(corrected)
EUREKA
VOL
1
THE SOURCE FROM
WHICH THE APOCALYPSE EMANATED: ITS
PURPOSE: THE
SYMBOLIZATION OF THE MYSTERY OF
GODLINESS: THE
MANNER OF THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT
MAN PROCLAIMED: SYMBOLIC
VISION OF THE MAN, AND THE
MYSTERY OF THE SEVEN STARS
AND LIGHTSTANDS,
REVEALED.
1. The Title 9
2. Who are the Servants of God 16
3. New Testament use of the word apocalypse” 27
4. When the Apocalypse was written 36
5. The Apocalypse Rooted in the Prophets 41
a. The Stone and the Mountain 58
b. The Seven-Branched Lampstand and Olive Trees 60
c. The Harlot and the Ephah 67
d. The Four Spirits of the Heavens 74
e. The two Mountains of Brass 76
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New Translation of the first five chapters of the Apocalypse
SECT/ON II
The Mystery of Godliness apocalypsed in Symbol
I. Of Deity before Manifestation in Flesh 89
2. Deity Manifested in Flesh 98
3. Deity Manifested in Spirit 106
4. Symbolization of Deity in Spirit 111
5. The Blessed 115
SECTION II
The Salutation
1 “Church” 118
2 Ecclesia 119
3 The Seven Ecclesias 123
4 For Ever and Ever 125
1. The Son of
Man in the midst of the Seven Lightstands 153
2. “I was in
Spirit” 157
3. “In the
Lord’s Day 158
4. The Seven
Golden Lightstands and Seven Stars 161
5. “The Son of
Man” 166
6. “Clothed to
the Feet 169
7. The Golden
Zone 170
8. His Head and
Hairs 173
9. His Eyes as
a Flame of Fire 173
10.“His Feet like unto Fine Brass 174
11.“His Voice as of the Sound of Many Waters” 181
12.“Out of His Mouth a Sharp Two-Edged Sword 183
13.“His Aspect as the Sun 185
14.The Amen 187
EPISTLE TO THE FOUR ANGEL-STARS OF THE ECCLESIAS IN
EPHESUS, SMYRNA, PERGAMOS~
AND THYATIRA.
To
The Angel of the Ephesian Ecciesia.
1. The Angels
of the Ecclesias 190
2. False
Apostles 192
3. The
Nikolaitanes 197
4. “He that
hath an Ear, let him hear! 204
5. “To him that
Overcomes 205
6. “The Wood of
the Life 207
7. “The
Paradise of the Deity 209
To the Angel of the Ecclesia of the Smyrneans 219
1. Jews
of the Satan’s Synagogue 222
2. “The
Synagogue of the Satan 230
3. The
Satan and Demons 234
4. TheDiabolos, or Devil 241
5. “Ten Days’ “Tribulation 253
a. C. Pliny to Trajan 254
b. Trajan to Pliny 255
6. Day for a
Year 257
7. The Second
Death 261
To
the Angel of the Ecclesia in Pergamos
1. Topography
of Pergamos 265
2. The
Throne of the Satan 267
3. “The
Place the Satan inhabits 268
4. “My
Name” 275
5. “My
Faith” 284
6. Antipas 286
7. The
Balaamites 288
8. The
Hidden Manna 309
9. A
White Pebble 314
To
the Angel of the Ecclesia among Thyatirans.
1. Topography of
Thyatira 317
2. Origin of
the Ecclesia in Thyatira 318
3. The Woman
Jezebel 323
4. The Depths
of the Satan as they Speak 334
5. The Reward
Promised 343
6. The Morning
Star 348
To the Angel (‘)f the Ecciesia in Sardis 351
1. “Walk
with me in White” 356
2. “They
are Worthy” 357
3. The
Book of Life 360
4. The
Life of the Lamb 364
5. “Confess his
Name” 368
6. “His Name” 371
To
the Angel of the Ecciesia in Philadelphia
I. The
Holy and True 373
2. The
Key of the House of David 375
3. The
Hour of Trial 38(1
4. The
Patient Waiting 384
5. 1 Come Quickly 385
6. Coronal
Wreath 386
7. Pillar
in the Temple 389
8. “My
New Name 395
9. The
Name of the City Written 399
10.A Clerical Exposition 400
To the Angel of the Ecclesia of the Laodiceans
I. Topography
of Laodicea 401
2. The
Amen 402
3. The
Witness Faithful and True 404
4. The
Beginning of the Creation of the Deity 405
5. “1
know thy Works 408
6. “l am
about to vomit thee out of my Mouth 409
7. The
Counsel of Spirit 413
8. 1
have stood at the Door, and I knock 414
9. The
Promise to the Victor 415
The
Seven Ecclesias typical of the Complete and Manifold development of the
Apostacy 419
Apostolic state of Christendom 427
1. Ephesian
State 432
2. Smyrnean
State 433
3. The
Pergarnian State 436
4. Thyatiran
State 439
5. Sardian
State 443
6. Philadelphian
State 446
7. Laodicean
State 449
CHAP.
1:1. A REVELATION of Jesus Anointed which the Deity committed to him to exhibit
to his servants things which must be speedily accomplished: and he indicated
them by sign having sent bv his
messenger to his servant John. 2. Who testified the word of the Deity and the
testimony of Jesus Anointed, and whatsoever things he saw 3. Blessed he that
knows accurately, and they who give heed to the words of the prophecy. and
observe narrowly the things which have been written in it’. for the time is
near.
4. JOHN to the Seven Ecclesias which tire
in the Asia joy to you and peace from THE WHO IS and WHO WAS and WHO IS
COMING;.. and from the SEVEN SPIRITS which is before His throne, 5. And from
Jesus Anointed, the Faithful Witness, the Chief born from among the dead, and
the Prince of the kings of the earth: to him having loved us and washed us from
our sins in his blood, 6. And made us kings and priests for the Deity even our
Father: to Him be the glory and the supremacy during the AIONS of the Aions. Amen. ______________
7. BEHOLD he is coming with the Clouds.
and every eye shall see him. and whosoever pierced him and all the tribes of
the earth shall wail before him. Yea
verily; so let it be.
8. I am the Alpha and the Omega. beginning
and ending, saith the Lord Who Is and Who Was and Who is coming. the
Omnipotent.
Pg
2 NEW
TRANSLATI0N
9.
I, John, both your brother and joint partaker in the tribulation. and in the kingdom
and waiting for Jesus Anointed, was in the isle called Patmos on account of the
word of the Deity, and on account of the testimony of Jesus Anointed.
10.
I was in spirit in the Lord’s Day; and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a
trumpet, 1 1. Saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, and
what thou beholdest write for a scroll, and send it to the Seven Ecclesias
which are in Asia—to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos. and to Thyatira,
and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.
12.
And 1 turned to see the voice which spake with me; and having turned I saw
Seven Golden Lightstands,13. And in the midst of the seven lightstands I saw
like to a Son of man invested to the feet, and compassed about the breast with
a Golden Zone; 13. And his head and the hairs white as it were wool, white as
snow: and his eyes as a fame of fire; 1.5. And his feet like to incandescent
brass, as if they hall been glowing in a furnace: and his voice as a sound of
many waters; 16. And having in his right hand Seven Stars; and out of his mouth
a sharp double-edged longsword proceedeth and his aspect as the sun shineth in
his strength.
17.
And when I saw him, fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon
me, saying, to me, Fear not! I am the First and the Last 1X. And the Living
One: and I was dead, and behold I am living for the Aions of the Aions; Amen:
and I have the keys of the Invisible and of Death. 19. Write the things thou
hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass
after these.
20.
The mystery of the Seven Stars which thou sawest at my right hand, and the
Seven Lightstands which are golden, is this. the Seven Stars are the Angels of
the Seven Ecclesias; and the Seven Lightstands which thou sawest are Seven
Ecclesias.
1. The Ephesian
CHAP.
2:1. To the Angel of the Ephesian ecclesia write; These things saith he who
holds the Seven Stars in his right hand walking in the midst of the seven
lightstands which are golden. 2. I have known thy works. and thy labor. and
thine awaiting, and that thou art not able to endure wicked men; and hast tried
them who assert that they are Apostles, but are not, and has found them liars;
3. And thou hast suffered, and hast patient endurance, and thou hast labored on
account of my Name, and hast not tired out.
4.
But have against thee that thou hast forsaken thy first love. 5. Remember then
from whence thou hast fallen, and change thy mind, and do the first works; but
if not, I come to thee speedily. and I will remove thy lightstand out of its
place, except thou change thy mind.
6
But thou hast this, that thou hatest the works of the Nikolaitans, which I also
hate. 7. He that hath an ear let him hearken to what the Spirit saith to the
pg3
ecclesias.
To him that overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the Wood of the Life which
is in the midst of the Paradise of the Deity.
2. To the Smymean
8.
AND to the Angel of the ecclesia of the Smyrneans write; These things saith the
First and the Last, who was dead and lived; 9. I have known thy works, and the
tribulation and the poverty; though thou art rich and the blasphemy of those
who say that they themselves are Jews, and are not, but a Synagogue of the
Satan.
10.
Fear not the things which thou shalt suffer. Behold the Diabolos* will
cast
of you into Prison that ye may be tempted; and ye will have a tribulation of
ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give to thee the coronal wreath
of
the life.
11.
He that hath an ear let him hearken to what the Spirit saith to the
ecclesias;
he who overcomes shall not be injured by the Second death.
3. To the Pergamian
12.
AND to the Angel of the ecclesia in Pergamos write; These things saith he
having the sharp double-edged longsword; 13. I have observed thy works and
where thou dwellest, in which place is the throne of the Satan; but thou
holdest fast my name, and deniedst not my faith even in the days in which
Antipas was my faithful witness, who was put to death with you where the Satan
sojourns.
14.
But I have against thee a few things, that thou hast there men holding
the
teaching of Balaam, who instructed Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the
sons of Israel. to eat idol-sacrifices and to fornicate. 15. So hast thou also
men holding the teaching of the Nikolaitans, which thing I hate.
16.
Change thy mind, but if not, I come to thee speedily. and I will fight
against
them with the longsword of my mouth.
17.
He having an ear let him hearken to what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias. To
him that overcometh, I will give to him to eat of the manna that hath been
hidden; and I will give to him a white pebble. and upon the pebble a New Name
that hath been engraved, which no one knew except the receiver.
4. To the Thyatiran
I8.
AND to the Angel of the ecclesia among Thyatirans write; These things saith the
Son of the Deity, having his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet like to
incandescent brass;
19.
I have known thy works, and thy love, and service, and faith. and endurance;
and that thy works, even the last. are more than the first.
*Diabolos.
ecclesia, aion. Satan; are not translated but transferred for interpretation in
The Exposition
4 NEW
TRANSLATION
20. But I have a few things against thee,
because thou permittest the woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess, to
teach and to seduce my servants to fornicate, and to eat idol-sacrifices. 21.
And I gave her time that she might heartily turn from her prostitution; but she
turned not. 22. Behold I cast her into a bed, and them committing adultery with
her into great tribulation, unless they may have heartily turned from their
works. 23. And I will slay her children with death; and all the ecclesias shall
know that I am he that searcheth reins and hearts; and I will give to you, to
each one, according to your works.
24. But I say to you, and to the rest among
the Thyatirans, as many as do not hold this teaching, and who acknowledged not
the depths of the Satan as they speak; I will cast upon you no other burden.
25. Moreover that which ye have, hold fast to
the time that I may have come. 26. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my
appointments to an end, I will give to him dominion over the nations; 27. And
he shall govern them with an iron sceptre: (as the potter’s clay-vessels it is
breaking to pieces) as also I have received from my Father. 28. And I will give
to him the Morning Star.
29. He that hath an ear let him hearken to
what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias.
5.
To the Sardian
1. ALSO to the Angel of the ecclesia in
Sardis write: These things saith he having the Seven Spirits of the Deity and
the Seven Stars: I have known thy works, that thou hast the name that thou
livest, but thou art dead. 2. Become thou vigilant, and strengthen the things
remaining which are about to die: for I have not found thy works perfected in
the sight of the Deity.
3. Be mindful therefore what thou hast
received and heard, and strictly keep it, and be changed. If then thou have not
been vigilant, I shall be come upon thee as a thief, and thou mayest not at all
have known at what hour I shall be come upon thee.
4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis
which have not defiled their garments: and they shall walk with me in white
robes, because they are worthy.
5. The victor, he shall be clothed in
white garments; and I will not at all obliterate his name from the scroll of
the life, and I will openly confess his name in the presence of my Father, and
in the presence of his angels.
6. He that hath an ear let him hearken to
what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias.
6.
To the Philadelphian
7. ALSO
to the Angel of the ecclesia in Philadelphia write; These things saith the Holy
One, the True One, he having the key of
David, opening and no one shutteth, and he shuts and no one openeth. ~. I have
observed thy works; behold I have placed before thee a door, which has been
opened, and no one is able to shut it; because thou hast a little strength, and
hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
9. Behold I give up out of the Synagogue
of the Satan them who say that they are Jews, yet are not, but do lie; behold I
will cause them that they come and have prostrated themselves before thy feet,
and that they may have known that I have loved thee.
10.
Seeing that thou hast kept the word of my awaiting, I also will keep thee from
the hour of the trial being about to come upon the whole habitable to prove
them who dwell upon the earth.
II. Behold I come quickly; hold fast what
thou hast that no one may have seized upon thy coronal wreath.
I2.
The victor, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my Deity, and he shall
not at all go away out more; and I will write upon him the name of my Deity and
the name of the City of my Deity, the New Jerusalem, which descendeth out of
the heaven from my Deity, even my New Name.
13. He having an ear to hear let him hearken
to what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias.
7.
To the Laodicean
14. ALSO to the Angel of the ecclesia of
Laodiceans write; These things sayith the Amen, the Witness faithful and true,
the Beginning of the creation ~ the Deity. 15.1 have known thy works, that thou
art neither cold nor hot. Would that thou wert cold or hot! 16. Thus because
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to vomit thee out of my
mouth.
17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have
abounded in wealth, and have iced of nothing, and hast not known that thou art
the wretched, and pitiable, and poor. and blind, and naked one. 18. I counsel
thee to buy from me gold which has been refined by fire that thou mayest be rich;
and white garments that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness may not be apparent; and anoint thine eyes with salve that thou
mayest see. 19. Whomsoever I love I
discipline and admonish; be zealous therefore, and change.
20 Behold I have stood at the door, and I knock;
if any one may hear my VOICE. and open the door, I will enter in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with me.
21. The victor, I will give to him to sit
with me in my throne as I also vanquished, and sat with my Father in his
throne.
22.
He that hath an ear let him hearken to what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias.
Vision of the Thrones, the Elders, and the Living Ones
CHAP.
4:1. AFTER these things I looked, and behold a door opened in the heaven, and that
first voice which I heard as of a trumpet speaking with me,
Page6 NEW
TRANSLATION
saying, “Ascend hither, and I will
exhibit to thee things which must come to
pass after these.”
2. And immediately I was in spirit: and
behold a THRONE was established in the heaven, and upon the throne one sitting.
3. And the one sitting was in appearance like to a jasper and sardine stone:
and a rainbow circled about the throne in appearance like to an emerald.
4. And circling about the throne were twenty-four
thrones: and upon the thrones I saw the twenty and four Elders sitting, having
been invested with white garments; and they had upon their heads golden
coronets.
5 And out of the throne proceed
lightnings and thunders and voices: and seven lamps of fire burning before the
throne, which are the Seven Spirits of the Deity.
6. And before the throne a translucent
sea, like to crystal. And in the midst of the throne and in the circle of the
throne four Living Ones being full of eyes before and behind.
7. And the first living one was like to a
lion; and the second living one like to a calf; and the third living one having
the face like to a man; and the fourth living one like to an eagle flying. 8 And the four living ones, one by itself,
had each six wings circling about it; and within they were full of eyes, and
they have no intermission day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, the
Omnipotent Deity, who was and who is, and who is coming.
9. And when the living ones shall give
glory, and honor, and thanks to the one sitting upon the throne, who liveth for
the Aions of the Aions, 10. The twenty and four Elders fall before the one
sitting upon the throne, and they do homage to him who liveth for the Aions of
the Aions, and they cast their coronets before the throne saying. 11. Worthy
art thou, 0 Lord, to receive the glory, and the honor and the power; because
thou createdst all things. and on account of thy will they exist, and were
created.
The lamb, the Elders, and the Living Ones Indicated
CHAP.
.5:1. AND I saw at the right of him sitting upon the throne a SCROLL, which had
been written within and on the back, sealed up with
SEVEN SEALS.
2. And I saw a mighty angel heralding with
a loud voice, “Who is worthy to unroll the scroll, ,and to loose the seals
thereof?” 3. But no one in the heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under the earth,
was able to unroll the scroll, nor to see it. 4. And I shed many tears, because
no one was found worthy to unroll and read the scroll, nor to see it.
5. But one of the elders saith to me, Weep
not; behold the LION who is of the Tribe of Judah, THE ROOT OF DAVID, hath
prevailed to unroll the scroll, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
6.
And
I saw, and behold in the midst of the throne, and of the four living ones, and
in the midst ol the elders, a LAMB standing as if it had been slain. having
Seven horns .and Seven Eyes, which ,are the SEVEN SPIRITS of the Deity sent
forth into all the earth 7. And he went and received the scroll from the right
of him sitting upon the throne.
7.
Page
7
8. And when he received the scroll, the
four Living Ones and the twenty-four Elders cast themselves down before the
Lamb, having each one harps, and golden censers full of perfumes, which are the
prayers of THE SAINTS
9. And they sing a NEW SONG, saying,
“Thou
art worthy to receive the scroll,
and
to undo the seals thereof;
For
thou wast slain, and with thy blood,
The
price hast purchased us for God
From
every people, tribe, race, tongue,
And
mad’st us kings and priests t’ our God.
And we
shall reign the earth upon.”
11. And I beheld, and heard a voice of many
angels circled about the throne, and of the living ones, and of the elders: and
the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of
thousands, 12. Saying with a loud voice,
“The
Lamb that hath been put to death,
The
power, riches, wisdom, strength
And
honor, glory, blessing too
Is
worthy to receive.
13. And every created thing that is in the
heaven, and things which are in tI~e e,irth. and underneath the earth. and upon
the sea, even all the things in them. I heard saving,
“To
him that sitteth on the throne
And
to the Lamb the blessing be,
The
honor, glory and the pow’r,
The
Aions of the Aions for!
THE SOURCE FROM WICH THE APOCALYPSE EMANATED; ITS PURPOSE
THE SYMBOLIZATION OF
THE MYSTERY OF GODLIINESS; THE MANNER
OF THE COMING OF THE
SPIRIT-MAN PROCLIAIMED; SYMBOLIC VISION
OF
THE MAN. AND THE MYSTERY OF THE SEVEN STARS AND LIGHTSTAND REVEALED.
SECTION!.
I. The Title
A
revelation of Jesus Anointed which the Diety committed to him to exhibit to his
servants things which must be speedly accomplished “---Apox 1:1 ~ ~ I
I
AHOKAJTIVIA
Apokalupsis, is the first word of the last book of the New Testament in Greek.
The book is, therefore. in that language styled. Apokalupsis. But this name is
not restricted to the original. It is very often employed in speaking and
writing as the title, or name. of the book in the English; although it is not
so designated in the common Version. It
is styled in this “The Revelation” which, indeed. expresses the truth; for the
hook is a revelation, and one specially imparted: but still, the name is objectionable.
inasmuch as it is only a very small part of revelation; nevertheless small as
it is. a most important, and highly interesting. portion thereof. To distinguish it, there-fore, from
revelation in general. many are accustomed to anglicize the Greek name. and to
style it THE APOCALYPSE. For this reason. which appears sufficient, I have
concluded to adopt it also; so that the reader of this volume will understand.
that when “the Apocalpyse” is named. that book of scripture is meant. which in
the English Version is called “The
Revelation of St John The Divine”
Though
published by “special command of the Most High and Mighty Prince. James, by the
Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France. and Ireland; and Defender of the
Faith;” and “appointed to be read in Churches” ~ -the reader must not suppose
that the words “The Revelation of St John the Divine”, are the divinely
authorized inscription. The Holy Spirit
does not speak in this style, even of an apostle. It is only The Apostacy,. so conspicuously exhibited in The
Page
10
Apocalypse,
that confers titles upon the Fishermen of Galilee, and their brethren, to give
them sanctity and respectability in the estimation of the kings and princes of
the world. The Apostasy uses the words
“saint” and “divine” as applicable only to “Christians,” who have attained
sanctimonious preeminence among their fellows; and who are skilled in
“divinity,” and have received ordination, and a license to preach. But these words are not so used in scripture.
Saint is there applied to all that are separated, or made holy, by the blood of
the covenant; as it is written, “Gather my saints together unto me: those that have made a covenant with me by
sacrifice” Psal. 50 : 5 : “having their
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience (by the blood of sprinkling, Heb. 12 :
24) and their bodies washed with pure water”
Heb. 10:22. The sprinkling
of heart, and the washing of body, are common to all in Christ, whether
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, or private persons. In apostolic times, these were all saints, or
“the faithful in Christ Jesus”-
l
Cor. 1 :2 ; Col. I : 2. There was then no canonization of obedient believing
men and women into saints: all who believed and obeyed “the truth as it is in
Jesus,” in that obedience became saints and children of the Most High.
The apostle John had no titles. He was neither “Saint John” nor “John the Divine.” He was one of the saints in Christ Jesus; but not “Saint,” as an ecclesiastical title of honor and distinction. He might as well have been styled king John or Priest John; for he was not only a saint, but a king and a priest for God. Ecclesiastical titles are of the pride of life, and not of God. They are assumptions of lordship over the saints; and strictly forbidden by their Prince. “Ye are all brethren; and the greater of you shall be servant” Matt. 23 : 8, II. This is the spirit of Christ, who, although the Teacher, and Lord, was as one who served. The reverse of this is the spirit of Antichrist. Wherever, therefore, men professing to be Christians, exalt themselves, or allow themselves to be exalted, to high ecclesiastical estate, there is “the mark of the beast.” and there “the number of his name.” All this sort of thing was repudiated with contempt by the apostles, after they were converted and became as little children Matt. 18 : 3. “Be of the same mind towards one another; not minding high things, but being conducted with the despised” Rom. 12 : 16. This was the doctrine they inculcated, and practised; and in so doing, though dead, still speak reprehending the unhallowed ambition of those who pretend to have succeeded them in all but their penury and woe I Cor. 15 :19 2 Ep. II 2l-28.
The
apostle John is the only one upon whom the Apostasy’ has conferred the title of
“the Divine.” Paul, James, Peter, and
Jude are termed simply apostles, or messengers; while the messenger John is, as
an especial honor, erected into ho theologos, the Theologian, or “Divine “Was
it imagined that he was Professor of Divinity in a Theological Seminary at
Jerusalem; or, was it because he has narrated the discourses of Jesus on the
relations of the Father and the Son, which are not found in the other
testimonies? Whatever may have been the
reason, it must of necessity be infinitely puerile. None of the apostles had
any thing to do with what King James’s flatterers and courtiers call
“divinity,” or “theology,” but to condemn it as a corruption of “the faith once
delivered to the saints.” They denounced it as “profane, and old wives’
fables;” and its professors as “seducing spirits” and “demons,” “unruly and
vain talkers, and deceivers.” Paul the
Divine, Peter the Divine, or John the Divine, are epithets that desecrate the
renown of the noble men whose names are thus entitled. John had no divine
pretensions over Peter and Paul. James, Peter, and John were “pillars,” and
Paul was not a whit behind them; for He that wrought effectually in Peter, was
also mighty in him. They made no ostentatious display of their names; and in
themselves claimed to be no more than weak earthen vessels, in whose feebleness
and frailty the glory and power of God became more strikingly manifest. The
Holy Spirit was the holy oil of their earthen lamps. By it they were guided
into all the truth; and the light which shone around them was of that
anointing, not of them.
“The
Revelation of Saint John the Divine” is a spurious title. The real inscription
is contained in the first words of the book-Apokalupsis !esou Christou,
REVELATION OF JESUS ANOINTED.
The
contents of the book did not come to John direct from God. They emanated from
Him “who dwells in light,” who had hitherto reserved them in his own power-Acts
1 : 7. Till this emanation they were
sealed up, and “known to no man, no not the angels in heaven, NOR THE SON, but
the Father” ~ Mark 13 : 32. Jesus affirmed this want of knowledge with reference
to his apocalypse. “Watch ye therefore,” he continued; “for ye know not when
the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing,
or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.”
This
universal ignorance of “the Times and Seasons” is the subject of one of the
scenes of this book. In chap. 5 : I The Apocalypse is represented as a book in
the right hand of God completely sealed up. When John saw the book, he heard a
loud voice inquiring, “Who is worthy to unroll the scroll, and to loose its
seals?” But no man or angel came forward. “And no man,” says John, “in the
heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under the earth, was able to unroll the scroll,
nor to
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see
it.” John was exceedingly distressed at this. The words and the book that
Daniel had been commanded to shut up and seal ( ch. 12: 4, 9) no man in the
heaven, earth, or grave, was found worthy or able to open. Therefore John wept
exceedingly. “I wept much,” says he, “because no man was found worthy to unroll
and read the scroll, nor to see it.”
The
book remained thus concealed with God until the time of John’s residence in the
Isle of Patmos. He was there, he tells us, “on account of the word of God, and
the testimony of Jesus Christ.” He was in tribulation, and doubtless “wept
much,” both on account of his sufferings, and his inability to say “how long to
the end of the times” Dan. 12 : 6, 8 : when the Lord Jesus should appear in his
kingdom
9.
Rut. at this crisis, a Messenger reached his place of exile, whom he styles
“one of the elders,” a constituent of the symbolic twenty-four, ch. 4 : 4 ; 5 :
8. 9and said to him. “Weep not: Behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the
Root of David. hath prevailed to unroll the scroll, and to loose its seais”5 :
5.
Thus
“Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” is brought before the reader as the
only personage from among the dead, or among the living, who could open the
words and unseal the mystery of God, as he hath declared the glad tidings to
his servants the prophets—it) : 7. That mystery required the cutting asunder a
covenant for the covering of iniquity; and for causing to come in a
righteousness of Aions—Dan. 9:24. In other words, “Messiah the Prince” had to
be cut off; and so to be made a covenant of, according to the saying, “I will
give thee for a covenant of the people”—Isai. 42 : 6 ; 4’$ : 8. Until this were
accomplished no practical solution could be given of the end. Had the Second
Adam failed to establish his worthiness, like the first, John’s weeping would never
have been assuaged. But Jesus did “prevail.” for, though in all points tempted
as we are, according to the likeness of his nature to ours, yet he did not sin.
Though a Son, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. He was made
perfect through sufferings, having been obedient unto death. He kept his body
under, triumphing over its lusts; and, though sorely tried, he yielded not, but
evolved a character that was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners—Heb. 2 : 1(), 14, 1(7 ;4: 1515 : 2, 7-9 ;7 : 26. When he died, he was
delivered from death, and now lives for evermore. Death hath no more dominion
over him. For he had power to lay down his life, and to take it up again; a
commandment which he had received of the Father. This he did; and in so doing,
abolished the power of death, having led captivity captive, and brought to
light the life and incorruptibility of the gospel of the kingdom—Psal. 68 : 18,
Eph. 4: 8; 1Tim. 1:10.
Having
established his worthiness in this moral conflict with the world and the flesh,
God accepted him as the most excellent of all the intelligences of his
universe, and in consequence gave to him what no one else possessed, namely,
power to unroll the scroll and to loose its seals. The Apocalypse is therefore styled,
“A Revelation of Jesus Anointed ~ which the Deity committed to him. “ NOW,
Jesus Anointed is Power, or Spirit, manifested in flesh, and justified in
Spirit l Tim. 3 16 : or, “Made of the seed of David according to flesh; and
constituted Son of God in power, according to spirit of holiness, out of a
resurrection of dead ones” Rom. 1 : 3, 4 : and therefore styled “the Lord the
Spirit.” or “a life-imparting Spirit”—l Cor. 15 : 45 ; 2 Cor. 3 : 17, 18. Here
are Spirit and Flesh. The Spirit is THEOS, or Deity; the Flesh was the Son of
Mary, and named Jesus; and when anointed with Spirit again at his resurrection,
became Jesus Christ, or the Anointed Jesus. This anointing was his begettal of
spirit by which he became Spirit; as he said to Nicodemus, “that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit”—John i : 6. The Eternal Spirit, then, imparted to
Jesus, after his glorification, the times, and seasons, and mode. and
circumstances of his reappearance upon earth; all of which constituted a
revelation such as he had not yet been the subject of. It is a revelation of
Jesus Christ very unlike the revelation of the man of sorrows acquainted with
grief. this was a revelation of the Son promised to Israel and David’s house,
~~s a helpless babe, born in a stable and cradled in a manager; as a fugitive
in the earth, escaping from the sword of power; as a mechanic, laboring at the
bench for his daily bread; as a preacher of righteousness, denouncing the
hypocrisy and blasphemy of the clergy; and calling upon the people to renounce
the traditions of their blind guides; and to become enlightened in the wisdom
from above; as a man persecuted for righteousness’ sake by the pious and the
powerful of the Church and State; as a man accused of blasphemy, sorcery, and
perversion of the people; as an alleged enemy to God, and a traitor to king’s
reigning by his grace; as a man, in fine, adjudged “guilty of death, and worthy
only of being “numbered with transgressors, and ignominiously executed with
thieves. Such was the revelation of “Messiah the Prince” in Heaven’s gift of
him “for a Covenant of the People,” which has now for many centuries been
presented to the nations in New testament history, and memorialized in the
ecclesiasticism of the Beast.
“Messiah
the Prince,” or High Priest, was “cut off,” or covenanted, ris the spirit had
revealed to Daniel. But before he died, he cried with a loud voice, in the
words of Psal. 37 : I., saying, Aili, Aili, “My strength, my strength. why hast
thou forsaken me!” Before he
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14
had
uttered this exclamation, the Holy Spirit, which had descended upon him from
the Habitation of Light and Power, in the form of a dove, and rested upon him,
from the time of his immersion in the Jordan, had been withdrawn. The
Father-Spirit had evacuated the son of David’s daughter, who is styled, in the
Songs of Zion. “the Handmaid of Jehovah, Psal. 116 16. The Son was, therefore,
left without strength or power, and consequently without God. Still he was
suspended to the tree a living man; a man crucified through weakness (2 Cor. 13
: 4), and dying of his own volition in obedience to God. But after the
God-Power had forsaken him, and before he committed his life to the Father in
breathing his last, there was an interval in which, after the example of
Abraham at the typical confirmation of the covenant, “a horror of great
darkness fell upon him”(Gen. 15 : 12); “for there was darkness over all the
land until the ninth hour.” In this darkness he cried aloud; and drank the
bitterness of gall and vinegar; and again cried with a loud voice; and the deep
sleep fell upon him from which he did not awake until the early dawn of the
third day.
In
this death-state the Son of David was prevailed against by the Little Horn of
Daniel’s Fourth Beast; and a prisoner of captivity. In this crisis he was
neither God nor Spirit: but as testified concerning him in Psal. 22 : 6, “A
worm and no man;” poured out like water; bones all out of joint; heart like
wax, melted in the midst of the bowels. Strength dried up like a potsherd;
tongue cleaving to the jaws; lying in the dust of death- vers. 14, 15. But
things were only to remain thus for a short space. The man Jesus, who had left
behind him a character which the Father-Spirit acknowledged as His own, had
been too excellent and admirable a person to be abandoned to the power of the
enemy. The corpse rested, waiting to become the basis, or hypostatis of a of a new revelation—a new, or further,
revelation of Spirit. The Father-Spirit had been manifesting himself for three
years and a half, terminating at the crucifixion, in word and deed; teaching
great truths, and working mighty wonders and signs which Omnipotence alone
could operate; this was Spirit-revelation through Mary’s Son” Power manifested
in flesh.” but a Spirit-revelation was to be given to the BODY REPAIRED(a body
thou repairedst for me Heb. 10 : 5. A breach had been made in it. Its “loins
were filled with a loathsome disease: and there was no soundness in its flesh”
Psal. 38 : 7. This was its condition while prostrate and hidden in the noisome
pit (Ps. 40 : 2) beneath the turf. But though sealed up in Joseph’s cave, it
was not concealed from the Father-Spirit, who had so recently forsaken i;.
Walls, and seals, and soldiers, could not bar out the Spirit from the Body he
was about to repair for future manifestations.
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15
Hence
the Spirit in David represents the Son as saying, “My body was not concealed
from thee when I was made in the secret place;
I was embroidered in the under parts of the earth. Thine eyes saw my
imperfect substance: and in thy book all of them were written as to the days
they were fashioned. when there was not one among them.”
Psal.
139 : 15·
The
body was repaired, and in its being freed from the loathsomeness
of
death. it was created a Spiritual Body with all the embroidery of spirit “it
was sown in corruption,” though “not permitted to see corruption:’. It was:
raised in incorruptibility: it was sown in dishonor, it was raised in glory; it
was sown in weakness. it was raised in power it was sown a soul-body, it was
raised a spirit-body.” incorruptible, glorious, and powerful: egeneto ho
eschatos Adam eis pneuma, the last Adam was made into
spirit; he was freed from all those
qualities of body which make our human nature inferior to the nature of angels;
and acquired new ones, by which the nature he now rejoices in is so intimately
combined with the Father-Spirit, that what is affirmed of the one is true also
of the other. according to what is written in John 10 : 30,38.
“ I
and the Father are One “ the Father is in me, and I in him.” “Ihis is the true
Theos. and the Aion-Life.” 1 John 5 : 20, and therefore he is styled by Paul.
“the Lord, the Spirit.” imparting life. 1 Cor 15:42-45
Now,
though the world has: witnessed the revelation which Light and Power gave to
David’s Son in the days of his psychical, or soul-body, commonly styled “his
flesh;” it has never seen the apocalypse predetermined and recorded for
manifestation through the pneumatical or spirit-body, begotten from among the
dead. This revelation has been imparted to the glorified Jesus, to the
once-dead body now anointed with spirit with which the Deity has sealed him.”
John 6 27. “A revelation of Jesus anointed which God gave to him;” not to be
held as a secret with himself, which no other intelligences should know, until
the
things
revealed should burst upon the world, and take even the saints at unawares.
This was not the purpose for which it was given to him; simply, as it were, to
make the Son equal in knowledge with the Father. and more intelligent than the
angels in heaven. It was given to him as .’The Head of the Body the Ecclesia;
the Beginning, the first begotten from among the dead. that he might be among
all preeminent; for it pleased that in him all the fullness should dwell.
Col.
1 18. He was to be the depository of wisdom. knowledge, and power for the heirs
of the world. The apocalypse of his future was given to him for their benefit,
that they might know the things which must be accomplished speedily. The
inscription therefore reads, “A Revelation of Jesus
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16
anointed
which God gave to him to show his servants things which must come to pass
speedily.” The revelation was only intended for these. It was not communicated for the information
of the wicked; for it had long before been noted in the scriptures of‘ truth
that “None of the wicked should understand.” Dan. 12 : 10. “To the wicked. God
saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take
my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words
behind thee.” Psal. 50 : 16, 17.
Who
are the Servants of God
From
this testimony: we learn that “the wicked”” are a larger class than is
generally supposed. They are not restricted to murderers. drunkards. thieves.
and the licentious. The wicked are to a great extent very pious and religious
people. They have “a zeal of God. but not according to knowledge.” Being
ignorant of God’s righteousness. they go about with great diligence and at
enormous cost, to establish their own righteousness. not having submitted to
God’s. They compass sea and land to make proselytes: they make long prayers.
sing with sweetest music the praises of him they profess to worship The world
is full of their piety: for it is fashionable to be religious. or rather to
“profess religion:” so that Christianity is thought to be habited in “fine
linen. purple. silk. and scarlet:” to walk in silver sandals: and to be
“adorned with pearls and precious stones.” Apoc. I8 : 12. But. be this as it may.
there is a characteristic of wickedness which no, sect. party. name. or
denomination, regarded as “orthodox.” can repudiate as inapplicable to itself.
That characteristic is. “THOU CASTEST MY WORDS BEHIND THEE” Saith God, No man.
sect. or party. can offer a greater insult to Jehovah than this; for it is
testified. that He hath magnified his word above all the attributes of his
name; Psal. 138 2 ;and it was foretold in commendation of Messiah, that when he
should be revealed, he would “magnify the law and make it honorable.” Isai. 42
21. “1 came not,” said he. “to destroy the law and the prophets. but to
fulfill; for the heaven and earth may pass away. but not one jot or tittle
shall pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” He continually impressed upon
his hearers the necessity of believing the words of God. and of doing his
commands: and never ceased to make the “obedience of faith” the test of men’s
devotion and affection for him. “If ye love me,” saith he, “keep my
commandments:” and “ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you,” for
“love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Now
these are principles which no sophistry or reasoning can set aside. They are as
true to-day as when they fell from the lips of him who gave utterance to the
words of God.” “My words,” saith he. “are spirit and life;” and Moses has
testified, saying, that whosoever would not hearken unto Jehovah’s words which
he should speak in his name, He would require it of him.” Deut. Is 15-19. The
reader may profess to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is he to whom Moses
referred; for. Jesus said, “He wrote concerning me.” But does the reader know
what the Father commanded the prophet like unto Moses to speak in his name? If
he know it, does he believe it? And if he believe the things spoken, has he
obeyed them? To believe and do is the only evidence a man can give that he does
not cast Jehovah’s words behind him. “ Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I
say” Hear this. ye bishops, priests, and ministers! Hear this, all ye eloquent
“divines.” and leaders of the people! All ye scribes, Pharisees, and
hypocrites. whose garb. grimace. and tone, are the counterfeit of wool to
disguise the ravening wolf! Hear this, all ye zealots of the world religious;
this question is for you who call Jesus, Lord. and do not the things which he
says! Deny not the truth of the indictment; for your “names and denominations,
in their creeds, institutions, and practices, are standing memorials of your
guilt. Do ye know what the glad tidings were Jesus was anointed to preach to
the poor’ Do ye know what that kingdom was whose gospel he announced? What was
that acceptable year of Jehovah he proclaimed? Can ye define that righteousness
of God attested by the law and the prophets. he exhorted men to seek with the
kingdom’! Do ye consent to his words, appointing men to believe the gospel he
preached, and to be immersed, that they may be saved? Do ye not rather make
void all this by your traditions, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men? To believe and do, ye practically repudiate, in affirming the salvation of
those who neither know. believe, nor obey. Now He whom ye call Lord, testifies
against you. saving, “He that receiveth not my words, the word that I have
spoken. the same shall condemn him in the last day.” “The gospel of the
kingdom” is “the word of the kingdom,” which he sowed in his field. BY faith in
this word men will be justified; without it, they will be condemned; for the
words of Jesus are, “He that believeth not shall be condemned.”
