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The German Leipzig Professor Franz Delitzsch is a zealous Christian. He may be considered the greatest Hebrew scholar of his time. Once he warned his students with the following words, "The battle now is around the Old Testament. Soon it will be around the New Testament. The battle has actually begun already. In the end, they will storm the bulwark of your faith — Jesus Christ. The final battle is about to begin. By that time I will not be here any longer, but some of you will still be in the world. I earnestly exhort you to be faithful to the Lord, to stand up for Him, and to preach only Christ and Him crucified. I see the enemy retreating from his strong tower, and I see the bright dawn breaking. In that day our Savior, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will rule forever." This expert's warning is indeed true. The higher critics are doing exactly that very thing. At the beginning they only tried to destroy parts of the Old Testament. After that they tried to destroy the New Testament and now are attacking the Lord Jesus Christ.
One famous French astronomer said, "There are extraordinary activities on the surface of the sun. Recently, there have been great and powerful black spots on the surface of the sun. Soon after they are discovered, they disappear again. This has never happened before." The recent earthquakes, the sudden change in weather, and the extraordinary winds and waves are all caused by these black spots. We do not know if these black spots are the beginning of the fulfillment of our Lord's words, "There will be signs in the sun," but we know that following that prophecy in Luke 21:25, it says that there will be anguish upon the earth and roaring of the sea and the billows. Since the astronomers acknowledge that storms and waves are associated with the black spots in the sun, we cannot help but pay attention to these black spots. Revelation 6:12-14 also mentions earthquakes, and the sun becoming black like sackcloth made of hair. The present black spots in the sun may have something to do with these prophecies. At that time, not only will there be wonders on earth, but the heavenly bodies will be shaken as well.
Rome is not the only place that will be rebuilt. Reports from the Holy Land have shown that there is now a detailed plan to rebuild Jerusalem. It is said that a certain man has already gone to Palestine to find a certain spot on the Mount of Olives for the rebuilding of the temple. The original site is now occupied by a Muslim mosque and cannot be claimed back. Since the British occupied Palestine, the number of returned Jews has exceeded by a third the number that returned during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. If Ezra and Nehemiah could use a smaller number to rebuild the city and the temple, it is conceivable that the present rebuilding of the temple and the city can begin very soon.
During the past few years the Jews have already accumulated more than twenty-seven million dollars of capital in Palestine. Since the European War the returned Jews have reached ninety thousand in number. Hence, there are now more than one hundred fifty thousand people in the Holy Land. The Jews now occupy more than two hundred thousand acres of land. Many of them have been cultivated, and not a few have roads built on them already. Schools are erected, and shops are set up. Since 1920 more than three million trees have been planted. Indeed, Palestine is gradually paving the way for the unbelieving Jews to return, which speaks of the imminence of the great tribulation! "Be watchful at every time, beseeching that you would prevail to escape all these things which are about to happen [the great tribulation] and stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36).
Many people readily concede that Hebrew, Greek, and Latin are dead languages. But according to the report of the Jewish Chronicle in Chicago, Hebrew is still alive and useful. The Palestine Weekly said that there were many sceptics who have declared that the Hebrew language is dead and is useless to the modernists, in the same way that ancient Greek and Latin are useless. But there is a group of people living in Palestine now whose daily language is nothing but Hebrew. The reason this ancient language can catch up with time and become a modern language is that it has a self-reviving ability and that there are constant additions to its vocabulary. During the past ten years the Hebrew language has added more than a few thousand new words. These new words are found in all the major dictionaries of various languages. The reason the Hebrew vocabulary can encompass such a wide scope is probably due to the influence of the English-Hebrew Dictionary compiled by Dr. Waldstein. This dictionary contains over twenty thousand common and special words and their equivalents in English and other languages.
The following news is from India: A monk can heal sickness just by touching the sick with his hands. A train carried many helpless patients and handicapped persons to him in crowded carriages. The monk could heal them all, and he did not charge them a single dime. Because the cry for help was so urgent, he recruited five disciples and taught them the power and secret of healing, so that all of them were able to perform miracles and heal sicknesses in the same way that he did. But the disciples could only perform one healing per day.
In these days many of the Lord's people readily accept the power of healing; they think that all healings are from God. This case shows that they should be warned and should be careful. This monk did not know the true God; he was a Gentile who did not believe in the Lord Jesus. Yet by the laying of his hands on others, sicknesses were healed. We are not denying God's work of healing today, but we are saying that even Satan can perform healing. For this reason the saints should be very careful and should remember that Antichrist will come quickly, "the coming of whom is according to Satan's operation in all power and signs and wonders of a lie" (2 Thes. 2:9). "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the chosen" (Mark 13:22). In the future Antichrist will deceive "those who dwell on the earth on account of the signs which he was given power to do" (Rev. 13:14). On that day, many evil-doers will say to the Lord, "Was it not in Your name that we...did many works of power?" (Matt. 7:22). "And Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray....But you, beware; I have told you all things beforehand" (Mark 13:5, 23).
