80 KEV. JOHN URQUHARTj ON THE FACT OF PREDICTION. 



they fail to commend it to the heathen, and to impress upon them 

 the offered mercy and the certainty of the coming judgment *? 



I may be permitted to cite one instance of the disastrous results 

 of this twofold sense, or double-application, theory. It is that 

 Daniel xi refers largely to Antiochus Epiphanes primarily, and 

 secondarily to the Antichrist. What has been the effect ? The 

 utter nullification of that part of Scripture for almost everyone ! 

 The application to Antiochus Epiphanes, suggested by Josephus and 

 used by Porphyry, was accepted by Christian scholars owing to the 

 twofold reference theory, with the result that so orthodox an 

 authority as The Speaker's Commentary sees Antiochus Epiphanes and 

 nothing of the Antichrist, although the Scripture says definitely 

 that the chapter reveals the events of the last days. To the 

 careful Bible student it is absolutely clear that the prediction has no 

 reference whatever to the Syrian king. Daniel xi, 6, takes us to a 

 point much later than his time. We are told that " in the end of 

 years " an Egyptian queen, who is the last ruler of independent Egypt, 

 will make a league with the then ruler of Syria. Cleopatra was the 

 last of the Ptolemies^ and the prediction suits her and Marc Antony 

 exactly — even to his overthrow and death, her own overthrow and 

 death, the assassination of her son (see the Hebrew " her oflfspring " — 

 Luther, mit dem Jdnde), plainly Csesarion, a lad of about 20, who was 

 done to death by order of Augustus. 



If that is so, then verse 6 brings us down to 30 B.C. — 134 years 

 after the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, to whom therefore, the 

 description from verse 21 to verse 45 can have no application at all. 



I have read with pleasure the words of my old friend and valiant 

 fellow-soldier. Professor Langhorne Orchard. I must also thank 

 the Chairman and the other speakers for their kind appreciation of 

 the paper. 