Now,
it is notorious, 0 ye clergy of all orders and degrees, that ye do not consent
to “the truth as it is in Jesus;” but that. ye substitute all sorts of
foolishness in its place. Ye blaspheme “the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit,” by invoking it in the rhantism of babes, who, you
teach, are by that absurdity engrafted into the body of Christ. This is taking
the name, “the Glorious and Fearful Name.” Jehovah-Elohim, in vain. That name
is holy and reverend, and He hath commanded, saying, “Thou shall not take the
name of
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Jehovah
thine Elohim in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his
name in vain”—Exod. 20 : 7. And surely it is an egregious vanity, in view of
the testimony, “that without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that
cometh to him. must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them
that “diligently seek him”—to bring a puling babe to a pint basin. incapable of
faith. ignorant of any thing called God, and a diligent seeker only of its
mother’s breast! And this ye do, and many other abominations too, 0 ye
Destroyers of the people. Hear, then, what Paul, whom ye style “the Great
Apostle to the Gentiles,” hath declared to your confusion. In 1 Tim. 6 : 3, he
says. “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words. the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ. and to the teaching which is according to
godliness; he has been besmoked, knowing nothing. but doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy. strife. railings. evil surmisings,
perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds,
and
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw
thyself.”
It
is manifest, then, from these premises, that the pious zealots of the names and
denominations of Gentile Christianity, together with their professional guides.
are all of the same category. Though very respectable and orderly members of
society. they are besmoked know-nothings, and wicked, not consenting to the
words of Jesus, but casting his words behind them, and denouncing them as
“heresy.” The revelation before us, “which the Deity gave to him,” was not for
them. It was for “his servants;” and the spiritual guides” of the people are
not his servants. This is the reason why there is no interpretation of THE
APOCALYPSE extant, written by “a theologian” or “divine,” that has any claim to
consideration or respect as a scriptural exegesis of the book. Though learned
in mythology and the dead languages, in history ancient and modern, in general literature
and science, they are not learned in Moses and the Prophets, and the teaching
of Jesus and the Apostles. “The fear of Jehovah,” as taught by these, “is the
beginning of wisdom;” and this commencement they have not made. No man can
interpret the Apocalypse in harmony with the prophetic writings, who believes
that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, are now inheriting the promises
covenanted to them;or that the inheritance covenanted is beyond the skies. An
occupant of an episcopal throne in the State Church of any nation, cannot
interpret the book, not being able to see that his own church is one of the
daughters of the hlother of Harlots, and that he himself is one of “the
merchants of the earth,” whose merchandise is of tithes, bodies, and the souls of
men. He that denies the personal reappearance of Jesus Christ upon Mount
Olivet, who affirms that he is now sitting upon the throne of David; and that
consequently there will be no rebuilding of David’s dwelling-place, or
reestablishment of his throne in Zion: he that denies the restoration of the
twelve tribes of Israel to their native land; maintains that they are for ever
outcasts; and that no kingdom will be restored to them—cannot “read the book,
nor see it.” Believers in a “past millennium” are literally shut up and sealed.
and totally destitute of all spiritual perception. In short, the grand
prerequisite for an expositor of this wonderful little book is, that he
understand the gospel of the kingdom as exhibited in the prophets; the
preaching of Jesus as the Christ; and the revelation of the master!. as set
forth by the apostles. He must have a comprehensive understanding of the
Scriptures from Genesis to Jude; for the light shining from all these
testimonies converges upon the apocalyptic page, those crises, as a mirror,
reflect the kingdom promised to the saints.
“The
Apocalypse of Jesus Christ” is then for the servants of’ God:-for those who
believe the Gospel of the Kingdom it exhibits; and have been “washed from their
sins in his blood,” in being baptized into his name. “Know ye not,” says Paul,
“that to whom ye yield yourselves servants. to obey, his servants ye are to
whom ye obey; whether of SIN unto death. or of OBEDIENCE Unto righteousness?”
Here are two masters; the first. the Lord of the world, the last, the ruling
principle of Jehovah’s people. “Sin is the transgression of law;” and because
this is the natural tendency of our nature, “sin” is sometimes used for “the
flesh.” He. therefore, that serves his own lusts, “the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” which not only constitute the man, but
the world, or aggregate of such, is Sins servant or slave. Such a man, be he
“priest,” clergyman,” “minister,” or “layman,” serves sin unto death. Being of
the world he speaks of the world. and the world hears him--1 John 4 5. He is
essentially a man- pleaser, who holds men’s persons in admiration for the sake
of advantage; and therefore cannot be the servant of Christ—Gal. 1 : 10 ;Jude
16. The thinking that characterizes such is termed “the thinking of the flesh.”
What they think and give expression to is palatable to those who do not know
the Scriptures, which is a great cause of error in the world. Their thoughts
and reasonings are at issue with the thoughts and ways of God; and therefore,
the thinking of the flesh is said to be at enmity with God, not subject to his
law, neither indeed can be-Rom. 8 7. When a clergy-man or layman thinks on God
and his purposes; on what would be pleasing to him; on his own destiny or that
of nations and the earth; and judges of these, not according to what is written
in the Bible, but according to what
appears to him to be “the fitness of things,” and according to the institutes
of theological schools and seminaries: such thinking and judgment is the
thinking of Sin, and inevitably at variance with the mind of
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20
Christ. Sin reigns in his thoughts, in his flesh, and
in his ways. He is Sin’s servant, and though a slave, being free from
righteousness, he serves him with delight.
Paul
reminds the Saints in Rome that they were all the servants of sin once; but
thanks God in their behalf, that they had been freed from sin, and were now the
servants of righteousness, “having obeyed from the heart A FORM OF TEACHING, ,
into which they were delivered”---Rom. 6 17. They obeyed a form teaching which
emancipated, liberated, or set them free, from the lordship of Sin. This was
Paul’s mission—to invite men to a change masters. He addressed himself to free
men and slaves, all of whom, whatever their political or social position, were
in bondage to the devil or sin. He did not invite slaves to abscond from their
fleshly owners; on the contrary, he told men to remain in the several callings
of life in which they were when they first heard the truth. “Let every man,”
says he, “abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called,
being a slave? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it
rather.” As if he had said, “Social or political liberty is a small matter in
view of what men are called, or invited to, by the gospel of the kingdom. My
mission is to “open men’s eyes, to turn them from darkness [of mind] to light,
and from the power of Satan unto God. that they may receive forgiveness of sins
and inheritance among the sanctified by faith [which leads] into Jesus” Acts 26
: 18. He invited Sin’s servants to become Jehovah’s servants upon the principle
of purchase; so that, in addressing those who had abandoned the synagogue and
temple for the house of Christ, he says to them. “Ye are bought with a price.
They were “not their own, being bought bodily and spiritually; “therefore,”
said he, “glorify God with your body and with your. spirit which are God’s Cor.
7 23 ; 6 19, 20. When a man s body and spirit become another’s property, all property
in himself is surrendered to the purchaser. All that he used to call his before
he was sold, is transferred to his owner; and, if allowed to retain it, he must
use it as the steward of his lord.
Redemption
is release for a ransom. All who become God’s servants are therefore released
from a former lord by purchase. The purchaser is Jehovah; and the price, or
ransom, paid, the precious blood of the flesh through which the Anointing
Spirit was manifested. It is therefore styled, “the precious blood of Christ:”
as it is written in the words of Peter to his brethren, saying, “Ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conduct
paternally delivered; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of’ a Lamb
without spot and without blemish” l Epist. I : 18. If this Christ-lamb had
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not
been slain. the fifth and sixth verses of the first chapter of the Apocalypse
could not have been written; the “New Song” of chap. 5 :9, 10, could never have
been sung; the 144,000 could never have been sealed. the robes of the saints,
the palm-bearers of ch. 7 : 9-14, could never have been washed white in blood;
there would have been no Altar, no worshippers thereat, nor souls underneath it
in death—ch. II : 1 ;6:9;and there would have been no “fine linen, clean and
white,” to clothe the body guards of “the King of kings”—ch. 19 8, 14. All
these parts of the Apocalypse are based on the slaying of the Christ-Lamb as
the redemption price of the servants of God.
SATAN
took the price of release. In the day of his power he valued the blood at
thirty pieces of silver. In this was fulfilled the saying of the prophet, “They
weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver: and cast it unto the potter: a
goodly price that I was prized at of them” Zech. II : 12. 13. The life being
purchased for this amount of blood
money. Satan nailed the Christ-Lamb to the tree; and poured out his life
with a spear. Jesus entered no protest against the arrangement.
On
the contrary, he lovingly laid down his life for the sake of those who have
died under the law of Moses. walking in the steps of Abraham’s faith. and for
them also, who should afterwards become Abraham’s children by adoption through
himself. With the first class, as a man. he had no personal acquaintance; with
the last, comprehending multitudes of his contemporaries, his acquaintance cost
him his life. Unknown by the one. and condemned and persecuted by the other, he
nevertheless laid down his life to purchase their release from the bondage of
Sin and Death...I am, said he, “the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep; and I lay down my life for them of myself. No man taketh it from me. I have power to
lay it down. and I have power to take it again”—Jno. 10. He regarded this as
the greatest evidence of love; for, as Paul reasons, “Scarcely for a righteous
man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But
God commendcth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us.” Well, therefore, may it be said “Unto him that loved us, to him
be glory and dominion for the Aions of the Aions”—ch. 1 : 5, 6.
The
“servants of God, sealed in their foreheads,” are represented by the square of
12; so that their measurement is 144 cubits, and their numerical representation
144,000 Apoc. 7 3, 4
This
square is the sum of all released from bondage to Satan. consequent upon their
obeying the form of teaching delivered unto them. The releasing them. of course, is an affair
of the ages, seeing that the redeemed do not belong to one and the same nation
and generation
Page22
Jesus
died and rose again for the release of these—his sheep scattered among the
nations and generations of centuries. In the providence of God, “the Form of
Teaching” is brought before them; and being of his sheep, they discern in the
teaching the Great Shepherd’s voice, and follow it John 10 : 26, 27 : and as he
said to Paul at Corinth, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for
I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much
people in this city”—Acts 18 : 10. After this encouraging admonition, Paul
continued speaking in Corinth a year and six months, for the manifestation of
this people. They heard; they believed; and they were baptized. They believed
“the teaching,” and “obeyed the form.” The teaching was the Gospel of the
Apocalypse of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us that “Christ sent him to
preach the gospel; which is the power of God for salvation to every one
believing; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” l Cor. I : 17 ; Rom. 1 :
16, 17. In preaching this, he says, “I came declaring the testimony of God;”
and “speaking the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which had been hid from
the Aions and the Generations, but NOW is made manifest to his Saints. to whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” I Cor. 2.1, 7, Col. 1 :
26, 27.
In
the teaching. he taught them “the things concerning the Kingdom of God, and the
Name of Jesus Christ;” so that, as the result of his instruction, they came to
be “washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the
Spirit of God”—l Cor. 6. 11 and to wait for his Apocalypse ch. 1 : 7. Here was
a form of teaching or doctrine presented
to them in the formula of the name. He told them about the kingdom and glory to
be apocalypsed when the hour should arrive for Jesus Christ to hurl Satan,
their master, like lightning from the heaven. His testimony to this effect was
confirmed among them by “the demonstration of Spirit and power, that their
faith might stand in the power of God” l Cor. 1 : 6 ; 2 : 4, 5. Having convinced
them of this, he invited them to a cooperation with Jesus in the overthrow of
Satan, and in the government of the nations when Satan should be cast into the
abyss, and shut up, and sealed, so that he could deceive them no more Apoc. 20
: 2, 3. But, at the same time, he taught them that that government which was to
succeed Satan’s, was to be a pure, indestructible, divine, and righteous
dominion, and that consequently, flesh and blood, or mortals, and the
unrighteous, could not possibly have any share in it—I Cor. 6 : 9 ; 15 : 50.
This declaration, attested by the Spirit, brought up the inquiry, What does God
require
page
23
a
believer of his promises to do that he may become righteous, and capable of inheriting
them? In other words, What must he do to become the subject of the
righteousness of God? Of that righteousness, which Paul says is “witnessed by
the law and the prophets?” The answer to all who believe the promises, and that
Jesus is the Anointed Son of Jehovah, in whose crucified flesh sin was
condemned; and that he rose from the dead for the justification of all given to
him for brethren by the Father: the answer to such is, Do what Peter commanded
the same class to do in Acts 2 : 38. Do what is prescribed in Acts 3 : 19. Do
what the Samaritans did in Acts 8 : 12, 16. Do what the Cushite officer did in
Acts 8 : 38, 39. Do what Paul himself did in Acts 9 18 : 22 : 16. Do what Peter
commanded the devout Gentiles to do in Acts 10 : 48. Do what was prescribed to
the Philippian household in Acts 16 : 33. Do what the Corinthians did in Acts
18 : 8 .-for they all did the same thing. They believed the same teaching, and
“obeyed the same ‘:form.” in conformity with the command to “be baptized into
the name of Jehovah.”
In
becoming thus enlightened and obedient they became “the servants of God”
purchased from Satan at the price of blood sold to him for thirty pieces of
silver. By right of purchase, God calls upon all the purchased in Satan’s
household to leave his service, and come over to him. “The Lord knoweth them
that are his.” This is the seal of his foundation2 Tim. 2 : 19 ; and he sent
out his trumpeters to make proclamation, and to invite his own to present
heirship of the kingdom and eternal glory, for which he has purchased them of
the enemy-- 1 Thess. 2 : 12 ; 2 Epist. 1 : 5 ; James 2 : 5. “He that receiveth
the testimony of. Jesus hath set to his seal that God is true”-Jno. 3 : 33. He
endorses understandingly all that God hath done. He rejoices in the purchase,
or redemption, refuses any longer to serve sin, and sings, “Unto him that loved
us, and redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation, and washed us therein from our sins, and hath made us kings
and priests for God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for the Aions
of the Aions” Apoc. I : 5, 6;5:9.
These
immersed believers of the exceeding great and precious promises covenanted to
the fathers, and confirmed in Jesus, the Minister of the Circumcision (Rom. 15
: 8) by obeying the form of teaching were brought into a patient waiting for
what they believed in and hoped for. In writing to some of them at Corinth,
Paul says, that they came behind in no gift, “waiting for the coming of the
Lord, the Anointed Jesus” I Cor. I : 7. Thus it reads in the English Version;
but in the original “the coming” is expressed by THE Apocalypse
Page
24.
.
They waited for the Apocalypse of Jehovah, the Anointed Jesus. For the
information of the mere English reader we may remark that apocalupsis is
derived from a verb which signifies “to uncover, bring to light what was
hidden.” The noun, therefore, signifies a disclosure, a revelation. The subject
of the disclosure may be ideas, persons, or events. In the sense of new ideas
being put into the mind with enlightening effect, apokalupsis is used in Luke 2
: 32, where Simeon, speaking by the Holy Spirit of the future of the child
Jesus he then held in his arms, styled him “A light for an apocalypse of
nations, and a glory of Jehovah’s people Israel.” In this text, it clearly
signifies illumination. That is, that at some period of the history of the
nations, Jesus would be, at one and the same time, a light and a glory to them
and Israel. Moses says by the Spirit harninu, govim, ammo, “Rejoice, ye
nations, his people;” but Paul, quoting from the Septuagint, says “with his
people.” Either way answers to the truth; for when the nations are caused to
rejoice, they will have previously become Jehovah’s people (Zech. 2 : 11 )and will
also rejoice with Israel and the Saints. Now, when this shall be the order of
the day, the nations will have been apocalypse by him who will be “the glory of
Israel.” He will be a light in Zion in the midst of the nations, confounding
the moon, and putting the sun of the former heavens to shame.
He
will be “a light for an apocalypse of nations.” The nature of this apocalypse
may be discerned from a few testimonies of the prophets “In Zion,” says Isaiah,
“shall Jehovah of armies make unto all people a feast. And in this mountain he
will destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that
is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and Jehovah
Elohim will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it”25 : 6.
The veil or covering the prophet speaks of here, is that “strong delusion” to
which Paul alludes in 2 Thes. 2 : 1 I, where he predicted the present moral
condition of the nations under the Man of Sin, or Satan of the Apocalypse, 12 ;
20. The nations of “Christendom” are all under the veil. God sent the truth
among them; but Paul says, “they received not the love of the truth, that they
might be saved. And for this cause,” he continues, “God shall send them Strong
DELUSION, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be condemned who
believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.” Here is their sin
and punishment. They corrupted the truth, and the corruption waxed strong in
them; and deluded them into the belief of A LIE or system of falsehood. By this
the nations of “Christendom” are overspread as by a covering .
Page 25
No
nation is exempt from the delusion. The most enlightened believe “THE Lie” in
common with the least. Greekism, Romanism, and Protestantism. in all their-
“NAMES AND Denomination are elements of the Strong Delusion. They all pretend
to be Christianity; while in reality They are only abominable, and badly
executed counterfeits.
Delusion
and delirium have a near and intimate relationship; and the stronger the
delusion the more intense the delirium. In the Apocalypse, therefore, when the
“strong delusion,” in its effects upon the nations of “Christendom,” comes to
be signified or represented, they are described as having been “made drunk,”
and as being drunk. “The inhabitants of the earth,” said the Angel to John,
“have been made drunk with the wine of the Great Harlot’s fornication”—Apoc.
17:2; 18 : 3. The last text declares that “all nations” are intoxicated. The
drunkenness is, therefore, not restricted to the Greek and Latin communions:
but comprehends all Protestant nations as well. They are all deceived by Satan,
by whose energy, and deceivableness of unrighteousness the soul-merchants of
the earth have been able to establish themselves as the spiritual guides of the
people. Blind, intensely blind and intoxicated, they are leading the blind and
reeling multitudes into an unfathomable abyss; and they themselves are rapidly
approaching that universal bankruptcy, when their commerce in souls will be
extinguished “and no man will buy their merchandise any more.” The days of the
schools, colleges, seminaries, and ecclesiastical establishments ol‘ the
nations are numbered; and the end of their theological craft decreed. They are
weighed in the balances and found wanting-wanting in the knowledge of “the
truth as it is in Jesus.” Though they boast of the light and glory of our
century; and are upon such admirable terms with themselves as the people of the
Lord, basking in the sunshine of his favor and delight; the Scriptures denounce
their pretensions, and resolve them into the grossest darkness, sensuality, and
wickedness And this is unquestionably true. No other conclusion can be come to
in view of what the Spirit saith. Speaking by Isaiah he declare!, that if any
one do not speak according to Moses and the Prophets he is a dark body—ch. 8:
20. “There is no light in him.” Now, it is notorious, that the professors of
the theological institutions of all sects. and the clerical, or ministerial,
orders of all denominations, are grossly ignorant of the Old Testament
writings. In presuming, therefore, to preach from, or to explain the New, it is
utterly impossible for them to speak according to Moses and the Prophets. A man
cannot Speak in accordance with what he knows little or nothing about. The
testimony therefore, convicts them of utter incompetency. It declares them to
be utterly without light: which is equivalent to saying that they
26 .
are
in gross darkness. And, this being the condition of the ecclesiastics, how
awfully dark must the people they call the “laity” be! “Like priest, like
people,”—darkness added to darkness until it becomes Egyptian, or darkness to
be felt.
If
the nations were enlightened the Apocalypse of the Anointed Jesus would be
unnecessary. He comes because of the darkness of the world. He comes as a
light, as the Day Star, to illuminate the nations. He does not come because
they are enlightened. If his coming be postponed to this, he never will come;
for instead of a knowledge of the truth increasing among them, the darkness is
intensifying day by day.
Now
that the Lord comes while darkness reigns, is manifest from the following
testimony: Isaiah informs us, that “the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto
them that turn from transgression in Jacob;” and that then she shall “arise and
shine; because her Light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon her.”
He then tells us the reason why Jehovah, or the Anointed One, comes to shine
upon her; and the following is the reason: “Because darkness shall cover the
earth and gross darkness the people.” This is the mental, or intellectual and
moral, condition of clergy and people, Gentiles and Jews, at the epoch when
Christ comes as “A Light for their apocalypse.”
Such
is, and such will continue to be, the spiritual condition of the world until
then. But when they have been apocalypsed, or illuminated, the change will be
glorious. “The earth” will then “be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the
waters cover the sea,” even as God had sworn to Moses—Numb. 1·1 : 21 ; Isaiah
11 : C) ; Hab. 2 : 14. Then “Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us
go up to the mountain (or kingdom) of Jehovah, and to the house of the Elohim of
Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And he
shall rule among the nations, and he shall punish many peoples; and” in
consequence of that rebuke, “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and
their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”
Having
spoken peace to the nations, and being established in his glory, the day of
Jehovah’s exaltation will have been apocalypsed, or revealed—that day in which,
it is testified, “Jehovah alone shall be exalted”-Isaiah 2 ]0, 11, 16, 17 “At
that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations
shall be gathered unto it, to THE NAME OF JEHOVAH, to Jerusalem: neither shall
they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart”—Jer. 3 17. This
is a very plain testimony. Jerusalem is to become the throne of a government
Page
27
which
is to have universal dominion; and that when it exists, the nations will have
abandoned the strong delusion, or “imagination,” by which they are now
deceived. The occupation of the “Reverend Divines” of “Christendom” will then
be gone. All names and denominations of blasphemy ending in ism will then be
abolished; and they will be all as clean swept away as was the old world by the
flood. What a glorious riddance for the world! The “seducing spirits,” “the
demons.” “the captivators of silly women laden with sins,” the “transformed ministers
of Satan,” teachers heaped up to themselves after their Own lusts to tickle
their itching ears: men of corrupt minds, who speak lies in hypocrisy; unruly
and vain talkers and deceivers, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain
is godliness—these, with all their old wives’ fables and traditions, will all
have been precipitated as Satan, with lightning velocity from the heavens, into
the promiscuous confusion of the bottomless abyss. No clergyman will then
venture to lift up his voice to sermonize the people; for “It shall come to
pass that when any shall yet prophesy (or preach), then his father and his
mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou
speakest lies in the name of Jehovah; and they shall thrust him through when he
prophesieth And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets (or
preachers) shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied
neither shall they wear hair garments to deceive”—Zech. I3 : 3. 4. If the
ecclesiastics were to be dealt with upon this principle at the present time,
not a soul of them would escape death upon the spot; for it is their craft to
“speak lies in the name of Jehovah,” and to wear peculiar garments for
professional deceit. The world that now fawns upon and flatters their vanity,
and glorifies their foolishness, will then curse their memorial. In that day of
affliction to the Apostasy, it is testified, that “the Gentiles shall come unto
Jehovah from the ends of the earth, and shall say: Surely our fathers have
inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit”—Jer. 16 : 19.
This is what they will say of Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, Lutheranism,
Methodism. Congregationalism, Universalism, Mormonism, Millerism, Campbellism,
Romanism, Greekism, &c. ,&c. ,&c. ,--all false, vain, and
unprofitable. This is their true character; for they make up the
ecclesiasticism of the nations; and how is it possible for drunken nations,
overspread with strong delusion as a thick veil, to hew out for themselves cisterns
capable of holding water from the fountain of life?
The
New Testament Use of the Word Apocalypse
The
word apokalupsis is used eighteen times in the New Testament. The first place
where it occurs is that we have just been considering; the
28
last
is in Rev. 1 : I ,as the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ which the Deity committed
to him to show to his servants things which must come to pass speedily”. Here
the apocalypse is an exhibition of things to be transacted subsequently to the
communication of it; and when we look into it we find its signs, scenes, and so
forth, all tending to, or terminating in, the personal manifestation of Jesus
Christ before the nations, the overthrow of their dominions, and the victory of
his Brethren, the Saints, over the grave, and over the Satanism of”Christendom”
in Church and State in whatever form they may be found. Hence the Apocalypse
exhibits what the testimonies already adduced predict without a symbol, God has
determined shall come to pass in the Anointed Jesus shining as “a Light for an
apocalypse of nations.”
The
apostle Paul uses the noun apocalupsis thirteen times in his writings: and the
verb apocalupto also thirteen. In Rom. 2 .5. he uses it in relation to a
manifestation of judgment, “in a day of wrath
and apocalypse Of God’s righteous judgment.” This is a day yet future;
because in it. Paul says, the glory, honor, incorruptibility and life of the
Aion will be rendered to the righteous: and indignation and wrath to “those who
obey not the truth.” It is “a Day of Wrath and ApocaIypse” hence, whatever
constitutes the apocalypse is to be looked for in a time of trouble.” as Daniel
terms it: or “a day of affliction.” in the words of‘ Jeremiah. They may cry
“Peace and Safety:” but there will be neither in the Day- of Apocalypse: but
rather “sudden destruction as travail upon a woman with child”
1
Thess. 5 : 3.
In
Rom. 8 :19. he uses the noun in reference to the disclosure of, the Sons of God
to the view of the nations, from which they are at present concealed. The Sons
of god are to be apocalypsed, and glory is to be apocalypsed in them, as well
as Jesus their Elder Brother. “I reckon,” says Paul, “that the sufferings of
the present time are not comparable with the future glory to be apocalypsed in
us. For the earnest hope of the creature is looking for the apocalypse of the
sons of God. “ In the English version this Is rendered by “the manifestation
of, the sons of God.” The meaning is this: Mankind are divided by Scripture
into Two Classes the Serpent and his seed: and the Woman and her seed
Gen.
3 : 15. As early as the times before the flood, the former were styled simply
“men;” the latter, “the sons of God “Gen. 6:12. By the flood, “men” were swept
from the earth which they had filled with violence: and their apostasy was
extinguished with them: that is, “the earth was corrupt: For all flesh had
corrupted God’s Way upon the earth” Gen. 6 1 i, 12. They had set up a corrupted
way of worshipping God, which constituted an apostasy, or departure from the
Original Way instituted in Eden. This did not suit their evil nature; therefore
Page 29
they
altered it to please; and under its inspiration filled the habitable with their
abominations. Only one small family protested against this apostasy; a family
of eight persons, all that were left on earth of the Sons of God among the
living. These were saved by the earth’s baptism. While the apostasy, in all its
ecclesiastical, civil, and social relations, was torn up by the roots, and
swept away.
Sons
of God is a title conferred upon certain descendants of Adam, which places them
in the same class of intelligences as the Angels. These are also styled “Sons
of God” and Stars of the Dawn,” or “Morning Stars”-Job 28 : 7. We do not mean
to say that the Sons of God, called in Scripture angels, or messengers, and
Gods, are now mortal and corruptible, and weak of mind and body as we are; they
have passed through this state, and now occupy a state beyond it, in which they
are incorruptible, immortal, glorious, powerful, wise, and of spirit-corporeality.
In their former state they were Sons of God subject to evil as we; in their
present, they are sons subject only to good. Men are invited to the same
destiny. They are invited now to enter-Jehovah’s family, and to become his sons
and daughters, with the promise of hereafter being promoted to a physical
equality with the angels Thus it is written, in 2 Cor. 6 17, “Come out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith Jehovah, and touch not the unclean: and
will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall he my Sons and
Daughters, saith Jehovah Ail-Shaddai”
But
he not only gives men invitation to become his children, but he gives them
power also. Thus the Jehovah-Spirit came to his own land (ta idia) but his own
people (hoi idioi) the Jews, received him not. Nevertheless, as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become children of God, to them
believing into his name, who are born not of bloods, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” Jno 1: 11-13. Here the fleshly
principle is repudiated. “The flesh profits nothing.” No man is a Son of God,
because he is descended from “Adam Son of God-Luke 3: 38 but Adam’s sons become
Sons of God by adoption through His Name. They must believe the promises covenanted;
believe in Jesus, as the Jehovah Spirit manifested in flesh, made a
sin-offering, justified in spirit, for the justification of believers: and be
immersed into the Name, that they may be the subject of the repentance and the
remission of sins which are offered in that name: and communicable only to such
in putting on the name according to divine prescription. The power of becoming
a son of God consists in obeying the form of teaching apostolically delivered.
In putting on Christ the Son of God by eminence,
a man becomes a son of God. Addressing the sons of God in Galatia, Paul says:
“In
30
Jesus
anointed ye are all sons of God through the faith: for as many of you as were immersed
into the Anointed have pur on the Anointed. And if ye be the Anointed’s, then
ye are the seed of Abraham, and Heirs according to the promise”—ch. 3 : 26-29.
When a son of Adam is thus adopted into Abraham’s family, he is a son of
Abraham because he is in Jesus who was his descendant according to the flesh.
He is in God the Father,--and in the Son, by constitution; and Christ dwells in
him by faith that works by love, and purifies the heart” Eph. 3 : 17, 1Thess. 1
: 1. This step being assured, what follows is of course. “If children,” says
Paul, “then heirs, HEIRS OF GOD, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we
suffer with him, that we may also be GLORIFIED TOGETHER
This
contemporary glorification of Jesus and his brethren of the Abrahamic Family is
the subject matter of their apocalypse; and points to their development as sons
of God. This occurs “’In the resurrection,” an Aion-period in which the sons of
God obtain their new nature, or materiality. Mentally, that is, as to mind,
disposition, and character, or as we might say, spiritually, and
constitutionally, they are sons of God; but as to the flesh, they are, on this
side the resurrection, still the children of Adam. They are flesh and blood,
but they do not walk after, or according to, its impulses; living a life of
self denial, being led by the spirit, in being led by the truth understood,
believed: and affectionately obeyed, as it is written: “As many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” But, to be sons of God in the
full import of the title, they must put off the Old Adam, in respect to body as
well as to conduct and intelligence. They must become sons of God bodily as
well as spiritually. They are waiting for this namely, “for the adoption, the
redemption of their body.” Jesus referred to this in his argument with the
Sadducees, saying: “They who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that Aion, and
the resurrection which is from among the dead, cannot die any more; for they
are equal to angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”—Luke
20 : 35, 36.
Now
hear what John says upon this subject in 1 John. 3 1, 2. “Behold,” says he,
“what great love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be styled
sons of God! Because the world does not know him, therefore it does not know
us. Beloved, we are now sons of God, though it doth not yet appear what we
shall be: nevertheless we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. And every one having this hope in him purifies
himself as he is pure.”
From
this testimony, then, it is clear, that the Sons of God are not yet
apocalypsed, or manifested. Therefore, the world does not know them,
Page31
though,
if it have an opinion in the matter, and were invited to point them out, it
would certainly judge, that if God had any sons among men, they were those whom
it recognizes as the “Ambassadors of Jesus Christ.” and the “successors of the
Apostles,” together with the pious of their flocks. BY the world, we mean what
is called, or what rather is self-styled, “the Religious World,” made up of all
members and supporters of the ecclesiasticism of what they call “Christendom.”
But this world knows not the Father, how therefore can it know the sons.
Neither can it know them before their apocalypse; for the testimonies by which
they are defined they will not trouble themselves to understand. No man is led
by the Spirit qf’ God who is not led by an intelligent belief of’ the truth.
This truth the world and its soul-merchants do not know. They are therefore not
led by it; and are consequently according to Paul. not the Sons of God. “They
are of the world; therefore speak they of the world; and the world heareth
them.” By this rule it is easy to perceive that the world’s judgment is wrong.
They whom the world hears are not of God. He never sent them, nor were they
ever adopted into his Abrahamic Family. If they were God’s sons the world would
not listen to them; but would hate and persecute them. They profess to admit
that the apostles were of God; but they pay no regard to what they teach. Their
whole ministry is spent in falsifying and destroying their doctrine. “Be
mindful,” says Peter, “of the words which were spoken before by the Holy
Prophets, and of the commandments of us the Apostles of the Lord and
Saviour”--2 Pet. 3 : 2. But Peter may as well speak to a post as to the
ecclesiastics of the world. They only care for him and his words so far as they
can turn them into cash. or make them available for the preservation of vested
interests. They have long ceased to hear both prophets and apostles, as any one
may know who will take the trouble to compare their traditions and practices
with the commandments and testimonies of God. “He that knoweth God heareth us,
“ says John; “he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit
of the Truth, and the Spirit of the Delusion.
After
so plain a declaration as the foregoing, is it possible to admit that the
Religious World and its rulers are of God; and worship him in spirit and in
truth? That the Spirit of the Truth is formative of their Systems? Or that its
worshippers are his sons? Nay, verily, its formaive spirit is that of
Antichrist, which is discerned in their “love of the world, and of the things
which are in the world;” a love, which is earnestly deprecated by the apostles
of Christ. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;”
but are not the people’s spiritual guides devoted to the world? Are they not
the world’s hired
32
servants?
Are they not them whom the world delights to honor? Are not their flocks
perfect incarnations of “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life?” All of which the apostle
testifies “is not of the Father, but is of the world”-
Jno.
2 : 15, 16. The affirmative to these inquiries is alone admissible: and the
apostolic principles clearly determine that the ecclesiastical system, in its
totality of names, denominations, churches, reverend orders, institutions, and
worshippers, is of the Devil, and not of God. We therefore verily believe, that
when the reality of things is vindicated in the apocalypse of the Sons of God;
when his glory shall be apocalypsed in them; and when the Captain of their
salvation as “a Light for an apocalypse of nations,” shall appear we believe
that when this shall come to pass, He will say to the flocks and shepherds of
the religious world, as he said to the same class in Judea, “Ye are of your
father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will to do. He was a
manslayer from the beginning, and stood nor in the truth, because truth is not
in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own things; for he is a liar and
the father of it.” “He that is of God heareth God’s words; but because ye are
not of God, therefore ye hear them not.” If we are to judge a tree by its
fruits, what other conclusion is it possible to come to? The pious of the world
are adepts in all the lusts of the flesh; they do not stand in the truth, which
is an offense to them; when they speak, they lie against the truth, and speak
of their own conceits; they do not hear, or believe and obey, the words of God;
and therefore the conclusion is inevitable that they are not of God; and
therefore of necessity of the Devil.
This
is also manifest from another consideration. if the ecclesiasticism of
Christendom were the worship of God in spirit and in truth, the poor in this
world, rich in faith, would be the notables, revered and beloved by the rich;
who would rejoice in emptying themselves of their glory and honor, that they
might be exalted in due time. But the reverse of this is the fact. Mammon
reigns in Church as well as State; and the members of the one are the ambitious
and brawling politicians of the other. All this is of the flesh, or Sin
Incarnate, which is the Devil. Now the mission of Jesus is to destroy the
Devil, and the works of the Devil Heb. 2 : 14 ; 1 Jno. 3 : 8 : and we have
already seen, that the Gentiles are to come to him after his apocalypse, and to
confess that what they now cherish is only lies, vanity, and unprofitable. They
will then acknowledge that their denominations are works of the Devil, and as
such they will rejoice in their abolition, and glorify their destroyer. The
whole system now existing is a monster iniquity, which only awaits the
“apocalypse of the Sons of God” for its disruption, and utter annihilation
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Another
place in Paul’s writings where he uses this noun in a notable manner is in 2
Thes. 1 : 7. He there tells his persecuted brethren that God will recompense to
them “a rest with us (Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy) in the apocalypse of the
Lord Jesus from heaven, with angels of his power, in fire of flame, inflicting
vengeance on those who know not God, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Anointed; who shall suffer punishment, Aion-destruction, from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be
glorified with his Saints, and to be admired with all the believers in that
dav.”
In
the next chapter, ver. 8, he informs the reader that a certain power would
exist, contemporary with the apocalypse of that day, which should he wasted and
destroyed. He styled it THE LAWLESS ONE, “whom,” says he. “the Lord shall
consume by the spirit of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his
presence.”
In
writing to the faithful, Peter also directs their attention to “the Apocalypse
ot‘ Jesus Christ” as the time when their faith should be “found unto praise and
honor and glory.” He exhorts them to “hope to the end for the grace that is to
be brought in the apocalypse of Jesus Christ” and in a third place of the same
epistle he says, “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings;
that in the apocalypse of His Glory. ye may be glad also, leaping for joy”—l Pet.
1 : 7, 13; -4::13
It
must be evident, then, to all who have examined the testimonies adduced, that
apocalypse in the New Testament use of the word, is not used indefinitely or
vaguely, importing merely a disclosure or uncovering of ideas previously concealed:
but that it has a special and appropriated signification doctrinal meaning
peculiar to itself: teaching,
I.
The introduction of A Day styled the Day of Apocalypse,
2 The manifestation in that day of A Light for
the Apocalypse of Nations
3.
The inflicting of vengeance and punishment on the lawless and disobedient in
that day,
4.
The personal appearance of Jesus Christ, as the Light of the Day of wrath and
Apocalypse
5.
The manifestations of the Sons of God by resurrection from among the dead, and glorification with Jesus
Christ—the Apocalypse of Salvation in the last time.
For
the things indicated in these points, the believers who received their
enlightenment through the personal labors of the Apostiles; waited and
earnestly longed: as they have also, who in succeeding ages and generations
have instructed in the truth by their writings in
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34
connection
with those of Moses and the Prophets. With believers of this class the question
uppermost in their minds has ever been, “0 Lord, how long? How long, 0 Elohim,
shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy despise thy name for ever?” “How
long, 0 Jehovah; wilt thou hide thyself for ever?” “Return, 0 Jehovah, how
long? How long are thy servants to wait for thy return?” “How long, 0 Jehovah,
how long shall the wicked exult?”-Psal. 74 :10 ; 89 : 46 ; 90 :13 ; 94 : 3.
