The Mark of the Beast | Page 7

am not concerned with the effect, I am concerned only with a great and
important truth, as it seems to me, and a truth which will, I believe, be
curiously, fatefully emphasized in the days near to come, when our
Lord shall have taken away His church at His coming in the air.
"Now let me invite your attention to the actual Scriptures which speak
of Judas Iscariot. But before doing so let me acknowledge my
indebtedness for the inceptive thought of all I have said, and shall say,
to Dr. Joseph A. Seiss, of Philadelphia, in his wondrous lectures on
'The Revelation.'
"We will turn first again to my text, to the 6th of John, the 70th verse,
'Did I not choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil--a demon?
He spake of Judas Iscariot.' The second text I want us to note is in John
17, verse 12, and again it is Jesus who makes the solemn declaration:
'Those whom Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but
the Son of Perdition.' The third text I would draw your attention to is in
the 25th verse of Acts 1. It is Peter who is speaking, at the time of the
choosing of another as apostle in Judas's place; he says: 'Judas, by
transgression, fell, that he might go to his own place.'"
In spite of their intentness in the wondrous personality of the
messenger, and the extraordinary character of his message, not a few
found time to marvel at the facile ease and certainty of touch with
which he handled his little pocket Bible, and turned to the desired
places. As he finished reading the third passage, and laid the open book
down upon the desk, the old hush deepened upon the people.
"Link those three passages together;" he went on, "and you will
instantly see what I meant when I said just now, that I believe Judas
Iscariot to have been an incarnated demon, and incarnated by the Devil
for the one fell purpose of frustrating God's designs for the World's
Salvation through Jesus Christ.

"There is not a single recorded good thought, word, or deed that ever
Judas thought, said, or did. And do please remember that Christ was
never once deceived by him, for in the 64th verse of that 6th of John,
we read 'For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not, and who should betray Him.' And knowing everything, he
said of the Betrayer, 'I have chosen--he is a demon.' If our Lord had
said 'one of you has a demon,' the whole statement would have been
different, for many, in Christ's days, we find, were possessed by
demons, and He, by His divine power cast out the demons. But in Judas
we have something different, not a human man in whom a demon has
taken up his abode, but a demon who has had a body given him in
which to pass among men as a man.
"Christ's statement that he was a 'Son of Perdition,' is equally damning
as to the real nature of Judas Iscariot. He is called the 'son of Simon,' as
regards the human side of his life, as Jesus was called 'Joseph's
son,'--more especially Mary's son.
"But, though, nominally, 'Simon's son,' Judas Iscariot was ever 'a Son
of Perdition.' And because he was this--'a demon,' a Son of Perdition,
Peter, at Pentecost time, speaking in the Holy Ghost, was able to say
that he, Judas, 'went to his own place.' We need spend no time in any
detailed arguments as to whether this 'place' to which he went in the
under-world, was Tartarus or elsewhere, it was 'his own place,' the
place of imprisoned demons, the place where other demons who kept
not their first estate, but left their own habitation are reserved in chains.'
Neither Tartarus or Hell were ever 'prepared' for lost human souls, 'but
for demons, and, as a demon, Judas went to his own place.'"
He paused a moment. His tall, thin form became rigid in the intensity
of his service. In the silence, that deepened, the ticking of the clock in
the front of the gallery, could be heard plainly in every part of the
building.
Slowly he bent his lithe form forward until he leaned far over the
Reading Desk. Then stretching out his arm, the long index finger
pointing forward, he said:

"Listen, friends! Receive this next part of the message, if you will, if
you can. I believe that 'The Man of Sin,' 'The Antichrist,' when he shall
be revealed, will be Judas re-incarnated.
"There can be no doubt, I think, but that any one studying Daniel's
description of the Anti-christ will realize that, in his human personation,
he