The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 275

The European Union in Prophecy
They performed their duty in presenting to the Jewish nation the invitation of
mercy, and then, at the very time when they expected to see their Lord ascend the
throne of David, they beheld Him seized as a malefactor, scourged, derided, and
condemned, and lifted up on the cross of Calvary. What despair and anguish wrung
the hearts of those disciples during the days while their Lord was sleeping in the tomb!
Christ had come at the exact time and in the manner foretold by prophecy. The
testimony of Scripture had been fulfilled in every detail of His ministry. He had
preached the message of salvation, and "His word was with power." The hearts of His
hearers had witnessed that it was of Heaven. The word and the Spirit of God attested
the divine commission of His Son.
The disciples still clung with undying affection to their beloved Master. And yet
their minds were shrouded in uncertainty and doubt. In their anguish they did not
then recall the words of Christ pointing forward to His suffering and death. If Jesus
of Nazareth had been the true Messiah, would they have been thus plunged in grief
and disappointment? This was the question that tortured their souls while the
Saviour lay in His sepulcher during the hopeless hours of that Sabbath which
intervened between His death and His resurrection.
Though the night of sorrow gathered dark about these followers of Jesus, yet
were they not forsaken. Saith the prophet: "When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be
a light unto me. . . . He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His
righteousness." "Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the
day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee." God hath spoken: "Unto the
upright there ariseth light in the darkness." "I will bring the blind by a way that they
knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness
light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and
not forsake them." Micah 7:8, 9; Psalms 139:12; 112:4; Isaiah 42:16.
The announcement which had been made by the disciples in the name of the
Lord was in every particular correct, and the events to which it pointed were even
then taking place. "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand," had been
their message. At the expiration of "the time"--the sixty-nine weeks of Daniel 9, which
were to extend to the Messiah, "the Anointed One"--Christ had received the anointing
of the Spirit after His baptism by John in Jordan. And the "kingdom of God" which
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