Isaiah
had a vision of the Adon, the I SHALL BE of armies, sitting upon his throne, at
a time when the whole earth shall be full of his glory. “Mine eyes,” says he,
“have seen the King, the Jehovah of armies!” At the same time he heard a
declaration announcing a punishment to be inflicted upon the tribes of Israel,
because they would not understand and perceive the truth in the day of the
King’s visitation. Fatness of heart, heaviness of ears, and blindness were to
come upon them, as at this day. So long as it continued, the earth’s fullness
of glory would be deferred. The prophet
was greatly afflicted at this, and exclaimed, “Woe is me! For I am cut off;
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips.” Then, said I, Adon, how long?-Chap. 6.
Over
200 years afterwards the same inquiry was made in the hearing of Daniel, and in
effect by Daniel himself. The long night of Israel’s darkness foreseen by Isaiah
to come upon them after the rejection of Jehovah’s Messenger, who was to go and
say to them, “Ye hear in hearing, but do not understand; and ye see in seeing,
but do not perceive”-Mat. 13 : 13-is characterized in Daniel by the absence of
sacrifice, the desolation of the land, and the dispersion and oppression of the
nation-ch. 8 : 11-13, 24 ; 9 : 26, 27 ; 12 : 7. It had been revealed to Daniel,
that a powerful and indestructible kingdom should be set up by the God of
heaven, which should consume and destroy every thing that stood up against it;
that the Son of man and the Saints should possess it, with dominion over the
whole earth; and that then power should be restored to the Hebrew nation, which
should never again be broken: but before all this could begin to come to pass,
he saw a long period of affliction would obtain. It was therefore desired to
know when it should terminate; as terminate it must before the glory can be
apocalypsed or revealed. “How long,” then it was asked, “shall the Little Horn
of the Goat practice and prosper against the Holy Land and the Host of Israel?”
for this’ is in effect the question of the thirteenth verse. How long till the
arrival of the period when the Holy shall be avenged nitzdaik kodesh?.
The
answer to this question only bringing the inquirer to the period in which the
vengeance is to be developed, it was still desired to know further
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35
“How
long to the end of the wonders” to be developed in “the time of the end?” The answer
was by the specification of a period, and an event. “For a time, times, and a
half.” This is the duration of the period constituting the latter portion of
what Jesus Christ terms “the times of the Gentiles,” during which Jerusalem and
the Saints were to be trodden under foot-Luke 21: 24: and symbolized in the
Apocalypse by “the Court which is without the Temple, given to the Gentiles for
forty and two months”-ch. 11 : 2. The event that marks the end of the period is
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL, which is thus expressed, “When he (Michael the Great
Prince that liveth for the Aion) shall have finished the scattering of the
power of the Holy People, all these times shall be finished.”
But
still the question admitted of repetition. True, in the time of the end. and at
that crisis of it, when the King of the North, as the Imperial Horn of the
Grecian Goat, shall be broken with an end of power, by Michael in standing up
to deliver Israel, “the time, times, and a half’ shall conclude: but then, “How
long,” said Daniel, “to the end of these?”
They shall end at the delivering of Israel: but how many years from
Daniel’s time shall it be to that redemption?
The
rejoinder, which Daniel received to the question, “How long to the end of
these?” is remarkable. He was not informed how long. He was told instead to
“go:” and the reason given for telling him to depart in ignorance of the end of
the times, was that “the words were sealed up and closed till the time of the
end.” The words of a book sealed up and closed could not be read. Daniel
declares that he did not understand. He did not understand the times of the
winding up of the visions he had seen. He did not understand when the Stone
would smite Nebuchadnezzar’s Image; nor when the Saints would break the power
of the Little Horn, and take the dominion under the whole heaven; he did not
understand when, or in what year of the world’s age, Michael should deliver
Israel, and raise the dead. “I heard,” says he, “but I understood not:” the
answer to the question, “How long?” was still deferred.
Daniel,
however, did not depart in despair. He was told that the Daily Sacrifice should
be taken away to make room for a desolating abomination, or power, which should
prosper for 1290 years; and that 45 years after that period should close, “many
of them that sleep in the dust of the earth should awake to the life of the
Olahm or Aion;” and that then he should arise to his inheritance.
The
Apocalypse revives this ancient question in ch. 6 : 10. In this place, those in
Christ slain for the word of God, and for the testimony they held, being many,
are represented as crying with a loud voice, saying” how long O Despotes holy and true, dost thou not judge
and
36
avenge
our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?” In answer to this appeal, they
were told that they must rest yet a little while:” and in the eighteenth
chapter we find the little while, in its allegorical allusion, fulfilled in the
avenging of the Saints upon the Apostasy in the judgment of the Great Harlot by
whom all the nations have been intoxicated and deceived.
From
what has been hitherto presented. we presume that the reader will have
discerned that the great question generated in the minds of those who believed
the gospel preached by the apostles. was. “What are the times and the
seasons: and what are the signs
indicative of the appearing of Jesus Christ in his kingclon7 and glory” The
Apocalypse, we would remark. was communicated for the purpose of imparting
information to the servants of God in relation to the times. seasons. and
signs, which till then were reserved with the Father. Being herein revealed, they are expected to
study it. that they may be able to discern the signs of the times as they
arrive that when the great crisis comes, they may not be taken by surprise. To
assist them in this is the object of this volume, which we commend to their
Scriptural and critical examination as we proceed.
2.
When the Apocalypse was written.
Concerning,
the time when the Apocalypse was written there have been various opinions among
the learned. Irenaeus who flourished
ecclesiastically A.D. 169 that is about seventy years after the death of the
apostle John, is said to have introduced an opinion that the Apocalypse was
written in the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian brother to Titus who
destroyed Jerusalem. and who occupied the throne of the Caesars from A.D. 80 to
A.D. 96 when he was assassinated. John being the only apostle living at the
time Irenaeus supposes it to have been written of course makes the Apocalypse
the last of the sacred writings. Sir Isaac Newton does not fall in with
Irenaeus’ opinion. He says that he might perhaps have heard from Polycarp. who
in ecclesiastical style is called “his master.” that he had received the
Apocalypse from John with whom it is said he was personally acquainted, about
the time of Domitian’s death: or that
John might himself at that time have made a new publication of it from whence
Ircuacus might imagine it was then newly written.” But as John had no copyright
in the Apocalypse this supposition is not to be entertained. When he received it. he sent it to the seven
Ecclesias of Asia Minor. “which would multiply copies to the fullest extent
without any further cooperation of the apostle in the publication Eusebius in his Chronicle and Ecclesiastical
History adopts the opinion otf
Irenacus This may strengthen it. Not that
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37
Eusebius
is any personal authority in the matter, having lived remoter from .John’s
day than Irenaeus, (he “flourished” in
the latter part of the third. and beginning of the fourth centuries.) but.
being a historian of his owns and preceding times, he would, it is presumable.
adopt the opinion most generally received among the Christians of his own day.
But he is thought to have invalidated the truth of it by conjoining the
banishment of John into Patmos with the
deaths of Peter and Paul. in his Evangelical Demonatrations. Paul is said to have been beheaded at Rome
A.D 65: others say A.D. 67. From his own
writings. we may conclude that he was alive on the eve of the destruction of
Jerusalem; but there is no indisputable evidence in them that he was really
contemporary with that calamity and
succeeding times. Speaking of the approaching abolition of Mosaic Constitution
of things, the casting down of the host of heaven. of the stars and of the
truth to the ground and the suppression of the daily sacrifice by the little
Horn of the Goat: he says in Heb. 8 : 13 that having been made out of date or
antiquated by the confirmation of the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah, it was
eggits aphanismou, nigh of vanishing away. He was therefore living, iii,4, the
time of the great destruction when he wrote the letter to the Hebrews. But from
I Thess. 2 : 16 we may conclude that he lived so nigh to it as to witness its
beginning, and perhaps its end. In writing to the faithful in Thessalonica, he
says concerning the Jews, “who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own
prophets, and chased us out (ekdioxantonfrom dioken to pursue, or chase, and ek
out of, or from) and please not God, and are hostile to all men, forbidding us
to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to the filling up of their
sins continually:” he says of them, “But the wrath came (aoristically) upon
them to the end, “ ephthase eis telos. If this be accepted as the true
rendering, it would indicate that the Jewish State had been destroyed, and that
Paul was living after the destruction, contrary to the traditions of
ecclesiastical writers. But if the aorist is taken indefinitely, it may he read
“comes upon. The Jews had chased the surviving apostles out of Judea, by which
they escaped the terrible calamities that were about to fall upon Jerusalem,
where they generally resided -Acts 8 : 1. John and Paul were no more to be
found in Judea; and Peter writes from Babylon I Pet. 5 :13 ; but died before
the siege. How long Paul may have lived after THE END there is no reliable
testimony to determine. Eusebius says that John was sent to Patmos at the time
of Peter and Paul’s death. It may have been so; and John may have been an exile
in Patmos for many years after being sent thither. There is no evidence to show
how long he was an exile; or in what year of his sojourn in Patmos the
Apocalypse was “indicated by sign” to him.
Tradition
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says
he was there in the reign of Domitian, and his own testimony, that while there
he saw and heard in vision what is related.
Tertullian.
who is contemporary with Irenaeus, and Pseudo-Prochorus. say that John was
banished by Nero to Patmos. Arethas. in the beginning of his commentary, quotes
the opinion of Irenaeus from Eusebius. but does not follow it: but afterwards
affirms that the Apocalypse was written before the destruction of Jerusalem:
and that former commentators had expounded the Sixth Seal of that destruction! Upon this we may remark. that he who would
make such an exposition can have no opinion worthy of any regard.
The tradition of the Syrian
Christians preserved in the title of the Syriac Version. is thought to agree
with the opinion that the Apocalypse was written before the destruction of
Jerusalem. The title is this. ’ The Revelation which was made to John the Evangelist By God
in the island Patmos, into which he was banished by Nero the Caesar” Nero
reigned before the fall of the city. he succeeded
to Claudius in A.D. 54. or A.C. 57. which are equivalent: and continued to A.D.
68. or A.C. 71 a reign of 14 years. The temple was demolished A.D. 71 or A. C.
74. The Syriac title only testifies to
the banishment of John: the Apocalypse may not have been written for several
years after.
It
may be objected in relation to the text in Thessalonians, that a different
rendering may be put upon it without constraint, which would leave it
undetermined whether Paul lived after the destruction or not. The words may be
translated. “The wrath has come upon them for an end;” or cause upon them to,
or unto. an end. The verb efiliase is the first aorist, and may be rendered by
the past or by the indefinite present, which partakes both of the now and the
hereafter. “The wrath cometh upon them to an end,” predicted by the prophets,
Jesus in Matt. 24 :14, and the apostles. But as they were “hostile to all men,”
it is likely that the wrath was outpouring, and that the Jews and Romans were
in actual war; and that “the ending” so often proclaimed in their discourses,
was witnessed by some of the apostles.
There
is a little presumptive evidence in the Apocalypse itself that it was written
after the death of perhaps all the apostles except John. The apostles, who were
also prophets and saints, are invited to rejoice over the subversion of Rome
and its institutions and dominion, in the judgment; because in her their blood
was found. That is, Rome had put to death apostles and prophets, as well as
Jerusalem, which was destroyed for the same offense. There would have been
something incongruous in the view of John’s contemporaries who received the
Apocalypse, to have read in ch. 18 : 20, 24, a charge of murdering apostles, if
all the apostles slain had been put to death by the Jewish Power which the
Romans were employed to destroy.
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39
But
some commentators are tenacious of the opinion that the Apocalypse was written
before the destruction of Jerusalem because, as it would seem, they desire to
dispose of its difficulties more summarily than can be effected upon a contrary
supposition. If it were not written till after Jerusalem was destroyed what is
to be done with the sealing ~ if the thousands of Israel in the seventh
chapter: with the predicted treading of the Holy City under foot of the
Gentiles of the eleventh chapter: with that temple and altar mentioned in the
first verse of the same.? It is found most convenient to cast all these things
into the fiery furnace of that destruction, and so to consume them out of the
way. But it really matters not whether it be assumed to be written before. or
after that event. The interpretation is in no way affected. The destruction of
Jerusalem with its times and circumstances cannot be accommodated so as to
interpret what is written in the Apocalypse about a city.” a “temple” and
“altar,” a “court,” a “Jerusalem.” and so forth these are symbols and represent
something else than what the words stand for in common, or historical
discourse.
The
result of Sir Isaac Newton’s investigation in relation to the time when the
Apocalypse was written may not be
unacceptable to the reader we shall quote it therefore from his Observations
“ Seeing that Peter and .John.” says he
“were apostles of the circumcision it seems to me that they stayed with their
churches in Judea and Syria till the Romans made war upon their nation that is
till the twelfth year of Nero that the then followed the main body of their
flying churches into Asia and that Peter
went thence by Corinth to Rome: that the Roman empire looked upon those
churches as enemies, because Jews by birth: and therefore. to prevent
insurrections, secured the leaders, and
banished John into Patmos. It seems also
probable to me that the Apocalypse was there composed, and that soon after the
Epistle to the Hebrews, and those of Peter were written to these churches, with
reference to this prophecy as what they were particularly concerned in. For it
appears by these epistles that they were written in times of general affliction
and tribulation under the heathens, and by consequence when thc Empire made war
upon the Jews; for till then the heathens and at peace with the Christian Jews, as well as
with the rest. The Epistle to the Hebrews
, since it mentions Timothy as related to those Hebrews must have been written to them after their flight into
Asia where Timothy ~ as a bishop: and by consequence after the war began the
Hebrews in Judea being strangers to Timothy. Peter seems also to call
Rome. Babylon as well with respect to
the war made upon Judea and the approaching captivity like that under old
Babylon. as with respect to that name in the Apocalypse: and in writing
to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus
40
Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, he seems to intimate that they were the strangers
newly scattered by the Roman wars,’ for those were the only strangers there
belonging to his care.
He
thinks that this account of things agrees best with history, duly
rectified, We do not think, however,
that a rectification is possible. The Ecclesiastical Writers of the period
succeeding the times of the New Testament are not reliable. They all belonged to that class of men who
set up for successors of the apostles with clerical authority; and where facts
were wanting, did not hesitate to substitute conjecture. For our own part, we
rely upon nothing ecclesiastical outside the Old and New Testaments. What they testify we believe; but whereon
they are silent, we have no faith. Peter
may refer to Rome in using Babylon; but there is no evidence that he certainly
does. If by Babylon he do indeed mean Rome, it favors the supposition that the
Apocalypse was written before his decease; because this is the only Scripture
extant in which Rome is certainly comprehended in the name. Chrysostom’s
testimony somewhat confirms my view of the passage in Thessalonians. He says
“that the apostles continued long in Judea, and that then, being driven out by
the Jews, they went to the Gentiles. This dispersion was in the first year of
the Jewish war, when the Jews, as Josephus tells us, began to be tumultuous and
violent in all places. For all agree that the apostles were dispersed into
several regions at once; and Origen has set down the time, telling us that in
the beginning of the Judaic war the apostles and disciples were scattered into
all nations.”
In
conclusion, then, upon this point. I remark that, though the strongest evidence
is for A.D. 96 yet it cannot be said with certainty in what year the Apocalypse
was written. Irenacus says it was written towards the end of Domitian’s
reign. It testifies for itself that it
was written at some time during John’s sojourn in Patmos; but owing to the
unreliable character of the testimony of the post-apostolic writers as it has
come down to 115 through the polluted and corrupting channels of Greek and
Latin Orthodoxies, we cannot say when John’s banishment occurred, how many
years it continued, whether it began at the death of Peter and Paul, or before
it, or during the Judaic war, or after the destruction of Jerusalem, or shortly’,
before the assassination of Pomitian. It may have been at any one of these
times. and it may not. It would, indeed, satisfy curiosity to know, but that is
all. The knowledge of these particular times does not at all affect the
interpretation. This is independent of the Anno Domini of John’s exile. It was communicated to him
after his removal from Judea from some cause; and subsequently to his going to
Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony, of Jesus Christ, where
also he sojourned in tribulation and endurance. This
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41
is
all he considered necessary for the reader to know, and therefore with this
scanty information we shall endeavor to be satisfied.
3.
Apocalypse Rooted in the Prophets.
In
treating of the causes which operated the rapid progress of the gospel in the
first two hundred years of our era the historian of the “Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire thus expresses himself with reference to the great subject
matter of the Apocalypse. The ancient
and popular doctrine of the Millennium
says Gibbon was intimately
connected with the second coming of Christ
As the works of creation had been finished in six days, their duration,
in their present state. ,according to a tradition which was attributed to the
prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was
inferred that this long period of labor and contention, which was now almost
elapsed (as they supposed) would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand
years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the Saints and the elect
who had escaped death or who had been miraculously’, revived would reign upon earth till the time appointed for
the last and general resurrection. So pleasing
was this hope to the minds of believers that the New Jerusalem, the seat
of this blissful kingdom was quickly ,adorned
with all the gayest colors of the imagination A felicity consisting only of pure and
spiritual pleasure would have appeared too refined for its inhabitants, ~ who
were still supposed to possess their human nature and senses. A garden not Eden
with the amusements of pastoral life no longer suited to the advanced state of
society which prevailed under the Roman Empire
A city, is therefore erected of gold and precious stones, and a
supernatural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed on the adjacent
territory, in the free enjoyment of
whose spontaneous productions the happy and benevolent people was never to he
restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive property The assurance of such a millennium was carefully
inculcated by, a succession of
fathers from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus who conversed with
the immediate disciples of the apostles. down to Lactantius who was preceptor
lithe son of Constantine though it might
not be universally received it appears to have been the reigning sentiment of
the orthodox believers and it seems so well adapted to the desires and
apprehensions of man kind it must have contributed in a very considerable
degree to the progress of the Christian faith
But when the edifice of the church was almost completed, the temporary
support was laid aside The doctrine of
Christ’s reign upon the earth was at first treated as a profound allegory, was
considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length
rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism. A
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mysterious
prophecy (the Apocalypse) which still forms a part of the sacred canon, but
which was thought to favor the exploded
sentiment has very narrowly escaped the proscription of THE CHURCH.”
This
is the impartial testimony of a man who was well acquainted with the literature
of the times contemporary with, and immediately succeeding, those of the
apostles; and who conceived that the propagators of Christianity were deceived,
and of such low morality that they did not hesitate to invent and promulgate
lies to gain their ends. This was doubtless the case with the Babel builders of
what Gibbon calls “the church;” but it is a gross calumny when insinuated
against those “servants of God” to whom the Apocalypse was “sent.” Gibbon’s testimony, however, is important and
useful in this:
1.That
it proves that the nearer we approach to the times of the Apostles, the
stronger and more universal was the belief of the Apocalyptic teaching
concerning the Millennium, and reign of Christ and the Saints upon the earth;
2. That
it was well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of mankind;
3. That
so long as it continued the reigning sentiment, the faith rapidly progressed;
4. That
when the edifice erecting by the Sons of Balaam and Jezebel was almost
completed, the doctrine of Christ’s reign began to be abandoned;
5. That
when they had completed the Apostasy, the doctrine was repudiated as heresy and
fanaticism; and
6. That
the Apocalypse itself had a narrow escape of being expelled from the canon of
inspiration.
But
here we beg leave to remark, that the doctrine of Messiah’s reign with the
Saints on earth for a long season did not originate with the Apocalypse. It is the burden of all the prophets from Moses
to Malachi. Moses teaches that the seed of Abraham shall be a great nation;
that that nation with Abraham and his Seed, the prophet like to him, shall
possess the Holy Land for ever; that all nations shall be blessed in them; and
that then the whole earth shall be full of Jehovah’s glory. This is the future
state which Moses preached as the gospel to Israel. Nor was the preaching
confined to him. The proclamation was amplified in all the prophets. The “Songs of Jehovah” are full of it. Isaiah
announced it in glowing terms, and tells us that in vision he saw the King upon
his throne, who is to reign in righteousness, on Mount Sion and in Jerusalem
gloriously in the presence of his Ancients, or Saints, whose death shall be
swallowed up in victory ~ ch. 6 : 1-5 ; 32 : I ; 24 : 23
25
: 8. Jeremiah testifies to the same effect, telling us that Jehovah
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will
raise up to David a Righteous Branch; that this man shall be King of Israel,
reigning and prospering, and executing judgment and justice in the earth: that
in his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel and Jerusalem shall dwell safely;
that He shall be for the righteousness of the nation: that then Jerusalem shall
be called the Throne of Jehovah, that all nations shall be concentred to it as
the throne of empire; and that they shall all be enlightened, and blessed in
their king, who shall be called “The God of the Whole Earth” ch. 3 : 17 ; 23 :
5, 6 33 :5: lsai. 54 : 5.
The
Apocalypse in Ezekiel.
Ezekiel
prophesies that the Dry Tree of Israel, which now bears no fruit shall be made
to flourish in the mountain of the heights of Israel; where it shall shoot
forth boughs, and bear fruit; and that under its branching foliage shall dwell
all fowl of every wing-ch. 17 : 22-24. He tells us concerning that epoch, that
the kingdom of Israel shall be given to a man of low station whose right it is;
that he shall be a Plant of Renown; that he shall be a David; that he shall be
Prince, or High Priest of Israel for an Aion; that he shall be immortal; that
the Holy land ‘shall be as the Garden of Eden, or Paradise; that the twelve
tribes of Israel shall be a united
nation, and form one kingdom in the land; that a magnificent temple shall be
built in Jerusalem differing from that of
Solomon; that the Dead Sea shall be healed, and become as productive of
fish as the Mediterranean; and that from the time of the establishment of these
things, the old name of the city shall be abolished ~ that it shall no longer
be Jeru, ~ they shall see,” shalaim, “peace;” but Yahweh-shammah HE WHO SHALL BE IS THERE - ch.
21 : 26, 27 ; 34 2~, 23 ; 37 : 25, 22 ; 36 : 35 ; 47 : 8-10 ; 48 : 35.
The
Apocalypse in Daniel.
DANIEL
foretold the establishment of a kingdom which shall be a great military power
in its beginning, and of perpetual continuance: that it should conquer all
kingdoms extant in the Latter Days; that until then “the Kingdom of Men” would
bear rule over all the earth ~ until seven times, 2520 years, should be
completed; which is the age of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image from the first year of
his reign, B.C. 608.. That these two
kingdoms, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Men, should be antagonist
kingdoms in all their elements and principles; that till the end of a period of
1260 years, the Kingdom of Men should “prevail against the Saints,” or Heirs of
the Kingdom of God; that it should also destroy the power of the Jews, and rule
over Palestine to the end of that period; that when this end should arrive, the
power of God
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44
should
be Apocalypsed, or revealed, in the person of Michael, the Prince of princes,
who shall appear to deliver Israel, and awake the dead; that in effecting this
deliverance, the thrones, or kingdoms of this world, shall be cast down, and
the Kingdom of Men transferred to the Saints, who shall possess it under the
whole heaven ad-ahbnah, “during an Aion or Millennium, we-ad ahlam ahlrnayah
“even for the Aion of the Aions,” or “a season and a time” ch. 2 : 44; 4 : 15, 16 : 24
7 21,22,25 ; 12 :t.2,;7: 9, 1~, 27, 12.
The Apocalypse in Hosea.
HOSEA
declares that Judah shall be saved by Jehovah their Elohim: that is. by
Messiah; that in the countries where it is now said to them, “Ye are not the
people of Jehovah.” there they’ shall be called. “the sons of the living God.” He says also, that at that time .Judah and
Israel shall become a united nation. and agree to place themselves under One
Chief; that he shall betroth the nation to himself for the Aion; that they
shall hear Jezreel; that he shall be a David; and that this shall come to pass
in the Latter Days: and that these, the days of their national resurrection
shall be “in the third day” after their being rent and removed out of his
sight. This can only mean during a third
period of a thousand years’. The present year of Ephraim’s rending and dispersion
is 2588, which is synchronical with that of our era 1861-
eh.
I : 7. 10, 11:2 : 19.22 : 3 : 4.5: 5 : 14. 15 : 6 : 2
The Apocalypse in Joel.
JOEL, though brief, is very explicit and coincident with the above After predicting terrible calamities upon Israel and their country by the lions of Assyria and others, he consoles the nation with the assurance that after the Gentiles had filled up the measure of their abominations, Jehovah will be jealous for his land and will pity his people; and that they shall no more be made a reproach among the nations. He predicted that Jehovah will do great things. at which the children of Zion shall be glad, and that they shall rejoice in Jehovah, their Elohim. or Christ: that he would give them the latter rain of the Spirit. as on Pentecost. of the first month; and the former rain htzdohkah, on account of righteousness. in the seventh month, which is also the first of the civil year. That in this period there shall be restoration and that henceforth Jehovah’s people shall never be ashamed. He foretold that between the two Spirit-Rain periods. Zion’s Sun should be turned into darkness, and the Moon of her ecclesiastical heavens into blood before the great and terrible Day of Jehovah should he apocalypsed, or revealed, upon Israel’s enemies; whose destruction shall proceed from Mount Zion and Jerusalem
Page 45
in which shall be deliverance for the remnant
whom Jehovah ‘shall call. He further makes known that in the days of the
Restoration of Judah and Jerusalem, Jehovah will gather all national armies
into the valley of Jehoshaphat or Armageddon and there contend with them in
battle for the possession of the Holy Land
that on the eve of this contest a proclamation shall be made among the
nations stirring them up to the war which in the Apocalypse is styled the war
of that great day of God Almighty “ that at this epoch of restoration Jehovah
shall lead down his warriors to the conflict in the valley of judgment that the
harvest-sickle, and the vintage press shall then do their work’ that Jehovah as
the Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from
Jerusalem and shake the heavens and the earth of the non-Jewish world whose Sun
and Moon shall be darkened and the shining of their stars shall be destroyed;
that when this is consummated .. Jerusalem shall be holy and no strangers or
enemy shall pass through her any more
That the land shall be as Paradise
flowing with wine and milk being so rich
in vines and pasturage fountains and running streams and to crown the whole
Joel testifies with Ezekiel. Jeremiah,
and Isaiah that Jehovah then dwells in Zion, the place of rest and city of the
Great King ch I : 6 ; 2 : 18. 19. 23.
34.26,.3l. 32 : 3 : I. 2. 9. 11-18 ,20 21
The Apocalypse in Amos
The Apocalypse in
Haggai
HAGGAI
prophesied about a century after Zephaniah; and was contemporary with
Zechariah, and the rebuilding of the Temple after the return from Babylon. He stirred
the people up to finish it. Zerubbabel son of David, and ancestor of Joseph the
husband of Mary, and of Mary and Jesus, was Governor of Judah under the
Persians; and Joshua, the son of Josedech, high priest. These were “men of
sign;” that is men representative of ONE, who shall afterwards himself occupy,
at one and the same time the position of Governor and High Priest of the
nation. Zerubbabel and Joshua are so regarded both by Haggai and Zechariah. In
reference to the apocalypse of the Holy One they typified. Jehovah says in
Haggai, “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the
earth, and the sea, and the dry; and I will shake all nations, and that to be
desired of all nations they shall come (~asl bahu, 3 p. plur.), and I will fill
this house with glory. And this “Yet once more,” says Paul, “signifieth the
removing of those things which may be shaken as of things that are constituted,
that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” The heavens and earth
shaken in the Babylonian desolation were shaken “once more” in the Roman. But
the time approaches when the heavens, earth, sea, and dry land of the Gentile
world are also to be convulsed.
Therefore Jehovah commanded Haggai to speak to Zerubbabel and say. “1
will
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54 .
shake
the heavens and the earth: and 1 will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms, and I
will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow
the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall
come down, every one by the sword of his brother. In that day, saith Jehovah of
armies, 1 will take thee, 0 Zerubbabel, my servant, son of Shealtiel, and will
make thee as a signet; for I have chosen thee, saith Jehovah of armies”—ch. 2 :
6, 7, 21-23. Now as these things did not come to pass in the lifetime of
Zerubbabel, he was either a representative of his descendant the Son of Mary
who shall be the ensign; or he must be raised from the dead if it is to be
personally accomplished in him. Whichever alternative may be accepted, this is
certain, that Zerubbabel is to be a living man when the shaking of the nations
predicted shall come to pass. The prophecy then, relates to our future, and
will be found hereafter to have been incorporated in some of the scenes of the
Apocalypse.
The Apocalypse in Zechariah.
The
next prophet in the order of the Old Testament is ZECHARIAH; a book which, like
all the proceeding, is intimately connected with the Apocalypse of the Anointed
Jesus. Zechariah was contemporary with Zerubbabel Joshua the High Priest, and
Haggai, and prophesied about 520 years before the birth of Jesus.
Like
John in Patmos, Zechariah had a Vision of Horses of divers colors—red horses,
bay horses, and pale horses ranged behind a Man upon a red horse, standing
among myrtle-trees. The branches of myrtle-trees were used in the construction
of booths under which Israel dwelt in celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. In
their rebelliousness the Jews are regarded as briers and thorns; but in
restoration, because of righteousness, they are olive branches, pine-branches,
myrtle-branches, and palm-branches. When, therefore, it is prophesied in Isaiah
55 : 13, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the
brier shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for
an Aion-memorial that shall not be cut off;” and in Ch. 41 19, “I will plant in
the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and the myrtle, and the olive-tree:
I will set in the desert the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together;
that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the
hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel (Christ) hath
created it:” when these things are declared, it not only imports that the land previously
desolate shall become like Eden, the Garden of Jehovah (Ezek. 36 : 35), but
that all its inhabitants in Messiah’s Olahm, the Millennial Aion, shall be
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55
trees
of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that he might be Glorified”—Isai. 61
: 3.
These
considerations fix the time of Zechariah’s
horses are rest,-at the Feast of Tabernacles first ensuing, when the
Holy One of Israel, the Man on the Red Horse, shall have completed his
conquests, and shall be Prince of Peace in the midst of Israel. He and his
cavalry march to and fro through the earth with blood, signified by redness,
famine by the bay, and pestilence by the pale or whitish, until the earth is
reduced to submission, and obtains rest from these calamities. This vision is
reproduced in the Apocalypse, only on a more extended scale; but with the same
result.
“Thus
saith Jehovah of armies,” who, as Moses saith, “is a Man of War” and “a Jealous
Power,” “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy. And I am
very sore displeased with the nations at ease; for I was but a little
displeased, and they helped toward the affliction.” Now, if this were the state
of Jehovah’s mind in the days of Zechariah, what must be the intensity of his
jealousy for .Jerusalem and Zion at this day! The Chaldeans destroyed
Jerusalem, and burned the temple, and overturned the kingdom and throne of
David; and he punished the Chaldean Babylon with the loss of empire, and a
conversion into heaps of ruins as at this day. The Roman nations followed in their
steps; and have aggravated the affliction and their own guilt, by great cruelty
towards Israel, and slaughters, or rather torments inflicted upon the brethren
of Jesus, the Saints. The Little Horn Babylon. therefore, of our times, will be
subjected to a more terrible vengeance than hitherto experienced by any power,
or confederacy of powers, hostile to the Jews.
The
decree of Jehovah concerning Jerusalem and Zion hath gone forth; and he
commanded Zechariah to proclaim it, saying, “Thus saith Jehovah of armies, My
cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and Jehovah shall yet
comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.” But how shall this come to pass?
In
reference to this inquiry the prophet is introduced to another scene—the
visions of the Four Horns, and of the Four Carpenters or artificers. He is told
that the Horns represent the powers by which Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem are
scattered: answering to the Lion, the Hear the Leopard, and the Fourth Beast of
Daniel; whose oppression has so completely scattered the power of Judah, “that
no man doth lift up his head.” And in this prostrate condition the Jews and
Jerusalem must remain until the “Four Carpenters” are apocalypsed or revealed
for the work assigned them. This work the prophet says, is to terrify the
horns; to make them afraid; to cast out the horns of the nations,
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56
which
lift up their horn, or power, over the land of Judah to scatter it. No such
power, with such a mission, has appeared since the days of the prophet: on the
contrary, all the powers that have arisen have been Gentile, and ambitious of
exclusive sovereignty over Jerusalem and Judea, as at this day. These “Four
Carpenters” are, therefore, not Gentile, but of Jewish nationality; and are yet
to be apocalypsed, or revealed. We may here say in passing, that they are the
Brethren of the Carpenters Son; the squadrons of the Man in the midst of the
myrtle-trees, the Seraphim of Isaiah; the Four Cherubim of Ezekiel; and the
Four Living Ones of the Apocalypse.
These
are they by whom the Horns of the Gentiles are to be broken. and the Holy Land
and City are to be avenged, and Zion comforted. But the prophet and his friends
would, doubtless, delight to know “the times and seasons” when Jerusalem should
be exalted to the dignity of “Jehovah’s throne” Jer. 3 : 17. Might this happen
in Zechariah’s day; or when Ezekiel’s 430 years were expired during which Judah
and Israel were to eat defiled bread among the Gentiles (4 : 4-6, 13); or were
there any times measured off ‘that must expire before the work of the Four
Carpenters could be commenced?
To
afford them some idea of the fact in relation to this matter another vision was
granted to the prophet. He saw a man with a measuring line in his hand, who
told him he was going to measure the length and breadth of Jerusalem. He saw by
this that there were measurements, and that the fortunes of the city were not
abandoned to accident or caprice. He was told what the line of Jerusalem’s
humiliation extended to; but he was not informed of the number of the years
that humiliation should continue. He could not discern from what he saw,
whether the treading of Jerusalem under foot by the Gentiles should terminate
in A.D. 35, when the apostles inquired if the kingdom should then be restored
again to Israel; or in A.D. 1864-8, to which we look with earnest expectation.
Zechariah was told what the line was for but he was not informed of the details
of the measurements. These details were reserved by the Father, to be
communicated afterwards to the Anointed Jesus, that he might send and “indicate
them by sign, “ represent them symbolically, to his servant John. The
apocalypse, however, to which the “measuring line” extended, was communicated
to Zechariah. He was told these words, “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns
without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle therein:” and the reason
given why it should be so secure in such a country was, “Because, saith
Jehovah, I will be unto her a Wall of Fire (the Jasper-wall of Apoc. 21 : 12,
14, 18) round about her, and will be the Glory (the Jasperstone, clear as
crystal ver. II) in the midst of her.”
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57
He
perceived from this, as we may also perceive, that Jehovah would appear in
Jerusalem at the end of the measuring line. He found also, by attending to the
words spoken, that when he should be therein apocalypsed or unveiled, he will
make a proclamation to the Israelites dwelling in the countries north of
Jerusalem, called “the Land of the North,” the territory under the dominion of
Gog, the then Head of the Little Horn Babylon of our future. The Israelites
dwelling in this Babylon Confederacy of Greeks and Latins are thus addressed in
the proclamation stirring them up to war, “Ho! ho! Come forth and escape from
the land of the north, saith Jehovah; for I have spread you abroad as the four
winds of the heavens. Deliver thyself, 0 Zion, that dwellest with the daughter
of Babylon.” Here is a call upon the Jews to rise against the governments of
the nations, and doubtless because those governments will not regard the
proclamation of the Apoc. 14 : 6, 7. Zion, thus appealed to. will respond to
the invitation; and in concert with the Four Carpenters (the resurrected saints
and the true believers living at the time of‘ the proclamation) proceed to break in pieces and consume the
power of the nations. These are to be spoiled and subjugated by their tyrants.
the Jews; and after that the glory will be apocalypsed. Things will proceed
very much upon ordinary principles before the public; only those who carry on the
insurrection, or revolution, will know the reality of things. This is the
import of the words spoken to Zechariah in connection with the call upon Zion
to “arise and thresh the nations”-Mic. ·1 : 13. “After the glory he sent me
unto the nations which spoiled you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple
of Jehovah’s eye.” For behold, I will shake my hand upon them, and they shall
be a spoil to their servants; and ye shall know that Jehovah of armies hath
sent me,” the Christ. “After the glory” is apocalypsed in Jerusalem, in other
words, after Messiah effects his entrance into Jerusalem, the ‘work begins that
is to result in removing the veil from the mind of Israel “ith respect to
Jesus; in their restoration to Palestine; in the subjugation of the nations;
and their subsequent enlightenment.
When
this work is accomplished the apocalyptic millenary is Introduced, in which the
things expressed in the following words of Zacharriah became the order of the
times: “Sing and rejoice, 0 daughter of Zion; for, lo! I come and I will dwell
in the midst of thee, sayth Jehovah; and many nations shall be joined to
Jehovah in that day (the Day of Christ), and shall be my people; and I will
dwell in the midst of thee; and thou shalt know that Jehovah of armies sent me
(Jesus) unto thee. And Jehovah shall inherit Judah, his portion in the Holy
Land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be at rest, 0 all flesh, from before
Jehovah; for he is risen up from the habitation of his holiness”—ch. 7
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The
mind of the prophet having been thus fixed upon Him who is to deliver Israel,
and to rule over them in Jerusalem, becomes the subject of a vision in which is
brought before him the Apocalyptic Stone, the Jasper and Sardine Stone, with
Seven Eyes, the Head Stone, whose graving is of Jehovah; and which being laid
before Joshua and Zerubbabel, men of sign, is representative of the Divine
Governor and High Priest of the house of David. He sees Joshua, the High Priest
of the Restoration, angelized, and clothed in filthy garments. That is, he
represents the Christ, in the capacity of Jehovah’s Messenger, “the Angel of
the Covenant,” clothed with “the flesh of sin,” in which, Paul tells us,
“dwells no good thing.” While Joshua was in these filthy garments, Zechariah
sees the Adversary at his right-hand; that is, in power, standing to resist
him. This represents the resistance of power that would be brought to bear
against the Christ in the days of his flesh. But that the Adversary should not
finally prevail is indicated by the words of Jehovah to the Adversary, saying,
“Jehovah shall restrain thee, 0 Satan; even Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem
shall restrain thee: Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” That is,
that although the Adversary that possessed Jerusalem might resist the High
Priest of the Order of Melchizedec, and wound him in the heel, He shall,
nevertheless, wrest Jerusalem from his grasp, and restrain, or bind him, as is
apocalyptically represented in ch. 20 : 1-3.
