two months, which, by adopting the Jewish mode of calculation, of thirty days to a month, gives 1260 prophetic days, or years. The duration of Mohammedanism is generally considercd as predicted in Revelations xi. 2, "The holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months." This number of months, comprising also thirty days each, according to the former process, yields the same total of 1260 prophetic days, or years.
Again, the witnesses are stated in the following verse of this chapter, to prophesy in sackcloth a thousand two hundred and three-score days. "And I will give power unto my witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth," which, reckoning a day for a year, produce the same total as before, of 1260 years.
Further, in Revelations[3] it is written, "And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place; where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the face of the serpent:" the woman, that is the Church, is here described as nourished for a time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent (her enemy), which leads exactly to the same result as before.
The best commentators are agreed in their sentiments respecting the extent of time assigned to this Anti-Christian power. If, then, after the prescribed space of 1260 years, its dissolution may be expected, the difficulty will be in ascertaining the æra of the commencement of the apostasy: if we select the year of our Lord 606, this consummation, so devoutly to be wished, will occur about the year 1860: still, however, as Bishop Newton observes, in his quotation from Irenæus, in a like case, "it is surer and safer to wait for the completion of the prophecy, than to conjecture and divine about it. When the end shall come, then shall we know better whence to date the beginning."
When the light of truth shall penetrate these dark regions, all the efforts of Grand Seignors, Sultans, Bashaws, and Muftis, to extinguish it, will be unavailing. Though various causes may combine to impede its progress, yet its ultimate success is certain and irresistible. Such important events are connected with the demolition of this apostasy, and its kindred branch in the Western Hemisphere, (both of which, as before shewn[4],) arose almost simultaneously, and, as it is conjectured, will terminate together, after the lapse of 1260 years; that the accomplishment may well be the subject of prayer and most vigorous exertion on our part, especially since the times in which we live are favourable to the undertaking. Various obstacles are withdrawn, and the nations of the Eastern and Western world are brought into closer contact with each other. Advantage also has been taken, to a certain extent, of the opportunities thus cast in our way, as will appear on reference to the writings of different individuals[5], from which the most satisfactory conclusions may be deduced.
The errors of the Mohammedans are indeed inveterate, and closely interwoven with their government, so that the one must stand or fall by the other; for which cause some have maintained that hardly any thing was adequate to its overthrow, except invasion on a large scale, or such a thorough national revolution as could only be effected by hostile armies; but the Christian must recollect, that such opinions are indefensible, and such maxims receive no countenance whatever from our mild and holy religion; nay, all kinds of violence, even with a view to introduce the purest creed, are, on Christian grounds, utterly inadmissible. Even the reception of truth itself, by compulsion, though good in the abstract, would be evil to the individual. The strong holds of sin and Satan are not to be dismantled by the thundering of cannon, but in a different way; the weapons of our warfare not being carnal. Man cannot properly believe, where his understanding and judgment remain uninformed and unconvinced: it is the height of cruelty and persecution to enforce belief by coercive measures; persuasion and argument are the lawful weapons: at the same time, it must be allowed to be a different question, whether Protestant States may impose civil disabilities on the profession of certain tenets judged inimical to the public weal, because such a measure is not designed to make men believe any thing, but to prevent the moral and political mischiefs which would ensue from their uncontroled acting on principles already professed. Be this however as it may, compulsion can be of no real service in advancing the interests of Christianity, which prefers its claims to acceptance on far different grounds. We must watch the openings of Providence, and follow where they would lead. God is never at a loss for means to accomplish his will.
The Wahabees once struck terror through the Ottoman world. "The Musulmans heard with horror, that the shrines of Mohammedan saints in Arabia had been violated, and the chapels at Mecca, consecrated to the memory of the Prophet and his family, had been levelled with the ground. But the army of the Othmans recaptured the sacred city, and the appearance, at this critical conjuncture[6], of the plague and small pox among the Wahabees, saved the mighty fabric of Islamism[7]."
