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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
advantages gained to Christians would not have been so great, as their
faith would not have been developed and strengthened by dwelling
upon the prophecies which stretched into the far future, and recounted
the events which were to transpire.
Because of the wicked departure of the Jews from God, he had
allowed them to come under the power of a heathen nation. Only
a certain limited power was granted the Jews; even the Sanhedrim
was not allowed to pronounce final judgment upon any important
case which involved the infliction of capital punishment. A people
controlled, as were the Jews, by bigotry and superstition, are most
cruel and unrelenting. The wisdom of God was displayed in sending
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his Son to the world at a time when the Roman power held sway. Had
the Jewish economy possessed full authority, we should not now have
a history of the life and ministry of Christ among men. The jealous
priests and rulers would have quickly made away with so formidable a
rival. He would have been stoned to death on the false accusation of
breaking the law of God. The Jews no one to death by crucifixion; that
was a Roman method of punishment; there would therefore have been
no cross upon Calvary. Prophecy would not then have been fulfilled;
for Christ was to be lifted up in the most public manner on the cross,
as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness.
The Roman power was the instrument in God’s hand to prevent the
Light of the world from going out in darkness. The cross was lifted,
according to the plan of God, in the sight of all nations, tongues, and
people, calling their attention to the Lamb of God that taketh away the
sins of the world.
Had the coming of Christ been deferred many years later, until
the Jewish power had become still less, prophecy would have failed
of its fulfillment; for it would not have been possible for the Jews,
with their waning power, to have influenced the Roman authorities
to sign the death-warrant of Jesus upon the lying charges presented,
and there would have been no cross of Christ erected upon Calvary.
Soon after the Saviour’s execution the method of death by crucifixion
was abolished. The scenes which took place at the death of Jesus, the
inhuman conduct of the people, the supernatural darkness which veiled
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the earth, and the agony of nature displayed in the rending of the rocks
and the flashing of the lightning, struck them with such remorse and
terror, that the cross, as an instrument of death, soon fell into disuse. At