While
Zechariah was beholding, he saw the garments of Joshua, the High Priest,
changed; and was instructed that the action represented the putting away of
iniquity which the priest is supposed to bear. In this we see, by the light of
New Testament, the change of nature, or body, in relation to the Christ,
“whom,” says Paul, “we know henceforth no more after the flesh.” He was
crucified in “flesh of sin;” and then sin was “condemned in the flesh.” But
when he rose again he became spirit-body, called by Paul pneumu hugiosunes,
spirit of holiness-Rom. 1 : 4. He is now the Angel-High Priest of Jehovah, no
longer oppressed with our filthy nature, but “clothed in a garment white as
snow” (Dan. 7 : 9) reaching to the foot (Apoc. 1 : 13): and the words of
Jehovah are now addressed to him, saying, “If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if
thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house (rule my
kingdom), and shalt also keep my courts (be High Priest of Israel), and 1 will
give thee places to walk among those that stand by,” the Angel Princes, or Elohim,
we read of in Daniel.
The Stone and the Mountain.
But
there was yet another incident beheld by Zechariah. He saw Joshua and his
associate priests, whom he styles “men of sign,” as were
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Isaiah
and the children Jehovah had given him--8 : 18 ; Heb. 2: 13. HE saw A STONE
laid before Joshua, upon which were Seven Eyes, which are declared to be the
Eyes of Jehovah; therefore that Stone represented Jehovah the High Priest; the
servant of his Father Jehovah, and named the BRANCH. Concerning this Stone, the
reader can consult the following texts:--Ps. 118 : 22 ; Isai. 28 : 16 ; 8 : 14
; Gen. 49 : 24, Dan. 2 : 34. This Stone is Jehovah’s signet, the inscription
upon which is “HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH” an engraving inwrought by the workmanship
of Jehovah himself, as Zechariah was informed; and through which he will remove
the iniquity of the land of Israel in one day; upon which every man therein
shall call to his neighbor under the vine and under the fig-tree, emblems of
the kingdom of the heavens.
But
the mission of the Stone is not exclusively to take away the iniquity of
Israel. He has to level the “Great Mountain,” which, at his apocalypse, will be
found “destroying the earth.” The Chaldean Babylonish empire is styled by
Jeremiah “the destroying mountain which destroyed all the earth”--51 : 25.
Zerubbabel was contemporary with it, but it did not become a plain before him;
he died without witnessing such a result. Nevertheless, it is written, “Who art
thou, 0 Great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he
shall bring forth the Head Stone with shoutings of Grace, grace unto it.” Here,
then, is a work still to be accomplished. A great mountain to be leveled in the
presence of Zerubbabel; and consequently, to he leveled after his resurrection,
when he shall have awakened out of his sleep: for then, as we have seen in
Haggai, “Jehovah will shake the heavens and the earth, and overthrow the throne
of kingdoms, and destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations.” These
make up the great mountains to be leveled, or abolished, as symbolized in Apoc.
16:20.
The
Four Carpenters, of which Zerubbabel is an element, are “to cast out the horns
of the Gentiles;” and are therefore to level this great political mountain. Now
the resurrection of the dead is as necessary for their development as for his.
This being so, their resurrection is dramatically foreshadowed by Zechariah,
another constituent of the Four, being awaked by the Angel. He says, “The angel
that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of
his sleep”—c. 4 : 1. This is the resurrection of the prophet; so that what he
saw after he awoke is to be referred to the time after the resurrection for its
accomplishment.
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60
The Seven-Branched Lampstand and Olive-Trees.
Now
being awake, he saw a Seven-Branched Lampstand of gold, standing between Two
Olive-Trees, a branch from each tree connected with the lampstand by a golden
pipe, making Two Branches and Two Golden Pipes, through which pipes the golden
oil was transmitted from the Branches to the bowl of the lampstand for the
supply of the Seven Lamps. The prophet was told, that these Seven” are the Eyes
of Jehovah, which run to and fro through the whole earth, as the horsemen in the
myrtle grove are said to do: and that the Olive Branches are the Two Anointed
Ones that stand beside the Adon, or Lord, of the whole earth.
By
the light of the New Testament we are able to arrive at an understanding of
this enigma, which symbolically represents the nature and character of the
power destined to “establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” The
symbol as a whole is an apparatus of brightness; and the Golden Oil In
combustion upon the seven burners, styled in the Apoc. 4 : 5, “Seven lamps of
fire burning before the throne,” is the Spirit of God, which, in its sevenfold
distribution, is styled in Apoc. 5 : 6, “Seven Eyes, which are the Seven
Spirits of God sent forth Into all the earth.” Hence, what is accomplished “in
all the earth,” namely, the leveling of the great Babylonish mountain, and the
bringing forth the Head Stone to lordship over the whole earth, as the word of
Jehovah says to Zerubbabel, is “Not by army, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of armies;” that is,
the effectuation of these results by such means alone as one nation employs to
overturn the power of another, in which it’s success depends upon numbers,
discipline, artillery, and so forth, courageously and scientifically applied,
is impossible. Jerusalem will never attain to her destined exaltation as
Jehovah’s throne, by the mere prowess and strategy of an Alexander or a
Napoleon. It is to be accomplished by “Zerubbabel,” in whose hand is the plumb
line, which distinguishes him as the Builder of David’s tabernacle—of “the City
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”-Heb. 11 : 10. “By my
Spirit,” saith Jehovah, “it shall be done, even by those Seven Eye-Lamps of
Jehovah.
But
shall this post-resurrectional work be performed by Jehovah’s Spirit unclothed;
by pure naked spirit, as a psychologist would prevail over a subject—by
afflation, and a simple exercise of will? The answer from the testimony before
us is, by no means. “That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit” Jno. 3 : 6~
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua the High Priest, Zerubbabel, and all the
prophets, which includes Jesus and the Apostles, together with many from the
east, west
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north,
and south (Luke 13 28-30) will be born of the Spirit in the resurrection, and
will therefore be -Spirit”—pneuma hagiosunes, as Jesus is now, isuggeloi, as
angels, “walking among those that stand by’ “when He (Jesus) shall appear,”
says John, “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is”—l Ep. 3 2. By
Spirit in organic manifestation the face of the world shall be changed, and
Jerusalem shall be made to shine; for “Her Righteousness (Jer. 23 5, 6 3?
15-17) shall go forth as Brightness; and her Salvation (that which effects her
deliverance) as a Lamp that burneth”—Isai. 62 : 1.
Now
the Organic Manifestation is represented by the Lampstand, with its Bowl on the
top, and Seven Pipes projecting from it, and terminating in Seven Burners; by
the Two Olive-Trees, Two Branches of the same and Two Golden Pipes passing from
the branches to the Bowl. We are told that the Seven Burnings are the Eyes of
Jehovah, which leads to the conclusion that the Lampstand, with its Bowl and
Pipes. is representative of Jehovah as manifested in David’s Son and his
brethren. This conclusion is ratified by Psal. 132 17, “There (in Zion. ver.
13) 1 will make to spring a Horn for David; I have prepared A LAMP for my
anointed.” David was Jehovah’s anointed; and David’s Son and Lord. Jesus, is
the Lamp Stem, and the Lamp Bowl, or- Reservoir, of the Anointing Spirit, which
is thence distributed to the Seven Burners.
“Ye
are the Branches,” said Jesus to his disciples; “and severed from me ye can do
nothing.” This is true, whether Jesus be regarded as a Vine, or as a
Seven-Branched Lampstand. The branches of the Olive-Trees are connected with
the Bowl by the two golden tubes, which makes them thus Branches of the Lamp.
The Olive-Trees represent Israel after the flesh, and Israel after the Spirit,
in their post-resurrectional relation to the Lamp of David’s house. “The
iniquity of that land being taken away in one day” (Zech. 3 9) then, says
Jehovah, “I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall blossom as the lily and
strike forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty
shall be as the Olive-Tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his
shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and blossom as the vine;
the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say. What have
to do any more with idols? I have heard. and observed him; I am like a green
fir tree. From me (O Ephraim)) is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall
understand these things Prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of Jehovah are right, and the
just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein” Hosea 14:
5-9. Here, then, Is one olive-tree Israel in post-resurrectional relation to
the Lamp of
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David’s
house; the other olive-tree is the Wild Olive-Tree also in its
post-resurrectional relation to the same. In Rom. 11 : 17, Paul tells us that
the Gentiles are represented by this tree. Thus we are left without doubt as to
the two olive-trees.
But
Zechariah saw something more in detail than the Two Trees and Lamp. He saw also
“two olive-branches,” and “two golden tubes.” By these branches and tubes a
connection was established between the Lamp-bowl and the two trees. The golden
colored olive-oil is exuded from the two branches through the golden tubes into
the Lamp-bowl, from which it is combusted through the Seven Burners, for the
illumination of all the nations of the earth, then “blessed in Abraham and his
Mystical Seed,” which is the Christ and all in Him.
Zechariah
was told that these two branches represented the Anointed Ones, or Sons of Oil,
standing before the RULER (Adon) of all the earth. In other words, these two
branches represent the Saints, who are separated, first, from the Israelitish
Olive-Tree; and secondly, from the Gentile Olive-Tree, by nature wild. The Two
Branches are not to be confounded with the Two Trees. These are not the
Anointed Ones, but only the nationalities whence the Two Branches are
developed. These two branches stand before the Ruler of all the earth. They
rule with him as Kings and Priests, being all anointed with the Holy Spirit
from the throne of the Invisible Father. They are his eyes, hands, body, and
feet, in the subjugation and government of the world. He fills them with his
spirit; in fact, they are His spirit corporealized—condensed, if we may so
speak, into a multitude of living, incorruptible, and intelligent personages:
“That which is born of the Spirit Is SPIRIT”-the multitudinous Spirit-Man.
These
symbols, then, seen by Zechariah after he was waked up by the angel out of his
typical sleep, are representative oft he Spirit of Jehovah; that is, of that
Spirit’s manifestation in the resurrected Sons of God, who are spirits. Let me
simplify this idea, if possible, yet more. When a true believer dies, he falls
asleep in Christ. He corrupts; and when the process of decomposition is
complete, he is reduced to dust, which is all that remains of his former self.
Nevertheless, he reappears, his restored consciousness claims his former self
as his. The dust to which he is reduced is at once the debris of his former,
and the nucleus of his future, self. In reference to this nucleus, or detritus
of the animal body sown into the grave, Paul says in 1 Cor. 15 : 53, “it is
necessary that this corruptible put on incorruptibility, and this mortal put on
deathlessness.” This putting on, he tells us in Rom. 8 : 11, is effected by the
Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from among the dead. The Spirit operates upon
the dust of the former man, and fashions it into a new man, after
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the
image of Jesus as he now is. Being formed, the formation is caused to live. In
commencing life again at this epoch, this renewed man is said to be “waked as a
man that is wakened out of his sleep.” At this awaking, he is as Adam was
before he fell; because, having been pardoned, or justified from all sin by an
obedient faith, perfect In kind and degree, in his former lifetime; and after
that, “walked worthy of God” to the end thereof; in the resurrection he is
awakened as a man without sin. Being thus renewed, he is still in the image of
the earthy Adam, but before he fell. But he is not always to continue in this
image; for Paul says, “As we bear (ephoresamen, 1 aor.) the image of the
earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” A change must,
therefore take place; as a change must have been operated upon the first Adam
in order to transform him from “a living soul” or animal, into an incorruptible
and deathless creature, or SPIRIT. In his case, this would have resulted from
eating of the Tree of the Lives in Paradise, if he had been permitted. Through
that appointed medium, the Eternal Spirit, self-named Jehovah, would have
changed the body of his lower estate, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye,” into a like form with that which Jesus now possesses, and the Saints are
hereafter to possess. But transgression prevented this, and postponed the
spiritualization of the Adamic Nature until the resurrection era, in which,
instead of two persons only becoming spirits, a multitude of their descendants,
numerous as the stars of heaven, will bear the image of the heavenly, who is
“the Lord the Spirit.”
The
dead saints being awakened to renewed bodily existence, they are prepared for
bodily change. “This corruptible must put on incorruptibility; and this mortal,
immortality;” but at what precise moment, or point of time, after being brought
up out of their graves the saints shall be immortalized, does not appear to be
explicitly revealed. This is certain,--those who are among the dead will be
awakened first; and afterwards the saints among the living will be, “together
with them.” exalted to the Aerial, where the Ruler will have appeared. This
“together with them” indicates to my mind, that the saints from among the dead
and the living will be simultaneously exalted to dominion. and therefore
immortalized in the same epoch; the saints among the living must wait for their
glorification, till the saints are awaked from among the dead; but how long it
will be from the awakening to the immortalization of the whole body, does not
distinctly appear. I say, exaltation to dominion, and therefore immortalization,
because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Now, the “meeting
the Lord in the· Air,” as Paul expresses it, is in the style of Daniel, “the
Saints possessing the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
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kingdom
under the whole heaven; which they cannot do until immortalized, or flesh and
blood be changed into spirit. Neither will this dominion be possessed till it
is conquered; for, it is a great mountain that has to be reduced in the
presence of Zerubbabd to a plain. This reduction, I apprehend, occurs before
the saints are glorified, and after their resurrection; so that several years
may intervene after the awaking from death to the shining as the sun in the
kingdom.
This
seems to be indicated in Zech. 14: 5 ; there he says, “Jehovah my Elohim, all
the saints shall come with thee. And it shall be in that day there shall not be
brightness, the splendid ones drawing in. And it shall be one day that shall be
made known by Jehovah, neither a day nor a night; but it shall be at the time
of evening, there shall be brightness.” From this we learn that the Eternal
Spirit, or Jehovah and the saints will be in the midst of mankind in a period
called “the time of evening,” or Daniel’s “time of the end;” but that when here
they will not therefore be in their brightness, after the example of Moses
face, and that of Jesus when transfigured. To shine out thus, would be
incompatible with the work to be performed upon the nations, and upon Israel;
which is to be conducted on the principle of faith and judgment. This will
require that mankind at large should have to deal with the saints as if they
were contending against ordinary men. They must “walk by faith and not by
sight;” and they must come to know the power of the saints, be feeling the
sharpness of the two-edged sword to be placed in their hands for judicial
purposes. When the Saints shall have “executed the judgment written,” the
“moment” of the Evening Time will have arrived for them to draw themselves in
no longer, and “brightness” will be displayed; and thenceforth they will be
resplendent in glory as well as immortal.
“In
a moment we shall be all changed,” says Paul. The judgments of the last trumpet
being exhausted, Jehovah’s changed ones enter into their glory. But the judgments
must first be finished; and while these are smoking from the glory of the
Eternal Spirit, and from his power, “no man can enter into the temple, till the
seven plagues of the Seven Angels be finished” Apoc. 15 8. To enter into that
temple is to rest from labor in glory. The epoch comes then. at the end of the
Seventh Seal; at the end of judgment; and consequently not at the instant of
awakening from death.
To
be in glory is to have eaten of “the Wood of Life,” when quickened, and to
enter into the peaceful and glorious rest of the Millennium. This is the
consummation. As the leaves and branches feed upon the sap that circulates
through the vessels of the tree; so do the saints, as the Leaves of the Wood,
feed upon the Spirit, which will circulate
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65
t
hrough
the Two Branches of the Two Olive-Trees; through the leaves of which branches
the spirit will breathe its healing influences upon the nations.
The
Lamp and Olive-Trees, then, are an organization of spirit manifested in the
Saints and nations of the earth blessed in Abraham and his seed, after the
resurrection—the Spirit in full evening tide manifestation. The symbol does not
exhibit the details of spiritualization spoken of above, and occurrent between
the waking up of the saints, and the establishment of blessedness in all
nations consequent upon their enlightenment. The Eternal Spirit, or Jehovah, is
to do everything;-but through what organization? By his spirit through the Two
Olive Branches, or Jesus and His Brethren, as represented in the visions of the
Apocalypse. If this be understood, the connection between the question and
answer in Zech. 4 : 5, 6, will be
readily perceived. The angel asked the prophet, if he knew what the Lamp and
Olive-Trees signified? He replied, “No, my Lord.” The angel said no more about
them at that time; but proceeded to remark saying, “This is the Lord of Jehovah
unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by power, nor by strength, but By My SPIRIT, saith
Jehovah of armies. That is, as indicated in the seventh verse, there will exist
contemporary with the resurrection, when Zerubbabel shall stand up again, “a
great mountain” in the political world, which is to be reduced to “a plain. “
But that this will not result by the power and strength of Israel under any
organization they might constitute; for at that crisis their power and strength
will have been utterly scattered; but it shall be accomplished by Jehovah’s
Spirit, which will raise Zerubbabel and his companions from among the dead, to
be the captains of Israel together with the living believers; and will be the
strength and power energizing them all to the complete reduction of the Great
Political Mountain of the Gentiles to the level of a summer threshing-floor:
even to cause to go forth the Head, or Chief Stone, with shoutings of “Grace,
grace unto him!”
In
the vision we have been considering, the prophet contemplated a great crisis,
which may be termed, the fall of GENTILE DOMINION, and the full establishment of’
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Such is the future catastrophe of the vision of the Great
Mountain, and the Lamp and O1ive-Trees. But the vision had not revealed to him
any particulars concerning the mountain. Contemporary with his own times, the
great Gentile dominion that dominated Jerusalem and Judah, and all the rest of
“the Earth” from India to Ethiopia, being one hundred and twenty-
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66
seven
provinces, under the three presidencies, or “ribs in the mouth, and between the
teeth of it” (Dan. 7 : 5), was that of THE BEAR Under the dynasty of Darius the
Persian. Zechariah knew from Daniel that this was not the “Great Mountain” to
be destroyed before Zerubbabel; but by the Leopard-power that would succeed it.
He also knew from Jeremiah, and the history of his own times, that the Lion,
standing upon its feet, with a man’s heart, was not the constitution of the
Mountain Power under which it is to “become a plain before Zerubbabel.” This
Lion-manifestation of the great mountain had passed away before Zerubbabel had
become Governor of Jerusalem. Jehovah had said concerning the Chaldean Babylon
that had done evil to Zion in the days of Jeremiah, “Behold, 1 am against thee,
0 destroying mountain, saith Jehovah, which destroyest all the earth; and I
will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and
will make thee a Burnt Mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a
corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolations of an Olahm,
saith Jehovah”-Jer. 51 : 25, 26. In this decree was the sentence, which has,
been practically illustrated for the past 2400 years. From the capture of
Babylon by Cyrus, the Chaldeans and their city began to decline, until the two
have ceased to have any more existence racially, politically, or architecturally,
than if they had never been. The site of the old city of Nimrod on the
Euphrates is literally “a burnt mountain mound of ruins made by fire; and a
type of the dominion peculiar to the Chaldee race and dynasty, in all the
countries where they formerly ruled in power and great glory. Architecturally,
a stone of the ruins has not been taken for the corner and foundations of any
new edifices; nor has a Chaldean, by his own prowess, nor by the voice of a
people, been made the corner, or foundation stone of a new political
institution. This is what has not been for 2400 years; and the prophecy decrees
the continuance of the same condition without limit, in saying to the Burnt
Mountain, “desolations of an Olahm shalt thou be, saith Jehovah”-an Olahm,
which began with the building of Babel, and ended with the fall of Belshazzar,
Lucifer Son of the Dawn, who was hurled from the heavens by Jehovah’s
“sanctified ones,” the Medes and Persians, under Cyrus his Anointed Shepherd.
Isai. 13 ; 14 ;44 : 28 ;45 : 14.
Many
of Zechariah and Haggai’s countrymen, who had witnessed the destruction of
Jerusalem and the temple of Solomon by the Chaldeans, had lived to see the fall
of Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty, and the completion of the new temple, which was
finished shortly after Zechariah had the vision of the Lamp and Olive-Trees
Hag. 2 : 3. They knew that the Burnt Mountain was among the things of the past;
and that Zerubbabel had had nothing to do with its burning, and its downfall
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from
the rocks: what, then, could the eternal spirit mean by the “Great Mountain” he
apostrophired, as destined to become a plain before Zerubbabel after his
resurrection from among the dead? It was not the Chaldean nor the Bear, nor the
Leopard; for they saw by Daniel that all these were removed by conquest in the
ordinary way. What else could it be then, but that fourth Beast dominion which
is to be destroyed by the Saints? To this, then, Zechariah’s attention was
turned. The dominion was “diverse” from all that preceded it. “it spoke great
words against the Most High, and wore out the Saints of the Most High Ones, and
thought to change times and laws.” This was a very peculiar dominion; and it
was judged proper to give the prophet and his readers some idea of its origin;
of the original of its peculiarity. Hence, the prophecy of the “FLYING ROLL~~
and “THE EPHAH.”
The Harlot of the
Ephah.
In
Zech. 5 1; the prophet tells us that he “turned.” In doing this, he occupied an
altered position, which caused him to face new objects.
The
Lamp and Trees were behind him; and on lifting up his eyes, and looking he
beheld “a roll twenty cubits long. and ten cubits broad.
On this roll a curse
was inscribed; it is, therefore, styled “the curse. The
flying
of the roll indicated its progress, which became coextensive with the whole
earth. The angel’s words express this. In telling the prophet what it
signified, he said, “This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of all
the earth:” not of all the globe; but of “all
the earth” in the sense of the phrase as it is used in Dan. 2 : 39 ;4 :
22. In these places, the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar is said to extend ·’to the
end of the earth;” and the brazen kingdom of the Greeks to “hear rule over all
the earth:” the extent, however, of these two dominions was unequal; and
neither of them included the countries now known as China, Burmah, Central
India, Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, the British Isles, and
other countries. We need not, therefore. look: for something coextensive with the
globe as the significancy of the symbol: but coextensive with that section of
it over which the subject of the symbol prevails. This is “all the earth” in
relation to it though of very limited extent in regard to the globe at large.
The
roll contained cursing on both sides upon certain criminals desig-
nated
as thieves and perjurers. These were not common criminals; but “the prophets
that steal ,My Words. saith Jehovah every: one from his neighbor and use their
tongues, and say “He .Saith” Jer. 23 30. These prophets were not only thieves,
but also swearers they invoked the name of the Lord falsely. “Both the prophet
and the priest were
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profane;
yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah.” This was the
moral condition of the leaders of the Jews who caused them to err, and brought
the Chaldean desolation upon them, from which a remnant had just been saved.
The roll, therefore, which Zechariah saw, related not to the past, but to the
future; when the prophets and priests in Jehovah’s house should become thieves
and swearers falsely by his name. In due time the curses of the roll would be
brought forth upon them to their utter destruction-“they shall be consumed,
together with the timber and stones of their house” ~ Zech. 5 : 4.
The
resemblance of these ecclesiastical thieves and false invokers of Jehovah’s
name is an “Ephah going forth. “ It is the measure of their wickedness, which,
when filled up, would cause them to be brought forth from their land, as their
fathers were. “This ephah is their resemblance over all the earth.” But their
wickedness which filled the measure is personified by a Woman, who is confined
within the measure by a leaden weight, indicative of their being destined for
the furnace of Jehovah’s anger, which should blow upon them like fire, and melt
them as lead Ezek. 22:18-22. A measure of wickedness subjected to the melting
fury of Jehovah inscribed upon the sides of the roll is the signification of
the Talent of Lead, the Woman, the Ephah, and the Roll. But, in order to show
whose wickedness is contained within the ephah, Ezekiel’s Two Women are
attached by the Spirit to the ephah. They were seen by Zechariah “lifting up
the ephah, between the earth and the heavens;” that is, exalting wickedness to
high places. These women are Aholah, or Samaria, and Aholibah, or
Jerusalem-Ezek. 23 : 4, 5 ; the two capitals put representatively for the
nation. At a future period of their history, Zechariah saw them in vision
“going forth, “ and “carrying the ephah,” or measure of their wickedness, with
them into the land of the enemy, that rends them with its “great iron teeth” ~
the land of their captivity, where they build for their wickedness “a house
which should be established upon its own foundation;” ~a house destined, with
its occupants, to be consumed “to the timber and stones thereof.”
The
two women are represented with wings, like the wings of a stork. Moses classed
the stork with unclean birds; so that for them to have such wings, shows that
they were lewd, or unclean, women or communities. The stork is also a bird of
passage, migrating from one country to another, at an appointed time; hence the
women-bearers of the ephah being storklike in their means of flight, were to
migrate at an appointed time from the land of their uncleanness. The last
feature of the symbol to be named is that “the wind was in their wings.” Wind
is air in motion. When birds fly the air fills their wings, and eddies
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69
into
them, so as to waft them onwards in the course of flight. The wings of the two
women
indicate that they were fugitive; and being stork-like, as we have said, that
they were unclean and migratory. But
wings are of no use without air to fill them; and no bird can pass through the
air without setting it in motion, or producing wind. A bird could not fly in
vacuum. Hence these unclean, and fugitively migratory communities must be
propelled by wind. What is “wind” in relation to such? “Terrors,” says Job,
“pursue my soul as the wind”-30 : 15. In Jer. 4:11-13, the coming in of an army
swiftly and fiercely, destroying all before them, is expressed by a dry wind,
and a full wind. Thus, “It shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry
wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not
to fan, nor to cleanse: even ~ a full wind from those places shall come unto
me. Now also will I give sentence
against them. Behold, he (the Destroyer
of the Gentiles) shall come up as clouds, and his chariots as a whirlwind: his
horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.” This was the
kind of wind that was in the storklike wings of the two ephah-bearing women.
They were borne on the wings of the wind, into the land of the spoiler.
Here,
then, in the vision of the Roll Flying, and the Ephah, was a symbolical
representation to Zechariah of a captivity of Jerusalem and Samaria, in a
period of judgment subsequently to his time. Hence, in searching out the
meaning of the vision, we have to consult the history of the Jews posterior to
the times of the prophet, and to ask of it this question What going forth” or
captivity, on account of wickedness, has happened to Judah, since her return
from the seventy years in Babylon? The only answer that history gives, and
therefore the only answer that can be given, is, the going forth, “compelled by
that dry and full-destroying wind which swept over the land as a whirlwind when
the legions of the LITTLE HORN OF THE GOAT came from the eastern frontiers of
the empire; and planted their Eagles before the walls of Jerusalem, under
VESPASIAN and TITUS.* It was the
prophecy of Daniel in ch. 8:9-12, 23-25 ; 9 : 26, 27, symbolically reproduced
before the mind of Zechariah; and embodied by the Lord Jesus in his
denunciations of the ecclesiastical thieves and perjurers, who “filled up the
measure” or EPHAH “of their fathers” in crucifying him, in rejecting and
perverting the glad tidings of Jehovah’s Kingdom and Name; and in imprisoning,
banishing, and killing the apostles whom he sent to them: so that upon
Jerusalem and Samaria, with all that adhered to their wickedness, per-
~Titus
was Adored by the EASfERN LEGIONS, which under his command had recently
achieved the conquest of Judea.
“Gibbon”, vol. I p. 37.
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sonified in the Apocalypse as “that woman. Jezebel. who styles herself a prophetess, teaching and seducing the Lord’s servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols”- ch. 2 20 upon her came all the righteous blood shed upon the land. from the blood of righteous Abel even to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachus whom they slew in the siege between the temple and the altar all came upon this generation ~ Matt. 23 : 32-36.
But
the wind in their wings was not to fan nor to cleanse but to spoil, and send
the women and their wickedness of the ephah forth from the land they had
defiled. That “wicked generation” was as a man exorcised of an unclean spirit:
but afterwards repossessed of one seven times more wicked. John the Baptist had
ministered to all Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about
Jerusalem.” the immersion of repentance, on the confession of their sins. and
many of the Pharisees and Sadducees even came to be baptized Matt. 3
5-7. This was a great national
repentance: a casting out of the unclean spirit an emptying, sweeping. and
garnishing of the house of .Judah. which now waited for the manifestation of
the King of Israel whom John proclaimed to be in their midst though unknown to
him and them. But when their attention was directed to Jesus of Nazareth. the
Son of Mary, ~ -who was claimed by a voice from heaven and designated by the
descending Spirit in dovelike form. as Son of God they “saw no form nor comeliness: no beauty
in him that they should desire him” This national feeling of disappointment was
aggravated by the rulers whose hypocrisy he unveiled and denounced the old
spirit of evil sevenfold increased, effected its entrance into the house of.
Judah and dwelt there. Under its inspiration, Jesus was despised and rejected:
they hid their faces from him, and esteemed him not. They oppressed and
alfl1icted him: and though he had borne their griefs. and carried their
sorrows, healing their diseases; yet they scourged, imprisoned, and
ignominiously crucified him between thieves-Isai. 53. Thus Jerusalem, that
killed the prophets, and stoned those that were sent unto her when she had
added to her crimes the death of Jesus, and the iniquity of the subsequent
forty years, had attained to the consummation of transgression: and nothing
remained but for “her house to be left to her desolate.” So that, though the
first of that generation was bad enough, its last condition was worse. In the green tree they had crucified the Holy
and the Just One: in the dry, there was no abomination they eschewed. the ephah
was filled, and the lead for the furnace rested upon it. to be melted when the
fire should be kindled in Zion. But before the fire was kindled, Jerusalem and
Samaria had received the word of the lord
Acts X : 14 : 5 2X : 6 : 7 they
did not how-
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71
ever,
long continue faithful; but began to steal the words, and to swear falsely by
the name of the Lord. They began to teach contrary to the wholesome words of
the Lord Jesus; and to assume authority in rivalry of the apostles themselves.
They were opposed to the glad tidings of the kingdom being preached to any but
Jews; but not being able to prevent it, they contended that all Gentiles ought
to be circumcised, and to keep the law of Moses, as well as to believe the
gospel and be baptized, or they could not be saved-I Thess. 2 : 16 ; Acts 15 :
1-5.
These
Judaizers were particularly troublesome to the apostles. They commended
themselves and gloried after the flesh, saying that they were Hebrews, and
Israelites, and the seed of Abraham, and apostles, and ministers of Christ-2
Cor. 10 :12 ; 11:13, 18, 22. But Paul says that they were false apostles,
deceitful workers, and ministers of Satan, who perverted the truth, and
preached another Jesus, another Spirit, and another Gospel; and that therefore
they were accursed-Gal. 1 : 6-9 2 : 4 ; 4 : 17 ; 6 : 42. These accursed
Judaizers were indefatigable in exalting themselves to the exclusion of Paul
and the other apostles. Peter, James, John, and Jude are very hot against them
in their epistles; and in the letters to the seven ecclesias, they are
denounced as pretended apostles, Nikolaitans, the Synagogue of Satan, holders
of the doctrine of Balaam, Jezebel the pseudo-prophetess, Satan, liars, and so
forth. They were evil men and seducers, deceiving and being deceived; having
forsaken the right way; and therefore “cursed children.” These were the “false
prophets” that Jesus predicted would arise, and deceive many. The effect of
their teaching was to cause the spread of iniquity in all the cities of the
land; and because of this the love of the many became cold; and the
congregations in Judea became as apostate as the faithless generation whose
carcasses fell in the wilderness. Jerusalem and Samaria had again earned for
themselves the character of Ezekiel’s Aholah and Aholibah, two women of lewd
and treacherous demeanor. The Judaizers had corrupted them, and nothing
remained but for them to be brought forth from the land with judgment,
according “to the curse,” or Roll in flight.
When
the Apostasy in Judea was fully matured, the Ephah contained the Woman under
the Talent of Lead; and when the Mosaic Law and institutions had vanished away
as the result of the desolation of the Temple, all that were not slain or
imprisoned, became sojourners in the lands of the Little Horn of the Goat. This
national dispersion of the Jews was the flight of the two women into the
countries of the Fourth Beast dominion, then pagan. In their flight, the Judaic
Apostasy from the Christian Faith was not left in Judea. to grow up into a
papacy there. But having been formed and
organized in that country. and
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72
propagated
from that centre, it was expelled from thence, and driven by the national
calamity, the wind in the storklike wings of the two women, out of Canaan, that
“they might build for her a house in the land of Shinar.”
This
saying connects the Judaic Apostasy with the Babylon of the Apocalypse-that
“they,” the Harlot-Judaizers of Judea and Samaria, “might build for her,” the
Wickedness, or Falsehood, ~ rishah, systematized by them, and symbolized by the
Ephah, Woman, and Lead, they bore with them in their flight, “a house,” or
kingdom, “in the land of Shinar,” into which they were expelled. The house of
Judah, in which Christianity was born and nourished, and transformed by “false
brethren” into a system of falsehood, had been demolished. If this had not come
to pass, they would, doubtless, in process of time, have got the upper hand in
the Jewish State; and have built for their Harlot of the Ephah a kingdom in the
native land of Christianity. But the demolition of Judah’s Commonwealth, and
the dispersion of all Jewish communities from Judea and Samaria, compelled the
adherents of the Harlot of the Ephah, or Jezebel the Prophetess, to build for
her a house in some other region than the Holy Land. This other region is
styled in Zech. 5:11,~ eretz Shinar.
This phrase is as symbolical, or representative, as the ephah, the woman, the
lead, and so forth; and consequently is no more to be interpreted of the Shinar
where Nimrod flourished, and his contemporaries built the Tower of Babel, than
that “Ephah” is to be interpreted of three pecks and three pints; or the woman
therein, of a literal woman shut up in a three-peck measure under a cover of
lead. The literal and typical land of Shinar was that country into which Aholah
and Aholibah had gone forth, because of profanity and falsehood against the
Mosaic Law; and from which they had returned before Zechariah saw the vision of
the Harlot of the Ephah. That was the Shinar of the past the Shinar of the Chaldeo-Babylonian
Olahm, beginning with Nimrod and ending with Belshazzar. The Chaldeans, the rod
of chastisement in Jehovah’s hand, had blindly punished Judah and her
companions for their apostasy from Moses; and had afterwards been punished in
turn for their own crimes by the Medes and Persians. Thus, the Chaldeans being
set aside, Judah and the nations entered upon a new cycle. The judgment on
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the judgment on Babylon by Cyrus, had avenged
the past. A new era was now commenced, as indicated in Jehovah’s words by
Haggai, saying, “Consider, now, from this day and forward; from the four and
twentieth of the ninth month from the day that the foundation of Jehovah’s temple was laid, consider. Is the
seed yet in the barn? As yet the vine, and the fig-tree, and the pomegranate,
and the olive-tree have
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73
not
brought forth: from this day will I bless”-ch. 2 :19. Judah was thus invited to
faithfulness, and consequent blessedness. Nevertheless, Jehovah, foreseeing
that, when Messiah should appear among them, and cause that system of truth to
be proclaimed, which was the great burden of the Law and the Prophets, they
would become more wickedly apostate even by sevenfold than when carried off the
land to Babylon,-revealed it to Zechariah in the vision of the Harlot of the
Ephah, who should dwell in a future Shinar, antitypical in its relations to
Judah and her Apostasy from Jehovah to the Shinar of the past.
The
word Shinar is derived from the nouns sham, a tooth, and ar, an enemy; it
means, therefore, Enemy’s Tooth; as Shinab signifies Father’s Tooth. Hence the
phrase eret: Shinar, means “the Land of the Enemys’ Tooth.” This was a very appropriate
appellation for the region into which the Harlot of the Ephah was to be
transplanted; and to acquire a house set up upon the foundation of her own
wickedness. The Fourth Beast of Daniel’s vision. the beast of the “GREAT IRON
TEETH,” had been a wind in the storklike wings of the two women by whom the
Harlot of the Ephah was carried forth; and the testimony of the Apocalypse. as
we have already seen, reveals her subsequent existence with all the impudence
of a harlot and pretended prophetess, in the midst of the Seven Ecclesias of
Asia Minor. This was a province of the dominion of the Great Iron Teeth; the
enemy of Jews by nature, and of Jews by grace; in other words. the land of the
enemy’s tooth, or Shinar’s land, where “Babylon the Great” was to be built up
for Jezebel, the Harlot of the Ephah. by those “who say they are Jews, and are
not, but do lie, and are of the Synagogue of Satan”-Apoc. 2 : 9 ; 3 : 9-the two
women that carry the Ephah.
When
John was in Patmos, the Judaic Apostasy as leaven was leavening the. whole
lump. It was on this account that the
seven letters were written to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis,
Philadelphia, and Laodicea. It was an
era of contending elements, from which a new civil and ecclesiastical order of
things was to “be established, and set upon her own foundation in the land of
the Great Iron Teeth.” At the epoch of the Apocalypse, the Iron Teeth were a
pagan power; and ready to rend all that were not pagans. The Jews were divided
between the Synagogue and the Church; and though the former boasted in Moses
and the latter in Jesus the Iron Teeth regarded them all as Jews and was the
enemy of both. But in John’s day, the Jews of the Church were divisible into
two classes; first those who were Jews inwardly without regard to flesh: and
secondly those who said they were Jews but were liars. The first class were in
scriptural fellowship with the apostle but rapidly falling into the minority:
so
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74
that
in Sardis, for example, only “a few names” remained undefiled. It was the
second class of Jews that constituted the great majority of those who passed current
by the name of Christian. It was these who labored indefatigably in building a
house for the Harlot of the Ephah. They became a powerful political faction in
the land of the enemy; and having found a warrior to their mind in Constantine,
they placed themselves under his leadership; and in A.D.324, became the sole
ruling power “in the land of Shinar” as defined.