What effect the struggles of the Greeks, or the more formidable attacks that threaten them, may produce, are foreign to our discussion: we are to mark the indications of Providence, and direct our attention where they point the way. The path of duty is to use lawful means, either by sending Missionaries, or copies of the Scriptures, and other useful works, leaving the result in humble submission to His will, to whom alone the times and seasons belong. Ample. encouragement is vouchsafed to us in the certainty that Anti-Christ must fall, the fullness of the Gentiles and the restoration of the Jews be accomplished, and His sovereignty be universally established, whose is "the kingdom, and the power, and the glory." The providential dealings of the Almighty may well excite the admiring wonder and praise of his people.
At one period Mohammedanism contributed to the revival of letters, when Constantinople was captured by the Turks in 1453. A number of learned Greeks withdrew to Italy, where they gave a new impulse to literature. Among others were Theodorus of Gaza, George of Trebizonde, Argyropulus, Demetrius Calcondylas, &c. Under the protection of the Popes, Nicolas the 5th and Pius the 2nd, learning revived and flourished in Italy, and was from thence diffused throughout the nations of the West. The torch of knowledge, almost extinguished in the West, was thus re-illumined from the East; and the West may return the obligation, by presenting them with the genuine unpolluted Oracles of God; with those helps and illustrations, the accumulated treasure of ages, which may tend to clear many seeming incongruities, and facilitate their general reception. And the advantages reciprocally conferred will act powerfully in confirming the faith and increasing the joy of the nations, from the fulfilment of prophecy concerning the Messiah's kingdom, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.
Enveloped, as Mohammedan countries are, in ignorance and infidelity, some traits of character hold out an instructive lesson to Christians. It is customary to read the Koran once a month: David announces it as the distinguishing mark of the good man, that "his delight is in the law of the Lord, and that he meditates therein day and night." Job esteemed it more than his necessary food. No one is permitted to touch the Koran till he be first washed, and then only with a clean linen cloth: the Priest must kiss it and bow, and elevate it while reading; it being considered a kind of sacrilege to hold it lower than the girdle. What blessings may we expect, not from superstitious observances, but from the increasing reverence paid to the Scriptures! How powerfully must they contribute towards the advancement of the Messiah's kingdom, compared to a "stone cut out without hands, which became a great mountain, and filled the earth[8]!" &c. This is the weapon which Christ made use of in all his conflicts here below, and bequeathed to his disciples: it is of tried virtue and efficacy, and will prove mighty, through the Spirit, to the pulling down of strong holds, and the demolition of every Anti-Christian power.
We are indebted to the Reformation for the more full acknowledgment of the sufficiency of the Scriptures for salvation, and the right of private judgment: these principles, so widely diffused, will prove of incalculable importance in accelerating the triumphs of the Gospel. Archimedes boasted that he could move the earth, if furnished with a suitable apparatus; and the language of inspiration is, "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven! Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also Heaven; and this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that ave shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain[9]." These remarks cannot be summed up better than in the language of our Church, (the grand prop and pillar of the faith,) which thus feelingly conveys its sentiments in the Collect for Good Friday.
"O merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word, and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold, under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen."
FINIS.
Printed by R. Gilbert, St. John's-square, London.
- ↑ Chap. xii. 7.
- ↑ "We must compute the time according to the nature and genius of the prophetic language, A time, then, and times, and half a time, are three years and a half; and the ancient Jewish year, consisting of twelve months, and each month of thirty days, a time and times and half a time, or three years and a half, are reckoned in the Revelations (chap. xi. 2, 3, and xii. 6. 14.) as equivalent to forty and two months, or a thousand two hundred and threescore days: and a day in the style of the Prophets is a year. 'I have appointed thee each day for a year,' saith God to Ezekiel, (chap. iv. 6.); and it is confessed that the seventy weeks, in the ninth chapter of Daniel, are weeks of years; and, consequently, 1260 days are 1260 years, So long Anti-Christ, or the little horn, will continue; but from what point of time the commencement of these 1260 years is to be dated, is not so easy to determine."—(Bishop Newton's Disc. vol. i.)
- ↑ Chap. xii. 14.
- ↑ See chap. 1.
- ↑ See Persian Controversies; Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches.
- ↑ A. D. 1803.
- ↑ Mills' History, p. 439.
- ↑ Daniel ii. 34, &c.
- ↑ Heb. xii. 25, &c.