The
twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse opens with the exhibition of Jezebel the
Prophetess, tricked out with the paraphernalia of royalty---not the royalty of
the Kingdom of God, but the royalty of “the Twelve Caesars.” In this chapter,
the two classes of Jews are necessarily comprehended in the same symbol until
the birth of the Man-Child, after which a separation ensues; or rather, is
symbolically manifested. Those who are Jews inwardly are represented by the
fugitive woman, a persecuted community, defended by “the earth,” and nourished
in the wilderness for 1260 years. But the Jezebel faction, commonly styled
“Catholic,” and “Holy Catholic Church,” had become the Harlot of the State. Her
palace was built in the land of the enemy’s tooth; for the Fourth Beast
dominion had become her habitation to dwell in.
But
she was not content to be subject to the civil power. She aimed to be THE
STATE; and the State she at length became.
Her growth was rapid, and her power became supreme over the Kings of the
earth. She is brought out in this relation in Apoc. 17 and 18. There she is
seen in her house or kingdom, as the Great Harlot, ruling over many peoples,
multitudes, nations, and their Kings; drunk with the blood of the saints, and
with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; and saying, “I sit queen, and am not
bereft, and sorrow can not at all behold.” Such is the Harlot of the Ephah in
the apocalyptic manifestation of Zechariah’s vision. She is a ruling element in
that “Great Mountain” which is to become a plain before Zerubbabel, according
to the vision of the Lamp and Olive Branches ~ the Anointed Ones that stand
before the Ruler of all the earth.
The Four Spirits of
the Heavens
Having
beheld the Harlot of the Ephah keeping house in the land of Shinar, the prophet
again informs us, in chap. 6: 1, that he “turned” “I turned,” says he, “and
lifted up mine eyes, and looked.” This indicates that his attention was
directed to new objects, which he describes in the following words:” I looked,
and behold Four Chariots going forth from between two of the mountains; and the
mountains were mountains of brass. In the first
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chariot
red horses, and in the second chariot black horses; and in the third chariot
white horses; and in the fourth chariot spotted horses, and fleet. Then I
responded and said to the angel speaking with me, What are these, my lord? And
the angel replied and said to me, These are the Four Spirits of the Heavens
going forth from standing by the Ruler of all the earth. The black horses which
are in that are going forth to the land of the north, and the white went forth
to follow them; and the spotted went forth to the land of the south. And the
fleet ones went forth; and they asked to go for to run to and fro through the
earth: and he said. Go, run to and fro through the earth! So they ran to and
fro in the earth.
“Then
he proclaimed to me, and spake unto me saying, Behold, those going forth to the
land of the north have caused my Spirit to rest in the land of the north.”
Here
is an amplification of the vision of the Two Olive Branches, or Anointed Ones,
that stand by the Ruler of all the earth. The reader will perceive that the Two
Branches and the Four Chariots and their Horses all relate to the same agents,
by comparing Zech. 4 : 14 with ch. 6 : 5. In these places they are all said to
“stand by the Ruler of all the earth.” In both these chapters they are
represented as symbols of Jehovah’s Spirit-“These,” the chariots and horses,
said the angel, “are the Four Spirits of the Heavens going forth from standing
by the Ruler of all the earth.” In the first passage they are in the standing
position; in the last, they are in motion from thence, on their appointed
mission.
These
four chariots are the cherubim of glory, which constitute the Chariot of
Jehovah. In speaking of the four-faced figures with wings outstretched over the
Mercy Seat of the Ark in the Most Holy Place, David styles them in 1 Chron. 28
: 18, “the Chariot of the Cherubim.” The Spirit of Jehovah rested in the form
of a cloud between and upon their wings, from the dedication of Solomon’s
temple until the Glory took its departure in the days of Ezekiel, and shortly
before its destruction by the Chaldeans. Alluding to this cherubic incumbency
of the Spirit, David says in Psal. 80 :1, “0 Shepherd of Israel inhabiting the
Cherubim, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh arouse thy
might, and come for salvation to us. 0 Mighty Ones (Elohim), turn us, and cause
to shine thy Faces, and we shall be saved.” The Cherubim were the typical
throne of Jehovah in Jerusalem, before which the High Priest presented himself
on the occasion of the annual covering of the sins of the nation.
In the first and tenth chapters of his prophecy, Ezekiel
shows what they typify or represent. Let the reader peruse these chapters in
connection with Apoc. 4 and 5 ; and he will find that the cherubim are
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representative
of the Spirit corporealized and manifested in the Saints, the Elohim of Israel
~ the One Eternal Spirit in multitudinous manifestation. “Whithersoever the
Spirit was to go, they went;” “they ran and returned as a flash of lightning;”
“and the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, as the voice of
Mighty Ones in their going, the voice of speech, as the noise of a camp.”
Zechariah’s
Four Chariots are identical with these. They represent the resurrected saints
in the execution of the judgment written, Ps. 149. There are ‘four” of them,
because there were four faces to the typical golden cherubim of the Ark of the
Covenant in the temple; and “four living creatures” in Ezekiel’s vision; and
“four living creatures” in the Apocalypse; and the reason why there are four, and
not three or five, is because in the military Organization of Israel the twelve
tribes were set off into four camps; the Camp of Judah, the Camp of Reuben, the
Camp of Ephraim, and the Camp of Dan. The standard of Judah’s camp of host, was
a Lion; that of Reuben, a Man; that of Ephraim, an Ox; and that of Dan, an
Eagle; and the faces of these four were united in the Two Cherubim of the Most
Holy Place; and become the Elohim Faces of the Eternal Spirit, self-named
Jehovah, which stood by the Ruler of all the earth, while he dwelt in them
anterior to the Babylonian captivity.
Now,
as the Saints, without regard to the accident of their fleshly descent, are all
Israelites by adoption through Christ, their organization is based on that of
the twelve tribes; so that they come thereby to be represented by the standards
of Israel’s camps. In vision, the four camps of the Saints, constituting,
nevertheless, one encampment, occupy the position of the four camps of Israel
in the wilderness~Judah on the east side; Reuben on the south; Ephraim on the
west; and Dan on the north. For this
reason, Zechariah’s Four Chariots are termed “the Four Winds,” or Spirits, “of
the Heavens;” and in their New Jerusalem symbolization, the Saints’ city is
said to “lie four square.”
The Two Mountains of
Brass.
Zechariah
saw the four cherubic chariots going forth from between Two Mountains of Brass.
This metal connects these mountains, or dominions, with the brazen part of
Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, the Body and Thighs; and with the “Claw’s of Brass”
pertaining to the Fourth Beast; and the “Band of Iron and Brass” around the
Stump of the Babylonian Tree. The two
mountains of brass and the two thighs of brass are identical; and represent the
Greek Element of the “Great Mountain that is to become a Plain before
Zerubbabel, before the two Anointed Ones, before the Four Chariots, and their
horses, before Israel and the Saints
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In
the days of the Maccabees the two mountains were the Greek Kingdom of Egypt,
and the Greek Kingdom of Syria, including Assyria and other adjacent countries;
the former styled in Dan. 11 the King of the South; and the latter, the King of
the North. Now, though these countries
are and will be in other hands than those of people purely and simply Greeks,
they are nevertheless regarded in prophecy as the countries of the Brass
Dominion; and so designated, as in the place before us. At the epoch of the
Four Chariots, that is, just before they are seen going forth, we learn from
Daniel and Ezekiel, that there will be two antagonist dominions, the one
occupying Egypt and the other Syria and the adjacent countries. The latter is
the King of the North, existing on the political map in the Time of the End;
and called Gog by Ezekiel: the other, the Kingdom of Egypt. These two mountains
of brass will be in a state of war before the going forth of the cherubic
chariots; and as Daniel tells us, the Egyptian province of the South Mountain
of Brass will “not escape” subjection to the brass dominion of the north-“the
land of Egypt shall not escape,” 11: 42. This will be the relative position of
the two mountains, with the Holy Land between them, the battle-ground and bone
of contention between the two powers, at the going forth of the chariots. But,
we may remark here, that though the rulers of the two mountains, or the
dominant race, will not be racially Greek, still the North Mountain of Brass
will be Greek in its superstition, or State Ecciesiasticism; and the South
Mountain also Greek, in the possession of the Greek islands of the
Mediterranean and Aegean Seas: being, therefore, Hellenistic, ecclesiastically
or geographically, or both, they are dominions of brass, occupying, in relation
to the Holy Land, the same political status as the two kingdoms of the
Ptolomies and Seleucidae in the days of the Maccabees, or Era of the Asmoneans,
358 years after Zechariah saw the vision of the chariots; and 167 years before
the birth Jesus Christ.
Zechariah
saw the Four Chariots of Cherubim “going forth from between” these two
mountains of political geography. He must, therefore, have seen them going
forth from the Holy Land, which occupies that pos1tion. They first stand by the
Ruler of all the earth as the Two Anointed Ones of the Four Faces. In this
position they are the “Four and Twenty Elders,” and the “Four Living Creatures
full of Eyes before and behind,” filled with the Spirit as a lamp is filled
with oil; and which in them burns before the throne, as “the Seven Spirits of
God;” which, when in motion, “are sent forth into all the earth.” But, before
they leave their standing position “to run to and fro,” they sing to the
Captain of their salvation, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the
Seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,
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78.
out
of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us for our
God Kings and Priests: and we SHALL reign on the earth.” When they sing this
song they are in the land of Judah-~Isai. 26 :1. They are there as “the kings
which are from a Sun’s risings;” to prepare whose “way” the political Euphrates
is “dried up” ~ Apoc. 16:12 ; and the two mountains of brass are found
temporarily occupying the place of its waters.
But
Zechariah saw them “going forth.” The wings of the cherubim are their armies;
and the Horses of the chariots are the same. “When they stand,” says Ezekiel,
“they let down their wings,” which in motion are “as the noise of great
waters,” or a multitude of people. They go forth to conquer for themselves
their dominion; or, as Daniel expresses it, “to take the kingdom;” to “slay the
Fourth Beast, and to destroy his Body;” to “take away his dominion, to consume,
and to destroy unto the end.” They “shall reign upon the earth;” but they must
first conquer the nations; for the nations will not accept them for kings and
priests without compulsion.
The
Saints in their career of conquest are the Stream of Fire flowing and issuing
from before the Ancient of Days;” they are “the angels of Christ’s power in a
fire of flame;” the tormentors of the worshippers of the Beast, and his Image,
and the receivers of the mark of his Name, with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the Lamb; and the 144,000 redeemed from the earth: the First
fruits; who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. They are the chariot wheels
of the Spirit, full of eyes, and a burning fire ~ Dan. 7 : 9, 10 ; Apoc. 14:10,
11,3,4; 2 Thess. 1: 7, 8 ; Ezek. 1:18.
The
Four Chariots in motion are the “called, and faithful, and chosen,” in company
with the King of Kings, in actual conflict with the nations of the earth~Apoc.
17 : 14 ; and are seen in chap. 19 : 14, as “the armies in the heaven following
the Word of God upon white horses, who smites the nations with the sword of his
mouth, and rules them with a rod of iron. They are the war-chariots of the
Spirit in the conflict of “the great day of God the universal Ruler” pantokrator. They invade the north and the
south, and then make their expeditions into all other parts of the earth.
The
horses of the chariots represent the forces commanded by the Saints, and the
colors of the horses, their operations upon their enemies. The chariot horses
are not literal horses; for it is written in Hos. I : 7, “I will have mercy
upon the House of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their Elohim, and will
not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen;”
but “he will make Judah as his goodly horse in the battle” Zech. 10: 3 ; and
“they shall be as mighty
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ones
who tread down in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight,
because Jehovah is with them, and the riders of horses shall be confounded. And
I will strengthen the house of Judah, and will save the house of Joseph, and I
will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them; and they shall
be as though I had not cast them off: for I am Yahweh their Elohim, and will
hear them.”
This
testimony of the Spirit presents us with the grand result accomplished by the
issuing forth of the chariots and their horses; namely, the conquest of the enemies
of Israel, and the reengraftment of Abraham’s descendants into their own
national olive tree. This great result must be kept in view in a scriptural
exposition of the Apocalypse; for it is the consummation of the mission of the
Chariot-Hosts; and the Apocalypse proposes no other development than that so
palpably and luminously predicted in all the prophets.
The
four chariots, then, in motion, are the Four Living Ones of the Apocalypse,
issuing forth at the head of Judah and Joseph against the Gentile dominions of
the north and south, that they may “give up” and “keep” no longer “back.”
Isaiah 43 : 6. The chariot-horses are differently colored; The first are red;
the second, black; the third, white, and the fourth, grizzled and powerful.
They are the same horses that are seen with the ANGEL OF JEHOVAH in Zech. 1 :
8-11. This Angel in the Apocalypse is entitled “King of kings and Lord of
lords,” and is prepared for battle with the Ten Horns, or kings of the earth,
and their armies.-Apoc. 17 : 14 ; 19 : 21. Hence, Zechariah sees him “riding
upon a red horse,” and “followed by red horses, grizzled, and white”
their
colors indicating the sanguinary and tormenting character of their mission,
ultimating in victory and peace.
The
import of these colors is plainly set forth in the symbolograph~ of the first
four Seals. The first of these horses is white, indicating the victorious
career of the power represented; for it is said, “he wend forth conquering, and
to conquer.” This, then, is the signification of white. It symbolizes a
conquering power.
The
horse of the second seal is red. This indicates a state of sanguinary warfare
on the earth contemporary with the operations of the red symbol-power. This is
evident from what is said of the red horse’s rider; as, “it was given to him
that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one
another; and there was given unto him a great sword.” This indicates a period
of much blood shedding, which is fitly represented by red.
The
horse of the third seal is black. This
color is indicative of famine, or the injuring of the wheat and barley to such
an extent as a cause great scarcity, and consequent starvation, with all its
hideous accompaniments.
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80
When
the word of Jehovah spoke to Jeremiah of the grievous famine, he describes the
gates of Judah as “black unto the ground.” It represents destitution of water
in the wells, the absence of rain, and total want of grass.-Jer. 14 : 1-6. The
connection of black with this calamity is also established by the words of
Judah’s lamentation, saying, “We got our bread with the peril of our lives,
because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin was black like an oven,
because of the terrible famine. “-Lam. 5 : 9, 10.
The
horse of the fourth seal is chloros, rendered pale. It answers to Zechariah’s
“grizzled,” the black of which is paled by a mixture of white. The seal~horse was of a corpse-like hue; and
symbolical of destruction by pestilence, famine, and sword combined.
This
being the import of the colors, we may understand that the four chariot-hosts
will conquer the world, and establish the sovereignty of the Saints by the
judgments of the Deity poured out upon the nations in war, famine, pestilence,
and all their terrible concomitants. The grizzled horses are termed also
“powerful.”’ All the chariots are manifestations of power; but the fourth, and
last, is preeminently so, the judgments being intensified, and the catastrophe
complete.
These
things being understood, we are prepared for the answer to Zechariah’s
question, “What are these, my Lord?-What do these four chariots, thus
distinguished by the colors of their horses, represent?” The answer given is
that they are “the Four Spirits of the heavens going forth from standing before
the Lord of all the earth.” That is, the Saints and their forces in their four
encampments, to whom the kingdom under the whole heaven is assigned, in
movement against their enemies. Before
the movement begins, they are standing with the Lord of the whole earth; as
John saw them in Apoc. 14 : I. “I
looked,” saith be, “and, lo! a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him a hundred
and forty and~four thousand, having his Father’s Name written on their
foreheads.” While in the attitude of
standing they are awaiting orders from the throne to march against the enemy.
While standing; the political expanse is like the physical firmament before the
outburst of the earthquake and storm-“still as dry heat impending lightning, as
a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” During this sultriness, unfanned by
breeze or zephyr, the Lord is in his dwelling-place, as an ensign on the
mountains, awaiting the result of his manifesto to the world, according as it
is written in Isaiah 18 : 3
“All
ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the land, when he lifteth up an
ensign on the mountains, tremble; and when he bloweth a trumpet they shall
hear. For thus Jehovah saith unto me, I will be still (yet in my dwelling-place
I will be without fear) as dry heat impending
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lightning,
as a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” While this electrical quiescence is
pervading, the good news of the Millennial Aion is being heralded among the
nations, and announcing that “the Hour of the Judgment,” which Daniel had
predicted was to “sit” upon the four beasts, had come.-Apoc. 14 : 6, 7. The
Four Spirits of the heavens are restrained, that scope may be afforded to the
world to show whether it will “fear the Deity and give glory to him,” in
joyfully receiving the good news; or whether the chariots of Jehovah must be
sent out against the nations; and by the red, black, white, and grizzled
judgments of their mission, compel mankind to lay down the arms of their
rebellion, and to “wait for his law.” But the latter alternative will assuredly
obtain; for “he shall rebuke strong nations afar off” from Jerusalem. He shall
rebuke them with his chariots and horses, the four spirits of the heavens; and
as the result of it, “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”-Mic. 4 : 3.
Zechariah
saw the Saints, as the four spirits of the heavens, “going forth.” John also,
in Apoc. 19 : 14, saw them in their going, as indicated in these words: “and
the hosts in the heaven followed the Word of the Deity, upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” John saw the Faithful and True Word
engaged in war against the nations. He saw him riding “a white horse,” the
emblem of conquest; while he himself was clothed with a blood-red garment (in
Zechariah he sits upon a red horse among the myrtle trees), indicative of his
mission to smite the nations, and to tread them in the winepress of the
fierceness and wrath of the Almighty Deity. This is to be the result of his
going forth with his hosts of the heaven. He is to conquer the Ten Horns, and
utterly to destroy the Beast and False Prophet. Zechariah saw the same
consummation; for he tells us that the horses, on their return from their
expeditions through all the earth, delivered in their report, saying, “Behold,
all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.”-l : 11.
But
it would seem, and doubtless is the case, that there is an established order
after which the conquest of the nations is to be effected. Zechariah seems to
intimate that “the north country” will be first invaded; and then “the south
country”-that is, north and south in relation to Jerusalem. The brass-mountain
of the north is leveled before Zerubbabel by the operations of the black and
white horses-by famine and sword; while the brass-mountain of the south becomes
a plain, by the judgments of sword, pestilence, and famine, symbolized by the
“grizzled.” The north and south being
subdued, the time
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comes
“to fly upon the shoulders of the peoples toward the West, and to spoil the
children of the east together.” Isaiah 11: 14. This is indicated by “the
powerful horses”-the bay’, as they are styled in the C.V.-seeking permission to
march to and fro through the earth. The answer to the request is, “Go, march ye
about in the earth!” “So they marched to and fro through the earth.”
The
work of Jehovah’s hosts being consummated in the north and south countries,
brings out the accomplishment of the prediction in Isaiah 19 : 17 : “In that
day the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt; every one that maketh
mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of Jehovah
of hosts, which he hath determined against it.” The prophet then declares the
result of the execution of this terrible counsel, namely, the subjugation of
Egypt, the establishment of the true religion there, and the deliverance of
that portion of Israel living under the oppression of modern Egypt. Referring
to these, the Spirit says, “They shall cry unto Jehovah because of the
oppressors, and He shall send them a Saviour, even a mighty one, and he shall
deliver them.” And, as the consequence of this operation of the grizzled horns,
“Jehovah shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know Jehovah in that
day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto
Jehovah, and perform it. And Jehovah shall smite Egypt” with the sword that
goes out of the mouth of the Faithful and True One. Apoc. 19 :15 : “He shall
smite and heal it; and they shall return to Jehovah, and he shall be entreated
of them, and shall heal them.”
So
much for the south country. In respect of the north country under the Operation
of the black and white horses, the Spirit saith in Micah 5 : 4, that the
Bethlehem-born Ruler of Israel “shall stand and feed in the strength of
Jehovah, in the Majesty of the Name of Jehovah his Elohim; and they shall
abide: for now shall he be great to the ends of the earth. And this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian
shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we
raise up against him seven shepherds and eight princes of the man. And they
shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the
entrances thereof; thus shall he deliver from the Assyrian when he cometh into
our land, and when he treadeth in our borders.”
Thus
are beaten in pieces the north and the south by the daughter of Zion, whose
horn hath become iron, and her hoofs brass. Her four chariots and horses have
finally overthrown her enemies, and “consecrated their commerce to Jehovah, and
their wealth to the Ruler of all the earth.”
Thus Jehovah’s spirit is quieted, and they are at rest
.Page 83
Assyria,
Egypt, and Israel will no more vex and annoy one another. No longer under the dominion
of ambitious rivals, seeking to increase the glory of their dynasties by
international wars and spoliations, their populations will live in peace and
good will; and will circulate freely and safely from land to land.
Mohammedanism will have been abandoned, and its former devotees will be blessed
in Abraham and his seed, the Elohim of Israel. The prophecy of Isaiah will then
be complete; for “in that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria,
and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the
Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third
with Egypt and Assyria- a blessing in the midst of the land; whom Jehovah of
hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of
my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.”-Isaiah 19 : 23-25.
The
Four Carpenters, the Four Chariots, the Four Spirits of the heavens, the Four
Cherubim of Ezekiel, and the Four Living Ones of the Apocalypse, are all
symbolical of the same class of agents-the Eternal Spirit post-
resurrectionally corporealized in Jesus and his Brethren, and constituting in
the aggregate ~ YAHWEH ELOHIM, “the
glorious and fearful name” of Deity.-Deut. 28 : 58. The manifestation of Deity in the chariots
and horses is the last of the symbolical visions granted to Zechariah
illustrative of “the time of the end.” They leave him in contemplation of “the
man whose name is the Branch,” sitting and ruling upon his throne as a priest,
and bearing the glory; in other words, he sees the kingdom of David in glorious
manifestation, with his descendant occupying the throne; and constituting what
the Apocalypse styles “the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Anointed.” This kingdom is the point of convergence
whether we take up our ‘position with Zechariah in Jerusalem or with John in
Patmos. The latter does, indeed, tell us a few particulars of what shall
transpire at “the end, when the son shall deliver up the kingdom to the
Father,” but with these excepted, the grand development of the Apocalypse, in
common with all the prophets, is the kingdom of God.
The Apocalypse in
Malachi.
The
Apocalypse is contained in Malachi as well as in all the rest of the prophets;
that is, the same development of the divine purpose is exhibited in Malachi’s
predictions as in the Patmian revelation. Malachi informs us that “from the
rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same Jehovah’s name shall be
great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered to his
name, and a pure offering: for his name shall be great among the nations, saith
Jehovah of hosts.”
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John
testifies the same thing in saying, “every creature which is in the heaven, and
on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are
in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for the Aions of the
Aions.”-Apoc. 5 :13. This is a universal ascription, which ascends from every
place as incense and a pure offering to his name, which is “dreadful among the
nations” at that time.
This
name is not dreadful now, but a by-word in the lips of the profane. This,
however, will not always be. Malachi directs our attention to “the day of the
coming of the Messenger of the Covenant” as to a day that few will be able to
abide. “Who,” saith he, “may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he
is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap.” In this day men will be
taught to venerate this name, and not to take it lightly into their lips. The
Apocalypse treats of this same great and terrible day of the Lord’s coming, and
of its effect upon the wicked: “Behold he comes with clouds; and every eye
shall see him, and they who pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall
wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”Apoc. 1 : 7. And, “behold I come as a
thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk
naked, and they see his shame.” ch. 16 : 15.
And again, “Behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give
every man according as his work shall be. ~ch. 22 : 12. And when this coming is manifested, “the Ark
of God’s Testament” is seen; and there are “lightnings, and voices, and
thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”-Apoc. 11:19. These judgments
make the day a dreadful one; and, as Malachi testifies, a day burning as an
oven, in which the proud and wicked doers of the epoch shall be destroyed as
stubble, and neither root nor branch of them be left behind. This total and
utter extirpation of the world-rulers is attributed to the saints both by
Malachi and John in their postresurrectional operations. Malachi predicts their
resurrection in these words, saying, “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun
of Righteousness arise with healing in his beams; and ye shall go forth, and
grow up as calves of the stall.” Being thus raised, the work they have to do is
expressed in the words, “and ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be
ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do, saith Jehovah of
hosts.” The Apocalypse teaches the same doctrine. It sets forth the preregnial
resurrection of the saints, and their postresurrectional judgment of the
world-rulers and their hosts. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the
first resurrection* * they shall be priests of the Deity and of the Anointed; and
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shall
reign with him a thousand years.” Having part in the first resurrection, “they
sit upon thrones, and judgment is given to them.” The execution of the judgment
appointed puts them in possession of the thrones; and in executing the judgment
written, they bind the Dragon, cast the Beast and the False Prophet into a lake
of fire, overthrow Babylon, and torment with famine, pestilence, and sword, the
worshippers of the beast and his image, and the receivers of his mark in their
forehead, or in their hand. Thus apocalyptically “they tread the wicked as
ashes under the soles of their feet,” as foretold by Malachi; and by conquest
establish their right to rule all nations as kings of God, seeing that they
will have subdued them by his spirit energizing them with the might of
omnipotence.
Thus,
then, from this summary of the prophets, it must be evident to the reader, I
think, that the doctrine of Messiah’s reign on earth for a long season did not
originate with the Apocalypse; but is a doctrine of far greater antiquity,
being the teaching of the Spirit from the beginning, and consequently, the
faith of God’s elect in all ages of the world. When the spirit in the prophets
revealed the contents of their writings, he signified in what he inspired them
to write, more, or deeper things, than they were able to fathom. They did not
see into all that was testified about the sufferings of the Christ, and the
glory that should follow those sufferings; nor did they comprehend “what manner
of time” it was they noted down in the periods they recorded concerning them.
This was unquestionably the truth of the matter from what Peter says in 1 Ep. 1
: 8, and Paul in Rom. 16 : 25. These deep things of the Spirit, though written
in the prophetic Scriptures, constituted “the wisdom of the Deity in a mystery
hidden” from the prophets, and the angels likewise. This mystery pertaining to
the sufferings of the Christ, and the glory that should follow, was unfolded by
the Spirit in the preaching and writings of the apostles; and constitutes, in
its exposition, “the Revelation of the Mystery.” But while the apostles had
full comprehension of this mystery, they did not understand “what manner of
time” was to divide “the sufferings of Christ” from “the glory that should
follow.” They thought the glory and kingdom were immediately to follow the
resurrection of Jesus; hence the question they put to him: “Wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” But they were told that “it was not
for them to know the periods, or fixed times, which the Father had put
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in
his own power.” With the exception of John, they never did know them. It was
reserved to him in Patmos to be made acquainted with them apocalyptically. The
‘manner of time” hidden from both prophets and apostles is exhibited in the
Apocalypse, which embodies both the mystery of the sufferings, the mystery of
the glory, and the mystery of the time. These are all exhibited, or indicated,
by sign or symbol. the sufferings of the personal and corporate Christ are
represented by “a Lamb as it had been slain,” and slain souls under the altar.
The glory is symbolized by the four living ones in the midst of the throne, and
by the New Jerusalem; and the time during which the sufferings are to continue,
antecedent to the manifestation of the glory, are typified by 1260 days, 42
months, “a time, times, and a half,” “three days and a half,” “five months,”
“an hour, a day, a month, and a year,” “half an hour,” “a third part of a day,”
“a third part of a night,” “an hour.” These are times in miniature, in which
the less is representative of the greater, which is the real or true time.
Hence,
then, I should define the Apocalypse to be a symbolical revelation of the
hidden mystery of the Deity originally’ declared to the prophets. It was
declared to them as an enigma which they could not unravel. The Apocalypse is
preeminently the solution of that enigma, especially in regard to the “times
and seasons, which, since it’s communication to John, are no longer reserved by
the Father in his own power. By his revelation to John he has put them in the
power of his servants, for whose benefit they were specially revealed. These
servants have believed the glad tidings, and obeyed the law of the faith, which
exhibits to their minds the kingdom and glory of the Deity. How long to the
appearing of that kingdom? This is a question in which they are greatly
interested, for their redemption from this evil world is dependent upon its
judicial manifestation. To this inquiry a testimony from the Apocalypse
responds, that “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
sound, even the MYSTERY of the Deity shall be finished, as he hath declared the
glad tidings to his servants the prophets.” ~Apoc. 10 : 7. This seventh and
last trumpet will not cease to sound until the things I have summarized from
the prophets shall all be accomplished. They are the glad tidings, or, as Paul
expresses it, “the gospel of God, which he promised afore by his prophets in
the holy scriptures.” Study the prophets, then, for the Apocalypse reveals the
mystery they contain, and is therefore enrooted deeply in all the ramifications
of their testimony.
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I
am the First and the Last, and the
Living One; and I was dead, and behold I am living for the Aions of the Aions;
Amen.”
The
Apocalypse being a revelation of the mystery hidden in the prophetic writings,
it is to be presumed that it would certainly not omit to exhibit that cardinal
element thereof, styled by Paul “the mystery of godliness,” which he says is
“great.” We find it, therefore, introduced to the attention of the reader in
such terms and phrases as God, Jesus Christ, “He who is, and who was, and who
is coming,” “the Seven Spirits which is before his throne,” ‘the Father of
Jesus Christ,” “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending, the Lord, who
is, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty,” “I am the First and the
last, and the living one, and was dead, and behold I am living for the Aions of
the Aions.” These are very remarkable, and, apart from revelation, very
mysterious and impenetrable sayings. There is One who speaks of himself in them
as “I;” and he saith of this “I” that he was “the First,” “the Alpha,” “the
Beginning,” “the Lord the Almighty.” This is intelligible enough, and we
readily comprehend that the Deity, the self-existing, and first cause of all
things, is meant. We also recognize in the terms the epithets bestowed by the
Deity upon himself in the prophets and with a claim to them as his exclusively.
But when we come to read the Apocalypse, we find the same terms applied to one
who saith, “1 am the First who was dead.” This would very naturally suggest the
inquiries, “Did the Deity, who is the creator and upholder of the universe,
ever die? And while he was dead, how was that universe sustained? And, seeing
that death is an utter destitution of all power, how was life restored to the
dead creator of all things? These are questions, which obtrude themselves upon
the thoughtful in view of these apocalyptic sayings. Apart from revelation they
are unanswerable, for “the world by wisdom knows not the Deity;” and none by
searching can find him out. Philosophy, then, cannot help us; for philosophy is
the system of speculation elaborated by the thinking of the flesh,
independently of revelation. A brain destitute of God’s thoughts is
unenlightened, and, of necessity, incapable of thinking, speaking, and writing
correctly concerning Deity, either in relation to his essence, mode of
existence, system of manifestation,
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purposes,
or requirements. We are compelled, therefore, from very helplessness, to accept
God’s own account of these things, which is revelation, or to remain in
hopeless ignorance of the truth.
There
is then a mystery in the premises, which, as the apostle saith; “without
controversy is great.” By “mystery” is
meant a secret~a secret which the Deity only could reveal. Re has made it
known, yet the revealed secret continues to be styled a mystery, in reference
to what it was originally. Paul terms it “the Mystery of Godliness.” In
particularizing it, he shows that by “godliness” he means, a visible
manifestation of Deity, testified and believed by men. In specifying it, he
saith of the mystery, that it consisted, when revealed, of “Deity manifested in
flesh, perfected in spirit, seen of messengers, preached unto the nations,
believed on in the world, received up in glory.” ~l Tim. 3 : 16. Here is Deity
set forth by implication in two states
Deity
before manifestation, and Deity in manifestation. Does the fact of manifestation transform
Deity into that which is not Deity? Certainly not! Or, is not Deity in manifestation as much
Deity as before he made himself visible? Certainly he is. The nature of the
medium through which the manifestation is made does not change the nature of
that which is manifested. Deity is Deity though he manifest his wisdom and
power through mortal flesh. The mortality of the flesh does not necessitate nor
imply the mortality of the Deity; nevertheless, Deity becoming flesh, arid
constituting a manifested individual, if that individual die, and be raised
again to life, and Deity again enter into combination with the resurrected
body, so as to transform it into substance like the divine essence; in other
words, to make that spirit which was before flesh, and so exalt it to the
Father, Deity may say, with the strictest propriety, “I am the First who was
dead;” and yet, abstractly from the medium of manifestation, did never die.
The
mystery of godliness is practically exhibited in the incarnation of the Word in
the conception and anointing of Jesus; in the perfecting of his body at its
resurrection, when Deity in Spirit was as visible to the apostles as Deity in
Flesh had been to them before the crucifixion. They preached Deity in Spirit
seen of men as a testimony to be
believed: it was believed, and that extensively, producing, through the
teaching predicated upon it, the most remarkable moral effects “Believed on in
the world,” saith Paul, “received up in glory.” Deity in Spirit having
sojourned on earth with the sons of men for forty days, “received up in glory,”
where he has been, for the past eighteen hundred years, awaiting the appointed
time to reappear in the world, not as Deity in Spirit manifested in one man
only. but in “a multitude which no man can number” ~a multitude, whose symbol
is exhibited
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89 in the Son of man in the midst of the Seven Lightstands, the Head of whom is
Jesus. ~Apoc. 1:11-18.
The
Apocalypse, like the prophecy of Ezekiel contains mareoth Elohim, “VISIONS OF
ELOHIM:” that is, of Deity in Spirit multitudinously manifested. Ezekiel saw
this in symbol, but did not understand the mystery of their development from
the sons of Adam; for the great exemplar, Jesus, had not then solved the
problem in his own person. The revelation of the mystery through him and the
apostles has explained the principles, and shown how flesh may become spirit,
or how a dark-minded pagan may be transformed into a manifestation of Deity in
spirit. These principles in manifestation are individualized; and being so
exhibited, they are symbolized, or indicated by signs, and graphically
described in the imagery and writing of the Apocalypse. Hence, the mystery of godliness being so
intimately blended with the visions of John, its signs and descriptions can not
be intelligibly expounded apart from, or independently of, the scripture
teaching concerning Deity. I shall therefore devote this section of my
exposition to such an explanation as will, I think, enable the reader to
comprehend the remarkable terms and phrases of the Apocalypse chosen by the
Spirit for the communication of his ideas upon this deeply interesting and
highly important subject. First, then, I propose to consider it under the
aspect of
I. Deity before manifestation in Flesh;
2. Deity manifested in Flesh; and,
3. Deity manifested in Spirit.
1.
Of Deity before Manifestation in Flesh.
The
apostle who had the honor of receiving the Apocalypse for transmission to the
servants of the Deity, has called our attention to the consideration of the
fountain and origin of life and power in what is commonly called the gospel
according to John. He there points us to a certain commencement, and saith, ~In
the beginning was ho logos, and the Logos was with the Theos, and Theos was the
Logos.” In the Common Version this reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We may see from this the
propriety of God styling himself “the First,” “the Beginning,” and “he who is
and who was.” He was from the beginning, whether that beginning be referred to
the creation narrated by Moses, or a remoter beginning before ever the earth
was; and none but a fool, the Spirit saith, would affirm that God is not.
Though
John introduces two words into the text, he is careful to inform us that they
are not representative of two Gods contemporary
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90 with the beginning, but of one only; for he expressly says that “Theos was
the Logos.” In this text, then, there is ONE DEITY, and he is styled THE LOGOS.
This word signifies, “the outward form by which the inward thought is expressed
and made known; also, the inward thought or reason itself. So that the word
comprehends both the ideas of reason and speech.” Hence, by John styling Him
the Logos,* it was equivalent to affirming that he was a reasoner and a
revelator: or, as Daniel declared to Nebuchadnezzar, that “the Elahh, in the
heavens revealed secrets,” even “the deep and secret things.”
But
was the Deity reason and speech only? In other words, an abstraction
independent of substance; or, as some affirm, “without body or parts?” To
preserve us from such a supposition, John informs us that ‘the Logos was with
the Theos.” Here was companionship and identity - ~the Logos was with the
Theos, and Theos was the Logos.” Never was there a conceivable point of time,
or eternity, when the one existed without the other. “Jehovah possessed me,” saith the Logos, “in
the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from olahm (the
hidden period) from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no
depths I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with
water. Before the mountains were
settled, before the hills was I brought forth: while as yet he had not made the
earth, nor the open places, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When
he prepared the heavens I was there; when he set a compass upon the face of the
deep; when he established the clouds above; when he strengthened the fountains
of the deep; when he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass
his commandment; when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by
him as one brought up with him (the Logos was with the Theos): and I was daily
his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of
his earth, and my delights with the sons of men.”-Prov. 8 : 22.
No
Logos, then there would be no Theos; and without Theos, the Logos could have no
existence. This may be illustrated by the relation of reason, or intelligence
and speech, to brain, as affirmed in the
*~’This
title is not taken, as some have imagined, either from Plato or from Philo
(with whose writings there is no sufficient reason to think that the apostles
were acquainted), but from the scriptures of the Old Testament, and from the
subsequent style of the ancient Jews in conformity thereto. It is not at all wonderful that something
should be met with about theos logos, a Divine Word, not only in Plato. but
also in Timaeus the Pythagorean, and the Stoics, since Plato, Pythagoras, and
Zeno conversed with the Jews, and derived from them many other of their notions
and expressions.-“ Parkhurst
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proposition,
No brain,-no thought, reason, nor intelligence. Call the brain Theos; and
thought, reason, and understanding intelligently expressed, Logos; and the
relation and dependence of Theos and Logos, in John’s use of the terms, may
readily be conceived. Brain-flesh is substance, or the hypostasis, that underlies thought; so Theos is substance
which constitutes the substratum of Logos. Theos is the substance called
Spirit; as it is written, “Theos is Spirit;” and he who uttered these words is
declared to be himself both substance and spirit.
But
why is the Divine Substance called Theos? It is a name reclaimed by the
Septuagint translators from the heathen; and from them appropriated by the
apostles, who wrote in Greek. The derivations proposed of the word are various.
The most probable seems to be that which deduces it from the verb, theo, to
place, appoint, constitute, ordain. Phurnutus the Stoic, who wrote in the reign
of Nero, says, “It is probable that theoi (the gods) were so called from
thesis, position or placing; for the ancients took those for gods or theoi whom
they found to move in a certain regular and constant manner, thinking them the
causes of the changes in the air, and of the conservation of the universe;
these then are theoi or gods, which are the disposers (theteres) and formers of
all things.” And long before Phurnutus, Herodotus had written that the Pelasgi,
the ancient inhabitants of Greece, “called them theoi, because the gods had
disposed or placed in order all things and all countries.”
Theos,
then, in the singular, may reasonably be supposed to have been adopted by the
sacred writers of the New Testament, as an appropriate designation for the
Divine Substance, as the disposer and “former of all things;” especially as he
claims to be so in Jer. 10 : 16. With a softer pronunciation, that is, by
changing th into d, and o into U, the Romans borrowed this word from the
Greeks, and called it Deus, from which we derive our word Deity. In my translation
I have used this word wherever Theos occurs in the original, except in two
places in which the word “God” will be found for the sake of the metre-ch. 4 :
9, 10. Deity, then, declares the Divine Substance to be the Disposer and Former
of all things; a truth which the Spirit in the scriptures is careful to place
prominently before the minds of men. A few instances will show this. “This
people (Israel) I formed for myself. I am Yahweh that maketh all things, that
stretcheth forth the heavens ALONE; that spreadeth abroad the earth BY MYSELF.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I,
Yahweh, do all these things. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I,
even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I
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commanded. Thus saith Yahweh, He the Elohim that formed
the earth and made it; He hath established it, he created it not in vain, he
formed it to be inhabited: I, Yahweh;
and none else”-Isaiah 43 21 ; 45 : 7, 12, 18. He is truly “the Former of all
things,” alone and by himself, hence his title of THE DEITY, which Suggests
this great truth to all who are acquainted with him.
As
to the Anglo-Saxon word “God,” it is a term that may be applied to any one of
goodness and authority without profanity. God is a contraction of the word
Good. Hence, God signifies the Good One; and was perhaps suggested to our
ancestors by the saying of Jesus, that “there is none good but the Theos,” or
Deity. But the Deity has not chosen to designate himself by this term. The idea
of goodness is not contained in the word Theos; and therefore I do not use it
as its representative.
And
here it may be remarked that the seventy Israelites who translated the Hebrew
scriptures into Greek for the king of Egypt, used the word Theos as equivalent
for Ail, and Elohim; the first a noun singular; and the last, plural. By so doing, the true import of a multitude
of passages was obscured. This defect of the Septuagint has been transferred to
the English Version by rendering them indiscriminately God, which does not at
all express the signification of the Hebrew terms. Theos comes nearer to these
than God, for a being might be Good, but far from mighty for the formation of
all things; but he could not be theos, the Disposer and Former of all things,
without being AlL in the almightiest sense of the word. The Seventy, however,
erred in not respecting the Hebrew distinction of singular and plural. In adopting Theos for Ail, they ought to have
written theoi for Elohim in the plural. But they did this evil that good might
come; at least, so it is said. “The Seventy,” says Parkhurst, “have constantly
(very few passages excepted) translated the plural name elohim, when used for
the true God, by the singular Theos, never by the plural, theoi. In so doing
one may at first sight think them blamable. But let it be considered that, at
the time the Septuagint translation was made, the Greek idolatry was the
fashionable Superstition, especially in Egypt under the Ptolemys, and that
according to this, their gods were regarded as Demons, that is, intelligent
beings total separate and distinct from each other; and that consequently, had
the Greek translators rendered the name Elohim by the plural Theoi, they would
thereby have given the grecizing heathen an idea of the true God, inconsistent
with the Unity of the Divine Essence, and conformable to their own polytheistic
notions; whereas, by translating it Theos in the singular, they inculcated the
grand point (with
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the
heathen, I mean) of God’s unity, and at the same time did not deny a plurality
of agents or persons in the Divine Nature; since the Greeks called the whole
substance of their God the Heavens, Theos the singular, as well as theoi in the
plural.”
As
we have said, the Hebrew representative of Theos is AlL. This is a primitive
word, which to the mind of the Hebrew always present the idea of strength and
power. It is applied in the prophets to Former of all things when contemplating
him in his almightiness. The meaning of the word is strength, might, power and
when used of a
person,
signifies a mighty one, a powerful one, a strong one, a hero. The first place
in which it occurs is in Gen. 14 : 18, where Melchizedec styled “the priest of
the most high AlL.” This teaches, by implication, that there are other AILIM,
but that He whose priest Melchizedec
was, was the highest of them all.
The
term is used in a multitude of places in the Old Testament, the greater number
of which it is rendered “God.” This however does not at all express its meaning,
for goodness is no element of the word. The Deity informs us through Moses that
it is a part of the name he chose for himself in his communications with
Abraham appeared,” said he, “to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name
AIL-Shaddai; but by my name YAHWEH (commonly, but erroneously, pronounced
Jehovah) was I not known unto them.” - EXOD 6 : 3. In the English Version, AIL-Shaddai is
rendered “God mighty” but this does not express the original. Shaddai is indeed
rendered almighty omnipotent, by lexicographers; but their reason so doing is
theological, not etymological. They have invented
what
they call a pluralis excellentioe, by which a plural noun is applied to a person or thing in the singular, to express
its excellency. Hence, show how excellent the Deity is in power and majesty,
they suppose the scriptures speak of him
as many powers or many gods, as is implied by Elohini, Shaddai, and so forth.
But this is a weak invention which only reveals the ignorance of the learned
respecting the Name the Deity exhibited in “the Mystery of Godliness.” Their
pluralis excellentioe is a mere fiction. It admits plurality in regard to
Deity, but has entirely failed in giving a rational and scriptural exposition.
Shaddai
is a plural masculine, and derived from the root shah-dad, “to be strong,
powerful.” Shaddai is the plural of shad, “mighty powerful,” and therefore
signifies the mighty or powerful ones. Three of them appeared to Abraham in the
plains of Mamre. Moses forms us that “Yahweh appeared to him there;” and that
when lifted up his eyes to see Yahweh apparent, “he saw three men standing by
him.” Hence Yahweh, or Jehovah, was apparent in these three
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men.
Here was One-Three, or Three-One. AlL was the One, Shaddai the Three. These “three men” were mighty, powerful,
strong, and therefore they were styled Shaddai. They were harmless, patient,
and sociable with Abraham and Lot, but terrible in power to Sodom, Gomorrah,
and the cities of the plain. But was their power absolute and independent, or
was it derived? Could they say, “Before us there was nothing formed of Ail?”
Could they say, “We three are the Divine Nature in Trinity, original,
uncreated, underived?” The name by which
they were known to Abraham answers these questions in the negative. Their power
was not absolute and underived. It was derived from the DIVINE SUBSTANCE John
terms THEOS, and which Paul says, “only hath deathlessness dwelling in the
light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” But
Abraham saw the three men, or Jehovah apparent, therefore they were not the
ETERNAL FIRST CAUSE, but a Spirit-Manifestation of Him, whose name was known to
Abraham as AIL-Shaddai, the STRENGTH of the Mighty Ones.
Now
the Deity was also known to Jacob by the same name, and appeared to him in like
manifestation as to Abraham. Jacob saw a host of Shaddai, styled by Moses ~ ~
Malachi elohim, “Messengers of Elohim” ~Elohim sent of AlL. He wrestled with one of them, and prevailed,
and in consequence received the honorable title Isra-ail, “because as a prince
hast thou power with Elohim.” “And Jacob called the name of the place (where he
wrestled) Pen-ail,” “Faces of Power;” “for,” said he, “I have seen Elohim faces
to faces, and my life is preserved.”-Gen. 32 : 2, 28, 30.
Here
was the most high AlL in multitudinous manifestation. Jacob never saw his
person, for no man has ever seen that; but he saw persons like him in form and
substance; as much so as sons are like their father in these particulars. He
saw as much of the Father Ail as men see of an invisible father in his
children. They study the father in these in the absence of other data. Their
father is in them as a Flesh-Manifestation of their parental original.
The
Shaddai are styled Elohim, as expressive of the parental relation subsisting
between them and AlL in nature and power. As the Highest and Most Powerful One
in the universe, He styles himself the AIL-Elohim ~the Power of powers: a truth
memorialized by Jacob in the Altar he named AIL-Elohai- Yisra-ail ~the Strength
of the Powers of Israel.
Elohim is a plural noun, which in the singular is
written ~ Eloah. The use of this in Hab. 1:1 1 shows that the idea of strength
or power is the radical meaning of the word
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as
to this one, his strength is his Eloah, or the one in whom he trusts Three men
who appeared to Abraham were each of them an Eloah but not each of them Elohim:
the three together were Elohim.. EL0AH (
occurs fifty-six times in the scriptures, and four of these times only in the Psalms; but in Job forty-one times. The
use of Ail and Eloah by Job would indicate that one and the same being is
meant. Every member of the heavenly host is an Eloah, but of all the Elohim
ONLY is the original and self~existent AlL-the absolute, omnipotent, and
independent power of the universe.
Speaking
of Himself in his address to the ends of the earth, he says “Look unto me, for
I am AlL, and none else”-Isaiah 45 : 22 ; and to Israel he saith, “Ye are my
witnesses, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me,
and understand that I, YAHWEH, am He; before me AlL or Power, has not been
formed, nor after me shall be”-Isaiah 43 :10 : a testimony that identifies Au
with Logos and Theos of John, which as ONE POWER, he saith, “made all things;
and without him was not any thing made that was made From him came the Apocalypse; as it is
written, “a revelation which the THEOS committed to Jesus Christ.”
Having
thus shown the meaning of these several terms applied in the scriptures to
Deity, I proceed to offer a few ideas upon the Divine Nature as suggested in
the revelation of the mystery.
We
learn from the Bible that the Deity it reveals has both body parts. Paul teaches us this in declaring that the
resurrected anointed Jesus is ‘the apaugasma, or reflexion of the glory,
charakter or peculiar nature of the hypostasis or substance of the THEOS -Heb. 1 : 3. In other words, he partakes of
the Divine Nature; that what he now is, is what the Deity hath always been. The
substance of the Theos is essentially living substance. It could not exist and
yet be dead substance, for “the Father hath life in himself,” that life is his
inherent peculiarity. It is underived from any antecedent existence; nor can it
forsake the Divine Substance, for in that event the Deity would be mortal. But Paul styles him “the Incorruptible
Theos,” and says that “He is the only one having athanasia deathlessness.”
Hence, the essential qualities of the substance, which underlies all that is
predicable of him, are incorruptibility and life.
Incorruptible
and living substance, then, is the Body of the Deity and, as the glorified
Jesus is “the IMAGE of the Invisible Theos,’ must have “parts.” It is not,
therefore, a mere figure of speech to speak, as the scriptures do, of the hand,
ear, eye, and so forth, of Invisible Eternal Power. He has form and parts, as well as body and is
the Great Archetype, or divine original, after which all the Elohim
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or
immortal intelligences, of his universe are modeled and made. He dwells in
unapproachable light, and is “a consuming fire.” Light and heat, then, in their
essentiality, with incorruptibility and life, are concentred in his substance;
for He is the great focal centre of these in all the universe of power. If I
might venture a conjecture upon so profound a subject, I would suggest, that
the Divine Nature is that wonderful and extraordinary essence observed in that
terrible and destructive agent the scriptures term “Spirit,” and philosophy,
electricity, consolidated and corporealized from the necessity of the thing.
This glowing substance is too intensely bright for human vision, therefore Paul
not only says, “whom no man hath seen,” but adds, “nor can see.
Now
these suggestions are sustained by “the likeness of the glory of Jehovah” which
appeared to Ezekiel. “Above the firmament,” says this prophet, “that was over
the heads of the four living ones, was the likeness of a THRONE, as the
appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the
likeness as the appearance of A MAN above upon it. And I saw as the color of
amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of
his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I
saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about; as
the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the
appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of YAHWEH” ~ch. 1 : 26. This was the Deity in symbol,
which is brought out again in ch. 8 : 2, 3. In this place Ezekiel adds, that He
whom the likeness represented “put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a
lock of my head.” Being thus secured, he says, “the Spirit lifted me up.” This
was equivalent to saying, that the likeness represented THE SPIRIT, which Jesus
says is Theos of AlL.
All
the similitudes in the prophets representative of the Deity are of this bright
and burning character. In Daniel he is exhibited as the Ancient of Days sitting
upon a throne like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire, with a
fiery stream issuing forth from before him ~ch. 7 : 9. And so in the
Apocalypse; “out of the throne” He sits upon, “proceed lightnings, and
thunderings, and voices; and before the throne seven lamps of fire burning,
which are representative of “the Seven Spirits of the Deity” ~ch. 4 : 5.
Light,
heat, incorruptibility, and life, concentrated in one Eternal Substance, is the
great self-existing and central power of the universe. This substance is
Spirit, for “the Deity is Spirit.” All power, life, and light concentre in him,
so that not a sparrow falls to the ground
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without
his perception thereof. “He upholdeth all things,” and “in him we live, and move,
and do exist.” This is by “the SEVEN SPIRITS which is before his throne”-Apoc.
1: 4 ; 3 :1; 4: 5 ; 5 : 6. Though symbolically “seven,” they are complete in
one, for saith Paul, “there is ONE SPIRIT”-Eph. 4 : 4. Seven is the symbol of
unity and perfection. Hence, being representative of the one spirit, the
substantive verb is expressed in the third person singular, and not in the
plural, as the grammar of the sentence requires. “The Seven Spirits which is,”
not “which are before the throne.” There is but one spirit there, and this one
is the nominative to the verb “is.”
The
Father of the spirit is the Divine Substance, for it proceedeth forth from
thence; and because it issues thence, He is styled “the Father of glory.” Spirit irradiates the boundless universe from
the throne of light, and pervades it in all its space. Thus the spirit is
con-substantial with the divine nature, or ‘free,” radiating from
unapproachable light, everywhere, and illimitably, so that wherever spirit is,
there is the Deity present; and consequently, as Paul said to the Athenians,
“not far from every one of us.” This universality of the divine presence by His
‘free spirit,” is beautifully and forcibly expressed in PS. 139 : 7-12, as,
“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or
whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into the heavens, Thou art
there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of
the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness
shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but
the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to
thee.”
“There is one Deity,
the Father, egov’, out of whom are all things”
1
Cor. 8 : 6. The divinity of the schools gives us an idea contrary to this. By
the schoolmen we are told that God created all things out oj nothing! Where
they got this notion from we know not, save from their own imaginations. The
proverb says, “take nothing from nothing and nothing comes;” but they have
reversed all this, and taught the world that out of nothing something doth
come, and that something the universe of God!
But away with this foolishness.
Out of Deity all things have proceeded. His free, radiant spirit is the
substratum of every existing thing, from the star of the first magnitude to the
minutest insect of the air. The all-pervading electricity is the simple
undecomposable radiation “out of’ the Divine Substance, which, under the fiat
of His will, constitutes the atomic nucleus of all bodies, solid, fluid, or
aeriform. Thus, “by His spirit he garnished the heavens,” illuminating
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boundless
immensity with orbs of light, teeming with life, and all the wonders of his
wisdom and power.
Such,
then, was Deity before the appearance of Jesus-Spirit, substantial and radiant:
substantial in his own person; radiant thence into all the Elohim of his
universe, in whom the radiant matter, by the fiat of the Divine Will, became
fixed, organic, corporeal, and consubstantial with the Deity himself. Thus, He
is Eloah in chief; and “without me,” he saith, “of Elohim there is none else,”
and “without me there are no Elohim,” and therefore it is we find the phrase in
Isaiah 46 :18, ~ ~:,;,, hu-hahelohim, “HE the Elohim” -He, the only Deity, by
his Spirit, a multitude of mighty’ ones.
Having
considered the Deity under the apocalyptic aspect of “Him who was,” of the
“Alpha,” of “the First,” and of “the Beginning,” I shall proceed to treat, in
the next place, of the same Deity “who is,” in the development of the great
mystery.
2. Deity Manifested in Flesh
Until
nearly 430 years after the typical confirmation of the covenant made with
Abraham, (Gen. 15.,) the Deity was known to his servants only by the name of
AIL-Shaddai the Strength of the Mighty
Ones. But when the time had come to bring Israel out of Egypt, the Elohim of
the Deity were sent to Moses to inform him, among other things, of a new name
by which he was pleased to be known to his people. In answer, then, to the
question, What is this name? The Deity said to Moses by his Elohim, ~ ~ ehi’eh asher ehyeh, I WILL BE WHO I WILL
BE; and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, ~ EHYEH hath sent me unto you. The Elohim said
moreover to Moses, Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, ~ YAHWEH,
Elohim of your fathers, Elohim of Abraham, Elohim of Isaac, and Elohim of
Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name, ~ leolahm for the hidden time,
and this is my memorial; ~ledor dor for a generation of the race.”
In
the name and memorial thus revealed at the bush, the Deity declared that he
would be a person, or persons, not then manifested. He announced to Moses, that
HE was the Mighty Ones who had appeared as “three men” to Abraham, and as “a
host” to Jacob: but that at a future period HE would manifest himself in
others, even in persons of the Adamic race. Hence, in view of this new
manifestation, and to keep it constantly in remembrance, he imposed upon
himself the name of EHYEH, “I will be.” And this name of the Deity was to
retain its import in a certain time hidden in the future. The time when it
shall
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no longer
be memorial is not yet arrived. It is to continue for the Olahm-for that epoch
when “he who is, and who was, and who is coming,” “shall come with the clouds,
and every eye shall see him; and all the tribes of the earth shall wail before
him”-Apoc. 1: 7. When this terrible crisis is passed, the ascription of chap.
16 : 5, “Thou art righteous, 0 Lord, who art, and wast and SHALT BE,” will be
anachronous, for it will be no longer “shall be” on earth, seeing that he will
then be here, and “reigning on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his
ancients gloriously”-Isai. 24 : 23.
The
word ~ asher in the memorial is the relative pronoun who; and is both singular
and plural, masculine and feminine. It stands, therefore, for a multitude as
much as for one person. Yea, it is clear that a multitude was intended, by
reference to the parallel text in Exod. 6 : 7, where the Deity commanded Moses
to say to Israel, “I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you for
Elohim; and ye shall know that I am YAHWEH your Elohim.” The Elohim here
indicated in the aggregate are “the generation of the race,” in which the Deity
will manifest himself by “the Seven Spirits before the throne.”
In
regard to this term Ehyeh, etymologically and orthoepally, I may remark here,
that it is the first person singular of the future tense of the verb hahyah,
“to be, or become.” It does not mean, and never did, what it is made to signify
in the English Version, i.e., “I am.” The Deity did not give himself this name;
but, on the contrary, said, “My name is I WILL BE; and by this name I was not
known to Abraham;” not to any one else till he revealed it at the bush. Yet, it
appears in the second chapter of Genesis, and in the history of Abraham; but
this happens because of the compiler of those accounts-that is, Moses-being
acquainted with this new name, and introducing it wherever it was appropriate.
The
English versionists have suppressed the name of the Deity wherever in their
opinion it was not specially emphatic, and have substituted for it Lord, which
does not at all express the sense of the original. Where they have thought the
name emphatic they have represented Ehyeh, in its subsequent form, by
“Jehovah,” which they have only introduced nine times; though the word YHWH
occurs so often, that the citation of the texts occupies seven royal octavo
columns of nonpareil.
The
form of the name which subsequently prevailed over Ehyeh, is YHWH pronounced
Jehovah, according to the Masoretic pointing invented five hundred years after
the time of Jesus. But all philologists and theologians are now agreed, that
Jehovah is a spurious
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pronunciation.
It was devised by Jewish superstition, which did not permit an Israelite to
pronounce this sacred name correctly. They have another word ~ Adonai, “lord,
ruler, sovereign.” From this they took the signs or points, and attached them
to YHWH, thereby giving to it the incorrect orthography, “Jehovah.” All
critics, however, are now agreed that the true pronunciation of the word is
YAHWEH, which they predicate on the fact of the word used in Exod. 6 : 2, 3,
being the old form of the third person, future tense. Yah is the same in a
contracted form; and is used of the Deity upwards of fifty times; one of which
exhorts us to “extol him by his name Yah.”
YAHWEH
or Yah, as a noun, and signifying “He who will be,” is then the memorial name
the Deity chooses to be known by among his people. It reminds them that HE will
be manifested in a multitude; and that, in that great multitude which no man
can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, which shall
stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and
palms in their hands (Apoc. 7 : 9)-in each and every one of them, “He will be
the all things in all”-1 Cor. 15 : 28 ; or, as it is expressed in Eph. 4 : 6,
“there is one Deity and Father of all, who is upon all, and through all, and in
you all.”
The
Deity, then, in a multitude, is a conspicuous element of apostolic, as well as
of Old Testament teaching. It is not “One God in three Gods,” and “Three Gods
in One; “but one Deity in a countless multitude revealed in the memorial name,
and expounded in the mystery of godliness.
The knowledge of this mystery was lost sight of by the Babel-builders of
the third and fourth centuries; who, as a substitute, invented the Athanasian
conceit of three persons in the Divine Essence, coeternal and coequal. They bound up the Father, Jesus Christ, and
the Holy Ghost, three distinct persons, into one person, or body; and called
the fiction “the Triune God.” They did not perceive that the Deity was but one
person, and one substance, peculiar to himself. One Deity and not three; that
Holy Spirit is an emanation from his substance, intensely radiant and all
pervading; and that, when focalized under the fiat of his will, things and
persons without limit, as to number or nature, are produced.
This
multitudinous manifestation of the one Deity-one in many, and many in one, by
his spirit-was proclaimed to the Hebrew nation in the formula of Deut. 6 : 4,
“Hear, 0 Israel, YAHWEH our ELOHIM is the ONE YAHWEH;” that is, “He who shall
be our Mighty Ones is the One who shall be.” Certain Mighty Ones are promised
to Israel-“pastors according to YAHWEH’s heart, who shall feed them with
knowledge and understanding”-they will be spirit, because “that
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which
is born of the spirit is spirit.” He,
the Spirit, the AlL, or Power of the universe, self-styled YAHWEH, is their
Divine Father. His nature will be theirs; so that they will be consubstantial
with Him, as all children are consubstantial with their parents. The Deity will
then be manifested in the Sons of Deity; he in them, and they in him, by the
one spirit. And this company of sons, led to glory by the captain of their
salvation, is “the ONE who shall be,” or “the ONE YAHWEH.”
Of
these sons, or Elohim, One is “the Firstborn”-“the child born, and the son
given”-Isai. 9 : 6. He is Eloah in chief, “the Head of the Body;” in whom it
pleased the Father that all the fullness should dwell,” that among all he might
have the preeminence.
This
ELOAH is the great theme of prophecy. His manifestation was predicted in the
promise of the Woman’s Seed (Gen. 3 : 15); in Isaac (ch. 21 : 12); of the royal
Shiloh from Judah (ch. 49 :10); of the sceptred Star out of Jacob (Numb. 24 :
17); of the Divine Son assured to David (2 Sam. 7 :14,) born of a virgin (Isai.
7 :14) and to rule upon his throne (Isai. 9 : 6, 7.) In these testimonies it
was revealed, that he should be both Son of man and Son of Deity. How this
could be otherwise than is related in the New Testament would be impossible to
devise. “Is there an Eloah without me?”
saith the Spirit: “Yea, there is no
Rock; I know none”-Isai. 44 : 8. The
manifestation therefore, must be by the spirit of the Deity, or not at all. The
time of manifestation was appointed and placed on record in Dan. 9 : 25 ; and
“when the fullness of the time was come, the Deity sent forth his son, made of
a woman;” begotten, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of the Deity; by holy spirit coming upon her, and power of the Highest
enveloping her; therefore also the holy thing she bore was called a Son of
Deity, and named JESUS-Luke 1: 3l~ 35.
Thus,
“the Logos became flesh, and dwelt among us,” says John, “and we beheld his
glory, glory as of an only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth;”
for “the law was given through Moses; the grace and the truth came through
Jesus Anointed”-Jno. 1:14, 17. Now, “Theos was the Logos,” says John; that is,
Deity’ was the Word; and this Word became flesh in the manner testified. Was
the product, therefore, not Deity? Did the union of spirit with flesh
annihilate that spirit, and leave only flesh? Was the holy thing born a mere
son of Adam? or “the fellow” and “equal” of the Deity?-Zech. 13 7 ; Jno. 5 :18
; Phil. 2 : 2. The latter unquestionably.
After
this manner, then, THE ETERNAL POWER, or Yahweh, became flesh; and commenced
the initiation of his promise, that He would be
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to
Israel for Elohim. The chief Eloah was
now born; and, as the STAR OF JACOB cradled in a manger, received the homage of
the wise, and the acclamation of the heavenly host. This babe was the “body
made in secret” through which “THE ETERNAL SPIRIT,” when it should attain to
“the fullness of the times,” designed to manifest himself. That time had
arrived when “Jesus began to be about thirty years of age.” He was now to be
“sent forth;” “being made under the law, that them under law he might purchase
from it, that we might obtain THE
SONSHIP”-Gal. 4 : 5. His sending
forth was subsequently to his immersion, and preceded by his anointing with
holy spirit. Though born of “YAHWEH’S
Handmaid” six months after John the Immerser, John said of him, “after me
cometh a man who hath been preferred to me; for he was before me.” Isaiah
styles him YAHWEH and Elohim, in his prophecy concerning John as “The Voice”
that was to herald his manifestation; saying, “Prepare ye the way of YAHWEH,
make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim”-ch. 40 : 3. The Father
was one Eloah, and Jesus was another; so that in this unity were developed two,
who, in the Hebrew plural, are termed Elohim.
Here, then, was a practical illustration of the phrase, so often
occurring in the scriptures of the prophets, “YAHWEH Elohim ,” most incorrectly
rendered in the English Version, “LORD God.” Based upon this combination of
Holy Spirit and flesh, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “I say unto thee, WE speak what
WE do know, and testify what WE have seen; and ye receive not OUR witness. Here was plural manifestation IN UNITY. This is abundantly evinced in all the New
Testament. Hence, on another occasion,
Jesus said to the Jews, “I and the Father are one”-one what? We are, in the
words of Moses, “One Yahweh.” The Jews, who “judged after the flesh,” were
indignant at this, and attempted to stone him for blasphemy; saying that,
“because being a man, he made himself Deity.” But Jesus rebuked the charge of
blasphemy with an argumentum ad homines which was unanswerable. “Is it not
written in your law, I said ye are Elohim, and Sons of the Highest, all of
you?” Ps.82 : 6. If He (the Deity)
called them ELOHIM to whom the word of the Deity came, (that is, to their
fathers,) and the scriptures cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father
hath sanctified and sent into the world, ‘Thou blasphemest’ because I said, I
am Son of the Deity? “Know that the Father is in me, and I in him:”-and that
“he who hath seen me hath seen the Father”-John 10 : 30 ; 14 : 9.
Such
discourse as this was an impenetrable enigma to the Jews. They did not
recognize that “the words they heard were spirit”-John 6 : 63. They judged
after the flesh (ch. 8 : 15), and therefore imagined
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that
his words were flesh; that is, the mere utterances of the thinking of the flesh.
But he told them that this was not so; for he said, “My teaching is not mine,
but His who sent me;” and John also testified that “he whom the Deity had sent,
spake the words of the Deity,” as Moses had predicted in Deut. 18 : 18,
concerning the Christ, saying, “I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall
speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall be, that whosoever
will not hearken unto my words which HE shall speak in my name, I will require
it of him.” And so when the Word became flesh, the Word-Flesh recalled
attention to what Moses had written and said, “He that rejecteth me, and
receiveth not my words ~ * * the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge
him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent
me, he gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak”-John
12 : 47-“the words of eternal life.”
The
words, then, that came out of the mouth of Jesus, are to be received as the
direct teaching of the Eternal Spirit, and to be interpreted of him. When, therefore, the utterance saluted the
ears of the disciples, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” the Eternal
Spirit was communing with them from upon the Mercy-Seat, from between two of
the Cherubim upon the Ark of the Testimony-Exod. 25 : 22. Re was speaking of
himself, and not of the flesh which he had anointed. That flesh was the
caphporeth, coverlid, or propitiatory, to be sprinkled with blood, as the
result of the condemnation of sin unto death in the flesh-Rom. 8 : 3. It was
the Veil, which, in regard to the Elohim, Jesus and his Brethren, divides their
present and future states. It was the veil rent in twain by the stroke of
death, in which the ETERNAL ELOAH “forsook” the Eloah Jesus; and they continued
“twain” until his postresurrectional ascent to the Father-John 20 :17
Such
was “the Faithful Witness,” as he was before he was “perfected” on the third
day-Luke 13 : 32. He came into the world to bear witness to the truth that he
is King of Israel; to this he was faithful unto death by crucifixion; in which
he bare in his own body the sins of all who through him become the Elohim of
Israel, whether by nature Jews or Gentiles-I Pet. 2 : 24. When these come to know the Deity, and to
believe his promises with honest and goodheartedness, as initiated in Jesus,
and to do his commandments, they obtain participation in “THE SONSHIP,” and
become, even in this present state, Elohim, or sons of the Deity. In view of
this moral manifestation of Deity in flesh, termed by Peter the Divine Nature,
one of these Elohim in writing to others of them, says. “Behold what great love
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the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of Deity.
Because the world knew him not, therefore it doth not know us. Beloved, we are
now children of Deity; but it hath not yet appeared what we shall be:
nevertheless, we know that when he may appear we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is. And every one having this hope in him purifies himself
even as he is pure.”-l John 3 : 1-3. “We are now children of Deity.” He is
manifested in them through the truth affectionately and righteously
believed. If “the truth as it is in
Jesus” be in men thus, Christ, who is the truth, is in them; the spirit of
Christ is in them; for “the spirit is the truth”-I John 5 : 6 : which
comprehends the exceeding great and precious promises given to us, that by
these heartily believed, they may be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE.-2 Pet. I :
24.
From
the premises before us, I presume that the reader will have perceived the
development of “A NAME”-a name of Deity.
The name is a divine manifestation. The Eternal Increate manifested in
Jesus by Holy Spirit. This manifestation is expressed in the formula of “the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”-Matt. 28 : 19. This is the name, which is above every name;
and embraces everything attributable to the Father and the Son. To become an
Eloah, a believer of the right stamp must be immersed into this name. He will then be “in the name;” and, consequently,
“in Deity the Father and the Lord Jesus Anointed.” A multitude may be in this
name contemporaneously. They in Deity,
and Deity in them, by faith and obedience. Thus, the name which comprehended
only two in the beginning, becomes “a great multitude which no man can number.”
And in reference to these, Jesus, in the days of his flesh, said to his Father,
“I have manifested thy Name unto the men (the apostles) which thou gavest me
out of the world: thine thy were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept
thy word. I have given unto them the
words that thou gavest me, and they have received them. I pray for them: I pray
not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. Holy Father, keep
them in thy name whom thou hast given me, that they may be ONE even as we.
Sanctify them in thy truth; thy word is truth. I pray for them also who shall
believe through their word into me; that they all may be one; as thou, Father,
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be ONE IN US: that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them;
that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they
may be made PERFECT IN ONE”-John 17 : 6, 23.
In
conclusion, then, under this caption the following recapitulation
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of
the points developed in the testimony in regard to this great mystery of
godliness, which is the basis of the Apocalypse, may be useful as a
remembrancer:
I. There is one ETERNAL UNCREATED SUBSTANCE,
which is essentially power. incorruptibility, and life, dwelling invisibly in
unapproachable light; and known before the days of Moses by the name of
AIL-Shaddai, “the Strength of the Mighty Ones;” and from his interview with the
Angel at the Bush, by that of YAWHEH, or Yah, “He who will be.”
2. This ETERNAL POWER is the Logos, or
Word, which is identical with Theos, or DEITY, glowing in light. SPIRIT substantial and corporeal.
3. From Deity, as the centre of the
universe, is intensely radiated spirit or power; which is all-pervading, and
fills immensity, and styled “Free Spirit”-the ocean of life, “in which we live,
and move, and have being.” So that Deity is not far from every one of his
creatures.
4. All things are “out of Deity’.” Spirit,
by the fiat of His will, becomes substance, both organic and inorganic; and the
former, instinctive, or divinely intelligent.
5. The Deity is Wisdom as well as Power.
Hence the Divine Nature is a moral nature as well as substantial; so that His
moral attributes are constituents of his glory, equally with those of his
substance, in its essentiality and power.
6. JESUS OF NAZARETH, in the days of his
flesh, was the reflection of the Moral Attributes of the Deity; as likewise are
all his brethren who walk in his steps.
7. Since his ascension, he is
consubstantial with Deity; i.e., the peculiar nature he now has is identical
with the original substance of the Eternal Power, between which and his own
this sole difference obtains; namely, that the substance of Jesus as it is, was
created by the Deity out of His own free spirit
ek tou pneumatos; - whereas His own substance was derived from no
antecedent power or creator.
8. Jesus is the Chief-Begotten Eloah of
AlL; and, when sealed with holy spirit at his immersion in Jordan, the Deity
manifested himself in him by the truth he spoke and the wonders he performed.
9. In this manifestation the development
of the Memorial Name was initiated. The
ONE had become Two; and YAHWEH Elohim, in relation to the human race, had become
a fact. But,
10. The manifestation of the Name is only
initiated. not completed.
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in
the person of Jesus Christ. The manifestation of Deity in flesh, by holy spirit
or truth, is amplified in the characters of the true believers among men, who
are “partakers of the Divine Nature” in its moral constitution, as the earnest
of their future participation in the Divine Substance, when they shall be as
Jesus is now.
11. All the true believers who have been
immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit-not three names, but the One Name of the DIVINE MANIFESTATION-are a
manifold unit-One in many, and many in one. They are “the one who shall be”-the
Yahweh echad, the One Jehovah, not yet perfected and glorified; but when so, to
be “King over all the earth”-Zech. 14 : 9 ; Apoc. 5 :10.
But,
in order to reach these things fully, as they are “indicated by sign” in the
Apocalypse, I must request the reader’s particular attention to the third
division of this great mystery of godliness, or Deity manifested in spirit.
3.
Deity Manifested in Spirit.
However
perfect and complete the moral manifestation of the Deity was in Jesus of
Nazareth, the divine manifestation was nevertheless imperfect as concerning the
substance, or body, of Jesus. This was what we are familiar with as the flesh.
It was not angel-flesh, or nature; but that common to the seed of Abraham,
styled by Paul sarx hamartias, flesh of sin; ‘in which,” he says, ‘dwells no
good thing”-Rom. 7 : 18; 8 : 3. The anointing spirit-dove, which, as the Divine
Form, descended from heaven upon Jesus at his sealing, was holy and complete in
all things; the character of Jesus was holy, harmless, undefiled, without spot,
or blemish, or any such thing; but his flesh was like our flesh, in all its
points,-weak, emotional, and unclean. Had his flesh been like that of
Angel-Elohim, which is consubstantial with the Eternal Spirit, it would have
been unfit for the purpose of the Deity in his manifestation. Sin, whose wages
is death, had to be condemned in the nature that had transgressed; a necessity
that could only be accomplished by the Word becoming Adamic-Flesh, and not
Elohistic. For this cause, “Jesus was made a little lower than the angels for
the suffering of death; * * * that he, by the grace of the Deity, might taste
death for every man.” For this cause, and forasmuch also “as the children (of
the Deity) are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part
of the same; that through death he might destroy that having the power of
death, that is, the diabolos,” or elements of corruption in our nature,
inciting it to transgression, and
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therefore
called “Sin working death in us -Rom. 7.13 , Heb. 2. 9, 14.
Another
reason why the Word assumed a lower nature than the Elohistic was, that a basis
of future perfection might be laid in obedience under trial. Jesus has been
appointed Captain of Salvation in the bringing of many sons to glory. Now these
sons in the accident of birth are all “subject to vanity,” with inveterate
propensities and relative enticements, inciting and tempting them to sin. A
captain, therefore, whose nature was primarily consubstantial with the Deity,
could not be touched with the feeling of their infirmities. He would be
essentially holy and impeccable, and of necessity good. But a necessitated holiness and perfection
are not the basis of exaltation to the glories of the Apocalypse. These are to
be attained only by conquest of self under trial from without, by which “they
come out of great tribulation”-Apoc. 7 : 14. Its promises are to those who
overcome, as their captain has overcome, when it can be said his victory is
apocalyptically complete”-Apoc. 3 : 21 ; 11 : 15. Hence, then, “it became the
Deity to make the captain of the salvation of His many sons perfect through
sufferings; and to effect this, he must be of their primary nature, that when
the Great Captain and his associates shall rejoice together in the
consubstantiality of the Deity, they may all have attained to it upon the
principle of voluntary obedience, motivated by faith, and maintained in
opposition to incitements within, and enticements and pressure from without.
The flesh is, therefore, a necessary basis for this; and making it possible for
him to be tempted in all points according to the flesh-likeness, without sin.
Hence, though the son of the Deity, and Heir of all things, yet he learned
obedience by the things which he suffered; and being MADE PERFECT He became the
author of aion-salvation unto all them that obey him”-Heb. 4:15 ; 5:8.
Perfection
of character and substance, then, is the consummation predetermined by the
Deity in his manifestation by spirit in Jesus and his brethren. In his wisdom,
which is “first pure,” he requires perfection of character first; and as a
recompense for this, he confers perfection of substance, or consubstantiality
with himself. This was the order of the Divine Manifestation in the son of
David’s daughter; who is the great model after which the One Yahweh-Elohistic
development is to be apocalypsed. Perfection of character was first manifested
in Jesus, who was faultless before the Deity. The character of Jesus was the
character of the Deity - a mirror in which was reflected the moral attributes
peculiar to him, the Word, before manifestation in flesh. Nevertheless, though
Jesus could truly say, “1 always do those things which please the Father;” yet
he said, “there is none good but the
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Deity,’
nor am I yet perfect. He testified his
own imperfection in declaring that he could of his own self do nothing; that he
must die; and that he would be perfected in the third day of his mission.
“Behold,” said he, “I cast out demons, and I do cures to-day, and to-morrow,
and the third I shall be perfected”-Luke 13 : 32. In this third, “he was made
perfect” ex anastaseos, from, or out of resurrection, when he “ascended to the
Father;” and being thus exalted to consubstantiality with him, Paul speaks of
him as, “Having been perfected for the Aion” - eis ton aiona teteleiomenon; or
apocalyptically, ~I was dead, and behold I am living for the Aions of the
Aions”-ch. I : 18.
Jesus,
then, like all his brethren, is to be considered in two states, each state
having a nature peculiar to it. In the former state, “he was crucified through
weakness;” but in the after state wherein he now is, “he liveth by the power of
the Deity-2 Cor. 13 : 4. In the former state, the flesh was “the filthy’
garments with which the SPIRIT-WORD was clothed (Zech. 3 : 3); “the iniquity of
us all” that was laid upon him; the soul made an offering for sin” (Isa. 53 :
6, 10); but, as He now is, the filthy garments have been taken away; “his
iniquity has passed from him,” and he is clothed with “change of raiment.” His
flesh thus designated has been subjected to the transforming energy of the radiant
power of the Eternal Spirit. By this energy his flesh has been transformed into
spirit, styled by Paul, pneuma hagiosiunes, spirit of holiness. That is, a
nature in which there is no filthiness of flesh or spirit. It is therefore HOLY
SPIRIT NATURE; a nature, generated out of the free spirit radiant from the
Eternal Substance. It is therefore like that substance, and hence
consubstantial with it. Begotten of
spirit it is spirit; as that which is begotten of flesh is flesh-Jno. 3 : 6.
Therefore, Paul speaks of the exalted Jesus, saying, “he was made into a life
imparting spirit;” and elsewhere he styles him “the Lord the Spirit” Kurios pneuma.
Now
Jesus as the Lord the Spirit, is the manifestation represented in the
Apocalypse by the title of “the Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come; and
the Seven Spirits which is before the throne”-ch. I : 4. In relation to Jesus
Anointed as he is now, these Seven Spirits are his Seven Eyes. This appears
from ch. 5 : 6, where John says, “I beheld a Lamb as it had been slain, having
seven Horns and Seven Eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of the Deity sent forth
into all the earth.” Seven is the number of perfection and completeness. The
seven spirits are symbolical of the “One Spirit” in perfect manifestation; the
seven eyes, of omniscience and perfection of vision; and the seven horns, of
omnipotence and perfection of power. Hence, he who was slain is now a perfect
manifestation of Deity, omniscient, all-seeing, and all-power-
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ful-
Jesus Anointed, the faithful witness, the Chief Born from among dead ones, and
the Prince of the kings of the earth;” from among those dead, who are to awake
from their sleep in the dust of the earth; and Prince in their midst, when they
shall reign with him for a thousand years-ch. 20 : 6.
Jesus,
in view of his exaltation to this glory, said to his contemporaries, “Verily I
say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself’ (or apart from the “Seven
Spirits”) but what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever he doeth,
these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth
him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than
these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth
them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment to the Son: that all men should honor the Son,
even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the
Father who hath sent him. The “greater works” than those wrought by Jesus in
the days of his flesh, which he said the Father would show him, are the works
exhibited in the Apocalypse, which are to be executed at his second appearing.
They are the works of the judgment hour, which are to bring all nations into
obedience to his rule-Apoc. 15 : 4 : for “all authority to execute judgment is
given to him, because He is Son of man.”
But
the manifestation of Deity in spirit does not terminate in the perfecting of
Jesus on the third day. He was the free-will offering of the Eternal Spirit
made perfect for acceptance (Lev. 22 : 21: Heb. 9 14); but he was only one of
“the flock of the Deity which he had purchased with his own blood.” There were
other sheep-sheep of the fold of Israel, and others not of that fold; all of
perfect character, tc be “made perfect in one:” that there might be one fold
and one shepherd.
All
who have heard “the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity and the name of
Jesus Anointed,” have believed them with true affection, and have been immersed,
are addressed in the apostolic epistle ~ as “THE PERFECT.” “We speak wisdom,”
says Paul, “among the perfect;” and again, “Let us, as many as be perfect, be
thus minded.’ But, as in the case of Jesus, this perfection was concomitant
with imperfection. It was perfection of spirit, or conscience, resulting from
faith and obedience. Paul says, that the law of Moses could not make the
worshippers perfect, so that they should have no more conscience of sins.
Hence, a person whose sins are covered over, or pardoned, is perfect. His
conscience is the spirit of a just man who has been made perfect. Jesus tasted
death for him, in which death he becomes inter
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ested
by believing into him. Thus, “by his one offering the Eternal Spirit hath
perfected for a continuance them that are sanctified,” or purged in conscience
from dead works to serve the living Deity. Being in Christ, they are invested,
or covered over, with him; and, if the truth have had its due effect, they are
cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; and can truly respond to the
apocalyptic ascription to him as their Prince, and say, “Unto him that loved us
and washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us kings and priests for the
Deity’ even our Father: to him be the glory and the supremacy during the Aions
of the Aions. Amen”-Apoc. 1 : 5.
But,
notwithstanding the saints are a community of “spirits of just ones made
perfect;” they have while in the flesh, continual experience of imperfection.
The experience of Paul is theirs, who says, “Not as though I were already
perfect.” He was perfect in conscience, but very imperfect in nature; as was
also that great cloud of witnesses, of whom the world was not worthy, who all
died in faith, not having received the promises; the Deity having provided some
better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect-Heb.
11:13, 40.
That
which is perfect, however, is not yet come; but we wait for it. Perfect in
conscience and character, we wait in full assurance of hope, the transformation
of our bodies at the Apocalypse of Jesus Anointed; “for in heavens our
commonwealth subsists; out of which also we await the deliverer, the Lord Jesus
Anointed: who shall transform the body of our humiliation that it may become
conformable to the body of his glory, according to the energy of his ability
even to subdue all things to himself”-Phil. 3 : 20, 21. When this
transformation shall have been effected, the prayer of Jesus will have been
answered; and his brethren will have been “made perfect in one,” as the Father
is in Him, and He in the Father, and they one in them both. Such a perfection
as this is consubstantiality with the Deity; who, by his spirit is manifested
in them all, as the ELOHIM OF ISRAEL, and the Sons of Highest-the “Who” he said
he would be, when he communed with Moses at the Bush.
The
transformation of body is posterior to resurrection, as in the case of Jesus.
The dead saints are first to be “raised,” and afterwards “quickened.” “As the
Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth, even so the Son quickeneth whom he
will.” The Son will quicken those only of the raised up whose walk in the
present state he approves. Many are “raised up” who are not “quickened.” It is
only those of the “raised up” who are pleasing to the Son that he quickens.
Some of the “raised up” are awaked from the dust, as Daniel tells us, “to the
reproaches and contempt of the Olahm”-ch. 12 : 2 ; or, in the words
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of
Jesus, “they come forth for a resurrection of judgment”-John 5 : 29. The Son
wills not to quicken them, but to drive them from his presence with eternal
reprobation.
The
word quicken in the original is zoopoieo, and signifies to make alive. From the
fact that all the raised are not “quickened,” and yet are living in
postresurrectional contempt, it follows that the quickening is an operation
superadded to the formation of living bodies from the dust of the ground. It is
the making alive of living saints with life eternal. Hence, there is a certain
predetermined order of development in the multitudinous Apocalypse of the Sons
of the Deity (Rom. 8 19), as there was in the manifestation of Deity in spirit
in the case of Jesus. And this order, as
deduced from the premises before us, is apparently as follows:
1. Formation
of body from the ashes of the dead;
2. Impartation of life, making it a Body
of Life
3. Appearance at the Tribunal of Christ-2
Cor. 5 :10
4. Quickening consequent upon approval; in
other words, “ascending to the Father,” so as to be consubstantial with
him.-John 20 :17.
Taken
as a whole, these four elements constitute the anastasis Zoes, or RESURRECTION
OF LIFE, in which the body is “raised in incorruption, in glory, in power, and
spiritual,” all of which is consequent upon the fourth element, or “the Son
quickeneth whom he will.” They are made perfect in one by “the spirit which
quickeneth;” and when this Apocalypse is perfected, “the world will know that
the Father did send Jesus, and hath loved them, as He had loved him,” which is
manifested in their being “like him, and seeing him as he is.”
Here,
then, is a multitude consubstantial with the Father-THE ELOHIM OF ISRAEL, and
all of them the Sons of Deity, “kings and priests to Him;” “the kings of the
earth,” whose Imperial Prince is the Chief-Begotten; “kings from a Sun’s
risings;” the first fruits to the Deity and the Lamb, redeemed from the
earth.-Apoc. 1 : 5, 6 ; 16 :12 14 : 3, 4.
4.
Symbolization of Deity in Spirit.
Now,
this “Apocalypse of the Sons of the Deity is represented in the Apocalypse by
different remarkable symbols. The first is that de scribed in chap. I : 13 16
and styled Son of Man This does not
represent an individual man It
represents many in One What John saw among the lightstands was a similitude or
likeness omoion huio anthropou, like to
a son of man The voice John heard proclaimed the reality
of this likeness to be THE LAST -------- the Spirit in the last
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manifestation;
the ONE YAHWEH in many Elohim. In the
time of manifestation it is “the Living One,” which anterior to apocalypse “was
dead,” but being apocalypsed, “is living for the A ions of the Aions;” and as
“THE FIRST” before this apocalypse, and limited to Jesus Anointed, “had the
keys of the invisible and of death” ch.I : 18.
This
apocalyptic plurality in victorious progress was obscurely communicated to
Isaiah in the following testimonies:
“Who raised up righteousness from the east, (‘the kings from a Sun’s
risings’-the saints,) called Him (that which is indicated by the symbol before
us) to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made rule over kings?” (Apoc.
2 : 26, 27). He gave them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his
bow’ (Ephraim and Judah-Zech. 9 :13 :10 : 3, 4). He (the symbolical Son of man)
pursued them, and passed in peace; by the way he had not gone with his feet.
Who hath wrought and done this, naming the generations from the beginning (at
the Bush)’? To which inquiries the Eternal Spirit answers, ~ ~ ANI YAHWEH, I
who will be ~ rishon THE FIRST ONE, and
~ eth-acharonim, THE LAST ONES;
~ I—HE. The isles saw, and
feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came. They helped
every one his neighbor, and said to his brother, Be of good courage”
Isa.
41: 2~.
In
this passage “the Last” is in the plural, but in Isa. 44 : 6, it is used in the
singular, according to the formula, “Thus saith YAHWEII, king of Israel, and
his (Israel’s) redeemer, YAHWEH Tzvaoth (or, HE who will be of hosts, that is,
“COMMANDER” of them, ch. 55 : 4). I THE FIRST ONE AND I THE LAST ONE; and
without me no ELOHIM. And who as I shall proclaim, and declare it, and set it
in order for me since I appointed the people of Olahm:? And the things that are
coming, and shall come, let them show unto them.” The “Last Ones” of the
forty-first chapter are comprised in the “Last Ones” of the forty-fourth,
which, though expressed in the singular, clearly indicates a plurality by its
association with the sentence, “and without me no Elohim” without the Spirit
which quickeneth there will be no glorified saints, for “the flesh profits
nothing;” they are “the people of Olahm,” destined to reign with the Christ a
thousand years-Apoc. 20 : 6.
And
here the reader is requested to bear in mind, that the titles and expressions
by which the ETERNAL POWER designates himself in the scriptures of the prophets
are all reproduced in the New Testament and the Apocalypse, and therein applied
to Jesus and his Brethren when “perfected in spirit,” or “glorified
together”-Rom. 8 : 17. Thus, the
prophetic YAHWEIH ELOHIM styles himself “the First and the Last,” so doth the
symbolical Son of man; YAHWEH says he is the only ROCK
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Paul
speaking of the Rock terms it Christ; YAHWEH styles himself King of Israel,
Christ Jesus calls himself the same; YAHWEH declares that he is a saviour, and
that there is none beside him: the Word made flesh was called Jesus, because he
should save his people, or be their saviour-“’, I YAHWEH, and there is no
saviour beside me”-Isa. 43:11.
John
saw the Son of man similitude in the midst of the Seven Light-stands, or
aggregate of ecclesias, and heard “the voice of the many waters” from their
midst, as indicative of the source from whence the persons constituting the
reality symbolized by the similitude are derived. The promises symbolized in
ch. 2 : 7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3 : 5, 12, 21, are all made to the constituent
members of this similitude of the mystical Son of man-the “One Body” the church
when victory is complete.
Another
vision of the Sons of the Deity in Apocalypse is described in the fourth
chapter of the revelation. When John was “in spirit” he saw the similitude of
their manifestation when they shall be “in spirit” on the day of the
Christ. He saw them enthroned as “the
twenty-four elders, clothed in white raiment, and crowned”-ch. 4 : 4. He saw
them enthroned in a stormy period, when “lightnings, and thunderings, and
voices” were issuing forth from their enthroned omnipotence-ch. 4 : 5. He saw
the going forth of their power into all the earth in the burning of the Seven
Spirits-ver. 5 ; 5 : 6, which seven, symbolical of the One Spirit, in judicial
exercise upon the dominions of the world, he saw in the similitude of the FOUR
LIVING ONES, omnipotent and omniscient-the One Spirit manifested in the
redeemed, careering in victorious conflict, and proclaiming the superlative
holiness of YAHWEH Elohim almighty, the “Who was, and Who is, and Who is
coming. “-vers. 7, 8. He saw these in progress through the earth, contending
for dominion over it, with the full assurance that they would succeed. “WE SHALL REIGN,” say they, “ON THE
EARTH”-ch.5 :10.
John
also beheld the Sons of the Deity in Apocalypse in the mighty angel of chap. 10
: 1. This “comes down out of the heaven invested with a cloud; and a rainbow
upon his head, and his face as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of
fire.” His lion-roar proclaims the consummation of “the mystery of the Deity as
he hath declared the glad tidings to his servants the prophets”-ver. 7 ; which
accomplishment ultimates in the constituents of this mighty angel taking
possession of the kingdom under the whole heaven, and the consequent
establishment of the reign of YAHWEII and of his Elohim for the Aions of the
Aions. This is the result of the seventh and last trumpet having exhausted the
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judgment
pertaining to it. The consummation of this trumpet, which is also the
consummation of the Seventh Seal, is the work of the mighty angel, symbolizing
the heaven-descended Jesus and his Brethren, the saints. The Seventh Vial is
the work allotted for them to do; and in their mission they march to victory
with “FACE AS THE SUN, and feet as pillars of fire. “
Again
they appear upon the apocalyptic page in chap. 14 :1. Here they are the sealed
nation of chap. 7 : 4-12, resurrected with the Lamb, Jesus, in their midst.
Their symbolical number, a definite for an unknown, (ch. 7 : 9,) is 144,000. In
this vision they are stationary, as indicated by “stood” in reference to the
Lamb with whom they are. They are standing, awaiting the result of the
proclamation which announces to the nations that “THE HOUR OF JUDGMENT IS
COME”- 14 6, 7. They wait the issue of this before they go forth, as “the Seven
Spirits in all the earth,” to overthrow Babylon, and to torment the worshippers
of the Beast and his Image-14 : 8-Il.
In
chap. 15 : 2, the Sons of the Deity are again apocalypsed. Here they are in the
attitude of victory and blessedness. They are in joyous repose, “standing upon
a translucent sea, having the harps of the Deity.” This sea of nations had been
“mingled with fire;” but “they had
gotten the victory” over the Beast and his Image, and over his Mark and Number,
which as dross had all been destroyed from the sea by the fire of their
indignation and power; and they are seen here in “rest from their labours, and
their works following them.” This scene is the consummation of the Seventh
Vial, in which it can be said, “Thy judgments are made manifest”-15 : 4.
In
getting the victory over the Beast they are apocalypsed in the vision portrayed
in chap. 19 : 11-21. Here the Sons of
the Deity appear in military array, in clouds of cavalry, styled “the hosts in
the heaven,” following “THE WORD OF THE DEITY” in his campaigns against the
nations; which he smites and conquers in treading “the winepress of the
fierceness and wrath of the all-powerful Deity.” They tread them “as ashes
under the soles of their feet,” and bind and shut up the Dragon in
powerlessness for a thousand years.
Having
obtained this great victory over the kingdoms and dominions of the world, they
are manifested as the occupants of thrones peculiarly their own; which continue
undisturbed for a thousand years. Their victory inaugurates the universal
dominion foreshadowed in the fifth chapter, from ver. 12 to 14. Peace being thus conquered by their
omnipotence, “the spirit is quieted, and the earth is at rest.” The Gentile
earth and heaven have fled away from before them. With the Captain of their
salvation they are enthroned as “the Kings of the
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earth;”
and as A DIVINE MUNICIPALITY, possess the glory and honor of the nations-2 I :
26. In this relation they are apocalypsed as the NEW JERUSALEM, “the city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is the Deity;” looked for, but not
yet seen, by the patriarchs and prophets of the olden time-Heb. 11:10 ; Apoc.
21: 9-27.
For
a thousand years this Beloved City is the light of the nations, which are then
“all blessed in Abraham and his Seed,” according to the gospel of the kingdom.
It is the YAHWEH-Elohistic municipality, symbolized by one hundred and
forty-four cubits, each cubit representing one thousand of the numerical symbol
of this “Holy Nation,” the Israel of the Deity-ch. 7 : 4 ; 14 :1 ; I Pet .2 : 9
; Gal.6 :16. But, at the ending of these thousand years, during which they have
been an Arboretum of healing influences to the nations, the base ingratitude,
malice, and envy of human nature find scope to organize rebellion against the
Saints and their government. Their camp
is beleaguered by countless myriads which gather together against them for war.
But the Sons of the Deity are as powerful at the end as at the beginning of the
thousand years. Peace and blessedness will not have enervated their
incorruptible nature; and they will be prepared to give the rebels a crushing
and final overthrow. As the Woman’s Seed, their mission is to bruise the
Serpent’s Head-Gen. 3 : 15. The war begun, their burning indignation overflows
them as a consuming fire, in which they are “tormented day and night” to the
end of the thousand years-ch. 20 : 10. Thus “fire comes down from the Deity out
of the heaven, and devours them.” This establishes “the End,” when the kingdom
is delivered up to the Father; who will then have put all enemies under the
Son’s feet. At this crisis death is banished from the earth; the wicked utterly
destroyed out of it; and the Deity apocalypsed, or manifested, in his Sons,
considerably augmented in number by the accessions of the thousand years,
becomes the sole occupant and inheritor of the earth-I Cor. 15 : 24 ; Prov. 10
: 30 ; Apoc. 21: 3, 4.
5.
The Blessed
In
Apoc. I : 3, the Spirit pronounces a benediction upon individuals of a certain
class in relation to the Apocalypse. They are characterized in the original by
the terms ho anaginoskon, and hoi akouontes, and terountes; the first being
rendered in the Common Version, “he that readeth;” the second, ‘they that
hear;” and the third, “keep.” But these renderings do not express the full
sense of the original; for a man may read and hear and keep in memory the words
prophesied, and the things commanded, and yet be very far from understanding,
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and
heeding, and watching by the light of, what is written. The benediction of this
verse is not pronounced upon such; but on those who answer to the import of the
three words selected by the Spirit.
The
word anaginoskon signifies one who gathers exact knowledge of a matter or
thing. Hence, in my translation I have rendered it, “he that knows accurately.”
Such a one might assume the position of an expositor; for knowing accurately
the words of the prophecy, he would be competent to expound them to others. The
first part of the benediction, then, falls upon him-“Blessed he that can
expound the words of this prophecy!” But, alas! if the benediction were
confined to him only, how few in the generations subsequent to John’s would be
of the number of the “blessed!” Happily, however, it is not so limited. If one
come to know accurately, others, who would never have been able to get an exact
knowledge by their own unassisted efforts, may obtain from him such a knowledge
as will enable them to be hoi akouontes; that is, not only hearers, but hearers
who give heed to what they hear, and understand. They are not to be negligent
hearers if they would be blessed; they must keep or “observe narrowly the
things which have been written in it.” They must scrutinize them, and by their
aid “Watch.” “Behold, I come as a
thief,” saith Jesus; “blessed is he that watcheth.” But they only can watch to
any purpose who “narrowly observe.” The
Apocalypse was given to this end~that the servants of the Deity, who are
keeping their garments, might be able to discern the signs of the times
preceding the apocalypse of Christ; and the real nature of things extant in
their several generations. No believer understanding this prophecy could be seduced
into fellowship with the clerical institutions of the world; because he would
see them all in their native deformity and sin.
The
reason given why they are blessed who know accurately, give heed to, and
observe narrowly, the subject-matter of the prophecy, is “because the time is
near.” The time of the prophecy. When the prophecy was given, that the Seed of
the Woman should bruise the serpent’s head, the time was not near. But in
respect of this prophecy symbolized in the Apocalypse, “the time is near.” It
began to be developed soon after it was published; and its development has been
progressing onwards to its grand catastrophe ever since. Hence, all this long
series of centuries from John to the apocalypse of the Sons of the Deity, and
the consummation of their mission in the establishment of the kingdom of their
Father, and the overthrow of the enemy, is the time of the prophecy. This long
period had its beginning and its end, which are significantly indicated by the
fact of the phrase occurring but twice; first in the verse before it and
next in ch. 22:10,
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at
the end of the book; as if they had been so placed to enclose the prophecy
between them. In the latter place it was said to John, “Seal not the sayings of
the prophecy of this book; because the time is near.” This instruction was
contrary to that given to Daniel in ch. 12 : 4, 9. He was commanded to “shut up
the words, and seal the book” of his prophecy, “till the time of the end;”
which was an intimation that it would not speak intelligibly till then. But it
was not to be so with the Apocalypse.
This was to speak intelligibly to the blessed who came to know it
accurately, and to give heed to it, in all its course, each generation
discerning the signs of its own times, while all “the servants of the Deity,”
whose especial document it is, had among them a scriptural understanding of the
consummation it reveals.
“The
time is near,” then; not that the thousand years should begin, and Christ and
the Saints should rule the nations, near to John’s time, but that soon after
the Apocalypse was revealed to him, the threatenings against the Nikolaitanes,
the Balaams, the Jezebels, and the “liars,” in the apocalyptic and other
ecclesias of the time, in which John’s contemporaries were personally interested,
should begin to come upon them; and that this judgment, beginning at the house
of God, would set in motion the comparatively, or rather politically, quiescent
iniquity of the churches, which, in its working, would at length develop the
results foreshadowed in the Dragon, the Beasts, and the False Prophet, and the
events thereto relating, which, also, in their action and reaction upon one
another in their efforts to establish their policies, should create such a
situation of affairs in the Habitable, as should favor the interference of
Omnipotence for their chastisement and overthrow, and the establishment of the
kingdom of God upon the ruin of theirs. The Seed of the Kingdom had been sown
in the whole Roman Habitable by the apostles.
Ecclesias had been planted everywhere, and wherever they existed they
embodied principles subversive of the existing order of things, for if their
doctrine prevailed in its purity, converting all the world, as our clergy
vainly imagine it is to do, both governors and governed, Judaism and paganism,
would of necessity have been abolished; and if perverted and traditionalized,
it would still be inimical to the existing order. A corrupted gospel would only
intoxicate its believers. This was the condition of such men as Origen,
Dionysius, Cyprian, Lactantius, Eusebius, and such like. Like the people and
clergy of our day, they had acquired too much light to continue pagans, but not
enough to become Christians. They became CATHOLIC POLITICIANS. If there had
been no true Christianity, they would have continued pagans; but the truth
being established, there existed a basis out of which flesh and blood could
evolve a system of abomination agreeable
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to
its own diabolism. This, as we shall see, had attained considerable development
in John’s period of exile. It was a powerful element in the ha eisi, the things
which do exist,” that is, contemporary with John. Many professors were
intoxicated; and when they no longer had the apostle, and the faithful men that
overlived him, to keep them in check, iniquity broke loose, and gave an impetus
to human affairs, and a direction to their policy, which ultimated in the
establishment of a system of spiritual prostitution, variously denominated
Catholicism, Romanism, Protestantism, and sectarianism, as at this day.
But
blessed is he that understands the Apocalypse, gives heed to, and observes
narrowly the things which have been written therein, for it is utterly
impossible for such a man to be imposed upon by any of these. He could as soon
become a Mohammedan, as understanding, and honestly believing what he
understands, to become a pious professor of any of the churches of what is
absurdly enough styled “Christendom,” and to imagine thereby that he was a
Christian in faith and practice. The teaching of the clergy is opposed to, and
subversive of, the Christian faith, and therefore, from alpha to omega, at
variance with the doctrine of the Apocalypse in faith, hope, and practice.
Blessed is the man who, instructed by its teaching, is delivered from the
dogmas and commandments of the craft.
John to the SEVEN ECCLESIAS which are in the Asia: joy to you and peace
from the who is, and who WAS, and who Is
COMING, and from the SEVEN SPIRITS which
is before his throne, and from Jesus Anointed, the faithful witness, the
Chiefborn from among the dead. and the Prince of the kings of the earth: to him
having loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood. and made us kings and
priests for the Deity, even our Father, to him be the glory and the supremacy
during the AIONS of the AIONS amen—Apoc 1:4-6
As we have seen, John, the beloved apostle, having tarried till the Lord came, and therefore witnessed the devouring of the Mosaic body politic by the Roman Eagles of the East, by the common consent of all reliable antiquity, was honored as the channel through which the wonders of the Apocalypse should be communicated to men. Having informed us in the first verse whence he derived it, from the fountain and origin of all wisdom and knowledge, from the THEOS, or Former and Disposer of all things, through the Anointed Jesus by his messengers
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and
for the Servants of the Father, he now tells us to what special communities of the
faithful the invaluable gift was to be confided; that they might multiply it,
and circulate it among all the Ecclesias of the Habitable, as the last
communication from heaven till the time should come for the glory and power to
be manifested before the eyes of all nations. He was not left at liberty to
send it to what congregations his own prudence might suggest; but he tells us,
in the tenth and eleventh verses, “I came to be in spirit in the Lord’s day:
and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet, saying I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the First and the Last: and what thou beholdest write for a scroll,
and send to the Seven Ecclesias which are in Asia; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna,
and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to
Laodicea.” Hence there was no alternative.
The Apocalypse must be sent to these seven. In obedience, therefore, to this command, in
writing he primarily addresses himself to “the seven ecclesias which are in the
Asia.”
1.
“Church.”
In
the rendering of the original before us I have not translated the word
ekklesiai, but simply transferred it. It is generally rendered churches; but
this word does not express the ideas of ecclesia. Church is a corruption of
kuriake, which signifies “pertaining to a lord.” The Anglo-Saxons took the first and last
syllables of the Greek word, as kur-ke, which they spelled Circe; but which is
more obviously shown in the Scotch kirke; both of which are equivalent to the
modern English Church. “Something pertaining to a lord” is the etymological
signification of the word; and although, in a certain sense, an ecclesia is
something pertaining to a lord, and that lord the Lord of heaven and earth, yet
the ideas of property and lordship are not contained in the word ecciesia. This
is one reason why in this exposition of the Apocalypse we reject the word
church as the representative of ecclesia.
Another
reason is, that ideas are conventionally associated with the word which are
altogether unscriptural. Ecclesia never signifies in the Bible “the place which
Christians consecrate to the worship of God;” nor does it signify such
collective bodies of “professors of religion” as pass current for Christians in
and with the world, under the various “names and denominations” of “Christendom.”
These, and many other ideas associated with the word church, such as churchman,
church-warden, church-attire, churchyard, churching of women, and all such
papistical foolishness, are altogether foreign from the scriptural use of
ecciesia.
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In
order, therefore, to get quit of all the rubbish we exclude church from our
apocalyptic vocabulary, and hold on to the word used by the apostles. We have
therefore transferred it in our rendering without translation.
Still,
as an expounder of the word of truth, it is our duty to make the word ecclesia
perfectly intelligible to the unlearned reader; for we write principally for
the benefit of such.
2. Of Ecciesia.
ECCLESIA,
then, is a word compounded of ek, “out of,” and klesis, “a call, or
invitation.” Hence an ekklesis, is “an invitation to come out;” and the
assembly of people convened in consequence of their acceptance of the
invitation is an ecclesia. This is the etymology of the word, which is also in
agreement with its scriptural constitution, which we shall briefly explain.
The
mission of the apostles was to the Jews first, and afterwards to the Gentiles,
for the purpose of announcing to them an invitation from the Deity to certain
things, which, when accepted, became to the invited “the Hope of the Calling.”
In delivering this message, or invitation, they distinctly defined the things
to which their hearers were invited. In doing this, they informed them of the
purpose of Deity-that He had appointed a day in the which the whole inhabited
earth should be ruled in righteousness by the Anointed Jesus, whom he had
raised from among the dead-Dan. 2 : 44 ; 7 :14 ; Acts 17 : 31. But that, before
that “day” of the administration of the world’s affairs in righteousness should
be introduced, He had, in his great mercy and goodness, determined to invite
all Jews and Gentiles to share in that kingdom and glory with eternal life,
upon certain specified and indispensable conditions. Hence the twelve apostles,
constituting “the Apostleship of the Circumcision,” were sent to the
circumcised; and Paul to the uncircumcised, to invite all ranks and degrees of
all nations “to God’s Kingdom and Glory”-l Thess. 2 : 12. The result proposed
by this invitation was not the converting of the “immortal souls” of mankind,
and the saving of them from eternal conflagration in the apocalyptic “Lake of
Fire and Brimstone;” it was not that they might “get religion,” and by its
efficacy obtain a right and title to mansions in the skies: no such clerical
result as these were proposed by the invitation. The invitation was designed,
in the words of James, “to take out of the nations a people FOR His NAME.” The
expected consummation was not the conversion of nations by the apostles and
their successors in the faith, but the separation of a class from the general
body of mankind, which class
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should
constitute the “ONE YAHWEH-NAME;” and that by the’ Almighty Name the world
should be ruled in righteousness. When this name is completed ,-that is, when
the last believer shall be inducted into it, and all its elements shall be
glorified,-it will constitute the ecclesia in its largest sense. When
glorified, its members will occupy “the heavens;” not the skies, but the
apocalyptic heavens, to which the kingdoms of this world belong-Rev. 11 :15 ;
Dan. 7 :18, 27. Ii the present state, they are “an ecclesia of Chiefborns, who
have beet enrolled for heavens”-Heb. 12 : 23. The apostles were engaged it
enrolling men and women for the future administration of the world’ affairs; so
that when they shall attain to dominion they will be “the Heavens that rule.”
The gospel invites men to enrollment for becoming in due time the stars and
constellations of the New Heavens, ii which dwells righteousness, that they may
shine as such in the kingdom of their Father-Dan. 12 : 3 ; Matt. 13 : 43.
But
men and women become elements of this people of the Name upon certain specified
and indispensable conditions. They are invited to God’s kingdom and glory; and
they accept the invitation in believing the gospel of the kingdom and name, and
subjecting themselves to “the obedience of faith.” What Paul styles “the
wholesome word of the Lord Jesus,” are these: “He having believed and been
baptized shall be saved; but he having not believed shall be condemned.” If it
be asked, what is a man required to believe?
The Lord Jesus replies in the previous verse, “THE GOSPEL”-Mark 16 :
15,16 There is no salvation without
belief of, and obedience to this. Hence when Philip, one of the seven deacons,
preached to the Samaritans, it stated in Acts 8 : 12, that “when they believed
Philip evangelizing, THE THINGS concerning the Kingdom of the Deity, and of the
Name of the Anointed Jesus, they were immersed, both men and women.” The things
of the Kingdom and the Name are the great subject-matter of the Gospel of God,
“promised before,” says Paul, “through the Prophets in holy writings”-Rom. 1 :
2 : and “the power of God for salvation to every one who believes.” Without
this power none can be saved; hence the immense importance of “the gospel of
the kingdom,” which is totally different to anything preached for salvation by
the clergy. “The things” must be known, understood, believed, an obeyed, with
an honest and good heart. This is indispensable. But the work before me is not
the exposition of the gospel; but the exposition of the Apocalypse for the
benefit of those who have already comprehended and obeyed the gospel.
Nevertheless, for the benefit of an sincere reader who is ignorant, we refer
him to the Covenants mad with Abraham and David, and to the testimony
concerning Jesus in
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the
writings of the apostles, and to the preaching by these as illustrated in the
Acts, for an answer to the question, “What are the things to be believed for
salvation?”-See Gen. 12 :1-3, 7 ; 13 :14, 15 ; 15 : 6, 7, 8-21; 17; 22; 1
Chron. 17: 11-15; Matt. 16; Acts 2; 3; 8 ; 10 ; 26 : 6, 7, ; 28 : 20, 23.
Now
when men and women became Christians after the apostolic fashion, (and this is
the only way of any account,) they became members of “the Ecclesia of Chiefborns.” They were addressed in the apostolic epistles
as kletoi, “THE CALLED,” or invited, “of Jesus Anointed;” as “made holy in
Jesus Anointed, called Saints,” or holy ones; as “the faithful in the Anointed
Jesus;” as “the faithful brethren in an Anointed One;” and as “the Ecclesia IN
God the Father, and IN the Lord, Jesus Anointed.” They, being in the Deity and
in the Anointed One, and the anointing being in them, were a manifestation of
Deity in flesh; and were addressed by Paul, saying thus, “Ye are all Sons of
Deity in the Anointed Jesus through the faith: for as many as have been
immersed into the Anointed, have put on the Anointed. There is (in him) neither Jew nor Greek;
there is (in him) neither slave nor freeman; nor is there (in him) male and female:
for ye are ALL ONE in the Anointed Jesus: and if ye be the Anointed’s, then are
ye the seed of Abraham, and Heirs according to the promise”-Gal. 3 : 26-29.
From
these premises, then, it is evident that an Ecclesia is a community of men and
women, who have accepted an invitation to the kingdom and glory of the Deity;
in believing the promises and testimonies concerning the kingdom and name of
Jesus Anointed; and in being immersed into him:
by which faith and obedience they have been “washed from their sins in
his blood; and made kings and priests to the Deity, even to the Father;” and so
separated from the body of mankind for the Age to Come. The Ecclesia of
Chiefborns is, therefore, not the Kingdom of God, as church, in the clerical
sense, is styled; but it is the community of the HEIRS of the Kingdom; and
every one knows, or ought to know, the difference between the heirs of an
estate, and the estate itself.
From
these premises, the reader will readily perceive that the distinction existing
between church in the usual acceptation, and ecclesia as defined above, is not
fanciful, but real and important. The churches of the Gentiles are not
ecclesia. They make no pretensions to be such, according to the definition I
have demonstrated. The members of the churches, judging from their prayers,
extemporized and printed, are not saints, but “miserable sinners.” This is the
designation imposed upon themselves by the most pious of the most exquisitely
orthodox
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establishments.
Thus the evangelical divines, who lead the stereotyped devotions of the Fabers,
the Flemmings, the Elliots, the Crolys, the Bickersteths, and McNeils, send up
their voices to heaven, saying, Lord, have mercy upon us miserable sinners!”
Now, if the most pious and orthodox denominate themselves thus, what must the
schismatics of the heterodox conventicles be!
They all, doubtless, know themselves; and as they one and all proclaim
themselves to be miserable sinners, who have gone astray like lost sheep, it
would be presumption in me to dispute it. I accept, therefore, their
condemnation of themselves; and am, consequently, justified in saying that a
church, as distinguished from AN ECCLESIA, is a community of miserable sinners,
possessed by a lord commonly known as “the god of this world.” It is not wonderful, then, that “all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of
life,” should reign in the pulpits and all the pews. Churchmen, since the days
of Eusebius, to go no further back, will have it that the church is the kingdom
of God. Well, we grant it, with the understanding, that the God whose kingdom
it is claimed to be is SIN, the great god, or power, or the world. There is
nothing like understanding, and being understood, so that we may be able to call
things by their right names. Here we
have the line of demarcation broadly and distinctly drawn. The ECCLESIAS of the Scriptures are “the
Heritages,” or kleroi, the true clergies of the Deity, (1 Pet. 5 : 3,) who
shall possess the earth and all that it contains; while the churches are the
Kingdom of SIN, possessed and administered by his clergy for their own glory
and behoof. This being indisputable, the reader will understand that the
Apocalypse is not addressed to the churches of “Christendom;” neither is the
salutation of joy and peace to them. Joy and peace are only for the Saints in
the Anointed Jesus, who know, and have obeyed the truth, having been purified
thereby-l Pet. 1 : 22. The salutations of the scriptures are only for these;
never for “miserable sinners,” whose case we dismiss for the present with the
remark, that the apostles never commenced their epistles with “joy and peace to you, miserable sinners,
from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Anointed; but on the contrary, “to you,
the Saints and faithful.” God is the Father, and Jesus the Lord, only of the
enlightened and obedient; hence to these only did they send greeting.
3. Seven Ecciesias.
The
Apocalypse is remarkable for the number seven.
The first time it is used in the Bible is in Gen. 2 : 2, “On the seventh
day Elohim ended his work which he had made; and he rested (or ceased) on the
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seventh
day from all his work which he had made.” In this, the ideas connected with the
number seven are completion and cessation. Any thing denominated by seven, is
complete; it lacks nothing to make it perfect, and beyond it nothing remains to
be accomplished.
The
seven ecclesias are specified by name in the eleventh verse of the chapter
before us; and upon the principle of completeness, seven were selected rather
than any other number, to indicate that what was written to the seven was
written to all the “ONE BODY” throughout the Habitable in seven successive
states thereof. No one of the ecciesias existed that could say it had no
interest in the things apocalypsed.
The
number seven was also associated with the ecclesias to denote their
relationship to the parabolic holy place. They were the anti-typical
lightstands-the heavenly things through which the darkness of the world was to
be dispelled-the Ecclesia of the living God, the pillar and support of the
truth ~l Tim. 3 : 15.
They
were located, in the Asia, that is, in that province of Asia Minor, or
Anatolia, called Asia, where their several cities, then in a highly flourishing
condition, were situated not very far distant from each other. The salutation
was to these as the representatives of the saints and faithful everywhere. And
how highly honorable to them, when we consider who they were, and the exalted
personage whence it came. They were communities of “the poor of this world,”
with not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble among
them. To such, and not to the princes and potentates of the world, did the
Creator of the universe salute them through John with “joy and peace.” He
presents himself to them as Deity by the Seven Spirits in Jesus the
Anointed-THE DIVINE LOGOS IN FLESH. He styles him self ho on, “He who is,”
which is equivalent to declaring that he is not dead, but ‘is risen, as he
said;” also ho en, “He who was” - He that is risen is the same as He who was
before Abraham, and before the crucifixion: and ho erchomenos, “He that is
coming” in power and great glory. But that they might not separate him in their
minds from the anointing, the salutation is said to come from Him, “and from
the Seven Spirits which is before the throne of him;” and that the source of
the salutation may still stand out in bolder relief, it is said to proceed
“from Jesus Anointed,” who is “Deity manifested in flesh;” Jesus is the flesh,
and the Seven Spirits the Deity with which the resurrected flesh is anointed so
as to be omniscient and almighty. Thus combined, the salutation is from “the
Lord the Spirit.” He is styled “the faithful witness,” because he came into the
world that he might bear witness unto the truth; and did witness it before
Pontius Pilate, in the face of the death which his confession brought upon him.
“I AM THE KING OF
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THE
JEWS,” said he, and for that avowal he was put to death upon the accursed
tree-John 18 : 33,37 ; 19 : 3, 12, 14, 19 ; 1 Tim. 6:13. But though he suffered
thus, he was ‘justified by spirit,” and became “the Cheifborn from among dead
ones,” that in all things he might have the preeminence. He is also styled “the
Prince of the Kings ol the earth.” These, however, are not the existing
“crowned heads,” not the wearers of crowns in the days of John, but those kings
and priests whom he hath made such unto the Deity, his Father and theirs. He is
Prince, or Chief Priest and King of these, who shall with Him rule the
Habitable in righteousness, and hence his apocalyptic title, “KING of kings and
LORD of lords”-Rev. 17 : 14 ; 19 : 16 : “to Him,’ says John, “be the glory and
the supreme authority during the AION~ of the AIONS. Amen.”
There
is a peculiarity in our rendering of this salutation which deserves a little
further attention than we have yet given it. The form’ of speech is this, “from
the SEVEN SPIRITS which is before his throne.’ This is an ungrammatical form of
words. Both Greek and English grammar require that the verb “is” should be
“are,” and in the English Version it is so rendered. But verbal accuracy would
lead to doctrinal mistake. It is written in the Greek, “Seven Spirits which
is.—ha estin; and the reason is, that these seven are not seven distinct and
independent spirits, but the One Spirit in sevenfold or perfect
manifestation. Paul says, “there is ONE
SPIRIT, even as ye are called in ONE HOPE of your invitation;” and “there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit;” and “by
One Spirit we were all immersed into One Body; and have been all made to drink
into One Spirit”-Eph. 4 : 4 ; 1 Cor. 12 : 4, 13. Hence “seven” prefixed to
“spirits does not indicate plurality of spirits, but perfection in wisdom,
knowledge, and power of one and the same spirit; so that this perfection
expressed by plurality of figure, while the oneness of the Spirit is expressed
ungrammatically by the verb in the singular. The phrase therefore, “the Seven
Spirits which is,” is a Hebraism like that in Gen 1 : 1, bahrah Elohim, “Mighty
Ones he created” - cases in which the rules of grammarians are ignored for the
convenience of the truth.
4. “For Ever and Ever.”
In
response to the salutation from the Deity manifested by spirit in Jesus
Anointed, John, as the representative of earth’s future kings, ascribes to him
as their Prince, “the glory and supremacy during the Aions of the Aions” In the
English version, those words in italics
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are
rendered ‘for ever and ever;” and represent to the Anglo-Saxon mind the idea of
unlimited futurity’, commonly styled ETERNITY. This acceptation of the phrase
leads to the conclusion, that the supremacy of Jesus as Prince-Priest and King
of a priestly dominion on earth is to be eternal; a notion which implies that
sin and death are destined to obtain on this planet eternally. But this
conclusion is altogether set aside by the teaching of the New Testament. In 1
Cor. 15 : 23, Paul lays down a certain order of future development; as, first,
“they who are Christ’s, made alive in his presence;” second, “the End.” Between these two epochs there is a long
interval, the duration of which Paul does not define; but, having notified the
arrival of “the end,” he tells us what is to come to pass then. He says, that
the kingdom that had been existing during said interval is to be “delivered up”
to the Divine Father; and that this delivering up is consequent upon “all rule,
authority, and power” having been “put down:” for the reign of the Son of man
is decreed of Heaven to continue till this result shall be consummated. “He
must reign TILL he (the Father) have put all enemies under his feet” ~Ps. 8 : 6
; 110 : I. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” The Son, then, is
to reign as the Father’s kings and priests, until death shall be abolished from
the earth. This implies the previous extermination of sin; for death is the
wages of sin; and wages are not paid where services are not rendered.
We
see, then, that the Son of man is not to reign as the majesty of a priestly kingdom
after sin and death are rooted out; and be it remembered, that the kingdom the
apocalypse exhibits is the dominion of the Father’s kings and priests. It
contains but few hints of what is to be the order of things upon earth after
“the End” indicated by Paul. The Melchizedec Kingdom of the Deity, subduing and
reconciling terrestrial things to him, is the great theme of its visions and
descriptions. When the end for which it will be established is accomplished, it
will be delivered up, and then “the supremacy” of THE SON, both in respect of
“the Head” and “the Body,” in other words, of Jesus and his Brethren, will
cease. An end will be put to it. During the long interval of a thousand years,
the supremacy of the saints is decreed. For all that time, two classes will
exist contemporaneously upon earth the world-rulers, incorruptible and
deathless; and the subject-world of nations, peccable and mortal. Flesh and
blood cannot possess this Melchizedec or priestly kingdom. Jesus and the Saints alone can have it; so
that while it continues, their supremacy must and will be upheld against all
aspirations of the flesh. But when the time arrives for flesh and blood, or
“corruption,” to be abolished from the earth; and for all its future
inhabitants to become Elohim.
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127
or
incorruptible and deathless beings, consubstantial with Deity; the ELOHIM of
the previous thousand years will no longer be priests offering gifts and
sacrifices for them to the Deity. The priestly supremacy will terminate with
the cessation of the necessity which
originated it; and the Deity by spirit will be the all things in them all. Thus, “when all things shall be subdued unto
him (the Son), then shall the Son also himself BE SUBJECT unto him (the Father)
that put all things under him, that the Deity may be the all things in all.”
Hence,
John, who was in accord with Paul, did not ascribe an eternal supremacy to the
Son, as taught by Anglo~Saxonism. He was not contemplating the position of
Jesus in a postmillennial order of thing but his position in relation to the
Millennial Dominion. In reference to this, he said, “to Him the glory and
supremacy during the Aions the Aions.”
“For
ever and ever,” or even its parallel in Daniel, ‘for ever, even for ever and
ever,” are phrases, then, that do not indicate “eternity being used of things
which are in their nature, or constitution, termiable. But we must look to the
original, and see what can be made that. In the text of the Apocalypse, the
phrase is eis tous aionas tc aionon. This occurs fourteen times, and is
uniformly rendered “for ever and ever,” except in chap. 1 : 18, where it is
rendered evermore In chap. 14 : 11, the definite article is omitted: the
reading is, therefore, cis aionas aionon.
Now,
as the Apocalypse treats of the same subject as that reveal’ to Daniel in his
seventh chapter, namely, the kingdom and conquests the Saints, we ought to find
the Chaldee original of this formula, frequently occurrent in the New
Testament. And this we do in t eighteenth verse of that chapter. In this, the time is specified how long the
Saints shall possess the kingdom; the same kingdom that Daniel had told
Nebuchadnezzar should “stand ~ leahlmayyah~ for OLAHMS” ~chap. 2 : 44 :~ “they
shall possess the kingdom ahlmah, wead ahlahm ahlmaivah, for an Ahlmah, even
for an AhIm of Ahlmahs. The Chaldee word ahlmah is identical with the Hebrew-
olahm; and is represented in the Greek by Aiwa, though in emology different.
The
Hebrew and Chaldee nouns are derived from the verb ahia “to hide, to conceal.”
Hence an Olahm, in relation to time a period hidden or concealed; hidden in the
past, or concealed in future. In prophecy, it designates absolutely a certain
period to exist; but without defining
its beginning or ending. The kingdom belong to the Saints of the Most High Ones
(eli’onin) is to “stand for hidden periods,” or olahms, comprised in one hidden
period, or Olahm; which
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must,
therefore, be longer than all of them together. Hence this will be a Hidden
Period of Hidden Periods, or an Olahm, even “an Olahm of Olahms.” I have a
translation of Dan. 7 : 18 before me which renders the time the Saints are to
possess the kingdom by the formula, ‘for eternity’, even for eternity of
eternity.” This, however, is a mere flourish, and no translation, and bears on
the face of it proof that the inventor of the form knew nothing about the
nature of the kingdom, nor the purpose for which it is to be established. As I
have shown, the kingdom is not to continue eternally; so that the Saints cannot
hold it for eternity; and as the scripture is true, they do not use the word
here in the sense of ever and eternity.
The
duration of this Chaldee formula may be approximated from another direction.
Thus, the kingdom the Saints are to take is the dominion of the lion, the bear,
and the leopard, three of Daniel’s four beasts. They are utterly to destroy the
fourth, but the political organizations represented by the other three, are to
be continued in existence, but without sovereignty. While in existence, they
are under the dominion of the Saints, whose administrations will not be
superseded by other rulers. The existence of these organizations subjectively
to the Saints is defined; and consequently, the duration of their holding of
the kingdom is thereby defined likewise.
In ch. 7 : 12, it says, “a prolonging in life was given the three beasts
ad-z’man we-iddan, during an appointed time and a set time.” This, then, is the
duration of the Olahm, or Ahlmah, of the kingdom-a hidden period containing an
appointed time and a set time. The Apocalypse has revealed the number of years
contained in these kinds of time, in telling us how long the Saints are to
reign with Christ after binding the Dragon; whose dominion at the appearing of
Christ covers the territories of the polities symbolized by the three beasts.
They are to reign thenceforth with him during a thousand years-Apoc. 20 : 6.
The period consists of “a set time,” and “an appointed time.” A set time is
indicated by iddan, which is equivalent to the Hebrew moaid, the word used in Gen.
17 : 21, where it is said, “Sarah shall bear unto thee Isaac, at this set time
in the next year.” This is, then, a period of gestation, which consists of 280
days; a day for a year in symbolic time. This, deducted from 1,000, leaves 720
years for the “appointed time;” or two times of 360 years each. Daniel did not
discern “what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in him did
signify” by the z’man we-iddan, nor by the ahlmah of ahlmahs; but not so with
ourselves,-for the Father has apocalypsed the solution in the thousand years.
The
reader will, therefore, understand, that the prophets, under divine
inspiration, predicted the development in a future remote from
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129
their
day, of a period that should continue ‘for a season and a time.” They did not
know when it should begin, nor what length of time was meant by the formula;
and consequently, could not tell when it should come to an end: but that such a
period should exist, and be of a very peculiar character, even most glorious to
all the righteous who should be contemporary with it, they were all agreed, as
is plainly to be seen in all their writings. “I heard,” says Daniel, “but I
understood not; for the words were closed up and sealed till the time of the
end.” For this reason, the period was called Olahm, or THE HIDDEN; beyond which
the prophets, and those instructed by them, did not often look. They saw it was
terminable: and therefore if they spoke of anything not restricted to it, they
would say, ad-olahm we-ad, during the hidden period and beyond.”
The
promises made to Abraham and to David had especial reference to this Olahm; and
the Apocalypse shows symbolically how the Olahm is to be introduced, and how
the promises to those patriarchs are to be performed. Thus, the Spirit said to
Abraham in regard to Canaan, “All the land which thou seest, to thee will I
give it, and to thy seed ad-olahm, during a hidden period.” And again,
reminding Israel of the same promise, He says by Jeremiah, “If ye thoroughly
amend your ways and your doings * ~ ~ I will cause you to dwell in the land
which I gave to your fathers l’min-olahm we-ad olahm for from (the beginning
of) the hidden period, and during the hidden period;” which in the Common
Version is rendered ‘for ever and ever,” as though the Israelites were destined
to be flesh and blood occupants of Canaan for eternity!
The
covenant made with David is styled by him in his last words, a covenant of
olahm.” In the Common Version this is rendered “an everlasting covenant;” but
it ought to be termed “a covenant of the hidden period.” It was so styled, because it was to be
established then; and as the subject-matter of this covenant is the throne
symbolized in Apoc. 4, and the kingdom taken possession of by the Saints in ch.
11 : 15 ; Dan. 7 : 18, it is styled “a kingdom of Olahm,” or the kingdom
pertaining to the hidden period.
The
Mosaic Period was on Olahm; for, although the Israelites knew when it began,
none of them, not even Jesus, nor the angels, knew when it would come to an
end. This is proved by Mark 13 : 32. When the Mosaic Heaven and Earth should
pass away, that olahm would be ended, as it was A.D. 72. In this long period of 1695 years, there were
numerous lesser periods, as the jubilees, or periods of restitution recurring
every fifty years. Hence the Mosaic was
an Olahm of Olahms, one long period containing many lesser ones. But this
system
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of
periods did not terminate in itself. It was typical, or representative, of
times and seasons belonging to the throne and kingdom of the saints. Thus, in
Apoc. 14 : 1-5, we have the Pentecost in the Kingdom; in ver. 6, 7, the trumpet
of the Jubilee sounding; and in vers. 8-11, the great and terrible day of
national atonement, ultimating in the conquest of the nations, and their
subjection to Israel’s Elohim for the olahm Lev. 25 : 8-17, 39-46. Nor is this
confined to the introduction of the olahm of the kingdom; there are
periodically recurring olahms during all the thousand years, indicated by the
observance of the Passover and Feast of Tabernacles to be observed by all
nations-Ezek. 45 : 21
Zech.
14 : 16-19. For this cause, therefore,
the thousand years is called in Daniel “an Olahm, even an Olahm of Olahms;” but
by no means an eternity.
Presuming,
then, that the reader comprehends the matter thus far, I proceed to remark,
that the Seventy Israelites who translated the prophets into Greek for the king
of Egypt, substituted for olahm the word AION. But, although this does not
express the same idea as olahm, it was about as good a word as they could
select. It was indefinite; as indefinite
as olahm; for it neither defined the beginning nor the end of the period it was
chosen to represent.
Aion
is compounded of aei and on. The word aei is from ao, aco, or aemi, signifying
primarily, “to blow, to breathe;” secondly, “to live, to pass or spend time.”
From this derivation aei would present the idea of a going on,’ and as a
particle of time is expressive of that which is unlimited or undefined; “not so
much that which cannot be bounded as that which is not bounded~which is not
attempted to be defined, but is considered as going on, on, on.” Aei,
therefore, alone, would not express the true idea of eternity, but only of
time, whose end is not bounded by any specification. “This flowing word, indicative
of passing time, must be connected with, and, as it were, anchored upon another
of more stability, in order to give it any kind of fixedness.” This other word
is on, the participle of that verb of existence which expresses, in its
philosophical sense, the highest mode of being. One part of the compound word,
then, is unconfined; the other, since on is of all tenses, altogether excludes
the idea of time. Aion, then, is not time, long or short, bounded or endless.
Time is said to move in a circle, on account of its likeness to an A ion; hence
an aion, and a cycle or circle, are analogous. It is therefore used in the
indefinite sense of life, existence, or state of being. Thus, that end which
contains the period of each existence is called is aion. The aion of man is
three-score years and ten; while the aion of Deity’ is “from everlasting to
everlasting.” It is, therefore, A COURSE OF TIME aei~, circling around,
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131
wv,
BEING; the circling depending upon the nature of the being circled. Hence,
Deity being essentially life, the circling of time can never cease in relation
to him; but priesthood and man being essentially terminable, the circling of
time around them cannot always continue. The diameters of their aions may be
measured by their continuance.
“The
Aions of the Aions” in the places cited, are the period of the apocalyptic
reign, which is a priestly administration “after the Order of Melchizedec;” and
therefore, of necessity, not eternal.
Aristotle,
whose mother tongue was Greek, says, that “the period of each existence is its
aion.” The thousand years is therefore the Aion of the Melehizedec Reign,
containing aions or cycles within itself, in which Jesus, anointed with the
Seven Spirits, will have and bear the glory, and exercise the supreme authority
in the midst of his associates, over the nations of the earth to its utmost
bounds.
But
in the mythology of the heathen, the heaven of their vain imagination, which
they placed somewhere above the atmospheric firmament, and having for its
supposed existences the gods of “High Olympus,” and the ghosts of Elysium-was
an Aion, and so entitled: and as its presumed existences were regarded as of
infinite duration, this aion with them was eternity. Hence, also, those styling
themselves “members of the church,” whose minds are traditionally embued with
the vain philosophy of the Greeks, believe in the Aion of the heathen, styling
it “heaven beyond the skies,’ whose existences they allege are the ideas they
call “God,” “Jesus,” “angels” evolved from the souls of infants, ghosts of
departed saints, etc. This they call eternity-the Pago-Greek and Latin, the
Catholic, Papal, and Protestant ETERNITY: and as the last three have had the
translation of the scriptures under their control, and know nothing of any
other Aion than an imaginary superatmospheric eternity, they almost universally
render eis ton Aiona, and its kindred forms, by “for ever,” and “for ever, even
for ever and ever;” and adjectivally, by “eternal.”
Now,
to simplify this matter as much as possible, I have constructed the following
diagram, which will perhaps enable the reader to comprehend more easily the
explanation we have presented of the scripture Olahms and
A
ions.
The
Aion of Sin and Death, 7000 Years
Note******diagram
not copied by scanner
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132
In
this diagram, the parallelogram a b c d represents a period of 7000 years from
the Creation until “the End,” when the Son delivers up the kingdom to the
Divine Father; and Death is abolished.
It is the period during which sin and death exist on earth, and contains
three Aions and four Intervals. The aions are indicated by circular lines; and
the intervals of time elapsing from the end of one aion to the beginning of a
subsequent one, by parallel lines. The perpendicular line a c indicates the Era
of the Creation. The parallel lines between it and the first circle, represent
the time that elapsed to THE FALL.
The
first circle represents the Antediluvian Olahm, or AION; and the figures in its
diameter indicate that it terminated 1656 years from the Creation by the Flood.
The
second interval, or space between the first and second circles, represents the
period from the Flood to the typical confirmation of the Covenant of the land
with Abraham, a duration of 377 years.
The
second circle has a crescentic prefix on the left. In the crescent are the
figures 430, which denote that it represents a period of that number of years
from the confirmation of the Land Covenant to the night on which the Twelve
Tribes left Egypt for the purpose of taking possession of it.
The
circle itself represents a duration of 1695 years, which terminated at the
burning of the Temple by the Romans.
This was the Mosaic Aion: and commenced at the baptism of Israel into
Moses in the cloud and in the Red Sea ~l Cor. 10 :1. The circle and its prefix
enclose the whole period of 430 + 1695
2125 years; it embraced the aiones kai geneas, the Aions and
Generations; and may therefore be termed the ABRAHAM~MOSAIC AION, which, having
waxed old, vanished away in blood and fire and vapor of smoke ~Heb. 8 : 13 ;
Acts 2 :19.
The
third interval, which lies between the second and third circles of the diagram,
indicates the series of years which has already elapsed since the destruction
of Jerusalem, and may yet elapse to the apocalypse of the Sons of the Deity in
power and great glory to restore the kingdom again to Israel, an event which
marks the commencement of THE
REGENERATION. We have defined this
interval by 1796 years from the destruction of the Holy City in the Vulg. Era
70. By the end of this period “the kingdoms of the World” will be about to
become the kingdoms “of the Lord and of his Anointed; and he shall reign during
the Aions of the aions” Rev. II l 5 the same phrase as in ch. I 6. The end of this long period of 1796 years
will terminate in the Vulg. Era 1864. About this epoch will begin as we believe, the wonders that are to introduce
a thorough and complete revolution of
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133
human
affairs, the representation of which enters largely into the scenes of the
Apocalypse.
The
third circle of the diagram has also a crescentic prefix on the left, only
smaller than the preceding. I have made it smaller because it represents a
shorter period only 40 years, styled in the Apocalypse “the Hour of Judgment.”
It is the antitype to the 40 years in the wilderness, and the Aion of the
Sickles (Rev. 14 : 14-20) introductory to the third circle, whose diameter is
1000 years. This is “the Aions of the aions,” which are referred to thirteen
times in the Apocalypse. It may be styled the ABRAHAM~MESSIANIC CYCLE, because
in it is fully displayed the covenant with Abraham concerning Messiah, Israel,
and the Nations. This cycle of aions is “the Day of Christ,” which Abraham, who
walked by faith, rejoiced in foreseeing. It is commonly called “THE
MILLENNIUM,” because of its continuance mille anni, a 1000 years. To this
circle belong to xulon tes zoes, “the Wood of the Life,” and the New Jerusalem.
The Gospel treats of this aion, because it is the Aion of the kingdom, and
styled by Paul “the Aion to Come” Heb. 6
5. No one has ever heard the gospel who is ignorant of the doctrine
concerning this Aion the cycle enclosing the hope of all the faithful of
patriarchal and Mosaic times. It ends about the Annus Mundi 6994.
The
fourth interval of the diagram represents the “Little Season,’ which intervenes
between the termination of the 1000 years and the end of the 7000 years of the
parallelogram. It is the brief period referred to in Rev. 20 : 3, 7, 8, in
which the Dragon-power revives, and as the Seed of the Old Serpent, contends
once more with the Seed of the Woman for supreme authority over the earth. How
long after the end of A.M. 7000 the contest may continue, is not apocalypsed.
It will terminate, however, in the suppression of the rebellion, and the
restoration of Yahweh’s sovereignty throughout the earth. It is at this’ crisis
that Sin, and “Death the wages of Sin,” are finally abolished with “every
curse.”
The
perpendicular line b d indicates the end of the 7000 years from the Creation.
The
fourth circle of the diagram represents ad. This monosyllable signifies
“beyond,” and is part of the form of works, lai-Olahn wah-Ed, so frequently
used in Moses and the prophets in speaking of Messiah’s aion and BEYOND. It is
the Aion of the New Thing. to be created by the Eternal Power, when the 7000
years shall have passed away - Rev. 21 : 5. Of the duration of this the
Apocalypse says nothing. It may or it may not be boundless, but this we cannot
tell. Whatever may be its constitution, of this we are certain
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that
sin, curse, and death will have no more place in the earth, or the nature of
its inhabitants. Its circling will be around incorruptibility and life.
“BEHOLD he is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and whosoever pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall wail before him. Yea, verily; so let it be.” APOC. I: 7.
In these words is an exclamation which is designed to direct the reader’s attention to Jesus and the Saints, as the o’ t~9,yO,’E~’O’, ho Erchomenos, the One Yahweh who is coming as the anointed with the Seven Spirits-“Behold, he is coming with the clouds.”
The Apocalypse begins immediately after the salutation with the announcement of the coming of Deity in Spirit, and concludes with the declaration, that “He who testifies these things (written in the Apocalypse) says, Verily, I come quickly;” and it points us also to the time when that coming may be expected, and in what sense “quickly”’ is to be understood in the warning recorded in ch. 16 : 15, beginning, “Behold, I come as a thief’ Blessed is he that watcheth,” and so forth.
No event is more prominently set forth in the apostolic writings than the coming of the Lord Jesus in power and great glory. The prediction is not peculiar to the Apocalypse, though it is made one of its most glorious themes, or rather the most glorious of all.
Thus,
when Jesus was preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, he said, “The Son of man
shall come in the glory of his Father with his messengers; and THEN he shall
reward every man according to his works” -Matt. 16 : 27. And again, “When the
Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy messengers with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory”-ch. 25 : 31. And referring to this
time, he also said, “I, Amen, say to you, that ye (my apostles) who followed
me, in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his
glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, ruling the Twelve Tribes of
Israel; * * * ye shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit Life Aionian”
~ch. 19 : 28. In these three
testimonies, Jesus plainly teaches,
I. That the Son will come in glory and power;
2. That He will come with Holy Ones;
3. That He comes to ascend and sit upon the throne of His glory;
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4. That the Regeneration shall be at this epoch;
5. That the time for rewarding men according to their works is in this
Regeneration Era; and,
6. That in this Regeneration Era the thrones of the house of Israel
will exist again, and be occupied by the Twelve Apostles, then possessed of the
life pertaining to the Aion of the Son.
Such
are the points inculcated in the teaching of the Seven Spirits, or Logos, with
which the Son of David’s daughter was anointed without measure. It is in strict
accordance also with the teaching of the same Spirit in the prophets. Thus,
Jude testifies that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold,
Yahweh cometh in his holy myriads (en muriasin hagias autou) to execute
judgment upon all” -~ ver. 14. This is
precisely what Jesus taught Yahweh the Eternal Spirit, in Holy Myriads in
clouds of Holy Ones constituting One Yahweh and One Name cometh to execute judgment upon all and in so
doing, to reward every man according to his works Yahweh in his Holy Myriads is
the Son of man Daniel s ~ ~ ish-echad, MAN OF ONE-ch. 10 5 referred to by Jesus in the remarkable
testimonies already adduced.
Moses,
also, referring to the apocalypse of Yahweh, says, in Deut. 33 : 26 : “There is
none like the AlL of Yeshurun, riding heavens in thy help, and in his Majesty
of Clouds. Mighty Ones of the East is the refuge, even beneath the Powers of
Olahm: and he shall drive out the enemy from before thy faces, and shall say,
Destroy. Israel then shall dwell safely:
the fountain of Jacob (shall be) alone upon a land of corn and wine; also his
heavens shall distill dew. Thy blessings, 0 Israel (are these:) who is like
thee, 0 people saved by Yahweh, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of
thy splendor? And thine enemies shall waste away because of thee; and thou
shalt tread upon their high places.”
This
testimony of Moses is symbolized in the Apocalypse. Hence the apocalyptic
coming of Eternal Power manifested in Spirit-flesh, is the AlL of Yeshurun
riding heavens in his clouds of majesty to help Daniel’s people scattered among
all nations. His clouds are the Mighty Ones of the East, the Powers of the
Millennium, or Age to Come, styled in Rev. 16 : 12, “the Kings from a Sun’s
risings.” These are Israel’s refuge, who shall expel the enemy from the
covenant land, and cause them to dwell in it safely. They are the shield and
sword of Israel, who shall make them a glorious nation, and subject all the nations
to the majesty of Jacob.
I
do not propose to adduce all that might be quoted from the prophets concerning
the coming of Messiah in his glory and power, but
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136
simply
a specimen, to show upon what the sayings of the Apocalypse are founded. I shall
therefore only add one or two more.
Thus,
in Isaiah 28 : 16, it is written, “Behold, saith Adonai Yahweh, I lay in Zion
for a foundation a Stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-Stone, a sure
foundation.” Now this stone has been tried, but it has not yet been laid in
Zion; for when laid, it is a foundation that will not be removed. Jesus is the
stone; but hitherto he has proved only “a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of
offense” to Israel, as the same prophet predicted in ch. 8 : 14. It is
necessary, therefore, that he return to Jerusalem, as he himself predicted in
Matt. 23 : 39, that his power may be established there, and not be plucked up;
and that it may be proclaimed to the cities of Judah, saying, “Behold your
Elohim.” Hence, because of this necessity, the same prophet has said, in ch.
40:10, “Behold, Adonai YAHWEH will come in might, and his power (shall be) a
ruler for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him;” or, as
Jesus taught, “when he comes, then he shall reward every man according to his
work.” His work has to be performed after he comes. Hitherto, he has only been
making preparation; when this is complete, then “Behold, he comes with the
clouds!” And having accomplished the work he comes to do, then, as Jesus
taught, “the Son of man will sit upon the throne of his glory;” or, as Isaiah
expresses it in ch. 24: 23, “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun
ashamed, when YAHWEH of armies shall reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and
in the presence of his Ancients (there shall be) glory.” “And in this mountain,
YAHWEH of armies shall make unto all the peoples a feast of fat things. And he
will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all the
peoples, and the veil that is spread over all the nations. And he will swallow
up death in victory; and Adonai YAHWEH will wipe away tears from off all faces;
and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth”-25;:
6-8.
Such
is the work to be accomplished when he comes with the clouds; a work which will
constitute Zion a saved city, and the worker her salvation; hence the prophet
speaks on this wise: “Say ye to the
Daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him,
and his work before him”-ch. 62:11.
But,
not only did Enoch, Moses, Isaiah, and indeed all the prophets, predict the
coming of Messiah in power and great glory, according to the teaching also of
Jesus himself before his ascension; but the apostles also, after that
remarkable event, dwelt often and fondly upon it, as the great theme of hope
and expectation. Thus .after they had
been assured by angelic personages that “the same Jesus, who had been
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taken
up from them into the heaven should so come in like manner as they had seen him
go into the heaven” (Acts 1 : 11), they went forth and proclaimed it in all the
habitable. On the day of Pentecost, Peter declared that he who had ascended,
even Jesus whom they had crucified, had been raised from 4he dead, for the
future purpose of sitting upon the throne of David his ancestor, which every
Jew present knew could only be fulfilled by Jesus coming back to Jerusalem in
power; for to no other locality did the throne, or seat, of David’s kingdom
belong-Acts 2 : 30. And not long after
this, he told the Israelites in the temple, that the absence of Jesus from
Palestine was only temporary. “The Lord,” said he, “shall send the Anointed
Jesus (who was before preached) unto you, whom heaven indeed must retain until
times of restoration of all things, of which the Deity hath spoken by the mouth
of all his holy prophets, ap’ ajonos, from the Aion’s beginning.” In other
words, when “the times and seasons” apocalypsed shall arrive, the era of
Israel’s national regeneration will have come. It will then be time to restore
the kingdom again to Israel, which implies the ingathering of all the tribes of
that race, from the outlying countries of the earth; the conquest of the Holy
Land from “the powers that be,” and the moral purification of the nation, upon
the principle of faith in Jesus as Son of Deity, and King of the Jews, and
obedience to whatever form of truth he may be pleased to prescribe.
Afterwards
Paul announced to the learned and polite Athenians, that the Deity purposed to
rule the inhabited earth by the Anointed Jesus, whom he had raised from the
dead for this intent; and in all the cities he visited, he proclaimed Jesus as
the future king of all nations, by which he turned the habitable upside
down-Acts 17 : 7, 31. This was in effect preaching the coming of the Lord in
power; for unless he returned, and that with power, he could not do the things
declared.
This
being the tenor of Paul’s teaching, when he wrote letters to the ecclesias he had
gathered, he addressed them as “waiting for the Apocalypse (or revelation) of
our Lord Jesus Anointed;” and concerning certain things affecting himself, he
exhorted them to ‘judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come ~ ~ ~ when
every man shall have recompense from the Deity”- I Cor. I : 7 ; 4: 5: and in
ch. 15 : 22, 23, he told them, that “they which are Christ’s, shall be made
alive at his coming.”
In
writing to the saints of Philippi, he is very explicit. “Our politeuma, or
commonwealth,” says he, subsists in heavens; out of which we look for the
deliverer, the Lord Jesus Anointed, who shall transform the body Of our
humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of this glory” ch. 3 : 20 :
and to the Colossian believers, he
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says,
“Your life is hid with the Anointed One in the Deity. When the Anointed, our
life, shall appear, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”-ch. 3 :
3, 4. The citizenship of the saints “subsists in heavens”-in the holy, and most
holy states. They put on Christ in the
obedience of faith, and are then “in him;” and through him. have access to the
Divine Father. In putting him on, their names are engraven on his breastplate,
and their citizenship begins. Their names are with him within the veil, while they
are in the heavenly state, the ecclesia, upon the earth, where, as members of
his body, having their hearts sprinkled with the blood of sprinkling from an
evil conscience, and the body washed with pure water (Heb. 10: 22), they are
waiting for his Apocalypse; and “by them who are looking for him,” says Paul,
“He shall be seen of a second time without sin for salvation”-Heb. 9 : 28.
Of
this manifestation upon earth “a second time,” he writes copiously in his
letters to the saints in Thessalonica. He mentions it five times in his first
epistle; and three times in his second. “You turned from the idols to the
Deity, to serve the living and true Deity, and to wait for his Son from the
heavens, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath
which is coming.” And in relation to them, he says, “What is our hope, or joy,
or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye before our Lord Jesus Anointed in his
presence?” “The Lord stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before the
Deity and our Father, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Anointed, with all his
holy ones.”
And
when some of them were sorrowing for the loss of brethren who had died, he
exhorted them not to grieve as the heathen who have no hope. “For,” says he,
“if we (the saints) believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also them who
have been sleeping, the Deity through that Jesus, will lead out with him. For
this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we, the living, who are
surviving unto the presence of the Lord, shall not precede them who have been
sleeping. For the Lord himself in command, with a voice of an archangel, and
with a trumpet of Deity, shall descend from heaven, and the dead in the
Anointed shall arise first; afterwards, we, the living, who are surviving,
together with them, shall be hurried off in clouds unto a meeting of the Lord
in air; and thus we shall be at all times with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one
another with these words”-l Thess.: 9, 10 ; 2:19 ; 3 :13 ; 4 :14-17.
Such
is the manifestation of the Lord to his saints. But while he appears thus to
their joy and glorification, he is apocalypsed as a consuming flame upon the
enemy. “For you who are being afflicted,”
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says
he, (there shall be) “rest with us in the apocalypse of the Lord Jesus from
heaven with angels of his power, in a fire of flame, inflicting vengeance upon
them who know not Deity, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Anointed; who shall pay justice, Aion-destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his might when he shall come to be glorified with
his holy ones, and to be admired with all who believe in that day.” Those who
know not Deity, and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Anointed, are of the
Apostasy; whose Prince is the Lawless One, called by Paul “the Man of Sin, the
Son of Perdition,” “whom,” says he, “the Lord shall consume with the spirit of
his mouth, and annihilate in the manifestation of his presence”-2 Epist. 1:
7-10 ; 2 : 8.
Lastly,
upon this point, we remark, that Paul instructed his contemporaries who looked
for the presence of the Lord Jesus Anointed, and their gathering together
around him, that the day of that apocalypse should be preceded by an apostasy
from the truth, which should attain great and powerful development. This
Apostasy exists in what is called “Christendom,” in all its “Names and
Denominations;” and is largely treated of in the Apocalypse. It will shortly
attain that maturity which precedes annihilation. The coming is for this
purpose, that when abolished, “the knowledge of the glory of YAHWEH may cover
the earth as the waters cover the sea”-Numb. 14 : 21; Isaiah 11: 9 ; Hab. 2 :14
; Rev. 18 :1. The Day of Christ is now at hand, the Signs of his coming are
abroad in the earth; and blessed will they be who are watching and prepared.
2.
“He is Coining with the Clouds.”
In
the system of nature whence the symbol before us is taken, clouds are opaque
congeries of aqueous particles, exhaled from the waters of the earth into the
air by the electricity of the expanse. This being their nature and origin, they
furnish a beautiful and expressive symbol representative of those who are
present with the Lord in his apocalypse. In the revelation given to John, the
inhabitants of the earth, in their various subdivisions, are styled “many waters;”
as, “the waters which thou sawest, upon which the Harlot sitteth, are peoples,
and multitudes, and nations, and languages” ch. 17 : 1, 15. From these waters
have been exhaled by “the Spirit, which is the truth,” from the generations of
the past, particles which, when viewed in mass, constitute, as Paul terms them,
“a great cloud of witnesses.” But this cloud is only seen as a matter of
testimony. The subjects of it are in the earth; and per-
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ceived
only as particles to be exhaled, or drawn out, by the power of those beams,
soon to irradiate from the Sun of
Righteousness. When He shall “arise with healing in his rays,” they will
come forth from the womb of the dawn as dew. Every resurrected saint will be a
dewdrop, sparkling in the star-like glory of a divine refraction. The
appearance of dew from the womb of dawn, as representative of the resurrection
of the saints, in the most beautiful of scripture similitudes. Before the sun
rises, all nature is concealed in the womb of night; and although the herbage
is wet with dew, yet is it invisible by reason of the darkness. The dew is, as
it were, in Hades, waiting for the birth to be given it by the rising of the
sun. As soon as the eastern portals of the sky begin to open to the light,
which is the life of dew, its drops begin to sparkle with the prismatic glory
of its refraction. The apocalypse, or appearing of the dew, is its birth from
the womb of dawn; and, however clear the air may be at its birth, oftentimes
the heat of the sun’s rays exhales it from the herbage, and it becomes
invisible until it reappears at the atmospheric dew point in the form of
clouds. If the reader understand this he will be enabled to discern the
relations of the saints to Jesus, as the Dew and Clouds of the Millennial Dawn
to the Sun of the New Heavens, prepared “as a Bridegroom emerging from his
canopy, and rejoicing as a Conqueror for the running of a course”-Psal. 19 :
5. The following testimonies will
present the matter in a still clearer light.
That
dew is sometimes used for people, appears from Mic. 5 : 7, as, “the remnant of
Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples AS DEW from Yahweh, as showers upon
the grass; which shall not wait for man, nor delay for the sons of Adam.”
Mankind cannot control the dew nor clouds, so that the one should remain, and
the other nor pour down their torrents of rain and hail till they were ready.
In what sense the remnant is a dew that will not tarry, appears from the next
verse; as, “the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations in the midst of
many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, and as a young lion
among flocks of sheep; who, if he pass through both treadeth down and teareth,
and there is no deliverer.”
Besides this dewy-remnant, we have holy ones who are compared to newly born dew in Psal. 110 : 3. This is a psalm of David, which he commences by declaring that YAHWEH, the Eternal, had decreed concerning his (David’s) Son and Lord, that he should sit at His right hand until his enem